Chapter I: Page 1

RIDE to Chillon—Castle of La Tour du
Peil—Chastellar—Chillon—Attentive gendarmes—Oubliettes—Destiny
of their inhabitants—Salle de Justice—Torture room—Eating hall
with its fleurs-de-lis—The dungeons—The beam—The interment in the
lake—Bonnivard—His misfortunes—His prison—The first pillar having
its own story—Sketches on the wall made by a captive—His
escape—Drowned in the attempt two months before Bonnivard’s
deliverance—Alexander Dumas’ name above that of Byron—The English
amateur’s painting—The fat gendarme—A bad Bonnivard—Our
determination to inhabit Chillon—Changed by thoughts of
powder—Fanny our conductress—Ludlow’s house and tomb—Contrast
between Protestant and Catholic cantons—Bulle—The bony hand holding
a crucifix—The Counts of Gruyères—Fines paid for crimes
perpetrated—The banner of Berne—Laws of the Simmenthal—The Bernese
attacking Gruyères—Count Pierre’s danger—Plague described by
Boccaccio—The Flagellans—The murdered Jews—Last of the Counts of
Gruyères—Leaving Bulle—Fribourg—Battle of Morat—The lime tree—A
monument of the young messenger—Berthhold, founder of Fribourg—Line
drawn between plebeian and noble—Bridge—Organ