19053 Unfamiliar Scenes 



several months more on the Continent, especially in 

 Italy. 



By preference, we that year began with certain Down the 

 localities unfamiliar to us all. These wanderings in- ^^°''^^' 

 eluded a trip down the Moselle from Treves and T 

 Berncastel to Coblenz, a day or two in rock-walled Dauphiny 

 Luxembourg, a visit to Annecy,^ Savoy, with its 

 ancient edifices, its beautiful lake, and its memories 

 of St. Bernard of Menthon, an automobile trip from 

 Grenoble through picturesque Dauphiny past Bourg 

 d'Oisons and La Grave to Besan^on, thence over the 

 Mont Cenis to Italy. Approaching Kochem Castle on 

 the Moselle, we noticed in mosaic on the wall a huge 

 figure of St. Christopher bearing the Christ Child. 

 Somehow the great picture seemed strangely familiar, 

 and coming nearer we were struck by the resemblance 

 of the work to that on the facade of the Memorial 

 Church at Stanford. It was, in fact, entirely similar 



1 Annecy is celebrated as the birthplace of St. Bernard, founder of hospices. 

 It appears that in 950 Bernard de Menthon, the brilliant and pious son of Baron 

 Raoul, had been pledged in marriage to the beautiful daughter, "sponsa 

 pulchra," of the Lord of Miolans but much against his own will, for, "God 

 dwells in virgin souls," said he. 



Locked in his room seven yards from the ground that he might be on hand 

 when needed, he leaped from the castle window, " his naked feet striking on a 

 hard rock"; then running through the wild forests, he found himself at daybreak 

 m Aosta. " Emporte par miracle" is the simple local explanation of his escape. 

 But for years, it is claimed, the prints of his bare feet were plainly visible 

 on the granite below. Eight centuries later the good Father Verre reports that 

 only the merest traces were left: "One could not even be sure that they were 

 made by hand or foot." Nevertheless, "Time in effacing these marks and 

 rendermg them doubtful has never effaced the tradition of the fact among the 

 people of Annecy." 



The Lord of Miolans naturally felt indignant at Bernard's desertion, and 

 would have turned the occasion into a free fight but for the courageous inter- 

 vention of the bride, who soon took the veil and after many years of virtuous 

 livmg died as "sponsa ipsius in qua sancte et religiose dies suos clausit." Mean- 

 while the recreant groom proceeded from Aosta to the "conquest of Jupiter 

 Pen," a nest of heathen freebooters in the adjacent pass, replacing the altar 

 oi Jove by the world-famous Hospice of the Great St. Bernard. 



c 159 : 



