© Donald McTeish 



THE CASTLE ON TAKE GENEVA WHERE THE PRISONER OE CHITTON WAS CONEINED 



FOR SIX YEARS 



After his release from the dungeon of this castle, Frangois de Bonivard, the original of 

 Byron's "Prisoner of Chillon," was commissioned to write a history of Geneva. His style was 

 more forceful than elegant. For example, in speaking of the manner in which the city was 

 hemmed in by its enemies, he wrote : "One could scarcely spit over the walls without spitting 

 on the Duke of Savoy," and "As the glutton likes a good plump fowl, so the Duke likes Gen- 

 eva." He likened some of his timorous fellow-patriots to "those who want to catch the fish 

 without getting their feet wet." 



Duke Charles of Brunswick, who be- 

 queathed 20,000,000 francs to the city he 

 loved so well ; through the narrow, step- 

 like streets of the old town up to the 

 eleventh century cathedral, and to the por- 

 tals of the famous Hotel de Ville, within 

 the shadow of whose walls Servetus 

 heard pronounced the sentence of death 

 at the stake. 



It is a poor European city that cannot 

 trace its origin back to the age of myth 

 and mythology. It took Geneva a long 

 time to extend its family tree to Hellenic 

 days, but traditionists now declare that 

 four centuries ago there was discovered 

 in the castle of Chillon a document which 

 makes the lake city a contender with 

 Rome for antiquity. 



It will be remembered that the Eternal 

 City was founded by the descendants of 

 /Eneas and his followers, who escaped 



from the Greeks after the fall of Troy. 

 Geneva, which under Calvin's regime was 

 to acquire the appellation, the "Protest- 

 ant Rome," likewise turns to Troy for its 

 traditional founder — Lemanus, son of 

 Paris, whose abduction of the fair Helen 

 from the palace of Menelaus brought on 

 the Trojan war. And, to prove their 

 case, Genevan guide-books point to their 

 lake, Leman (from the old Latin name 

 for Lake Geneva, revived in the eigh- 

 teenth century), named in honor of their 

 mythical progenitor. 



Leaving the realm of fiction and tradi- 

 tion, the settlement at the southwestern 

 extremity of the Alpine lake remained 

 under the domination of Rome from the 

 time of Caesar until the break-up of the 

 empire. In that period of five centuries 

 it was twice razed — once by the Ostro- 

 goths and once by Attila and his Huns. 



460 



