A diligence is a sort of stage coach used in France and Switzerland, and generally on the continent of Europe. It is constructed very differently, however, from an American stage coach, being divided into four distinct compartments. Rollo had seen a diligence in Paris, and so he could understand very easily the conversation which ensued between himself and his uncle in respect to the seats which they should take in the one in which they were to travel to Berne. In order, however, to enable the reader of this book to understand it, I must here give a brief description of this kind of vehicle. The engraving on page 77 is a very faithful representation of one of them. There are three windows in the side of it. Each of these windows leads to a different compartment of the coach. In addition to these three compartments, there is, over the foremost of these, on the top of the coach, another, making four in all. This compartment on the top is called the banquette.

These coaches are so large that they have a conductor. The man who drives sometimes sits on a small seat placed in front of the banquette, and sometimes he rides on one of the horses. In either case, however, he has nothing to do but to attend to his team. The passengers and the baggage are all under the conductor's care.

The compartment immediately beneath the banquette, which is the front compartment of the body of the coach, is called the coupÉ. The coupÉ extends across the whole coach, from one side to the other; but it is quite narrow. It has only one seat,—a seat facing the horses,—with places upon it for three passengers. There are windows in front, by which the passengers can look out under the coachman's seat when there is a coachman's seat there. The doors leading to the coupÉ are in the sides.

The compartment immediately behind the coupÉ is called the interior. It is entirely separate from the coupÉ. There are two seats, which extend from one side of the coach to the other, and have places upon them for three passengers each, making six in all. The three passengers who sit on one of these seats must, of course, ride with their backs to the horses. The doors leading to the interior are in the sides. In fact, the interior has within exactly the appearance of a common hackney coach, with seats for six passengers.

Behind the interior is the fourth compartment, which is called the rotonde. It is like a short omnibus. The door is behind, and the seats are on the sides. This omnibus compartment is so short that there is only room for three people on each side, and the seats are not very comfortable.

Very genteel people, who wish to be secluded and to ride somewhat in style, take the coupÉ. The seats in the coupÉ are very comfortable, and there is a very good opportunity to see the country through the front and side windows. The price is much higher, however, for seats in the coupÉ than in any other part of the diligence.

The mass of common travellers generally take places in the interior. The seats there are comfortable, only there is not a very good opportunity to see the country; for there are only two windows, one on each side, in the top of the door.

People who do not care much about the style in which they travel, but only desire to have the best possible opportunity to view the country and to have an amusing time, generally go up to the banquette. The places here are cheaper than they are even in the interior, and very much cheaper than they are in the coupÉ.

The cheapest place of all, however, is in the rotonde, which is the omnibus-like compartment, in the end of the diligence, behind. This compartment is generally filled with laborers, soldiers, and servants; and sometimes nurses and children are put here.

The baggage is always stored upon the top of the diligence, behind the banquette, and directly over the interior and the rotonde. It is packed away very carefully there, and is protected by a strong leather covering, which is well strapped down over it. All these things you see plainly represented in the engraving.

We now return to the conversation which was held between Rollo and Mr. George at the close of their breakfast.

"I have got some letters to write after breakfast," said Mr. George, "and I should like to go directly to my room and write them. So I wish you would find out when the diligence goes next to Berne, and take places in it for you and me."

"Well," said Rollo, "I will; only how shall I do it? Where shall I go?"

"I don't know any thing about it," replied Mr. George. "The guide book says that there is a diligence from Basle to Berne; and I suppose there is an office for it somewhere about town. Do you think you can find it?"

"I'll try," said Rollo. "But how do we take seats in it? Is there a book for us to write our names in, with the place where they are to call for us?"

"I do not know any thing about it," said Mr. George. "All I know is, that I want to go to Berne with you some way or other in the diligence, and I wish to have you plan and arrange it all."

"Well," said Rollo, "I will, if I can find out. Only tell me what places I shall take."

"I don't care particularly about that," replied Mr. George; "only let it be where we can see best. It must be either in the coupÉ or in the banquette. We can't see at all, scarcely, in the other compartments."

"Well," said Rollo, "I should like to be where I can see. But would you rather it would be in the coupÉ, or in the banquette?"

"That is just as you please," replied Mr. George. "There are some advantages in being in the banquette."

"What are they?" asked Rollo.

"There are four advantages," replied Mr. George. "First, it is up very high, and is all open, so that you have a most excellent chance to see."

"Yes," said Rollo. "I shall like that."

"The second advantage," said Mr. George, "is, that it costs less. The places in the banquette are quite cheap."

"Yes," said Rollo. "I like that. So we can save some of our money."

"The third advantage," continued Mr. George, "is, that we have a great deal better opportunity to hear talking there. There are usually five persons in that part of the coach—the coachman, the conductor, and three passengers. That is, there will be one passenger besides you and me. He will probably be talking with the conductor part of the time, and the conductor will be talking with the coachman, and we shall be amused by hearing what they say."

"But there are six persons in the interior," said Rollo, "to talk."

"True," replied Mr. George; "but, then, they are usually not so sociable there as they are up on the banquette. Besides, the noise of the wheels on the hard gravel roads is so loud there that we cannot hear very well. Then, moreover, when we stop to change horses, the hostlers and postilions come out, and our coachman and conductor often have a great deal of amusing conversation with them, which we can hear from the banquette; but we could not hear it, or see the process of harnessing and unharnessing, from the interior, nor even very well from the coupÉ."

"Well," said Rollo. "I like that. But that makes only three advantages. You said there were four."

"Yes," said Mr. George. "But as to the fourth, I do not know whether you will consider it an advantage or not."

"What is it?" said Rollo. "I've no doubt but I shall."

"Why, in getting up and down to and from the banquette you will have a great deal of hard climbing to do."

"Yes," said Rollo. "I shall like that. They are all advantages—very great advantages indeed."

So Rollo fully determined in his own mind that he would take places on the banquette. He thought that there was one disadvantage in that part of the coach; and that was, that in case of storm the rain would drive in directly upon them; but he found in the end that an excellent provision was made against this contingency.

The young gentlemen had now finished their breakfasts; and so they rose and went out to what Rollo called the gallery, to see the embossed map of Switzerland which he said that he had seen hanging there. The plan of this hotel was very peculiar. In the centre of it was a very large, open hall, almost like a court, only it was covered above with a roof and lighted by a skylight. Around this hall there was, in each story, an open gallery, with a railing on one side, over which you could look down to the floor below; and on the other side, at short intervals, there were doors leading to the various apartments. Between these doors, and against the walls, were hanging maps, plans, pictures, and other embellishments, which gave to these galleries a very attractive appearance. Here and there, too, on the different stories, there were sofas or other seats, with persons sitting upon them. Some were sewing, and some were attending children who were playing near. At the two ends of the hotel there were broad staircases connected with these galleries and leading from one to the other. Besides the galleries there were long corridors, extending each way from the centre of the building to ranges of apartments situated in the wings. The hotel, in fact, was very spacious, and it was very admirably arranged.

Rollo conducted Mr. George to the third story; and there, hanging against the wall, he found the embossed map of Switzerland which he had described. Mr. George and Rollo took this map down from its nail, and, seating themselves upon a settee which was near, they held it before them and examined it very attentively for some time. Mr. George showed Rollo the great central valley of Switzerland, with the ranges of mountains on each side of it. He showed him, too, the great slope of land which extended over the whole northern part of Switzerland. It was bounded on the north by the River Rhine and the frontier, and on the south by the great range of mountains which separated it from the valley. He showed him, too, the numerous lakes which were scattered over the surface of it.

"You see," said he, "that the waters which come out from the glaciers and the snow fields, and down through the chasms and ravines in the mountain sides, flow on till they come to some valley or place of comparatively low land; and they spread all over this depression, and flow into it more and more until they fill it up and make a lake there. When the lake is full the surplus waters run off clear wherever they find a channel."

"Is that the way the lakes are formed?" asked Rollo.

"Yes," said Mr. George. "You will see that it is so when we get up to them."

"Up to them?" said Rollo. "You mean down to them."

"No," said Mr. George. "The lakes are up quite high. Many of them are far up the sides of the mountains. The water, in leaving them, runs very rapidly, showing that there is a great descent in the land where they are flowing. Sometimes, in fact, these streams and rivers, after they leave the lakes, form great cataracts and cascades in getting down to the level country below.

"But now," continued Mr. George, "I must go to my writing, and you may see what you can do about the diligence."

So Mr. George went away towards his room, leaving Rollo to hang up the embossed map and then to determine how he should go to work to ascertain what he was to do.

Rollo found less difficulty than he had anticipated in procuring places in the diligence. He first inquired of the clerk, at the office of the hotel. The clerk offered to send a porter with him to show him the way to the diligence office; but Rollo said that he would prefer to go himself alone, if the clerk would tell him in what part of the town it was.

So the clerk gave Rollo the necessary direction, and Rollo went forth.

He found the diligence office very easily. In fact, he recognized the place at once when he came near it, by seeing several diligences standing before it along the street. He entered under an archway. On entering, he observed several doors leading to various offices, with inscriptions over each containing the names of the various towns to which the several diligences were going. At length he found Berne.

Rollo did not know precisely in what way the business at such an office was to be transacted; but he had learned from past experience that all that was necessary in order to make himself understood in such cases was, to speak the principal words that were involved in the meaning that he was intending to convey, without attempting to make full and complete sentences of them. In cases where he adopted this mode of speaking he was accustomed usually to begin by saying that he could not speak French very well.

Accordingly, in this instance he went to the place where the clerk was sitting and said,—

"I do not speak French very well. Diligence to Berne. Two places. Banquette."

"Yes, yes," said the clerk. "I understand very well."

The clerk then told him what the price would be of two seats on the banquette, and Rollo paid the money. The clerk then made out and signed two very formal receipts and gave them to Rollo.

Rollo walked back towards the hotel, studying his receipts by the way; but he could not understand them, as they were in the German language.