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Having sufficiently satisfied our curiosity at Stutgard, we proceeded to Ludwigsburg, one stage distant, where there is a handsome royal palace adorned with extensive gardens, and many enclosures for game, of great extent. The town is not large, but is regularly built; and the houses, as at Stutgard and many other places in Germany, are remarkable for having a vast number of windows.
Next morning thirty of them deserted at once, and were soon followed by parties of twenty and thirty each, who forced their way through the detachments that guarded the gates of Stutgard, and in the evening the mutiny became general. They fired upon the officers in their barracks, and let their general know that if he did not immediately withdraw, they would put him to death.
The dauphin joining the army, which now amounted to seventy thousand men, crossed without opposition; but found the Germans so advantageously posted, that he would not hazard an attack; having therefore repassed the river, he secured Stutgard with a garrison, sent detachments into Flanders and Piedmont, and returned in August to Versailles. In Piedmont the allies were still more unfortunate.
At Deutlingen we entered the kingdom of Wurtemberg; and our passports, which had been signed previously to our leaving Schaffhausen, were here re-examined: at Stutgard they were again demanded, and although the Royal Arms were affixed by the police there, yet at Ludwigsburg, we were detained half an hour for further scrutiny, although it is only one stage from Stutgard.
That fire-place, which is so essential to the comfort of our apartments, is by German taste placed in the passage and shut up, whilst heat is conveyed into their rooms by flues. We arrived at Stutgard without the occurrence of any thing worthy of mention, and were much pleased with its general appearance; its streets are spacious, and the houses mostly well built.
There are not less than 110 newspapers, besides other periodical publications; and, after an interval of two months, I was glad again to peruse an English newspaper. The reading-room, like the council-chamber at Stutgard, is adorned by a figure of Silence, and I think the hint seems well observed.
We took the road through Ulm, Stutgard, Heilbron, Heidelberg, Manheim, Carlsruhe, Baden-Baden, and Keil; wandering a little from the beaten path near Kissengan to see the beautiful waterworks and garden there. These cities have all been described by innumerable travellers, and I doubt whether I could add anything to the knowledge already possessed of them.
All that was required of them was that they should not recross a meridian when on their actual route of travel. A ship carried them from Tornea to Dantzic. Hence they passed to Berlin, and on through Frankfort, Stutgard, and Strasbourg, to Paris. Paris, it is true, was a little out of their way; but what Russian could travel across Europe without paying a visit to Paris?
We next visited the royal stables, which contain a vast number of fine horses, the King being very fond of the chase. I was informed, that in his Private Stables here and at Ludwigsburg, there were from 700 to 800 horses, a number which exceeds that of most princes in Europe. The garrison of Stutgard consists of about 3000 men.
We had passed fifteen days upon the road, and traversed a distance, roughly estimated, of two hundred and fifty miles. Since leaving Vienna, we had walked five hundred miles. On one occasion only did we march more than thirty miles in the day. This was between Stutgard and Heilbron.
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