Читать книгу Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters - Daniel Stashower, Исмаил Шихлы - Страница 89

As the Father did not send me any pocket money this month, I naturally remonstrated and was informed that there is some regulation, which it appears is on the prospectus, about parents paying quarterly before hand, their son’s pocket money. I hope that you will write about it at once to Father Meyer, the procurator, as I am at present in a state of complete destitution.

Slow indications of the return of spring are beginning to appear, and I fear the skating will not last much beyond the end of this month. I hear wonderful accounts of the heat here in summer, and of the various representatives of insect life which appear; as they may be interesting to that young lady, I will describe them in my letter to Lottie. As I wish to have afterwards some memorials of my year of exile, I send you two more photos. One is the town in another position, showing the river Ill, a tributary of the Rhine, and also giving a good view of the old medieval fortress overhanging the town, and of the cliffs. The other is a very famous pilgrimage about three miles from here, where very many miracles have been wrought. I saw preserved there a solid rock worn about two feet deep by the knees of a saint, who used it for a ‘prie-dieu’.

I saw another very curious thing; it appears that long ago a rich man died about here, leaving his money to the church. His brothers burned the real will, and having forged a new one, were proving their claims to the property before Judges, when the skeleton of the dead man appeared among the assembly and frustrated his treacherous relations by producing the true will. In memory of the event, a picture was painted, I believe by a spectator of the scene, and this I saw hanging in the church. There are many votive offerings too for miraculous escapes, which are highly interesting. Isn’t that a thumping mountain in the background, on the right hand side; take care you don’t mistake it for a cloud.