with doubtful success. But," say the his men were filled with wrath and pride, Arabian chroniclers, "Abderrahman drove and they were the first to begin the fight. them back; and the men of Abderrahman The Moslem horsemen dashed fierce and frewere puffed up in spirit by their repeated quent forward against the battalions of the successes, and they were full of trust in the Franks, who resisted manfully, and many valor and the practice in war of their Emir. fell dead on either side until the going down So the Moslems smote their enemies, and of the sun. Night parted the two armies; passed the river Garonne, and laid waste but in the grey of the morning the Mosthe country, and took captives without num-lems returned to the battle. Their cavaber. And that army went through all places liers had soon hewn their way into the cenlike a desolating storm. Prosperity made tre of the Christian host. But many of those warriors insatiable. At the passage the Moslems were fearful for the safety of of the river, Abderrahman overthrew the the spoil which they had stored in their count, and the count retired into his strong- tents, and a false cry arose in their ranks hold, but the Moslems fought against it, and that some of the enemy were plundering the entered it by force, and slew the count, for camp: whereupon several squadrons of the everything gave way to their scymetars, Moslem horsemen rode off to protect their which were the robbers of lives. All the tents. But it seemed as if they fled; and nations of the Franks trembled at that ter- all the host was troubled. And while Abrible army, and they betook them to their derrahman strove to check their tumult, King Caldus, and told him of the havock and to lead them back to battle, the warmade by the Moslem horsemen, and how riors of the Franks came round him, and they rode at their will through all the land he was pierced through with many spears, of Narbonne, Toulouse, and Bourdeaux, so that he died. Then all the host fled and they told the King of the death of their before the enemy, and many died in the count. Then the King bade them be of flight. This deadly defeat of the Moslems, good cheer, and offered to aid them. And and the loss of the great leader and good in the 114th year* he mounted his cavalier Abderrahman, took place in the horse, and he took with him a host that hundred and fifteenth year." could not be numbered, and went against It would be difficult to expect from an the Moslems. And he came upon them at adversary a mare explicit confession of havthe great city of Tours. And Abderrahman ing been thoroughly vanquished, than the and other prudent cavaliers saw the disor- Arabs here accord to the Europeans. The der of the Moslem troops, who were loaded points on which their narrative differs from with spoil; but they did not venture to dis- those of the Christians, -as to how many please the soldiers by ordering them to days the conflict lasted, whether the asabandon everything except their arms and sailed city was actually rescued or not, and war-horses. And Abderrahman trusted in the like, are of little moment compared the valor of his soldiers, and in the good with the admitted great fact that there was fortune which had ever attended him. But a decisive trial of strength between Frank (the Arab writer remarks) such defect of and Saracen, in which the former condiscipline always is fatal to armies. So Ab-quered. The enduring importance of the derrahman and his host attacked Tours to battle of Tours in the eyes of the Moslems, gain still more spoil, and they fought against is attested not only by the expressions of it so fiercely that they stormed the city almost "the deadly battle" and "the disgraceful before the eyes of the army that came to overthrow," which their writers constantly save it; and the fury and the cruelty of the employ when referring to it, but also by the Moslems towards the inhabitants of the city fact, that no more serious attempts at conwas like the fury and cruelty of raging ti- quest beyond the Pyrenees were made by gers. It was manifest, adds the Arab, that the Saracens. Charles Martel, and his God's chastisement was sure to follow such son and grand-son, were left at leisure to excesses; and fortune thereupon turned consolidate and extend their power. The her back upon the Moslems. new Christian Roman Empire of the West, "Near the river Owarf the two great hosts which the genius of Charlemagne founded, of the two languages and the two creeds and throughout which his iron will imposed were set in array against each other. The peace on the old anarchy of creeds and hearts of Abderrahman, his captains, and races, did not indeed retain its integrity after its great ruler's death. Fresh troubles came over Europe; but Christendom, * Of the Hegira. 25 though disunited, was safe. The progress Europe, from that time forth, went forward of civilization, and the development of the in not uninterrupted, but, ultimately, cernationalities and governments of Modern tain career. From Howitt's Journal. GERMAN STUDENT-LIFE, AND ITS INFLUENCE ON POPULAR MOVEMENT. BY WILLIAM HOWITT. Ar a time when the continental students formed into a code. On this code grew have once more shown themselves so con- the spirit of what is called Academical spicuously in the van of the recent great Freedom. For this every academician, revolutionary movements, it can not but whether teacher or scholar, naturally bebe interesting to the general reader to be came a zealous advocate. In time, owing made acquainted with the causes of the con- to aggressions and contests with encroachstant appearance of this class of youths on ing rulers, this freedom came to possess also all such occasions. These causes prevail a political character, and the universities, more or less all over the continent, and especially among the youthful members, produce a spirit amongst the students there became the seats and nurseries of national as opposite to that of our English univer- liberty. The young men came to regard sities as possible. Our students springing, with pride this sacred deposit of the mainfor the most part, from the aristocratic class, tenance of the spirit of freedom, and celeand seeking only aristocratic favor and ad- brated it in their songs, and paraded it in vantages, are distinguished for nothing so their customs. It was a spirit peculiarly much as their opposition to all popular re- fascinating to the spirit of youth. At the form and advance. They are the unflineh-time of life when every noble and generous ing, unhesitating, and we might almost say emotion is, if ever, predominant, when the unreflecting champions of Church and State. inspiring sentiments of the patriots, poets, They are ready to assault the Anti-Corn- and historians of the greatest nations of anLaw lecturer, break the benches of his au- tiquity-Greece and Rome-republican dience, and chase him from the city; to Greece and Rome, were the peculiar study petition against any admission of Catholics of these young men, it was natural that or Jews to the merest civil rights, or to such sentiments sanctioned and invigorated clamor against the smallest reform in the by the very charters and customs of the profitable trade of the established church. schools, should acquire extraordinary powFor the rest, boat racings and guzzlings, er. In fact this Academical Freedom on running into debt, and threatening the the continent has grown into a singular precreditors, if they press for payment, to ruin eminence and has produced the most imthem are the chief features of our English portant national effects. The student-life of Germany has often On the contrary, on the continent, whe-been referred to in this country for its sinther the students are of aristocratic or ple- gular features. Those features, however, beian origin, the spirit of popular liberty which have been most noticed are the cushas, from times almost immemorial, or at toms of drinking and duel fighting. These least from the very first establishment of have been given an undue prominence, and such schools, been the grand characteristic the German students have been represented of the foreign high schools. as a wild, lawless, drunken, fighting and In order to encourage learning in times hectoring class, something more than halfsemi-barbarous, the Princes who founded universities, granted them certain privileges a certain constitution of their own. They were allowed their own courts of justice, and the laws which regulated and defended their privileges were ultimately student-life. savage. If this were their real character it would be one of the most remarkable circumstances in the world that out of these wild and lawless youths are made the most sober officers, the most domestic clergy, the most refined poets, and the most profound philosophers in the world. Having lived tinue to gild all his after existence, wheourselves for some years in the midst of ther it shall be passed in the distant solithese students, admitted them freely to our house, and studied their characters and customs, we were at some pains to make our countrymen cognizant of the fact.* "How tude of some rural official post, or in the obscure village, amid the storms of misfortune or the shoals of poverty. Everywhere in the works of poets and philosophers do What these facts are we will now endea- we find traces of the enthusiasm with which vor to show in as small a space as possible, they regard their student years. and being once in possession of them our shall I call thee," says Hauff, "thou high, countrymen will not be so likely as they thou rough, thou noble, thou barbaric, have been to be imposed upon by the igno- thou loveable, unharmonious, song-full, rerant mistakes of mere passing travellers. pelling, yet refreshing life of the Burschen One of the commonest mistakes is that of years? How shall I describe you, ye golden confounding the university students with hours, ye choral songs of brotherly love? the journeymen artisans. Into this mistake What tone shall I give to you to make myMr. Laing fell when he assured his readers self understood? I shall describe thee? that he saw students begging on the German Never! Thy ludicrous outside lies open; highways. The same mistake Sergeant Tal- the layman can see that, one can describe fourd fell into when passing up the Rhine that to him, but thy inner and lovely ore, to Switzerland, and unable to speak either the miner only knows who goes singing into French or German, he still thought fit to the deep shaft Old grandwrite a book, and assured us that he did not father, now I know what thou undertook find the students quite such gentlemanly when thou held thy annual solitary, interfellows as Howitt had represented them. callary days. Thou too hadst thy compaIt was, to say the least, rather wonderful nions in the days of thy youth, and the wathat Mr. Talfourd, who only sailed up the ter stood in thy grey eyelashes when thou Rhine in a steamboat utterly ignorant of mocked me in thy stambook as instruct the language of the country, should be able ed." immediately to correct one who had resided The youth in Germany then looks forward three years in it, and made its life and ha- to the days of his University life, as to the bits a study. I however was all the time very heart and flower of his juvenescence. It talking of students in my work, and poor is a period not merely of dry study, it is a Talfourd was talking of the travelling arti- season in which he is to meet with the youth sans and imagined them students! When of all the surrounding district, and in which either he or Mr. Laing meets with a German one common bond of customs, one comstudent begging on the highway, he may be mon enjoyment of a peculiar social life, is quite sure of being able to meet with Ox- to open up to him everything which earth ford and Cambridge students doing the same in England. can offer of friendship, of the community of sentiment, and aspiration, of music, song, frolic, whim, excursions into the loveliest scenery, and compacts for the advancement of the liberties of the great Fatherland. Not less are the mistakes as to the great objects and spirit of continental studentlife. This life is regarded not only as a season of study but of enjoyment. To it The time arrives; he quits the paternal every youth looks forward as to that period home with a beating heart, he enters the in his existence in which, whatever may be university town, often a small one, seated the despotism of the country at large, he amid mountains and forests, and what does shall by charter and precedent enjoy the he first observe? Troops of those who are fullest freedom, combined with all the social to be his fellow students-of those with pleasures of youthful brotherhood. When whom he is to form the closest intercourse, song, music, social parties, new friendships, with whom he is to fight, to carouse, to and perhaps loves, and the mutual excite- study, to pledge eternal friendship, and to ment of the spirit of liberty and patriotism pass through a score of ceremonies and proshall throw over life an enchantment the cessions in the cause of Freedom. They are feeling and the memory of which shall con- a strange generation to look on. They affect a quaint and somewhat antique costume. See the Student Life of Germany, by William None of your gowns with hanging sleeves, Howitt, from the unpublished MS. of Dr. Corne- and tile caps, but surtouts of singular lius, containing nearly forty of the most famous student songs, with the original music, &c. Long- cut, often belted, spurs frequently on the heel, on the head little caps of shapes and man's, 1841. colors denoting the particular state to which which is worn over the breast. The colors they belong; many with cane or stick in consist, like those of the nations, for the hand, more with a long and ornamental most part of three. As we shall see, the pipe, and some with a large dog following wearing of these colors, has been prohibittheir steps. There is no lack of beard and ed by the different governments owing to moustache, nor of a certain swaggering air political causes; and most strictly of all, which inspires foreigners, and especially those of the old Germanic Empire, and afladies, with a most erroneous idea that they terwards of the Burschenchaft, a society are rude, wild fellows, who would push you formed for its restoration, which could not off the causeway--while, in fact, they would be worn on the person, or even printed in a find them in society perfectly well-bred book, without incurring the penalty of bagentlemen. Such a Bursche was Prince nishment. Albert at Bonn, such was his brother the reigning Duke who bears a sword-cut still on his cheek, the memorial of a student duel, and such are all the Princes of this country in their days of student life. 66 The principal of the regular Chores are- The Swiss sen, or Prussian The English, in Leipsic white, red and white. green,white and black. black, yellow and white blue, white, and orange green, red, and gold Swhite, green, black, and white. only. Besides this, each Chore has its sign or token; that is, certain letters curiously interwoven, with which it signs its documents, and which is known to all the other chores. The student now matriculates by presenting himself on the appointed day, and at the appointed hour, before the board of matriculation with his certificates, from the gymnasium, of learning and morals. These found satisfactory, the board delivers to him the printed academical regulations. He signs the reverse, as it is called, that is, a declaration that he will not take part in These Chores, or Unions of Students, any prohibited unions, but conform to the have their regular laws, constitutions, triacademic laws, and giving what is termed bunals, customs, and officers, all establishthe hand-gelubde, or literally hand oath, ed on the basis of practical experience, and that is giving the pro-rector of the univer- carried out with an exactness amidst all sity his hand, he receives his matriculation their appearance of fun and jollity, equal certificate, which confers on him the enjoy- to the administration of the affairs of the ment of all the rights of academical citi- most despotic empire. There is their Sezenship. These include the benefit of the nior Convent, or Assembly of Elders, which university library and all its learned insti- is the highest tribunal for the settlement of tutions, and he has only to take his choice the claims and fitness of all aspirants to of the courses of lectures that he will at- membership, and also for the decision of all tend, and pay the fees. affairs arising amongst themselves. The This portion of his academic life, how- members elect these, who consist of their ever, that of attending the lectures of the leaders. The Senior, the Consenior or SeUniversity, would be of itself a very pro- cond Officer, and the Dritte Chargirte or saic and dull affair. There is another life Third Officer. They have their Chore-Conto which he looks forward with the most vent, or Official meeting of the Chore, where anxious interest. If he choose to remain a all these high officers meet the Chore-Bursolitary student he may; if he choose to schen, and their general meetings of the take his chance of making such acquaint- Chore, or Kneip, at which besides the ances as may fall in his way through ordi- Chore-Burschen, assemble the Renoncen, nary circumstances he may; but there ex- or Fags of the Chore, and the Mit-Keipanists in every university a peculiar life which ten, or boon companions, who are students he will hasten to enter, and which flings who do not enter a Chore as members, but wide to him the social advantages of all stu- only as friends to join in their songs and dentdom. This is the chore-life. convivialities. Every officer takes rank acTheir Every particular state has its chore or cording to his fame for prowess. club. These chores wear the colors of the laws are enrolled in a book called the Allparticular state or nation whose name they gemeine Convent, or general code, and the bear, though they no longer consist exclu- Convents of Seniors meeting from the difsively of subjects of that state, but admit ferent chores, put these laws in force, not members from any. The colors are display- only against members but against the pubed on the cap, and also on a broad band lic. They can order a Marching Forth Bursche he advances with time to Old Bursche, and finally to Old House or Bemossed Head, or Mossy Head, the highest state of honor to which man, in the opinion of stu when the heads of the University on any that he has foxes or rich gold in plenty yet; occasion persist in an infraction of the Aca- or he is a Crass Fuchs, or Fat Fox, meandemic Freedom, and order any student to ings that he swells or puffs himself up with quit the place, which must and will be gold. In the second half-year he becomes obeyed, the whole body of students march- a Brand Fuchs, or Burnt Fox, after the ing forth in solemn procession, and desert- foxes of Sampson. The fox year is then ing the university and town till the offence over, and they wash the eyes of the new is withdrawn. They also hurl the terrors baked Young Bursche, since during the foxof the Bann-strahl, or power of excommuni- year he was held to be blind, the fox not cation against individuals or large bodies. being endued with reason. From Young When a citizen, whose trade derives benefit from the students-for example an innkeeper, or shop-keeper-treats a student harshly or unjustly, and is found guilty by the Senior Convent, that man is put under dents, can attain. Verruf or proscription, and every student The entrance to this privileged life, and deserts his house or shop, and ceases all to this course of honors is at a Commers, a dealings with him till justice is done, or the social meeting of the chores at the Kneiptime prescribed by the Convent expires. If room, or club-room of one of the chores an innkeeper under the ban has a ball in where all the chores meet, and all the foxes, his house, the officers of the Chores attend burnt-foxes, and young burschen, who preto see if any student be present, and any sent themselves are initiated. This is done such offender, be he member of a Chore or by what is called the Fox-ride. The prenot, is also put under the ban, and not a sident of the presiding chore sits at the member of any Chore will hold any com- head of the long kneip-table with his drawn munication with him. If a member, he sword before him, and all the other memwill also be called on to answer it in the bers are seated or stand around provided duel. There remains nothing for him but with beer and pipes. The doors of the to quit the University, where all intercourse hall open, and an old Bursche, seated on a would be closed against him, and where he chair with its back before him, rides in. would be shunned by all. Whole cities He is clad in white leathern breeches and have been laid under the ban, and even the jack boots, and wears also the hat of a posproudest authorities, government them- tilion. He is commonly clad in a Poloselves, have been compelled to submit to naise, and at his left side hangs the postilthis exercise of the Academic Freedom, or ion's horn; in his right hand he carries his the University and town would be ruined sword. Sometimes, as a variety, he rides for ever. in a high gala dress, in frock and huge shirt Into these singular, despotic, yet highly collar, carrying also his highly polished honorable associations, which conduct their and glittering sword in his hand. With affairs on the strictest principles of law, solemn assumption of grotesque, well-acted charter, and right, every young man of dignity, he thus leads up the procession of spirit is eager to enter. This entrance, as assembled foxes, who, also in leathern well as most of the practice of the chore breeches and jack-boots, ride on chairs in life is clothed in a garb of fun and frolic, the same style, after the Old House. The which to a sober foreigner would appear al- moment that the train appears, the whole most childish. These practices are, no assembly breaks out singing the old and indoubt, intended to throw off the ordinary variable song of Der Fuchsritt, the Foxgravity and formality of existence, and to ride. serve as entire relaxations. Nothing can give a more thorough idea Every young man then coming as a Fresh- of the solemn burlesque in which the stuman to a University comes as a Camel, dents indulge than a few of the opening Into this state he has already migrated from stanzas of this song::that of a Mule, the intermediate state between a Camel and a Frog, or student at the gymnasium, or state grammar school. He now aspires to enter a chore, and becomes a Fox, running joyfully into the new Burschen life. During the first Semester or half-year, he is a Gold Fox, which means The Chore sings. What comes there from the height? What comes there from the height? |