"Fräulein Sänchen," said I, much interested about this horrible spot, "is it there that the public execution of criminals takes place?"

"No, gracious Fräulein! people are beheaded on the Theresien Wiese."

"Have you ever, Fräulein Sünchen, seen a beheading?" I inquired with a shudder, knowing that most Munich women of her class hasten to witness executions as an ordinary excitement.

Certainly," she replied: she had witnessed the executions of two criminals often spoken of in Munich-the soldier-servant, who murdered the young wife of his master and her maid; and the man who had killed an old priest two or three years ago.

The accomplice of this man I had seen in the Au Prison, where he is confined for life. It is seldom that the law of capital punishment is carried into execution in Bavaria. I understand that King Ludwig had a peculiar horror of signing a death-warrant; and this accounts for so many murderers being confined in the Au Prison. There are rumours of a law being now in contemplation by which the execution of criminals in Bavaria shall be closed from the eye of the public-shall alone be witnessed by certain deputed officials. And when one meets with instances of women, usually tender-hearted, such as Fraulein Sänchen, hastening to witness one public execution after another with gusto, one desires that the law were already passed. From Fräulein Sünchen I derived the following ghastly picture.

Early in the forenoon the condemned criminal is conducted from the prison to the Stadt-Gericht (Court of Justice), in the old portion of the city. The unhappy man is bareheaded; his hair and beard are cut quite close; he is clothed in a grey or black blouse of woollen stuff; upon both breast and back is hung a placard, setting forth the

particulars of his crime; he is seated in a peasant's wagon; two priests attend him,-Catholic if he be Catholic, Lutheran if he be Lutheran. Gendarmes follow the wagon; a dense crowd presses around. The procession halts before the windows of the Court-house. The solemn judge appears;

he reads the condemnation of the criminal; he breaks a staff. "The staff is broken-the words are spoken !" he exclaims. There is a death-like silence. The criminal looks up towards his judge. The bells of all the churches begin to toll; the procession moves onwards; the multitude grows and grows.

What a mighty ocean of spectators are awaiting the procession upon the Theresien Wiese in the midst of this soft May-rain! There rises a tall scaffold. Upon the scaffold is a chair; behind the chair stands a man in black; beside the chair is a bier; and beside the bier stand gendarmes. The criminal, in his grey frock, and with his staring labelled breast and back, ascends the scaffold. The man in black comes forward, beseeching pardon from the miserable man for the deed he is about to perform. The criminal's eyes are bound with a handkerchief; he is led towards the chair; he is placed in it. The man in black with his long sword strikes a terrible blow from behind, through bone and muscles and arteries! Two-three blows, perhaps, he strikes!—such things have been. Forth spouts the crimson life-blood like a hideous fountain,-there is a rush of people with handkerchiefs to be steeped in the warm gore, as charms against sickness and misfortune,-and the spectacle is over!

CHAPTER XIII.

STREET MUSIC-THE ANTIGONE.

December 11th.-Yesterday morning, Isabel heard for the first time mass performed in the Hof-Kapelle: those grand chants pealing through the golden and frescoed galleries affected her imagination as much as I had expected. After we came out of the chapel we did as the rest of Munich did, went to hear the military band play at 12 o'clock, beneath the Feldherrn-Halle, as it is called,— a beautiful portico which terminates the Ludwig Strasse, at the end opposite to the Sieges-Thor. This portico is very beautiful, built by Gärtner, upon the plan of Orcagna's Logia dei Lanzi at Florence. Three noble round arches, rich with sculptured devices, rise upon slender columns from a flight of broad steps. Two bronze statues, designed by Schwanthaler, are placed within the portico: they are of Tilly and Prince Wrede.

Beneath the Logia the military band of the Haupt-Wach plays every day at 12 o'clock, and as they play remarkably well, and choose good music, it is a great resort of the Munich people, especially on Sundays.

As we disliked the gossiping crowd in the street, we posted ourselves at a window of a public gallery in the palace, which overlooks the scene. Imagine now a military band ravishing our ears with strains from "Norma" or the Zauber Flöte," and imagine the street

-square, almost one must call it-the Ludwig-Strasse having widened out here into the Odeon-Platz-crowded with motley groups. As to-day happened to be very cold, with snow lying upon the ground, the crowd principally consisted of gentlemen. This fact, however, did not prevent the scene being very gay in colour, and picturesque in cut of garb. At these twelve-o'clock concerts the students of the University always muster in great numbers. Their scarlet and green, and white and crimson caps, and caps also of three colours combined, tell out very gaily. Many of them also wear Bernouses, lined with blue or crimson like a woman's cloak; those who wear neither Bernouse nor mantle will have a bright coloured scarf twisted round their throats, deep-blue, or green, or parti-coloured. Their bright youthful faces increase greatly the effect of their fantastic array, and as their long beautiful hair floats back from their brows in the wind, an onward look of "Excelsior" is given to many a face. But all the students' countenances are not beautiful, or filled with an eager aspiring— there are numbers of ordinary and of "devil-may-care" faces.

There, too, assemble "Philistines" as well as students -to use student phraseology. Here are Munich Exquisites in light-kid gloves and spruce hats, and with gold-headed canes daintily held in their well-gloved hands, and more picturesque specimens of "Philisterium" in felt-hats of every shape and hue, and with brigand-looking cloaks; here are lean and burly and bloated citizen-folk—here are officers and privates from every Bavarian regiment, and here is also a sprinkling of Tyroleans. That is a very picturesque group now crossing the square. Three men and one woman, all handsome, with clear eyes and bright complexions; the men have short curling beards, and wear tall hats of black felt, adorned with heavy gold tassels;

they have broad green bands crossing their scarlet waistcoats, dark green coats, and black velvet breeches. The woman looks most demure and modest following the men, and never raising her eyes from the ground: she is very gay in her costume also. She has a tall black felt-hat with a gold tassel, a black boddice, and gorgeous pink sleeves and petticoat.

As it was such a cold day, many ladies had taken refuge, like ourselves, in the gallery of the Palace, and the row of gallery windows being lined with female faces, caused many looks and smiles to be directed up towards the windows from the crowd below. And these eyes and these smiles no doubt caused many other smiles and some blushes to pass over the faces at the windows. We noticed a very pretty blush pass over a pretty face encircled by a pink bonnet standing just before us.

But the musical quarter of an hour was over! The music suddenly ceased: the soldiers descended the steps of the portico, and first having deafened us with their frightful drumming, marched past the Theatine Church, which faces this side of the Palace, and which, with its domes and heavy renaissance architecture, formed our background to the motley crowd. The soldiers turning the corner of the Odeon struck into a lively march,—as usual disturbing the sermon of good Mr. Smith, preaching, in a room of the Odeon, his good sermon to the good respectable congregation which constitutes the English Church at Munich.

I must confess we had felt rather wicked as we encountered on our way to the Hof-Kapelle all the good English folks wending their way thither;-English embassy in its carriages, all bright, and respectable, and solemn-English of lower degree on foot, all recognisable from solemnity, respectability, and by what the Frenchman called "muttonchop whiskers."