I saw him; he wore a large black mantle; I thought I should have died of suffocation from the smell of sulphur that poured through the hole." This last fact was convincing proof of Daniel's assertion; the heated and deceived minds of the party were still more inflamed against Perez; in whom they now saw the cause of all their miseries. * A still dark night had succeeded to the fiery and threatening gleams of the setting sun. These signs betoken to the experienced mariner a coming storm, of which the light and fitful gusts that ever and anon chased each other through the sky, might be considered the certain forerunners. The storm had begun to rage with violence as the six Bretons had concluded their denunciations against Perez. The timbers creaked beneath the growing tempest; the rage of the mariners acquired new force in the prospect of a tempest adding still more to their woes. "Overboard with the Spaniard," exclaimed Daniel; we are lost unless we rid the ship of this devil's hind." "Overboard with him," responded his companions. In two minutes thereafter, the cabin door was burst open, and Perez dragged from within. Daniel seized the duchess by the throat, and forced his rosary around her neck; in the mean time the others had pinioned Perez; they were then tied back to back, rolled in a large tarpauling, enclosing two heavy shots; the foremost part of the main-deck was opened; the mariners fell on their knees, took off their hats to offer up their prayers to the Virgin for delivering them from the power of sorcery; made the sign of the cross upon their breasts, and with a loud shout forced the fearful bundle into the sea; it disappeared in the midst of the boiling element; thus terminated the wrongs of the Duchess of Alméda and her faithful esquire. THE STAR. CLEAR twinkling star! thou midnight sentinel ! While the bright sunbeams to the wild earth rush; Whisper love tales 'neath the weeping willow; 'Tis by thy lamp when murk storms hold their sway, Spirit watcher of the sailors' pillow! U. is LETTERS FROM A CONTINENTAL TOURIST. (Continued from page 501.) AFTER leaving the cathedral we paid a visit to the tomb of the Mareschal Saxe in the church of St. Thomas. It certainly is imposing in its appearance, but would excite little attention in any but a provincial town, where every thing hors du commun is viewed through microscopic glasses. It represents the marshal, surrounded by allegorical figures, stepping into the grave, which is held open by a skeleton for his reception. No doubt it is skilfully executed, but it very far from being, as they call it, unique. A far more interesting sight was the mummy of a count of Nassau, whose body had been embalmed some four hundred years since, and was still in a state of perfect preservation, even to the lineaments of the face: nay, the hair on the upper lip was distinctly perceptible. The shoes were the same he actually wore; something like what we call Blucher boots in their cut, but with heels three inches high. The rest of his clothes were made after the model of those he was found in, and consisted of a very ordinary pair of brown breeches, with a doublet of the same, ruffles, frill collar, and slate-coloured silk stockings. In another glass-covered coffin near at hand was his daughter. The face was much decayed. Perhaps it had not been varnished, as was the case with the father. Be that how it may, all the flesh had rotted away and left the bones only behind. The hands, however, were remarkably perfect, and on one of the fingers was, or seemed to be, a brilliant ring. The dress, which had not been changed, was of a light-blue silk, ornamented with flowers. Four centuries had not much injured the tints or texture of the robe, and the colours of a bouquet attached to the forehead were scarcely faded. After the labours of the day (for even pleasure is fatiguing) both my companion and myself required some refreshment, and for that purpose entered the most respectable café we could find. Nothing could be more characteristic than this scene. At each of two billiard tables were posted two players, each of them smoking, not even laying aside the pipe to make their stroke. Around them stood other smokers, watching and commenting on the games. At one of the tables was a party, smoking of course, but two of them, a sub-officer and a burgher, engaged in a game at cards. As the fortune varied, so varied their tempers; and every turn in the favour of one seemed to give rise to an angry reclamation on the part of the other, or an appeal to the decision of the lookers-on. There was not an individual in the room who was not sucking tobacco smoke. Indeed, the pipe is a necessary appendage to a German; and the Alsatians, though French by law, are in manners and habits, in nature and appearance, thorough Germans. The pipe, I say, is as necessary an appendage to a German as a shirt to an Englishman. Morning, noon, and night, they are whiffing the vile weed through a foul tube redolent of the stale residue of successive years' smoking, and scattering around them an effluvia indescribably offensive to the less blunted organs of their more cleanly visitors. We returned to Kehl before nightfall, and left it for Carlsruh by the Eilwagen at ten, which for once exceeded the pace of a tortoise, inasmuch as it traversed the ground at the rate of six miles per hour. At Carlsruhe my fellow voyager was to remain, in order to submit his passport to some necessary examinations, and obtain certain signatures to enable him to continue his journey. The Prussian minister at Berne had refused to sign his passport because he was an American; I suppose on the plea, that a native of the United States lived under too free a government to render him a fitting person to travel in the territories of the despotic monarch of northern Germany. As I had friends to see at Heidelberg, I engaged a conveyance, and hurried on. My agreement with the voiturier was to be carried to Heidelberg for six florins, that is, about ten shillings English; he having liberty to take another traveller if he could find one, and to stop one hour on the road to refresh his horses. However, at eight in the morning I started alone, and arrived at Bruchsal, our baiting place, about fourteen miles from Karlsruhe, by half-past ten. After waiting here till my patience was exhausted, that is to say, twice the time agreed on, I at last insisted upon the fellow's starting with or without another freight; and by dint of scolding, in French and English, interlarded with such German as I could muster, enforced by sundry threats of an application to a magistrate, I contrived to get his high mightiness in motion by one o'clock, and reached Heidelberg in time to see the castle before sunset. While I am on the subject of voituriers, I may as well state, that without a very exact agreement and some firmness in resisting their attempts at imposition, you are sure to be egregiously cheated, for if you fall in with an honest, civil driver of horses, you have met with an exception to the rule. To return to Heidelberg. The ruins are magnificent, though when viewed from a distance the dingy red stone of which the castle is built gives it a gloomy aspect, and renders it somewhat difficult to trace the form. It has suffered severely, having been dismantled and in part blown up in 1692 by the French under Turenne, when he laid waste the palatinate, it being the seat of the Elector, husband of James the First's daughter, from whom our present royal family derive their title to the British throne. Description and depiction have been lavished on these ruins, so that any minute particulars would be tedious. To my mind the most lamentable part of the scene was the bruised and mutilated state of the marble ornaments, once the delight of princes, and now scarcely affording a resting-place for the birds who nestle in the walls. Among the legends connected with the castle is one of a princess who leaped from the top of the chapel to the platform beneath, where she has left a foot print at least twelve inches long and six inches deep in the stones. Another story tells of a knight and maiden whose plighted vows were disregarded by some superior powers; wherefore, he, to cure his melancholy, hung himself, and the lady, in despair, threw herself headlong from the terrace. Of course her ghost haunts the vicinity of the spot. In the cellars of the castle they show you the great tun, which every fool goes to see, because other fools have talked about it. I expended a few kreutzers on this lion, and should recommend every one to avoid a similar expense, inasmuch as no pleasure is to be derived from its disbursement. They show you too the knight's hall, and the interior of the chapel, and an ivy tree the stem of which is as thick as a man's thigh-a famous plant of the species. From the bridge over the Neckar is the best general view of the ruins, but it should be visited when the sun shines on them, so as to enlighten a little the dusky masses, which appear much too heavy when viewed from this spot. By far the most interesting object to me in Heidelberg was the Gasthof zum Ritten, or the Knight's Inn, which is the oldest house in the town, and is built as usual of red stone, but in a style of architecture as light and elegant as it is picturesque. I am surprised that it is not more frequently noticed by tourists. But let any traveller who admires its exterior be careful not to be led away by external beauty, for its accommodations are said to be worse than are commonly met with even in the worst hotels. My compagnon de voyage overtook me again this evening. His journey had been the reverse of agreeable. Heavy rains, which amended not the appearance of a very uninteresting road, which offers but one good view in its whole course, namely, Colmar, on the other side of the Rhine: and no one to exchange an idea with, for the postilion knew but one word of French or English, which was, “Yes.” Of this he was so proud, that he used it upon all occasions. Thus in answer to the oft-repeated question, "This Heidelberg?" he invariably replied "Yes;" though, to the inexpressible mortification of the enquirer, he found the director of horses was only displaying his abilities as a linguist, and his acquaintance with the principles and practice of the English language. September 14th. WE left Heidelberg shortly before noon, and arrived at Mannheim in time to embark in the steam-boat for Mentz. These Dampschiffs, as they call them here, boast of a vastly superior degree of comfort and convenience to that of any other German public conveyance. In the first place, smoking is actually forbidden in the cabin. Now, though in the paper they give you on securing your place in the diligence they insert among other bye-laws that no smoking is permitted without the consent of all the passengers, the rule observed is to ask the leave of the ladies present, and if they do not object, out comes the tinder-box, and one is forthwith stunk to death with the noisome vapour these worthy Deutschers puff from their smoke-sodden tubes. I suppose the dry smoke is a necessary correction of the grease and sauer kraut, that is, rotten cabbage and other messes with which they cram their stomachs at their meals. The country between Mannheim and Mantz, that is, the banks of the Rhine, are utterly devoid of interest-flat and muddy. The cathedral of Worms is the only noticeable object, and that is seen from too great a distance to be properly estimated. Something of the general outline may be made out, but the details of course are not discernible. At Maintz we had some trouble in procuring rooms, but ultimately 593 were accommodated at the Hotel d'Hollande. I believe in a German salle à manger you may make out the number of natives present by counting those who are sucking pipes; and in the coffee-room of one hotel the presence of ladies in nowise interfered with their enjoyment of this foetid weed. Among the many ladies present was one German girl, whose fairest my beauty would have stood the test of comparison with that of countrywomen, and her manners and dress were to my mind as far superior to those of the majority of the sex as her person was; gay, yet unobtrusive, the one simple and decent, but elegant the other. Such are the bright visions that pass before the eyes of a wanderer; and, real though they be, they flit from before him, and, as though they were indeed "tricks of the fancy," the airy nothings of a dream, leave no trace behind but a passing regret, a somewhat more lasting remembrance of the beautiful phantom. Even this soon passes away, as the present light of some new planet overpowers the fading brilliancy of the parting star. September 15th. as DESCENDED the Rhine from Mentz to Coblentz. From Bingen the famous scenery begins; but Switzerland has spoiled me. I am ashamed to confess that I was disappointed. There is not one object of general admiration which has left a strong impression on my meThe mountains seemed mory, save the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein. but mole-hills when compared with what I had lately seen; and, specimens of the picturesque, were utterly destroyed by the stiff terraces of vines which clothed them to their very summits. The ruined castles, so much vaunted by the Rhine travellers, have a wonderful family likeness; and I do not think that after an introduction to one member, you have much reason to desire any further acquaintance. The steep Lurley rock and its echoes, and the Pfalz Tower, on a small island in the middle of the river, were all that I should have remarked upon, had it not been for the notifications in my guide book. We arrived at Coblentz soon after mid-day, and landed there, leaving the majority of our fellow-travellers to pursue their route to Cöln without let or stay, except for the embarkation and debarkation of passengers. On our arrival at Coblentz, notwithstanding the rain, which came on shortly after our landing, we traversed the town in search of beauties, though I cannot say that we found any thing worthy of remark. So, having perambulated the streets, we returned to our hotel, and found permission, which had been procured on the credit of our passports, to visit the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein. The view from the high rocks on which it is built is truly charming. Coblentz and Ehrenbreitstein (the town) are seen beneath you as though they were modelled representations and not real masses of stone and mortar. Opposite was the confluence of the Moselle and Rhine,* a much more interesting sight I thought than that of the Rhone and Saone. The line of demarcation is distinctly visible; and, from that * Coblentz is a corruption of the Latin word, confluentes, "flowing together." |