EPISTOLARY GOSSIPINGS OF TRAVEL, AND ITS REMINISCENCES. BEAR HOUSE, Feb. 185-. Dear Paul: NO. XI. Pray offer my most heartfelt sympathy to your wife, in the affliction she has sustained. A half dozen gobblers! and near the Christmas times! An affliction falling with a six-fold severity, and second only in distressing consequents to the massacre of the innocents. It was a loss greatly to be deplored. I shall go into half mourning. If, as you kindly hint, I have been the fortunate instrument in the assuaging of that grief, bubbling up from the great depth of her disappointment, happy I. In depicting your mutual sorrows, I suspect you are speaking one word for your wife to two for yourself; indeed, knowing the constitutional delicacy of your palate, I am aware of no earthly loss would be like to affect you more keenly than that of those "juicy fragments" you see before you in a vision. I can imagine you standing with weeping mouth, and deep dejection written upon your countenance, apostrophising the deceased. No wonder you write feelingly; yours was no common grief. Requiescat in pace. The loss of your turkies brings to mind a new arrangement I have introduced in the management of my poultry yard. It is this: All the ducks, chickens and turkies doomed to speedy consumption are named after certain individuals against whom I may harbor any little grudge or spite, or some feeling of enmity. For instance, Miss Caustic has been saying some sharp 66 things about my wife, touching her manners, dress or appearance; or Miss Breeze has been assuming unwarrantable airs, such as her pedigree does'nt entitle her to indulge in, or it may be Mr. Peacock, who rides in great state, and uses very bad English, has been drawing odious comparisons. Immediately I call Gottlieb. Gottlieb," I say, "run Miss Caustic down and cut off her head, we will dine on her today;" or, "Gottlieb, wring Miss Breeze's neck, (he knows them all by name,) and wring it hard," adding to myself, in the words of a borrowed conceit, "such people shall have no future state; they shall have their necks twirled in this," or if the case chance to be aggravated, I say, "Schlittenbube," (such is Gottleib's patronymic) I arrest Mr. Peacock, and shut him up in jail; and hear you, feed him well, and fatten him; for in three weeks he is to be beheaded." Gottlieb obeys, entering with great spirit and a mixture of seriousness upon the execution of my orders. believe he thinks I am some great Judge of the land. I assure you I derive great comfort from this absolute exercise of authority, with Schlittenbube for my high-constable. I experience what despotic monarchs must feel, who are the sole authors, expounders and executioners of their codes of justice; where are no juries to disagree, no habeas corpus, no bills of exception to perplex, no appeals, and no pardoning power to interfere, but all is absolute. It affords an innocent method of gratifying one's revenge. It is very handy. The turkey, in the language of the aged Claudius, "bas ceased to be an unhandy bird." pear the long white prison walls of the Hofberg, and on the opposite side the Postlingberg, crowned with its citadel and pilgrimage church. The city appears shut in among grand natural objects, and though the views are not extensive, they are everywhere imposing. Its fortifications surround it in a circuit of nine miles. They are peculiar. Instead of the bastion front, they consist of a chain of two-and-thirty isolated forts, with covered way communications, each tower measuring thirty feet in altitude, or rather depth; for what is singular, they are built below the surface. The different stories are used for various purposes of storehouses, "Es rinnet 'der Thränen vergeblicher On this plan, the expense of conquarters, magazines and batteries. struction is much lessened. How shall I approach the subject of your eratic pilgrimage in Switzerland? How express myself thereon? Who but must be interested in a plot thickening so systematically, and developing so romantically and concerned for its dénouement, so dolorous? Alas, poor Katrina! many a sigh hast thou heaved over the inconstancy of man many a time have the oak groves around Riza been made eloquent with the echo of thy voice, as thou lamentedst in the words of Schiller's Mädcheu: Lauf." O Paul, Paul! how could you do so? Why did I leave you, Potter? But perhaps it is even all for the best. It Do you recall our ramble among the shops, to the old bridge, along the line of miserable booths in the great market square, and how you Indulge, while I transport you left me to go hero-hunting after the back in memory for a moment to tomb of Montecuculi in St. MatLinz; and invite you to retrace thias' Church? But the ride in with me some of the paths we fol- that cramped up, closely packed lowed in our way towards Munich. eilwagen from Linz to Simbach, You will not object to renew your rises up this moment before me in acquaintance with a place whose all its horrors, and entirely supimposing situation interested you presses all other memories. so much. Its position, in fact, con- fairly sets my legs to twitching and stitutes its chief claim to notice, jerking to think of it. Posted as unless that be eclipsed in the eyes I was opposite a decent looking of some by the far-famed beauty of middle aged woman, with a galits women. I believe the result of vanized baby, and all the baby our own investigations on this trash and traps peculiar to such a point was that they only merited vicinity, how could I but suffer a place among the big, the buxom through the everlasting watches of and the rosy; though they certain- that frightful night? What counly looked picturesque and pretty sels I held with myself for future enough in their hemlet-shaped head guidance, what resolutions made, dresses of gilt and gauze. The drawn from experience, if so be I Danube at Linz bursts through one were safely delivered from present of those narrow defiles, which, torment, must be among the things throughout its whole course, forms unwritten; but my lamentations so striking a characteristic of its ran somewhat in this strain. In scenery. Just at its opening the future, give the legs full play, and city is built; towering above, ap- each leg full, free room to act. With other people's toes, familiar, pilgrims resort every year, to make but by no means vulgar be. If their offerings and pour forth their you've a male friend, get your seats supplications at the shrine of the opposed, and lock your legs with "Black Virgin and Child." We his by hooks and crooks; but never were not prepared to believe Mecca sit a female opposite. Beware of had so aspiring a rival in the heart middle seats, but being in, make of Europe and in the nineteenth elbows, that the corners may be century. But superstition is not ware. Take each man's jostle, but yet rooted out, nor will be, while reserve your fire till the next pitch ignorance continues to be her handhole offers opportunity. Again I maid. Again I maid. Nor is the idolatry of ansay, first die, or wait six stages, e'er cient Rome extinct, of which this you sit a female opposite, for modes image, or idol, offers but too conty forbids to stretch your legs even clusive evidence. If the chapel, if you could;—and petticoats pre- which for twelve centuries has been vent, even if you would-and long the sanctuary of this ebony godunstretched, comes o'er the knees dess, is an object of wonder, from that horror of unutterable cramps, the countless votive offerings with that dulls the edge of comfort for a which its walls, inside and out, are week. This above all, to thine covered, the goddess herself is own legs be true; and it must fol- more so, from the richness and prolow as the halt to start, thy legs fusion of the ornaments of gold won't then be plagued by any and precious stones, with which she woman's. I hope the decent look- has been gifted by her faithful deving woman, with the galvanized otees; not to speak of the, at least, baby, has forgiven and forgotten questionable taste, which has given the act and the moment, when in to herself and the child, Jesus, the the last stage of nervous sensibility, hue of the Ethiopian. The votive with every limb in a quiver of ex- offerings consist, in the main, of postulation, I closed my eyes as in some rude pictures, illustrative of sleep, and forcing my legs impetu- the circumstances under which the ously forward, through all opposing favour of the Virgin was bestowed. obstacles, bags, bundles, petticoats, Here is seen a man escaping from baby-trash and baskets, stretched a beast; there one in the act of them to the full maximum of their drowning; here goes another headlength, and-kept them there. long over a precipice; there lies an emaciated form upon a sick bed. During the thirty years' war, when Salzburg was threatened by the Swedes, this power of darkness was removed thither to protect it. Among the great names recorded as pilgrims to her shrine is Charlemagne's. What a sensation of melancholy was produced upon the mind by the monotonous character of the apparently illimitable plain, that expands in all directions around the Bavarian capital. And yet it was not wanting in pleasant featureswhat with its picturesque belfries and churches, its clear streams, Near the chapel, is the old gropretty villages, and green fields. tesque twin towered church, covAt Alt Oeting we breakfasted, and ered with fantastic gables, lancet in its rural square, carpeted with windows, and gothic tracery, and verdure, visited the most celebrated surrounded by formidable rows of place of pilgrimage in Europe-the booths, where during the season church of Our Lady of Alt-Oet- of pilgrimage, beads, crosses, and ing." To this temple thousands of sacred relics are offered for sale. All symmetry is lost in the multitude of gables and projections; the whole pile appearing like a huge architectural conglomerate. In this old church repose the remains of "the ferocious Tilly." There was a pleasantness, a something of soothing quiet about this secluded spot, that has knit it to my memory with the stitches of strong attachment. I looked back upon it as we drove away, and wished, as the tall lime trees hid the old towers from view, I might carry away with me some thing more than the bare recollection. We are at Amphing; on that memorable day! We are detained behind an eight feet obstruction, covered with fresh black paint; the door refuses to open, and we hear the eilwagen under way, and with it is departing our seats, our baggage, our all. What are eight feet vertically in such a case? What is fresh black paint, in an emergency like this? To scale the wall is but the work of a moment; to smutch one's hands, face and dress is buying the whistle cheap. Now, I ask you, candidly, Paul, did or did not the inhabitants, the Amphingites, as we measured with long strides the length of that main street, in hot pursuit of the eilwagen, shouting and hallooing at the top of our voices, all come rushing out of doors to see what on earth was the matter? Did or did not several large yellow dogs start off in chase of us, barking and snapping at our heels, as we pushed on our tremendous way? Did or did not your short legs become exercised to keep pace with my long ones? And, finally, did or did not that old spitzbube of a conducteur come to a halt, stand in the middle of the road, shake his fist at us, and heap donnerwetters upon our heads for delaying the royal Bavarian eilwagen? We will dismiss Hagg with the simple remark, that it will be forever illustrious in the annals of our stomachs and pockets; it being there we dined upon our last sixpence, at the rate of three pence each, indulging in but two courses, bread and cheese. Just as the clock in the roadside belfrey struck three P. M. we drove into Hohenlinden. "On Linden when the sun was low." The date over the entrance is MDLXX. The great battle field lies about and in the immediate vicinity of the village, which consists of only a few small, scattered dwellings. The grain and grass of the fields grow close up to the houses, and climbing vines and flowers clustering about the windows imparted a rural air. "Iser flowing rapidly," of which the youthful orators speak, is some twenty miles distant. The Archduke John resides in a country-seat in the vicinity. One would think he must relish but poorly a vicinity where he was dishonoured with such an unmerciful thrashing. But he is supposed to be enjoying there the delights of a sequestered life, with the inn-keeper's daughter for a wife. He loved her, and he married her straight, though the little archduke will be only half great. Of unbecoming matches, who can speak with grace, with such a precedent 'fore his face? One greater still the deed hath done, the Archduke John a barmaid won. The tall, square, white church towers, with little belfries at top, are thickening. Each hamlet has its own, and now twenty may be counted at once, scattered over the landscape. We are drawing near Munich, and the signs of a great city's life begin to be visible on every hand. An uninterrupted ride of twenty-seven hours, with all its variations of jumbling and jolting, is not apt to make a halt unwelcome; ger, whose name ought to have nor is the Baïerisscher Hof the been his condemnation, was the house in the world to make one seek progenitor of a whole race of his pillow in doubt of a sound sleep, Counts and Countesses, and must and pleasant waking on the morrow. have greatly stimulated that purely Here we parted; and here began German propensity of a weakness that series of events, that finally for a title, and the proprietorship culminated in the brilliant exploit of an independent sovereignty; on the stage coach; the tender pas- enjoying, under prosperous circumsage on the Chillon draw-bridge, stances, revenues amounting to and the stealthy approach along several hundred zwantzingers per that corridor in the early twilight- annum; a surplus of lager beer, a delicate hand-knees-kisses. standing armies of twelve men, inclusive of band, and an extent of territory the mighty Prince has no difficulty in sweeping with his eye from the top of his Schloss. For myself, after we had done the Pinacothek and Glyptothek, and sufficiently admired the rest of this city of magnificent intentions, and you were departed for Junspruck, I turned my face towards Augsburg. Arrived, sallied forth down Maximilian Strasse whistling a stave of Yankee Doodle, to dispel lugubrious thoughts; looked and wondered at the houses, the queerest, the quaintest in the world; covered with historical, and scriptural scenes, in fresco; and their lantern-shaped balconies piled one above another; walked to the environs, at any other time surpassingly inviting, where the old fortifications have been converted into gardens, and promenades, shaded with venerable trees; walked to the Schloss, and speculated on the Augsburg confession; sought my hotel, the Drei Mohren, where that foolish Fugger lived, who, from a poor weaver, became the Rothschild of those days, and was guilty of the unpardonable absurdity of destroying a bond, for the loan of many thousands he held against the Emperor, Charles V., and all because he was beside himself with the honor of entertaining royalty; and who made himself further ridiculous by keeping up a fire of cinnamon wood, during the several weeks of his majesty's visit, as if hickory would not have toasted the royal shins more effectually and economically. This illustrious Fug Bidding adieu to Augsburg, I pursued my solitary way to Lindau and Constance, thence hurried on to Schaffhausen, hoping to drown loneliness in the uproarious waters. Walked above and below the falls, compared them with Niagara, and Trenton, and Passaic, and Tulula. Ah, Paul, days passed e'er I gained my wonted equanimity. Through Switzerland I travelled leisurely, much of the way on foot, never ceasing to contemplate with new wonder and admiration the stupen dous works the hand of nature has there created. By way of diversion, I made two or three little side episodes of a private kind, of which I may make you part one of these days. But to condense a long relation, into fewest words, after many wanderings, to and fro, spiced with some adventure, and much edification, I finally drew up in Rome at two o'clock, of a certain dark night. The next morning, found me, like a devout pilgrim, directing my earliest steps to St. Peters, where, after a sufficiency of bewildering admiration of the richness and immensity of things, I sat down at last, faint and wearied, on the base of a column, to watch the interesting process of wearing away an apostle's toe by kissing. While |