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Page 13. line 2. for commissaires, read commissionnaires. 54. line 4. for Philip, read Gustavus.

61. line 19. for talents, read some talents.

94. line 13. for Court-Fourrier, read Court-Fourrier.

98. line 5. from the bottom, for une, read un.

142. line 17. for Rhingan, read Rhingau.

254. line 2. for assert, read assist.

273. line 6. from the bottom, insert an apostrophe after bourgeois.

299. head of the page, for SCANDAL, read soCIETY.

386. line 2. for cicatrize, read impress.

488. line 14. for allow, read allows.

501. line 3. from the bottom, for tons read tous.

LETTER I.

MAYENCE.

ON emerging from the mountainous scenes, through which the Route Napoleon had followed the brink of the Rhine as far as Bingen, we entered the vast rich plain, here and there diversified by undulating hills, which stretches nearly as far as the eye can reach. As I shall probably revisit the banks of the Rhine on my return, you shall then hear some description of their beauties, which may comparatively be said to cease at Bingen. Our road now lay through cheerful, stiff, avenues of fruit

trees.

The hills of the Rhingau rose in a fine amphitheatre on the opposite side of the river; and the ripe harvest, which the peasants were just beginning to cut, gave an air of fertility to the flat uninclosed

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district. We stopped at Ingelheim, a neat little borough governed by a burgomaster, whom we had the honour of meeting on a visit at the inn, where his dignity was acknowledged by the fair hostess and her fat spouse, with a profusion of "Herr burgomeisters," and ceremonious civilities, of which, Title whether first or fourth rate is never defrauded in Germany. Ingelheim was one of the many residences ―an Irishman would say birth-places

Charlemagne; for some traditions give it, in common with almost as many towns as claimed to be the cradles of the great Poet, the latter as well as the former honour; and all decorate a splendid palace which the grim Sovereign built here, with a hundred columns brought from Ravenna and Rome. This palace, of which some slight remains are still standing, was the scene of the well-known romantic amours of the monarch's fair daughter Bertha with Eginard his secretary.

The Gothic towers and belfries of the old Ecclesiastical Capital rose before us with a gloomy state across the plain, as we approached; but on entering it, the draw

MAYENCE.-DECAY OF THE CITY.

3

bridge, the ditches, the sentinels and examinings of passports, reminded one of the military reign which has succeeded to that of the church. The old city is large, rambling, and irregular; the streets generally lofty, narrow, and dirty, with the exception of the Grosse Bleiche, or Great Bleaching Place, a handsome wide street, running from the upper part of the town towards the Rhine, terminating in a cheerful Place planted with trees. In spite of its general darkness and dirt, Mayence has an imposing character of decayed consequence. For the cidevant second Ecclesiastical City in Europe, it has few remnants of striking splendour; but its old Cathedral, shattered by the balls of the famous siege, its large churches, and desolate red Palace on the Rhine excite an

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interest in their decay. Stately houses half-inhabited, or occupied by chandlers' shops — handsome public buildings converted into dirty Casernes and reeking Cafés-here and there a heap of ruins untouched since the bombardment, or a public square presenting forlorn chasms, remind one of the better days of the city, and

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MAYENCE.

ECCLESIASTICS.

of the calamities which have reduced it to its present state, not of tranquil but bustling decay. Doctor Moore, when he visited Mayence thirty years ago, remarked the elegant Abbés with their handsome equipages, and the well-behaved troops who appeared kept under by the Ecclesiastics. The Chapter and the Grenadiers have now changed places. You see the meagre occupants of the pillaged stalls skulking to Mass in threadbare soutanes, their looks proclaiming them no longer the monopolizers of the old Hock of the neighbourhood; while the Austrian and Prussian Soldiers, to the number of 14,000, are rioting in the insolence of lawless superiority. The cafés, the billiard-rooms, the promenades are crammed with these smoking and swaggering guests, come to give a sort of unhallowed vivacity to the mouldering haunts of the Monks. The University Building is a Barracks, and Hospitals and Guard-rooms strike one at every corner. The Bishop of Mayence, appointed by the Pope and subject to the Grand Duke of Hesse, is a poor Prelate of little consequence, rarely residing in his See; where

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