for the sake of some excursions in the neighborhood, and that ancient and learned city soon made its appearance. Its aspect was quaint and inviting. As we neared the shore, it was crowded with spectators, amongst whom those Bonny Laddies, the students, were gayly conspicuous. A great many were dressed as Tyrolese, with ribbons and flowers in their highcrowned hats; and whatever a Quaker might have thought of such vanities, a painter would assuredly have been grateful for such very picturesque accessaries to the foreground. You may form some notion of their appearance from the remark of my uncle: “Frank, they must have made a long night at the masquerade to be in their fancy dresses so late in the morning." When I told him they were the students, he made one of his wry faces. "Students! What do they study ? — Private theatricals! Yes, there's a youngster dressed up like Macready in William Tell;' and yonder's another, with a parasol straw hat, a nankeen jacket, and a long pipe in his mouth, like the planter in 'Paul and Virginia'!" The moment the "Princess came abreast of the pier, a party of the Burschen sprang on board, of course with an equal number of pipes, and formed a group on the deck. Most of them were in costume "marvellously imaginative;" some seemed to have sought their Journal des Modes, or Mirror of Fashion, in the pictures of Vandyke or Salvator Rosa; others appeared to have been clothed, in a fit of enthusiasm, by a romantic tailor. Indeed, one of them presented so very outré a figure, that I was not at all surprised to hear the Cockney's exclamation of "What a Guy!" No small portion of care and culture had been bestowed upon their hair, moustaches, and beards, which strongly reminded me of the Dutch hedges, that are trained and trimmed into all sorts of grotesque and fanciful shapes. But in the midst of these speculations the bell warned us to provide for our own departure; and winding in Indian file through the motley crowd, we made the best of our way to the hotel. After establishing ourselves in comfortable quarters we strolled about the town, first taking a long gaze from the Altezoll, across the broad Rhine, at the grand group of the Seven Mountains. We then scanned the façade of the University, took a peep in at a church or two, and discussed a flask of Ahrbleichart in the Vinea Domini. During this ramble we saw, of course, a number of the students, and it was amusing to hear Nuncle guessing at the historical personages they had selected for their models ; for instance, Peter the Wild Boy, Van Butchell, Don Quixote, Samson, Absalom, Esau, Blackbeard the Pirate, Confucius, Henri Quatre, and Bampfylde Moore Carew. One very dissimilar pair he christened Valentine and Orson; another "Junker,” remarkably unkempt and unshorn, he compared to Baron Trenck; and "Egad!" he cried, as we passed a square-set figure in an antique dress, and fiercely moustached," Egad! there's Pam." Perhaps the most whimsical of these fancies was that of a tall fellow, who, with sleekly-combed hair, a huge white collar thrown back over his shoulders, and trousers that buttoned to his jacket, stalked along like a Brobdignagian schoolboy; I was anxious to know my uncle's opinion of these oddities, and contrived to extract it. "All theatrical mummery, Frank; all theatrical mummery! But, mayhap," said he, after a pause, "it's like a breaking out on the skin, and serves to carry off fantastical humors that are better out than in." I am inclined to think this is nearly the truth of the case; for it is notorious that these Burschen come in, according to the proverb, as Lions, and go out as Lambs, some of the wildest of them settling down in life as very civil civilians, sedate burgomasters, and the like. Indeed, were it otherwise, were there as much real as mock enthusiasm under these formidable exteriors, should we not hear more often than we do of University riots and outbreaks, of Middle-Age forays, with an occasional attempt to set fire to the Rhine? The worst is, as a great portion of these students affect the uncouth and savage, mere Tybalts and Fire-eaters, if they at all act up to their characters, they must be public nuisances; and if they do not, they hardly allow themselves fair play. Many of them, doubtless, are good-hearted lads and industrious scholars, and as such, sure it would better become them to appear like what they are, ambitious of a place in the political, literary, artistic, or scientific annals of their country, rather than as candidates for a niche in its Eccentric Mirror or Wonderful Magazine. These vagaries in dress form, by the by, a curious anomaly in Prussia; where, in conformity with the military penchant of the King, all public bodies, excepting the learned ones, are put into uniform. Thus, there are the Post officials with their orange collars, the Police with their pink ones, the Douane with their blue ones, the Bridge-men with their red ones; postilions, prisoners, road-makers, all have their liveries and their badges. But there is no regulation academical costume, and the students, by indulging in such eccentric habits, are possibly only making the most of their unique independence. At one o'clock, we dined at the table-d'hôte, and then rode off in a carriage to the Kreutzberg. At the top of the hill we found a party of French travellers, three gentlemen and a lady, enjoying the fine prospect. Had they been country-folk, it is probable that we should never have exchanged a word, for, as Marshal *** said, “the advanced guard of an Englishman is his reserve,' but with foreigners it is otherwise ; the strangers saluted us most courteously, and one of them addressing my uncle, we all fell into talk. After commenting on the beauty of the view, we went en masse into the church, which formerly belonged to a Servite Convent. This edifice is considered as peculiarly sanctified, by possessing the steps which led up to the judgment-seat of Pontius Pilate, and which are said to be still stained by the blood-drops drawn from the brow of our Saviour by the crown of thorns. These sacred stairs, as you are perhaps aware, have the faculty, like Sir Boyle Roche's famous bird, of "being in two places at once." I ventured to hint this to the lively Frenchwcman 00 but instead of expressing doubt or vexation, she only answered with a Vraiment?" I then described the Scala Santa at Rome, but with as little effect. "Vraiment?" she replied. "Quel miracle! mais tout est possible au bon Dieu !" 66 Just at this moment we were startled by a loud exclamation in German from the attendant, followed by a slight scream, and, to my astonishment, I saw my aunt precipitately scampering down the marble stairs! It seems she had unconsciously stepped on the tabooed precincts, which was no sooner perceived by the guardian of the place, than, with a loud outcry that the stairs were sacred, he made a snatch to draw her back by the arm. The abrupt voice, the unknown tongue, the threatening gesture, and the angry expression of a countenance by no means prepossessing, took full effect on her weak nerves, and impelled her to escape as from a madman. And now arose a serious difficulty. The trespasser had stopped exactly half way down the flight, to set foot on which is sacrilege; but as she could not be expected, nor indeed allowed, to stand there forever, the point was how to get her off. By going up them on her knees, like a Catholic pilgrim, she would have gained a plenary indulgence for a year; but this, as a stanch Protestant, she declined, and as a modest female she refused to clamber over the double balustrade that separated her from a common staircase on either side. Which would then occasion the least sacrilege, to ascend by the way she came, or to descend and be let out at the great foldingdoors, the number of stairs to be profaned in either case being the same? It was a question to pose the whole college of St. Omer! The attendant was at his wits' end, how to act, and referred the point to the French party, as Catholics and competent advisers; but for want of a precedent, they were as much abroad as himself. The first gentleman he appealed to shrugged his shoulders, the lady did the same; the second gentleman shrugged his shoulders and made a grimace, and the third shrugged his shoulders, made a grimace, and shook his head. In the mean time, the trespasser looked alarmed and distressed; she had gained some obscure notion of the case, and possibly thought, in her vague idea of the powers of popery, that she had subjected herself to the pains and penalties of the Inquisition. It was an awkward dilemma, particularly as the attendant protested most vehemently whenever the culprit attempted to stir. Luckily, however, he turned his back during his consultation, when, at a beckon and a wink from my uncle, my aunt, not without trembling, quietly slipped up the sacred stairs on the points of her toes! This termination of so intricate a dilemma was a relief to us all, and to none more than Martha, who now ventured to draw out the handkerchief she had stuffed into her mouth, by way of stopper to a scream. But the affair had so cowed the unlucky transgressor, that when we visited the vault under the church, to inspect the Mummies, she preferred to "sit out." And it was well she escaped a sight which could not have failed to remind her of "poor George." Imagine about two dozen of dead monks laid out, in their habits as they lived, in open coffins, all in various stages of decay, some almost as fresh and fleshy as might be expected of an anchorite, after a long course of fasting and mortification; others partly dropping, and dropped into dust; and here and there a mere skull, grinning like one of Monk Lewis's spectres, from under its cowl. The cause of their extraordinary preservation has given rise to much conjecture. My own opinion is, that by way of pendants to the holy stairs, and heaping "voonders upon voonders," the bodies have been Kyanized by some secret process which was afterwards partially lost, as the more recent corses scarcely promise to keep so well as the more ancient ones. It was impossible to stand amongst so many venerable relics of humanity, some of them from three to four centuries old, without entering into very Hamlet-like reflections. What had become, during that long interval, of the disembodied spirits? Had they slept in utter darkness and blank oblivion; or had they a twilight existence, in dreams reflective of the past? Did they still, perhaps, hover round their earthly haunts and fleshy tenements; or were they totally entranced, only to wake at the sound of the last trumpet? But these are themes too awful for a gossiping letter. Suffice it, we all felt the influence of the place and scene. In the neighborhood of such objects, a strange mysterious feeling lays us under a spell. By a sort of process of transfusion, the vital principle that departed from the concrete form, seems to have passed into an abstract figure : Life is dead, but DEATH is alive! and we breathe, and look, and tread, and whisper, as if we were in his actual though invisible presence. Few words, therefore, were uttered as we stood in that dreary avenue. remember but one exclamation from the French woman, as she gazed on one of the most perfect and placid of the faces, a wish, that the figure and features of those we hold most dear could always be thus preserved to us. It sounded like a natural sentiment, at the time; but it was little shared in by one of the spectators, who, as we quitted the vault, drew me aside, with an air of great solemnity. "Frank, make me one promise. If I die in these parts, don't let me be embalmed. It's all nonsense and profanity. We're ordained to decay by nature, and religion bids us try not to preserve our bodies, but to save our souls. Besides, as to keeping one's face and person for one's friends to look at, it's my notion they I |