ime in hearing tidings about it--every
eye in Strasburg languished to see it--every finger--every thumb in
Strasburg burned to touch it.

Now what might add, if any thing may be thought necessary to add, to
so vehement a desire--was this, that the centinel, the bandy-legg'd
drummer, the trumpeter, the trumpeter's wife, the burgomaster's widow,
the master of the inn, and the master of the inn's wife, how widely
soever they all differed every one from another in their testimonies
and description of the stranger's nose--they all agreed together in two
points--namely, that he was gone to Frankfort, and would not return to
Strasburg till that day month; and secondly, whether his nose was true
or false, that the stranger himself was one of the most perfect paragons
of beauty--the finest-made man--the most genteel!--the most generous of
his purse--the most courteous in his carriage, that had ever entered the
gates of Strasburg--that as he rode, with scymetar slung loosely to his
wrist, thro' the streets--and walked with his crimson-sattin breeches
across the parade--'twas with so sweet an air of careless modesty, and
so manly withal--as would have put the heart in jeopardy (had his nose
not stood in his way) of every virgin who had cast her eyes upon him.

I call not upon that heart which is a stranger to the throbs
and yearnings of curiosity, so excited, to justify the abbess of
Quedlingberg, the prioress, the deaness, and sub-chantress, for sending
at noon-day for the trumpeter's wife: she went through the streets of
Strasburg with her husband's trumpet in her hand,--the best apparatus
the straitness of the time would allow her, for the illustration of her
theory--she staid no longer than three days.

The centinel and bandy-legg'd drummer!--nothing on this side of old
Athens could equal them! they read their lectures under the city-gates
to comers and goers, with all the pomp of a Chrysippus and a Crantor in
their porticos.

The master of the inn, with his ostler on his left-hand, read his also
in the same stile--under the portico or gateway of his stable-yard--his
wife, hers more privately in a back room: all flocked to their lectures;
not promiscuously--but to this or that, as is ever the way, as faith and
credulity marshal'd them--in a word, each Strasburger came crouding for
intelligence--and every Strasburger had the intelligence he wanted.

'Tis worth remarking, for the benefit of all demonstrators in natural
phil