FANNY.

AIX-LA-CHAPELLE, Monday, October 11th.
MY DEAREST HARRIET,

I begin to sniff the well-beloved fogs and coal-smoke of that best
beloved little island to which I have the honor and glory of belonging,
and my spirits are much revived thereby; for, to tell you the truth,
England, bad as it is, is good enough for me, and I am grown old and
stupid and sleepy and don't-carish, and think more about bugs and greasy
food in the way of woe than of vine-clad hills and ruined castles in the
way of bliss. Not that I have been by any means dissatisfied with my
_tower_, though rather disappointed in the one fact of the Rhine: but I
am incurious and always was, and I do not think that fault mends with
age; and knights, squires, and dames too, alas! are no longer to me the
interesting folk that they once were.

"But it is past, the glory is congealing,
The fervor of the heart grows dead and dim;
I gaze all night upon a whitewashed ceiling,
And catch no glimpses of the Seraphim."

I think the ruins of the German hills especially excellent in that they
are ruins, and can by no possibility ever again be made strongholds of
debauchery, ferocity, and filth; and finally and to conclude, my dear
Harriet, lights and shadows, the colors of the earth and sky, the beauty
of God's creation, in short, alone now moves me very deeply, and this, I
am thankful to say, is as powerful to do so as ever.

I must tell you something pretty and poetical, and which I think has
made more impression upon me than anything else in the course of my
travels. The other evening at Cologne, by the sloping light of a watery
autumnal sunset, the wind blowing loud and strong, the river rolling
fast and free, and the great, violet-colored clouds drooping heavily
down the sky, we suddenly heard the guns along each bank fire
repeatedly, saluting the approach of some greatness or other down the
stream. Whether it was king or kaiser, or only one of the
merchant-princes to whom the navigation of this stream now belongs, and
who receive these honors whenever they go up or down the river, nobody
could tell; and still peal after peal was fired, and one echo rolled
into another from shore to shore. At length a long low boat came in
sight, sweeping down with the wide current towards the city walls. She
was covered from stem to stern with bright flags and pennons, and was
frei