indignation.
My good friend--the whole of this interior has recently undergone rather a
martyrdom than a metamorphosis. The sides are almost entirely covered with
_Grecian_ pilasters and pillars; and so are the ornaments about the altar.
What adds to the wretched effect of the whole, is, a coat of _white-wash_,
which was liberally bestowed upon it some forty years ago; and which will
require at least the lapse of another century to subdue its staring effect.
There are only three chapels in this cathedral. Of _altars_ there are not
fewer than twelve: the principal being in the chapels of St. Lawrence and
St. Catharine.

It was near the chapel of _St. Catharine_, that, on the morning of our
first visit, we witnessed a group of country people, apparently from the
neighbourhood of _Saverne_--from their huge, broad, flat hats--engaged in
devotion before the image of some favourite saint. The rays of a bright sun
darted through the windows, softened by the varied tints of the stained
glass, upon their singular countenances and costumes; and the effect was
irresistibly striking and interesting.

In the centre of the south transept, there rises a fine, slender, clustered
column, reaching to its very summit. On the exterior of this column--placed
one above another, but retreating or advancing, or in full view, according
to the position of the spectator--are several figures, chiefly females;
probably five feet high, with labels or scrolls, upon each of which is an
inscription. I never saw any thing more elegant and more striking of its
kind. These figures reach a great way up the pillar--probably to the top--
but at this moment I cannot say decidedly. It is here, too, that the famous
Strasbourg _Clock_, (about which one Dasypodius hath published a Latin
treatise in a slim quarto volume[211]) is placed. This, and the tower, were
called the _two great wonders of Germany_. This clock may be described in
few words: premising, that it was preceded by a clock of very extraordinary
workmanship, fabricated in the middle of the fourteenth century--of which,
the _only_ existing portion is, a _cock_, upon the top of the left
perpendicular ornament, which, upon the hourly chiming of the bells, used
to flap his wings, stretch out his neck, and crow twice; but being struck
by lightning in the year 1640, it lost its power of action and of sending
forth sound. No modern skill has been able to make this cock crow, or to
shake his wings again. Th