re is a third
in progress, of which the Emperor of Russia is the founder; but it is
not yet completed. It ought to be the most magnificent of the whole;
for assuredly the success of the day was owing more to the stubborn
hardihood of the Russian Guards, than to any efforts either of
Austrians or Prussians.

From Kulm to Toeplitz you pass through a lovely valley, with mountains,
as I have already described them, on either side of you. Along the
bases of those to the right, lie several picturesque villages, with a
modern schloss here and there, and here and there a ruin. Among others,
the remains of the castle of Dux, one of Wallenstein's numerous
mansions, is especially remarkable. By-and-by, as you approach the
town, you see on your left the dilapidated towers of Dobrawska Hora, an
extensive pile, built, as we were told, early in the thirteenth
century, and owned and inhabited, in 1616, by Count Kinsky,
Wallenstein's brother-in-law. And last of all, you enter the town
itself; of which I shall speak as I found it on a previous visit; when,
instead of hurrying on as we did now, after a single night's rest, we
spent some pleasant days at one of the best and cheapest of German
inns, the Hotel de Londres.

CHAPTER X.

TOePLITZ. ITS GAIETIES. JOURNEY RESUMED. FIRST VIEW OF PRAGUE. GENERAL
CHARACTER OF THE CITY. THE HRADSCHIN. CATHEDRAL. UNIVERSITY. HISTORICAL
DETAILS CONNECTED WITH IT. THE REFORMATION IN BOHEMIA.

The German Spas, or watering-places, especially those of the first
rank, seem to me to offer the best opportunities which a stranger can
desire for the study of the German character, as, in its most unguarded
moments, it presents itself to notice. Whatever a man's rank or station
may be, he seems, from the hour of his entrance into one of these
regions of joy, to lay aside, at least, all belonging to it, which
elsewhere may trammel or incommode him. Princes, nobles, citizens,
officers of every class, natives, foreigners, soldiers, civilians, and
diplomatists, seem to be brought hither by one impulse only,--that is,
by the pursuit of amusement. Business may be, and I doubt not is,
carried on elsewhere than in the shops, but when or how people find
time to attend to it, may well puzzle all save the initiated. I say
nothing of the necessity under which every human being appears to be
laid, of taking the baths as often as an opportunity may offer; for the
bath is to a German what his medicine chest is to an