upon by the proximity of Vienna, because night had closed
round us long before we became conscious of the heaving of the living
vortex. And for the rest, to be delayed at the barrier till our
passports had been examined, our baggage searched, and a survey of our
persons and features taken, these were trifling grievances to which use
had reconciled us, and of which we thought nothing. We drove at once to
the Schwan, an excellent though expensive house in the Meal Market, and
there, for a brief period, established our head-quarters.

What shall I say of Vienna? Nothing, or next to nothing. I lingered
within its walls a week, and no more. I ranged its streets, visited its
galleries, lounged through its palaces, its public gardens, and its
temples. I stood among the coffins in the vault of the chapel of the
Capuchins, where rest the ashes of the Imperial family; I gazed long
and fondly, in that of the Augustines, on Canova's exquisite monument
to Maria Christina of Saxony. I observed, not without a feeling of
pardonable pride, that the Armoury, which is arranged with great taste
and skill, contains trophies from almost every European nation, England
alone excepted. I saw the chain with which the Turks, in 1529,
endeavoured to obstruct the navigation of the Danube. I beheld the
innumerable curiosities which are contained in the Arsenal, and lived
among the knights and heroes of the middle ages, while gazing on the
splendid suits of armour which the Ambras Museum contains. There is no
public place which I did not visit, from the Volksgarten to the
Prater;--no conspicuous building, beneath the roof of which I failed to
enter, from the cathedral to the Invaliden Haus;--no palace which I did
not inspect, from that of the Schweitzer Hof to Schoenbrunn. Yet I will
not describe any of them. Why? Because the task has been executed so
recently, and so well, that nothing could proceed from me save idle
repetition; and I do not think that to indulge in such would either
redound to my own credit, or add to the edification of my readers.

Of the state of society in this great capital, again, I am not
competent to form an opinion. I saw but the exterior of things,--the
busy marts, the crowded streets, the shops more capacious and better
stocked than any, except those of London, and perhaps of Paris. The
music of the bands that played in the public gardens was familiar to
me, as well as the countenances and bearing of the joyous throng th