istols and other weapons which
hung about our persons; and, as if the thoughts of each had wandered
into the same channel, we smiled and said nothing.

We had quitted Vienna early in the morning; it might be about three in
the afternoon when we reached the Custom House,--a station in
Wolfsthal, remarkable for nothing except the constant bustle that goes
on in its street. In order to reach the village we had been again
carried away from the river, through a beautiful valley, hemmed in on
either side, by well-wooded hills; one of which bears upon its summit
what must have been, in its day, a castle of prodigious strength. We
were now clear of that pass, and the process of examination began. In
our case it was both brief and simple. We were asked whether our
knapsacks contained any prohibited article? We did not even know what
was prohibited; but finding that of copper the authorities were chiefly
jealous, we answered in the negative, and were permitted to pass. It
was not so with a whole string of wagons which came from the opposite
direction. One after another they were compelled to discharge their
contents, very much, as it seemed, to the inconvenience of the drivers;
and not till a rigid examination of each separate bale and package had
taken place, was permission given to load again. I could not help
thinking that the policy which drew so broad a line of distinction
between one portion of a great empire and another, was, to say the
least of it, very singular; and I was not slow in being taught that it
is very short-sighted too, because exceedingly distasteful both to the
Hungarians, whom it injures, and the Austrians, whom it is designed to
favour.

Our passports were looked at, of course; stamped with the seal of the
official, and returned to us;--after which we pushed on. We crossed the
frontier, and became sensible, on the instant, that a new country was
before us. To the right, as far as the eye could reach, was one
enormous plain. Rich it was, and apparently well cultivated; for,
except here and there, where a huge meadow intervened, the whole
surface was covered with the most luxuriant corn. Of trees, on the
contrary, scarce a sprinkling appeared; there were no groves at all,
and even hedge-rows were infrequent. Towards the left, again, there was
that sort of character which belongs to a region in which an extensive
range of highlands has terminated. Frequent hills and dales were there;
grassy knolls, with lit