rs of Semendria seem to have emigrated _en masse_,) and
proffered himself as Cicerone of the castle.

Mean and abominable huts, with patches of garden ground filled up the
space inclosed by the gorgeous ramparts and massive towers of
Semendria. The further we walked the nobler appeared the last relic of
the dotage of old feudal Servia. In one of the towers next the Danube
is a sculptured Roman tombstone. One graceful figure points to a
sarcophagus, close to which a female sits in tears; in a word, a
remnant of the antique--of that harmony which dies not away, but
swells on the finer organs of perception.

"_Eski, Eski_. Very old," said the Disdar Aga, who accompanied me.

"It is Roman," said I.

"_Roumgi_?" said he, thinking I meant _Greek_.

"No, _Latinski_," said a third, which is the name usually given to
_Roman_ remains.

As at Sokol and Ushitza, I was not permitted to enter the inner
citadel;[18] so, returning to the gate, where we were rejoined by the
soldiers, we went to the fourth tower, on the left of the Stamboul
Kapu, and looking up, we saw inserted and forming part of the wall, a
large stone, on which was cut, in _basso rilievo_, a figure of Europa
reposing on a bull. Here was no fragile grace, as in the other figure;
a few simple lines bespoke the careless hardihood of antique art.

The castle of Semendria was built in 1432, by the Brankovitch, who
succeeded the family of Knes Lasar as _despots_, or native rulers of
Servia, under the Turks; and the construction of this enormous pile
was permitted by their masters, under the pretext of the strengthening
of Servia against the Hungarians. The last of these _despots_ of
Servia was George Brankovitch, the historian, who passed over to
Austria, was raised to the dignity of a count; and after being kept
many years as a state prisoner, suspected of secret correspondence
with the Turks, died at Eger, in Bohemia, in 1711. The legitimate
Brankovitch line is now extinct.[19]

Leaving the fortress, we returned to the Natchalnik's house. I was
struck with the size, beauty, and flavour of the grapes here; I have
nowhere tasted such delicious fruit of this description. "Groja
Smederevsko" are celebrated through all Servia, and ought to make
excellent wine.

The road from Semendria to Belgrade skirts the Danube, across which
one sees the plains of the Banat and military frontier. The only place
of any consequence on that side of the river is Pancsova, the sight o