all through the evil days of
Moslem invasion. Herrmannstadt was called by the Turks the "Red Town" on
account of the colour of its brick walls. It was besieged in 1438 with a
force of 70,000 men headed by the Sultan Amurad himself, and great were
the rejoicings amongst the brave burghers when it became known that an
arrow directed from one of the towers had rid them of their foe! Trade
and commerce must have prospered, by all accounts, in those days; and
the burghers made themselves of importance, for King Andrew II., a man
far in advance of his time, summoned them to assist in consultation at
the Imperial Parliament. The wealth of Herrmannstadt is a thing of the
past; the place has now the appearance of a dead level of competence,
where riches and poverty are equally absent. There were no new houses
building to supply an increasing population, nor, I should say, had any
been built for many years.

The town is prettily situated on a slight elevation above the
surrounding plain; it has the fine range of the Fogaraser Mountains as a
background. The old moat, where Amurad fell pierced by the well-directed
arrow, has been turned into a promenade; parts of the fortifications
remain in a state of picturesque ruin. Herrmannstadt is the seat of the
Protestant Bishop of Transylvania, and there is a fine old church,
which, however, has suffered severely in the process of restoration.

The interior of the church is in that unhappy condition which bespeaks
the churchwarden's period--whitewash plastered over everything,
obliterating lights and shades and rare carvings beneath a glare of
uncouth cleanliness. In their desire to remove every object that could
harbour dust or obstruct the besom of reform, they have bodily removed
from the church many rich monuments and interesting effigies, and these
are to be seen huddled away in an obscure corner of the churchyard. The
church has a large collection of richly-embroidered vestments belonging
to the pre-Reformation days.

Herrmannstadt is decidedly rich in collections. The Bruckenthal Library
contains an illuminated missal of great beauty; the execution is
singularly fine, and the designs very artistic. The curious thing is
that the history of this rare volume is unknown; by some it is believed
to have come from Bohemia during the time of the troubles in that
country, however nothing is positively known. The book is of the finest
vellum, containing 630 pages in small quarto. The pictu