e of cathedral. If we
examine the town in detail, all is stir, all is life. The bridge is
crowded with passengers and carriages; the river is covered with sails.
Here and there clumps of trees caress, as it were, the houses blackened
by time; and the old stone hotels of the fifteenth century, with their
long frieze of sculptured flowers, fruit and leaves, upon which the
dove, when tired, rests itself, relieve the monotony of the slate roofs
and brick fronts which surround them.

Round this great town--mercantile from its industry, military from its
position, marine from its river--is a vast plain that borders Germany,
which the Rhine crosses at different places, and is crowned on the
northeast by historic eminences--that wonderful nest of legends and
traditions, called the "Seven Mountains." Thus Holland and its commerce,
Germany and its poetry--like the two great aspects of the human mind,
the positive and the ideal--shed their light upon the horizon of
Cologne; a city of business and of meditation.

After descending from the belfry, I stopt in the yard before a handsome
porch of the Renaissance, the second story of which is formed of a
series of small triumphal arches, with inscriptions. The first is
dedicated to Caesar; the second to Augustus; the third to Agrippa, the
founder of Cologne; the fourth to Constantine, the Christian emperor;
the fifth to Justinian, the great legislator; and the sixth to
Maximilian. Upon the facade, the poetic sculpture has chased three
bas-reliefs, representing the three lion-combatants, Milo of Crotona,
Pepin-le-Bref, and Daniel. At the two extremities he has placed Milo of
Crotona, attacking the lions by strength of body; and Daniel subduing
the lions by the power of mind. Between these is Pepin-le-Bref,
conquering his ferocious antagonist with that mixture of moral and
physical strength which distinguishes the soldier. Between pure strength
and pure thought, is courage; between the athlete and the prophet--the
hero.

Pepin, sword in hand, has plunged his left arm, which is enveloped in
his mantle, into the mouth of the lion; the animal stands, with extended
claws, in that attitude which in heraldry represents the lion rampant.
Pepin attacks it bravely and vanquishes. Daniel is standing motionless,
his arms by his side, and his eyes lifted up to Heaven, the lions
lovingly rolling at his feet. As for Milo of Crotona, he defends himself
against the lion, which is in the act of devouri