looking up the Moselle, is a fine stone bridge. We had our dinner on the
deck of the boat--a good arrangement, because we lost none of the
scenery. This dinner was about midway between Cologne and Coblentz; and
it would have amused you to have noticed the order of the various
courses--soup, boiled beef, raw fish, ducks, roast pork, fowls, pudding,
baked fish, roast beef, and mutton. Every thing was well cooked, and I
never saw people appear more disposed to do justice to a meal. There was
not half the hurry and indecorum that you so often see in an American
boat. One thing I observed--and that was, that no one used the left hand
for the management of his knife. If any thing annoys me, it is to see
persons carve and eat at table with this wretched habit. I always
imagine that they were so unhappy as to have grown up without father or
mother to watch over them. This may be my weakness; but I cannot help
it. We went to the Trois Suisses, a fine house on the river bank, and
from our windows are looking, by moonlight, on the glorious fortress.

Yours truly,

J.O.C.

Letter 41.

FRANKFORT.

DEAR CHARLEY:--

We had no more pleasant day in our excursion than from Cologne to
Coblentz. It would be long before I grew tired of the scenery at that
fine old place. We walked about, in the evening, with our New York
friends; and, though some parts of Coblentz are very filthy, there are
some exquisite plots in it, and all the vicinage is beautiful. We took a
pleasant stroll to the bridge which spans the blue Moselle with fourteen
arches. The city stands on a point of land formed by the two rivers, and
hence was known to the Romans by the name of _Confluentes_. Drusus
fortified this place and Ehrenbreitstein thirteen years before Christ.
Its population is short of twenty thousand; but there are also four
thousand five hundred Prussian troops at the fortress. This is one of
the strongest military posts in Europe. Its fortifications have been the
labor of long years; and the works here, united with those across the
river, are deemed impregnable. I believe Ehrenbreitstein is called the
Gibraltar of Germany. It mounts four hundred cannon, and the magazines
will contain provisions for eight thousand men for ten years. The former
Electoral Palace is now the Government House, and presents a very noble
appearance from the river. It is either stone, or stuccoed, with an
Ionic portico; and, with its wings, is five hundred and fort