hrust through a casement was an ivy
that might have vied with many of the trees around in the size of its
trunk, and no artistic hand could have trailed its creepers with the
grace Nature alone had displayed.

There was a grand banqueting-hall, with the blue heavens for a ceiling
overhead. There was a drawing-room, the floor long since crumbled away,
and only the broken walls remaining. Standing upon the loose earth, you
may see the blackened fireplace far above your head, before which fair
faces grew rosy centuries ago, and where white hands were outspread that
have been dust and mould for ages. There was-- But words cannot describe
it, though I should speak of the winding ways like a labyrinth beneath
it all; of the queer paved court-yard, from whence the knights sallied
out in the olden time; of the great tower, split in twain by an
explosion during the last siege; of the wine-cellars and the "Great
Tun," upon which the servants of the castle danced when the vintage was
gathered. In all attempts at word-painting there remains something that
defies description, that will not be portrayed by language. And, alas!
in that the charm lies.

We turned away from it with regret. One might linger here for days; but
we had little time for dreaming.

The road from Heidelberg to Baden-Baden led through a charming country:
indeed, we ceased to exclaim after a time over the cultivation of the
land. So far as we saw it, the whole of Europe was a market-garden,
with prize meadows interspersed. Not a foot of neglected or
carelessly-tilled ground did we see anywhere.

We chanced to spend the Sabbath in this most un-Sabbath-like city of
Baden-Baden. But so far as we knew to the contrary, it might have been a
Puritan village. There was a little English chapel out in the fields
beyond the city, where morning service was held, and our windows,
overlooking a quiet square, told nothing of the gayeties of the town. It
is an interesting old city in itself, built upon a side hill, full of
unexpected stone steps leading from one street to another, and by and
crooked ways, that were my especial delight. It being just now "the
season," the town was full of visitors. The hot springs are of course
the nominal attraction; the shops, parks, and new parts of the city,
fine; but, after all, the interest centres at the Kursaal, or
Conversation-haus. It is a great white structure, with a colonnade where
it fronts an open square, and contains reading-r