and paused a moment to watch his manner, which was
entirely free from pretension, but which preserved an indescribable
expression of reverence. "Was it possible to get a glimpse of the person
of M. Tieck?" "I feared not; some one had told me that he was gone to a
watering-place." "Could I tell him which was the window of his room?"
This I was able to do, as he had been pointed out to me at it a few
days before. I left him gazing at the window, and it was near an hour
before this quiet exhibition of heartfelt homage ceased by the departure
of the young man. In my own case, I half suspect that my two postmasters
expected to see a man of less European countenance than the one I happen
to travel with.

[Footnote 24: _Aachen_, in German. In French it is pronounced
Ais-la-Chapelle.]

It was near sunset when we reached the margin of the upper terrace,
where we began to descend to the level of the borders of the Rhine. Here
we had a view of the towers of Cologne, and of the broad plain that
environs its walls. It was getting to be dark as we drove through the
winding entrance, among bastions and half-moons, and across bridges, up
to the gates of the place, which we reached just in season to be
admitted without the extra formalities.

LETTER XII.

The Cathedral of Cologne.--The eleven thousand Virgins.--The Skulls Of
the Magi--House in which Rubens was born.--Want of Cleanliness in
Cologne.--Journey resumed.--The Drachenfels.--Romantic Legend.--A
Convent converted into an Inn.--Its Solitude.--A Night in it.--A
Storm.--A Nocturnal Adventure.--Grim Figures.--An Apparition.--The
Mystery dissolved.--Palace of the Kings of Australia.--Banks of the
Rhine.--Coblentz.--Floating Bridges.--Departure from Coblentz.--Castle
of the Ritterstein.--Visit to it.--Its Furniture,--The Ritter
Saal--Tower of the Castle.--Anachronisms.

Dear ----,

I do not know by what dignitary of the ancient electorate the hotel in
which we lodged was erected, but it was a spacious building, with fine
lofty rooms and a respectable garden. As the language of a country is
influenced by its habits, and in America everything is so much reduced
to the standard of the useful that little of the graceful has yet been
produced, it may be well to remind you that this word "garden,"
signifies pleasure-grounds in Europe. It way even be questioned if the
garden of Eden was merely a _potager_.

After breakfasting we began to deliberate as to our future moveme