e all of oak. The coverings of the chairs, _i. e_. backs and bottoms,
were richly embroidered in golden thread, the work of different royal
personages. The designs were armorial bearings.

All the stairs were quaint and remarkable, and, in one instance, we
encircled the exterior of a tower, by one of them, at a giddy elevation
of near three hundred feet above the river, the tower itself being
placed on the uttermost verge of the precipice. From this tower the
grate of the beacon thrust itself forward, and as it still smoked, I
inquired the reason. We were told that the wad of a small piece of
artillery, that had been fired as a signal to the steam-boat, had lodged
in the grate, where it was still burning. The signal had been given to
enable the Prince and his family to embark, for they had not left the
place an hour when we arrived. _Tempora mutantur_ since the inhabitants
of such a hold can go from Bingen to Coblentz to dine in a steamer.

We saw the bed-rooms. The Prince slept on an inner camp bedstead, but
the ladies occupied bunks let into the walls, as in the olden time. The
rooms were small, the Bitter Saal excepted, and low, though there were a
good many of them. One or two were a little too much modernized,
perhaps, though, on the whole, the keeping was surprisingly good. A
severe critic might possibly have objected to a few anachronisms in
this _romaunt_, but this in a fault that Prince Frederic shares in
common with Shakspeare and Sir Walter Scott.

I cannot recall a more delightful hour than that we passed in examining
this curiosity, which was like handling and feeding, and playing with a
living cameleopard, after having seen a dozen that were stuffed.

* * * * *

In reference to the controversy touching the expenses of the American
Government alluded to in page 37, of this volume, the following
particulars may not be uninteresting.

Early in the day, the party who conducted the controversy for the other
side began to make frequent allusions to certain Americans--"_plusieurs
honorables Americains_" was the favourite expression--who, he alleged,
had furnished him with information that went to corroborate the truth of
his positions, and, as a matter of course, to invalidate the truth of
ours. Secret information reached me, also, that a part, at least, of our
own legation was busy for the other side. At one period, M. Perier, the
Premier of France, publicly cited the name of