ter to which they were confined, were closed upon them at an early
hour, and egress and ingress were alike denied. In 1796 Marshal Jourdan,
in bombarding the town, knocked down the gate of the Jews' quarter, and
laid several houses in ruin; they have not since been replaced. Another
tyrannical law, not repealed until 1834, restricted the number of Hebrew
marriages in the city to thirteen yearly. It would seem, however, that,
like the mother of the Rothschilds, the people continue to dwell in
their own quarter from choice, not necessity; and well it is for the
lover of the picturesque and for the antiquary that they do so. A ramble
in the Jews' quarter at Frankfort might well repay a journey from
London; it is like going back to the fourteenth century, and meeting the
people you read of in history far gone. Imagine the narrowest possible
streets through which a carriage can drive, flanked at either side by
houses so high that the blue sky above becomes an idea rather than a
reality; story after story, with windows of ancient construction, small
and narrow, inclosed by iron gratings, from which frequently depended
portions of many-colored draperies; garments for sale, which might have
been of the spoil of the Egyptian; strong swords and all kinds of
weapons, rust-worn; bunches of keys, whose handles would drive an
antiquary distracted by their elaborate workmanship; dresses of all
countries and all fashions, fez caps, and old but costly turbans. The
rich balconies of the most exquisite design, however time-worn; the
_jalousies_, sometimes within, sometimes without the windows; the
Atlantes, supporting entablatures; lost none of their effect from being
half draped by a scarlet mantle or variegated scarf of Barbary. Numbers
of the houses were profusely ornamented at intervals by ball-flowers in
the hollow mouldings, and balustrades, supporting carved copings. Then
above the doors, some of which evidently led to an inner court or a
mysterious-looking passage, was inserted the most exquisitely wrought
iron-work, sufficiently beautiful to form a model for a Berlin bracelet;
while from a stealthy passage peered forth the half shrouded face and
illuminated eyes of dazzling brightness, of some ancient Jewess, whose
long, lean, yellow fingers grasped the strong, but exquisitely moulded
handle of the entrance. The doors (except the very modern ones) were all
of great strength, frequently studded with nails, and the bolts, now
worn an