After Waterloo: Reminiscences of European Travel 1815-1819 Part 25

Innspruck--Tyrol and the Tyrolese--From Innspruck to Munich--Monuments and churches--Theatricals--Journey from Munich to Vienna on a floss--Trouble with a pa.s.sport--Complicated system of Austrian money--Description of Vienna--The Prater--The theatres--Schiller's _Joan of Arc_--A _Kinderballet_--The young Napoleon at Schoenbrunn--Journey from Vienna to Prague.

INNSPRUCK, 15th July.

I had engaged with a _vetturino_ to convey me from Verona to Innspruck for four _louis d'or_ and to be _spesato_. A Roman gentleman and his lady were my fellow travellers; they were going to pa.s.s the summer months at a small _campagne_ they possess in the Tyrol. We stopped the first night at Roveredo. The road from Verona to Roveredo is on the banks of the Adige (called in German the Etsch) in a narrow and deep valley, shut up on both sides by mountains, almost immediately on leaving Verona. We found the weather extremely hot in this valley. Roveredo seems to be a very neat clean little city, and the Adige flows with astonis.h.i.+ng rapidity along this narrow valley. The women of Roveredo have the reputation of being very beautiful; and I recollect having seen two Roveredo girls at Venice, who were models of female beauty. They have a happy mixture of German and Italian blood and manners, but Italian is the language of the country. The second morning of our journey we arrived and stopped to dinner at the venerable and celebrated city of Trent. The country we pa.s.sed thro' is much the same as that between Verona and Roveredo, the Adige being on our left.

Trent lies also in the valley of the Adige, shut up between the Alps. The whole valley appears in high cultivation. The streets of Trent are broad; the Cathedral is a remarkably fine Gothic building. In the church of Sta Maria Maggiore was held the famous council of Trent. There are a great many silk mills in Trent. German as well as Italian is spoken; indeed the two languages are equally familiar to most of the inhabitants. In the evening we arrived at Sabern after pa.s.sing thro' Lavis. One description will serve for these towns and indeed for most of the towns in the Tyrol, viz., that of being neat, clean and solidly built. The inns are excellent and the inhabitants very civil. The Adige runs close to the road and parallel to it, nearly the whole way to Bolsano or Botzen, where Italian ceases to be spoken and German is the national tongue. Botzen is a large and flouris.h.i.+ng place.

One general description will serve for the Tyrol, regarding the towns, adjacent country, customs, inns, inhabitants, dress and manners.

First the towns are fully as neat, clean and well built as those in Switzerland; the country too is very similar, tho' not quite on so grand a scale of sublimity; but you have fully as much variety in mountain and valley, glacier and cascade. The climate is exactly the same as that of Switzerland, being very hot in the valleys in summer. The inns are clean and good, the provisions excellent and well cooked, the wines much better than those of Switzerland; there is good attendance by females and all at a far cheaper rate than in Switzerland. The Tyroleans are much more courteous in their manners than the Swiss; they have not that boorishness and are of more elegant figure than their Helvetic neighbours. The women of the Tyrol are in general remarkably beautiful, exceedingly well shaped and of fine complexions.

In the towns the bourgeoises dress well, something in the French style, and it is their custom to salute travellers who pa.s.s by kissing their hands to them. The dress of the female peasantry, however, is unpleasing to the eye and so uncouth, that it would make the most beautiful women appear homely.

In the first place I will speak of their head dress, of which there are three different kinds, two of which are as _bizarre_ as can be imagined.

The first sort is a cap of sheepskin, the fleece of which is as white as snow, and the cap is of conical shape, the base being exceeding large in proportion to its height, and resembles much the sugar loaves made in Egypt. The second is a black scull cap, with the three pieces of stiff black _gaze_, sticking out like the vanes of a windmill; so that when put on the head, one vane stands upright from the forehead and the other two from each ear. The third head dress is a broad straw hat, and I wish they would stick to this coiffure, and discard the two others. Then the waist of their dress is as long as

...du pole antarctique an detroit de Davis.[121]

Their petticoats are exceedingly short, scarcely reaching the calf of the legs, which are enveloped in a pair of flaming red stockings. Who the devil could invent such an ungraceful dress for a female?

The costume of the men on the contrary is becoming and graceful. It resembles very much the costume of the Andalusians. The hat is exactly the same, the crown being small and the rim very broad.

The Tyroleans are a fine gallant race of men and are excellent marksmen.

They were formerly much attached to the House of Austria; but that attachment is now entirely changed to dislike, from the ingrat.i.tude they have met with, since they have been replaced under that scepter.

The only fault I find in the Tyroleans, is that they are rather too devout and consequently too much under the influence of the clergy. Yet in their devotion there is not the smallest tinge of hypocrisy and they are esteemed a highly moral people.

If you arrive at an inn in the evening, while the family are at prayer, neither master nor servants will come to wait on you, till prayers are over; and then you will be served with sufficient alacrity; but the prayers are rather long.

I believe the priests extort a good deal of money from these good people.

The road thro' the Tyrol was made by the Romans, in the time of Septimus Severus. An immense number of Crucifixes on the road attest and command the devotion of the people.

How Kotzebue can call Innspruck a dirty town I am at a loss to conceive. He must have visited it during very rainy weather; for to me it appears one of the cleanest and most chearful towns I have ever seen. There are several very fine buildings, for instance the Jesuits' College, and the Franciscan monastery; Nothing can be more picturesque than the situation of this city in the valley of the Inn and its romantic windings. The suburbs are very extensive and can boast several fine houses. The cupola of the Government House is gilded, which gives it a splendid appearance. In the _Hofkirche_ or church of the court there are a number of statues, large as life, in bronze; among which my guide pointed out to me those of Clovis, G.o.dfrey of Bouillon, Albert the Wise, Charles V, Philip II of Spain, Rudolph of Hapsburgh, and to my great astonishment the British King Arthur; there were twenty-eight statues altogether. But on my return to my inn, I found that my guide had made a great error respecting King Arthur, and that the said statue represented Prince Arthur, son of Henry VII, King of England, and not the old Hero of Romance; and my hostess' book further informed me that these statues were those of the Kings and Princes belonging to families connected by descent and blood with Maximilian I. In the same _Hofkirche_ is a fine monument erected to Maximilian and a statue of bronze of this Emperor is figured kneeling between four bronze figures representing four Virtues. In the gardens of the Palace of the Archduke Ferdinand in this city is a fine equestrian statue which rests entirely on the hind feet of the horse. From Innspruck there is a water pa.s.sage by the river Inn all the way to Vienna, as the Inn flows into the Danube at Pa.s.sau. The banks of the Inn are so romantic and picturesque that I would willingly prolong my _sejour_ at Innspruck, but as I mean to take the journey from Mittenwald to Munich by the river Isar, I must take advantage of the raft which starts from that place the day after to-morrow.

MUNICH, 20th July.

I left Innspruck in a _chaise de poste_ on the 16th, and arrived the same evening at five o'clock at Mittenwald. At a short distance before I arrived at Mittenwald, I entered the Bavarian territory, which announces itself by a turnpike gate painted white and blue, the colours and _Feldzeichen_ of Bavaria. In the Austrian territory the barriers are painted black and yellow, these being the characteristic colors of Austria.

Mittenwald is a small neat town, offering nothing remarkable but a church yard or _Ruhe-garten_ (garden of repose) as it is called, where there are a number of quaint inscriptions on the tombstones. At Mittenwald I had some trouble about my pa.s.sport, as it was not _vise_ by a Bavarian authority; but I explained to the officer that I had never fallen in with any Bavarian authority since I left Rome, and that, while at Rome, I had no intention of going thro' Bavaria; that at Milan the Austrian authorities had _vise_ my pa.s.sport for Vienna and that I should only pa.s.s thro' Munich, without making a longer stay than one week. He acquiesced in my argument, but inserted my explanation on the pa.s.sport. At half a quarter of a mile beyond Mittenwald I met the raft just about to get under weigh at eleven o'clock a.m. This raft is about as long as the length of a thirty-six gun frigate, and formed of spars fastened together; on this is a platform about one and a half feet high. The Isar begins its course close to Mittenwald, and the place on which the raft stood, previous to departure, was very shallow; but water was quickly let in from sluices to float the raft, and off we set with a cargo of peasants, male and female, and merchandise bound for Munich. As the river Isar rushes between immense mountains, and forms a continual descent until the plains of Bavaria open to view, you may conceive with what rapidity we went. We encountered several falls of water of two, three, four and sometimes five feet which we had to _shoot_, which no boat could possibly do without being upset. The lower part of the raft was frequently under water in making these _shoots_ and we were obliged to hold on fast to our seats to prevent being jerked off. Nothing can be more romantic and picturesque than this journey, and there is something aweful in _shooting_ these falls; these rafts are, however, so solidly constructed that there is no danger whatever. They can neither sink nor upset. We arrived and halted the evening at Tolz, a large village or town on the right bank of the Isar. What gives to Tolz a remarkably singular appearance is, that on a height at a short distance from the town, and hanging abruptly over the river, you perceive several figures in wood, larger than the life, which figures form groups, representing the whole history of the pa.s.sion of Jesus Christ. At a short distance, if you are not prepared for this, you suppose that they are real men, and that a procession or execution is going forward. On landing I immediately ascended this hill in order to observe this curiosity, and there I beheld the following groups, first: Christ in the midst of his disciples preaching; secondly: the disciples asleep in a cave, and Christ watching and praying; next was Judas betraying Christ to the soldiery; then the judgment of Christ before Pilate; then Christ bearing his cross to the place of execution; and lastly the crucifixion on Mount Calvary. The ground is curiously laid out so as to represent, as much as possible, the ground in the environs of Jerusalem.

Tolz is a pretty village, but contains nothing more remarkable than the above groups.

The next day at twelve o'clock we perceived the spires of Munich, and at two anch.o.r.ed close to one of the bridges from whence, having hired a wheelbarrow to trundle my portmanteau, I repaired to the inn called the Golden Cross--_Zum goldenen Kreutz_. At Tolz the Rhetian Alps recede from the view; the landscape then presents a sloping plain which is perfectly level within four miles of Munich. The river widens immediately on issuing from the gorges of the Tyrol and for the last five miles we were followed by boys on the banks of the river, begging for wood, with which our raft was laden, and we threw to them many a f.a.ggot. Wood is the great export from the Tyrol to Bavaria, as the latter is a flat country and has not much wood, with which on the contrary the Tyrol abounds. A sensible difference of climate is now felt and the air is keener than in the Tyrol. The price of a place on the raft from Mittenwald to Munich cost only one florin, and at Tolz an excellent supper, bed and coffee in the morning cost me only one florin.

MUNICH, 23rd July.

Munich, the capital of Bavaria, is an ancient Gothic city of venerable appearance. The houses are very solid in structure, and the streets sufficiently broad to give to the city a cheerful appearance. There are some suburbs added to it, built in the modern taste, which embellish it greatly. A large Place outside the old town, called the _Carolinen-Platz,_ presents a number of villas disposed in the form of a circus. In these suburbs the people a.s.semble on holidays and Sundays, to smoke and drink beer, of which a great quant.i.ty is consumed, it being the favorite and national beverage. From the lively scene of the lower cla.s.s of the bourgeoisie, male and female, meeting here in the _Biersschanks_ and _Tanzsaale_ I was reminded of the lines in Faust:

Gewiss man findet hier Die schonsten Madchen, und das beste Bier,

which may be thus rendered:

Here let us halt! 'tis here we're sure to find Beer of the best and maidens fair and kind!

There are other very agreeable promenades outside the town, laid out as _jardins anglais,_ the garden of Ostenwald for instance; and should you wish to extend your walk further, there is Nymphenburg, a royal Palace and gardens, just one league distant from the city.

The _Residenz-schloss_ or Palace of the King is a solid building. The interior is well worth seeing. There is a superb saloon with a vast number of valuable miniatures appended to the wainscoating. An enormously heavy bed, groaning with gold and silver embroidery and pearls and which is said to weigh a ton, is to be seen here. There is a very good collection of pictures, chiefly portraits, of the Electoral, now Royal family. There is a fine chapel too belonging to this palace; a superb staircase of marble, and some fine old tapestry representing the actions of Otto von Wittelsbach.

There is likewise a curious miniature copy of Trajan's column in gold and incrusted with precious stones, besides a variety of other things of value.

There are two theatres in Munich; one called the Hof or Court theatre, where there is a company of comedians for tragedy and comedy, the expences of which are defrayed princ.i.p.ally by the King. The boxes are generally let to the n.o.bility and the _parterre_ is open to every body on payment. I witnessed the representation of Mozart's _Nozze di Figaro._ The King was present and was greeted with much affection. He has a very benignant expression of countenance. He is much beloved by his subjects, for he has governed them paternally. He has given to them a const.i.tution _unasked;_ for they were so contented with the old Government, that they desired no change; but he, with his usual good sense, saw the propriety of consulting and complying with the spirit of the age. A German writer of some eminence at the time of the French Revolution, when the aristocrats and alarmists of all countries were crying out against it, and proposing harsh measures to arrest its progress, said: "Sovereigns of Europe, do you wish to set bounds to the progress of French principles? Nothing can be more simple; you have only to govern your people like Maximilian of Bavaria and Frederick of Saxony, and your subjects will never desire a change."

At the German (national) theatre which is a fair sized one, I saw a tragedy performed called _Der Wald bey Herman-stadt_ (the Forest near Hermanstadt),[122] It was an interesting piece taken from a feudal legend.

The part of Elisene was performed by Mlle Vohs, a very good actress. I missed very much one thing in Munich, and that is the want of _cafes_ like those in France and Italy, which have so brilliant an appearance. They make coffee here at the inns; and there are two or three dull places up one pair of stairs, where they play at billiards, and make as indifferent coffee as is made in England. The hour of dining at Munich is in general one o'clock.

A slice of ham or sausage with beer form the _gouter,_ usually taken at five or six o'clock; and at nine follows a supper as solid as the dinner.

The Germans are not loungers as the French and Italians, who, for the most part, spend all their spare time in coffee-houses. When I mentioned to a Bavarian that I could find no _cafes_ in Munich resembling those in France and Italy, he said with emphasis! _Gott bewahre_ (G.o.d forbid)! I could not help thinking he was in the right; for those splendid _cafes_ are very seducing to young people and tend to encourage a life of idleness and to keep them from their studies. The lower _bourgeoisie_ and _Stubenmadchen_ (_maidservants_) wear a singular head dress. It is made of stuff worked with silver or gold and resembles two horns sticking out one at each ear.

This head dress must be costly. This cla.s.s of women wear also on _fete_ days gold crosses, collars and earrings.

The Bavarians seem a frank, honest set of people, tho' sometimes a little rough, in their exterior deportment. The character of Otto of Wittelsbach, in the tragedy of that name, gives the best idea of the Bavarian character.

I have made acquaintance here with a Mr F-----, an Austrian gentleman, and two Polish gentlemen, the one an officer and the other a medical man. They are brothers and had both served in the French army. We have agreed to travel to Vienna together on board of the raft which starts every week from Munich to Vienna. This raft brings to every day between twelve o'clock and two near some town or village on the banks of the river, in order to allow the pa.s.sengers to dine, and anchors every evening at seven o'clock near some town or village to sup and sleep. You have only to tell the _Flossmeister_, or Master of the Raft, at what inn you mean to put up, or if you have no preference, he will recommend you one; and at five the next morning he goes his rounds to the different inns to collect his pa.s.sengers, and at six gets under weigh.

VIENNA, 2nd August.

I left Munich on the 25th July and arrived on the 6th day of our journey, 30th July, at Vienna, The _Floss_, or raft, on board of which we embarked, is about as long as the main deck of an eighty-four gun s.h.i.+p and about forty feet in breadth. It is constructed of strong spars lashed together.

On the spars is constructed a large platform and on the platform several cabins, containing tables and chairs. Mr F----, the Poles and myself hired a cabin to ourselves. On the raft was a great deal of merchandize going to Vienna. At Vienna the _Flossmeister_, after landing his pa.s.sengers and merchandize, sells his raft and returns on horseback to Munich. A raft is constructed weekly at Munich from wood felled in the Tyrol and floated on the Isar down to Munich. We arrived the first evening at Freysingen, but it was nearly dark when we arrived; it seemed however as far as we could observe to be a neat village; at any rate, we met with a very comfortable inn there with good fare and good beds. We met with a very pleasant family on board the raft, bound to Landshut; M. and Mme S. were extremely well-informed people and their two daughters very fine girls.

We arrived the following day at twelve o'clock at Landshut, which is a very fine town. There is an immense Gothic tower or steeple to the Church of St Martin, about 450 feet in height. At Deckendorf, where the Isar flows into the Danube, I saluted for the first time that n.o.ble river. We stopped the night at Pillshofen and arrived the following day at twelve o'clock at Pa.s.sau. Pa.s.sau is a large, well built and handsome city, and is situated on the confluent of three rivers, the Inn, the Illst and the Danube; for here the two former flow into the latter, one on each side. Each of these rivers just before the point of juncture seem to be of different colors; for example the Danube appears blue, the Inn white, and the Illst black. At Pa.s.sau we put up at the Wild Man (_Zum Wilden Mann_), a favorite sign for inns in these parts.

The Cathedral and _Residenz-Schloss_ are striking buildings, and the city has a lively and grand appearance. The women appear to be in general handsome and well dressed. We brought to the evening at Engelhardtzell, where the barrier, painted black and yellow, announced our return to the Austrian territory. We underwent at the Customs house a rigid search for tobacco: they even took away the tobacco that some pa.s.sengers had in their pouches. They were likewise very rigid about our pa.s.sports. The English pa.s.sports do not please them at all, on account of the features of the bearer not being specified therein, and as I answered their questions in German, they supposed me to be a native of that country and asked me what business I had with a British pa.s.sport. I replied: _Weil ich ein Englander bin.--Sie ein Englander? Sie 'sind gewiss aus Nord Deutschland. Sie sprechen recht gut Deutsch.--Meine Herren, ich bin ein Englander: viele Englander studieren und sprechen Deutsch, und wenn Siemit mir eine langeUnterredung gehalten hatten, so hatten Sie bald ausgefunden durch meine Sprachfehler, da.s.s ich kein geborner Deutscher bin.--Aber Sie haben unsere Fragen vollkommen gut beantwortet.--Warum nicht? man hat mir die nehmlichen Fragen so wiederholten Malen gestellt, da.s.s ich die dazu gehorigen Antworte auswendig habe, wie em Katechismus_.[123] The officer laughed, took up a pen, _vised_ and gave me back my pa.s.sport.

The whole of the country on the banks of this n.o.ble river the Danube is picturesque and presents much variety. There cannot be a more delightful summer tour than a descent down this river. The next town of consequence that we arrived at was Linz, a large, populous and beautifully built city and capital of Upper Austria. The circ.u.mjacent country is in part mountainous. The Danube is very broad here, and there is an immensely long wooden bridge. We put up at the inn _Zum goldenen Kreutz_ (golden cross).

Here it became indispensably necessary to change our money for Austrian paper, for that sort of it called _Wiener Wahrung_ (Vienna security), since neither foreign coin nor another description of Austrian paper, called _Conventions-Munze_ (conventional currency), are current for ordinary purposes; and it is necessary to get them changed for the current paper _Wiener Wahrung._To explain this matter more fully and clearly: there are two sorts of paper money in the Austrian Dominions. One is called _Conventions-Munze_ (conventional currency), which is fully equivalent to gold and sliver and cannot be refused as such throughout the whole of the Austrian dominions; the other, called _Wiener Wahrung_ (Vienna security) is current and payable in Austria proper only, and bears a loss, out of the Archduchy. The value of the _Wiener Wahrung_ fluctuates considerably, but the usual par of exchange is as 2 to 1: that means, two hundred florins _Wiener Wahrung_ are equal to one hundred _Convenzions-Munze_ or gold and silver money. Even the _Convenzions-Munze_ bears a loss, tho' trifling, out of the Imperial Dominions. The exchange has been known to have been at 400 per cent; that is, four hundred florins _Wiener Wahrung_ were only worth one hundred florins gold and silver; but just now it may be reckoned a little beyond par, fluctuating from 200 to 220. In fact, the value of a florin _Wiener Wahrung_ may be calculated at a frank in French money. All this is exceedingly troublesome to travellers, particularly to those who do not understand the German language; for as they cannot read the inscription, it would be difficult for them to know the difference between one sort of paper money and the other and they might be seriously imposed upon. I advise therefore all travellers, before they arrive at the Austrian frontier, whether coming from Bavaria, Saxony, or Italy, to buy up the _Wiener Wahrung_ notes they may meet with, and which may be purchased at great profit, probably, beyond the frontier, whereas if they defer purchasing till they arrive within the Austrian frontier, they can only procure the _Wiener Wahrung_ at the common rate of exchange current.

At Linz we find ourselves again in a wine country. Linz is renowned for the beauty of its women, and we had a most favorable specimen in our landlord's daughter, one of the most beautiful girls I ever beheld. We talked to her a great deal, and a scene ridiculous enough occurred. She has very beautiful arms which we all seemed to admire; and all at once, by instinct as it were, the two Poles lifted up one arm and I the other, and our respective lips were fastened on either arm at the same moment as if by word of command. We apologized for the liberty we took, saying that her arms were perfectly irresistible and that we had never seen such fine ones before.

She accepted our excuse with the utmost good nature, and laughed very heartily. Her father is a man of information and a good cla.s.sical scholar, a thing which is by no means uncommon among the inn-keepers of Germany. We stopped here that night, and the ensuing forenoon. We had an excellent supper, very good wine, and we drank to the health of the fair Amalia, the host's daughter. Our host, who was a friend of Mr F----'s, gave us the best of every thing, and our expences did not amount to more than seven florins _Wiener Wahrung_, for supper, bed, breakfast and dinner. We pa.s.sed the forenoon in visiting the different parts of the city and we were struck with the appearance of opulence and industry that prevails.

Before we arrived at Molk, which is the next important place, we pa.s.sed the town of Ens and beyond that the famous _Strudel_ or Whirlpool which is dangerous at times for boats. Our raft was completely whirled round. This whirlpool is caused by rocks rising abruptly out of the water. The popular tradition is that this whirlpool is the abode of a very malicious and spiteful _Wa.s.sernixe_, Undine or Water Goblin, who delighted in drowning pa.s.sengers. The scenery hereabouts is more wild and romantic than what we have hitherto pa.s.sed and bears a great resemblance to the landscape on the Rhine between Mayence and Coblentz. Molk is an Abbey and a very magnificent edifice it is, situated on an eminence which forms the angle with the river and rises quite _a pio_ from the water's edge; it lies quite _en face_ to those who approach it, descending the stream, so that the river seems to be terminated by it. It commands a n.o.ble prospect. I had only time to inspect hastily the church. Beyond Molk is a range of rocks that bear a great resemblance to a wall, and jut out a great deal towards the river. It is called the _Devil's wall_ from the tradition of the Devil having endeavoured to make a wall to dam up the river. Above this wall is the famous castle and vineyard called _Spitz am Platz_, and further on is the castle of Dierenstein, situated on a mountain on the left bank of the Danube. The ascent is very steep; this castle, now in ruins, was the place where Richard Coeur de Lion was confined. The walls only of the castle and part of the chapel are all that remain; we did not fail to visit a place of such celebrity. A convent lies below it.

We brought to the night at a large village where there is an excellent inn; and the next day, the Leopoldsberg, bursting forth to view, announced to us the approach to Vienna. We anch.o.r.ed at Nussdorf, where there is a Custom house, and from whence the distance to Vienna is about one and half mile English. After having my trunk examined, I hired a hackney coach and drove into Vienna. The barriers beyond the suburb are called _Lines_, and between the Suburbs and the old town is an Esplanade. We entered the Suburbs by the _Wahringer Linie_, and the old town by the _Rothes Thor_ (Red gate); and from thence I repaired to the inn _Zum weissen Wolf_ (white Wolf) in the _Altem Fleischmarkt_ (old meat-market).

VIENNA, Augt. 4.

The old town of Vienna is not very large, since you can walk round its circ.u.mference on the ramparts in two hours. It was formerly fortified, but the French blew up the fortifications, leaving only the rampart; and by so doing they did a thing of great utility for the Viennese, and gave to the Austrian government an excellent opportunity of joining the old town to the magnificent faubourgs, by filling up the esplanade which separates them with streets and squares, which would prevent the unpleasant effects of dust in dry, and the mud in wet weather, for this dust and mud renders the esplanade almost at all times a disagreeable promenade, there being a sharp wind prevalent almost the whole year at Vienna, which blows about the dust _en tourbillons_. Here then was an excellent opportunity, afforded by the blowing up of the fortifications, of paving the whole of the esplanade and filling it up with streets. But no! the Austrian government seem determined upon restoring the fortifications, and a considerable number of workmen are employed. This is very silly, for these fortifications are not of the least use against a foreign enemy, inasmuch as the enemy can always erect his batteries among the faubourgs and need only make one parallel, the protection and cover afforded to him by the faubourgs rendering the other two superfluous. The faubourgs are by far the finest part of the city, and the garrison of the old town, in endeavouring to defend it, would destroy by every shot they should fire the fine buildings on the faubourgs. Of the folly of making such a defence they were made fully sensible in 1809. One of the Archdukes threw himself into the old town of Vienna, with an intention of defending it to the last and refused to surrender. Napoleon caused batteries to be erected on the _Rennweg_ or _Corso_ covered by the church of St Charles, the Manege and Palace of the Hungarian n.o.ble guard, all magnificent buildings in the faubourgs. He then summoned the garrison of the old town again to surrender saying: "Every shot fired against the besiegers destroys your own most valuable property and finest edifices."

This argument, backed by the entreaties of the citizens, had its effect and the capitulation was signed. This shows the perfect inutility of fortifying the old town of Vienna against a foreign enemy. Indeed a capital city should never be fortified; it generally contains too many things of value, ever to be exposed to the risk of a bombardment. It would seem, however, that the object of the Austrian government in reconstructing these works were to keep its own subjects at Vienna in check. But in this case it would be much more advisable to construct a fortress on the heights of Kahlenberg or of Leopoldsberg, both of which command the city and the whole expanse below. The Turks were encamped on the Kahlenberg at the famous siege of Vienna.

Vienna proper, the old town, is a Gothic city, but a very handsome one. The streets are in general broad and well paved; but the _Places_ or Squares are small. With the exception of the _Herrenga.s.se_, where the n.o.bility reside, the rest of Vienna is inhabited by shopkeepers and wholesale dealers; and the shops are brilliant and well fitted up. The _Karnthner Stra.s.se_, a long and tolerably broad street, and the _Kohlmarkt_ present the greatest display of wealth. Indeed the _Karnthner Stra.s.se_ may be considered as the princ.i.p.al street; this street and the _Kohlmarkt_ have a great resemblance to the finest parts of Holborn. The _Graben_ also present a fine display of shops and may be termed the Bond Street of Vienna. The _Sanct Stephans Platz_ where the Cathedral church of Vienna, called _St Stephans Kirche_, stands, is the largest _Place_ in Vienna. The Cathedral is a very ancient and curious Gothic edifice, and the steeple is nearly 450 feet high. I happened to enter the Cathedral one day on the occasion of a solemn requiem celebrated for the soul of Prince Metternich's father. Had it been for the son, instead of the father, many an honorable man persecuted at the instigation of that most machiavelic of all ministers, might exclaim in making a slight alteration in a well known epitaph: