person will have the same gratification, for, without anything being
done to prevent it, they are fast falling into ruins. At last, under
Charles the Fifth, a large room for sales and for the assemblies of the
citizens was required, and a tasteful building of stone and brick was
added. I went up to the belfry; and under a gloomy sky, which harmonized
with the edifice and with my thoughts, I saw at my feet the whole of
this admirable town.

From Thurmchen to Bayenthurme, the town, which extends upward of a
league on the banks of the river, displays a whole host of windows and
façades. In the midst of roofs, turrets and gables, the summits of
twenty-four churches strike the eye, all of different styles, and each
church, from its grandeur, worthy of the name of cathedral. If we
examine the town in detail, all is stir, all is life. The bridge is
crowded with passengers and carriages; the river is covered with sails.
Here and there clumps of trees caress, as it were, the houses blackened
by time; and the old stone hotels of the fifteenth century, with their
long frieze of sculptured flowers, fruit and leaves, upon which the
dove, when tired, rests itself, relieve the monotony of the slate roofs
and brick fronts which surround them.

Round this great town--mercantile from its industry, military from its
position, marine from its river--is a vast plain that borders Germany,
which the Rhine crosses at different places, and is crowned on the
northeast by historic eminences--that wonderful nest of legends and
traditions, called the "Seven Mountains." Thus Holland and its commerce,
Germany and its poetry--like the two great aspects of the human mind,
the positive and the ideal--shed their light upon the horizon of
Cologne; a city of business and of meditation.