for him as if he were a sweetheart, for I crave a clean
shirt--if you could only be here for a moment, and if you too
could now see the dull silver of the Danube, the dark hills
on a pale-red background, and the lights that shine up from
below in Pesth, Vienna would go down a good way in your
estimation as compared with "Buda-Pesth," as the Hungarians
call it. You see that I too can go into raptures over nature.
Now that Hildebrand has really turned up, I shall calm my
fevered blood with a cup of tea, and soon after go to bed.

JUNE 24TH: Evening.

As yet I have had no opportunity to send this off. Again the
lights are gleaming up from Pesth; on the horizon, in the
direction of the Theiss, there are flashes of lightning;
above us the sky is clear and the stars are shining. I have
been a good deal in uniform to-day; presented my credentials,
in formal audience, to the young ruler of this country, and
received a very agreeable impression. After dinner the whole
court made an excursion into the hills, to the "Fair
Shepherdess"--who, however, has long been dead; King Matthias
Corvinus loved her several hundred years ago. There is a view
from there (over wooded hills, something like those by the
Neckar) of Ofen, its hills, and the plain. A country festival
had brought together thousands of people; they pressed about
the Emperor, who had mingled with the throng, with ringing
shouts of "eljen" [_vive_]; they danced the csardas, waltzed,
sang, played music, climbed into the trees, and crowded the
court. On a grassy slope there was a supper table for some
twenty persons, with seats on one side only, while the other