attended the Spectacle, nor tasted the waters. Had you but taken one
sip, your ill-humour would have all trickled away, and you would have
felt both your heels and your elbows quite alive in the evening."--
Granted; but pray tell your postillions to drive off as fast as their
horses will carry them.

Away we went to Aix-la-Chapelle about ten at night, and saw the
mouldering turrets of that once illustrious capital by the help of a
candle and lantern. An old woman asked our names (for not a single
soldier appeared); and traversing a number of superannuated streets
without perceiving the least trace of Charlemagne or his Paladins, we
procured comfortable though not magnificent apartments, and slept
most unheroically sound, till it was time to set forward for
Dusseldorf.

July 8th.--As we were driven out of the town, I caught a glimpse of a
grove, hemmed in by dingy buildings, where a few water-drinkers were
sauntering along to the sound of some rueful French horns; the wan
greenish light admitted through the foliage made them look like
unhappy souls condemned to an eternal lounge for having trifled away
their existence. It was not with much regret that I left such a
party behind; and, after experiencing the vicissitudes of good roads
and rumbling pavements, found myself, towards the close of evening,
upon the banks of the Rhine.

Many wild ideas thronged into my mind, the moment I beheld this
celebrated river. I thought of the vast regions through which it
flows, and suffered my imagination to expatiate as far as its source.
A red, variegated sky, reflected from the stream, the woods trembling
on its banks, and the spires of Nuys rising beyond them, helped to