ia31.] [ 623 -} 



REFLECTION'S OX A RAMBLE IN GERJMANY : N» II. 



" Stosst aw !— RlieinJland lebe I— Hurrah Iincli!!" 



How rich in historical and poetical associations is Mayence ! How 

 lovely, how martial, the aspect of this queen of the Rliine ! From the 

 clays of Drusus to the hour when the gigantic host of Napoleon poured 

 through her gates to find a grave amid the snows of Russia, her fate has 

 been invariably the same : — a frontier-fortress, beneath whose walls a 

 thousand battles have been fought, and fought in vain ; for, when the 

 peal of war shall again awaken from its peaceful slumber the European 

 world, on JMayence will the iron tempest pour its fiery wrath ; from her 

 lofty battlements again will her blue-eyed maidens hear the wild hurrah 

 of the Tartar host, or behold the red bivouac-fires of the chivalry of 

 France. I\Ty first pilgrimage was to the residence of Faiist : it is a mean- 

 looking little house, now converted into a tavern. Was there no hand 

 to save it from such profanation ? The fields of blood and slaughter are 

 marked by trophied monuments ; Avhile the walls, within which the 

 mind of man conceived the most powerful engine the world has yet 

 beheld — the moral poitit d'appui of Archimedes — the art of printing (an 

 art, the operation of which upon the future destinies of the human race 

 eludes the grasp of philosophical conjecture) — are now defiled by the 

 mean and sordid avocations of trade. — " To what base uses we may 

 return, Horatio !" — I was present at the morning parade of a regiment 

 of Hungarian grenadiers ; they were tall and well set up, steady a? walls, 

 and had a martial and veteran look. The effect of the white uniform on 

 a line of troops is fine. Their band was magnificent, composed, I was 

 told by an officer, of upwards of one hundred performers. They exe- 

 cuted with great precision some beautiful passages from the " Oberon" 

 and " Freischiitz ;" and as the troops moved off' the ground, their Turk- 

 ish music struck up a wild, oriental air. Mayence belongs now to the 

 German Confederation, and has both an Austrian and a Prussian garrison. 

 The deadly feuds which formerly led to so much bloodshed, have now 

 given place to feelings of a more amicable nature. I observed in the 

 evening the officers of both nations, lounging together on the most 

 friendly terms, in the beautiful promenade which skirts the Rhine — the 

 tall, swarthy, white-clad Austrian, singularly contrasting with the dark, 

 martial uniform and fair complexion of the Prussian. The sun was 

 then gilding with his setting rays the mingling waters of the Maine and 

 Rhine, and casting his long shadows o'er the vine-clad heights of Hoch- 

 heimer ; the bugles of the garrison, sounding the " retraite," came 

 sweetly over the surface of the waters. How often, on this same spot, 

 have the young centurions of the Roman garrison marked the decline of 

 day, while their thoughts were, perhaps, far away in the Circus, amid 

 the gorgeous festivities of imperial Rome ! Mayence, the ancient 

 Moguntiacum, was the Quebec of the Roman world. 



As I stoorl on the deck of the steam-boat that was swiftly cutting the 

 blue waters of the Maine, and gazing on the receding spire of the deep- 

 red mvinster of Slayence, I was awakened from a pleasing reverie by the 



