150 



AIX-LA- CHAPE LLE. 



By a wonderful turn of good luck, which seldom 

 happens to kidnapped objects, the fraternising 

 strangers, at last, got the worst of it in a tremendous 

 battle. This terrified them ; and during a fearful 

 commotion in their own disordered capital, both 

 the king and the bear managed to escape from their 

 thraldom, and found means to occupy once more, 

 the very positions from which they had been so 

 imprudently dislodged by fraternising cupidity. 

 Here, they are again, on their proper pedestals : — 

 Charles at his fountain, and Bruin at his cathedral 

 door; — the pride of the town, and the admiration 

 of every passing visitor. So runs the story: — it 

 may be true or false. 



Although the hardy warrior stands too high 

 upon his fountain, to admit of a close inspection, 

 still he appears to me at a distance, to have borne 

 the fatigue of his travels tolerably well. But it 

 is not so with the bear. He has brought back 

 with him two most abominably ill-executed fore- 

 legs : so, I conclude by these, that he must have 

 had a break down, somewhere upon the road, and 

 suffered amputation. 



On each side of Charlemagne's statue, upon 

 pedestals which in themselves, constitute real 

 fountains, you see eagles with extended wings. 

 At some very remote date, these royal birds must 



