f him-Sunrise-A Walk-The White Hill-A Fatal Field-Waking up in the Suburbs-Early Breakfasts-Imperial and Royal Tobacco-Milk-folk-The Gate of Prague-A Snappish Sentry-The Soldi

ever have been so stupid as to tempt fortune at Neu Straschitz was a mistake haunting and vexing him continually. A living was not to be got in such a miserab

ugh a good deal was said about Czechish vigour and intellectuality, some folk thought that the language would at no distant day cease to be spoken. As for the character of the Czechs, there was scarcely a German who did not believe them to be sly, false, double-faced. An

England. I was doing my best to satisfy him, when the Kellnerinn called my attention to a Herr who was going to start with his Wagen in the

and asked no more than a florin for the twenty miles, I accepted his offer. Having yet business to settle, he went out, and promised to call for me at nine o'cl

e big gate swung back, and out came the Wagen-one of the four-wheeled basket wagons, drawn by a single horse pulling awkwardly at one side of the heavy pole. I had imagined something a little better than that; however, a

ng across the open fields; and Twilight came on so softly that you might have fancied Day was lingering to lend her his palest rays. The Jew was disposed to talk, and betrayed no little curiosity on the subject of travelling. Was it not

ty-the rate of profit-in short, he put me through a whole social and commercial catechism,

il my turn came, and I opened my questioning about Prague. The Jew, however, was readier in asking qu

apped in one of these, I lay on my back looking up at the sky, thinking of home-scenes and home-friends as my eye wan

bright

forth n

t, but i

g the Crea

ic phenomena are more common on any night than would be believed by those not ac

azing at the stars when I heard footsteps near the side of the wagon. Turning my eyes, without rising, I saw the top of a gun-barrel about two yards off, apparently resting on some one's shoulder. The sound of the footsteps woke the driver, who immediately began to quicken the ho

sire to see a gold coin, and the Jew's curiosity as to the amount and quality of a traveller's money, and a faint suspicion of having fallen into a trap did occur to me. Meanwhile the horse trotted in earnest; th

one for me," said the Jew

you mean?

"one for you, and one fo

hree to one, and one of th

ppeared once more abreast of the wagon. The driver kept the horse up to his speed, the Jew fumbled about w

rer of the weapon-a wild-looking fellow, wearing a slouched cap and hunting-jacket. A faint exclamation of surprise escaped him, and, whether it was that he saw two

ow," said the Jew,

d afar through the silence of the night, followed after

driver. "He is calling his comrades: t

d, in about a quarter-hour, we came to a village, where, stopping in front of th

om the windows, cheating my hope of a cup of coffee. The Jew now sat up, talked for awhile vehemently with the driver, the

e a ro

good. We are well out of it. I

streams of rosy tints, the fields were covered with dew as a veil, and, by the timid chirping of birds, and other signs, the eye might note the preparations for lifting the veil at the approach of the sun. My sheltering cloak, my hair a

by walking the remaining distance. The Jew took his florin with much demonstrat

which I had often read, where Frederick of the Palatinate, who had married a princess of England, daughter of James I., lost the crown of Bohemia. Not long had he worn it-indeed, some of his contemporaries called him the Winter King-when he was forced to flee, with his wife and children, among them the infant Rupert, who afterward

ie Weissenbe

hl Ostrolen

auf erfolgt

als Sibiri

ness and cruelty, his murderous vengeance on the chiefest of the conquered people, the won

tropolis was not far off. Early folk were opening the booths, shops, and public-houses, which, scattered among the trees, presented ere long an unbroken line on both sides of the road. Cooling drinks were set out on tables, and many a shutter invited the passer-by to Beer and Brandy, in various phrase. Now stalls covered with cherries and currants alternate with piles of bread, hard-boiled eggs, cheese, and smoked saus

ity. How the dogs pant, and the horses snort! for the driver, and his or her two or three companions, keep the animals at full speed, sparing neither lash nor voice. Long before they come into si

many persons passing to and fro, while the curious towers of the Strahow monastery, where Rupert was born, peer above trees and vine-slopes on the right. I passed through the gloomy arch unchallenged by any of the guards, and had got some distance down the steep street, when a man made me aware that shouts in the rear were intended for me. I turned: a soldier, who had come a few yards f

visit to Prague, and I have not yet learnt your regulations; an

ed the way to his darksome den, built at the elbow of the arch so as to command both

at? When any one goes away into the city without stopping at the guard-house, h

en; working people thronged the footways; heavy teams toiled slowly up the hill towards the gate; the milk-folk hurried down

uess, for half a mile along the bold eminence, commanding the country for miles around. You can count four hundred windows. There, as every one knows, the Thirty Years' War began, by certain angry Bohemian nobles pitching two Imperial com

ower down, we are in the oldest part of the city, among the palaces of the great nobles whose names figure in history-Kollowrat, Lobkowitz, Wallenstein, and others. Massive edifices, whereby your eye and steps are alike arrested. And on every side

inials, I could not repress an exclamation of surprise and pleasure. Then through the narrow arch, and we are on the ancient bridge, looking down on the broad stream of the Moldau, flowing with noisy rush through the sixteen arches built 600 years ago; at houses, palaces, and churches rising one above another in the Kleinseite through which we have just passed, and in the Altstadt o

tions, or sauntering under the arcades; here and there sentries pacing up and down, and small parties of soldiers, in gay uniforms, marching away to beat of drum. And above the farther houses there shoot up the two towers of the Teinkirche-one of the most famous churc

t Powder Tower, we enter the broad streets of the Neustadt. The Bohemian professor at Würzburg

at the same time surveying me

re the answer, accompanied by a simi

ied, "Perhap

at-might have something to do with these denials. However, hotels are thickly grouped in this quarter of the city, and