"I' faith it is an excellent bonfire!' quoth he, Of rats that only consume the corn. The result was that the Bishop never slept again. The next morning he found the rats had eaten his portrait out of its frame on the wall, consumed all the corn in his granaries, and that an army of ten thousand of them was on its way to attack him. Filled with consternation, he hastened across the river and shut himself up in this tower; but the rats followed, and, breaking into the tower, soon devoured him. "They gnawed the flesh from every limb, For they were sent to do judgment on him." A short distance above the "Mouse Tower" is "Bingen on the Rhine;" a place also made famous by song. We will not attempt to relate the story of the dying soldier whose home was "on the vine-clad hills of Bingen-fair Bingen on the Rhine." "He who runs may read." Most of the way, thus far, the shores on either side are more or less mountainous; but as we approach Johannisberg, celebrated for its fine wines, and as the residence of the late Prince Metternich, the country grows more level, and so continues as far at least as Mayence, where, late in the evening, we took the cars and arrived at our hotel in Frankfort about half-past eleven. CHAPTER XVII. NUREMBERG, JULY 28. — Before leaving Lon don we provided ourselves with a few £10 circular notes, which we found very convenient, and, being drawn to our order, they were quite safe. On some parts of the continent they bring a small premium. Going to the bank in Frankfort on the morning of the 26th to get one of these changed, and observing in the same building the sign of the United States consul, we stopped to pay our respects to him, and were kindly received. Mr. Webster, the consul, had just returned from Homburg, and informed us that return tickets to that celebrated watering-place were sold for fifty cents each-the cars running several times a day. He proposed that we should make a trip there, and that he should meet us on our return late in the afternoon. To this we readily agreed. Meantime, however, we took a turn through the city to see some of the monuments, and Dannecker's noted statue of "Ariadne”—a nude female figure seated on a tiger. This statue, pictures of which are often seen, is regarded as a remarkable work of art. It is a novel way of showing off the beauties of the human form. It matters little what name is given to these statues. This is called "Ariadne." Some are called "Eve," some "Venus," some "The Greek Slave," others "Proserpine," "Clytie," and so on. Near the villa in which this statue of "Ariadne" is exhibited is a massive monument, erected by the King of Prussia to the memory of the Hessians who fell in defense of Frankfort. The base is of granite, surmounted by a military device, cast from cannon taken from the French. In the city are the triple Gutenberg monuments, and fine bronze statue monuments also of Goethe and Schiller. Schiller's represents him crowned with laurel and holding a book in his hand. We spent a good part of the day delightfully at Homburg, which must not be, as it sometimes is, confounded with Hamburg, the great commercial city on the Elbe. Until within a few years, Homburg, like Wiesbaden and Baden-Baden, not to mention other similar watering-places, was a great resort for gamblers, and for summer recreation of everybody else who might desire a charming location where they could enjoy free of charge the mineral waters of the springs, the daily music of a large band, and the luxurious drawing and gambling rooms of the Kursaal. It is a paradise of a place. The springs, the waters of which are like those of Saratoga, are situated in a grove, some fifteen minutes' walk from the Kursaal, which is on the main street of the village. Connected with the Kursaal, which is still kept open and provided with a reading-room where newspapers from all quarters may be perused, there is a first-class restaurant, beautiful garden, music pavilion, etc. On the north side, fronting the garden, through which are walks leading toward the springs, there is a spacious veranda, where visitors may sit and sip their coffee, wine, or beer, and listen to the music of the band. In one part of the building there is a theater room, and another part is devoted to baths, medicinal or not, at one's pleasure. Since gambling has been prohibited here, visitors, if they come to stop a few days or more, are taxed a reasonable sum toward defraying the expenses of the band and keeping everything in order. We were happy to meet here Mrs. Senator Sprague, who, with one of her children and maid, had come over from Nauheim, where they are stopping, to spend the day. On our return to Frankfort, Mr. Webster met us at the station, and took us in his carriage to the Palmer Gardens, a new and most charming place on the border of the city, where there is a Kursaal, not unlike that at Homburg, and where the band discoursed sweet music during the evening. There are here, also, an extensive hot-house of plants, flowers, etc., and an artificial lake for boating and skating. On the following day Mr. Webster again joined us and showed us other principal places and objects of interest in the city. The Römer, or Town Hall, is a singular-looking old building, in which the ancient Emperors of Germany flourished, and where we saw full-length portraits of forty-six of them. Like many of the houses in the old part of the city, the building stands gable-end to the street and has very steep roofs, with windows of very small-sized glass. The different roofs connect at the eaves. In the Jewish quarter we saw the house in which the elder Rothschilds, three generations back, were born, and which the family would never allow to be taken down, notwithstanding some of the adjoining houses of the same character fell a few years ago, and, as we were informed, killed some of the inmates. This and several others of the old houses near it, look as though they were ready to fall. They bear curious inscriptions and devices over the doors, and are in all respects unique. Luther's house, which we also saw, has a much more respectable appearance; and so has the house in which Goethe was born, August 17, 1749-the date of his birth inscribed in German over the door, where his father's coat of arms, three lyres, is still preserved. Our next stopping place was Nuremberg, six hours by rail from Frankfort, on the afternoon of the 27th. This is off the usual route of European travelers; but we do not regret the diversion. Nuremberg is a very old city, of some eighty hundred thousand inhabitants. It is situated on both sides of the river Pegnitz, which is crossed by six or eight bridges. The old wall and dry moat fifty feet wide, and the turrets on the wall still remain. We entered the city over a bridge spanning the deep moat, and through one of the old gateways. The houses, built in every imaginable shape, on narrow, tortuous streets, and all their surroundings, give the place a very ancient and odd appearance. The next morning after our arrival we called on our consul, Colonel James M. Wilson, from St. Louis, who spent the day with us in going about the city, and invited us to tea, when we made the acquaintance also of his accomplished wife, and of the vice-consul and sisters. We went first to the old Inquisition Chamber, which is under ground; or, rather, there are several rooms connecting with each other, some of which we saw only by the light of a tallow candle, carried by our female guide. The walls of the first room are covered with instruments of torture. Here is what was called the "Spanish Cloak," being a barrel with one head out, and the other perforated to fit the neck of the victim, whose head was encircled by a wire cage. Thus enrobed, drunkards, and others guilty of such minor offences, were condemned to walk the streets. The "Torture Chair," seat, arms, and back is filled with iron spikes, and the victim was strapped to it and weights attached to his hands and feet. If this was not sufficient, a spiked cylinder was rolled over his body. Here, likewise, are |