terminates and that of Prussia commences. The lines are connected for the sake of traffic; but travellers are subjected to the inconvenience of having to change carriages, and have their baggage examined by custom-house officers. The station-house on the spot, however, offers the accommodation of a restaurant, and here a short stay is not disadvantageous. As travellers for the Rhine may obtain through tickets at Brussels, the delay at Verviers is not necessarily complicated by their having to pay anew for places. It is interesting to note the sudden change of language on arriving at this part of the Belgian frontier. French instantly ceases to be spoken, and German commences. We likewise distinguish a difference of costume and manners. The common people, and even the railway functionaries, are seen with heavy tobacco-pipes dangling from their mouths, and there may be said to be altogether a general uncouthness of appearance in men and things. We remark, in particular, a great inferiority in the management of rural affairs-slovenly farming, long tracts of ground lying waste, without a house to cheer the eye, and anon hamlets by the wayside, constructed of mud and wattle, and dirty and poor in the extreme; in short, we see a country in which the people are nothing, and the government everything. Perhaps the government, however, is not altogether to blame in the matter, as the people generally possess neither the intelligence nor the means to put things on a better footing. Be this as it may, the Prussian government takes upon itself the duty of thinking and ordering, and also of compelling obedience to its orders. In the midst of all the lamentable dirt and poverty of a village, for instance, we invariably observe a school-house of respectable appearance, in which all the children of the neighbourhood receive a gratuitous and liberal education; in fact, they are compelled to attend, so that the law makes sure of having ultimately an educated and thinking people, whatever may be their ignorance and incapacity in the meanwhile. The government, likewise, takes the whole charge of the public roads, and has the merit of keeping them in the best order. It also regulates everything connected with travelling by post or diligence, and lays down rules for the protection and proper treatment of strangers. These rules, which are printed in German, French, and English, are hung up in all hotels and posting-houses; and upon any complaint of their infringement, redress is immediately given by the proper authority. As any account of a journey through Belgium to the Rhine would be incomplete without a notice of Aix-la-Chapelle, we proceed to offer a few words descriptive of this ancient and important city, which we reach in little more than an hour by railway, after entering Prussia.

Aix-la-Chapelle, or Aachen, as it is called by the Germans, is a town of great antiquity: its origin, indeed, is probably coeval with the first peopling of the country, for it appears to have been occasioned by certain medicinal springs which exist upon the spot. The

town is celebrated as the scene of both the birth and death of the Emperor Charlemagne (742-814). In the present day, it consists of several respectable, but many more dirty and confined streets, with a population of about 38,000. Necessity, as well as inclination, led us, shortly after our arrival, to visit the Rath-Haus, or Hôtel de Ville. Being the last of the towns in the Prussian league which we had to pass through, it was necessary to have our passports inspected, and stamped with the licence for departure from the kingdom. To the Hôtel de Ville, therefore, which is now the police-office of the town, we proceeded to have this troublesome ceremonial performed for here personal attendance is imperative. The edifice is a large handsome building of stone, with elegant exterior flights of steps, and stands in a high part of the town, at one side of the open market-place. We feel, in looking upon this imposing structure, that we behold a palace in a state of degradation and neglect. The roof and walls of the spacious vestibules and corridors have been painted with historical figures and scenes, but smoke and dirt have rendered them dim and undistinguishable; a lofty room, which has been similarly embellished, is divided in two by a paltry wooden partition; and the whole interior has an air of squalid misery. Yet this edifice has been a great place in its day. In its principal saloon, important assemblages of political characters have occasionally taken place for the conclusion of great treaties; the last took place in 1818, when the emperors of Austria and Russia, with ambassadors from the Prince Regent of England and Louis XVIII., met to decide upon the evacuation of France by the troops of the allied powers.

The Hôtel de Ville is said to stand on the spot where Charlemagne was born; and to preserve the recollection of that personage, a splendid fountain has been erected in the market-place in front: it is composed of a large bronze basin for receiving the water, and from the centre of the basin rises a pedestal, on which is placed a statue of Charlemagne, also in bronze. The whole fabric was erected so long ago as 1353 (when the neighbouring Hôtel de Ville was finished), and it has been kept carefully in repair since

that time.

Proceeding from the open market-place down a narrow lane of tall dingy houses, we arrive at a low spot of ground whereon stands the ancient cathedral-the chapelle from which the town has received a portion of its name. It is impossible to make out either style or date from the appearance of the structure. It is a mass of ill-assorted parts-Gothic, Saxon, Byzantine, old and new all stuck in a heap. Such at least is the exterior. The interior of the building is chiefly remarkable for an octagonal nave with tall rounded arches, which forms the most ancient of the various parts of the motley structure, having been built by Charlemagne in 796 as a chapel for his place of sepulture, on the model of the holy sepulchre at Jerusalem. It was afterwards partially destroyed by the Normans, but was restored by the

Emperor Otho III. about the year 1000; its age, therefore, is at least between 800 and 900 years. Charlemagne was entombed, according to his request, in a vault below the centre of the dome, but here his remains do not repose at the present day.

Had this monarch contented himself with going down into the dust like the rest of his fellow-creatures, he would have stood a fair chance of being left to dissolve into the original elements of humanity. Unfortunately, however, for his posthumous repose, he chose to be buried in all the magnificence of his robes of state, and sitting upon a throne, as if still, though in his dreary dungeon tomb, ruling the destinies of half the world. It was not in the nature of things that his majesty should be allowed to sit for ever in this condition of costly splendour. Otho III., emperor of Germany, visited the spot, probably at the time he ordered the restoration of the edifice, and causing the tomb to be opened, there found the skeleton of Charlemagne sitting on the throne on which it had been placed at his death in 814. A lapse of nearly 200 years had not materially disfigured the gay ornaments in which the dead monarch was invested. On the fleshless skull there was stuck a crown which he had worn during life; a sceptre was fastened in his right hand; a jewelled mantle of state was thrown over his shoulders; a copy of the Gospels was carefully placed upon his knees; a sword was buckled to his side; and to his girdle was hung the pilgrim's pouch which he had borne when alive as a token of Christian piety. Otho forthwith removed these valuable insignia of royalty, to be used at the coronations of the emperors of Germany. The tomb was again shut up after this spoliation, and it remained closed till the year 1165, when Frederick Barbarossa, moved by curiosity and piety, ordered it to be opened in presence of the bishops of Liege and Cologne, and caused the body to be removed and placed in a splendid sarcophagus prepared for the purpose; at the same time the throne, or all that remained of it, consisting of a chair of white marble, was brought up to the church, where it is now preserved with much care, and exhibited to strangers. Although the body of Charlemagne was thus, to all appearance, put safely away, it was destined to be again disturbed. At what period it was taken from the sarcophagus is not told by any authority, but it is certainly gone, as the empty sarcophagus testifies. In all probability it has been dispersed in the form of relics, a leg in one place, an arm in another, and so on with all the other members. Í understand that the only fragments remaining in the reliquary of the cathedral are the skull and an arm-bone; but during my somewhat hurried visit, I had not an opportunity of seeing them. At a short distance south from the cathedral, in the lower part of the town, we find the chief street of fashionable parade in Aix. Here are situated the principal mineral springs, and the rooms and arcades which cover them. The waters are sulphureous, warm, and nauseous to the senses both of smell and taste. One

of the hottest of the springs is so abundant, that it cannot all be used for drinking and bathing, and is therefore allowed to escape for the benefit of the lower class of inhabitants, who wash their clothes with it; and as it is alkaline, they have little need for soap. Adjoining the water-drinking and bath rooms stand some magnificent hotels and gambling-houses. One of the latter, called the New Redoute, ranks as the most splendid and profligate of all the establishments of the kind on the continent. Gamblers flock hither from France, England, and most other countries in Europe, and the sums lost and won at the tables exceed all calculation. Aix-la-Chapelle is the only place within the Prussian dominions in which gambling is licensed or permitted. A number of years ago, the public authorities, shocked with the misery and depravity arising from the practice, endeavoured to prevent it from being carried on within the town. The consequence was, that a small village, named Bocette, sprang up in the environs, to which all the inveterate gamblers, with their tables, resorted; and as Bocette has also hot springs, visitors began to prefer it to Aix. After a time, the town authorities relaxed, and the present elegant gambling-houses have been erected, and placed under some kind of regulations, one of which is, that a portion of all winnings, by the keepers of the tables, shall be devoted to the embellishment of the town.

A pleasant run of a few hours by railway, takes us from Aix to Cologne, and then commences one of the most delightful, as it is now one of the most easily accomplished, excursions in Europethe tour of the Rhine.

STORY OF THE GOOD KNIGHT BAYARD.

HE chivalry
of the mid-

dle ages may be said to represent the spirit of self-devotion to high and commanding interests; and inasmuch as every exemplification of this spirit is an encouragement to noble enterprise, it is presumable that some delineation of the life and conduct of one of its last and greatest champions will be acceptable to many of our readers. It is therefore proposed, in the present paper, to present a brief account of

the adventures and achievements of the Good

Knight Bayard-the famous chevalier without fear and without reproach;' whose history, though it reads like that of some fabulous or mythic personage, is, nevertheless, in all substantial points a thing of actual and authentic fact. The study of human nobleness, under any manifestation, can hardly fail to be attractive; and if we can faithfully portray the lineaments of a hero of the fifteenth century, some serviceable reflections may possibly be suggested to an intelligent inquirer of the nineteenth. At anyrate, we can promise the reader a pleasant and entertaining narrative; a story of so much courage, hardihood, and generosity, that it can hardly fail to excite a measure of sympathy and admiration, both for the extraordinary feats of bravery to be related, and also for the lofty qualities of character which they severally serve to illustrate.

Pierre du Terrail, commonly called the Chevalier de Bayard, was born in or about the year 1476, at the Château Bayard, a few

No. 50.

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