him. A large rambling house, containing thirteen rooms on a floor, and adorned with pictures of old Electors and Landgraves, was a part of his patrimony. The house goes by the name of Noah's Ark, from the singularity of its construction, arising, as the story goes, from a cause, not less singular. The upper story is a complete second house, erected on the first. The builder, an opulent citizen, who possessed ninety-nine houses in Hanau, was ambitious of rounding his number to one hundred—but the jealousy of the citizens opposed his whim, unless he consented to pave a path to the church, some hundred yards long, with Reichs Dollars. He declined this exorbitant tax; but unwilling to resign the distinction of owning one hundred houses, he contented himself with a hundreth placed on the top of one of the ninety-nine.

THE FREI GERICHT.

133

LETTER VII.

A bold peasantry, their country's pride

GOLDSMITH.

TAKING leave of our hospitable acquaintance, we proceeded towards Aschaffenburg. On the left, about two leagues from the road, rises a bold range of mountains, covered with beech forest and cultivated fields-the commencement of a district, called the Frei Gericht, to which the simplicity and sturdy spirit of its inhabitants give considerable interest. The Frei Gericht was formerly an immediate territory of the Empire-and partly owing to that circumstance, and to its remoteness from the seat of empire, the inhabitants enjoyed an undisturbed exitsence, with many immunities, to which their neighbours were strangers. In the commencement of the revolutionary war, the Emperor ceded this district to the Elector of Hesse in liquidation of a debt. The first attempt of this new master was to make soldiers of the rude inhabitants, who had never seen a bayonet, or heard the re

port of a cannon. They opposed themselves to this invasion of their peaceful existence, with an inveteracy, and an indignation surpassing all bounds. Squadrons of troops were sent into the mountains to teach them obedience - they secured parties of the peasants, who made a desperate defence with their implements of husbandry, and brought them down to Hanau. Here they were subjected to the cruellest discipline of the guard-room, which they endured with an obstinate and declared determinationnever to become soldiers, but in defence of their own mountains. An act of cruelty committed by an officer on one of these poor men on parade, was revenged by one of his comrades, who instantly stabbed the officer with his bayonet. The man contrived to conceal himself-and when all were interrogated with intimidating menaces, the real culprit was sheltered by each of his comrades offering himself up as the perpetrator. By dint of continued severity, some were forced into the ranks; others remained firm in their resistance, and were at last suffered to return home to their mountains. What the ill-judged harshness of the Elector's officers could not accomplish,

has since been effected by the French; and numbers of these sturdy peasants have been drawn into the ranks in the late campaigns. The spirit with which they defended their freedom, and their mountainous dwellings, is the best proof that they were not wanting in the main qualities of a soldier, when they took up arms by choice.

We did not omit stopping at the little village of Dettingen, about three leagues from Aschaffenburg, celebrated for the battle in which George the Second commanded in person in 1743. in 1743. We made enquiries at the little inn for the field of battle, and the house where our monarch slept. The former adjoins the town; but the house, which is still standing, lies at some distance. The moment the lad to whom we addressed our inquiries, understood their object, he ran up stairs to fetch his grandfather, who, he assured us, could tell us all about the matter.-The gouty old landlord came hobbling down stairs with a tattered printed sheet in his hand, which proved to be an account of the battle, printed at the time-with full details, and long lists of killed, wounded, and taken. The old host preserved this re

cord with great care, and resolutely resisted our proposals to purchase it-no doubt finding it a lucrative property; for the English, he said, never passed without enquiring about the battle. He assured us, that he remembered well seeing the König von England in his red uniform, on a white long-tailed horse,-that he was nine years old at the time-consequently now about eighty-three-an age quite consistent with his bulky paralytic figure and broken voice.

After leaving Dettingen, the country becomes a rough waste of forest and sand, in the hillocks of which, drifted by the wind, the stunted firs are sometimes half buried. The passage through the deep, long avenues, resembled travelling in the snow-we moved stilly and slowly forward, without noise, never exceeding a foot pace. Aschaffenburg appeared before us, beautifully situated on a little eminence at the foot of the wooded mountains of the Spessart. On a terrace covered with shrubs, overlooking the Maine, stands the venerable Castle of Aschaffenburg-a large red stone edifice, whose slated minaret towers, grotesque pinnacles and high roof