134 spirit of tHE INHÀBITAnts. 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 determination never 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 136 DETTINGEN. THE BATTLE. 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 ASCHAFFENBURG CASTLE. 137. studded with lucarnes, present an imposing but incongruous melange of every description of architecture. Most of the palaces and public buildings in the neighbourhood, of a few centuries date, display the same impure variety of style. The Castle, formerly the seat of the Electors of Mayence, and since of the Prince Primate of the Rhenish Confederation, is now the summer residence of the Prince Royal of Bavaria, who keeps here a pleasant little Court. Aschaffenburg is a neat little town, with no other importance than what it acquires from the residence of the Prince's Court, which is complained of by the inhabitants as retired and unostentatious, with none of the life or the splendour of the half ecclesiastical and half civil Court of the Prince Primate. The walk which the Prince Primate constructed round the town, called the Schöne Thal, (Beautiful Valley,) is an agreeable memento of his reign. It is a fine wide promenade, running along the bottom of what appears to have been once the ditch of the ramparts. The sloping sides are covered with plantations, whose luxuriant branches arch thickly above, 138 ASCHAFFENBURG. forming a delightful green vault. This cool promenade nearly makes the circuit of the town, ending in the beautiful shrubberies under the Castle overhanging the river, which somewhat remind one of those at Windsor, "Whose hoary sides With thicket overgrown, grotesque and wild, Desending from the terrace on which the Castle stands, we passed the picturesque stone bridge over the Maine towards Darmstadt; visiting in our way a country house and gardens, formerly of the Electors of Mayence, now of the Prince of Bavaria, called Schöne Busch (Beautiful Bush.) A long alley of poplars conducted us for a league up to the gardens—the lawns, lakes, wildernesses, and parterres of which, are disposed with much taste and beauty. A crew of noisy grotesque looking figures, were exploring them at the same time, whom we presently recognized for Students from the University, who generally spend their summer vacations in rambling over the country on foot. You never fail to |