beg your pardon," replied the cabman, "a real lady, _hat and
feathers_!"

Cologne.--This is a regular Golgotha--the skulls of the Magi, _par
excellence_, and then the skulls of Saint Ursula and her 11,000 virgins.
I wonder where she collected so many! Saint Ursula brought a great
force into the field, at all events, and, I presume, commands the right
wing of the whole army of martyrs. I went into the golden chamber,
where there are some really pretty things. The old fellow handed us the
articles one after another, but I observed that there were many things
which I had seen when here before, which were not presented to view, so
I looked into the cabinet and found them. They were crystal vases,
mounted with gold and precious stones. One had the thigh-bone of Saint
Sebastian; another, part of the ulna of Saint Lawrence; and a third a
bit of the petticoat of the Virgin Mary. I handed them out to the
ladies, and asked him why he did not show us those as he used to do
before. The old man smiled and turned the corners of his mouth down, as
if to say, "Its all humbug!" Relics are certainly at a discount, even
among the Catholics.

I question whether the Bridge of Boats at Cologne don't pay better than
any other in the whole world, although by no means the handsomest; the
stream of passengers on it all day is as strong and as wide as the Rhine
itself. As for Cologne, the best thing that could happen to it is to be
burnt down. Narrow streets, badly ventilated, badly drained; your nose
is visited with a thousand varieties of smell as you pass along; and the
Eau de Cologne in the gutters is very different in savour from that
which you buy in the bottles.

We had a pleasant passage from Cologne to Coblentz, and from thence to
Mayence, because we had pleasant company. It is singular, but it is a
fact, that you go on board a steamboat to avoid fatigue, and each night
you are more tired than if you had travelled by land. You go to avoid
dust and heat; the first is exchanged for blacks out of the funnel, and
you are more dirty than if you had travelled twice the distance; and the
heat is about the same; in these points you certainly gain nothing. The
expense of these Rhine steamboats is very great. By a calculation I
made--to travel by post, five persons in a carriage, from Cologne to
Strasburg--you will expend 200 and odd francs less than by the steam
conveyance. In time you certainly lose by steam, as you are four day