m; River and he rushing on between, by law of gravitation, law of
ennui (which are laws of Nature both), with a narrow strip of sky in
full gallop overhead; and has little encouragement to reflect, except
upon his own sorrows, and delirious circumstances, physical and moral.
'How much happier, were I lying in my bed!' thinks the bewildered
Tourist;--does strive withal to admire the Picturesque, but with little
success; notices the 'BASTEI (Bastion),' and other rigorously prescribed
points of the Sublime and Beautiful, which are to be 'done.' That
you will have to DO, my friend: step out, you will have to go on that
Pinnacle, with indifferent Hotel attached; on that iron balcony, aloft
among the clouds yonder; and shudder to project over Elbe-flood from
such altitudes, admiring the Picturesque in prescribed manner.

"This Country has for its permanent uses, timber, free-stone, modicum
of milk and haver, serviceable to the generality;--and to his Polish
Majesty, at present, it is as the very Ark of Noah: priceless at this
juncture; being the strongest military country in the world. Excellent
strength in it; express Fortresses; especially one Fortress called the
Konigstein, not far from Schandau, of a towering precipitous nature,
with 'a well 900 feet deep' in it, and pleasant Village outside at the
base;--Fortress which is still, in our day, reckoned a safe place for
the Saxon Archives and preciosities. Impregnable to gunpowder artillery;
not to be had except by hunger. And then, farther down the River, close
by Pirna, presiding over Pirna, as that Konigstein in some sort does
over Schandau, is the Sonnenstein: Sonnenstein too was a Fortress in
those days of Friedrich, but not impregnable, if judged worth taking.
The Austrians took it, a year or two hence; Friedrich retook it,
dismantled it: 'the Sonnenstein is now a Madhouse,' say the Guide-books.

"Sonnenstein stands close east or up-stream of Pirna, which is a town of
5,000 souls, by much the largest in those parts; Konigstein a little
down-stream of Schandau, which latter is on the opposite or north side
of the River. These are the two chief Towns, which do all the trade of
this region; picturesque places both:--the Tourist remembers Pirna?
Standing on its sleek table or stair-step, by the River's edge; well
above floodmark; green, shaggy or fringy mountains looking down on it to
rearward; in front, beyond the River, nothing visible but mile-long
cream-colored rock-wa