afternoon we crossed the border, and took leave of Germany with
regret, after near a year's residence within its bounds. Still it was
pleasant to know we were in a republic once more: the first step we took
made us aware of the change. There was no policeman to call for our
passports or search our baggage. It was just dark when we reached the
hill overlooking the Rhine, on whose steep banks is perched the antique
town of Schaffhausen. It is still walled in, with towers at regular
intervals; the streets are wide and spacious, and the houses rendered
extremely picturesque by the quaint projecting windows. The buildings
are nearly all old, as we learned by the dates above the doors. At the
inn, I met with one of the free troopers who marched against Luzerne. He
was full of spirit, and ready to undertake another such journey. Indeed
it is the universal opinion that the present condition of things cannot
last much longer.

We took a walk before breakfast to the Falls of the Rhine, about a mile
and a half from Schaffhausen. I confess I was somewhat disappointed in
them, after the glowing descriptions of travelers. The river at this
place is little more than thirty yards wide, and the body of water,
although issuing from the Lake of Constance, is not remarkably strong.
For some distance above, the fall of the water is very rapid, and as it
finally reaches the spot where, narrowed between rocks, it makes the
grand plunge, it has acquired a great velocity. Three rocks stand in the
middle of the current, which thunders against and around their bases,
but cannot shake them down. These and the rocks in the bed of the
stream, break the force of the fall, so that it descends to the bottom,
about fifty feet below, not in one sheet, but shivered into a hundred
leaps of snowy foam. The precipitous shores, and the tasteful little
castle which is perched upon the steep just over the boiling spray, add
much to its beauty, taken as a picture. As a specimen of the
picturesque, the whole scene is perfect. I should think Trenton Falls,
in New York, must excel these in wild, startling effect; but there is
such a scarcity of waterfalls in this land, that the Germans go into
raptures about them, and will hardly believe that Niagara itself
possesses more sublimity.

CHAPTER XXIX.

PEOPLE AND PLACES IN EASTERN SWITZERLAND.

We left Schaffhausen for Zurich, in mist and rain, and walked for some
time along the north bank of the Rhine. We