by
the _ceinture_, but a right-minded wayfarer, who should never hurry,
will not miss an opportunity of taking the tonic of a few days in the
"Ville Lumiere." If he be a true wayfarer--that means not only an
enterprising traveller but also given to contemplation--he will bestow
some thought on the geographical position respectively of Paris and his
destination, Prague, which should help him to enter into the spirit of
those two cities; but of this more hereafter.

When the wayfarer does tear himself away from Paris he should travel by
the _train de luxe_, which lands him, without the trouble of changing,
in Prague at a reasonably early hour of the evening. This route is
interesting in itself, as it leads through many notable places, Chateau
Thierry, with its grim reminders of the Great War, Nancy, and Strasbourg
restored to France. Then on to Stuttgart, the capital of a small but
healthy German Republic, formerly the Kingdom of Wuertemberg; there has
been no exaggerated display of republican fervour here in this clean and
proper capital, and a crown still tops the coat of arms of a line of
rulers, on the former royal palace. You cross the fertile country of
Franconia, a wide curve gives you a fine view of Nuremberg, and then you
ascend towards the pass that divides the Ore Mountains from the Bohemian
Forest. There are quaint old towns growing out of crumbling battlements
perched on rocks, towns of soft-sounding South German names breathing
history of long ago. There is, for instance, Waiblingen, a very
ordinary-looking wayside station, yet what memories does that name
recall! Memories of Hohenstaufen Emperors, Fredericks and Conrads, down
to the last and luckless Conradin, memories of faction fights between
the city republics of Italy, within the walls of those cities, between
Guelph and Ghibelline, Welf and Waiblingen. This country Bavaria was
also at one time the home of the Welfs; they were a strong, determined
race, and spent much time and energy in vigorous opposition to Holy
Roman Emperors, possibly as men of common sense they considered the
whole prevailing idea of empire rather nonsensical; they were eventually
banished to the country about Hanover and Brunswick, where they
flourished by virtue of their forceful character--and we Britons have
reason to be grateful that it was so.

We move along to Eger or Cheb, where we find a last reminder of the
Hohenstaufen in the ruins of a castle and a round two-storied ch