ve succeeded in my object; if not, what is left
to me? _Gertrude is better!_--In that sentence what visions of hope dawn
upon me! I wish you could have seen Gertrude before we left England; you
might then have understood my love for her. Not that we have not, in
the gay capitals of Europe, paid our brief vows to forms more richly
beautiful; not that we have not been charmed by a more brilliant genius,
by a more tutored grace. But there is that in Gertrude which I never
saw before,--the union of the childish and the intellectual, an ethereal
simplicity, a temper that is never dimmed, a tenderness--O God! let me
not speak of her virtues, for they only tell me how little she is suited
to the earth.

You will direct to me at Mayence, whither our course now leads us, and
your friendship will find indulgence for a letter that is so little a
reply to yours.

Your sincere friend,

A. G. TREVYLYAN.

CHAPTER XVIII. COBLENTZ.--EXCURSION TO THE MOUNTAINS OF TAUNUS; ROMAN
TOWER IN THE VALLEY OF EHRENBREITSTEIN.--TRAVEL, ITS PLEASURES ESTIMATED
DIFFERENTLY BY THE YOUNG AND THE OLD.--THE STUDENT OF HEIDELBERG; HIS
CRITICISMS ON GERMAN LITERATURE.

GERTRUDE had, indeed, apparently rallied during their stay at Coblentz;
and a French physician established in the town (who adopted a peculiar
treatment for consumption, which had been attended with no ordinary
success) gave her father and Trevylyan a sanguine assurance of her
ultimate recovery. The time they passed within the white walls of
Coblentz was, therefore, the happiest and most cheerful part of their
pilgrimage. They visited the various places in its vicinity; but the
excursion which most delighted Gertrude was one to the mountains of
Taunus.

They took advantage of a beautiful September day; and, crossing the
river, commenced their tour from the Thal, or valley of Ehrenbreitstein.
They stopped on their way to view the remains of a Roman tower in the
valley; for the whole of that district bears frequent witness of the
ancient conquerors of the world. The mountains of Taunus are still
intersected with the roads which the Romans cut to the mines that
supplied them with silver. Roman urns and inscribed stones are often
found in these ancient places. The stones, inscribed with names utterly
unknown,--a type of the uncertainty of fame! the urns, from which the
dust is gone, a very satire upon life!

Lone, gray, and mouldering, this tower stands aloft in the v