hat the French army dare not show their noses this side of the
Rhine, so long as a Corporal's guard remained at Erfurt, I begged hard
to have a peep at the "Kaiser."

"Won't you see the Rothen Stein?" said he.

"To-morrow,--if I survive," said I, dropping my voice for the last
words.

"Nor the Wunder Brucke?----"

"With God's blessing, to-morrow, I'll visit them all; I came for the
purpose." Heaven pardon the lie, I was almost fainting.

"Be it so, then," said he, "We must go back again now. We have come a
good distance out of our road."

With a heavy groan, I turned back; and if I did not curse Vauban and
Carnot, it was because I am a good Christian, and of a most forgiving
temper.

"Here we are now, this is the Kaiser," said he, as after half an hour's
sharp walking, we stood within a huge archway, dimly lighted by a great
old-fashioned lantern.

"You stop here some days, I think you said?"

"Yes, for a fortnight; or a week, at least."

"Well, if you'll permit me, I'll have great pleasure in conducting you
through the fortress, to-morrow and next day. You can't see it all under
two days, and even with that, you'll have to omit the arsenals and the
shot batteries."

I expressed my most grateful acknowledgments, with an inward vow, that
if I took refuge in the big mortar, I'd not be caught by my friend the
next morning.

"Good night, then," said he, with a polite bow. "Bis Morgen."--

"Bis Morgen," repeated I, and entered the Kaiser.

The "Romischer Kaiser" was a great place once; but now, alas! its "Diana
is fallen!" Time was, when two Emperors slept beneath its roof, and the
Ambassadors of Kings assembled within its walls. It was here Napoleon
exercised that wonderful spell of enchantment he possessed above all
other men, and so captivated the mind of the Emperor Alexander, that
not even all the subsequent invasion of his empire, nor the disasters of
Moscow, could eradicate the impression. The Czar alone, of his enemies,
would have made terms with him in 1814; and when no other voice was
raised in his favour, Alexander's was heard, commemorating their ancient
friendship, and recalling the time when they had been like brothers.
Erfurt was the scene of their first friendship. Many now living, have
seen Napoleon, with his arm linked within Alexander's, as they walked
along; and marked the spell-bound attention of the Czar, as he listened
to the burning words, and rapid eloquence of Buonaparte, who, with