iligence for the same purpose, and held
converse with a stone-breaker by the wayside, whose cross, marked with
the titles of many battles, told that, among others, he had borne his
part in the fight of Kulm. He described to me the confusion, both of
the French and Prussian corps, as something of which I could form no
conception. Both sides lost even the semblance of order, and through
the deep forest, and over the slope of the defile, there was one
ceaseless combat of man to man. The quantity of dead, likewise, that
covered the hill-side, was prodigious; indeed, it took the country
people, who were pressed for the occasion, two whole days to bury them.
How changed was the scene now! The outward forms of nature, doubtless,
retained their identity; but wood, and ravine, and defile, and sweeping
level, all lay under me, as quiet and as peaceful as if the sounds of
war had never been heard among them. I was enchanted with my walk down
the steep.

The village of Kulm suffered, of course, terribly during the melee. The
church had been burned to the ground, as well as the schloss; and of
the cottages and vineyards almost all had been beaten to pieces. There
were now church, schloss, cottages, and vineyards all blooming and
fresh, as if no such calamity had ever overtaken them. The inhabitants,
too, unmindful as men ever are of evils that have befallen to others,
and even to themselves, long ago, delight in nothing so much as in
replying to the questions which curious travellers, like myself, may
chance to put to them. But the cicerone _ex officio_, to whom
references are invariably made, is a fine old Austrian invalid, to
whose care the charge of the monuments is intrusted. The old fellow is
not, I must confess, very intelligent; but he displays his orders with
manifest and most commendable pride, and assures you that General
Colloredo, who that day received his mortal wound, was the best soldier
in the emperor's service. Of the monuments themselves I need say no
more than that they occupy a space where the roads from Tetschen and
Dresden meet; in which, as it appears, the fighting was very desperate,
and where Colloredo fell. That erected by the Austrians is much more
massive than its rival; and professes to commemorate rather the merits
of the commander than the valour of the troops. The Prussian is a
small, but singularly neat obelisk, and bears this inscription, "A
grateful king and country honour the heroes who fell." The