abundantly civil, could not postpone it. Neither did there occur
any other incident of which it is worth while to take notice, till, at
six on the following morning, Bruenn, the capital of Moravia, received
us within its walls.

There is not much in this city, independently of the historical
associations which are connected with it, that is likely to detain the
traveller many days, or to draw from him, after he has quitted it, a
lengthened description of what he may have seen. It is built along the
ascent of a steep hill, of which the summit is crowned by the
cathedral, a pile distinguished, like the more antique of the Slavonian
churches in general, by the great altitude of its nave. It is
surrounded by a belt of suburbs, at once more regular in their
construction, and much more populous than the town itself. To the north
lies the hill of Spielberg, surmounted by a modern and unfinished
redoubt, which having taken the place of the ancient citadel, is, and
for many years back has been, used chiefly as a state prison. It was
here that, during the reign of the Emperor Francis I., the unfortunate
Silvio Pellico spent his long and dismal season of captivity. Here,
too, Trenck, the famous leader of the Pandours, in the war of
succession, suffered imprisonment. Here Mack, long suspected of
treachery, underwent a severer punishment than his incapacity deserved;
and here still linger captives from various provinces, whose offence,
for the most part, is, that they pine to be free. This system of
shutting men up in prison, without trial, or the pretence of trial, is
very shocking. But I was glad to learn from the few who ventured to
speak in a whisper, that the tenants of the dungeons of Spielberg are
less numerous now than they used to be, and the time is not, in all
probability, distant, when the practice of filling them at the caprice
of a minister will be discontinued altogether.

Bruenn is the seat of some of the most extensive as well as valuable
manufactories that anywhere exist in the Austrian dominions. The growth
of these, it appears, was much fostered by the late emperor, and his
memory is, in consequence, held in high veneration by the inhabitants.
It is to this circumstance, indeed, more than to the military virtues
which he displayed, that the erection of the obelisk on the Franzes
Berg is owing; for though the inscription seem commemorative of the
triumphs of the army in the later campaigns, the people tell you t