, perhaps still of slightly richer quality, lie
indiscriminate among the others; their very fence, if they ever had one,
now torn away.

"The Country, as you descend by dusty intricate lanes from Kuttenberg,
with your left hand to the Elbe, and at length with your back to it,
would be rather pretty, were it well cultivated, the scraggy litter
swept off, and replaced by verdure and reasonable umbrage here and
there. The Field of Chotusitz, where you emerge on it, is a wide wavy
plain; the steeple of Chotusitz, and, three or four miles farther,
that of Czaslau (pronounce 'KOTusitz,' 'CHASlau'), are the conspicuous
objects in it. The Lakes Friedrich speaks of, which covered his right,
and should cover ours, are not now there,--'all, or mostly all, drained
away, eighty years ago,' answered the Czechs; answered one wiser Czech,
when pressed upon, and guessed upon; thereby solving the enigma which
was distressful to us. Between those Lakes and the Brtlinka Brook may
be some two miles; Chotusitz is on the crown of the space, if it have a
crown. But there is no 'height' on it, worth calling a height except by
the military man; no tree or bush; no fence among the scrubby ryes and
pulses: no obstacle but that Brook, which, or the hollow of which, you
see sauntering steadily northward or Elbe-ward, a good distance on your
left, as you drive for Chotusitz and steeple. Schuschitz, a peaked brown
edifice, is visible everywhere, well ahead and leftwards, well beyond
said hollow; something of wood and 'deer-park' still noticeable or
imaginable yonder.

"Chotusitz itself is a poor littery place; standing white-washed,
but much unswept: in two straggling rows, now wide enough apart (no
Konigseck need now get burnt there): utterly silent under the hot sun;
not a child looked out on us, and I think the very dogs lay wisely
asleep. Church and steeple are at the farther or south end of the
Village, and have an older date than 1742. High up on the steeple,
mending the clock-hands or I know not what, hung in mid-air one
Czech; the only living thing we saw. Population may be three or four
hundred,--all busy with their teams or otherwise, we will hope. Czaslau,
which you approach by something of avenues, of human roads (dust and
litter still abounding), is a much grander place; say of 2,000 or more:
shiny, white, but also somnolent; vast market-place, or central square,
sloping against you: two shiny Hotels on it, with Austrian uniforms
loiter