tical atmosphere was never free from storm and convulsion. It has been said, that the great patriot, and last defender of Poland, has declared, since her fate has been decided, that it was better for his country to be thus severed, and placed under the various protections of other powerful governments, than to remain an eternal prey to all the horrors of an elective monarchy, baronial tyranny, and intestine dissension. At Polangen, celebrated for the amber found in its neighbourhood, we reached the barrier of the Russian empire; a Cossac of the Don, who stood at a circular sentrybox, by the side of a stand of perpendicular spears, let slip the chain, the bar arose, and we dropped into a deep road of neutral sand, and at the distance of about an English mile and a half stopped to contemplate two old weather-beaten posts of demarkation, surmounted with the eagles of Prussia and Russia, badly painted, where, after we had, in mirth, indulged ourselves in standing at the same time in both countries, we placed ourselves under the wing of the Prussian eagle, and arrived to a late dinner at Memel.

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Here we found an excellent inn. To our landlady one of the gentleman said, "I wish to change some money, and "should like to speak to your husband." If you do, you "had better go to the church-yard," said his relic, who was herself apparently dying of a dropsy. Memel is a large commercial town, lying on the shores of the Baltic, most wretch

edly paved, and for ever covered with mud; yet the ladies figured away in nankeen shoes and silk stockings, and displayed many a well-turned ankle. In the citadel, which commands an agreeable view of the town, we saw the prisons, which appeared to be very wretched. The men, and shocking to tell, the women also, were secured by irons fastened between the knee and calf of either leg. Upon my remonstrating with the gaoler, who spoke a little English, against the unne cessary cruelty, and even indecency, of treating his female prisoners in this manner, he morosely observed, "that he had more to apprehend from the women than the men; that the "former were at the bottom of all mischief, and therefore ought to be ever more guarded against."

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We waited at Memel two days, in hourly expectation of the wind changing, that we might proceed to Koningberg by water, instead of wading over a tract of mountainous sand, eighty English miles long, and not more than three in breadth in its broadest part, called the Curiche Haff, that runs up within half a mile of Memel, and divides the Baltic from an immense space of water which flows within one stage of Koningberg. During this period, I every day attended the parade and drills, and was shocked at the inhuman blows which, upon every petty occasion, assailed the backs of the soldiers, not from a light supple cane, but a heavy stick, making

every blow resound. My blood boiled in my veins, to see a little deformed bantam officer, covered with, almost extinguished by, a huge cocked hat, inflicting these disgraceful strokes, that, savagely as they were administered, cut deeper into the spirit than the flesh, upon a portly respectable soldier for some trivial mistake. I saw no such severity in Russia, where some of the finest troops in the world may be seen. I observed, not only here but in other parts of Prussia, that every soldier is provided with a sword. The river which runs up to the town from the Baltic, was crowded with vessels; the market-boats were filled with butter, pumkins, red onions, and Baltic fish in wells.

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CHAP. XXI.

DESOLATE SCENE-ENGLISH SAILOR

WRECKED-KONINGBERG

BEAUTY IN BOOTS-PRUSSIAN ROADS-THE CELEBRATED RUINS OF MARIENBOURG-DANTZIG-COQUETRY IN A BOX-INHOSPITALITY A GERMAN JEW-THE LITTLE GROCER-DUTCH VICAR OF BRAY-VERSES TO A PRETTY DANTZICKER.

As the wind shewed no disposition to change in our favour, we embarked, with our horses and carriages, in the ferryboats, and proceed on the Curiche Haff: by keeping the right wheels as much as we could in the Baltic, which frequently surrounded us, we arrived at the first post-house, which lay in the centre of mountains of sand. Here we learned that some preceding travellers had carried away all the horses, and accordingly our hostess recommended us to embark with our vehicles in a boat which is kept for such emergences, and proceed by the lake to the next stage; which advice we accepted, and were indebted to a ponderous fat young lady belonging to the post-house, who waded into the water, and, turning her back towards us, shoved us off from the beach. We set sail with a favourable light breeze, which died away after we had proceeded about seven English miles, when we

put into a creek before a few little wretched fishing huts, under the roof of which, with cocks, hens, ducks, pigs, and dogs, we passed an uncomfortable night: just as we were lying down an English sailor entered the room, with a face a little grave, but not dejected, to see, as he said, some of his countrymen, "hoping no offence:" the poor fellow, we found, had been wrecked a few nights before, on the Baltic side of this inhospitable region. After hearing his tale, and making a little collection for him, we resigned ourselves to as much sleep as is allotted to those who are destined to be attacked by battalions of fleas. In the morning we could obtain no posthorses, the wind was against us, and at least eight English miles lay between us and the post-house. Hoping for some fortunate change, I resolved to look about me, and after considerable fatigue, ascended one of those vast sandy summits which characterize this cheerless part of the globe: from the top, on one side, lay the Baltic, and on its beach the cordless masts and hull of a wreck, high and dry; on the other, the lake which had borne us thus far, and before and behind a line of mountains of sand, many of them I should suppose to be a hundred feet high, over whose sparkling surface the eye cannot wander for two minutes together without experiencing the same sensations of pain as are felt upon contemplating snow: below, in a bladeless valley, stood two wretched horses, almost skeletons, scarcely making any shadow in the sun: the natives of this sandy desert, we were afterwards informed by a respect