280

THE MARRIAGE IN CANA.

affectionate faith, as if, while reading His Countenance, she were addressing the domestic, "WHATSOEVER HE SAITH UNTO YOU DO IT."

Above the screen of the festal chamber there is a trelliced arcade of vines of the most intense verdure; and in the broad embroidery of golden tabernacle work-(which, emblazoned with the most refulgent vermillions and violets, azures and amaranths, forms a shrine round every picture) -the flaggon and grape clusters have a most delicious effect. The Marigold window in the West Front is of inconceivable splendour. An arrested Firework, you might imagine without much exaggeration that the most brilliant efflorescence of the Girandola has suddenly halted in its evolutions, converted by Art Magic into a fixed star. It is no trifling instance of a predominating good Taste, that with the exception of the pulpit and High Altar, there is not a spark of gold or colour to be discerned in any other part of the Maria Hülfe. Walls, pillars, arches, all soar in pure pale stone-work.

THE THREE MOORS.

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Augsburg, October 30th, 1844.

"Give me the Merchants of the Indian Mines,
That trade in Metal of the purest mould;
The wealthy Moor, that in the Eastern rocks
Without control can pick his Riches up,
And, in his house, heap Pearl like pebblestones;
Receive them free and sell them by the weight,
Bags of fiery Opals, Sapphires, Amethysts,
Jacinths, hard Topaz, grass-green Emeralds,
Beautiful Rubies, sparkling Diamonds,
And seld-seen, costly Stones of so great price,
As one of them, indifferently rated,
May serve, in peril of Calamity,

TO RESCUE GREAT KINGS FROM CAPTIVITY."

THE JEW OF MALTA.

BEHOLD us then in the high and ancient Hostel of the Three Moors at Augsburg, the family palace of the lordly Fuggers, the temporary home of the Emperor Charles.

What dazzling memories throng

"the countless chambers of the brain"

within these illustrious walls! The Diet which gave them their Imperial guest :-the princely Anthony, who wanted not the Cæsarean circlet to be his Sovereign's peer;-that wonderful man, whose ancestor was a mechanic, and whose descendants so swelled the ranks of the German patricians, that they numbered fifty nobles in their vast and opulent family;-that Creditor of

282

THE CINNAMON CHAMBER.

monarchs whom Pope and Cæsar recognised alike as the source whence they derived the golden sinews of war;-that Citizen whose generous Fire of Cinnamon will never be extinguished as long as one heart remains to appreciate magnanimity; the munificent Lord-Merchant, who, while he associated with princes, remembered the poor; the enlightened Patron of science and of art:Augsburg has little now to boast of but his great Name and that palace wherein we are now the tenants of a day.

-

How charmingly are we reminded here of that fine idea in Massinger's City Madam :

"I glory in the bravery of your Mind,

To which your Wealth's a servant. Not that Wealth
Is, or should be, contemn'd, it being a blessing
Derived from heaven, and by your industry

Pull'd down upon you; but in this, dear sir,
You have many equals: such a man's possessions
Extend as far as yours; a second hath
His bags as full; a third in credit flies
As high in the popular voice: but the distinction
And noble difference by which you are
Divided from them, is, that you are styled
Gentle in your abundance; good in plenty;
And that you feel compassion in your bowels
Of others' miseries."

I have just seen the Cinnamon Chamber, which still retains that hospitable hearth whose vast alcove witnessed the last crackle of the famous Parchment; and of a verity never was that Temple of the Penates distinguished by a Sacrifice so illustrious!

THE FARNESE CEILINGS.

283

The hall thus signalized has a noble Cedar roof, with panelled beams and pendants of massive boldness and depth, whose ruddy grain the lapse of ages has both polished and made dark.

So paramount, in my opinion, was the prestige of the Place, that, although I remembered, I scarcely preferred those gigantic Imaginations of Michael Angelo,-the Pinewood Ceilings of the Palazzo Farnese, whose gorgeous efflorescence of sculptures, bourgeoning into Rose-clusters, Pomegranates, and Vines, and Gourds, form bowers of foliature, and whose massively moulded squares and pendants seem, from the deep hollows of their dark-red cofferwork, poised at their amazing height by some necromantic spell, and only withheld by a miracle from the sullen swoop they meditate upon the marble pavement below.

Underneath is the ancient Banquet Saloon, of the same dimensions as the Hall; they are painting it in the most exquisite manner with Dancing Girls, Flowers, and Birds, after the fashion of Pompeii. And this is the Hostel of The Three Moors, whose sable figures, transferred from the adjoining mansion, have been its Ensign for five hundred years.

The Façade of this Palace, with its shields and scroll work, is worthy of Palladio himself; it might have been flattered to survey its image in the Canale grande. I feel for its humiliation;— palpably I feel for it; since you have to pay for its hospitality!

284.

THE MAXIMILIAN STRASSE.

The Maximilian Strasse is the finest I have seen in Germany. It traverses just such a space as the Processions of a Consul or an Emperor of Rome would have loved. What a long grove of Mansions and Temples, Porticoes and Basilicæ, Statues, Arches, Columns, and Fountains, would here have swelled the victorious general's return. And what a great moral would have been read in this alphabet of humanity.

The Conqueror, with his slave in the chariot and the manacled monarchs who marched at its wheels.

This is indeed a street of palaces; and, not content with the German grandeur of the broad gables that face the street, in the homely taste which dictated the freakish magnificence of their mansions, they have Baronial towers, and they have Italian piles; and I could almost fancy the huge arches of Constantine or Titus moralizing their shadowy pomps athwart the transitory sunshine of a Roman triumph.

You would have laughed if you had heard me spouting pompously,—

"Thence to the Gates cast round thine Eye, and see What Conflux issuing forth or entering in,

Prætors, Proconsuls, to their Provinces

Hasting, or on return, in Robes of State ;

Lictors and rods, the Ensigns of their power,

Legions and Cohorts, Turms of horse, and Wings :
Or Embassies from Regions far remote

In various habits on the Appian Road,

Or on th' Æmilian, some from farthest South,
Syené, and where the Shadow both way falls,