last, overcoming my fears, I threw my clothes into a heap, and lay down, placing my heavy staff at the head of the bed.  Persons passed up and down the courtyard several times, the light of their lamps streaming through the narrow aperture up against the ceiling, and I distinctly heard voices, which seemed to be near the door.  Twice did I sit up in bed, breathless, with my hand on the cane, in the most intense anxiety; but fatigue finally overcame suspicion, and I sank into a deep sleep, from which I was gladly awakened by daylight.  In reality, there may have been no cause for my fears—­I may have wronged the lonely innkeepers by them; but certainly no place or circumstances ever seemed to me more appropriate to a deed of robbery or crime.  I left immediately, and when a turn in the street hid the ill-omened front of the inn, I began to breathe with my usual freedom.

CHAPTER XVIII.

NOTES IN LEIPSIC AND DRESDEN.

Leipsic, May 8.—­I have now been nearly two days in this wide-famed city, and the more I see of it the better I like it.  It is a pleasant, friendly town, old enough to be interesting, and new enough to be comfortable.  There in much active business life, through which it is fast increasing in size and beauty.  Its publishing establishments are the largest in the world, and its annual fairs attended by people from all parts of Europe.  This is much for a city to accomplish, situated alone in the middle of a great plain, with no natural charms of scenery or treasures of art to attract strangers.  The energy and enterprise of its merchants have accomplished all this, and it now stands, in importance, among the first cities of Europe.

The bad weather obliged me to take the railroad at Halberstadt, to keep the appointment with my friend, in this city.  I left at six for Magdeburg, and after two hours’ ride over a dull, tiresome plain, rode along under the mounds and fortifications by the side of the Elbe, and entered the old town.  It was very cold, and the streets were muddy, so I contented myself with looking at the Broadway, (der breite Weg,) the Cathedral and one or two curious old churches, and in walking along the parapet leading to the fortress, which has a view of the winding Elbe.  The Citadel was interesting from having been the prison in which Baron Trenck was confined, whose narrative I read years ago, when quite a child.

We were soon on the road to Leipsic.  The way was over one great, uninterrupted plain—­a more monotonous country, even, than Belgium.  Two of the passengers in the car with me were much annoyed at being taken by the railway agents for Poles.  Their movements were strictly watched by the gens d’arme at every station we passed, and they were not even allowed to sit together!  At Kothen a branch track went off to Berlin.  We passed by Halle without being able to see anything of it or its University, and arrived here in four hours after leaving Magdeburg.