government, only renders, to a disinterested looker on, the old antipathies more apparent, I made an occasion, indirectly, to let our new associate understand that we came from the other side of the Atlantic.  This produced an instantaneous change in his manner, and it was now that he began to favour us with specimens of his humour.  Notwithstanding all this facetiousness, I soon felt suspicion that the man was an employe of the Carlists, and that his business in Switzerland was connected with political plots.  He betrayed himself, at the very moment when he was most anxious to make us think him a mere amateur of scenery:  I cannot tell you how, but still so clearly, as to strike all of us, precisely in the same way.

The Giesbach is a succession of falls, whose water comes from a glacier, and which are produced by the sinuosities of the leaps and inclined planes of a mountain side, aided by rocks and precipices.  It is very beautiful, and may well rank as the third or fourth cascade of Switzerland, for variety, volume of water, and general effect.  A family has established itself among the rocks, to pick up a penny by making boxes of larch, and singing the different ranz des raches.  Your mountain music does not do so well, when it has an air so seriously premeditated, and one soon gels to be a little blase on the subject of entertainments of this sort, which can only succeed once, and then with the novice.  Alas!  I have actually stood before the entrance of the cathedral at Rouen, and the strongest feeling of the moment was that of surprise at the manner in which my nerves had thrilled, when it was first seen.  I do not believe that childhood, with its unsophistication and freshness, affords the greatest pleasures, for every hour tells me how much reason and cultivation enhance our enjoyments; but there are certainly gratifications that can be felt but once; and if an opera of Rossini or Meyerbeer grows on us at each representation, or a fine poem improves on acquaintance, the singing of your Swiss nightingales is sweeter in its first notes than in its second.

After spending an hour at the Giesbach, we rowed along the eastern, or rather the southern, shore of the lake to Interlachen.  The sight of the blue Aar revived old recollections, and we landed on its banks with infinite pleasure.  Here a few civil speeches passed between the merry Frenchman and myself, when we separated, he disappearing altogether, and we taking the way to the great lodging-house, which, like most of the other places of resort in Switzerland, was then nearly empty.  The Grand-duchess Anna, however, had come down from Ulfnau, her residence on the Aar, for a tour in the Oberland, and was among the guests.  We got a glimpse of her coming in from a drive, and she appeared to resemble her brother the Duke, more than her brother the King.