THE RATH HAUS.

255

RATISBON is a mean, ill-constructed town, consisting of a quagmire of winding streets, whose intricacy would require the Cretan Clue, and whose filth bids fair to emulate the Slough of Despond. She owes every thing to the Danube, the Domkirch, and that domicile of Imperial tyranny, her Rath Haus. The appearance of this last is exceedingly grand, and every way prepares you for a visit to those chambers, haunted as they are by that spectral masquerade of Power and Mystery, Dignity and Cruelty, Magnificence and Horror, with which history and tradition have colonized their dusky walls. The Great Porch, richly decorated, and ascending into a steep flight of stairs, with wheelwork balustrade, has the Shield of the Keys (oh, evil omen!) in the spandrils. The beautiful decorated Arch is surmounted by a broad Entablature, at each corner of which, as if from a window-frame, you see a grim but boldly executed bust of a man in the martial costume of the period, leaning forward in a menacing attitude, the one brandishing a monstrous Mace, the other poising a huge fragment of Stone, in the very act of dashing it down on the head of any intruder. I venture to advise all who may visit this venerable pile to notice these curious Effigies. The singularity of the design is quite equalled by

256

THE REICHSAAL.

the spirit of its execution. The adjoining Façade is really perfect as an example of the Medieval style. The symmetry and dimensions of that pillared Oriel, embowered by tabernacle-work in the centre, leave one little to desire of antique gracefulness.

The Reichsaal retains nothing of all its pompous maintenance except a plain Armchair, which, divested of its Vermillion Cloth of Gold, and even deprived of its emblazoned and crowned Canopy, remains perched in the centre of its elevated Dais, like

"A clip-wing Griffin, or a molten Raven :"

as melancholy, aye, and as musical too, if you presume to usurp its Sovereign Siege, which, creaking and whining piteously, complains of the profanation. And no wonder; for on this dismantled throne once sate the Cæsar of all Germany, predominating over that High Council, the Imperial Diet, which for centuries assembled in this vast and admirably proportioned Hall. The Chamber adjoining is distinguished by the title of the Electoral College. This is nearly as large as the Reichsaal, but square, and entirely covered with broider-work and dismal tapestry, which here, if any where, is undoubtedly -Goblin! It is all of highly creditable antiquity --antiquity guaranteed as strongly by the universal blackness and eclipse of worsted-work which overwhelms its reds, and greens, and yellows, as

BALLADS EMBELLISHED IN ARRAS. 257

by the quaint costume and uncouth execution of the knights and dames whose story they represent. I should ascribe them to the era of our fourth Edward. As seen by the gloomy light of a rainy, gusty day like this, they remind one of that fine simile with which Byron winds up his description of Francesca's moonlight Phantom, in the Siege of Corinth :

"Like the Figures in Arras that gloomily glare,
Stirr'd by the breath of the wintry air,

So, seen by the dying Lamp's fitful light,
Lifeless, but lifelike, and awful to sight,

As they seem through the dimness about to come down
From the shadowy wall where their Images frown,
Fearfully fitting to and fro,

As the gusts on the Tapestry come and go."

But in the embrasures of certain broad and deep windows, the piers are draperied with needlework which I religiously believe to ascend as high as the twelfth century, the age assigned to them by the Cicerone. They consist of Portraits, Emblems, and Legends, embroidered in Medallions. The Figures resemble in physiognomy, symmetry, and costume, those interesting and sportive imaginations, their Majesties of Hearts or Diamonds on our playing cards. They tell me that they were designed to illustrate a series of the Ancient Teutonic Ballads, existing only in manuscript, and of course invaluable. They are all of a facetious complexion; and if we may trust the form and

S

258

THE TORTURE CHAMBER.

pressure we behold here as the exact image of the time, German wit in the twelfth century would hardly compensate for German indelicacy in the nineteenth. Well do I love these Baronial Houses, and I should love them better; but the worst of it is, you cannot enter one of their immense Saloons without feeling convinced there is a corresponding space of Dungeonhouse beneath.

The gentle spirit of Sheffield's Alcæus has penetrated to these Depths.

Among the Engines of his power
Most dreaded in the trying hour,
When impotent were Fire and Steel,
All but almighty was the Wheel,
Whose harrowing revolution wrung
Confession from the slowest tongue;
From joints unlock'd made secrets start,
Twined with the cordage of the heart;
From muscles in convulsion drew
Knowledge the Sufferer never knew;
From failing flesh, in Nature's spite,
Brought deeds that ne'er were done to light;
From snapping sinews wrench'd the lie
That gain'd the Victim leave to die.
When self-accused,-condemn'd at length,
His only crime was want of strength :
From holy hands with joy he turn'd,
And kiss'd the stake at which he burn'd."
JAMES MONTGOMERY.

I should not have troubled the guide to lead us into these disgusting Souterraines, where our forefathers were wont to relieve their leisure by an occasional concert of groans and screams from

THE VARIETIES OF THE RACK.

259

their agonizing fellow-creatures, were it not that I was curious to behold the accursed Instruments themselves. Accursed instruments did I say? What then has become of those who employed them? those of whom they are at once the infamous Monument, the Accusation, and the Doom?

"Sealed up, shut down in ransomless perdition."

The Larded Hare-Gespickter Haase-a rollingpin stuck full of blunt iron spikes, upon the Stretching Bench, I have myself tried; and I shall never recover it; I have the lumbago for life. The Spanish Donkey-Spanischer Esel-is a wellknown instrument of Military punishment, mentioned by Grose, and alluded to by Sir Walter when he makes one of his characters-Bothwell, I think-talk of being sentenced to

.." ride the Brown Mare that was foaled of an Acorn with a musket tied to each foot."

Now when we reflect that this instrument is a sharp notched triangle, we may imagine what sort of saddle it must have formed for the bare haunches of the poor Culprit. There is another instrument, familiar to most readers of modern history as the Strappado, also of high antiquity; for Plautus, in his Asinaria, makes Leonida ask Libanus, his brother Slave, "what he weighs naked?"