best describe how painful this must be to a sensitive spirit.  “I tell you thus frankly my feelings,” said he, “because I know you will understand me.  I could not say this to any of my associates, for they would not comprehend it, and they would say I am proud, because I cannot bring my soul down to their level.  I am poor and have but little to subsist upon; but the spirit has needs as well as the body, and I feel it a duty and a desire to satisfy them also.  When I am with any of my common fellow-laborers, what do I gain from them?  Their leisure hours are spent in drinking and idle amusement, and I cannot join them, for I have no sympathy with such things.  To mingle with those above me, would be impossible.  Therefore I am alone—­I have no associate!”

I have gone into minute, and it may be, tiresome detail, in describing some of the edifices of Munich, because it seemed the only way in which I could give an idea of their wonderful beauty.  It is true that in copying after the manner of the daguerreotype, there is danger of imitating its dullness also, but I trust to the glitter of gold and rich paintings, for a little brightness in the picture.  We leave to-morrow morning, having received the sum written for, which, to our surprise, will be barely sufficient to enable us to reach Heidelberg.

CHAPTER XXVII.

THROUGH WURTEMBERG TO HEIDELBERG.

We left Munich in the morning train for Augsburg.  Between the two cities extends a vast unbroken plain, exceedingly barren and monotonous.  Here and there is a little scrubby woodland, and sometimes we passed over a muddy stream which came down from the Alps.  The land is not more than half-cultivated, and the villages are small and poor.  We saw many of the peasants at their stations, in their gay Sunday dresses; the women wore short gowns with laced boddices, of gay colors, and little caps on the top of their heads, with streamers of ribbons three feet long.  After two hours’ ride, we saw the tall towers of Augsburg, and alighted on the outside of the wall.  The deep moat which surrounds the city, is all grown over with velvet turf, the towers and bastions are empty and desolate, and we passed unchallenged under the gloomy archway.  Immediately on entering the city, signs of its ancient splendor are apparent.  The houses are old, many of them with quaint, elaborately carved ornaments, and often covered with fresco paintings.  These generally represent some scene from the Bible history, encircled with arabesque borders, and pious maxims in illuminated scrolls.  We went into the old Rathhaus, whose golden hall still speaks of the days of Augsburg’s pride.  I saw in the basement a bronze eagle, weighing sixteen tons, with an inscription on the pedestal stating that it was cast in 1606, and formerly stood on the top of an old public building, since torn down.  In front of the Rathhaus is a fine bronze fountain, with a number of figures of angels and tritons.