the meadows above and attacked the city from behind, so that a part of the beautiful promenades lay deep under water.  On the other side, we could see houses standing in it up to the roof.  It came up through the sewers into the middle of Frankfort; a large body of men were kept at work constructing slight bridges to walk on, and transporting boats to places where they were needed.  This was all done at the expense of the city; the greatest readiness was everywhere manifested to render all possible assistance.  In the Fischergasse, I saw them taking provisions to the people in boats; one man even fastened a loaf of bread to the end of a broomstick and reached it across the narrow street from an upper story window, to the neighbor opposite.  News came that Hausen, a village towards the Taunus, about two miles distant, was quite under water, and that the people clung to the roofs and cried for help; but it was fortunately false.  About noon, cannon shots were heard, and twenty boats were sent out from the city.

In the afternoon I ascended the tower of the Cathedral, which commands a wide view of the valley, up and down.  Just above the city the whole plain was like a small lake—­between two and three miles wide.  A row of new-built houses stretched into it like a long promontory, and in the middle, like an island, stood a country-seat with large out-buildings.  The river sent a long arm out below, that reached up through the meadows behind the city, as if to clasp it all and bear it away together.  A heavy storm was raging along the whole extent of the Taunus; but a rainbow stood in the eastern sky.  I thought of its promise, and hoped, for the sake of the hundreds of poor people who were suffering by the waters, that it might herald their fall.

We afterwards went over to Sachsenhausen, which was, if possible, in a still more unfortunate condition.  The water had penetrated the passages and sewers, and from these leaped and rushed up into the streets, as out of a fountain.  The houses next to the Main, which were first filled, poured torrents out of the doors and windows into the street below.  These people were nearly all poor, and could ill afford the loss of time and damage of property it occasioned them.  The stream was filled with wood and boards, and even whole roofs, with the tiles on, went floating down.  The bridge was crowded with people; one saw everywhere mournful countenances, and heard lamentations over the catastrophe.  After sunset, a great cloud, filling half the sky, hung above; the reflection of its glowing crimson tint, joined to the brown hue of the water, made it seem like a river of fire.