“Ehrenbreitstein” [essay]
It is said that French will carry a
you over all Europe, over all civilized
Europe at least, and that may be, but
it will not carry you over Germany.

You might manage with the Grand Turk,
but you will not manage with the Ger‐
=mans. b Wishing to see the interior of
Ehrenbreitstein, we got a young German
guide, and coming to a place where two
roads met, considered him to be going
the wrong way. Here was a poser, how
could we stop him. “Nein, nein,—” we
called after him. “Ya,” quoth he; “Nein,
So he went the way we chose.
After a very hard pull up an abom‐
=inably c cramp 1 hill, we beheld the top of
the flagstaff. “Here we are, all right.” No,
There was the fortress, certainly, but between
us and it, a ravine nearly a hundred
feet deep, walled up the sides so as to form
a very unhandsome ditch, and two or three
dozen, impudent, enormous, openmouthed
guns grinning at us from the battlement, d
Well, there was nothing for it, so we went
back, and took the other path.— 2
This time all went right, and we got into
the fortress, first however prudently step‐
=ping e up to a sentinel, to ask permission;
and he brought an officer upon us. “Do
you speak English, sir.” (A stare.) “Francais,”
(a vibratory motion of the head, and a,
“Nein”) “Deutsch.” “Ya.” and there we
stuck. Well, we pulled out our pass‐
=port, f but it was in French, and the offi‐
=cer g could not read it. So he looked up,
and down, and at us, and we looked up,
and down, and at him. What was to be
done. We bowed and he bowed, and we
looked over the battlements, and trotted
down again, having a very high opinion
of the height of German hills, the strength
of German walls, the size of German can‐
=non, h and the stupidity of all German
brains. 3