and also to gain a little respite from such a rapid succession of untoward circumstances, I ascended the top of the cabin and refreshed myself by making the sketch engraved. The tower, the mighty mass of the unfinished cathedral, the numerous spires, the shores on either side, the rapid motion of the vessels descending the Rhine, the singing of those on board, the clear brilliancy of the sky, afforded reanimating delight to my mind.

About ten o'clock my persecutor raised his head through the cabin door, to announce that dinner was ready, and to request my company: upon descending I found some soup, and beef roasted after the German fashion, and that the director had, while I was above, been taken ill, from the occasional agitation of the boat, that to allay his sickness he had asked one of the gentlemen on board for some brandy, and of which he had evidently taken a great deal too much the spirit rapidly operated upon his head, and a more abominable nuisance in the shape of man I never beheld: incapable of sitting at table with such a miscreant, I resumed my old place where I had not been seated long before I heard him abusing all the passengers, except myself, for whom he again expressed "the assurance of his high consideration," and threatening to order them all to be thrown overboard, which he seemed to be perfectly able to do himself, for he was one of the most powerful men I

ever beheld: upon which they relinquished the cabin to himself, and, excepting a very pretty French girl, came upon deck. Upon hearing her scream violently, I went below to see what influence his countryman could now have over the director: as I was handing her out of the cabin, he forcibly pulled me back, closed the door, and said, in a manner which was perfectly intelligible, though occasionally interrupted by the spasms of intoxication, "I know you, though you think I do not; you are no American, you are an Englishman, and a son of Mr. Erskine the orator; you are here on a secret mission, and your life is in my hands, but I will not betray you." The reply I made was, "I am engaged in no secret mission, my soul would revolt at it, nor can I be the son of my Lord Erskine, for he is now upon the ocean, as ambassador from the court of Great Britain to my country;" to which I added, "that it was in vain for him to attempt to deceive me any longer, for I was satisfied, by his observations respecting America, that he had not been born in that country:" to which, to my no little consternation, he replied,

No, nor have I ever been there, I am a German by birth, I was educated by an Englishman who lived at my father's, and I am now in the service of one of the greatest heroes, and the most illustrious of men."

I know not whether my life was in peril, but it is

certain my liberty was, and to preserve it, I thought that something should be immediately done: accordingly I anscended the top of the cabin, where all the passengers were assembled in a state of considerable uneasiness, from one of whom I borrowed a bottle of brandy and a coffee-cup, with which I returned to the director, and insisted upon drinking his health in some excellent spirit, and raising my hand and the bottle in a manner which, in his state, prevented him from seeing what I poured out, I affected to fill and drink it off; I then gave him a bumper, which I several times repeated in a similar manner, until the miscreant dropped under the table, where he continued in a state of utter insensibility, and with little appearance of life, until we arrived, which we did in about six hours, at Bonn, when he was taken out of the vessel by some men, conveyed to a house near the banks of the river, and, thank heaven! I saw no more of him, but proceeded with the rest of the passengers to a very neat inn a little way in the city, where we had an excellent dinner and some good white Rhine wine. The stream of the Rhine became less rapid as we approached Bonn, where its waters are shallower than in the neighbourhood of Cologne, where all large vessels ship their cargoes which are destined for any of the towns higher up, into craft constructed peculiarly for the purpose, and which draw much less water. As I determined to sleep at Bonn, I had a favorable opportunity of see