So much past
grandeur, so much of the ambition formidable in its day, collected
in a family meeting round a tomb, formed a spectacle which led one
to profound reflection: there you saw Philip the Good, Charles the
Rash, and Mary of Bergundy; and in the midst of these historical
personages Dietrich of Berne, a fabulous hero: the closed visor
concealed the countenances of the knights, but when this visor was
lifted up a brazen countenance appeared under a helmet of brass, and
the features of the knight were of bronze, like his armour. The
visor of Dietrich of Berne is the only one which cannot be lifted
up, the artist meaning in that manner to signify the mysterious veil
which covers the history of this warrior,
From Inspruck I had to pass by Saltzburg, from thence to reach the
Austrian frontiers.
It seemed as if all my anxieties would be at an end, when I was once
entered on the territory of that monarchy which I had known so
secure and so good. But the moment which I most dreaded was the
passage from Bavaria to Austria, for it was there that a courier
might have preceded me, to forbid my being allowed to pass. In spite
of this apprehension, I had not been very expeditious, for my
health, which had been seriously injured by all I had suffered, did
not allow me to travel by night. I have often felt, during this
journey, that the greatest terror cannot overcome a sort of physical
depression, which makes one dread fatigue more than death.
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