years. In friendly hopes and questionings and answers, the evening
glided away at the supper-table, where many more things were
discussed than the roasted hare, and the Johannisberger; and they
sat late into the night, conversing of the thoughts and feelings and
delights, which fill the hearts of young men, who have already
enjoyed and suffered, and hoped and been disappointed.




CHAPTER VI. HEIDELBERG AND THE BARON.



High and hoar on the forehead of the Jettenbuhl stands the Castle
of Heidelberg. Behind it rise the oak-crested hills of the Geissberg
and the Kaiserstuhl; and in front, from the broad terrace of
masonry, you can almost throw a stone upon the roofs of the city, so
close do they lie beneath. Above this terrace rises the broad front
of the chapel of Saint Udalrich. On the left, stands the slender
octagon tower of the horologe, and, on the right, a huge round
tower, battered and shattered by the mace of war, shores up with its
broad shoulders the beautiful palace and garden-terrace of
Elisabeth, wife of the Pfalzgraf Frederick. In the rear are older
palaces and towers, forming a vast, irregular quadrangle;--Rodolph's
ancientcastle, with its Gothic gloriette and fantastic gables; the
Giant's Tower, guarding the drawbridge over the moat; the Rent
Tower, with the linden-trees growing on its summit, and the
magnificent Rittersaal of Otho-Henry, Count Palatine of the Rhine
and grand seneschal of the Holy Roman Empire. From the gardens