and we had thus an opportunity of seeing a great variety of costumes and the merry, happy peasantry. The Linz girls are generally extolled for their beauty, and certainly we saw a great number of very comely maidens, who had assembled to take a merry cup together in the bower of our hotel. They sang together for at least two hours in most delightful chorus, and even while the reins were in hand and the foot on the wheel ready to mount their carts in the street, one song succeeded another, and it appeared as if they were so wrapped up in their chorus-singing that they could not part."
We left early next morning (7 a.m.) and rapidly descended the river, the banks of which are flat, covered by low brushwood and willows. From the flatness of the country the river forms many islands in its course, and is utterly uninteresting till it reaches a chain of mountains at Grein, from which place it passes through a defile, and past very beautiful scenery and many ruined castles. At one o'clock we reached a bend in the river where we were to anchor, and sent on a boat to ascertain the depth of the water. The boat returned at 4 p.m., and we were informed that it was impossible to proceed, and that we must go back to a village higher up, where we might land our carriage and obtain horses to convey us to Vienna. The major portion of the passengers, rather over a hundred in number, were to descend the Danube in a flat-bottomed barge. My father wrote: "It was a most amusing sight to see the passengers stowed away in this barge, each on his or her little box or package, laughing, talking and smoking; some with long, disappointed faces, uneasy at the thought of passing a night on the water; some looking stolidly indifferent, but the most predominant expression was good-natured merriment."
There were two nice young Viennese ladies on board, the Fraülein Draum, who were in tears, dreading the descent in the open barge in the raw, damp night air; one if not both were delicate. My father went to them and offered them seats in his carriage. They were startled and protested, "Aber, wir sind nur Bürgerinnen!" (But we are only citizens.) They took my father for a baron at least, and it required some urgency to induce them to accept the offer. When the carriage was brought on shore and horses were procured, we drove to the nearest town,
