On our return to the hotel
we learned the news of the capitulation of Paris to the Allied powers. It
is said to be purely a military convention by which the French army is to
evacuate Paris and retire behind the Loire. There is no talk and no other
intelligence about Napoleon, except that he had been compelled by the two
Houses of Legislature to abdicate the throne. We are still in the dark as
to the intentions of the Allies. I regret much that my friend and fellow
traveller L. is obliged to return to Bruxelles and cannot accompany me to
Cologne, to which place I am impatient to go and to pay my respects to old
father Rhine, so renowned in history.
COLOGNE.
I left Aix-la-Chapelle on the morning of the 2nd of July and arrived at
Cologne about six o'clock in the evening, putting up at the Inn _Zum
heiligen Geist_ (Holy Ghost), which is situated on the banks of the river.
The price of the journey in the diligence is 18 franks. On the road hither
lies Juliers, a large and strongly fortified town surrounded by a marsh. It
must be very important as a military post. The road after quitting Juliers
runs for the most part thro' a forest, and has been much improved and
enlarged by the French; before they improved it, it was almost impassable
in wet weather.
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