September xxv.
His Excellency now sent Mr. Paget and myself to see the castle of Luxemburg, situated in the way betwixt Baden and Vienna. It is a mean building, in the form of a small quadrangle, and moted round. I observed several curious pictures in it, one particularly fine of the seven liberal sciences, in the dining room of the Emperor; another of the present King of France, when about four years of age; a third of Charles the fifth; a fourth of Matthias Corvinus and his father Huniades. The dining room is observable for an accident of thunder, which, while the Emperor and his family were at diner, entered the room at one quarter, passed in a semicircle about the table, and made its way thro the opposite wall with great explosion; while the Emperor remained in his seat with a remarkable calmness and serenity of mind. Adjoining to this building is a delightful park enclosed with pales; and nearer to the house a thick grove of elm and oak, in which is a long walk, and avenues so cut, as to resemble all the streets of Vienna.