In the evening at six o'clock many attended the opera, which was, "The Master Singer of Nuremberg," by Wagner, introducing Hans Sachs, the author of so many German ballads. The music seemed like a general crash, and the students were unable to appreciate it. The next morning the whole company took the train for Pötzscha.
"There is our king," said Mr. Spott, as the train stopped at a station.
"Where? Where?" demanded the students.
"The old gentleman in a white hat, and that is the queen with him."
Most of the students got out of the cars. The king had no attendants whatever, a single policeman clearing the way for them. He wore a dark coat, with striped pants, and the queen was dressed with equal simplicity. There was no mark by which they could be distinguished from other people, and the king might easily have been mistaken for a merchant or farmer. Mr. Lowington thought that he looked like General Anderson, of Fort Sumter fame. Their majesties were attending their daughter, the Duchess of Genoa, who was on her way to Italy, simply coming to see her off. The queen wept like other people, and the king looked very sad.
The party arrived at their destination, crossed the river, and walked through a wild region, abounding in narrow passes, deep glens, and headlong steeps. Near the end of the walk they came to a remarkable chasm, which looks like an immense dry dock. It is nearly a thousand feet deep, with perpendicular sides of basaltic rock, like the Giant's Causeway. The students cried out with wonder and admiration as they gazed into the deep abyss, in which they looked far down upon the tops of the tall trees. The party wandered about over rocks, peeping over cliffs, till they came to the hotel on the highest hill. Near it is an observatory, which commands a fine view of the winding Elbe, of Königstein, a fortress on a rock twelve hundred feet high. Crossing a bridge, they stood upon the Bastei, which is a flat rock, surrounded by an iron railing. It rises nearly a thousand feet perpendicularly from the bank of the river, and commands a splendid view of the valley beneath. A precipice extends for miles along the right bank of the Elbe; and nowhere in Europe is so much picturesque scenery crowded into so small a space as in the Saxon Switzerland. The party returned to Dresden by steamer from Schandau, the descent to which from the Bastei is, in part, by a deep ravine over bridges, and through clefts in the rocks, wild and full of interest. The boat passes Pillnitz, the summer residence of the king, and the students saw the palace and grounds.
On the following morning the students and the instructors returned to the squadron, arriving at a late hour in the evening. As the vessels were to remain a few days at Swinemünde, Paul Kendall and Shuffles decided to visit Leipzig, Magdeburg, and Hamburg. Lincoln was about to be graduated, and was allowed to remain with them and the Kinnairds, Miss Gurney being the principal attraction to him.