In my description of the Rhine as I ascended it, I have, from the desire of not fatiguing my reader, only noticed the principal towns and objects, some of which I visited then, and others on my return. I felt myself abundantly rewarded by the unparalleled beauty and grandeur of those scenes, which so often excited my admiration and amazement, for any little inconvenience, and perhaps some little hazard, to which I was occasionally exposed, and I regret that I can only convey a very imperfect impression of them to those who have never had the good fortune to form their personal opinion of them.
Having been previously warned not to attempt to enter Mayence, which, as it is now incorporated with France, I shall call by that name, on account of the unusual rigour exercised by the police towards strangers, in consequence of the city being the great military depot of the French on the Rhine, and the greatest skill of their engineers having been lavished on its fortifications, I was content to view it from Cassel, and to receive some little account of it from a very intelligent German, who had resided there some years, as we looked upon the city from our hotel window. The electoral palace, of red brick, by the side of which the Rhine flows, where Bonaparte resided during his stay in Mayence, in 1804, presented a very noble appearance. The dome or cathedral, which rose with awful dignity before us, is a vast gothic pile, having four unequal towers: it had once a lofty spire, but a thunder-storm, many years since, beat it down with lightning, and burnt a considerable part of the edifice. Few cities have suffered more than this by the ravages of war; most of its civil and sacred buildings have been at one period or another damaged or destroyed by cannon, the ruins of which still remain. My intelligent friend informed me that this city was celebrated for the great beauty of its female inhabitants, and that before the French took possession of it the electoral court threw a brilliant lustre over the place, which was unrivalled by any city on the Rhine for its gaiety, elegance, and splendor; characteristics which have been impaired, but far from annihilated. It contains colleges, lyceums, a theatre, and ball and concert rooms, all of which continue to be well attended.
Mayence, from its having been always considered as one of the great bulwarks of Germany, suffered most dreadfully in the last war. In October, 1792, General Custine compelled it to surrender after a slight bombardment, and under his administration the majority of the inhabitants who did not fly entered cordially into the views of the French revolutionists: he augmented the fortifications of the city, and placed a strong garrison in the suburbs of Cassel, which has always been considered as a place of great importance, and raised a number of redoubts and batteries there. In July, 1793, the Prussians, after seizing on Costheim, and defeating an army under General Houchard, which was marching to succour the garrison of Mayence, reduced both that city and Cassel, the miserable inhabitants of which endured the greatest horrors, and many of the finest and most venerable buildings of the former were fired, and nearly destroyed, during the siege. Merlin, who acted as one of the commissioners to the French army during the siege, stated to the convention, that such was the scarcity of provisions, a pound of horse-flesh had been sold at two, and a dead cat at six livres, and that five thousand men had perished in defence of the place. Although Custine had no choice left but to capitulate, Barrere, by his report of the siege, led to his being denounced and decapitated. During this siege the palace of the provosts suffered terribly; the celebrated electoral palace called La Favorite, and seven churches, were totally destroyed; and scarce a house escaped without being pierced with cannon balls. Mutton sold for sixty sols a pound, and beef one hundred sols; and at last bell-metal and paper money were used: the following was the superscription of the latter:
“Monnoye de siége.
“10 sols,
“à changer contre billon
“ou monnoye du metal de siége.
(Signed) “Reubell.
“Siége de Mayence, “Houchard.
“Mar. 1793—2de. de la Rep. Fran.”