m

96

DOMESTIC MANNEES OF THE PRÜSSIANS.

quitting the neighbourhood ; but the French, instead of ful-filling their pledge, first plundered the goods, and then usedthem as fuel for the destruction of the edifice. It was atthis period that the ancient cupola, nave, and choir, weredestroyed, and the two towers alone left standing out of sixthat formerly graced the pile. It was at the same time, too,that the graves of the Emperors were broken open, and theirbones scattered abroad; and though before this siege thecity boasted five suburbs enclosed within its ramparts, and noless than 13 gates, and 64 towers of defence provided withartillery—all of these, with the exception of the ancient gatecalled the "Altpörtel" were levelled with the dust, the townremaining for many years a mere heap of rubbish.

This ancient gateway still Stands at the end of MaximilianStrasse, and is merely a huge Square turret, tunnelled, as itwere, with an archway at its base, and surmounted by a tallroof, that reminds one forcibly of the immense slate pyramidspiled on top of the wings of the Tuilleries.

After the destruction of the town in 1689, Speier was longbefore it was rebuilt; and even when the city was rearedanew, it never regained its former prosperity; but was in theyear 1794 again attacked by the French army, who, after sixdifferent assaults, carried it once more by storm, and re-enacted all the brutal scenes that their compatriots had per-petrated in the preceding Century.

In the year 1816 Speier came into the possession of theKing of Bavaria, and at his cost principally the Cathedral hasbeen since restored,