We got off early on ye 29th. Woods to Coblentz. Met a French general, escorted by cavalry. Wood chiefly copse, country much inferior in beauty to that we quitted. Ehrenbreitstein repairing; the village under the fortress quite ruined, churches and convents unroofed and demolished, but the peasants are active in repairing their habitations. Ld. H. showed his passport and had a pass given for persons and horses to cross the Rhine. Crossed in the _pont-volant_: all of us and our baggage stopped at the Custom House. I went to the inn with Charles. Ld. H. went to the banker; some difficulty in arranging about money for Bruxelles. Mr. Lorentz rather in fault. Ld. H. showed passport in the evening to the _Préfet_, Boucqueau, who was remarkably well-bred and civil. Banker’s name Botsgeissen; married to a Leeds woman. The Electoral Palace in the town is converted into a hospital. The inhabitants pay great contributions; it falls hardest on landholders. The German play driven out by a French _troupe_, who have established a French _spectacle_. The establishment of juries seemingly popular. Heard of a famous robber towards Trêves, who maintained banditti, bribed peasants, and gave passports, and who is particularly inveterate against the Jews. Country cultivated, and provisions, at least bread, very cheap. Very different accounts of the French, but all agreeing in the improvement since Bonaparte, and in wishes for peace. The people are allowed great freedom of speech; they paid more for having given an asylum to the emigrants, which seemed very unjust upon them. All religion tolerated and none interfered with; monks as usual, but I saw none. The inn excellent, quite new; not the same as the one I used to go to.... I laughed heartily at the sight of a monk with a French cockade in his hat. To the left, about a mile from Bonn, there is a fine castle upon an eminence. The modern _châteaux_ of the nobility are deserted, and many totally destroyed from being unroofed and _gutted_. The Elector’s country palace was magnificent; it is now converted into a hospital. Bonn is a clean, well-built town, the Palace immense, now inhabited in parts by officers and magistrates, but chiefly falling to decay. The Tree of Liberty decorated with the tricolour flag. I was surprised instead of finding the old inn, which was very good, to find a new one just built upon a most magnificent scale. The road from Coblentz to Bonn is good; from Bonn to Cologne sandy and deep, country flat, but rich and well cultivated.