mm
%
!\\,i;
I f ram its gowrce
1 i to the §Qa 1
L'^'
\\n/;/ (
tJ^
w /
THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
RIVERSIDE
i
THE RHINE
FROM ITS SOURCE TO THE SEA
'H.^
\ 'i '
NV't\4
W^Y-"\ '^*
: ■^i>i^"
]6ntvance to tbe Dia /iDala, Swit^erlauD,
THE RHINE
FROM ITS SOURCE TO THE SEA
TRANSLATED BY
G. C. T. BARTLEY
FROM THE GERMAN OF
KARli STIELER, H. WACHENHUSEN
A^D F. W. HACKLANDER
NEW EDITION, REVISED AND CORRECTED
VOL. 1.
ILLUSTRATED
PHILADELPHIA
HENRY T. COATES & CO.
1899
f S'li'
V.
Copyright, 189S, by
HENRY T. COAXES & CO.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Introductory = 1
By KARL STIELER.
CHAP. I. The Source of the Rhine, 5
II. The Youth of the Rhine, 19
III. Lake Constance, 35
IV. Constance, 53
V. Schaffhausen, 73
VI. Basle, 83
VII. Breisoau, 101
VIII. The Vosges Country, Ill
IX. Strasburg, 126
X. The Convent of St. Odille, 138
XI. The Black Forest, 145
XII. Baden-Baden, 154
XIII. The Pfalz, 165
XIV. Heidelberg, 177
XV. The Bergstrasse and the Odenwald, . . . 195
XVI. Worms, 211
By HANS WACHENHUSEN.
XVII. Mayence the Golden, 224
XVIir. Biebrich, 241
XIX. Wiesbaden, 247
XX. An Excursion to the Taunus, 259
XXI. Frankfurt and Homburg, 269
XXII. The Rheingau, 282
(v)
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
VOLUME I.
» PAGE
Entrance to the Via Mala, Switzerland, . . . Frontispiece
The Via Mala, Switzerland, 16
Baths of Pfaffers, 24
The Tamina River at Ragatz, 32
The Rhine Gate, Constance, 53
The Concilium Saal (Tow'n Hall) Constance, .... 68
The Rhinefall at Schaffhausen, 80
Basle, Switzerland, 90
The Spahlenthor, Basle, 98
Market-Place and Katjfhaus, Freiburg, Germany, . 109
City Gate, Strasburg, 129
Cottage in the Black Forest, 148
Entrance to the Old Castle, Baden-Baden, 15G
Conversation House, Baden-Baden 163
The Court Yard, Heidelberg Castle, 179
Valley of the Neckar, from Heidelberg, 191
Neckarsteinach, 203
Market-Place, Mayence, 225
The Cathedral from the Market-Place, Mayence, . 235
Kurhaus Gardens, Wiesbaden 257
Cargo Boat on the Rhine, 282
Grape Arbor in the Anlagen, 293
(vii)
THE RHINE.
INTRODUCTORY.
The great rivers of the world must have added a
charm to Nature even in the first era of Creation.
The summits of mountains are dumb, and icy repose
ever dwells in their heights ; but in the flowing tide
there is endless change, and the dashing water sug-
gests strength and eternity.
It was a sublime moment in the world's history
when man for the first time subdued the stormy
wave, and compelled the current to carry far and
wide his power and his thoughts. The rivers were
the original boundaries of nations, and their beds
were sacred ; within their depths dwelt gods, and the
destinies of mankind were determined on their banks.
Thus have rivers become, as it were, the fundamental
lines of the world's history, and the guides of every
great hero. The poet, however, looks deeper, and
makes the river the symbol of life. He watches it
as it struggles forth, the rivulet of youth, emerging
gradually into the broad energy of manhood, and
finally losing its individuality in the ocean of the
community. He sees in it the image of turbulent
Vol. I.— 1 ( 1 )
2 THE RHINE.
passion, and of the thousand obstacles which bar the
road of life between the beginning and the end.
' ' A life lived loveless ta its end
Is like a stream in sandy ground,
Spent and dried up before it found
The sea, that goal to which streams tend."
Foremost among rivers is the Rhine, which, even
two thousand years ago, was a watchword among
nations. Its banks were impressed with the foot-
prints of Caesar's legions and Attila's cavalry ; and
centuries later, accompanied by a rejoicing people.
King Conrad descended the Rhine to Mainz for his
coronation.
Legend also has grown as luxuriantly as History
on the banks of the Rhine. As the ivy clings to the
old castle walls, so do traditions fasten themselves to
actual events. On the Rhine stood the Castle of the
Niebelungen, and on the Rhine the Lorelei sang.
What country can compare in richness to that through
which the Rhine flows, from the snow-clad Alps down
to the very sea in which it is lost ?
Here lay the cities of the old empire and the great
seats of ecclesiastical pomp, which lavished as reck-
lessly as they grasped all that came within their
power. Both wished to proclaim afar their magnifi-
cence ; and to do so minsters and cathedrals were
built, so that when the traveller towards evening
dragged on his weary way, he would see from afar
the slender tower, and cry with joy to his companion,
INTKODUCTORY. 3
" Yonder is Strasburg !" Out of the morning mist,
also, the marinei', who had come down the Rhine over-
night, would see the dark mass of the Cathedral of
Cologne rise before him like a ship, but built with
stone flanks and stone masts.
Indeed, who does not feel the wealth that lies in
the words " The Rhine," the wealth of Nature and
of Art, of History and of Legend, of old and new
life?
THE EHLNE.
THE RHINE SONG.
" The Khine ! That little word will be
For aye a spell of power to me,
And conjure up, in care's despite,
A thousand visions of delight :
The Ehine ! Oh ! where beneath the sun
Doth our fair river's rival run ?
Where dawns the day upon a stream
Can in such changeful beauty shine.
Outstripping Fancy's wildest dream,
Like our green glancing, glorious Rhine ?
"Born where blooms the Alpine rose,
Cradled in the Bodensee,
Forth the infant river flows.
Leaping on in childish glee.
Coming to a riper age,
He crowns his rocky cup with wine,
And makes a gallant pilgrimage
To many a ruined tower and shrine.
Strong, and swift, and M'ild, and brave,
On he speeds with crested wave ;
And spurning aught like check or stay.
Fights and foams along his way
O'er crag and shoal until his flood
Boils like manhood's hasty blood."
— Planche.
THE SOURCE OF THE RHINE.
CHAPTER I.
THE SOURCE OF THE RHINE.
Hark ! what is that trickling amidst the icy waste
that surrounds us ? We have ascended, through the
valley, past the last house and the last tree. Higher
and higher we mount, clinging close to the narrow
path ; but now the goal is reached, and the Rhein-
wald Glacier lies before vis in regal majesty.
We gaze breathless — so vast is this gigantic white
wall on which our eyes rest ; the clouds which pass
slowly over the peaks give a dignity and a depth of
coloring to the huge masses ; but in the midst, in the
wall of the glacier, is a small fissure, and from it a
slender thread of water breaks forth, white and foam-
ing, and leaps joyously to the earth. This is the
Rhine. Now that it has seen the warm light which
never penetrates to the depths of the glacier ; now
that it has once touched the blessed soil of Mother
Earth, it will stay and wander for hundreds of miles,
until from the recesses of the mountains it returns to
the bosom of the sea.
The Rhine, as is well known, is formed of two
principal arms, the Upper and the Lower Rhine,
which unite at Reichnau. A third and smaller arm.
6 THE EHINE.
which rises at Lukmanier and empftes itself at Dis-
sentis, is described as the Middle Rhine. But this
branch is unimportant, so far as historic and artistic
interest is concerned.
We will begin with the Lower Rhine. It has its
source close by where we stand. What an heroic
future has its birth here ; what an amount of life
hangs on this silver thread ! This rivulet, the future
Rhine, has torn itself free from its lonely home. It
will glide farther and farther, while, in mute sUence,
the giant mountain gazes after it as it flows away.
The cleft in the glacier-side gapes like a wound in
its breast through which its life is ebbing.
The enigma of birth, of the pain of parting, and
the rapture of freedom, are embodied here on this
solitary plain.
The course of the Lower Rhine is altogether as
wonderful as its origin ; its path is, perhaps, the
wildest that ever led from the mountains to the
valley. Who does not know the sombre name of the
Via Mala f
In Holland, where this same river flows broad and
majestic, it is the custom to ask a young man who
is a candidate for an office, or an aspirant for a
maiden's hand, whether he has " sown his wild oats ;"
and when this question is answered in the affirma-
tive, it is taken as the security for an earnest, active
life. And thus it is with the Rhine : a wild, stormy
youth precedes the wonderful, active work which it
THE SOUKCE OF THE RHINE. 7
accomplishes for the culture of mankind — its course
through the ravine of the Grisons is not a journey,
but a torrent, a cataract — it is " sowing its wild
oats."
At the very beginning of its course, scarcely half
a mile distant from its source, the battle of the young
stream with the old boulders may be seen in very
earnest ; the river is hurled precipitously into an
abyss of yawning depth 5 the rocks cover it, it has
vanished, it is buried — choked. It looks almost as
if the rocks would imprison it anew just when it has
escaped. The thunder of its roar echoes above as it
wrestles for life and for freedom. But it cuts its way
victoriously through ; and, as the infant Hercules
strangled the two snakes, so has the Rhine in its
cradle conquered the two great powers that en-
dangered its existence, namely, Ice and Rock.
Its childhood is an augur of its giant future. Even
the names Avhich accompany its origin have a mystic
grandeur, for the mountain plain which lies opposite
the source of the Lower Rhine is called " Paradise,"
and the abyss into which it falls is called " Hell."
The first elevated plain through which the Rhine
flows is called the Rheinwald Valley, and the first vil-
lage we meet with bears the name of the young
stream. In spite of the lofty and rugged situation,
we are surrounded by the most beautiful woods of fir
and larch. The inhabitants claim to be descended
from the time of Barbarossa, who colonized the valley
8 THE EHINE.
with Germans in order to guard the old military road
over the Alps. But much more remote traces of
human life are found, for in places where the earth
has been washed and worn away by the elements,
primitive household utensils have been discovered ;
and in one spot, which is more fuUy exposed, a Roman
temple must have stood. In fact, it is believed that
the glacier in the Rheinwald Valley has considerably
increased in the course of centuries, and that the cli-
mate was formerly much milder than it is now. There
have been found nests of birds which have not built
there within the memory of man. Swallows and jays
have migrated forever ; only the sparrow-hawk, gray
as the rock on which it builds its eyrie, circles in fitful
flight high over our heads ; only the rock-falcon pecks
and flits and skims shyly away when it becomes aware
of the presence of man.
Out of this solitude we step on to the next lower
plateau into the Schamser VaUey, through which the
celebrated Spliigen Pass leads from Chur to Chia-
venna. It was opened in 1822. The most remark-
able point in it is the ravine, which reaches from
Andeer to Rongella. Here the ominous words Via
Mala become a reality.
The powers of Nature which were active enough
here centuries ago to tear a yawning cleft in the close
waU of rock, inspire us, even at the present day, with
thoughts of terror. The stone walls rise precipitously
for two thousand feet, and sink perpendicularly an
THE SOURCE OF THE RHINE. 9
equal dist<ance from the road ; the space between is
so narrow that it seems as though the rocks on either
side could be grasped by the hand. This gaping slit
reaches for miles, going straight through the moun-
tain mass, and is the only foot-path for those living
on either side.
The sky hangs heavy above, the river foams be-
neath. For four centui'ies men wearied themselves
with seeking an answer to the question as to how a
road was to be made through this rugged pass. The
rocks were blasted, the river bridged, and, wherever
avalanches threatened, substantial galleries were built,
under which, at the present time, the heavily-laden
mail rushes with its jingling team.
Formerly intercourse was carried on almost entirely
by means of pack-horses, four hundred of which often
came through the village of Spliigen in the course of
a week. Then small carts with low broad wheels
were built ; but more than one of these broke through
the slender hand-rail and were hurled into the
abyss.
Fancy runs riot on this dismal road, and we unwil-
lingly give belief to the dark fables which surround
it. Often, indeed, they have an historical foundation
in the mortal struggles with which the Grisons strove
for their independence. The castle ruins that look
down from the mountains are witnesses of this.
At the Rongella ravine we have passed Zillis, and
the end of the Via Mala is near. The tunnel,
10 THE EHINE.
through which we pass hurriedly, is called the Ver-
lorenes Loch (the lost hole) ; then we look down on
Thusis, which lies smiling in the valley below, with
the Heinzenberg towering above it. As soon as we
have passed through the huge gate of the Via Mala
we reach a fresh stage of the road, lying on a lower
level, for the whole course of the Lower Rhine re-
sembles a colossal terrace of three gigantic steps : the
Rheinv/ald Valley, the Schamser Valley, and the Dom-
letscher Valley.
Through the last the road inclines downward, and
is rich in artistic beauty as well as in historical asso-
ciations ; for just here especially are crowded to-
gether those proud castles which were reared by ec-
clesiastical and worldly power for the domination of
the oppressed people. Here raged at its maddest
that struggle for possession which included not only
the property but also the liberty of the subject. Full
twenty castles crown the heights round this lovely
valley ; castles among Avhose ruins lies hid the history
of a century.
The monastery of Katzis, which stands high up on
the mountain, was founded as early as the year 680,
by a Countess of Realta, whom tradition gives as wife
to the Bishop of Chur. Realta itself carries its origin
back as far as the sixth century before Christ, when
it is said to have been built by the Tuscan prince
Rhsetus.
How boldly all these names sound in our ears :
THE SOURCE OF THE RHINE. 11
Ortenstein and Juvalta, and, above all, Rhaezuns,
which rises from the bare wave-washed rock ! This
last was for a long time the most hated bulwark
against the liberty of the people ; for the lords of
Rhsezmis, who had been ennobled by the Emperor
Sigismmid, were members of the " Black League,"
formed by the nobles in opposition to the " Gray
Covenant " (Grisons).
The feud between these two parties raged long,
until, by a bold inroad into the Schamser Valley, the
Covenanters overcame the nobles ; then a council of
the people assembled and sentenced the young Count
of Rhaezuns to death. The day for his execution was
fixed, the headsman even held his broadsword ready,
when an old retainer of the house stepped forth and
asked leave to speak. " Many of the young lord's
ancestors," he told the Covenanters, " had been mild
and humane rulers, and had often drunk jovially yviih
them in gay companionship. Their prisoner asked,
as a last favor, that this might happen now." Then
capacious goblets and stone jugs were brought filled
with wine. They valiantly pledged one another in
brimming cups ; and when the excitement was at its
height, the old retainer again began to speak, and
begged that they would spare his young master's life,
as he was willing to join the " Gray Covenant," and
would defend the liberty of the people. His prayer
was granted, and the young Lord of Rhsezuns kept
his word.
12 THE RHINE.
At the point of the road which we have now
reached, the character of the landscape surrounding us
grows softer. The distant heights still lower over us,
and dark pine woods cover the mountains ; but in the
valley there stirs a warm air, in which the finest fruits
ripen, the fields are heavy with golden grain, and sub-
stantial white houses stand about the green meadows.
The contrast on emerging from the ravine of the
Via Mala is truly striking, and we become sensible
of a feeling of relief. There the awful solitude, the
sombre colors, and the barren rock oppressed us ;
whilst here we have a peaceful, blessed path, sublime
without wildness, and rich in lovely details without
losing itself in insignificance.
Through the midst of this verdure the Rhine flows
on, becoming deep and strong, though still in every
sense a mountain stream — for no boatman would ven-
ture on it — but its bed has become broader, and over
its youthful vigor there lies a certain repose and dig-
nity. It has passed through that period of struggle
from which no important life is exempt ; that time
full of storm and affliction when all the life powers
are whirled round in the circling eddy. What the
period of struggle is to the life of a great man, so is
the Via Mala to the course of the young Rhine. This
is the turning-point in its history, where it is per-
mitted, with superhuman effort, to bear itself over all
obstacles. It is the deep psychological influence
which holds us spell-bound before this landscape.
THE SOURCE OF THE RHINE. 13
The course which the Lower Rhine travels from
its source to its junction with the Upper Rhine at
Reichnau does not amount to more than fifteen miles,
but the height through which it falls within that dis-
tance, over the three huge valley steps, shut in by the
ravine, is nearly four thousand feet. A comparison
of these figures will give the best idea how turbulent
the youth of the great stream is, and what mighty
powers are at work here.
The origin and course of the Upper Rhine, which
we will now notice, are less solemn, but still of ex-
quisite loveliness. Once more deep solitude sur-
rounds us, gray boulders are scattered about, and the
grass sprouts sparsely between the mighty masses.
No human footfall, no sound of life, no ray of sun-
light greets us, and only by straining the eye forward
and upward can the deep blue of the distant sky be
distinguished.
And yet there springs out of this deep, dead soli-
tude a life which none other equals in greatness — we
hear it gently murmuring — that murmur is the cradle-
song of the Rhine. Here, again, we stand beside its
source. The country in which we find ourselves is
the Grisons, the wildest canton of Switzerland, where,
even at the present time, the eagle soars and the bear
crawls through the clefts. We are in the midst of
that rocky momitain-chain over which the St. Gothard
towers. The glaciers are ranged around, covered
with eternal snow — Crispalt and Badus, and, in the
14 THE EHINE.
distance, Furka. It is the original watershed be-
tween the stormy, dark North Sea and the smiHng
Mediterranean. It is one of those wonderful places
where Nature hides her mightiest work in solitude.
Three streamlets form the source of the Upper
Rhine. One comes straight down from the crag, the
second flows timidly along the earth, the third forces
its way through the impenetrable rocks. The small
basin where they first unite is called Lake Toma. Its
length is scarcely more than three hundred paces, and
its breadth scarcely two hundred; its depth also is in-
considerable ; but the dai'k mirror stands out in won-
drous beauty of color, and from the clefts an Alpine
flower peeps, here and there, among the snow.
Here the waters gather quietly, and prepare, as it
were, for a rush down over the stony mountains to
Chiamunt and Selva, until the Middle Rhine flows
into them at Dissentis. The village itself lies deep
in the valley ; the sound of the vesper bell comes
down from the chapel which stands up among the
green meadows.
The peasant of whom we ask our way looks won-
deringly at us. The language in which he gives us
information is sl patois, and only fragments of it are
intelligible. The countenance of this solitary man is
of a harsh, rough character, but still not wanting in
truthfulness. When we are seated in the little circle
of the village inn, we hear for the first time all that
has happened here in the olden times.
THE SOURCE OF THE RHINE. 15
Dissentis was not always so lonely as it is at the
present day. For a whole century after Attila,
the Great Scourge of God, had been carried to his
grave, dispersed bands of his nomadic army hung
about the neighborhood, until the Rhsetians conspired
against them and exterminated them to the last man.
On the hills which surround the village the disciples
of St. Benedict built themselves a dwelling-place,
which they inhabited for more than a thousand years,
hidden among the peaceful mountains, far away from
the stream of time and history. Then time came to
them in the shape of the wild soldiers of the Repub-
lic, with their flapping tricolors, who burnt down
their village and destroyed their cloisters.
Although the Rhine does not always run beside us
on the path Avhich now leads us from Dissentis to
Ilanz, it is still our guide, for, even where we cannot
see it because of the fir woods and rocks which hide
it from our view, we, nevertheless, hear close beside
us the roar with which it beats out its foamy path.
On the road we meet with little villages, often com-
posed of only a few weather-beaten cottages — at one
a mountain stream rushes down from the hills, and at
another the beat of a forge-hammer rings through
the silent depths of the wood. We may mention that
trout-fishing is very fine here, fish weighing as much
as twenty pounds being caught at times.
Just before we enter the village street of Triins
there stands the trunk of a renowned old tree ; it was
16 THE EHINE.
once a maple with rustling boughs, under which, more
than four hundred years ago, assembled the founders
of the " Gray Covenant," who gave their name to this
part of the country (the Grisons). The little chapel
which stands just above is consecrated to its memory.
Whatever relics of that time remain in the way of
records and treaties are preserved in the old court-
house at Ilanz, the first town on the bank of the
Rhine.
The road has already lost much of its former rough-
ness ; it leads over broad, green meadows studded
with thick alder-trees, and even the hamlets that lie
away from the road have a sweet charm that induces
us to loiter. The little village that stands near the
so-called '' Forest Houses," where the road takes a
wide sweep to the left, is called Flims ; on every side
are murmuring streams running to the Rhine. Before
us lies the Flimser Lake, with its pale green water —
a sunny idyl, where the herdsman lies dreaming in
the rich grass, with his charges pasturing lazily be-
side him. But the river lies away to the right ; we
can hear the sound of its ripple coming over the sum-
mit of the wood, whilst now and then an island cov-
ered with trees rises out of the stream, or the ruins
of a fallen castle look down on us from the heights.
Here also we meet more than once with witnesses
of a cruel period of oppression. Prominent among
them is Hohen Triins, the history of which reaches
back to the time of the Merovingians. The village
XLbe Dia flDala, Swit5erlan&.
THE SOURCE OF THE RHINE. 17
lies far below the castle, leaning as it were timidly on
the slope of the mountains.
And now the landscape again begins to change.
The broad masses of v/ood are drawn thickly together
on the banks of the stream, and it is veiled in sombre
color. We no longer wander through the open val-
ley, as at Ilanz, shaded by hazel and maple boughs,
but a dark pine wood environs us, and through the
side valleys which open up to right and left of us
runs that rugged character peculiar to the great
mountain-chains. Even the waves partake of this
character, for they rush forward with new power,
with fresh impetuosity, as though approaching a long-
desired goal, as though longing for a speedy reunion.
Already a strange, exciting element mixes its darker
waves with the light transparent green peculiar to the
waters of the Upper Rhine. We are near the mouth
of the Lower Rhine, and the back -flow of its waters
reaches far up the other stream. The noise of the
waves grows louder, and from out the surrounding
verdure peeps a castle with proud battlements.
Pressing on, the waters reach the two bridges of
Reichenau, the first of which, a quaint wooden struc-
ture, from Avhich wheels and footsteps echo like thun-
der, spans the Upper Rhine only ; whilst the second
lies farther down, where the two streams have already
joined: the one, light, green, and clear — for its course
was serene ; the other with a darker tide — for its
path, the Via Mala, was one of strife and storm.
Vol. I. -2
18 THE EHINE.
But now it is over ; they are two brothers who, after
long separation, meet and recognize each other. Now
they will go through life united — henceforth the world
has but one Rhine.
THE YOUTH OF THE EHINE. 19
CHAPTER II.
THE YOUTH OF THE RHINE.
The Bishops of Chur were once the Lords of
Reichenau, and it was they Avho built the old castle,
which afterwards became the property of the Lords
of Planta. If we visit the beautiful thickly-grown
garden, we stand opposite the junction of the two
arms of the Rhine. The walls of the castle have
offered a shelter to many renowned guests.
In the college such scholars as Benjamin Constant
were educated, and amongst the teachers has been
found even a crowned head — he who was afterwards
the citizen-king, Louis Philippe. His appointment
happened in a curious way. Herr Chabaud, to whom
it had been awarded by the principal of the establish-
ment, was unexpectedly absent ; so the young fugi-
tive took his name and his office, after having suc-
cessfully passed a difficult examination. The de-
partments he undertook were history, geography,
mathematics, and the French language. His salary
amounted to only four hundred francs ; but, poor as
this life appeared here, it was Paradise as compared
with France, for there the king but a few months be-
fore had mounted the scaftbld, and in the palace of
20 THE RHINE.
Versailles, -where he had once seen only slaves bow-
ing before him, the bold Jacobins now kept watch.
But the firebrand of 1789 did not remain confined
to the hearth that kindled it ; its glare fell even over
the quiet, solitary valleys of Switzerland — even there
were felt the convulsions of that death-struggle. It
had exhausted itself in excess and despotism, and
now it gathered all its weary poAvers together for a
last act, for a new redemption of the human race.
But the act soon became powerless, and the fruit of
the Revolution was not the universal peace that had
been looked for, but universal war.
It was a fearful time : the century drew its last
breath weltering in blood ; even to the banks of the
young Rhine, where the pathway scarcely offered a
footing for the weary pack-horse, armies penetrated
— foreign armies, who knew neither the road nor the
language. The Russians were ranged under Suwar-
row, the wild darling of the Cossacks. Massena led
the soldiers of the Republic, with their fluttering tri-
colors, to the sound of the Marseillaise — " Aliens,
enfants de la patrie ;" and opposed to him stood the
Archduke Charles, with his motley array from Aus-
tria. This leader was greeted with cheers in varied
tongues as he rode down his closely-packed ranks.
What a whirl, what contempt of death, what lust of
war had the age given birth to, to bring half the
nations of Europe together to battle in this perilous
corner of the earth !
THE YOUTH OF THE RHINE. 2 1
At Martinsloch the Russians refused to obey the
word of command ; it seemed impossible to penetrate
the huge masses of ice and snow. When Suwarrow,
who was in the rear with Prince Constantino, heard
the ominous news, he dashed forward to the head of
the troops. It Avas supposed he would shoot down
the mutineers by hundreds, but instead of that, with
knitted brow, he abruptly directed them to dig a deep
grave in the snow. The old soldiers obeyed him in
silence, and when the grave was ready, he tore off
his cloak, and in his rough way gave the following
order : " Throw me in — bury me on the spot. You
will no longer be my children, and I am no longer
your father. What can I do but die ?" This speech
acted like an electric shock on the old guard, who,
with a wild shout, surrounded their general, and
swore to follow him faithfully wherever he might
choose to lead.
The inhabitants of the country themselves were
sometimes stirred both in heart and arm by such in-
stances as these, and Ems, which we reach just be-
yond Reichenau, is associated with a somewhat rare
deed of heroism. In March, 1799, Massena took
possession of the Lucienstieg pass, which was re-
garded as the single stronghold of the Grisons, and
the exasperation at this misfortune was increased by
the insolence of the conquerors. The feeling of re-
volt spread like lightning through the whole valley
of the Upper Rhine, until at Ems it came to an open
22 THE RHINE.
conflict. There the French had placed their guns in
a strong fortified position, and all idea of capturing
them seemed so hopeless that men shrank from the
attempt.
A woman, however, effected that which daunted
the stronger sex. Anna Maria Buhler, a girl of
twenty-one years of age, placed herself at the head
of the besiegers, advanced on the French, and took
the first piece. With Herculean strength she seized
the horses by their bridles, and with a cudgel un-
horsed the young officer who had command of the
battery. Roused by her bravery, the Grisons rushed
forward, and almost the whole of the French artillery
was destroyed.
Thus at the very source of the Rhine stands that
gloomy word War, and we become more and more
familiar with it the farther the river's course leads
through the broad plain ; indeed, we are reminded of
the fairy tale where the good fairies all surrounded
the cradle of the infant-king, and each laid in it her
gift ; but a wicked fairy also appeared, and added a
curse. kSo, as the course of the Rhine extends, a
hundred blessings of greatness and renown are pre-
sented to our view ; but that curse. War, which Fate
laid also in its cradle, is constantly appearing before
us as a dreadful reality.
Just beyond Ems is Chur, the capital of the canton
of the Grisons, a " gray " weather-beaten mountain
town. We see before us old Roman towers with
THE YOUTH OF THE RHINE. 23
enigmatical names, a church that has stood for more
than a thousand years, narrow streets over whose
stony pavements the heavy mail rumbles, and, tower-
ing over all, is the lofty Kalanda. Foreign sounds
greet our ears on every side, for this is the centre
where all the roads of the Grisons meet : here is the
gathering-point of all that immense traffic Avhich goes
over the Spliigen and St. Bernard to the south.
The history of the town is as gloomy as its walls,
which in the time of the Romans bore the name of
Curia Bhcetoriim. The Emperor Constantine set up
his winter-quarters here, which first led to the enlarg-
ing of the city ; and here, as early as 451, Christi-
anity was established. The Bishop's Palace stands
high, and, together with the Cathedral and the build-
ings belonging to it, has almost the appearance of a
bold fortress. In the quarter of the town which sur-
rounds this priestly stronghold the Catholics still pre-
ponderate.
In the lower town— which is rich in original archi-
tecture, in pointed gables and dark archways — ac-
tive, arduous life abounds, and the houses reach far
into the valley, out of which the river Plessur rushes
to the Rhine. The population, which two hundred
years ago was exclusively Roman, the town being
called not Chur, but Quera, is now considerably
changed, and a large industrial trade is carried on,
though sometimes it may be thought that the stub-
bornness of the soil is reflected, as it were, in the
24 THE EHINE.
character of its people. This may readily be ac-
counted for, for a national character which springs
out of free unmolested action forms itself differently
from one which is the outburst of oppression.
Beyond Chur we meet, as before, with witnesses
of the period of national tyranny ; lonely castles,
whose very names announce the hardness and inso-
lence which dwelt in them — Ki'ottenstein, Halden-
stein, Leichtenstein — frown on us as Ave quietly follow
our path along the valley, thinking here of a song,
there of a beautiful maiden who once looked down
from those balconies.
Passing on, however, we soon find ourselves in
quite a different scene ; we are in the midst of the
" vortex of fashion," the high life of the present day
and its busy hum. We are at the baths of Ragatz,
which in the summer season of the year are the
fashion, and they have within the last thirty years
attained a European reputation.
The warm spring which rises at Pfaffers, and
whose Avater is conveyed in iron pipes for nearly half
a mile to Ragatz, was discovered by a huntsman
about the middle of the thirteenth century. It be-
longed to the renowned order of Benedictines, who
were enthroned high up on the mountain in one of
the strongest and oldest abbeys in the kingdom.
For a long time the spring was enclosed in a little
frail hut, similar to those depicted as bath-houses of
the middle ages, and the sick crowded to it from all
Batbs ot pfaffers.
THE YOUTH OF THE RHINE. 25
quarters to be healed. About a hundred and fifty
years ago the abbot raised a new buikiing in the ex-
pansive style peculiar to the time, and especially popu-
lar with the cloister. Noav, however, that the whole
institution is the property of the State, gigantic pal-
aces stand in the usual splendor of the modern Spa,
and fifty thousand visitors come here annually to be
healed.
But there is, beside this outward comfort, a beauty
of Nature, which also silently exerts its healing
power. The Flascherbei'g, covered here and there
with dark woods amidst cloven rock, looks doAvn into
the valley through which the Rhine rushes hastily ;
and above the rock the snowy summit of the Falknis
shines with silver brightness. That deep cutting over
which the road leads to Bregenz, fortified with a strong
bulwark, opposite the imperial frontier, is the St.
Lucienstieg ; the two castles whose ruins peep down
from among the bushes are Freudenberg and Nidberg.
The latter is particularly rich in legends, one among
them being especially known by its gloomy fascina-
tion and the passion which it reveals.
The Knight of Nidberg was dreaded far and wide;
his towers seemed to be inaccessible, and his strength
invincible, whenever an enemy attempted to besiege
him. But that which valor had not been able to
achieve was accomplished by the treachery of a woman,
driven to revenge by outraged love. She Avell knew
his chamber and his deep slumbers ; and she led the
26 THE RHINE.
foe by a secret path up the steep castle hill till they
stood opposite the battlements.
There they could see into the open chamber,
where the invincible knight lay sleeping ; the gentle
breeze played in at the window, and the full moon-
light fell on the closed lids and heaving breast. It
was scarcely five paces across, but neither bridge nor
hand stretched over the yawning abyss which parted
the sleeper and his foe ; but the arrow has wings, and
will find neither the abyss too deep nor the way too
long. " Fix your arrow, and aim true," whispered
the enraged woman in the foeman's ear. For a mo-
ment he stood half-terrified on the edge of the rock,
so powerful was the form of the sleeper ; but then
the whirring bolt sped through the window ; it struck
its aim, and the knight passed from life to death.
If Ragatz, with all its splendor, makes a delightful
impression on us, the grandeur which we meet with
in its wildest form as soon as Ave have passed Pfaffers
does so still more. Here the Tamina, which falls
into the Rhine at Ragatz, has worn itself a path
through an awful ravine ; and here — not outside, in
the smiling landscape — lies the secret of the old heal-
ing spring.
Dark walls of rock which rise precipitously six
hundred feet on either side confine the rushing tor-
rent, and have an inexpressibly gloomy appearance,
even at summer noon. The narrow overhanging
path, washed by the restless flood, clings painfully to
THE YOUTH OF THE RHINE. 27
the left. In about three-quarters of an hour Ave reach
the bath-house which the monks erected here in
1704, a long dark building in whose passages the
rays of the sun fall but sparely. There is accommo-
dation here for many guests, for it was the only asy-
lum for strangers before Ragatz had developed into a
bathing-place.
But we have not yet seen the most impressive part
of the ravine, for heaven still casts its blue gaze down
on us, and though confined, we are yet in open Na-
ture. Behind the bath-house, however, where the
path continues for about five hundred steps, we pass
right into the interior, into the very bowels of the
rock. Here the ravine becomes a chasm ; and even
if the July sun be shining outside, it is damp and
dark within. On every side we are surrounded by
rocks, which appear to threaten us with approaching
.destruction.
We proceed timidly along the path, till suddenly
a steaming vapor rushes towards us, and it seems as
though it must stifle and kill if we step within the
forbidden circle. Not destruction, however, but
blessing, rises out of these obscure depths ; for here
lies the beneficent spring to which thousands owe
their restoration to health and life.
Truly, it is marvellous ! The deepest creative
powers of Nature have not their origin on the bright
sunny soil, but, as it were, in the darkness, and drag
themselves through to the light with supernatural
28 THE EHINE.
struggle. Who does not think involuntarily of the
great minds of the human race ? One of them stands
especially near to our memory in this place, and his
name shall be gratefully spoken before we leave the
spot — it is Schelling, the philosopher, who lies buried
at Ragatz. His monument in the churchyard there
was erected by King Max II., of Bavaria, who called
himself a scholar of this noble master.
It is said that the devil once took up his abode in
this narrow ravine above Ragatz, where the hot
springs rise, and lying in wait for a victim he saw
Anna Vogtli pass.
He knew that she was a witch, and spent her
nights on the mountains, when the moon was full,
gathering herbs and weaving baneful spells. So he
promised her great success in finding what she needed
for her black art if she would only go down into the
little church and throw away the holy wafer that was
on the altar.
The girl, who had long since given up going to
mass, and had already sold her soul to the devil, did
not consider this a hard task, and started immediately
to obey Satan.
She stole into the church, but no sooner had she
laid her hand upon the sacred Host than the ground
shook, the thunder rolled, and the lightning gleamed,
until the mountains began to waken to the sounds.
Terrified, Anna Vogtli rushed out of the sacred
place, throwing away the holy wafer as she ran. It
THE YOUTH OF THE RHINE. 29
fell on a thorn-bush, which immediately put out a
silvery rose, whose petals, closing round the wafer,
protected it from harm.
A flock of sheep, passing, reverently bent the
knee, and a wolf, springing out of a thicket to fall
upon the sheep, lay down like a lamb beside them.
The peasants, attracted by these miracles, plucked
the silvery rose, and laid it upon the altar of the
Church of Ettes Wyl, where it has performed many
miracles.
If we continue to go northwards we soon reach —
at Sargans — the place where, in prehistoric times,
there lay a diverghig point of the Rhine. For, as
many geologists maintain, the course of the river did
not originally lead it to Lake Constance, but turned
left to Wallenstadt and Zurich, where fewer obstacles
lay in its path. This opinion is founded from ob-
servations of numerous marks in the rocks, by which
the old river-bed may still be identified ; and the
watershed between Lake Constance and the Lake of
Zurich is, at the present time, so low that it is not
difficult to believe this supposition. In the fearful in-
undation of 1618, the chronicles tell us the water-
level of the Rhine had already risen so high that it
was feared that the river would break away a second
time to Lake Wallenstadt.
The whole valley which we now pass through, as
far as the huge basin of Lake Constance, is called,
igar excellence^ the Rhme Valley. The proud castle
30 THE KHINE.
of Werdenberg reminds us of the lords who governed
it. The tower hangs, like an eyrie, high up on the
rock 5 and here lived the old counts, as quarrelsome
and as fond of plundering as the Montforts, from
whom they sprang. Now, indeed, they have slept for
many long years in their stone coffins, but formerly
their banners floated proudly on the battlements. The
one over Werdenberg was black, that over Sargans
was white, and those of Vorarlberg and Swabia were
red. How strange that the colors of the mightiest
race that ever ruled on the banks of the young Rhine
should compose the banner which, hundreds of years
later, set free the stream, and now waves from every
steamer that plies from the Rhine to the sea !
But, we are reminded as our feet tread its soil, the
great kingdom has forgotten one little spot, and that
is the little land of Leichtenstein. For half a cen-
tury it was the Benjamin of the holy German Con-
federation, and now, though that good body is dead,
no one has adopted the blooming orphan. The five-
and-fifty soldiers stand at peace, the faithful subjects
live without a state under the Castle of Vaduz, with
few cares and few taxes, whilst the father of the
country tarries in his Austrian possessions. Vallis
dulcis — that is the fragrant root from which the name
of Vaduz springs.
As we approach Lake Constance the valley grows
broader •, the mountains recede noticeably, and in the
place of wild beauty striving against cultivation, we
THE YOUTH OF THE RHINE. 31
have lavish fertihty. It is not improbable that, as
Strabo relates, in his time the whole Rhine Valley
was covered with marshes, between which the stream
ran in its deep bed. The land owes its fertility to
the deposit of mud which was left behind on hill and
valley.
Vines were planted in the Rhine Valley as early
as 918, and the market towns scattered at distances
in the valley were soon among the most charming
places of South Germany. It is true that fire and
drought, endless war and discord, intruded amongst
these plenteous blessings ; but they could only de-
stroy what was created, and not the creative power
which is here specially peculiar to Nature. She gave
her gifts wdllingly, with a full, indeed prodigal, hand;
the fields in the valley were covered with heavy
crops, and over the hills the vine clambered, until,
indeed, it became almost unvalued from its very
abundance.
The time of the vintage w^as appointed by the com-
mon council, and also the price of the wine, which
even at the beginning of our own century was re-
stricted to seven kreutzers the measure. The sup-
ply was indeed almost inexhaustible, and the prox-
imity of the Rhine made it impossible to dig cellars
which would remain free from water. A great por-
tion of the harvest therefore had to be disposed of
abroad, especially in the frontier land of Appenzell,
which gave in exchange the produce of its cattle.
32 THE RHINE.
Boats plied to and fro over the stream, and in quite
early times the markets which were held by imperial
privilege in the Rhine Valley obtained a fine trade.
No ship floated more proudly over the blue surface
of Lake Constance than the great market-ship from
Rheineck, no other booty was more eagerly watched
for by the hunting or pirate-ship which cruised about
the lake filled with marauding troops*
It was natural that so much wealth and prosperity
should strengthen the courage and the self-conscious-
ness of the citizens — and indeed they needed all their
courage ; for at one time they had to defend them-
selves against a governor who cruelly oppressed the
people, and at another against insolent neighbors who
broke over their frontier in company with a foreign
power.
Then came the Reformation, whose mighty influ-
ence was felt even in the most distant valleys. In
the middle of the winter of 1528 the people of the
Rhine Valley were called upon to say which religion
each man would adopt ; the alarm-bells were rung,
and the new teaching made a triumphal entry to their
sound.
In the meantime the conflict became more fierce,
and the strife of minds became the strife of arms,
when the Thirty Years' War broke out in full blaze
even in the provinces of the Rhine VaUey. The
Evangelicals attacked not only the Imperialists, but
also their own countrymen ; the corpses which the
Xlbe XTamina IRiver at IRagat.v
THE YOUTH OF THE RHINE. 33
Rliine Wcashed a.shore lay iinburicd all around, food
for the famished and maddened dogs. The prices
will show to what a pitch famine, and consequently
usury and extortion, had risen : the ducat at that time
was Avorth seven florins, and a quarter of corn cost
five and a half florins.
In the wars of the eighteenth century also the
Rhine Valley suffered severely, and it was long before
those quiet, blessed days returned of which the river
Rhine is now the witness.
The last great stronghold, which stood command-
ingly at the exit of the valley, was Rheineck — a
fortress the possession of which was contested even
in the time of Stauff'en by the Bishop of Constance
and the Abbot of St. Galle. Noav, of the two cas-
tles, the one is levelled to the ground, and the vine
grows luxuriantly on the hill where it once stood ; of
the other, nothing but the ruins look down into the
valley. But below, on the Rhine — which at this
place first becomes navigable for large vessels —
the little toAvn lies strong and well built. It has a
fine hall of commerce for its brisk trade, espe-
cially in timber, which is floated down from Chur in
rafts.
The proximity of the mouth of the river is an-
nounced by the depression of the banks, which are
covered with thick sedge ; barely a mile more, and
the noblest of rivers vanishes from our sight, and the
blue shimmering surface of Lake Constance lies be-
VoL. I.— 3
34 THE EHINR
fore us. The stormy history of the upheaval of this
lovely lake is thousands of years old, but its smiling
mirror ever greets us with the sparkle of eternal
youth.
LAKE CONSTANCE. 35
CHAPTER III.
LAKE CONSTANCE.
Standing on the banks of Lake Constance we feel
that we have before us the most beautiful lake which
Germany possesses. The snow-capt mountains of
Switzerland tower around ; on one side is the mighty
Santis, on the other is the Kurfirsten chain, with its
cloven summits. Cheerfid towns stand on the shore,
and the breeze carries the sound of morning bells
over the blue surface.
What wealth of color gratifies our eyes, what a
delicious, refreshing air fans us as we gaze over the
strand where yonder boat is tossing! The water
glistens like an emerald with the sun shining through
it. Farther off it is deeper, and the strong north
wind raises the waves, so that the sail flaps and the
foam washes the sides. Hark hoAv it rustles ! — a
firm hand must guide that rudder, for beneath the
keel the lake is of an unfathomable depth.
Of all the German lakes no other offers so great a
variety of sounds : on its shores at times we hear the
tender song of the wavelets, and at another the roar-
ing hoAvl of the hurricane ; and the painter will find
from rosy twilight to stormy midnight as great a
36 THE EHINE.
variety of colors and tints here as he can possibly
desire. In these waters marvellous beauty is joined
to a frightful power such as Nature only, and not
man, can combine, and herein lies the unknown fas-
cination Avhich Lake Constance, in common with all
great lakes, exercises over us.
Lakes are the secret Avorking-places of Nature.
Here, where no human eye can penetrate, inestima-
ble blessing and utter desolation seem to flow in a
way which we can neither understand nor control —
at times the lake rises in a glassy flood nearly a foot
over the banks, and then hastily recedes ; often a
great volume of water is pressed into the small north-
ern arm, till the moist south wind breaks over the
mountains and throAvs it back into the broad open
basin. Then the flood is stirred to its very depths,
no boat is safe upon it, and even the strongest steamer
scarcely dares leave the harbor ! In this way it is
swayed by the warm Avind which bloAvs over the
mountains in the spring and autumn, and Avhen win-
ter comes the frost lays the waves with its icy breath
till they remain quiet and motionless, as if they had
been wrapt in sleep. The effect on a wild December
night, when the imprisoned flood knocks at its dun-
geon door and forces it, so that the ice bursts from
one bank to the other with a deafening roar, Avhen
once heard is never to be forgotten.
The lower lake freezes annually, but the whole
surface is so rarely covered that the years when
LAKE CONSTANCE. 37
such an event has happened are historical. An ex-
ample of this phenomenon occurred in 1695, when a
great shooting festival was held on the ice, and passed
off merrily.
Gustave Schwab has depicted the terrible side of
the picture in his well-known ballad. Who does not
remember the horseman who hunted for hours over
the snow-covered plain — the plain w^hich Avas Lake
Constance ! But figures only can give a correct idea
of its size and the scope which it offers to the ele-
ments. It is two hundred and seven miles in area,
forty miles long, seven and a half miles wdde, and, in
some places, eight hundred and twenty-five feet deep.
Through the midst of this mass of water the Rhine
flows invisibly. Nature has taken it once more into
her quiet, hidden sanctuary, as a mother takes her
wayward boy into her silent chamber, from which he
emerges grave and moved, M^ith his whole character
changed. Such an hour of quiet lies here. The
lake is the secret chamber where the change in its
inmost being is completed, and when the stream has
once more left the lake the Rhine has started on a
noble, active, dignified life, the wildness and danger
of youth being for ever left behind.
It is lost to sight, but though we do not see it, we
still feel its tide, and we are conscious of the Rhine
current running through the water of the lake. The
color of the shore is a yellow green, such as the old
legends describe the banks of the Rhine, and yonder,
38 THE RHINE.
in the waveless tide, we feel a slight heaving motion,
Avhich is the heart-throb of the great stream running
through the depths below.
The charm which this spot possesses attracted men
in very early times, and they penetrated the wilder-
ness, sword in hand, to build their towns on the shore
— the strong constantly giving place to the stronger.
Even now, as if in remembrance of the many alter-
nations of conquerors, the lake is the boundary of
many countries — Austria, Bavaria, Wurtemburg,
Baden, and Switzerland, all have a share and touch
the water of this inland sea. It is a gem too costly
for the possession of a single kingdom, and five coun-
tries with dark wood and golden grain form the set-
ting for this glittering jewel.
The old Romans were the first who came to con-
test the dominion of the Rhsetians, and the first town
that adorned the shore was Bregenz. Both Strabo
and Pliny knew it under the name of Brigantium, by
which name the lake also Avas distinguished ; its pres-
ent designation is of much more recent date.
A Roman writer of the fourth century gives a de-
scription of Lake Constance which is very striking
in its powerful simplicity. At that time gigantic
forests reached down to the water's edge, and heavy
mists hung over the lake, so that it was with diffi-
culty that the axe hewed the first road to the shore.
But through the " lazy repose of the lake " (says the
narrator) there flows a river with strong current and
LAKE CONSTANCE. 39
" foaming eddy/' which carries its waters to the out-
let, unmixed Avith those of the lake. In the finest
bay in the lake stood the old castle of Brigantium,
all wild and desolate, but strong and well protected,
and a prosperous toAvn grew up under its shelter.
But its prosperity did not last long 5 fresh races
came and were in their turn superseded by others,
until at last the first missionaries came over from Ire-
land and introduced gentler manners. They were St.
Gallus and Columba ; they also first set foot in the
south-eastern part of the country, where the towns
of Bregenz and Lindau now stand ; here lay the key
for the civilization of the whole district.
We too, then, will begin our description at Lindau,
whose youthful image presents itself to us in these
later days in its beautiful name. At the present
time, when commerce has constructed iron roads
everyAvhere, and made firm land even where nature
thought fit to place water, we scarcely remark that
Lindau stands in the middle of an island, for the rail-
way carries us into the very heart of the toAvn. But
at the time when our ancestors gave the place its
name the green island Avas AVashed all round by the
blue Avaters, and no bridge led over from the main-
land to the sunny meadoAVS (Au), Avhere the Avind
played among the old lindens.
The first buildings raised by German hands were
the church and the cloister, Avhich were erected in the
time of the Carlo vingians, and numerous dwellings
40 THE KHINE.
were soon erected near them. Long before Rudolf
of Hapsburg mounted the throne the town had be
come a free city, and its situation being accessible,
commerce and traffic increased unusually fast. It
had close relations with the most powerful cities of
the kingdom, and its political influence was known
even with the German house in Venice. Its activity
manifested itself intellectually and in no small de-
gree when the first note of the great Reformation
sounded.
The Thirty Years' War was the first turning-point
in the fate of the town. In order to keep off war, it
was fortified and surrounded by strong outAvorks, but
these precautions only invited the attacks of the
enemy. The wrathful General Wrangel threw thou-
sands of shot into the beleaguered town, which was
defended by the Imperialists ; and, though he re-
treated, followed by the jeers of the citizens, without
having accomplished his aim, their welfare was im-
paired for centuries.
That time had gone forever when (as Achilles
Gasser proudly relates) more than fourteen hundred
vehicles, and people from thirty towns, appeared at
the weekly market of Lindau. The population
dwindled as the wealth disappeared, and want greatly
helped on the downfall, when the town fell into the
hands of the Bavarians in 1806.
After these disasters every possible effort was
made to raise its fortunes again ; streets and gardens
LAKE CONSTANCE. 41
were laid out, and the varied forms of modern prog-
ress were quickly litted into the frame of the antique
picturesque bastions, part of which is still preserved.
The most important points of the modern town are
naturally the railway, which runs from the mainland
to the island over a massive viaduct, and the harbor,
which is noAv the finest on the lake.
On approaching the town by water, two prominent
objects are seen towering above it — the handsome
light-house, with its .indented top, and the old lion of
Wittelsbacher, which keeps its lordly Avatch on a lofty
pedestal. Not far from it stands the bronze monu-
ment of the noble Max II., who died in 1864, the
prince to whom Lindau specially owes its prosperity.
But the greatest increase of prosperity has been
in the lake traffic, for there are now many steamers
used in the service. Amongst them there is a ferry-
boat Avhich carries trains bodily over to the Swiss
side. The first steamboat was built by Church, an
American, in the year 1824. It bore the name of
King William of Wurtemburg, who had it built, and
it remained in use till 1847.
Previous to this there were vessels on Lake Con-
stance which were adapted for the transport of huge
burdens, and frequently carried one hundred to one
hundred and fifty tons at a time. They were fitted
with a gigantic sail composed of some six hundred
yards of canvas, which bore them , slowly over to
Constance.
42 THE EHINE.
Lindau was for many centuries the centre for the
fishing as well as of the shipping trade ; the inhabi-
tants of the town, indeed, had a monopoly of the
former ; and on the " fish days/' which were ap-
pointed annually, it was agreed how and where the
productive right should be used. The lake abounds
in trout and in a small fish called Felchen (Avhich
we do not know) ', and even at the present day
thousands of the so-called " Gang fish " are caught in
the spring, and sent in large quantities throughout
Germany.
Lindau has long since lost all these privileges, but
it has exchanged them for advantages which are in-
finitely more valuable ; the fishery is almost free at
the present time, and the permission to enjoy the
sport is granted with praiseworthy liberality to the
visitors to the lake. No one complains, and the
fishes, who alone might off"er an objection, are dumb.
Thus everywhere we feel the action of progress,
but many traces remain of those old primitive days
when the canoes of the Alemanni crossed over from
the mainland. The so-called " Heathen Wall " is
supposed to be a fragment of the gigantic watch-
tower which Tiberius erected here ; the church of
St. Peter, Avhich is used at the present time as a
granary, is a memorial of the Carlovingian period ;
and the Town Hall illustrates the beautiful style of
the old imperial town. The arms of Lindau are still
a linden on a white field, and the most beautiful point
LAKE CONSTANCE. 43
in the neighborhood, the Lindenhof, preserves the
idea of the verdant origin of its title.
Bregenz is the neighboring town to Lindau, and,
ahhovigh the boundary of two great empires parts
them, they are miited by nature, whose divisions are
not those of man. If Lindau is an island town, Bre-
genz is, in the fullest sense of the word, a gulf town ;
and while the one has been sometimes compared to
Venice, the other has been called the German Genoa
or Naples.
We, however, will have nothing to do with com-
parisons, but give ourselves up without reserve to the
pleasure which this beautiful piece of country awakens
in every sensitive soul — we will not dwell upon imagi-
nary pictures, for before us lies the loveliest picture
of reality.
The soft blue bank of the lake bends crescent-wise,
and the town rises towards the mountains in light
terraces, overshadowed by the lofty Pfanders and the
Gebhardsberg, with its little glistening church. Old
forests of beech and fir lie around, though many a
gap has been made by the axe. Mountain town and
coast town are here united.
The oldest part is that Avhich lies upon a hill sloping
gently on three sides. It is generally agreed that the
Roman castle stood here, and the extent of the former
town has been determined by many researches and
discoveries. Burial-grounds and beautiful mosaic
pavements, statues and metal-work have been dis-
44 THE RHINE.
covered, and everywhere rusty coins, bearing the
images of the Csesars, have been brought to light
after the feet of the Huns, for thousands of years,
had trodden them into the earth.
Here, as on the Riviera, the oldest part of the town
retires as much as possible into the land, and is hud-
dled together on the slope of the mountain, while the
new parts stretch towards the shore for the sake of
trade. The modern busy Bregenz stands below, on
the harbor and on the railroad. This is a striking
proof how social development follows historical de-
velopment. Formerly the existence of the town de-
pended on protection ; now it depends on traffic. At
its first building that point had to be selected which
was the safest ; the present growth seeks that situa-
tion which seems to be the most accessible.
It is true that beauty is sometimes lost sight of,
and in the erection of barracks and huge store-
houses architecture sinks from the domain of Art to
an arithmetical calculation. So many square feet,
and so many rooms, must be provided at so much
rent. These considerations are rarely compatible with
the architectural genius of _^the present day.
Even on the coast of Bregenz, therefore, we are
not altogether safe from such defects, though the ob-
jects which disturb us are exceptions. Taken alto-
gether, it is not easy to find a little town which strikes
us so pleasantly ; for, let builders do what they may,
the great architect who designed the ground-plan was
LAKE CONSTANCE. 45
Nature, and human hands can hardly help following
her lines. The population of the town is small, and
has a somewhat official air, from the fact that every
possible dignitary is to be found here, Bregenz being
the capital of Vorarlberg. But other dignitaries
have also established themselves in the town, whose
distinctions do not depend upon imperial decrees, for
Lake Constance has always possessed a special at-
traction for poets.
Gustave Schwab has sung its praises, and the great
poet of gloom, Hermann Ling, has often delighted in
his visits to its shores. Victor Scheffel, the fortunate
master of Ekkehart, lived in Rudolfszell, and in
Bregenz Alfred Meissner wrote his well-known ro-
mances. How the charm of a country increases, and
the delight of a journey through it is enhanced, when
we can rest beside the hospitable hearths of remark-
able men ! Adelaide Procter, the English poetess,
has sung of the Maid of Bregenz — how, three hun-
dred years ago, she was forced to leave her native
town to serve in the Swiss valleys. As the years
went by she became attached to her new home, and
her childhood in the Tyrol seemed to fade from her
mind ; but one day she overheard her neighbors talk-
ing of a plot against Bregenz, and boasting that the
town would be surprised and captured before the dawn
of another day.
Then the maid's love of country asserted itself,
and she stole silently away to the stable, saddled a
46 THE EHINE.
fleet horse, mounted, and turned his head towards
Bregenz, to warn the inhabitants. On thej fly
through the night, horse and rider. She hears the
bells ring eleven while she is still far from her jour-
ney's end ; she urges her horse, and on they go,
faster ; and just as midnight strikes they reach
the city gate :
"And out come serf and soldier
To meet the news she hrings.
" Bregenz is saved ! ere daylight
Her battlements are manned ;
Defiance greets the army
That marches on the land.
And if to deeds heroic
Should endless fame be paid,
Bregenz does well to honor
The noble Tyrol maid.
"Three hundred years are vanished,
And yet upon the hill
An old stone gateway rises,
To do her honor still.
And there, when Bregenz women
Sit spinning in the shade,
They see in quaint old carving
The Charger and the Maid.
"And when, to guard old Bregenz,
By gateway, street, and tower,
The warder paces all night long
And calls each passing hour ;
'Nine,' 'ten,' 'eleven,' he cries aloud,
And then (O crown of Fame !)
When midnight pauses in the skies
He calls the maiden's name !"
LAKE CONSTANCE. 47
Bregenz is at the extreme point of the long blue
upper lake. It is only when the air is exceptionally
clear that we can see the minster tower of Constance
looming in the far distance. That is the goal to
which the steamer is now bearing us, but on either
side, on the German bank as Avell as on the Swiss, we
see many agreeable halting-places and many pleasant,
snug retreats.
Over yonder on the left bank, Rorschach and Ro-
manshorn have become the centre of traffic, and be-
tween them the little town of Arbon lies on a narrow
peninsula. It was one of the most select points on
the lake, and was fortified by the Romans, the leader
of the cohorts dwelling there in a strong castle. The
harbor was built far out into the lake, and some of
its huge foundation-stones are still visible on the bot-
tom when the sun shines through the quiet water.
The old name, the sound of which is still partially
preserved in the modern one, was Arbor Felix. When
the Romans were exterminated or driven away, the
representatives of the German prince came into the
town, and brought in their train the young Conrad,
who tarried with them before taking the fatal road to
Italy. What a tragically beautiful form it is that
rises before our imagination, blue-eyed and golden-
haired, on the cross-road between happy youth and
earnest manhood ! How often the music of love-songs
must have sounded over the lake from the lips of him
in whose veins the warm blood of the Staufens flowed !
48 THE RHINE.
His golden head fell beneath the axe, and the name
of Conrad, at the present day, stands unabsolved in
history.
The little village with the church which we see
yonder, nearly opposite Arbon, is called Wasserburg.
The church stands prominently on the shore, and the
parsonage is further inland, for the waves wash over
the building when the lake is exceptionally stormy.
On sunny days, however, the reverend inmate has
the advantage, for lofty green trees spread their
shady canopy over his garden, and though, close at
hand, the country people are engaged in bustling oc-
cupations, he strolls quietly up and down, feeling as
secure and proud on his land as ever did his neigh-
bors the Counts of Montfort. That name has an old
world-renowned sound, for the owners of it for many
centuries possessed the proud castle which rises
abruptly from the lake at Langenargen.
It was at first on an island which was afterwards
united to the mainland by a dyke. No race in the dis-
trict of the Rhine Valley and Lake Constance was
mightier than they. No castle was more stately — it
asserted its ancient majesty even in its ruins. Now,
however, it has all disappeared, in order to make way
for a modern artistic edifice which the rulers of Swabia
have erected for themselves. The new Montfort has
cost many thousands, but the old wave-washed walls
will not bear the modern burden which has been laid
upon them, for it is stated that from time to time the
LAKE CONSTANCE. 49
pillars show unmistakable signs of giving way in
man J places.
But the real summer retreat of the Court of Wur-
temburg is Friedrichshafen, lying a few miles dis-
tant, with its fine landing-place, its lofty light-house,
and its broad quay, where the bustling, chattering
Swabian life goes on.
What confusion of men and goods ! The engine
of the train whistles, the bell of the boat rings.
Stop ! another passenger before the bridge is drawn
away. Now he is on board, safe but breathless, the
vessel is pushed off, and in a few minutes the open
blue water bears us on again. And now Ave first see
clearly the beautiful elevation of the castle, with its
long rows of windows and its broad terraces. Lofty
lime-trees shade the entrance, and the garden with
its fragrant flower-beds spreads round it on all sides,
whilst the flag on the summit of the building flaunts
in the breeze.
This charming town did not always bear the name
which it now possesses. Friedrichshafen came into
existence in the present century, after the old mo-
nastic settlement of Hofen was broken up and united
to the town of Buchhorn.
At Buchhorn dwelt the good knight. Sir Ulrich,
beloved by all his people. Then a summons came
and he rode off to the wars, and nothing more was
heard of him for many a day. At last a messenger
rode up to the castle, bringing the news to his sor-
VoL. I. -4
50 THE EHTNE.
rowing wife that Sir Ulrich had fallen in battle, fight-
ing bravely until the last.
From that time the Lady Gertrude gave herself
up to working for the poor, and on the fourth anni-
versary of her lord's death she gathered together all
her people, and all those dependent upon her bounty,
and begged that they would pray for the soul of Sir
Ulrich.
Among those assembled was a pilgrim, in rags,
who begged that the noble lady would give him a
robe to replace his tatters. The Lady Gertrude
handed him the robe, and asked for his prayers, also,
for the soul of her dear lord, when, instead of thank-
ing her humbly, the pilgrim took her in his arms and
kissed her ! Throwing back his cowl he disclosed the
features of Sir Ulrich, who had been kept a prisoner
all these years, and had finally escaped and made his
way home to his dear wife.
At Buchhorn, as far back as the time of the Car-
lovingians, a council was held, called by the old Ger-
man term a Thingstatte. Trade also, and barter,
were carried on to a very large extent. The rulers
who dwelt there were called Counts of Linzgau.
The light from the windows of the castle, which we
are now approaching, is so clearly and brightly re-
flected on to the lake below, that even more than a
century ago the people of the neighborhood were
accustomed to say, " That glitters like Meersburg."
At its foot lies the little town of the same name.
LAKE CONSTANCE. 51
which was founded in the reign of King Dagobert.
It was here that the princely ecclesiastics from Con-
stance dreamed away the golden summer in times of
peace, and entrenched themselves and their treasures
in times of war.
The steep position and antique coloring of Meers-
biirg give it the appearance of a strongly-fortified
little town, and this impression is naturally greatly
increased by the appearance of the two castles which
overtop the whole. Between them is an open ravine
which Bishop Nicholas caused to be made by blast-
ing, in order to defend his castle more surely. Lux-
uriant vines grow all over the hills, and in the dis-
tance the snowy peaks of the Bernese Alps are
visible.
Guelphs and Staufens were lords of the castle, and
the manuscript of a message still preserved in Meers-
burg tells us that once the Bavarian and the Swede
knocked at their doors and threatened to level their
walls to the ground. This message is contained in a
yellow, time-stained letter burnt at the four corners,
and written by the colonel of Horn's regiment. It
states that it shall fare no better with the tOAvn than
with the letter ; that it also shall be set fire to, at the
four corners, if it does not surrender. Meersburg,
however, did not surrender.
At the beginning of the present century the dis-
trict looked very waste and desolate : the walls of the
old castle stood dreary and dismantled ; the bishopric
52 THE RHINE.
was abolished, its property secularized, and the town
itself passed to the government of Baden. This was
a period when many existing conditions Avere broken
up — ^justly indeed, but harshly.
Destruction would have overtaken the old castle
had not one of the noblest men of his country chosen
it for his home. The Baron von Lassberg became
the owner of the castle, and in the gallery where the
bishop's library formerly stood he arranged his intel-
lectual treasures, comprising manuscripts of all ages.
In the balcony, where his great arm-chair was placed,
he sat and basked in the sunshine.
XI be IRbine (3ate, Constance.
fe'
■ ■■
CONSTANCE. 63
CHAPTER IV.
CONSTANCE.
We have seen that the history of Meersburg is
closely connected with that of Constance, and the
road also is near at hand which brings us wdthin
reach of the proud old episcopal town ; Constance
forms in one sense the keystone of the upper lake, for
here the great basin is divided into two slender arms,
one of which is named after the town of Ueberlingen,
and the other is called the Lower Lake, or the Zel-
lersee.
In these arras are the two beautiful islands of
Mainau and Reichenau, on which we will land as soon
as we have finished our walk through Constance.
The history of this town has been similar to that of
Lindau and many other places of the old empire ; its
population and its importance to the world at large
rapidly retrograded, and instead of fulfilling a great
historical mission, it was called upon simply to form
the centre of a narrow, modest circle.
Its nature and its merits must be measured accord-
ingly, though it will be acknowledged that for this
class of town Constance stands in the foremost rank.
Its inhabitants, which now number about sixteen
54 THE RHINE.
thousand, have retrieved in intellectual freedom the
position which its forty thousand residents formerly-
held, for this last was its population when that re-
nowned council was held which crowned its deeds
with the death of the great Huss, instead of with the
purifying of the church.
The origin of the town reaches as far back as the
wars of the Emperor Constantino with the Alemanni,
and the colossal substructure of the Castle was dis-
covered during the Thirty Years' War, when the
Swedes were digging their trenches. Its prosperity,
and consequently its importance for the great empire
began early, for nearly all the German princes down
to the time of the Staufens passed through its gates
and rewarded its hospitality with rich honors.
When Charlemagne went to Rome in order to re-
ceive his imperial crown, he rested in Constance with
Hildegard, and the German kings very often spent
Christmas or Easter here. Brilliant regal assemblies
were held when the nobles of the kingdom gathered
round their chief. It was in Constance also that the
ambassadors from Milan appeared before Barbarossa
when he received the golden key which the Italian
states sent him as a token of their submission.
All the splendor, however, of this last event van-
ishes before the spectacle of sensual and sinful osten-
tation which is known by the name of the Holy Coun-
cil of Constance. This was held in the year 1414,
at a period when the wild, devastating spirit of arro-
CONSTANCE. 55
gance, of indolence and immorality, had penetrated
the great structure of the Romish Church. Love
songs resounded through the cloister, and quarrels of
the reverend inmates "with their neighbors Avere even
at times fought out in the open streets. At the head
of these wild practices were three rival Popes —
namely, John XXIII., Benedict XIII., and Gregory
XII., who in turn made Avar upon each other. No
one knew any longer Avho was the real head of the
Church, but those who suffered most were the men
whose beliefs Avere honest.
The Council of Constance was summoned in order
to amend this state of things, and to reform the
Church throughout its entire constitution. In this
way the little toAvn became for four years the central
point of European history. Ulric A^on Reich entlial,
a contemporary Avriter, describes Avith charming
naivete the pageant of princes and prelates, and hoAv
" one after another heralds and lifers came, yvith. all
sorts of servants, in order to secure lodgings for their
masters. They bespoke food and straAA', and fixed
their masters' badges on the houses and doors."
The Cardinal of Ostia came in the middle of Au-
gust, being entrusted Avith the preparations, as Lord
High Chancellor of the Holy Church ; more than
eighty horsemen foUoAved in his train. The Arch-
bishop of Mayence rode into the toAvn clothed in
armor from head to foot. The Margrave, Frederick
von Meissen, came accompanied by a croAvd of nobles.
56 THE KHINE.
and followed by twenty-one lieavily -laden wagons and
above five hundred horsemen.
The citizens looked on in alarm, for the town con-
tinued to fill. The delegates came even from the
East and from the distant North, and no one could
foresee what Avould be the end of all this splendor.
Late in the autumn, Avhen the snow had already be-
gun to fall among the Alps, the Pope himself ap-
peared. The sledge which brought him over the
Arlberg upset and was almost buried in the snow
before he reached Thurgau. Duke Frederick of
Austria received him there with great honor, and
accompanied him and his party to Constance, Avhere
he was to make a triumphal entry. He rode, clothed
in the white papal robes, under a canopy, and before
him there walked a horse with a bell on its neck, and
the Holy Sacrament on its back ; four councillors bore
the canopy, and the shouting mob streamed by in
thousands. The Emperor Sigismund alone was ab-
sent, though he too made his appearance on Christ-
mas Day, accompanied by the empress and a count-
less train of followers.
The influx of strangers constantly increased, their
number being roughly estimated at eighty thousand,
and at the time of the greatest pressure it must
have amounted to one hundred thousand men, Avho
had at their disposal thirty thousand horses. All
the curiosity, and a good deal of the vice of Eu-
rope flowed together here, for more than a thousand
CONSTANCE. 57
women ministered to the pleasure of the worthy
prelates.
To turn from these considerations of outward splen-
dor, how did it fare with the great duties which this
assembly had been summoned to fulfil, and with those
reforms which Christendom so sorely needed ? What
did the Council of Constance do for the development
of history and for the salvation of the human race ?
Nothing, and less than nothing ! For when this ques-
tion is asked, the splendor that was paraded there
sinks at once into foul ignominy, and we are con-
fronted, not with a deed of glory, but with a ghastly
crime. It is true that after much trouble the three
rival popes were prevailed on to relinquish their dig-
nity in order to give place to a fourth.
Very soon after, however. Pope John broke his
sacred oath, fled from the Council, and having reached
Italy, attempted to strengthen his dominion afresh.
But the inquiries made in the meantime by the Council
as to his mode of life resulted in such an exposure
of vice that he was solemnly deposed, and Cardinal
Colonna was chosen in his stead.
This gloomy incident was soon followed by a sec-
ond, which is almost unequalled in horror. It was,
naturally, much easier to condemn heretics than to
endanger the safety of the existing Church ; the
Council found, therefore, their most pressing duty to
be that of vengeance. The support Avhich the doc-
trines of John Huss had met with in Bohemia had
58 THE EHINE.
for a long time roused the hatred of the Romanists,
so the renowned teacher was summoned from Prague
to Constance, in order to defend himself before the
Assembly. Sigismund took the precaution of giving
him a guarantee of safe conduct, and had promised
to protect his life. The emperor, however, broke his
word, as the pope had done before, for he was easily
persuaded that no man was bound to keep faith with
a " heretic." The execution of this great, steadfast
man, who mounted the scaffold with stoical calmness,
is a stirring picture, and cannot be related without a
feeling of angry shame.
First of all his clerical clothes were torn off him
with horrible curses, then his long hair was cut off,
then a rusty chain was put round his neck, and lastly
a crown on which demons were painted was placed,
in mockery, on his head. Huss did not resist, nor
did he beg for mercy, but all along the road to the
stake he prayed aloud that God would forgive his
enemies ; and while the flames played round him he
praised God and sang till the smoke stifled his voice,
and hid his mutilated form. Thus died "the heretic,"
and the Church whose edifice rests on love to one's
neighbor had burdened itself Avith a fresh and a hor-
rible crime.
As to the important question which had been placed
before the Council at Constance — namely, that of
purifying the Church — nothing was done. It was at
last openly determined that the performance of this
CONSTANCE. 59
duty should be deferred to a " later " Assembly, and
the Council dispersed with a feeling of hopelessness.
Even worse than this, their departure was covered
with shame of the meanest description, for the Em-
peror Sigismund was so deeply in debt that the citi-
zens would not allow him to depart Avithout leaving
the whole of his baggage in pledge. It remained for
years in the custody of the State, and when every
hope of it being redeemed had vanished, and the
chests Avere opened, it was found to contain — not silver
vessels, as was supposed, but stones.
Such was the course and such was the end of the
celebrated " Holy Council of Constance." An em-
peror and a pope both proved themselves traitors to
their word, the town was inundated with a profligate
crowd, an irrecoverable debt was incurred, and, above
all, the scaffold of John Huss had been erected as an
endless blot on the fair city of Constance. Truly,
the smoke from the martyr's pile still pervades these
memories.
When we turn from the past to the present time
we still find in the outward appearance of the town
many things that remind us of the middle ages. The
Town Hall, erected in 1388, in which the conclave
was held, is especially remarkable. It is an extensive
building, and stands close to the water's edge. The
lower portion is of stone, the upper of dark, Aveather-
beaten wood, so that it has almost the appearance of
a huge shed, though at each of the four corners of the
60 THE RHINE.
roof there is a little overhanging projection, which
gives an air of originality to what is in itself a some-
what clumsy structure.
On the first story is the " Council Chamber," as it
is called. It is a large but low room, entirely lined
with polished wood, the roof being supported by pil-
lars. The frescoes which adorn the walls represent
the most important events in the history of Constance.
They were done in 1875-85 by Philip Schworer and
Frederick Pecht, of Munich.
The Cathedral, which was begun in the middle of
the eleventh century, stands out, both historically and
architecturally, above the other churches of the city.
The style of the architecture was originally Roman,
but the many additions which have been made from
time to time are of the Gothic order. A dreadful fire
once occurred within the walls, which melted the en-
tire peal of bells and caused great destruction. In
spite of these disasters, however, the minster is still
the finest church on the lake.
Constance having become the seat of a bishopric
as early as 781, the city grew rich in consequence,
and a succession of remarkable men Avho labored there
added much to its renown. The greater proportion
of the inhabitants are Catholic. The impression left
from the days of the great Assembly sunk so deep
that the citizens at that time rushed with open arms
to meet the Reformation, and the bishop left the city.
The Lutheran opinions became daily more open and
CONSTANCE. 61
decided, and when the town immediately repudiated
the " Interim " which Charles V. laid upon it, open
strife broke out.
One of those wars followed in which the self-re-
spect of the citizens sets itself with the courage of
despair in opposition to the superior strength of their
rulers. The soldiers of the city encountered the
Spanish infantry, Avhich the empei'or sent against
them, on the Rhine bridge ; but after a bloody fray
the imperial troops obtained the upper hand. It was
indeed a Pyrrhus-like victory, for the emperor repaid
with care the heroism of his enemies, and made the
city, which had formerly been a free town, part of
Austria. All Protestants were obliged to flee, and
their property was confiscated.
Constance had again to suffer the calamities of
war when the Swedes encamped before its gates. On
this occasion Field-Marshal Horn stormed the walls
three times, but the resolute defence of the inhabi-
tants forced him to retire. After this, quieter times
came. Commerce and industry began slowly to
flourish once more, and Nature unconcernedly brought
forth her golden treasures. A permanent change,
hoAvever, had been wrought, for the great free city
has become a quiet, homely, provincial town, and only
one thing still reminds us of the past : this is a dis-
position to freedom which the town proves in every
way, and which it especially attests in its ecclesiasti-
cal government. Many noble hands were held out
62 THE EHINE.
to the people, with offers of assistance, in their time
of effort ; notably those of Joseph II. and the great
Wessenberg, who, when Bishop of Constance, raised
for himself an imperishable monument by his humanity
and his cultivation of art and learning.
We have still to mention the two large islands,
which, like Lindau, were in early times distinguished
as meadows or pastures. One was named, from its
wealth, Reichenau ; the other, from its beautiful May
breeze, Mainau. For a long time both belonged to
the same owners.
Mainau was for many generations a subordinate
property of the great abbey on the Lower Lake, till
the abbot himself gave it aAvay. It then came at
second-hand to the German order, who possessed it
till 1806. The wide, princely house of this order —
a mixture of castle and cloister — stood with its great
wings on the high plateau of the island. In the long
galleries and handsome rooms were hung the banners
of the commanders, and in the chapel the consecrated
bell soimded, sending its peaceful music far over
the lake ; while above glistened Santis, and in the
hazy distance the towers of Old Bregenz could be
distinguished.
Strangers in those days who visited the island found
hospitable entertainment at the farm and the inn at-
tached to it. In later years, Avhen the commandery
had long fallen away, the glory of the order and its
noble lords left its own peculiar impression on the
CONSTANCE. 63
island. The old good-natured host would sit for hours
and narrate to his guests how the armed knights Von
Hiltpolt and Werner Hundbiss defended the island
against the Swedish ships, just as though he had him-
self been present. Now, since the reigning family
of Baden have fixed their summer residence here,
these pictures of the past have faded before the bril-
liancy of the present.
In the villages at the end of the Ueberlingen Lake
there are some dark caverns Avhich are called ^'Heathen
Holes." They are narrow chambers hewn in the rock,
and are thought by many people to have been a kind
of catacomb, and to have served the early Christians
as hiding-places. Others take them to be Roman
graves, dating back as far as the times of the wars
with the Alemanni.
The neighboring island of Reichenau, in the Lower
Lake, presents an entirely different picture ; its cir-
cumference is considerably greater, and its history is
much older. No spot of land round about surpasses
it in richness of soil or in political and historic re-
nown. Amongst all the monasteries that arose in the
middle ages, Reichenau was specially favored by for-
tune — four archdukes and about twenty counts were
its lieges ; and as Charles V. boasted that the sun
never set upon his dominions, so did the abbot of
Reichenau boast that he slept every night on his own
territory when he travelled to Rome to see the Pope,
He was a prince of the Holy Roman Empire. Em-
64 THE EHINE.
perors and princes sat at his table, and the noblest
knights from the neighboring districts served him as
high steward and cup-bearer when he entertained his
guests.
In Reichenau, however, they attended not only to
the fidl enjoyment of the senses, but also to the en-
joyment of intellectual cultivation, and the monks
prided themselves that no town in the southern part
of the empire could compare with them in culture.
The nobles sent their sons from all parts of the coun-
try to be educated here, and more than eighty bishop-
rics were filled by scholars of the abbey.
But Fortune had been too prodigal to be lasting ;
the turning-point came under the Hohenstaufens, and
ruin rushed in with overwhelming force. Instead of
giving themselves up to meditation at Shrovetide, the
monks Avent to Ulm for the Carnival, and danced and
played with the townswomen, so that, in order to ex-
clude them from the town, the abbot sold all the prop-
erty which he possessed there.
One hide of land after another went to cover debts,
and soon the income of the monastery had sunk from
fifty thousand florins to three silver marks. The dis-
organization increased, and at last an hour arrived
when it was indescribable, and the abbot, with his
own hands, tore ovit the eyes of five inoffensive fish-
ermen because they were subjects of the city of Con-
stance, with which he was at w^ar.
In this state of affairs the bishops of the neighbor-
CONSTANCE. 65
ing city, Avho had long conceived a plan of annexing
Reichenau to their own possessions, saw that the mo-
ment had arrived when the ripe fruit might, of itself,
fall into their lap. Without much trouble the abbot
was persuaded, in consideration of a small sum, to
betray his trust ; and he himself, in 1540, delivered
the monastery over to Constance.
Such are the thoughts and memories which accom-
pany us as we walk through this beautiful island.
The effect is strange ; the old church, consecrated in
806, still stands. We step through the carved porch
among the gray pillars ; we pass the tombs, the cov-
erings of which are adorned with crozier and mitre,
but the broken light which environs us is oppressively
gloomy. The place seems haunted by a spirit of
powerlessness, which, perhaps, proceeds from the im-
perial grave of Charles the Fat, great-grandson of
Charlemagne, who died here, unthroned and un-
honored. The sacristy, with its rattling iron bolts,
contains the treasures and relics of the abbey. Here
are to be found the Gospels on fine parchment, chal-
ices, costly vestments, and ivory carvings. Here is
also a huge emerald, which indeed, to our eyes, looks
no better than green glass.
We unconsciously draw a deep breath of relief
when we step out of these dim, gloomy rooms into
the open country, which well deserves the name of
the " Rich Pasture." Fruit-laden trees and sunny
vineyards surround us, and the three villages of Ober-
You I.— 5
Q6 THE KHINE.
zell, Mittelzell and Unterzell peep out among the
meadows, adding much to the beauty of the scene
over which the summer breeze plays so pleasantly.
On the shore are seen the ruins of the old Scopula-
Burg, destroyed in 1384, where the monks entrenched
themselves in times of danger. All along the edge
of the lake little white-looking towns and villages rise
before us, Iznang and Horn, Steckhorn to the south
and St. Rudolf's Cell to the north.
But presently the neighborhood changes ; a pecu-
liar contest between land and water begins, and the
bottom of the lake presses up close to the shallow
surface. It is preparing an outlet for the Rhine, for
between the mainland and Reichenau it is so shallow
that in the height of summer it is almost possible to
walk across dryshod.
We are now in Switzerland ; the great castle which
we see yonder, where the Rhine flows from the Upper
to the Lower Lake, is called Gottlieben. The poet
has rightly imagined that those square towers, which
look so gray and sad, were built by Melancholy, and
that they have received only sad guests. The Bishop
of Constance retired here, in anger, before the hatred
of the Emperor Frederick IL ; here Jerome of Prague
was a captive ; here John Huss lay imprisoned before
he was led to the stake ; and here the profligate Pope
John was kept in custody when he was captured at a
wrestling-match, disguised as a messenger.
Even the last hand which attempted to revive and
CONSTANCE. 67
adorn the old castle was Avithout a blessing ; it Avas
the hand of the third Buonaparte — Louis Napoleon —
who wished to restore the building in the Gothic
style. He was living, as is well known, near at hand,
in Arenenberg, which Queen Hortense inherited from
a patrician family, and had enriched with delightful
pleasure-grounds.
It was from this place that he Avent to Paris as
President of the Republic, and the Second of Decem-
ber soon followed. He exchanged the quiet, retired
country-seat for the Tuileries, and for nearly two de-
cades all Europe hung anxiously on his mysterious
words, during which Arenenberg lay desolate and
forgotten.
The place where all constraint is completely thrown
off, and where the great stream reigns once more
free and independent, is called Stein on the Rhine,
a little town Avhich claims a Merovingian origin.
Formerly it had Avails and trenches, and it had need
to be ever Avatchful of its freedom, for not only did
the stronghold of the Lords of Klingen tower aboA^e
it, but many a quarrelsome neighbor lay ready out-
side its ramparts.
Once, indeed, the burgomaster himself conspired
with the Lord of the Castle of Hohgau to giA^e the
town into his hands. A night attack Avas made, but
the citizens kept off the enemy Avith unexpected
vigor, and liaA'ing seized the traitor they tied him in
a sack and hurled him into the Rhine.
68 THE RHINE.
Hohgaii, Avhich we have just named, may without
doubt be considered the most important tract in the
whole Lake Constance district. Its name, which sig-
nifies " hill district," appears as early as the time of
Charles Martel, and it well describes the nature of the
country, with its numerous rocks and boulder blocks,
which overrun plain and forest. What a gigantic and
mysterious power has hurled them up from the depths
of the earth or down from immeasurable heights !
Formerly more than twenty castles stood in Hohgau,
and the oldest families of the Empire dwelt there.
The most beautiful picture of the past, in which
rugged power is strangely mixed with gentle senti-
ment, is framed within this lovely landscape. Ekke-
hart's turret chamber was here ! Hadwig, the learned
Duchess of Swabia, dwelt at Hohentwiel, which looks
over the open blue Lake of Constance. The beauti-
ful ruins stand out on the rock like a high watch-
tower stationed there to command river and lake.
Close behind, and steeper still, are the ruins of
Hohenkrahen. What memories this rock covers !
It is a monument of the histoiy of the land and of
its people.
The little town of Singen lies nearly at the foot of
Hohentwiel, and the numerous Roman antiquities
which have been found there lead to the inference
that the legions of Tiberius had found out this beau-
tiful spot. A guide meets visitors at the farm which
lies on the ascent to the castle, and conducts them
Ube ConcUmm Saal (^ovvn 1f?aU), Constance.
CONSTANCE. 69
silently past the old lindens and the steep rock -wall,
the stones of which are here and there streaked with
red.
In about a quarter of an hour the real fortress is
reached, and we are surrounded by ruined bastions,
ditches and walls. Though everything is broken and
fallen, there is still an appearance of strength which
neither time nor foe has been able to destroy. This
castle has, indeed, been associated with suffering to
many ; for, among the purposes which it has been
made to serve in the course of ages, is one which is
terrible enough. It has been a prison, and within its
walls men, such as the noble Moser, have languished.
Many who had entered it with golden locks have left
it, if they have ever again passed its portal, wdtli hair
white as snow.
Hohentwiel became a part of Wurtemberg, to which
it belongs at the present time, in the middle of the
fifteenth century ; though it was then, as now, a de-
tached or outlying territory, surrounded on all sides
by Baden. The waves of the Thirty Years' War
beat against its walls, but the brave Wiederhold, into
whose hands the defence of the place w^as given, re-
mained firm, and yielded neither to the gold nor to
the sword of the enemy. He deserved the inscrip-
tion which was formerly carved over the shattered
door of the stronghold :
"Der Feind hat's fiinfmal zwar geschreckt,
Doch hat der Herr zum Schutz erweckt
70 THE EHINE.
Den Wiederhold, der fiinfzehen Jahr'
Dasselb' beschiitzt in Feindts Gefalir."*
But there was not always a Wiederhold to com-
mand at Hohentwiel, and impregnable though the
fortress seemed its hour at last came. Its star sank
at the opening of this century, at a time when em-
pires and dynasties were engulfed. Who destroyed
it ? The same power which at that time carried de-
struction throughout Europe — namely, the army of
Buonaparte, which invaded Hohgau to the number of
twenty thousand men. The officers of the garrison
capitulated unanimously, with the exception of one
lieutenant ; but the conditions on which the surrender
was made were broken, and the demolition and blast-
ing of the stronghold was the result. This work
lasted for nearly a year ; mines were laid, not only
in the building but in the rock itself, and nothing
more than ruins were left of the proud home of the
beautiful Hadwig. Five hundred inhabitants of the
neighboring villages were compelled to assist in this
disgraceful work.
That is the last sad remembrance that surrounds
the "Rock," but it shall not be the impression with
which we take our leave of it. Ruthless hands might
raze the walls to the ground and destroy the master-
* "Five times the din of dreadful war
In vain did on those ramparts roar,
For Wiederhold, God's trusted knight,
Fifteen long years maintained the fight."
CONSTANCE. 71
pieces Avhich adorned its stone halls ; but one picture
was imperishable ; it could as little be touched by the
hands of the destroyer as its beauty can be expressed
by rapturous description.
Let us look out into the golden distance and into
the blue depths, for the lovely picture lies before us
in the clear morning air. Here we see a mountain-
chain that reaches from Mont Blanc to the Ortler, a
country which can scarce contain the fulness of its
blessings ; and that pearl, the sparkling jewel which
meets our gaze in this open treasure-house of nature,
the blue shining lake over the long surface of which
our eye lingers. In primeval times, further back
than the existence or the thought of man, Hohgau
also was a part of the lake. Teeth an inch long are
occasionally dug out of the gravelly ground, and are
supposed to have belonged to huge fish, which moved
under the vast waters. In the lapse ot ages the water
slowly retired, wrestling with the earth inch by inch,
till it found its limits in the huge basin which to-day
lies smiling before us.
What a vast horizon, what w^armth of color, what
harmony of sounds, when the evening bells ring over
the waters ! The fiery ball of the setting sun sinks
lower and lower ; it glows over the water like the re-
flection of a great conflagration ; the gray cloud draws
its veil over the edge of the disc, gradually covering
it little by little. The gold changes into purple, the
purple becomes violet, and now the last faint ray dis-
72 THE RHINE.
appears, and the evening breeze rustles among the
trees. How gratefully the great sail, which still floats
on the lake, will catch the breeze ; but soon the sail
too has vanished, and is lost to us in the thick cur-
tain of the twilight.
SCHAFFHAUSEN. 73
CHAPTER V.
SCHAFFHAUSEN.
The Rhine has left Lake Constance, and has
emerged once more on its course. It has still the
vivid, impetuous character of youth, but may be said
to resemble a youth earnestly striving towards a
great future. Such is the character of its course
from Stein to Basle.
Only once, not far from its outlet, there comes a
critical moment, an outbreak of its old passion. This
occurs at the Rhinefall at Schaffhausen, where a
gigantic bank of rock, over three hundred feet wide,
stretches itself right across the stream ; it is nearly
eighty-five feet high, and was formerly still higher,
as may be seen from the columns which rise out of
the whirlpool.
Nature has throAvn up this fortification to obstruct
the path of the lordly stream, and here must the
Rhine descend. It is a leap for life, but with a shout
of joy it extricates itself from the seething depths
into which it falls, and the liberated waters flow on
again gleefully through forest and mead.
The Rhinefall is seen to the greatest advantage on
approaching it from Neuhausen, for then the picture
of the splendid cataract confronts us set in a frame-
74 THE EHINE.
work of green woods. On the right bank, the
Schweitzerhof stands like a palace, with its showy
fagade ; the fashionable world crowds the wide ter-
races, and the high windows glitter in the sun. There
is a short way to the shore by a steep flight of steps,
but the more convenient approach to it is by a grav-
elled path which winds through the park. The op-
posite bank is steep ; the rocks rise full of crevices
moistened with spray, and overgrown with green
bushes which cling to every cranny.
On the hill the Castle of LaufFen stands, with its
indented gables and battlements, reminding us, with
its straggling out-buildings, of an old fortress. It has
recently been converted into an inn. The magnifi-
cent spectacle of the waterfall presents itself before
us in sublime beauty ; mountains of foam are heaved
and tossed and torn until they are shattered into
myriad drops of spray.
It is, indeed, a battle ; and the last of those rocky
columns, which are the remains of a stony phalanx,
stand in the vortex, like heroes Avho have survived
the battle unshaken. Day and night, summer and
winter, for years and for centuries, tlie unruly tide
has stormed against them ; the foundation is already
undermined, and many of their companions have sunk
into the foaming depths.
Through how many more generations will those
which remain continue as they are now ? But though
it is a battle, and a gigantic one, it is quite devoid of
SCHAFFHAUSEN. " 75
any element of gloom ; it presents no picture of de-
struction, but one of victory. The sparkling stream
casts itself down with such a shout of joy that it can
be heard for some leagues on a clear night ; and in
the morning the sun streams through the silver spray
till it is reflected in all the colors of the rainbow.
If we visit the place at the height of the fashion-
able season we see entirely different pictures — we
find visitors from every part of the globe, and in their
midst we realize the aphorism that it is but a step
from the sublime to the ridiculous.
A Frenchman complains that the beauty of the
cataract has considerably decreased since 1870, and
that he misses that " parfum de I'electricite," which
Delrieu remarks in his Rhine book. He speaks in a
loud voice, " pour dominer le bruit du cataracte ;" he
talks enough for two, and so it is no wonder if his
neighbor, the pale Anglo-Saxon, is inexorably silent.
'• Le touriste est une creature machinale," says the
Frenchman, again quoting his Delrieu, " il a besoin
d'un dada." He was right, and nowhere does this
cockneyism of travel work more painfully than when
we stand before a truly noble object of nature.
We would involuntarily see enthusiasm or rapture
reflected in the face of every person with whom we
share the delight of such a sight. Instead of this,
how often do we find a melancholy want of apprecia-
tion, and we feel alone in the midst of a chattering
crowd — one complains that the Rhinefall is too daz-
76 THE EHINE.
zling, another that it is too noisy, a third unconcern-
edly reads up the chapter in his guide-book and ticks
off the name as if to erase a burdensome debt. He
has " done " the RhinefaU.
The Rhinefall and Schaffhausen are generally de-
scribed as one geographical object, but this is not at
all the case, for they lie nearly a league apart. When
we have sufficiently admired the Fall M^e turn our
gaze back to the tidy antique little town, whose
gabled roofs and arched doorways promise hospitable
entertainment.
Schaffhausen itself is but small, and lies straggling
along the bank of the Rhine, but the style of the
buildings, as well as the whole character of the town,
show the substantial independence of the citizens to
have reached a high stage of development.
The old citadel of Munoth frowns down from the
heights with its impenetrable walls, and the towers
of the cathedral, erected 1052-1101, have become
gray with age. Its bells, as is well known, bear the
inscription which Schiller prefixed to his incompar-
able poem : " Vivos voco, mortuos plango, falgara
frangoP The manufactures of Schaffhausen enjoy
a considerable reputation, and its trade is doubly
profitable on account of the great water-power it
possesses, and from the stoppage of all vessels caused
by the Rhinefall. In this way the venerable town
has added the modern power of wealth to that which
it possessed in bygone ages, as the "Key of Swabia,"
SCHAFFHAUSEN. 77
and the same public spirit Avhich formerly animated
it still survives. The noblest institutions which the
town possesses for public use have proceeded from
the liberality of individual citizens, and fresh instances
of such liberality are constantly being given.
Legend tells us that in the earliest times only a few
boatmen's huts stood on the spot where SchafFhausen
now is, and the name itself may easily be traced back
to such an origin ; as early as the twelfth century,
however, the unpretending place received the priv-
ileges and honors of a town. Many a siege also was
sustained by the fortiiications with which the citizens
surrounded their home ; nor were the inhabitants, in-
deed, exempt from other visitations of various kinds.
In one year more than four thousand Avere carried
off by the plague. Fire and water vied Avith each
other to devastate the beautiful town, and the war
which brought all the arms of Europe together in
Switzerland, at the opening of this century, at length
robbed the town of one of its most remarkable orna-
ments. This was the old bridge over the Rhine,
which is here more than three hundred feet wide.
It stretched from one bank to the other without a
single support, for the one pier which stood in the
middle of the stream belonged to an earlier structure,
and in no way assisted in carrying this bridge. The
celebrated wit, Madame Roland, expressed the great-
est admiration for this remarkable viaduct in her let-
ters from Switzerland | but the men who set fire to
78 THE EHINE.
the bridge and burnt it to the ground, in the spring
of 1799, were the compatriots of Madame Roland.
Leaving Schaffhausen, in a short time we enter
the district of the so-called " Forest Towns," which
for centuries belonged to the house of Hapsburg.
The first of them is called Waldshut, a name having
precisely the same signification as that of Custodia
Silvce, which it bore a thousand years ago. In those
days what is now a town consisted only of a solitary
forest-house standing in the pine-covered wilderness.
Near this place the Aar runs into the Rhine. It
is a wild mountain-stream Avhich descends nearly
seven thousand feet from the Grimsel, and in its
rapid course collects all the watery treasures of the
Bernese highlands in order to offer them in homage
to the Rhine.
The landscape through which we now pass corre-
sponds to the name which the four towns bear. It is
covered with forest, high beeches stand on either
side, and the lovely stream glides almost hidden
under the branches. The waters are as blue as the
sky above, and so clear that the sun pierces to the
gravel on the bed beneath. Only a smoking kiln or
a floating raft reminds us of the hand of man. Grad-
ually the banks widen, the beech wood becomes less
dense, green fields border the strand, and in the dis-
tance there stand the reapers, merrily bringing in the
harvest.
Yonder is Lauffenburg. The change in the land-
SCHAFFHAUSEN. 79
scape is startling, a sharp turn of the stream, Avhich
brings out the full force of the current, lies suddenly
before our eyes — the broken rocks draw together,
narrow and rugged, and between them the river
wearily beats out its way. The water eddies and
splashes round the deeply-embedded boulders, the
white foam crests the points, and many of them are
already so washed away that it seems as though every
hour they must crash together.
This is a last relic of the river's stormy youth, it
is a weak echo of that great feat which the Rhine
performed at Schaffhausen ; and we recognize it in
its present name, for these rapids are called " the
Lauffen." At one time, if it was required for ships
to go farther, they were let down by ropes ; but it is
rarely that any one attempts this perilous journey
now. It was attempted, however, by young Lord
Montague, who was drowned in the river on the same
day that his ancestral home in England was destroyed
by fire.
Even apart from this melancholy fact, which still
remains indelibly fixed in the minds of the inhabit-
ants, Lauffenburg has a dull, almost gloomy, charac-
ter. The weather-beaten houses which stand high up
on the narrow bank look as though they had grown
up out of the splintered rocks. The front is turned
away from the stream, and the gray wall at the back
is enlivened with but few windows.
The town stands somewhat pecidiarly. Below it
80 THE RHINE.
is the roaring whirlpool^ the gray houses are perched
on the rocks, and above them stretches a dark-green
wooded hill, on the summit of which stands the walls
of a castle. This castle has long been ruined and
tenantless, only the old tower still stands in its ancient
majesty ; no banner waves from its walls, but a fir-
tree which planted itself hundreds of years ago among
the battlements now stands like a symbol of the glory
which has past.
A narrow bridge, half composed of wood, joins the
towns of Great and Little LaufFenburg, and unites
Switzerland to the German Empire. Down on the
smooth-washed shingle below all kinds of fishing-
tackle are spread out, together with fine nets stretched
on pegs ; for this is one of the most important places
for salmon. In one part, where the water is shallow
and sunny, the number of young fish is sometimes so
great as to darken the surface. The fishery is the
most important trade in the whole of this district,
though, near at hand, we hear the iron hammer of
the quarry ring out from the woods, and the piled-up
logrs on the bank show that the timber-trade also
flourishes.
Soon we reach the last two of the four " forest
towns," Sackingen and Rheinfelden. The former,
which is considered to be the oldest town of the
neighborhood, had a religious origin, having been
founded by one of the missionaries who came over
from Ireland at the beginning of the sixth century.
Z\)c iRbinetall at Scbaftbausen.
SCHAFFHAUSEN. 81
" JusquTi ce temps, Satan avait exclusivement regne
sur le grand-duche de Bade," says one of the French
chroniclers Avhom we have ah'eady quoted ; the holy
Fridolm, m order to put an end to the heathen cus-
toms and disarm the arts of the devil, erected a mon-
astery to oppose the great enemy.
This monastery, Avhich was also a citadel, soon
gained worldly power as well as spiritual dominion,
and is said by many writers to be the oldest monas-
tery standing on German ground. The princely
splendor which it once possessed has long since passed
away, for Fridolin has lain for more than a thousand
years enshrined among his own relics, and probably
but few of the inhabitants of the empire would have
known anything of Sackingen had not the celebrated
" Trumpeter " spread its fame throughout the world.
The impression that the present toAvn makes on us is
that it much resembles the little municipal towns of
Baden.
Rheinfelden, the last of the four forest towns, lies
on Swiss territory. It has old weather-worn w^alls,
gates, and towers, and was formerly one of the out-
posts of the Holy Roman Empire. In the stream is
that whirling eddy called '' HoUenhacken," and near
by are the famous salt works on the Rhine.
For those who have time to remain, there are sev-
eral things to be learned even in Rheinfelden. A
dreaded stronghold once stood on the rocks which lie
in the middle of the stream. The name of the castle
Vol. I— 6
82 THE KHINE.
was Stein, and many a wild conflict raged around its
walls before they were finally destroyed, and many
an anxious conference has been held by the citizens
in the old town hall, when the Imperialists, Swedes,
Swiss, or the hordes of Louis XIV., demanded ad-
mission through its gates.
BASLE. 83
CHAPTER VI.
BASLE.
But we must press on to Basle, the place which
for many miles around is the centre for all traffic.
Thither the river hastens, and thither all our present
interests centre, for it is the first really important
town on the Rhine.
We soon land beneath its walls ; in the distance we
see shining the dark tips of the Black Forest range,
as well as those of the Jura and the Vosges, and in
the broad valley which they enclose lies the level
land rich Avith golden grain and green vineyards. It
is here that the Rhine takes its last decided turn to
the north, towards Germany, to Avhich henceforth all
its splendor and all its renown belong.
The very first effect of Basle, as it lies on both
sides of the river, is striking and varied. Nature
and history, and not simply accident and population,
have formed it into a town. It could not help be-
coming what it has. There is every development of
natural power, and the charm of this impression is
increased by the antique historical character on which
its present condition is based. The prosperity of
Basle has been handed down for centuries. Of late
84 THE RHINE.
handsome villas have been built in the suburbs ; but
the older parts of the town remain as they have been
for hundreds of years, and the old-fashioned burgher
character runs through the nature of the people, and
holds them fast to their liberties. Fischart has de-
servedly sung aloud the praises of the " charming
town " of the Rhine.
The Rhine was the great storehouse from which
the town drew its wealth, and became what it was.
It was the Rhine which carried thousands of foreign
guests and foreign treasures to Basle. A regular
water traffic was established between Basle and Stras-
burg as early as the sixteenth century, when long
caravans of merchants were still wearily dragging
along the high-road. The paving of the streets be-
gan in 1417, and the wells were so numerous that
^neas Sylvius observed that whoever would count
them must count the houses as well. The old Rhine
town was always proud of its name, and the bold
struggles it made would vie with those of many a
city in which princes raised their thrones.
The Rhine is here spanned by three bridges. The
wooden bridge, Alte Briicke, partly supported by
stone piei'S, was originally built in 1225. In its
centre rises a chapel of the sixteenth century, also a
column, containing a barometer and a weathercock.
Above this wooden bridge the river is crossed by a
modern iron structure ; at each entrance of this bridge
stand two basilisks — the well-known standards of the
. BASLE. 85
town ; they are as much feared and honored as many
a prmcely lion, or imperial eagle. The third bridge,
also modern, crosses the river still further down.
The Romans recognized the strategical value of
Basle for the rulers of the Upper Rhine, when they
settled their colony at Augst (Augusta Rauracorum),
the parent of the present town. It was from here
that the Emperors Constantino and Julian endeav-
ored to keep down the rising power of the Alemanni,
when it became but too apparent that the nations of
Europe were slowly gathering into a flood wherewith
to overwhelm the Roman countries, and to SAveep the
worn-out races of antiquity from the earth.
Every opposition to such a force was pow^erless,
and Basilea fell like other towns into that vast inher-
itance which the barbarians wrested from the hands
of the dying Romans. Golden-haired Alemanni ruled
here and far around in Alsace until the Franks came,
and the struggle for power began afresh. Burgundy
and Germany, bishop and burgesses (among whom
various families had distinguished themselves even in
Barbarossa's time) constantly contended for the mas-
tery ; and Avhenever the storm swept over Europe,
the great town at the bend of the Rhine bore its
part in it.
The zealous monk, Bernhard, of Clairvaux, preached
the Crusade in the cathedral at Basle. Alexander III.
hurled a thunderbolt of excommunication into the town
because it remained true to the Emperor j but the
86 THE EHINE.
citizens of Basle seized the Papal legate who pro-
claimed the interdict, and threw him into the Rhine.
Civil and party contentions of all kinds have, at
various times, inflamed the citizens ; but their char-
acter for energy always led them triumphantly out of
their dangers and difficulties, and the town, which
now has a population of 90,000, remains in its flour-
ishing condition at the present day. In 1356 a fear-
ful earthquake occurred, and in 1348 a still more
fearful plague raged among the people.
It is vmfortunate that we cannot here enter into a
more detailed history of Basle, for in its firm inde-
pendent exclusiveness, in the Avealth of its intellect-
ual and political tendencies, it presents one of the
most attractive subjects of study.
Varnhagen von Ense, who has treated one of the
historical episodes of Basle in the form of a novel,
well draws out the peculiarities of the inhabitants in
powerful language. In the background of the pict-
ure the mighty forms of imperialism are always
standing out in strong relief. In the distant past we
find Saxon and Frankish Emperors ; later on, those
of the Hohenstaufen line ; and, in stiU more recent
times, the Counts of Hapsburg are presented to us.
Some are girt with the SAVord of war, whilst others
are conspicuous only in the bright garments of fes-
tivity.
Here, as in many of the imperial cities, the bish-
opric originaUy formed the nucleus from which the
BASLE. 87
town spread, and the free men who settled here from
other places put themselves under the protection of
the Church. The ecclesiastical possessions constantly
increased, and so it may well be inferred tliat in the
infancy of the town the bishops were its popular
rulers.
Their power was increased by the fact that they
were often members of noble families, and generally
stood by the Emperor. Haito was the devoted friend
and confidant of Charlemagne ; Adalbero was the
same to Henry 11. ; Burchard von Hasenburg stood,
with unswerving fidelity and all the power of that
warlike time, by Henry IV., who went to Canossa to
do penance to the Pope. Bishop Ortlicb rode to the
Holy Land with Conrad III., and Bishop Henry
fought beside Rudolph of Hapsburg, at Ganserfeld,
against the powerful Ottokar. Rudolph was for a
long time the bitter enemy of tlie town, and had
striven to force its gates with fire and sword ; but his
election to the monarchy, which put an end to the
fearful '^ rulerless period," at once brought peace to
Basle. The feelings of all parties changed ; the gates
of the city, which had been resolutely closed to the
count, opened voluntarily to the king, and the two
contending parties in the town came to an arrange-
ment — Rudolph atoning for past injuries by lavishly
bestowing a double amount of favor on the citizens.
The burgesses did not extricate themselves from
the toils of this spiritual supremacy without a hard
88 THE EHINE.
struggle, and then only by the exercise of all their
strength. At length, however, their hour of victory
came. If it might be said, during the first epoch,
that Basle belonged to the bishop, it might truly be
said, in the second, that Basle belonged to the citi-
zens. The city had to preserve and adapt this inde-
pendence through serious trials of all kinds both at
home and in the field ; but its historical importance
increased in proportion to those trials.
Its banner waved at the battle of St. Jacob, which
has been called the Swiss Thermopylae, and the Coun-
cil which sat within its walls in 1431-1448, during
which time Pope Felix V. returned from the Con-
clave, drew the eyes of Europe to Basle. That was
the time Avhen it was a Free City, and it was unde-
niably the period of its greatest prosperity. All its
powers, moral and physical, were in the highest state
of development, and were brought out by the diffi-
culties it had to encounter.
Out of the broad framework of political relations
which Basle possessed as a Free City of the Great
Empire, there arose gradually a closer and firmer
combination by its becoming related to and influ-
enced by its proximity to the Swiss Confedera-
tion. The formal and solemn completion of this
step of confederation followed later, in the July of
1501 ; but, although the boys in the streets sang
^^ Hie Schweit^erhodcn,^^ the city itself remained true
to its German forms, and the feeling of the intellect-
BASLE. , 89
ual commonalty found a neAV lever in the growth of
learning.
Thus the Swiss town rose out of the Free Town,
which in its turn had taken the place of the bishop's
town, and Basle entered upon a third and a new
epoch in that form which brings us down to modern
times. It is from this view, in spite of all the glory
of its wars and history, that the present importance
of the town is based.
The first road which we take through Basle leads
straight up to the Cathedral, which lies high up on
one of the two hills where the earliest settlement was
established. It is built of red sandstone, and, with
its two slender towers, is a conspicuous feature.
Nothing remains of the original building ; of the sec-
ond (which is often attributed to St. Henry, wdiile at
other times it is said to belong to the twelfth century)
there is still to be seen the choir and the centre of the
nave ; all the rest was destroyed by that terrible
earthquake that ruined castles and churches for miles
round. But the Minster was soon opened again for
worship, by the active influence of Bishop Senno of
Miinsingen, though the building was not completed
until the sixteenth century, when it exhibited that
ingenious combination of various styles which as-
suredly has a charm of its own.
The Cathedral thus restored became an edifice
which, even in its present form, has a great effect on
every unprejudiced observer. The sculptures on the
90 THE EHINE.
fa9aile represent the Virgin and Child. Near the
principal doorway are the figures of St. George and
St. Martin on prancing horses, and next them the
Emperor Henry, with a model of the Church, and
the Empress Kunigunde. On the northern side is
the St. Gallus porch, which is rich in symbolical
figures. It was built in the thirteenth century, and
is adorned with statues of the Evangelists and John
the Baptist. A relief of the Wise and Foolish Vir-
gins is over the door. In six niches on the sides are
the Works of Charity ; and at the top sits Christ on
the Judgment seat, at the Last Day, surrounded by
the angels.
The eff'ect of the interior is more striking than is
suggested by the outside. The building is light and
lofty, and the eye travels unobstructedly down the
long space Avhich is terminated by a magnificent
rood-loft, built in 1381, which supports a fine organ.
That and the chancel, which rises gracefully, are the
remarkable points of the Cathedral. The side-aisles
are rich in monuments of various periods, many of
them being memorials of entire epochs.
A revieAV of the whole pomp of the Imperial power
in Germany, and of the prosperity of the Free Town,
passes before our eyes as we gaze upon the tomb
where Rudolph of Hapsburg laid his wife to rest.
And who does not think of the brilliant rise of learn-
ing when he reads upon the stone : " Erasmus of
Rotterdam !" In his time Basle reached its hijirhest
JSaslc, Swit3erlanC>.
BASLE. 91
intellectUcal point. All branches of learning found
disting'ui.slied representatives in the young colleges
of the town, and near at hand the art of printing had
its birth — an art by -which in a few generations the
world Avas to be almost transformed. No feeline: of
jealousy checked the common efforts ; in those days
of intellectual power ^' you might have supposed,"
wrote Erasmus to his friend, " that all possessed but
one heart and one soul."
Hans Holbein, who lived in Basle from 1515 to
1526, did for Art what Erasmus did for Learning.
A great number of his finest pictures are collected in
the Museum of the town, which, next to the Cathe-
dral, is indeed its most important treasure. It was
established only as f^ir back as 1849, on the site of
the former Monastery of St. Augustine, for the pur-
pose of collecting everything serviceable to the study
of the Arts and Sciences.
We should go far beyond the limits of our space
were we to attempt the enumeration of the treasures
which are collected here, or the description of their
artistic and historical value ; this work has been
already done by abler hands. We will content our-
selves with saying, that every one Avho Avishes to
study Hans Holbein cannot omit Basle.
Holbein was born at Augsburg in 1494 ; but when
he was quite a boy he followed his father, Avho was a
painter of some note, to Basle. There he contracted
an intimacy with Erasmus, whose portrait he painted;
92 THE RHINE.
and it was Erasmus who was responsible for his leav-
ing the fatherland and going to England, for Erasmus
gave him a letter to Sir Thomas More, who intro-
duced him at Court.
Henry VIII., recognizing the genius of the obscure
German artist, made him Court painter, and gave
him a liberal pension. But Holbein did not forget
Basle, for in painting his famous picture of the Vir-
gin as the Queen of Heaven, now in the Dresden
Gallery, he made Jacob Meyer, of Basle, with his
family, appear prominently in the picture.
In the Library at Basle is a fine series of pan-
els by Holbein, called the " Passion of Christ."
Hans Holbein died in London during the plague, in
1553.
Traces of the great master are to be found not
only within the walls of the Museum, but also in the
open streets. The Well with the Peasant's Dance,
designed by Holbein, still flows merrily; and, although
the colors may be effaced by wind and weather, the
houses are still pointed out which have been adorned
with frescoes from Hans Holbein's pencil. Had he
not gone to England, in 1526, Basle might perhaps
have maintained a school of painting of European
reputation.
Some fragments of his celebrated fresco painting,
" The Dance of Death," ai-e still to be seen. These
peculiar figures inspired Goethe to write the follow-
ing poem .
BASLE. 93
" The warder looks down at the mid hour of night
On the tombs that? lie scattered below ;
The moon fills the place with her silvery light,
And the church-yard like day seems to glow.
When see ! first one grave, then another opes wide.
And women and men stepping forth are descried,
In cerements snow-white and trailing.
" In haste for the sport soon their ankles they twitch,
And whirl round in dances so gay ;
The young and the old, and the poor, and the rich,
But the cerements stand in their way ;
And as modesty cannot avail them aught here
They shake themselves all, and the shrouds soon appear,
Scattered over the tombs in confusion.
"Now waggles the leg and wiggles the thigh,
As the troops with strange gestures advance.
And a rattle and clatter anon rises high.
As of one beating time to the dance.
The sight of the warder seems monstrously queer.
When the villainous tempter speaks thus in his ear :
' Seize one of the shrouds that lie yonder !'
"Quick as thought it was done ! and for safety he fled
Behind the church door with all speed ;
The moon still contiimes her dear light to shed
On the dance that they fearfully lead.
But the dancers at length disappear one by one.
And their shrouds, ere they vanish, they carefully don,
And under the turf all is quiet.
" But one of them stumbles and shuffles there still,
And gropes at the graves in despair,
Yet 'tis by no comrade he's treated so ill ; —
The shroud he soon scents in the air.
So he rattles the door— for the warder 'tis well
That 'tis blessed, and so able the foe to repel,
All covered with crosses in metal.
94 THE RHINE.
"The shroud he must have, and no rest will allow,
There remains for reflection no time ;
On the ornaments Gothic the wight seizes now.
And from point on to point hastes to climb.
Alas for the warder ! his doom is decreed.
Like a long-legged spider, with ne'er changing speed,
Advances the dreaded pursuer.
" The warder he quakes, and the warder turns pale,
The shroud to restore fain had sought ;
When the end — now can nothing to save him avail ? —
In a tomb formed of iron is caught.
"With vanishing lustre the moon's race is run
When the bell thunders loudly a powerful one,
And the skeleton falls, crushed to atoms."
At the end of the sixteenth century a man was
born in Basle who, in another department of Art,
may be said to have gained European renown. We
refer to Matthew Merian, the iUustrator, engraver,
and pubHsher, Avho, in a set of works Avhich are still
much valued, set before the cultivated readers of his
time a description of countries and towns, much in
the same way that we are endeavoring to do in these
pages. Many other names might be given of men
who have distinguished themselves, but we should
need volumes instead of pages to describe them.
Among the specimens of architecture of past ages,
the Town HaU, erected 1508-1521, deserves to be
mentioned, with its statue of Munatius Plancus. The
various city gates also should be examined. These
old gates are often met with, and some of them are
very line. The reason of this may easily be seen,
BASLE. 95
for in the idea of a city gate there is something more
than that of a spacious barrier — it involves the prin-
ciple of a dividing-point between the burgess who
rules and the peasant who serves. The whole feeling
of the political power of the town is embodied, as it
were, visibly in its gates, and this feeling has re-
flected itself on the artistic power ; the architect
would naturally, therefore, feel that such a Avork had
a deep ideal meaning, as well as a practical one, and
would enrich the rough stone with many fanciful
adornments over and above what was requisite for
the material end for which the gate was to serve.
The Spahlenthor, erected in 1400, is, without
doubt, the most beautiful of the gates of Basle. A
pointed top with colored bricks covers the middle
tower, which is adorned with three figures of saints,
objects which were for a long time venerated in all
Sundgau. The two side towers are round, and firmly
enclose the indented gateway which affords the only
exit. The traffic is naturally the greatest in that
quarter of the town lying near the Rhine, and it be-
comes more busy as we approach the long bridge
which unites the two parts of the town. Great and
Little Basle.
Thus we have sought to give a sketch of Basle in
a few lines, but the changes which the town has ex-
perienced within the last few years are truly aston-
ishing. Its whole aspect has been varied ; every-
where we see the effort to give unbounded dominion
96 THE EHINE.
to the ideas of the present day, and on every side we
feel that Basle also has entered into the great compe-
tition of the period.
It resisted modern innovations as long as possible,
and even the most obvious improvements were adopted
very slowly. While Hanover was lighted with gas
as early as 1829, not a single lamp appeared here.
Forty years ago it seemed an impossibility that Basle
should ever possess a so-called " Quay," like other
towns situated on rivers. Now, however, each year
millions are spent in public works.
Art galleries, music halls and theatres have been
built, as well as two palatial schools, each of which
cost half a million of francs. The change as regards
the question of education is most important, for in it
lies the great problem of the present and the key to
the future. With astonishment we relate that there
are teachers in Basle who are millionaires. " You
mean, of course, individual professors, who work in
your colleges," we said to the learned friend who gave
us this information. " Not at all ; I mean ordinary
teachers ; for it is not everyone who can be a profes-
sor ! The position itself, whatever school he may
belong to, is so distinguished with us that no one
thinks himself too rich or too noble for it." Under
these circumstances, the old opposition which existed
between intellectual and material possessions has been
beneficially reduced — the understanding which exists
between the rich merchants, the patricians and the
BASLE. 97
scholars is so cordial and unconstrained that we can
only wish it existed elsewhere.
Thus the character of the citizens has on all sides
changed for the better. It is true that wealth is still
an important and ruling element in Basle, but the
consciousness of its possession has long been asso-
ciated with the knowledge that true worth must be
weighed, not counted. Many of the leading young
merchants go through a thorough academic course,
and more pride is felt in performing public benefits
than in indulging in personal ostentation.
The domestic life of these people is generally dis-
tinguished by a rigorous simplicity — and it is only on
the occasion of a public festival or some other impor-
tant event that any brilliant parade is exhibited. It
happened that during the time we spent in the hos-
pitable Rhenish town a great race took place on the
shooting-ground, and all classes, from the beggar to
the millionaire, streamed out of the town to the race-
course. It was the right time to see the people in a
body, and to study their manners and customs.
It was on a Sunday afternoon, and the sky was
cloudless. As early as one o'clock the motley bustle
began ; carriage after carriage flew along the road
which leads through the Spahlenthor into the broad
meadows where the soldiers formerly were drilled ;
the harness of the horses was adorned with colored
ribbons which waved in the wind ; then came a
wagon drawn by four great horses decorated with
Vol. I.— 7.
98 THE EHINE.
fir-branches and filled with soldiers in dark uniforms
— a dozen comrades who had joined together to enjoy
themselves. At last came the music playing merrily.
All the footpaths were covered with cheerful pedes-
trians in light clothing, for the air Avas of summer
warmth, and the pretty women smiled as gaily as
though it were their own special gala day.
We drove noiselessly over the smooth turf on to
the course, followed by itinerant vendors of pro-
grammes. Next to the steeplechase, which was bril-
Hantly carried out, the greatest interest was shown in
a military race in which the cavalry appeared mounted
on their chargers. They were mostly the sons of old
burgher families, who flew past on their fine horses —
though in coarse uniform, for only the soldiers and
subalterns were admitted. Nearly every competitor
was, naturally, known to all Basle, and each one was
at this critical moment looked upon as the son of the
whole town. The shout of delight with which the
townspeople greeted the smallest advantage which
anyone of their own men gained over a native of
Zurich or Schaffhausen, and the popularity of the
competitors, infected even strangers with a feeling of
sympathy — it was that local patriotism which may be
recognized still in the free cities — a burgher pride
giving itself unrestrained expression. Still more in-
teresting, however, than the entertainment itself were
the observers, the elite of whom were in the inner
circle of the race-course. Here the most beautiful
XTbe Spablentbor, Basle.
BASLE. 99
equipages were stationed carriage after carriage ; the
old gentleman with the white beard and delicate pro-
file talks earnestly with his business friend, Avhile his
beautiful daughters stand on the dark-blue cushions
and look eagerly at the course through their opera-
glasses. Oh, how they laugh and smile when a hand-
some rider flies past !
At length the last bugle has sounded from the
judges' stand, and preparations are made for the re-
turn home, which forms no unimportant feature in the
amusement of the day. The whole way back is
thronged with a lively crowd, and every variety of
visitor is to be met with. First of all comes at a
dignified pace, and with powdered footmen, the gala
carriage of a rich Spaniard who lives in Basle — which
even reckoned a Swedish king among its citizens.
This is foUoAved by a dashing four-in-hand with dapple-
gray horses — then comes the successful gentleman
rider, in his jockey costume, driving an elegant phaeton,
and he is followed by a steady old gentleman in more
sober apparel. The whole form as lively a cavalcade
as one would wish to see, as one after another comes
up at a brisk trot, and dashes past with some hasty
greeting.
At about six o'clock in the evening the great table
at the Three Kings is laid for dinner. This hotel is
named in remembrance of the time Avhen the Empe-
ror Conrad II. and his son Henry met Rudolph of
Burgundy. The three princes possibly took up their
100 THE EHINE.
abode at this place, though it must have undergone
great changes since that time. Now, by the light of
numerous wax candles, visitors from all the countries
of Europe assemble in the stately dining-room. All
sorts of curiosities and antiquities adorn the walls,
and a lofty drawing-room, hung with damask curtains
and mirrors, receives the guests when dinner is over.
Outside there is a broad terrace, where groups of
friends assemble under the starlit sky and talk of the
old days of the town, while the flowing river at their
feet catches their words and bears them away on its
ripples.
BREISGAU. 101
CHAPTER VII.
BREISGAU .
After passing Basle, the Ehine goes silently and
majestically for some distance northwards without
presenting any object Avhich specially attracts our at-
tention. The fortress of Hilningen, that bold sally-
port which Vauban built for his king, has long been
razed to the ground, so that our eyes can follow the
whole panorama without obstruction.
About three miles from here is the extensive estab-
lishment which, since 1852, has been replenishing
the neighboring Avaters with fish. Thousands of trout
and salmon are placed every year in the Rhine and
Moselle, and large quantities of smaller fish are sent
to the streams of Upper Alsace.
The landscape is more peaceful than beautiful, and
for some distance may almost be called monotonous.
On all sides w^e see partially-deserted river-beds,
which are deep and green ; moist pasture and high
sedge cover the banks ; and on both sides of the broad
plain rise blue hills. We are midway between the
Black Forest range and the Vosges.
The former extends far down to the south, and its
heights reach for twentv miles, from Siickingen to
LIBRARY
UniVERSlTY OF CALIFORNIA
102 THE EHINE.
Pforzheim. Its breadth also is considerable, deep
valleys opening out from its fir-covered solitudes into
the broad valley of the Rhine. Neat villages and
homesteads are dotted here and there on the dark
mountains, where the carved brown wooden clocks
tick in the snug little dwelling-room, while the axe
outside rings in the forest and lays low tlie primeval
trunks, which are then carried down to Holland by
the Rhine.
How poetic are all the surroundings of the dis-
trict ! The mere name of the Black Forest pos-
sesses a peculiar charm which no other mountain-
range can rival. Elves and water-sprites still sport
among its streams. Who does not remember the
beautiful, though melancholy song, in which the home-
sick wanderer regrets his departure from his beloved
Black Forest ? How we have shuddered as children
while reading the fairy tale of the tall ghostly man
who sold his peace of mind for gold ! In the night
he broke off the most gigantic trunks as easily as if
they had been dry rushes, and every ship that carried
even one plank of his wood went hopelessly to the
bottom. He was called Dutch Michael, but the name
of the story is " The Cold Heart," and the story
comes, with many others like it, from the Black
Forest.
The blue mountain-chain which stretches along the
other side of the Rhine is the Vosges, the old Was-
gauwald, which reaches from Saverne down to Miil-
BREISGAU. 103
hausen. It is covered Avitli tall beeches and firs, and
on tlic rocks weatherworn castles stand like eyries.
Their ruins still speak to us of the glory of the races
that dwelt here ; for, as the Black Forest Avas the
country of the peasants, so the Wasgau was the
country of the nobles. We hear in its retired valley
not only the Avoodraan's axe, but also the smith's iron
hammer fashioning the metals that are found in the
neighboring mines, and we see the blue smoke of fur-
naces rise languidly towards the deserted castles.
Those extensive plateaus which are so numerous
among the mountains of the Black Forest are met
with much more rarely in the Vosges ; and although
it must be admitted that usually mountains have a
greater eflFect from their massiveness than from the
fine arrangement of their forms, yet here the variety
and the grouping strikes us as being much more im-
pressive than that in the Black Forest ; the summits
rise one above another threefold and fourfold, like
giant forms leaning one upon the shoulder of an-
other.
Passing on, we come to Breisach. This was once
regarded as the most secure portion of the Holy Ro-
man Empire, for Breisach was considered the key of
Germany, and seemed to be so strongly fortified as to
be safe from every enemy. It stands two hundred
and forty feet above the Rhine, and, as late as the
tenth century, the river is said to have flowed around
the town. But, like so many things connected with
104 THE RHINE. ;
the Holy Roman Empire, it only seemed secure. No
war occurred between the two countries from which
the town did not emerge with gaping wounds. Its
worst time Avas in 1793, when the ragged soldiery,
to the cry of the " Marseillaise," satiated with crime,
overran the weary empire, which shook to its very
centre ; even to this day the town has not quite re-
covered from the destruction which it then suffered.
Nor was this its last trial, for in 1870, on a cold No-
vember night, the hissing shells flew hither across the
Rhine, and for six days the enemy's fire continued to
pour into the town until the French fortress. New
Breisach, surrendered.
The landscape in which the two towns are situated,
as we have already stated, is not striking, and may,
indeed, be said to be somewhat melancholy and
mournful. The two chains of mountains, the Vosges
and the Black Forest, lie far apart ; the low-lying
land betAveen them appears as a large level plain ;
the sky overhead is dull, and is reflected in the river,
with gray rain-swollen clouds. As we pass, herons
rise from the stagnant waters, which are parted from
the river by strong embankments, and even the broad
handsome street that leads across into Alsace looks
quite deserted. Thus there seems to be a curious
sense of loneliness about this place which is increased
by a damp mist, which often fills the air, and forms
a suitable background for the brown weatherworn
town.
BKEISGAU. 105
The rock on wliioli old Breisacli is perched falls
precipitously towards the bank of the Rhine. The
turrets of the Minster tower above the dark gabled
roofs, Avails, and fortifications, its connnanding and
characteristic appearance influencing the form of the
whole town. The church is dedicated to St. Stephen,
one of the great martyrs, who courageously faced his
persecutors even while dying under their stone mis-
siles. The proud temple is indeed worthy of its
noble patron, for, as the watch-tower of the German
Empire, it may also be said to have often suffered
martyrdom. It still stands, however, in spite of the
cannon of the enemy, and is now being restored.
We cannot leave the neighborhood of Breisach
without making an excursion inland, for at only a
short distance is situated Freiburg in Breisgau, one
of the loveliest of South German towns.
After a short drive from Breisach Ave reach the
mountain- chain of the Black Forest, which descends
in long soft lines into the A\alley ; it is the place
where the Dreisam emerges from the movmtains into
the plain, and there the old Zahringers built their
castle. The town extends at its feet along the hill-
side. The antiquated gray houses are almost out-
numbered by the handsome villas lying among their
gardens ; but high above them all, seeming as we ap-
proach it to overlook even the outlines of the moun-
tains, Ave see the huge Cathedral buildings. The
graceful perforated spire stands out against the back-
106 THE EHINE.
ground, not clear and sharp, as elsewhere, but almost
as if shaded with sombre gray.
As Ave approach, the grandeur of its form increases,
until we stand actually before it. As the Cathedral
was the first object Avhich met our eyes in the dis-
tance, it shall be the first visited Avhen we have
reached the place ; for, indeed, it is one of those won-
derful Avorks the beauties of which increase rather
than diminish on a closer inspection. The Cathedral
of Freiburg, founded by Conrad, brother of Berthold
m., in 1123, is of inestimable value to the history
of Art, from the fact of its being the only German
church which the middle ages have handed down to
us completed, though it is true that later times have
made many superfluous additions.
Viewed from the outside the nave of the church
appears much lower and shorter than it really is on
account of the height and position of the spire, which
is placed immediately over the principal doorway.
This false impression, hoAvever, A^anishes as soon as
we are inside. Suddenly everything groAvs to ma-
jestic proportions, the gray pillars rise high on every
side, and the eye can scarcely take in the whole
width from the door to the choir in one glance.
The great transepts on each side of the Gothic
high-altar are adorned with paintings by the hand of
an old German master, and on either side are the
richly -carved stalls of the church dignitaries. Here,
as in all great cathedrals, the aisles which run
BEEISGAU. 107
pai'callel with the nave are more or less the domain
of the dead.
Along the walls are the tombs and sculptured
figures of knights who have assisted to establish the
prosperity of the town, either by enriching it with
their goods or defending it Avith their swords. The
Minster of Freiburg has had its friends and its rich
donors, of whom it was proud. Their renown is
handed down to posterity in graceful monuments ; all
the little chapels Avhich adorn the outer circumfer-
ence of the choir are crowded with such memorials.
One belongs to the university, and contains the
tombs of the great scholars Avho have become cele-
brated there. The altar-piece of the university
chapel is by Hans Holbein, painted in 1520, and rep-
resents the Wise Men from the East humbly adoring
at the manger of the Holy Child.
In another chapel we find costly wood carvings, and
the light breaks with wonderful eff"ect through a
stained-glass window. The Byzantine crucifix of
heavy embossed silver was brought here from the
Holy Land by a Crusader, and dedicated to the ser-
vice of the sacred place ; for these walls were stand-
ing even at the time of the Crusades, when Bern-
hard of Clairvaux preached in the unfinished build-
ing, and with burning zeal called all Christendom to
arms.
Seven centuries have passed since that time, and
the battle-call has often sounded for far different aims :
108 THE KHINE.
yet still, as we stroll at twilight within these massive
walls, when the last rays of the setting sun fall through
the pointed windows, it seems as though the stony
figures move again, and a breath of the glowing
spirit of that inspired monk still lingers round the
place. We feel unconsciously that the age in which
he labored was a great one. Christianity was then
in its youth, and in the fulness of its heroism it longed
to perform some deed worthy of its cause. It was
the lofty idealism of its teaching which then drew the
sword, and not the gloomy fanaticism which, five cen-
turies later, plunged the world into the horrors of the
Thirty Years' War !
The open place or square on which the Cathedral
stands is spacious and handsome, its most beautifid
object being the ancient Town Hall, erected in the
fifteenth century, which stands almost immediately
opposite the south door. This is built of red sand-
stone, and is of only moderate height, but its open
arcade, adorned with shields, its handsome balcony
and Gothic windows, give it a highly-characteristic
and original appearance. The statues which are
placed between the windows are of about the same
period as the building itself; they represent the Em-
peror Max, the last of the knights, and Charles V.,
upon whose empire the sun never set ; and between
them Philip I. and King Ferdinand.
As we stroll leisurely through the streets, we find
many relics of the time when the House of Haps-
/IDaikctplacc aiiJ) Ikautoaus,
BREISGAU. 109
burg ruled in Breisgcau ; many an antique gable rises
boldly beside the flat roof of a modern house, and the
fountains in the High Street still murmur in the same
tones that greeted the ears of the princes of the arch-
ducal house when they rode forth to the tournaments.
But the feeling of the citizens has totally changed
since those days ; they are no longer moved by the
traditions of imperial dominion, but by the magic charm
of Freedom, which, having been latent in the name
of the town, sprang to life in the hearts of the people,
and Freiburg became unexpectedly one of the most
powerful and enlightened towns of South Germany.
On the Kaiser-Strasse stands a granite pedestal
surmounted by a bronze figure of Victory. It is a
war monument, erected by the Austrian Government
in 1876 to the Fourteenth German Army Corps and
its brave leader. General von Werder.
Intellectual progress went hand in hand Avith out-
ward development, and the population and the extent
of the town increased rapidly. An observer looking
down upon the town from the renowned Schlossberg,
could hardly imagine it to be the same place in whose
colleges he had sat, perhaps forty years before, at the
feet of Rotteck and Welcker. A long avenue planted
with chestnut-trees leads us at last to the gate.
Stately houses, built in the style of the modern villa,
stand right and left of us, for quite a colony of dis-
tinguished foreigners have settled here within the
last few years.
110 THE RHINE.
Again we catch the sound of running water, and
we see before us a well, with a broad basin made of
red sandstone. On the pillar, which rises out of the
water, there stands the stone figure of a monk hold-
ing a Bible in his right hand, while his left is thought-
fully supporting his chin. What ominous thoughts
are working beneath that overhanging brow ! It is
Berthold Schwarz, who was a native of Freiburg, and
the idea — the DanJie gift which he left behind him for
mankind, was — Gunpowder !
His real name was Konstantin Anklitzen, but Ber-
thold was the name he took on entering the cloister,
and Schwarz (black) was a sobriquet given him in
consequence of his occult pursuits.
How he must have started up affrighted, in his
quiet cell, when the first report crashed unexpect-
edly out of the mortar ! Since then whole towns
have been reduced to ruins and armies stricken down ;
for a few grains of his magic powder suffices to shat-
ter the strength of the boldest body, and the power
of the noblest mind ! The stone monk muses, half-
troubled, half-wondering. How many ideas has his
idea destroyed !
THE VOSGES COUNTRY. Ill
CHAPTER VIII.
THE VOSGES COUNTRY.
A SHORT time only has elapsed since the Rhine,
flowing under the walls of Breisach, separated two
great nations, two noble countries, two mighty foes.
The Rhine was the visible type of the great political
gap which separated Germany from the rest of the
world. For two hundred years, since Louis XIV.,
the office of the Rhine has been — to separate. Now
that the old communion between mother and daughter
has been re-established, it will assert its uniting in-
fluence, and the Rhine will help us, more than any
human instrument could do, to promote a mutual un-
derstanding between the races which had, unfortu-
nately, become strangers to one another.
We will now pass over to the other side of the
river, to that district which is known as Upper Alsace.
In olden times, when the sons of the Carlovingian
king divided their inheritance, it was called Sundgau.
We have already seen from a distance the broad
street that leads over the Rhine to Colmar. This is
the road along which we have now to go, between
the lofty poplars which stand on either side. We
soon come within sight of New Breisach, with its
112 THE KHINE.
deserted trenches which surround the fortress. Fort
Mortier projecting far out commands the flat plain,
and we rattle through its gate. Freshly cut in the
sandstone is the imperial eagle, and underneath it the
word " Germany, 1870."
Breisach is a small and unpretending little town,
although it possesses its Grand Cafe, as may be seen
from its signboard ; the houses are seldom more than
one story high, and the grass grows plentifully be-
tween the paving-stones. There is an absence of
bustle in the place and its inhabitants.
The road which leads from here to Colmar goes
straight through the wood ; it may be seen lying for
a couple of miles in front of us. Sometimes we have
only low bushes on either side, then green firs with
their slender trunks, and then we have meadows and
pastures. Here the last load of hay is being carried,
and the reapers are eating their supper under an old
nut-tree by the roadside, and a little village peeps out
from among the trees. Nearly all the houses are
cleanly whitewashed, so that they have a very bright
appearance, with their pointed roofs.
The inn is distinguished by the sign of a great
star, and is the principal one in the place. Wagons
stand before the door, and the drivers are gathered
together in a noisy chattering crowd. All is cheerful
bustle ; but the time for tarrying is short. A glass
of beer is quickly ordered, and as soon disposed of;
each man exchanges a few words hurriedly with the
THE VOSGES COUNTRY. 113
nearest group, and then sets off -with his powerful
team, making way for the next bird of passage to
take his place.
It is about two hours' drive from Breisach to Col-
mai", and then we rattle noisily through the streets of
the old town. Every minute we turn a corner ; all
the houses have gables and balconies, and in the
streets the idle lads stand gaping at us as we pass.
Colmar, Avith its thirty thousand inhabitants and its
picturesque and historical reminiscences, has become
a very quiet place, and appears to have stood still for
ages. It once had its time of prosperity, but that was
six centuries ago, in the days of the great Hohen-
staufen, when Frederick II. was Emperor of Ger-
many, and the old walls, which had once been only a
Frankish manor, w^ere elevated to the position of an
imperial city. The citizens have never forgotten this
fact, and have always prided themselves on being
truly imperial. At the worst time they stood by the
Empire with unswerving courage.
No other town in Germany showed such fidelity as
Colmar. In 1474 it courageously forbade Charles
the Bold to enter jts walls, when he attempted to en-
force his purchased rights with the sword ; and when
Louis XIV. seized upon Alsace it resisted the incor-
poration Avith France with an energy which bordered
on despair. Colmar also bore its banner aloft in the
intellectual struggle for Art and Learning, and men
whose memory is still honored by the world were at
Vol. I. -8
114 THE KHINE.
that time proud to be its citizens. Martin Schon, the
greatest German artist of the fifteenth century, was
born and died here.
The annexation to France was a turning-point for
both sides — for the moral power is greatly influenced
by the political — the German imperial city became a
French provincial town, and the "Great King" Louis
XIV. seemed to imagine that subjugated countries
estimated the greatness and power of their conquer-
ors in proportion to the severity of the treatment
they received at their hands. The persecutions
which were soon heaped upon the Reformers were
received in deep dejection, and even by the French
it was asserted that the reconciling of Colmar to its
fate was retarded for nearly a century by the harsh-
ness with which the people were treated.
But what did that matter to the all-powerful ruler
at Versailles ; his answer to every question was,
" Tel est notre plaisir." So the town mourned : the
" Sovereign Court of Justice " which was bestowed
upon it was but a poor substitute for the glory of its
old freedom ; and Voltaire, in deep mockery, recalls
the fact that once the works of the great Bayle were
burnt in the market-place at Colmar. The proud
Corsican also thought no better of the town, for,
although two of the most brilliant leaders of the
French army, Bruatt and Rapp, came from here, he
repaid it with the deepest contempt. His merciless
sentence was " Colmar is a hole." Monuments to
THE VOSGES COUNTRY. 115
Admiral Bruatt and Greneral Rapp, designed by Bar-
tholdi, now stand in Colmar.
Walking through the streets and looking up at the
houses, it seems as if we had plunged into the middle
of the old German period : the Town Hall, with its
slender spire and the graceful perforated stone gal-
lery which runs along under the roof; the Pfister
House, and many other buildings, are monuments of
architecture as fine as any to be found even in Nurem-
berg and Augsburg. A touch of grace is given even
to the police station — a building rarely associated with
pleasure — for over the ugly fagade there is a balcony
of wonderfiJ elegance.
We have only to turn to iind ourselves opposite
the Cathedral, which was built by Master Humbert ;
his monument stands under the east door. Although
the exterior possesses a certain crudeness, the effect
of the whole is imposing and harmonious ; and sim-
ple as the interior appears, it is not wanting in sanc-
tity. The broad choir, dating from 1350, is particu-
larly beautiful and calm, Avith its old dark-brown
woodwork. The carved door which leads into the
sacristy hides one of the noblest treasures of mediis-
val art — '' The Madonna Among the Roses," which
Martin Schon bequeathed to the town.
No one disturbed us as we made our tour of the
spacious aisles | here and there a blind beggar stood
in a corner and muttered a petition for alms, close by
two or three children whispered, and one old woman
116 THE RHINE.
Scat nodding in a chair. Before every seat was a
white card bearing the name of the owner. By look-
ing through the rows of names it could be deter-
mined how far the German element still survived ;
the result showed it to be a large proportion of the
whole. It is true that many an honest citizen had
added an accent grave or an accent acute, but the
greater number of the names had German endings,
such as bieder, miiUer, hauscr, haiier, etc.
We now ascend a winding stairway not far from
the gate, and find ourselves in a little turret room ;
we step out on the dizzy parapet of the tower, and
the vast prospect stretches before us. On one side
we see the chain of the Vosges rise in the clear morn-
ing light ; villages stud the valley, and many a lordly
castle stands on the heights. Over yonder, where
the horizon almost vanishes in the haze of the dis-
tance, Ave can just distinguish some towers. They
are the walls of Schlettstadt, and they point the path
we are to follow.
But before we turn northward in order to continue
the course of the Rhine, the adjacent neighborhood
offers many attractions which we must not forget.
Here the Alsatian saying first becomes true —
" Three castles on one hill,
Three churches in one church yard,
Three cities in a row,
By these you may Alsatia know "
The number is still true, for not far from Egisheim
THE VOSGES COUNTRY. 117
Ave see three towers on a wooded liill, which appear
to stand in a line, and bear the curious name of
" The Three Axes." Actually they stand obliquely
behind one another, and are the towers of one and
the same fortress, each of them bearing its own
special title, namely, Weckmund, Wahlenburg, and
Dagsburg, names which remind us of bygone days.
Egisheim is one of the numerous castles which
claim the honor of being the birthplace of Pope Leo
IX., who was a Count of Egisheim and Dagsburg,
and it was formerly well worthy of such a son, but
the noble walls were reduced to ruins in quite early
times, during a war which was stirred up by a miller
of Miilhausen.
The two beautiful lakes which represent the artis-
tic climax of the Vosges chain are best visited from
Colmar ; the road thither passes through Kaiserberg.
That name sounds familiar to our ears, for it was
given to the town by the great preacher John Geiler,
who spent his youth here. The present importance
of the town does not depend upon learning, or any
kind of curiosities ; but in that charming simplicity,
that picturesque originality, which brings it pleas-
antly before the eyes of strangers. It is conscious
of an active Present and a renowned Past, of which
we are reminded on all sides in word and form ; on
the Town Hall, built in 1604 ; on the fountain, on the
wall even round the church-yard, and, in fact, every-
where we find mottoes, in the form of old rhymes,
118 THE RHINE.
full of meaning. Some are severe, and even coarse ;
some are tender and poetic, some are gay, some are
sad, according to the occasion and circumstances in
which they were first used. This town was strong
in its fidelity to the Emperor, to whom it belonged,
as its name naturally indicates ; and in the Confedera-
tion of the Ten Cities its voice was heard, and its
counsel held in considerable respect.
The road now goes farther into the green depths
of the Vosges ; we have left Orbey behind us, and
are making for the wooded ridges of the mountains,
sometimes following a narrow path, and sometimes
trampling through luxuriant heather. It is not long,
however, before the landscape begins gradually to
grow wilder, gray boulders lie scattered about, short
scanty Alpine grass covers the ground, and only a
few weather-beaten firs are visible on the distant
ridge. We hasten once more through the solitude,
and suddenly a new view opens before us — the waters
lie motionless between bare white rocks, which rise
precipitously to a considerable height, and are clearly
reflected in the lake below. This is the White Lake,
and it is a remnant of that icy period which once
covered the face of this country.
Its deep basin is only parted by a broad solid ridge
of rock from another sheet of water equally deep and
motionless, though much smaller. It is not surpris-
ing that the character of the two lakes should be
somewhat similar, though at one time this was not
THE VOSGES COUNTRY. 119
the case, for the banks of the hist we liave referred
to were bordered with dark primeval iirs. Then the
name of " The Black Lake " was appropriate to it.
But the devastating axe has penetrated to this spot
and robbed it of the dark Avood covering, so that
nothing now remains but the inhospitable rock. Its
declivity, however, towards the bank is less steep
than that of the White Lake, and the form of the
mountains is less grotesque.
In spite of this, however, w^e still feel ourselves in
the true uncultivated mountain world, and only at the
mouth of the lake Ave are Avillingly reminded of the
existence of restless human ingenuity by the dam
which regulates the outflow of the water. In this
way is the stream made of service to the manufac-
tories in the valley below. They entice the clear
bright water to their noisy workshops, and when it
would run cheerily under them it is suddenly seized
upon and tortured by their jagged wheels.
The neat little toAvn which we come to on the
road from Colmar to Schlettstadt is called by the
Germans Rappoltsweiler, though it is better known
by its French name of Ribeauville. It is one of
the most cheerful little cities in all Alsace, and
it was here that the old Piper kings had their
day.
The Count of Rappoltstein w^as the " King " of all
the musicians and minstrels of the Upper Rhine.
They recognized him as the head of the brotherhood,
120 THE KHINE.
and paid him an annual tax ; in return for which he
took them under his protection.
Every year, on the 8th of September, these wan-
derers assembled at Rappoltstein to celebrate a joy-
ous festival — and to settle their disputes. When the
last Count of Rappoltstein died, in 1673, this re-
markable jurisdiction, together with the title, " King
of the Pipers," was conferred upon the Counts-Pala-
tine of Birkenfeld, who were in the service of France,
and it was held by them until the French Revolution.
Even now, on the 8th of September, the inhabitants
of Rappoltsweiler celebrate a local festival in memory
of the old times.
The thick shady trees of the suburbs have now
been made into pleasure gardens, and on the hills,
which are overgrown with vines, the ruins of the
castles of the old rulers stand. The more lawless the
period, the higher the bold knights placed their
dwellings, and it was only as men became more
peaceable and opposition less decided, that they
moved slowly down into the villages and toAvns. This
fact is forcibly illustrated here. The highest of the
three castles which command the town is called Rap-
poltstein. It was built in the fourteenth century, and
is considered one of the oldest castles in Alsace ; it
was the ancestral seat of a renowned race. Later,
however, though still as early as the time of the
Hohenstaufens, the second castle was erected loAver
down on the rocks. This in its turn was soon fol-
THE VOSGES COUNTRY. 121
lowed by a third, in the style of the Renaissance, and
named after St. Uh'ich. The middle ruin is called Girs-
berg, and was held by a family of the same name.
As we follow the road which leads from Rappolts-
weiler to Markirch we meet with another venerable
fortress which stands on a gray rock in one of the
cross valleys. The ruins now look down only on the
quiet country. Once when the high bay windows
shone in the sunlight, there stood here a renowned
old abbey of the name of Dusenbach, and three
chapels which were subject to it.
Pilgrimages were made to this shrine, for the Holy
Virgin, to whom it was dedicated, Avas the patroness
of the musicians Avho frequented the roads of merry
Alsace. Now all is silent, and the little stream, the
Dusenbach, ripples in solitude over moss-groAvn
stones, and without the echo of human voices, the
boughs of the old trees rustle, which at one time
formed the green arcade up to the cloister door.
We would willingly stand awhile and think of
those who formerly wandered here, but they and
their retired home fade from our minds as we ap-
proach the great masterpiece which noAv looks down
on us from the lofty summits. That is Hohkonigs-
berg, the noblest stronghold in Alsace. Nothing is
known of the origin of the castle, but as early as 1462
it was partly destroyed by the Archduke Sigismund
and the Bishop of Strasburg. It was again burned
by the Swedes in the seventeenth century.
122 THE EHINE.
The road now goes steeply upAvards, passing a very
picturesque forester's house, until we see before us
two enormous towers and the reddish walls of the
fortress, which once enclosed many a comfortable
chamber and many a noble hall. One of the latter is
so well preserved that the staircase, which in olden
times led up to the watch-tower, appears to be still
accessible, and our footsteps as we approach re-echo
under the great " Lion Gate."
How many bold footsteps have sounded here be-
fore folks of the present day came with their " curi-
ous eyes " — how many lordly races have here meted
out rigid government and cheerful hospitality ! The
Lords of Rathsamhausen and the Counts of Dittin-
gen, the Sickingens and the Fuggers, have all at
different times called this fortress their own. Many
a merry feast has the Bishop of Strasburg held within
its walls, and many a higliAvayman has waited here
on a dark day, ready to fall suddenly upon the cara-
vans of merchants on their Avay to Basle.
But good and bad, conqueror and conquered, have
all long since gone to their rest, and young sapHngs
of fir and larch grow unmolested in the dilapidated
court-yard. The commune of Schlettstadt now pos-
sesses the venerable ruin, and is responsible for its
care. It fulfils its trust with commendable fidelity,
for Hohkonigsberg is its pride and its jewel.
The impression Avhich Schlettstadt itself makes on
the traveller is much the same as that of Colmar ; the
THE VOSGES COUNTRY. 123
environs are flat, the streets are empty, and land ap-
pears to be valueless and consequently unused. In-
voluntarily we feel the oppression which seems to be
an essential part of all fortified towns, and hinders
the development of unrestrained prosperity.
If we approach the town from the side near the
railway, we see scarcely anything except a few bare
towers wdiich rise above the roofs, and it is not until
we enter the interior of the town that this confused
mass of houses resolves itself into its parts and we
see many charming details. There is the venerable
Cathedral of St. George, founded in the fourteenth
century. It is one of the finest specimens of Gothic
architecture in Alsace, with its clock-tower standing
up conspicuously among the pile of masonry. On
some of the houses are brown wooden balconies
shaded by high roofs, but the character of the whole
place nowhere rises above quiet mediocrity.
During our tour of the town we will pay a visit to
the principal hotels of the place. The two most im-
portant which Schlettstadt formerly possessed were
the Goat and the Eagle. These two have now, hoAV-
ever, combined (a sad mesalliance, by-the-bye, for the
Eagle), and though the present hostelry is but of
moderate pretensions, a traveller may make himself
very comfortable under its shelter. Schlettstadt has
in its time entertained many distinguished guests
within its walls; as early as the year 775 Charlemagne
celebrated the feast of Cliristmas here ; and, like
124 THE EHINE.
Colmar, it was one of the most faithful cities of the
empire at the time Avhen France took possession of
it. Its fidelity was proved by many serious sacrificeSj
for the town, which had become attached to the Em-
peror in 1216, was repeatedly besieged by the Bishop
of Strasburg. His mercenaries, under the Hohen-
staufen, Frederick II., and under Louis of Bavaria,
stormed its walls, in order to chastise the citizens for
defending their town against Rome for the Emperor.
Schlettstadt held an important position in the
Union which was formed by the ten cities of Alsace,
and its alliance M^as always sought and its enmity was
much dreaded by each of the contending parties.
Sometimes, indeed, the shadows of lawless deeds
overclouded its history. The citizens took part in
the atrocious cruelties of the Jewish persecution in
the sixteenth century, and they also were active in
those disturbances which were the prelude to the
Great Peasant League. It was, indeed, one of the
former burgomasters of Schlettstadt who marched at
the head of the wild mob which, under the banner
of the Bundschuh, declared war on '' knight and
priest," in order to win freedom for the peasantry.
This righteous object, which was to be peaceably ob-
tained a century later, was then sought with dread-
ful cruelty, and the effect was accordingly unsuccess-
ful, the last decisive struggle taking place almost
under the very walls of Schlettstadt.
The real influence of the town, however, and that
THE VOSGES COUNTRY. 125
which spread far beyond the Hmits of the Empire,
did not lie in force of warhke arms, but in the intel-
lectual qualities which were cultivated here. Schlett-
stadt possessed a college as early as the fifteenth
century, in which teachers of European renown
labored, and to Avhich scholars flocked from all the
countries of Europe. Their number often amounted
to many hundreds, and it was at this time that the
splendid library, which the town still possesses, was
founded. This is unfortunately about the only relic
which learning has left.
As the twilight begins to fall we take a last quiet
walk through the streets. Behind the Minster a lively
scene presents itself before us ; numbers of noisy
boys perched up in an empty wagon, and an audi-
ence of little girls, sitting on the stone steps of the
houses, are singing snatches of " Madame Angot,"
and one of them, with queer harlequin jumps, shouts
the hackneyed couplet :
' ' Vaut pas la peine, vaut pas la peine,
De changer le gouvernement."
Thoughtless childhood should not be deprived of any
harmless pleasure ; but when these boys have grown
to be men, and the little girls have become their
wives, they will of themselves think of other things,
and possibly they may have other opinions on the
subject of the change of government.
126 THE RHINE.
CHAPTER IX.
STEASBURG.
Whoever would know a man thoroughly, should
see him under a variety of circumstances : in the sun-
shine of good fortune, when happiness unfolds and
elevates his nature, and in the depth of distress, when
the power of necessity lays bare his weakness. What
applies to individuals applies also to collective bodies
of men, that is, to great towns, and their true nature
is alone revealed by the study of that mirror of end-
less vicissitudes which we call History.
Three times has the writer of these pages seen
Strasburg, the '' fair," the celebrated in song, and
each time under totally different circumstances, vary-
ing from the highest glory to that of the deepest
misery.
The first time was nearly thirty years ago, when
she stood in the brilliant train of Paris, her queen.
Paris stood at that time among the Cities of the
Earth, fatally beautiful, like Cleopatra, fascinating all
the world. She had summoned the Caisars of Europe
to her court, for the Great Exhibition of 1867 was
opened. All the provincial towns surrounded their
mistress with homage, as noble ladies surround a
queen, and in their circle stood Strasburg.
STRASBURG. 1 27
What a different picture was presented on the sec-
ond visit ! War lay on the land, and on all sides men
were struggling for victory. Nightly the sky was
red with fire, and the day was darkened with smoke,
in the midst of which the sacred Minster reared its
head. Deserted by France, cut off from Paris, Stras-
burg lay behind her walls on the Rhine and mourned.
Gradually, piece by piece, almost inch by inch, her
walls were worn away by shot and shell ; all the
agonies of hunger and thirst were borne by the in-
habitants ; she was unable to save herself, but she
woidd not capitulate. But from the camp yonder
the conquerors sang a song of welcome to her :
" You stand in the garb of sorrow,
Unhonored and full of grief,
But your old love will come to-morrow,
And his good sword shall bring relief."
It was the end of September ; the bombardment,
which had ceased for a few hours, began afresh, for
evening was not far distant. When it had become
quite dark we took a carriage and drove out to the
batteries. The night was cold, and the loose stones
of the viptorn streets rattled under the horses' hoofs.
Every now and then the animals reared and plunged
when a more than usually loud volley thundered
forth. We passed through one or two little villages
where the people stood and peered out of their gar-
ret windows. As we drove between field and forest
128 THE RHINE.
single dark figures occasionally passed us on the road,
and all the while the lurid reflection on the other side
of the Rhine grcAV brighter and clearer. There was
fire in Strasburg — Strasburg was the torch that lighted
us on our dark road. Presently the driver refused to
proceed, and Ave descended and followed on foot a path
across the fields until a broad building barred the way.
This was a brick kiln with extensive out-buildings,
and from the spot wdiere we were standing to the
town was hardly more than half a mile in a straight
line.
What an awful sensation Ave experienced as we
stood there in the midst of tMs Avild destruction !
All day the firing had been violent, now it raged.
Not only the poAver but the fury of the enemy blazed
out in every shot, and the thundering sounds seemed
to be Avild imprecations uttered by the wdiole force of
the passion which had been let loose by War ! We
stood, watch in hand, counting the shots as they fell.
They were like fearful pulse-beats, and as the fever
of a sick man increases towards evening, so did this
firing become wilder as the night dragged on. One
shell after another rattled against the fortress, fol-
lowed almost without an interval by answers dashing
against the German batteries ; their course could be
traced through the air — though it Avas a mile long,
they travelled it in a few seconds. Afar off was
heard their angry hiss under the silent canopy of
heaven.
Cit)? (5ate, StrasbucG.
STRASBURG. 129
Such is the picture that we gazed on then, at that
anxious time, wliich is still associated in our memory
with the name of Strasburg. But how completely it
has changed now !
Four years elapsed, and the days of affliction liad
passed away on the occasion of the third visit to the
old town on the Rhine, to the German Strasburg.
Traces of many wounds, it is true, were still visible,
and many shadows passed over the lofty brow at the
recollection of bitter sorrows, but, on the whole, there
was a feeling of calm reconciliation and of new and
joyous power in the heart of the tO"\\ai.
Wliat a load has fallen from our hearts as we walk
through the Strasburg of to-day ! We look upon a
resurrection ; the rapid foot of Time, which we so
often deplore, has here exercised its power of healing
and of blessing, for incredible things have been done
in these last years.
The very first impression of the streets, which so
frequently has a lasting effect on one's mind, is ex-
tremely pleasant. In one place, we are struck by
the grandeur of the buildings ; in another, by their
homelike comfort. Thvis we remain equally free
from the oppressive effect of a great city and the
confined feeling of a small provincial town. It is,
indeed, just this which gives that peculiar charm to
a sojourn in Strasburg.
It is a town in which a stranger does not long feel
strange. This is specially the case with visitors coming
Vol. I.— 9
130 THE EHINE.
from the other side of the Rhine ; for, in spite of all the
opposition which stirs the heart of Alsace, the Ger-
man nature of the place cannot be denied. Recol-
lections which the last two centuries have not washed
away are still extant ; whenever we have relations
with the people themselves we meet with German
manners. In the new intellectual circle, too, which
has been brought into Strasburg by the government,
and more particularly by the establishment of the
University, the German guest is received so kindly
that he feels himself at home in the best sense of the
word.
The University was founded in 1621 — and many
celebrated students were gathered within its walls.
Goethe was graduated here as Doctor of Laws in
1771. In 1794 it was suppressed by the National
Convention, and in 1803 it was turned into a French
Academy ; this lasted until the Franco-Prussian war.
In 1872 it was reopened as a University, and now
has many students.
We will therefore go on our way, disturbed by
scarcely another discord, and wander at our leisure
through the beautiful town and examine its treasures
and curiosities.
The noblest of these treasures, the pride and won-
der of Strasburg, is its Cathedral : a building whose
dumb stones are more eloquent than language. At
first the bulk of the huge masses almost overpowers
the eye ; but into what grace and delicacy these
STRASBURG. 131
masses are developed ! how light the ponderous stone
becomes in the combinations and harmony of the
whole ! What gigantic power the spiritual has here
won over the material ! As we stand before the
Cathedral we cannot help thinking of it in connec-
tion with that period out of which it grew. What
must have been the blossom of an epoch which could
bear such fruit ! what the consciousness of power of
a town that could rear such a temple for its faith !
The early history of the great building dates many
centuries back, and is, consequently, somewhat con-
fused. The present structure represents the labor
of nearly five hundred years. The first beginnings
of a Christian church in Strasburg were made in
Chlodwig's time, but they and all the decorations
that had been added by the Carlovingians became a
prey to the flames and were entirely destroyed.
Bishop Werner accordingly had to commence a com-
pletely new work when he laid the foundation of the
present Cathedral in 1015. He himself was of the
noble house of the Counts of Hapsburg, but the
names of those whose hands embodied his thoughts
and designs have been lost in the great gidf of
Time.
It is only in the third century after its foundation
that Ave meet with the name of that master whose
memory is now inseparably connected with the Cathe-
dral of Strasburg, namely, Erwin von Steinbach.
Whose heart does not leap at the thought of the
132 THE KHINE.
glory that surrounds that name ! The stately build-
ing rose before his enlightened spirit and under his
creating hand, as the rich branches of a tree grow
in the light of the sun ; it became not only his tomb,
but also his imperishable monument.
The fagade is covered Avith delicate tracery and
numerous scidptures. The three portals, represent-
ing scenes from the Creation and the Redemption,
are among the finest specimens of Gothic work in
existence. The niches in the lower story contain
equestrian statues of the Emperors Clovis and Dago-
bert, Rudolf of Hapsburg and Louis XIII. (this last
erected in 1823). During the Revolution many of
these statuettes were thrown down, and the spire of
the Cathedral escaped a like fate only because it Avas
protected by a red republican cap made of metal,
which served as a protecting badge !
As is well known, one only of the two towers has
been built, up which a winding staircase has been
placed. The site which the other tower should have
occupied runs out into a platform, and has been made
to serve the watchmen for a dwelling. More than
fifty times has the building been threatened to be de-
stroyed by lightning. Once it seemed doomed to de-
struction by a terrible earthquake ; and, lastly, the
roaring waves of the Revolution, with the shot and
shell which have whistled past it, rendered its fate
almost certain ; but stiU the old sanctuary stands firm
and unmoved, indifferent alike to the storms of ages
STRASBUKG. 133
and to human passion, both of which have fallen
powerless before its silent majesty.
As the view from the Cathedral tower extends for
many miles, so do the memories of this place reach
back for hundreds of years, and include many races
and innumerable individuals whose names are famous.
The Minster tower is like a stone book in which visit-
ors from all parts of the world have carved their
names — princes, beggars, nobles, and many others
are included among the number ; and even Voltaire,
Herder, Montalembert, Goethe, Baumann, Meier,
Schulze have gazed upon this scene.
Not only is paper patient, as the German proverb
says, but stone is so also, and the swallows, quite un-
concerned as to who gives them shelter, settle first
on one pillar and then on another, and do not ask in
whose memory their twittering song is raised.
Everywhere we turn, whether we go outside the
city gates or lose ourselves in the confusion of the
streets, we see the Cathedral towering above all ; its
spire rises to a dizzy height above the roofs, and the
appearance of every open space is affected by it.
There is a curious legend concerning the laying of
the corner-stone of the Cathedral of Strasburg.
Bishop Werner, in full pontifical array, had just
blessed the stone and given the signal to have it low-
ered into place wdien two men, brothers, Avho stood in
the front row of spectators, accidentally jostled one
another. The elder, furious at what he considered
134 THE RHINE.
an intentional rudeness, turned on his brother and
stabbed him to the heart, the blood splashing the
bishop and dripping down on to the corner-stone,
which had been put in place.
The murderer was seized and led away to be put
to death ; but as he passed the bishop he fell on his
knees, exclaiming : " My lord, my lord, I deserve
death — I know it — I have slain my brother, who was
innocent ; only let not my death be in vain ! Under
the stone which you have just lowered there flows a
spring of water which will, in time, undermine the
foundations of the Cathedral. Now, if you will bury
me — a murderer — under the stone, the spring of
pure water, rather than come in contact with my pol-
luted bones, will shrink away from me and work its
way to the surface elsewhere, and thus will I protect
this holy place and help it to endure through the
ages."
The murderer's request was granted, the stone
raised again, and he, stepping down, gave the signal
for it to be let down. Thus, the stone lowered upon
a living man, forms the foundation of the tower, and
popular superstition avers that the murderer's bones
have had the desired effect of keeping the foundation
firm.
Strasburg is rich in squares, which are frequently
adorned in the centre with a handsome monument.
One of these — the Kleber-Platz — is adorned with a
bronze statue of General Kleber, who was born in
STRASBURG. 135
Strasburg, and murdered in Egypt in 1800. The
buildings which surround these open spaces have a
lofty, spacious appearance, and when this is not the
case they are distinguished at least by their age or
their artistic value. It is this that gives its original
character to the Pig-Market, which certainly is not in
a select quarter of the town ; and it is this also that
makes the Cathedral Square itself so charming. In
the latter stands the so-called " Old House," with its
high gables and broAvn beams ; it is a building of the
thirteenth century, and forms as picturesque a corner
as it is possible for a town to possess.
The street through Avhich we now proceed leads to
the Gutenbergplatz. In the midst of the hubbub of
the market there stands, surrounded by green trees,
a pedestal, and on it rests a bronze figure of a man
with flowing beard and lofty brow, holding in his
hand a sheet covered with ornamental letters. One
sheet ? oh, it is far more — it is the symbol of the
art of printing, the greatest gift which man ever
gave to the human race ; it is the testimony of
the victory of light over darkness which he holds in
his hand.
It was in Strasburg that John Gutenberg invented
the art of printing. He dwelt here for nearly twenty
years as a citizen of Strasburg, and whatever may
have been done elsewhere, it was within his own room
that the idea of this great discovery had birth. The
Gutenbergplatz stands, as it were, as a symbol of the
136 THE EHINE.
intellectual power which the middle ages possessed in
their great free cities.
As the former German period of Strasburg history
has eminently a burgess character, so during the
French epoch did the military element gain the
ascendancy, as well as that pretentious, intriguing
policy which had its school on the polished floors of
Versailles. After this came the omnipotence of the
first Bonaparte ; and all these different periods are,
more or less, embodied in the outward appearance of
Strasburg. Even the names of places lift us into the
French world as we step across the Broglieplatz, or
the Paradeplatz, where General Kleber's monument
stands.
The Broglieplatz (or Brohl, as it is familiary called
by the townspeople) is without doubt the handsomest
and most frequented of all the squares. Here is the
fine residence of the mayor ; the great cafes under
the trees are in the French style, and, in fact, there
is everything required by the fashionable world.
Totally different, indeed, from these parts of the town
arc those old confined districts where the artificers
work and the poorer classes dwell ; there the odd
corners of the old free town have been preserved
with all the original peculiarities which the architects
of that time possessed.
Many such houses may be seen on the 111 Canal,
and the whole tanners' quarter near which the old
" Vine " stands presents that picturesque mixture of
STRASBURG. 137
styles which only an old town can offer ; the eye, in-
deed, loses itself in rich architectural details of gables
and Avindows, balconies and bays. Doors with beauti-
ful iron-work and broad steps carved in massive oak
are frequently found in plain, simple houses ; and
even in the narrowest streets magnificent houses are
unexpectedly met with. These are all relics of the
old free-town period, and they give to the place the
same kind of quaintness that we meet with in Augs-
burg or Nuremberg.
Thus the architecture of the town possesses a
threefold element : palaces in the style of the Renais-
sance and the Rococo period ; dwellings built during
the old prosperity of the imperial town ; and, lastly,
that mass of modern buildings of no particular style
which sprang, as it were, out of the earth as a com-
pensation for those destroyed in 1870. In a Avord,
everywhere the Old is contrasted with the New — the
Past with the Future — and everything struggles,
either consciously or unconsciously, towards the
assimilation of these two opposite elements.
138 THE RHINE.
CHAPTER X.
THE CONVENT OF ST. ODILLE.
On leaving Strasburg and driving towards Barr we
come upon a large mountain covered with dark wood,
and the white building which we see near the old
ruins of the Heathen Walls is the Convent of St.
Odille. The road leading up to it is remarkably
beautiful and varied in its scenery.
We first come upon the little village of Ottrott,
with its long row of houses, where we rest before
ascending further ; as we go a lad clad in a blue
blouse passes along the street beating a drum, and
announcing that on the following day there will be a
sale by auction. Heads appear at every window, and
in the village inn for the next few hours, nothing but
the sale is spoken of.
Almost immediately behind the village we plunge
again into the forest, and lest we should lose our way
we take one of the merry boys who are playing in
the street for our guide. For a fcAv minutes, before
we enter into the depths of the wood, our way lies
through a cornfield. On passing this, a narrow path
takes us upwards, and the green boughs rustle above
our heads. Here and there among the luxuriant
THE CONVENT OF ST. ODILLE. 139
brambles stands a half-decayed monument raised to
some one who has met with an accident in his work ;
now and again, a weary woman with a great bundle
on her shoulder meets us, and passes us with a pious
greeting, but otherwise no sound is to be heard ex-
cept the tapping of the crossbill in the thicket. The
world around us seems lost in solitary beauty.
All at once we come to an opening, and through
the trees we see the convent looking down on us. It
lies opposite and quite close to us, but the road takes
a circuitous route over the top of the ridge. We
then reach the first remains of the Heathen Walls,
which have come down to us like an heirloom of cen-
turies. The thick clambering ivy spreads itself over
the huge stones, as if to veil the gray sanctuary from
our curiosity. But the present generation has a keen
eye, and with its restless spirit of inquiry has pene-
trated here in order to unveil the mystery which sur-
rounds this wonderful building. All is not yet known,
it is true, but we have got far beyond the domain of
mere conjecture.
It was at first supposed that these huge walls, which
extend for about fifteen miles, were of Celtic origin,
and that their purpose was to divide the sacred dwell-
ing of the gods from the dwellings of the human race.
Who has not read of the sad blood-stained worship
which was performed in the obscure solitude of the
woods ? The altars were high as mountains, the sac-
rificial victim was slaughtered on a block of stone,
140 THE EHINE.
and there the festivals were celebrated with wild
splendor.
Such was the first idea which the sight of these
walled heights raised in the minds of archaeologists.
They have, hoAvever, since descended from the world
of deities to the human race, and found that men
built this fortress for their own protection and defence.
These walled enclosures occur more than once on the
heights of the Vosges, and whole races took refuge
within their spacious circumference when an enemy
overran the land. This opinion gave rise to another,
namely, that the builders were the Romans. They
undoubtedly ruled the races which these walls availed
to shelter, and, taking this view, it is probable that the
origin of the whole immense work, including the cas-
tle which was joined to it, dates from the third or
fourth century. It seems likely, indeed, that it may
be put down to the time of the Emperor Valentinian,
who is known to have fortified the entire course of
the Rhine as far as Holland.
In making a circuit of the walls, which are several
miles in extent, the method of building can plainly be
seen. Oaken stakes have been used to join the stones
firmly to each other, but what most attracts the eye
and gives an appearance of originality to the whole
mass is the expert way in which the wall is worked
into the rocks, and which, as it were, indicate the
foundation of the building.
We mount higher and higher out of the forest into
THE CONVENT OF ST. ODILLE. 141
the open country, between flat-worn stones where the
heath grows luxuriantly. We pass another green
meadow, when once more the trees form an arched
roof above us, and we proceed until we stop on the
threshold of the venerable Convent of St. Odille.
St. Odille Avas the patron saint of Alsace. Tradition
says that she was the daughter of Eticho, Duke of
Alsace, who ruled in the seventh century. She was
born blind, but gained her sight by being baptized.
She founded this nunnery, and died here in the odor
of sanctity.
What joy and what misery has this roof covered
during the course of centuries ! It has stood on its
lofty rock not only as a Avatch-tower looking doAvn on
the country at its feet, but it may also be said to have
been as an instrument to register the course of time.
Barbarossa Avas once a guest here ; and it was here
that the Abbess Herrad composed her religious Avork,
" The Garden of Delight." These old walls, it is
true, have been more than once reduced to ruins, but
they have ahvays risen again out of the Avreck, and
are still the fa\^orite resort, not only of the pious, but
of everyone for Avhom the beauty of Nature and the
charm of ancient association have any attraction. All
visitors are made equally Avelcome, and enjoy a kindly
hospitality which they must always remember Avith
gratitude.
As we pass through the convent yard Avith its old
lime-trees, Ave see the lady superior standing in the
142 THE RHINE.
doorway. Everyone, both old and young, visitors as
well as the inmates of the house, call her "Mother;"
and, indeed, she is worthy of that expressive and
beautiful name — always thoughtful for others, always
gentle, so that the very place itself over which she
rules seems to be influenced by the kindliness of her
nature.
Fresh nosegays of wild flowers are in the simple
dining-room, and, indeed, every corner ; even the
passages and the little garden on the narrow slope
where the rock declines into the valley is carefidly
tended. The children belong to the families who are
spending the fine weather here, and they romp about
without restraint in the spacious halls. Inside we
see two visitors playing chess, for people come and
go as they will, and always find a kindly wel-
come.
On the occasion of our last visit it was astonishing
to find how great the preponderance of the German,
and especially the North German, element was among
the guests. There were, however, French visitors
also. Once the door flew suddenly open and a swarm
of twenty heads appeared in the opening. " Bonjour,
ma soeur ; nous avons faim, nous avons soif, nous
sommes enormement fatigues !" We were all some-
what astonished at this theatrical manner of asking
for supper and lodging, but the good " Mother " only
smiled softly, and in an hour all Avere noiselessly pro-
vided for.
THE CONVENT OF ST. ODILLE. 143
The most precious relic on Mount Odille is the
chapel, which bears the name of the illustrious pa-
troness of the convent, and several hundred feet lower
is the spring of sacred water which is said to be a
cure for blindness. The little chapel, though it is
more homely than sublime, must yet raise some feel-
ing of reverence even in the mind of him who knows
little of that form of devotion which, centuries ago,
gave rise to such places of worship. Here are no
lofty stalls whence the thunder of an inspired dis-
course carries away the hearts of thousands of hearers.
It is more like a private chamber for the soul, where
the heart is silently overwhelmed with the knowledge
of itself, and can gaze into Heaven undisturbed by
the presence of others. We pray here free from that
grandeur which makes us at times half-timid and re-
luctant to approach the shrine of modern ecclesiasti-
cal structures. It is a church eminently fitted for
women, whose piety depends less on sense than on the
instinct of divine feeling.
What different influences surround us when we
leave the peaceful circle of the convent walls and
pass out into the wilderness of the mountains, over
the rocky plateau to Wachtstein, where the stony
ruins almost overhang the rock. Here let us stop and
gaze down upon the country lying below us — the
ancient Wasgau spreading before our eyes with its
dark woods and golden undulations of corn-laden
fields. Here and there old villages and towns dot the
144 THE EHINE.
landscape, stretching away into the distance to where
the horizon is lost in blue haze. Far off we see the
lofty tower of Strasburg Cathedral. Then our eye
returns from the distant prospect to our own imme-
diate surroundings, and to the plateau on which we
stand. At its foot lie scattered ruins, a winding path
leads down through the bushes, and the rain-worn
boulders stand about, and look like huge deserted
altars. A pagan atmosphere seems to surround us,
and we are in the presence of such a wilderness that
we seem to feel almost as if the old creating elements
were at work once more.
Presently the wind begins to rise, and our eye
thoughtfully follows the trace of the crumbling
" Heathen Wall," which here stands again before us.
A kite with outspread wings hovers over us, and then
slowly descends to the summits of the woods. Not a
human soul is near. The genius of the Past takes
possession of us ; for the two great powers, namely,
Paganism and Christianity, which once struggled for
the possession of the earth, were never nearer to one
another than they are here — the one which, let us
hope, has now expired, and the other that new Chris-
tian faith which brandished its sword and built its
cloisters throughout all Germany.
THE BLACK FOREST. 145
CHAPTER XI.
THE BLACK FOREST.
We now begin .a becautiful, quiet journey ; the
loftiest summits of the Black Forest range before us
in a long blue chain, and lovely spots, through which
we are to pass, are shaded by the mountains. The
deep defile through which the road goes is called the
Kappeler Valley, and here the Acher runs between
bare rocks to the Rhine, though in our immediate
neighborhood we are surrounded by meadows which
border the feet of the wooded slopes.
This is the land where Hebel's old German poems
and Auerbach's village stories had their origin, and
here is still found that picturesque distinctive costume
without which no purely national life can be imag-
ined. Under the long black coat is seen the brilliant
red waistcoat, and the blue trustworthy-looking eyes
are shaded by a large broad-brimmed hat.
The Black Forest, or Sch warts wold, extends for
eighty-five miles almost parallel with the course of
the Rhine, from which it is distant in places not more
than twenty miles. The Black Forest is about twenty-
five miles wide. Its highest point is near Freiburg ;
from there it descends steeply to the Rhine. The
Vol. L— 10
146 THE RHINE.
summits of the Black Forest are covered with snow
for eight months out of the year ; consequently,
agriculture is of little importance to the inhabi-
tants.
The Middle Ages have left many traces of their
history in this district, among the most notable being
the ruins of the Castle of Yberg, ill-famed in the
mouths of the people because an impious and rapa-
cious knight had there exhumed the bones of his an-
cestors to find treasure ; also the Castle of Roeteln, in
the vale of Wiesen, the home of the poet Hebel.
Near the foot of the mountains the villages are
large and handsome, and in the white house which we
entered we met with plain but hearty hospitality.
Newspapers were lying on the table, and the peasant
was able and willing to converse on all that was going
on in the world. He showed us his stables and barns,
and told us about his ancestors and his children, and
when we at length asked him to whom we were in-
debted for so much kindness, he said proudly, " I am
called Michael Kobel the Fifth !" We doubt whether
Charles V. was more proud of his title than our friend
Kobel the Fifth !
A short cut brings us to the inn, which is the cen-
tre of life in every village. Nearly all the inns on
the Baden side of the Black Forest, and, indeed, be-
yond in the plain of the Rhine, bear one of the an-
cient signs of the Lion, the Eagle, the Black Horse,
or the Swan. They generally also have a picture of
THE BLACK FOKEST. 147
one of these well-known creatures placed conspicu-
ously over the door instead of an inscription.
The host, who receives us, himself carries our lug-
gage into the comfortable sitting-room, where we find
numerous guests. The Avails are hung with tapestry,
and mingled with the pictures of the heroes of 1870
we find occasionally portraits of Schiller or Goethe.
From the ceiling hangs the inevitable carrier's sign,
for that must have its place of honor — the carrier
being, indeed, the embodied symbol of progress.
The guests who are seated at the host's table are
of various ranks and conditions, though all seem per-
sons of intelligence. There are wood-carvers and
peasants, tax-gatherers and parish officials, watchmen,
and other local dignitaries. At their invitation we
seat ourselves at the table, and find that they are just
discussing an official enactment ; and the way in
which it is criticized, the sharpness with which the
weak points of it are observed, surprise us not a
little.
The great events of the last few years still form
the staple of all public conversation, and they engage
the attention of the two carriers who sit apart from
our table, each clad in a blue smockfrock and carry-
ing his whip. They get to high words respecting the
fortifications on the Moselle and the Maas ; and as
neither will yield they ask the host for a map, which
he soon produces, and on which they continue their
endless arguments.
148 THE RHINE.
Those features which we heave described as being
common to the large villages of the Kappeler Valley
are found in the large, handsome village of Otten-
hofen, which lies in the middle of the valley. The
hamlet of Seebach belongs to it, and though unim-
portant in itself, it is celebrated for the ruins of
Bosenstein, which tower above it, and for the follow-
ing legend which is connected with it, called " The
Legend of the Lady's Grave."
In consequence of a curse which a starving woman
had called down upon the wife of one of the knights
of Bosenstein, the lady bore seven sons at a birth
during her husband's absence in a distant land. The
mother, horrified at what had happened, instructed a
servant to drown six of the children ; but it so hap-
pened that just as the dreadful deed was about to be
perpetrated, the father accidentally returned and res-
cued the infants. By his order they were reared in
the depths of the Avoods, unknown to their mother,
and when they were strong, handsome knights their
father invited them to his castle. A splendid banquet
was prepared, and in the midst of it the lord of the
castle suddenly asked : " What punishment ought to
be given to a mother who, herself, doomed her chil-
dren to death f " She should be buried alive !"
cried the Lady of Bosenstein, with feigned indigna-
tion. She did not know that she had pronounced her
own sentence ; but the knight started up, and with
terrible mien announced to her her doom. She was
Cottage in tbe Black :|forest.
THE BLACK FOREST. 149
at once hurried away from the banquet, led down into
the valley, where the stream springs from the rock,
and there may be seen in the stone a deep hole which
appears to have been hewn out by human hands —
this is known as " The Lady's Grave."
The path, as we proceed, takes us still deeper into
the forest. Here and there a steep foot-path leads up
through the thicket from the broad circuitous road.
The masses of wood lie below, with their green sum-
mits swelling in dark waves like a green sea. What
profound rest ! what holy silence ! nothing but the
rustling of the wood is heard around. Such is the
spot where the venerable monastery of All Saints
stands. It is no longer, indeed, a monastery, but
only the ruins of one ; for the weather-beaten pil-
lars stand desolate, and for many years past the
transept with its pointed roof has lain shattered on
the ground.
Even in the ruins, however, there is a kind of
rhythmical beauty which, with such surroundings as
it possesses, exercises a sort of fascination on the be-
holder ; it is a picture of rare poetical power — a stone
elegy. The history of the monastery is old and in-
teresting. Its foundation reaches as far back as the
time when the great Barbarossa sank in the floods of
the Calycadnus, for it was at that time (1196) that Uta
von Schauenburg gave the rich estate to the Prsemon-
stratensian monks, and it was not long before their
institution became the most powerful of that region.
150 THE KHINE.
In the seventeenth century it was raised to the
dignity of an abbey, and, in spite of many calamities,
it maintained its ancient renown till the year 1802,
when it shared the lot of other reUgious houses, and
its property was secularized.
But a worse fate than even this lay in store for the
sacred edifice. One year after the event above re-
ferred to the roof was set on fire by lightning.
Strange to say, this misfortune happened on the an-
niversary of the foundation of the church, on the day
of the year when the bells had formerly been accus-
tomed to ring out proudly to assert the glory of the
lordly abbey. On this occasion they sounded an
alarm, and clanged despairingly for help. But help
was of no avail ; the stately buildings which sur-
rounded the monastery soon lay a heap of rubbish,
only the blackened stone pillars of the church re-
mained standing. The beautiful ruin now lies among
the green pines like the tomb of departed splendor,
and we almost seem still to hear the echo of the Me-
mento Mori which used to be sung here !
We pass the old monastery garden, where the wind
plays among the rustling limes, and soon we find the
valley becoming narrower as we proceed. All at once
it sinks to its lowest depth, and the valley has become
a ravine full of crevices and rocks, which lie in slabs
like steps, over which the river rushes angrily, as if
to secure possession of the path ; these are the Biit-
tenstein Falls, some of them fifty feet in height.
THE BLACK FOREST. 151
The beauty of this woodland picture was for cen-
turies unknown and unseen, but the searching eye of
the present day has brought it to light. A secure
path now leads the traveller over to the seven falls,
and by the same route we come down the Lierbach
Valley to Oppenau.
Another point of interest lies near us on this
journey if we take the road out of Ottenhofen which
leads up to the Hornisgrinde. There lies the Miim-
mel Lake, that expanse of water which the pregnant
superstition of the peasantry peoples with a hundred
hovering sprites. It is a dark, melancholy mirror,
framed in fir woods, through Avhich the wind sighs
almost inaudibly. No fish are found in this lake, and
the water is black and mysterious. It is said to be
the abode of the Avater-god Miimmel and his seven
beautiful daughters, the Miimmelchen.
Tradition says that a desperate poacher once killed
a gamekeeper in the nearby forest, and threw the
body into the Miimmelsee, thinking that the black
water would keep his secret ; but as the murderer
stood watching the ripples made by the body as it
sank, the water-god, who would allow nothing to be
throAvn into his domain, rose up in wrath, caught the
poacher by the legs, and drew him down under the
water, where he was drowned.
The daughters of the old water-god rise up out
of the lake every moonlight night, dressed in green
and white, with diamonds in their hair. They dance
152 THE KHINE.
all the night through on the shore. As the first glim-
mer of dawn appears their father rises up out of the
lake, beckoning them back to their native element.
As they touch the water they are transformed into
water-lilies, and they lie all day lazily rocking on the
bosom of the lake.
One night a young shepherd met with one of the
water-sprites, who had strayed far from her sisters.
They sat together on the soft moss ; they sang, they
embraced, and never in his life had he seen so beautiful
a creature. He himself was one of the handsomest
lads in the country round, with bright golden hair and
pink and white cheeks, so that the Black Forest had
never contained a happier or fairer pair of lovers.
One request alone she made, and that was, that if
by chance she should at any time not come to the
border of the lake, he was on no account to call her,
as his doing so would cause the destruction of them
both. For two days, during which she did not come,
he heeded the warning, but on the third, being driven
by a powerful impulse to the border of the lake, where
he could see the water roses blooming in the depths,
he called beseechingly on the name of his beloved.
He called ! he listened ! — suddenly darkness fell on the
mountains, the water of the lake began to foam, and,
driven by irresistible terror, he fled into the depth of
the woods, and was never after seen by human eye.
The immediate surroundings of the lake harmonize
with the gloomy legends which are associated with it.
THE BLACK FOREST. 153
On the south bank, where Seebach seems to steal out
of the dreary Avilderness in order to hasten to the
cheerful valley, there stands a rough stone hut ; it is
uninhabited, and its bare rooms lack that charm
Avhich the presence of man breathes into dead walls.
For all this lonesomeness it has had a friendly aspect
to many, for it is placed where it is as a shelter for
stray travellers who are overtaken by storms ; it be-
longs to everyone and yet to no one.
The scenery becomes wilder as Ave ascend the
jagged footpath ; there are no more huts, but the
overhanging Avail of rock protects us from AA'ind and
rain. A AA^eather-worn finger-post nailed to one of
the fir-trees points us out the road, from Avhich we
look doAvn upon the dark lake. The ancient Romans
must have felt the fascination that lies in these depths
when they called the place Lacus Mirabilis.
We have now reached the summit of the Hornis-
grinde, and find it gloomy and desolate ; the keen
wind sweeps over the plateau, on Avhich short heath
and broAvn rushes grow plentifully, for the ground is
marshy and poor. A pointed tower on the summit,
in which we vainly seek a door, shows the four points
of the compass ; and here we see the beautiful
world lying beneath us for an immeasurable dis-
tance. We look from Hohgau on Lake Constance
to the Taunus — from the source of the Danube, over
the plain of the Rhine, as far as the summits of the
Vosges.
154 THE BHINE.
CHAPTER XIL
BADEN-BADEN.
Although the renown of Baden-Baden is of
modern origin, a knowledge of the place existed in
very early times, for here, as elsewhere, the Romans
took possession of the warm springs and made them
the centre of a town called Civitas Aurelia Aquensis.
After the fall of the Romans the place suffered much
in various wars ; but when it had risen slowly out of
its ruins not a few abbots and knights strove for its
possession, until at length Barbarossa gave it in fee
to the Margrave Hermann, who died in the Crusades
in 1190. Under his family the town reached a po-
sition of great prosperity, and a fine new building
was erected in the early part of the sixteenth cen-
tury, in addition to the old castle which stood high
up on the mountain. The new edifice was placed
lower down, almost on a level with the cheerful, busy
town, but it was at last destroyed by the fire of the
French soldiery. After lying for a long time in a
state of ruin, the castle was rebuilt, and now serves
as the summer residence of the reigning family.
A handsome road with a broad rampart leads up
from the town, and the outer wall is surrounded by
BADEN-BADEN. 155
ancient, rustling trees. While the old building,
which was burnt in 1689, was so remarkable for its
architectural features as to be frequently compared
with the Castle of Heidelberg, the present structure
is plain and unpretending, all the rooms being de-
signed rather for domestic comfort than for the dis-
play of regal splendor.
The only relic which recalls to us the primitive
times of this stronghold are the mysterious dark dun-
geons which extend far under the castle, the precise
use of which have not yet been ascertained. The
guide descends to them with a flaming torch in his
hand, and we grope after him through a labyrinth of
passages ; on one side we hear the creaking of a
prison door, on the other the noise of an iron bolt.
If we examine closer we find that the door is com-
posed of a single slab of stone, and that the bolt
is nearly ten feet long, and runs from one chamber
to another.
For a long time the prevalent opinion was that this
was one of the centres of the ancient Vehnigericht,
and if this is not the true historical explanation, the
first impression of the place is so horrible that it is
easy to understand how the idea arose. What a
fearful and pitiless time must that have been when
hammer and chisel were plied to furnish such a
shelter for the enemies of the builder ! What is
imprisonment in our days compared with this entomb-
ment?
156 THE RHINE.
The old castle stands much higher, about three
miles above the town itself, and consists of pictur-
esque ruins, which lay hidden for centuries in the
green depths of the wood before the curiosity of man
found a path to its heights. Now it is all carefully
arranged and made easy of access, for man soon
brought the luxury of Baden-Baden hither. The
huge masses of rock which rise in all their wild rug-
gedness behind the castle give an idea of what the
character of the place was when Hermann and Bern-
hard, Jacob and Christopher, dwelt at Hohenbaden.
From this spot we have a fine and extensive view of
the country below.
The town lies partly in the green valley and partly
on the slopes of the hills on either side ; beyond this
we see open meadow-land and wooded heights, and
through the valley the clear waters of the river ripple
merrily. Truly we gaze upon a little earthly Para-
dise. After leaving Hohenbaden we soon come upon
another citadel, which stands upon a steep point of
rock, and Avas once the castle of the Counts of Eber-
stein. They themselves have long ago disappeared
into obscurity, but legend still winds its tendrils
about the rugged walls, and though it is long since
any bold knight added to its renown, there was an
observant poet who many a time paid it a visit. The
beautiful ballad which Uhland sang to the Counts of
Eberstein is well known.
Not far from the castle are two great rocks, known
Bntrance to tbe ©l^ Castle, 3BaDen*JBaOen.
BADEN-BADEN. 157
among the peasantry as the angel's and the devil's
pulpits.
The legend concerning them tells how the devil,
getting tired of the lower regions, came up to the
surface of the earth one day, through the springs
of Baden-Baden, which have tasted of sulphur ever
since.
He was very much in need of new victims to
roast, so he stationed himself on one of these rocks
and began to preach. The passers-by, knights,
priests, and peasants, curious to hear what it Avas all
about, stopped to listen to his eloquence, and soon he
had them so fascinated that they could not tell right
from wrong, nor black from white, so plausible was
he in his arguments.
Just when it seemed that Satan would return to
his kingdom with a goodly number of converts, the
heavens opened and an angel floated down, and
taking his stand on a rock opposite, began to preach
with a still small voice, but in a very different
strain.
The devil, enraged, raised his voice and tried to
drown the low voice of the angel, but one by one
his hearers left him to gather round the heavenly
messenger and listen to his words of peace. The
devil, finding himself alone, began to swear and
tear up the grass and shrubs, and he stamped his
red-hot feet on the rock so hard that the prints of his
hoofs can be seen to this day.
158 THE RHINE.
But we must now bid farewell to the reminis-
cences of legendary times, and descend from the
solitude of the woods to the active bustle of the
present which prevails in the valley below. The
large number of fugitives who fled from France
during the terror of the Great Revolution, and
who populated the German towns from Lake Con-
stance to Coblentz, considerably influenced the
whole character of Baden, and continued to do so
until the events of 1870 broke through these tra-
ditions.
Since that time the number of foreign visitors
has rapidly increased, for while forty years ago
they scarcely amounted to five thousand, at the
present time they reach the number of sixty thou-
sand a year. The establishments which are appro-
priated to the amusement of this avalanche of visitors
have obtained a degree of perfection which justifies
the inhabitants in considering their spa the first in
the world.
This is true from a social rather than from a hy-
gienic point of view, for the complaint for the cure
of which Baden-Baden is most efficacious is ennui.
For that old craving which goes through all humanity,
and appears and reappears on thousands of lips, if it
also dies on thousands — that craving for pleasure and
parade, for splendor and delight, is met with here in
its most concentrated form.
Busy hands have brought together almost all the
BADEN-BADEN. 159
good things of this worki ; the merchant has brought
his stores, the gardener his flowers, the goldsmith his
costly treasures, and the artist his art. Music sounds
over the polished floor^ horses fly over the green
course, shots whiz through the air, and golden-haired
sirens crowd round the spring which once was hidden
in the deep recesses of the wood. Unceasingly is
heard the sound, echoing, roaring, singing, ringing in
our ears, " Live, enjoy life !" Still, as all these en-
joyments created only satiety and not happiness,
there came another holding a shining ball in his hand
and saying, " Here is something which is the essence
of happiness — try this !" Then he set the ball roll-
ing, and thousands of gleaming eyes folloAved it.
Thousands also rolled their glittering gold after it, as
at every throw and every fresh turn in the game, the
haggard croupier repeated his monotonous formula,
" Messieurs, faites votre jeu ; le jeu est fait, rien ne
va plus !" Thus Baden-Baden has become what it
is, and though public gambling has been abolished
since 1872, something seems to remain even now of
the feverishness of that time, and of that eager pur-
suit of fortune which was then a characteristic of the
place.
It would be unjust to look upon all this as the real
nature of the lovely spa, for many live there in the
quiet round of every-day duties, and many find their
enjoyment there solely in a pure sense of the beauty
which Nature spreads before them. But it is also
160 THE EHINE.
true that thousands come to drag through their weary
days with the help of this copious supply of excite-
ment. They feel nothing of the fresh, fir-scented
breeze ; they appreciate nothing of the idyllic beauty
of a happy, sheltered home ; they seek the fever that
consumes, the excitement that destroys, and they
exhibit all their wealth in order to conceal their real
poverty. It is of them only that we have spoken
here ; the harmless guests, who also assemble from
all parts of the world, shall not be mentioned with
them, but only that community which appears, more
or less, in every fashionable watering-place, and
which has its own peculiar physiognomy. For
these the word Baden-Baden means something quite
different, and the disappearance of the gaming-
tables and of the French element is indeed a serious
loss.
The Friedrichsbad is the principal bath-house. It
was erected about twenty-five years ago, and rises
on terraces from the Stein-Strasse, quite close to the
springs. The internal arrangements of this estab-
lishment are unsurpassed. There are hot and cold
baths, plunge-, vapor- and sitz-baths ; large swim-
ming-pools, with warm and cold water ; and one
floor is set apart for curative gymnastics and mas-
sage.
Though each individual is at liberty to select that
part of the town which he fancies will suit his health
best, the social pleasui'es of the place are decidedly
BADEN-BADEN. 161
centralized, and the centre is that lovely park in
which the Conversation House stands. The long
drinking-hall is shaded by handsome trees and sur-
rounded by gay flower-beds, and has lofty open cor-
ridors, which are decorated with illustrations from the
most interesting of the legends of the Black Forest.
We see the dancing nixies of the Miimmelsee, the
Emperor Otto encamped before Eberstein, which his
men are besieging in vain, and the gipsy woman
watching her treasures beside the splashing water-
fall of All Saints. Such were the forms which passed
over these spots when the miraculous spring, to which
thousands now make their pilgrimage, -was still a
hidden forest secret, known only to the lofty pines
and to the silent rocks.
So we muse. But we must leave the fascinations
of bygone days and step into the circle of the busy
exulting life of the present day, for indeed we stand
on the spot where the life-pulse beats loudest. Music
crashes out from the kiosk which lies opposite the
Conversation House ; the countess in her long silken
train bows graciously to the prince, who offers her
his arm. What caprices of humanity are exhibited
in all these garments ! What caprices of Nature in
all these forms, which range from the truly noble to
the basely criminal ! The croAvd becomes thicker
and thicker •, rattling equipages fly past.
It is now twiUght, and the branched candelabra are
lighted, and a great display of fireworks is prepared
Vol. I.— 11
162 THE KHINE.
for the evening. As the air is mild and warm the
folding-doors of the rooms are thrown open, and
forms of fairy-like beauty stream in and out, making
a constant movement like the flowing of a river.
There also is the rustling of the ladies' dresses, the
noise of endless conversation, and that predominating
hum of life which pervades every room but one. In
this strict silence reigns, so much so that one can
hear the very breathing of the men who sit there and
who brood over the newspapers of all countries. It
is this reading-room which is decorated in the richest
style of the Renaissance.
Presently the shower of fireworks outside attracts
even the tenants of this silent apartment ; the old
castle is already illuminated by Bengal lights ; thou-
sands of rockets burst, and people from all parts
crowd to see the beautiful display. It is midnight
before the crowd on the Kurplatz begins to clear
away ; and then the jeweller, who comes in the season
from the Palais-Royal, shuts up his ebony case, and
the fair moths who flutter round his glittering treas-
ures slowly disappear. Baden-Baden retires to rest,
and there is silence in the houses and in the streets,
and no sound is heard except that of the splashing
waters of the Oos, which murmur through the town
as they pass under the gray iron bridges.
The season is, naturaUy, at its height in the au-
tumn, at the time of the great races, which are
among the most important of those on the Continent.
Conversation Ibouse, JSat)en*3Ba&en.
BADEN-BADEN. 163
Occasionally not less than from one to two hundred
horses are entered, though only about half the num-
ber actually go over the course ; the total value of
the prizes reaches nearly a hundred thousand marks.
The course is about eight miles distant from the town,
in the plain of the Rhine, near the village of Iffez-
heim. IfFezheim is, at this season, the most bril-
liant of all the brilliant spectacles that Baden has to
offer.
Pigeon-shooting is also practised on the same
course — a cruel sport, the introduction of which does
not add to the credit of Germany. The number of
live pigeons yearly required for this purpose amounts
to many thousands.
But the special and the greatest attraction which
life in Baden-Baden offers is not to be found in the
brilliant crowd ; we must seek it in those charming
retired villas which lie along the banks of the river
in the Lichtenthaler Allee. The gardens which sur-
round each house are laid out with the greatest care.
More than a thousand cartloads of the best forest
mould are often brought for a single garden, and
fifteen or sixteen hundred of the most costly plants
are used to fill one small bed.
But we must pass on, away from modern Baden-
Baden, back to mediaeval times. A mile and a half
from the town is the village of Lichtenthal. We
pass through it, cross the bridge, and, turning to the
right, find ourselves at the Nunnery of Lichtenthal.
164 THE KHINE.
It was founded in 1245 by Irmingard, the grand-
daughter of Henry the Lyon. The convent has es-
caped destruction in some miraculous way, and is
still occupied by Cistercian Nuns. In the church
adjoining is the tomb of Irmingard.
In strong contrast to the mediaeval character of
the place, a war monument of 1870-71 rises directly
in front of the nunnery.
But it is growing late ; we must hasten back to
Baden-Baden. As we near the town the lights
twinkle out from the Conversation House and we hear
the strains of the band. Looking on this enchanted
scene we wonder that Ave can ever leave it ; but is
there any spot on earth so lovely that we could enjoy
it forever f
THE PFALZ. 165
CHAPTER XIII.
THE PFALZ.
A BRIGHT, sunny picture lies before us when we
set foot upon the soil of the Pfalz. Life surges round
us, like a pulse which beats more rapidly here than
in the other countries of Germany. The speech is
loud and cheerful, and there appears in labor, as well
as in pleasure, a sort of energy which compels our
sympathy. The secret of this local characteristic,
perhaps, exists in the fact that the vine flourishes
here most luxuriantly, and covers hill and dale, and
clambers even over the poorest cottage.
A district which proves itself so useful, and is so
well cultivated, cannot, perhaps, be called exactly
beautiful, but it bears that stamp which careful in-
dustry never fails to imprint. There are, however,
parts of the Pfalz where the hand of man has never
interfered with the fine, bold, natural forms, and
where the charm of picturesque beauty is added to
the fertility of the soil. It is through such a portion
of the Pfalz that our road leads us.
We pass through the Rockland of Dahn, with its
long undulations of dark pine-wood interspersed with
rugged red sandstone, and then through those re-
markable districts where from the steep mountain-
166 THE EHINE.
summits scattered ruins look down into the valley be-
low. Those ruins are the remains of strongholds
within whose walls the weal or woe of the Empire
was once decided.
The coach carries us out of the little town of Berg-
zabern, with its partly ruined fortifications, towards
the mountains. The road continually leads us up-
wards, and runs between thick fir-trees ; it passes an
old mill, several solitary crosses, and occasionally a
wagon drawn by a weary team. But in spite of the
quiet surroundings we feel the bodily and mental ac-
tivity which is at work in the inhabitants, and small
as the place is, its people are overflowing with energy.
Every child can give us what information w^e require
concerning the road. When we ask which Avay will
lead us up to the steep rock called the " Maiden's
Leap," we obtain an intelligent answer.
In the inn parlor, where the dignitaries of the place
assemble to take their evening glass, every guest is
welcome, and we are favorably impressed by the
modest neatness of the room and the eloquence of
its inhabitants.
The following morning we ascend to the two great
strongholds, Trifels and Madenburg, which are united
by a long dark spur of rock. Nothing remains of
either except wild ruins, which indicate the splendor
of past times. Madenburg is the grandest ruin in
the Rhenish Palatinate, but Trifels is especially rich
in reminiscences ; it was not simply a princely strong-
THE PFALZ. 167
hold, but an imperial castle in all its splendor. The
inhabitants of the Pfalz have almost forgotten its ex-
istence in the daily bustle of their everyday work,
but great, eternal Nature has laid her protecting hand
upon this relic.
The path leads up to the castle through a beech
wood with its shining branches, and when we gain
the summit a vast world lies before us studded with
meadows and streams, towns and castles. It Avas
here that the Emperor Henry IV. sat in the deepest
anguish, when the German princes vowed to renounce
him if he did not remove the interdict within six
months ; and it was to this place that the costly
treasures of the Empire were brought, and here they
remained for years in safety.
Now nothing but waste ruins are left ; princes
dwell here no longer ; songs no more resound and
echo through these walls ; gold no longer adorns its
chambers, except the glorious light of the setting
sun. Merry children now play and romp whore
princes wept, and the beech-trees with their rustling
branches alone stand in lofty pride, with dark moss
growing on their trunks, and birds singing over-
head. The imperial citadel of Trifels is now dumb
forever !
During the Third Crusade Richard the Lion-
Hearted and Leopold of Austria were besieging
Acre. Both were noted for their courage, and they
vied with one another in performing many vaUant
168 THE RHINE.
deeds of arms. Leopold, jealous of Richard's supe-
rior glory, finally gave up the siege and returned
home, vowing that he would make the English King
bitterly regret having overshadowed him by his supe-
rior prowess.
Leopold soon had the opportunity of fulfilling his
vow ; for Richard, returning from the Crusade, was
shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria, and was forced to
make his way back to England alone and on foot.
He exchanged his garments for a pilgrim's robe and
scrip, and proceeded on his way, passing safely
through the greater part of Austria.
One day he found himself obliged to part with his
signet-ring to procure him food and shelter. This
ring betrayed him to his enemies. He was seized
and imprisoned in the Fortress of Durrenstein, and
kept there until Henry IV. of Germany took him
into custody, and transferred him to this castle of
Trifels.
While Richard was pining in captivity, wondering
why his faithful subjects made no effort to find him,
his brother, John Lackland, had usurped the throne
and was reigning in Richard's stead. The people
hated John, and longed for the return of their right-
ful king, but only one man thought of going in search
of him. This was Blondel, the King's minstrel ; he
felt sure that Richard had been taken prisoner by
the Emperor of Germany. So he started to find his
master, and wandered from town to town, and from
THE PFALZ. 169
castle to castle, questioning all whom he met, and
singing, under the walls of every stronghold, a pecu-
liar air known only to the King and himself.
After months of weary wandering Blondel came to
Trifels, and under the tower he began to sing his
little song. Imagine his joy Avhen he heard the re-
frain taken up by the voice of his dear King !
Richard, his long-lost master, was found, and his
weary search was ended.
But Blondel could do nothing alone to deliver his
King, so he hastened back to England, told the Eng-
lish nobles the residt of his quest, and they gladly
undertook Richard's release. His ransom was paid
and Richard came home in triumph, ousted his traitor
brother, and ruled over England for many years. He
died in 1199, and was buried at Rouen, where his
tomb may be seen to this day.
The present capital of the Pfalz — if one may speak
of the capital of a province — is Speyer. It is adapted
for this position neither by its size nor by its outward
appearance, but for this very reason its past history
is the more important, for it belongs in an eminent
degree to the historical cities of the Empire. Its
growth began early, like that of the other Rhenish
towns ; it was first fortified in the time of the Ro-
mans, and called Augusta Nemetum ; a bishop held
his court here under the Frankish king in the fourth
century, and two hundred years later a Carlovingian
emperor chose it as his favorite dwelling-place.
170 THE EHINE.
Numerous imperial Diets have been held in Speyer,
but the most important was that of 1529, under
Charles V., after which those who had espoused the
cause of the Reformation received the name of
Protestants, from their protest against the hostile
majority.
From the sixth century Speyer is more bound up
with the traditions of the Empire than any other Ger-
man town ; and though it was often but a temporary
dwelling-place for the Emperors, it was an eternal
resting-place for many of its great rulers. It was not
only when their hearts longed for brilliant pageants
or the assembly of their vassals at the imperial Diet,
that their eyes turned towards Speyer, but their
thoughts followed the same path when those great
hearts Avere weary and they felt their end approach-
ing ; Speyer was the dying thought of the German
emperors. " Bring me my charger," said the Em-
peror Rudolf, when weary and bent under the burden
of his mighty life ; and he rode to Speyer to die,
close to the tomb which was to contain his ashes.
Where was this tomb ? It was the Cathedral, which
even from a distance may be seen, Avith massive walls
and towers.
This structure Conrad II. began to build as a burial-
place for himself and his successors, and it was con-
tinued by his son Henry II., and finished by his
grandson Henry HI. After these had been finally
laid to rest here, a whole line of German emperors
THE PFALZ. 171
and empresses were buried in this imperial sepulchre,
including Henry IV., who was burdened with Pope
Gregory's excommunication, Henry V., Philip of
Swabia, Rudolf of Hapsburg, the false emperor Adolf
of Nassau, and Albert I. of Austria, the Empress
Gisela, wife of Conrad II., Bertha, wife ot Henry
IV., and Barbarossa's wife and daughter, Beatrix and
Agnes. So the solemn honor of being the burial-
place of emperors was added to the glory which the
town had already gained from its populous and re-
nowned character ; and it Avas not desecrated by any
strange hand for upwards of six centuries.
The old imperial city fell a victim to the conse-
quences of the disasters of the year 1689, a year
which set its brand so pitilessly on all the districts of
the beautiful Pfalz. It had suffered severely in the
Thirty Years' War, but through all its vicissitudes
its existence was preserved, and even the wild-
ness of those times retained some slight remnant
of veneration for the royal tomb and for the sacred
imperial name. It was reserved for the marauding
hosts of " His Most Christian Majesty " to efface
even this remnant, and to cover themselves with
that shame from which the serf and the Swede had
shrunk.
It was the soldiers of the Great King who, under
the leadership of Louvois, Montclar and Melac, broke
open the consecrated graves in the Cathedral of
Speyer, and there, before all the people, amused
172 THE RHINE.
themselves by playing bowls with the heads of the
German emperors.
Not content with this, they then set fire to Speyer
at every point. They seemed to wish, indeed, to
substitute another and a still larger sepulchre for
those they had laid waste, and to convert the city
itself into a grave and the country round it into a
desert. One stone was not left upon another. The
Cathedral alone withstood their devastating rage, and
although they tore the ornaments from the walls, the
walls themselves remained firm.
The French Revolution brought fresh w^oe. The
soldiers of the Republic used the consecrated building
as a magazine in which was stored all the necessary
supplies which the war incessantly consumed ; and in
the place where the organ had pealed forth solemn
Te Deiims the " Marseillaise " was roared from savage
throats. Indeed, at one time the whole of the mate-
rial of the magnificent temple was about to be sold by
auction for a few thousand francs !
We are often amazed when we hear how at times
the greatest and noblest lives have hung upon a
thread, and we shudder at the very thought of what
would have been the consequence of so irreparable a
loss ; so it is here, as we gaze at this wonderful
work, the destruction of which w^ould have been an
irretrievable loss to German Art. To have possessed
the Cathedral of Speyer, and, after preserving it
through all the storms of history, to have lost it for a
THE PFALZ. 173
despicable sum of money, the value of the mere
stones and bricks, would have been an enduring
sorrow and disgrace for the German nation.
The merit of restoring the Cathedral to its present
splendor is undoubtedly due to the Bavarian kings,
and especially to Louis I., who combined all the arts
in order to make the restoration as brilliant as pos-
sible.
The huge size of the building is not realized from
without. When standing before the principal en-
trance, those portions which lie behind are hidden
from view, and on every side are seen fresh traces of
modern work. This may at first have a somewhat
disturbing effect, for age and dignity are almost in-
separable ideas, and the subdued weather-stained
coloring is always associated with the thought of the
great well-known cathedrals of the world.
The fagade has three portals. Over the middle one
is the imperial double-eagle ; over the side-entrances
the lion of the Palatinate. The rose-window above
has a gold ground, on which is the head of the
Saviour, crowned with thorns. The interior (which
is adorned with Schraudolph's beautiful frescoes) pre-
sents the idea of the light additions of modern work,
besides conveying an impression of power to the
whole style of the building Avith its fine propor-
tions.
We have, perhaps, not clearly expressed what we
mean, for nothing is farther from our thoughts than
174 THE EHINE.
a wish to imply that its architectural oeauties are not
of a very high order. It is, however, not quite easy
to state exactly the idea we would convey. A visitor
we met once in the Cathedral indicated our impression
in one Avord, better than any long explanation could
have done. Looking round on walls and ceiling, he
said : '^ The Cathedral of Speyer pleases me better
than any other in the world — better than Strasburg,
Milan or Cologne." " Indeed !" was our astonished
rejoinder ; " and pray what gives it such decided
pre-eminence in your eyes f " ^' Oh ! it is so neat 5
it is the neatest cathedral in the world."
We descend to the dark crypt, and after carefully
inspecting it come up again to the light, and pass
through all the smaller chapels. The last of these is
dedicated to St. Afra, and here let us stop for a mo-
ment. This is the place where the body of the Em-
peror Henry IV. was laid when he died under the
ban of excommunication, and the priests refused to
loAver him into the grave of his ancestors. The
coffin of the man who once begged for mercy in the
Castle of Canossa lay unburied for five years before
the resting-place of his fathei's. The fate of his body
in death resembled that which it had experienced in
life.
Such are the invisible shadows of the olden time
which fall upon these lofty sacred walls when on the
holy Sabbath the choristers pass between them with
tapers and fragrant incense. No brilliant colors ever
THE PFALZ. 175
have erased or ever can erase those shadows ; they
are the gloomy inheritance of these places. Henry
IV. at Canossa is an eternal grief in the remem-
brances of the German nation, the immovable shadow
which hangs over the old Empire at Speyer.
In 1813 Napoleon had concentrated all his forces
at Leipsic to overwhelm the allied powers. Then
Speyer was deserted, except for its women and chil-
dren and a few old men ; for the people of Speyer
were loyal, and none who were able to bear arms
stayed at home.
All was quiet at the ferry, for the hour was late,
and the old ferryman was dozing over his oars when
he heard a loud call from the other side of the river
where the city lay. He quickly rowed across, and as
his boat touched the landing a tall figure stepped
silently into it. This person was followed by others,
who, emerging from the shadow of the Cathedral,
came silently down the street, their military cloaks
muffling their faces.
When the last passenger had embarked the ferry-
man pushed the boat from the shore, but before he
could begin to row he felt that the boat was moving
swiftly through the water, apparently by itself. Shiv-
ering with fright, the boatman dropped his oars and
began crossing himself, feeling sure that the boat was
propelled by some supernatural power.
Soon they reached the opposite landing, and the
tall figures stepped ashore, revealing, as they did so,
176 THE KHINE.
a glitter of armor and swords. The last passenger,
telling the boatman that if he watched for their re-
turn he should have double fare, stepped swiftlj after
his comrades, and they were all swallowed up by the
darkness.
Three days passed, and the old ferryman looked in
vain for the return of his mysterious passengers ;
but at midnight on the third day they again ap-
peared, and were rowed silently back to Speyer.
Each man as he stepped out of the boat dropped a
coin into the ferryman's outstretched palm, then dis-
appeared among the Cathedral shadows.
The old boatman marvelled much who these
strangers could be, and the next day he marvelled
more when he found that, instead of the usual penny,
each of his midnight passengers had given him a
golden coin, and on each coin was stamped a different
effigy and a different date.
He took the coins to the priest, who examined
them carefully, and declared that they bore the effi-
gies and dates of the emperors lying buried in the
Cathedral of Speyer.
On the morrow came tidings of the defeat of the
French at the terrible three days' battle of Leipsic.
Then the boatman knew that the old legend was
true, and that the German emperors had risen from
their tombs, and had gone forth to battle, to deliver
the beloved fatherland in its hour of need.
HEIDELBERG. 177
CHAPTER XIV.
HEIDELBERG.
There is an idecal among places as well as among
persons, and favored forms exist which are beloved
of all ; among these, few will deny that Heidelberg
may claim a place. It stands bright and clear along
the river-side ; the mountains which suri'ound it have
shadows of a delicate blue tint, and on every side are
running springs, balmy air and happy human faces.
This characteristic, which is constantly interwoven
with intellectual work and cheerful enjoyment, is
now so closely bound up with the name of the town
that we can scarcely realize through what shame and
sorrow it passed before such days dawned upon it.
The heights above the Neckar were fortified as far
back as the time of the Romans. On them stood the
citadel which the Bishop of Worms built. It con-
sisted of rude solitary towers, which were given in
fee first to one noble and then to another, till at last
Conrad founded the little town, the city of the Counts-
Palatine of the Rhine. Its beginnings were tedious
and difficult ; all the elements conspired against it,
and yet its vitality was indestructible. It rose with
fresh glory out of the ashes to which it was reduced,
Vol. I.— 12
178 THE EHINE.
out of the flood by which it was covered, and
strengthened itself with those weapons which must
ultimately prevail, namely, the weapons of intellect-
ual power.
The University of Heidelberg, which was founded
in 1386 by the Count-Palatine Ruprecht, is reckoned
one of the earliest in Germany. The effect of its
establishment was not long in giving a peculiar char-
acter to the whole town. No longer was its chief
source of pride the splendor of a royal court, or the
unapproachable beauty of its environs, but it raised
its head in the full consciousness of intellectual
superiority ; it became a Minerva among the cities
which stand in the broad plain on both sides of the
Rhine. In its heart there stirred the great idea
which was later to become a familiar watchword,
" Knowledge is power !"
And, indeed, a powerful and joyful period com-
menced ; the Prince-Palatine Frederick had vic-
toriously prevailed over all his opponents, the noblest
of guests were received in the great castle, the
noblest men of the time studied at the University ;
and renown, wealth, beauty, pleasure, all united to
adorn the life of the place. Heidelberg became the
pearl of German cities, and stood shining beneath
the banner of free thought.
A little later and all changed once more. The
same banner which had been the emblem of peace and
progress became the standard of war — a war which
Zbc QonvU^av^, IbeiDelbero Castle.
HEIDELBERG. 179
was contested for thirty years, and which seemed as
if, at any cost, it would wrest the town from the hands
of the Germans.
Another period began. Minds were divided, the
hosts stood opposed one to another, and the greatest
and most horrible war which the world has ever seen
broke forth. The prosperity and peace of the city
declined. The first leader that appeared before the
walls was the gloomy Tilly, a 'monk in soldier garb.
He invariably sent his messengers into each town that
he approached and called on the people to surrender,
giving them only the alternative of fire or sword.
Heidelberg also received such a warning. It was be-
leaguered, stormed and burnt ; but the literary treas-
ures, the splendid library of the Palatinate, was pre-
sented by Tilly and the Prince-Palatine Max to the
Holy Father, who carried away these pearls of Ger-
man intellect to the Vatican. About one-third of this
collection was returned to Heidelberg in the early
part of this century. The library now contains
nearly five hundred thousand books, manuscripts and
ancient documents — but that is only a small portion
of the treasures that were carried away to Rome and
are still there.
After Tilly came the Swedes, and after the Swedes
the Imperialists, each in their turn working further
destruction to the town and its inhabitants ; fire and
sword were the watchwords of those days.
But the worst of all the sorrow that passed over
180 THE EHINE.
the town came from the hand of Louis XIV., who
not only conquered and laid waste the districts of the
Rhine, but also disgraced them. The castle was de-
stroyed, the tombs of princes were defiled, and the
inhabitants were filled Avith despair. It required
many years to efface these misfortunes, and the
following century passed silently and wearily at
Heidelberg.
Many calamities still befell the town, but it was like
a man who having gone through the heaviest and
most indescribable sorrows bears patiently whatever
else may come. Its prosperity, its glory were broken
down ; it Avas no longer looked on as a prize for the
ambition of war, and no longer a fitting stage for the
mailed foot of History.
It was in the beginning of our own times that the
town first woke out of the deep swoon of exhaustion
into which it had sunk, and its features acquired a
new living charm. The power by which it was ren-
ovated was again the power of knowledge. " And
new life blossoms out of the ruins." If ever this con-
soling creed of history were true it was fulfilled here ;
this same town which had seen all the abomination
of desolation became a plantation whose creative
blessings spread all over Europe. The greatest
achievements of science had their cradle here. The
greatest names of science found here their home. In
this way there reappeared in the physiognomy of
the inhabitants that bright cheerful character which
HEIDELBERG. 181
influences our first impression as we now enter its
gates.
The town of to-day smiles at us like a man who
has never known a sorrowful hour ; but we know
through what anguish these walls have passed. Earth
and history have their martyrs, as well as Heaven,
and Heidelberg stands among these silent sufferers.
We rarely analyze that mysterious something
which constitutes the individuality of a town, or ask
ourselves what it is that particularly attracts us to
it. Heidelberg possesses nothing of what are called
" sights." The number of its inhabitants is moder-
ate, and their manner of life simple and devoid of
distracting pleasures ; but the deserted castle with its
ruins attracts us more than a thousand palaces with
all their treasures.
We cannot leave this labyrinth where the paths
are full of violets and every wall has some great as-
sociations. In the fragrant woods which surround it
the sun flecks the intricate paths with spots of light.
We cannot tear ourselves away from the fragrance
and the coolness of these woods, and from the entic-
ing secrets chirped to us from every bough. In the
cool shade there lies a pool, where the murmuring
streamlets rest awhile before they run down towards
the valley. The place is called Wolfsbrunnen (the
wolf's well), because it was here that a fortune-teller
named Jetta, who lived near this place, was torn to
pieces by a wolf. There lies the Devil's Hole, and
182 THE EHINE.
yonder the King's Chair, and there, where the
wood opens, we look down on the straggling wonder-
ful ruins.
We leave the green foliage and return to the town
with its cheerful life, where the glory of intellectual
pre-eminence is found combined with happy careless
youth. We ask again, who can tear himself away
from all these attractions ?
Now we will ascend leisurely to the castle, for that
is always the first object to which a stranger is at-
tracted. How many times have pen and pencil
essayed to describe this pearl of beauty ! How many
thoughts full of poetry have awakened at the sight —
thoughts which have never found utterance, but have
flashed through the soul as a falling star rushes
through the vaults of heaven ! Thousands have
stood here, and still the old charm works afresh for
each one. The original power of these walls has long
ago been shattered, but the power it exercises over
the minds of men has constantly increased, and no
destroyer has been able to subdue it.
The Castle of Heidelberg, as is weU kno^vn, was
not the work of one hand nor of one period, but is a
complete square of palaces, in which the ideas of a
century and the supremacy of long generations are
embodied. It was a little town in itself, with cas-
tles and towers, with galleries and gardens, built as
a counterpart of the old palaces of the' Roman Em-
pire.
HEIDELBEEG. 183
Imperial hands have been busy here also, and the
imperial eagle stood above the portal ; but the em-
perors Avere none of them of that effeminate yet sav-
age type which we have seen in Nero and Galba,
Heliogabalus and Caracalla — they were men of iron
frames and harsh names. The Emperor Ruprecht
built the wing which first confronts us as Ave approach
the court-yard by way of the bridge and gateway.
The building which is now named after him is by no
means the oldest part of the castle. This goes back
to the time of Rudolph, having been completed a
century before, and within its ruins lie the oldest
and gloomiest legends.
We go farther, and reach a corridor where the well
of the castle is ; the four syenite pillars near it are a
legacy of the Empire, having once stood at Ingel-
heim, in the territory of Charlemagne. They Avere
brought to Heidelberg by Count-Palatine Ludwig.
Every one of the palaces which Ave pass has its own
history, its OAvn beauty, its own legends ; the most
beautiful of them all is that which is named after
Otto Heinrich, built in 1556. Here Ave stand before
one of the finest masterpieces which the early Renais-
sance produced. This also bears the scars of that
frightful period of war, and has become a ruin ; but
Avhat irresistible beauty still speaks to us out of the
dumb lifeless limbs ! Truly a thousand palaces of the
present day could not outweigh this one — this torso
of a palace !
184 THE RHINE.
It has been said that Michael Angelo designed it,
and whether or not this supposition has any histori-
cal foundation, the fact that it ever existed is the
most perfect testimony to the beauty of the work.
It Avas built at a period when the slumbering powers
of antiquity were again slowly awaking and pene-
trating every artistic production ; the Greek classics
were held next in esteem to the Bible, and next to
the youthful energy of the Reformation the inde-
structible beauty of the antique seemed part of the
very condition of the people. Princes began to feel
like the Olympians, and made the Olympians the
companions of their homes. This train of thought,
this tendency of the time, is to a certain extent im-
pressed on the fagade of this splendid palace, which is
like a stone mirror of those glorious days. In the
open niches stand the figures of Hercules and Sam-
son, Joshua and David, the representatives of strength
and courage — the foundations on which a kingly
house ought to stand. On the one side the Christian
virtues, on the other the enthroned and newly-revived
gods, Jupiter and Saturn, Mars and Venus. Motion-
less and intrepidly these figures succumbed to their
fate in those frightful days of war. Sometimes the
hand of a hero, sometimes the crown of a king or
the limbs of a goddess fell to the ground. They
were but of stone 5 but there is a soid in these shat-
tered stones which makes us feel even now the pain
of their wounds.
HEIDELBERG. 185
Was all this glory then created for destruction ?
Who ^vere the masters that built these wondrous
walls f Their very names are unknown, and no man
any longer calls these splendors his OAvn. The wind
rustles through the open doorways, the swallow
brushes the Avindow-frames with its slender wings,
and the stars look down from above into the roofless
chambers.
The existence which these walls now lead is mourn-
fully silent ; passionless and actionless, everything
here speaks only of the past. The men of the pres-
ent day pass by in hundreds Avithout understanding
anything of its meaning. Only now and then some
one comes whose imagination carries him to the past,
and who feels some sympathy and veneration for Avhat
has gone before. Under the glance of such a one
the old red walls spring once more into life ; for him
the scenes of bygone ages are mysteriously re-enacted.
He hears the mailed footstep of princes re-echo
through the halls, and the ringing laugh of lovely
women once more enlivening these silent chambers.
Could he, however, awake all the forms and bring to
light all those whose names are associated with these
walls, the array would indeed be endless.
Every corner is full of images, from that of the
regal figure on the battlements to that of the dwarf
who crouches in the cellar to guard the great cask.
The latter is oxie of the wonders of Heidelberg which
no visitor omits seeing, and which many gaze on with
186 THE RHINE.
more enthusiasm than on the shattered splendor of
kmgs. It is said to be capable of containing two
hundred and thirty-six thousand bottles ; but the cask
is empty, and is only a remnant of that time Avhen
princes prided themselves on the size of their be-
longings, and had lost that finer and more spiritual
charm of possession which had departed from them.
The original cask was built in 1591. When it fell
to pieces in 1662 it was replaced by another; that
lasted until 1728, and the present tun was erected by
the Elector Charles- PhiHp in 1751.
The dwarf Perkio, the court -jester of the Elector
Charles Philip, was very small in stature, but a verit-
able giant where drinking was concerned. The cas-
tle and his master's wealth were as nothing to him in
comparison to the mighty Heidelberg tun. He was
so in love with it — and what it contained — that he
finally refused to leave the vault where it was kept.
He spent all his time beside it, drawing and drinking
beaker after beaker of its contents.
For fifteen years he sat beside his beloved tun,
jealously guarding the wine which he alone had the
privilege of drinking. At the end of that time he
discovered, to his consternation, that he had emptied
the cask ; not a drop of wine was left within its
mighty bulk ! Then, proudly comparing himself to
David, and declaring that he had conquered a Go-
liath, and feeling — the cask being empty — that life
was no longer worth living, he laid down beside it
HEIDELBERG. 187
and quietly passed away, requesting that he might be
buried directly beneath the faucet that he had turned
so diligently, and that his statue might be placed
where he was wont to sit.
Of all occupations and amusements none was want-
ing in Heidelberg. Lions' dens, orange gardens,
brilliant feasts abounded, to say nothing of sanguinary
encounters. Everything ! and of all there remains
now nothing ! A ruin covered with green ivy stands
before us — it is not the ruins of a castle, but the ruins
of an epoch.
Down below, at the foot of the castle, the current
of the gay student life runs merrily along full of vi-
vacity and brightness. The period when Heidelberg
belonged to the Counts-Palatine of the Rhine has long
since passed away. Now it belongs to the students,
and it is not the castle but the university which is the
centre of its glory and of its importance.
Heidelberg now has over a thousand students. In
1886 the five hundredth anniversary of the founding
of the university was celebrated with much ceremony.
Heidelberg has completed its mission in political
history ; its place lies henceforth in the intellectual
history of Europe. We have, therefore, only to de-
pict in a few lines the joyous, stirring description of
the student city, as given by an old student :
" I can picture to myself, as if it were yesterday,
my departure from home. The carefully-counted
bank-notes lying on the table with the passport, the
188 THE RHINE.
good advice and good wishes from relations and
friends, the long journey Avith its rapidly-changing
scenes, and the beating of my heart when the guard
came to the door of the carriage and said, ' Now,
gentlemen, tickets for Heidelberg.'
'^ It was not without a feeling of veneration that I
entered this seat of the Muses. Even the road from
the railway is an interesting walk for a stranger. At
such a moment, however, as I am describing, the mind
is a blank sheet on which are swiftly sketched the
first impressions, to be afterwards slowly corrected
and completed. The Rhine life reigns on all sides.
I saw people who are accustomed to transact all their
affairs with open doors ; girls with brisk step and
bright eyes, lads who rushed romping by ; noisy fel-
lows in blue blouses were in every corner, and hack-
ney-coaches rattled by, filled with stoutly-shod stu-
dents. Now and then a figure passed which I felt
must be that of a professor."
If we compare Heidelberg with other places in
South Germany, and especially with Munich, we are
astonished that two places geographically so near to
one another should in point of culture be so far re-
moved 5 in this respect the distance between the old
Bavarian nature and that of the Rhenish Palatinate
is three times as great as the actual distance between
the two principal towns.
When hiring a porter at the railway station at
Heidelberg it would seem that all of them are sesthet-
HEIDELBERG. 189
icallj inclined, and that each of them liad been to the
university. They speak of Bunsen and of the late
Vaugerow as if they were their best friends. Thus
there continually rises to the surface an impression
of the special character of the town, which naturally
has its root in university life. This character is an-
nounced not only in the popidarity of the Heidelberg
celebrities and the respect which even the porters
have for " their " professors, but also in a thousand
little particulars. It lies before the shop-windows
where colored caps and ribbons are exhibited, it is
met with in the bookseller's stall, and even in the
beer-shops.
Whatever happens to a Heidelberg student, he
manages to adapt himself to circumstances, Avhatever
they may be, or whatever they may be called ; and
this characteristic is stronger here than in the great
towns where the extent of the foreign element ob-
structs the natural development of the students.
Many, however, are said to belong to the student
class who pitch their tent in the coffee-house and
come in contact with the beadle oftener than with the
professor, and who spend even more time on their
pet dogs than on their own toilet. But there are
great temptations, even for such as intend to work
honestly, for few universities offer so enticing a field
for the gay enjoyment of life as Heidelberg. The
true German student life is developed more thor-
oughly here than elsewhere, and the beautiful neigh-
190 THE RHINE.
borhood attracts excursionists into the open country on
the bright summer days ; the Httle towns of Neckarge-
mund and Neckarsteinach are thus especially popular.
Below on the river lie swift boats, the wine sparkles,
and the castles look down from the rocks full of mar-
tial memories on many a lively scene. The Neckar
Valley, though much smaller and more unpretending,
perhaps shows the most intimate relationship to the
Rhenish life ; and the pulse which pervades that life
is cheerfulness.
That yearly festival which is held in the golden
autumn on the banks of the Neckar is well known.
It is celebrated at the time when the grapes are ripe
on the hillsides, and when every one gathers in the
harvest on his own land and from his own vines.
Mannheim also is a favorite walk for the students
of Heidelberg, especially those who like to see the
ways of the world as they are represented on the
stage. When a novelty is announced on the theatre
bills, the news of such an event travels in no time for
miles around, and the curious come to Mannheim in
long caravans to see the show. But the frivolous
student may also learn here what is meant by hard
work, and what is achieved by unremitting toil ; for
it is to the results of work that Mannheim owes the
position which it holds among German towns. It
was work also which, within a few centuries, called
the neighboring town of Ludwigshafen into exist-
ence as if by magic.
Dalle^^ ot tbe IReckar trom IbeiDclberg.
HEIDELBERG. 191
But who can think of anything serious while the
gay-colored cap still covers the young and thought-
less head ? He who would flee abroad must have
an easy mind ; the time of care comes soon enough
of its own accord. Then it is no longer a question
of enjoyment, but one of toil. The sultry hour of
the examination comes nearer and nearer ; that hour
when we must pay toll on the thorny road of knowl-
edge. We only really go through an examination
properly when we are young, for it is only then that
we have the courage to fail 5 later in life we remark
that old Socrates was right with his theory that the
beginning of knowledge was to know that we know
nothing.
Ah ! in what a condition we were on the occasion
when we made our first visit to the examination-
room. We kept ringing the bell, and making our
landlord's pretty daughter run about the passage
even more than usual. As we went out she cast a
compassionate look on the victims adorned for the
sacrifice. She well knew what our humors signified,
for she had seen them very often, and understood
Avhat was about to happen. Such were our college
days at Heidelberg.
Heidelberg itself is almost like a blooming garden,
but if it is not sufficient to satisfy the ideas of some,
there is for those who prefer the addition of Art to
Nature another garden at Schwetzingen, the fame of
which reaches throughout Europe. Of the town
192 THE RHINE.
itself there is little to be said ; it was formerly only
an appendage to the summer palace, and is at the
present time just a little fussy official place, as noisy
and lively as was once the nature of the district of
the Palatinate, and yet as quiet as is becoming for a
town of four hundred souls. It is a curious fact that
of the numberless strangers who visit the place, no
one asks for the town, that being simply an approach
to the castle and garden.
The view which we have here is not beautiful in
that free unconstrained sense in which nature presents
her loveliest forms. Its value rests upon the high de-
gree of cultivation in its exact reproduction of what
was at one period held for beauty. The period of
which we speak is embodied in the names of the later
Bourbons. The kings of the Maintenons, the Pom-
padours, and the DuBarrys were the patterns of royal
taste ; the castles of the nobles grew up everywhere
in the form which prevailed at Versailles. Not only
the dumb senseless stone was subject to this con-
straint, but also living, blooming Nature, which vainly
resisted the power of human hands. Gardens in the
style of Louis XIV. were added to the castles, and
such a garden do we see here.
It covers an area of nearly two hundred acres.
On reaching the dazzling white wing of the building
we look through the arched gateway and see before
us a flat surfjice on which not a single mound relieves
the monotonous level. The stiff geometric treatment
HEIDELBEKG. 193
is repeated also in the long lime avenues, and in their
running fountains and gray statues.
We enter and Avalk slowly onward along the grav-
elled paths. All around us we see large flat floAver-
beds with thousands of fragrant buds crowded to-
gether in one heap, the whole having the effect of a
variegated nosegay on a huge table. Above the water
in the stone basins rise dolphins and dragons, of damp
stone or dark metal, bearing upon their backs gay
cupids. Then the path branches out on both sides
on to the turf, and thick avenues open right and left ;
the ivy clings round those trees which have been al-
lowed to grow wild.
There is something almost mysterious and world-
forgotten in these deep shadows. The stone figures
which we meet with share this characteristic, and
acquire a mystical significance. Old Pan looks down
from a high rock, the water drips and trickles in the
stony grotto, the fir boughs whisper to each other —
it seems almost as if we might hear the sound of the
instrument which the god holds to his lips, or see the
forms which the music from his pipe attracts, or meet
a nymph rising from her bath and looping together
the tresses of her streaming hair. Such images are
inexhaustible on our way through the park and gar-
den. We meet with temples and " ruins," artistic
bridges and lakes.
In all this place there seems to be but one thing
wanting, namely, the human beings who once took
Vol. I. —13
194 THE RHINE.
pleasure in these splendors. All these stone me-
morials, these flowers, this turf, look as though they
stood upon a huge immeasurable grave, beneath
which sleeps a vanished century.
THE BERGSTRASSE AND ODENWALD. 195
CHAPTER XV.
THE BERGSTRASSE AND THE ODENWALD.
The country between Heidelberg and Darmstadt
is covered for miles Avith thick forest. Beneath the
lofty branches the lurking deer finds shelter, and
within its rocky walls many olden glories have de-
cayed. The objects in the landscape here do not
raise before us anything of historic importance, nor
as we gaze upon them can we picture to ourselves
that Ave stand before a theatre of stirring deeds — it
is simply a national pleasure-place.
On our road a slightly-built lad passes us, and
gives us a pleasant greeting ; the girls who sit at the
cottage-doors we notice wear black coifs over their
fair plaits, and unconsciously the old song rings in
our ears :
"There stands a tree in the Odenwald
With many a bough so green,
'Neath which my own true love and I
A thousand joys have seen."
Yes, we are wandering through the Odenwald, a
district covering more than forty miles, which is
bounded on the south by the Neckar, and descends
on the west in a long, sharply-defined line towards
196 THE EHINE.
the broad plain of the Rhine. In primitive times,
the great high-road called Platea Montana passed
through here, and we still find the lovely green tract
Avhich is now known as the Bergstrasse or mountain-
road.
Right and left of us appear charming little towns
and snug villages full of original architecture. The
air is soft and the soil fruitful ; but, besides this
abundance of the earth and the tranquillity of the
people, there remains something which is indescrib-
able, namely, the charm of poetry. Even the rail-
way, Avhich rushes close to the slope of the wood, has
not been able quite to destroy the charm. It is still
the old Odenwald with its green branches, its power-
ful forms, and its sweet melancholy song.
Such being the state of this beautiful tract of
country, we care but little whether the place took its
name originally from the silent solitude {Oede) which
in olden times must have hung over these woods, or
whether the memory of old Odin is preserved in its
title. We only now seek and are satisfied with en-
joying the dusky verdure offered by the boughs, and
the beauty which smiles upon us from the hills.
The most celebrated among the latter is that one
the summit of which bears the somewhat curious
name of Melibocus, the highest point of the Berg-
strasse. The way to it leads through lofty beech
woods, on emerging from which we see a great tower
with open battlements, and under its shadow we gaze
THE BERGSTKASSE AND ODENWALD. 197
over a broad expense of country unfolding itself be-
fore our eyes. At our feet hamlets and villages lie
among rustling woods.
Among them are Alsbach, the little town of Zwin-
genberg, and many others. Beyond these come
wooded hills, the serene Taunus and the rugged
Spessart, which stretch far away in pleasant undu-
lating forms. The Schwarzwald are darkly indi-
cated in the distance, and farther away still are the
blue Vosges almost hidden in the haze of the horizon.
Between them lies the broad plain of the Rhine, and
out of it rise majestically the old cities with their
towers and churches whose names are the pillars of
German history, Speyer, Worms, and Mayence the
Golden ! Let us rest here in the green shade and
think over the memories of times long gone by, from
the doings of the wild race of the Chatti who once
dwelt here to the days when the German army passed
over the Vosges yonder.
A picturesque road leads from Melibocus to the
Felsberg ; a lonely forester's house opens its hos-
pitable doors to us, and when we have taken a short
rest we make our way to the ^' Felsenmeer." Long
before the end we seek is in view the path to it has
something mysterious and ghostlike which suggests
the old pagan times. On every side are shattered
rocks overgrown with damp moss, and only now and
then do we catch a glimpse of the blue sky through
the lofty beech-trees. Nature alone is dominant here.
198 THE EHINE.
But all at once a huge square block of stone lies
before us. This is not the work of Nature, human
hands have evidently been at work here thousands of
years ago ; though the secret of the race and period
to which it belonged is not yet solved. We proceed,
and penetrate still farther into the forest, when our
steps are again suddenly arrested by a gigantic pil-
lar, almost grown into the earth. This also must
have been formed on the spot out of the rock. The
open forest was the workshop in which it was fash-
ioned — but who was its master, and what was its
purpose ? Was it destined for one of the old pagan
gods which were so soon laid low by Christian swords ;
was it part of a palace of a Roman prefect, or did
Charlemagne have it fashioned for his palace at In-
gelheim ? Who can tell ? The powers of those who
made it were either exhausted in the work, or they
were scared away by new times which brought other
riders and other altars. Be this as it may, they left
behind them the uncompleted pillar in its original
place, the forest. The luxuriant foliage soon spread
its protective shelter over it, and time cast round it
the veil of mystery till a new race arose who found
it out and in vain attempted to solve the problem of
its history as they stood before the silent stone.
Not far frorti this is the " Felsenmeer," or Rock
Sea, a huge plain in the midst of the forest which
seems to be strewn over Avith shattered rock — "frag-
ments whose origin is not more enigmatical than their
THE BERGSTKASSE AND ODENWALD. 199
appearance is remarkable." How may the spirit of
the people have animated these places in the Dark
Ages when proud nobles lived up here in their castles,
and the enslaved peasants existed in the villages
below !
The Odenwald, like all forest districts, is rich in
legends, and the groundwork of all these myths seems
to be the noises and the doings of imaginary and in-
visible Avild animals. Not far from the Felsberg itself,
which we have just reached, lies Schnellert and the
stronghold of Rodenstein ; at the foot of the latter
there used to stand a primitive farm-house, and the
owner was acquainted with all the dark secrets of the
mountains ; he told us the tale of the Wild Huntsman.
Centuries ago the castle was occupied by the Lord
of Rodenstein, a champion of the German father-
land ; one who swore to fight for his country against
all foes and to love it forever.
Wishing to give his whole life to his country, he
refused to marry, and lived in his castle quite alone ;
so there was no one to mourn for him when one day
he vanished and failed to reappear.
It was reported that he had been killed in battle,
but the peasants insist that he did not die, but with-
drew into the vaults of the castle, only to reappear
when danger threatens his beloved fatherland. They
declare that whenever a war has broken out a tramp
of mailed steeds is heard in the ruins, and at night-
fall a shadowy array, led by the Lord of Rodenstein,
200 THE KHINE.
is seen sweeping across the sky in the direction from
which the danger comes. As peace is proclaimed the
ghostly band returns to Rodenstein, and re-enters the
castle, singing a hymn of victory, there to lie quiet
until another danger urges them forth to the defense
of their country.
But the peasant has yet another tale. He tells us
that the Lord of Rodenstein and his ghostly band are
not the only tenants of the castle. Deep down be-
low the walls there is another sleeper — the Emperor
Frederic Barbarossa. He sits motionless in front of
a huge marble table, around which his fiery beard
has twined itself, patiently waiting for the time when
his country will have need of him.
The Emperor's slumbers are broken only once in
a hundred years, when he bids his page go up to the
mountain and see if the ravens are still circling over-
head.
" O, dwarf, go up this hour
And see if still the ravens
Are flying round the tower.
And if the ancient ravens
Still wheel above me here,
Then must I sleep enchanted
For many a hundred year."
The page returns and reports that the ravens are
still flying, and Barbarossa, sighing because the time
of his release has not yet come, sinks again into the
slumber which must last another century.
But when the red beard shall have twined itself
THE BEKGSTRASSE AND ODENWALD. 201
for the third time around the marble table the trum-
pet must sound, and the Emperor, rising from his en-
chanted sleep, will hang his shield on a withered pear-
tree, which will burst into bloom at his touch ; Avhile
the Germans will gather once more about their old
Emperor, and the fatherland Avill be free forevermore !
"In some dark day when Germany
Hath need of warriors such as he,
A voice to tell of her distress
Shall pierce the mountain's deep recess —
Shall ring through the dim vaults and scare
The spectral ravens round his chair,
And from his trance the sleeper wake.
The solid mountain shall dispart,
The granite slab in splinters start
(Responsive to those accents weird)
And loose the Kaiser's shaggy beard.
Through all the startled air shall rise
The old Teutonic battle-cries ;
The horns of war, that once could stir
The wild blood of the Berserker,
Shall fling their blare abroad, and then
The champion of his own Alraain,
Shall Barbarossa come again !"
The castle which stood on the summit of Schnellert
was built in an unusual manner. It presented a
hexagon, of which each side measured sixty feet ;
within this came a strong wall, a deep ditch, and
another stone wall. But the walls have all fallen to
pieces centuries ago.
Amongst the ruins, it is said, there once dwelt
three sisters, who were doomed to live there by some
202 THE KHINE.
fatal enchantment, and they were guarded by a wild
huntsman m the form of a black dog. They often
prayed for release ; and one day the most beautiful
of them appeared to a young acquaintance and told
him that she would come to him in the form of a snake
and kiss him three times ; if he remained brave and
steadfast it would remove the curse, and she would
give him her love and all her wealth. When the
slimy serpent appeared on the following day, and
coming towards him darting her forked tongue, wound
herself in thick coils around his body, his heart failed
him, he staggered back, and from his lips escaped the
cry, " Lord, help me !" The snake vanished, and
with it the lady's love and her gold.
Of the other castles in the neighborhood, Schon-
berg and Heiligenberg are remarkable in an historical
sense, but without doubt the castle of Auerbach is
the most noteworthy. There still remains, even in
the ruins of this colossal building, something of that
mighty power which formerly held dominion here ;
for fire and sword have not been able entirely to de-
stroy these massive towers and battlements.
The origin of the stronghold takes us back to the
time when the Carlovingian kings were its masters,
before it occurred to the spiritual power to take pos-
session of the lordly castle. The next banner planted
on these walls was that of the princely abbey of
Lorsch, one of the oldest in the whole empire ; then
came the Archbishop of Mayence, the chancellor of
IRecharstetnacb.
THE BERGSTRASSE AND ODENWALD. 203
the empire and Prince-Palatine, and later the lesser
nobility.
How often the waves of battle have surged against
these walls ! But the fortress held out bravely and
faithfully, till it surrendered to the treachery of the
mercenaries of Louis XIV. in 1674. The man who
reduced the noble castle to ruins was Marshal Tur-
enne, the leader of that war from whose wounds the
Rhine has not yet wholly recovered.
If we descend from the hills into the valley, we
soon find in the place of the lonely forest depths
active, cheerfiU movements, for the Rhenish charac-
ter even here affects the disposition and the whole
nature of the inhabitants. Every one we converse
with gives us friendly and cheerful answers, we con-
stantly hear the rushing of the mill-stream and the
merry whirl of the wheel, and here and there we
come upon little houses leaning against the rock wall,
with the blue smoke rising from their chimneys
straight into the air.
At the mouth of the Stettbacher Valley, imme-
diately under the Heiligenberg, lies the smiling little
village of Jungenheim, the name of which is widely
known, even as far as the Ural and the Volga, for
the cheerful little village in the Odenwald was a
favorite resort of the mighty Czar. This imperial
patronage attracted many strangers to the village,
and now handsome villas have sprung up among the
thick beechwood, so that Jungenheim has rapidly be-
204 THE RHINE.
come a favorite and fashionable resort. The pleasant
habits of the people in showing kindness to strangers
considerably helps to attain this end.
Hitherto Odenwald has offered us little except
idyllic pictures, though we must not forget the attrac-
tive little towns which are situated along the Berg-
strasse. They, indeed, ai-e almost idyls themselves —
which is no detraction from their merits. The first
we meet with on the road from Heidelberg to Darm-
stadt is the old town of Ladenburg, the Liipodunum
of the Romans, who established here one of the most
important of their settlements on the Upper Rhine.
The ruins of a Roman bath and other remains bear
witness to the period.
The position of Ladenburg was no less important
in the Middle Ages, when it was the capital of the
district named Lobdengaus, a territory first in the
possession of the French king and afterwards in that
of the Bishops of Worms. It was in the name of the
town that the Counts of Lobdengaus held to the so-
called " Stahlbiihel " and the Gedinge or public tri-
bunal.
In the twelfth century the Bishops of Worms, hav-
ing been driven out of the episcopal city by an in-
surrection of the citizens, took up their residence in
Ladenburg and kept up a brilliant court there. The
street called Saalgasse recalls the palace of its former
protectors, the Frankish kings, for the royal palace
here, as elsewhere, was called the Saal or Hall. The
THE BEKGSTRARSE AND ODENWALD. 205
church, Avhich is veiy old, contains monuments of the
Barons Metternich and Sickingen.
A convent which was built by the Barons von
Sickingen is still standing, and is said to have had
the following origin : A young lady of the family
once lost her Avay in the neighboring forest and wan-
dered about until quite late at night, when she was
guided home by the sound of the church bells of St.
Gallus. The grateful family founded the convent, in
order that the bell shoidd sound every night at eleven
o'clock, and that every week two measures of corn
should be baked into bread and distributed to the
poor. A similar story is met with in other places.
The Church of St. Gallus above referred to is said
to have been founded by King Dagobert. In the
history of Ladenburg, which is rich in sieges, we
meet constantly with traces of Lorsch, that renowned
mighty abbey which was a sort of n>agnet for all the
property in the neighborhood. The Spanish, the
French, and the Swedes lay before these gates dur-
ing the Thirty Years' War ; but now that the times
have grown more peaceful, the fragrant trees, whose
valuable fruit is celebrated throughout Germany,
bloom undisturbed.
Continuing our road a little farther, we come to
Weinheim, which reminds us of what Karl Simrock
says in his " Picturesque and Romantic Rhineland :"
" He who always sits in the railway carriage must
not boast of having seen the Bergstrasse. He must
206 THE EHINE.
take a carriage of his own, and must, at least, get
out at Weinheim in order to paj a visit to the old
Windeck. Standing near the slender tower, over the
stables supported by pillars he must have looked down
into the moist valley of Gorxheimer, where the Wech-
nitz runs through beech-grown meadows, and have
raised his eager eyes to the light-blue distance of the
Odenwald, which opens right and left before him.
"On the Hessian frontier, at Unterlandenbach, which
yields the most renowned wine of the Bergstrasse,
he must have looked well before him and behind him,
and on either side of him, for here the mountain-
chain describes a semicircle, and the Oelberg at
Schrieszheim comes into view with its beautiful com-
binations of form. Nowhere else does Melibocus,
the king of the Bergstrasse, appear in such sublime
majesty. At Heppenheim he must have visited
either the ruins of Starkenburg, from which the
whole province is named, or the neighboring town
of Lorsch, to which not only the Bergstrasse but the
whole country round is indebted for its culture and
and its old historical traditions.
" He should have skimmed through a few chapters
of the history of the country, and have learnt at
least enough to know that Starkenburg was built by
the monks and vassals of Lorsch in 1064, in order
to preserve for their abbot Ulrich the possession of
the wealthy abbey, which the Emperor Henry IV.
had given away to his favorite the Archbishop Adel-
THE BERGSTRASSE AND ODENWALD. 207
bert of Bremen ; he must know also that if Lorsch
was founded early, it also degenerated early, so that
Pope and Emperor gave it over to the Archbishopric
of Mayence for the reformation of its discipline, and,
if necessary, for its complete incorporation — a step
by which Mayence drew down upon itself the war
with the Palatinate.
" He must, at least, have paid a visit to Auerbach
in order to try to release the Meadow Maiden, for
who knows whether the cradle wherein he was rocked
might not be woven from the twigs of the tree on
which her deliverance depends ; for this youth who
is to win her must have been rocked in a cradle made
of the twigs of a cherry-tree beneath whose shade
she had been wont to linger. If he fails, the Meadow
Maiden must wearily wait once more until a cherry-
tree has grown in the meadow and a cradle has been
made out of its twigs, for she can only be set free by
a child who has first been laid in that cradle.
" He must have visited Z wingenberg and Melibocus,
— ^yes, even to the far-shining tower that adorns its
summit, and marks the highest point of the mountain-
chain. When he has done all this, then he will feel
himself monarch of the Odenwald and of the vast
Rhineland at his feet."
After leaving Heppenheim we come to Bensheim
— and, in passing, we may remark that on the Berg-
strasse all the names end in bach or Jieim.
Many of the finest examples of architecture in
208 THE EHINE.
Bensheim were destroyed in the frightful conflagra-
tion of 1822, but we still find towers and gables, gal-
leries and gateways, Avhich will bear comparison with
the original buildings of the Schwarzwald. Bensheim
is also closely connected with the traditions of the old
abbey of Lorsch, which is situated hardly four miles
from it. In the highly-decorated little chapel there
Louis the German and his son found their last rest-
ing-place ; and Pope Leo IX. laid his hands in bene-
diction on the grave which the people held sacred, in
spite of the lawlessness of the time.
Poetry and legend twine their golden threads
around these spots, which have become associated
even with the song of the Nibelungen. It is to Lorsch
that Chriemhild brings the body of the noble Sig-
fried, and the verses of that great poem lament in
telling lines how the " bold hero lay in his long cof-
fin " before the Minster.
We wander on past the ancient town of Zwingen-
berg, past Seeheim and Eberstadt to Bessungen. At
Bessungen we leave the forest, which up to this time
has been on our right, and we turn out of the cele-
brated road bordered with fine fruit-trees, which has
led from Pleidelberg hither. The associations also
which have accompanied us now grow faint, the
country becomes flatter, and the moral atmosphere
which surrounds us is more modern. Our gaze no
longer rests upon green summits and fallen citadels,
but on the varied bustling life of the present day.
THE BERGSTRASSE AND ODENWALD. 209
We are in Darmstadt, the capital of the beautiful
country of Hesse.
We see here the same contrasts which meet our
eyes in nearly all towns which have succumbed to
modern ideas of progress. The interior, the kernel
of the town, is still built in the old style which drew
all the houses and streets as closely together as pos-
sible ; but the new town which presses out beyond
the walls and the gates requires vast dimensions, the
roads are broad and straight, and the houses high
and handsome. The genius of the present rules
here, though in but few towns is this principle of
extension older than a few decades.
The Grand-Duke Louis I., who died in 1830, is
the prince to whom Darmstadt owes its growth. His
monument consequently very properly stands in the
centre of the modern quarter. Art lent its conse-
crating grace to the affection which erected this me-
morial, for the figure, which stands upon a lofty
pedestal, was fashioned by no less masterly a hand
than that of Schwanthaler.
The palace where the Grand-Dukes of Darmstadt
reside is called the Castle. It was begun by the old
Landgraves of Hesse, and every century since has
added something to it, according to its own taste.
The most important part is, without doubt, that wing
which belongs to the first ten years of the last century,
and was finished by French hands. Its fine fayade
looks down on to the market-place, and it contains the
Vol. I. -14
210 THE KHINE.
noblest treasures of art and science which the country
possesses. The vakie of the picture gallery, of the
antiquities, and of the other collections is well known.
The theatre enjoys an honorable reputation through-
out Grermany, and is constantly patronized by the
reigning Grand-Duke, who in this respect follows the
example of his predecessors. In short, the little
capital well knows how to detain the strangers whom
the beautiful scenes of nature in its neighborhood have
attracted to it.
WOKMS. 211
CHAPTER XVI.
WORMS.
The whole of the road over which we have just
passed runs along the right bank of the Rhine, and
the green forest was so enticing that it drew us far
into the cool shadow of its branches. But this is the
last time that such leafy companions accompany us in
our course along the great river. We now return to
the bank in the broad plain through which it flows,
and to which it has carried fertility and prosperity for
thousands of years. The town element naturally
predominates again here, and the first of the great
cities which we meet with on the left bank is Worms.
Worms is not beautiful in that ordinary sense which
considers only attractive colors and attractive forms.
There is another kind of beauty, however, which is
grave and self-contained, and almost disdains to be
criticized by every passing gaze. Such is the beauty
which is peculiar to the places in this part of the
country, and to the environs of the ancient town of
Worms.
The landscape is flat, the colors are subdued, and
the Rhine flows calmly, but strongly, between the
meadows. Thick willow-bushes stand on both sides
212 THE KHINE.
of the river, where a deserted bed is separated from
it by a wide sandbank, on which now and then a
heron may be seen. Nothing interferes with the
broad expanse of sky which offers free play to the
sailing clouds, while the spires of the cathedral in
the distance rise in silent majesty. We shall at once
feel, as we look on the scene before us with observant
senses, the inner meaning, the historical character of
this landscape. The spirit which animates it is one of
calm energetic power, that characteristic which demands
great and historical figures for its consummation.
Worms is one of the most ancient of the cities of
the Rhenish provinces. The Rabbi of Tudela refers
to it as the primeval abode of emigrant Israelites. A
legend is connected with this ancient Jewish colony
which tells how, when better days had come, and
they were summoned back to Jerusalem by the high-
priest, they were loath to go, and lingered in the
blessed land of the green Rhine, saying, in reply to
the call : " We live in the promised land ; Worms is
our Jerusalem, our Synagogue, our Temple !"
They felt justified in giving this reply by the cir-
cumstance that when they were driven forth from the
Holy City they carried with them some of the con-
secrated soil, and intermixed it with the earth of
their burying-ground, and with the soil in which the
foundation of their new Synagogue was laid. So this
became to them the land of promise, where they prayed
and where their bones were finally laid to rest.
WORMS. 213
It is a well-known fact that in the persecutions of
the Middle Ages the Jews of Worms were often
spared when other colonies were persecuted. This
was owing to the fact that the members of the Syna-
gogue at Worms spread the report — incredible as it
may seem to us — that when the Saviour was about to
be crucified, and the other Jewish communities of the
world had assented to it, the Worms Synagogue alone
withheld its consent !
Another explanation of how the Jews came to
Worms is given in the family chronicle of the Dal-
berg family, whom we find mentioned in old deeds
as " Chamberlains of Worms." The chronicle relates
how their primitive ancestor was a " cousin of the
Virgin Mary and, at the same time, a centurion in
the twenty-second Roman Legion."
He, when this Legion was stationed on the Rhine,
brought Jews with him to Worms from Jerusalem
after its capture and destruction by Titus — and, in-
deed, in the capacity of slaves : then, with true Chris-
tian magnanimity, he gave them their freedom, and
by them the Synagogue was founded.
It was in the old fallen Camba here that the Ger-
man princes used to assemble to choose a king, and
it was also in the same place that the quarrel between
the two Conrads was ended :
"And as the throng stood waiting all around,
And the great hum of men was so allayed
That the Rhine's quiet flow could be observed,
214 THE RHINE.
They saw how suddenly the two great knights
Grasped one another's hands with hearty grip,
While cheeks and lips met with a brother's kiss.
Then did they know no jealousy remained,
And each to other willingly gave place."
Thus may be rendered the description given by
Uhland, in his " Duke Ernest of Swabia," of the
election of a king in the year 1024. Concord hav-
ing gained the day, the princely train and the re-
joicing people proceeded to Mayence for the corona-
tion.
All these are pictures of events which have long
since passed away, but the landscape, the ground on
which they were enacted, still lives, and the actors
in them re-awake for him who looks deeply into the
features of the place. Such a one hears still the
noisy hum of the people, and sees the gigantic form
of the mighty king towering over the shoulders of
the rest. This force of historical association, this in-
visible reanimation of historical figures in a certain
spot, is the sign of an historical landscape.
In Worms we can dispense with that which is, but
no one would willingly be without the stirring thoughts
of what has been. Here is the spot where the great
Caesar once stood ; it was here that Attila, the gloomy
hero of devastation, drove his cavalry across the
Rhine. Before the Cathedral of Worms we are in-
flamed by the quarrel of the two queens Brunhild
and Chriemhilda, and it was over this same Cathedral
WORMS. 215
that that mighty cloud arose whose lightning gleams
for ever for us in the song of the " Nibelungen."
Indeed, the southern side of the Cathedral is richly
decorated with statues of the fourteenth century,
representing the characters of the Nibelungenlied.
The Cathedral is still the greatest of all the monu-
ments of the city ; it is one of those splendid stone
giants which the church has stationed along the Rhine
as guardians of its power. There is apparent through-
out the building, with its round towers and pinnacles,
a sort of defensive character ; the stately edifice pre-
sents itself to us as it were fully armed. The entire
style is Romanesque. The ground-plan is that of a
Roman basilica, but enriched with every decoration
which a creative lavish period possessed. The unity
of the whole is nowhere destroyed by an inconsist-
ency.
" Being built in the early years of the ninth cen-
tury," says Simrock, " it is one of the oldest and
finest monuments of the rounded arch style. From
the eastern choir, and the northern side of the nave,
hideous masks and grim beasts look down on us,
the production of dark paganism which the Chris-
tian church of the eleventh century had not yet been
able completely to get rid of or suppress. The west-
ern choir shows somewhat later forms, and a tran-
sition to the pointed arch. This is explained by a
necessity having arisen in the fifteenth century for
the rebuilding of the one western tOAver. But a west-
216 THE RHINE.
ern choir hardly lay within the plan of the first
architect. According to fixed law, the principal en-
trance should have stood opposite the eastern choir.
The present beautiful entrance on the south side,
which is pure Gothic, must have been added three
hundred years later."
These rough walls look down on us, mighty as the
times from which they sprang, and the impression
they make is not weakened when we step with
muffled tread within the sacred walls. There are
the stone tombs of the old ecclesiastical princes of
Worms, and over the altars pictures with golden
backgrounds. In one of the chapels is the great
stone font, and in another the last resting-place of
queens. We stand within the magic circle of a mas-
terpiece, and our consciousness tells us at every step
we take that the air we are breathing is historical.
How many assemblies, imperial diets, and other
councils weighty with the fate of Germany, have
been held within reach of these walls ! In the year
772 war was declared here against the Saxons. In
1122, at an imperial diet here, a treaty was made
between the Emperor Henry V. and Pope Calixtus
II. respecting the investiture of the bishops with
sceptre, ring, and staff.
In the year 1495 a great diet was held, under
Maximilian I,, at which club-law was abolished and
public peace established. Later still came that most
famous diet, — the Diet of Worms — when a bold, de-
WOKMS. 217
termined man, the " world-sliaking monk of Witten-
berg/' stood before the walls of the sacred old Min-
ster, and tore that great cleft in the globe which
divides two eras, and created those two spiritual
hemispheres into which the world is divided — " Here
I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me !"
Such was the effect of these words that men wept,
men Avho scarcely knew what a tear was, and paved
the way for the Gospel.
The legend of the Luther-tree at Worms dates
from these days. It is a huge cork-elm, which has
been noted for centuries. As Luther, seated in an
open carriage, neared the town he was surrounded
by the townspeople and nobles, who had come out to
meet him.
Near the carriage rode the knightly Captain von
Frundsberg, talking to the honored guest. As they
neared the city gates he said : " Little monk, dost
thou verily believe that thy teaching will prevail !"
Luther pointed to a weak sapling of cork-elm which
grcAv by the road-side, and filled with exultation and
trust in God, answered : " Yea, Sir Knight, so truly
as yonder sapling may become a mighty tree and vie
in height with the towers of the city !"
And the mighty cork-elm which withstood the
storms of centuries is the Luther-tree of Worms.
But the period when Worms was the centre of
historical events, when the mighty Charles V. and
all the princes came into the imperial city, is long
218 THE EHINE.
since past ; and deep degradation has followed the
days of prosperity. The Thirty Years' War visited
it with desolation, but in the marauding wars of Louis
XIV. it was not only desolated but destroyed. When
the regiments of the enemy had lain long enough
within these walls, the citizens were informed that it
was the will of " the most Christian king " that
Worms should be burned to the ground. Only a
short respite was granted them, and then the con-
suming flames mounted towards heaven. It was a
gigantic struggle between the two great elements.
The earth and its stone would not yield, and the rest-
less flames would not quench themselves till they had
destroyed the last house.
At that time Worms was populous and powerful,
as became an old imperial town. A double wall ran
round the city ; it had seven gates, and the Rhine
tower was so strong that thirty mines had to be laid
under it before it coidd be overthrown. Piece by
piece the old magnificence fell into ashes, and while
the people outside were wringing their hands, the
town was levelled with the ground on which it had
stood.
AU was dead and silent : only the walls of the
Cathedral remained amid this burnt wilderness. Every
human possession perished : God only had preserved
His house !
Men built again ; walls can be replaced, but no
future race can supply the spirit of the great past,
WORMS. 219
that was destroyed with the ancient battlements. A
quiet, dull time began ; grass grew in the streets, and
the new race grew up depressed and weary. The
population hardly numbered a third of what it had
once been ; and they lived on the remembrances of
the past more than on any belief in a great future.
This meaningless and objectless life lasted for some
time, and even in the middle of the last century a
chronicler tells of the many "barren places and wastes"
which were to be found in the interior of the town.
Even as late as 1840, Victor Hugo calls Worms "une
ville qui meurt," and depicts, with gloomy eloquence,
the impression of agony which he had received when
visiting it.
In our own days, life has all at once re-appeared.
It is not the old powers which have awakened after
long slumber, but the spirit of the present, the modern
ideas, which on being circulated through the old pet-
rified limbs, has brought into existence thousands of
busy arms who fill the great factories and thousands
of laden wagons which fly over the railroads, up and
down the Rhine as far as Holland.
In the Luther-Platz we see an imposing monument
to the great Reformer, erected in 1868. A bronze
statue of Luther stands high on a pedestal, sur-
rounded, lower down, by the four precursors of the
Reformation, Savonarola, Huss, WyclifFe, and Petrus
Waldus. Lower still are allegorical figures of the
towns, Magdeburg (mourning), Augsburg (making
220 THE RHINE,
confession), and Speyer (protesting). Between these
are the arms of the twenty -four German towns which
first embraced the Reformed faith.
We enter a handsome house on the Lindenplatz ;
green vines clamber over the porch, and within there
reigns that cheerfid hospitality which is the preroga-
tive of the Rhine. Everything is comfortable and
handsome. The father sits in his broad arm-chair at
the table and tells of the old times ; the amiable smile
which now and then flits over his countenance evi-
dently comes from his heart. He gazes on his be-
loved and ever-cheerful wife with as much pleasure
and affection as he did five-and-twenty years ago. A
thousand recollections are revived for the youthful
guest, while the golden wine, which is found only at
Worms, sparkles in the great green glasses.
In the background there moves the sweet daughter
of the house, quietly occupied with the business of
the table ; prudent and lovable she is as Elsie in the
fairy-tale, and as every true child of the beautiful old
city ever has been. She understands her work thor-
oughly, and stiU remains always modest. Her brown
hair droops over her smiling face, and she performs
the duties of the house unknown and unembarrassed,
so that in watching her we do not wonder that the
district in which Worms is situated was once, in the
splendid days of old, named Wonnegau, or " the dis-
trict of delight."
Worms appears to us in more than one respect to
WORMS. 221
be the first town on the Rhine which exhibits purely
Rhenish life. This characteristic of the inhabitants
seems to us to increase as w^e go farther down the
river, until we reach Cologne. And this life is not
Avanting in that lovely characteristic of female beauty :
pure amiability and pure modesty meet us here.
There is a complete world of local customs, ideas,
even of names ; and in every heart there flows
Rhenish blood. We recall with gratitude the hos-
pitable day Ave spent in Worms, in the powerful
old imperial city of the past, in the quiet city of
to-day.
We meet with no large tOAvn between Worms and
Mayence, for which reason the country is all the more
rich and blooming. It is covered with fruitful vine-
yards, and is full of that gladness which seems to be
inseparable from the vine. Such is the picture upon
which we gaze as we glide down the blue stream. In
the midst of this smiling country w^e are free from
all the sadness which is, more or less, always associated
wdth the walls of towns, and from all those fierce strug-
gles whose gloomy memories make the Rhine the
stream of history.
We first stop in Oppenheim, and here we recog-
nize once more the signs of stormy days gone by, for
above the expanse of vine gardens there stands a
bold and commanding stronghold. This, in its time,
has seen many an Emperor Avithin its chambers, and
many an enemy within its w^alls, for it Avas an im-
222 THE EHINE.
perial fortress, and was worthy of the proud name
which described it as the " crown of the country."
The little town which crouches at its feet is much
older, and Avas built upon the ruins of what is sup-
posed to have been a Roman settlement. Though
unpretending and modest, it once possessed the finest
church which the Gothic style ever created in Ger-
many, and it required all the vandalism of the war
of the Palatinate to give up this masterpiece as a
prey to the flames. More than half of the renowned
Church of St. Catherine was destroyed in 1689, but
in 1878-89 it was entirely restored from the designs
of the Ijvte architect Schmidt, of Vienna. Not only
is it a monument of faith, but we feel that the grandeur
of ancient times and the history of past races lie cov-
ered by its stones. We feel this deeply when, walk-
ing quietly along its aisles, we come upon the great
names which are written on these tombs. They are
not names of individuals only, but they bring before
us whole pages of history. The corner-stone of St.
Catherine's is said to have been laid with great pomp
and rejoicing in 1262 by King Richard.
Outside, in the quiet churchyard which surrounds
the building, rest thousands whose names and fate
are known to none ; and, according to ancient cus-
tom, a charnel-house has been built in which are col-
lected the skulls that have been dug up from time to
time. What horror would thrill through us at the
picture, if while staring through the grating at these
WORMS. 223
bleached bones, the thoughts wliieh once beat be-
neath these brows were suddenly to become embodied
— thoughts which were untold, unfulfilled, and lost
for ever !
Even here we find traces of war, which several
times visited the cheerful little town, for many of the
bleached heads are splintered at the temple and bear
the mark of a bullet. Who has sent him to his
death ? was it a Swedish knight, who lay before the
town during the Thirty Years' War, a mercenary of
the French army which Turenne brought to the
Rhine, or a Spaniard from the Basque Mountains ?
But who thinks now of such forgotten woes ? On
the hills that once drank in the blood of warriors, the
vines are waving and the clear wine sparkles in the
green ringing glass. It is here that we first meet
with the name of " Rhine wine," and all that lies
yonder towards the Pfalz belongs no longer to the
map, but to the wine chart. " Niersteiner " and the
wine of Laubheim and Bodenheim have attained, far
and wide, a well-deserved reputation, and with them
we will fill our beaker to the brim while the boat
bears us over the blue Rhine to Mayence. Already
we see the Cathedral towering over the broad roofs
of the city, and seem to hear the sound of the church
bells of the old royal city on the Rhine. So we once
more fill our glass in honor of " Mayence the Golden!"
224 THE KHINE.
CHAPTER XVII.
MAYENCE THE GOLDEN.
Now let US continue our way along the " Priestly
Highway of the German Empire/' as it has been
called from the number and the celebrity of the eccle-
siastical sees which we shall pass. We are now at
" Mayence the Golden," and we shall go as far as
" Cologne the Holy/' along the lovely banks with
which God has blessed the great German river.
This town, so often sadly memorable in history,
and yet so indestructible, was once situated farther
up on the softly-sloping hills. In the course of time
it has sunk down to the river-banks. It has also
simk from the height of its classic origin, when the
Romans built their stone bridges here, and made a
yoke for our German forefathers ; and also it has
descended from its ecclesiastical height, when the
bishops turned the crozier into a temporal sceptre.
But in spite of all, though power and Avealth have
been lost under a thousand calamities, it still remains
"the Golden."
The inhabitants of Mayence have also preserved
their character for pleasantness and good humor, and
wherever the traveller wanders in this romantic val-
/KjarKetplacCt /IDa^ence,
MAYENCE THE GOLDEN. 225
ley, up stream or down, along the fine silver surface
as far as the Mouse Tower, he finds the men of May-
ence to be " Father Rhine's " happiest and pleasant-
est children.
The situation of Mayence, if not the most beau-
tiful, is at all events most open and pleasant. From
the heights of the Kiistrich or the " Anlagen " (at
the feet of which is the handsome railway bridge),
the eye sweeps over the river Maine and over
the many-tinted spurs of the Odenwald and the
Taunus.
The airy fragrant heights of Hochheim and its
vineyards overlook the confluence of the Mair.e and
the Rhine, and from the high bank on the other side
rise the massive contours of the red-brick Backstein
barracks, now the Prussian cadet school of Bibrich.
The little local steamers pass briskly backwards and
forwards past the low island 5 the tugs of the Rhine
Boat Company go panting through the clear waters
at the head of a whole flotilla ; the express boats
move majestically along, like the traditional stately
swan — in the style of the Mississippi floating palaces;
and between the steaming passenger-boats filled Avith
people the Rhine stream floAvs lazily on.
On the other side we see dimly rising out of the
mist of the horizon, or shining in a direct ray of the
sun, the faint outline of the Platte, the hunting castle
of the Duke of Nassau 5 the white temple of Nero-
berg, like a great forest mushroom ; and the gilded
Vol. I.— 15
226 THE EHINE.
pinnacles of the Byzantine Greek chapel shining be-
tween the trees.
Farther down the stream we see the Niederwald
springing high above the terraces of Rudesheim. It
is still of the same capricious yet soft gradations of
stone color, and forms a kind of gate to a bend in the
Rhine, shutting it in so as to open out an entirely
new panorama on the other side.
If the sunlight is favorable the observer may see
from the hills of Mayence a little piece of the pearly
track of the Rheingau spread in the fragrant little
Eden, where God has so favored men that He has
caused the seltzer spring to issue from the earth close
to the vineyards. Here everything sings " Glory to
God in the highest " — the crosses and crucifixes be-
tween the vine gardens, the juicy golden grapes, the
swelling chestnut-tree, the villas and cottages scat-
tered among the dark-green foliage, the little town
which bathes its feet in the sparkling river, and,
finally, the glad and grateful hearts of men.
But beautiful as the scenery is all round us, history
has harshly visited this part of the Rhine Valley,
particularly the left bank, and Mayence especially
has felt its heavy hand.
The origin of the first warlike disturbances are lost
among childish legends. It is said that there lived
in Trier, fourteen years before the Christian era, a
sorcerer named Nequam, whom the people of Trier
drove out of their town on account of his evil arts.
MAYENCE THE GOLDEN. 227
Nequani swore to be revenged on them by building
another town, and he came to the place on which
Mayence now stands, and raised a town out of the
earth by magic.
Another legend ascribes the building of the city to
a fugitive from the siege of Troy named Moguntius.
This might, perhaps, account for the name of the
town, but the authority is hardly to be relied on.
Authentic history begins with the fortified Roman
station which stood here, and although it seems un-
likely that no German settlement should have been
formed before that time in so particularly favorable a
situation at the confluence of two great rivers, yet
absolutely no trace of any such previous settlement
is to be found.
The two great epochs of Mayence were the Roman
period and the ecclesiastical period. The stone annals
which yet remain tell us of both of these epochs.
The oldest of them informs us that Agrippina caused
a fortified Avinter camp to be formed at Moguntiacum
in the year 38 B.C., and Caius Sertorius was at that
time named Curator civium romanorum Mog.
The real fortifier of the place appears to have been
Caius Drusus, who, in 14 B.C., also built a camp on
the other side of the river at Castellum — the present
Castel — and erected a stone bridge across the Rhine
in order to enable his legions the more conveniently
to cross over to their German families who dwelt in
the woods.
228 THE KHINE.
We are reminded of him at the present day by the
" Eichelstein," which stands above the " Anlagen,"
or gardens, and was once a handsome building erected
for him by his legions, but is now a ruin, as are also
the aqueduct which he made, and the Roman bridge,
of which the stone pillars remain only to be used as
anchoring-posts for the well-known floating water-
mills, which may be seen here in some considerable
numbers. The value of the culture which the Romans
brought into the country is inestimable ; when the
twenty-second legion came, on their return from
Jerusalem, they also brought Christianity and Bishop
Crescentius with them ; both Avcre objects of hatred.
Crescentius is described in local history as a pupil
of St. Peter. He is said to have suffered martyrdom
in the reign of Trajan about 103 A.D. Mayence
seems to have been one of the most Christian cities
of the Roman Empire of that time ; and Alexander
Severus was murdered here by his soldiers for the
new faith.
The prosperity of the town again declined until
Rando fell upon it and mercilessly destroyed it and
both its Roman and Christian inhabitants. After it was
rebuilt, Mayence fell a prey to the Vandals and their
allies on Christmas Eve of 406, and was totally de-
stroyed by fire. Attila destroyed it again in 451,
and it was only after the expulsion of the Romans in
622 that the permanent rebuilding was begun again
under Theodobert and Dagobert.
MAYENCE THE GOLDEN. 229
Mayence was the seat of the East Frankish duchy.
It was, however, not till the time of Charlemagne,
when he built his palace in Lower Ingelheim and in-
troduced the cultivation of the vine, and when St.
Boniface became archbishop of Mayence, that the
town rose to importance and was well known through-
out Germany. This continued until 893, when the
Emperor Arnulf conquered the town.
But from the time when the bishops, those pious
servants of the church, constituted themselves coun-
sellors of the German Emperor and temporal rulers,
an endless period of dissension began which it would
be impossible to relate fully here. Monasteries over-
ran the country, and the church was dominant under
the protection of the Pope.
A man like Bishop Hatto seemed a necessary re-
sult of the state of things, and he gave the world a
specimen of the basest misuse of power in the cruelty
which Avas imputed to him. Even the archbishop
Willigis, a son of the house of Wagner, who was
about the best of all the bishops, had the ambition to
be chosen Elector, and introduced into the arms of
the town the well-known wheel with the legend:
"Willigis, Willigis,
Forget not this,
That thy father a wheelwright is !"
thus modestly denoting his origin.
The Cathedral, the Church of the Holy Virgin,
230 THE RHINE.
was commenced by Willigis, and under him harmony
at length reigned among the citizens. This soon
ended, however, under his successors, and Henry
IV., the penitent of Canossa, set a Hmit to the power
of the bishops and protected the constantly contested
privileges of the citizens, until, in 1104, the Diet of
Mayence declared him to have forfeited his throne.
During the life of Archbishop Ruthard — and ap-
parently encouraged by him — the persecution and
massacre of the Jews took place, the wealth of these
people having long roused envy and vexation. The
public pawning-houses, which were in the hands of
the Italian Jews (whence the present name of " Lom-
bards ") did a large business. This brought great
wealth to the owners of these establishments and the
banking-houses, who provoked the anger of the people
by the ostentatious display of their luxury. At last
the smouldering fire broke out in massacre and spoli-
ation ; and even the bishop himself shared the booty
with the robbers — an act which he had to expiate by
seven years' banishment to a Thuringian monastery.
It would, as we have already said, take us too long
to follow the long succession of archbishops, with all
the good and evil with which they are associated, and
which culminated with Arnold, who was robbed, mur-
dered, and horribly mutilated by the citizens, whom
he called " dogs."
Before this, however, the lawlessness of the people
and of the clergy had reached a critical height.
MAYENCE THE GOLDEN. 231
Frederick 11. himself incited tlie people of Mayence
against their archbishop Siegfried III., whom they
drove ont of the town. Siegfried collected an army
and besieged Mayence, which was forced by hunger
to open its gates. The citizens in revenge attacked
him one night while asleep in his castle of Eltville,
and forced him, with the knife at his breast, to sign
a fresh charter. They sent him again into banish-
ment, drove all the clergy out of the town, and de-
termined to do Avithout religion, so that for several
years no religious services whatever were held.
However, friendship Avith the archbishop was re-
stored under Matthias ; who, nevertheless, eventu-
ally died by poison.
Avarice and a marauding nature were usually the
causes of the misfortunes of the archbishops, who
but too often preferred making war or carrying on
some lucrative trade, to concerning themselves about
the spiritual welfare of the people.
In the year 1254 the citizen Arnold Walpoden, of
Mayence, founded the League of Rhenish Towns.
Mayence became the leader of this powerful associa-
tion, and was soon strengthened by more than a
hundred neighboring toAvns, from Basle on the south
to Bremen on the north. Mayence, as the centre of
the Rhenish towns, received the flattering name of
" the Golden." About this time the Robber Knights
became a menace to safety.
In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries May-
232 THE EHINE.
ence became the favorite resort of the Minnesanger,
or Troubadours. In 1318 the most celebrated of
them, Heinrich Fraunlob, the pious minstrel who
sang the praises of the Holy Virgin and of female
virtue, died here and was buried in the Cathedral.
In the year 1462, Adolf of Nassau took the town
by treachery, plundered it, killed five hundred of its
citizens, and deprived it of its civic freedom. In
1552 it fell into the hands of Albert of Brandenburg.
Then came the Swedes, under Gustavus Adolphus,
Avho laid under contribution the monasteries to which
the clergy had fled. Later, in 1644, the town was
occupied by the French, who left it in 1648, after
the Treaty of Westphalia. They returned in 1792,
under Custine, to whom Mayence surrendered through
treachery and cowardice. It Avas retaken by the
Prussians, under Kalkreuth, in 1793. The French
again blockaded the fortress a year later, and it was
recovered by the Austrian Marshal Clerfayt.
By the Treaty of Luneville, Mayence passed into
the hands of the French in 1797, and remained in
their possession until the fall of Napoleon. In 1814
the Vienna Congress gave the town, Avhose fortifica-
tions had gained greatly in importance during all
these varied fortunes of war, to the Grand-Duke of
Hesse. This duke held it as a fortress of the League
until, in 1866, the League itself became a thing of
the past.
Such are the main points in the history of the old
MAYENCE THE GOLDEN. 233
Electoral city — a continual struggle Avith conquerors
and oppressors from without, and with priestly polit-
ical supremacy from within.
None of the spirit of that old oppressive period
remains among the present population, though traces
of French character are still to be met with in the
people of Mayence. French regiments, French fash-
ions, the frivolity of the French colony so long estab-
lished in the neighboring town of Coblentz, left be-
hind much light blood in Mayence. It could not be
expected that French nature and French chic should
be readily eradicated, and the trace of it remains at
the present day in the gracefid women of Mayence.
It is difficult now to believe, when we meet the
splendid religious processions in the streets, that there
were many years during which no public worship was
held ; though it is true that to-morrow we may meet
in the very same street Prince Carnival and all his
motley court.
With such a history as that indicated above, May-
ence is necessarily rich in antiquities, and especially
such as are of Roman origin. Much also that is in-
teresting, belonging to a later period, has survived
the destruction and calamities that have visited the
town.
The Cathedral, the great Avork of Willigis, the best
of the bishops, which was begun in 978, was six times
destroyed or partially destroyed by fire, and in war it
has seen wild hordes break into its interior. It was
234 THE KHINE.
totally destroyed by fire in the year 1009, but was
rebuilt, and had approached so near completion in
1024 that Conrad II. was able to be crowned there.
In 1024, in 1137, and 1191 it was again a prey to
the flames.
Gustavus Adolphus, on one occasion, even com-
manded it to be blown up. During the bombard-
ment of the town in 1793 it again suffered by fire,
and in 1813 it was turned into a French forage maga-
zine. Modern times have done their best to restore
and complete the beautiful church.
It does not lie within our province to act as cice-
rone I but we would rather refer our readers for all
details to Heyl's book of " The Rhine Countries."
We will only mention the numerous tombs and monu-
ments in this Cathedral, and especially the marble
tablet inscribed with the year 794, just at the en-
trance of the church. There is no doubt that this
was the tomb of the beautiful Fastrada, the ardently-
loved wife of Charlemagne. The monument is not
at all destroyed, nor is the above-mentioned stone,
which is the original one.
The objects of greatest interest are the chapter-
house with the Chapel of St. ^gidius, and opposite
it the bishop's throne and two rows of stalls j behind
these are the cloisters and the garden. Among the
monuments is a modern one to the minstrel Count
Henry of Meissen, called Heinrich Frauenlob. Ac-
cording to the inscription, it was raised to the pious
Ube Catbe^ral tvom tbe /iDavhetplacCt nDa\?encc.
MAYENCE THE GOLDEN. 235
songster by the women of Mayence, in the year 1842.
The sculpture on it is by Schwanthaler.
" In Mentz 'tis hushed and lonely, the streets are waste and drear,
And none but forms of sorrow, clad in mourning garbs, appear ;
And only from the steeple sounds the death-bell's sullen boom ;
One street alone is crowded, and it leads but to the tomb.
"And as the echo from the tower grows faint and dies away,
Unto the Minster comes a still and sorrowful array,—
The old man and the young, the child, and many a maiden fair ;
And every eye is dim with tears, in every heart is care.
"Six virgins in tlie centre bear a coffin and a bier,
And to the rich high-altar steps with deadened chant draw near,
Where all around for saintly forms are dark escutcheons found.
With a cross of simple white displayed upon a raven ground.
"And, placed the raven pall above, a laurel-garland green,
The minstrel's verdant coronet, his meed of song, is seen ;
His golden harp, beside it laid, a feeble murmur flings.
As the evening wind sweeps sadly through its now forsaken
strings.
"Who rests within his coffin there ? For whom this general wail ?
Is some beloved monarch gone, that old and young look pale ?
A king, in truth, — a king of song ! and Frauenlob his name ;
And thus in death his fatherland must celebrate his fame.
"Unto the fairest flowers of Heaven that bloom this earth along,
To women's worth, did he on earth, devote his deathless song ;
And though the minstrel has grown old, and faded be his fame,
They yet requite what he in life hath done for love of them."
The Church of St. Stephen is also said to have
been founded by Willigis in 990. Within it is the
236 THE BHINE.
tomb of the good man, with his skiill and his mass
vestments.
The image of the Virgin in the Cathedral is said
to work miracles. A story is told of an aged musician
who, finding that no one would listen to his old-fash-
ioned tunes, stole into the Cathedral, and, after pray-
ing for aid, stood before her shrine and played a
hymn upon his violin in honor of the Virgin Mary.
The Holy Mother, touched by the old man's pov-
erty, raised her jewelled robe and deftly kicked one
of her golden slippers into his hat, which was lying
on the floor in front of her. Falling on his knees,
the old musician humbly thanked the Virgin for her
charity, then hurried off to a neighboring goldsmith
to sell the shoe in order to buy bread.
The goldsmith questioned the old man as to where
he got the shoe, and not believing the miraculous
story that the minstrel told, he had him arrested. It
did not take long for the court to find him guilty of
sacrilegious theft, and to condemn him to death.
As he was dragged past the Cathedral door on his
way to the place of execution, he begged permission
to say a last prayer before the Virgin. He was per-
mitted to kneel before the shrine, with his hat and
violin beside him. Tremblingly the old violinist
begged Mary to open the gates of Heaven for him.
And when he had ended his prayer he again played
a little hymn, declaring that his last music on earth
should be in honor of the Blessed Virgin.
MAYENCE THE GOLDEN. 237
While he was ])layiiig, the Virgin, in the presence
of the multitude that had followed the old musician
into the Cathedral, deliberately lifted her gown, for
the second time, and kicked off her other golden shoe
into the tattered hat of the old man.
This second miracle convinced the people that the
old minstrel had been unjustly condemned, so the
priests stepped forward and offered him a pension for
life if he would return to the church the two golden
shoes. The old violinist accepted the offer, and the
priests made haste to lock up the golden shoes in a
safe place for fear that the Virgin should again be
tempted to bestow them upon some other poor sup-
pliant at her shrine.
In the course of the Franco-Prussian war, Mayence
was one of the principal depots for the French pris-
oners, whose great camp formed a splendid spectacle.
Mayence was at the same time the embarking-place
for the transports and commissariat ships. Time,
which levels all things, has left here little that is
characteristic. Life and its business in Mayence is
exceedingly brisk, active, and prosperous.
At every season of the year the traffic on the
banks of the Rhine is very great, as well as over the
bridge at Castel, which forms a favorite rendezvous
in the fine summer evenings for the lively people of
Mayence. The beautiful " Anlagen " is another
favorite resort. This was the case especially at the
time when Mayence was still a fortress of the League,
238 THE KHINE.
and when the alternate performances of the Prussian
and Austrian bands collected the fashionable inhabit-
ants for miles round. In winter the ice in the trenches
attracts a great many of the nimble young Mayencers.
We leave Mayence with a few rapid glances at
some of the points of interest in the interior. The
only historical interest which is attached to the citadel
is that the Eichelstein was within it. The Eichelstein
was a monument said by tradition to have been erected
in the year 9 B.C. by the Roman legions, in honor
of Drusus, Avho was killed by a fall from his horse.
Thorwaldsen's statue of Gutenberg announces that
a new light rose upon the world from Mayence. The
inscription on it informs us that this monument was
erected to Johann Gensfleisch of Guten by his fellow-
citizens, aided by subscriptions from all Europe.
Gutenberg sprang from a patrician family of May-
ence. The whole world knows what it owes to his
discovery, but the year of his birth and the house
where that event occurred are unknown.
He was a goldsmith by trade, and he threw him-
self blindly into the mania for gold-making, and spent
long months in hunting for the " philosopher's stone."
He spent enormous sums of money in his vain ex-
periments, and at last was forced to some practical
work to earn his bread. He chose wood carving,
and through the cutting of separate letters, and ar-
ranging them into words, came the idea that later led
to the art of printing.
MAYENCE THE GOLDEN. 239
The Elector's palace, on the Paradeplatz, was built
from 1627 to 1678. In the year 1792 it was the
residence of the Electors ; in the time of the revo-
lution it was the meeting-place of the members of
the Mayence clubs. The bishop's palace dates from
the year 1666. In its neighborhood is the convent
for EngUsh girls, where Ida Hahn meditated over
the vanity of the world and her own folly.
The monument of the immortal Schiller stands in
the Schillerplatz. It is said that the syenite pillar of
the fountain, which was built in this square in 1760,
came from Charlemagne's palace at Ingelheim. The
German House which lies opposite the castle is worthy
of notice. It was erected in 1716, and was formerly
the house of the German Order ; it is now the occa-
sional residence of the Grand-Duke.
The numerous strangers who visit the town in
summer congregate chiefly by the shore in the Rhein-
strasse, where there are a large number of hotels
facing the railway, which is uncomfortably squeezed
in between the shore and the street. All day long
we hear the clanging of the railway bell and the
shriek of the engine, as much as to warn us that we
have not a minute to spare. Owing to the constant
movement of the engines and the shunting of the
carriages, we are so detained as to have but a few
moments to reach the landing-stage, from whence we
embark on board the local steamer ; which, ploughing
through the water and scattering the spray, sparkling
240 THE EHINE.
like myriads of diamonds, bears us between the green
islands dotting the river, to Biebrich — to the land of
Nassau, which is one of the finest jewels of the Ger-
man Empire.
BIEBKICH. 241
CHAPTER XVIII.
BIEBRICH.
The Castle of Biebrich rises on the right bank of
the Rhine. It is built of red sandstone, and has a
light and open situation. It is still the property of
the prince who governed the most beautifid little
country of Germany, but who, in an anxious, critical
hour staked this crown, this diadem of all Germany,
upon a doubtful throw, and lost it, as so many have
lost their all at the fatal gaming-table. Its fine situ-
ation makes it one of the most beautiful of castles.
In front of it, immediately on the bank of the
river, is a shady avenue which, like the Villa Reale
of Naples, is frequented by the lazzaroni of the shore,
the so-called " Rheinschnaken," or " loafers," who
hang about here waiting for the arrival of the steam-
ers in order to offer their services at a cheap rate to
passengers.
In the distance, behind the castle, rise the woody
heights of the Odenwald and Taunus, forming a chain
— a green screen — round the valley lying at its feet,
and breaking off abruptly towards the river, as if
frightened back by the Rhine, and falling almost pre-
cipitously towards the shore in steep terraces oppo-
site Bingen.
Vol. I. —16
242 THE KHINE.
From the windows the eye travels far from the flat
roof of the castle out into the beautiful Rheingau,
from whose heights the Johannisberg peers over the
dark ruins of Rudesheim and all the celebrated little
wine towns, while on the farther side of the bank the
heaped-up clouds shine in the dark-blue distance.
It is a wonderful scene : the banks on both sides
of the river apparently closing in under the Nieder-
wald ; on this side there are sloping vineyards with
their little houses, villas, and shady parks, which
form a girdle round the bank ; on the other the citadel
of Klopp, the chapel of St. Roch, commanding the
valley from the heights — the old Ingelheim of the
great Frankish emperor — Ehrenfels, and the retired
Mouse Tower. In the river between are scattered
the green islands, towards which the busy steamer
hurries, to vanish behind the lofty rock of Rude-
sheimer.
In the .distance, again, are the towers of Mayence
and Hochheim, and between them the light arch of
the railway bridge and the perforated casemates of
Castel. Finally, there is the varied active human
life on both banks, the lading and unlading of the
bulky Dutch trading-ships, the Rhine skiffs, the lofty
uiinaret-like chimneys of the factories which pour
out their smoke in clouds into the blue ether. There
can hardly be a pleasanter, brighter picture than this
place offers to the eye, although the bank opposite
the castle is so insipid and monotonous.
BIEBRICH. 243
Many things unite to produce the charm which it
exercises : there is the distant view on all sides, the
wonderful reflections of the green wooded hills in
the golden mirror of the river, the poetic force of the
ever-moving water, the sunlit poetry which rests upon
it all, and, lastly, the unresting, pulsating life ever
pursuing either business or pleasure.
Although Biebrich is not important — Mayence on
the opposite bank seeming to have grown at its ex-
pense — it is a busy little place, with numerous iron,
cloth, and glass manufactories, and a population of
eleven thousand souls.
Near Biebrich lies the island of Peters- Aue. Here
centuries ago the Emperor Louis the Pious, son and
successor of Charlemagne, died at his summer palace
on the island.
There seems to be no doubt that Biebrich owes its
name to the number of beavers that formerly used
to find a suitable situation for their buildings in the
islands which lie opposite the town. At the present
time proofs are not wanting that these animals were
once very numerous in the Rhine. Since the begin-
ning of the last century they have been greatly de-
stroyed and driven away by thoughtless trapping,
and more especially by the increasing population of
the banks, so that at the present day the name of the
place is nearly all that remains of them.
Formerly the flesh, bones, and skin of the beaver
caused him to be eagerly hunted by the inhabitants
244 THE EHINE.
of the Rhine banks. But as the forests along the
river were cut down the beaver became more and
more scarce 5 yet even in the beginning of the present
century the animal was occasionally seen on the banks
of the Rhine.
In 1720 there was such danger of the beaver be-
coming extinct in the north that Frederick William
of Prussia passed stringent laws for his preservation.
Beavers are still found, though rarely, in the Elbe,
the Weser, and other rivers ; and in the province of
Magdeburg they are said still to have a quiet resting-
place, where they are protected and preserved.
There is a legend that a beaver was discovered in
the foundations of the palace of Biebrich, but for
that I cannot vouch.
The castle, which is built in the style of the Renais-
sance, was finished in 1706 by George Augustus of
Nassau. The sandstone figures which adorn the roof,
otherwise valueless, have a somewhat mournful ap-
pearance, for they were very harshly treated in 1793,
at the siege of Mayence, when the French planted
their guns on the Peters-Aue.
A large and beautiful park with fine trees is situ-
ated behind the castle. Did^e Adolf of Nassau culti-
vated this with the greatest care, until his country
fell to the share of Prussia. At the last hour he
could not save that country, when the choice was
placed before him after the battle of Koniggratz.
He decided for Austria, less perhaps from his own
BIEBRICH. 245
inclination than from that of a blind counsellor. The
obligation which was imposed on him to maintain a
public road through the park, his private property,
and the numerous abuses of this privilege, cooled the
interest of the absent prince for his favorite spot.
He sold the splendid palm-house to the town of
Frankfort, which replaced its palm-garden by a rare
orangery. The park is still beautiful, for its fine
shady trees are uninjured, but its former cultivation
has vanished since the castle lost the princely house-
hold.
Deep in the park lie the ruins of old Biburk, also
called Moosburg. It stands on other ruins which
formed the castle of Louis the German in 874. Its
history is obscure and lost in conjecture. The statues
at the entrance came from the tombs of the Counts
Katzenellenbogen, in the abbey of Eberbach. The
sculptor, E. Hopfgarten, formerly made himself a
studio in the interior of this castle, and had a com-
mission from the duke to carve a sarcophagus for the
Greek chapel at Wiesbaden. Hopfgarten died in
1856. Some of his works, among them a model of a
Lorelei, were preserved in this studio till 1874, when
they w^ere sold by his heirs and carried away.
Since Biebrich has lost its interest as the residence
of the Duke of Nassau, its commercial importance,
as well as that of the parish of Moosbach, has de-
clined. The State established a military cadet school
in the barracks built by the duke, but the court w^as
246 THE EHINE.
wanting. Mayence, lying opposite, absorbs all the
business, and that jealousy of its neighbors which is
found in small towns still exists. It was once great
enough to induce an attempt to frustrate the inten-
tion of building a harbor at Biebrich by sinking a
whole fleet (of which Heine has sung) with stones.
WIESBADEN. 247
CHAPTER XIX.
WIESBADEN.
Leaving the river and passing the Mosbach rail-
way station, the road, which is shaded by a double
avenue of trees, rises gently to Adolf's Hill. On
one side we get a charming glimpse of the islands
and a part of the Rheingau ; on the other, quite as
attractive, of Mayence, Castel, and the mountain-
chain.
Before us lies the Taunus, from the plateau of
which the hunting-castle, the Platte, and the chapel
look down through a break in the woods ; whilst
to the left the forester's house on the forest-road
to Schlangenbad peeps through the rising Avood, and
to the right, on the ridge of hills, the watchtower of
Bierstadt commands the whole of the Rhine Valley.
Even before we reach Mosbach, we meet with
the fii'st of those country houses which are, as it
were, the outposts of that community that has souglit
comfortable seclusion in the loveliest of the Rhine
valleys, in the " city of idlers," Wiesbaden. On
both sides stretch the pastures of fertile green inter-
sected by the Taunus and Nassau Railway.
In a few minutes we reach the plateau, and at our
248 THE EHINE.
feet lies the little paradise which was once the resi-
dence of the Dukes of Nassau, the " Mecca " of all
those who make a pilgrimage to its warm springs,
and the " Nice " of Germany. It is protected from
the north-east wind, and is a favorite resort of those
who, tired of the whirl of the great towns, wish to
end their days under the Rhenish sun and in the
mildest climate. Indeed, it is difficult to find another
place so highly favored by heaven as this.
Up the slope of the valley, surrounded by wooded
hills, are country houses scattered among luxuriant
gardens, and parks environing the town, where the
warm vapor of the medicinal spring — like the gey-
sers of Iceland — always emits from the peculiar
" Kochbrunnen " a thick column of steam to invigor-
ate and shower its benefits on all who come within
its range. Everything here speaks of comfort,
wealth, and contentment. A tall chimney, here and
there, ventures to creep in between the villas ; and
the numerous golden-tipped flagstaffs on the roofs
announce the readiness of the inmates to avail them-
selves of every occasion for a holiday.
In the last few years the rage for building has
brought the country houses even as far as Adolf's
Hohe. They are on each side of us as we stroll down
the Adolf Avenue into the neatest and most elegant of
German towns, which, fifty years ago, was little more
than a village, but has now attained a population, good
and bad, of more than sixty-five thousand souls.
WIESBADEN. 249
We say of good and bad, for, like Baden, Wies-
baden originally OAved its pleasure-gardens to the
gaming-table, and it was only when gambling was
prohibited by the government that private families
began permanently to take up their residence here.
What therefore the evil spirit of play commenced has
been finished by the good genius of enterprise, and
scarcely did the Wiesbadeners perceive that they
could get on better without the former, than specula-
tions in houses and land began. The Electoral town
became a miniature cosmopolitan city, its society be-
came a mixture of all nations, a neutral settlement
of people from all parts of the world, in which every
language is understood, and every coinage is current.
The history of Wiesbaden, about which the present
mixed society troubles itself but little, begins Avith the
time of the Romans, Avho built the old 3Iaftiacum, and
it was the existence of the warm spring which led to
its erection. Pliny speaks of it, and the remains
which have been found on Heidenberg and Romer-
berg are said to date from the time when the four-
teenth legion, which was afterwards relieved by the
twenty-second, was stationed in these parts.
The name Wisibad, Wisibadun, appears in records
of 843. The Rhenish " Robber-Knights " ran riot
here, and once completely laid the city waste. In
1815 Wiesbaden was the capital of the Duchy of
Nassau. In 1866 it was occupied by a Prussian
militia company, who met with no opposition, and
250 THE EHINE.
since then it has been the seat of a Prussian govern-
ment.
The Kurhaus, finished in 1810, with its beautiful
gardens, naturally forms the centre of the town. The
ascent from the railway-station through the Wilhelm-
strasse is quite imposing, bordered as it is on one side
by lofty plane-trees, and that part of the Kurgarten
named the " warm bank," with its beautiful lawns,
ponds, and music tents, which are seen between the
trunks of the plane-trees. Next to the open place
before the theatre is the garden of the Kurhaus,
richly and artistically arranged with flower-beds, and
between them are cascades which are illuminated in
the evening. Right and left are repeated the avenues
of great plane-trees, which lead the fashionable world
into the private gardens behind the assembly-rooms.
Opposite to these avenues are two rows of very beau-
tiful red-thorns, and behind them again colonnades of
shops. This open place presents a gay and busy
scene, particularly in the afternoon and evening,
when the beginning of the concert summons every-
body to the back of the Kurhaus under the shady
red chestnuts.
The company sit closely packed together under the
trees, or wander at will by the banks of the fish-pond,
on which a flotilla of white swans swim round and
round, though much disturbed at times by the gon-
dolas with their gay-colored streamers, which move
over the still surface with more ease and greater
WIESBADEN. 251
speed than the limited space would seem to warrant.
This place has a wonderful effect when, during the
concert, the fish-pond is illuminated with Bengal
lights, and the fountain is made to throw its column
of water higher than the tops of the trees. Bengal
lights are in great force at Wiesbaden ; with them
and fireworks and music, the energetic director keeps
his patrons amused and in constant circulation.
The rooms in the Kurhaus are imposing and richly
decorated, especially the great assembly-room, with
the little conversation-room and refreshment-room.
In four of the saloons at the left side of the house
might once be heard the chink of gold and silver and
the rustle of bank-notes on the fatal green cloth.
The intermittent " rouge gagne et la couleur " and
the clear click of the roulette ball has here made
many hearts beat anxiously or joyously. All this,
however, has long since ended. No one thinks of it
now, and the hangers-on who used to gather about
the gaming-tables have departed to Saxony and
Monaco.
Wiesbaden has become a steady town. We own
ourselves to have been in error when we said else-
where that the demon of play was like a wall-fungus,
and could not be destroyed, for even if — which
Heaven forbid — Wiesbaden should be swallowed up
by an earthquake, the words " faites le jeu !" would
only sound from the depths like the bells of the buried
city of Vineta from beneath the waves of the Baltic.
252 THE RHINE.
The Wiesbaden Gardens extend for a considerable
distance, reaching to the village and ruins of Sonnen-
berg and to the Dietenmiihle, the much-frequented
hydropathic establishment. On one side of the gar-
dens is the Sonnenbergstrasse and on the other the
Parkstrasse, both of which are bordered Avith villas.
These gardens possess great attractions on account
of the shade they offer, especially in the spring, as
the sheltered situation of the place, protected as it is
from keen winds, allows the most delicate vegetation
to flourish luxuriantly. The abundance of the JBig-
nonia catalpa and the trumpet-tree, with its candela-
brum-shaped white blossoms, give the pleasure-gar-
dens a peculiar charm. The effect of the gay flower-
beds in the neighborhood of the private houses is also
very agreeable.
At the end of the Wilhelmstrasse, past the Kvir-
haus and Theaterplatz, we come upon the Taunus
road, and at the same time the Trinkhalle. On the
right of it, at the beginning of the Sonnenberger
road, the Pauline Palace may be seen on the heights
of the " Schonen Aussicht." The palace is the
property of the duke, and was formerly the dwell-
ing-place of the widowed duchess. It crowns the
summit of a somewhat steep ridge, which is covered
with park-like trees and flowers, and was built in
1841—43, in a quasi-Alhambra style.
At the end of the Trinkhalle the road leads on the
right to the Geisberg, which, with the Agricultural
WIESBADEN. 253
Academy and numerous villas, forms one part of the
town. Going straight on, there is a shady avenue
of limes, and the Elizabethstrasse, bordered with
country houses, after a short distance opens on to the
beautiful Nero Valley.
Here, in this valley, we are confronted with that
great forest on the Neroberg, on Avhose slopes, which
are dotted with vine-dressers' cabins, grows the noble
Neroberger, Avith which the increasing houses seem
to contest the costly ground.
From the Kapellenstrasse, which passes over this
mountain, the villas on the edge of the forest look
down into the valley. This is the road to the Greek
chapel, which may also be reached by a footpath that
winds between the vineyards and hop-gardens.
This chapel is built in the form of a Greek cross,
and has a curious effect with its five gilded pinnacles,
the highest one hundred and ninety feet from the
ground, to each of which a double cross is attached
by chains. In dull weather it has almost the effect of
a ray of sunshine on the valley. It is built of bright
sandstone, and was completed in 1855, and dedicated
by the Duke Adolf to the memory of his early-lost
consort, the Princess Elizabeth Michaelovna of Russia.
The interior is built entirely of marble. A magnifi-
cent altar screen, with figures of saints on a gold
ground, separates the body of the chapel from the choir.
An exquisite monument to the Duchess Elizabeth is
in a recess on the north side of the chapel.
254 THE RHINE.
The road leads farther up the mountain, through a
strong and thicklj-grown beech wood, to the plateau
of the Neroberg, eight hundred feet above the sea.
Here stands the Belvidere, a temple from which may
be obtained a splendid view over the Rhine, includ-
ing Biebrich, Mayence, Darmstadt, and the moun-
tain-chains. Beautiful walks and promenades lead
through this wood, which is a mile in extent. The
hunting-castle, "the Platte," built in 1824, and be-
longing to the Duke of Luxemburg, lies still higher
and more exposed, being nearly fifteen hundred feet
above the sea. It commands the Neroberg and has
an extensive view over the Rhine Valley.
The Wiesbaden spring, the most precious posses-
sion of the town, supplies about a dozen bath-houses.
The waters are drunk in the morning at the hall and
in its innnediate neighborhood, the inhabitants being
roused early by a concert of choral music. After
that the visitors retire to their baths, and profound
silence reigns on the promenades, which is only dis-
turbed by the children and their nurses, and the
melancholy wheel-chairs of those invalids who have
escaped early from their bath.
The Kurgarten is also quiet in the forenoon. At
the pond the children feed the swans who come wad-
dling clumsily up to them. Among the trees sit a
few visitors reading novels, and under the shady
chestnuts the waiters loll idly against the trunks,
dozing, with their napkins on their knees, and iso-
WIESBADEN. 255
lated groups of chess-players sit silently round the
tables. The morning is claimed entirely by the
waters, the afternoon and evening are given up to
pleasure and diversion, which are sought, not only in
the concerts and festivities of the Kurgarten, but also
by making excursions into the beautifid environs.
The favorite resorts of visitors to Wiesbaden are
Schlangenbad, to which the road leads through the
shade of the thick beech wood, and Schwalbach, two
bathing-places lying in the cool valley-side between
wood and meadow, in which ladies who are disposed
to nervousness often attempt to seek restoration to
health.
Schlangenbad especially was, about twenty-five
years ago, quite a little female Republic, in which the
occasional visit of a husband to his wife caused almost
a sensation. But there was another period much far-
ther back when the little valley used to collect within
the walls of the one building which had been erected
and embellished for the purpose a pretty lively assem-
bly of both sexes. The higher clergy and a number
of canonesses looked upon Schlangenbad as their own
peculiar domain. About the same time also the little
place received the noble Prince Eugene (1708) as a
guest. The baths of Schlangenbad have been known
for centuries, the old Kurhaus having been erected
as early as 1629.
The very simple history of Schlangenbad relates
that shortly after the discovery of the spring it was
256 THE EHINE.
sold to a doctor of Worms for a puncheon of wine.
It lately passed from the possession of Nassau, to
which it had belonged since 1816, into the hands of
Prussia. There is no doubt that the place owes its
name to the great number of snakes which abound
in the woods, and are caught by the boys of the
neighborhood and exhibited to the visitors.
One of the most charming and easy excursions is
to the Greorgenhorn Hill, over which the road from
Wiesbaden passes. It presents to the observer a
vast panorama of the Rhine, with a distant view of
Frankfort and the environs of Worms. The advan-
tages of the situation have induced several enthu-
siastic lovers of nature to establish themselves in the
villas here which command a view of the broad Rhine
Valley.
The pleasantest point in Schlangenbad itself is the
gallery of the Nassau Hotel, from which we look over
the little splashing fountain to the valley yonder. On
the left is the Kurgarten, rising in terraces, where a
very modest choir is performing its afternoon concert,
and a band of jugglers turn their somersaults.
Before us lies the promenade, constantly enlivened
by the most elegant toilettes ; behind and near us,
steps hewn in the rock lead to romantic shady spots,
for almost everywhere arbors and clear springs offer
such poetic resting-places to the nervous visitors. A
pleasant stillness hovers continually over wood and
valley, and this is only broken occasionally by a
ikurbaus GarOens, TllHiesbaOen.
WIESBADEN. 257
merry party mounted on donkeys who approach near
us, or by the arrival of a coach from Wiesbaden
loaded with merrymaking tourists.
The discomfort of this place, when the whole
valley is covered with snow and everything is
wrapped in its winter sleep, is amply atoned for
when spring unchains the ice-bound springs in the
woods and strews the meadows with tender blossoms,
adorns the beech and oak trees with fresh green
tints, and attunes the lays of the feathered songsters
to soft melody. But none of all its annual visitors
sees all this, for the air is keen and can only be faced
by the robust ; even when the place is officially
opened in the height of summer, there sometimes
breaks out a " sauve qui pent " among the earliest
guests, which only the boldest can withstand.
The neighboring Langen-Schwalbach, or familiarly
Schwalbach, has a similar reputation as a health re-
sort. It was known as early as 300, and was a fash-
ionable watering-place in the seventeenth and eigh-
teenth centuries. Its steel springs, and the air which
is impregnated by them, attract all those whose com-
plaints require such a tonic.
The company at Schwalbach are indeed at times
reminded of the saying of the French writer, who
thought that if a servant were engaged to go through
all that a nervous lady voluntarily went through in a
single winter season, he would sink under the at-
tempt. The place itself lies in a pastoral valley, and
Vol. I. -17
258 THE KHINE.
makes its appearance in history in 1352 as the vil-
lage of Swalhorn. Amongst the historical notabilities
who have taken the waters here is Tilly, who stayed
in the place in 1628. In later times the ex-Em-
press Eugenie arrived here and took up her abode in
the boarding-house now called the "Villa Eugenie."
The most interesting points in the neighborhood
are the Castles of Schwalbach, with their watch-
tower Adolfseck, which was reduced to ruins during
the Thirty Years' War. These were once the dwell-
ing-places of the favorite of the Emperor Adolf. The
castles of Hohenstein and Hohlenfels should also be
mentioned, the one situated on a lofty rock and the
other on a chalk cliff.
AN EXCUKSION TO THE TAUNUS. 259
CHAPTER XX.
AN EXCURSION TO THE TAUNUS.
As there is no other way to Castel, Ave must re-
trace our steps and go back past Mosbach. The
engine-sheds immediately on the banks of the Rhine
have an inhospitable appearance, and the loopholes of
the fortifications frown sullenly down upon us as we
drive to the railway station along the outworks by
the houses and hotels. But at length the fortifications
lie behind us, and stretching out to our view stands
the vine-clad hill of Hochheim. The church may be
seen from a distance in all directions, as also its fac-
tory for the manufacture of sparkling Avine, whilst its
vineyards extend beyond the railway and slope down
to the bank of the Main.
It is a noble fruit which grows up there on that
yellow, sandy-looking hill, especially that on the piece
beneath the church, the Hochheim Deanery. It
glows through many a man's veins, and those who
have quarrelled Avith it have done so only to become
still more firmly attached to it again before long. A
monument might indeed be raised here to England,
for " sparkling hock," the Hochheim champagne,
AA^hich is specially prepared for British palates, is sent
across the Channel in enormous quantities.
260 THE KHINE.
The majestic proportions of the Taimiis become
more and more clearly defined before us as we ap-
proach. On the left yonder lies the modest Kurhaus
of Weilbach, also called Lange-Weilbach, on account
of the poetic repose which is met with there, even in
the height of the season. It is well known for its
sulphur springs, and for a newly-discovered mineral
spring.
Shortly before we reach Frankfurt, at the Hochst
station, the guard invites passengers for Soden to
alight, while a swarm of children surround the car-
riages, crying " Bubeschenkel ! Bubeschenkel !" a
local kind of pastry, supposed to be in the shape of
a leg, in which an active imagination may possibly
trace a resemblance to the intended form. A little
group of passengers respond to the cry of the guard
by alighting. These being individuals either with
pale faces, on which are written a longing for the
healing Avaters of Sodon, or else persons in robust
health, Avith an enterprising, travelling air, carrying
thick plaids in strong hand-straps, wearing stout
nailed shoes, and holding solid alpenstocks.
The remainder of the passengers, warding off the
" Bubeschenkel," indulge in speculations as to whether
they will go up to the interesting Church of St. Jus-
tinus, erected in 1090. They decide, however, that
they have not the time.
In an hour we reach Soden, and with it the south-
ern spur of the Taunus. Many invalids are annually
AN EXCURSION TO THE TAUNUS, 261
attracted here by the mild climate, the tasteful gar-
dens, and the springs containing salt, carbonic acid,
and iron, a healing fountain for various ailments.
They gaze with longing eyes after the mountain
tourists who start from this place on foot, on horse-
back, and on donkeys. The usual tour is over
Cronthal, Cronberg, Falkenstein, and Pfaffenstein to
Konigstein, Avhere the first night is spent ; then over
the Fuchstanz, from which place two hours more
brings them to the great Feldberg. They then go
down over the Altkonig, in Oberursel, and reach the
table-land of Horaburg.
The Taunus has been adopted by the Taunus Club
of Frankfurt, who regularly celebrate their festival
at the most interesting points. It is covered by
thick woods, and stretches between the Rhine, the
Main, and the Lahn, for about a hundred miles, de-
clining on the southwest, as the Rheingau chain forms
the boundary between North and South Germany.
Feldberg is its highest point, and is nearly three
thousand feet above the sea-level ; from it may be
seen a splendid panorama extending over hundreds
of miles in all directions.
The metallic wealth of these mountains once in-
duced speculators to attempt the working of the
mines, as the so-called " Goldgrube " at Homburg
still testifies. They were, however, not productive
enough to repay the trouble and outlay, for only peat
and clay were found to be plentiful. It is not until
262 THE KHINE.
the Lahn district is reached that the soil yields iron
and manganese. The mountain district, which re-
ceived its name from the Romans, who called it mons
taunus, is, as is well known, very rich in mineral
springs.
The Celtic race appear as the first inhabitants of
the Taunus ; they were succeeded by the Helvetii,
especially between the Rhine and the Main; then
came the Chatti ; and lastly, the Alemanni and the
Franks, who freed these mountains from the Romans
in the fifth century after Christ. At the present
day we may judge of the warlike nature of the
Roman period from the Ring or Heathen Walls of
the plateau, the entrances and exits of which formed
the so-called ^' Rennwege," or courses, whilst the
boundaries of the Roman domain are still to be
recognized in the ditches fortified with stakes.
In the Middle Ages, which swept away the Old
German districts, the land was divided among the
noble families of Eppstein, Niiringen, Falkenstein,
Miinzenberg, and the Archbishop of Mayence, till in
the course of time the Taunus (with the exception of
Homburg and the Wetterau) passed into the hands
of Nassau, and lastly, in 1866, into those of Prussia.
The road takes us uphill over Cronthal — a charm-
ing little bathing-place among green pastures — to
Cronberg, whose bold inhabitants, supported by the
banner of a knight of the Palatinate, once victoriously
gave battle to the men of Frankfurt.
AN EXCURSION TO THE TAUNUS. 263
We then continue our way to the Castle of the
Knight of Cronberg, built in the thirteenth century.
Part of the Castle is still occupied, and the old chapel
contains tombstones that were there before the castle
was erected.
Lower down on the hill stands the stronghold of
Falkenstein on a wooded rock. Kuno, of Sayn,
whose castle on the Rhine now lies in ruins, fell in
love with Irmingarde, the daughter of the surly Lord
of Falkenstein. His love was returned, and he pre-
sented himself before her father, asking his consent
to the marriage. The old Lord of Falkenstein
smiled grimly, and told the impetuous lover that he
would consider his proposal — on one condition. Kuno,
delighted at what he considered so ready an assent,
promised to do amjtliing. Imagine his despair when
Falkenstein told him that he could wed his daughter
if he would build a road from the castle to the valley
beloWj and ride up it on his war-horse before sunrise
the next morning !
Kuno, of Sayn, went sadly away, for the castle of
Falkenstein was perched high on a rock, and only a
tortuous path led down to the valley, and he knew
that it would take many men many months of hard
labor to blast and cut out a road, and he had but
one night in which to accomplish the impossible.
Suddenly he was roused from his gloomy thoughts
by hearing a little voice call his name. He looked
down and saw the King of the Gnomes, who told
264 THE EHINE.
him not to despair, but to go to his inn, and have his
war-horse ready for the morning, and he and his
subjects would accomplish the work.
Kuno was incredulous, but knowing that he could
effect nothing unaided, he obeyed the gnome, went to
his inn, and waited, with what patience he could
for the dawn. Meanwhile the gnome had waved
his hand, and a mist rose and shrouded valley and
hill in its dense vapor. Out of it came thousands of
dwarf-like creatures, who began to use axes, picks,
and spades with right good will.
All night long Kuno, of Sayn, lay awake and
heard the crashing of forest trees, the breaking of
stones, and occasionally a long rumbling sound like
thunder. At dawn he emerged from the inn, and
was met by the innkeeper, who told him that a ter-
rible storm must have raged over the valley in the
night. Kuno stayed not to listen to the man's tale,
but called for his horse, and rode to the foot of the
eminence upon which rose the castle of Falkenstein.
There he was met by the King of the Gnomes, who
showed him a broad highway leading from the shore
to the very door of the castle. Kuno thanked him,
and galloped bravely up, greeted on all sides by the
smiling gnomes. As he rode over the bridge they
were just finishing, he looked up and saw Irmingarde
standing on the ramparts and waving him a greet-
ing.
The Lord of Falkenstein could no longer withhold
AN EXCUESION TO THE TAUNUS. 265
his consent to their marriage | and as the triumphant
lover cLasped Irmingarde to liis heart, the sun rose
over the horizon and flooded them with its golden
rays.
Heinrich von Ofterdingen, the troubadour, it is
saidj plays here every night upon his harp, and wan-
ders down the bank of the Liederbach to the Rhine 5
whilst on the great cone of rock yonder, the Alt-
konig, tradition asserts that a gray mountain manikin
sits and watches some treasure that lies hidden,winding
at the same time his ever-growing beard on a reel.
On the heights of Altkonig are still visible the
Giant Rings, or the Devil's Walls, which consist of
two massive walls formed of rough stones loosely
piled together, the exterior of which is two thousand
paces in circumference. Three entrances lead into
this stony circle, which is apparently of German
work, for here formerly stood the Royal Seat of the
" Gau-gericht," or district tribunal. According to
tradition, Ariovistus and Rando, the sons of the
Alemanni, were once enthroned here.
Feldberg is the King of the Taunus ; it commands
the country round for a vast distance, reaching to
Thuringia, to Inselsberg, to Hunsriick, and to the
Wasgau. It was from this mountain that Queen
Brunhilda, waking at daybreak, used to survey her
beautiful empire, and on this account the precipitous
northern side is called by the people of the locality
"Brunhilda's bed."
266 THE KHINE.
Tradition asserts that it was to the summit of the
Feldberg that Hermann der Cherusker summoned
the German heroes, in order to form a League against
the Roman yoke. Feldberg House, which was com-
pleted in 1860, annually entertains the athletic socie-
ties of the Main and Rhine districts, who meet here
in July.
The fortress of Konigstein rears itself proudly on
its rocky height. At the foot of its throne lies the
town of the same name, the gathering-place of all
travellers to the Taunus, and especially of Frankfurt
society. The Lords of Niiringen first governed
here, then the Miinzenbergs, and lastly the Falken-
steiners and Stolzbergers, from whom it was wrested
by Mayence.
History mentions Konigstein as early as 1225.
Since then many calamities have visited it, and
among them that in 1793, when its gloomy walls
were made to serve as a prison for the clubbists of
Mayence. The interest in maintaining this splendid
place is enhanced by the fact that Konigstein has
become, on account of its fine air, a much-frequented
health resort.
The Duchess Adelaide of Nassau materially as-
sisted in the embellishment of the town by building a
large country residence in the immediate neighbor-
hood. It must be somewhat melancholy for the ducal
family to look down upon the beautifid land which
they have lost ; but still the bonds of home-love loosen
AN EXCURSION TO THE TAUNUS. 267
but slowly, and tliey consequently appear at their old
home every year in the early summer.
Every one Avho is afraid to attempt the Feldberg
ascends Rossert, of which there is nothing to be said
except that it is a great imposing group of rocks, to
which the name of the " Teufelschloss/' or Devil's
Castle, has been given, on account of its weird ap-
pearance .
From here we have a splendid view of Konigstein,
Falkenstein, and the ruins which recall to us that
mighty race renowned in history, the Eppsteiners.
These airy strongholds are fortified by deep abysses
and massive walls to withstand all attacks, save that
of the unwearying enemy Time. Ruins now stand
on the rock overhanging the town, which are clasped
round by ivy, plantain, sloe-bushes, and brambles.
Shattered towers and a broken chapel are all that
remains of the once-proud citadel, which for four cen-
turies kept the whole neighborhood under its sway,
and maintained a bitter feud with the Counts of
Nassau. At last, the race of its lowly rulers dying
out, it passed to the dominion of the Counts of Stol-
berg, from w^hom it was handed over to the electoral
city of Mayence.
Many ghastly remembrances are associated by the
people with the name of the Eppsteiners. Within
the arch of the gateway once hung a colossal skeleton
in chains, supposed, in those days, to be that of a
giant. It is now exhibited in the Museum at Wies-
268 THE EHINE.
baden as that of an antediluvian animal. There is
another legend abovit a giant, namely, that of the
Great and the Little Mannstein, two rocks which some
people fancy, when seen from a distance, resemble
two human forms. One of them is supposed to be a
knight of Falkenstein, who is fighting with a giant
for the possession of his stolen bride.
FEANKFURT AND HOMBUEG. 269
CHAPTER XXL
FEANKFURT AND HOMBURG.
Frankfort-on-the-Maen owes its name to Charle-
magne, who one day wandered far into the Teutonic
forests to wage war against the Saxons. In the bat-
tle that followed he was defeated, and forced to beat
a hasty retreat Avith his beloved Franks. The coun-
try was unknown to Charlemagne — the enemy was
in close pursuit — and, to make matters worse, a thick
fog shut down, so that they could not see where they
were going.
At last they reached the banks of the Main, and
knowing that his small force would be destroyed by
the enemy if they lingered where they were, yet not
daring to cross the unknown river, Charlemagne in
his perplexity had recourse to prayer. Immediately
the fog lifted, and the Emperor saw a doe, followed
by her young, crossing the river. Charlemagne bade
his men keep close behind him, took the same way,
and brought his little army safely over. As they
reached the opposite bank the fog closed in behind
them, concealing them from the pursuing Saxons,
who declared, not seeing them, that the Franks must
have perished in the Main. Charlemagne called the
270 THE RHINE.
place Franconofurd (ford of the Franks), in com-
memoration of his deliverance.
We now step out of that legendary time into the
battle-field of the Holy Roman Empire of the Ger-
man nation. It was at Frankfurt that most of the
German Emperors were chosen, from the time of
Barbarossa. It was here that, by reason of the
privileges of the Hohenstaufens, and on the authority
of the golden bull of Charles IV., those powerful
rulers were crowned whose portraits hang in the
banquet-room of the Town Hall, which is called the
" Romer." These same anointed heads also showed
themselves to the shouting and excited people on the
balcony, surrounded by the electoral princes.
Time has since passed both joyfully and sorrow-
fully over the town. It lost and regained its privi-
leges several times over, until at length, after the
Vienna Congress of 1816, it was chosen as the
seat of the German Diet, and the powdered diplo-
matists of great and little States strutted through the
streets.
The Revolution of 1848 brought the dawn of a new
era over Frankfurt — a stormy, ominous era which
preceded evil. The National Assembly sat in the
Church of St. Paul, and this body, in a most melan-
choly manner, lost two of its most illustrious mem-
bers, namely, Prince Felix von Lichnowsky and H.
von Auerswald.
In 1863 the Emperor of Austria fruitlessly sum-
FKANKFURT AND HOMBURG. 271
moned bis Congress of Princes hither. In 1866, the
great and iinal change took place ; General Vogel von
Falkenstein occupied Frankfurt with his army of the
Main, and thus it was incorporated with Prussia.
The political importance of the former Free Town,
as regards its historical prerogatives as well as its
geographical situation, was lost with the centraliza-
tion of the German imperial interests in the North
German capital, and those who at first advocated the
preservation of the old traditional privileges Avere
obliged to adapt themselves to moderating circum-
stances.
Another sun rose over Frankfurt in the year 1749,
with the birth of Goethe ; and Ludwig Borne claimed
this as his native city. Poetry and the belles-lettres
were also represented in Frankfurt by Clement Bren-
tano, Bettina von Arnim, Fr. M. von Klinger, and
others ; science by A. von Feuerbach, Savigny, J.
G. Schlosser, and a host of kindred spirits.
The particularly favorable situation of the city
caused material interests to be even more in request,
and the desire for them more deeply rooted than in-
tellectual claims. The city became the great em-
porium of trade for South-west Germany. Its Ex-
change became a power even at that time, when the
news of its transactions was carried northwards from
Frankfurt and Paris by pigeon post, and the greedy
stock-jobbers in Berlin strove to ascertain from the
foam on the steaming horse left standing by the
272 THE EHINE.
courier before one of the great banking-houses,
whether the rate of exchange was likely to be high
or low in Frankfurt.
The name of the town is inseparably connected
with those of Rothschild, Bethmann, and others ; and
even at the present day there are not wanting signs
that Frankfurt will not be long before she restores
herself to her ancient rights in the monetary market
of the world.
The most ancient memorial in Frankfurt is the
" Romer," the town hall of the former free imperial
city. It was erected in the early part of the fifteenth
century, but has been altered many times since then.
The " Romerberg," on which tournaments used to be
held, is an open square in front of the Roraer.
Down to the end of the last century no Jew was
allowed to enter it.
The old bridge over the Main is a most picturesque
structure of red sandstone. It was built in 1342.
On the middle of the bridge stands a statue of Charle-
magne holding the imperial orb ; though this, indeed,
belongs to a later period. It was this monument
which gave the honest Sachsenhausers the idea that
Charlemagne was the man who " invented Aeppel-
wei," a drink specially in favor in Frankfurt.
The gilded vane, which consists of a cock on an
iron rod, has a legendary signification. The devil,
it is said, did not approve of the building of the
bridge, and claimed of the builder the first living be-
FRANKFURT AND HOMBURG. 273
ing that should pass over it. This had to be granted,
and as it is always a satisfaction in local tradition to
outwit the devil, a poor, half-starved cock was driven
over the bridge directly it was completed. In mock-
ery of his Satanic Majesty, the poor creature w^as
afterwards immortalized in the form of a gilded
weathercock.
Pepin, the father of Charlemagne, is said to have
been the founder of the Cathedral at Frankfurt. The
building was not completed until 1512. Part of the
tower and of the church itself was destroyed by a
great fire in 1867, but has since been restored. At
the time of the restoration the cloisters were com-
pleted from old plans, and the tower, which had been
unfinished since 1512, was finished from the designs
of the architect, Hans von Ingelnheim, which had
been lying among the municipal archives for five
hundred years.
Next it, in antiquity, are the churches of St. Leon-
ard, of the Holy Virgin, and of St. Nicholas. St.
Leonard's, begun in 1219, contains a Last Supper by
Holbein the Elder, and on the north tower is seen
the imperial eagle, bestowed on the abbey by Lewis
the Bavarian for services rendered to him when he
was under the papal ban. The celebrated church of
St. Paul was not built until 1782.
The first objects that attract the eye of a stranger
in -walking through the town are the monuments of
Gutenberg, Goethe, and Schiller. He will also visit
Vol. I.— 18
274 THE RHINE.
Goethe's house, with its marble tablet; Luther's house,
from which the Reformer addressed the people on his
journey to Worms; the Bethmann Museum, with
Dannecker's incomparable Ariadne ; the Stadel'sche
Art Institute ; Rothschild's oi'iginal house, at the
entrance of the Jews' Street ; the grave of " Frau
Rath," Goethe's mother, in the old churchyard ; the
Eschenheim Tower, six hundred years old, the last
relic of the ancient fortifications ; the theatre ; the
Exchange ; the Zoological Garden ; and lastly, the
splendid Palm Garden, with its wealth of leaf and
blossom.
Sachsenhausen, said to have been founded by
Charlemagne, and connected with Frankfurt by five
bridges, forms a populous world of itself; the only
particular point of interest it possesses is the house
of the German Order which stands there. The same
may also be said of Bornheim Heath, on which Lich-
nowsky was murdered. As in most large towns,
modern times have added a new quarter, which gives
the place quite a diff'erent appearance.
Frankfurt has one hundred and eighty thousand
inhabitants, and the people are of a merry, active
disposition. Strangers are constantly passing through
their town, especially in summer. The river Main,
with its clear stream, offers to the Frankfurt societies
a fine opportunity for Avater sports, such as regattas,
boating, etc. The woods, in which the annual spring
festival is held, the Taunus, the Bergstrasse, and the
FRANKFURT AND HOMBURG. 275
neighboring towns with their various kinds of baths,
are all visited by swarms of excursionists. This is
especially the case with Homburg, which lies on a
table-land within half an hour's ride, and is the favor-
ite resort of the Frankfurt people.
Two dynasties have fallen in the course of a
few years in this much-frequented town, the one
favored by Heaven, the other by the powers below ;
the one expiring with the last Landgrave of Hesse-
Homburg, who acted, as it were, the prelude of the
Prussian war policy by dying in March, 1866, and
giving up the government to Darmstadt, only to be
readjusted later in the year ; the other ruling accord-
ing to the caprice of four kings, and in vain protest-
ing, while packing up its rakes and cards, against the
Parliament's decree of banishment.
The latter was the dynasty of Blanc the Gambler,
who was really the Landgrave here, and who bore on
his arms, according to a tradition of thirty years ago,
the device : " Ici ne gagne ni rouge ni noir, mais
toujours Slanc"
The Landgrave Ferdinand Henry Frederick wished
his capital to be described as " vor der Hohe ;" the
Bohemian population of the town called it " sur
I'abyme." It did not matter which name it bore ;
but the former has been preserved.
In Goethe's time the Court of Homburg was a
centre of intellectual life. Goethe's " Lila " was the
Fraulein von Ziegler, a lady belonging to the Court.
276 THE KHINE.
Among the scholars who assembled there were Von
Sinclair, Jung-Stilling, and Lavater, all of whom cer-
tainly visited the Court of Homburg. The unfor-
tunate poet Holderlin also lived here after his sepa-
ration from his beloved Diotima.
The French Revolution drove a large number of
the Waldenses to Homburg, and their descendants
still live in the neighborhood. The town was in-
debted for many undesirable fugitives and guests to
the closing of the Parisian gaming hells, and the
cleansing of the Palais-Royal, in 1837.
The proprietors of the gaming-tables at this period,
with Benazet at their head, crossed the frontier.
Many of the West German Princes lent a willing ear
to their offers, and thus roulette and trente et quarante
were established in Germany. Benazet, and after
him his nephew Dupressoir, ruled in Baden-Baden,
and Blanc in Homburg. Both knew how to entice
so-called society to their tables. They also loaded
the French journalists with benefits, placing money
and carriages at their disposal, well knowing that the
former would in all probability return the same even-
ing to their coffers. Things went on more respect-
ably at Wiesbaden and Ems, whose united undertak-
ing was at least under one control.
The surroundings of the Kurhaus are brilliantly
arranged, and were formerly visited at every season
of the year by a very cosmopolitan society, for the
gambling went on all the year round. At the present
FRANKFURT AND HOMBURG. 277
time the season is very short on account of the cHmate,
and the pLace is empty for the greater part of the
twelve months.
The effect from the terrace of the Kurhaus with
its glass roof is very magnificent, and there is a truly
lovely view of the pleasure-gardens lying at its foot ;
these are bounded on both sides by villas and board-
ing-houses, and crowned by the verdure of the woods
in the background. The orange-trees which adorn
the banks under the terrace are of rare beauty.
The theatre is an elegant building ; the Darmstadt
company give performances there occasionally during
the season. The castle, which used to be the resi-
dence of the Landgrave's family, and is now reserved
for the occasional visit of the Prussian royal family,
lies on a hill, surrounded by a green park. Many
families of rank reside in the numerous villas and
houses round about.
The environs of Homburg are particularly attrac-
tive, with fine promenades and places for recreation
running out in various directions. The air is pure
and invigorating, and is always fresh and clear owing
to the proximity of the mountains and forests. The
mineral springs, as well as the advantages of climate
which Homburg })Ossesses, has attracted an aristo-
cratic society to the place now that the gaming-tables
have been removed.
It was, it is true, difficult before the year 1872,
which proved fatal to the gambling, to judge of the
278 THE EHINE.
society by the luxury of their equipages, cand the
amount of show and wealth that was paraded. Ad-
venture and immorality hid themselves here more
than in the other watering-places, where society, in-
deed, often exhibited itself under false colors, be-
neath a luxury which covered its inner corruption
and hid its social insignificance. That eventful year
brought another stamp of visitors ; the parvenus of
the Exchange, the gilded mushrooms of a night's
growth, who naturally could not show themselves
without lackeys and carriages, disappeared — they
vanished at the first touch of misfortune, to be seen
no more. The thunderstorm cleared the air of Hom-
burg society.
The town itself is of inconsiderable extent, with
about nine thousand inhabitants, whose industry and
occupations are principally carried on for the advan-
tage of the visitors. Passing over the bridge from
the railway station we enter the principal artery of
the town, the Louisenstrasse. Here we see one
hotel after another, while the buildings which are
private houses are erected in the villa style and are
beautifidly adorned with gardens. These offer a re-
treat to strangers who have settled here, or who have
come to use the waters.
It is curious to be here at the opening of the sea-
son, after the long winter sleep, when the earliest
visitors arrive. The first cab which rolls over the
Louisenstrasse laden with luggage makes quite a sen-
FRANKFURT AND HOMBURG. 279
sation. Heads are counted as yet individually ; the
musicians who throughout the winter have played to
a small select society, sit ready in the music tent,
and gain new spirit as they see foreign faces appear-
ing which are unknown to them either as residents or
as occasional visitors. Everything breathes once
more ; the hotels fill, slowly perhaps at first, till the
height of the season approaches and the Spa bursts
into full blossom.
Of the numerous interesting places in the neigh-
borhood, Ave will here select the little town of Obe-
rursel, with its Gothic church, built in the fifteenth
century. This place had also, at one time, an intel-
lectual prominence, for printing was carried on here
as early as 1462. Nicodemus Frischlin's printing-
press, which was raised here in 1590, was an im-
portant object in the history of literature.
In the neighborhood of Homburg also we come
upon important Roman remains — indeed, upon one
of the most important relics on the Rhine and Main,
the so-called Saalburg. As early as 1830, some fine
discoveries were made at Heddernheim, among others
the foundation- walls of a Mithras temple, the finely-
preserved relief of which is in the Museum at Wies-
baden. Many other mutilated relics were brought to
light at that time, and prove the residence of the
Roman legions here.
A Roman military road, which is clearly recogniz-
able, leads almost directly to the ruins of the Roman
280 THE EHINE.
citadel, the Saalbiirg, where a little Pompeii might
long ago have been laid bare, if only the public had
taken sufficient interest in the matter to provide the
necessary funds. Imperfect as the excavations have
necessarily been vmder the circumstances, having
only been made by degrees by a private association
formed for the purpose, this stronghold has been un-
covered for an extent of more than twenty acres ;
the surrounding fortifications of walls and trenches
have, for the most part, been brought to light ; four
gates with square towers, and behind them the build-
ings surrounding the citadel, which are tolerably
well preserved, have also been disclosed. Among
the former are the porta prcetoria and the porta decu-
mana.
We also find a prsetorium 153 feet long and 132
feet broad, wells, bath-rooms, mosaic and other floor-
ing, cellarage, all half ruined, and bearing here and
there indications of the mortar which was on the
walls. Urns and pitchers have been found at the
place where the bodies used to be burnt. Weapons
and coins have also been dug up plentifully, and on
one occasion an urn containing 550 silver pieces was
discovered.
Of especial interest is the grave-house which was
erected on one of the old foundations, at a recent pe-
riod, to cover the graves which were laid open;
whilst two years ago the foundation-stone of a real
columbarium was laid. The staked ditches which
FRANKFURT AND HOMBURG. 281
lie a few hundred paces off are also extremely in-
teresting. It is supposed that this fortress was built
by N. C. Drusus in the year 10 B.C., and that after
being destroyed from the Germanic side in the year
15, it was rebuilt by his son Germanicus. Further
excavations would no doubt supply a more definite so-
lution of the history, but up to the present time they
clearly testify to the residence in this place of the
eighth and twenty-second legions.
282 THE RHINE.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE EHEINGAU.
The Rhine ! tlie Rhine ! Thereon our vines are growing —
For ever bless the Rhine !
Along its shores the sunny grapes are glowing,
That weep this racy wine.
We now enter the splendid expanse of the river,
which here lies before us like a polished lake, its sur-
face dotted with islands. The green heights of the
Bingerwald and Niederwald tower above it and en-
close it in the background. Its waves dance upon
the shore of the most favored and beautiful of the
German districts. The sun's rays sparkle in the
waters 5 their reflections kiss, as it were, the cheeks
of the maidens who stand on the balconies and in the
shady arbors, merrily greeting with waving handker-
chiefs the steamer which is passing the bend in the
river, leaving behind it a foamy track. Yonder, in
softly ascending lines, are the golden-veined vine-
gardens on that hill so blessed by heaven, and from
which the rich produce goes forth yearly in such
abundance.
On the right bank one little town stretches itself
out almost to the next, the whole looking like a string
(Targo IBoat on tbe IRbine.
THE RHEINGAU. 283
of pearls, penetrated by the fragrance of tlie vines
and interspersed -with gardens and villas, Avitli churches
and chapels. In the background the vine-watchers'
houses seem to frown down on the scene, whilst the
grave-looking, Aveather-stained crucifixes smile benefi-
cently upon the gardens, like St. Januarius on the
coast of the Bay of Naples.
The little townlets of the Rheingau, with smiHng
aspect, bathe their feet in the bright stream, and
cheerfid human beings stroll along the banks. In
the snug summer-houses overhung with trailing vines
the glass filled with the golden wine sparkles, while
the humming of the bees announces hoAv the grapes
are ripening once more to replenish the store of that
good wine, which for thousands of years has been a
joy and a blessing to those who know how to enjoy
its use without abusing it.
A gay and varied company are assembled on
board the steamer which carries us. On every face
we read the poet's words, " Wem Gott will rechte
Gunst erweisen, den schickt er in die weite Welt."
It would be difficult, indeed, to find a spot more truly
lovely than this ; we never tire of its beauty. Every
visitor to these parts, besides admiring the beauties
of nature, should watch the vine-dresser at his heavy,
ceaseless work, which the autumn does not, however,
always repay. He should also see these slopes when
the fair bloom lies on the first half-open leaves ; he
should mount through the vineyards when the grapes
284 THE RHINE.
are swelling, and when autumn tints the landscape.
He would then, perhaps, better comprehend the en-
thusiasm of this honest, cheerful people ; whose
blood, it is true, is sometimes rather too hot and their
actions rather too wild, as it has been since the old
days of the Rheingau " Gebiicks," when the club and
the javelin had too great a license here.
Shadows, however, are not wanting in this sunny
valley, and sometimes the vine-dresser has a heavy
and careworn look, when, in spite of all his care, the
bitter northeast wind has penetrated to his hill, and
the frost of a single spring night has destroyed all
the bloom which foretold for him so luxuriant a
harvest. The fruit in this case, which should have
been a source of pleasure to countless numbers,
being nipped in the bud, hangs black and shriv-
elled on the stems that have been so carefully
tended.
It is evening. The sun declines slowly towards
the west and casts its rays obliquely over the Rhine,
the shore, the villas, the vine-dressers' huts, the cas-
tles and the fortresses — lighting up the most delicate
soft tints in the green wooded mountains and on the
gray earth of the gardens, until it vanishes in the
haze of the distant hills.
Yonder, on the left, a train is just steaming past
the village of Budenheim, behind the Rhein-Au or
Rettsbergs-Au. On the right lies Schierstein, the
outer threshold of the Rheingau, surrounded by fruit-
THE KHEINGAU. 285
fill vineyards and orchards. The buildings which
crown the hill on the land side are those of the Niirn-
berger Hof, on whose slopes the vine of the same
name grows. Near it is a place frequented by
Goethe in 1814, and at its feet is the Hof Armada.
The left bank is uninteresting and bare, whilst, on
the contrary, the right bank unfolds before us a pan-
orama in which every minute shows a fresh picture.
Lower Walliif lies on the Waldava, a stream which
once formed the boundary of the '^ Gebilcks," a line
of demarcation, protected by ditches, which at one
time reached as far as Lorch, and by means of which
the Rheingau fortresses, towns and villages sought to
protect themselves against attack from without. The
men of the Rheingau, as is well known, held fast to
their own independence and acknowledged allegiance
to no one, so that even the great lords were careful
to keep on good terms with them.
The little town of Lower Walluf stretches itself
invitingly under its vine-clad hills right along to the
shore, facing which are the hospitable and much-fre-
quented shady gardens of the burgomaster and Prince
Wittgenstein. The town retains a mediaeval look.
Li 1840 it is mentioned as a small village, presented
by the Emperor Ludwig to Adalbert, who added con-
siderably to his estate. Later it was held by the
abbey of Fulda. Though the space is small the little
dockyard is always full of life ; and so is the boat-
man's inn, with its barrack-like appearance.
286 THE RHINE.
On summer afternoons the shore is always crowded
with visitors eager to sail about on the river, or to
make a journey up the Rhine. A large number also
hang about the steamers as they land their passen-
gers, either in small boats or at the pier, while in
the shady arbors of the garden the burgomaster
himself may be seen.
Up yonder, in the background above Walluf, where
the mountains seem to beckon us, and the spires of
the churches peep out at us from among the trees,
lies Rauenthal — so called because it stands upon the
mountain. Its vineyards stretch down towards the
Rhine, receiving the full glow of the sun that ripens
for us those priceless grapes which yield the wine
that was crowned Queen of the Rhine at the Paris
Exhibition.
This distinction is, however, not acknowledged by
those proud lords, the princely Abbot of Johannis-
berg, the Master of Riidesheim, the Knight of Stein,
and the Dean of Hochheim. Since 1867 many a
one has made a pilgrimage to Rauenthal in order to
solve for himself the critical question. In doing this
he has to mount to the splendid plateau of the
" Schonen Aussicht," and look over that wonderful
district — over that country on the other side of the
Rhine, and over that which lies near him stretching
far away to the Wasgau.
He enters the village and sits in the comfortable
garden of the Nassau Hof, where he orders a bottle
THE EHEINGAU. 287
of the " best/' and for which, even at the fountain-
headj he has to pay two thalers at least. However
low he may have doffed his hat to the newly-anointed
queen, on his return to the Rhine, the chances are
that he again drinks eternal brotherhood with the
Lord of Riidesheim, and that he is equally fickle
when the princely Abbot of Johannisberg tries to
convert him as to his claim to rule alone among the
priceless products of the grape.
We pass on, along the foaming river ; the vine-
hills become higher and closer together as we proceed,
for since passing Walluf we are in the " Gau "
proper. Before us, on the left, lies the Eltville-Au,
once the capital of the Rheingau. Before the town,
on the right, extends the most beautiful park, with
the usual little castles and pavilions, the estate of
Jidienheim, and the Castle of Rheinberg, which was
once called also Christoffelsberg, from a figure of the
saint on its tower. Until a few years ago this was
the property of the Counts Griinne, but is now a
public garden.
The name of the place has been said to be derived
from the Roman alta villa, which time has corrupted
into " Eltville ;" but traces of the Romans have been
sought for in vain. It is more probable that Bod-
mann is right when he traces the name from alter
Weikr. The origin of the town must, at any rate^
be sought for in the Frankish period.
During the residence of Charlemagne, Eltville
288 THE RHINE.
boasted a magistrate's court, whose jurisdiction ex-
tended over a wide circuit.
From a small beginning it became the principal
place in the Mayence part of the Rheingau, and was
a favorite resort and refuge to the archbishops when
Mayence became too hot for them. In consequence
of this the terrible Baldwin of Luxemburg erected
the citadel in 1330, and Louis IV., on account of its
fortifications, granted to the place the privileges of a
town.
The castle and a portion of the walls are still pre-
served, as well as the watch-tower, although the
Swedes and the French have greatly destroyed the
fortress. One chronicle relates that Giinther von
Schwarzburg was poisoned here, bvit it is more cor-
rect to say that he had the fatal poison in his body
when, seeing his end approach, he signed a peace
with his opponent, Charles IV.
Eltville became a favorite resort for pilgrims when,
in 1402, the miraculous Host was brought here from
Gladbach. This raised the town to a state of great
prosperity, for much more was ventured at that time
in the way of pilgrimages and penances than now.
The church of Eltville, which is built in the style
of the fourteenth century, contains the tomb of
Agnes of Hoppenstein, the wife of Frederick von
Stockheim.
The place is indebted for one bright spot in its
history to Gutenberg's pupil, Henry Bechtermiinz
THE KHEINGAU. 289
(also called Bechtelmiinze), who, with the assistance
of his brother Nicholas and of Wigaiid Spiesz of
Ortenburg, set up a printing-press here in the middle
of the fifteenth century. A few specimens of its
work have been preserved. Simrock, indeed, ex-
presses an opinion that Gutenberg, towards the end
of his life, settled here with his relatives, but noth-
ing certain is known on the subject except that the
neglected grave of one of his relatives, Jacob von
Sorgenloch, may be seen in the churchyard.
Eltville at the present day is a favorite resort of
the wealthy on account of its villas and parks. The
gardens of the houses join one another and form a
beautifol border to the shore, and although no wine
of Eltville figures in the list of the favorites of the
Rheingau, it has its factory of sparkling wine which
competes closely with champagne both at home and
abroad.
As we continue on our way, on the right the island
of Rheinau rises before us like a dark shady spot out
of the glittering surface of the river. On the shore
lies Erbach, which, as early as 954, formed a part of
the parish of Eltville ; here we see the pointed
towers of the Gothic church peeping out of the chain
of villas, surrounded by the parsonage, the schools
and a little garden. These were all built in 1866,
and given to the people by the benefactress and
patroness of the place, the Princess Marianne of the
Netherlands, who resided here in her Castle of Rein-
VoL. I.— 19
290 THE RHINE.
hardshausen. Her castle contains an interesting col-
lection of paintings and coins, and is open to the
public on certain days.
Marcobrunnen, which belongs to the same prov-
ince, is hardly distinguishable among the other vine-
yards, for we seek in vain for a monumental sign to
indicate to us the wine-famed spot of the Strahlen-
berg. Only a well of red sandstone, called the
" Marktbrunnen," or market-well, by the country
people, stands by the highway 5 though it is probable
that this rather represents a boundary-mark, for the
vineyards here were, and still are, divided between
ecclesiastical foundations and private persons.
The celebrated Steinberger also grows here, with
similar modesty, on a slight declivity surrounded by
a wall. The traveller in vain seeks the " Rose Gar-
den." He shall not, however, be denied one glass of
the liery " golden beaker," but Heaven preserve him
from some that bears the noble name of Steinberger.
It is impossible that all so-called can be grown on
this field of hardly eight acres in extent. The same
may be said of the Griifenberger yonder, which is a
noble wine, but cannot be compared with the Stein-
berger.
The village of Kiedrich, and further inland the
ruins of Scharfenstein with its round towers, have
just come in sight, and with them the Eichberg lu-
natic asylum, established in 1843. A great number
of historic associations are crowded together here.
THE EHEINGAU. 291
and from yonder Lower Ingelheim peers at us, while
above us already towers the Johannisberg.
We must next mention Kiedrich and Scharfen-
stein, and the long-decayed family of Lowentrotz,
the most powerful noble house of the Rheingau, rich
in strongholds, with their different family branches,
all of which have perished. Kiedrich appears as
early as the tenth century, under the name of Cher-
dercho, while Scharfenstein, on the right bank of the
Rhine, may be named as the oldest of the castles.
It was decidedly the largest if, as tradition tells us,
it sheltered the whole of the tribe, whose common in-
terests demanded their cohesion. The family of the
Scharfenstein must have been one of the most
wealthy, and consequently one of the most powerful,
since it possessed the greatest number of castles and
fiefs.
It seems that either the Scharfensteins began with
the decline of the lords of Kiedrich, or that the latter
merged into the Counts of Scharfenstein when this
stronghold was given in fee to them by the Arch-
bishop of Mayence, whose most trusty servants they
became. The chronicle names as different branches
of this family, the Greens, the Browns, the Blacks,
the Gennens, the Eselwecks, the Steins, and the
Crazzes von Scharfenstein. Their principal strong-
hold seems to have been specially destined to be a
refuge for the archbishops, and under their protec-
tion there were often great doings within the walls
292 THE EHINE.
of Scharfenstein, till Albert of Austria appeared be-
fore it in 1301, in order to besiege it. He retreated,
after storming it in vain for thirty days.
The " Lion of Luxemburg," also, the bold Arch-
bishop Baldwin of Treves — who was better acquainted
with the sword than with the Cross — in vain laid siege
to Scharfenstein. Albert of Brandenburg succeeded no
better, and it Avas not until the Swedes came that the
stubborn walls fell before an enemy on whom they
had not reckoned, namely. Gunpowder. Melac's
French incendiaries laid waste what was left by the
Swedes, and now nothing is to be found of the mighty
Scharfenstein but a ruin.
Every one Avho has ever read a Avine-card knows
Hattenheimer. The place derives its name from
Hatto IL, who built it. The district itself is only an
unimportant link in the chain which stretches, ring
after ring, along the bank of the river.
More important to us is the Cistercian Abbey of
Eberbach, lying inland in its idyllic green valley half
enclosed by wooded hills, and the golden wine, the Stein-
berger Cabinet, which is hidden in its cellars. It once
had a great and a splendid history, but it has experi-
enced many changes, until at length it became an
asylum for the insane, who were afterwards removed
to the Eichberg. Last of all it was used as a prison.
Above it lies the Hallgart rampart, with the little
village of Hallgarten, on the slopes of which the
wine of the same name flourishes. A German,
©rape Hrbor in tbe Hnlaaen, Coblent^.
THE RHEINGAU. 293
named Adam von Itzstein, lies buried here : " a
brave heart/' says his gravestone, " Aveary of the
youthful struggle for German freedom ;" and here on
his property, surrounded by his friends, he planned
out and prophesied the existence of the German
parliament.
It is said that when the pious Bernard of Clair-
vaux came here under the protection of Adalbert of
Mayence, to seek a spot for a house in which to es-
tablish his order, a boar came out of the thicket, and
rooting up the earth with his tusks, marked out the
area which the saint destined for his monastery.
Further than this, the boar also rolled hither the
great stones for the foundation, and angels brought
the smaller stones for the walls. In this way the
building for the pious foundation was completed in
the year 1116, under circumstances which, at the
present day, we should consider somewhat excep-
tional and favorable, but which do not appear to have
been so very remarkable in those periods.
When finished, the Archbishop Adalbert summoned
the Augustine monks into the monastery, but the
order of monks often changed ; for the walls seem at
first to have been somewhat deserted, indicating not
a little ingratitude to the angels. The monks, how-
ever, soon took to wine-growing. It was they who
had the finest Marcobrunner and who tended the
Steinberger, so that the great cask in the cellar of
the monastery of Eberbach had a world-wide repu-
294 THE EHINE.
tation. It was capable of containing 12,000 gallons,
and the entire harvest of the Steinberg Avas poured
into it if there was room.
But in the Peasant War of 1525, the Rheingau
insurrectionists drank to the very bottom of the great
cask and sacked the interior of the monastery. The
industrious monks, as soon as peace was restored, set
to work again and repaired the damage that had been
done, and worked on undisturbed until Albert of
Brandenburg fell upon the abbey with equally insa-
tiable thirst.
In the year 1803 the abbey was disestablished,
and the property given to the domains whose noblest
wines the monastery has since that time hidden in its
cellars. The former refectory, now the press-house,
dates from the twelfth century, and still reminds us,
with its pillars and capitals, of the shrewd, industri-
ous monks to whom vine-culture is so greatly in-
debted — wise men of business, who knew well how
to obtain from emperors and princes free passage for
their casks along the Rhine, till the stress of war de-
stroyed all their blessings.
The ruins are still worth a visit : the church, dated
1186, with its monuments; the Cabinet cellar, with
its true Rhine gold, and the magic names of Stein-
berg, Marcobrunner, Riidesheim, Grafenberg, and
Hallenheim ! Even at the present day, the annual
sale by auction of the wine which has been rejected
as being unworthy of the " Cabinet " is an important
THE EHEINGAU. 295
event in the life of the Rheingau. Whoever comes
to it, be he buyer or tourist, is invited to a " wine
meal," and at the end there is handed to him a sam-
ple of the finest Avino, Avhich does honor to Eber-
bach's cellar and to its hospitality.
Only speak to a native of the Rheingau of " wine-
testing," and his heart wdll rejoice. He may not,
indeed, be able to take part in the proceedings at
Eberbach, Hochheim, or any of the finest sources ;
but he will do so probably at a peasant's, at a vine-
grower's, at the steward's of the castle, or at a rich
wine-grower's, who sets before us thirty different
sorts of his produce.
Wine-testing is, to the man of the Rhine, an act
of love — we might almost say of faith or religion —
which he performs with all his attention and devo-
tion ; and in one way or another a good deal is tested
on the Rhine, not only at the auctions, but, indeed,
whenever it is necessary or agreeable to look into
the goblet's golden depths.
Johannisberg ! the pride, the King of the Rhein-
gau ! The castle stands on its vine-garlanded
heights, having the Mummische Schloss for its ped-
estaL At its feet lie stretched Oestrich, Winkel,
and Mittelheim, belonging, as it were, to one another.
To the right, above the last-named place, is the Cas-
tle of VoUrath ; and yonder, on the left bank, on the
other side of the Au, basking in the sunshine, lies
Lower Ingelheim, Avhich a thousand years ago was
296 THE RHINE.
the soiil of the holy Roman Empire — Charlemagne's
beautiful palace.
It was here, in these halls adorned with the art-
treasures of the world, that the mighty emperor sum-
moned the princes of his empire to assemble in order
to determine the fate of nations, if not of Europe.
It was also here that his own paternal heart had to
bear the heaviest of all trials.
The glory is faded which once streamed from the
mighty imperial crown of Ingelheim, where, perhaps,
also the cradle of the noblest of men once rocked.
The pillars are broken and decayed which supported
the most magnificent, the most imposing of palaces.
All the splendor has mouldered and perished to the
last trace, and only a voice from the Thirty Years'
War tells us, on a fragment of crumbling sandstone,
that the hundred pillars which once adorned the
"Saal" (so this place is still called, on which the
palace stood) were conveyed hither from Ravenna by
the Emperor Charlemagne.
It woidd be well if other stony records could tell
us of those mighty bygone days ; but all such wit-
nesses have been destroyed by the rough events
which have passed over these spots during the course
of centuries. Ingelheim was, next to that of Aix-la-
Chapelle, the most splendid of the imperial palaces,
from which the great monarch looked over the love-
liest of German river valleys to the Paradise on the
farther bank.
THE RHEINGAU. 297
At Ingelheim he promoted the planting and cul-
ture of the vine, which the Romans had already
brought hither with the chestnut-tree. He also did
a great deal for the cultivation of fruit in general.
A chronicler of the reign of Ludwig the Pious de-
scribes the castle as built of square blocks of hewn
stone. It was of immense size, and in the form of a
quadrangle enclosing a court -yard. Numerous apart-
ments were contained within its walls.
He speaks especially of the principal hall. It must
have been here that he assembled the diet of 788, at
which Duke Thassilo of Bavaria was deposed from
his dignity. The Danish king Harold fled hither in
826, with his Avife and faithful followers, and was
baptized by St. Alban. It Avas here that Charle-
magne received ambassadors, whose arrival was
celebrated Avith the most brilliant pageants.
It Avas at Ingelheim that Ernest of SAvabia Avas
condemned to excommunication and outlaAA^ry ; and
here also Henry V. summoned the diet in order
to declare the deposition of his father Henry IV. —
who AA'as under the excommunication of the Pope —
and to order him to be imprisoned at Bingen.
The palace, however, was allowed to fall to pieces ;
but Frederick I. restored it, and made it his faA'orite
residence. Being again destroyed, it AA'as rebuilt in
1354 by Charles IV., but only to be mortgaged to
the Elector-Palatine. The people of Mayence set
fire to it durinar the AA'ar between Fredei'ick the Vic-
298 THE RHINE.
torious and the Archbishop Adolf of Mayence. The
Spaniards and the Swedes finished the work of de-
struction, and in 1689 the French cooled their cour-
age on the empty ruins, so that now nothing remains
of the former magnificent edifice but the fragments
of a few pillars scattered about the spot.
Not even a breath of the spirit of its great past
hovers now over the gardens to which we owe the
dark juice of Ingelheim's grapes, and the traveller
in vain seeks for a trace of it. From the Oestrich-
Winkel shore, however, he will look up with a sen-
sation of pleasure at the majestic hill, the foremost
elevation of the " Rabenkopfe," where the renowned
vineyards, the darlings of the sun, slope down with
soft undulations. They look, indeed, like a carpet
surrounding the cloister-castle of Johannisberg and
its surrounding buildings.
The Archbishop, Hrabanus Maurus lived from 850
to 856 in the gray house in Winkel, which lies just
below. With all his learning he must have found
time to re-establish the old Roman wine-store.
Goethe stayed at this place in the house of his friends,
the Brentano family, which still shows some remem-
brances of him. It was here that Bettina wrote her
letters to him, and it was from the river-bank at this
place in 1806 that the unhappy poetess, Caroline
von Giinderode, sought death in the waters of the
Rhine because of an unrequited attachment for the
philologist Creuzer.
THE RHEINGAU. 299
III a retired little house, almost hidden among vines
and orchards, Robert von Hornstein, the composer,
spent his summers. Many of his popular songs have
been heard for the first time from that garden-ter-
race overlooking the Rhine. No traveller scans the
heights of Johannisberg without being tempted to
ascend them, although the place is not so rich in his-
torical associations as Ingelheim. It presents to us
in the main, as compared with its pious neighbor
Eberbach, only the allegory of the idle and the in-
dustrious monks.
The extent of the prospect from here, over to
Mayence and Donnersberg, to the peaks of the Eifel,
and especially over the great river-bed and its luxu-
riant green pastures, is almost overpowering. It is
a well-known fact that wherever the neighborhood is
most beautiful, there stands a convent or an inn, or
indeed usually both. The beauty of Johannisberg
can only be compared with that of Caraaldoli at
Naples.
Perhaps, next to Charlemagne, we owe the culture
of the divine grape of Johannisberg to the Bishop
Hrabanus, for the hill was at first called the " Bishop's
Mountain." After the well-known persecution of the
Jews the Archbishop Ruthard built a monastery on
the mountain, and placed it under the Abbot of St.
Alban. He dedicated it to St. John the Baptist, per-
haps as an atonement for the massacre of the children
of Israel.
300 THE RHINE.
The Archbishop Adalbert gave over Eberbach also
to Johannisberg, on account of the recklessness and
extravagance of the monks in that establishment ;
and it is curious that in the course of time they
should so completely have turned over a new leaf
that Eberbach became a model of industry. Johan-
nisberg then became independent of St. Alban, and
was a free Benedictine abbey, in which the monks
very soon had little else to do than to eat and drink
and grow fat, whilst in Eberbach moderation and in-
dustry were more characteristic features
The crimes of the Abbey of Johannisberg in-
creased ; even the finding of a number of relics,
which were exhibited, did not suffice to fill the empty
coffers, and the scandal became so loud that Arch-
bishop Dietrich commanded an examination of the
monastery to be made, which resulted in the monks,
who had not promised penance, being driven out, and
others sent in from St. Jacobsberg to take their place.
The revolted peasants plundered Johannisberg, and
the casks of the monks were emptied and their mon-
astery laid waste. What little prosperity was re-
gained in later years soon again departed, and they
were then obliged to sell some of their land.
Thirty years more had not passed over the coun-
try before Albert von Brandenburg and his wild host
laid Johannisberg under contribution — that was in
1552. The monks were insulted, ill-treated and
driven away, their wine drunk, their church plundered
THE RHEINGAU. 301
and the monastery set on fire. The spearmen then
retired, but the monastery was a ruin.
The Abbot Valentine Horn was too indolent a man
to set to work to repair the misfortune, but for the
sake of his creature comforts he sold more land and
mortgaged the slender rents, until the Archbishop
Daniel of Mayence, in order to rescue the monastery
again for the Benedictines, expelled both the monks
and their abbot. Daniel himself undertook the man-
agement, but he also absorbed the revenues.
The Swedes then came and left the monastery be-
hind them in ruins. At this period the distress was
greater than ever, until Hubert von Bleymann came
forward and took the property and the revenues on a
mortgage of thirty thousand florins. The building rose
from its ruins, and the cultivation of the vine Avas in-
creased. When von Bleymann died the Abbot of
Fulda paid off the mortgage, and, in 1716, took posses-
sion of the Johannisberg. But even then, there were
merry days after the old fashion in the monastery.
Alexander Kaufmann tells us, in his well-known
poem, how the bold Abbot of Fulda came to Johan-
nisberg, not to see if the faith prospered, but to as-
certain, personally and experimentally, whether the
vines were flourishing.
The princely Abbot Adalbert in the meantime
erected a castle on the ruins, near the church which
still stands. In 1803 the abbey passed into the hands
of WiUiam of Orange. Napoleon presented it in 1807
302 THE EHINE.
to Marshal Kellermann in a moment of good-humor,
the latter having cried out, on seeing it, " Oh ! how
beautiful it is !" " Would you like it f asked Na-
poleon ; " well, take it."
In the year 1815 it came into the possession of
Austria, while Frederick William III. would gladly
have had the beautiful castle for General Blucher.
When the qixestion arose among the Allies as to
whom it should be given, the Emperor Alexander
proposed that it should be presented to the brave
Stein. The latter, however, is said to have re-
marked, " No, I thank your Majesty ; the receiver is
always as bad as the thief!" It was accordingly
given in fee to Metternich, who gained by the trans-
action about sixty acres of the most incomparable
vine land, and about a thousand acres of forest and
arable land.
In the place where the monks neglected their du-
ties, and themselves drank the best of the wine in
copious draughts, and led so disorderly a life that no
blessing or prosperity could enter their dweUing,
careful accounts are now kept of the produce of the
harvest, which was formerly recklessly sold, or
pledged to the honor of Bacchus. The prince's man-
agers supply strangers wath samples for ready money
at from three to fourteen florins the bottle. The
stranger may, indeed, well depart satisfied with his
draught and with a glance over the splendid pano-
rama before him.
THE RHEINGAU. 303
The interior of the castle presents nothing specially
interesting, and in the chapel the only thing that de-
serves mention is the tomb of the Rhenish historian,
Nicholas Vogt, who died in 1836. It was raised by
his " friend and grateful pupil," Prince Metternich.
His heart rests, according to his own Avish, in the
quartz rock in the Rhine at Bingen, in a silver case ;
a small iron cross marks the spot. A statue of St.
John the Baptist stands in the open space before the
church.
The whole of this fine property at present belongs
to Richard von Metternich, who was formerly the
Austrian ambassador in Paris, and he and his wife re-
side here in the summer. It may seem out of place
to speak here — and to him whom we have just sup-
posed to have drained a cup of the glowing " sixty-
eight " at the castle — of the cold-water establishment
in the village below ; it may as well be mentioned,
however, particularly as many may have need of such
an institution.
Date Due
Fa^fUHe^
0^^-^^=^
^^
IICR MAR
31198»
FEB 1
3 ]'-:m
'■' ■;*
Library Bureau Cat. No. 1137
3 1210 00220 9011
UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY
AA 001357 213 6
> /'Vx-a/^