CASTLES, VINEYARDS, AND MOUNTAINS.
As the students were crossing the bridge to Mayence, they obtained a
full view of one of the great rafts of timber which float down the
Rhine, and of which Professor Mapps had spoken to them at Dort, in
Holland. However, it was much smaller than those of which they had
heard, and they hoped to see another. The students were not disposed to
"do" Mayence, being too impatient to witness the glories of the Rhine.
But most of them, from a sense of duty rather than from an interest in
the place, visited the principal attractions of the city.
"Mayence is the French name of the town," said the professor of
geography and history, as the students collected in the railroad
station, previous to the tramp. "The German name is Mainz, which is
pronounced Mynts--y like long i. If you pronounce it in any other way,
a German will not know what you mean. It was an old Roman town. A
fortress was established here to keep back the barbarians. It was
formerly a larger and more important city than at present, having now a
population of only forty thousand.
"This place has done two grand things for civilization and for Europe.
It was the cradle of the art of printing, and furnished the man who
suppressed the robber knights. As you go down the Rhine, you will see
the ruins of many old castles on the hills by the banks of the river.
The nobles, who occupied them as strongholds, carried on a system of
robbery, levying duties upon all who travelled on its waters or passed
through their territory. Arnold von Walpoden suggested the plan which
led to a confederation of the cities for the driving out of the
knightly highwaymen, and the destruction of their strongholds. They
were feudal lords, and the breaking of their power opened the way for
the progress of civilization.
"Mayence was the birthplace of Gutemberg, who invented movable types
for printing, and reduced the art to practice. You will see the site of
the house where he was born, and the building which contained his first
printing-office."
After this brief explanation the party walked to the cathedral, a very
ancient structure, possessing much historical interest. Opposite the
theatre they saw the statue of Gutemberg, and the guide pointed out the
place where his house stood, and the old building in which he and Faust
took their first proofs from types.
At twelve o'clock the tourists went on board of the steamer Königin von
Preussen, and realized that they had actually embarked for the trip
down the Rhine. They had seen the river at Basle, Constance, and
Schaffhausen, had crossed it at Strasburg, and obtained views of it
from different points on their route. The steamer was unworthy of the
noble river, and if the palatial boats of the Hudson could be run upon
its waters, they would lend a new charm to the scenery. The Rhine
steamers are small, compared with the Hudson river boats, and far from
being elegant. They have no saloon on deck, though a couple of small
apartments, abaft the paddle-boxes, are pretentiously called
"pavilions." They are appropriated to first class passengers, and are
seldom used except by travellers who wish to be very exclusive. The
second class passengers occupy the main cabin and the deck abaft the
wheels. Meals are served below, or, for an extra price, upon little
tables on deck. The third class travellers have the forward deck, with
piles of luggage to lounge upon. The relative fares are as the ratios
four, six, and nine. From Mayence to Bingen the time is about two
hours, and the fares are eight, twelve, and eighteen silver groschen.
The steamers stop at all the principal landings, and passengers are
occasionally brought off in small boats from other places.
The company dined in the cabin before the Königin started, so as not to
lose a single view. The dinner was an excellent one, and cheap, the
ordinary price being seventeen silver groschen, or about forty-one
cents. When served to private parties on deck, the price is one thaler,
or seventy-two cents.
"Are those steamboats?" asked Paul, pointing to a number of boats with
houses on deck, and having immense wheels.
"No," replied Dr. Winstock. "They are mills for grinding grain."
"But what turns the wheels?"
"They are moored as you see them in the river, and the current turns
the wheels, which are very large, so as to gain power."
"That's a new idea to me," added Paul.
"I have seen just such in the Alabama River, in our own country,"
replied the surgeon.
"It is certainly a very good way to obtain the power."
The boat started, and soon made a landing at Biebrich, on the other
side of the river, where passengers from Frankfurt, Homburg, and
Wiesbaden usually take the steamers. As the Königin proceeded on her
way, a feeling of general disappointment pervaded the minds of the
party, who had not seen the river before.
"It does not compare with the Hudson," protested Paul.
"Wait, Paul!" said the doctor, with a smile.
"How long shall I wait?"
"Two hours. You must not be hasty in your judgment."
"What is this town on the right?" asked Grace.
"Eltville. Do you see the white building in the midst of the vineyards,
some distance down the river?" said the doctor, pointing to the shore.
"I see it."
"That is the château of Johannisberg, belonging to Prince Metternich,
formerly a celebrated prime minister of Austria. Those vineyards are
the most noted in the world. The famous Johannisberger wine is made
from these grapes. It sells here for five or six dollars a bottle,
where ordinary kinds can be bought for twenty cents, and even less. The
grapes are very precious, and are kept upon the vines till they are
nearly rotten. Those that fall off are picked up with a kind of fork,
so valuable are they deemed. Of the seventy acres contained in the
vineyard, only a small portion produces the best wine, which is not
found except in the cellars of kings and princes. This is Rüdesheim,
where the boat will make a landing," added Dr. Winstock, as the steamer
stopped her wheels. "A famous wine is also made here. It is said that
Charlemagne, seeing from his castle windows, near Mayence, how early
the snow disappeared from the heights below us, ordered vines from
France to be set out here; and from these vines is produced the noted
Rüdesheimer wine.
"What place is this?" inquired Paul, at a point where the course of the
river seemed to be obstructed by rocks and hills.
"Bingen on the Rhine," said the surgeon. "Here the waters of the river
are crowded in a narrow space. Look upon the hills around you, and see
how every foot of ground is economized for the vineyards. Where the
hill-sides are too steep for cultivation, they are formed into
terraces, as you see them."
The steamer stopped a few moments at Bingen, which contains about
seventy-five hundred inhabitants.
"On our left, now, are the dominions of the King of Prussia--the
Rhenish provinces. On our right, as before, is the Duchy of Nassau.
What do you think of the Rhine now?" asked Dr. Winstock.
"It is improving, certainly," laughed Paul. "The scenery is really very
grand and very fine. I will give it up now. It is finer than the
Hudson. But where are the old castles?"
"There is one of them," answered the doctor, pointing to a ruin which
crowned a hill on the right. "That is the Castle of Ehrenfels. There is
a legend connected with about every one of them. There is the Mouse
Tower."
The doctor pointed to a stone structure rising from the river a short
distance from the shore. It was certainly a very romantic building, and
in a very romantic situation.
"What is the story about this tower?" asked Paul.
"If you take Southey's works when you return to the ship, you will find
in them, 'The Tradition of Bishop Hatto.' He was the Archbishop of
Mayence, and during a famine kept his granaries, well filled with food,
locked, and, by his own profusion and high living, excited his starving
subjects to revolt. The prelate ordered the rebels to be arrested,
confined them in a building, and set it on fire. Not content with this
outrage, he added insult to injury by mocking the wail of the
sufferers, and comparing their cries with the squeaking of mice. In the
night which followed the diabolical deed, a swarm of mice penetrated to
the apartments of the archbishop's palace, attacked him, and tried to
tear the flesh from his bones. Appalled by this poetic justice, the
cruel prelate fled, and, taking to the river, reached this insulated
tower. Suspending his bed in the upper part of the structure, he
struggled to escape from the mice, as merciless as he had himself been.
But the mice followed him, and he could not avoid the doom that was in
store for him. Vainly he resisted. The rats attacked him, and he
suffered a lingering and horrible death. It is but fair to add that
history gives the archbishop a different character. Do you happen to
know the meaning of the German word _mauth_?"
"A duty, or a toll," replied Grace.
"The German for mouse is _maus_, and probably it is in this instance
corrupted from _mauth_; for nothing could have made the tower and its
owners more odious than the collection of duties from voyagers on the
river. There is a sad story connected with the Brömserberg Castle,
which we saw above. Brömser of Rüdesheim went to Palestine with the
crusaders, and, while there, distinguished himself by slaying a dragon
which made itself very annoying to the Christian army. He was
immediately after captured by the Saracen forces, and reduced to
slavery. While in this condition, he made a solemn vow, that if he were
ever permitted to return to his castle again, he would give his only
daughter to the church. Improving an opportunity to kill his guard, he
succeeded in reaching his home, where he was met by his daughter, a
lovely young woman, who was betrothed to a young knight. Her father
told her of the vow he had taken. Tearfully she entreated him to change
his purpose; but his pledge to the church could not be set aside.
Brömser threatened her with his curse if she refused to obey. Life had
no charms apart from the young knight, and she determined to die. In
the midst of a violent storm, she threw herself from the castle
battlements into the river, and her corpse was found the next day, by a
fisherman, near the Mouse Tower. The boatmen and peasants say, to this
day, that they sometimes see the pale form of Gisela hovering above the
castle, mingling her wails with the moanings of the storm."
"That's a very pretty story, and I suppose young ladies in that age
were like those of the present," added Paul. "Perhaps more so, for now
they don't throw themselves from walls into a damp river for such a
cause."
"There's another castle!" exclaimed Grace, pointing to the left.
"That is Rheinstein, a castle which has been restored, and is the
summer residence of a Prussian prince. Below the castle, where the road
runs between the rock and the river, tolls were levied upon Jews who
passed that way. And it is even said that the collectors had little
dogs trained to know a Jew from a Christian, and to seize him with
their teeth."
Castle-crowned heights succeeded each other in rapid succession; and in
this part of the river they are so thick, that our students had to keep
their eyes wide open in order to see them all. Rocky steeps rose from
the verge of the water; and wherever there was any soil, or any earth
could find a resting-place, the spot was made into a vineyard.
Sometimes the vines have to be planted in baskets, while all the steep
hillsides are terraced to the height of a thousand feet above the
river. To reach these plats of ground, the peasants, male and female,
must climb the steeps, and everything used there must be carried up on
the shoulders. The vine-dressers are a very industrious people, and
nothing but the most determined perseverance could induce them to
cultivate these lofty artificial beds.
The towns on the banks of the Rhine are picturesque, and one never
tires of looking at them. Indeed, half a dozen voyages down the Rhine
no more than enable the tourist to see all its wonders and all its
beauties.
"Stahlech Castle," said Dr. Winstock, pointing to a ruin on the left.
"It was the palace of the Elector Palatine. Between the castle and the
hill are the remains of St. Werner's Chapel. In the middle ages, it is
said that the Jews at Oberwesel, farther down the river, crucified a
Christian named Werner, and threw the body into the stream. Instead of
descending with the current, it was carried by a supernatural agency up
the river, from which it was taken at Bacharach, the town we are
approaching, interred, and afterwards canonized. The chapel was built
over the grave. Doubtless the story was invented to afford a pretext to
rob and persecute the Hebrews, though in former ages such excuses seem
to have been hardly needed."
"There is another castle in the river," said Grace, as the boat left
Bacharach. "It is an odd-looking building."
"That is the _Pfalz_, and the town on the right is Caub. A toll was
paid here by all vessels navigating the river. The Duke of Nassau
inherited the right to levy this tax, and exercised the right to
collect it, until three or four years ago. The _Pfalz_ was his
toll-house. In the middle ages, thirty-two tolls were levied at the
different stations on the river. Schönberg Castle is on the left. What
does the word mean?"
"Beautiful hill," replied Grace.
"It is called so because the occupant had seven beautiful daughters,
who were sad flirts. All the young knights in the vicinity were
bewitched by their beauty, but they were so hard-hearted that they
would accept none of them; and, as the penalty of their obduracy, they
were changed into seven rocks, and planted in the middle of the river,
where you will presently see them."
Passing Oberwesel and the Seven Sisters, the water was considerably
agitated where the current had formerly produced a whirlpool, in its
course among the rocks, which have now been removed by blasting. There
was also a rapid just above it, and the place was very perilous for the
long rafts, which were sometimes dashed to pieces upon the sunken
rocks. The bank of the river on the right rises abruptly to a great
height, and the precipice is called the Lurlei. It has an echo which
gives back fifteen repetitions of the original sound. It sometimes
makes intelligent replies; and wicked students put to it the question,
"Who is the burgomaster of Oberwesel?" To which it responds, "Esel,"
which, in English, means an ass. The burgomaster intends to have it
indicted for slander.
This echo, which repeats the sounds from below, and the wild character
of the region, have produced a legend that the place is haunted by a
beautiful but wicked water nymph, who lured the voyager, by her
witching voice, to the rocks and the whirlpool, where his boat was
dashed to pieces.
St. Goar and St. Goarhausen are opposite each other, on little shelves
under the brow of the continuous range of hills which wall in the Rhine
for miles. The railroad extends along the left bank of the river, in
the rear of which is Rheinfels Castle,--the most extensive ruin on the
river,--nearly four hundred feet above the water. The Mouse, on the
other side, is supposed to have some unpleasant relations with the Cat,
farther up the stream. On the right, opposite the small town of Salzig,
are two twin castles, which go by the name of the Brothers. Their
owners, bearing this relation to each other, unfortunately fell in love
with the same beautiful lady, fought for her, and both were killed.
"This is Boppart, a very old place, occupied by the Romans," said Dr.
Winstock, as the steamer made a landing. "You have noticed that the
shelf of land on each side of the river, grows wider and the hills are
farther from the stream. Between this point and Bingen, the Rhine makes
its passage through the mountains. Some suppose the river, at a remote
period, forced its way through the range, and formed the narrow gorge
which we have passed, and that the country as far back as Basle was a
vast lake, for various sea shells and fossils are found there.
Marksburg Castle, on your right, is very much like the one you saw at
Baden-Baden; and a walk through its deep dungeons hewn out of the rock,
its torture-rooms, and its subterranean galleries, is enough to inspire
a sensation novel."
"Dear me!" yawned Grace, "I am almost tired of castles."
"I think Captain Shuffles is also," added Paul. "I notice that he
hardly looks at them. Well, he has something better to look at."
"What?"
"Lady Feodora," laughed Paul.
"The best way to go down the Rhine, if one has the time, is to go from
town to town by railway, and then pass through the region in a steamer,
to put the effects together. I am sorry you are tired of it," said the
surgeon.
"I enjoy the scenery, but I have had about castles enough for one day."
"There are not so many below Coblenz. You have now 'done' the most
beautiful portion of the river, and the trip to-morrow will be hardly
more interesting than the same distance on the Hudson."
The young people devoted some time to conversation with each other; but
the doctor pointed out the Königstuhl, where the seven electors used to
sit, and where emperors were elected, and sometimes dethroned.
"Lahnech Castle has a peculiar interest," he continued, as he called
the attention of the group to a château on the right. "It belonged to
the order of Knights Templars, which was founded, in 1118, for the
protection of pilgrims, and the defence of the Holy Sepulchre at
Jerusalem. The institution became renowned, and extended all over the
world. It was very rich and powerful, and therefore disliked by the
clergy, who finally overthrew it. Those residing here were attacked in
their castle, which was captured only after the last of its brave
defenders had been slain. On the other side is Stotzenfels, or Proud
Rock--a title which it deserves. Upon it is the beautiful château of
the King of Prussia."
A short time after, the steamer reached Coblenz, where the
excursionists were to spend the night.