, in the middle ages, greatly celebrated for
their knowledge of the sciences and their hospitality. Their library was
richly stored with bibliographical treasures, and they possessed a fine
collection of paintings. To-day the abbey and its dependencies is but a
shadow of its former self; its library and its picture-gallery have
disappeared, and, early in the nineteenth century, the establishment was
sold for a price so small that it would be a sacrilege to mention it.

[Illustration: ABBEY _of_ LAACH _in the Olden Time_]

_Stolzenfels_

The mention of the castle of Stolzenfels hardly suggests anything
churchly or devout, though those who know the history of this most
picturesque of all Rhine castles (restored though it be) know also that
it was an early foundation of Archbishop Arnold of Treves in the
thirteenth century, and was, during the century following, the residence
of his successors.

Placed high upon its "_proud rock_," the restored fabric to-day
wonderfully resembles the castled-crag of one's imagination.

Archbishop Werner of Strasburg also made it his residence in turn, and
later the English princess betrothed to the Emperor Frederick II. of the
Hohenstaufen dynasty was entertained there.

The castle was nearly destroyed by the French in 1688, and in 1825 the
ruin was made over to the then prince royal, afterward King of Prussia.

Within the reconstructed walls, topped with a series of crenelated
battlements, after the true mediaeval manner, one finds an ample
courtyard, from which lead the entrances to the various parts of the
vast fortress.

Innumerable apartments open out one from the other, all forming a great
museum filled with all manner of curios and relics.

In a corner of one great room was long kept (they may or may not be
there yet; the writer does not know) the Austrian and Swiss standards
taken in the Thirty Years' War.

[Illustration: STOLZENFELS]

There was also a cabinet containing the sabre of Murat, taken at
Waterloo; the sabres of Blucher, of Poniatowski, and Sobieski; and the
swords of the Duc d'Albe and De Tilly; and, incongruously enough, a
knife and fork said to have belonged to Andreas Hofer, the hero of the
Tyrol.

In the chamber of the king is a magnificent piece of ecclesiastical
furniture in the form of a processional cross said to date from the
eighth century.

The fine Gothic chapel is decidedly the gem of the whole fabric and its
accessories, and, though only