the
Rhine. It blooms on their cheeks, it lingers on their rosy lips, there
thou wilt find its traces.

Arm thy heart, steel thy will, blindfold thine eye!

As a poet of the Rhine once wisely and warningly sang, "My son, my
son, beware of the Rhine...."

The Lorelei has vanished, but her charm still remains.

RHEINFELS

St. George's Linden

The ruins of Castle Rheinfels, which stand above the pretty little
town of St. Goar, are the most extensive of their kind on the Rhine.
The castle was erected in the middle of the 13th century by Count
Dietherr, a nobleman belonging to the famous Rhenish family of
Katzenelnbogen. It was a strongly fortified burg, and within ten years
of its completion the mighty ramparts witnessed several bloody
encounters. Twenty-six Rhenish cities once combined to carry the
invulnerable fortress, but though some 4000 lives were sacrificed the
army retreated baffled. For centuries after this, the banner of the
Hessian Landgraf waved from its battlements, none daring to attack it.
Then the fanatic Gallic forces of the Revolution entered the
Rhineland, and laid the magnificent castle in ruins.

There is a legend associated with Rheinfels which dates from that age
of chivalry when noble knights and their squires trod its courts, and
this legend seems touched with the sadness of the history of the
castle itself. The Count of Rheinfels was the proud father of a lovely
daughter, and among her numerous wooers it was George Broemser of
Ruedesheim who had won the maiden's heart. No one was more incensed at
this than the knight of Berg. This knight belonged indeed to a race
said to have been descended from an archbishop of Cologne, but his
disposition was evil, and his covetousness and avarice made him wish
to increase what earthly possessions he had. But the lord of Rheinfels
was shrewd enough and hesitated before entrusting his pretty daughter
and her large dowry to such a man. As already remarked this entirely
agreed with the maiden's desire. She was really deeply in love with
the chivalrous young knight of Ruedesheim, but shrank, almost with
aversion, from the impetuous wooing of the harsh and selfish knight of
Berg.

Some time after the betrothal of the lovers the date of the marriage
was fixed. Before the marriage had been celebrated however young
Broemser appeared at Ruedesheim in the early dawn on his steaming
war-horse, having ridden during the night from Ruedesheim to bring the
fo