she hurried up the narrow winding stair on to
the roof of the castle, and there committed her great grief to the
listening ear of night. Leaning on the wall, she looked away towards
the castle where lived the noble young lord to whom she had dedicated
her life. "I am thine, my beloved," she sobbed. No star was visible in
the sky. A wild autumn wind shrieked and swirled round the keep in
accompaniment to the storm in the maiden's breast. A short piercing
cry echoed in the darkness. Was it the bride of the winds or a human
cry? The night swallowed it. From the parapet of the Broemserburg a
female form had been hurled down into the dark floods of the Rhine
below.

A bright harvest morning followed a stormy night. In the Broemserburg
they were searching everywhere in vain for their lord's daughter. Soon
however a mournful procession approached bearing the mortal remains of
Mechtildis. In the early dawn a young woman had rescued the body from
the waters of the river. Now the walls of the Broemserburg echoed with
sounds of woe over the early death of this last fair young flower of
the Broemser race. Hans Broemser threw himself on the body and buried
his stern features in the snowy linen. Not a tear bedewed his eyelids.

As a propitiatory offering for the rest of the soul of the maiden who
had thus avoided the monastic life, the knight in his deep sorrow
vowed to build a chapel on the hill opposite his castle. Then Hans
Broemser shut himself up in his chamber, and passed the following days
in silent grief, while the grave closed over his wretched child.

Many months passed, but still not a stone of the promised chapel had
been set up. In the bitterness of his sorrow the grief-stricken father
had separated himself more and more from the world, and now brooded in
gloomy isolation. One day a servant came before him with a likeness of
the Mother of God which an ox had scraped up while ploughing a field
on the hill opposite the castle, and three times the servant declared
he had heard the "Not Gottes" (Suffering of God) called out. Then Hans
Broemser remembered his vow, and the chapel for the peace of the soul
of Mechtildis was erected. "Not Gottes" it is called to this day.

BINGEN

The Mouse-Tower

Below Bingen in the middle of the Rhine there is a lonely island on
which a stronghold is to be seen. This tower is called "the
Mouse-Tower." For many centuries a very gloomy tale has been told
about it in connection wi