in the night, and warned her of her great guilt. She
was going to fly to a cloister to do penance during the remainder of
her days, and she recommended her sinful accomplice to do the same.
Lambert of Fuerstenberg was deeply grieved on receiving this
revelation. He handed over his castle and child to a younger brother,
and spent the rest of this life as a solitary hermit.

BACHARACH

Burg Stahleck

Ancient Bacharach was once a famous place, and long before the fiery
wine that grows there became famous throughout the world--"it was in
the good old times" as our grandmothers say--it was the delight of
many a connoisseur abroad. About that time its grateful lovers erected
an altar to Bacchus who provided them so liberally with wine. The
place of sacrifice was on a huge rock projecting out of the Rhine,
between an island and the right bank of the river, and in honour of
the god they gave the town the name it still bears.

The inscriptions on the altar-stone have become unintelligible, but
the Bacharach folk know well to the present day the original meaning
of them.

Fishermen still keep up the old custom but now more as an amusement;
they dress up a straw-man as Bacchus, place him on the altar, and
surround him singing.

The ruins of the castle of Stahleck are situated on the Rhine, above
the wild, romantic country of Bacharach.

About the time of Conrad III., the first Emperor of the House of
Hohenstaufen, a young ambitious knight, Palatinate Count Hermann,
inhabited this castle. Being a nephew of the emperor, this aspiring
knight considered his high and mighty relationship as a sufficient
reason for enlarging his dominions.

He conceived no less a plan than that of taking possession of part of
the property which bordered on his land, belonging to the Archbishops
of Mayence and Treves, supporting his claim by declaring that for more
than one reason he had a right of possession. The jealousy which at
that time existed between the clerical and the secular powers, brought
a number of neighbouring knights to his side as allies, and the count
began his unprovoked quarrel by taking a castle at Treves on the
Moselle by storm. This castle belonged to the diocese of that town.

Adalbert of Monstereil, a man of an undaunted character, was then
Bishop both of Treves and Metz.

He at once collected his warriors to drive the bold robber from the
conquered castle. The temerity of the count and his superior forces