my own fair land,"
Said the Palsgrave of the Rhine:
"There are sunny vineyards upon the hills;
In the valleys are presses of wine."

Then bearded Eberhard gently said,
"My lords, I have neither gold,
Nor famous cities, nor castled towns,
Nor convents grand and old.

"I have no vineyards upon the hills,
In the valleys no presses of wine;
But God has given a treasure to me
As noble as any of thine.

[Illustration: EBERHARD.]

"I wind my horn on the rocky steep,
In the heart of the greenwood free,
And I safely lay me down and sleep
On any subject's knee."

Oh, then the princes were touched at heart,
And they said, in that stately hall,
"Thou art richer than we, Count Eberhard;
Thy treasure is greater than all."

EQUALITY.

The banners waved, the bugles rung,
The fight was hot and hard;
Beneath the walls of Doffingen,
Fast fell the ranks of Suabian men
Led on by Eberhard.

Count Ulric was a valiant youth,
The son of Eberhard;
The banners waved, the bugles rung,
His spearmen on the foe he flung,
And pressed them sore and hard.

"Ulric is slain!" the nobles cried,--
The bugles ceased to blow;
But soon the monarch's order ran:
"My son is as another man,
Press boldly on the foe!"

And fiercer now the fight began,
And harder fell each blow;
But still the monarch's order ran:
"My son is as another man,
Press, press upon the foe!"

Oh, many fell at Doffingen
Before the day was done;
But victory blessed the Suabian men,
And happy bugles played again,
At setting of the sun.

CHAPTER V.

THE SECOND MEETING OF THE CLUB.

CONSTANCE.--THE STORY OF HUSS.--BISMARCK AND THE GERMAN
GOVERNMENT.--THE STORY OF THE HEART OF STONE.--POEM.--SEVEN NIGHTS
ON THE RHINE: NIGHT FIRST.

The second meeting of the Club was opened by Mr. Beal with an account
of Constance, and of the great Council that convened there in 1414.

* * * * *

"_Via Mala!_ So the old Romans called the road near the source of the
Rhine. It passed over and through dark and awful chasms, that the
river, as it came down from the Alps, had been tunnelling for
thousands of years.

"The Rhine is the gift of the Alps, as Egypt is the gift of the Nile.
From its source amid the peaks