."

"Sew a patch on his garment over it, and I shall know how to protect
him."

The poor wife had revealed a fatal secret. She sewed a patch on her
husband's garment between the shoulders, and now thought him doubly
secure.

[Illustration: THE MURDER OF SIEGFRIED.]

There was to be a great hunting-match, and Siegfried entered into it
as a champion. He rode forth in high spirits, but on his back was
the fatal patch.

Hagen contrived that the wine should be left behind.

"That," he said, "will compel the hunters to lie down on their
breasts to drink from the streams when they become thirsty. Then
will come my opportunity."

He was right in his conjecture.

Siegfried became tired and thirsty. He rode up to a stream. He threw
himself on his breast to drink, exposing his back, on which was the
patch, revealing the vulnerable place.

There he was stabbed by a conspirator employed by Hagen.

They bore the dead body of the hero down the Rhine, and lamented the
departed champion as the barque drifted on. The scene has been
portrayed in art and song, and has left its impress on the poetic
associations of the river. You will have occasion to recall this
story again in connection with Drachenfels.

"Our fifth night on the Rhine was passed at Mayence, at the Hotel de
Hollande, near the landing-place of the Rhine steamers. The balconies
and windows of the hotel afforded fine views of the river and of the
Taunus Mountains.

"Mayence is said to have arisen by magic. The sorcerer Nequam wished
for a new city; he came to this point of the Rhine, spoke the word,
and the city rose. It is almost as old as the Christian era. Here the
Twenty-second Roman legion came, after its return from the conquest of
Jerusalem, and brought Christianity with it, through some of its early
converts. It was one of the grand cities of Charlemagne, who erected a
palace at Lower Ingelheim, and introduced the cultivation of the vine.
Here lived Bishop Hatto, of bad repute, and good Bishop Williges.

"Here rose Gutenberg, the inventor of printing, and here Thorwaldsen's
statue of the great inventor announces to the traveller what a great
light of civilization appeared to the world.

"At Mayence we began the most delightful zigzag we had ever made,--a
boat journey on the Rhine.

"'If you would see the Rhine of castles and vineyards.' said an
English friend, 'hire a boat. The most famous river scene