d faster his beads did tell,
As, louder and louder drawing near,
The gnawing of their teeth he could hear.

'And in at the windows, and in at the door,
And through the walls, helter-skelter they pour,
And down from the ceiling, and up through the floor,
From the right and the left, from behind and before,
From within and without, from above and below,
And all at once to the bishop they go.

'They have whetted their teeth against the stones;
And now they pick the bishop's bones:
They gnawed the flesh from every limb;
For they were sent to do judgment on him!'

"We passed ruin after ruin which the boatman said were 'robber
castles.'

"'And what do you mean by _robber_ castles?' asked Herman.

"'The old lords of the Rhine used to collect tolls from the vessels
that passed their estates. The tax was regarded as unjust, and hence
the lords were themselves called robbers, and their castles robber
castles.'

"One of these castles, called the _Pfalzgrafenstein_, is said to
resemble a stone ship at anchor in the river. It was formerly a rock,
with one little hut upon it, and it was associated with a touching
incident of history.

"Louis le Debonnaire, the son of Charlemagne, became weary of
state-craft and the crown. He felt that his end was near. He desired
to die where he could hear the waves of the Rhine. He was taken to
this rock, and there with the ebb of the river his troubled life ebbed
away.

"Most of the old castles are built on the narrows of the river. These
narrows are between high rocks and rocky hills. They are in the Middle
Rhine, or between Mayence and Bonn. The Middle Rhine has some thirty
conspicuous castles on its banks. It is sometimes called the
Castellated Rhine, and its narrows are termed the Castellated Rhine
Pass.

[Illustration: VIEW ON THE RHINE.]

"On, on we drifted. Every high rock seemed a gateway to some new scene
of beauty; wonder followed wonder.

"And now the water seemed agitated. Dark rocks projected into the
river; the view was intercepted.

"The boatman conversed in an animated way with me, and I looked up to
a high rock with an interested expression and an incredulous smile.

"He turned to us quietly and said,--

"'This is the Lorelei Pass.'

"He presently added,--

"'That is the Lorelei.'

[Illustration: THE LORELEI.]

THE WONDERFUL STORY OF THE LORELEI.

Who has not heard it, repeated it in verse,