Hark! 'tis the castles falling!
Hark! 'tis the war-cry dread!
But the monarch's sword is not lifted,
There, in the vaults of the dead!

List to the vernal breezes!
List to the minstrels' strain!
'Tis the poet's song they are singing,
And the poet lives again.

CHAPTER X.

NIGHT THE SIXTH.

THE BEAUTIFUL RHINE.--COBLENTZ.--A ZIGZAG TO WEIMAR.--GOETHE AND
SCHILLER.--THE STRANGE STORY OF FAUST.--FAUST IN ART.--THE SEVEN
MOUNTAINS.--THE DRACHENFELS.--THE STORY OF THE DRAGON.--STORIES OF
FREDERICK THE GREAT.--THE UNNERVED HUSSAR.

Mr. Beal occupied much of the time this evening. He thus continued the
narrative of travel:--

* * * * *

"From St. Goar to Boppard, two stations at which the Rhine boats call,
is about an hour's run; but the journey is an unfailing memory. The
rocky walls of the river, the continuous villages, the quaint churches
amid the vineyards and cherry orchards, the mossy meadows about the
mountains, the white-kerchiefed villagers, present so many varied and
delightful objects, that the eye feasts on beauty, and wonders
expectantly at what the next turn of the river will reveal. The rock
shadows in the water contrast with the bright scenes above the river,
and add an impression of grandeur to the effect of the whole, like
shadows on the cathedral walls that heighten the effect of the
rose-colored windows. Beautiful, beautiful, is the Rhine.

"Grand castles, perched on high cliffs and mountain walls, surprise
us, delight us, and vanish behind us, as the boat moves on;--the
Brother Castles, Marksburg, the mountain palace Solzenfels, with their
lofty, gloomy, and barbaric grandeur, reminding one always of times
whose loss the mind does not regret.

"And now a beautiful city comes in view, nestled at the foot of the
hills, and protected by a stupendous fortress on the opposite side of
the river. The fortress is Ehrenbreitstein, the Gibraltar of the
Rhine, capable of holding an army of men. It is a great arsenal now,
well garrisoned in peace as in war; in short, it may be called the
watch on the Rhine.

[Illustration: EHRENBREITSTEIN.]

"The lovely city under its guns, on the opposite side of the river, is
Coblentz. It is a gusset of houses, a V-shaped city, at the confluence
of the Rhine and Moselle. The Romans called it the city of the
Confluence, or Confluentia; hence, corrupted, it is known as Cobl