hrines with a framed picture
within--mark the distances up the hill, at the top of which is a
representation of the crucifixion; and as the agony in the garden is not
included in the "stations," there is generally at the foot of the hill an
additional shrine in a natural cave or surrounded by artificial rock-work.
The prettiest part of the Ahr valley is at and about Walporzheim, which
the Duesseldorf artists have, by reason of its famous wine quite as much as
of its romantic scenery, chosen for the place of their frequent feasts,
half picnic, half masque, when their get-up rivals that of any carnival,
not even excepting that of the "Krewe of Komus" or those other displays
peculiar to Belgium and Holland of which the late celebration of the
"Pacification of Ghent" was an example.

[Illustration: COURT OF JUSTICE, AHRWEILER.]

The Rhine once more! and now indeed we shall hardly leave it again, but
this is the last part in which we can enjoy the peculiar beauties that
make it different from any other river in the world. The Swiss Rhine is a
mountain-torrent, the Dutch Rhine a sluggish mud puddle, but the German
Rhine is an historic river. Quite as legendary as historic, however; and
perhaps that has made its charm in the eyes of foreigners even more than
its national associations, dear to the native mind; and here, between
Rolandseck, Nonnenwerth and Drachenfels, poetry takes precedence of
history, and we do not want the antiquary to come and shatter the legend
of Roland of Roncesval's fidelity to the Lady of Drachenfels, even after
her vows in Nonnenwerth convent, with his pitiless array of dates and
parade of obvious impossibilities. But I pass over the legendary details
that make this region so interesting. What will better bear repetition is
some description of the scenery lying inland from the shores, the natural
Quadrilateral, containing minor mountains, such as the Siebengebirge (or
the Seven Hills) and the Bonner Alps, and encircling also the volcanic
region between Honnef and Dollendorf. These hills with their
step-and-terrace formation were once fortified by Valentinian against the
formidable Frankish hordes, and German poetry early began to find scenery
in them worthy of its national epic, and so laid the scene of the Saga of
Wilkina among these mountains and valleys. Here, above the legends of
Roland and Siegfried and the Christian captive, who, exposed to the dragon
of the rock, vanquished him by the cross, so