THE SUCCESSION OF THE SEASONS.
The day succeeded night, and eve the morn,
In those far ages back ere Man was born;
Then only Elves and Fairies played
Beneath the leafy covert’s shade,
And all was Summer, and the bright sun shone
On this fair world, and ruled it for his own;
For Winter there was none, nor cold
Nor cloud in those bright days of old.
The birds and flowers for ever bloomed and sang,
The springs perpetual from the dark rock sprang;
Time strode with even step along,
His path begirt with flowers and song.
The dainty Elves and Fairies wandered free,
Passing their hours in mirth and harmless glee,
Until at length of sunshine they
Grow weary, and for some new thing pray.
Then Autumn first into the world was sent,
And all the Elves and Fairies were content;
But soon they learnt that, Change begun,
Its onward course would ever run.
Succeeding Autumn, cold, dark, Winter’s reign
Commenced; the Elves wished Summer back again,
Fearing no more its light to see,
Dreading lest thus Eternity
Should Time have swallowed up, and, falling fast,
Their fairy tears were shed for pleasure past,
As ours too often vainly fall,
Seeking our lost ones to recall;
Till Spring the wintry earth revived again,
Refreshing all things with its gentle rain.
Then danced the Elves, then sang the Fairies gay,
And so the winter clouds all passed away;
Henceforth the seasons in succession rolled,
And new years hastened to supplant the old.
Thus let us learn when coldest winter chills,
And darkest night with fear our bosom fills,
To trust in His unfailing love, and turn
Our hearts to where, with thankfulness, we learn
That, as the Spring and Summer cold succeed,
And morning to the night,
So will His mercy wandering footsteps lead
From darkness into light.
Between Cobern and Winningen our river makes its last great bend at a point where a splendid mass of rock towers up on the left bank. It is the last of the Eifel family of Giants we encounter; for, beyond Winningen, the scenery on that side becomes softer in character, smaller hills become undulations, and then, as we get close to Coblence, these slope into the garden with which the plain is covered.
The first cluster of houses we encounter after leaving Cobern is Dieblich. It lies quite back from the stream, and looks anything but a place that would be especially selected by witches to carry on their spells and incantations; yet so infected (say the Chronicles) was this town with witches, that in a short time twenty-five individuals were burnt there, who all confessed that they were in the habit of meeting on a neighbouring mountain and worshipping a goat, who was an incarnation of the Evil One.
They also confessed to having emptied cellars, cursed cattle, raised storms, destroyed the harvests, and performed all the feats usually attributed to those unfortunates. The key to the true causes of their being persecuted lies, perhaps, in the following tale, which, if true, clears the memory of one witch of Dieblich. Spite, envy, jealousy, or some other evil passion being, in all probability, the denouncer of the unfortunate witches in nine cases out of ten.