COLOGNE CATHEDRAL.
CHAPTER XLIV.
DOWN THE RHINE.
WHAT a flood of anticipations came trooping through the mind at the mere thought of a sail “Down the Rhine.” Down that famous old river, every mile the scene of a legend; the river in whose praise poets have sung for ages; whose every turn reveals a castle or fortress that has figured for centuries in story and song! What visions of wooded banks, vine-clad hills, and ivy-covered ruins! What pure, unalloyed pleasure a trip “Down the Rhine” must be!
And it is. Poets may have written what seemed to be over-wrought praises of its marvelous beauty; writers may have gone into ecstacies over its beauty, its grandeur and its sublimity, but they have none of them exaggerated. It is all that has been said of it, and more.
We were whirled into the fortified city of Mayence, a place that has long been an important strategical point, early in the afternoon of a lovely day in August. The sun was shining brightly, the river was clear and limpid, and everything was propitious. Favorable, indeed, began our trip down the Rhine.