Seven Nights on the Rhine:—Basle.—Marshal Von Moltke.—The Story of the Enchanted Hen.
OUR second night on the Rhine was passed at Basle. Leaving Lake Constance, the Rhine, full of vivid life, starts on its way to the sea. At the Rhinefall at Schaffhausen the water scenery becomes noble and exciting. A gigantic rock, over three hundred feet wide, impedes the course of the river, and over it the waters leap and eddy and foam, and then flow calmly on amid green woods, and near villages whose windows glitter in the sun.
We rode through the so-called Forest towns. High beeches stood on each side of the river, and the waters here were as blue as the sky, and so clear we could see the gravelly bed.
The river hastened to Basle. We hastened on like the river. Basle is the first town of importance on the Rhine.
Here we obtained a fine view of the Black Forest range of hills, and beheld the distant summits of the Jura and the Vosges.
A VILLAGE IN THE BLACK FOREST.
Basle was a Roman fortified town in the days of the struggles of Rome with the Barbarians. It is gray with history,—with the battles of Church and State, battles of words, and battles of deeds and blood. But the sunlight was poured upon it, and the Rhine flowed quietly by, and the palaces of peace and prosperity rose on every hand, [!-- illustration --] [!-- blank page --] as though the passions of men had never been excited there, or the soil reddened with blood.