Without answering for the truth of this story, we believe it is an undoubted fact, that in the “old times” German nobles daily drank a portion of wine equal to about sixteen of our bottles.

We now arrive at Alf.

CHAPTER XV.

Bertrich.

Deep down, within the caverns of the earth,

Reigns Rubezahl, the Gnome;

Here reigned he, long before man had his birth,

Beneath the rocky dome.