The Church of St. Castor, at the confluence of the rivers, is a very ancient structure, in which the grandchildren of Charlemagne met to make a division of the empire. Napoleon, on his march to invade Russia, caused a fountain to be erected in front of this church, bearing an inscription commemorating the event. The French army was overwhelmed, and a Russian force, pursuing the remnant of it, arrived at Coblenz. The general saw the obnoxious record, but instead of erasing it, he added the sarcastic sentence, "Seen and approved by us, the Russian commandant of the city of Coblenz," which remains to this day.
The party visited some of the principal edifices in the city, including the palace, in which the King of Prussia sometimes resides, and then crossed the Rhine on the bridge of boats to the immense fortress called Ehrenbreitstein, the meaning of which is "honor's bright stone." It was a fortress in the middle ages, and was unsuccessfully besieged by the French in 1688, though it was less fortunate in 1799, when the garrison was starved into a surrender, and it was blown up. In 1814 the Prussians commenced the work of restoring it, and since that time they have been continually strengthening and enlarging it. The series of military works, of which this fortress is the principal, are capable of holding one hundred thousand men, but five thousand are sufficient to garrison them. The magazine will hold provisions enough to supply eight thousand men ten years. It mounts four hundred pieces of cannon. The rocks have been hewn out into bomb-proofs and battlements, and art has done its utmost to strengthen the place.
The parade is on the top of the rock, beneath which vast cisterns have been constructed, which will contain a three years' supply of water. In addition to these, a well, four hundred feet deep, cut in the rock, communicates with the Rhine, which is to be used only on an emergency, as the river water is unwholesome. The river seen from the parade is very beautiful, but the company were obliged to hasten back to Coblenz, in order to dine in season for the afternoon steamer to Cologne.
At one o'clock the voyage down the Rhine was renewed, and the students, after their long ramble in the forenoon, were glad to use the camp stools on the deck of the steamer. Village after village was passed, but the scenery was less grand than that seen the day before. There were fewer castles to be seen on the heights, though Dr. Winstock could hardly tell the story of one before another required attention. The railroads which extend along each side of the river, in several instances, passed under castles, towers, and ruins, whose foundations have been tunnelled for the purpose. At Andernach, the mountains on both sides come close to the river again, and the water flows through a kind of gorge between them.
"At Brohl, which you see on the left, a peculiar kind of stone is found, which has the property of hardening under water, and is, therefore, in great demand for the manufacture of cement," said Dr. Winstock. "The ancients used it for coffins, because the stone absorbed the moisture from the bodies. These quarries were worked by the Romans, who had a road to Cologne on the left bank of the river."
"There are mountains on the right," said Grace, some time afterwards.
"Those are the Siebengebirge, as they are called. Though the name indicates seven mountains, there are thirty summits. They are very picturesque, but they are only ten or fifteen hundred feet high," continued the doctor.
"There is a beautiful island in the middle of the river," added Paul. "It has an old building on it, and is covered with trees."
"That is Nonnenwerth, and the building is a convent. Do you see the castle on the left bank, opposite the island?"
"I see it."