An Empire’s lovely throne;
While o’er the river, on the plain,
Far battle echoes roll.”
From the German
At Krems, already the valley of the Danube has again widened out very considerably, especially on the north; and for the greater part of the journey thence to Vienna the river flows through a broad flat tract of country, only approaching the hills closely at one point, where it washes the northern end of the Wiener Wald, which is soon seen rising darkly ahead of us, many miles away. A number of small branches of the river cut the low, willow-grown land into many islands again here, and these islands cut off the view on either side for some distance. When the solitary church of Wetterkreutz, on a hill, and the small town of Hollenburg are passed, the right bank, too, becomes scenically uninteresting. The ruined castle of Bertholdstein above Hollenburg, is said to have been the stronghold of a couple more of the fifteenth century river robbers—a pair of worthies named Frohnauer and Wettau. These two seem at last to have aroused their neighbours to retaliation, for when the robbers were engaged in seeking to stop a barge that they might secure what they wished of its cargo, their castle was set on fire. The story is a little reminiscent of one of those told of Aggstein:
“A barge floats down the Danube’s flood,
With costly merchandise—
‘Now up and arm, my comrades good,
That barge shall be our prize!’
So spake the robber Hollenburg,