RHEINSTEIN, or REICHENSTEIN.

THIS picturesque ruin crowns the summit of a ruggedand apparently inaccessible rock, on the left hank of theRhine. It stands almost directly opposite to Assmannshausen,a village well known for the excellence of its wine. Like mostof the castles bordering this part of the Rhine, it was builtto enable its proprietors, the Chevaliers Voleurs , to levycontributions on passengers ; and its commanding situationmust have rendered it equally well adapted for this purposeand for the security of its occupants. The system of plunderand marauding, carried on by these knights, continued tillthe formation of the celebrated Hanseatic league, towardsthe close of the thirteenth century, when the castle of Reichen-stein was taken and burnt, and its proprietor hanged by orderof the Emperor Rudolph I.