BREGENZ.

445

the sound of a voice in the air: whereupon we beheld, onlooking at the upper Windows of the palatial workhouse, oneof the old paupers anxious to learn whether we would liketo go over the establishment.

This old town is the site of an ancient Roman settlementcalled Brigantium; indeed the remains of the old Romanwalls are still to be seen. The upper town dates as farback as Strabo, A.D. 40; and there is an odd bas-relief on thewalls of the Obere-Stadt of the heathen goddess Epona, who issaid to have been the guardian deity of horses and mares.

Bregenz was originally peopled by the Vindelicians —atribe that is said to have belonged to Augsburg (the ancient" Augusta Vindelicorum'''), and to have derived its name fromthe rivers Vinda (the modern Wertach) and Lech, betweenwhich Augsburg is situate.

After the disappearance of the Romans from the banksof the Boden See, Bregenz belonged to the Counts of Montfordand Wirtemburg; and during the Appenzeller war, in 1405,hold out successfully against the Swiss, a considerable numberof whom were killed and wounded; and to this day theguards, in their night-watches, cry " Honour to Hergotha!"who is said to have defended the city tili Lord Montfordappeared at the head of his troops.

Fifty years afterwards, Elizabeth, Lady of Montford andBregenz, sold half the city to the Archduke Sigismund ofAustria, and the other half to the Archduke Frederick ofAustria.

Like Lindau, Bregenz suffered much during the ThirtyYears' War, during which it feil, in 1646, into the hands ofthe Swedes, who destroyed the old Castle of the Montfords,that formerly stood on the Gehhardsberg, and carried offplunder sufficient to fill some five hundred wagons. Towardsthe end of the next Century, also, the town was sacked bythe French.