COBLENZ AND EHRENBREITSTEIN.

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squat, round towers of the Priests'-house, * looking in the dis-tance like helmeted giants in their suits of mail—and thesquare turrets of St. Castorf with their low steeples, likeerayon points, standing between the streams, as if they weretwin-lighthouses at the end of some tranquil harbour; whilethe whole town itself is girdled with fortress-walls, and setupon a pedestal of quays, so that it seems to be the model ofan ancient city designed for a glass shade.

It is market day to-day, and the usually quiet streetsof Coblenz are all astir with the crowds of peasant-women,and market-carts, and trucks, that are flocking from theNassau side of the Rhine into the city—some from the littlevillages of A rzheim and Pfaffendorf —others from Neuhäusel,and others again from Bendorf. Almost as soon as it is light,

* This is now called tlie Katholisch Pfarre-haus, butwas formerly a "Kloster"belonging to the Capuchins.

■f Castor-Kirche was built at the expense of Louis "the Pious," and con-secrated in his presence in 836. The interior of the choii' and the lower part ofthe front towers are the most aneient parts of the building, though these areprobably of alater date than the year of its consecration, for the style of archi-tectvire would seem to be that of the later Byzantine character, and to date from theend of the 12th Century. This church is said to afford the earliest example ofthe appearance of the " Lombard style" in the Rhenish provinces. The exteriorof the choir, which is rounded, dates, we are told, from 1157-1201 ; the naveand transept from 1208, and the vaulting from 1498 : but in 1830 the whole wasrestored under the direction of Lassaulx. It has four towers, the two front orwestern ones being considerably higher than those at the eastern end, and thestunted spires set, as it were, on the four gables of the square-tower walls. Theinterior of this ehurch is handsome, though in the gaudiest Romish style. Thearches of the roof are a bright azure, picked out with Stars. The columns oneither side of the nave are red, with gilt capitals. It has an emblazoned pulpit,and a fine Germanesque fresco over the choir, painted on a gold background byStettegast in 1849. Within the choir, on the left, is the exquisitely-beautiful tombof Cuno of Falkenstein, archbishop of Treves, (a.d. 1388)—he who built theWeissen-thurm to mark the frontier of bis fortified domain : and there is a paint-ing here which is a magnificent example of the early German school. It repre-sents the adoration of Christ upon the Gross, and is painted upon a golden