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their Castles or towns: the Archbishop of Mayence couldbeliold Ins palace at Oberlahnstein, directly facing him on theopposite shore of the Rhine—the Archbishop of Treves couldsee his Castle of Stolzenfels towering upon the rock closebehind him—the Prince-Elector of Cologne could look uponhis town of Rhense, at a little distance along the road toMayence—and opposite this, again, the Count Palatine couldgaze at his seigniory of Braubach on the opposite side of theriver.*

The road now lies through pleasant orchards, for themountains have been gradually decreasing and receding fromthe river-side since we left Stolzenfels, though they still standat no great distance from the Rhine; while the river bendsso sharply round at Oberspay, that it begins once more toassume the appearance of a mountain lake rather than astream stretching through niany kingdoms.

In a few minutes after leaving Königs-stuhl we enter thepicturesque old German town of Rhense, formerly belongingto the Archbishop of Cologne. Here the houses mostly dateas far back as the year 1500, and some even as the fourteenthCentury, so that the streets have a fine mediaffval character.The buildings have many of them carved wooden fronts, wliichare as brown and worm-eaten as the cassocks of the mummymonks at Kreuzberg; while the bastion-like bay-windowsoverhang the narrow and irregulär streets with charmingpicturesqueness. As the carriage rattles along the ill-pavedthoroughfare white-headed children run down the blocks ofsteps before the doors, and shout as it goes by; and women

* The Königs-stuhl was allowed to fall into ruins under the French govern-ment, and was pulied down in 1807 ; but it was rebuilt in 1843 in its originalshape, and partly out of the old materials, which are of " tuff," or " tufa stone."It is exceedingly piain in design, and has no Ornaments about it, saving those ofthe arms of the Emperor and Electors.