WM

296

THE UPPEK HHINE G0I1GE.

lunettes, that have held out successfully against no less tlianthirty-four sieges; and that even the French General Tallard,with Ins 24,000 men (tbough he had promised it as a new-year's gift to Louis XIV.), could not force to surrender,—now yielding to the mere weather and the air; and the rainbattering down a stronghold that even cannon could formerlymake no impression upon.

We cannot teil why, but when we saw Rheinfels for thefirst time, it Struck us as being like our own Houses of Parlia-ment in ruins. The analogies, however, which rise at the firstglance of an object often will not bear the test of examination,depending, as they do, upon the resemblance of some isolatedfeature rather than the similitude of the whole; and, perhaps,the likeness Struck us merely because the ruins of the mediasvalfortress present a great extent of fa9ade to the river. Thewalls at the end farthest from St. Goar, which once formed partof the " Darmstadter Hof" and served as the barracks for theofficers of the garrison, are still standing, though in high frag-mentary plates; and at the opposite end there is the stump ofthe Square turret that was formerly the " Ure Tkurm" (theclock-tower) ; while in front of these you see remnants of theniany rampart-terraces and the fortress walls stretching downthe slope to the very edge of the river—all sufficiently indicatingthe ancient niight of the pile to make its empty and roundedwindow-holes, and blunted broken towers, strike one forciblywith the contrast of its former strength and present weakness.

Directly facing St. Goar, and made up of its tiny old andnew town, is the little villa^e of St. Goarshausen, raised on amassive stone embankment to protect it not only against theforce of current which, as we said, here drives directly againstit, but also from the pressure of the ice. The old town hereis but one street deep, and the houses—which belong mostlyto the men who live by the salmon-fisheries hard by—built