Part 22 (1/2)

”I return the otter skin and give you the treasure you ask,” said Loki; ”but the gift shall bring you evil”

Their father took the treasure, and Fafner murdered his father to secure it to hiuard it, and to keep his brother frofried, a Sa that he could catch wild lions and hang theinn persuaded this pupil to attack the serpent and to slay his of birds; and the birds told hiinn and hions were called _worfried lived Woron's blood, and the bathcould hurt him except in one spot A leaf had fallen on this spot as he was bathing It was between his shoulders

Siegfried, like Sa out of his love for this woman would fill a volume She had learned where his one vulnerable spot lay But she was a lovely lady, and the wedded pair lived very happily together at Worms

At last a dispute arose between thefried's life His ent for counsel to a supposed friend, but real eneen

”Your husband is invulnerable,” said Hagen

”Yes, except in one spot”

”And you know the place?”

”Yes”

”Sew a patch on his garment over it, and I shall kno to protect him”

The poor wife had revealed a fatal secret She sewed a patch on her husband's garht him doubly secure

[Illustration: THE MURDER OF SIEGFRIED]

There was to be a great hunting-fried entered into it as a chah spirits, but on his back was the fatal patch

Hagen contrived that the wine should be left behind

”That,” he said, ”will compel the hunters to lie down on their breasts to drink from the streams when they becoht in his conjecture

Siegfried became tired and thirsty He rode up to a strea his back, on which was the patch, revealing the vulnerable place

There he was stabbed by a conspirator een

They bore the dead body of the hero down the Rhine, and lamented the departed champion as the barque drifted on The scene has been portrayed in art and song, and has left its impress on the poetic associations of the river You will have occasion to recall this story again in connection with Drachenfels

”Our fifth night on the Rhine was passed at Mayence, at the Hotel de Hollande, near the landing-place of the Rhine steamers The balconies and s of the hotel afforded fine views of the river and of the Taunus Mountains

”Mayence is said to have arisen by ic The sorcerer Nequam wished for a new city; he came to this point of the Rhine, spoke the word, and the city rose It is almost as old as the Christian era Here the Twenty-second Roion caht Christianity with it, through sorand cities of Charleelheim, and introduced the cultivation of the vine

Here lived Bishop Hatto, of bad repute, and good Bishop Williges

”Here rose Gutenberg, the inventor of printing, and here Thorwaldsen's statue of the great inventor announces to the traveller what a great light of civilization appeared to the world