Part 26 (1/2)
This was the village story It grew as such a dark row in the superstitious tiuerite and added it to the fable The transfore to youth was also added The opera ed even the narrative of Goethe; in the latest evolution, Mephistopheles is summoned into the courts of heaven and sent forth to tempt Faust, and Faust is shown visions of the Greek vale of Tempe and Helen of Troy
Faust has coreat problem of Good and Evil; the contest between virtue and vice, teood story in any of its evolutions, but it is one that to know is al to Coblentz, we passed our sixth night on the Rhine We there hired a boatman to take us to Bonn Between Coblentz and Andernach we passed what are ter, and are se been dead
”We now approached the Seven Mountains, a These are called: Lohrberg, 1,355 feet; Neiderstro, 1,001 feet; Drachenfels, 1,056 feet; Petenberg, 1,030 feet; Lowenberg, 1,414 feet
”The Drachenfels is made picturesque by an ancient ruin, and it is these ancient ruins, and associations of old history, thatriver in the world Apart from its castles and traditions, it is not more beautiful than the Hudson, the Upper Ohio, or the Mississippi between St Paul and Winona But the Rhine displays the ruined arts of two thousand years
”The Drachenfels has its wonderful story It is said that Siegfried killed the Dragon there The so-called Dragon Cave or Rock is there, and of this particular dragon many curious tales are told
”In the early days of Christianity the cross was regarded as so more than a mere e power
”In a rocky cavern of the Drachenfels, in ancient tion of most hideous fore that he could s several victith, and in forator's, and he had a tail like a serpent
”The pagans of the Rhine worshi+pped this monster and offered to him human sacrifices
”In one of the old wars between rival princes, a Christian girl was taken captive, and the pagan priest coon
”It was the custoon alive to a tree near his cave at night At sunrise he would come out and devour them
”They led the lovely Christian maiden to a spot near the cave, and bound her to a tree
”It was starlight Priests and warriors with torches had conducted the maiden to the fatal spot, and stood at a little distance fro for the sunrise
[Illustration: A CLEFT IN THE MOUNTAINS]
”The priests chanted their wild hyan to break and to crown the mountains and be scattered over the blue river
”The roar of the monster was heard The rocks trembled, and he appeared He approached the maiden, bound to an oak
”Her eyes were raised in prayer towards heaven
”As the Dragon approached the victim, she drew from her bosom a crucifix, and held it up before hian to tremble He fell to the earth as if smitten He lost all power and rolled down the rocks, a shapeless irl
”'By what power have you done this?' they asked
”'By this,' said theout the cross in her hand 'I am a Christian'
”'Then ill becoans, and they led the lovely apostle away to be their teacher Her first convert was one of the rival princes, who the most eminent of the early Christian families of the Seven Mountains of the Rhine
”Such is the fable as told by the ure of the power of the cross over the serpent, ein, but how it became associated with the story of the captive maiden it would be hard to tell”