Part 17 (1/2)

With regard to furnis.h.i.+ngs and accessories, this great cathedral is singularly complete.

There is a highly ornate pulpit in sculptured wood which some will consider the peer of any seen elsewhere. It is decorated further by a series of painted wooden statues of the saints, Nicholas, Ambrose, Augustin, Gregory, and Jerome.

There is a fine _custode_ covering a pyx, which is surmounted by a fifteenth-century _baldaquin_, and a tomb of a former canon, ornamented in bas-relief.

There is also a pair of baptismal fonts, enormous in size and said to be contemporaneous with the foundation of the cathedral.

A tomb of Daniel of Mutersbach, a knight who died in 1475, is placed in one of the chapels at the crossing, and near by is a mausoleum to that Conrad who, by virtue of a charter given by Louis in 909, founded the church which preceded the present edifice on this site.

It bears the following inscription in the barbarous Latin of the time:

CLAUDITUR HOC TUMULO PER QUEM NUNC SERVITUS ISTO FIT CELEBRIS TEMPLO, LAUS, VIRTUS, GLORIA CHRISTO.

XIX

COBLENZ AND BOPPART

_Coblenz_

It is an open question as to whether the charming little city of Coblenz is more delightful because of itself, or because of its proximity to the famous fortress of Ehrenbreitstein,--”the broad stone of honour.”

”Here Ehrenbreitstein with her shatter'd wall Black with the miner's blast upon her height, Yet shows of what she was, when sh.e.l.l and ball Rebounding idly on her strength did light.”

The city occupies a most romantically and historically endowed situation at the junction of the Moselle and the Rhine.

At Coblenz the sons of Charlemagne met to divide their father's empire into France, Germany, and Italy; there also Edward III. in 1338 met the Emperor Louis, and was by him appointed vicar of the empire; and at Coblenz the French raised a monument to commemorate the subjugation of Russia. Soon after the inscription was finished, the Russian commander entered Coblenz in pursuit of Napoleon. With memorable and caustic wit he left the inscription as it stood, just adding, ”Vu et approuve par nous, Commandant Russe de la Ville de Coblence, Janvier 1er, 1814.” Here also is the monument to the young and gallant General Marceau, killed at the battle of Altenkirchen, 1796.

”By Coblenz, on a rise of gentle ground, There is a small and simple pyramid, Crowning the summit of the verdant mound: Beneath its base are hero's ashes hid.”

The Moselle, which joins the Rhine at Coblenz, was, like the Rhine itself, referred to by Caesar.

The pleasant valley of the Moselle--indeed it is one of the _pleasantest_ (which is a vague term, but one easily understood by all) in all Europe--was celebrated by one of the longer poems of Ausonius, who wrote in the fourth century.

For those who would translate the original, his description will not be found inapropos to-day:

”_Qua sublimis apex longo super ardua tractu Et rupes et aprica jugi, flexusque sinusque Vitibus adsurgunt naturalique theatro._”

Vines then, as now, clothed the slopes of the hills and cliffs which sheltered the deep-cut stream.

A Roman governor of Gaul once proposed to unite the Moselle with the Saone (as it is to-day, by means of the Ca.n.a.l de l'Est), and thus effect a waterway across Europe from the North Sea to the Mediterranean.

The church of St. Castor stands on the spot of the famous conference between the sons of Charlemagne. It is one of the most ancient of the Rhine churches, and was founded by Louis the Pious in 836.

Of this early church but little remains to-day except some distinct features to be noted in the choir.

The four towers form a remarkable outline, and two of them, at least as to their lower ranges, are undoubtedly of the eleventh century.

In this church are a series of remarkable decorations, one on the wall above the spring of the nave arches, another above the entrance of the choir aisle, and yet another in the semicircular roofing of the apse.