One day, during the minority of the Emperor Henry IV., the tutors of the
prince, the proud Archbishop Annon of Cologne and the Palatine, Henry
the Furious, held a meeting with certain other seigneurs at Andernach.
The same day the inhabitants of Guels, a village near Coblenz, lodged a
complaint before the Palatine concerning the exactions of the provost of
their village. This last, himself, followed the deputies, magnificently
clothed and mounted upon a richly caparisoned horse, counting upon his
presence to counteract the impression they might make. Among the
collection of wild beasts which had been gathered together for the
amusement of the princes was a ferocious bear. When the provost passed
near him, the animal sprang upon him and tore him to pieces, whereupon
it was supposed that the venerable archbishop had exercised a divine
power, and delivered up the oppressor to the fury of a wild beast. Like
most of the Rhine legends, it is astonishingly simple in plot, and
likewise has a religious turn to it, which shows the great respect of
the ancient people of these regions toward their creed.

_Sinzig_

Between Andernach and Bonn is the tiny city of Sinzig, famous for two
things,--its charmingly disposed parish church and the wines of
Assmanhaus.

The town was the ancient Sentiacum of the Romans, constructed in all
probability by Sentius, one of the generals of Augustus.

The church at Sinzig, in company with St. Quirinus at Neuss, has some of
the best mediaeval glass in Germany.

This small, but typically Rhenish, parish church has also a series of
polychromatic decorations which completely cover its available wall
space.

There is a vividness about them which may be pleasing to some, but
which will strike many as being distinctly unchurchly.

[Illustration: _Sinzig_]

As a Christian edifice, the church at Sinzig, with its central tower and
spire, is only remarkable as typifying the style of Romano-ogival
architecture which developed so broadly in the Rhine valley at the
expense of the purer Gothic.

XXII

TREVES

Southwesterly from Coblenz, between the Rhine and Metz, is Treves, known
by the Germans as Trier. Situated at the southern end of a charming
valley, which more or less closely follows the banks of the Moselle, it
has the appearance of being a vast park with innumerable houses and
edifices scattered here and there through the foliage. The city contains
many churches, of which the c