home in the castle."

"On one condition."

"Name it."

"That the dean is released."

The young count went to his father.

"The maiden has one request to make."

"She shall have her request."

So the dean was released and went back to Strasburg. The maid became
the wife of the young count, but what became of the hen the
chroniclers do not tell.

But the trench remains,--the _Henne-Graben_,--and all that is
wanting to make the evidence of the story sure is to connect the hen
with the trench, after four hundred years. This may not be hard;
geologists make connections in like cases after the lapse of a
thousand years. Do they not?

CHAPTER VII.

EVENING THE THIRD.

STRASBURG.--A MEMORABLE CHRISTMAS.--THE STORY OF THE LOST ORGANIST.

Our third night upon the Rhine was spent at Strasburg.

"The cathedral is the wonder of the city. The excursionist thinks of
but little else during his stay there. Wherever he may be, the
gigantic church is always in view. He beholds it towering over all.

"Its history is that of Germany. It grew with the German empire, and
has shared all its triumphs and reverses. It was founded by Clovis. It
has been imperilled by lightning some fifty times, and has as often
repelled the shocks of war. In the tenth century it was burned; in the
eleventh, plundered; and five years after it was nearly demolished by
lightning.

"It was after the last calamity that the present structure was begun.
At one time a _hundred thousand_ men were employed upon it: can we
wonder that it is colossal?

"The giant grew. In 1140, 1150, and 1176 it was partly burned, but it
rose from the flames always more great, lofty, and splendid.

[Illustration: STRASBURG CATHEDRAL.]

"Indulgences were offered to donors and workmen; to contributors of
all kinds. Men earned, or thought they earned, their salvation by
adding their mites to the spreading magnificence. In 1303 it is said
that all the peasants of Alsace might be seen drawing stone into
Strasburg for the cathedral. Master builder succeeded master
builder,--died,--but the great work went on. In the French Revolution
the Jacobins tore from the cathedral the statues of two hundred and
thirty saints; but it was still a city of saints in stone and marble.
In 1870, in the Franco-Prussian war, its roof was perforated with
shells, and on the 25th of August it burst into flames, and it was
telegraphed over the world that t