ear, supper was
served. Shortly after sunset, Roland told the captain to cast off,
directing him to keep to the eastern shore, passing between what might
be called the marine Castle of Pfalz and the village of Caub, with the
strictest silence he could enjoin upon his crew. Pfalz stands upon a
rock in the Rhine, a short distance up the river from Caub, while above
that village on the hill behind are situated the strong, square towers
of Gutenfels.

"Don't you intend to pay a call upon Pfalzgrafenstein?" asked Ebearhard.
"It is notoriously the most pestilent robber's nest between Mayence and
Cologne."

"No," said Roland. "On this occasion Pfalz shall escape. You see,
Ebearhard, on our first trip down the Rhine it is not my intention to
fight if I can avoid conflict. The plan which proved successful with the
four castles we have visited is impossible so far as Pfalz is concerned.
If we attempted to enter this waterschloss by stealth, we would be
discovered by those levying contributions on the barge. There is no
cover to conceal us, so I shall give Pfalz the go-by, and also
Gutenfels, because the latter is not a robber castle, but is owned by
the Count Palatine, a true gentleman and no thief. The next object of
our attentions will be Schonburg, on the western side of the river, near
Oberwesel."

As the grotesque, hexagonal bulk of the Pfalz, with its numerous jutting
corners and turrets, and over all the pentagonal tower, appeared dimly
in the center of the Rhine, under the clear stars, the captain ordered
his men to lie flat on the deck, himself following their example. Roland
and his company were already seated in the cabin, and the great barge,
lying so low in the water as to be almost invisible with its black
paint, floated noiseless as a dream down the swift current.

Without the slightest warning came a shock, and every man on the lockers
was flung to the floor of the cabin, with cries of dismay, for too well
they recognized the preliminary to their disasters of the night before.
Roland sprang up on deck, and found the boat swinging round broadside to
the current, which had swept it so near to the Castle that at first it
seemed to have struck against one of the outlying rocks. The fantastic
form of the Pfalz hung over them, looking like some weird building seen
in a nightmare, its sharp, pointed pinnacles outlined against the
starlit sky.

The captain, muttering sonorous German oaths, ordered his men to the
sw