a little thing as you can
imagine. In all these apartments are fine pictures, and one is superbly
frescoed with allegory and history. The room in which the Queen of
England and Prince Albert lodged, in 1845, was shown us, and the state
bed was still in it. The dining hall was finely ornamented with
carvings, old armor, &c. But a room devoted to antiquities pleased us
the best of all. Here were cups, bottles, and glass goblets of the
earliest dates,--some as far back as the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries,--which had belonged to emperors and electors whom I cannot
recollect, they were so many. On the walls were the most precious
mementoes; and here we saw the swords of Marshal Tilly, Napoleon
Bonaparte,--the one used at Waterloo,--Blucher, and Murat, and the knife
and fork belonging to the brave Hofer, the Tyrolese patriot, who was
shot at Mantua. From all the windows of this gem of a palace we had the
finest views of the river, and could see, from the gateway and platform,
Coblentz, Ehrenbreitstein, and eleven different ruins of castles and
convents. Directly in front of us, on a bend of the river, almost making
a peninsula, was Lahnstein and its ruined castle; off to its right,
Braubach, and the Castle of Marksburg and Martin's Chapel; and, on our
own side, the pretty village of Rheus, where was once "the royal seat,"
and where the electors of the Rhine used to meet, to elect or depose the
emperors of Germany. All round the castle of Stolzenfels are the
choicest flowers and shrubs; and I wish some of my horticultural friends
could have seen the moss roses and fuchias in such luxuriance. We were
sorry to leave the place; but the steamboat on the Rhine is as punctual
as a North River boat; and we had to resume our donkeys, descend to the
carriages, drive briskly, and were just in time to get on board a boat
bound to Mayence. In going up the river, we saw the palace again to
great advantage; and, whatever else I forget, this locality I shall keep
in memory, I assure you. We again looked at Lahnstein, and the ruins of
St. John's Church, built in 1100, and saw a curious ferry, from the
mouth of the Lahn over to Stolzenfels. It is made by five or six boats
anchored off, and the ferry boat goes over, wafted by the tide. We then
came upon Bopart, an old place, but strongly fortified, and having three
or four thousand inhabitants. A gentleman on board, who had been there,
said it was quite an interesting place. Nearly opposite w