bably it is in this instance
corrupted from _mauth_; for nothing could have made the tower and its
owners more odious than the collection of duties from voyagers on the
river. There is a sad story connected with the Broemserberg Castle,
which we saw above. Broemser of Ruedesheim went to Palestine with the
crusaders, and, while there, distinguished himself by slaying a dragon
which made itself very annoying to the Christian army. He was
immediately after captured by the Saracen forces, and reduced to
slavery. While in this condition, he made a solemn vow, that if he were
ever permitted to return to his castle again, he would give his only
daughter to the church. Improving an opportunity to kill his guard, he
succeeded in reaching his home, where he was met by his daughter, a
lovely young woman, who was betrothed to a young knight. Her father
told her of the vow he had taken. Tearfully she entreated him to change
his purpose; but his pledge to the church could not be set aside.
Broemser threatened her with his curse if she refused to obey. Life had
no charms apart from the young knight, and she determined to die. In
the midst of a violent storm, she threw herself from the castle
battlements into the river, and her corpse was found the next day, by a
fisherman, near the Mouse Tower. The boatmen and peasants say, to this
day, that they sometimes see the pale form of Gisela hovering above the
castle, mingling her wails with the moanings of the storm."

"That's a very pretty story, and I suppose young ladies in that age
were like those of the present," added Paul. "Perhaps more so, for now
they don't throw themselves from walls into a damp river for such a
cause."

"There's another castle!" exclaimed Grace, pointing to the left.

"That is Rheinstein, a castle which has been restored, and is the
summer residence of a Prussian prince. Below the castle, where the road
runs between the rock and the river, tolls were levied upon Jews who
passed that way. And it is even said that the collectors had little
dogs trained to know a Jew from a Christian, and to seize him with
their teeth."

Castle-crowned heights succeeded each other in rapid succession; and in
this part of the river they are so thick, that our students had to keep
their eyes wide open in order to see them all. Rocky steeps rose from
the verge of the water; and wherever there was any soil, or any earth
could find a resting-place, the spot was made into a vineyard.