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Old Peasant Costumes 248 City Gate 249 The Neckar 250 An Old German Town 255 The Rhinefels 257 Mayence in the Olden Time 262 Beethoven’s Home at Bonn 268 A City of the Rhine 271 The River of Song 274 The Palace of Rosenborg 278 View of Copenhagen 279 Palace of Fredericksborg 283 The King in the Bag 286 Gustavus Adolphus 289 Death of Gustavus and his Page 293 Cascade in Norway 297 Lazaretto 299 The Naero Fiord 300 Lake in Norway 303 The Coast 307 Niagara Falls 311 A New England in the West 315 Near Quebec 317

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ZIGZAG JOURNEYS
IN
NORTHERN LANDS.

CHAPTER I.

THE RIVER OF STORY AND SONG.

THE Rhine! River of what histories, tragedies, comedies, legends, stories, and songs! Associated with the greatest events of the history of Germany, France, and Northern Europe; with the Rome of Cæsar and Aurelian; with the Rome of the Popes; with the Reformation; with the shadowy goblin lore and beautiful fairy tales of the twilight of Celtic civilization that have been evolved through centuries and have become the household stories of all enlightened lands!

A journey down the Rhine is like passing through wonderland; wild stories, quaint stories, legendary and historic stories, are associated with every rood of ground from the Alps to the ocean. It is a region of the stories of two thousand years. The Rhine is the river of the poet; its banks are the battle-fields of heroes; its forests and villages the fairy lands of old.

When Rome was queen of the world, Cæsar carried his eagles over the Rhine; Titus sent a part of his army which had conquered Jerusalem to the Rhine; Julian erected a fortress on the Rhine; and Valentinian began the castle-building that was to go on for a thousand years.

INTRODUCING CHRISTIANITY INTO THE NORTH.

The period of the Goths, Huns, Celts, and Vandals came,—the conquerors of Rome; and the Rhine was strewn with Roman ruins. Charlemagne cleared away the ruins, and began anew the castle-building. A Christian soldier in one of the legions that destroyed Jerusalem and tore down the temple, first brought the Gospel to the Rhine. His name was Crescaitius. He was soon followed by missionaries of the Cross. Christianity was established upon the Rhine soon after it entered Rome.