CHAPTER XXVII. THURMBERG.--A STORM UPON THE RHINE.--THE RUINS OFRHEINFELS.--PERIL UNFELT BY LOVE.--THE ECHO OF THE LURLEI-BERG.--ST.GOAR.--KAUB, GUTENFELS, AND PFALZGRAFENSTEIN.--A CERTAIN VASTNESS OFMIND IN THE FIRST HERMITS.--THE SCENERY OF THE RHINE TO BACHARACH.
OUR party continued their voyage the next day, which was less brightthan any they had yet experienced. The clouds swept on dull and heavy,suffering the sun only to break forth at scattered intervals. They woundround the curving bay which the Rhine forms in that part of its course,and gazed upon the ruins of Thurmberg, with the rich gardens that skirtthe banks below. The last time Trevylyan had seen those ruins soaringagainst the sky, the green foliage at the foot of the rocks, and thequiet village sequestered beneath, glassing its roofs and solitary towerupon the wave, it had been with a gay summer troop of light friends,who had paused on the opposite shore during the heats of noon, and, overwine and fruits, had mimicked the groups of Boccaccio, and intermingledthe lute, the jest, the momentary love, and the laughing tale.
What a difference now in his thoughts, in the object of the voyage, inhis present companions! The feet of years fall noiseless; we heed, wenote them not, till tracking the same course we passed long since,we are startled to find how deep the impression they leave behind.To revisit the scenes of our youth is to commune with the ghost ofourselves.
At this time the clouds gathered rapidly along the heavens, and theywere startled by the first peal of the thunder. Sudden and swift came onthe storm, and Trevylyan trembled as he covered Gertrude's form with therude boat-cloaks they had brought with them; the small vessel began torock wildly to and fro upon the waters. High above them rose thevast dismantled ruins of Rheinfels, the lightning darting through itsshattered casements and broken arches, and brightening the gloomy treesthat here and there clothed the rocks, and tossed to the angry wind.Swift wheeled the water-birds over the river, dipping their plumage inthe white foam, and uttering their discordant screams. A storm upon theRhine has a grandeur it is in vain to paint. Its rocks, its foliage, thefeudal ruins that everywhere rise from the lofty heights, speakingin characters of stern decay of many a former battle against timeand tempest; the broad and rapid course of the legendary river,--allharmonize with the elementary strife; and you feel that to see the Rhineonly in the sunshine is to be unconscious of its most majestic aspects.What baronial war had those ruins witnessed! From the rapine of thelordly tyrant of those battlements rose the first Confederation of theRhine,--the great strife between the new time and the old, the townand the castle, the citizen and the chief. Gray and stern those ruinsbreasted the storm,--a type of the antique opinion which once mannedthem with armed serfs; and, yet in ruins and decay, appeals from thevictorious freedom it may no longer resist!
Clasped in Trevylyan's guardian arms, and her head pillowed on hisbreast, Gertrude felt nothing of the storm save its grandeur; andTrevylyan's voice whispered cheer and courage to her ear. She answeredby a smile and a sigh, but not of pain. In the convulsions of nature weforget our own separate existence, our schemes, our projects, our fears;our dreams vanish back into their cells. One passion only the stormquells not, and the presence of Love mingles with the voice of thefiercest storms, as with the whispers of the southern wind. So she felt,as they were thus drawn close together, and as she strove to smile awaythe anxious terror from Trevylyan's gaze, a security, a delight; forperil is sweet even to the fears of woman, when it impresses upon heryet more vividly that she is beloved.
"A moment more and we reach the land," murmured Trevylyan.
"I wish it not," answered Gertrude, softly. But ere they got into St.Goar the rain descended in torrents, and even the thick coverings roundGertrude's form were not sufficient protection against it. Wet anddripping she reached the inn; but not then, nor for some days, was shesensible of the shock her decaying health had received.
The storm lasted but a few hours, and the sun afterwards broke forthso brightly, and the stream looked so inviting, that they yielded toGertrude's earnest wish, and, taking a larger vessel, continued theircourse; they passed along the narrow and dangerous defile of theGewirre, and the fearful whirlpool of the "Bank;" and on the shore tothe left the enormous rock of Lurlei rose, huge and shapeless, on theirgaze. In this place is a singular echo, and one of the boatmen wound ahorn, which produced an almost supernatural music,--so wild, loud, andoft reverberated was its sound.
The river now curved along in a narrow and deep channel amongst ruggedsteeps, on which the westering sun cast long and uncouth shadows; andhere the hermit, from whose sacred name the town of St. Goar derived itsown, fixed his abode and preached the religion of the Cross. "Therewas a certain vastness of mind," said Vane, "in the adoption of uttersolitude, in which the first enthusiasts of our religion indulged. Theremote desert, the solitary rock, the rude dwelling hollowed from thecave, the eternal commune with their own hearts, with nature, and theirdreams of God,--all make a picture of severe and preterhuman grandeur.Say what we will of the necessity and charm of social life, there is agreatness about man when he dispenses with mankind."
"As to that," said Du-----e, shrugging his shoulders, "there wasprobably very good wine in the neighbourhood, and the females' eyesabout Oberwesel are singularly blue."
They now approached Oberwesel, another of the once imperial towns, andbehind it beheld the remains of the castle of the illustrious family ofSchomberg, the ancestors of the old hero of the Boyne. A little fartheron, from the opposite shore, the castle of Gutenfels rose above the busytown of Kaub.
"Another of those scenes," said Trevylyan, "celebrated equally by loveand glory, for the castle's name is derived from that of the beautifulladye of an emperor's passion; and below, upon a ridge in the steep,the great Gustavus issued forth his command to begin battle with theSpaniards."
"It looks peaceful enough now," said Vane, pointing to the craft thatlay along the stream, and the green trees drooping over a curve in thebank. Beyond, in the middle of the stream itself, stands the lonelycastle of Pfalzgrafenstein, sadly memorable as a prison to the moredistinguished of criminals. How many pining eyes may have turned fromthose casements to the vine-clad hills of the free shore! how manyindignant hearts have nursed the deep curses of hate in the dungeonsbelow, and longed for the wave that dashed against the gray walls toforce its way within and set them free!
Here the Rhine seems utterly bounded, shrunk into one of those delusivelakes into which it so frequently seems to change its course; and as youproceed, it is as if the waters were silently overflowing their channeland forcing their way into the clefts of the mountain shore. Passing theWerth Island on one side and the castle of Stahleck on the other,our voyagers arrived at Bacharach, which, associating the feudalrecollections with the classic, takes its name from the god of the vine;and as Du-----e declared with peculiar emphasis, quaffing a large gobletof the peculiar liquor, "richly deserves the honour!"