in Mr. Ionides's house was lovely, and I should have enjoyed the few days we had to wait for the steamer immensely, if I had not been on the same island with Kelly; as it was I never really felt secure until I was safely on the steamer, and had several miles of water between me and my second husband. Mr. Ionides paid my passage to Constantinople, and gave me a little ready money in case of need, bidding me lay my case before the American colony at Constantinople immediately on my arrival. This I did not fail to do, and my countrymen and countrywomen were very kind, especially the good ladies of the mission home at Scutari; a subscription was set on foot for me, and meanwhile I was comfortably lodged, so that I spent quite a happy month in Constantinople; and once or twice I wandered down to the quay and saw my former miserable abode, chatted once more with old Smiles, and fed the dogs.

Finally I and my children found ourselves on board the Moss S.S. Macedonia, in charge of a family of American tourists, who were on their return journey to the States. Now I am once more in the old home at Michigan a poorer, though I hope a wiser woman; and the adventures of Mrs. Kelly, or Mrs. Kallicrates, as I suppose I ought to call myself, are at an end.

J. THEODORE Bent.

From The National Review.
CHATEAU MALBROUK.

failed to conquer. In 1814 and 1815 they
once more sat down before it, and, after a
protracted siege, carried it. All this is
forgotten, or only faintly recalled. The
occupation by the Duke of Marlborough
is still faithfully remembered.
You are
shown the remnants of the fortified lines,
the English at Apach, the French at
Künsberg; you are pointed out the room
in which Marlborough and his generals
feasted on the day after their arrival, to
feast no more thereafter, while at Mens-
berg; and you can pick up little bits of
information about more or less noteworthy
incidents, in which the local people still
take an interest.

Mensberg will repay the pains of a trip to its Hungry Hill on other grounds. That expedition takes you through one of the most charming and characteristic bits of pretty Moselle scenery, pretty everywhere, and curiously marked with something like the same character throughout, from its source high up in the Vosges Mountains, a little above Bussang, down to its confluence with the Rhine. Follow. it under the shadow of the Ballon de Servance, come upon it at Remiremont or Epinal, at Toul, below Nancy, beneath the picturesque spot of Custines, where Mary, Queen of Scots, was brought up under the guardianship of the Guises, or farther down, below Trier, there is some common feature everywhere; everywhere the picture seems touched with the same beautifying brush. The valley is nowhere grand, but what with its soft, rounded hills, the fresh verdure of its banks, its laughing vineyards and deep green meadows, copses, and bits of forest SOMETHING less than midway between rich with varied foliage, and picturesque the two old cathedral cities of Metz and cottages or churches scattered between, Trier, in a side dale of the Moselle, no- for additional beauty and variety, it is where prettier than just at this point, con- fascinatingly attractive, and one can quite spicuously upon the summit of a rather understand how it inspired Ausonius to bare hill stands the picturesque, half-write in musical strains what is acknowlruined castle of Mensberg, which, in the edged to be his best poem on the mouth of the local population, still goes by" Magnus parens frugumque virumque the time-honored name of Château Mal- Mosella." Sierck is situated on one of the brouk. Unnoticed by Murray," unno- most pleasing points of this admired river. ticed by our English history books, that The stream, peculiarly serpentine throughold castle may well claim some passing in-out its course, describes here one of its terest from English folk, for with its crum- characteristic bends, forming a wide cresbling walls is connected a disappointing but not uninteresting episode in the history of our foreign wars. For nearly two centuries the castle has retained the name by which it was christened in 1705, when Marlborough spent twelve days of trying anxiety within its gates. Twice since then has Mars again visited the scene. In 1792, the allied armies besieged the castle, but

cent, on the outer arc of which, leaning
against the sides of the surrounding hills,
the picturesque buildings of this little
town, neat, clean, tidy, and, to all appear-
ance, prospering, though strikingly peace-
ful, show off to advantage.

Culmina villarum pendentibus edita ripis
Et virides baccho colles, et amoena fluenta
Subterlabentis tacito rumore Mosellae.

2

So Ausonius describes this Moselle scen-
ery. A little above is the old castle, un-
mistakably of Roman origin, in which
Gérard of Metz, the first Duke of Lor-
raine, was murdered ages ago, and whose
walls he is supposed still to haunt at
midnight, calling for vengeance upon his
murderers. Its long-continued occupa-
tion as a religious seminary has proved
unavailing to lay the unquiet ghost. The
building is now used as a hospital. High
above the townlet, on the brow of the hill,
lies the pretty village of Rüstroff. All
these are historically interesting sites.
For here, in this peaceful valley, bordered
on one side by the rocks of Montenach,
and on the other by the Stromberg, the
French, having no business to be there,
pitched a camp against Germany and her
British allies, which Vauban fortified, and
which, after that, became a fixed military
point. Pronouncedly French is Sierck at
the present day, French in speech and
French in sentiment. There is a delight-
ful walk leading from it to Mensberg,
which, according to the road selected, lies
four or five miles distant. For the first
mile you follow the course of the Moselle
along the green Côte de Kirsch, on which
the cherries, to which it probably owes its
name, are indeed plentiful, pursuing your
way through the village of Kirsch and
striking off afterwards to the right, near
a picturesque quarry of what looks like
porphyry, but is really bright red grau-
wacke. And then you dive into the side
valley which leads straight up to the castle.
Here all is fresh and green, leafy and
smiling, till, beyond Mandern, the stone-
covered cone of the Mensberg hill rises
up steeply before you.

The castle itself is picturesque and
manifestly of considerable antiquity. For
several centuries it belonged to the
Knights of Sierck. It is said to have
been built by the Templars, and if legend
speaks true, the devil, who clearly signal-
ized his presence, figuratively speaking,
while Marlborough was there, had a hand
in it from the very beginning. Knight
Arnold, whom the Templars sent with
sufficient means to superintend the build-
ing, spent the money on his own pleasures.
Then, as a matter of course, he invoked
the aid of the devil, who appeared, we
read, in the shape of un petit homme noir,
and proved quite willing to afford the de-
sired help for the usual consideration.
Sixty years of life and health and a gold
piece always in his pocket was what Ar-
nold bargained for. He got it, but at the
end of the sixty years Satan astonished

the company, with whom the knight was carousing, by his unexpected appearance, and unmercifully carried off his victim through the opening wall. Where the wall opened at Satan's command, tradition will have it that never has human hand been able to fix mortar or cement. Superstitious people also say that Arnold still visits his old haunts every now and then, and can be plainly heard moaning and whining in stormy nights. This continued uncanniness is a little surprising, considering that under one of its subsequent masters the castle became rather a holy place. The first historical record extant referring to it is of the year 1093. At that time the castle belonged to the Knights of Sierck. One of these, Jacob or James, was in 1439 consecrated Archbishop of Trier within those very walls. In his testament he relates that the ceremony took place. in the chapel situated in the "Grey Tower." That is probably what the Marquis de Villars, in his account of a visit paid in 1820, calls the "Lanterne." If so, the chapel may still be seen. There was another chapel, described as fort élégante, on the ground floor; but that has been pulled down by an irreverent recent proprietor, who required the room for a prosaic hangar or shed. The male line of the Siercks died out in due course, and then the Counts of Sayn and the Counts of Sultz succeeded by marriage. At the time when the castle harbored our illustrious countryman, the proprietor was in all probability M. de Bettainville, though it may also have been M. de Mazirot.

In 1807 the last noble owner found himself under the necessity of selling his baronial estate. He disposed of it to his tenant of the time, M. Breidt. At the present moment the castle is in the hands likewise of a peasant proprietor, a German from Prussian Rhineland, who, I rather suspect, on account of his nationality, does not get on over well with his neighbors at Sierck. Immediately around Mensberg the country is German. The Frenchspeaking people of Sierck, however, do not seem to eye him with favor. They asked me rather invidious questions about him which could scarcely be kindly meant. In any case, he wants to sell; and when I was there, though I could not understand much of his broad Rhenish "platt," yet he conveyed to me clearly enough his impression that "people in England had very much money," and that one of the persons so encumbered might do worse than buy his castle, interesting and picturesque and pleasantly situated as it is.

He also said something about its yielding | largest, and the most prominent feature in a good return, but he did not enter into the whole structure, is round, and is called particulars, and he would not name a the Lanterne. The square enclosed withprice.

M. Abel will have it that the name Mensberg is a corruption from "Mondsberg," and that this bare-topped hill was in pagan times a place consecrated to the worship of the moon. There is Montenach near, and Mandern or Mondern, moreover Mondorf, all with "Mond" or "Mont" in them, to support this theory in his opinion. And then there is the Stromberg, with its Druidical remains and traditions, which show it to have been a noted place for the worship, though not of the moon, of its near relative in mythology, the more powerful sun.

in the walls, a large space measuring about one hundred and fifty by one hundred and eighty feet, is still entire. And indeed, though exposure and neglect have evidently done their work, it will take a long time before those huge walls of eleven feet thickness, and built of good hard stone, finally crumble to pieces. On the top, all is in ruins; and, for the matter of that, the whole courtyard, picturesquely dilapidated, seems in keeping with the walls. And all this is so charmingly archaic, that you might fancy yourself right in the Middle Ages. On your left, as you enter, stands a mill of the most Of this sun-worship, one curious rite primitive pattern, rather like what we has been handed down to our century. see depicted in illustrated Bibles, one big Whether the practice is actually continued stone working on another, and turned by at the present day I know not, but until a horse-gear of truly patriarchal type. recently, at any rate, every midsummer Ramshackle sheds knocked up everynight saw the historic cérémonie de la where, mediæval implements all but falling roue enflammée duly observed on its sum- to pieces, harness botched together of mit. Ŏn St. John's eve, the organizers of odds and ends, bits of architecture over the ceremony made the round of the vil- which Mr. G. T. Clark would grow elolages and farms in the neighborhood, col- quent, in juxtaposition with agricultural lecting the usual tribute of straw, which gear which Arthur Young would have dewas kept in readiness everywhere against scribed as antiquated even in his time; their visit. Out of this straw they manu- there is none of that modern spick-andfactured a colossal sheaf, which was fixed spanness which speaks of prosperity and upon a big pole as upon a pivot, so that it high farming, but which is so tiresomely might be turned round and round. After prosaic. Of course I must clamber about the sounding of the Angelus, some hun- amid this débris, in approved archæologdreds of men marched up to the top of the ical fashion. The dwelling-house, adjoinmountain in solemn procession, carrying ing the picturesque, crenulated Lantern lighted torches. No women were allowed Tower, is about the only part of the fabric to take part. When it was quite dark, which is in good repair. Nothing could the sheaf was set on fire and turned rap-hurt these rock-like walls and the solid idly round, so as to present the appearance timbers, which seem seasoned as if to of a huge fiery wheel - the accepted and well-understood symbol of the sun. Similar customs, not unlike the old Celtic beltan or belstien, survive likewise in Alsace and the Black Forest.

last to eternity. Over the entrance, plain and conspicuous, is the coat of arms of the ancient family of the Siercks, in a field that should be or, a bend, gules, with three escallops, argent. That coat of arms The Stromberg is also geologically in- was well known in the times of chivalry, teresting. It shows very plainly three for it is said in praise of the Knights of different rocky strata, as different in color Sierck that they were "toujours à la tête as they are in geological character, and de la chevalerie Lorraine." Above are hence contributing to the variety of the four well-preserved stone supports of a scenery. balcony which is gone. Inside is the Château Malbrouk, occupying the high-room in which Marlborough feasted with est apex of the Mensberg Hill, where it commands a fine and extensive view almost all round, lies "four-square," with a tower at each corner. Three of these towers, named severally, the Marquis de Villars tells us, Keretour, Kaltfeldertour, and Kesstour, are square, with the outer corner projecting sharply in an acute angle. The fourth, being the tallest and

his staff on the 5th of June, 1705, the day after his arrival. Inside that is a large chamber, in which the proprietor will show you such archæological finds as he has gathered on his property. There are plenty of real old arrow-heads, dating from a time centuries before Marlborough. He tried to press some of these upon me. He could well spare them, he said. His

་

Marlborough's visit was, as Bishop Hare, who accompanied the forces in his capacity of chaplain-general, calls it in his unpublished correspondence, a thoroughly "bad business." The duke was then in the zenith of his fame. He had won Blen. heim. In the autumn of 1704 he conceived what Alison rightly terms the "bold and decisive" plan of pushing the war into what was to all intents and purposes the enemy's country. The hostile armies had fought on Dutch and German soil; he would move the seat of war into France, advancing along the Moselle and the Saar, attack the enemy where he was weakest, and his frontier was meagrely provided with fortresses, and so compel the French to spare the territory of our allies. It was, in principle, Count Moltke's plan of one hundred and sixty-five years after; only Marlborough would have carried out his idea with ninety thousand troops. In 1704 he had wished to take Saarlouis. But the delay - "needless as he calls it

men found them almost daily in his fields. | place. If that is correct, since Retel was Then he had a piece of an old war-trum- altogether within the French lines, it pet, and other bronze and iron ware. One shows what a firm belief the local people of the towers is now appropriated to the had in Marlborough's invincibility. But use of a granary, the wooden steps are I am inclined to believe that the sauvebroken, but otherwise the timbers are in garde was granted to Marienfloss, because splendid condition. Once you get upon M. Sauer distinctly mentioned that it had the broad walls, you have plenty of terra been given to a Carthusian monastery; firma under you. But to climb up over and Marienfloss, having been originally the loose rubbish is a work of not a little Franciscan, was Carthusian after 1414. danger, especially since all the ladders The promised inscription turned out a seem rickety. Of course I must ascend disappointment. It consisted simply of the Lantern Tower. The man had ex- the motto "Deo Servire," carved in the cited my curiosity by telling me of a mys- stone in old English characters, with a terious inscription. What it was exactly sculptured hand pointing to it. You he could not say, but he remembered could still see traces of the altar. Here, something like an I, and a C, and an M, it is assumed, the archbishop received the which might have stood for "John rite of consecration. Churchill (Duke of) Marlborough." It might also be something more interesting still, for every priest who comes to see the castle and there are plenty, he told me - is anxious to examine, and, if possible, decipher it. So, whatever it was, there must be something worth the climb. With the help of a very long ladder, minus about half its proper allowance of rungs (sometimes two or three missing at a time), and generally evidently not firm of build, I managed with some peril to life and limb to climb up through a window. Half-a-dozen times did I want to desist from the venture, not caring to trust myself further to the shaky ladder. But mine host encouraged me to persevere. From the top there was a charming view. Hills and valleys all round, I could see far away into the Palatinate, and towards the Vosges; and there, right opposite, lay Mandern, where the village swineherd was tooting on his oldfashioned horn, to summon his bristly charge for their trot out among the "mast." The pig is a grand institution in Lorraine, and held in honor accordingly. There is no dish in a Lorrain's estimation which will compare with cochon de lait. Again, from the tower I could very well trace the line of march of the two armies in 1705. There was Sierck, from which the French retreated, and Perle, from which Marlborough advanced. There, close by, was Mersch weiler, in which Lord Churchill had his headquarters. And there, on the other side, was Retel, to which Villars retreated. Retel was a Benedictine abbey. And M. Sauer, the late (French) archivist of Metz, told me that in the possession of his friend, M. Dufresne, lately dead, he had seen as an object of interest carefully preserved a sauve-garde, or letter of protection, given by Marlborough to the monks of that

in the siege of Landau, by the fault of our allies, rendered that impossible. He arranged, however, with Prince Eugene, that early in 1705 the allies should take the field, when all that he planned to do would have been perfectly feasible. Unfortunately, our allies, as usual, left us disappointingly in the lurch. Marlborough was on the spot in proper time, with his forty-two thousand men, all English or in English pay. But the bishops-electors of Trier and Mainz and the electors palatine were to provide three thousand horses for his artillery, and Prince Louis of Baden was to bring up forty thousand or fifty thousand men of the imperial army; and both these parties failed in their engagements. The Prince of Baden, who was afterwards in consequence nicknamed by the army "le prince des Louis,"

had had his sensitive toes trodden upon and kind of disposition; so he had the by Marlborough at Blenheim, and was, bridge lowered and gave "Claire" food moreover, put out at seeing Prince Eugene and comfortable quarters, warning her, placed over him; and so his Serenity however she is described as a goodmade his excuses and delayed his march, looking young woman and at length, just at the time when he was most wanted in the field, leisurely went to take the waters of Schlangenbad. Villars had, as Bishop Hare puts it, evidently "no stomach" for fighting Marlborough; he retreated before him with ready alacrity. But while Prince Louis was keeping the duke in suspense, another French army pushed its way into the poorly garrisoned Netherlands, besieged the Dutch fortresses, and things grew so serious that " express upon express ar rived in the British camp imploring Marlborough to come post-haste to their res-ing that every enemy taken with weapons cue, which eventually he did.