some distance from the river; a proof at least that he was never there, and probably sang and lived in some very distant region:
The boats were floating ready, And many men there were;
What clothes of price they had They took and stow’d them there,
Was never a rest from toiling Until the eventide,
Then they took the flood right gaily, Would longer not abide.
Brave tents and hutches You saw raised on the grass,
Other side the Rhine-stream That camp it pitched was:
The king to stay a while Was besought of his fair wife;
That night she saw him with her, And never more in life.
most wonderful things. Within authentic times, the Romans were here; and if tradition may be credited, Attila also; it was the seat of the Austrasian kings; the frequent residence of Charlemagne himself; innumerable Festivals, High-tides, Tournaments and Imperial Diets were held in it, of which latter, one at least, that where Luther appeared in 1521, will be forever remembered by all mankind. Nor is Worms more famous in history than, as indeed we may see here, it is in romance; whereof many monuments and vestiges remain to this day, “A pleasant meadow there,” says Von der Hagen, “is still called Chriemhild’s Rosengarten. The name Worms itself is derived (by Legendary Etymology) from the Dragon, or Worm, which Siegfried slew, the figure of which once formed the City Arms; in past times, there was also to be seen here an ancient strong Riesen-Haus (Giant’s-house), and many a memorial of Siegfried: his Lance, 66 feet long (almost 80 English feet), in the Cathedral; his Statue, of gigantic size, on the Neue Thurm (New Tower) on the Rhine;” etc., etc. “And lastly the Siegfried’s Chapel, in primeval, Pre-Gothic architecture, not long since pulled down. In the time of the Meistersängers too, the Stadtrath was bound to give every Master, who sang the lay of Siegitied (“Meisterlied von Siegfrieden,” the purport of which is now unknown) without mistake, a certain gratuity.” “Glossary to the Nibelungen,” § Worms.
One is sorry to learn that this famed Imperial City is no longer Imperial, but much fallen in every way from its palmy state; the 30,000 inhabitants, to be found there in Gustavus Adolphus’ time, having now declined into some 6,800,—“who maintain themselves by wine-growing, Rhine-boats, tobacco-manufacture, and making sugar-of-lead.” So hard has war, which respects nothing, pressed on Worms, ill-placed for safety, on the hostile border: Louvois, or Louis XIV., in 1689, had it utterly devastated; whereby in the interior, “spaces that were once covered with buildings are now gardens.” See “Conv. Lexicon,” § Worms,
