River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1876-02-17
MISCELLANY.
"REMINISCENCES OF RATSBoN.

Don John was BOrn-A visit to the
Dungeons and Torture. q ooms Of
the Bath House.
lCharles Dudley Warner in the Hartford Cour-
ant
In order to enjoy Ratisbon you need to
brush up your historic recollections, and
select sunny day for your pilgrimage
TO it. In the sourness and darkness Of a
November day it is dull and gloomy, and
frowns upon you with its heavy Gothic
architecture. 1t is, rs you know,
rusty city which began to decay and
shrink as early as the middle Of the
seventeenth century, although it retained
its Importance as the meeting place Of
the imperial diet down to 1906. /, was
the starting point Of a massive stone wall.
strengthed by towers, which the Roman
emperor ProbuS built from the Danube
to the Rhine, by a winding distance Of
two hundred miles, in the vain cxpccia.
ton that it would restrain the inroals Of
the German barbarians. 1t was at Rat.
isbon that crusading warriors and pill.
grimS to the Holy Land embarked upon
the Danube. A great portion rf the
traffic Of the East passed through this
free city of the empire, and its merchants
enjoyed a European credit. | walked
through the broad and vacant street of
Ambassadors, where the coats Of arms of
foreign states still attest tho former resi-.
dence of their ministers.
am staying at the Goldenes Kreutz,
vast inn occupying a good part Of one
side Of the Heideplatz and having at one
end oft square battlemeHt tower, With
loOp.holes in its thick walls. There are
several Of these old towers in the city,
the remains Of days when tyrants had
frequent need of shelter from popular
rage. Upon one OF them is G colossal
picture Of the combat between David and
Goliah, most unequal fight in which the
giant never had a chance to show his
strong points. No sooner had secured
my room which is large enough for a
town meeting, than ! asked the waiter
to show me the apartment that Charles V.
occupied when he lodged in Ratisbon. in
1915. This emperor ought to be patron
saint of landlords, for he made the for.
tune of every hotel he slept in, in Ger
many. However they had special oc-
casion to remember him here. The year
following his patronage Of this house, its
beautiful hostess, Barbara Blulnberg, gave
birth TO Don John Of Austria. One
would need halfa day to explore the ms
and outs, the up stairs and down, the
crooked passages Of this old house.
The stately and gilded chamber in which
the emperor slept is unchanged since his
day, and is an apartment Of some SPLEEN
dor leading out Of it but up fight Of
stairs, is the room in which Don John
was born. Outside the wall, under the
quaint window with its small, diamond
panes, is portrait Of the consumate and
pitiless, soldier in terra Gotta and an
inscription.
dare say that the event that made
this room celebrated was not AT all rO-
mantle TO the lovely Barbara, and she
would have been greatly astonished If
she had been told that three centuries af.
ter strangers would come with consider.
able curiosity TO look at tho chamber, and
90 muse upon the unfortunate circum.
stances to which the world owes the
birth Of the scourge Of the Netherlands.
II is lamentable, the trouble nearly al.
ways caused by the coming into the
world Of q pretty woman. There, in
that ancient mansion opposite the Rath
house, more than century before the
birth Of Don John, a tournament was
held TO maintain the innocence Of the
beautiful Agnes Bernauer, maid Of hum.
BILE origin, who had captivatcd the heart
&C Albert, son Of Duke Earnest Of Ba-
varia, who married her in spite Of his
father rage at the connection. The oldty.
rant caused the charming girl 60 be seized
and thrown over the bridge at Strasburg,
into the Danube, and when she freed her.
self from her bonds and swan ashore, a
wretch caught her long hair with a
hooked pole and held her under water
till she droSned. like TO recall these
well.knOwn stories in these medi@val
places in order 10 coa.e more clearly into
sympathy with the spirit Of the good old
time Of faith al chiyalrny.
In the Rath house saw portrait Of
Barbara Blumberg, in the fiat and stiff
style Of the art Of her period. asked
tho maid who was showing me through
the building " she thought Barbara IS
handsome mo, indeed she said. "she
was by this picture not pretty, but the
kaiser loved her. The portrait may
have been taken some time after the y',it
Of the emperor, for II does not at all
sustain her reputation Of beauty. |
wonder II that reputation was not iciic.
tious. We are so imposed on by the
middle age humbug that sometimes
doubt lis beauty and heroism as well as
It's piety and chastity.
The RAth house is in parts very old,
portions II it belonging 10 tho fourteenth
century OvVp tho Gothic door hy