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but towards Treves; at last he looked to that quarter too. A flight of wild ducks rose from the ground in the direction taken by his eye. Quack, quack, quack," went their hundred ornithological tongues, while the whirr of their wings, as they sailed high over his head, added to his incipient confusion and dismay.

"What do I see!" exclaimed he in a tone of horror and affright.

The brook, like a thread of silver, was visible, creeping towards him in the direction from Treves. It was within a half hour's run of Cologne. He could perceive its progress as a anan may that of the minute - hand of a clock. Every moment brought it nearer: every second was fraught with death and eternal destruction to him.

"Demon!" exclaimed he in a fit of rage, "you have won. But you shall never have your wager from me alive. "

With these words he flung himself from the tower, and was shattered to pieces by the fall. The fiend, in the shape of a large black hound, sprang after him; but he was too late tu seize him alive. Thus perished the foolish wight who would wager with the devil. Since his death, no further progress has been made towards the completion of the cathedral; it stands exactly as he is said to have left it.

The suicide and the spirit-hound were sculp→ tured in relief high up in the fatal tower, whence the hapless architect had precipitated himself. And it is confidently asserted, by the enlightened populace of Cologne, that if you lay your ear to the ground by the Devil's Stone you will

hear the gurgle of a brook, as it flows to the river, under the foundations of the cathedral.

Another tradition tells us that the suspension of the progress of the edifice was owing to the seduction of the architect's wife by the prince of darkness. She discovered to her insinuating lover the secret of the building communicated to her by her husband; and he made such an effectual use of it-the how is not relatedthat the structure was never finished.

THE DEVIL'S STONE.

As allusion has been made more than once in these traditions to the Devil's Stone, it may be as well to tell the legend connected with it.

According to all authentic tradition, his infernal majesty was very much annoyed at the commencement and progress of the cathedral. Day after day, and night after night, he was to be found flitting between Cologne and the Seven Mountains, where the quarries whence the stone for building it was extracted, were situated; but still he could find no means of putting a stop to the sacred work. At lenght, one morning, he saw the Chapel of the Three Kings just finished; the scaffolding was removed, and it stood forth in all its beauty. He could endure it no longer. Flying with the velocity of lightning to the Seven Mountains, he lighted on the summit of the Drachenfels; and, reaching to the cathedral quarry half way down the mountain, he picked up a huge mass of stone and flung it with all his might and main at the sacred edifice. By the particular inter

position of Providence, in the shape, it is said, of a sudden hurricane from the N.N.W., the mighty mass fell a few feet short of its destination, and thundered down on the very spot on which it now stands. The claw-prints of the fiend's fingers are still seen in it. It is called, from this circumstance, the Devil's Stone (Teufelsstein).

THE FIRE-BELL.

In the taller of the two grand towers which stand at the entrance to the cathedral, hangs the great bell, better known as the Fire-bell of Cologne. It weighs, according to Schreiber's statement, 25,000 lbs. To that bell attaches the ensuing tradition, which has been thus metrically rendered.*

The bell of Cologne cathedral had lost through time its tone;

"Who casts instead another, the glory be his own!"

'Twas thus outspake the council of that proud

city free;

And Wolf, the founder, sought the work, a

bold, bad man was he.

Fain would he see his handy-work high poised in middle air;

By J. G. Seidl. This poem is given in Dr. Simrock's elegant little volume, entitled " Rheinsagen aus dem Munde des Volks und Deutscher Dichter." Bonn, 1837.

per

Bell-founding was and is an art in high repute in Germany, even at this day; and various ceremonies are formed prior, during, and subsequent to the casting. curious reader is referred, for particulars, to Schillers "Lied ron der Glocke, "

The

Fain hear its deep and solemn voice the city call to prayer.

Fain would he have it hung aloft, in that gorgeous church's tower;

A wonder and a monument of his great skill and

Awaiting his behest alone, to rush in fiery flood. He oped with care its aperture, outgushing it did glow;

"Luck to the work!"-'twas thus he spake"In God's name let it go!"

And forth it flashed a lava flood-and quickly fill'd the mould;

All-anxious were the gazing crowd, until the cast was cold.

The earthy husk is broken sheer, the bell to view is given;

From crown to rim 'tis riven clean- a crack! a crack! by Heaven!"

*

*

*

*

*

"Once more," thus Wolf, "I'll try the trick! 'twere shame to give it o'er."

A second mould is fashioned soon the metal

glows once more.

The melted ore outgush'd again, the word in God's name's given.

Again the husk is cleft in haste-" another crack, by heaven!"

*

*

*

*

*

"Once more," in passion spake he-" but, God's name, now no more!

in

In the devil's name I'll try it now

were so before!"

would it

The metal glows like molten gold-thorough the chink it rushes;

And, in the foul-fiends name, so free, into the mould it gushes.

The crowd, though struck with horror great, still watched around to see,

What came of such strange casting

of flood so free.

what came

The mould once more is cleft in twain, the bell to view is given;

No cleaner cast e'er yet was seen 'neath the canopy of heaven!

All joy they heave it to its place, with tackle tough and strong;

'Tis hung within that massy tower, where to this day it stands.

"The trial of its tone," cried Wolf, be the work of mine own hands.".

He pulls the rope; the huge bell booms-Oh, God the fearful sound,

Flung from its brazen throat! 'Twas such, the city was astound.

Some cross'd themselves-some stopp'd their ears -some hid themselves for fright:

In madness and in wild despair, Wolf sprang from that tower's height.

*

*

*

*

**

Since then there hangs that fated bell, a war

ning to the bad;