THE RHINE. COBLENTZ. COBLENTZ is one of the most ancient cities on the shores of the Rhine. At the time of the invasion of Drusus Germanicus (B. c. 13) a castle was built there by that conqueror; which, in process of time, became the centre of the great city that stood on both banks of the Rhine and the Moselle in the middle ages. The position of this city originally gave rise to its nameConfluentes, or Confluentia; a name which, though currupted, has been still preserved in the word Coblentz. It was so called from being placed at the confluence of the waters of the Rhine and the Moselle: both rivers uniting their streams there, and thence flowing onwards, conjoined, to the embouchure of the former in the flats and fens of Holland. In the troublous times of the Roman empire, and in the period of its greatest splendour and glory, the name of Coblentz is never once mentioned, as, indeed, might be expected: and for very nearly three centuries subsequent to its foundation, nothing is known respecting its history, The first Latin writer who alludes to its existence, is Ammianus Marcellinus, in his lives of Constantius and Julian the Apostate (A. D. 360);** but it is subsequently noticed in the Antonine Itinerary. The next mention made of Coblentz is posterior to the fall of the Western Empire. An interval of five centuries intervenes between the period of the previous notice and the one which succeeded it. It was the point of junction where the rival grandchildren of Charlemagne met to prepare the articles of the treaty of Verdun, by which the empire was subsequently partitioned among them (A. D. 843). On the death of Ludwig the Pious, better known to the readers of history as Louis le Débonnaire (A.D. 840), his three sons, Lothaire, Louis the German, and Charles the Bald, inherited the ample dominions of his father Charlemagne. The two first, together with their deceased brother, Pipin, had been in a state of rebellion against their weak-minded sire during the greater part of his reign: their unnatural conduct had embittered his existence; and it is more than probable that the ill treatment he had, on several occasions, received at their hands, accelerated bis death. It was not to be expected that they would agree with one another, when they It is in describing the march of the Roman army along the Rhine that it occurs, and the passage in the original runs thus: "Per quos tractus nec civitas ulla vistur, nec castellum; nisi quod apud confluentes locum ita cognominatur, abi amnis Mosella confunditur Rheno, The author of this ancient work calls the place Confluentes, and states that its population then exceeded one thousand persons. Accor proceeded to such lengths against him. dingly, a bitter feud, followed by a destructive war, immediately arose between them. Το Lothaire, as the eldest surviving son of Louis, claimed sovereignty over his brothers; this privilege they were by no means disposed to concede to him, and they at once met his claim by an unequivocal declaration of independence. strengthen their cause the more, they entered into a solemn league, binding themselves to stand by each other in all emergencies that might arise out of this proceeding of their elder brother. They then speedily assembled a large body of troops to resist his aggressions. Lothaire was not slow to attempt the enforcement of his claim: at the head of a powerful army he marched upon Worms; and, after a sharp siege, succeeded in expelling its defenders and taking it into his own possession. He next proceeded to Frankfort-onthe-Maine, where Louis the German resided; but here he met with such a severe repulse, that he was obliged to retire from before the city, and finally to beg a truce from the brother he had come to subdue. He was not, however, dispirited, neither was he to be diverted by any reverses from his ambitious design. Confiding the charge of the boundaries of the Rhine to his friends, Otgar, Archbishop of Mentz, and Adalbert, Count of Metz (subsequently Duke of East Franconia), he quickly hastened to West Franconia, for the purpose of attacking his youngest brother, Charles the Bald. During his absence, however, Louis had sucreeded in exciting the popular mind against his pretensions; and gathering together a formidable |