'"
A smile beamed on every face as the wedding-party left the church
and entered their carriage. What a happy day, after ten years'
separation, when, both hearts having been blighted for a time,
they are brought together by the hand of a beneficent and kind
Providence, and united in holy wedlock.
Everything being arranged for a wedding tour extending up the
Rhine, the party set out the same day for Antwerp. There are many
rivers of greater length and width than the Rhine. Our Mississippi
would swallow up half a dozen Rhines. The Hudson is grander, the
Tiber, the Po, and the Minclo more classic; the Thames and Seine
bear upon their waters greater amounts of wealth and commerce; the
Nile and the Euphrates have a greater antiquity; but for a
combination of interesting historical incidents and natural
scenery, the Rhine surpasses them all. Nature has so ordained it
that those who travel in the valley of the Rhine shall see the
river, for there never will be a railroad upon its banks. So
mountainous is the land that it would have to be one series of
tunnels. Every three or four miles from the time you enter this
glorious river, hills, dales, castles, and crags present
themselves as the steamer glides onward.
Their first resting-place for any length of time was at Coblentz,
at the mouth of the "Blue Moselle," the most interesting place on
the river. From Coblentz they went to Brussels, where they had the
greatest attention paid them. Besides being provided with letters
of introduction, Jerome's complexion secured for him more
deference than is usually awarded to travellers.
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