203 



GERMANY. 



order to obtain a glimpse of ancient Treves. The "holy coat" occasionally 

 attracts vast numbers of pilgrims to Treves, but that town has recently met with a 

 formidable rival in the neighbouring village of Marpinge», whence miraculous 

 appearances of the Virgin Mary bave been reported. 



The Moselle below Treves has a course of no less than 110 miles before it 

 joins the Rhine, but throughout this extent not a single town of importance is 

 met with, though small villages are plentiful. The narrow valley, bounded by 

 vine- clad hills, affords no room for a large town, and only at the confluence could 

 space be found for a larger agglomeration of houses. Cohlcnz (34,130 inhabit- 

 ants), the Confluentcs of the Romans, has not attained the importance which its 



Fig. 119.— TiiEVES (Tkier) 

 Scale 1 : 124.000. 



•2 Miles. 



position would seem to warrant. Its inferiority to Frankfort and Cologne is 

 accounted for by the fact of its being surrounded by sterile, thinly peopled hills, 

 possessing few resources. Besides this, the military character of the town must 

 necessarily cripple its industrial and commercial development. Coblenz has a fine 

 Byzantine church, a noble railway bridge over the Rhine, and an ancient bridge 

 across the Moselle, but the structures which principally attract attention are its 

 fortifications. Right opposite rises the impregnable citadel of Ehrcnhreitstcin, 

 with its casemated batteries. The detached forts surrounding the town aff'ord 

 shelter to an army of 200,000 men, and yet all these fortifications can be defended 

 by 5,000 men, so carefully have they been planned. 



