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INDIANA UNIVERSITY STUDIES 



ties I" Together with the village tailor Avho knew some French, 

 Cooper's German being, as he informed the host, far from 

 classical, they set out to visit the places of interest. After seeing 

 the ruins of the abbey and the castle. Cooper sought information 

 about the Pagan Wall. The "Heidenmauer" was supposed to 

 be the spot where Attila had camped during the winter before 

 he crossed the Rhine and marched against the Romans. The 

 wall was, however, supposed to be the work of the Romans 

 themselves. The Devil's Stone nearby was a natural rock upoii 

 which sacrifices were thought to have been made. These objects 

 of interest and the legends told him in the inn at Duerckheim 

 furnished Cooper Avith material for the novel. "The following 

 pages," he wrote, "are the offspring of the convocation held in 

 the parlor of the Ox." 'The Heidenmauer' has little to remind 

 us of the author of the 'Last of the Mohicans;' in fact it is one 

 of the least readable of Cooper's novels. It is a tale of the 

 period of the Reformation and has for its theme the schism be- 

 tween the barons and the church, with special reference to the 

 disputes between the communities of Duerckheim and of Lim- 

 burg over the vineyards. Emich of Leiningen, representing the 

 community of Duerckheim, and the Abbott of Limburg, repre- 

 senting the interests of the Church, enter upon a drinking-con- 

 test, "the well-known debauch of Hartenburg," in which Emich 

 is victorious and Limburg releases its claims upon the vineyards. 



