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366 went through untold sufferings, and were partially depopulated, but the castle survived. Then followed the cruel wars of Louis XIV., and the French General caused the foundations of the castle to be blown up and the palace to be burned down! Portions were rebuilt afterwards, but was again destroyed by lightning, and noble ruins are all that the tourist sees and admires at the present day. The ivy covered towers and the vast walls form the most magnificent ruin in all Germany.

The University too survived with difficulty the Thirty Years' War and the French wars of Louis XIV. It has 1,000 to 1,200 students in winter, and duelling is still in vogue among the German university students.

Going further up the Rhine from Manhiem we come to the historic town of Speyer or Spires, one of the free cities of the Empire like Frankfort and Worms. Here too numerous imperial diets were held, and it was after the diet of 1829, held here by Charles V., that the Princes and States who had espoused the cause of the Reformation received the name of Protestants from their protest against the resolution of the hostile majority. The Cathedral of Spires, the burial place of old German Emperors, dates from the eleventh century. It is an imposing edifice, and is the principal attraction of the place.

Leaving Spires, and travelling up the course of the Rhine, one comes to Strassburg the famous capital of Alsace. It