Donauwörth grew to be a place of such importance that it was for a time the seat of the Dukes of Upper Bavaria, until Duke Louis the Severe, who in 1256 had his wife beheaded on an unfounded charge of infidelity, removed his capital to Munich. It is suggested that the change of capital was dictated by the duke’s guilty conscience. In the church attached to the suppressed Benedictine Abbey of the Holy Cross here, is to be seen the sarcophagus of the unhappy, Desdemona-like Duchess Mary. The story runs that no sooner had the deed been perpetrated than incontestable evidence of the duchess’s innocence was forthcoming, and the conscience-stricken husband became grey in a single night:-- “And still that mangled form so fair Was present to his mind; His cheek grew haggard with despair-- No refuge could he find. The furrows deepened on his brow, All sleep forsook his eye! His gait so proud to earth was bowed, But still he could not die! A deadly weight, a dreary fate, A voice that said ‘Live on! Each wretched breast may hope for rest, But thou canst hope for none.’” FOOTNOTES: [1] “The Black Forest,” p. 276 (Methuen). CHAPTER II DONAUWÖRTH TO RATISBON “... the Walhalla rises, purely white; Temple of Fame for all Germania’s great, A splendid beacon on a leafy height, To hearten men below to dedicate Their service to the service of their land.” _From the German_ From the old capital of the old dukedom to Ingoldstadt the river for nearly forty miles finds its way through part of the Bavarian plain, another broad-stretching Donaumoos, or marshland, which has, however, been largely reclaimed and brought under cultivation. On the left bank much of the ground is higher and well wooded. Near Lechsend, which is on the left bank, the river Lechs comes in on the right--and a little way inland in the same direction is the village of Rain, where in March, 1632, the aged Bavarian General Tilly was mortally wounded in seeking to stay the triumphant progress of Gustavus Adolphus. In the following month Tilly died of his wounds at Ingoldstadt.