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+Project Gutenberg’s The Pilgrims Of The Rhine, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Pilgrims Of The Rhine
+
+Author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton
+
+Release Date: March 17, 2009 [EBook #8206]
+Last Updated: August 28, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PILGRIMS OF THE RHINE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger and Dagny
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE PILGRIMS OF THE RHINE
+
+TO WHICH IS PREFIXED THE IDEAL WORLD
+
+By Edward Bulwer Lytton (Lord Lytton)
+
+
+
+
+THE PILGRIMS OF THE RHINE
+
+
+
+TO HENRY LYTTON BULWER.
+
+ALLOW me, my dear Brother, to dedicate this Work to you. The greater
+part of it (namely, the tales which vary and relieve the voyages of
+Gertrude and Trevylyan) was written in the pleasant excursion we made
+together some years ago. Among the associations--some sad and some
+pleasing--connected with the general design, none are so agreeable to
+me as those that remind me of the friendship subsisting between us, and
+which, unlike that of near relations in general, has grown stronger
+and more intimate as our footsteps have receded farther from the fields
+where we played together in our childhood. I dedicate this Work to you
+with the more pleasure, not only when I remember that it has always
+been a favourite with yourself, but when I think that it is one of my
+writings most liked in foreign countries; and I may possibly, therefore,
+have found a record destined to endure the affectionate esteem which
+this Dedication is intended to convey.
+
+Yours, etc.
+
+E. L. B. LONDON, April 23, 1840.
+
+
+
+
+ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIRST EDITION.
+
+COULD I prescribe to the critic and to the public, I would wish that
+this work might be tried by the rules rather of poetry than prose,
+for according to those rules have been both its conception and its
+execution; and I feel that something of sympathy with the author’s
+design is requisite to win indulgence for the superstitions he has
+incorporated with his tale, for the floridity of his style, and the
+redundance of his descriptions. Perhaps, indeed, it would be impossible,
+in attempting to paint the scenery and embody some of the Legends of
+the Rhine, not to give (it may be, too loosely) the reins to the
+imagination, or to escape the influence of that wild German spirit which
+I have sought to transfer to a colder tongue.
+
+I have made the experiment of selecting for the main interest of my
+work the simplest materials, and weaving upon them the ornaments given
+chiefly to subjects of a more fanciful nature. I know not how far I have
+succeeded, but various reasons have conspired to make this the work,
+above all others that I have written, which has given me the most
+delight (though not unmixed with melancholy) in producing, and in which
+my mind for the time has been the most completely absorbed. But the
+ardour of composition is often disproportioned to the merit of the
+work; and the public sometimes, nor unjustly, avenges itself for
+that forgetfulness of its existence which makes the chief charm of an
+author’s solitude,--and the happiest, if not the wisest, inspiration of
+his dreams.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+WITH the younger class of my readers this work has had the good fortune
+to find especial favour; perhaps because it is in itself a collection of
+the thoughts and sentiments that constitute the Romance of youth. It has
+little to do with the positive truths of our actual life, and does not
+pretend to deal with the larger passions and more stirring interests
+of our kind. It is but an episode out of the graver epic of human
+destinies. It requires no explanation of its purpose, and no analysis of
+its story; the one is evident, the other simple,--the first seeks but
+to illustrate visible nature through the poetry of the affections; the
+other is but the narrative of the most real of mortal sorrows, which the
+Author attempts to take out of the region of pain by various accessories
+from the Ideal. The connecting tale itself is but the string that binds
+into a garland the wild-flowers cast upon a grave.
+
+The descriptions of the Rhine have been considered by Germans
+sufficiently faithful to render this tribute to their land and
+their legends one of the popular guide-books along the course it
+illustrates,--especially to such tourists as wish not only to take
+in with the eye the inventory of the river, but to seize the peculiar
+spirit which invests the wave and the bank with a beauty that can only
+be made visible by reflection. He little comprehends the true charm of
+the Rhine who gazes on the vines on the hill-tops without a thought of
+the imaginary world with which their recesses have been peopled by the
+graceful credulity of old; who surveys the steep ruins that overshadow
+the water, untouched by one lesson from the pensive morality of Time.
+Everywhere around us is the evidence of perished opinions and
+departed races; everywhere around us, also, the rejoicing fertility of
+unconquerable Nature, and the calm progress of Man himself through the
+infinite cycles of decay. He who would judge adequately of a landscape
+must regard it not only with the painter’s eye, but with the poet’s.
+The feelings which the sight of any scene in Nature conveys to the
+mind--more especially of any scene on which history or fiction has left
+its trace--must depend upon our sympathy with those associations which
+make up what may be called the spiritual character of the spot. If
+indifferent to those associations, we should see only hedgerows and
+ploughed land in the battle-field of Bannockburn; and the traveller
+would but look on a dreary waste, whether he stood amidst the piles of
+the Druid on Salisbury plain, or trod his bewildered way over the broad
+expanse on which the Chaldaean first learned to number the stars.
+
+To the former editions of this tale was prefixed a poem on “The Ideal,”
+ which had all the worst faults of the author’s earliest compositions
+in verse. The present poem (with the exception of a very few lines) has
+been entirely rewritten, and has at least the comparative merit of being
+less vague in the thought, and less unpolished in the diction, than that
+which it replaces.
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+
+  THE IDEAL WORLD
+
+
+
+  THE PILGRIMS OF THE RHINE
+
+  CHAPTER I.
+  In which the Reader is Introduced to Queen Nymphalin
+
+  CHAPTER II.
+  The Lovers
+
+  CHAPTER III.
+  Feelings
+
+  CHAPTER IV.
+  The Maid of Malines
+
+  CHAPTER V.
+  Rotterdam.--The Character of the Dutch.--Their Resemblance to the
+  Germans.--A Dispute between Vane and Trevylyan, after the manner of the
+  ancient Novelists, as to which is preferable, the Life of Action, or the
+  Life of Repose.--Trevylyan’s Contrast between Literary Ambition and the
+  Ambition of Public Life
+
+  CHAPTER VI.
+  Gorcum.--The Tour of the Virtues: a Philosopher’s Tale
+
+  CHAPTER VII.
+  Cologne.--The Traces of the Roman Yoke.--The Church of St.
+  Maria.--Trevylyan’s Reflections on the Monastic Life.--The Tomb of the
+  Three Kings.--An Evening Excursion on the Rhine
+
+  CHAPTER VIII.
+  The Soul in Purgatory; or, Love Stronger than Death
+
+  CHAPTER IX.
+  The Scenery of the Rhine analogous to the German Literary Genius.--The
+  Drachenfels
+
+  CHAPTER X.
+  The Legend of Roland.--The Adventures of Nymphalin on the Island of
+  Nonnewerth.--Her Song.--The Decay of the Fairy-Faith in England
+
+  CHAPTER XI.
+  Wherein the Reader is made Spectator with the English Fairies of the
+  Scenes and Beings that are beneath the Earth
+
+  CHAPTER XII.
+  The Wooing of Master Fox
+
+  CHAPTER XIII.
+  The Tomb of a Father of Many Children
+
+  CHAPTER XIV.
+  The Fairy’s Cave, and the Fairy’s Wish
+
+  CHAPTER XV.
+  The Banks of the Rhine.--From the Drachenfels to Brohl.--An Incident that
+  suffices in this Tale for an Epoch
+
+  CHAPTER XVI.
+  Gertrude.--The Excursion to Hammerstein.--Thoughts
+
+  CHAPTER XVII.
+  Letter from Trevylyan to -----
+
+  CHAPTER XVIII.
+  Coblentz.--Excursion to the Mountains of Taunus; Roman Tower in the
+  Valley of Ehrenbreitstein.--Travel, its Pleasures estimated differently
+  by the Young and the Old.--The Student of Heidelberg: his Criticisms on
+  German Literature
+
+  CHAPTER XIX.
+  The Fallen Star; or, the History of a False Religion
+
+  CHAPTER XX.
+  Glenhausen.--The Power of Love in Sanctified Places.--A Portrait of
+  Frederick Barbarossa.--The Ambition of Men finds no adequate Sympathy in
+  Women
+
+  CHAPTER XXI.
+  View of Ehrenbreitstein.--A New Alarm in Gertrude’s Health.--Trarbach
+
+  CHAPTER XXII.
+  The Double Life.--Trevylyan’s Fate.--Sorrow the Parent of
+  Fame.--Niederlahnstein.--Dreams
+
+  CHAPTER XXIII.
+  The Life of Dreams
+
+  CHAPTER XXIV.
+  The Brothers
+
+  CHAPTER XXV.
+  The Immortality of the Soul.--A Common Incident not before Described.
+  --Trevylyan and Gertrude
+
+  CHAPTER XXVI.
+  In which the Reader will learn how the Fairies were received by the
+  Sovereigns of the Mines.--The Complaint of the Last of the Fauns.--The
+  Red Huntsman.--The Storm.--Death
+
+  CHAPTER XXVII.
+  Thurmberg.--A Storm upon the Rhine.--The Ruins of Rheinfels.--Peril
+  Unfelt by Love.--The Echo of the Lurlei-berg.--St. Goar.--Kaub,
+  Gutenfels, and Pfalzgrafenstein.--A certain Vastness of Mind in the First
+  Hermits.--The Scenery of the Rhine to Bacharach
+
+  CHAPTER XXVIII.
+  The Voyage to Bingen.--The Simple Incidents in this Tale Excused.--The
+  Situation and Character of Gertrude.--The Conversation of the Lovers in
+  the Tempest.--A Fact Contradicted.--Thoughts occasioned by a Madhouse
+  amongst the most Beautiful Landscapes of the Rhine
+
+  CHAPTER XXIX.
+  Ellfeld.--Mayence.--Heidelberg.--A Conversation between Vane and the
+  German Student.--The Ruins of the Castle of Heidelberg and its Solitary
+  Habitant
+
+  CHAPTER XXX.
+  No Part of the Earth really Solitary.--The Song of the Fairies.--The
+  Sacred Spot.--The Witch of the Evil Winds.--The Spell and the Duty of the
+  Fairies
+
+  CHAPTER XXXI.
+  Gertrude and Trevylyan, when the former is awakened to the Approach of
+  Death
+
+  CHAPTER XXXII.
+  A Spot to be Buried in
+
+  CHAPTER THE LAST
+  The Conclusion of this Tale
+
+
+
+
+THE IDEAL WORLD
+
+
+
+
+  I.
+
+  THE IDEAL WORLD,--ITS REALM IS EVERYWHERE AROUND US; ITS INHABITANTS ARE
+  THE IMMORTAL PERSONIFICATIONS OF ALL BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS; TO THAT WORLD WE
+  ATTAIN BY THE REPOSE OF THE SENSES.
+
+  AROUND “this visible diurnal sphere”
+     There floats a World that girds us like the space;
+  On wandering clouds and gliding beams career
+    Its ever-moving murmurous Populace.
+  There, all the lovelier thoughts conceived below
+    Ascending live, and in celestial shapes.
+  To that bright World, O Mortal, wouldst thou go?
+    Bind but thy senses, and thy soul escapes:
+  To care, to sin, to passion close thine eyes;
+  Sleep in the flesh, and see the Dreamland rise!
+  Hark to the gush of golden waterfalls,
+  Or knightly tromps at Archimagian Walls!
+  In the green hush of Dorian Valleys mark
+    The River Maid her amber tresses knitting;
+  When glow-worms twinkle under coverts dark,
+    And silver clouds o’er summer stars are flitting,
+  With jocund elves invade “the Moone’s sphere,
+  Or hang a pearl in every cowslip’s ear;” *
+  Or, list! what time the roseate urns of dawn
+    Scatter fresh dews, and the first skylark weaves
+  Joy into song, the blithe Arcadian Faun
+    Piping to wood-nymphs under Bromian leaves,
+  While slowly gleaming through the purple glade
+  Come Evian’s panther car, and the pale Naxian Maid.
+
+    * “Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
+
+  Such, O Ideal World, thy habitants!
+    All the fair children of creative creeds,
+  All the lost tribes of Fantasy are thine,--
+  From antique Saturn in Dodonian haunts,
+    Or Pan’s first music waked from shepherd reeds,
+  To the last sprite when Heaven’s pale lamps decline,
+  Heard wailing soft along the solemn Rhine.
+
+
+
+  II.
+
+  OUR DREAMS BELONG TO THE IDEAL.--THE DIVINER LOVE FOR WHICH YOUTH SIGHS
+  NOT ATTAINABLE IN LIFE, BUT THE PURSUIT OF THAT LOVE BEYOND THE WORLD OF
+  THE SENSES PURIFIES THE SOUL AND AWAKES THE GENIUS.--PETRARCH.--DANTE.
+
+  Thine are the Dreams that pass the Ivory Gates,
+    With prophet shadows haunting poet eyes!
+  Thine the belov’d illusions youth creates
+    From the dim haze of its own happy skies.
+  In vain we pine; we yearn on earth to win
+    The being of the heart, our boyhood’s dream.
+  The Psyche and the Eros ne’er have been,
+    Save in Olympus, wedded!  As a stream
+  Glasses a star, so life the ideal love;
+  Restless the stream below, serene the orb above!
+  Ever the soul the senses shall deceive;
+  Here custom chill, there kinder fate bereave:
+  For mortal lips unmeet eternal vows!
+  And Eden’s flowers for Adam’s mournful brows!
+  We seek to make the moment’s angel guest
+    The household dweller at a human hearth;
+  We chase the bird of Paradise, whose nest
+    Was never found amid the bowers of earth.*
+
+    * According to a belief in the East, which is associated with one
+      of the loveliest and most familiar of Oriental superstitions,
+      the bird of Paradise is never seen to rest upon the earth, and
+      its nest is never to be found.
+
+  Yet loftier joys the vain pursuit may bring,
+    Than sate the senses with the boons of time;
+  The bird of Heaven hath still an upward wing,
+    The steps it lures are still the steps that climb;
+  And in the ascent although the soil be bare,
+  More clear the daylight and more pure the air.
+  Let Petrarch’s heart the human mistress lose,
+  He mourns the Laura but to win the Muse.
+  Could all the charms which Georgian maids combine
+  Delight the soul of the dark Florentine,
+  Like one chaste dream of childlike Beatrice
+  Awaiting Hell’s dark pilgrim in the skies,
+  Snatched from below to be the guide above,
+  And clothe Religion in the form of Love?*
+
+    * It is supposed by many of the commentators on Dante, that in
+      the form of his lost Beatrice, who guides him in his Vision
+      of Heaven, he allegorizes Religious Faith.
+
+
+
+  III.
+
+  GENIUS, LIFTING ITS LIFE TO THE IDEAL, BECOMES ITSELF A PURE IDEA: IT
+  MUST COMPREHEND ALL EXISTENCE, ALL HUMAN SINS AND SUFFERINGS; BUT IN
+  COMPREHENDING, IT TRANSMUTES THEM.--THE POET IN HIS TWO-FOLD BEING,--THE
+  ACTUAL AND THE IDEAL.--THE INFLUENCE OF GENIUS OVER THE STERNEST
+  REALITIES OF EARTH; OVER OUR PASSIONS; WARS AND SUPERSTITIONS.--ITS
+  IDENTITY IS WITH HUMAN PROGRESS.--ITS AGENCY, EVEN WHERE UNACKNOWLEDGED,
+  IS UNIVERSAL.
+
+  Oh, thou true Iris! sporting on thy bow
+    Of tears and smiles! Jove’s herald, Poetry,
+  Thou reflex image of all joy and woe,
+    _Both_ fused in light by thy dear fantasy!
+  Lo! from the clay how Genius lifts its life,
+    And grows one pure Idea, one calm soul!
+  True, its own clearness must reflect our strife;
+    True, its completeness must comprise our whole;
+  But as the sun transmutes the sullen hues
+    Of marsh-grown vapours into vermeil dyes,
+  And melts them later into twilight dews,
+    Shedding on flowers the baptism of the skies;
+  So glows the Ideal in the air we breathe,
+    So from the fumes of sorrow and of sin,
+  Doth its warm light in rosy colours wreathe
+    Its playful cloudland, storing balms within.
+
+  Survey the Poet in his mortal mould,
+    Man, amongst men, descended from his throne!
+  The moth that chased the star now frets the fold,
+    Our cares, our faults, our follies are his own.
+  Passions as idle, and desires as vain,
+  Vex the wild heart, and dupe the erring brain.
+  From Freedom’s field the recreant Horace flies
+  To kiss the hand by which his country dies;
+  From Mary’s grave the mighty Peasant turns,
+  And hoarse with orgies rings the laugh of Burns.
+  While Rousseau’s lips a lackey’s vices own,--
+  Lips that could draw the thunder on a throne!
+  But when from Life the Actual GENIUS springs,
+    When, self-transformed by its own magic rod,
+  It snaps the fetters and expands the wings,
+    And drops the fleshly garb that veiled the god,
+  How the mists vanish as the form ascends!
+  How in its aureole every sunbeam blends!
+  By the Arch-Brightener of Creation seen,
+    How dim the crowns on perishable brows!
+  The snows of Atlas melt beneath the sheen,
+    Through Thebaid caves the rushing splendour flows.
+  Cimmerian glooms with Asian beams are bright,
+  And Earth reposes in a belt of light.
+  Now stern as Vengeance shines the awful form,
+  Armed with the bolt and glowing through the storm;
+  Sets the great deeps of human passion free,
+  And whelms the bulwarks that would breast the sea.
+  Roused by its voice the ghastly Wars arise,
+  Mars reddens earth, the Valkyrs pale the skies;
+  Dim Superstition from her hell escapes,
+  With all her shadowy brood of monster shapes;
+  Here life itself the scowl of Typhon* takes;
+  There Conscience shudders at Alecto’s snakes;
+  From Gothic graves at midnight yawning wide,
+  In gory cerements gibbering spectres glide;
+  And where o’er blasted heaths the lightnings flame,
+  Black secret hags “do deeds without a name!”
+   Yet through its direst agencies of awe,
+  Light marks its presence and pervades its law,
+  And, like Orion when the storms are loud,
+  It links creation while it gilds a cloud.
+  By ruthless Thor, free Thought, frank Honour stand,
+  Fame’s grand desire, and zeal for Fatherland.
+  The grim Religion of Barbarian Fear
+  With some Hereafter still connects the Here,
+  Lifts the gross sense to some spiritual source,
+  And thrones some Jove above the Titan Force,
+  Till, love completing what in awe began,
+  From the rude savage dawns the thoughtful man.
+
+    * The gloomy Typhon of Egypt assumes many of the mystic attributes
+      of the Principle of Life which, in the Grecian Apotheosis of the
+      Indian Bacchus, is represented in so genial a character of
+      exuberant joy and everlasting youth.
+
+  Then, oh, behold the Glorious comforter!
+    Still bright’ning worlds but gladd’ning now the hearth,
+  Or like the lustre of our nearest star,
+    Fused in the common atmosphere of earth.
+  It sports like hope upon the captive’s chain;
+  Descends in dreams upon the couch of pain;
+  To wonder’s realm allures the earnest child;
+  To the chaste love refines the instinct wild;
+  And as in waters the reflected beam,
+  Still where we turn, glides with us up the stream,
+  And while in truth the whole expanse is bright,
+  Yields to each eye its own fond path of light,--
+  So over life the rays of Genius fall,
+  Give each his track because illuming all.
+
+
+
+  IV.
+
+  FORGIVENESS TO THE ERRORS OF OUR BENEFACTORS.
+
+  Hence is that secret pardon we bestow
+    In the true instinct of the grateful heart,
+  Upon the Sons of Song.  The good they do
+    In the clear world of their Uranian art
+  Endures forever; while the evil done
+    In the poor drama of their mortal scene,
+  Is but a passing cloud before the sun;
+    Space hath no record where the mist hath been.
+  Boots it to us if Shakspeare erred like man?
+    Why idly question that most mystic life?
+  Eno’ the giver in his gifts to scan;
+    To bless the sheaves with which thy fields are rife,
+  Nor, blundering, guess through what obstructive clay
+  The glorious corn-seed struggled up to day.
+
+
+
+  V.
+
+  THE IDEAL IS NOT CONFINED TO POETS.--ALGERNON SIDNEY RECOGNIZES HIS IDEAL
+  IN LIBERTY, AND BELIEVES IN ITS TRIUMPH WHERE THE MERE PRACTICAL MAN
+  COULD BEHOLD BUT ITS RUINS; YET LIBERTY IN THIS WORLD MUST EVER BE AN
+  IDEAL, AND THE LAND THAT IT PROMISES CAN BE FOUND BUT IN DEATH.
+
+  But not to you alone, O Sons Of Song,
+  The wings that float the loftier airs along.
+  Whoever lifts us from the dust we are,
+    Beyond the sensual to spiritual goals;
+  Who from the MOMENT and the SELF afar
+    By deathless deeds allures reluctant souls,
+  Gives the warm life to what the Limner draws,--
+  Plato but thought what godlike Cato was.*
+  Recall the Wars of England’s giant-born,
+    Is Elyot’s voice, is Hampden’s death in vain?
+  Have all the meteors of the vernal morn
+    But wasted light upon a frozen main?
+  Where is that child of Carnage, Freedom, flown?
+  The Sybarite lolls upon the martyr’s throne.
+  Lewd, ribald jests succeed to solemn zeal;
+  And things of silk to Cromwell’s men of steel.
+  Cold are the hosts the tromps of Ireton thrilled,
+  And hushed the senates Vane’s large presence filled.
+  In what strong heart doth the old manhood dwell?
+  Where art thou, Freedom?  Look! in Sidney’s cell!
+  There still as stately stands the living Truth,
+  Smiling on age as it had smiled on youth.
+  Her forts dismantled, and her shrines o’erthrown,
+  The headsman’s block her last dread altar-stone,
+  No sanction left to Reason’s vulgar hope,
+  Far from the wrecks expands her prophet’s scope.
+  Millennial morns the tombs of Kedron gild,
+  The hands of saints the glorious walls rebuild,--
+  Till each foundation garnished with its gem,
+  High o’er Gehenna flames Jerusalem!
+  O thou blood-stained Ideal of the free,
+  Whose breath is heard in clarions,--Liberty!
+  Sublimer for thy grand illusions past,
+  Thou spring’st to Heaven,--Religion at the last.
+  Alike below, or commonwealths or thrones,
+  Where’er men gather some crushed victim groans;
+  Only in death thy real form we see,
+  All life is bondage,--souls alone are free.
+  Thus through the waste the wandering Hebrews went,
+  Fire on the march, but cloud upon the tent.
+  At last on Pisgah see the prophet stand,
+  Before his vision spreads the PROMISED LAND;
+  But where revealed the Canaan to his eye?--
+  Upon the mountain he ascends to die.
+
+    * What Plato thought, and godlike Cato was.--POPE.
+
+
+
+  VI.
+
+  YET ALL HAVE TWO ESCAPES INTO THE IDEAL WORLD; NAMELY, MEMORY AND
+  HOPE.--EXAMPLE OF HOPE IN YOUTH, HOWEVER EXCLUDED FROM ACTION AND
+  DESIRE.--NAPOLEON’S SON.
+
+  Yet whatsoever be our bondage here,
+  All have two portals to the phantom sphere.
+  What hath not glided through those gates that ope
+  Beyond the Hour, to MEMORY or to HOPE!
+  Give Youth the Garden,--still it soars above,
+  Seeks some far glory, some diviner love.
+  Place Age amidst the Golgotha,--its eyes
+  Still quit the graves, to rest upon the skies;
+  And while the dust, unheeded, moulders there,
+  Track some lost angel through cerulean air.
+
+  Lo! where the Austrian binds, with formal chain,
+  The crownless son of earth’s last Charlemagne,--
+  Him, at whose birth laughed all the violet vales
+    (While yet unfallen stood thy sovereign star,
+  O Lucifer of nations).  Hark, the gales
+    Swell with the shout from all the hosts, whose war
+  Rended the Alps, and crimsoned Memphian Nile,--
+    “Way for the coming of the Conqueror’s Son:
+  Woe to the Merchant-Carthage of the Isle!
+    Woe to the Scythian ice-world of the Don!
+  O Thunder Lord, thy Lemnian bolts prepare,
+  The Eagle’s eyry hath its eagle heir!”
+   Hark, at that shout from north to south, gray Power
+    Quails on its weak, hereditary thrones;
+  And widowed mothers prophesy the hour
+    Of future carnage to their cradled sons.
+  What! shall our race to blood be thus consigned,
+    And Ate claim an heirloom in mankind?
+  Are these red lots unshaken in the urn?
+  Years pass; approach, pale Questioner, and learn
+  Chained to his rock, with brows that vainly frown,
+  The fallen Titan sinks in darkness down!
+  And sadly gazing through his gilded grate,
+  Behold the child whose birth was as a fate!
+  Far from the land in which his life began;
+  Walled from the healthful air of hardy man;
+  Reared by cold hearts, and watched by jealous eyes,
+  His guardians jailers, and his comrades spies.
+  Each trite convention courtly fears inspire
+  To stint experience and to dwarf desire;
+  Narrows the action to a puppet stage,
+  And trains the eaglet to the starling’s cage.
+  On the dejected brow and smileless cheek,
+  What weary thought the languid lines bespeak;
+  Till drop by drop, from jaded day to day,
+  The sickly life-streams ooze themselves away.
+  Yet oft in HOPE a boundless realm was thine,
+    That vaguest Infinite,--the Dream of Fame;
+  Son of the sword that first made kings divine,
+    Heir to man’s grandest royalty,--a Name!
+  Then didst thou burst upon the startled world,
+  And keep the glorious promise of thy birth;
+  Then were the wings that bear the bolt unfurled,
+    A monarch’s voice cried, “Place upon the earth!”
+   A new Philippi gained a second Rome,
+  And the Son’s sword avenged the greater Caesar’s doom.
+
+
+
+  VII.
+
+  EXAMPLE OF MEMORY AS LEADING TO THE IDEAL,--AMIDST LIFE HOWEVER HUMBLE,
+  AND IN A MIND HOWEVER IGNORANT.--THE VILLAGE WIDOW.
+
+  But turn the eye to life’s sequestered vale
+    And lowly roofs remote in hamlets green.
+  Oft in my boyhood where the moss-grown pale
+    Fenced quiet graves, a female form was seen;
+  Each eve she sought the melancholy ground,
+  And lingering paused, and wistful looked around.
+  If yet some footstep rustled through the grass,
+  Timorous she shrunk, and watched the shadow pass;
+  Then, when the spot lay lone amidst the gloom,
+  Crept to one grave too humble for a tomb,
+  There silent bowed her face above the dead,
+  For, if in prayer, the prayer was inly said;
+  Still as the moonbeam, paused her quiet shade,
+  Still as the moonbeam, through the yews to fade.
+  Whose dust thus hallowed by so fond a care?
+  What the grave saith not, let the heart declare.
+    On yonder green two orphan children played;
+  By yonder rill two plighted lovers strayed;
+  In yonder shrine two lives were blent in one,
+  And joy-bells chimed beneath a summer sun.
+  Poor was their lot, their bread in labour found;
+  No parent blessed them, and no kindred owned;
+  They smiled to hear the wise their choice condemn;
+  They loved--they loved--and love was wealth to them!
+  Hark--one short week--again the holy bell!
+  Still shone the sun; but dirge like boomed the knell,--
+  The icy hand had severed breast from breast;
+  Left life to toil, and summoned Death to rest.
+  Full fifty years since then have passed away,
+  Her cheek is furrowed, and her hair is gray.
+  Yet, when she speaks of _him_ (the times are rare),
+  Hear in her voice how youth still trembles there.
+  The very name of that young life that died
+  Still heaves the bosom, and recalls the bride.
+  Lone o’er the widow’s hearth those years have fled,
+  The daily toil still wins the daily bread;
+  No books deck sorrow with fantastic dyes;
+  Her fond romance her woman heart supplies;
+  And, haply in the few still moments given,
+  (Day’s taskwork done), to memory, death, and heaven,
+  To that unuttered poem may belong
+  Thoughts of such pathos as had beggared song.
+
+
+
+  VIII.
+
+  HENCE IN HOPE, MEMORY, AND PRAYER, ALL OF US ARE POETS.
+
+  Yes, while thou hopest, music fills the air,
+    While thou rememberest, life reclothes the clod;
+  While thou canst feel the electric chain of prayer,
+    Breathe but a thought, and be a soul with God!
+  Let not these forms of matter bound thine eye.
+    He who the vanishing point of Human things
+  Lifts from the landscape, lost amidst the sky,
+    Has found the Ideal which the poet sings,
+  Has pierced the pall around the senses thrown,
+  And is himself a poet, though unknown.
+
+
+
+  IX.
+
+  APPLICATION OF THE POEM TO THE TALE TO WHICH IT IS PREFIXED.--THE
+  RHINE,--ITS IDEAL CHARACTER IN ITS HISTORICAL AND LEGENDARY ASSOCIATIONS.
+
+  Eno’!--my song is closing, and to thee,
+    Land of the North, I dedicate its lay;
+  As I have done the simple tale to be
+    The drama of this prelude!
+                                    Faraway
+  Rolls the swift Rhine beneath the starry ray;
+  But to my ear its haunted waters sigh;
+  Its moonlight mountains glimmer on my eye;
+  On wave, on marge, as on a wizard’s glass,
+  Imperial ghosts in dim procession pass;
+  Lords of the wild, the first great Father-men,
+  Their fane the hill-top, and their home the glen;
+  Frowning they fade; a bridge of steel appears
+  With frank-eyed Caesar smiling through the spears;
+  The march moves onwards, and the mirror brings
+  The Gothic crowns of Carlovingian kings
+  Vanished alike!  The Hermit rears his Cross,
+  And barbs neigh shrill, and plumes in tumult toss,
+  While (knighthood’s sole sweet conquest from the Moor)
+  Sings to Arabian lutes the Tourbadour.
+    Not yet, not yet; still glide some lingering shades,
+  Still breathe some murmurs as the starlight fades,
+  Still from her rock I hear the Siren call,
+  And see the tender ghost in Roland’s mouldering hall!
+
+
+
+  X.
+
+  APPLICATION OF THE POEM CONTINUED.--THE IDEAL LENDS ITS AID TO THE MOST
+  FAMILIAR AND THE MOST ACTUAL SORROW OF LIFE.--FICTION COMPARED TO
+  SLEEP,--IT STRENGTHENS WHILE IT SOOTHES.
+
+  Trite were the tale I tell of love and doom,
+  (Whose life hath loved not, whose not mourned a tomb?)
+  But fiction draws a poetry from grief,
+  As art its healing from the withered leaf.
+  Play thou, sweet Fancy, round the sombre truth,
+    Crown the sad Genius ere it lower the torch!
+  When death the altar and the victim youth,
+    Flutes fill the air, and garlands deck the porch.
+  As down the river drifts the Pilgrim sail,
+  Clothe the rude hill-tops, lull the Northern gale;
+  With childlike lore the fatal course beguile,
+  And brighten death with Love’s untiring smile.
+  Along the banks let fairy forms be seen
+  “By fountain clear, or spangled starlike sheen.” *
+  Let sound and shape to which the sense is dull
+  Haunt the soul opening on the Beautiful.
+  And when at length, the symbol voyage done,
+  Surviving Grief shrinks lonely from the sun,
+  By tender types show Grief what memories bloom
+  From lost delight, what fairies guard the tomb.
+  Scorn not the dream, O world-worn; pause a while,
+  New strength shall nerve thee as the dreams beguile,
+  Stung by the rest, less far shall seem the goal!
+  As sleep to life, so fiction to the soul.
+
+    * “Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
+
+
+
+
+
+THE PILGRIMS OF THE RHINE
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I. IN WHICH THE READER IS INTRODUCED TO QUEEN NYMPHALIN.
+
+IN one of those green woods which belong so peculiarly to our island
+(for the Continent has its forests, but England its woods) there lived,
+a short time ago, a charming little fairy called Nymphalin. I believe
+she is descended from a younger branch of the house of Mab; but perhaps
+that may only be a genealogical fable, for your fairies are very
+susceptible to the pride of ancestry, and it is impossible to deny that
+they fall somewhat reluctantly into the liberal opinions so much in
+vogue at the present day.
+
+However that may be, it is quite certain that all the courtiers in
+Nymphalin’s domain (for she was a queen fairy) made a point of asserting
+her right to this illustrious descent; and accordingly she quartered the
+Mab arms with her own,--three acorns vert, with a grasshopper rampant.
+It was as merry a little court as could possibly be conceived, and on
+a fine midsummer night it would have been worth while attending the
+queen’s balls; that is to say, if you could have got a ticket, a favour
+not obtained without great interest.
+
+But, unhappily, until both men and fairies adopt Mr. Owen’s proposition,
+and live in parallelograms, they will always be the victims of _ennui_.
+And Nymphalin, who had been disappointed in love, and was still
+unmarried, had for the last five or six months been exceedingly tired
+even of giving balls. She yawned very frequently, and consequently
+yawning became a fashion.
+
+“But why don’t we have some new dances, my Pipalee?” said Nymphalin to
+her favourite maid of honour; “these waltzes are very old-fashioned.”
+
+“Very old-fashioned,” said Pipalee.
+
+The queen gaped, and Pipalee did the same.
+
+It was a gala night; the court was held in a lone and beautiful hollow,
+with the wild brake closing round it on every side, so that no human
+step could easily gain the spot. Wherever the shadows fell upon the
+brake a glow-worm made a point of exhibiting itself, and the bright
+August moon sailed slowly above, pleased to look down upon so charming
+a scene of merriment; for they wrong the moon who assert that she has
+an objection to mirth,--with the mirth of fairies she has all possible
+sympathy. Here and there in the thicket the scarce honeysuckles--in
+August honeysuckles are somewhat out of season--hung their rich
+festoons, and at that moment they were crowded with the elderly fairies,
+who had given up dancing and taken to scandal. Besides the honeysuckle
+you might see the hawkweed and the white convolvulus, varying the soft
+verdure of the thicket; and mushrooms in abundance had sprung up in
+the circle, glittering in the silver moonlight, and acceptable beyond
+measure to the dancers: every one knows how agreeable a thing tents are
+in a _fete champetre_! I was mistaken in saying that the brake closed
+the circle entirely round; for there was one gap, scarcely apparent to
+mortals, through which a fairy at least might catch a view of a
+brook that was close at hand, rippling in the stars, and checkered at
+intervals by the rich weeds floating on the surface, interspersed
+with the delicate arrowhead and the silver water-lily. Then the trees
+themselves, in their prodigal variety of hues,--the blue, the purple,
+the yellowing tint, the tender and silvery verdure, and the deep mass
+of shade frowning into black; the willow, the elm, the ash, the fir, and
+the lime, “and, best of all, Old England’s haunted oak;” these hues were
+broken again into a thousand minor and subtler shades as the twinkling
+stars pierced the foliage, or the moon slept with a richer light upon
+some favoured glade.
+
+It was a gala night; the elderly fairies, as I said before, were
+chatting among the honeysuckles; the young were flirting, and dancing,
+and making love; the middle-aged talked politics under the mushrooms;
+and the queen herself and half-a-dozen of her favourites were yawning
+their pleasure from a little mound covered with the thickest moss.
+
+“It has been very dull, madam, ever since Prince Fayzenheim left us,”
+ said the fairy Nip.
+
+The queen sighed.
+
+“How handsome the prince is!” said Pipalee.
+
+The queen blushed.
+
+“He wore the prettiest dress in the world; and what a mustache!” cried
+Pipalee, fanning herself with her left wing.
+
+“He was a coxcomb,” said the lord treasurer, sourly. The lord treasurer
+was the honestest and most disagreeable fairy at court; he was an
+admirable husband, brother, son, cousin, uncle, and godfather,--it was
+these virtues that had made him a lord treasurer. Unfortunately they
+had not made him a sensible fairy. He was like Charles the Second in
+one respect, for he never did a wise thing; but he was not like him in
+another, for he very often said a foolish one.
+
+The queen frowned.
+
+“A young prince is not the worse for that,” retorted Pipalee. “Heigho!
+does your Majesty think his Highness likely to return?”
+
+“Don’t tease me,” said Nymphalin, pettishly.
+
+The lord treasurer, by way of giving the conversation an agreeable
+turn, reminded her Majesty that there was a prodigious accumulation
+of business to see to, especially that difficult affair about the
+emmet-wasp loan. Her Majesty rose; and leaning on Pipalee’s arm, walked
+down to the supper tent.
+
+“Pray,” said the fairy Trip to the fairy Nip, “what is all this talk
+about Prince Fayzenheim? Excuse my ignorance; I am only just out, you
+know.”
+
+“Why,” answered Nip, a young courtier, not a marrying fairy, but very
+seductive, “the story runs thus: Last summer a foreigner visited us,
+calling himself Prince Fayzenheim: one of your German fairies, I fancy;
+no great things, but an excellent waltzer. He wore long spurs, made out
+of the stings of the horse-flies in the Black Forest; his cap sat on one
+side, and his mustachios curled like the lip of the dragon-flower. He
+was on his travels, and amused himself by making love to the queen. You
+can’t fancy, dear Trip, how fond she was of hearing him tell stories
+about the strange creatures of Germany,--about wild huntsmen,
+water-sprites, and a pack of such stuff,” added Nip, contemptuously, for
+Nip was a freethinker.
+
+“In short?” said Trip.
+
+“In short, she loved,” cried Nip, with a theatrical air.
+
+“And the prince?”
+
+“Packed up his clothes, and sent on his travelling-carriage, in order
+that he might go at his ease on the top of a stage-pigeon; in short--as
+you say--in short, he deserted the queen, and ever since she has set the
+fashion of yawning.”
+
+“It was very naughty in him,” said the gentle Trip.
+
+“Ah, my dear creature,” cried Nip, “if it had been you to whom he had
+paid his addresses!”
+
+Trip simpered, and the old fairies from their seats in the honeysuckles
+observed she was “sadly conducted;” but the Trips had never been too
+respectable.
+
+Meanwhile the queen, leaning on Pipalee, said, after a short pause, “Do
+you know I have formed a plan!”
+
+“How delightful!” cried Pipalee. “Another gala!”
+
+“Pooh, surely even you must be tired with such levities: the spirit of
+the age is no longer frivolous; and I dare say as the march of gravity
+proceeds, we shall get rid of galas altogether.” The queen said this
+with an air of inconceivable wisdom, for the “Society for the Diffusion
+of General Stupefaction” had been recently established among the
+fairies, and its tracts had driven all the light reading out of the
+market. “The Penny Proser” had contributed greatly to the increase of
+knowledge and yawning, so visibly progressive among the courtiers.
+
+“No,” continued Nymphalin; “I have thought of something better than
+galas. Let us travel!”
+
+Pipalee clasped her hands in ecstasy.
+
+“Where shall we travel?”
+
+“Let us go up the Rhine,” said the queen, turning away her head. “We
+shall be amazingly welcomed; there are fairies without number all the
+way by its banks, and various distant connections of ours whose nature
+and properties will afford interest and instruction to a philosophical
+mind.”
+
+“Number Nip, for instance,” cried the gay Pipalee.
+
+“The Red Man!” said the graver Nymphalin.
+
+“Oh, my queen, what an excellent scheme!” and Pipalee was so lively
+during the rest of the night that the old fairies in the honeysuckle
+insinuated that the lady of honour had drunk a buttercup too much of the
+Maydew.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II. THE LOVERS.
+
+I WISH only for such readers as give themselves heart and soul up to
+me,--if they begin to cavil I have done with them; their fancy should
+put itself entirely under my management; and, after all, ought they not
+to be too glad to get out of this hackneyed and melancholy world, to be
+run away with by an author who promises them something new?
+
+From the heights of Bruges, a Mortal and his betrothed gazed upon the
+scene below. They saw the sun set slowly amongst purple masses of cloud,
+and the lover turned to his mistress and sighed deeply; for her cheek
+was delicate in its blended roses, beyond the beauty that belongs to
+the hues of health; and when he saw the sun sinking from the world, the
+thought came upon him that _she_ was his sun, and the glory that
+she shed over his life might soon pass away into the bosom of the
+“ever-during Dark.” But against the clouds rose one of the many spires
+that characterize the town of Bruges; and on that spire, tapering into
+heaven, rested the eyes of Gertrude Vane. The different objects that
+caught the gaze of each was emblematic both of the different channel of
+their thoughts and the different elements of their nature: he thought of
+the sorrow, she of the consolation; his heart prophesied of the passing
+away from earth, hers of the ascension into heaven. The lower part of
+the landscape was wrapped in shade; but just where the bank curved round
+in a mimic bay, the waters caught the sun’s parting smile, and rippled
+against the herbage that clothed the shore, with a scarcely noticeable
+wave. There are two of the numerous mills which are so picturesque a
+feature of that country, standing at a distance from each other on the
+rising banks, their sails perfectly still in the cool silence of the
+evening, and adding to the rustic tranquillity which breathed around.
+For to me there is something in the still sails of one of those
+inventions of man’s industry peculiarly eloquent of repose: the rest
+seems typical of the repose of our own passions, short and uncertain,
+contrary to their natural ordination; and doubly impressive from the
+feeling which admonishes us how precarious is the stillness, how utterly
+dependent on every wind rising at any moment and from any quarter of
+the heavens! They saw before them no living forms, save of one or two
+peasants yet lingering by the water-side.
+
+Trevylyan drew closer to his Gertrude; for his love was inexpressibly
+tender, and his vigilant anxiety for her made his stern frame feel the
+first coolness of the evening even before she felt it herself.
+
+“Dearest, let me draw your mantle closer round you.”
+
+Gertrude smiled her thanks.
+
+“I feel better than I have done for weeks,” said she; “and when once we
+get into the Rhine, you will see me grow so strong as to shock all your
+interest for me.”
+
+“Ah, would to Heaven my interest for you may be put to such an ordeal!”
+ said Trevylyan; and they turned slowly to the inn, where Gertrude’s
+father already awaited them.
+
+Trevylyan was of a wild, a resolute, and an active nature. Thrown on
+the world at the age of sixteen, he had passed his youth in alternate
+pleasure, travel, and solitary study. At the age in which manhood is
+least susceptible to caprice, and most perhaps to passion, he fell in
+love with the loveliest person that ever dawned upon a poet’s vision.
+I say this without exaggeration, for Gertrude Vane’s was indeed
+the beauty, but the perishable beauty, of a dream. It happened most
+singularly to Trevylyan (but he was a singular man), that being
+naturally one whose affections it was very difficult to excite, he
+should have fallen in love at first sight with a person whose disease,
+already declared, would have deterred any other heart from risking
+its treasures on a bark so utterly unfitted for the voyage of life.
+Consumption, but consumption in its most beautiful shape, had set its
+seal upon Gertrude Vane, when Trevylyan first saw her, and at once
+loved. He knew the danger of the disease; he did not, except at
+intervals, deceive himself; he wrestled against the new passion: but,
+stern as his nature was, he could not conquer it. He loved, he confessed
+his love, and Gertrude returned it.
+
+In a love like this, there is something ineffably beautiful,--it is
+essentially the poetry of passion. Desire grows hallowed by fear,
+and, scarce permitted to indulge its vent in the common channel of
+the senses, breaks forth into those vague yearnings, those lofty
+aspirations, which pine for the Bright, the Far, the Unattained. It is
+“the desire of the moth for the star;” it is the love of the soul!
+
+Gertrude was advised by the faculty to try a southern climate; but
+Gertrude was the daughter of a German mother, and her young fancy had
+been nursed in all the wild legends and the alluring visions that
+belong to the children of the Rhine. Her imagination, more romantic than
+classic, yearned for the vine-clad hills and haunted forests which are
+so fertile in their spells to those who have once drunk, even sparingly,
+of the Literature of the North. Her desire strongly expressed, her
+declared conviction that if any change of scene could yet arrest the
+progress of her malady it would be the shores of the river she had so
+longed to visit, prevailed with her physicians and her father, and they
+consented to that pilgrimage along the Rhine on which Gertrude, her
+father, and her lover were now bound.
+
+It was by the green curve of the banks which the lovers saw from the
+heights of Bruges that our fairy travellers met. They were reclining on
+the water-side, playing at dominos with eye-bright and the black specks
+of the trefoil; namely, Pipalee, Nip, Trip, and the lord treasurer
+(for that was all the party selected by the queen for her travelling
+_cortege_), and waiting for her Majesty, who, being a curious little
+elf, had gone round the town to reconnoitre.
+
+“Bless me!” said the lord treasurer; “what a mad freak is this! Crossing
+that immense pond of water! And was there ever such bad grass as this?
+One may see that the fairies thrive ill here.”
+
+“You are always discontented, my lord,” said Pipalee; “but then you are
+somewhat too old to travel,--at least, unless you go in your nutshell
+and four.”
+
+The lord treasurer did not like this remark, so he muttered a peevish
+pshaw, and took a pinch of honeysuckle dust to console himself for being
+forced to put up with so much frivolity.
+
+At this moment, ere the moon was yet at her middest height, Nymphalin
+joined her subjects.
+
+“I have just returned,” said she, with a melancholy expression on her
+countenance, “from a scene that has almost renewed in me that
+sympathy with human beings which of late years our race has well-nigh
+relinquished.
+
+“I hurried through the town without noticing much food for adventure.
+I paused for a moment on a fat citizen’s pillow, and bade him dream of
+love. He woke in a fright, and ran down to see that his cheeses
+were safe. I swept with a light wing over a politician’s eyes, and
+straightway he dreamed of theatres and music. I caught an undertaker in
+his first nap, and I have left him whirled into a waltz. For what would
+be sleep if it did not contrast life? Then I came to a solitary chamber,
+in which a girl, in her tenderest youth, knelt by the bedside in prayer,
+and I saw that the death-spirit had passed over her, and the blight was
+on the leaves of the rose. The room was still and hushed, the angel of
+Purity kept watch there. Her heart was full of love, and yet of holy
+thoughts, and I bade her dream of the long life denied to her,--of a
+happy home, of the kisses of her young lover, of eternal faith, and
+unwaning tenderness. Let her at least enjoy in dreams what Fate
+has refused to Truth! And, passing from the room, I found her lover
+stretched in his cloak beside the door; for he reads with a feverish and
+desperate prophecy the doom that waits her; and so loves he the very
+air she breathes, the very ground she treads, that when she has left
+his sight he creeps, silently and unknown to her, to the nearest spot
+hallowed by her presence, anxious that while yet she is on earth not an
+hour, not a moment, should be wasted upon other thoughts than those that
+belong to her; and feeling a security, a fearful joy, in lessening the
+distance that _now_ only momentarily divides them. And that love seemed
+to me not as the love of the common world, and I stayed my wings
+and looked upon it as a thing that centuries might pass and bring no
+parallel to, in its beauty and its melancholy truth. But I kept away the
+sleep from the lover’s eyes, for well I knew that sleep was a tyrant,
+that shortened the brief time of waking tenderness for the living, yet
+spared him; and one sad, anxious thought of her was sweeter, in spite of
+its sorrow, than the brightest of fairy dreams. So I left him awake,
+and watching there through the long night, and felt that the children
+of earth have still something that unites them to the spirits of a finer
+race, so long as they retain amongst them the presence of real love!”
+
+And oh! is there not a truth also in our fictions of the Unseen World?
+Are there not yet bright lingerers by the forest and the stream? Do the
+moon and the soft stars look out on no delicate and winged forms bathing
+in their light? Are the fairies and the invisible hosts but the children
+of our dreams, and not their inspiration? Is that all a delusion which
+speaks from the golden page? And is the world only given to harsh and
+anxious travellers that walk to and fro in pursuit of no gentle shadows?
+Are the chimeras of the passions the sole spirits of the universe? No!
+while my remembrance treasures in its deepest cell the image of one no
+more,--one who was “not of the earth, earthy;” one in whom love was the
+essence of thoughts divine; one whose shape and mould, whose heart and
+genius, would, had Poesy never before dreamed it, have called forth
+the first notion of spirits resembling mortals, but not of them,--no,
+Gertrude! while I remember you, the faith, the trust in brighter shapes
+and fairer natures than the world knows of, comes clinging to my heart;
+and still will I think that Fairies might have watched over your sleep
+and Spirits have ministered to your dreams.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III. FEELINGS.
+
+GERTRUDE and her companions proceeded by slow and, to her, delightful
+stages to Rotterdam. Trevylyan sat by her side, and her hand was ever
+in his; and when her delicate frame became sensible of fatigue, her head
+drooped on his shoulder as its natural resting-place. Her father was
+a man who had lived long enough to have encountered many reverses of
+fortune, and they had left him, as I am apt to believe long adversity
+usually does leave its prey, somewhat chilled and somewhat hardened to
+affection; passive and quiet of hope, resigned to the worst as to
+the common order of events, and expecting little from the best, as an
+unlooked-for incident in the regularity of human afflictions. He was
+insensible of his daughter’s danger, for he was not one whom the fear
+of love endows with prophetic vision; and he lived tranquilly in the
+present, without asking what new misfortune awaited him in the future.
+Yet he loved his child, his only child, with whatever of affection
+was left him by the many shocks his heart had received; and in her
+approaching connection with one rich and noble as Trevylyan, he
+felt even something bordering upon pleasure. Lapped in the apathetic
+indifference of his nature, he leaned back in the carriage, enjoying the
+bright weather that attended their journey, and sensible--for he was one
+of fine and cultivated taste--of whatever beauties of nature or remains
+of art varied their course. A companion of this sort was the most
+agreeable that two persons never needing a third could desire; he left
+them undisturbed to the intoxication of their mutual presence; he marked
+not the interchange of glances; he listened not to the whisper, the low
+delicious whisper, with which the heart speaks its sympathy to heart. He
+broke not that charmed silence which falls over us when the thoughts are
+full, and words leave nothing to explain; that repose of feeling; that
+certainty that we are understood without the effort of words, which
+makes the real luxury of intercourse and the true enchantment of travel.
+What a memory hours like these bequeath, after we have settled down into
+the calm occupation of common life! How beautiful, through the vista of
+years, seems that brief moonlight track upon the waters of our youth!
+
+And Trevylyan’s nature, which, as I have said before, was naturally
+hard and stern, which was hot, irritable, ambitious, and prematurely
+tinctured with the policy and lessons of the world, seemed utterly
+changed by the peculiarities of his love. Every hour, every moment was
+full of incident to him; every look of Gertrude’s was entered in the
+tablets of his heart; so that his love knew no languor, it required no
+change: he was absorbed in it,--_it was himself_! And he was soft, and
+watchful as the step of a mother by the couch of her sick child;
+the lion within him was tamed by indomitable love; the sadness, the
+presentiment, that was mixed with all his passion for Gertrude, filled
+him too with that poetry of feeling which is the result of thoughts
+weighing upon us, and not to be expressed by ordinary language. In this
+part of their journey, as I find by the date, were the following lines
+written; they are to be judged as the lines of one in whom emotion and
+truth were the only inspiration:--
+
+
+
+     I. As leaves left darkling in the flush of day,
+       When glints the glad sun checkering o’er the tree,
+     I see the green earth brightening in the ray,
+       Which only casts a shadow upon me!
+
+
+     II. What are the beams, the flowers, the glory, all
+       Life’s glow and gloss, the music and the bloom,
+     When every sun but speeds the Eternal Pall,
+       And Time is Death that dallies with the Tomb?
+
+
+     III. And yet--oh yet, so young, so pure!--the while
+       Fresh laugh the rose-hues round youth’s morning sky,
+     That voice, those eyes, the deep love of that smile,
+       Are they not soul--_all_ soul--and _can_ they die?
+
+
+     IV. Are there the words “NO MORE” for thoughts like ours?
+       Must the bark sink upon so soft a wave?
+     Hath the short summer of thy life no flowers
+       But those which bloom above thine early grave?
+
+
+     V. O God! and what is life, that I should live?
+       (Hath not the world enow of common clay?)
+     And she--the Rose--whose life a soul could give
+       To the void desert, sigh its sweets away?
+
+
+     VI. And I that love thee thus, to whom the air,
+       Blest by thy breath, makes heaven where’er it be,
+     Watch thy cheek wane, and smile away despair,
+       Lest it should dim one hour yet left to Thee.
+
+
+     VII. Still let me conquer self; oh, still conceal
+       By the smooth brow the snake that coils below;
+     Break, break my heart! it comforts yet to feel
+       That _she_ dreams on, unwakened by my woe!
+
+
+     VIII. Hushed, where the Star’s soft angel loves to keep
+       Watch o’er their tide, the morning waters roll;
+     So glides my spirit,--darkness in the deep,
+       But o’er the wave the presence of thy soul!
+
+
+
+Gertrude had not as yet the presentiments that filled the soul of
+Trevylyan. She thought too little of herself to know her danger, and
+those hours to her were hours of unmingled sweetness. Sometimes, indeed,
+the exhaustion of her disease tinged her spirits with a vague sadness,
+an abstraction came over her, and a languor she vainly struggled
+against. These fits of dejection and gloom touched Trevylyan to the
+quick; his eye never ceased to watch them, nor his heart to soothe.
+Often when he marked them, he sought to attract her attention from what
+he fancied, though erringly, a sympathy with his own forebodings, and
+to lead her young and romantic imagination through the temporary
+beguilements of fiction; for Gertrude was yet in the first bloom of
+youth, and all the dews of beautiful childhood sparkled freshly from the
+virgin blossoms of her mind. And Trevylyan, who had passed some of his
+early years among the students of Leipsic, and was deeply versed in the
+various world of legendary lore, ransacked his memory for such tales
+as seemed to him most likely to win her interest; and often with false
+smiles entered into the playful tale, or oftener, with more faithful
+interest, into the graver legend of trials that warned yet beguiled them
+from their own. Of such tales I have selected but a few; I know not that
+they are the least unworthy of repetition,--they are those which many
+recollections induce me to repeat the most willingly. Gertrude loved
+these stories, for she had not yet lost, by the coldness of the world,
+one leaf from that soft and wild romance which belonged to her beautiful
+mind; and, more than all, she loved the sound of a voice which every
+day became more and more musical to her ear. “Shall I tell you,” said
+Trevylyan, one morning, as he observed her gloomier mood stealing over
+the face of Gertrude,--“shall I tell you, ere yet we pass into the dull
+land of Holland, a story of Malines, whose spires we shall shortly
+see?” Gertrude’s face brightened at once, and as she leaned back in the
+carriage as it whirled rapidly along, and fixed her deep blue eyes on
+Trevylyan, he began the following tale.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV. THE MAID OF MALINES.
+
+IT was noonday in the town of Malines, or Mechlin, as the English
+usually term it; the Sabbath bell had summoned the inhabitants to
+divine worship; and the crowd that had loitered round the Church of St.
+Rembauld had gradually emptied itself within the spacious aisles of the
+sacred edifice.
+
+A young man was standing in the street, with his eyes bent on the
+ground, and apparently listening for some sound; for without raising his
+looks from the rude pavement, he turned to every corner of it with an
+intent and anxious expression of countenance. He held in one hand a
+staff, in the other a long slender cord, the end of which trailed on
+the ground; every now and then he called, with a plaintive voice, “Fido,
+Fido, come back! Why hast thou deserted me?” Fido returned not; the dog,
+wearied of confinement, had slipped from the string, and was at play
+with his kind in a distant quarter of the town, leaving the blind man to
+seek his way as he might to his solitary inn.
+
+By and by a light step passed through the street, and the young
+stranger’s face brightened.
+
+“Pardon me,” said he, turning to the spot where his quick ear had
+caught the sound, “and direct me, if you are not much pressed for a few
+moments’ time, to the hotel ‘Mortier d’Or.’”
+
+It was a young woman, whose dress betokened that she belonged to the
+middling class of life, whom he thus addressed. “It is some distance
+hence, sir,” said she; “but if you continue your way straight on for
+about a hundred yards, and then take the second turn to your right
+hand--”
+
+“Alas!” interrupted the stranger, with a melancholy smile, “your
+direction will avail me little; my dog has deserted me, and I am blind!”
+
+There was something in these words, and in the stranger’s voice, which
+went irresistibly to the heart of the young woman. “Pray forgive me,”
+ she said, almost with tears in her eyes, “I did not perceive your--”
+ misfortune, she was about to say, but she checked herself with an
+instinctive delicacy. “Lean upon me, I will conduct you to the door;
+nay, sir,” observing that he hesitated, “I have time enough to spare, I
+assure you.”
+
+The stranger placed his hand on the young woman’s arm; and though
+Lucille was naturally so bashful that even her mother would laughingly
+reproach her for the excess of a maiden virtue, she felt not the least
+pang of shame, as she found herself thus suddenly walking through the
+streets of Malines along with a young stranger, whose dress and air
+betokened him of rank superior to her own.
+
+“Your voice is very gentle,” said he, after a pause; “and that,” he
+added, with a slight sigh, “is the only criterion by which I know the
+young and the beautiful!” Lucille now blushed, and with a slight mixture
+of pain in the blush, for she knew well that to beauty she had no
+pretension. “Are you a native of this town?” continued he.
+
+“Yes, sir; my father holds a small office in the customs, and my mother
+and I eke out his salary by making lace. We are called poor, but we do
+not feel it, sir.”
+
+“You are fortunate! there is no wealth like the heart’s
+wealth,--content,” answered the blind man, mournfully.
+
+“And, monsieur,” said Lucille, feeling angry with herself that she had
+awakened a natural envy in the stranger’s mind, and anxious to change
+the subject--“and, monsieur, has he been long at Malines?”
+
+“But yesterday. I am passing through the Low Countries on a tour;
+perhaps you smile at the tour of a blind man, but it is wearisome
+even to the blind to rest always in the same place. I thought during
+church-time, when the streets were empty, that I might, by the help of
+my dog, enjoy safely at least the air, if not the sight of the town;
+but there are some persons, methinks, who cannot have even a dog for a
+friend!”
+
+The blind man spoke bitterly,--the desertion of his dog had touched
+him to the core. Lucille wiped her eyes. “And does Monsieur travel then
+alone?” said she; and looking at his face more attentively than she had
+yet ventured to do, she saw that he was scarcely above two-and-twenty.
+“His father, and his _mother_,” she added, with an emphasis on the last
+word, “are they not with him?”
+
+“I am an orphan!” answered the stranger; “and I have neither brother nor
+sister.”
+
+The desolate condition of the blind man quite melted Lucille; never had
+she been so strongly affected. She felt a strange flutter at the heart,
+a secret and earnest sympathy, that attracted her at once towards him.
+She wished that Heaven had suffered her to be his sister!
+
+The contrast between the youth and the form of the stranger, and the
+affliction which took hope from the one and activity from the other,
+increased the compassion he excited. His features were remarkably
+regular, and had a certain nobleness in their outline; and his frame
+was gracefully and firmly knit, though he moved cautiously and with no
+cheerful step.
+
+They had now passed into a narrow street leading towards the hotel,
+when they heard behind them the clatter of hoofs; and Lucille, looking
+hastily back, saw that a troop of the Belgian horse was passing through
+the town.
+
+She drew her charge close by the wall, and trembling with fear for
+him, she stationed herself by his side. The troop passed at a full trot
+through the street; and at the sound of their clanging arms, and the
+ringing hoofs of their heavy chargers, Lucille might have seen, had
+she looked at the blind man’s face, that its sad features kindled
+with enthusiasm, and his head was raised proudly from its wonted and
+melancholy bend. “Thank Heaven!” she said, as the troop had nearly
+passed them, “the danger is over!” Not so. One of the last two soldiers
+who rode abreast was unfortunately mounted on a young and unmanageable
+horse. The rider’s oaths and digging spur only increased the fire and
+impatience of the charger; it plunged from side to side of the narrow
+street.
+
+“Look to yourselves!” cried the horseman, as he was borne on to the
+place where Lucille and the stranger stood against the wall. “Are ye
+mad? Why do you not run?”
+
+“For Heaven’s sake, for mercy’s sake, he is blind!” cried Lucille,
+clinging to the stranger’s side.
+
+“Save yourself, my kind guide!” said the stranger. But Lucille dreamed
+not of such desertion. The trooper wrested the horse’s head from the
+spot where they stood; with a snort, as it felt the spur, the enraged
+animal lashed out with its hind-legs; and Lucille, unable to save
+_both_, threw herself before the blind man, and received the shock
+directed against him; her slight and delicate arm fell broken by her
+side, the horseman was borne onward. “Thank God, _you_ are saved!” was
+poor Lucille’s exclamation; and she fell, overcome with pain and terror,
+into the arms which the stranger mechanically opened to receive her.
+
+“My guide! my friend!” cried he, “you are hurt, you--”
+
+“No, sir,” interrupted Lucille, faintly, “I am better, I am well. _This_
+arm, if you please,--we are not far from your hotel now.”
+
+But the stranger’s ear, tutored to every inflection of voice, told
+him at once of the pain she suffered. He drew from her by degrees the
+confession of the injury she had sustained; but the generous girl did
+not tell him it had been incurred solely in his protection. He now
+insisted on reversing their duties, and accompanying _her_ to her home;
+and Lucille, almost fainting with pain, and hardly able to move, was
+forced to consent. But a few steps down the next turning stood the
+humble mansion of her father. They reached it; and Lucille scarcely
+crossed the threshold, before she sank down, and for some minutes was
+insensible to pain. It was left to the stranger to explain, and to
+beseech them immediately to send for a surgeon, “the most skilful, the
+most practised in the town,” said he. “See, I am rich, and this is the
+least I can do to atone to your generous daughter, for not forsaking
+even a stranger in peril.”
+
+He held out his purse as he spoke, but the father refused the offer; and
+it saved the blind man some shame, that he could not see the blush of
+honest resentment with which so poor a species of renumeration was put
+aside.
+
+The young man stayed till the surgeon arrived, till the arm was set; nor
+did he depart until he had obtained a promise from the mother that he
+should learn the next morning how the sufferer had passed the night.
+
+The next morning, indeed, he had intended to quit a town that offers but
+little temptation to the traveller; but he tarried day after day, until
+Lucille herself accompanied her mother, to assure him of her recovery.
+
+You know, at least I do, dearest Gertrude, that there is such a thing as
+love at the first meeting,--a secret, an unaccountable affinity between
+persons (strangers before) which draws them irresistibly together,--as
+if there were truth in Plato’s beautiful fantasy, that our souls were
+a portion of the stars, and that spirits, thus attracted to each other,
+have drawn their original light from the same orb, and yearn for a
+renewal of their former union. Yet without recurring to such fanciful
+solutions of a daily mystery, it was but natural that one in the forlorn
+and desolate condition of Eugene St. Amand should have felt a certain
+tenderness for a person who had so generously suffered for his sake.
+
+The darkness to which he was condemned did not shut from his mind’s eye
+the haunting images of Ideal beauty; rather, on the contrary, in his
+perpetual and unoccupied solitude, he fed the reveries of an imagination
+naturally warm, and a heart eager for sympathy and commune.
+
+He had said rightly that his only test of beauty was in the melody of
+voice; and never had a softer or more thrilling tone than that of the
+young maiden touched upon his ear. Her exclamation, so beautifully
+denying self, so devoted in its charity, “Thank God, _you_ are saved!”
+ uttered too in the moment of her own suffering, rang constantly upon his
+soul, and he yielded, without precisely defining their nature, to vague
+and delicious sentiments, that his youth had never awakened to till
+then. And Lucille--the very accident that had happened to her on his
+behalf only deepened the interest she had already conceived for one who,
+in the first flush of youth, was thus cut off from the glad objects of
+life, and left to a night of years desolate and alone. There is, to your
+beautiful and kindly sex, a natural inclination to _protect_. This makes
+them the angels of sickness, the comforters of age, the fosterers
+of childhood; and this feeling, in Lucille peculiarly developed, had
+already inexpressibly linked her compassionate nature to the lot of the
+unfortunate traveller. With ardent affections, and with thoughts beyond
+her station and her years, she was not without that modest vanity
+which made her painfully susceptible to her own deficiencies in beauty.
+Instinctively conscious of how deeply she herself could love, she
+believed it impossible that she could ever be so loved in return. The
+stranger, so superior in her eyes to all she had yet seen, was the first
+who had ever addressed her in that voice which by tones, not words,
+speaks that admiration most dear to a woman’s heart. To _him_ she was
+beautiful, and her lovely mind spoke out, undimmed by the imperfections
+of her face. Not, indeed, that Lucille was wholly without personal
+attraction; her light step and graceful form were elastic with the
+freshness of youth, and her mouth and smile had so gentle and tender
+an expression, that there were moments when it would not have been
+the blind only who would have mistaken her to be beautiful. Her early
+childhood had indeed given the promise of attractions, which the
+smallpox, that then fearful malady, had inexorably marred. It had not
+only seared the smooth skin and brilliant hues, but utterly changed even
+the character of the features. It so happened that Lucille’s family were
+celebrated for beauty, and vain of that celebrity; and so bitterly had
+her parents deplored the effects of the cruel malady, that poor Lucille
+had been early taught to consider them far more grievous than they
+really were, and to exaggerate the advantages of that beauty, the loss
+of which was considered by her parents so heavy a misfortune. Lucille,
+too, had a cousin named Julie, who was the wonder of all Malines for
+her personal perfections; and as the cousins were much together, the
+contrast was too striking not to occasion frequent mortification to
+Lucille. But every misfortune has something of a counterpoise; and the
+consciousness of personal inferiority had meekened, without souring, her
+temper, had given gentleness to a spirit that otherwise might have been
+too high, and humility to a mind that was naturally strong, impassioned,
+and energetic.
+
+And yet Lucille had long conquered the one disadvantage she most dreaded
+in the want of beauty. Lucille was never known but to be loved.
+Wherever came her presence, her bright and soft mind diffused a certain
+inexpressible charm; and where she was not, a something was absent from
+the scene which not even Julie’s beauty could replace.
+
+“I propose,” said St. Amand to Madame le Tisseur, Lucille’s mother,
+as he sat in her little salon,--for he had already contracted that
+acquaintance with the family which permitted him to be led to their
+house, to return the visits Madame le Tisseur had made him, and his dog,
+once more returned a penitent to his master, always conducted his
+steps to the humble abode, and stopped instinctively at the door,--“I
+propose,” said St. Amand, after a pause, and with some embarrassment,
+“to stay a little while longer at Malines; the air agrees with me, and
+I like the quiet of the place; but you are aware, madam, that at a hotel
+among strangers, I feel my situation somewhat cheerless. I have been
+thinking”--St. Amand paused again--“I have been thinking that if I could
+persuade some agreeable family to receive me as a lodger, I would fix
+myself here for some weeks. I am easily pleased.”
+
+“Doubtless there are many in Malines who would be too happy to receive
+such a lodger.”
+
+“Will you receive me?” asked St. Amand, abruptly. “It was of _your_
+family I thought.”
+
+“Of us? Monsieur is too flattering. But we have scarcely a room good
+enough for you.”
+
+“What difference between one room and another can there be to me? That
+is the best apartment to my choice in which the human voice sounds most
+kindly.”
+
+The arrangement was made, and St. Amand came now to reside beneath the
+same roof as Lucille. And was she not happy that _he_ wanted so constant
+an attendance; was she not happy that she was ever of use? St. Amand was
+passionately fond of music; he played himself with a skill that was
+only surpassed by the exquisite melody of his voice, and was not Lucille
+happy when she sat mute and listening to such sounds as in Malines
+were never heard before? Was she not happy in gazing on a face to whose
+melancholy aspect her voice instantly summoned the smile? Was she not
+happy when the music ceased, and St. Amand called “Lucille”? Did not her
+own name uttered by that voice seem to her even sweeter than the music?
+Was she not happy when they walked out in the still evenings of summer,
+and her arm thrilled beneath the light touch of one to whom she was
+so necessary? Was she not proud in her happiness, and was there not
+something like worship in the gratitude she felt to him for raising her
+humble spirit to the luxury of feeling herself beloved?
+
+St. Amand’s parents were French. They had resided in the neighbourhood
+of Amiens, where they had inherited a competent property, to which he
+had succeeded about two years previous to the date of my story.
+
+He had been blind from the age of three years. “I know not,” said he,
+as he related these particulars to Lucille one evening when they were
+alone,--“I know not what the earth may be like, or the heaven, or the
+rivers whose voice at least I can hear, for I have no recollection
+beyond that of a confused but delicious blending of a thousand glorious
+colours, a bright and quick sense of joy, A VISIBLE MUSIC. But it is
+only since my childhood closed that I have mourned, as I now unceasingly
+mourn, for the light of day. My boyhood passed in a quiet cheerfulness;
+the least trifle then could please and occupy the vacancies of my mind;
+but it was as I took delight in being read to, as I listened to the
+vivid descriptions of Poetry, as I glowed at the recital of great deeds,
+as I was made acquainted by books with the energy, the action, the heat,
+the fervour, the pomp, the enthusiasm of life, that I gradually opened
+to the sense of all I was forever denied. I felt that I existed, not
+lived; and that, in the midst of the Universal Liberty, I was sentenced
+to a prison, from whose blank walls there was no escape. Still, however,
+while my parents lived, I had something of consolation; at least I was
+not alone. They died, and a sudden and dread solitude, a vast and empty
+dreariness, settled upon my dungeon. One old servant only, who had
+attended me from my childhood, who had known me in my short privilege of
+light, by whose recollections my mind could grope back its way through
+the dark and narrow passages of memory to faint glimpses of the sun,
+was all that remained to me of human sympathies. It did not suffice,
+however, to content me with a home where my father and my mother’s kind
+voice were _not_. A restless impatience, an anxiety to move, possessed
+me, and I set out from my home, journeying whither I cared not, so that
+at least I could change an air that weighed upon me like a palpable
+burden. I took only this old attendant as my companion; he too died
+three months since at Bruxelles, worn out with years. Alas! I had
+forgotten that he was old, for I saw not his progress to decay; and now,
+save my faithless dog, I was utterly alone, till I came hither and found
+_thee_.”
+
+Lucille stooped down to caress the dog; she blessed the desertion that
+had led him to a friend who never could desert.
+
+But however much, and however gratefully, St. Amand loved Lucille,
+her power availed not to chase the melancholy from his brow, and to
+reconcile him to his forlorn condition.
+
+“Ah, would that I could see thee! would that I could look upon a face
+that my heart vainly endeavours to delineate!”
+
+“If thou couldst,” sighed Lucille, “thou wouldst cease to love me.”
+
+“Impossible!” cried St. Amand, passionately. “However the world may find
+thee, _thou_ wouldst become my standard of beauty; and I should judge
+not of thee by others, but of others by thee.”
+
+He loved to hear Lucille read to him, and mostly he loved the
+descriptions of war, of travel, of wild adventure, and yet they
+occasioned him the most pain. Often she paused from the page as she
+heard him sigh, and felt that she would even have renounced the bliss of
+being loved by him, if she could have restored to him that blessing, the
+desire for which haunted him as a spectre.
+
+Lucille’s family were Catholic, and, like most in their station, they
+possessed the superstitions, as well as the devotion of the faith.
+Sometimes they amused themselves of an evening by the various legends
+and imaginary miracles of their calendar; and once, as they were thus
+conversing with two or three of their neighbours, “The Tomb of the Three
+Kings of Cologne” became the main topic of their wondering recitals.
+However strong was the sense of Lucille, she was, as you will readily
+conceive, naturally influenced by the belief of those with whom she had
+been brought up from her cradle, and she listened to tale after tale
+of the miracles wrought at the consecrated tomb, as earnestly and
+undoubtingly as the rest.
+
+And the Kings of the East were no ordinary saints; to the relics of
+the Three Magi, who followed the Star of Bethlehem, and were the first
+potentates of the earth who adored its Saviour, well might the pious
+Catholic suppose that a peculiar power and a healing sanctity would
+belong. Each of the circle (St. Amand, who had been more than usually
+silent, and even gloomy during the day, had retired to his own
+apartment, for there were some moments when, in the sadness of his
+thoughts, he sought that solitude which he so impatiently fled from at
+others)--each of the circle had some story to relate equally veracious
+and indisputable, of an infirmity cured, or a prayer accorded, or a sin
+atoned for at the foot of the holy tomb. One story peculiarly affected
+Lucille; the narrator, a venerable old man with gray locks, solemnly
+declared himself a witness of its truth.
+
+A woman at Anvers had given birth to a son, the offspring of an illicit
+connection, who came into the world deaf and dumb. The unfortunate
+mother believed the calamity a punishment for her own sin. “Ah, would,”
+ said she, “that the affliction had fallen only upon me! Wretch that I
+am, my innocent child is punished for my offence!” This, idea haunted
+her night and day; she pined and could not be comforted. As the child
+grew up, and wound himself more and more round her heart, his caresses
+added new pangs to her remorse; and at length (continued the narrator)
+hearing perpetually of the holy fame of the Tomb of Cologne, she
+resolved upon a pilgrimage barefoot to the shrine. “God is merciful,”
+ said she; “and He who called Magdalene his sister may take the mother’s
+curse from the child.” She then went to Cologne; she poured her tears,
+her penitence, and her prayers at the sacred tomb. When she returned to
+her native town, what was her dismay as she approached her cottage to
+behold it a heap of ruins! Its blackened rafters and yawning casements
+betokened the ravages of fire. The poor woman sank upon the ground
+utterly overpowered. Had her son perished? At that moment she heard
+the cry of a child’s voice, and, lo! her child rushed to her arms, and
+called her “mother!”
+
+He had been saved from the fire, which had broken out seven days before;
+but in the terror he had suffered, the string that tied his tongue had
+been loosened; he had uttered articulate sounds of distress; the curse
+was removed, and one word at least the kind neighbours had already
+taught him to welcome his mother’s return. What cared she now that
+her substance was gone, that her roof was ashes? She bowed in grateful
+submission to so mild a stroke; her prayer had been heard, and the sin
+of the mother was visited no longer on the child.
+
+I have said, dear Gertrude, that this story made a deep impression upon
+Lucille. A misfortune so nearly akin to that of St. Amand removed by the
+prayer of another filled her with devoted thoughts and a beautiful hope.
+“Is not the tomb still standing?” thought she. “Is not God still in
+heaven?--He who heard the guilty, may He not hear the guiltless? Is He
+not the God of love? Are not the affections the offerings that please
+Him best? And what though the child’s mediator was his mother, can
+even a mother love her child more tenderly than I love Eugene? But if,
+Lucille, thy prayer be granted, if he recover his sight, _thy_ charm
+is gone, he will love thee no longer. No matter! be it so,--I shall at
+least have made him happy!”
+
+Such were the thoughts that filled the mind of Lucille; she cherished
+them till they settled into resolution, and she secretly vowed to
+perform her pilgrimage of love. She told neither St. Amand nor her
+parents of her intention; she knew the obstacles such an announcement
+would create. Fortunately she had an aunt settled at Bruxelles, to whom
+she had been accustomed once in every year to pay a month’s visit, and
+at that time she generally took with her the work of a twelvemonths’
+industry, which found a readier sale at Bruxelles than at Malines.
+Lucille and St. Amand were already betrothed; their wedding was shortly
+to take place; and the custom of the country leading parents, however
+poor, to nourish the honourable ambition of giving some dowry with their
+daughters, Lucille found it easy to hide the object of her departure,
+under the pretence of taking the lace to Bruxelles, which had been the
+year’s labour of her mother and herself,--it would sell for sufficient,
+at least, to defray the preparations for the wedding.
+
+“Thou art ever right, child,” said Madame le Tisseur; “the richer St.
+Amand is, why, the less oughtest thou to go a beggar to his house.”
+
+In fact, the honest ambition of the good people was excited; their pride
+had been hurt by the envy of the town and the current congratulations on
+so advantageous a marriage; and they employed themselves in counting
+up the fortune they should be able to give to their only child, and
+flattering their pardonable vanity with the notion that there would
+be no such great disproportion in the connection after all. They were
+right, but not in their own view of the estimate; the wealth that
+Lucille brought was what fate could not lessen, reverse could not reach;
+the ungracious seasons could not blight its sweet harvest; imprudence
+could not dissipate, fraud could not steal, one grain from its abundant
+coffers! Like the purse in the Fairy Tale, its use was hourly, its
+treasure inexhaustible.
+
+St. Amand alone was not to be won to her departure; he chafed at the
+notion of a dowry; he was not appeased even by Lucille’s representation
+that it was only to gratify and not to impoverish her parents. “And
+_thou_, too, canst leave me!” he said, in that plaintive voice which had
+made his first charm to Lucille’s heart. “It is a double blindness!”
+
+“But for a few days; a fortnight at most, dearest Eugene.”
+
+“A fortnight! you do not reckon time as the blind do,” said St. Amand,
+bitterly.
+
+“But listen, listen, dear Eugene,” said Lucille, weeping.
+
+The sound of her sobs restored him to a sense of his ingratitude. Alas,
+he knew not how much he had to be grateful for! He held out his arms
+to her. “Forgive me,” said he. “Those who can see Nature know not how
+terrible it is to be alone.”
+
+“But my mother will not leave you.”
+
+“She is not you!”
+
+“And Julie,” said Lucille, hesitatingly.
+
+“What is Julie to me?”
+
+“Ah, you are the only one, save my parents, who could think of me in her
+presence.”
+
+“And why, Lucille?”
+
+“Why! She is more beautiful than a dream.”
+
+“Say not so. Would I could see, that I might prove to the world how much
+more beautiful thou art! There is no music in her voice.”
+
+The evening before Lucille departed she sat up late with St. Amand and
+her mother. They conversed on the future; they made plans; in the wide
+sterility of the world they laid out the garden of household love, and
+filled it with flowers, forgetful of the wind that scatters and the
+frost that kills. And when, leaning on Lucille’s arm, St. Amand sought
+his chamber, and they parted at his door, which closed upon her, she
+fell down on her knees at the threshold, and poured out the fulness of
+her heart in a prayer for his safety and the fulfilment of her timid
+hope.
+
+At daybreak she was consigned to the conveyance that performed the short
+journey from Malines to Bruxelles. When she entered the town, instead
+of seeking her aunt, she rested at an _auberge_ in the suburbs, and
+confiding her little basket of lace to the care of its hostess, she
+set out alone, and on foot, upon the errand of her heart’s lovely
+superstition. And erring though it was, her faith redeemed its weakness,
+her affection made it even sacred; and well may we believe that the Eye
+which reads all secrets scarce looked reprovingly on that fanaticism
+whose only infirmity was love.
+
+So fearful was she lest, by rendering the task too easy, she might
+impair the effect, that she scarcely allowed herself rest or food.
+Sometimes, in the heat of noon, she wandered a little from the roadside,
+and under the spreading lime-tree surrendered her mind to its sweet and
+bitter thoughts; but ever the restlessness of her enterprise urged
+her on, and faint, weary, and with bleeding feet, she started up and
+continued her way. At length she reached the ancient city, where a
+holier age has scarce worn from the habits and aspects of men the Roman
+trace. She prostrated herself at the tomb of the Magi; she proffered her
+ardent but humble prayer to Him before whose Son those fleshless heads
+(yet to faith at least preserved) had, eighteen centuries ago, bowed in
+adoration. Twice every day, for a whole week, she sought the same spot,
+and poured forth the same prayer. The last day an old priest, who,
+hovering in the church, had observed her constantly at devotion, with
+that fatherly interest which the better ministers of the Catholic sect
+(that sect which has covered the earth with the mansions of charity)
+feel for the unhappy, approached her as she was retiring with moist and
+downcast eyes, and saluting her, assumed the privilege of his order to
+inquire if there was aught in which his advice or aid could serve.
+There was something in the venerable air of the old man which encouraged
+Lucille; she opened her heart to him; she told him all. The good priest
+was much moved by her simplicity and earnestness. He questioned her
+minutely as to the peculiar species of blindness with which St. Amand
+was afflicted; and after musing a little while, he said, “Daughter,
+God is great and merciful; we must trust in His power, but we must
+not forget that He mostly works by mortal agents. As you pass through
+Louvain in your way home, fail not to see there a certain physician,
+named Le Kain. He is celebrated through Flanders for the cures he has
+wrought among the blind, and his advice is sought by all classes from
+far and near. He lives hard by the Hotel de Ville, but any one will
+inform you of his residence. Stay, my child, you shall take him a note
+from me; he is a benevolent and kindly man, and you shall tell him
+exactly the same story (and with the same voice) you have told to me.”
+
+So saying the priest made Lucille accompany him to his home, and forcing
+her to refresh herself less sparingly than she had yet done since she
+had left Malines, he gave her his blessing, and a letter to Le Kain,
+which he rightly judged would insure her a patient hearing from the
+physician. Well known among all men of science was the name of the
+priest, and a word of recommendation from him went further, where virtue
+and wisdom were honoured, than the longest letter from the haughtiest
+sieur in Flanders.
+
+With a patient and hopeful spirit, the young pilgrim turned her back on
+the Roman Cologne; and now about to rejoin St. Amand, she felt neither
+the heat of the sun nor the weariness of the road. It was one day at
+noon that she again passed through Louvain, and she soon found herself
+by the noble edifice of the Hotel de Ville. Proud rose its spires
+against the sky, and the sun shone bright on its rich tracery and
+Gothic casements; the broad open street was crowded with persons of all
+classes, and it was with some modest alarm that Lucille lowered her veil
+and mingled with the throng. It was easy, as the priest had said, to
+find the house of Le Kain; she bade the servant take the priest’s letter
+to his master, and she was not long kept waiting before she was admitted
+to the physician’s presence. He was a spare, tall man, with a bald
+front, and a calm and friendly countenance. He was not less touched
+than the priest had been by the manner in which she narrated her
+story, described the affliction of her betrothed, and the hope that had
+inspired the pilgrimage she had just made.
+
+“Well,” said he, encouragingly, “we must see our patient. You can bring
+him hither to me.”
+
+“Ah, sir, I had hoped--” Lucille stopped suddenly.
+
+“What, my young friend?”
+
+“That I might have had the triumph of bringing you to Malines. I know,
+sir, what you are about to say, and I know, sir, your time must be very
+valuable; but I am not so poor as I seem, and Eugene, that is, M. St.
+Amand, is very rich, and--and I have at Bruxelles what I am sure is
+a large sum; it was to have provided for the wedding, but it is most
+heartily at your service, sir.”
+
+Le Kain smiled; he was one of those men who love to read the human
+heart when its leaves are fair and undefiled; and, in the benevolence
+of science, he would have gone a longer journey than from Louvain to
+Malines to give sight to the blind, even had St. Amand been a beggar.
+
+“Well, well,” said he, “but you forget that M. St. Amand is not the only
+one in the world who wants me. I must look at my notebook, and see if I
+can be spared for a day or two.”
+
+So saying, he glanced at his memoranda. Everything smiled on Lucille; he
+had no engagements that his partner could not fulfil, for some days; he
+consented to accompany Lucille to Malines.
+
+Meanwhile, cheerless and dull had passed the time to St. Amand. He was
+perpetually asking Madame le Tisseur what hour it was,--it was almost
+his only question. There seemed to him no sun in the heavens, no
+freshness in the air, and he even forbore his favourite music; the
+instrument had lost its sweetness since Lucille was not by to listen.
+
+It was natural that the gossips of Malines should feel some envy at the
+marriage Lucille was about to make with one whose competence report had
+exaggerated into prodigal wealth, whose birth had been elevated from the
+respectable to the noble, and whose handsome person was clothed, by the
+interest excited by his misfortune, with the beauty of Antinous. Even
+that misfortune, which ought to have levelled all distinctions, was not
+sufficient to check the general envy; perhaps to some of the damsels
+of Malines blindness in a husband would not have seemed an unwelcome
+infirmity! But there was one in whom this envy rankled with a peculiar
+sting: it was the beautiful, the all-conquering Julie! That the humble,
+the neglected Lucille should be preferred to her; that Lucille, whose
+existence was well-nigh forgot beside Julie’s, should become thus
+suddenly of importance; that there should be one person in the world,
+and that person young, rich, handsome, to whom she was less than
+nothing, when weighed in the balance with Lucille, mortified to the
+quick a vanity that had never till then received a wound. “It is well,”
+ she would say with a bitter jest, “that Lucille’s lover is blind. To be
+the one it is necessary to be the other!”
+
+During Lucille’s absence she had been constantly in Madame le Tisseur’s
+house; indeed, Lucille had prayed her to be so. She had sought, with an
+industry that astonished herself, to supply Lucille’s place; and among
+the strange contradictions of human nature, she had learned during her
+efforts to please, to love the object of those efforts,--as much at
+least as she was capable of loving.
+
+She conceived a positive hatred to Lucille; she persisted in imagining
+that nothing but the accident of first acquaintance had deprived her
+of a conquest with which she persuaded herself her happiness had become
+connected. Had St. Amand never loved Lucille and proposed to Julie, his
+misfortune would have made her reject him, despite his wealth and his
+youth; but to be Lucille’s lover, and a conquest to be won from Lucille,
+raised him instantly to an importance not his own. Safe, however, in his
+affliction, the arts and beauty of Julie fell harmless on the fidelity
+of St. Amand. Nay, he liked her less than ever, for it seemed an
+impertinence in any one to counterfeit the anxiety and watchfulness of
+Lucille.
+
+“It is time, surely it is time, Madame le Tisseur, that Lucille should
+return? She might have sold all the lace in Malines by this time,” said
+St. Amand, one day, peevishly.
+
+“Patience, my dear friend, patience; perhaps she may return to-morrow.”
+
+“To-morrow! let me see, it is only six o’clock,--only six, you are
+sure?”
+
+“Just five, dear Eugene. Shall I read to you? This is a new book from
+Paris; it has made a great noise,” said Julie.
+
+“You are very kind, but I will not trouble you.”
+
+“It is anything but trouble.”
+
+“In a word, then, I would rather not.”
+
+“Oh, that he could see!” thought Julie; “would I not punish him for
+this!”
+
+“I hear carriage wheels; who can be passing this way? Surely it is the
+_voiturier_ from Bruxelles,” said St. Amand, starting up; “it is his
+day,--his hour, too. No, no, it is a lighter vehicle,” and he sank down
+listlessly on his seat.
+
+Nearer and nearer rolled the wheels; they turned the corner; they
+stopped at the lowly door; and, overcome, overjoyed, Lucille was clasped
+to the bosom of St. Amand.
+
+“Stay,” said she, blushing, as she recovered her self-possession, and
+turned to Le Kain; “pray pardon me, sir. Dear Eugene, I have brought
+with me one who, by God’s blessing, may yet restore you to sight.”
+
+“We must not be sanguine, my child,” said Le Kain; “anything is better
+than disappointment.”
+
+
+
+To close this part of my story, dear Gertrude, Le Kain examined St.
+Amand, and the result of the examination was a confident belief in the
+probability of a cure. St. Amand gladly consented to the experiment of
+an operation; it succeeded, the blind man saw! Oh, what were Lucille’s
+feelings, what her emotion, what her joy, when she found the object of
+her pilgrimage, of her prayers, fulfilled! That joy was so intense that
+in the eternal alternations of human life she might have foretold from
+its excess how bitter the sorrows fated to ensue.
+
+As soon as by degrees the patient’s new sense became reconciled to the
+light, his first, his only demand was for Lucille. “No, let me not see
+her alone; let me see her in the midst of you all, that I may convince
+you that the heart never is mistaken in its instincts.” With a fearful,
+a sinking presentiment, Lucille yielded to the request, to which the
+impetuous St. Amand would hear indeed no denial. The father, the
+mother, Julie, Lucille, Julie’s younger sisters, assembled in the
+little parlour; the door opened, and St. Amand stood hesitating on the
+threshold. One look around sufficed to him; his face brightened, he
+uttered a cry of joy. “Lucille! Lucille!” he exclaimed, “it is you, I
+know it, _you_ only!” He sprang forward _and fell at the feet of Julie_!
+
+Flushed, elated, triumphant, Julie bent upon him her sparkling eyes;
+_she_ did not undeceive him.
+
+“You are wrong, you mistake,” said Madame le Tisseur, in confusion;
+“that is her cousin Julie,--this is your Lucille.”
+
+St. Amand rose, turned, saw Lucille, and at that moment she wished
+herself in her grave. Surprise, mortification, disappointment, almost
+dismay, were depicted in his gaze. He had been haunting his prison-house
+with dreams, and now, set free, he felt how unlike they were to the
+truth. Too new to observation to read the woe, the despair, the lapse
+and shrinking of the whole frame, that his look occasioned Lucille, he
+yet felt, when the first shock of his surprise was over, that it was not
+thus he should thank her who had restored him to sight. He hastened to
+redeem his error--ah! how could it be redeemed?
+
+From that hour all Lucille’s happiness was at an end; her fairy palace
+was shattered in the dust; the magician’s wand was broken up; the
+Ariel was given to the winds; and the bright enchantment no longer
+distinguished the land she lived in from the rest of the barren
+world. It is true that St. Amand’s words were kind; it is true that he
+remembered with the deepest gratitude all she had done in his behalf;
+it is true that he forced himself again and again to say, “She is my
+betrothed, my benefactress!” and he cursed himself to think that the
+feelings he had entertained for her were fled. Where was the passion of
+his words; where the ardour of his tone; where that play and light of
+countenance which her step, her voice, could formerly call forth? When
+they were alone he was embarrassed and constrained, and almost cold;
+his hand no longer sought hers, his soul no longer missed her if she was
+absent a moment from his side. When in their household circle he seemed
+visibly more at ease; but did his eyes fasten upon her who had opened
+them to the day; did they not wander at every interval with a too
+eloquent admiration to the blushing and radiant face of the exulting
+Julie? This was not, you will believe, suddenly perceptible in one
+day or one week, but every day it was perceptible more and more. Yet
+still--bewitched, ensnared, as St. Amand was he never perhaps would have
+been guilty of an infidelity that he strove with the keenest remorse to
+wrestle against, had it not been for the fatal contrast, at the first
+moment of his gushing enthusiasm, which Julie had presented to Lucille;
+but for that he would have formed no previous idea of real and living
+beauty to aid the disappointment of his imaginings and his dreams.
+He would have seen Lucille young and graceful, and with eyes beaming
+affection, contrasted only by the wrinkled countenance and bended frame
+of her parents, and she would have completed her conquest over him
+before he had discovered that she was less beautiful than others; nay,
+more,--that infidelity never could have lasted above the first few days,
+if the vain and heartless object of it had not exerted every art, all
+the power and witchery of her beauty, to cement and continue it. The
+unfortunate Lucille--so susceptible to the slightest change in those
+she loved, so diffident of herself, so proud too in that diffidence--no
+longer necessary, no longer missed, no longer loved, could not bear to
+endure the galling comparison between the past and the present. She
+fled uncomplainingly to her chamber to indulge her tears, and thus,
+unhappily, absent as her father generally was during the day, and busied
+as her mother was either at work or in household matters, she left Julie
+a thousand opportunities to complete the power she had begun to wield
+over--no, not the heart!--the _senses_ of St. Amand! Yet, still not
+suspecting, in the open generosity of her mind, the whole extent of her
+affliction, poor Lucille buoyed herself at times with the hope that when
+once married, when, once in that intimacy of friendship, the unspeakable
+love she felt for him could disclose itself with less restraint than at
+present,--she would perhaps regain a heart which had been so devotedly
+hers, that she could not think that without a fault it was irrevocably
+gone: on that hope she anchored all the little happiness that remained
+to her. And still St. Amand pressed their marriage, but in what
+different tones! In fact, he wished to preclude from himself the
+possibility of a deeper ingratitude than that which he had incurred
+already. He vainly thought that the broken reed of love might be bound
+up and strengthened by the ties of duty; and at least he was anxious
+that his hand, his fortune, his esteem, his gratitude, should give
+to Lucille the only recompense it was now in his power to bestow.
+Meanwhile, left alone so often with Julie, and Julie bent on achieving
+the last triumph over his heart, St. Amand was gradually preparing a
+far different reward, a far different return, for her to whom he owed so
+incalculable a debt.
+
+There was a garden, behind the house, in which there was a small
+arbour, where often in the summer evenings Eugene and Lucille had
+sat together,--hours never to return! One day she heard from her own
+chamber, where she sat mourning, the sound of St. Amand’s flute swelling
+gently from that beloved and consecrated bower. She wept as she heard
+it, and the memories that the music bore softening and endearing his
+image, she began to reproach herself that she had yielded so often to
+the impulse of her wounded feelings; that chilled by _his_ coldness, she
+had left him so often to himself, and had not sufficiently dared to
+tell him of that affection which, in her modest self-depreciation,
+constituted her only pretension to his love. “Perhaps he is alone now,”
+ she thought; “the air too is one which he knows that I love;” and with
+her heart in her step, she stole from the house and sought the arbour.
+She had scarce turned from her chamber when the flute ceased; as she
+neared the arbour she heard voices,--Julie’s voice in grief, St. Amand’s
+in consolation. A dread foreboding seized her; her feet clung rooted to
+the earth.
+
+“Yes, marry her, forget me,” said Julie; “in a few days you will
+be another’s, and I--I--forgive me, Eugene, forgive me that I have
+disturbed your happiness. I am punished sufficiently; my heart will
+break, but it will break in loving you.” Sobs choked Julie’s voice.
+
+“Oh, speak not thus,” said St. Amand. “I, _I_ only am to blame,--I,
+false to both, to both ungrateful. Oh, from the hour that these eyes
+opened upon you I drank in a new life; the sun itself to me was less
+wonderful than your beauty. But--but--let me forget that hour. What do I
+not owe to Lucille? I shall be wretched,--I shall deserve to be so;
+for shall I not think, Julie, that I have embittered your life with our
+ill-fated love? But all that I can give--my hand, my home, my plighted
+faith--must be hers. Nay, Julie, nay--why that look? Could I act
+otherwise? Can I dream otherwise? Whatever the sacrifice, _must_ I not
+render it? Ah, what do I owe to Lucille, were it only for the thought
+that but for her I might never have seen thee!”
+
+Lucille stayed to hear no more; with the same soft step as that which
+had borne her within hearing of these fatal words, she turned back once
+more to her desolate chamber.
+
+That evening, as St. Amand was sitting alone in his apartment, he heard
+a gentle knock at the door. “Come in,” he said, and Lucille entered. He
+started in some confusion, and would have taken her hand, but she gently
+repulsed him. She took a seat opposite to him, and looking down, thus
+addressed him:--
+
+“My dear Eugene, that is, Monsieur St. Amand, I have something on my
+mind that I think it better to speak at once; and if I do not exactly
+express what I would wish to say, you must not be offended with Lucille:
+it is not an easy matter to put into words what one feels deeply.”
+ Colouring, and suspecting something of the truth, St. Amand would have
+broken in upon her here; but she with a gentle impatience motioned him
+to be silent, and continued:--
+
+“You know that when you once loved me, I used to tell you that you would
+cease to do so could you see how undeserving I was of your attachment. I
+did not deceive myself, Eugene; I always felt assured that such would be
+the case, that your love for me necessarily rested on your affliction.
+But for all that I never at least had a dream or a desire but for your
+happiness; and God knows, that if again, by walking barefooted, not to
+Cologne, but to Rome--to the end of the world--I could save you from a
+much less misfortune than that of blindness, I would cheerfully do it;
+yes, even though I might foretell all the while that, on my return, you
+would speak to me coldly, think of me lightly, and that the penalty to
+me would--would be--what it has been!” Here Lucille wiped a few natural
+tears from her eyes. St. Amand, struck to the heart, covered his
+face with his hands, without the courage to interrupt her. Lucille
+continued:--
+
+“That which I foresaw has come to pass; I am no longer to you what I
+once was, when you could clothe this poor form and this homely face with
+a beauty they did not possess. You would wed me still, it is true; but I
+am proud, Eugene, and cannot stoop to gratitude where I once had love.
+I am not so unjust as to blame you; the change was natural, was
+inevitable. I should have steeled myself more against it; but I am now
+resigned. We must part; you love Julie--that too is natural--and _she_
+loves you; ah! what also more in the probable course of events? Julie
+loves you, not yet, perhaps, so much as I did; but then she has not
+known you as I have, and she whose whole life has been triumph cannot
+feel the gratitude that I felt at fancying myself loved; but this will
+come--God grant it! Farewell, then, forever, dear Eugene; I leave you
+when you no longer want me; you are now independent of Lucille; wherever
+you go, a thousand hereafter can supply my place. Farewell!”
+
+She rose, as she said this, to leave the room; but St. Amand seizing her
+hand, which she in vain endeavoured to withdraw from his clasp, poured
+forth incoherently, passionately, his reproaches on himself, his
+eloquent persuasion against her resolution.
+
+“I confess,” said he, “that I have been allured for a moment; I confess
+that Julie’s beauty made me less sensible to your stronger, your holier,
+oh! far, far holier title to my love! But forgive me, dearest Lucille;
+already I return to you, to all I once felt for you; make me not curse
+the blessing of sight that I owe to you. You must not leave me; never
+can we two part. Try me, only try me, and if ever hereafter my heart
+wander from you, _then_, Lucille, leave me to my remorse!”
+
+Even at that moment Lucille did not yield; she felt that his prayer was
+but the enthusiasm of the hour; she felt that there was a virtue in her
+pride,--that to leave him was a duty to herself. In vain he pleaded; in
+vain were his embraces, his prayers; in vain he reminded her of their
+plighted troth, of her aged parents, whose happiness had become wrapped
+in her union with him: “How,--even were it as you wrongly believe,--how,
+in honour to them, can I desert you, can I wed another?”
+
+“Trust that, trust all, to me,” answered Lucille; “your honour shall
+be my care, none shall blame _you_; only do not let your marriage with
+Julie be celebrated here before their eyes: that is all I ask, all they
+can expect. God bless you! do not fancy I shall be unhappy, for whatever
+happiness the world gives you, shall I not have contributed to bestow
+it? and with that thought I am above compassion.”
+
+She glided from his arms, and left him to a solitude more bitter even
+than that of blindness. That very night Lucille sought her mother; to
+her she confided all. I pass over the reasons she urged, the arguments
+she overcame; she conquered rather than convinced, and leaving to Madame
+le Tisseur the painful task of breaking to her father her unalterable
+resolution, she quitted Malines the next morning, and with a heart too
+honest to be utterly without comfort, paid that visit to her aunt which
+had been so long deferred.
+
+The pride of Lucille’s parents prevented them from reproaching St.
+Amand. He could not bear, however, their cold and altered looks; he left
+their house; and though for several days he would not even see Julie,
+yet her beauty and her art gradually resumed their empire over him. They
+were married at Courtroi, and to the joy of the vain Julie departed to
+the gay metropolis of France. But, before their departure, before his
+marriage, St. Amand endeavoured to appease his conscience by obtaining
+for M. le Tisseur a much more lucrative and honourable office than that
+he now held. Rightly judging that Malines could no longer be a pleasant
+residence for them, and much less for Lucille, the duties of the post
+were to be fulfilled in another town; and knowing that M. le Tisseur’s
+delicacy would revolt at receiving such a favour from his hands, he kept
+the nature of his negotiation a close secret, and suffered the honest
+citizen to believe that his own merits alone had entitled him to so
+unexpected a promotion.
+
+
+
+Time went on. This quiet and simple history of humble affections took
+its date in a stormy epoch of the world,--the dawning Revolution of
+France. The family of Lucille had been little more than a year settled
+in their new residence when Dumouriez led his army into the Netherlands.
+But how meanwhile had that year passed for Lucille? I have said that her
+spirit was naturally high; that though so tender, she was not weak. Her
+very pilgrimage to Cologne alone, and at the timid age of seventeen,
+proved that there was a strength in her nature no less than a devotion
+in her love. The sacrifice she had made brought its own reward.
+She believed St. Amand was happy, and she would not give way to the
+selfishness of grief; she had still duties to perform; she could still
+comfort her parents and cheer their age; she could still be all the
+world to them: she felt this, and was consoled. Only once during the
+year had she heard of Julie; she had been seen by a mutual friend at
+Paris, gay, brilliant, courted, and admired; of St. Amand she heard
+nothing.
+
+My tale, dear Gertrude, does not lead me through the harsh scenes of
+war. I do not tell you of the slaughter and the siege, and the blood
+that inundated those fair lands,--the great battlefield of Europe. The
+people of the Netherlands in general were with the cause of Dumouriez,
+but the town in which Le Tisseur dwelt offered some faint resistance to
+his arms. Le Tisseur himself, despite his age, girded on his sword; the
+town was carried, and the fierce and licentious troops of the conqueror
+poured, flushed with their easy victory, through its streets. Le
+Tisseur’s house was filled with drunken and rude troopers; Lucille
+herself trembled in the fierce gripe of one of those dissolute soldiers,
+more bandit than soldier, whom the subtle Dumouriez had united to his
+army, and by whose blood he so often saved that of his nobler band. Her
+shrieks, her cries, were vain, when suddenly the troopers gave way. “The
+Captain! brave Captain!” was shouted forth; the insolent soldier, felled
+by a powerful arm, sank senseless at the feet of Lucille, and a glorious
+form, towering above its fellows,--even through its glittering garb,
+even in that dreadful hour, remembered at a glance by Lucille,--stood
+at her side; her protector, her guardian! Thus once more she beheld St.
+Amand!
+
+The house was cleared in an instant, the door barred. Shouts, groans,
+wild snatches of exulting song, the clang of arms, the tramp of horses,
+the hurrying footsteps, the deep music sounded loud, and blended
+terribly without. Lucille heard them not,--she was on that breast which
+never should have deserted her.
+
+Effectually to protect his friends, St. Amand took up his quarters at
+their house; and for two days he was once more under the same roof as
+Lucille. He never recurred voluntarily to Julie; he answered Lucille’s
+timid inquiry after her health briefly, and with coldness, but he spoke
+with all the enthusiasm of a long-pent and ardent spirit of the new
+profession he had embraced. Glory seemed now to be his only mistress;
+and the vivid delusion of the first bright dreams of the Revolution
+filled his mind, broke from his tongue, and lighted up those dark eyes
+which Lucille had redeemed to day.
+
+She saw him depart at the head of his troops; she saw his proud crest
+glancing in the sun; she saw his steed winding through the narrow
+street; she saw that his last glance reverted to her, where she stood at
+the door; and, as he waved his adieu, she fancied that there was on his
+face that look of deep and grateful tenderness which reminded her of the
+one bright epoch of her life.
+
+She was right; St. Amand had long since in bitterness repented of a
+transient infatuation, had long since distinguished the true Florimel
+from the false, and felt that, in Julie, Lucille’s wrongs were avenged.
+But in the hurry and heat of war he plunged that regret--the keenest of
+all--which embodies the bitter words, “TOO LATE!”
+
+Years passed away, and in the resumed tranquillity of Lucille’s life the
+brilliant apparition of St. Amand appeared as something dreamed of, not
+seen. The star of Napoleon had risen above the horizon; the romance of
+his early career had commenced; and the campaign of Egypt had been the
+herald of those brilliant and meteoric successes which flashed forth
+from the gloom of the Revolution of France.
+
+You are aware, dear Gertrude, how many in the French as well as the
+English troops returned home from Egypt blinded with the ophthalmia of
+that arid soil. Some of the young men in Lucille’s town, who had joined
+Napoleon’s army, came back darkened by that fearful affliction, and
+Lucille’s alms and Lucille’s aid and Lucille’s sweet voice were ever
+at hand for those poor sufferers, whose common misfortune touched so
+thrilling a chord of her heart.
+
+Her father was now dead, and she had only her mother to cheer amidst the
+ills of age. As one evening they sat at work together, Madame le Tisseur
+said, after a pause,--
+
+“I wish, dear Lucille, thou couldst be persuaded to marry Justin; he
+loves thee well, and now that thou art yet young, and hast many years
+before thee, thou shouldst remember that when I die thou wilt be alone.”
+
+“Ah, cease, dearest mother, I never can marry now; and as for love--once
+taught in the bitter school in which I have learned the knowledge of
+myself--I cannot be deceived again.”
+
+“My Lucille, you do not know yourself. Never was woman loved if Justin
+does not love you; and never did lover feel with more real warmth how
+worthily he loved.”
+
+And this was true; and not of Justin alone, for Lucille’s modest
+virtues, her kindly temper, and a certain undulating and feminine grace,
+which accompanied all her movements, had secured her as many conquests
+as if she had been beautiful. She had rejected all offers of marriage
+with a shudder; without even the throb of a flattered vanity. One
+memory, sadder, was also dearer to her than all things; and something
+sacred in its recollections made her deem it even a crime to think of
+effacing the past by a new affection.
+
+“I believe,” continued Madame le Tisseur, angrily, “that thou still
+thinkest fondly of him from whom only in the world thou couldst have
+experienced ingratitude.”
+
+“Nay, Mother,” said Lucille, with a blush and a slight sigh, “Eugene is
+married to another.”
+
+While thus conversing, they heard a gentle and timid knock at the door;
+the latch was lifted. “This,” said the rough voice of a _commissionaire_
+of the town, “this, monsieur, is the house of Madame le Tisseur, and
+_voila mademoiselle_!” A tall figure, with a shade over his eyes, and
+wrapped in a long military cloak, stood in the room. A thrill shot
+across Lucille’s heart. He stretched out his arms. “Lucille,” said that
+melancholy voice, which had made the music of her first youth, “where
+art thou, Lucille? Alas! she does not recognize St. Amand.”
+
+Thus was it indeed. By a singular fatality, the burning suns and the
+sharp dust of the plains of Egypt had smitten the young soldier, in
+the flush of his career, with a second--and this time with an
+irremediable--blindness! He had returned to France to find his hearth
+lonely. Julie was no more,--a sudden fever had cut her off in the midst
+of youth; and he had sought his way to Lucille’s house, to see if one
+hope yet remained to him in the world!
+
+And when, days afterwards, humbly and sadly he re-urged a former suit,
+did Lucille shut her heart to its prayer? Did her pride remember its
+wound; did she revert to his desertion; did she reply to the whisper of
+her yearning love, “_Thou hast been before forsaken_”? That voice and
+those darkened eyes pleaded to her with a pathos not to be resisted. “I
+am once more necessary to him,” was all her thought; “if I reject him
+who will tend him?” In that thought was the motive of her conduct; in
+that thought gushed back upon her soul all the springs of checked but
+unconquered, unconquerable love! In that thought, she stood beside him
+at the altar, and pledged, with a yet holier devotion than she might
+have felt of yore, the vow of her imperishable truth.
+
+And Lucille found, in the future, a reward, which the common world could
+never comprehend. With his blindness returned all the feelings she had
+first awakened in St. Amand’s solitary heart; again he yearned for her
+step, again he missed even a moment’s absence from his side, again her
+voice chased the shadow from his brow, and in her presence was a sense
+of shelter and of sunshine. He no longer sighed for the blessing he had
+lost; he reconciled himself to fate, and entered into that serenity of
+mood which mostly characterizes the blind.
+
+Perhaps after we have seen the actual world, and experienced its hollow
+pleasures, we can resign ourselves the better to its exclusion; and
+as the cloister, which repels the ardour of our hope, is sweet to
+our remembrance, so the darkness loses its terror when experience has
+wearied us with the glare and travail of the day. It was something, too,
+as they advanced in life, to feel the chains that bound him to Lucille
+strengthening daily, and to cherish in his overflowing heart the
+sweetness of increasing gratitude; it was something that he could not
+see years wrinkle that open brow, or dim the tenderness of that touching
+smile; it was something that to him she was beyond the reach of time,
+and preserved to the verge of a grave (which received them both within
+a few days of each other) in all the bloom of her unwithering affection,
+in all the freshness of a heart that never could grow old!
+
+
+
+Gertrude, who had broken in upon Trevylyan’s story by a thousand anxious
+interruptions, and a thousand pretty apologies for interrupting, was
+charmed with a tale in which true love was made happy at last, although
+she did not forgive St. Amand his ingratitude, and although she
+declared, with a critical shake of the head, that “it was very unnatural
+that the mere beauty of Julie, or the mere want of it in Lucille, should
+have produced such an effect upon him, if he had ever _really_ loved
+Lucille in his blindness.”
+
+As they passed through Malines, the town assumed an interest in
+Gertrude’s eyes to which it scarcely of itself was entitled. She looked
+wistfully at the broad market-place, at a corner of which was one of
+those out-of-door groups of quiet and noiseless revellers, which Dutch
+art has raised from the Familiar to the Picturesque; and then glancing
+to the tower of St. Rembauld, she fancied, amidst the silence of noon,
+that she yet heard the plaintive cry of the blind orphan, “Fido, Fido,
+why hast thou deserted me?”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V. ROTTERDAM.--THE CHARACTER OF THE DUTCH.--THEIR RESEMBLANCE TO
+THE GERMANS.--A DISPUTE BETWEEN VANE AND TREVYLYAN, AFTER THE MANNER OF
+THE ANCIENT NOVELISTS, AS TO WHICH IS PREFERABLE, THE LIFE OF ACTION OR
+THE LIFE OF REPOSE.--TREVYLYAN’S CONTRAST BETWEEN LITERARY AMBITION AND
+THE AMBITION OF PUBLIC LIFE.
+
+OUR travellers arrived at Rotterdam on a bright and sunny day. There is
+a cheerfulness about the operations of Commerce,--a life, a bustle,
+an action which always exhilarate the spirits at the first glance.
+Afterwards they fatigue us; we get too soon behind the scenes, and find
+the base and troublous passions which move the puppets and conduct the
+drama.
+
+But Gertrude, in whom ill health had not destroyed the vividness of
+impression that belongs to the inexperienced, was delighted at the
+cheeriness of all around her. As she leaned lightly on Trevylyan’s arm,
+he listened with a forgetful joy to her questions and exclamations
+at the stir and liveliness of a city from which was to commence their
+pilgrimage along the Rhine. And indeed the scene was rife with the
+spirit of that people at once so active and so patient, so daring on
+the sea, so cautious on the land. Industry was visible everywhere; the
+vessels in the harbour, the crowded boat putting off to land, the
+throng on the quay,--all looked bustling and spoke of commerce. The city
+itself, on which the skies shone fairly through light and fleecy clouds,
+wore a cheerful aspect. The church of St. Lawrence rising above the
+clean, neat houses, and on one side trees thickly grouped, gayly
+contrasted at once the waters and the city.
+
+“I like this place,” said Gertrude’s father, quietly; “it has an air of
+comfort.”
+
+“And an absence of grandeur,” said Trevylyan.
+
+“A commercial people are one great middle-class in their habits and
+train of mind,” replied Vane; “and grandeur belongs to the extremes,--an
+impoverished population and a wealthy despot.”
+
+They went to see the statue of Erasmus, and the house in which he was
+born. Vane had a certain admiration for Erasmus which his companions did
+not share; he liked the quiet irony of the sage, and his knowledge of
+the world; and, besides, Vane was at that time of life when philosophers
+become objects of interest. At first they are teachers; secondly,
+friends; and it is only a few who arrive at the third stage, and find
+them deceivers. The Dutch are a singular people. Their literature
+is neglected, but it has some of the German vein in its strata,--the
+patience, the learning, the homely delineation, and even some traces of
+the mixture of the humorous and the terrible which form that genius for
+the grotesque so especially German--you find this in their legends and
+ghost-stories. But in Holland activity destroys, in Germany indolence
+nourishes, romance.
+
+They stayed a day or two at Rotterdam, and then proceeded up the Rhine
+to Gorcum. The banks were flat and tame, and nothing could be less
+impressive of its native majesty than this part of the course of the
+great river.
+
+“I never felt before,” whispered Gertrude, tenderly, “how much there
+was of consolation in your presence; for here I am at last on the
+Rhine,--the blue Rhine, and how disappointed I should be if you were not
+by my side!”
+
+“But, my Gertrude, you must wait till we have passed Cologne, before the
+_glories_ of the Rhine burst upon you.”
+
+“It reverses life, my child,” said the moralizing Vane; “and the
+stream flows through dulness at first, reserving its poetry for our
+perseverance.”
+
+“I will not allow your doctrine,” said Trevylyan, as the ambitious
+ardour of his native disposition stirred within him. “Life has
+always action; it is our own fault if it ever be dull: youth has its
+enterprise, manhood its schemes; and even if infirmity creep upon age,
+the mind, the mind still triumphs over the mortal clay, and in the quiet
+hermitage, among books, and from thoughts, keeps the great wheel within
+everlastingly in motion. No, the better class of spirits have always an
+antidote to the insipidity of a common career, they have ever energy at
+will--”
+
+“And never happiness!” answered Vane, after a pause, as he gazed on the
+proud countenance of Trevylyan, with that kind of calm, half-pitying
+interest which belonged to a character deeply imbued with the philosophy
+of a sad experience acting upon an unimpassioned heart. “And in truth,
+Trevylyan, it would please me if I could but teach you the folly of
+preferring the exercise of that energy of which you speak to the golden
+luxuries of REST. What ambition can ever bring an adequate reward? Not,
+surely, the ambition of letters, the desire of intellectual renown!”
+
+“True,” said Trevylyan, quietly; “that dream I have long renounced;
+there is nothing palpable in literary fame,--it scarcely perhaps soothes
+the vain, it assuredly chafes the proud. In my earlier years I attempted
+some works which gained what the world, perhaps rightly, deemed a
+sufficient need of reputation; yet it was not sufficient to recompense
+myself for the fresh hours I had consumed, for the sacrifices of
+pleasure I had made. The subtle aims that had inspired me were not
+perceived; the thoughts that had seemed new and beautiful to me fell
+flat and lustreless on the soul of others. If I was approved, it
+was often for what I condemned myself; and I found that the trite
+commonplace and the false wit charmed, while the truth fatigued, and
+the enthusiasm revolted. For men of that genius to which I make no
+pretension, who have dwelt apart in the obscurity of their own thoughts,
+gazing upon stars that shine not for the dull sleepers of the world, it
+must be a keen sting to find the product of their labour confounded
+with a class, and to be mingled up in men’s judgment with the faults
+or merits of a tribe. Every great genius must deem himself original
+and alone in his conceptions. It is not enough for him that these
+conceptions should be approved as good, unless they are admitted as
+inventive, if they mix him with the herd he has shunned, not separate
+him in fame as he has been separated in soul. Some Frenchman, the oracle
+of his circle, said of the poet of the ‘Phedre,’ ‘Racine and the other
+imitators of Corneille;’ and Racine, in his wrath, nearly forswore
+tragedy forever. It is in vain to tell the author that the public is the
+judge of his works. The author believes himself above the public, or he
+would never have written; and,” continued Trevylyan, with enthusiasm,
+“he _is_ above them; their fiat may crush his glory, but never his
+self-esteem. He stands alone and haughty amidst the wrecks of the temple
+he imagined he had raised ‘To THE FUTURE,’ and retaliates neglect with
+scorn. But is this, the life of scorn, a pleasurable state of existence?
+Is it one to be cherished? Does even the moment of fame counterbalance
+the years of mortification? And what is there in literary fame itself
+present and palpable to its heir? His work is a pebble thrown into
+the deep; the stir lasts for a moment, and the wave closes up, to be
+susceptible no more to the same impression. The circle may widen to
+other lands and other ages, but around _him_ it is weak and faint. The
+trifles of the day, the low politics, the base intrigues, occupy the
+tongue, and fill the thought of his contemporaries. He is less known
+than a mountebank, or a new dancer; his glory comes not home to him; it
+brings no present, no perpetual reward, like the applauses that wait the
+actor, or the actor-like murmur of the senate; and this, which vexes,
+also lowers him; his noble nature begins to nourish the base vices of
+jealousy, and the unwillingness to admire. Goldsmith is forgotten in the
+presence of a puppet; he feels it, and is mean; he expresses it, and
+is ludicrous. It is well to say that great minds will not stoop to
+jealousy; in the greatest minds, it is most frequent.* Few authors are
+ever so aware of the admiration they excite as to afford to be generous;
+and this melancholy truth revolts us with our own ambition. Shall we be
+demigods in our closets at the price of sinking below mortality in the
+world? No! it was from this deep sentiment of the unrealness of literary
+fame, of dissatisfaction at the fruits it produced, of fear for the
+meanness it engendered, that I resigned betimes all love for its career;
+and if, by the restless desire that haunts men who think much to write
+ever, I should be urged hereafter to literature, I will sternly teach
+myself to persevere in the indifference to its fame.”
+
+  * See the long list of names furnished by Disraeli, in that most
+    exquisite work, “The Literary Character,” vol. ii. p. 75.  Plato,
+    Xenophon, Chaucer, Corneille, Voltaire, Dryden, the Caracci,
+    Domenico Venetiano, murdered by his envious friend, and the gentle
+    Castillo fainting away at the genius of Murillo.
+
+“You say as I would say,” answered Vane, with his tranquil smile; “and
+your experience corroborates my theory. Ambition, then, is not the root
+of happiness. Why more in action than in letters?”
+
+“Because,” said Trevylyan, “in action we commonly gain in our life all
+the honour we deserve: the public judge of men better and more rapidly
+than of books. And he who takes to himself in action a high and pure
+ambition, associates it with so many objects, that, unlike literature,
+the failure of one is balanced by the success of the other. He, the
+creator of deeds, not resembling the creator of books, stands not alone;
+he is eminently social; he has many comrades, and without their aid
+he could not accomplish his designs. This divides and mitigates the
+impatient jealousy against others. He works for a cause, and knows early
+that he cannot monopolize its whole glory; he shares what he is aware
+it is impossible to engross. Besides, action leaves him no time for
+brooding over disappointment. The author has consumed his youth in a
+work,--it fails in glory. Can he write another work? Bid him call back
+another youth! But in action, the labour of the mind is from day to day.
+A week replaces what a week has lost, and all the aspirant’s fame is of
+the present. It is lipped by the Babel of the living world; he is
+ever on the stage, and the spectators are ever ready to applaud. Thus
+perpetually in the service of others self ceases to be his world; he has
+no leisure to brood over real or imaginary wrongs; the excitement whirls
+on the machine till it is worn out--”
+
+“And kicked aside,” said Vane, “with the broken lumber of men’s other
+tools, in the chamber of their son’s forgetfulness. Your man of action
+lasts but for an hour; the man of letters lasts for ages.”
+
+“We live not for ages,” answered Trevylyan; “our life is on earth, and
+not in the grave.”
+
+“But even grant,” continued Vane--“and I for one will concede the
+point--that posthumous fame is not worth the living agonies that obtain
+it, how are you better off in your poor and vulgar career of action?
+Would you assist the rulers?--servility! The people?--folly! If you take
+the great philosophical view which the worshippers of the past rarely
+take, but which, unknown to them, is their sole excuse,--namely, that
+the changes which _may_ benefit the future unsettle the present; and
+that it is not the wisdom of practical legislation to risk the peace
+of our contemporaries in the hope of obtaining happiness for their
+posterity,--to what suspicions, to what charges are you exposed! You are
+deemed the foe of all liberal opinion, and you read your curses in the
+eyes of a nation. But take the side of the people. What caprice, what
+ingratitude! You have professed so much in theory, that you can never
+accomplish sufficient in practice. Moderation becomes a crime; to be
+prudent is to be perfidious. New demagogues, without temperance, because
+without principle, outstrip you in the moment of your greatest services.
+The public is the grave of a great man’s deeds; it is never sated; its
+maw is eternally open; it perpetually craves for more. Where, in the
+history of the world, do you find the gratitude of a people? You find
+fervour, it is true, but not gratitude,--the fervour that exaggerates a
+benefit at one moment, but not the gratitude that remembers it the next
+year. Once disappoint them, and all your actions, all your sacrifices,
+are swept from their remembrance forever; they break the windows of the
+very house they have given you, and melt down their medals into bullets.
+Who serves man, ruler or peasant, serves the ungrateful; and all the
+ambitious are but types of a Wolsey or a De Witt.”
+
+“And what,” said Trevylyan, “consoles a man in the ills that flesh is
+heir to, in that state of obscure repose, that serene inactivity to
+which you would confine him? Is it not his conscience? Is it not his
+self-acquittal, or his self-approval?”
+
+“Doubtless,” replied Vane.
+
+“Be it so,” answered the high-souled Trevylyan; “the same consolation
+awaits us in action as in repose. We sedulously pursue what we deem to
+be true glory. We are maligned; but our soul acquits us. Could it do
+more in the scandal and the prejudice that assail us in private life?
+You are silent; but note how much deeper should be the comfort, how much
+loftier the self-esteem; for if calumny attack us in a wilful obscurity,
+what have we done to refute the calumny? How have we served our species?
+Have we ‘scorned delight and loved laborious days’? Have we made the
+utmost of the ‘talent’ confided to our care? Have we done those
+good deeds to our race upon which we can retire,--an ‘Estate of
+Beneficence,’--from the malice of the world, and feel that our deeds
+are our defenders? This is the consolation of virtuous actions; is it so
+of--even a virtuous--indolence?”
+
+“You speak as a preacher,” said Vane,--“I merely as a calculator; you of
+virtue in affliction, I of a life in ease.”
+
+“Well, then, if the consciousness of perpetual endeavour to advance our
+race be not alone happier than the life of ease, let us see what this
+vaunted ease really is. Tell me, is it not another name for _ennui_?
+This state of quiescence, this objectless, dreamless torpor, this
+transition _du lit a la table, de la table au lit_,--what more dreary
+and monotonous existence can you devise? Is it pleasure in this
+inglorious existence to think that you are serving pleasure? Is it
+freedom to be the slave to self? For I hold,” continued Trevylyan,
+“that this jargon of ‘consulting happiness,’ this cant of living for
+ourselves, is but a mean as well as a false philosophy. Why this eternal
+reference to self? Is self alone to be consulted? Is even our happiness,
+did it truly consist in repose, really the great end of life? I doubt if
+we cannot ascend higher. I doubt if we cannot say with a great moralist,
+‘If virtue be not estimable in itself, we can see nothing estimable in
+following it for the sake of a bargain.’ But, in fact, repose is the
+poorest of all delusions; the very act of recurring to self brings about
+us all those ills of self from which, in the turmoil of the world, we
+can escape. We become hypochondriacs. Our very health grows an object
+of painful possession. We are so desirous to be well (for what is
+retirement without health?) that we are ever fancying ourselves ill;
+and, like the man in the ‘Spectator,’ we weigh ourselves daily, and live
+but by grains and scruples. Retirement is happy only for the poet, for
+to him it is _not_ retirement. He secedes from one world but to gain
+another, and he finds not _ennui_ in seclusion: why? Not because
+seclusion hath _repose_, but because it hath _occupation_. In one word,
+then, I say of action and of indolence, grant the same ills to both, and
+to action there is the readier escape or the nobler consolation.”
+
+Vane shrugged his shoulders. “Ah, my dear friend,” said he, tapping his
+snuff-box with benevolent superiority, “you are much younger than I am!”
+
+But these conversations, which Trevylyan and Vane often held
+together, dull as I fear this specimen must seem to the reader, had an
+inexpressible charm for Gertrude. She loved the lofty and generous vein
+of philosophy which Trevylyan embraced, and which, while it suited his
+ardent nature, contrasted a demeanour commonly hard and cold to all
+but herself. And young and tender as she was, his ambition infused its
+spirit into her fine imagination, and that passion for enterprise which
+belongs inseparably to romance. She loved to muse over his future lot,
+and in fancy to share its toils and to exult in its triumphs. And
+if sometimes she asked herself whether a career of action might not
+estrange him from her, she had but to turn her gaze upon his watchful
+eye,--and lo, he was by her side or at her feet!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI. GORCUM.--THE TOUR OF THE VIRTUES: A PHILOSOPHER’S TALE.
+
+IT was a bright and cheery morning as they glided by Gorcum. The boats
+pulling to the shore full of fishermen and peasants in their national
+costume; the breeze freshly rippling the waters; the lightness of the
+blue sky; the loud and laughing voices from the boats,--all contributed
+to raise the spirit, and fill it with that indescribable gladness which
+is the physical sense of life.
+
+The tower of the church, with its long windows and its round dial, rose
+against the clear sky; and on a bench under a green bush facing the
+water sat a jolly Hollander, refreshing the breezes with the fumes of
+his national weed.
+
+
+
+“How little it requires to make a journey pleasant, when the companions
+are our friends!” said Gertrude, as they sailed along. “Nothing can be
+duller than these banks, nothing more delightful than this voyage.”
+
+“Yet what tries the affections of people for each other so severely as
+a journey together?” said Vane. “That perpetual companionship from which
+there is no escaping; that confinement, in all our moments of ill-humour
+and listlessness, with persons who want us to look amused--ah, it is a
+severe ordeal for friendship to pass through! A post-chaise must have
+jolted many an intimacy to death.”
+
+“You speak feelingly, dear father,” said Gertrude, laughing; “and, I
+suspect, with a slight desire to be sarcastic upon us. Yet, seriously,
+I should think that travel must be like life, and that good persons must
+be always agreeable companions to each other.”
+
+“Good persons, my Gertrude!” answered Vane, with a smile. “Alas! I
+fear the good weary each other quite as much as the bad. What say
+you, Trevylyan,--would Virtue be a pleasant companion from Paris
+to Petersburg? Ah, I see you intend to be on Gertrude’s side of the
+question. Well now, if I tell you a story, since stories are so much the
+fashion with you, in which you shall find that the Virtues themselves
+actually made the experiment of a tour, will you promise to attend to
+the moral?”
+
+“Oh, dear father, anything for a story,” cried Gertrude; “especially
+from you, who have not told us one all the way. Come, listen, Albert;
+nay, listen to your new rival.”
+
+And, pleased to see the vivacity of the invalid, Vane began as
+follows:--
+
+
+
+                      THE TOUR OF THE VIRTUES:
+
+                       A PHILOSOPHER’S TALE.
+
+ONCE upon a time, several of the Virtues, weary of living forever with
+the Bishop of Norwich, resolved to make a little excursion; accordingly,
+though they knew everything on earth was very ill prepared to receive
+them, they thought they might safely venture on a tour from Westminster
+Bridge to Richmond. The day was fine, the wind in their favour, and as
+to entertainment,--why, there seemed, according to Gertrude, to be no
+possibility of any disagreement among the Virtues.
+
+They took a boat at Westminster stairs; and just as they were about to
+push off, a poor woman, all in rags, with a child in her arms, implored
+their compassion. Charity put her hand into her reticule and took out
+a shilling. Justice, turning round to look after the luggage, saw the
+folly which Charity was about to commit. “Heavens!” cried Justice,
+seizing poor Charity by the arm, “what are you doing? Have you never
+read Political Economy? Don’t you know that indiscriminate almsgiving
+is only the encouragement to Idleness, the mother of Vice? You a Virtue,
+indeed! I’m ashamed of you. Get along with you, good woman;--yet stay,
+there is a ticket for soup at the Mendicity Society; they’ll see if
+you’re a proper object of compassion.” But Charity is quicker than
+Justice, and slipping her hand behind her, the poor woman got the
+shilling and the ticket for soup too. Economy and Generosity saw the
+double gift. “What waste!” cried Economy, frowning; “what! a ticket and
+a shilling? _either_ would have sufficed.”
+
+“Either!” said Generosity, “fie! Charity should have given the poor
+creature half-a-crown, and Justice a dozen tickets!” So the next ten
+minutes were consumed in a quarrel between the four Virtues, which would
+have lasted all the way to Richmond, if Courage had not advised them to
+get on shore and fight it out. Upon this, the Virtues suddenly perceived
+they had a little forgotten themselves, and Generosity offering the
+first apology, they made it up, and went on very agreeably for the next
+mile or two.
+
+The day now grew a little overcast, and a shower seemed at hand.
+Prudence, who had on a new bonnet, suggested the propriety of putting to
+shore for half an hour; Courage was for braving the rain; but, as most
+of the Virtues are ladies, Prudence carried it. Just as they were about
+to land, another boat cut in before them very uncivilly, and gave theirs
+such a shake that Charity was all but overboard. The company on board
+the uncivil boat, who evidently thought the Virtues extremely low
+persons, for they had nothing very fashionable about their exterior,
+burst out laughing at Charity’s discomposure, especially as a
+large basket full of buns, which Charity carried with her for any
+hungry-looking children she might encounter at Richmond, fell pounce
+into the water. Courage was all on fire; he twisted his mustache, and
+would have made an onset on the enemy, if, to his great indignation,
+Meekness had not forestalled him, by stepping mildly into the hostile
+boat and offering both cheeks to the foe. This was too much even for the
+incivility of the boatmen; they made their excuses to the Virtues, and
+Courage, who is no bully, thought himself bound discontentedly to accept
+them. But oh! if you had seen how Courage used Meekness afterwards, you
+could not have believed it possible that one Virtue could be so enraged
+with another. This quarrel between the two threw a damp on the party;
+and they proceeded on their voyage, when the shower was over, with
+anything but cordiality. I spare you the little squabbles that took
+place in the general conversation,--how Economy found fault with all the
+villas by the way, and Temperance expressed becoming indignation at the
+luxuries of the City barge. They arrived at Richmond, and Temperance
+was appointed to order the dinner; meanwhile Hospitality, walking in the
+garden, fell in with a large party of Irishmen, and asked them to join
+the repast.
+
+Imagine the long faces of Economy and Prudence, when they saw the
+addition to the company! Hospitality was all spirits; he rubbed his
+hands and called for champagne with the tone of a younger brother.
+Temperance soon grew scandalized, and Modesty herself coloured at some
+of the jokes; but Hospitality, who was now half seas over, called the
+one a milksop, and swore at the other as a prude. Away went the hours;
+it was time to return, and they made down to the water-side, thoroughly
+out of temper with one another, Economy and Generosity quarrelling all
+the way about the bill and the waiters. To make up the sum of their
+mortification, they passed a boat where all the company were in the best
+possible spirits, laughing and whooping like mad; and discovered
+these jolly companions to be two or three agreeable Vices, who had put
+themselves under the management of Good Temper.
+
+“So you see, Gertrude, that even the Virtues may fall at loggerheads
+with each other, and pass a very sad time of it, if they happen to be
+of opposite dispositions, and have forgotten to take Good Temper with
+them.”
+
+“Ah,” said Gertrude, “but you have overloaded your boat; too many
+Virtues might contradict one another, but not a few.”
+
+“Voila ce que veux dire,” said Vane; “but listen to the sequel of my
+tale, which now takes a new moral.”
+
+At the end of the voyage, and after a long, sulky silence, Prudence
+said, with a thoughtful air, “My dear friends, I have been thinking that
+as long as we keep so entirely together, never mixing with the rest of
+the world, we shall waste our lives in quarrelling amongst ourselves and
+run the risk of being still less liked and sought after than we already
+are. You know that we are none of us popular; every one is quite
+contented to see us represented in a vaudeville, or described in an
+essay. Charity, indeed, has her name often taken in vain at a bazaar
+or a subscription; and the miser as often talks of the duty he owes to
+_me_, when he sends the stranger from his door or his grandson to jail:
+but still we only resemble so many wild beasts, whom everybody likes
+to see but nobody cares to possess. Now, I propose that we should all
+separate and take up our abode with some mortal or other for a year,
+with the power of changing at the end of that time should we not feel
+ourselves comfortable,--that is, should we not find that we do all the
+good we intend; let us try the experiment, and on this day twelvemonths
+let us all meet under the largest oak in Windsor Forest, and recount
+what has befallen us.” Prudence ceased, as she always does when she has
+said enough; and, delighted at the project, the Virtues agreed to
+adopt it on the spot. They were enchanted at the idea of setting up for
+themselves, and each not doubting his or her success,--for Economy in
+her heart thought Generosity no Virtue at all, and Meekness looked on
+Courage as little better than a heathen.
+
+Generosity, being the most eager and active of all the Virtues, set off
+first on his journey. Justice followed, and kept up with him, though at
+a more even pace. Charity never heard a sigh, or saw a squalid face, but
+she stayed to cheer and console the sufferer,--a kindness which somewhat
+retarded her progress.
+
+Courage espied a travelling carriage, with a man and his wife in it
+quarrelling most conjugally, and he civilly begged he might be permitted
+to occupy the vacant seat opposite the lady. Economy still lingered,
+inquiring for the cheapest inns. Poor Modesty looked round and sighed,
+on finding herself so near to London, where she was almost wholly
+unknown; but resolved to bend her course thither for two reasons:
+first, for the novelty of the thing; and, secondly, not liking to expose
+herself to any risks by a journey on the Continent. Prudence, though
+the first to project, was the last to execute; and therefore resolved to
+remain where she was for that night, and take daylight for her travels.
+
+The year rolled on, and the Virtues, punctual to the appointment, met
+under the oak-tree; they all came nearly at the same time, excepting
+Economy, who had got into a return post-chaise, the horses to which,
+having been forty miles in the course of the morning, had foundered by
+the way, and retarded her journey till night set in. The Virtues looked
+sad and sorrowful, as people are wont to do after a long and fruitless
+journey; and, somehow or other, such was the wearing effect of their
+intercourse with the world, that they appeared wonderfully diminished in
+size.
+
+“Ah, my dear Generosity,” said Prudence, with a sigh, “as you were
+the first to set out on your travels, pray let us hear your adventures
+first.”
+
+“You must know, my dear sisters,” said Generosity, “that I had not gone
+many miles from you before I came to a small country town, in which a
+marching regiment was quartered, and at an open window I beheld, leaning
+over a gentleman’s chair, the most beautiful creature imagination ever
+pictured; her eyes shone out like two suns of perfect happiness, and she
+was almost cheerful enough to have passed for Good Temper herself. The
+gentleman over whose chair she leaned was her husband; they had been
+married six weeks; he was a lieutenant with one hundred pounds a
+year besides his pay. Greatly affected by their poverty, I instantly
+determined, without a second thought, to ensconce myself in the heart
+of this charming girl. During the first hour in my new residence I made
+many wise reflections such as--that Love never was so perfect as when
+accompanied by Poverty; what a vulgar error it was to call the unmarried
+state ‘Single _Blessedness_;’ how wrong it was of us Virtues never to
+have tried the marriage bond; and what a falsehood it was to say that
+husbands neglected their wives, for never was there anything in nature
+so devoted as the love of a husband--six weeks married!
+
+“The next morning, before breakfast, as the charming Fanny was
+waiting for her husband, who had not yet finished his toilet, a poor,
+wretched-looking object appeared at the window, tearing her hair and
+wringing her hands; her husband had that morning been dragged to prison,
+and her seven children had fought for the last mouldy crust. Prompted
+by me, Fanny, without inquiring further into the matter, drew from her
+silken purse a five-pound note, and gave it to the beggar, who departed
+more amazed than grateful. Soon after, the lieutenant appeared. ‘What
+the devil, another bill!’ muttered he, as he tore the yellow wafer from
+a large, square, folded, bluish piece of paper. ‘Oh, ah! confound the
+fellow, _he_ must be paid. I must trouble you, Fanny, for fifteen pounds
+to pay this saddler’s bill.’
+
+“‘Fifteen pounds, love?’ stammered Fanny, blushing.
+
+“‘Yes, dearest, the fifteen pounds I gave you yesterday.’
+
+“‘I have only ten pounds,’ said Fanny, hesitatingly; ‘for such a poor,
+wretched-looking creature was here just now, that I was obliged to give
+her five pounds.’
+
+“‘Five pounds? good Heavens!’ exclaimed the astonished husband; ‘I shall
+have no more money this three weeks.’ He frowned, he bit his lips, nay,
+he even wrung his hands, and walked up and down the room; worse still,
+he broke forth with--‘Surely, madam, you did not suppose, when you
+married a lieutenant in a marching regiment, that he could afford to
+indulge in the whim of giving five pounds to every mendicant who held
+out her hand to you? You did not, I say, madam, imagine’--but the
+bridegroom was interrupted by the convulsive sobs of his wife: it was
+their first quarrel, they were but six weeks married; he looked at
+her for one moment sternly, the next he was at her feet. ‘Forgive me,
+dearest Fanny,--forgive me, for I cannot forgive myself. I was too great
+a wretch to say what I did; and do believe, my own Fanny, that while
+I may be too poor to indulge you in it, I do from my heart admire so
+noble, so disinterested, a generosity.’ Not a little proud did I feel
+to have been the cause of this exemplary husband’s admiration for his
+amiable wife, and sincerely did I rejoice at having taken up my abode
+with these _poor_ people. But not to tire you, my dear sisters, with the
+minutiae of detail, I shall briefly say that things did not long remain
+in this delightful position; for before many months had elapsed, poor
+Fanny had to bear with her husband’s increased and more frequent
+storms of passion, unfollowed by any halcyon and honeymoon suings for
+forgiveness: for at my instigation every shilling went; and when there
+were no more to go, her trinkets and even her clothes followed. The
+lieutenant became a complete brute, and even allowed his unbridled
+tongue to call me--me, sisters, _me_!--‘heartless Extravagance.’ His
+despicable brother-officers and their gossiping wives were no better;
+for they did nothing but animadvert upon my Fanny’s ostentation and
+absurdity, for by such names had they the impertinence to call _me_.
+Thus grieved to the soul to find myself the cause of all poor Fanny’s
+misfortunes, I resolved at the end of the year to leave her, being
+thoroughly convinced that, however amiable and praiseworthy I might be
+in myself, I was totally unfit to be bosom friend and adviser to the
+wife of a lieutenant in a marching regiment, with only one hundred
+pounds a year besides his pay.”
+
+The Virtues groaned their sympathy with the unfortunate Fanny; and
+Prudence, turning to Justice, said, “I long to hear what you have been
+doing, for I am certain you cannot have occasioned harm to any one.”
+
+Justice shook her head and said: “Alas! I find that there are times and
+places when even I do better not to appear, as a short account of my
+adventures will prove to you. No sooner had I left you than I instantly
+repaired to India, and took up my abode with a Brahmin. I was much
+shocked by the dreadful inequalities of condition that reigned in
+the several castes, and I longed to relieve the poor Pariah from his
+ignominious destiny; accordingly I set seriously to work on reform.
+I insisted upon the iniquity of abandoning men from their birth to an
+irremediable state of contempt, from which no virtue could exalt them.
+The Brahmins looked upon my Brahmin with ineffable horror. They called
+_me_ the most wicked of vices; they saw no distinction between Justice
+and Atheism. I uprooted their society--that was sufficient crime. But
+the worst was, that the Pariahs themselves regarded me with suspicion;
+they thought it unnatural in a Brahmin to care for a Pariah! And one
+called me ‘Madness,’ another, ‘Ambition,’ and a third, ‘The Desire to
+innovate.’ My poor Brahmin led a miserable life of it; when one day,
+after observing, at my dictation, that he thought a Pariah’s life as
+much entitled to respect as a cow’s, he was hurried away by the priests
+and secretly broiled on the altar as a fitting reward for his sacrilege.
+I fled hither in great tribulation, persuaded that in some countries
+even Justice may do harm.”
+
+“As for me,” said Charity, not waiting to be asked, “I grieve to say
+that I was silly enough to take up my abode with an old lady in Dublin,
+who never knew what discretion was, and always acted from impulse;
+my instigation was irresistible, and the money she gave in her drives
+through the suburbs of Dublin was so lavishly spent that it kept all
+the rascals of the city in idleness and whiskey. I found, to my great
+horror, that I was a main cause of a terrible epidemic, and that to give
+alms without discretion was to spread poverty without help. I left the
+city when my year was out, and as ill-luck would have it, just at the
+time when I was most wanted.”
+
+“And oh,” cried Hospitality, “I went to Ireland also. I fixed my abode
+with a squireen; I ruined him in a year, and only left him because he
+had no longer a hovel to keep me in.”
+
+“As for myself,” said Temperance, “I entered the breast of an English
+legislator, and he brought in a bill against ale-houses; the consequence
+was, that the labourers took to gin; and I have been forced to confess
+that Temperance may be too zealous when she dictates too vehemently to
+others.”
+
+“Well,” said Courage, keeping more in the background than he had ever
+done before, and looking rather ashamed of himself, “that travelling
+carriage I got into belonged to a German general and his wife, who were
+returning to their own country. Growing very cold as we proceeded, she
+wrapped me up in a polonaise; but the cold increasing, I inadvertently
+crept into her bosom. Once there I could not get out, and from
+thenceforward the poor general had considerably the worst of it.
+She became so provoking that I wondered how he could refrain from an
+explosion. To do him justice, he did at last threaten to get out of the
+carriage; upon which, roused by me, she collared him--and conquered.
+When he got to his own district, things grew worse, for if any
+_aide-de-camp_ offended her she insisted that he might be publicly
+reprimanded; and should the poor general refuse she would with her own
+hands confer a caning upon the delinquent. The additional force she had
+gained in me was too much odds against the poor general, and he died of
+a broken heart, six months after my _liaison_ with his wife. She after
+this became so dreaded and detested, that a conspiracy was formed to
+poison her; this daunted even me, so I left her without delay,--_et me
+voici_!”
+
+“Humph,” said Meekness, with an air of triumph, “I, at least, have been
+more successful than you. On seeing much in the papers of the cruelties
+practised by the Turks on the Greeks, I thought my presence would enable
+the poor sufferers to bear their misfortunes calmly. I went to Greece,
+then, at a moment when a well-planned and practicable scheme of
+emancipating themselves from the Turkish yoke was arousing their youth.
+Without confining myself to one individual, I flitted from breast
+to breast; I meekened the whole nation; my remonstrances against the
+insurrection succeeded, and I had the satisfaction of leaving a
+whole people ready to be killed or strangled with the most Christian
+resignation in the world.”
+
+The Virtues, who had been a little cheered by the opening
+self-complacence of Meekness, would not, to her great astonishment,
+allow that she had succeeded a whit more happily than her sisters, and
+called next upon Modesty for her confession.
+
+“You know,” said that amiable young lady, “that I went to London in
+search of a situation. I spent three months of the twelve in going from
+house to house, but I could not get a single person to receive me.
+The ladies declared that they never saw so old-fashioned a gawkey, and
+civilly recommended me to their abigails; the abigails turned me
+round with a stare, and then pushed me down to the kitchen and the fat
+scullion-maids, who assured me that, ‘in the respectable families they
+had the honour to live in, they had never even heard of my name.’ One
+young housemaid, just from the country, did indeed receive me with some
+sort of civility; but she very soon lost me in the servants’ hall. I
+now took refuge with the other sex, as the least uncourteous. I was
+fortunate enough to find a young gentleman of remarkable talents, who
+welcomed me with open arms. He was full of learning, gentleness, and
+honesty. I had only one rival,--Ambition. We both contended for an
+absolute empire over him. Whatever Ambition suggested, I damped. Did
+Ambition urge him to begin a book, I persuaded him it was not worth
+publication. Did he get up, full of knowledge, and instigated by my
+rival, to make a speech (for he was in parliament), I shocked him with
+the sense of his assurance, I made his voice droop and his accents
+falter. At last, with an indignant sigh, my rival left him; he retired
+into the country, took orders, and renounced a career he had fondly
+hoped would be serviceable to others; but finding I did not suffice for
+his happiness, and piqued at his melancholy, I left him before the end
+of the year, and he has since taken to drinking!”
+
+The eyes of the Virtues were all turned to Prudence. She was their last
+hope. “I am just where I set out,” said that discreet Virtue; “I have
+done neither good nor harm. To avoid temptation I went and lived with a
+hermit to whom I soon found that I could be of no use beyond warning him
+not to overboil his peas and lentils, not to leave his door open when
+a storm threatened, and not to fill his pitcher too full at the
+neighbouring spring. I am thus the only one of you that never did harm;
+but only because I am the only one of you that never had an opportunity
+of doing it! In a word,” continued Prudence, thoughtfully,--“in a word,
+my friends, circumstances are necessary to the Virtues themselves. Had,
+for instance, Economy changed with Generosity, and gone to the poor
+lieutenant’s wife, and had I lodged with the Irish squireen instead of
+Hospitality, what misfortunes would have been saved to both! Alas! I
+perceive we lose all our efficacy when we are misplaced; and _then_,
+though in reality Virtues, we operate as Vices. Circumstances must be
+favourable to our exertions, and harmonious with our nature; and we
+lose our very divinity unless Wisdom direct our footsteps to the home we
+should inhabit and the dispositions we should govern.”
+
+The story was ended, and the travellers began to dispute about its
+moral. Here let us leave them.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII. COLOGNE.--THE TRACES OF THE ROMAN YOKE.--THE CHURCH OF ST.
+MARIA.--TREVYLYAN’S REFLECTIONS ON THE MONASTIC LIFE.--THE TOMB OF THE
+THREE KINGS.--AN EVENING EXCURSION ON THE RHINE.
+
+ROME--magnificent Rome! wherever the pilgrim wends, the traces of thy
+dominion greet his eyes. Still in the heart of the bold German race is
+graven the print of the eagle’s claws; and amidst the haunted regions of
+the Rhine we pause to wonder at the great monuments of the Italian yoke.
+
+At Cologne our travellers rested for some days. They were in the city
+to which the camp of Marcus Agrippa had given birth; that spot had
+resounded with the armed tread of the legions of Trajan. In that city,
+Vitellius, Sylvanus, were proclaimed emperors. By that church did the
+latter receive his death.
+
+As they passed round the door they saw some peasants loitering on the
+sacred ground; and when they noted the delicate cheek of Gertrude they
+uttered their salutations with more than common respect. Where they then
+were the building swept round in a circular form; and at its base it is
+supposed by tradition to retain something of the ancient Roman masonry.
+Just before them rose the spire of a plain and unadorned church,
+singularly contrasting the pomp of the old with the simplicity of the
+innovating creed.
+
+The church of St. Maria occupies the site of the Roman Capitol, and the
+place retains the Roman name; and still something in the aspect of the
+people betrays the hereditary blood.
+
+Gertrude, whose nature was strongly impressed with _the venerating
+character_, was fond of visiting the old Gothic churches, which, with so
+eloquent a moral, unite the living with the dead.
+
+“Pause for a moment,” said Trevylyan, before they entered the church of
+St. Maria. “What recollections crowd upon us! On the site of the Roman
+Capitol a Christian church and a convent are erected! By whom? The
+mother of Charles Martel,--the Conqueror of the Saracen, the arch-hero
+of Christendom itself! And to these scenes and calm retreats, to the
+cloisters of the convent once belonging to this church, fled the bruised
+spirit of a royal sufferer,-the victim of Richelieu,--the unfortunate
+and ambitious Mary de Medicis. Alas! the cell and the convent are but a
+vain emblem of that desire to fly to God which belongs to Distress; the
+solitude soothes, but the monotony recalls, regret. And for my own part
+in my frequent tours through Catholic countries, I never saw the still
+walls in which monastic vanity hoped to shut out the world, but a
+melancholy came over me! What hearts at war with themselves! what
+unceasing regrets! what pinings after the past! what long and beautiful
+years devoted to a moral grave, by a momentary rashness, an impulse, a
+disappointment! But in these churches the lesson is more impressive and
+less sad. The weary heart has ceased to ache; the burning pulses are
+still; the troubled spirit has flown to the only rest which is not a
+deceit. Power and love, hope and fear, avarice, ambition,--they are
+quenched at last! Death is the only monastery, the tomb is the only
+cell.”
+
+“Your passion is ever for active life,” said Gertrude. “You allow no
+charm to solitude, and contemplation to you seems torture. If any great
+sorrow ever come upon you, you will never retire to seclusion as its
+balm. You will plunge into the world, and lose your individual existence
+in the universal rush of life.”
+
+“Ah, talk not of sorrow!” said Trevylyan, wildly. “Let us enter the
+church.”
+
+They went afterwards to the celebrated cathedral, which is considered
+one of the noblest of the architectural triumphs of Germany; but it is
+yet more worthy of notice from the Pilgrim of Romance than the searcher
+after antiquity, for here, behind the grand altar, is the Tomb of the
+Three Kings of Cologne,--the three worshippers whom tradition humbled to
+our Saviour. Legend is rife with a thousand tales of the relics of this
+tomb. The Three Kings of Cologne are the tutelary names of that golden
+superstition which has often more votaries than the religion itself from
+which it springs and to Gertrude the simple story of Lucille sufficed
+to make her for the moment credulous of the sanctity of the spot. Behind
+the tomb three Gothic windows cast their “dim, religious light” over the
+tessellated pavement and along the Ionic pillars. They found some of
+the more credulous believers in the authenticity of the relics kneeling
+before the tomb, and they arrested their steps, fearful to disturb the
+superstition which is never without something of sanctity when contented
+with prayer and forgetful of persecution. The bones of the Magi are
+still supposed to consecrate the tomb, and on the higher part of
+the monument the artist has delineated their adoration to the infant
+Saviour.
+
+That evening came on with a still and tranquil beauty, and as the sun
+hastened to its close they launched their boat for an hour or two’s
+excursion upon the Rhine. Gertrude was in that happy mood when the quiet
+of nature is enjoyed like a bath for the soul, and the presence of
+him she so idolized deepened that stillness into a more delicious and
+subduing calm. Little did she dream as the boat glided over the water,
+and the towers of Cologne rose in the blue air of evening, how few were
+those hours that divided her from the tomb! But, in looking back to the
+life of one we have loved, how dear is the thought that the latter days
+were the days of light, that the cloud never chilled the beauty of the
+setting sun, and that if the years of existence were brief, all that
+existence has most tender, most sacred, was crowded into that space!
+Nothing dark, then, or bitter, rests with our remembrance of the lost:
+_we_ are the mourners, but pity is not for the mourned,--our grief is
+purely selfish; when we turn to its object, the hues of happiness are
+round it, and that very love which is the parent of our woe was the
+consolation, the triumph, of the departed!
+
+The majestic Rhine was calm as a lake; the splashing of the oar only
+broke the stillness, and after a long pause in their conversation,
+Gertrude, putting her hand on Trevylyan’s arm, reminded him of a
+promised story: for he too had moods of abstraction, from which, in her
+turn, she loved to lure him; and his voice to her had become a sort of
+want.
+
+“Let it be,” said she, “a tale suited to the hour; no fierce
+tradition,--nay, no grotesque fable, but of the tenderer dye of
+superstition. Let it be of love, of woman’s love,--of the love that
+defies the grave: for surely even after death it lives; and heaven would
+scarcely be heaven if memory were banished from its blessings.”
+
+“I recollect,” said Trevylyan, after a slight pause, “a short German
+legend, the simplicity of which touched me much when I heard it; but,”
+ added he, with a slight smile, “so much more faithful appears in the
+legend the love of the woman than that of the man, that _I_ at least
+ought scarcely to recite it.”
+
+“Nay,” said Gertrude, tenderly, “the fault of the inconstant only
+heightens our gratitude to the faithful.”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII. THE SOUL IN PURGATORY; OR LOVE STRONGER THAN DEATH.
+
+THE angels strung their harps in heaven, and their music went up like
+a stream of odours to the pavilions of the Most High; but the harp
+of Seralim was sweeter than that of his fellows, and the Voice of
+the Invisible One (for the angels themselves know not the glories of
+Jehovah--only far in the depths of heaven they see one Unsleeping Eye
+watching forever over Creation) was heard saying,--
+
+“Ask a gift for the love that burns in thy song, and it shall be given
+thee.” And Seralim answered,--
+
+“There is in that place which men call Purgatory, and which is the
+escape from hell, but the painful porch of heaven, many souls that adore
+Thee, and yet are punished justly for their sins; grant me the boon to
+visit them at times, and solace their suffering by the hymns of the harp
+that is consecrated to Thee!”
+
+And the Voice answered,--
+
+“Thy prayer is heard, O gentlest of the angels! and it seems good to Him
+who chastises but from love. Go! Thou hast thy will.”
+
+Then the angel sang the praises of God; and when the song was done he
+rose from his azure throne at the right hand of Gabriel, and, spreading
+his rainbow wings, he flew to that melancholy orb which, nearest to
+earth, echoes with the shrieks of souls that by torture become pure.
+There the unhappy ones see from afar the bright courts they are
+hereafter to obtain, and the shapes of glorious beings, who, fresh from
+these Fountains of Immortality, walk amidst the gardens of Paradise,
+and feel that their happiness hath no morrow; and this thought consoles
+amidst their torments, and makes the true difference between Purgatory
+and Hell.
+
+Then the angel folded his wings, and entering the crystal gates, sat
+down upon a blasted rock and struck his divine lyre, and a peace fell
+over the wretched; the demon ceased to torture and the victim to wail.
+As sleep to the mourners of earth was the song of the angel to the
+souls of the purifying star: one only voice amidst the general stillness
+seemed not lulled by the angel; it was the voice of a woman, and it
+continued to cry out with a sharp cry,--
+
+“Oh, Adenheim, Adenheim! mourn not for the lost!”
+
+The angel struck chord after chord, till his most skilful melodies were
+exhausted; but still the solitary voice, unheeding--unconscious of--the
+sweetest harp of the angel choir, cried out,--
+
+“Oh, Adenheim, Adenheim! mourn not for the lost!”
+
+Then Seralim’s interest was aroused, and approaching the spot whence the
+voice came, he saw the spirit of a young and beautiful girl chained to
+a rock, and the demons lying idly by. And Seralim said to the demons,
+“Doth the song lull ye thus to rest?”
+
+And they answered, “Her care for another is bitterer than all our
+torments; therefore are we idle.”
+
+Then the angel approached the spirit, and said in a voice which stilled
+her cry--for in what state do we outlive sympathy?--“Wherefore, O
+daughter of earth, wherefore wailest thou with the same plaintive wail;
+and why doth the harp that soothes the most guilty of thy companions
+fail in its melody with thee?”
+
+“O radiant stranger,” answered the poor spirit, “thou speakest to one
+who on earth loved God’s creature more than God; therefore is she thus
+justly sentenced. But I know that my poor Adenheim mourns ceaselessly
+for me, and the thought of his sorrow is more intolerable to me than all
+that the demons can inflict.”
+
+“And how knowest thou that he laments thee?” asked the angel.
+
+“Because I know with what agony I should have mourned for _him_,”
+ replied the spirit, simply.
+
+The divine nature of the angel was touched; for love is the nature of
+the sons of heaven. “And how,” said he, “can I minister to thy sorrow?”
+
+A transport seemed to agitate the spirit, and she lifted up her mistlike
+and impalpable arms, and cried,--
+
+“Give me--oh, give me to return to earth, but for one little hour,
+that I may visit my Adenheim; and that, concealing from him my present
+sufferings, I may comfort him in his own.”
+
+“Alas!” said the angel, turning away his eyes,--for angels may not weep
+in the sight of others,--“I could, indeed, grant thee this boon, but
+thou knowest not the penalty. For the souls in Purgatory may return to
+Earth, but heavy is the sentence that awaits their return. In a word,
+for one hour on earth thou must add a thousand years to the torture of
+thy confinement here!”
+
+“Is that all?” cried the spirit. “Willingly then will I brave the doom.
+Ah, surely they love not in heaven, or thou wouldst know, O Celestial
+Visitant; that one hour of consolation to the one we love is worth a
+thousand ages of torture to ourselves! Let me comfort and convince my
+Adenheim; no matter what becomes of me.”
+
+Then the angel looked on high, and he saw in far distant regions, which
+in that orb none else could discern, the rays that parted from the
+all-guarding Eye; and heard the VOICE of the Eternal One bidding him
+act as his pity whispered. He looked on the spirit, and her shadowy arms
+stretched pleadingly towards him; he uttered the word that loosens the
+bars of the gate of Purgatory; and lo, the spirit had re-entered the
+human world.
+
+It was night in the halls of the lord of Adenheim, and he sat at the
+head of his glittering board. Loud and long was the laugh, and merry
+the jest that echoed round; and the laugh and the jest of the lord of
+Adenheim were louder and merrier than all. And by his right side sat a
+beautiful lady; and ever and anon he turned from others to whisper soft
+vows in her ear.
+
+“And oh,” said the bright dame of Falkenberg, “thy words what ladye can
+believe? Didst thou not utter the same oaths, and promise the same love,
+to Ida, the fair daughter of Loden, and now but three little months have
+closed upon her grave?”
+
+“By my halidom,” quoth the young lord of Adenheim, “thou dost thy beauty
+marvellous injustice. Ida! Nay, thou mockest me; _I_ love the daughter
+of Loden! Why, how then should I be worthy thee? A few gay words, a few
+passing smiles,--behold all the love Adenheim ever bore to Ida. Was
+it my fault if the poor fool misconstrued such common courtesy? Nay,
+dearest lady, this heart is virgin to thee.”
+
+“And what!” said the lady of Falkenberg, as she suffered the arm of
+Adenheim to encircle her slender waist, “didst thou not grieve for her
+loss?”
+
+“Why, verily, yes, for the first week; but in thy bright eyes I found
+ready consolation.”
+
+At this moment, the lord of Adenheim thought he heard a deep sigh behind
+him; he turned, but saw nothing, save a slight mist that gradually faded
+away, and vanished in the distance. Where was the necessity for Ida to
+reveal herself?
+
+.......
+
+“And thou didst not, then, do thine errand to thy lover?” said Seralim,
+as the spirit of the wronged Ida returned to Purgatory.
+
+“Bid the demons recommence their torture,” was poor Ida’s answer.
+
+“And was it for this that thou added a thousand years to thy doom?”
+
+“Alas!” answered Ida, “after the single hour I have endured on Earth,
+there seems to be but little terrible in a thousand fresh years of
+Purgatory!”*
+
+  * This story is principally borrowed from a foreign soil.  It
+    seemed to the author worthy of being transferred to an English
+    one, although he fears that much of its singular beauty in the
+    original has been lost by the way.
+
+
+
+“What! is the story ended?” asked Gertrude.
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Nay, surely the thousand years were not added to poor Ida’s doom; and
+Seralim bore her back with him to Heaven?”
+
+“The legend saith no more. The writer was contented to show us the
+perpetuity of woman’s love--”
+
+“And its reward,” added Vane.
+
+“It was not _I_ who drew that last conclusion, Albert,” whispered
+Gertrude.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX. THE SCENERY OF THE RHINE ANALOGOUS TO THE GERMAN LITERARY
+GENIUS.--THE DRACHENFELS.
+
+ON leaving Cologne, the stream winds round among banks that do not yet
+fulfil the promise of the Rhine; but they increase in interest as you
+leave Surdt and Godorf. The peculiar character of the river does not,
+however, really appear, until by degrees the Seven Mountains, and “THE
+CASTLED CRAG OF DRACHENFELS” above them all, break upon the eye. Around
+Nieder Cassel and Rheidt the vines lie thick and clustering; and, by the
+shore, you see from place to place the islands stretching their green
+length along, and breaking the exulting tide. Village rises upon
+village, and viewed from the distance as you sail, the pastoral errors
+that enamoured us of the village life crowd thick and fast upon us.
+So still do these hamlets seem, so sheltered from the passions of the
+world,--as if the passions were not like winds, only felt where they
+breathe, and invisible save by their effects! Leaping into the broad
+bosom of the Rhine come many a stream and rivulet upon either side.
+Spire upon spire rises and sinks as you sail on. Mountain and city,
+the solitary island, the castled steep, like the dreams of ambition,
+suddenly appear, proudly swell, and dimly fade away.
+
+“You begin now,” said Trevylyan, “to understand the character of
+the German literature. The Rhine is an emblem of its luxuriance, its
+fertility, its romance. The best commentary to the German genius is a
+visit to the German scenery. The mighty gloom of the Hartz, the feudal
+towers that look over vines and deep valleys on the legendary Rhine;
+the gigantic remains of antique power, profusely scattered over plain,
+mount, and forest; the thousand mixed recollections that hallow the
+ground; the stately Roman, the stalwart Goth, the chivalry of the feudal
+age, and the dim brotherhood of the ideal world, have here alike their
+record and their remembrance. And over such scenes wanders the young
+German student. Instead of the pomp and luxury of the English traveller,
+the thousand devices to cheat the way, he has but his volume in his
+hand, his knapsack at his back. From such scenes he draws and hives
+all that various store which after years ripen to invention. Hence
+the florid mixture of the German muse,--the classic, the romantic, the
+contemplative, the philosophic, and the superstitious; each the result
+of actual meditation over different scenes; each the produce of separate
+but confused recollections. As the Rhine flows, so flows the national
+genius, by mountain and valley, the wildest solitude, the sudden spires
+of ancient cities, the mouldered castle, the stately monastery, the
+humble cot,--grandeur and homeliness, history and superstition, truth
+and fable, succeeding one another so as to blend into a whole.
+
+“But,” added Trevylyan, a moment afterwards, “the Ideal is passing
+slowly away from the German mind; a spirit for the more active and the
+more material literature is springing up amongst them. The revolution
+of mind gathers on, preceding stormy events; and the memories that
+led their grandsires to contemplate will urge the youth of the next
+generation to dare and to act.” *
+
+  * Is not this prediction already fulfilled?--1849.
+
+Thus conversing, they continued their voyage, with a fair wave and
+beneath a lucid sky.
+
+The vessel now glided beside the Seven Mountains and the Drachenfels.
+
+The sun, slowly setting, cast his yellow beams over the smooth waters.
+At the foot of the mountains lay a village deeply sequestered in shade;
+and above, the Ruin of the Drachenfels caught the richest beams of the
+sun. Yet thus alone, though lofty, the ray cheered not the gloom that
+hung over the giant rock: it stood on high, like some great name on
+which the light of glory may shine, but which is associated with a
+certain melancholy, from the solitude to which its very height above the
+level of the herd condemned its owner!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X. THE LEGEND OF ROLAND.--THE ADVENTURES OF NYMPHALIN ON THE
+ISLAND OF NONNEWERTH.--HER SONG.--THE DECAY OF THE FAIRY-FAITH IN
+ENGLAND.
+
+ON the shore opposite the Drachenfels stand the Ruins of
+Rolandseck,--they are the shattered crown of a lofty and perpendicular
+mountain, consecrated to the memory of the brave Roland; below, the
+trees of an island to which the lady of Roland retired, rise thick and
+verdant from the smooth tide.
+
+Nothing can exceed the eloquent and wild grandeur of the whole scene.
+That spot is the pride and beauty of the Rhine.
+
+The legend that consecrates the tower and the island is briefly told; it
+belongs to a class so common to the Romaunts of Germany. Roland goes to
+the wars. A false report of his death reaches his betrothed. She retires
+to the convent in the isle of Nonnewerth, and takes the irrevocable
+veil. Roland returns home, flushed with glory and hope, to find that
+the very fidelity of his affianced had placed an eternal barrier between
+them. He built the castle that bears his name, and which overlooks the
+monastery, and dwelt there till his death,--happy in the power at least
+to gaze, even to the last, upon those walls which held the treasure he
+had lost.
+
+The willows droop in mournful luxuriance along the island, and harmonize
+with the memory that, through the desert of a thousand years, love still
+keeps green and fresh. Nor hath it permitted even those additions of
+fiction which, like mosses, gather by time over the truth that they
+adorn, yet adorning conceal, to mar the simple tenderness of the legend.
+
+All was still in the island of Nonnewerth; the lights shone through the
+trees from the house that contained our travellers. On one smooth spot
+where the islet shelves into the Rhine met the wandering fairies.
+
+“Oh, Pipalee! how beautiful!” cried Nymphalin, as she stood enraptured
+by the wave, a star-beam shining on her, with her yellow hair “dancing
+its ringlets in the whistling wind.” “For the first time since our
+departure I do not miss the green fields of England.”
+
+“Hist!” said Pipalee, under her breath; “I hear fairy steps,--they must
+be the steps of strangers.”
+
+“Let us retreat into this thicket of weeds,” said Nymphalin, somewhat
+alarmed; “the good lord treasurer is already asleep there.” They whisked
+into what to them was a forest, for the reeds were two feet high, and
+there sure enough they found the lord treasurer stretched beneath a
+bulrush, with his pipe beside him, for since he had been in Germany he
+had taken to smoking; and indeed wild thyme, properly dried, makes very
+good tobacco for a fairy. They also found Nip and Trip sitting very
+close together, Nip playing with her hair, which was exceedingly
+beautiful.
+
+“What do you do here?” said Pipalee, shortly; for she was rather an old
+maid, and did not like fairies to be too close to each other.
+
+“Watching my lord’s slumber,” said Nip.
+
+“Pshaw!” said Pipalee.
+
+“Nay,” quoth Trip, blushing like a sea-shell; “there is no harm in
+_that_, I’m sure.”
+
+“Hush!” said the queen, peeping through the reeds.
+
+And now forth from the green bosom of the earth came a tiny train;
+slowly, two by two, hand in hand, they swept from a small aperture,
+shadowed with fragrant herbs, and formed themselves into a ring: then
+came other fairies, laden with dainties, and presently two beautiful
+white mushrooms sprang up, on which the viands were placed, and lo,
+there was a banquet! Oh, how merry they were! what gentle peals of
+laughter, loud as a virgin’s sigh! what jests! what songs! Happy race!
+if mortals could see you as often as I do, in the soft nights of summer,
+they would never be at a loss for entertainment. But as our English
+fairies looked on, they saw that these foreign elves were of a different
+race from themselves: they were taller and less handsome, their hair was
+darker, they wore mustaches, and had something of a fiercer air. Poor
+Nymphalin was a little frightened; but presently soft music was heard
+floating along, something like the sound we suddenly hear of a still
+night when a light breeze steals through rushes, or wakes a ripple in
+some shallow brook dancing over pebbles. And lo, from the aperture of
+the earth came forth a fay, superbly dressed, and of a noble presence.
+The queen started back, Pipalee rubbed her eyes, Trip looked over
+Pipalee’s shoulder, and Nip, pinching her arm, cried out amazed, “By the
+last new star, that is Prince von Fayzenheim!”
+
+Poor Nymphalin gazed again, and her little heart beat under her
+bee’s-wing bodice as if it would break. The prince had a melancholy air,
+and he sat apart from the banquet, gazing abstractedly on the Rhine.
+
+“Ah!” whispered Nymphalin to herself, “does he think of me?”
+
+Presently the prince drew forth a little flute hollowed from a small
+reed, and began to play a mournful air. Nymphalin listened with delight;
+it was one he had learned in her dominions.
+
+When the air was over, the prince rose, and approaching the banqueters,
+despatched them on different errands; one to visit the dwarf of the
+Drachenfels, another to look after the grave of Musaeus, and a whole
+detachment to puzzle the students of Heidelberg. A few launched
+themselves upon willow leaves on the Rhine to cruise about in the
+starlight, and an other band set out a hunting after the gray-legged
+moth. The prince was left alone; and now Nymphalin, seeing the coast
+clear, wrapped herself up in a cloak made out of a withered leaf; and
+only letting her eyes glow out from the hood, she glided from the reeds,
+and the prince turning round, saw a dark fairy figure by his side. He
+drew back, a little startled, and placed his hand on his sword, when
+Nymphalin circling round him, sang the following words:--
+
+
+
+THE FAIRY’S REPROACH.
+
+
+     I. By the glow-worm’s lamp in the dewy brake;
+       By the gossamer’s airy net;
+     By the shifting skin of the faithless snake,
+       Oh, teach me to forget:
+             For none, ah none
+     Can teach so well that human spell
+             As thou, false one!
+
+
+     II. By the fairy dance on the greensward smooth;
+       By the winds of the gentle west;
+     By the loving stars, when their soft looks soothe
+       The waves on their mother’s breast,
+             Teach me thy lore!
+         By which, like withered flowers,
+         The leaves of buried Hours
+           Blossom no more!
+
+
+     III. By the tent in the violet’s bell;
+       By the may on the scented bough;
+     By the lone green isle where my sisters dwell;
+       And thine own forgotten vow,
+             Teach me to live,
+           Nor feed on thoughts that pine
+           For love so false as thine!
+           Teach me thy lore,
+           And one thou lov’st no more
+             Will bless thee and forgive!
+
+
+
+“Surely,” said Fayzenheim, faltering, “surely I know that voice!”
+
+And Nymphalin’s cloak dropped off her shoulder. “My English fairy!” and
+Fayzenheim knelt beside her.
+
+I wish you had seen the fay kneel, for you would have sworn it was so
+like a human lover that you would never have sneered at love afterwards.
+Love is so fairy-like a part of us, that even a fairy cannot make it
+differently from us,--that is to say, when we love truly.
+
+There was great joy in the island that night among the elves. They
+conducted Nymphalin to their palace within the earth, and feasted her
+sumptuously; and Nip told their adventures with so much spirit that
+he enchanted the merry foreigners. But Fayzenheim talked apart to
+Nymphalin, and told her how he was lord of that island, and how he had
+been obliged to return to his dominions by the law of his tribe, which
+allowed him to be absent only a certain time in every year. “But, my
+queen, I always intended to revisit thee next spring.”
+
+“Thou need’st not have left us so abruptly,” said Nymphalin, blushing.
+
+“But do _thou_ never leave me!” said the ardent fairy; “be mine, and let
+our nuptials be celebrated on these shores. Wouldst thou sigh for thy
+green island? No! for _there_ the fairy altars are deserted, the faith
+is gone from the land; thou art among the last of an unhonoured and
+expiring race. Thy mortal poets are dumb, and Fancy, which was thy
+priestess, sleeps hushed in her last repose. New and hard creeds have
+succeeded to the fairy lore. Who steals through the starlit boughs on
+the nights of June to watch the roundels of thy tribe? The wheels of
+commerce, the din of trade, have silenced to mortal ear the music of thy
+subjects’ harps! And the noisy habitations of men, harsher than their
+dreaming sires, are gathering round the dell and vale where thy co-mates
+linger: a few years, and where will be the green solitudes of England?”
+
+The queen sighed, and the prince, perceiving that he was listened to,
+continued,--
+
+“Who, in thy native shores, among the children of men, now claims the
+fairy’s care? What cradle wouldst thou tend? On what maid wouldst thou
+shower thy rosy gifts? What barb wouldst thou haunt in his dreams? Poesy
+is fled the island, why shouldst thou linger behind? Time hath brought
+dull customs, that laugh at thy gentle being. Puck is buried in the
+harebell, he hath left no offspring, and none mourn for his loss; for
+night, which is the fairy season, is busy and garish as the day. What
+hearth is desolate after the curfew? What house bathed in stillness
+at the hour in which thy revels commence? Thine empire among men hath
+passed from thee, and thy race are vanishing from the crowded soil; for,
+despite our diviner nature, our existence is linked with man’s. Their
+neglect is our disease, their forgetfulness our death. Leave then those
+dull, yet troubled scenes, that are closing round the fairy rings of thy
+native isle. These mountains, this herbage, these gliding waves, these
+mouldering ruins, these starred rivulets, be they, O beautiful fairy!
+thy new domain. Yet in these lands our worship lingers; still can we
+fill the thought of the young bard, and mingle with his yearnings
+after the Beautiful, the Unseen. Hither come the pilgrims of the world,
+anxious only to gather from these scenes the legends of Us; ages will
+pass away ere the Rhine shall be desecrated of our haunting presence.
+Come then, my queen, let this palace be thine own, and the moon that
+glances over the shattered towers of the Dragon Rock witness our
+nuptials and our vows!”
+
+In such words the fairy prince courted the young queen, and while she
+sighed at their truth she yielded to their charm. Oh, still may there be
+one spot on the earth where the fairy feet may press the legendary soil!
+still be there one land where the faith of The Bright Invisible hallows
+and inspires! Still glide thou, O majestic and solemn Rhine, among
+shades and valleys, from which the wisdom of belief can call the
+creations of the younger world!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI. WHEREIN THE READER IS MADE SPECTATOR WITH THE ENGLISH
+FAIRIES OF THE SCENES AND BEINGS THAT ARE BENEATH THE EARTH.
+
+DURING the heat of next day’s noon, Fayzenheim took the English visitors
+through the cool caverns that wind amidst the mountains of the Rhine.
+There, a thousand wonders awaited the eyes of the fairy queen. I speak
+not of the Gothic arch and aisle into which the hollow earth forms
+itself, or the stream that rushes with a mighty voice through the dark
+chasm, or the silver columns that shoot aloft, worked by the gnomes from
+the mines of the mountains of Taunus; but of the strange inhabitants
+that from time to time they came upon. They found in one solitary
+cell, lined with dried moss, two misshapen elves, of a larger size than
+common, with a plebeian working-day aspect, who were chatting noisily
+together, and making a pair of boots: these were the Hausmannen or
+domestic elves, that dance into tradesmen’s houses of a night, and play
+all sorts of undignified tricks. They were very civil to the queen,
+for they are good-natured creatures on the whole, and once had many
+relations in Scotland. They then, following the course of a noisy
+rivulet, came to a hole from which the sharp head of a fox peeped out.
+The queen was frightened. “Oh, come on,” said the fox, encouragingly, “I
+am one of the fairy race, and many are the gambols we of the brute-elves
+play in the German world of romance.” “Indeed, Mr. Fox,” said the
+prince, “you only speak the truth; and how is Mr. Bruin?” “Quite well,
+my prince, but tired of his seclusion; for indeed our race can do
+little or nothing now in the world; and lie here in our old age,
+telling stories of the past, and recalling the exploits we did in our
+youth,--which, madam, you may see in all the fairy histories in the
+prince’s library.”
+
+“Your own love adventures, for instance, Master Fox,” said the prince.
+
+The fox snarled angrily, and drew in his head.
+
+“You have displeased your friend,” said Nymphalin.
+
+“Yes; he likes no allusions to the amorous follies of his youth. Did you
+ever hear of his rivalry with the dog for the cat’s good graces?”
+
+“No; that must be very amusing.”
+
+“Well, my queen, when we rest by and by, I will relate to you the
+history of the fox’s wooing.”
+
+The next place they came to was a vast Runic cavern, covered with dark
+inscriptions of a forgotten tongue; and sitting on a huge stone they
+found a dwarf with long yellow hair, his head leaning on his breast, and
+absorbed in meditation. “This is a spirit of a wise and powerful race,”
+ whispered Fayzenheim, “that has often battled with the fairies; but he
+is of the kindly tribe.”
+
+Then the dwarf lifted his head with a mournful air; and gazed upon the
+bright shapes before him, lighted by the pine torches that the prince’s
+attendants carried.
+
+“And what dost thou muse upon, O descendant of the race of Laurin?” said
+the prince.
+
+“Upon TIME!” answered the dwarf, gloomily. “I see a River, and its waves
+are black, flowing from the clouds, and none knoweth its source. It
+rolls deeply on, aye and evermore, through a green valley, which it
+slowly swallows up, washing away tower and town, and vanquishing all
+things; and the name of the River is TIME.”
+
+Then the dwarf’s head sank on his bosom, and he spoke no more.
+
+The fairies proceeded. “Above us,” said the prince, “rises one of the
+loftiest mountains of the Rhine; for mountains are the Dwarf’s home.
+When the Great Spirit of all made earth, he saw that the hollows of the
+rocks and hills were tenantless, and yet that a mighty kingdom and great
+palaces were hid within them,--a dread and dark solitude, but lighted at
+times from the starry eyes of many jewels; and there was the treasure of
+the human world--gold and silver--and great heaps of gems, and a soil
+of metals. So God made a race for this vast empire, and gifted them with
+the power of thought, and the soul of exceeding wisdom, so that they
+want not the merriment and enterprise of the outer world; but musing
+in these dark caves is their delight. Their existence rolls away in the
+luxury of thought; only from time to time they appear in the world, and
+betoken woe or weal to men,--according to their nature, for they are
+divided into two tribes, the benevolent and the wrathful.” While the
+prince spoke, they saw glaring upon them from a ledge in the upper rock
+a grisly face with a long matted beard. The prince gathered himself up,
+and frowned at the evil dwarf, for such it was; but with a wild laugh
+the face abruptly disappeared, and the echo of the laugh rang with a
+ghastly sound through the long hollows of the earth.
+
+The queen clung to Fayzenheim’s arm. “Fear not, my queen,” said he. “The
+evil race have no power over our light and aerial nature; with men only
+they war; and he whom we have seen was, in the old ages of the world,
+one of the deadliest visitors to mankind.”
+
+But now they came winding by a passage to a beautiful recess in the
+mountain empire; it was of a circular shape of amazing height; in the
+midst of it played a natural fountain of sparkling waters, and around it
+were columns of massive granite, rising in countless vistas, till lost
+in the distant shade. Jewels were scattered round, and brightly played
+the fairy torches on the gem, the fountain, and the pale silver, that
+gleamed at frequent intervals from the rocks. “Here let us rest,” said
+the gallant fairy, clapping his hands; “what, ho! music and the feast.”
+
+So the feast was spread by the fountain’s side; and the courtiers
+scattered rose-leaves, which they had brought with them, for the prince
+and his visitor; and amidst the dark kingdom of the dwarfs broke
+the delicate sound of fairy lutes. “We have not these evil beings in
+England,” said the queen, as low as she could speak; “they rouse my
+fear, but my interest also. Tell me, dear prince, of what nature was the
+intercourse of the evil dwarf with man?”
+
+“You know,” answered the prince, “that to every species of living thing
+there is something in common; the vast chain of sympathy runs through
+all creation. By that which they have in common with the beast of the
+field or the bird of the air, men govern the inferior tribes; they
+appeal to the common passions of fear and emulation when they tame the
+wild steed, to the common desire of greed and gain when they snare
+the fishes of the stream, or allure the wolves to the pitfall by the
+bleating of the lamb. In their turn, in the older ages of the world, it
+was by the passions which men had in common with the demon race that the
+fiends commanded or allured them. The dwarf whom you saw, being of that
+race which is characterized by the ambition of power and the desire
+of hoarding, appealed then in his intercourse with men to the same
+characteristics in their own bosoms,--to ambition or to avarice. And
+thus were his victims made! But, not now, dearest Nymphalin,” continued
+the prince, with a more lively air,--“not now will we speak of those
+gloomy beings. Ho, there! cease the music, and come hither all of ye,
+to listen to a faithful and homely history of the Dog, the Cat, the
+Griffin, and the Fox.”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII. THE WOOING OF MASTER FOX.*
+
+  * In the excursions of the fairies, it is the object of the author
+    to bring before the reader a rapid phantasmagoria of the various
+    beings that belong to the German superstitions, so that the work
+    may thus describe the outer and the inner world of the land of
+    the Rhine.  The tale of the Fox’s Wooing has been composed to
+    give the English reader an idea of a species of novel not
+    naturalized amongst us, though frequent among the legends of our
+    Irish neighbours; in which the brutes are the only characters
+    drawn,--drawn too with shades of distinction as nice and subtle
+    as if they were the creatures of the civilized world.
+
+You are aware, my dear Nymphalin, that in the time of which I am about
+to speak there was no particular enmity between the various species of
+brutes; the dog and the hare chatted very agreeably together, and
+all the world knows that the wolf, unacquainted with mutton, had
+a particular affection for the lamb. In these happy days, two most
+respectable cats, of very old family, had an only daughter. Never was
+kitten more amiable or more seducing; as she grew up she manifested so
+many charms, that in a little while she became noted as the greatest
+beauty in the neighbourhood. Need I to you, dearest Nymphalin, describe
+her perfection? Suffice it to say that her skin was of the most delicate
+tortoiseshell, that her paws were smoother than velvet, that her
+whiskers were twelve inches long at the least, and that her eyes had a
+gentleness altogether astonishing in a cat. But if the young beauty
+had suitors in plenty during the lives of monsieur and madame, you may
+suppose the number was not diminished when, at the age of two years and
+a half, she was left an orphan, and sole heiress to all the hereditary
+property. In fine, she was the richest marriage in the whole country.
+Without troubling you, dearest queen, with the adventures of the rest of
+her lovers, with their suit and their rejection, I come at once to the
+two rivals most sanguine of success,--the dog and the fox.
+
+Now the dog was a handsome, honest, straightforward, affectionate
+fellow. “For my part,” said he, “I don’t wonder at my cousin’s refusing
+Bruin the bear, and Gauntgrim the wolf: to be sure they give themselves
+great airs, and call themselves ‘_noble_,’ but what then? Bruin is
+always in the sulks, and Gauntgrim always in a passion; a cat of any
+sensibility would lead a miserable life with them. As for me, I am very
+good-tempered when I’m not put out, and I have no fault except that of
+being angry if disturbed at my meals. I am young and good-looking, fond
+of play and amusement, and altogether as agreeable a husband as a cat
+could find in a summer’s day. If she marries me, well and good; she
+may have her property settled on herself: if not, I shall bear her no
+malice; and I hope I sha’n’t be too much in love to forget that there
+are other cats in the world.”
+
+With that the dog threw his tail over his back, and set off to his
+mistress with a gay face on the matter.
+
+Now the fox heard the dog talking thus to himself, for the fox was
+always peeping about, in holes and corners, and he burst out a laughing
+when the dog was out of sight.
+
+“Ho, ho, my fine fellow!” said he; “not so fast, if you please: you’ve
+got the fox for a rival, let me tell you.”
+
+The fox, as you very well know, is a beast that can never do anything
+without a manoeuvre; and as, from his cunning, he was generally very
+lucky in anything he undertook, he did not doubt for a moment that he
+should put the dog’s nose out of joint. Reynard was aware that in
+love one should always, if possible, be the first in the field; and he
+therefore resolved to get the start of the dog and arrive before him
+at the cat’s residence. But this was no easy matter; for though Reynard
+could run faster than the dog for a little way, he was no match for
+him in a journey of some distance. “However,” said Reynard, “those
+good-natured creatures are never very wise; and I think I know already
+what will make him bait on his way.”
+
+With that, the fox trotted pretty fast by a short cut in the woods, and
+getting before the dog, laid himself down by a hole in the earth, and
+began to howl most piteously.
+
+The dog, hearing the noise, was very much alarmed. “See now,” said he,
+“if the poor fox has not got himself into some scrape! Those cunning
+creatures are always in mischief; thank Heaven, it never comes into my
+head to be cunning!” And the good-natured animal ran off as hard as he
+could to see what was the matter with the fox.
+
+“Oh, dear!” cried Reynard; “what shall I do? What shall I do? My poor
+little sister has fallen into this hole, and I can’t get her out; she’ll
+certainly be smothered.” And the fox burst out a howling more piteously
+than before.
+
+“But, my dear Reynard,” quoth the dog, very simply, “why don’t you go in
+after your sister?”
+
+“Ah, you may well ask that,” said the fox; “but, in trying to get in,
+don’t you perceive that I have sprained my back and can’t stir? Oh,
+dear! what shall I do if my poor little sister is smothered!”
+
+“Pray don’t vex yourself,” said the dog; “I’ll get her out in an
+instant.” And with that he forced himself with great difficulty into the
+hole.
+
+Now, no sooner did the fox see that the dog was fairly in, than he
+rolled a great stone to the mouth of the hole and fitted it so tight,
+that the dog, not being able to turn round and scratch against it with
+his forepaws, was made a close prisoner.
+
+“Ha, ha!” cried Reynard, laughing outside; “amuse yourself with my poor
+little sister, while I go and make your compliments to Mademoiselle the
+Cat.”
+
+With that Reynard set off at an easy pace, never troubling his head
+what became of the poor dog. When he arrived in the neighbourhood of the
+beautiful cat’s mansion, he resolved to pay a visit to a friend of his,
+an old magpie that lived in a tree and was well acquainted with all the
+news of the place. “For,” thought Reynard, “I may as well know the blind
+side of my mistress that is to be, and get round it at once.”
+
+The magpie received the fox with great cordiality, and inquired what
+brought him so great a distance from home.
+
+“Upon my word,” said the fox, “nothing so much as the pleasure of seeing
+your ladyship and hearing those agreeable anecdotes you tell with so
+charming a grace; but to let you into a secret--be sure it don’t go
+further--”
+
+“On the word of a magpie,” interrupted the bird.
+
+“Pardon me for doubting you,” continued the fox; “I should have
+recollected that a pie was a proverb for discretion. But, as I was
+saying, you know her Majesty the lioness?”
+
+“Surely,” said the magpie, bridling.
+
+“Well; she was pleased to fall in--that is to say--to--to--take a
+caprice to your humble servant, and the lion grew so jealous that I
+thought it prudent to decamp. A jealous lion is no joke, let me assure
+your ladyship. But mum’s the word.”
+
+So great a piece of news delighted the magpie. She could not but repay
+it in kind, by all the news in her budget. She told the fox all the
+scandal about Bruin and Gauntgrim, and she then fell to work on the poor
+young cat. She did not spare her foibles, you may be quite sure. The
+fox listened with great attention, and he learned enough to convince
+him that however much the magpie might exaggerate, the cat was very
+susceptible to flattery, and had a great deal of imagination.
+
+When the magpie had finished she said, “But it must be very unfortunate
+for you to be banished from so magnificent a court as that of the lion?”
+
+“As to that,” answered the fox, “I console myself for my exile with a
+present his Majesty made me on parting, as a reward for my anxiety for
+his honour and domestic tranquillity; namely, three hairs from the fifth
+leg of the amoronthologosphorus. Only think of that, ma’am!”
+
+“The what?” cried the pie, cocking down her left ear.
+
+“The amoronthologosphorus.”
+
+“La!” said the magpie; “and what is that very long word, my dear
+Reynard?”
+
+“The amoronthologosphorus is a beast that lives on the other side of
+the river Cylinx; it has five legs, and on the fifth leg there are three
+hairs, and whoever has those three hairs can be young and beautiful
+forever.”
+
+“Bless me! I wish you would let me see them,” said the pie, holding out
+her claw.
+
+“Would that I could oblige you, ma’am; but it’s as much as my life’s
+worth to show them to any but the lady I marry. In fact, they only have
+an effect on the fair sex, as you may see by myself, whose poor person
+they utterly fail to improve: they are, therefore, intended for a
+marriage present, and his Majesty the lion thus generously atoned to
+me for relinquishing the tenderness of his queen. One must confess that
+there was a great deal of delicacy in the gift. But you’ll be sure not
+to mention it.”
+
+“A magpie gossip indeed!” quoth the old blab.
+
+The fox then wished the magpie good night, and retired to a hole to
+sleep off the fatigues of the day, before he presented himself to the
+beautiful young cat.
+
+The next morning, Heaven knows how! it was all over the place that
+Reynard the fox had been banished from court for the favour shown him by
+her Majesty, and that the lion had bribed his departure with three
+hairs that would make any lady whom the fox married young and beautiful
+forever.
+
+The cat was the first to learn the news, and she became all curiosity to
+see so interesting a stranger, possessed of “qualifications” which, in
+the language of the day, “would render any animal happy!” She was not
+long without obtaining her wish. As she was taking a walk in the wood
+the fox contrived to encounter her. You may be sure that he made her his
+best bow; and he flattered the poor cat with so courtly an air that she
+saw nothing surprising in the love of the lioness.
+
+Meanwhile let us see what became of his rival, the dog.
+
+“Ah, the poor creature!” said Nymphalin; “it is easy to guess that he
+need not be buried alive to lose all chance of marrying the heiress.”
+
+“Wait till the end,” answered Fayzenheim.
+
+When the dog found that he was thus entrapped, he gave himself up for
+lost. In vain he kicked with his hind-legs against the stone,--he only
+succeeded in bruising his paws; and at length he was forced to lie down,
+with his tongue out of his mouth, and quite exhausted. “However,” said
+he, after he had taken breath, “it won’t do to be starved here, without
+doing my best to escape; and if I can’t get out one way, let me see if
+there is not a hole at the other end.” Thus saying, his courage, which
+stood him in lieu of cunning, returned, and he proceeded on in the same
+straightforward way in which he always conducted himself. At first the
+path was exceedingly narrow, and he hurt his sides very much against
+the rough stones that projected from the earth; but by degrees the way
+became broader, and he now went on with considerable ease to himself,
+till he arrived in a large cavern, where he saw an immense griffin
+sitting on his tail, and smoking a huge pipe.
+
+The dog was by no means pleased at meeting so suddenly a creature that
+had only to open his mouth to swallow him up at a morsel; however,
+he put a bold face on the danger, and walking respectfully up to the
+griffin, said, “Sir, I should be very much obliged to you if you would
+inform me the way out of these holes into the upper world.”
+
+The griffin took the pipe out of his mouth, and looked at the dog very
+sternly.
+
+“Ho, wretch!” said he, “how comest thou hither? I suppose thou wantest
+to steal my treasure; but I know how to treat such vagabonds as you, and
+I shall certainly eat you up.
+
+“You can do that if you choose,” said the dog; “but it would be very
+unhandsome conduct in an animal so much bigger than myself. For my own
+part, I never attack any dog that is not of equal size,--I should be
+ashamed of myself if I did. And as to your treasure, the character I
+bear for honesty is too well known to merit such a suspicion.”
+
+“Upon my word,” said the griffin, who could not help smiling for the
+life of him, “you have a singularly free mode of expressing yourself.
+And how, I say, came you hither?”
+
+Then the dog, who did not know what a lie was, told the griffin his
+whole history,--how he had set off to pay his court to the cat, and how
+Reynard the fox had entrapped him into the hole.
+
+When he had finished, the griffin said to him, “I see, my friend, that
+you know how to speak the truth; I am in want of just such a servant as
+you will make me, therefore stay with me and keep watch over my treasure
+when I sleep.”
+
+“Two words to that,” said the dog. “You have hurt my feelings very much
+by suspecting my honesty, and I would much sooner go back into the wood
+and be avenged on that scoundrel the fox, than serve a master who has so
+ill an opinion of me. I pray you, therefore, to dismiss me, and to put
+me in the right way to my cousin the cat.”
+
+“I am not a griffin of many words,” answered the master of the cavern,
+“and I give you your choice,--be my servant or be my breakfast; it is
+just the same to me. I give you time to decide till I have smoked out my
+pipe.”
+
+The poor dog did not take so long to consider. “It is true,” thought he,
+“that it is a great misfortune to live in a cave with a griffin of
+so unpleasant a countenance; but, probably, if I serve him well and
+faithfully, he’ll take pity on me some day, and let me go back to earth,
+and prove to my cousin what a rogue the fox is; and as to the rest,
+though I would sell my life as dear as I could, it is impossible to
+fight a griffin with a mouth of so monstrous a size.” In short, he
+decided to stay with the griffin.
+
+“Shake a paw on it,” quoth the grim smoker; and the dog shook paws.
+
+“And now,” said the griffin, “I will tell you what you are to do. Look
+here,” and moving his tail, he showed the dog a great heap of gold and
+silver, in a hole in the ground, that he had covered with the folds of
+his tail; and also, what the dog thought more valuable, a great heap of
+bones of very tempting appearance. “Now,” said the griffin, “during the
+day I can take very good care of these myself; but at night it is very
+necessary that I should go to sleep, so when I sleep you must watch over
+them instead of me.”
+
+“Very well,” said the dog. “As to the gold and silver, I have no
+objection; but I would much rather that you would lock up the bones, for
+I’m often hungry of a night, and--”
+
+“Hold your tongue,” said the griffin.
+
+“But, sir,” said the dog, after a short silence, “surely nobody ever
+comes into so retired a situation! Who are the thieves, if I may make
+bold to ask?”
+
+“Know,” answered the griffin, “that there are a great many serpents in
+this neighbourhood. They are always trying to steal my treasure; and if
+they catch me napping, they, not contented with theft, would do their
+best to sting me to death. So that I am almost worn out for want of
+sleep.”
+
+“Ah,” quoth the dog, who was fond of a good night’s rest, “I don’t envy
+you your treasure, sir.”
+
+At night, the griffin, who had a great deal of penetration, and saw that
+he might depend on the dog, lay down to sleep in another corner of the
+cave; and the dog, shaking himself well, so as to be quite awake, took
+watch over the treasure. His mouth watered exceedingly at the bones, and
+he could not help smelling them now and then; but he said to himself, “A
+bargain’s a bargain, and since I have promised to serve the griffin, I
+must serve him as an honest dog ought to serve.”
+
+In the middle of the night he saw a great snake creeping in by the side
+of the cave; but the dog set up so loud a bark that the griffin awoke,
+and the snake crept away as fast as he could. Then the griffin was very
+much pleased, and he gave the dog one of the bones to amuse himself
+with; and every night the dog watched the treasure, and acquitted
+himself so well that not a snake, at last, dared to make its
+appearance,--so the griffin enjoyed an excellent night’s rest.
+
+The dog now found himself much more comfortable than he expected. The
+griffin regularly gave him one of the bones for supper; and, pleased
+with his fidelity, made himself as agreeable a master as a griffin
+could be. Still, however, the dog was secretly very anxious to return
+to earth; for having nothing to do during the day but to doze on the
+ground, he dreamed perpetually of his cousin the cat’s charms, and, in
+fancy, he gave the rascal Reynard as hearty a worry as a fox may well
+have the honour of receiving from a dog’s paws. He awoke panting; alas!
+he could not realize his dreams.
+
+One night, as he was watching as usual over the treasure, he was greatly
+surprised to see a beautiful little black and white dog enter the
+cave; and it came fawning to our honest friend, wagging its tail with
+pleasure.
+
+“Ah, little one,” said our dog, whom, to distinguish, I will call the
+watch-dog, “you had better make the best of your way back again. See,
+there is a great griffin asleep in the other corner of the cave, and if
+he wakes, he will either eat you up or make you his servant, as he has
+made me.”
+
+“I know what you would tell me,” says the little dog; “and I have come
+down here to deliver you. The stone is now gone from the mouth of the
+cave, and you have nothing to do but to go back with me. Come, brother,
+come.”
+
+The dog was very much excited by this address. “Don’t ask me, my dear
+little friend,” said he; “you must be aware that I should be too happy
+to escape out of this cold cave, and roll on the soft turf once more:
+but if I leave my master, the griffin, those cursed serpents, who are
+always on the watch, will come in and steal his treasure,--nay, perhaps,
+sting him to death.” Then the little dog came up to the watch-dog, and
+remonstrated with him greatly, and licked him caressingly on both sides
+of his face; and, taking him by the ear, endeavoured to draw him from
+the treasure: but the dog would not stir a step, though his heart sorely
+pressed him. At length the little dog, finding it all in vain, said,
+“Well, then, if I must leave, good-by; but I have become so hungry in
+coming down all this way after you, that I wish you would give me one
+of those bones; they smell very pleasantly, and one out of so many could
+never be missed.”
+
+“Alas!” said the watchdog, with tears in his eyes, “how unlucky I am to
+have eaten up the bone my master gave me, otherwise you should have had
+it and welcome. But I can’t give you one of these, because my master has
+made me promise to watch over them all, and I have given him my paw
+on it. I am sure a dog of your respectable appearance will say nothing
+further on the subject.”
+
+Then the little dog answered pettishly, “Pooh, what nonsense you
+talk! surely a great griffin can’t miss a little bone fit for me?” and
+nestling his nose under the watch-dog, he tried forthwith to bring up
+one of the bones.
+
+On this the watch-dog grew angry, and, though with much reluctance, he
+seized the little dog by the nape of the neck and threw him off, but
+without hurting him. Suddenly the little dog changed into a monstrous
+serpent, bigger even than the griffin himself, and the watch-dog barked
+with all his might. The griffin rose in a great hurry, and the serpent
+sprang upon him ere he was well awake. I wish, dearest Nymphalin, you
+could have seen the battle between the griffin and the serpent,--how
+they coiled and twisted, and bit and darted their fiery tongues at each
+other. At length the serpent got uppermost, and was about to plunge his
+tongue into that part of the griffin which is unprotected by his scales,
+when the dog, seizing him by the tail, bit him so sharply that he could
+not help turning round to kill his new assailant, and the griffin,
+taking advantage of the opportunity, caught the serpent by the throat
+with both claws, and fairly strangled him. As soon as the griffin had
+recovered from the nervousness of the conflict, he heaped all manner
+of caresses on the dog for saving his life. The dog told him the whole
+story, and the griffin then explained that the dead snake was the king
+of the serpents, who had the power to change himself into any shape he
+pleased. “If he had tempted you,” said he, “to leave the treasure but
+for one moment, or to have given him any part of it, ay, but a single
+bone, he would have crushed you in an instant, and stung me to death
+ere I could have waked; but none, no, not the most venomous thing in
+creation, has power to hurt the honest!”
+
+“That has always been my belief,” answered the dog; “and now, sir, you
+had better go to sleep again and leave the rest to me.”
+
+“Nay,” answered the griffin, “I have no longer need of a servant; for
+now that the king of the serpents is dead, the rest will never molest
+me. It was only to satisfy his avarice that his subjects dared to brave
+the den of the griffin.”
+
+Upon hearing this the dog was exceedingly delighted; and raising himself
+on his hind paws, he begged the griffin most movingly to let him return
+to earth, to visit his mistress the cat, and worry his rival the fox.
+
+“You do not serve an ungrateful master,” answered the griffin. “You
+shall return, and I will teach you all the craft of our race, which is
+much craftier than the race of that pettifogger the fox, so that you may
+be able to cope with your rival.”
+
+“Ah, excuse me,” said the dog, hastily, “I am equally obliged to you;
+but I fancy honesty is a match for cunning any day, and I think myself a
+great deal safer in being a dog of honour than if I knew all the tricks
+in the world.”
+
+“Well,” said the griffin, a little piqued at the dog’s bluntness, “do as
+you please; I wish you all possible success.”
+
+Then the griffin opened a secret door in the side of the cabin, and
+the dog saw a broad path that led at once into the wood. He thanked
+the griffin with all his heart, and ran wagging his tail into the open
+moonlight. “Ah, ah, master fox,” said he, “there’s no trap for an honest
+dog that has not two doors to it, cunning as you think yourself.”
+
+With that he curled his tail gallantly over his left leg, and set off
+on a long trot to the cat’s house. When he was within sight of it, he
+stopped to refresh himself by a pool of water, and who should be there
+but our friend the magpie.
+
+“And what do _you_ want, friend?” said she, rather disdainfully, for the
+dog looked somewhat out of case after his journey.
+
+“I am going to see my cousin the cat,” answered he.
+
+“_Your cousin_! marry come up,” said the magpie; “don’t you know she is
+going to be married to Reynard the fox? This is not a time for her to
+receive the visits of a brute like you.”
+
+These words put the dog in such a passion that he very nearly bit the
+magpie for her uncivil mode of communicating such bad news. However, he
+curbed his temper, and, without answering her, went at once to the cat’s
+residence.
+
+The cat was sitting at the window, and no sooner did the dog see her
+than he fairly lost his heart; never had he seen so charming a cat
+before. He advanced, wagging his tail, and with his most insinuating
+air, when the cat, getting up, clapped the window in his face, and lo!
+Reynard the fox appeared in her stead.
+
+“Come out, thou rascal!” said the dog, showing his teeth; “come out,
+I challenge thee to single combat; I have not forgiven thy malice, and
+thou seest that I am no longer shut up in the cave, and unable to punish
+thee for thy wickedness.”
+
+“Go home, silly one!” answered the fox, sneering; “thou hast no business
+here, and as for fighting thee--bah!” Then the fox left the window and
+disappeared. But the dog, thoroughly enraged, scratched lustily at the
+door, and made such a noise, that presently the cat herself came to the
+window.
+
+“How now!” said she, angrily; “what means all this rudeness? Who are
+you, and what do you want at my house?”
+
+“Oh, my dear cousin,” said the dog, “do not speak so severely. Know that
+I have come here on purpose to pay you a visit; and, whatever you do,
+let me beseech you not to listen to that villain Reynard,--you have no
+conception what a rogue he is!”
+
+“What!” said the cat, blushing; “do you dare to abuse your betters in
+this fashion? I see you have a design on me. Go, this instant, or--”
+
+“Enough, madam,” said the dog, proudly; “you need not speak twice to
+me,--farewell.”
+
+And he turned away very slowly, and went under a tree, where he took up
+his lodgings for the night. But the next morning there was an amazing
+commotion in the neighbourhood; a stranger, of a very different style of
+travelling from that of the dog, had arrived at the dead of the night,
+and fixed his abode in a large cavern hollowed out of a steep rock. The
+noise he had made in flying through the air was so great that it had
+awakened every bird and beast in the parish; and Reynard, whose bad
+conscience never suffered him to sleep very soundly, putting his head
+out of the window, perceived, to his great alarm, that the stranger was
+nothing less than a monstrous griffin.
+
+Now the griffins are the richest beasts in the world; and that’s the
+reason they keep so close under ground. Whenever it does happen that
+they pay a visit above, it is not a thing to be easily forgotten.
+
+The magpie was all agitation. What could the griffin possibly want
+there? She resolved to take a peep at the cavern, and accordingly she
+hopped timorously up the rock, and pretended to be picking up sticks for
+her nest.
+
+“Holla, ma’am!” cried a very rough voice, and she saw the griffin
+putting his head out of the cavern. “Holla! you are the very lady I want
+to see; you know all the people about here, eh?”
+
+“All the best company, your lordship, I certainly do,” answered the
+magpie, dropping a courtesy.
+
+Upon this the griffin walked out; and smoking his pipe leisurely in the
+open air, in order to set the pie at her ease, continued,--
+
+“Are there any respectable beasts of good families settled in this
+neighbourhood?”
+
+“Oh, most elegant society, I assure your lordship,” cried the pie. “I
+have lived here myself these ten years, and the great heiress, the cat
+yonder, attracts a vast number of strangers.”
+
+“Humph! heiress, indeed! much you know about heiresses!” said the
+griffin. “There is only one heiress in the world, and that’s my
+daughter.”
+
+“Bless me! has your lordship a family? I beg you a thousand pardons; but
+I only saw your lordship’s own equipage last night, and did not know you
+brought any one with you.”
+
+“My daughter went first, and was safely lodged before I arrived. She did
+not disturb you, I dare say, as I did; for she sails along like a swan:
+but I have got the gout in my left claw, and that’s the reason I puff
+and groan so in taking a journey.”
+
+“Shall I drop in upon Miss Griffin, and see how she is after her
+journey?” said the pie, advancing.
+
+“I thank you, no. I don’t intend her to be seen while I stay here,--it
+unsettles her; and I’m afraid of the young beasts running away with her
+if they once heard how handsome she was: she’s the living picture of me,
+but she’s monstrous giddy! Not that I should care much if she did go off
+with a beast of degree, were I not obliged to pay her portion, which is
+prodigious; and I don’t like parting with money, ma’am, when I’ve once
+got it. Ho, ho, ho!”
+
+“You are too witty, my lord. But if you refused your consent?” said the
+pie, anxious to know the whole family history of so grand a seigneur.
+
+“I should have to pay the dowry all the same. It was left her by her
+uncle the dragon. But don’t let this go any further.”
+
+“Your lordship may depend on my secrecy. I wish your lordship a very
+good morning.”
+
+Away flew the pie, and she did not stop till she got to the cat’s house.
+The cat and the fox were at breakfast, and the fox had his paw on his
+heart. “Beautiful scene!” cried the pie; the cat coloured, and bade the
+pie take a seat.
+
+Then off went the pie’s tongue, glib, glib, glib, chatter, chatter,
+chatter. She related to them the whole story of the griffin and his
+daughter, and a great deal more besides, that the griffin had never told
+her.
+
+The cat listened attentively. Another young heiress in the neighbourhood
+might be a formidable rival. “But is this griffiness handsome?” said
+she.
+
+“Handsome!” cried the pie; “oh, if you could have seen the father!--such
+a mouth, such eyes, such a complexion; and he declares she’s the living
+picture of himself! But what do you say, Mr. Reynard,--you, who have
+been so much in the world, have, perhaps, seen the young lady?”
+
+“Why, I can’t say I have,” answered the fox, waking from a revery;
+“but she must be wonderfully rich. I dare say that fool the dog will be
+making up to her.”
+
+“Ah, by the way,” said the pie, “what a fuss he made at your door
+yesterday; why would you not admit him, my dear?”
+
+“Oh,” said the cat, demurely, “Mr. Reynard says that he is a dog of very
+bad character, quite a fortune-hunter; and hiding the most dangerous
+disposition to bite under an appearance of good nature. I hope he won’t
+be quarrelsome with you, dear Reynard!”
+
+“With me? Oh, the poor wretch, no!--he might bluster a little; but he
+knows that if I’m once angry I’m a devil at biting;--one should not
+boast of oneself.”
+
+In the evening Reynard felt a strange desire to go and see the griffin
+smoking his pipe; but what could he do? There was the dog under the
+opposite tree evidently watching for him, and Reynard had no wish to
+prove himself that devil at biting which he declared he was. At last he
+resolved to have recourse to stratagem to get rid of the dog.
+
+A young buck of a rabbit, a sort of provincial fop, had looked in upon
+his cousin the cat, to pay her his respects, and Reynard, taking him
+aside, said, “You see that shabby-looking dog under the tree? He has
+behaved very ill to your cousin the cat, and you certainly ought
+to challenge him. Forgive my boldness, nothing but respect for your
+character induces me to take so great a liberty; you know I would
+chastise the rascal myself, but what a scandal it would make! If I were
+already married to your cousin, it would be a different thing. But you
+know what a story that cursed magpie would hatch out of it!”
+
+The rabbit looked very foolish; he assured the fox he was no match for
+the dog; that he was very fond of his cousin, to be sure! but he saw
+no necessity to interfere with her domestic affairs; and, in short, he
+tried all he possibly could to get out of the scrape; but the fox so
+artfully played on his vanity, so earnestly assured him that the dog was
+the biggest coward in the world and would make a humble apology, and so
+eloquently represented to him the glory he would obtain for manifesting
+so much spirit, that at length the rabbit was persuaded to go out and
+deliver the challenge.
+
+“I’ll be your second,” said the fox; “and the great field on the other
+side the wood, two miles hence, shall be the place of battle: there we
+shall be out of observation. You go first, I’ll follow in half an hour;
+and I say, hark!--in case he does accept the challenge, and you feel the
+least afraid, I’ll be in the field, and take it off your paws with the
+utmost pleasure; rely on _me_, my dear sir!”
+
+Away went the rabbit. The dog was a little astonished at the temerity
+of the poor creature; but on hearing that the fox was to be present,
+willingly consented to repair to the place of conflict. This readiness
+the rabbit did not at all relish; he went very slowly to the field,
+and seeing no fox there, his heart misgave him; and while the dog was
+putting his nose to the ground to try if he could track the coming of
+the fox, the rabbit slipped into a burrow, and left the dog to walk back
+again.
+
+Meanwhile the fox was already at the rock; he walked very soft-footedly,
+and looked about with extreme caution, for he had a vague notion that a
+griffin-papa would not be very civil to foxes.
+
+Now there were two holes in the rock,--one below, one above, an upper
+story and an under; and while the fox was peering about, he saw a great
+claw from the upper rock beckoning to him.
+
+“Ah, ah!” said the fox, “that’s the wanton young griffiness, I’ll
+swear.”
+
+He approached, and a voice said,--
+
+“Charming Mr. Reynard, do you not think you could deliver an unfortunate
+griffiness from a barbarous confinement in this rock?”
+
+“Oh, heavens!” cried the fox, tenderly, “what a beautiful voice! and,
+ah, my poor heart, what a lovely claw! Is it possible that I hear the
+daughter of my lord, the great griffin?”
+
+“Hush, flatterer! not so loud, if you please. My father is taking an
+evening stroll, and is very quick of hearing. He has tied me up by
+my poor wings in the cavern, for he is mightily afraid of some beast
+running away with me. You know I have all my fortune settled on myself.”
+
+“Talk not of fortune,” said the fox; “but how can I deliver you? Shall I
+enter and gnaw the cord?”
+
+“Alas!” answered the griffiness, “it is an immense chain I am bound
+with. However, you may come in and talk more at your ease.”
+
+The fox peeped cautiously all round, and seeing no sign of the griffin,
+he entered the lower cave and stole upstairs to the upper story; but as
+he went on, he saw immense piles of jewels and gold, and all sorts of
+treasure, so that the old griffin might well have laughed at the
+poor cat being called an heiress. The fox was greatly pleased at such
+indisputable signs of wealth, and he entered the upper cave, resolved to
+be transported with the charms of the griffiness.
+
+There was, however, a great chasm between the landing-place and the spot
+where the young lady was chained, and he found it impossible to pass;
+the cavern was very dark, but he saw enough of the figure of the
+griffiness to perceive, in spite of her petticoat, that she was the
+image of her father, and the most hideous heiress that the earth ever
+saw!
+
+However, he swallowed his disgust, and poured forth such a heap of
+compliments that the griffiness appeared entirely won.
+
+He implored her to fly with him the first moment she was unchained.
+
+“That is impossible,” said she; “for my father never unchains me except
+in his presence, and then I cannot stir out of his sight.”
+
+“The wretch!” cried Reynard, “what is to be done?”
+
+“Why, there is only one thing I know of,” answered the griffiness,
+“which is this: I always make his soup for him, and if I could mix
+something in it that would put him fast to sleep before he had time to
+chain me up again I might slip down and carry off all the treasure below
+on my back.”
+
+“Charming!” exclaimed Reynard; “what invention! what wit! I will go and
+get some poppies directly.”
+
+“Alas!” said the griffiness, “poppies have no effect upon griffins. The
+only thing that can ever put my father fast to sleep is a nice young cat
+boiled up in his soup; it is astonishing what a charm that has upon him!
+But where to get a cat?--it must be a maiden cat too!”
+
+Reynard was a little startled at so singular an opiate. “But,” thought
+he, “griffins are not like the rest of the world, and so rich an heiress
+is not to be won by ordinary means.”
+
+“I do know a cat,--a maiden cat,” said he, after a short pause; “but
+I feel a little repugnance at the thought of having her boiled in the
+griffin’s soup. Would not a dog do as well?”
+
+“Ah, base thing!” said the griffiness, appearing to weep; “you are in
+love with the cat, I see it; go and marry her, poor dwarf that she is,
+and leave me to die of grief.”
+
+In vain the fox protested that he did not care a straw for the cat;
+nothing could now appease the griffiness but his positive assurance that
+come what would poor puss should be brought to the cave and boiled for
+the griffin’s soup.
+
+“But how will you get her here?” said the griffiness.
+
+“Ah, leave that to me,” said Reynard. “Only put a basket out of the
+window and draw it up by a cord; the moment it arrives at the window, be
+sure to clap your claw on the cat at once, for she is terribly active.”
+
+“Tush!” answered the heiress; “a pretty griffiness I should be if I did
+not know how to catch a cat!”
+
+“But this must be when your father is out?” said Reynard.
+
+“Certainly; he takes a stroll every evening at sunset.”
+
+“Let it be to-morrow, then,” said Reynard, impatient for the treasure.
+
+This being arranged, Reynard thought it time to decamp. He stole down
+the stairs again, and tried to filch some of the treasure by the way;
+but it was too heavy for him to carry, and he was forced to acknowledge
+to himself that it was impossible to get the treasure without taking the
+griffiness (whose back seemed prodigiously strong) into the bargain.
+
+He returned home to the cat, and when he entered her house, and saw how
+ordinary everything looked after the jewels in the griffin’s cave, he
+quite wondered how he had ever thought the cat had the least pretensions
+to good looks. However, he concealed his wicked design, and his mistress
+thought he had never appeared so amiable.
+
+“Only guess,” said he, “where I have been!--to our new neighbour the
+griffin; a most charming person, thoroughly affable, and quite the air
+of the court. As for that silly magpie, the griffin saw her character at
+once; and it was all a hoax about his daughter,--he has no daughter at
+all. You know, my dear, hoaxing is a fashionable amusement among the
+great. He says he has heard of nothing but your beauty, and on my
+telling him we were going to be married, he has insisted upon giving a
+great ball and supper in honour of the event. In fact, he is a gallant
+old fellow, and dying to see you. Of course, I was obliged to accept the
+invitation.”
+
+“You could not do otherwise,” said the unsuspecting young creature, who,
+as I before said, was very susceptible to flattery.
+
+“And only think how delicate his attentions are,” said the fox. “As he
+is very badly lodged for a beast of his rank, and his treasure takes up
+the whole of the ground floor, he is forced to give the _fete_ in the
+upper story, so he hangs out a basket for his guests, and draws them up
+with his own claw. How condescending! But the great _are_ so amiable!”
+
+The cat, brought up in seclusion, was all delight at the idea of seeing
+such high life, and the lovers talked of nothing else all the next
+day,--when Reynard, towards evening, putting his head out of the window,
+saw his old friend the dog lying as usual and watching him very grimly.
+“Ah, that cursed creature! I had quite forgotten him; what is to be
+done now? He would make no bones of me if he once saw me set foot out of
+doors.”
+
+With that, the fox began to cast in his head how he should get rid
+of his rival, and at length he resolved on a very notable project; he
+desired the cat to set out first, and wait for him at a turn in the road
+a little way off. “For,” said he, “if we go together we shall certainly
+be insulted by the dog; and he will know that in the presence of a lady,
+the custom of a beast of my fashion will not suffer me to avenge the
+affront. But when I am alone, the creature is such a coward that he will
+not dare say his soul’s his own; leave the door open and I’ll follow
+immediately.”
+
+The cat’s mind was so completely poisoned against her cousin that she
+implicitly believed this account of his character; and accordingly, with
+many recommendations to her lover not to sully his dignity by getting
+into any sort of quarrel with the dog, she set off first.
+
+The dog went up to her very humbly, and begged her to allow him to say a
+few words to her; but she received him so haughtily, that his spirit was
+up; and he walked back to the tree more than ever enraged against his
+rival. But what was his joy when he saw that the cat had left the door
+open! “Now, wretch,” thought he, “you cannot escape me!” So he walked
+briskly in at the back door. He was greatly surprised to find Reynard
+lying down in the straw, panting as if his heart would break, and
+rolling his eyes in the pangs of death.
+
+“Ah, friend,” said the fox, with a faltering voice, “you are avenged,
+my hour is come; I am just going to give up the ghost: put your paw upon
+mine, and say you forgive me.”
+
+Despite his anger, the generous dog could not set tooth on a dying foe.
+
+“You have served me a shabby trick,” said he; “you have left me to
+starve in a hole, and you have evidently maligned me with my cousin:
+certainly I meant to be avenged on you; but if you are really dying,
+that alters the affair.”
+
+“Oh, oh!” groaned the fox, very bitterly; “I am past help; the poor cat
+is gone for Doctor Ape, but he’ll never come in time. What a thing it
+is to have a bad conscience on one’s death-bed! But wait till the cat
+returns, and I’ll do you full justice with her before I die.”
+
+The good-natured dog was much moved at seeing his mortal enemy in such a
+state, and endeavoured as well as he could to console him.
+
+“Oh, oh!” said the fox; “I am so parched in the throat, I am burning;”
+ and he hung his tongue out of his mouth, and rolled his eyes more
+fearfully than ever.
+
+“Is there no water here?” said the dog, looking round.
+
+“Alas, no!--yet stay! yes, now I think of it, there is some in that
+little hole in the wall; but how to get at it! It is so high that I
+can’t, in my poor weak state, climb up to it; and I dare not ask such a
+favour of one I have injured so much.”
+
+“Don’t talk of it,” said the dog: “but the hole’s very small, I could
+not put my nose through it.”
+
+“No; but if you just climb up on that stone, and thrust your paw into
+the hole, you can dip it into the water, and so cool my poor parched
+mouth. Oh, what a thing it is to have a bad conscience!”
+
+The dog sprang upon the stone, and, getting on his hind legs, thrust his
+front paw into the hole; when suddenly Reynard pulled a string that he
+had concealed under the straw, and the dog found his paw caught tight to
+the wall in a running noose.
+
+“Ah, rascal!” said he, turning round; but the fox leaped up gayly from
+the straw, and fastening the string with his teeth to a nail in the
+other end of the wall, walked out, crying, “Good-by, my dear friend;
+have a care how you believe hereafter in sudden conversions!” So he left
+the dog on his hind legs to take care of the house.
+
+Reynard found the cat waiting for him where he had appointed, and they
+walked lovingly together till they came to the cave. It was now dark,
+and they saw the basket waiting below; the fox assisted the poor cat
+into it. “There is only room for one,” said he, “you must go first!” Up
+rose the basket; the fox heard a piteous mew, and no more.
+
+“So much for the griffin’s soup!” thought he.
+
+He waited patiently for some time, when the griffiness, waving her claw
+from the window, said cheerfully, “All’s right, my dear Reynard; my papa
+has finished his soup, and sleeps as sound as a rock! All the noise in
+the world would not wake him now, till he has slept off the boiled cat,
+which won’t be these twelve hours. Come and assist me in packing up the
+treasure; I should be sorry to leave a single diamond behind.”
+
+“So should I,” quoth the fox. “Stay, I’ll come round by the lower
+hole: why, the door’s shut! pray, beautiful griffiness, open it to thy
+impatient adorer.”
+
+“Alas, my father has hid the key! I never know where he places it. You
+must come up by the basket; see, I will lower it for you.”
+
+The fox was a little loth to trust himself in the same conveyance that
+had taken his mistress to be boiled; but the most cautious grow rash
+when money’s to be gained, and avarice can trap even a fox. So he put
+himself as comfortably as he could into the basket, and up he went in an
+instant. It rested, however, just before it reached the window, and the
+fox felt, with a slight shudder, the claw of the griffiness stroking his
+back.
+
+“Oh, what a beautiful coat!” quoth she, caressingly.
+
+“You are too kind,” said the fox; “but you can feel it more at your
+leisure when I am once up. Make haste, I beseech you.”
+
+“Oh, what a beautiful bushy tail! Never did I feel such a tail.”
+
+“It is entirely at your service, sweet griffiness,” said the fox; “but
+pray let me in. Why lose an instant?”
+
+“No, never did I feel such a tail! No wonder you are so successful with
+the ladies.”
+
+“Ah, beloved griffiness, my tail is yours to eternity, but you pinch it
+a little too hard.”
+
+Scarcely had he said this, when down dropped the basket, but not with
+the fox in it; he found himself caught by the tail, and dangling half
+way down the rock, by the help of the very same sort of pulley wherewith
+he had snared the dog. I leave you to guess his consternation; he yelped
+out as loud as he could,--for it hurts a fox exceedingly to be hanged by
+his tail with his head downwards,--when the door of the rock opened, and
+out stalked the griffin himself, smoking his pipe, with a vast crowd of
+all the fashionable beasts in the neighbourhood.
+
+“Oho, brother,” said the bear, laughing fit to kill himself; “who ever
+saw a fox hanged by the tail before?”
+
+“You’ll have need of a physician,” quoth Doctor Ape.
+
+“A pretty match, indeed; a griffiness for such a creature as you!” said
+the goat, strutting by him.
+
+The fox grinned with pain, and said nothing. But that which hurt him
+most was the compassion of a dull fool of a donkey, who assured him with
+great gravity that he saw nothing at all to laugh at in his situation!
+
+“At all events,” said the fox, at last, “cheated, gulled, betrayed as
+I am, I have played the same trick to the dog. Go and laugh at him,
+gentlemen; he deserves it as much as I can, I assure you.”
+
+“Pardon me,” said the griffin, taking the pipe out of his mouth; “one
+never laughs at the honest.”
+
+“And see,” said the bear, “here he is.”
+
+And indeed the dog had, after much effort, gnawed the string in two, and
+extricated his paw; the scent of the fox had enabled him to track
+his footsteps, and here he arrived, burning for vengeance and finding
+himself already avenged.
+
+But his first thought was for his dear cousin. “Ah, where is she?” he
+cried movingly; “without doubt that villain Reynard has served her some
+scurvy trick.”
+
+“I fear so indeed, my old friend,” answered the griffin; “but don’t
+grieve,--after all, she was nothing particular. You shall marry my
+daughter the griffiness, and succeed to all the treasure; ay, and all
+the bones that you once guarded so faithfully.”
+
+“Talk not to me,” said the faithful dog. “I want none of your treasure;
+and, though I don’t mean to be rude, your griffiness may go to the
+devil. I will run over the world, but I will find my dear cousin.”
+
+“See her then,” said the griffin; and the beautiful cat, more beautiful
+than ever, rushed out of the cavern, and threw herself into the dog’s
+paws.
+
+A pleasant scene this for the fox! He had skill enough in the female
+heart to know that it may excuse many little infidelities, but to be
+boiled alive for a griffin’s soup--no, the offence was inexpiable.
+
+“You understand me, Mr. Reynard,” said the griffin, “I have no daughter,
+and it was me you made love to. Knowing what sort of a creature a magpie
+is, I amused myself with hoaxing her,--the fashionable amusement at
+court, you know.”
+
+The fox made a mighty struggle, and leaped on the ground, leaving his
+tail behind him. It did not grow again in a hurry.
+
+“See,” said the griffin, as the beasts all laughed at the figure Reynard
+made running into the wood, “the dog beats the fox with the ladies,
+after all; and cunning as he is in everything else, the fox is the last
+creature that should ever think of making love!”
+
+
+
+“Charming!” cried Nymphalin, clasping her hands; “it is just the sort of
+story I like.”
+
+“And I suppose, sir,” said Nip, pertly, “that the dog and the cat lived
+very happily ever afterwards? Indeed the nuptial felicity of a dog and
+cat is proverbial!”
+
+“I dare say they lived much the same as any other married couple,”
+ answered the prince.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII. THE TOMB OF A FATHER OF MANY CHILDREN.
+
+THE feast being now ended, as well as the story, the fairies wound their
+way homeward by a different path, till at length a red steady light
+glowed through the long basaltic arches upon them, like the Demon
+Hunters’ fires in the Forest of Pines.
+
+The prince sobered in his pace. “You approach,” said he, in a grave
+tone, “the greatest of our temples; you will witness the tomb of a
+mighty founder of our race!” An awe crept over the queen, in spite of
+herself. Tracking the fires in silence, they came to a vast space, in
+the midst of which was a long gray block of stone, such as the traveller
+finds amidst the dread silence of Egyptian Thebes.
+
+And on this stone lay the gigantic figure of a man,--dead, but not
+death-like, for invisible spells had preserved the flesh and the long
+hair for untold ages; and beside him lay a rude instrument of music, and
+at his feet was a sword and a hunter’s spear; and above, the rock wound,
+hollowed and roofless, to the upper air, and daylight came through,
+sickened and pale, beneath red fires that burned everlastingly around
+him, on such simple altars as belong to a savage race. But the place was
+not solitary, for many motionless but not lifeless shapes sat on large
+blocks of stone beside the tomb. There was the wizard, wrapped in his
+long black mantle, and his face covered with his hands; there was
+the uncouth and deformed dwarf, gibbering to himself; there sat the
+household elf; there glowered from a gloomy rent in the wall, with
+glittering eyes and shining scale, the enormous dragon of the North. An
+aged crone in rags, leaning on a staff, and gazing malignantly on the
+visitors, with bleared but fiery eyes, stood opposite the tomb of the
+gigantic dead. And now the fairies themselves completed the group! But
+all was dumb and unutterably silent,--the silence that floats over
+some antique city of the desert, when, for the first time for a hundred
+centuries, a living foot enters its desolate remains; the silence that
+belongs to the dust of eld,--deep, solemn, palpable, and sinking into
+the heart with a leaden and death-like weight. Even the English fairy
+spoke not; she held her breath, and gazing on the tomb, she saw, in rude
+vast characters,--
+
+     THE TEUTON.
+
+“_We_ are all that remain of his religion!” said the prince, as they
+turned from the dread temple.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV. THE FAIRY’S CAVE, AND THE FAIRY’S WISH.
+
+IT was evening; and the fairies were dancing beneath the twilight star.
+
+“And why art thou sad, my violet?” said the prince; “for thine eyes seek
+the ground!”
+
+“Now that I have found thee,” answered the queen, “and now that I feel
+what happy love is to a fairy, I sigh over that love which I have lately
+witnessed among mortals, but the bud of whose happiness already conceals
+the worm. For well didst thou say, my prince, that we are linked with a
+mysterious affinity to mankind, and whatever is pure and gentle amongst
+them speaks at once to our sympathy, and commands our vigils.”
+
+“And most of all,” said the German fairy, “are they who love under our
+watch; for love is the golden chain that binds all in the universe: love
+lights up alike the star and the glow-worm; and wherever there is
+love in men’s lot, lies the secret affinity with men, and with things
+divine.”
+
+“But with the human race,” said Nymphalin, “there is no love that
+outlasts the hour, for either death ends, or custom alters. When the
+blossom comes to fruit, it is plucked and seen no more; and therefore,
+when I behold true love sentenced to an early grave, I comfort myself
+that I shall not at least behold the beauty dimmed, and the softness of
+the heart hardened into stone. Yet, my prince, while still the pulse
+can beat, and the warm blood flow, in that beautiful form which I have
+watched over of late, let me not desert her; still let my influence keep
+the sky fair, and the breezes pure; still let me drive the vapour from
+the moon, and the clouds from the faces of the stars; still let me fill
+her dreams with tender and brilliant images, and glass in the mirror
+of sleep the happiest visions of fairy-land; still let me pour over her
+eyes that magic, which suffers them to see no fault in one in whom she
+has garnered up her soul! And as death comes slowly on, still let me
+rob the spectre of its terror, and the grave of its sting; so that, all
+gently and unconscious to herself, life may glide into the Great Ocean
+where the shadows lie, and the spirit without guile may be severed from
+its mansion without pain!”
+
+The wish of the fairy was fulfilled.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV. THE BANKS OF THE RHINE.--FROM THE DRACHENFELS TO BROHL.--AN
+INCIDENT THAT SUFFICES IN THIS TALE FOR AN EPOCH.
+
+FROM the Drachenfels commences the true glory of the Rhine; and once
+more Gertrude’s eyes conquered the languor that crept gradually over
+them as she gazed on the banks around.
+
+Fair blew the breeze, and freshly curled the waters; and Gertrude did
+not feel the vulture that had fixed its talons within her breast. The
+Rhine widens, like a broad lake, between the Drachenfels and Unkel;
+villages are scattered over the extended plain on the left; on the right
+is the Isle of Werth and the houses of Oberwinter; the hills are covered
+with vines; and still Gertrude turned back with a lingering gaze to the
+lofty crest of the Seven Hills.
+
+On, on--and the spires of Unkel rose above a curve in the banks, and
+on the opposite shore stretched those wondrous basaltic columns which
+extend to the middle of the river, and when the Rhine runs low, you
+may see them like an engulfed city beneath the waves. You then view the
+ruins of Okkenfels, and hear the voice of the pastoral Gasbach pouring
+its waters into the Rhine. From amidst the clefts of the rocks the vine
+peeps luxuriantly forth, and gives a richness and colouring to what
+Nature, left to herself, intended for the stern.
+
+“But turn your eye backward to the right,” said Trevylyan; “those banks
+were formerly the special haunt of the bold robbers of the Rhine, and
+from amidst the entangled brakes that then covered the ragged cliffs
+they rushed upon their prey. In the gloomy canvas of those feudal days
+what vigorous and mighty images were crowded! A robber’s life amidst
+these mountains, and beside this mountain stream, must have been the
+very poetry of the spot carried into action.”
+
+They rested at Brohl, a small town between two mountains. On the summit
+of one you see the gray remains of Rheinech. There is something weird
+and preternatural about the aspect of this place; its soil betrays signs
+that in the former ages (from which even tradition is fast fading away)
+some volcano here exhausted its fires. The stratum of the earth is black
+and pitchy, and the springs beneath it are of a dark and graveolent
+water. Here the stream of the Brohlbach falls into the Rhine, and in
+a valley rich with oak and pine, and full of caverns, which are not
+without their traditionary inmates, stands the castle of Schweppenbourg,
+which our party failed not to visit.
+
+Gertrude felt fatigued on their return, and Trevylyan sat by her in the
+little inn, while Vane went forth, with the curiosity of science, to
+examine the strata of the soil.
+
+They conversed in the frankness of their plighted troth upon those
+topics which are only for lovers: upon the bright chapter in the history
+of their love; their first meeting; their first impressions; the little
+incidents in their present journey,--incidents noticed by themselves
+alone; that life _within_ life which two persons know together,--which
+one knows not without the other, which ceases to both the instant they
+are divided.
+
+“I know not what the love of others may be,” said Gertrude, “but
+ours seems different from all of which I have read. Books tell us of
+jealousies and misconstructions, and the necessity of an absence, the
+sweetness of a quarrel; but we, dearest Albert, have had no experience
+of these passages in love. _We_ have never misunderstood each other;
+_we_ have no reconciliation to look back to. When was there ever
+occasion for me to ask forgiveness from you? Our love is made up only of
+one memory,--unceasing kindness! A harsh word, a wronging thought, never
+broke in upon the happiness we have felt and feel.”
+
+“Dearest Gertrude,” said Trevylyan, “that character of our love is
+caught from you; you, the soft, the gentle, have been its pervading
+genius; and the well has been smooth and pure, for you were the spirit
+that lived within its depths.”
+
+And to such talk succeeded silence still more sweet,--the silence of
+the hushed and overflowing heart. The last voices of the birds, the sun
+slowly sinking in the west, the fragrance of descending dews, filled
+them with that deep and mysterious sympathy which exists between Love
+and Nature.
+
+It was after such a silence--a long silence, that seemed but as a
+moment--that Trevylyan spoke, but Gertrude answered not; and, yearning
+once more for her sweet voice, he turned and saw that she had fainted
+away.
+
+This was the first indication of the point to which her increasing
+debility had arrived. Trevylyan’s heart stood still, and then beat
+violently; a thousand fears crept over him; he clasped her in his
+arms, and bore her to the open window. The setting sun fell upon her
+countenance, from which the play of the young heart and warm fancy
+had fled, and in its deep and still repose the ravages of disease were
+darkly visible. What were then his emotions! His heart was like stone;
+but he felt a rush as of a torrent to his temples: his eyes grew
+dizzy,--he was stunned by the greatness of his despair. For the last
+week he had taken hope for his companion; Gertrude had seemed so much
+stronger, for her happiness had given her a false support. And though
+there had been moments when, watching the bright hectic come and go,
+and her step linger, and the breath heave short, he had felt the hope
+suddenly cease, yet never had he known till now that fulness of anguish,
+that dread certainty of the worst, which the calm, fair face before him
+struck into his soul; and mixed with this agony as he gazed was all
+the passion of the most ardent love. For there she lay in his arms,
+the gentle breath rising from lips where the rose yet lingered, and
+the long, rich hair, soft and silken as an infant’s, stealing from
+its confinement: everything that belonged to Gertrude’s beauty was so
+inexpressibly soft and pure and youthful! Scarcely seventeen, she seemed
+much younger than she was; her figure had sunken from its roundness, but
+still how light, how lovely were its wrecks! the neck whiter than snow,
+the fair small hand! Her weight was scarcely felt in the arms of her
+lover; and he--what a contrast!--was in all the pride and flower of
+glorious manhood! His was the lofty brow, the wreathing hair, the
+haughty eye, the elastic form; and upon this frail, perishable thing
+had he fixed all his heart, all the hopes of his youth, the pride of his
+manhood, his schemes, his energies, his ambition!
+
+“Oh, Gertrude!” cried he, “is it--is it thus--is there indeed no hope?”
+
+And Gertrude now slowly recovering, and opening her eyes upon
+Trevylyan’s face, the revulsion was so great, his emotions so
+overpowering, that, clasping her to his bosom, as if even death should
+not tear her away from him, he wept over her in an agony of tears; not
+those tears that relieve the heart, but the fiery rain of the internal
+storm, a sign of the fierce tumult that shook the very core of his
+existence, not a relief.
+
+Awakened to herself, Gertrude, in amazement and alarm, threw her arms
+around his neck, and, looking wistfully into his face, implored him to
+speak to her.
+
+“Was it my illness, love?” said she; and the music of her voice only
+conveyed to him the thought of how soon it would be dumb to him forever.
+“Nay,” she continued winningly, “it was but the heat of the day; I am
+better now,--I am well; there is no cause to be alarmed for me!” and
+with all the innocent fondness of extreme youth, she kissed the burning
+tears from his eyes.
+
+There was a playfulness, an innocence in this poor girl, so unconscious
+as yet of her destiny, which rendered her fate doubly touching,
+and which to the stern Trevylyan, hackneyed by the world, made her
+irresistible charm; and now as she put aside her hair, and looked up
+gratefully, yet pleadingly, into his face, he could scarce refrain from
+pouring out to her the confession of his anguish and despair. But the
+necessity of self-control, the necessity of concealing from _her_ a
+knowledge which might only, by impressing her imagination, expedite her
+doom, while it would embitter to her mind the unconscious enjoyment of
+the hour, nerved and manned him. He checked by those violent efforts
+which only men can make, the evidence of his emotions; and endeavoured,
+by a rapid torrent of words, to divert her attention from a weakness,
+the causes of which he could not explain. Fortunately Vane soon
+returned, and Trevylyan, consigning Gertrude to his care, hastily left
+the room.
+
+Gertrude sank into a revery.
+
+“Ah, dear father!” said she, suddenly, and after a pause, “if I indeed
+were worse than I have thought myself of late, if I were to die now,
+what would Trevylyan feel? Pray God I may live for his sake!”
+
+“My child, do not talk thus; you are better, much better than you were.
+Ere the autumn ends, Trevylyan’s happiness will be your lawful care. Do
+not think so despondently of yourself.”
+
+“I thought not of myself,” sighed Gertrude, “but of _him_!”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI. GERTRUDE.--THE EXCURSION TO HAMMERSTEIN.--THOUGHTS.
+
+THE next day they visited the environs of Brohl. Gertrude was unusually
+silent; for her temper, naturally sunny and enthusiastic, was accustomed
+to light up everything she saw. Ah, once how bounding was that step! how
+undulating the young graces of that form! how playfully once danced the
+ringlets on that laughing cheek! But she clung to Trevylyan’s proud form
+with a yet more endearing tenderness than was her wont, and hung yet
+more eagerly on his words; her hand sought his, and she often pressed it
+to her lips, and sighed as she did so. Something that she would not tell
+seemed passing within her, and sobered her playful mood. But there
+was this noticeable in Gertrude: whatever took away from her gayety
+increased her tenderness. The infirmities of her frame never touched her
+temper. She was kind, gentle, loving to the last.
+
+They had crossed to the opposite banks, to visit the Castle of
+Hammerstein. The evening was transparently serene and clear; and the
+warmth of the sun yet lingered upon the air, even though the twilight
+had passed and the moon risen, as their boat returned by a lengthened
+passage to the village. Broad and straight flows the Rhine in this part
+of its career. On one side lay the wooded village of Namedy, the hamlet
+of Fornech, backed by the blue rock of Kruezborner Ley, the mountains
+that shield the mysterious Brohl; and on the opposite shore they saw the
+mighty rock of Hammerstein, with the green and livid ruins sleeping
+in the melancholy moonlight. Two towers rose haughtily above the more
+dismantled wrecks. How changed since the alternate banners of the
+Spaniard and the Swede waved from their ramparts, in that great war in
+which the gorgeous Wallenstein won his laurels! And in its mighty
+calm flowed on the ancestral Rhine, the vessel reflected on its smooth
+expanse; and above, girded by thin and shadowy clouds, the moon cast her
+shadows upon rocks covered with verdure, and brought into a dim light
+the twin spires of Andernach, tranquil in the distance.
+
+“How beautiful is this hour!” said Gertrude, with a low voice, “surely
+we do not live enough in the night; one half the beauty of the world is
+slept away. What in the day can equal the holy calm, the loveliness,
+and the stillness which the moon now casts over the earth? These,”
+ she continued, pressing Trevylyan’s hand, “are hours to remember; and
+_you_--will you ever forget them?”
+
+Something there is in recollections of such times and scenes that seem
+not to belong to real life, but are rather an episode in its history;
+they are like some wandering into a more ideal world; they refuse to
+blend with our ruder associations; they live in us, apart and alone, to
+be treasured ever, but not lightly to be recalled. There are none living
+to whom we can confide them,--who can sympathize with what then we
+felt? It is this that makes poetry, and that page which we create as a
+confidant to ourselves, necessary to the thoughts that weigh upon the
+breast. We write, for our writing is our friend, the inanimate paper is
+our confessional; we pour forth on it the thoughts that we could tell
+to no private ear, and are relieved, are consoled. And if genius has
+one prerogative dearer than the rest, it is that which enables it to do
+honour to the dead,--to revive the beauty, the virtue that are no more;
+to wreathe chaplets that outlive the day around the urn which were else
+forgotten by the world!
+
+When the poet mourns, in his immortal verse, for the dead, tell me not
+that fame is in his mind! It is filled by thoughts, by emotions that
+shut out the living. He is breathing to his genius--to that sole and
+constant friend which has grown up with him from his cradle--the sorrows
+too delicate for human sympathy! and when afterwards he consigns the
+confession to the crowd, it is indeed from the hope of honour--, honour
+not for himself, but for the being that is no more.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII. LETTER FROM TREVYLYAN TO -----.
+
+
+                         COBLENTZ.
+
+I AM obliged to you, my dear friend, for your letter; which, indeed, I
+have not, in the course of our rapid journey, had the leisure, perhaps
+the heart, to answer before. But we are staying in this town for some
+days, and I write now in the early morning, ere any one else in our
+hotel is awake. Do not tell me of adventure, of politics, of intrigues;
+my nature is altered. I threw down your letter, animated and brilliant
+as it was, with a sick and revolted heart. But I am now in somewhat less
+dejected spirits. Gertrude is better,--yes, really better; there is a
+physician here who gives me hope; my care is perpetually to amuse,
+and never to fatigue her,--never to permit her thoughts to rest upon
+herself. For I have imagined that illness cannot, at least in the
+unexhausted vigour of our years, fasten upon us irremediably unless we
+feed it with our own belief in its existence. You see men of the
+most delicate frames engaged in active and professional pursuits, who
+literally have no time for illness. Let them become idle, let them take
+care of themselves, let them think of their health--and they die! The
+rust rots the steel which use preserves; and, thank Heaven, although
+Gertrude, once during our voyage, seemed roused, by an inexcusable
+imprudence of emotion on my part, into some suspicion of her state,
+yet it passed away; for she thinks rarely of herself,--I am ever in her
+thoughts and seldom from her side, and you know, too, the sanguine and
+credulous nature of her disease. But, indeed, I now hope more than I
+have done since I knew her.
+
+When, after an excited and adventurous life which had comprised so
+many changes in so few years, I found myself at rest in the bosom of a
+retired and remote part of the country, and Gertrude and her father were
+my only neighbours, I was in that state of mind in which the passions,
+recruited by solitude, are accessible to the purer and more divine
+emotions. I was struck by Gertrude’s beauty, I was charmed by
+her simplicity. Worn in the usages and fashions of the world, the
+inexperience, the trustfulness, the exceeding youth of her mind, charmed
+and touched me; but when I saw the stamp of our national disease in
+her bright eye and transparent cheek, I felt my love chilled while my
+interest was increased. I fancied myself safe, and I went daily into the
+danger; I imagined so pure a light could not burn, and I was consumed.
+Not till my anxiety grew into pain, my interest into terror, did I know
+the secret of my own heart; and at the moment that I discovered this
+secret, I discovered also that Gertrude loved me! What a destiny was
+mine! what happiness, yet what misery! Gertrude was my own--but for what
+period? I might touch that soft hand, I might listen to the tenderest
+confession from that silver voice; but all the while my heart spoke of
+passion, my reason whispered of death. You know that I am considered
+of a cold and almost callous nature, that I am not easily moved into
+affection; but my very pride bowed me here into weakness. There was so
+soft a demand upon my protection, so constant an appeal to my anxiety.
+You know that my father’s quick temper burns within me, that I am hot,
+and stern, and exacting; but one hasty word, one thought of myself,
+here were inexcusable. So brief a time might be left for her earthly
+happiness,--could I embitter one moment? All that feeling of uncertainty
+which should in prudence have prevented my love, increased it almost to
+a preternatural excess. That which it is said mothers feel for an only
+child in sickness, I feel for Gertrude. _My_ existence is not!--I exist
+in her!
+
+Her illness increased upon her at home; they have recommended travel.
+She chose the course we were to pursue, and, fortunately, it was so
+familiar to me, that I have been enabled to brighten the way. I am ever
+on the watch that she shall not know a weary hour; you would almost
+smile to see how I have roused myself from my habitual silence, and to
+find me--me, the scheming and worldly actor of real life--plunged back
+into the early romance of my boyhood, and charming the childish delight
+of Gertrude with the invention of fables and the traditions of the
+Rhine.
+
+But I believe that I have succeeded in my object; if not, what is left
+to me? _Gertrude is better!_--In that sentence what visions of hope dawn
+upon me! I wish you could have seen Gertrude before we left England; you
+might then have understood my love for her. Not that we have not, in
+the gay capitals of Europe, paid our brief vows to forms more richly
+beautiful; not that we have not been charmed by a more brilliant genius,
+by a more tutored grace. But there is that in Gertrude which I never
+saw before,--the union of the childish and the intellectual, an ethereal
+simplicity, a temper that is never dimmed, a tenderness--O God! let me
+not speak of her virtues, for they only tell me how little she is suited
+to the earth.
+
+You will direct to me at Mayence, whither our course now leads us, and
+your friendship will find indulgence for a letter that is so little a
+reply to yours.
+
+     Your sincere friend,
+
+          A. G. TREVYLYAN.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII. COBLENTZ.--EXCURSION TO THE MOUNTAINS OF TAUNUS; ROMAN
+TOWER IN THE VALLEY OF EHRENBREITSTEIN.--TRAVEL, ITS PLEASURES ESTIMATED
+DIFFERENTLY BY THE YOUNG AND THE OLD.--THE STUDENT OF HEIDELBERG; HIS
+CRITICISMS ON GERMAN LITERATURE.
+
+GERTRUDE had, indeed, apparently rallied during their stay at Coblentz;
+and a French physician established in the town (who adopted a peculiar
+treatment for consumption, which had been attended with no ordinary
+success) gave her father and Trevylyan a sanguine assurance of her
+ultimate recovery. The time they passed within the white walls of
+Coblentz was, therefore, the happiest and most cheerful part of their
+pilgrimage. They visited the various places in its vicinity; but the
+excursion which most delighted Gertrude was one to the mountains of
+Taunus.
+
+They took advantage of a beautiful September day; and, crossing the
+river, commenced their tour from the Thal, or valley of Ehrenbreitstein.
+They stopped on their way to view the remains of a Roman tower in the
+valley; for the whole of that district bears frequent witness of the
+ancient conquerors of the world. The mountains of Taunus are still
+intersected with the roads which the Romans cut to the mines that
+supplied them with silver. Roman urns and inscribed stones are often
+found in these ancient places. The stones, inscribed with names utterly
+unknown,--a type of the uncertainty of fame! the urns, from which the
+dust is gone, a very satire upon life!
+
+Lone, gray, and mouldering, this tower stands aloft in the valley; and
+the quiet Vane smiled to see the uniform of a modern Prussian, with his
+white belt and lifted bayonet, by the spot which had once echoed to the
+clang of the Roman arms. The soldier was paying a momentary court to
+a country damsel, whose straw hat and rustic dress did not stifle the
+vanity of the sex; and this rude and humble gallantry, in that spot, was
+another moral in the history of human passions. Above, the ramparts of
+a modern rule frowned down upon the solitary tower, as if in the vain
+insolence with which present power looks upon past decay,--the living
+race upon ancestral greatness. And indeed, in this respect, rightly!
+for modern times have no parallel to that degradation of human dignity
+stamped upon the ancient world by the long sway of the Imperial Harlot,
+all slavery herself, yet all tyranny to earth; and, like her own
+Messalina, at once a prostitute and an empress!
+
+They continued their course by the ancient baths of Ems, and keeping by
+the banks of the romantic Lahn, arrived at Holzapfel.
+
+“Ah,” said Gertrude, one day, as they proceeded to the springs of the
+Carlovingian Wiesbaden, “surely perpetual travel with those we love must
+be the happiest state of existence! If home has its comforts, it also
+has its cares; but here we are at home with Nature, and the minor evils
+vanish almost before they are felt.”
+
+“True,” said Trevylyan, “we escape from ‘THE LITTLE,’ which is the curse
+of life; the small cares that devour us up, the grievances of the
+day. We are feeding the divinest part of our nature,--the appetite to
+admire.”
+
+“But of all things wearisome,” said Vane, “a succession of changes is
+the most. There can be a monotony in variety itself. As the eye aches in
+gazing long at the new shapes of the kaleidoscope, the mind aches at the
+fatigue of a constant alternation of objects; and we delightedly return
+to ‘REST,’ which is to life what green is to the earth.”
+
+In the course of their sojourn among the various baths of Taunus, they
+fell in, by accident, with a German student of Heidelberg, who was
+pursuing the pedestrian excursions so peculiarly favoured by his tribe.
+He was tamer and gentler than the general herd of those young wanderers,
+and our party were much pleased with his enthusiasm, because it was
+unaffected. He had been in England, and spoke its language almost as a
+native.
+
+“Our literature,” said he, one day, conversing with Vane, “has two
+faults,--we are too subtle and too homely. We do not speak enough to the
+broad comprehension of mankind; we are forever making abstract qualities
+of flesh and blood. Our critics have turned your ‘Hamlet’ into an
+allegory; they will not even allow Shakspeare to paint mankind, but
+insist on his embodying qualities. They turn poetry into metaphysics,
+and truth seems to them shallow, unless an allegory, which is false, can
+be seen at the bottom. Again, too, with our most imaginative works
+we mix a homeliness that we fancy touching, but which in reality is
+ludicrous. We eternally step from the sublime to the ridiculous; we want
+taste.”
+
+“But not, I hope, French taste. Do not govern a Goethe, or even a
+Richter, by a Boileau!” said Trevylyan.
+
+“No; but Boileau’s taste was false. Men who have the reputation for good
+taste often acquire it solely because of the want of genius. By taste I
+mean a quick tact into the harmony of composition, the art of making the
+whole consistent with its parts, the _concinnitas_. Schiller alone of
+our authors has it. But we are fast mending; and by following shadows so
+long we have been led at last to the substance. Our past literature
+is to us what astrology was to science,--false but ennobling, and
+conducting us to the true language of the intellectual heaven.”
+
+Another time the scenes they passed, interspersed with the ruins of
+frequent monasteries, leading them to converse on the monastic life, and
+the various additions time makes to religion, the German said: “Perhaps
+one of the works most wanted in the world is the history of Religion. We
+have several books, it is true, on the subject, but none that supply the
+want I allude to. A German ought to write it; for it is, probably, only
+a German that would have the requisite learning. A German only, too,
+is likely to treat the mighty subject with boldness, and yet with
+veneration; without the shallow flippancy of the Frenchman, without the
+timid sectarianism of the English. It would be a noble task, to
+trace the winding mazes of antique falsehood; to clear up the first
+glimmerings of divine truth; to separate Jehovah’s word from man’s
+invention; to vindicate the All-merciful from the dread creeds of
+bloodshed and of fear: and, watching in the great Heaven of Truth the
+dawning of the True Star, follow it--like the Magi of the East--till
+it rested above the real God. Not indeed presuming to such a task,”
+ continued the German, with a slight blush, “I have about me a humble
+essay, which treats only of one part of that august subject; which,
+leaving to a loftier genius the history of the true religion, may
+be considered as the history of a false one,--of such a creed as
+Christianity supplanted in the North; or such as may perhaps be found
+among the fiercest of the savage tribes. It is a fiction--as you may
+conceive; but yet, by a constant reference to the early records of human
+learning, I have studied to weave it up from truths. If you would like
+to hear it,--it is very short--”
+
+“Above all things,” said Vane; and the German drew a manuscript neatly
+bound from his pocket.
+
+“After having myself criticised so insolently the faults of our national
+literature,” said he, smiling, “you will have a right to criticise the
+faults that belong to so humble a disciple of it; but you will see that,
+though I have commenced with the allegorical or the supernatural, I
+have endeavoured to avoid the subtlety of conceit, and the obscurity of
+design, which I blame in the wilder of our authors. As to the style, I
+wished to suit it to the subject; it ought to be, unless I err, rugged
+and massive,--hewn, as it were, out of the rock of primeval language.
+But you, madam--doubtless you do not understand German?”
+
+“Her mother was an Austrian,” said Vane; “and she knows at least enough
+of the tongue to understand you; so pray begin.”
+
+Without further preface, the German then commenced the story, which the
+reader will find translated* in the next chapter.
+
+  * Nevertheless I beg to state seriously, that the German student
+    is an impostor; and that he has no right to wrest the parentage
+    of the fiction from the true author.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX. THE FALLEN STAR; OR THE HISTORY OF A FALSE RELIGION.
+
+AND the STARS sat, each on his ruby throne, and watched with sleepless
+eyes upon the world. It was the night ushering in the new year, a night
+on which every star receives from the archangel that then visits the
+universal galaxy its peculiar charge. The destinies of men and empires
+are then portioned forth for the coming year, and, unconsciously to
+ourselves, our fates become minioned to the stars. A hushed and solemn
+night is that in which the dark gates of time open to receive the ghost
+of the Dead Year, and the young and radiant Stranger rushes forth from
+the clouded chasms of Eternity. On that night, it is said that there are
+given to the spirits that we see not a privilege and a power; the dead
+are troubled in their forgotten graves, and men feast and laugh, while
+demon and angel are contending for their doom.
+
+It was night in heaven; all was unutterably silent; the music of the
+spheres had paused, and not a sound came from the angels of the stars;
+and they who sat upon those shining thrones were three thousand and ten,
+each resembling each. Eternal youth clothed their radiant limbs
+with celestial beauty, and on their faces was written the dread of
+calm,--that fearful stillness which feels not, sympathizes not with the
+doom over which it broods. War, tempest, pestilence, the rise of
+empires and their fall, they ordain, they compass, unexultant and
+uncompassionate. The fell and thrilling crimes that stalk abroad when
+the world sleeps,--the parricide with his stealthy step and horrent brow
+and lifted knife; the unwifed mother that glides out and looks behind,
+and behind, and shudders, and casts her babe upon the river, and hears
+the wail, and pities not--the splash, and does not tremble,--these the
+starred kings behold, to these they lead the unconscious step; but
+the guilt blanches not their lustre, neither doth remorse wither their
+unwrinkled youth. Each star wore a kingly diadem; round the loins of
+each was a graven belt, graven with many and mighty signs; and the foot
+of each was on a burning ball, and the right arm drooped over the knee
+as they bent down from their thrones. They moved not a limb or feature,
+save the finger of the right hand, which ever and anon moved slowly
+pointing, and regulated the fates of men as the hand of the dial speaks
+the career of time.
+
+One only of the three thousand and ten wore not the same aspect as his
+crowned brethren,--a star smaller than the rest, and less luminous; the
+countenance of this star was not impressed with the awful calmness of
+the others, but there were sullenness and discontent upon his mighty
+brow.
+
+And this star said to himself, “Behold! I am created less glorious
+than my fellows, and the archangel apportions not to me the same lordly
+destinies. Not for me are the dooms of kings and bards, the rulers of
+empires, or, yet nobler, the swayers and harmonists of souls. Sluggish
+are the spirits and base the lot of the men I am ordained to lead
+through a dull life to a fameless grave. And wherefore? Is it mine own
+fault, or is it the fault which is not mine, that I was woven of beams
+less glorious than my brethren? Lo! when the archangel comes, I will
+bow not my crowned head to his decrees. I will speak, as the ancestral
+Lucifer before me: _he_ rebelled because of his glory, _I_ because of
+my obscurity; _he_ from the ambition of pride, and _I_ from its
+discontent.”
+
+And while the star was thus communing with himself, the upward heavens
+were parted as by a long river of light, and adown that stream swiftly,
+and without sound, sped the archangel visitor of the stars. His vast
+limbs floated in the liquid lustre, and his outspread wings, each plume
+the glory of a sun, bore him noiselessly along; but thick clouds veiled
+his lustre from the eyes of mortals, and while above all was bathed in
+the serenity of his splendour, tempest and storm broke below over the
+children of the earth: “He bowed the heavens and came down, and darkness
+was under his feet.”
+
+And the stillness on the faces of the stars became yet more still, and
+the awfulness was humbled into awe. Right above their thrones paused
+the course of the archangel; and his wings stretched from east to west,
+overshadowing with the shadow of light the immensity of space. Then
+forth, in the shining stillness, rolled the dread music of his voice:
+and, fulfilling the heraldry of God, to each star he appointed the duty
+and the charge; and each star bowed his head yet lower as he heard the
+fiat, while his throne rocked and trembled at the Majesty of the
+Word. But at last, when each of the brighter stars had, in succession,
+received the mandate, and the viceroyalty over the nations of the earth,
+the purple and diadems of kings, the archangel addressed the lesser star
+as he sat apart from his fellows.
+
+“Behold,” said the archangel, “the rude tribes of the North, the
+fishermen of the river that flows beneath, and the hunters of the
+forests that darken the mountain tops with verdure! these be thy charge,
+and their destinies thy care. Nor deem thou, O Star of the sullen beams,
+that thy duties are less glorious than the duties of thy brethren; for
+the peasant is not less to thy master and mine than the monarch; nor
+doth the doom of empires rest more upon the sovereign than on the herd.
+The passions and the heart are the dominion of the stars,--a mighty
+realm; nor less mighty beneath the hide that garbs the shepherd than
+under the jewelled robes of the eastern kings.”
+
+Then the star lifted his pale front from his breast, and answered the
+archangel.
+
+“Lo!” he said, “ages have passed, and each year thou hast appointed me
+to the same ignoble charge. Release me, I pray thee, from the duties
+that I scorn; or, if thou wilt that the lowlier race of men be my
+charge, give unto me the charge not of many, but of one, and suffer
+me to breathe into him the desire that spurns the valleys of life, and
+ascends its steeps. If the humble are given to me, let there be amongst
+them one whom I may lead on the mission that shall abase the proud; for,
+behold, O Appointer of the Stars, as I have sat for uncounted years upon
+my solitary throne, brooding over the things beneath, my spirit hath
+gathered wisdom from the changes that shift below. Looking upon the
+tribes of earth, I have seen how the multitude are swayed, and tracked
+the steps that lead weakness into power; and fain would I be the ruler
+of one who, if abased, shall aspire to rule.”
+
+As a sudden cloud over the face of noon was the change on the brow of
+the archangel.
+
+“Proud and melancholy star,” said the herald, “thy wish would war with
+the courses of the invisible DESTINY, that, throned far above, sways
+and harmonizes all,--the source from which the lesser rivers of fate are
+eternally gushing through the heart of the universe of things. Thinkest
+thou that thy wisdom, of itself, can lead the peasant to become a king?”
+
+And the crowned star gazed undauntedly on the face of the archangel, and
+answered,--
+
+“Yea! Grant me but one trial!”
+
+Ere the archangel could reply, the farthest centre of the Heaven was
+rent as by a thunderbolt; and the divine herald covered his face with
+his hands, and a voice low and sweet and mild, with the consciousness of
+unquestionable power, spoke forth to the repining star.
+
+“The time has arrived when thou mayest have thy wish. Below thee, upon
+yon solitary plain, sits a mortal, gloomy as thyself, who, born under
+thy influence, may be moulded to thy will.”
+
+The voice ceased as the voice of a dream. Silence was over the seas of
+space, and the archangel, once more borne aloft, slowly soared away into
+the farther heaven, to promulgate the divine bidding to the stars of
+far-distant worlds. But the soul of the discontented star exulted within
+itself; and it said, “I will call forth a king from the valley of the
+herdsman that shall trample on the kings subject to my fellows, and
+render the charge of the contemned star more glorious than the minions
+of its favoured brethren; thus shall I revenge neglect! thus shall I
+prove my claim hereafter to the heritage of the great of earth!”
+
+.......
+
+At that time, though the world had rolled on for ages, and the
+pilgrimage of man had passed through various states of existence, which
+our dim traditionary knowledge has not preserved, yet the condition of
+our race in the northern hemisphere was then what we, in our imperfect
+lore, have conceived to be among the earliest.
+
+.......
+
+By a rude and vast pile of stones, the masonry of arts forgotten, a
+lonely man sat at midnight, gazing upon the heavens. A storm had just
+passed from the earth; the clouds had rolled away, and the high stars
+looked down upon the rapid waters of the Rhine; and no sound save the
+roar of the waves, and the dripping of the rain from the mighty trees,
+was heard around the ruined pile. The white sheep lay scattered on the
+plain, and slumber with them. He sat watching over the herd, lest the
+foes of a neighbouring tribe seized them unawares, and thus he communed
+with himself: “The king sits upon his throne, and is honoured by a
+warrior race, and the warrior exults in the trophies he has won; the
+step of the huntsman is bold upon the mountain-top, and his name is
+sung at night round the pine-fires by the lips of the bard; and the bard
+himself hath honour in the hall. But I, who belong not to the race of
+kings, and whose limbs can bound not to the rapture of war, nor scale
+the eyries of the eagle and the haunts of the swift stag; whose hand
+cannot string the harp, and whose voice is harsh in the song,--_I_ have
+neither honour nor command, and men bow not the head as I pass along;
+yet do I feel within me the consciousness of a great power that should
+rule my species--not obey. My eye pierces the secret hearts of men. I
+see their thoughts ere their lips proclaim them; and I scorn, while I
+see, the weakness and the vices which I never shared. I laugh at the
+madness of the warrior; I mock within my soul at the tyranny of kings.
+Surely there is something in man’s nature more fitted to command, more
+worthy of renown, than the sinews of the arm, or the swiftness of the
+feet, or the accident of birth!”
+
+As Morven, the son of Osslah, thus mused within himself, still looking
+at the heavens, the solitary man beheld a star suddenly shooting from
+its place, and speeding through the silent air, till it suddenly paused
+right over the midnight river, and facing the inmate of the pile of
+stones.
+
+As he gazed upon the star, strange thoughts grew slowly over him. He
+drank, as it were, from its solemn aspect the spirit of a great design.
+A dark cloud rapidly passing over the earth snatched the star from his
+sight, but left to his awakened mind the thoughts and the dim scheme
+that had come to him as he gazed.
+
+When the sun arose, one of his brethren relieved him of his charge over
+the herd, and he went away, but not to his father’s home. Musingly he
+plunged into the dark and leafless recesses of the winter forest; and
+shaped out of his wild thoughts, more palpably and clearly, the outline
+of his daring hope. While thus absorbed he heard a great noise in the
+forest, and, fearful lest the hostile tribe of the Alrich might pierce
+that way, he ascended one of the loftiest pine-trees, to whose perpetual
+verdure the winter had not denied the shelter he sought; and, concealed
+by its branches, he looked anxiously forth in the direction whence the
+noise had proceeded. And IT came,--it came with a tramp and a crash, and
+a crushing tread upon the crunched boughs and matted leaves that strewed
+the soil; it came, it came,--the monster that the world now holds
+no more,--the mighty Mammoth of the North! Slowly it moved its huge
+strength along, and its burning eyes glittered through the gloomy shade;
+its jaws, falling apart, showed the grinders with which it snapped
+asunder the young oaks of the forest; and the vast tusks, which, curved
+downward to the midst of its massive limbs, glistened white and ghastly,
+curdling the blood of one destined hereafter to be the dreadest ruler of
+the men of that distant age.
+
+The livid eyes of the monster fastened on the form of the herdsman, even
+amidst the thick darkness of the pine. It paused, it glared upon him;
+its jaws opened, and a low deep sound, as of gathering thunder, seemed
+to the son of Osslah as the knell of a dreadful grave. But after glaring
+on him for some moments, it again, and calmly, pursued its terrible
+way, crashing the boughs as it marched along, till the last sound of its
+heavy tread died away upon his ear.*
+
+  * _The Critic_ will perceive that this sketch of the beast, whose
+    race has perished, is mainly intended to designate the remote
+    period of the world in which the tale is cast.
+
+Ere yet, however, Morven summoned the courage to descend the tree,
+he saw the shining of arms through the bare branches of the wood, and
+presently a small band of the hostile Alrich came into sight. He was
+perfectly hidden from them; and, listening as they passed him, he heard
+one say to another,--
+
+“The night covers all things; why attack them by day?”
+
+And he who seemed the chief of the band, answered,--
+
+“Right. To-night, when they sleep in their city, we will upon them. Lo!
+they will be drenched in wine, and fall like sheep into our hands.”
+
+“But where, O chief,” said a third of the band, “shall our men hide
+during the day? for there are many hunters among the youth of the
+Oestrich tribe, and they might see us in the forest unawares, and arm
+their race against our coming.”
+
+“I have prepared for that,” answered the chief. “Is not the dark
+cavern of Oderlin at hand? Will it not shelter us from the eyes of the
+victims?”
+
+Then the men laughed, and, shouting, they went their way adown the
+forest.
+
+When they were gone, Morven cautiously descended, and, striking into a
+broad path, hastened to a vale that lay between the forest and the river
+in which was the city where the chief of his country dwelt. As he passed
+by the warlike men, giants in that day, who thronged the streets (if
+streets they might be called), their half garments parting from their
+huge limbs, the quiver at their backs, and the hunting spear in their
+hand, they laughed and shouted out, and, pointing to him, cried, “Morven
+the woman! Morven the cripple! what dost thou among men?”
+
+For the son of Osslah was small in stature and of slender strength, and
+his step had halted from his birth; but he passed through the warriors
+unheedingly. At the outskirts of the city he came upon a tall pile in
+which some old men dwelt by themselves, and counselled the king when
+times of danger, or when the failure of the season, the famine or the
+drought, perplexed the ruler, and clouded the savage fronts of his
+warrior tribe.
+
+They gave the counsels of experience, and when experience failed, they
+drew, in their believing ignorance, assurances and omens from the winds
+of heaven, the changes of the moon, and the flights of the wandering
+birds. Filled--by the voices of the elements, and the variety of
+mysteries, which ever shift along the face of things, unsolved by the
+wonder which pauses not, the fear which believes, and that eternal
+reasoning of all experience, which assigns causes to effect--with
+the notion of superior powers, they assisted their ignorance by the
+conjectures of their superstition. But as yet they knew no craft
+and practised no _voluntary_ delusion; they trembled too much at the
+mysteries which had created their faith to seek to belie them. They
+counselled as they believed, and the bold dream of governing their
+warriors and their kings by the wisdom of deceit had never dared to
+cross men thus worn and gray with age.
+
+The son of Osslah entered the vast pile with a fearless step, and
+approached the place at the upper end of the hall where the old men sat
+in conclave.
+
+“How, base-born and craven-limbed!” cried the eldest, who had been
+a noted warrior in his day, “darest thou enter unsummoned amidst the
+secret councils of the wise men? Knowest thou not, scatterling! that the
+penalty is death?”
+
+“Slay me, if thou wilt,” answered Morven, “but hear! As I sat last night
+in the ruined palace of our ancient kings, tending, as my father bade
+me, the sheep that grazed around, lest the fierce tribe of Alrich should
+descend unseen from the mountains upon the herd, a storm came darkly on;
+and when the storm had ceased, and I looked above on the sky, I saw a
+star descend from its height towards me, and a voice from the star said:
+‘Son of Osslah, leave thy herd and seek the council of the wise men
+and say unto them, that they take thee as one of their number, or that
+sudden will be the destruction of them and theirs.’ But I had courage
+to answer the voice, and I said, ‘Mock not the poor son of the herdsman.
+Behold, they will kill me if I utter so rash a word, for I am poor and
+valueless in the eyes of the tribe of Oestrich, and the great in deeds
+and the gray of hair alone sit in the council of the wise men.’
+
+“Then the voice said: ‘Do my bidding, and I will give thee a token that
+thou comest from the Powers that sway the seasons and sail upon the
+eagles of the winds. Say unto the wise men this very night if they
+refuse to receive thee of their band, evil shall fall upon them, and the
+morrow shall dawn in blood.’
+
+“Then the voice ceased, and the cloud passed over the star; and I
+communed with myself, and came, O dread father, mournfully unto you; for
+I feared that ye would smite me because of my bold tongue, and that ye
+would sentence me to the death, in that I asked what may scarce be given
+even to the sons of kings.”
+
+Then the grim elders looked one at the other, and marvelled much, nor
+knew they what answer they should make to the herdsman’s son.
+
+At length one of the wise men said, “Surely there must be truth in the
+son of Osslah, for he would not dare to falsify the great lights of
+Heaven. If he had given unto men the words of the star, verily we
+might doubt the truth. But who would brave the vengeance of the gods of
+night?”
+
+Then the elders shook their heads approvingly; but one answered and
+said,--
+
+“Shall we take the herdsman’s son as our equal? No!” The name of the man
+who thus answered was Darvan, and his words were pleasing to the elders.
+
+But Morven spoke out: “Of a truth, O councillors of kings, I look not to
+be an equal with yourselves. Enough if I tend the gates of your palace,
+and serve you as the son of Osslah may serve;” and he bowed his head
+humbly as he spoke.
+
+Then said the chief of the elders, for he was wiser than the others,
+“But how wilt thou deliver us from the evil that is to come? Doubtless
+the star has informed thee of the service thou canst render to us if we
+take thee into our palace, as well as the ill that will fall on us if we
+refuse.”
+
+Morven answered meekly, “Surely, if thou acceptest thy servant, the star
+will teach him that which may requite thee; but as yet he knows only
+what he has uttered.”
+
+Then the sages bade him withdraw, and they communed with themselves, and
+they differed much; but though fierce men, and bold at the war-cry of a
+human foe, they shuddered at the prophecy of a star. So they resolved
+to take the son of Osslah, and suffer him to keep the gate of the
+council-hall.
+
+He heard their decree and bowed his head, and went to the gate, and sat
+down by it in silence.
+
+And the sun went down in the west, and the first stars of the twilight
+began to glimmer, when Morven started from his seat, and a trembling
+appeared to seize his limbs. His lips foamed; an agony and a fear
+possessed him; he writhed as a man whom the spear of a foeman has
+pierced with a mortal wound, and suddenly fell upon his face on the
+stony earth.
+
+The elders approached him; wondering, they lifted him up. He slowly
+recovered as from a swoon; his eyes rolled wildly.
+
+“Heard ye not the voice of the star?” he said.
+
+And the chief of the elders answered, “Nay, we heard no sound.”
+
+Then Morven sighed heavily.
+
+“To me only the word was given. Summon instantly, O councillors of the
+king, summon the armed men, and all the youth of the tribe, and let them
+take the sword and the spear, and follow thy servant! For lo! the star
+hath announced to him that the foe shall fall into our hands as the wild
+beasts of the forests.”
+
+The son of Osslah spoke with the voice of command, and the elders were
+amazed. “Why pause ye?” he cried. “Do the gods of the night lie? On my
+head rest the peril if I deceive ye.”
+
+Then the elders communed together; and they went forth and summoned the
+men of arms, and all the young of the tribe; and each man took the sword
+and the spear, and Morven also. And the son of Osslah walked first,
+still looking up at the star, and he motioned them to be silent, and
+moved with a stealthy step.
+
+So they went through the thickest of the forest, till they came to the
+mouth of a great cave, overgrown with aged and matted trees, and it was
+called the Cave of Oberlin; and he bade the leaders place the armed men
+on either side the cave, to the right and to the left, among the bushes.
+
+So they watched silently till the night deepened, when they heard a
+noise in the cave and the sound of feet, and forth came an armed man;
+and the spear of Morven pierced him, and he fell dead at the mouth of
+the cave. Another and another, and both fell! Then loud and long was
+heard the war-cry of Alrich, and forth poured, as a stream over a narrow
+bed, the river of armed men. And the sons of Oestrich fell upon them,
+and the foe were sorely perplexed and terrified by the suddenness of the
+battle and the darkness of the night; and there was a great slaughter.
+
+And when the morning came, the children of Oestrich counted the slain,
+and found the leader of Alrich and the chief men of the tribe amongst
+them; and great was the joy thereof. So they went back in triumph to the
+city, and they carried the brave son of Osslah on their shoulders, and
+shouted forth, “Glory to the servant of the star.”
+
+And Morven dwelt in the council of the wise men.
+
+Now the king of the tribe had one daughter, and she was stately amongst
+the women of the tribe, and fair to look upon. And Morven gazed upon her
+with the eyes of love, but he did not dare to speak.
+
+Now the son of Osslah laughed secretly at the foolishness of men; he
+loved them not, for they had mocked him; he honoured them not, for he
+had blinded the wisest of their leaders. He shunned their feasts and
+merriment, and lived apart and solitary. The austerity of his life
+increased the mysterious homage which his commune with the stars had won
+him, and the boldest of the warriors bowed his head to the favourite of
+the gods.
+
+One day he was wandering by the side of the river, and he saw a large
+bird of prey rise from the waters, and give chase to a hawk that had not
+yet gained the full strength of its wings. From his youth the solitary
+Morven had loved to watch, in the great forests and by the banks of the
+mighty stream, the habits of the things which nature has submitted to
+man; and looking now on the birds, he said to himself, “Thus is it ever;
+by cunning or by strength each thing wishes to master its kind.” While
+thus moralizing, the larger bird had stricken down the hawk, and it fell
+terrified and panting at his feet. Morven took the hawk in his hands,
+and the vulture shrieked above him, wheeling nearer and nearer to its
+protected prey; but Morven scared away the vulture, and placing the hawk
+in his bosom he carried it home, and tended it carefully, and fed it
+from his hand until it had regained its strength; and the hawk knew him,
+and followed him as a dog. And Morven said, smiling to himself, “Behold,
+the credulous fools around me put faith in the flight and motion of
+birds. I will teach this poor hawk to minister to my ends.” So he tamed
+the bird, and tutored it according to its nature; but he concealed it
+carefully from others, and cherished it in secret.
+
+The king of the country was old, and like to die, and the eyes of the
+tribe were turned to his two sons, nor knew they which was the worthier
+to reign. And Morven, passing through the forest one evening, saw the
+younger of the two, who was a great hunter, sitting mournfully under an
+oak, and looking with musing eyes upon the ground.
+
+“Wherefore musest thou, O swift-footed Siror?” said the son of Osslah;
+“and wherefore art thou sad?”
+
+“Thou canst not assist me,” answered the prince, sternly; “take thy
+way.”
+
+“Nay,” answered Morven, “thou knowest not what thou sayest; am I not the
+favourite of the stars?”
+
+“Away, I am no graybeard whom the approach of death makes doting: talk
+not to me of the stars; I know only the things that my eye sees and my
+ear drinks in.”
+
+“Hush,” said Morven, solemnly, and covering his face; “hush! lest the
+heavens avenge thy rashness. But, behold, the stars have given unto me
+to pierce the secret hearts of others; and I can tell thee the thoughts
+of thine.”
+
+“Speak out, base-born!”
+
+“Thou art the younger of two, and thy name is less known in war than the
+name of thy brother: yet wouldst thou desire to be set over his head,
+and to sit on the high seat of thy father?”
+
+The young man turned pale. “Thou hast truth in thy lips,” said he, with
+a faltering voice.
+
+“Not from me, but from the stars, descends the truth.”
+
+“Can the stars grant my wish?”
+
+“They can: let us meet to-morrow.” Thus saying, Morven passed into the
+forest.
+
+The next day, at noon, they met again.
+
+“I have consulted the gods of night, and they have given me the power
+that I prayed for, but on one condition.”
+
+“Name it.”
+
+“That thou sacrifice thy sister on their altars; thou must build up a
+heap of stones, and take thy sister into the wood, and lay her on the
+pile, and plunge thy sword into her heart; so only shalt thou reign.”
+
+The prince shuddered, and started to his feet, and shook his spear at
+the pale front of Morven.
+
+“Tremble,” said the son of Osslah, with a loud voice. “Hark to the gods
+who threaten thee with death, that thou hast dared to lift thine arm
+against their servant!”
+
+As he spoke, the thunder rolled above; for one of the frequent storms of
+the early summer was about to break. The spear dropped from the prince’s
+hand; he sat down, and cast his eyes on the ground.
+
+“Wilt thou do the bidding of the stars, and reign?” said Morven.
+
+“I will!” cried Siror, with a desperate voice.
+
+“This evening, then, when the sun sets, thou wilt lead her hither,
+alone; I may not attend thee. Now, let us pile the stones.”
+
+Silently the huntsman bent his vast strength to the fragments of rock
+that Morven pointed to him, and they built the altar, and went their
+way.
+
+And beautiful is the dying of the great sun, when the last song of the
+birds fades into the lap of silence; when the islands of the cloud are
+bathed in light, and the first star springs up over the grave of day!
+
+“Whither leadest thou my steps, my brother?” said Orna; “and why doth
+thy lip quiver; and why dost thou turn away thy face?”
+
+“Is not the forest beautiful; does it not tempt us forth, my sister?”
+
+“And wherefore are those heaps of stone piled together?”
+
+“Let others answer; I piled them not.”
+
+“Thou tremblest, brother: we will return.”
+
+“Not so; by these stones is a bird that my shaft pierced today,--a bird
+of beautiful plumage that I slew for thee.”
+
+“We are by the pile; where hast thou laid the bird?”
+
+“Here!” cried Siror; and he seized the maiden in his arms, and, casting
+her on the rude altar, he drew forth his sword to smite her to the
+heart.
+
+Right over the stones rose a giant oak, the growth of immemorial ages;
+and from the oak, or from the heavens, broke forth a loud and solemn
+voice, “Strike not, son of kings! the stars forbear their own: the
+maiden thou shalt not slay; yet shalt thou reign over the race of
+Oestrich; and thou shalt give Orna as a bride to the favourite of the
+stars. Arise, and go thy way!”
+
+The voice ceased: the terror of Orna had overpowered for a time the
+springs of life; and Siror bore her home through the wood in his strong
+arms.
+
+“Alas!” said Morven, when, at the next day, he again met the aspiring
+prince; “alas! the stars have ordained me a lot which my heart desires
+not: for I, lonely of life, and crippled of shape, am insensible to the
+fires of love; and ever, as thou and thy tribe know, I have shunned the
+eyes of women, for the maidens laughed at my halting step and my sullen
+features; and so in my youth I learned betimes to banish all thoughts
+of love. But since they told me (as they declared to _thee_), that only
+through that marriage, thou, O beloved prince! canst obtain thy father’s
+plumed crown, I yield me to their will.”
+
+“But,” said the prince, “not until I am king can I give thee my sister
+in marriage; for thou knowest that my sire would smite me to the dust
+if I asked him to give the flower of our race to the son of the herdsman
+Osslah.”
+
+“Thou speakest the words of truth. Go home and fear not; but, when thou
+art king, the sacrifice must be made, and Orna mine. Alas! how can I
+dare to lift mine eyes to her! But so ordain the dread kings of the
+night!--who shall gainsay their word?”
+
+“The day that sees me king sees Orna thine,” answered the prince.
+
+Morven walked forth, as was his wont, alone; and he said to himself,
+“The king is old, yet may he live long between me and mine hope!” and he
+began to cast in his mind how he might shorten the time. Thus absorbed,
+he wandered on so unheedingly that night advanced, and he had lost his
+path among the thick woods and knew not how to regain his home. So he
+lay down quietly beneath a tree, and rested till day dawned; then hunger
+came upon him, and he searched among the bushes for such simple roots
+as those with which, for he was ever careless of food, he was used to
+appease the cravings of nature.
+
+He found, among other more familiar herbs and roots, a red berry of
+a sweetish taste, which he had never observed before. He ate of it
+sparingly, and had not proceeded far in the wood before he found his
+eyes swim, and a deadly sickness came over him. For several hours he lay
+convulsed on the ground, expecting death; but the gaunt spareness of his
+frame, and his unvarying abstinence, prevailed over the poison, and he
+recovered slowly, and after great anguish. But he went with feeble steps
+back to the spot where the berries grew, and, plucking several, hid them
+in his bosom, and by nightfall regained the city.
+
+The next day he went forth among his father’s herds, and seizing a lamb,
+forced some of the berries into his stomach, and the lamb, escaping, ran
+away, and fell down dead. Then Morven took some more of the berries and
+boiled them down, and mixed the juice with wine, and he gave the wine in
+secret to one of his father’s servants, and the servant died.
+
+Then Morven sought the king, and coming into his presence, alone, he
+said unto him, “How fares my lord?”
+
+The king sat on a couch made of the skins of wolves, and his eye was
+glassy and dim; but vast were his aged limbs, and huge was his stature,
+and he had been taller by a head than the children of men, and none
+living could bend the bow he had bent in youth; gray, gaunt, and
+worn, as some mighty bones that are dug at times from the bosom of the
+earth,--a relic of the strength of old.
+
+And the king said faintly, and with a ghastly laugh, “The men of my
+years fare ill. What avails my strength? Better had I been born a
+cripple like thee, so should I have had nothing to lament in growing
+old.”
+
+The red flush passed over Morven’s brow; but he bent humbly,--
+
+“O king, what if I could give thee back thy youth? What if I could
+restore to thee the vigour which distinguished thee above the sons of
+men, when the warriors of Alrich fell like grass before thy sword?”
+
+Then the king uplifted his dull eyes, and he said,--
+
+“What meanest thou, son of Osslah? Surely I hear much of thy great
+wisdom, and how thou speakest nightly with the stars. Can the gods of
+the night give unto thee the secret to make the old young?”
+
+“Tempt them not by doubt,” said Morven, reverently. “All things are
+possible to the rulers of the dark hour; and, lo! the star that loves
+thy servant spake to him at the dead of night, and said, ‘Arise, and go
+unto the king; and tell him that the stars honour the tribe of Oestrich,
+and remember how the king bent his bow against the sons of Alrich;
+wherefore, look thou under the stone that lies to the right of thy
+dwelling, even beside the pine tree, and thou shalt see a vessel of
+clay, and in the vessel thou wilt find a sweet liquid, that shall make
+the king thy master forget his age forever.’ Therefore, my lord, when
+the morning rose I went forth, and looked under the stone, and behold
+the vessel of clay; and I have brought it hither to my lord the king.”
+
+“Quick, slave, quick! that I may drink and regain my youth!”
+
+“Nay, listen, O king! further said the star to me,--
+
+“‘It is only at night, when the stars have power, that this their gift
+will avail; wherefore the king must wait till the hush of the midnight,
+when the moon is high, and then may he mingle the liquid with his wine.
+And he must reveal to none that he hath received the gift from the hand
+of the servant of the stars. For THEY do their work in secret, and when
+men sleep; therefore they love not the babble of mouths, and he who
+reveals their benefits shall surely die.”
+
+“Fear not,” said the king, grasping the vessel; “none shall know: and,
+behold, I will rise on the morrow; and my two sons, wrangling for my
+crown--verily I shall be younger than they!”
+
+Then the king laughed loud; and he scarcely thanked the servant of the
+stars, neither did he promise him reward; for the kings in those days
+had little thought save for themselves.
+
+And Morven said to him, “Shall I not attend my lord?--for without me,
+perchance, the drug might fail of its effect.”
+
+“Ay,” said the king, “rest here.”
+
+“Nay,” replied Morven; “thy servants will marvel and talk much, if they
+see the son of Osslah sojourning in thy palace. So would the displeasure
+of the gods of night perchance be incurred. Suffer that the lesser door
+of the palace be unbarred, so that at the night hour, when the moon is
+midway in the heavens, I may steal unseen into thy chamber, and mix the
+liquid with thy wine.”
+
+“So be it,” said the king. “Thou art wise, though thy limbs are crooked
+and curt; and the stars might have chosen a taller man.” Then the king
+laughed again; and Morven laughed too, but there was danger in the mirth
+of the son of Osslah.
+
+The night had begun to wane, and the inhabitants of Oestrich were buried
+in deep sleep, when, hark! a sharp voice was heard crying out in the
+streets, “Woe, woe! Awake, ye sons of Oestrich! woe!” Then forth, wild,
+haggard, alarmed, spear in hand, rushed the giant sons of the rugged
+tribe, and they saw a man on a height in the middle of the city,
+shrieking “Woe!” and it was Morven, the son of Osslah! And he said unto
+them, as they gathered round him, “Men and warriors, tremble as ye hear.
+The star of the west hath spoken to me, and thus said the star: ‘Evil
+shall fall upon the kingly house of Oestrich,--yea, ere the morning
+dawn; wherefore, go thou mourning into the streets, and wake the
+inhabitants to woe!’ So I rose and did the bidding of the star.” And
+while Morven was yet speaking, a servant of the king’s house ran up
+to the crowd, crying loudly, “The king is dead!” So they went into the
+palace and found the king stark upon his couch, and his huge limbs all
+cramped and crippled by the pangs of death, and his hands clenched as if
+in menace of a foe,--the Foe of all living flesh! Then fear came on the
+gazers, and they looked on Morven with a deeper awe than the boldest
+warrior would have called forth; and they bore him back to the
+council-hall of the wise men, wailing and clashing their arms in woe,
+and shouting, ever and anon, “Honour to Morven the prophet!” And that
+was the first time the word PROPHET was ever used in those countries.
+
+At noon, on the third day from the king’s death, Siror sought Morven,
+and he said, “Lo, my father is no more, and the people meet this evening
+at sunset to elect his successor, and the warriors and the young men
+will surely choose my brother, for he is more known in war. Fail me not
+therefore.”
+
+“Peace, boy!” said Morven, sternly; “nor dare to question the truth of
+the gods of night.”
+
+For Morven now began to presume on his power among the people, and to
+speak as rulers speak, even to the sons of kings; and the voice silenced
+the fiery Siror, nor dared he to reply.
+
+“Behold,” said Morven, taking up a chaplet of coloured plumes, “wear
+this on thy head, and put on a brave face, for the people like a hopeful
+spirit, and go down with thy brother to the place where the new king is
+to be chosen, and leave the rest to the stars. But, above all things,
+forget not that chaplet; it has been blessed by the gods of night.”
+
+The prince took the chaplet and returned home.
+
+It was evening, and the warriors and chiefs of the tribe were assembled
+in the place where the new king was to be elected. And the voices of
+the many favoured Prince Voltoch, the brother of Siror, for he had slain
+twelve foemen with his spear; and verily, in those days, that was a
+great virtue in a king.
+
+Suddenly there was a shout in the streets, and the people cried out,
+“Way for Morven the prophet, the prophet!” For the people held the son
+of Osslah in even greater respect than did the chiefs. Now, since he had
+become of note, Morven had assumed a majesty of air which the son of the
+herdsman knew not in his earlier days; and albeit his stature was short,
+and his limbs halted, yet his countenance was grave and high. He only
+of the tribe wore a garment that swept the ground, and his head was bare
+and his long black hair descended to his girdle, and rarely was change
+or human passion seen in his calm aspect. He feasted not, nor drank
+wine, nor was his presence frequent in the streets. He laughed not,
+neither did he smile, save when alone in the forest,--and then he
+laughed at the follies of his tribe.
+
+So he walked slowly through the crowd, neither turning to the left nor
+to the right, as the crowd gave way; and he supported his steps with a
+staff of the knotted pine.
+
+And when he came to the place where the chiefs were met, and the two
+princes stood in the centre, he bade the people around him proclaim
+silence; then mounting on a huge fragment of rock, he thus spake to the
+multitude:--
+
+“Princes, Warriors, and Bards! ye, O council of the wise men! and ye, O
+hunters of the forests and snarers of the fishes of the streams! hearken
+to Morven, the son of Osslah. Ye know that I am lowly of race and weak
+of limb; but did I not give into your hands the tribe of Alrich, and did
+ye not slay them in the dead of night with a great slaughter? Surely, ye
+must know this of himself did not the herdsman’s son; surely he was but
+the agent of the bright gods that love the children of Oestrich! Three
+nights since when slumber was on the earth, was not my voice heard in
+the streets? Did I not proclaim woe to the kingly house of Oestrich? and
+verily the dark arm had fallen on the bosom of the mighty, that is no
+more. Could I have dreamed this thing merely in a dream, or was I not
+as the voice of the bright gods that watch over the tribes of Oestrich?
+Wherefore, O men and chiefs! scorn not the son of Osslah, but listen to
+his words; for are they not the wisdom of the stars? Behold, last night,
+I sat alone in the valley, and the trees were hushed around, and not
+a breath stirred; and I looked upon the star that counsels the son of
+Osslah; and I said, ‘Dread conqueror of the cloud! thou that bathest thy
+beauty in the streams and piercest the pine-boughs with thy presence;
+behold thy servant grieved because the mighty one hath passed away, and
+many foes surround the houses of my brethren; and it is well that they
+should have a king valiant and prosperous in war, the cherished of the
+stars. Wherefore, O star! as thou gavest into our hands the warriors of
+Alrich, and didst warn us of the fall of the oak of our tribe, wherefore
+I pray thee give unto the people a token that they may choose that king
+whom the gods of the night prefer!’ Then a low voice, sweeter than the
+music of the bard, stole along the silence. ‘Thy love for thy race is
+grateful to the stars of night: go, then, son of Osslah, and seek the
+meeting of the chiefs and the people to choose a king, and tell them not
+to scorn thee because thou art slow to the chase, and little known in
+war; for the stars give thee wisdom as a recompense for all. Say unto
+the people that as the wise men of the council shape their lessons by
+the flight of birds, so by the flight of birds shall a token be given
+unto them, and they shall choose their kings. For, saith the star of
+night, the birds are the children of the winds, they pass to and fro
+along the ocean of the air, and visit the clouds that are the war-ships
+of the gods; and their music is but broken melodies which they glean
+from the harps above. Are they not the messengers of the storm? Ere the
+stream chafes against the bank, and the rain descends, know ye not, by
+the wail of birds and their low circle over the earth, that the tempest
+is at hand? Wherefore, wisely do ye deem that the children of the air
+are the fit interpreters between the sons of men and the lords of the
+world above. Say then to the people and the chiefs that they shall take,
+from among the doves that build their nests in the roof of the palace, a
+white dove, and they shall let it loose in the air, and verily the gods
+of the night shall deem the dove as a prayer coming from the people, and
+they shall send a messenger to grant the prayer and give to the tribes
+of Oestrich a king worthy of themselves.’
+
+“With that the star spoke no more.”
+
+
+
+Then the friends of Voltoch murmured among themselves, and they said,
+“Shall this man dictate to us who shall be king?” But the people and
+the warriors shouted, “Listen to the star; do we not give or deny battle
+according as the bird flies,--shall we not by the same token choose him
+by whom the battle should be led?” And the thing seemed natural to them,
+for it was after the custom of the tribe. Then they took one of the
+doves that built in the roof of the palace, and they brought it to the
+spot where Morven stood, and he, looking up to the stars and muttering
+to himself, released the bird.
+
+There was a copse of trees at a little distance from the spot, and as
+the dove ascended, a hawk suddenly rose from the copse and pursued the
+dove; and the dove was terrified, and soared circling high above the
+crowd, when lo, the hawk, poising itself one moment on its wings,
+swooped with a sudden swoop, and, abandoning its prey, alighted on the
+plumed head of Siror.
+
+“Behold,” cried Morven in a loud voice, “behold your king!”
+
+“Hail, all hail the king!” shouted the people. “All hail the chosen of
+the stars!”
+
+Then Morven lifted his right hand and the hawk left the prince and
+alighted on Morven’s shoulder. “Bird of the gods!” said he, reverently,
+“hast thou not a secret message for my ear?” Then the hawk put its beak
+to Morven’s ear, and Morven bowed his head submissively; and the hawk
+rested with Morven from that moment and would not be scared away. And
+Morven said, “The stars have sent me this bird, that in the day-time
+when I see them not, we may never be without a councillor in distress.”
+
+So Siror was made king and Morven the son of Osslah was constrained by
+the king’s will to take Orna for his wife; and the people and the chiefs
+honoured Morven the prophet above all the elders of the tribe.
+
+One day Morven said unto himself, musing, “Am I not already equal with
+the king,--nay, is not the king my servant? Did I not place him over the
+heads of his brothers? Am I not, therefore, more fit to reign than he
+is; shall I not push him from his seat? It is a troublesome and stormy
+office to reign over the wild men of Oestrich, to feast in the crowded
+hall, and to lead the warriors to the fray. Surely if I feasted not,
+neither went out to war, they might say, ‘This is no king, but the
+cripple Morven;’ and some of the race of Siror might slay me secretly.
+But can I not be greater far than kings, and continue to choose and
+govern them, living as now at mine own ease? Verily the stars shall give
+me a new palace, and many subjects.”
+
+Among the wise men was Darvan; and Morven feared him, for his eye often
+sought the movements of the son of Osslah.
+
+And Morven said, “It were better to _trust_ this man than to _blind_,
+for surely I want a helpmate and a friend.” So he said to the wise man
+as he sat alone watching the setting sun,--
+
+“It seemeth to me, O Darvan! that we ought to build a great pile in
+honour of the stars, and the pile should be more glorious than all the
+palaces of the chiefs and the palace of the king; for are not the stars
+our masters? And thou and I should be the chief dwellers in this new
+palace, and we would serve the gods of night and fatten their altars
+with the choicest of the herd and the freshest of the fruits of the
+earth.”
+
+And Darvan said, “Thou speakest as becomes the servant of the stars. But
+will the people help to build the pile? For they are a warlike race and
+they love not toil.”
+
+And Morven answered, “Doubtless the stars will ordain the work to be
+done. Fear not.”
+
+“In truth thou art a wondrous man; thy words ever come to pass,”
+ answered Darvan; “and I wish thou wouldest teach me, friend, the
+language of the stars.”
+
+“Assuredly if thou servest me, thou shalt know,” answered the proud
+Morven; and Darvan was secretly wroth that the son of the herdsman
+should command the service of an elder and a chief.
+
+And when Morven returned to his wife he found her weeping much. Now she
+loved the son of Osslah with an exceeding love, for he was not savage
+and fierce as the men she had known, and she was proud of his fame among
+the tribe; and he took her in his arms and kissed her, and asked her why
+she wept. Then she told him that her brother the king had visited her,
+and had spoken bitter words of Morven: “He taketh from me the affection
+of my people,” said Siror, “and blindeth them with lies. And since he
+hath made me king, what if he take my kingdom from me? Verily a new tale
+of the stars might undo the old.” And the king had ordered her to keep
+watch on Morven’s secrecy, and to see whether truth was in him when he
+boasted of his commune with the Powers of night.
+
+But Orna loved Morven better than Siror, therefore she told her husband
+all.
+
+And Morven resented the king’s ingratitude, and was troubled much, for
+a king is a powerful foe; but he comforted Orna, and bade her dissemble,
+and complain also of him to her brother, so that he might confide to her
+unsuspectingly whatsoever he might design against Morven.
+
+There was a cave by Morven’s house in which he kept the sacred hawk,
+and wherein he secretly trained and nurtured other birds against future
+need; and the door of the cave was always barred. And one day he was
+thus engaged when he beheld a chink in the wall that he had never noted
+before, and the sun came playfully in; and while he looked he perceived
+the sunbeam was darkened, and presently he saw a human face peering in
+through the chink. And Morven trembled, for he knew he had been watched.
+He ran hastily from the cave; but the spy had disappeared among the
+trees, and Morven went straight to the chamber of Darvan and sat himself
+down. And Darvan did not return home till late, and he started and
+turned pale when he saw Morven. But Morven greeted him as a brother, and
+bade him to a feast, which, for the first time, he purposed giving at
+the full of the moon, in honour of the stars. And going out of Darvan’s
+chamber he returned to his wife, and bade her rend her hair, and go
+at the dawn of day to the king her brother, and complain bitterly of
+Morven’s treatment, and pluck the black plans from the breast of the
+king. “For surely,” said he, “Darvan hath lied to thy brother, and some
+evil waits me that I would fain know.”
+
+So the next morning Orna sought the king, and she said, “The herdsman’s
+son hath reviled me, and spoken harsh words to me; shall I not be
+avenged?”
+
+Then the king stamped his feet and shook his mighty sword. “Surely thou
+shalt be avenged; for I have learned from one of the elders that which
+convinceth me that the man hath lied to the people, and the base-born
+shall surely die. Yea, the first time that he goeth alone into the
+forest my brother and I will fall upon him and smite him to the death.”
+ And with this comfort Siror dismissed Orna.
+
+And Orna flung herself at the feet of her husband. “Fly now, O my
+beloved!--fly into the forests afar from my brethren, or surely the
+sword of Siror will end thy days.”
+
+Then the son of Osslah folded his arms, and seemed buried in black
+thoughts; nor did he heed the voice of Orna, until again and again she
+had implored him to fly.
+
+“Fly!” he said at length. “Nay, I was doubting what punishment the stars
+should pour down upon our foe. Let warriors fly. Morven the prophet
+conquers by arms mightier than the sword.”
+
+Nevertheless Morven was perplexed in his mind, and knew not how to
+save himself from the vengeance of the king. Now, while he was musing
+hopelessly he heard a roar of waters; and behold, the river, for it was
+now the end of autumn, had burst its bounds, and was rushing along the
+valley to the houses of the city. And now the men of the tribe, and the
+women, and the children, came running, and with shrieks, to Morven’s
+house, crying, “Behold, the river has burst upon us! Save us, O ruler of
+the stars!”
+
+Then the sudden thought broke upon Morven, and he resolved to risk his
+fate upon one desperate scheme.
+
+And he came out from the house calm and sad, and he said, “Ye know not
+what ye ask; I cannot save ye from this peril: ye have brought it on
+yourselves.” And they cried, “How? O son of Osslah! We are ignorant of
+our crime.”
+
+And he answered, “Go down to the king’s palace and wait before it, and
+surely I will follow ye, and ye shall learn wherefore ye have incurred
+this punishment from the gods.” Then the crowd rolled murmuring back, as
+a receding sea; and when it was gone from the place, Morven went alone
+to the house of Darvan, which was next his own. And Darvan was greatly
+terrified; for he was of a great age, and had no children, neither
+friends, and he feared that he could not of himself escape the waters.
+
+And Morven said to him soothingly, “Lo, the people love me, and I will
+see that thou art saved; for verily thou hast been friendly to me, and
+done me much service with the king.”
+
+And as he thus spake, Morven opened the door of the house and looked
+forth, and saw that they were quite alone. Then he seized the old man by
+the throat and ceased not his gripe till he was quite dead; and leaving
+the body of the elder on the floor, Morven stole from the house and shut
+the gate. And as he was going to his cave he mused a little while, when,
+hearing the mighty roar of the waves advancing, and far off the shrieks
+of women, he lifted up his head and said proudly, “No, in this hour
+terror alone shall be my slave; I will use no art save the power of my
+soul.” So, leaning on his pine-staff, he strode down to the palace. And
+it was now evening, and many of the men held torches, that they might
+see each other’s faces in the universal fear. Red flashed the quivering
+flames on the dark robes and pale front of Morven; and he seemed
+mightier than the rest, because his face alone was calm amidst the
+tumult. And louder and hoarser became the roar of the waters; and swift
+rushed the shades of night over the hastening tide.
+
+And Morven said in a stern voice, “Where is the king; and wherefore is
+he absent from his people in the hour of dread?” Then the gate of the
+palace opened, and, behold, Siror was sitting in the hall by the vast
+pine-fire, and his brother by his side, and his chiefs around him: for
+they would not deign to come amongst the crowd at the bidding of the
+herdsman’s son.
+
+Then Morven, standing upon a rock above the heads of the people (the
+same rock whereon he had proclaimed the king), thus spake:--
+
+“Ye desired to know, O sons of Oestrich! wherefore the river hath burst
+its bounds, and the peril hath come upon you. Learn, then, that the
+stars resent as the foulest of human crimes an insult to their servants
+and delegates below. Ye are all aware of the manner of life of Morven,
+whom ye have surnamed the Prophet! He harms not man nor beast; he lives
+alone; and, far from the wild joys of the warrior tribe, he worships
+in awe and fear the Powers of Night. So is he able to advise ye of the
+coming danger,--so is he able to save ye from the foe. Thus are your
+huntsmen swift and your warriors bold; and thus do your cattle bring
+forth their young, and the earth its fruits. What think ye, and what do
+ye ask to hear? Listen, men of Oestrich!--they have laid snares for my
+life; and there are amongst you those who have whetted the sword against
+the bosom that is only filled with love for you all. Therefore have the
+stern lords of heaven loosened the chains of the river; therefore doth
+this evil menace ye. Neither will it pass away until they who dug the
+pit for the servant of the stars are buried in the same.”
+
+Then, by the red torches, the faces of the men looked fierce and
+threatening; and ten thousand voices shouted forth, “Name them who
+conspired against thy life, O holy prophet, and surely they shall be
+torn limb from limb.”
+
+And Morven turned aside, and they saw that he wept bitterly; and he
+said,--
+
+“Ye have asked me, and I have answered: but now scarce will ye believe
+the foe that I have provoked against me; and by the heavens themselves
+I swear, that if my death would satisfy their fury, nor bring down upon
+yourselves and your children’s children the anger of the throned stars,
+gladly would I give my bosom to the knife. Yes,” he cried, lifting up
+his voice, and pointing his shadowy arm towards the hall where the king
+sat by the pine-fire,--“yes, thou whom by my voice the stars chose
+above thy brother; yes, Siror, the guilty one! take thy sword, and come
+hither; strike, if thou hast the heart to strike, the Prophet of the
+Gods!”
+
+The king started to his feet, and the crowd were hushed in a shuddering
+silence.
+
+Morven resumed:--
+
+“Know then, O men of Oestrich, that Siror and Voltoch his brother, and
+Darvan the elder of the wise men, have purposed to slay your prophet,
+even at such hour as when alone he seeks the shade of the forest to
+devise new benefits for you. Let the king deny it, if he can!”
+
+Then Voltoch, of the giant limbs, strode forth from the hall, and his
+spear quivered in his hand.
+
+“Rightly hast thou spoken, base son of my father’s herdsman! and for
+thy sins shalt thou surely die; for thou liest when thou speakest of thy
+power with the stars, and thou laughest at the folly of them who hear
+thee: wherefore put him to death.”
+
+Then the chiefs in the hall clashed their arms, and rushed forth to slay
+the son of Osslah.
+
+But he, stretching his unarmed hands on high, exclaimed, “Hear him, O
+dread ones of the night! Hark how he blasphemeth!”
+
+Then the crowd took up the word, and cried, “He blasphemeth! he
+blasphemeth against the prophet!”
+
+But the king and the chiefs, who hated Morven because of his power with
+the people, rushed into the crowd; and the crowd were irresolute, nor
+knew they how to act, for never yet had they rebelled against their
+chiefs, and they feared alike the prophet and the king.
+
+And Siror cried, “Summon Darvan to us, for he hath watched the steps of
+Morven, and he shall lift the veil from my people’s eyes.” Then three of
+the swift of foot started forth to the house of Darvan.
+
+And Morven cried out with a loud voice, “Hark! thus saith the star, who,
+now riding through yonder cloud, breaks forth upon my eyes, ‘For the lie
+that the elder hath uttered against my servant, the curse of the stars
+shall fall upon him.’ Seek, and as ye find him so may ye find ever the
+foes of Morven and the gods!”
+
+A chill and an icy fear fell over the crowd, and even the cheek of Siror
+grew pale; and Morven, erect and dark above the waving torches, stood
+motionless with folded arms. And hark!--far and fast came on the
+war-steeds of the wave; the people heard them marching to the land, and
+tossing their white manes in the roaring wind.
+
+“Lo, as ye listen,” said Morven, calmly, “the river sweeps on. Haste,
+for the gods will have a victim, be it your prophet or your king.”
+
+“Slave!” shouted Siror, and his spear left his hand, and far above the
+heads of the crowd sped hissing beside the dark form of Morven, and rent
+the trunk of the oak behind. Then the people, wroth at the danger of
+their beloved seer, uttered a wild yell, and gathered round him with
+brandished swords, facing their chieftains and their king. But at
+that instant, ere the war had broken forth among the tribe, the three
+warriors returned, and they bore Darvan on their shoulders, and laid him
+at the feet of the king, and they said tremblingly, “Thus found we the
+elder in the centre of his own hall.” And the people saw that Darvan
+was a corpse, and that the prediction of Morven was thus verified. “So
+perish the enemies of Morven and the stars!” cried the son of Osslah.
+And the people echoed the cry. Then the fury of Siror was at its height,
+and waving his sword above his head he plunged into the crowd, “Thy
+blood, baseborn, or mine!”
+
+“So be it!” answered Morven, quailing not. “People, smite the
+blasphemer! Hark how the river pours down upon your children and your
+hearths! On, on, or ye perish!”
+
+And Siror fell, pierced by five hundred spears.
+
+“Smite! smite!” cried Morven, as the chiefs of the royal house gathered
+round the king. And the clash of swords, and the gleam of spears, and
+the cries of the dying, and the yell of the trampling people mingled
+with the roar of the elements, and the voices of the rushing wave.
+
+Three hundred of the chiefs perished that night by the swords of their
+own tribe; and the last cry of the victors was, “Morven the prophet!
+_Morven the king!_”
+
+And the son of Osslah, seeing the waves now spreading over the valley,
+led Orna his wife, and the men of Oestrich, their women, and their
+children, to a high mount, where they waited the dawning sun. But Orna
+sat apart and wept bitterly, for her brothers were no more, and her race
+had perished from the earth. And Morven sought to comfort her in vain.
+
+When the morning rose, they saw that the river had overspread the
+greater part of the city, and now stayed its course among the hollows of
+the vale. Then Morven said to the people, “The star-kings are avenged,
+and their wrath appeased. Tarry only here until the waters have melted
+into the crevices of the soil.” And on the fourth day they returned to
+the city, and no man dared to name another, save Morven, as the king.
+
+But Morven retired into his cave and mused deeply; and then assembling
+the people, he gave them new laws; and he made them build a mighty
+temple in honour of the stars, and made them heap within it all that the
+tribe held most precious. And he took unto him fifty children from the
+most famous of the tribe; and he took also ten from among the men who
+had served him best, and he ordained that they should serve the stars in
+the great temple: and Morven was their chief. And he put away the crown
+they pressed upon him, and he chose from among the elders a new king.
+And he ordained that henceforth the servants only of the stars in the
+great temple should elect the king and the rulers, and hold council,
+and proclaim war; but he suffered the king to feast, and to hunt, and to
+make merry in the banquet-halls. And Morven built altars in the temple,
+and was the first who, in the North, sacrificed the beast and the bird,
+and afterwards human flesh, upon the altars. And he drew auguries from
+the entrails of the victim, and made schools for the science of the
+prophet; and Morven’s piety was the wonder of the tribe, in that he
+refused to be a king. And Morven the high priest was ten thousand times
+mightier than the king. He taught the people to till the ground and
+to sow the herb; and by his wisdom, and the valour that his prophecies
+instilled into men, he conquered all the neighbouring tribes. And the
+sons of Oestrich spread themselves over a mighty empire, and with them
+spread the name and the laws of Morven. And in every province which he
+conquered, he ordered them to build a temple to the stars.
+
+But a heavy sorrow fell upon the fears of Morven. The sister of Siror
+bowed down her head, and survived not long the slaughter of her race.
+And she left Morven childless. And he mourned bitterly and as one
+distraught, for her only in the world had his heart the power to love.
+And he sat down and covered his face, saying:--
+
+“Lo! I have toiled and travailed; and never before in the world did man
+conquer what I have conquered. Verily the empire of the iron thews and
+the giant limbs is no more! I have founded a new power, that henceforth
+shall sway the lands,--the empire of a plotting brain and a commanding
+mind. But, behold! my fate is barren, and I feel already that it will
+grow neither fruit nor tree as a shelter to mine old age. Desolate and
+lonely shall I pass unto my grave. O Orna! my beautiful! my loved! none
+were like unto thee, and to thy love do I owe my glory and my life!
+Would for thy sake, O sweet bird! that nestled in the dark cavern of my
+heart,--would for thy sake that thy brethren had been spared, for verily
+with my life would I have purchased thine. Alas! only when I lost thee
+did I find that thy love was dearer to me than the fear of others!” And
+Morven mourned night and day, and none might comfort him.
+
+But from that time forth he gave himself solely up to the cares of his
+calling; and his nature and his affections, and whatever there was yet
+left soft in him, grew hard like stone; and he was a man without love,
+and he forbade love and marriage to the priest.
+
+Now, in his latter years, there arose _other_ prophets; for the
+world had grown wiser even by Morven’s wisdom, and some did say unto
+themselves, “Behold Morven, the herdsman’s son, is a king of kings: this
+did the stars for their servant; shall we not also be servants to the
+star?”
+
+And they wore black garments like Morven, and went about prophesying of
+what the stars foretold them. And Morven was exceeding wroth; for he,
+more than other men, knew that the prophets lied. Wherefore he went
+forth against them with the ministers of the temple, and he took them,
+and burned them by a slow fire; for thus said Morven to the people: “A
+true prophet hath honour, but _I_ only am a true prophet; to all false
+prophets there shall be surely death.”
+
+And the people applauded the piety of the son of Osslah.
+
+And Morven educated the wisest of the children in the mysteries of the
+temple, so that they grew up to succeed him worthily.
+
+And he died full of years and honour; and they carved his effigy on a
+mighty stone before the temple, and the effigy endured for a thousand
+ages, and whoso looked on it trembled; for the face was calm with the
+calmness of unspeakable awe!
+
+And Morven was the first mortal of the North that made Religion the
+stepping-stone to Power. Of a surety Morven was a great man!
+
+
+
+It was the last night of the old year, and the stars sat, each upon his
+ruby throne, and watched with sleepless eyes upon the world. The
+night was dark and troubled, the dread winds were abroad, and fast and
+frequent hurried the clouds beneath the thrones of the kings of night.
+And ever and anon fiery meteors flashed along the depths of heaven,
+and were again swallowed up in the grave of darkness. But far below his
+brethren, and with a lurid haze around his orb, sat the discontented
+star that had watched over the hunters of the North.
+
+And on the lowest abyss of space there was spread a thick and mighty
+gloom, from which, as from a caldron, rose columns of wreathing smoke;
+and still, when the great winds rested for an instant on their paths,
+voices of woe and laughter, mingled with shrieks, were heard booming
+from the abyss to the upper air.
+
+And now, in the middest night, a vast figure rose slowly from the abyss,
+and its wings threw blackness over the world. High upward to the throne
+of the discontented star sailed the fearful shape, and the star trembled
+on his throne when the form stood before him face to face.
+
+And the shape said, “Hail, brother! all hail!”
+
+“I know thee not,” answered the star; “thou art not the archangel that
+visitest the kings of night.”
+
+And the shape laughed loud. “I am the fallen star of the morning! I am
+Lucifer, thy brother! Hast thou not, O sullen king, served me and mine;
+and hast thou not wrested the earth from thy Lord who sittest above, and
+given it to me, by darkening the souls of men with the religion of fear?
+Wherefore come, brother, come; thou hast a throne prepared beside my own
+in the fiery gloom. Come! The heavens are no more for thee!”
+
+Then the star rose from his throne, and descended to the side of
+Lucifer; for ever hath the spirit of discontent had sympathy with the
+soul of pride. And they sank slowly down to the gulf of gloom.
+
+It was the first night of the new year, and the stars sat each on his
+ruby throne, and watched with sleepless eyes upon the world. But sorrow
+dimmed the bright faces of the kings of night, for they mourned in
+silence and in fear for a fallen brother.
+
+And the gates of the heaven of heavens flew open with a golden sound,
+and the swift archangel fled down on his silent wings; and the archangel
+gave to each of the stars, as before, the message of his Lord, and to
+each star was his appointed charge. And when the heraldry seemed done
+there came a laugh from the abyss of gloom, and half-way from the gulf
+rose the lurid shape of Lucifer the fiend!
+
+“Thou countest thy flock ill, O radiant shepherd! Behold! one star is
+missing from the three thousand and ten!”
+
+“Back to thy gulf, false Lucifer!--the throne of thy brother hath been
+filled.”
+
+And, lo! as the archangel spake, the stars beheld a young and
+all-lustrous stranger on the throne of the erring star; and his face
+was so soft to look upon that the dimmest of human eyes might have gazed
+upon its splendour unabashed: but the dark fiend alone was dazzled
+by its lustre, and, with a yell that shook the flaming pillars of the
+universe, he plunged backward into the gloom.
+
+Then, far and sweet from the arch unseen, came forth the voice of God,--
+
+“Behold! on the throne of the discontented star sits the star of Hope;
+and he that breathed into mankind the religion of Fear hath a successor
+in him who shall teach earth the religion of Love!”
+
+And evermore the star of Fear dwells with Lucifer, and the star of Love
+keeps vigil in heaven!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX. GLENHAUSEN.--THE POWER OF LOVE IN SANCTIFIED PLACES.--A
+PORTRAIT OF FREDERICK BARBAROSSA.--THE AMBITION OF MEN FINDS NO ADEQUATE
+SYMPATHY IN WOMEN.
+
+“YOU made me tremble for you more than once,” said Gertrude to the
+student; “I feared you were about to touch upon ground really sacred,
+but your end redeemed all.”
+
+“The false religion always tries to counterfeit the garb, the language,
+the aspect of the true,” answered the German; “for that reason, I
+purposely suffered my tale to occasion that very fear and anxiety you
+speak of, conscious that the most scrupulous would be contented when the
+whole was finished.”
+
+This German was one of a new school, of which England as yet knows
+nothing. We shall see hereafter what it will produce.
+
+The student left them at Friedberg, and our travellers proceeded to
+Glenhausen,--a spot interesting to lovers; for here Frederick the First
+was won by the beauty of Gela, and, in the midst of an island vale, he
+built the Imperial Palace, in honour of the lady of his love. This spot
+is, indeed, well chosen of itself; the mountains of the Rhinegeburg
+close it in with the green gloom of woods and the glancing waters of the
+Kinz.
+
+“Still, wherever we go,” said Trevylyan, “we find all tradition is
+connected with love; and history, for that reason, hallows less than
+romance.”
+
+“It is singular,” said Vane, moralizing, “that love makes but a small
+part of our actual lives, but is yet the master-key to our sympathies.
+The hardest of us, who laugh at the passion when they see it palpably
+before them, are arrested by some dim tradition of its existence in the
+past. It is as if life had few opportunities of bringing out certain
+qualities within us, so that they always remain untold and dormant,
+susceptible to thought, but deaf to action.”
+
+“You refine and mystify too much,” said Trevylyan, smiling; “none of
+us have any faculty, any passion, uncalled forth, if we have _really_
+loved, though but for a day.”
+
+Gertrude smiled, and drawing her arm within his, Trevylyan left Vane to
+philosophize on passion,--a fit occupation for one who had never felt
+it.
+
+“Here let us pause,” said Trevylyan, afterwards, as they visited the
+remains of the ancient palace, and the sun glittered on the scene, “to
+recall the old chivalric day of the gallant Barbarossa; let us suppose
+him commencing the last great action of his life; let us picture him as
+setting out for the Holy Land. Imagine him issuing from those walls on
+his white charger,--his fiery eye somewhat dimmed by years, and his
+hair blanched; but nobler from the impress of time itself,--the clang of
+arms; the tramp of steeds; banners on high; music pealing from hill to
+hill; the red cross and the nodding plume; the sun, as now glancing
+on yonder trees; and thence reflected from the burnished arms of the
+Crusaders. But, Gela--”
+
+“Ah,” said Gertrude, “_she_ must be no more; for she would have outlived
+her beauty, and have found that glory had now no rival in his breast.
+Glory consoles men for the death of the loved; but glory is infidelity
+to the living.”
+
+“Nay, not so, dearest Gertrude,” said Trevylyan, quickly; “for my
+darling dream of Fame is the hope of laying its honours at your feet!
+And if ever, in future years, I should rise above the herd, I should
+only ask if _your_ step were proud and _your_ heart elated.”
+
+“I was wrong,” said Gertrude, with tears in her eyes; “and for your sake
+I can be ambitious.”
+
+Perhaps there, too, she was mistaken; for one of the common
+disappointments of the heart is, that women have so rarely a sympathy in
+our better and higher aspirings. Their ambition is not for great things;
+they cannot understand that desire “which scorns delight, and loves
+laborious days.” If they love us, they usually exact too much. They
+are jealous of the ambition to which we sacrifice so largely, and which
+divides us from them; and they leave the stern passion of great minds
+to the only solitude which affection cannot share. To aspire is to be
+alone!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI. VIEW OF EHRENBREITSTEIN.--A NEW ALARM IN GERTRUDE’S
+HEALTH.--TRARBACH.
+
+ANOTHER time our travellers proceeded from Coblentz to Treves, following
+the course of the Moselle. They stopped on the opposite bank below the
+bridge that unites Coblentz with the Petersberg, to linger over the
+superb view of Ehrenbreitstein which you may there behold.
+
+It was one of those calm noonday scenes which impress upon us their own
+bright and voluptuous tranquillity. There stood the old herdsman leaning
+on his staff, and the quiet cattle knee-deep in the gliding waters.
+Never did stream more smooth and sheen than was at that hour the surface
+of the Moselle mirror the images of the pastoral life. Beyond, the
+darker shadows of the bridge and of the walls of Coblentz fell deep over
+the waves, checkered by the tall sails of the craft that were moored
+around the harbour. But clear against the sun rose the spires and roofs
+of Coblentz, backed by many a hill sloping away to the horizon. High,
+dark, and massive, on the opposite bank, swelled the towers and rock of
+Ehrenbreitstein,--a type of that great chivalric spirit--the HONOUR that
+the rock arrogates for its name--which demands so many sacrifices of
+blood and tears, but which ever creates in the restless heart of man a
+far deeper interest than the more peaceful scenes of life by which it is
+contrasted. There, still--from the calm waters, and the abodes of common
+toil and ordinary pleasure--turns the aspiring mind! Still as we gaze on
+that lofty and immemorial rock we recall the famine and the siege;
+and own that the more daring crimes of men have a strange privilege in
+hallowing the very spot which they devastate.
+
+Below, in green curves and mimic bays covered with herbage, the gradual
+banks mingled with the water; and just where the bridge closed, a
+solitary group of trees, standing dark in the thickest shadow, gave that
+melancholy feature to the scene which resembles the one dark thought
+that often forces itself into our sunniest hours. Their boughs stirred
+not; no voice of birds broke the stillness of their gloomy verdure: the
+eye turned from them, as from the sad moral that belongs to existence.
+
+In proceeding to Trarbach, Gertrude was seized with another of those
+fainting fits which had so terrified Trevylyan before; they stopped an
+hour or two at a little village, but Gertrude rallied with such apparent
+rapidity, and so strongly insisted on proceeding, that they reluctantly
+continued their way. This event would have thrown a gloom over their
+journey, if Gertrude had not exerted herself to dispel the impression
+she had occasioned; and so light, so cheerful, were her spirits, that
+for the time at least she succeeded.
+
+They arrived at Trarbach late at noon. This now small and humble town
+is said to have been the Thronus Bacchi of the ancients. From the spot
+where the travellers halted to take, as it were, their impression of the
+town, they saw before them the little hostelry, a poor pretender to the
+Thronus Bacchi, with the rude sign of the Holy Mother over the door. The
+peaked roof, the sunk window, the gray walls, checkered with the rude
+beams of wood so common to the meaner houses on the Continent, bore
+something of a melancholy and prepossessing aspect. Right above, with
+its Gothic windows and venerable spire, rose the church of the town;
+and, crowning the summit of a green and almost perpendicular mountain,
+scowled the remains of one of those mighty castles which make the
+never-failing frown on a German landscape.
+
+The scene was one of quiet and of gloom: the exceeding serenity of the
+day contrasted, with an almost unpleasing brightness, the poverty of
+the town, the thinness of the population, and the dreary grandeur of the
+ruins that overhung the capital of the perished race of the bold Counts
+of Spanheim.
+
+They passed the night at Trarbach, and continued their journey next
+day. At Treves, Gertrude was for some days seriously ill; and when they
+returned to Coblentz, her disease had evidently received a rapid and
+alarming increase.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII. THE DOUBLE LIFE.--TREVYLYAN’S FATE.--SORROW THE PARENT OF
+FAME.--NIEDERLAHNSTEIN.--DREAMS.
+
+THERE are two lives to each of us, gliding on at the same time, scarcely
+connected with each other,--the life of our actions, the life of our
+minds; the external and the inward history; the movements of the frame,
+the deep and ever-restless workings of the heart! They who have loved
+know that there is a diary of the affections, which we might keep for
+years without having occasion even to touch upon the exterior surface
+of life, our busy occupations, the mechanical progress of our existence;
+yet by the last are we judged, the first is never known. History reveals
+men’s deeds, men’s outward character, but _not themselves_. There is a
+secret self that hath its own life “rounded by a dream,” unpenetrated,
+unguessed. What passed within Trevylyan, hour after hour, as he watched
+over the declining health of the only being in the world whom his proud
+heart had been ever destined to love? His real record of the time
+was marked by every cloud upon Gertrude’s brow, every smile of her
+countenance, every--the faintest--alteration in her disease; yet, to the
+outward seeming, all this vast current of varying eventful emotion
+lay dark and unconjectured. He filled up with wonted regularity the
+colourings of existence, and smiled and moved as other men. For still,
+in the heroism with which devotion conquers self, he sought only to
+cheer and gladden the young heart on which he had embarked his all; and
+he kept the dark tempest of his anguish for the solitude of night.
+
+That was a peculiar doom which Fate had reserved for him; and casting
+him, in after years, on the great sea of public strife, it seemed as if
+she were resolved to tear from his heart all yearnings for the land.
+For him there was to be no green or sequestered spot in the valley of
+household peace. His bark was to know no haven, and his soul not even
+the desire of rest. For action is that Lethe in which alone we forget
+our former dreams, and the mind that, too stern not to wrestle with its
+emotions, seeks to conquer regret, must leave itself no leisure to look
+behind. Who knows what benefits to the world may have sprung from the
+sorrows of the benefactor? As the harvest that gladdens mankind in the
+suns of autumn was called forth by the rains of spring, so the griefs of
+youth may make the fame of maturity.
+
+Gertrude, charmed by the beauties of the river, desired to continue the
+voyage to Mayence. The rich Trevylyan persuaded the physician who had
+attended her to accompany them, and they once more pursued their way
+along the banks of the feudal Rhine. For what the Tiber is to the
+classic, the Rhine is to the chivalric age. The steep rock and the gray
+dismantled tower, the massive and rude picturesque of the feudal days,
+constitute the great features of the scene; and you might almost fancy,
+as you glide along, that you are sailing back adown the river of Time,
+and the monuments of the pomp and power of old, rising, one after one,
+upon its shores!
+
+Vane and Du-----e, the physician, at the farther end of the vessel,
+conversed upon stones and strata, in that singular pedantry of science
+which strips nature to a skeleton, and prowls among the dead bones of
+the world, unconscious of its living beauty.
+
+They left Gertrude and Trevylyan to themselves; and, “bending o’er the
+vessel’s laving side,” they indulged in silence the melancholy with
+which each was imbued. For Gertrude began to waken, though doubtingly
+and at intervals, to a sense of the short span that was granted to her
+life; and over the loveliness around her there floated that sad and
+ineffable interest which springs from the presentiment of our own death.
+They passed the rich island of Oberwerth, and Hochheim, famous for its
+ruby grape, and saw, from his mountain bed, the Lahn bear his tribute of
+fruits and corn into the treasury of the Rhine. Proudly rose the tower
+of Niederlahnstein, and deeply lay its shadow along the stream. It was
+late noon; the cattle had sought the shade from the slanting sun, and,
+far beyond, the holy castle of Marksburg raised its battlements above
+mountains covered with the vine. On the water two boats had been drawn
+alongside each other; and from one, now moving to the land, the splash
+of oars broke the general stillness of the tide. Fast by an old tower
+the fishermen were busied in their craft, but the sound of their voices
+did not reach the ear. It was life, but a silent life, suited to the
+tranquillity of noon.
+
+“There is something in travel,” said Gertrude, “which constantly, even
+amidst the most retired spots, impresses us with the exuberance of life.
+We come to those quiet nooks and find a race whose existence we never
+dreamed of. In their humble path they know the same passions and tread
+the same career as ourselves. The mountains shut them out from the great
+world, but their village is a world in itself. And they know and heed no
+more of the turbulent scenes of remote cities than our own planet of
+the inhabitants of the distant stars. What then is death, but the
+forgetfulness of some few hearts added to the general unconsciousness of
+our existence that pervades the universe? The bubble breaks in the vast
+desert of the air without a sound.”
+
+“Why talk of death?” said Trevylyan, with a writhing smile. “These sunny
+scenes should not call forth such melancholy images.”
+
+“Melancholy,” repeated Gertrude, mechanically. “Yes, death is indeed
+melancholy when we are loved!”
+
+They stayed a short time at Niederlahnstein, for Vane was anxious to
+examine the minerals that the Lahn brings into the Rhine; and the sun
+was waning towards its close as they renewed their voyage. As they
+sailed slowly on, Gertrude said, “How like a dream is this sentiment
+of existence, when, without labour or motion, every change of scene is
+brought before us; and if I am with you, dearest, I do not feel it less
+resembling a dream, for I have dreamed of you lately more than ever; and
+dreams have become a part of my life itself.”
+
+“Speaking of dreams,” said Trevylyan, as they pursued that mysterious
+subject, “I once during my former residence in Germany fell in with a
+singular enthusiast, who had taught himself what he termed ‘A System of
+Dreaming.’ When he first spoke to me upon it I asked him to explain what
+he meant, which he did somewhat in the following words.”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII. THE LIFE OF DREAMS.
+
+“I WAS born,” said he, “with many of the sentiments of the poet, but
+without the language to express them; my feelings were constantly
+chilled by the intercourse of the actual world. My family, mere Germans,
+dull and unimpassioned, had nothing in common with me; nor did I out of
+my family find those with whom I could better sympathize. I was revolted
+by friendships,--for they were susceptible to every change; I was
+disappointed in love,--for the truth never approached to my ideal.
+Nursed early in the lap of Romance, enamoured of the wild and the
+adventurous, the commonplaces of life were to me inexpressibly tame and
+joyless. And yet indolence, which belongs to the poetical character, was
+more inviting than that eager and uncontemplative action which can alone
+wring enterprise from life. Meditation was my natural element. I loved
+to spend the noon reclined by some shady stream, and in a half sleep
+to shape images from the glancing sunbeams. A dim and unreal order of
+philosophy, that belongs to our nation, was my favourite intellectual
+pursuit; and I sought amongst the Obscure and the Recondite the variety
+and emotion I could not find in the Familiar. Thus constantly watching
+the operations of the inner mind, it occurred to me at last that sleep
+having its own world, but as yet a rude and fragmentary one, it might
+be possible to shape from its chaos all those combinations of beauty,
+of power, of glory, and of love, which were denied to me in the world in
+which my frame walked and had its being. So soon as this idea came upon
+me, I nursed and cherished and mused over it, till I found that the
+imagination began to effect the miracle I desired. By brooding ardently,
+intensely, before I retired to rest, over any especial train of
+thought, over any ideal creations; by keeping the body utterly still and
+quiescent during the whole day; by shutting out all living adventure,
+the memory of which might perplex and interfere with the stream
+of events that I desired to pour forth into the wilds of sleep, I
+discovered at last that I could lead in dreams a life solely their own,
+and utterly distinct from the life of day. Towers and palaces, all
+my heritage and seigneury, rose before me from the depths of night; I
+quaffed from jewelled cups the Falernian of imperial vaults; music from
+harps of celestial tone filled up the crevices of air; and the smiles of
+immortal beauty flushed like sunlight over all. Thus the adventure and
+the glory that I could not for my waking life obtain, was obtained for
+me in sleep. I wandered with the gryphon and the gnome; I sounded the
+horn at enchanted portals; I conquered in the knightly lists; I planted
+my standard over battlements huge as the painter’s birth of Babylon
+itself.
+
+“But I was afraid to call forth one shape on whose loveliness to pour
+all the hidden passion of my soul. I trembled lest my sleep should
+present me some image which it could never restore, and, waking from
+which, even the new world I had created might be left desolate forever.
+I shuddered lest I should adore a vision which the first ray of morning
+could smite to the grave.
+
+“In this train of mind I began to wonder whether it might not be
+possible to connect dreams together; to supply the thread that was
+wanting; to make one night continue the history of the other, so as
+to bring together the same shapes and the same scenes, and thus lead a
+connected and harmonious life, not only in the one half of existence,
+but in the other, the richer and more glorious half. No sooner did this
+idea present itself to me, than I burned to accomplish it. I had before
+taught myself that Faith is the great creator; that to believe fervently
+is to make belief true. So I would not suffer my mind to doubt the
+practicability of its scheme. I shut myself up then entirely by day,
+refused books, and hated the very sun, and compelled all my thoughts
+(and sleep is the mirror of thought) to glide in one direction,--the
+direction of my dreams,--so that from night to night the imagination
+might keep up the thread of action, and I might thus lie down full of
+the past dream and confident of the sequel. Not for one day only, or for
+one month, did I pursue this system, but I continued it zealously and
+sternly till at length it began to succeed. Who shall tell,” cried the
+enthusiast,--I see him now with his deep, bright, sunken eyes, and his
+wild hair thrown backward from his brow,--“the rapture I experienced,
+when first, faintly and half distinct, I perceived the harmony I had
+invoked dawn upon my dreams? At first there was only a partial and
+desultory connection between them; my eye recognized certain shapes, my
+ear certain tones common to each; by degrees these augmented in number,
+and were more defined in outline. At length one fair face broke forth
+from among the ruder forms, and night after night appeared mixing with
+them for a moment and then vanishing, just as the mariner watches, in
+a clouded sky, the moon shining through the drifting rack, and quickly
+gone. My curiosity was now vividly excited; the face, with its lustrous
+eyes and seraph features, roused all the emotions that no living shape
+had called forth. I became enamoured of a dream, and as the statue to
+the Cyprian was my creation to me; so from this intent and unceasing
+passion I at length worked out my reward. My dream became more palpable;
+I spoke with it; I knelt to it; my lips were pressed to its own; we
+exchanged the vows of love, and morning only separated us with the
+certainty that at night we should meet again. Thus then,” continued my
+visionary, “I commenced a history utterly separate from the history of
+the world, and it went on alternately with my harsh and chilling history
+of the day, equally regular and equally continuous. And what, you ask,
+was that history? Methought I was a prince in some Eastern island that
+had no features in common with the colder north of my native home. By
+day I looked upon the dull walls of a German town, and saw homely or
+squalid forms passing before me; the sky was dim and the sun cheerless.
+Night came on with her thousand stars, and brought me the dews of sleep.
+Then suddenly there was a new world; the richest fruits hung from the
+trees in clusters of gold and purple. Palaces of the quaint fashion of
+the sunnier climes, with spiral minarets and glittering cupolas, were
+mirrored upon vast lakes sheltered by the palm-tree and banana. The sun
+seemed a different orb, so mellow and gorgeous were his beams; birds and
+winged things of all hues fluttered in the shining air; the faces and
+garments of men were not of the northern regions of the world, and their
+voices spoke a tongue which, strange at first, by degrees I interpreted.
+Sometimes I made war upon neighbouring kings; sometimes I chased the
+spotted pard through the vast gloom of immemorial forests; my life
+was at once a life of enterprise and pomp. But above all there was the
+history of my love! I thought there were a thousand difficulties in the
+way of attaining its possession. Many were the rocks I had to scale, and
+the battles to wage, and the fortresses to storm, in order to win her as
+my bride. But at last” (continued the enthusiast), “she _is_ won, she
+is my own! Time in that wild world, which I visit nightly, passes not
+so slowly as in this, and yet an hour may be the same as a year. This
+continuity of existence, this successive series of dreams, so different
+from the broken incoherence of other men’s sleep, at times bewilders me
+with strange and suspicious thoughts. What if this glorious sleep be a
+real life, and this dull waking the true repose? Why not? What is there
+more faithful in the one than in the other? And there have I garnered
+and collected all of pleasure that I am capable of feeling. I seek
+no joy in this world; I form no ties, I feast not, nor love, nor make
+merry; I am only impatient till the hour when I may re-enter my royal
+realms and pour my renewed delight into the bosom of my bright Ideal.
+There then have I found all that the world denied me; there have I
+realized the yearning and the aspiration within me; there have I coined
+the untold poetry into the Felt, the Seen!”
+
+I found, continued Trevylyan, that this tale was corroborated by inquiry
+into the visionary’s habits. He shunned society; avoided all unnecessary
+movement or excitement. He fared with rigid abstemiousness, and only
+appeared to feel pleasure as the day departed, and the hour of return to
+his imaginary kingdom approached. He always retired to rest punctually
+at a certain hour, and would sleep so soundly that a cannon fired under
+his window would not arouse him. He never, which may seem singular,
+spoke or moved much in his sleep, but was peculiarly calm, almost to
+the appearance of lifelessness; but, discovering once that he had been
+watched in sleep, he was wont afterwards carefully to secure the chamber
+from intrusion. His victory over the natural incoherence of sleep had,
+when I first knew him, lasted for some years; possibly what imagination
+first produced was afterwards continued by habit.
+
+I saw him again a few months subsequent to this confession, and he
+seemed to me much changed. His health was broken, and his abstraction
+had deepened into gloom.
+
+I questioned him of the cause of the alteration, and he answered me with
+great reluctance,--
+
+“She is dead,” said he; “my realms are desolate! A serpent stung her,
+and she died in these very arms. Vainly, when I started from my sleep in
+horror and despair, vainly did I say to myself,--This is but a dream. I
+shall see her again. A vision cannot die! Hath it flesh that decays; is
+it not a spirit,--bodiless, indissoluble? With what terrible anxiety
+I awaited the night! Again I slept, and the DREAM lay again before me,
+dead and withered. Even the ideal can vanish. I assisted in the burial;
+I laid her in the earth; I heaped the monumental mockery over her form.
+And never since hath she, or ought like her, revisited my dreams. I see
+her only when I wake; thus to wake is indeed to dream! But,” continued
+the visionary in a solemn voice, “I feel myself departing from this
+world, and with a fearful joy; for I think there may be a land beyond
+even the land of sleep where I shall see her again,--a land in which a
+vision itself may be restored.”
+
+And in truth, concluded Trevylyan, the dreamer died shortly afterwards,
+suddenly, and in his sleep. And never before, perhaps, had Fate so
+literally made of a living man (with his passions and his powers, his
+ambition and his love) the plaything and puppet of a dream!
+
+“Ah,” said Vane, who had heard the latter part of Trevylyan’s story,
+“could the German have bequeathed to us his secret, what a refuge should
+we possess from the ills of earth! The dungeon and disease, poverty,
+affliction, shame, would cease to be the tyrants of our lot; and to
+Sleep we should confine our history and transfer our emotions.”
+
+“Gertrude,” whispered the lover, “what his kingdom and his bride were to
+the Dreamer art thou to me!”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV. THE BROTHERS.
+
+THE banks of the Rhine now shelved away into sweeping plains, and on
+their right rose the once imperial city of Boppart. In no journey
+of similar length do you meet with such striking instances of the
+mutability and shifts of power. To find, as in the Memphian Egypt, a
+city sunk into a heap of desolate ruins; the hum, the roar, the mart of
+nations, hushed into the silence of ancestral tombs, is less humbling
+to our human vanity than to mark, as along the Rhine, the kingly city
+dwindled into the humble town or the dreary village,--decay without its
+grandeur, change without the awe of its solitude! On the site on
+which Drusus raised his Roman tower, and the kings of the Franks their
+palaces, trade now dribbles in tobacco-pipes, and transforms into an
+excellent cotton factory the antique nunnery of Konigsberg! So be it; it
+is the progressive order of things,--the world itself will soon be one
+excellent cotton factory!
+
+“Look,” said Trevylyan, as they sailed on, “at yonder mountain, with its
+two traditionary Castles of Liebenstein and Sternfels.”
+
+Massive and huge the ruins swelled above the green rock, at the foot
+of which lay, in happier security from time and change, the clustered
+cottages of the peasant, with a single spire rising above the quiet
+village.
+
+“Is there not, Albert, a celebrated legend attached to those castles?”
+ said Gertrude. “I think I remember to have heard their names in
+connection with your profession of taleteller.”
+
+“Yes,” said Trevylyan, “the story relates to the last lords of those
+shattered towers, and--”
+
+“You will sit here, nearer to me, and begin,” interrupted Gertrude, in
+her tone of childlike command. “Come.”
+
+
+
+                           THE BROTHERS.
+
+                              A TALE.*
+
+  * This tale is, in reality, founded on the beautiful tradition
+    which belongs to Liebenstein and Sternfels.
+
+You must imagine then, dear Gertrude (said Trevylyan), a beautiful
+summer day, and by the same faculty that none possess so richly as
+yourself, for it is you who can kindle something of that divine spark
+even in me, you must rebuild those shattered towers in the pomp of old;
+raise the gallery and the hall; man the battlements with warders, and
+give the proud banners of ancestral chivalry to wave upon the walls. But
+above, sloping half down the rock, you must fancy the hanging gardens of
+Liebenstein, fragrant with flowers, and basking in the noonday sun.
+
+On the greenest turf, underneath an oak, there sat three persons, in the
+bloom of youth. Two of the three were brothers; the third was an orphan
+girl, whom the lord of the opposite tower of Sternfels had bequeathed
+to the protection of his brother, the chief of Liebenstein. The castle
+itself and the demesne that belonged to it passed away from the female
+line, and became the heritage of Otho, the orphan’s cousin, and the
+younger of the two brothers now seated on the turf.
+
+“And oh,” said the elder, whose name was Warbeck, “you have twined a
+chaplet for my brother; have you not, dearest Leoline, a simple flower
+for me?”
+
+The beautiful orphan (for beautiful she was, Gertrude, as the heroine of
+the tale you bid me tell ought to be,--should she not have to the dreams
+of my fancy your lustrous hair, and your sweet smile, and your eyes
+of blue, that are never, never silent? Ah, pardon me, that in a former
+tale, I denied the heroine the beauty of your face, and remember that to
+atone for it, I endowed her with the beauty of your mind)--the beautiful
+orphan blushed to her temples, and culling from the flowers in her lap
+the freshest of the roses, began weaving them into a wreath for Warbeck.
+
+“It would be better,” said the gay Otho, “to make my sober brother a
+chaplet of the rue and cypress; the rose is much too bright a flower for
+so serious a knight.”
+
+Leoline held up her hand reprovingly.
+
+“Let him laugh, dearest cousin,” said Warbeck, gazing passionately on
+her changing cheek; “and thou, Leoline, believe that the silent stream
+runs the deepest.”
+
+At this moment, they heard the voice of the old chief, their father,
+calling aloud for Leoline; for ever when he returned from the chase
+he wanted her gentle presence; and the hall was solitary to him if the
+light sound of her step and the music of her voice were not heard in
+welcome.
+
+Leoline hastened to her guardian, and the brothers were left alone.
+
+Nothing could be more dissimilar than the features and the respective
+characters of Otho and Warbeck. Otho’s countenance was flushed with the
+brown hues of health; his eyes were of the brightest hazel: his dark
+hair wreathed in short curls round his open and fearless brow; the jest
+ever echoed on his lips, and his step was bounding as the foot of
+the hunter of the Alps. Bold and light was his spirit; if at times he
+betrayed the haughty insolence of youth, he felt generously, and though
+not ever ready to confess sorrow for a fault, he was at least ready to
+brave peril for a friend.
+
+But Warbeck’s frame, though of equal strength, was more slender in
+its proportions than that of his brother; the fair long hair that
+characterized his northern race hung on either side of a countenance
+calm and pale, and deeply impressed with thought, even to sadness. His
+features, more majestic and regular than Otho’s, rarely varied in their
+expression. More resolute even than Otho, he was less impetuous; more
+impassioned, he was also less capricious.
+
+The brothers remained silent after Leoline had left them. Otho
+carelessly braced on his sword, that he had laid aside on the grass; but
+Warbeck gathered up the flowers that had been touched by the soft hand
+of Leoline, and placed them in his bosom.
+
+The action disturbed Otho; he bit his lip, and changed colour; at length
+he said, with a forced laugh,--
+
+“It must be confessed, brother, that you carry your affection for
+our fair cousin to a degree that even relationship seems scarcely to
+warrant.”
+
+“It is true,” said Warbeck, calmly; “I love her with a love surpassing
+that of blood.”
+
+“How!” said Otho, fiercely: “do you dare to think of Leoline as a
+bride?”
+
+“Dare!” repeated Warbeck, turning yet paler than his wonted hue.
+
+“Yes, I have said the word! Know, Warbeck, that I, too, love Leoline; I,
+too, claim her as my bride; and never, while I can wield a sword, never,
+while I wear the spurs of knighthood, will I render my claim to a living
+rival,--even,” he added, sinking his voice, “though that rival be my
+brother!”
+
+Warbeck answered not; his very soul seemed stunned; he gazed long and
+wistfully on his brother, and then, turning his face away, ascended the
+rock without uttering a single word.
+
+This silence startled Otho. Accustomed to vent every emotion of his own,
+he could not comprehend the forbearance of his brother; he knew his high
+and brave nature too well to imagine that it arose from fear. Might it
+not be contempt, or might he not, at this moment, intend to seek their
+father; and, the first to proclaim his love for the orphan, advance,
+also, the privilege of the elder born? As these suspicions flashed
+across him, the haughty Otho strode to his brother’s side, and laying
+his hand on his arm, said,--
+
+“Whither goest thou; and dost thou consent to surrender Leoline?”
+
+“Does she love thee, Otho?” answered Warbeck, breaking silence at last;
+and his voice spoke so deep an anguish, that it arrested the passions of
+Otho even at their height.
+
+“It is thou who art now silent,” continued Warbeck; “speak. Doth she
+love thee, and has her lip confessed it?”
+
+“I have believed that she loved me,” faltered Otho; “but she is of
+maiden bearing, and her lip, at least, has never told it.”
+
+“Enough,” said Warbeck; “release your hold.”
+
+“Stay,” said Otho, his suspicions returning; “stay,--yet one word; dost
+thou seek my father? He ever honoured thee more than me: wilt thou own
+to him thy love, and insist on thy right of birth? By my soul and my
+hope of heaven, do it, and one of us two must fall!”
+
+“Poor boy!” answered Warbeck, bitterly; “how little thou canst read the
+heart of one who loves truly! Thinkest thou I would wed her if she loved
+thee? Thinkest thou I could, even to be blessed myself, give her one
+moment’s pain? Out on the thought! away!”
+
+“Then wilt not thou seek our father?” said Otho, abashed.
+
+“Our father!--has our father the keeping of Leoline’s affection?”
+ answered Warbeck; and shaking off his brother’s grasp, he sought the way
+to the castle.
+
+As he entered the hall, he heard the voice of Leoline; she was singing
+to the old chief one of the simple ballads of the time that the warrior
+and the hunter loved to hear. He paused lest he should break the spell
+(a spell stronger than a sorcerer’s to him), and gazing upon Leoline’s
+beautiful form, his heart sank within him. His brother and himself
+had each that day, as they sat in the gardens, given her a flower; his
+flower was the fresher and the rarer; his he saw not, but she wore his
+brother’s in her bosom!
+
+The chief, lulled by the music and wearied with the toils of the chase,
+sank into sleep as the song ended, and Warbeck, coming forward, motioned
+to Leoline to follow him. He passed into a retired and solitary walk,
+and when they were a little distance from the castle, Warbeck turned
+round, and taking Leoline’s hand gently, said,--
+
+“Let us rest here for one moment, dearest cousin; I have much on my
+heart to say to thee.”
+
+“And what is there,” answered Leoline, as they sat on a mossy bank,
+with the broad Rhine glancing below, “what is there that my kind Warbeck
+would ask of me? Ah, would it might be some favour, something in poor
+Leoline’s power to grant; for ever from my birth you have been to me
+most tender, most kind. You, I have often heard them say; taught my
+first steps to walk; you formed my infant lips into language, and, in
+after years, when my wild cousin was far away in the forests at the
+chase, you would brave his gay jest and remain at home, lest Leoline
+should be weary in the solitude. Ah, would I could repay you!”
+
+Warbeck turned away his cheek; his heart was very full, and it was some
+moments before he summoned courage to reply.
+
+“My fair cousin,” said he, “those were happy days; but they were the
+days of childhood. New cares and new thoughts have now come on us; but
+I am still thy friend, Leoline, and still thou wilt confide in me thy
+young sorrows and thy young hopes, as thou ever didst. Wilt thou not,
+Leoline?”
+
+“Canst thou ask me?” said Leoline; and Warbeck, gazing on her face, saw
+that though her eyes were full of tears, they yet looked steadily upon
+his; and he knew that she loved him only as a sister.
+
+He sighed, and paused again ere he resumed. “Enough,” said he; “now to
+my task. Once on a time, dear cousin, there lived among these mountains
+a certain chief who had two sons, and an orphan like thyself dwelt also
+in his halls. And the elder son--but no matter, let us not waste words
+on _him_!--the younger son, then, loved the orphan dearly,--more dearly
+than cousins love; and fearful of refusal, he prayed the elder one to
+urge his suit to the orphan. Leoline, my tale is done. Canst thou not
+love Otho as he loves thee?”
+
+And now lifting his eyes to Leoline, he saw that she trembled violently,
+and her cheek was covered with blushes.
+
+“Say,” continued he, mastering himself, “is not that flower
+his--present--a token that he is chiefly in thy thoughts?”
+
+“Ah, Warbeck! do not deem me ungrateful that I wear not yours also;
+but--”
+
+“Hush!” said Warbeck, hastily; “I am but as thy brother; is not Otho
+more? He is young, brave, and beautiful. God grant that he may deserve
+thee, if thou givest him so rich a gift as thy affections!”
+
+“I saw less of Otho in my childhood,” said Leoline, evasively;
+“therefore, his kindness of late years seemed stranger to me than
+thine.”
+
+“And thou wilt not then reject him? Thou wilt be his bride?”
+
+“And _thy_ sister,” answered Leoline.
+
+“Bless thee, mine own dear cousin! one brother’s kiss then, and
+farewell! Otho shall thank thee for himself.”
+
+He kissed her forehead calmly, and, turning away, plunged into the
+thicket; then, nor till then, he gave vent to such emotions as, had
+Leoline seen them, Otho’s suit had been lost forever; for passionately,
+deeply as in her fond and innocent heart she loved Otho, the _happiness_
+of Warbeck was not less dear to her.
+
+When the young knight had recovered his self-possession he went in
+search of Otho. He found him alone in the wood, leaning with folded arms
+against a tree, and gazing moodily on the ground. Warbeck’s noble heart
+was touched at his brother’s dejection.
+
+“Cheer thee, Otho,” said he; “I bring thee no bad tidings; I have seen
+Leoline, I have conversed with her--nay, start not,--she loves thee! she
+is thine!”
+
+“Generous, generous Warbeck!” exclaimed Otho; and he threw himself on
+his brother’s neck. “No, no,” said he, “this must not be; thou hast the
+elder claim,--I resign her to thee. Forgive me my waywardness, brother,
+forgive me!”
+
+“Think of the past no more,” said Warbeck; “the love of Leoline is an
+excuse for greater offences than thine. And now, be kind to her; her
+nature is soft and keen. _I_ know her well; for _I_ have studied her
+faintest wish. Thou art hasty and quick of ire; but remember that a word
+wounds where love is deep. For my sake, as for hers, think more of her
+happiness than thine own; now seek her,--she waits to hear from thy lips
+the tale that sounded cold upon mine.”
+
+With that he left his brother, and, once more re-entering the castle, he
+went into the hall of his ancestors. His father still slept; he put his
+hand on his gray hair, and blessed him; then stealing up to his chamber,
+he braced on his helm and armour, and thrice kissing the hilt of his
+sword, said, with a flushed cheek,--
+
+“Henceforth be _thou_ my bride!” Then passing from the castle, he sped
+by the most solitary paths down the rock, gained the Rhine, and hailing
+one of the numerous fishermen of the river, won the opposite shore; and
+alone, but not sad, for his high heart supported him, and Leoline at
+least was happy, he hastened to Frankfort.
+
+The town was all gayety and life, arms clanged at every corner, the
+sounds of martial music, the wave of banners, the glittering of plumed
+casques, the neighing of war-steeds, all united to stir the blood and
+inflame the sense. Saint Bertrand had lifted the sacred cross along the
+shores of the Rhine, and the streets of Frankfort witnessed with what
+success!
+
+On that same day Warbeck assumed the sacred badge, and was enlisted
+among the knights of the Emperor Conrad.
+
+We must suppose some time to have elapsed, and Otho and Leoline were not
+yet wedded; for, in the first fervour of his gratitude to his brother,
+Otho had proclaimed to his father and to Leoline the conquest Warbeck
+had obtained over himself; and Leoline, touched to the heart, would not
+consent that the wedding should take place immediately. “Let him, at
+least,” said she, “not be insulted by a premature festivity; and give
+him time, amongst the lofty beauties he will gaze upon in a far country,
+to forget, Otho, that he once loved her who is the beloved of thee.”
+
+The old chief applauded this delicacy; and even Otho, in the first flush
+of his feelings towards his brother, did not venture to oppose it. They
+settled, then, that the marriage should take place at the end of a year.
+
+Months rolled away, and an absent and moody gloom settled upon Otho’s
+brow. In his excursions with his gay companions among the neighbouring
+towns, he heard of nothing but the glory of the Crusaders, of the homage
+paid to the heroes of the Cross at the courts they visited, of the
+adventures of their life, and the exciting spirit that animated their
+war. In fact, neither minstrel nor priest suffered the theme to grow
+cold; and the fame of those who had gone forth to the holy strife gave
+at once emulation and discontent to the youths who remained behind.
+
+“And my brother enjoys this ardent and glorious life,” said the
+impatient Otho; “while I, whose arm is as strong, and whose heart is as
+bold, languish here listening to the dull tales of a hoary sire and
+the silly songs of an orphan girl.” His heart smote him at the last
+sentence, but he had already begun to weary of the gentle love of
+Leoline. Perhaps when he had no longer to gain a triumph over a rival
+the excitement palled; or perhaps his proud spirit secretly chafed at
+being conquered by his brother in generosity, even when outshining him
+in the success of love.
+
+But poor Leoline, once taught that she was to consider Otho her
+betrothed, surrendered her heart entirely to his control. His wild
+spirit, his dark beauty, his daring valour, won while they awed her; and
+in the fitfulness of his nature were those perpetual springs of hope
+and fear that are the fountains of ever-agitated love. She saw with
+increasing grief the change that was growing over Otho’s mind; nor did
+she divine the cause. “Surely I have not offended him?” thought she.
+
+Among the companions of Otho was one who possessed a singular sway
+over him. He was a knight of that mysterious Order of the Temple, which
+exercised at one time so great a command over the minds of men.
+
+A severe and dangerous wound in a brawl with an English knight had
+confined the Templar at Frankfort, and prevented his joining the
+Crusade. During his slow recovery he had formed an intimacy with Otho,
+and, taking up his residence at the castle of Liebenstein, had been
+struck with the beauty of Leoline. Prevented by his oath from marriage,
+he allowed himself a double license in love, and doubted not, could he
+disengage the young knight from his betrothed, that she would add a
+new conquest to the many he had already achieved. Artfully therefore he
+painted to Otho the various attractions of the Holy Cause; and, above
+all, he failed not to describe, with glowing colours, the beauties who,
+in the gorgeous East, distinguished with a prodigal favour the warriors
+of the Cross. Dowries, unknown in the more sterile mountains of the
+Rhine, accompanied the hand of these beauteous maidens; and even a
+prince’s daughter was not deemed, he said, too lofty a marriage for the
+heroes who might win kingdoms for themselves.
+
+“To me,” said the Templar, “such hopes are eternally denied. But you,
+were you not already betrothed, what fortunes might await you!”
+
+By such discourses the ambition of Otho was perpetually aroused; they
+served to deepen his discontent at his present obscurity, and to convert
+to distaste the only solace it afforded in the innocence and affection
+of Leoline.
+
+One night, a minstrel sought shelter from the storm in the halls of
+Liebenstein. His visit was welcomed by the chief, and he repaid the
+hospitality he had received by the exercise of his art. He sang of the
+chase, and the gaunt hound started from the hearth. He sang of love, and
+Otho, forgetting his restless dreams, approached to Leoline, and
+laid himself at her feet. Louder then and louder rose the strain. The
+minstrel sang of war; he painted the feats of the Crusaders; he plunged
+into the thickest of the battle; the steed neighed; the trump sounded;
+and you might have heard the ringing of the steel. But when he came
+to signalize the names of the boldest knights, high among the loftiest
+sounded the name of Sir Warbeck of Liebenstein. Thrice had he saved the
+imperial banner; two chargers slain beneath him, he had covered their
+bodies with the fiercest of the foe.
+
+Gentle in the tent and terrible in the fray, the minstrel should forget
+his craft ere the Rhine should forget its hero. The chief started from
+his seat. Leoline clasped the minstrel’s hand.
+
+“Speak,--you have seen him, he lives, he is honoured?”
+
+“I myself am but just from Palestine, brave chief and noble maiden. I
+saw the gallant knight of Liebenstein at the right hand of the imperial
+Conrad. And he, ladye, was the only knight whom admiration shone upon
+without envy, its shadow. Who then,” continued the minstrel, once more
+striking his harp, “who then would remain inglorious in the hall? Shall
+not the banners of his sires reproach him as they wave; and shall not
+every voice from Palestine strike shame into his soul?”
+
+“Right!” cried Otho, suddenly, and flinging himself at the feet of his
+father. “Thou hearest what my brother has done, and thine aged eyes weep
+tears of joy. Shall I only dishonour thine old age with a rusted sword?
+No! grant me, like my brother, to go forth with the heroes of the
+Cross!”
+
+“Noble youth,” cried the harper, “therein speaks the soul of Sir
+Warbeck; hear him, sir, knight,--hear the noble youth.”
+
+“Heaven cries aloud in his voice,” said the Templar, solemnly.
+
+“My son, I cannot chide thine ardour,” said the old chief, raising him
+with trembling hands; “but Leoline, thy betrothed?”
+
+Pale as a statue, with ears that doubted their sense as they drank in
+the cruel words of her lover, stood the orphan. She did not speak, she
+scarcely breathed; she sank into her seat, and gazed upon the ground,
+till, at the speech of the chief both maiden pride and maiden tenderness
+restored her consciousness, and she said,--
+
+“_I_, uncle! Shall _I_ bid Otho stay when his wishes bid him depart?”
+
+“He will return to thee, noble ladye, covered with glory,” said the
+harper: but Otho said no more. The touching voice of Leoline went to
+his soul; he resumed his seat in silence; and Leoline, going up to
+him, whispered gently, “Act as though I were not;” and left the hall to
+commune with her heart and to weep alone.
+
+“I can wed her before I go,” said Otho, suddenly, as he sat that night
+in the Templar’s chamber.
+
+“Why, that is true! and leave thy bride in the first week,--a hard
+trial!”
+
+“Better than incur the chance of never calling her mine. Dear, kind,
+beloved Leoline!”
+
+“Assuredly, she deserves all from thee; and, indeed, it is no small
+sacrifice, at thy years and with thy mien, to renounce forever all
+interest among the noble maidens thou wilt visit. Ah, from the galleries
+of Constantinople what eyes will look down on thee, and what ears,
+learning that thou art Otho the bridegroom, will turn away, caring for
+thee no more! A bridegroom without a bride! Nay, man, much as the Cross
+wants warriors, I am enough thy friend to tell thee, if thou weddest, to
+stay peaceably at home, and forget in the chase the labours of war, from
+which thou wouldst strip the ambition of love.”
+
+“I would I knew what were best,” said Otho, irresolutely. “My
+brother--ha, shall he forever excel me? But Leoline, how will she
+grieve,--she who left him for me!”
+
+“Was that thy fault?” said the Templar, gayly. “It may many times chance
+to thee again to be preferred to another. Troth, it is a sin under which
+the conscience may walk lightly enough. But sleep on it, Otho; my eyes
+grow heavy.”
+
+The next day Otho sought Leoline, and proposed to her that their wedding
+should precede his parting; but so embarrassed was he, so divided
+between two wishes, that Leoline, offended, hurt, stung by his coldness,
+refused the proposal at once. She left him lest he should see her weep,
+and then--then she repented even of her just pride!
+
+But Otho, striving to appease his conscience with the belief that
+hers now was the _sole_ fault, busied himself in preparations for his
+departure. Anxious to outshine his brother, he departed not as Warbeck,
+alone and unattended, but levying all the horse, men, and money that
+his domain of Sternfels--which he had not yet tenanted--would afford, he
+repaired to Frankfort at the head of a glittering troop.
+
+The Templar, affecting a relapse, tarried behind, and promised to join
+him at that Constantinople of which he had so loudly boasted. Meanwhile
+he devoted his whole powers of pleasing to console the unhappy orphan.
+The force of her simple love was, however, stronger than all his arts.
+In vain he insinuated doubts of Otho,--she refused to hear them; in vain
+he poured with the softest accents into her ear the witchery of flattery
+and song,--she turned heedlessly away; and only pained by the courtesies
+that had so little resemblance to Otho, she shut herself up in her
+chamber, and pined in solitude for her forsaker.
+
+The Templar now resolved to attempt darker arts to obtain power over
+her, when, fortunately, he was summoned suddenly away by a mission from
+the Grand Master of so high import, that it could not be resisted by a
+passion stronger in his breast than love,--the passion of ambition. He
+left the castle to its solitude; and Otho peopling it no more with his
+gay companions, no solitude _could_ be more unfrequently disturbed.
+
+Meanwhile, though, ever and anon, the fame of Warbeck reached their
+ears, it came unaccompanied with that of Otho,--of him they had no
+tidings; and thus the love of the tender orphan was kept alive by
+the perpetual restlessness of fear. At length the old chief died, and
+Leoline was left utterly alone.
+
+One evening as she sat with her maidens in the hall, the ringing of a
+steed’s hoofs was heard in the outer court; a horn sounded, the heavy
+gates were unbarred, and a knight of a stately mien and covered with the
+mantle of the Cross entered the hall. He stopped for one moment at the
+entrance, as if overpowered by his emotion; in the next he had clasped
+Leoline to his breast.
+
+“Dost thou not recognize thy cousin Warbeck?” He doffed his casque, and
+she saw that majestic brow which, unlike Otho’s, had never changed or
+been clouded in its aspect to her.
+
+“The war is suspended for the present,” said he. “I learned my father’s
+death, and I have returned home to hang up my banner in the hall and
+spend my days in peace.”
+
+Time and the life of camps had worked their change upon Warbeck’s face;
+the fair hair, deepened in its shade, was worn from the temples, and
+disclosed one scar that rather aided the beauty of a countenance that
+had always something high and martial in its character; but the calm it
+had once worn had settled down into sadness; he conversed more rarely
+than before, and though he smiled not less often, nor less kindly, the
+smile had more of thought, and the kindness had forgot its passion. He
+had apparently conquered a love that was so early crossed, but not
+that fidelity of remembrance which made Leoline dearer to him than all
+others, and forbade him to replace the images he had graven upon his
+soul.
+
+The orphan’s lips trembled with the name of Otho, but a certain
+recollection stifled even her anxiety. Warbeck hastened to forestall her
+questions. Otho was well, he said, and sojourning at Constantinople; he
+had lingered there so long that the crusade had terminated without his
+aid: doubtless now he would speedily return,--a month, a week, nay, a
+day, might restore him to her side.
+
+Leoline was inexpressibly consoled, yet something remained untold.
+Why, so eager for the strife of the sacred tomb, had he thus tarried at
+Constantinople? She wondered, she wearied conjecture, but she did not
+dare to search further.
+
+The generous Warbeck concealed from her that Otho led a life of the most
+reckless and indolent dissipation,--wasting his wealth in the pleasures
+of the Greek court, and only occupying his ambition with the wild
+schemes of founding a principality in those foreign climes, which the
+enterprises of the Norman adventurers had rendered so alluring to the
+knightly bandits of the age.
+
+The cousins resumed their old friendship, and Warbeck believed that it
+was friendship alone.
+
+They walked again among the gardens in which their childhood had
+strayed; they sat again on the green turf whereon they had woven
+flowers; they looked down on the eternal mirror of the Rhine,--ah! could
+it have reflected the same unawakened freshness of their life’s early
+spring!
+
+The grave and contemplative mind of Warbeck had not been so contented
+with the honours of war but that it had sought also those calmer sources
+of emotion which were yet found among the sages of the East. He had
+drunk at the fountain of the wisdom of those distant climes, and had
+acquired the habits of meditation which were indulged by those wiser
+tribes from which the Crusaders brought back to the North the knowledge
+that was destined to enlighten their posterity. Warbeck, therefore, had
+little in common with the ruder chiefs around; he did not summon them to
+his board; nor attend at their noisy wassails. Often late at night, in
+yon shattered tower, his lonely lamp shone still over the mighty stream,
+and his only relief to loneliness was in the presence and the song of
+his soft cousin.
+
+Months rolled on, when suddenly a vague and fearful rumour reached the
+castle of Liebenstein. Otho was returning home to the neighbouring tower
+of Sternfels; but not alone. He brought back with him a Greek bride of
+surprising beauty, and dowered with almost regal wealth. Leoline was
+the first to discredit the rumour; Leoline was soon the only one who
+disbelieved.
+
+Bright in the summer noon flashed the array of horsemen; far up
+the steep ascent wound the gorgeous cavalcade; the lonely towers of
+Liebenstein heard the echo of many a laugh and peal of merriment. Otho
+bore home his bride to the hall of Sternfels.
+
+That night there was a great banquet in Otho’s castle; the lights shone
+from every casement, and music swelled loud and ceaselessly within.
+
+By the side of Otho, glittering with the prodigal jewels of the East,
+sat the Greek. Her dark locks, her flashing eye, the false colours of
+her complexion, dazzled the eyes of her guests. On her left hand sat the
+Templar.
+
+“By the holy rood,” quoth the Templar, gayly, though he crossed himself
+as he spoke, “we shall scare the owls to-night on those grim towers
+of Liebenstein. Thy grave brother, Sir Otho, will have much to do to
+comfort his cousin when she sees what a gallant life she would have led
+with thee.”
+
+“Poor damsel!” said the Greek, with affected pity, “doubtless she will
+now be reconciled to the rejected one. I hear he is a knight of a comely
+mien.”
+
+“Peace!” said Otho, sternly, and quaffing a large goblet of wine.
+
+The Greek bit her lip, and glanced meaningly at the Templar, who
+returned the glance.
+
+“Nought but a beauty such as thine can win my pardon,” said Otho,
+turning to his bride, and gazing passionately in her face.
+
+The Greek smiled.
+
+Well sped the feast, the laugh deepened, the wine circled, when Otho’s
+eye rested on a guest at the bottom of the board, whose figure was
+mantled from head to foot, and whose face was covered by a dark veil.
+
+“Beshrew me!” said he, aloud, “but this is scarce courteous at our
+revel: will the stranger vouchsafe to unmask?”
+
+These words turned all eyes to the figure, and they who sat next it
+perceived that it trembled violently; at length it rose, and walking
+slowly, but with grace, to the fair Greek, it laid beside her a wreath
+of flowers.
+
+“It is a simple gift, ladye,” said the stranger, in a voice of such
+sweetness that the rudest guest was touched by it; “but it is all I can
+offer, and the bride of Otho should not be without a gift at my hands.
+May ye both be happy!”
+
+With these words, the stranger turned and passed from the hall silent as
+a shadow.
+
+“Bring back the stranger!” cried the Greek, recovering her surprise.
+Twenty guests sprang up to obey her mandate.
+
+“No, no!” said Otho, waving his hand impatiently. “Touch her not, heed
+her not, at your peril.”
+
+The Greek bent over the flowers to conceal her anger, and from amongst
+them dropped the broken half of a ring. Otho recognized it at once; it
+was the broken half of that ring which he had broken with his betrothed.
+Alas! he required not such a sign to convince him that that figure,
+so full of ineffable grace, that touching voice, that simple action so
+tender in its sentiment, that gift, that blessing, came only from the
+forsaken and forgiving Leoline.
+
+But Warbeck, alone in his solitary tower, paced to and fro with agitated
+steps. Deep, undying wrath at his brother’s falsehood mingled with
+one burning, one delicious hope. He confessed now that he had deceived
+himself when he thought his passion was no more; was there any longer a
+bar to his union with Leoline?
+
+In that delicacy which was breathed into him by his love, he had
+forborne to seek, or to offer her the insult of consolation. He felt
+that the shock should be borne alone, and yet he pined, he thirsted, to
+throw himself at her feet.
+
+Nursing these contending thoughts, he was aroused by a knock at his
+door; he opened it. The passage was thronged by Leoline’s maidens,
+pale, anxious, weeping. Leoline had left the castle, with but one female
+attendant, none knew whither; they knew too soon. From the hall of
+Sternfels she had passed over in the dark and inclement night to the
+valley in which the convent of Bornhofen offered to the weary of spirit
+and the broken of heart a refuge at the shrine of God.
+
+At daybreak the next morning, Warbeck was at the convent’s gate. He saw
+Leoline. What a change one night of suffering had made in that face,
+which was the fountain of all loveliness to him! He clasped her in his
+arms; he wept; he urged all that love could urge: he besought her to
+accept that heart which had never wronged her memory by a thought. “Oh,
+Leoline! didst thou not say once that these arms nursed thy childhood;
+that this voice soothed thine early sorrows? Ah, trust to them again
+and forever. From a love that forsook thee turn to the love that never
+swerved.”
+
+“No,” said Leoline; “no. What would the chivalry of which thou art the
+boast,--what would they say of thee, wert thou to wed one affianced and
+deserted, who tarried years for another, and brought to thine arms only
+that heart which he had abandoned? No; and even if thou, as I know thou
+wouldst be, wert callous to such wrong of thy high name, shall I bring
+to thee a broken heart and bruised spirit? Shalt thou wed sorrow and
+not joy; and shall sighs that will not cease, and tears that may not be
+dried, be the only dowry of thy bride? Thou, too, for whom all blessings
+should be ordained! No, forget me; forget thy poor Leoline! She hath
+nothing but prayers for thee.”
+
+In vain Warbeck pleaded; in vain he urged all that passion and truth
+could urge; the springs of earthly love were forever dried up in the
+orphan’s heart, and her resolution was immovable. She tore herself from
+his arms, and the gate of the convent creaked harshly on his ear.
+
+A new and stern emotion now wholly possessed him; though naturally
+mild and gentle, he cherished anger, when once it was aroused, with the
+strength of a calm mind. Leoline’s tears, her sufferings, her wrongs,
+her uncomplaining spirit, the change already stamped upon her face,--all
+cried aloud to him for vengeance. “She is an orphan,” said he, bitterly;
+“she hath none to protect, to redress her, save me alone. My father’s
+charge over her forlorn youth descends of right to me. What matters it
+whether her forsaker be my brother? He is _her_ foe. Hath he not crushed
+her heart? Hath he not consigned her to sorrow till the grave? And with
+what insult! no warning, no excuse; with lewd wassailers keeping revel
+for his new bridals in the hearing--before the sight--of his betrothed!
+Enough! the time hath come when, to use his own words, ‘One of us two
+must fall!’” He half drew his sword as he spoke, and thrusting it back
+violently into the sheath, strode home to his solitary castle. The sound
+of steeds and of the hunting horn met him at his portal; the bridal
+train of Sternfels, all mirth and gladness, were parting for the chase.
+
+That evening a knight in complete armour entered the banquet-hall of
+Sternfels, and defied Otho, on the part of Warbeck of Liebenstein, to
+mortal combat.
+
+Even the Templar was startled by so unnatural a challenge; but
+Otho, reddening, took up the gage, and the day and spot were fixed.
+Discontented, wroth with himself, a savage gladness seized him; he
+longed to wreak his desperate feelings even on his brother. Nor had
+he ever in his jealous heart forgiven that brother his virtues and his
+renown.
+
+At the appointed hour the brothers met as foes. Warbeck’s vizor was up,
+and all the settled sternness of his soul was stamped upon his brow.
+But Otho, more willing to brave the arm than to face the front of his
+brother, kept his vizor down; the Templar stood by him with folded arms.
+It was a study in human passions to his mocking mind. Scarce had the
+first trump sounded to this dread conflict, when a new actor entered
+on the scene. The rumour of so unprecedented an event had not failed to
+reach the convent of Bornhofen; and now, two by two, came the sisters of
+the holy shrine, and the armed men made way, as with trailing garments
+and veiled faces they swept along into the very lists. At that moment
+one from amongst them left her sisters with a slow majestic pace, and
+paused not till she stood right between the brother foes.
+
+“Warbeck,” she said in a hollow voice, that curdled up his dark spirit
+as it spoke, “is it thus thou wouldst prove thy love, and maintain thy
+trust over the fatherless orphan whom thy sire bequeathed to thy care?
+Shall I have murder on my soul?” At that question she paused, and those
+who heard it were struck dumb, and shuddered. “The murder of one man by
+the hand of his own brother! Away, Warbeck! _I command_.”
+
+“Shall I forget thy wrongs, Leoline?” said Warbeck.
+
+“Wrongs! they united me to God! they are forgiven, they are no more.
+Earth has deserted me, but Heaven hath taken me to its arms. Shall I
+murmur at the change? And thou, Otho”--here her voice faltered--“thou,
+does thy conscience smite thee not? Wouldst thou atone for robbing me of
+hope by barring against me the future? Wretch that I should be, could
+I dream of mercy, could I dream of comfort, if thy brother fell by thy
+sword in my cause? Otho, I have pardoned thee, and blessed thee
+and thine. Once, perhaps, thou didst love me; remember how I loved
+thee,--cast down thine arms.”
+
+Otho gazed at the veiled form before him. Where had the soft Leoline
+learned to command? He turned to his brother; he felt all that he had
+inflicted upon both; and casting his sword upon the ground, he knelt at
+the feet of Leoline, and kissed her garment with a devotion that votary
+never lavished on a holier saint.
+
+The spell that lay over the warriors around was broken; there was one
+loud cry of congratulation and joy. “And thou, Warbeck?” said Leoline,
+turning to the spot where, still motionless and haughty, Warbeck stood.
+
+“Have I ever rebelled against thy will?” said he, softly; and buried the
+point of his sword in the earth. “Yet, Leoline, yet,” added he, looking
+at his kneeling brother, “yet art thou already better avenged than by
+this steel!”
+
+“Thou art! thou art!” cried Otho, smiting his breast; and slowly, and
+scarce noting the crowd that fell back from his path, Warbeck left the
+lists.
+
+Leoline said no more; her divine errand was fulfilled. She looked long
+and wistfully after the stately form of the knight of Liebenstein, and
+then, with a slight sigh, she turned to Otho, “This is the last time we
+shall meet on earth. Peace be with us all!”
+
+She then, with the same majestic and collected bearing, passed on
+towards the sisterhood; and as, in the same solemn procession, they
+glided back towards the convent, there was not a man present--no, not
+even the hardened Templar--who would not, like Otho, have bent his knee
+to Leoline.
+
+Once more Otho plunged into the wild revelry of the age; his castle was
+thronged with guests, and night after night the lighted halls shone down
+athwart the tranquil Rhine. The beauty of the Greek, the wealth of Otho,
+the fame of the Templar, attracted all the chivalry from far and near.
+Never had the banks of the Rhine known so hospitable a lord as the
+knight of Sternfels. Yet gloom seized him in the midst of gladness,
+and the revel was welcome only as the escape from remorse. The voice of
+scandal, however, soon began to mingle with that of envy at the pomp
+of Otho. The fair Greek, it was said, weary of her lord, lavished her
+smiles on others; the young and the fair were always most acceptable
+at the castle; and, above all, her guilty love for the Templar scarcely
+affected disguise. Otho alone appeared unconscious of the rumour; and
+though he had begun to neglect his bride, he relaxed not in his intimacy
+with the Templar.
+
+It was noon, and the Greek was sitting in her bower alone with her
+suspected lover; the rich perfumes of the East mingled with the
+fragrance of flowers, and various luxuries, unknown till then in those
+northern shores, gave a soft and effeminate character to the room.
+
+“I tell thee,” said the Greek, petulantly, “that he begins to suspect;
+that I have seen him watch thee, and mutter as he watched, and play with
+the hilt of his dagger. Better let us fly ere it is too late, for his
+vengeance would be terrible were it once roused against us. Ah, why did
+I ever forsake my own sweet land for these barbarous shores! There, love
+is not considered eternal, nor inconstancy a crime worthy death.”
+
+“Peace, pretty one!” said the Templar, carelessly; “thou knowest not the
+laws of our foolish chivalry. Thinkest thou I could fly from a knight’s
+halls like a thief in the night? Why, verily, even the red cross would
+not cover such dishonour. If thou fearest that thy dull lord suspects,
+let us part. The emperor hath sent to me from Frankfort. Ere evening I
+might be on my way thither.”
+
+“And I left to brave the barbarian’s revenge alone? Is this thy
+chivalry?”
+
+“Nay, prate not so wildly,” answered the Templar. “Surely, when the
+object of his suspicion is gone, thy woman’s art and thy Greek wiles can
+easily allay the jealous fiend. Do I not know thee, Glycera? Why, thou
+wouldst fool all men--save a Templar.”
+
+“And thou, cruel, wouldst thou leave me?” said the Greek, weeping. “How
+shall I live without thee?”
+
+The Templar laughed slightly. “Can such eyes ever weep without a
+comforter? But farewell; I must not be found with thee. To-morrow I
+depart for Frankfort; we shall meet again.”
+
+As soon as the door closed on the Templar, the Greek rose, and pacing
+the room, said, “Selfish, selfish! how could I ever trust him? Yet I
+dare not brave Otho alone. Surely it was his step that disturbed us
+in our yesterday’s interview? Nay, I will fly. I can never want a
+companion.”
+
+She clapped her hands; a young page appeared; she threw herself on her
+seat and wept bitterly.
+
+The page approached, and love was mingled with his compassion.
+
+“Why weepest thou, dearest lady?” said he. “Is there aught in which
+Conrad’s services--services!--ah, thou hast read his heart--_his
+devotion_ may avail?”
+
+Otho had wandered out the whole day alone; his vassals had observed
+that his brow was more gloomy than its wont, for he usually concealed
+whatever might prey within. Some of the most confidential of his
+servitors he had conferred with, and the conference had deepened the
+shadow of his countenance. He returned at twilight; the Greek did not
+honour the repast with her presence. She was unwell, and not to be
+disturbed. The gay Templar was the life of the board.
+
+“Thou carriest a sad brow to-day, Sir Otho,” said he; “good faith, thou
+hast caught it from the air of Liebenstein.”
+
+“I have something troubles me,” answered Otho, forcing a smile, “which I
+would fain impart to thy friendly bosom. The night is clear and the moon
+is up, let us forth alone into the garden.”
+
+The Templar rose, and he forgot not to gird on his sword as he followed
+the knight.
+
+Otho led the way to one of the most distant terraces that overhung the
+Rhine.
+
+“Sir Templar,” said he, pausing, “answer me one question on thy knightly
+honour. Was it thy step that left my lady’s bower yester-eve at vesper?”
+
+Startled by so sudden a query, the wily Templar faltered in his reply.
+
+The red blood mounted to Otho’s brow. “Nay, lie not, sir knight; these
+eyes, thanks to God! have not witnessed, but these ears have heard from
+others of my dishonour.”
+
+As Otho spoke, the Templar’s eye resting on the water perceived a boat
+rowing fast over the Rhine; the distance forbade him to see more than
+the outline of two figures within it. “She was right,” thought he;
+“perhaps that boat already bears her from the danger.”
+
+Drawing himself up to the full height of his tall stature, the Templar
+replied haughtily,--
+
+“Sir Otho of Sternfels, if thou hast deigned to question thy vassals,
+obtain from them only an answer. It is not to contradict such minions
+that the knights of the Temple pledge their word!”
+
+“Enough,” cried Otho, losing patience, and striking the Templar with his
+clenched hand. “Draw, traitor, draw!”
+
+Alone in his lofty tower Warbeck watched the night deepen over the
+heavens, and communed mournfully with himself. “To what end,” thought
+he, “have these strong affections, these capacities of love, this
+yearning after sympathy, been given me? Unloved and unknown I walk to
+my grave, and all the nobler mysteries of my heart are forever to be
+untold.”
+
+Thus musing, he heard not the challenge of the warder on the wall, or
+the unbarring of the gate below, or the tread of footsteps along the
+winding stair; the door was thrown suddenly open, and Otho stood before
+him. “Come,” he said, in a low voice trembling with passion; “come, I
+will show thee that which shall glad thine heart. Twofold is Leoline
+avenged.”
+
+Warbeck looked in amazement on a brother he had not met since they stood
+in arms each against the other’s life, and he now saw that the arm that
+Otho extended to him dripped with blood, trickling drop by drop upon the
+floor.
+
+“Come,” said Otho, “follow me; it is my last prayer. Come, for Leoline’s
+sake, come.”
+
+At that name Warbeck hesitated no longer; he girded on his sword, and
+followed his brother down the stairs and through the castle gate. The
+porter scarcely believed his eyes when he saw the two brothers, so long
+divided, go forth at that hour alone, and seemingly in friendship.
+
+Warbeck, arrived at that epoch in the feelings when nothing stuns,
+followed with silent steps the rapid strides of his brother. The two
+castles, as you are aware, are scarce a stone’s throw from each other.
+In a few minutes Otho paused at an open space in one of the terraces of
+Sternfels, on which the moon shone bright and steady. “Behold!” he said,
+in a ghastly voice, “behold!” and Warbeck saw on the sward the corpse of
+the Templar, bathed with the blood that even still poured fast and warm
+from his heart.
+
+“Hark!” said Otho. “He it was who first made me waver in my vows to
+Leoline; he persuaded me to wed yon whited falsehood. Hark! he, who had
+thus wronged my real love, dishonoured me with my faithless bride, and
+thus--thus--thus”--as grinding his teeth, he spurned again and again the
+dead body of the Templar--“thus Leoline and myself are avenged!”
+
+“And thy wife?” said Warbeck, pityingly.
+
+“Fled,--fled with a hireling page. It is well! she was not worth the
+sword that was once belted on--by Leoline.”
+
+
+
+The tradition, dear Gertrude, proceeds to tell us that Otho, though
+often menaced by the rude justice of the day for the death of the
+Templar, defied and escaped the menace. On the very night of his revenge
+a long and delirious illness seized him; the generous Warbeck forgave,
+forgot all, save that he had been once consecrated by Leoline’s love.
+He tended him through his sickness, and when he recovered, Otho was an
+altered man. He forswore the comrades he had once courted, the revels
+he had once led. The halls of Sternfels were desolate as those of
+Liebenstein. The only companion Otho sought was Warbeck, and Warbeck
+bore with him. They had no topic in common, for on one subject Warbeck
+at least felt too deeply ever to trust himself to speak; yet did a
+strange and secret sympathy re-unite them. They had at least a common
+sorrow; often they were seen wandering together by the solitary banks of
+the river, or amidst the woods, without apparently interchanging word or
+sign. Otho died first, and still in the prime of youth; and Warbeck
+was now left companionless. In vain the imperial court wooed him to its
+pleasures; in vain the camp proffered him the oblivion of renown. Ah!
+could he tear himself from a spot where morning and night he could see
+afar, amidst the valley, the roof that sheltered Leoline, and on which
+every copse, every turf, reminded him of former days? His solitary life,
+his midnight vigils, strange scrolls about his chamber, obtained him
+by degrees the repute of cultivating the darker arts; and shunning, he
+became shunned by all. But still it was sweet to hear from time to time
+of the increasing sanctity of her in whom he had treasured up his
+last thoughts of earth. She it was who healed the sick; she it was who
+relieved the poor; and the superstition of that age brought pilgrims
+from afar to the altars that she served.
+
+Many years afterwards, a band of lawless robbers, who ever and anon
+broke from their mountain fastnesses to pillage and to desolate the
+valleys of the Rhine,--who spared neither sex nor age, neither tower
+nor hut, nor even the houses of God Himself,--laid waste the territories
+round Bornhofen, and demanded treasure from the convent. The abbess,
+of the bold lineage of Rudesheim, refused the sacrilegious demand.
+The convent was stormed; its vassals resisted; the robbers, inured to
+slaughter, won the day; already the gates were forced, when a knight, at
+the head of a small but hardy troop, rushed down from the mountain side
+and turned the tide of the fray. Wherever his sword flashed fell a foe;
+wherever his war-cry sounded was a space of dead men in the thick of
+the battle. The fight was won, the convent saved; the abbess and the
+sisterhood came forth to bless their deliverer. Laid under an aged oak,
+he was bleeding fast to death; his head was bare and his locks were
+gray, but scarcely yet with years. One only of the sisterhood recognized
+that majestic face; one bathed his parched lips; one held his dying
+hand; and in Leoline’s presence passed away the faithful spirit of the
+last lord of Liebenstein!
+
+“Oh!” said Gertrude, through her tears; “surely you must have altered
+the facts,--surely--surely--it must have been impossible for Leoline,
+with a woman’s heart, to have loved Otho more than Warbeck?”
+
+“My child,” said Vane, “so think women when they read a tale of love,
+and see _the whole heart_ bared before them; but not so act they in real
+life, when they see only the surface of character, and pierce not its
+depths--until it is too late!”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV. THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.--A COMMON INCIDENT NOT BEFORE
+DESCRIBED.--TREVYLYAN AND GERTRUDE.
+
+THE day now grew cool as it waned to its decline, and the breeze came
+sharp upon the delicate frame of the sufferer. They resolved to proceed
+no farther; and as they carried with them attendants and baggage, which
+rendered their route almost independent of the ordinary accommodation,
+they steered for the opposite shore, and landed at a village beautifully
+sequestered in a valley, and where they fortunately obtained a lodging
+not often met with in the regions of the picturesque.
+
+When Gertrude, at an early hour, retired to bed, Vane and Du-----e fell
+into speculative conversation upon the nature of man. Vane’s philosophy
+was of a quiet and passive scepticism; the physician dared more boldly,
+and rushed from doubt to negation. The attention of Trevylyan, as he sat
+apart and musing, was arrested in despite of himself. He listened to an
+argument in which he took no share, but which suddenly inspired him with
+an interest in that awful subject which, in the heat of youth and the
+occupations of the world, had never been so prominently called forth
+before.
+
+“What,” thought he, with unutterable anguish, as he listened to the
+earnest vehemence of the Frenchman and the tranquil assent of Vane, “if
+this creed were indeed true,--if there be no other world,--Gertrude is
+lost to me eternally, through the dread gloom of death there would break
+forth no star!”
+
+That is a peculiar incident that perhaps occurs to us all at times, but
+which I have never found expressed in books, namely, to hear a doubt of
+futurity at the very moment in which the present is most overcast; and
+to find at once this world stripped of its delusion and the next of its
+consolation. It is perhaps for others, rather than ourselves, that the
+fond heart requires a Hereafter. The tranquil rest, the shadow, and the
+silence, the mere pause of the wheel of life, have no terror for the
+wise, who know the due value of the world.
+
+     “After the billows of a stormy sea,
+      Sweet is at last the haven of repose!”
+
+But not so when that stillness is to divide us eternally from others;
+when those we have loved with all the passion, the devotion, the
+watchful sanctity of the weak human heart, are to exist to us no more!
+when, after long years of desertion and widowhood on earth, there is
+to be no hope of reunion in that INVISIBLE beyond the stars; when the
+torch, not of life only, but of love, is to be quenched in the Dark
+Fountain, and the grave, that we would fain hope is the great restorer
+of broken ties, is but the dumb seal of hopeless, utter, inexorable
+separation! And it is this thought, this sentiment, which makes religion
+out of woe, and teaches belief to the mourning heart that in the
+gladness of united affections felt not the necessity of a heaven! To how
+many is the death of the beloved the parent of faith!
+
+Stung by his thoughts, Trevylyan rose abruptly, and stealing from the
+lowly hostelry, walked forth amidst the serene and deepening night; from
+the window of Gertrude’s room the light streamed calm on the purple air.
+
+With uneven steps and many a pause, he paced to and fro beneath the
+window, and gave the rein to his thoughts. How intensely he felt the ALL
+that Gertrude was to him! how bitterly he foresaw the change in his lot
+and character that her death would work out! For who that met him in
+later years ever dreamed that emotions so soft, and yet so ardent, had
+visited one so stern? Who could have believed that time was when the
+polished and cold Trevylyan had kept the vigils he now held below the
+chamber of one so little like himself as Gertrude, in that remote and
+solitary hamlet; shut in by the haunted mountains of the Rhine, and
+beneath the moonlight of the romantic North?
+
+While thus engaged, the light in Gertrude’s room was suddenly
+extinguished; it is impossible to express how much that trivial incident
+affected him! It was like an emblem of what was to come; the light had
+been the only evidence of life that broke upon that hour, and he was
+now left alone with the shades of night. Was not this like the herald of
+Gertrude’s own death; the extinction of the only living ray that broke
+upon the darkness of the world?
+
+His anguish, his presentiment of utter desolation, increased. He groaned
+aloud; he dashed his clenched hand to his breast; large and cold drops
+of agony stole down his brow. “Father,” he exclaimed with a struggling
+voice, “let this cup pass from me! Smite my ambition to the root;
+curse me with poverty, shame, and bodily disease; but leave me this one
+solace, this one companion of my fate!”
+
+At this moment Gertrude’s window opened gently, and he heard accents
+steal soothingly upon his ear.
+
+“Is not that your voice, Albert?” said she, softly. “I heard it just as
+I lay down to rest, and could not sleep while you were thus exposed to
+the damp night air. You do not answer; surely it is your voice: when
+did I mistake it for another’s?” Mastering with a violent effort his
+emotions, Trevylyan answered, with a sort of convulsive gayety,--
+
+“Why come to these shores, dear Gertrude, unless you are honoured with
+the chivalry that belongs to them? What wind, what blight, can harm me
+while within the circle of your presence; and what sleep can bring me
+dreams so dear as the waking thought of you?”
+
+“It is cold,” said Gertrude, shivering; “come in, dear Albert, I beseech
+you, and I will thank you to-morrow.” Gertrude’s voice was choked by the
+hectic cough, that went like an arrow to Trevylyan’s heart; and he felt
+that in her anxiety for him she was now exposing her own frame to the
+unwholesome night.
+
+He spoke no more, but hurried within the house; and when the gray light
+of morn broke upon his gloomy features, haggard from the want of sleep,
+it might have seemed, in that dim eye and fast-sinking cheek, as if the
+lovers were not to be divided--even by death itself.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI. IN WHICH THE READER WILL LEARN HOW THE FAIRIES WERE
+RECEIVED BY THE SOVEREIGNS OF THE MINES.--THE COMPLAINT OF THE LAST OF
+THE FAUNS.--THE RED HUNTSMAN.--THE STORM.--DEATH.
+
+IN the deep valley of Ehrenthal, the metal kings--the Prince of the
+Silver Palaces, the Gnome Monarch of the dull Lead Mine, the President
+of the Copper United States--held a court to receive the fairy wanderers
+from the island of Nonnewerth.
+
+The prince was there, in a gallant hunting-suit of oak leaves, in
+honour to England; and wore a profusion of fairy orders, which had been
+instituted from time to time, in honour of the human poets that had
+celebrated the spiritual and ethereal tribes. Chief of these, sweet
+Dreamer of the “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” was the badge crystallized
+from the dews that rose above the whispering reeds of Avon on the night
+of thy birth,--the great epoch of the intellectual world! Nor wert thou,
+O beloved Musaeus! nor thou, dim-dreaming Tieck! nor were ye, the
+wild imaginer of the bright-haired Undine, and the wayward spirit that
+invoked for the gloomy Manfred the Witch of the breathless Alps and
+the spirits of earth and air!--nor were ye without the honours of fairy
+homage! Your memory may fade from the heart of man, and the spells of
+new enchanters may succeed to the charm you once wove over the face of
+the common world; but still in the green knolls of the haunted valley
+and the deep shade of forests, and the starred palaces of air, ye are
+honoured by the beings of your dreams, as demigods and kings! Your
+graves are tended by invisible hands, and the places of your birth are
+hallowed by no perishable worship!
+
+Even as I write,* far away amidst the hills of Scotland, and by the
+forest thou hast clothed with immortal verdure, thou, the maker of “the
+Harp by lone Glenfillan’s spring,” art passing from the earth which thou
+hast “painted with delight.” And such are the chances of mortal fame,
+our children’s children may raise new idols on the site of thy holy
+altar, and cavil where their sires adored; but for thee the mermaid of
+the ocean shall wail in her coral caves, and the sprite that lives in
+the waterfalls shall mourn! Strange shapes shall hew thy monument in the
+recesses of the lonely rocks! ever by moonlight shall the fairies pause
+from their roundel when some wild note of their minstrelsy reminds them
+of thine own,--ceasing from their revelries, to weep for the silence of
+that mighty lyre, which breathed alike a revelation of the mysteries of
+spirits and of men!
+
+  * It was just at the time the author was finishing this work
+    that the great master of his art was drawing to the close
+    of his career.
+
+The King of the Silver Mines sat in a cavern in the valley, through
+which the moonlight pierced its way and slept in shadow on the soil
+shining with metals wrought into unnumbered shapes; and below him, on a
+humbler throne, with a gray beard and downcast eye, sat the aged King
+of the Dwarfs that preside over the dull realms of lead, and inspire
+the verse of -----, and the prose of -----! And there too a fantastic
+household elf was the President of the Copper Republic,--a spirit that
+loves economy and the Uses, and smiles sparely on the Beautiful. But, in
+the centre of the cave, upon beds of the softest mosses, the untrodden
+growth of ages, reclined the fairy visitors, Nymphalin seated by her
+betrothed. And round the walls of the cave were dwarf attendants on
+the sovereigns of the metals, of a thousand odd shapes and fantastic
+garments. On the abrupt ledges of the rocks the bats, charmed to
+stillness but not sleep, clustered thickly, watching the scene with
+fixed and amazed eyes; and one old gray owl, the favourite of the witch
+of the valley, sat blinking in a corner, listening with all her might
+that she might bring home the scandal to her mistress.
+
+“And tell me, Prince of the Rhine-Island Fays,” said the King of the
+Silver Mines, “for thou art a traveller, and a fairy that hath seen
+much, how go men’s affairs in the upper world? As to ourself, we live
+here in a stupid splendour, and only hear the news of the day when
+our brother of lead pays a visit to the English printing-press, or the
+President of Copper goes to look at his improvements in steam-engines.”
+
+“Indeed,” replied Fayzenheim, preparing to speak like AEneas in the
+Carthaginian court,--“indeed, your Majesty, I know not much that will
+interest you in the present aspect of mortal affairs, except that you
+are quite as much honoured at this day as when the Roman conqueror bent
+his knee to you among the mountains of Taunus; and a vast number of
+little round subjects of yours are constantly carried about by the rich,
+and pined after with hopeless adoration by the poor. But, begging your
+Majesty’s pardon, may I ask what has become of your cousin, the King
+of the Golden Mines? I know very well that he has no dominion in these
+valleys, and do not therefore wonder at his absence from your court this
+night; but I see so little of his subjects on earth that I should fear
+his empire was well nigh at an end, if I did not recognize everywhere
+the most servile homage paid to a power now become almost invisible.”
+
+The King of the Silver Mines fetched a deep sigh. “Alas, prince,” said
+he, “too well do you divine the expiration of my cousin’s empire. So
+many of his subjects have from time to time gone forth to the world,
+pressed into military service and never returning, that his kingdom is
+nearly depopulated. And he lives far off in the distant parts of the
+earth, in a state of melancholy seclusion; the age of gold has passed,
+the age of paper has commenced.”
+
+“Paper,” said Nymphalin, who was still somewhat of a
+_precieuse_,--“paper is a wonderful thing. What pretty books the human
+people write upon it!”
+
+“Ah! that’s what I design to convey,” said the silver king. “It is the
+age less of paper money than paper government: the Press is the true
+bank.” The lord treasurer of the English fairies pricked up his ears
+at the word “bank;” for he was the Attwood of the fairies: he had a
+favourite plan of making money out of bulrushes, and had written four
+large bees’-wings full upon the true nature of capital.
+
+While they were thus conversing, a sudden sound as of some rustic and
+rude music broke along the air, and closing its wild burden, they heard
+the following song:--
+
+
+
+THE COMPLAINT OF THE LAST FAUN.
+
+
+I. The moon on the Latmos mountain  Her pining vigil keeps;
+And ever the silver fountain  In the Dorian valley weeps.
+But gone are Endymion’s dreams;  And the crystal lymph
+  Bewails the nymph
+Whose beauty sleeked the streams!
+
+
+II. Round Arcady’s oak its green  The Bromian ivy weaves;
+But no more is the satyr seen  Laughing out from the glossy leaves.
+Hushed is the Lycian lute,  Still grows the seed
+  Of the Moenale reed,
+But the pipe of Pan is mute!
+
+
+III. The leaves in the noon-day quiver;  The vines on the mountains wave;
+And Tiber rolls his river  As fresh by the Sylvan’s cave.
+But my brothers are dead and gone;  And far away
+  From their graves I stray,
+And dream of the past alone!
+
+
+IV. And the sun of the north is chill;  And keen is the northern gale;
+Alas for the Song of the Argive hill;  And the dance in the Cretan vale!
+The youth of the earth is o’er,  And its breast is rife
+  With the teeming life
+Of the golden Tribes no more!
+
+
+V. My race are more blest than I,  Asleep in their distant bed;
+‘T were better, be sure, to die  Than to mourn for the buried Dead:
+To rove by the stranger streams,  At dusk and dawn
+  A lonely faun,
+The last of the Grecian’s dreams.
+
+
+
+As the song ended a shadow crossed the moonlight, that lay white and
+lustrous before the aperture of the cavern; and Nymphalin, looking up,
+beheld a graceful yet grotesque figure standing on the sward without,
+and gazing on the group in the cave. It was a shaggy form, with a goat’s
+legs and ears; but the rest of its body, and the height of the stature,
+like a man’s. An arch, pleasant, yet malicious smile played about its
+lips; and in its hand it held the pastoral pipe of which poets have
+sung,--they would find it difficult to sing to it!
+
+“And who art thou?” said Fayzenheim, with the air of a hero.
+
+“I am the last lingering wanderer of the race which the Romans
+worshipped; hither I followed their victorious steps, and in these green
+hollows have I remained. Sometimes in the still noon, when the leaves of
+spring bud upon the whispering woods, I peer forth from my rocky lair,
+and startle the peasant with my strange voice and stranger shape. Then
+goes he home, and puzzles his thick brain with mopes and fancies, till
+at length he imagines me, the creature of the South! one of his northern
+demons, and his poets adapt the apparition to their barbarous lines.”
+
+“Ho!” quoth the silver king, “surely thou art the origin of the fabled
+Satan of the cowled men living whilom in yonder ruins, with its horns
+and goatish limbs; and the harmless faun has been made the figuration
+of the most implacable of fiends. But why, O wanderer of the South,
+lingerest thou in these foreign dells? Why returnest thou not to the
+bi-forked hill-top of old Parnassus, or the wastes around the yellow
+course of the Tiber?”
+
+“My brethren are no more,” said the poor faun; “and the very faith that
+left us sacred and unharmed is departed. But here all the spirits not of
+mortality are still honoured; and I wander, mourning for Silenus, though
+amidst the vines that should console me for his loss.”
+
+“Thou hast known great beings in thy day,” said the leaden king, who
+loved the philosophy of a truism (and the history of whose inspirations
+I shall one day write).
+
+“Ah, yes,” said the faun; “my birth was amidst the freshness of the
+world, when the flush of the universal life coloured all things with
+divinity; when not a tree but had its Dryad, not a fountain that was
+without its Nymph. I sat by the gray throne of Saturn, in his old age,
+ere yet he was discrowned (for he was no visionary ideal, but the arch
+monarch of the pastoral age), and heard from his lips the history of the
+world’s birth. But those times are gone forever,--they have left harsh
+successors.”
+
+“It is the age of paper,” muttered the lord treasurer, shaking his head.
+
+“What ho, for a dance!” cried Fayzenheim, too royal for moralities, and
+he whirled the beautiful Nymphalin into a waltz. Then forth issued the
+fairies, and out went the dwarfs. And the faun leaning against an aged
+elm, ere yet the midnight waned, the elves danced their charmed round
+to the antique minstrelsy of his pipe,--the minstrelsy of the Grecian
+world!
+
+“Hast thou seen yet, my Nymphalin,” said Fayzenheim, in the pauses of
+the dance, “the recess of the Hartz, and the red form of its mighty
+hunter?”
+
+“It is a fearful sight,” answered Nymphalin; “but with thee I should not
+fear.”
+
+“Away then!” cried Fayzenheim; “let us away at the first cock-crow, into
+those shaggy dells; for there is no need of night to conceal us, and the
+unwitnessed blush of morn or the dreary silence of noon is, no less than
+the moon’s reign, the season for the sports of the superhuman tribes.”
+
+Nymphalin, charmed with the proposal, readily assented; and at the last
+hour of night, bestriding the starbeams of the many-titled Friga, away
+sped the fairy cavalcade to the gloom of the mystic Hartz.
+
+Fain would I relate the manner of their arrival in the thick recesses
+of the forest,--how they found the Red Hunter seated on a fallen pine
+beside a wide chasm in the earth, with the arching bows of the wizard
+oak wreathing above his head as a canopy, and his bow and spear lying
+idle at his feet. Fain would I tell of the reception which he deigned to
+the fairies, and how he told them of his ancient victories over man; how
+he chafed at the gathering invasions of his realm; and how joyously he
+gloated of some great convulsion* in the northern States, which, rapt
+into moody reveries in those solitary woods, the fierce demon broodingly
+foresaw. All these fain would I narrate, but they are not of the Rhine,
+and my story will not brook the delay. While thus conversing with the
+fiend, noon had crept on, and the sky had become overcast and lowering;
+the giant trees waved gustily to and fro, and the low gatherings of
+the thunder announced the approaching storm. Then the hunter rose and
+stretched his mighty limbs, and seizing his spear, he strode rapidly
+into the forest to meet the things of his own tribe that the tempest
+wakes from their rugged lair.
+
+  * Which has come to pass.--1847.
+
+A sudden recollection broke upon Nymphalin. “Alas, alas!” she cried,
+wringing her hands; “what have I done! In journeying hither with thee,
+I have forgotten my office. I have neglected my watch over the elements,
+and my human charge is at this hour, perhaps, exposed to all the fury of
+the storm.”
+
+“Cheer thee, my Nymphalin,” said the prince, “we will lay the tempest;”
+ and he waved his sword and muttered the charms which curb the winds and
+roll back the marching thunder: but for once the tempest ceased not at
+his spells. And now, as the fairies sped along the troubled air, a
+pale and beautiful form met them by the way, and the fairies paused and
+trembled; for the power of that Shape could vanquish even them. It
+was the form of a Female, with golden hair, crowned with a chaplet of
+withered leaves; her bosoms, of an exceeding beauty, lay bare to the
+wind, and an infant was clasped between them, hushed into a sleep so
+still, that neither the roar of the thunder, nor the livid lightning
+flashing from cloud to cloud, could even ruffle, much less arouse, the
+slumberer. And the face of the female was unutterably calm and sweet
+(though with a something of severe); there was no line nor wrinkle in
+the hueless brow; care never wrote its defacing characters upon that
+everlasting beauty. It knew no sorrow or change; ghostlike and shadowy
+floated on that Shape through the abyss of Time, governing the world
+with an unquestioned and noiseless sway. And the children of the green
+solitudes of the earth, the lovely fairies of my tale, shuddered as they
+gazed and recognized--the form of DEATH,--death vindicated.
+
+“And why,” said the beautiful Shape, with a voice soft as the last sighs
+of a dying babe,--“why trouble ye the air with spells? Mine is the hour
+and the empire, and the storm is the creature of my power. Far yonder to
+the west it sweeps over the sea, and the ship ceases to vex the waves;
+it smites the forest, and the destined tree, torn from its roots, feels
+the winter strip the gladness from its boughs no more! The roar of the
+elements is the herald of eternal stillness to their victims; and they
+who hear the progress of my power idly shudder at the coming of peace.
+And thou, O tender daughter of the fairy kings, why grievest thou at a
+mortal’s doom? Knowest thou not that sorrow cometh with years, and that
+to live is to mourn? Blessed is the flower that, nipped in its early
+spring, feels not the blast that one by one scatters its blossoms around
+it, and leaves but the barren stem. Blessed are the young whom I clasp
+to my breast, and lull into the sleep which the storm cannot break, nor
+the morrow arouse to sorrow or to toil. The heart that is stilled in the
+bloom of its first emotions, that turns with its last throb to the eye
+of love, as yet unlearned in the possibility of change,--has exhausted
+already the wine of life, and is saved only from the lees. As the mother
+soothes to sleep the wail of her troubled child, I open my arms to the
+vexed spirit, and my bosom cradles the unquiet to repose!”
+
+The fairies answered not, for a chill and a fear lay over them, and the
+Shape glided on; ever as it passed away through the veiling clouds they
+heard its low voice singing amidst the roar of the storm, as the dirge
+of the water-sprite over the vessel it hath lured into the whirlpool or
+the shoals.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII. THURMBERG.--A STORM UPON THE RHINE.--THE RUINS OF
+RHEINFELS.--PERIL UNFELT BY LOVE.--THE ECHO OF THE LURLEI-BERG.--ST.
+GOAR.--KAUB, GUTENFELS, AND PFALZGRAFENSTEIN.--A CERTAIN VASTNESS OF
+MIND IN THE FIRST HERMITS.--THE SCENERY OF THE RHINE TO BACHARACH.
+
+OUR party continued their voyage the next day, which was less bright
+than any they had yet experienced. The clouds swept on dull and heavy,
+suffering the sun only to break forth at scattered intervals. They wound
+round the curving bay which the Rhine forms in that part of its course,
+and gazed upon the ruins of Thurmberg, with the rich gardens that skirt
+the banks below. The last time Trevylyan had seen those ruins soaring
+against the sky, the green foliage at the foot of the rocks, and the
+quiet village sequestered beneath, glassing its roofs and solitary tower
+upon the wave, it had been with a gay summer troop of light friends,
+who had paused on the opposite shore during the heats of noon, and, over
+wine and fruits, had mimicked the groups of Boccaccio, and intermingled
+the lute, the jest, the momentary love, and the laughing tale.
+
+What a difference now in his thoughts, in the object of the voyage, in
+his present companions! The feet of years fall noiseless; we heed, we
+note them not, till tracking the same course we passed long since,
+we are startled to find how deep the impression they leave behind.
+To revisit the scenes of our youth is to commune with the ghost of
+ourselves.
+
+At this time the clouds gathered rapidly along the heavens, and they
+were startled by the first peal of the thunder. Sudden and swift came on
+the storm, and Trevylyan trembled as he covered Gertrude’s form with the
+rude boat-cloaks they had brought with them; the small vessel began to
+rock wildly to and fro upon the waters. High above them rose the
+vast dismantled ruins of Rheinfels, the lightning darting through its
+shattered casements and broken arches, and brightening the gloomy trees
+that here and there clothed the rocks, and tossed to the angry wind.
+Swift wheeled the water-birds over the river, dipping their plumage in
+the white foam, and uttering their discordant screams. A storm upon the
+Rhine has a grandeur it is in vain to paint. Its rocks, its foliage, the
+feudal ruins that everywhere rise from the lofty heights, speaking
+in characters of stern decay of many a former battle against time
+and tempest; the broad and rapid course of the legendary river,--all
+harmonize with the elementary strife; and you feel that to see the Rhine
+only in the sunshine is to be unconscious of its most majestic aspects.
+What baronial war had those ruins witnessed! From the rapine of the
+lordly tyrant of those battlements rose the first Confederation of the
+Rhine,--the great strife between the new time and the old, the town
+and the castle, the citizen and the chief. Gray and stern those ruins
+breasted the storm,--a type of the antique opinion which once manned
+them with armed serfs; and, yet in ruins and decay, appeals from the
+victorious freedom it may no longer resist!
+
+Clasped in Trevylyan’s guardian arms, and her head pillowed on his
+breast, Gertrude felt nothing of the storm save its grandeur; and
+Trevylyan’s voice whispered cheer and courage to her ear. She answered
+by a smile and a sigh, but not of pain. In the convulsions of nature we
+forget our own separate existence, our schemes, our projects, our fears;
+our dreams vanish back into their cells. One passion only the storm
+quells not, and the presence of Love mingles with the voice of the
+fiercest storms, as with the whispers of the southern wind. So she felt,
+as they were thus drawn close together, and as she strove to smile away
+the anxious terror from Trevylyan’s gaze, a security, a delight; for
+peril is sweet even to the fears of woman, when it impresses upon her
+yet more vividly that she is beloved.
+
+“A moment more and we reach the land,” murmured Trevylyan.
+
+“I wish it not,” answered Gertrude, softly. But ere they got into St.
+Goar the rain descended in torrents, and even the thick coverings round
+Gertrude’s form were not sufficient protection against it. Wet and
+dripping she reached the inn; but not then, nor for some days, was she
+sensible of the shock her decaying health had received.
+
+The storm lasted but a few hours, and the sun afterwards broke forth
+so brightly, and the stream looked so inviting, that they yielded to
+Gertrude’s earnest wish, and, taking a larger vessel, continued their
+course; they passed along the narrow and dangerous defile of the
+Gewirre, and the fearful whirlpool of the “Bank;” and on the shore to
+the left the enormous rock of Lurlei rose, huge and shapeless, on their
+gaze. In this place is a singular echo, and one of the boatmen wound a
+horn, which produced an almost supernatural music,--so wild, loud, and
+oft reverberated was its sound.
+
+The river now curved along in a narrow and deep channel amongst rugged
+steeps, on which the westering sun cast long and uncouth shadows; and
+here the hermit, from whose sacred name the town of St. Goar derived its
+own, fixed his abode and preached the religion of the Cross. “There
+was a certain vastness of mind,” said Vane, “in the adoption of utter
+solitude, in which the first enthusiasts of our religion indulged. The
+remote desert, the solitary rock, the rude dwelling hollowed from the
+cave, the eternal commune with their own hearts, with nature, and their
+dreams of God,--all make a picture of severe and preterhuman grandeur.
+Say what we will of the necessity and charm of social life, there is a
+greatness about man when he dispenses with mankind.”
+
+“As to that,” said Du-----e, shrugging his shoulders, “there was
+probably very good wine in the neighbourhood, and the females’ eyes
+about Oberwesel are singularly blue.”
+
+They now approached Oberwesel, another of the once imperial towns, and
+behind it beheld the remains of the castle of the illustrious family of
+Schomberg, the ancestors of the old hero of the Boyne. A little farther
+on, from the opposite shore, the castle of Gutenfels rose above the busy
+town of Kaub.
+
+“Another of those scenes,” said Trevylyan, “celebrated equally by love
+and glory, for the castle’s name is derived from that of the beautiful
+ladye of an emperor’s passion; and below, upon a ridge in the steep,
+the great Gustavus issued forth his command to begin battle with the
+Spaniards.”
+
+“It looks peaceful enough now,” said Vane, pointing to the craft that
+lay along the stream, and the green trees drooping over a curve in the
+bank. Beyond, in the middle of the stream itself, stands the lonely
+castle of Pfalzgrafenstein, sadly memorable as a prison to the more
+distinguished of criminals. How many pining eyes may have turned from
+those casements to the vine-clad hills of the free shore! how many
+indignant hearts have nursed the deep curses of hate in the dungeons
+below, and longed for the wave that dashed against the gray walls to
+force its way within and set them free!
+
+Here the Rhine seems utterly bounded, shrunk into one of those delusive
+lakes into which it so frequently seems to change its course; and as you
+proceed, it is as if the waters were silently overflowing their channel
+and forcing their way into the clefts of the mountain shore. Passing the
+Werth Island on one side and the castle of Stahleck on the other,
+our voyagers arrived at Bacharach, which, associating the feudal
+recollections with the classic, takes its name from the god of the vine;
+and as Du-----e declared with peculiar emphasis, quaffing a large goblet
+of the peculiar liquor, “richly deserves the honour!”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII. THE VOYAGE TO BINGEN.--THE SIMPLE INCIDENTS IN THIS TALE
+EXCUSED.--THE SITUATION AND CHARACTER OF GERTRUDE.--THE CONVERSATION OF
+THE LOVERS IN THE TEMPEST.--A FACT CONTRADICTED.--THOUGHTS OCCASIONED BY
+A MADHOUSE AMONGST THE MOST BEAUTIFUL LANDSCAPES OF THE RHINE.
+
+THE next day they again resumed their voyage, and Gertrude’s spirits
+were more cheerful than usual. The air seemed to her lighter, and she
+breathed with a less painful effort; once more hope entered the breast
+of Trevylyan; and, as the vessel bounded on, their conversation was
+steeped in no sombre hues. When Gertrude’s health permitted, no temper
+was so gay, yet so gently gay, as hers; and now the _naive_ sportiveness
+of her remarks called a smile to the placid lip of Vane, and smoothed
+the anxious front of Trevylyan himself; as for Du-----e, who had much of
+the boon companion beneath his professional gravity, he broke out every
+now and then into snatches of French songs and drinking glees, which he
+declared were the result of the air of Bacharach. Thus conversing, the
+ruins of Furstenberg, and the echoing vale of Rheindeibach, glided past
+their sail; then the old town of Lorch, on the opposite bank (where the
+red wine is said first to have been made), with the green island before
+it in the water. Winding round, the stream showed castle upon castle
+alike in ruins, and built alike upon scarce accessible steeps. Then came
+the chapel of St. Clements and the opposing village of Asmannshausen;
+the lofty Rossell, built at the extremest verge of the cliff; and now
+the tower of Hatto, celebrated by Southey’s ballad, and the ancient
+town of Bingen. Here they paused a while from their voyage, with the
+intention of visiting more minutely the Rheingau, or valley of the
+Rhine.
+
+It must occur to every one of my readers, that, in undertaking, as now,
+in these passages in the history of Trevylyan, scarcely so much a tale
+as an episode in real life, it is very difficult to offer any interest
+save of the most simple and unexciting kind. It is true that to
+Trevylyan every day, every hour, had its incident; but what are those
+incidents to others? A cloud in the sky; a smile from the lip of
+Gertrude,--these were to him far more full of events than had been the
+most varied scenes of his former adventurous career; but the history of
+the heart is not easily translated into language; and the world will not
+readily pause from its business to watch the alternations in the cheek
+of a dying girl.
+
+In the immense sum of human existence what is a single unit? Every
+sod on which we tread is the grave of some former being; yet is there
+something that softens without enervating the heart in tracing in the
+life of another those emotions that all of us have known ourselves. For
+who is there that has not, in his progress through life, felt all its
+ordinary business arrested, and the varieties of fate commuted into one
+chronicle of the affections? Who has not watched over the passing away
+of some being, more to him at that epoch than all the world? And this
+unit, so trivial to the calculation of others, of what inestimable value
+was it not to him? Retracing in another such recollections, shadowed and
+mellowed down by time, we feel the wonderful sanctity of human life, we
+feel what emotions a single being can awake; what a world of hope may
+be buried in a single grave! And thus we keep alive within ourselves the
+soft springs of that morality which unites us with our kind, and sheds
+over the harsh scenes and turbulent contests of earth the colouring of a
+common love.
+
+There is often, too, in the time of year in which such thoughts are
+presented to us, a certain harmony with the feelings they awaken. As I
+write I hear the last sighs of the departing summer, and the sere and
+yellow leaf is visible in the green of nature. But when this book goes
+forth into the world, the year will have passed through a deeper cycle
+of decay; and the first melancholy signs of winter have breathed into
+the Universal Mind that sadness which associates itself readily with
+the memory of friends, of feelings, that are no more. The seasons, like
+ourselves, track their course by something of beauty, or of glory, that
+is left behind. As the traveller in the land of Palestine sees tomb
+after tomb rise before him, the landmarks of his way, and the only signs
+of the holiness of the soil, thus Memory wanders over the most sacred
+spots in its various world, and traces them but by the graves of the
+Past.
+
+It was now that Gertrude began to feel the shock her frame had received
+in the storm upon the Rhine. Cold shiverings frequently seized her; her
+cough became more hollow, and her form trembled at the slightest breeze.
+
+Vane grew seriously alarmed; he repented that he had yielded to
+Gertrude’s wish of substituting the Rhine for the Tiber or the Arno;
+and would even now have hurried across the Alps to a warmer clime, if
+Du-----e had not declared that she could not survive the journey,
+and that her sole chance of regaining her strength was rest. Gertrude
+herself, however, in the continued delusion of her disease, clung to
+the belief of recovery, and still supported the hopes of her father, and
+soothed, with secret talk of the future, the anguish of her betrothed.
+The reader may remember that in the most touching passage in the
+ancient tragedians, the most pathetic part of the most pathetic of
+human poets--the pleading speech of Iphigenia, when imploring for
+her prolonged life, she impresses you with so soft a picture of its
+innocence and its beauty, and in this Gertrude resembled the Greek’s
+creation--that she felt, on the verge of death, all the flush, the glow,
+the loveliness of life. Her youth was filled with hope and many-coloured
+dreams; she loved, and the hues of morning slept upon the yet
+disenchanted earth. The heavens to her were not as the common sky;
+the wave had its peculiar music to her ear, and the rustling leaves a
+pleasantness that none whose heart is not bathed in the love and sense
+of beauty could discern. Therefore it was, in future years, a thought
+of deep gratitude to Trevylyan that she was so little sensible of her
+danger; that the landscape caught not the gloom of the grave; and that,
+in the Greek phrase, “death found her sleeping amongst flowers.”
+
+At the end of a few days, another of those sudden turns, common to
+her malady, occurred in Gertrude’s health; her youth and her happiness
+rallied against the encroaching tyrant, and for the ensuing fortnight
+she seemed once more within the bounds of hope. During this time they
+made several excursions into the Rheingau, and finished their tour at
+the ancient Heidelberg.
+
+One morning, in these excursions, after threading the wood of
+Niederwald, they gained that small and fairy temple, which hanging
+lightly over the mountain’s brow, commands one of the noblest landscapes
+of earth. There, seated side by side, the lovers looked over the
+beautiful world below; far to the left lay the happy islets, in the
+embrace of the Rhine, as it wound along the low and curving meadows that
+stretch away towards Nieder-Ingelheim and Mayence. Glistening in the
+distance, the opposite Nah swept by the Mause tower, and the ruins of
+Klopp, crowning the ancient Bingen, into the mother tide. There, on
+either side the town, were the mountains of St. Roch and Rupert, with
+some old monastic ruin saddening in the sun. But nearer, below the
+temple, contrasting all the other features of landscape, yawned a dark
+and rugged gulf, girt by cragged elms and mouldering towers, the very
+prototype of the abyss of time,--black and fathomless amidst ruin and
+desolation.
+
+“I think sometimes,” said Gertrude, “as in scenes like these we sit
+together, and rapt from the actual world, see only the enchantment that
+distance lends to our view,--I think sometimes what pleasure it will be
+hereafter to recall these hours. If ever you should love me less, I need
+only whisper to you, ‘The Rhine,’ and will not all the feelings you have
+now for me return?”
+
+“Ah, there will never be occasion to recall my love for you,--it can
+never decay.”
+
+“What a strange thing is life!” said Gertrude; “how unconnected, how
+desultory seem all its links! Has this sweet pause from trouble, from
+the ordinary cares of life--has it anything in common with your past
+career, with your future? You will go into the great world; in a few
+years hence these moments of leisure and musing will be denied to you.
+The action that you love and court is a jealous sphere,--it allows no
+wandering, no repose. These moments will then seem to you but as yonder
+islands that stud the Rhine,--the stream lingers by them for a moment,
+and then hurries on in its rapid course; they vary, but they do not
+interrupt the tide.”
+
+“You are fanciful, my Gertrude; but your simile might be juster. Rather
+let these banks be as our lives, and this river the one thought that
+flows eternally by both, blessing each with undying freshness.”
+
+Gertrude smiled; and, as Trevylyan’s arm encircled her, she sank her
+beautiful face upon his bosom, he covered it with his kisses, and she
+thought at the moment, that, even had she passed death, that embrace
+could have recalled her to life.
+
+They pursued their course to Mayence, partly by land, partly along
+the river. One day, as returning from the vine-clad mountains of
+Johannisberg, which commands the whole of the Rheingau, the most
+beautiful valley in the world, they proceeded by water to the town of
+Ellfeld, Gertrude said,--
+
+“There is a thought in your favourite poet which you have often
+repeated, and which I cannot think true,--
+
+  “‘In nature there is nothing melancholy.’
+
+“To me, it seems as if a certain melancholy were inseparable from
+beauty; in the sunniest noon there is a sense of solitude and stillness
+which pervades the landscape, and even in the flush of life inspires us
+with a musing and tender sadness. Why is this?”
+
+“I cannot tell,” said Trevylyan, mournfully; “but I allow that it is
+true.”
+
+“It is as if,” continued the romantic Gertrude, “the spirit of the
+world spoke to us in the silence, and filled us with a sense of our
+mortality,--a whisper from the religion that belongs to nature, and is
+ever seeking to unite the earth with the reminiscences of Heaven. Ah,
+what without a heaven would be even love!--a perpetual terror of the
+separation that must one day come! If,” she resumed solemnly, after a
+momentary pause, and a shadow settled on her young face, “if it be true,
+Albert, that I must leave you soon--”
+
+“It cannot! it cannot!” cried Trevylyan, wildly; “be still, be silent, I
+beseech you.”
+
+“Look yonder,” said Du-----e, breaking seasonably in upon the
+conversation of the lovers; “on that hill to the left, what once was
+an abbey is now an asylum for the insane. Does it not seem a quiet and
+serene abode for the unstrung and erring minds that tenant it? What
+a mystery is there in our conformation!--those strange and bewildered
+fancies which replace our solid reason, what a moral of our human
+weakness do they breathe!”
+
+It does indeed induce a dark and singular train of thought, when, in the
+midst of these lovely scenes, we chance upon this lone retreat for those
+on whose eyes Nature, perhaps, smiles in vain. _Or is it in vain?_ They
+look down upon the broad Rhine, with its tranquil isles: do their wild
+delusions endow the river with another name, and people the valleys
+with no living shapes? Does the broken mirror within reflect back the
+countenance of real things, or shadows and shapes, crossed, mingled, and
+bewildered,--the phantasma of a sick man’s dreams? Yet, perchance, one
+memory unscathed by the general ruin of the brain can make even the
+beautiful Rhine more beautiful than it is to the common eye; can calm
+it with the hues of departed love, and bids its possessor walk over its
+vine-clad mountains with the beings that have ceased to _be_! There,
+perhaps, the self-made monarch sits upon his throne and claims the
+vessels as his fleet, the waves and the valleys as his own; there, the
+enthusiast, blasted by the light of some imaginary creed, beholds the
+shapes of angels, and watches in the clouds round the setting sun
+the pavilions of God; there the victim of forsaken or perished love,
+mightier than the sorcerers of old, evokes the dead, or recalls the
+faithless by the philter of undying fancies. Ah, blessed art thou, the
+winged power of Imagination that is within us! conquering even grief,
+brightening even despair. Thou takest us from the world when reason can
+no longer bind us to it, and givest to the maniac the inspiration and
+the solace of the bard! Thou, the parent of the purer love, lingerest
+like love, when even ourself forsakes us, and lightest up the shattered
+chambers of the heart with the glory that makes a sanctity of decay.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX. ELLFELD.--MAYENCE.--HEIDELBERG.--A CONVERSATION BETWEEN
+VANE AND THE GERMAN STUDENT.--THE RUINS OF THE CASTLE OF HEIDELBERG AND
+ITS SOLITARY HABITANT.
+
+IT was now the full noon; light clouds were bearing up towards the
+opposite banks of the Rhine, but over the Gothic towers of Ellfeld the
+sky spread blue and clear; the river danced beside the old gray walls
+with a sunny wave, and close at hand a vessel crowded with passengers,
+and loud with eager voices, gave a merry life to the scene. On the
+opposite bank the hills sloped away into the far horizon, and one slight
+skiff in the midst of the waters broke the solitary brightness of the
+noonday calm.
+
+The town of Ellfeld was the gift of Otho the First to the Church;
+not far from thence is the crystal spring that gives its name to the
+delicious grape of Markbrunner.
+
+“Ah,” quoth Du-----e, “doubtless the good bishops of Mayence made the
+best of the vicinity!”
+
+They stayed some little time at this town, and visited the ruins of
+Scharfenstein; thence proceeding up the river, they passed Nieder
+Walluf, called the Gate of the Rheingau, and the luxuriant garden of
+Schierstein; thence, sailing by the castle-seat of the Prince Nassau
+Usingen, and passing two long and narrow isles, they arrived at Mayence,
+as the sun shot his last rays upon the waters, gilding the proud
+cathedral-spire, and breaking the mists that began to gather behind,
+over the rocks of the Rheingau.
+
+Ever memorable Mayence,--memorable alike for freedom and for song,
+within those walls how often woke the gallant music of the Troubadour;
+and how often beside that river did the heart of the maiden tremble to
+the lay! Within those walls the stout Walpoden first broached the great
+scheme of the Hanseatic league; and, more than all, O memorable Mayence,
+thou canst claim the first invention of the mightiest engine of human
+intellect,--the great leveller of power, the Demiurgus of the moral
+world,--the Press! Here too lived the maligned hero of the greatest
+drama of modern genius, the traditionary Faust, illustrating in himself
+the fate of his successors in dispensing knowledge,--held a monster for
+his wisdom, and consigned to the penalties of hell as a recompense for
+the benefits he had conferred on earth!
+
+At Mayence, Gertrude heard so much and so constantly of Heidelberg,
+that she grew impatient to visit that enchanting town; and as Du-----e
+considered the air of Heidelberg more pure and invigorating than that of
+Mayence, they resolved to fix within it their temporary residence.
+Alas! it was the place destined to close their brief and melancholy
+pilgrimage, and to become to the heart of Trevylyan the holiest spot
+which the earth contained,--the KAABA of the world. But Gertrude,
+unconscious of her fate, conversed gayly as their carriage rolled
+rapidly on, and, constantly alive to every new sensation, she touched
+with her characteristic vivacity on all that they had seen in their
+previous route. There is a great charm in the observations of one new
+to the world; if we ourselves have become somewhat tired of “its hack
+sights and sounds,” we hear in their freshness a voice from our own
+youth.
+
+In the haunted valley of the Neckar, the most crystal of rivers, stands
+the town of Heidelberg. The shades of evening gathered round it as their
+heavy carriage rattled along the antique streets, and not till the next
+day was Gertrude aware of all the unrivalled beauties that environ the
+place.
+
+Vane, who was an early riser, went forth alone in the morning to
+reconnoitre the town; and as he was gazing on the tower of St. Peter,
+he heard himself suddenly accosted. He turned round and saw the German
+student whom they had met among the mountains of Taunus at his elbow.
+
+“Monsieur has chosen well in coming hither,” said the student; “and I
+trust our town will not disappoint his expectations.” Vane answered with
+courtesy, and the German offering to accompany him in his walk, their
+conversation fell naturally on the life of a university, and the current
+education of the German people.
+
+“It is surprising,” said the student, “that men are eternally inventing
+new systems of education, and yet persevering in the old. How many
+years ago is it since Fichte predicted in the system of Pestalozzi
+the regeneration of the German people? What has it done? We admire, we
+praise, and we blunder on in the very course Pestalozzi proves to
+be erroneous. Certainly,” continued the student, “there must be some
+radical defect in a system of culture in which genius is an exception,
+and dulness the result. Yet here, in our German universities, everything
+proves that education without equitable institutions avails little in
+the general formation of character. Here the young men of the colleges
+mix on the most equal terms; they are daring, romantic, enamoured of
+freedom even to its madness. They leave the University: no political
+career continues the train of mind they had acquired; they plunge into
+obscurity; live scattered and separate, and the student inebriated
+with Schiller sinks into the passive priest or the lethargic baron. His
+college career, so far from indicating his future life, exactly reverses
+it: he is brought up in one course in order to proceed in another. And
+this I hold to be the universal error of education in all countries;
+they conceive it a certain something to be finished at a certain age.
+They do not make it a part of the continuous history of life, but a
+wandering from it.”
+
+“You have been in England?” asked Vane.
+
+“Yes; I have travelled over nearly the whole of it on foot. I was poor
+at that time, and imagining there was a sort of masonry between all men
+of letters, I inquired at each town for the _savants_, and asked money
+of them as a matter of course.”
+
+Vane almost laughed outright at the simplicity and naive unconsciousness
+of degradation with which the student proclaimed himself a public
+beggar.
+
+“And how did you generally succeed?”
+
+“In most cases I was threatened with the stocks, and twice I was
+consigned by the _juge de paix_ to the village police, to be passed
+to some mystic Mecca they were pleased to entitle ‘a parish.’ Ah”
+ (continued the German with much _bonhomie_), “it was a pity to see in a
+great nation so much value attached to such a trifle as money. But what
+surprised me greatly was the tone of your poetry. Madame de Stael, who
+knew perhaps as much of England as she did of Germany, tells us that its
+chief character is the _chivalresque_; and, excepting only Scott, who,
+by the way, is _not_ English, I did not find one chivalrous poet among
+you. Yet,” continued the student, “between ourselves, I fancy that in
+our present age of civilization, there is an unexamined mistake in the
+general mind as to the value of poetry. It delights still as ever, but
+it has ceased to teach. The prose of the heart enlightens, touches,
+rouses, far more than poetry. Your most philosophical poets would be
+commonplace if turned into prose. Verse cannot contain the refining
+subtle thoughts which a great prose writer embodies; the rhyme eternally
+cripples it; it properly deals with the common problems of human nature,
+which are now hackneyed, and not with the nice and philosophizing
+corollaries which may be drawn from them. Thus, though it would seem
+at first a paradox, commonplace is more the element of poetry than of
+prose.”
+
+This sentiment charmed Vane, who had nothing of the poet about him;
+and he took the student to share their breakfast at the inn, with
+a complacency he rarely experienced at the remeeting with a new
+acquaintance.
+
+After breakfast, our party proceeded through the town towards the
+wonderful castle which is its chief attraction, and the noblest wreck of
+German grandeur.
+
+And now pausing, the mountain yet unscaled, the stately ruin frowned
+upon them, girt by its massive walls and hanging terraces, round which
+from place to place clung the dwarfed and various foliage. High at the
+rear rose the huge mountain, covered, save at its extreme summit, with
+dark trees, and concealing in its mysterious breast the shadowy beings
+of the legendary world. But towards the ruins, and up a steep ascent,
+you may see a few scattered sheep thinly studding the broken ground.
+Aloft, above the ramparts, rose, desolate and huge, the Palace of the
+Electors of the Palatinate. In its broken walls you may trace the tokens
+of the lightning that blasted its ancient pomp, but still leaves in the
+vast extent of pile a fitting monument of the memory of Charlemagne.
+Below, in the distance, spread the plain far and spacious, till the
+shadowy river, with one solitary sail upon its breast, united the
+melancholy scene of earth with the autumnal sky.
+
+“See,” said Vane, pointing to two peasants who were conversing near
+them on the matters of their little trade, utterly unconscious of the
+associations of the spot, “see, after all that is said and done about
+human greatness, it is always the greatness of the few. Ages pass, and
+leave the poor herd, the mass of men, eternally the same,--hewers of
+wood and drawers of water. The pomp of princes has its ebb and flow, but
+the peasant sells his fruit as gayly to the stranger on the ruins as to
+the emperor in the palace.”
+
+“Will it be always so?” said the student.
+
+“Let us hope not, for the sake of permanence in glory,” said Trevylyan.
+“Had _a people_ built yonder palace, its splendour would never have
+passed away.”
+
+Vane shrugged his shoulders, and Du-----e took snuff.
+
+But all the impressions produced by the castle at a distance are as
+nothing when you stand within its vast area and behold the architecture
+of all ages blended into one mighty ruin! The rich hues of the masonry,
+the sweeping facades--every description of building which man ever
+framed for war or for luxury--is here; all having only the common
+character,--RUIN. The feudal rampart, the yawning fosse, the rude tower,
+the splendid arch, the strength of a fortress, the magnificence of a
+palace,--all united, strike upon the soul like the history of a fallen
+empire in all its epochs.
+
+“There is one singular habitant of these ruins,” said the student,--“a
+solitary painter, who has dwelt here some twenty years, companioned only
+by his Art. No other apartment but that which he tenants is occupied by
+a human being.”
+
+“What a poetical existence!” cried Gertrude, enchanted with a solitude
+so full of associations.
+
+“Perhaps so,” said the cruel Vane, ever anxious to dispel an illusion,
+“but more probably custom has deadened to him all that overpowers
+ourselves with awe; and he may tread among these ruins rather seeking to
+pick up some rude morsel of antiquity, than feeding his imagination with
+the dim traditions that invest them with so august a poetry.”
+
+“Monsieur’s conjecture has something of the truth in it,” said the
+German; “but then the painter is a Frenchman.”
+
+There is a sense of fatality in the singular mournfulness and majesty
+which belong to the ruins of Heidelberg, contrasting the vastness of the
+strength with the utterness of the ruin. It has been twice struck with
+lightning, and is the wreck of the elements, not of man; during the
+great siege it sustained, the lightning is supposed to have struck the
+powder magazine by accident.
+
+What a scene for some great imaginative work! What a mocking
+interference of the wrath of nature in the puny contests of men! One
+stroke of “the red right arm” above us, crushing the triumph of ages,
+and laughing to scorn the power of the beleaguers and the valour of the
+besieged!
+
+They passed the whole day among these stupendous ruins, and felt, when
+they descended to their inn, as if they had left the caverns of some
+mighty tomb.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX. NO PART OF THE EARTH REALLY SOLITARY.--THE SONG OF THE
+FAIRIES.--THE SACRED SPOT.--THE WITCH OF THE EVIL WINDS.--THE SPELL AND
+THE DUTY OF THE FAIRIES.
+
+BUT in what spot of the world is there ever utter solitude? The vanity
+of man supposes that loneliness is _his_ absence! Who shall say what
+millions of spiritual beings glide invisibly among scenes apparently the
+most deserted? Or what know we of our own mechanism, that we should deny
+the possibility of life and motion to things that we cannot ourselves
+recognize?
+
+At moonlight, in the Great Court of Heidelberg, on the borders of the
+shattered basin overgrown with weeds, the following song was heard by
+the melancholy shades that roam at night through the mouldering halls of
+old, and the gloomy hollows in the mountain of Heidelberg.
+
+
+
+SONG OF THE FAIRIES IN THE RUINS OF HEIDELBERG.
+
+     From the woods and the glossy green,
+       With the wild thyme strewn;
+     From the rivers whose crisped sheen
+       Is kissed by the trembling moon;
+     While the dwarf looks out from his mountain cave,
+       And the erl king from his lair,
+     And the water-nymph from her moaning wave,
+       We skirr the limber air.
+
+     There’s a smile on the vine-clad shore,
+       A smile on the castled heights;
+     They dream back the days of yore,
+       And they smile at our roundel rites!
+                    Our roundel rites!
+
+     Lightly we tread these halls around,
+       Lightly tread we;
+     Yet, hark! we have scared with a single sound
+       The moping owl on the breathless tree,
+                    And the goblin sprites!
+     Ha, ha! we have scared with a single sound
+       The old gray owl on the breathless tree,
+                    And the goblin sprites!
+
+
+
+“They come not,” said Pipalee; “yet the banquet is prepared, and the
+poor queen will be glad of some refreshment.”
+
+“What a pity! all the rose-leaves will be over-broiled,” said Nip.
+
+“Let us amuse ourselves with the old painter,” quoth Trip, springing
+over the ruins.
+
+“Well said,” cried Pipalee and Nip; and all three, leaving my lord
+treasurer amazed at their levity, whisked into the painter’s apartment.
+Permitting them to throw the ink over their victim’s papers, break his
+pencils, mix his colours, mislay his nightcap, and go whiz against his
+face in the shape of a great bat, till the astonished Frenchman began
+to think the pensive goblins of the place had taken a sprightly fit,--we
+hasten to a small green spot some little way from the town, in the
+valley of the Neckar, and by the banks of its silver stream. It was
+circled round by dark trees, save on that side bordered by the river.
+The wild-flowers sprang profusely from the turf, which yet was smooth
+and singularly green. And there was the German fairy describing a
+circle round the spot, and making his elvish spells; and Nymphalin sat
+droopingly in the centre, shading her face, which was bowed down as the
+head of a water-lily, and weeping crystal tears.
+
+There came a hollow murmur through the trees, and a rush as of a mighty
+wind, and a dark form emerged from the shadow and approached the spot.
+
+The face was wrinkled and old, and stern with a malevolent and evil
+aspect. The frame was lean and gaunt, and supported by a staff, and a
+short gray mantle covered its bended shoulders.
+
+“Things of the moonbeam!” said the form, in a shrill and ghastly voice,
+“what want ye here; and why charm ye this spot from the coming of me and
+mine?”
+
+“Dark witch of the blight and blast,” answered the fairy, “THOU that
+nippest the herb in its tender youth, and eatest up the core of the
+soft bud; behold, it is but a small spot that the fairies claim from
+thy demesnes, and on which, through frost and heat, they will keep the
+herbage green and the air gentle in its sighs!”
+
+“And, wherefore, O dweller in the crevices of the earth, wherefore
+wouldst thou guard this spot from the curses of the seasons?”
+
+“We know by our instinct,” answered the fairy, “that this spot will
+become the grave of one whom the fairies love; hither, by an unfelt
+influence, shall we guide her yet living steps; and in gazing upon this
+spot shall the desire of quiet and the resignation to death steal upon
+her soul. Behold, throughout the universe, all things are at war with
+one another,--the lion with the lamb; the serpent with the bird; and
+even the gentlest bird itself with the moth of the air; or the worm of
+the humble earth! What then to men, and to the spirits transcending
+men, is so lovely and so sacred as a being that harmeth none; what so
+beautiful as Innocence; what so mournful as its untimely tomb? And shall
+not that tomb be sacred; shall it not be our peculiar care? May we not
+mourn over it as at the passing away of some fair miracle in Nature,
+too tender to endure, too rare to be forgotten? It is for this, O dread
+waker of the blast, that the fairies would consecrate this little spot;
+for this they would charm away from its tranquil turf the wandering
+ghoul and the evil children of the night. Here, not the ill-omened owl,
+nor the blind bat, nor the unclean worm shall come. And thou shouldst
+have neither will nor power to nip the flowers of spring, nor sear the
+green herbs of summer. Is it not, dark mother of the evil winds,--is
+it not _our_ immemorial office to tend the grave of Innocence, and keep
+fresh the flowers round the resting-place of Virgin Love?”
+
+Then the witch drew her cloak round her, and muttered to herself, and
+without further answer turned away among the trees and vanished, as the
+breath of the east wind, which goeth with her as her comrade, scattered
+the melancholy leaves along her path!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI. GERTRUDE AND TREVYLYAN, WHEN THE FORMER IS AWAKENED TO THE
+APPROACH OF DEATH.
+
+THE next day, Gertrude and her companions went along the banks of the
+haunted Neckar. She had passed a sleepless and painful night, and her
+evanescent and childlike spirits had sobered down into a melancholy and
+thoughtful mood. She leaned back in an open carriage with Trevylyan,
+ever constant, by her side, while Du-----e and Vane rode slowly in
+advance. Trevylyan tried in vain to cheer her; even his attempts
+(usually so eagerly received) to charm her duller moments by tale or
+legend were, in this instance, fruitless. She shook her head gently,
+pressed his hand, and said, “No, dear Trevylyan, no; even your art fails
+to-day, but your kindness never!” and pressing his hand to her lips, she
+burst passionately into tears.
+
+Alarmed and anxious, he clasped her to his breast, and strove to lift
+her face, as it drooped on its resting-place, and kiss away its tears.
+“Oh,” said she, at length, “do not despise my weakness; I am overcome
+by my own thoughts: I look upon the world, and see that it is fair and
+good; I look upon you, and I see all that I can venerate and adore. Life
+seems to me so sweet, and the earth so lovely; can you wonder, then,
+that I should shrink at the thought of death? Nay, interrupt me not,
+dear Albert; the thought must be borne and braved. I have not cherished,
+I have not yielded to it through my long-increasing illness; but there
+have been times when it has forced itself upon me, and now, _now_ more
+palpably than ever. Do not think me weak and childish. I never feared
+death till I knew you; but to see you no more,--never again to touch
+this dear hand, never to thank you for your love, never to be sensible
+of your care,--to lie down and sleep, _and never, never, once more to
+dream of you_! Ah, that is a bitter thought! but I will brave it,--yes,
+brave it as one worthy of your regard.”
+
+Trevylyan, choked by his emotions, covered his own face with his hands,
+and, leaning back in the carriage, vainly struggled with his sobs.
+
+“Perhaps,” she said, yet ever and anon clinging to the hope that had
+utterly abandoned _him_, “perhaps, I may yet deceive myself; and my love
+for you, which seems to me as if it could conquer death, may bear me up
+against this fell disease. The hope to live with you, to watch you, to
+share your high dreams, and oh! above all, to soothe you in sorrow and
+sickness, as you have soothed me--has not that hope something that may
+support even this sinking frame? And who shall love thee as I love; who
+see thee as I have seen; who pray for thee in gratitude and tears as I
+have prayed? Oh, Albert, so little am I jealous of you, so little do I
+think of myself in comparison, that I could close my eyes happily on the
+world if I knew that what I could be to thee another will be!”
+
+“Gertrude,” said Trevylyan, and lifting up his colourless face, he gazed
+upon her with an earnest and calm solemnity, “Gertrude, let us be united
+at once! If Fate must sever us, let her cut the last tie too; let us
+feel that at least upon earth we have been all in all to each other;
+let us defy death, even as it frowns upon us. Be mine to-morrow--this
+day--oh, God! be mine!”
+
+Over even that pale countenance, beneath whose hues the lamp of life so
+faintly fluttered, a deep, radiant flush passed one moment, lighting up
+the beautiful ruin with the glow of maiden youth and impassioned hope,
+and then died rapidly away.
+
+“No, Albert,” she said sighing; “no! it must not be. Far easier would
+come the pang to you, while yet we are not wholly united; and for my own
+part I am selfish, and feel as if I should leave a tenderer remembrance
+on your heart thus parted,--tenderer, but not so sad. I would not wish
+you to feel yourself widowed to my memory; I would not cling like a
+blight to your fair prospects of the future. Remember me rather as a
+dream,--as something never wholly won, and therefore asking no fidelity
+but that of kind and forbearing thoughts. Do you remember one evening
+as we sailed along the Rhine--ah! happy, happy hour!--that we heard from
+the banks a strain of music,--not so skilfully played as to be worth
+listening to for itself, but, suiting as it did the hour and the scene,
+we remained silent, that we might hear it the better; and when it died
+insensibly upon the waters, a certain melancholy stole over us; we felt
+that a something that softened the landscape had gone, and we conversed
+less lightly than before? Just so, my own loved, my own adored
+Trevylyan, just so is the influence that our brief love, your poor
+Gertrude’s existence, should bequeath to your remembrance. A sound,
+a presence, should haunt you for a little while, but no more, ere you
+again become sensible of the glories that court your way!”
+
+But as Gertrude said this, she turned to Trevylyan, and seeing his
+agony, she could refrain no longer; she felt that to soothe was to
+insult; and throwing herself upon his breast, they mingled their tears
+together.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII. A SPOT TO BE BURIED IN.
+
+ON their return homeward, Du-----e took the third seat in the carriage,
+and endeavoured, with his usual vivacity, to cheer the spirits of his
+companions; and such was the elasticity of Gertrude’s nature, that with
+her, he, to a certain degree, succeeded in his kindly attempt. Quickly
+alive to the charms of scenery, she entered by degrees into the external
+beauties which every turn in the road opened to their view; and the
+silvery smoothness of the river, that made the constant attraction
+of the landscape, the serenity of the time, and the clearness of the
+heavens, tended to tranquillize a mind that, like a sunflower, so
+instinctively turned from the shadow to the light.
+
+Once Du-----e stopped the carriage in a spot of herbage, bedded among
+the trees, and said to Gertrude, “We are now in one of the many places
+along the Neckar which your favourite traditions serve to consecrate.
+Amidst yonder copses, in the early ages of Christianity, there dwelt a
+hermit, who, though young in years, was renowned for the sanctity of his
+life. None knew whence he came, nor for what cause he had limited the
+circle of life to the seclusion of his cell. He rarely spoke, save when
+his ghostly advice or his kindly prayer was needed; he lived upon herbs,
+and the wild fruits which the peasants brought to his cave; and every
+morning and every evening he came to this spot to fill his pitcher from
+the water of the stream. But here he was observed to linger long after
+his task was done, and to sit gazing upon the walls of a convent which
+then rose upon the opposite side of the bank, though now even its ruins
+are gone. Gradually his health gave way beneath the austerities he
+practised; and one evening he was found by some fishermen insensible on
+the turf. They bore him for medical aid to the opposite convent; and one
+of the sisterhood, the daughter of a prince, was summoned to attend
+the recluse. But when his eyes opened upon hers, a sudden recognition
+appeared to seize both. He spoke; and the sister threw herself on the
+couch of the dying man, and shrieked forth a name, the most famous in
+the surrounding country,--the name of a once noted minstrel, who, in
+those rude times, had mingled the poet with the lawless chief, and was
+supposed, years since, to have fallen in one of the desperate frays
+between prince and outlaw, which were then common; storming the very
+castle which held her, now the pious nun, then the beauty and presider
+over the tournament and galliard. In her arms the spirit of the hermit
+passed away. She survived but a few hours, and left conjecture busy with
+a history to which it never obtained further clew. Many a troubadour in
+later times furnished forth in poetry the details which truth refused to
+supply; and the place where the hermit at sunrise and sunset ever came
+to gaze upon the convent became consecrated by song.”
+
+The place invested with this legendary interest was impressed with a
+singular aspect of melancholy quiet; wildflowers yet lingered on the
+turf, whose grassy sedges gently overhung the Neckar, that murmured
+amidst them with a plaintive music. Not a wind stirred the trees; but at
+a little distance from the place, the spire of a church rose amidst the
+copse; and, as they paused, they suddenly heard from the holy building
+the bell that summons to the burial of the dead. It came on the ear in
+such harmony with the spot, with the hour, with the breathing calm, that
+it thrilled to the heart of each with an inexpressible power. It was
+like the voice of another world, that amidst the solitude of nature
+summoned the lulled spirit from the cares of this; it invited, not
+repulsed, and had in its tone more of softness than of awe.
+
+Gertrude turned, with tears starting to her eyes, and, laying her hand
+on Trevylyan’s, whispered, “In such a spot, so calm, so sequestered, yet
+in the neighbourhood of the house of God, would I wish this broken frame
+to be consigned to rest.”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THE LAST. THE CONCLUSION OF THIS TALE.
+
+FROM that day Gertrude’s spirit resumed its wonted cheerfulness, and for
+the ensuing week she never reverted to her approaching fate; she seemed
+once more to have grown unconscious of its limit. Perhaps she sought,
+anxious for Trevylyan to the last, not to throw additional gloom over
+their earthly separation; or, perhaps, once steadily regarding the
+certainty of her doom, its terrors vanished. The chords of thought,
+vibrating to the subtlest emotions, may be changed by a single incident,
+or in a single hour; a sound of sacred music, a green and quiet
+burial-place, may convert the form of death into the aspect of an angel.
+And therefore wisely, and with a beautiful lore, did the Greeks strip
+the grave of its unreal gloom; wisely did they body forth the great
+principle of Rest by solemn and lovely images, unconscious of the
+northern madness that made a Spectre of REPOSE!
+
+But while Gertrude’s _spirit_ resumed its healthful tone, her _frame_
+rapidly declined, and a few days now could do the ravage of months a
+little while before.
+
+One evening, amidst the desolate ruins of Heidelberg, Trevylyan, who had
+gone forth alone to indulge the thoughts which he strove to stifle in
+Gertrude’s presence, suddenly encountered Vane. That calm and almost
+callous pupil of the adversities of the world was standing alone, and
+gazing upon the shattered casements and riven tower, through which the
+sun now cast its slant and parting ray.
+
+Trevylyan, who had never loved this cold and unsusceptible man, save
+for the sake of Gertrude, felt now almost a hatred creep over him, as he
+thought in such a time, and with death fastening upon the flower of his
+house, he could yet be calm, and smile, and muse, and moralize, and play
+the common part of the world. He strode slowly up to him, and standing
+full before him, said with a hollow voice and writhing smile, “You amuse
+yourself pleasantly, sir: this is a fine scene; and to meditate over
+griefs a thousand years hushed to rest is better than watching over a
+sick girl and eating away your heart with fear!”
+
+Vane looked at him quietly, but intently, and made no reply.
+
+“Vane!” continued Trevylyan, with the same preternatural attempt at
+calm, “Vane, in a few days all will be over, and you and I, the things,
+the plotters, the false men of the world, will be left alone,--left by
+the sole being that graces our dull life, that makes by her love either
+of us worthy of a thought!”
+
+Vane started, and turned away his face. “You are cruel,” said he, with a
+faltering voice.
+
+“What, man!” shouted Trevylyan, seizing him abruptly by the arm, “can
+_you_ feel? Is your cold heart touched? Come then,” added he, with a
+wild laugh, “come, let us be friends!”
+
+Vane drew himself aside, with a certain dignity, that impressed
+Trevylyan even at that hour. “Some years hence,” said he, “you will
+be called cold as I am; sorrow will teach you the wisdom of
+indifference--it is a bitter school, sir,--a bitter school! But think
+you that I do indeed see unmoved my last hope shivered,--the last tie
+that binds me to my kind? No, no! I feel it as a man may feel; I cloak
+it as a man grown gray in misfortune should do! My child is more to
+me than your betrothed to you; for you are young and wealthy, and life
+smiles before you; but I--no more--sir, no more!”
+
+“Forgive me,” said Trevylyan, humbly, “I have wronged you; but
+Gertrude is an excuse for any crime of love; and now listen to my last
+prayer,--give her to me, even on the verge of the grave. Death cannot
+seize her in the arms, in the vigils of a love like mine.”
+
+Vane shuddered. “It were to wed the dead,” said he. “No!”
+
+Trevylyan drew back, and without another word, hurried away; he returned
+to the town; he sought, with methodical calmness, the owner of the piece
+of ground in which Gertrude had wished to be buried. He purchased it,
+and that very night he sought the priest of a neighbouring church,
+and directed it should be consecrated according to the due rite and
+ceremonial.
+
+The priest, an aged and pious man, was struck by the request, and the
+air of him who made it.
+
+“Shall it be done forthwith, sir?” said he, hesitating.
+
+“Forthwith,” answered Trevylyan, with a calm smile,--“a bridegroom, you
+know, is naturally impatient.”
+
+For the next three days, Gertrude was so ill as to be confined to her
+bed. All that time Trevylyan sat outside her door, without speaking,
+scarcely lifting his eyes from the ground. The attendants passed to and
+fro,--he heeded them not; perhaps as even the foreign menials turned
+aside and wiped their eyes, and prayed God to comfort him, he required
+compassion less at that time than any other. There is a stupefaction
+in woe, and the heart sleeps without a pang when exhausted by its
+afflictions.
+
+But on the fourth day Gertrude rose, and was carried down (how changed,
+yet how lovely ever!) to their common apartment. During those three days
+the priest had been with her often, and her spirit, full of religion
+from her childhood, had been unspeakably soothed by his comfort. She
+took food from the hand of Trevylyan; she smiled upon him as sweetly as
+of old. She conversed with him, though with a faint voice, and at broken
+intervals. But she felt no pain; life ebbed away gradually, and without
+a pang. “My father,” she said to Vane, whose features still bore their
+usual calm, whatever might have passed within, “I know that you will
+grieve when I am gone more than the world might guess; for I alone know
+what you were years ago, ere friends left you and fortune frowned,
+and ere my poor mother died. But do not--do not believe that hope and
+comfort leave you with me. Till the heaven pass away from the earth
+there shall be comfort and hope for all.”
+
+They did not lodge in the town, but had fixed their abode on its
+outskirts, and within sight of the Neckar; and from the window they saw
+a light sail gliding gayly by till it passed, and solitude once more
+rested upon the waters.
+
+“The sail passes from our eyes,” said Gertrude, pointing to it, “but
+still it glides on as happily though we see it no more; and I feel--yes,
+Father, I feel--I know that it is so with _us_. We glide down the river
+of time from the eyes of men, but we cease not the less to _be_!”
+
+And now, as the twilight descended, she expressed a wish, before she
+retired to rest, to be left alone with Trevylyan. He was not then
+sitting by her side, for he would not trust himself to do so, but with
+his face averted, at a little distance from her. She called him by his
+name; he answered not, nor turned. Weak as she was, she raised herself
+from the sofa, and crept gently along the floor till she came to him,
+and sank in his arms.
+
+“Ah, unkind!” she said, “unkind for once! Will you turn away from me?
+Come, let us look once more on the river: see! the night darkens over
+it. Our pleasant voyage, the type of our love, is finished; our sail may
+be unfurled no more. Never again can your voice soothe the lassitude of
+sickness with the legend and the song; the course is run, the vessel is
+broken up, night closes over its fragments; but now, in this hour, love
+me, be kind to me as ever. Still let me be your own Gertrude, still let
+me close my eyes this night, as before, with the sweet consciousness
+that I am loved.”
+
+“Loved! O Gertrude! speak not to me thus!”
+
+“Come, that is yourself again!” and she clung with weak arms caressingly
+to his breast. “And now,” she said more solemnly, “let us forget that we
+are mortal; let us remember only that life is a part, not the whole,
+of our career; let us feel in this soft hour, and while yet we are
+unsevered, the presence of The Eternal that is within us, so that it
+shall not be as death, but as a short absence; and when once the pang of
+parting is over, you must think only that we are shortly to meet again.
+What! you turn from me still? See, I do not weep or grieve, I have
+conquered the pang of our absence; will you be outdone by me? Do you
+remember, Albert, that you once told me how the wisest of the sages of
+old, in prison, and before death, consoled his friends with the proof
+of the immortality of the soul? Is it not a consolation; does it not
+suffice; or will you deem it wise from the lips of wisdom, but vain from
+the lips of love?”
+
+“Hush, hush!” said Trevylyan, wildly; “or I shall think you an angel
+already.”
+
+But let us close this commune, and leave unrevealed the _last_ sacred
+words that ever passed between them upon earth.
+
+When Vane and the physician stole back softly into the room, Trevylyan
+motioned to them to be still. “She sleeps,” he whispered; “hush!” And
+in truth, wearied out by her own emotions, and lulled by the belief
+that she had soothed one with whom her heart dwelt now, as ever, she had
+fallen into sleep, or it may be, insensibility, on his breast. There
+as she lay, so fair, so frail, so delicate, the twilight deepened into
+shade, and the first star, like the hope of the future, broke forth upon
+the darkness of the earth.
+
+Nothing could equal the stillness without, save that which lay
+breathlessly within. For not one of the group stirred or spoke, and
+Trevylyan, bending over her, never took his eyes from her face, watching
+the parted lips, and fancying that he imbibed the breath. Alas, the
+breath was stilled! from sleep to death she had glided without a
+sigh,--happy, most happy in that death! cradled in the arms of unchanged
+love, and brightened in her last thought by the consciousness of
+innocence and the assurances of Heaven!
+
+.......
+
+Trevylyan, after a long sojourn on the Continent, returned to England.
+He plunged into active life, and became what is termed in this age
+of little names a distinguished and noted man. But what was mainly
+remarkable in his future conduct was his impatience of rest. He
+eagerly courted all occupations, even of the most varied and motley
+kind,--business, letters, ambition, pleasure. He suffered no pause in
+his career; and leisure to him was as care to others. He lived in
+the world, as the worldly do, discharging its duties, fostering its
+affections, and fulfilling its career. But there was a deep and wintry
+change within him,--_the sunlight of his life was gone_; the loveliness
+of romance had left the earth. The stem was proof as heretofore to the
+blast, but the green leaves were severed from it forever, and the bird
+had forsaken its boughs. Once he had idolized the beauty that is born of
+song, the glory and the ardour that invest such thoughts as are not of
+our common clay; but the well of enthusiasm was dried up, and the golden
+bowl was broken at the fountain. With Gertrude the poetry of existence
+was gone. As she herself had described her loss, a music had ceased to
+breathe along the face of things; and though the bark might sail on as
+swiftly, and the stream swell with as proud a wave, a something that
+had vibrated on the heart was still, and the magic of the voyage was no
+more.
+
+And Gertrude sleeps on the spot where she wished her last couch to be
+made; and far--oh, far dearer, is that small spot on the distant banks
+of the gliding Neckar to Trevylyan’s heart than all the broad lands
+and fertile fields of his ancestral domain. The turf too preserves its
+emerald greenness; and it would seem to me that the field flowers spring
+up by the sides of the simple tomb even more profusely than of old.
+A curve in the bank breaks the tide of the Neckar; and therefore its
+stream pauses, as if to linger reluctantly, by that solitary grave, and
+to mourn among the rustling sedges ere it passes on. And I have thought,
+when I last looked upon that quiet place, when I saw the turf so fresh,
+and the flowers so bright of hue, that aerial hands might _indeed_
+tend the sod; that it was by no _imaginary_ spells that I summoned
+the fairies to my tale; that in truth, and with vigils constant though
+unseen, they yet kept from all polluting footsteps, and from the harsher
+influence of the seasons, the grave of one who so loved their race;
+and who, in her gentle and spotless virtue claimed kindred with the
+beautiful Ideal of the world. Is there one of us who has not known some
+being for whom it seemed not too wild a fantasy to indulge such dreams?
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
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+
+Project Gutenberg's The Pilgrims Of The Rhine, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
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+
+
+Title: The Pilgrims Of The Rhine
+
+Author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton
+
+Release Date: March 17, 2009 [EBook #8206]
+Last Updated: August 28, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PILGRIMS OF THE RHINE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger and Dagny
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      THE PILGRIMS OF THE RHINE
+    </h1>
+    <h2>
+      TO WHICH IS PREFIXED <br /><br />THE IDEAL WORLD
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By Edward Bulwer Lytton (Lord Lytton)
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIRST EDITION. </a><br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_PREF"> PREFACE. </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0004">
+        <b>THE IDEAL WORLD</b> </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> <b>THE
+        PILGRIMS OF THE RHINE</b> </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0001">
+        CHAPTER I. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;IN WHICH THE READER IS INTRODUCED TO QUEEN
+        NYMPHALIN <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        LOVERS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;FEELINGS
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE MAID
+        OF MALINES <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;ROTTERDAM.&mdash;THE
+        CHARACTER OF THE DUTCH <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI.
+        </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;GORCUM.&mdash;THE TOUR OF THE VIRTUES: A PHILOSOPHER&rsquo;S
+        TALE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;COLOGNE.&mdash;THE
+        TRACES OF THE ROMAN YOKE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER
+        VIII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE SOUL IN PURGATORY; OR LOVE STRONGER THAN DEATH
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        SCENERY OF THE RHINE ANALOGOUS TO THE GERMAN LITERARY <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE LEGEND OF ROLAND.&mdash;THE
+        ADVENTURES OF NYMPHALIN <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI.
+        </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;WHEREIN THE READER IS MADE SPECTATOR WITH THE ENGLISH
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        WOOING OF MASTER FOX <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII.
+        </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE TOMB OF A FATHER OF MANY CHILDREN <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIV. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE FAIRY&rsquo;S CAVE, AND
+        THE FAIRY&rsquo;S WISH <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER XV. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        BANKS OF THE RHINE.&mdash;FROM THE DRACHENFELS TO BROHL <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER XVI. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;GERTRUDE.&mdash;THE
+        EXCURSION TO HAMMERSTEIN <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER
+        XVII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;LETTER FROM TREVYLYAN <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER XVIII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;COBLENTZ.&mdash;EXCURSION
+        TO THE MOUNTAINS OF TAUNUS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER
+        XIX. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE FALLEN STAR; OR THE HISTORY OF A FALSE RELIGION
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER XX. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;GLENHAUSEN.&mdash;THE
+        POWER OF LOVE IN SANCTIFIED PLACES <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0021">
+        CHAPTER XXI. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;VIEW OF EHRENBREITSTEIN.&mdash;A NEW ALARM
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0022"> CHAPTER XXII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        DOUBLE LIFE.&mdash;TREVYLYAN&rsquo;S FATE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0023">
+        CHAPTER XXIII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE LIFE OF DREAMS <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0024"> CHAPTER XXIV. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE BROTHERS <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2HCH0025"> CHAPTER XXV. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE IMMORTALITY OF
+        THE SOUL.&mdash;A COMMON INCIDENT <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0026">
+        CHAPTER XXVI. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;IN WHICH THE READER WILL LEARN HOW THE
+        FAIRIES <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0027"> CHAPTER XXVII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THURMBERG.&mdash;A
+        STORM UPON THE RHINE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0028"> CHAPTER XXVIII.
+        </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE VOYAGE TO BINGEN.&mdash;THE SIMPLE INCIDENTS <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2HCH0029"> CHAPTER XXIX. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;ELLFELD.&mdash;MAYENCE.&mdash;HEIDELBERG.&mdash;A
+        CONVERSATION BETWEEN <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0030"> CHAPTER XXX.
+        </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;NO PART OF THE EARTH REALLY SOLITARY.&mdash;THE SONG
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0031"> CHAPTER XXXI. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;GERTRUDE
+        AND TREVYLYAN, WHEN THE FORMER IS AWAKENED <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0032"> CHAPTER XXXII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;A SPOT TO BE BURIED
+        IN <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0033"> CHAPTER THE LAST. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        CONCLUSION OF THIS TALE <br /><br />
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> TO HENRY LYTTON BULWER.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ALLOW me, my dear Brother, to dedicate this Work to you. The greater part
+      of it (namely, the tales which vary and relieve the voyages of Gertrude
+      and Trevylyan) was written in the pleasant excursion we made together some
+      years ago. Among the associations&mdash;some sad and some pleasing&mdash;connected
+      with the general design, none are so agreeable to me as those that remind
+      me of the friendship subsisting between us, and which, unlike that of near
+      relations in general, has grown stronger and more intimate as our
+      footsteps have receded farther from the fields where we played together in
+      our childhood. I dedicate this Work to you with the more pleasure, not
+      only when I remember that it has always been a favourite with yourself,
+      but when I think that it is one of my writings most liked in foreign
+      countries; and I may possibly, therefore, have found a record destined to
+      endure the affectionate esteem which this Dedication is intended to
+      convey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yours, etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      E. L. B. LONDON, April 23, 1840.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIRST EDITION.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      COULD I prescribe to the critic and to the public, I would wish that this
+      work might be tried by the rules rather of poetry than prose, for
+      according to those rules have been both its conception and its execution;
+      and I feel that something of sympathy with the author&rsquo;s design is
+      requisite to win indulgence for the superstitions he has incorporated with
+      his tale, for the floridity of his style, and the redundance of his
+      descriptions. Perhaps, indeed, it would be impossible, in attempting to
+      paint the scenery and embody some of the Legends of the Rhine, not to give
+      (it may be, too loosely) the reins to the imagination, or to escape the
+      influence of that wild German spirit which I have sought to transfer to a
+      colder tongue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have made the experiment of selecting for the main interest of my work
+      the simplest materials, and weaving upon them the ornaments given chiefly
+      to subjects of a more fanciful nature. I know not how far I have
+      succeeded, but various reasons have conspired to make this the work, above
+      all others that I have written, which has given me the most delight
+      (though not unmixed with melancholy) in producing, and in which my mind
+      for the time has been the most completely absorbed. But the ardour of
+      composition is often disproportioned to the merit of the work; and the
+      public sometimes, nor unjustly, avenges itself for that forgetfulness of
+      its existence which makes the chief charm of an author&rsquo;s solitude,&mdash;and
+      the happiest, if not the wisest, inspiration of his dreams.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      PREFACE.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      WITH the younger class of my readers this work has had the good fortune to
+      find especial favour; perhaps because it is in itself a collection of the
+      thoughts and sentiments that constitute the Romance of youth. It has
+      little to do with the positive truths of our actual life, and does not
+      pretend to deal with the larger passions and more stirring interests of
+      our kind. It is but an episode out of the graver epic of human destinies.
+      It requires no explanation of its purpose, and no analysis of its story;
+      the one is evident, the other simple,&mdash;the first seeks but to
+      illustrate visible nature through the poetry of the affections; the other
+      is but the narrative of the most real of mortal sorrows, which the Author
+      attempts to take out of the region of pain by various accessories from the
+      Ideal. The connecting tale itself is but the string that binds into a
+      garland the wild-flowers cast upon a grave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The descriptions of the Rhine have been considered by Germans sufficiently
+      faithful to render this tribute to their land and their legends one of the
+      popular guide-books along the course it illustrates,&mdash;especially to
+      such tourists as wish not only to take in with the eye the inventory of
+      the river, but to seize the peculiar spirit which invests the wave and the
+      bank with a beauty that can only be made visible by reflection. He little
+      comprehends the true charm of the Rhine who gazes on the vines on the
+      hill-tops without a thought of the imaginary world with which their
+      recesses have been peopled by the graceful credulity of old; who surveys
+      the steep ruins that overshadow the water, untouched by one lesson from
+      the pensive morality of Time. Everywhere around us is the evidence of
+      perished opinions and departed races; everywhere around us, also, the
+      rejoicing fertility of unconquerable Nature, and the calm progress of Man
+      himself through the infinite cycles of decay. He who would judge
+      adequately of a landscape must regard it not only with the painter&rsquo;s eye,
+      but with the poet&rsquo;s. The feelings which the sight of any scene in Nature
+      conveys to the mind&mdash;more especially of any scene on which history or
+      fiction has left its trace&mdash;must depend upon our sympathy with those
+      associations which make up what may be called the spiritual character of
+      the spot. If indifferent to those associations, we should see only
+      hedgerows and ploughed land in the battle-field of Bannockburn; and the
+      traveller would but look on a dreary waste, whether he stood amidst the
+      piles of the Druid on Salisbury plain, or trod his bewildered way over the
+      broad expanse on which the Chaldaean first learned to number the stars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To the former editions of this tale was prefixed a poem on &ldquo;The Ideal,&rdquo;
+       which had all the worst faults of the author&rsquo;s earliest compositions in
+      verse. The present poem (with the exception of a very few lines) has been
+      entirely rewritten, and has at least the comparative merit of being less
+      vague in the thought, and less unpolished in the diction, than that which
+      it replaces.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE IDEAL WORLD
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  I.
+
+  THE IDEAL WORLD,&mdash;ITS REALM IS EVERYWHERE AROUND US; ITS INHABITANTS ARE
+  THE IMMORTAL PERSONIFICATIONS OF ALL BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS; TO THAT WORLD WE
+  ATTAIN BY THE REPOSE OF THE SENSES.
+
+  AROUND &ldquo;this visible diurnal sphere&rdquo;
+     There floats a World that girds us like the space;
+  On wandering clouds and gliding beams career
+    Its ever-moving murmurous Populace.
+  There, all the lovelier thoughts conceived below
+    Ascending live, and in celestial shapes.
+  To that bright World, O Mortal, wouldst thou go?
+    Bind but thy senses, and thy soul escapes:
+  To care, to sin, to passion close thine eyes;
+  Sleep in the flesh, and see the Dreamland rise!
+  Hark to the gush of golden waterfalls,
+  Or knightly tromps at Archimagian Walls!
+  In the green hush of Dorian Valleys mark
+    The River Maid her amber tresses knitting;
+  When glow-worms twinkle under coverts dark,
+    And silver clouds o&rsquo;er summer stars are flitting,
+  With jocund elves invade &ldquo;the Moone&rsquo;s sphere,
+  Or hang a pearl in every cowslip&rsquo;s ear;&rdquo; *
+  Or, list! what time the roseate urns of dawn
+    Scatter fresh dews, and the first skylark weaves
+  Joy into song, the blithe Arcadian Faun
+    Piping to wood-nymphs under Bromian leaves,
+  While slowly gleaming through the purple glade
+  Come Evian&rsquo;s panther car, and the pale Naxian Maid.
+
+    * &ldquo;Midsummer Night&rsquo;s Dream.&rdquo;
+ 
+  Such, O Ideal World, thy habitants!
+    All the fair children of creative creeds,
+  All the lost tribes of Fantasy are thine,&mdash;
+  From antique Saturn in Dodonian haunts,
+    Or Pan&rsquo;s first music waked from shepherd reeds,
+  To the last sprite when Heaven&rsquo;s pale lamps decline,
+  Heard wailing soft along the solemn Rhine.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  II.
+
+  OUR DREAMS BELONG TO THE IDEAL.&mdash;THE DIVINER LOVE FOR WHICH YOUTH SIGHS
+  NOT ATTAINABLE IN LIFE, BUT THE PURSUIT OF THAT LOVE BEYOND THE WORLD OF
+  THE SENSES PURIFIES THE SOUL AND AWAKES THE GENIUS.&mdash;PETRARCH.&mdash;DANTE.
+
+  Thine are the Dreams that pass the Ivory Gates,
+    With prophet shadows haunting poet eyes!
+  Thine the belov&rsquo;d illusions youth creates
+    From the dim haze of its own happy skies.
+  In vain we pine; we yearn on earth to win
+    The being of the heart, our boyhood&rsquo;s dream.
+  The Psyche and the Eros ne&rsquo;er have been,
+    Save in Olympus, wedded!  As a stream
+  Glasses a star, so life the ideal love;
+  Restless the stream below, serene the orb above!
+  Ever the soul the senses shall deceive;
+  Here custom chill, there kinder fate bereave:
+  For mortal lips unmeet eternal vows!
+  And Eden&rsquo;s flowers for Adam&rsquo;s mournful brows!
+  We seek to make the moment&rsquo;s angel guest
+    The household dweller at a human hearth;
+  We chase the bird of Paradise, whose nest
+    Was never found amid the bowers of earth.*
+
+    * According to a belief in the East, which is associated with one
+      of the loveliest and most familiar of Oriental superstitions,
+      the bird of Paradise is never seen to rest upon the earth, and
+      its nest is never to be found.
+
+  Yet loftier joys the vain pursuit may bring,
+    Than sate the senses with the boons of time;
+  The bird of Heaven hath still an upward wing,
+    The steps it lures are still the steps that climb;
+  And in the ascent although the soil be bare,
+  More clear the daylight and more pure the air.
+  Let Petrarch&rsquo;s heart the human mistress lose,
+  He mourns the Laura but to win the Muse.
+  Could all the charms which Georgian maids combine
+  Delight the soul of the dark Florentine,
+  Like one chaste dream of childlike Beatrice
+  Awaiting Hell&rsquo;s dark pilgrim in the skies,
+  Snatched from below to be the guide above,
+  And clothe Religion in the form of Love?*
+
+    * It is supposed by many of the commentators on Dante, that in
+      the form of his lost Beatrice, who guides him in his Vision
+      of Heaven, he allegorizes Religious Faith.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  III.
+
+  GENIUS, LIFTING ITS LIFE TO THE IDEAL, BECOMES ITSELF A PURE IDEA: IT
+  MUST COMPREHEND ALL EXISTENCE, ALL HUMAN SINS AND SUFFERINGS; BUT IN
+  COMPREHENDING, IT TRANSMUTES THEM.&mdash;THE POET IN HIS TWO-FOLD BEING,&mdash;THE
+  ACTUAL AND THE IDEAL.&mdash;THE INFLUENCE OF GENIUS OVER THE STERNEST
+  REALITIES OF EARTH; OVER OUR PASSIONS; WARS AND SUPERSTITIONS.&mdash;ITS
+  IDENTITY IS WITH HUMAN PROGRESS.&mdash;ITS AGENCY, EVEN WHERE UNACKNOWLEDGED,
+  IS UNIVERSAL.
+
+  Oh, thou true Iris! sporting on thy bow
+    Of tears and smiles! Jove&rsquo;s herald, Poetry,
+  Thou reflex image of all joy and woe,
+    <i>Both</i> fused in light by thy dear fantasy!
+  Lo! from the clay how Genius lifts its life,
+    And grows one pure Idea, one calm soul!
+  True, its own clearness must reflect our strife;
+    True, its completeness must comprise our whole;
+  But as the sun transmutes the sullen hues
+    Of marsh-grown vapours into vermeil dyes,
+  And melts them later into twilight dews,
+    Shedding on flowers the baptism of the skies;
+  So glows the Ideal in the air we breathe,
+    So from the fumes of sorrow and of sin,
+  Doth its warm light in rosy colours wreathe
+    Its playful cloudland, storing balms within.
+
+  Survey the Poet in his mortal mould,
+    Man, amongst men, descended from his throne!
+  The moth that chased the star now frets the fold,
+    Our cares, our faults, our follies are his own.
+  Passions as idle, and desires as vain,
+  Vex the wild heart, and dupe the erring brain.
+  From Freedom&rsquo;s field the recreant Horace flies
+  To kiss the hand by which his country dies;
+  From Mary&rsquo;s grave the mighty Peasant turns,
+  And hoarse with orgies rings the laugh of Burns.
+  While Rousseau&rsquo;s lips a lackey&rsquo;s vices own,&mdash;
+  Lips that could draw the thunder on a throne!
+  But when from Life the Actual GENIUS springs,
+    When, self-transformed by its own magic rod,
+  It snaps the fetters and expands the wings,
+    And drops the fleshly garb that veiled the god,
+  How the mists vanish as the form ascends!
+  How in its aureole every sunbeam blends!
+  By the Arch-Brightener of Creation seen,
+    How dim the crowns on perishable brows!
+  The snows of Atlas melt beneath the sheen,
+    Through Thebaid caves the rushing splendour flows.
+  Cimmerian glooms with Asian beams are bright,
+  And Earth reposes in a belt of light.
+  Now stern as Vengeance shines the awful form,
+  Armed with the bolt and glowing through the storm;
+  Sets the great deeps of human passion free,
+  And whelms the bulwarks that would breast the sea.
+  Roused by its voice the ghastly Wars arise,
+  Mars reddens earth, the Valkyrs pale the skies;
+  Dim Superstition from her hell escapes,
+  With all her shadowy brood of monster shapes;
+  Here life itself the scowl of Typhon* takes;
+  There Conscience shudders at Alecto&rsquo;s snakes;
+  From Gothic graves at midnight yawning wide,
+  In gory cerements gibbering spectres glide;
+  And where o&rsquo;er blasted heaths the lightnings flame,
+  Black secret hags &ldquo;do deeds without a name!&rdquo;
+   Yet through its direst agencies of awe,
+  Light marks its presence and pervades its law,
+  And, like Orion when the storms are loud,
+  It links creation while it gilds a cloud.
+  By ruthless Thor, free Thought, frank Honour stand,
+  Fame&rsquo;s grand desire, and zeal for Fatherland.
+  The grim Religion of Barbarian Fear
+  With some Hereafter still connects the Here,
+  Lifts the gross sense to some spiritual source,
+  And thrones some Jove above the Titan Force,
+  Till, love completing what in awe began,
+  From the rude savage dawns the thoughtful man.
+
+    * The gloomy Typhon of Egypt assumes many of the mystic attributes
+      of the Principle of Life which, in the Grecian Apotheosis of the
+      Indian Bacchus, is represented in so genial a character of
+      exuberant joy and everlasting youth.
+
+  Then, oh, behold the Glorious comforter!
+    Still bright&rsquo;ning worlds but gladd&rsquo;ning now the hearth,
+  Or like the lustre of our nearest star,
+    Fused in the common atmosphere of earth.
+  It sports like hope upon the captive&rsquo;s chain;
+  Descends in dreams upon the couch of pain;
+  To wonder&rsquo;s realm allures the earnest child;
+  To the chaste love refines the instinct wild;
+  And as in waters the reflected beam,
+  Still where we turn, glides with us up the stream,
+  And while in truth the whole expanse is bright,
+  Yields to each eye its own fond path of light,&mdash;
+  So over life the rays of Genius fall,
+  Give each his track because illuming all.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  IV.
+
+  FORGIVENESS TO THE ERRORS OF OUR BENEFACTORS.
+
+  Hence is that secret pardon we bestow
+    In the true instinct of the grateful heart,
+  Upon the Sons of Song.  The good they do
+    In the clear world of their Uranian art
+  Endures forever; while the evil done
+    In the poor drama of their mortal scene,
+  Is but a passing cloud before the sun;
+    Space hath no record where the mist hath been.
+  Boots it to us if Shakspeare erred like man?
+    Why idly question that most mystic life?
+  Eno&rsquo; the giver in his gifts to scan;
+    To bless the sheaves with which thy fields are rife,
+  Nor, blundering, guess through what obstructive clay
+  The glorious corn-seed struggled up to day.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  V.
+
+  THE IDEAL IS NOT CONFINED TO POETS.&mdash;ALGERNON SIDNEY RECOGNIZES HIS IDEAL
+  IN LIBERTY, AND BELIEVES IN ITS TRIUMPH WHERE THE MERE PRACTICAL MAN
+  COULD BEHOLD BUT ITS RUINS; YET LIBERTY IN THIS WORLD MUST EVER BE AN
+  IDEAL, AND THE LAND THAT IT PROMISES CAN BE FOUND BUT IN DEATH.
+
+  But not to you alone, O Sons Of Song,
+  The wings that float the loftier airs along.
+  Whoever lifts us from the dust we are,
+    Beyond the sensual to spiritual goals;
+  Who from the MOMENT and the SELF afar
+    By deathless deeds allures reluctant souls,
+  Gives the warm life to what the Limner draws,&mdash;
+  Plato but thought what godlike Cato was.*
+  Recall the Wars of England&rsquo;s giant-born,
+    Is Elyot&rsquo;s voice, is Hampden&rsquo;s death in vain?
+  Have all the meteors of the vernal morn
+    But wasted light upon a frozen main?
+  Where is that child of Carnage, Freedom, flown?
+  The Sybarite lolls upon the martyr&rsquo;s throne.
+  Lewd, ribald jests succeed to solemn zeal;
+  And things of silk to Cromwell&rsquo;s men of steel.
+  Cold are the hosts the tromps of Ireton thrilled,
+  And hushed the senates Vane&rsquo;s large presence filled.
+  In what strong heart doth the old manhood dwell?
+  Where art thou, Freedom?  Look! in Sidney&rsquo;s cell!
+  There still as stately stands the living Truth,
+  Smiling on age as it had smiled on youth.
+  Her forts dismantled, and her shrines o&rsquo;erthrown,
+  The headsman&rsquo;s block her last dread altar-stone,
+  No sanction left to Reason&rsquo;s vulgar hope,
+  Far from the wrecks expands her prophet&rsquo;s scope.
+  Millennial morns the tombs of Kedron gild,
+  The hands of saints the glorious walls rebuild,&mdash;
+  Till each foundation garnished with its gem,
+  High o&rsquo;er Gehenna flames Jerusalem!
+  O thou blood-stained Ideal of the free,
+  Whose breath is heard in clarions,&mdash;Liberty!
+  Sublimer for thy grand illusions past,
+  Thou spring&rsquo;st to Heaven,&mdash;Religion at the last.
+  Alike below, or commonwealths or thrones,
+  Where&rsquo;er men gather some crushed victim groans;
+  Only in death thy real form we see,
+  All life is bondage,&mdash;souls alone are free.
+  Thus through the waste the wandering Hebrews went,
+  Fire on the march, but cloud upon the tent.
+  At last on Pisgah see the prophet stand,
+  Before his vision spreads the PROMISED LAND;
+  But where revealed the Canaan to his eye?&mdash;
+  Upon the mountain he ascends to die.
+
+    * What Plato thought, and godlike Cato was.&mdash;POPE.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  VI.
+
+  YET ALL HAVE TWO ESCAPES INTO THE IDEAL WORLD; NAMELY, MEMORY AND
+  HOPE.&mdash;EXAMPLE OF HOPE IN YOUTH, HOWEVER EXCLUDED FROM ACTION AND
+  DESIRE.&mdash;NAPOLEON&rsquo;S SON.
+
+  Yet whatsoever be our bondage here,
+  All have two portals to the phantom sphere.
+  What hath not glided through those gates that ope
+  Beyond the Hour, to MEMORY or to HOPE!
+  Give Youth the Garden,&mdash;still it soars above,
+  Seeks some far glory, some diviner love.
+  Place Age amidst the Golgotha,&mdash;its eyes
+  Still quit the graves, to rest upon the skies;
+  And while the dust, unheeded, moulders there,
+  Track some lost angel through cerulean air.
+
+  Lo! where the Austrian binds, with formal chain,
+  The crownless son of earth&rsquo;s last Charlemagne,&mdash;
+  Him, at whose birth laughed all the violet vales
+    (While yet unfallen stood thy sovereign star,
+  O Lucifer of nations).  Hark, the gales
+    Swell with the shout from all the hosts, whose war
+  Rended the Alps, and crimsoned Memphian Nile,&mdash;
+    &ldquo;Way for the coming of the Conqueror&rsquo;s Son:
+  Woe to the Merchant-Carthage of the Isle!
+    Woe to the Scythian ice-world of the Don!
+  O Thunder Lord, thy Lemnian bolts prepare,
+  The Eagle&rsquo;s eyry hath its eagle heir!&rdquo;
+   Hark, at that shout from north to south, gray Power
+    Quails on its weak, hereditary thrones;
+  And widowed mothers prophesy the hour
+    Of future carnage to their cradled sons.
+  What! shall our race to blood be thus consigned,
+    And Ate claim an heirloom in mankind?
+  Are these red lots unshaken in the urn?
+  Years pass; approach, pale Questioner, and learn
+  Chained to his rock, with brows that vainly frown,
+  The fallen Titan sinks in darkness down!
+  And sadly gazing through his gilded grate,
+  Behold the child whose birth was as a fate!
+  Far from the land in which his life began;
+  Walled from the healthful air of hardy man;
+  Reared by cold hearts, and watched by jealous eyes,
+  His guardians jailers, and his comrades spies.
+  Each trite convention courtly fears inspire
+  To stint experience and to dwarf desire;
+  Narrows the action to a puppet stage,
+  And trains the eaglet to the starling&rsquo;s cage.
+  On the dejected brow and smileless cheek,
+  What weary thought the languid lines bespeak;
+  Till drop by drop, from jaded day to day,
+  The sickly life-streams ooze themselves away.
+  Yet oft in HOPE a boundless realm was thine,
+    That vaguest Infinite,&mdash;the Dream of Fame;
+  Son of the sword that first made kings divine,
+    Heir to man&rsquo;s grandest royalty,&mdash;a Name!
+  Then didst thou burst upon the startled world,
+  And keep the glorious promise of thy birth;
+  Then were the wings that bear the bolt unfurled,
+    A monarch&rsquo;s voice cried, &ldquo;Place upon the earth!&rdquo;
+   A new Philippi gained a second Rome,
+  And the Son&rsquo;s sword avenged the greater Caesar&rsquo;s doom.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  VII.
+
+  EXAMPLE OF MEMORY AS LEADING TO THE IDEAL,&mdash;AMIDST LIFE HOWEVER HUMBLE,
+  AND IN A MIND HOWEVER IGNORANT.&mdash;THE VILLAGE WIDOW.
+
+  But turn the eye to life&rsquo;s sequestered vale
+    And lowly roofs remote in hamlets green.
+  Oft in my boyhood where the moss-grown pale
+    Fenced quiet graves, a female form was seen;
+  Each eve she sought the melancholy ground,
+  And lingering paused, and wistful looked around.
+  If yet some footstep rustled through the grass,
+  Timorous she shrunk, and watched the shadow pass;
+  Then, when the spot lay lone amidst the gloom,
+  Crept to one grave too humble for a tomb,
+  There silent bowed her face above the dead,
+  For, if in prayer, the prayer was inly said;
+  Still as the moonbeam, paused her quiet shade,
+  Still as the moonbeam, through the yews to fade.
+  Whose dust thus hallowed by so fond a care?
+  What the grave saith not, let the heart declare.
+    On yonder green two orphan children played;
+  By yonder rill two plighted lovers strayed;
+  In yonder shrine two lives were blent in one,
+  And joy-bells chimed beneath a summer sun.
+  Poor was their lot, their bread in labour found;
+  No parent blessed them, and no kindred owned;
+  They smiled to hear the wise their choice condemn;
+  They loved&mdash;they loved&mdash;and love was wealth to them!
+  Hark&mdash;one short week&mdash;again the holy bell!
+  Still shone the sun; but dirge like boomed the knell,&mdash;
+  The icy hand had severed breast from breast;
+  Left life to toil, and summoned Death to rest.
+  Full fifty years since then have passed away,
+  Her cheek is furrowed, and her hair is gray.
+  Yet, when she speaks of <i>him</i> (the times are rare),
+  Hear in her voice how youth still trembles there.
+  The very name of that young life that died
+  Still heaves the bosom, and recalls the bride.
+  Lone o&rsquo;er the widow&rsquo;s hearth those years have fled,
+  The daily toil still wins the daily bread;
+  No books deck sorrow with fantastic dyes;
+  Her fond romance her woman heart supplies;
+  And, haply in the few still moments given,
+  (Day&rsquo;s taskwork done), to memory, death, and heaven,
+  To that unuttered poem may belong
+  Thoughts of such pathos as had beggared song.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  VIII.
+
+  HENCE IN HOPE, MEMORY, AND PRAYER, ALL OF US ARE POETS.
+
+  Yes, while thou hopest, music fills the air,
+    While thou rememberest, life reclothes the clod;
+  While thou canst feel the electric chain of prayer,
+    Breathe but a thought, and be a soul with God!
+  Let not these forms of matter bound thine eye.
+    He who the vanishing point of Human things
+  Lifts from the landscape, lost amidst the sky,
+    Has found the Ideal which the poet sings,
+  Has pierced the pall around the senses thrown,
+  And is himself a poet, though unknown.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  IX.
+
+  APPLICATION OF THE POEM TO THE TALE TO WHICH IT IS PREFIXED.&mdash;THE
+  RHINE,&mdash;ITS IDEAL CHARACTER IN ITS HISTORICAL AND LEGENDARY ASSOCIATIONS.
+
+  Eno&rsquo;!&mdash;my song is closing, and to thee,
+    Land of the North, I dedicate its lay;
+  As I have done the simple tale to be
+    The drama of this prelude!
+                                    Faraway
+  Rolls the swift Rhine beneath the starry ray;
+  But to my ear its haunted waters sigh;
+  Its moonlight mountains glimmer on my eye;
+  On wave, on marge, as on a wizard&rsquo;s glass,
+  Imperial ghosts in dim procession pass;
+  Lords of the wild, the first great Father-men,
+  Their fane the hill-top, and their home the glen;
+  Frowning they fade; a bridge of steel appears
+  With frank-eyed Caesar smiling through the spears;
+  The march moves onwards, and the mirror brings
+  The Gothic crowns of Carlovingian kings
+  Vanished alike!  The Hermit rears his Cross,
+  And barbs neigh shrill, and plumes in tumult toss,
+  While (knighthood&rsquo;s sole sweet conquest from the Moor)
+  Sings to Arabian lutes the Tourbadour.
+    Not yet, not yet; still glide some lingering shades,
+  Still breathe some murmurs as the starlight fades,
+  Still from her rock I hear the Siren call,
+  And see the tender ghost in Roland&rsquo;s mouldering hall!
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  X.
+
+  APPLICATION OF THE POEM CONTINUED.&mdash;THE IDEAL LENDS ITS AID TO THE MOST
+  FAMILIAR AND THE MOST ACTUAL SORROW OF LIFE.&mdash;FICTION COMPARED TO
+  SLEEP,&mdash;IT STRENGTHENS WHILE IT SOOTHES.
+
+  Trite were the tale I tell of love and doom,
+  (Whose life hath loved not, whose not mourned a tomb?)
+  But fiction draws a poetry from grief,
+  As art its healing from the withered leaf.
+  Play thou, sweet Fancy, round the sombre truth,
+    Crown the sad Genius ere it lower the torch!
+  When death the altar and the victim youth,
+    Flutes fill the air, and garlands deck the porch.
+  As down the river drifts the Pilgrim sail,
+  Clothe the rude hill-tops, lull the Northern gale;
+  With childlike lore the fatal course beguile,
+  And brighten death with Love&rsquo;s untiring smile.
+  Along the banks let fairy forms be seen
+  &ldquo;By fountain clear, or spangled starlike sheen.&rdquo; *
+  Let sound and shape to which the sense is dull
+  Haunt the soul opening on the Beautiful.
+  And when at length, the symbol voyage done,
+  Surviving Grief shrinks lonely from the sun,
+  By tender types show Grief what memories bloom
+  From lost delight, what fairies guard the tomb.
+  Scorn not the dream, O world-worn; pause a while,
+  New strength shall nerve thee as the dreams beguile,
+  Stung by the rest, less far shall seem the goal!
+  As sleep to life, so fiction to the soul.
+
+    * &ldquo;Midsummer Night&rsquo;s Dream.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE PILGRIMS OF THE RHINE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I. IN WHICH THE READER IS INTRODUCED TO QUEEN NYMPHALIN.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      IN one of those green woods which belong so peculiarly to our island (for
+      the Continent has its forests, but England its woods) there lived, a short
+      time ago, a charming little fairy called Nymphalin. I believe she is
+      descended from a younger branch of the house of Mab; but perhaps that may
+      only be a genealogical fable, for your fairies are very susceptible to the
+      pride of ancestry, and it is impossible to deny that they fall somewhat
+      reluctantly into the liberal opinions so much in vogue at the present day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However that may be, it is quite certain that all the courtiers in
+      Nymphalin&rsquo;s domain (for she was a queen fairy) made a point of asserting
+      her right to this illustrious descent; and accordingly she quartered the
+      Mab arms with her own,&mdash;three acorns vert, with a grasshopper
+      rampant. It was as merry a little court as could possibly be conceived,
+      and on a fine midsummer night it would have been worth while attending the
+      queen&rsquo;s balls; that is to say, if you could have got a ticket, a favour
+      not obtained without great interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, unhappily, until both men and fairies adopt Mr. Owen&rsquo;s proposition,
+      and live in parallelograms, they will always be the victims of <i>ennui</i>.
+      And Nymphalin, who had been disappointed in love, and was still unmarried,
+      had for the last five or six months been exceedingly tired even of giving
+      balls. She yawned very frequently, and consequently yawning became a
+      fashion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But why don&rsquo;t we have some new dances, my Pipalee?&rdquo; said Nymphalin to her
+      favourite maid of honour; &ldquo;these waltzes are very old-fashioned.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very old-fashioned,&rdquo; said Pipalee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The queen gaped, and Pipalee did the same.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a gala night; the court was held in a lone and beautiful hollow,
+      with the wild brake closing round it on every side, so that no human step
+      could easily gain the spot. Wherever the shadows fell upon the brake a
+      glow-worm made a point of exhibiting itself, and the bright August moon
+      sailed slowly above, pleased to look down upon so charming a scene of
+      merriment; for they wrong the moon who assert that she has an objection to
+      mirth,&mdash;with the mirth of fairies she has all possible sympathy. Here
+      and there in the thicket the scarce honeysuckles&mdash;in August
+      honeysuckles are somewhat out of season&mdash;hung their rich festoons,
+      and at that moment they were crowded with the elderly fairies, who had
+      given up dancing and taken to scandal. Besides the honeysuckle you might
+      see the hawkweed and the white convolvulus, varying the soft verdure of
+      the thicket; and mushrooms in abundance had sprung up in the circle,
+      glittering in the silver moonlight, and acceptable beyond measure to the
+      dancers: every one knows how agreeable a thing tents are in a <i>fete
+      champetre</i>! I was mistaken in saying that the brake closed the circle
+      entirely round; for there was one gap, scarcely apparent to mortals,
+      through which a fairy at least might catch a view of a brook that was
+      close at hand, rippling in the stars, and checkered at intervals by the
+      rich weeds floating on the surface, interspersed with the delicate
+      arrowhead and the silver water-lily. Then the trees themselves, in their
+      prodigal variety of hues,&mdash;the blue, the purple, the yellowing tint,
+      the tender and silvery verdure, and the deep mass of shade frowning into
+      black; the willow, the elm, the ash, the fir, and the lime, &ldquo;and, best of
+      all, Old England&rsquo;s haunted oak;&rdquo; these hues were broken again into a
+      thousand minor and subtler shades as the twinkling stars pierced the
+      foliage, or the moon slept with a richer light upon some favoured glade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a gala night; the elderly fairies, as I said before, were chatting
+      among the honeysuckles; the young were flirting, and dancing, and making
+      love; the middle-aged talked politics under the mushrooms; and the queen
+      herself and half-a-dozen of her favourites were yawning their pleasure
+      from a little mound covered with the thickest moss.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It has been very dull, madam, ever since Prince Fayzenheim left us,&rdquo; said
+      the fairy Nip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The queen sighed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How handsome the prince is!&rdquo; said Pipalee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The queen blushed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He wore the prettiest dress in the world; and what a mustache!&rdquo; cried
+      Pipalee, fanning herself with her left wing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was a coxcomb,&rdquo; said the lord treasurer, sourly. The lord treasurer
+      was the honestest and most disagreeable fairy at court; he was an
+      admirable husband, brother, son, cousin, uncle, and godfather,&mdash;it
+      was these virtues that had made him a lord treasurer. Unfortunately they
+      had not made him a sensible fairy. He was like Charles the Second in one
+      respect, for he never did a wise thing; but he was not like him in
+      another, for he very often said a foolish one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The queen frowned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A young prince is not the worse for that,&rdquo; retorted Pipalee. &ldquo;Heigho!
+      does your Majesty think his Highness likely to return?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t tease me,&rdquo; said Nymphalin, pettishly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lord treasurer, by way of giving the conversation an agreeable turn,
+      reminded her Majesty that there was a prodigious accumulation of business
+      to see to, especially that difficult affair about the emmet-wasp loan. Her
+      Majesty rose; and leaning on Pipalee&rsquo;s arm, walked down to the supper
+      tent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pray,&rdquo; said the fairy Trip to the fairy Nip, &ldquo;what is all this talk about
+      Prince Fayzenheim? Excuse my ignorance; I am only just out, you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why,&rdquo; answered Nip, a young courtier, not a marrying fairy, but very
+      seductive, &ldquo;the story runs thus: Last summer a foreigner visited us,
+      calling himself Prince Fayzenheim: one of your German fairies, I fancy; no
+      great things, but an excellent waltzer. He wore long spurs, made out of
+      the stings of the horse-flies in the Black Forest; his cap sat on one
+      side, and his mustachios curled like the lip of the dragon-flower. He was
+      on his travels, and amused himself by making love to the queen. You can&rsquo;t
+      fancy, dear Trip, how fond she was of hearing him tell stories about the
+      strange creatures of Germany,&mdash;about wild huntsmen, water-sprites,
+      and a pack of such stuff,&rdquo; added Nip, contemptuously, for Nip was a
+      freethinker.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In short?&rdquo; said Trip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In short, she loved,&rdquo; cried Nip, with a theatrical air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the prince?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Packed up his clothes, and sent on his travelling-carriage, in order that
+      he might go at his ease on the top of a stage-pigeon; in short&mdash;as
+      you say&mdash;in short, he deserted the queen, and ever since she has set
+      the fashion of yawning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was very naughty in him,&rdquo; said the gentle Trip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, my dear creature,&rdquo; cried Nip, &ldquo;if it had been you to whom he had paid
+      his addresses!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Trip simpered, and the old fairies from their seats in the honeysuckles
+      observed she was &ldquo;sadly conducted;&rdquo; but the Trips had never been too
+      respectable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile the queen, leaning on Pipalee, said, after a short pause, &ldquo;Do
+      you know I have formed a plan!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How delightful!&rdquo; cried Pipalee. &ldquo;Another gala!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pooh, surely even you must be tired with such levities: the spirit of the
+      age is no longer frivolous; and I dare say as the march of gravity
+      proceeds, we shall get rid of galas altogether.&rdquo; The queen said this with
+      an air of inconceivable wisdom, for the &ldquo;Society for the Diffusion of
+      General Stupefaction&rdquo; had been recently established among the fairies, and
+      its tracts had driven all the light reading out of the market. &ldquo;The Penny
+      Proser&rdquo; had contributed greatly to the increase of knowledge and yawning,
+      so visibly progressive among the courtiers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; continued Nymphalin; &ldquo;I have thought of something better than galas.
+      Let us travel!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Pipalee clasped her hands in ecstasy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where shall we travel?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us go up the Rhine,&rdquo; said the queen, turning away her head. &ldquo;We shall
+      be amazingly welcomed; there are fairies without number all the way by its
+      banks, and various distant connections of ours whose nature and properties
+      will afford interest and instruction to a philosophical mind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Number Nip, for instance,&rdquo; cried the gay Pipalee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Red Man!&rdquo; said the graver Nymphalin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, my queen, what an excellent scheme!&rdquo; and Pipalee was so lively during
+      the rest of the night that the old fairies in the honeysuckle insinuated
+      that the lady of honour had drunk a buttercup too much of the Maydew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II. THE LOVERS.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      I WISH only for such readers as give themselves heart and soul up to me,&mdash;if
+      they begin to cavil I have done with them; their fancy should put itself
+      entirely under my management; and, after all, ought they not to be too
+      glad to get out of this hackneyed and melancholy world, to be run away
+      with by an author who promises them something new?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the heights of Bruges, a Mortal and his betrothed gazed upon the
+      scene below. They saw the sun set slowly amongst purple masses of cloud,
+      and the lover turned to his mistress and sighed deeply; for her cheek was
+      delicate in its blended roses, beyond the beauty that belongs to the hues
+      of health; and when he saw the sun sinking from the world, the thought
+      came upon him that <i>she</i> was his sun, and the glory that she shed
+      over his life might soon pass away into the bosom of the &ldquo;ever-during
+      Dark.&rdquo; But against the clouds rose one of the many spires that
+      characterize the town of Bruges; and on that spire, tapering into heaven,
+      rested the eyes of Gertrude Vane. The different objects that caught the
+      gaze of each was emblematic both of the different channel of their
+      thoughts and the different elements of their nature: he thought of the
+      sorrow, she of the consolation; his heart prophesied of the passing away
+      from earth, hers of the ascension into heaven. The lower part of the
+      landscape was wrapped in shade; but just where the bank curved round in a
+      mimic bay, the waters caught the sun&rsquo;s parting smile, and rippled against
+      the herbage that clothed the shore, with a scarcely noticeable wave. There
+      are two of the numerous mills which are so picturesque a feature of that
+      country, standing at a distance from each other on the rising banks, their
+      sails perfectly still in the cool silence of the evening, and adding to
+      the rustic tranquillity which breathed around. For to me there is
+      something in the still sails of one of those inventions of man&rsquo;s industry
+      peculiarly eloquent of repose: the rest seems typical of the repose of our
+      own passions, short and uncertain, contrary to their natural ordination;
+      and doubly impressive from the feeling which admonishes us how precarious
+      is the stillness, how utterly dependent on every wind rising at any moment
+      and from any quarter of the heavens! They saw before them no living forms,
+      save of one or two peasants yet lingering by the water-side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Trevylyan drew closer to his Gertrude; for his love was inexpressibly
+      tender, and his vigilant anxiety for her made his stern frame feel the
+      first coolness of the evening even before she felt it herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dearest, let me draw your mantle closer round you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Gertrude smiled her thanks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I feel better than I have done for weeks,&rdquo; said she; &ldquo;and when once we
+      get into the Rhine, you will see me grow so strong as to shock all your
+      interest for me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, would to Heaven my interest for you may be put to such an ordeal!&rdquo;
+       said Trevylyan; and they turned slowly to the inn, where Gertrude&rsquo;s father
+      already awaited them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Trevylyan was of a wild, a resolute, and an active nature. Thrown on the
+      world at the age of sixteen, he had passed his youth in alternate
+      pleasure, travel, and solitary study. At the age in which manhood is least
+      susceptible to caprice, and most perhaps to passion, he fell in love with
+      the loveliest person that ever dawned upon a poet&rsquo;s vision. I say this
+      without exaggeration, for Gertrude Vane&rsquo;s was indeed the beauty, but the
+      perishable beauty, of a dream. It happened most singularly to Trevylyan
+      (but he was a singular man), that being naturally one whose affections it
+      was very difficult to excite, he should have fallen in love at first sight
+      with a person whose disease, already declared, would have deterred any
+      other heart from risking its treasures on a bark so utterly unfitted for
+      the voyage of life. Consumption, but consumption in its most beautiful
+      shape, had set its seal upon Gertrude Vane, when Trevylyan first saw her,
+      and at once loved. He knew the danger of the disease; he did not, except
+      at intervals, deceive himself; he wrestled against the new passion: but,
+      stern as his nature was, he could not conquer it. He loved, he confessed
+      his love, and Gertrude returned it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a love like this, there is something ineffably beautiful,&mdash;it is
+      essentially the poetry of passion. Desire grows hallowed by fear, and,
+      scarce permitted to indulge its vent in the common channel of the senses,
+      breaks forth into those vague yearnings, those lofty aspirations, which
+      pine for the Bright, the Far, the Unattained. It is &ldquo;the desire of the
+      moth for the star;&rdquo; it is the love of the soul!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gertrude was advised by the faculty to try a southern climate; but
+      Gertrude was the daughter of a German mother, and her young fancy had been
+      nursed in all the wild legends and the alluring visions that belong to the
+      children of the Rhine. Her imagination, more romantic than classic,
+      yearned for the vine-clad hills and haunted forests which are so fertile
+      in their spells to those who have once drunk, even sparingly, of the
+      Literature of the North. Her desire strongly expressed, her declared
+      conviction that if any change of scene could yet arrest the progress of
+      her malady it would be the shores of the river she had so longed to visit,
+      prevailed with her physicians and her father, and they consented to that
+      pilgrimage along the Rhine on which Gertrude, her father, and her lover
+      were now bound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was by the green curve of the banks which the lovers saw from the
+      heights of Bruges that our fairy travellers met. They were reclining on
+      the water-side, playing at dominos with eye-bright and the black specks of
+      the trefoil; namely, Pipalee, Nip, Trip, and the lord treasurer (for that
+      was all the party selected by the queen for her travelling <i>cortege</i>),
+      and waiting for her Majesty, who, being a curious little elf, had gone
+      round the town to reconnoitre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bless me!&rdquo; said the lord treasurer; &ldquo;what a mad freak is this! Crossing
+      that immense pond of water! And was there ever such bad grass as this? One
+      may see that the fairies thrive ill here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are always discontented, my lord,&rdquo; said Pipalee; &ldquo;but then you are
+      somewhat too old to travel,&mdash;at least, unless you go in your nutshell
+      and four.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The lord treasurer did not like this remark, so he muttered a peevish
+      pshaw, and took a pinch of honeysuckle dust to console himself for being
+      forced to put up with so much frivolity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment, ere the moon was yet at her middest height, Nymphalin
+      joined her subjects.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have just returned,&rdquo; said she, with a melancholy expression on her
+      countenance, &ldquo;from a scene that has almost renewed in me that sympathy
+      with human beings which of late years our race has well-nigh relinquished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hurried through the town without noticing much food for adventure. I
+      paused for a moment on a fat citizen&rsquo;s pillow, and bade him dream of love.
+      He woke in a fright, and ran down to see that his cheeses were safe. I
+      swept with a light wing over a politician&rsquo;s eyes, and straightway he
+      dreamed of theatres and music. I caught an undertaker in his first nap,
+      and I have left him whirled into a waltz. For what would be sleep if it
+      did not contrast life? Then I came to a solitary chamber, in which a girl,
+      in her tenderest youth, knelt by the bedside in prayer, and I saw that the
+      death-spirit had passed over her, and the blight was on the leaves of the
+      rose. The room was still and hushed, the angel of Purity kept watch there.
+      Her heart was full of love, and yet of holy thoughts, and I bade her dream
+      of the long life denied to her,&mdash;of a happy home, of the kisses of
+      her young lover, of eternal faith, and unwaning tenderness. Let her at
+      least enjoy in dreams what Fate has refused to Truth! And, passing from
+      the room, I found her lover stretched in his cloak beside the door; for he
+      reads with a feverish and desperate prophecy the doom that waits her; and
+      so loves he the very air she breathes, the very ground she treads, that
+      when she has left his sight he creeps, silently and unknown to her, to the
+      nearest spot hallowed by her presence, anxious that while yet she is on
+      earth not an hour, not a moment, should be wasted upon other thoughts than
+      those that belong to her; and feeling a security, a fearful joy, in
+      lessening the distance that <i>now</i> only momentarily divides them. And
+      that love seemed to me not as the love of the common world, and I stayed
+      my wings and looked upon it as a thing that centuries might pass and bring
+      no parallel to, in its beauty and its melancholy truth. But I kept away
+      the sleep from the lover&rsquo;s eyes, for well I knew that sleep was a tyrant,
+      that shortened the brief time of waking tenderness for the living, yet
+      spared him; and one sad, anxious thought of her was sweeter, in spite of
+      its sorrow, than the brightest of fairy dreams. So I left him awake, and
+      watching there through the long night, and felt that the children of earth
+      have still something that unites them to the spirits of a finer race, so
+      long as they retain amongst them the presence of real love!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And oh! is there not a truth also in our fictions of the Unseen World? Are
+      there not yet bright lingerers by the forest and the stream? Do the moon
+      and the soft stars look out on no delicate and winged forms bathing in
+      their light? Are the fairies and the invisible hosts but the children of
+      our dreams, and not their inspiration? Is that all a delusion which speaks
+      from the golden page? And is the world only given to harsh and anxious
+      travellers that walk to and fro in pursuit of no gentle shadows? Are the
+      chimeras of the passions the sole spirits of the universe? No! while my
+      remembrance treasures in its deepest cell the image of one no more,&mdash;one
+      who was &ldquo;not of the earth, earthy;&rdquo; one in whom love was the essence of
+      thoughts divine; one whose shape and mould, whose heart and genius, would,
+      had Poesy never before dreamed it, have called forth the first notion of
+      spirits resembling mortals, but not of them,&mdash;no, Gertrude! while I
+      remember you, the faith, the trust in brighter shapes and fairer natures
+      than the world knows of, comes clinging to my heart; and still will I
+      think that Fairies might have watched over your sleep and Spirits have
+      ministered to your dreams.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III. FEELINGS.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      GERTRUDE and her companions proceeded by slow and, to her, delightful
+      stages to Rotterdam. Trevylyan sat by her side, and her hand was ever in
+      his; and when her delicate frame became sensible of fatigue, her head
+      drooped on his shoulder as its natural resting-place. Her father was a man
+      who had lived long enough to have encountered many reverses of fortune,
+      and they had left him, as I am apt to believe long adversity usually does
+      leave its prey, somewhat chilled and somewhat hardened to affection;
+      passive and quiet of hope, resigned to the worst as to the common order of
+      events, and expecting little from the best, as an unlooked-for incident in
+      the regularity of human afflictions. He was insensible of his daughter&rsquo;s
+      danger, for he was not one whom the fear of love endows with prophetic
+      vision; and he lived tranquilly in the present, without asking what new
+      misfortune awaited him in the future. Yet he loved his child, his only
+      child, with whatever of affection was left him by the many shocks his
+      heart had received; and in her approaching connection with one rich and
+      noble as Trevylyan, he felt even something bordering upon pleasure. Lapped
+      in the apathetic indifference of his nature, he leaned back in the
+      carriage, enjoying the bright weather that attended their journey, and
+      sensible&mdash;for he was one of fine and cultivated taste&mdash;of
+      whatever beauties of nature or remains of art varied their course. A
+      companion of this sort was the most agreeable that two persons never
+      needing a third could desire; he left them undisturbed to the intoxication
+      of their mutual presence; he marked not the interchange of glances; he
+      listened not to the whisper, the low delicious whisper, with which the
+      heart speaks its sympathy to heart. He broke not that charmed silence
+      which falls over us when the thoughts are full, and words leave nothing to
+      explain; that repose of feeling; that certainty that we are understood
+      without the effort of words, which makes the real luxury of intercourse
+      and the true enchantment of travel. What a memory hours like these
+      bequeath, after we have settled down into the calm occupation of common
+      life! How beautiful, through the vista of years, seems that brief
+      moonlight track upon the waters of our youth!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Trevylyan&rsquo;s nature, which, as I have said before, was naturally hard
+      and stern, which was hot, irritable, ambitious, and prematurely tinctured
+      with the policy and lessons of the world, seemed utterly changed by the
+      peculiarities of his love. Every hour, every moment was full of incident
+      to him; every look of Gertrude&rsquo;s was entered in the tablets of his heart;
+      so that his love knew no languor, it required no change: he was absorbed
+      in it,&mdash;<i>it was himself</i>! And he was soft, and watchful as the
+      step of a mother by the couch of her sick child; the lion within him was
+      tamed by indomitable love; the sadness, the presentiment, that was mixed
+      with all his passion for Gertrude, filled him too with that poetry of
+      feeling which is the result of thoughts weighing upon us, and not to be
+      expressed by ordinary language. In this part of their journey, as I find
+      by the date, were the following lines written; they are to be judged as
+      the lines of one in whom emotion and truth were the only inspiration:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     I. As leaves left darkling in the flush of day,
+       When glints the glad sun checkering o&rsquo;er the tree,
+     I see the green earth brightening in the ray,
+       Which only casts a shadow upon me!
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     II. What are the beams, the flowers, the glory, all
+       Life&rsquo;s glow and gloss, the music and the bloom,
+     When every sun but speeds the Eternal Pall,
+       And Time is Death that dallies with the Tomb?
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     III. And yet&mdash;oh yet, so young, so pure!&mdash;the while
+       Fresh laugh the rose-hues round youth&rsquo;s morning sky,
+     That voice, those eyes, the deep love of that smile,
+       Are they not soul&mdash;<i>all</i> soul&mdash;and <i>can</i> they die?
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     IV. Are there the words &ldquo;NO MORE&rdquo; for thoughts like ours?
+       Must the bark sink upon so soft a wave?
+     Hath the short summer of thy life no flowers
+       But those which bloom above thine early grave?
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     V. O God! and what is life, that I should live?
+       (Hath not the world enow of common clay?)
+     And she&mdash;the Rose&mdash;whose life a soul could give
+       To the void desert, sigh its sweets away?
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     VI. And I that love thee thus, to whom the air,
+       Blest by thy breath, makes heaven where&rsquo;er it be,
+     Watch thy cheek wane, and smile away despair,
+       Lest it should dim one hour yet left to Thee.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     VII. Still let me conquer self; oh, still conceal
+       By the smooth brow the snake that coils below;
+     Break, break my heart! it comforts yet to feel
+       That <i>she</i> dreams on, unwakened by my woe!
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     VIII. Hushed, where the Star&rsquo;s soft angel loves to keep
+       Watch o&rsquo;er their tide, the morning waters roll;
+     So glides my spirit,&mdash;darkness in the deep,
+       But o&rsquo;er the wave the presence of thy soul!
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Gertrude had not as yet the presentiments that filled the soul of
+      Trevylyan. She thought too little of herself to know her danger, and those
+      hours to her were hours of unmingled sweetness. Sometimes, indeed, the
+      exhaustion of her disease tinged her spirits with a vague sadness, an
+      abstraction came over her, and a languor she vainly struggled against.
+      These fits of dejection and gloom touched Trevylyan to the quick; his eye
+      never ceased to watch them, nor his heart to soothe. Often when he marked
+      them, he sought to attract her attention from what he fancied, though
+      erringly, a sympathy with his own forebodings, and to lead her young and
+      romantic imagination through the temporary beguilements of fiction; for
+      Gertrude was yet in the first bloom of youth, and all the dews of
+      beautiful childhood sparkled freshly from the virgin blossoms of her mind.
+      And Trevylyan, who had passed some of his early years among the students
+      of Leipsic, and was deeply versed in the various world of legendary lore,
+      ransacked his memory for such tales as seemed to him most likely to win
+      her interest; and often with false smiles entered into the playful tale,
+      or oftener, with more faithful interest, into the graver legend of trials
+      that warned yet beguiled them from their own. Of such tales I have
+      selected but a few; I know not that they are the least unworthy of
+      repetition,&mdash;they are those which many recollections induce me to
+      repeat the most willingly. Gertrude loved these stories, for she had not
+      yet lost, by the coldness of the world, one leaf from that soft and wild
+      romance which belonged to her beautiful mind; and, more than all, she
+      loved the sound of a voice which every day became more and more musical to
+      her ear. &ldquo;Shall I tell you,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, one morning, as he observed
+      her gloomier mood stealing over the face of Gertrude,&mdash;&ldquo;shall I tell
+      you, ere yet we pass into the dull land of Holland, a story of Malines,
+      whose spires we shall shortly see?&rdquo; Gertrude&rsquo;s face brightened at once,
+      and as she leaned back in the carriage as it whirled rapidly along, and
+      fixed her deep blue eyes on Trevylyan, he began the following tale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV. THE MAID OF MALINES.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      IT was noonday in the town of Malines, or Mechlin, as the English usually
+      term it; the Sabbath bell had summoned the inhabitants to divine worship;
+      and the crowd that had loitered round the Church of St. Rembauld had
+      gradually emptied itself within the spacious aisles of the sacred edifice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A young man was standing in the street, with his eyes bent on the ground,
+      and apparently listening for some sound; for without raising his looks
+      from the rude pavement, he turned to every corner of it with an intent and
+      anxious expression of countenance. He held in one hand a staff, in the
+      other a long slender cord, the end of which trailed on the ground; every
+      now and then he called, with a plaintive voice, &ldquo;Fido, Fido, come back!
+      Why hast thou deserted me?&rdquo; Fido returned not; the dog, wearied of
+      confinement, had slipped from the string, and was at play with his kind in
+      a distant quarter of the town, leaving the blind man to seek his way as he
+      might to his solitary inn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By and by a light step passed through the street, and the young stranger&rsquo;s
+      face brightened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pardon me,&rdquo; said he, turning to the spot where his quick ear had caught
+      the sound, &ldquo;and direct me, if you are not much pressed for a few moments&rsquo; 
+      time, to the hotel &lsquo;Mortier d&rsquo;Or.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a young woman, whose dress betokened that she belonged to the
+      middling class of life, whom he thus addressed. &ldquo;It is some distance
+      hence, sir,&rdquo; said she; &ldquo;but if you continue your way straight on for about
+      a hundred yards, and then take the second turn to your right hand&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas!&rdquo; interrupted the stranger, with a melancholy smile, &ldquo;your direction
+      will avail me little; my dog has deserted me, and I am blind!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was something in these words, and in the stranger&rsquo;s voice, which
+      went irresistibly to the heart of the young woman. &ldquo;Pray forgive me,&rdquo; she
+      said, almost with tears in her eyes, &ldquo;I did not perceive your&mdash;&rdquo;
+       misfortune, she was about to say, but she checked herself with an
+      instinctive delicacy. &ldquo;Lean upon me, I will conduct you to the door; nay,
+      sir,&rdquo; observing that he hesitated, &ldquo;I have time enough to spare, I assure
+      you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The stranger placed his hand on the young woman&rsquo;s arm; and though Lucille
+      was naturally so bashful that even her mother would laughingly reproach
+      her for the excess of a maiden virtue, she felt not the least pang of
+      shame, as she found herself thus suddenly walking through the streets of
+      Malines along with a young stranger, whose dress and air betokened him of
+      rank superior to her own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your voice is very gentle,&rdquo; said he, after a pause; &ldquo;and that,&rdquo; he added,
+      with a slight sigh, &ldquo;is the only criterion by which I know the young and
+      the beautiful!&rdquo; Lucille now blushed, and with a slight mixture of pain in
+      the blush, for she knew well that to beauty she had no pretension. &ldquo;Are
+      you a native of this town?&rdquo; continued he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sir; my father holds a small office in the customs, and my mother
+      and I eke out his salary by making lace. We are called poor, but we do not
+      feel it, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are fortunate! there is no wealth like the heart&rsquo;s wealth,&mdash;content,&rdquo;
+       answered the blind man, mournfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And, monsieur,&rdquo; said Lucille, feeling angry with herself that she had
+      awakened a natural envy in the stranger&rsquo;s mind, and anxious to change the
+      subject&mdash;&ldquo;and, monsieur, has he been long at Malines?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But yesterday. I am passing through the Low Countries on a tour; perhaps
+      you smile at the tour of a blind man, but it is wearisome even to the
+      blind to rest always in the same place. I thought during church-time, when
+      the streets were empty, that I might, by the help of my dog, enjoy safely
+      at least the air, if not the sight of the town; but there are some
+      persons, methinks, who cannot have even a dog for a friend!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The blind man spoke bitterly,&mdash;the desertion of his dog had touched
+      him to the core. Lucille wiped her eyes. &ldquo;And does Monsieur travel then
+      alone?&rdquo; said she; and looking at his face more attentively than she had
+      yet ventured to do, she saw that he was scarcely above two-and-twenty.
+      &ldquo;His father, and his <i>mother</i>,&rdquo; she added, with an emphasis on the
+      last word, &ldquo;are they not with him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am an orphan!&rdquo; answered the stranger; &ldquo;and I have neither brother nor
+      sister.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The desolate condition of the blind man quite melted Lucille; never had
+      she been so strongly affected. She felt a strange flutter at the heart, a
+      secret and earnest sympathy, that attracted her at once towards him. She
+      wished that Heaven had suffered her to be his sister!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The contrast between the youth and the form of the stranger, and the
+      affliction which took hope from the one and activity from the other,
+      increased the compassion he excited. His features were remarkably regular,
+      and had a certain nobleness in their outline; and his frame was gracefully
+      and firmly knit, though he moved cautiously and with no cheerful step.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had now passed into a narrow street leading towards the hotel, when
+      they heard behind them the clatter of hoofs; and Lucille, looking hastily
+      back, saw that a troop of the Belgian horse was passing through the town.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She drew her charge close by the wall, and trembling with fear for him,
+      she stationed herself by his side. The troop passed at a full trot through
+      the street; and at the sound of their clanging arms, and the ringing hoofs
+      of their heavy chargers, Lucille might have seen, had she looked at the
+      blind man&rsquo;s face, that its sad features kindled with enthusiasm, and his
+      head was raised proudly from its wonted and melancholy bend. &ldquo;Thank
+      Heaven!&rdquo; she said, as the troop had nearly passed them, &ldquo;the danger is
+      over!&rdquo; Not so. One of the last two soldiers who rode abreast was
+      unfortunately mounted on a young and unmanageable horse. The rider&rsquo;s oaths
+      and digging spur only increased the fire and impatience of the charger; it
+      plunged from side to side of the narrow street.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look to yourselves!&rdquo; cried the horseman, as he was borne on to the place
+      where Lucille and the stranger stood against the wall. &ldquo;Are ye mad? Why do
+      you not run?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For Heaven&rsquo;s sake, for mercy&rsquo;s sake, he is blind!&rdquo; cried Lucille,
+      clinging to the stranger&rsquo;s side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Save yourself, my kind guide!&rdquo; said the stranger. But Lucille dreamed not
+      of such desertion. The trooper wrested the horse&rsquo;s head from the spot
+      where they stood; with a snort, as it felt the spur, the enraged animal
+      lashed out with its hind-legs; and Lucille, unable to save <i>both</i>,
+      threw herself before the blind man, and received the shock directed
+      against him; her slight and delicate arm fell broken by her side, the
+      horseman was borne onward. &ldquo;Thank God, <i>you</i> are saved!&rdquo; was poor
+      Lucille&rsquo;s exclamation; and she fell, overcome with pain and terror, into
+      the arms which the stranger mechanically opened to receive her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My guide! my friend!&rdquo; cried he, &ldquo;you are hurt, you&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sir,&rdquo; interrupted Lucille, faintly, &ldquo;I am better, I am well. <i>This</i>
+      arm, if you please,&mdash;we are not far from your hotel now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But the stranger&rsquo;s ear, tutored to every inflection of voice, told him at
+      once of the pain she suffered. He drew from her by degrees the confession
+      of the injury she had sustained; but the generous girl did not tell him it
+      had been incurred solely in his protection. He now insisted on reversing
+      their duties, and accompanying <i>her</i> to her home; and Lucille, almost
+      fainting with pain, and hardly able to move, was forced to consent. But a
+      few steps down the next turning stood the humble mansion of her father.
+      They reached it; and Lucille scarcely crossed the threshold, before she
+      sank down, and for some minutes was insensible to pain. It was left to the
+      stranger to explain, and to beseech them immediately to send for a
+      surgeon, &ldquo;the most skilful, the most practised in the town,&rdquo; said he.
+      &ldquo;See, I am rich, and this is the least I can do to atone to your generous
+      daughter, for not forsaking even a stranger in peril.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He held out his purse as he spoke, but the father refused the offer; and
+      it saved the blind man some shame, that he could not see the blush of
+      honest resentment with which so poor a species of renumeration was put
+      aside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young man stayed till the surgeon arrived, till the arm was set; nor
+      did he depart until he had obtained a promise from the mother that he
+      should learn the next morning how the sufferer had passed the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning, indeed, he had intended to quit a town that offers but
+      little temptation to the traveller; but he tarried day after day, until
+      Lucille herself accompanied her mother, to assure him of her recovery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You know, at least I do, dearest Gertrude, that there is such a thing as
+      love at the first meeting,&mdash;a secret, an unaccountable affinity
+      between persons (strangers before) which draws them irresistibly together,&mdash;as
+      if there were truth in Plato&rsquo;s beautiful fantasy, that our souls were a
+      portion of the stars, and that spirits, thus attracted to each other, have
+      drawn their original light from the same orb, and yearn for a renewal of
+      their former union. Yet without recurring to such fanciful solutions of a
+      daily mystery, it was but natural that one in the forlorn and desolate
+      condition of Eugene St. Amand should have felt a certain tenderness for a
+      person who had so generously suffered for his sake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The darkness to which he was condemned did not shut from his mind&rsquo;s eye
+      the haunting images of Ideal beauty; rather, on the contrary, in his
+      perpetual and unoccupied solitude, he fed the reveries of an imagination
+      naturally warm, and a heart eager for sympathy and commune.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had said rightly that his only test of beauty was in the melody of
+      voice; and never had a softer or more thrilling tone than that of the
+      young maiden touched upon his ear. Her exclamation, so beautifully denying
+      self, so devoted in its charity, &ldquo;Thank God, <i>you</i> are saved!&rdquo;
+       uttered too in the moment of her own suffering, rang constantly upon his
+      soul, and he yielded, without precisely defining their nature, to vague
+      and delicious sentiments, that his youth had never awakened to till then.
+      And Lucille&mdash;the very accident that had happened to her on his behalf
+      only deepened the interest she had already conceived for one who, in the
+      first flush of youth, was thus cut off from the glad objects of life, and
+      left to a night of years desolate and alone. There is, to your beautiful
+      and kindly sex, a natural inclination to <i>protect</i>. This makes them
+      the angels of sickness, the comforters of age, the fosterers of childhood;
+      and this feeling, in Lucille peculiarly developed, had already
+      inexpressibly linked her compassionate nature to the lot of the
+      unfortunate traveller. With ardent affections, and with thoughts beyond
+      her station and her years, she was not without that modest vanity which
+      made her painfully susceptible to her own deficiencies in beauty.
+      Instinctively conscious of how deeply she herself could love, she believed
+      it impossible that she could ever be so loved in return. The stranger, so
+      superior in her eyes to all she had yet seen, was the first who had ever
+      addressed her in that voice which by tones, not words, speaks that
+      admiration most dear to a woman&rsquo;s heart. To <i>him</i> she was beautiful,
+      and her lovely mind spoke out, undimmed by the imperfections of her face.
+      Not, indeed, that Lucille was wholly without personal attraction; her
+      light step and graceful form were elastic with the freshness of youth, and
+      her mouth and smile had so gentle and tender an expression, that there
+      were moments when it would not have been the blind only who would have
+      mistaken her to be beautiful. Her early childhood had indeed given the
+      promise of attractions, which the smallpox, that then fearful malady, had
+      inexorably marred. It had not only seared the smooth skin and brilliant
+      hues, but utterly changed even the character of the features. It so
+      happened that Lucille&rsquo;s family were celebrated for beauty, and vain of
+      that celebrity; and so bitterly had her parents deplored the effects of
+      the cruel malady, that poor Lucille had been early taught to consider them
+      far more grievous than they really were, and to exaggerate the advantages
+      of that beauty, the loss of which was considered by her parents so heavy a
+      misfortune. Lucille, too, had a cousin named Julie, who was the wonder of
+      all Malines for her personal perfections; and as the cousins were much
+      together, the contrast was too striking not to occasion frequent
+      mortification to Lucille. But every misfortune has something of a
+      counterpoise; and the consciousness of personal inferiority had meekened,
+      without souring, her temper, had given gentleness to a spirit that
+      otherwise might have been too high, and humility to a mind that was
+      naturally strong, impassioned, and energetic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And yet Lucille had long conquered the one disadvantage she most dreaded
+      in the want of beauty. Lucille was never known but to be loved. Wherever
+      came her presence, her bright and soft mind diffused a certain
+      inexpressible charm; and where she was not, a something was absent from
+      the scene which not even Julie&rsquo;s beauty could replace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I propose,&rdquo; said St. Amand to Madame le Tisseur, Lucille&rsquo;s mother, as he
+      sat in her little salon,&mdash;for he had already contracted that
+      acquaintance with the family which permitted him to be led to their house,
+      to return the visits Madame le Tisseur had made him, and his dog, once
+      more returned a penitent to his master, always conducted his steps to the
+      humble abode, and stopped instinctively at the door,&mdash;&ldquo;I propose,&rdquo;
+       said St. Amand, after a pause, and with some embarrassment, &ldquo;to stay a
+      little while longer at Malines; the air agrees with me, and I like the
+      quiet of the place; but you are aware, madam, that at a hotel among
+      strangers, I feel my situation somewhat cheerless. I have been thinking&rdquo;&mdash;St.
+      Amand paused again&mdash;&ldquo;I have been thinking that if I could persuade
+      some agreeable family to receive me as a lodger, I would fix myself here
+      for some weeks. I am easily pleased.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doubtless there are many in Malines who would be too happy to receive
+      such a lodger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you receive me?&rdquo; asked St. Amand, abruptly. &ldquo;It was of <i>your</i>
+      family I thought.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of us? Monsieur is too flattering. But we have scarcely a room good
+      enough for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What difference between one room and another can there be to me? That is
+      the best apartment to my choice in which the human voice sounds most
+      kindly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The arrangement was made, and St. Amand came now to reside beneath the
+      same roof as Lucille. And was she not happy that <i>he</i> wanted so
+      constant an attendance; was she not happy that she was ever of use? St.
+      Amand was passionately fond of music; he played himself with a skill that
+      was only surpassed by the exquisite melody of his voice, and was not
+      Lucille happy when she sat mute and listening to such sounds as in Malines
+      were never heard before? Was she not happy in gazing on a face to whose
+      melancholy aspect her voice instantly summoned the smile? Was she not
+      happy when the music ceased, and St. Amand called &ldquo;Lucille&rdquo;? Did not her
+      own name uttered by that voice seem to her even sweeter than the music?
+      Was she not happy when they walked out in the still evenings of summer,
+      and her arm thrilled beneath the light touch of one to whom she was so
+      necessary? Was she not proud in her happiness, and was there not something
+      like worship in the gratitude she felt to him for raising her humble
+      spirit to the luxury of feeling herself beloved?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      St. Amand&rsquo;s parents were French. They had resided in the neighbourhood of
+      Amiens, where they had inherited a competent property, to which he had
+      succeeded about two years previous to the date of my story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had been blind from the age of three years. &ldquo;I know not,&rdquo; said he, as
+      he related these particulars to Lucille one evening when they were alone,&mdash;&ldquo;I
+      know not what the earth may be like, or the heaven, or the rivers whose
+      voice at least I can hear, for I have no recollection beyond that of a
+      confused but delicious blending of a thousand glorious colours, a bright
+      and quick sense of joy, A VISIBLE MUSIC. But it is only since my childhood
+      closed that I have mourned, as I now unceasingly mourn, for the light of
+      day. My boyhood passed in a quiet cheerfulness; the least trifle then
+      could please and occupy the vacancies of my mind; but it was as I took
+      delight in being read to, as I listened to the vivid descriptions of
+      Poetry, as I glowed at the recital of great deeds, as I was made
+      acquainted by books with the energy, the action, the heat, the fervour,
+      the pomp, the enthusiasm of life, that I gradually opened to the sense of
+      all I was forever denied. I felt that I existed, not lived; and that, in
+      the midst of the Universal Liberty, I was sentenced to a prison, from
+      whose blank walls there was no escape. Still, however, while my parents
+      lived, I had something of consolation; at least I was not alone. They
+      died, and a sudden and dread solitude, a vast and empty dreariness,
+      settled upon my dungeon. One old servant only, who had attended me from my
+      childhood, who had known me in my short privilege of light, by whose
+      recollections my mind could grope back its way through the dark and narrow
+      passages of memory to faint glimpses of the sun, was all that remained to
+      me of human sympathies. It did not suffice, however, to content me with a
+      home where my father and my mother&rsquo;s kind voice were <i>not</i>. A
+      restless impatience, an anxiety to move, possessed me, and I set out from
+      my home, journeying whither I cared not, so that at least I could change
+      an air that weighed upon me like a palpable burden. I took only this old
+      attendant as my companion; he too died three months since at Bruxelles,
+      worn out with years. Alas! I had forgotten that he was old, for I saw not
+      his progress to decay; and now, save my faithless dog, I was utterly
+      alone, till I came hither and found <i>thee</i>.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lucille stooped down to caress the dog; she blessed the desertion that had
+      led him to a friend who never could desert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But however much, and however gratefully, St. Amand loved Lucille, her
+      power availed not to chase the melancholy from his brow, and to reconcile
+      him to his forlorn condition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, would that I could see thee! would that I could look upon a face that
+      my heart vainly endeavours to delineate!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If thou couldst,&rdquo; sighed Lucille, &ldquo;thou wouldst cease to love me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Impossible!&rdquo; cried St. Amand, passionately. &ldquo;However the world may find
+      thee, <i>thou</i> wouldst become my standard of beauty; and I should judge
+      not of thee by others, but of others by thee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He loved to hear Lucille read to him, and mostly he loved the descriptions
+      of war, of travel, of wild adventure, and yet they occasioned him the most
+      pain. Often she paused from the page as she heard him sigh, and felt that
+      she would even have renounced the bliss of being loved by him, if she
+      could have restored to him that blessing, the desire for which haunted him
+      as a spectre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lucille&rsquo;s family were Catholic, and, like most in their station, they
+      possessed the superstitions, as well as the devotion of the faith.
+      Sometimes they amused themselves of an evening by the various legends and
+      imaginary miracles of their calendar; and once, as they were thus
+      conversing with two or three of their neighbours, &ldquo;The Tomb of the Three
+      Kings of Cologne&rdquo; became the main topic of their wondering recitals.
+      However strong was the sense of Lucille, she was, as you will readily
+      conceive, naturally influenced by the belief of those with whom she had
+      been brought up from her cradle, and she listened to tale after tale of
+      the miracles wrought at the consecrated tomb, as earnestly and
+      undoubtingly as the rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the Kings of the East were no ordinary saints; to the relics of the
+      Three Magi, who followed the Star of Bethlehem, and were the first
+      potentates of the earth who adored its Saviour, well might the pious
+      Catholic suppose that a peculiar power and a healing sanctity would
+      belong. Each of the circle (St. Amand, who had been more than usually
+      silent, and even gloomy during the day, had retired to his own apartment,
+      for there were some moments when, in the sadness of his thoughts, he
+      sought that solitude which he so impatiently fled from at others)&mdash;each
+      of the circle had some story to relate equally veracious and indisputable,
+      of an infirmity cured, or a prayer accorded, or a sin atoned for at the
+      foot of the holy tomb. One story peculiarly affected Lucille; the
+      narrator, a venerable old man with gray locks, solemnly declared himself a
+      witness of its truth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A woman at Anvers had given birth to a son, the offspring of an illicit
+      connection, who came into the world deaf and dumb. The unfortunate mother
+      believed the calamity a punishment for her own sin. &ldquo;Ah, would,&rdquo; said she,
+      &ldquo;that the affliction had fallen only upon me! Wretch that I am, my
+      innocent child is punished for my offence!&rdquo; This, idea haunted her night
+      and day; she pined and could not be comforted. As the child grew up, and
+      wound himself more and more round her heart, his caresses added new pangs
+      to her remorse; and at length (continued the narrator) hearing perpetually
+      of the holy fame of the Tomb of Cologne, she resolved upon a pilgrimage
+      barefoot to the shrine. &ldquo;God is merciful,&rdquo; said she; &ldquo;and He who called
+      Magdalene his sister may take the mother&rsquo;s curse from the child.&rdquo; She then
+      went to Cologne; she poured her tears, her penitence, and her prayers at
+      the sacred tomb. When she returned to her native town, what was her dismay
+      as she approached her cottage to behold it a heap of ruins! Its blackened
+      rafters and yawning casements betokened the ravages of fire. The poor
+      woman sank upon the ground utterly overpowered. Had her son perished? At
+      that moment she heard the cry of a child&rsquo;s voice, and, lo! her child
+      rushed to her arms, and called her &ldquo;mother!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He had been saved from the fire, which had broken out seven days before;
+      but in the terror he had suffered, the string that tied his tongue had
+      been loosened; he had uttered articulate sounds of distress; the curse was
+      removed, and one word at least the kind neighbours had already taught him
+      to welcome his mother&rsquo;s return. What cared she now that her substance was
+      gone, that her roof was ashes? She bowed in grateful submission to so mild
+      a stroke; her prayer had been heard, and the sin of the mother was visited
+      no longer on the child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have said, dear Gertrude, that this story made a deep impression upon
+      Lucille. A misfortune so nearly akin to that of St. Amand removed by the
+      prayer of another filled her with devoted thoughts and a beautiful hope.
+      &ldquo;Is not the tomb still standing?&rdquo; thought she. &ldquo;Is not God still in
+      heaven?&mdash;He who heard the guilty, may He not hear the guiltless? Is
+      He not the God of love? Are not the affections the offerings that please
+      Him best? And what though the child&rsquo;s mediator was his mother, can even a
+      mother love her child more tenderly than I love Eugene? But if, Lucille,
+      thy prayer be granted, if he recover his sight, <i>thy</i> charm is gone,
+      he will love thee no longer. No matter! be it so,&mdash;I shall at least
+      have made him happy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Such were the thoughts that filled the mind of Lucille; she cherished them
+      till they settled into resolution, and she secretly vowed to perform her
+      pilgrimage of love. She told neither St. Amand nor her parents of her
+      intention; she knew the obstacles such an announcement would create.
+      Fortunately she had an aunt settled at Bruxelles, to whom she had been
+      accustomed once in every year to pay a month&rsquo;s visit, and at that time she
+      generally took with her the work of a twelvemonths&rsquo; industry, which found
+      a readier sale at Bruxelles than at Malines. Lucille and St. Amand were
+      already betrothed; their wedding was shortly to take place; and the custom
+      of the country leading parents, however poor, to nourish the honourable
+      ambition of giving some dowry with their daughters, Lucille found it easy
+      to hide the object of her departure, under the pretence of taking the lace
+      to Bruxelles, which had been the year&rsquo;s labour of her mother and herself,&mdash;it
+      would sell for sufficient, at least, to defray the preparations for the
+      wedding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art ever right, child,&rdquo; said Madame le Tisseur; &ldquo;the richer St.
+      Amand is, why, the less oughtest thou to go a beggar to his house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In fact, the honest ambition of the good people was excited; their pride
+      had been hurt by the envy of the town and the current congratulations on
+      so advantageous a marriage; and they employed themselves in counting up
+      the fortune they should be able to give to their only child, and
+      flattering their pardonable vanity with the notion that there would be no
+      such great disproportion in the connection after all. They were right, but
+      not in their own view of the estimate; the wealth that Lucille brought was
+      what fate could not lessen, reverse could not reach; the ungracious
+      seasons could not blight its sweet harvest; imprudence could not
+      dissipate, fraud could not steal, one grain from its abundant coffers!
+      Like the purse in the Fairy Tale, its use was hourly, its treasure
+      inexhaustible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      St. Amand alone was not to be won to her departure; he chafed at the
+      notion of a dowry; he was not appeased even by Lucille&rsquo;s representation
+      that it was only to gratify and not to impoverish her parents. &ldquo;And <i>thou</i>,
+      too, canst leave me!&rdquo; he said, in that plaintive voice which had made his
+      first charm to Lucille&rsquo;s heart. &ldquo;It is a double blindness!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But for a few days; a fortnight at most, dearest Eugene.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A fortnight! you do not reckon time as the blind do,&rdquo; said St. Amand,
+      bitterly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But listen, listen, dear Eugene,&rdquo; said Lucille, weeping.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sound of her sobs restored him to a sense of his ingratitude. Alas, he
+      knew not how much he had to be grateful for! He held out his arms to her.
+      &ldquo;Forgive me,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;Those who can see Nature know not how terrible it
+      is to be alone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But my mother will not leave you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is not you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And Julie,&rdquo; said Lucille, hesitatingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is Julie to me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, you are the only one, save my parents, who could think of me in her
+      presence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why, Lucille?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why! She is more beautiful than a dream.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say not so. Would I could see, that I might prove to the world how much
+      more beautiful thou art! There is no music in her voice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The evening before Lucille departed she sat up late with St. Amand and her
+      mother. They conversed on the future; they made plans; in the wide
+      sterility of the world they laid out the garden of household love, and
+      filled it with flowers, forgetful of the wind that scatters and the frost
+      that kills. And when, leaning on Lucille&rsquo;s arm, St. Amand sought his
+      chamber, and they parted at his door, which closed upon her, she fell down
+      on her knees at the threshold, and poured out the fulness of her heart in
+      a prayer for his safety and the fulfilment of her timid hope.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At daybreak she was consigned to the conveyance that performed the short
+      journey from Malines to Bruxelles. When she entered the town, instead of
+      seeking her aunt, she rested at an <i>auberge</i> in the suburbs, and
+      confiding her little basket of lace to the care of its hostess, she set
+      out alone, and on foot, upon the errand of her heart&rsquo;s lovely
+      superstition. And erring though it was, her faith redeemed its weakness,
+      her affection made it even sacred; and well may we believe that the Eye
+      which reads all secrets scarce looked reprovingly on that fanaticism whose
+      only infirmity was love.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So fearful was she lest, by rendering the task too easy, she might impair
+      the effect, that she scarcely allowed herself rest or food. Sometimes, in
+      the heat of noon, she wandered a little from the roadside, and under the
+      spreading lime-tree surrendered her mind to its sweet and bitter thoughts;
+      but ever the restlessness of her enterprise urged her on, and faint,
+      weary, and with bleeding feet, she started up and continued her way. At
+      length she reached the ancient city, where a holier age has scarce worn
+      from the habits and aspects of men the Roman trace. She prostrated herself
+      at the tomb of the Magi; she proffered her ardent but humble prayer to Him
+      before whose Son those fleshless heads (yet to faith at least preserved)
+      had, eighteen centuries ago, bowed in adoration. Twice every day, for a
+      whole week, she sought the same spot, and poured forth the same prayer.
+      The last day an old priest, who, hovering in the church, had observed her
+      constantly at devotion, with that fatherly interest which the better
+      ministers of the Catholic sect (that sect which has covered the earth with
+      the mansions of charity) feel for the unhappy, approached her as she was
+      retiring with moist and downcast eyes, and saluting her, assumed the
+      privilege of his order to inquire if there was aught in which his advice
+      or aid could serve. There was something in the venerable air of the old
+      man which encouraged Lucille; she opened her heart to him; she told him
+      all. The good priest was much moved by her simplicity and earnestness. He
+      questioned her minutely as to the peculiar species of blindness with which
+      St. Amand was afflicted; and after musing a little while, he said,
+      &ldquo;Daughter, God is great and merciful; we must trust in His power, but we
+      must not forget that He mostly works by mortal agents. As you pass through
+      Louvain in your way home, fail not to see there a certain physician, named
+      Le Kain. He is celebrated through Flanders for the cures he has wrought
+      among the blind, and his advice is sought by all classes from far and
+      near. He lives hard by the Hotel de Ville, but any one will inform you of
+      his residence. Stay, my child, you shall take him a note from me; he is a
+      benevolent and kindly man, and you shall tell him exactly the same story
+      (and with the same voice) you have told to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying the priest made Lucille accompany him to his home, and forcing
+      her to refresh herself less sparingly than she had yet done since she had
+      left Malines, he gave her his blessing, and a letter to Le Kain, which he
+      rightly judged would insure her a patient hearing from the physician. Well
+      known among all men of science was the name of the priest, and a word of
+      recommendation from him went further, where virtue and wisdom were
+      honoured, than the longest letter from the haughtiest sieur in Flanders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a patient and hopeful spirit, the young pilgrim turned her back on
+      the Roman Cologne; and now about to rejoin St. Amand, she felt neither the
+      heat of the sun nor the weariness of the road. It was one day at noon that
+      she again passed through Louvain, and she soon found herself by the noble
+      edifice of the Hotel de Ville. Proud rose its spires against the sky, and
+      the sun shone bright on its rich tracery and Gothic casements; the broad
+      open street was crowded with persons of all classes, and it was with some
+      modest alarm that Lucille lowered her veil and mingled with the throng. It
+      was easy, as the priest had said, to find the house of Le Kain; she bade
+      the servant take the priest&rsquo;s letter to his master, and she was not long
+      kept waiting before she was admitted to the physician&rsquo;s presence. He was a
+      spare, tall man, with a bald front, and a calm and friendly countenance.
+      He was not less touched than the priest had been by the manner in which
+      she narrated her story, described the affliction of her betrothed, and the
+      hope that had inspired the pilgrimage she had just made.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said he, encouragingly, &ldquo;we must see our patient. You can bring
+      him hither to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, sir, I had hoped&mdash;&rdquo; Lucille stopped suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, my young friend?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I might have had the triumph of bringing you to Malines. I know,
+      sir, what you are about to say, and I know, sir, your time must be very
+      valuable; but I am not so poor as I seem, and Eugene, that is, M. St.
+      Amand, is very rich, and&mdash;and I have at Bruxelles what I am sure is a
+      large sum; it was to have provided for the wedding, but it is most
+      heartily at your service, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Le Kain smiled; he was one of those men who love to read the human heart
+      when its leaves are fair and undefiled; and, in the benevolence of
+      science, he would have gone a longer journey than from Louvain to Malines
+      to give sight to the blind, even had St. Amand been a beggar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, well,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;but you forget that M. St. Amand is not the only
+      one in the world who wants me. I must look at my notebook, and see if I
+      can be spared for a day or two.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he glanced at his memoranda. Everything smiled on Lucille; he
+      had no engagements that his partner could not fulfil, for some days; he
+      consented to accompany Lucille to Malines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile, cheerless and dull had passed the time to St. Amand. He was
+      perpetually asking Madame le Tisseur what hour it was,&mdash;it was almost
+      his only question. There seemed to him no sun in the heavens, no freshness
+      in the air, and he even forbore his favourite music; the instrument had
+      lost its sweetness since Lucille was not by to listen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was natural that the gossips of Malines should feel some envy at the
+      marriage Lucille was about to make with one whose competence report had
+      exaggerated into prodigal wealth, whose birth had been elevated from the
+      respectable to the noble, and whose handsome person was clothed, by the
+      interest excited by his misfortune, with the beauty of Antinous. Even that
+      misfortune, which ought to have levelled all distinctions, was not
+      sufficient to check the general envy; perhaps to some of the damsels of
+      Malines blindness in a husband would not have seemed an unwelcome
+      infirmity! But there was one in whom this envy rankled with a peculiar
+      sting: it was the beautiful, the all-conquering Julie! That the humble,
+      the neglected Lucille should be preferred to her; that Lucille, whose
+      existence was well-nigh forgot beside Julie&rsquo;s, should become thus suddenly
+      of importance; that there should be one person in the world, and that
+      person young, rich, handsome, to whom she was less than nothing, when
+      weighed in the balance with Lucille, mortified to the quick a vanity that
+      had never till then received a wound. &ldquo;It is well,&rdquo; she would say with a
+      bitter jest, &ldquo;that Lucille&rsquo;s lover is blind. To be the one it is necessary
+      to be the other!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      During Lucille&rsquo;s absence she had been constantly in Madame le Tisseur&rsquo;s
+      house; indeed, Lucille had prayed her to be so. She had sought, with an
+      industry that astonished herself, to supply Lucille&rsquo;s place; and among the
+      strange contradictions of human nature, she had learned during her efforts
+      to please, to love the object of those efforts,&mdash;as much at least as
+      she was capable of loving.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She conceived a positive hatred to Lucille; she persisted in imagining
+      that nothing but the accident of first acquaintance had deprived her of a
+      conquest with which she persuaded herself her happiness had become
+      connected. Had St. Amand never loved Lucille and proposed to Julie, his
+      misfortune would have made her reject him, despite his wealth and his
+      youth; but to be Lucille&rsquo;s lover, and a conquest to be won from Lucille,
+      raised him instantly to an importance not his own. Safe, however, in his
+      affliction, the arts and beauty of Julie fell harmless on the fidelity of
+      St. Amand. Nay, he liked her less than ever, for it seemed an impertinence
+      in any one to counterfeit the anxiety and watchfulness of Lucille.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is time, surely it is time, Madame le Tisseur, that Lucille should
+      return? She might have sold all the lace in Malines by this time,&rdquo; said
+      St. Amand, one day, peevishly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Patience, my dear friend, patience; perhaps she may return to-morrow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To-morrow! let me see, it is only six o&rsquo;clock,&mdash;only six, you are
+      sure?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just five, dear Eugene. Shall I read to you? This is a new book from
+      Paris; it has made a great noise,&rdquo; said Julie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are very kind, but I will not trouble you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is anything but trouble.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In a word, then, I would rather not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, that he could see!&rdquo; thought Julie; &ldquo;would I not punish him for this!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hear carriage wheels; who can be passing this way? Surely it is the <i>voiturier</i>
+      from Bruxelles,&rdquo; said St. Amand, starting up; &ldquo;it is his day,&mdash;his
+      hour, too. No, no, it is a lighter vehicle,&rdquo; and he sank down listlessly
+      on his seat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nearer and nearer rolled the wheels; they turned the corner; they stopped
+      at the lowly door; and, overcome, overjoyed, Lucille was clasped to the
+      bosom of St. Amand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stay,&rdquo; said she, blushing, as she recovered her self-possession, and
+      turned to Le Kain; &ldquo;pray pardon me, sir. Dear Eugene, I have brought with
+      me one who, by God&rsquo;s blessing, may yet restore you to sight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We must not be sanguine, my child,&rdquo; said Le Kain; &ldquo;anything is better
+      than disappointment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To close this part of my story, dear Gertrude, Le Kain examined St. Amand,
+      and the result of the examination was a confident belief in the
+      probability of a cure. St. Amand gladly consented to the experiment of an
+      operation; it succeeded, the blind man saw! Oh, what were Lucille&rsquo;s
+      feelings, what her emotion, what her joy, when she found the object of her
+      pilgrimage, of her prayers, fulfilled! That joy was so intense that in the
+      eternal alternations of human life she might have foretold from its excess
+      how bitter the sorrows fated to ensue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as by degrees the patient&rsquo;s new sense became reconciled to the
+      light, his first, his only demand was for Lucille. &ldquo;No, let me not see her
+      alone; let me see her in the midst of you all, that I may convince you
+      that the heart never is mistaken in its instincts.&rdquo; With a fearful, a
+      sinking presentiment, Lucille yielded to the request, to which the
+      impetuous St. Amand would hear indeed no denial. The father, the mother,
+      Julie, Lucille, Julie&rsquo;s younger sisters, assembled in the little parlour;
+      the door opened, and St. Amand stood hesitating on the threshold. One look
+      around sufficed to him; his face brightened, he uttered a cry of joy.
+      &ldquo;Lucille! Lucille!&rdquo; he exclaimed, &ldquo;it is you, I know it, <i>you</i> only!&rdquo;
+       He sprang forward <i>and fell at the feet of Julie</i>!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Flushed, elated, triumphant, Julie bent upon him her sparkling eyes; <i>she</i>
+      did not undeceive him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are wrong, you mistake,&rdquo; said Madame le Tisseur, in confusion; &ldquo;that
+      is her cousin Julie,&mdash;this is your Lucille.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      St. Amand rose, turned, saw Lucille, and at that moment she wished herself
+      in her grave. Surprise, mortification, disappointment, almost dismay, were
+      depicted in his gaze. He had been haunting his prison-house with dreams,
+      and now, set free, he felt how unlike they were to the truth. Too new to
+      observation to read the woe, the despair, the lapse and shrinking of the
+      whole frame, that his look occasioned Lucille, he yet felt, when the first
+      shock of his surprise was over, that it was not thus he should thank her
+      who had restored him to sight. He hastened to redeem his error&mdash;ah!
+      how could it be redeemed?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From that hour all Lucille&rsquo;s happiness was at an end; her fairy palace was
+      shattered in the dust; the magician&rsquo;s wand was broken up; the Ariel was
+      given to the winds; and the bright enchantment no longer distinguished the
+      land she lived in from the rest of the barren world. It is true that St.
+      Amand&rsquo;s words were kind; it is true that he remembered with the deepest
+      gratitude all she had done in his behalf; it is true that he forced
+      himself again and again to say, &ldquo;She is my betrothed, my benefactress!&rdquo;
+       and he cursed himself to think that the feelings he had entertained for
+      her were fled. Where was the passion of his words; where the ardour of his
+      tone; where that play and light of countenance which her step, her voice,
+      could formerly call forth? When they were alone he was embarrassed and
+      constrained, and almost cold; his hand no longer sought hers, his soul no
+      longer missed her if she was absent a moment from his side. When in their
+      household circle he seemed visibly more at ease; but did his eyes fasten
+      upon her who had opened them to the day; did they not wander at every
+      interval with a too eloquent admiration to the blushing and radiant face
+      of the exulting Julie? This was not, you will believe, suddenly
+      perceptible in one day or one week, but every day it was perceptible more
+      and more. Yet still&mdash;bewitched, ensnared, as St. Amand was he never
+      perhaps would have been guilty of an infidelity that he strove with the
+      keenest remorse to wrestle against, had it not been for the fatal
+      contrast, at the first moment of his gushing enthusiasm, which Julie had
+      presented to Lucille; but for that he would have formed no previous idea
+      of real and living beauty to aid the disappointment of his imaginings and
+      his dreams. He would have seen Lucille young and graceful, and with eyes
+      beaming affection, contrasted only by the wrinkled countenance and bended
+      frame of her parents, and she would have completed her conquest over him
+      before he had discovered that she was less beautiful than others; nay,
+      more,&mdash;that infidelity never could have lasted above the first few
+      days, if the vain and heartless object of it had not exerted every art,
+      all the power and witchery of her beauty, to cement and continue it. The
+      unfortunate Lucille&mdash;so susceptible to the slightest change in those
+      she loved, so diffident of herself, so proud too in that diffidence&mdash;no
+      longer necessary, no longer missed, no longer loved, could not bear to
+      endure the galling comparison between the past and the present. She fled
+      uncomplainingly to her chamber to indulge her tears, and thus, unhappily,
+      absent as her father generally was during the day, and busied as her
+      mother was either at work or in household matters, she left Julie a
+      thousand opportunities to complete the power she had begun to wield over&mdash;no,
+      not the heart!&mdash;the <i>senses</i> of St. Amand! Yet, still not
+      suspecting, in the open generosity of her mind, the whole extent of her
+      affliction, poor Lucille buoyed herself at times with the hope that when
+      once married, when, once in that intimacy of friendship, the unspeakable
+      love she felt for him could disclose itself with less restraint than at
+      present,&mdash;she would perhaps regain a heart which had been so
+      devotedly hers, that she could not think that without a fault it was
+      irrevocably gone: on that hope she anchored all the little happiness that
+      remained to her. And still St. Amand pressed their marriage, but in what
+      different tones! In fact, he wished to preclude from himself the
+      possibility of a deeper ingratitude than that which he had incurred
+      already. He vainly thought that the broken reed of love might be bound up
+      and strengthened by the ties of duty; and at least he was anxious that his
+      hand, his fortune, his esteem, his gratitude, should give to Lucille the
+      only recompense it was now in his power to bestow. Meanwhile, left alone
+      so often with Julie, and Julie bent on achieving the last triumph over his
+      heart, St. Amand was gradually preparing a far different reward, a far
+      different return, for her to whom he owed so incalculable a debt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a garden, behind the house, in which there was a small arbour,
+      where often in the summer evenings Eugene and Lucille had sat together,&mdash;hours
+      never to return! One day she heard from her own chamber, where she sat
+      mourning, the sound of St. Amand&rsquo;s flute swelling gently from that beloved
+      and consecrated bower. She wept as she heard it, and the memories that the
+      music bore softening and endearing his image, she began to reproach
+      herself that she had yielded so often to the impulse of her wounded
+      feelings; that chilled by <i>his</i> coldness, she had left him so often
+      to himself, and had not sufficiently dared to tell him of that affection
+      which, in her modest self-depreciation, constituted her only pretension to
+      his love. &ldquo;Perhaps he is alone now,&rdquo; she thought; &ldquo;the air too is one
+      which he knows that I love;&rdquo; and with her heart in her step, she stole
+      from the house and sought the arbour. She had scarce turned from her
+      chamber when the flute ceased; as she neared the arbour she heard voices,&mdash;Julie&rsquo;s
+      voice in grief, St. Amand&rsquo;s in consolation. A dread foreboding seized her;
+      her feet clung rooted to the earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, marry her, forget me,&rdquo; said Julie; &ldquo;in a few days you will be
+      another&rsquo;s, and I&mdash;I&mdash;forgive me, Eugene, forgive me that I have
+      disturbed your happiness. I am punished sufficiently; my heart will break,
+      but it will break in loving you.&rdquo; Sobs choked Julie&rsquo;s voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, speak not thus,&rdquo; said St. Amand. &ldquo;I, <i>I</i> only am to blame,&mdash;I,
+      false to both, to both ungrateful. Oh, from the hour that these eyes
+      opened upon you I drank in a new life; the sun itself to me was less
+      wonderful than your beauty. But&mdash;but&mdash;let me forget that hour.
+      What do I not owe to Lucille? I shall be wretched,&mdash;I shall deserve
+      to be so; for shall I not think, Julie, that I have embittered your life
+      with our ill-fated love? But all that I can give&mdash;my hand, my home,
+      my plighted faith&mdash;must be hers. Nay, Julie, nay&mdash;why that look?
+      Could I act otherwise? Can I dream otherwise? Whatever the sacrifice, <i>must</i>
+      I not render it? Ah, what do I owe to Lucille, were it only for the
+      thought that but for her I might never have seen thee!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lucille stayed to hear no more; with the same soft step as that which had
+      borne her within hearing of these fatal words, she turned back once more
+      to her desolate chamber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That evening, as St. Amand was sitting alone in his apartment, he heard a
+      gentle knock at the door. &ldquo;Come in,&rdquo; he said, and Lucille entered. He
+      started in some confusion, and would have taken her hand, but she gently
+      repulsed him. She took a seat opposite to him, and looking down, thus
+      addressed him:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear Eugene, that is, Monsieur St. Amand, I have something on my mind
+      that I think it better to speak at once; and if I do not exactly express
+      what I would wish to say, you must not be offended with Lucille: it is not
+      an easy matter to put into words what one feels deeply.&rdquo; Colouring, and
+      suspecting something of the truth, St. Amand would have broken in upon her
+      here; but she with a gentle impatience motioned him to be silent, and
+      continued:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know that when you once loved me, I used to tell you that you would
+      cease to do so could you see how undeserving I was of your attachment. I
+      did not deceive myself, Eugene; I always felt assured that such would be
+      the case, that your love for me necessarily rested on your affliction. But
+      for all that I never at least had a dream or a desire but for your
+      happiness; and God knows, that if again, by walking barefooted, not to
+      Cologne, but to Rome&mdash;to the end of the world&mdash;I could save you
+      from a much less misfortune than that of blindness, I would cheerfully do
+      it; yes, even though I might foretell all the while that, on my return,
+      you would speak to me coldly, think of me lightly, and that the penalty to
+      me would&mdash;would be&mdash;what it has been!&rdquo; Here Lucille wiped a few
+      natural tears from her eyes. St. Amand, struck to the heart, covered his
+      face with his hands, without the courage to interrupt her. Lucille
+      continued:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That which I foresaw has come to pass; I am no longer to you what I once
+      was, when you could clothe this poor form and this homely face with a
+      beauty they did not possess. You would wed me still, it is true; but I am
+      proud, Eugene, and cannot stoop to gratitude where I once had love. I am
+      not so unjust as to blame you; the change was natural, was inevitable. I
+      should have steeled myself more against it; but I am now resigned. We must
+      part; you love Julie&mdash;that too is natural&mdash;and <i>she</i> loves
+      you; ah! what also more in the probable course of events? Julie loves you,
+      not yet, perhaps, so much as I did; but then she has not known you as I
+      have, and she whose whole life has been triumph cannot feel the gratitude
+      that I felt at fancying myself loved; but this will come&mdash;God grant
+      it! Farewell, then, forever, dear Eugene; I leave you when you no longer
+      want me; you are now independent of Lucille; wherever you go, a thousand
+      hereafter can supply my place. Farewell!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She rose, as she said this, to leave the room; but St. Amand seizing her
+      hand, which she in vain endeavoured to withdraw from his clasp, poured
+      forth incoherently, passionately, his reproaches on himself, his eloquent
+      persuasion against her resolution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I confess,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;that I have been allured for a moment; I confess
+      that Julie&rsquo;s beauty made me less sensible to your stronger, your holier,
+      oh! far, far holier title to my love! But forgive me, dearest Lucille;
+      already I return to you, to all I once felt for you; make me not curse the
+      blessing of sight that I owe to you. You must not leave me; never can we
+      two part. Try me, only try me, and if ever hereafter my heart wander from
+      you, <i>then</i>, Lucille, leave me to my remorse!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Even at that moment Lucille did not yield; she felt that his prayer was
+      but the enthusiasm of the hour; she felt that there was a virtue in her
+      pride,&mdash;that to leave him was a duty to herself. In vain he pleaded;
+      in vain were his embraces, his prayers; in vain he reminded her of their
+      plighted troth, of her aged parents, whose happiness had become wrapped in
+      her union with him: &ldquo;How,&mdash;even were it as you wrongly believe,&mdash;how,
+      in honour to them, can I desert you, can I wed another?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Trust that, trust all, to me,&rdquo; answered Lucille; &ldquo;your honour shall be my
+      care, none shall blame <i>you</i>; only do not let your marriage with
+      Julie be celebrated here before their eyes: that is all I ask, all they
+      can expect. God bless you! do not fancy I shall be unhappy, for whatever
+      happiness the world gives you, shall I not have contributed to bestow it?
+      and with that thought I am above compassion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She glided from his arms, and left him to a solitude more bitter even than
+      that of blindness. That very night Lucille sought her mother; to her she
+      confided all. I pass over the reasons she urged, the arguments she
+      overcame; she conquered rather than convinced, and leaving to Madame le
+      Tisseur the painful task of breaking to her father her unalterable
+      resolution, she quitted Malines the next morning, and with a heart too
+      honest to be utterly without comfort, paid that visit to her aunt which
+      had been so long deferred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The pride of Lucille&rsquo;s parents prevented them from reproaching St. Amand.
+      He could not bear, however, their cold and altered looks; he left their
+      house; and though for several days he would not even see Julie, yet her
+      beauty and her art gradually resumed their empire over him. They were
+      married at Courtroi, and to the joy of the vain Julie departed to the gay
+      metropolis of France. But, before their departure, before his marriage,
+      St. Amand endeavoured to appease his conscience by obtaining for M. le
+      Tisseur a much more lucrative and honourable office than that he now held.
+      Rightly judging that Malines could no longer be a pleasant residence for
+      them, and much less for Lucille, the duties of the post were to be
+      fulfilled in another town; and knowing that M. le Tisseur&rsquo;s delicacy would
+      revolt at receiving such a favour from his hands, he kept the nature of
+      his negotiation a close secret, and suffered the honest citizen to believe
+      that his own merits alone had entitled him to so unexpected a promotion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Time went on. This quiet and simple history of humble affections took its
+      date in a stormy epoch of the world,&mdash;the dawning Revolution of
+      France. The family of Lucille had been little more than a year settled in
+      their new residence when Dumouriez led his army into the Netherlands. But
+      how meanwhile had that year passed for Lucille? I have said that her
+      spirit was naturally high; that though so tender, she was not weak. Her
+      very pilgrimage to Cologne alone, and at the timid age of seventeen,
+      proved that there was a strength in her nature no less than a devotion in
+      her love. The sacrifice she had made brought its own reward. She believed
+      St. Amand was happy, and she would not give way to the selfishness of
+      grief; she had still duties to perform; she could still comfort her
+      parents and cheer their age; she could still be all the world to them: she
+      felt this, and was consoled. Only once during the year had she heard of
+      Julie; she had been seen by a mutual friend at Paris, gay, brilliant,
+      courted, and admired; of St. Amand she heard nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My tale, dear Gertrude, does not lead me through the harsh scenes of war.
+      I do not tell you of the slaughter and the siege, and the blood that
+      inundated those fair lands,&mdash;the great battlefield of Europe. The
+      people of the Netherlands in general were with the cause of Dumouriez, but
+      the town in which Le Tisseur dwelt offered some faint resistance to his
+      arms. Le Tisseur himself, despite his age, girded on his sword; the town
+      was carried, and the fierce and licentious troops of the conqueror poured,
+      flushed with their easy victory, through its streets. Le Tisseur&rsquo;s house
+      was filled with drunken and rude troopers; Lucille herself trembled in the
+      fierce gripe of one of those dissolute soldiers, more bandit than soldier,
+      whom the subtle Dumouriez had united to his army, and by whose blood he so
+      often saved that of his nobler band. Her shrieks, her cries, were vain,
+      when suddenly the troopers gave way. &ldquo;The Captain! brave Captain!&rdquo; was
+      shouted forth; the insolent soldier, felled by a powerful arm, sank
+      senseless at the feet of Lucille, and a glorious form, towering above its
+      fellows,&mdash;even through its glittering garb, even in that dreadful
+      hour, remembered at a glance by Lucille,&mdash;stood at her side; her
+      protector, her guardian! Thus once more she beheld St. Amand!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The house was cleared in an instant, the door barred. Shouts, groans, wild
+      snatches of exulting song, the clang of arms, the tramp of horses, the
+      hurrying footsteps, the deep music sounded loud, and blended terribly
+      without. Lucille heard them not,&mdash;she was on that breast which never
+      should have deserted her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Effectually to protect his friends, St. Amand took up his quarters at
+      their house; and for two days he was once more under the same roof as
+      Lucille. He never recurred voluntarily to Julie; he answered Lucille&rsquo;s
+      timid inquiry after her health briefly, and with coldness, but he spoke
+      with all the enthusiasm of a long-pent and ardent spirit of the new
+      profession he had embraced. Glory seemed now to be his only mistress; and
+      the vivid delusion of the first bright dreams of the Revolution filled his
+      mind, broke from his tongue, and lighted up those dark eyes which Lucille
+      had redeemed to day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She saw him depart at the head of his troops; she saw his proud crest
+      glancing in the sun; she saw his steed winding through the narrow street;
+      she saw that his last glance reverted to her, where she stood at the door;
+      and, as he waved his adieu, she fancied that there was on his face that
+      look of deep and grateful tenderness which reminded her of the one bright
+      epoch of her life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was right; St. Amand had long since in bitterness repented of a
+      transient infatuation, had long since distinguished the true Florimel from
+      the false, and felt that, in Julie, Lucille&rsquo;s wrongs were avenged. But in
+      the hurry and heat of war he plunged that regret&mdash;the keenest of all&mdash;which
+      embodies the bitter words, &ldquo;TOO LATE!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Years passed away, and in the resumed tranquillity of Lucille&rsquo;s life the
+      brilliant apparition of St. Amand appeared as something dreamed of, not
+      seen. The star of Napoleon had risen above the horizon; the romance of his
+      early career had commenced; and the campaign of Egypt had been the herald
+      of those brilliant and meteoric successes which flashed forth from the
+      gloom of the Revolution of France.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You are aware, dear Gertrude, how many in the French as well as the
+      English troops returned home from Egypt blinded with the ophthalmia of
+      that arid soil. Some of the young men in Lucille&rsquo;s town, who had joined
+      Napoleon&rsquo;s army, came back darkened by that fearful affliction, and
+      Lucille&rsquo;s alms and Lucille&rsquo;s aid and Lucille&rsquo;s sweet voice were ever at
+      hand for those poor sufferers, whose common misfortune touched so
+      thrilling a chord of her heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her father was now dead, and she had only her mother to cheer amidst the
+      ills of age. As one evening they sat at work together, Madame le Tisseur
+      said, after a pause,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish, dear Lucille, thou couldst be persuaded to marry Justin; he loves
+      thee well, and now that thou art yet young, and hast many years before
+      thee, thou shouldst remember that when I die thou wilt be alone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, cease, dearest mother, I never can marry now; and as for love&mdash;once
+      taught in the bitter school in which I have learned the knowledge of
+      myself&mdash;I cannot be deceived again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My Lucille, you do not know yourself. Never was woman loved if Justin
+      does not love you; and never did lover feel with more real warmth how
+      worthily he loved.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And this was true; and not of Justin alone, for Lucille&rsquo;s modest virtues,
+      her kindly temper, and a certain undulating and feminine grace, which
+      accompanied all her movements, had secured her as many conquests as if she
+      had been beautiful. She had rejected all offers of marriage with a
+      shudder; without even the throb of a flattered vanity. One memory, sadder,
+      was also dearer to her than all things; and something sacred in its
+      recollections made her deem it even a crime to think of effacing the past
+      by a new affection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe,&rdquo; continued Madame le Tisseur, angrily, &ldquo;that thou still
+      thinkest fondly of him from whom only in the world thou couldst have
+      experienced ingratitude.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, Mother,&rdquo; said Lucille, with a blush and a slight sigh, &ldquo;Eugene is
+      married to another.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While thus conversing, they heard a gentle and timid knock at the door;
+      the latch was lifted. &ldquo;This,&rdquo; said the rough voice of a <i>commissionaire</i>
+      of the town, &ldquo;this, monsieur, is the house of Madame le Tisseur, and <i>voila
+      mademoiselle</i>!&rdquo; A tall figure, with a shade over his eyes, and wrapped
+      in a long military cloak, stood in the room. A thrill shot across
+      Lucille&rsquo;s heart. He stretched out his arms. &ldquo;Lucille,&rdquo; said that
+      melancholy voice, which had made the music of her first youth, &ldquo;where art
+      thou, Lucille? Alas! she does not recognize St. Amand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus was it indeed. By a singular fatality, the burning suns and the sharp
+      dust of the plains of Egypt had smitten the young soldier, in the flush of
+      his career, with a second&mdash;and this time with an irremediable&mdash;blindness!
+      He had returned to France to find his hearth lonely. Julie was no more,&mdash;a
+      sudden fever had cut her off in the midst of youth; and he had sought his
+      way to Lucille&rsquo;s house, to see if one hope yet remained to him in the
+      world!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And when, days afterwards, humbly and sadly he re-urged a former suit, did
+      Lucille shut her heart to its prayer? Did her pride remember its wound;
+      did she revert to his desertion; did she reply to the whisper of her
+      yearning love, &ldquo;<i>Thou hast been before forsaken</i>&rdquo;? That voice and
+      those darkened eyes pleaded to her with a pathos not to be resisted. &ldquo;I am
+      once more necessary to him,&rdquo; was all her thought; &ldquo;if I reject him who
+      will tend him?&rdquo; In that thought was the motive of her conduct; in that
+      thought gushed back upon her soul all the springs of checked but
+      unconquered, unconquerable love! In that thought, she stood beside him at
+      the altar, and pledged, with a yet holier devotion than she might have
+      felt of yore, the vow of her imperishable truth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Lucille found, in the future, a reward, which the common world could
+      never comprehend. With his blindness returned all the feelings she had
+      first awakened in St. Amand&rsquo;s solitary heart; again he yearned for her
+      step, again he missed even a moment&rsquo;s absence from his side, again her
+      voice chased the shadow from his brow, and in her presence was a sense of
+      shelter and of sunshine. He no longer sighed for the blessing he had lost;
+      he reconciled himself to fate, and entered into that serenity of mood
+      which mostly characterizes the blind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps after we have seen the actual world, and experienced its hollow
+      pleasures, we can resign ourselves the better to its exclusion; and as the
+      cloister, which repels the ardour of our hope, is sweet to our
+      remembrance, so the darkness loses its terror when experience has wearied
+      us with the glare and travail of the day. It was something, too, as they
+      advanced in life, to feel the chains that bound him to Lucille
+      strengthening daily, and to cherish in his overflowing heart the sweetness
+      of increasing gratitude; it was something that he could not see years
+      wrinkle that open brow, or dim the tenderness of that touching smile; it
+      was something that to him she was beyond the reach of time, and preserved
+      to the verge of a grave (which received them both within a few days of
+      each other) in all the bloom of her unwithering affection, in all the
+      freshness of a heart that never could grow old!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gertrude, who had broken in upon Trevylyan&rsquo;s story by a thousand anxious
+      interruptions, and a thousand pretty apologies for interrupting, was
+      charmed with a tale in which true love was made happy at last, although
+      she did not forgive St. Amand his ingratitude, and although she declared,
+      with a critical shake of the head, that &ldquo;it was very unnatural that the
+      mere beauty of Julie, or the mere want of it in Lucille, should have
+      produced such an effect upon him, if he had ever <i>really</i> loved
+      Lucille in his blindness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As they passed through Malines, the town assumed an interest in Gertrude&rsquo;s
+      eyes to which it scarcely of itself was entitled. She looked wistfully at
+      the broad market-place, at a corner of which was one of those out-of-door
+      groups of quiet and noiseless revellers, which Dutch art has raised from
+      the Familiar to the Picturesque; and then glancing to the tower of St.
+      Rembauld, she fancied, amidst the silence of noon, that she yet heard the
+      plaintive cry of the blind orphan, &ldquo;Fido, Fido, why hast thou deserted
+      me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V. ROTTERDAM.&mdash;THE CHARACTER OF THE DUTCH.&mdash;THEIR
+      RESEMBLANCE TO
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE GERMANS.&mdash;A DISPUTE BETWEEN VANE AND TREVYLYAN, AFTER THE MANNER
+      OF THE ANCIENT NOVELISTS, AS TO WHICH IS PREFERABLE, THE LIFE OF ACTION OR
+      THE LIFE OF REPOSE.&mdash;TREVYLYAN&rsquo;S CONTRAST BETWEEN LITERARY AMBITION
+      AND THE AMBITION OF PUBLIC LIFE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      OUR travellers arrived at Rotterdam on a bright and sunny day. There is a
+      cheerfulness about the operations of Commerce,&mdash;a life, a bustle, an
+      action which always exhilarate the spirits at the first glance. Afterwards
+      they fatigue us; we get too soon behind the scenes, and find the base and
+      troublous passions which move the puppets and conduct the drama.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Gertrude, in whom ill health had not destroyed the vividness of
+      impression that belongs to the inexperienced, was delighted at the
+      cheeriness of all around her. As she leaned lightly on Trevylyan&rsquo;s arm, he
+      listened with a forgetful joy to her questions and exclamations at the
+      stir and liveliness of a city from which was to commence their pilgrimage
+      along the Rhine. And indeed the scene was rife with the spirit of that
+      people at once so active and so patient, so daring on the sea, so cautious
+      on the land. Industry was visible everywhere; the vessels in the harbour,
+      the crowded boat putting off to land, the throng on the quay,&mdash;all
+      looked bustling and spoke of commerce. The city itself, on which the skies
+      shone fairly through light and fleecy clouds, wore a cheerful aspect. The
+      church of St. Lawrence rising above the clean, neat houses, and on one
+      side trees thickly grouped, gayly contrasted at once the waters and the
+      city.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I like this place,&rdquo; said Gertrude&rsquo;s father, quietly; &ldquo;it has an air of
+      comfort.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And an absence of grandeur,&rdquo; said Trevylyan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A commercial people are one great middle-class in their habits and train
+      of mind,&rdquo; replied Vane; &ldquo;and grandeur belongs to the extremes,&mdash;an
+      impoverished population and a wealthy despot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They went to see the statue of Erasmus, and the house in which he was
+      born. Vane had a certain admiration for Erasmus which his companions did
+      not share; he liked the quiet irony of the sage, and his knowledge of the
+      world; and, besides, Vane was at that time of life when philosophers
+      become objects of interest. At first they are teachers; secondly, friends;
+      and it is only a few who arrive at the third stage, and find them
+      deceivers. The Dutch are a singular people. Their literature is neglected,
+      but it has some of the German vein in its strata,&mdash;the patience, the
+      learning, the homely delineation, and even some traces of the mixture of
+      the humorous and the terrible which form that genius for the grotesque so
+      especially German&mdash;you find this in their legends and ghost-stories.
+      But in Holland activity destroys, in Germany indolence nourishes, romance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They stayed a day or two at Rotterdam, and then proceeded up the Rhine to
+      Gorcum. The banks were flat and tame, and nothing could be less impressive
+      of its native majesty than this part of the course of the great river.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never felt before,&rdquo; whispered Gertrude, tenderly, &ldquo;how much there was
+      of consolation in your presence; for here I am at last on the Rhine,&mdash;the
+      blue Rhine, and how disappointed I should be if you were not by my side!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, my Gertrude, you must wait till we have passed Cologne, before the
+      <i>glories</i> of the Rhine burst upon you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It reverses life, my child,&rdquo; said the moralizing Vane; &ldquo;and the stream
+      flows through dulness at first, reserving its poetry for our
+      perseverance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will not allow your doctrine,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, as the ambitious ardour
+      of his native disposition stirred within him. &ldquo;Life has always action; it
+      is our own fault if it ever be dull: youth has its enterprise, manhood its
+      schemes; and even if infirmity creep upon age, the mind, the mind still
+      triumphs over the mortal clay, and in the quiet hermitage, among books,
+      and from thoughts, keeps the great wheel within everlastingly in motion.
+      No, the better class of spirits have always an antidote to the insipidity
+      of a common career, they have ever energy at will&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And never happiness!&rdquo; answered Vane, after a pause, as he gazed on the
+      proud countenance of Trevylyan, with that kind of calm, half-pitying
+      interest which belonged to a character deeply imbued with the philosophy
+      of a sad experience acting upon an unimpassioned heart. &ldquo;And in truth,
+      Trevylyan, it would please me if I could but teach you the folly of
+      preferring the exercise of that energy of which you speak to the golden
+      luxuries of REST. What ambition can ever bring an adequate reward? Not,
+      surely, the ambition of letters, the desire of intellectual renown!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, quietly; &ldquo;that dream I have long renounced; there
+      is nothing palpable in literary fame,&mdash;it scarcely perhaps soothes
+      the vain, it assuredly chafes the proud. In my earlier years I attempted
+      some works which gained what the world, perhaps rightly, deemed a
+      sufficient need of reputation; yet it was not sufficient to recompense
+      myself for the fresh hours I had consumed, for the sacrifices of pleasure
+      I had made. The subtle aims that had inspired me were not perceived; the
+      thoughts that had seemed new and beautiful to me fell flat and lustreless
+      on the soul of others. If I was approved, it was often for what I
+      condemned myself; and I found that the trite commonplace and the false wit
+      charmed, while the truth fatigued, and the enthusiasm revolted. For men of
+      that genius to which I make no pretension, who have dwelt apart in the
+      obscurity of their own thoughts, gazing upon stars that shine not for the
+      dull sleepers of the world, it must be a keen sting to find the product of
+      their labour confounded with a class, and to be mingled up in men&rsquo;s
+      judgment with the faults or merits of a tribe. Every great genius must
+      deem himself original and alone in his conceptions. It is not enough for
+      him that these conceptions should be approved as good, unless they are
+      admitted as inventive, if they mix him with the herd he has shunned, not
+      separate him in fame as he has been separated in soul. Some Frenchman, the
+      oracle of his circle, said of the poet of the &lsquo;Phedre,&rsquo; &lsquo;Racine and the
+      other imitators of Corneille;&rsquo; and Racine, in his wrath, nearly forswore
+      tragedy forever. It is in vain to tell the author that the public is the
+      judge of his works. The author believes himself above the public, or he
+      would never have written; and,&rdquo; continued Trevylyan, with enthusiasm, &ldquo;he
+      <i>is</i> above them; their fiat may crush his glory, but never his
+      self-esteem. He stands alone and haughty amidst the wrecks of the temple
+      he imagined he had raised &lsquo;To THE FUTURE,&rsquo; and retaliates neglect with
+      scorn. But is this, the life of scorn, a pleasurable state of existence?
+      Is it one to be cherished? Does even the moment of fame counterbalance the
+      years of mortification? And what is there in literary fame itself present
+      and palpable to its heir? His work is a pebble thrown into the deep; the
+      stir lasts for a moment, and the wave closes up, to be susceptible no more
+      to the same impression. The circle may widen to other lands and other
+      ages, but around <i>him</i> it is weak and faint. The trifles of the day,
+      the low politics, the base intrigues, occupy the tongue, and fill the
+      thought of his contemporaries. He is less known than a mountebank, or a
+      new dancer; his glory comes not home to him; it brings no present, no
+      perpetual reward, like the applauses that wait the actor, or the
+      actor-like murmur of the senate; and this, which vexes, also lowers him;
+      his noble nature begins to nourish the base vices of jealousy, and the
+      unwillingness to admire. Goldsmith is forgotten in the presence of a
+      puppet; he feels it, and is mean; he expresses it, and is ludicrous. It is
+      well to say that great minds will not stoop to jealousy; in the greatest
+      minds, it is most frequent.* Few authors are ever so aware of the
+      admiration they excite as to afford to be generous; and this melancholy
+      truth revolts us with our own ambition. Shall we be demigods in our
+      closets at the price of sinking below mortality in the world? No! it was
+      from this deep sentiment of the unrealness of literary fame, of
+      dissatisfaction at the fruits it produced, of fear for the meanness it
+      engendered, that I resigned betimes all love for its career; and if, by
+      the restless desire that haunts men who think much to write ever, I should
+      be urged hereafter to literature, I will sternly teach myself to persevere
+      in the indifference to its fame.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * See the long list of names furnished by Disraeli, in that most
+    exquisite work, &ldquo;The Literary Character,&rdquo; vol. ii. p. 75.  Plato,
+    Xenophon, Chaucer, Corneille, Voltaire, Dryden, the Caracci,
+    Domenico Venetiano, murdered by his envious friend, and the gentle
+    Castillo fainting away at the genius of Murillo.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You say as I would say,&rdquo; answered Vane, with his tranquil smile; &ldquo;and
+      your experience corroborates my theory. Ambition, then, is not the root of
+      happiness. Why more in action than in letters?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, &ldquo;in action we commonly gain in our life all the
+      honour we deserve: the public judge of men better and more rapidly than of
+      books. And he who takes to himself in action a high and pure ambition,
+      associates it with so many objects, that, unlike literature, the failure
+      of one is balanced by the success of the other. He, the creator of deeds,
+      not resembling the creator of books, stands not alone; he is eminently
+      social; he has many comrades, and without their aid he could not
+      accomplish his designs. This divides and mitigates the impatient jealousy
+      against others. He works for a cause, and knows early that he cannot
+      monopolize its whole glory; he shares what he is aware it is impossible to
+      engross. Besides, action leaves him no time for brooding over
+      disappointment. The author has consumed his youth in a work,&mdash;it
+      fails in glory. Can he write another work? Bid him call back another
+      youth! But in action, the labour of the mind is from day to day. A week
+      replaces what a week has lost, and all the aspirant&rsquo;s fame is of the
+      present. It is lipped by the Babel of the living world; he is ever on the
+      stage, and the spectators are ever ready to applaud. Thus perpetually in
+      the service of others self ceases to be his world; he has no leisure to
+      brood over real or imaginary wrongs; the excitement whirls on the machine
+      till it is worn out&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And kicked aside,&rdquo; said Vane, &ldquo;with the broken lumber of men&rsquo;s other
+      tools, in the chamber of their son&rsquo;s forgetfulness. Your man of action
+      lasts but for an hour; the man of letters lasts for ages.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We live not for ages,&rdquo; answered Trevylyan; &ldquo;our life is on earth, and not
+      in the grave.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But even grant,&rdquo; continued Vane&mdash;&ldquo;and I for one will concede the
+      point&mdash;that posthumous fame is not worth the living agonies that
+      obtain it, how are you better off in your poor and vulgar career of
+      action? Would you assist the rulers?&mdash;servility! The people?&mdash;folly!
+      If you take the great philosophical view which the worshippers of the past
+      rarely take, but which, unknown to them, is their sole excuse,&mdash;namely,
+      that the changes which <i>may</i> benefit the future unsettle the present;
+      and that it is not the wisdom of practical legislation to risk the peace
+      of our contemporaries in the hope of obtaining happiness for their
+      posterity,&mdash;to what suspicions, to what charges are you exposed! You
+      are deemed the foe of all liberal opinion, and you read your curses in the
+      eyes of a nation. But take the side of the people. What caprice, what
+      ingratitude! You have professed so much in theory, that you can never
+      accomplish sufficient in practice. Moderation becomes a crime; to be
+      prudent is to be perfidious. New demagogues, without temperance, because
+      without principle, outstrip you in the moment of your greatest services.
+      The public is the grave of a great man&rsquo;s deeds; it is never sated; its maw
+      is eternally open; it perpetually craves for more. Where, in the history
+      of the world, do you find the gratitude of a people? You find fervour, it
+      is true, but not gratitude,&mdash;the fervour that exaggerates a benefit
+      at one moment, but not the gratitude that remembers it the next year. Once
+      disappoint them, and all your actions, all your sacrifices, are swept from
+      their remembrance forever; they break the windows of the very house they
+      have given you, and melt down their medals into bullets. Who serves man,
+      ruler or peasant, serves the ungrateful; and all the ambitious are but
+      types of a Wolsey or a De Witt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, &ldquo;consoles a man in the ills that flesh is heir
+      to, in that state of obscure repose, that serene inactivity to which you
+      would confine him? Is it not his conscience? Is it not his self-acquittal,
+      or his self-approval?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doubtless,&rdquo; replied Vane.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be it so,&rdquo; answered the high-souled Trevylyan; &ldquo;the same consolation
+      awaits us in action as in repose. We sedulously pursue what we deem to be
+      true glory. We are maligned; but our soul acquits us. Could it do more in
+      the scandal and the prejudice that assail us in private life? You are
+      silent; but note how much deeper should be the comfort, how much loftier
+      the self-esteem; for if calumny attack us in a wilful obscurity, what have
+      we done to refute the calumny? How have we served our species? Have we
+      &lsquo;scorned delight and loved laborious days&rsquo;? Have we made the utmost of the
+      &lsquo;talent&rsquo; confided to our care? Have we done those good deeds to our race
+      upon which we can retire,&mdash;an &lsquo;Estate of Beneficence,&rsquo;&mdash;from the
+      malice of the world, and feel that our deeds are our defenders? This is
+      the consolation of virtuous actions; is it so of&mdash;even a virtuous&mdash;indolence?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You speak as a preacher,&rdquo; said Vane,&mdash;&ldquo;I merely as a calculator; you
+      of virtue in affliction, I of a life in ease.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, then, if the consciousness of perpetual endeavour to advance our
+      race be not alone happier than the life of ease, let us see what this
+      vaunted ease really is. Tell me, is it not another name for <i>ennui</i>?
+      This state of quiescence, this objectless, dreamless torpor, this
+      transition <i>du lit a la table, de la table au lit</i>,&mdash;what more
+      dreary and monotonous existence can you devise? Is it pleasure in this
+      inglorious existence to think that you are serving pleasure? Is it freedom
+      to be the slave to self? For I hold,&rdquo; continued Trevylyan, &ldquo;that this
+      jargon of &lsquo;consulting happiness,&rsquo; this cant of living for ourselves, is
+      but a mean as well as a false philosophy. Why this eternal reference to
+      self? Is self alone to be consulted? Is even our happiness, did it truly
+      consist in repose, really the great end of life? I doubt if we cannot
+      ascend higher. I doubt if we cannot say with a great moralist, &lsquo;If virtue
+      be not estimable in itself, we can see nothing estimable in following it
+      for the sake of a bargain.&rsquo; But, in fact, repose is the poorest of all
+      delusions; the very act of recurring to self brings about us all those
+      ills of self from which, in the turmoil of the world, we can escape. We
+      become hypochondriacs. Our very health grows an object of painful
+      possession. We are so desirous to be well (for what is retirement without
+      health?) that we are ever fancying ourselves ill; and, like the man in the
+      &lsquo;Spectator,&rsquo; we weigh ourselves daily, and live but by grains and
+      scruples. Retirement is happy only for the poet, for to him it is <i>not</i>
+      retirement. He secedes from one world but to gain another, and he finds
+      not <i>ennui</i> in seclusion: why? Not because seclusion hath <i>repose</i>,
+      but because it hath <i>occupation</i>. In one word, then, I say of action
+      and of indolence, grant the same ills to both, and to action there is the
+      readier escape or the nobler consolation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Vane shrugged his shoulders. &ldquo;Ah, my dear friend,&rdquo; said he, tapping his
+      snuff-box with benevolent superiority, &ldquo;you are much younger than I am!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But these conversations, which Trevylyan and Vane often held together,
+      dull as I fear this specimen must seem to the reader, had an inexpressible
+      charm for Gertrude. She loved the lofty and generous vein of philosophy
+      which Trevylyan embraced, and which, while it suited his ardent nature,
+      contrasted a demeanour commonly hard and cold to all but herself. And
+      young and tender as she was, his ambition infused its spirit into her fine
+      imagination, and that passion for enterprise which belongs inseparably to
+      romance. She loved to muse over his future lot, and in fancy to share its
+      toils and to exult in its triumphs. And if sometimes she asked herself
+      whether a career of action might not estrange him from her, she had but to
+      turn her gaze upon his watchful eye,&mdash;and lo, he was by her side or
+      at her feet!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI. GORCUM.&mdash;THE TOUR OF THE VIRTUES: A PHILOSOPHER&rsquo;S TALE.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      IT was a bright and cheery morning as they glided by Gorcum. The boats
+      pulling to the shore full of fishermen and peasants in their national
+      costume; the breeze freshly rippling the waters; the lightness of the blue
+      sky; the loud and laughing voices from the boats,&mdash;all contributed to
+      raise the spirit, and fill it with that indescribable gladness which is
+      the physical sense of life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tower of the church, with its long windows and its round dial, rose
+      against the clear sky; and on a bench under a green bush facing the water
+      sat a jolly Hollander, refreshing the breezes with the fumes of his
+      national weed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How little it requires to make a journey pleasant, when the companions
+      are our friends!&rdquo; said Gertrude, as they sailed along. &ldquo;Nothing can be
+      duller than these banks, nothing more delightful than this voyage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet what tries the affections of people for each other so severely as a
+      journey together?&rdquo; said Vane. &ldquo;That perpetual companionship from which
+      there is no escaping; that confinement, in all our moments of ill-humour
+      and listlessness, with persons who want us to look amused&mdash;ah, it is
+      a severe ordeal for friendship to pass through! A post-chaise must have
+      jolted many an intimacy to death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You speak feelingly, dear father,&rdquo; said Gertrude, laughing; &ldquo;and, I
+      suspect, with a slight desire to be sarcastic upon us. Yet, seriously, I
+      should think that travel must be like life, and that good persons must be
+      always agreeable companions to each other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good persons, my Gertrude!&rdquo; answered Vane, with a smile. &ldquo;Alas! I fear
+      the good weary each other quite as much as the bad. What say you,
+      Trevylyan,&mdash;would Virtue be a pleasant companion from Paris to
+      Petersburg? Ah, I see you intend to be on Gertrude&rsquo;s side of the question.
+      Well now, if I tell you a story, since stories are so much the fashion
+      with you, in which you shall find that the Virtues themselves actually
+      made the experiment of a tour, will you promise to attend to the moral?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, dear father, anything for a story,&rdquo; cried Gertrude; &ldquo;especially from
+      you, who have not told us one all the way. Come, listen, Albert; nay,
+      listen to your new rival.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And, pleased to see the vivacity of the invalid, Vane began as follows:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                      THE TOUR OF THE VIRTUES:
+
+                       A PHILOSOPHER&rsquo;S TALE.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      ONCE upon a time, several of the Virtues, weary of living forever with the
+      Bishop of Norwich, resolved to make a little excursion; accordingly,
+      though they knew everything on earth was very ill prepared to receive
+      them, they thought they might safely venture on a tour from Westminster
+      Bridge to Richmond. The day was fine, the wind in their favour, and as to
+      entertainment,&mdash;why, there seemed, according to Gertrude, to be no
+      possibility of any disagreement among the Virtues.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They took a boat at Westminster stairs; and just as they were about to
+      push off, a poor woman, all in rags, with a child in her arms, implored
+      their compassion. Charity put her hand into her reticule and took out a
+      shilling. Justice, turning round to look after the luggage, saw the folly
+      which Charity was about to commit. &ldquo;Heavens!&rdquo; cried Justice, seizing poor
+      Charity by the arm, &ldquo;what are you doing? Have you never read Political
+      Economy? Don&rsquo;t you know that indiscriminate almsgiving is only the
+      encouragement to Idleness, the mother of Vice? You a Virtue, indeed! I&rsquo;m
+      ashamed of you. Get along with you, good woman;&mdash;yet stay, there is a
+      ticket for soup at the Mendicity Society; they&rsquo;ll see if you&rsquo;re a proper
+      object of compassion.&rdquo; But Charity is quicker than Justice, and slipping
+      her hand behind her, the poor woman got the shilling and the ticket for
+      soup too. Economy and Generosity saw the double gift. &ldquo;What waste!&rdquo; cried
+      Economy, frowning; &ldquo;what! a ticket and a shilling? <i>either</i> would
+      have sufficed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Either!&rdquo; said Generosity, &ldquo;fie! Charity should have given the poor
+      creature half-a-crown, and Justice a dozen tickets!&rdquo; So the next ten
+      minutes were consumed in a quarrel between the four Virtues, which would
+      have lasted all the way to Richmond, if Courage had not advised them to
+      get on shore and fight it out. Upon this, the Virtues suddenly perceived
+      they had a little forgotten themselves, and Generosity offering the first
+      apology, they made it up, and went on very agreeably for the next mile or
+      two.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The day now grew a little overcast, and a shower seemed at hand. Prudence,
+      who had on a new bonnet, suggested the propriety of putting to shore for
+      half an hour; Courage was for braving the rain; but, as most of the
+      Virtues are ladies, Prudence carried it. Just as they were about to land,
+      another boat cut in before them very uncivilly, and gave theirs such a
+      shake that Charity was all but overboard. The company on board the uncivil
+      boat, who evidently thought the Virtues extremely low persons, for they
+      had nothing very fashionable about their exterior, burst out laughing at
+      Charity&rsquo;s discomposure, especially as a large basket full of buns, which
+      Charity carried with her for any hungry-looking children she might
+      encounter at Richmond, fell pounce into the water. Courage was all on
+      fire; he twisted his mustache, and would have made an onset on the enemy,
+      if, to his great indignation, Meekness had not forestalled him, by
+      stepping mildly into the hostile boat and offering both cheeks to the foe.
+      This was too much even for the incivility of the boatmen; they made their
+      excuses to the Virtues, and Courage, who is no bully, thought himself
+      bound discontentedly to accept them. But oh! if you had seen how Courage
+      used Meekness afterwards, you could not have believed it possible that one
+      Virtue could be so enraged with another. This quarrel between the two
+      threw a damp on the party; and they proceeded on their voyage, when the
+      shower was over, with anything but cordiality. I spare you the little
+      squabbles that took place in the general conversation,&mdash;how Economy
+      found fault with all the villas by the way, and Temperance expressed
+      becoming indignation at the luxuries of the City barge. They arrived at
+      Richmond, and Temperance was appointed to order the dinner; meanwhile
+      Hospitality, walking in the garden, fell in with a large party of
+      Irishmen, and asked them to join the repast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Imagine the long faces of Economy and Prudence, when they saw the addition
+      to the company! Hospitality was all spirits; he rubbed his hands and
+      called for champagne with the tone of a younger brother. Temperance soon
+      grew scandalized, and Modesty herself coloured at some of the jokes; but
+      Hospitality, who was now half seas over, called the one a milksop, and
+      swore at the other as a prude. Away went the hours; it was time to return,
+      and they made down to the water-side, thoroughly out of temper with one
+      another, Economy and Generosity quarrelling all the way about the bill and
+      the waiters. To make up the sum of their mortification, they passed a boat
+      where all the company were in the best possible spirits, laughing and
+      whooping like mad; and discovered these jolly companions to be two or
+      three agreeable Vices, who had put themselves under the management of Good
+      Temper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you see, Gertrude, that even the Virtues may fall at loggerheads with
+      each other, and pass a very sad time of it, if they happen to be of
+      opposite dispositions, and have forgotten to take Good Temper with them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; said Gertrude, &ldquo;but you have overloaded your boat; too many Virtues
+      might contradict one another, but not a few.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Voila ce que veux dire,&rdquo; said Vane; &ldquo;but listen to the sequel of my tale,
+      which now takes a new moral.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At the end of the voyage, and after a long, sulky silence, Prudence said,
+      with a thoughtful air, &ldquo;My dear friends, I have been thinking that as long
+      as we keep so entirely together, never mixing with the rest of the world,
+      we shall waste our lives in quarrelling amongst ourselves and run the risk
+      of being still less liked and sought after than we already are. You know
+      that we are none of us popular; every one is quite contented to see us
+      represented in a vaudeville, or described in an essay. Charity, indeed,
+      has her name often taken in vain at a bazaar or a subscription; and the
+      miser as often talks of the duty he owes to <i>me</i>, when he sends the
+      stranger from his door or his grandson to jail: but still we only resemble
+      so many wild beasts, whom everybody likes to see but nobody cares to
+      possess. Now, I propose that we should all separate and take up our abode
+      with some mortal or other for a year, with the power of changing at the
+      end of that time should we not feel ourselves comfortable,&mdash;that is,
+      should we not find that we do all the good we intend; let us try the
+      experiment, and on this day twelvemonths let us all meet under the largest
+      oak in Windsor Forest, and recount what has befallen us.&rdquo; Prudence ceased,
+      as she always does when she has said enough; and, delighted at the
+      project, the Virtues agreed to adopt it on the spot. They were enchanted
+      at the idea of setting up for themselves, and each not doubting his or her
+      success,&mdash;for Economy in her heart thought Generosity no Virtue at
+      all, and Meekness looked on Courage as little better than a heathen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Generosity, being the most eager and active of all the Virtues, set off
+      first on his journey. Justice followed, and kept up with him, though at a
+      more even pace. Charity never heard a sigh, or saw a squalid face, but she
+      stayed to cheer and console the sufferer,&mdash;a kindness which somewhat
+      retarded her progress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Courage espied a travelling carriage, with a man and his wife in it
+      quarrelling most conjugally, and he civilly begged he might be permitted
+      to occupy the vacant seat opposite the lady. Economy still lingered,
+      inquiring for the cheapest inns. Poor Modesty looked round and sighed, on
+      finding herself so near to London, where she was almost wholly unknown;
+      but resolved to bend her course thither for two reasons: first, for the
+      novelty of the thing; and, secondly, not liking to expose herself to any
+      risks by a journey on the Continent. Prudence, though the first to
+      project, was the last to execute; and therefore resolved to remain where
+      she was for that night, and take daylight for her travels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The year rolled on, and the Virtues, punctual to the appointment, met
+      under the oak-tree; they all came nearly at the same time, excepting
+      Economy, who had got into a return post-chaise, the horses to which,
+      having been forty miles in the course of the morning, had foundered by the
+      way, and retarded her journey till night set in. The Virtues looked sad
+      and sorrowful, as people are wont to do after a long and fruitless
+      journey; and, somehow or other, such was the wearing effect of their
+      intercourse with the world, that they appeared wonderfully diminished in
+      size.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, my dear Generosity,&rdquo; said Prudence, with a sigh, &ldquo;as you were the
+      first to set out on your travels, pray let us hear your adventures first.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must know, my dear sisters,&rdquo; said Generosity, &ldquo;that I had not gone
+      many miles from you before I came to a small country town, in which a
+      marching regiment was quartered, and at an open window I beheld, leaning
+      over a gentleman&rsquo;s chair, the most beautiful creature imagination ever
+      pictured; her eyes shone out like two suns of perfect happiness, and she
+      was almost cheerful enough to have passed for Good Temper herself. The
+      gentleman over whose chair she leaned was her husband; they had been
+      married six weeks; he was a lieutenant with one hundred pounds a year
+      besides his pay. Greatly affected by their poverty, I instantly
+      determined, without a second thought, to ensconce myself in the heart of
+      this charming girl. During the first hour in my new residence I made many
+      wise reflections such as&mdash;that Love never was so perfect as when
+      accompanied by Poverty; what a vulgar error it was to call the unmarried
+      state &lsquo;Single <i>Blessedness</i>;&rsquo; how wrong it was of us Virtues never to
+      have tried the marriage bond; and what a falsehood it was to say that
+      husbands neglected their wives, for never was there anything in nature so
+      devoted as the love of a husband&mdash;six weeks married!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The next morning, before breakfast, as the charming Fanny was waiting for
+      her husband, who had not yet finished his toilet, a poor, wretched-looking
+      object appeared at the window, tearing her hair and wringing her hands;
+      her husband had that morning been dragged to prison, and her seven
+      children had fought for the last mouldy crust. Prompted by me, Fanny,
+      without inquiring further into the matter, drew from her silken purse a
+      five-pound note, and gave it to the beggar, who departed more amazed than
+      grateful. Soon after, the lieutenant appeared. &lsquo;What the devil, another
+      bill!&rsquo; muttered he, as he tore the yellow wafer from a large, square,
+      folded, bluish piece of paper. &lsquo;Oh, ah! confound the fellow, <i>he</i>
+      must be paid. I must trouble you, Fanny, for fifteen pounds to pay this
+      saddler&rsquo;s bill.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Fifteen pounds, love?&rsquo; stammered Fanny, blushing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Yes, dearest, the fifteen pounds I gave you yesterday.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;I have only ten pounds,&rsquo; said Fanny, hesitatingly; &lsquo;for such a poor,
+      wretched-looking creature was here just now, that I was obliged to give
+      her five pounds.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Five pounds? good Heavens!&rsquo; exclaimed the astonished husband; &lsquo;I shall
+      have no more money this three weeks.&rsquo; He frowned, he bit his lips, nay, he
+      even wrung his hands, and walked up and down the room; worse still, he
+      broke forth with&mdash;&lsquo;Surely, madam, you did not suppose, when you
+      married a lieutenant in a marching regiment, that he could afford to
+      indulge in the whim of giving five pounds to every mendicant who held out
+      her hand to you? You did not, I say, madam, imagine&rsquo;&mdash;but the
+      bridegroom was interrupted by the convulsive sobs of his wife: it was
+      their first quarrel, they were but six weeks married; he looked at her for
+      one moment sternly, the next he was at her feet. &lsquo;Forgive me, dearest
+      Fanny,&mdash;forgive me, for I cannot forgive myself. I was too great a
+      wretch to say what I did; and do believe, my own Fanny, that while I may
+      be too poor to indulge you in it, I do from my heart admire so noble, so
+      disinterested, a generosity.&rsquo; Not a little proud did I feel to have been
+      the cause of this exemplary husband&rsquo;s admiration for his amiable wife, and
+      sincerely did I rejoice at having taken up my abode with these <i>poor</i>
+      people. But not to tire you, my dear sisters, with the minutiae of detail,
+      I shall briefly say that things did not long remain in this delightful
+      position; for before many months had elapsed, poor Fanny had to bear with
+      her husband&rsquo;s increased and more frequent storms of passion, unfollowed by
+      any halcyon and honeymoon suings for forgiveness: for at my instigation
+      every shilling went; and when there were no more to go, her trinkets and
+      even her clothes followed. The lieutenant became a complete brute, and
+      even allowed his unbridled tongue to call me&mdash;me, sisters, <i>me</i>!&mdash;&lsquo;heartless
+      Extravagance.&rsquo; His despicable brother-officers and their gossiping wives
+      were no better; for they did nothing but animadvert upon my Fanny&rsquo;s
+      ostentation and absurdity, for by such names had they the impertinence to
+      call <i>me</i>. Thus grieved to the soul to find myself the cause of all
+      poor Fanny&rsquo;s misfortunes, I resolved at the end of the year to leave her,
+      being thoroughly convinced that, however amiable and praiseworthy I might
+      be in myself, I was totally unfit to be bosom friend and adviser to the
+      wife of a lieutenant in a marching regiment, with only one hundred pounds
+      a year besides his pay.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Virtues groaned their sympathy with the unfortunate Fanny; and
+      Prudence, turning to Justice, said, &ldquo;I long to hear what you have been
+      doing, for I am certain you cannot have occasioned harm to any one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Justice shook her head and said: &ldquo;Alas! I find that there are times and
+      places when even I do better not to appear, as a short account of my
+      adventures will prove to you. No sooner had I left you than I instantly
+      repaired to India, and took up my abode with a Brahmin. I was much shocked
+      by the dreadful inequalities of condition that reigned in the several
+      castes, and I longed to relieve the poor Pariah from his ignominious
+      destiny; accordingly I set seriously to work on reform. I insisted upon
+      the iniquity of abandoning men from their birth to an irremediable state
+      of contempt, from which no virtue could exalt them. The Brahmins looked
+      upon my Brahmin with ineffable horror. They called <i>me</i> the most
+      wicked of vices; they saw no distinction between Justice and Atheism. I
+      uprooted their society&mdash;that was sufficient crime. But the worst was,
+      that the Pariahs themselves regarded me with suspicion; they thought it
+      unnatural in a Brahmin to care for a Pariah! And one called me &lsquo;Madness,&rsquo; 
+      another, &lsquo;Ambition,&rsquo; and a third, &lsquo;The Desire to innovate.&rsquo; My poor
+      Brahmin led a miserable life of it; when one day, after observing, at my
+      dictation, that he thought a Pariah&rsquo;s life as much entitled to respect as
+      a cow&rsquo;s, he was hurried away by the priests and secretly broiled on the
+      altar as a fitting reward for his sacrilege. I fled hither in great
+      tribulation, persuaded that in some countries even Justice may do harm.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As for me,&rdquo; said Charity, not waiting to be asked, &ldquo;I grieve to say that
+      I was silly enough to take up my abode with an old lady in Dublin, who
+      never knew what discretion was, and always acted from impulse; my
+      instigation was irresistible, and the money she gave in her drives through
+      the suburbs of Dublin was so lavishly spent that it kept all the rascals
+      of the city in idleness and whiskey. I found, to my great horror, that I
+      was a main cause of a terrible epidemic, and that to give alms without
+      discretion was to spread poverty without help. I left the city when my
+      year was out, and as ill-luck would have it, just at the time when I was
+      most wanted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And oh,&rdquo; cried Hospitality, &ldquo;I went to Ireland also. I fixed my abode
+      with a squireen; I ruined him in a year, and only left him because he had
+      no longer a hovel to keep me in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As for myself,&rdquo; said Temperance, &ldquo;I entered the breast of an English
+      legislator, and he brought in a bill against ale-houses; the consequence
+      was, that the labourers took to gin; and I have been forced to confess
+      that Temperance may be too zealous when she dictates too vehemently to
+      others.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Courage, keeping more in the background than he had ever done
+      before, and looking rather ashamed of himself, &ldquo;that travelling carriage I
+      got into belonged to a German general and his wife, who were returning to
+      their own country. Growing very cold as we proceeded, she wrapped me up in
+      a polonaise; but the cold increasing, I inadvertently crept into her
+      bosom. Once there I could not get out, and from thenceforward the poor
+      general had considerably the worst of it. She became so provoking that I
+      wondered how he could refrain from an explosion. To do him justice, he did
+      at last threaten to get out of the carriage; upon which, roused by me, she
+      collared him&mdash;and conquered. When he got to his own district, things
+      grew worse, for if any <i>aide-de-camp</i> offended her she insisted that
+      he might be publicly reprimanded; and should the poor general refuse she
+      would with her own hands confer a caning upon the delinquent. The
+      additional force she had gained in me was too much odds against the poor
+      general, and he died of a broken heart, six months after my <i>liaison</i>
+      with his wife. She after this became so dreaded and detested, that a
+      conspiracy was formed to poison her; this daunted even me, so I left her
+      without delay,&mdash;<i>et me voici</i>!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Humph,&rdquo; said Meekness, with an air of triumph, &ldquo;I, at least, have been
+      more successful than you. On seeing much in the papers of the cruelties
+      practised by the Turks on the Greeks, I thought my presence would enable
+      the poor sufferers to bear their misfortunes calmly. I went to Greece,
+      then, at a moment when a well-planned and practicable scheme of
+      emancipating themselves from the Turkish yoke was arousing their youth.
+      Without confining myself to one individual, I flitted from breast to
+      breast; I meekened the whole nation; my remonstrances against the
+      insurrection succeeded, and I had the satisfaction of leaving a whole
+      people ready to be killed or strangled with the most Christian resignation
+      in the world.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Virtues, who had been a little cheered by the opening self-complacence
+      of Meekness, would not, to her great astonishment, allow that she had
+      succeeded a whit more happily than her sisters, and called next upon
+      Modesty for her confession.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know,&rdquo; said that amiable young lady, &ldquo;that I went to London in search
+      of a situation. I spent three months of the twelve in going from house to
+      house, but I could not get a single person to receive me. The ladies
+      declared that they never saw so old-fashioned a gawkey, and civilly
+      recommended me to their abigails; the abigails turned me round with a
+      stare, and then pushed me down to the kitchen and the fat scullion-maids,
+      who assured me that, &lsquo;in the respectable families they had the honour to
+      live in, they had never even heard of my name.&rsquo; One young housemaid, just
+      from the country, did indeed receive me with some sort of civility; but
+      she very soon lost me in the servants&rsquo; hall. I now took refuge with the
+      other sex, as the least uncourteous. I was fortunate enough to find a
+      young gentleman of remarkable talents, who welcomed me with open arms. He
+      was full of learning, gentleness, and honesty. I had only one rival,&mdash;Ambition.
+      We both contended for an absolute empire over him. Whatever Ambition
+      suggested, I damped. Did Ambition urge him to begin a book, I persuaded
+      him it was not worth publication. Did he get up, full of knowledge, and
+      instigated by my rival, to make a speech (for he was in parliament), I
+      shocked him with the sense of his assurance, I made his voice droop and
+      his accents falter. At last, with an indignant sigh, my rival left him; he
+      retired into the country, took orders, and renounced a career he had
+      fondly hoped would be serviceable to others; but finding I did not suffice
+      for his happiness, and piqued at his melancholy, I left him before the end
+      of the year, and he has since taken to drinking!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The eyes of the Virtues were all turned to Prudence. She was their last
+      hope. &ldquo;I am just where I set out,&rdquo; said that discreet Virtue; &ldquo;I have done
+      neither good nor harm. To avoid temptation I went and lived with a hermit
+      to whom I soon found that I could be of no use beyond warning him not to
+      overboil his peas and lentils, not to leave his door open when a storm
+      threatened, and not to fill his pitcher too full at the neighbouring
+      spring. I am thus the only one of you that never did harm; but only
+      because I am the only one of you that never had an opportunity of doing
+      it! In a word,&rdquo; continued Prudence, thoughtfully,&mdash;&ldquo;in a word, my
+      friends, circumstances are necessary to the Virtues themselves. Had, for
+      instance, Economy changed with Generosity, and gone to the poor
+      lieutenant&rsquo;s wife, and had I lodged with the Irish squireen instead of
+      Hospitality, what misfortunes would have been saved to both! Alas! I
+      perceive we lose all our efficacy when we are misplaced; and <i>then</i>,
+      though in reality Virtues, we operate as Vices. Circumstances must be
+      favourable to our exertions, and harmonious with our nature; and we lose
+      our very divinity unless Wisdom direct our footsteps to the home we should
+      inhabit and the dispositions we should govern.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The story was ended, and the travellers began to dispute about its moral.
+      Here let us leave them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII. COLOGNE.&mdash;THE TRACES OF THE ROMAN YOKE.&mdash;THE CHURCH
+      OF ST.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      MARIA.&mdash;TREVYLYAN&rsquo;S REFLECTIONS ON THE MONASTIC LIFE.&mdash;THE TOMB
+      OF THE THREE KINGS.&mdash;AN EVENING EXCURSION ON THE RHINE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ROME&mdash;magnificent Rome! wherever the pilgrim wends, the traces of thy
+      dominion greet his eyes. Still in the heart of the bold German race is
+      graven the print of the eagle&rsquo;s claws; and amidst the haunted regions of
+      the Rhine we pause to wonder at the great monuments of the Italian yoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Cologne our travellers rested for some days. They were in the city to
+      which the camp of Marcus Agrippa had given birth; that spot had resounded
+      with the armed tread of the legions of Trajan. In that city, Vitellius,
+      Sylvanus, were proclaimed emperors. By that church did the latter receive
+      his death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they passed round the door they saw some peasants loitering on the
+      sacred ground; and when they noted the delicate cheek of Gertrude they
+      uttered their salutations with more than common respect. Where they then
+      were the building swept round in a circular form; and at its base it is
+      supposed by tradition to retain something of the ancient Roman masonry.
+      Just before them rose the spire of a plain and unadorned church,
+      singularly contrasting the pomp of the old with the simplicity of the
+      innovating creed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The church of St. Maria occupies the site of the Roman Capitol, and the
+      place retains the Roman name; and still something in the aspect of the
+      people betrays the hereditary blood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gertrude, whose nature was strongly impressed with <i>the venerating
+      character</i>, was fond of visiting the old Gothic churches, which, with
+      so eloquent a moral, unite the living with the dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pause for a moment,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, before they entered the church of
+      St. Maria. &ldquo;What recollections crowd upon us! On the site of the Roman
+      Capitol a Christian church and a convent are erected! By whom? The mother
+      of Charles Martel,&mdash;the Conqueror of the Saracen, the arch-hero of
+      Christendom itself! And to these scenes and calm retreats, to the
+      cloisters of the convent once belonging to this church, fled the bruised
+      spirit of a royal sufferer,-the victim of Richelieu,&mdash;the unfortunate
+      and ambitious Mary de Medicis. Alas! the cell and the convent are but a
+      vain emblem of that desire to fly to God which belongs to Distress; the
+      solitude soothes, but the monotony recalls, regret. And for my own part in
+      my frequent tours through Catholic countries, I never saw the still walls
+      in which monastic vanity hoped to shut out the world, but a melancholy
+      came over me! What hearts at war with themselves! what unceasing regrets!
+      what pinings after the past! what long and beautiful years devoted to a
+      moral grave, by a momentary rashness, an impulse, a disappointment! But in
+      these churches the lesson is more impressive and less sad. The weary heart
+      has ceased to ache; the burning pulses are still; the troubled spirit has
+      flown to the only rest which is not a deceit. Power and love, hope and
+      fear, avarice, ambition,&mdash;they are quenched at last! Death is the
+      only monastery, the tomb is the only cell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your passion is ever for active life,&rdquo; said Gertrude. &ldquo;You allow no charm
+      to solitude, and contemplation to you seems torture. If any great sorrow
+      ever come upon you, you will never retire to seclusion as its balm. You
+      will plunge into the world, and lose your individual existence in the
+      universal rush of life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, talk not of sorrow!&rdquo; said Trevylyan, wildly. &ldquo;Let us enter the
+      church.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They went afterwards to the celebrated cathedral, which is considered one
+      of the noblest of the architectural triumphs of Germany; but it is yet
+      more worthy of notice from the Pilgrim of Romance than the searcher after
+      antiquity, for here, behind the grand altar, is the Tomb of the Three
+      Kings of Cologne,&mdash;the three worshippers whom tradition humbled to
+      our Saviour. Legend is rife with a thousand tales of the relics of this
+      tomb. The Three Kings of Cologne are the tutelary names of that golden
+      superstition which has often more votaries than the religion itself from
+      which it springs and to Gertrude the simple story of Lucille sufficed to
+      make her for the moment credulous of the sanctity of the spot. Behind the
+      tomb three Gothic windows cast their &ldquo;dim, religious light&rdquo; over the
+      tessellated pavement and along the Ionic pillars. They found some of the
+      more credulous believers in the authenticity of the relics kneeling before
+      the tomb, and they arrested their steps, fearful to disturb the
+      superstition which is never without something of sanctity when contented
+      with prayer and forgetful of persecution. The bones of the Magi are still
+      supposed to consecrate the tomb, and on the higher part of the monument
+      the artist has delineated their adoration to the infant Saviour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That evening came on with a still and tranquil beauty, and as the sun
+      hastened to its close they launched their boat for an hour or two&rsquo;s
+      excursion upon the Rhine. Gertrude was in that happy mood when the quiet
+      of nature is enjoyed like a bath for the soul, and the presence of him she
+      so idolized deepened that stillness into a more delicious and subduing
+      calm. Little did she dream as the boat glided over the water, and the
+      towers of Cologne rose in the blue air of evening, how few were those
+      hours that divided her from the tomb! But, in looking back to the life of
+      one we have loved, how dear is the thought that the latter days were the
+      days of light, that the cloud never chilled the beauty of the setting sun,
+      and that if the years of existence were brief, all that existence has most
+      tender, most sacred, was crowded into that space! Nothing dark, then, or
+      bitter, rests with our remembrance of the lost: <i>we</i> are the
+      mourners, but pity is not for the mourned,&mdash;our grief is purely
+      selfish; when we turn to its object, the hues of happiness are round it,
+      and that very love which is the parent of our woe was the consolation, the
+      triumph, of the departed!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The majestic Rhine was calm as a lake; the splashing of the oar only broke
+      the stillness, and after a long pause in their conversation, Gertrude,
+      putting her hand on Trevylyan&rsquo;s arm, reminded him of a promised story: for
+      he too had moods of abstraction, from which, in her turn, she loved to
+      lure him; and his voice to her had become a sort of want.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let it be,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;a tale suited to the hour; no fierce tradition,&mdash;nay,
+      no grotesque fable, but of the tenderer dye of superstition. Let it be of
+      love, of woman&rsquo;s love,&mdash;of the love that defies the grave: for surely
+      even after death it lives; and heaven would scarcely be heaven if memory
+      were banished from its blessings.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I recollect,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, after a slight pause, &ldquo;a short German
+      legend, the simplicity of which touched me much when I heard it; but,&rdquo;
+       added he, with a slight smile, &ldquo;so much more faithful appears in the
+      legend the love of the woman than that of the man, that <i>I</i> at least
+      ought scarcely to recite it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; said Gertrude, tenderly, &ldquo;the fault of the inconstant only
+      heightens our gratitude to the faithful.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VIII. THE SOUL IN PURGATORY; OR LOVE STRONGER THAN DEATH.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE angels strung their harps in heaven, and their music went up like a
+      stream of odours to the pavilions of the Most High; but the harp of
+      Seralim was sweeter than that of his fellows, and the Voice of the
+      Invisible One (for the angels themselves know not the glories of Jehovah&mdash;only
+      far in the depths of heaven they see one Unsleeping Eye watching forever
+      over Creation) was heard saying,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ask a gift for the love that burns in thy song, and it shall be given
+      thee.&rdquo; And Seralim answered,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is in that place which men call Purgatory, and which is the escape
+      from hell, but the painful porch of heaven, many souls that adore Thee,
+      and yet are punished justly for their sins; grant me the boon to visit
+      them at times, and solace their suffering by the hymns of the harp that is
+      consecrated to Thee!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the Voice answered,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thy prayer is heard, O gentlest of the angels! and it seems good to Him
+      who chastises but from love. Go! Thou hast thy will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the angel sang the praises of God; and when the song was done he rose
+      from his azure throne at the right hand of Gabriel, and, spreading his
+      rainbow wings, he flew to that melancholy orb which, nearest to earth,
+      echoes with the shrieks of souls that by torture become pure. There the
+      unhappy ones see from afar the bright courts they are hereafter to obtain,
+      and the shapes of glorious beings, who, fresh from these Fountains of
+      Immortality, walk amidst the gardens of Paradise, and feel that their
+      happiness hath no morrow; and this thought consoles amidst their torments,
+      and makes the true difference between Purgatory and Hell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the angel folded his wings, and entering the crystal gates, sat down
+      upon a blasted rock and struck his divine lyre, and a peace fell over the
+      wretched; the demon ceased to torture and the victim to wail. As sleep to
+      the mourners of earth was the song of the angel to the souls of the
+      purifying star: one only voice amidst the general stillness seemed not
+      lulled by the angel; it was the voice of a woman, and it continued to cry
+      out with a sharp cry,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Adenheim, Adenheim! mourn not for the lost!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The angel struck chord after chord, till his most skilful melodies were
+      exhausted; but still the solitary voice, unheeding&mdash;unconscious of&mdash;the
+      sweetest harp of the angel choir, cried out,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Adenheim, Adenheim! mourn not for the lost!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Seralim&rsquo;s interest was aroused, and approaching the spot whence the
+      voice came, he saw the spirit of a young and beautiful girl chained to a
+      rock, and the demons lying idly by. And Seralim said to the demons, &ldquo;Doth
+      the song lull ye thus to rest?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And they answered, &ldquo;Her care for another is bitterer than all our
+      torments; therefore are we idle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the angel approached the spirit, and said in a voice which stilled
+      her cry&mdash;for in what state do we outlive sympathy?&mdash;&ldquo;Wherefore,
+      O daughter of earth, wherefore wailest thou with the same plaintive wail;
+      and why doth the harp that soothes the most guilty of thy companions fail
+      in its melody with thee?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O radiant stranger,&rdquo; answered the poor spirit, &ldquo;thou speakest to one who
+      on earth loved God&rsquo;s creature more than God; therefore is she thus justly
+      sentenced. But I know that my poor Adenheim mourns ceaselessly for me, and
+      the thought of his sorrow is more intolerable to me than all that the
+      demons can inflict.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how knowest thou that he laments thee?&rdquo; asked the angel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I know with what agony I should have mourned for <i>him</i>,&rdquo;
+       replied the spirit, simply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The divine nature of the angel was touched; for love is the nature of the
+      sons of heaven. &ldquo;And how,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;can I minister to thy sorrow?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A transport seemed to agitate the spirit, and she lifted up her mistlike
+      and impalpable arms, and cried,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give me&mdash;oh, give me to return to earth, but for one little hour,
+      that I may visit my Adenheim; and that, concealing from him my present
+      sufferings, I may comfort him in his own.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas!&rdquo; said the angel, turning away his eyes,&mdash;for angels may not
+      weep in the sight of others,&mdash;&ldquo;I could, indeed, grant thee this boon,
+      but thou knowest not the penalty. For the souls in Purgatory may return to
+      Earth, but heavy is the sentence that awaits their return. In a word, for
+      one hour on earth thou must add a thousand years to the torture of thy
+      confinement here!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that all?&rdquo; cried the spirit. &ldquo;Willingly then will I brave the doom.
+      Ah, surely they love not in heaven, or thou wouldst know, O Celestial
+      Visitant; that one hour of consolation to the one we love is worth a
+      thousand ages of torture to ourselves! Let me comfort and convince my
+      Adenheim; no matter what becomes of me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the angel looked on high, and he saw in far distant regions, which in
+      that orb none else could discern, the rays that parted from the
+      all-guarding Eye; and heard the VOICE of the Eternal One bidding him act
+      as his pity whispered. He looked on the spirit, and her shadowy arms
+      stretched pleadingly towards him; he uttered the word that loosens the
+      bars of the gate of Purgatory; and lo, the spirit had re-entered the human
+      world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was night in the halls of the lord of Adenheim, and he sat at the head
+      of his glittering board. Loud and long was the laugh, and merry the jest
+      that echoed round; and the laugh and the jest of the lord of Adenheim were
+      louder and merrier than all. And by his right side sat a beautiful lady;
+      and ever and anon he turned from others to whisper soft vows in her ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And oh,&rdquo; said the bright dame of Falkenberg, &ldquo;thy words what ladye can
+      believe? Didst thou not utter the same oaths, and promise the same love,
+      to Ida, the fair daughter of Loden, and now but three little months have
+      closed upon her grave?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By my halidom,&rdquo; quoth the young lord of Adenheim, &ldquo;thou dost thy beauty
+      marvellous injustice. Ida! Nay, thou mockest me; <i>I</i> love the
+      daughter of Loden! Why, how then should I be worthy thee? A few gay words,
+      a few passing smiles,&mdash;behold all the love Adenheim ever bore to Ida.
+      Was it my fault if the poor fool misconstrued such common courtesy? Nay,
+      dearest lady, this heart is virgin to thee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what!&rdquo; said the lady of Falkenberg, as she suffered the arm of
+      Adenheim to encircle her slender waist, &ldquo;didst thou not grieve for her
+      loss?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, verily, yes, for the first week; but in thy bright eyes I found
+      ready consolation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment, the lord of Adenheim thought he heard a deep sigh behind
+      him; he turned, but saw nothing, save a slight mist that gradually faded
+      away, and vanished in the distance. Where was the necessity for Ida to
+      reveal herself?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      .......
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And thou didst not, then, do thine errand to thy lover?&rdquo; said Seralim, as
+      the spirit of the wronged Ida returned to Purgatory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bid the demons recommence their torture,&rdquo; was poor Ida&rsquo;s answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And was it for this that thou added a thousand years to thy doom?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas!&rdquo; answered Ida, &ldquo;after the single hour I have endured on Earth,
+      there seems to be but little terrible in a thousand fresh years of
+      Purgatory!&rdquo;*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * This story is principally borrowed from a foreign soil.  It
+    seemed to the author worthy of being transferred to an English
+    one, although he fears that much of its singular beauty in the
+    original has been lost by the way.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What! is the story ended?&rdquo; asked Gertrude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, surely the thousand years were not added to poor Ida&rsquo;s doom; and
+      Seralim bore her back with him to Heaven?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The legend saith no more. The writer was contented to show us the
+      perpetuity of woman&rsquo;s love&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And its reward,&rdquo; added Vane.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was not <i>I</i> who drew that last conclusion, Albert,&rdquo; whispered
+      Gertrude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IX. THE SCENERY OF THE RHINE ANALOGOUS TO THE GERMAN LITERARY
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      GENIUS.&mdash;THE DRACHENFELS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ON leaving Cologne, the stream winds round among banks that do not yet
+      fulfil the promise of the Rhine; but they increase in interest as you
+      leave Surdt and Godorf. The peculiar character of the river does not,
+      however, really appear, until by degrees the Seven Mountains, and &ldquo;THE
+      CASTLED CRAG OF DRACHENFELS&rdquo; above them all, break upon the eye. Around
+      Nieder Cassel and Rheidt the vines lie thick and clustering; and, by the
+      shore, you see from place to place the islands stretching their green
+      length along, and breaking the exulting tide. Village rises upon village,
+      and viewed from the distance as you sail, the pastoral errors that
+      enamoured us of the village life crowd thick and fast upon us. So still do
+      these hamlets seem, so sheltered from the passions of the world,&mdash;as
+      if the passions were not like winds, only felt where they breathe, and
+      invisible save by their effects! Leaping into the broad bosom of the Rhine
+      come many a stream and rivulet upon either side. Spire upon spire rises
+      and sinks as you sail on. Mountain and city, the solitary island, the
+      castled steep, like the dreams of ambition, suddenly appear, proudly
+      swell, and dimly fade away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You begin now,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, &ldquo;to understand the character of the
+      German literature. The Rhine is an emblem of its luxuriance, its
+      fertility, its romance. The best commentary to the German genius is a
+      visit to the German scenery. The mighty gloom of the Hartz, the feudal
+      towers that look over vines and deep valleys on the legendary Rhine; the
+      gigantic remains of antique power, profusely scattered over plain, mount,
+      and forest; the thousand mixed recollections that hallow the ground; the
+      stately Roman, the stalwart Goth, the chivalry of the feudal age, and the
+      dim brotherhood of the ideal world, have here alike their record and their
+      remembrance. And over such scenes wanders the young German student.
+      Instead of the pomp and luxury of the English traveller, the thousand
+      devices to cheat the way, he has but his volume in his hand, his knapsack
+      at his back. From such scenes he draws and hives all that various store
+      which after years ripen to invention. Hence the florid mixture of the
+      German muse,&mdash;the classic, the romantic, the contemplative, the
+      philosophic, and the superstitious; each the result of actual meditation
+      over different scenes; each the produce of separate but confused
+      recollections. As the Rhine flows, so flows the national genius, by
+      mountain and valley, the wildest solitude, the sudden spires of ancient
+      cities, the mouldered castle, the stately monastery, the humble cot,&mdash;grandeur
+      and homeliness, history and superstition, truth and fable, succeeding one
+      another so as to blend into a whole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; added Trevylyan, a moment afterwards, &ldquo;the Ideal is passing slowly
+      away from the German mind; a spirit for the more active and the more
+      material literature is springing up amongst them. The revolution of mind
+      gathers on, preceding stormy events; and the memories that led their
+      grandsires to contemplate will urge the youth of the next generation to
+      dare and to act.&rdquo; *
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * Is not this prediction already fulfilled?&mdash;1849.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Thus conversing, they continued their voyage, with a fair wave and beneath
+      a lucid sky.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The vessel now glided beside the Seven Mountains and the Drachenfels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun, slowly setting, cast his yellow beams over the smooth waters. At
+      the foot of the mountains lay a village deeply sequestered in shade; and
+      above, the Ruin of the Drachenfels caught the richest beams of the sun.
+      Yet thus alone, though lofty, the ray cheered not the gloom that hung over
+      the giant rock: it stood on high, like some great name on which the light
+      of glory may shine, but which is associated with a certain melancholy,
+      from the solitude to which its very height above the level of the herd
+      condemned its owner!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER X. THE LEGEND OF ROLAND.&mdash;THE ADVENTURES OF NYMPHALIN ON THE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      ISLAND OF NONNEWERTH.&mdash;HER SONG.&mdash;THE DECAY OF THE FAIRY-FAITH
+      IN ENGLAND.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ON the shore opposite the Drachenfels stand the Ruins of Rolandseck,&mdash;they
+      are the shattered crown of a lofty and perpendicular mountain, consecrated
+      to the memory of the brave Roland; below, the trees of an island to which
+      the lady of Roland retired, rise thick and verdant from the smooth tide.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing can exceed the eloquent and wild grandeur of the whole scene. That
+      spot is the pride and beauty of the Rhine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The legend that consecrates the tower and the island is briefly told; it
+      belongs to a class so common to the Romaunts of Germany. Roland goes to
+      the wars. A false report of his death reaches his betrothed. She retires
+      to the convent in the isle of Nonnewerth, and takes the irrevocable veil.
+      Roland returns home, flushed with glory and hope, to find that the very
+      fidelity of his affianced had placed an eternal barrier between them. He
+      built the castle that bears his name, and which overlooks the monastery,
+      and dwelt there till his death,&mdash;happy in the power at least to gaze,
+      even to the last, upon those walls which held the treasure he had lost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The willows droop in mournful luxuriance along the island, and harmonize
+      with the memory that, through the desert of a thousand years, love still
+      keeps green and fresh. Nor hath it permitted even those additions of
+      fiction which, like mosses, gather by time over the truth that they adorn,
+      yet adorning conceal, to mar the simple tenderness of the legend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All was still in the island of Nonnewerth; the lights shone through the
+      trees from the house that contained our travellers. On one smooth spot
+      where the islet shelves into the Rhine met the wandering fairies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Pipalee! how beautiful!&rdquo; cried Nymphalin, as she stood enraptured by
+      the wave, a star-beam shining on her, with her yellow hair &ldquo;dancing its
+      ringlets in the whistling wind.&rdquo; &ldquo;For the first time since our departure I
+      do not miss the green fields of England.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hist!&rdquo; said Pipalee, under her breath; &ldquo;I hear fairy steps,&mdash;they
+      must be the steps of strangers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us retreat into this thicket of weeds,&rdquo; said Nymphalin, somewhat
+      alarmed; &ldquo;the good lord treasurer is already asleep there.&rdquo; They whisked
+      into what to them was a forest, for the reeds were two feet high, and
+      there sure enough they found the lord treasurer stretched beneath a
+      bulrush, with his pipe beside him, for since he had been in Germany he had
+      taken to smoking; and indeed wild thyme, properly dried, makes very good
+      tobacco for a fairy. They also found Nip and Trip sitting very close
+      together, Nip playing with her hair, which was exceedingly beautiful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you do here?&rdquo; said Pipalee, shortly; for she was rather an old
+      maid, and did not like fairies to be too close to each other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Watching my lord&rsquo;s slumber,&rdquo; said Nip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pshaw!&rdquo; said Pipalee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; quoth Trip, blushing like a sea-shell; &ldquo;there is no harm in <i>that</i>,
+      I&rsquo;m sure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush!&rdquo; said the queen, peeping through the reeds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now forth from the green bosom of the earth came a tiny train; slowly,
+      two by two, hand in hand, they swept from a small aperture, shadowed with
+      fragrant herbs, and formed themselves into a ring: then came other
+      fairies, laden with dainties, and presently two beautiful white mushrooms
+      sprang up, on which the viands were placed, and lo, there was a banquet!
+      Oh, how merry they were! what gentle peals of laughter, loud as a virgin&rsquo;s
+      sigh! what jests! what songs! Happy race! if mortals could see you as
+      often as I do, in the soft nights of summer, they would never be at a loss
+      for entertainment. But as our English fairies looked on, they saw that
+      these foreign elves were of a different race from themselves: they were
+      taller and less handsome, their hair was darker, they wore mustaches, and
+      had something of a fiercer air. Poor Nymphalin was a little frightened;
+      but presently soft music was heard floating along, something like the
+      sound we suddenly hear of a still night when a light breeze steals through
+      rushes, or wakes a ripple in some shallow brook dancing over pebbles. And
+      lo, from the aperture of the earth came forth a fay, superbly dressed, and
+      of a noble presence. The queen started back, Pipalee rubbed her eyes, Trip
+      looked over Pipalee&rsquo;s shoulder, and Nip, pinching her arm, cried out
+      amazed, &ldquo;By the last new star, that is Prince von Fayzenheim!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Poor Nymphalin gazed again, and her little heart beat under her bee&rsquo;s-wing
+      bodice as if it would break. The prince had a melancholy air, and he sat
+      apart from the banquet, gazing abstractedly on the Rhine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; whispered Nymphalin to herself, &ldquo;does he think of me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently the prince drew forth a little flute hollowed from a small reed,
+      and began to play a mournful air. Nymphalin listened with delight; it was
+      one he had learned in her dominions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the air was over, the prince rose, and approaching the banqueters,
+      despatched them on different errands; one to visit the dwarf of the
+      Drachenfels, another to look after the grave of Musaeus, and a whole
+      detachment to puzzle the students of Heidelberg. A few launched themselves
+      upon willow leaves on the Rhine to cruise about in the starlight, and an
+      other band set out a hunting after the gray-legged moth. The prince was
+      left alone; and now Nymphalin, seeing the coast clear, wrapped herself up
+      in a cloak made out of a withered leaf; and only letting her eyes glow out
+      from the hood, she glided from the reeds, and the prince turning round,
+      saw a dark fairy figure by his side. He drew back, a little startled, and
+      placed his hand on his sword, when Nymphalin circling round him, sang the
+      following words:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      THE FAIRY&rsquo;S REPROACH.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     I. By the glow-worm&rsquo;s lamp in the dewy brake;
+       By the gossamer&rsquo;s airy net;
+     By the shifting skin of the faithless snake,
+       Oh, teach me to forget:
+             For none, ah none
+     Can teach so well that human spell
+             As thou, false one!
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     II. By the fairy dance on the greensward smooth;
+       By the winds of the gentle west;
+     By the loving stars, when their soft looks soothe
+       The waves on their mother&rsquo;s breast,
+             Teach me thy lore!
+         By which, like withered flowers,
+         The leaves of buried Hours
+           Blossom no more!
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     III. By the tent in the violet&rsquo;s bell;
+       By the may on the scented bough;
+     By the lone green isle where my sisters dwell;
+       And thine own forgotten vow,
+             Teach me to live,
+           Nor feed on thoughts that pine
+           For love so false as thine!
+           Teach me thy lore,
+           And one thou lov&rsquo;st no more
+             Will bless thee and forgive!
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely,&rdquo; said Fayzenheim, faltering, &ldquo;surely I know that voice!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Nymphalin&rsquo;s cloak dropped off her shoulder. &ldquo;My English fairy!&rdquo; and
+      Fayzenheim knelt beside her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I wish you had seen the fay kneel, for you would have sworn it was so like
+      a human lover that you would never have sneered at love afterwards. Love
+      is so fairy-like a part of us, that even a fairy cannot make it
+      differently from us,&mdash;that is to say, when we love truly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was great joy in the island that night among the elves. They
+      conducted Nymphalin to their palace within the earth, and feasted her
+      sumptuously; and Nip told their adventures with so much spirit that he
+      enchanted the merry foreigners. But Fayzenheim talked apart to Nymphalin,
+      and told her how he was lord of that island, and how he had been obliged
+      to return to his dominions by the law of his tribe, which allowed him to
+      be absent only a certain time in every year. &ldquo;But, my queen, I always
+      intended to revisit thee next spring.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou need&rsquo;st not have left us so abruptly,&rdquo; said Nymphalin, blushing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But do <i>thou</i> never leave me!&rdquo; said the ardent fairy; &ldquo;be mine, and
+      let our nuptials be celebrated on these shores. Wouldst thou sigh for thy
+      green island? No! for <i>there</i> the fairy altars are deserted, the
+      faith is gone from the land; thou art among the last of an unhonoured and
+      expiring race. Thy mortal poets are dumb, and Fancy, which was thy
+      priestess, sleeps hushed in her last repose. New and hard creeds have
+      succeeded to the fairy lore. Who steals through the starlit boughs on the
+      nights of June to watch the roundels of thy tribe? The wheels of commerce,
+      the din of trade, have silenced to mortal ear the music of thy subjects&rsquo; 
+      harps! And the noisy habitations of men, harsher than their dreaming
+      sires, are gathering round the dell and vale where thy co-mates linger: a
+      few years, and where will be the green solitudes of England?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The queen sighed, and the prince, perceiving that he was listened to,
+      continued,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who, in thy native shores, among the children of men, now claims the
+      fairy&rsquo;s care? What cradle wouldst thou tend? On what maid wouldst thou
+      shower thy rosy gifts? What barb wouldst thou haunt in his dreams? Poesy
+      is fled the island, why shouldst thou linger behind? Time hath brought
+      dull customs, that laugh at thy gentle being. Puck is buried in the
+      harebell, he hath left no offspring, and none mourn for his loss; for
+      night, which is the fairy season, is busy and garish as the day. What
+      hearth is desolate after the curfew? What house bathed in stillness at the
+      hour in which thy revels commence? Thine empire among men hath passed from
+      thee, and thy race are vanishing from the crowded soil; for, despite our
+      diviner nature, our existence is linked with man&rsquo;s. Their neglect is our
+      disease, their forgetfulness our death. Leave then those dull, yet
+      troubled scenes, that are closing round the fairy rings of thy native
+      isle. These mountains, this herbage, these gliding waves, these mouldering
+      ruins, these starred rivulets, be they, O beautiful fairy! thy new domain.
+      Yet in these lands our worship lingers; still can we fill the thought of
+      the young bard, and mingle with his yearnings after the Beautiful, the
+      Unseen. Hither come the pilgrims of the world, anxious only to gather from
+      these scenes the legends of Us; ages will pass away ere the Rhine shall be
+      desecrated of our haunting presence. Come then, my queen, let this palace
+      be thine own, and the moon that glances over the shattered towers of the
+      Dragon Rock witness our nuptials and our vows!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In such words the fairy prince courted the young queen, and while she
+      sighed at their truth she yielded to their charm. Oh, still may there be
+      one spot on the earth where the fairy feet may press the legendary soil!
+      still be there one land where the faith of The Bright Invisible hallows
+      and inspires! Still glide thou, O majestic and solemn Rhine, among shades
+      and valleys, from which the wisdom of belief can call the creations of the
+      younger world!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XI. WHEREIN THE READER IS MADE SPECTATOR WITH THE ENGLISH
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      FAIRIES OF THE SCENES AND BEINGS THAT ARE BENEATH THE EARTH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      DURING the heat of next day&rsquo;s noon, Fayzenheim took the English visitors
+      through the cool caverns that wind amidst the mountains of the Rhine.
+      There, a thousand wonders awaited the eyes of the fairy queen. I speak not
+      of the Gothic arch and aisle into which the hollow earth forms itself, or
+      the stream that rushes with a mighty voice through the dark chasm, or the
+      silver columns that shoot aloft, worked by the gnomes from the mines of
+      the mountains of Taunus; but of the strange inhabitants that from time to
+      time they came upon. They found in one solitary cell, lined with dried
+      moss, two misshapen elves, of a larger size than common, with a plebeian
+      working-day aspect, who were chatting noisily together, and making a pair
+      of boots: these were the Hausmannen or domestic elves, that dance into
+      tradesmen&rsquo;s houses of a night, and play all sorts of undignified tricks.
+      They were very civil to the queen, for they are good-natured creatures on
+      the whole, and once had many relations in Scotland. They then, following
+      the course of a noisy rivulet, came to a hole from which the sharp head of
+      a fox peeped out. The queen was frightened. &ldquo;Oh, come on,&rdquo; said the fox,
+      encouragingly, &ldquo;I am one of the fairy race, and many are the gambols we of
+      the brute-elves play in the German world of romance.&rdquo; &ldquo;Indeed, Mr. Fox,&rdquo;
+       said the prince, &ldquo;you only speak the truth; and how is Mr. Bruin?&rdquo; &ldquo;Quite
+      well, my prince, but tired of his seclusion; for indeed our race can do
+      little or nothing now in the world; and lie here in our old age, telling
+      stories of the past, and recalling the exploits we did in our youth,&mdash;which,
+      madam, you may see in all the fairy histories in the prince&rsquo;s library.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your own love adventures, for instance, Master Fox,&rdquo; said the prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fox snarled angrily, and drew in his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have displeased your friend,&rdquo; said Nymphalin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; he likes no allusions to the amorous follies of his youth. Did you
+      ever hear of his rivalry with the dog for the cat&rsquo;s good graces?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; that must be very amusing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, my queen, when we rest by and by, I will relate to you the history
+      of the fox&rsquo;s wooing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The next place they came to was a vast Runic cavern, covered with dark
+      inscriptions of a forgotten tongue; and sitting on a huge stone they found
+      a dwarf with long yellow hair, his head leaning on his breast, and
+      absorbed in meditation. &ldquo;This is a spirit of a wise and powerful race,&rdquo;
+       whispered Fayzenheim, &ldquo;that has often battled with the fairies; but he is
+      of the kindly tribe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the dwarf lifted his head with a mournful air; and gazed upon the
+      bright shapes before him, lighted by the pine torches that the prince&rsquo;s
+      attendants carried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what dost thou muse upon, O descendant of the race of Laurin?&rdquo; said
+      the prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Upon TIME!&rdquo; answered the dwarf, gloomily. &ldquo;I see a River, and its waves
+      are black, flowing from the clouds, and none knoweth its source. It rolls
+      deeply on, aye and evermore, through a green valley, which it slowly
+      swallows up, washing away tower and town, and vanquishing all things; and
+      the name of the River is TIME.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the dwarf&rsquo;s head sank on his bosom, and he spoke no more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fairies proceeded. &ldquo;Above us,&rdquo; said the prince, &ldquo;rises one of the
+      loftiest mountains of the Rhine; for mountains are the Dwarf&rsquo;s home. When
+      the Great Spirit of all made earth, he saw that the hollows of the rocks
+      and hills were tenantless, and yet that a mighty kingdom and great palaces
+      were hid within them,&mdash;a dread and dark solitude, but lighted at
+      times from the starry eyes of many jewels; and there was the treasure of
+      the human world&mdash;gold and silver&mdash;and great heaps of gems, and a
+      soil of metals. So God made a race for this vast empire, and gifted them
+      with the power of thought, and the soul of exceeding wisdom, so that they
+      want not the merriment and enterprise of the outer world; but musing in
+      these dark caves is their delight. Their existence rolls away in the
+      luxury of thought; only from time to time they appear in the world, and
+      betoken woe or weal to men,&mdash;according to their nature, for they are
+      divided into two tribes, the benevolent and the wrathful.&rdquo; While the
+      prince spoke, they saw glaring upon them from a ledge in the upper rock a
+      grisly face with a long matted beard. The prince gathered himself up, and
+      frowned at the evil dwarf, for such it was; but with a wild laugh the face
+      abruptly disappeared, and the echo of the laugh rang with a ghastly sound
+      through the long hollows of the earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The queen clung to Fayzenheim&rsquo;s arm. &ldquo;Fear not, my queen,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;The
+      evil race have no power over our light and aerial nature; with men only
+      they war; and he whom we have seen was, in the old ages of the world, one
+      of the deadliest visitors to mankind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But now they came winding by a passage to a beautiful recess in the
+      mountain empire; it was of a circular shape of amazing height; in the
+      midst of it played a natural fountain of sparkling waters, and around it
+      were columns of massive granite, rising in countless vistas, till lost in
+      the distant shade. Jewels were scattered round, and brightly played the
+      fairy torches on the gem, the fountain, and the pale silver, that gleamed
+      at frequent intervals from the rocks. &ldquo;Here let us rest,&rdquo; said the gallant
+      fairy, clapping his hands; &ldquo;what, ho! music and the feast.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So the feast was spread by the fountain&rsquo;s side; and the courtiers
+      scattered rose-leaves, which they had brought with them, for the prince
+      and his visitor; and amidst the dark kingdom of the dwarfs broke the
+      delicate sound of fairy lutes. &ldquo;We have not these evil beings in England,&rdquo;
+       said the queen, as low as she could speak; &ldquo;they rouse my fear, but my
+      interest also. Tell me, dear prince, of what nature was the intercourse of
+      the evil dwarf with man?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know,&rdquo; answered the prince, &ldquo;that to every species of living thing
+      there is something in common; the vast chain of sympathy runs through all
+      creation. By that which they have in common with the beast of the field or
+      the bird of the air, men govern the inferior tribes; they appeal to the
+      common passions of fear and emulation when they tame the wild steed, to
+      the common desire of greed and gain when they snare the fishes of the
+      stream, or allure the wolves to the pitfall by the bleating of the lamb.
+      In their turn, in the older ages of the world, it was by the passions
+      which men had in common with the demon race that the fiends commanded or
+      allured them. The dwarf whom you saw, being of that race which is
+      characterized by the ambition of power and the desire of hoarding,
+      appealed then in his intercourse with men to the same characteristics in
+      their own bosoms,&mdash;to ambition or to avarice. And thus were his
+      victims made! But, not now, dearest Nymphalin,&rdquo; continued the prince, with
+      a more lively air,&mdash;&ldquo;not now will we speak of those gloomy beings.
+      Ho, there! cease the music, and come hither all of ye, to listen to a
+      faithful and homely history of the Dog, the Cat, the Griffin, and the
+      Fox.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XII. THE WOOING OF MASTER FOX.*
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * In the excursions of the fairies, it is the object of the author
+    to bring before the reader a rapid phantasmagoria of the various
+    beings that belong to the German superstitions, so that the work
+    may thus describe the outer and the inner world of the land of
+    the Rhine.  The tale of the Fox&rsquo;s Wooing has been composed to
+    give the English reader an idea of a species of novel not
+    naturalized amongst us, though frequent among the legends of our
+    Irish neighbours; in which the brutes are the only characters
+    drawn,&mdash;drawn too with shades of distinction as nice and subtle
+    as if they were the creatures of the civilized world.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      You are aware, my dear Nymphalin, that in the time of which I am about to
+      speak there was no particular enmity between the various species of
+      brutes; the dog and the hare chatted very agreeably together, and all the
+      world knows that the wolf, unacquainted with mutton, had a particular
+      affection for the lamb. In these happy days, two most respectable cats, of
+      very old family, had an only daughter. Never was kitten more amiable or
+      more seducing; as she grew up she manifested so many charms, that in a
+      little while she became noted as the greatest beauty in the neighbourhood.
+      Need I to you, dearest Nymphalin, describe her perfection? Suffice it to
+      say that her skin was of the most delicate tortoiseshell, that her paws
+      were smoother than velvet, that her whiskers were twelve inches long at
+      the least, and that her eyes had a gentleness altogether astonishing in a
+      cat. But if the young beauty had suitors in plenty during the lives of
+      monsieur and madame, you may suppose the number was not diminished when,
+      at the age of two years and a half, she was left an orphan, and sole
+      heiress to all the hereditary property. In fine, she was the richest
+      marriage in the whole country. Without troubling you, dearest queen, with
+      the adventures of the rest of her lovers, with their suit and their
+      rejection, I come at once to the two rivals most sanguine of success,&mdash;the
+      dog and the fox.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the dog was a handsome, honest, straightforward, affectionate fellow.
+      &ldquo;For my part,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t wonder at my cousin&rsquo;s refusing Bruin the
+      bear, and Gauntgrim the wolf: to be sure they give themselves great airs,
+      and call themselves &lsquo;<i>noble</i>,&rsquo; but what then? Bruin is always in the
+      sulks, and Gauntgrim always in a passion; a cat of any sensibility would
+      lead a miserable life with them. As for me, I am very good-tempered when
+      I&rsquo;m not put out, and I have no fault except that of being angry if
+      disturbed at my meals. I am young and good-looking, fond of play and
+      amusement, and altogether as agreeable a husband as a cat could find in a
+      summer&rsquo;s day. If she marries me, well and good; she may have her property
+      settled on herself: if not, I shall bear her no malice; and I hope I
+      sha&rsquo;n&rsquo;t be too much in love to forget that there are other cats in the
+      world.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With that the dog threw his tail over his back, and set off to his
+      mistress with a gay face on the matter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the fox heard the dog talking thus to himself, for the fox was always
+      peeping about, in holes and corners, and he burst out a laughing when the
+      dog was out of sight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ho, ho, my fine fellow!&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;not so fast, if you please: you&rsquo;ve got
+      the fox for a rival, let me tell you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The fox, as you very well know, is a beast that can never do anything
+      without a manoeuvre; and as, from his cunning, he was generally very lucky
+      in anything he undertook, he did not doubt for a moment that he should put
+      the dog&rsquo;s nose out of joint. Reynard was aware that in love one should
+      always, if possible, be the first in the field; and he therefore resolved
+      to get the start of the dog and arrive before him at the cat&rsquo;s residence.
+      But this was no easy matter; for though Reynard could run faster than the
+      dog for a little way, he was no match for him in a journey of some
+      distance. &ldquo;However,&rdquo; said Reynard, &ldquo;those good-natured creatures are never
+      very wise; and I think I know already what will make him bait on his way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With that, the fox trotted pretty fast by a short cut in the woods, and
+      getting before the dog, laid himself down by a hole in the earth, and
+      began to howl most piteously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dog, hearing the noise, was very much alarmed. &ldquo;See now,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;if
+      the poor fox has not got himself into some scrape! Those cunning creatures
+      are always in mischief; thank Heaven, it never comes into my head to be
+      cunning!&rdquo; And the good-natured animal ran off as hard as he could to see
+      what was the matter with the fox.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, dear!&rdquo; cried Reynard; &ldquo;what shall I do? What shall I do? My poor
+      little sister has fallen into this hole, and I can&rsquo;t get her out; she&rsquo;ll
+      certainly be smothered.&rdquo; And the fox burst out a howling more piteously
+      than before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, my dear Reynard,&rdquo; quoth the dog, very simply, &ldquo;why don&rsquo;t you go in
+      after your sister?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, you may well ask that,&rdquo; said the fox; &ldquo;but, in trying to get in,
+      don&rsquo;t you perceive that I have sprained my back and can&rsquo;t stir? Oh, dear!
+      what shall I do if my poor little sister is smothered!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pray don&rsquo;t vex yourself,&rdquo; said the dog; &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll get her out in an instant.&rdquo;
+       And with that he forced himself with great difficulty into the hole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, no sooner did the fox see that the dog was fairly in, than he rolled
+      a great stone to the mouth of the hole and fitted it so tight, that the
+      dog, not being able to turn round and scratch against it with his
+      forepaws, was made a close prisoner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha, ha!&rdquo; cried Reynard, laughing outside; &ldquo;amuse yourself with my poor
+      little sister, while I go and make your compliments to Mademoiselle the
+      Cat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With that Reynard set off at an easy pace, never troubling his head what
+      became of the poor dog. When he arrived in the neighbourhood of the
+      beautiful cat&rsquo;s mansion, he resolved to pay a visit to a friend of his, an
+      old magpie that lived in a tree and was well acquainted with all the news
+      of the place. &ldquo;For,&rdquo; thought Reynard, &ldquo;I may as well know the blind side
+      of my mistress that is to be, and get round it at once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The magpie received the fox with great cordiality, and inquired what
+      brought him so great a distance from home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Upon my word,&rdquo; said the fox, &ldquo;nothing so much as the pleasure of seeing
+      your ladyship and hearing those agreeable anecdotes you tell with so
+      charming a grace; but to let you into a secret&mdash;be sure it don&rsquo;t go
+      further&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On the word of a magpie,&rdquo; interrupted the bird.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pardon me for doubting you,&rdquo; continued the fox; &ldquo;I should have
+      recollected that a pie was a proverb for discretion. But, as I was saying,
+      you know her Majesty the lioness?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely,&rdquo; said the magpie, bridling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well; she was pleased to fall in&mdash;that is to say&mdash;to&mdash;to&mdash;take
+      a caprice to your humble servant, and the lion grew so jealous that I
+      thought it prudent to decamp. A jealous lion is no joke, let me assure
+      your ladyship. But mum&rsquo;s the word.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So great a piece of news delighted the magpie. She could not but repay it
+      in kind, by all the news in her budget. She told the fox all the scandal
+      about Bruin and Gauntgrim, and she then fell to work on the poor young
+      cat. She did not spare her foibles, you may be quite sure. The fox
+      listened with great attention, and he learned enough to convince him that
+      however much the magpie might exaggerate, the cat was very susceptible to
+      flattery, and had a great deal of imagination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the magpie had finished she said, &ldquo;But it must be very unfortunate
+      for you to be banished from so magnificent a court as that of the lion?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As to that,&rdquo; answered the fox, &ldquo;I console myself for my exile with a
+      present his Majesty made me on parting, as a reward for my anxiety for his
+      honour and domestic tranquillity; namely, three hairs from the fifth leg
+      of the amoronthologosphorus. Only think of that, ma&rsquo;am!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The what?&rdquo; cried the pie, cocking down her left ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The amoronthologosphorus.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;La!&rdquo; said the magpie; &ldquo;and what is that very long word, my dear Reynard?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The amoronthologosphorus is a beast that lives on the other side of the
+      river Cylinx; it has five legs, and on the fifth leg there are three
+      hairs, and whoever has those three hairs can be young and beautiful
+      forever.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bless me! I wish you would let me see them,&rdquo; said the pie, holding out
+      her claw.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would that I could oblige you, ma&rsquo;am; but it&rsquo;s as much as my life&rsquo;s worth
+      to show them to any but the lady I marry. In fact, they only have an
+      effect on the fair sex, as you may see by myself, whose poor person they
+      utterly fail to improve: they are, therefore, intended for a marriage
+      present, and his Majesty the lion thus generously atoned to me for
+      relinquishing the tenderness of his queen. One must confess that there was
+      a great deal of delicacy in the gift. But you&rsquo;ll be sure not to mention
+      it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A magpie gossip indeed!&rdquo; quoth the old blab.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fox then wished the magpie good night, and retired to a hole to sleep
+      off the fatigues of the day, before he presented himself to the beautiful
+      young cat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning, Heaven knows how! it was all over the place that Reynard
+      the fox had been banished from court for the favour shown him by her
+      Majesty, and that the lion had bribed his departure with three hairs that
+      would make any lady whom the fox married young and beautiful forever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cat was the first to learn the news, and she became all curiosity to
+      see so interesting a stranger, possessed of &ldquo;qualifications&rdquo; which, in the
+      language of the day, &ldquo;would render any animal happy!&rdquo; She was not long
+      without obtaining her wish. As she was taking a walk in the wood the fox
+      contrived to encounter her. You may be sure that he made her his best bow;
+      and he flattered the poor cat with so courtly an air that she saw nothing
+      surprising in the love of the lioness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile let us see what became of his rival, the dog.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, the poor creature!&rdquo; said Nymphalin; &ldquo;it is easy to guess that he need
+      not be buried alive to lose all chance of marrying the heiress.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wait till the end,&rdquo; answered Fayzenheim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the dog found that he was thus entrapped, he gave himself up for
+      lost. In vain he kicked with his hind-legs against the stone,&mdash;he
+      only succeeded in bruising his paws; and at length he was forced to lie
+      down, with his tongue out of his mouth, and quite exhausted. &ldquo;However,&rdquo;
+       said he, after he had taken breath, &ldquo;it won&rsquo;t do to be starved here,
+      without doing my best to escape; and if I can&rsquo;t get out one way, let me
+      see if there is not a hole at the other end.&rdquo; Thus saying, his courage,
+      which stood him in lieu of cunning, returned, and he proceeded on in the
+      same straightforward way in which he always conducted himself. At first
+      the path was exceedingly narrow, and he hurt his sides very much against
+      the rough stones that projected from the earth; but by degrees the way
+      became broader, and he now went on with considerable ease to himself, till
+      he arrived in a large cavern, where he saw an immense griffin sitting on
+      his tail, and smoking a huge pipe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dog was by no means pleased at meeting so suddenly a creature that had
+      only to open his mouth to swallow him up at a morsel; however, he put a
+      bold face on the danger, and walking respectfully up to the griffin, said,
+      &ldquo;Sir, I should be very much obliged to you if you would inform me the way
+      out of these holes into the upper world.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The griffin took the pipe out of his mouth, and looked at the dog very
+      sternly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ho, wretch!&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;how comest thou hither? I suppose thou wantest to
+      steal my treasure; but I know how to treat such vagabonds as you, and I
+      shall certainly eat you up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can do that if you choose,&rdquo; said the dog; &ldquo;but it would be very
+      unhandsome conduct in an animal so much bigger than myself. For my own
+      part, I never attack any dog that is not of equal size,&mdash;I should be
+      ashamed of myself if I did. And as to your treasure, the character I bear
+      for honesty is too well known to merit such a suspicion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Upon my word,&rdquo; said the griffin, who could not help smiling for the life
+      of him, &ldquo;you have a singularly free mode of expressing yourself. And how,
+      I say, came you hither?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the dog, who did not know what a lie was, told the griffin his whole
+      history,&mdash;how he had set off to pay his court to the cat, and how
+      Reynard the fox had entrapped him into the hole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he had finished, the griffin said to him, &ldquo;I see, my friend, that you
+      know how to speak the truth; I am in want of just such a servant as you
+      will make me, therefore stay with me and keep watch over my treasure when
+      I sleep.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Two words to that,&rdquo; said the dog. &ldquo;You have hurt my feelings very much by
+      suspecting my honesty, and I would much sooner go back into the wood and
+      be avenged on that scoundrel the fox, than serve a master who has so ill
+      an opinion of me. I pray you, therefore, to dismiss me, and to put me in
+      the right way to my cousin the cat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not a griffin of many words,&rdquo; answered the master of the cavern,
+      &ldquo;and I give you your choice,&mdash;be my servant or be my breakfast; it is
+      just the same to me. I give you time to decide till I have smoked out my
+      pipe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The poor dog did not take so long to consider. &ldquo;It is true,&rdquo; thought he,
+      &ldquo;that it is a great misfortune to live in a cave with a griffin of so
+      unpleasant a countenance; but, probably, if I serve him well and
+      faithfully, he&rsquo;ll take pity on me some day, and let me go back to earth,
+      and prove to my cousin what a rogue the fox is; and as to the rest, though
+      I would sell my life as dear as I could, it is impossible to fight a
+      griffin with a mouth of so monstrous a size.&rdquo; In short, he decided to stay
+      with the griffin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shake a paw on it,&rdquo; quoth the grim smoker; and the dog shook paws.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now,&rdquo; said the griffin, &ldquo;I will tell you what you are to do. Look
+      here,&rdquo; and moving his tail, he showed the dog a great heap of gold and
+      silver, in a hole in the ground, that he had covered with the folds of his
+      tail; and also, what the dog thought more valuable, a great heap of bones
+      of very tempting appearance. &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; said the griffin, &ldquo;during the day I
+      can take very good care of these myself; but at night it is very necessary
+      that I should go to sleep, so when I sleep you must watch over them
+      instead of me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well,&rdquo; said the dog. &ldquo;As to the gold and silver, I have no
+      objection; but I would much rather that you would lock up the bones, for
+      I&rsquo;m often hungry of a night, and&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hold your tongue,&rdquo; said the griffin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, sir,&rdquo; said the dog, after a short silence, &ldquo;surely nobody ever comes
+      into so retired a situation! Who are the thieves, if I may make bold to
+      ask?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Know,&rdquo; answered the griffin, &ldquo;that there are a great many serpents in
+      this neighbourhood. They are always trying to steal my treasure; and if
+      they catch me napping, they, not contented with theft, would do their best
+      to sting me to death. So that I am almost worn out for want of sleep.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; quoth the dog, who was fond of a good night&rsquo;s rest, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t envy
+      you your treasure, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At night, the griffin, who had a great deal of penetration, and saw that
+      he might depend on the dog, lay down to sleep in another corner of the
+      cave; and the dog, shaking himself well, so as to be quite awake, took
+      watch over the treasure. His mouth watered exceedingly at the bones, and
+      he could not help smelling them now and then; but he said to himself, &ldquo;A
+      bargain&rsquo;s a bargain, and since I have promised to serve the griffin, I
+      must serve him as an honest dog ought to serve.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In the middle of the night he saw a great snake creeping in by the side of
+      the cave; but the dog set up so loud a bark that the griffin awoke, and
+      the snake crept away as fast as he could. Then the griffin was very much
+      pleased, and he gave the dog one of the bones to amuse himself with; and
+      every night the dog watched the treasure, and acquitted himself so well
+      that not a snake, at last, dared to make its appearance,&mdash;so the
+      griffin enjoyed an excellent night&rsquo;s rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dog now found himself much more comfortable than he expected. The
+      griffin regularly gave him one of the bones for supper; and, pleased with
+      his fidelity, made himself as agreeable a master as a griffin could be.
+      Still, however, the dog was secretly very anxious to return to earth; for
+      having nothing to do during the day but to doze on the ground, he dreamed
+      perpetually of his cousin the cat&rsquo;s charms, and, in fancy, he gave the
+      rascal Reynard as hearty a worry as a fox may well have the honour of
+      receiving from a dog&rsquo;s paws. He awoke panting; alas! he could not realize
+      his dreams.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One night, as he was watching as usual over the treasure, he was greatly
+      surprised to see a beautiful little black and white dog enter the cave;
+      and it came fawning to our honest friend, wagging its tail with pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, little one,&rdquo; said our dog, whom, to distinguish, I will call the
+      watch-dog, &ldquo;you had better make the best of your way back again. See,
+      there is a great griffin asleep in the other corner of the cave, and if he
+      wakes, he will either eat you up or make you his servant, as he has made
+      me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know what you would tell me,&rdquo; says the little dog; &ldquo;and I have come
+      down here to deliver you. The stone is now gone from the mouth of the
+      cave, and you have nothing to do but to go back with me. Come, brother,
+      come.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The dog was very much excited by this address. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t ask me, my dear
+      little friend,&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;you must be aware that I should be too happy to
+      escape out of this cold cave, and roll on the soft turf once more: but if
+      I leave my master, the griffin, those cursed serpents, who are always on
+      the watch, will come in and steal his treasure,&mdash;nay, perhaps, sting
+      him to death.&rdquo; Then the little dog came up to the watch-dog, and
+      remonstrated with him greatly, and licked him caressingly on both sides of
+      his face; and, taking him by the ear, endeavoured to draw him from the
+      treasure: but the dog would not stir a step, though his heart sorely
+      pressed him. At length the little dog, finding it all in vain, said,
+      &ldquo;Well, then, if I must leave, good-by; but I have become so hungry in
+      coming down all this way after you, that I wish you would give me one of
+      those bones; they smell very pleasantly, and one out of so many could
+      never be missed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas!&rdquo; said the watchdog, with tears in his eyes, &ldquo;how unlucky I am to
+      have eaten up the bone my master gave me, otherwise you should have had it
+      and welcome. But I can&rsquo;t give you one of these, because my master has made
+      me promise to watch over them all, and I have given him my paw on it. I am
+      sure a dog of your respectable appearance will say nothing further on the
+      subject.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the little dog answered pettishly, &ldquo;Pooh, what nonsense you talk!
+      surely a great griffin can&rsquo;t miss a little bone fit for me?&rdquo; and nestling
+      his nose under the watch-dog, he tried forthwith to bring up one of the
+      bones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On this the watch-dog grew angry, and, though with much reluctance, he
+      seized the little dog by the nape of the neck and threw him off, but
+      without hurting him. Suddenly the little dog changed into a monstrous
+      serpent, bigger even than the griffin himself, and the watch-dog barked
+      with all his might. The griffin rose in a great hurry, and the serpent
+      sprang upon him ere he was well awake. I wish, dearest Nymphalin, you
+      could have seen the battle between the griffin and the serpent,&mdash;how
+      they coiled and twisted, and bit and darted their fiery tongues at each
+      other. At length the serpent got uppermost, and was about to plunge his
+      tongue into that part of the griffin which is unprotected by his scales,
+      when the dog, seizing him by the tail, bit him so sharply that he could
+      not help turning round to kill his new assailant, and the griffin, taking
+      advantage of the opportunity, caught the serpent by the throat with both
+      claws, and fairly strangled him. As soon as the griffin had recovered from
+      the nervousness of the conflict, he heaped all manner of caresses on the
+      dog for saving his life. The dog told him the whole story, and the griffin
+      then explained that the dead snake was the king of the serpents, who had
+      the power to change himself into any shape he pleased. &ldquo;If he had tempted
+      you,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;to leave the treasure but for one moment, or to have given
+      him any part of it, ay, but a single bone, he would have crushed you in an
+      instant, and stung me to death ere I could have waked; but none, no, not
+      the most venomous thing in creation, has power to hurt the honest!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That has always been my belief,&rdquo; answered the dog; &ldquo;and now, sir, you had
+      better go to sleep again and leave the rest to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; answered the griffin, &ldquo;I have no longer need of a servant; for now
+      that the king of the serpents is dead, the rest will never molest me. It
+      was only to satisfy his avarice that his subjects dared to brave the den
+      of the griffin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Upon hearing this the dog was exceedingly delighted; and raising himself
+      on his hind paws, he begged the griffin most movingly to let him return to
+      earth, to visit his mistress the cat, and worry his rival the fox.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You do not serve an ungrateful master,&rdquo; answered the griffin. &ldquo;You shall
+      return, and I will teach you all the craft of our race, which is much
+      craftier than the race of that pettifogger the fox, so that you may be
+      able to cope with your rival.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, excuse me,&rdquo; said the dog, hastily, &ldquo;I am equally obliged to you; but
+      I fancy honesty is a match for cunning any day, and I think myself a great
+      deal safer in being a dog of honour than if I knew all the tricks in the
+      world.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said the griffin, a little piqued at the dog&rsquo;s bluntness, &ldquo;do as
+      you please; I wish you all possible success.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the griffin opened a secret door in the side of the cabin, and the
+      dog saw a broad path that led at once into the wood. He thanked the
+      griffin with all his heart, and ran wagging his tail into the open
+      moonlight. &ldquo;Ah, ah, master fox,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;there&rsquo;s no trap for an honest
+      dog that has not two doors to it, cunning as you think yourself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With that he curled his tail gallantly over his left leg, and set off on a
+      long trot to the cat&rsquo;s house. When he was within sight of it, he stopped
+      to refresh himself by a pool of water, and who should be there but our
+      friend the magpie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what do <i>you</i> want, friend?&rdquo; said she, rather disdainfully, for
+      the dog looked somewhat out of case after his journey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am going to see my cousin the cat,&rdquo; answered he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;<i>Your cousin</i>! marry come up,&rdquo; said the magpie; &ldquo;don&rsquo;t you know she
+      is going to be married to Reynard the fox? This is not a time for her to
+      receive the visits of a brute like you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      These words put the dog in such a passion that he very nearly bit the
+      magpie for her uncivil mode of communicating such bad news. However, he
+      curbed his temper, and, without answering her, went at once to the cat&rsquo;s
+      residence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cat was sitting at the window, and no sooner did the dog see her than
+      he fairly lost his heart; never had he seen so charming a cat before. He
+      advanced, wagging his tail, and with his most insinuating air, when the
+      cat, getting up, clapped the window in his face, and lo! Reynard the fox
+      appeared in her stead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come out, thou rascal!&rdquo; said the dog, showing his teeth; &ldquo;come out, I
+      challenge thee to single combat; I have not forgiven thy malice, and thou
+      seest that I am no longer shut up in the cave, and unable to punish thee
+      for thy wickedness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go home, silly one!&rdquo; answered the fox, sneering; &ldquo;thou hast no business
+      here, and as for fighting thee&mdash;bah!&rdquo; Then the fox left the window
+      and disappeared. But the dog, thoroughly enraged, scratched lustily at the
+      door, and made such a noise, that presently the cat herself came to the
+      window.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How now!&rdquo; said she, angrily; &ldquo;what means all this rudeness? Who are you,
+      and what do you want at my house?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, my dear cousin,&rdquo; said the dog, &ldquo;do not speak so severely. Know that I
+      have come here on purpose to pay you a visit; and, whatever you do, let me
+      beseech you not to listen to that villain Reynard,&mdash;you have no
+      conception what a rogue he is!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What!&rdquo; said the cat, blushing; &ldquo;do you dare to abuse your betters in this
+      fashion? I see you have a design on me. Go, this instant, or&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Enough, madam,&rdquo; said the dog, proudly; &ldquo;you need not speak twice to me,&mdash;farewell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And he turned away very slowly, and went under a tree, where he took up
+      his lodgings for the night. But the next morning there was an amazing
+      commotion in the neighbourhood; a stranger, of a very different style of
+      travelling from that of the dog, had arrived at the dead of the night, and
+      fixed his abode in a large cavern hollowed out of a steep rock. The noise
+      he had made in flying through the air was so great that it had awakened
+      every bird and beast in the parish; and Reynard, whose bad conscience
+      never suffered him to sleep very soundly, putting his head out of the
+      window, perceived, to his great alarm, that the stranger was nothing less
+      than a monstrous griffin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the griffins are the richest beasts in the world; and that&rsquo;s the
+      reason they keep so close under ground. Whenever it does happen that they
+      pay a visit above, it is not a thing to be easily forgotten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The magpie was all agitation. What could the griffin possibly want there?
+      She resolved to take a peep at the cavern, and accordingly she hopped
+      timorously up the rock, and pretended to be picking up sticks for her
+      nest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Holla, ma&rsquo;am!&rdquo; cried a very rough voice, and she saw the griffin putting
+      his head out of the cavern. &ldquo;Holla! you are the very lady I want to see;
+      you know all the people about here, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All the best company, your lordship, I certainly do,&rdquo; answered the
+      magpie, dropping a courtesy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upon this the griffin walked out; and smoking his pipe leisurely in the
+      open air, in order to set the pie at her ease, continued,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are there any respectable beasts of good families settled in this
+      neighbourhood?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, most elegant society, I assure your lordship,&rdquo; cried the pie. &ldquo;I have
+      lived here myself these ten years, and the great heiress, the cat yonder,
+      attracts a vast number of strangers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Humph! heiress, indeed! much you know about heiresses!&rdquo; said the griffin.
+      &ldquo;There is only one heiress in the world, and that&rsquo;s my daughter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bless me! has your lordship a family? I beg you a thousand pardons; but I
+      only saw your lordship&rsquo;s own equipage last night, and did not know you
+      brought any one with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My daughter went first, and was safely lodged before I arrived. She did
+      not disturb you, I dare say, as I did; for she sails along like a swan:
+      but I have got the gout in my left claw, and that&rsquo;s the reason I puff and
+      groan so in taking a journey.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall I drop in upon Miss Griffin, and see how she is after her journey?&rdquo;
+       said the pie, advancing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank you, no. I don&rsquo;t intend her to be seen while I stay here,&mdash;it
+      unsettles her; and I&rsquo;m afraid of the young beasts running away with her if
+      they once heard how handsome she was: she&rsquo;s the living picture of me, but
+      she&rsquo;s monstrous giddy! Not that I should care much if she did go off with
+      a beast of degree, were I not obliged to pay her portion, which is
+      prodigious; and I don&rsquo;t like parting with money, ma&rsquo;am, when I&rsquo;ve once got
+      it. Ho, ho, ho!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are too witty, my lord. But if you refused your consent?&rdquo; said the
+      pie, anxious to know the whole family history of so grand a seigneur.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should have to pay the dowry all the same. It was left her by her uncle
+      the dragon. But don&rsquo;t let this go any further.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your lordship may depend on my secrecy. I wish your lordship a very good
+      morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Away flew the pie, and she did not stop till she got to the cat&rsquo;s house.
+      The cat and the fox were at breakfast, and the fox had his paw on his
+      heart. &ldquo;Beautiful scene!&rdquo; cried the pie; the cat coloured, and bade the
+      pie take a seat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then off went the pie&rsquo;s tongue, glib, glib, glib, chatter, chatter,
+      chatter. She related to them the whole story of the griffin and his
+      daughter, and a great deal more besides, that the griffin had never told
+      her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cat listened attentively. Another young heiress in the neighbourhood
+      might be a formidable rival. &ldquo;But is this griffiness handsome?&rdquo; said she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Handsome!&rdquo; cried the pie; &ldquo;oh, if you could have seen the father!&mdash;such
+      a mouth, such eyes, such a complexion; and he declares she&rsquo;s the living
+      picture of himself! But what do you say, Mr. Reynard,&mdash;you, who have
+      been so much in the world, have, perhaps, seen the young lady?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, I can&rsquo;t say I have,&rdquo; answered the fox, waking from a revery; &ldquo;but
+      she must be wonderfully rich. I dare say that fool the dog will be making
+      up to her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, by the way,&rdquo; said the pie, &ldquo;what a fuss he made at your door
+      yesterday; why would you not admit him, my dear?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh,&rdquo; said the cat, demurely, &ldquo;Mr. Reynard says that he is a dog of very
+      bad character, quite a fortune-hunter; and hiding the most dangerous
+      disposition to bite under an appearance of good nature. I hope he won&rsquo;t be
+      quarrelsome with you, dear Reynard!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With me? Oh, the poor wretch, no!&mdash;he might bluster a little; but he
+      knows that if I&rsquo;m once angry I&rsquo;m a devil at biting;&mdash;one should not
+      boast of oneself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In the evening Reynard felt a strange desire to go and see the griffin
+      smoking his pipe; but what could he do? There was the dog under the
+      opposite tree evidently watching for him, and Reynard had no wish to prove
+      himself that devil at biting which he declared he was. At last he resolved
+      to have recourse to stratagem to get rid of the dog.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A young buck of a rabbit, a sort of provincial fop, had looked in upon his
+      cousin the cat, to pay her his respects, and Reynard, taking him aside,
+      said, &ldquo;You see that shabby-looking dog under the tree? He has behaved very
+      ill to your cousin the cat, and you certainly ought to challenge him.
+      Forgive my boldness, nothing but respect for your character induces me to
+      take so great a liberty; you know I would chastise the rascal myself, but
+      what a scandal it would make! If I were already married to your cousin, it
+      would be a different thing. But you know what a story that cursed magpie
+      would hatch out of it!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The rabbit looked very foolish; he assured the fox he was no match for the
+      dog; that he was very fond of his cousin, to be sure! but he saw no
+      necessity to interfere with her domestic affairs; and, in short, he tried
+      all he possibly could to get out of the scrape; but the fox so artfully
+      played on his vanity, so earnestly assured him that the dog was the
+      biggest coward in the world and would make a humble apology, and so
+      eloquently represented to him the glory he would obtain for manifesting so
+      much spirit, that at length the rabbit was persuaded to go out and deliver
+      the challenge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be your second,&rdquo; said the fox; &ldquo;and the great field on the other
+      side the wood, two miles hence, shall be the place of battle: there we
+      shall be out of observation. You go first, I&rsquo;ll follow in half an hour;
+      and I say, hark!&mdash;in case he does accept the challenge, and you feel
+      the least afraid, I&rsquo;ll be in the field, and take it off your paws with the
+      utmost pleasure; rely on <i>me</i>, my dear sir!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Away went the rabbit. The dog was a little astonished at the temerity of
+      the poor creature; but on hearing that the fox was to be present,
+      willingly consented to repair to the place of conflict. This readiness the
+      rabbit did not at all relish; he went very slowly to the field, and seeing
+      no fox there, his heart misgave him; and while the dog was putting his
+      nose to the ground to try if he could track the coming of the fox, the
+      rabbit slipped into a burrow, and left the dog to walk back again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile the fox was already at the rock; he walked very soft-footedly,
+      and looked about with extreme caution, for he had a vague notion that a
+      griffin-papa would not be very civil to foxes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now there were two holes in the rock,&mdash;one below, one above, an upper
+      story and an under; and while the fox was peering about, he saw a great
+      claw from the upper rock beckoning to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, ah!&rdquo; said the fox, &ldquo;that&rsquo;s the wanton young griffiness, I&rsquo;ll swear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He approached, and a voice said,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Charming Mr. Reynard, do you not think you could deliver an unfortunate
+      griffiness from a barbarous confinement in this rock?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, heavens!&rdquo; cried the fox, tenderly, &ldquo;what a beautiful voice! and, ah,
+      my poor heart, what a lovely claw! Is it possible that I hear the daughter
+      of my lord, the great griffin?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush, flatterer! not so loud, if you please. My father is taking an
+      evening stroll, and is very quick of hearing. He has tied me up by my poor
+      wings in the cavern, for he is mightily afraid of some beast running away
+      with me. You know I have all my fortune settled on myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Talk not of fortune,&rdquo; said the fox; &ldquo;but how can I deliver you? Shall I
+      enter and gnaw the cord?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas!&rdquo; answered the griffiness, &ldquo;it is an immense chain I am bound with.
+      However, you may come in and talk more at your ease.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The fox peeped cautiously all round, and seeing no sign of the griffin, he
+      entered the lower cave and stole upstairs to the upper story; but as he
+      went on, he saw immense piles of jewels and gold, and all sorts of
+      treasure, so that the old griffin might well have laughed at the poor cat
+      being called an heiress. The fox was greatly pleased at such indisputable
+      signs of wealth, and he entered the upper cave, resolved to be transported
+      with the charms of the griffiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was, however, a great chasm between the landing-place and the spot
+      where the young lady was chained, and he found it impossible to pass; the
+      cavern was very dark, but he saw enough of the figure of the griffiness to
+      perceive, in spite of her petticoat, that she was the image of her father,
+      and the most hideous heiress that the earth ever saw!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, he swallowed his disgust, and poured forth such a heap of
+      compliments that the griffiness appeared entirely won.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He implored her to fly with him the first moment she was unchained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is impossible,&rdquo; said she; &ldquo;for my father never unchains me except in
+      his presence, and then I cannot stir out of his sight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The wretch!&rdquo; cried Reynard, &ldquo;what is to be done?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, there is only one thing I know of,&rdquo; answered the griffiness, &ldquo;which
+      is this: I always make his soup for him, and if I could mix something in
+      it that would put him fast to sleep before he had time to chain me up
+      again I might slip down and carry off all the treasure below on my back.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Charming!&rdquo; exclaimed Reynard; &ldquo;what invention! what wit! I will go and
+      get some poppies directly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas!&rdquo; said the griffiness, &ldquo;poppies have no effect upon griffins. The
+      only thing that can ever put my father fast to sleep is a nice young cat
+      boiled up in his soup; it is astonishing what a charm that has upon him!
+      But where to get a cat?&mdash;it must be a maiden cat too!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Reynard was a little startled at so singular an opiate. &ldquo;But,&rdquo; thought he,
+      &ldquo;griffins are not like the rest of the world, and so rich an heiress is
+      not to be won by ordinary means.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do know a cat,&mdash;a maiden cat,&rdquo; said he, after a short pause; &ldquo;but
+      I feel a little repugnance at the thought of having her boiled in the
+      griffin&rsquo;s soup. Would not a dog do as well?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, base thing!&rdquo; said the griffiness, appearing to weep; &ldquo;you are in love
+      with the cat, I see it; go and marry her, poor dwarf that she is, and
+      leave me to die of grief.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In vain the fox protested that he did not care a straw for the cat;
+      nothing could now appease the griffiness but his positive assurance that
+      come what would poor puss should be brought to the cave and boiled for the
+      griffin&rsquo;s soup.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how will you get her here?&rdquo; said the griffiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, leave that to me,&rdquo; said Reynard. &ldquo;Only put a basket out of the window
+      and draw it up by a cord; the moment it arrives at the window, be sure to
+      clap your claw on the cat at once, for she is terribly active.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tush!&rdquo; answered the heiress; &ldquo;a pretty griffiness I should be if I did
+      not know how to catch a cat!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this must be when your father is out?&rdquo; said Reynard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly; he takes a stroll every evening at sunset.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let it be to-morrow, then,&rdquo; said Reynard, impatient for the treasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This being arranged, Reynard thought it time to decamp. He stole down the
+      stairs again, and tried to filch some of the treasure by the way; but it
+      was too heavy for him to carry, and he was forced to acknowledge to
+      himself that it was impossible to get the treasure without taking the
+      griffiness (whose back seemed prodigiously strong) into the bargain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He returned home to the cat, and when he entered her house, and saw how
+      ordinary everything looked after the jewels in the griffin&rsquo;s cave, he
+      quite wondered how he had ever thought the cat had the least pretensions
+      to good looks. However, he concealed his wicked design, and his mistress
+      thought he had never appeared so amiable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only guess,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;where I have been!&mdash;to our new neighbour the
+      griffin; a most charming person, thoroughly affable, and quite the air of
+      the court. As for that silly magpie, the griffin saw her character at
+      once; and it was all a hoax about his daughter,&mdash;he has no daughter
+      at all. You know, my dear, hoaxing is a fashionable amusement among the
+      great. He says he has heard of nothing but your beauty, and on my telling
+      him we were going to be married, he has insisted upon giving a great ball
+      and supper in honour of the event. In fact, he is a gallant old fellow,
+      and dying to see you. Of course, I was obliged to accept the invitation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You could not do otherwise,&rdquo; said the unsuspecting young creature, who,
+      as I before said, was very susceptible to flattery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And only think how delicate his attentions are,&rdquo; said the fox. &ldquo;As he is
+      very badly lodged for a beast of his rank, and his treasure takes up the
+      whole of the ground floor, he is forced to give the <i>fete</i> in the
+      upper story, so he hangs out a basket for his guests, and draws them up
+      with his own claw. How condescending! But the great <i>are</i> so
+      amiable!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The cat, brought up in seclusion, was all delight at the idea of seeing
+      such high life, and the lovers talked of nothing else all the next day,&mdash;when
+      Reynard, towards evening, putting his head out of the window, saw his old
+      friend the dog lying as usual and watching him very grimly. &ldquo;Ah, that
+      cursed creature! I had quite forgotten him; what is to be done now? He
+      would make no bones of me if he once saw me set foot out of doors.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With that, the fox began to cast in his head how he should get rid of his
+      rival, and at length he resolved on a very notable project; he desired the
+      cat to set out first, and wait for him at a turn in the road a little way
+      off. &ldquo;For,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;if we go together we shall certainly be insulted by
+      the dog; and he will know that in the presence of a lady, the custom of a
+      beast of my fashion will not suffer me to avenge the affront. But when I
+      am alone, the creature is such a coward that he will not dare say his
+      soul&rsquo;s his own; leave the door open and I&rsquo;ll follow immediately.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The cat&rsquo;s mind was so completely poisoned against her cousin that she
+      implicitly believed this account of his character; and accordingly, with
+      many recommendations to her lover not to sully his dignity by getting into
+      any sort of quarrel with the dog, she set off first.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dog went up to her very humbly, and begged her to allow him to say a
+      few words to her; but she received him so haughtily, that his spirit was
+      up; and he walked back to the tree more than ever enraged against his
+      rival. But what was his joy when he saw that the cat had left the door
+      open! &ldquo;Now, wretch,&rdquo; thought he, &ldquo;you cannot escape me!&rdquo; So he walked
+      briskly in at the back door. He was greatly surprised to find Reynard
+      lying down in the straw, panting as if his heart would break, and rolling
+      his eyes in the pangs of death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, friend,&rdquo; said the fox, with a faltering voice, &ldquo;you are avenged, my
+      hour is come; I am just going to give up the ghost: put your paw upon
+      mine, and say you forgive me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Despite his anger, the generous dog could not set tooth on a dying foe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have served me a shabby trick,&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;you have left me to starve
+      in a hole, and you have evidently maligned me with my cousin: certainly I
+      meant to be avenged on you; but if you are really dying, that alters the
+      affair.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, oh!&rdquo; groaned the fox, very bitterly; &ldquo;I am past help; the poor cat is
+      gone for Doctor Ape, but he&rsquo;ll never come in time. What a thing it is to
+      have a bad conscience on one&rsquo;s death-bed! But wait till the cat returns,
+      and I&rsquo;ll do you full justice with her before I die.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The good-natured dog was much moved at seeing his mortal enemy in such a
+      state, and endeavoured as well as he could to console him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, oh!&rdquo; said the fox; &ldquo;I am so parched in the throat, I am burning;&rdquo; and
+      he hung his tongue out of his mouth, and rolled his eyes more fearfully
+      than ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is there no water here?&rdquo; said the dog, looking round.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas, no!&mdash;yet stay! yes, now I think of it, there is some in that
+      little hole in the wall; but how to get at it! It is so high that I can&rsquo;t,
+      in my poor weak state, climb up to it; and I dare not ask such a favour of
+      one I have injured so much.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t talk of it,&rdquo; said the dog: &ldquo;but the hole&rsquo;s very small, I could not
+      put my nose through it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; but if you just climb up on that stone, and thrust your paw into the
+      hole, you can dip it into the water, and so cool my poor parched mouth.
+      Oh, what a thing it is to have a bad conscience!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The dog sprang upon the stone, and, getting on his hind legs, thrust his
+      front paw into the hole; when suddenly Reynard pulled a string that he had
+      concealed under the straw, and the dog found his paw caught tight to the
+      wall in a running noose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, rascal!&rdquo; said he, turning round; but the fox leaped up gayly from the
+      straw, and fastening the string with his teeth to a nail in the other end
+      of the wall, walked out, crying, &ldquo;Good-by, my dear friend; have a care how
+      you believe hereafter in sudden conversions!&rdquo; So he left the dog on his
+      hind legs to take care of the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Reynard found the cat waiting for him where he had appointed, and they
+      walked lovingly together till they came to the cave. It was now dark, and
+      they saw the basket waiting below; the fox assisted the poor cat into it.
+      &ldquo;There is only room for one,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;you must go first!&rdquo; Up rose the
+      basket; the fox heard a piteous mew, and no more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So much for the griffin&rsquo;s soup!&rdquo; thought he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He waited patiently for some time, when the griffiness, waving her claw
+      from the window, said cheerfully, &ldquo;All&rsquo;s right, my dear Reynard; my papa
+      has finished his soup, and sleeps as sound as a rock! All the noise in the
+      world would not wake him now, till he has slept off the boiled cat, which
+      won&rsquo;t be these twelve hours. Come and assist me in packing up the
+      treasure; I should be sorry to leave a single diamond behind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So should I,&rdquo; quoth the fox. &ldquo;Stay, I&rsquo;ll come round by the lower hole:
+      why, the door&rsquo;s shut! pray, beautiful griffiness, open it to thy impatient
+      adorer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas, my father has hid the key! I never know where he places it. You
+      must come up by the basket; see, I will lower it for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The fox was a little loth to trust himself in the same conveyance that had
+      taken his mistress to be boiled; but the most cautious grow rash when
+      money&rsquo;s to be gained, and avarice can trap even a fox. So he put himself
+      as comfortably as he could into the basket, and up he went in an instant.
+      It rested, however, just before it reached the window, and the fox felt,
+      with a slight shudder, the claw of the griffiness stroking his back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, what a beautiful coat!&rdquo; quoth she, caressingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are too kind,&rdquo; said the fox; &ldquo;but you can feel it more at your
+      leisure when I am once up. Make haste, I beseech you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, what a beautiful bushy tail! Never did I feel such a tail.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is entirely at your service, sweet griffiness,&rdquo; said the fox; &ldquo;but
+      pray let me in. Why lose an instant?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, never did I feel such a tail! No wonder you are so successful with
+      the ladies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, beloved griffiness, my tail is yours to eternity, but you pinch it a
+      little too hard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Scarcely had he said this, when down dropped the basket, but not with the
+      fox in it; he found himself caught by the tail, and dangling half way down
+      the rock, by the help of the very same sort of pulley wherewith he had
+      snared the dog. I leave you to guess his consternation; he yelped out as
+      loud as he could,&mdash;for it hurts a fox exceedingly to be hanged by his
+      tail with his head downwards,&mdash;when the door of the rock opened, and
+      out stalked the griffin himself, smoking his pipe, with a vast crowd of
+      all the fashionable beasts in the neighbourhood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oho, brother,&rdquo; said the bear, laughing fit to kill himself; &ldquo;who ever saw
+      a fox hanged by the tail before?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll have need of a physician,&rdquo; quoth Doctor Ape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A pretty match, indeed; a griffiness for such a creature as you!&rdquo; said
+      the goat, strutting by him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fox grinned with pain, and said nothing. But that which hurt him most
+      was the compassion of a dull fool of a donkey, who assured him with great
+      gravity that he saw nothing at all to laugh at in his situation!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At all events,&rdquo; said the fox, at last, &ldquo;cheated, gulled, betrayed as I
+      am, I have played the same trick to the dog. Go and laugh at him,
+      gentlemen; he deserves it as much as I can, I assure you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pardon me,&rdquo; said the griffin, taking the pipe out of his mouth; &ldquo;one
+      never laughs at the honest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And see,&rdquo; said the bear, &ldquo;here he is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And indeed the dog had, after much effort, gnawed the string in two, and
+      extricated his paw; the scent of the fox had enabled him to track his
+      footsteps, and here he arrived, burning for vengeance and finding himself
+      already avenged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But his first thought was for his dear cousin. &ldquo;Ah, where is she?&rdquo; he
+      cried movingly; &ldquo;without doubt that villain Reynard has served her some
+      scurvy trick.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fear so indeed, my old friend,&rdquo; answered the griffin; &ldquo;but don&rsquo;t
+      grieve,&mdash;after all, she was nothing particular. You shall marry my
+      daughter the griffiness, and succeed to all the treasure; ay, and all the
+      bones that you once guarded so faithfully.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Talk not to me,&rdquo; said the faithful dog. &ldquo;I want none of your treasure;
+      and, though I don&rsquo;t mean to be rude, your griffiness may go to the devil.
+      I will run over the world, but I will find my dear cousin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See her then,&rdquo; said the griffin; and the beautiful cat, more beautiful
+      than ever, rushed out of the cavern, and threw herself into the dog&rsquo;s
+      paws.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A pleasant scene this for the fox! He had skill enough in the female heart
+      to know that it may excuse many little infidelities, but to be boiled
+      alive for a griffin&rsquo;s soup&mdash;no, the offence was inexpiable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You understand me, Mr. Reynard,&rdquo; said the griffin, &ldquo;I have no daughter,
+      and it was me you made love to. Knowing what sort of a creature a magpie
+      is, I amused myself with hoaxing her,&mdash;the fashionable amusement at
+      court, you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The fox made a mighty struggle, and leaped on the ground, leaving his tail
+      behind him. It did not grow again in a hurry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See,&rdquo; said the griffin, as the beasts all laughed at the figure Reynard
+      made running into the wood, &ldquo;the dog beats the fox with the ladies, after
+      all; and cunning as he is in everything else, the fox is the last creature
+      that should ever think of making love!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Charming!&rdquo; cried Nymphalin, clasping her hands; &ldquo;it is just the sort of
+      story I like.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I suppose, sir,&rdquo; said Nip, pertly, &ldquo;that the dog and the cat lived
+      very happily ever afterwards? Indeed the nuptial felicity of a dog and cat
+      is proverbial!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I dare say they lived much the same as any other married couple,&rdquo;
+       answered the prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIII. THE TOMB OF A FATHER OF MANY CHILDREN.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE feast being now ended, as well as the story, the fairies wound their
+      way homeward by a different path, till at length a red steady light glowed
+      through the long basaltic arches upon them, like the Demon Hunters&rsquo; fires
+      in the Forest of Pines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The prince sobered in his pace. &ldquo;You approach,&rdquo; said he, in a grave tone,
+      &ldquo;the greatest of our temples; you will witness the tomb of a mighty
+      founder of our race!&rdquo; An awe crept over the queen, in spite of herself.
+      Tracking the fires in silence, they came to a vast space, in the midst of
+      which was a long gray block of stone, such as the traveller finds amidst
+      the dread silence of Egyptian Thebes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And on this stone lay the gigantic figure of a man,&mdash;dead, but not
+      death-like, for invisible spells had preserved the flesh and the long hair
+      for untold ages; and beside him lay a rude instrument of music, and at his
+      feet was a sword and a hunter&rsquo;s spear; and above, the rock wound, hollowed
+      and roofless, to the upper air, and daylight came through, sickened and
+      pale, beneath red fires that burned everlastingly around him, on such
+      simple altars as belong to a savage race. But the place was not solitary,
+      for many motionless but not lifeless shapes sat on large blocks of stone
+      beside the tomb. There was the wizard, wrapped in his long black mantle,
+      and his face covered with his hands; there was the uncouth and deformed
+      dwarf, gibbering to himself; there sat the household elf; there glowered
+      from a gloomy rent in the wall, with glittering eyes and shining scale,
+      the enormous dragon of the North. An aged crone in rags, leaning on a
+      staff, and gazing malignantly on the visitors, with bleared but fiery
+      eyes, stood opposite the tomb of the gigantic dead. And now the fairies
+      themselves completed the group! But all was dumb and unutterably silent,&mdash;the
+      silence that floats over some antique city of the desert, when, for the
+      first time for a hundred centuries, a living foot enters its desolate
+      remains; the silence that belongs to the dust of eld,&mdash;deep, solemn,
+      palpable, and sinking into the heart with a leaden and death-like weight.
+      Even the English fairy spoke not; she held her breath, and gazing on the
+      tomb, she saw, in rude vast characters,&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     THE TEUTON.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;<i>We</i> are all that remain of his religion!&rdquo; said the prince, as they
+      turned from the dread temple.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIV. THE FAIRY&rsquo;S CAVE, AND THE FAIRY&rsquo;S WISH.
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      IT was evening; and the fairies were dancing beneath the twilight star.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why art thou sad, my violet?&rdquo; said the prince; &ldquo;for thine eyes seek
+      the ground!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now that I have found thee,&rdquo; answered the queen, &ldquo;and now that I feel
+      what happy love is to a fairy, I sigh over that love which I have lately
+      witnessed among mortals, but the bud of whose happiness already conceals
+      the worm. For well didst thou say, my prince, that we are linked with a
+      mysterious affinity to mankind, and whatever is pure and gentle amongst
+      them speaks at once to our sympathy, and commands our vigils.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And most of all,&rdquo; said the German fairy, &ldquo;are they who love under our
+      watch; for love is the golden chain that binds all in the universe: love
+      lights up alike the star and the glow-worm; and wherever there is love in
+      men&rsquo;s lot, lies the secret affinity with men, and with things divine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But with the human race,&rdquo; said Nymphalin, &ldquo;there is no love that outlasts
+      the hour, for either death ends, or custom alters. When the blossom comes
+      to fruit, it is plucked and seen no more; and therefore, when I behold
+      true love sentenced to an early grave, I comfort myself that I shall not
+      at least behold the beauty dimmed, and the softness of the heart hardened
+      into stone. Yet, my prince, while still the pulse can beat, and the warm
+      blood flow, in that beautiful form which I have watched over of late, let
+      me not desert her; still let my influence keep the sky fair, and the
+      breezes pure; still let me drive the vapour from the moon, and the clouds
+      from the faces of the stars; still let me fill her dreams with tender and
+      brilliant images, and glass in the mirror of sleep the happiest visions of
+      fairy-land; still let me pour over her eyes that magic, which suffers them
+      to see no fault in one in whom she has garnered up her soul! And as death
+      comes slowly on, still let me rob the spectre of its terror, and the grave
+      of its sting; so that, all gently and unconscious to herself, life may
+      glide into the Great Ocean where the shadows lie, and the spirit without
+      guile may be severed from its mansion without pain!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The wish of the fairy was fulfilled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XV. THE BANKS OF THE RHINE.&mdash;FROM THE DRACHENFELS TO BROHL.&mdash;AN
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      INCIDENT THAT SUFFICES IN THIS TALE FOR AN EPOCH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      FROM the Drachenfels commences the true glory of the Rhine; and once more
+      Gertrude&rsquo;s eyes conquered the languor that crept gradually over them as
+      she gazed on the banks around.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fair blew the breeze, and freshly curled the waters; and Gertrude did not
+      feel the vulture that had fixed its talons within her breast. The Rhine
+      widens, like a broad lake, between the Drachenfels and Unkel; villages are
+      scattered over the extended plain on the left; on the right is the Isle of
+      Werth and the houses of Oberwinter; the hills are covered with vines; and
+      still Gertrude turned back with a lingering gaze to the lofty crest of the
+      Seven Hills.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On, on&mdash;and the spires of Unkel rose above a curve in the banks, and
+      on the opposite shore stretched those wondrous basaltic columns which
+      extend to the middle of the river, and when the Rhine runs low, you may
+      see them like an engulfed city beneath the waves. You then view the ruins
+      of Okkenfels, and hear the voice of the pastoral Gasbach pouring its
+      waters into the Rhine. From amidst the clefts of the rocks the vine peeps
+      luxuriantly forth, and gives a richness and colouring to what Nature, left
+      to herself, intended for the stern.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But turn your eye backward to the right,&rdquo; said Trevylyan; &ldquo;those banks
+      were formerly the special haunt of the bold robbers of the Rhine, and from
+      amidst the entangled brakes that then covered the ragged cliffs they
+      rushed upon their prey. In the gloomy canvas of those feudal days what
+      vigorous and mighty images were crowded! A robber&rsquo;s life amidst these
+      mountains, and beside this mountain stream, must have been the very poetry
+      of the spot carried into action.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They rested at Brohl, a small town between two mountains. On the summit of
+      one you see the gray remains of Rheinech. There is something weird and
+      preternatural about the aspect of this place; its soil betrays signs that
+      in the former ages (from which even tradition is fast fading away) some
+      volcano here exhausted its fires. The stratum of the earth is black and
+      pitchy, and the springs beneath it are of a dark and graveolent water.
+      Here the stream of the Brohlbach falls into the Rhine, and in a valley
+      rich with oak and pine, and full of caverns, which are not without their
+      traditionary inmates, stands the castle of Schweppenbourg, which our party
+      failed not to visit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gertrude felt fatigued on their return, and Trevylyan sat by her in the
+      little inn, while Vane went forth, with the curiosity of science, to
+      examine the strata of the soil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They conversed in the frankness of their plighted troth upon those topics
+      which are only for lovers: upon the bright chapter in the history of their
+      love; their first meeting; their first impressions; the little incidents
+      in their present journey,&mdash;incidents noticed by themselves alone;
+      that life <i>within</i> life which two persons know together,&mdash;which
+      one knows not without the other, which ceases to both the instant they are
+      divided.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know not what the love of others may be,&rdquo; said Gertrude, &ldquo;but ours
+      seems different from all of which I have read. Books tell us of jealousies
+      and misconstructions, and the necessity of an absence, the sweetness of a
+      quarrel; but we, dearest Albert, have had no experience of these passages
+      in love. <i>We</i> have never misunderstood each other; <i>we</i> have no
+      reconciliation to look back to. When was there ever occasion for me to ask
+      forgiveness from you? Our love is made up only of one memory,&mdash;unceasing
+      kindness! A harsh word, a wronging thought, never broke in upon the
+      happiness we have felt and feel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dearest Gertrude,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, &ldquo;that character of our love is caught
+      from you; you, the soft, the gentle, have been its pervading genius; and
+      the well has been smooth and pure, for you were the spirit that lived
+      within its depths.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And to such talk succeeded silence still more sweet,&mdash;the silence of
+      the hushed and overflowing heart. The last voices of the birds, the sun
+      slowly sinking in the west, the fragrance of descending dews, filled them
+      with that deep and mysterious sympathy which exists between Love and
+      Nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was after such a silence&mdash;a long silence, that seemed but as a
+      moment&mdash;that Trevylyan spoke, but Gertrude answered not; and,
+      yearning once more for her sweet voice, he turned and saw that she had
+      fainted away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the first indication of the point to which her increasing
+      debility had arrived. Trevylyan&rsquo;s heart stood still, and then beat
+      violently; a thousand fears crept over him; he clasped her in his arms,
+      and bore her to the open window. The setting sun fell upon her
+      countenance, from which the play of the young heart and warm fancy had
+      fled, and in its deep and still repose the ravages of disease were darkly
+      visible. What were then his emotions! His heart was like stone; but he
+      felt a rush as of a torrent to his temples: his eyes grew dizzy,&mdash;he
+      was stunned by the greatness of his despair. For the last week he had
+      taken hope for his companion; Gertrude had seemed so much stronger, for
+      her happiness had given her a false support. And though there had been
+      moments when, watching the bright hectic come and go, and her step linger,
+      and the breath heave short, he had felt the hope suddenly cease, yet never
+      had he known till now that fulness of anguish, that dread certainty of the
+      worst, which the calm, fair face before him struck into his soul; and
+      mixed with this agony as he gazed was all the passion of the most ardent
+      love. For there she lay in his arms, the gentle breath rising from lips
+      where the rose yet lingered, and the long, rich hair, soft and silken as
+      an infant&rsquo;s, stealing from its confinement: everything that belonged to
+      Gertrude&rsquo;s beauty was so inexpressibly soft and pure and youthful!
+      Scarcely seventeen, she seemed much younger than she was; her figure had
+      sunken from its roundness, but still how light, how lovely were its
+      wrecks! the neck whiter than snow, the fair small hand! Her weight was
+      scarcely felt in the arms of her lover; and he&mdash;what a contrast!&mdash;was
+      in all the pride and flower of glorious manhood! His was the lofty brow,
+      the wreathing hair, the haughty eye, the elastic form; and upon this
+      frail, perishable thing had he fixed all his heart, all the hopes of his
+      youth, the pride of his manhood, his schemes, his energies, his ambition!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Gertrude!&rdquo; cried he, &ldquo;is it&mdash;is it thus&mdash;is there indeed no
+      hope?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Gertrude now slowly recovering, and opening her eyes upon Trevylyan&rsquo;s
+      face, the revulsion was so great, his emotions so overpowering, that,
+      clasping her to his bosom, as if even death should not tear her away from
+      him, he wept over her in an agony of tears; not those tears that relieve
+      the heart, but the fiery rain of the internal storm, a sign of the fierce
+      tumult that shook the very core of his existence, not a relief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Awakened to herself, Gertrude, in amazement and alarm, threw her arms
+      around his neck, and, looking wistfully into his face, implored him to
+      speak to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was it my illness, love?&rdquo; said she; and the music of her voice only
+      conveyed to him the thought of how soon it would be dumb to him forever.
+      &ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; she continued winningly, &ldquo;it was but the heat of the day; I am
+      better now,&mdash;I am well; there is no cause to be alarmed for me!&rdquo; and
+      with all the innocent fondness of extreme youth, she kissed the burning
+      tears from his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a playfulness, an innocence in this poor girl, so unconscious as
+      yet of her destiny, which rendered her fate doubly touching, and which to
+      the stern Trevylyan, hackneyed by the world, made her irresistible charm;
+      and now as she put aside her hair, and looked up gratefully, yet
+      pleadingly, into his face, he could scarce refrain from pouring out to her
+      the confession of his anguish and despair. But the necessity of
+      self-control, the necessity of concealing from <i>her</i> a knowledge
+      which might only, by impressing her imagination, expedite her doom, while
+      it would embitter to her mind the unconscious enjoyment of the hour,
+      nerved and manned him. He checked by those violent efforts which only men
+      can make, the evidence of his emotions; and endeavoured, by a rapid
+      torrent of words, to divert her attention from a weakness, the causes of
+      which he could not explain. Fortunately Vane soon returned, and Trevylyan,
+      consigning Gertrude to his care, hastily left the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gertrude sank into a revery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, dear father!&rdquo; said she, suddenly, and after a pause, &ldquo;if I indeed
+      were worse than I have thought myself of late, if I were to die now, what
+      would Trevylyan feel? Pray God I may live for his sake!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My child, do not talk thus; you are better, much better than you were.
+      Ere the autumn ends, Trevylyan&rsquo;s happiness will be your lawful care. Do
+      not think so despondently of yourself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought not of myself,&rdquo; sighed Gertrude, &ldquo;but of <i>him</i>!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVI. GERTRUDE.&mdash;THE EXCURSION TO HAMMERSTEIN.&mdash;THOUGHTS.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE next day they visited the environs of Brohl. Gertrude was unusually
+      silent; for her temper, naturally sunny and enthusiastic, was accustomed
+      to light up everything she saw. Ah, once how bounding was that step! how
+      undulating the young graces of that form! how playfully once danced the
+      ringlets on that laughing cheek! But she clung to Trevylyan&rsquo;s proud form
+      with a yet more endearing tenderness than was her wont, and hung yet more
+      eagerly on his words; her hand sought his, and she often pressed it to her
+      lips, and sighed as she did so. Something that she would not tell seemed
+      passing within her, and sobered her playful mood. But there was this
+      noticeable in Gertrude: whatever took away from her gayety increased her
+      tenderness. The infirmities of her frame never touched her temper. She was
+      kind, gentle, loving to the last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had crossed to the opposite banks, to visit the Castle of
+      Hammerstein. The evening was transparently serene and clear; and the
+      warmth of the sun yet lingered upon the air, even though the twilight had
+      passed and the moon risen, as their boat returned by a lengthened passage
+      to the village. Broad and straight flows the Rhine in this part of its
+      career. On one side lay the wooded village of Namedy, the hamlet of
+      Fornech, backed by the blue rock of Kruezborner Ley, the mountains that
+      shield the mysterious Brohl; and on the opposite shore they saw the mighty
+      rock of Hammerstein, with the green and livid ruins sleeping in the
+      melancholy moonlight. Two towers rose haughtily above the more dismantled
+      wrecks. How changed since the alternate banners of the Spaniard and the
+      Swede waved from their ramparts, in that great war in which the gorgeous
+      Wallenstein won his laurels! And in its mighty calm flowed on the
+      ancestral Rhine, the vessel reflected on its smooth expanse; and above,
+      girded by thin and shadowy clouds, the moon cast her shadows upon rocks
+      covered with verdure, and brought into a dim light the twin spires of
+      Andernach, tranquil in the distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How beautiful is this hour!&rdquo; said Gertrude, with a low voice, &ldquo;surely we
+      do not live enough in the night; one half the beauty of the world is slept
+      away. What in the day can equal the holy calm, the loveliness, and the
+      stillness which the moon now casts over the earth? These,&rdquo; she continued,
+      pressing Trevylyan&rsquo;s hand, &ldquo;are hours to remember; and <i>you</i>&mdash;will
+      you ever forget them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Something there is in recollections of such times and scenes that seem not
+      to belong to real life, but are rather an episode in its history; they are
+      like some wandering into a more ideal world; they refuse to blend with our
+      ruder associations; they live in us, apart and alone, to be treasured
+      ever, but not lightly to be recalled. There are none living to whom we can
+      confide them,&mdash;who can sympathize with what then we felt? It is this
+      that makes poetry, and that page which we create as a confidant to
+      ourselves, necessary to the thoughts that weigh upon the breast. We write,
+      for our writing is our friend, the inanimate paper is our confessional; we
+      pour forth on it the thoughts that we could tell to no private ear, and
+      are relieved, are consoled. And if genius has one prerogative dearer than
+      the rest, it is that which enables it to do honour to the dead,&mdash;to
+      revive the beauty, the virtue that are no more; to wreathe chaplets that
+      outlive the day around the urn which were else forgotten by the world!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the poet mourns, in his immortal verse, for the dead, tell me not
+      that fame is in his mind! It is filled by thoughts, by emotions that shut
+      out the living. He is breathing to his genius&mdash;to that sole and
+      constant friend which has grown up with him from his cradle&mdash;the
+      sorrows too delicate for human sympathy! and when afterwards he consigns
+      the confession to the crowd, it is indeed from the hope of honour&mdash;,
+      honour not for himself, but for the being that is no more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVII. LETTER FROM TREVYLYAN TO &mdash;&mdash;-.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                         COBLENTZ.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      I AM obliged to you, my dear friend, for your letter; which, indeed, I
+      have not, in the course of our rapid journey, had the leisure, perhaps the
+      heart, to answer before. But we are staying in this town for some days,
+      and I write now in the early morning, ere any one else in our hotel is
+      awake. Do not tell me of adventure, of politics, of intrigues; my nature
+      is altered. I threw down your letter, animated and brilliant as it was,
+      with a sick and revolted heart. But I am now in somewhat less dejected
+      spirits. Gertrude is better,&mdash;yes, really better; there is a
+      physician here who gives me hope; my care is perpetually to amuse, and
+      never to fatigue her,&mdash;never to permit her thoughts to rest upon
+      herself. For I have imagined that illness cannot, at least in the
+      unexhausted vigour of our years, fasten upon us irremediably unless we
+      feed it with our own belief in its existence. You see men of the most
+      delicate frames engaged in active and professional pursuits, who literally
+      have no time for illness. Let them become idle, let them take care of
+      themselves, let them think of their health&mdash;and they die! The rust
+      rots the steel which use preserves; and, thank Heaven, although Gertrude,
+      once during our voyage, seemed roused, by an inexcusable imprudence of
+      emotion on my part, into some suspicion of her state, yet it passed away;
+      for she thinks rarely of herself,&mdash;I am ever in her thoughts and
+      seldom from her side, and you know, too, the sanguine and credulous nature
+      of her disease. But, indeed, I now hope more than I have done since I knew
+      her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When, after an excited and adventurous life which had comprised so many
+      changes in so few years, I found myself at rest in the bosom of a retired
+      and remote part of the country, and Gertrude and her father were my only
+      neighbours, I was in that state of mind in which the passions, recruited
+      by solitude, are accessible to the purer and more divine emotions. I was
+      struck by Gertrude&rsquo;s beauty, I was charmed by her simplicity. Worn in the
+      usages and fashions of the world, the inexperience, the trustfulness, the
+      exceeding youth of her mind, charmed and touched me; but when I saw the
+      stamp of our national disease in her bright eye and transparent cheek, I
+      felt my love chilled while my interest was increased. I fancied myself
+      safe, and I went daily into the danger; I imagined so pure a light could
+      not burn, and I was consumed. Not till my anxiety grew into pain, my
+      interest into terror, did I know the secret of my own heart; and at the
+      moment that I discovered this secret, I discovered also that Gertrude
+      loved me! What a destiny was mine! what happiness, yet what misery!
+      Gertrude was my own&mdash;but for what period? I might touch that soft
+      hand, I might listen to the tenderest confession from that silver voice;
+      but all the while my heart spoke of passion, my reason whispered of death.
+      You know that I am considered of a cold and almost callous nature, that I
+      am not easily moved into affection; but my very pride bowed me here into
+      weakness. There was so soft a demand upon my protection, so constant an
+      appeal to my anxiety. You know that my father&rsquo;s quick temper burns within
+      me, that I am hot, and stern, and exacting; but one hasty word, one
+      thought of myself, here were inexcusable. So brief a time might be left
+      for her earthly happiness,&mdash;could I embitter one moment? All that
+      feeling of uncertainty which should in prudence have prevented my love,
+      increased it almost to a preternatural excess. That which it is said
+      mothers feel for an only child in sickness, I feel for Gertrude. <i>My</i>
+      existence is not!&mdash;I exist in her!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her illness increased upon her at home; they have recommended travel. She
+      chose the course we were to pursue, and, fortunately, it was so familiar
+      to me, that I have been enabled to brighten the way. I am ever on the
+      watch that she shall not know a weary hour; you would almost smile to see
+      how I have roused myself from my habitual silence, and to find me&mdash;me,
+      the scheming and worldly actor of real life&mdash;plunged back into the
+      early romance of my boyhood, and charming the childish delight of Gertrude
+      with the invention of fables and the traditions of the Rhine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But I believe that I have succeeded in my object; if not, what is left to
+      me? <i>Gertrude is better!</i>&mdash;In that sentence what visions of hope
+      dawn upon me! I wish you could have seen Gertrude before we left England;
+      you might then have understood my love for her. Not that we have not, in
+      the gay capitals of Europe, paid our brief vows to forms more richly
+      beautiful; not that we have not been charmed by a more brilliant genius,
+      by a more tutored grace. But there is that in Gertrude which I never saw
+      before,&mdash;the union of the childish and the intellectual, an ethereal
+      simplicity, a temper that is never dimmed, a tenderness&mdash;O God! let
+      me not speak of her virtues, for they only tell me how little she is
+      suited to the earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You will direct to me at Mayence, whither our course now leads us, and
+      your friendship will find indulgence for a letter that is so little a
+      reply to yours.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Your sincere friend,
+
+          A. G. TREVYLYAN.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVIII. COBLENTZ.&mdash;EXCURSION TO THE MOUNTAINS OF TAUNUS; ROMAN
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TOWER IN THE VALLEY OF EHRENBREITSTEIN.&mdash;TRAVEL, ITS PLEASURES
+      ESTIMATED DIFFERENTLY BY THE YOUNG AND THE OLD.&mdash;THE STUDENT OF
+      HEIDELBERG; HIS CRITICISMS ON GERMAN LITERATURE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      GERTRUDE had, indeed, apparently rallied during their stay at Coblentz;
+      and a French physician established in the town (who adopted a peculiar
+      treatment for consumption, which had been attended with no ordinary
+      success) gave her father and Trevylyan a sanguine assurance of her
+      ultimate recovery. The time they passed within the white walls of Coblentz
+      was, therefore, the happiest and most cheerful part of their pilgrimage.
+      They visited the various places in its vicinity; but the excursion which
+      most delighted Gertrude was one to the mountains of Taunus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They took advantage of a beautiful September day; and, crossing the river,
+      commenced their tour from the Thal, or valley of Ehrenbreitstein. They
+      stopped on their way to view the remains of a Roman tower in the valley;
+      for the whole of that district bears frequent witness of the ancient
+      conquerors of the world. The mountains of Taunus are still intersected
+      with the roads which the Romans cut to the mines that supplied them with
+      silver. Roman urns and inscribed stones are often found in these ancient
+      places. The stones, inscribed with names utterly unknown,&mdash;a type of
+      the uncertainty of fame! the urns, from which the dust is gone, a very
+      satire upon life!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lone, gray, and mouldering, this tower stands aloft in the valley; and the
+      quiet Vane smiled to see the uniform of a modern Prussian, with his white
+      belt and lifted bayonet, by the spot which had once echoed to the clang of
+      the Roman arms. The soldier was paying a momentary court to a country
+      damsel, whose straw hat and rustic dress did not stifle the vanity of the
+      sex; and this rude and humble gallantry, in that spot, was another moral
+      in the history of human passions. Above, the ramparts of a modern rule
+      frowned down upon the solitary tower, as if in the vain insolence with
+      which present power looks upon past decay,&mdash;the living race upon
+      ancestral greatness. And indeed, in this respect, rightly! for modern
+      times have no parallel to that degradation of human dignity stamped upon
+      the ancient world by the long sway of the Imperial Harlot, all slavery
+      herself, yet all tyranny to earth; and, like her own Messalina, at once a
+      prostitute and an empress!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They continued their course by the ancient baths of Ems, and keeping by
+      the banks of the romantic Lahn, arrived at Holzapfel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; said Gertrude, one day, as they proceeded to the springs of the
+      Carlovingian Wiesbaden, &ldquo;surely perpetual travel with those we love must
+      be the happiest state of existence! If home has its comforts, it also has
+      its cares; but here we are at home with Nature, and the minor evils vanish
+      almost before they are felt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, &ldquo;we escape from &lsquo;THE LITTLE,&rsquo; which is the curse
+      of life; the small cares that devour us up, the grievances of the day. We
+      are feeding the divinest part of our nature,&mdash;the appetite to
+      admire.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But of all things wearisome,&rdquo; said Vane, &ldquo;a succession of changes is the
+      most. There can be a monotony in variety itself. As the eye aches in
+      gazing long at the new shapes of the kaleidoscope, the mind aches at the
+      fatigue of a constant alternation of objects; and we delightedly return to
+      &lsquo;REST,&rsquo; which is to life what green is to the earth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In the course of their sojourn among the various baths of Taunus, they
+      fell in, by accident, with a German student of Heidelberg, who was
+      pursuing the pedestrian excursions so peculiarly favoured by his tribe. He
+      was tamer and gentler than the general herd of those young wanderers, and
+      our party were much pleased with his enthusiasm, because it was
+      unaffected. He had been in England, and spoke its language almost as a
+      native.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our literature,&rdquo; said he, one day, conversing with Vane, &ldquo;has two faults,&mdash;we
+      are too subtle and too homely. We do not speak enough to the broad
+      comprehension of mankind; we are forever making abstract qualities of
+      flesh and blood. Our critics have turned your &lsquo;Hamlet&rsquo; into an allegory;
+      they will not even allow Shakspeare to paint mankind, but insist on his
+      embodying qualities. They turn poetry into metaphysics, and truth seems to
+      them shallow, unless an allegory, which is false, can be seen at the
+      bottom. Again, too, with our most imaginative works we mix a homeliness
+      that we fancy touching, but which in reality is ludicrous. We eternally
+      step from the sublime to the ridiculous; we want taste.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But not, I hope, French taste. Do not govern a Goethe, or even a Richter,
+      by a Boileau!&rdquo; said Trevylyan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; but Boileau&rsquo;s taste was false. Men who have the reputation for good
+      taste often acquire it solely because of the want of genius. By taste I
+      mean a quick tact into the harmony of composition, the art of making the
+      whole consistent with its parts, the <i>concinnitas</i>. Schiller alone of
+      our authors has it. But we are fast mending; and by following shadows so
+      long we have been led at last to the substance. Our past literature is to
+      us what astrology was to science,&mdash;false but ennobling, and
+      conducting us to the true language of the intellectual heaven.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Another time the scenes they passed, interspersed with the ruins of
+      frequent monasteries, leading them to converse on the monastic life, and
+      the various additions time makes to religion, the German said: &ldquo;Perhaps
+      one of the works most wanted in the world is the history of Religion. We
+      have several books, it is true, on the subject, but none that supply the
+      want I allude to. A German ought to write it; for it is, probably, only a
+      German that would have the requisite learning. A German only, too, is
+      likely to treat the mighty subject with boldness, and yet with veneration;
+      without the shallow flippancy of the Frenchman, without the timid
+      sectarianism of the English. It would be a noble task, to trace the
+      winding mazes of antique falsehood; to clear up the first glimmerings of
+      divine truth; to separate Jehovah&rsquo;s word from man&rsquo;s invention; to
+      vindicate the All-merciful from the dread creeds of bloodshed and of fear:
+      and, watching in the great Heaven of Truth the dawning of the True Star,
+      follow it&mdash;like the Magi of the East&mdash;till it rested above the
+      real God. Not indeed presuming to such a task,&rdquo; continued the German, with
+      a slight blush, &ldquo;I have about me a humble essay, which treats only of one
+      part of that august subject; which, leaving to a loftier genius the
+      history of the true religion, may be considered as the history of a false
+      one,&mdash;of such a creed as Christianity supplanted in the North; or
+      such as may perhaps be found among the fiercest of the savage tribes. It
+      is a fiction&mdash;as you may conceive; but yet, by a constant reference
+      to the early records of human learning, I have studied to weave it up from
+      truths. If you would like to hear it,&mdash;it is very short&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Above all things,&rdquo; said Vane; and the German drew a manuscript neatly
+      bound from his pocket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;After having myself criticised so insolently the faults of our national
+      literature,&rdquo; said he, smiling, &ldquo;you will have a right to criticise the
+      faults that belong to so humble a disciple of it; but you will see that,
+      though I have commenced with the allegorical or the supernatural, I have
+      endeavoured to avoid the subtlety of conceit, and the obscurity of design,
+      which I blame in the wilder of our authors. As to the style, I wished to
+      suit it to the subject; it ought to be, unless I err, rugged and massive,&mdash;hewn,
+      as it were, out of the rock of primeval language. But you, madam&mdash;doubtless
+      you do not understand German?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Her mother was an Austrian,&rdquo; said Vane; &ldquo;and she knows at least enough of
+      the tongue to understand you; so pray begin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Without further preface, the German then commenced the story, which the
+      reader will find translated* in the next chapter.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * Nevertheless I beg to state seriously, that the German student
+    is an impostor; and that he has no right to wrest the parentage
+    of the fiction from the true author.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIX. THE FALLEN STAR; OR THE HISTORY OF A FALSE RELIGION.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      AND the STARS sat, each on his ruby throne, and watched with sleepless
+      eyes upon the world. It was the night ushering in the new year, a night on
+      which every star receives from the archangel that then visits the
+      universal galaxy its peculiar charge. The destinies of men and empires are
+      then portioned forth for the coming year, and, unconsciously to ourselves,
+      our fates become minioned to the stars. A hushed and solemn night is that
+      in which the dark gates of time open to receive the ghost of the Dead
+      Year, and the young and radiant Stranger rushes forth from the clouded
+      chasms of Eternity. On that night, it is said that there are given to the
+      spirits that we see not a privilege and a power; the dead are troubled in
+      their forgotten graves, and men feast and laugh, while demon and angel are
+      contending for their doom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was night in heaven; all was unutterably silent; the music of the
+      spheres had paused, and not a sound came from the angels of the stars; and
+      they who sat upon those shining thrones were three thousand and ten, each
+      resembling each. Eternal youth clothed their radiant limbs with celestial
+      beauty, and on their faces was written the dread of calm,&mdash;that
+      fearful stillness which feels not, sympathizes not with the doom over
+      which it broods. War, tempest, pestilence, the rise of empires and their
+      fall, they ordain, they compass, unexultant and uncompassionate. The fell
+      and thrilling crimes that stalk abroad when the world sleeps,&mdash;the
+      parricide with his stealthy step and horrent brow and lifted knife; the
+      unwifed mother that glides out and looks behind, and behind, and shudders,
+      and casts her babe upon the river, and hears the wail, and pities not&mdash;the
+      splash, and does not tremble,&mdash;these the starred kings behold, to
+      these they lead the unconscious step; but the guilt blanches not their
+      lustre, neither doth remorse wither their unwrinkled youth. Each star wore
+      a kingly diadem; round the loins of each was a graven belt, graven with
+      many and mighty signs; and the foot of each was on a burning ball, and the
+      right arm drooped over the knee as they bent down from their thrones. They
+      moved not a limb or feature, save the finger of the right hand, which ever
+      and anon moved slowly pointing, and regulated the fates of men as the hand
+      of the dial speaks the career of time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One only of the three thousand and ten wore not the same aspect as his
+      crowned brethren,&mdash;a star smaller than the rest, and less luminous;
+      the countenance of this star was not impressed with the awful calmness of
+      the others, but there were sullenness and discontent upon his mighty brow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And this star said to himself, &ldquo;Behold! I am created less glorious than my
+      fellows, and the archangel apportions not to me the same lordly destinies.
+      Not for me are the dooms of kings and bards, the rulers of empires, or,
+      yet nobler, the swayers and harmonists of souls. Sluggish are the spirits
+      and base the lot of the men I am ordained to lead through a dull life to a
+      fameless grave. And wherefore? Is it mine own fault, or is it the fault
+      which is not mine, that I was woven of beams less glorious than my
+      brethren? Lo! when the archangel comes, I will bow not my crowned head to
+      his decrees. I will speak, as the ancestral Lucifer before me: <i>he</i>
+      rebelled because of his glory, <i>I</i> because of my obscurity; <i>he</i>
+      from the ambition of pride, and <i>I</i> from its discontent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And while the star was thus communing with himself, the upward heavens
+      were parted as by a long river of light, and adown that stream swiftly,
+      and without sound, sped the archangel visitor of the stars. His vast limbs
+      floated in the liquid lustre, and his outspread wings, each plume the
+      glory of a sun, bore him noiselessly along; but thick clouds veiled his
+      lustre from the eyes of mortals, and while above all was bathed in the
+      serenity of his splendour, tempest and storm broke below over the children
+      of the earth: &ldquo;He bowed the heavens and came down, and darkness was under
+      his feet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the stillness on the faces of the stars became yet more still, and the
+      awfulness was humbled into awe. Right above their thrones paused the
+      course of the archangel; and his wings stretched from east to west,
+      overshadowing with the shadow of light the immensity of space. Then forth,
+      in the shining stillness, rolled the dread music of his voice: and,
+      fulfilling the heraldry of God, to each star he appointed the duty and the
+      charge; and each star bowed his head yet lower as he heard the fiat, while
+      his throne rocked and trembled at the Majesty of the Word. But at last,
+      when each of the brighter stars had, in succession, received the mandate,
+      and the viceroyalty over the nations of the earth, the purple and diadems
+      of kings, the archangel addressed the lesser star as he sat apart from his
+      fellows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Behold,&rdquo; said the archangel, &ldquo;the rude tribes of the North, the fishermen
+      of the river that flows beneath, and the hunters of the forests that
+      darken the mountain tops with verdure! these be thy charge, and their
+      destinies thy care. Nor deem thou, O Star of the sullen beams, that thy
+      duties are less glorious than the duties of thy brethren; for the peasant
+      is not less to thy master and mine than the monarch; nor doth the doom of
+      empires rest more upon the sovereign than on the herd. The passions and
+      the heart are the dominion of the stars,&mdash;a mighty realm; nor less
+      mighty beneath the hide that garbs the shepherd than under the jewelled
+      robes of the eastern kings.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the star lifted his pale front from his breast, and answered the
+      archangel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lo!&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;ages have passed, and each year thou hast appointed me to
+      the same ignoble charge. Release me, I pray thee, from the duties that I
+      scorn; or, if thou wilt that the lowlier race of men be my charge, give
+      unto me the charge not of many, but of one, and suffer me to breathe into
+      him the desire that spurns the valleys of life, and ascends its steeps. If
+      the humble are given to me, let there be amongst them one whom I may lead
+      on the mission that shall abase the proud; for, behold, O Appointer of the
+      Stars, as I have sat for uncounted years upon my solitary throne, brooding
+      over the things beneath, my spirit hath gathered wisdom from the changes
+      that shift below. Looking upon the tribes of earth, I have seen how the
+      multitude are swayed, and tracked the steps that lead weakness into power;
+      and fain would I be the ruler of one who, if abased, shall aspire to
+      rule.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As a sudden cloud over the face of noon was the change on the brow of the
+      archangel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Proud and melancholy star,&rdquo; said the herald, &ldquo;thy wish would war with the
+      courses of the invisible DESTINY, that, throned far above, sways and
+      harmonizes all,&mdash;the source from which the lesser rivers of fate are
+      eternally gushing through the heart of the universe of things. Thinkest
+      thou that thy wisdom, of itself, can lead the peasant to become a king?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the crowned star gazed undauntedly on the face of the archangel, and
+      answered,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yea! Grant me but one trial!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ere the archangel could reply, the farthest centre of the Heaven was rent
+      as by a thunderbolt; and the divine herald covered his face with his
+      hands, and a voice low and sweet and mild, with the consciousness of
+      unquestionable power, spoke forth to the repining star.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The time has arrived when thou mayest have thy wish. Below thee, upon yon
+      solitary plain, sits a mortal, gloomy as thyself, who, born under thy
+      influence, may be moulded to thy will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The voice ceased as the voice of a dream. Silence was over the seas of
+      space, and the archangel, once more borne aloft, slowly soared away into
+      the farther heaven, to promulgate the divine bidding to the stars of
+      far-distant worlds. But the soul of the discontented star exulted within
+      itself; and it said, &ldquo;I will call forth a king from the valley of the
+      herdsman that shall trample on the kings subject to my fellows, and render
+      the charge of the contemned star more glorious than the minions of its
+      favoured brethren; thus shall I revenge neglect! thus shall I prove my
+      claim hereafter to the heritage of the great of earth!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      .......
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that time, though the world had rolled on for ages, and the pilgrimage
+      of man had passed through various states of existence, which our dim
+      traditionary knowledge has not preserved, yet the condition of our race in
+      the northern hemisphere was then what we, in our imperfect lore, have
+      conceived to be among the earliest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      .......
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By a rude and vast pile of stones, the masonry of arts forgotten, a lonely
+      man sat at midnight, gazing upon the heavens. A storm had just passed from
+      the earth; the clouds had rolled away, and the high stars looked down upon
+      the rapid waters of the Rhine; and no sound save the roar of the waves,
+      and the dripping of the rain from the mighty trees, was heard around the
+      ruined pile. The white sheep lay scattered on the plain, and slumber with
+      them. He sat watching over the herd, lest the foes of a neighbouring tribe
+      seized them unawares, and thus he communed with himself: &ldquo;The king sits
+      upon his throne, and is honoured by a warrior race, and the warrior exults
+      in the trophies he has won; the step of the huntsman is bold upon the
+      mountain-top, and his name is sung at night round the pine-fires by the
+      lips of the bard; and the bard himself hath honour in the hall. But I, who
+      belong not to the race of kings, and whose limbs can bound not to the
+      rapture of war, nor scale the eyries of the eagle and the haunts of the
+      swift stag; whose hand cannot string the harp, and whose voice is harsh in
+      the song,&mdash;<i>I</i> have neither honour nor command, and men bow not
+      the head as I pass along; yet do I feel within me the consciousness of a
+      great power that should rule my species&mdash;not obey. My eye pierces the
+      secret hearts of men. I see their thoughts ere their lips proclaim them;
+      and I scorn, while I see, the weakness and the vices which I never shared.
+      I laugh at the madness of the warrior; I mock within my soul at the
+      tyranny of kings. Surely there is something in man&rsquo;s nature more fitted to
+      command, more worthy of renown, than the sinews of the arm, or the
+      swiftness of the feet, or the accident of birth!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As Morven, the son of Osslah, thus mused within himself, still looking at
+      the heavens, the solitary man beheld a star suddenly shooting from its
+      place, and speeding through the silent air, till it suddenly paused right
+      over the midnight river, and facing the inmate of the pile of stones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he gazed upon the star, strange thoughts grew slowly over him. He
+      drank, as it were, from its solemn aspect the spirit of a great design. A
+      dark cloud rapidly passing over the earth snatched the star from his
+      sight, but left to his awakened mind the thoughts and the dim scheme that
+      had come to him as he gazed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the sun arose, one of his brethren relieved him of his charge over
+      the herd, and he went away, but not to his father&rsquo;s home. Musingly he
+      plunged into the dark and leafless recesses of the winter forest; and
+      shaped out of his wild thoughts, more palpably and clearly, the outline of
+      his daring hope. While thus absorbed he heard a great noise in the forest,
+      and, fearful lest the hostile tribe of the Alrich might pierce that way,
+      he ascended one of the loftiest pine-trees, to whose perpetual verdure the
+      winter had not denied the shelter he sought; and, concealed by its
+      branches, he looked anxiously forth in the direction whence the noise had
+      proceeded. And IT came,&mdash;it came with a tramp and a crash, and a
+      crushing tread upon the crunched boughs and matted leaves that strewed the
+      soil; it came, it came,&mdash;the monster that the world now holds no
+      more,&mdash;the mighty Mammoth of the North! Slowly it moved its huge
+      strength along, and its burning eyes glittered through the gloomy shade;
+      its jaws, falling apart, showed the grinders with which it snapped asunder
+      the young oaks of the forest; and the vast tusks, which, curved downward
+      to the midst of its massive limbs, glistened white and ghastly, curdling
+      the blood of one destined hereafter to be the dreadest ruler of the men of
+      that distant age.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The livid eyes of the monster fastened on the form of the herdsman, even
+      amidst the thick darkness of the pine. It paused, it glared upon him; its
+      jaws opened, and a low deep sound, as of gathering thunder, seemed to the
+      son of Osslah as the knell of a dreadful grave. But after glaring on him
+      for some moments, it again, and calmly, pursued its terrible way, crashing
+      the boughs as it marched along, till the last sound of its heavy tread
+      died away upon his ear.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * <i>The Critic</i> will perceive that this sketch of the beast, whose
+    race has perished, is mainly intended to designate the remote
+    period of the world in which the tale is cast.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Ere yet, however, Morven summoned the courage to descend the tree, he saw
+      the shining of arms through the bare branches of the wood, and presently a
+      small band of the hostile Alrich came into sight. He was perfectly hidden
+      from them; and, listening as they passed him, he heard one say to another,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The night covers all things; why attack them by day?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And he who seemed the chief of the band, answered,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Right. To-night, when they sleep in their city, we will upon them. Lo!
+      they will be drenched in wine, and fall like sheep into our hands.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But where, O chief,&rdquo; said a third of the band, &ldquo;shall our men hide during
+      the day? for there are many hunters among the youth of the Oestrich tribe,
+      and they might see us in the forest unawares, and arm their race against
+      our coming.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have prepared for that,&rdquo; answered the chief. &ldquo;Is not the dark cavern of
+      Oderlin at hand? Will it not shelter us from the eyes of the victims?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the men laughed, and, shouting, they went their way adown the forest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they were gone, Morven cautiously descended, and, striking into a
+      broad path, hastened to a vale that lay between the forest and the river
+      in which was the city where the chief of his country dwelt. As he passed
+      by the warlike men, giants in that day, who thronged the streets (if
+      streets they might be called), their half garments parting from their huge
+      limbs, the quiver at their backs, and the hunting spear in their hand,
+      they laughed and shouted out, and, pointing to him, cried, &ldquo;Morven the
+      woman! Morven the cripple! what dost thou among men?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For the son of Osslah was small in stature and of slender strength, and
+      his step had halted from his birth; but he passed through the warriors
+      unheedingly. At the outskirts of the city he came upon a tall pile in
+      which some old men dwelt by themselves, and counselled the king when times
+      of danger, or when the failure of the season, the famine or the drought,
+      perplexed the ruler, and clouded the savage fronts of his warrior tribe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They gave the counsels of experience, and when experience failed, they
+      drew, in their believing ignorance, assurances and omens from the winds of
+      heaven, the changes of the moon, and the flights of the wandering birds.
+      Filled&mdash;by the voices of the elements, and the variety of mysteries,
+      which ever shift along the face of things, unsolved by the wonder which
+      pauses not, the fear which believes, and that eternal reasoning of all
+      experience, which assigns causes to effect&mdash;with the notion of
+      superior powers, they assisted their ignorance by the conjectures of their
+      superstition. But as yet they knew no craft and practised no <i>voluntary</i>
+      delusion; they trembled too much at the mysteries which had created their
+      faith to seek to belie them. They counselled as they believed, and the
+      bold dream of governing their warriors and their kings by the wisdom of
+      deceit had never dared to cross men thus worn and gray with age.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The son of Osslah entered the vast pile with a fearless step, and
+      approached the place at the upper end of the hall where the old men sat in
+      conclave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How, base-born and craven-limbed!&rdquo; cried the eldest, who had been a noted
+      warrior in his day, &ldquo;darest thou enter unsummoned amidst the secret
+      councils of the wise men? Knowest thou not, scatterling! that the penalty
+      is death?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Slay me, if thou wilt,&rdquo; answered Morven, &ldquo;but hear! As I sat last night
+      in the ruined palace of our ancient kings, tending, as my father bade me,
+      the sheep that grazed around, lest the fierce tribe of Alrich should
+      descend unseen from the mountains upon the herd, a storm came darkly on;
+      and when the storm had ceased, and I looked above on the sky, I saw a star
+      descend from its height towards me, and a voice from the star said: &lsquo;Son
+      of Osslah, leave thy herd and seek the council of the wise men and say
+      unto them, that they take thee as one of their number, or that sudden will
+      be the destruction of them and theirs.&rsquo; But I had courage to answer the
+      voice, and I said, &lsquo;Mock not the poor son of the herdsman. Behold, they
+      will kill me if I utter so rash a word, for I am poor and valueless in the
+      eyes of the tribe of Oestrich, and the great in deeds and the gray of hair
+      alone sit in the council of the wise men.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then the voice said: &lsquo;Do my bidding, and I will give thee a token that
+      thou comest from the Powers that sway the seasons and sail upon the eagles
+      of the winds. Say unto the wise men this very night if they refuse to
+      receive thee of their band, evil shall fall upon them, and the morrow
+      shall dawn in blood.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then the voice ceased, and the cloud passed over the star; and I communed
+      with myself, and came, O dread father, mournfully unto you; for I feared
+      that ye would smite me because of my bold tongue, and that ye would
+      sentence me to the death, in that I asked what may scarce be given even to
+      the sons of kings.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the grim elders looked one at the other, and marvelled much, nor knew
+      they what answer they should make to the herdsman&rsquo;s son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length one of the wise men said, &ldquo;Surely there must be truth in the son
+      of Osslah, for he would not dare to falsify the great lights of Heaven. If
+      he had given unto men the words of the star, verily we might doubt the
+      truth. But who would brave the vengeance of the gods of night?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the elders shook their heads approvingly; but one answered and said,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall we take the herdsman&rsquo;s son as our equal? No!&rdquo; The name of the man
+      who thus answered was Darvan, and his words were pleasing to the elders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Morven spoke out: &ldquo;Of a truth, O councillors of kings, I look not to
+      be an equal with yourselves. Enough if I tend the gates of your palace,
+      and serve you as the son of Osslah may serve;&rdquo; and he bowed his head
+      humbly as he spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then said the chief of the elders, for he was wiser than the others, &ldquo;But
+      how wilt thou deliver us from the evil that is to come? Doubtless the star
+      has informed thee of the service thou canst render to us if we take thee
+      into our palace, as well as the ill that will fall on us if we refuse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Morven answered meekly, &ldquo;Surely, if thou acceptest thy servant, the star
+      will teach him that which may requite thee; but as yet he knows only what
+      he has uttered.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the sages bade him withdraw, and they communed with themselves, and
+      they differed much; but though fierce men, and bold at the war-cry of a
+      human foe, they shuddered at the prophecy of a star. So they resolved to
+      take the son of Osslah, and suffer him to keep the gate of the
+      council-hall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He heard their decree and bowed his head, and went to the gate, and sat
+      down by it in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the sun went down in the west, and the first stars of the twilight
+      began to glimmer, when Morven started from his seat, and a trembling
+      appeared to seize his limbs. His lips foamed; an agony and a fear
+      possessed him; he writhed as a man whom the spear of a foeman has pierced
+      with a mortal wound, and suddenly fell upon his face on the stony earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The elders approached him; wondering, they lifted him up. He slowly
+      recovered as from a swoon; his eyes rolled wildly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heard ye not the voice of the star?&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the chief of the elders answered, &ldquo;Nay, we heard no sound.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Morven sighed heavily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To me only the word was given. Summon instantly, O councillors of the
+      king, summon the armed men, and all the youth of the tribe, and let them
+      take the sword and the spear, and follow thy servant! For lo! the star
+      hath announced to him that the foe shall fall into our hands as the wild
+      beasts of the forests.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The son of Osslah spoke with the voice of command, and the elders were
+      amazed. &ldquo;Why pause ye?&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;Do the gods of the night lie? On my
+      head rest the peril if I deceive ye.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the elders communed together; and they went forth and summoned the
+      men of arms, and all the young of the tribe; and each man took the sword
+      and the spear, and Morven also. And the son of Osslah walked first, still
+      looking up at the star, and he motioned them to be silent, and moved with
+      a stealthy step.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So they went through the thickest of the forest, till they came to the
+      mouth of a great cave, overgrown with aged and matted trees, and it was
+      called the Cave of Oberlin; and he bade the leaders place the armed men on
+      either side the cave, to the right and to the left, among the bushes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So they watched silently till the night deepened, when they heard a noise
+      in the cave and the sound of feet, and forth came an armed man; and the
+      spear of Morven pierced him, and he fell dead at the mouth of the cave.
+      Another and another, and both fell! Then loud and long was heard the
+      war-cry of Alrich, and forth poured, as a stream over a narrow bed, the
+      river of armed men. And the sons of Oestrich fell upon them, and the foe
+      were sorely perplexed and terrified by the suddenness of the battle and
+      the darkness of the night; and there was a great slaughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And when the morning came, the children of Oestrich counted the slain, and
+      found the leader of Alrich and the chief men of the tribe amongst them;
+      and great was the joy thereof. So they went back in triumph to the city,
+      and they carried the brave son of Osslah on their shoulders, and shouted
+      forth, &ldquo;Glory to the servant of the star.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven dwelt in the council of the wise men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the king of the tribe had one daughter, and she was stately amongst
+      the women of the tribe, and fair to look upon. And Morven gazed upon her
+      with the eyes of love, but he did not dare to speak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the son of Osslah laughed secretly at the foolishness of men; he loved
+      them not, for they had mocked him; he honoured them not, for he had
+      blinded the wisest of their leaders. He shunned their feasts and
+      merriment, and lived apart and solitary. The austerity of his life
+      increased the mysterious homage which his commune with the stars had won
+      him, and the boldest of the warriors bowed his head to the favourite of
+      the gods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day he was wandering by the side of the river, and he saw a large bird
+      of prey rise from the waters, and give chase to a hawk that had not yet
+      gained the full strength of its wings. From his youth the solitary Morven
+      had loved to watch, in the great forests and by the banks of the mighty
+      stream, the habits of the things which nature has submitted to man; and
+      looking now on the birds, he said to himself, &ldquo;Thus is it ever; by cunning
+      or by strength each thing wishes to master its kind.&rdquo; While thus
+      moralizing, the larger bird had stricken down the hawk, and it fell
+      terrified and panting at his feet. Morven took the hawk in his hands, and
+      the vulture shrieked above him, wheeling nearer and nearer to its
+      protected prey; but Morven scared away the vulture, and placing the hawk
+      in his bosom he carried it home, and tended it carefully, and fed it from
+      his hand until it had regained its strength; and the hawk knew him, and
+      followed him as a dog. And Morven said, smiling to himself, &ldquo;Behold, the
+      credulous fools around me put faith in the flight and motion of birds. I
+      will teach this poor hawk to minister to my ends.&rdquo; So he tamed the bird,
+      and tutored it according to its nature; but he concealed it carefully from
+      others, and cherished it in secret.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The king of the country was old, and like to die, and the eyes of the
+      tribe were turned to his two sons, nor knew they which was the worthier to
+      reign. And Morven, passing through the forest one evening, saw the younger
+      of the two, who was a great hunter, sitting mournfully under an oak, and
+      looking with musing eyes upon the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wherefore musest thou, O swift-footed Siror?&rdquo; said the son of Osslah;
+      &ldquo;and wherefore art thou sad?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou canst not assist me,&rdquo; answered the prince, sternly; &ldquo;take thy way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; answered Morven, &ldquo;thou knowest not what thou sayest; am I not the
+      favourite of the stars?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Away, I am no graybeard whom the approach of death makes doting: talk not
+      to me of the stars; I know only the things that my eye sees and my ear
+      drinks in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush,&rdquo; said Morven, solemnly, and covering his face; &ldquo;hush! lest the
+      heavens avenge thy rashness. But, behold, the stars have given unto me to
+      pierce the secret hearts of others; and I can tell thee the thoughts of
+      thine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Speak out, base-born!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art the younger of two, and thy name is less known in war than the
+      name of thy brother: yet wouldst thou desire to be set over his head, and
+      to sit on the high seat of thy father?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The young man turned pale. &ldquo;Thou hast truth in thy lips,&rdquo; said he, with a
+      faltering voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not from me, but from the stars, descends the truth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can the stars grant my wish?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They can: let us meet to-morrow.&rdquo; Thus saying, Morven passed into the
+      forest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day, at noon, they met again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have consulted the gods of night, and they have given me the power that
+      I prayed for, but on one condition.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Name it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That thou sacrifice thy sister on their altars; thou must build up a heap
+      of stones, and take thy sister into the wood, and lay her on the pile, and
+      plunge thy sword into her heart; so only shalt thou reign.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The prince shuddered, and started to his feet, and shook his spear at the
+      pale front of Morven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tremble,&rdquo; said the son of Osslah, with a loud voice. &ldquo;Hark to the gods
+      who threaten thee with death, that thou hast dared to lift thine arm
+      against their servant!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke, the thunder rolled above; for one of the frequent storms of
+      the early summer was about to break. The spear dropped from the prince&rsquo;s
+      hand; he sat down, and cast his eyes on the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wilt thou do the bidding of the stars, and reign?&rdquo; said Morven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will!&rdquo; cried Siror, with a desperate voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This evening, then, when the sun sets, thou wilt lead her hither, alone;
+      I may not attend thee. Now, let us pile the stones.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Silently the huntsman bent his vast strength to the fragments of rock that
+      Morven pointed to him, and they built the altar, and went their way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And beautiful is the dying of the great sun, when the last song of the
+      birds fades into the lap of silence; when the islands of the cloud are
+      bathed in light, and the first star springs up over the grave of day!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whither leadest thou my steps, my brother?&rdquo; said Orna; &ldquo;and why doth thy
+      lip quiver; and why dost thou turn away thy face?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is not the forest beautiful; does it not tempt us forth, my sister?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And wherefore are those heaps of stone piled together?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let others answer; I piled them not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou tremblest, brother: we will return.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not so; by these stones is a bird that my shaft pierced today,&mdash;a
+      bird of beautiful plumage that I slew for thee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are by the pile; where hast thou laid the bird?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here!&rdquo; cried Siror; and he seized the maiden in his arms, and, casting
+      her on the rude altar, he drew forth his sword to smite her to the heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Right over the stones rose a giant oak, the growth of immemorial ages; and
+      from the oak, or from the heavens, broke forth a loud and solemn voice,
+      &ldquo;Strike not, son of kings! the stars forbear their own: the maiden thou
+      shalt not slay; yet shalt thou reign over the race of Oestrich; and thou
+      shalt give Orna as a bride to the favourite of the stars. Arise, and go
+      thy way!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The voice ceased: the terror of Orna had overpowered for a time the
+      springs of life; and Siror bore her home through the wood in his strong
+      arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas!&rdquo; said Morven, when, at the next day, he again met the aspiring
+      prince; &ldquo;alas! the stars have ordained me a lot which my heart desires
+      not: for I, lonely of life, and crippled of shape, am insensible to the
+      fires of love; and ever, as thou and thy tribe know, I have shunned the
+      eyes of women, for the maidens laughed at my halting step and my sullen
+      features; and so in my youth I learned betimes to banish all thoughts of
+      love. But since they told me (as they declared to <i>thee</i>), that only
+      through that marriage, thou, O beloved prince! canst obtain thy father&rsquo;s
+      plumed crown, I yield me to their will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; said the prince, &ldquo;not until I am king can I give thee my sister in
+      marriage; for thou knowest that my sire would smite me to the dust if I
+      asked him to give the flower of our race to the son of the herdsman
+      Osslah.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou speakest the words of truth. Go home and fear not; but, when thou
+      art king, the sacrifice must be made, and Orna mine. Alas! how can I dare
+      to lift mine eyes to her! But so ordain the dread kings of the night!&mdash;who
+      shall gainsay their word?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The day that sees me king sees Orna thine,&rdquo; answered the prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Morven walked forth, as was his wont, alone; and he said to himself, &ldquo;The
+      king is old, yet may he live long between me and mine hope!&rdquo; and he began
+      to cast in his mind how he might shorten the time. Thus absorbed, he
+      wandered on so unheedingly that night advanced, and he had lost his path
+      among the thick woods and knew not how to regain his home. So he lay down
+      quietly beneath a tree, and rested till day dawned; then hunger came upon
+      him, and he searched among the bushes for such simple roots as those with
+      which, for he was ever careless of food, he was used to appease the
+      cravings of nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He found, among other more familiar herbs and roots, a red berry of a
+      sweetish taste, which he had never observed before. He ate of it
+      sparingly, and had not proceeded far in the wood before he found his eyes
+      swim, and a deadly sickness came over him. For several hours he lay
+      convulsed on the ground, expecting death; but the gaunt spareness of his
+      frame, and his unvarying abstinence, prevailed over the poison, and he
+      recovered slowly, and after great anguish. But he went with feeble steps
+      back to the spot where the berries grew, and, plucking several, hid them
+      in his bosom, and by nightfall regained the city.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day he went forth among his father&rsquo;s herds, and seizing a lamb,
+      forced some of the berries into his stomach, and the lamb, escaping, ran
+      away, and fell down dead. Then Morven took some more of the berries and
+      boiled them down, and mixed the juice with wine, and he gave the wine in
+      secret to one of his father&rsquo;s servants, and the servant died.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Morven sought the king, and coming into his presence, alone, he said
+      unto him, &ldquo;How fares my lord?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The king sat on a couch made of the skins of wolves, and his eye was
+      glassy and dim; but vast were his aged limbs, and huge was his stature,
+      and he had been taller by a head than the children of men, and none living
+      could bend the bow he had bent in youth; gray, gaunt, and worn, as some
+      mighty bones that are dug at times from the bosom of the earth,&mdash;a
+      relic of the strength of old.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the king said faintly, and with a ghastly laugh, &ldquo;The men of my years
+      fare ill. What avails my strength? Better had I been born a cripple like
+      thee, so should I have had nothing to lament in growing old.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The red flush passed over Morven&rsquo;s brow; but he bent humbly,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O king, what if I could give thee back thy youth? What if I could restore
+      to thee the vigour which distinguished thee above the sons of men, when
+      the warriors of Alrich fell like grass before thy sword?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the king uplifted his dull eyes, and he said,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What meanest thou, son of Osslah? Surely I hear much of thy great wisdom,
+      and how thou speakest nightly with the stars. Can the gods of the night
+      give unto thee the secret to make the old young?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tempt them not by doubt,&rdquo; said Morven, reverently. &ldquo;All things are
+      possible to the rulers of the dark hour; and, lo! the star that loves thy
+      servant spake to him at the dead of night, and said, &lsquo;Arise, and go unto
+      the king; and tell him that the stars honour the tribe of Oestrich, and
+      remember how the king bent his bow against the sons of Alrich; wherefore,
+      look thou under the stone that lies to the right of thy dwelling, even
+      beside the pine tree, and thou shalt see a vessel of clay, and in the
+      vessel thou wilt find a sweet liquid, that shall make the king thy master
+      forget his age forever.&rsquo; Therefore, my lord, when the morning rose I went
+      forth, and looked under the stone, and behold the vessel of clay; and I
+      have brought it hither to my lord the king.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quick, slave, quick! that I may drink and regain my youth!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, listen, O king! further said the star to me,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;It is only at night, when the stars have power, that this their gift
+      will avail; wherefore the king must wait till the hush of the midnight,
+      when the moon is high, and then may he mingle the liquid with his wine.
+      And he must reveal to none that he hath received the gift from the hand of
+      the servant of the stars. For THEY do their work in secret, and when men
+      sleep; therefore they love not the babble of mouths, and he who reveals
+      their benefits shall surely die.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fear not,&rdquo; said the king, grasping the vessel; &ldquo;none shall know: and,
+      behold, I will rise on the morrow; and my two sons, wrangling for my crown&mdash;verily
+      I shall be younger than they!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the king laughed loud; and he scarcely thanked the servant of the
+      stars, neither did he promise him reward; for the kings in those days had
+      little thought save for themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven said to him, &ldquo;Shall I not attend my lord?&mdash;for without me,
+      perchance, the drug might fail of its effect.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay,&rdquo; said the king, &ldquo;rest here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; replied Morven; &ldquo;thy servants will marvel and talk much, if they
+      see the son of Osslah sojourning in thy palace. So would the displeasure
+      of the gods of night perchance be incurred. Suffer that the lesser door of
+      the palace be unbarred, so that at the night hour, when the moon is midway
+      in the heavens, I may steal unseen into thy chamber, and mix the liquid
+      with thy wine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So be it,&rdquo; said the king. &ldquo;Thou art wise, though thy limbs are crooked
+      and curt; and the stars might have chosen a taller man.&rdquo; Then the king
+      laughed again; and Morven laughed too, but there was danger in the mirth
+      of the son of Osslah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The night had begun to wane, and the inhabitants of Oestrich were buried
+      in deep sleep, when, hark! a sharp voice was heard crying out in the
+      streets, &ldquo;Woe, woe! Awake, ye sons of Oestrich! woe!&rdquo; Then forth, wild,
+      haggard, alarmed, spear in hand, rushed the giant sons of the rugged
+      tribe, and they saw a man on a height in the middle of the city, shrieking
+      &ldquo;Woe!&rdquo; and it was Morven, the son of Osslah! And he said unto them, as
+      they gathered round him, &ldquo;Men and warriors, tremble as ye hear. The star
+      of the west hath spoken to me, and thus said the star: &lsquo;Evil shall fall
+      upon the kingly house of Oestrich,&mdash;yea, ere the morning dawn;
+      wherefore, go thou mourning into the streets, and wake the inhabitants to
+      woe!&rsquo; So I rose and did the bidding of the star.&rdquo; And while Morven was yet
+      speaking, a servant of the king&rsquo;s house ran up to the crowd, crying
+      loudly, &ldquo;The king is dead!&rdquo; So they went into the palace and found the
+      king stark upon his couch, and his huge limbs all cramped and crippled by
+      the pangs of death, and his hands clenched as if in menace of a foe,&mdash;the
+      Foe of all living flesh! Then fear came on the gazers, and they looked on
+      Morven with a deeper awe than the boldest warrior would have called forth;
+      and they bore him back to the council-hall of the wise men, wailing and
+      clashing their arms in woe, and shouting, ever and anon, &ldquo;Honour to Morven
+      the prophet!&rdquo; And that was the first time the word PROPHET was ever used
+      in those countries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At noon, on the third day from the king&rsquo;s death, Siror sought Morven, and
+      he said, &ldquo;Lo, my father is no more, and the people meet this evening at
+      sunset to elect his successor, and the warriors and the young men will
+      surely choose my brother, for he is more known in war. Fail me not
+      therefore.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Peace, boy!&rdquo; said Morven, sternly; &ldquo;nor dare to question the truth of the
+      gods of night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For Morven now began to presume on his power among the people, and to
+      speak as rulers speak, even to the sons of kings; and the voice silenced
+      the fiery Siror, nor dared he to reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Behold,&rdquo; said Morven, taking up a chaplet of coloured plumes, &ldquo;wear this
+      on thy head, and put on a brave face, for the people like a hopeful
+      spirit, and go down with thy brother to the place where the new king is to
+      be chosen, and leave the rest to the stars. But, above all things, forget
+      not that chaplet; it has been blessed by the gods of night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The prince took the chaplet and returned home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was evening, and the warriors and chiefs of the tribe were assembled in
+      the place where the new king was to be elected. And the voices of the many
+      favoured Prince Voltoch, the brother of Siror, for he had slain twelve
+      foemen with his spear; and verily, in those days, that was a great virtue
+      in a king.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly there was a shout in the streets, and the people cried out, &ldquo;Way
+      for Morven the prophet, the prophet!&rdquo; For the people held the son of
+      Osslah in even greater respect than did the chiefs. Now, since he had
+      become of note, Morven had assumed a majesty of air which the son of the
+      herdsman knew not in his earlier days; and albeit his stature was short,
+      and his limbs halted, yet his countenance was grave and high. He only of
+      the tribe wore a garment that swept the ground, and his head was bare and
+      his long black hair descended to his girdle, and rarely was change or
+      human passion seen in his calm aspect. He feasted not, nor drank wine, nor
+      was his presence frequent in the streets. He laughed not, neither did he
+      smile, save when alone in the forest,&mdash;and then he laughed at the
+      follies of his tribe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So he walked slowly through the crowd, neither turning to the left nor to
+      the right, as the crowd gave way; and he supported his steps with a staff
+      of the knotted pine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And when he came to the place where the chiefs were met, and the two
+      princes stood in the centre, he bade the people around him proclaim
+      silence; then mounting on a huge fragment of rock, he thus spake to the
+      multitude:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Princes, Warriors, and Bards! ye, O council of the wise men! and ye, O
+      hunters of the forests and snarers of the fishes of the streams! hearken
+      to Morven, the son of Osslah. Ye know that I am lowly of race and weak of
+      limb; but did I not give into your hands the tribe of Alrich, and did ye
+      not slay them in the dead of night with a great slaughter? Surely, ye must
+      know this of himself did not the herdsman&rsquo;s son; surely he was but the
+      agent of the bright gods that love the children of Oestrich! Three nights
+      since when slumber was on the earth, was not my voice heard in the
+      streets? Did I not proclaim woe to the kingly house of Oestrich? and
+      verily the dark arm had fallen on the bosom of the mighty, that is no
+      more. Could I have dreamed this thing merely in a dream, or was I not as
+      the voice of the bright gods that watch over the tribes of Oestrich?
+      Wherefore, O men and chiefs! scorn not the son of Osslah, but listen to
+      his words; for are they not the wisdom of the stars? Behold, last night, I
+      sat alone in the valley, and the trees were hushed around, and not a
+      breath stirred; and I looked upon the star that counsels the son of
+      Osslah; and I said, &lsquo;Dread conqueror of the cloud! thou that bathest thy
+      beauty in the streams and piercest the pine-boughs with thy presence;
+      behold thy servant grieved because the mighty one hath passed away, and
+      many foes surround the houses of my brethren; and it is well that they
+      should have a king valiant and prosperous in war, the cherished of the
+      stars. Wherefore, O star! as thou gavest into our hands the warriors of
+      Alrich, and didst warn us of the fall of the oak of our tribe, wherefore I
+      pray thee give unto the people a token that they may choose that king whom
+      the gods of the night prefer!&rsquo; Then a low voice, sweeter than the music of
+      the bard, stole along the silence. &lsquo;Thy love for thy race is grateful to
+      the stars of night: go, then, son of Osslah, and seek the meeting of the
+      chiefs and the people to choose a king, and tell them not to scorn thee
+      because thou art slow to the chase, and little known in war; for the stars
+      give thee wisdom as a recompense for all. Say unto the people that as the
+      wise men of the council shape their lessons by the flight of birds, so by
+      the flight of birds shall a token be given unto them, and they shall
+      choose their kings. For, saith the star of night, the birds are the
+      children of the winds, they pass to and fro along the ocean of the air,
+      and visit the clouds that are the war-ships of the gods; and their music
+      is but broken melodies which they glean from the harps above. Are they not
+      the messengers of the storm? Ere the stream chafes against the bank, and
+      the rain descends, know ye not, by the wail of birds and their low circle
+      over the earth, that the tempest is at hand? Wherefore, wisely do ye deem
+      that the children of the air are the fit interpreters between the sons of
+      men and the lords of the world above. Say then to the people and the
+      chiefs that they shall take, from among the doves that build their nests
+      in the roof of the palace, a white dove, and they shall let it loose in
+      the air, and verily the gods of the night shall deem the dove as a prayer
+      coming from the people, and they shall send a messenger to grant the
+      prayer and give to the tribes of Oestrich a king worthy of themselves.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With that the star spoke no more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the friends of Voltoch murmured among themselves, and they said,
+      &ldquo;Shall this man dictate to us who shall be king?&rdquo; But the people and the
+      warriors shouted, &ldquo;Listen to the star; do we not give or deny battle
+      according as the bird flies,&mdash;shall we not by the same token choose
+      him by whom the battle should be led?&rdquo; And the thing seemed natural to
+      them, for it was after the custom of the tribe. Then they took one of the
+      doves that built in the roof of the palace, and they brought it to the
+      spot where Morven stood, and he, looking up to the stars and muttering to
+      himself, released the bird.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a copse of trees at a little distance from the spot, and as the
+      dove ascended, a hawk suddenly rose from the copse and pursued the dove;
+      and the dove was terrified, and soared circling high above the crowd, when
+      lo, the hawk, poising itself one moment on its wings, swooped with a
+      sudden swoop, and, abandoning its prey, alighted on the plumed head of
+      Siror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Behold,&rdquo; cried Morven in a loud voice, &ldquo;behold your king!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hail, all hail the king!&rdquo; shouted the people. &ldquo;All hail the chosen of the
+      stars!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Morven lifted his right hand and the hawk left the prince and
+      alighted on Morven&rsquo;s shoulder. &ldquo;Bird of the gods!&rdquo; said he, reverently,
+      &ldquo;hast thou not a secret message for my ear?&rdquo; Then the hawk put its beak to
+      Morven&rsquo;s ear, and Morven bowed his head submissively; and the hawk rested
+      with Morven from that moment and would not be scared away. And Morven
+      said, &ldquo;The stars have sent me this bird, that in the day-time when I see
+      them not, we may never be without a councillor in distress.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Siror was made king and Morven the son of Osslah was constrained by the
+      king&rsquo;s will to take Orna for his wife; and the people and the chiefs
+      honoured Morven the prophet above all the elders of the tribe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day Morven said unto himself, musing, &ldquo;Am I not already equal with the
+      king,&mdash;nay, is not the king my servant? Did I not place him over the
+      heads of his brothers? Am I not, therefore, more fit to reign than he is;
+      shall I not push him from his seat? It is a troublesome and stormy office
+      to reign over the wild men of Oestrich, to feast in the crowded hall, and
+      to lead the warriors to the fray. Surely if I feasted not, neither went
+      out to war, they might say, &lsquo;This is no king, but the cripple Morven;&rsquo; and
+      some of the race of Siror might slay me secretly. But can I not be greater
+      far than kings, and continue to choose and govern them, living as now at
+      mine own ease? Verily the stars shall give me a new palace, and many
+      subjects.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the wise men was Darvan; and Morven feared him, for his eye often
+      sought the movements of the son of Osslah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven said, &ldquo;It were better to <i>trust</i> this man than to <i>blind</i>,
+      for surely I want a helpmate and a friend.&rdquo; So he said to the wise man as
+      he sat alone watching the setting sun,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seemeth to me, O Darvan! that we ought to build a great pile in honour
+      of the stars, and the pile should be more glorious than all the palaces of
+      the chiefs and the palace of the king; for are not the stars our masters?
+      And thou and I should be the chief dwellers in this new palace, and we
+      would serve the gods of night and fatten their altars with the choicest of
+      the herd and the freshest of the fruits of the earth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Darvan said, &ldquo;Thou speakest as becomes the servant of the stars. But
+      will the people help to build the pile? For they are a warlike race and
+      they love not toil.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven answered, &ldquo;Doubtless the stars will ordain the work to be done.
+      Fear not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In truth thou art a wondrous man; thy words ever come to pass,&rdquo; answered
+      Darvan; &ldquo;and I wish thou wouldest teach me, friend, the language of the
+      stars.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Assuredly if thou servest me, thou shalt know,&rdquo; answered the proud
+      Morven; and Darvan was secretly wroth that the son of the herdsman should
+      command the service of an elder and a chief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And when Morven returned to his wife he found her weeping much. Now she
+      loved the son of Osslah with an exceeding love, for he was not savage and
+      fierce as the men she had known, and she was proud of his fame among the
+      tribe; and he took her in his arms and kissed her, and asked her why she
+      wept. Then she told him that her brother the king had visited her, and had
+      spoken bitter words of Morven: &ldquo;He taketh from me the affection of my
+      people,&rdquo; said Siror, &ldquo;and blindeth them with lies. And since he hath made
+      me king, what if he take my kingdom from me? Verily a new tale of the
+      stars might undo the old.&rdquo; And the king had ordered her to keep watch on
+      Morven&rsquo;s secrecy, and to see whether truth was in him when he boasted of
+      his commune with the Powers of night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Orna loved Morven better than Siror, therefore she told her husband
+      all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven resented the king&rsquo;s ingratitude, and was troubled much, for a
+      king is a powerful foe; but he comforted Orna, and bade her dissemble, and
+      complain also of him to her brother, so that he might confide to her
+      unsuspectingly whatsoever he might design against Morven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a cave by Morven&rsquo;s house in which he kept the sacred hawk, and
+      wherein he secretly trained and nurtured other birds against future need;
+      and the door of the cave was always barred. And one day he was thus
+      engaged when he beheld a chink in the wall that he had never noted before,
+      and the sun came playfully in; and while he looked he perceived the
+      sunbeam was darkened, and presently he saw a human face peering in through
+      the chink. And Morven trembled, for he knew he had been watched. He ran
+      hastily from the cave; but the spy had disappeared among the trees, and
+      Morven went straight to the chamber of Darvan and sat himself down. And
+      Darvan did not return home till late, and he started and turned pale when
+      he saw Morven. But Morven greeted him as a brother, and bade him to a
+      feast, which, for the first time, he purposed giving at the full of the
+      moon, in honour of the stars. And going out of Darvan&rsquo;s chamber he
+      returned to his wife, and bade her rend her hair, and go at the dawn of
+      day to the king her brother, and complain bitterly of Morven&rsquo;s treatment,
+      and pluck the black plans from the breast of the king. &ldquo;For surely,&rdquo; said
+      he, &ldquo;Darvan hath lied to thy brother, and some evil waits me that I would
+      fain know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So the next morning Orna sought the king, and she said, &ldquo;The herdsman&rsquo;s
+      son hath reviled me, and spoken harsh words to me; shall I not be
+      avenged?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the king stamped his feet and shook his mighty sword. &ldquo;Surely thou
+      shalt be avenged; for I have learned from one of the elders that which
+      convinceth me that the man hath lied to the people, and the base-born
+      shall surely die. Yea, the first time that he goeth alone into the forest
+      my brother and I will fall upon him and smite him to the death.&rdquo; And with
+      this comfort Siror dismissed Orna.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Orna flung herself at the feet of her husband. &ldquo;Fly now, O my beloved!&mdash;fly
+      into the forests afar from my brethren, or surely the sword of Siror will
+      end thy days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the son of Osslah folded his arms, and seemed buried in black
+      thoughts; nor did he heed the voice of Orna, until again and again she had
+      implored him to fly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fly!&rdquo; he said at length. &ldquo;Nay, I was doubting what punishment the stars
+      should pour down upon our foe. Let warriors fly. Morven the prophet
+      conquers by arms mightier than the sword.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Nevertheless Morven was perplexed in his mind, and knew not how to save
+      himself from the vengeance of the king. Now, while he was musing
+      hopelessly he heard a roar of waters; and behold, the river, for it was
+      now the end of autumn, had burst its bounds, and was rushing along the
+      valley to the houses of the city. And now the men of the tribe, and the
+      women, and the children, came running, and with shrieks, to Morven&rsquo;s
+      house, crying, &ldquo;Behold, the river has burst upon us! Save us, O ruler of
+      the stars!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the sudden thought broke upon Morven, and he resolved to risk his
+      fate upon one desperate scheme.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And he came out from the house calm and sad, and he said, &ldquo;Ye know not
+      what ye ask; I cannot save ye from this peril: ye have brought it on
+      yourselves.&rdquo; And they cried, &ldquo;How? O son of Osslah! We are ignorant of our
+      crime.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And he answered, &ldquo;Go down to the king&rsquo;s palace and wait before it, and
+      surely I will follow ye, and ye shall learn wherefore ye have incurred
+      this punishment from the gods.&rdquo; Then the crowd rolled murmuring back, as a
+      receding sea; and when it was gone from the place, Morven went alone to
+      the house of Darvan, which was next his own. And Darvan was greatly
+      terrified; for he was of a great age, and had no children, neither
+      friends, and he feared that he could not of himself escape the waters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven said to him soothingly, &ldquo;Lo, the people love me, and I will see
+      that thou art saved; for verily thou hast been friendly to me, and done me
+      much service with the king.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And as he thus spake, Morven opened the door of the house and looked
+      forth, and saw that they were quite alone. Then he seized the old man by
+      the throat and ceased not his gripe till he was quite dead; and leaving
+      the body of the elder on the floor, Morven stole from the house and shut
+      the gate. And as he was going to his cave he mused a little while, when,
+      hearing the mighty roar of the waves advancing, and far off the shrieks of
+      women, he lifted up his head and said proudly, &ldquo;No, in this hour terror
+      alone shall be my slave; I will use no art save the power of my soul.&rdquo; So,
+      leaning on his pine-staff, he strode down to the palace. And it was now
+      evening, and many of the men held torches, that they might see each
+      other&rsquo;s faces in the universal fear. Red flashed the quivering flames on
+      the dark robes and pale front of Morven; and he seemed mightier than the
+      rest, because his face alone was calm amidst the tumult. And louder and
+      hoarser became the roar of the waters; and swift rushed the shades of
+      night over the hastening tide.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven said in a stern voice, &ldquo;Where is the king; and wherefore is he
+      absent from his people in the hour of dread?&rdquo; Then the gate of the palace
+      opened, and, behold, Siror was sitting in the hall by the vast pine-fire,
+      and his brother by his side, and his chiefs around him: for they would not
+      deign to come amongst the crowd at the bidding of the herdsman&rsquo;s son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Morven, standing upon a rock above the heads of the people (the same
+      rock whereon he had proclaimed the king), thus spake:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ye desired to know, O sons of Oestrich! wherefore the river hath burst
+      its bounds, and the peril hath come upon you. Learn, then, that the stars
+      resent as the foulest of human crimes an insult to their servants and
+      delegates below. Ye are all aware of the manner of life of Morven, whom ye
+      have surnamed the Prophet! He harms not man nor beast; he lives alone;
+      and, far from the wild joys of the warrior tribe, he worships in awe and
+      fear the Powers of Night. So is he able to advise ye of the coming danger,&mdash;so
+      is he able to save ye from the foe. Thus are your huntsmen swift and your
+      warriors bold; and thus do your cattle bring forth their young, and the
+      earth its fruits. What think ye, and what do ye ask to hear? Listen, men
+      of Oestrich!&mdash;they have laid snares for my life; and there are
+      amongst you those who have whetted the sword against the bosom that is
+      only filled with love for you all. Therefore have the stern lords of
+      heaven loosened the chains of the river; therefore doth this evil menace
+      ye. Neither will it pass away until they who dug the pit for the servant
+      of the stars are buried in the same.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, by the red torches, the faces of the men looked fierce and
+      threatening; and ten thousand voices shouted forth, &ldquo;Name them who
+      conspired against thy life, O holy prophet, and surely they shall be torn
+      limb from limb.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven turned aside, and they saw that he wept bitterly; and he said,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ye have asked me, and I have answered: but now scarce will ye believe the
+      foe that I have provoked against me; and by the heavens themselves I
+      swear, that if my death would satisfy their fury, nor bring down upon
+      yourselves and your children&rsquo;s children the anger of the throned stars,
+      gladly would I give my bosom to the knife. Yes,&rdquo; he cried, lifting up his
+      voice, and pointing his shadowy arm towards the hall where the king sat by
+      the pine-fire,&mdash;&ldquo;yes, thou whom by my voice the stars chose above thy
+      brother; yes, Siror, the guilty one! take thy sword, and come hither;
+      strike, if thou hast the heart to strike, the Prophet of the Gods!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The king started to his feet, and the crowd were hushed in a shuddering
+      silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Morven resumed:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Know then, O men of Oestrich, that Siror and Voltoch his brother, and
+      Darvan the elder of the wise men, have purposed to slay your prophet, even
+      at such hour as when alone he seeks the shade of the forest to devise new
+      benefits for you. Let the king deny it, if he can!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Voltoch, of the giant limbs, strode forth from the hall, and his
+      spear quivered in his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rightly hast thou spoken, base son of my father&rsquo;s herdsman! and for thy
+      sins shalt thou surely die; for thou liest when thou speakest of thy power
+      with the stars, and thou laughest at the folly of them who hear thee:
+      wherefore put him to death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the chiefs in the hall clashed their arms, and rushed forth to slay
+      the son of Osslah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But he, stretching his unarmed hands on high, exclaimed, &ldquo;Hear him, O
+      dread ones of the night! Hark how he blasphemeth!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the crowd took up the word, and cried, &ldquo;He blasphemeth! he
+      blasphemeth against the prophet!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But the king and the chiefs, who hated Morven because of his power with
+      the people, rushed into the crowd; and the crowd were irresolute, nor knew
+      they how to act, for never yet had they rebelled against their chiefs, and
+      they feared alike the prophet and the king.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Siror cried, &ldquo;Summon Darvan to us, for he hath watched the steps of
+      Morven, and he shall lift the veil from my people&rsquo;s eyes.&rdquo; Then three of
+      the swift of foot started forth to the house of Darvan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven cried out with a loud voice, &ldquo;Hark! thus saith the star, who,
+      now riding through yonder cloud, breaks forth upon my eyes, &lsquo;For the lie
+      that the elder hath uttered against my servant, the curse of the stars
+      shall fall upon him.&rsquo; Seek, and as ye find him so may ye find ever the
+      foes of Morven and the gods!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A chill and an icy fear fell over the crowd, and even the cheek of Siror
+      grew pale; and Morven, erect and dark above the waving torches, stood
+      motionless with folded arms. And hark!&mdash;far and fast came on the
+      war-steeds of the wave; the people heard them marching to the land, and
+      tossing their white manes in the roaring wind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lo, as ye listen,&rdquo; said Morven, calmly, &ldquo;the river sweeps on. Haste, for
+      the gods will have a victim, be it your prophet or your king.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Slave!&rdquo; shouted Siror, and his spear left his hand, and far above the
+      heads of the crowd sped hissing beside the dark form of Morven, and rent
+      the trunk of the oak behind. Then the people, wroth at the danger of their
+      beloved seer, uttered a wild yell, and gathered round him with brandished
+      swords, facing their chieftains and their king. But at that instant, ere
+      the war had broken forth among the tribe, the three warriors returned, and
+      they bore Darvan on their shoulders, and laid him at the feet of the king,
+      and they said tremblingly, &ldquo;Thus found we the elder in the centre of his
+      own hall.&rdquo; And the people saw that Darvan was a corpse, and that the
+      prediction of Morven was thus verified. &ldquo;So perish the enemies of Morven
+      and the stars!&rdquo; cried the son of Osslah. And the people echoed the cry.
+      Then the fury of Siror was at its height, and waving his sword above his
+      head he plunged into the crowd, &ldquo;Thy blood, baseborn, or mine!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So be it!&rdquo; answered Morven, quailing not. &ldquo;People, smite the blasphemer!
+      Hark how the river pours down upon your children and your hearths! On, on,
+      or ye perish!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Siror fell, pierced by five hundred spears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Smite! smite!&rdquo; cried Morven, as the chiefs of the royal house gathered
+      round the king. And the clash of swords, and the gleam of spears, and the
+      cries of the dying, and the yell of the trampling people mingled with the
+      roar of the elements, and the voices of the rushing wave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three hundred of the chiefs perished that night by the swords of their own
+      tribe; and the last cry of the victors was, &ldquo;Morven the prophet! <i>Morven
+      the king!</i>&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the son of Osslah, seeing the waves now spreading over the valley, led
+      Orna his wife, and the men of Oestrich, their women, and their children,
+      to a high mount, where they waited the dawning sun. But Orna sat apart and
+      wept bitterly, for her brothers were no more, and her race had perished
+      from the earth. And Morven sought to comfort her in vain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the morning rose, they saw that the river had overspread the greater
+      part of the city, and now stayed its course among the hollows of the vale.
+      Then Morven said to the people, &ldquo;The star-kings are avenged, and their
+      wrath appeased. Tarry only here until the waters have melted into the
+      crevices of the soil.&rdquo; And on the fourth day they returned to the city,
+      and no man dared to name another, save Morven, as the king.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Morven retired into his cave and mused deeply; and then assembling the
+      people, he gave them new laws; and he made them build a mighty temple in
+      honour of the stars, and made them heap within it all that the tribe held
+      most precious. And he took unto him fifty children from the most famous of
+      the tribe; and he took also ten from among the men who had served him
+      best, and he ordained that they should serve the stars in the great
+      temple: and Morven was their chief. And he put away the crown they pressed
+      upon him, and he chose from among the elders a new king. And he ordained
+      that henceforth the servants only of the stars in the great temple should
+      elect the king and the rulers, and hold council, and proclaim war; but he
+      suffered the king to feast, and to hunt, and to make merry in the
+      banquet-halls. And Morven built altars in the temple, and was the first
+      who, in the North, sacrificed the beast and the bird, and afterwards human
+      flesh, upon the altars. And he drew auguries from the entrails of the
+      victim, and made schools for the science of the prophet; and Morven&rsquo;s
+      piety was the wonder of the tribe, in that he refused to be a king. And
+      Morven the high priest was ten thousand times mightier than the king. He
+      taught the people to till the ground and to sow the herb; and by his
+      wisdom, and the valour that his prophecies instilled into men, he
+      conquered all the neighbouring tribes. And the sons of Oestrich spread
+      themselves over a mighty empire, and with them spread the name and the
+      laws of Morven. And in every province which he conquered, he ordered them
+      to build a temple to the stars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But a heavy sorrow fell upon the fears of Morven. The sister of Siror
+      bowed down her head, and survived not long the slaughter of her race. And
+      she left Morven childless. And he mourned bitterly and as one distraught,
+      for her only in the world had his heart the power to love. And he sat down
+      and covered his face, saying:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lo! I have toiled and travailed; and never before in the world did man
+      conquer what I have conquered. Verily the empire of the iron thews and the
+      giant limbs is no more! I have founded a new power, that henceforth shall
+      sway the lands,&mdash;the empire of a plotting brain and a commanding
+      mind. But, behold! my fate is barren, and I feel already that it will grow
+      neither fruit nor tree as a shelter to mine old age. Desolate and lonely
+      shall I pass unto my grave. O Orna! my beautiful! my loved! none were like
+      unto thee, and to thy love do I owe my glory and my life! Would for thy
+      sake, O sweet bird! that nestled in the dark cavern of my heart,&mdash;would
+      for thy sake that thy brethren had been spared, for verily with my life
+      would I have purchased thine. Alas! only when I lost thee did I find that
+      thy love was dearer to me than the fear of others!&rdquo; And Morven mourned
+      night and day, and none might comfort him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But from that time forth he gave himself solely up to the cares of his
+      calling; and his nature and his affections, and whatever there was yet
+      left soft in him, grew hard like stone; and he was a man without love, and
+      he forbade love and marriage to the priest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, in his latter years, there arose <i>other</i> prophets; for the world
+      had grown wiser even by Morven&rsquo;s wisdom, and some did say unto themselves,
+      &ldquo;Behold Morven, the herdsman&rsquo;s son, is a king of kings: this did the stars
+      for their servant; shall we not also be servants to the star?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And they wore black garments like Morven, and went about prophesying of
+      what the stars foretold them. And Morven was exceeding wroth; for he, more
+      than other men, knew that the prophets lied. Wherefore he went forth
+      against them with the ministers of the temple, and he took them, and
+      burned them by a slow fire; for thus said Morven to the people: &ldquo;A true
+      prophet hath honour, but <i>I</i> only am a true prophet; to all false
+      prophets there shall be surely death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the people applauded the piety of the son of Osslah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven educated the wisest of the children in the mysteries of the
+      temple, so that they grew up to succeed him worthily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And he died full of years and honour; and they carved his effigy on a
+      mighty stone before the temple, and the effigy endured for a thousand
+      ages, and whoso looked on it trembled; for the face was calm with the
+      calmness of unspeakable awe!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven was the first mortal of the North that made Religion the
+      stepping-stone to Power. Of a surety Morven was a great man!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the last night of the old year, and the stars sat, each upon his
+      ruby throne, and watched with sleepless eyes upon the world. The night was
+      dark and troubled, the dread winds were abroad, and fast and frequent
+      hurried the clouds beneath the thrones of the kings of night. And ever and
+      anon fiery meteors flashed along the depths of heaven, and were again
+      swallowed up in the grave of darkness. But far below his brethren, and
+      with a lurid haze around his orb, sat the discontented star that had
+      watched over the hunters of the North.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And on the lowest abyss of space there was spread a thick and mighty
+      gloom, from which, as from a caldron, rose columns of wreathing smoke; and
+      still, when the great winds rested for an instant on their paths, voices
+      of woe and laughter, mingled with shrieks, were heard booming from the
+      abyss to the upper air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now, in the middest night, a vast figure rose slowly from the abyss,
+      and its wings threw blackness over the world. High upward to the throne of
+      the discontented star sailed the fearful shape, and the star trembled on
+      his throne when the form stood before him face to face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the shape said, &ldquo;Hail, brother! all hail!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know thee not,&rdquo; answered the star; &ldquo;thou art not the archangel that
+      visitest the kings of night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the shape laughed loud. &ldquo;I am the fallen star of the morning! I am
+      Lucifer, thy brother! Hast thou not, O sullen king, served me and mine;
+      and hast thou not wrested the earth from thy Lord who sittest above, and
+      given it to me, by darkening the souls of men with the religion of fear?
+      Wherefore come, brother, come; thou hast a throne prepared beside my own
+      in the fiery gloom. Come! The heavens are no more for thee!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the star rose from his throne, and descended to the side of Lucifer;
+      for ever hath the spirit of discontent had sympathy with the soul of
+      pride. And they sank slowly down to the gulf of gloom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the first night of the new year, and the stars sat each on his ruby
+      throne, and watched with sleepless eyes upon the world. But sorrow dimmed
+      the bright faces of the kings of night, for they mourned in silence and in
+      fear for a fallen brother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the gates of the heaven of heavens flew open with a golden sound, and
+      the swift archangel fled down on his silent wings; and the archangel gave
+      to each of the stars, as before, the message of his Lord, and to each star
+      was his appointed charge. And when the heraldry seemed done there came a
+      laugh from the abyss of gloom, and half-way from the gulf rose the lurid
+      shape of Lucifer the fiend!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou countest thy flock ill, O radiant shepherd! Behold! one star is
+      missing from the three thousand and ten!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Back to thy gulf, false Lucifer!&mdash;the throne of thy brother hath
+      been filled.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And, lo! as the archangel spake, the stars beheld a young and all-lustrous
+      stranger on the throne of the erring star; and his face was so soft to
+      look upon that the dimmest of human eyes might have gazed upon its
+      splendour unabashed: but the dark fiend alone was dazzled by its lustre,
+      and, with a yell that shook the flaming pillars of the universe, he
+      plunged backward into the gloom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, far and sweet from the arch unseen, came forth the voice of God,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Behold! on the throne of the discontented star sits the star of Hope; and
+      he that breathed into mankind the religion of Fear hath a successor in him
+      who shall teach earth the religion of Love!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And evermore the star of Fear dwells with Lucifer, and the star of Love
+      keeps vigil in heaven!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XX. GLENHAUSEN.&mdash;THE POWER OF LOVE IN SANCTIFIED PLACES.&mdash;A
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      PORTRAIT OF FREDERICK BARBAROSSA.&mdash;THE AMBITION OF MEN FINDS NO
+      ADEQUATE SYMPATHY IN WOMEN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;YOU made me tremble for you more than once,&rdquo; said Gertrude to the
+      student; &ldquo;I feared you were about to touch upon ground really sacred, but
+      your end redeemed all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The false religion always tries to counterfeit the garb, the language,
+      the aspect of the true,&rdquo; answered the German; &ldquo;for that reason, I
+      purposely suffered my tale to occasion that very fear and anxiety you
+      speak of, conscious that the most scrupulous would be contented when the
+      whole was finished.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This German was one of a new school, of which England as yet knows
+      nothing. We shall see hereafter what it will produce.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The student left them at Friedberg, and our travellers proceeded to
+      Glenhausen,&mdash;a spot interesting to lovers; for here Frederick the
+      First was won by the beauty of Gela, and, in the midst of an island vale,
+      he built the Imperial Palace, in honour of the lady of his love. This spot
+      is, indeed, well chosen of itself; the mountains of the Rhinegeburg close
+      it in with the green gloom of woods and the glancing waters of the Kinz.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still, wherever we go,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, &ldquo;we find all tradition is
+      connected with love; and history, for that reason, hallows less than
+      romance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is singular,&rdquo; said Vane, moralizing, &ldquo;that love makes but a small part
+      of our actual lives, but is yet the master-key to our sympathies. The
+      hardest of us, who laugh at the passion when they see it palpably before
+      them, are arrested by some dim tradition of its existence in the past. It
+      is as if life had few opportunities of bringing out certain qualities
+      within us, so that they always remain untold and dormant, susceptible to
+      thought, but deaf to action.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You refine and mystify too much,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, smiling; &ldquo;none of us
+      have any faculty, any passion, uncalled forth, if we have <i>really</i>
+      loved, though but for a day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Gertrude smiled, and drawing her arm within his, Trevylyan left Vane to
+      philosophize on passion,&mdash;a fit occupation for one who had never felt
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here let us pause,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, afterwards, as they visited the
+      remains of the ancient palace, and the sun glittered on the scene, &ldquo;to
+      recall the old chivalric day of the gallant Barbarossa; let us suppose him
+      commencing the last great action of his life; let us picture him as
+      setting out for the Holy Land. Imagine him issuing from those walls on his
+      white charger,&mdash;his fiery eye somewhat dimmed by years, and his hair
+      blanched; but nobler from the impress of time itself,&mdash;the clang of
+      arms; the tramp of steeds; banners on high; music pealing from hill to
+      hill; the red cross and the nodding plume; the sun, as now glancing on
+      yonder trees; and thence reflected from the burnished arms of the
+      Crusaders. But, Gela&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; said Gertrude, &ldquo;<i>she</i> must be no more; for she would have
+      outlived her beauty, and have found that glory had now no rival in his
+      breast. Glory consoles men for the death of the loved; but glory is
+      infidelity to the living.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, not so, dearest Gertrude,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, quickly; &ldquo;for my darling
+      dream of Fame is the hope of laying its honours at your feet! And if ever,
+      in future years, I should rise above the herd, I should only ask if <i>your</i>
+      step were proud and <i>your</i> heart elated.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was wrong,&rdquo; said Gertrude, with tears in her eyes; &ldquo;and for your sake I
+      can be ambitious.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps there, too, she was mistaken; for one of the common
+      disappointments of the heart is, that women have so rarely a sympathy in
+      our better and higher aspirings. Their ambition is not for great things;
+      they cannot understand that desire &ldquo;which scorns delight, and loves
+      laborious days.&rdquo; If they love us, they usually exact too much. They are
+      jealous of the ambition to which we sacrifice so largely, and which
+      divides us from them; and they leave the stern passion of great minds to
+      the only solitude which affection cannot share. To aspire is to be alone!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXI. VIEW OF EHRENBREITSTEIN.&mdash;A NEW ALARM IN GERTRUDE&rsquo;S
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      HEALTH.&mdash;TRARBACH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ANOTHER time our travellers proceeded from Coblentz to Treves, following
+      the course of the Moselle. They stopped on the opposite bank below the
+      bridge that unites Coblentz with the Petersberg, to linger over the superb
+      view of Ehrenbreitstein which you may there behold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was one of those calm noonday scenes which impress upon us their own
+      bright and voluptuous tranquillity. There stood the old herdsman leaning
+      on his staff, and the quiet cattle knee-deep in the gliding waters. Never
+      did stream more smooth and sheen than was at that hour the surface of the
+      Moselle mirror the images of the pastoral life. Beyond, the darker shadows
+      of the bridge and of the walls of Coblentz fell deep over the waves,
+      checkered by the tall sails of the craft that were moored around the
+      harbour. But clear against the sun rose the spires and roofs of Coblentz,
+      backed by many a hill sloping away to the horizon. High, dark, and
+      massive, on the opposite bank, swelled the towers and rock of
+      Ehrenbreitstein,&mdash;a type of that great chivalric spirit&mdash;the
+      HONOUR that the rock arrogates for its name&mdash;which demands so many
+      sacrifices of blood and tears, but which ever creates in the restless
+      heart of man a far deeper interest than the more peaceful scenes of life
+      by which it is contrasted. There, still&mdash;from the calm waters, and
+      the abodes of common toil and ordinary pleasure&mdash;turns the aspiring
+      mind! Still as we gaze on that lofty and immemorial rock we recall the
+      famine and the siege; and own that the more daring crimes of men have a
+      strange privilege in hallowing the very spot which they devastate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Below, in green curves and mimic bays covered with herbage, the gradual
+      banks mingled with the water; and just where the bridge closed, a solitary
+      group of trees, standing dark in the thickest shadow, gave that melancholy
+      feature to the scene which resembles the one dark thought that often
+      forces itself into our sunniest hours. Their boughs stirred not; no voice
+      of birds broke the stillness of their gloomy verdure: the eye turned from
+      them, as from the sad moral that belongs to existence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In proceeding to Trarbach, Gertrude was seized with another of those
+      fainting fits which had so terrified Trevylyan before; they stopped an
+      hour or two at a little village, but Gertrude rallied with such apparent
+      rapidity, and so strongly insisted on proceeding, that they reluctantly
+      continued their way. This event would have thrown a gloom over their
+      journey, if Gertrude had not exerted herself to dispel the impression she
+      had occasioned; and so light, so cheerful, were her spirits, that for the
+      time at least she succeeded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They arrived at Trarbach late at noon. This now small and humble town is
+      said to have been the Thronus Bacchi of the ancients. From the spot where
+      the travellers halted to take, as it were, their impression of the town,
+      they saw before them the little hostelry, a poor pretender to the Thronus
+      Bacchi, with the rude sign of the Holy Mother over the door. The peaked
+      roof, the sunk window, the gray walls, checkered with the rude beams of
+      wood so common to the meaner houses on the Continent, bore something of a
+      melancholy and prepossessing aspect. Right above, with its Gothic windows
+      and venerable spire, rose the church of the town; and, crowning the summit
+      of a green and almost perpendicular mountain, scowled the remains of one
+      of those mighty castles which make the never-failing frown on a German
+      landscape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The scene was one of quiet and of gloom: the exceeding serenity of the day
+      contrasted, with an almost unpleasing brightness, the poverty of the town,
+      the thinness of the population, and the dreary grandeur of the ruins that
+      overhung the capital of the perished race of the bold Counts of Spanheim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They passed the night at Trarbach, and continued their journey next day.
+      At Treves, Gertrude was for some days seriously ill; and when they
+      returned to Coblentz, her disease had evidently received a rapid and
+      alarming increase.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXII. THE DOUBLE LIFE.&mdash;TREVYLYAN&rsquo;S FATE.&mdash;SORROW THE
+      PARENT OF
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      FAME.&mdash;NIEDERLAHNSTEIN.&mdash;DREAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      THERE are two lives to each of us, gliding on at the same time, scarcely
+      connected with each other,&mdash;the life of our actions, the life of our
+      minds; the external and the inward history; the movements of the frame,
+      the deep and ever-restless workings of the heart! They who have loved know
+      that there is a diary of the affections, which we might keep for years
+      without having occasion even to touch upon the exterior surface of life,
+      our busy occupations, the mechanical progress of our existence; yet by the
+      last are we judged, the first is never known. History reveals men&rsquo;s deeds,
+      men&rsquo;s outward character, but <i>not themselves</i>. There is a secret self
+      that hath its own life &ldquo;rounded by a dream,&rdquo; unpenetrated, unguessed. What
+      passed within Trevylyan, hour after hour, as he watched over the declining
+      health of the only being in the world whom his proud heart had been ever
+      destined to love? His real record of the time was marked by every cloud
+      upon Gertrude&rsquo;s brow, every smile of her countenance, every&mdash;the
+      faintest&mdash;alteration in her disease; yet, to the outward seeming, all
+      this vast current of varying eventful emotion lay dark and unconjectured.
+      He filled up with wonted regularity the colourings of existence, and
+      smiled and moved as other men. For still, in the heroism with which
+      devotion conquers self, he sought only to cheer and gladden the young
+      heart on which he had embarked his all; and he kept the dark tempest of
+      his anguish for the solitude of night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That was a peculiar doom which Fate had reserved for him; and casting him,
+      in after years, on the great sea of public strife, it seemed as if she
+      were resolved to tear from his heart all yearnings for the land. For him
+      there was to be no green or sequestered spot in the valley of household
+      peace. His bark was to know no haven, and his soul not even the desire of
+      rest. For action is that Lethe in which alone we forget our former dreams,
+      and the mind that, too stern not to wrestle with its emotions, seeks to
+      conquer regret, must leave itself no leisure to look behind. Who knows
+      what benefits to the world may have sprung from the sorrows of the
+      benefactor? As the harvest that gladdens mankind in the suns of autumn was
+      called forth by the rains of spring, so the griefs of youth may make the
+      fame of maturity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gertrude, charmed by the beauties of the river, desired to continue the
+      voyage to Mayence. The rich Trevylyan persuaded the physician who had
+      attended her to accompany them, and they once more pursued their way along
+      the banks of the feudal Rhine. For what the Tiber is to the classic, the
+      Rhine is to the chivalric age. The steep rock and the gray dismantled
+      tower, the massive and rude picturesque of the feudal days, constitute the
+      great features of the scene; and you might almost fancy, as you glide
+      along, that you are sailing back adown the river of Time, and the
+      monuments of the pomp and power of old, rising, one after one, upon its
+      shores!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Vane and Du&mdash;&mdash;-e, the physician, at the farther end of the
+      vessel, conversed upon stones and strata, in that singular pedantry of
+      science which strips nature to a skeleton, and prowls among the dead bones
+      of the world, unconscious of its living beauty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They left Gertrude and Trevylyan to themselves; and, &ldquo;bending o&rsquo;er the
+      vessel&rsquo;s laving side,&rdquo; they indulged in silence the melancholy with which
+      each was imbued. For Gertrude began to waken, though doubtingly and at
+      intervals, to a sense of the short span that was granted to her life; and
+      over the loveliness around her there floated that sad and ineffable
+      interest which springs from the presentiment of our own death. They passed
+      the rich island of Oberwerth, and Hochheim, famous for its ruby grape, and
+      saw, from his mountain bed, the Lahn bear his tribute of fruits and corn
+      into the treasury of the Rhine. Proudly rose the tower of Niederlahnstein,
+      and deeply lay its shadow along the stream. It was late noon; the cattle
+      had sought the shade from the slanting sun, and, far beyond, the holy
+      castle of Marksburg raised its battlements above mountains covered with
+      the vine. On the water two boats had been drawn alongside each other; and
+      from one, now moving to the land, the splash of oars broke the general
+      stillness of the tide. Fast by an old tower the fishermen were busied in
+      their craft, but the sound of their voices did not reach the ear. It was
+      life, but a silent life, suited to the tranquillity of noon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is something in travel,&rdquo; said Gertrude, &ldquo;which constantly, even
+      amidst the most retired spots, impresses us with the exuberance of life.
+      We come to those quiet nooks and find a race whose existence we never
+      dreamed of. In their humble path they know the same passions and tread the
+      same career as ourselves. The mountains shut them out from the great
+      world, but their village is a world in itself. And they know and heed no
+      more of the turbulent scenes of remote cities than our own planet of the
+      inhabitants of the distant stars. What then is death, but the
+      forgetfulness of some few hearts added to the general unconsciousness of
+      our existence that pervades the universe? The bubble breaks in the vast
+      desert of the air without a sound.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why talk of death?&rdquo; said Trevylyan, with a writhing smile. &ldquo;These sunny
+      scenes should not call forth such melancholy images.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Melancholy,&rdquo; repeated Gertrude, mechanically. &ldquo;Yes, death is indeed
+      melancholy when we are loved!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They stayed a short time at Niederlahnstein, for Vane was anxious to
+      examine the minerals that the Lahn brings into the Rhine; and the sun was
+      waning towards its close as they renewed their voyage. As they sailed
+      slowly on, Gertrude said, &ldquo;How like a dream is this sentiment of
+      existence, when, without labour or motion, every change of scene is
+      brought before us; and if I am with you, dearest, I do not feel it less
+      resembling a dream, for I have dreamed of you lately more than ever; and
+      dreams have become a part of my life itself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Speaking of dreams,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, as they pursued that mysterious
+      subject, &ldquo;I once during my former residence in Germany fell in with a
+      singular enthusiast, who had taught himself what he termed &lsquo;A System of
+      Dreaming.&rsquo; When he first spoke to me upon it I asked him to explain what
+      he meant, which he did somewhat in the following words.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIII. THE LIFE OF DREAMS.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I WAS born,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;with many of the sentiments of the poet, but
+      without the language to express them; my feelings were constantly chilled
+      by the intercourse of the actual world. My family, mere Germans, dull and
+      unimpassioned, had nothing in common with me; nor did I out of my family
+      find those with whom I could better sympathize. I was revolted by
+      friendships,&mdash;for they were susceptible to every change; I was
+      disappointed in love,&mdash;for the truth never approached to my ideal.
+      Nursed early in the lap of Romance, enamoured of the wild and the
+      adventurous, the commonplaces of life were to me inexpressibly tame and
+      joyless. And yet indolence, which belongs to the poetical character, was
+      more inviting than that eager and uncontemplative action which can alone
+      wring enterprise from life. Meditation was my natural element. I loved to
+      spend the noon reclined by some shady stream, and in a half sleep to shape
+      images from the glancing sunbeams. A dim and unreal order of philosophy,
+      that belongs to our nation, was my favourite intellectual pursuit; and I
+      sought amongst the Obscure and the Recondite the variety and emotion I
+      could not find in the Familiar. Thus constantly watching the operations of
+      the inner mind, it occurred to me at last that sleep having its own world,
+      but as yet a rude and fragmentary one, it might be possible to shape from
+      its chaos all those combinations of beauty, of power, of glory, and of
+      love, which were denied to me in the world in which my frame walked and
+      had its being. So soon as this idea came upon me, I nursed and cherished
+      and mused over it, till I found that the imagination began to effect the
+      miracle I desired. By brooding ardently, intensely, before I retired to
+      rest, over any especial train of thought, over any ideal creations; by
+      keeping the body utterly still and quiescent during the whole day; by
+      shutting out all living adventure, the memory of which might perplex and
+      interfere with the stream of events that I desired to pour forth into the
+      wilds of sleep, I discovered at last that I could lead in dreams a life
+      solely their own, and utterly distinct from the life of day. Towers and
+      palaces, all my heritage and seigneury, rose before me from the depths of
+      night; I quaffed from jewelled cups the Falernian of imperial vaults;
+      music from harps of celestial tone filled up the crevices of air; and the
+      smiles of immortal beauty flushed like sunlight over all. Thus the
+      adventure and the glory that I could not for my waking life obtain, was
+      obtained for me in sleep. I wandered with the gryphon and the gnome; I
+      sounded the horn at enchanted portals; I conquered in the knightly lists;
+      I planted my standard over battlements huge as the painter&rsquo;s birth of
+      Babylon itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I was afraid to call forth one shape on whose loveliness to pour all
+      the hidden passion of my soul. I trembled lest my sleep should present me
+      some image which it could never restore, and, waking from which, even the
+      new world I had created might be left desolate forever. I shuddered lest I
+      should adore a vision which the first ray of morning could smite to the
+      grave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In this train of mind I began to wonder whether it might not be possible
+      to connect dreams together; to supply the thread that was wanting; to make
+      one night continue the history of the other, so as to bring together the
+      same shapes and the same scenes, and thus lead a connected and harmonious
+      life, not only in the one half of existence, but in the other, the richer
+      and more glorious half. No sooner did this idea present itself to me, than
+      I burned to accomplish it. I had before taught myself that Faith is the
+      great creator; that to believe fervently is to make belief true. So I
+      would not suffer my mind to doubt the practicability of its scheme. I shut
+      myself up then entirely by day, refused books, and hated the very sun, and
+      compelled all my thoughts (and sleep is the mirror of thought) to glide in
+      one direction,&mdash;the direction of my dreams,&mdash;so that from night
+      to night the imagination might keep up the thread of action, and I might
+      thus lie down full of the past dream and confident of the sequel. Not for
+      one day only, or for one month, did I pursue this system, but I continued
+      it zealously and sternly till at length it began to succeed. Who shall
+      tell,&rdquo; cried the enthusiast,&mdash;I see him now with his deep, bright,
+      sunken eyes, and his wild hair thrown backward from his brow,&mdash;&ldquo;the
+      rapture I experienced, when first, faintly and half distinct, I perceived
+      the harmony I had invoked dawn upon my dreams? At first there was only a
+      partial and desultory connection between them; my eye recognized certain
+      shapes, my ear certain tones common to each; by degrees these augmented in
+      number, and were more defined in outline. At length one fair face broke
+      forth from among the ruder forms, and night after night appeared mixing
+      with them for a moment and then vanishing, just as the mariner watches, in
+      a clouded sky, the moon shining through the drifting rack, and quickly
+      gone. My curiosity was now vividly excited; the face, with its lustrous
+      eyes and seraph features, roused all the emotions that no living shape had
+      called forth. I became enamoured of a dream, and as the statue to the
+      Cyprian was my creation to me; so from this intent and unceasing passion I
+      at length worked out my reward. My dream became more palpable; I spoke
+      with it; I knelt to it; my lips were pressed to its own; we exchanged the
+      vows of love, and morning only separated us with the certainty that at
+      night we should meet again. Thus then,&rdquo; continued my visionary, &ldquo;I
+      commenced a history utterly separate from the history of the world, and it
+      went on alternately with my harsh and chilling history of the day, equally
+      regular and equally continuous. And what, you ask, was that history?
+      Methought I was a prince in some Eastern island that had no features in
+      common with the colder north of my native home. By day I looked upon the
+      dull walls of a German town, and saw homely or squalid forms passing
+      before me; the sky was dim and the sun cheerless. Night came on with her
+      thousand stars, and brought me the dews of sleep. Then suddenly there was
+      a new world; the richest fruits hung from the trees in clusters of gold
+      and purple. Palaces of the quaint fashion of the sunnier climes, with
+      spiral minarets and glittering cupolas, were mirrored upon vast lakes
+      sheltered by the palm-tree and banana. The sun seemed a different orb, so
+      mellow and gorgeous were his beams; birds and winged things of all hues
+      fluttered in the shining air; the faces and garments of men were not of
+      the northern regions of the world, and their voices spoke a tongue which,
+      strange at first, by degrees I interpreted. Sometimes I made war upon
+      neighbouring kings; sometimes I chased the spotted pard through the vast
+      gloom of immemorial forests; my life was at once a life of enterprise and
+      pomp. But above all there was the history of my love! I thought there were
+      a thousand difficulties in the way of attaining its possession. Many were
+      the rocks I had to scale, and the battles to wage, and the fortresses to
+      storm, in order to win her as my bride. But at last&rdquo; (continued the
+      enthusiast), &ldquo;she <i>is</i> won, she is my own! Time in that wild world,
+      which I visit nightly, passes not so slowly as in this, and yet an hour
+      may be the same as a year. This continuity of existence, this successive
+      series of dreams, so different from the broken incoherence of other men&rsquo;s
+      sleep, at times bewilders me with strange and suspicious thoughts. What if
+      this glorious sleep be a real life, and this dull waking the true repose?
+      Why not? What is there more faithful in the one than in the other? And
+      there have I garnered and collected all of pleasure that I am capable of
+      feeling. I seek no joy in this world; I form no ties, I feast not, nor
+      love, nor make merry; I am only impatient till the hour when I may
+      re-enter my royal realms and pour my renewed delight into the bosom of my
+      bright Ideal. There then have I found all that the world denied me; there
+      have I realized the yearning and the aspiration within me; there have I
+      coined the untold poetry into the Felt, the Seen!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I found, continued Trevylyan, that this tale was corroborated by inquiry
+      into the visionary&rsquo;s habits. He shunned society; avoided all unnecessary
+      movement or excitement. He fared with rigid abstemiousness, and only
+      appeared to feel pleasure as the day departed, and the hour of return to
+      his imaginary kingdom approached. He always retired to rest punctually at
+      a certain hour, and would sleep so soundly that a cannon fired under his
+      window would not arouse him. He never, which may seem singular, spoke or
+      moved much in his sleep, but was peculiarly calm, almost to the appearance
+      of lifelessness; but, discovering once that he had been watched in sleep,
+      he was wont afterwards carefully to secure the chamber from intrusion. His
+      victory over the natural incoherence of sleep had, when I first knew him,
+      lasted for some years; possibly what imagination first produced was
+      afterwards continued by habit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I saw him again a few months subsequent to this confession, and he seemed
+      to me much changed. His health was broken, and his abstraction had
+      deepened into gloom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I questioned him of the cause of the alteration, and he answered me with
+      great reluctance,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is dead,&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;my realms are desolate! A serpent stung her, and
+      she died in these very arms. Vainly, when I started from my sleep in
+      horror and despair, vainly did I say to myself,&mdash;This is but a dream.
+      I shall see her again. A vision cannot die! Hath it flesh that decays; is
+      it not a spirit,&mdash;bodiless, indissoluble? With what terrible anxiety
+      I awaited the night! Again I slept, and the DREAM lay again before me,
+      dead and withered. Even the ideal can vanish. I assisted in the burial; I
+      laid her in the earth; I heaped the monumental mockery over her form. And
+      never since hath she, or ought like her, revisited my dreams. I see her
+      only when I wake; thus to wake is indeed to dream! But,&rdquo; continued the
+      visionary in a solemn voice, &ldquo;I feel myself departing from this world, and
+      with a fearful joy; for I think there may be a land beyond even the land
+      of sleep where I shall see her again,&mdash;a land in which a vision
+      itself may be restored.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And in truth, concluded Trevylyan, the dreamer died shortly afterwards,
+      suddenly, and in his sleep. And never before, perhaps, had Fate so
+      literally made of a living man (with his passions and his powers, his
+      ambition and his love) the plaything and puppet of a dream!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; said Vane, who had heard the latter part of Trevylyan&rsquo;s story,
+      &ldquo;could the German have bequeathed to us his secret, what a refuge should
+      we possess from the ills of earth! The dungeon and disease, poverty,
+      affliction, shame, would cease to be the tyrants of our lot; and to Sleep
+      we should confine our history and transfer our emotions.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gertrude,&rdquo; whispered the lover, &ldquo;what his kingdom and his bride were to
+      the Dreamer art thou to me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIV. THE BROTHERS.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE banks of the Rhine now shelved away into sweeping plains, and on their
+      right rose the once imperial city of Boppart. In no journey of similar
+      length do you meet with such striking instances of the mutability and
+      shifts of power. To find, as in the Memphian Egypt, a city sunk into a
+      heap of desolate ruins; the hum, the roar, the mart of nations, hushed
+      into the silence of ancestral tombs, is less humbling to our human vanity
+      than to mark, as along the Rhine, the kingly city dwindled into the humble
+      town or the dreary village,&mdash;decay without its grandeur, change
+      without the awe of its solitude! On the site on which Drusus raised his
+      Roman tower, and the kings of the Franks their palaces, trade now dribbles
+      in tobacco-pipes, and transforms into an excellent cotton factory the
+      antique nunnery of Konigsberg! So be it; it is the progressive order of
+      things,&mdash;the world itself will soon be one excellent cotton factory!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, as they sailed on, &ldquo;at yonder mountain, with its
+      two traditionary Castles of Liebenstein and Sternfels.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Massive and huge the ruins swelled above the green rock, at the foot of
+      which lay, in happier security from time and change, the clustered
+      cottages of the peasant, with a single spire rising above the quiet
+      village.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is there not, Albert, a celebrated legend attached to those castles?&rdquo;
+       said Gertrude. &ldquo;I think I remember to have heard their names in connection
+      with your profession of taleteller.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, &ldquo;the story relates to the last lords of those
+      shattered towers, and&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will sit here, nearer to me, and begin,&rdquo; interrupted Gertrude, in her
+      tone of childlike command. &ldquo;Come.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                           THE BROTHERS.
+
+                              A TALE.*
+
+  * This tale is, in reality, founded on the beautiful tradition
+    which belongs to Liebenstein and Sternfels.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      You must imagine then, dear Gertrude (said Trevylyan), a beautiful summer
+      day, and by the same faculty that none possess so richly as yourself, for
+      it is you who can kindle something of that divine spark even in me, you
+      must rebuild those shattered towers in the pomp of old; raise the gallery
+      and the hall; man the battlements with warders, and give the proud banners
+      of ancestral chivalry to wave upon the walls. But above, sloping half down
+      the rock, you must fancy the hanging gardens of Liebenstein, fragrant with
+      flowers, and basking in the noonday sun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the greenest turf, underneath an oak, there sat three persons, in the
+      bloom of youth. Two of the three were brothers; the third was an orphan
+      girl, whom the lord of the opposite tower of Sternfels had bequeathed to
+      the protection of his brother, the chief of Liebenstein. The castle itself
+      and the demesne that belonged to it passed away from the female line, and
+      became the heritage of Otho, the orphan&rsquo;s cousin, and the younger of the
+      two brothers now seated on the turf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And oh,&rdquo; said the elder, whose name was Warbeck, &ldquo;you have twined a
+      chaplet for my brother; have you not, dearest Leoline, a simple flower for
+      me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The beautiful orphan (for beautiful she was, Gertrude, as the heroine of
+      the tale you bid me tell ought to be,&mdash;should she not have to the
+      dreams of my fancy your lustrous hair, and your sweet smile, and your eyes
+      of blue, that are never, never silent? Ah, pardon me, that in a former
+      tale, I denied the heroine the beauty of your face, and remember that to
+      atone for it, I endowed her with the beauty of your mind)&mdash;the
+      beautiful orphan blushed to her temples, and culling from the flowers in
+      her lap the freshest of the roses, began weaving them into a wreath for
+      Warbeck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would be better,&rdquo; said the gay Otho, &ldquo;to make my sober brother a
+      chaplet of the rue and cypress; the rose is much too bright a flower for
+      so serious a knight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Leoline held up her hand reprovingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let him laugh, dearest cousin,&rdquo; said Warbeck, gazing passionately on her
+      changing cheek; &ldquo;and thou, Leoline, believe that the silent stream runs
+      the deepest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment, they heard the voice of the old chief, their father,
+      calling aloud for Leoline; for ever when he returned from the chase he
+      wanted her gentle presence; and the hall was solitary to him if the light
+      sound of her step and the music of her voice were not heard in welcome.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leoline hastened to her guardian, and the brothers were left alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing could be more dissimilar than the features and the respective
+      characters of Otho and Warbeck. Otho&rsquo;s countenance was flushed with the
+      brown hues of health; his eyes were of the brightest hazel: his dark hair
+      wreathed in short curls round his open and fearless brow; the jest ever
+      echoed on his lips, and his step was bounding as the foot of the hunter of
+      the Alps. Bold and light was his spirit; if at times he betrayed the
+      haughty insolence of youth, he felt generously, and though not ever ready
+      to confess sorrow for a fault, he was at least ready to brave peril for a
+      friend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Warbeck&rsquo;s frame, though of equal strength, was more slender in its
+      proportions than that of his brother; the fair long hair that
+      characterized his northern race hung on either side of a countenance calm
+      and pale, and deeply impressed with thought, even to sadness. His
+      features, more majestic and regular than Otho&rsquo;s, rarely varied in their
+      expression. More resolute even than Otho, he was less impetuous; more
+      impassioned, he was also less capricious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The brothers remained silent after Leoline had left them. Otho carelessly
+      braced on his sword, that he had laid aside on the grass; but Warbeck
+      gathered up the flowers that had been touched by the soft hand of Leoline,
+      and placed them in his bosom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The action disturbed Otho; he bit his lip, and changed colour; at length
+      he said, with a forced laugh,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must be confessed, brother, that you carry your affection for our fair
+      cousin to a degree that even relationship seems scarcely to warrant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is true,&rdquo; said Warbeck, calmly; &ldquo;I love her with a love surpassing
+      that of blood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How!&rdquo; said Otho, fiercely: &ldquo;do you dare to think of Leoline as a bride?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dare!&rdquo; repeated Warbeck, turning yet paler than his wonted hue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I have said the word! Know, Warbeck, that I, too, love Leoline; I,
+      too, claim her as my bride; and never, while I can wield a sword, never,
+      while I wear the spurs of knighthood, will I render my claim to a living
+      rival,&mdash;even,&rdquo; he added, sinking his voice, &ldquo;though that rival be my
+      brother!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Warbeck answered not; his very soul seemed stunned; he gazed long and
+      wistfully on his brother, and then, turning his face away, ascended the
+      rock without uttering a single word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This silence startled Otho. Accustomed to vent every emotion of his own,
+      he could not comprehend the forbearance of his brother; he knew his high
+      and brave nature too well to imagine that it arose from fear. Might it not
+      be contempt, or might he not, at this moment, intend to seek their father;
+      and, the first to proclaim his love for the orphan, advance, also, the
+      privilege of the elder born? As these suspicions flashed across him, the
+      haughty Otho strode to his brother&rsquo;s side, and laying his hand on his arm,
+      said,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whither goest thou; and dost thou consent to surrender Leoline?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does she love thee, Otho?&rdquo; answered Warbeck, breaking silence at last;
+      and his voice spoke so deep an anguish, that it arrested the passions of
+      Otho even at their height.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is thou who art now silent,&rdquo; continued Warbeck; &ldquo;speak. Doth she love
+      thee, and has her lip confessed it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have believed that she loved me,&rdquo; faltered Otho; &ldquo;but she is of maiden
+      bearing, and her lip, at least, has never told it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Enough,&rdquo; said Warbeck; &ldquo;release your hold.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stay,&rdquo; said Otho, his suspicions returning; &ldquo;stay,&mdash;yet one word;
+      dost thou seek my father? He ever honoured thee more than me: wilt thou
+      own to him thy love, and insist on thy right of birth? By my soul and my
+      hope of heaven, do it, and one of us two must fall!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor boy!&rdquo; answered Warbeck, bitterly; &ldquo;how little thou canst read the
+      heart of one who loves truly! Thinkest thou I would wed her if she loved
+      thee? Thinkest thou I could, even to be blessed myself, give her one
+      moment&rsquo;s pain? Out on the thought! away!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then wilt not thou seek our father?&rdquo; said Otho, abashed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our father!&mdash;has our father the keeping of Leoline&rsquo;s affection?&rdquo;
+       answered Warbeck; and shaking off his brother&rsquo;s grasp, he sought the way
+      to the castle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he entered the hall, he heard the voice of Leoline; she was singing to
+      the old chief one of the simple ballads of the time that the warrior and
+      the hunter loved to hear. He paused lest he should break the spell (a
+      spell stronger than a sorcerer&rsquo;s to him), and gazing upon Leoline&rsquo;s
+      beautiful form, his heart sank within him. His brother and himself had
+      each that day, as they sat in the gardens, given her a flower; his flower
+      was the fresher and the rarer; his he saw not, but she wore his brother&rsquo;s
+      in her bosom!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The chief, lulled by the music and wearied with the toils of the chase,
+      sank into sleep as the song ended, and Warbeck, coming forward, motioned
+      to Leoline to follow him. He passed into a retired and solitary walk, and
+      when they were a little distance from the castle, Warbeck turned round,
+      and taking Leoline&rsquo;s hand gently, said,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us rest here for one moment, dearest cousin; I have much on my heart
+      to say to thee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what is there,&rdquo; answered Leoline, as they sat on a mossy bank, with
+      the broad Rhine glancing below, &ldquo;what is there that my kind Warbeck would
+      ask of me? Ah, would it might be some favour, something in poor Leoline&rsquo;s
+      power to grant; for ever from my birth you have been to me most tender,
+      most kind. You, I have often heard them say; taught my first steps to
+      walk; you formed my infant lips into language, and, in after years, when
+      my wild cousin was far away in the forests at the chase, you would brave
+      his gay jest and remain at home, lest Leoline should be weary in the
+      solitude. Ah, would I could repay you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Warbeck turned away his cheek; his heart was very full, and it was some
+      moments before he summoned courage to reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My fair cousin,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;those were happy days; but they were the days
+      of childhood. New cares and new thoughts have now come on us; but I am
+      still thy friend, Leoline, and still thou wilt confide in me thy young
+      sorrows and thy young hopes, as thou ever didst. Wilt thou not, Leoline?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Canst thou ask me?&rdquo; said Leoline; and Warbeck, gazing on her face, saw
+      that though her eyes were full of tears, they yet looked steadily upon
+      his; and he knew that she loved him only as a sister.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He sighed, and paused again ere he resumed. &ldquo;Enough,&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;now to my
+      task. Once on a time, dear cousin, there lived among these mountains a
+      certain chief who had two sons, and an orphan like thyself dwelt also in
+      his halls. And the elder son&mdash;but no matter, let us not waste words
+      on <i>him</i>!&mdash;the younger son, then, loved the orphan dearly,&mdash;more
+      dearly than cousins love; and fearful of refusal, he prayed the elder one
+      to urge his suit to the orphan. Leoline, my tale is done. Canst thou not
+      love Otho as he loves thee?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And now lifting his eyes to Leoline, he saw that she trembled violently,
+      and her cheek was covered with blushes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say,&rdquo; continued he, mastering himself, &ldquo;is not that flower his&mdash;present&mdash;a
+      token that he is chiefly in thy thoughts?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, Warbeck! do not deem me ungrateful that I wear not yours also; but&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush!&rdquo; said Warbeck, hastily; &ldquo;I am but as thy brother; is not Otho more?
+      He is young, brave, and beautiful. God grant that he may deserve thee, if
+      thou givest him so rich a gift as thy affections!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I saw less of Otho in my childhood,&rdquo; said Leoline, evasively; &ldquo;therefore,
+      his kindness of late years seemed stranger to me than thine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And thou wilt not then reject him? Thou wilt be his bride?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And <i>thy</i> sister,&rdquo; answered Leoline.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bless thee, mine own dear cousin! one brother&rsquo;s kiss then, and farewell!
+      Otho shall thank thee for himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He kissed her forehead calmly, and, turning away, plunged into the
+      thicket; then, nor till then, he gave vent to such emotions as, had
+      Leoline seen them, Otho&rsquo;s suit had been lost forever; for passionately,
+      deeply as in her fond and innocent heart she loved Otho, the <i>happiness</i>
+      of Warbeck was not less dear to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the young knight had recovered his self-possession he went in search
+      of Otho. He found him alone in the wood, leaning with folded arms against
+      a tree, and gazing moodily on the ground. Warbeck&rsquo;s noble heart was
+      touched at his brother&rsquo;s dejection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cheer thee, Otho,&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;I bring thee no bad tidings; I have seen
+      Leoline, I have conversed with her&mdash;nay, start not,&mdash;she loves
+      thee! she is thine!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Generous, generous Warbeck!&rdquo; exclaimed Otho; and he threw himself on his
+      brother&rsquo;s neck. &ldquo;No, no,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;this must not be; thou hast the elder
+      claim,&mdash;I resign her to thee. Forgive me my waywardness, brother,
+      forgive me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Think of the past no more,&rdquo; said Warbeck; &ldquo;the love of Leoline is an
+      excuse for greater offences than thine. And now, be kind to her; her
+      nature is soft and keen. <i>I</i> know her well; for <i>I</i> have studied
+      her faintest wish. Thou art hasty and quick of ire; but remember that a
+      word wounds where love is deep. For my sake, as for hers, think more of
+      her happiness than thine own; now seek her,&mdash;she waits to hear from
+      thy lips the tale that sounded cold upon mine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With that he left his brother, and, once more re-entering the castle, he
+      went into the hall of his ancestors. His father still slept; he put his
+      hand on his gray hair, and blessed him; then stealing up to his chamber,
+      he braced on his helm and armour, and thrice kissing the hilt of his
+      sword, said, with a flushed cheek,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Henceforth be <i>thou</i> my bride!&rdquo; Then passing from the castle, he
+      sped by the most solitary paths down the rock, gained the Rhine, and
+      hailing one of the numerous fishermen of the river, won the opposite
+      shore; and alone, but not sad, for his high heart supported him, and
+      Leoline at least was happy, he hastened to Frankfort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The town was all gayety and life, arms clanged at every corner, the sounds
+      of martial music, the wave of banners, the glittering of plumed casques,
+      the neighing of war-steeds, all united to stir the blood and inflame the
+      sense. Saint Bertrand had lifted the sacred cross along the shores of the
+      Rhine, and the streets of Frankfort witnessed with what success!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On that same day Warbeck assumed the sacred badge, and was enlisted among
+      the knights of the Emperor Conrad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We must suppose some time to have elapsed, and Otho and Leoline were not
+      yet wedded; for, in the first fervour of his gratitude to his brother,
+      Otho had proclaimed to his father and to Leoline the conquest Warbeck had
+      obtained over himself; and Leoline, touched to the heart, would not
+      consent that the wedding should take place immediately. &ldquo;Let him, at
+      least,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;not be insulted by a premature festivity; and give him
+      time, amongst the lofty beauties he will gaze upon in a far country, to
+      forget, Otho, that he once loved her who is the beloved of thee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old chief applauded this delicacy; and even Otho, in the first flush
+      of his feelings towards his brother, did not venture to oppose it. They
+      settled, then, that the marriage should take place at the end of a year.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Months rolled away, and an absent and moody gloom settled upon Otho&rsquo;s
+      brow. In his excursions with his gay companions among the neighbouring
+      towns, he heard of nothing but the glory of the Crusaders, of the homage
+      paid to the heroes of the Cross at the courts they visited, of the
+      adventures of their life, and the exciting spirit that animated their war.
+      In fact, neither minstrel nor priest suffered the theme to grow cold; and
+      the fame of those who had gone forth to the holy strife gave at once
+      emulation and discontent to the youths who remained behind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And my brother enjoys this ardent and glorious life,&rdquo; said the impatient
+      Otho; &ldquo;while I, whose arm is as strong, and whose heart is as bold,
+      languish here listening to the dull tales of a hoary sire and the silly
+      songs of an orphan girl.&rdquo; His heart smote him at the last sentence, but he
+      had already begun to weary of the gentle love of Leoline. Perhaps when he
+      had no longer to gain a triumph over a rival the excitement palled; or
+      perhaps his proud spirit secretly chafed at being conquered by his brother
+      in generosity, even when outshining him in the success of love.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But poor Leoline, once taught that she was to consider Otho her betrothed,
+      surrendered her heart entirely to his control. His wild spirit, his dark
+      beauty, his daring valour, won while they awed her; and in the fitfulness
+      of his nature were those perpetual springs of hope and fear that are the
+      fountains of ever-agitated love. She saw with increasing grief the change
+      that was growing over Otho&rsquo;s mind; nor did she divine the cause. &ldquo;Surely I
+      have not offended him?&rdquo; thought she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the companions of Otho was one who possessed a singular sway over
+      him. He was a knight of that mysterious Order of the Temple, which
+      exercised at one time so great a command over the minds of men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A severe and dangerous wound in a brawl with an English knight had
+      confined the Templar at Frankfort, and prevented his joining the Crusade.
+      During his slow recovery he had formed an intimacy with Otho, and, taking
+      up his residence at the castle of Liebenstein, had been struck with the
+      beauty of Leoline. Prevented by his oath from marriage, he allowed himself
+      a double license in love, and doubted not, could he disengage the young
+      knight from his betrothed, that she would add a new conquest to the many
+      he had already achieved. Artfully therefore he painted to Otho the various
+      attractions of the Holy Cause; and, above all, he failed not to describe,
+      with glowing colours, the beauties who, in the gorgeous East,
+      distinguished with a prodigal favour the warriors of the Cross. Dowries,
+      unknown in the more sterile mountains of the Rhine, accompanied the hand
+      of these beauteous maidens; and even a prince&rsquo;s daughter was not deemed,
+      he said, too lofty a marriage for the heroes who might win kingdoms for
+      themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To me,&rdquo; said the Templar, &ldquo;such hopes are eternally denied. But you, were
+      you not already betrothed, what fortunes might await you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By such discourses the ambition of Otho was perpetually aroused; they
+      served to deepen his discontent at his present obscurity, and to convert
+      to distaste the only solace it afforded in the innocence and affection of
+      Leoline.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One night, a minstrel sought shelter from the storm in the halls of
+      Liebenstein. His visit was welcomed by the chief, and he repaid the
+      hospitality he had received by the exercise of his art. He sang of the
+      chase, and the gaunt hound started from the hearth. He sang of love, and
+      Otho, forgetting his restless dreams, approached to Leoline, and laid
+      himself at her feet. Louder then and louder rose the strain. The minstrel
+      sang of war; he painted the feats of the Crusaders; he plunged into the
+      thickest of the battle; the steed neighed; the trump sounded; and you
+      might have heard the ringing of the steel. But when he came to signalize
+      the names of the boldest knights, high among the loftiest sounded the name
+      of Sir Warbeck of Liebenstein. Thrice had he saved the imperial banner;
+      two chargers slain beneath him, he had covered their bodies with the
+      fiercest of the foe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gentle in the tent and terrible in the fray, the minstrel should forget
+      his craft ere the Rhine should forget its hero. The chief started from his
+      seat. Leoline clasped the minstrel&rsquo;s hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Speak,&mdash;you have seen him, he lives, he is honoured?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I myself am but just from Palestine, brave chief and noble maiden. I saw
+      the gallant knight of Liebenstein at the right hand of the imperial
+      Conrad. And he, ladye, was the only knight whom admiration shone upon
+      without envy, its shadow. Who then,&rdquo; continued the minstrel, once more
+      striking his harp, &ldquo;who then would remain inglorious in the hall? Shall
+      not the banners of his sires reproach him as they wave; and shall not
+      every voice from Palestine strike shame into his soul?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Right!&rdquo; cried Otho, suddenly, and flinging himself at the feet of his
+      father. &ldquo;Thou hearest what my brother has done, and thine aged eyes weep
+      tears of joy. Shall I only dishonour thine old age with a rusted sword?
+      No! grant me, like my brother, to go forth with the heroes of the Cross!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Noble youth,&rdquo; cried the harper, &ldquo;therein speaks the soul of Sir Warbeck;
+      hear him, sir, knight,&mdash;hear the noble youth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heaven cries aloud in his voice,&rdquo; said the Templar, solemnly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My son, I cannot chide thine ardour,&rdquo; said the old chief, raising him
+      with trembling hands; &ldquo;but Leoline, thy betrothed?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Pale as a statue, with ears that doubted their sense as they drank in the
+      cruel words of her lover, stood the orphan. She did not speak, she
+      scarcely breathed; she sank into her seat, and gazed upon the ground,
+      till, at the speech of the chief both maiden pride and maiden tenderness
+      restored her consciousness, and she said,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;<i>I</i>, uncle! Shall <i>I</i> bid Otho stay when his wishes bid him
+      depart?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He will return to thee, noble ladye, covered with glory,&rdquo; said the
+      harper: but Otho said no more. The touching voice of Leoline went to his
+      soul; he resumed his seat in silence; and Leoline, going up to him,
+      whispered gently, &ldquo;Act as though I were not;&rdquo; and left the hall to commune
+      with her heart and to weep alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can wed her before I go,&rdquo; said Otho, suddenly, as he sat that night in
+      the Templar&rsquo;s chamber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, that is true! and leave thy bride in the first week,&mdash;a hard
+      trial!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Better than incur the chance of never calling her mine. Dear, kind,
+      beloved Leoline!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Assuredly, she deserves all from thee; and, indeed, it is no small
+      sacrifice, at thy years and with thy mien, to renounce forever all
+      interest among the noble maidens thou wilt visit. Ah, from the galleries
+      of Constantinople what eyes will look down on thee, and what ears,
+      learning that thou art Otho the bridegroom, will turn away, caring for
+      thee no more! A bridegroom without a bride! Nay, man, much as the Cross
+      wants warriors, I am enough thy friend to tell thee, if thou weddest, to
+      stay peaceably at home, and forget in the chase the labours of war, from
+      which thou wouldst strip the ambition of love.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would I knew what were best,&rdquo; said Otho, irresolutely. &ldquo;My brother&mdash;ha,
+      shall he forever excel me? But Leoline, how will she grieve,&mdash;she who
+      left him for me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was that thy fault?&rdquo; said the Templar, gayly. &ldquo;It may many times chance
+      to thee again to be preferred to another. Troth, it is a sin under which
+      the conscience may walk lightly enough. But sleep on it, Otho; my eyes
+      grow heavy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day Otho sought Leoline, and proposed to her that their wedding
+      should precede his parting; but so embarrassed was he, so divided between
+      two wishes, that Leoline, offended, hurt, stung by his coldness, refused
+      the proposal at once. She left him lest he should see her weep, and then&mdash;then
+      she repented even of her just pride!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Otho, striving to appease his conscience with the belief that hers now
+      was the <i>sole</i> fault, busied himself in preparations for his
+      departure. Anxious to outshine his brother, he departed not as Warbeck,
+      alone and unattended, but levying all the horse, men, and money that his
+      domain of Sternfels&mdash;which he had not yet tenanted&mdash;would
+      afford, he repaired to Frankfort at the head of a glittering troop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Templar, affecting a relapse, tarried behind, and promised to join him
+      at that Constantinople of which he had so loudly boasted. Meanwhile he
+      devoted his whole powers of pleasing to console the unhappy orphan. The
+      force of her simple love was, however, stronger than all his arts. In vain
+      he insinuated doubts of Otho,&mdash;she refused to hear them; in vain he
+      poured with the softest accents into her ear the witchery of flattery and
+      song,&mdash;she turned heedlessly away; and only pained by the courtesies
+      that had so little resemblance to Otho, she shut herself up in her
+      chamber, and pined in solitude for her forsaker.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Templar now resolved to attempt darker arts to obtain power over her,
+      when, fortunately, he was summoned suddenly away by a mission from the
+      Grand Master of so high import, that it could not be resisted by a passion
+      stronger in his breast than love,&mdash;the passion of ambition. He left
+      the castle to its solitude; and Otho peopling it no more with his gay
+      companions, no solitude <i>could</i> be more unfrequently disturbed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile, though, ever and anon, the fame of Warbeck reached their ears,
+      it came unaccompanied with that of Otho,&mdash;of him they had no tidings;
+      and thus the love of the tender orphan was kept alive by the perpetual
+      restlessness of fear. At length the old chief died, and Leoline was left
+      utterly alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One evening as she sat with her maidens in the hall, the ringing of a
+      steed&rsquo;s hoofs was heard in the outer court; a horn sounded, the heavy
+      gates were unbarred, and a knight of a stately mien and covered with the
+      mantle of the Cross entered the hall. He stopped for one moment at the
+      entrance, as if overpowered by his emotion; in the next he had clasped
+      Leoline to his breast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dost thou not recognize thy cousin Warbeck?&rdquo; He doffed his casque, and
+      she saw that majestic brow which, unlike Otho&rsquo;s, had never changed or been
+      clouded in its aspect to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The war is suspended for the present,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;I learned my father&rsquo;s
+      death, and I have returned home to hang up my banner in the hall and spend
+      my days in peace.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Time and the life of camps had worked their change upon Warbeck&rsquo;s face;
+      the fair hair, deepened in its shade, was worn from the temples, and
+      disclosed one scar that rather aided the beauty of a countenance that had
+      always something high and martial in its character; but the calm it had
+      once worn had settled down into sadness; he conversed more rarely than
+      before, and though he smiled not less often, nor less kindly, the smile
+      had more of thought, and the kindness had forgot its passion. He had
+      apparently conquered a love that was so early crossed, but not that
+      fidelity of remembrance which made Leoline dearer to him than all others,
+      and forbade him to replace the images he had graven upon his soul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The orphan&rsquo;s lips trembled with the name of Otho, but a certain
+      recollection stifled even her anxiety. Warbeck hastened to forestall her
+      questions. Otho was well, he said, and sojourning at Constantinople; he
+      had lingered there so long that the crusade had terminated without his
+      aid: doubtless now he would speedily return,&mdash;a month, a week, nay, a
+      day, might restore him to her side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leoline was inexpressibly consoled, yet something remained untold. Why, so
+      eager for the strife of the sacred tomb, had he thus tarried at
+      Constantinople? She wondered, she wearied conjecture, but she did not dare
+      to search further.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The generous Warbeck concealed from her that Otho led a life of the most
+      reckless and indolent dissipation,&mdash;wasting his wealth in the
+      pleasures of the Greek court, and only occupying his ambition with the
+      wild schemes of founding a principality in those foreign climes, which the
+      enterprises of the Norman adventurers had rendered so alluring to the
+      knightly bandits of the age.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cousins resumed their old friendship, and Warbeck believed that it was
+      friendship alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They walked again among the gardens in which their childhood had strayed;
+      they sat again on the green turf whereon they had woven flowers; they
+      looked down on the eternal mirror of the Rhine,&mdash;ah! could it have
+      reflected the same unawakened freshness of their life&rsquo;s early spring!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The grave and contemplative mind of Warbeck had not been so contented with
+      the honours of war but that it had sought also those calmer sources of
+      emotion which were yet found among the sages of the East. He had drunk at
+      the fountain of the wisdom of those distant climes, and had acquired the
+      habits of meditation which were indulged by those wiser tribes from which
+      the Crusaders brought back to the North the knowledge that was destined to
+      enlighten their posterity. Warbeck, therefore, had little in common with
+      the ruder chiefs around; he did not summon them to his board; nor attend
+      at their noisy wassails. Often late at night, in yon shattered tower, his
+      lonely lamp shone still over the mighty stream, and his only relief to
+      loneliness was in the presence and the song of his soft cousin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Months rolled on, when suddenly a vague and fearful rumour reached the
+      castle of Liebenstein. Otho was returning home to the neighbouring tower
+      of Sternfels; but not alone. He brought back with him a Greek bride of
+      surprising beauty, and dowered with almost regal wealth. Leoline was the
+      first to discredit the rumour; Leoline was soon the only one who
+      disbelieved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bright in the summer noon flashed the array of horsemen; far up the steep
+      ascent wound the gorgeous cavalcade; the lonely towers of Liebenstein
+      heard the echo of many a laugh and peal of merriment. Otho bore home his
+      bride to the hall of Sternfels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night there was a great banquet in Otho&rsquo;s castle; the lights shone
+      from every casement, and music swelled loud and ceaselessly within.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the side of Otho, glittering with the prodigal jewels of the East, sat
+      the Greek. Her dark locks, her flashing eye, the false colours of her
+      complexion, dazzled the eyes of her guests. On her left hand sat the
+      Templar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the holy rood,&rdquo; quoth the Templar, gayly, though he crossed himself as
+      he spoke, &ldquo;we shall scare the owls to-night on those grim towers of
+      Liebenstein. Thy grave brother, Sir Otho, will have much to do to comfort
+      his cousin when she sees what a gallant life she would have led with
+      thee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor damsel!&rdquo; said the Greek, with affected pity, &ldquo;doubtless she will now
+      be reconciled to the rejected one. I hear he is a knight of a comely
+      mien.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Peace!&rdquo; said Otho, sternly, and quaffing a large goblet of wine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Greek bit her lip, and glanced meaningly at the Templar, who returned
+      the glance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nought but a beauty such as thine can win my pardon,&rdquo; said Otho, turning
+      to his bride, and gazing passionately in her face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Greek smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Well sped the feast, the laugh deepened, the wine circled, when Otho&rsquo;s eye
+      rested on a guest at the bottom of the board, whose figure was mantled
+      from head to foot, and whose face was covered by a dark veil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beshrew me!&rdquo; said he, aloud, &ldquo;but this is scarce courteous at our revel:
+      will the stranger vouchsafe to unmask?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      These words turned all eyes to the figure, and they who sat next it
+      perceived that it trembled violently; at length it rose, and walking
+      slowly, but with grace, to the fair Greek, it laid beside her a wreath of
+      flowers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a simple gift, ladye,&rdquo; said the stranger, in a voice of such
+      sweetness that the rudest guest was touched by it; &ldquo;but it is all I can
+      offer, and the bride of Otho should not be without a gift at my hands. May
+      ye both be happy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With these words, the stranger turned and passed from the hall silent as a
+      shadow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bring back the stranger!&rdquo; cried the Greek, recovering her surprise.
+      Twenty guests sprang up to obey her mandate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no!&rdquo; said Otho, waving his hand impatiently. &ldquo;Touch her not, heed her
+      not, at your peril.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Greek bent over the flowers to conceal her anger, and from amongst
+      them dropped the broken half of a ring. Otho recognized it at once; it was
+      the broken half of that ring which he had broken with his betrothed. Alas!
+      he required not such a sign to convince him that that figure, so full of
+      ineffable grace, that touching voice, that simple action so tender in its
+      sentiment, that gift, that blessing, came only from the forsaken and
+      forgiving Leoline.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Warbeck, alone in his solitary tower, paced to and fro with agitated
+      steps. Deep, undying wrath at his brother&rsquo;s falsehood mingled with one
+      burning, one delicious hope. He confessed now that he had deceived himself
+      when he thought his passion was no more; was there any longer a bar to his
+      union with Leoline?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In that delicacy which was breathed into him by his love, he had forborne
+      to seek, or to offer her the insult of consolation. He felt that the shock
+      should be borne alone, and yet he pined, he thirsted, to throw himself at
+      her feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nursing these contending thoughts, he was aroused by a knock at his door;
+      he opened it. The passage was thronged by Leoline&rsquo;s maidens, pale,
+      anxious, weeping. Leoline had left the castle, with but one female
+      attendant, none knew whither; they knew too soon. From the hall of
+      Sternfels she had passed over in the dark and inclement night to the
+      valley in which the convent of Bornhofen offered to the weary of spirit
+      and the broken of heart a refuge at the shrine of God.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At daybreak the next morning, Warbeck was at the convent&rsquo;s gate. He saw
+      Leoline. What a change one night of suffering had made in that face, which
+      was the fountain of all loveliness to him! He clasped her in his arms; he
+      wept; he urged all that love could urge: he besought her to accept that
+      heart which had never wronged her memory by a thought. &ldquo;Oh, Leoline! didst
+      thou not say once that these arms nursed thy childhood; that this voice
+      soothed thine early sorrows? Ah, trust to them again and forever. From a
+      love that forsook thee turn to the love that never swerved.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said Leoline; &ldquo;no. What would the chivalry of which thou art the
+      boast,&mdash;what would they say of thee, wert thou to wed one affianced
+      and deserted, who tarried years for another, and brought to thine arms
+      only that heart which he had abandoned? No; and even if thou, as I know
+      thou wouldst be, wert callous to such wrong of thy high name, shall I
+      bring to thee a broken heart and bruised spirit? Shalt thou wed sorrow and
+      not joy; and shall sighs that will not cease, and tears that may not be
+      dried, be the only dowry of thy bride? Thou, too, for whom all blessings
+      should be ordained! No, forget me; forget thy poor Leoline! She hath
+      nothing but prayers for thee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In vain Warbeck pleaded; in vain he urged all that passion and truth could
+      urge; the springs of earthly love were forever dried up in the orphan&rsquo;s
+      heart, and her resolution was immovable. She tore herself from his arms,
+      and the gate of the convent creaked harshly on his ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A new and stern emotion now wholly possessed him; though naturally mild
+      and gentle, he cherished anger, when once it was aroused, with the
+      strength of a calm mind. Leoline&rsquo;s tears, her sufferings, her wrongs, her
+      uncomplaining spirit, the change already stamped upon her face,&mdash;all
+      cried aloud to him for vengeance. &ldquo;She is an orphan,&rdquo; said he, bitterly;
+      &ldquo;she hath none to protect, to redress her, save me alone. My father&rsquo;s
+      charge over her forlorn youth descends of right to me. What matters it
+      whether her forsaker be my brother? He is <i>her</i> foe. Hath he not
+      crushed her heart? Hath he not consigned her to sorrow till the grave? And
+      with what insult! no warning, no excuse; with lewd wassailers keeping
+      revel for his new bridals in the hearing&mdash;before the sight&mdash;of
+      his betrothed! Enough! the time hath come when, to use his own words, &lsquo;One
+      of us two must fall!&rsquo;&rdquo; He half drew his sword as he spoke, and thrusting
+      it back violently into the sheath, strode home to his solitary castle. The
+      sound of steeds and of the hunting horn met him at his portal; the bridal
+      train of Sternfels, all mirth and gladness, were parting for the chase.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That evening a knight in complete armour entered the banquet-hall of
+      Sternfels, and defied Otho, on the part of Warbeck of Liebenstein, to
+      mortal combat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even the Templar was startled by so unnatural a challenge; but Otho,
+      reddening, took up the gage, and the day and spot were fixed.
+      Discontented, wroth with himself, a savage gladness seized him; he longed
+      to wreak his desperate feelings even on his brother. Nor had he ever in
+      his jealous heart forgiven that brother his virtues and his renown.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the appointed hour the brothers met as foes. Warbeck&rsquo;s vizor was up,
+      and all the settled sternness of his soul was stamped upon his brow. But
+      Otho, more willing to brave the arm than to face the front of his brother,
+      kept his vizor down; the Templar stood by him with folded arms. It was a
+      study in human passions to his mocking mind. Scarce had the first trump
+      sounded to this dread conflict, when a new actor entered on the scene. The
+      rumour of so unprecedented an event had not failed to reach the convent of
+      Bornhofen; and now, two by two, came the sisters of the holy shrine, and
+      the armed men made way, as with trailing garments and veiled faces they
+      swept along into the very lists. At that moment one from amongst them left
+      her sisters with a slow majestic pace, and paused not till she stood right
+      between the brother foes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Warbeck,&rdquo; she said in a hollow voice, that curdled up his dark spirit as
+      it spoke, &ldquo;is it thus thou wouldst prove thy love, and maintain thy trust
+      over the fatherless orphan whom thy sire bequeathed to thy care? Shall I
+      have murder on my soul?&rdquo; At that question she paused, and those who heard
+      it were struck dumb, and shuddered. &ldquo;The murder of one man by the hand of
+      his own brother! Away, Warbeck! <i>I command</i>.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall I forget thy wrongs, Leoline?&rdquo; said Warbeck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wrongs! they united me to God! they are forgiven, they are no more. Earth
+      has deserted me, but Heaven hath taken me to its arms. Shall I murmur at
+      the change? And thou, Otho&rdquo;&mdash;here her voice faltered&mdash;&ldquo;thou,
+      does thy conscience smite thee not? Wouldst thou atone for robbing me of
+      hope by barring against me the future? Wretch that I should be, could I
+      dream of mercy, could I dream of comfort, if thy brother fell by thy sword
+      in my cause? Otho, I have pardoned thee, and blessed thee and thine. Once,
+      perhaps, thou didst love me; remember how I loved thee,&mdash;cast down
+      thine arms.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Otho gazed at the veiled form before him. Where had the soft Leoline
+      learned to command? He turned to his brother; he felt all that he had
+      inflicted upon both; and casting his sword upon the ground, he knelt at
+      the feet of Leoline, and kissed her garment with a devotion that votary
+      never lavished on a holier saint.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The spell that lay over the warriors around was broken; there was one loud
+      cry of congratulation and joy. &ldquo;And thou, Warbeck?&rdquo; said Leoline, turning
+      to the spot where, still motionless and haughty, Warbeck stood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have I ever rebelled against thy will?&rdquo; said he, softly; and buried the
+      point of his sword in the earth. &ldquo;Yet, Leoline, yet,&rdquo; added he, looking at
+      his kneeling brother, &ldquo;yet art thou already better avenged than by this
+      steel!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art! thou art!&rdquo; cried Otho, smiting his breast; and slowly, and
+      scarce noting the crowd that fell back from his path, Warbeck left the
+      lists.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leoline said no more; her divine errand was fulfilled. She looked long and
+      wistfully after the stately form of the knight of Liebenstein, and then,
+      with a slight sigh, she turned to Otho, &ldquo;This is the last time we shall
+      meet on earth. Peace be with us all!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She then, with the same majestic and collected bearing, passed on towards
+      the sisterhood; and as, in the same solemn procession, they glided back
+      towards the convent, there was not a man present&mdash;no, not even the
+      hardened Templar&mdash;who would not, like Otho, have bent his knee to
+      Leoline.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once more Otho plunged into the wild revelry of the age; his castle was
+      thronged with guests, and night after night the lighted halls shone down
+      athwart the tranquil Rhine. The beauty of the Greek, the wealth of Otho,
+      the fame of the Templar, attracted all the chivalry from far and near.
+      Never had the banks of the Rhine known so hospitable a lord as the knight
+      of Sternfels. Yet gloom seized him in the midst of gladness, and the revel
+      was welcome only as the escape from remorse. The voice of scandal,
+      however, soon began to mingle with that of envy at the pomp of Otho. The
+      fair Greek, it was said, weary of her lord, lavished her smiles on others;
+      the young and the fair were always most acceptable at the castle; and,
+      above all, her guilty love for the Templar scarcely affected disguise.
+      Otho alone appeared unconscious of the rumour; and though he had begun to
+      neglect his bride, he relaxed not in his intimacy with the Templar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was noon, and the Greek was sitting in her bower alone with her
+      suspected lover; the rich perfumes of the East mingled with the fragrance
+      of flowers, and various luxuries, unknown till then in those northern
+      shores, gave a soft and effeminate character to the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I tell thee,&rdquo; said the Greek, petulantly, &ldquo;that he begins to suspect;
+      that I have seen him watch thee, and mutter as he watched, and play with
+      the hilt of his dagger. Better let us fly ere it is too late, for his
+      vengeance would be terrible were it once roused against us. Ah, why did I
+      ever forsake my own sweet land for these barbarous shores! There, love is
+      not considered eternal, nor inconstancy a crime worthy death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Peace, pretty one!&rdquo; said the Templar, carelessly; &ldquo;thou knowest not the
+      laws of our foolish chivalry. Thinkest thou I could fly from a knight&rsquo;s
+      halls like a thief in the night? Why, verily, even the red cross would not
+      cover such dishonour. If thou fearest that thy dull lord suspects, let us
+      part. The emperor hath sent to me from Frankfort. Ere evening I might be
+      on my way thither.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I left to brave the barbarian&rsquo;s revenge alone? Is this thy chivalry?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, prate not so wildly,&rdquo; answered the Templar. &ldquo;Surely, when the object
+      of his suspicion is gone, thy woman&rsquo;s art and thy Greek wiles can easily
+      allay the jealous fiend. Do I not know thee, Glycera? Why, thou wouldst
+      fool all men&mdash;save a Templar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And thou, cruel, wouldst thou leave me?&rdquo; said the Greek, weeping. &ldquo;How
+      shall I live without thee?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Templar laughed slightly. &ldquo;Can such eyes ever weep without a
+      comforter? But farewell; I must not be found with thee. To-morrow I depart
+      for Frankfort; we shall meet again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the door closed on the Templar, the Greek rose, and pacing the
+      room, said, &ldquo;Selfish, selfish! how could I ever trust him? Yet I dare not
+      brave Otho alone. Surely it was his step that disturbed us in our
+      yesterday&rsquo;s interview? Nay, I will fly. I can never want a companion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She clapped her hands; a young page appeared; she threw herself on her
+      seat and wept bitterly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The page approached, and love was mingled with his compassion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why weepest thou, dearest lady?&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;Is there aught in which
+      Conrad&rsquo;s services&mdash;services!&mdash;ah, thou hast read his heart&mdash;<i>his
+      devotion</i> may avail?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Otho had wandered out the whole day alone; his vassals had observed that
+      his brow was more gloomy than its wont, for he usually concealed whatever
+      might prey within. Some of the most confidential of his servitors he had
+      conferred with, and the conference had deepened the shadow of his
+      countenance. He returned at twilight; the Greek did not honour the repast
+      with her presence. She was unwell, and not to be disturbed. The gay
+      Templar was the life of the board.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou carriest a sad brow to-day, Sir Otho,&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;good faith, thou
+      hast caught it from the air of Liebenstein.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have something troubles me,&rdquo; answered Otho, forcing a smile, &ldquo;which I
+      would fain impart to thy friendly bosom. The night is clear and the moon
+      is up, let us forth alone into the garden.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Templar rose, and he forgot not to gird on his sword as he followed
+      the knight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Otho led the way to one of the most distant terraces that overhung the
+      Rhine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir Templar,&rdquo; said he, pausing, &ldquo;answer me one question on thy knightly
+      honour. Was it thy step that left my lady&rsquo;s bower yester-eve at vesper?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Startled by so sudden a query, the wily Templar faltered in his reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The red blood mounted to Otho&rsquo;s brow. &ldquo;Nay, lie not, sir knight; these
+      eyes, thanks to God! have not witnessed, but these ears have heard from
+      others of my dishonour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As Otho spoke, the Templar&rsquo;s eye resting on the water perceived a boat
+      rowing fast over the Rhine; the distance forbade him to see more than the
+      outline of two figures within it. &ldquo;She was right,&rdquo; thought he; &ldquo;perhaps
+      that boat already bears her from the danger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Drawing himself up to the full height of his tall stature, the Templar
+      replied haughtily,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir Otho of Sternfels, if thou hast deigned to question thy vassals,
+      obtain from them only an answer. It is not to contradict such minions that
+      the knights of the Temple pledge their word!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Enough,&rdquo; cried Otho, losing patience, and striking the Templar with his
+      clenched hand. &ldquo;Draw, traitor, draw!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alone in his lofty tower Warbeck watched the night deepen over the
+      heavens, and communed mournfully with himself. &ldquo;To what end,&rdquo; thought he,
+      &ldquo;have these strong affections, these capacities of love, this yearning
+      after sympathy, been given me? Unloved and unknown I walk to my grave, and
+      all the nobler mysteries of my heart are forever to be untold.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus musing, he heard not the challenge of the warder on the wall, or the
+      unbarring of the gate below, or the tread of footsteps along the winding
+      stair; the door was thrown suddenly open, and Otho stood before him.
+      &ldquo;Come,&rdquo; he said, in a low voice trembling with passion; &ldquo;come, I will show
+      thee that which shall glad thine heart. Twofold is Leoline avenged.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Warbeck looked in amazement on a brother he had not met since they stood
+      in arms each against the other&rsquo;s life, and he now saw that the arm that
+      Otho extended to him dripped with blood, trickling drop by drop upon the
+      floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come,&rdquo; said Otho, &ldquo;follow me; it is my last prayer. Come, for Leoline&rsquo;s
+      sake, come.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At that name Warbeck hesitated no longer; he girded on his sword, and
+      followed his brother down the stairs and through the castle gate. The
+      porter scarcely believed his eyes when he saw the two brothers, so long
+      divided, go forth at that hour alone, and seemingly in friendship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Warbeck, arrived at that epoch in the feelings when nothing stuns,
+      followed with silent steps the rapid strides of his brother. The two
+      castles, as you are aware, are scarce a stone&rsquo;s throw from each other. In
+      a few minutes Otho paused at an open space in one of the terraces of
+      Sternfels, on which the moon shone bright and steady. &ldquo;Behold!&rdquo; he said,
+      in a ghastly voice, &ldquo;behold!&rdquo; and Warbeck saw on the sward the corpse of
+      the Templar, bathed with the blood that even still poured fast and warm
+      from his heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hark!&rdquo; said Otho. &ldquo;He it was who first made me waver in my vows to
+      Leoline; he persuaded me to wed yon whited falsehood. Hark! he, who had
+      thus wronged my real love, dishonoured me with my faithless bride, and
+      thus&mdash;thus&mdash;thus&rdquo;&mdash;as grinding his teeth, he spurned again
+      and again the dead body of the Templar&mdash;&ldquo;thus Leoline and myself are
+      avenged!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And thy wife?&rdquo; said Warbeck, pityingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fled,&mdash;fled with a hireling page. It is well! she was not worth the
+      sword that was once belted on&mdash;by Leoline.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The tradition, dear Gertrude, proceeds to tell us that Otho, though often
+      menaced by the rude justice of the day for the death of the Templar,
+      defied and escaped the menace. On the very night of his revenge a long and
+      delirious illness seized him; the generous Warbeck forgave, forgot all,
+      save that he had been once consecrated by Leoline&rsquo;s love. He tended him
+      through his sickness, and when he recovered, Otho was an altered man. He
+      forswore the comrades he had once courted, the revels he had once led. The
+      halls of Sternfels were desolate as those of Liebenstein. The only
+      companion Otho sought was Warbeck, and Warbeck bore with him. They had no
+      topic in common, for on one subject Warbeck at least felt too deeply ever
+      to trust himself to speak; yet did a strange and secret sympathy re-unite
+      them. They had at least a common sorrow; often they were seen wandering
+      together by the solitary banks of the river, or amidst the woods, without
+      apparently interchanging word or sign. Otho died first, and still in the
+      prime of youth; and Warbeck was now left companionless. In vain the
+      imperial court wooed him to its pleasures; in vain the camp proffered him
+      the oblivion of renown. Ah! could he tear himself from a spot where
+      morning and night he could see afar, amidst the valley, the roof that
+      sheltered Leoline, and on which every copse, every turf, reminded him of
+      former days? His solitary life, his midnight vigils, strange scrolls about
+      his chamber, obtained him by degrees the repute of cultivating the darker
+      arts; and shunning, he became shunned by all. But still it was sweet to
+      hear from time to time of the increasing sanctity of her in whom he had
+      treasured up his last thoughts of earth. She it was who healed the sick;
+      she it was who relieved the poor; and the superstition of that age brought
+      pilgrims from afar to the altars that she served.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many years afterwards, a band of lawless robbers, who ever and anon broke
+      from their mountain fastnesses to pillage and to desolate the valleys of
+      the Rhine,&mdash;who spared neither sex nor age, neither tower nor hut,
+      nor even the houses of God Himself,&mdash;laid waste the territories round
+      Bornhofen, and demanded treasure from the convent. The abbess, of the bold
+      lineage of Rudesheim, refused the sacrilegious demand. The convent was
+      stormed; its vassals resisted; the robbers, inured to slaughter, won the
+      day; already the gates were forced, when a knight, at the head of a small
+      but hardy troop, rushed down from the mountain side and turned the tide of
+      the fray. Wherever his sword flashed fell a foe; wherever his war-cry
+      sounded was a space of dead men in the thick of the battle. The fight was
+      won, the convent saved; the abbess and the sisterhood came forth to bless
+      their deliverer. Laid under an aged oak, he was bleeding fast to death;
+      his head was bare and his locks were gray, but scarcely yet with years.
+      One only of the sisterhood recognized that majestic face; one bathed his
+      parched lips; one held his dying hand; and in Leoline&rsquo;s presence passed
+      away the faithful spirit of the last lord of Liebenstein!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; said Gertrude, through her tears; &ldquo;surely you must have altered the
+      facts,&mdash;surely&mdash;surely&mdash;it must have been impossible for
+      Leoline, with a woman&rsquo;s heart, to have loved Otho more than Warbeck?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My child,&rdquo; said Vane, &ldquo;so think women when they read a tale of love, and
+      see <i>the whole heart</i> bared before them; but not so act they in real
+      life, when they see only the surface of character, and pierce not its
+      depths&mdash;until it is too late!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXV. THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.&mdash;A COMMON INCIDENT NOT
+      BEFORE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      DESCRIBED.&mdash;TREVYLYAN AND GERTRUDE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      THE day now grew cool as it waned to its decline, and the breeze came
+      sharp upon the delicate frame of the sufferer. They resolved to proceed no
+      farther; and as they carried with them attendants and baggage, which
+      rendered their route almost independent of the ordinary accommodation,
+      they steered for the opposite shore, and landed at a village beautifully
+      sequestered in a valley, and where they fortunately obtained a lodging not
+      often met with in the regions of the picturesque.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Gertrude, at an early hour, retired to bed, Vane and Du&mdash;&mdash;-e
+      fell into speculative conversation upon the nature of man. Vane&rsquo;s
+      philosophy was of a quiet and passive scepticism; the physician dared more
+      boldly, and rushed from doubt to negation. The attention of Trevylyan, as
+      he sat apart and musing, was arrested in despite of himself. He listened
+      to an argument in which he took no share, but which suddenly inspired him
+      with an interest in that awful subject which, in the heat of youth and the
+      occupations of the world, had never been so prominently called forth
+      before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What,&rdquo; thought he, with unutterable anguish, as he listened to the
+      earnest vehemence of the Frenchman and the tranquil assent of Vane, &ldquo;if
+      this creed were indeed true,&mdash;if there be no other world,&mdash;Gertrude
+      is lost to me eternally, through the dread gloom of death there would
+      break forth no star!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That is a peculiar incident that perhaps occurs to us all at times, but
+      which I have never found expressed in books, namely, to hear a doubt of
+      futurity at the very moment in which the present is most overcast; and to
+      find at once this world stripped of its delusion and the next of its
+      consolation. It is perhaps for others, rather than ourselves, that the
+      fond heart requires a Hereafter. The tranquil rest, the shadow, and the
+      silence, the mere pause of the wheel of life, have no terror for the wise,
+      who know the due value of the world.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;After the billows of a stormy sea,
+      Sweet is at last the haven of repose!&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      But not so when that stillness is to divide us eternally from others; when
+      those we have loved with all the passion, the devotion, the watchful
+      sanctity of the weak human heart, are to exist to us no more! when, after
+      long years of desertion and widowhood on earth, there is to be no hope of
+      reunion in that INVISIBLE beyond the stars; when the torch, not of life
+      only, but of love, is to be quenched in the Dark Fountain, and the grave,
+      that we would fain hope is the great restorer of broken ties, is but the
+      dumb seal of hopeless, utter, inexorable separation! And it is this
+      thought, this sentiment, which makes religion out of woe, and teaches
+      belief to the mourning heart that in the gladness of united affections
+      felt not the necessity of a heaven! To how many is the death of the
+      beloved the parent of faith!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Stung by his thoughts, Trevylyan rose abruptly, and stealing from the
+      lowly hostelry, walked forth amidst the serene and deepening night; from
+      the window of Gertrude&rsquo;s room the light streamed calm on the purple air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With uneven steps and many a pause, he paced to and fro beneath the
+      window, and gave the rein to his thoughts. How intensely he felt the ALL
+      that Gertrude was to him! how bitterly he foresaw the change in his lot
+      and character that her death would work out! For who that met him in later
+      years ever dreamed that emotions so soft, and yet so ardent, had visited
+      one so stern? Who could have believed that time was when the polished and
+      cold Trevylyan had kept the vigils he now held below the chamber of one so
+      little like himself as Gertrude, in that remote and solitary hamlet; shut
+      in by the haunted mountains of the Rhine, and beneath the moonlight of the
+      romantic North?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While thus engaged, the light in Gertrude&rsquo;s room was suddenly
+      extinguished; it is impossible to express how much that trivial incident
+      affected him! It was like an emblem of what was to come; the light had
+      been the only evidence of life that broke upon that hour, and he was now
+      left alone with the shades of night. Was not this like the herald of
+      Gertrude&rsquo;s own death; the extinction of the only living ray that broke
+      upon the darkness of the world?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His anguish, his presentiment of utter desolation, increased. He groaned
+      aloud; he dashed his clenched hand to his breast; large and cold drops of
+      agony stole down his brow. &ldquo;Father,&rdquo; he exclaimed with a struggling voice,
+      &ldquo;let this cup pass from me! Smite my ambition to the root; curse me with
+      poverty, shame, and bodily disease; but leave me this one solace, this one
+      companion of my fate!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment Gertrude&rsquo;s window opened gently, and he heard accents steal
+      soothingly upon his ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is not that your voice, Albert?&rdquo; said she, softly. &ldquo;I heard it just as I
+      lay down to rest, and could not sleep while you were thus exposed to the
+      damp night air. You do not answer; surely it is your voice: when did I
+      mistake it for another&rsquo;s?&rdquo; Mastering with a violent effort his emotions,
+      Trevylyan answered, with a sort of convulsive gayety,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why come to these shores, dear Gertrude, unless you are honoured with the
+      chivalry that belongs to them? What wind, what blight, can harm me while
+      within the circle of your presence; and what sleep can bring me dreams so
+      dear as the waking thought of you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is cold,&rdquo; said Gertrude, shivering; &ldquo;come in, dear Albert, I beseech
+      you, and I will thank you to-morrow.&rdquo; Gertrude&rsquo;s voice was choked by the
+      hectic cough, that went like an arrow to Trevylyan&rsquo;s heart; and he felt
+      that in her anxiety for him she was now exposing her own frame to the
+      unwholesome night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He spoke no more, but hurried within the house; and when the gray light of
+      morn broke upon his gloomy features, haggard from the want of sleep, it
+      might have seemed, in that dim eye and fast-sinking cheek, as if the
+      lovers were not to be divided&mdash;even by death itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0026" id="link2HCH0026">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVI. IN WHICH THE READER WILL LEARN HOW THE FAIRIES WERE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      RECEIVED BY THE SOVEREIGNS OF THE MINES.&mdash;THE COMPLAINT OF THE LAST
+      OF THE FAUNS.&mdash;THE RED HUNTSMAN.&mdash;THE STORM.&mdash;DEATH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      IN the deep valley of Ehrenthal, the metal kings&mdash;the Prince of the
+      Silver Palaces, the Gnome Monarch of the dull Lead Mine, the President of
+      the Copper United States&mdash;held a court to receive the fairy wanderers
+      from the island of Nonnewerth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The prince was there, in a gallant hunting-suit of oak leaves, in honour
+      to England; and wore a profusion of fairy orders, which had been
+      instituted from time to time, in honour of the human poets that had
+      celebrated the spiritual and ethereal tribes. Chief of these, sweet
+      Dreamer of the &ldquo;Midsummer Night&rsquo;s Dream,&rdquo; was the badge crystallized from
+      the dews that rose above the whispering reeds of Avon on the night of thy
+      birth,&mdash;the great epoch of the intellectual world! Nor wert thou, O
+      beloved Musaeus! nor thou, dim-dreaming Tieck! nor were ye, the wild
+      imaginer of the bright-haired Undine, and the wayward spirit that invoked
+      for the gloomy Manfred the Witch of the breathless Alps and the spirits of
+      earth and air!&mdash;nor were ye without the honours of fairy homage! Your
+      memory may fade from the heart of man, and the spells of new enchanters
+      may succeed to the charm you once wove over the face of the common world;
+      but still in the green knolls of the haunted valley and the deep shade of
+      forests, and the starred palaces of air, ye are honoured by the beings of
+      your dreams, as demigods and kings! Your graves are tended by invisible
+      hands, and the places of your birth are hallowed by no perishable worship!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even as I write,* far away amidst the hills of Scotland, and by the forest
+      thou hast clothed with immortal verdure, thou, the maker of &ldquo;the Harp by
+      lone Glenfillan&rsquo;s spring,&rdquo; art passing from the earth which thou hast
+      &ldquo;painted with delight.&rdquo; And such are the chances of mortal fame, our
+      children&rsquo;s children may raise new idols on the site of thy holy altar, and
+      cavil where their sires adored; but for thee the mermaid of the ocean
+      shall wail in her coral caves, and the sprite that lives in the waterfalls
+      shall mourn! Strange shapes shall hew thy monument in the recesses of the
+      lonely rocks! ever by moonlight shall the fairies pause from their roundel
+      when some wild note of their minstrelsy reminds them of thine own,&mdash;ceasing
+      from their revelries, to weep for the silence of that mighty lyre, which
+      breathed alike a revelation of the mysteries of spirits and of men!
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * It was just at the time the author was finishing this work
+    that the great master of his art was drawing to the close
+    of his career.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The King of the Silver Mines sat in a cavern in the valley, through which
+      the moonlight pierced its way and slept in shadow on the soil shining with
+      metals wrought into unnumbered shapes; and below him, on a humbler throne,
+      with a gray beard and downcast eye, sat the aged King of the Dwarfs that
+      preside over the dull realms of lead, and inspire the verse of &mdash;&mdash;-,
+      and the prose of &mdash;&mdash;-! And there too a fantastic household elf
+      was the President of the Copper Republic,&mdash;a spirit that loves
+      economy and the Uses, and smiles sparely on the Beautiful. But, in the
+      centre of the cave, upon beds of the softest mosses, the untrodden growth
+      of ages, reclined the fairy visitors, Nymphalin seated by her betrothed.
+      And round the walls of the cave were dwarf attendants on the sovereigns of
+      the metals, of a thousand odd shapes and fantastic garments. On the abrupt
+      ledges of the rocks the bats, charmed to stillness but not sleep,
+      clustered thickly, watching the scene with fixed and amazed eyes; and one
+      old gray owl, the favourite of the witch of the valley, sat blinking in a
+      corner, listening with all her might that she might bring home the scandal
+      to her mistress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And tell me, Prince of the Rhine-Island Fays,&rdquo; said the King of the
+      Silver Mines, &ldquo;for thou art a traveller, and a fairy that hath seen much,
+      how go men&rsquo;s affairs in the upper world? As to ourself, we live here in a
+      stupid splendour, and only hear the news of the day when our brother of
+      lead pays a visit to the English printing-press, or the President of
+      Copper goes to look at his improvements in steam-engines.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed,&rdquo; replied Fayzenheim, preparing to speak like AEneas in the
+      Carthaginian court,&mdash;&ldquo;indeed, your Majesty, I know not much that will
+      interest you in the present aspect of mortal affairs, except that you are
+      quite as much honoured at this day as when the Roman conqueror bent his
+      knee to you among the mountains of Taunus; and a vast number of little
+      round subjects of yours are constantly carried about by the rich, and
+      pined after with hopeless adoration by the poor. But, begging your
+      Majesty&rsquo;s pardon, may I ask what has become of your cousin, the King of
+      the Golden Mines? I know very well that he has no dominion in these
+      valleys, and do not therefore wonder at his absence from your court this
+      night; but I see so little of his subjects on earth that I should fear his
+      empire was well nigh at an end, if I did not recognize everywhere the most
+      servile homage paid to a power now become almost invisible.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of the Silver Mines fetched a deep sigh. &ldquo;Alas, prince,&rdquo; said he,
+      &ldquo;too well do you divine the expiration of my cousin&rsquo;s empire. So many of
+      his subjects have from time to time gone forth to the world, pressed into
+      military service and never returning, that his kingdom is nearly
+      depopulated. And he lives far off in the distant parts of the earth, in a
+      state of melancholy seclusion; the age of gold has passed, the age of
+      paper has commenced.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Paper,&rdquo; said Nymphalin, who was still somewhat of a <i>precieuse</i>,&mdash;&ldquo;paper
+      is a wonderful thing. What pretty books the human people write upon it!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! that&rsquo;s what I design to convey,&rdquo; said the silver king. &ldquo;It is the age
+      less of paper money than paper government: the Press is the true bank.&rdquo;
+       The lord treasurer of the English fairies pricked up his ears at the word
+      &ldquo;bank;&rdquo; for he was the Attwood of the fairies: he had a favourite plan of
+      making money out of bulrushes, and had written four large bees&rsquo;-wings full
+      upon the true nature of capital.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While they were thus conversing, a sudden sound as of some rustic and rude
+      music broke along the air, and closing its wild burden, they heard the
+      following song:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      THE COMPLAINT OF THE LAST FAUN.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+I. The moon on the Latmos mountain  Her pining vigil keeps;
+And ever the silver fountain  In the Dorian valley weeps.
+But gone are Endymion&rsquo;s dreams;  And the crystal lymph
+  Bewails the nymph
+Whose beauty sleeked the streams!
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+II. Round Arcady&rsquo;s oak its green  The Bromian ivy weaves;
+But no more is the satyr seen  Laughing out from the glossy leaves.
+Hushed is the Lycian lute,  Still grows the seed
+  Of the Moenale reed,
+But the pipe of Pan is mute!
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+III. The leaves in the noon-day quiver;  The vines on the mountains wave;
+And Tiber rolls his river  As fresh by the Sylvan&rsquo;s cave.
+But my brothers are dead and gone;  And far away
+  From their graves I stray,
+And dream of the past alone!
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+IV. And the sun of the north is chill;  And keen is the northern gale;
+Alas for the Song of the Argive hill;  And the dance in the Cretan vale!
+The youth of the earth is o&rsquo;er,  And its breast is rife
+  With the teeming life
+Of the golden Tribes no more!
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+V. My race are more blest than I,  Asleep in their distant bed;
+‘T were better, be sure, to die  Than to mourn for the buried Dead:
+To rove by the stranger streams,  At dusk and dawn
+  A lonely faun,
+The last of the Grecian&rsquo;s dreams.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      As the song ended a shadow crossed the moonlight, that lay white and
+      lustrous before the aperture of the cavern; and Nymphalin, looking up,
+      beheld a graceful yet grotesque figure standing on the sward without, and
+      gazing on the group in the cave. It was a shaggy form, with a goat&rsquo;s legs
+      and ears; but the rest of its body, and the height of the stature, like a
+      man&rsquo;s. An arch, pleasant, yet malicious smile played about its lips; and
+      in its hand it held the pastoral pipe of which poets have sung,&mdash;they
+      would find it difficult to sing to it!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And who art thou?&rdquo; said Fayzenheim, with the air of a hero.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am the last lingering wanderer of the race which the Romans worshipped;
+      hither I followed their victorious steps, and in these green hollows have
+      I remained. Sometimes in the still noon, when the leaves of spring bud
+      upon the whispering woods, I peer forth from my rocky lair, and startle
+      the peasant with my strange voice and stranger shape. Then goes he home,
+      and puzzles his thick brain with mopes and fancies, till at length he
+      imagines me, the creature of the South! one of his northern demons, and
+      his poets adapt the apparition to their barbarous lines.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ho!&rdquo; quoth the silver king, &ldquo;surely thou art the origin of the fabled
+      Satan of the cowled men living whilom in yonder ruins, with its horns and
+      goatish limbs; and the harmless faun has been made the figuration of the
+      most implacable of fiends. But why, O wanderer of the South, lingerest
+      thou in these foreign dells? Why returnest thou not to the bi-forked
+      hill-top of old Parnassus, or the wastes around the yellow course of the
+      Tiber?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My brethren are no more,&rdquo; said the poor faun; &ldquo;and the very faith that
+      left us sacred and unharmed is departed. But here all the spirits not of
+      mortality are still honoured; and I wander, mourning for Silenus, though
+      amidst the vines that should console me for his loss.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou hast known great beings in thy day,&rdquo; said the leaden king, who loved
+      the philosophy of a truism (and the history of whose inspirations I shall
+      one day write).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, yes,&rdquo; said the faun; &ldquo;my birth was amidst the freshness of the world,
+      when the flush of the universal life coloured all things with divinity;
+      when not a tree but had its Dryad, not a fountain that was without its
+      Nymph. I sat by the gray throne of Saturn, in his old age, ere yet he was
+      discrowned (for he was no visionary ideal, but the arch monarch of the
+      pastoral age), and heard from his lips the history of the world&rsquo;s birth.
+      But those times are gone forever,&mdash;they have left harsh successors.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is the age of paper,&rdquo; muttered the lord treasurer, shaking his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What ho, for a dance!&rdquo; cried Fayzenheim, too royal for moralities, and he
+      whirled the beautiful Nymphalin into a waltz. Then forth issued the
+      fairies, and out went the dwarfs. And the faun leaning against an aged
+      elm, ere yet the midnight waned, the elves danced their charmed round to
+      the antique minstrelsy of his pipe,&mdash;the minstrelsy of the Grecian
+      world!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hast thou seen yet, my Nymphalin,&rdquo; said Fayzenheim, in the pauses of the
+      dance, &ldquo;the recess of the Hartz, and the red form of its mighty hunter?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a fearful sight,&rdquo; answered Nymphalin; &ldquo;but with thee I should not
+      fear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Away then!&rdquo; cried Fayzenheim; &ldquo;let us away at the first cock-crow, into
+      those shaggy dells; for there is no need of night to conceal us, and the
+      unwitnessed blush of morn or the dreary silence of noon is, no less than
+      the moon&rsquo;s reign, the season for the sports of the superhuman tribes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Nymphalin, charmed with the proposal, readily assented; and at the last
+      hour of night, bestriding the starbeams of the many-titled Friga, away
+      sped the fairy cavalcade to the gloom of the mystic Hartz.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fain would I relate the manner of their arrival in the thick recesses of
+      the forest,&mdash;how they found the Red Hunter seated on a fallen pine
+      beside a wide chasm in the earth, with the arching bows of the wizard oak
+      wreathing above his head as a canopy, and his bow and spear lying idle at
+      his feet. Fain would I tell of the reception which he deigned to the
+      fairies, and how he told them of his ancient victories over man; how he
+      chafed at the gathering invasions of his realm; and how joyously he
+      gloated of some great convulsion* in the northern States, which, rapt into
+      moody reveries in those solitary woods, the fierce demon broodingly
+      foresaw. All these fain would I narrate, but they are not of the Rhine,
+      and my story will not brook the delay. While thus conversing with the
+      fiend, noon had crept on, and the sky had become overcast and lowering;
+      the giant trees waved gustily to and fro, and the low gatherings of the
+      thunder announced the approaching storm. Then the hunter rose and
+      stretched his mighty limbs, and seizing his spear, he strode rapidly into
+      the forest to meet the things of his own tribe that the tempest wakes from
+      their rugged lair.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * Which has come to pass.&mdash;1847.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      A sudden recollection broke upon Nymphalin. &ldquo;Alas, alas!&rdquo; she cried,
+      wringing her hands; &ldquo;what have I done! In journeying hither with thee, I
+      have forgotten my office. I have neglected my watch over the elements, and
+      my human charge is at this hour, perhaps, exposed to all the fury of the
+      storm.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cheer thee, my Nymphalin,&rdquo; said the prince, &ldquo;we will lay the tempest;&rdquo;
+       and he waved his sword and muttered the charms which curb the winds and
+      roll back the marching thunder: but for once the tempest ceased not at his
+      spells. And now, as the fairies sped along the troubled air, a pale and
+      beautiful form met them by the way, and the fairies paused and trembled;
+      for the power of that Shape could vanquish even them. It was the form of a
+      Female, with golden hair, crowned with a chaplet of withered leaves; her
+      bosoms, of an exceeding beauty, lay bare to the wind, and an infant was
+      clasped between them, hushed into a sleep so still, that neither the roar
+      of the thunder, nor the livid lightning flashing from cloud to cloud,
+      could even ruffle, much less arouse, the slumberer. And the face of the
+      female was unutterably calm and sweet (though with a something of severe);
+      there was no line nor wrinkle in the hueless brow; care never wrote its
+      defacing characters upon that everlasting beauty. It knew no sorrow or
+      change; ghostlike and shadowy floated on that Shape through the abyss of
+      Time, governing the world with an unquestioned and noiseless sway. And the
+      children of the green solitudes of the earth, the lovely fairies of my
+      tale, shuddered as they gazed and recognized&mdash;the form of DEATH,&mdash;death
+      vindicated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why,&rdquo; said the beautiful Shape, with a voice soft as the last sighs
+      of a dying babe,&mdash;&ldquo;why trouble ye the air with spells? Mine is the
+      hour and the empire, and the storm is the creature of my power. Far yonder
+      to the west it sweeps over the sea, and the ship ceases to vex the waves;
+      it smites the forest, and the destined tree, torn from its roots, feels
+      the winter strip the gladness from its boughs no more! The roar of the
+      elements is the herald of eternal stillness to their victims; and they who
+      hear the progress of my power idly shudder at the coming of peace. And
+      thou, O tender daughter of the fairy kings, why grievest thou at a
+      mortal&rsquo;s doom? Knowest thou not that sorrow cometh with years, and that to
+      live is to mourn? Blessed is the flower that, nipped in its early spring,
+      feels not the blast that one by one scatters its blossoms around it, and
+      leaves but the barren stem. Blessed are the young whom I clasp to my
+      breast, and lull into the sleep which the storm cannot break, nor the
+      morrow arouse to sorrow or to toil. The heart that is stilled in the bloom
+      of its first emotions, that turns with its last throb to the eye of love,
+      as yet unlearned in the possibility of change,&mdash;has exhausted already
+      the wine of life, and is saved only from the lees. As the mother soothes
+      to sleep the wail of her troubled child, I open my arms to the vexed
+      spirit, and my bosom cradles the unquiet to repose!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The fairies answered not, for a chill and a fear lay over them, and the
+      Shape glided on; ever as it passed away through the veiling clouds they
+      heard its low voice singing amidst the roar of the storm, as the dirge of
+      the water-sprite over the vessel it hath lured into the whirlpool or the
+      shoals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0027" id="link2HCH0027">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVII. THURMBERG.&mdash;A STORM UPON THE RHINE.&mdash;THE RUINS OF
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      RHEINFELS.&mdash;PERIL UNFELT BY LOVE.&mdash;THE ECHO OF THE LURLEI-BERG.&mdash;ST.
+      GOAR.&mdash;KAUB, GUTENFELS, AND PFALZGRAFENSTEIN.&mdash;A CERTAIN
+      VASTNESS OF MIND IN THE FIRST HERMITS.&mdash;THE SCENERY OF THE RHINE TO
+      BACHARACH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      OUR party continued their voyage the next day, which was less bright than
+      any they had yet experienced. The clouds swept on dull and heavy,
+      suffering the sun only to break forth at scattered intervals. They wound
+      round the curving bay which the Rhine forms in that part of its course,
+      and gazed upon the ruins of Thurmberg, with the rich gardens that skirt
+      the banks below. The last time Trevylyan had seen those ruins soaring
+      against the sky, the green foliage at the foot of the rocks, and the quiet
+      village sequestered beneath, glassing its roofs and solitary tower upon
+      the wave, it had been with a gay summer troop of light friends, who had
+      paused on the opposite shore during the heats of noon, and, over wine and
+      fruits, had mimicked the groups of Boccaccio, and intermingled the lute,
+      the jest, the momentary love, and the laughing tale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What a difference now in his thoughts, in the object of the voyage, in his
+      present companions! The feet of years fall noiseless; we heed, we note
+      them not, till tracking the same course we passed long since, we are
+      startled to find how deep the impression they leave behind. To revisit the
+      scenes of our youth is to commune with the ghost of ourselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this time the clouds gathered rapidly along the heavens, and they were
+      startled by the first peal of the thunder. Sudden and swift came on the
+      storm, and Trevylyan trembled as he covered Gertrude&rsquo;s form with the rude
+      boat-cloaks they had brought with them; the small vessel began to rock
+      wildly to and fro upon the waters. High above them rose the vast
+      dismantled ruins of Rheinfels, the lightning darting through its shattered
+      casements and broken arches, and brightening the gloomy trees that here
+      and there clothed the rocks, and tossed to the angry wind. Swift wheeled
+      the water-birds over the river, dipping their plumage in the white foam,
+      and uttering their discordant screams. A storm upon the Rhine has a
+      grandeur it is in vain to paint. Its rocks, its foliage, the feudal ruins
+      that everywhere rise from the lofty heights, speaking in characters of
+      stern decay of many a former battle against time and tempest; the broad
+      and rapid course of the legendary river,&mdash;all harmonize with the
+      elementary strife; and you feel that to see the Rhine only in the sunshine
+      is to be unconscious of its most majestic aspects. What baronial war had
+      those ruins witnessed! From the rapine of the lordly tyrant of those
+      battlements rose the first Confederation of the Rhine,&mdash;the great
+      strife between the new time and the old, the town and the castle, the
+      citizen and the chief. Gray and stern those ruins breasted the storm,&mdash;a
+      type of the antique opinion which once manned them with armed serfs; and,
+      yet in ruins and decay, appeals from the victorious freedom it may no
+      longer resist!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Clasped in Trevylyan&rsquo;s guardian arms, and her head pillowed on his breast,
+      Gertrude felt nothing of the storm save its grandeur; and Trevylyan&rsquo;s
+      voice whispered cheer and courage to her ear. She answered by a smile and
+      a sigh, but not of pain. In the convulsions of nature we forget our own
+      separate existence, our schemes, our projects, our fears; our dreams
+      vanish back into their cells. One passion only the storm quells not, and
+      the presence of Love mingles with the voice of the fiercest storms, as
+      with the whispers of the southern wind. So she felt, as they were thus
+      drawn close together, and as she strove to smile away the anxious terror
+      from Trevylyan&rsquo;s gaze, a security, a delight; for peril is sweet even to
+      the fears of woman, when it impresses upon her yet more vividly that she
+      is beloved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A moment more and we reach the land,&rdquo; murmured Trevylyan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish it not,&rdquo; answered Gertrude, softly. But ere they got into St. Goar
+      the rain descended in torrents, and even the thick coverings round
+      Gertrude&rsquo;s form were not sufficient protection against it. Wet and
+      dripping she reached the inn; but not then, nor for some days, was she
+      sensible of the shock her decaying health had received.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The storm lasted but a few hours, and the sun afterwards broke forth so
+      brightly, and the stream looked so inviting, that they yielded to
+      Gertrude&rsquo;s earnest wish, and, taking a larger vessel, continued their
+      course; they passed along the narrow and dangerous defile of the Gewirre,
+      and the fearful whirlpool of the &ldquo;Bank;&rdquo; and on the shore to the left the
+      enormous rock of Lurlei rose, huge and shapeless, on their gaze. In this
+      place is a singular echo, and one of the boatmen wound a horn, which
+      produced an almost supernatural music,&mdash;so wild, loud, and oft
+      reverberated was its sound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The river now curved along in a narrow and deep channel amongst rugged
+      steeps, on which the westering sun cast long and uncouth shadows; and here
+      the hermit, from whose sacred name the town of St. Goar derived its own,
+      fixed his abode and preached the religion of the Cross. &ldquo;There was a
+      certain vastness of mind,&rdquo; said Vane, &ldquo;in the adoption of utter solitude,
+      in which the first enthusiasts of our religion indulged. The remote
+      desert, the solitary rock, the rude dwelling hollowed from the cave, the
+      eternal commune with their own hearts, with nature, and their dreams of
+      God,&mdash;all make a picture of severe and preterhuman grandeur. Say what
+      we will of the necessity and charm of social life, there is a greatness
+      about man when he dispenses with mankind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As to that,&rdquo; said Du&mdash;&mdash;-e, shrugging his shoulders, &ldquo;there was
+      probably very good wine in the neighbourhood, and the females&rsquo; eyes about
+      Oberwesel are singularly blue.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They now approached Oberwesel, another of the once imperial towns, and
+      behind it beheld the remains of the castle of the illustrious family of
+      Schomberg, the ancestors of the old hero of the Boyne. A little farther
+      on, from the opposite shore, the castle of Gutenfels rose above the busy
+      town of Kaub.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Another of those scenes,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, &ldquo;celebrated equally by love and
+      glory, for the castle&rsquo;s name is derived from that of the beautiful ladye
+      of an emperor&rsquo;s passion; and below, upon a ridge in the steep, the great
+      Gustavus issued forth his command to begin battle with the Spaniards.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It looks peaceful enough now,&rdquo; said Vane, pointing to the craft that lay
+      along the stream, and the green trees drooping over a curve in the bank.
+      Beyond, in the middle of the stream itself, stands the lonely castle of
+      Pfalzgrafenstein, sadly memorable as a prison to the more distinguished of
+      criminals. How many pining eyes may have turned from those casements to
+      the vine-clad hills of the free shore! how many indignant hearts have
+      nursed the deep curses of hate in the dungeons below, and longed for the
+      wave that dashed against the gray walls to force its way within and set
+      them free!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here the Rhine seems utterly bounded, shrunk into one of those delusive
+      lakes into which it so frequently seems to change its course; and as you
+      proceed, it is as if the waters were silently overflowing their channel
+      and forcing their way into the clefts of the mountain shore. Passing the
+      Werth Island on one side and the castle of Stahleck on the other, our
+      voyagers arrived at Bacharach, which, associating the feudal recollections
+      with the classic, takes its name from the god of the vine; and as Du&mdash;&mdash;-e
+      declared with peculiar emphasis, quaffing a large goblet of the peculiar
+      liquor, &ldquo;richly deserves the honour!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0028" id="link2HCH0028">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVIII. THE VOYAGE TO BINGEN.&mdash;THE SIMPLE INCIDENTS IN THIS
+      TALE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      EXCUSED.&mdash;THE SITUATION AND CHARACTER OF GERTRUDE.&mdash;THE
+      CONVERSATION OF THE LOVERS IN THE TEMPEST.&mdash;A FACT CONTRADICTED.&mdash;THOUGHTS
+      OCCASIONED BY A MADHOUSE AMONGST THE MOST BEAUTIFUL LANDSCAPES OF THE
+      RHINE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      THE next day they again resumed their voyage, and Gertrude&rsquo;s spirits were
+      more cheerful than usual. The air seemed to her lighter, and she breathed
+      with a less painful effort; once more hope entered the breast of
+      Trevylyan; and, as the vessel bounded on, their conversation was steeped
+      in no sombre hues. When Gertrude&rsquo;s health permitted, no temper was so gay,
+      yet so gently gay, as hers; and now the <i>naive</i> sportiveness of her
+      remarks called a smile to the placid lip of Vane, and smoothed the anxious
+      front of Trevylyan himself; as for Du&mdash;&mdash;-e, who had much of the
+      boon companion beneath his professional gravity, he broke out every now
+      and then into snatches of French songs and drinking glees, which he
+      declared were the result of the air of Bacharach. Thus conversing, the
+      ruins of Furstenberg, and the echoing vale of Rheindeibach, glided past
+      their sail; then the old town of Lorch, on the opposite bank (where the
+      red wine is said first to have been made), with the green island before it
+      in the water. Winding round, the stream showed castle upon castle alike in
+      ruins, and built alike upon scarce accessible steeps. Then came the chapel
+      of St. Clements and the opposing village of Asmannshausen; the lofty
+      Rossell, built at the extremest verge of the cliff; and now the tower of
+      Hatto, celebrated by Southey&rsquo;s ballad, and the ancient town of Bingen.
+      Here they paused a while from their voyage, with the intention of visiting
+      more minutely the Rheingau, or valley of the Rhine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It must occur to every one of my readers, that, in undertaking, as now, in
+      these passages in the history of Trevylyan, scarcely so much a tale as an
+      episode in real life, it is very difficult to offer any interest save of
+      the most simple and unexciting kind. It is true that to Trevylyan every
+      day, every hour, had its incident; but what are those incidents to others?
+      A cloud in the sky; a smile from the lip of Gertrude,&mdash;these were to
+      him far more full of events than had been the most varied scenes of his
+      former adventurous career; but the history of the heart is not easily
+      translated into language; and the world will not readily pause from its
+      business to watch the alternations in the cheek of a dying girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the immense sum of human existence what is a single unit? Every sod on
+      which we tread is the grave of some former being; yet is there something
+      that softens without enervating the heart in tracing in the life of
+      another those emotions that all of us have known ourselves. For who is
+      there that has not, in his progress through life, felt all its ordinary
+      business arrested, and the varieties of fate commuted into one chronicle
+      of the affections? Who has not watched over the passing away of some
+      being, more to him at that epoch than all the world? And this unit, so
+      trivial to the calculation of others, of what inestimable value was it not
+      to him? Retracing in another such recollections, shadowed and mellowed
+      down by time, we feel the wonderful sanctity of human life, we feel what
+      emotions a single being can awake; what a world of hope may be buried in a
+      single grave! And thus we keep alive within ourselves the soft springs of
+      that morality which unites us with our kind, and sheds over the harsh
+      scenes and turbulent contests of earth the colouring of a common love.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is often, too, in the time of year in which such thoughts are
+      presented to us, a certain harmony with the feelings they awaken. As I
+      write I hear the last sighs of the departing summer, and the sere and
+      yellow leaf is visible in the green of nature. But when this book goes
+      forth into the world, the year will have passed through a deeper cycle of
+      decay; and the first melancholy signs of winter have breathed into the
+      Universal Mind that sadness which associates itself readily with the
+      memory of friends, of feelings, that are no more. The seasons, like
+      ourselves, track their course by something of beauty, or of glory, that is
+      left behind. As the traveller in the land of Palestine sees tomb after
+      tomb rise before him, the landmarks of his way, and the only signs of the
+      holiness of the soil, thus Memory wanders over the most sacred spots in
+      its various world, and traces them but by the graves of the Past.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now that Gertrude began to feel the shock her frame had received in
+      the storm upon the Rhine. Cold shiverings frequently seized her; her cough
+      became more hollow, and her form trembled at the slightest breeze.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Vane grew seriously alarmed; he repented that he had yielded to Gertrude&rsquo;s
+      wish of substituting the Rhine for the Tiber or the Arno; and would even
+      now have hurried across the Alps to a warmer clime, if Du&mdash;&mdash;-e
+      had not declared that she could not survive the journey, and that her sole
+      chance of regaining her strength was rest. Gertrude herself, however, in
+      the continued delusion of her disease, clung to the belief of recovery,
+      and still supported the hopes of her father, and soothed, with secret talk
+      of the future, the anguish of her betrothed. The reader may remember that
+      in the most touching passage in the ancient tragedians, the most pathetic
+      part of the most pathetic of human poets&mdash;the pleading speech of
+      Iphigenia, when imploring for her prolonged life, she impresses you with
+      so soft a picture of its innocence and its beauty, and in this Gertrude
+      resembled the Greek&rsquo;s creation&mdash;that she felt, on the verge of death,
+      all the flush, the glow, the loveliness of life. Her youth was filled with
+      hope and many-coloured dreams; she loved, and the hues of morning slept
+      upon the yet disenchanted earth. The heavens to her were not as the common
+      sky; the wave had its peculiar music to her ear, and the rustling leaves a
+      pleasantness that none whose heart is not bathed in the love and sense of
+      beauty could discern. Therefore it was, in future years, a thought of deep
+      gratitude to Trevylyan that she was so little sensible of her danger; that
+      the landscape caught not the gloom of the grave; and that, in the Greek
+      phrase, &ldquo;death found her sleeping amongst flowers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At the end of a few days, another of those sudden turns, common to her
+      malady, occurred in Gertrude&rsquo;s health; her youth and her happiness rallied
+      against the encroaching tyrant, and for the ensuing fortnight she seemed
+      once more within the bounds of hope. During this time they made several
+      excursions into the Rheingau, and finished their tour at the ancient
+      Heidelberg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One morning, in these excursions, after threading the wood of Niederwald,
+      they gained that small and fairy temple, which hanging lightly over the
+      mountain&rsquo;s brow, commands one of the noblest landscapes of earth. There,
+      seated side by side, the lovers looked over the beautiful world below; far
+      to the left lay the happy islets, in the embrace of the Rhine, as it wound
+      along the low and curving meadows that stretch away towards
+      Nieder-Ingelheim and Mayence. Glistening in the distance, the opposite Nah
+      swept by the Mause tower, and the ruins of Klopp, crowning the ancient Bingen,
+      into the mother tide. There, on either side the town, were the mountains
+      of St. Roch and Rupert, with some old monastic ruin saddening in the sun.
+      But nearer, below the temple, contrasting all the other features of
+      landscape, yawned a dark and rugged gulf, girt by cragged elms and
+      mouldering towers, the very prototype of the abyss of time,&mdash;black
+      and fathomless amidst ruin and desolation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think sometimes,&rdquo; said Gertrude, &ldquo;as in scenes like these we sit
+      together, and rapt from the actual world, see only the enchantment that
+      distance lends to our view,&mdash;I think sometimes what pleasure it will
+      be hereafter to recall these hours. If ever you should love me less, I
+      need only whisper to you, &lsquo;The Rhine,&rsquo; and will not all the feelings you
+      have now for me return?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, there will never be occasion to recall my love for you,&mdash;it can
+      never decay.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a strange thing is life!&rdquo; said Gertrude; &ldquo;how unconnected, how
+      desultory seem all its links! Has this sweet pause from trouble, from the
+      ordinary cares of life&mdash;has it anything in common with your past
+      career, with your future? You will go into the great world; in a few years
+      hence these moments of leisure and musing will be denied to you. The
+      action that you love and court is a jealous sphere,&mdash;it allows no
+      wandering, no repose. These moments will then seem to you but as yonder
+      islands that stud the Rhine,&mdash;the stream lingers by them for a
+      moment, and then hurries on in its rapid course; they vary, but they do
+      not interrupt the tide.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are fanciful, my Gertrude; but your simile might be juster. Rather
+      let these banks be as our lives, and this river the one thought that flows
+      eternally by both, blessing each with undying freshness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Gertrude smiled; and, as Trevylyan&rsquo;s arm encircled her, she sank her
+      beautiful face upon his bosom, he covered it with his kisses, and she
+      thought at the moment, that, even had she passed death, that embrace could
+      have recalled her to life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They pursued their course to Mayence, partly by land, partly along the
+      river. One day, as returning from the vine-clad mountains of Johannisberg,
+      which commands the whole of the Rheingau, the most beautiful valley in the
+      world, they proceeded by water to the town of Ellfeld, Gertrude said,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is a thought in your favourite poet which you have often repeated,
+      and which I cannot think true,&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  &ldquo;&lsquo;In nature there is nothing melancholy.&rsquo; 
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To me, it seems as if a certain melancholy were inseparable from beauty;
+      in the sunniest noon there is a sense of solitude and stillness which
+      pervades the landscape, and even in the flush of life inspires us with a
+      musing and tender sadness. Why is this?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot tell,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, mournfully; &ldquo;but I allow that it is
+      true.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is as if,&rdquo; continued the romantic Gertrude, &ldquo;the spirit of the world
+      spoke to us in the silence, and filled us with a sense of our mortality,&mdash;a
+      whisper from the religion that belongs to nature, and is ever seeking to
+      unite the earth with the reminiscences of Heaven. Ah, what without a
+      heaven would be even love!&mdash;a perpetual terror of the separation that
+      must one day come! If,&rdquo; she resumed solemnly, after a momentary pause, and
+      a shadow settled on her young face, &ldquo;if it be true, Albert, that I must
+      leave you soon&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It cannot! it cannot!&rdquo; cried Trevylyan, wildly; &ldquo;be still, be silent, I
+      beseech you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look yonder,&rdquo; said Du&mdash;&mdash;-e, breaking seasonably in upon the
+      conversation of the lovers; &ldquo;on that hill to the left, what once was an
+      abbey is now an asylum for the insane. Does it not seem a quiet and serene
+      abode for the unstrung and erring minds that tenant it? What a mystery is
+      there in our conformation!&mdash;those strange and bewildered fancies
+      which replace our solid reason, what a moral of our human weakness do they
+      breathe!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It does indeed induce a dark and singular train of thought, when, in the
+      midst of these lovely scenes, we chance upon this lone retreat for those
+      on whose eyes Nature, perhaps, smiles in vain. <i>Or is it in vain?</i>
+      They look down upon the broad Rhine, with its tranquil isles: do their
+      wild delusions endow the river with another name, and people the valleys
+      with no living shapes? Does the broken mirror within reflect back the
+      countenance of real things, or shadows and shapes, crossed, mingled, and
+      bewildered,&mdash;the phantasma of a sick man&rsquo;s dreams? Yet, perchance,
+      one memory unscathed by the general ruin of the brain can make even the
+      beautiful Rhine more beautiful than it is to the common eye; can calm it
+      with the hues of departed love, and bids its possessor walk over its
+      vine-clad mountains with the beings that have ceased to <i>be</i>! There,
+      perhaps, the self-made monarch sits upon his throne and claims the vessels
+      as his fleet, the waves and the valleys as his own; there, the enthusiast,
+      blasted by the light of some imaginary creed, beholds the shapes of
+      angels, and watches in the clouds round the setting sun the pavilions of
+      God; there the victim of forsaken or perished love, mightier than the
+      sorcerers of old, evokes the dead, or recalls the faithless by the philter
+      of undying fancies. Ah, blessed art thou, the winged power of Imagination
+      that is within us! conquering even grief, brightening even despair. Thou
+      takest us from the world when reason can no longer bind us to it, and
+      givest to the maniac the inspiration and the solace of the bard! Thou, the
+      parent of the purer love, lingerest like love, when even ourself forsakes
+      us, and lightest up the shattered chambers of the heart with the glory
+      that makes a sanctity of decay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0029" id="link2HCH0029">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIX. ELLFELD.&mdash;MAYENCE.&mdash;HEIDELBERG.&mdash;A
+      CONVERSATION BETWEEN
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      VANE AND THE GERMAN STUDENT.&mdash;THE RUINS OF THE CASTLE OF HEIDELBERG
+      AND ITS SOLITARY HABITANT.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      IT was now the full noon; light clouds were bearing up towards the
+      opposite banks of the Rhine, but over the Gothic towers of Ellfeld the sky
+      spread blue and clear; the river danced beside the old gray walls with a
+      sunny wave, and close at hand a vessel crowded with passengers, and loud
+      with eager voices, gave a merry life to the scene. On the opposite bank
+      the hills sloped away into the far horizon, and one slight skiff in the
+      midst of the waters broke the solitary brightness of the noonday calm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The town of Ellfeld was the gift of Otho the First to the Church; not far
+      from thence is the crystal spring that gives its name to the delicious
+      grape of Markbrunner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; quoth Du&mdash;&mdash;-e, &ldquo;doubtless the good bishops of Mayence
+      made the best of the vicinity!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They stayed some little time at this town, and visited the ruins of
+      Scharfenstein; thence proceeding up the river, they passed Nieder Walluf,
+      called the Gate of the Rheingau, and the luxuriant garden of Schierstein;
+      thence, sailing by the castle-seat of the Prince Nassau Usingen, and
+      passing two long and narrow isles, they arrived at Mayence, as the sun
+      shot his last rays upon the waters, gilding the proud cathedral-spire, and
+      breaking the mists that began to gather behind, over the rocks of the
+      Rheingau.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ever memorable Mayence,&mdash;memorable alike for freedom and for song,
+      within those walls how often woke the gallant music of the Troubadour; and
+      how often beside that river did the heart of the maiden tremble to the
+      lay! Within those walls the stout Walpoden first broached the great scheme
+      of the Hanseatic league; and, more than all, O memorable Mayence, thou
+      canst claim the first invention of the mightiest engine of human
+      intellect,&mdash;the great leveller of power, the Demiurgus of the moral
+      world,&mdash;the Press! Here too lived the maligned hero of the greatest
+      drama of modern genius, the traditionary Faust, illustrating in himself
+      the fate of his successors in dispensing knowledge,&mdash;held a monster
+      for his wisdom, and consigned to the penalties of hell as a recompense for
+      the benefits he had conferred on earth!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Mayence, Gertrude heard so much and so constantly of Heidelberg, that
+      she grew impatient to visit that enchanting town; and as Du&mdash;&mdash;-e
+      considered the air of Heidelberg more pure and invigorating than that of
+      Mayence, they resolved to fix within it their temporary residence. Alas!
+      it was the place destined to close their brief and melancholy pilgrimage,
+      and to become to the heart of Trevylyan the holiest spot which the earth
+      contained,&mdash;the KAABA of the world. But Gertrude, unconscious of her
+      fate, conversed gayly as their carriage rolled rapidly on, and, constantly
+      alive to every new sensation, she touched with her characteristic vivacity
+      on all that they had seen in their previous route. There is a great charm
+      in the observations of one new to the world; if we ourselves have become
+      somewhat tired of &ldquo;its hack sights and sounds,&rdquo; we hear in their freshness
+      a voice from our own youth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the haunted valley of the Neckar, the most crystal of rivers, stands
+      the town of Heidelberg. The shades of evening gathered round it as their
+      heavy carriage rattled along the antique streets, and not till the next
+      day was Gertrude aware of all the unrivalled beauties that environ the
+      place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Vane, who was an early riser, went forth alone in the morning to
+      reconnoitre the town; and as he was gazing on the tower of St. Peter, he
+      heard himself suddenly accosted. He turned round and saw the German
+      student whom they had met among the mountains of Taunus at his elbow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Monsieur has chosen well in coming hither,&rdquo; said the student; &ldquo;and I
+      trust our town will not disappoint his expectations.&rdquo; Vane answered with
+      courtesy, and the German offering to accompany him in his walk, their
+      conversation fell naturally on the life of a university, and the current
+      education of the German people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is surprising,&rdquo; said the student, &ldquo;that men are eternally inventing
+      new systems of education, and yet persevering in the old. How many years
+      ago is it since Fichte predicted in the system of Pestalozzi the
+      regeneration of the German people? What has it done? We admire, we praise,
+      and we blunder on in the very course Pestalozzi proves to be erroneous.
+      Certainly,&rdquo; continued the student, &ldquo;there must be some radical defect in a
+      system of culture in which genius is an exception, and dulness the result.
+      Yet here, in our German universities, everything proves that education
+      without equitable institutions avails little in the general formation of
+      character. Here the young men of the colleges mix on the most equal terms;
+      they are daring, romantic, enamoured of freedom even to its madness. They
+      leave the University: no political career continues the train of mind they
+      had acquired; they plunge into obscurity; live scattered and separate, and
+      the student inebriated with Schiller sinks into the passive priest or the
+      lethargic baron. His college career, so far from indicating his future
+      life, exactly reverses it: he is brought up in one course in order to
+      proceed in another. And this I hold to be the universal error of education
+      in all countries; they conceive it a certain something to be finished at a
+      certain age. They do not make it a part of the continuous history of life,
+      but a wandering from it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have been in England?&rdquo; asked Vane.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; I have travelled over nearly the whole of it on foot. I was poor at
+      that time, and imagining there was a sort of masonry between all men of
+      letters, I inquired at each town for the <i>savants</i>, and asked money
+      of them as a matter of course.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Vane almost laughed outright at the simplicity and naive unconsciousness
+      of degradation with which the student proclaimed himself a public beggar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how did you generally succeed?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In most cases I was threatened with the stocks, and twice I was consigned
+      by the <i>juge de paix</i> to the village police, to be passed to some
+      mystic Mecca they were pleased to entitle &lsquo;a parish.&rsquo; Ah&rdquo; (continued the
+      German with much <i>bonhomie</i>), &ldquo;it was a pity to see in a great nation
+      so much value attached to such a trifle as money. But what surprised me
+      greatly was the tone of your poetry. Madame de Stael, who knew perhaps as
+      much of England as she did of Germany, tells us that its chief character
+      is the <i>chivalresque</i>; and, excepting only Scott, who, by the way, is
+      <i>not</i> English, I did not find one chivalrous poet among you. Yet,&rdquo;
+       continued the student, &ldquo;between ourselves, I fancy that in our present age
+      of civilization, there is an unexamined mistake in the general mind as to
+      the value of poetry. It delights still as ever, but it has ceased to
+      teach. The prose of the heart enlightens, touches, rouses, far more than
+      poetry. Your most philosophical poets would be commonplace if turned into
+      prose. Verse cannot contain the refining subtle thoughts which a great
+      prose writer embodies; the rhyme eternally cripples it; it properly deals
+      with the common problems of human nature, which are now hackneyed, and not
+      with the nice and philosophizing corollaries which may be drawn from them.
+      Thus, though it would seem at first a paradox, commonplace is more the
+      element of poetry than of prose.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This sentiment charmed Vane, who had nothing of the poet about him; and he
+      took the student to share their breakfast at the inn, with a complacency
+      he rarely experienced at the remeeting with a new acquaintance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After breakfast, our party proceeded through the town towards the
+      wonderful castle which is its chief attraction, and the noblest wreck of
+      German grandeur.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now pausing, the mountain yet unscaled, the stately ruin frowned upon
+      them, girt by its massive walls and hanging terraces, round which from
+      place to place clung the dwarfed and various foliage. High at the rear
+      rose the huge mountain, covered, save at its extreme summit, with dark
+      trees, and concealing in its mysterious breast the shadowy beings of the
+      legendary world. But towards the ruins, and up a steep ascent, you may see
+      a few scattered sheep thinly studding the broken ground. Aloft, above the
+      ramparts, rose, desolate and huge, the Palace of the Electors of the
+      Palatinate. In its broken walls you may trace the tokens of the lightning
+      that blasted its ancient pomp, but still leaves in the vast extent of pile
+      a fitting monument of the memory of Charlemagne. Below, in the distance,
+      spread the plain far and spacious, till the shadowy river, with one
+      solitary sail upon its breast, united the melancholy scene of earth with
+      the autumnal sky.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See,&rdquo; said Vane, pointing to two peasants who were conversing near them
+      on the matters of their little trade, utterly unconscious of the
+      associations of the spot, &ldquo;see, after all that is said and done about
+      human greatness, it is always the greatness of the few. Ages pass, and
+      leave the poor herd, the mass of men, eternally the same,&mdash;hewers of
+      wood and drawers of water. The pomp of princes has its ebb and flow, but
+      the peasant sells his fruit as gayly to the stranger on the ruins as to
+      the emperor in the palace.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will it be always so?&rdquo; said the student.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us hope not, for the sake of permanence in glory,&rdquo; said Trevylyan.
+      &ldquo;Had <i>a people</i> built yonder palace, its splendour would never have
+      passed away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Vane shrugged his shoulders, and Du&mdash;&mdash;-e took snuff.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But all the impressions produced by the castle at a distance are as
+      nothing when you stand within its vast area and behold the architecture of
+      all ages blended into one mighty ruin! The rich hues of the masonry, the
+      sweeping facades&mdash;every description of building which man ever framed
+      for war or for luxury&mdash;is here; all having only the common character,&mdash;RUIN.
+      The feudal rampart, the yawning fosse, the rude tower, the splendid arch,
+      the strength of a fortress, the magnificence of a palace,&mdash;all
+      united, strike upon the soul like the history of a fallen empire in all
+      its epochs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is one singular habitant of these ruins,&rdquo; said the student,&mdash;&ldquo;a
+      solitary painter, who has dwelt here some twenty years, companioned only
+      by his Art. No other apartment but that which he tenants is occupied by a
+      human being.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a poetical existence!&rdquo; cried Gertrude, enchanted with a solitude so
+      full of associations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps so,&rdquo; said the cruel Vane, ever anxious to dispel an illusion,
+      &ldquo;but more probably custom has deadened to him all that overpowers
+      ourselves with awe; and he may tread among these ruins rather seeking to
+      pick up some rude morsel of antiquity, than feeding his imagination with
+      the dim traditions that invest them with so august a poetry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Monsieur&rsquo;s conjecture has something of the truth in it,&rdquo; said the German;
+      &ldquo;but then the painter is a Frenchman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There is a sense of fatality in the singular mournfulness and majesty
+      which belong to the ruins of Heidelberg, contrasting the vastness of the
+      strength with the utterness of the ruin. It has been twice struck with
+      lightning, and is the wreck of the elements, not of man; during the great
+      siege it sustained, the lightning is supposed to have struck the powder
+      magazine by accident.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What a scene for some great imaginative work! What a mocking interference
+      of the wrath of nature in the puny contests of men! One stroke of &ldquo;the red
+      right arm&rdquo; above us, crushing the triumph of ages, and laughing to scorn
+      the power of the beleaguers and the valour of the besieged!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They passed the whole day among these stupendous ruins, and felt, when
+      they descended to their inn, as if they had left the caverns of some
+      mighty tomb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0030" id="link2HCH0030">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXX. NO PART OF THE EARTH REALLY SOLITARY.&mdash;THE SONG OF THE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      FAIRIES.&mdash;THE SACRED SPOT.&mdash;THE WITCH OF THE EVIL WINDS.&mdash;THE
+      SPELL AND THE DUTY OF THE FAIRIES.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      BUT in what spot of the world is there ever utter solitude? The vanity of
+      man supposes that loneliness is <i>his</i> absence! Who shall say what
+      millions of spiritual beings glide invisibly among scenes apparently the
+      most deserted? Or what know we of our own mechanism, that we should deny
+      the possibility of life and motion to things that we cannot ourselves
+      recognize?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At moonlight, in the Great Court of Heidelberg, on the borders of the
+      shattered basin overgrown with weeds, the following song was heard by the
+      melancholy shades that roam at night through the mouldering halls of old,
+      and the gloomy hollows in the mountain of Heidelberg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      SONG OF THE FAIRIES IN THE RUINS OF HEIDELBERG.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     From the woods and the glossy green,
+       With the wild thyme strewn;
+     From the rivers whose crisped sheen
+       Is kissed by the trembling moon;
+     While the dwarf looks out from his mountain cave,
+       And the erl king from his lair,
+     And the water-nymph from her moaning wave,
+       We skirr the limber air.
+
+     There&rsquo;s a smile on the vine-clad shore,
+       A smile on the castled heights;
+     They dream back the days of yore,
+       And they smile at our roundel rites!
+                    Our roundel rites!
+
+     Lightly we tread these halls around,
+       Lightly tread we;
+     Yet, hark! we have scared with a single sound
+       The moping owl on the breathless tree,
+                    And the goblin sprites!
+     Ha, ha! we have scared with a single sound
+       The old gray owl on the breathless tree,
+                    And the goblin sprites!
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They come not,&rdquo; said Pipalee; &ldquo;yet the banquet is prepared, and the poor
+      queen will be glad of some refreshment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a pity! all the rose-leaves will be over-broiled,&rdquo; said Nip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us amuse ourselves with the old painter,&rdquo; quoth Trip, springing over
+      the ruins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well said,&rdquo; cried Pipalee and Nip; and all three, leaving my lord
+      treasurer amazed at their levity, whisked into the painter&rsquo;s apartment.
+      Permitting them to throw the ink over their victim&rsquo;s papers, break his
+      pencils, mix his colours, mislay his nightcap, and go whiz against his
+      face in the shape of a great bat, till the astonished Frenchman began to
+      think the pensive goblins of the place had taken a sprightly fit,&mdash;we
+      hasten to a small green spot some little way from the town, in the valley
+      of the Neckar, and by the banks of its silver stream. It was circled round
+      by dark trees, save on that side bordered by the river. The wild-flowers
+      sprang profusely from the turf, which yet was smooth and singularly green.
+      And there was the German fairy describing a circle round the spot, and
+      making his elvish spells; and Nymphalin sat droopingly in the centre,
+      shading her face, which was bowed down as the head of a water-lily, and
+      weeping crystal tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There came a hollow murmur through the trees, and a rush as of a mighty
+      wind, and a dark form emerged from the shadow and approached the spot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The face was wrinkled and old, and stern with a malevolent and evil
+      aspect. The frame was lean and gaunt, and supported by a staff, and a
+      short gray mantle covered its bended shoulders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Things of the moonbeam!&rdquo; said the form, in a shrill and ghastly voice,
+      &ldquo;what want ye here; and why charm ye this spot from the coming of me and
+      mine?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dark witch of the blight and blast,&rdquo; answered the fairy, &ldquo;THOU that
+      nippest the herb in its tender youth, and eatest up the core of the soft
+      bud; behold, it is but a small spot that the fairies claim from thy
+      demesnes, and on which, through frost and heat, they will keep the herbage
+      green and the air gentle in its sighs!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And, wherefore, O dweller in the crevices of the earth, wherefore wouldst
+      thou guard this spot from the curses of the seasons?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We know by our instinct,&rdquo; answered the fairy, &ldquo;that this spot will become
+      the grave of one whom the fairies love; hither, by an unfelt influence,
+      shall we guide her yet living steps; and in gazing upon this spot shall
+      the desire of quiet and the resignation to death steal upon her soul.
+      Behold, throughout the universe, all things are at war with one another,&mdash;the
+      lion with the lamb; the serpent with the bird; and even the gentlest bird
+      itself with the moth of the air; or the worm of the humble earth! What
+      then to men, and to the spirits transcending men, is so lovely and so
+      sacred as a being that harmeth none; what so beautiful as Innocence; what
+      so mournful as its untimely tomb? And shall not that tomb be sacred; shall
+      it not be our peculiar care? May we not mourn over it as at the passing
+      away of some fair miracle in Nature, too tender to endure, too rare to be
+      forgotten? It is for this, O dread waker of the blast, that the fairies
+      would consecrate this little spot; for this they would charm away from its
+      tranquil turf the wandering ghoul and the evil children of the night.
+      Here, not the ill-omened owl, nor the blind bat, nor the unclean worm
+      shall come. And thou shouldst have neither will nor power to nip the
+      flowers of spring, nor sear the green herbs of summer. Is it not, dark
+      mother of the evil winds,&mdash;is it not <i>our</i> immemorial office to
+      tend the grave of Innocence, and keep fresh the flowers round the
+      resting-place of Virgin Love?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the witch drew her cloak round her, and muttered to herself, and
+      without further answer turned away among the trees and vanished, as the
+      breath of the east wind, which goeth with her as her comrade, scattered
+      the melancholy leaves along her path!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0031" id="link2HCH0031">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXI. GERTRUDE AND TREVYLYAN, WHEN THE FORMER IS AWAKENED TO THE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      APPROACH OF DEATH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      THE next day, Gertrude and her companions went along the banks of the
+      haunted Neckar. She had passed a sleepless and painful night, and her
+      evanescent and childlike spirits had sobered down into a melancholy and
+      thoughtful mood. She leaned back in an open carriage with Trevylyan, ever
+      constant, by her side, while Du&mdash;&mdash;-e and Vane rode slowly in
+      advance. Trevylyan tried in vain to cheer her; even his attempts (usually
+      so eagerly received) to charm her duller moments by tale or legend were,
+      in this instance, fruitless. She shook her head gently, pressed his hand,
+      and said, &ldquo;No, dear Trevylyan, no; even your art fails to-day, but your
+      kindness never!&rdquo; and pressing his hand to her lips, she burst passionately
+      into tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alarmed and anxious, he clasped her to his breast, and strove to lift her
+      face, as it drooped on its resting-place, and kiss away its tears. &ldquo;Oh,&rdquo;
+       said she, at length, &ldquo;do not despise my weakness; I am overcome by my own
+      thoughts: I look upon the world, and see that it is fair and good; I look
+      upon you, and I see all that I can venerate and adore. Life seems to me so
+      sweet, and the earth so lovely; can you wonder, then, that I should shrink
+      at the thought of death? Nay, interrupt me not, dear Albert; the thought
+      must be borne and braved. I have not cherished, I have not yielded to it
+      through my long-increasing illness; but there have been times when it has
+      forced itself upon me, and now, <i>now</i> more palpably than ever. Do not
+      think me weak and childish. I never feared death till I knew you; but to
+      see you no more,&mdash;never again to touch this dear hand, never to thank
+      you for your love, never to be sensible of your care,&mdash;to lie down
+      and sleep, <i>and never, never, once more to dream of you</i>! Ah, that is
+      a bitter thought! but I will brave it,&mdash;yes, brave it as one worthy
+      of your regard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Trevylyan, choked by his emotions, covered his own face with his hands,
+      and, leaning back in the carriage, vainly struggled with his sobs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps,&rdquo; she said, yet ever and anon clinging to the hope that had
+      utterly abandoned <i>him</i>, &ldquo;perhaps, I may yet deceive myself; and my
+      love for you, which seems to me as if it could conquer death, may bear me
+      up against this fell disease. The hope to live with you, to watch you, to
+      share your high dreams, and oh! above all, to soothe you in sorrow and
+      sickness, as you have soothed me&mdash;has not that hope something that
+      may support even this sinking frame? And who shall love thee as I love;
+      who see thee as I have seen; who pray for thee in gratitude and tears as I
+      have prayed? Oh, Albert, so little am I jealous of you, so little do I
+      think of myself in comparison, that I could close my eyes happily on the
+      world if I knew that what I could be to thee another will be!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gertrude,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, and lifting up his colourless face, he gazed
+      upon her with an earnest and calm solemnity, &ldquo;Gertrude, let us be united
+      at once! If Fate must sever us, let her cut the last tie too; let us feel
+      that at least upon earth we have been all in all to each other; let us
+      defy death, even as it frowns upon us. Be mine to-morrow&mdash;this day&mdash;oh,
+      God! be mine!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Over even that pale countenance, beneath whose hues the lamp of life so
+      faintly fluttered, a deep, radiant flush passed one moment, lighting up
+      the beautiful ruin with the glow of maiden youth and impassioned hope, and
+      then died rapidly away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Albert,&rdquo; she said sighing; &ldquo;no! it must not be. Far easier would come
+      the pang to you, while yet we are not wholly united; and for my own part I
+      am selfish, and feel as if I should leave a tenderer remembrance on your
+      heart thus parted,&mdash;tenderer, but not so sad. I would not wish you to
+      feel yourself widowed to my memory; I would not cling like a blight to
+      your fair prospects of the future. Remember me rather as a dream,&mdash;as
+      something never wholly won, and therefore asking no fidelity but that of
+      kind and forbearing thoughts. Do you remember one evening as we sailed
+      along the Rhine&mdash;ah! happy, happy hour!&mdash;that we heard from the
+      banks a strain of music,&mdash;not so skilfully played as to be worth
+      listening to for itself, but, suiting as it did the hour and the scene, we
+      remained silent, that we might hear it the better; and when it died
+      insensibly upon the waters, a certain melancholy stole over us; we felt
+      that a something that softened the landscape had gone, and we conversed
+      less lightly than before? Just so, my own loved, my own adored Trevylyan,
+      just so is the influence that our brief love, your poor Gertrude&rsquo;s
+      existence, should bequeath to your remembrance. A sound, a presence,
+      should haunt you for a little while, but no more, ere you again become
+      sensible of the glories that court your way!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But as Gertrude said this, she turned to Trevylyan, and seeing his agony,
+      she could refrain no longer; she felt that to soothe was to insult; and
+      throwing herself upon his breast, they mingled their tears together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0032" id="link2HCH0032">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXII. A SPOT TO BE BURIED IN.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      ON their return homeward, Du&mdash;&mdash;-e took the third seat in the
+      carriage, and endeavoured, with his usual vivacity, to cheer the spirits
+      of his companions; and such was the elasticity of Gertrude&rsquo;s nature, that
+      with her, he, to a certain degree, succeeded in his kindly attempt.
+      Quickly alive to the charms of scenery, she entered by degrees into the
+      external beauties which every turn in the road opened to their view; and
+      the silvery smoothness of the river, that made the constant attraction of
+      the landscape, the serenity of the time, and the clearness of the heavens,
+      tended to tranquillize a mind that, like a sunflower, so instinctively
+      turned from the shadow to the light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once Du&mdash;&mdash;-e stopped the carriage in a spot of herbage, bedded
+      among the trees, and said to Gertrude, &ldquo;We are now in one of the many
+      places along the Neckar which your favourite traditions serve to
+      consecrate. Amidst yonder copses, in the early ages of Christianity, there
+      dwelt a hermit, who, though young in years, was renowned for the sanctity
+      of his life. None knew whence he came, nor for what cause he had limited
+      the circle of life to the seclusion of his cell. He rarely spoke, save
+      when his ghostly advice or his kindly prayer was needed; he lived upon
+      herbs, and the wild fruits which the peasants brought to his cave; and
+      every morning and every evening he came to this spot to fill his pitcher
+      from the water of the stream. But here he was observed to linger long
+      after his task was done, and to sit gazing upon the walls of a convent
+      which then rose upon the opposite side of the bank, though now even its
+      ruins are gone. Gradually his health gave way beneath the austerities he
+      practised; and one evening he was found by some fishermen insensible on
+      the turf. They bore him for medical aid to the opposite convent; and one
+      of the sisterhood, the daughter of a prince, was summoned to attend the
+      recluse. But when his eyes opened upon hers, a sudden recognition appeared
+      to seize both. He spoke; and the sister threw herself on the couch of the
+      dying man, and shrieked forth a name, the most famous in the surrounding
+      country,&mdash;the name of a once noted minstrel, who, in those rude
+      times, had mingled the poet with the lawless chief, and was supposed,
+      years since, to have fallen in one of the desperate frays between prince
+      and outlaw, which were then common; storming the very castle which held
+      her, now the pious nun, then the beauty and presider over the tournament
+      and galliard. In her arms the spirit of the hermit passed away. She
+      survived but a few hours, and left conjecture busy with a history to which
+      it never obtained further clew. Many a troubadour in later times furnished
+      forth in poetry the details which truth refused to supply; and the place
+      where the hermit at sunrise and sunset ever came to gaze upon the convent
+      became consecrated by song.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The place invested with this legendary interest was impressed with a
+      singular aspect of melancholy quiet; wildflowers yet lingered on the turf,
+      whose grassy sedges gently overhung the Neckar, that murmured amidst them
+      with a plaintive music. Not a wind stirred the trees; but at a little
+      distance from the place, the spire of a church rose amidst the copse; and,
+      as they paused, they suddenly heard from the holy building the bell that
+      summons to the burial of the dead. It came on the ear in such harmony with
+      the spot, with the hour, with the breathing calm, that it thrilled to the
+      heart of each with an inexpressible power. It was like the voice of
+      another world, that amidst the solitude of nature summoned the lulled
+      spirit from the cares of this; it invited, not repulsed, and had in its
+      tone more of softness than of awe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gertrude turned, with tears starting to her eyes, and, laying her hand on
+      Trevylyan&rsquo;s, whispered, &ldquo;In such a spot, so calm, so sequestered, yet in
+      the neighbourhood of the house of God, would I wish this broken frame to
+      be consigned to rest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0033" id="link2HCH0033">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER THE LAST. THE CONCLUSION OF THIS TALE.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      FROM that day Gertrude&rsquo;s spirit resumed its wonted cheerfulness, and for
+      the ensuing week she never reverted to her approaching fate; she seemed
+      once more to have grown unconscious of its limit. Perhaps she sought,
+      anxious for Trevylyan to the last, not to throw additional gloom over
+      their earthly separation; or, perhaps, once steadily regarding the
+      certainty of her doom, its terrors vanished. The chords of thought,
+      vibrating to the subtlest emotions, may be changed by a single incident,
+      or in a single hour; a sound of sacred music, a green and quiet
+      burial-place, may convert the form of death into the aspect of an angel.
+      And therefore wisely, and with a beautiful lore, did the Greeks strip the
+      grave of its unreal gloom; wisely did they body forth the great principle
+      of Rest by solemn and lovely images, unconscious of the northern madness
+      that made a Spectre of REPOSE!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But while Gertrude&rsquo;s <i>spirit</i> resumed its healthful tone, her <i>frame</i>
+      rapidly declined, and a few days now could do the ravage of months a
+      little while before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One evening, amidst the desolate ruins of Heidelberg, Trevylyan, who had
+      gone forth alone to indulge the thoughts which he strove to stifle in
+      Gertrude&rsquo;s presence, suddenly encountered Vane. That calm and almost
+      callous pupil of the adversities of the world was standing alone, and
+      gazing upon the shattered casements and riven tower, through which the sun
+      now cast its slant and parting ray.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Trevylyan, who had never loved this cold and unsusceptible man, save for
+      the sake of Gertrude, felt now almost a hatred creep over him, as he
+      thought in such a time, and with death fastening upon the flower of his
+      house, he could yet be calm, and smile, and muse, and moralize, and play
+      the common part of the world. He strode slowly up to him, and standing
+      full before him, said with a hollow voice and writhing smile, &ldquo;You amuse
+      yourself pleasantly, sir: this is a fine scene; and to meditate over
+      griefs a thousand years hushed to rest is better than watching over a sick
+      girl and eating away your heart with fear!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Vane looked at him quietly, but intently, and made no reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Vane!&rdquo; continued Trevylyan, with the same preternatural attempt at calm,
+      &ldquo;Vane, in a few days all will be over, and you and I, the things, the
+      plotters, the false men of the world, will be left alone,&mdash;left by
+      the sole being that graces our dull life, that makes by her love either of
+      us worthy of a thought!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Vane started, and turned away his face. &ldquo;You are cruel,&rdquo; said he, with a
+      faltering voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, man!&rdquo; shouted Trevylyan, seizing him abruptly by the arm, &ldquo;can <i>you</i>
+      feel? Is your cold heart touched? Come then,&rdquo; added he, with a wild laugh,
+      &ldquo;come, let us be friends!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Vane drew himself aside, with a certain dignity, that impressed Trevylyan
+      even at that hour. &ldquo;Some years hence,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;you will be called cold
+      as I am; sorrow will teach you the wisdom of indifference&mdash;it is a
+      bitter school, sir,&mdash;a bitter school! But think you that I do indeed
+      see unmoved my last hope shivered,&mdash;the last tie that binds me to my
+      kind? No, no! I feel it as a man may feel; I cloak it as a man grown gray
+      in misfortune should do! My child is more to me than your betrothed to
+      you; for you are young and wealthy, and life smiles before you; but I&mdash;no
+      more&mdash;sir, no more!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forgive me,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, humbly, &ldquo;I have wronged you; but Gertrude is
+      an excuse for any crime of love; and now listen to my last prayer,&mdash;give
+      her to me, even on the verge of the grave. Death cannot seize her in the
+      arms, in the vigils of a love like mine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Vane shuddered. &ldquo;It were to wed the dead,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;No!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Trevylyan drew back, and without another word, hurried away; he returned
+      to the town; he sought, with methodical calmness, the owner of the piece
+      of ground in which Gertrude had wished to be buried. He purchased it, and
+      that very night he sought the priest of a neighbouring church, and
+      directed it should be consecrated according to the due rite and
+      ceremonial.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The priest, an aged and pious man, was struck by the request, and the air
+      of him who made it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall it be done forthwith, sir?&rdquo; said he, hesitating.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forthwith,&rdquo; answered Trevylyan, with a calm smile,&mdash;&ldquo;a bridegroom,
+      you know, is naturally impatient.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For the next three days, Gertrude was so ill as to be confined to her bed.
+      All that time Trevylyan sat outside her door, without speaking, scarcely
+      lifting his eyes from the ground. The attendants passed to and fro,&mdash;he
+      heeded them not; perhaps as even the foreign menials turned aside and
+      wiped their eyes, and prayed God to comfort him, he required compassion
+      less at that time than any other. There is a stupefaction in woe, and the
+      heart sleeps without a pang when exhausted by its afflictions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But on the fourth day Gertrude rose, and was carried down (how changed,
+      yet how lovely ever!) to their common apartment. During those three days
+      the priest had been with her often, and her spirit, full of religion from
+      her childhood, had been unspeakably soothed by his comfort. She took food
+      from the hand of Trevylyan; she smiled upon him as sweetly as of old. She
+      conversed with him, though with a faint voice, and at broken intervals.
+      But she felt no pain; life ebbed away gradually, and without a pang. &ldquo;My
+      father,&rdquo; she said to Vane, whose features still bore their usual calm,
+      whatever might have passed within, &ldquo;I know that you will grieve when I am
+      gone more than the world might guess; for I alone know what you were years
+      ago, ere friends left you and fortune frowned, and ere my poor mother
+      died. But do not&mdash;do not believe that hope and comfort leave you with
+      me. Till the heaven pass away from the earth there shall be comfort and
+      hope for all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They did not lodge in the town, but had fixed their abode on its
+      outskirts, and within sight of the Neckar; and from the window they saw a
+      light sail gliding gayly by till it passed, and solitude once more rested
+      upon the waters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The sail passes from our eyes,&rdquo; said Gertrude, pointing to it, &ldquo;but still
+      it glides on as happily though we see it no more; and I feel&mdash;yes,
+      Father, I feel&mdash;I know that it is so with <i>us</i>. We glide down
+      the river of time from the eyes of men, but we cease not the less to <i>be</i>!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And now, as the twilight descended, she expressed a wish, before she
+      retired to rest, to be left alone with Trevylyan. He was not then sitting
+      by her side, for he would not trust himself to do so, but with his face
+      averted, at a little distance from her. She called him by his name; he
+      answered not, nor turned. Weak as she was, she raised herself from the
+      sofa, and crept gently along the floor till she came to him, and sank in
+      his arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, unkind!&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;unkind for once! Will you turn away from me?
+      Come, let us look once more on the river: see! the night darkens over it.
+      Our pleasant voyage, the type of our love, is finished; our sail may be
+      unfurled no more. Never again can your voice soothe the lassitude of
+      sickness with the legend and the song; the course is run, the vessel is
+      broken up, night closes over its fragments; but now, in this hour, love
+      me, be kind to me as ever. Still let me be your own Gertrude, still let me
+      close my eyes this night, as before, with the sweet consciousness that I
+      am loved.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Loved! O Gertrude! speak not to me thus!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, that is yourself again!&rdquo; and she clung with weak arms caressingly
+      to his breast. &ldquo;And now,&rdquo; she said more solemnly, &ldquo;let us forget that we
+      are mortal; let us remember only that life is a part, not the whole, of
+      our career; let us feel in this soft hour, and while yet we are unsevered,
+      the presence of The Eternal that is within us, so that it shall not be as
+      death, but as a short absence; and when once the pang of parting is over,
+      you must think only that we are shortly to meet again. What! you turn from
+      me still? See, I do not weep or grieve, I have conquered the pang of our
+      absence; will you be outdone by me? Do you remember, Albert, that you once
+      told me how the wisest of the sages of old, in prison, and before death,
+      consoled his friends with the proof of the immortality of the soul? Is it
+      not a consolation; does it not suffice; or will you deem it wise from the
+      lips of wisdom, but vain from the lips of love?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush, hush!&rdquo; said Trevylyan, wildly; &ldquo;or I shall think you an angel
+      already.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But let us close this commune, and leave unrevealed the <i>last</i> sacred
+      words that ever passed between them upon earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Vane and the physician stole back softly into the room, Trevylyan
+      motioned to them to be still. &ldquo;She sleeps,&rdquo; he whispered; &ldquo;hush!&rdquo; And in
+      truth, wearied out by her own emotions, and lulled by the belief that she
+      had soothed one with whom her heart dwelt now, as ever, she had fallen
+      into sleep, or it may be, insensibility, on his breast. There as she lay,
+      so fair, so frail, so delicate, the twilight deepened into shade, and the
+      first star, like the hope of the future, broke forth upon the darkness of
+      the earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing could equal the stillness without, save that which lay
+      breathlessly within. For not one of the group stirred or spoke, and
+      Trevylyan, bending over her, never took his eyes from her face, watching
+      the parted lips, and fancying that he imbibed the breath. Alas, the breath
+      was stilled! from sleep to death she had glided without a sigh,&mdash;happy,
+      most happy in that death! cradled in the arms of unchanged love, and
+      brightened in her last thought by the consciousness of innocence and the
+      assurances of Heaven!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      .......
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Trevylyan, after a long sojourn on the Continent, returned to England. He
+      plunged into active life, and became what is termed in this age of little
+      names a distinguished and noted man. But what was mainly remarkable in his
+      future conduct was his impatience of rest. He eagerly courted all
+      occupations, even of the most varied and motley kind,&mdash;business,
+      letters, ambition, pleasure. He suffered no pause in his career; and
+      leisure to him was as care to others. He lived in the world, as the
+      worldly do, discharging its duties, fostering its affections, and
+      fulfilling its career. But there was a deep and wintry change within him,&mdash;<i>the
+      sunlight of his life was gone</i>; the loveliness of romance had left the
+      earth. The stem was proof as heretofore to the blast, but the green leaves
+      were severed from it forever, and the bird had forsaken its boughs. Once
+      he had idolized the beauty that is born of song, the glory and the ardour
+      that invest such thoughts as are not of our common clay; but the well of
+      enthusiasm was dried up, and the golden bowl was broken at the fountain.
+      With Gertrude the poetry of existence was gone. As she herself had
+      described her loss, a music had ceased to breathe along the face of
+      things; and though the bark might sail on as swiftly, and the stream swell
+      with as proud a wave, a something that had vibrated on the heart was
+      still, and the magic of the voyage was no more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Gertrude sleeps on the spot where she wished her last couch to be
+      made; and far&mdash;oh, far dearer, is that small spot on the distant
+      banks of the gliding Neckar to Trevylyan&rsquo;s heart than all the broad lands
+      and fertile fields of his ancestral domain. The turf too preserves its
+      emerald greenness; and it would seem to me that the field flowers spring
+      up by the sides of the simple tomb even more profusely than of old. A
+      curve in the bank breaks the tide of the Neckar; and therefore its stream
+      pauses, as if to linger reluctantly, by that solitary grave, and to mourn
+      among the rustling sedges ere it passes on. And I have thought, when I
+      last looked upon that quiet place, when I saw the turf so fresh, and the
+      flowers so bright of hue, that aerial hands might <i>indeed</i> tend the
+      sod; that it was by no <i>imaginary</i> spells that I summoned the fairies
+      to my tale; that in truth, and with vigils constant though unseen, they
+      yet kept from all polluting footsteps, and from the harsher influence of
+      the seasons, the grave of one who so loved their race; and who, in her
+      gentle and spotless virtue claimed kindred with the beautiful Ideal of the
+      world. Is there one of us who has not known some being for whom it seemed
+      not too wild a fantasy to indulge such dreams?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      THE END. <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
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+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>
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+Project Gutenberg's The Pilgrims Of The Rhine, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Pilgrims Of The Rhine
+
+Author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton
+
+Release Date: March 17, 2009 [EBook #8206]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PILGRIMS OF THE RHINE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger and Dagny
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE PILGRIMS OF THE RHINE
+
+TO WHICH IS PREFIXED THE IDEAL WORLD
+
+By Edward Bulwer Lytton (Lord Lytton)
+
+
+
+
+THE PILGRIMS OF THE RHINE
+
+
+
+TO HENRY LYTTON BULWER.
+
+ALLOW me, my dear Brother, to dedicate this Work to you. The greater
+part of it (namely, the tales which vary and relieve the voyages of
+Gertrude and Trevylyan) was written in the pleasant excursion we made
+together some years ago. Among the associations--some sad and some
+pleasing--connected with the general design, none are so agreeable to
+me as those that remind me of the friendship subsisting between us, and
+which, unlike that of near relations in general, has grown stronger
+and more intimate as our footsteps have receded farther from the fields
+where we played together in our childhood. I dedicate this Work to you
+with the more pleasure, not only when I remember that it has always
+been a favourite with yourself, but when I think that it is one of my
+writings most liked in foreign countries; and I may possibly, therefore,
+have found a record destined to endure the affectionate esteem which
+this Dedication is intended to convey.
+
+Yours, etc.
+
+E. L. B. LONDON, April 23, 1840.
+
+
+
+
+ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIRST EDITION.
+
+COULD I prescribe to the critic and to the public, I would wish that
+this work might be tried by the rules rather of poetry than prose,
+for according to those rules have been both its conception and its
+execution; and I feel that something of sympathy with the author's
+design is requisite to win indulgence for the superstitions he has
+incorporated with his tale, for the floridity of his style, and the
+redundance of his descriptions. Perhaps, indeed, it would be impossible,
+in attempting to paint the scenery and embody some of the Legends of
+the Rhine, not to give (it may be, too loosely) the reins to the
+imagination, or to escape the influence of that wild German spirit which
+I have sought to transfer to a colder tongue.
+
+I have made the experiment of selecting for the main interest of my
+work the simplest materials, and weaving upon them the ornaments given
+chiefly to subjects of a more fanciful nature. I know not how far I have
+succeeded, but various reasons have conspired to make this the work,
+above all others that I have written, which has given me the most
+delight (though not unmixed with melancholy) in producing, and in which
+my mind for the time has been the most completely absorbed. But the
+ardour of composition is often disproportioned to the merit of the
+work; and the public sometimes, nor unjustly, avenges itself for
+that forgetfulness of its existence which makes the chief charm of an
+author's solitude,--and the happiest, if not the wisest, inspiration of
+his dreams.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+WITH the younger class of my readers this work has had the good fortune
+to find especial favour; perhaps because it is in itself a collection of
+the thoughts and sentiments that constitute the Romance of youth. It has
+little to do with the positive truths of our actual life, and does not
+pretend to deal with the larger passions and more stirring interests
+of our kind. It is but an episode out of the graver epic of human
+destinies. It requires no explanation of its purpose, and no analysis of
+its story; the one is evident, the other simple,--the first seeks but
+to illustrate visible nature through the poetry of the affections; the
+other is but the narrative of the most real of mortal sorrows, which the
+Author attempts to take out of the region of pain by various accessories
+from the Ideal. The connecting tale itself is but the string that binds
+into a garland the wild-flowers cast upon a grave.
+
+The descriptions of the Rhine have been considered by Germans
+sufficiently faithful to render this tribute to their land and
+their legends one of the popular guide-books along the course it
+illustrates,--especially to such tourists as wish not only to take
+in with the eye the inventory of the river, but to seize the peculiar
+spirit which invests the wave and the bank with a beauty that can only
+be made visible by reflection. He little comprehends the true charm of
+the Rhine who gazes on the vines on the hill-tops without a thought of
+the imaginary world with which their recesses have been peopled by the
+graceful credulity of old; who surveys the steep ruins that overshadow
+the water, untouched by one lesson from the pensive morality of Time.
+Everywhere around us is the evidence of perished opinions and
+departed races; everywhere around us, also, the rejoicing fertility of
+unconquerable Nature, and the calm progress of Man himself through the
+infinite cycles of decay. He who would judge adequately of a landscape
+must regard it not only with the painter's eye, but with the poet's.
+The feelings which the sight of any scene in Nature conveys to the
+mind--more especially of any scene on which history or fiction has left
+its trace--must depend upon our sympathy with those associations which
+make up what may be called the spiritual character of the spot. If
+indifferent to those associations, we should see only hedgerows and
+ploughed land in the battle-field of Bannockburn; and the traveller
+would but look on a dreary waste, whether he stood amidst the piles of
+the Druid on Salisbury plain, or trod his bewildered way over the broad
+expanse on which the Chaldaean first learned to number the stars.
+
+To the former editions of this tale was prefixed a poem on "The Ideal,"
+which had all the worst faults of the author's earliest compositions
+in verse. The present poem (with the exception of a very few lines) has
+been entirely rewritten, and has at least the comparative merit of being
+less vague in the thought, and less unpolished in the diction, than that
+which it replaces.
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+
+  THE IDEAL WORLD
+
+
+
+  THE PILGRIMS OF THE RHINE
+
+  CHAPTER I.
+  In which the Reader is Introduced to Queen Nymphalin
+
+  CHAPTER II.
+  The Lovers
+
+  CHAPTER III.
+  Feelings
+
+  CHAPTER IV.
+  The Maid of Malines
+
+  CHAPTER V.
+  Rotterdam.--The Character of the Dutch.--Their Resemblance to the
+  Germans.--A Dispute between Vane and Trevylyan, after the manner of the
+  ancient Novelists, as to which is preferable, the Life of Action, or the
+  Life of Repose.--Trevylyan's Contrast between Literary Ambition and the
+  Ambition of Public Life
+
+  CHAPTER VI.
+  Gorcum.--The Tour of the Virtues: a Philosopher's Tale
+
+  CHAPTER VII.
+  Cologne.--The Traces of the Roman Yoke.--The Church of St.
+  Maria.--Trevylyan's Reflections on the Monastic Life.--The Tomb of the
+  Three Kings.--An Evening Excursion on the Rhine
+
+  CHAPTER VIII.
+  The Soul in Purgatory; or, Love Stronger than Death
+
+  CHAPTER IX.
+  The Scenery of the Rhine analogous to the German Literary Genius.--The
+  Drachenfels
+
+  CHAPTER X.
+  The Legend of Roland.--The Adventures of Nymphalin on the Island of
+  Nonnewerth.--Her Song.--The Decay of the Fairy-Faith in England
+
+  CHAPTER XI.
+  Wherein the Reader is made Spectator with the English Fairies of the
+  Scenes and Beings that are beneath the Earth
+
+  CHAPTER XII.
+  The Wooing of Master Fox
+
+  CHAPTER XIII.
+  The Tomb of a Father of Many Children
+
+  CHAPTER XIV.
+  The Fairy's Cave, and the Fairy's Wish
+
+  CHAPTER XV.
+  The Banks of the Rhine.--From the Drachenfels to Brohl.--An Incident that
+  suffices in this Tale for an Epoch
+
+  CHAPTER XVI.
+  Gertrude.--The Excursion to Hammerstein.--Thoughts
+
+  CHAPTER XVII.
+  Letter from Trevylyan to -----
+
+  CHAPTER XVIII.
+  Coblentz.--Excursion to the Mountains of Taunus; Roman Tower in the
+  Valley of Ehrenbreitstein.--Travel, its Pleasures estimated differently
+  by the Young and the Old.--The Student of Heidelberg: his Criticisms on
+  German Literature
+
+  CHAPTER XIX.
+  The Fallen Star; or, the History of a False Religion
+
+  CHAPTER XX.
+  Glenhausen.--The Power of Love in Sanctified Places.--A Portrait of
+  Frederick Barbarossa.--The Ambition of Men finds no adequate Sympathy in
+  Women
+
+  CHAPTER XXI.
+  View of Ehrenbreitstein.--A New Alarm in Gertrude's Health.--Trarbach
+
+  CHAPTER XXII.
+  The Double Life.--Trevylyan's Fate.--Sorrow the Parent of
+  Fame.--Niederlahnstein.--Dreams
+
+  CHAPTER XXIII.
+  The Life of Dreams
+
+  CHAPTER XXIV.
+  The Brothers
+
+  CHAPTER XXV.
+  The Immortality of the Soul.--A Common Incident not before Described.
+  --Trevylyan and Gertrude
+
+  CHAPTER XXVI.
+  In which the Reader will learn how the Fairies were received by the
+  Sovereigns of the Mines.--The Complaint of the Last of the Fauns.--The
+  Red Huntsman.--The Storm.--Death
+
+  CHAPTER XXVII.
+  Thurmberg.--A Storm upon the Rhine.--The Ruins of Rheinfels.--Peril
+  Unfelt by Love.--The Echo of the Lurlei-berg.--St. Goar.--Kaub,
+  Gutenfels, and Pfalzgrafenstein.--A certain Vastness of Mind in the First
+  Hermits.--The Scenery of the Rhine to Bacharach
+
+  CHAPTER XXVIII.
+  The Voyage to Bingen.--The Simple Incidents in this Tale Excused.--The
+  Situation and Character of Gertrude.--The Conversation of the Lovers in
+  the Tempest.--A Fact Contradicted.--Thoughts occasioned by a Madhouse
+  amongst the most Beautiful Landscapes of the Rhine
+
+  CHAPTER XXIX.
+  Ellfeld.--Mayence.--Heidelberg.--A Conversation between Vane and the
+  German Student.--The Ruins of the Castle of Heidelberg and its Solitary
+  Habitant
+
+  CHAPTER XXX.
+  No Part of the Earth really Solitary.--The Song of the Fairies.--The
+  Sacred Spot.--The Witch of the Evil Winds.--The Spell and the Duty of the
+  Fairies
+
+  CHAPTER XXXI.
+  Gertrude and Trevylyan, when the former is awakened to the Approach of
+  Death
+
+  CHAPTER XXXII.
+  A Spot to be Buried in
+
+  CHAPTER THE LAST
+  The Conclusion of this Tale
+
+
+
+
+THE IDEAL WORLD
+
+
+
+
+  I.
+
+  THE IDEAL WORLD,--ITS REALM IS EVERYWHERE AROUND US; ITS INHABITANTS ARE
+  THE IMMORTAL PERSONIFICATIONS OF ALL BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS; TO THAT WORLD WE
+  ATTAIN BY THE REPOSE OF THE SENSES.
+
+  AROUND "this visible diurnal sphere"
+    There floats a World that girds us like the space;
+  On wandering clouds and gliding beams career
+    Its ever-moving murmurous Populace.
+  There, all the lovelier thoughts conceived below
+    Ascending live, and in celestial shapes.
+  To that bright World, O Mortal, wouldst thou go?
+    Bind but thy senses, and thy soul escapes:
+  To care, to sin, to passion close thine eyes;
+  Sleep in the flesh, and see the Dreamland rise!
+  Hark to the gush of golden waterfalls,
+  Or knightly tromps at Archimagian Walls!
+  In the green hush of Dorian Valleys mark
+    The River Maid her amber tresses knitting;
+  When glow-worms twinkle under coverts dark,
+    And silver clouds o'er summer stars are flitting,
+  With jocund elves invade "the Moone's sphere,
+  Or hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear;"*
+  Or, list! what time the roseate urns of dawn
+    Scatter fresh dews, and the first skylark weaves
+  Joy into song, the blithe Arcadian Faun
+    Piping to wood-nymphs under Bromian leaves,
+  While slowly gleaming through the purple glade
+  Come Evian's panther car, and the pale Naxian Maid.
+
+    * "Midsummer Night's Dream."
+
+  Such, O Ideal World, thy habitants!
+    All the fair children of creative creeds,
+  All the lost tribes of Fantasy are thine,--
+  From antique Saturn in Dodonian haunts,
+    Or Pan's first music waked from shepherd reeds,
+  To the last sprite when Heaven's pale lamps decline,
+  Heard wailing soft along the solemn Rhine.
+
+
+
+  II.
+
+  OUR DREAMS BELONG TO THE IDEAL.--THE DIVINER LOVE FOR WHICH YOUTH SIGHS
+  NOT ATTAINABLE IN LIFE, BUT THE PURSUIT OF THAT LOVE BEYOND THE WORLD OF
+  THE SENSES PURIFIES THE SOUL AND AWAKES THE GENIUS.--PETRARCH.--DANTE.
+
+  Thine are the Dreams that pass the Ivory Gates,
+    With prophet shadows haunting poet eyes!
+  Thine the belov'd illusions youth creates
+    From the dim haze of its own happy skies.
+  In vain we pine; we yearn on earth to win
+    The being of the heart, our boyhood's dream.
+  The Psyche and the Eros ne'er have been,
+    Save in Olympus, wedded!  As a stream
+  Glasses a star, so life the ideal love;
+  Restless the stream below, serene the orb above!
+  Ever the soul the senses shall deceive;
+  Here custom chill, there kinder fate bereave:
+  For mortal lips unmeet eternal vows!
+  And Eden's flowers for Adam's mournful brows!
+  We seek to make the moment's angel guest
+    The household dweller at a human hearth;
+  We chase the bird of Paradise, whose nest
+    Was never found amid the bowers of earth.*
+
+    * According to a belief in the East, which is associated with one
+      of the loveliest and most familiar of Oriental superstitions,
+      the bird of Paradise is never seen to rest upon the earth, and
+      its nest is never to be found.
+
+  Yet loftier joys the vain pursuit may bring,
+    Than sate the senses with the boons of time;
+  The bird of Heaven hath still an upward wing,
+    The steps it lures are still the steps that climb;
+  And in the ascent although the soil be bare,
+  More clear the daylight and more pure the air.
+  Let Petrarch's heart the human mistress lose,
+  He mourns the Laura but to win the Muse.
+  Could all the charms which Georgian maids combine
+  Delight the soul of the dark Florentine,
+  Like one chaste dream of childlike Beatrice
+  Awaiting Hell's dark pilgrim in the skies,
+  Snatched from below to be the guide above,
+  And clothe Religion in the form of Love?*
+
+    * It is supposed by many of the commentators on Dante, that in
+      the form of his lost Beatrice, who guides him in his Vision
+      of Heaven, he allegorizes Religious Faith.
+
+
+
+  III.
+
+  GENIUS, LIFTING ITS LIFE TO THE IDEAL, BECOMES ITSELF A PURE IDEA: IT
+  MUST COMPREHEND ALL EXISTENCE, ALL HUMAN SINS AND SUFFERINGS; BUT IN
+  COMPREHENDING, IT TRANSMUTES THEM.--THE POET IN HIS TWO-FOLD BEING,--THE
+  ACTUAL AND THE IDEAL.--THE INFLUENCE OF GENIUS OVER THE STERNEST
+  REALITIES OF EARTH; OVER OUR PASSIONS; WARS AND SUPERSTITIONS.--ITS
+  IDENTITY IS WITH HUMAN PROGRESS.--ITS AGENCY, EVEN WHERE UNACKNOWLEDGED,
+  IS UNIVERSAL.
+
+  Oh, thou true Iris! sporting on thy bow
+    Of tears and smiles! Jove's herald, Poetry,
+  Thou reflex image of all joy and woe,
+    _Both_ fused in light by thy dear fantasy!
+  Lo! from the clay how Genius lifts its life,
+    And grows one pure Idea, one calm soul!
+  True, its own clearness must reflect our strife;
+    True, its completeness must comprise our whole;
+  But as the sun transmutes the sullen hues
+    Of marsh-grown vapours into vermeil dyes,
+  And melts them later into twilight dews,
+    Shedding on flowers the baptism of the skies;
+  So glows the Ideal in the air we breathe,
+    So from the fumes of sorrow and of sin,
+  Doth its warm light in rosy colours wreathe
+    Its playful cloudland, storing balms within.
+
+  Survey the Poet in his mortal mould,
+    Man, amongst men, descended from his throne!
+  The moth that chased the star now frets the fold,
+    Our cares, our faults, our follies are his own.
+  Passions as idle, and desires as vain,
+  Vex the wild heart, and dupe the erring brain.
+  From Freedom's field the recreant Horace flies
+  To kiss the hand by which his country dies;
+  From Mary's grave the mighty Peasant turns,
+  And hoarse with orgies rings the laugh of Burns.
+  While Rousseau's lips a lackey's vices own,--
+  Lips that could draw the thunder on a throne!
+  But when from Life the Actual GENIUS springs,
+    When, self-transformed by its own magic rod,
+  It snaps the fetters and expands the wings,
+    And drops the fleshly garb that veiled the god,
+  How the mists vanish as the form ascends!
+  How in its aureole every sunbeam blends!
+  By the Arch-Brightener of Creation seen,
+    How dim the crowns on perishable brows!
+  The snows of Atlas melt beneath the sheen,
+    Through Thebaid caves the rushing splendour flows.
+  Cimmerian glooms with Asian beams are bright,
+  And Earth reposes in a belt of light.
+  Now stern as Vengeance shines the awful form,
+  Armed with the bolt and glowing through the storm;
+  Sets the great deeps of human passion free,
+  And whelms the bulwarks that would breast the sea.
+  Roused by its voice the ghastly Wars arise,
+  Mars reddens earth, the Valkyrs pale the skies;
+  Dim Superstition from her hell escapes,
+  With all her shadowy brood of monster shapes;
+  Here life itself the scowl of Typhon* takes;
+  There Conscience shudders at Alecto's snakes;
+  From Gothic graves at midnight yawning wide,
+  In gory cerements gibbering spectres glide;
+  And where o'er blasted heaths the lightnings flame,
+  Black secret hags "do deeds without a name!"
+  Yet through its direst agencies of awe,
+  Light marks its presence and pervades its law,
+  And, like Orion when the storms are loud,
+  It links creation while it gilds a cloud.
+  By ruthless Thor, free Thought, frank Honour stand,
+  Fame's grand desire, and zeal for Fatherland.
+  The grim Religion of Barbarian Fear
+  With some Hereafter still connects the Here,
+  Lifts the gross sense to some spiritual source,
+  And thrones some Jove above the Titan Force,
+  Till, love completing what in awe began,
+  From the rude savage dawns the thoughtful man.
+
+    * The gloomy Typhon of Egypt assumes many of the mystic attributes
+      of the Principle of Life which, in the Grecian Apotheosis of the
+      Indian Bacchus, is represented in so genial a character of
+      exuberant joy and everlasting youth.
+
+  Then, oh, behold the Glorious comforter!
+    Still bright'ning worlds but gladd'ning now the hearth,
+  Or like the lustre of our nearest star,
+    Fused in the common atmosphere of earth.
+  It sports like hope upon the captive's chain;
+  Descends in dreams upon the couch of pain;
+  To wonder's realm allures the earnest child;
+  To the chaste love refines the instinct wild;
+  And as in waters the reflected beam,
+  Still where we turn, glides with us up the stream,
+  And while in truth the whole expanse is bright,
+  Yields to each eye its own fond path of light,--
+  So over life the rays of Genius fall,
+  Give each his track because illuming all.
+
+
+
+  IV.
+
+  FORGIVENESS TO THE ERRORS OF OUR BENEFACTORS.
+
+  Hence is that secret pardon we bestow
+    In the true instinct of the grateful heart,
+  Upon the Sons of Song.  The good they do
+    In the clear world of their Uranian art
+  Endures forever; while the evil done
+    In the poor drama of their mortal scene,
+  Is but a passing cloud before the sun;
+    Space hath no record where the mist hath been.
+  Boots it to us if Shakspeare erred like man?
+    Why idly question that most mystic life?
+  Eno' the giver in his gifts to scan;
+    To bless the sheaves with which thy fields are rife,
+  Nor, blundering, guess through what obstructive clay
+  The glorious corn-seed struggled up to day.
+
+
+
+  V.
+
+  THE IDEAL IS NOT CONFINED TO POETS.--ALGERNON SIDNEY RECOGNIZES HIS IDEAL
+  IN LIBERTY, AND BELIEVES IN ITS TRIUMPH WHERE THE MERE PRACTICAL MAN
+  COULD BEHOLD BUT ITS RUINS; YET LIBERTY IN THIS WORLD MUST EVER BE AN
+  IDEAL, AND THE LAND THAT IT PROMISES CAN BE FOUND BUT IN DEATH.
+
+  But not to you alone, O Sons Of Song,
+  The wings that float the loftier airs along.
+  Whoever lifts us from the dust we are,
+    Beyond the sensual to spiritual goals;
+  Who from the MOMENT and the SELF afar
+    By deathless deeds allures reluctant souls,
+  Gives the warm life to what the Limner draws,--
+  Plato but thought what godlike Cato was.*
+  Recall the Wars of England's giant-born,
+    Is Elyot's voice, is Hampden's death in vain?
+  Have all the meteors of the vernal morn
+    But wasted light upon a frozen main?
+  Where is that child of Carnage, Freedom, flown?
+  The Sybarite lolls upon the martyr's throne.
+  Lewd, ribald jests succeed to solemn zeal;
+  And things of silk to Cromwell's men of steel.
+  Cold are the hosts the tromps of Ireton thrilled,
+  And hushed the senates Vane's large presence filled.
+  In what strong heart doth the old manhood dwell?
+  Where art thou, Freedom?  Look! in Sidney's cell!
+  There still as stately stands the living Truth,
+  Smiling on age as it had smiled on youth.
+  Her forts dismantled, and her shrines o'erthrown,
+  The headsman's block her last dread altar-stone,
+  No sanction left to Reason's vulgar hope,
+  Far from the wrecks expands her prophet's scope.
+  Millennial morns the tombs of Kedron gild,
+  The hands of saints the glorious walls rebuild,--
+  Till each foundation garnished with its gem,
+  High o'er Gehenna flames Jerusalem!
+  O thou blood-stained Ideal of the free,
+  Whose breath is heard in clarions,--Liberty!
+  Sublimer for thy grand illusions past,
+  Thou spring'st to Heaven,--Religion at the last.
+  Alike below, or commonwealths or thrones,
+  Where'er men gather some crushed victim groans;
+  Only in death thy real form we see,
+  All life is bondage,--souls alone are free.
+  Thus through the waste the wandering Hebrews went,
+  Fire on the march, but cloud upon the tent.
+  At last on Pisgah see the prophet stand,
+  Before his vision spreads the PROMISED LAND;
+  But where revealed the Canaan to his eye?--
+  Upon the mountain he ascends to die.
+
+    * What Plato thought, and godlike Cato was.--POPE.
+
+
+
+  VI.
+
+  YET ALL HAVE TWO ESCAPES INTO THE IDEAL WORLD; NAMELY, MEMORY AND
+  HOPE.--EXAMPLE OF HOPE IN YOUTH, HOWEVER EXCLUDED FROM ACTION AND
+  DESIRE.--NAPOLEON'S SON.
+
+  Yet whatsoever be our bondage here,
+  All have two portals to the phantom sphere.
+  What hath not glided through those gates that ope
+  Beyond the Hour, to MEMORY or to HOPE!
+  Give Youth the Garden,--still it soars above,
+  Seeks some far glory, some diviner love.
+  Place Age amidst the Golgotha,--its eyes
+  Still quit the graves, to rest upon the skies;
+  And while the dust, unheeded, moulders there,
+  Track some lost angel through cerulean air.
+
+  Lo! where the Austrian binds, with formal chain,
+  The crownless son of earth's last Charlemagne,--
+  Him, at whose birth laughed all the violet vales
+    (While yet unfallen stood thy sovereign star,
+  O Lucifer of nations).  Hark, the gales
+    Swell with the shout from all the hosts, whose war
+  Rended the Alps, and crimsoned Memphian Nile,--
+    "Way for the coming of the Conqueror's Son:
+  Woe to the Merchant-Carthage of the Isle!
+    Woe to the Scythian ice-world of the Don!
+  O Thunder Lord, thy Lemnian bolts prepare,
+  The Eagle's eyry hath its eagle heir!"
+  Hark, at that shout from north to south, gray Power
+    Quails on its weak, hereditary thrones;
+  And widowed mothers prophesy the hour
+    Of future carnage to their cradled sons.
+  What! shall our race to blood be thus consigned,
+    And Ate claim an heirloom in mankind?
+  Are these red lots unshaken in the urn?
+  Years pass; approach, pale Questioner, and learn
+  Chained to his rock, with brows that vainly frown,
+  The fallen Titan sinks in darkness down!
+  And sadly gazing through his gilded grate,
+  Behold the child whose birth was as a fate!
+  Far from the land in which his life began;
+  Walled from the healthful air of hardy man;
+  Reared by cold hearts, and watched by jealous eyes,
+  His guardians jailers, and his comrades spies.
+  Each trite convention courtly fears inspire
+  To stint experience and to dwarf desire;
+  Narrows the action to a puppet stage,
+  And trains the eaglet to the starling's cage.
+  On the dejected brow and smileless cheek,
+  What weary thought the languid lines bespeak;
+  Till drop by drop, from jaded day to day,
+  The sickly life-streams ooze themselves away.
+  Yet oft in HOPE a boundless realm was thine,
+    That vaguest Infinite,--the Dream of Fame;
+  Son of the sword that first made kings divine,
+    Heir to man's grandest royalty,--a Name!
+  Then didst thou burst upon the startled world,
+  And keep the glorious promise of thy birth;
+  Then were the wings that bear the bolt unfurled,
+    A monarch's voice cried, "Place upon the earth!"
+  A new Philippi gained a second Rome,
+  And the Son's sword avenged the greater Caesar's doom.
+
+
+
+  VII.
+
+  EXAMPLE OF MEMORY AS LEADING TO THE IDEAL,--AMIDST LIFE HOWEVER HUMBLE,
+  AND IN A MIND HOWEVER IGNORANT.--THE VILLAGE WIDOW.
+
+  But turn the eye to life's sequestered vale
+    And lowly roofs remote in hamlets green.
+  Oft in my boyhood where the moss-grown pale
+    Fenced quiet graves, a female form was seen;
+  Each eve she sought the melancholy ground,
+  And lingering paused, and wistful looked around.
+  If yet some footstep rustled through the grass,
+  Timorous she shrunk, and watched the shadow pass;
+  Then, when the spot lay lone amidst the gloom,
+  Crept to one grave too humble for a tomb,
+  There silent bowed her face above the dead,
+  For, if in prayer, the prayer was inly said;
+  Still as the moonbeam, paused her quiet shade,
+  Still as the moonbeam, through the yews to fade.
+  Whose dust thus hallowed by so fond a care?
+  What the grave saith not, let the heart declare.
+    On yonder green two orphan children played;
+  By yonder rill two plighted lovers strayed;
+  In yonder shrine two lives were blent in one,
+  And joy-bells chimed beneath a summer sun.
+  Poor was their lot, their bread in labour found;
+  No parent blessed them, and no kindred owned;
+  They smiled to hear the wise their choice condemn;
+  They loved--they loved--and love was wealth to them!
+  Hark--one short week--again the holy bell!
+  Still shone the sun; but dirge like boomed the knell,--
+  The icy hand had severed breast from breast;
+  Left life to toil, and summoned Death to rest.
+  Full fifty years since then have passed away,
+  Her cheek is furrowed, and her hair is gray.
+  Yet, when she speaks of _him_ (the times are rare),
+  Hear in her voice how youth still trembles there.
+  The very name of that young life that died
+  Still heaves the bosom, and recalls the bride.
+  Lone o'er the widow's hearth those years have fled,
+  The daily toil still wins the daily bread;
+  No books deck sorrow with fantastic dyes;
+  Her fond romance her woman heart supplies;
+  And, haply in the few still moments given,
+  (Day's taskwork done), to memory, death, and heaven,
+  To that unuttered poem may belong
+  Thoughts of such pathos as had beggared song.
+
+
+
+  VIII.
+
+  HENCE IN HOPE, MEMORY, AND PRAYER, ALL OF US ARE POETS.
+
+  Yes, while thou hopest, music fills the air,
+    While thou rememberest, life reclothes the clod;
+  While thou canst feel the electric chain of prayer,
+    Breathe but a thought, and be a soul with God!
+  Let not these forms of matter bound thine eye.
+    He who the vanishing point of Human things
+  Lifts from the landscape, lost amidst the sky,
+    Has found the Ideal which the poet sings,
+  Has pierced the pall around the senses thrown,
+  And is himself a poet, though unknown.
+
+
+
+  IX.
+
+  APPLICATION OF THE POEM TO THE TALE TO WHICH IT IS PREFIXED.--THE
+  RHINE,--ITS IDEAL CHARACTER IN ITS HISTORICAL AND LEGENDARY ASSOCIATIONS.
+
+  Eno'!--my song is closing, and to thee,
+    Land of the North, I dedicate its lay;
+  As I have done the simple tale to be
+    The drama of this prelude!
+                                    Faraway
+  Rolls the swift Rhine beneath the starry ray;
+  But to my ear its haunted waters sigh;
+  Its moonlight mountains glimmer on my eye;
+  On wave, on marge, as on a wizard's glass,
+  Imperial ghosts in dim procession pass;
+  Lords of the wild, the first great Father-men,
+  Their fane the hill-top, and their home the glen;
+  Frowning they fade; a bridge of steel appears
+  With frank-eyed Caesar smiling through the spears;
+  The march moves onwards, and the mirror brings
+  The Gothic crowns of Carlovingian kings
+  Vanished alike!  The Hermit rears his Cross,
+  And barbs neigh shrill, and plumes in tumult toss,
+  While (knighthood's sole sweet conquest from the Moor)
+  Sings to Arabian lutes the Tourbadour.
+    Not yet, not yet; still glide some lingering shades,
+  Still breathe some murmurs as the starlight fades,
+  Still from her rock I hear the Siren call,
+  And see the tender ghost in Roland's mouldering hall!
+
+
+
+  X.
+
+  APPLICATION OF THE POEM CONTINUED.--THE IDEAL LENDS ITS AID TO THE MOST
+  FAMILIAR AND THE MOST ACTUAL SORROW OF LIFE.--FICTION COMPARED TO
+  SLEEP,--IT STRENGTHENS WHILE IT SOOTHES.
+
+  Trite were the tale I tell of love and doom,
+  (Whose life hath loved not, whose not mourned a tomb?)
+  But fiction draws a poetry from grief,
+  As art its healing from the withered leaf.
+  Play thou, sweet Fancy, round the sombre truth,
+    Crown the sad Genius ere it lower the torch!
+  When death the altar and the victim youth,
+    Flutes fill the air, and garlands deck the porch.
+  As down the river drifts the Pilgrim sail,
+  Clothe the rude hill-tops, lull the Northern gale;
+  With childlike lore the fatal course beguile,
+  And brighten death with Love's untiring smile.
+  Along the banks let fairy forms be seen
+  "By fountain clear, or spangled starlike sheen."*
+  Let sound and shape to which the sense is dull
+  Haunt the soul opening on the Beautiful.
+  And when at length, the symbol voyage done,
+  Surviving Grief shrinks lonely from the sun,
+  By tender types show Grief what memories bloom
+  From lost delight, what fairies guard the tomb.
+  Scorn not the dream, O world-worn; pause a while,
+  New strength shall nerve thee as the dreams beguile,
+  Stung by the rest, less far shall seem the goal!
+  As sleep to life, so fiction to the soul.
+
+    * "Midsummer Night's Dream."
+
+
+
+
+
+THE PILGRIMS OF THE RHINE
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I. IN WHICH THE READER IS INTRODUCED TO QUEEN NYMPHALIN.
+
+IN one of those green woods which belong so peculiarly to our island
+(for the Continent has its forests, but England its woods) there lived,
+a short time ago, a charming little fairy called Nymphalin. I believe
+she is descended from a younger branch of the house of Mab; but perhaps
+that may only be a genealogical fable, for your fairies are very
+susceptible to the pride of ancestry, and it is impossible to deny that
+they fall somewhat reluctantly into the liberal opinions so much in
+vogue at the present day.
+
+However that may be, it is quite certain that all the courtiers in
+Nymphalin's domain (for she was a queen fairy) made a point of asserting
+her right to this illustrious descent; and accordingly she quartered the
+Mab arms with her own,--three acorns vert, with a grasshopper rampant.
+It was as merry a little court as could possibly be conceived, and on
+a fine midsummer night it would have been worth while attending the
+queen's balls; that is to say, if you could have got a ticket, a favour
+not obtained without great interest.
+
+But, unhappily, until both men and fairies adopt Mr. Owen's proposition,
+and live in parallelograms, they will always be the victims of _ennui_.
+And Nymphalin, who had been disappointed in love, and was still
+unmarried, had for the last five or six months been exceedingly tired
+even of giving balls. She yawned very frequently, and consequently
+yawning became a fashion.
+
+"But why don't we have some new dances, my Pipalee?" said Nymphalin to
+her favourite maid of honour; "these waltzes are very old-fashioned."
+
+"Very old-fashioned," said Pipalee.
+
+The queen gaped, and Pipalee did the same.
+
+It was a gala night; the court was held in a lone and beautiful hollow,
+with the wild brake closing round it on every side, so that no human
+step could easily gain the spot. Wherever the shadows fell upon the
+brake a glow-worm made a point of exhibiting itself, and the bright
+August moon sailed slowly above, pleased to look down upon so charming
+a scene of merriment; for they wrong the moon who assert that she has
+an objection to mirth,--with the mirth of fairies she has all possible
+sympathy. Here and there in the thicket the scarce honeysuckles--in
+August honeysuckles are somewhat out of season--hung their rich
+festoons, and at that moment they were crowded with the elderly fairies,
+who had given up dancing and taken to scandal. Besides the honeysuckle
+you might see the hawkweed and the white convolvulus, varying the soft
+verdure of the thicket; and mushrooms in abundance had sprung up in
+the circle, glittering in the silver moonlight, and acceptable beyond
+measure to the dancers: every one knows how agreeable a thing tents are
+in a _fete champetre_! I was mistaken in saying that the brake closed
+the circle entirely round; for there was one gap, scarcely apparent to
+mortals, through which a fairy at least might catch a view of a
+brook that was close at hand, rippling in the stars, and checkered at
+intervals by the rich weeds floating on the surface, interspersed
+with the delicate arrowhead and the silver water-lily. Then the trees
+themselves, in their prodigal variety of hues,--the blue, the purple,
+the yellowing tint, the tender and silvery verdure, and the deep mass
+of shade frowning into black; the willow, the elm, the ash, the fir, and
+the lime, "and, best of all, Old England's haunted oak;" these hues were
+broken again into a thousand minor and subtler shades as the twinkling
+stars pierced the foliage, or the moon slept with a richer light upon
+some favoured glade.
+
+It was a gala night; the elderly fairies, as I said before, were
+chatting among the honeysuckles; the young were flirting, and dancing,
+and making love; the middle-aged talked politics under the mushrooms;
+and the queen herself and half-a-dozen of her favourites were yawning
+their pleasure from a little mound covered with the thickest moss.
+
+"It has been very dull, madam, ever since Prince Fayzenheim left us,"
+said the fairy Nip.
+
+The queen sighed.
+
+"How handsome the prince is!" said Pipalee.
+
+The queen blushed.
+
+"He wore the prettiest dress in the world; and what a mustache!" cried
+Pipalee, fanning herself with her left wing.
+
+"He was a coxcomb," said the lord treasurer, sourly. The lord treasurer
+was the honestest and most disagreeable fairy at court; he was an
+admirable husband, brother, son, cousin, uncle, and godfather,--it was
+these virtues that had made him a lord treasurer. Unfortunately they
+had not made him a sensible fairy. He was like Charles the Second in
+one respect, for he never did a wise thing; but he was not like him in
+another, for he very often said a foolish one.
+
+The queen frowned.
+
+"A young prince is not the worse for that," retorted Pipalee. "Heigho!
+does your Majesty think his Highness likely to return?"
+
+"Don't tease me," said Nymphalin, pettishly.
+
+The lord treasurer, by way of giving the conversation an agreeable
+turn, reminded her Majesty that there was a prodigious accumulation
+of business to see to, especially that difficult affair about the
+emmet-wasp loan. Her Majesty rose; and leaning on Pipalee's arm, walked
+down to the supper tent.
+
+"Pray," said the fairy Trip to the fairy Nip, "what is all this talk
+about Prince Fayzenheim? Excuse my ignorance; I am only just out, you
+know."
+
+"Why," answered Nip, a young courtier, not a marrying fairy, but very
+seductive, "the story runs thus: Last summer a foreigner visited us,
+calling himself Prince Fayzenheim: one of your German fairies, I fancy;
+no great things, but an excellent waltzer. He wore long spurs, made out
+of the stings of the horse-flies in the Black Forest; his cap sat on one
+side, and his mustachios curled like the lip of the dragon-flower. He
+was on his travels, and amused himself by making love to the queen. You
+can't fancy, dear Trip, how fond she was of hearing him tell stories
+about the strange creatures of Germany,--about wild huntsmen,
+water-sprites, and a pack of such stuff," added Nip, contemptuously, for
+Nip was a freethinker.
+
+"In short?" said Trip.
+
+"In short, she loved," cried Nip, with a theatrical air.
+
+"And the prince?"
+
+"Packed up his clothes, and sent on his travelling-carriage, in order
+that he might go at his ease on the top of a stage-pigeon; in short--as
+you say--in short, he deserted the queen, and ever since she has set the
+fashion of yawning."
+
+"It was very naughty in him," said the gentle Trip.
+
+"Ah, my dear creature," cried Nip, "if it had been you to whom he had
+paid his addresses!"
+
+Trip simpered, and the old fairies from their seats in the honeysuckles
+observed she was "sadly conducted;" but the Trips had never been too
+respectable.
+
+Meanwhile the queen, leaning on Pipalee, said, after a short pause, "Do
+you know I have formed a plan!"
+
+"How delightful!" cried Pipalee. "Another gala!"
+
+"Pooh, surely even you must be tired with such levities: the spirit of
+the age is no longer frivolous; and I dare say as the march of gravity
+proceeds, we shall get rid of galas altogether." The queen said this
+with an air of inconceivable wisdom, for the "Society for the Diffusion
+of General Stupefaction" had been recently established among the
+fairies, and its tracts had driven all the light reading out of the
+market. "The Penny Proser" had contributed greatly to the increase of
+knowledge and yawning, so visibly progressive among the courtiers.
+
+"No," continued Nymphalin; "I have thought of something better than
+galas. Let us travel!"
+
+Pipalee clasped her hands in ecstasy.
+
+"Where shall we travel?"
+
+"Let us go up the Rhine," said the queen, turning away her head. "We
+shall be amazingly welcomed; there are fairies without number all the
+way by its banks, and various distant connections of ours whose nature
+and properties will afford interest and instruction to a philosophical
+mind."
+
+"Number Nip, for instance," cried the gay Pipalee.
+
+"The Red Man!" said the graver Nymphalin.
+
+"Oh, my queen, what an excellent scheme!" and Pipalee was so lively
+during the rest of the night that the old fairies in the honeysuckle
+insinuated that the lady of honour had drunk a buttercup too much of the
+Maydew.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II. THE LOVERS.
+
+I WISH only for such readers as give themselves heart and soul up to
+me,--if they begin to cavil I have done with them; their fancy should
+put itself entirely under my management; and, after all, ought they not
+to be too glad to get out of this hackneyed and melancholy world, to be
+run away with by an author who promises them something new?
+
+From the heights of Bruges, a Mortal and his betrothed gazed upon the
+scene below. They saw the sun set slowly amongst purple masses of cloud,
+and the lover turned to his mistress and sighed deeply; for her cheek
+was delicate in its blended roses, beyond the beauty that belongs to
+the hues of health; and when he saw the sun sinking from the world, the
+thought came upon him that _she_ was his sun, and the glory that
+she shed over his life might soon pass away into the bosom of the
+"ever-during Dark." But against the clouds rose one of the many spires
+that characterize the town of Bruges; and on that spire, tapering into
+heaven, rested the eyes of Gertrude Vane. The different objects that
+caught the gaze of each was emblematic both of the different channel of
+their thoughts and the different elements of their nature: he thought of
+the sorrow, she of the consolation; his heart prophesied of the passing
+away from earth, hers of the ascension into heaven. The lower part of
+the landscape was wrapped in shade; but just where the bank curved round
+in a mimic bay, the waters caught the sun's parting smile, and rippled
+against the herbage that clothed the shore, with a scarcely noticeable
+wave. There are two of the numerous mills which are so picturesque a
+feature of that country, standing at a distance from each other on the
+rising banks, their sails perfectly still in the cool silence of the
+evening, and adding to the rustic tranquillity which breathed around.
+For to me there is something in the still sails of one of those
+inventions of man's industry peculiarly eloquent of repose: the rest
+seems typical of the repose of our own passions, short and uncertain,
+contrary to their natural ordination; and doubly impressive from the
+feeling which admonishes us how precarious is the stillness, how utterly
+dependent on every wind rising at any moment and from any quarter of
+the heavens! They saw before them no living forms, save of one or two
+peasants yet lingering by the water-side.
+
+Trevylyan drew closer to his Gertrude; for his love was inexpressibly
+tender, and his vigilant anxiety for her made his stern frame feel the
+first coolness of the evening even before she felt it herself.
+
+"Dearest, let me draw your mantle closer round you."
+
+Gertrude smiled her thanks.
+
+"I feel better than I have done for weeks," said she; "and when once we
+get into the Rhine, you will see me grow so strong as to shock all your
+interest for me."
+
+"Ah, would to Heaven my interest for you may be put to such an ordeal!"
+said Trevylyan; and they turned slowly to the inn, where Gertrude's
+father already awaited them.
+
+Trevylyan was of a wild, a resolute, and an active nature. Thrown on
+the world at the age of sixteen, he had passed his youth in alternate
+pleasure, travel, and solitary study. At the age in which manhood is
+least susceptible to caprice, and most perhaps to passion, he fell in
+love with the loveliest person that ever dawned upon a poet's vision.
+I say this without exaggeration, for Gertrude Vane's was indeed
+the beauty, but the perishable beauty, of a dream. It happened most
+singularly to Trevylyan (but he was a singular man), that being
+naturally one whose affections it was very difficult to excite, he
+should have fallen in love at first sight with a person whose disease,
+already declared, would have deterred any other heart from risking
+its treasures on a bark so utterly unfitted for the voyage of life.
+Consumption, but consumption in its most beautiful shape, had set its
+seal upon Gertrude Vane, when Trevylyan first saw her, and at once
+loved. He knew the danger of the disease; he did not, except at
+intervals, deceive himself; he wrestled against the new passion: but,
+stern as his nature was, he could not conquer it. He loved, he confessed
+his love, and Gertrude returned it.
+
+In a love like this, there is something ineffably beautiful,--it is
+essentially the poetry of passion. Desire grows hallowed by fear,
+and, scarce permitted to indulge its vent in the common channel of
+the senses, breaks forth into those vague yearnings, those lofty
+aspirations, which pine for the Bright, the Far, the Unattained. It is
+"the desire of the moth for the star;" it is the love of the soul!
+
+Gertrude was advised by the faculty to try a southern climate; but
+Gertrude was the daughter of a German mother, and her young fancy had
+been nursed in all the wild legends and the alluring visions that
+belong to the children of the Rhine. Her imagination, more romantic than
+classic, yearned for the vine-clad hills and haunted forests which are
+so fertile in their spells to those who have once drunk, even sparingly,
+of the Literature of the North. Her desire strongly expressed, her
+declared conviction that if any change of scene could yet arrest the
+progress of her malady it would be the shores of the river she had so
+longed to visit, prevailed with her physicians and her father, and they
+consented to that pilgrimage along the Rhine on which Gertrude, her
+father, and her lover were now bound.
+
+It was by the green curve of the banks which the lovers saw from the
+heights of Bruges that our fairy travellers met. They were reclining on
+the water-side, playing at dominos with eye-bright and the black specks
+of the trefoil; namely, Pipalee, Nip, Trip, and the lord treasurer
+(for that was all the party selected by the queen for her travelling
+_cortege_), and waiting for her Majesty, who, being a curious little
+elf, had gone round the town to reconnoitre.
+
+"Bless me!" said the lord treasurer; "what a mad freak is this! Crossing
+that immense pond of water! And was there ever such bad grass as this?
+One may see that the fairies thrive ill here."
+
+"You are always discontented, my lord," said Pipalee; "but then you are
+somewhat too old to travel,--at least, unless you go in your nutshell
+and four."
+
+The lord treasurer did not like this remark, so he muttered a peevish
+pshaw, and took a pinch of honeysuckle dust to console himself for being
+forced to put up with so much frivolity.
+
+At this moment, ere the moon was yet at her middest height, Nymphalin
+joined her subjects.
+
+"I have just returned," said she, with a melancholy expression on her
+countenance, "from a scene that has almost renewed in me that
+sympathy with human beings which of late years our race has well-nigh
+relinquished.
+
+"I hurried through the town without noticing much food for adventure.
+I paused for a moment on a fat citizen's pillow, and bade him dream of
+love. He woke in a fright, and ran down to see that his cheeses
+were safe. I swept with a light wing over a politician's eyes, and
+straightway he dreamed of theatres and music. I caught an undertaker in
+his first nap, and I have left him whirled into a waltz. For what would
+be sleep if it did not contrast life? Then I came to a solitary chamber,
+in which a girl, in her tenderest youth, knelt by the bedside in prayer,
+and I saw that the death-spirit had passed over her, and the blight was
+on the leaves of the rose. The room was still and hushed, the angel of
+Purity kept watch there. Her heart was full of love, and yet of holy
+thoughts, and I bade her dream of the long life denied to her,--of a
+happy home, of the kisses of her young lover, of eternal faith, and
+unwaning tenderness. Let her at least enjoy in dreams what Fate
+has refused to Truth! And, passing from the room, I found her lover
+stretched in his cloak beside the door; for he reads with a feverish and
+desperate prophecy the doom that waits her; and so loves he the very
+air she breathes, the very ground she treads, that when she has left
+his sight he creeps, silently and unknown to her, to the nearest spot
+hallowed by her presence, anxious that while yet she is on earth not an
+hour, not a moment, should be wasted upon other thoughts than those that
+belong to her; and feeling a security, a fearful joy, in lessening the
+distance that _now_ only momentarily divides them. And that love seemed
+to me not as the love of the common world, and I stayed my wings
+and looked upon it as a thing that centuries might pass and bring no
+parallel to, in its beauty and its melancholy truth. But I kept away the
+sleep from the lover's eyes, for well I knew that sleep was a tyrant,
+that shortened the brief time of waking tenderness for the living, yet
+spared him; and one sad, anxious thought of her was sweeter, in spite of
+its sorrow, than the brightest of fairy dreams. So I left him awake,
+and watching there through the long night, and felt that the children
+of earth have still something that unites them to the spirits of a finer
+race, so long as they retain amongst them the presence of real love!"
+
+And oh! is there not a truth also in our fictions of the Unseen World?
+Are there not yet bright lingerers by the forest and the stream? Do the
+moon and the soft stars look out on no delicate and winged forms bathing
+in their light? Are the fairies and the invisible hosts but the children
+of our dreams, and not their inspiration? Is that all a delusion which
+speaks from the golden page? And is the world only given to harsh and
+anxious travellers that walk to and fro in pursuit of no gentle shadows?
+Are the chimeras of the passions the sole spirits of the universe? No!
+while my remembrance treasures in its deepest cell the image of one no
+more,--one who was "not of the earth, earthy;" one in whom love was the
+essence of thoughts divine; one whose shape and mould, whose heart and
+genius, would, had Poesy never before dreamed it, have called forth
+the first notion of spirits resembling mortals, but not of them,--no,
+Gertrude! while I remember you, the faith, the trust in brighter shapes
+and fairer natures than the world knows of, comes clinging to my heart;
+and still will I think that Fairies might have watched over your sleep
+and Spirits have ministered to your dreams.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III. FEELINGS.
+
+GERTRUDE and her companions proceeded by slow and, to her, delightful
+stages to Rotterdam. Trevylyan sat by her side, and her hand was ever
+in his; and when her delicate frame became sensible of fatigue, her head
+drooped on his shoulder as its natural resting-place. Her father was
+a man who had lived long enough to have encountered many reverses of
+fortune, and they had left him, as I am apt to believe long adversity
+usually does leave its prey, somewhat chilled and somewhat hardened to
+affection; passive and quiet of hope, resigned to the worst as to
+the common order of events, and expecting little from the best, as an
+unlooked-for incident in the regularity of human afflictions. He was
+insensible of his daughter's danger, for he was not one whom the fear
+of love endows with prophetic vision; and he lived tranquilly in the
+present, without asking what new misfortune awaited him in the future.
+Yet he loved his child, his only child, with whatever of affection
+was left him by the many shocks his heart had received; and in her
+approaching connection with one rich and noble as Trevylyan, he
+felt even something bordering upon pleasure. Lapped in the apathetic
+indifference of his nature, he leaned back in the carriage, enjoying the
+bright weather that attended their journey, and sensible--for he was one
+of fine and cultivated taste--of whatever beauties of nature or remains
+of art varied their course. A companion of this sort was the most
+agreeable that two persons never needing a third could desire; he left
+them undisturbed to the intoxication of their mutual presence; he marked
+not the interchange of glances; he listened not to the whisper, the low
+delicious whisper, with which the heart speaks its sympathy to heart. He
+broke not that charmed silence which falls over us when the thoughts are
+full, and words leave nothing to explain; that repose of feeling; that
+certainty that we are understood without the effort of words, which
+makes the real luxury of intercourse and the true enchantment of travel.
+What a memory hours like these bequeath, after we have settled down into
+the calm occupation of common life! How beautiful, through the vista of
+years, seems that brief moonlight track upon the waters of our youth!
+
+And Trevylyan's nature, which, as I have said before, was naturally
+hard and stern, which was hot, irritable, ambitious, and prematurely
+tinctured with the policy and lessons of the world, seemed utterly
+changed by the peculiarities of his love. Every hour, every moment was
+full of incident to him; every look of Gertrude's was entered in the
+tablets of his heart; so that his love knew no languor, it required no
+change: he was absorbed in it,--_it was himself_! And he was soft, and
+watchful as the step of a mother by the couch of her sick child;
+the lion within him was tamed by indomitable love; the sadness, the
+presentiment, that was mixed with all his passion for Gertrude, filled
+him too with that poetry of feeling which is the result of thoughts
+weighing upon us, and not to be expressed by ordinary language. In this
+part of their journey, as I find by the date, were the following lines
+written; they are to be judged as the lines of one in whom emotion and
+truth were the only inspiration:--
+
+
+
+     I. As leaves left darkling in the flush of day,
+       When glints the glad sun checkering o'er the tree,
+     I see the green earth brightening in the ray,
+       Which only casts a shadow upon me!
+
+
+     II. What are the beams, the flowers, the glory, all
+       Life's glow and gloss, the music and the bloom,
+     When every sun but speeds the Eternal Pall,
+       And Time is Death that dallies with the Tomb?
+
+
+     III. And yet--oh yet, so young, so pure!--the while
+       Fresh laugh the rose-hues round youth's morning sky,
+     That voice, those eyes, the deep love of that smile,
+       Are they not soul--_all_ soul--and _can_ they die?
+
+
+     IV. Are there the words "NO MORE" for thoughts like ours?
+       Must the bark sink upon so soft a wave?
+     Hath the short summer of thy life no flowers
+       But those which bloom above thine early grave?
+
+
+     V. O God! and what is life, that I should live?
+       (Hath not the world enow of common clay?)
+     And she--the Rose--whose life a soul could give
+       To the void desert, sigh its sweets away?
+
+
+     VI. And I that love thee thus, to whom the air,
+       Blest by thy breath, makes heaven where'er it be,
+     Watch thy cheek wane, and smile away despair,
+       Lest it should dim one hour yet left to Thee.
+
+
+     VII. Still let me conquer self; oh, still conceal
+       By the smooth brow the snake that coils below;
+     Break, break my heart! it comforts yet to feel
+       That _she_ dreams on, unwakened by my woe!
+
+
+     VIII. Hushed, where the Star's soft angel loves to keep
+       Watch o'er their tide, the morning waters roll;
+     So glides my spirit,--darkness in the deep,
+       But o'er the wave the presence of thy soul!
+
+
+
+Gertrude had not as yet the presentiments that filled the soul of
+Trevylyan. She thought too little of herself to know her danger, and
+those hours to her were hours of unmingled sweetness. Sometimes, indeed,
+the exhaustion of her disease tinged her spirits with a vague sadness,
+an abstraction came over her, and a languor she vainly struggled
+against. These fits of dejection and gloom touched Trevylyan to the
+quick; his eye never ceased to watch them, nor his heart to soothe.
+Often when he marked them, he sought to attract her attention from what
+he fancied, though erringly, a sympathy with his own forebodings, and
+to lead her young and romantic imagination through the temporary
+beguilements of fiction; for Gertrude was yet in the first bloom of
+youth, and all the dews of beautiful childhood sparkled freshly from the
+virgin blossoms of her mind. And Trevylyan, who had passed some of his
+early years among the students of Leipsic, and was deeply versed in the
+various world of legendary lore, ransacked his memory for such tales
+as seemed to him most likely to win her interest; and often with false
+smiles entered into the playful tale, or oftener, with more faithful
+interest, into the graver legend of trials that warned yet beguiled them
+from their own. Of such tales I have selected but a few; I know not that
+they are the least unworthy of repetition,--they are those which many
+recollections induce me to repeat the most willingly. Gertrude loved
+these stories, for she had not yet lost, by the coldness of the world,
+one leaf from that soft and wild romance which belonged to her beautiful
+mind; and, more than all, she loved the sound of a voice which every
+day became more and more musical to her ear. "Shall I tell you," said
+Trevylyan, one morning, as he observed her gloomier mood stealing over
+the face of Gertrude,--"shall I tell you, ere yet we pass into the dull
+land of Holland, a story of Malines, whose spires we shall shortly
+see?" Gertrude's face brightened at once, and as she leaned back in the
+carriage as it whirled rapidly along, and fixed her deep blue eyes on
+Trevylyan, he began the following tale.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV. THE MAID OF MALINES.
+
+IT was noonday in the town of Malines, or Mechlin, as the English
+usually term it; the Sabbath bell had summoned the inhabitants to
+divine worship; and the crowd that had loitered round the Church of St.
+Rembauld had gradually emptied itself within the spacious aisles of the
+sacred edifice.
+
+A young man was standing in the street, with his eyes bent on the
+ground, and apparently listening for some sound; for without raising his
+looks from the rude pavement, he turned to every corner of it with an
+intent and anxious expression of countenance. He held in one hand a
+staff, in the other a long slender cord, the end of which trailed on
+the ground; every now and then he called, with a plaintive voice, "Fido,
+Fido, come back! Why hast thou deserted me?" Fido returned not; the dog,
+wearied of confinement, had slipped from the string, and was at play
+with his kind in a distant quarter of the town, leaving the blind man to
+seek his way as he might to his solitary inn.
+
+By and by a light step passed through the street, and the young
+stranger's face brightened.
+
+"Pardon me," said he, turning to the spot where his quick ear had
+caught the sound, "and direct me, if you are not much pressed for a few
+moments' time, to the hotel 'Mortier d'Or.'"
+
+It was a young woman, whose dress betokened that she belonged to the
+middling class of life, whom he thus addressed. "It is some distance
+hence, sir," said she; "but if you continue your way straight on for
+about a hundred yards, and then take the second turn to your right
+hand--"
+
+"Alas!" interrupted the stranger, with a melancholy smile, "your
+direction will avail me little; my dog has deserted me, and I am blind!"
+
+There was something in these words, and in the stranger's voice, which
+went irresistibly to the heart of the young woman. "Pray forgive me,"
+she said, almost with tears in her eyes, "I did not perceive your--"
+misfortune, she was about to say, but she checked herself with an
+instinctive delicacy. "Lean upon me, I will conduct you to the door;
+nay, sir," observing that he hesitated, "I have time enough to spare, I
+assure you."
+
+The stranger placed his hand on the young woman's arm; and though
+Lucille was naturally so bashful that even her mother would laughingly
+reproach her for the excess of a maiden virtue, she felt not the least
+pang of shame, as she found herself thus suddenly walking through the
+streets of Malines along with a young stranger, whose dress and air
+betokened him of rank superior to her own.
+
+"Your voice is very gentle," said he, after a pause; "and that," he
+added, with a slight sigh, "is the only criterion by which I know the
+young and the beautiful!" Lucille now blushed, and with a slight mixture
+of pain in the blush, for she knew well that to beauty she had no
+pretension. "Are you a native of this town?" continued he.
+
+"Yes, sir; my father holds a small office in the customs, and my mother
+and I eke out his salary by making lace. We are called poor, but we do
+not feel it, sir."
+
+"You are fortunate! there is no wealth like the heart's
+wealth,--content," answered the blind man, mournfully.
+
+"And, monsieur," said Lucille, feeling angry with herself that she had
+awakened a natural envy in the stranger's mind, and anxious to change
+the subject--"and, monsieur, has he been long at Malines?"
+
+"But yesterday. I am passing through the Low Countries on a tour;
+perhaps you smile at the tour of a blind man, but it is wearisome
+even to the blind to rest always in the same place. I thought during
+church-time, when the streets were empty, that I might, by the help of
+my dog, enjoy safely at least the air, if not the sight of the town;
+but there are some persons, methinks, who cannot have even a dog for a
+friend!"
+
+The blind man spoke bitterly,--the desertion of his dog had touched
+him to the core. Lucille wiped her eyes. "And does Monsieur travel then
+alone?" said she; and looking at his face more attentively than she had
+yet ventured to do, she saw that he was scarcely above two-and-twenty.
+"His father, and his _mother_," she added, with an emphasis on the last
+word, "are they not with him?"
+
+"I am an orphan!" answered the stranger; "and I have neither brother nor
+sister."
+
+The desolate condition of the blind man quite melted Lucille; never had
+she been so strongly affected. She felt a strange flutter at the heart,
+a secret and earnest sympathy, that attracted her at once towards him.
+She wished that Heaven had suffered her to be his sister!
+
+The contrast between the youth and the form of the stranger, and the
+affliction which took hope from the one and activity from the other,
+increased the compassion he excited. His features were remarkably
+regular, and had a certain nobleness in their outline; and his frame
+was gracefully and firmly knit, though he moved cautiously and with no
+cheerful step.
+
+They had now passed into a narrow street leading towards the hotel,
+when they heard behind them the clatter of hoofs; and Lucille, looking
+hastily back, saw that a troop of the Belgian horse was passing through
+the town.
+
+She drew her charge close by the wall, and trembling with fear for
+him, she stationed herself by his side. The troop passed at a full trot
+through the street; and at the sound of their clanging arms, and the
+ringing hoofs of their heavy chargers, Lucille might have seen, had
+she looked at the blind man's face, that its sad features kindled
+with enthusiasm, and his head was raised proudly from its wonted and
+melancholy bend. "Thank Heaven!" she said, as the troop had nearly
+passed them, "the danger is over!" Not so. One of the last two soldiers
+who rode abreast was unfortunately mounted on a young and unmanageable
+horse. The rider's oaths and digging spur only increased the fire and
+impatience of the charger; it plunged from side to side of the narrow
+street.
+
+"Look to yourselves!" cried the horseman, as he was borne on to the
+place where Lucille and the stranger stood against the wall. "Are ye
+mad? Why do you not run?"
+
+"For Heaven's sake, for mercy's sake, he is blind!" cried Lucille,
+clinging to the stranger's side.
+
+"Save yourself, my kind guide!" said the stranger. But Lucille dreamed
+not of such desertion. The trooper wrested the horse's head from the
+spot where they stood; with a snort, as it felt the spur, the enraged
+animal lashed out with its hind-legs; and Lucille, unable to save
+_both_, threw herself before the blind man, and received the shock
+directed against him; her slight and delicate arm fell broken by her
+side, the horseman was borne onward. "Thank God, _you_ are saved!" was
+poor Lucille's exclamation; and she fell, overcome with pain and terror,
+into the arms which the stranger mechanically opened to receive her.
+
+"My guide! my friend!" cried he, "you are hurt, you--"
+
+"No, sir," interrupted Lucille, faintly, "I am better, I am well. _This_
+arm, if you please,--we are not far from your hotel now."
+
+But the stranger's ear, tutored to every inflection of voice, told
+him at once of the pain she suffered. He drew from her by degrees the
+confession of the injury she had sustained; but the generous girl did
+not tell him it had been incurred solely in his protection. He now
+insisted on reversing their duties, and accompanying _her_ to her home;
+and Lucille, almost fainting with pain, and hardly able to move, was
+forced to consent. But a few steps down the next turning stood the
+humble mansion of her father. They reached it; and Lucille scarcely
+crossed the threshold, before she sank down, and for some minutes was
+insensible to pain. It was left to the stranger to explain, and to
+beseech them immediately to send for a surgeon, "the most skilful, the
+most practised in the town," said he. "See, I am rich, and this is the
+least I can do to atone to your generous daughter, for not forsaking
+even a stranger in peril."
+
+He held out his purse as he spoke, but the father refused the offer; and
+it saved the blind man some shame, that he could not see the blush of
+honest resentment with which so poor a species of renumeration was put
+aside.
+
+The young man stayed till the surgeon arrived, till the arm was set; nor
+did he depart until he had obtained a promise from the mother that he
+should learn the next morning how the sufferer had passed the night.
+
+The next morning, indeed, he had intended to quit a town that offers but
+little temptation to the traveller; but he tarried day after day, until
+Lucille herself accompanied her mother, to assure him of her recovery.
+
+You know, at least I do, dearest Gertrude, that there is such a thing as
+love at the first meeting,--a secret, an unaccountable affinity between
+persons (strangers before) which draws them irresistibly together,--as
+if there were truth in Plato's beautiful fantasy, that our souls were
+a portion of the stars, and that spirits, thus attracted to each other,
+have drawn their original light from the same orb, and yearn for a
+renewal of their former union. Yet without recurring to such fanciful
+solutions of a daily mystery, it was but natural that one in the forlorn
+and desolate condition of Eugene St. Amand should have felt a certain
+tenderness for a person who had so generously suffered for his sake.
+
+The darkness to which he was condemned did not shut from his mind's eye
+the haunting images of Ideal beauty; rather, on the contrary, in his
+perpetual and unoccupied solitude, he fed the reveries of an imagination
+naturally warm, and a heart eager for sympathy and commune.
+
+He had said rightly that his only test of beauty was in the melody of
+voice; and never had a softer or more thrilling tone than that of the
+young maiden touched upon his ear. Her exclamation, so beautifully
+denying self, so devoted in its charity, "Thank God, _you_ are saved!"
+uttered too in the moment of her own suffering, rang constantly upon his
+soul, and he yielded, without precisely defining their nature, to vague
+and delicious sentiments, that his youth had never awakened to till
+then. And Lucille--the very accident that had happened to her on his
+behalf only deepened the interest she had already conceived for one who,
+in the first flush of youth, was thus cut off from the glad objects of
+life, and left to a night of years desolate and alone. There is, to your
+beautiful and kindly sex, a natural inclination to _protect_. This makes
+them the angels of sickness, the comforters of age, the fosterers
+of childhood; and this feeling, in Lucille peculiarly developed, had
+already inexpressibly linked her compassionate nature to the lot of the
+unfortunate traveller. With ardent affections, and with thoughts beyond
+her station and her years, she was not without that modest vanity
+which made her painfully susceptible to her own deficiencies in beauty.
+Instinctively conscious of how deeply she herself could love, she
+believed it impossible that she could ever be so loved in return. The
+stranger, so superior in her eyes to all she had yet seen, was the first
+who had ever addressed her in that voice which by tones, not words,
+speaks that admiration most dear to a woman's heart. To _him_ she was
+beautiful, and her lovely mind spoke out, undimmed by the imperfections
+of her face. Not, indeed, that Lucille was wholly without personal
+attraction; her light step and graceful form were elastic with the
+freshness of youth, and her mouth and smile had so gentle and tender
+an expression, that there were moments when it would not have been
+the blind only who would have mistaken her to be beautiful. Her early
+childhood had indeed given the promise of attractions, which the
+smallpox, that then fearful malady, had inexorably marred. It had not
+only seared the smooth skin and brilliant hues, but utterly changed even
+the character of the features. It so happened that Lucille's family were
+celebrated for beauty, and vain of that celebrity; and so bitterly had
+her parents deplored the effects of the cruel malady, that poor Lucille
+had been early taught to consider them far more grievous than they
+really were, and to exaggerate the advantages of that beauty, the loss
+of which was considered by her parents so heavy a misfortune. Lucille,
+too, had a cousin named Julie, who was the wonder of all Malines for
+her personal perfections; and as the cousins were much together, the
+contrast was too striking not to occasion frequent mortification to
+Lucille. But every misfortune has something of a counterpoise; and the
+consciousness of personal inferiority had meekened, without souring, her
+temper, had given gentleness to a spirit that otherwise might have been
+too high, and humility to a mind that was naturally strong, impassioned,
+and energetic.
+
+And yet Lucille had long conquered the one disadvantage she most dreaded
+in the want of beauty. Lucille was never known but to be loved.
+Wherever came her presence, her bright and soft mind diffused a certain
+inexpressible charm; and where she was not, a something was absent from
+the scene which not even Julie's beauty could replace.
+
+"I propose," said St. Amand to Madame le Tisseur, Lucille's mother,
+as he sat in her little salon,--for he had already contracted that
+acquaintance with the family which permitted him to be led to their
+house, to return the visits Madame le Tisseur had made him, and his dog,
+once more returned a penitent to his master, always conducted his
+steps to the humble abode, and stopped instinctively at the door,--"I
+propose," said St. Amand, after a pause, and with some embarrassment,
+"to stay a little while longer at Malines; the air agrees with me, and
+I like the quiet of the place; but you are aware, madam, that at a hotel
+among strangers, I feel my situation somewhat cheerless. I have been
+thinking"--St. Amand paused again--"I have been thinking that if I could
+persuade some agreeable family to receive me as a lodger, I would fix
+myself here for some weeks. I am easily pleased."
+
+"Doubtless there are many in Malines who would be too happy to receive
+such a lodger."
+
+"Will you receive me?" asked St. Amand, abruptly. "It was of _your_
+family I thought."
+
+"Of us? Monsieur is too flattering. But we have scarcely a room good
+enough for you."
+
+"What difference between one room and another can there be to me? That
+is the best apartment to my choice in which the human voice sounds most
+kindly."
+
+The arrangement was made, and St. Amand came now to reside beneath the
+same roof as Lucille. And was she not happy that _he_ wanted so constant
+an attendance; was she not happy that she was ever of use? St. Amand was
+passionately fond of music; he played himself with a skill that was
+only surpassed by the exquisite melody of his voice, and was not Lucille
+happy when she sat mute and listening to such sounds as in Malines
+were never heard before? Was she not happy in gazing on a face to whose
+melancholy aspect her voice instantly summoned the smile? Was she not
+happy when the music ceased, and St. Amand called "Lucille"? Did not her
+own name uttered by that voice seem to her even sweeter than the music?
+Was she not happy when they walked out in the still evenings of summer,
+and her arm thrilled beneath the light touch of one to whom she was
+so necessary? Was she not proud in her happiness, and was there not
+something like worship in the gratitude she felt to him for raising her
+humble spirit to the luxury of feeling herself beloved?
+
+St. Amand's parents were French. They had resided in the neighbourhood
+of Amiens, where they had inherited a competent property, to which he
+had succeeded about two years previous to the date of my story.
+
+He had been blind from the age of three years. "I know not," said he,
+as he related these particulars to Lucille one evening when they were
+alone,--"I know not what the earth may be like, or the heaven, or the
+rivers whose voice at least I can hear, for I have no recollection
+beyond that of a confused but delicious blending of a thousand glorious
+colours, a bright and quick sense of joy, A VISIBLE MUSIC. But it is
+only since my childhood closed that I have mourned, as I now unceasingly
+mourn, for the light of day. My boyhood passed in a quiet cheerfulness;
+the least trifle then could please and occupy the vacancies of my mind;
+but it was as I took delight in being read to, as I listened to the
+vivid descriptions of Poetry, as I glowed at the recital of great deeds,
+as I was made acquainted by books with the energy, the action, the heat,
+the fervour, the pomp, the enthusiasm of life, that I gradually opened
+to the sense of all I was forever denied. I felt that I existed, not
+lived; and that, in the midst of the Universal Liberty, I was sentenced
+to a prison, from whose blank walls there was no escape. Still, however,
+while my parents lived, I had something of consolation; at least I was
+not alone. They died, and a sudden and dread solitude, a vast and empty
+dreariness, settled upon my dungeon. One old servant only, who had
+attended me from my childhood, who had known me in my short privilege of
+light, by whose recollections my mind could grope back its way through
+the dark and narrow passages of memory to faint glimpses of the sun,
+was all that remained to me of human sympathies. It did not suffice,
+however, to content me with a home where my father and my mother's kind
+voice were _not_. A restless impatience, an anxiety to move, possessed
+me, and I set out from my home, journeying whither I cared not, so that
+at least I could change an air that weighed upon me like a palpable
+burden. I took only this old attendant as my companion; he too died
+three months since at Bruxelles, worn out with years. Alas! I had
+forgotten that he was old, for I saw not his progress to decay; and now,
+save my faithless dog, I was utterly alone, till I came hither and found
+_thee_."
+
+Lucille stooped down to caress the dog; she blessed the desertion that
+had led him to a friend who never could desert.
+
+But however much, and however gratefully, St. Amand loved Lucille,
+her power availed not to chase the melancholy from his brow, and to
+reconcile him to his forlorn condition.
+
+"Ah, would that I could see thee! would that I could look upon a face
+that my heart vainly endeavours to delineate!"
+
+"If thou couldst," sighed Lucille, "thou wouldst cease to love me."
+
+"Impossible!" cried St. Amand, passionately. "However the world may find
+thee, _thou_ wouldst become my standard of beauty; and I should judge
+not of thee by others, but of others by thee."
+
+He loved to hear Lucille read to him, and mostly he loved the
+descriptions of war, of travel, of wild adventure, and yet they
+occasioned him the most pain. Often she paused from the page as she
+heard him sigh, and felt that she would even have renounced the bliss of
+being loved by him, if she could have restored to him that blessing, the
+desire for which haunted him as a spectre.
+
+Lucille's family were Catholic, and, like most in their station, they
+possessed the superstitions, as well as the devotion of the faith.
+Sometimes they amused themselves of an evening by the various legends
+and imaginary miracles of their calendar; and once, as they were thus
+conversing with two or three of their neighbours, "The Tomb of the Three
+Kings of Cologne" became the main topic of their wondering recitals.
+However strong was the sense of Lucille, she was, as you will readily
+conceive, naturally influenced by the belief of those with whom she had
+been brought up from her cradle, and she listened to tale after tale
+of the miracles wrought at the consecrated tomb, as earnestly and
+undoubtingly as the rest.
+
+And the Kings of the East were no ordinary saints; to the relics of
+the Three Magi, who followed the Star of Bethlehem, and were the first
+potentates of the earth who adored its Saviour, well might the pious
+Catholic suppose that a peculiar power and a healing sanctity would
+belong. Each of the circle (St. Amand, who had been more than usually
+silent, and even gloomy during the day, had retired to his own
+apartment, for there were some moments when, in the sadness of his
+thoughts, he sought that solitude which he so impatiently fled from at
+others)--each of the circle had some story to relate equally veracious
+and indisputable, of an infirmity cured, or a prayer accorded, or a sin
+atoned for at the foot of the holy tomb. One story peculiarly affected
+Lucille; the narrator, a venerable old man with gray locks, solemnly
+declared himself a witness of its truth.
+
+A woman at Anvers had given birth to a son, the offspring of an illicit
+connection, who came into the world deaf and dumb. The unfortunate
+mother believed the calamity a punishment for her own sin. "Ah, would,"
+said she, "that the affliction had fallen only upon me! Wretch that I
+am, my innocent child is punished for my offence!" This, idea haunted
+her night and day; she pined and could not be comforted. As the child
+grew up, and wound himself more and more round her heart, his caresses
+added new pangs to her remorse; and at length (continued the narrator)
+hearing perpetually of the holy fame of the Tomb of Cologne, she
+resolved upon a pilgrimage barefoot to the shrine. "God is merciful,"
+said she; "and He who called Magdalene his sister may take the mother's
+curse from the child." She then went to Cologne; she poured her tears,
+her penitence, and her prayers at the sacred tomb. When she returned to
+her native town, what was her dismay as she approached her cottage to
+behold it a heap of ruins! Its blackened rafters and yawning casements
+betokened the ravages of fire. The poor woman sank upon the ground
+utterly overpowered. Had her son perished? At that moment she heard
+the cry of a child's voice, and, lo! her child rushed to her arms, and
+called her "mother!"
+
+He had been saved from the fire, which had broken out seven days before;
+but in the terror he had suffered, the string that tied his tongue had
+been loosened; he had uttered articulate sounds of distress; the curse
+was removed, and one word at least the kind neighbours had already
+taught him to welcome his mother's return. What cared she now that
+her substance was gone, that her roof was ashes? She bowed in grateful
+submission to so mild a stroke; her prayer had been heard, and the sin
+of the mother was visited no longer on the child.
+
+I have said, dear Gertrude, that this story made a deep impression upon
+Lucille. A misfortune so nearly akin to that of St. Amand removed by the
+prayer of another filled her with devoted thoughts and a beautiful hope.
+"Is not the tomb still standing?" thought she. "Is not God still in
+heaven?--He who heard the guilty, may He not hear the guiltless? Is He
+not the God of love? Are not the affections the offerings that please
+Him best? And what though the child's mediator was his mother, can
+even a mother love her child more tenderly than I love Eugene? But if,
+Lucille, thy prayer be granted, if he recover his sight, _thy_ charm
+is gone, he will love thee no longer. No matter! be it so,--I shall at
+least have made him happy!"
+
+Such were the thoughts that filled the mind of Lucille; she cherished
+them till they settled into resolution, and she secretly vowed to
+perform her pilgrimage of love. She told neither St. Amand nor her
+parents of her intention; she knew the obstacles such an announcement
+would create. Fortunately she had an aunt settled at Bruxelles, to whom
+she had been accustomed once in every year to pay a month's visit, and
+at that time she generally took with her the work of a twelvemonths'
+industry, which found a readier sale at Bruxelles than at Malines.
+Lucille and St. Amand were already betrothed; their wedding was shortly
+to take place; and the custom of the country leading parents, however
+poor, to nourish the honourable ambition of giving some dowry with their
+daughters, Lucille found it easy to hide the object of her departure,
+under the pretence of taking the lace to Bruxelles, which had been the
+year's labour of her mother and herself,--it would sell for sufficient,
+at least, to defray the preparations for the wedding.
+
+"Thou art ever right, child," said Madame le Tisseur; "the richer St.
+Amand is, why, the less oughtest thou to go a beggar to his house."
+
+In fact, the honest ambition of the good people was excited; their pride
+had been hurt by the envy of the town and the current congratulations on
+so advantageous a marriage; and they employed themselves in counting
+up the fortune they should be able to give to their only child, and
+flattering their pardonable vanity with the notion that there would
+be no such great disproportion in the connection after all. They were
+right, but not in their own view of the estimate; the wealth that
+Lucille brought was what fate could not lessen, reverse could not reach;
+the ungracious seasons could not blight its sweet harvest; imprudence
+could not dissipate, fraud could not steal, one grain from its abundant
+coffers! Like the purse in the Fairy Tale, its use was hourly, its
+treasure inexhaustible.
+
+St. Amand alone was not to be won to her departure; he chafed at the
+notion of a dowry; he was not appeased even by Lucille's representation
+that it was only to gratify and not to impoverish her parents. "And
+_thou_, too, canst leave me!" he said, in that plaintive voice which had
+made his first charm to Lucille's heart. "It is a double blindness!"
+
+"But for a few days; a fortnight at most, dearest Eugene."
+
+"A fortnight! you do not reckon time as the blind do," said St. Amand,
+bitterly.
+
+"But listen, listen, dear Eugene," said Lucille, weeping.
+
+The sound of her sobs restored him to a sense of his ingratitude. Alas,
+he knew not how much he had to be grateful for! He held out his arms
+to her. "Forgive me," said he. "Those who can see Nature know not how
+terrible it is to be alone."
+
+"But my mother will not leave you."
+
+"She is not you!"
+
+"And Julie," said Lucille, hesitatingly.
+
+"What is Julie to me?"
+
+"Ah, you are the only one, save my parents, who could think of me in her
+presence."
+
+"And why, Lucille?"
+
+"Why! She is more beautiful than a dream."
+
+"Say not so. Would I could see, that I might prove to the world how much
+more beautiful thou art! There is no music in her voice."
+
+The evening before Lucille departed she sat up late with St. Amand and
+her mother. They conversed on the future; they made plans; in the wide
+sterility of the world they laid out the garden of household love, and
+filled it with flowers, forgetful of the wind that scatters and the
+frost that kills. And when, leaning on Lucille's arm, St. Amand sought
+his chamber, and they parted at his door, which closed upon her, she
+fell down on her knees at the threshold, and poured out the fulness of
+her heart in a prayer for his safety and the fulfilment of her timid
+hope.
+
+At daybreak she was consigned to the conveyance that performed the short
+journey from Malines to Bruxelles. When she entered the town, instead
+of seeking her aunt, she rested at an _auberge_ in the suburbs, and
+confiding her little basket of lace to the care of its hostess, she
+set out alone, and on foot, upon the errand of her heart's lovely
+superstition. And erring though it was, her faith redeemed its weakness,
+her affection made it even sacred; and well may we believe that the Eye
+which reads all secrets scarce looked reprovingly on that fanaticism
+whose only infirmity was love.
+
+So fearful was she lest, by rendering the task too easy, she might
+impair the effect, that she scarcely allowed herself rest or food.
+Sometimes, in the heat of noon, she wandered a little from the roadside,
+and under the spreading lime-tree surrendered her mind to its sweet and
+bitter thoughts; but ever the restlessness of her enterprise urged
+her on, and faint, weary, and with bleeding feet, she started up and
+continued her way. At length she reached the ancient city, where a
+holier age has scarce worn from the habits and aspects of men the Roman
+trace. She prostrated herself at the tomb of the Magi; she proffered her
+ardent but humble prayer to Him before whose Son those fleshless heads
+(yet to faith at least preserved) had, eighteen centuries ago, bowed in
+adoration. Twice every day, for a whole week, she sought the same spot,
+and poured forth the same prayer. The last day an old priest, who,
+hovering in the church, had observed her constantly at devotion, with
+that fatherly interest which the better ministers of the Catholic sect
+(that sect which has covered the earth with the mansions of charity)
+feel for the unhappy, approached her as she was retiring with moist and
+downcast eyes, and saluting her, assumed the privilege of his order to
+inquire if there was aught in which his advice or aid could serve.
+There was something in the venerable air of the old man which encouraged
+Lucille; she opened her heart to him; she told him all. The good priest
+was much moved by her simplicity and earnestness. He questioned her
+minutely as to the peculiar species of blindness with which St. Amand
+was afflicted; and after musing a little while, he said, "Daughter,
+God is great and merciful; we must trust in His power, but we must
+not forget that He mostly works by mortal agents. As you pass through
+Louvain in your way home, fail not to see there a certain physician,
+named Le Kain. He is celebrated through Flanders for the cures he has
+wrought among the blind, and his advice is sought by all classes from
+far and near. He lives hard by the Hotel de Ville, but any one will
+inform you of his residence. Stay, my child, you shall take him a note
+from me; he is a benevolent and kindly man, and you shall tell him
+exactly the same story (and with the same voice) you have told to me."
+
+So saying the priest made Lucille accompany him to his home, and forcing
+her to refresh herself less sparingly than she had yet done since she
+had left Malines, he gave her his blessing, and a letter to Le Kain,
+which he rightly judged would insure her a patient hearing from the
+physician. Well known among all men of science was the name of the
+priest, and a word of recommendation from him went further, where virtue
+and wisdom were honoured, than the longest letter from the haughtiest
+sieur in Flanders.
+
+With a patient and hopeful spirit, the young pilgrim turned her back on
+the Roman Cologne; and now about to rejoin St. Amand, she felt neither
+the heat of the sun nor the weariness of the road. It was one day at
+noon that she again passed through Louvain, and she soon found herself
+by the noble edifice of the Hotel de Ville. Proud rose its spires
+against the sky, and the sun shone bright on its rich tracery and
+Gothic casements; the broad open street was crowded with persons of all
+classes, and it was with some modest alarm that Lucille lowered her veil
+and mingled with the throng. It was easy, as the priest had said, to
+find the house of Le Kain; she bade the servant take the priest's letter
+to his master, and she was not long kept waiting before she was admitted
+to the physician's presence. He was a spare, tall man, with a bald
+front, and a calm and friendly countenance. He was not less touched
+than the priest had been by the manner in which she narrated her
+story, described the affliction of her betrothed, and the hope that had
+inspired the pilgrimage she had just made.
+
+"Well," said he, encouragingly, "we must see our patient. You can bring
+him hither to me."
+
+"Ah, sir, I had hoped--" Lucille stopped suddenly.
+
+"What, my young friend?"
+
+"That I might have had the triumph of bringing you to Malines. I know,
+sir, what you are about to say, and I know, sir, your time must be very
+valuable; but I am not so poor as I seem, and Eugene, that is, M. St.
+Amand, is very rich, and--and I have at Bruxelles what I am sure is
+a large sum; it was to have provided for the wedding, but it is most
+heartily at your service, sir."
+
+Le Kain smiled; he was one of those men who love to read the human
+heart when its leaves are fair and undefiled; and, in the benevolence
+of science, he would have gone a longer journey than from Louvain to
+Malines to give sight to the blind, even had St. Amand been a beggar.
+
+"Well, well," said he, "but you forget that M. St. Amand is not the only
+one in the world who wants me. I must look at my notebook, and see if I
+can be spared for a day or two."
+
+So saying, he glanced at his memoranda. Everything smiled on Lucille; he
+had no engagements that his partner could not fulfil, for some days; he
+consented to accompany Lucille to Malines.
+
+Meanwhile, cheerless and dull had passed the time to St. Amand. He was
+perpetually asking Madame le Tisseur what hour it was,--it was almost
+his only question. There seemed to him no sun in the heavens, no
+freshness in the air, and he even forbore his favourite music; the
+instrument had lost its sweetness since Lucille was not by to listen.
+
+It was natural that the gossips of Malines should feel some envy at the
+marriage Lucille was about to make with one whose competence report had
+exaggerated into prodigal wealth, whose birth had been elevated from the
+respectable to the noble, and whose handsome person was clothed, by the
+interest excited by his misfortune, with the beauty of Antinous. Even
+that misfortune, which ought to have levelled all distinctions, was not
+sufficient to check the general envy; perhaps to some of the damsels
+of Malines blindness in a husband would not have seemed an unwelcome
+infirmity! But there was one in whom this envy rankled with a peculiar
+sting: it was the beautiful, the all-conquering Julie! That the humble,
+the neglected Lucille should be preferred to her; that Lucille, whose
+existence was well-nigh forgot beside Julie's, should become thus
+suddenly of importance; that there should be one person in the world,
+and that person young, rich, handsome, to whom she was less than
+nothing, when weighed in the balance with Lucille, mortified to the
+quick a vanity that had never till then received a wound. "It is well,"
+she would say with a bitter jest, "that Lucille's lover is blind. To be
+the one it is necessary to be the other!"
+
+During Lucille's absence she had been constantly in Madame le Tisseur's
+house; indeed, Lucille had prayed her to be so. She had sought, with an
+industry that astonished herself, to supply Lucille's place; and among
+the strange contradictions of human nature, she had learned during her
+efforts to please, to love the object of those efforts,--as much at
+least as she was capable of loving.
+
+She conceived a positive hatred to Lucille; she persisted in imagining
+that nothing but the accident of first acquaintance had deprived her
+of a conquest with which she persuaded herself her happiness had become
+connected. Had St. Amand never loved Lucille and proposed to Julie, his
+misfortune would have made her reject him, despite his wealth and his
+youth; but to be Lucille's lover, and a conquest to be won from Lucille,
+raised him instantly to an importance not his own. Safe, however, in his
+affliction, the arts and beauty of Julie fell harmless on the fidelity
+of St. Amand. Nay, he liked her less than ever, for it seemed an
+impertinence in any one to counterfeit the anxiety and watchfulness of
+Lucille.
+
+"It is time, surely it is time, Madame le Tisseur, that Lucille should
+return? She might have sold all the lace in Malines by this time," said
+St. Amand, one day, peevishly.
+
+"Patience, my dear friend, patience; perhaps she may return to-morrow."
+
+"To-morrow! let me see, it is only six o'clock,--only six, you are
+sure?"
+
+"Just five, dear Eugene. Shall I read to you? This is a new book from
+Paris; it has made a great noise," said Julie.
+
+"You are very kind, but I will not trouble you."
+
+"It is anything but trouble."
+
+"In a word, then, I would rather not."
+
+"Oh, that he could see!" thought Julie; "would I not punish him for
+this!"
+
+"I hear carriage wheels; who can be passing this way? Surely it is the
+_voiturier_ from Bruxelles," said St. Amand, starting up; "it is his
+day,--his hour, too. No, no, it is a lighter vehicle," and he sank down
+listlessly on his seat.
+
+Nearer and nearer rolled the wheels; they turned the corner; they
+stopped at the lowly door; and, overcome, overjoyed, Lucille was clasped
+to the bosom of St. Amand.
+
+"Stay," said she, blushing, as she recovered her self-possession, and
+turned to Le Kain; "pray pardon me, sir. Dear Eugene, I have brought
+with me one who, by God's blessing, may yet restore you to sight."
+
+"We must not be sanguine, my child," said Le Kain; "anything is better
+than disappointment."
+
+
+
+To close this part of my story, dear Gertrude, Le Kain examined St.
+Amand, and the result of the examination was a confident belief in the
+probability of a cure. St. Amand gladly consented to the experiment of
+an operation; it succeeded, the blind man saw! Oh, what were Lucille's
+feelings, what her emotion, what her joy, when she found the object of
+her pilgrimage, of her prayers, fulfilled! That joy was so intense that
+in the eternal alternations of human life she might have foretold from
+its excess how bitter the sorrows fated to ensue.
+
+As soon as by degrees the patient's new sense became reconciled to the
+light, his first, his only demand was for Lucille. "No, let me not see
+her alone; let me see her in the midst of you all, that I may convince
+you that the heart never is mistaken in its instincts." With a fearful,
+a sinking presentiment, Lucille yielded to the request, to which the
+impetuous St. Amand would hear indeed no denial. The father, the
+mother, Julie, Lucille, Julie's younger sisters, assembled in the
+little parlour; the door opened, and St. Amand stood hesitating on the
+threshold. One look around sufficed to him; his face brightened, he
+uttered a cry of joy. "Lucille! Lucille!" he exclaimed, "it is you, I
+know it, _you_ only!" He sprang forward _and fell at the feet of Julie_!
+
+Flushed, elated, triumphant, Julie bent upon him her sparkling eyes;
+_she_ did not undeceive him.
+
+"You are wrong, you mistake," said Madame le Tisseur, in confusion;
+"that is her cousin Julie,--this is your Lucille."
+
+St. Amand rose, turned, saw Lucille, and at that moment she wished
+herself in her grave. Surprise, mortification, disappointment, almost
+dismay, were depicted in his gaze. He had been haunting his prison-house
+with dreams, and now, set free, he felt how unlike they were to the
+truth. Too new to observation to read the woe, the despair, the lapse
+and shrinking of the whole frame, that his look occasioned Lucille, he
+yet felt, when the first shock of his surprise was over, that it was not
+thus he should thank her who had restored him to sight. He hastened to
+redeem his error--ah! how could it be redeemed?
+
+From that hour all Lucille's happiness was at an end; her fairy palace
+was shattered in the dust; the magician's wand was broken up; the
+Ariel was given to the winds; and the bright enchantment no longer
+distinguished the land she lived in from the rest of the barren
+world. It is true that St. Amand's words were kind; it is true that he
+remembered with the deepest gratitude all she had done in his behalf;
+it is true that he forced himself again and again to say, "She is my
+betrothed, my benefactress!" and he cursed himself to think that the
+feelings he had entertained for her were fled. Where was the passion of
+his words; where the ardour of his tone; where that play and light of
+countenance which her step, her voice, could formerly call forth? When
+they were alone he was embarrassed and constrained, and almost cold;
+his hand no longer sought hers, his soul no longer missed her if she was
+absent a moment from his side. When in their household circle he seemed
+visibly more at ease; but did his eyes fasten upon her who had opened
+them to the day; did they not wander at every interval with a too
+eloquent admiration to the blushing and radiant face of the exulting
+Julie? This was not, you will believe, suddenly perceptible in one
+day or one week, but every day it was perceptible more and more. Yet
+still--bewitched, ensnared, as St. Amand was he never perhaps would have
+been guilty of an infidelity that he strove with the keenest remorse to
+wrestle against, had it not been for the fatal contrast, at the first
+moment of his gushing enthusiasm, which Julie had presented to Lucille;
+but for that he would have formed no previous idea of real and living
+beauty to aid the disappointment of his imaginings and his dreams.
+He would have seen Lucille young and graceful, and with eyes beaming
+affection, contrasted only by the wrinkled countenance and bended frame
+of her parents, and she would have completed her conquest over him
+before he had discovered that she was less beautiful than others; nay,
+more,--that infidelity never could have lasted above the first few days,
+if the vain and heartless object of it had not exerted every art, all
+the power and witchery of her beauty, to cement and continue it. The
+unfortunate Lucille--so susceptible to the slightest change in those
+she loved, so diffident of herself, so proud too in that diffidence--no
+longer necessary, no longer missed, no longer loved, could not bear to
+endure the galling comparison between the past and the present. She
+fled uncomplainingly to her chamber to indulge her tears, and thus,
+unhappily, absent as her father generally was during the day, and busied
+as her mother was either at work or in household matters, she left Julie
+a thousand opportunities to complete the power she had begun to wield
+over--no, not the heart!--the _senses_ of St. Amand! Yet, still not
+suspecting, in the open generosity of her mind, the whole extent of her
+affliction, poor Lucille buoyed herself at times with the hope that when
+once married, when, once in that intimacy of friendship, the unspeakable
+love she felt for him could disclose itself with less restraint than at
+present,--she would perhaps regain a heart which had been so devotedly
+hers, that she could not think that without a fault it was irrevocably
+gone: on that hope she anchored all the little happiness that remained
+to her. And still St. Amand pressed their marriage, but in what
+different tones! In fact, he wished to preclude from himself the
+possibility of a deeper ingratitude than that which he had incurred
+already. He vainly thought that the broken reed of love might be bound
+up and strengthened by the ties of duty; and at least he was anxious
+that his hand, his fortune, his esteem, his gratitude, should give
+to Lucille the only recompense it was now in his power to bestow.
+Meanwhile, left alone so often with Julie, and Julie bent on achieving
+the last triumph over his heart, St. Amand was gradually preparing a
+far different reward, a far different return, for her to whom he owed so
+incalculable a debt.
+
+There was a garden, behind the house, in which there was a small
+arbour, where often in the summer evenings Eugene and Lucille had
+sat together,--hours never to return! One day she heard from her own
+chamber, where she sat mourning, the sound of St. Amand's flute swelling
+gently from that beloved and consecrated bower. She wept as she heard
+it, and the memories that the music bore softening and endearing his
+image, she began to reproach herself that she had yielded so often to
+the impulse of her wounded feelings; that chilled by _his_ coldness, she
+had left him so often to himself, and had not sufficiently dared to
+tell him of that affection which, in her modest self-depreciation,
+constituted her only pretension to his love. "Perhaps he is alone now,"
+she thought; "the air too is one which he knows that I love;" and with
+her heart in her step, she stole from the house and sought the arbour.
+She had scarce turned from her chamber when the flute ceased; as she
+neared the arbour she heard voices,--Julie's voice in grief, St. Amand's
+in consolation. A dread foreboding seized her; her feet clung rooted to
+the earth.
+
+"Yes, marry her, forget me," said Julie; "in a few days you will
+be another's, and I--I--forgive me, Eugene, forgive me that I have
+disturbed your happiness. I am punished sufficiently; my heart will
+break, but it will break in loving you." Sobs choked Julie's voice.
+
+"Oh, speak not thus," said St. Amand. "I, _I_ only am to blame,--I,
+false to both, to both ungrateful. Oh, from the hour that these eyes
+opened upon you I drank in a new life; the sun itself to me was less
+wonderful than your beauty. But--but--let me forget that hour. What do I
+not owe to Lucille? I shall be wretched,--I shall deserve to be so;
+for shall I not think, Julie, that I have embittered your life with our
+ill-fated love? But all that I can give--my hand, my home, my plighted
+faith--must be hers. Nay, Julie, nay--why that look? Could I act
+otherwise? Can I dream otherwise? Whatever the sacrifice, _must_ I not
+render it? Ah, what do I owe to Lucille, were it only for the thought
+that but for her I might never have seen thee!"
+
+Lucille stayed to hear no more; with the same soft step as that which
+had borne her within hearing of these fatal words, she turned back once
+more to her desolate chamber.
+
+That evening, as St. Amand was sitting alone in his apartment, he heard
+a gentle knock at the door. "Come in," he said, and Lucille entered. He
+started in some confusion, and would have taken her hand, but she gently
+repulsed him. She took a seat opposite to him, and looking down, thus
+addressed him:--
+
+"My dear Eugene, that is, Monsieur St. Amand, I have something on my
+mind that I think it better to speak at once; and if I do not exactly
+express what I would wish to say, you must not be offended with Lucille:
+it is not an easy matter to put into words what one feels deeply."
+Colouring, and suspecting something of the truth, St. Amand would have
+broken in upon her here; but she with a gentle impatience motioned him
+to be silent, and continued:--
+
+"You know that when you once loved me, I used to tell you that you would
+cease to do so could you see how undeserving I was of your attachment. I
+did not deceive myself, Eugene; I always felt assured that such would be
+the case, that your love for me necessarily rested on your affliction.
+But for all that I never at least had a dream or a desire but for your
+happiness; and God knows, that if again, by walking barefooted, not to
+Cologne, but to Rome--to the end of the world--I could save you from a
+much less misfortune than that of blindness, I would cheerfully do it;
+yes, even though I might foretell all the while that, on my return, you
+would speak to me coldly, think of me lightly, and that the penalty to
+me would--would be--what it has been!" Here Lucille wiped a few natural
+tears from her eyes. St. Amand, struck to the heart, covered his
+face with his hands, without the courage to interrupt her. Lucille
+continued:--
+
+"That which I foresaw has come to pass; I am no longer to you what I
+once was, when you could clothe this poor form and this homely face with
+a beauty they did not possess. You would wed me still, it is true; but I
+am proud, Eugene, and cannot stoop to gratitude where I once had love.
+I am not so unjust as to blame you; the change was natural, was
+inevitable. I should have steeled myself more against it; but I am now
+resigned. We must part; you love Julie--that too is natural--and _she_
+loves you; ah! what also more in the probable course of events? Julie
+loves you, not yet, perhaps, so much as I did; but then she has not
+known you as I have, and she whose whole life has been triumph cannot
+feel the gratitude that I felt at fancying myself loved; but this will
+come--God grant it! Farewell, then, forever, dear Eugene; I leave you
+when you no longer want me; you are now independent of Lucille; wherever
+you go, a thousand hereafter can supply my place. Farewell!"
+
+She rose, as she said this, to leave the room; but St. Amand seizing her
+hand, which she in vain endeavoured to withdraw from his clasp, poured
+forth incoherently, passionately, his reproaches on himself, his
+eloquent persuasion against her resolution.
+
+"I confess," said he, "that I have been allured for a moment; I confess
+that Julie's beauty made me less sensible to your stronger, your holier,
+oh! far, far holier title to my love! But forgive me, dearest Lucille;
+already I return to you, to all I once felt for you; make me not curse
+the blessing of sight that I owe to you. You must not leave me; never
+can we two part. Try me, only try me, and if ever hereafter my heart
+wander from you, _then_, Lucille, leave me to my remorse!"
+
+Even at that moment Lucille did not yield; she felt that his prayer was
+but the enthusiasm of the hour; she felt that there was a virtue in her
+pride,--that to leave him was a duty to herself. In vain he pleaded; in
+vain were his embraces, his prayers; in vain he reminded her of their
+plighted troth, of her aged parents, whose happiness had become wrapped
+in her union with him: "How,--even were it as you wrongly believe,--how,
+in honour to them, can I desert you, can I wed another?"
+
+"Trust that, trust all, to me," answered Lucille; "your honour shall
+be my care, none shall blame _you_; only do not let your marriage with
+Julie be celebrated here before their eyes: that is all I ask, all they
+can expect. God bless you! do not fancy I shall be unhappy, for whatever
+happiness the world gives you, shall I not have contributed to bestow
+it? and with that thought I am above compassion."
+
+She glided from his arms, and left him to a solitude more bitter even
+than that of blindness. That very night Lucille sought her mother; to
+her she confided all. I pass over the reasons she urged, the arguments
+she overcame; she conquered rather than convinced, and leaving to Madame
+le Tisseur the painful task of breaking to her father her unalterable
+resolution, she quitted Malines the next morning, and with a heart too
+honest to be utterly without comfort, paid that visit to her aunt which
+had been so long deferred.
+
+The pride of Lucille's parents prevented them from reproaching St.
+Amand. He could not bear, however, their cold and altered looks; he left
+their house; and though for several days he would not even see Julie,
+yet her beauty and her art gradually resumed their empire over him. They
+were married at Courtroi, and to the joy of the vain Julie departed to
+the gay metropolis of France. But, before their departure, before his
+marriage, St. Amand endeavoured to appease his conscience by obtaining
+for M. le Tisseur a much more lucrative and honourable office than that
+he now held. Rightly judging that Malines could no longer be a pleasant
+residence for them, and much less for Lucille, the duties of the post
+were to be fulfilled in another town; and knowing that M. le Tisseur's
+delicacy would revolt at receiving such a favour from his hands, he kept
+the nature of his negotiation a close secret, and suffered the honest
+citizen to believe that his own merits alone had entitled him to so
+unexpected a promotion.
+
+
+
+Time went on. This quiet and simple history of humble affections took
+its date in a stormy epoch of the world,--the dawning Revolution of
+France. The family of Lucille had been little more than a year settled
+in their new residence when Dumouriez led his army into the Netherlands.
+But how meanwhile had that year passed for Lucille? I have said that her
+spirit was naturally high; that though so tender, she was not weak. Her
+very pilgrimage to Cologne alone, and at the timid age of seventeen,
+proved that there was a strength in her nature no less than a devotion
+in her love. The sacrifice she had made brought its own reward.
+She believed St. Amand was happy, and she would not give way to the
+selfishness of grief; she had still duties to perform; she could still
+comfort her parents and cheer their age; she could still be all the
+world to them: she felt this, and was consoled. Only once during the
+year had she heard of Julie; she had been seen by a mutual friend at
+Paris, gay, brilliant, courted, and admired; of St. Amand she heard
+nothing.
+
+My tale, dear Gertrude, does not lead me through the harsh scenes of
+war. I do not tell you of the slaughter and the siege, and the blood
+that inundated those fair lands,--the great battlefield of Europe. The
+people of the Netherlands in general were with the cause of Dumouriez,
+but the town in which Le Tisseur dwelt offered some faint resistance to
+his arms. Le Tisseur himself, despite his age, girded on his sword; the
+town was carried, and the fierce and licentious troops of the conqueror
+poured, flushed with their easy victory, through its streets. Le
+Tisseur's house was filled with drunken and rude troopers; Lucille
+herself trembled in the fierce gripe of one of those dissolute soldiers,
+more bandit than soldier, whom the subtle Dumouriez had united to his
+army, and by whose blood he so often saved that of his nobler band. Her
+shrieks, her cries, were vain, when suddenly the troopers gave way. "The
+Captain! brave Captain!" was shouted forth; the insolent soldier, felled
+by a powerful arm, sank senseless at the feet of Lucille, and a glorious
+form, towering above its fellows,--even through its glittering garb,
+even in that dreadful hour, remembered at a glance by Lucille,--stood
+at her side; her protector, her guardian! Thus once more she beheld St.
+Amand!
+
+The house was cleared in an instant, the door barred. Shouts, groans,
+wild snatches of exulting song, the clang of arms, the tramp of horses,
+the hurrying footsteps, the deep music sounded loud, and blended
+terribly without. Lucille heard them not,--she was on that breast which
+never should have deserted her.
+
+Effectually to protect his friends, St. Amand took up his quarters at
+their house; and for two days he was once more under the same roof as
+Lucille. He never recurred voluntarily to Julie; he answered Lucille's
+timid inquiry after her health briefly, and with coldness, but he spoke
+with all the enthusiasm of a long-pent and ardent spirit of the new
+profession he had embraced. Glory seemed now to be his only mistress;
+and the vivid delusion of the first bright dreams of the Revolution
+filled his mind, broke from his tongue, and lighted up those dark eyes
+which Lucille had redeemed to day.
+
+She saw him depart at the head of his troops; she saw his proud crest
+glancing in the sun; she saw his steed winding through the narrow
+street; she saw that his last glance reverted to her, where she stood at
+the door; and, as he waved his adieu, she fancied that there was on his
+face that look of deep and grateful tenderness which reminded her of the
+one bright epoch of her life.
+
+She was right; St. Amand had long since in bitterness repented of a
+transient infatuation, had long since distinguished the true Florimel
+from the false, and felt that, in Julie, Lucille's wrongs were avenged.
+But in the hurry and heat of war he plunged that regret--the keenest of
+all--which embodies the bitter words, "TOO LATE!"
+
+Years passed away, and in the resumed tranquillity of Lucille's life the
+brilliant apparition of St. Amand appeared as something dreamed of, not
+seen. The star of Napoleon had risen above the horizon; the romance of
+his early career had commenced; and the campaign of Egypt had been the
+herald of those brilliant and meteoric successes which flashed forth
+from the gloom of the Revolution of France.
+
+You are aware, dear Gertrude, how many in the French as well as the
+English troops returned home from Egypt blinded with the ophthalmia of
+that arid soil. Some of the young men in Lucille's town, who had joined
+Napoleon's army, came back darkened by that fearful affliction, and
+Lucille's alms and Lucille's aid and Lucille's sweet voice were ever
+at hand for those poor sufferers, whose common misfortune touched so
+thrilling a chord of her heart.
+
+Her father was now dead, and she had only her mother to cheer amidst the
+ills of age. As one evening they sat at work together, Madame le Tisseur
+said, after a pause,--
+
+"I wish, dear Lucille, thou couldst be persuaded to marry Justin; he
+loves thee well, and now that thou art yet young, and hast many years
+before thee, thou shouldst remember that when I die thou wilt be alone."
+
+"Ah, cease, dearest mother, I never can marry now; and as for love--once
+taught in the bitter school in which I have learned the knowledge of
+myself--I cannot be deceived again."
+
+"My Lucille, you do not know yourself. Never was woman loved if Justin
+does not love you; and never did lover feel with more real warmth how
+worthily he loved."
+
+And this was true; and not of Justin alone, for Lucille's modest
+virtues, her kindly temper, and a certain undulating and feminine grace,
+which accompanied all her movements, had secured her as many conquests
+as if she had been beautiful. She had rejected all offers of marriage
+with a shudder; without even the throb of a flattered vanity. One
+memory, sadder, was also dearer to her than all things; and something
+sacred in its recollections made her deem it even a crime to think of
+effacing the past by a new affection.
+
+"I believe," continued Madame le Tisseur, angrily, "that thou still
+thinkest fondly of him from whom only in the world thou couldst have
+experienced ingratitude."
+
+"Nay, Mother," said Lucille, with a blush and a slight sigh, "Eugene is
+married to another."
+
+While thus conversing, they heard a gentle and timid knock at the door;
+the latch was lifted. "This," said the rough voice of a _commissionaire_
+of the town, "this, monsieur, is the house of Madame le Tisseur, and
+_voila mademoiselle_!" A tall figure, with a shade over his eyes, and
+wrapped in a long military cloak, stood in the room. A thrill shot
+across Lucille's heart. He stretched out his arms. "Lucille," said that
+melancholy voice, which had made the music of her first youth, "where
+art thou, Lucille? Alas! she does not recognize St. Amand."
+
+Thus was it indeed. By a singular fatality, the burning suns and the
+sharp dust of the plains of Egypt had smitten the young soldier, in
+the flush of his career, with a second--and this time with an
+irremediable--blindness! He had returned to France to find his hearth
+lonely. Julie was no more,--a sudden fever had cut her off in the midst
+of youth; and he had sought his way to Lucille's house, to see if one
+hope yet remained to him in the world!
+
+And when, days afterwards, humbly and sadly he re-urged a former suit,
+did Lucille shut her heart to its prayer? Did her pride remember its
+wound; did she revert to his desertion; did she reply to the whisper of
+her yearning love, "_Thou hast been before forsaken_"? That voice and
+those darkened eyes pleaded to her with a pathos not to be resisted. "I
+am once more necessary to him," was all her thought; "if I reject him
+who will tend him?" In that thought was the motive of her conduct; in
+that thought gushed back upon her soul all the springs of checked but
+unconquered, unconquerable love! In that thought, she stood beside him
+at the altar, and pledged, with a yet holier devotion than she might
+have felt of yore, the vow of her imperishable truth.
+
+And Lucille found, in the future, a reward, which the common world could
+never comprehend. With his blindness returned all the feelings she had
+first awakened in St. Amand's solitary heart; again he yearned for her
+step, again he missed even a moment's absence from his side, again her
+voice chased the shadow from his brow, and in her presence was a sense
+of shelter and of sunshine. He no longer sighed for the blessing he had
+lost; he reconciled himself to fate, and entered into that serenity of
+mood which mostly characterizes the blind.
+
+Perhaps after we have seen the actual world, and experienced its hollow
+pleasures, we can resign ourselves the better to its exclusion; and
+as the cloister, which repels the ardour of our hope, is sweet to
+our remembrance, so the darkness loses its terror when experience has
+wearied us with the glare and travail of the day. It was something, too,
+as they advanced in life, to feel the chains that bound him to Lucille
+strengthening daily, and to cherish in his overflowing heart the
+sweetness of increasing gratitude; it was something that he could not
+see years wrinkle that open brow, or dim the tenderness of that touching
+smile; it was something that to him she was beyond the reach of time,
+and preserved to the verge of a grave (which received them both within
+a few days of each other) in all the bloom of her unwithering affection,
+in all the freshness of a heart that never could grow old!
+
+
+
+Gertrude, who had broken in upon Trevylyan's story by a thousand anxious
+interruptions, and a thousand pretty apologies for interrupting, was
+charmed with a tale in which true love was made happy at last, although
+she did not forgive St. Amand his ingratitude, and although she
+declared, with a critical shake of the head, that "it was very unnatural
+that the mere beauty of Julie, or the mere want of it in Lucille, should
+have produced such an effect upon him, if he had ever _really_ loved
+Lucille in his blindness."
+
+As they passed through Malines, the town assumed an interest in
+Gertrude's eyes to which it scarcely of itself was entitled. She looked
+wistfully at the broad market-place, at a corner of which was one of
+those out-of-door groups of quiet and noiseless revellers, which Dutch
+art has raised from the Familiar to the Picturesque; and then glancing
+to the tower of St. Rembauld, she fancied, amidst the silence of noon,
+that she yet heard the plaintive cry of the blind orphan, "Fido, Fido,
+why hast thou deserted me?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V. ROTTERDAM.--THE CHARACTER OF THE DUTCH.--THEIR RESEMBLANCE TO
+THE GERMANS.--A DISPUTE BETWEEN VANE AND TREVYLYAN, AFTER THE MANNER OF
+THE ANCIENT NOVELISTS, AS TO WHICH IS PREFERABLE, THE LIFE OF ACTION OR
+THE LIFE OF REPOSE.--TREVYLYAN'S CONTRAST BETWEEN LITERARY AMBITION AND
+THE AMBITION OF PUBLIC LIFE.
+
+OUR travellers arrived at Rotterdam on a bright and sunny day. There is
+a cheerfulness about the operations of Commerce,--a life, a bustle,
+an action which always exhilarate the spirits at the first glance.
+Afterwards they fatigue us; we get too soon behind the scenes, and find
+the base and troublous passions which move the puppets and conduct the
+drama.
+
+But Gertrude, in whom ill health had not destroyed the vividness of
+impression that belongs to the inexperienced, was delighted at the
+cheeriness of all around her. As she leaned lightly on Trevylyan's arm,
+he listened with a forgetful joy to her questions and exclamations
+at the stir and liveliness of a city from which was to commence their
+pilgrimage along the Rhine. And indeed the scene was rife with the
+spirit of that people at once so active and so patient, so daring on
+the sea, so cautious on the land. Industry was visible everywhere; the
+vessels in the harbour, the crowded boat putting off to land, the
+throng on the quay,--all looked bustling and spoke of commerce. The city
+itself, on which the skies shone fairly through light and fleecy clouds,
+wore a cheerful aspect. The church of St. Lawrence rising above the
+clean, neat houses, and on one side trees thickly grouped, gayly
+contrasted at once the waters and the city.
+
+"I like this place," said Gertrude's father, quietly; "it has an air of
+comfort."
+
+"And an absence of grandeur," said Trevylyan.
+
+"A commercial people are one great middle-class in their habits and
+train of mind," replied Vane; "and grandeur belongs to the extremes,--an
+impoverished population and a wealthy despot."
+
+They went to see the statue of Erasmus, and the house in which he was
+born. Vane had a certain admiration for Erasmus which his companions did
+not share; he liked the quiet irony of the sage, and his knowledge of
+the world; and, besides, Vane was at that time of life when philosophers
+become objects of interest. At first they are teachers; secondly,
+friends; and it is only a few who arrive at the third stage, and find
+them deceivers. The Dutch are a singular people. Their literature
+is neglected, but it has some of the German vein in its strata,--the
+patience, the learning, the homely delineation, and even some traces of
+the mixture of the humorous and the terrible which form that genius for
+the grotesque so especially German--you find this in their legends and
+ghost-stories. But in Holland activity destroys, in Germany indolence
+nourishes, romance.
+
+They stayed a day or two at Rotterdam, and then proceeded up the Rhine
+to Gorcum. The banks were flat and tame, and nothing could be less
+impressive of its native majesty than this part of the course of the
+great river.
+
+"I never felt before," whispered Gertrude, tenderly, "how much there
+was of consolation in your presence; for here I am at last on the
+Rhine,--the blue Rhine, and how disappointed I should be if you were not
+by my side!"
+
+"But, my Gertrude, you must wait till we have passed Cologne, before the
+_glories_ of the Rhine burst upon you."
+
+"It reverses life, my child," said the moralizing Vane; "and the
+stream flows through dulness at first, reserving its poetry for our
+perseverance."
+
+"I will not allow your doctrine," said Trevylyan, as the ambitious
+ardour of his native disposition stirred within him. "Life has
+always action; it is our own fault if it ever be dull: youth has its
+enterprise, manhood its schemes; and even if infirmity creep upon age,
+the mind, the mind still triumphs over the mortal clay, and in the quiet
+hermitage, among books, and from thoughts, keeps the great wheel within
+everlastingly in motion. No, the better class of spirits have always an
+antidote to the insipidity of a common career, they have ever energy at
+will--"
+
+"And never happiness!" answered Vane, after a pause, as he gazed on the
+proud countenance of Trevylyan, with that kind of calm, half-pitying
+interest which belonged to a character deeply imbued with the philosophy
+of a sad experience acting upon an unimpassioned heart. "And in truth,
+Trevylyan, it would please me if I could but teach you the folly of
+preferring the exercise of that energy of which you speak to the golden
+luxuries of REST. What ambition can ever bring an adequate reward? Not,
+surely, the ambition of letters, the desire of intellectual renown!"
+
+"True," said Trevylyan, quietly; "that dream I have long renounced;
+there is nothing palpable in literary fame,--it scarcely perhaps soothes
+the vain, it assuredly chafes the proud. In my earlier years I attempted
+some works which gained what the world, perhaps rightly, deemed a
+sufficient need of reputation; yet it was not sufficient to recompense
+myself for the fresh hours I had consumed, for the sacrifices of
+pleasure I had made. The subtle aims that had inspired me were not
+perceived; the thoughts that had seemed new and beautiful to me fell
+flat and lustreless on the soul of others. If I was approved, it
+was often for what I condemned myself; and I found that the trite
+commonplace and the false wit charmed, while the truth fatigued, and
+the enthusiasm revolted. For men of that genius to which I make no
+pretension, who have dwelt apart in the obscurity of their own thoughts,
+gazing upon stars that shine not for the dull sleepers of the world, it
+must be a keen sting to find the product of their labour confounded
+with a class, and to be mingled up in men's judgment with the faults
+or merits of a tribe. Every great genius must deem himself original
+and alone in his conceptions. It is not enough for him that these
+conceptions should be approved as good, unless they are admitted as
+inventive, if they mix him with the herd he has shunned, not separate
+him in fame as he has been separated in soul. Some Frenchman, the oracle
+of his circle, said of the poet of the 'Phedre,' 'Racine and the other
+imitators of Corneille;' and Racine, in his wrath, nearly forswore
+tragedy forever. It is in vain to tell the author that the public is the
+judge of his works. The author believes himself above the public, or he
+would never have written; and," continued Trevylyan, with enthusiasm,
+"he _is_ above them; their fiat may crush his glory, but never his
+self-esteem. He stands alone and haughty amidst the wrecks of the temple
+he imagined he had raised 'To THE FUTURE,' and retaliates neglect with
+scorn. But is this, the life of scorn, a pleasurable state of existence?
+Is it one to be cherished? Does even the moment of fame counterbalance
+the years of mortification? And what is there in literary fame itself
+present and palpable to its heir? His work is a pebble thrown into
+the deep; the stir lasts for a moment, and the wave closes up, to be
+susceptible no more to the same impression. The circle may widen to
+other lands and other ages, but around _him_ it is weak and faint. The
+trifles of the day, the low politics, the base intrigues, occupy the
+tongue, and fill the thought of his contemporaries. He is less known
+than a mountebank, or a new dancer; his glory comes not home to him; it
+brings no present, no perpetual reward, like the applauses that wait the
+actor, or the actor-like murmur of the senate; and this, which vexes,
+also lowers him; his noble nature begins to nourish the base vices of
+jealousy, and the unwillingness to admire. Goldsmith is forgotten in the
+presence of a puppet; he feels it, and is mean; he expresses it, and
+is ludicrous. It is well to say that great minds will not stoop to
+jealousy; in the greatest minds, it is most frequent.* Few authors are
+ever so aware of the admiration they excite as to afford to be generous;
+and this melancholy truth revolts us with our own ambition. Shall we be
+demigods in our closets at the price of sinking below mortality in the
+world? No! it was from this deep sentiment of the unrealness of literary
+fame, of dissatisfaction at the fruits it produced, of fear for the
+meanness it engendered, that I resigned betimes all love for its career;
+and if, by the restless desire that haunts men who think much to write
+ever, I should be urged hereafter to literature, I will sternly teach
+myself to persevere in the indifference to its fame."
+
+  * See the long list of names furnished by Disraeli, in that most
+    exquisite work, "The Literary Character," vol. ii. p. 75.  Plato,
+    Xenophon, Chaucer, Corneille, Voltaire, Dryden, the Caracci,
+    Domenico Venetiano, murdered by his envious friend, and the gentle
+    Castillo fainting away at the genius of Murillo.
+
+"You say as I would say," answered Vane, with his tranquil smile; "and
+your experience corroborates my theory. Ambition, then, is not the root
+of happiness. Why more in action than in letters?"
+
+"Because," said Trevylyan, "in action we commonly gain in our life all
+the honour we deserve: the public judge of men better and more rapidly
+than of books. And he who takes to himself in action a high and pure
+ambition, associates it with so many objects, that, unlike literature,
+the failure of one is balanced by the success of the other. He, the
+creator of deeds, not resembling the creator of books, stands not alone;
+he is eminently social; he has many comrades, and without their aid
+he could not accomplish his designs. This divides and mitigates the
+impatient jealousy against others. He works for a cause, and knows early
+that he cannot monopolize its whole glory; he shares what he is aware
+it is impossible to engross. Besides, action leaves him no time for
+brooding over disappointment. The author has consumed his youth in a
+work,--it fails in glory. Can he write another work? Bid him call back
+another youth! But in action, the labour of the mind is from day to day.
+A week replaces what a week has lost, and all the aspirant's fame is of
+the present. It is lipped by the Babel of the living world; he is
+ever on the stage, and the spectators are ever ready to applaud. Thus
+perpetually in the service of others self ceases to be his world; he has
+no leisure to brood over real or imaginary wrongs; the excitement whirls
+on the machine till it is worn out--"
+
+"And kicked aside," said Vane, "with the broken lumber of men's other
+tools, in the chamber of their son's forgetfulness. Your man of action
+lasts but for an hour; the man of letters lasts for ages."
+
+"We live not for ages," answered Trevylyan; "our life is on earth, and
+not in the grave."
+
+"But even grant," continued Vane--"and I for one will concede the
+point--that posthumous fame is not worth the living agonies that obtain
+it, how are you better off in your poor and vulgar career of action?
+Would you assist the rulers?--servility! The people?--folly! If you take
+the great philosophical view which the worshippers of the past rarely
+take, but which, unknown to them, is their sole excuse,--namely, that
+the changes which _may_ benefit the future unsettle the present; and
+that it is not the wisdom of practical legislation to risk the peace
+of our contemporaries in the hope of obtaining happiness for their
+posterity,--to what suspicions, to what charges are you exposed! You are
+deemed the foe of all liberal opinion, and you read your curses in the
+eyes of a nation. But take the side of the people. What caprice, what
+ingratitude! You have professed so much in theory, that you can never
+accomplish sufficient in practice. Moderation becomes a crime; to be
+prudent is to be perfidious. New demagogues, without temperance, because
+without principle, outstrip you in the moment of your greatest services.
+The public is the grave of a great man's deeds; it is never sated; its
+maw is eternally open; it perpetually craves for more. Where, in the
+history of the world, do you find the gratitude of a people? You find
+fervour, it is true, but not gratitude,--the fervour that exaggerates a
+benefit at one moment, but not the gratitude that remembers it the next
+year. Once disappoint them, and all your actions, all your sacrifices,
+are swept from their remembrance forever; they break the windows of the
+very house they have given you, and melt down their medals into bullets.
+Who serves man, ruler or peasant, serves the ungrateful; and all the
+ambitious are but types of a Wolsey or a De Witt."
+
+"And what," said Trevylyan, "consoles a man in the ills that flesh is
+heir to, in that state of obscure repose, that serene inactivity to
+which you would confine him? Is it not his conscience? Is it not his
+self-acquittal, or his self-approval?"
+
+"Doubtless," replied Vane.
+
+"Be it so," answered the high-souled Trevylyan; "the same consolation
+awaits us in action as in repose. We sedulously pursue what we deem to
+be true glory. We are maligned; but our soul acquits us. Could it do
+more in the scandal and the prejudice that assail us in private life?
+You are silent; but note how much deeper should be the comfort, how much
+loftier the self-esteem; for if calumny attack us in a wilful obscurity,
+what have we done to refute the calumny? How have we served our species?
+Have we 'scorned delight and loved laborious days'? Have we made the
+utmost of the 'talent' confided to our care? Have we done those
+good deeds to our race upon which we can retire,--an 'Estate of
+Beneficence,'--from the malice of the world, and feel that our deeds
+are our defenders? This is the consolation of virtuous actions; is it so
+of--even a virtuous--indolence?"
+
+"You speak as a preacher," said Vane,--"I merely as a calculator; you of
+virtue in affliction, I of a life in ease."
+
+"Well, then, if the consciousness of perpetual endeavour to advance our
+race be not alone happier than the life of ease, let us see what this
+vaunted ease really is. Tell me, is it not another name for _ennui_?
+This state of quiescence, this objectless, dreamless torpor, this
+transition _du lit a la table, de la table au lit_,--what more dreary
+and monotonous existence can you devise? Is it pleasure in this
+inglorious existence to think that you are serving pleasure? Is it
+freedom to be the slave to self? For I hold," continued Trevylyan,
+"that this jargon of 'consulting happiness,' this cant of living for
+ourselves, is but a mean as well as a false philosophy. Why this eternal
+reference to self? Is self alone to be consulted? Is even our happiness,
+did it truly consist in repose, really the great end of life? I doubt if
+we cannot ascend higher. I doubt if we cannot say with a great moralist,
+'If virtue be not estimable in itself, we can see nothing estimable in
+following it for the sake of a bargain.' But, in fact, repose is the
+poorest of all delusions; the very act of recurring to self brings about
+us all those ills of self from which, in the turmoil of the world, we
+can escape. We become hypochondriacs. Our very health grows an object
+of painful possession. We are so desirous to be well (for what is
+retirement without health?) that we are ever fancying ourselves ill;
+and, like the man in the 'Spectator,' we weigh ourselves daily, and live
+but by grains and scruples. Retirement is happy only for the poet, for
+to him it is _not_ retirement. He secedes from one world but to gain
+another, and he finds not _ennui_ in seclusion: why? Not because
+seclusion hath _repose_, but because it hath _occupation_. In one word,
+then, I say of action and of indolence, grant the same ills to both, and
+to action there is the readier escape or the nobler consolation."
+
+Vane shrugged his shoulders. "Ah, my dear friend," said he, tapping his
+snuff-box with benevolent superiority, "you are much younger than I am!"
+
+But these conversations, which Trevylyan and Vane often held
+together, dull as I fear this specimen must seem to the reader, had an
+inexpressible charm for Gertrude. She loved the lofty and generous vein
+of philosophy which Trevylyan embraced, and which, while it suited his
+ardent nature, contrasted a demeanour commonly hard and cold to all
+but herself. And young and tender as she was, his ambition infused its
+spirit into her fine imagination, and that passion for enterprise which
+belongs inseparably to romance. She loved to muse over his future lot,
+and in fancy to share its toils and to exult in its triumphs. And
+if sometimes she asked herself whether a career of action might not
+estrange him from her, she had but to turn her gaze upon his watchful
+eye,--and lo, he was by her side or at her feet!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI. GORCUM.--THE TOUR OF THE VIRTUES: A PHILOSOPHER'S TALE.
+
+IT was a bright and cheery morning as they glided by Gorcum. The boats
+pulling to the shore full of fishermen and peasants in their national
+costume; the breeze freshly rippling the waters; the lightness of the
+blue sky; the loud and laughing voices from the boats,--all contributed
+to raise the spirit, and fill it with that indescribable gladness which
+is the physical sense of life.
+
+The tower of the church, with its long windows and its round dial, rose
+against the clear sky; and on a bench under a green bush facing the
+water sat a jolly Hollander, refreshing the breezes with the fumes of
+his national weed.
+
+
+
+"How little it requires to make a journey pleasant, when the companions
+are our friends!" said Gertrude, as they sailed along. "Nothing can be
+duller than these banks, nothing more delightful than this voyage."
+
+"Yet what tries the affections of people for each other so severely as
+a journey together?" said Vane. "That perpetual companionship from which
+there is no escaping; that confinement, in all our moments of ill-humour
+and listlessness, with persons who want us to look amused--ah, it is a
+severe ordeal for friendship to pass through! A post-chaise must have
+jolted many an intimacy to death."
+
+"You speak feelingly, dear father," said Gertrude, laughing; "and, I
+suspect, with a slight desire to be sarcastic upon us. Yet, seriously,
+I should think that travel must be like life, and that good persons must
+be always agreeable companions to each other."
+
+"Good persons, my Gertrude!" answered Vane, with a smile. "Alas! I
+fear the good weary each other quite as much as the bad. What say
+you, Trevylyan,--would Virtue be a pleasant companion from Paris
+to Petersburg? Ah, I see you intend to be on Gertrude's side of the
+question. Well now, if I tell you a story, since stories are so much the
+fashion with you, in which you shall find that the Virtues themselves
+actually made the experiment of a tour, will you promise to attend to
+the moral?"
+
+"Oh, dear father, anything for a story," cried Gertrude; "especially
+from you, who have not told us one all the way. Come, listen, Albert;
+nay, listen to your new rival."
+
+And, pleased to see the vivacity of the invalid, Vane began as
+follows:--
+
+
+
+                      THE TOUR OF THE VIRTUES:
+
+                       A PHILOSOPHER'S TALE.
+
+ONCE upon a time, several of the Virtues, weary of living forever with
+the Bishop of Norwich, resolved to make a little excursion; accordingly,
+though they knew everything on earth was very ill prepared to receive
+them, they thought they might safely venture on a tour from Westminster
+Bridge to Richmond. The day was fine, the wind in their favour, and as
+to entertainment,--why, there seemed, according to Gertrude, to be no
+possibility of any disagreement among the Virtues.
+
+They took a boat at Westminster stairs; and just as they were about to
+push off, a poor woman, all in rags, with a child in her arms, implored
+their compassion. Charity put her hand into her reticule and took out
+a shilling. Justice, turning round to look after the luggage, saw the
+folly which Charity was about to commit. "Heavens!" cried Justice,
+seizing poor Charity by the arm, "what are you doing? Have you never
+read Political Economy? Don't you know that indiscriminate almsgiving
+is only the encouragement to Idleness, the mother of Vice? You a Virtue,
+indeed! I'm ashamed of you. Get along with you, good woman;--yet stay,
+there is a ticket for soup at the Mendicity Society; they'll see if
+you're a proper object of compassion." But Charity is quicker than
+Justice, and slipping her hand behind her, the poor woman got the
+shilling and the ticket for soup too. Economy and Generosity saw the
+double gift. "What waste!" cried Economy, frowning; "what! a ticket and
+a shilling? _either_ would have sufficed."
+
+"Either!" said Generosity, "fie! Charity should have given the poor
+creature half-a-crown, and Justice a dozen tickets!" So the next ten
+minutes were consumed in a quarrel between the four Virtues, which would
+have lasted all the way to Richmond, if Courage had not advised them to
+get on shore and fight it out. Upon this, the Virtues suddenly perceived
+they had a little forgotten themselves, and Generosity offering the
+first apology, they made it up, and went on very agreeably for the next
+mile or two.
+
+The day now grew a little overcast, and a shower seemed at hand.
+Prudence, who had on a new bonnet, suggested the propriety of putting to
+shore for half an hour; Courage was for braving the rain; but, as most
+of the Virtues are ladies, Prudence carried it. Just as they were about
+to land, another boat cut in before them very uncivilly, and gave theirs
+such a shake that Charity was all but overboard. The company on board
+the uncivil boat, who evidently thought the Virtues extremely low
+persons, for they had nothing very fashionable about their exterior,
+burst out laughing at Charity's discomposure, especially as a
+large basket full of buns, which Charity carried with her for any
+hungry-looking children she might encounter at Richmond, fell pounce
+into the water. Courage was all on fire; he twisted his mustache, and
+would have made an onset on the enemy, if, to his great indignation,
+Meekness had not forestalled him, by stepping mildly into the hostile
+boat and offering both cheeks to the foe. This was too much even for the
+incivility of the boatmen; they made their excuses to the Virtues, and
+Courage, who is no bully, thought himself bound discontentedly to accept
+them. But oh! if you had seen how Courage used Meekness afterwards, you
+could not have believed it possible that one Virtue could be so enraged
+with another. This quarrel between the two threw a damp on the party;
+and they proceeded on their voyage, when the shower was over, with
+anything but cordiality. I spare you the little squabbles that took
+place in the general conversation,--how Economy found fault with all the
+villas by the way, and Temperance expressed becoming indignation at the
+luxuries of the City barge. They arrived at Richmond, and Temperance
+was appointed to order the dinner; meanwhile Hospitality, walking in the
+garden, fell in with a large party of Irishmen, and asked them to join
+the repast.
+
+Imagine the long faces of Economy and Prudence, when they saw the
+addition to the company! Hospitality was all spirits; he rubbed his
+hands and called for champagne with the tone of a younger brother.
+Temperance soon grew scandalized, and Modesty herself coloured at some
+of the jokes; but Hospitality, who was now half seas over, called the
+one a milksop, and swore at the other as a prude. Away went the hours;
+it was time to return, and they made down to the water-side, thoroughly
+out of temper with one another, Economy and Generosity quarrelling all
+the way about the bill and the waiters. To make up the sum of their
+mortification, they passed a boat where all the company were in the best
+possible spirits, laughing and whooping like mad; and discovered
+these jolly companions to be two or three agreeable Vices, who had put
+themselves under the management of Good Temper.
+
+"So you see, Gertrude, that even the Virtues may fall at loggerheads
+with each other, and pass a very sad time of it, if they happen to be
+of opposite dispositions, and have forgotten to take Good Temper with
+them."
+
+"Ah," said Gertrude, "but you have overloaded your boat; too many
+Virtues might contradict one another, but not a few."
+
+"Voila ce que veux dire," said Vane; "but listen to the sequel of my
+tale, which now takes a new moral."
+
+At the end of the voyage, and after a long, sulky silence, Prudence
+said, with a thoughtful air, "My dear friends, I have been thinking that
+as long as we keep so entirely together, never mixing with the rest of
+the world, we shall waste our lives in quarrelling amongst ourselves and
+run the risk of being still less liked and sought after than we already
+are. You know that we are none of us popular; every one is quite
+contented to see us represented in a vaudeville, or described in an
+essay. Charity, indeed, has her name often taken in vain at a bazaar
+or a subscription; and the miser as often talks of the duty he owes to
+_me_, when he sends the stranger from his door or his grandson to jail:
+but still we only resemble so many wild beasts, whom everybody likes
+to see but nobody cares to possess. Now, I propose that we should all
+separate and take up our abode with some mortal or other for a year,
+with the power of changing at the end of that time should we not feel
+ourselves comfortable,--that is, should we not find that we do all the
+good we intend; let us try the experiment, and on this day twelvemonths
+let us all meet under the largest oak in Windsor Forest, and recount
+what has befallen us." Prudence ceased, as she always does when she has
+said enough; and, delighted at the project, the Virtues agreed to
+adopt it on the spot. They were enchanted at the idea of setting up for
+themselves, and each not doubting his or her success,--for Economy in
+her heart thought Generosity no Virtue at all, and Meekness looked on
+Courage as little better than a heathen.
+
+Generosity, being the most eager and active of all the Virtues, set off
+first on his journey. Justice followed, and kept up with him, though at
+a more even pace. Charity never heard a sigh, or saw a squalid face, but
+she stayed to cheer and console the sufferer,--a kindness which somewhat
+retarded her progress.
+
+Courage espied a travelling carriage, with a man and his wife in it
+quarrelling most conjugally, and he civilly begged he might be permitted
+to occupy the vacant seat opposite the lady. Economy still lingered,
+inquiring for the cheapest inns. Poor Modesty looked round and sighed,
+on finding herself so near to London, where she was almost wholly
+unknown; but resolved to bend her course thither for two reasons:
+first, for the novelty of the thing; and, secondly, not liking to expose
+herself to any risks by a journey on the Continent. Prudence, though
+the first to project, was the last to execute; and therefore resolved to
+remain where she was for that night, and take daylight for her travels.
+
+The year rolled on, and the Virtues, punctual to the appointment, met
+under the oak-tree; they all came nearly at the same time, excepting
+Economy, who had got into a return post-chaise, the horses to which,
+having been forty miles in the course of the morning, had foundered by
+the way, and retarded her journey till night set in. The Virtues looked
+sad and sorrowful, as people are wont to do after a long and fruitless
+journey; and, somehow or other, such was the wearing effect of their
+intercourse with the world, that they appeared wonderfully diminished in
+size.
+
+"Ah, my dear Generosity," said Prudence, with a sigh, "as you were
+the first to set out on your travels, pray let us hear your adventures
+first."
+
+"You must know, my dear sisters," said Generosity, "that I had not gone
+many miles from you before I came to a small country town, in which a
+marching regiment was quartered, and at an open window I beheld, leaning
+over a gentleman's chair, the most beautiful creature imagination ever
+pictured; her eyes shone out like two suns of perfect happiness, and she
+was almost cheerful enough to have passed for Good Temper herself. The
+gentleman over whose chair she leaned was her husband; they had been
+married six weeks; he was a lieutenant with one hundred pounds a
+year besides his pay. Greatly affected by their poverty, I instantly
+determined, without a second thought, to ensconce myself in the heart
+of this charming girl. During the first hour in my new residence I made
+many wise reflections such as--that Love never was so perfect as when
+accompanied by Poverty; what a vulgar error it was to call the unmarried
+state 'Single _Blessedness_;' how wrong it was of us Virtues never to
+have tried the marriage bond; and what a falsehood it was to say that
+husbands neglected their wives, for never was there anything in nature
+so devoted as the love of a husband--six weeks married!
+
+"The next morning, before breakfast, as the charming Fanny was
+waiting for her husband, who had not yet finished his toilet, a poor,
+wretched-looking object appeared at the window, tearing her hair and
+wringing her hands; her husband had that morning been dragged to prison,
+and her seven children had fought for the last mouldy crust. Prompted
+by me, Fanny, without inquiring further into the matter, drew from her
+silken purse a five-pound note, and gave it to the beggar, who departed
+more amazed than grateful. Soon after, the lieutenant appeared. 'What
+the devil, another bill!' muttered he, as he tore the yellow wafer from
+a large, square, folded, bluish piece of paper. 'Oh, ah! confound the
+fellow, _he_ must be paid. I must trouble you, Fanny, for fifteen pounds
+to pay this saddler's bill.'
+
+"'Fifteen pounds, love?' stammered Fanny, blushing.
+
+"'Yes, dearest, the fifteen pounds I gave you yesterday.'
+
+"'I have only ten pounds,' said Fanny, hesitatingly; 'for such a poor,
+wretched-looking creature was here just now, that I was obliged to give
+her five pounds.'
+
+"'Five pounds? good Heavens!' exclaimed the astonished husband; 'I shall
+have no more money this three weeks.' He frowned, he bit his lips, nay,
+he even wrung his hands, and walked up and down the room; worse still,
+he broke forth with--'Surely, madam, you did not suppose, when you
+married a lieutenant in a marching regiment, that he could afford to
+indulge in the whim of giving five pounds to every mendicant who held
+out her hand to you? You did not, I say, madam, imagine'--but the
+bridegroom was interrupted by the convulsive sobs of his wife: it was
+their first quarrel, they were but six weeks married; he looked at
+her for one moment sternly, the next he was at her feet. 'Forgive me,
+dearest Fanny,--forgive me, for I cannot forgive myself. I was too great
+a wretch to say what I did; and do believe, my own Fanny, that while
+I may be too poor to indulge you in it, I do from my heart admire so
+noble, so disinterested, a generosity.' Not a little proud did I feel
+to have been the cause of this exemplary husband's admiration for his
+amiable wife, and sincerely did I rejoice at having taken up my abode
+with these _poor_ people. But not to tire you, my dear sisters, with the
+minutiae of detail, I shall briefly say that things did not long remain
+in this delightful position; for before many months had elapsed, poor
+Fanny had to bear with her husband's increased and more frequent
+storms of passion, unfollowed by any halcyon and honeymoon suings for
+forgiveness: for at my instigation every shilling went; and when there
+were no more to go, her trinkets and even her clothes followed. The
+lieutenant became a complete brute, and even allowed his unbridled
+tongue to call me--me, sisters, _me_!--'heartless Extravagance.' His
+despicable brother-officers and their gossiping wives were no better;
+for they did nothing but animadvert upon my Fanny's ostentation and
+absurdity, for by such names had they the impertinence to call _me_.
+Thus grieved to the soul to find myself the cause of all poor Fanny's
+misfortunes, I resolved at the end of the year to leave her, being
+thoroughly convinced that, however amiable and praiseworthy I might be
+in myself, I was totally unfit to be bosom friend and adviser to the
+wife of a lieutenant in a marching regiment, with only one hundred
+pounds a year besides his pay."
+
+The Virtues groaned their sympathy with the unfortunate Fanny; and
+Prudence, turning to Justice, said, "I long to hear what you have been
+doing, for I am certain you cannot have occasioned harm to any one."
+
+Justice shook her head and said: "Alas! I find that there are times and
+places when even I do better not to appear, as a short account of my
+adventures will prove to you. No sooner had I left you than I instantly
+repaired to India, and took up my abode with a Brahmin. I was much
+shocked by the dreadful inequalities of condition that reigned in
+the several castes, and I longed to relieve the poor Pariah from his
+ignominious destiny; accordingly I set seriously to work on reform.
+I insisted upon the iniquity of abandoning men from their birth to an
+irremediable state of contempt, from which no virtue could exalt them.
+The Brahmins looked upon my Brahmin with ineffable horror. They called
+_me_ the most wicked of vices; they saw no distinction between Justice
+and Atheism. I uprooted their society--that was sufficient crime. But
+the worst was, that the Pariahs themselves regarded me with suspicion;
+they thought it unnatural in a Brahmin to care for a Pariah! And one
+called me 'Madness,' another, 'Ambition,' and a third, 'The Desire to
+innovate.' My poor Brahmin led a miserable life of it; when one day,
+after observing, at my dictation, that he thought a Pariah's life as
+much entitled to respect as a cow's, he was hurried away by the priests
+and secretly broiled on the altar as a fitting reward for his sacrilege.
+I fled hither in great tribulation, persuaded that in some countries
+even Justice may do harm."
+
+"As for me," said Charity, not waiting to be asked, "I grieve to say
+that I was silly enough to take up my abode with an old lady in Dublin,
+who never knew what discretion was, and always acted from impulse;
+my instigation was irresistible, and the money she gave in her drives
+through the suburbs of Dublin was so lavishly spent that it kept all
+the rascals of the city in idleness and whiskey. I found, to my great
+horror, that I was a main cause of a terrible epidemic, and that to give
+alms without discretion was to spread poverty without help. I left the
+city when my year was out, and as ill-luck would have it, just at the
+time when I was most wanted."
+
+"And oh," cried Hospitality, "I went to Ireland also. I fixed my abode
+with a squireen; I ruined him in a year, and only left him because he
+had no longer a hovel to keep me in."
+
+"As for myself," said Temperance, "I entered the breast of an English
+legislator, and he brought in a bill against ale-houses; the consequence
+was, that the labourers took to gin; and I have been forced to confess
+that Temperance may be too zealous when she dictates too vehemently to
+others."
+
+"Well," said Courage, keeping more in the background than he had ever
+done before, and looking rather ashamed of himself, "that travelling
+carriage I got into belonged to a German general and his wife, who were
+returning to their own country. Growing very cold as we proceeded, she
+wrapped me up in a polonaise; but the cold increasing, I inadvertently
+crept into her bosom. Once there I could not get out, and from
+thenceforward the poor general had considerably the worst of it.
+She became so provoking that I wondered how he could refrain from an
+explosion. To do him justice, he did at last threaten to get out of the
+carriage; upon which, roused by me, she collared him--and conquered.
+When he got to his own district, things grew worse, for if any
+_aide-de-camp_ offended her she insisted that he might be publicly
+reprimanded; and should the poor general refuse she would with her own
+hands confer a caning upon the delinquent. The additional force she had
+gained in me was too much odds against the poor general, and he died of
+a broken heart, six months after my _liaison_ with his wife. She after
+this became so dreaded and detested, that a conspiracy was formed to
+poison her; this daunted even me, so I left her without delay,--_et me
+voici_!"
+
+"Humph," said Meekness, with an air of triumph, "I, at least, have been
+more successful than you. On seeing much in the papers of the cruelties
+practised by the Turks on the Greeks, I thought my presence would enable
+the poor sufferers to bear their misfortunes calmly. I went to Greece,
+then, at a moment when a well-planned and practicable scheme of
+emancipating themselves from the Turkish yoke was arousing their youth.
+Without confining myself to one individual, I flitted from breast
+to breast; I meekened the whole nation; my remonstrances against the
+insurrection succeeded, and I had the satisfaction of leaving a
+whole people ready to be killed or strangled with the most Christian
+resignation in the world."
+
+The Virtues, who had been a little cheered by the opening
+self-complacence of Meekness, would not, to her great astonishment,
+allow that she had succeeded a whit more happily than her sisters, and
+called next upon Modesty for her confession.
+
+"You know," said that amiable young lady, "that I went to London in
+search of a situation. I spent three months of the twelve in going from
+house to house, but I could not get a single person to receive me.
+The ladies declared that they never saw so old-fashioned a gawkey, and
+civilly recommended me to their abigails; the abigails turned me
+round with a stare, and then pushed me down to the kitchen and the fat
+scullion-maids, who assured me that, 'in the respectable families they
+had the honour to live in, they had never even heard of my name.' One
+young housemaid, just from the country, did indeed receive me with some
+sort of civility; but she very soon lost me in the servants' hall. I
+now took refuge with the other sex, as the least uncourteous. I was
+fortunate enough to find a young gentleman of remarkable talents, who
+welcomed me with open arms. He was full of learning, gentleness, and
+honesty. I had only one rival,--Ambition. We both contended for an
+absolute empire over him. Whatever Ambition suggested, I damped. Did
+Ambition urge him to begin a book, I persuaded him it was not worth
+publication. Did he get up, full of knowledge, and instigated by my
+rival, to make a speech (for he was in parliament), I shocked him with
+the sense of his assurance, I made his voice droop and his accents
+falter. At last, with an indignant sigh, my rival left him; he retired
+into the country, took orders, and renounced a career he had fondly
+hoped would be serviceable to others; but finding I did not suffice for
+his happiness, and piqued at his melancholy, I left him before the end
+of the year, and he has since taken to drinking!"
+
+The eyes of the Virtues were all turned to Prudence. She was their last
+hope. "I am just where I set out," said that discreet Virtue; "I have
+done neither good nor harm. To avoid temptation I went and lived with a
+hermit to whom I soon found that I could be of no use beyond warning him
+not to overboil his peas and lentils, not to leave his door open when
+a storm threatened, and not to fill his pitcher too full at the
+neighbouring spring. I am thus the only one of you that never did harm;
+but only because I am the only one of you that never had an opportunity
+of doing it! In a word," continued Prudence, thoughtfully,--"in a word,
+my friends, circumstances are necessary to the Virtues themselves. Had,
+for instance, Economy changed with Generosity, and gone to the poor
+lieutenant's wife, and had I lodged with the Irish squireen instead of
+Hospitality, what misfortunes would have been saved to both! Alas! I
+perceive we lose all our efficacy when we are misplaced; and _then_,
+though in reality Virtues, we operate as Vices. Circumstances must be
+favourable to our exertions, and harmonious with our nature; and we
+lose our very divinity unless Wisdom direct our footsteps to the home we
+should inhabit and the dispositions we should govern."
+
+The story was ended, and the travellers began to dispute about its
+moral. Here let us leave them.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII. COLOGNE.--THE TRACES OF THE ROMAN YOKE.--THE CHURCH OF ST.
+MARIA.--TREVYLYAN'S REFLECTIONS ON THE MONASTIC LIFE.--THE TOMB OF THE
+THREE KINGS.--AN EVENING EXCURSION ON THE RHINE.
+
+ROME--magnificent Rome! wherever the pilgrim wends, the traces of thy
+dominion greet his eyes. Still in the heart of the bold German race is
+graven the print of the eagle's claws; and amidst the haunted regions of
+the Rhine we pause to wonder at the great monuments of the Italian yoke.
+
+At Cologne our travellers rested for some days. They were in the city
+to which the camp of Marcus Agrippa had given birth; that spot had
+resounded with the armed tread of the legions of Trajan. In that city,
+Vitellius, Sylvanus, were proclaimed emperors. By that church did the
+latter receive his death.
+
+As they passed round the door they saw some peasants loitering on the
+sacred ground; and when they noted the delicate cheek of Gertrude they
+uttered their salutations with more than common respect. Where they then
+were the building swept round in a circular form; and at its base it is
+supposed by tradition to retain something of the ancient Roman masonry.
+Just before them rose the spire of a plain and unadorned church,
+singularly contrasting the pomp of the old with the simplicity of the
+innovating creed.
+
+The church of St. Maria occupies the site of the Roman Capitol, and the
+place retains the Roman name; and still something in the aspect of the
+people betrays the hereditary blood.
+
+Gertrude, whose nature was strongly impressed with _the venerating
+character_, was fond of visiting the old Gothic churches, which, with so
+eloquent a moral, unite the living with the dead.
+
+"Pause for a moment," said Trevylyan, before they entered the church of
+St. Maria. "What recollections crowd upon us! On the site of the Roman
+Capitol a Christian church and a convent are erected! By whom? The
+mother of Charles Martel,--the Conqueror of the Saracen, the arch-hero
+of Christendom itself! And to these scenes and calm retreats, to the
+cloisters of the convent once belonging to this church, fled the bruised
+spirit of a royal sufferer,-the victim of Richelieu,--the unfortunate
+and ambitious Mary de Medicis. Alas! the cell and the convent are but a
+vain emblem of that desire to fly to God which belongs to Distress; the
+solitude soothes, but the monotony recalls, regret. And for my own part
+in my frequent tours through Catholic countries, I never saw the still
+walls in which monastic vanity hoped to shut out the world, but a
+melancholy came over me! What hearts at war with themselves! what
+unceasing regrets! what pinings after the past! what long and beautiful
+years devoted to a moral grave, by a momentary rashness, an impulse, a
+disappointment! But in these churches the lesson is more impressive and
+less sad. The weary heart has ceased to ache; the burning pulses are
+still; the troubled spirit has flown to the only rest which is not a
+deceit. Power and love, hope and fear, avarice, ambition,--they are
+quenched at last! Death is the only monastery, the tomb is the only
+cell."
+
+"Your passion is ever for active life," said Gertrude. "You allow no
+charm to solitude, and contemplation to you seems torture. If any great
+sorrow ever come upon you, you will never retire to seclusion as its
+balm. You will plunge into the world, and lose your individual existence
+in the universal rush of life."
+
+"Ah, talk not of sorrow!" said Trevylyan, wildly. "Let us enter the
+church."
+
+They went afterwards to the celebrated cathedral, which is considered
+one of the noblest of the architectural triumphs of Germany; but it is
+yet more worthy of notice from the Pilgrim of Romance than the searcher
+after antiquity, for here, behind the grand altar, is the Tomb of the
+Three Kings of Cologne,--the three worshippers whom tradition humbled to
+our Saviour. Legend is rife with a thousand tales of the relics of this
+tomb. The Three Kings of Cologne are the tutelary names of that golden
+superstition which has often more votaries than the religion itself from
+which it springs and to Gertrude the simple story of Lucille sufficed
+to make her for the moment credulous of the sanctity of the spot. Behind
+the tomb three Gothic windows cast their "dim, religious light" over the
+tessellated pavement and along the Ionic pillars. They found some of
+the more credulous believers in the authenticity of the relics kneeling
+before the tomb, and they arrested their steps, fearful to disturb the
+superstition which is never without something of sanctity when contented
+with prayer and forgetful of persecution. The bones of the Magi are
+still supposed to consecrate the tomb, and on the higher part of
+the monument the artist has delineated their adoration to the infant
+Saviour.
+
+That evening came on with a still and tranquil beauty, and as the sun
+hastened to its close they launched their boat for an hour or two's
+excursion upon the Rhine. Gertrude was in that happy mood when the quiet
+of nature is enjoyed like a bath for the soul, and the presence of
+him she so idolized deepened that stillness into a more delicious and
+subduing calm. Little did she dream as the boat glided over the water,
+and the towers of Cologne rose in the blue air of evening, how few were
+those hours that divided her from the tomb! But, in looking back to the
+life of one we have loved, how dear is the thought that the latter days
+were the days of light, that the cloud never chilled the beauty of the
+setting sun, and that if the years of existence were brief, all that
+existence has most tender, most sacred, was crowded into that space!
+Nothing dark, then, or bitter, rests with our remembrance of the lost:
+_we_ are the mourners, but pity is not for the mourned,--our grief is
+purely selfish; when we turn to its object, the hues of happiness are
+round it, and that very love which is the parent of our woe was the
+consolation, the triumph, of the departed!
+
+The majestic Rhine was calm as a lake; the splashing of the oar only
+broke the stillness, and after a long pause in their conversation,
+Gertrude, putting her hand on Trevylyan's arm, reminded him of a
+promised story: for he too had moods of abstraction, from which, in her
+turn, she loved to lure him; and his voice to her had become a sort of
+want.
+
+"Let it be," said she, "a tale suited to the hour; no fierce
+tradition,--nay, no grotesque fable, but of the tenderer dye of
+superstition. Let it be of love, of woman's love,--of the love that
+defies the grave: for surely even after death it lives; and heaven would
+scarcely be heaven if memory were banished from its blessings."
+
+"I recollect," said Trevylyan, after a slight pause, "a short German
+legend, the simplicity of which touched me much when I heard it; but,"
+added he, with a slight smile, "so much more faithful appears in the
+legend the love of the woman than that of the man, that _I_ at least
+ought scarcely to recite it."
+
+"Nay," said Gertrude, tenderly, "the fault of the inconstant only
+heightens our gratitude to the faithful."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII. THE SOUL IN PURGATORY; OR LOVE STRONGER THAN DEATH.
+
+THE angels strung their harps in heaven, and their music went up like
+a stream of odours to the pavilions of the Most High; but the harp
+of Seralim was sweeter than that of his fellows, and the Voice of
+the Invisible One (for the angels themselves know not the glories of
+Jehovah--only far in the depths of heaven they see one Unsleeping Eye
+watching forever over Creation) was heard saying,--
+
+"Ask a gift for the love that burns in thy song, and it shall be given
+thee." And Seralim answered,--
+
+"There is in that place which men call Purgatory, and which is the
+escape from hell, but the painful porch of heaven, many souls that adore
+Thee, and yet are punished justly for their sins; grant me the boon to
+visit them at times, and solace their suffering by the hymns of the harp
+that is consecrated to Thee!"
+
+And the Voice answered,--
+
+"Thy prayer is heard, O gentlest of the angels! and it seems good to Him
+who chastises but from love. Go! Thou hast thy will."
+
+Then the angel sang the praises of God; and when the song was done he
+rose from his azure throne at the right hand of Gabriel, and, spreading
+his rainbow wings, he flew to that melancholy orb which, nearest to
+earth, echoes with the shrieks of souls that by torture become pure.
+There the unhappy ones see from afar the bright courts they are
+hereafter to obtain, and the shapes of glorious beings, who, fresh from
+these Fountains of Immortality, walk amidst the gardens of Paradise,
+and feel that their happiness hath no morrow; and this thought consoles
+amidst their torments, and makes the true difference between Purgatory
+and Hell.
+
+Then the angel folded his wings, and entering the crystal gates, sat
+down upon a blasted rock and struck his divine lyre, and a peace fell
+over the wretched; the demon ceased to torture and the victim to wail.
+As sleep to the mourners of earth was the song of the angel to the
+souls of the purifying star: one only voice amidst the general stillness
+seemed not lulled by the angel; it was the voice of a woman, and it
+continued to cry out with a sharp cry,--
+
+"Oh, Adenheim, Adenheim! mourn not for the lost!"
+
+The angel struck chord after chord, till his most skilful melodies were
+exhausted; but still the solitary voice, unheeding--unconscious of--the
+sweetest harp of the angel choir, cried out,--
+
+"Oh, Adenheim, Adenheim! mourn not for the lost!"
+
+Then Seralim's interest was aroused, and approaching the spot whence the
+voice came, he saw the spirit of a young and beautiful girl chained to
+a rock, and the demons lying idly by. And Seralim said to the demons,
+"Doth the song lull ye thus to rest?"
+
+And they answered, "Her care for another is bitterer than all our
+torments; therefore are we idle."
+
+Then the angel approached the spirit, and said in a voice which stilled
+her cry--for in what state do we outlive sympathy?--"Wherefore, O
+daughter of earth, wherefore wailest thou with the same plaintive wail;
+and why doth the harp that soothes the most guilty of thy companions
+fail in its melody with thee?"
+
+"O radiant stranger," answered the poor spirit, "thou speakest to one
+who on earth loved God's creature more than God; therefore is she thus
+justly sentenced. But I know that my poor Adenheim mourns ceaselessly
+for me, and the thought of his sorrow is more intolerable to me than all
+that the demons can inflict."
+
+"And how knowest thou that he laments thee?" asked the angel.
+
+"Because I know with what agony I should have mourned for _him_,"
+replied the spirit, simply.
+
+The divine nature of the angel was touched; for love is the nature of
+the sons of heaven. "And how," said he, "can I minister to thy sorrow?"
+
+A transport seemed to agitate the spirit, and she lifted up her mistlike
+and impalpable arms, and cried,--
+
+"Give me--oh, give me to return to earth, but for one little hour,
+that I may visit my Adenheim; and that, concealing from him my present
+sufferings, I may comfort him in his own."
+
+"Alas!" said the angel, turning away his eyes,--for angels may not weep
+in the sight of others,--"I could, indeed, grant thee this boon, but
+thou knowest not the penalty. For the souls in Purgatory may return to
+Earth, but heavy is the sentence that awaits their return. In a word,
+for one hour on earth thou must add a thousand years to the torture of
+thy confinement here!"
+
+"Is that all?" cried the spirit. "Willingly then will I brave the doom.
+Ah, surely they love not in heaven, or thou wouldst know, O Celestial
+Visitant; that one hour of consolation to the one we love is worth a
+thousand ages of torture to ourselves! Let me comfort and convince my
+Adenheim; no matter what becomes of me."
+
+Then the angel looked on high, and he saw in far distant regions, which
+in that orb none else could discern, the rays that parted from the
+all-guarding Eye; and heard the VOICE of the Eternal One bidding him
+act as his pity whispered. He looked on the spirit, and her shadowy arms
+stretched pleadingly towards him; he uttered the word that loosens the
+bars of the gate of Purgatory; and lo, the spirit had re-entered the
+human world.
+
+It was night in the halls of the lord of Adenheim, and he sat at the
+head of his glittering board. Loud and long was the laugh, and merry
+the jest that echoed round; and the laugh and the jest of the lord of
+Adenheim were louder and merrier than all. And by his right side sat a
+beautiful lady; and ever and anon he turned from others to whisper soft
+vows in her ear.
+
+"And oh," said the bright dame of Falkenberg, "thy words what ladye can
+believe? Didst thou not utter the same oaths, and promise the same love,
+to Ida, the fair daughter of Loden, and now but three little months have
+closed upon her grave?"
+
+"By my halidom," quoth the young lord of Adenheim, "thou dost thy beauty
+marvellous injustice. Ida! Nay, thou mockest me; _I_ love the daughter
+of Loden! Why, how then should I be worthy thee? A few gay words, a few
+passing smiles,--behold all the love Adenheim ever bore to Ida. Was
+it my fault if the poor fool misconstrued such common courtesy? Nay,
+dearest lady, this heart is virgin to thee."
+
+"And what!" said the lady of Falkenberg, as she suffered the arm of
+Adenheim to encircle her slender waist, "didst thou not grieve for her
+loss?"
+
+"Why, verily, yes, for the first week; but in thy bright eyes I found
+ready consolation."
+
+At this moment, the lord of Adenheim thought he heard a deep sigh behind
+him; he turned, but saw nothing, save a slight mist that gradually faded
+away, and vanished in the distance. Where was the necessity for Ida to
+reveal herself?
+
+.......
+
+"And thou didst not, then, do thine errand to thy lover?" said Seralim,
+as the spirit of the wronged Ida returned to Purgatory.
+
+"Bid the demons recommence their torture," was poor Ida's answer.
+
+"And was it for this that thou added a thousand years to thy doom?"
+
+"Alas!" answered Ida, "after the single hour I have endured on Earth,
+there seems to be but little terrible in a thousand fresh years of
+Purgatory!"*
+
+  * This story is principally borrowed from a foreign soil.  It
+    seemed to the author worthy of being transferred to an English
+    one, although he fears that much of its singular beauty in the
+    original has been lost by the way.
+
+
+
+"What! is the story ended?" asked Gertrude.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Nay, surely the thousand years were not added to poor Ida's doom; and
+Seralim bore her back with him to Heaven?"
+
+"The legend saith no more. The writer was contented to show us the
+perpetuity of woman's love--"
+
+"And its reward," added Vane.
+
+"It was not _I_ who drew that last conclusion, Albert," whispered
+Gertrude.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX. THE SCENERY OF THE RHINE ANALOGOUS TO THE GERMAN LITERARY
+GENIUS.--THE DRACHENFELS.
+
+ON leaving Cologne, the stream winds round among banks that do not yet
+fulfil the promise of the Rhine; but they increase in interest as you
+leave Surdt and Godorf. The peculiar character of the river does not,
+however, really appear, until by degrees the Seven Mountains, and "THE
+CASTLED CRAG OF DRACHENFELS" above them all, break upon the eye. Around
+Nieder Cassel and Rheidt the vines lie thick and clustering; and, by the
+shore, you see from place to place the islands stretching their green
+length along, and breaking the exulting tide. Village rises upon
+village, and viewed from the distance as you sail, the pastoral errors
+that enamoured us of the village life crowd thick and fast upon us.
+So still do these hamlets seem, so sheltered from the passions of the
+world,--as if the passions were not like winds, only felt where they
+breathe, and invisible save by their effects! Leaping into the broad
+bosom of the Rhine come many a stream and rivulet upon either side.
+Spire upon spire rises and sinks as you sail on. Mountain and city,
+the solitary island, the castled steep, like the dreams of ambition,
+suddenly appear, proudly swell, and dimly fade away.
+
+"You begin now," said Trevylyan, "to understand the character of
+the German literature. The Rhine is an emblem of its luxuriance, its
+fertility, its romance. The best commentary to the German genius is a
+visit to the German scenery. The mighty gloom of the Hartz, the feudal
+towers that look over vines and deep valleys on the legendary Rhine;
+the gigantic remains of antique power, profusely scattered over plain,
+mount, and forest; the thousand mixed recollections that hallow the
+ground; the stately Roman, the stalwart Goth, the chivalry of the feudal
+age, and the dim brotherhood of the ideal world, have here alike their
+record and their remembrance. And over such scenes wanders the young
+German student. Instead of the pomp and luxury of the English traveller,
+the thousand devices to cheat the way, he has but his volume in his
+hand, his knapsack at his back. From such scenes he draws and hives
+all that various store which after years ripen to invention. Hence
+the florid mixture of the German muse,--the classic, the romantic, the
+contemplative, the philosophic, and the superstitious; each the result
+of actual meditation over different scenes; each the produce of separate
+but confused recollections. As the Rhine flows, so flows the national
+genius, by mountain and valley, the wildest solitude, the sudden spires
+of ancient cities, the mouldered castle, the stately monastery, the
+humble cot,--grandeur and homeliness, history and superstition, truth
+and fable, succeeding one another so as to blend into a whole.
+
+"But," added Trevylyan, a moment afterwards, "the Ideal is passing
+slowly away from the German mind; a spirit for the more active and the
+more material literature is springing up amongst them. The revolution
+of mind gathers on, preceding stormy events; and the memories that
+led their grandsires to contemplate will urge the youth of the next
+generation to dare and to act."*
+
+  * Is not this prediction already fulfilled?--1849.
+
+Thus conversing, they continued their voyage, with a fair wave and
+beneath a lucid sky.
+
+The vessel now glided beside the Seven Mountains and the Drachenfels.
+
+The sun, slowly setting, cast his yellow beams over the smooth waters.
+At the foot of the mountains lay a village deeply sequestered in shade;
+and above, the Ruin of the Drachenfels caught the richest beams of the
+sun. Yet thus alone, though lofty, the ray cheered not the gloom that
+hung over the giant rock: it stood on high, like some great name on
+which the light of glory may shine, but which is associated with a
+certain melancholy, from the solitude to which its very height above the
+level of the herd condemned its owner!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X. THE LEGEND OF ROLAND.--THE ADVENTURES OF NYMPHALIN ON THE
+ISLAND OF NONNEWERTH.--HER SONG.--THE DECAY OF THE FAIRY-FAITH IN
+ENGLAND.
+
+ON the shore opposite the Drachenfels stand the Ruins of
+Rolandseck,--they are the shattered crown of a lofty and perpendicular
+mountain, consecrated to the memory of the brave Roland; below, the
+trees of an island to which the lady of Roland retired, rise thick and
+verdant from the smooth tide.
+
+Nothing can exceed the eloquent and wild grandeur of the whole scene.
+That spot is the pride and beauty of the Rhine.
+
+The legend that consecrates the tower and the island is briefly told; it
+belongs to a class so common to the Romaunts of Germany. Roland goes to
+the wars. A false report of his death reaches his betrothed. She retires
+to the convent in the isle of Nonnewerth, and takes the irrevocable
+veil. Roland returns home, flushed with glory and hope, to find that
+the very fidelity of his affianced had placed an eternal barrier between
+them. He built the castle that bears his name, and which overlooks the
+monastery, and dwelt there till his death,--happy in the power at least
+to gaze, even to the last, upon those walls which held the treasure he
+had lost.
+
+The willows droop in mournful luxuriance along the island, and harmonize
+with the memory that, through the desert of a thousand years, love still
+keeps green and fresh. Nor hath it permitted even those additions of
+fiction which, like mosses, gather by time over the truth that they
+adorn, yet adorning conceal, to mar the simple tenderness of the legend.
+
+All was still in the island of Nonnewerth; the lights shone through the
+trees from the house that contained our travellers. On one smooth spot
+where the islet shelves into the Rhine met the wandering fairies.
+
+"Oh, Pipalee! how beautiful!" cried Nymphalin, as she stood enraptured
+by the wave, a star-beam shining on her, with her yellow hair "dancing
+its ringlets in the whistling wind." "For the first time since our
+departure I do not miss the green fields of England."
+
+"Hist!" said Pipalee, under her breath; "I hear fairy steps,--they must
+be the steps of strangers."
+
+"Let us retreat into this thicket of weeds," said Nymphalin, somewhat
+alarmed; "the good lord treasurer is already asleep there." They whisked
+into what to them was a forest, for the reeds were two feet high, and
+there sure enough they found the lord treasurer stretched beneath a
+bulrush, with his pipe beside him, for since he had been in Germany he
+had taken to smoking; and indeed wild thyme, properly dried, makes very
+good tobacco for a fairy. They also found Nip and Trip sitting very
+close together, Nip playing with her hair, which was exceedingly
+beautiful.
+
+"What do you do here?" said Pipalee, shortly; for she was rather an old
+maid, and did not like fairies to be too close to each other.
+
+"Watching my lord's slumber," said Nip.
+
+"Pshaw!" said Pipalee.
+
+"Nay," quoth Trip, blushing like a sea-shell; "there is no harm in
+_that_, I'm sure."
+
+"Hush!" said the queen, peeping through the reeds.
+
+And now forth from the green bosom of the earth came a tiny train;
+slowly, two by two, hand in hand, they swept from a small aperture,
+shadowed with fragrant herbs, and formed themselves into a ring: then
+came other fairies, laden with dainties, and presently two beautiful
+white mushrooms sprang up, on which the viands were placed, and lo,
+there was a banquet! Oh, how merry they were! what gentle peals of
+laughter, loud as a virgin's sigh! what jests! what songs! Happy race!
+if mortals could see you as often as I do, in the soft nights of summer,
+they would never be at a loss for entertainment. But as our English
+fairies looked on, they saw that these foreign elves were of a different
+race from themselves: they were taller and less handsome, their hair was
+darker, they wore mustaches, and had something of a fiercer air. Poor
+Nymphalin was a little frightened; but presently soft music was heard
+floating along, something like the sound we suddenly hear of a still
+night when a light breeze steals through rushes, or wakes a ripple in
+some shallow brook dancing over pebbles. And lo, from the aperture of
+the earth came forth a fay, superbly dressed, and of a noble presence.
+The queen started back, Pipalee rubbed her eyes, Trip looked over
+Pipalee's shoulder, and Nip, pinching her arm, cried out amazed, "By the
+last new star, that is Prince von Fayzenheim!"
+
+Poor Nymphalin gazed again, and her little heart beat under her
+bee's-wing bodice as if it would break. The prince had a melancholy air,
+and he sat apart from the banquet, gazing abstractedly on the Rhine.
+
+"Ah!" whispered Nymphalin to herself, "does he think of me?"
+
+Presently the prince drew forth a little flute hollowed from a small
+reed, and began to play a mournful air. Nymphalin listened with delight;
+it was one he had learned in her dominions.
+
+When the air was over, the prince rose, and approaching the banqueters,
+despatched them on different errands; one to visit the dwarf of the
+Drachenfels, another to look after the grave of Musaeus, and a whole
+detachment to puzzle the students of Heidelberg. A few launched
+themselves upon willow leaves on the Rhine to cruise about in the
+starlight, and an other band set out a hunting after the gray-legged
+moth. The prince was left alone; and now Nymphalin, seeing the coast
+clear, wrapped herself up in a cloak made out of a withered leaf; and
+only letting her eyes glow out from the hood, she glided from the reeds,
+and the prince turning round, saw a dark fairy figure by his side. He
+drew back, a little startled, and placed his hand on his sword, when
+Nymphalin circling round him, sang the following words:--
+
+
+
+THE FAIRY'S REPROACH.
+
+
+     I. By the glow-worm's lamp in the dewy brake;
+       By the gossamer's airy net;
+     By the shifting skin of the faithless snake,
+       Oh, teach me to forget:
+             For none, ah none
+     Can teach so well that human spell
+             As thou, false one!
+
+
+     II. By the fairy dance on the greensward smooth;
+       By the winds of the gentle west;
+     By the loving stars, when their soft looks soothe
+       The waves on their mother's breast,
+             Teach me thy lore!
+         By which, like withered flowers,
+         The leaves of buried Hours
+           Blossom no more!
+
+
+     III. By the tent in the violet's bell;
+       By the may on the scented bough;
+     By the lone green isle where my sisters dwell;
+       And thine own forgotten vow,
+             Teach me to live,
+           Nor feed on thoughts that pine
+           For love so false as thine!
+           Teach me thy lore,
+           And one thou lov'st no more
+             Will bless thee and forgive!
+
+
+
+"Surely," said Fayzenheim, faltering, "surely I know that voice!"
+
+And Nymphalin's cloak dropped off her shoulder. "My English fairy!" and
+Fayzenheim knelt beside her.
+
+I wish you had seen the fay kneel, for you would have sworn it was so
+like a human lover that you would never have sneered at love afterwards.
+Love is so fairy-like a part of us, that even a fairy cannot make it
+differently from us,--that is to say, when we love truly.
+
+There was great joy in the island that night among the elves. They
+conducted Nymphalin to their palace within the earth, and feasted her
+sumptuously; and Nip told their adventures with so much spirit that
+he enchanted the merry foreigners. But Fayzenheim talked apart to
+Nymphalin, and told her how he was lord of that island, and how he had
+been obliged to return to his dominions by the law of his tribe, which
+allowed him to be absent only a certain time in every year. "But, my
+queen, I always intended to revisit thee next spring."
+
+"Thou need'st not have left us so abruptly," said Nymphalin, blushing.
+
+"But do _thou_ never leave me!" said the ardent fairy; "be mine, and let
+our nuptials be celebrated on these shores. Wouldst thou sigh for thy
+green island? No! for _there_ the fairy altars are deserted, the faith
+is gone from the land; thou art among the last of an unhonoured and
+expiring race. Thy mortal poets are dumb, and Fancy, which was thy
+priestess, sleeps hushed in her last repose. New and hard creeds have
+succeeded to the fairy lore. Who steals through the starlit boughs on
+the nights of June to watch the roundels of thy tribe? The wheels of
+commerce, the din of trade, have silenced to mortal ear the music of thy
+subjects' harps! And the noisy habitations of men, harsher than their
+dreaming sires, are gathering round the dell and vale where thy co-mates
+linger: a few years, and where will be the green solitudes of England?"
+
+The queen sighed, and the prince, perceiving that he was listened to,
+continued,--
+
+"Who, in thy native shores, among the children of men, now claims the
+fairy's care? What cradle wouldst thou tend? On what maid wouldst thou
+shower thy rosy gifts? What barb wouldst thou haunt in his dreams? Poesy
+is fled the island, why shouldst thou linger behind? Time hath brought
+dull customs, that laugh at thy gentle being. Puck is buried in the
+harebell, he hath left no offspring, and none mourn for his loss; for
+night, which is the fairy season, is busy and garish as the day. What
+hearth is desolate after the curfew? What house bathed in stillness
+at the hour in which thy revels commence? Thine empire among men hath
+passed from thee, and thy race are vanishing from the crowded soil; for,
+despite our diviner nature, our existence is linked with man's. Their
+neglect is our disease, their forgetfulness our death. Leave then those
+dull, yet troubled scenes, that are closing round the fairy rings of thy
+native isle. These mountains, this herbage, these gliding waves, these
+mouldering ruins, these starred rivulets, be they, O beautiful fairy!
+thy new domain. Yet in these lands our worship lingers; still can we
+fill the thought of the young bard, and mingle with his yearnings
+after the Beautiful, the Unseen. Hither come the pilgrims of the world,
+anxious only to gather from these scenes the legends of Us; ages will
+pass away ere the Rhine shall be desecrated of our haunting presence.
+Come then, my queen, let this palace be thine own, and the moon that
+glances over the shattered towers of the Dragon Rock witness our
+nuptials and our vows!"
+
+In such words the fairy prince courted the young queen, and while she
+sighed at their truth she yielded to their charm. Oh, still may there be
+one spot on the earth where the fairy feet may press the legendary soil!
+still be there one land where the faith of The Bright Invisible hallows
+and inspires! Still glide thou, O majestic and solemn Rhine, among
+shades and valleys, from which the wisdom of belief can call the
+creations of the younger world!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI. WHEREIN THE READER IS MADE SPECTATOR WITH THE ENGLISH
+FAIRIES OF THE SCENES AND BEINGS THAT ARE BENEATH THE EARTH.
+
+DURING the heat of next day's noon, Fayzenheim took the English visitors
+through the cool caverns that wind amidst the mountains of the Rhine.
+There, a thousand wonders awaited the eyes of the fairy queen. I speak
+not of the Gothic arch and aisle into which the hollow earth forms
+itself, or the stream that rushes with a mighty voice through the dark
+chasm, or the silver columns that shoot aloft, worked by the gnomes from
+the mines of the mountains of Taunus; but of the strange inhabitants
+that from time to time they came upon. They found in one solitary
+cell, lined with dried moss, two misshapen elves, of a larger size than
+common, with a plebeian working-day aspect, who were chatting noisily
+together, and making a pair of boots: these were the Hausmannen or
+domestic elves, that dance into tradesmen's houses of a night, and play
+all sorts of undignified tricks. They were very civil to the queen,
+for they are good-natured creatures on the whole, and once had many
+relations in Scotland. They then, following the course of a noisy
+rivulet, came to a hole from which the sharp head of a fox peeped out.
+The queen was frightened. "Oh, come on," said the fox, encouragingly, "I
+am one of the fairy race, and many are the gambols we of the brute-elves
+play in the German world of romance." "Indeed, Mr. Fox," said the
+prince, "you only speak the truth; and how is Mr. Bruin?" "Quite well,
+my prince, but tired of his seclusion; for indeed our race can do
+little or nothing now in the world; and lie here in our old age,
+telling stories of the past, and recalling the exploits we did in our
+youth,--which, madam, you may see in all the fairy histories in the
+prince's library."
+
+"Your own love adventures, for instance, Master Fox," said the prince.
+
+The fox snarled angrily, and drew in his head.
+
+"You have displeased your friend," said Nymphalin.
+
+"Yes; he likes no allusions to the amorous follies of his youth. Did you
+ever hear of his rivalry with the dog for the cat's good graces?"
+
+"No; that must be very amusing."
+
+"Well, my queen, when we rest by and by, I will relate to you the
+history of the fox's wooing."
+
+The next place they came to was a vast Runic cavern, covered with dark
+inscriptions of a forgotten tongue; and sitting on a huge stone they
+found a dwarf with long yellow hair, his head leaning on his breast, and
+absorbed in meditation. "This is a spirit of a wise and powerful race,"
+whispered Fayzenheim, "that has often battled with the fairies; but he
+is of the kindly tribe."
+
+Then the dwarf lifted his head with a mournful air; and gazed upon the
+bright shapes before him, lighted by the pine torches that the prince's
+attendants carried.
+
+"And what dost thou muse upon, O descendant of the race of Laurin?" said
+the prince.
+
+"Upon TIME!" answered the dwarf, gloomily. "I see a River, and its waves
+are black, flowing from the clouds, and none knoweth its source. It
+rolls deeply on, aye and evermore, through a green valley, which it
+slowly swallows up, washing away tower and town, and vanquishing all
+things; and the name of the River is TIME."
+
+Then the dwarf's head sank on his bosom, and he spoke no more.
+
+The fairies proceeded. "Above us," said the prince, "rises one of the
+loftiest mountains of the Rhine; for mountains are the Dwarf's home.
+When the Great Spirit of all made earth, he saw that the hollows of the
+rocks and hills were tenantless, and yet that a mighty kingdom and great
+palaces were hid within them,--a dread and dark solitude, but lighted at
+times from the starry eyes of many jewels; and there was the treasure of
+the human world--gold and silver--and great heaps of gems, and a soil
+of metals. So God made a race for this vast empire, and gifted them with
+the power of thought, and the soul of exceeding wisdom, so that they
+want not the merriment and enterprise of the outer world; but musing
+in these dark caves is their delight. Their existence rolls away in the
+luxury of thought; only from time to time they appear in the world, and
+betoken woe or weal to men,--according to their nature, for they are
+divided into two tribes, the benevolent and the wrathful." While the
+prince spoke, they saw glaring upon them from a ledge in the upper rock
+a grisly face with a long matted beard. The prince gathered himself up,
+and frowned at the evil dwarf, for such it was; but with a wild laugh
+the face abruptly disappeared, and the echo of the laugh rang with a
+ghastly sound through the long hollows of the earth.
+
+The queen clung to Fayzenheim's arm. "Fear not, my queen," said he. "The
+evil race have no power over our light and aerial nature; with men only
+they war; and he whom we have seen was, in the old ages of the world,
+one of the deadliest visitors to mankind."
+
+But now they came winding by a passage to a beautiful recess in the
+mountain empire; it was of a circular shape of amazing height; in the
+midst of it played a natural fountain of sparkling waters, and around it
+were columns of massive granite, rising in countless vistas, till lost
+in the distant shade. Jewels were scattered round, and brightly played
+the fairy torches on the gem, the fountain, and the pale silver, that
+gleamed at frequent intervals from the rocks. "Here let us rest," said
+the gallant fairy, clapping his hands; "what, ho! music and the feast."
+
+So the feast was spread by the fountain's side; and the courtiers
+scattered rose-leaves, which they had brought with them, for the prince
+and his visitor; and amidst the dark kingdom of the dwarfs broke
+the delicate sound of fairy lutes. "We have not these evil beings in
+England," said the queen, as low as she could speak; "they rouse my
+fear, but my interest also. Tell me, dear prince, of what nature was the
+intercourse of the evil dwarf with man?"
+
+"You know," answered the prince, "that to every species of living thing
+there is something in common; the vast chain of sympathy runs through
+all creation. By that which they have in common with the beast of the
+field or the bird of the air, men govern the inferior tribes; they
+appeal to the common passions of fear and emulation when they tame the
+wild steed, to the common desire of greed and gain when they snare
+the fishes of the stream, or allure the wolves to the pitfall by the
+bleating of the lamb. In their turn, in the older ages of the world, it
+was by the passions which men had in common with the demon race that the
+fiends commanded or allured them. The dwarf whom you saw, being of that
+race which is characterized by the ambition of power and the desire
+of hoarding, appealed then in his intercourse with men to the same
+characteristics in their own bosoms,--to ambition or to avarice. And
+thus were his victims made! But, not now, dearest Nymphalin," continued
+the prince, with a more lively air,--"not now will we speak of those
+gloomy beings. Ho, there! cease the music, and come hither all of ye,
+to listen to a faithful and homely history of the Dog, the Cat, the
+Griffin, and the Fox."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII. THE WOOING OF MASTER FOX.*
+
+  * In the excursions of the fairies, it is the object of the author
+    to bring before the reader a rapid phantasmagoria of the various
+    beings that belong to the German superstitions, so that the work
+    may thus describe the outer and the inner world of the land of
+    the Rhine.  The tale of the Fox's Wooing has been composed to
+    give the English reader an idea of a species of novel not
+    naturalized amongst us, though frequent among the legends of our
+    Irish neighbours; in which the brutes are the only characters
+    drawn,--drawn too with shades of distinction as nice and subtle
+    as if they were the creatures of the civilized world.
+
+You are aware, my dear Nymphalin, that in the time of which I am about
+to speak there was no particular enmity between the various species of
+brutes; the dog and the hare chatted very agreeably together, and
+all the world knows that the wolf, unacquainted with mutton, had
+a particular affection for the lamb. In these happy days, two most
+respectable cats, of very old family, had an only daughter. Never was
+kitten more amiable or more seducing; as she grew up she manifested so
+many charms, that in a little while she became noted as the greatest
+beauty in the neighbourhood. Need I to you, dearest Nymphalin, describe
+her perfection? Suffice it to say that her skin was of the most delicate
+tortoiseshell, that her paws were smoother than velvet, that her
+whiskers were twelve inches long at the least, and that her eyes had a
+gentleness altogether astonishing in a cat. But if the young beauty
+had suitors in plenty during the lives of monsieur and madame, you may
+suppose the number was not diminished when, at the age of two years and
+a half, she was left an orphan, and sole heiress to all the hereditary
+property. In fine, she was the richest marriage in the whole country.
+Without troubling you, dearest queen, with the adventures of the rest of
+her lovers, with their suit and their rejection, I come at once to the
+two rivals most sanguine of success,--the dog and the fox.
+
+Now the dog was a handsome, honest, straightforward, affectionate
+fellow. "For my part," said he, "I don't wonder at my cousin's refusing
+Bruin the bear, and Gauntgrim the wolf: to be sure they give themselves
+great airs, and call themselves '_noble_,' but what then? Bruin is
+always in the sulks, and Gauntgrim always in a passion; a cat of any
+sensibility would lead a miserable life with them. As for me, I am very
+good-tempered when I'm not put out, and I have no fault except that of
+being angry if disturbed at my meals. I am young and good-looking, fond
+of play and amusement, and altogether as agreeable a husband as a cat
+could find in a summer's day. If she marries me, well and good; she
+may have her property settled on herself: if not, I shall bear her no
+malice; and I hope I sha'n't be too much in love to forget that there
+are other cats in the world."
+
+With that the dog threw his tail over his back, and set off to his
+mistress with a gay face on the matter.
+
+Now the fox heard the dog talking thus to himself, for the fox was
+always peeping about, in holes and corners, and he burst out a laughing
+when the dog was out of sight.
+
+"Ho, ho, my fine fellow!" said he; "not so fast, if you please: you've
+got the fox for a rival, let me tell you."
+
+The fox, as you very well know, is a beast that can never do anything
+without a manoeuvre; and as, from his cunning, he was generally very
+lucky in anything he undertook, he did not doubt for a moment that he
+should put the dog's nose out of joint. Reynard was aware that in
+love one should always, if possible, be the first in the field; and he
+therefore resolved to get the start of the dog and arrive before him
+at the cat's residence. But this was no easy matter; for though Reynard
+could run faster than the dog for a little way, he was no match for
+him in a journey of some distance. "However," said Reynard, "those
+good-natured creatures are never very wise; and I think I know already
+what will make him bait on his way."
+
+With that, the fox trotted pretty fast by a short cut in the woods, and
+getting before the dog, laid himself down by a hole in the earth, and
+began to howl most piteously.
+
+The dog, hearing the noise, was very much alarmed. "See now," said he,
+"if the poor fox has not got himself into some scrape! Those cunning
+creatures are always in mischief; thank Heaven, it never comes into my
+head to be cunning!" And the good-natured animal ran off as hard as he
+could to see what was the matter with the fox.
+
+"Oh, dear!" cried Reynard; "what shall I do? What shall I do? My poor
+little sister has fallen into this hole, and I can't get her out; she'll
+certainly be smothered." And the fox burst out a howling more piteously
+than before.
+
+"But, my dear Reynard," quoth the dog, very simply, "why don't you go in
+after your sister?"
+
+"Ah, you may well ask that," said the fox; "but, in trying to get in,
+don't you perceive that I have sprained my back and can't stir? Oh,
+dear! what shall I do if my poor little sister is smothered!"
+
+"Pray don't vex yourself," said the dog; "I'll get her out in an
+instant." And with that he forced himself with great difficulty into the
+hole.
+
+Now, no sooner did the fox see that the dog was fairly in, than he
+rolled a great stone to the mouth of the hole and fitted it so tight,
+that the dog, not being able to turn round and scratch against it with
+his forepaws, was made a close prisoner.
+
+"Ha, ha!" cried Reynard, laughing outside; "amuse yourself with my poor
+little sister, while I go and make your compliments to Mademoiselle the
+Cat."
+
+With that Reynard set off at an easy pace, never troubling his head
+what became of the poor dog. When he arrived in the neighbourhood of the
+beautiful cat's mansion, he resolved to pay a visit to a friend of his,
+an old magpie that lived in a tree and was well acquainted with all the
+news of the place. "For," thought Reynard, "I may as well know the blind
+side of my mistress that is to be, and get round it at once."
+
+The magpie received the fox with great cordiality, and inquired what
+brought him so great a distance from home.
+
+"Upon my word," said the fox, "nothing so much as the pleasure of seeing
+your ladyship and hearing those agreeable anecdotes you tell with so
+charming a grace; but to let you into a secret--be sure it don't go
+further--"
+
+"On the word of a magpie," interrupted the bird.
+
+"Pardon me for doubting you," continued the fox; "I should have
+recollected that a pie was a proverb for discretion. But, as I was
+saying, you know her Majesty the lioness?"
+
+"Surely," said the magpie, bridling.
+
+"Well; she was pleased to fall in--that is to say--to--to--take a
+caprice to your humble servant, and the lion grew so jealous that I
+thought it prudent to decamp. A jealous lion is no joke, let me assure
+your ladyship. But mum's the word."
+
+So great a piece of news delighted the magpie. She could not but repay
+it in kind, by all the news in her budget. She told the fox all the
+scandal about Bruin and Gauntgrim, and she then fell to work on the poor
+young cat. She did not spare her foibles, you may be quite sure. The
+fox listened with great attention, and he learned enough to convince
+him that however much the magpie might exaggerate, the cat was very
+susceptible to flattery, and had a great deal of imagination.
+
+When the magpie had finished she said, "But it must be very unfortunate
+for you to be banished from so magnificent a court as that of the lion?"
+
+"As to that," answered the fox, "I console myself for my exile with a
+present his Majesty made me on parting, as a reward for my anxiety for
+his honour and domestic tranquillity; namely, three hairs from the fifth
+leg of the amoronthologosphorus. Only think of that, ma'am!"
+
+"The what?" cried the pie, cocking down her left ear.
+
+"The amoronthologosphorus."
+
+"La!" said the magpie; "and what is that very long word, my dear
+Reynard?"
+
+"The amoronthologosphorus is a beast that lives on the other side of
+the river Cylinx; it has five legs, and on the fifth leg there are three
+hairs, and whoever has those three hairs can be young and beautiful
+forever."
+
+"Bless me! I wish you would let me see them," said the pie, holding out
+her claw.
+
+"Would that I could oblige you, ma'am; but it's as much as my life's
+worth to show them to any but the lady I marry. In fact, they only have
+an effect on the fair sex, as you may see by myself, whose poor person
+they utterly fail to improve: they are, therefore, intended for a
+marriage present, and his Majesty the lion thus generously atoned to
+me for relinquishing the tenderness of his queen. One must confess that
+there was a great deal of delicacy in the gift. But you'll be sure not
+to mention it."
+
+"A magpie gossip indeed!" quoth the old blab.
+
+The fox then wished the magpie good night, and retired to a hole to
+sleep off the fatigues of the day, before he presented himself to the
+beautiful young cat.
+
+The next morning, Heaven knows how! it was all over the place that
+Reynard the fox had been banished from court for the favour shown him by
+her Majesty, and that the lion had bribed his departure with three
+hairs that would make any lady whom the fox married young and beautiful
+forever.
+
+The cat was the first to learn the news, and she became all curiosity to
+see so interesting a stranger, possessed of "qualifications" which, in
+the language of the day, "would render any animal happy!" She was not
+long without obtaining her wish. As she was taking a walk in the wood
+the fox contrived to encounter her. You may be sure that he made her his
+best bow; and he flattered the poor cat with so courtly an air that she
+saw nothing surprising in the love of the lioness.
+
+Meanwhile let us see what became of his rival, the dog.
+
+"Ah, the poor creature!" said Nymphalin; "it is easy to guess that he
+need not be buried alive to lose all chance of marrying the heiress."
+
+"Wait till the end," answered Fayzenheim.
+
+When the dog found that he was thus entrapped, he gave himself up for
+lost. In vain he kicked with his hind-legs against the stone,--he only
+succeeded in bruising his paws; and at length he was forced to lie down,
+with his tongue out of his mouth, and quite exhausted. "However," said
+he, after he had taken breath, "it won't do to be starved here, without
+doing my best to escape; and if I can't get out one way, let me see if
+there is not a hole at the other end." Thus saying, his courage, which
+stood him in lieu of cunning, returned, and he proceeded on in the same
+straightforward way in which he always conducted himself. At first the
+path was exceedingly narrow, and he hurt his sides very much against
+the rough stones that projected from the earth; but by degrees the way
+became broader, and he now went on with considerable ease to himself,
+till he arrived in a large cavern, where he saw an immense griffin
+sitting on his tail, and smoking a huge pipe.
+
+The dog was by no means pleased at meeting so suddenly a creature that
+had only to open his mouth to swallow him up at a morsel; however,
+he put a bold face on the danger, and walking respectfully up to the
+griffin, said, "Sir, I should be very much obliged to you if you would
+inform me the way out of these holes into the upper world."
+
+The griffin took the pipe out of his mouth, and looked at the dog very
+sternly.
+
+"Ho, wretch!" said he, "how comest thou hither? I suppose thou wantest
+to steal my treasure; but I know how to treat such vagabonds as you, and
+I shall certainly eat you up.
+
+"You can do that if you choose," said the dog; "but it would be very
+unhandsome conduct in an animal so much bigger than myself. For my own
+part, I never attack any dog that is not of equal size,--I should be
+ashamed of myself if I did. And as to your treasure, the character I
+bear for honesty is too well known to merit such a suspicion."
+
+"Upon my word," said the griffin, who could not help smiling for the
+life of him, "you have a singularly free mode of expressing yourself.
+And how, I say, came you hither?"
+
+Then the dog, who did not know what a lie was, told the griffin his
+whole history,--how he had set off to pay his court to the cat, and how
+Reynard the fox had entrapped him into the hole.
+
+When he had finished, the griffin said to him, "I see, my friend, that
+you know how to speak the truth; I am in want of just such a servant as
+you will make me, therefore stay with me and keep watch over my treasure
+when I sleep."
+
+"Two words to that," said the dog. "You have hurt my feelings very much
+by suspecting my honesty, and I would much sooner go back into the wood
+and be avenged on that scoundrel the fox, than serve a master who has so
+ill an opinion of me. I pray you, therefore, to dismiss me, and to put
+me in the right way to my cousin the cat."
+
+"I am not a griffin of many words," answered the master of the cavern,
+"and I give you your choice,--be my servant or be my breakfast; it is
+just the same to me. I give you time to decide till I have smoked out my
+pipe."
+
+The poor dog did not take so long to consider. "It is true," thought he,
+"that it is a great misfortune to live in a cave with a griffin of
+so unpleasant a countenance; but, probably, if I serve him well and
+faithfully, he'll take pity on me some day, and let me go back to earth,
+and prove to my cousin what a rogue the fox is; and as to the rest,
+though I would sell my life as dear as I could, it is impossible to
+fight a griffin with a mouth of so monstrous a size." In short, he
+decided to stay with the griffin.
+
+"Shake a paw on it," quoth the grim smoker; and the dog shook paws.
+
+"And now," said the griffin, "I will tell you what you are to do. Look
+here," and moving his tail, he showed the dog a great heap of gold and
+silver, in a hole in the ground, that he had covered with the folds of
+his tail; and also, what the dog thought more valuable, a great heap of
+bones of very tempting appearance. "Now," said the griffin, "during the
+day I can take very good care of these myself; but at night it is very
+necessary that I should go to sleep, so when I sleep you must watch over
+them instead of me."
+
+"Very well," said the dog. "As to the gold and silver, I have no
+objection; but I would much rather that you would lock up the bones, for
+I'm often hungry of a night, and--"
+
+"Hold your tongue," said the griffin.
+
+"But, sir," said the dog, after a short silence, "surely nobody ever
+comes into so retired a situation! Who are the thieves, if I may make
+bold to ask?"
+
+"Know," answered the griffin, "that there are a great many serpents in
+this neighbourhood. They are always trying to steal my treasure; and if
+they catch me napping, they, not contented with theft, would do their
+best to sting me to death. So that I am almost worn out for want of
+sleep."
+
+"Ah," quoth the dog, who was fond of a good night's rest, "I don't envy
+you your treasure, sir."
+
+At night, the griffin, who had a great deal of penetration, and saw that
+he might depend on the dog, lay down to sleep in another corner of the
+cave; and the dog, shaking himself well, so as to be quite awake, took
+watch over the treasure. His mouth watered exceedingly at the bones, and
+he could not help smelling them now and then; but he said to himself, "A
+bargain's a bargain, and since I have promised to serve the griffin, I
+must serve him as an honest dog ought to serve."
+
+In the middle of the night he saw a great snake creeping in by the side
+of the cave; but the dog set up so loud a bark that the griffin awoke,
+and the snake crept away as fast as he could. Then the griffin was very
+much pleased, and he gave the dog one of the bones to amuse himself
+with; and every night the dog watched the treasure, and acquitted
+himself so well that not a snake, at last, dared to make its
+appearance,--so the griffin enjoyed an excellent night's rest.
+
+The dog now found himself much more comfortable than he expected. The
+griffin regularly gave him one of the bones for supper; and, pleased
+with his fidelity, made himself as agreeable a master as a griffin
+could be. Still, however, the dog was secretly very anxious to return
+to earth; for having nothing to do during the day but to doze on the
+ground, he dreamed perpetually of his cousin the cat's charms, and, in
+fancy, he gave the rascal Reynard as hearty a worry as a fox may well
+have the honour of receiving from a dog's paws. He awoke panting; alas!
+he could not realize his dreams.
+
+One night, as he was watching as usual over the treasure, he was greatly
+surprised to see a beautiful little black and white dog enter the
+cave; and it came fawning to our honest friend, wagging its tail with
+pleasure.
+
+"Ah, little one," said our dog, whom, to distinguish, I will call the
+watch-dog, "you had better make the best of your way back again. See,
+there is a great griffin asleep in the other corner of the cave, and if
+he wakes, he will either eat you up or make you his servant, as he has
+made me."
+
+"I know what you would tell me," says the little dog; "and I have come
+down here to deliver you. The stone is now gone from the mouth of the
+cave, and you have nothing to do but to go back with me. Come, brother,
+come."
+
+The dog was very much excited by this address. "Don't ask me, my dear
+little friend," said he; "you must be aware that I should be too happy
+to escape out of this cold cave, and roll on the soft turf once more:
+but if I leave my master, the griffin, those cursed serpents, who are
+always on the watch, will come in and steal his treasure,--nay, perhaps,
+sting him to death." Then the little dog came up to the watch-dog, and
+remonstrated with him greatly, and licked him caressingly on both sides
+of his face; and, taking him by the ear, endeavoured to draw him from
+the treasure: but the dog would not stir a step, though his heart sorely
+pressed him. At length the little dog, finding it all in vain, said,
+"Well, then, if I must leave, good-by; but I have become so hungry in
+coming down all this way after you, that I wish you would give me one
+of those bones; they smell very pleasantly, and one out of so many could
+never be missed."
+
+"Alas!" said the watchdog, with tears in his eyes, "how unlucky I am to
+have eaten up the bone my master gave me, otherwise you should have had
+it and welcome. But I can't give you one of these, because my master has
+made me promise to watch over them all, and I have given him my paw
+on it. I am sure a dog of your respectable appearance will say nothing
+further on the subject."
+
+Then the little dog answered pettishly, "Pooh, what nonsense you
+talk! surely a great griffin can't miss a little bone fit for me?" and
+nestling his nose under the watch-dog, he tried forthwith to bring up
+one of the bones.
+
+On this the watch-dog grew angry, and, though with much reluctance, he
+seized the little dog by the nape of the neck and threw him off, but
+without hurting him. Suddenly the little dog changed into a monstrous
+serpent, bigger even than the griffin himself, and the watch-dog barked
+with all his might. The griffin rose in a great hurry, and the serpent
+sprang upon him ere he was well awake. I wish, dearest Nymphalin, you
+could have seen the battle between the griffin and the serpent,--how
+they coiled and twisted, and bit and darted their fiery tongues at each
+other. At length the serpent got uppermost, and was about to plunge his
+tongue into that part of the griffin which is unprotected by his scales,
+when the dog, seizing him by the tail, bit him so sharply that he could
+not help turning round to kill his new assailant, and the griffin,
+taking advantage of the opportunity, caught the serpent by the throat
+with both claws, and fairly strangled him. As soon as the griffin had
+recovered from the nervousness of the conflict, he heaped all manner
+of caresses on the dog for saving his life. The dog told him the whole
+story, and the griffin then explained that the dead snake was the king
+of the serpents, who had the power to change himself into any shape he
+pleased. "If he had tempted you," said he, "to leave the treasure but
+for one moment, or to have given him any part of it, ay, but a single
+bone, he would have crushed you in an instant, and stung me to death
+ere I could have waked; but none, no, not the most venomous thing in
+creation, has power to hurt the honest!"
+
+"That has always been my belief," answered the dog; "and now, sir, you
+had better go to sleep again and leave the rest to me."
+
+"Nay," answered the griffin, "I have no longer need of a servant; for
+now that the king of the serpents is dead, the rest will never molest
+me. It was only to satisfy his avarice that his subjects dared to brave
+the den of the griffin."
+
+Upon hearing this the dog was exceedingly delighted; and raising himself
+on his hind paws, he begged the griffin most movingly to let him return
+to earth, to visit his mistress the cat, and worry his rival the fox.
+
+"You do not serve an ungrateful master," answered the griffin. "You
+shall return, and I will teach you all the craft of our race, which is
+much craftier than the race of that pettifogger the fox, so that you may
+be able to cope with your rival."
+
+"Ah, excuse me," said the dog, hastily, "I am equally obliged to you;
+but I fancy honesty is a match for cunning any day, and I think myself a
+great deal safer in being a dog of honour than if I knew all the tricks
+in the world."
+
+"Well," said the griffin, a little piqued at the dog's bluntness, "do as
+you please; I wish you all possible success."
+
+Then the griffin opened a secret door in the side of the cabin, and
+the dog saw a broad path that led at once into the wood. He thanked
+the griffin with all his heart, and ran wagging his tail into the open
+moonlight. "Ah, ah, master fox," said he, "there's no trap for an honest
+dog that has not two doors to it, cunning as you think yourself."
+
+With that he curled his tail gallantly over his left leg, and set off
+on a long trot to the cat's house. When he was within sight of it, he
+stopped to refresh himself by a pool of water, and who should be there
+but our friend the magpie.
+
+"And what do _you_ want, friend?" said she, rather disdainfully, for the
+dog looked somewhat out of case after his journey.
+
+"I am going to see my cousin the cat," answered he.
+
+"_Your cousin_! marry come up," said the magpie; "don't you know she is
+going to be married to Reynard the fox? This is not a time for her to
+receive the visits of a brute like you."
+
+These words put the dog in such a passion that he very nearly bit the
+magpie for her uncivil mode of communicating such bad news. However, he
+curbed his temper, and, without answering her, went at once to the cat's
+residence.
+
+The cat was sitting at the window, and no sooner did the dog see her
+than he fairly lost his heart; never had he seen so charming a cat
+before. He advanced, wagging his tail, and with his most insinuating
+air, when the cat, getting up, clapped the window in his face, and lo!
+Reynard the fox appeared in her stead.
+
+"Come out, thou rascal!" said the dog, showing his teeth; "come out,
+I challenge thee to single combat; I have not forgiven thy malice, and
+thou seest that I am no longer shut up in the cave, and unable to punish
+thee for thy wickedness."
+
+"Go home, silly one!" answered the fox, sneering; "thou hast no business
+here, and as for fighting thee--bah!" Then the fox left the window and
+disappeared. But the dog, thoroughly enraged, scratched lustily at the
+door, and made such a noise, that presently the cat herself came to the
+window.
+
+"How now!" said she, angrily; "what means all this rudeness? Who are
+you, and what do you want at my house?"
+
+"Oh, my dear cousin," said the dog, "do not speak so severely. Know that
+I have come here on purpose to pay you a visit; and, whatever you do,
+let me beseech you not to listen to that villain Reynard,--you have no
+conception what a rogue he is!"
+
+"What!" said the cat, blushing; "do you dare to abuse your betters in
+this fashion? I see you have a design on me. Go, this instant, or--"
+
+"Enough, madam," said the dog, proudly; "you need not speak twice to
+me,--farewell."
+
+And he turned away very slowly, and went under a tree, where he took up
+his lodgings for the night. But the next morning there was an amazing
+commotion in the neighbourhood; a stranger, of a very different style of
+travelling from that of the dog, had arrived at the dead of the night,
+and fixed his abode in a large cavern hollowed out of a steep rock. The
+noise he had made in flying through the air was so great that it had
+awakened every bird and beast in the parish; and Reynard, whose bad
+conscience never suffered him to sleep very soundly, putting his head
+out of the window, perceived, to his great alarm, that the stranger was
+nothing less than a monstrous griffin.
+
+Now the griffins are the richest beasts in the world; and that's the
+reason they keep so close under ground. Whenever it does happen that
+they pay a visit above, it is not a thing to be easily forgotten.
+
+The magpie was all agitation. What could the griffin possibly want
+there? She resolved to take a peep at the cavern, and accordingly she
+hopped timorously up the rock, and pretended to be picking up sticks for
+her nest.
+
+"Holla, ma'am!" cried a very rough voice, and she saw the griffin
+putting his head out of the cavern. "Holla! you are the very lady I want
+to see; you know all the people about here, eh?"
+
+"All the best company, your lordship, I certainly do," answered the
+magpie, dropping a courtesy.
+
+Upon this the griffin walked out; and smoking his pipe leisurely in the
+open air, in order to set the pie at her ease, continued,--
+
+"Are there any respectable beasts of good families settled in this
+neighbourhood?"
+
+"Oh, most elegant society, I assure your lordship," cried the pie. "I
+have lived here myself these ten years, and the great heiress, the cat
+yonder, attracts a vast number of strangers."
+
+"Humph! heiress, indeed! much you know about heiresses!" said the
+griffin. "There is only one heiress in the world, and that's my
+daughter."
+
+"Bless me! has your lordship a family? I beg you a thousand pardons; but
+I only saw your lordship's own equipage last night, and did not know you
+brought any one with you."
+
+"My daughter went first, and was safely lodged before I arrived. She did
+not disturb you, I dare say, as I did; for she sails along like a swan:
+but I have got the gout in my left claw, and that's the reason I puff
+and groan so in taking a journey."
+
+"Shall I drop in upon Miss Griffin, and see how she is after her
+journey?" said the pie, advancing.
+
+"I thank you, no. I don't intend her to be seen while I stay here,--it
+unsettles her; and I'm afraid of the young beasts running away with her
+if they once heard how handsome she was: she's the living picture of me,
+but she's monstrous giddy! Not that I should care much if she did go off
+with a beast of degree, were I not obliged to pay her portion, which is
+prodigious; and I don't like parting with money, ma'am, when I've once
+got it. Ho, ho, ho!"
+
+"You are too witty, my lord. But if you refused your consent?" said the
+pie, anxious to know the whole family history of so grand a seigneur.
+
+"I should have to pay the dowry all the same. It was left her by her
+uncle the dragon. But don't let this go any further."
+
+"Your lordship may depend on my secrecy. I wish your lordship a very
+good morning."
+
+Away flew the pie, and she did not stop till she got to the cat's house.
+The cat and the fox were at breakfast, and the fox had his paw on his
+heart. "Beautiful scene!" cried the pie; the cat coloured, and bade the
+pie take a seat.
+
+Then off went the pie's tongue, glib, glib, glib, chatter, chatter,
+chatter. She related to them the whole story of the griffin and his
+daughter, and a great deal more besides, that the griffin had never told
+her.
+
+The cat listened attentively. Another young heiress in the neighbourhood
+might be a formidable rival. "But is this griffiness handsome?" said
+she.
+
+"Handsome!" cried the pie; "oh, if you could have seen the father!--such
+a mouth, such eyes, such a complexion; and he declares she's the living
+picture of himself! But what do you say, Mr. Reynard,--you, who have
+been so much in the world, have, perhaps, seen the young lady?"
+
+"Why, I can't say I have," answered the fox, waking from a revery;
+"but she must be wonderfully rich. I dare say that fool the dog will be
+making up to her."
+
+"Ah, by the way," said the pie, "what a fuss he made at your door
+yesterday; why would you not admit him, my dear?"
+
+"Oh," said the cat, demurely, "Mr. Reynard says that he is a dog of very
+bad character, quite a fortune-hunter; and hiding the most dangerous
+disposition to bite under an appearance of good nature. I hope he won't
+be quarrelsome with you, dear Reynard!"
+
+"With me? Oh, the poor wretch, no!--he might bluster a little; but he
+knows that if I'm once angry I'm a devil at biting;--one should not
+boast of oneself."
+
+In the evening Reynard felt a strange desire to go and see the griffin
+smoking his pipe; but what could he do? There was the dog under the
+opposite tree evidently watching for him, and Reynard had no wish to
+prove himself that devil at biting which he declared he was. At last he
+resolved to have recourse to stratagem to get rid of the dog.
+
+A young buck of a rabbit, a sort of provincial fop, had looked in upon
+his cousin the cat, to pay her his respects, and Reynard, taking him
+aside, said, "You see that shabby-looking dog under the tree? He has
+behaved very ill to your cousin the cat, and you certainly ought
+to challenge him. Forgive my boldness, nothing but respect for your
+character induces me to take so great a liberty; you know I would
+chastise the rascal myself, but what a scandal it would make! If I were
+already married to your cousin, it would be a different thing. But you
+know what a story that cursed magpie would hatch out of it!"
+
+The rabbit looked very foolish; he assured the fox he was no match for
+the dog; that he was very fond of his cousin, to be sure! but he saw
+no necessity to interfere with her domestic affairs; and, in short, he
+tried all he possibly could to get out of the scrape; but the fox so
+artfully played on his vanity, so earnestly assured him that the dog was
+the biggest coward in the world and would make a humble apology, and so
+eloquently represented to him the glory he would obtain for manifesting
+so much spirit, that at length the rabbit was persuaded to go out and
+deliver the challenge.
+
+"I'll be your second," said the fox; "and the great field on the other
+side the wood, two miles hence, shall be the place of battle: there we
+shall be out of observation. You go first, I'll follow in half an hour;
+and I say, hark!--in case he does accept the challenge, and you feel the
+least afraid, I'll be in the field, and take it off your paws with the
+utmost pleasure; rely on _me_, my dear sir!"
+
+Away went the rabbit. The dog was a little astonished at the temerity
+of the poor creature; but on hearing that the fox was to be present,
+willingly consented to repair to the place of conflict. This readiness
+the rabbit did not at all relish; he went very slowly to the field,
+and seeing no fox there, his heart misgave him; and while the dog was
+putting his nose to the ground to try if he could track the coming of
+the fox, the rabbit slipped into a burrow, and left the dog to walk back
+again.
+
+Meanwhile the fox was already at the rock; he walked very soft-footedly,
+and looked about with extreme caution, for he had a vague notion that a
+griffin-papa would not be very civil to foxes.
+
+Now there were two holes in the rock,--one below, one above, an upper
+story and an under; and while the fox was peering about, he saw a great
+claw from the upper rock beckoning to him.
+
+"Ah, ah!" said the fox, "that's the wanton young griffiness, I'll
+swear."
+
+He approached, and a voice said,--
+
+"Charming Mr. Reynard, do you not think you could deliver an unfortunate
+griffiness from a barbarous confinement in this rock?"
+
+"Oh, heavens!" cried the fox, tenderly, "what a beautiful voice! and,
+ah, my poor heart, what a lovely claw! Is it possible that I hear the
+daughter of my lord, the great griffin?"
+
+"Hush, flatterer! not so loud, if you please. My father is taking an
+evening stroll, and is very quick of hearing. He has tied me up by
+my poor wings in the cavern, for he is mightily afraid of some beast
+running away with me. You know I have all my fortune settled on myself."
+
+"Talk not of fortune," said the fox; "but how can I deliver you? Shall I
+enter and gnaw the cord?"
+
+"Alas!" answered the griffiness, "it is an immense chain I am bound
+with. However, you may come in and talk more at your ease."
+
+The fox peeped cautiously all round, and seeing no sign of the griffin,
+he entered the lower cave and stole upstairs to the upper story; but as
+he went on, he saw immense piles of jewels and gold, and all sorts of
+treasure, so that the old griffin might well have laughed at the
+poor cat being called an heiress. The fox was greatly pleased at such
+indisputable signs of wealth, and he entered the upper cave, resolved to
+be transported with the charms of the griffiness.
+
+There was, however, a great chasm between the landing-place and the spot
+where the young lady was chained, and he found it impossible to pass;
+the cavern was very dark, but he saw enough of the figure of the
+griffiness to perceive, in spite of her petticoat, that she was the
+image of her father, and the most hideous heiress that the earth ever
+saw!
+
+However, he swallowed his disgust, and poured forth such a heap of
+compliments that the griffiness appeared entirely won.
+
+He implored her to fly with him the first moment she was unchained.
+
+"That is impossible," said she; "for my father never unchains me except
+in his presence, and then I cannot stir out of his sight."
+
+"The wretch!" cried Reynard, "what is to be done?"
+
+"Why, there is only one thing I know of," answered the griffiness,
+"which is this: I always make his soup for him, and if I could mix
+something in it that would put him fast to sleep before he had time to
+chain me up again I might slip down and carry off all the treasure below
+on my back."
+
+"Charming!" exclaimed Reynard; "what invention! what wit! I will go and
+get some poppies directly."
+
+"Alas!" said the griffiness, "poppies have no effect upon griffins. The
+only thing that can ever put my father fast to sleep is a nice young cat
+boiled up in his soup; it is astonishing what a charm that has upon him!
+But where to get a cat?--it must be a maiden cat too!"
+
+Reynard was a little startled at so singular an opiate. "But," thought
+he, "griffins are not like the rest of the world, and so rich an heiress
+is not to be won by ordinary means."
+
+"I do know a cat,--a maiden cat," said he, after a short pause; "but
+I feel a little repugnance at the thought of having her boiled in the
+griffin's soup. Would not a dog do as well?"
+
+"Ah, base thing!" said the griffiness, appearing to weep; "you are in
+love with the cat, I see it; go and marry her, poor dwarf that she is,
+and leave me to die of grief."
+
+In vain the fox protested that he did not care a straw for the cat;
+nothing could now appease the griffiness but his positive assurance that
+come what would poor puss should be brought to the cave and boiled for
+the griffin's soup.
+
+"But how will you get her here?" said the griffiness.
+
+"Ah, leave that to me," said Reynard. "Only put a basket out of the
+window and draw it up by a cord; the moment it arrives at the window, be
+sure to clap your claw on the cat at once, for she is terribly active."
+
+"Tush!" answered the heiress; "a pretty griffiness I should be if I did
+not know how to catch a cat!"
+
+"But this must be when your father is out?" said Reynard.
+
+"Certainly; he takes a stroll every evening at sunset."
+
+"Let it be to-morrow, then," said Reynard, impatient for the treasure.
+
+This being arranged, Reynard thought it time to decamp. He stole down
+the stairs again, and tried to filch some of the treasure by the way;
+but it was too heavy for him to carry, and he was forced to acknowledge
+to himself that it was impossible to get the treasure without taking the
+griffiness (whose back seemed prodigiously strong) into the bargain.
+
+He returned home to the cat, and when he entered her house, and saw how
+ordinary everything looked after the jewels in the griffin's cave, he
+quite wondered how he had ever thought the cat had the least pretensions
+to good looks. However, he concealed his wicked design, and his mistress
+thought he had never appeared so amiable.
+
+"Only guess," said he, "where I have been!--to our new neighbour the
+griffin; a most charming person, thoroughly affable, and quite the air
+of the court. As for that silly magpie, the griffin saw her character at
+once; and it was all a hoax about his daughter,--he has no daughter at
+all. You know, my dear, hoaxing is a fashionable amusement among the
+great. He says he has heard of nothing but your beauty, and on my
+telling him we were going to be married, he has insisted upon giving a
+great ball and supper in honour of the event. In fact, he is a gallant
+old fellow, and dying to see you. Of course, I was obliged to accept the
+invitation."
+
+"You could not do otherwise," said the unsuspecting young creature, who,
+as I before said, was very susceptible to flattery.
+
+"And only think how delicate his attentions are," said the fox. "As he
+is very badly lodged for a beast of his rank, and his treasure takes up
+the whole of the ground floor, he is forced to give the _fete_ in the
+upper story, so he hangs out a basket for his guests, and draws them up
+with his own claw. How condescending! But the great _are_ so amiable!"
+
+The cat, brought up in seclusion, was all delight at the idea of seeing
+such high life, and the lovers talked of nothing else all the next
+day,--when Reynard, towards evening, putting his head out of the window,
+saw his old friend the dog lying as usual and watching him very grimly.
+"Ah, that cursed creature! I had quite forgotten him; what is to be
+done now? He would make no bones of me if he once saw me set foot out of
+doors."
+
+With that, the fox began to cast in his head how he should get rid
+of his rival, and at length he resolved on a very notable project; he
+desired the cat to set out first, and wait for him at a turn in the road
+a little way off. "For," said he, "if we go together we shall certainly
+be insulted by the dog; and he will know that in the presence of a lady,
+the custom of a beast of my fashion will not suffer me to avenge the
+affront. But when I am alone, the creature is such a coward that he will
+not dare say his soul's his own; leave the door open and I'll follow
+immediately."
+
+The cat's mind was so completely poisoned against her cousin that she
+implicitly believed this account of his character; and accordingly, with
+many recommendations to her lover not to sully his dignity by getting
+into any sort of quarrel with the dog, she set off first.
+
+The dog went up to her very humbly, and begged her to allow him to say a
+few words to her; but she received him so haughtily, that his spirit was
+up; and he walked back to the tree more than ever enraged against his
+rival. But what was his joy when he saw that the cat had left the door
+open! "Now, wretch," thought he, "you cannot escape me!" So he walked
+briskly in at the back door. He was greatly surprised to find Reynard
+lying down in the straw, panting as if his heart would break, and
+rolling his eyes in the pangs of death.
+
+"Ah, friend," said the fox, with a faltering voice, "you are avenged,
+my hour is come; I am just going to give up the ghost: put your paw upon
+mine, and say you forgive me."
+
+Despite his anger, the generous dog could not set tooth on a dying foe.
+
+"You have served me a shabby trick," said he; "you have left me to
+starve in a hole, and you have evidently maligned me with my cousin:
+certainly I meant to be avenged on you; but if you are really dying,
+that alters the affair."
+
+"Oh, oh!" groaned the fox, very bitterly; "I am past help; the poor cat
+is gone for Doctor Ape, but he'll never come in time. What a thing it
+is to have a bad conscience on one's death-bed! But wait till the cat
+returns, and I'll do you full justice with her before I die."
+
+The good-natured dog was much moved at seeing his mortal enemy in such a
+state, and endeavoured as well as he could to console him.
+
+"Oh, oh!" said the fox; "I am so parched in the throat, I am burning;"
+and he hung his tongue out of his mouth, and rolled his eyes more
+fearfully than ever.
+
+"Is there no water here?" said the dog, looking round.
+
+"Alas, no!--yet stay! yes, now I think of it, there is some in that
+little hole in the wall; but how to get at it! It is so high that I
+can't, in my poor weak state, climb up to it; and I dare not ask such a
+favour of one I have injured so much."
+
+"Don't talk of it," said the dog: "but the hole's very small, I could
+not put my nose through it."
+
+"No; but if you just climb up on that stone, and thrust your paw into
+the hole, you can dip it into the water, and so cool my poor parched
+mouth. Oh, what a thing it is to have a bad conscience!"
+
+The dog sprang upon the stone, and, getting on his hind legs, thrust his
+front paw into the hole; when suddenly Reynard pulled a string that he
+had concealed under the straw, and the dog found his paw caught tight to
+the wall in a running noose.
+
+"Ah, rascal!" said he, turning round; but the fox leaped up gayly from
+the straw, and fastening the string with his teeth to a nail in the
+other end of the wall, walked out, crying, "Good-by, my dear friend;
+have a care how you believe hereafter in sudden conversions!" So he left
+the dog on his hind legs to take care of the house.
+
+Reynard found the cat waiting for him where he had appointed, and they
+walked lovingly together till they came to the cave. It was now dark,
+and they saw the basket waiting below; the fox assisted the poor cat
+into it. "There is only room for one," said he, "you must go first!" Up
+rose the basket; the fox heard a piteous mew, and no more.
+
+"So much for the griffin's soup!" thought he.
+
+He waited patiently for some time, when the griffiness, waving her claw
+from the window, said cheerfully, "All's right, my dear Reynard; my papa
+has finished his soup, and sleeps as sound as a rock! All the noise in
+the world would not wake him now, till he has slept off the boiled cat,
+which won't be these twelve hours. Come and assist me in packing up the
+treasure; I should be sorry to leave a single diamond behind."
+
+"So should I," quoth the fox. "Stay, I'll come round by the lower
+hole: why, the door's shut! pray, beautiful griffiness, open it to thy
+impatient adorer."
+
+"Alas, my father has hid the key! I never know where he places it. You
+must come up by the basket; see, I will lower it for you."
+
+The fox was a little loth to trust himself in the same conveyance that
+had taken his mistress to be boiled; but the most cautious grow rash
+when money's to be gained, and avarice can trap even a fox. So he put
+himself as comfortably as he could into the basket, and up he went in an
+instant. It rested, however, just before it reached the window, and the
+fox felt, with a slight shudder, the claw of the griffiness stroking his
+back.
+
+"Oh, what a beautiful coat!" quoth she, caressingly.
+
+"You are too kind," said the fox; "but you can feel it more at your
+leisure when I am once up. Make haste, I beseech you."
+
+"Oh, what a beautiful bushy tail! Never did I feel such a tail."
+
+"It is entirely at your service, sweet griffiness," said the fox; "but
+pray let me in. Why lose an instant?"
+
+"No, never did I feel such a tail! No wonder you are so successful with
+the ladies."
+
+"Ah, beloved griffiness, my tail is yours to eternity, but you pinch it
+a little too hard."
+
+Scarcely had he said this, when down dropped the basket, but not with
+the fox in it; he found himself caught by the tail, and dangling half
+way down the rock, by the help of the very same sort of pulley wherewith
+he had snared the dog. I leave you to guess his consternation; he yelped
+out as loud as he could,--for it hurts a fox exceedingly to be hanged by
+his tail with his head downwards,--when the door of the rock opened, and
+out stalked the griffin himself, smoking his pipe, with a vast crowd of
+all the fashionable beasts in the neighbourhood.
+
+"Oho, brother," said the bear, laughing fit to kill himself; "who ever
+saw a fox hanged by the tail before?"
+
+"You'll have need of a physician," quoth Doctor Ape.
+
+"A pretty match, indeed; a griffiness for such a creature as you!" said
+the goat, strutting by him.
+
+The fox grinned with pain, and said nothing. But that which hurt him
+most was the compassion of a dull fool of a donkey, who assured him with
+great gravity that he saw nothing at all to laugh at in his situation!
+
+"At all events," said the fox, at last, "cheated, gulled, betrayed as
+I am, I have played the same trick to the dog. Go and laugh at him,
+gentlemen; he deserves it as much as I can, I assure you."
+
+"Pardon me," said the griffin, taking the pipe out of his mouth; "one
+never laughs at the honest."
+
+"And see," said the bear, "here he is."
+
+And indeed the dog had, after much effort, gnawed the string in two, and
+extricated his paw; the scent of the fox had enabled him to track
+his footsteps, and here he arrived, burning for vengeance and finding
+himself already avenged.
+
+But his first thought was for his dear cousin. "Ah, where is she?" he
+cried movingly; "without doubt that villain Reynard has served her some
+scurvy trick."
+
+"I fear so indeed, my old friend," answered the griffin; "but don't
+grieve,--after all, she was nothing particular. You shall marry my
+daughter the griffiness, and succeed to all the treasure; ay, and all
+the bones that you once guarded so faithfully."
+
+"Talk not to me," said the faithful dog. "I want none of your treasure;
+and, though I don't mean to be rude, your griffiness may go to the
+devil. I will run over the world, but I will find my dear cousin."
+
+"See her then," said the griffin; and the beautiful cat, more beautiful
+than ever, rushed out of the cavern, and threw herself into the dog's
+paws.
+
+A pleasant scene this for the fox! He had skill enough in the female
+heart to know that it may excuse many little infidelities, but to be
+boiled alive for a griffin's soup--no, the offence was inexpiable.
+
+"You understand me, Mr. Reynard," said the griffin, "I have no daughter,
+and it was me you made love to. Knowing what sort of a creature a magpie
+is, I amused myself with hoaxing her,--the fashionable amusement at
+court, you know."
+
+The fox made a mighty struggle, and leaped on the ground, leaving his
+tail behind him. It did not grow again in a hurry.
+
+"See," said the griffin, as the beasts all laughed at the figure Reynard
+made running into the wood, "the dog beats the fox with the ladies,
+after all; and cunning as he is in everything else, the fox is the last
+creature that should ever think of making love!"
+
+
+
+"Charming!" cried Nymphalin, clasping her hands; "it is just the sort of
+story I like."
+
+"And I suppose, sir," said Nip, pertly, "that the dog and the cat lived
+very happily ever afterwards? Indeed the nuptial felicity of a dog and
+cat is proverbial!"
+
+"I dare say they lived much the same as any other married couple,"
+answered the prince.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII. THE TOMB OF A FATHER OF MANY CHILDREN.
+
+THE feast being now ended, as well as the story, the fairies wound their
+way homeward by a different path, till at length a red steady light
+glowed through the long basaltic arches upon them, like the Demon
+Hunters' fires in the Forest of Pines.
+
+The prince sobered in his pace. "You approach," said he, in a grave
+tone, "the greatest of our temples; you will witness the tomb of a
+mighty founder of our race!" An awe crept over the queen, in spite of
+herself. Tracking the fires in silence, they came to a vast space, in
+the midst of which was a long gray block of stone, such as the traveller
+finds amidst the dread silence of Egyptian Thebes.
+
+And on this stone lay the gigantic figure of a man,--dead, but not
+death-like, for invisible spells had preserved the flesh and the long
+hair for untold ages; and beside him lay a rude instrument of music, and
+at his feet was a sword and a hunter's spear; and above, the rock wound,
+hollowed and roofless, to the upper air, and daylight came through,
+sickened and pale, beneath red fires that burned everlastingly around
+him, on such simple altars as belong to a savage race. But the place was
+not solitary, for many motionless but not lifeless shapes sat on large
+blocks of stone beside the tomb. There was the wizard, wrapped in his
+long black mantle, and his face covered with his hands; there was
+the uncouth and deformed dwarf, gibbering to himself; there sat the
+household elf; there glowered from a gloomy rent in the wall, with
+glittering eyes and shining scale, the enormous dragon of the North. An
+aged crone in rags, leaning on a staff, and gazing malignantly on the
+visitors, with bleared but fiery eyes, stood opposite the tomb of the
+gigantic dead. And now the fairies themselves completed the group! But
+all was dumb and unutterably silent,--the silence that floats over
+some antique city of the desert, when, for the first time for a hundred
+centuries, a living foot enters its desolate remains; the silence that
+belongs to the dust of eld,--deep, solemn, palpable, and sinking into
+the heart with a leaden and death-like weight. Even the English fairy
+spoke not; she held her breath, and gazing on the tomb, she saw, in rude
+vast characters,--
+
+     THE TEUTON.
+
+"_We_ are all that remain of his religion!" said the prince, as they
+turned from the dread temple.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV. THE FAIRY'S CAVE, AND THE FAIRY'S WISH.
+
+IT was evening; and the fairies were dancing beneath the twilight star.
+
+"And why art thou sad, my violet?" said the prince; "for thine eyes seek
+the ground!"
+
+"Now that I have found thee," answered the queen, "and now that I feel
+what happy love is to a fairy, I sigh over that love which I have lately
+witnessed among mortals, but the bud of whose happiness already conceals
+the worm. For well didst thou say, my prince, that we are linked with a
+mysterious affinity to mankind, and whatever is pure and gentle amongst
+them speaks at once to our sympathy, and commands our vigils."
+
+"And most of all," said the German fairy, "are they who love under our
+watch; for love is the golden chain that binds all in the universe: love
+lights up alike the star and the glow-worm; and wherever there is
+love in men's lot, lies the secret affinity with men, and with things
+divine."
+
+"But with the human race," said Nymphalin, "there is no love that
+outlasts the hour, for either death ends, or custom alters. When the
+blossom comes to fruit, it is plucked and seen no more; and therefore,
+when I behold true love sentenced to an early grave, I comfort myself
+that I shall not at least behold the beauty dimmed, and the softness of
+the heart hardened into stone. Yet, my prince, while still the pulse
+can beat, and the warm blood flow, in that beautiful form which I have
+watched over of late, let me not desert her; still let my influence keep
+the sky fair, and the breezes pure; still let me drive the vapour from
+the moon, and the clouds from the faces of the stars; still let me fill
+her dreams with tender and brilliant images, and glass in the mirror
+of sleep the happiest visions of fairy-land; still let me pour over her
+eyes that magic, which suffers them to see no fault in one in whom she
+has garnered up her soul! And as death comes slowly on, still let me
+rob the spectre of its terror, and the grave of its sting; so that, all
+gently and unconscious to herself, life may glide into the Great Ocean
+where the shadows lie, and the spirit without guile may be severed from
+its mansion without pain!"
+
+The wish of the fairy was fulfilled.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV. THE BANKS OF THE RHINE.--FROM THE DRACHENFELS TO BROHL.--AN
+INCIDENT THAT SUFFICES IN THIS TALE FOR AN EPOCH.
+
+FROM the Drachenfels commences the true glory of the Rhine; and once
+more Gertrude's eyes conquered the languor that crept gradually over
+them as she gazed on the banks around.
+
+Fair blew the breeze, and freshly curled the waters; and Gertrude did
+not feel the vulture that had fixed its talons within her breast. The
+Rhine widens, like a broad lake, between the Drachenfels and Unkel;
+villages are scattered over the extended plain on the left; on the right
+is the Isle of Werth and the houses of Oberwinter; the hills are covered
+with vines; and still Gertrude turned back with a lingering gaze to the
+lofty crest of the Seven Hills.
+
+On, on--and the spires of Unkel rose above a curve in the banks, and
+on the opposite shore stretched those wondrous basaltic columns which
+extend to the middle of the river, and when the Rhine runs low, you
+may see them like an engulfed city beneath the waves. You then view the
+ruins of Okkenfels, and hear the voice of the pastoral Gasbach pouring
+its waters into the Rhine. From amidst the clefts of the rocks the vine
+peeps luxuriantly forth, and gives a richness and colouring to what
+Nature, left to herself, intended for the stern.
+
+"But turn your eye backward to the right," said Trevylyan; "those banks
+were formerly the special haunt of the bold robbers of the Rhine, and
+from amidst the entangled brakes that then covered the ragged cliffs
+they rushed upon their prey. In the gloomy canvas of those feudal days
+what vigorous and mighty images were crowded! A robber's life amidst
+these mountains, and beside this mountain stream, must have been the
+very poetry of the spot carried into action."
+
+They rested at Brohl, a small town between two mountains. On the summit
+of one you see the gray remains of Rheinech. There is something weird
+and preternatural about the aspect of this place; its soil betrays signs
+that in the former ages (from which even tradition is fast fading away)
+some volcano here exhausted its fires. The stratum of the earth is black
+and pitchy, and the springs beneath it are of a dark and graveolent
+water. Here the stream of the Brohlbach falls into the Rhine, and in
+a valley rich with oak and pine, and full of caverns, which are not
+without their traditionary inmates, stands the castle of Schweppenbourg,
+which our party failed not to visit.
+
+Gertrude felt fatigued on their return, and Trevylyan sat by her in the
+little inn, while Vane went forth, with the curiosity of science, to
+examine the strata of the soil.
+
+They conversed in the frankness of their plighted troth upon those
+topics which are only for lovers: upon the bright chapter in the history
+of their love; their first meeting; their first impressions; the little
+incidents in their present journey,--incidents noticed by themselves
+alone; that life _within_ life which two persons know together,--which
+one knows not without the other, which ceases to both the instant they
+are divided.
+
+"I know not what the love of others may be," said Gertrude, "but
+ours seems different from all of which I have read. Books tell us of
+jealousies and misconstructions, and the necessity of an absence, the
+sweetness of a quarrel; but we, dearest Albert, have had no experience
+of these passages in love. _We_ have never misunderstood each other;
+_we_ have no reconciliation to look back to. When was there ever
+occasion for me to ask forgiveness from you? Our love is made up only of
+one memory,--unceasing kindness! A harsh word, a wronging thought, never
+broke in upon the happiness we have felt and feel."
+
+"Dearest Gertrude," said Trevylyan, "that character of our love is
+caught from you; you, the soft, the gentle, have been its pervading
+genius; and the well has been smooth and pure, for you were the spirit
+that lived within its depths."
+
+And to such talk succeeded silence still more sweet,--the silence of
+the hushed and overflowing heart. The last voices of the birds, the sun
+slowly sinking in the west, the fragrance of descending dews, filled
+them with that deep and mysterious sympathy which exists between Love
+and Nature.
+
+It was after such a silence--a long silence, that seemed but as a
+moment--that Trevylyan spoke, but Gertrude answered not; and, yearning
+once more for her sweet voice, he turned and saw that she had fainted
+away.
+
+This was the first indication of the point to which her increasing
+debility had arrived. Trevylyan's heart stood still, and then beat
+violently; a thousand fears crept over him; he clasped her in his
+arms, and bore her to the open window. The setting sun fell upon her
+countenance, from which the play of the young heart and warm fancy
+had fled, and in its deep and still repose the ravages of disease were
+darkly visible. What were then his emotions! His heart was like stone;
+but he felt a rush as of a torrent to his temples: his eyes grew
+dizzy,--he was stunned by the greatness of his despair. For the last
+week he had taken hope for his companion; Gertrude had seemed so much
+stronger, for her happiness had given her a false support. And though
+there had been moments when, watching the bright hectic come and go,
+and her step linger, and the breath heave short, he had felt the hope
+suddenly cease, yet never had he known till now that fulness of anguish,
+that dread certainty of the worst, which the calm, fair face before him
+struck into his soul; and mixed with this agony as he gazed was all
+the passion of the most ardent love. For there she lay in his arms,
+the gentle breath rising from lips where the rose yet lingered, and
+the long, rich hair, soft and silken as an infant's, stealing from
+its confinement: everything that belonged to Gertrude's beauty was so
+inexpressibly soft and pure and youthful! Scarcely seventeen, she seemed
+much younger than she was; her figure had sunken from its roundness, but
+still how light, how lovely were its wrecks! the neck whiter than snow,
+the fair small hand! Her weight was scarcely felt in the arms of her
+lover; and he--what a contrast!--was in all the pride and flower of
+glorious manhood! His was the lofty brow, the wreathing hair, the
+haughty eye, the elastic form; and upon this frail, perishable thing
+had he fixed all his heart, all the hopes of his youth, the pride of his
+manhood, his schemes, his energies, his ambition!
+
+"Oh, Gertrude!" cried he, "is it--is it thus--is there indeed no hope?"
+
+And Gertrude now slowly recovering, and opening her eyes upon
+Trevylyan's face, the revulsion was so great, his emotions so
+overpowering, that, clasping her to his bosom, as if even death should
+not tear her away from him, he wept over her in an agony of tears; not
+those tears that relieve the heart, but the fiery rain of the internal
+storm, a sign of the fierce tumult that shook the very core of his
+existence, not a relief.
+
+Awakened to herself, Gertrude, in amazement and alarm, threw her arms
+around his neck, and, looking wistfully into his face, implored him to
+speak to her.
+
+"Was it my illness, love?" said she; and the music of her voice only
+conveyed to him the thought of how soon it would be dumb to him forever.
+"Nay," she continued winningly, "it was but the heat of the day; I am
+better now,--I am well; there is no cause to be alarmed for me!" and
+with all the innocent fondness of extreme youth, she kissed the burning
+tears from his eyes.
+
+There was a playfulness, an innocence in this poor girl, so unconscious
+as yet of her destiny, which rendered her fate doubly touching,
+and which to the stern Trevylyan, hackneyed by the world, made her
+irresistible charm; and now as she put aside her hair, and looked up
+gratefully, yet pleadingly, into his face, he could scarce refrain from
+pouring out to her the confession of his anguish and despair. But the
+necessity of self-control, the necessity of concealing from _her_ a
+knowledge which might only, by impressing her imagination, expedite her
+doom, while it would embitter to her mind the unconscious enjoyment of
+the hour, nerved and manned him. He checked by those violent efforts
+which only men can make, the evidence of his emotions; and endeavoured,
+by a rapid torrent of words, to divert her attention from a weakness,
+the causes of which he could not explain. Fortunately Vane soon
+returned, and Trevylyan, consigning Gertrude to his care, hastily left
+the room.
+
+Gertrude sank into a revery.
+
+"Ah, dear father!" said she, suddenly, and after a pause, "if I indeed
+were worse than I have thought myself of late, if I were to die now,
+what would Trevylyan feel? Pray God I may live for his sake!"
+
+"My child, do not talk thus; you are better, much better than you were.
+Ere the autumn ends, Trevylyan's happiness will be your lawful care. Do
+not think so despondently of yourself."
+
+"I thought not of myself," sighed Gertrude, "but of _him_!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI. GERTRUDE.--THE EXCURSION TO HAMMERSTEIN.--THOUGHTS.
+
+THE next day they visited the environs of Brohl. Gertrude was unusually
+silent; for her temper, naturally sunny and enthusiastic, was accustomed
+to light up everything she saw. Ah, once how bounding was that step! how
+undulating the young graces of that form! how playfully once danced the
+ringlets on that laughing cheek! But she clung to Trevylyan's proud form
+with a yet more endearing tenderness than was her wont, and hung yet
+more eagerly on his words; her hand sought his, and she often pressed it
+to her lips, and sighed as she did so. Something that she would not tell
+seemed passing within her, and sobered her playful mood. But there
+was this noticeable in Gertrude: whatever took away from her gayety
+increased her tenderness. The infirmities of her frame never touched her
+temper. She was kind, gentle, loving to the last.
+
+They had crossed to the opposite banks, to visit the Castle of
+Hammerstein. The evening was transparently serene and clear; and the
+warmth of the sun yet lingered upon the air, even though the twilight
+had passed and the moon risen, as their boat returned by a lengthened
+passage to the village. Broad and straight flows the Rhine in this part
+of its career. On one side lay the wooded village of Namedy, the hamlet
+of Fornech, backed by the blue rock of Kruezborner Ley, the mountains
+that shield the mysterious Brohl; and on the opposite shore they saw the
+mighty rock of Hammerstein, with the green and livid ruins sleeping
+in the melancholy moonlight. Two towers rose haughtily above the more
+dismantled wrecks. How changed since the alternate banners of the
+Spaniard and the Swede waved from their ramparts, in that great war in
+which the gorgeous Wallenstein won his laurels! And in its mighty
+calm flowed on the ancestral Rhine, the vessel reflected on its smooth
+expanse; and above, girded by thin and shadowy clouds, the moon cast her
+shadows upon rocks covered with verdure, and brought into a dim light
+the twin spires of Andernach, tranquil in the distance.
+
+"How beautiful is this hour!" said Gertrude, with a low voice, "surely
+we do not live enough in the night; one half the beauty of the world is
+slept away. What in the day can equal the holy calm, the loveliness,
+and the stillness which the moon now casts over the earth? These,"
+she continued, pressing Trevylyan's hand, "are hours to remember; and
+_you_--will you ever forget them?"
+
+Something there is in recollections of such times and scenes that seem
+not to belong to real life, but are rather an episode in its history;
+they are like some wandering into a more ideal world; they refuse to
+blend with our ruder associations; they live in us, apart and alone, to
+be treasured ever, but not lightly to be recalled. There are none living
+to whom we can confide them,--who can sympathize with what then we
+felt? It is this that makes poetry, and that page which we create as a
+confidant to ourselves, necessary to the thoughts that weigh upon the
+breast. We write, for our writing is our friend, the inanimate paper is
+our confessional; we pour forth on it the thoughts that we could tell
+to no private ear, and are relieved, are consoled. And if genius has
+one prerogative dearer than the rest, it is that which enables it to do
+honour to the dead,--to revive the beauty, the virtue that are no more;
+to wreathe chaplets that outlive the day around the urn which were else
+forgotten by the world!
+
+When the poet mourns, in his immortal verse, for the dead, tell me not
+that fame is in his mind! It is filled by thoughts, by emotions that
+shut out the living. He is breathing to his genius--to that sole and
+constant friend which has grown up with him from his cradle--the sorrows
+too delicate for human sympathy! and when afterwards he consigns the
+confession to the crowd, it is indeed from the hope of honour--, honour
+not for himself, but for the being that is no more.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII. LETTER FROM TREVYLYAN TO -----.
+
+
+                         COBLENTZ.
+
+I AM obliged to you, my dear friend, for your letter; which, indeed, I
+have not, in the course of our rapid journey, had the leisure, perhaps
+the heart, to answer before. But we are staying in this town for some
+days, and I write now in the early morning, ere any one else in our
+hotel is awake. Do not tell me of adventure, of politics, of intrigues;
+my nature is altered. I threw down your letter, animated and brilliant
+as it was, with a sick and revolted heart. But I am now in somewhat less
+dejected spirits. Gertrude is better,--yes, really better; there is a
+physician here who gives me hope; my care is perpetually to amuse,
+and never to fatigue her,--never to permit her thoughts to rest upon
+herself. For I have imagined that illness cannot, at least in the
+unexhausted vigour of our years, fasten upon us irremediably unless we
+feed it with our own belief in its existence. You see men of the
+most delicate frames engaged in active and professional pursuits, who
+literally have no time for illness. Let them become idle, let them take
+care of themselves, let them think of their health--and they die! The
+rust rots the steel which use preserves; and, thank Heaven, although
+Gertrude, once during our voyage, seemed roused, by an inexcusable
+imprudence of emotion on my part, into some suspicion of her state,
+yet it passed away; for she thinks rarely of herself,--I am ever in her
+thoughts and seldom from her side, and you know, too, the sanguine and
+credulous nature of her disease. But, indeed, I now hope more than I
+have done since I knew her.
+
+When, after an excited and adventurous life which had comprised so
+many changes in so few years, I found myself at rest in the bosom of a
+retired and remote part of the country, and Gertrude and her father were
+my only neighbours, I was in that state of mind in which the passions,
+recruited by solitude, are accessible to the purer and more divine
+emotions. I was struck by Gertrude's beauty, I was charmed by
+her simplicity. Worn in the usages and fashions of the world, the
+inexperience, the trustfulness, the exceeding youth of her mind, charmed
+and touched me; but when I saw the stamp of our national disease in
+her bright eye and transparent cheek, I felt my love chilled while my
+interest was increased. I fancied myself safe, and I went daily into the
+danger; I imagined so pure a light could not burn, and I was consumed.
+Not till my anxiety grew into pain, my interest into terror, did I know
+the secret of my own heart; and at the moment that I discovered this
+secret, I discovered also that Gertrude loved me! What a destiny was
+mine! what happiness, yet what misery! Gertrude was my own--but for what
+period? I might touch that soft hand, I might listen to the tenderest
+confession from that silver voice; but all the while my heart spoke of
+passion, my reason whispered of death. You know that I am considered
+of a cold and almost callous nature, that I am not easily moved into
+affection; but my very pride bowed me here into weakness. There was so
+soft a demand upon my protection, so constant an appeal to my anxiety.
+You know that my father's quick temper burns within me, that I am hot,
+and stern, and exacting; but one hasty word, one thought of myself,
+here were inexcusable. So brief a time might be left for her earthly
+happiness,--could I embitter one moment? All that feeling of uncertainty
+which should in prudence have prevented my love, increased it almost to
+a preternatural excess. That which it is said mothers feel for an only
+child in sickness, I feel for Gertrude. _My_ existence is not!--I exist
+in her!
+
+Her illness increased upon her at home; they have recommended travel.
+She chose the course we were to pursue, and, fortunately, it was so
+familiar to me, that I have been enabled to brighten the way. I am ever
+on the watch that she shall not know a weary hour; you would almost
+smile to see how I have roused myself from my habitual silence, and to
+find me--me, the scheming and worldly actor of real life--plunged back
+into the early romance of my boyhood, and charming the childish delight
+of Gertrude with the invention of fables and the traditions of the
+Rhine.
+
+But I believe that I have succeeded in my object; if not, what is left
+to me? _Gertrude is better!_--In that sentence what visions of hope dawn
+upon me! I wish you could have seen Gertrude before we left England; you
+might then have understood my love for her. Not that we have not, in
+the gay capitals of Europe, paid our brief vows to forms more richly
+beautiful; not that we have not been charmed by a more brilliant genius,
+by a more tutored grace. But there is that in Gertrude which I never
+saw before,--the union of the childish and the intellectual, an ethereal
+simplicity, a temper that is never dimmed, a tenderness--O God! let me
+not speak of her virtues, for they only tell me how little she is suited
+to the earth.
+
+You will direct to me at Mayence, whither our course now leads us, and
+your friendship will find indulgence for a letter that is so little a
+reply to yours.
+
+     Your sincere friend,
+
+          A. G. TREVYLYAN.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII. COBLENTZ.--EXCURSION TO THE MOUNTAINS OF TAUNUS; ROMAN
+TOWER IN THE VALLEY OF EHRENBREITSTEIN.--TRAVEL, ITS PLEASURES ESTIMATED
+DIFFERENTLY BY THE YOUNG AND THE OLD.--THE STUDENT OF HEIDELBERG; HIS
+CRITICISMS ON GERMAN LITERATURE.
+
+GERTRUDE had, indeed, apparently rallied during their stay at Coblentz;
+and a French physician established in the town (who adopted a peculiar
+treatment for consumption, which had been attended with no ordinary
+success) gave her father and Trevylyan a sanguine assurance of her
+ultimate recovery. The time they passed within the white walls of
+Coblentz was, therefore, the happiest and most cheerful part of their
+pilgrimage. They visited the various places in its vicinity; but the
+excursion which most delighted Gertrude was one to the mountains of
+Taunus.
+
+They took advantage of a beautiful September day; and, crossing the
+river, commenced their tour from the Thal, or valley of Ehrenbreitstein.
+They stopped on their way to view the remains of a Roman tower in the
+valley; for the whole of that district bears frequent witness of the
+ancient conquerors of the world. The mountains of Taunus are still
+intersected with the roads which the Romans cut to the mines that
+supplied them with silver. Roman urns and inscribed stones are often
+found in these ancient places. The stones, inscribed with names utterly
+unknown,--a type of the uncertainty of fame! the urns, from which the
+dust is gone, a very satire upon life!
+
+Lone, gray, and mouldering, this tower stands aloft in the valley; and
+the quiet Vane smiled to see the uniform of a modern Prussian, with his
+white belt and lifted bayonet, by the spot which had once echoed to the
+clang of the Roman arms. The soldier was paying a momentary court to
+a country damsel, whose straw hat and rustic dress did not stifle the
+vanity of the sex; and this rude and humble gallantry, in that spot, was
+another moral in the history of human passions. Above, the ramparts of
+a modern rule frowned down upon the solitary tower, as if in the vain
+insolence with which present power looks upon past decay,--the living
+race upon ancestral greatness. And indeed, in this respect, rightly!
+for modern times have no parallel to that degradation of human dignity
+stamped upon the ancient world by the long sway of the Imperial Harlot,
+all slavery herself, yet all tyranny to earth; and, like her own
+Messalina, at once a prostitute and an empress!
+
+They continued their course by the ancient baths of Ems, and keeping by
+the banks of the romantic Lahn, arrived at Holzapfel.
+
+"Ah," said Gertrude, one day, as they proceeded to the springs of the
+Carlovingian Wiesbaden, "surely perpetual travel with those we love must
+be the happiest state of existence! If home has its comforts, it also
+has its cares; but here we are at home with Nature, and the minor evils
+vanish almost before they are felt."
+
+"True," said Trevylyan, "we escape from 'THE LITTLE,' which is the curse
+of life; the small cares that devour us up, the grievances of the
+day. We are feeding the divinest part of our nature,--the appetite to
+admire."
+
+"But of all things wearisome," said Vane, "a succession of changes is
+the most. There can be a monotony in variety itself. As the eye aches in
+gazing long at the new shapes of the kaleidoscope, the mind aches at the
+fatigue of a constant alternation of objects; and we delightedly return
+to 'REST,' which is to life what green is to the earth."
+
+In the course of their sojourn among the various baths of Taunus, they
+fell in, by accident, with a German student of Heidelberg, who was
+pursuing the pedestrian excursions so peculiarly favoured by his tribe.
+He was tamer and gentler than the general herd of those young wanderers,
+and our party were much pleased with his enthusiasm, because it was
+unaffected. He had been in England, and spoke its language almost as a
+native.
+
+"Our literature," said he, one day, conversing with Vane, "has two
+faults,--we are too subtle and too homely. We do not speak enough to the
+broad comprehension of mankind; we are forever making abstract qualities
+of flesh and blood. Our critics have turned your 'Hamlet' into an
+allegory; they will not even allow Shakspeare to paint mankind, but
+insist on his embodying qualities. They turn poetry into metaphysics,
+and truth seems to them shallow, unless an allegory, which is false, can
+be seen at the bottom. Again, too, with our most imaginative works
+we mix a homeliness that we fancy touching, but which in reality is
+ludicrous. We eternally step from the sublime to the ridiculous; we want
+taste."
+
+"But not, I hope, French taste. Do not govern a Goethe, or even a
+Richter, by a Boileau!" said Trevylyan.
+
+"No; but Boileau's taste was false. Men who have the reputation for good
+taste often acquire it solely because of the want of genius. By taste I
+mean a quick tact into the harmony of composition, the art of making the
+whole consistent with its parts, the _concinnitas_. Schiller alone of
+our authors has it. But we are fast mending; and by following shadows so
+long we have been led at last to the substance. Our past literature
+is to us what astrology was to science,--false but ennobling, and
+conducting us to the true language of the intellectual heaven."
+
+Another time the scenes they passed, interspersed with the ruins of
+frequent monasteries, leading them to converse on the monastic life, and
+the various additions time makes to religion, the German said: "Perhaps
+one of the works most wanted in the world is the history of Religion. We
+have several books, it is true, on the subject, but none that supply the
+want I allude to. A German ought to write it; for it is, probably, only
+a German that would have the requisite learning. A German only, too,
+is likely to treat the mighty subject with boldness, and yet with
+veneration; without the shallow flippancy of the Frenchman, without the
+timid sectarianism of the English. It would be a noble task, to
+trace the winding mazes of antique falsehood; to clear up the first
+glimmerings of divine truth; to separate Jehovah's word from man's
+invention; to vindicate the All-merciful from the dread creeds of
+bloodshed and of fear: and, watching in the great Heaven of Truth the
+dawning of the True Star, follow it--like the Magi of the East--till
+it rested above the real God. Not indeed presuming to such a task,"
+continued the German, with a slight blush, "I have about me a humble
+essay, which treats only of one part of that august subject; which,
+leaving to a loftier genius the history of the true religion, may
+be considered as the history of a false one,--of such a creed as
+Christianity supplanted in the North; or such as may perhaps be found
+among the fiercest of the savage tribes. It is a fiction--as you may
+conceive; but yet, by a constant reference to the early records of human
+learning, I have studied to weave it up from truths. If you would like
+to hear it,--it is very short--"
+
+"Above all things," said Vane; and the German drew a manuscript neatly
+bound from his pocket.
+
+"After having myself criticised so insolently the faults of our national
+literature," said he, smiling, "you will have a right to criticise the
+faults that belong to so humble a disciple of it; but you will see that,
+though I have commenced with the allegorical or the supernatural, I
+have endeavoured to avoid the subtlety of conceit, and the obscurity of
+design, which I blame in the wilder of our authors. As to the style, I
+wished to suit it to the subject; it ought to be, unless I err, rugged
+and massive,--hewn, as it were, out of the rock of primeval language.
+But you, madam--doubtless you do not understand German?"
+
+"Her mother was an Austrian," said Vane; "and she knows at least enough
+of the tongue to understand you; so pray begin."
+
+Without further preface, the German then commenced the story, which the
+reader will find translated* in the next chapter.
+
+  * Nevertheless I beg to state seriously, that the German student
+    is an impostor; and that he has no right to wrest the parentage
+    of the fiction from the true author.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX. THE FALLEN STAR; OR THE HISTORY OF A FALSE RELIGION.
+
+AND the STARS sat, each on his ruby throne, and watched with sleepless
+eyes upon the world. It was the night ushering in the new year, a night
+on which every star receives from the archangel that then visits the
+universal galaxy its peculiar charge. The destinies of men and empires
+are then portioned forth for the coming year, and, unconsciously to
+ourselves, our fates become minioned to the stars. A hushed and solemn
+night is that in which the dark gates of time open to receive the ghost
+of the Dead Year, and the young and radiant Stranger rushes forth from
+the clouded chasms of Eternity. On that night, it is said that there are
+given to the spirits that we see not a privilege and a power; the dead
+are troubled in their forgotten graves, and men feast and laugh, while
+demon and angel are contending for their doom.
+
+It was night in heaven; all was unutterably silent; the music of the
+spheres had paused, and not a sound came from the angels of the stars;
+and they who sat upon those shining thrones were three thousand and ten,
+each resembling each. Eternal youth clothed their radiant limbs
+with celestial beauty, and on their faces was written the dread of
+calm,--that fearful stillness which feels not, sympathizes not with the
+doom over which it broods. War, tempest, pestilence, the rise of
+empires and their fall, they ordain, they compass, unexultant and
+uncompassionate. The fell and thrilling crimes that stalk abroad when
+the world sleeps,--the parricide with his stealthy step and horrent brow
+and lifted knife; the unwifed mother that glides out and looks behind,
+and behind, and shudders, and casts her babe upon the river, and hears
+the wail, and pities not--the splash, and does not tremble,--these the
+starred kings behold, to these they lead the unconscious step; but
+the guilt blanches not their lustre, neither doth remorse wither their
+unwrinkled youth. Each star wore a kingly diadem; round the loins of
+each was a graven belt, graven with many and mighty signs; and the foot
+of each was on a burning ball, and the right arm drooped over the knee
+as they bent down from their thrones. They moved not a limb or feature,
+save the finger of the right hand, which ever and anon moved slowly
+pointing, and regulated the fates of men as the hand of the dial speaks
+the career of time.
+
+One only of the three thousand and ten wore not the same aspect as his
+crowned brethren,--a star smaller than the rest, and less luminous; the
+countenance of this star was not impressed with the awful calmness of
+the others, but there were sullenness and discontent upon his mighty
+brow.
+
+And this star said to himself, "Behold! I am created less glorious
+than my fellows, and the archangel apportions not to me the same lordly
+destinies. Not for me are the dooms of kings and bards, the rulers of
+empires, or, yet nobler, the swayers and harmonists of souls. Sluggish
+are the spirits and base the lot of the men I am ordained to lead
+through a dull life to a fameless grave. And wherefore? Is it mine own
+fault, or is it the fault which is not mine, that I was woven of beams
+less glorious than my brethren? Lo! when the archangel comes, I will
+bow not my crowned head to his decrees. I will speak, as the ancestral
+Lucifer before me: _he_ rebelled because of his glory, _I_ because of
+my obscurity; _he_ from the ambition of pride, and _I_ from its
+discontent."
+
+And while the star was thus communing with himself, the upward heavens
+were parted as by a long river of light, and adown that stream swiftly,
+and without sound, sped the archangel visitor of the stars. His vast
+limbs floated in the liquid lustre, and his outspread wings, each plume
+the glory of a sun, bore him noiselessly along; but thick clouds veiled
+his lustre from the eyes of mortals, and while above all was bathed in
+the serenity of his splendour, tempest and storm broke below over the
+children of the earth: "He bowed the heavens and came down, and darkness
+was under his feet."
+
+And the stillness on the faces of the stars became yet more still, and
+the awfulness was humbled into awe. Right above their thrones paused
+the course of the archangel; and his wings stretched from east to west,
+overshadowing with the shadow of light the immensity of space. Then
+forth, in the shining stillness, rolled the dread music of his voice:
+and, fulfilling the heraldry of God, to each star he appointed the duty
+and the charge; and each star bowed his head yet lower as he heard the
+fiat, while his throne rocked and trembled at the Majesty of the
+Word. But at last, when each of the brighter stars had, in succession,
+received the mandate, and the viceroyalty over the nations of the earth,
+the purple and diadems of kings, the archangel addressed the lesser star
+as he sat apart from his fellows.
+
+"Behold," said the archangel, "the rude tribes of the North, the
+fishermen of the river that flows beneath, and the hunters of the
+forests that darken the mountain tops with verdure! these be thy charge,
+and their destinies thy care. Nor deem thou, O Star of the sullen beams,
+that thy duties are less glorious than the duties of thy brethren; for
+the peasant is not less to thy master and mine than the monarch; nor
+doth the doom of empires rest more upon the sovereign than on the herd.
+The passions and the heart are the dominion of the stars,--a mighty
+realm; nor less mighty beneath the hide that garbs the shepherd than
+under the jewelled robes of the eastern kings."
+
+Then the star lifted his pale front from his breast, and answered the
+archangel.
+
+"Lo!" he said, "ages have passed, and each year thou hast appointed me
+to the same ignoble charge. Release me, I pray thee, from the duties
+that I scorn; or, if thou wilt that the lowlier race of men be my
+charge, give unto me the charge not of many, but of one, and suffer
+me to breathe into him the desire that spurns the valleys of life, and
+ascends its steeps. If the humble are given to me, let there be amongst
+them one whom I may lead on the mission that shall abase the proud; for,
+behold, O Appointer of the Stars, as I have sat for uncounted years upon
+my solitary throne, brooding over the things beneath, my spirit hath
+gathered wisdom from the changes that shift below. Looking upon the
+tribes of earth, I have seen how the multitude are swayed, and tracked
+the steps that lead weakness into power; and fain would I be the ruler
+of one who, if abased, shall aspire to rule."
+
+As a sudden cloud over the face of noon was the change on the brow of
+the archangel.
+
+"Proud and melancholy star," said the herald, "thy wish would war with
+the courses of the invisible DESTINY, that, throned far above, sways
+and harmonizes all,--the source from which the lesser rivers of fate are
+eternally gushing through the heart of the universe of things. Thinkest
+thou that thy wisdom, of itself, can lead the peasant to become a king?"
+
+And the crowned star gazed undauntedly on the face of the archangel, and
+answered,--
+
+"Yea! Grant me but one trial!"
+
+Ere the archangel could reply, the farthest centre of the Heaven was
+rent as by a thunderbolt; and the divine herald covered his face with
+his hands, and a voice low and sweet and mild, with the consciousness of
+unquestionable power, spoke forth to the repining star.
+
+"The time has arrived when thou mayest have thy wish. Below thee, upon
+yon solitary plain, sits a mortal, gloomy as thyself, who, born under
+thy influence, may be moulded to thy will."
+
+The voice ceased as the voice of a dream. Silence was over the seas of
+space, and the archangel, once more borne aloft, slowly soared away into
+the farther heaven, to promulgate the divine bidding to the stars of
+far-distant worlds. But the soul of the discontented star exulted within
+itself; and it said, "I will call forth a king from the valley of the
+herdsman that shall trample on the kings subject to my fellows, and
+render the charge of the contemned star more glorious than the minions
+of its favoured brethren; thus shall I revenge neglect! thus shall I
+prove my claim hereafter to the heritage of the great of earth!"
+
+.......
+
+At that time, though the world had rolled on for ages, and the
+pilgrimage of man had passed through various states of existence, which
+our dim traditionary knowledge has not preserved, yet the condition of
+our race in the northern hemisphere was then what we, in our imperfect
+lore, have conceived to be among the earliest.
+
+.......
+
+By a rude and vast pile of stones, the masonry of arts forgotten, a
+lonely man sat at midnight, gazing upon the heavens. A storm had just
+passed from the earth; the clouds had rolled away, and the high stars
+looked down upon the rapid waters of the Rhine; and no sound save the
+roar of the waves, and the dripping of the rain from the mighty trees,
+was heard around the ruined pile. The white sheep lay scattered on the
+plain, and slumber with them. He sat watching over the herd, lest the
+foes of a neighbouring tribe seized them unawares, and thus he communed
+with himself: "The king sits upon his throne, and is honoured by a
+warrior race, and the warrior exults in the trophies he has won; the
+step of the huntsman is bold upon the mountain-top, and his name is
+sung at night round the pine-fires by the lips of the bard; and the bard
+himself hath honour in the hall. But I, who belong not to the race of
+kings, and whose limbs can bound not to the rapture of war, nor scale
+the eyries of the eagle and the haunts of the swift stag; whose hand
+cannot string the harp, and whose voice is harsh in the song,--_I_ have
+neither honour nor command, and men bow not the head as I pass along;
+yet do I feel within me the consciousness of a great power that should
+rule my species--not obey. My eye pierces the secret hearts of men. I
+see their thoughts ere their lips proclaim them; and I scorn, while I
+see, the weakness and the vices which I never shared. I laugh at the
+madness of the warrior; I mock within my soul at the tyranny of kings.
+Surely there is something in man's nature more fitted to command, more
+worthy of renown, than the sinews of the arm, or the swiftness of the
+feet, or the accident of birth!"
+
+As Morven, the son of Osslah, thus mused within himself, still looking
+at the heavens, the solitary man beheld a star suddenly shooting from
+its place, and speeding through the silent air, till it suddenly paused
+right over the midnight river, and facing the inmate of the pile of
+stones.
+
+As he gazed upon the star, strange thoughts grew slowly over him. He
+drank, as it were, from its solemn aspect the spirit of a great design.
+A dark cloud rapidly passing over the earth snatched the star from his
+sight, but left to his awakened mind the thoughts and the dim scheme
+that had come to him as he gazed.
+
+When the sun arose, one of his brethren relieved him of his charge over
+the herd, and he went away, but not to his father's home. Musingly he
+plunged into the dark and leafless recesses of the winter forest; and
+shaped out of his wild thoughts, more palpably and clearly, the outline
+of his daring hope. While thus absorbed he heard a great noise in the
+forest, and, fearful lest the hostile tribe of the Alrich might pierce
+that way, he ascended one of the loftiest pine-trees, to whose perpetual
+verdure the winter had not denied the shelter he sought; and, concealed
+by its branches, he looked anxiously forth in the direction whence the
+noise had proceeded. And IT came,--it came with a tramp and a crash, and
+a crushing tread upon the crunched boughs and matted leaves that strewed
+the soil; it came, it came,--the monster that the world now holds
+no more,--the mighty Mammoth of the North! Slowly it moved its huge
+strength along, and its burning eyes glittered through the gloomy shade;
+its jaws, falling apart, showed the grinders with which it snapped
+asunder the young oaks of the forest; and the vast tusks, which, curved
+downward to the midst of its massive limbs, glistened white and ghastly,
+curdling the blood of one destined hereafter to be the dreadest ruler of
+the men of that distant age.
+
+The livid eyes of the monster fastened on the form of the herdsman, even
+amidst the thick darkness of the pine. It paused, it glared upon him;
+its jaws opened, and a low deep sound, as of gathering thunder, seemed
+to the son of Osslah as the knell of a dreadful grave. But after glaring
+on him for some moments, it again, and calmly, pursued its terrible
+way, crashing the boughs as it marched along, till the last sound of its
+heavy tread died away upon his ear.*
+
+  * _The Critic_ will perceive that this sketch of the beast, whose
+    race has perished, is mainly intended to designate the remote
+    period of the world in which the tale is cast.
+
+Ere yet, however, Morven summoned the courage to descend the tree,
+he saw the shining of arms through the bare branches of the wood, and
+presently a small band of the hostile Alrich came into sight. He was
+perfectly hidden from them; and, listening as they passed him, he heard
+one say to another,--
+
+"The night covers all things; why attack them by day?"
+
+And he who seemed the chief of the band, answered,--
+
+"Right. To-night, when they sleep in their city, we will upon them. Lo!
+they will be drenched in wine, and fall like sheep into our hands."
+
+"But where, O chief," said a third of the band, "shall our men hide
+during the day? for there are many hunters among the youth of the
+Oestrich tribe, and they might see us in the forest unawares, and arm
+their race against our coming."
+
+"I have prepared for that," answered the chief. "Is not the dark
+cavern of Oderlin at hand? Will it not shelter us from the eyes of the
+victims?"
+
+Then the men laughed, and, shouting, they went their way adown the
+forest.
+
+When they were gone, Morven cautiously descended, and, striking into a
+broad path, hastened to a vale that lay between the forest and the river
+in which was the city where the chief of his country dwelt. As he passed
+by the warlike men, giants in that day, who thronged the streets (if
+streets they might be called), their half garments parting from their
+huge limbs, the quiver at their backs, and the hunting spear in their
+hand, they laughed and shouted out, and, pointing to him, cried, "Morven
+the woman! Morven the cripple! what dost thou among men?"
+
+For the son of Osslah was small in stature and of slender strength, and
+his step had halted from his birth; but he passed through the warriors
+unheedingly. At the outskirts of the city he came upon a tall pile in
+which some old men dwelt by themselves, and counselled the king when
+times of danger, or when the failure of the season, the famine or the
+drought, perplexed the ruler, and clouded the savage fronts of his
+warrior tribe.
+
+They gave the counsels of experience, and when experience failed, they
+drew, in their believing ignorance, assurances and omens from the winds
+of heaven, the changes of the moon, and the flights of the wandering
+birds. Filled--by the voices of the elements, and the variety of
+mysteries, which ever shift along the face of things, unsolved by the
+wonder which pauses not, the fear which believes, and that eternal
+reasoning of all experience, which assigns causes to effect--with
+the notion of superior powers, they assisted their ignorance by the
+conjectures of their superstition. But as yet they knew no craft
+and practised no _voluntary_ delusion; they trembled too much at the
+mysteries which had created their faith to seek to belie them. They
+counselled as they believed, and the bold dream of governing their
+warriors and their kings by the wisdom of deceit had never dared to
+cross men thus worn and gray with age.
+
+The son of Osslah entered the vast pile with a fearless step, and
+approached the place at the upper end of the hall where the old men sat
+in conclave.
+
+"How, base-born and craven-limbed!" cried the eldest, who had been
+a noted warrior in his day, "darest thou enter unsummoned amidst the
+secret councils of the wise men? Knowest thou not, scatterling! that the
+penalty is death?"
+
+"Slay me, if thou wilt," answered Morven, "but hear! As I sat last night
+in the ruined palace of our ancient kings, tending, as my father bade
+me, the sheep that grazed around, lest the fierce tribe of Alrich should
+descend unseen from the mountains upon the herd, a storm came darkly on;
+and when the storm had ceased, and I looked above on the sky, I saw a
+star descend from its height towards me, and a voice from the star said:
+'Son of Osslah, leave thy herd and seek the council of the wise men
+and say unto them, that they take thee as one of their number, or that
+sudden will be the destruction of them and theirs.' But I had courage
+to answer the voice, and I said, 'Mock not the poor son of the herdsman.
+Behold, they will kill me if I utter so rash a word, for I am poor and
+valueless in the eyes of the tribe of Oestrich, and the great in deeds
+and the gray of hair alone sit in the council of the wise men.'
+
+"Then the voice said: 'Do my bidding, and I will give thee a token that
+thou comest from the Powers that sway the seasons and sail upon the
+eagles of the winds. Say unto the wise men this very night if they
+refuse to receive thee of their band, evil shall fall upon them, and the
+morrow shall dawn in blood.'
+
+"Then the voice ceased, and the cloud passed over the star; and I
+communed with myself, and came, O dread father, mournfully unto you; for
+I feared that ye would smite me because of my bold tongue, and that ye
+would sentence me to the death, in that I asked what may scarce be given
+even to the sons of kings."
+
+Then the grim elders looked one at the other, and marvelled much, nor
+knew they what answer they should make to the herdsman's son.
+
+At length one of the wise men said, "Surely there must be truth in the
+son of Osslah, for he would not dare to falsify the great lights of
+Heaven. If he had given unto men the words of the star, verily we
+might doubt the truth. But who would brave the vengeance of the gods of
+night?"
+
+Then the elders shook their heads approvingly; but one answered and
+said,--
+
+"Shall we take the herdsman's son as our equal? No!" The name of the man
+who thus answered was Darvan, and his words were pleasing to the elders.
+
+But Morven spoke out: "Of a truth, O councillors of kings, I look not to
+be an equal with yourselves. Enough if I tend the gates of your palace,
+and serve you as the son of Osslah may serve;" and he bowed his head
+humbly as he spoke.
+
+Then said the chief of the elders, for he was wiser than the others,
+"But how wilt thou deliver us from the evil that is to come? Doubtless
+the star has informed thee of the service thou canst render to us if we
+take thee into our palace, as well as the ill that will fall on us if we
+refuse."
+
+Morven answered meekly, "Surely, if thou acceptest thy servant, the star
+will teach him that which may requite thee; but as yet he knows only
+what he has uttered."
+
+Then the sages bade him withdraw, and they communed with themselves, and
+they differed much; but though fierce men, and bold at the war-cry of a
+human foe, they shuddered at the prophecy of a star. So they resolved
+to take the son of Osslah, and suffer him to keep the gate of the
+council-hall.
+
+He heard their decree and bowed his head, and went to the gate, and sat
+down by it in silence.
+
+And the sun went down in the west, and the first stars of the twilight
+began to glimmer, when Morven started from his seat, and a trembling
+appeared to seize his limbs. His lips foamed; an agony and a fear
+possessed him; he writhed as a man whom the spear of a foeman has
+pierced with a mortal wound, and suddenly fell upon his face on the
+stony earth.
+
+The elders approached him; wondering, they lifted him up. He slowly
+recovered as from a swoon; his eyes rolled wildly.
+
+"Heard ye not the voice of the star?" he said.
+
+And the chief of the elders answered, "Nay, we heard no sound."
+
+Then Morven sighed heavily.
+
+"To me only the word was given. Summon instantly, O councillors of the
+king, summon the armed men, and all the youth of the tribe, and let them
+take the sword and the spear, and follow thy servant! For lo! the star
+hath announced to him that the foe shall fall into our hands as the wild
+beasts of the forests."
+
+The son of Osslah spoke with the voice of command, and the elders were
+amazed. "Why pause ye?" he cried. "Do the gods of the night lie? On my
+head rest the peril if I deceive ye."
+
+Then the elders communed together; and they went forth and summoned the
+men of arms, and all the young of the tribe; and each man took the sword
+and the spear, and Morven also. And the son of Osslah walked first,
+still looking up at the star, and he motioned them to be silent, and
+moved with a stealthy step.
+
+So they went through the thickest of the forest, till they came to the
+mouth of a great cave, overgrown with aged and matted trees, and it was
+called the Cave of Oberlin; and he bade the leaders place the armed men
+on either side the cave, to the right and to the left, among the bushes.
+
+So they watched silently till the night deepened, when they heard a
+noise in the cave and the sound of feet, and forth came an armed man;
+and the spear of Morven pierced him, and he fell dead at the mouth of
+the cave. Another and another, and both fell! Then loud and long was
+heard the war-cry of Alrich, and forth poured, as a stream over a narrow
+bed, the river of armed men. And the sons of Oestrich fell upon them,
+and the foe were sorely perplexed and terrified by the suddenness of the
+battle and the darkness of the night; and there was a great slaughter.
+
+And when the morning came, the children of Oestrich counted the slain,
+and found the leader of Alrich and the chief men of the tribe amongst
+them; and great was the joy thereof. So they went back in triumph to the
+city, and they carried the brave son of Osslah on their shoulders, and
+shouted forth, "Glory to the servant of the star."
+
+And Morven dwelt in the council of the wise men.
+
+Now the king of the tribe had one daughter, and she was stately amongst
+the women of the tribe, and fair to look upon. And Morven gazed upon her
+with the eyes of love, but he did not dare to speak.
+
+Now the son of Osslah laughed secretly at the foolishness of men; he
+loved them not, for they had mocked him; he honoured them not, for he
+had blinded the wisest of their leaders. He shunned their feasts and
+merriment, and lived apart and solitary. The austerity of his life
+increased the mysterious homage which his commune with the stars had won
+him, and the boldest of the warriors bowed his head to the favourite of
+the gods.
+
+One day he was wandering by the side of the river, and he saw a large
+bird of prey rise from the waters, and give chase to a hawk that had not
+yet gained the full strength of its wings. From his youth the solitary
+Morven had loved to watch, in the great forests and by the banks of the
+mighty stream, the habits of the things which nature has submitted to
+man; and looking now on the birds, he said to himself, "Thus is it ever;
+by cunning or by strength each thing wishes to master its kind." While
+thus moralizing, the larger bird had stricken down the hawk, and it fell
+terrified and panting at his feet. Morven took the hawk in his hands,
+and the vulture shrieked above him, wheeling nearer and nearer to its
+protected prey; but Morven scared away the vulture, and placing the hawk
+in his bosom he carried it home, and tended it carefully, and fed it
+from his hand until it had regained its strength; and the hawk knew him,
+and followed him as a dog. And Morven said, smiling to himself, "Behold,
+the credulous fools around me put faith in the flight and motion of
+birds. I will teach this poor hawk to minister to my ends." So he tamed
+the bird, and tutored it according to its nature; but he concealed it
+carefully from others, and cherished it in secret.
+
+The king of the country was old, and like to die, and the eyes of the
+tribe were turned to his two sons, nor knew they which was the worthier
+to reign. And Morven, passing through the forest one evening, saw the
+younger of the two, who was a great hunter, sitting mournfully under an
+oak, and looking with musing eyes upon the ground.
+
+"Wherefore musest thou, O swift-footed Siror?" said the son of Osslah;
+"and wherefore art thou sad?"
+
+"Thou canst not assist me," answered the prince, sternly; "take thy
+way."
+
+"Nay," answered Morven, "thou knowest not what thou sayest; am I not the
+favourite of the stars?"
+
+"Away, I am no graybeard whom the approach of death makes doting: talk
+not to me of the stars; I know only the things that my eye sees and my
+ear drinks in."
+
+"Hush," said Morven, solemnly, and covering his face; "hush! lest the
+heavens avenge thy rashness. But, behold, the stars have given unto me
+to pierce the secret hearts of others; and I can tell thee the thoughts
+of thine."
+
+"Speak out, base-born!"
+
+"Thou art the younger of two, and thy name is less known in war than the
+name of thy brother: yet wouldst thou desire to be set over his head,
+and to sit on the high seat of thy father?"
+
+The young man turned pale. "Thou hast truth in thy lips," said he, with
+a faltering voice.
+
+"Not from me, but from the stars, descends the truth."
+
+"Can the stars grant my wish?"
+
+"They can: let us meet to-morrow." Thus saying, Morven passed into the
+forest.
+
+The next day, at noon, they met again.
+
+"I have consulted the gods of night, and they have given me the power
+that I prayed for, but on one condition."
+
+"Name it."
+
+"That thou sacrifice thy sister on their altars; thou must build up a
+heap of stones, and take thy sister into the wood, and lay her on the
+pile, and plunge thy sword into her heart; so only shalt thou reign."
+
+The prince shuddered, and started to his feet, and shook his spear at
+the pale front of Morven.
+
+"Tremble," said the son of Osslah, with a loud voice. "Hark to the gods
+who threaten thee with death, that thou hast dared to lift thine arm
+against their servant!"
+
+As he spoke, the thunder rolled above; for one of the frequent storms of
+the early summer was about to break. The spear dropped from the prince's
+hand; he sat down, and cast his eyes on the ground.
+
+"Wilt thou do the bidding of the stars, and reign?" said Morven.
+
+"I will!" cried Siror, with a desperate voice.
+
+"This evening, then, when the sun sets, thou wilt lead her hither,
+alone; I may not attend thee. Now, let us pile the stones."
+
+Silently the huntsman bent his vast strength to the fragments of rock
+that Morven pointed to him, and they built the altar, and went their
+way.
+
+And beautiful is the dying of the great sun, when the last song of the
+birds fades into the lap of silence; when the islands of the cloud are
+bathed in light, and the first star springs up over the grave of day!
+
+"Whither leadest thou my steps, my brother?" said Orna; "and why doth
+thy lip quiver; and why dost thou turn away thy face?"
+
+"Is not the forest beautiful; does it not tempt us forth, my sister?"
+
+"And wherefore are those heaps of stone piled together?"
+
+"Let others answer; I piled them not."
+
+"Thou tremblest, brother: we will return."
+
+"Not so; by these stones is a bird that my shaft pierced today,--a bird
+of beautiful plumage that I slew for thee."
+
+"We are by the pile; where hast thou laid the bird?"
+
+"Here!" cried Siror; and he seized the maiden in his arms, and, casting
+her on the rude altar, he drew forth his sword to smite her to the
+heart.
+
+Right over the stones rose a giant oak, the growth of immemorial ages;
+and from the oak, or from the heavens, broke forth a loud and solemn
+voice, "Strike not, son of kings! the stars forbear their own: the
+maiden thou shalt not slay; yet shalt thou reign over the race of
+Oestrich; and thou shalt give Orna as a bride to the favourite of the
+stars. Arise, and go thy way!"
+
+The voice ceased: the terror of Orna had overpowered for a time the
+springs of life; and Siror bore her home through the wood in his strong
+arms.
+
+"Alas!" said Morven, when, at the next day, he again met the aspiring
+prince; "alas! the stars have ordained me a lot which my heart desires
+not: for I, lonely of life, and crippled of shape, am insensible to the
+fires of love; and ever, as thou and thy tribe know, I have shunned the
+eyes of women, for the maidens laughed at my halting step and my sullen
+features; and so in my youth I learned betimes to banish all thoughts
+of love. But since they told me (as they declared to _thee_), that only
+through that marriage, thou, O beloved prince! canst obtain thy father's
+plumed crown, I yield me to their will."
+
+"But," said the prince, "not until I am king can I give thee my sister
+in marriage; for thou knowest that my sire would smite me to the dust
+if I asked him to give the flower of our race to the son of the herdsman
+Osslah."
+
+"Thou speakest the words of truth. Go home and fear not; but, when thou
+art king, the sacrifice must be made, and Orna mine. Alas! how can I
+dare to lift mine eyes to her! But so ordain the dread kings of the
+night!--who shall gainsay their word?"
+
+"The day that sees me king sees Orna thine," answered the prince.
+
+Morven walked forth, as was his wont, alone; and he said to himself,
+"The king is old, yet may he live long between me and mine hope!" and he
+began to cast in his mind how he might shorten the time. Thus absorbed,
+he wandered on so unheedingly that night advanced, and he had lost his
+path among the thick woods and knew not how to regain his home. So he
+lay down quietly beneath a tree, and rested till day dawned; then hunger
+came upon him, and he searched among the bushes for such simple roots
+as those with which, for he was ever careless of food, he was used to
+appease the cravings of nature.
+
+He found, among other more familiar herbs and roots, a red berry of
+a sweetish taste, which he had never observed before. He ate of it
+sparingly, and had not proceeded far in the wood before he found his
+eyes swim, and a deadly sickness came over him. For several hours he lay
+convulsed on the ground, expecting death; but the gaunt spareness of his
+frame, and his unvarying abstinence, prevailed over the poison, and he
+recovered slowly, and after great anguish. But he went with feeble steps
+back to the spot where the berries grew, and, plucking several, hid them
+in his bosom, and by nightfall regained the city.
+
+The next day he went forth among his father's herds, and seizing a lamb,
+forced some of the berries into his stomach, and the lamb, escaping, ran
+away, and fell down dead. Then Morven took some more of the berries and
+boiled them down, and mixed the juice with wine, and he gave the wine in
+secret to one of his father's servants, and the servant died.
+
+Then Morven sought the king, and coming into his presence, alone, he
+said unto him, "How fares my lord?"
+
+The king sat on a couch made of the skins of wolves, and his eye was
+glassy and dim; but vast were his aged limbs, and huge was his stature,
+and he had been taller by a head than the children of men, and none
+living could bend the bow he had bent in youth; gray, gaunt, and
+worn, as some mighty bones that are dug at times from the bosom of the
+earth,--a relic of the strength of old.
+
+And the king said faintly, and with a ghastly laugh, "The men of my
+years fare ill. What avails my strength? Better had I been born a
+cripple like thee, so should I have had nothing to lament in growing
+old."
+
+The red flush passed over Morven's brow; but he bent humbly,--
+
+"O king, what if I could give thee back thy youth? What if I could
+restore to thee the vigour which distinguished thee above the sons of
+men, when the warriors of Alrich fell like grass before thy sword?"
+
+Then the king uplifted his dull eyes, and he said,--
+
+"What meanest thou, son of Osslah? Surely I hear much of thy great
+wisdom, and how thou speakest nightly with the stars. Can the gods of
+the night give unto thee the secret to make the old young?"
+
+"Tempt them not by doubt," said Morven, reverently. "All things are
+possible to the rulers of the dark hour; and, lo! the star that loves
+thy servant spake to him at the dead of night, and said, 'Arise, and go
+unto the king; and tell him that the stars honour the tribe of Oestrich,
+and remember how the king bent his bow against the sons of Alrich;
+wherefore, look thou under the stone that lies to the right of thy
+dwelling, even beside the pine tree, and thou shalt see a vessel of
+clay, and in the vessel thou wilt find a sweet liquid, that shall make
+the king thy master forget his age forever.' Therefore, my lord, when
+the morning rose I went forth, and looked under the stone, and behold
+the vessel of clay; and I have brought it hither to my lord the king."
+
+"Quick, slave, quick! that I may drink and regain my youth!"
+
+"Nay, listen, O king! further said the star to me,--
+
+"'It is only at night, when the stars have power, that this their gift
+will avail; wherefore the king must wait till the hush of the midnight,
+when the moon is high, and then may he mingle the liquid with his wine.
+And he must reveal to none that he hath received the gift from the hand
+of the servant of the stars. For THEY do their work in secret, and when
+men sleep; therefore they love not the babble of mouths, and he who
+reveals their benefits shall surely die."
+
+"Fear not," said the king, grasping the vessel; "none shall know: and,
+behold, I will rise on the morrow; and my two sons, wrangling for my
+crown--verily I shall be younger than they!"
+
+Then the king laughed loud; and he scarcely thanked the servant of the
+stars, neither did he promise him reward; for the kings in those days
+had little thought save for themselves.
+
+And Morven said to him, "Shall I not attend my lord?--for without me,
+perchance, the drug might fail of its effect."
+
+"Ay," said the king, "rest here."
+
+"Nay," replied Morven; "thy servants will marvel and talk much, if they
+see the son of Osslah sojourning in thy palace. So would the displeasure
+of the gods of night perchance be incurred. Suffer that the lesser door
+of the palace be unbarred, so that at the night hour, when the moon is
+midway in the heavens, I may steal unseen into thy chamber, and mix the
+liquid with thy wine."
+
+"So be it," said the king. "Thou art wise, though thy limbs are crooked
+and curt; and the stars might have chosen a taller man." Then the king
+laughed again; and Morven laughed too, but there was danger in the mirth
+of the son of Osslah.
+
+The night had begun to wane, and the inhabitants of Oestrich were buried
+in deep sleep, when, hark! a sharp voice was heard crying out in the
+streets, "Woe, woe! Awake, ye sons of Oestrich! woe!" Then forth, wild,
+haggard, alarmed, spear in hand, rushed the giant sons of the rugged
+tribe, and they saw a man on a height in the middle of the city,
+shrieking "Woe!" and it was Morven, the son of Osslah! And he said unto
+them, as they gathered round him, "Men and warriors, tremble as ye hear.
+The star of the west hath spoken to me, and thus said the star: 'Evil
+shall fall upon the kingly house of Oestrich,--yea, ere the morning
+dawn; wherefore, go thou mourning into the streets, and wake the
+inhabitants to woe!' So I rose and did the bidding of the star." And
+while Morven was yet speaking, a servant of the king's house ran up
+to the crowd, crying loudly, "The king is dead!" So they went into the
+palace and found the king stark upon his couch, and his huge limbs all
+cramped and crippled by the pangs of death, and his hands clenched as if
+in menace of a foe,--the Foe of all living flesh! Then fear came on the
+gazers, and they looked on Morven with a deeper awe than the boldest
+warrior would have called forth; and they bore him back to the
+council-hall of the wise men, wailing and clashing their arms in woe,
+and shouting, ever and anon, "Honour to Morven the prophet!" And that
+was the first time the word PROPHET was ever used in those countries.
+
+At noon, on the third day from the king's death, Siror sought Morven,
+and he said, "Lo, my father is no more, and the people meet this evening
+at sunset to elect his successor, and the warriors and the young men
+will surely choose my brother, for he is more known in war. Fail me not
+therefore."
+
+"Peace, boy!" said Morven, sternly; "nor dare to question the truth of
+the gods of night."
+
+For Morven now began to presume on his power among the people, and to
+speak as rulers speak, even to the sons of kings; and the voice silenced
+the fiery Siror, nor dared he to reply.
+
+"Behold," said Morven, taking up a chaplet of coloured plumes, "wear
+this on thy head, and put on a brave face, for the people like a hopeful
+spirit, and go down with thy brother to the place where the new king is
+to be chosen, and leave the rest to the stars. But, above all things,
+forget not that chaplet; it has been blessed by the gods of night."
+
+The prince took the chaplet and returned home.
+
+It was evening, and the warriors and chiefs of the tribe were assembled
+in the place where the new king was to be elected. And the voices of
+the many favoured Prince Voltoch, the brother of Siror, for he had slain
+twelve foemen with his spear; and verily, in those days, that was a
+great virtue in a king.
+
+Suddenly there was a shout in the streets, and the people cried out,
+"Way for Morven the prophet, the prophet!" For the people held the son
+of Osslah in even greater respect than did the chiefs. Now, since he had
+become of note, Morven had assumed a majesty of air which the son of the
+herdsman knew not in his earlier days; and albeit his stature was short,
+and his limbs halted, yet his countenance was grave and high. He only
+of the tribe wore a garment that swept the ground, and his head was bare
+and his long black hair descended to his girdle, and rarely was change
+or human passion seen in his calm aspect. He feasted not, nor drank
+wine, nor was his presence frequent in the streets. He laughed not,
+neither did he smile, save when alone in the forest,--and then he
+laughed at the follies of his tribe.
+
+So he walked slowly through the crowd, neither turning to the left nor
+to the right, as the crowd gave way; and he supported his steps with a
+staff of the knotted pine.
+
+And when he came to the place where the chiefs were met, and the two
+princes stood in the centre, he bade the people around him proclaim
+silence; then mounting on a huge fragment of rock, he thus spake to the
+multitude:--
+
+"Princes, Warriors, and Bards! ye, O council of the wise men! and ye, O
+hunters of the forests and snarers of the fishes of the streams! hearken
+to Morven, the son of Osslah. Ye know that I am lowly of race and weak
+of limb; but did I not give into your hands the tribe of Alrich, and did
+ye not slay them in the dead of night with a great slaughter? Surely, ye
+must know this of himself did not the herdsman's son; surely he was but
+the agent of the bright gods that love the children of Oestrich! Three
+nights since when slumber was on the earth, was not my voice heard in
+the streets? Did I not proclaim woe to the kingly house of Oestrich? and
+verily the dark arm had fallen on the bosom of the mighty, that is no
+more. Could I have dreamed this thing merely in a dream, or was I not
+as the voice of the bright gods that watch over the tribes of Oestrich?
+Wherefore, O men and chiefs! scorn not the son of Osslah, but listen to
+his words; for are they not the wisdom of the stars? Behold, last night,
+I sat alone in the valley, and the trees were hushed around, and not
+a breath stirred; and I looked upon the star that counsels the son of
+Osslah; and I said, 'Dread conqueror of the cloud! thou that bathest thy
+beauty in the streams and piercest the pine-boughs with thy presence;
+behold thy servant grieved because the mighty one hath passed away, and
+many foes surround the houses of my brethren; and it is well that they
+should have a king valiant and prosperous in war, the cherished of the
+stars. Wherefore, O star! as thou gavest into our hands the warriors of
+Alrich, and didst warn us of the fall of the oak of our tribe, wherefore
+I pray thee give unto the people a token that they may choose that king
+whom the gods of the night prefer!' Then a low voice, sweeter than the
+music of the bard, stole along the silence. 'Thy love for thy race is
+grateful to the stars of night: go, then, son of Osslah, and seek the
+meeting of the chiefs and the people to choose a king, and tell them not
+to scorn thee because thou art slow to the chase, and little known in
+war; for the stars give thee wisdom as a recompense for all. Say unto
+the people that as the wise men of the council shape their lessons by
+the flight of birds, so by the flight of birds shall a token be given
+unto them, and they shall choose their kings. For, saith the star of
+night, the birds are the children of the winds, they pass to and fro
+along the ocean of the air, and visit the clouds that are the war-ships
+of the gods; and their music is but broken melodies which they glean
+from the harps above. Are they not the messengers of the storm? Ere the
+stream chafes against the bank, and the rain descends, know ye not, by
+the wail of birds and their low circle over the earth, that the tempest
+is at hand? Wherefore, wisely do ye deem that the children of the air
+are the fit interpreters between the sons of men and the lords of the
+world above. Say then to the people and the chiefs that they shall take,
+from among the doves that build their nests in the roof of the palace, a
+white dove, and they shall let it loose in the air, and verily the gods
+of the night shall deem the dove as a prayer coming from the people, and
+they shall send a messenger to grant the prayer and give to the tribes
+of Oestrich a king worthy of themselves.'
+
+"With that the star spoke no more."
+
+
+
+Then the friends of Voltoch murmured among themselves, and they said,
+"Shall this man dictate to us who shall be king?" But the people and
+the warriors shouted, "Listen to the star; do we not give or deny battle
+according as the bird flies,--shall we not by the same token choose him
+by whom the battle should be led?" And the thing seemed natural to them,
+for it was after the custom of the tribe. Then they took one of the
+doves that built in the roof of the palace, and they brought it to the
+spot where Morven stood, and he, looking up to the stars and muttering
+to himself, released the bird.
+
+There was a copse of trees at a little distance from the spot, and as
+the dove ascended, a hawk suddenly rose from the copse and pursued the
+dove; and the dove was terrified, and soared circling high above the
+crowd, when lo, the hawk, poising itself one moment on its wings,
+swooped with a sudden swoop, and, abandoning its prey, alighted on the
+plumed head of Siror.
+
+"Behold," cried Morven in a loud voice, "behold your king!"
+
+"Hail, all hail the king!" shouted the people. "All hail the chosen of
+the stars!"
+
+Then Morven lifted his right hand and the hawk left the prince and
+alighted on Morven's shoulder. "Bird of the gods!" said he, reverently,
+"hast thou not a secret message for my ear?" Then the hawk put its beak
+to Morven's ear, and Morven bowed his head submissively; and the hawk
+rested with Morven from that moment and would not be scared away. And
+Morven said, "The stars have sent me this bird, that in the day-time
+when I see them not, we may never be without a councillor in distress."
+
+So Siror was made king and Morven the son of Osslah was constrained by
+the king's will to take Orna for his wife; and the people and the chiefs
+honoured Morven the prophet above all the elders of the tribe.
+
+One day Morven said unto himself, musing, "Am I not already equal with
+the king,--nay, is not the king my servant? Did I not place him over the
+heads of his brothers? Am I not, therefore, more fit to reign than he
+is; shall I not push him from his seat? It is a troublesome and stormy
+office to reign over the wild men of Oestrich, to feast in the crowded
+hall, and to lead the warriors to the fray. Surely if I feasted not,
+neither went out to war, they might say, 'This is no king, but the
+cripple Morven;' and some of the race of Siror might slay me secretly.
+But can I not be greater far than kings, and continue to choose and
+govern them, living as now at mine own ease? Verily the stars shall give
+me a new palace, and many subjects."
+
+Among the wise men was Darvan; and Morven feared him, for his eye often
+sought the movements of the son of Osslah.
+
+And Morven said, "It were better to _trust_ this man than to _blind_,
+for surely I want a helpmate and a friend." So he said to the wise man
+as he sat alone watching the setting sun,--
+
+"It seemeth to me, O Darvan! that we ought to build a great pile in
+honour of the stars, and the pile should be more glorious than all the
+palaces of the chiefs and the palace of the king; for are not the stars
+our masters? And thou and I should be the chief dwellers in this new
+palace, and we would serve the gods of night and fatten their altars
+with the choicest of the herd and the freshest of the fruits of the
+earth."
+
+And Darvan said, "Thou speakest as becomes the servant of the stars. But
+will the people help to build the pile? For they are a warlike race and
+they love not toil."
+
+And Morven answered, "Doubtless the stars will ordain the work to be
+done. Fear not."
+
+"In truth thou art a wondrous man; thy words ever come to pass,"
+answered Darvan; "and I wish thou wouldest teach me, friend, the
+language of the stars."
+
+"Assuredly if thou servest me, thou shalt know," answered the proud
+Morven; and Darvan was secretly wroth that the son of the herdsman
+should command the service of an elder and a chief.
+
+And when Morven returned to his wife he found her weeping much. Now she
+loved the son of Osslah with an exceeding love, for he was not savage
+and fierce as the men she had known, and she was proud of his fame among
+the tribe; and he took her in his arms and kissed her, and asked her why
+she wept. Then she told him that her brother the king had visited her,
+and had spoken bitter words of Morven: "He taketh from me the affection
+of my people," said Siror, "and blindeth them with lies. And since he
+hath made me king, what if he take my kingdom from me? Verily a new tale
+of the stars might undo the old." And the king had ordered her to keep
+watch on Morven's secrecy, and to see whether truth was in him when he
+boasted of his commune with the Powers of night.
+
+But Orna loved Morven better than Siror, therefore she told her husband
+all.
+
+And Morven resented the king's ingratitude, and was troubled much, for
+a king is a powerful foe; but he comforted Orna, and bade her dissemble,
+and complain also of him to her brother, so that he might confide to her
+unsuspectingly whatsoever he might design against Morven.
+
+There was a cave by Morven's house in which he kept the sacred hawk,
+and wherein he secretly trained and nurtured other birds against future
+need; and the door of the cave was always barred. And one day he was
+thus engaged when he beheld a chink in the wall that he had never noted
+before, and the sun came playfully in; and while he looked he perceived
+the sunbeam was darkened, and presently he saw a human face peering in
+through the chink. And Morven trembled, for he knew he had been watched.
+He ran hastily from the cave; but the spy had disappeared among the
+trees, and Morven went straight to the chamber of Darvan and sat himself
+down. And Darvan did not return home till late, and he started and
+turned pale when he saw Morven. But Morven greeted him as a brother, and
+bade him to a feast, which, for the first time, he purposed giving at
+the full of the moon, in honour of the stars. And going out of Darvan's
+chamber he returned to his wife, and bade her rend her hair, and go
+at the dawn of day to the king her brother, and complain bitterly of
+Morven's treatment, and pluck the black plans from the breast of the
+king. "For surely," said he, "Darvan hath lied to thy brother, and some
+evil waits me that I would fain know."
+
+So the next morning Orna sought the king, and she said, "The herdsman's
+son hath reviled me, and spoken harsh words to me; shall I not be
+avenged?"
+
+Then the king stamped his feet and shook his mighty sword. "Surely thou
+shalt be avenged; for I have learned from one of the elders that which
+convinceth me that the man hath lied to the people, and the base-born
+shall surely die. Yea, the first time that he goeth alone into the
+forest my brother and I will fall upon him and smite him to the death."
+And with this comfort Siror dismissed Orna.
+
+And Orna flung herself at the feet of her husband. "Fly now, O my
+beloved!--fly into the forests afar from my brethren, or surely the
+sword of Siror will end thy days."
+
+Then the son of Osslah folded his arms, and seemed buried in black
+thoughts; nor did he heed the voice of Orna, until again and again she
+had implored him to fly.
+
+"Fly!" he said at length. "Nay, I was doubting what punishment the stars
+should pour down upon our foe. Let warriors fly. Morven the prophet
+conquers by arms mightier than the sword."
+
+Nevertheless Morven was perplexed in his mind, and knew not how to
+save himself from the vengeance of the king. Now, while he was musing
+hopelessly he heard a roar of waters; and behold, the river, for it was
+now the end of autumn, had burst its bounds, and was rushing along the
+valley to the houses of the city. And now the men of the tribe, and the
+women, and the children, came running, and with shrieks, to Morven's
+house, crying, "Behold, the river has burst upon us! Save us, O ruler of
+the stars!"
+
+Then the sudden thought broke upon Morven, and he resolved to risk his
+fate upon one desperate scheme.
+
+And he came out from the house calm and sad, and he said, "Ye know not
+what ye ask; I cannot save ye from this peril: ye have brought it on
+yourselves." And they cried, "How? O son of Osslah! We are ignorant of
+our crime."
+
+And he answered, "Go down to the king's palace and wait before it, and
+surely I will follow ye, and ye shall learn wherefore ye have incurred
+this punishment from the gods." Then the crowd rolled murmuring back, as
+a receding sea; and when it was gone from the place, Morven went alone
+to the house of Darvan, which was next his own. And Darvan was greatly
+terrified; for he was of a great age, and had no children, neither
+friends, and he feared that he could not of himself escape the waters.
+
+And Morven said to him soothingly, "Lo, the people love me, and I will
+see that thou art saved; for verily thou hast been friendly to me, and
+done me much service with the king."
+
+And as he thus spake, Morven opened the door of the house and looked
+forth, and saw that they were quite alone. Then he seized the old man by
+the throat and ceased not his gripe till he was quite dead; and leaving
+the body of the elder on the floor, Morven stole from the house and shut
+the gate. And as he was going to his cave he mused a little while, when,
+hearing the mighty roar of the waves advancing, and far off the shrieks
+of women, he lifted up his head and said proudly, "No, in this hour
+terror alone shall be my slave; I will use no art save the power of my
+soul." So, leaning on his pine-staff, he strode down to the palace. And
+it was now evening, and many of the men held torches, that they might
+see each other's faces in the universal fear. Red flashed the quivering
+flames on the dark robes and pale front of Morven; and he seemed
+mightier than the rest, because his face alone was calm amidst the
+tumult. And louder and hoarser became the roar of the waters; and swift
+rushed the shades of night over the hastening tide.
+
+And Morven said in a stern voice, "Where is the king; and wherefore is
+he absent from his people in the hour of dread?" Then the gate of the
+palace opened, and, behold, Siror was sitting in the hall by the vast
+pine-fire, and his brother by his side, and his chiefs around him: for
+they would not deign to come amongst the crowd at the bidding of the
+herdsman's son.
+
+Then Morven, standing upon a rock above the heads of the people (the
+same rock whereon he had proclaimed the king), thus spake:--
+
+"Ye desired to know, O sons of Oestrich! wherefore the river hath burst
+its bounds, and the peril hath come upon you. Learn, then, that the
+stars resent as the foulest of human crimes an insult to their servants
+and delegates below. Ye are all aware of the manner of life of Morven,
+whom ye have surnamed the Prophet! He harms not man nor beast; he lives
+alone; and, far from the wild joys of the warrior tribe, he worships
+in awe and fear the Powers of Night. So is he able to advise ye of the
+coming danger,--so is he able to save ye from the foe. Thus are your
+huntsmen swift and your warriors bold; and thus do your cattle bring
+forth their young, and the earth its fruits. What think ye, and what do
+ye ask to hear? Listen, men of Oestrich!--they have laid snares for my
+life; and there are amongst you those who have whetted the sword against
+the bosom that is only filled with love for you all. Therefore have the
+stern lords of heaven loosened the chains of the river; therefore doth
+this evil menace ye. Neither will it pass away until they who dug the
+pit for the servant of the stars are buried in the same."
+
+Then, by the red torches, the faces of the men looked fierce and
+threatening; and ten thousand voices shouted forth, "Name them who
+conspired against thy life, O holy prophet, and surely they shall be
+torn limb from limb."
+
+And Morven turned aside, and they saw that he wept bitterly; and he
+said,--
+
+"Ye have asked me, and I have answered: but now scarce will ye believe
+the foe that I have provoked against me; and by the heavens themselves
+I swear, that if my death would satisfy their fury, nor bring down upon
+yourselves and your children's children the anger of the throned stars,
+gladly would I give my bosom to the knife. Yes," he cried, lifting up
+his voice, and pointing his shadowy arm towards the hall where the king
+sat by the pine-fire,--"yes, thou whom by my voice the stars chose
+above thy brother; yes, Siror, the guilty one! take thy sword, and come
+hither; strike, if thou hast the heart to strike, the Prophet of the
+Gods!"
+
+The king started to his feet, and the crowd were hushed in a shuddering
+silence.
+
+Morven resumed:--
+
+"Know then, O men of Oestrich, that Siror and Voltoch his brother, and
+Darvan the elder of the wise men, have purposed to slay your prophet,
+even at such hour as when alone he seeks the shade of the forest to
+devise new benefits for you. Let the king deny it, if he can!"
+
+Then Voltoch, of the giant limbs, strode forth from the hall, and his
+spear quivered in his hand.
+
+"Rightly hast thou spoken, base son of my father's herdsman! and for
+thy sins shalt thou surely die; for thou liest when thou speakest of thy
+power with the stars, and thou laughest at the folly of them who hear
+thee: wherefore put him to death."
+
+Then the chiefs in the hall clashed their arms, and rushed forth to slay
+the son of Osslah.
+
+But he, stretching his unarmed hands on high, exclaimed, "Hear him, O
+dread ones of the night! Hark how he blasphemeth!"
+
+Then the crowd took up the word, and cried, "He blasphemeth! he
+blasphemeth against the prophet!"
+
+But the king and the chiefs, who hated Morven because of his power with
+the people, rushed into the crowd; and the crowd were irresolute, nor
+knew they how to act, for never yet had they rebelled against their
+chiefs, and they feared alike the prophet and the king.
+
+And Siror cried, "Summon Darvan to us, for he hath watched the steps of
+Morven, and he shall lift the veil from my people's eyes." Then three of
+the swift of foot started forth to the house of Darvan.
+
+And Morven cried out with a loud voice, "Hark! thus saith the star, who,
+now riding through yonder cloud, breaks forth upon my eyes, 'For the lie
+that the elder hath uttered against my servant, the curse of the stars
+shall fall upon him.' Seek, and as ye find him so may ye find ever the
+foes of Morven and the gods!"
+
+A chill and an icy fear fell over the crowd, and even the cheek of Siror
+grew pale; and Morven, erect and dark above the waving torches, stood
+motionless with folded arms. And hark!--far and fast came on the
+war-steeds of the wave; the people heard them marching to the land, and
+tossing their white manes in the roaring wind.
+
+"Lo, as ye listen," said Morven, calmly, "the river sweeps on. Haste,
+for the gods will have a victim, be it your prophet or your king."
+
+"Slave!" shouted Siror, and his spear left his hand, and far above the
+heads of the crowd sped hissing beside the dark form of Morven, and rent
+the trunk of the oak behind. Then the people, wroth at the danger of
+their beloved seer, uttered a wild yell, and gathered round him with
+brandished swords, facing their chieftains and their king. But at
+that instant, ere the war had broken forth among the tribe, the three
+warriors returned, and they bore Darvan on their shoulders, and laid him
+at the feet of the king, and they said tremblingly, "Thus found we the
+elder in the centre of his own hall." And the people saw that Darvan
+was a corpse, and that the prediction of Morven was thus verified. "So
+perish the enemies of Morven and the stars!" cried the son of Osslah.
+And the people echoed the cry. Then the fury of Siror was at its height,
+and waving his sword above his head he plunged into the crowd, "Thy
+blood, baseborn, or mine!"
+
+"So be it!" answered Morven, quailing not. "People, smite the
+blasphemer! Hark how the river pours down upon your children and your
+hearths! On, on, or ye perish!"
+
+And Siror fell, pierced by five hundred spears.
+
+"Smite! smite!" cried Morven, as the chiefs of the royal house gathered
+round the king. And the clash of swords, and the gleam of spears, and
+the cries of the dying, and the yell of the trampling people mingled
+with the roar of the elements, and the voices of the rushing wave.
+
+Three hundred of the chiefs perished that night by the swords of their
+own tribe; and the last cry of the victors was, "Morven the prophet!
+_Morven the king!_"
+
+And the son of Osslah, seeing the waves now spreading over the valley,
+led Orna his wife, and the men of Oestrich, their women, and their
+children, to a high mount, where they waited the dawning sun. But Orna
+sat apart and wept bitterly, for her brothers were no more, and her race
+had perished from the earth. And Morven sought to comfort her in vain.
+
+When the morning rose, they saw that the river had overspread the
+greater part of the city, and now stayed its course among the hollows of
+the vale. Then Morven said to the people, "The star-kings are avenged,
+and their wrath appeased. Tarry only here until the waters have melted
+into the crevices of the soil." And on the fourth day they returned to
+the city, and no man dared to name another, save Morven, as the king.
+
+But Morven retired into his cave and mused deeply; and then assembling
+the people, he gave them new laws; and he made them build a mighty
+temple in honour of the stars, and made them heap within it all that the
+tribe held most precious. And he took unto him fifty children from the
+most famous of the tribe; and he took also ten from among the men who
+had served him best, and he ordained that they should serve the stars in
+the great temple: and Morven was their chief. And he put away the crown
+they pressed upon him, and he chose from among the elders a new king.
+And he ordained that henceforth the servants only of the stars in the
+great temple should elect the king and the rulers, and hold council,
+and proclaim war; but he suffered the king to feast, and to hunt, and to
+make merry in the banquet-halls. And Morven built altars in the temple,
+and was the first who, in the North, sacrificed the beast and the bird,
+and afterwards human flesh, upon the altars. And he drew auguries from
+the entrails of the victim, and made schools for the science of the
+prophet; and Morven's piety was the wonder of the tribe, in that he
+refused to be a king. And Morven the high priest was ten thousand times
+mightier than the king. He taught the people to till the ground and
+to sow the herb; and by his wisdom, and the valour that his prophecies
+instilled into men, he conquered all the neighbouring tribes. And the
+sons of Oestrich spread themselves over a mighty empire, and with them
+spread the name and the laws of Morven. And in every province which he
+conquered, he ordered them to build a temple to the stars.
+
+But a heavy sorrow fell upon the fears of Morven. The sister of Siror
+bowed down her head, and survived not long the slaughter of her race.
+And she left Morven childless. And he mourned bitterly and as one
+distraught, for her only in the world had his heart the power to love.
+And he sat down and covered his face, saying:--
+
+"Lo! I have toiled and travailed; and never before in the world did man
+conquer what I have conquered. Verily the empire of the iron thews and
+the giant limbs is no more! I have founded a new power, that henceforth
+shall sway the lands,--the empire of a plotting brain and a commanding
+mind. But, behold! my fate is barren, and I feel already that it will
+grow neither fruit nor tree as a shelter to mine old age. Desolate and
+lonely shall I pass unto my grave. O Orna! my beautiful! my loved! none
+were like unto thee, and to thy love do I owe my glory and my life!
+Would for thy sake, O sweet bird! that nestled in the dark cavern of my
+heart,--would for thy sake that thy brethren had been spared, for verily
+with my life would I have purchased thine. Alas! only when I lost thee
+did I find that thy love was dearer to me than the fear of others!" And
+Morven mourned night and day, and none might comfort him.
+
+But from that time forth he gave himself solely up to the cares of his
+calling; and his nature and his affections, and whatever there was yet
+left soft in him, grew hard like stone; and he was a man without love,
+and he forbade love and marriage to the priest.
+
+Now, in his latter years, there arose _other_ prophets; for the
+world had grown wiser even by Morven's wisdom, and some did say unto
+themselves, "Behold Morven, the herdsman's son, is a king of kings: this
+did the stars for their servant; shall we not also be servants to the
+star?"
+
+And they wore black garments like Morven, and went about prophesying of
+what the stars foretold them. And Morven was exceeding wroth; for he,
+more than other men, knew that the prophets lied. Wherefore he went
+forth against them with the ministers of the temple, and he took them,
+and burned them by a slow fire; for thus said Morven to the people: "A
+true prophet hath honour, but _I_ only am a true prophet; to all false
+prophets there shall be surely death."
+
+And the people applauded the piety of the son of Osslah.
+
+And Morven educated the wisest of the children in the mysteries of the
+temple, so that they grew up to succeed him worthily.
+
+And he died full of years and honour; and they carved his effigy on a
+mighty stone before the temple, and the effigy endured for a thousand
+ages, and whoso looked on it trembled; for the face was calm with the
+calmness of unspeakable awe!
+
+And Morven was the first mortal of the North that made Religion the
+stepping-stone to Power. Of a surety Morven was a great man!
+
+
+
+It was the last night of the old year, and the stars sat, each upon his
+ruby throne, and watched with sleepless eyes upon the world. The
+night was dark and troubled, the dread winds were abroad, and fast and
+frequent hurried the clouds beneath the thrones of the kings of night.
+And ever and anon fiery meteors flashed along the depths of heaven,
+and were again swallowed up in the grave of darkness. But far below his
+brethren, and with a lurid haze around his orb, sat the discontented
+star that had watched over the hunters of the North.
+
+And on the lowest abyss of space there was spread a thick and mighty
+gloom, from which, as from a caldron, rose columns of wreathing smoke;
+and still, when the great winds rested for an instant on their paths,
+voices of woe and laughter, mingled with shrieks, were heard booming
+from the abyss to the upper air.
+
+And now, in the middest night, a vast figure rose slowly from the abyss,
+and its wings threw blackness over the world. High upward to the throne
+of the discontented star sailed the fearful shape, and the star trembled
+on his throne when the form stood before him face to face.
+
+And the shape said, "Hail, brother! all hail!"
+
+"I know thee not," answered the star; "thou art not the archangel that
+visitest the kings of night."
+
+And the shape laughed loud. "I am the fallen star of the morning! I am
+Lucifer, thy brother! Hast thou not, O sullen king, served me and mine;
+and hast thou not wrested the earth from thy Lord who sittest above, and
+given it to me, by darkening the souls of men with the religion of fear?
+Wherefore come, brother, come; thou hast a throne prepared beside my own
+in the fiery gloom. Come! The heavens are no more for thee!"
+
+Then the star rose from his throne, and descended to the side of
+Lucifer; for ever hath the spirit of discontent had sympathy with the
+soul of pride. And they sank slowly down to the gulf of gloom.
+
+It was the first night of the new year, and the stars sat each on his
+ruby throne, and watched with sleepless eyes upon the world. But sorrow
+dimmed the bright faces of the kings of night, for they mourned in
+silence and in fear for a fallen brother.
+
+And the gates of the heaven of heavens flew open with a golden sound,
+and the swift archangel fled down on his silent wings; and the archangel
+gave to each of the stars, as before, the message of his Lord, and to
+each star was his appointed charge. And when the heraldry seemed done
+there came a laugh from the abyss of gloom, and half-way from the gulf
+rose the lurid shape of Lucifer the fiend!
+
+"Thou countest thy flock ill, O radiant shepherd! Behold! one star is
+missing from the three thousand and ten!"
+
+"Back to thy gulf, false Lucifer!--the throne of thy brother hath been
+filled."
+
+And, lo! as the archangel spake, the stars beheld a young and
+all-lustrous stranger on the throne of the erring star; and his face
+was so soft to look upon that the dimmest of human eyes might have gazed
+upon its splendour unabashed: but the dark fiend alone was dazzled
+by its lustre, and, with a yell that shook the flaming pillars of the
+universe, he plunged backward into the gloom.
+
+Then, far and sweet from the arch unseen, came forth the voice of God,--
+
+"Behold! on the throne of the discontented star sits the star of Hope;
+and he that breathed into mankind the religion of Fear hath a successor
+in him who shall teach earth the religion of Love!"
+
+And evermore the star of Fear dwells with Lucifer, and the star of Love
+keeps vigil in heaven!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX. GLENHAUSEN.--THE POWER OF LOVE IN SANCTIFIED PLACES.--A
+PORTRAIT OF FREDERICK BARBAROSSA.--THE AMBITION OF MEN FINDS NO ADEQUATE
+SYMPATHY IN WOMEN.
+
+"YOU made me tremble for you more than once," said Gertrude to the
+student; "I feared you were about to touch upon ground really sacred,
+but your end redeemed all."
+
+"The false religion always tries to counterfeit the garb, the language,
+the aspect of the true," answered the German; "for that reason, I
+purposely suffered my tale to occasion that very fear and anxiety you
+speak of, conscious that the most scrupulous would be contented when the
+whole was finished."
+
+This German was one of a new school, of which England as yet knows
+nothing. We shall see hereafter what it will produce.
+
+The student left them at Friedberg, and our travellers proceeded to
+Glenhausen,--a spot interesting to lovers; for here Frederick the First
+was won by the beauty of Gela, and, in the midst of an island vale, he
+built the Imperial Palace, in honour of the lady of his love. This spot
+is, indeed, well chosen of itself; the mountains of the Rhinegeburg
+close it in with the green gloom of woods and the glancing waters of the
+Kinz.
+
+"Still, wherever we go," said Trevylyan, "we find all tradition is
+connected with love; and history, for that reason, hallows less than
+romance."
+
+"It is singular," said Vane, moralizing, "that love makes but a small
+part of our actual lives, but is yet the master-key to our sympathies.
+The hardest of us, who laugh at the passion when they see it palpably
+before them, are arrested by some dim tradition of its existence in the
+past. It is as if life had few opportunities of bringing out certain
+qualities within us, so that they always remain untold and dormant,
+susceptible to thought, but deaf to action."
+
+"You refine and mystify too much," said Trevylyan, smiling; "none of
+us have any faculty, any passion, uncalled forth, if we have _really_
+loved, though but for a day."
+
+Gertrude smiled, and drawing her arm within his, Trevylyan left Vane to
+philosophize on passion,--a fit occupation for one who had never felt
+it.
+
+"Here let us pause," said Trevylyan, afterwards, as they visited the
+remains of the ancient palace, and the sun glittered on the scene, "to
+recall the old chivalric day of the gallant Barbarossa; let us suppose
+him commencing the last great action of his life; let us picture him as
+setting out for the Holy Land. Imagine him issuing from those walls on
+his white charger,--his fiery eye somewhat dimmed by years, and his
+hair blanched; but nobler from the impress of time itself,--the clang of
+arms; the tramp of steeds; banners on high; music pealing from hill to
+hill; the red cross and the nodding plume; the sun, as now glancing
+on yonder trees; and thence reflected from the burnished arms of the
+Crusaders. But, Gela--"
+
+"Ah," said Gertrude, "_she_ must be no more; for she would have outlived
+her beauty, and have found that glory had now no rival in his breast.
+Glory consoles men for the death of the loved; but glory is infidelity
+to the living."
+
+"Nay, not so, dearest Gertrude," said Trevylyan, quickly; "for my
+darling dream of Fame is the hope of laying its honours at your feet!
+And if ever, in future years, I should rise above the herd, I should
+only ask if _your_ step were proud and _your_ heart elated."
+
+"I was wrong," said Gertrude, with tears in her eyes; "and for your sake
+I can be ambitious."
+
+Perhaps there, too, she was mistaken; for one of the common
+disappointments of the heart is, that women have so rarely a sympathy in
+our better and higher aspirings. Their ambition is not for great things;
+they cannot understand that desire "which scorns delight, and loves
+laborious days." If they love us, they usually exact too much. They
+are jealous of the ambition to which we sacrifice so largely, and which
+divides us from them; and they leave the stern passion of great minds
+to the only solitude which affection cannot share. To aspire is to be
+alone!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI. VIEW OF EHRENBREITSTEIN.--A NEW ALARM IN GERTRUDE'S
+HEALTH.--TRARBACH.
+
+ANOTHER time our travellers proceeded from Coblentz to Treves, following
+the course of the Moselle. They stopped on the opposite bank below the
+bridge that unites Coblentz with the Petersberg, to linger over the
+superb view of Ehrenbreitstein which you may there behold.
+
+It was one of those calm noonday scenes which impress upon us their own
+bright and voluptuous tranquillity. There stood the old herdsman leaning
+on his staff, and the quiet cattle knee-deep in the gliding waters.
+Never did stream more smooth and sheen than was at that hour the surface
+of the Moselle mirror the images of the pastoral life. Beyond, the
+darker shadows of the bridge and of the walls of Coblentz fell deep over
+the waves, checkered by the tall sails of the craft that were moored
+around the harbour. But clear against the sun rose the spires and roofs
+of Coblentz, backed by many a hill sloping away to the horizon. High,
+dark, and massive, on the opposite bank, swelled the towers and rock of
+Ehrenbreitstein,--a type of that great chivalric spirit--the HONOUR that
+the rock arrogates for its name--which demands so many sacrifices of
+blood and tears, but which ever creates in the restless heart of man a
+far deeper interest than the more peaceful scenes of life by which it is
+contrasted. There, still--from the calm waters, and the abodes of common
+toil and ordinary pleasure--turns the aspiring mind! Still as we gaze on
+that lofty and immemorial rock we recall the famine and the siege;
+and own that the more daring crimes of men have a strange privilege in
+hallowing the very spot which they devastate.
+
+Below, in green curves and mimic bays covered with herbage, the gradual
+banks mingled with the water; and just where the bridge closed, a
+solitary group of trees, standing dark in the thickest shadow, gave that
+melancholy feature to the scene which resembles the one dark thought
+that often forces itself into our sunniest hours. Their boughs stirred
+not; no voice of birds broke the stillness of their gloomy verdure: the
+eye turned from them, as from the sad moral that belongs to existence.
+
+In proceeding to Trarbach, Gertrude was seized with another of those
+fainting fits which had so terrified Trevylyan before; they stopped an
+hour or two at a little village, but Gertrude rallied with such apparent
+rapidity, and so strongly insisted on proceeding, that they reluctantly
+continued their way. This event would have thrown a gloom over their
+journey, if Gertrude had not exerted herself to dispel the impression
+she had occasioned; and so light, so cheerful, were her spirits, that
+for the time at least she succeeded.
+
+They arrived at Trarbach late at noon. This now small and humble town
+is said to have been the Thronus Bacchi of the ancients. From the spot
+where the travellers halted to take, as it were, their impression of the
+town, they saw before them the little hostelry, a poor pretender to the
+Thronus Bacchi, with the rude sign of the Holy Mother over the door. The
+peaked roof, the sunk window, the gray walls, checkered with the rude
+beams of wood so common to the meaner houses on the Continent, bore
+something of a melancholy and prepossessing aspect. Right above, with
+its Gothic windows and venerable spire, rose the church of the town;
+and, crowning the summit of a green and almost perpendicular mountain,
+scowled the remains of one of those mighty castles which make the
+never-failing frown on a German landscape.
+
+The scene was one of quiet and of gloom: the exceeding serenity of the
+day contrasted, with an almost unpleasing brightness, the poverty of
+the town, the thinness of the population, and the dreary grandeur of the
+ruins that overhung the capital of the perished race of the bold Counts
+of Spanheim.
+
+They passed the night at Trarbach, and continued their journey next
+day. At Treves, Gertrude was for some days seriously ill; and when they
+returned to Coblentz, her disease had evidently received a rapid and
+alarming increase.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII. THE DOUBLE LIFE.--TREVYLYAN'S FATE.--SORROW THE PARENT OF
+FAME.--NIEDERLAHNSTEIN.--DREAMS.
+
+THERE are two lives to each of us, gliding on at the same time, scarcely
+connected with each other,--the life of our actions, the life of our
+minds; the external and the inward history; the movements of the frame,
+the deep and ever-restless workings of the heart! They who have loved
+know that there is a diary of the affections, which we might keep for
+years without having occasion even to touch upon the exterior surface
+of life, our busy occupations, the mechanical progress of our existence;
+yet by the last are we judged, the first is never known. History reveals
+men's deeds, men's outward character, but _not themselves_. There is a
+secret self that hath its own life "rounded by a dream," unpenetrated,
+unguessed. What passed within Trevylyan, hour after hour, as he watched
+over the declining health of the only being in the world whom his proud
+heart had been ever destined to love? His real record of the time
+was marked by every cloud upon Gertrude's brow, every smile of her
+countenance, every--the faintest--alteration in her disease; yet, to the
+outward seeming, all this vast current of varying eventful emotion
+lay dark and unconjectured. He filled up with wonted regularity the
+colourings of existence, and smiled and moved as other men. For still,
+in the heroism with which devotion conquers self, he sought only to
+cheer and gladden the young heart on which he had embarked his all; and
+he kept the dark tempest of his anguish for the solitude of night.
+
+That was a peculiar doom which Fate had reserved for him; and casting
+him, in after years, on the great sea of public strife, it seemed as if
+she were resolved to tear from his heart all yearnings for the land.
+For him there was to be no green or sequestered spot in the valley of
+household peace. His bark was to know no haven, and his soul not even
+the desire of rest. For action is that Lethe in which alone we forget
+our former dreams, and the mind that, too stern not to wrestle with its
+emotions, seeks to conquer regret, must leave itself no leisure to look
+behind. Who knows what benefits to the world may have sprung from the
+sorrows of the benefactor? As the harvest that gladdens mankind in the
+suns of autumn was called forth by the rains of spring, so the griefs of
+youth may make the fame of maturity.
+
+Gertrude, charmed by the beauties of the river, desired to continue the
+voyage to Mayence. The rich Trevylyan persuaded the physician who had
+attended her to accompany them, and they once more pursued their way
+along the banks of the feudal Rhine. For what the Tiber is to the
+classic, the Rhine is to the chivalric age. The steep rock and the gray
+dismantled tower, the massive and rude picturesque of the feudal days,
+constitute the great features of the scene; and you might almost fancy,
+as you glide along, that you are sailing back adown the river of Time,
+and the monuments of the pomp and power of old, rising, one after one,
+upon its shores!
+
+Vane and Du-----e, the physician, at the farther end of the vessel,
+conversed upon stones and strata, in that singular pedantry of science
+which strips nature to a skeleton, and prowls among the dead bones of
+the world, unconscious of its living beauty.
+
+They left Gertrude and Trevylyan to themselves; and, "bending o'er the
+vessel's laving side," they indulged in silence the melancholy with
+which each was imbued. For Gertrude began to waken, though doubtingly
+and at intervals, to a sense of the short span that was granted to her
+life; and over the loveliness around her there floated that sad and
+ineffable interest which springs from the presentiment of our own death.
+They passed the rich island of Oberwerth, and Hochheim, famous for its
+ruby grape, and saw, from his mountain bed, the Lahn bear his tribute of
+fruits and corn into the treasury of the Rhine. Proudly rose the tower
+of Niederlahnstein, and deeply lay its shadow along the stream. It was
+late noon; the cattle had sought the shade from the slanting sun, and,
+far beyond, the holy castle of Marksburg raised its battlements above
+mountains covered with the vine. On the water two boats had been drawn
+alongside each other; and from one, now moving to the land, the splash
+of oars broke the general stillness of the tide. Fast by an old tower
+the fishermen were busied in their craft, but the sound of their voices
+did not reach the ear. It was life, but a silent life, suited to the
+tranquillity of noon.
+
+"There is something in travel," said Gertrude, "which constantly, even
+amidst the most retired spots, impresses us with the exuberance of life.
+We come to those quiet nooks and find a race whose existence we never
+dreamed of. In their humble path they know the same passions and tread
+the same career as ourselves. The mountains shut them out from the great
+world, but their village is a world in itself. And they know and heed no
+more of the turbulent scenes of remote cities than our own planet of
+the inhabitants of the distant stars. What then is death, but the
+forgetfulness of some few hearts added to the general unconsciousness of
+our existence that pervades the universe? The bubble breaks in the vast
+desert of the air without a sound."
+
+"Why talk of death?" said Trevylyan, with a writhing smile. "These sunny
+scenes should not call forth such melancholy images."
+
+"Melancholy," repeated Gertrude, mechanically. "Yes, death is indeed
+melancholy when we are loved!"
+
+They stayed a short time at Niederlahnstein, for Vane was anxious to
+examine the minerals that the Lahn brings into the Rhine; and the sun
+was waning towards its close as they renewed their voyage. As they
+sailed slowly on, Gertrude said, "How like a dream is this sentiment
+of existence, when, without labour or motion, every change of scene is
+brought before us; and if I am with you, dearest, I do not feel it less
+resembling a dream, for I have dreamed of you lately more than ever; and
+dreams have become a part of my life itself."
+
+"Speaking of dreams," said Trevylyan, as they pursued that mysterious
+subject, "I once during my former residence in Germany fell in with a
+singular enthusiast, who had taught himself what he termed 'A System of
+Dreaming.' When he first spoke to me upon it I asked him to explain what
+he meant, which he did somewhat in the following words."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII. THE LIFE OF DREAMS.
+
+"I WAS born," said he, "with many of the sentiments of the poet, but
+without the language to express them; my feelings were constantly
+chilled by the intercourse of the actual world. My family, mere Germans,
+dull and unimpassioned, had nothing in common with me; nor did I out of
+my family find those with whom I could better sympathize. I was revolted
+by friendships,--for they were susceptible to every change; I was
+disappointed in love,--for the truth never approached to my ideal.
+Nursed early in the lap of Romance, enamoured of the wild and the
+adventurous, the commonplaces of life were to me inexpressibly tame and
+joyless. And yet indolence, which belongs to the poetical character, was
+more inviting than that eager and uncontemplative action which can alone
+wring enterprise from life. Meditation was my natural element. I loved
+to spend the noon reclined by some shady stream, and in a half sleep
+to shape images from the glancing sunbeams. A dim and unreal order of
+philosophy, that belongs to our nation, was my favourite intellectual
+pursuit; and I sought amongst the Obscure and the Recondite the variety
+and emotion I could not find in the Familiar. Thus constantly watching
+the operations of the inner mind, it occurred to me at last that sleep
+having its own world, but as yet a rude and fragmentary one, it might
+be possible to shape from its chaos all those combinations of beauty,
+of power, of glory, and of love, which were denied to me in the world in
+which my frame walked and had its being. So soon as this idea came upon
+me, I nursed and cherished and mused over it, till I found that the
+imagination began to effect the miracle I desired. By brooding ardently,
+intensely, before I retired to rest, over any especial train of
+thought, over any ideal creations; by keeping the body utterly still and
+quiescent during the whole day; by shutting out all living adventure,
+the memory of which might perplex and interfere with the stream
+of events that I desired to pour forth into the wilds of sleep, I
+discovered at last that I could lead in dreams a life solely their own,
+and utterly distinct from the life of day. Towers and palaces, all
+my heritage and seigneury, rose before me from the depths of night; I
+quaffed from jewelled cups the Falernian of imperial vaults; music from
+harps of celestial tone filled up the crevices of air; and the smiles of
+immortal beauty flushed like sunlight over all. Thus the adventure and
+the glory that I could not for my waking life obtain, was obtained for
+me in sleep. I wandered with the gryphon and the gnome; I sounded the
+horn at enchanted portals; I conquered in the knightly lists; I planted
+my standard over battlements huge as the painter's birth of Babylon
+itself.
+
+"But I was afraid to call forth one shape on whose loveliness to pour
+all the hidden passion of my soul. I trembled lest my sleep should
+present me some image which it could never restore, and, waking from
+which, even the new world I had created might be left desolate forever.
+I shuddered lest I should adore a vision which the first ray of morning
+could smite to the grave.
+
+"In this train of mind I began to wonder whether it might not be
+possible to connect dreams together; to supply the thread that was
+wanting; to make one night continue the history of the other, so as
+to bring together the same shapes and the same scenes, and thus lead a
+connected and harmonious life, not only in the one half of existence,
+but in the other, the richer and more glorious half. No sooner did this
+idea present itself to me, than I burned to accomplish it. I had before
+taught myself that Faith is the great creator; that to believe fervently
+is to make belief true. So I would not suffer my mind to doubt the
+practicability of its scheme. I shut myself up then entirely by day,
+refused books, and hated the very sun, and compelled all my thoughts
+(and sleep is the mirror of thought) to glide in one direction,--the
+direction of my dreams,--so that from night to night the imagination
+might keep up the thread of action, and I might thus lie down full of
+the past dream and confident of the sequel. Not for one day only, or for
+one month, did I pursue this system, but I continued it zealously and
+sternly till at length it began to succeed. Who shall tell," cried the
+enthusiast,--I see him now with his deep, bright, sunken eyes, and his
+wild hair thrown backward from his brow,--"the rapture I experienced,
+when first, faintly and half distinct, I perceived the harmony I had
+invoked dawn upon my dreams? At first there was only a partial and
+desultory connection between them; my eye recognized certain shapes, my
+ear certain tones common to each; by degrees these augmented in number,
+and were more defined in outline. At length one fair face broke forth
+from among the ruder forms, and night after night appeared mixing with
+them for a moment and then vanishing, just as the mariner watches, in
+a clouded sky, the moon shining through the drifting rack, and quickly
+gone. My curiosity was now vividly excited; the face, with its lustrous
+eyes and seraph features, roused all the emotions that no living shape
+had called forth. I became enamoured of a dream, and as the statue to
+the Cyprian was my creation to me; so from this intent and unceasing
+passion I at length worked out my reward. My dream became more palpable;
+I spoke with it; I knelt to it; my lips were pressed to its own; we
+exchanged the vows of love, and morning only separated us with the
+certainty that at night we should meet again. Thus then," continued my
+visionary, "I commenced a history utterly separate from the history of
+the world, and it went on alternately with my harsh and chilling history
+of the day, equally regular and equally continuous. And what, you ask,
+was that history? Methought I was a prince in some Eastern island that
+had no features in common with the colder north of my native home. By
+day I looked upon the dull walls of a German town, and saw homely or
+squalid forms passing before me; the sky was dim and the sun cheerless.
+Night came on with her thousand stars, and brought me the dews of sleep.
+Then suddenly there was a new world; the richest fruits hung from the
+trees in clusters of gold and purple. Palaces of the quaint fashion of
+the sunnier climes, with spiral minarets and glittering cupolas, were
+mirrored upon vast lakes sheltered by the palm-tree and banana. The sun
+seemed a different orb, so mellow and gorgeous were his beams; birds and
+winged things of all hues fluttered in the shining air; the faces and
+garments of men were not of the northern regions of the world, and their
+voices spoke a tongue which, strange at first, by degrees I interpreted.
+Sometimes I made war upon neighbouring kings; sometimes I chased the
+spotted pard through the vast gloom of immemorial forests; my life
+was at once a life of enterprise and pomp. But above all there was the
+history of my love! I thought there were a thousand difficulties in the
+way of attaining its possession. Many were the rocks I had to scale, and
+the battles to wage, and the fortresses to storm, in order to win her as
+my bride. But at last" (continued the enthusiast), "she _is_ won, she
+is my own! Time in that wild world, which I visit nightly, passes not
+so slowly as in this, and yet an hour may be the same as a year. This
+continuity of existence, this successive series of dreams, so different
+from the broken incoherence of other men's sleep, at times bewilders me
+with strange and suspicious thoughts. What if this glorious sleep be a
+real life, and this dull waking the true repose? Why not? What is there
+more faithful in the one than in the other? And there have I garnered
+and collected all of pleasure that I am capable of feeling. I seek
+no joy in this world; I form no ties, I feast not, nor love, nor make
+merry; I am only impatient till the hour when I may re-enter my royal
+realms and pour my renewed delight into the bosom of my bright Ideal.
+There then have I found all that the world denied me; there have I
+realized the yearning and the aspiration within me; there have I coined
+the untold poetry into the Felt, the Seen!"
+
+I found, continued Trevylyan, that this tale was corroborated by inquiry
+into the visionary's habits. He shunned society; avoided all unnecessary
+movement or excitement. He fared with rigid abstemiousness, and only
+appeared to feel pleasure as the day departed, and the hour of return to
+his imaginary kingdom approached. He always retired to rest punctually
+at a certain hour, and would sleep so soundly that a cannon fired under
+his window would not arouse him. He never, which may seem singular,
+spoke or moved much in his sleep, but was peculiarly calm, almost to
+the appearance of lifelessness; but, discovering once that he had been
+watched in sleep, he was wont afterwards carefully to secure the chamber
+from intrusion. His victory over the natural incoherence of sleep had,
+when I first knew him, lasted for some years; possibly what imagination
+first produced was afterwards continued by habit.
+
+I saw him again a few months subsequent to this confession, and he
+seemed to me much changed. His health was broken, and his abstraction
+had deepened into gloom.
+
+I questioned him of the cause of the alteration, and he answered me with
+great reluctance,--
+
+"She is dead," said he; "my realms are desolate! A serpent stung her,
+and she died in these very arms. Vainly, when I started from my sleep in
+horror and despair, vainly did I say to myself,--This is but a dream. I
+shall see her again. A vision cannot die! Hath it flesh that decays; is
+it not a spirit,--bodiless, indissoluble? With what terrible anxiety
+I awaited the night! Again I slept, and the DREAM lay again before me,
+dead and withered. Even the ideal can vanish. I assisted in the burial;
+I laid her in the earth; I heaped the monumental mockery over her form.
+And never since hath she, or ought like her, revisited my dreams. I see
+her only when I wake; thus to wake is indeed to dream! But," continued
+the visionary in a solemn voice, "I feel myself departing from this
+world, and with a fearful joy; for I think there may be a land beyond
+even the land of sleep where I shall see her again,--a land in which a
+vision itself may be restored."
+
+And in truth, concluded Trevylyan, the dreamer died shortly afterwards,
+suddenly, and in his sleep. And never before, perhaps, had Fate so
+literally made of a living man (with his passions and his powers, his
+ambition and his love) the plaything and puppet of a dream!
+
+"Ah," said Vane, who had heard the latter part of Trevylyan's story,
+"could the German have bequeathed to us his secret, what a refuge should
+we possess from the ills of earth! The dungeon and disease, poverty,
+affliction, shame, would cease to be the tyrants of our lot; and to
+Sleep we should confine our history and transfer our emotions."
+
+"Gertrude," whispered the lover, "what his kingdom and his bride were to
+the Dreamer art thou to me!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV. THE BROTHERS.
+
+THE banks of the Rhine now shelved away into sweeping plains, and on
+their right rose the once imperial city of Boppart. In no journey
+of similar length do you meet with such striking instances of the
+mutability and shifts of power. To find, as in the Memphian Egypt, a
+city sunk into a heap of desolate ruins; the hum, the roar, the mart of
+nations, hushed into the silence of ancestral tombs, is less humbling
+to our human vanity than to mark, as along the Rhine, the kingly city
+dwindled into the humble town or the dreary village,--decay without its
+grandeur, change without the awe of its solitude! On the site on
+which Drusus raised his Roman tower, and the kings of the Franks their
+palaces, trade now dribbles in tobacco-pipes, and transforms into an
+excellent cotton factory the antique nunnery of Konigsberg! So be it; it
+is the progressive order of things,--the world itself will soon be one
+excellent cotton factory!
+
+"Look," said Trevylyan, as they sailed on, "at yonder mountain, with its
+two traditionary Castles of Liebenstein and Sternfels."
+
+Massive and huge the ruins swelled above the green rock, at the foot
+of which lay, in happier security from time and change, the clustered
+cottages of the peasant, with a single spire rising above the quiet
+village.
+
+"Is there not, Albert, a celebrated legend attached to those castles?"
+said Gertrude. "I think I remember to have heard their names in
+connection with your profession of taleteller."
+
+"Yes," said Trevylyan, "the story relates to the last lords of those
+shattered towers, and--"
+
+"You will sit here, nearer to me, and begin," interrupted Gertrude, in
+her tone of childlike command. "Come."
+
+
+
+                           THE BROTHERS.
+
+                              A TALE.*
+
+  * This tale is, in reality, founded on the beautiful tradition
+    which belongs to Liebenstein and Sternfels.
+
+You must imagine then, dear Gertrude (said Trevylyan), a beautiful
+summer day, and by the same faculty that none possess so richly as
+yourself, for it is you who can kindle something of that divine spark
+even in me, you must rebuild those shattered towers in the pomp of old;
+raise the gallery and the hall; man the battlements with warders, and
+give the proud banners of ancestral chivalry to wave upon the walls. But
+above, sloping half down the rock, you must fancy the hanging gardens of
+Liebenstein, fragrant with flowers, and basking in the noonday sun.
+
+On the greenest turf, underneath an oak, there sat three persons, in the
+bloom of youth. Two of the three were brothers; the third was an orphan
+girl, whom the lord of the opposite tower of Sternfels had bequeathed
+to the protection of his brother, the chief of Liebenstein. The castle
+itself and the demesne that belonged to it passed away from the female
+line, and became the heritage of Otho, the orphan's cousin, and the
+younger of the two brothers now seated on the turf.
+
+"And oh," said the elder, whose name was Warbeck, "you have twined a
+chaplet for my brother; have you not, dearest Leoline, a simple flower
+for me?"
+
+The beautiful orphan (for beautiful she was, Gertrude, as the heroine of
+the tale you bid me tell ought to be,--should she not have to the dreams
+of my fancy your lustrous hair, and your sweet smile, and your eyes
+of blue, that are never, never silent? Ah, pardon me, that in a former
+tale, I denied the heroine the beauty of your face, and remember that to
+atone for it, I endowed her with the beauty of your mind)--the beautiful
+orphan blushed to her temples, and culling from the flowers in her lap
+the freshest of the roses, began weaving them into a wreath for Warbeck.
+
+"It would be better," said the gay Otho, "to make my sober brother a
+chaplet of the rue and cypress; the rose is much too bright a flower for
+so serious a knight."
+
+Leoline held up her hand reprovingly.
+
+"Let him laugh, dearest cousin," said Warbeck, gazing passionately on
+her changing cheek; "and thou, Leoline, believe that the silent stream
+runs the deepest."
+
+At this moment, they heard the voice of the old chief, their father,
+calling aloud for Leoline; for ever when he returned from the chase
+he wanted her gentle presence; and the hall was solitary to him if the
+light sound of her step and the music of her voice were not heard in
+welcome.
+
+Leoline hastened to her guardian, and the brothers were left alone.
+
+Nothing could be more dissimilar than the features and the respective
+characters of Otho and Warbeck. Otho's countenance was flushed with the
+brown hues of health; his eyes were of the brightest hazel: his dark
+hair wreathed in short curls round his open and fearless brow; the jest
+ever echoed on his lips, and his step was bounding as the foot of
+the hunter of the Alps. Bold and light was his spirit; if at times he
+betrayed the haughty insolence of youth, he felt generously, and though
+not ever ready to confess sorrow for a fault, he was at least ready to
+brave peril for a friend.
+
+But Warbeck's frame, though of equal strength, was more slender in
+its proportions than that of his brother; the fair long hair that
+characterized his northern race hung on either side of a countenance
+calm and pale, and deeply impressed with thought, even to sadness. His
+features, more majestic and regular than Otho's, rarely varied in their
+expression. More resolute even than Otho, he was less impetuous; more
+impassioned, he was also less capricious.
+
+The brothers remained silent after Leoline had left them. Otho
+carelessly braced on his sword, that he had laid aside on the grass; but
+Warbeck gathered up the flowers that had been touched by the soft hand
+of Leoline, and placed them in his bosom.
+
+The action disturbed Otho; he bit his lip, and changed colour; at length
+he said, with a forced laugh,--
+
+"It must be confessed, brother, that you carry your affection for
+our fair cousin to a degree that even relationship seems scarcely to
+warrant."
+
+"It is true," said Warbeck, calmly; "I love her with a love surpassing
+that of blood."
+
+"How!" said Otho, fiercely: "do you dare to think of Leoline as a
+bride?"
+
+"Dare!" repeated Warbeck, turning yet paler than his wonted hue.
+
+"Yes, I have said the word! Know, Warbeck, that I, too, love Leoline; I,
+too, claim her as my bride; and never, while I can wield a sword, never,
+while I wear the spurs of knighthood, will I render my claim to a living
+rival,--even," he added, sinking his voice, "though that rival be my
+brother!"
+
+Warbeck answered not; his very soul seemed stunned; he gazed long and
+wistfully on his brother, and then, turning his face away, ascended the
+rock without uttering a single word.
+
+This silence startled Otho. Accustomed to vent every emotion of his own,
+he could not comprehend the forbearance of his brother; he knew his high
+and brave nature too well to imagine that it arose from fear. Might it
+not be contempt, or might he not, at this moment, intend to seek their
+father; and, the first to proclaim his love for the orphan, advance,
+also, the privilege of the elder born? As these suspicions flashed
+across him, the haughty Otho strode to his brother's side, and laying
+his hand on his arm, said,--
+
+"Whither goest thou; and dost thou consent to surrender Leoline?"
+
+"Does she love thee, Otho?" answered Warbeck, breaking silence at last;
+and his voice spoke so deep an anguish, that it arrested the passions of
+Otho even at their height.
+
+"It is thou who art now silent," continued Warbeck; "speak. Doth she
+love thee, and has her lip confessed it?"
+
+"I have believed that she loved me," faltered Otho; "but she is of
+maiden bearing, and her lip, at least, has never told it."
+
+"Enough," said Warbeck; "release your hold."
+
+"Stay," said Otho, his suspicions returning; "stay,--yet one word; dost
+thou seek my father? He ever honoured thee more than me: wilt thou own
+to him thy love, and insist on thy right of birth? By my soul and my
+hope of heaven, do it, and one of us two must fall!"
+
+"Poor boy!" answered Warbeck, bitterly; "how little thou canst read the
+heart of one who loves truly! Thinkest thou I would wed her if she loved
+thee? Thinkest thou I could, even to be blessed myself, give her one
+moment's pain? Out on the thought! away!"
+
+"Then wilt not thou seek our father?" said Otho, abashed.
+
+"Our father!--has our father the keeping of Leoline's affection?"
+answered Warbeck; and shaking off his brother's grasp, he sought the way
+to the castle.
+
+As he entered the hall, he heard the voice of Leoline; she was singing
+to the old chief one of the simple ballads of the time that the warrior
+and the hunter loved to hear. He paused lest he should break the spell
+(a spell stronger than a sorcerer's to him), and gazing upon Leoline's
+beautiful form, his heart sank within him. His brother and himself
+had each that day, as they sat in the gardens, given her a flower; his
+flower was the fresher and the rarer; his he saw not, but she wore his
+brother's in her bosom!
+
+The chief, lulled by the music and wearied with the toils of the chase,
+sank into sleep as the song ended, and Warbeck, coming forward, motioned
+to Leoline to follow him. He passed into a retired and solitary walk,
+and when they were a little distance from the castle, Warbeck turned
+round, and taking Leoline's hand gently, said,--
+
+"Let us rest here for one moment, dearest cousin; I have much on my
+heart to say to thee."
+
+"And what is there," answered Leoline, as they sat on a mossy bank,
+with the broad Rhine glancing below, "what is there that my kind Warbeck
+would ask of me? Ah, would it might be some favour, something in poor
+Leoline's power to grant; for ever from my birth you have been to me
+most tender, most kind. You, I have often heard them say; taught my
+first steps to walk; you formed my infant lips into language, and, in
+after years, when my wild cousin was far away in the forests at the
+chase, you would brave his gay jest and remain at home, lest Leoline
+should be weary in the solitude. Ah, would I could repay you!"
+
+Warbeck turned away his cheek; his heart was very full, and it was some
+moments before he summoned courage to reply.
+
+"My fair cousin," said he, "those were happy days; but they were the
+days of childhood. New cares and new thoughts have now come on us; but
+I am still thy friend, Leoline, and still thou wilt confide in me thy
+young sorrows and thy young hopes, as thou ever didst. Wilt thou not,
+Leoline?"
+
+"Canst thou ask me?" said Leoline; and Warbeck, gazing on her face, saw
+that though her eyes were full of tears, they yet looked steadily upon
+his; and he knew that she loved him only as a sister.
+
+He sighed, and paused again ere he resumed. "Enough," said he; "now to
+my task. Once on a time, dear cousin, there lived among these mountains
+a certain chief who had two sons, and an orphan like thyself dwelt also
+in his halls. And the elder son--but no matter, let us not waste words
+on _him_!--the younger son, then, loved the orphan dearly,--more dearly
+than cousins love; and fearful of refusal, he prayed the elder one to
+urge his suit to the orphan. Leoline, my tale is done. Canst thou not
+love Otho as he loves thee?"
+
+And now lifting his eyes to Leoline, he saw that she trembled violently,
+and her cheek was covered with blushes.
+
+"Say," continued he, mastering himself, "is not that flower
+his--present--a token that he is chiefly in thy thoughts?"
+
+"Ah, Warbeck! do not deem me ungrateful that I wear not yours also;
+but--"
+
+"Hush!" said Warbeck, hastily; "I am but as thy brother; is not Otho
+more? He is young, brave, and beautiful. God grant that he may deserve
+thee, if thou givest him so rich a gift as thy affections!"
+
+"I saw less of Otho in my childhood," said Leoline, evasively;
+"therefore, his kindness of late years seemed stranger to me than
+thine."
+
+"And thou wilt not then reject him? Thou wilt be his bride?"
+
+"And _thy_ sister," answered Leoline.
+
+"Bless thee, mine own dear cousin! one brother's kiss then, and
+farewell! Otho shall thank thee for himself."
+
+He kissed her forehead calmly, and, turning away, plunged into the
+thicket; then, nor till then, he gave vent to such emotions as, had
+Leoline seen them, Otho's suit had been lost forever; for passionately,
+deeply as in her fond and innocent heart she loved Otho, the _happiness_
+of Warbeck was not less dear to her.
+
+When the young knight had recovered his self-possession he went in
+search of Otho. He found him alone in the wood, leaning with folded arms
+against a tree, and gazing moodily on the ground. Warbeck's noble heart
+was touched at his brother's dejection.
+
+"Cheer thee, Otho," said he; "I bring thee no bad tidings; I have seen
+Leoline, I have conversed with her--nay, start not,--she loves thee! she
+is thine!"
+
+"Generous, generous Warbeck!" exclaimed Otho; and he threw himself on
+his brother's neck. "No, no," said he, "this must not be; thou hast the
+elder claim,--I resign her to thee. Forgive me my waywardness, brother,
+forgive me!"
+
+"Think of the past no more," said Warbeck; "the love of Leoline is an
+excuse for greater offences than thine. And now, be kind to her; her
+nature is soft and keen. _I_ know her well; for _I_ have studied her
+faintest wish. Thou art hasty and quick of ire; but remember that a word
+wounds where love is deep. For my sake, as for hers, think more of her
+happiness than thine own; now seek her,--she waits to hear from thy lips
+the tale that sounded cold upon mine."
+
+With that he left his brother, and, once more re-entering the castle, he
+went into the hall of his ancestors. His father still slept; he put his
+hand on his gray hair, and blessed him; then stealing up to his chamber,
+he braced on his helm and armour, and thrice kissing the hilt of his
+sword, said, with a flushed cheek,--
+
+"Henceforth be _thou_ my bride!" Then passing from the castle, he sped
+by the most solitary paths down the rock, gained the Rhine, and hailing
+one of the numerous fishermen of the river, won the opposite shore; and
+alone, but not sad, for his high heart supported him, and Leoline at
+least was happy, he hastened to Frankfort.
+
+The town was all gayety and life, arms clanged at every corner, the
+sounds of martial music, the wave of banners, the glittering of plumed
+casques, the neighing of war-steeds, all united to stir the blood and
+inflame the sense. Saint Bertrand had lifted the sacred cross along the
+shores of the Rhine, and the streets of Frankfort witnessed with what
+success!
+
+On that same day Warbeck assumed the sacred badge, and was enlisted
+among the knights of the Emperor Conrad.
+
+We must suppose some time to have elapsed, and Otho and Leoline were not
+yet wedded; for, in the first fervour of his gratitude to his brother,
+Otho had proclaimed to his father and to Leoline the conquest Warbeck
+had obtained over himself; and Leoline, touched to the heart, would not
+consent that the wedding should take place immediately. "Let him, at
+least," said she, "not be insulted by a premature festivity; and give
+him time, amongst the lofty beauties he will gaze upon in a far country,
+to forget, Otho, that he once loved her who is the beloved of thee."
+
+The old chief applauded this delicacy; and even Otho, in the first flush
+of his feelings towards his brother, did not venture to oppose it. They
+settled, then, that the marriage should take place at the end of a year.
+
+Months rolled away, and an absent and moody gloom settled upon Otho's
+brow. In his excursions with his gay companions among the neighbouring
+towns, he heard of nothing but the glory of the Crusaders, of the homage
+paid to the heroes of the Cross at the courts they visited, of the
+adventures of their life, and the exciting spirit that animated their
+war. In fact, neither minstrel nor priest suffered the theme to grow
+cold; and the fame of those who had gone forth to the holy strife gave
+at once emulation and discontent to the youths who remained behind.
+
+"And my brother enjoys this ardent and glorious life," said the
+impatient Otho; "while I, whose arm is as strong, and whose heart is as
+bold, languish here listening to the dull tales of a hoary sire and
+the silly songs of an orphan girl." His heart smote him at the last
+sentence, but he had already begun to weary of the gentle love of
+Leoline. Perhaps when he had no longer to gain a triumph over a rival
+the excitement palled; or perhaps his proud spirit secretly chafed at
+being conquered by his brother in generosity, even when outshining him
+in the success of love.
+
+But poor Leoline, once taught that she was to consider Otho her
+betrothed, surrendered her heart entirely to his control. His wild
+spirit, his dark beauty, his daring valour, won while they awed her; and
+in the fitfulness of his nature were those perpetual springs of hope
+and fear that are the fountains of ever-agitated love. She saw with
+increasing grief the change that was growing over Otho's mind; nor did
+she divine the cause. "Surely I have not offended him?" thought she.
+
+Among the companions of Otho was one who possessed a singular sway
+over him. He was a knight of that mysterious Order of the Temple, which
+exercised at one time so great a command over the minds of men.
+
+A severe and dangerous wound in a brawl with an English knight had
+confined the Templar at Frankfort, and prevented his joining the
+Crusade. During his slow recovery he had formed an intimacy with Otho,
+and, taking up his residence at the castle of Liebenstein, had been
+struck with the beauty of Leoline. Prevented by his oath from marriage,
+he allowed himself a double license in love, and doubted not, could he
+disengage the young knight from his betrothed, that she would add a
+new conquest to the many he had already achieved. Artfully therefore he
+painted to Otho the various attractions of the Holy Cause; and, above
+all, he failed not to describe, with glowing colours, the beauties who,
+in the gorgeous East, distinguished with a prodigal favour the warriors
+of the Cross. Dowries, unknown in the more sterile mountains of the
+Rhine, accompanied the hand of these beauteous maidens; and even a
+prince's daughter was not deemed, he said, too lofty a marriage for the
+heroes who might win kingdoms for themselves.
+
+"To me," said the Templar, "such hopes are eternally denied. But you,
+were you not already betrothed, what fortunes might await you!"
+
+By such discourses the ambition of Otho was perpetually aroused; they
+served to deepen his discontent at his present obscurity, and to convert
+to distaste the only solace it afforded in the innocence and affection
+of Leoline.
+
+One night, a minstrel sought shelter from the storm in the halls of
+Liebenstein. His visit was welcomed by the chief, and he repaid the
+hospitality he had received by the exercise of his art. He sang of the
+chase, and the gaunt hound started from the hearth. He sang of love, and
+Otho, forgetting his restless dreams, approached to Leoline, and
+laid himself at her feet. Louder then and louder rose the strain. The
+minstrel sang of war; he painted the feats of the Crusaders; he plunged
+into the thickest of the battle; the steed neighed; the trump sounded;
+and you might have heard the ringing of the steel. But when he came
+to signalize the names of the boldest knights, high among the loftiest
+sounded the name of Sir Warbeck of Liebenstein. Thrice had he saved the
+imperial banner; two chargers slain beneath him, he had covered their
+bodies with the fiercest of the foe.
+
+Gentle in the tent and terrible in the fray, the minstrel should forget
+his craft ere the Rhine should forget its hero. The chief started from
+his seat. Leoline clasped the minstrel's hand.
+
+"Speak,--you have seen him, he lives, he is honoured?"
+
+"I myself am but just from Palestine, brave chief and noble maiden. I
+saw the gallant knight of Liebenstein at the right hand of the imperial
+Conrad. And he, ladye, was the only knight whom admiration shone upon
+without envy, its shadow. Who then," continued the minstrel, once more
+striking his harp, "who then would remain inglorious in the hall? Shall
+not the banners of his sires reproach him as they wave; and shall not
+every voice from Palestine strike shame into his soul?"
+
+"Right!" cried Otho, suddenly, and flinging himself at the feet of his
+father. "Thou hearest what my brother has done, and thine aged eyes weep
+tears of joy. Shall I only dishonour thine old age with a rusted sword?
+No! grant me, like my brother, to go forth with the heroes of the
+Cross!"
+
+"Noble youth," cried the harper, "therein speaks the soul of Sir
+Warbeck; hear him, sir, knight,--hear the noble youth."
+
+"Heaven cries aloud in his voice," said the Templar, solemnly.
+
+"My son, I cannot chide thine ardour," said the old chief, raising him
+with trembling hands; "but Leoline, thy betrothed?"
+
+Pale as a statue, with ears that doubted their sense as they drank in
+the cruel words of her lover, stood the orphan. She did not speak, she
+scarcely breathed; she sank into her seat, and gazed upon the ground,
+till, at the speech of the chief both maiden pride and maiden tenderness
+restored her consciousness, and she said,--
+
+"_I_, uncle! Shall _I_ bid Otho stay when his wishes bid him depart?"
+
+"He will return to thee, noble ladye, covered with glory," said the
+harper: but Otho said no more. The touching voice of Leoline went to
+his soul; he resumed his seat in silence; and Leoline, going up to
+him, whispered gently, "Act as though I were not;" and left the hall to
+commune with her heart and to weep alone.
+
+"I can wed her before I go," said Otho, suddenly, as he sat that night
+in the Templar's chamber.
+
+"Why, that is true! and leave thy bride in the first week,--a hard
+trial!"
+
+"Better than incur the chance of never calling her mine. Dear, kind,
+beloved Leoline!"
+
+"Assuredly, she deserves all from thee; and, indeed, it is no small
+sacrifice, at thy years and with thy mien, to renounce forever all
+interest among the noble maidens thou wilt visit. Ah, from the galleries
+of Constantinople what eyes will look down on thee, and what ears,
+learning that thou art Otho the bridegroom, will turn away, caring for
+thee no more! A bridegroom without a bride! Nay, man, much as the Cross
+wants warriors, I am enough thy friend to tell thee, if thou weddest, to
+stay peaceably at home, and forget in the chase the labours of war, from
+which thou wouldst strip the ambition of love."
+
+"I would I knew what were best," said Otho, irresolutely. "My
+brother--ha, shall he forever excel me? But Leoline, how will she
+grieve,--she who left him for me!"
+
+"Was that thy fault?" said the Templar, gayly. "It may many times chance
+to thee again to be preferred to another. Troth, it is a sin under which
+the conscience may walk lightly enough. But sleep on it, Otho; my eyes
+grow heavy."
+
+The next day Otho sought Leoline, and proposed to her that their wedding
+should precede his parting; but so embarrassed was he, so divided
+between two wishes, that Leoline, offended, hurt, stung by his coldness,
+refused the proposal at once. She left him lest he should see her weep,
+and then--then she repented even of her just pride!
+
+But Otho, striving to appease his conscience with the belief that
+hers now was the _sole_ fault, busied himself in preparations for his
+departure. Anxious to outshine his brother, he departed not as Warbeck,
+alone and unattended, but levying all the horse, men, and money that
+his domain of Sternfels--which he had not yet tenanted--would afford, he
+repaired to Frankfort at the head of a glittering troop.
+
+The Templar, affecting a relapse, tarried behind, and promised to join
+him at that Constantinople of which he had so loudly boasted. Meanwhile
+he devoted his whole powers of pleasing to console the unhappy orphan.
+The force of her simple love was, however, stronger than all his arts.
+In vain he insinuated doubts of Otho,--she refused to hear them; in vain
+he poured with the softest accents into her ear the witchery of flattery
+and song,--she turned heedlessly away; and only pained by the courtesies
+that had so little resemblance to Otho, she shut herself up in her
+chamber, and pined in solitude for her forsaker.
+
+The Templar now resolved to attempt darker arts to obtain power over
+her, when, fortunately, he was summoned suddenly away by a mission from
+the Grand Master of so high import, that it could not be resisted by a
+passion stronger in his breast than love,--the passion of ambition. He
+left the castle to its solitude; and Otho peopling it no more with his
+gay companions, no solitude _could_ be more unfrequently disturbed.
+
+Meanwhile, though, ever and anon, the fame of Warbeck reached their
+ears, it came unaccompanied with that of Otho,--of him they had no
+tidings; and thus the love of the tender orphan was kept alive by
+the perpetual restlessness of fear. At length the old chief died, and
+Leoline was left utterly alone.
+
+One evening as she sat with her maidens in the hall, the ringing of a
+steed's hoofs was heard in the outer court; a horn sounded, the heavy
+gates were unbarred, and a knight of a stately mien and covered with the
+mantle of the Cross entered the hall. He stopped for one moment at the
+entrance, as if overpowered by his emotion; in the next he had clasped
+Leoline to his breast.
+
+"Dost thou not recognize thy cousin Warbeck?" He doffed his casque, and
+she saw that majestic brow which, unlike Otho's, had never changed or
+been clouded in its aspect to her.
+
+"The war is suspended for the present," said he. "I learned my father's
+death, and I have returned home to hang up my banner in the hall and
+spend my days in peace."
+
+Time and the life of camps had worked their change upon Warbeck's face;
+the fair hair, deepened in its shade, was worn from the temples, and
+disclosed one scar that rather aided the beauty of a countenance that
+had always something high and martial in its character; but the calm it
+had once worn had settled down into sadness; he conversed more rarely
+than before, and though he smiled not less often, nor less kindly, the
+smile had more of thought, and the kindness had forgot its passion. He
+had apparently conquered a love that was so early crossed, but not
+that fidelity of remembrance which made Leoline dearer to him than all
+others, and forbade him to replace the images he had graven upon his
+soul.
+
+The orphan's lips trembled with the name of Otho, but a certain
+recollection stifled even her anxiety. Warbeck hastened to forestall her
+questions. Otho was well, he said, and sojourning at Constantinople; he
+had lingered there so long that the crusade had terminated without his
+aid: doubtless now he would speedily return,--a month, a week, nay, a
+day, might restore him to her side.
+
+Leoline was inexpressibly consoled, yet something remained untold.
+Why, so eager for the strife of the sacred tomb, had he thus tarried at
+Constantinople? She wondered, she wearied conjecture, but she did not
+dare to search further.
+
+The generous Warbeck concealed from her that Otho led a life of the most
+reckless and indolent dissipation,--wasting his wealth in the pleasures
+of the Greek court, and only occupying his ambition with the wild
+schemes of founding a principality in those foreign climes, which the
+enterprises of the Norman adventurers had rendered so alluring to the
+knightly bandits of the age.
+
+The cousins resumed their old friendship, and Warbeck believed that it
+was friendship alone.
+
+They walked again among the gardens in which their childhood had
+strayed; they sat again on the green turf whereon they had woven
+flowers; they looked down on the eternal mirror of the Rhine,--ah! could
+it have reflected the same unawakened freshness of their life's early
+spring!
+
+The grave and contemplative mind of Warbeck had not been so contented
+with the honours of war but that it had sought also those calmer sources
+of emotion which were yet found among the sages of the East. He had
+drunk at the fountain of the wisdom of those distant climes, and had
+acquired the habits of meditation which were indulged by those wiser
+tribes from which the Crusaders brought back to the North the knowledge
+that was destined to enlighten their posterity. Warbeck, therefore, had
+little in common with the ruder chiefs around; he did not summon them to
+his board; nor attend at their noisy wassails. Often late at night, in
+yon shattered tower, his lonely lamp shone still over the mighty stream,
+and his only relief to loneliness was in the presence and the song of
+his soft cousin.
+
+Months rolled on, when suddenly a vague and fearful rumour reached the
+castle of Liebenstein. Otho was returning home to the neighbouring tower
+of Sternfels; but not alone. He brought back with him a Greek bride of
+surprising beauty, and dowered with almost regal wealth. Leoline was
+the first to discredit the rumour; Leoline was soon the only one who
+disbelieved.
+
+Bright in the summer noon flashed the array of horsemen; far up
+the steep ascent wound the gorgeous cavalcade; the lonely towers of
+Liebenstein heard the echo of many a laugh and peal of merriment. Otho
+bore home his bride to the hall of Sternfels.
+
+That night there was a great banquet in Otho's castle; the lights shone
+from every casement, and music swelled loud and ceaselessly within.
+
+By the side of Otho, glittering with the prodigal jewels of the East,
+sat the Greek. Her dark locks, her flashing eye, the false colours of
+her complexion, dazzled the eyes of her guests. On her left hand sat the
+Templar.
+
+"By the holy rood," quoth the Templar, gayly, though he crossed himself
+as he spoke, "we shall scare the owls to-night on those grim towers
+of Liebenstein. Thy grave brother, Sir Otho, will have much to do to
+comfort his cousin when she sees what a gallant life she would have led
+with thee."
+
+"Poor damsel!" said the Greek, with affected pity, "doubtless she will
+now be reconciled to the rejected one. I hear he is a knight of a comely
+mien."
+
+"Peace!" said Otho, sternly, and quaffing a large goblet of wine.
+
+The Greek bit her lip, and glanced meaningly at the Templar, who
+returned the glance.
+
+"Nought but a beauty such as thine can win my pardon," said Otho,
+turning to his bride, and gazing passionately in her face.
+
+The Greek smiled.
+
+Well sped the feast, the laugh deepened, the wine circled, when Otho's
+eye rested on a guest at the bottom of the board, whose figure was
+mantled from head to foot, and whose face was covered by a dark veil.
+
+"Beshrew me!" said he, aloud, "but this is scarce courteous at our
+revel: will the stranger vouchsafe to unmask?"
+
+These words turned all eyes to the figure, and they who sat next it
+perceived that it trembled violently; at length it rose, and walking
+slowly, but with grace, to the fair Greek, it laid beside her a wreath
+of flowers.
+
+"It is a simple gift, ladye," said the stranger, in a voice of such
+sweetness that the rudest guest was touched by it; "but it is all I can
+offer, and the bride of Otho should not be without a gift at my hands.
+May ye both be happy!"
+
+With these words, the stranger turned and passed from the hall silent as
+a shadow.
+
+"Bring back the stranger!" cried the Greek, recovering her surprise.
+Twenty guests sprang up to obey her mandate.
+
+"No, no!" said Otho, waving his hand impatiently. "Touch her not, heed
+her not, at your peril."
+
+The Greek bent over the flowers to conceal her anger, and from amongst
+them dropped the broken half of a ring. Otho recognized it at once; it
+was the broken half of that ring which he had broken with his betrothed.
+Alas! he required not such a sign to convince him that that figure,
+so full of ineffable grace, that touching voice, that simple action so
+tender in its sentiment, that gift, that blessing, came only from the
+forsaken and forgiving Leoline.
+
+But Warbeck, alone in his solitary tower, paced to and fro with agitated
+steps. Deep, undying wrath at his brother's falsehood mingled with
+one burning, one delicious hope. He confessed now that he had deceived
+himself when he thought his passion was no more; was there any longer a
+bar to his union with Leoline?
+
+In that delicacy which was breathed into him by his love, he had
+forborne to seek, or to offer her the insult of consolation. He felt
+that the shock should be borne alone, and yet he pined, he thirsted, to
+throw himself at her feet.
+
+Nursing these contending thoughts, he was aroused by a knock at his
+door; he opened it. The passage was thronged by Leoline's maidens,
+pale, anxious, weeping. Leoline had left the castle, with but one female
+attendant, none knew whither; they knew too soon. From the hall of
+Sternfels she had passed over in the dark and inclement night to the
+valley in which the convent of Bornhofen offered to the weary of spirit
+and the broken of heart a refuge at the shrine of God.
+
+At daybreak the next morning, Warbeck was at the convent's gate. He saw
+Leoline. What a change one night of suffering had made in that face,
+which was the fountain of all loveliness to him! He clasped her in his
+arms; he wept; he urged all that love could urge: he besought her to
+accept that heart which had never wronged her memory by a thought. "Oh,
+Leoline! didst thou not say once that these arms nursed thy childhood;
+that this voice soothed thine early sorrows? Ah, trust to them again
+and forever. From a love that forsook thee turn to the love that never
+swerved."
+
+"No," said Leoline; "no. What would the chivalry of which thou art the
+boast,--what would they say of thee, wert thou to wed one affianced and
+deserted, who tarried years for another, and brought to thine arms only
+that heart which he had abandoned? No; and even if thou, as I know thou
+wouldst be, wert callous to such wrong of thy high name, shall I bring
+to thee a broken heart and bruised spirit? Shalt thou wed sorrow and
+not joy; and shall sighs that will not cease, and tears that may not be
+dried, be the only dowry of thy bride? Thou, too, for whom all blessings
+should be ordained! No, forget me; forget thy poor Leoline! She hath
+nothing but prayers for thee."
+
+In vain Warbeck pleaded; in vain he urged all that passion and truth
+could urge; the springs of earthly love were forever dried up in the
+orphan's heart, and her resolution was immovable. She tore herself from
+his arms, and the gate of the convent creaked harshly on his ear.
+
+A new and stern emotion now wholly possessed him; though naturally
+mild and gentle, he cherished anger, when once it was aroused, with the
+strength of a calm mind. Leoline's tears, her sufferings, her wrongs,
+her uncomplaining spirit, the change already stamped upon her face,--all
+cried aloud to him for vengeance. "She is an orphan," said he, bitterly;
+"she hath none to protect, to redress her, save me alone. My father's
+charge over her forlorn youth descends of right to me. What matters it
+whether her forsaker be my brother? He is _her_ foe. Hath he not crushed
+her heart? Hath he not consigned her to sorrow till the grave? And with
+what insult! no warning, no excuse; with lewd wassailers keeping revel
+for his new bridals in the hearing--before the sight--of his betrothed!
+Enough! the time hath come when, to use his own words, 'One of us two
+must fall!'" He half drew his sword as he spoke, and thrusting it back
+violently into the sheath, strode home to his solitary castle. The sound
+of steeds and of the hunting horn met him at his portal; the bridal
+train of Sternfels, all mirth and gladness, were parting for the chase.
+
+That evening a knight in complete armour entered the banquet-hall of
+Sternfels, and defied Otho, on the part of Warbeck of Liebenstein, to
+mortal combat.
+
+Even the Templar was startled by so unnatural a challenge; but
+Otho, reddening, took up the gage, and the day and spot were fixed.
+Discontented, wroth with himself, a savage gladness seized him; he
+longed to wreak his desperate feelings even on his brother. Nor had
+he ever in his jealous heart forgiven that brother his virtues and his
+renown.
+
+At the appointed hour the brothers met as foes. Warbeck's vizor was up,
+and all the settled sternness of his soul was stamped upon his brow.
+But Otho, more willing to brave the arm than to face the front of his
+brother, kept his vizor down; the Templar stood by him with folded arms.
+It was a study in human passions to his mocking mind. Scarce had the
+first trump sounded to this dread conflict, when a new actor entered
+on the scene. The rumour of so unprecedented an event had not failed to
+reach the convent of Bornhofen; and now, two by two, came the sisters of
+the holy shrine, and the armed men made way, as with trailing garments
+and veiled faces they swept along into the very lists. At that moment
+one from amongst them left her sisters with a slow majestic pace, and
+paused not till she stood right between the brother foes.
+
+"Warbeck," she said in a hollow voice, that curdled up his dark spirit
+as it spoke, "is it thus thou wouldst prove thy love, and maintain thy
+trust over the fatherless orphan whom thy sire bequeathed to thy care?
+Shall I have murder on my soul?" At that question she paused, and those
+who heard it were struck dumb, and shuddered. "The murder of one man by
+the hand of his own brother! Away, Warbeck! _I command_."
+
+"Shall I forget thy wrongs, Leoline?" said Warbeck.
+
+"Wrongs! they united me to God! they are forgiven, they are no more.
+Earth has deserted me, but Heaven hath taken me to its arms. Shall I
+murmur at the change? And thou, Otho"--here her voice faltered--"thou,
+does thy conscience smite thee not? Wouldst thou atone for robbing me of
+hope by barring against me the future? Wretch that I should be, could
+I dream of mercy, could I dream of comfort, if thy brother fell by thy
+sword in my cause? Otho, I have pardoned thee, and blessed thee
+and thine. Once, perhaps, thou didst love me; remember how I loved
+thee,--cast down thine arms."
+
+Otho gazed at the veiled form before him. Where had the soft Leoline
+learned to command? He turned to his brother; he felt all that he had
+inflicted upon both; and casting his sword upon the ground, he knelt at
+the feet of Leoline, and kissed her garment with a devotion that votary
+never lavished on a holier saint.
+
+The spell that lay over the warriors around was broken; there was one
+loud cry of congratulation and joy. "And thou, Warbeck?" said Leoline,
+turning to the spot where, still motionless and haughty, Warbeck stood.
+
+"Have I ever rebelled against thy will?" said he, softly; and buried the
+point of his sword in the earth. "Yet, Leoline, yet," added he, looking
+at his kneeling brother, "yet art thou already better avenged than by
+this steel!"
+
+"Thou art! thou art!" cried Otho, smiting his breast; and slowly, and
+scarce noting the crowd that fell back from his path, Warbeck left the
+lists.
+
+Leoline said no more; her divine errand was fulfilled. She looked long
+and wistfully after the stately form of the knight of Liebenstein, and
+then, with a slight sigh, she turned to Otho, "This is the last time we
+shall meet on earth. Peace be with us all!"
+
+She then, with the same majestic and collected bearing, passed on
+towards the sisterhood; and as, in the same solemn procession, they
+glided back towards the convent, there was not a man present--no, not
+even the hardened Templar--who would not, like Otho, have bent his knee
+to Leoline.
+
+Once more Otho plunged into the wild revelry of the age; his castle was
+thronged with guests, and night after night the lighted halls shone down
+athwart the tranquil Rhine. The beauty of the Greek, the wealth of Otho,
+the fame of the Templar, attracted all the chivalry from far and near.
+Never had the banks of the Rhine known so hospitable a lord as the
+knight of Sternfels. Yet gloom seized him in the midst of gladness,
+and the revel was welcome only as the escape from remorse. The voice of
+scandal, however, soon began to mingle with that of envy at the pomp
+of Otho. The fair Greek, it was said, weary of her lord, lavished her
+smiles on others; the young and the fair were always most acceptable
+at the castle; and, above all, her guilty love for the Templar scarcely
+affected disguise. Otho alone appeared unconscious of the rumour; and
+though he had begun to neglect his bride, he relaxed not in his intimacy
+with the Templar.
+
+It was noon, and the Greek was sitting in her bower alone with her
+suspected lover; the rich perfumes of the East mingled with the
+fragrance of flowers, and various luxuries, unknown till then in those
+northern shores, gave a soft and effeminate character to the room.
+
+"I tell thee," said the Greek, petulantly, "that he begins to suspect;
+that I have seen him watch thee, and mutter as he watched, and play with
+the hilt of his dagger. Better let us fly ere it is too late, for his
+vengeance would be terrible were it once roused against us. Ah, why did
+I ever forsake my own sweet land for these barbarous shores! There, love
+is not considered eternal, nor inconstancy a crime worthy death."
+
+"Peace, pretty one!" said the Templar, carelessly; "thou knowest not the
+laws of our foolish chivalry. Thinkest thou I could fly from a knight's
+halls like a thief in the night? Why, verily, even the red cross would
+not cover such dishonour. If thou fearest that thy dull lord suspects,
+let us part. The emperor hath sent to me from Frankfort. Ere evening I
+might be on my way thither."
+
+"And I left to brave the barbarian's revenge alone? Is this thy
+chivalry?"
+
+"Nay, prate not so wildly," answered the Templar. "Surely, when the
+object of his suspicion is gone, thy woman's art and thy Greek wiles can
+easily allay the jealous fiend. Do I not know thee, Glycera? Why, thou
+wouldst fool all men--save a Templar."
+
+"And thou, cruel, wouldst thou leave me?" said the Greek, weeping. "How
+shall I live without thee?"
+
+The Templar laughed slightly. "Can such eyes ever weep without a
+comforter? But farewell; I must not be found with thee. To-morrow I
+depart for Frankfort; we shall meet again."
+
+As soon as the door closed on the Templar, the Greek rose, and pacing
+the room, said, "Selfish, selfish! how could I ever trust him? Yet I
+dare not brave Otho alone. Surely it was his step that disturbed us
+in our yesterday's interview? Nay, I will fly. I can never want a
+companion."
+
+She clapped her hands; a young page appeared; she threw herself on her
+seat and wept bitterly.
+
+The page approached, and love was mingled with his compassion.
+
+"Why weepest thou, dearest lady?" said he. "Is there aught in which
+Conrad's services--services!--ah, thou hast read his heart--_his
+devotion_ may avail?"
+
+Otho had wandered out the whole day alone; his vassals had observed
+that his brow was more gloomy than its wont, for he usually concealed
+whatever might prey within. Some of the most confidential of his
+servitors he had conferred with, and the conference had deepened the
+shadow of his countenance. He returned at twilight; the Greek did not
+honour the repast with her presence. She was unwell, and not to be
+disturbed. The gay Templar was the life of the board.
+
+"Thou carriest a sad brow to-day, Sir Otho," said he; "good faith, thou
+hast caught it from the air of Liebenstein."
+
+"I have something troubles me," answered Otho, forcing a smile, "which I
+would fain impart to thy friendly bosom. The night is clear and the moon
+is up, let us forth alone into the garden."
+
+The Templar rose, and he forgot not to gird on his sword as he followed
+the knight.
+
+Otho led the way to one of the most distant terraces that overhung the
+Rhine.
+
+"Sir Templar," said he, pausing, "answer me one question on thy knightly
+honour. Was it thy step that left my lady's bower yester-eve at vesper?"
+
+Startled by so sudden a query, the wily Templar faltered in his reply.
+
+The red blood mounted to Otho's brow. "Nay, lie not, sir knight; these
+eyes, thanks to God! have not witnessed, but these ears have heard from
+others of my dishonour."
+
+As Otho spoke, the Templar's eye resting on the water perceived a boat
+rowing fast over the Rhine; the distance forbade him to see more than
+the outline of two figures within it. "She was right," thought he;
+"perhaps that boat already bears her from the danger."
+
+Drawing himself up to the full height of his tall stature, the Templar
+replied haughtily,--
+
+"Sir Otho of Sternfels, if thou hast deigned to question thy vassals,
+obtain from them only an answer. It is not to contradict such minions
+that the knights of the Temple pledge their word!"
+
+"Enough," cried Otho, losing patience, and striking the Templar with his
+clenched hand. "Draw, traitor, draw!"
+
+Alone in his lofty tower Warbeck watched the night deepen over the
+heavens, and communed mournfully with himself. "To what end," thought
+he, "have these strong affections, these capacities of love, this
+yearning after sympathy, been given me? Unloved and unknown I walk to
+my grave, and all the nobler mysteries of my heart are forever to be
+untold."
+
+Thus musing, he heard not the challenge of the warder on the wall, or
+the unbarring of the gate below, or the tread of footsteps along the
+winding stair; the door was thrown suddenly open, and Otho stood before
+him. "Come," he said, in a low voice trembling with passion; "come, I
+will show thee that which shall glad thine heart. Twofold is Leoline
+avenged."
+
+Warbeck looked in amazement on a brother he had not met since they stood
+in arms each against the other's life, and he now saw that the arm that
+Otho extended to him dripped with blood, trickling drop by drop upon the
+floor.
+
+"Come," said Otho, "follow me; it is my last prayer. Come, for Leoline's
+sake, come."
+
+At that name Warbeck hesitated no longer; he girded on his sword, and
+followed his brother down the stairs and through the castle gate. The
+porter scarcely believed his eyes when he saw the two brothers, so long
+divided, go forth at that hour alone, and seemingly in friendship.
+
+Warbeck, arrived at that epoch in the feelings when nothing stuns,
+followed with silent steps the rapid strides of his brother. The two
+castles, as you are aware, are scarce a stone's throw from each other.
+In a few minutes Otho paused at an open space in one of the terraces of
+Sternfels, on which the moon shone bright and steady. "Behold!" he said,
+in a ghastly voice, "behold!" and Warbeck saw on the sward the corpse of
+the Templar, bathed with the blood that even still poured fast and warm
+from his heart.
+
+"Hark!" said Otho. "He it was who first made me waver in my vows to
+Leoline; he persuaded me to wed yon whited falsehood. Hark! he, who had
+thus wronged my real love, dishonoured me with my faithless bride, and
+thus--thus--thus"--as grinding his teeth, he spurned again and again the
+dead body of the Templar--"thus Leoline and myself are avenged!"
+
+"And thy wife?" said Warbeck, pityingly.
+
+"Fled,--fled with a hireling page. It is well! she was not worth the
+sword that was once belted on--by Leoline."
+
+
+
+The tradition, dear Gertrude, proceeds to tell us that Otho, though
+often menaced by the rude justice of the day for the death of the
+Templar, defied and escaped the menace. On the very night of his revenge
+a long and delirious illness seized him; the generous Warbeck forgave,
+forgot all, save that he had been once consecrated by Leoline's love.
+He tended him through his sickness, and when he recovered, Otho was an
+altered man. He forswore the comrades he had once courted, the revels
+he had once led. The halls of Sternfels were desolate as those of
+Liebenstein. The only companion Otho sought was Warbeck, and Warbeck
+bore with him. They had no topic in common, for on one subject Warbeck
+at least felt too deeply ever to trust himself to speak; yet did a
+strange and secret sympathy re-unite them. They had at least a common
+sorrow; often they were seen wandering together by the solitary banks of
+the river, or amidst the woods, without apparently interchanging word or
+sign. Otho died first, and still in the prime of youth; and Warbeck
+was now left companionless. In vain the imperial court wooed him to its
+pleasures; in vain the camp proffered him the oblivion of renown. Ah!
+could he tear himself from a spot where morning and night he could see
+afar, amidst the valley, the roof that sheltered Leoline, and on which
+every copse, every turf, reminded him of former days? His solitary life,
+his midnight vigils, strange scrolls about his chamber, obtained him
+by degrees the repute of cultivating the darker arts; and shunning, he
+became shunned by all. But still it was sweet to hear from time to time
+of the increasing sanctity of her in whom he had treasured up his
+last thoughts of earth. She it was who healed the sick; she it was who
+relieved the poor; and the superstition of that age brought pilgrims
+from afar to the altars that she served.
+
+Many years afterwards, a band of lawless robbers, who ever and anon
+broke from their mountain fastnesses to pillage and to desolate the
+valleys of the Rhine,--who spared neither sex nor age, neither tower
+nor hut, nor even the houses of God Himself,--laid waste the territories
+round Bornhofen, and demanded treasure from the convent. The abbess,
+of the bold lineage of Rudesheim, refused the sacrilegious demand.
+The convent was stormed; its vassals resisted; the robbers, inured to
+slaughter, won the day; already the gates were forced, when a knight, at
+the head of a small but hardy troop, rushed down from the mountain side
+and turned the tide of the fray. Wherever his sword flashed fell a foe;
+wherever his war-cry sounded was a space of dead men in the thick of
+the battle. The fight was won, the convent saved; the abbess and the
+sisterhood came forth to bless their deliverer. Laid under an aged oak,
+he was bleeding fast to death; his head was bare and his locks were
+gray, but scarcely yet with years. One only of the sisterhood recognized
+that majestic face; one bathed his parched lips; one held his dying
+hand; and in Leoline's presence passed away the faithful spirit of the
+last lord of Liebenstein!
+
+"Oh!" said Gertrude, through her tears; "surely you must have altered
+the facts,--surely--surely--it must have been impossible for Leoline,
+with a woman's heart, to have loved Otho more than Warbeck?"
+
+"My child," said Vane, "so think women when they read a tale of love,
+and see _the whole heart_ bared before them; but not so act they in real
+life, when they see only the surface of character, and pierce not its
+depths--until it is too late!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV. THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.--A COMMON INCIDENT NOT BEFORE
+DESCRIBED.--TREVYLYAN AND GERTRUDE.
+
+THE day now grew cool as it waned to its decline, and the breeze came
+sharp upon the delicate frame of the sufferer. They resolved to proceed
+no farther; and as they carried with them attendants and baggage, which
+rendered their route almost independent of the ordinary accommodation,
+they steered for the opposite shore, and landed at a village beautifully
+sequestered in a valley, and where they fortunately obtained a lodging
+not often met with in the regions of the picturesque.
+
+When Gertrude, at an early hour, retired to bed, Vane and Du-----e fell
+into speculative conversation upon the nature of man. Vane's philosophy
+was of a quiet and passive scepticism; the physician dared more boldly,
+and rushed from doubt to negation. The attention of Trevylyan, as he sat
+apart and musing, was arrested in despite of himself. He listened to an
+argument in which he took no share, but which suddenly inspired him with
+an interest in that awful subject which, in the heat of youth and the
+occupations of the world, had never been so prominently called forth
+before.
+
+"What," thought he, with unutterable anguish, as he listened to the
+earnest vehemence of the Frenchman and the tranquil assent of Vane, "if
+this creed were indeed true,--if there be no other world,--Gertrude is
+lost to me eternally, through the dread gloom of death there would break
+forth no star!"
+
+That is a peculiar incident that perhaps occurs to us all at times, but
+which I have never found expressed in books, namely, to hear a doubt of
+futurity at the very moment in which the present is most overcast; and
+to find at once this world stripped of its delusion and the next of its
+consolation. It is perhaps for others, rather than ourselves, that the
+fond heart requires a Hereafter. The tranquil rest, the shadow, and the
+silence, the mere pause of the wheel of life, have no terror for the
+wise, who know the due value of the world.
+
+     "After the billows of a stormy sea,
+      Sweet is at last the haven of repose!"
+
+But not so when that stillness is to divide us eternally from others;
+when those we have loved with all the passion, the devotion, the
+watchful sanctity of the weak human heart, are to exist to us no more!
+when, after long years of desertion and widowhood on earth, there is
+to be no hope of reunion in that INVISIBLE beyond the stars; when the
+torch, not of life only, but of love, is to be quenched in the Dark
+Fountain, and the grave, that we would fain hope is the great restorer
+of broken ties, is but the dumb seal of hopeless, utter, inexorable
+separation! And it is this thought, this sentiment, which makes religion
+out of woe, and teaches belief to the mourning heart that in the
+gladness of united affections felt not the necessity of a heaven! To how
+many is the death of the beloved the parent of faith!
+
+Stung by his thoughts, Trevylyan rose abruptly, and stealing from the
+lowly hostelry, walked forth amidst the serene and deepening night; from
+the window of Gertrude's room the light streamed calm on the purple air.
+
+With uneven steps and many a pause, he paced to and fro beneath the
+window, and gave the rein to his thoughts. How intensely he felt the ALL
+that Gertrude was to him! how bitterly he foresaw the change in his lot
+and character that her death would work out! For who that met him in
+later years ever dreamed that emotions so soft, and yet so ardent, had
+visited one so stern? Who could have believed that time was when the
+polished and cold Trevylyan had kept the vigils he now held below the
+chamber of one so little like himself as Gertrude, in that remote and
+solitary hamlet; shut in by the haunted mountains of the Rhine, and
+beneath the moonlight of the romantic North?
+
+While thus engaged, the light in Gertrude's room was suddenly
+extinguished; it is impossible to express how much that trivial incident
+affected him! It was like an emblem of what was to come; the light had
+been the only evidence of life that broke upon that hour, and he was
+now left alone with the shades of night. Was not this like the herald of
+Gertrude's own death; the extinction of the only living ray that broke
+upon the darkness of the world?
+
+His anguish, his presentiment of utter desolation, increased. He groaned
+aloud; he dashed his clenched hand to his breast; large and cold drops
+of agony stole down his brow. "Father," he exclaimed with a struggling
+voice, "let this cup pass from me! Smite my ambition to the root;
+curse me with poverty, shame, and bodily disease; but leave me this one
+solace, this one companion of my fate!"
+
+At this moment Gertrude's window opened gently, and he heard accents
+steal soothingly upon his ear.
+
+"Is not that your voice, Albert?" said she, softly. "I heard it just as
+I lay down to rest, and could not sleep while you were thus exposed to
+the damp night air. You do not answer; surely it is your voice: when
+did I mistake it for another's?" Mastering with a violent effort his
+emotions, Trevylyan answered, with a sort of convulsive gayety,--
+
+"Why come to these shores, dear Gertrude, unless you are honoured with
+the chivalry that belongs to them? What wind, what blight, can harm me
+while within the circle of your presence; and what sleep can bring me
+dreams so dear as the waking thought of you?"
+
+"It is cold," said Gertrude, shivering; "come in, dear Albert, I beseech
+you, and I will thank you to-morrow." Gertrude's voice was choked by the
+hectic cough, that went like an arrow to Trevylyan's heart; and he felt
+that in her anxiety for him she was now exposing her own frame to the
+unwholesome night.
+
+He spoke no more, but hurried within the house; and when the gray light
+of morn broke upon his gloomy features, haggard from the want of sleep,
+it might have seemed, in that dim eye and fast-sinking cheek, as if the
+lovers were not to be divided--even by death itself.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI. IN WHICH THE READER WILL LEARN HOW THE FAIRIES WERE
+RECEIVED BY THE SOVEREIGNS OF THE MINES.--THE COMPLAINT OF THE LAST OF
+THE FAUNS.--THE RED HUNTSMAN.--THE STORM.--DEATH.
+
+IN the deep valley of Ehrenthal, the metal kings--the Prince of the
+Silver Palaces, the Gnome Monarch of the dull Lead Mine, the President
+of the Copper United States--held a court to receive the fairy wanderers
+from the island of Nonnewerth.
+
+The prince was there, in a gallant hunting-suit of oak leaves, in
+honour to England; and wore a profusion of fairy orders, which had been
+instituted from time to time, in honour of the human poets that had
+celebrated the spiritual and ethereal tribes. Chief of these, sweet
+Dreamer of the "Midsummer Night's Dream," was the badge crystallized
+from the dews that rose above the whispering reeds of Avon on the night
+of thy birth,--the great epoch of the intellectual world! Nor wert thou,
+O beloved Musaeus! nor thou, dim-dreaming Tieck! nor were ye, the
+wild imaginer of the bright-haired Undine, and the wayward spirit that
+invoked for the gloomy Manfred the Witch of the breathless Alps and
+the spirits of earth and air!--nor were ye without the honours of fairy
+homage! Your memory may fade from the heart of man, and the spells of
+new enchanters may succeed to the charm you once wove over the face of
+the common world; but still in the green knolls of the haunted valley
+and the deep shade of forests, and the starred palaces of air, ye are
+honoured by the beings of your dreams, as demigods and kings! Your
+graves are tended by invisible hands, and the places of your birth are
+hallowed by no perishable worship!
+
+Even as I write,* far away amidst the hills of Scotland, and by the
+forest thou hast clothed with immortal verdure, thou, the maker of "the
+Harp by lone Glenfillan's spring," art passing from the earth which thou
+hast "painted with delight." And such are the chances of mortal fame,
+our children's children may raise new idols on the site of thy holy
+altar, and cavil where their sires adored; but for thee the mermaid of
+the ocean shall wail in her coral caves, and the sprite that lives in
+the waterfalls shall mourn! Strange shapes shall hew thy monument in the
+recesses of the lonely rocks! ever by moonlight shall the fairies pause
+from their roundel when some wild note of their minstrelsy reminds them
+of thine own,--ceasing from their revelries, to weep for the silence of
+that mighty lyre, which breathed alike a revelation of the mysteries of
+spirits and of men!
+
+  * It was just at the time the author was finishing this work
+    that the great master of his art was drawing to the close
+    of his career.
+
+The King of the Silver Mines sat in a cavern in the valley, through
+which the moonlight pierced its way and slept in shadow on the soil
+shining with metals wrought into unnumbered shapes; and below him, on a
+humbler throne, with a gray beard and downcast eye, sat the aged King
+of the Dwarfs that preside over the dull realms of lead, and inspire
+the verse of -----, and the prose of -----! And there too a fantastic
+household elf was the President of the Copper Republic,--a spirit that
+loves economy and the Uses, and smiles sparely on the Beautiful. But, in
+the centre of the cave, upon beds of the softest mosses, the untrodden
+growth of ages, reclined the fairy visitors, Nymphalin seated by her
+betrothed. And round the walls of the cave were dwarf attendants on
+the sovereigns of the metals, of a thousand odd shapes and fantastic
+garments. On the abrupt ledges of the rocks the bats, charmed to
+stillness but not sleep, clustered thickly, watching the scene with
+fixed and amazed eyes; and one old gray owl, the favourite of the witch
+of the valley, sat blinking in a corner, listening with all her might
+that she might bring home the scandal to her mistress.
+
+"And tell me, Prince of the Rhine-Island Fays," said the King of the
+Silver Mines, "for thou art a traveller, and a fairy that hath seen
+much, how go men's affairs in the upper world? As to ourself, we live
+here in a stupid splendour, and only hear the news of the day when
+our brother of lead pays a visit to the English printing-press, or the
+President of Copper goes to look at his improvements in steam-engines."
+
+"Indeed," replied Fayzenheim, preparing to speak like AEneas in the
+Carthaginian court,--"indeed, your Majesty, I know not much that will
+interest you in the present aspect of mortal affairs, except that you
+are quite as much honoured at this day as when the Roman conqueror bent
+his knee to you among the mountains of Taunus; and a vast number of
+little round subjects of yours are constantly carried about by the rich,
+and pined after with hopeless adoration by the poor. But, begging your
+Majesty's pardon, may I ask what has become of your cousin, the King
+of the Golden Mines? I know very well that he has no dominion in these
+valleys, and do not therefore wonder at his absence from your court this
+night; but I see so little of his subjects on earth that I should fear
+his empire was well nigh at an end, if I did not recognize everywhere
+the most servile homage paid to a power now become almost invisible."
+
+The King of the Silver Mines fetched a deep sigh. "Alas, prince," said
+he, "too well do you divine the expiration of my cousin's empire. So
+many of his subjects have from time to time gone forth to the world,
+pressed into military service and never returning, that his kingdom is
+nearly depopulated. And he lives far off in the distant parts of the
+earth, in a state of melancholy seclusion; the age of gold has passed,
+the age of paper has commenced."
+
+"Paper," said Nymphalin, who was still somewhat of a
+_precieuse_,--"paper is a wonderful thing. What pretty books the human
+people write upon it!"
+
+"Ah! that's what I design to convey," said the silver king. "It is the
+age less of paper money than paper government: the Press is the true
+bank." The lord treasurer of the English fairies pricked up his ears
+at the word "bank;" for he was the Attwood of the fairies: he had a
+favourite plan of making money out of bulrushes, and had written four
+large bees'-wings full upon the true nature of capital.
+
+While they were thus conversing, a sudden sound as of some rustic and
+rude music broke along the air, and closing its wild burden, they heard
+the following song:--
+
+
+
+THE COMPLAINT OF THE LAST FAUN.
+
+
+I. The moon on the Latmos mountain  Her pining vigil keeps;
+And ever the silver fountain  In the Dorian valley weeps.
+But gone are Endymion's dreams;  And the crystal lymph
+  Bewails the nymph
+Whose beauty sleeked the streams!
+
+
+II. Round Arcady's oak its green  The Bromian ivy weaves;
+But no more is the satyr seen  Laughing out from the glossy leaves.
+Hushed is the Lycian lute,  Still grows the seed
+  Of the Moenale reed,
+But the pipe of Pan is mute!
+
+
+III. The leaves in the noon-day quiver;  The vines on the mountains wave;
+And Tiber rolls his river  As fresh by the Sylvan's cave.
+But my brothers are dead and gone;  And far away
+  From their graves I stray,
+And dream of the past alone!
+
+
+IV. And the sun of the north is chill;  And keen is the northern gale;
+Alas for the Song of the Argive hill;  And the dance in the Cretan vale!
+The youth of the earth is o'er,  And its breast is rife
+  With the teeming life
+Of the golden Tribes no more!
+
+
+V. My race are more blest than I,  Asleep in their distant bed;
+'T were better, be sure, to die  Than to mourn for the buried Dead:
+To rove by the stranger streams,  At dusk and dawn
+  A lonely faun,
+The last of the Grecian's dreams.
+
+
+
+As the song ended a shadow crossed the moonlight, that lay white and
+lustrous before the aperture of the cavern; and Nymphalin, looking up,
+beheld a graceful yet grotesque figure standing on the sward without,
+and gazing on the group in the cave. It was a shaggy form, with a goat's
+legs and ears; but the rest of its body, and the height of the stature,
+like a man's. An arch, pleasant, yet malicious smile played about its
+lips; and in its hand it held the pastoral pipe of which poets have
+sung,--they would find it difficult to sing to it!
+
+"And who art thou?" said Fayzenheim, with the air of a hero.
+
+"I am the last lingering wanderer of the race which the Romans
+worshipped; hither I followed their victorious steps, and in these green
+hollows have I remained. Sometimes in the still noon, when the leaves of
+spring bud upon the whispering woods, I peer forth from my rocky lair,
+and startle the peasant with my strange voice and stranger shape. Then
+goes he home, and puzzles his thick brain with mopes and fancies, till
+at length he imagines me, the creature of the South! one of his northern
+demons, and his poets adapt the apparition to their barbarous lines."
+
+"Ho!" quoth the silver king, "surely thou art the origin of the fabled
+Satan of the cowled men living whilom in yonder ruins, with its horns
+and goatish limbs; and the harmless faun has been made the figuration
+of the most implacable of fiends. But why, O wanderer of the South,
+lingerest thou in these foreign dells? Why returnest thou not to the
+bi-forked hill-top of old Parnassus, or the wastes around the yellow
+course of the Tiber?"
+
+"My brethren are no more," said the poor faun; "and the very faith that
+left us sacred and unharmed is departed. But here all the spirits not of
+mortality are still honoured; and I wander, mourning for Silenus, though
+amidst the vines that should console me for his loss."
+
+"Thou hast known great beings in thy day," said the leaden king, who
+loved the philosophy of a truism (and the history of whose inspirations
+I shall one day write).
+
+"Ah, yes," said the faun; "my birth was amidst the freshness of the
+world, when the flush of the universal life coloured all things with
+divinity; when not a tree but had its Dryad, not a fountain that was
+without its Nymph. I sat by the gray throne of Saturn, in his old age,
+ere yet he was discrowned (for he was no visionary ideal, but the arch
+monarch of the pastoral age), and heard from his lips the history of the
+world's birth. But those times are gone forever,--they have left harsh
+successors."
+
+"It is the age of paper," muttered the lord treasurer, shaking his head.
+
+"What ho, for a dance!" cried Fayzenheim, too royal for moralities, and
+he whirled the beautiful Nymphalin into a waltz. Then forth issued the
+fairies, and out went the dwarfs. And the faun leaning against an aged
+elm, ere yet the midnight waned, the elves danced their charmed round
+to the antique minstrelsy of his pipe,--the minstrelsy of the Grecian
+world!
+
+"Hast thou seen yet, my Nymphalin," said Fayzenheim, in the pauses of
+the dance, "the recess of the Hartz, and the red form of its mighty
+hunter?"
+
+"It is a fearful sight," answered Nymphalin; "but with thee I should not
+fear."
+
+"Away then!" cried Fayzenheim; "let us away at the first cock-crow, into
+those shaggy dells; for there is no need of night to conceal us, and the
+unwitnessed blush of morn or the dreary silence of noon is, no less than
+the moon's reign, the season for the sports of the superhuman tribes."
+
+Nymphalin, charmed with the proposal, readily assented; and at the last
+hour of night, bestriding the starbeams of the many-titled Friga, away
+sped the fairy cavalcade to the gloom of the mystic Hartz.
+
+Fain would I relate the manner of their arrival in the thick recesses
+of the forest,--how they found the Red Hunter seated on a fallen pine
+beside a wide chasm in the earth, with the arching bows of the wizard
+oak wreathing above his head as a canopy, and his bow and spear lying
+idle at his feet. Fain would I tell of the reception which he deigned to
+the fairies, and how he told them of his ancient victories over man; how
+he chafed at the gathering invasions of his realm; and how joyously he
+gloated of some great convulsion* in the northern States, which, rapt
+into moody reveries in those solitary woods, the fierce demon broodingly
+foresaw. All these fain would I narrate, but they are not of the Rhine,
+and my story will not brook the delay. While thus conversing with the
+fiend, noon had crept on, and the sky had become overcast and lowering;
+the giant trees waved gustily to and fro, and the low gatherings of
+the thunder announced the approaching storm. Then the hunter rose and
+stretched his mighty limbs, and seizing his spear, he strode rapidly
+into the forest to meet the things of his own tribe that the tempest
+wakes from their rugged lair.
+
+  * Which has come to pass.--1847.
+
+A sudden recollection broke upon Nymphalin. "Alas, alas!" she cried,
+wringing her hands; "what have I done! In journeying hither with thee,
+I have forgotten my office. I have neglected my watch over the elements,
+and my human charge is at this hour, perhaps, exposed to all the fury of
+the storm."
+
+"Cheer thee, my Nymphalin," said the prince, "we will lay the tempest;"
+and he waved his sword and muttered the charms which curb the winds and
+roll back the marching thunder: but for once the tempest ceased not at
+his spells. And now, as the fairies sped along the troubled air, a
+pale and beautiful form met them by the way, and the fairies paused and
+trembled; for the power of that Shape could vanquish even them. It
+was the form of a Female, with golden hair, crowned with a chaplet of
+withered leaves; her bosoms, of an exceeding beauty, lay bare to the
+wind, and an infant was clasped between them, hushed into a sleep so
+still, that neither the roar of the thunder, nor the livid lightning
+flashing from cloud to cloud, could even ruffle, much less arouse, the
+slumberer. And the face of the female was unutterably calm and sweet
+(though with a something of severe); there was no line nor wrinkle in
+the hueless brow; care never wrote its defacing characters upon that
+everlasting beauty. It knew no sorrow or change; ghostlike and shadowy
+floated on that Shape through the abyss of Time, governing the world
+with an unquestioned and noiseless sway. And the children of the green
+solitudes of the earth, the lovely fairies of my tale, shuddered as they
+gazed and recognized--the form of DEATH,--death vindicated.
+
+"And why," said the beautiful Shape, with a voice soft as the last sighs
+of a dying babe,--"why trouble ye the air with spells? Mine is the hour
+and the empire, and the storm is the creature of my power. Far yonder to
+the west it sweeps over the sea, and the ship ceases to vex the waves;
+it smites the forest, and the destined tree, torn from its roots, feels
+the winter strip the gladness from its boughs no more! The roar of the
+elements is the herald of eternal stillness to their victims; and they
+who hear the progress of my power idly shudder at the coming of peace.
+And thou, O tender daughter of the fairy kings, why grievest thou at a
+mortal's doom? Knowest thou not that sorrow cometh with years, and that
+to live is to mourn? Blessed is the flower that, nipped in its early
+spring, feels not the blast that one by one scatters its blossoms around
+it, and leaves but the barren stem. Blessed are the young whom I clasp
+to my breast, and lull into the sleep which the storm cannot break, nor
+the morrow arouse to sorrow or to toil. The heart that is stilled in the
+bloom of its first emotions, that turns with its last throb to the eye
+of love, as yet unlearned in the possibility of change,--has exhausted
+already the wine of life, and is saved only from the lees. As the mother
+soothes to sleep the wail of her troubled child, I open my arms to the
+vexed spirit, and my bosom cradles the unquiet to repose!"
+
+The fairies answered not, for a chill and a fear lay over them, and the
+Shape glided on; ever as it passed away through the veiling clouds they
+heard its low voice singing amidst the roar of the storm, as the dirge
+of the water-sprite over the vessel it hath lured into the whirlpool or
+the shoals.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII. THURMBERG.--A STORM UPON THE RHINE.--THE RUINS OF
+RHEINFELS.--PERIL UNFELT BY LOVE.--THE ECHO OF THE LURLEI-BERG.--ST.
+GOAR.--KAUB, GUTENFELS, AND PFALZGRAFENSTEIN.--A CERTAIN VASTNESS OF
+MIND IN THE FIRST HERMITS.--THE SCENERY OF THE RHINE TO BACHARACH.
+
+OUR party continued their voyage the next day, which was less bright
+than any they had yet experienced. The clouds swept on dull and heavy,
+suffering the sun only to break forth at scattered intervals. They wound
+round the curving bay which the Rhine forms in that part of its course,
+and gazed upon the ruins of Thurmberg, with the rich gardens that skirt
+the banks below. The last time Trevylyan had seen those ruins soaring
+against the sky, the green foliage at the foot of the rocks, and the
+quiet village sequestered beneath, glassing its roofs and solitary tower
+upon the wave, it had been with a gay summer troop of light friends,
+who had paused on the opposite shore during the heats of noon, and, over
+wine and fruits, had mimicked the groups of Boccaccio, and intermingled
+the lute, the jest, the momentary love, and the laughing tale.
+
+What a difference now in his thoughts, in the object of the voyage, in
+his present companions! The feet of years fall noiseless; we heed, we
+note them not, till tracking the same course we passed long since,
+we are startled to find how deep the impression they leave behind.
+To revisit the scenes of our youth is to commune with the ghost of
+ourselves.
+
+At this time the clouds gathered rapidly along the heavens, and they
+were startled by the first peal of the thunder. Sudden and swift came on
+the storm, and Trevylyan trembled as he covered Gertrude's form with the
+rude boat-cloaks they had brought with them; the small vessel began to
+rock wildly to and fro upon the waters. High above them rose the
+vast dismantled ruins of Rheinfels, the lightning darting through its
+shattered casements and broken arches, and brightening the gloomy trees
+that here and there clothed the rocks, and tossed to the angry wind.
+Swift wheeled the water-birds over the river, dipping their plumage in
+the white foam, and uttering their discordant screams. A storm upon the
+Rhine has a grandeur it is in vain to paint. Its rocks, its foliage, the
+feudal ruins that everywhere rise from the lofty heights, speaking
+in characters of stern decay of many a former battle against time
+and tempest; the broad and rapid course of the legendary river,--all
+harmonize with the elementary strife; and you feel that to see the Rhine
+only in the sunshine is to be unconscious of its most majestic aspects.
+What baronial war had those ruins witnessed! From the rapine of the
+lordly tyrant of those battlements rose the first Confederation of the
+Rhine,--the great strife between the new time and the old, the town
+and the castle, the citizen and the chief. Gray and stern those ruins
+breasted the storm,--a type of the antique opinion which once manned
+them with armed serfs; and, yet in ruins and decay, appeals from the
+victorious freedom it may no longer resist!
+
+Clasped in Trevylyan's guardian arms, and her head pillowed on his
+breast, Gertrude felt nothing of the storm save its grandeur; and
+Trevylyan's voice whispered cheer and courage to her ear. She answered
+by a smile and a sigh, but not of pain. In the convulsions of nature we
+forget our own separate existence, our schemes, our projects, our fears;
+our dreams vanish back into their cells. One passion only the storm
+quells not, and the presence of Love mingles with the voice of the
+fiercest storms, as with the whispers of the southern wind. So she felt,
+as they were thus drawn close together, and as she strove to smile away
+the anxious terror from Trevylyan's gaze, a security, a delight; for
+peril is sweet even to the fears of woman, when it impresses upon her
+yet more vividly that she is beloved.
+
+"A moment more and we reach the land," murmured Trevylyan.
+
+"I wish it not," answered Gertrude, softly. But ere they got into St.
+Goar the rain descended in torrents, and even the thick coverings round
+Gertrude's form were not sufficient protection against it. Wet and
+dripping she reached the inn; but not then, nor for some days, was she
+sensible of the shock her decaying health had received.
+
+The storm lasted but a few hours, and the sun afterwards broke forth
+so brightly, and the stream looked so inviting, that they yielded to
+Gertrude's earnest wish, and, taking a larger vessel, continued their
+course; they passed along the narrow and dangerous defile of the
+Gewirre, and the fearful whirlpool of the "Bank;" and on the shore to
+the left the enormous rock of Lurlei rose, huge and shapeless, on their
+gaze. In this place is a singular echo, and one of the boatmen wound a
+horn, which produced an almost supernatural music,--so wild, loud, and
+oft reverberated was its sound.
+
+The river now curved along in a narrow and deep channel amongst rugged
+steeps, on which the westering sun cast long and uncouth shadows; and
+here the hermit, from whose sacred name the town of St. Goar derived its
+own, fixed his abode and preached the religion of the Cross. "There
+was a certain vastness of mind," said Vane, "in the adoption of utter
+solitude, in which the first enthusiasts of our religion indulged. The
+remote desert, the solitary rock, the rude dwelling hollowed from the
+cave, the eternal commune with their own hearts, with nature, and their
+dreams of God,--all make a picture of severe and preterhuman grandeur.
+Say what we will of the necessity and charm of social life, there is a
+greatness about man when he dispenses with mankind."
+
+"As to that," said Du-----e, shrugging his shoulders, "there was
+probably very good wine in the neighbourhood, and the females' eyes
+about Oberwesel are singularly blue."
+
+They now approached Oberwesel, another of the once imperial towns, and
+behind it beheld the remains of the castle of the illustrious family of
+Schomberg, the ancestors of the old hero of the Boyne. A little farther
+on, from the opposite shore, the castle of Gutenfels rose above the busy
+town of Kaub.
+
+"Another of those scenes," said Trevylyan, "celebrated equally by love
+and glory, for the castle's name is derived from that of the beautiful
+ladye of an emperor's passion; and below, upon a ridge in the steep,
+the great Gustavus issued forth his command to begin battle with the
+Spaniards."
+
+"It looks peaceful enough now," said Vane, pointing to the craft that
+lay along the stream, and the green trees drooping over a curve in the
+bank. Beyond, in the middle of the stream itself, stands the lonely
+castle of Pfalzgrafenstein, sadly memorable as a prison to the more
+distinguished of criminals. How many pining eyes may have turned from
+those casements to the vine-clad hills of the free shore! how many
+indignant hearts have nursed the deep curses of hate in the dungeons
+below, and longed for the wave that dashed against the gray walls to
+force its way within and set them free!
+
+Here the Rhine seems utterly bounded, shrunk into one of those delusive
+lakes into which it so frequently seems to change its course; and as you
+proceed, it is as if the waters were silently overflowing their channel
+and forcing their way into the clefts of the mountain shore. Passing the
+Werth Island on one side and the castle of Stahleck on the other,
+our voyagers arrived at Bacharach, which, associating the feudal
+recollections with the classic, takes its name from the god of the vine;
+and as Du-----e declared with peculiar emphasis, quaffing a large goblet
+of the peculiar liquor, "richly deserves the honour!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII. THE VOYAGE TO BINGEN.--THE SIMPLE INCIDENTS IN THIS TALE
+EXCUSED.--THE SITUATION AND CHARACTER OF GERTRUDE.--THE CONVERSATION OF
+THE LOVERS IN THE TEMPEST.--A FACT CONTRADICTED.--THOUGHTS OCCASIONED BY
+A MADHOUSE AMONGST THE MOST BEAUTIFUL LANDSCAPES OF THE RHINE.
+
+THE next day they again resumed their voyage, and Gertrude's spirits
+were more cheerful than usual. The air seemed to her lighter, and she
+breathed with a less painful effort; once more hope entered the breast
+of Trevylyan; and, as the vessel bounded on, their conversation was
+steeped in no sombre hues. When Gertrude's health permitted, no temper
+was so gay, yet so gently gay, as hers; and now the _naive_ sportiveness
+of her remarks called a smile to the placid lip of Vane, and smoothed
+the anxious front of Trevylyan himself; as for Du-----e, who had much of
+the boon companion beneath his professional gravity, he broke out every
+now and then into snatches of French songs and drinking glees, which he
+declared were the result of the air of Bacharach. Thus conversing, the
+ruins of Furstenberg, and the echoing vale of Rheindeibach, glided past
+their sail; then the old town of Lorch, on the opposite bank (where the
+red wine is said first to have been made), with the green island before
+it in the water. Winding round, the stream showed castle upon castle
+alike in ruins, and built alike upon scarce accessible steeps. Then came
+the chapel of St. Clements and the opposing village of Asmannshausen;
+the lofty Rossell, built at the extremest verge of the cliff; and now
+the tower of Hatto, celebrated by Southey's ballad, and the ancient
+town of Bingen. Here they paused a while from their voyage, with the
+intention of visiting more minutely the Rheingau, or valley of the
+Rhine.
+
+It must occur to every one of my readers, that, in undertaking, as now,
+in these passages in the history of Trevylyan, scarcely so much a tale
+as an episode in real life, it is very difficult to offer any interest
+save of the most simple and unexciting kind. It is true that to
+Trevylyan every day, every hour, had its incident; but what are those
+incidents to others? A cloud in the sky; a smile from the lip of
+Gertrude,--these were to him far more full of events than had been the
+most varied scenes of his former adventurous career; but the history of
+the heart is not easily translated into language; and the world will not
+readily pause from its business to watch the alternations in the cheek
+of a dying girl.
+
+In the immense sum of human existence what is a single unit? Every
+sod on which we tread is the grave of some former being; yet is there
+something that softens without enervating the heart in tracing in the
+life of another those emotions that all of us have known ourselves. For
+who is there that has not, in his progress through life, felt all its
+ordinary business arrested, and the varieties of fate commuted into one
+chronicle of the affections? Who has not watched over the passing away
+of some being, more to him at that epoch than all the world? And this
+unit, so trivial to the calculation of others, of what inestimable value
+was it not to him? Retracing in another such recollections, shadowed and
+mellowed down by time, we feel the wonderful sanctity of human life, we
+feel what emotions a single being can awake; what a world of hope may
+be buried in a single grave! And thus we keep alive within ourselves the
+soft springs of that morality which unites us with our kind, and sheds
+over the harsh scenes and turbulent contests of earth the colouring of a
+common love.
+
+There is often, too, in the time of year in which such thoughts are
+presented to us, a certain harmony with the feelings they awaken. As I
+write I hear the last sighs of the departing summer, and the sere and
+yellow leaf is visible in the green of nature. But when this book goes
+forth into the world, the year will have passed through a deeper cycle
+of decay; and the first melancholy signs of winter have breathed into
+the Universal Mind that sadness which associates itself readily with
+the memory of friends, of feelings, that are no more. The seasons, like
+ourselves, track their course by something of beauty, or of glory, that
+is left behind. As the traveller in the land of Palestine sees tomb
+after tomb rise before him, the landmarks of his way, and the only signs
+of the holiness of the soil, thus Memory wanders over the most sacred
+spots in its various world, and traces them but by the graves of the
+Past.
+
+It was now that Gertrude began to feel the shock her frame had received
+in the storm upon the Rhine. Cold shiverings frequently seized her; her
+cough became more hollow, and her form trembled at the slightest breeze.
+
+Vane grew seriously alarmed; he repented that he had yielded to
+Gertrude's wish of substituting the Rhine for the Tiber or the Arno;
+and would even now have hurried across the Alps to a warmer clime, if
+Du-----e had not declared that she could not survive the journey,
+and that her sole chance of regaining her strength was rest. Gertrude
+herself, however, in the continued delusion of her disease, clung to
+the belief of recovery, and still supported the hopes of her father, and
+soothed, with secret talk of the future, the anguish of her betrothed.
+The reader may remember that in the most touching passage in the
+ancient tragedians, the most pathetic part of the most pathetic of
+human poets--the pleading speech of Iphigenia, when imploring for
+her prolonged life, she impresses you with so soft a picture of its
+innocence and its beauty, and in this Gertrude resembled the Greek's
+creation--that she felt, on the verge of death, all the flush, the glow,
+the loveliness of life. Her youth was filled with hope and many-coloured
+dreams; she loved, and the hues of morning slept upon the yet
+disenchanted earth. The heavens to her were not as the common sky;
+the wave had its peculiar music to her ear, and the rustling leaves a
+pleasantness that none whose heart is not bathed in the love and sense
+of beauty could discern. Therefore it was, in future years, a thought
+of deep gratitude to Trevylyan that she was so little sensible of her
+danger; that the landscape caught not the gloom of the grave; and that,
+in the Greek phrase, "death found her sleeping amongst flowers."
+
+At the end of a few days, another of those sudden turns, common to
+her malady, occurred in Gertrude's health; her youth and her happiness
+rallied against the encroaching tyrant, and for the ensuing fortnight
+she seemed once more within the bounds of hope. During this time they
+made several excursions into the Rheingau, and finished their tour at
+the ancient Heidelberg.
+
+One morning, in these excursions, after threading the wood of
+Niederwald, they gained that small and fairy temple, which hanging
+lightly over the mountain's brow, commands one of the noblest landscapes
+of earth. There, seated side by side, the lovers looked over the
+beautiful world below; far to the left lay the happy islets, in the
+embrace of the Rhine, as it wound along the low and curving meadows that
+stretch away towards Nieder-Ingelheim and Mayence. Glistening in the
+distance, the opposite Nah swept by the Mause tower, and the ruins of
+Klopp, crowning the ancient Bingen, into the mother tide. There, on
+either side the town, were the mountains of St. Roch and Rupert, with
+some old monastic ruin saddening in the sun. But nearer, below the
+temple, contrasting all the other features of landscape, yawned a dark
+and rugged gulf, girt by cragged elms and mouldering towers, the very
+prototype of the abyss of time,--black and fathomless amidst ruin and
+desolation.
+
+"I think sometimes," said Gertrude, "as in scenes like these we sit
+together, and rapt from the actual world, see only the enchantment that
+distance lends to our view,--I think sometimes what pleasure it will be
+hereafter to recall these hours. If ever you should love me less, I need
+only whisper to you, 'The Rhine,' and will not all the feelings you have
+now for me return?"
+
+"Ah, there will never be occasion to recall my love for you,--it can
+never decay."
+
+"What a strange thing is life!" said Gertrude; "how unconnected, how
+desultory seem all its links! Has this sweet pause from trouble, from
+the ordinary cares of life--has it anything in common with your past
+career, with your future? You will go into the great world; in a few
+years hence these moments of leisure and musing will be denied to you.
+The action that you love and court is a jealous sphere,--it allows no
+wandering, no repose. These moments will then seem to you but as yonder
+islands that stud the Rhine,--the stream lingers by them for a moment,
+and then hurries on in its rapid course; they vary, but they do not
+interrupt the tide."
+
+"You are fanciful, my Gertrude; but your simile might be juster. Rather
+let these banks be as our lives, and this river the one thought that
+flows eternally by both, blessing each with undying freshness."
+
+Gertrude smiled; and, as Trevylyan's arm encircled her, she sank her
+beautiful face upon his bosom, he covered it with his kisses, and she
+thought at the moment, that, even had she passed death, that embrace
+could have recalled her to life.
+
+They pursued their course to Mayence, partly by land, partly along
+the river. One day, as returning from the vine-clad mountains of
+Johannisberg, which commands the whole of the Rheingau, the most
+beautiful valley in the world, they proceeded by water to the town of
+Ellfeld, Gertrude said,--
+
+"There is a thought in your favourite poet which you have often
+repeated, and which I cannot think true,--
+
+  "'In nature there is nothing melancholy.'
+
+"To me, it seems as if a certain melancholy were inseparable from
+beauty; in the sunniest noon there is a sense of solitude and stillness
+which pervades the landscape, and even in the flush of life inspires us
+with a musing and tender sadness. Why is this?"
+
+"I cannot tell," said Trevylyan, mournfully; "but I allow that it is
+true."
+
+"It is as if," continued the romantic Gertrude, "the spirit of the
+world spoke to us in the silence, and filled us with a sense of our
+mortality,--a whisper from the religion that belongs to nature, and is
+ever seeking to unite the earth with the reminiscences of Heaven. Ah,
+what without a heaven would be even love!--a perpetual terror of the
+separation that must one day come! If," she resumed solemnly, after a
+momentary pause, and a shadow settled on her young face, "if it be true,
+Albert, that I must leave you soon--"
+
+"It cannot! it cannot!" cried Trevylyan, wildly; "be still, be silent, I
+beseech you."
+
+"Look yonder," said Du-----e, breaking seasonably in upon the
+conversation of the lovers; "on that hill to the left, what once was
+an abbey is now an asylum for the insane. Does it not seem a quiet and
+serene abode for the unstrung and erring minds that tenant it? What
+a mystery is there in our conformation!--those strange and bewildered
+fancies which replace our solid reason, what a moral of our human
+weakness do they breathe!"
+
+It does indeed induce a dark and singular train of thought, when, in the
+midst of these lovely scenes, we chance upon this lone retreat for those
+on whose eyes Nature, perhaps, smiles in vain. _Or is it in vain?_ They
+look down upon the broad Rhine, with its tranquil isles: do their wild
+delusions endow the river with another name, and people the valleys
+with no living shapes? Does the broken mirror within reflect back the
+countenance of real things, or shadows and shapes, crossed, mingled, and
+bewildered,--the phantasma of a sick man's dreams? Yet, perchance, one
+memory unscathed by the general ruin of the brain can make even the
+beautiful Rhine more beautiful than it is to the common eye; can calm
+it with the hues of departed love, and bids its possessor walk over its
+vine-clad mountains with the beings that have ceased to _be_! There,
+perhaps, the self-made monarch sits upon his throne and claims the
+vessels as his fleet, the waves and the valleys as his own; there, the
+enthusiast, blasted by the light of some imaginary creed, beholds the
+shapes of angels, and watches in the clouds round the setting sun
+the pavilions of God; there the victim of forsaken or perished love,
+mightier than the sorcerers of old, evokes the dead, or recalls the
+faithless by the philter of undying fancies. Ah, blessed art thou, the
+winged power of Imagination that is within us! conquering even grief,
+brightening even despair. Thou takest us from the world when reason can
+no longer bind us to it, and givest to the maniac the inspiration and
+the solace of the bard! Thou, the parent of the purer love, lingerest
+like love, when even ourself forsakes us, and lightest up the shattered
+chambers of the heart with the glory that makes a sanctity of decay.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX. ELLFELD.--MAYENCE.--HEIDELBERG.--A CONVERSATION BETWEEN
+VANE AND THE GERMAN STUDENT.--THE RUINS OF THE CASTLE OF HEIDELBERG AND
+ITS SOLITARY HABITANT.
+
+IT was now the full noon; light clouds were bearing up towards the
+opposite banks of the Rhine, but over the Gothic towers of Ellfeld the
+sky spread blue and clear; the river danced beside the old gray walls
+with a sunny wave, and close at hand a vessel crowded with passengers,
+and loud with eager voices, gave a merry life to the scene. On the
+opposite bank the hills sloped away into the far horizon, and one slight
+skiff in the midst of the waters broke the solitary brightness of the
+noonday calm.
+
+The town of Ellfeld was the gift of Otho the First to the Church;
+not far from thence is the crystal spring that gives its name to the
+delicious grape of Markbrunner.
+
+"Ah," quoth Du-----e, "doubtless the good bishops of Mayence made the
+best of the vicinity!"
+
+They stayed some little time at this town, and visited the ruins of
+Scharfenstein; thence proceeding up the river, they passed Nieder
+Walluf, called the Gate of the Rheingau, and the luxuriant garden of
+Schierstein; thence, sailing by the castle-seat of the Prince Nassau
+Usingen, and passing two long and narrow isles, they arrived at Mayence,
+as the sun shot his last rays upon the waters, gilding the proud
+cathedral-spire, and breaking the mists that began to gather behind,
+over the rocks of the Rheingau.
+
+Ever memorable Mayence,--memorable alike for freedom and for song,
+within those walls how often woke the gallant music of the Troubadour;
+and how often beside that river did the heart of the maiden tremble to
+the lay! Within those walls the stout Walpoden first broached the great
+scheme of the Hanseatic league; and, more than all, O memorable Mayence,
+thou canst claim the first invention of the mightiest engine of human
+intellect,--the great leveller of power, the Demiurgus of the moral
+world,--the Press! Here too lived the maligned hero of the greatest
+drama of modern genius, the traditionary Faust, illustrating in himself
+the fate of his successors in dispensing knowledge,--held a monster for
+his wisdom, and consigned to the penalties of hell as a recompense for
+the benefits he had conferred on earth!
+
+At Mayence, Gertrude heard so much and so constantly of Heidelberg,
+that she grew impatient to visit that enchanting town; and as Du-----e
+considered the air of Heidelberg more pure and invigorating than that of
+Mayence, they resolved to fix within it their temporary residence.
+Alas! it was the place destined to close their brief and melancholy
+pilgrimage, and to become to the heart of Trevylyan the holiest spot
+which the earth contained,--the KAABA of the world. But Gertrude,
+unconscious of her fate, conversed gayly as their carriage rolled
+rapidly on, and, constantly alive to every new sensation, she touched
+with her characteristic vivacity on all that they had seen in their
+previous route. There is a great charm in the observations of one new
+to the world; if we ourselves have become somewhat tired of "its hack
+sights and sounds," we hear in their freshness a voice from our own
+youth.
+
+In the haunted valley of the Neckar, the most crystal of rivers, stands
+the town of Heidelberg. The shades of evening gathered round it as their
+heavy carriage rattled along the antique streets, and not till the next
+day was Gertrude aware of all the unrivalled beauties that environ the
+place.
+
+Vane, who was an early riser, went forth alone in the morning to
+reconnoitre the town; and as he was gazing on the tower of St. Peter,
+he heard himself suddenly accosted. He turned round and saw the German
+student whom they had met among the mountains of Taunus at his elbow.
+
+"Monsieur has chosen well in coming hither," said the student; "and I
+trust our town will not disappoint his expectations." Vane answered with
+courtesy, and the German offering to accompany him in his walk, their
+conversation fell naturally on the life of a university, and the current
+education of the German people.
+
+"It is surprising," said the student, "that men are eternally inventing
+new systems of education, and yet persevering in the old. How many
+years ago is it since Fichte predicted in the system of Pestalozzi
+the regeneration of the German people? What has it done? We admire, we
+praise, and we blunder on in the very course Pestalozzi proves to
+be erroneous. Certainly," continued the student, "there must be some
+radical defect in a system of culture in which genius is an exception,
+and dulness the result. Yet here, in our German universities, everything
+proves that education without equitable institutions avails little in
+the general formation of character. Here the young men of the colleges
+mix on the most equal terms; they are daring, romantic, enamoured of
+freedom even to its madness. They leave the University: no political
+career continues the train of mind they had acquired; they plunge into
+obscurity; live scattered and separate, and the student inebriated
+with Schiller sinks into the passive priest or the lethargic baron. His
+college career, so far from indicating his future life, exactly reverses
+it: he is brought up in one course in order to proceed in another. And
+this I hold to be the universal error of education in all countries;
+they conceive it a certain something to be finished at a certain age.
+They do not make it a part of the continuous history of life, but a
+wandering from it."
+
+"You have been in England?" asked Vane.
+
+"Yes; I have travelled over nearly the whole of it on foot. I was poor
+at that time, and imagining there was a sort of masonry between all men
+of letters, I inquired at each town for the _savants_, and asked money
+of them as a matter of course."
+
+Vane almost laughed outright at the simplicity and naive unconsciousness
+of degradation with which the student proclaimed himself a public
+beggar.
+
+"And how did you generally succeed?"
+
+"In most cases I was threatened with the stocks, and twice I was
+consigned by the _juge de paix_ to the village police, to be passed
+to some mystic Mecca they were pleased to entitle 'a parish.' Ah"
+(continued the German with much _bonhomie_), "it was a pity to see in a
+great nation so much value attached to such a trifle as money. But what
+surprised me greatly was the tone of your poetry. Madame de Stael, who
+knew perhaps as much of England as she did of Germany, tells us that its
+chief character is the _chivalresque_; and, excepting only Scott, who,
+by the way, is _not_ English, I did not find one chivalrous poet among
+you. Yet," continued the student, "between ourselves, I fancy that in
+our present age of civilization, there is an unexamined mistake in the
+general mind as to the value of poetry. It delights still as ever, but
+it has ceased to teach. The prose of the heart enlightens, touches,
+rouses, far more than poetry. Your most philosophical poets would be
+commonplace if turned into prose. Verse cannot contain the refining
+subtle thoughts which a great prose writer embodies; the rhyme eternally
+cripples it; it properly deals with the common problems of human nature,
+which are now hackneyed, and not with the nice and philosophizing
+corollaries which may be drawn from them. Thus, though it would seem
+at first a paradox, commonplace is more the element of poetry than of
+prose."
+
+This sentiment charmed Vane, who had nothing of the poet about him;
+and he took the student to share their breakfast at the inn, with
+a complacency he rarely experienced at the remeeting with a new
+acquaintance.
+
+After breakfast, our party proceeded through the town towards the
+wonderful castle which is its chief attraction, and the noblest wreck of
+German grandeur.
+
+And now pausing, the mountain yet unscaled, the stately ruin frowned
+upon them, girt by its massive walls and hanging terraces, round which
+from place to place clung the dwarfed and various foliage. High at the
+rear rose the huge mountain, covered, save at its extreme summit, with
+dark trees, and concealing in its mysterious breast the shadowy beings
+of the legendary world. But towards the ruins, and up a steep ascent,
+you may see a few scattered sheep thinly studding the broken ground.
+Aloft, above the ramparts, rose, desolate and huge, the Palace of the
+Electors of the Palatinate. In its broken walls you may trace the tokens
+of the lightning that blasted its ancient pomp, but still leaves in the
+vast extent of pile a fitting monument of the memory of Charlemagne.
+Below, in the distance, spread the plain far and spacious, till the
+shadowy river, with one solitary sail upon its breast, united the
+melancholy scene of earth with the autumnal sky.
+
+"See," said Vane, pointing to two peasants who were conversing near
+them on the matters of their little trade, utterly unconscious of the
+associations of the spot, "see, after all that is said and done about
+human greatness, it is always the greatness of the few. Ages pass, and
+leave the poor herd, the mass of men, eternally the same,--hewers of
+wood and drawers of water. The pomp of princes has its ebb and flow, but
+the peasant sells his fruit as gayly to the stranger on the ruins as to
+the emperor in the palace."
+
+"Will it be always so?" said the student.
+
+"Let us hope not, for the sake of permanence in glory," said Trevylyan.
+"Had _a people_ built yonder palace, its splendour would never have
+passed away."
+
+Vane shrugged his shoulders, and Du-----e took snuff.
+
+But all the impressions produced by the castle at a distance are as
+nothing when you stand within its vast area and behold the architecture
+of all ages blended into one mighty ruin! The rich hues of the masonry,
+the sweeping facades--every description of building which man ever
+framed for war or for luxury--is here; all having only the common
+character,--RUIN. The feudal rampart, the yawning fosse, the rude tower,
+the splendid arch, the strength of a fortress, the magnificence of a
+palace,--all united, strike upon the soul like the history of a fallen
+empire in all its epochs.
+
+"There is one singular habitant of these ruins," said the student,--"a
+solitary painter, who has dwelt here some twenty years, companioned only
+by his Art. No other apartment but that which he tenants is occupied by
+a human being."
+
+"What a poetical existence!" cried Gertrude, enchanted with a solitude
+so full of associations.
+
+"Perhaps so," said the cruel Vane, ever anxious to dispel an illusion,
+"but more probably custom has deadened to him all that overpowers
+ourselves with awe; and he may tread among these ruins rather seeking to
+pick up some rude morsel of antiquity, than feeding his imagination with
+the dim traditions that invest them with so august a poetry."
+
+"Monsieur's conjecture has something of the truth in it," said the
+German; "but then the painter is a Frenchman."
+
+There is a sense of fatality in the singular mournfulness and majesty
+which belong to the ruins of Heidelberg, contrasting the vastness of the
+strength with the utterness of the ruin. It has been twice struck with
+lightning, and is the wreck of the elements, not of man; during the
+great siege it sustained, the lightning is supposed to have struck the
+powder magazine by accident.
+
+What a scene for some great imaginative work! What a mocking
+interference of the wrath of nature in the puny contests of men! One
+stroke of "the red right arm" above us, crushing the triumph of ages,
+and laughing to scorn the power of the beleaguers and the valour of the
+besieged!
+
+They passed the whole day among these stupendous ruins, and felt, when
+they descended to their inn, as if they had left the caverns of some
+mighty tomb.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX. NO PART OF THE EARTH REALLY SOLITARY.--THE SONG OF THE
+FAIRIES.--THE SACRED SPOT.--THE WITCH OF THE EVIL WINDS.--THE SPELL AND
+THE DUTY OF THE FAIRIES.
+
+BUT in what spot of the world is there ever utter solitude? The vanity
+of man supposes that loneliness is _his_ absence! Who shall say what
+millions of spiritual beings glide invisibly among scenes apparently the
+most deserted? Or what know we of our own mechanism, that we should deny
+the possibility of life and motion to things that we cannot ourselves
+recognize?
+
+At moonlight, in the Great Court of Heidelberg, on the borders of the
+shattered basin overgrown with weeds, the following song was heard by
+the melancholy shades that roam at night through the mouldering halls of
+old, and the gloomy hollows in the mountain of Heidelberg.
+
+
+
+SONG OF THE FAIRIES IN THE RUINS OF HEIDELBERG.
+
+     From the woods and the glossy green,
+       With the wild thyme strewn;
+     From the rivers whose crisped sheen
+       Is kissed by the trembling moon;
+     While the dwarf looks out from his mountain cave,
+       And the erl king from his lair,
+     And the water-nymph from her moaning wave,
+       We skirr the limber air.
+
+     There's a smile on the vine-clad shore,
+       A smile on the castled heights;
+     They dream back the days of yore,
+       And they smile at our roundel rites!
+                    Our roundel rites!
+
+     Lightly we tread these halls around,
+       Lightly tread we;
+     Yet, hark! we have scared with a single sound
+       The moping owl on the breathless tree,
+                    And the goblin sprites!
+     Ha, ha! we have scared with a single sound
+       The old gray owl on the breathless tree,
+                    And the goblin sprites!
+
+
+
+"They come not," said Pipalee; "yet the banquet is prepared, and the
+poor queen will be glad of some refreshment."
+
+"What a pity! all the rose-leaves will be over-broiled," said Nip.
+
+"Let us amuse ourselves with the old painter," quoth Trip, springing
+over the ruins.
+
+"Well said," cried Pipalee and Nip; and all three, leaving my lord
+treasurer amazed at their levity, whisked into the painter's apartment.
+Permitting them to throw the ink over their victim's papers, break his
+pencils, mix his colours, mislay his nightcap, and go whiz against his
+face in the shape of a great bat, till the astonished Frenchman began
+to think the pensive goblins of the place had taken a sprightly fit,--we
+hasten to a small green spot some little way from the town, in the
+valley of the Neckar, and by the banks of its silver stream. It was
+circled round by dark trees, save on that side bordered by the river.
+The wild-flowers sprang profusely from the turf, which yet was smooth
+and singularly green. And there was the German fairy describing a
+circle round the spot, and making his elvish spells; and Nymphalin sat
+droopingly in the centre, shading her face, which was bowed down as the
+head of a water-lily, and weeping crystal tears.
+
+There came a hollow murmur through the trees, and a rush as of a mighty
+wind, and a dark form emerged from the shadow and approached the spot.
+
+The face was wrinkled and old, and stern with a malevolent and evil
+aspect. The frame was lean and gaunt, and supported by a staff, and a
+short gray mantle covered its bended shoulders.
+
+"Things of the moonbeam!" said the form, in a shrill and ghastly voice,
+"what want ye here; and why charm ye this spot from the coming of me and
+mine?"
+
+"Dark witch of the blight and blast," answered the fairy, "THOU that
+nippest the herb in its tender youth, and eatest up the core of the
+soft bud; behold, it is but a small spot that the fairies claim from
+thy demesnes, and on which, through frost and heat, they will keep the
+herbage green and the air gentle in its sighs!"
+
+"And, wherefore, O dweller in the crevices of the earth, wherefore
+wouldst thou guard this spot from the curses of the seasons?"
+
+"We know by our instinct," answered the fairy, "that this spot will
+become the grave of one whom the fairies love; hither, by an unfelt
+influence, shall we guide her yet living steps; and in gazing upon this
+spot shall the desire of quiet and the resignation to death steal upon
+her soul. Behold, throughout the universe, all things are at war with
+one another,--the lion with the lamb; the serpent with the bird; and
+even the gentlest bird itself with the moth of the air; or the worm of
+the humble earth! What then to men, and to the spirits transcending
+men, is so lovely and so sacred as a being that harmeth none; what so
+beautiful as Innocence; what so mournful as its untimely tomb? And shall
+not that tomb be sacred; shall it not be our peculiar care? May we not
+mourn over it as at the passing away of some fair miracle in Nature,
+too tender to endure, too rare to be forgotten? It is for this, O dread
+waker of the blast, that the fairies would consecrate this little spot;
+for this they would charm away from its tranquil turf the wandering
+ghoul and the evil children of the night. Here, not the ill-omened owl,
+nor the blind bat, nor the unclean worm shall come. And thou shouldst
+have neither will nor power to nip the flowers of spring, nor sear the
+green herbs of summer. Is it not, dark mother of the evil winds,--is
+it not _our_ immemorial office to tend the grave of Innocence, and keep
+fresh the flowers round the resting-place of Virgin Love?"
+
+Then the witch drew her cloak round her, and muttered to herself, and
+without further answer turned away among the trees and vanished, as the
+breath of the east wind, which goeth with her as her comrade, scattered
+the melancholy leaves along her path!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI. GERTRUDE AND TREVYLYAN, WHEN THE FORMER IS AWAKENED TO THE
+APPROACH OF DEATH.
+
+THE next day, Gertrude and her companions went along the banks of the
+haunted Neckar. She had passed a sleepless and painful night, and her
+evanescent and childlike spirits had sobered down into a melancholy and
+thoughtful mood. She leaned back in an open carriage with Trevylyan,
+ever constant, by her side, while Du-----e and Vane rode slowly in
+advance. Trevylyan tried in vain to cheer her; even his attempts
+(usually so eagerly received) to charm her duller moments by tale or
+legend were, in this instance, fruitless. She shook her head gently,
+pressed his hand, and said, "No, dear Trevylyan, no; even your art fails
+to-day, but your kindness never!" and pressing his hand to her lips, she
+burst passionately into tears.
+
+Alarmed and anxious, he clasped her to his breast, and strove to lift
+her face, as it drooped on its resting-place, and kiss away its tears.
+"Oh," said she, at length, "do not despise my weakness; I am overcome
+by my own thoughts: I look upon the world, and see that it is fair and
+good; I look upon you, and I see all that I can venerate and adore. Life
+seems to me so sweet, and the earth so lovely; can you wonder, then,
+that I should shrink at the thought of death? Nay, interrupt me not,
+dear Albert; the thought must be borne and braved. I have not cherished,
+I have not yielded to it through my long-increasing illness; but there
+have been times when it has forced itself upon me, and now, _now_ more
+palpably than ever. Do not think me weak and childish. I never feared
+death till I knew you; but to see you no more,--never again to touch
+this dear hand, never to thank you for your love, never to be sensible
+of your care,--to lie down and sleep, _and never, never, once more to
+dream of you_! Ah, that is a bitter thought! but I will brave it,--yes,
+brave it as one worthy of your regard."
+
+Trevylyan, choked by his emotions, covered his own face with his hands,
+and, leaning back in the carriage, vainly struggled with his sobs.
+
+"Perhaps," she said, yet ever and anon clinging to the hope that had
+utterly abandoned _him_, "perhaps, I may yet deceive myself; and my love
+for you, which seems to me as if it could conquer death, may bear me up
+against this fell disease. The hope to live with you, to watch you, to
+share your high dreams, and oh! above all, to soothe you in sorrow and
+sickness, as you have soothed me--has not that hope something that may
+support even this sinking frame? And who shall love thee as I love; who
+see thee as I have seen; who pray for thee in gratitude and tears as I
+have prayed? Oh, Albert, so little am I jealous of you, so little do I
+think of myself in comparison, that I could close my eyes happily on the
+world if I knew that what I could be to thee another will be!"
+
+"Gertrude," said Trevylyan, and lifting up his colourless face, he gazed
+upon her with an earnest and calm solemnity, "Gertrude, let us be united
+at once! If Fate must sever us, let her cut the last tie too; let us
+feel that at least upon earth we have been all in all to each other;
+let us defy death, even as it frowns upon us. Be mine to-morrow--this
+day--oh, God! be mine!"
+
+Over even that pale countenance, beneath whose hues the lamp of life so
+faintly fluttered, a deep, radiant flush passed one moment, lighting up
+the beautiful ruin with the glow of maiden youth and impassioned hope,
+and then died rapidly away.
+
+"No, Albert," she said sighing; "no! it must not be. Far easier would
+come the pang to you, while yet we are not wholly united; and for my own
+part I am selfish, and feel as if I should leave a tenderer remembrance
+on your heart thus parted,--tenderer, but not so sad. I would not wish
+you to feel yourself widowed to my memory; I would not cling like a
+blight to your fair prospects of the future. Remember me rather as a
+dream,--as something never wholly won, and therefore asking no fidelity
+but that of kind and forbearing thoughts. Do you remember one evening
+as we sailed along the Rhine--ah! happy, happy hour!--that we heard from
+the banks a strain of music,--not so skilfully played as to be worth
+listening to for itself, but, suiting as it did the hour and the scene,
+we remained silent, that we might hear it the better; and when it died
+insensibly upon the waters, a certain melancholy stole over us; we felt
+that a something that softened the landscape had gone, and we conversed
+less lightly than before? Just so, my own loved, my own adored
+Trevylyan, just so is the influence that our brief love, your poor
+Gertrude's existence, should bequeath to your remembrance. A sound,
+a presence, should haunt you for a little while, but no more, ere you
+again become sensible of the glories that court your way!"
+
+But as Gertrude said this, she turned to Trevylyan, and seeing his
+agony, she could refrain no longer; she felt that to soothe was to
+insult; and throwing herself upon his breast, they mingled their tears
+together.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII. A SPOT TO BE BURIED IN.
+
+ON their return homeward, Du-----e took the third seat in the carriage,
+and endeavoured, with his usual vivacity, to cheer the spirits of his
+companions; and such was the elasticity of Gertrude's nature, that with
+her, he, to a certain degree, succeeded in his kindly attempt. Quickly
+alive to the charms of scenery, she entered by degrees into the external
+beauties which every turn in the road opened to their view; and the
+silvery smoothness of the river, that made the constant attraction
+of the landscape, the serenity of the time, and the clearness of the
+heavens, tended to tranquillize a mind that, like a sunflower, so
+instinctively turned from the shadow to the light.
+
+Once Du-----e stopped the carriage in a spot of herbage, bedded among
+the trees, and said to Gertrude, "We are now in one of the many places
+along the Neckar which your favourite traditions serve to consecrate.
+Amidst yonder copses, in the early ages of Christianity, there dwelt a
+hermit, who, though young in years, was renowned for the sanctity of his
+life. None knew whence he came, nor for what cause he had limited the
+circle of life to the seclusion of his cell. He rarely spoke, save when
+his ghostly advice or his kindly prayer was needed; he lived upon herbs,
+and the wild fruits which the peasants brought to his cave; and every
+morning and every evening he came to this spot to fill his pitcher from
+the water of the stream. But here he was observed to linger long after
+his task was done, and to sit gazing upon the walls of a convent which
+then rose upon the opposite side of the bank, though now even its ruins
+are gone. Gradually his health gave way beneath the austerities he
+practised; and one evening he was found by some fishermen insensible on
+the turf. They bore him for medical aid to the opposite convent; and one
+of the sisterhood, the daughter of a prince, was summoned to attend
+the recluse. But when his eyes opened upon hers, a sudden recognition
+appeared to seize both. He spoke; and the sister threw herself on the
+couch of the dying man, and shrieked forth a name, the most famous in
+the surrounding country,--the name of a once noted minstrel, who, in
+those rude times, had mingled the poet with the lawless chief, and was
+supposed, years since, to have fallen in one of the desperate frays
+between prince and outlaw, which were then common; storming the very
+castle which held her, now the pious nun, then the beauty and presider
+over the tournament and galliard. In her arms the spirit of the hermit
+passed away. She survived but a few hours, and left conjecture busy with
+a history to which it never obtained further clew. Many a troubadour in
+later times furnished forth in poetry the details which truth refused to
+supply; and the place where the hermit at sunrise and sunset ever came
+to gaze upon the convent became consecrated by song."
+
+The place invested with this legendary interest was impressed with a
+singular aspect of melancholy quiet; wildflowers yet lingered on the
+turf, whose grassy sedges gently overhung the Neckar, that murmured
+amidst them with a plaintive music. Not a wind stirred the trees; but at
+a little distance from the place, the spire of a church rose amidst the
+copse; and, as they paused, they suddenly heard from the holy building
+the bell that summons to the burial of the dead. It came on the ear in
+such harmony with the spot, with the hour, with the breathing calm, that
+it thrilled to the heart of each with an inexpressible power. It was
+like the voice of another world, that amidst the solitude of nature
+summoned the lulled spirit from the cares of this; it invited, not
+repulsed, and had in its tone more of softness than of awe.
+
+Gertrude turned, with tears starting to her eyes, and, laying her hand
+on Trevylyan's, whispered, "In such a spot, so calm, so sequestered, yet
+in the neighbourhood of the house of God, would I wish this broken frame
+to be consigned to rest."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THE LAST. THE CONCLUSION OF THIS TALE.
+
+FROM that day Gertrude's spirit resumed its wonted cheerfulness, and for
+the ensuing week she never reverted to her approaching fate; she seemed
+once more to have grown unconscious of its limit. Perhaps she sought,
+anxious for Trevylyan to the last, not to throw additional gloom over
+their earthly separation; or, perhaps, once steadily regarding the
+certainty of her doom, its terrors vanished. The chords of thought,
+vibrating to the subtlest emotions, may be changed by a single incident,
+or in a single hour; a sound of sacred music, a green and quiet
+burial-place, may convert the form of death into the aspect of an angel.
+And therefore wisely, and with a beautiful lore, did the Greeks strip
+the grave of its unreal gloom; wisely did they body forth the great
+principle of Rest by solemn and lovely images, unconscious of the
+northern madness that made a Spectre of REPOSE!
+
+But while Gertrude's _spirit_ resumed its healthful tone, her _frame_
+rapidly declined, and a few days now could do the ravage of months a
+little while before.
+
+One evening, amidst the desolate ruins of Heidelberg, Trevylyan, who had
+gone forth alone to indulge the thoughts which he strove to stifle in
+Gertrude's presence, suddenly encountered Vane. That calm and almost
+callous pupil of the adversities of the world was standing alone, and
+gazing upon the shattered casements and riven tower, through which the
+sun now cast its slant and parting ray.
+
+Trevylyan, who had never loved this cold and unsusceptible man, save
+for the sake of Gertrude, felt now almost a hatred creep over him, as he
+thought in such a time, and with death fastening upon the flower of his
+house, he could yet be calm, and smile, and muse, and moralize, and play
+the common part of the world. He strode slowly up to him, and standing
+full before him, said with a hollow voice and writhing smile, "You amuse
+yourself pleasantly, sir: this is a fine scene; and to meditate over
+griefs a thousand years hushed to rest is better than watching over a
+sick girl and eating away your heart with fear!"
+
+Vane looked at him quietly, but intently, and made no reply.
+
+"Vane!" continued Trevylyan, with the same preternatural attempt at
+calm, "Vane, in a few days all will be over, and you and I, the things,
+the plotters, the false men of the world, will be left alone,--left by
+the sole being that graces our dull life, that makes by her love either
+of us worthy of a thought!"
+
+Vane started, and turned away his face. "You are cruel," said he, with a
+faltering voice.
+
+"What, man!" shouted Trevylyan, seizing him abruptly by the arm, "can
+_you_ feel? Is your cold heart touched? Come then," added he, with a
+wild laugh, "come, let us be friends!"
+
+Vane drew himself aside, with a certain dignity, that impressed
+Trevylyan even at that hour. "Some years hence," said he, "you will
+be called cold as I am; sorrow will teach you the wisdom of
+indifference--it is a bitter school, sir,--a bitter school! But think
+you that I do indeed see unmoved my last hope shivered,--the last tie
+that binds me to my kind? No, no! I feel it as a man may feel; I cloak
+it as a man grown gray in misfortune should do! My child is more to
+me than your betrothed to you; for you are young and wealthy, and life
+smiles before you; but I--no more--sir, no more!"
+
+"Forgive me," said Trevylyan, humbly, "I have wronged you; but
+Gertrude is an excuse for any crime of love; and now listen to my last
+prayer,--give her to me, even on the verge of the grave. Death cannot
+seize her in the arms, in the vigils of a love like mine."
+
+Vane shuddered. "It were to wed the dead," said he. "No!"
+
+Trevylyan drew back, and without another word, hurried away; he returned
+to the town; he sought, with methodical calmness, the owner of the piece
+of ground in which Gertrude had wished to be buried. He purchased it,
+and that very night he sought the priest of a neighbouring church,
+and directed it should be consecrated according to the due rite and
+ceremonial.
+
+The priest, an aged and pious man, was struck by the request, and the
+air of him who made it.
+
+"Shall it be done forthwith, sir?" said he, hesitating.
+
+"Forthwith," answered Trevylyan, with a calm smile,--"a bridegroom, you
+know, is naturally impatient."
+
+For the next three days, Gertrude was so ill as to be confined to her
+bed. All that time Trevylyan sat outside her door, without speaking,
+scarcely lifting his eyes from the ground. The attendants passed to and
+fro,--he heeded them not; perhaps as even the foreign menials turned
+aside and wiped their eyes, and prayed God to comfort him, he required
+compassion less at that time than any other. There is a stupefaction
+in woe, and the heart sleeps without a pang when exhausted by its
+afflictions.
+
+But on the fourth day Gertrude rose, and was carried down (how changed,
+yet how lovely ever!) to their common apartment. During those three days
+the priest had been with her often, and her spirit, full of religion
+from her childhood, had been unspeakably soothed by his comfort. She
+took food from the hand of Trevylyan; she smiled upon him as sweetly as
+of old. She conversed with him, though with a faint voice, and at broken
+intervals. But she felt no pain; life ebbed away gradually, and without
+a pang. "My father," she said to Vane, whose features still bore their
+usual calm, whatever might have passed within, "I know that you will
+grieve when I am gone more than the world might guess; for I alone know
+what you were years ago, ere friends left you and fortune frowned,
+and ere my poor mother died. But do not--do not believe that hope and
+comfort leave you with me. Till the heaven pass away from the earth
+there shall be comfort and hope for all."
+
+They did not lodge in the town, but had fixed their abode on its
+outskirts, and within sight of the Neckar; and from the window they saw
+a light sail gliding gayly by till it passed, and solitude once more
+rested upon the waters.
+
+"The sail passes from our eyes," said Gertrude, pointing to it, "but
+still it glides on as happily though we see it no more; and I feel--yes,
+Father, I feel--I know that it is so with _us_. We glide down the river
+of time from the eyes of men, but we cease not the less to _be_!"
+
+And now, as the twilight descended, she expressed a wish, before she
+retired to rest, to be left alone with Trevylyan. He was not then
+sitting by her side, for he would not trust himself to do so, but with
+his face averted, at a little distance from her. She called him by his
+name; he answered not, nor turned. Weak as she was, she raised herself
+from the sofa, and crept gently along the floor till she came to him,
+and sank in his arms.
+
+"Ah, unkind!" she said, "unkind for once! Will you turn away from me?
+Come, let us look once more on the river: see! the night darkens over
+it. Our pleasant voyage, the type of our love, is finished; our sail may
+be unfurled no more. Never again can your voice soothe the lassitude of
+sickness with the legend and the song; the course is run, the vessel is
+broken up, night closes over its fragments; but now, in this hour, love
+me, be kind to me as ever. Still let me be your own Gertrude, still let
+me close my eyes this night, as before, with the sweet consciousness
+that I am loved."
+
+"Loved! O Gertrude! speak not to me thus!"
+
+"Come, that is yourself again!" and she clung with weak arms caressingly
+to his breast. "And now," she said more solemnly, "let us forget that we
+are mortal; let us remember only that life is a part, not the whole,
+of our career; let us feel in this soft hour, and while yet we are
+unsevered, the presence of The Eternal that is within us, so that it
+shall not be as death, but as a short absence; and when once the pang of
+parting is over, you must think only that we are shortly to meet again.
+What! you turn from me still? See, I do not weep or grieve, I have
+conquered the pang of our absence; will you be outdone by me? Do you
+remember, Albert, that you once told me how the wisest of the sages of
+old, in prison, and before death, consoled his friends with the proof
+of the immortality of the soul? Is it not a consolation; does it not
+suffice; or will you deem it wise from the lips of wisdom, but vain from
+the lips of love?"
+
+"Hush, hush!" said Trevylyan, wildly; "or I shall think you an angel
+already."
+
+But let us close this commune, and leave unrevealed the _last_ sacred
+words that ever passed between them upon earth.
+
+When Vane and the physician stole back softly into the room, Trevylyan
+motioned to them to be still. "She sleeps," he whispered; "hush!" And
+in truth, wearied out by her own emotions, and lulled by the belief
+that she had soothed one with whom her heart dwelt now, as ever, she had
+fallen into sleep, or it may be, insensibility, on his breast. There
+as she lay, so fair, so frail, so delicate, the twilight deepened into
+shade, and the first star, like the hope of the future, broke forth upon
+the darkness of the earth.
+
+Nothing could equal the stillness without, save that which lay
+breathlessly within. For not one of the group stirred or spoke, and
+Trevylyan, bending over her, never took his eyes from her face, watching
+the parted lips, and fancying that he imbibed the breath. Alas, the
+breath was stilled! from sleep to death she had glided without a
+sigh,--happy, most happy in that death! cradled in the arms of unchanged
+love, and brightened in her last thought by the consciousness of
+innocence and the assurances of Heaven!
+
+.......
+
+Trevylyan, after a long sojourn on the Continent, returned to England.
+He plunged into active life, and became what is termed in this age
+of little names a distinguished and noted man. But what was mainly
+remarkable in his future conduct was his impatience of rest. He
+eagerly courted all occupations, even of the most varied and motley
+kind,--business, letters, ambition, pleasure. He suffered no pause in
+his career; and leisure to him was as care to others. He lived in
+the world, as the worldly do, discharging its duties, fostering its
+affections, and fulfilling its career. But there was a deep and wintry
+change within him,--_the sunlight of his life was gone_; the loveliness
+of romance had left the earth. The stem was proof as heretofore to the
+blast, but the green leaves were severed from it forever, and the bird
+had forsaken its boughs. Once he had idolized the beauty that is born of
+song, the glory and the ardour that invest such thoughts as are not of
+our common clay; but the well of enthusiasm was dried up, and the golden
+bowl was broken at the fountain. With Gertrude the poetry of existence
+was gone. As she herself had described her loss, a music had ceased to
+breathe along the face of things; and though the bark might sail on as
+swiftly, and the stream swell with as proud a wave, a something that
+had vibrated on the heart was still, and the magic of the voyage was no
+more.
+
+And Gertrude sleeps on the spot where she wished her last couch to be
+made; and far--oh, far dearer, is that small spot on the distant banks
+of the gliding Neckar to Trevylyan's heart than all the broad lands
+and fertile fields of his ancestral domain. The turf too preserves its
+emerald greenness; and it would seem to me that the field flowers spring
+up by the sides of the simple tomb even more profusely than of old.
+A curve in the bank breaks the tide of the Neckar; and therefore its
+stream pauses, as if to linger reluctantly, by that solitary grave, and
+to mourn among the rustling sedges ere it passes on. And I have thought,
+when I last looked upon that quiet place, when I saw the turf so fresh,
+and the flowers so bright of hue, that aerial hands might _indeed_
+tend the sod; that it was by no _imaginary_ spells that I summoned
+the fairies to my tale; that in truth, and with vigils constant though
+unseen, they yet kept from all polluting footsteps, and from the harsher
+influence of the seasons, the grave of one who so loved their race;
+and who, in her gentle and spotless virtue claimed kindred with the
+beautiful Ideal of the world. Is there one of us who has not known some
+being for whom it seemed not too wild a fantasy to indulge such dreams?
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Pilgrims Of The Rhine, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #8206 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8206)
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+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      The Pilgrims of the Rhine, by Edward Bulwer Lytton
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd7; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    pre     { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
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+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+Project Gutenberg's The Pilgrims Of The Rhine, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Pilgrims Of The Rhine
+
+Author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton
+
+Release Date: March 17, 2009 [EBook #8206]
+Last Updated: August 28, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PILGRIMS OF THE RHINE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger and Dagny
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      THE PILGRIMS OF THE RHINE
+    </h1>
+    <h2>
+      TO WHICH IS PREFIXED <br /><br />THE IDEAL WORLD
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By Edward Bulwer Lytton (Lord Lytton)
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIRST EDITION. </a><br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_PREF"> PREFACE. </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0004">
+        <b>THE IDEAL WORLD</b> </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> <b>THE
+        PILGRIMS OF THE RHINE</b> </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0001">
+        CHAPTER I. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;IN WHICH THE READER IS INTRODUCED TO QUEEN
+        NYMPHALIN <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        LOVERS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;FEELINGS
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE MAID
+        OF MALINES <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;ROTTERDAM.&mdash;THE
+        CHARACTER OF THE DUTCH <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI.
+        </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;GORCUM.&mdash;THE TOUR OF THE VIRTUES: A PHILOSOPHER&rsquo;S
+        TALE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;COLOGNE.&mdash;THE
+        TRACES OF THE ROMAN YOKE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER
+        VIII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE SOUL IN PURGATORY; OR LOVE STRONGER THAN DEATH
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        SCENERY OF THE RHINE ANALOGOUS TO THE GERMAN LITERARY <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE LEGEND OF ROLAND.&mdash;THE
+        ADVENTURES OF NYMPHALIN <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI.
+        </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;WHEREIN THE READER IS MADE SPECTATOR WITH THE ENGLISH
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        WOOING OF MASTER FOX <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII.
+        </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE TOMB OF A FATHER OF MANY CHILDREN <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIV. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE FAIRY&rsquo;S CAVE, AND
+        THE FAIRY&rsquo;S WISH <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER XV. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        BANKS OF THE RHINE.&mdash;FROM THE DRACHENFELS TO BROHL <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER XVI. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;GERTRUDE.&mdash;THE
+        EXCURSION TO HAMMERSTEIN <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER
+        XVII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;LETTER FROM TREVYLYAN <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER XVIII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;COBLENTZ.&mdash;EXCURSION
+        TO THE MOUNTAINS OF TAUNUS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER
+        XIX. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE FALLEN STAR; OR THE HISTORY OF A FALSE RELIGION
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER XX. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;GLENHAUSEN.&mdash;THE
+        POWER OF LOVE IN SANCTIFIED PLACES <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0021">
+        CHAPTER XXI. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;VIEW OF EHRENBREITSTEIN.&mdash;A NEW ALARM
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0022"> CHAPTER XXII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        DOUBLE LIFE.&mdash;TREVYLYAN&rsquo;S FATE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0023">
+        CHAPTER XXIII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE LIFE OF DREAMS <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0024"> CHAPTER XXIV. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE BROTHERS <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2HCH0025"> CHAPTER XXV. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE IMMORTALITY OF
+        THE SOUL.&mdash;A COMMON INCIDENT <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0026">
+        CHAPTER XXVI. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;IN WHICH THE READER WILL LEARN HOW THE
+        FAIRIES <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0027"> CHAPTER XXVII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THURMBERG.&mdash;A
+        STORM UPON THE RHINE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0028"> CHAPTER XXVIII.
+        </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE VOYAGE TO BINGEN.&mdash;THE SIMPLE INCIDENTS <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2HCH0029"> CHAPTER XXIX. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;ELLFELD.&mdash;MAYENCE.&mdash;HEIDELBERG.&mdash;A
+        CONVERSATION BETWEEN <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0030"> CHAPTER XXX.
+        </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;NO PART OF THE EARTH REALLY SOLITARY.&mdash;THE SONG
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0031"> CHAPTER XXXI. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;GERTRUDE
+        AND TREVYLYAN, WHEN THE FORMER IS AWAKENED <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0032"> CHAPTER XXXII. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;A SPOT TO BE BURIED
+        IN <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0033"> CHAPTER THE LAST. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        CONCLUSION OF THIS TALE <br /><br />
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> TO HENRY LYTTON BULWER.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ALLOW me, my dear Brother, to dedicate this Work to you. The greater part
+      of it (namely, the tales which vary and relieve the voyages of Gertrude
+      and Trevylyan) was written in the pleasant excursion we made together some
+      years ago. Among the associations&mdash;some sad and some pleasing&mdash;connected
+      with the general design, none are so agreeable to me as those that remind
+      me of the friendship subsisting between us, and which, unlike that of near
+      relations in general, has grown stronger and more intimate as our
+      footsteps have receded farther from the fields where we played together in
+      our childhood. I dedicate this Work to you with the more pleasure, not
+      only when I remember that it has always been a favourite with yourself,
+      but when I think that it is one of my writings most liked in foreign
+      countries; and I may possibly, therefore, have found a record destined to
+      endure the affectionate esteem which this Dedication is intended to
+      convey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yours, etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      E. L. B. LONDON, April 23, 1840.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIRST EDITION.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      COULD I prescribe to the critic and to the public, I would wish that this
+      work might be tried by the rules rather of poetry than prose, for
+      according to those rules have been both its conception and its execution;
+      and I feel that something of sympathy with the author&rsquo;s design is
+      requisite to win indulgence for the superstitions he has incorporated with
+      his tale, for the floridity of his style, and the redundance of his
+      descriptions. Perhaps, indeed, it would be impossible, in attempting to
+      paint the scenery and embody some of the Legends of the Rhine, not to give
+      (it may be, too loosely) the reins to the imagination, or to escape the
+      influence of that wild German spirit which I have sought to transfer to a
+      colder tongue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have made the experiment of selecting for the main interest of my work
+      the simplest materials, and weaving upon them the ornaments given chiefly
+      to subjects of a more fanciful nature. I know not how far I have
+      succeeded, but various reasons have conspired to make this the work, above
+      all others that I have written, which has given me the most delight
+      (though not unmixed with melancholy) in producing, and in which my mind
+      for the time has been the most completely absorbed. But the ardour of
+      composition is often disproportioned to the merit of the work; and the
+      public sometimes, nor unjustly, avenges itself for that forgetfulness of
+      its existence which makes the chief charm of an author&rsquo;s solitude,&mdash;and
+      the happiest, if not the wisest, inspiration of his dreams.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      PREFACE.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      WITH the younger class of my readers this work has had the good fortune to
+      find especial favour; perhaps because it is in itself a collection of the
+      thoughts and sentiments that constitute the Romance of youth. It has
+      little to do with the positive truths of our actual life, and does not
+      pretend to deal with the larger passions and more stirring interests of
+      our kind. It is but an episode out of the graver epic of human destinies.
+      It requires no explanation of its purpose, and no analysis of its story;
+      the one is evident, the other simple,&mdash;the first seeks but to
+      illustrate visible nature through the poetry of the affections; the other
+      is but the narrative of the most real of mortal sorrows, which the Author
+      attempts to take out of the region of pain by various accessories from the
+      Ideal. The connecting tale itself is but the string that binds into a
+      garland the wild-flowers cast upon a grave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The descriptions of the Rhine have been considered by Germans sufficiently
+      faithful to render this tribute to their land and their legends one of the
+      popular guide-books along the course it illustrates,&mdash;especially to
+      such tourists as wish not only to take in with the eye the inventory of
+      the river, but to seize the peculiar spirit which invests the wave and the
+      bank with a beauty that can only be made visible by reflection. He little
+      comprehends the true charm of the Rhine who gazes on the vines on the
+      hill-tops without a thought of the imaginary world with which their
+      recesses have been peopled by the graceful credulity of old; who surveys
+      the steep ruins that overshadow the water, untouched by one lesson from
+      the pensive morality of Time. Everywhere around us is the evidence of
+      perished opinions and departed races; everywhere around us, also, the
+      rejoicing fertility of unconquerable Nature, and the calm progress of Man
+      himself through the infinite cycles of decay. He who would judge
+      adequately of a landscape must regard it not only with the painter&rsquo;s eye,
+      but with the poet&rsquo;s. The feelings which the sight of any scene in Nature
+      conveys to the mind&mdash;more especially of any scene on which history or
+      fiction has left its trace&mdash;must depend upon our sympathy with those
+      associations which make up what may be called the spiritual character of
+      the spot. If indifferent to those associations, we should see only
+      hedgerows and ploughed land in the battle-field of Bannockburn; and the
+      traveller would but look on a dreary waste, whether he stood amidst the
+      piles of the Druid on Salisbury plain, or trod his bewildered way over the
+      broad expanse on which the Chaldaean first learned to number the stars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To the former editions of this tale was prefixed a poem on &ldquo;The Ideal,&rdquo;
+       which had all the worst faults of the author&rsquo;s earliest compositions in
+      verse. The present poem (with the exception of a very few lines) has been
+      entirely rewritten, and has at least the comparative merit of being less
+      vague in the thought, and less unpolished in the diction, than that which
+      it replaces.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE IDEAL WORLD
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  I.
+
+  THE IDEAL WORLD,&mdash;ITS REALM IS EVERYWHERE AROUND US; ITS INHABITANTS ARE
+  THE IMMORTAL PERSONIFICATIONS OF ALL BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS; TO THAT WORLD WE
+  ATTAIN BY THE REPOSE OF THE SENSES.
+
+  AROUND &ldquo;this visible diurnal sphere&rdquo;
+     There floats a World that girds us like the space;
+  On wandering clouds and gliding beams career
+    Its ever-moving murmurous Populace.
+  There, all the lovelier thoughts conceived below
+    Ascending live, and in celestial shapes.
+  To that bright World, O Mortal, wouldst thou go?
+    Bind but thy senses, and thy soul escapes:
+  To care, to sin, to passion close thine eyes;
+  Sleep in the flesh, and see the Dreamland rise!
+  Hark to the gush of golden waterfalls,
+  Or knightly tromps at Archimagian Walls!
+  In the green hush of Dorian Valleys mark
+    The River Maid her amber tresses knitting;
+  When glow-worms twinkle under coverts dark,
+    And silver clouds o&rsquo;er summer stars are flitting,
+  With jocund elves invade &ldquo;the Moone&rsquo;s sphere,
+  Or hang a pearl in every cowslip&rsquo;s ear;&rdquo; *
+  Or, list! what time the roseate urns of dawn
+    Scatter fresh dews, and the first skylark weaves
+  Joy into song, the blithe Arcadian Faun
+    Piping to wood-nymphs under Bromian leaves,
+  While slowly gleaming through the purple glade
+  Come Evian&rsquo;s panther car, and the pale Naxian Maid.
+
+    * &ldquo;Midsummer Night&rsquo;s Dream.&rdquo;
+ 
+  Such, O Ideal World, thy habitants!
+    All the fair children of creative creeds,
+  All the lost tribes of Fantasy are thine,&mdash;
+  From antique Saturn in Dodonian haunts,
+    Or Pan&rsquo;s first music waked from shepherd reeds,
+  To the last sprite when Heaven&rsquo;s pale lamps decline,
+  Heard wailing soft along the solemn Rhine.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  II.
+
+  OUR DREAMS BELONG TO THE IDEAL.&mdash;THE DIVINER LOVE FOR WHICH YOUTH SIGHS
+  NOT ATTAINABLE IN LIFE, BUT THE PURSUIT OF THAT LOVE BEYOND THE WORLD OF
+  THE SENSES PURIFIES THE SOUL AND AWAKES THE GENIUS.&mdash;PETRARCH.&mdash;DANTE.
+
+  Thine are the Dreams that pass the Ivory Gates,
+    With prophet shadows haunting poet eyes!
+  Thine the belov&rsquo;d illusions youth creates
+    From the dim haze of its own happy skies.
+  In vain we pine; we yearn on earth to win
+    The being of the heart, our boyhood&rsquo;s dream.
+  The Psyche and the Eros ne&rsquo;er have been,
+    Save in Olympus, wedded!  As a stream
+  Glasses a star, so life the ideal love;
+  Restless the stream below, serene the orb above!
+  Ever the soul the senses shall deceive;
+  Here custom chill, there kinder fate bereave:
+  For mortal lips unmeet eternal vows!
+  And Eden&rsquo;s flowers for Adam&rsquo;s mournful brows!
+  We seek to make the moment&rsquo;s angel guest
+    The household dweller at a human hearth;
+  We chase the bird of Paradise, whose nest
+    Was never found amid the bowers of earth.*
+
+    * According to a belief in the East, which is associated with one
+      of the loveliest and most familiar of Oriental superstitions,
+      the bird of Paradise is never seen to rest upon the earth, and
+      its nest is never to be found.
+
+  Yet loftier joys the vain pursuit may bring,
+    Than sate the senses with the boons of time;
+  The bird of Heaven hath still an upward wing,
+    The steps it lures are still the steps that climb;
+  And in the ascent although the soil be bare,
+  More clear the daylight and more pure the air.
+  Let Petrarch&rsquo;s heart the human mistress lose,
+  He mourns the Laura but to win the Muse.
+  Could all the charms which Georgian maids combine
+  Delight the soul of the dark Florentine,
+  Like one chaste dream of childlike Beatrice
+  Awaiting Hell&rsquo;s dark pilgrim in the skies,
+  Snatched from below to be the guide above,
+  And clothe Religion in the form of Love?*
+
+    * It is supposed by many of the commentators on Dante, that in
+      the form of his lost Beatrice, who guides him in his Vision
+      of Heaven, he allegorizes Religious Faith.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  III.
+
+  GENIUS, LIFTING ITS LIFE TO THE IDEAL, BECOMES ITSELF A PURE IDEA: IT
+  MUST COMPREHEND ALL EXISTENCE, ALL HUMAN SINS AND SUFFERINGS; BUT IN
+  COMPREHENDING, IT TRANSMUTES THEM.&mdash;THE POET IN HIS TWO-FOLD BEING,&mdash;THE
+  ACTUAL AND THE IDEAL.&mdash;THE INFLUENCE OF GENIUS OVER THE STERNEST
+  REALITIES OF EARTH; OVER OUR PASSIONS; WARS AND SUPERSTITIONS.&mdash;ITS
+  IDENTITY IS WITH HUMAN PROGRESS.&mdash;ITS AGENCY, EVEN WHERE UNACKNOWLEDGED,
+  IS UNIVERSAL.
+
+  Oh, thou true Iris! sporting on thy bow
+    Of tears and smiles! Jove&rsquo;s herald, Poetry,
+  Thou reflex image of all joy and woe,
+    <i>Both</i> fused in light by thy dear fantasy!
+  Lo! from the clay how Genius lifts its life,
+    And grows one pure Idea, one calm soul!
+  True, its own clearness must reflect our strife;
+    True, its completeness must comprise our whole;
+  But as the sun transmutes the sullen hues
+    Of marsh-grown vapours into vermeil dyes,
+  And melts them later into twilight dews,
+    Shedding on flowers the baptism of the skies;
+  So glows the Ideal in the air we breathe,
+    So from the fumes of sorrow and of sin,
+  Doth its warm light in rosy colours wreathe
+    Its playful cloudland, storing balms within.
+
+  Survey the Poet in his mortal mould,
+    Man, amongst men, descended from his throne!
+  The moth that chased the star now frets the fold,
+    Our cares, our faults, our follies are his own.
+  Passions as idle, and desires as vain,
+  Vex the wild heart, and dupe the erring brain.
+  From Freedom&rsquo;s field the recreant Horace flies
+  To kiss the hand by which his country dies;
+  From Mary&rsquo;s grave the mighty Peasant turns,
+  And hoarse with orgies rings the laugh of Burns.
+  While Rousseau&rsquo;s lips a lackey&rsquo;s vices own,&mdash;
+  Lips that could draw the thunder on a throne!
+  But when from Life the Actual GENIUS springs,
+    When, self-transformed by its own magic rod,
+  It snaps the fetters and expands the wings,
+    And drops the fleshly garb that veiled the god,
+  How the mists vanish as the form ascends!
+  How in its aureole every sunbeam blends!
+  By the Arch-Brightener of Creation seen,
+    How dim the crowns on perishable brows!
+  The snows of Atlas melt beneath the sheen,
+    Through Thebaid caves the rushing splendour flows.
+  Cimmerian glooms with Asian beams are bright,
+  And Earth reposes in a belt of light.
+  Now stern as Vengeance shines the awful form,
+  Armed with the bolt and glowing through the storm;
+  Sets the great deeps of human passion free,
+  And whelms the bulwarks that would breast the sea.
+  Roused by its voice the ghastly Wars arise,
+  Mars reddens earth, the Valkyrs pale the skies;
+  Dim Superstition from her hell escapes,
+  With all her shadowy brood of monster shapes;
+  Here life itself the scowl of Typhon* takes;
+  There Conscience shudders at Alecto&rsquo;s snakes;
+  From Gothic graves at midnight yawning wide,
+  In gory cerements gibbering spectres glide;
+  And where o&rsquo;er blasted heaths the lightnings flame,
+  Black secret hags &ldquo;do deeds without a name!&rdquo;
+   Yet through its direst agencies of awe,
+  Light marks its presence and pervades its law,
+  And, like Orion when the storms are loud,
+  It links creation while it gilds a cloud.
+  By ruthless Thor, free Thought, frank Honour stand,
+  Fame&rsquo;s grand desire, and zeal for Fatherland.
+  The grim Religion of Barbarian Fear
+  With some Hereafter still connects the Here,
+  Lifts the gross sense to some spiritual source,
+  And thrones some Jove above the Titan Force,
+  Till, love completing what in awe began,
+  From the rude savage dawns the thoughtful man.
+
+    * The gloomy Typhon of Egypt assumes many of the mystic attributes
+      of the Principle of Life which, in the Grecian Apotheosis of the
+      Indian Bacchus, is represented in so genial a character of
+      exuberant joy and everlasting youth.
+
+  Then, oh, behold the Glorious comforter!
+    Still bright&rsquo;ning worlds but gladd&rsquo;ning now the hearth,
+  Or like the lustre of our nearest star,
+    Fused in the common atmosphere of earth.
+  It sports like hope upon the captive&rsquo;s chain;
+  Descends in dreams upon the couch of pain;
+  To wonder&rsquo;s realm allures the earnest child;
+  To the chaste love refines the instinct wild;
+  And as in waters the reflected beam,
+  Still where we turn, glides with us up the stream,
+  And while in truth the whole expanse is bright,
+  Yields to each eye its own fond path of light,&mdash;
+  So over life the rays of Genius fall,
+  Give each his track because illuming all.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  IV.
+
+  FORGIVENESS TO THE ERRORS OF OUR BENEFACTORS.
+
+  Hence is that secret pardon we bestow
+    In the true instinct of the grateful heart,
+  Upon the Sons of Song.  The good they do
+    In the clear world of their Uranian art
+  Endures forever; while the evil done
+    In the poor drama of their mortal scene,
+  Is but a passing cloud before the sun;
+    Space hath no record where the mist hath been.
+  Boots it to us if Shakspeare erred like man?
+    Why idly question that most mystic life?
+  Eno&rsquo; the giver in his gifts to scan;
+    To bless the sheaves with which thy fields are rife,
+  Nor, blundering, guess through what obstructive clay
+  The glorious corn-seed struggled up to day.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  V.
+
+  THE IDEAL IS NOT CONFINED TO POETS.&mdash;ALGERNON SIDNEY RECOGNIZES HIS IDEAL
+  IN LIBERTY, AND BELIEVES IN ITS TRIUMPH WHERE THE MERE PRACTICAL MAN
+  COULD BEHOLD BUT ITS RUINS; YET LIBERTY IN THIS WORLD MUST EVER BE AN
+  IDEAL, AND THE LAND THAT IT PROMISES CAN BE FOUND BUT IN DEATH.
+
+  But not to you alone, O Sons Of Song,
+  The wings that float the loftier airs along.
+  Whoever lifts us from the dust we are,
+    Beyond the sensual to spiritual goals;
+  Who from the MOMENT and the SELF afar
+    By deathless deeds allures reluctant souls,
+  Gives the warm life to what the Limner draws,&mdash;
+  Plato but thought what godlike Cato was.*
+  Recall the Wars of England&rsquo;s giant-born,
+    Is Elyot&rsquo;s voice, is Hampden&rsquo;s death in vain?
+  Have all the meteors of the vernal morn
+    But wasted light upon a frozen main?
+  Where is that child of Carnage, Freedom, flown?
+  The Sybarite lolls upon the martyr&rsquo;s throne.
+  Lewd, ribald jests succeed to solemn zeal;
+  And things of silk to Cromwell&rsquo;s men of steel.
+  Cold are the hosts the tromps of Ireton thrilled,
+  And hushed the senates Vane&rsquo;s large presence filled.
+  In what strong heart doth the old manhood dwell?
+  Where art thou, Freedom?  Look! in Sidney&rsquo;s cell!
+  There still as stately stands the living Truth,
+  Smiling on age as it had smiled on youth.
+  Her forts dismantled, and her shrines o&rsquo;erthrown,
+  The headsman&rsquo;s block her last dread altar-stone,
+  No sanction left to Reason&rsquo;s vulgar hope,
+  Far from the wrecks expands her prophet&rsquo;s scope.
+  Millennial morns the tombs of Kedron gild,
+  The hands of saints the glorious walls rebuild,&mdash;
+  Till each foundation garnished with its gem,
+  High o&rsquo;er Gehenna flames Jerusalem!
+  O thou blood-stained Ideal of the free,
+  Whose breath is heard in clarions,&mdash;Liberty!
+  Sublimer for thy grand illusions past,
+  Thou spring&rsquo;st to Heaven,&mdash;Religion at the last.
+  Alike below, or commonwealths or thrones,
+  Where&rsquo;er men gather some crushed victim groans;
+  Only in death thy real form we see,
+  All life is bondage,&mdash;souls alone are free.
+  Thus through the waste the wandering Hebrews went,
+  Fire on the march, but cloud upon the tent.
+  At last on Pisgah see the prophet stand,
+  Before his vision spreads the PROMISED LAND;
+  But where revealed the Canaan to his eye?&mdash;
+  Upon the mountain he ascends to die.
+
+    * What Plato thought, and godlike Cato was.&mdash;POPE.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  VI.
+
+  YET ALL HAVE TWO ESCAPES INTO THE IDEAL WORLD; NAMELY, MEMORY AND
+  HOPE.&mdash;EXAMPLE OF HOPE IN YOUTH, HOWEVER EXCLUDED FROM ACTION AND
+  DESIRE.&mdash;NAPOLEON&rsquo;S SON.
+
+  Yet whatsoever be our bondage here,
+  All have two portals to the phantom sphere.
+  What hath not glided through those gates that ope
+  Beyond the Hour, to MEMORY or to HOPE!
+  Give Youth the Garden,&mdash;still it soars above,
+  Seeks some far glory, some diviner love.
+  Place Age amidst the Golgotha,&mdash;its eyes
+  Still quit the graves, to rest upon the skies;
+  And while the dust, unheeded, moulders there,
+  Track some lost angel through cerulean air.
+
+  Lo! where the Austrian binds, with formal chain,
+  The crownless son of earth&rsquo;s last Charlemagne,&mdash;
+  Him, at whose birth laughed all the violet vales
+    (While yet unfallen stood thy sovereign star,
+  O Lucifer of nations).  Hark, the gales
+    Swell with the shout from all the hosts, whose war
+  Rended the Alps, and crimsoned Memphian Nile,&mdash;
+    &ldquo;Way for the coming of the Conqueror&rsquo;s Son:
+  Woe to the Merchant-Carthage of the Isle!
+    Woe to the Scythian ice-world of the Don!
+  O Thunder Lord, thy Lemnian bolts prepare,
+  The Eagle&rsquo;s eyry hath its eagle heir!&rdquo;
+   Hark, at that shout from north to south, gray Power
+    Quails on its weak, hereditary thrones;
+  And widowed mothers prophesy the hour
+    Of future carnage to their cradled sons.
+  What! shall our race to blood be thus consigned,
+    And Ate claim an heirloom in mankind?
+  Are these red lots unshaken in the urn?
+  Years pass; approach, pale Questioner, and learn
+  Chained to his rock, with brows that vainly frown,
+  The fallen Titan sinks in darkness down!
+  And sadly gazing through his gilded grate,
+  Behold the child whose birth was as a fate!
+  Far from the land in which his life began;
+  Walled from the healthful air of hardy man;
+  Reared by cold hearts, and watched by jealous eyes,
+  His guardians jailers, and his comrades spies.
+  Each trite convention courtly fears inspire
+  To stint experience and to dwarf desire;
+  Narrows the action to a puppet stage,
+  And trains the eaglet to the starling&rsquo;s cage.
+  On the dejected brow and smileless cheek,
+  What weary thought the languid lines bespeak;
+  Till drop by drop, from jaded day to day,
+  The sickly life-streams ooze themselves away.
+  Yet oft in HOPE a boundless realm was thine,
+    That vaguest Infinite,&mdash;the Dream of Fame;
+  Son of the sword that first made kings divine,
+    Heir to man&rsquo;s grandest royalty,&mdash;a Name!
+  Then didst thou burst upon the startled world,
+  And keep the glorious promise of thy birth;
+  Then were the wings that bear the bolt unfurled,
+    A monarch&rsquo;s voice cried, &ldquo;Place upon the earth!&rdquo;
+   A new Philippi gained a second Rome,
+  And the Son&rsquo;s sword avenged the greater Caesar&rsquo;s doom.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  VII.
+
+  EXAMPLE OF MEMORY AS LEADING TO THE IDEAL,&mdash;AMIDST LIFE HOWEVER HUMBLE,
+  AND IN A MIND HOWEVER IGNORANT.&mdash;THE VILLAGE WIDOW.
+
+  But turn the eye to life&rsquo;s sequestered vale
+    And lowly roofs remote in hamlets green.
+  Oft in my boyhood where the moss-grown pale
+    Fenced quiet graves, a female form was seen;
+  Each eve she sought the melancholy ground,
+  And lingering paused, and wistful looked around.
+  If yet some footstep rustled through the grass,
+  Timorous she shrunk, and watched the shadow pass;
+  Then, when the spot lay lone amidst the gloom,
+  Crept to one grave too humble for a tomb,
+  There silent bowed her face above the dead,
+  For, if in prayer, the prayer was inly said;
+  Still as the moonbeam, paused her quiet shade,
+  Still as the moonbeam, through the yews to fade.
+  Whose dust thus hallowed by so fond a care?
+  What the grave saith not, let the heart declare.
+    On yonder green two orphan children played;
+  By yonder rill two plighted lovers strayed;
+  In yonder shrine two lives were blent in one,
+  And joy-bells chimed beneath a summer sun.
+  Poor was their lot, their bread in labour found;
+  No parent blessed them, and no kindred owned;
+  They smiled to hear the wise their choice condemn;
+  They loved&mdash;they loved&mdash;and love was wealth to them!
+  Hark&mdash;one short week&mdash;again the holy bell!
+  Still shone the sun; but dirge like boomed the knell,&mdash;
+  The icy hand had severed breast from breast;
+  Left life to toil, and summoned Death to rest.
+  Full fifty years since then have passed away,
+  Her cheek is furrowed, and her hair is gray.
+  Yet, when she speaks of <i>him</i> (the times are rare),
+  Hear in her voice how youth still trembles there.
+  The very name of that young life that died
+  Still heaves the bosom, and recalls the bride.
+  Lone o&rsquo;er the widow&rsquo;s hearth those years have fled,
+  The daily toil still wins the daily bread;
+  No books deck sorrow with fantastic dyes;
+  Her fond romance her woman heart supplies;
+  And, haply in the few still moments given,
+  (Day&rsquo;s taskwork done), to memory, death, and heaven,
+  To that unuttered poem may belong
+  Thoughts of such pathos as had beggared song.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  VIII.
+
+  HENCE IN HOPE, MEMORY, AND PRAYER, ALL OF US ARE POETS.
+
+  Yes, while thou hopest, music fills the air,
+    While thou rememberest, life reclothes the clod;
+  While thou canst feel the electric chain of prayer,
+    Breathe but a thought, and be a soul with God!
+  Let not these forms of matter bound thine eye.
+    He who the vanishing point of Human things
+  Lifts from the landscape, lost amidst the sky,
+    Has found the Ideal which the poet sings,
+  Has pierced the pall around the senses thrown,
+  And is himself a poet, though unknown.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  IX.
+
+  APPLICATION OF THE POEM TO THE TALE TO WHICH IT IS PREFIXED.&mdash;THE
+  RHINE,&mdash;ITS IDEAL CHARACTER IN ITS HISTORICAL AND LEGENDARY ASSOCIATIONS.
+
+  Eno&rsquo;!&mdash;my song is closing, and to thee,
+    Land of the North, I dedicate its lay;
+  As I have done the simple tale to be
+    The drama of this prelude!
+                                    Faraway
+  Rolls the swift Rhine beneath the starry ray;
+  But to my ear its haunted waters sigh;
+  Its moonlight mountains glimmer on my eye;
+  On wave, on marge, as on a wizard&rsquo;s glass,
+  Imperial ghosts in dim procession pass;
+  Lords of the wild, the first great Father-men,
+  Their fane the hill-top, and their home the glen;
+  Frowning they fade; a bridge of steel appears
+  With frank-eyed Caesar smiling through the spears;
+  The march moves onwards, and the mirror brings
+  The Gothic crowns of Carlovingian kings
+  Vanished alike!  The Hermit rears his Cross,
+  And barbs neigh shrill, and plumes in tumult toss,
+  While (knighthood&rsquo;s sole sweet conquest from the Moor)
+  Sings to Arabian lutes the Tourbadour.
+    Not yet, not yet; still glide some lingering shades,
+  Still breathe some murmurs as the starlight fades,
+  Still from her rock I hear the Siren call,
+  And see the tender ghost in Roland&rsquo;s mouldering hall!
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  X.
+
+  APPLICATION OF THE POEM CONTINUED.&mdash;THE IDEAL LENDS ITS AID TO THE MOST
+  FAMILIAR AND THE MOST ACTUAL SORROW OF LIFE.&mdash;FICTION COMPARED TO
+  SLEEP,&mdash;IT STRENGTHENS WHILE IT SOOTHES.
+
+  Trite were the tale I tell of love and doom,
+  (Whose life hath loved not, whose not mourned a tomb?)
+  But fiction draws a poetry from grief,
+  As art its healing from the withered leaf.
+  Play thou, sweet Fancy, round the sombre truth,
+    Crown the sad Genius ere it lower the torch!
+  When death the altar and the victim youth,
+    Flutes fill the air, and garlands deck the porch.
+  As down the river drifts the Pilgrim sail,
+  Clothe the rude hill-tops, lull the Northern gale;
+  With childlike lore the fatal course beguile,
+  And brighten death with Love&rsquo;s untiring smile.
+  Along the banks let fairy forms be seen
+  &ldquo;By fountain clear, or spangled starlike sheen.&rdquo; *
+  Let sound and shape to which the sense is dull
+  Haunt the soul opening on the Beautiful.
+  And when at length, the symbol voyage done,
+  Surviving Grief shrinks lonely from the sun,
+  By tender types show Grief what memories bloom
+  From lost delight, what fairies guard the tomb.
+  Scorn not the dream, O world-worn; pause a while,
+  New strength shall nerve thee as the dreams beguile,
+  Stung by the rest, less far shall seem the goal!
+  As sleep to life, so fiction to the soul.
+
+    * &ldquo;Midsummer Night&rsquo;s Dream.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE PILGRIMS OF THE RHINE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I. IN WHICH THE READER IS INTRODUCED TO QUEEN NYMPHALIN.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      IN one of those green woods which belong so peculiarly to our island (for
+      the Continent has its forests, but England its woods) there lived, a short
+      time ago, a charming little fairy called Nymphalin. I believe she is
+      descended from a younger branch of the house of Mab; but perhaps that may
+      only be a genealogical fable, for your fairies are very susceptible to the
+      pride of ancestry, and it is impossible to deny that they fall somewhat
+      reluctantly into the liberal opinions so much in vogue at the present day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However that may be, it is quite certain that all the courtiers in
+      Nymphalin&rsquo;s domain (for she was a queen fairy) made a point of asserting
+      her right to this illustrious descent; and accordingly she quartered the
+      Mab arms with her own,&mdash;three acorns vert, with a grasshopper
+      rampant. It was as merry a little court as could possibly be conceived,
+      and on a fine midsummer night it would have been worth while attending the
+      queen&rsquo;s balls; that is to say, if you could have got a ticket, a favour
+      not obtained without great interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, unhappily, until both men and fairies adopt Mr. Owen&rsquo;s proposition,
+      and live in parallelograms, they will always be the victims of <i>ennui</i>.
+      And Nymphalin, who had been disappointed in love, and was still unmarried,
+      had for the last five or six months been exceedingly tired even of giving
+      balls. She yawned very frequently, and consequently yawning became a
+      fashion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But why don&rsquo;t we have some new dances, my Pipalee?&rdquo; said Nymphalin to her
+      favourite maid of honour; &ldquo;these waltzes are very old-fashioned.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very old-fashioned,&rdquo; said Pipalee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The queen gaped, and Pipalee did the same.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a gala night; the court was held in a lone and beautiful hollow,
+      with the wild brake closing round it on every side, so that no human step
+      could easily gain the spot. Wherever the shadows fell upon the brake a
+      glow-worm made a point of exhibiting itself, and the bright August moon
+      sailed slowly above, pleased to look down upon so charming a scene of
+      merriment; for they wrong the moon who assert that she has an objection to
+      mirth,&mdash;with the mirth of fairies she has all possible sympathy. Here
+      and there in the thicket the scarce honeysuckles&mdash;in August
+      honeysuckles are somewhat out of season&mdash;hung their rich festoons,
+      and at that moment they were crowded with the elderly fairies, who had
+      given up dancing and taken to scandal. Besides the honeysuckle you might
+      see the hawkweed and the white convolvulus, varying the soft verdure of
+      the thicket; and mushrooms in abundance had sprung up in the circle,
+      glittering in the silver moonlight, and acceptable beyond measure to the
+      dancers: every one knows how agreeable a thing tents are in a <i>fete
+      champetre</i>! I was mistaken in saying that the brake closed the circle
+      entirely round; for there was one gap, scarcely apparent to mortals,
+      through which a fairy at least might catch a view of a brook that was
+      close at hand, rippling in the stars, and checkered at intervals by the
+      rich weeds floating on the surface, interspersed with the delicate
+      arrowhead and the silver water-lily. Then the trees themselves, in their
+      prodigal variety of hues,&mdash;the blue, the purple, the yellowing tint,
+      the tender and silvery verdure, and the deep mass of shade frowning into
+      black; the willow, the elm, the ash, the fir, and the lime, &ldquo;and, best of
+      all, Old England&rsquo;s haunted oak;&rdquo; these hues were broken again into a
+      thousand minor and subtler shades as the twinkling stars pierced the
+      foliage, or the moon slept with a richer light upon some favoured glade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a gala night; the elderly fairies, as I said before, were chatting
+      among the honeysuckles; the young were flirting, and dancing, and making
+      love; the middle-aged talked politics under the mushrooms; and the queen
+      herself and half-a-dozen of her favourites were yawning their pleasure
+      from a little mound covered with the thickest moss.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It has been very dull, madam, ever since Prince Fayzenheim left us,&rdquo; said
+      the fairy Nip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The queen sighed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How handsome the prince is!&rdquo; said Pipalee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The queen blushed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He wore the prettiest dress in the world; and what a mustache!&rdquo; cried
+      Pipalee, fanning herself with her left wing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was a coxcomb,&rdquo; said the lord treasurer, sourly. The lord treasurer
+      was the honestest and most disagreeable fairy at court; he was an
+      admirable husband, brother, son, cousin, uncle, and godfather,&mdash;it
+      was these virtues that had made him a lord treasurer. Unfortunately they
+      had not made him a sensible fairy. He was like Charles the Second in one
+      respect, for he never did a wise thing; but he was not like him in
+      another, for he very often said a foolish one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The queen frowned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A young prince is not the worse for that,&rdquo; retorted Pipalee. &ldquo;Heigho!
+      does your Majesty think his Highness likely to return?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t tease me,&rdquo; said Nymphalin, pettishly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lord treasurer, by way of giving the conversation an agreeable turn,
+      reminded her Majesty that there was a prodigious accumulation of business
+      to see to, especially that difficult affair about the emmet-wasp loan. Her
+      Majesty rose; and leaning on Pipalee&rsquo;s arm, walked down to the supper
+      tent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pray,&rdquo; said the fairy Trip to the fairy Nip, &ldquo;what is all this talk about
+      Prince Fayzenheim? Excuse my ignorance; I am only just out, you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why,&rdquo; answered Nip, a young courtier, not a marrying fairy, but very
+      seductive, &ldquo;the story runs thus: Last summer a foreigner visited us,
+      calling himself Prince Fayzenheim: one of your German fairies, I fancy; no
+      great things, but an excellent waltzer. He wore long spurs, made out of
+      the stings of the horse-flies in the Black Forest; his cap sat on one
+      side, and his mustachios curled like the lip of the dragon-flower. He was
+      on his travels, and amused himself by making love to the queen. You can&rsquo;t
+      fancy, dear Trip, how fond she was of hearing him tell stories about the
+      strange creatures of Germany,&mdash;about wild huntsmen, water-sprites,
+      and a pack of such stuff,&rdquo; added Nip, contemptuously, for Nip was a
+      freethinker.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In short?&rdquo; said Trip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In short, she loved,&rdquo; cried Nip, with a theatrical air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the prince?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Packed up his clothes, and sent on his travelling-carriage, in order that
+      he might go at his ease on the top of a stage-pigeon; in short&mdash;as
+      you say&mdash;in short, he deserted the queen, and ever since she has set
+      the fashion of yawning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was very naughty in him,&rdquo; said the gentle Trip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, my dear creature,&rdquo; cried Nip, &ldquo;if it had been you to whom he had paid
+      his addresses!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Trip simpered, and the old fairies from their seats in the honeysuckles
+      observed she was &ldquo;sadly conducted;&rdquo; but the Trips had never been too
+      respectable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile the queen, leaning on Pipalee, said, after a short pause, &ldquo;Do
+      you know I have formed a plan!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How delightful!&rdquo; cried Pipalee. &ldquo;Another gala!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pooh, surely even you must be tired with such levities: the spirit of the
+      age is no longer frivolous; and I dare say as the march of gravity
+      proceeds, we shall get rid of galas altogether.&rdquo; The queen said this with
+      an air of inconceivable wisdom, for the &ldquo;Society for the Diffusion of
+      General Stupefaction&rdquo; had been recently established among the fairies, and
+      its tracts had driven all the light reading out of the market. &ldquo;The Penny
+      Proser&rdquo; had contributed greatly to the increase of knowledge and yawning,
+      so visibly progressive among the courtiers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; continued Nymphalin; &ldquo;I have thought of something better than galas.
+      Let us travel!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Pipalee clasped her hands in ecstasy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where shall we travel?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us go up the Rhine,&rdquo; said the queen, turning away her head. &ldquo;We shall
+      be amazingly welcomed; there are fairies without number all the way by its
+      banks, and various distant connections of ours whose nature and properties
+      will afford interest and instruction to a philosophical mind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Number Nip, for instance,&rdquo; cried the gay Pipalee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Red Man!&rdquo; said the graver Nymphalin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, my queen, what an excellent scheme!&rdquo; and Pipalee was so lively during
+      the rest of the night that the old fairies in the honeysuckle insinuated
+      that the lady of honour had drunk a buttercup too much of the Maydew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II. THE LOVERS.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      I WISH only for such readers as give themselves heart and soul up to me,&mdash;if
+      they begin to cavil I have done with them; their fancy should put itself
+      entirely under my management; and, after all, ought they not to be too
+      glad to get out of this hackneyed and melancholy world, to be run away
+      with by an author who promises them something new?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the heights of Bruges, a Mortal and his betrothed gazed upon the
+      scene below. They saw the sun set slowly amongst purple masses of cloud,
+      and the lover turned to his mistress and sighed deeply; for her cheek was
+      delicate in its blended roses, beyond the beauty that belongs to the hues
+      of health; and when he saw the sun sinking from the world, the thought
+      came upon him that <i>she</i> was his sun, and the glory that she shed
+      over his life might soon pass away into the bosom of the &ldquo;ever-during
+      Dark.&rdquo; But against the clouds rose one of the many spires that
+      characterize the town of Bruges; and on that spire, tapering into heaven,
+      rested the eyes of Gertrude Vane. The different objects that caught the
+      gaze of each was emblematic both of the different channel of their
+      thoughts and the different elements of their nature: he thought of the
+      sorrow, she of the consolation; his heart prophesied of the passing away
+      from earth, hers of the ascension into heaven. The lower part of the
+      landscape was wrapped in shade; but just where the bank curved round in a
+      mimic bay, the waters caught the sun&rsquo;s parting smile, and rippled against
+      the herbage that clothed the shore, with a scarcely noticeable wave. There
+      are two of the numerous mills which are so picturesque a feature of that
+      country, standing at a distance from each other on the rising banks, their
+      sails perfectly still in the cool silence of the evening, and adding to
+      the rustic tranquillity which breathed around. For to me there is
+      something in the still sails of one of those inventions of man&rsquo;s industry
+      peculiarly eloquent of repose: the rest seems typical of the repose of our
+      own passions, short and uncertain, contrary to their natural ordination;
+      and doubly impressive from the feeling which admonishes us how precarious
+      is the stillness, how utterly dependent on every wind rising at any moment
+      and from any quarter of the heavens! They saw before them no living forms,
+      save of one or two peasants yet lingering by the water-side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Trevylyan drew closer to his Gertrude; for his love was inexpressibly
+      tender, and his vigilant anxiety for her made his stern frame feel the
+      first coolness of the evening even before she felt it herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dearest, let me draw your mantle closer round you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Gertrude smiled her thanks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I feel better than I have done for weeks,&rdquo; said she; &ldquo;and when once we
+      get into the Rhine, you will see me grow so strong as to shock all your
+      interest for me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, would to Heaven my interest for you may be put to such an ordeal!&rdquo;
+       said Trevylyan; and they turned slowly to the inn, where Gertrude&rsquo;s father
+      already awaited them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Trevylyan was of a wild, a resolute, and an active nature. Thrown on the
+      world at the age of sixteen, he had passed his youth in alternate
+      pleasure, travel, and solitary study. At the age in which manhood is least
+      susceptible to caprice, and most perhaps to passion, he fell in love with
+      the loveliest person that ever dawned upon a poet&rsquo;s vision. I say this
+      without exaggeration, for Gertrude Vane&rsquo;s was indeed the beauty, but the
+      perishable beauty, of a dream. It happened most singularly to Trevylyan
+      (but he was a singular man), that being naturally one whose affections it
+      was very difficult to excite, he should have fallen in love at first sight
+      with a person whose disease, already declared, would have deterred any
+      other heart from risking its treasures on a bark so utterly unfitted for
+      the voyage of life. Consumption, but consumption in its most beautiful
+      shape, had set its seal upon Gertrude Vane, when Trevylyan first saw her,
+      and at once loved. He knew the danger of the disease; he did not, except
+      at intervals, deceive himself; he wrestled against the new passion: but,
+      stern as his nature was, he could not conquer it. He loved, he confessed
+      his love, and Gertrude returned it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a love like this, there is something ineffably beautiful,&mdash;it is
+      essentially the poetry of passion. Desire grows hallowed by fear, and,
+      scarce permitted to indulge its vent in the common channel of the senses,
+      breaks forth into those vague yearnings, those lofty aspirations, which
+      pine for the Bright, the Far, the Unattained. It is &ldquo;the desire of the
+      moth for the star;&rdquo; it is the love of the soul!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gertrude was advised by the faculty to try a southern climate; but
+      Gertrude was the daughter of a German mother, and her young fancy had been
+      nursed in all the wild legends and the alluring visions that belong to the
+      children of the Rhine. Her imagination, more romantic than classic,
+      yearned for the vine-clad hills and haunted forests which are so fertile
+      in their spells to those who have once drunk, even sparingly, of the
+      Literature of the North. Her desire strongly expressed, her declared
+      conviction that if any change of scene could yet arrest the progress of
+      her malady it would be the shores of the river she had so longed to visit,
+      prevailed with her physicians and her father, and they consented to that
+      pilgrimage along the Rhine on which Gertrude, her father, and her lover
+      were now bound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was by the green curve of the banks which the lovers saw from the
+      heights of Bruges that our fairy travellers met. They were reclining on
+      the water-side, playing at dominos with eye-bright and the black specks of
+      the trefoil; namely, Pipalee, Nip, Trip, and the lord treasurer (for that
+      was all the party selected by the queen for her travelling <i>cortege</i>),
+      and waiting for her Majesty, who, being a curious little elf, had gone
+      round the town to reconnoitre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bless me!&rdquo; said the lord treasurer; &ldquo;what a mad freak is this! Crossing
+      that immense pond of water! And was there ever such bad grass as this? One
+      may see that the fairies thrive ill here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are always discontented, my lord,&rdquo; said Pipalee; &ldquo;but then you are
+      somewhat too old to travel,&mdash;at least, unless you go in your nutshell
+      and four.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The lord treasurer did not like this remark, so he muttered a peevish
+      pshaw, and took a pinch of honeysuckle dust to console himself for being
+      forced to put up with so much frivolity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment, ere the moon was yet at her middest height, Nymphalin
+      joined her subjects.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have just returned,&rdquo; said she, with a melancholy expression on her
+      countenance, &ldquo;from a scene that has almost renewed in me that sympathy
+      with human beings which of late years our race has well-nigh relinquished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hurried through the town without noticing much food for adventure. I
+      paused for a moment on a fat citizen&rsquo;s pillow, and bade him dream of love.
+      He woke in a fright, and ran down to see that his cheeses were safe. I
+      swept with a light wing over a politician&rsquo;s eyes, and straightway he
+      dreamed of theatres and music. I caught an undertaker in his first nap,
+      and I have left him whirled into a waltz. For what would be sleep if it
+      did not contrast life? Then I came to a solitary chamber, in which a girl,
+      in her tenderest youth, knelt by the bedside in prayer, and I saw that the
+      death-spirit had passed over her, and the blight was on the leaves of the
+      rose. The room was still and hushed, the angel of Purity kept watch there.
+      Her heart was full of love, and yet of holy thoughts, and I bade her dream
+      of the long life denied to her,&mdash;of a happy home, of the kisses of
+      her young lover, of eternal faith, and unwaning tenderness. Let her at
+      least enjoy in dreams what Fate has refused to Truth! And, passing from
+      the room, I found her lover stretched in his cloak beside the door; for he
+      reads with a feverish and desperate prophecy the doom that waits her; and
+      so loves he the very air she breathes, the very ground she treads, that
+      when she has left his sight he creeps, silently and unknown to her, to the
+      nearest spot hallowed by her presence, anxious that while yet she is on
+      earth not an hour, not a moment, should be wasted upon other thoughts than
+      those that belong to her; and feeling a security, a fearful joy, in
+      lessening the distance that <i>now</i> only momentarily divides them. And
+      that love seemed to me not as the love of the common world, and I stayed
+      my wings and looked upon it as a thing that centuries might pass and bring
+      no parallel to, in its beauty and its melancholy truth. But I kept away
+      the sleep from the lover&rsquo;s eyes, for well I knew that sleep was a tyrant,
+      that shortened the brief time of waking tenderness for the living, yet
+      spared him; and one sad, anxious thought of her was sweeter, in spite of
+      its sorrow, than the brightest of fairy dreams. So I left him awake, and
+      watching there through the long night, and felt that the children of earth
+      have still something that unites them to the spirits of a finer race, so
+      long as they retain amongst them the presence of real love!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And oh! is there not a truth also in our fictions of the Unseen World? Are
+      there not yet bright lingerers by the forest and the stream? Do the moon
+      and the soft stars look out on no delicate and winged forms bathing in
+      their light? Are the fairies and the invisible hosts but the children of
+      our dreams, and not their inspiration? Is that all a delusion which speaks
+      from the golden page? And is the world only given to harsh and anxious
+      travellers that walk to and fro in pursuit of no gentle shadows? Are the
+      chimeras of the passions the sole spirits of the universe? No! while my
+      remembrance treasures in its deepest cell the image of one no more,&mdash;one
+      who was &ldquo;not of the earth, earthy;&rdquo; one in whom love was the essence of
+      thoughts divine; one whose shape and mould, whose heart and genius, would,
+      had Poesy never before dreamed it, have called forth the first notion of
+      spirits resembling mortals, but not of them,&mdash;no, Gertrude! while I
+      remember you, the faith, the trust in brighter shapes and fairer natures
+      than the world knows of, comes clinging to my heart; and still will I
+      think that Fairies might have watched over your sleep and Spirits have
+      ministered to your dreams.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III. FEELINGS.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      GERTRUDE and her companions proceeded by slow and, to her, delightful
+      stages to Rotterdam. Trevylyan sat by her side, and her hand was ever in
+      his; and when her delicate frame became sensible of fatigue, her head
+      drooped on his shoulder as its natural resting-place. Her father was a man
+      who had lived long enough to have encountered many reverses of fortune,
+      and they had left him, as I am apt to believe long adversity usually does
+      leave its prey, somewhat chilled and somewhat hardened to affection;
+      passive and quiet of hope, resigned to the worst as to the common order of
+      events, and expecting little from the best, as an unlooked-for incident in
+      the regularity of human afflictions. He was insensible of his daughter&rsquo;s
+      danger, for he was not one whom the fear of love endows with prophetic
+      vision; and he lived tranquilly in the present, without asking what new
+      misfortune awaited him in the future. Yet he loved his child, his only
+      child, with whatever of affection was left him by the many shocks his
+      heart had received; and in her approaching connection with one rich and
+      noble as Trevylyan, he felt even something bordering upon pleasure. Lapped
+      in the apathetic indifference of his nature, he leaned back in the
+      carriage, enjoying the bright weather that attended their journey, and
+      sensible&mdash;for he was one of fine and cultivated taste&mdash;of
+      whatever beauties of nature or remains of art varied their course. A
+      companion of this sort was the most agreeable that two persons never
+      needing a third could desire; he left them undisturbed to the intoxication
+      of their mutual presence; he marked not the interchange of glances; he
+      listened not to the whisper, the low delicious whisper, with which the
+      heart speaks its sympathy to heart. He broke not that charmed silence
+      which falls over us when the thoughts are full, and words leave nothing to
+      explain; that repose of feeling; that certainty that we are understood
+      without the effort of words, which makes the real luxury of intercourse
+      and the true enchantment of travel. What a memory hours like these
+      bequeath, after we have settled down into the calm occupation of common
+      life! How beautiful, through the vista of years, seems that brief
+      moonlight track upon the waters of our youth!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Trevylyan&rsquo;s nature, which, as I have said before, was naturally hard
+      and stern, which was hot, irritable, ambitious, and prematurely tinctured
+      with the policy and lessons of the world, seemed utterly changed by the
+      peculiarities of his love. Every hour, every moment was full of incident
+      to him; every look of Gertrude&rsquo;s was entered in the tablets of his heart;
+      so that his love knew no languor, it required no change: he was absorbed
+      in it,&mdash;<i>it was himself</i>! And he was soft, and watchful as the
+      step of a mother by the couch of her sick child; the lion within him was
+      tamed by indomitable love; the sadness, the presentiment, that was mixed
+      with all his passion for Gertrude, filled him too with that poetry of
+      feeling which is the result of thoughts weighing upon us, and not to be
+      expressed by ordinary language. In this part of their journey, as I find
+      by the date, were the following lines written; they are to be judged as
+      the lines of one in whom emotion and truth were the only inspiration:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     I. As leaves left darkling in the flush of day,
+       When glints the glad sun checkering o&rsquo;er the tree,
+     I see the green earth brightening in the ray,
+       Which only casts a shadow upon me!
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     II. What are the beams, the flowers, the glory, all
+       Life&rsquo;s glow and gloss, the music and the bloom,
+     When every sun but speeds the Eternal Pall,
+       And Time is Death that dallies with the Tomb?
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     III. And yet&mdash;oh yet, so young, so pure!&mdash;the while
+       Fresh laugh the rose-hues round youth&rsquo;s morning sky,
+     That voice, those eyes, the deep love of that smile,
+       Are they not soul&mdash;<i>all</i> soul&mdash;and <i>can</i> they die?
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     IV. Are there the words &ldquo;NO MORE&rdquo; for thoughts like ours?
+       Must the bark sink upon so soft a wave?
+     Hath the short summer of thy life no flowers
+       But those which bloom above thine early grave?
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     V. O God! and what is life, that I should live?
+       (Hath not the world enow of common clay?)
+     And she&mdash;the Rose&mdash;whose life a soul could give
+       To the void desert, sigh its sweets away?
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     VI. And I that love thee thus, to whom the air,
+       Blest by thy breath, makes heaven where&rsquo;er it be,
+     Watch thy cheek wane, and smile away despair,
+       Lest it should dim one hour yet left to Thee.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     VII. Still let me conquer self; oh, still conceal
+       By the smooth brow the snake that coils below;
+     Break, break my heart! it comforts yet to feel
+       That <i>she</i> dreams on, unwakened by my woe!
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     VIII. Hushed, where the Star&rsquo;s soft angel loves to keep
+       Watch o&rsquo;er their tide, the morning waters roll;
+     So glides my spirit,&mdash;darkness in the deep,
+       But o&rsquo;er the wave the presence of thy soul!
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Gertrude had not as yet the presentiments that filled the soul of
+      Trevylyan. She thought too little of herself to know her danger, and those
+      hours to her were hours of unmingled sweetness. Sometimes, indeed, the
+      exhaustion of her disease tinged her spirits with a vague sadness, an
+      abstraction came over her, and a languor she vainly struggled against.
+      These fits of dejection and gloom touched Trevylyan to the quick; his eye
+      never ceased to watch them, nor his heart to soothe. Often when he marked
+      them, he sought to attract her attention from what he fancied, though
+      erringly, a sympathy with his own forebodings, and to lead her young and
+      romantic imagination through the temporary beguilements of fiction; for
+      Gertrude was yet in the first bloom of youth, and all the dews of
+      beautiful childhood sparkled freshly from the virgin blossoms of her mind.
+      And Trevylyan, who had passed some of his early years among the students
+      of Leipsic, and was deeply versed in the various world of legendary lore,
+      ransacked his memory for such tales as seemed to him most likely to win
+      her interest; and often with false smiles entered into the playful tale,
+      or oftener, with more faithful interest, into the graver legend of trials
+      that warned yet beguiled them from their own. Of such tales I have
+      selected but a few; I know not that they are the least unworthy of
+      repetition,&mdash;they are those which many recollections induce me to
+      repeat the most willingly. Gertrude loved these stories, for she had not
+      yet lost, by the coldness of the world, one leaf from that soft and wild
+      romance which belonged to her beautiful mind; and, more than all, she
+      loved the sound of a voice which every day became more and more musical to
+      her ear. &ldquo;Shall I tell you,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, one morning, as he observed
+      her gloomier mood stealing over the face of Gertrude,&mdash;&ldquo;shall I tell
+      you, ere yet we pass into the dull land of Holland, a story of Malines,
+      whose spires we shall shortly see?&rdquo; Gertrude&rsquo;s face brightened at once,
+      and as she leaned back in the carriage as it whirled rapidly along, and
+      fixed her deep blue eyes on Trevylyan, he began the following tale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV. THE MAID OF MALINES.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      IT was noonday in the town of Malines, or Mechlin, as the English usually
+      term it; the Sabbath bell had summoned the inhabitants to divine worship;
+      and the crowd that had loitered round the Church of St. Rembauld had
+      gradually emptied itself within the spacious aisles of the sacred edifice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A young man was standing in the street, with his eyes bent on the ground,
+      and apparently listening for some sound; for without raising his looks
+      from the rude pavement, he turned to every corner of it with an intent and
+      anxious expression of countenance. He held in one hand a staff, in the
+      other a long slender cord, the end of which trailed on the ground; every
+      now and then he called, with a plaintive voice, &ldquo;Fido, Fido, come back!
+      Why hast thou deserted me?&rdquo; Fido returned not; the dog, wearied of
+      confinement, had slipped from the string, and was at play with his kind in
+      a distant quarter of the town, leaving the blind man to seek his way as he
+      might to his solitary inn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By and by a light step passed through the street, and the young stranger&rsquo;s
+      face brightened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pardon me,&rdquo; said he, turning to the spot where his quick ear had caught
+      the sound, &ldquo;and direct me, if you are not much pressed for a few moments&rsquo; 
+      time, to the hotel &lsquo;Mortier d&rsquo;Or.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a young woman, whose dress betokened that she belonged to the
+      middling class of life, whom he thus addressed. &ldquo;It is some distance
+      hence, sir,&rdquo; said she; &ldquo;but if you continue your way straight on for about
+      a hundred yards, and then take the second turn to your right hand&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas!&rdquo; interrupted the stranger, with a melancholy smile, &ldquo;your direction
+      will avail me little; my dog has deserted me, and I am blind!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was something in these words, and in the stranger&rsquo;s voice, which
+      went irresistibly to the heart of the young woman. &ldquo;Pray forgive me,&rdquo; she
+      said, almost with tears in her eyes, &ldquo;I did not perceive your&mdash;&rdquo;
+       misfortune, she was about to say, but she checked herself with an
+      instinctive delicacy. &ldquo;Lean upon me, I will conduct you to the door; nay,
+      sir,&rdquo; observing that he hesitated, &ldquo;I have time enough to spare, I assure
+      you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The stranger placed his hand on the young woman&rsquo;s arm; and though Lucille
+      was naturally so bashful that even her mother would laughingly reproach
+      her for the excess of a maiden virtue, she felt not the least pang of
+      shame, as she found herself thus suddenly walking through the streets of
+      Malines along with a young stranger, whose dress and air betokened him of
+      rank superior to her own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your voice is very gentle,&rdquo; said he, after a pause; &ldquo;and that,&rdquo; he added,
+      with a slight sigh, &ldquo;is the only criterion by which I know the young and
+      the beautiful!&rdquo; Lucille now blushed, and with a slight mixture of pain in
+      the blush, for she knew well that to beauty she had no pretension. &ldquo;Are
+      you a native of this town?&rdquo; continued he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sir; my father holds a small office in the customs, and my mother
+      and I eke out his salary by making lace. We are called poor, but we do not
+      feel it, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are fortunate! there is no wealth like the heart&rsquo;s wealth,&mdash;content,&rdquo;
+       answered the blind man, mournfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And, monsieur,&rdquo; said Lucille, feeling angry with herself that she had
+      awakened a natural envy in the stranger&rsquo;s mind, and anxious to change the
+      subject&mdash;&ldquo;and, monsieur, has he been long at Malines?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But yesterday. I am passing through the Low Countries on a tour; perhaps
+      you smile at the tour of a blind man, but it is wearisome even to the
+      blind to rest always in the same place. I thought during church-time, when
+      the streets were empty, that I might, by the help of my dog, enjoy safely
+      at least the air, if not the sight of the town; but there are some
+      persons, methinks, who cannot have even a dog for a friend!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The blind man spoke bitterly,&mdash;the desertion of his dog had touched
+      him to the core. Lucille wiped her eyes. &ldquo;And does Monsieur travel then
+      alone?&rdquo; said she; and looking at his face more attentively than she had
+      yet ventured to do, she saw that he was scarcely above two-and-twenty.
+      &ldquo;His father, and his <i>mother</i>,&rdquo; she added, with an emphasis on the
+      last word, &ldquo;are they not with him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am an orphan!&rdquo; answered the stranger; &ldquo;and I have neither brother nor
+      sister.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The desolate condition of the blind man quite melted Lucille; never had
+      she been so strongly affected. She felt a strange flutter at the heart, a
+      secret and earnest sympathy, that attracted her at once towards him. She
+      wished that Heaven had suffered her to be his sister!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The contrast between the youth and the form of the stranger, and the
+      affliction which took hope from the one and activity from the other,
+      increased the compassion he excited. His features were remarkably regular,
+      and had a certain nobleness in their outline; and his frame was gracefully
+      and firmly knit, though he moved cautiously and with no cheerful step.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had now passed into a narrow street leading towards the hotel, when
+      they heard behind them the clatter of hoofs; and Lucille, looking hastily
+      back, saw that a troop of the Belgian horse was passing through the town.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She drew her charge close by the wall, and trembling with fear for him,
+      she stationed herself by his side. The troop passed at a full trot through
+      the street; and at the sound of their clanging arms, and the ringing hoofs
+      of their heavy chargers, Lucille might have seen, had she looked at the
+      blind man&rsquo;s face, that its sad features kindled with enthusiasm, and his
+      head was raised proudly from its wonted and melancholy bend. &ldquo;Thank
+      Heaven!&rdquo; she said, as the troop had nearly passed them, &ldquo;the danger is
+      over!&rdquo; Not so. One of the last two soldiers who rode abreast was
+      unfortunately mounted on a young and unmanageable horse. The rider&rsquo;s oaths
+      and digging spur only increased the fire and impatience of the charger; it
+      plunged from side to side of the narrow street.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look to yourselves!&rdquo; cried the horseman, as he was borne on to the place
+      where Lucille and the stranger stood against the wall. &ldquo;Are ye mad? Why do
+      you not run?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For Heaven&rsquo;s sake, for mercy&rsquo;s sake, he is blind!&rdquo; cried Lucille,
+      clinging to the stranger&rsquo;s side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Save yourself, my kind guide!&rdquo; said the stranger. But Lucille dreamed not
+      of such desertion. The trooper wrested the horse&rsquo;s head from the spot
+      where they stood; with a snort, as it felt the spur, the enraged animal
+      lashed out with its hind-legs; and Lucille, unable to save <i>both</i>,
+      threw herself before the blind man, and received the shock directed
+      against him; her slight and delicate arm fell broken by her side, the
+      horseman was borne onward. &ldquo;Thank God, <i>you</i> are saved!&rdquo; was poor
+      Lucille&rsquo;s exclamation; and she fell, overcome with pain and terror, into
+      the arms which the stranger mechanically opened to receive her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My guide! my friend!&rdquo; cried he, &ldquo;you are hurt, you&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sir,&rdquo; interrupted Lucille, faintly, &ldquo;I am better, I am well. <i>This</i>
+      arm, if you please,&mdash;we are not far from your hotel now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But the stranger&rsquo;s ear, tutored to every inflection of voice, told him at
+      once of the pain she suffered. He drew from her by degrees the confession
+      of the injury she had sustained; but the generous girl did not tell him it
+      had been incurred solely in his protection. He now insisted on reversing
+      their duties, and accompanying <i>her</i> to her home; and Lucille, almost
+      fainting with pain, and hardly able to move, was forced to consent. But a
+      few steps down the next turning stood the humble mansion of her father.
+      They reached it; and Lucille scarcely crossed the threshold, before she
+      sank down, and for some minutes was insensible to pain. It was left to the
+      stranger to explain, and to beseech them immediately to send for a
+      surgeon, &ldquo;the most skilful, the most practised in the town,&rdquo; said he.
+      &ldquo;See, I am rich, and this is the least I can do to atone to your generous
+      daughter, for not forsaking even a stranger in peril.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He held out his purse as he spoke, but the father refused the offer; and
+      it saved the blind man some shame, that he could not see the blush of
+      honest resentment with which so poor a species of renumeration was put
+      aside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young man stayed till the surgeon arrived, till the arm was set; nor
+      did he depart until he had obtained a promise from the mother that he
+      should learn the next morning how the sufferer had passed the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning, indeed, he had intended to quit a town that offers but
+      little temptation to the traveller; but he tarried day after day, until
+      Lucille herself accompanied her mother, to assure him of her recovery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You know, at least I do, dearest Gertrude, that there is such a thing as
+      love at the first meeting,&mdash;a secret, an unaccountable affinity
+      between persons (strangers before) which draws them irresistibly together,&mdash;as
+      if there were truth in Plato&rsquo;s beautiful fantasy, that our souls were a
+      portion of the stars, and that spirits, thus attracted to each other, have
+      drawn their original light from the same orb, and yearn for a renewal of
+      their former union. Yet without recurring to such fanciful solutions of a
+      daily mystery, it was but natural that one in the forlorn and desolate
+      condition of Eugene St. Amand should have felt a certain tenderness for a
+      person who had so generously suffered for his sake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The darkness to which he was condemned did not shut from his mind&rsquo;s eye
+      the haunting images of Ideal beauty; rather, on the contrary, in his
+      perpetual and unoccupied solitude, he fed the reveries of an imagination
+      naturally warm, and a heart eager for sympathy and commune.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had said rightly that his only test of beauty was in the melody of
+      voice; and never had a softer or more thrilling tone than that of the
+      young maiden touched upon his ear. Her exclamation, so beautifully denying
+      self, so devoted in its charity, &ldquo;Thank God, <i>you</i> are saved!&rdquo;
+       uttered too in the moment of her own suffering, rang constantly upon his
+      soul, and he yielded, without precisely defining their nature, to vague
+      and delicious sentiments, that his youth had never awakened to till then.
+      And Lucille&mdash;the very accident that had happened to her on his behalf
+      only deepened the interest she had already conceived for one who, in the
+      first flush of youth, was thus cut off from the glad objects of life, and
+      left to a night of years desolate and alone. There is, to your beautiful
+      and kindly sex, a natural inclination to <i>protect</i>. This makes them
+      the angels of sickness, the comforters of age, the fosterers of childhood;
+      and this feeling, in Lucille peculiarly developed, had already
+      inexpressibly linked her compassionate nature to the lot of the
+      unfortunate traveller. With ardent affections, and with thoughts beyond
+      her station and her years, she was not without that modest vanity which
+      made her painfully susceptible to her own deficiencies in beauty.
+      Instinctively conscious of how deeply she herself could love, she believed
+      it impossible that she could ever be so loved in return. The stranger, so
+      superior in her eyes to all she had yet seen, was the first who had ever
+      addressed her in that voice which by tones, not words, speaks that
+      admiration most dear to a woman&rsquo;s heart. To <i>him</i> she was beautiful,
+      and her lovely mind spoke out, undimmed by the imperfections of her face.
+      Not, indeed, that Lucille was wholly without personal attraction; her
+      light step and graceful form were elastic with the freshness of youth, and
+      her mouth and smile had so gentle and tender an expression, that there
+      were moments when it would not have been the blind only who would have
+      mistaken her to be beautiful. Her early childhood had indeed given the
+      promise of attractions, which the smallpox, that then fearful malady, had
+      inexorably marred. It had not only seared the smooth skin and brilliant
+      hues, but utterly changed even the character of the features. It so
+      happened that Lucille&rsquo;s family were celebrated for beauty, and vain of
+      that celebrity; and so bitterly had her parents deplored the effects of
+      the cruel malady, that poor Lucille had been early taught to consider them
+      far more grievous than they really were, and to exaggerate the advantages
+      of that beauty, the loss of which was considered by her parents so heavy a
+      misfortune. Lucille, too, had a cousin named Julie, who was the wonder of
+      all Malines for her personal perfections; and as the cousins were much
+      together, the contrast was too striking not to occasion frequent
+      mortification to Lucille. But every misfortune has something of a
+      counterpoise; and the consciousness of personal inferiority had meekened,
+      without souring, her temper, had given gentleness to a spirit that
+      otherwise might have been too high, and humility to a mind that was
+      naturally strong, impassioned, and energetic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And yet Lucille had long conquered the one disadvantage she most dreaded
+      in the want of beauty. Lucille was never known but to be loved. Wherever
+      came her presence, her bright and soft mind diffused a certain
+      inexpressible charm; and where she was not, a something was absent from
+      the scene which not even Julie&rsquo;s beauty could replace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I propose,&rdquo; said St. Amand to Madame le Tisseur, Lucille&rsquo;s mother, as he
+      sat in her little salon,&mdash;for he had already contracted that
+      acquaintance with the family which permitted him to be led to their house,
+      to return the visits Madame le Tisseur had made him, and his dog, once
+      more returned a penitent to his master, always conducted his steps to the
+      humble abode, and stopped instinctively at the door,&mdash;&ldquo;I propose,&rdquo;
+       said St. Amand, after a pause, and with some embarrassment, &ldquo;to stay a
+      little while longer at Malines; the air agrees with me, and I like the
+      quiet of the place; but you are aware, madam, that at a hotel among
+      strangers, I feel my situation somewhat cheerless. I have been thinking&rdquo;&mdash;St.
+      Amand paused again&mdash;&ldquo;I have been thinking that if I could persuade
+      some agreeable family to receive me as a lodger, I would fix myself here
+      for some weeks. I am easily pleased.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doubtless there are many in Malines who would be too happy to receive
+      such a lodger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you receive me?&rdquo; asked St. Amand, abruptly. &ldquo;It was of <i>your</i>
+      family I thought.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of us? Monsieur is too flattering. But we have scarcely a room good
+      enough for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What difference between one room and another can there be to me? That is
+      the best apartment to my choice in which the human voice sounds most
+      kindly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The arrangement was made, and St. Amand came now to reside beneath the
+      same roof as Lucille. And was she not happy that <i>he</i> wanted so
+      constant an attendance; was she not happy that she was ever of use? St.
+      Amand was passionately fond of music; he played himself with a skill that
+      was only surpassed by the exquisite melody of his voice, and was not
+      Lucille happy when she sat mute and listening to such sounds as in Malines
+      were never heard before? Was she not happy in gazing on a face to whose
+      melancholy aspect her voice instantly summoned the smile? Was she not
+      happy when the music ceased, and St. Amand called &ldquo;Lucille&rdquo;? Did not her
+      own name uttered by that voice seem to her even sweeter than the music?
+      Was she not happy when they walked out in the still evenings of summer,
+      and her arm thrilled beneath the light touch of one to whom she was so
+      necessary? Was she not proud in her happiness, and was there not something
+      like worship in the gratitude she felt to him for raising her humble
+      spirit to the luxury of feeling herself beloved?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      St. Amand&rsquo;s parents were French. They had resided in the neighbourhood of
+      Amiens, where they had inherited a competent property, to which he had
+      succeeded about two years previous to the date of my story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had been blind from the age of three years. &ldquo;I know not,&rdquo; said he, as
+      he related these particulars to Lucille one evening when they were alone,&mdash;&ldquo;I
+      know not what the earth may be like, or the heaven, or the rivers whose
+      voice at least I can hear, for I have no recollection beyond that of a
+      confused but delicious blending of a thousand glorious colours, a bright
+      and quick sense of joy, A VISIBLE MUSIC. But it is only since my childhood
+      closed that I have mourned, as I now unceasingly mourn, for the light of
+      day. My boyhood passed in a quiet cheerfulness; the least trifle then
+      could please and occupy the vacancies of my mind; but it was as I took
+      delight in being read to, as I listened to the vivid descriptions of
+      Poetry, as I glowed at the recital of great deeds, as I was made
+      acquainted by books with the energy, the action, the heat, the fervour,
+      the pomp, the enthusiasm of life, that I gradually opened to the sense of
+      all I was forever denied. I felt that I existed, not lived; and that, in
+      the midst of the Universal Liberty, I was sentenced to a prison, from
+      whose blank walls there was no escape. Still, however, while my parents
+      lived, I had something of consolation; at least I was not alone. They
+      died, and a sudden and dread solitude, a vast and empty dreariness,
+      settled upon my dungeon. One old servant only, who had attended me from my
+      childhood, who had known me in my short privilege of light, by whose
+      recollections my mind could grope back its way through the dark and narrow
+      passages of memory to faint glimpses of the sun, was all that remained to
+      me of human sympathies. It did not suffice, however, to content me with a
+      home where my father and my mother&rsquo;s kind voice were <i>not</i>. A
+      restless impatience, an anxiety to move, possessed me, and I set out from
+      my home, journeying whither I cared not, so that at least I could change
+      an air that weighed upon me like a palpable burden. I took only this old
+      attendant as my companion; he too died three months since at Bruxelles,
+      worn out with years. Alas! I had forgotten that he was old, for I saw not
+      his progress to decay; and now, save my faithless dog, I was utterly
+      alone, till I came hither and found <i>thee</i>.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lucille stooped down to caress the dog; she blessed the desertion that had
+      led him to a friend who never could desert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But however much, and however gratefully, St. Amand loved Lucille, her
+      power availed not to chase the melancholy from his brow, and to reconcile
+      him to his forlorn condition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, would that I could see thee! would that I could look upon a face that
+      my heart vainly endeavours to delineate!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If thou couldst,&rdquo; sighed Lucille, &ldquo;thou wouldst cease to love me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Impossible!&rdquo; cried St. Amand, passionately. &ldquo;However the world may find
+      thee, <i>thou</i> wouldst become my standard of beauty; and I should judge
+      not of thee by others, but of others by thee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He loved to hear Lucille read to him, and mostly he loved the descriptions
+      of war, of travel, of wild adventure, and yet they occasioned him the most
+      pain. Often she paused from the page as she heard him sigh, and felt that
+      she would even have renounced the bliss of being loved by him, if she
+      could have restored to him that blessing, the desire for which haunted him
+      as a spectre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lucille&rsquo;s family were Catholic, and, like most in their station, they
+      possessed the superstitions, as well as the devotion of the faith.
+      Sometimes they amused themselves of an evening by the various legends and
+      imaginary miracles of their calendar; and once, as they were thus
+      conversing with two or three of their neighbours, &ldquo;The Tomb of the Three
+      Kings of Cologne&rdquo; became the main topic of their wondering recitals.
+      However strong was the sense of Lucille, she was, as you will readily
+      conceive, naturally influenced by the belief of those with whom she had
+      been brought up from her cradle, and she listened to tale after tale of
+      the miracles wrought at the consecrated tomb, as earnestly and
+      undoubtingly as the rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the Kings of the East were no ordinary saints; to the relics of the
+      Three Magi, who followed the Star of Bethlehem, and were the first
+      potentates of the earth who adored its Saviour, well might the pious
+      Catholic suppose that a peculiar power and a healing sanctity would
+      belong. Each of the circle (St. Amand, who had been more than usually
+      silent, and even gloomy during the day, had retired to his own apartment,
+      for there were some moments when, in the sadness of his thoughts, he
+      sought that solitude which he so impatiently fled from at others)&mdash;each
+      of the circle had some story to relate equally veracious and indisputable,
+      of an infirmity cured, or a prayer accorded, or a sin atoned for at the
+      foot of the holy tomb. One story peculiarly affected Lucille; the
+      narrator, a venerable old man with gray locks, solemnly declared himself a
+      witness of its truth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A woman at Anvers had given birth to a son, the offspring of an illicit
+      connection, who came into the world deaf and dumb. The unfortunate mother
+      believed the calamity a punishment for her own sin. &ldquo;Ah, would,&rdquo; said she,
+      &ldquo;that the affliction had fallen only upon me! Wretch that I am, my
+      innocent child is punished for my offence!&rdquo; This, idea haunted her night
+      and day; she pined and could not be comforted. As the child grew up, and
+      wound himself more and more round her heart, his caresses added new pangs
+      to her remorse; and at length (continued the narrator) hearing perpetually
+      of the holy fame of the Tomb of Cologne, she resolved upon a pilgrimage
+      barefoot to the shrine. &ldquo;God is merciful,&rdquo; said she; &ldquo;and He who called
+      Magdalene his sister may take the mother&rsquo;s curse from the child.&rdquo; She then
+      went to Cologne; she poured her tears, her penitence, and her prayers at
+      the sacred tomb. When she returned to her native town, what was her dismay
+      as she approached her cottage to behold it a heap of ruins! Its blackened
+      rafters and yawning casements betokened the ravages of fire. The poor
+      woman sank upon the ground utterly overpowered. Had her son perished? At
+      that moment she heard the cry of a child&rsquo;s voice, and, lo! her child
+      rushed to her arms, and called her &ldquo;mother!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He had been saved from the fire, which had broken out seven days before;
+      but in the terror he had suffered, the string that tied his tongue had
+      been loosened; he had uttered articulate sounds of distress; the curse was
+      removed, and one word at least the kind neighbours had already taught him
+      to welcome his mother&rsquo;s return. What cared she now that her substance was
+      gone, that her roof was ashes? She bowed in grateful submission to so mild
+      a stroke; her prayer had been heard, and the sin of the mother was visited
+      no longer on the child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have said, dear Gertrude, that this story made a deep impression upon
+      Lucille. A misfortune so nearly akin to that of St. Amand removed by the
+      prayer of another filled her with devoted thoughts and a beautiful hope.
+      &ldquo;Is not the tomb still standing?&rdquo; thought she. &ldquo;Is not God still in
+      heaven?&mdash;He who heard the guilty, may He not hear the guiltless? Is
+      He not the God of love? Are not the affections the offerings that please
+      Him best? And what though the child&rsquo;s mediator was his mother, can even a
+      mother love her child more tenderly than I love Eugene? But if, Lucille,
+      thy prayer be granted, if he recover his sight, <i>thy</i> charm is gone,
+      he will love thee no longer. No matter! be it so,&mdash;I shall at least
+      have made him happy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Such were the thoughts that filled the mind of Lucille; she cherished them
+      till they settled into resolution, and she secretly vowed to perform her
+      pilgrimage of love. She told neither St. Amand nor her parents of her
+      intention; she knew the obstacles such an announcement would create.
+      Fortunately she had an aunt settled at Bruxelles, to whom she had been
+      accustomed once in every year to pay a month&rsquo;s visit, and at that time she
+      generally took with her the work of a twelvemonths&rsquo; industry, which found
+      a readier sale at Bruxelles than at Malines. Lucille and St. Amand were
+      already betrothed; their wedding was shortly to take place; and the custom
+      of the country leading parents, however poor, to nourish the honourable
+      ambition of giving some dowry with their daughters, Lucille found it easy
+      to hide the object of her departure, under the pretence of taking the lace
+      to Bruxelles, which had been the year&rsquo;s labour of her mother and herself,&mdash;it
+      would sell for sufficient, at least, to defray the preparations for the
+      wedding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art ever right, child,&rdquo; said Madame le Tisseur; &ldquo;the richer St.
+      Amand is, why, the less oughtest thou to go a beggar to his house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In fact, the honest ambition of the good people was excited; their pride
+      had been hurt by the envy of the town and the current congratulations on
+      so advantageous a marriage; and they employed themselves in counting up
+      the fortune they should be able to give to their only child, and
+      flattering their pardonable vanity with the notion that there would be no
+      such great disproportion in the connection after all. They were right, but
+      not in their own view of the estimate; the wealth that Lucille brought was
+      what fate could not lessen, reverse could not reach; the ungracious
+      seasons could not blight its sweet harvest; imprudence could not
+      dissipate, fraud could not steal, one grain from its abundant coffers!
+      Like the purse in the Fairy Tale, its use was hourly, its treasure
+      inexhaustible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      St. Amand alone was not to be won to her departure; he chafed at the
+      notion of a dowry; he was not appeased even by Lucille&rsquo;s representation
+      that it was only to gratify and not to impoverish her parents. &ldquo;And <i>thou</i>,
+      too, canst leave me!&rdquo; he said, in that plaintive voice which had made his
+      first charm to Lucille&rsquo;s heart. &ldquo;It is a double blindness!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But for a few days; a fortnight at most, dearest Eugene.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A fortnight! you do not reckon time as the blind do,&rdquo; said St. Amand,
+      bitterly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But listen, listen, dear Eugene,&rdquo; said Lucille, weeping.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sound of her sobs restored him to a sense of his ingratitude. Alas, he
+      knew not how much he had to be grateful for! He held out his arms to her.
+      &ldquo;Forgive me,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;Those who can see Nature know not how terrible it
+      is to be alone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But my mother will not leave you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is not you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And Julie,&rdquo; said Lucille, hesitatingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is Julie to me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, you are the only one, save my parents, who could think of me in her
+      presence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why, Lucille?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why! She is more beautiful than a dream.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say not so. Would I could see, that I might prove to the world how much
+      more beautiful thou art! There is no music in her voice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The evening before Lucille departed she sat up late with St. Amand and her
+      mother. They conversed on the future; they made plans; in the wide
+      sterility of the world they laid out the garden of household love, and
+      filled it with flowers, forgetful of the wind that scatters and the frost
+      that kills. And when, leaning on Lucille&rsquo;s arm, St. Amand sought his
+      chamber, and they parted at his door, which closed upon her, she fell down
+      on her knees at the threshold, and poured out the fulness of her heart in
+      a prayer for his safety and the fulfilment of her timid hope.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At daybreak she was consigned to the conveyance that performed the short
+      journey from Malines to Bruxelles. When she entered the town, instead of
+      seeking her aunt, she rested at an <i>auberge</i> in the suburbs, and
+      confiding her little basket of lace to the care of its hostess, she set
+      out alone, and on foot, upon the errand of her heart&rsquo;s lovely
+      superstition. And erring though it was, her faith redeemed its weakness,
+      her affection made it even sacred; and well may we believe that the Eye
+      which reads all secrets scarce looked reprovingly on that fanaticism whose
+      only infirmity was love.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So fearful was she lest, by rendering the task too easy, she might impair
+      the effect, that she scarcely allowed herself rest or food. Sometimes, in
+      the heat of noon, she wandered a little from the roadside, and under the
+      spreading lime-tree surrendered her mind to its sweet and bitter thoughts;
+      but ever the restlessness of her enterprise urged her on, and faint,
+      weary, and with bleeding feet, she started up and continued her way. At
+      length she reached the ancient city, where a holier age has scarce worn
+      from the habits and aspects of men the Roman trace. She prostrated herself
+      at the tomb of the Magi; she proffered her ardent but humble prayer to Him
+      before whose Son those fleshless heads (yet to faith at least preserved)
+      had, eighteen centuries ago, bowed in adoration. Twice every day, for a
+      whole week, she sought the same spot, and poured forth the same prayer.
+      The last day an old priest, who, hovering in the church, had observed her
+      constantly at devotion, with that fatherly interest which the better
+      ministers of the Catholic sect (that sect which has covered the earth with
+      the mansions of charity) feel for the unhappy, approached her as she was
+      retiring with moist and downcast eyes, and saluting her, assumed the
+      privilege of his order to inquire if there was aught in which his advice
+      or aid could serve. There was something in the venerable air of the old
+      man which encouraged Lucille; she opened her heart to him; she told him
+      all. The good priest was much moved by her simplicity and earnestness. He
+      questioned her minutely as to the peculiar species of blindness with which
+      St. Amand was afflicted; and after musing a little while, he said,
+      &ldquo;Daughter, God is great and merciful; we must trust in His power, but we
+      must not forget that He mostly works by mortal agents. As you pass through
+      Louvain in your way home, fail not to see there a certain physician, named
+      Le Kain. He is celebrated through Flanders for the cures he has wrought
+      among the blind, and his advice is sought by all classes from far and
+      near. He lives hard by the Hotel de Ville, but any one will inform you of
+      his residence. Stay, my child, you shall take him a note from me; he is a
+      benevolent and kindly man, and you shall tell him exactly the same story
+      (and with the same voice) you have told to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying the priest made Lucille accompany him to his home, and forcing
+      her to refresh herself less sparingly than she had yet done since she had
+      left Malines, he gave her his blessing, and a letter to Le Kain, which he
+      rightly judged would insure her a patient hearing from the physician. Well
+      known among all men of science was the name of the priest, and a word of
+      recommendation from him went further, where virtue and wisdom were
+      honoured, than the longest letter from the haughtiest sieur in Flanders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a patient and hopeful spirit, the young pilgrim turned her back on
+      the Roman Cologne; and now about to rejoin St. Amand, she felt neither the
+      heat of the sun nor the weariness of the road. It was one day at noon that
+      she again passed through Louvain, and she soon found herself by the noble
+      edifice of the Hotel de Ville. Proud rose its spires against the sky, and
+      the sun shone bright on its rich tracery and Gothic casements; the broad
+      open street was crowded with persons of all classes, and it was with some
+      modest alarm that Lucille lowered her veil and mingled with the throng. It
+      was easy, as the priest had said, to find the house of Le Kain; she bade
+      the servant take the priest&rsquo;s letter to his master, and she was not long
+      kept waiting before she was admitted to the physician&rsquo;s presence. He was a
+      spare, tall man, with a bald front, and a calm and friendly countenance.
+      He was not less touched than the priest had been by the manner in which
+      she narrated her story, described the affliction of her betrothed, and the
+      hope that had inspired the pilgrimage she had just made.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said he, encouragingly, &ldquo;we must see our patient. You can bring
+      him hither to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, sir, I had hoped&mdash;&rdquo; Lucille stopped suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, my young friend?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I might have had the triumph of bringing you to Malines. I know,
+      sir, what you are about to say, and I know, sir, your time must be very
+      valuable; but I am not so poor as I seem, and Eugene, that is, M. St.
+      Amand, is very rich, and&mdash;and I have at Bruxelles what I am sure is a
+      large sum; it was to have provided for the wedding, but it is most
+      heartily at your service, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Le Kain smiled; he was one of those men who love to read the human heart
+      when its leaves are fair and undefiled; and, in the benevolence of
+      science, he would have gone a longer journey than from Louvain to Malines
+      to give sight to the blind, even had St. Amand been a beggar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, well,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;but you forget that M. St. Amand is not the only
+      one in the world who wants me. I must look at my notebook, and see if I
+      can be spared for a day or two.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he glanced at his memoranda. Everything smiled on Lucille; he
+      had no engagements that his partner could not fulfil, for some days; he
+      consented to accompany Lucille to Malines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile, cheerless and dull had passed the time to St. Amand. He was
+      perpetually asking Madame le Tisseur what hour it was,&mdash;it was almost
+      his only question. There seemed to him no sun in the heavens, no freshness
+      in the air, and he even forbore his favourite music; the instrument had
+      lost its sweetness since Lucille was not by to listen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was natural that the gossips of Malines should feel some envy at the
+      marriage Lucille was about to make with one whose competence report had
+      exaggerated into prodigal wealth, whose birth had been elevated from the
+      respectable to the noble, and whose handsome person was clothed, by the
+      interest excited by his misfortune, with the beauty of Antinous. Even that
+      misfortune, which ought to have levelled all distinctions, was not
+      sufficient to check the general envy; perhaps to some of the damsels of
+      Malines blindness in a husband would not have seemed an unwelcome
+      infirmity! But there was one in whom this envy rankled with a peculiar
+      sting: it was the beautiful, the all-conquering Julie! That the humble,
+      the neglected Lucille should be preferred to her; that Lucille, whose
+      existence was well-nigh forgot beside Julie&rsquo;s, should become thus suddenly
+      of importance; that there should be one person in the world, and that
+      person young, rich, handsome, to whom she was less than nothing, when
+      weighed in the balance with Lucille, mortified to the quick a vanity that
+      had never till then received a wound. &ldquo;It is well,&rdquo; she would say with a
+      bitter jest, &ldquo;that Lucille&rsquo;s lover is blind. To be the one it is necessary
+      to be the other!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      During Lucille&rsquo;s absence she had been constantly in Madame le Tisseur&rsquo;s
+      house; indeed, Lucille had prayed her to be so. She had sought, with an
+      industry that astonished herself, to supply Lucille&rsquo;s place; and among the
+      strange contradictions of human nature, she had learned during her efforts
+      to please, to love the object of those efforts,&mdash;as much at least as
+      she was capable of loving.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She conceived a positive hatred to Lucille; she persisted in imagining
+      that nothing but the accident of first acquaintance had deprived her of a
+      conquest with which she persuaded herself her happiness had become
+      connected. Had St. Amand never loved Lucille and proposed to Julie, his
+      misfortune would have made her reject him, despite his wealth and his
+      youth; but to be Lucille&rsquo;s lover, and a conquest to be won from Lucille,
+      raised him instantly to an importance not his own. Safe, however, in his
+      affliction, the arts and beauty of Julie fell harmless on the fidelity of
+      St. Amand. Nay, he liked her less than ever, for it seemed an impertinence
+      in any one to counterfeit the anxiety and watchfulness of Lucille.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is time, surely it is time, Madame le Tisseur, that Lucille should
+      return? She might have sold all the lace in Malines by this time,&rdquo; said
+      St. Amand, one day, peevishly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Patience, my dear friend, patience; perhaps she may return to-morrow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To-morrow! let me see, it is only six o&rsquo;clock,&mdash;only six, you are
+      sure?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just five, dear Eugene. Shall I read to you? This is a new book from
+      Paris; it has made a great noise,&rdquo; said Julie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are very kind, but I will not trouble you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is anything but trouble.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In a word, then, I would rather not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, that he could see!&rdquo; thought Julie; &ldquo;would I not punish him for this!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hear carriage wheels; who can be passing this way? Surely it is the <i>voiturier</i>
+      from Bruxelles,&rdquo; said St. Amand, starting up; &ldquo;it is his day,&mdash;his
+      hour, too. No, no, it is a lighter vehicle,&rdquo; and he sank down listlessly
+      on his seat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nearer and nearer rolled the wheels; they turned the corner; they stopped
+      at the lowly door; and, overcome, overjoyed, Lucille was clasped to the
+      bosom of St. Amand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stay,&rdquo; said she, blushing, as she recovered her self-possession, and
+      turned to Le Kain; &ldquo;pray pardon me, sir. Dear Eugene, I have brought with
+      me one who, by God&rsquo;s blessing, may yet restore you to sight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We must not be sanguine, my child,&rdquo; said Le Kain; &ldquo;anything is better
+      than disappointment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To close this part of my story, dear Gertrude, Le Kain examined St. Amand,
+      and the result of the examination was a confident belief in the
+      probability of a cure. St. Amand gladly consented to the experiment of an
+      operation; it succeeded, the blind man saw! Oh, what were Lucille&rsquo;s
+      feelings, what her emotion, what her joy, when she found the object of her
+      pilgrimage, of her prayers, fulfilled! That joy was so intense that in the
+      eternal alternations of human life she might have foretold from its excess
+      how bitter the sorrows fated to ensue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as by degrees the patient&rsquo;s new sense became reconciled to the
+      light, his first, his only demand was for Lucille. &ldquo;No, let me not see her
+      alone; let me see her in the midst of you all, that I may convince you
+      that the heart never is mistaken in its instincts.&rdquo; With a fearful, a
+      sinking presentiment, Lucille yielded to the request, to which the
+      impetuous St. Amand would hear indeed no denial. The father, the mother,
+      Julie, Lucille, Julie&rsquo;s younger sisters, assembled in the little parlour;
+      the door opened, and St. Amand stood hesitating on the threshold. One look
+      around sufficed to him; his face brightened, he uttered a cry of joy.
+      &ldquo;Lucille! Lucille!&rdquo; he exclaimed, &ldquo;it is you, I know it, <i>you</i> only!&rdquo;
+       He sprang forward <i>and fell at the feet of Julie</i>!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Flushed, elated, triumphant, Julie bent upon him her sparkling eyes; <i>she</i>
+      did not undeceive him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are wrong, you mistake,&rdquo; said Madame le Tisseur, in confusion; &ldquo;that
+      is her cousin Julie,&mdash;this is your Lucille.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      St. Amand rose, turned, saw Lucille, and at that moment she wished herself
+      in her grave. Surprise, mortification, disappointment, almost dismay, were
+      depicted in his gaze. He had been haunting his prison-house with dreams,
+      and now, set free, he felt how unlike they were to the truth. Too new to
+      observation to read the woe, the despair, the lapse and shrinking of the
+      whole frame, that his look occasioned Lucille, he yet felt, when the first
+      shock of his surprise was over, that it was not thus he should thank her
+      who had restored him to sight. He hastened to redeem his error&mdash;ah!
+      how could it be redeemed?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From that hour all Lucille&rsquo;s happiness was at an end; her fairy palace was
+      shattered in the dust; the magician&rsquo;s wand was broken up; the Ariel was
+      given to the winds; and the bright enchantment no longer distinguished the
+      land she lived in from the rest of the barren world. It is true that St.
+      Amand&rsquo;s words were kind; it is true that he remembered with the deepest
+      gratitude all she had done in his behalf; it is true that he forced
+      himself again and again to say, &ldquo;She is my betrothed, my benefactress!&rdquo;
+       and he cursed himself to think that the feelings he had entertained for
+      her were fled. Where was the passion of his words; where the ardour of his
+      tone; where that play and light of countenance which her step, her voice,
+      could formerly call forth? When they were alone he was embarrassed and
+      constrained, and almost cold; his hand no longer sought hers, his soul no
+      longer missed her if she was absent a moment from his side. When in their
+      household circle he seemed visibly more at ease; but did his eyes fasten
+      upon her who had opened them to the day; did they not wander at every
+      interval with a too eloquent admiration to the blushing and radiant face
+      of the exulting Julie? This was not, you will believe, suddenly
+      perceptible in one day or one week, but every day it was perceptible more
+      and more. Yet still&mdash;bewitched, ensnared, as St. Amand was he never
+      perhaps would have been guilty of an infidelity that he strove with the
+      keenest remorse to wrestle against, had it not been for the fatal
+      contrast, at the first moment of his gushing enthusiasm, which Julie had
+      presented to Lucille; but for that he would have formed no previous idea
+      of real and living beauty to aid the disappointment of his imaginings and
+      his dreams. He would have seen Lucille young and graceful, and with eyes
+      beaming affection, contrasted only by the wrinkled countenance and bended
+      frame of her parents, and she would have completed her conquest over him
+      before he had discovered that she was less beautiful than others; nay,
+      more,&mdash;that infidelity never could have lasted above the first few
+      days, if the vain and heartless object of it had not exerted every art,
+      all the power and witchery of her beauty, to cement and continue it. The
+      unfortunate Lucille&mdash;so susceptible to the slightest change in those
+      she loved, so diffident of herself, so proud too in that diffidence&mdash;no
+      longer necessary, no longer missed, no longer loved, could not bear to
+      endure the galling comparison between the past and the present. She fled
+      uncomplainingly to her chamber to indulge her tears, and thus, unhappily,
+      absent as her father generally was during the day, and busied as her
+      mother was either at work or in household matters, she left Julie a
+      thousand opportunities to complete the power she had begun to wield over&mdash;no,
+      not the heart!&mdash;the <i>senses</i> of St. Amand! Yet, still not
+      suspecting, in the open generosity of her mind, the whole extent of her
+      affliction, poor Lucille buoyed herself at times with the hope that when
+      once married, when, once in that intimacy of friendship, the unspeakable
+      love she felt for him could disclose itself with less restraint than at
+      present,&mdash;she would perhaps regain a heart which had been so
+      devotedly hers, that she could not think that without a fault it was
+      irrevocably gone: on that hope she anchored all the little happiness that
+      remained to her. And still St. Amand pressed their marriage, but in what
+      different tones! In fact, he wished to preclude from himself the
+      possibility of a deeper ingratitude than that which he had incurred
+      already. He vainly thought that the broken reed of love might be bound up
+      and strengthened by the ties of duty; and at least he was anxious that his
+      hand, his fortune, his esteem, his gratitude, should give to Lucille the
+      only recompense it was now in his power to bestow. Meanwhile, left alone
+      so often with Julie, and Julie bent on achieving the last triumph over his
+      heart, St. Amand was gradually preparing a far different reward, a far
+      different return, for her to whom he owed so incalculable a debt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a garden, behind the house, in which there was a small arbour,
+      where often in the summer evenings Eugene and Lucille had sat together,&mdash;hours
+      never to return! One day she heard from her own chamber, where she sat
+      mourning, the sound of St. Amand&rsquo;s flute swelling gently from that beloved
+      and consecrated bower. She wept as she heard it, and the memories that the
+      music bore softening and endearing his image, she began to reproach
+      herself that she had yielded so often to the impulse of her wounded
+      feelings; that chilled by <i>his</i> coldness, she had left him so often
+      to himself, and had not sufficiently dared to tell him of that affection
+      which, in her modest self-depreciation, constituted her only pretension to
+      his love. &ldquo;Perhaps he is alone now,&rdquo; she thought; &ldquo;the air too is one
+      which he knows that I love;&rdquo; and with her heart in her step, she stole
+      from the house and sought the arbour. She had scarce turned from her
+      chamber when the flute ceased; as she neared the arbour she heard voices,&mdash;Julie&rsquo;s
+      voice in grief, St. Amand&rsquo;s in consolation. A dread foreboding seized her;
+      her feet clung rooted to the earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, marry her, forget me,&rdquo; said Julie; &ldquo;in a few days you will be
+      another&rsquo;s, and I&mdash;I&mdash;forgive me, Eugene, forgive me that I have
+      disturbed your happiness. I am punished sufficiently; my heart will break,
+      but it will break in loving you.&rdquo; Sobs choked Julie&rsquo;s voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, speak not thus,&rdquo; said St. Amand. &ldquo;I, <i>I</i> only am to blame,&mdash;I,
+      false to both, to both ungrateful. Oh, from the hour that these eyes
+      opened upon you I drank in a new life; the sun itself to me was less
+      wonderful than your beauty. But&mdash;but&mdash;let me forget that hour.
+      What do I not owe to Lucille? I shall be wretched,&mdash;I shall deserve
+      to be so; for shall I not think, Julie, that I have embittered your life
+      with our ill-fated love? But all that I can give&mdash;my hand, my home,
+      my plighted faith&mdash;must be hers. Nay, Julie, nay&mdash;why that look?
+      Could I act otherwise? Can I dream otherwise? Whatever the sacrifice, <i>must</i>
+      I not render it? Ah, what do I owe to Lucille, were it only for the
+      thought that but for her I might never have seen thee!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lucille stayed to hear no more; with the same soft step as that which had
+      borne her within hearing of these fatal words, she turned back once more
+      to her desolate chamber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That evening, as St. Amand was sitting alone in his apartment, he heard a
+      gentle knock at the door. &ldquo;Come in,&rdquo; he said, and Lucille entered. He
+      started in some confusion, and would have taken her hand, but she gently
+      repulsed him. She took a seat opposite to him, and looking down, thus
+      addressed him:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear Eugene, that is, Monsieur St. Amand, I have something on my mind
+      that I think it better to speak at once; and if I do not exactly express
+      what I would wish to say, you must not be offended with Lucille: it is not
+      an easy matter to put into words what one feels deeply.&rdquo; Colouring, and
+      suspecting something of the truth, St. Amand would have broken in upon her
+      here; but she with a gentle impatience motioned him to be silent, and
+      continued:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know that when you once loved me, I used to tell you that you would
+      cease to do so could you see how undeserving I was of your attachment. I
+      did not deceive myself, Eugene; I always felt assured that such would be
+      the case, that your love for me necessarily rested on your affliction. But
+      for all that I never at least had a dream or a desire but for your
+      happiness; and God knows, that if again, by walking barefooted, not to
+      Cologne, but to Rome&mdash;to the end of the world&mdash;I could save you
+      from a much less misfortune than that of blindness, I would cheerfully do
+      it; yes, even though I might foretell all the while that, on my return,
+      you would speak to me coldly, think of me lightly, and that the penalty to
+      me would&mdash;would be&mdash;what it has been!&rdquo; Here Lucille wiped a few
+      natural tears from her eyes. St. Amand, struck to the heart, covered his
+      face with his hands, without the courage to interrupt her. Lucille
+      continued:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That which I foresaw has come to pass; I am no longer to you what I once
+      was, when you could clothe this poor form and this homely face with a
+      beauty they did not possess. You would wed me still, it is true; but I am
+      proud, Eugene, and cannot stoop to gratitude where I once had love. I am
+      not so unjust as to blame you; the change was natural, was inevitable. I
+      should have steeled myself more against it; but I am now resigned. We must
+      part; you love Julie&mdash;that too is natural&mdash;and <i>she</i> loves
+      you; ah! what also more in the probable course of events? Julie loves you,
+      not yet, perhaps, so much as I did; but then she has not known you as I
+      have, and she whose whole life has been triumph cannot feel the gratitude
+      that I felt at fancying myself loved; but this will come&mdash;God grant
+      it! Farewell, then, forever, dear Eugene; I leave you when you no longer
+      want me; you are now independent of Lucille; wherever you go, a thousand
+      hereafter can supply my place. Farewell!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She rose, as she said this, to leave the room; but St. Amand seizing her
+      hand, which she in vain endeavoured to withdraw from his clasp, poured
+      forth incoherently, passionately, his reproaches on himself, his eloquent
+      persuasion against her resolution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I confess,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;that I have been allured for a moment; I confess
+      that Julie&rsquo;s beauty made me less sensible to your stronger, your holier,
+      oh! far, far holier title to my love! But forgive me, dearest Lucille;
+      already I return to you, to all I once felt for you; make me not curse the
+      blessing of sight that I owe to you. You must not leave me; never can we
+      two part. Try me, only try me, and if ever hereafter my heart wander from
+      you, <i>then</i>, Lucille, leave me to my remorse!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Even at that moment Lucille did not yield; she felt that his prayer was
+      but the enthusiasm of the hour; she felt that there was a virtue in her
+      pride,&mdash;that to leave him was a duty to herself. In vain he pleaded;
+      in vain were his embraces, his prayers; in vain he reminded her of their
+      plighted troth, of her aged parents, whose happiness had become wrapped in
+      her union with him: &ldquo;How,&mdash;even were it as you wrongly believe,&mdash;how,
+      in honour to them, can I desert you, can I wed another?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Trust that, trust all, to me,&rdquo; answered Lucille; &ldquo;your honour shall be my
+      care, none shall blame <i>you</i>; only do not let your marriage with
+      Julie be celebrated here before their eyes: that is all I ask, all they
+      can expect. God bless you! do not fancy I shall be unhappy, for whatever
+      happiness the world gives you, shall I not have contributed to bestow it?
+      and with that thought I am above compassion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She glided from his arms, and left him to a solitude more bitter even than
+      that of blindness. That very night Lucille sought her mother; to her she
+      confided all. I pass over the reasons she urged, the arguments she
+      overcame; she conquered rather than convinced, and leaving to Madame le
+      Tisseur the painful task of breaking to her father her unalterable
+      resolution, she quitted Malines the next morning, and with a heart too
+      honest to be utterly without comfort, paid that visit to her aunt which
+      had been so long deferred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The pride of Lucille&rsquo;s parents prevented them from reproaching St. Amand.
+      He could not bear, however, their cold and altered looks; he left their
+      house; and though for several days he would not even see Julie, yet her
+      beauty and her art gradually resumed their empire over him. They were
+      married at Courtroi, and to the joy of the vain Julie departed to the gay
+      metropolis of France. But, before their departure, before his marriage,
+      St. Amand endeavoured to appease his conscience by obtaining for M. le
+      Tisseur a much more lucrative and honourable office than that he now held.
+      Rightly judging that Malines could no longer be a pleasant residence for
+      them, and much less for Lucille, the duties of the post were to be
+      fulfilled in another town; and knowing that M. le Tisseur&rsquo;s delicacy would
+      revolt at receiving such a favour from his hands, he kept the nature of
+      his negotiation a close secret, and suffered the honest citizen to believe
+      that his own merits alone had entitled him to so unexpected a promotion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Time went on. This quiet and simple history of humble affections took its
+      date in a stormy epoch of the world,&mdash;the dawning Revolution of
+      France. The family of Lucille had been little more than a year settled in
+      their new residence when Dumouriez led his army into the Netherlands. But
+      how meanwhile had that year passed for Lucille? I have said that her
+      spirit was naturally high; that though so tender, she was not weak. Her
+      very pilgrimage to Cologne alone, and at the timid age of seventeen,
+      proved that there was a strength in her nature no less than a devotion in
+      her love. The sacrifice she had made brought its own reward. She believed
+      St. Amand was happy, and she would not give way to the selfishness of
+      grief; she had still duties to perform; she could still comfort her
+      parents and cheer their age; she could still be all the world to them: she
+      felt this, and was consoled. Only once during the year had she heard of
+      Julie; she had been seen by a mutual friend at Paris, gay, brilliant,
+      courted, and admired; of St. Amand she heard nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My tale, dear Gertrude, does not lead me through the harsh scenes of war.
+      I do not tell you of the slaughter and the siege, and the blood that
+      inundated those fair lands,&mdash;the great battlefield of Europe. The
+      people of the Netherlands in general were with the cause of Dumouriez, but
+      the town in which Le Tisseur dwelt offered some faint resistance to his
+      arms. Le Tisseur himself, despite his age, girded on his sword; the town
+      was carried, and the fierce and licentious troops of the conqueror poured,
+      flushed with their easy victory, through its streets. Le Tisseur&rsquo;s house
+      was filled with drunken and rude troopers; Lucille herself trembled in the
+      fierce gripe of one of those dissolute soldiers, more bandit than soldier,
+      whom the subtle Dumouriez had united to his army, and by whose blood he so
+      often saved that of his nobler band. Her shrieks, her cries, were vain,
+      when suddenly the troopers gave way. &ldquo;The Captain! brave Captain!&rdquo; was
+      shouted forth; the insolent soldier, felled by a powerful arm, sank
+      senseless at the feet of Lucille, and a glorious form, towering above its
+      fellows,&mdash;even through its glittering garb, even in that dreadful
+      hour, remembered at a glance by Lucille,&mdash;stood at her side; her
+      protector, her guardian! Thus once more she beheld St. Amand!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The house was cleared in an instant, the door barred. Shouts, groans, wild
+      snatches of exulting song, the clang of arms, the tramp of horses, the
+      hurrying footsteps, the deep music sounded loud, and blended terribly
+      without. Lucille heard them not,&mdash;she was on that breast which never
+      should have deserted her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Effectually to protect his friends, St. Amand took up his quarters at
+      their house; and for two days he was once more under the same roof as
+      Lucille. He never recurred voluntarily to Julie; he answered Lucille&rsquo;s
+      timid inquiry after her health briefly, and with coldness, but he spoke
+      with all the enthusiasm of a long-pent and ardent spirit of the new
+      profession he had embraced. Glory seemed now to be his only mistress; and
+      the vivid delusion of the first bright dreams of the Revolution filled his
+      mind, broke from his tongue, and lighted up those dark eyes which Lucille
+      had redeemed to day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She saw him depart at the head of his troops; she saw his proud crest
+      glancing in the sun; she saw his steed winding through the narrow street;
+      she saw that his last glance reverted to her, where she stood at the door;
+      and, as he waved his adieu, she fancied that there was on his face that
+      look of deep and grateful tenderness which reminded her of the one bright
+      epoch of her life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was right; St. Amand had long since in bitterness repented of a
+      transient infatuation, had long since distinguished the true Florimel from
+      the false, and felt that, in Julie, Lucille&rsquo;s wrongs were avenged. But in
+      the hurry and heat of war he plunged that regret&mdash;the keenest of all&mdash;which
+      embodies the bitter words, &ldquo;TOO LATE!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Years passed away, and in the resumed tranquillity of Lucille&rsquo;s life the
+      brilliant apparition of St. Amand appeared as something dreamed of, not
+      seen. The star of Napoleon had risen above the horizon; the romance of his
+      early career had commenced; and the campaign of Egypt had been the herald
+      of those brilliant and meteoric successes which flashed forth from the
+      gloom of the Revolution of France.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You are aware, dear Gertrude, how many in the French as well as the
+      English troops returned home from Egypt blinded with the ophthalmia of
+      that arid soil. Some of the young men in Lucille&rsquo;s town, who had joined
+      Napoleon&rsquo;s army, came back darkened by that fearful affliction, and
+      Lucille&rsquo;s alms and Lucille&rsquo;s aid and Lucille&rsquo;s sweet voice were ever at
+      hand for those poor sufferers, whose common misfortune touched so
+      thrilling a chord of her heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her father was now dead, and she had only her mother to cheer amidst the
+      ills of age. As one evening they sat at work together, Madame le Tisseur
+      said, after a pause,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish, dear Lucille, thou couldst be persuaded to marry Justin; he loves
+      thee well, and now that thou art yet young, and hast many years before
+      thee, thou shouldst remember that when I die thou wilt be alone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, cease, dearest mother, I never can marry now; and as for love&mdash;once
+      taught in the bitter school in which I have learned the knowledge of
+      myself&mdash;I cannot be deceived again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My Lucille, you do not know yourself. Never was woman loved if Justin
+      does not love you; and never did lover feel with more real warmth how
+      worthily he loved.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And this was true; and not of Justin alone, for Lucille&rsquo;s modest virtues,
+      her kindly temper, and a certain undulating and feminine grace, which
+      accompanied all her movements, had secured her as many conquests as if she
+      had been beautiful. She had rejected all offers of marriage with a
+      shudder; without even the throb of a flattered vanity. One memory, sadder,
+      was also dearer to her than all things; and something sacred in its
+      recollections made her deem it even a crime to think of effacing the past
+      by a new affection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe,&rdquo; continued Madame le Tisseur, angrily, &ldquo;that thou still
+      thinkest fondly of him from whom only in the world thou couldst have
+      experienced ingratitude.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, Mother,&rdquo; said Lucille, with a blush and a slight sigh, &ldquo;Eugene is
+      married to another.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While thus conversing, they heard a gentle and timid knock at the door;
+      the latch was lifted. &ldquo;This,&rdquo; said the rough voice of a <i>commissionaire</i>
+      of the town, &ldquo;this, monsieur, is the house of Madame le Tisseur, and <i>voila
+      mademoiselle</i>!&rdquo; A tall figure, with a shade over his eyes, and wrapped
+      in a long military cloak, stood in the room. A thrill shot across
+      Lucille&rsquo;s heart. He stretched out his arms. &ldquo;Lucille,&rdquo; said that
+      melancholy voice, which had made the music of her first youth, &ldquo;where art
+      thou, Lucille? Alas! she does not recognize St. Amand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus was it indeed. By a singular fatality, the burning suns and the sharp
+      dust of the plains of Egypt had smitten the young soldier, in the flush of
+      his career, with a second&mdash;and this time with an irremediable&mdash;blindness!
+      He had returned to France to find his hearth lonely. Julie was no more,&mdash;a
+      sudden fever had cut her off in the midst of youth; and he had sought his
+      way to Lucille&rsquo;s house, to see if one hope yet remained to him in the
+      world!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And when, days afterwards, humbly and sadly he re-urged a former suit, did
+      Lucille shut her heart to its prayer? Did her pride remember its wound;
+      did she revert to his desertion; did she reply to the whisper of her
+      yearning love, &ldquo;<i>Thou hast been before forsaken</i>&rdquo;? That voice and
+      those darkened eyes pleaded to her with a pathos not to be resisted. &ldquo;I am
+      once more necessary to him,&rdquo; was all her thought; &ldquo;if I reject him who
+      will tend him?&rdquo; In that thought was the motive of her conduct; in that
+      thought gushed back upon her soul all the springs of checked but
+      unconquered, unconquerable love! In that thought, she stood beside him at
+      the altar, and pledged, with a yet holier devotion than she might have
+      felt of yore, the vow of her imperishable truth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Lucille found, in the future, a reward, which the common world could
+      never comprehend. With his blindness returned all the feelings she had
+      first awakened in St. Amand&rsquo;s solitary heart; again he yearned for her
+      step, again he missed even a moment&rsquo;s absence from his side, again her
+      voice chased the shadow from his brow, and in her presence was a sense of
+      shelter and of sunshine. He no longer sighed for the blessing he had lost;
+      he reconciled himself to fate, and entered into that serenity of mood
+      which mostly characterizes the blind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps after we have seen the actual world, and experienced its hollow
+      pleasures, we can resign ourselves the better to its exclusion; and as the
+      cloister, which repels the ardour of our hope, is sweet to our
+      remembrance, so the darkness loses its terror when experience has wearied
+      us with the glare and travail of the day. It was something, too, as they
+      advanced in life, to feel the chains that bound him to Lucille
+      strengthening daily, and to cherish in his overflowing heart the sweetness
+      of increasing gratitude; it was something that he could not see years
+      wrinkle that open brow, or dim the tenderness of that touching smile; it
+      was something that to him she was beyond the reach of time, and preserved
+      to the verge of a grave (which received them both within a few days of
+      each other) in all the bloom of her unwithering affection, in all the
+      freshness of a heart that never could grow old!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gertrude, who had broken in upon Trevylyan&rsquo;s story by a thousand anxious
+      interruptions, and a thousand pretty apologies for interrupting, was
+      charmed with a tale in which true love was made happy at last, although
+      she did not forgive St. Amand his ingratitude, and although she declared,
+      with a critical shake of the head, that &ldquo;it was very unnatural that the
+      mere beauty of Julie, or the mere want of it in Lucille, should have
+      produced such an effect upon him, if he had ever <i>really</i> loved
+      Lucille in his blindness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As they passed through Malines, the town assumed an interest in Gertrude&rsquo;s
+      eyes to which it scarcely of itself was entitled. She looked wistfully at
+      the broad market-place, at a corner of which was one of those out-of-door
+      groups of quiet and noiseless revellers, which Dutch art has raised from
+      the Familiar to the Picturesque; and then glancing to the tower of St.
+      Rembauld, she fancied, amidst the silence of noon, that she yet heard the
+      plaintive cry of the blind orphan, &ldquo;Fido, Fido, why hast thou deserted
+      me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V. ROTTERDAM.&mdash;THE CHARACTER OF THE DUTCH.&mdash;THEIR
+      RESEMBLANCE TO
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE GERMANS.&mdash;A DISPUTE BETWEEN VANE AND TREVYLYAN, AFTER THE MANNER
+      OF THE ANCIENT NOVELISTS, AS TO WHICH IS PREFERABLE, THE LIFE OF ACTION OR
+      THE LIFE OF REPOSE.&mdash;TREVYLYAN&rsquo;S CONTRAST BETWEEN LITERARY AMBITION
+      AND THE AMBITION OF PUBLIC LIFE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      OUR travellers arrived at Rotterdam on a bright and sunny day. There is a
+      cheerfulness about the operations of Commerce,&mdash;a life, a bustle, an
+      action which always exhilarate the spirits at the first glance. Afterwards
+      they fatigue us; we get too soon behind the scenes, and find the base and
+      troublous passions which move the puppets and conduct the drama.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Gertrude, in whom ill health had not destroyed the vividness of
+      impression that belongs to the inexperienced, was delighted at the
+      cheeriness of all around her. As she leaned lightly on Trevylyan&rsquo;s arm, he
+      listened with a forgetful joy to her questions and exclamations at the
+      stir and liveliness of a city from which was to commence their pilgrimage
+      along the Rhine. And indeed the scene was rife with the spirit of that
+      people at once so active and so patient, so daring on the sea, so cautious
+      on the land. Industry was visible everywhere; the vessels in the harbour,
+      the crowded boat putting off to land, the throng on the quay,&mdash;all
+      looked bustling and spoke of commerce. The city itself, on which the skies
+      shone fairly through light and fleecy clouds, wore a cheerful aspect. The
+      church of St. Lawrence rising above the clean, neat houses, and on one
+      side trees thickly grouped, gayly contrasted at once the waters and the
+      city.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I like this place,&rdquo; said Gertrude&rsquo;s father, quietly; &ldquo;it has an air of
+      comfort.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And an absence of grandeur,&rdquo; said Trevylyan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A commercial people are one great middle-class in their habits and train
+      of mind,&rdquo; replied Vane; &ldquo;and grandeur belongs to the extremes,&mdash;an
+      impoverished population and a wealthy despot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They went to see the statue of Erasmus, and the house in which he was
+      born. Vane had a certain admiration for Erasmus which his companions did
+      not share; he liked the quiet irony of the sage, and his knowledge of the
+      world; and, besides, Vane was at that time of life when philosophers
+      become objects of interest. At first they are teachers; secondly, friends;
+      and it is only a few who arrive at the third stage, and find them
+      deceivers. The Dutch are a singular people. Their literature is neglected,
+      but it has some of the German vein in its strata,&mdash;the patience, the
+      learning, the homely delineation, and even some traces of the mixture of
+      the humorous and the terrible which form that genius for the grotesque so
+      especially German&mdash;you find this in their legends and ghost-stories.
+      But in Holland activity destroys, in Germany indolence nourishes, romance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They stayed a day or two at Rotterdam, and then proceeded up the Rhine to
+      Gorcum. The banks were flat and tame, and nothing could be less impressive
+      of its native majesty than this part of the course of the great river.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never felt before,&rdquo; whispered Gertrude, tenderly, &ldquo;how much there was
+      of consolation in your presence; for here I am at last on the Rhine,&mdash;the
+      blue Rhine, and how disappointed I should be if you were not by my side!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, my Gertrude, you must wait till we have passed Cologne, before the
+      <i>glories</i> of the Rhine burst upon you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It reverses life, my child,&rdquo; said the moralizing Vane; &ldquo;and the stream
+      flows through dulness at first, reserving its poetry for our
+      perseverance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will not allow your doctrine,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, as the ambitious ardour
+      of his native disposition stirred within him. &ldquo;Life has always action; it
+      is our own fault if it ever be dull: youth has its enterprise, manhood its
+      schemes; and even if infirmity creep upon age, the mind, the mind still
+      triumphs over the mortal clay, and in the quiet hermitage, among books,
+      and from thoughts, keeps the great wheel within everlastingly in motion.
+      No, the better class of spirits have always an antidote to the insipidity
+      of a common career, they have ever energy at will&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And never happiness!&rdquo; answered Vane, after a pause, as he gazed on the
+      proud countenance of Trevylyan, with that kind of calm, half-pitying
+      interest which belonged to a character deeply imbued with the philosophy
+      of a sad experience acting upon an unimpassioned heart. &ldquo;And in truth,
+      Trevylyan, it would please me if I could but teach you the folly of
+      preferring the exercise of that energy of which you speak to the golden
+      luxuries of REST. What ambition can ever bring an adequate reward? Not,
+      surely, the ambition of letters, the desire of intellectual renown!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, quietly; &ldquo;that dream I have long renounced; there
+      is nothing palpable in literary fame,&mdash;it scarcely perhaps soothes
+      the vain, it assuredly chafes the proud. In my earlier years I attempted
+      some works which gained what the world, perhaps rightly, deemed a
+      sufficient need of reputation; yet it was not sufficient to recompense
+      myself for the fresh hours I had consumed, for the sacrifices of pleasure
+      I had made. The subtle aims that had inspired me were not perceived; the
+      thoughts that had seemed new and beautiful to me fell flat and lustreless
+      on the soul of others. If I was approved, it was often for what I
+      condemned myself; and I found that the trite commonplace and the false wit
+      charmed, while the truth fatigued, and the enthusiasm revolted. For men of
+      that genius to which I make no pretension, who have dwelt apart in the
+      obscurity of their own thoughts, gazing upon stars that shine not for the
+      dull sleepers of the world, it must be a keen sting to find the product of
+      their labour confounded with a class, and to be mingled up in men&rsquo;s
+      judgment with the faults or merits of a tribe. Every great genius must
+      deem himself original and alone in his conceptions. It is not enough for
+      him that these conceptions should be approved as good, unless they are
+      admitted as inventive, if they mix him with the herd he has shunned, not
+      separate him in fame as he has been separated in soul. Some Frenchman, the
+      oracle of his circle, said of the poet of the &lsquo;Phedre,&rsquo; &lsquo;Racine and the
+      other imitators of Corneille;&rsquo; and Racine, in his wrath, nearly forswore
+      tragedy forever. It is in vain to tell the author that the public is the
+      judge of his works. The author believes himself above the public, or he
+      would never have written; and,&rdquo; continued Trevylyan, with enthusiasm, &ldquo;he
+      <i>is</i> above them; their fiat may crush his glory, but never his
+      self-esteem. He stands alone and haughty amidst the wrecks of the temple
+      he imagined he had raised &lsquo;To THE FUTURE,&rsquo; and retaliates neglect with
+      scorn. But is this, the life of scorn, a pleasurable state of existence?
+      Is it one to be cherished? Does even the moment of fame counterbalance the
+      years of mortification? And what is there in literary fame itself present
+      and palpable to its heir? His work is a pebble thrown into the deep; the
+      stir lasts for a moment, and the wave closes up, to be susceptible no more
+      to the same impression. The circle may widen to other lands and other
+      ages, but around <i>him</i> it is weak and faint. The trifles of the day,
+      the low politics, the base intrigues, occupy the tongue, and fill the
+      thought of his contemporaries. He is less known than a mountebank, or a
+      new dancer; his glory comes not home to him; it brings no present, no
+      perpetual reward, like the applauses that wait the actor, or the
+      actor-like murmur of the senate; and this, which vexes, also lowers him;
+      his noble nature begins to nourish the base vices of jealousy, and the
+      unwillingness to admire. Goldsmith is forgotten in the presence of a
+      puppet; he feels it, and is mean; he expresses it, and is ludicrous. It is
+      well to say that great minds will not stoop to jealousy; in the greatest
+      minds, it is most frequent.* Few authors are ever so aware of the
+      admiration they excite as to afford to be generous; and this melancholy
+      truth revolts us with our own ambition. Shall we be demigods in our
+      closets at the price of sinking below mortality in the world? No! it was
+      from this deep sentiment of the unrealness of literary fame, of
+      dissatisfaction at the fruits it produced, of fear for the meanness it
+      engendered, that I resigned betimes all love for its career; and if, by
+      the restless desire that haunts men who think much to write ever, I should
+      be urged hereafter to literature, I will sternly teach myself to persevere
+      in the indifference to its fame.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * See the long list of names furnished by Disraeli, in that most
+    exquisite work, &ldquo;The Literary Character,&rdquo; vol. ii. p. 75.  Plato,
+    Xenophon, Chaucer, Corneille, Voltaire, Dryden, the Caracci,
+    Domenico Venetiano, murdered by his envious friend, and the gentle
+    Castillo fainting away at the genius of Murillo.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You say as I would say,&rdquo; answered Vane, with his tranquil smile; &ldquo;and
+      your experience corroborates my theory. Ambition, then, is not the root of
+      happiness. Why more in action than in letters?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, &ldquo;in action we commonly gain in our life all the
+      honour we deserve: the public judge of men better and more rapidly than of
+      books. And he who takes to himself in action a high and pure ambition,
+      associates it with so many objects, that, unlike literature, the failure
+      of one is balanced by the success of the other. He, the creator of deeds,
+      not resembling the creator of books, stands not alone; he is eminently
+      social; he has many comrades, and without their aid he could not
+      accomplish his designs. This divides and mitigates the impatient jealousy
+      against others. He works for a cause, and knows early that he cannot
+      monopolize its whole glory; he shares what he is aware it is impossible to
+      engross. Besides, action leaves him no time for brooding over
+      disappointment. The author has consumed his youth in a work,&mdash;it
+      fails in glory. Can he write another work? Bid him call back another
+      youth! But in action, the labour of the mind is from day to day. A week
+      replaces what a week has lost, and all the aspirant&rsquo;s fame is of the
+      present. It is lipped by the Babel of the living world; he is ever on the
+      stage, and the spectators are ever ready to applaud. Thus perpetually in
+      the service of others self ceases to be his world; he has no leisure to
+      brood over real or imaginary wrongs; the excitement whirls on the machine
+      till it is worn out&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And kicked aside,&rdquo; said Vane, &ldquo;with the broken lumber of men&rsquo;s other
+      tools, in the chamber of their son&rsquo;s forgetfulness. Your man of action
+      lasts but for an hour; the man of letters lasts for ages.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We live not for ages,&rdquo; answered Trevylyan; &ldquo;our life is on earth, and not
+      in the grave.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But even grant,&rdquo; continued Vane&mdash;&ldquo;and I for one will concede the
+      point&mdash;that posthumous fame is not worth the living agonies that
+      obtain it, how are you better off in your poor and vulgar career of
+      action? Would you assist the rulers?&mdash;servility! The people?&mdash;folly!
+      If you take the great philosophical view which the worshippers of the past
+      rarely take, but which, unknown to them, is their sole excuse,&mdash;namely,
+      that the changes which <i>may</i> benefit the future unsettle the present;
+      and that it is not the wisdom of practical legislation to risk the peace
+      of our contemporaries in the hope of obtaining happiness for their
+      posterity,&mdash;to what suspicions, to what charges are you exposed! You
+      are deemed the foe of all liberal opinion, and you read your curses in the
+      eyes of a nation. But take the side of the people. What caprice, what
+      ingratitude! You have professed so much in theory, that you can never
+      accomplish sufficient in practice. Moderation becomes a crime; to be
+      prudent is to be perfidious. New demagogues, without temperance, because
+      without principle, outstrip you in the moment of your greatest services.
+      The public is the grave of a great man&rsquo;s deeds; it is never sated; its maw
+      is eternally open; it perpetually craves for more. Where, in the history
+      of the world, do you find the gratitude of a people? You find fervour, it
+      is true, but not gratitude,&mdash;the fervour that exaggerates a benefit
+      at one moment, but not the gratitude that remembers it the next year. Once
+      disappoint them, and all your actions, all your sacrifices, are swept from
+      their remembrance forever; they break the windows of the very house they
+      have given you, and melt down their medals into bullets. Who serves man,
+      ruler or peasant, serves the ungrateful; and all the ambitious are but
+      types of a Wolsey or a De Witt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, &ldquo;consoles a man in the ills that flesh is heir
+      to, in that state of obscure repose, that serene inactivity to which you
+      would confine him? Is it not his conscience? Is it not his self-acquittal,
+      or his self-approval?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doubtless,&rdquo; replied Vane.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be it so,&rdquo; answered the high-souled Trevylyan; &ldquo;the same consolation
+      awaits us in action as in repose. We sedulously pursue what we deem to be
+      true glory. We are maligned; but our soul acquits us. Could it do more in
+      the scandal and the prejudice that assail us in private life? You are
+      silent; but note how much deeper should be the comfort, how much loftier
+      the self-esteem; for if calumny attack us in a wilful obscurity, what have
+      we done to refute the calumny? How have we served our species? Have we
+      &lsquo;scorned delight and loved laborious days&rsquo;? Have we made the utmost of the
+      &lsquo;talent&rsquo; confided to our care? Have we done those good deeds to our race
+      upon which we can retire,&mdash;an &lsquo;Estate of Beneficence,&rsquo;&mdash;from the
+      malice of the world, and feel that our deeds are our defenders? This is
+      the consolation of virtuous actions; is it so of&mdash;even a virtuous&mdash;indolence?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You speak as a preacher,&rdquo; said Vane,&mdash;&ldquo;I merely as a calculator; you
+      of virtue in affliction, I of a life in ease.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, then, if the consciousness of perpetual endeavour to advance our
+      race be not alone happier than the life of ease, let us see what this
+      vaunted ease really is. Tell me, is it not another name for <i>ennui</i>?
+      This state of quiescence, this objectless, dreamless torpor, this
+      transition <i>du lit a la table, de la table au lit</i>,&mdash;what more
+      dreary and monotonous existence can you devise? Is it pleasure in this
+      inglorious existence to think that you are serving pleasure? Is it freedom
+      to be the slave to self? For I hold,&rdquo; continued Trevylyan, &ldquo;that this
+      jargon of &lsquo;consulting happiness,&rsquo; this cant of living for ourselves, is
+      but a mean as well as a false philosophy. Why this eternal reference to
+      self? Is self alone to be consulted? Is even our happiness, did it truly
+      consist in repose, really the great end of life? I doubt if we cannot
+      ascend higher. I doubt if we cannot say with a great moralist, &lsquo;If virtue
+      be not estimable in itself, we can see nothing estimable in following it
+      for the sake of a bargain.&rsquo; But, in fact, repose is the poorest of all
+      delusions; the very act of recurring to self brings about us all those
+      ills of self from which, in the turmoil of the world, we can escape. We
+      become hypochondriacs. Our very health grows an object of painful
+      possession. We are so desirous to be well (for what is retirement without
+      health?) that we are ever fancying ourselves ill; and, like the man in the
+      &lsquo;Spectator,&rsquo; we weigh ourselves daily, and live but by grains and
+      scruples. Retirement is happy only for the poet, for to him it is <i>not</i>
+      retirement. He secedes from one world but to gain another, and he finds
+      not <i>ennui</i> in seclusion: why? Not because seclusion hath <i>repose</i>,
+      but because it hath <i>occupation</i>. In one word, then, I say of action
+      and of indolence, grant the same ills to both, and to action there is the
+      readier escape or the nobler consolation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Vane shrugged his shoulders. &ldquo;Ah, my dear friend,&rdquo; said he, tapping his
+      snuff-box with benevolent superiority, &ldquo;you are much younger than I am!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But these conversations, which Trevylyan and Vane often held together,
+      dull as I fear this specimen must seem to the reader, had an inexpressible
+      charm for Gertrude. She loved the lofty and generous vein of philosophy
+      which Trevylyan embraced, and which, while it suited his ardent nature,
+      contrasted a demeanour commonly hard and cold to all but herself. And
+      young and tender as she was, his ambition infused its spirit into her fine
+      imagination, and that passion for enterprise which belongs inseparably to
+      romance. She loved to muse over his future lot, and in fancy to share its
+      toils and to exult in its triumphs. And if sometimes she asked herself
+      whether a career of action might not estrange him from her, she had but to
+      turn her gaze upon his watchful eye,&mdash;and lo, he was by her side or
+      at her feet!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI. GORCUM.&mdash;THE TOUR OF THE VIRTUES: A PHILOSOPHER&rsquo;S TALE.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      IT was a bright and cheery morning as they glided by Gorcum. The boats
+      pulling to the shore full of fishermen and peasants in their national
+      costume; the breeze freshly rippling the waters; the lightness of the blue
+      sky; the loud and laughing voices from the boats,&mdash;all contributed to
+      raise the spirit, and fill it with that indescribable gladness which is
+      the physical sense of life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tower of the church, with its long windows and its round dial, rose
+      against the clear sky; and on a bench under a green bush facing the water
+      sat a jolly Hollander, refreshing the breezes with the fumes of his
+      national weed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How little it requires to make a journey pleasant, when the companions
+      are our friends!&rdquo; said Gertrude, as they sailed along. &ldquo;Nothing can be
+      duller than these banks, nothing more delightful than this voyage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet what tries the affections of people for each other so severely as a
+      journey together?&rdquo; said Vane. &ldquo;That perpetual companionship from which
+      there is no escaping; that confinement, in all our moments of ill-humour
+      and listlessness, with persons who want us to look amused&mdash;ah, it is
+      a severe ordeal for friendship to pass through! A post-chaise must have
+      jolted many an intimacy to death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You speak feelingly, dear father,&rdquo; said Gertrude, laughing; &ldquo;and, I
+      suspect, with a slight desire to be sarcastic upon us. Yet, seriously, I
+      should think that travel must be like life, and that good persons must be
+      always agreeable companions to each other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good persons, my Gertrude!&rdquo; answered Vane, with a smile. &ldquo;Alas! I fear
+      the good weary each other quite as much as the bad. What say you,
+      Trevylyan,&mdash;would Virtue be a pleasant companion from Paris to
+      Petersburg? Ah, I see you intend to be on Gertrude&rsquo;s side of the question.
+      Well now, if I tell you a story, since stories are so much the fashion
+      with you, in which you shall find that the Virtues themselves actually
+      made the experiment of a tour, will you promise to attend to the moral?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, dear father, anything for a story,&rdquo; cried Gertrude; &ldquo;especially from
+      you, who have not told us one all the way. Come, listen, Albert; nay,
+      listen to your new rival.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And, pleased to see the vivacity of the invalid, Vane began as follows:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                      THE TOUR OF THE VIRTUES:
+
+                       A PHILOSOPHER&rsquo;S TALE.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      ONCE upon a time, several of the Virtues, weary of living forever with the
+      Bishop of Norwich, resolved to make a little excursion; accordingly,
+      though they knew everything on earth was very ill prepared to receive
+      them, they thought they might safely venture on a tour from Westminster
+      Bridge to Richmond. The day was fine, the wind in their favour, and as to
+      entertainment,&mdash;why, there seemed, according to Gertrude, to be no
+      possibility of any disagreement among the Virtues.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They took a boat at Westminster stairs; and just as they were about to
+      push off, a poor woman, all in rags, with a child in her arms, implored
+      their compassion. Charity put her hand into her reticule and took out a
+      shilling. Justice, turning round to look after the luggage, saw the folly
+      which Charity was about to commit. &ldquo;Heavens!&rdquo; cried Justice, seizing poor
+      Charity by the arm, &ldquo;what are you doing? Have you never read Political
+      Economy? Don&rsquo;t you know that indiscriminate almsgiving is only the
+      encouragement to Idleness, the mother of Vice? You a Virtue, indeed! I&rsquo;m
+      ashamed of you. Get along with you, good woman;&mdash;yet stay, there is a
+      ticket for soup at the Mendicity Society; they&rsquo;ll see if you&rsquo;re a proper
+      object of compassion.&rdquo; But Charity is quicker than Justice, and slipping
+      her hand behind her, the poor woman got the shilling and the ticket for
+      soup too. Economy and Generosity saw the double gift. &ldquo;What waste!&rdquo; cried
+      Economy, frowning; &ldquo;what! a ticket and a shilling? <i>either</i> would
+      have sufficed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Either!&rdquo; said Generosity, &ldquo;fie! Charity should have given the poor
+      creature half-a-crown, and Justice a dozen tickets!&rdquo; So the next ten
+      minutes were consumed in a quarrel between the four Virtues, which would
+      have lasted all the way to Richmond, if Courage had not advised them to
+      get on shore and fight it out. Upon this, the Virtues suddenly perceived
+      they had a little forgotten themselves, and Generosity offering the first
+      apology, they made it up, and went on very agreeably for the next mile or
+      two.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The day now grew a little overcast, and a shower seemed at hand. Prudence,
+      who had on a new bonnet, suggested the propriety of putting to shore for
+      half an hour; Courage was for braving the rain; but, as most of the
+      Virtues are ladies, Prudence carried it. Just as they were about to land,
+      another boat cut in before them very uncivilly, and gave theirs such a
+      shake that Charity was all but overboard. The company on board the uncivil
+      boat, who evidently thought the Virtues extremely low persons, for they
+      had nothing very fashionable about their exterior, burst out laughing at
+      Charity&rsquo;s discomposure, especially as a large basket full of buns, which
+      Charity carried with her for any hungry-looking children she might
+      encounter at Richmond, fell pounce into the water. Courage was all on
+      fire; he twisted his mustache, and would have made an onset on the enemy,
+      if, to his great indignation, Meekness had not forestalled him, by
+      stepping mildly into the hostile boat and offering both cheeks to the foe.
+      This was too much even for the incivility of the boatmen; they made their
+      excuses to the Virtues, and Courage, who is no bully, thought himself
+      bound discontentedly to accept them. But oh! if you had seen how Courage
+      used Meekness afterwards, you could not have believed it possible that one
+      Virtue could be so enraged with another. This quarrel between the two
+      threw a damp on the party; and they proceeded on their voyage, when the
+      shower was over, with anything but cordiality. I spare you the little
+      squabbles that took place in the general conversation,&mdash;how Economy
+      found fault with all the villas by the way, and Temperance expressed
+      becoming indignation at the luxuries of the City barge. They arrived at
+      Richmond, and Temperance was appointed to order the dinner; meanwhile
+      Hospitality, walking in the garden, fell in with a large party of
+      Irishmen, and asked them to join the repast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Imagine the long faces of Economy and Prudence, when they saw the addition
+      to the company! Hospitality was all spirits; he rubbed his hands and
+      called for champagne with the tone of a younger brother. Temperance soon
+      grew scandalized, and Modesty herself coloured at some of the jokes; but
+      Hospitality, who was now half seas over, called the one a milksop, and
+      swore at the other as a prude. Away went the hours; it was time to return,
+      and they made down to the water-side, thoroughly out of temper with one
+      another, Economy and Generosity quarrelling all the way about the bill and
+      the waiters. To make up the sum of their mortification, they passed a boat
+      where all the company were in the best possible spirits, laughing and
+      whooping like mad; and discovered these jolly companions to be two or
+      three agreeable Vices, who had put themselves under the management of Good
+      Temper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you see, Gertrude, that even the Virtues may fall at loggerheads with
+      each other, and pass a very sad time of it, if they happen to be of
+      opposite dispositions, and have forgotten to take Good Temper with them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; said Gertrude, &ldquo;but you have overloaded your boat; too many Virtues
+      might contradict one another, but not a few.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Voila ce que veux dire,&rdquo; said Vane; &ldquo;but listen to the sequel of my tale,
+      which now takes a new moral.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At the end of the voyage, and after a long, sulky silence, Prudence said,
+      with a thoughtful air, &ldquo;My dear friends, I have been thinking that as long
+      as we keep so entirely together, never mixing with the rest of the world,
+      we shall waste our lives in quarrelling amongst ourselves and run the risk
+      of being still less liked and sought after than we already are. You know
+      that we are none of us popular; every one is quite contented to see us
+      represented in a vaudeville, or described in an essay. Charity, indeed,
+      has her name often taken in vain at a bazaar or a subscription; and the
+      miser as often talks of the duty he owes to <i>me</i>, when he sends the
+      stranger from his door or his grandson to jail: but still we only resemble
+      so many wild beasts, whom everybody likes to see but nobody cares to
+      possess. Now, I propose that we should all separate and take up our abode
+      with some mortal or other for a year, with the power of changing at the
+      end of that time should we not feel ourselves comfortable,&mdash;that is,
+      should we not find that we do all the good we intend; let us try the
+      experiment, and on this day twelvemonths let us all meet under the largest
+      oak in Windsor Forest, and recount what has befallen us.&rdquo; Prudence ceased,
+      as she always does when she has said enough; and, delighted at the
+      project, the Virtues agreed to adopt it on the spot. They were enchanted
+      at the idea of setting up for themselves, and each not doubting his or her
+      success,&mdash;for Economy in her heart thought Generosity no Virtue at
+      all, and Meekness looked on Courage as little better than a heathen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Generosity, being the most eager and active of all the Virtues, set off
+      first on his journey. Justice followed, and kept up with him, though at a
+      more even pace. Charity never heard a sigh, or saw a squalid face, but she
+      stayed to cheer and console the sufferer,&mdash;a kindness which somewhat
+      retarded her progress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Courage espied a travelling carriage, with a man and his wife in it
+      quarrelling most conjugally, and he civilly begged he might be permitted
+      to occupy the vacant seat opposite the lady. Economy still lingered,
+      inquiring for the cheapest inns. Poor Modesty looked round and sighed, on
+      finding herself so near to London, where she was almost wholly unknown;
+      but resolved to bend her course thither for two reasons: first, for the
+      novelty of the thing; and, secondly, not liking to expose herself to any
+      risks by a journey on the Continent. Prudence, though the first to
+      project, was the last to execute; and therefore resolved to remain where
+      she was for that night, and take daylight for her travels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The year rolled on, and the Virtues, punctual to the appointment, met
+      under the oak-tree; they all came nearly at the same time, excepting
+      Economy, who had got into a return post-chaise, the horses to which,
+      having been forty miles in the course of the morning, had foundered by the
+      way, and retarded her journey till night set in. The Virtues looked sad
+      and sorrowful, as people are wont to do after a long and fruitless
+      journey; and, somehow or other, such was the wearing effect of their
+      intercourse with the world, that they appeared wonderfully diminished in
+      size.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, my dear Generosity,&rdquo; said Prudence, with a sigh, &ldquo;as you were the
+      first to set out on your travels, pray let us hear your adventures first.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must know, my dear sisters,&rdquo; said Generosity, &ldquo;that I had not gone
+      many miles from you before I came to a small country town, in which a
+      marching regiment was quartered, and at an open window I beheld, leaning
+      over a gentleman&rsquo;s chair, the most beautiful creature imagination ever
+      pictured; her eyes shone out like two suns of perfect happiness, and she
+      was almost cheerful enough to have passed for Good Temper herself. The
+      gentleman over whose chair she leaned was her husband; they had been
+      married six weeks; he was a lieutenant with one hundred pounds a year
+      besides his pay. Greatly affected by their poverty, I instantly
+      determined, without a second thought, to ensconce myself in the heart of
+      this charming girl. During the first hour in my new residence I made many
+      wise reflections such as&mdash;that Love never was so perfect as when
+      accompanied by Poverty; what a vulgar error it was to call the unmarried
+      state &lsquo;Single <i>Blessedness</i>;&rsquo; how wrong it was of us Virtues never to
+      have tried the marriage bond; and what a falsehood it was to say that
+      husbands neglected their wives, for never was there anything in nature so
+      devoted as the love of a husband&mdash;six weeks married!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The next morning, before breakfast, as the charming Fanny was waiting for
+      her husband, who had not yet finished his toilet, a poor, wretched-looking
+      object appeared at the window, tearing her hair and wringing her hands;
+      her husband had that morning been dragged to prison, and her seven
+      children had fought for the last mouldy crust. Prompted by me, Fanny,
+      without inquiring further into the matter, drew from her silken purse a
+      five-pound note, and gave it to the beggar, who departed more amazed than
+      grateful. Soon after, the lieutenant appeared. &lsquo;What the devil, another
+      bill!&rsquo; muttered he, as he tore the yellow wafer from a large, square,
+      folded, bluish piece of paper. &lsquo;Oh, ah! confound the fellow, <i>he</i>
+      must be paid. I must trouble you, Fanny, for fifteen pounds to pay this
+      saddler&rsquo;s bill.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Fifteen pounds, love?&rsquo; stammered Fanny, blushing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Yes, dearest, the fifteen pounds I gave you yesterday.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;I have only ten pounds,&rsquo; said Fanny, hesitatingly; &lsquo;for such a poor,
+      wretched-looking creature was here just now, that I was obliged to give
+      her five pounds.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Five pounds? good Heavens!&rsquo; exclaimed the astonished husband; &lsquo;I shall
+      have no more money this three weeks.&rsquo; He frowned, he bit his lips, nay, he
+      even wrung his hands, and walked up and down the room; worse still, he
+      broke forth with&mdash;&lsquo;Surely, madam, you did not suppose, when you
+      married a lieutenant in a marching regiment, that he could afford to
+      indulge in the whim of giving five pounds to every mendicant who held out
+      her hand to you? You did not, I say, madam, imagine&rsquo;&mdash;but the
+      bridegroom was interrupted by the convulsive sobs of his wife: it was
+      their first quarrel, they were but six weeks married; he looked at her for
+      one moment sternly, the next he was at her feet. &lsquo;Forgive me, dearest
+      Fanny,&mdash;forgive me, for I cannot forgive myself. I was too great a
+      wretch to say what I did; and do believe, my own Fanny, that while I may
+      be too poor to indulge you in it, I do from my heart admire so noble, so
+      disinterested, a generosity.&rsquo; Not a little proud did I feel to have been
+      the cause of this exemplary husband&rsquo;s admiration for his amiable wife, and
+      sincerely did I rejoice at having taken up my abode with these <i>poor</i>
+      people. But not to tire you, my dear sisters, with the minutiae of detail,
+      I shall briefly say that things did not long remain in this delightful
+      position; for before many months had elapsed, poor Fanny had to bear with
+      her husband&rsquo;s increased and more frequent storms of passion, unfollowed by
+      any halcyon and honeymoon suings for forgiveness: for at my instigation
+      every shilling went; and when there were no more to go, her trinkets and
+      even her clothes followed. The lieutenant became a complete brute, and
+      even allowed his unbridled tongue to call me&mdash;me, sisters, <i>me</i>!&mdash;&lsquo;heartless
+      Extravagance.&rsquo; His despicable brother-officers and their gossiping wives
+      were no better; for they did nothing but animadvert upon my Fanny&rsquo;s
+      ostentation and absurdity, for by such names had they the impertinence to
+      call <i>me</i>. Thus grieved to the soul to find myself the cause of all
+      poor Fanny&rsquo;s misfortunes, I resolved at the end of the year to leave her,
+      being thoroughly convinced that, however amiable and praiseworthy I might
+      be in myself, I was totally unfit to be bosom friend and adviser to the
+      wife of a lieutenant in a marching regiment, with only one hundred pounds
+      a year besides his pay.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Virtues groaned their sympathy with the unfortunate Fanny; and
+      Prudence, turning to Justice, said, &ldquo;I long to hear what you have been
+      doing, for I am certain you cannot have occasioned harm to any one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Justice shook her head and said: &ldquo;Alas! I find that there are times and
+      places when even I do better not to appear, as a short account of my
+      adventures will prove to you. No sooner had I left you than I instantly
+      repaired to India, and took up my abode with a Brahmin. I was much shocked
+      by the dreadful inequalities of condition that reigned in the several
+      castes, and I longed to relieve the poor Pariah from his ignominious
+      destiny; accordingly I set seriously to work on reform. I insisted upon
+      the iniquity of abandoning men from their birth to an irremediable state
+      of contempt, from which no virtue could exalt them. The Brahmins looked
+      upon my Brahmin with ineffable horror. They called <i>me</i> the most
+      wicked of vices; they saw no distinction between Justice and Atheism. I
+      uprooted their society&mdash;that was sufficient crime. But the worst was,
+      that the Pariahs themselves regarded me with suspicion; they thought it
+      unnatural in a Brahmin to care for a Pariah! And one called me &lsquo;Madness,&rsquo; 
+      another, &lsquo;Ambition,&rsquo; and a third, &lsquo;The Desire to innovate.&rsquo; My poor
+      Brahmin led a miserable life of it; when one day, after observing, at my
+      dictation, that he thought a Pariah&rsquo;s life as much entitled to respect as
+      a cow&rsquo;s, he was hurried away by the priests and secretly broiled on the
+      altar as a fitting reward for his sacrilege. I fled hither in great
+      tribulation, persuaded that in some countries even Justice may do harm.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As for me,&rdquo; said Charity, not waiting to be asked, &ldquo;I grieve to say that
+      I was silly enough to take up my abode with an old lady in Dublin, who
+      never knew what discretion was, and always acted from impulse; my
+      instigation was irresistible, and the money she gave in her drives through
+      the suburbs of Dublin was so lavishly spent that it kept all the rascals
+      of the city in idleness and whiskey. I found, to my great horror, that I
+      was a main cause of a terrible epidemic, and that to give alms without
+      discretion was to spread poverty without help. I left the city when my
+      year was out, and as ill-luck would have it, just at the time when I was
+      most wanted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And oh,&rdquo; cried Hospitality, &ldquo;I went to Ireland also. I fixed my abode
+      with a squireen; I ruined him in a year, and only left him because he had
+      no longer a hovel to keep me in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As for myself,&rdquo; said Temperance, &ldquo;I entered the breast of an English
+      legislator, and he brought in a bill against ale-houses; the consequence
+      was, that the labourers took to gin; and I have been forced to confess
+      that Temperance may be too zealous when she dictates too vehemently to
+      others.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Courage, keeping more in the background than he had ever done
+      before, and looking rather ashamed of himself, &ldquo;that travelling carriage I
+      got into belonged to a German general and his wife, who were returning to
+      their own country. Growing very cold as we proceeded, she wrapped me up in
+      a polonaise; but the cold increasing, I inadvertently crept into her
+      bosom. Once there I could not get out, and from thenceforward the poor
+      general had considerably the worst of it. She became so provoking that I
+      wondered how he could refrain from an explosion. To do him justice, he did
+      at last threaten to get out of the carriage; upon which, roused by me, she
+      collared him&mdash;and conquered. When he got to his own district, things
+      grew worse, for if any <i>aide-de-camp</i> offended her she insisted that
+      he might be publicly reprimanded; and should the poor general refuse she
+      would with her own hands confer a caning upon the delinquent. The
+      additional force she had gained in me was too much odds against the poor
+      general, and he died of a broken heart, six months after my <i>liaison</i>
+      with his wife. She after this became so dreaded and detested, that a
+      conspiracy was formed to poison her; this daunted even me, so I left her
+      without delay,&mdash;<i>et me voici</i>!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Humph,&rdquo; said Meekness, with an air of triumph, &ldquo;I, at least, have been
+      more successful than you. On seeing much in the papers of the cruelties
+      practised by the Turks on the Greeks, I thought my presence would enable
+      the poor sufferers to bear their misfortunes calmly. I went to Greece,
+      then, at a moment when a well-planned and practicable scheme of
+      emancipating themselves from the Turkish yoke was arousing their youth.
+      Without confining myself to one individual, I flitted from breast to
+      breast; I meekened the whole nation; my remonstrances against the
+      insurrection succeeded, and I had the satisfaction of leaving a whole
+      people ready to be killed or strangled with the most Christian resignation
+      in the world.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Virtues, who had been a little cheered by the opening self-complacence
+      of Meekness, would not, to her great astonishment, allow that she had
+      succeeded a whit more happily than her sisters, and called next upon
+      Modesty for her confession.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know,&rdquo; said that amiable young lady, &ldquo;that I went to London in search
+      of a situation. I spent three months of the twelve in going from house to
+      house, but I could not get a single person to receive me. The ladies
+      declared that they never saw so old-fashioned a gawkey, and civilly
+      recommended me to their abigails; the abigails turned me round with a
+      stare, and then pushed me down to the kitchen and the fat scullion-maids,
+      who assured me that, &lsquo;in the respectable families they had the honour to
+      live in, they had never even heard of my name.&rsquo; One young housemaid, just
+      from the country, did indeed receive me with some sort of civility; but
+      she very soon lost me in the servants&rsquo; hall. I now took refuge with the
+      other sex, as the least uncourteous. I was fortunate enough to find a
+      young gentleman of remarkable talents, who welcomed me with open arms. He
+      was full of learning, gentleness, and honesty. I had only one rival,&mdash;Ambition.
+      We both contended for an absolute empire over him. Whatever Ambition
+      suggested, I damped. Did Ambition urge him to begin a book, I persuaded
+      him it was not worth publication. Did he get up, full of knowledge, and
+      instigated by my rival, to make a speech (for he was in parliament), I
+      shocked him with the sense of his assurance, I made his voice droop and
+      his accents falter. At last, with an indignant sigh, my rival left him; he
+      retired into the country, took orders, and renounced a career he had
+      fondly hoped would be serviceable to others; but finding I did not suffice
+      for his happiness, and piqued at his melancholy, I left him before the end
+      of the year, and he has since taken to drinking!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The eyes of the Virtues were all turned to Prudence. She was their last
+      hope. &ldquo;I am just where I set out,&rdquo; said that discreet Virtue; &ldquo;I have done
+      neither good nor harm. To avoid temptation I went and lived with a hermit
+      to whom I soon found that I could be of no use beyond warning him not to
+      overboil his peas and lentils, not to leave his door open when a storm
+      threatened, and not to fill his pitcher too full at the neighbouring
+      spring. I am thus the only one of you that never did harm; but only
+      because I am the only one of you that never had an opportunity of doing
+      it! In a word,&rdquo; continued Prudence, thoughtfully,&mdash;&ldquo;in a word, my
+      friends, circumstances are necessary to the Virtues themselves. Had, for
+      instance, Economy changed with Generosity, and gone to the poor
+      lieutenant&rsquo;s wife, and had I lodged with the Irish squireen instead of
+      Hospitality, what misfortunes would have been saved to both! Alas! I
+      perceive we lose all our efficacy when we are misplaced; and <i>then</i>,
+      though in reality Virtues, we operate as Vices. Circumstances must be
+      favourable to our exertions, and harmonious with our nature; and we lose
+      our very divinity unless Wisdom direct our footsteps to the home we should
+      inhabit and the dispositions we should govern.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The story was ended, and the travellers began to dispute about its moral.
+      Here let us leave them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII. COLOGNE.&mdash;THE TRACES OF THE ROMAN YOKE.&mdash;THE CHURCH
+      OF ST.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      MARIA.&mdash;TREVYLYAN&rsquo;S REFLECTIONS ON THE MONASTIC LIFE.&mdash;THE TOMB
+      OF THE THREE KINGS.&mdash;AN EVENING EXCURSION ON THE RHINE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ROME&mdash;magnificent Rome! wherever the pilgrim wends, the traces of thy
+      dominion greet his eyes. Still in the heart of the bold German race is
+      graven the print of the eagle&rsquo;s claws; and amidst the haunted regions of
+      the Rhine we pause to wonder at the great monuments of the Italian yoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Cologne our travellers rested for some days. They were in the city to
+      which the camp of Marcus Agrippa had given birth; that spot had resounded
+      with the armed tread of the legions of Trajan. In that city, Vitellius,
+      Sylvanus, were proclaimed emperors. By that church did the latter receive
+      his death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they passed round the door they saw some peasants loitering on the
+      sacred ground; and when they noted the delicate cheek of Gertrude they
+      uttered their salutations with more than common respect. Where they then
+      were the building swept round in a circular form; and at its base it is
+      supposed by tradition to retain something of the ancient Roman masonry.
+      Just before them rose the spire of a plain and unadorned church,
+      singularly contrasting the pomp of the old with the simplicity of the
+      innovating creed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The church of St. Maria occupies the site of the Roman Capitol, and the
+      place retains the Roman name; and still something in the aspect of the
+      people betrays the hereditary blood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gertrude, whose nature was strongly impressed with <i>the venerating
+      character</i>, was fond of visiting the old Gothic churches, which, with
+      so eloquent a moral, unite the living with the dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pause for a moment,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, before they entered the church of
+      St. Maria. &ldquo;What recollections crowd upon us! On the site of the Roman
+      Capitol a Christian church and a convent are erected! By whom? The mother
+      of Charles Martel,&mdash;the Conqueror of the Saracen, the arch-hero of
+      Christendom itself! And to these scenes and calm retreats, to the
+      cloisters of the convent once belonging to this church, fled the bruised
+      spirit of a royal sufferer,-the victim of Richelieu,&mdash;the unfortunate
+      and ambitious Mary de Medicis. Alas! the cell and the convent are but a
+      vain emblem of that desire to fly to God which belongs to Distress; the
+      solitude soothes, but the monotony recalls, regret. And for my own part in
+      my frequent tours through Catholic countries, I never saw the still walls
+      in which monastic vanity hoped to shut out the world, but a melancholy
+      came over me! What hearts at war with themselves! what unceasing regrets!
+      what pinings after the past! what long and beautiful years devoted to a
+      moral grave, by a momentary rashness, an impulse, a disappointment! But in
+      these churches the lesson is more impressive and less sad. The weary heart
+      has ceased to ache; the burning pulses are still; the troubled spirit has
+      flown to the only rest which is not a deceit. Power and love, hope and
+      fear, avarice, ambition,&mdash;they are quenched at last! Death is the
+      only monastery, the tomb is the only cell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your passion is ever for active life,&rdquo; said Gertrude. &ldquo;You allow no charm
+      to solitude, and contemplation to you seems torture. If any great sorrow
+      ever come upon you, you will never retire to seclusion as its balm. You
+      will plunge into the world, and lose your individual existence in the
+      universal rush of life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, talk not of sorrow!&rdquo; said Trevylyan, wildly. &ldquo;Let us enter the
+      church.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They went afterwards to the celebrated cathedral, which is considered one
+      of the noblest of the architectural triumphs of Germany; but it is yet
+      more worthy of notice from the Pilgrim of Romance than the searcher after
+      antiquity, for here, behind the grand altar, is the Tomb of the Three
+      Kings of Cologne,&mdash;the three worshippers whom tradition humbled to
+      our Saviour. Legend is rife with a thousand tales of the relics of this
+      tomb. The Three Kings of Cologne are the tutelary names of that golden
+      superstition which has often more votaries than the religion itself from
+      which it springs and to Gertrude the simple story of Lucille sufficed to
+      make her for the moment credulous of the sanctity of the spot. Behind the
+      tomb three Gothic windows cast their &ldquo;dim, religious light&rdquo; over the
+      tessellated pavement and along the Ionic pillars. They found some of the
+      more credulous believers in the authenticity of the relics kneeling before
+      the tomb, and they arrested their steps, fearful to disturb the
+      superstition which is never without something of sanctity when contented
+      with prayer and forgetful of persecution. The bones of the Magi are still
+      supposed to consecrate the tomb, and on the higher part of the monument
+      the artist has delineated their adoration to the infant Saviour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That evening came on with a still and tranquil beauty, and as the sun
+      hastened to its close they launched their boat for an hour or two&rsquo;s
+      excursion upon the Rhine. Gertrude was in that happy mood when the quiet
+      of nature is enjoyed like a bath for the soul, and the presence of him she
+      so idolized deepened that stillness into a more delicious and subduing
+      calm. Little did she dream as the boat glided over the water, and the
+      towers of Cologne rose in the blue air of evening, how few were those
+      hours that divided her from the tomb! But, in looking back to the life of
+      one we have loved, how dear is the thought that the latter days were the
+      days of light, that the cloud never chilled the beauty of the setting sun,
+      and that if the years of existence were brief, all that existence has most
+      tender, most sacred, was crowded into that space! Nothing dark, then, or
+      bitter, rests with our remembrance of the lost: <i>we</i> are the
+      mourners, but pity is not for the mourned,&mdash;our grief is purely
+      selfish; when we turn to its object, the hues of happiness are round it,
+      and that very love which is the parent of our woe was the consolation, the
+      triumph, of the departed!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The majestic Rhine was calm as a lake; the splashing of the oar only broke
+      the stillness, and after a long pause in their conversation, Gertrude,
+      putting her hand on Trevylyan&rsquo;s arm, reminded him of a promised story: for
+      he too had moods of abstraction, from which, in her turn, she loved to
+      lure him; and his voice to her had become a sort of want.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let it be,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;a tale suited to the hour; no fierce tradition,&mdash;nay,
+      no grotesque fable, but of the tenderer dye of superstition. Let it be of
+      love, of woman&rsquo;s love,&mdash;of the love that defies the grave: for surely
+      even after death it lives; and heaven would scarcely be heaven if memory
+      were banished from its blessings.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I recollect,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, after a slight pause, &ldquo;a short German
+      legend, the simplicity of which touched me much when I heard it; but,&rdquo;
+       added he, with a slight smile, &ldquo;so much more faithful appears in the
+      legend the love of the woman than that of the man, that <i>I</i> at least
+      ought scarcely to recite it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; said Gertrude, tenderly, &ldquo;the fault of the inconstant only
+      heightens our gratitude to the faithful.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VIII. THE SOUL IN PURGATORY; OR LOVE STRONGER THAN DEATH.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE angels strung their harps in heaven, and their music went up like a
+      stream of odours to the pavilions of the Most High; but the harp of
+      Seralim was sweeter than that of his fellows, and the Voice of the
+      Invisible One (for the angels themselves know not the glories of Jehovah&mdash;only
+      far in the depths of heaven they see one Unsleeping Eye watching forever
+      over Creation) was heard saying,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ask a gift for the love that burns in thy song, and it shall be given
+      thee.&rdquo; And Seralim answered,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is in that place which men call Purgatory, and which is the escape
+      from hell, but the painful porch of heaven, many souls that adore Thee,
+      and yet are punished justly for their sins; grant me the boon to visit
+      them at times, and solace their suffering by the hymns of the harp that is
+      consecrated to Thee!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the Voice answered,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thy prayer is heard, O gentlest of the angels! and it seems good to Him
+      who chastises but from love. Go! Thou hast thy will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the angel sang the praises of God; and when the song was done he rose
+      from his azure throne at the right hand of Gabriel, and, spreading his
+      rainbow wings, he flew to that melancholy orb which, nearest to earth,
+      echoes with the shrieks of souls that by torture become pure. There the
+      unhappy ones see from afar the bright courts they are hereafter to obtain,
+      and the shapes of glorious beings, who, fresh from these Fountains of
+      Immortality, walk amidst the gardens of Paradise, and feel that their
+      happiness hath no morrow; and this thought consoles amidst their torments,
+      and makes the true difference between Purgatory and Hell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the angel folded his wings, and entering the crystal gates, sat down
+      upon a blasted rock and struck his divine lyre, and a peace fell over the
+      wretched; the demon ceased to torture and the victim to wail. As sleep to
+      the mourners of earth was the song of the angel to the souls of the
+      purifying star: one only voice amidst the general stillness seemed not
+      lulled by the angel; it was the voice of a woman, and it continued to cry
+      out with a sharp cry,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Adenheim, Adenheim! mourn not for the lost!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The angel struck chord after chord, till his most skilful melodies were
+      exhausted; but still the solitary voice, unheeding&mdash;unconscious of&mdash;the
+      sweetest harp of the angel choir, cried out,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Adenheim, Adenheim! mourn not for the lost!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Seralim&rsquo;s interest was aroused, and approaching the spot whence the
+      voice came, he saw the spirit of a young and beautiful girl chained to a
+      rock, and the demons lying idly by. And Seralim said to the demons, &ldquo;Doth
+      the song lull ye thus to rest?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And they answered, &ldquo;Her care for another is bitterer than all our
+      torments; therefore are we idle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the angel approached the spirit, and said in a voice which stilled
+      her cry&mdash;for in what state do we outlive sympathy?&mdash;&ldquo;Wherefore,
+      O daughter of earth, wherefore wailest thou with the same plaintive wail;
+      and why doth the harp that soothes the most guilty of thy companions fail
+      in its melody with thee?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O radiant stranger,&rdquo; answered the poor spirit, &ldquo;thou speakest to one who
+      on earth loved God&rsquo;s creature more than God; therefore is she thus justly
+      sentenced. But I know that my poor Adenheim mourns ceaselessly for me, and
+      the thought of his sorrow is more intolerable to me than all that the
+      demons can inflict.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how knowest thou that he laments thee?&rdquo; asked the angel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I know with what agony I should have mourned for <i>him</i>,&rdquo;
+       replied the spirit, simply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The divine nature of the angel was touched; for love is the nature of the
+      sons of heaven. &ldquo;And how,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;can I minister to thy sorrow?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A transport seemed to agitate the spirit, and she lifted up her mistlike
+      and impalpable arms, and cried,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give me&mdash;oh, give me to return to earth, but for one little hour,
+      that I may visit my Adenheim; and that, concealing from him my present
+      sufferings, I may comfort him in his own.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas!&rdquo; said the angel, turning away his eyes,&mdash;for angels may not
+      weep in the sight of others,&mdash;&ldquo;I could, indeed, grant thee this boon,
+      but thou knowest not the penalty. For the souls in Purgatory may return to
+      Earth, but heavy is the sentence that awaits their return. In a word, for
+      one hour on earth thou must add a thousand years to the torture of thy
+      confinement here!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that all?&rdquo; cried the spirit. &ldquo;Willingly then will I brave the doom.
+      Ah, surely they love not in heaven, or thou wouldst know, O Celestial
+      Visitant; that one hour of consolation to the one we love is worth a
+      thousand ages of torture to ourselves! Let me comfort and convince my
+      Adenheim; no matter what becomes of me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the angel looked on high, and he saw in far distant regions, which in
+      that orb none else could discern, the rays that parted from the
+      all-guarding Eye; and heard the VOICE of the Eternal One bidding him act
+      as his pity whispered. He looked on the spirit, and her shadowy arms
+      stretched pleadingly towards him; he uttered the word that loosens the
+      bars of the gate of Purgatory; and lo, the spirit had re-entered the human
+      world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was night in the halls of the lord of Adenheim, and he sat at the head
+      of his glittering board. Loud and long was the laugh, and merry the jest
+      that echoed round; and the laugh and the jest of the lord of Adenheim were
+      louder and merrier than all. And by his right side sat a beautiful lady;
+      and ever and anon he turned from others to whisper soft vows in her ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And oh,&rdquo; said the bright dame of Falkenberg, &ldquo;thy words what ladye can
+      believe? Didst thou not utter the same oaths, and promise the same love,
+      to Ida, the fair daughter of Loden, and now but three little months have
+      closed upon her grave?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By my halidom,&rdquo; quoth the young lord of Adenheim, &ldquo;thou dost thy beauty
+      marvellous injustice. Ida! Nay, thou mockest me; <i>I</i> love the
+      daughter of Loden! Why, how then should I be worthy thee? A few gay words,
+      a few passing smiles,&mdash;behold all the love Adenheim ever bore to Ida.
+      Was it my fault if the poor fool misconstrued such common courtesy? Nay,
+      dearest lady, this heart is virgin to thee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what!&rdquo; said the lady of Falkenberg, as she suffered the arm of
+      Adenheim to encircle her slender waist, &ldquo;didst thou not grieve for her
+      loss?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, verily, yes, for the first week; but in thy bright eyes I found
+      ready consolation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment, the lord of Adenheim thought he heard a deep sigh behind
+      him; he turned, but saw nothing, save a slight mist that gradually faded
+      away, and vanished in the distance. Where was the necessity for Ida to
+      reveal herself?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      .......
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And thou didst not, then, do thine errand to thy lover?&rdquo; said Seralim, as
+      the spirit of the wronged Ida returned to Purgatory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bid the demons recommence their torture,&rdquo; was poor Ida&rsquo;s answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And was it for this that thou added a thousand years to thy doom?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas!&rdquo; answered Ida, &ldquo;after the single hour I have endured on Earth,
+      there seems to be but little terrible in a thousand fresh years of
+      Purgatory!&rdquo;*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * This story is principally borrowed from a foreign soil.  It
+    seemed to the author worthy of being transferred to an English
+    one, although he fears that much of its singular beauty in the
+    original has been lost by the way.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What! is the story ended?&rdquo; asked Gertrude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, surely the thousand years were not added to poor Ida&rsquo;s doom; and
+      Seralim bore her back with him to Heaven?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The legend saith no more. The writer was contented to show us the
+      perpetuity of woman&rsquo;s love&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And its reward,&rdquo; added Vane.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was not <i>I</i> who drew that last conclusion, Albert,&rdquo; whispered
+      Gertrude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IX. THE SCENERY OF THE RHINE ANALOGOUS TO THE GERMAN LITERARY
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      GENIUS.&mdash;THE DRACHENFELS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ON leaving Cologne, the stream winds round among banks that do not yet
+      fulfil the promise of the Rhine; but they increase in interest as you
+      leave Surdt and Godorf. The peculiar character of the river does not,
+      however, really appear, until by degrees the Seven Mountains, and &ldquo;THE
+      CASTLED CRAG OF DRACHENFELS&rdquo; above them all, break upon the eye. Around
+      Nieder Cassel and Rheidt the vines lie thick and clustering; and, by the
+      shore, you see from place to place the islands stretching their green
+      length along, and breaking the exulting tide. Village rises upon village,
+      and viewed from the distance as you sail, the pastoral errors that
+      enamoured us of the village life crowd thick and fast upon us. So still do
+      these hamlets seem, so sheltered from the passions of the world,&mdash;as
+      if the passions were not like winds, only felt where they breathe, and
+      invisible save by their effects! Leaping into the broad bosom of the Rhine
+      come many a stream and rivulet upon either side. Spire upon spire rises
+      and sinks as you sail on. Mountain and city, the solitary island, the
+      castled steep, like the dreams of ambition, suddenly appear, proudly
+      swell, and dimly fade away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You begin now,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, &ldquo;to understand the character of the
+      German literature. The Rhine is an emblem of its luxuriance, its
+      fertility, its romance. The best commentary to the German genius is a
+      visit to the German scenery. The mighty gloom of the Hartz, the feudal
+      towers that look over vines and deep valleys on the legendary Rhine; the
+      gigantic remains of antique power, profusely scattered over plain, mount,
+      and forest; the thousand mixed recollections that hallow the ground; the
+      stately Roman, the stalwart Goth, the chivalry of the feudal age, and the
+      dim brotherhood of the ideal world, have here alike their record and their
+      remembrance. And over such scenes wanders the young German student.
+      Instead of the pomp and luxury of the English traveller, the thousand
+      devices to cheat the way, he has but his volume in his hand, his knapsack
+      at his back. From such scenes he draws and hives all that various store
+      which after years ripen to invention. Hence the florid mixture of the
+      German muse,&mdash;the classic, the romantic, the contemplative, the
+      philosophic, and the superstitious; each the result of actual meditation
+      over different scenes; each the produce of separate but confused
+      recollections. As the Rhine flows, so flows the national genius, by
+      mountain and valley, the wildest solitude, the sudden spires of ancient
+      cities, the mouldered castle, the stately monastery, the humble cot,&mdash;grandeur
+      and homeliness, history and superstition, truth and fable, succeeding one
+      another so as to blend into a whole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; added Trevylyan, a moment afterwards, &ldquo;the Ideal is passing slowly
+      away from the German mind; a spirit for the more active and the more
+      material literature is springing up amongst them. The revolution of mind
+      gathers on, preceding stormy events; and the memories that led their
+      grandsires to contemplate will urge the youth of the next generation to
+      dare and to act.&rdquo; *
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * Is not this prediction already fulfilled?&mdash;1849.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Thus conversing, they continued their voyage, with a fair wave and beneath
+      a lucid sky.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The vessel now glided beside the Seven Mountains and the Drachenfels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun, slowly setting, cast his yellow beams over the smooth waters. At
+      the foot of the mountains lay a village deeply sequestered in shade; and
+      above, the Ruin of the Drachenfels caught the richest beams of the sun.
+      Yet thus alone, though lofty, the ray cheered not the gloom that hung over
+      the giant rock: it stood on high, like some great name on which the light
+      of glory may shine, but which is associated with a certain melancholy,
+      from the solitude to which its very height above the level of the herd
+      condemned its owner!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER X. THE LEGEND OF ROLAND.&mdash;THE ADVENTURES OF NYMPHALIN ON THE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      ISLAND OF NONNEWERTH.&mdash;HER SONG.&mdash;THE DECAY OF THE FAIRY-FAITH
+      IN ENGLAND.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ON the shore opposite the Drachenfels stand the Ruins of Rolandseck,&mdash;they
+      are the shattered crown of a lofty and perpendicular mountain, consecrated
+      to the memory of the brave Roland; below, the trees of an island to which
+      the lady of Roland retired, rise thick and verdant from the smooth tide.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing can exceed the eloquent and wild grandeur of the whole scene. That
+      spot is the pride and beauty of the Rhine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The legend that consecrates the tower and the island is briefly told; it
+      belongs to a class so common to the Romaunts of Germany. Roland goes to
+      the wars. A false report of his death reaches his betrothed. She retires
+      to the convent in the isle of Nonnewerth, and takes the irrevocable veil.
+      Roland returns home, flushed with glory and hope, to find that the very
+      fidelity of his affianced had placed an eternal barrier between them. He
+      built the castle that bears his name, and which overlooks the monastery,
+      and dwelt there till his death,&mdash;happy in the power at least to gaze,
+      even to the last, upon those walls which held the treasure he had lost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The willows droop in mournful luxuriance along the island, and harmonize
+      with the memory that, through the desert of a thousand years, love still
+      keeps green and fresh. Nor hath it permitted even those additions of
+      fiction which, like mosses, gather by time over the truth that they adorn,
+      yet adorning conceal, to mar the simple tenderness of the legend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All was still in the island of Nonnewerth; the lights shone through the
+      trees from the house that contained our travellers. On one smooth spot
+      where the islet shelves into the Rhine met the wandering fairies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Pipalee! how beautiful!&rdquo; cried Nymphalin, as she stood enraptured by
+      the wave, a star-beam shining on her, with her yellow hair &ldquo;dancing its
+      ringlets in the whistling wind.&rdquo; &ldquo;For the first time since our departure I
+      do not miss the green fields of England.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hist!&rdquo; said Pipalee, under her breath; &ldquo;I hear fairy steps,&mdash;they
+      must be the steps of strangers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us retreat into this thicket of weeds,&rdquo; said Nymphalin, somewhat
+      alarmed; &ldquo;the good lord treasurer is already asleep there.&rdquo; They whisked
+      into what to them was a forest, for the reeds were two feet high, and
+      there sure enough they found the lord treasurer stretched beneath a
+      bulrush, with his pipe beside him, for since he had been in Germany he had
+      taken to smoking; and indeed wild thyme, properly dried, makes very good
+      tobacco for a fairy. They also found Nip and Trip sitting very close
+      together, Nip playing with her hair, which was exceedingly beautiful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you do here?&rdquo; said Pipalee, shortly; for she was rather an old
+      maid, and did not like fairies to be too close to each other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Watching my lord&rsquo;s slumber,&rdquo; said Nip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pshaw!&rdquo; said Pipalee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; quoth Trip, blushing like a sea-shell; &ldquo;there is no harm in <i>that</i>,
+      I&rsquo;m sure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush!&rdquo; said the queen, peeping through the reeds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now forth from the green bosom of the earth came a tiny train; slowly,
+      two by two, hand in hand, they swept from a small aperture, shadowed with
+      fragrant herbs, and formed themselves into a ring: then came other
+      fairies, laden with dainties, and presently two beautiful white mushrooms
+      sprang up, on which the viands were placed, and lo, there was a banquet!
+      Oh, how merry they were! what gentle peals of laughter, loud as a virgin&rsquo;s
+      sigh! what jests! what songs! Happy race! if mortals could see you as
+      often as I do, in the soft nights of summer, they would never be at a loss
+      for entertainment. But as our English fairies looked on, they saw that
+      these foreign elves were of a different race from themselves: they were
+      taller and less handsome, their hair was darker, they wore mustaches, and
+      had something of a fiercer air. Poor Nymphalin was a little frightened;
+      but presently soft music was heard floating along, something like the
+      sound we suddenly hear of a still night when a light breeze steals through
+      rushes, or wakes a ripple in some shallow brook dancing over pebbles. And
+      lo, from the aperture of the earth came forth a fay, superbly dressed, and
+      of a noble presence. The queen started back, Pipalee rubbed her eyes, Trip
+      looked over Pipalee&rsquo;s shoulder, and Nip, pinching her arm, cried out
+      amazed, &ldquo;By the last new star, that is Prince von Fayzenheim!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Poor Nymphalin gazed again, and her little heart beat under her bee&rsquo;s-wing
+      bodice as if it would break. The prince had a melancholy air, and he sat
+      apart from the banquet, gazing abstractedly on the Rhine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; whispered Nymphalin to herself, &ldquo;does he think of me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently the prince drew forth a little flute hollowed from a small reed,
+      and began to play a mournful air. Nymphalin listened with delight; it was
+      one he had learned in her dominions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the air was over, the prince rose, and approaching the banqueters,
+      despatched them on different errands; one to visit the dwarf of the
+      Drachenfels, another to look after the grave of Musaeus, and a whole
+      detachment to puzzle the students of Heidelberg. A few launched themselves
+      upon willow leaves on the Rhine to cruise about in the starlight, and an
+      other band set out a hunting after the gray-legged moth. The prince was
+      left alone; and now Nymphalin, seeing the coast clear, wrapped herself up
+      in a cloak made out of a withered leaf; and only letting her eyes glow out
+      from the hood, she glided from the reeds, and the prince turning round,
+      saw a dark fairy figure by his side. He drew back, a little startled, and
+      placed his hand on his sword, when Nymphalin circling round him, sang the
+      following words:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      THE FAIRY&rsquo;S REPROACH.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     I. By the glow-worm&rsquo;s lamp in the dewy brake;
+       By the gossamer&rsquo;s airy net;
+     By the shifting skin of the faithless snake,
+       Oh, teach me to forget:
+             For none, ah none
+     Can teach so well that human spell
+             As thou, false one!
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     II. By the fairy dance on the greensward smooth;
+       By the winds of the gentle west;
+     By the loving stars, when their soft looks soothe
+       The waves on their mother&rsquo;s breast,
+             Teach me thy lore!
+         By which, like withered flowers,
+         The leaves of buried Hours
+           Blossom no more!
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     III. By the tent in the violet&rsquo;s bell;
+       By the may on the scented bough;
+     By the lone green isle where my sisters dwell;
+       And thine own forgotten vow,
+             Teach me to live,
+           Nor feed on thoughts that pine
+           For love so false as thine!
+           Teach me thy lore,
+           And one thou lov&rsquo;st no more
+             Will bless thee and forgive!
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely,&rdquo; said Fayzenheim, faltering, &ldquo;surely I know that voice!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Nymphalin&rsquo;s cloak dropped off her shoulder. &ldquo;My English fairy!&rdquo; and
+      Fayzenheim knelt beside her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I wish you had seen the fay kneel, for you would have sworn it was so like
+      a human lover that you would never have sneered at love afterwards. Love
+      is so fairy-like a part of us, that even a fairy cannot make it
+      differently from us,&mdash;that is to say, when we love truly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was great joy in the island that night among the elves. They
+      conducted Nymphalin to their palace within the earth, and feasted her
+      sumptuously; and Nip told their adventures with so much spirit that he
+      enchanted the merry foreigners. But Fayzenheim talked apart to Nymphalin,
+      and told her how he was lord of that island, and how he had been obliged
+      to return to his dominions by the law of his tribe, which allowed him to
+      be absent only a certain time in every year. &ldquo;But, my queen, I always
+      intended to revisit thee next spring.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou need&rsquo;st not have left us so abruptly,&rdquo; said Nymphalin, blushing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But do <i>thou</i> never leave me!&rdquo; said the ardent fairy; &ldquo;be mine, and
+      let our nuptials be celebrated on these shores. Wouldst thou sigh for thy
+      green island? No! for <i>there</i> the fairy altars are deserted, the
+      faith is gone from the land; thou art among the last of an unhonoured and
+      expiring race. Thy mortal poets are dumb, and Fancy, which was thy
+      priestess, sleeps hushed in her last repose. New and hard creeds have
+      succeeded to the fairy lore. Who steals through the starlit boughs on the
+      nights of June to watch the roundels of thy tribe? The wheels of commerce,
+      the din of trade, have silenced to mortal ear the music of thy subjects&rsquo; 
+      harps! And the noisy habitations of men, harsher than their dreaming
+      sires, are gathering round the dell and vale where thy co-mates linger: a
+      few years, and where will be the green solitudes of England?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The queen sighed, and the prince, perceiving that he was listened to,
+      continued,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who, in thy native shores, among the children of men, now claims the
+      fairy&rsquo;s care? What cradle wouldst thou tend? On what maid wouldst thou
+      shower thy rosy gifts? What barb wouldst thou haunt in his dreams? Poesy
+      is fled the island, why shouldst thou linger behind? Time hath brought
+      dull customs, that laugh at thy gentle being. Puck is buried in the
+      harebell, he hath left no offspring, and none mourn for his loss; for
+      night, which is the fairy season, is busy and garish as the day. What
+      hearth is desolate after the curfew? What house bathed in stillness at the
+      hour in which thy revels commence? Thine empire among men hath passed from
+      thee, and thy race are vanishing from the crowded soil; for, despite our
+      diviner nature, our existence is linked with man&rsquo;s. Their neglect is our
+      disease, their forgetfulness our death. Leave then those dull, yet
+      troubled scenes, that are closing round the fairy rings of thy native
+      isle. These mountains, this herbage, these gliding waves, these mouldering
+      ruins, these starred rivulets, be they, O beautiful fairy! thy new domain.
+      Yet in these lands our worship lingers; still can we fill the thought of
+      the young bard, and mingle with his yearnings after the Beautiful, the
+      Unseen. Hither come the pilgrims of the world, anxious only to gather from
+      these scenes the legends of Us; ages will pass away ere the Rhine shall be
+      desecrated of our haunting presence. Come then, my queen, let this palace
+      be thine own, and the moon that glances over the shattered towers of the
+      Dragon Rock witness our nuptials and our vows!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In such words the fairy prince courted the young queen, and while she
+      sighed at their truth she yielded to their charm. Oh, still may there be
+      one spot on the earth where the fairy feet may press the legendary soil!
+      still be there one land where the faith of The Bright Invisible hallows
+      and inspires! Still glide thou, O majestic and solemn Rhine, among shades
+      and valleys, from which the wisdom of belief can call the creations of the
+      younger world!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XI. WHEREIN THE READER IS MADE SPECTATOR WITH THE ENGLISH
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      FAIRIES OF THE SCENES AND BEINGS THAT ARE BENEATH THE EARTH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      DURING the heat of next day&rsquo;s noon, Fayzenheim took the English visitors
+      through the cool caverns that wind amidst the mountains of the Rhine.
+      There, a thousand wonders awaited the eyes of the fairy queen. I speak not
+      of the Gothic arch and aisle into which the hollow earth forms itself, or
+      the stream that rushes with a mighty voice through the dark chasm, or the
+      silver columns that shoot aloft, worked by the gnomes from the mines of
+      the mountains of Taunus; but of the strange inhabitants that from time to
+      time they came upon. They found in one solitary cell, lined with dried
+      moss, two misshapen elves, of a larger size than common, with a plebeian
+      working-day aspect, who were chatting noisily together, and making a pair
+      of boots: these were the Hausmannen or domestic elves, that dance into
+      tradesmen&rsquo;s houses of a night, and play all sorts of undignified tricks.
+      They were very civil to the queen, for they are good-natured creatures on
+      the whole, and once had many relations in Scotland. They then, following
+      the course of a noisy rivulet, came to a hole from which the sharp head of
+      a fox peeped out. The queen was frightened. &ldquo;Oh, come on,&rdquo; said the fox,
+      encouragingly, &ldquo;I am one of the fairy race, and many are the gambols we of
+      the brute-elves play in the German world of romance.&rdquo; &ldquo;Indeed, Mr. Fox,&rdquo;
+       said the prince, &ldquo;you only speak the truth; and how is Mr. Bruin?&rdquo; &ldquo;Quite
+      well, my prince, but tired of his seclusion; for indeed our race can do
+      little or nothing now in the world; and lie here in our old age, telling
+      stories of the past, and recalling the exploits we did in our youth,&mdash;which,
+      madam, you may see in all the fairy histories in the prince&rsquo;s library.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your own love adventures, for instance, Master Fox,&rdquo; said the prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fox snarled angrily, and drew in his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have displeased your friend,&rdquo; said Nymphalin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; he likes no allusions to the amorous follies of his youth. Did you
+      ever hear of his rivalry with the dog for the cat&rsquo;s good graces?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; that must be very amusing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, my queen, when we rest by and by, I will relate to you the history
+      of the fox&rsquo;s wooing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The next place they came to was a vast Runic cavern, covered with dark
+      inscriptions of a forgotten tongue; and sitting on a huge stone they found
+      a dwarf with long yellow hair, his head leaning on his breast, and
+      absorbed in meditation. &ldquo;This is a spirit of a wise and powerful race,&rdquo;
+       whispered Fayzenheim, &ldquo;that has often battled with the fairies; but he is
+      of the kindly tribe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the dwarf lifted his head with a mournful air; and gazed upon the
+      bright shapes before him, lighted by the pine torches that the prince&rsquo;s
+      attendants carried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what dost thou muse upon, O descendant of the race of Laurin?&rdquo; said
+      the prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Upon TIME!&rdquo; answered the dwarf, gloomily. &ldquo;I see a River, and its waves
+      are black, flowing from the clouds, and none knoweth its source. It rolls
+      deeply on, aye and evermore, through a green valley, which it slowly
+      swallows up, washing away tower and town, and vanquishing all things; and
+      the name of the River is TIME.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the dwarf&rsquo;s head sank on his bosom, and he spoke no more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fairies proceeded. &ldquo;Above us,&rdquo; said the prince, &ldquo;rises one of the
+      loftiest mountains of the Rhine; for mountains are the Dwarf&rsquo;s home. When
+      the Great Spirit of all made earth, he saw that the hollows of the rocks
+      and hills were tenantless, and yet that a mighty kingdom and great palaces
+      were hid within them,&mdash;a dread and dark solitude, but lighted at
+      times from the starry eyes of many jewels; and there was the treasure of
+      the human world&mdash;gold and silver&mdash;and great heaps of gems, and a
+      soil of metals. So God made a race for this vast empire, and gifted them
+      with the power of thought, and the soul of exceeding wisdom, so that they
+      want not the merriment and enterprise of the outer world; but musing in
+      these dark caves is their delight. Their existence rolls away in the
+      luxury of thought; only from time to time they appear in the world, and
+      betoken woe or weal to men,&mdash;according to their nature, for they are
+      divided into two tribes, the benevolent and the wrathful.&rdquo; While the
+      prince spoke, they saw glaring upon them from a ledge in the upper rock a
+      grisly face with a long matted beard. The prince gathered himself up, and
+      frowned at the evil dwarf, for such it was; but with a wild laugh the face
+      abruptly disappeared, and the echo of the laugh rang with a ghastly sound
+      through the long hollows of the earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The queen clung to Fayzenheim&rsquo;s arm. &ldquo;Fear not, my queen,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;The
+      evil race have no power over our light and aerial nature; with men only
+      they war; and he whom we have seen was, in the old ages of the world, one
+      of the deadliest visitors to mankind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But now they came winding by a passage to a beautiful recess in the
+      mountain empire; it was of a circular shape of amazing height; in the
+      midst of it played a natural fountain of sparkling waters, and around it
+      were columns of massive granite, rising in countless vistas, till lost in
+      the distant shade. Jewels were scattered round, and brightly played the
+      fairy torches on the gem, the fountain, and the pale silver, that gleamed
+      at frequent intervals from the rocks. &ldquo;Here let us rest,&rdquo; said the gallant
+      fairy, clapping his hands; &ldquo;what, ho! music and the feast.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So the feast was spread by the fountain&rsquo;s side; and the courtiers
+      scattered rose-leaves, which they had brought with them, for the prince
+      and his visitor; and amidst the dark kingdom of the dwarfs broke the
+      delicate sound of fairy lutes. &ldquo;We have not these evil beings in England,&rdquo;
+       said the queen, as low as she could speak; &ldquo;they rouse my fear, but my
+      interest also. Tell me, dear prince, of what nature was the intercourse of
+      the evil dwarf with man?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know,&rdquo; answered the prince, &ldquo;that to every species of living thing
+      there is something in common; the vast chain of sympathy runs through all
+      creation. By that which they have in common with the beast of the field or
+      the bird of the air, men govern the inferior tribes; they appeal to the
+      common passions of fear and emulation when they tame the wild steed, to
+      the common desire of greed and gain when they snare the fishes of the
+      stream, or allure the wolves to the pitfall by the bleating of the lamb.
+      In their turn, in the older ages of the world, it was by the passions
+      which men had in common with the demon race that the fiends commanded or
+      allured them. The dwarf whom you saw, being of that race which is
+      characterized by the ambition of power and the desire of hoarding,
+      appealed then in his intercourse with men to the same characteristics in
+      their own bosoms,&mdash;to ambition or to avarice. And thus were his
+      victims made! But, not now, dearest Nymphalin,&rdquo; continued the prince, with
+      a more lively air,&mdash;&ldquo;not now will we speak of those gloomy beings.
+      Ho, there! cease the music, and come hither all of ye, to listen to a
+      faithful and homely history of the Dog, the Cat, the Griffin, and the
+      Fox.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XII. THE WOOING OF MASTER FOX.*
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * In the excursions of the fairies, it is the object of the author
+    to bring before the reader a rapid phantasmagoria of the various
+    beings that belong to the German superstitions, so that the work
+    may thus describe the outer and the inner world of the land of
+    the Rhine.  The tale of the Fox&rsquo;s Wooing has been composed to
+    give the English reader an idea of a species of novel not
+    naturalized amongst us, though frequent among the legends of our
+    Irish neighbours; in which the brutes are the only characters
+    drawn,&mdash;drawn too with shades of distinction as nice and subtle
+    as if they were the creatures of the civilized world.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      You are aware, my dear Nymphalin, that in the time of which I am about to
+      speak there was no particular enmity between the various species of
+      brutes; the dog and the hare chatted very agreeably together, and all the
+      world knows that the wolf, unacquainted with mutton, had a particular
+      affection for the lamb. In these happy days, two most respectable cats, of
+      very old family, had an only daughter. Never was kitten more amiable or
+      more seducing; as she grew up she manifested so many charms, that in a
+      little while she became noted as the greatest beauty in the neighbourhood.
+      Need I to you, dearest Nymphalin, describe her perfection? Suffice it to
+      say that her skin was of the most delicate tortoiseshell, that her paws
+      were smoother than velvet, that her whiskers were twelve inches long at
+      the least, and that her eyes had a gentleness altogether astonishing in a
+      cat. But if the young beauty had suitors in plenty during the lives of
+      monsieur and madame, you may suppose the number was not diminished when,
+      at the age of two years and a half, she was left an orphan, and sole
+      heiress to all the hereditary property. In fine, she was the richest
+      marriage in the whole country. Without troubling you, dearest queen, with
+      the adventures of the rest of her lovers, with their suit and their
+      rejection, I come at once to the two rivals most sanguine of success,&mdash;the
+      dog and the fox.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the dog was a handsome, honest, straightforward, affectionate fellow.
+      &ldquo;For my part,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t wonder at my cousin&rsquo;s refusing Bruin the
+      bear, and Gauntgrim the wolf: to be sure they give themselves great airs,
+      and call themselves &lsquo;<i>noble</i>,&rsquo; but what then? Bruin is always in the
+      sulks, and Gauntgrim always in a passion; a cat of any sensibility would
+      lead a miserable life with them. As for me, I am very good-tempered when
+      I&rsquo;m not put out, and I have no fault except that of being angry if
+      disturbed at my meals. I am young and good-looking, fond of play and
+      amusement, and altogether as agreeable a husband as a cat could find in a
+      summer&rsquo;s day. If she marries me, well and good; she may have her property
+      settled on herself: if not, I shall bear her no malice; and I hope I
+      sha&rsquo;n&rsquo;t be too much in love to forget that there are other cats in the
+      world.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With that the dog threw his tail over his back, and set off to his
+      mistress with a gay face on the matter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the fox heard the dog talking thus to himself, for the fox was always
+      peeping about, in holes and corners, and he burst out a laughing when the
+      dog was out of sight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ho, ho, my fine fellow!&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;not so fast, if you please: you&rsquo;ve got
+      the fox for a rival, let me tell you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The fox, as you very well know, is a beast that can never do anything
+      without a manoeuvre; and as, from his cunning, he was generally very lucky
+      in anything he undertook, he did not doubt for a moment that he should put
+      the dog&rsquo;s nose out of joint. Reynard was aware that in love one should
+      always, if possible, be the first in the field; and he therefore resolved
+      to get the start of the dog and arrive before him at the cat&rsquo;s residence.
+      But this was no easy matter; for though Reynard could run faster than the
+      dog for a little way, he was no match for him in a journey of some
+      distance. &ldquo;However,&rdquo; said Reynard, &ldquo;those good-natured creatures are never
+      very wise; and I think I know already what will make him bait on his way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With that, the fox trotted pretty fast by a short cut in the woods, and
+      getting before the dog, laid himself down by a hole in the earth, and
+      began to howl most piteously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dog, hearing the noise, was very much alarmed. &ldquo;See now,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;if
+      the poor fox has not got himself into some scrape! Those cunning creatures
+      are always in mischief; thank Heaven, it never comes into my head to be
+      cunning!&rdquo; And the good-natured animal ran off as hard as he could to see
+      what was the matter with the fox.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, dear!&rdquo; cried Reynard; &ldquo;what shall I do? What shall I do? My poor
+      little sister has fallen into this hole, and I can&rsquo;t get her out; she&rsquo;ll
+      certainly be smothered.&rdquo; And the fox burst out a howling more piteously
+      than before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, my dear Reynard,&rdquo; quoth the dog, very simply, &ldquo;why don&rsquo;t you go in
+      after your sister?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, you may well ask that,&rdquo; said the fox; &ldquo;but, in trying to get in,
+      don&rsquo;t you perceive that I have sprained my back and can&rsquo;t stir? Oh, dear!
+      what shall I do if my poor little sister is smothered!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pray don&rsquo;t vex yourself,&rdquo; said the dog; &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll get her out in an instant.&rdquo;
+       And with that he forced himself with great difficulty into the hole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, no sooner did the fox see that the dog was fairly in, than he rolled
+      a great stone to the mouth of the hole and fitted it so tight, that the
+      dog, not being able to turn round and scratch against it with his
+      forepaws, was made a close prisoner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ha, ha!&rdquo; cried Reynard, laughing outside; &ldquo;amuse yourself with my poor
+      little sister, while I go and make your compliments to Mademoiselle the
+      Cat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With that Reynard set off at an easy pace, never troubling his head what
+      became of the poor dog. When he arrived in the neighbourhood of the
+      beautiful cat&rsquo;s mansion, he resolved to pay a visit to a friend of his, an
+      old magpie that lived in a tree and was well acquainted with all the news
+      of the place. &ldquo;For,&rdquo; thought Reynard, &ldquo;I may as well know the blind side
+      of my mistress that is to be, and get round it at once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The magpie received the fox with great cordiality, and inquired what
+      brought him so great a distance from home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Upon my word,&rdquo; said the fox, &ldquo;nothing so much as the pleasure of seeing
+      your ladyship and hearing those agreeable anecdotes you tell with so
+      charming a grace; but to let you into a secret&mdash;be sure it don&rsquo;t go
+      further&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On the word of a magpie,&rdquo; interrupted the bird.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pardon me for doubting you,&rdquo; continued the fox; &ldquo;I should have
+      recollected that a pie was a proverb for discretion. But, as I was saying,
+      you know her Majesty the lioness?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely,&rdquo; said the magpie, bridling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well; she was pleased to fall in&mdash;that is to say&mdash;to&mdash;to&mdash;take
+      a caprice to your humble servant, and the lion grew so jealous that I
+      thought it prudent to decamp. A jealous lion is no joke, let me assure
+      your ladyship. But mum&rsquo;s the word.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So great a piece of news delighted the magpie. She could not but repay it
+      in kind, by all the news in her budget. She told the fox all the scandal
+      about Bruin and Gauntgrim, and she then fell to work on the poor young
+      cat. She did not spare her foibles, you may be quite sure. The fox
+      listened with great attention, and he learned enough to convince him that
+      however much the magpie might exaggerate, the cat was very susceptible to
+      flattery, and had a great deal of imagination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the magpie had finished she said, &ldquo;But it must be very unfortunate
+      for you to be banished from so magnificent a court as that of the lion?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As to that,&rdquo; answered the fox, &ldquo;I console myself for my exile with a
+      present his Majesty made me on parting, as a reward for my anxiety for his
+      honour and domestic tranquillity; namely, three hairs from the fifth leg
+      of the amoronthologosphorus. Only think of that, ma&rsquo;am!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The what?&rdquo; cried the pie, cocking down her left ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The amoronthologosphorus.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;La!&rdquo; said the magpie; &ldquo;and what is that very long word, my dear Reynard?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The amoronthologosphorus is a beast that lives on the other side of the
+      river Cylinx; it has five legs, and on the fifth leg there are three
+      hairs, and whoever has those three hairs can be young and beautiful
+      forever.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bless me! I wish you would let me see them,&rdquo; said the pie, holding out
+      her claw.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would that I could oblige you, ma&rsquo;am; but it&rsquo;s as much as my life&rsquo;s worth
+      to show them to any but the lady I marry. In fact, they only have an
+      effect on the fair sex, as you may see by myself, whose poor person they
+      utterly fail to improve: they are, therefore, intended for a marriage
+      present, and his Majesty the lion thus generously atoned to me for
+      relinquishing the tenderness of his queen. One must confess that there was
+      a great deal of delicacy in the gift. But you&rsquo;ll be sure not to mention
+      it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A magpie gossip indeed!&rdquo; quoth the old blab.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fox then wished the magpie good night, and retired to a hole to sleep
+      off the fatigues of the day, before he presented himself to the beautiful
+      young cat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning, Heaven knows how! it was all over the place that Reynard
+      the fox had been banished from court for the favour shown him by her
+      Majesty, and that the lion had bribed his departure with three hairs that
+      would make any lady whom the fox married young and beautiful forever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cat was the first to learn the news, and she became all curiosity to
+      see so interesting a stranger, possessed of &ldquo;qualifications&rdquo; which, in the
+      language of the day, &ldquo;would render any animal happy!&rdquo; She was not long
+      without obtaining her wish. As she was taking a walk in the wood the fox
+      contrived to encounter her. You may be sure that he made her his best bow;
+      and he flattered the poor cat with so courtly an air that she saw nothing
+      surprising in the love of the lioness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile let us see what became of his rival, the dog.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, the poor creature!&rdquo; said Nymphalin; &ldquo;it is easy to guess that he need
+      not be buried alive to lose all chance of marrying the heiress.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wait till the end,&rdquo; answered Fayzenheim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the dog found that he was thus entrapped, he gave himself up for
+      lost. In vain he kicked with his hind-legs against the stone,&mdash;he
+      only succeeded in bruising his paws; and at length he was forced to lie
+      down, with his tongue out of his mouth, and quite exhausted. &ldquo;However,&rdquo;
+       said he, after he had taken breath, &ldquo;it won&rsquo;t do to be starved here,
+      without doing my best to escape; and if I can&rsquo;t get out one way, let me
+      see if there is not a hole at the other end.&rdquo; Thus saying, his courage,
+      which stood him in lieu of cunning, returned, and he proceeded on in the
+      same straightforward way in which he always conducted himself. At first
+      the path was exceedingly narrow, and he hurt his sides very much against
+      the rough stones that projected from the earth; but by degrees the way
+      became broader, and he now went on with considerable ease to himself, till
+      he arrived in a large cavern, where he saw an immense griffin sitting on
+      his tail, and smoking a huge pipe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dog was by no means pleased at meeting so suddenly a creature that had
+      only to open his mouth to swallow him up at a morsel; however, he put a
+      bold face on the danger, and walking respectfully up to the griffin, said,
+      &ldquo;Sir, I should be very much obliged to you if you would inform me the way
+      out of these holes into the upper world.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The griffin took the pipe out of his mouth, and looked at the dog very
+      sternly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ho, wretch!&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;how comest thou hither? I suppose thou wantest to
+      steal my treasure; but I know how to treat such vagabonds as you, and I
+      shall certainly eat you up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can do that if you choose,&rdquo; said the dog; &ldquo;but it would be very
+      unhandsome conduct in an animal so much bigger than myself. For my own
+      part, I never attack any dog that is not of equal size,&mdash;I should be
+      ashamed of myself if I did. And as to your treasure, the character I bear
+      for honesty is too well known to merit such a suspicion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Upon my word,&rdquo; said the griffin, who could not help smiling for the life
+      of him, &ldquo;you have a singularly free mode of expressing yourself. And how,
+      I say, came you hither?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the dog, who did not know what a lie was, told the griffin his whole
+      history,&mdash;how he had set off to pay his court to the cat, and how
+      Reynard the fox had entrapped him into the hole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he had finished, the griffin said to him, &ldquo;I see, my friend, that you
+      know how to speak the truth; I am in want of just such a servant as you
+      will make me, therefore stay with me and keep watch over my treasure when
+      I sleep.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Two words to that,&rdquo; said the dog. &ldquo;You have hurt my feelings very much by
+      suspecting my honesty, and I would much sooner go back into the wood and
+      be avenged on that scoundrel the fox, than serve a master who has so ill
+      an opinion of me. I pray you, therefore, to dismiss me, and to put me in
+      the right way to my cousin the cat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not a griffin of many words,&rdquo; answered the master of the cavern,
+      &ldquo;and I give you your choice,&mdash;be my servant or be my breakfast; it is
+      just the same to me. I give you time to decide till I have smoked out my
+      pipe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The poor dog did not take so long to consider. &ldquo;It is true,&rdquo; thought he,
+      &ldquo;that it is a great misfortune to live in a cave with a griffin of so
+      unpleasant a countenance; but, probably, if I serve him well and
+      faithfully, he&rsquo;ll take pity on me some day, and let me go back to earth,
+      and prove to my cousin what a rogue the fox is; and as to the rest, though
+      I would sell my life as dear as I could, it is impossible to fight a
+      griffin with a mouth of so monstrous a size.&rdquo; In short, he decided to stay
+      with the griffin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shake a paw on it,&rdquo; quoth the grim smoker; and the dog shook paws.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now,&rdquo; said the griffin, &ldquo;I will tell you what you are to do. Look
+      here,&rdquo; and moving his tail, he showed the dog a great heap of gold and
+      silver, in a hole in the ground, that he had covered with the folds of his
+      tail; and also, what the dog thought more valuable, a great heap of bones
+      of very tempting appearance. &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; said the griffin, &ldquo;during the day I
+      can take very good care of these myself; but at night it is very necessary
+      that I should go to sleep, so when I sleep you must watch over them
+      instead of me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well,&rdquo; said the dog. &ldquo;As to the gold and silver, I have no
+      objection; but I would much rather that you would lock up the bones, for
+      I&rsquo;m often hungry of a night, and&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hold your tongue,&rdquo; said the griffin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, sir,&rdquo; said the dog, after a short silence, &ldquo;surely nobody ever comes
+      into so retired a situation! Who are the thieves, if I may make bold to
+      ask?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Know,&rdquo; answered the griffin, &ldquo;that there are a great many serpents in
+      this neighbourhood. They are always trying to steal my treasure; and if
+      they catch me napping, they, not contented with theft, would do their best
+      to sting me to death. So that I am almost worn out for want of sleep.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; quoth the dog, who was fond of a good night&rsquo;s rest, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t envy
+      you your treasure, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At night, the griffin, who had a great deal of penetration, and saw that
+      he might depend on the dog, lay down to sleep in another corner of the
+      cave; and the dog, shaking himself well, so as to be quite awake, took
+      watch over the treasure. His mouth watered exceedingly at the bones, and
+      he could not help smelling them now and then; but he said to himself, &ldquo;A
+      bargain&rsquo;s a bargain, and since I have promised to serve the griffin, I
+      must serve him as an honest dog ought to serve.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In the middle of the night he saw a great snake creeping in by the side of
+      the cave; but the dog set up so loud a bark that the griffin awoke, and
+      the snake crept away as fast as he could. Then the griffin was very much
+      pleased, and he gave the dog one of the bones to amuse himself with; and
+      every night the dog watched the treasure, and acquitted himself so well
+      that not a snake, at last, dared to make its appearance,&mdash;so the
+      griffin enjoyed an excellent night&rsquo;s rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dog now found himself much more comfortable than he expected. The
+      griffin regularly gave him one of the bones for supper; and, pleased with
+      his fidelity, made himself as agreeable a master as a griffin could be.
+      Still, however, the dog was secretly very anxious to return to earth; for
+      having nothing to do during the day but to doze on the ground, he dreamed
+      perpetually of his cousin the cat&rsquo;s charms, and, in fancy, he gave the
+      rascal Reynard as hearty a worry as a fox may well have the honour of
+      receiving from a dog&rsquo;s paws. He awoke panting; alas! he could not realize
+      his dreams.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One night, as he was watching as usual over the treasure, he was greatly
+      surprised to see a beautiful little black and white dog enter the cave;
+      and it came fawning to our honest friend, wagging its tail with pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, little one,&rdquo; said our dog, whom, to distinguish, I will call the
+      watch-dog, &ldquo;you had better make the best of your way back again. See,
+      there is a great griffin asleep in the other corner of the cave, and if he
+      wakes, he will either eat you up or make you his servant, as he has made
+      me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know what you would tell me,&rdquo; says the little dog; &ldquo;and I have come
+      down here to deliver you. The stone is now gone from the mouth of the
+      cave, and you have nothing to do but to go back with me. Come, brother,
+      come.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The dog was very much excited by this address. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t ask me, my dear
+      little friend,&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;you must be aware that I should be too happy to
+      escape out of this cold cave, and roll on the soft turf once more: but if
+      I leave my master, the griffin, those cursed serpents, who are always on
+      the watch, will come in and steal his treasure,&mdash;nay, perhaps, sting
+      him to death.&rdquo; Then the little dog came up to the watch-dog, and
+      remonstrated with him greatly, and licked him caressingly on both sides of
+      his face; and, taking him by the ear, endeavoured to draw him from the
+      treasure: but the dog would not stir a step, though his heart sorely
+      pressed him. At length the little dog, finding it all in vain, said,
+      &ldquo;Well, then, if I must leave, good-by; but I have become so hungry in
+      coming down all this way after you, that I wish you would give me one of
+      those bones; they smell very pleasantly, and one out of so many could
+      never be missed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas!&rdquo; said the watchdog, with tears in his eyes, &ldquo;how unlucky I am to
+      have eaten up the bone my master gave me, otherwise you should have had it
+      and welcome. But I can&rsquo;t give you one of these, because my master has made
+      me promise to watch over them all, and I have given him my paw on it. I am
+      sure a dog of your respectable appearance will say nothing further on the
+      subject.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the little dog answered pettishly, &ldquo;Pooh, what nonsense you talk!
+      surely a great griffin can&rsquo;t miss a little bone fit for me?&rdquo; and nestling
+      his nose under the watch-dog, he tried forthwith to bring up one of the
+      bones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On this the watch-dog grew angry, and, though with much reluctance, he
+      seized the little dog by the nape of the neck and threw him off, but
+      without hurting him. Suddenly the little dog changed into a monstrous
+      serpent, bigger even than the griffin himself, and the watch-dog barked
+      with all his might. The griffin rose in a great hurry, and the serpent
+      sprang upon him ere he was well awake. I wish, dearest Nymphalin, you
+      could have seen the battle between the griffin and the serpent,&mdash;how
+      they coiled and twisted, and bit and darted their fiery tongues at each
+      other. At length the serpent got uppermost, and was about to plunge his
+      tongue into that part of the griffin which is unprotected by his scales,
+      when the dog, seizing him by the tail, bit him so sharply that he could
+      not help turning round to kill his new assailant, and the griffin, taking
+      advantage of the opportunity, caught the serpent by the throat with both
+      claws, and fairly strangled him. As soon as the griffin had recovered from
+      the nervousness of the conflict, he heaped all manner of caresses on the
+      dog for saving his life. The dog told him the whole story, and the griffin
+      then explained that the dead snake was the king of the serpents, who had
+      the power to change himself into any shape he pleased. &ldquo;If he had tempted
+      you,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;to leave the treasure but for one moment, or to have given
+      him any part of it, ay, but a single bone, he would have crushed you in an
+      instant, and stung me to death ere I could have waked; but none, no, not
+      the most venomous thing in creation, has power to hurt the honest!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That has always been my belief,&rdquo; answered the dog; &ldquo;and now, sir, you had
+      better go to sleep again and leave the rest to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; answered the griffin, &ldquo;I have no longer need of a servant; for now
+      that the king of the serpents is dead, the rest will never molest me. It
+      was only to satisfy his avarice that his subjects dared to brave the den
+      of the griffin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Upon hearing this the dog was exceedingly delighted; and raising himself
+      on his hind paws, he begged the griffin most movingly to let him return to
+      earth, to visit his mistress the cat, and worry his rival the fox.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You do not serve an ungrateful master,&rdquo; answered the griffin. &ldquo;You shall
+      return, and I will teach you all the craft of our race, which is much
+      craftier than the race of that pettifogger the fox, so that you may be
+      able to cope with your rival.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, excuse me,&rdquo; said the dog, hastily, &ldquo;I am equally obliged to you; but
+      I fancy honesty is a match for cunning any day, and I think myself a great
+      deal safer in being a dog of honour than if I knew all the tricks in the
+      world.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said the griffin, a little piqued at the dog&rsquo;s bluntness, &ldquo;do as
+      you please; I wish you all possible success.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the griffin opened a secret door in the side of the cabin, and the
+      dog saw a broad path that led at once into the wood. He thanked the
+      griffin with all his heart, and ran wagging his tail into the open
+      moonlight. &ldquo;Ah, ah, master fox,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;there&rsquo;s no trap for an honest
+      dog that has not two doors to it, cunning as you think yourself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With that he curled his tail gallantly over his left leg, and set off on a
+      long trot to the cat&rsquo;s house. When he was within sight of it, he stopped
+      to refresh himself by a pool of water, and who should be there but our
+      friend the magpie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what do <i>you</i> want, friend?&rdquo; said she, rather disdainfully, for
+      the dog looked somewhat out of case after his journey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am going to see my cousin the cat,&rdquo; answered he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;<i>Your cousin</i>! marry come up,&rdquo; said the magpie; &ldquo;don&rsquo;t you know she
+      is going to be married to Reynard the fox? This is not a time for her to
+      receive the visits of a brute like you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      These words put the dog in such a passion that he very nearly bit the
+      magpie for her uncivil mode of communicating such bad news. However, he
+      curbed his temper, and, without answering her, went at once to the cat&rsquo;s
+      residence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cat was sitting at the window, and no sooner did the dog see her than
+      he fairly lost his heart; never had he seen so charming a cat before. He
+      advanced, wagging his tail, and with his most insinuating air, when the
+      cat, getting up, clapped the window in his face, and lo! Reynard the fox
+      appeared in her stead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come out, thou rascal!&rdquo; said the dog, showing his teeth; &ldquo;come out, I
+      challenge thee to single combat; I have not forgiven thy malice, and thou
+      seest that I am no longer shut up in the cave, and unable to punish thee
+      for thy wickedness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go home, silly one!&rdquo; answered the fox, sneering; &ldquo;thou hast no business
+      here, and as for fighting thee&mdash;bah!&rdquo; Then the fox left the window
+      and disappeared. But the dog, thoroughly enraged, scratched lustily at the
+      door, and made such a noise, that presently the cat herself came to the
+      window.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How now!&rdquo; said she, angrily; &ldquo;what means all this rudeness? Who are you,
+      and what do you want at my house?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, my dear cousin,&rdquo; said the dog, &ldquo;do not speak so severely. Know that I
+      have come here on purpose to pay you a visit; and, whatever you do, let me
+      beseech you not to listen to that villain Reynard,&mdash;you have no
+      conception what a rogue he is!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What!&rdquo; said the cat, blushing; &ldquo;do you dare to abuse your betters in this
+      fashion? I see you have a design on me. Go, this instant, or&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Enough, madam,&rdquo; said the dog, proudly; &ldquo;you need not speak twice to me,&mdash;farewell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And he turned away very slowly, and went under a tree, where he took up
+      his lodgings for the night. But the next morning there was an amazing
+      commotion in the neighbourhood; a stranger, of a very different style of
+      travelling from that of the dog, had arrived at the dead of the night, and
+      fixed his abode in a large cavern hollowed out of a steep rock. The noise
+      he had made in flying through the air was so great that it had awakened
+      every bird and beast in the parish; and Reynard, whose bad conscience
+      never suffered him to sleep very soundly, putting his head out of the
+      window, perceived, to his great alarm, that the stranger was nothing less
+      than a monstrous griffin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the griffins are the richest beasts in the world; and that&rsquo;s the
+      reason they keep so close under ground. Whenever it does happen that they
+      pay a visit above, it is not a thing to be easily forgotten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The magpie was all agitation. What could the griffin possibly want there?
+      She resolved to take a peep at the cavern, and accordingly she hopped
+      timorously up the rock, and pretended to be picking up sticks for her
+      nest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Holla, ma&rsquo;am!&rdquo; cried a very rough voice, and she saw the griffin putting
+      his head out of the cavern. &ldquo;Holla! you are the very lady I want to see;
+      you know all the people about here, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All the best company, your lordship, I certainly do,&rdquo; answered the
+      magpie, dropping a courtesy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upon this the griffin walked out; and smoking his pipe leisurely in the
+      open air, in order to set the pie at her ease, continued,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are there any respectable beasts of good families settled in this
+      neighbourhood?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, most elegant society, I assure your lordship,&rdquo; cried the pie. &ldquo;I have
+      lived here myself these ten years, and the great heiress, the cat yonder,
+      attracts a vast number of strangers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Humph! heiress, indeed! much you know about heiresses!&rdquo; said the griffin.
+      &ldquo;There is only one heiress in the world, and that&rsquo;s my daughter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bless me! has your lordship a family? I beg you a thousand pardons; but I
+      only saw your lordship&rsquo;s own equipage last night, and did not know you
+      brought any one with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My daughter went first, and was safely lodged before I arrived. She did
+      not disturb you, I dare say, as I did; for she sails along like a swan:
+      but I have got the gout in my left claw, and that&rsquo;s the reason I puff and
+      groan so in taking a journey.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall I drop in upon Miss Griffin, and see how she is after her journey?&rdquo;
+       said the pie, advancing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank you, no. I don&rsquo;t intend her to be seen while I stay here,&mdash;it
+      unsettles her; and I&rsquo;m afraid of the young beasts running away with her if
+      they once heard how handsome she was: she&rsquo;s the living picture of me, but
+      she&rsquo;s monstrous giddy! Not that I should care much if she did go off with
+      a beast of degree, were I not obliged to pay her portion, which is
+      prodigious; and I don&rsquo;t like parting with money, ma&rsquo;am, when I&rsquo;ve once got
+      it. Ho, ho, ho!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are too witty, my lord. But if you refused your consent?&rdquo; said the
+      pie, anxious to know the whole family history of so grand a seigneur.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should have to pay the dowry all the same. It was left her by her uncle
+      the dragon. But don&rsquo;t let this go any further.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your lordship may depend on my secrecy. I wish your lordship a very good
+      morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Away flew the pie, and she did not stop till she got to the cat&rsquo;s house.
+      The cat and the fox were at breakfast, and the fox had his paw on his
+      heart. &ldquo;Beautiful scene!&rdquo; cried the pie; the cat coloured, and bade the
+      pie take a seat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then off went the pie&rsquo;s tongue, glib, glib, glib, chatter, chatter,
+      chatter. She related to them the whole story of the griffin and his
+      daughter, and a great deal more besides, that the griffin had never told
+      her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cat listened attentively. Another young heiress in the neighbourhood
+      might be a formidable rival. &ldquo;But is this griffiness handsome?&rdquo; said she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Handsome!&rdquo; cried the pie; &ldquo;oh, if you could have seen the father!&mdash;such
+      a mouth, such eyes, such a complexion; and he declares she&rsquo;s the living
+      picture of himself! But what do you say, Mr. Reynard,&mdash;you, who have
+      been so much in the world, have, perhaps, seen the young lady?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, I can&rsquo;t say I have,&rdquo; answered the fox, waking from a revery; &ldquo;but
+      she must be wonderfully rich. I dare say that fool the dog will be making
+      up to her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, by the way,&rdquo; said the pie, &ldquo;what a fuss he made at your door
+      yesterday; why would you not admit him, my dear?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh,&rdquo; said the cat, demurely, &ldquo;Mr. Reynard says that he is a dog of very
+      bad character, quite a fortune-hunter; and hiding the most dangerous
+      disposition to bite under an appearance of good nature. I hope he won&rsquo;t be
+      quarrelsome with you, dear Reynard!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With me? Oh, the poor wretch, no!&mdash;he might bluster a little; but he
+      knows that if I&rsquo;m once angry I&rsquo;m a devil at biting;&mdash;one should not
+      boast of oneself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In the evening Reynard felt a strange desire to go and see the griffin
+      smoking his pipe; but what could he do? There was the dog under the
+      opposite tree evidently watching for him, and Reynard had no wish to prove
+      himself that devil at biting which he declared he was. At last he resolved
+      to have recourse to stratagem to get rid of the dog.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A young buck of a rabbit, a sort of provincial fop, had looked in upon his
+      cousin the cat, to pay her his respects, and Reynard, taking him aside,
+      said, &ldquo;You see that shabby-looking dog under the tree? He has behaved very
+      ill to your cousin the cat, and you certainly ought to challenge him.
+      Forgive my boldness, nothing but respect for your character induces me to
+      take so great a liberty; you know I would chastise the rascal myself, but
+      what a scandal it would make! If I were already married to your cousin, it
+      would be a different thing. But you know what a story that cursed magpie
+      would hatch out of it!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The rabbit looked very foolish; he assured the fox he was no match for the
+      dog; that he was very fond of his cousin, to be sure! but he saw no
+      necessity to interfere with her domestic affairs; and, in short, he tried
+      all he possibly could to get out of the scrape; but the fox so artfully
+      played on his vanity, so earnestly assured him that the dog was the
+      biggest coward in the world and would make a humble apology, and so
+      eloquently represented to him the glory he would obtain for manifesting so
+      much spirit, that at length the rabbit was persuaded to go out and deliver
+      the challenge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be your second,&rdquo; said the fox; &ldquo;and the great field on the other
+      side the wood, two miles hence, shall be the place of battle: there we
+      shall be out of observation. You go first, I&rsquo;ll follow in half an hour;
+      and I say, hark!&mdash;in case he does accept the challenge, and you feel
+      the least afraid, I&rsquo;ll be in the field, and take it off your paws with the
+      utmost pleasure; rely on <i>me</i>, my dear sir!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Away went the rabbit. The dog was a little astonished at the temerity of
+      the poor creature; but on hearing that the fox was to be present,
+      willingly consented to repair to the place of conflict. This readiness the
+      rabbit did not at all relish; he went very slowly to the field, and seeing
+      no fox there, his heart misgave him; and while the dog was putting his
+      nose to the ground to try if he could track the coming of the fox, the
+      rabbit slipped into a burrow, and left the dog to walk back again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile the fox was already at the rock; he walked very soft-footedly,
+      and looked about with extreme caution, for he had a vague notion that a
+      griffin-papa would not be very civil to foxes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now there were two holes in the rock,&mdash;one below, one above, an upper
+      story and an under; and while the fox was peering about, he saw a great
+      claw from the upper rock beckoning to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, ah!&rdquo; said the fox, &ldquo;that&rsquo;s the wanton young griffiness, I&rsquo;ll swear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He approached, and a voice said,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Charming Mr. Reynard, do you not think you could deliver an unfortunate
+      griffiness from a barbarous confinement in this rock?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, heavens!&rdquo; cried the fox, tenderly, &ldquo;what a beautiful voice! and, ah,
+      my poor heart, what a lovely claw! Is it possible that I hear the daughter
+      of my lord, the great griffin?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush, flatterer! not so loud, if you please. My father is taking an
+      evening stroll, and is very quick of hearing. He has tied me up by my poor
+      wings in the cavern, for he is mightily afraid of some beast running away
+      with me. You know I have all my fortune settled on myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Talk not of fortune,&rdquo; said the fox; &ldquo;but how can I deliver you? Shall I
+      enter and gnaw the cord?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas!&rdquo; answered the griffiness, &ldquo;it is an immense chain I am bound with.
+      However, you may come in and talk more at your ease.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The fox peeped cautiously all round, and seeing no sign of the griffin, he
+      entered the lower cave and stole upstairs to the upper story; but as he
+      went on, he saw immense piles of jewels and gold, and all sorts of
+      treasure, so that the old griffin might well have laughed at the poor cat
+      being called an heiress. The fox was greatly pleased at such indisputable
+      signs of wealth, and he entered the upper cave, resolved to be transported
+      with the charms of the griffiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was, however, a great chasm between the landing-place and the spot
+      where the young lady was chained, and he found it impossible to pass; the
+      cavern was very dark, but he saw enough of the figure of the griffiness to
+      perceive, in spite of her petticoat, that she was the image of her father,
+      and the most hideous heiress that the earth ever saw!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, he swallowed his disgust, and poured forth such a heap of
+      compliments that the griffiness appeared entirely won.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He implored her to fly with him the first moment she was unchained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is impossible,&rdquo; said she; &ldquo;for my father never unchains me except in
+      his presence, and then I cannot stir out of his sight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The wretch!&rdquo; cried Reynard, &ldquo;what is to be done?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, there is only one thing I know of,&rdquo; answered the griffiness, &ldquo;which
+      is this: I always make his soup for him, and if I could mix something in
+      it that would put him fast to sleep before he had time to chain me up
+      again I might slip down and carry off all the treasure below on my back.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Charming!&rdquo; exclaimed Reynard; &ldquo;what invention! what wit! I will go and
+      get some poppies directly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas!&rdquo; said the griffiness, &ldquo;poppies have no effect upon griffins. The
+      only thing that can ever put my father fast to sleep is a nice young cat
+      boiled up in his soup; it is astonishing what a charm that has upon him!
+      But where to get a cat?&mdash;it must be a maiden cat too!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Reynard was a little startled at so singular an opiate. &ldquo;But,&rdquo; thought he,
+      &ldquo;griffins are not like the rest of the world, and so rich an heiress is
+      not to be won by ordinary means.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do know a cat,&mdash;a maiden cat,&rdquo; said he, after a short pause; &ldquo;but
+      I feel a little repugnance at the thought of having her boiled in the
+      griffin&rsquo;s soup. Would not a dog do as well?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, base thing!&rdquo; said the griffiness, appearing to weep; &ldquo;you are in love
+      with the cat, I see it; go and marry her, poor dwarf that she is, and
+      leave me to die of grief.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In vain the fox protested that he did not care a straw for the cat;
+      nothing could now appease the griffiness but his positive assurance that
+      come what would poor puss should be brought to the cave and boiled for the
+      griffin&rsquo;s soup.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how will you get her here?&rdquo; said the griffiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, leave that to me,&rdquo; said Reynard. &ldquo;Only put a basket out of the window
+      and draw it up by a cord; the moment it arrives at the window, be sure to
+      clap your claw on the cat at once, for she is terribly active.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tush!&rdquo; answered the heiress; &ldquo;a pretty griffiness I should be if I did
+      not know how to catch a cat!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this must be when your father is out?&rdquo; said Reynard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly; he takes a stroll every evening at sunset.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let it be to-morrow, then,&rdquo; said Reynard, impatient for the treasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This being arranged, Reynard thought it time to decamp. He stole down the
+      stairs again, and tried to filch some of the treasure by the way; but it
+      was too heavy for him to carry, and he was forced to acknowledge to
+      himself that it was impossible to get the treasure without taking the
+      griffiness (whose back seemed prodigiously strong) into the bargain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He returned home to the cat, and when he entered her house, and saw how
+      ordinary everything looked after the jewels in the griffin&rsquo;s cave, he
+      quite wondered how he had ever thought the cat had the least pretensions
+      to good looks. However, he concealed his wicked design, and his mistress
+      thought he had never appeared so amiable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only guess,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;where I have been!&mdash;to our new neighbour the
+      griffin; a most charming person, thoroughly affable, and quite the air of
+      the court. As for that silly magpie, the griffin saw her character at
+      once; and it was all a hoax about his daughter,&mdash;he has no daughter
+      at all. You know, my dear, hoaxing is a fashionable amusement among the
+      great. He says he has heard of nothing but your beauty, and on my telling
+      him we were going to be married, he has insisted upon giving a great ball
+      and supper in honour of the event. In fact, he is a gallant old fellow,
+      and dying to see you. Of course, I was obliged to accept the invitation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You could not do otherwise,&rdquo; said the unsuspecting young creature, who,
+      as I before said, was very susceptible to flattery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And only think how delicate his attentions are,&rdquo; said the fox. &ldquo;As he is
+      very badly lodged for a beast of his rank, and his treasure takes up the
+      whole of the ground floor, he is forced to give the <i>fete</i> in the
+      upper story, so he hangs out a basket for his guests, and draws them up
+      with his own claw. How condescending! But the great <i>are</i> so
+      amiable!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The cat, brought up in seclusion, was all delight at the idea of seeing
+      such high life, and the lovers talked of nothing else all the next day,&mdash;when
+      Reynard, towards evening, putting his head out of the window, saw his old
+      friend the dog lying as usual and watching him very grimly. &ldquo;Ah, that
+      cursed creature! I had quite forgotten him; what is to be done now? He
+      would make no bones of me if he once saw me set foot out of doors.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With that, the fox began to cast in his head how he should get rid of his
+      rival, and at length he resolved on a very notable project; he desired the
+      cat to set out first, and wait for him at a turn in the road a little way
+      off. &ldquo;For,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;if we go together we shall certainly be insulted by
+      the dog; and he will know that in the presence of a lady, the custom of a
+      beast of my fashion will not suffer me to avenge the affront. But when I
+      am alone, the creature is such a coward that he will not dare say his
+      soul&rsquo;s his own; leave the door open and I&rsquo;ll follow immediately.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The cat&rsquo;s mind was so completely poisoned against her cousin that she
+      implicitly believed this account of his character; and accordingly, with
+      many recommendations to her lover not to sully his dignity by getting into
+      any sort of quarrel with the dog, she set off first.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dog went up to her very humbly, and begged her to allow him to say a
+      few words to her; but she received him so haughtily, that his spirit was
+      up; and he walked back to the tree more than ever enraged against his
+      rival. But what was his joy when he saw that the cat had left the door
+      open! &ldquo;Now, wretch,&rdquo; thought he, &ldquo;you cannot escape me!&rdquo; So he walked
+      briskly in at the back door. He was greatly surprised to find Reynard
+      lying down in the straw, panting as if his heart would break, and rolling
+      his eyes in the pangs of death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, friend,&rdquo; said the fox, with a faltering voice, &ldquo;you are avenged, my
+      hour is come; I am just going to give up the ghost: put your paw upon
+      mine, and say you forgive me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Despite his anger, the generous dog could not set tooth on a dying foe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have served me a shabby trick,&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;you have left me to starve
+      in a hole, and you have evidently maligned me with my cousin: certainly I
+      meant to be avenged on you; but if you are really dying, that alters the
+      affair.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, oh!&rdquo; groaned the fox, very bitterly; &ldquo;I am past help; the poor cat is
+      gone for Doctor Ape, but he&rsquo;ll never come in time. What a thing it is to
+      have a bad conscience on one&rsquo;s death-bed! But wait till the cat returns,
+      and I&rsquo;ll do you full justice with her before I die.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The good-natured dog was much moved at seeing his mortal enemy in such a
+      state, and endeavoured as well as he could to console him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, oh!&rdquo; said the fox; &ldquo;I am so parched in the throat, I am burning;&rdquo; and
+      he hung his tongue out of his mouth, and rolled his eyes more fearfully
+      than ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is there no water here?&rdquo; said the dog, looking round.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas, no!&mdash;yet stay! yes, now I think of it, there is some in that
+      little hole in the wall; but how to get at it! It is so high that I can&rsquo;t,
+      in my poor weak state, climb up to it; and I dare not ask such a favour of
+      one I have injured so much.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t talk of it,&rdquo; said the dog: &ldquo;but the hole&rsquo;s very small, I could not
+      put my nose through it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; but if you just climb up on that stone, and thrust your paw into the
+      hole, you can dip it into the water, and so cool my poor parched mouth.
+      Oh, what a thing it is to have a bad conscience!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The dog sprang upon the stone, and, getting on his hind legs, thrust his
+      front paw into the hole; when suddenly Reynard pulled a string that he had
+      concealed under the straw, and the dog found his paw caught tight to the
+      wall in a running noose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, rascal!&rdquo; said he, turning round; but the fox leaped up gayly from the
+      straw, and fastening the string with his teeth to a nail in the other end
+      of the wall, walked out, crying, &ldquo;Good-by, my dear friend; have a care how
+      you believe hereafter in sudden conversions!&rdquo; So he left the dog on his
+      hind legs to take care of the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Reynard found the cat waiting for him where he had appointed, and they
+      walked lovingly together till they came to the cave. It was now dark, and
+      they saw the basket waiting below; the fox assisted the poor cat into it.
+      &ldquo;There is only room for one,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;you must go first!&rdquo; Up rose the
+      basket; the fox heard a piteous mew, and no more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So much for the griffin&rsquo;s soup!&rdquo; thought he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He waited patiently for some time, when the griffiness, waving her claw
+      from the window, said cheerfully, &ldquo;All&rsquo;s right, my dear Reynard; my papa
+      has finished his soup, and sleeps as sound as a rock! All the noise in the
+      world would not wake him now, till he has slept off the boiled cat, which
+      won&rsquo;t be these twelve hours. Come and assist me in packing up the
+      treasure; I should be sorry to leave a single diamond behind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So should I,&rdquo; quoth the fox. &ldquo;Stay, I&rsquo;ll come round by the lower hole:
+      why, the door&rsquo;s shut! pray, beautiful griffiness, open it to thy impatient
+      adorer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas, my father has hid the key! I never know where he places it. You
+      must come up by the basket; see, I will lower it for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The fox was a little loth to trust himself in the same conveyance that had
+      taken his mistress to be boiled; but the most cautious grow rash when
+      money&rsquo;s to be gained, and avarice can trap even a fox. So he put himself
+      as comfortably as he could into the basket, and up he went in an instant.
+      It rested, however, just before it reached the window, and the fox felt,
+      with a slight shudder, the claw of the griffiness stroking his back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, what a beautiful coat!&rdquo; quoth she, caressingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are too kind,&rdquo; said the fox; &ldquo;but you can feel it more at your
+      leisure when I am once up. Make haste, I beseech you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, what a beautiful bushy tail! Never did I feel such a tail.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is entirely at your service, sweet griffiness,&rdquo; said the fox; &ldquo;but
+      pray let me in. Why lose an instant?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, never did I feel such a tail! No wonder you are so successful with
+      the ladies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, beloved griffiness, my tail is yours to eternity, but you pinch it a
+      little too hard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Scarcely had he said this, when down dropped the basket, but not with the
+      fox in it; he found himself caught by the tail, and dangling half way down
+      the rock, by the help of the very same sort of pulley wherewith he had
+      snared the dog. I leave you to guess his consternation; he yelped out as
+      loud as he could,&mdash;for it hurts a fox exceedingly to be hanged by his
+      tail with his head downwards,&mdash;when the door of the rock opened, and
+      out stalked the griffin himself, smoking his pipe, with a vast crowd of
+      all the fashionable beasts in the neighbourhood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oho, brother,&rdquo; said the bear, laughing fit to kill himself; &ldquo;who ever saw
+      a fox hanged by the tail before?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll have need of a physician,&rdquo; quoth Doctor Ape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A pretty match, indeed; a griffiness for such a creature as you!&rdquo; said
+      the goat, strutting by him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fox grinned with pain, and said nothing. But that which hurt him most
+      was the compassion of a dull fool of a donkey, who assured him with great
+      gravity that he saw nothing at all to laugh at in his situation!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At all events,&rdquo; said the fox, at last, &ldquo;cheated, gulled, betrayed as I
+      am, I have played the same trick to the dog. Go and laugh at him,
+      gentlemen; he deserves it as much as I can, I assure you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pardon me,&rdquo; said the griffin, taking the pipe out of his mouth; &ldquo;one
+      never laughs at the honest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And see,&rdquo; said the bear, &ldquo;here he is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And indeed the dog had, after much effort, gnawed the string in two, and
+      extricated his paw; the scent of the fox had enabled him to track his
+      footsteps, and here he arrived, burning for vengeance and finding himself
+      already avenged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But his first thought was for his dear cousin. &ldquo;Ah, where is she?&rdquo; he
+      cried movingly; &ldquo;without doubt that villain Reynard has served her some
+      scurvy trick.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fear so indeed, my old friend,&rdquo; answered the griffin; &ldquo;but don&rsquo;t
+      grieve,&mdash;after all, she was nothing particular. You shall marry my
+      daughter the griffiness, and succeed to all the treasure; ay, and all the
+      bones that you once guarded so faithfully.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Talk not to me,&rdquo; said the faithful dog. &ldquo;I want none of your treasure;
+      and, though I don&rsquo;t mean to be rude, your griffiness may go to the devil.
+      I will run over the world, but I will find my dear cousin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See her then,&rdquo; said the griffin; and the beautiful cat, more beautiful
+      than ever, rushed out of the cavern, and threw herself into the dog&rsquo;s
+      paws.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A pleasant scene this for the fox! He had skill enough in the female heart
+      to know that it may excuse many little infidelities, but to be boiled
+      alive for a griffin&rsquo;s soup&mdash;no, the offence was inexpiable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You understand me, Mr. Reynard,&rdquo; said the griffin, &ldquo;I have no daughter,
+      and it was me you made love to. Knowing what sort of a creature a magpie
+      is, I amused myself with hoaxing her,&mdash;the fashionable amusement at
+      court, you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The fox made a mighty struggle, and leaped on the ground, leaving his tail
+      behind him. It did not grow again in a hurry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See,&rdquo; said the griffin, as the beasts all laughed at the figure Reynard
+      made running into the wood, &ldquo;the dog beats the fox with the ladies, after
+      all; and cunning as he is in everything else, the fox is the last creature
+      that should ever think of making love!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Charming!&rdquo; cried Nymphalin, clasping her hands; &ldquo;it is just the sort of
+      story I like.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I suppose, sir,&rdquo; said Nip, pertly, &ldquo;that the dog and the cat lived
+      very happily ever afterwards? Indeed the nuptial felicity of a dog and cat
+      is proverbial!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I dare say they lived much the same as any other married couple,&rdquo;
+       answered the prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIII. THE TOMB OF A FATHER OF MANY CHILDREN.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE feast being now ended, as well as the story, the fairies wound their
+      way homeward by a different path, till at length a red steady light glowed
+      through the long basaltic arches upon them, like the Demon Hunters&rsquo; fires
+      in the Forest of Pines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The prince sobered in his pace. &ldquo;You approach,&rdquo; said he, in a grave tone,
+      &ldquo;the greatest of our temples; you will witness the tomb of a mighty
+      founder of our race!&rdquo; An awe crept over the queen, in spite of herself.
+      Tracking the fires in silence, they came to a vast space, in the midst of
+      which was a long gray block of stone, such as the traveller finds amidst
+      the dread silence of Egyptian Thebes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And on this stone lay the gigantic figure of a man,&mdash;dead, but not
+      death-like, for invisible spells had preserved the flesh and the long hair
+      for untold ages; and beside him lay a rude instrument of music, and at his
+      feet was a sword and a hunter&rsquo;s spear; and above, the rock wound, hollowed
+      and roofless, to the upper air, and daylight came through, sickened and
+      pale, beneath red fires that burned everlastingly around him, on such
+      simple altars as belong to a savage race. But the place was not solitary,
+      for many motionless but not lifeless shapes sat on large blocks of stone
+      beside the tomb. There was the wizard, wrapped in his long black mantle,
+      and his face covered with his hands; there was the uncouth and deformed
+      dwarf, gibbering to himself; there sat the household elf; there glowered
+      from a gloomy rent in the wall, with glittering eyes and shining scale,
+      the enormous dragon of the North. An aged crone in rags, leaning on a
+      staff, and gazing malignantly on the visitors, with bleared but fiery
+      eyes, stood opposite the tomb of the gigantic dead. And now the fairies
+      themselves completed the group! But all was dumb and unutterably silent,&mdash;the
+      silence that floats over some antique city of the desert, when, for the
+      first time for a hundred centuries, a living foot enters its desolate
+      remains; the silence that belongs to the dust of eld,&mdash;deep, solemn,
+      palpable, and sinking into the heart with a leaden and death-like weight.
+      Even the English fairy spoke not; she held her breath, and gazing on the
+      tomb, she saw, in rude vast characters,&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     THE TEUTON.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;<i>We</i> are all that remain of his religion!&rdquo; said the prince, as they
+      turned from the dread temple.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIV. THE FAIRY&rsquo;S CAVE, AND THE FAIRY&rsquo;S WISH.
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      IT was evening; and the fairies were dancing beneath the twilight star.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why art thou sad, my violet?&rdquo; said the prince; &ldquo;for thine eyes seek
+      the ground!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now that I have found thee,&rdquo; answered the queen, &ldquo;and now that I feel
+      what happy love is to a fairy, I sigh over that love which I have lately
+      witnessed among mortals, but the bud of whose happiness already conceals
+      the worm. For well didst thou say, my prince, that we are linked with a
+      mysterious affinity to mankind, and whatever is pure and gentle amongst
+      them speaks at once to our sympathy, and commands our vigils.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And most of all,&rdquo; said the German fairy, &ldquo;are they who love under our
+      watch; for love is the golden chain that binds all in the universe: love
+      lights up alike the star and the glow-worm; and wherever there is love in
+      men&rsquo;s lot, lies the secret affinity with men, and with things divine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But with the human race,&rdquo; said Nymphalin, &ldquo;there is no love that outlasts
+      the hour, for either death ends, or custom alters. When the blossom comes
+      to fruit, it is plucked and seen no more; and therefore, when I behold
+      true love sentenced to an early grave, I comfort myself that I shall not
+      at least behold the beauty dimmed, and the softness of the heart hardened
+      into stone. Yet, my prince, while still the pulse can beat, and the warm
+      blood flow, in that beautiful form which I have watched over of late, let
+      me not desert her; still let my influence keep the sky fair, and the
+      breezes pure; still let me drive the vapour from the moon, and the clouds
+      from the faces of the stars; still let me fill her dreams with tender and
+      brilliant images, and glass in the mirror of sleep the happiest visions of
+      fairy-land; still let me pour over her eyes that magic, which suffers them
+      to see no fault in one in whom she has garnered up her soul! And as death
+      comes slowly on, still let me rob the spectre of its terror, and the grave
+      of its sting; so that, all gently and unconscious to herself, life may
+      glide into the Great Ocean where the shadows lie, and the spirit without
+      guile may be severed from its mansion without pain!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The wish of the fairy was fulfilled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XV. THE BANKS OF THE RHINE.&mdash;FROM THE DRACHENFELS TO BROHL.&mdash;AN
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      INCIDENT THAT SUFFICES IN THIS TALE FOR AN EPOCH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      FROM the Drachenfels commences the true glory of the Rhine; and once more
+      Gertrude&rsquo;s eyes conquered the languor that crept gradually over them as
+      she gazed on the banks around.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fair blew the breeze, and freshly curled the waters; and Gertrude did not
+      feel the vulture that had fixed its talons within her breast. The Rhine
+      widens, like a broad lake, between the Drachenfels and Unkel; villages are
+      scattered over the extended plain on the left; on the right is the Isle of
+      Werth and the houses of Oberwinter; the hills are covered with vines; and
+      still Gertrude turned back with a lingering gaze to the lofty crest of the
+      Seven Hills.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On, on&mdash;and the spires of Unkel rose above a curve in the banks, and
+      on the opposite shore stretched those wondrous basaltic columns which
+      extend to the middle of the river, and when the Rhine runs low, you may
+      see them like an engulfed city beneath the waves. You then view the ruins
+      of Okkenfels, and hear the voice of the pastoral Gasbach pouring its
+      waters into the Rhine. From amidst the clefts of the rocks the vine peeps
+      luxuriantly forth, and gives a richness and colouring to what Nature, left
+      to herself, intended for the stern.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But turn your eye backward to the right,&rdquo; said Trevylyan; &ldquo;those banks
+      were formerly the special haunt of the bold robbers of the Rhine, and from
+      amidst the entangled brakes that then covered the ragged cliffs they
+      rushed upon their prey. In the gloomy canvas of those feudal days what
+      vigorous and mighty images were crowded! A robber&rsquo;s life amidst these
+      mountains, and beside this mountain stream, must have been the very poetry
+      of the spot carried into action.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They rested at Brohl, a small town between two mountains. On the summit of
+      one you see the gray remains of Rheinech. There is something weird and
+      preternatural about the aspect of this place; its soil betrays signs that
+      in the former ages (from which even tradition is fast fading away) some
+      volcano here exhausted its fires. The stratum of the earth is black and
+      pitchy, and the springs beneath it are of a dark and graveolent water.
+      Here the stream of the Brohlbach falls into the Rhine, and in a valley
+      rich with oak and pine, and full of caverns, which are not without their
+      traditionary inmates, stands the castle of Schweppenbourg, which our party
+      failed not to visit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gertrude felt fatigued on their return, and Trevylyan sat by her in the
+      little inn, while Vane went forth, with the curiosity of science, to
+      examine the strata of the soil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They conversed in the frankness of their plighted troth upon those topics
+      which are only for lovers: upon the bright chapter in the history of their
+      love; their first meeting; their first impressions; the little incidents
+      in their present journey,&mdash;incidents noticed by themselves alone;
+      that life <i>within</i> life which two persons know together,&mdash;which
+      one knows not without the other, which ceases to both the instant they are
+      divided.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know not what the love of others may be,&rdquo; said Gertrude, &ldquo;but ours
+      seems different from all of which I have read. Books tell us of jealousies
+      and misconstructions, and the necessity of an absence, the sweetness of a
+      quarrel; but we, dearest Albert, have had no experience of these passages
+      in love. <i>We</i> have never misunderstood each other; <i>we</i> have no
+      reconciliation to look back to. When was there ever occasion for me to ask
+      forgiveness from you? Our love is made up only of one memory,&mdash;unceasing
+      kindness! A harsh word, a wronging thought, never broke in upon the
+      happiness we have felt and feel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dearest Gertrude,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, &ldquo;that character of our love is caught
+      from you; you, the soft, the gentle, have been its pervading genius; and
+      the well has been smooth and pure, for you were the spirit that lived
+      within its depths.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And to such talk succeeded silence still more sweet,&mdash;the silence of
+      the hushed and overflowing heart. The last voices of the birds, the sun
+      slowly sinking in the west, the fragrance of descending dews, filled them
+      with that deep and mysterious sympathy which exists between Love and
+      Nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was after such a silence&mdash;a long silence, that seemed but as a
+      moment&mdash;that Trevylyan spoke, but Gertrude answered not; and,
+      yearning once more for her sweet voice, he turned and saw that she had
+      fainted away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the first indication of the point to which her increasing
+      debility had arrived. Trevylyan&rsquo;s heart stood still, and then beat
+      violently; a thousand fears crept over him; he clasped her in his arms,
+      and bore her to the open window. The setting sun fell upon her
+      countenance, from which the play of the young heart and warm fancy had
+      fled, and in its deep and still repose the ravages of disease were darkly
+      visible. What were then his emotions! His heart was like stone; but he
+      felt a rush as of a torrent to his temples: his eyes grew dizzy,&mdash;he
+      was stunned by the greatness of his despair. For the last week he had
+      taken hope for his companion; Gertrude had seemed so much stronger, for
+      her happiness had given her a false support. And though there had been
+      moments when, watching the bright hectic come and go, and her step linger,
+      and the breath heave short, he had felt the hope suddenly cease, yet never
+      had he known till now that fulness of anguish, that dread certainty of the
+      worst, which the calm, fair face before him struck into his soul; and
+      mixed with this agony as he gazed was all the passion of the most ardent
+      love. For there she lay in his arms, the gentle breath rising from lips
+      where the rose yet lingered, and the long, rich hair, soft and silken as
+      an infant&rsquo;s, stealing from its confinement: everything that belonged to
+      Gertrude&rsquo;s beauty was so inexpressibly soft and pure and youthful!
+      Scarcely seventeen, she seemed much younger than she was; her figure had
+      sunken from its roundness, but still how light, how lovely were its
+      wrecks! the neck whiter than snow, the fair small hand! Her weight was
+      scarcely felt in the arms of her lover; and he&mdash;what a contrast!&mdash;was
+      in all the pride and flower of glorious manhood! His was the lofty brow,
+      the wreathing hair, the haughty eye, the elastic form; and upon this
+      frail, perishable thing had he fixed all his heart, all the hopes of his
+      youth, the pride of his manhood, his schemes, his energies, his ambition!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Gertrude!&rdquo; cried he, &ldquo;is it&mdash;is it thus&mdash;is there indeed no
+      hope?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Gertrude now slowly recovering, and opening her eyes upon Trevylyan&rsquo;s
+      face, the revulsion was so great, his emotions so overpowering, that,
+      clasping her to his bosom, as if even death should not tear her away from
+      him, he wept over her in an agony of tears; not those tears that relieve
+      the heart, but the fiery rain of the internal storm, a sign of the fierce
+      tumult that shook the very core of his existence, not a relief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Awakened to herself, Gertrude, in amazement and alarm, threw her arms
+      around his neck, and, looking wistfully into his face, implored him to
+      speak to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was it my illness, love?&rdquo; said she; and the music of her voice only
+      conveyed to him the thought of how soon it would be dumb to him forever.
+      &ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; she continued winningly, &ldquo;it was but the heat of the day; I am
+      better now,&mdash;I am well; there is no cause to be alarmed for me!&rdquo; and
+      with all the innocent fondness of extreme youth, she kissed the burning
+      tears from his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a playfulness, an innocence in this poor girl, so unconscious as
+      yet of her destiny, which rendered her fate doubly touching, and which to
+      the stern Trevylyan, hackneyed by the world, made her irresistible charm;
+      and now as she put aside her hair, and looked up gratefully, yet
+      pleadingly, into his face, he could scarce refrain from pouring out to her
+      the confession of his anguish and despair. But the necessity of
+      self-control, the necessity of concealing from <i>her</i> a knowledge
+      which might only, by impressing her imagination, expedite her doom, while
+      it would embitter to her mind the unconscious enjoyment of the hour,
+      nerved and manned him. He checked by those violent efforts which only men
+      can make, the evidence of his emotions; and endeavoured, by a rapid
+      torrent of words, to divert her attention from a weakness, the causes of
+      which he could not explain. Fortunately Vane soon returned, and Trevylyan,
+      consigning Gertrude to his care, hastily left the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gertrude sank into a revery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, dear father!&rdquo; said she, suddenly, and after a pause, &ldquo;if I indeed
+      were worse than I have thought myself of late, if I were to die now, what
+      would Trevylyan feel? Pray God I may live for his sake!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My child, do not talk thus; you are better, much better than you were.
+      Ere the autumn ends, Trevylyan&rsquo;s happiness will be your lawful care. Do
+      not think so despondently of yourself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought not of myself,&rdquo; sighed Gertrude, &ldquo;but of <i>him</i>!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVI. GERTRUDE.&mdash;THE EXCURSION TO HAMMERSTEIN.&mdash;THOUGHTS.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE next day they visited the environs of Brohl. Gertrude was unusually
+      silent; for her temper, naturally sunny and enthusiastic, was accustomed
+      to light up everything she saw. Ah, once how bounding was that step! how
+      undulating the young graces of that form! how playfully once danced the
+      ringlets on that laughing cheek! But she clung to Trevylyan&rsquo;s proud form
+      with a yet more endearing tenderness than was her wont, and hung yet more
+      eagerly on his words; her hand sought his, and she often pressed it to her
+      lips, and sighed as she did so. Something that she would not tell seemed
+      passing within her, and sobered her playful mood. But there was this
+      noticeable in Gertrude: whatever took away from her gayety increased her
+      tenderness. The infirmities of her frame never touched her temper. She was
+      kind, gentle, loving to the last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had crossed to the opposite banks, to visit the Castle of
+      Hammerstein. The evening was transparently serene and clear; and the
+      warmth of the sun yet lingered upon the air, even though the twilight had
+      passed and the moon risen, as their boat returned by a lengthened passage
+      to the village. Broad and straight flows the Rhine in this part of its
+      career. On one side lay the wooded village of Namedy, the hamlet of
+      Fornech, backed by the blue rock of Kruezborner Ley, the mountains that
+      shield the mysterious Brohl; and on the opposite shore they saw the mighty
+      rock of Hammerstein, with the green and livid ruins sleeping in the
+      melancholy moonlight. Two towers rose haughtily above the more dismantled
+      wrecks. How changed since the alternate banners of the Spaniard and the
+      Swede waved from their ramparts, in that great war in which the gorgeous
+      Wallenstein won his laurels! And in its mighty calm flowed on the
+      ancestral Rhine, the vessel reflected on its smooth expanse; and above,
+      girded by thin and shadowy clouds, the moon cast her shadows upon rocks
+      covered with verdure, and brought into a dim light the twin spires of
+      Andernach, tranquil in the distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How beautiful is this hour!&rdquo; said Gertrude, with a low voice, &ldquo;surely we
+      do not live enough in the night; one half the beauty of the world is slept
+      away. What in the day can equal the holy calm, the loveliness, and the
+      stillness which the moon now casts over the earth? These,&rdquo; she continued,
+      pressing Trevylyan&rsquo;s hand, &ldquo;are hours to remember; and <i>you</i>&mdash;will
+      you ever forget them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Something there is in recollections of such times and scenes that seem not
+      to belong to real life, but are rather an episode in its history; they are
+      like some wandering into a more ideal world; they refuse to blend with our
+      ruder associations; they live in us, apart and alone, to be treasured
+      ever, but not lightly to be recalled. There are none living to whom we can
+      confide them,&mdash;who can sympathize with what then we felt? It is this
+      that makes poetry, and that page which we create as a confidant to
+      ourselves, necessary to the thoughts that weigh upon the breast. We write,
+      for our writing is our friend, the inanimate paper is our confessional; we
+      pour forth on it the thoughts that we could tell to no private ear, and
+      are relieved, are consoled. And if genius has one prerogative dearer than
+      the rest, it is that which enables it to do honour to the dead,&mdash;to
+      revive the beauty, the virtue that are no more; to wreathe chaplets that
+      outlive the day around the urn which were else forgotten by the world!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the poet mourns, in his immortal verse, for the dead, tell me not
+      that fame is in his mind! It is filled by thoughts, by emotions that shut
+      out the living. He is breathing to his genius&mdash;to that sole and
+      constant friend which has grown up with him from his cradle&mdash;the
+      sorrows too delicate for human sympathy! and when afterwards he consigns
+      the confession to the crowd, it is indeed from the hope of honour&mdash;,
+      honour not for himself, but for the being that is no more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVII. LETTER FROM TREVYLYAN TO &mdash;&mdash;-.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                         COBLENTZ.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      I AM obliged to you, my dear friend, for your letter; which, indeed, I
+      have not, in the course of our rapid journey, had the leisure, perhaps the
+      heart, to answer before. But we are staying in this town for some days,
+      and I write now in the early morning, ere any one else in our hotel is
+      awake. Do not tell me of adventure, of politics, of intrigues; my nature
+      is altered. I threw down your letter, animated and brilliant as it was,
+      with a sick and revolted heart. But I am now in somewhat less dejected
+      spirits. Gertrude is better,&mdash;yes, really better; there is a
+      physician here who gives me hope; my care is perpetually to amuse, and
+      never to fatigue her,&mdash;never to permit her thoughts to rest upon
+      herself. For I have imagined that illness cannot, at least in the
+      unexhausted vigour of our years, fasten upon us irremediably unless we
+      feed it with our own belief in its existence. You see men of the most
+      delicate frames engaged in active and professional pursuits, who literally
+      have no time for illness. Let them become idle, let them take care of
+      themselves, let them think of their health&mdash;and they die! The rust
+      rots the steel which use preserves; and, thank Heaven, although Gertrude,
+      once during our voyage, seemed roused, by an inexcusable imprudence of
+      emotion on my part, into some suspicion of her state, yet it passed away;
+      for she thinks rarely of herself,&mdash;I am ever in her thoughts and
+      seldom from her side, and you know, too, the sanguine and credulous nature
+      of her disease. But, indeed, I now hope more than I have done since I knew
+      her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When, after an excited and adventurous life which had comprised so many
+      changes in so few years, I found myself at rest in the bosom of a retired
+      and remote part of the country, and Gertrude and her father were my only
+      neighbours, I was in that state of mind in which the passions, recruited
+      by solitude, are accessible to the purer and more divine emotions. I was
+      struck by Gertrude&rsquo;s beauty, I was charmed by her simplicity. Worn in the
+      usages and fashions of the world, the inexperience, the trustfulness, the
+      exceeding youth of her mind, charmed and touched me; but when I saw the
+      stamp of our national disease in her bright eye and transparent cheek, I
+      felt my love chilled while my interest was increased. I fancied myself
+      safe, and I went daily into the danger; I imagined so pure a light could
+      not burn, and I was consumed. Not till my anxiety grew into pain, my
+      interest into terror, did I know the secret of my own heart; and at the
+      moment that I discovered this secret, I discovered also that Gertrude
+      loved me! What a destiny was mine! what happiness, yet what misery!
+      Gertrude was my own&mdash;but for what period? I might touch that soft
+      hand, I might listen to the tenderest confession from that silver voice;
+      but all the while my heart spoke of passion, my reason whispered of death.
+      You know that I am considered of a cold and almost callous nature, that I
+      am not easily moved into affection; but my very pride bowed me here into
+      weakness. There was so soft a demand upon my protection, so constant an
+      appeal to my anxiety. You know that my father&rsquo;s quick temper burns within
+      me, that I am hot, and stern, and exacting; but one hasty word, one
+      thought of myself, here were inexcusable. So brief a time might be left
+      for her earthly happiness,&mdash;could I embitter one moment? All that
+      feeling of uncertainty which should in prudence have prevented my love,
+      increased it almost to a preternatural excess. That which it is said
+      mothers feel for an only child in sickness, I feel for Gertrude. <i>My</i>
+      existence is not!&mdash;I exist in her!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her illness increased upon her at home; they have recommended travel. She
+      chose the course we were to pursue, and, fortunately, it was so familiar
+      to me, that I have been enabled to brighten the way. I am ever on the
+      watch that she shall not know a weary hour; you would almost smile to see
+      how I have roused myself from my habitual silence, and to find me&mdash;me,
+      the scheming and worldly actor of real life&mdash;plunged back into the
+      early romance of my boyhood, and charming the childish delight of Gertrude
+      with the invention of fables and the traditions of the Rhine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But I believe that I have succeeded in my object; if not, what is left to
+      me? <i>Gertrude is better!</i>&mdash;In that sentence what visions of hope
+      dawn upon me! I wish you could have seen Gertrude before we left England;
+      you might then have understood my love for her. Not that we have not, in
+      the gay capitals of Europe, paid our brief vows to forms more richly
+      beautiful; not that we have not been charmed by a more brilliant genius,
+      by a more tutored grace. But there is that in Gertrude which I never saw
+      before,&mdash;the union of the childish and the intellectual, an ethereal
+      simplicity, a temper that is never dimmed, a tenderness&mdash;O God! let
+      me not speak of her virtues, for they only tell me how little she is
+      suited to the earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You will direct to me at Mayence, whither our course now leads us, and
+      your friendship will find indulgence for a letter that is so little a
+      reply to yours.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Your sincere friend,
+
+          A. G. TREVYLYAN.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVIII. COBLENTZ.&mdash;EXCURSION TO THE MOUNTAINS OF TAUNUS; ROMAN
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TOWER IN THE VALLEY OF EHRENBREITSTEIN.&mdash;TRAVEL, ITS PLEASURES
+      ESTIMATED DIFFERENTLY BY THE YOUNG AND THE OLD.&mdash;THE STUDENT OF
+      HEIDELBERG; HIS CRITICISMS ON GERMAN LITERATURE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      GERTRUDE had, indeed, apparently rallied during their stay at Coblentz;
+      and a French physician established in the town (who adopted a peculiar
+      treatment for consumption, which had been attended with no ordinary
+      success) gave her father and Trevylyan a sanguine assurance of her
+      ultimate recovery. The time they passed within the white walls of Coblentz
+      was, therefore, the happiest and most cheerful part of their pilgrimage.
+      They visited the various places in its vicinity; but the excursion which
+      most delighted Gertrude was one to the mountains of Taunus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They took advantage of a beautiful September day; and, crossing the river,
+      commenced their tour from the Thal, or valley of Ehrenbreitstein. They
+      stopped on their way to view the remains of a Roman tower in the valley;
+      for the whole of that district bears frequent witness of the ancient
+      conquerors of the world. The mountains of Taunus are still intersected
+      with the roads which the Romans cut to the mines that supplied them with
+      silver. Roman urns and inscribed stones are often found in these ancient
+      places. The stones, inscribed with names utterly unknown,&mdash;a type of
+      the uncertainty of fame! the urns, from which the dust is gone, a very
+      satire upon life!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lone, gray, and mouldering, this tower stands aloft in the valley; and the
+      quiet Vane smiled to see the uniform of a modern Prussian, with his white
+      belt and lifted bayonet, by the spot which had once echoed to the clang of
+      the Roman arms. The soldier was paying a momentary court to a country
+      damsel, whose straw hat and rustic dress did not stifle the vanity of the
+      sex; and this rude and humble gallantry, in that spot, was another moral
+      in the history of human passions. Above, the ramparts of a modern rule
+      frowned down upon the solitary tower, as if in the vain insolence with
+      which present power looks upon past decay,&mdash;the living race upon
+      ancestral greatness. And indeed, in this respect, rightly! for modern
+      times have no parallel to that degradation of human dignity stamped upon
+      the ancient world by the long sway of the Imperial Harlot, all slavery
+      herself, yet all tyranny to earth; and, like her own Messalina, at once a
+      prostitute and an empress!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They continued their course by the ancient baths of Ems, and keeping by
+      the banks of the romantic Lahn, arrived at Holzapfel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; said Gertrude, one day, as they proceeded to the springs of the
+      Carlovingian Wiesbaden, &ldquo;surely perpetual travel with those we love must
+      be the happiest state of existence! If home has its comforts, it also has
+      its cares; but here we are at home with Nature, and the minor evils vanish
+      almost before they are felt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, &ldquo;we escape from &lsquo;THE LITTLE,&rsquo; which is the curse
+      of life; the small cares that devour us up, the grievances of the day. We
+      are feeding the divinest part of our nature,&mdash;the appetite to
+      admire.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But of all things wearisome,&rdquo; said Vane, &ldquo;a succession of changes is the
+      most. There can be a monotony in variety itself. As the eye aches in
+      gazing long at the new shapes of the kaleidoscope, the mind aches at the
+      fatigue of a constant alternation of objects; and we delightedly return to
+      &lsquo;REST,&rsquo; which is to life what green is to the earth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In the course of their sojourn among the various baths of Taunus, they
+      fell in, by accident, with a German student of Heidelberg, who was
+      pursuing the pedestrian excursions so peculiarly favoured by his tribe. He
+      was tamer and gentler than the general herd of those young wanderers, and
+      our party were much pleased with his enthusiasm, because it was
+      unaffected. He had been in England, and spoke its language almost as a
+      native.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our literature,&rdquo; said he, one day, conversing with Vane, &ldquo;has two faults,&mdash;we
+      are too subtle and too homely. We do not speak enough to the broad
+      comprehension of mankind; we are forever making abstract qualities of
+      flesh and blood. Our critics have turned your &lsquo;Hamlet&rsquo; into an allegory;
+      they will not even allow Shakspeare to paint mankind, but insist on his
+      embodying qualities. They turn poetry into metaphysics, and truth seems to
+      them shallow, unless an allegory, which is false, can be seen at the
+      bottom. Again, too, with our most imaginative works we mix a homeliness
+      that we fancy touching, but which in reality is ludicrous. We eternally
+      step from the sublime to the ridiculous; we want taste.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But not, I hope, French taste. Do not govern a Goethe, or even a Richter,
+      by a Boileau!&rdquo; said Trevylyan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; but Boileau&rsquo;s taste was false. Men who have the reputation for good
+      taste often acquire it solely because of the want of genius. By taste I
+      mean a quick tact into the harmony of composition, the art of making the
+      whole consistent with its parts, the <i>concinnitas</i>. Schiller alone of
+      our authors has it. But we are fast mending; and by following shadows so
+      long we have been led at last to the substance. Our past literature is to
+      us what astrology was to science,&mdash;false but ennobling, and
+      conducting us to the true language of the intellectual heaven.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Another time the scenes they passed, interspersed with the ruins of
+      frequent monasteries, leading them to converse on the monastic life, and
+      the various additions time makes to religion, the German said: &ldquo;Perhaps
+      one of the works most wanted in the world is the history of Religion. We
+      have several books, it is true, on the subject, but none that supply the
+      want I allude to. A German ought to write it; for it is, probably, only a
+      German that would have the requisite learning. A German only, too, is
+      likely to treat the mighty subject with boldness, and yet with veneration;
+      without the shallow flippancy of the Frenchman, without the timid
+      sectarianism of the English. It would be a noble task, to trace the
+      winding mazes of antique falsehood; to clear up the first glimmerings of
+      divine truth; to separate Jehovah&rsquo;s word from man&rsquo;s invention; to
+      vindicate the All-merciful from the dread creeds of bloodshed and of fear:
+      and, watching in the great Heaven of Truth the dawning of the True Star,
+      follow it&mdash;like the Magi of the East&mdash;till it rested above the
+      real God. Not indeed presuming to such a task,&rdquo; continued the German, with
+      a slight blush, &ldquo;I have about me a humble essay, which treats only of one
+      part of that august subject; which, leaving to a loftier genius the
+      history of the true religion, may be considered as the history of a false
+      one,&mdash;of such a creed as Christianity supplanted in the North; or
+      such as may perhaps be found among the fiercest of the savage tribes. It
+      is a fiction&mdash;as you may conceive; but yet, by a constant reference
+      to the early records of human learning, I have studied to weave it up from
+      truths. If you would like to hear it,&mdash;it is very short&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Above all things,&rdquo; said Vane; and the German drew a manuscript neatly
+      bound from his pocket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;After having myself criticised so insolently the faults of our national
+      literature,&rdquo; said he, smiling, &ldquo;you will have a right to criticise the
+      faults that belong to so humble a disciple of it; but you will see that,
+      though I have commenced with the allegorical or the supernatural, I have
+      endeavoured to avoid the subtlety of conceit, and the obscurity of design,
+      which I blame in the wilder of our authors. As to the style, I wished to
+      suit it to the subject; it ought to be, unless I err, rugged and massive,&mdash;hewn,
+      as it were, out of the rock of primeval language. But you, madam&mdash;doubtless
+      you do not understand German?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Her mother was an Austrian,&rdquo; said Vane; &ldquo;and she knows at least enough of
+      the tongue to understand you; so pray begin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Without further preface, the German then commenced the story, which the
+      reader will find translated* in the next chapter.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * Nevertheless I beg to state seriously, that the German student
+    is an impostor; and that he has no right to wrest the parentage
+    of the fiction from the true author.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIX. THE FALLEN STAR; OR THE HISTORY OF A FALSE RELIGION.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      AND the STARS sat, each on his ruby throne, and watched with sleepless
+      eyes upon the world. It was the night ushering in the new year, a night on
+      which every star receives from the archangel that then visits the
+      universal galaxy its peculiar charge. The destinies of men and empires are
+      then portioned forth for the coming year, and, unconsciously to ourselves,
+      our fates become minioned to the stars. A hushed and solemn night is that
+      in which the dark gates of time open to receive the ghost of the Dead
+      Year, and the young and radiant Stranger rushes forth from the clouded
+      chasms of Eternity. On that night, it is said that there are given to the
+      spirits that we see not a privilege and a power; the dead are troubled in
+      their forgotten graves, and men feast and laugh, while demon and angel are
+      contending for their doom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was night in heaven; all was unutterably silent; the music of the
+      spheres had paused, and not a sound came from the angels of the stars; and
+      they who sat upon those shining thrones were three thousand and ten, each
+      resembling each. Eternal youth clothed their radiant limbs with celestial
+      beauty, and on their faces was written the dread of calm,&mdash;that
+      fearful stillness which feels not, sympathizes not with the doom over
+      which it broods. War, tempest, pestilence, the rise of empires and their
+      fall, they ordain, they compass, unexultant and uncompassionate. The fell
+      and thrilling crimes that stalk abroad when the world sleeps,&mdash;the
+      parricide with his stealthy step and horrent brow and lifted knife; the
+      unwifed mother that glides out and looks behind, and behind, and shudders,
+      and casts her babe upon the river, and hears the wail, and pities not&mdash;the
+      splash, and does not tremble,&mdash;these the starred kings behold, to
+      these they lead the unconscious step; but the guilt blanches not their
+      lustre, neither doth remorse wither their unwrinkled youth. Each star wore
+      a kingly diadem; round the loins of each was a graven belt, graven with
+      many and mighty signs; and the foot of each was on a burning ball, and the
+      right arm drooped over the knee as they bent down from their thrones. They
+      moved not a limb or feature, save the finger of the right hand, which ever
+      and anon moved slowly pointing, and regulated the fates of men as the hand
+      of the dial speaks the career of time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One only of the three thousand and ten wore not the same aspect as his
+      crowned brethren,&mdash;a star smaller than the rest, and less luminous;
+      the countenance of this star was not impressed with the awful calmness of
+      the others, but there were sullenness and discontent upon his mighty brow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And this star said to himself, &ldquo;Behold! I am created less glorious than my
+      fellows, and the archangel apportions not to me the same lordly destinies.
+      Not for me are the dooms of kings and bards, the rulers of empires, or,
+      yet nobler, the swayers and harmonists of souls. Sluggish are the spirits
+      and base the lot of the men I am ordained to lead through a dull life to a
+      fameless grave. And wherefore? Is it mine own fault, or is it the fault
+      which is not mine, that I was woven of beams less glorious than my
+      brethren? Lo! when the archangel comes, I will bow not my crowned head to
+      his decrees. I will speak, as the ancestral Lucifer before me: <i>he</i>
+      rebelled because of his glory, <i>I</i> because of my obscurity; <i>he</i>
+      from the ambition of pride, and <i>I</i> from its discontent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And while the star was thus communing with himself, the upward heavens
+      were parted as by a long river of light, and adown that stream swiftly,
+      and without sound, sped the archangel visitor of the stars. His vast limbs
+      floated in the liquid lustre, and his outspread wings, each plume the
+      glory of a sun, bore him noiselessly along; but thick clouds veiled his
+      lustre from the eyes of mortals, and while above all was bathed in the
+      serenity of his splendour, tempest and storm broke below over the children
+      of the earth: &ldquo;He bowed the heavens and came down, and darkness was under
+      his feet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the stillness on the faces of the stars became yet more still, and the
+      awfulness was humbled into awe. Right above their thrones paused the
+      course of the archangel; and his wings stretched from east to west,
+      overshadowing with the shadow of light the immensity of space. Then forth,
+      in the shining stillness, rolled the dread music of his voice: and,
+      fulfilling the heraldry of God, to each star he appointed the duty and the
+      charge; and each star bowed his head yet lower as he heard the fiat, while
+      his throne rocked and trembled at the Majesty of the Word. But at last,
+      when each of the brighter stars had, in succession, received the mandate,
+      and the viceroyalty over the nations of the earth, the purple and diadems
+      of kings, the archangel addressed the lesser star as he sat apart from his
+      fellows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Behold,&rdquo; said the archangel, &ldquo;the rude tribes of the North, the fishermen
+      of the river that flows beneath, and the hunters of the forests that
+      darken the mountain tops with verdure! these be thy charge, and their
+      destinies thy care. Nor deem thou, O Star of the sullen beams, that thy
+      duties are less glorious than the duties of thy brethren; for the peasant
+      is not less to thy master and mine than the monarch; nor doth the doom of
+      empires rest more upon the sovereign than on the herd. The passions and
+      the heart are the dominion of the stars,&mdash;a mighty realm; nor less
+      mighty beneath the hide that garbs the shepherd than under the jewelled
+      robes of the eastern kings.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the star lifted his pale front from his breast, and answered the
+      archangel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lo!&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;ages have passed, and each year thou hast appointed me to
+      the same ignoble charge. Release me, I pray thee, from the duties that I
+      scorn; or, if thou wilt that the lowlier race of men be my charge, give
+      unto me the charge not of many, but of one, and suffer me to breathe into
+      him the desire that spurns the valleys of life, and ascends its steeps. If
+      the humble are given to me, let there be amongst them one whom I may lead
+      on the mission that shall abase the proud; for, behold, O Appointer of the
+      Stars, as I have sat for uncounted years upon my solitary throne, brooding
+      over the things beneath, my spirit hath gathered wisdom from the changes
+      that shift below. Looking upon the tribes of earth, I have seen how the
+      multitude are swayed, and tracked the steps that lead weakness into power;
+      and fain would I be the ruler of one who, if abased, shall aspire to
+      rule.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As a sudden cloud over the face of noon was the change on the brow of the
+      archangel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Proud and melancholy star,&rdquo; said the herald, &ldquo;thy wish would war with the
+      courses of the invisible DESTINY, that, throned far above, sways and
+      harmonizes all,&mdash;the source from which the lesser rivers of fate are
+      eternally gushing through the heart of the universe of things. Thinkest
+      thou that thy wisdom, of itself, can lead the peasant to become a king?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the crowned star gazed undauntedly on the face of the archangel, and
+      answered,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yea! Grant me but one trial!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ere the archangel could reply, the farthest centre of the Heaven was rent
+      as by a thunderbolt; and the divine herald covered his face with his
+      hands, and a voice low and sweet and mild, with the consciousness of
+      unquestionable power, spoke forth to the repining star.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The time has arrived when thou mayest have thy wish. Below thee, upon yon
+      solitary plain, sits a mortal, gloomy as thyself, who, born under thy
+      influence, may be moulded to thy will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The voice ceased as the voice of a dream. Silence was over the seas of
+      space, and the archangel, once more borne aloft, slowly soared away into
+      the farther heaven, to promulgate the divine bidding to the stars of
+      far-distant worlds. But the soul of the discontented star exulted within
+      itself; and it said, &ldquo;I will call forth a king from the valley of the
+      herdsman that shall trample on the kings subject to my fellows, and render
+      the charge of the contemned star more glorious than the minions of its
+      favoured brethren; thus shall I revenge neglect! thus shall I prove my
+      claim hereafter to the heritage of the great of earth!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      .......
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that time, though the world had rolled on for ages, and the pilgrimage
+      of man had passed through various states of existence, which our dim
+      traditionary knowledge has not preserved, yet the condition of our race in
+      the northern hemisphere was then what we, in our imperfect lore, have
+      conceived to be among the earliest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      .......
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By a rude and vast pile of stones, the masonry of arts forgotten, a lonely
+      man sat at midnight, gazing upon the heavens. A storm had just passed from
+      the earth; the clouds had rolled away, and the high stars looked down upon
+      the rapid waters of the Rhine; and no sound save the roar of the waves,
+      and the dripping of the rain from the mighty trees, was heard around the
+      ruined pile. The white sheep lay scattered on the plain, and slumber with
+      them. He sat watching over the herd, lest the foes of a neighbouring tribe
+      seized them unawares, and thus he communed with himself: &ldquo;The king sits
+      upon his throne, and is honoured by a warrior race, and the warrior exults
+      in the trophies he has won; the step of the huntsman is bold upon the
+      mountain-top, and his name is sung at night round the pine-fires by the
+      lips of the bard; and the bard himself hath honour in the hall. But I, who
+      belong not to the race of kings, and whose limbs can bound not to the
+      rapture of war, nor scale the eyries of the eagle and the haunts of the
+      swift stag; whose hand cannot string the harp, and whose voice is harsh in
+      the song,&mdash;<i>I</i> have neither honour nor command, and men bow not
+      the head as I pass along; yet do I feel within me the consciousness of a
+      great power that should rule my species&mdash;not obey. My eye pierces the
+      secret hearts of men. I see their thoughts ere their lips proclaim them;
+      and I scorn, while I see, the weakness and the vices which I never shared.
+      I laugh at the madness of the warrior; I mock within my soul at the
+      tyranny of kings. Surely there is something in man&rsquo;s nature more fitted to
+      command, more worthy of renown, than the sinews of the arm, or the
+      swiftness of the feet, or the accident of birth!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As Morven, the son of Osslah, thus mused within himself, still looking at
+      the heavens, the solitary man beheld a star suddenly shooting from its
+      place, and speeding through the silent air, till it suddenly paused right
+      over the midnight river, and facing the inmate of the pile of stones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he gazed upon the star, strange thoughts grew slowly over him. He
+      drank, as it were, from its solemn aspect the spirit of a great design. A
+      dark cloud rapidly passing over the earth snatched the star from his
+      sight, but left to his awakened mind the thoughts and the dim scheme that
+      had come to him as he gazed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the sun arose, one of his brethren relieved him of his charge over
+      the herd, and he went away, but not to his father&rsquo;s home. Musingly he
+      plunged into the dark and leafless recesses of the winter forest; and
+      shaped out of his wild thoughts, more palpably and clearly, the outline of
+      his daring hope. While thus absorbed he heard a great noise in the forest,
+      and, fearful lest the hostile tribe of the Alrich might pierce that way,
+      he ascended one of the loftiest pine-trees, to whose perpetual verdure the
+      winter had not denied the shelter he sought; and, concealed by its
+      branches, he looked anxiously forth in the direction whence the noise had
+      proceeded. And IT came,&mdash;it came with a tramp and a crash, and a
+      crushing tread upon the crunched boughs and matted leaves that strewed the
+      soil; it came, it came,&mdash;the monster that the world now holds no
+      more,&mdash;the mighty Mammoth of the North! Slowly it moved its huge
+      strength along, and its burning eyes glittered through the gloomy shade;
+      its jaws, falling apart, showed the grinders with which it snapped asunder
+      the young oaks of the forest; and the vast tusks, which, curved downward
+      to the midst of its massive limbs, glistened white and ghastly, curdling
+      the blood of one destined hereafter to be the dreadest ruler of the men of
+      that distant age.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The livid eyes of the monster fastened on the form of the herdsman, even
+      amidst the thick darkness of the pine. It paused, it glared upon him; its
+      jaws opened, and a low deep sound, as of gathering thunder, seemed to the
+      son of Osslah as the knell of a dreadful grave. But after glaring on him
+      for some moments, it again, and calmly, pursued its terrible way, crashing
+      the boughs as it marched along, till the last sound of its heavy tread
+      died away upon his ear.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * <i>The Critic</i> will perceive that this sketch of the beast, whose
+    race has perished, is mainly intended to designate the remote
+    period of the world in which the tale is cast.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Ere yet, however, Morven summoned the courage to descend the tree, he saw
+      the shining of arms through the bare branches of the wood, and presently a
+      small band of the hostile Alrich came into sight. He was perfectly hidden
+      from them; and, listening as they passed him, he heard one say to another,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The night covers all things; why attack them by day?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And he who seemed the chief of the band, answered,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Right. To-night, when they sleep in their city, we will upon them. Lo!
+      they will be drenched in wine, and fall like sheep into our hands.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But where, O chief,&rdquo; said a third of the band, &ldquo;shall our men hide during
+      the day? for there are many hunters among the youth of the Oestrich tribe,
+      and they might see us in the forest unawares, and arm their race against
+      our coming.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have prepared for that,&rdquo; answered the chief. &ldquo;Is not the dark cavern of
+      Oderlin at hand? Will it not shelter us from the eyes of the victims?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the men laughed, and, shouting, they went their way adown the forest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they were gone, Morven cautiously descended, and, striking into a
+      broad path, hastened to a vale that lay between the forest and the river
+      in which was the city where the chief of his country dwelt. As he passed
+      by the warlike men, giants in that day, who thronged the streets (if
+      streets they might be called), their half garments parting from their huge
+      limbs, the quiver at their backs, and the hunting spear in their hand,
+      they laughed and shouted out, and, pointing to him, cried, &ldquo;Morven the
+      woman! Morven the cripple! what dost thou among men?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For the son of Osslah was small in stature and of slender strength, and
+      his step had halted from his birth; but he passed through the warriors
+      unheedingly. At the outskirts of the city he came upon a tall pile in
+      which some old men dwelt by themselves, and counselled the king when times
+      of danger, or when the failure of the season, the famine or the drought,
+      perplexed the ruler, and clouded the savage fronts of his warrior tribe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They gave the counsels of experience, and when experience failed, they
+      drew, in their believing ignorance, assurances and omens from the winds of
+      heaven, the changes of the moon, and the flights of the wandering birds.
+      Filled&mdash;by the voices of the elements, and the variety of mysteries,
+      which ever shift along the face of things, unsolved by the wonder which
+      pauses not, the fear which believes, and that eternal reasoning of all
+      experience, which assigns causes to effect&mdash;with the notion of
+      superior powers, they assisted their ignorance by the conjectures of their
+      superstition. But as yet they knew no craft and practised no <i>voluntary</i>
+      delusion; they trembled too much at the mysteries which had created their
+      faith to seek to belie them. They counselled as they believed, and the
+      bold dream of governing their warriors and their kings by the wisdom of
+      deceit had never dared to cross men thus worn and gray with age.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The son of Osslah entered the vast pile with a fearless step, and
+      approached the place at the upper end of the hall where the old men sat in
+      conclave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How, base-born and craven-limbed!&rdquo; cried the eldest, who had been a noted
+      warrior in his day, &ldquo;darest thou enter unsummoned amidst the secret
+      councils of the wise men? Knowest thou not, scatterling! that the penalty
+      is death?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Slay me, if thou wilt,&rdquo; answered Morven, &ldquo;but hear! As I sat last night
+      in the ruined palace of our ancient kings, tending, as my father bade me,
+      the sheep that grazed around, lest the fierce tribe of Alrich should
+      descend unseen from the mountains upon the herd, a storm came darkly on;
+      and when the storm had ceased, and I looked above on the sky, I saw a star
+      descend from its height towards me, and a voice from the star said: &lsquo;Son
+      of Osslah, leave thy herd and seek the council of the wise men and say
+      unto them, that they take thee as one of their number, or that sudden will
+      be the destruction of them and theirs.&rsquo; But I had courage to answer the
+      voice, and I said, &lsquo;Mock not the poor son of the herdsman. Behold, they
+      will kill me if I utter so rash a word, for I am poor and valueless in the
+      eyes of the tribe of Oestrich, and the great in deeds and the gray of hair
+      alone sit in the council of the wise men.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then the voice said: &lsquo;Do my bidding, and I will give thee a token that
+      thou comest from the Powers that sway the seasons and sail upon the eagles
+      of the winds. Say unto the wise men this very night if they refuse to
+      receive thee of their band, evil shall fall upon them, and the morrow
+      shall dawn in blood.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then the voice ceased, and the cloud passed over the star; and I communed
+      with myself, and came, O dread father, mournfully unto you; for I feared
+      that ye would smite me because of my bold tongue, and that ye would
+      sentence me to the death, in that I asked what may scarce be given even to
+      the sons of kings.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the grim elders looked one at the other, and marvelled much, nor knew
+      they what answer they should make to the herdsman&rsquo;s son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length one of the wise men said, &ldquo;Surely there must be truth in the son
+      of Osslah, for he would not dare to falsify the great lights of Heaven. If
+      he had given unto men the words of the star, verily we might doubt the
+      truth. But who would brave the vengeance of the gods of night?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the elders shook their heads approvingly; but one answered and said,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall we take the herdsman&rsquo;s son as our equal? No!&rdquo; The name of the man
+      who thus answered was Darvan, and his words were pleasing to the elders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Morven spoke out: &ldquo;Of a truth, O councillors of kings, I look not to
+      be an equal with yourselves. Enough if I tend the gates of your palace,
+      and serve you as the son of Osslah may serve;&rdquo; and he bowed his head
+      humbly as he spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then said the chief of the elders, for he was wiser than the others, &ldquo;But
+      how wilt thou deliver us from the evil that is to come? Doubtless the star
+      has informed thee of the service thou canst render to us if we take thee
+      into our palace, as well as the ill that will fall on us if we refuse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Morven answered meekly, &ldquo;Surely, if thou acceptest thy servant, the star
+      will teach him that which may requite thee; but as yet he knows only what
+      he has uttered.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the sages bade him withdraw, and they communed with themselves, and
+      they differed much; but though fierce men, and bold at the war-cry of a
+      human foe, they shuddered at the prophecy of a star. So they resolved to
+      take the son of Osslah, and suffer him to keep the gate of the
+      council-hall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He heard their decree and bowed his head, and went to the gate, and sat
+      down by it in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the sun went down in the west, and the first stars of the twilight
+      began to glimmer, when Morven started from his seat, and a trembling
+      appeared to seize his limbs. His lips foamed; an agony and a fear
+      possessed him; he writhed as a man whom the spear of a foeman has pierced
+      with a mortal wound, and suddenly fell upon his face on the stony earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The elders approached him; wondering, they lifted him up. He slowly
+      recovered as from a swoon; his eyes rolled wildly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heard ye not the voice of the star?&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the chief of the elders answered, &ldquo;Nay, we heard no sound.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Morven sighed heavily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To me only the word was given. Summon instantly, O councillors of the
+      king, summon the armed men, and all the youth of the tribe, and let them
+      take the sword and the spear, and follow thy servant! For lo! the star
+      hath announced to him that the foe shall fall into our hands as the wild
+      beasts of the forests.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The son of Osslah spoke with the voice of command, and the elders were
+      amazed. &ldquo;Why pause ye?&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;Do the gods of the night lie? On my
+      head rest the peril if I deceive ye.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the elders communed together; and they went forth and summoned the
+      men of arms, and all the young of the tribe; and each man took the sword
+      and the spear, and Morven also. And the son of Osslah walked first, still
+      looking up at the star, and he motioned them to be silent, and moved with
+      a stealthy step.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So they went through the thickest of the forest, till they came to the
+      mouth of a great cave, overgrown with aged and matted trees, and it was
+      called the Cave of Oberlin; and he bade the leaders place the armed men on
+      either side the cave, to the right and to the left, among the bushes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So they watched silently till the night deepened, when they heard a noise
+      in the cave and the sound of feet, and forth came an armed man; and the
+      spear of Morven pierced him, and he fell dead at the mouth of the cave.
+      Another and another, and both fell! Then loud and long was heard the
+      war-cry of Alrich, and forth poured, as a stream over a narrow bed, the
+      river of armed men. And the sons of Oestrich fell upon them, and the foe
+      were sorely perplexed and terrified by the suddenness of the battle and
+      the darkness of the night; and there was a great slaughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And when the morning came, the children of Oestrich counted the slain, and
+      found the leader of Alrich and the chief men of the tribe amongst them;
+      and great was the joy thereof. So they went back in triumph to the city,
+      and they carried the brave son of Osslah on their shoulders, and shouted
+      forth, &ldquo;Glory to the servant of the star.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven dwelt in the council of the wise men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the king of the tribe had one daughter, and she was stately amongst
+      the women of the tribe, and fair to look upon. And Morven gazed upon her
+      with the eyes of love, but he did not dare to speak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the son of Osslah laughed secretly at the foolishness of men; he loved
+      them not, for they had mocked him; he honoured them not, for he had
+      blinded the wisest of their leaders. He shunned their feasts and
+      merriment, and lived apart and solitary. The austerity of his life
+      increased the mysterious homage which his commune with the stars had won
+      him, and the boldest of the warriors bowed his head to the favourite of
+      the gods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day he was wandering by the side of the river, and he saw a large bird
+      of prey rise from the waters, and give chase to a hawk that had not yet
+      gained the full strength of its wings. From his youth the solitary Morven
+      had loved to watch, in the great forests and by the banks of the mighty
+      stream, the habits of the things which nature has submitted to man; and
+      looking now on the birds, he said to himself, &ldquo;Thus is it ever; by cunning
+      or by strength each thing wishes to master its kind.&rdquo; While thus
+      moralizing, the larger bird had stricken down the hawk, and it fell
+      terrified and panting at his feet. Morven took the hawk in his hands, and
+      the vulture shrieked above him, wheeling nearer and nearer to its
+      protected prey; but Morven scared away the vulture, and placing the hawk
+      in his bosom he carried it home, and tended it carefully, and fed it from
+      his hand until it had regained its strength; and the hawk knew him, and
+      followed him as a dog. And Morven said, smiling to himself, &ldquo;Behold, the
+      credulous fools around me put faith in the flight and motion of birds. I
+      will teach this poor hawk to minister to my ends.&rdquo; So he tamed the bird,
+      and tutored it according to its nature; but he concealed it carefully from
+      others, and cherished it in secret.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The king of the country was old, and like to die, and the eyes of the
+      tribe were turned to his two sons, nor knew they which was the worthier to
+      reign. And Morven, passing through the forest one evening, saw the younger
+      of the two, who was a great hunter, sitting mournfully under an oak, and
+      looking with musing eyes upon the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wherefore musest thou, O swift-footed Siror?&rdquo; said the son of Osslah;
+      &ldquo;and wherefore art thou sad?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou canst not assist me,&rdquo; answered the prince, sternly; &ldquo;take thy way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; answered Morven, &ldquo;thou knowest not what thou sayest; am I not the
+      favourite of the stars?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Away, I am no graybeard whom the approach of death makes doting: talk not
+      to me of the stars; I know only the things that my eye sees and my ear
+      drinks in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush,&rdquo; said Morven, solemnly, and covering his face; &ldquo;hush! lest the
+      heavens avenge thy rashness. But, behold, the stars have given unto me to
+      pierce the secret hearts of others; and I can tell thee the thoughts of
+      thine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Speak out, base-born!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art the younger of two, and thy name is less known in war than the
+      name of thy brother: yet wouldst thou desire to be set over his head, and
+      to sit on the high seat of thy father?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The young man turned pale. &ldquo;Thou hast truth in thy lips,&rdquo; said he, with a
+      faltering voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not from me, but from the stars, descends the truth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can the stars grant my wish?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They can: let us meet to-morrow.&rdquo; Thus saying, Morven passed into the
+      forest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day, at noon, they met again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have consulted the gods of night, and they have given me the power that
+      I prayed for, but on one condition.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Name it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That thou sacrifice thy sister on their altars; thou must build up a heap
+      of stones, and take thy sister into the wood, and lay her on the pile, and
+      plunge thy sword into her heart; so only shalt thou reign.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The prince shuddered, and started to his feet, and shook his spear at the
+      pale front of Morven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tremble,&rdquo; said the son of Osslah, with a loud voice. &ldquo;Hark to the gods
+      who threaten thee with death, that thou hast dared to lift thine arm
+      against their servant!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke, the thunder rolled above; for one of the frequent storms of
+      the early summer was about to break. The spear dropped from the prince&rsquo;s
+      hand; he sat down, and cast his eyes on the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wilt thou do the bidding of the stars, and reign?&rdquo; said Morven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will!&rdquo; cried Siror, with a desperate voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This evening, then, when the sun sets, thou wilt lead her hither, alone;
+      I may not attend thee. Now, let us pile the stones.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Silently the huntsman bent his vast strength to the fragments of rock that
+      Morven pointed to him, and they built the altar, and went their way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And beautiful is the dying of the great sun, when the last song of the
+      birds fades into the lap of silence; when the islands of the cloud are
+      bathed in light, and the first star springs up over the grave of day!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whither leadest thou my steps, my brother?&rdquo; said Orna; &ldquo;and why doth thy
+      lip quiver; and why dost thou turn away thy face?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is not the forest beautiful; does it not tempt us forth, my sister?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And wherefore are those heaps of stone piled together?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let others answer; I piled them not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou tremblest, brother: we will return.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not so; by these stones is a bird that my shaft pierced today,&mdash;a
+      bird of beautiful plumage that I slew for thee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are by the pile; where hast thou laid the bird?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here!&rdquo; cried Siror; and he seized the maiden in his arms, and, casting
+      her on the rude altar, he drew forth his sword to smite her to the heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Right over the stones rose a giant oak, the growth of immemorial ages; and
+      from the oak, or from the heavens, broke forth a loud and solemn voice,
+      &ldquo;Strike not, son of kings! the stars forbear their own: the maiden thou
+      shalt not slay; yet shalt thou reign over the race of Oestrich; and thou
+      shalt give Orna as a bride to the favourite of the stars. Arise, and go
+      thy way!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The voice ceased: the terror of Orna had overpowered for a time the
+      springs of life; and Siror bore her home through the wood in his strong
+      arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas!&rdquo; said Morven, when, at the next day, he again met the aspiring
+      prince; &ldquo;alas! the stars have ordained me a lot which my heart desires
+      not: for I, lonely of life, and crippled of shape, am insensible to the
+      fires of love; and ever, as thou and thy tribe know, I have shunned the
+      eyes of women, for the maidens laughed at my halting step and my sullen
+      features; and so in my youth I learned betimes to banish all thoughts of
+      love. But since they told me (as they declared to <i>thee</i>), that only
+      through that marriage, thou, O beloved prince! canst obtain thy father&rsquo;s
+      plumed crown, I yield me to their will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; said the prince, &ldquo;not until I am king can I give thee my sister in
+      marriage; for thou knowest that my sire would smite me to the dust if I
+      asked him to give the flower of our race to the son of the herdsman
+      Osslah.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou speakest the words of truth. Go home and fear not; but, when thou
+      art king, the sacrifice must be made, and Orna mine. Alas! how can I dare
+      to lift mine eyes to her! But so ordain the dread kings of the night!&mdash;who
+      shall gainsay their word?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The day that sees me king sees Orna thine,&rdquo; answered the prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Morven walked forth, as was his wont, alone; and he said to himself, &ldquo;The
+      king is old, yet may he live long between me and mine hope!&rdquo; and he began
+      to cast in his mind how he might shorten the time. Thus absorbed, he
+      wandered on so unheedingly that night advanced, and he had lost his path
+      among the thick woods and knew not how to regain his home. So he lay down
+      quietly beneath a tree, and rested till day dawned; then hunger came upon
+      him, and he searched among the bushes for such simple roots as those with
+      which, for he was ever careless of food, he was used to appease the
+      cravings of nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He found, among other more familiar herbs and roots, a red berry of a
+      sweetish taste, which he had never observed before. He ate of it
+      sparingly, and had not proceeded far in the wood before he found his eyes
+      swim, and a deadly sickness came over him. For several hours he lay
+      convulsed on the ground, expecting death; but the gaunt spareness of his
+      frame, and his unvarying abstinence, prevailed over the poison, and he
+      recovered slowly, and after great anguish. But he went with feeble steps
+      back to the spot where the berries grew, and, plucking several, hid them
+      in his bosom, and by nightfall regained the city.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day he went forth among his father&rsquo;s herds, and seizing a lamb,
+      forced some of the berries into his stomach, and the lamb, escaping, ran
+      away, and fell down dead. Then Morven took some more of the berries and
+      boiled them down, and mixed the juice with wine, and he gave the wine in
+      secret to one of his father&rsquo;s servants, and the servant died.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Morven sought the king, and coming into his presence, alone, he said
+      unto him, &ldquo;How fares my lord?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The king sat on a couch made of the skins of wolves, and his eye was
+      glassy and dim; but vast were his aged limbs, and huge was his stature,
+      and he had been taller by a head than the children of men, and none living
+      could bend the bow he had bent in youth; gray, gaunt, and worn, as some
+      mighty bones that are dug at times from the bosom of the earth,&mdash;a
+      relic of the strength of old.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the king said faintly, and with a ghastly laugh, &ldquo;The men of my years
+      fare ill. What avails my strength? Better had I been born a cripple like
+      thee, so should I have had nothing to lament in growing old.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The red flush passed over Morven&rsquo;s brow; but he bent humbly,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O king, what if I could give thee back thy youth? What if I could restore
+      to thee the vigour which distinguished thee above the sons of men, when
+      the warriors of Alrich fell like grass before thy sword?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the king uplifted his dull eyes, and he said,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What meanest thou, son of Osslah? Surely I hear much of thy great wisdom,
+      and how thou speakest nightly with the stars. Can the gods of the night
+      give unto thee the secret to make the old young?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tempt them not by doubt,&rdquo; said Morven, reverently. &ldquo;All things are
+      possible to the rulers of the dark hour; and, lo! the star that loves thy
+      servant spake to him at the dead of night, and said, &lsquo;Arise, and go unto
+      the king; and tell him that the stars honour the tribe of Oestrich, and
+      remember how the king bent his bow against the sons of Alrich; wherefore,
+      look thou under the stone that lies to the right of thy dwelling, even
+      beside the pine tree, and thou shalt see a vessel of clay, and in the
+      vessel thou wilt find a sweet liquid, that shall make the king thy master
+      forget his age forever.&rsquo; Therefore, my lord, when the morning rose I went
+      forth, and looked under the stone, and behold the vessel of clay; and I
+      have brought it hither to my lord the king.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quick, slave, quick! that I may drink and regain my youth!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, listen, O king! further said the star to me,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;It is only at night, when the stars have power, that this their gift
+      will avail; wherefore the king must wait till the hush of the midnight,
+      when the moon is high, and then may he mingle the liquid with his wine.
+      And he must reveal to none that he hath received the gift from the hand of
+      the servant of the stars. For THEY do their work in secret, and when men
+      sleep; therefore they love not the babble of mouths, and he who reveals
+      their benefits shall surely die.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fear not,&rdquo; said the king, grasping the vessel; &ldquo;none shall know: and,
+      behold, I will rise on the morrow; and my two sons, wrangling for my crown&mdash;verily
+      I shall be younger than they!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the king laughed loud; and he scarcely thanked the servant of the
+      stars, neither did he promise him reward; for the kings in those days had
+      little thought save for themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven said to him, &ldquo;Shall I not attend my lord?&mdash;for without me,
+      perchance, the drug might fail of its effect.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay,&rdquo; said the king, &ldquo;rest here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; replied Morven; &ldquo;thy servants will marvel and talk much, if they
+      see the son of Osslah sojourning in thy palace. So would the displeasure
+      of the gods of night perchance be incurred. Suffer that the lesser door of
+      the palace be unbarred, so that at the night hour, when the moon is midway
+      in the heavens, I may steal unseen into thy chamber, and mix the liquid
+      with thy wine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So be it,&rdquo; said the king. &ldquo;Thou art wise, though thy limbs are crooked
+      and curt; and the stars might have chosen a taller man.&rdquo; Then the king
+      laughed again; and Morven laughed too, but there was danger in the mirth
+      of the son of Osslah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The night had begun to wane, and the inhabitants of Oestrich were buried
+      in deep sleep, when, hark! a sharp voice was heard crying out in the
+      streets, &ldquo;Woe, woe! Awake, ye sons of Oestrich! woe!&rdquo; Then forth, wild,
+      haggard, alarmed, spear in hand, rushed the giant sons of the rugged
+      tribe, and they saw a man on a height in the middle of the city, shrieking
+      &ldquo;Woe!&rdquo; and it was Morven, the son of Osslah! And he said unto them, as
+      they gathered round him, &ldquo;Men and warriors, tremble as ye hear. The star
+      of the west hath spoken to me, and thus said the star: &lsquo;Evil shall fall
+      upon the kingly house of Oestrich,&mdash;yea, ere the morning dawn;
+      wherefore, go thou mourning into the streets, and wake the inhabitants to
+      woe!&rsquo; So I rose and did the bidding of the star.&rdquo; And while Morven was yet
+      speaking, a servant of the king&rsquo;s house ran up to the crowd, crying
+      loudly, &ldquo;The king is dead!&rdquo; So they went into the palace and found the
+      king stark upon his couch, and his huge limbs all cramped and crippled by
+      the pangs of death, and his hands clenched as if in menace of a foe,&mdash;the
+      Foe of all living flesh! Then fear came on the gazers, and they looked on
+      Morven with a deeper awe than the boldest warrior would have called forth;
+      and they bore him back to the council-hall of the wise men, wailing and
+      clashing their arms in woe, and shouting, ever and anon, &ldquo;Honour to Morven
+      the prophet!&rdquo; And that was the first time the word PROPHET was ever used
+      in those countries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At noon, on the third day from the king&rsquo;s death, Siror sought Morven, and
+      he said, &ldquo;Lo, my father is no more, and the people meet this evening at
+      sunset to elect his successor, and the warriors and the young men will
+      surely choose my brother, for he is more known in war. Fail me not
+      therefore.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Peace, boy!&rdquo; said Morven, sternly; &ldquo;nor dare to question the truth of the
+      gods of night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For Morven now began to presume on his power among the people, and to
+      speak as rulers speak, even to the sons of kings; and the voice silenced
+      the fiery Siror, nor dared he to reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Behold,&rdquo; said Morven, taking up a chaplet of coloured plumes, &ldquo;wear this
+      on thy head, and put on a brave face, for the people like a hopeful
+      spirit, and go down with thy brother to the place where the new king is to
+      be chosen, and leave the rest to the stars. But, above all things, forget
+      not that chaplet; it has been blessed by the gods of night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The prince took the chaplet and returned home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was evening, and the warriors and chiefs of the tribe were assembled in
+      the place where the new king was to be elected. And the voices of the many
+      favoured Prince Voltoch, the brother of Siror, for he had slain twelve
+      foemen with his spear; and verily, in those days, that was a great virtue
+      in a king.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly there was a shout in the streets, and the people cried out, &ldquo;Way
+      for Morven the prophet, the prophet!&rdquo; For the people held the son of
+      Osslah in even greater respect than did the chiefs. Now, since he had
+      become of note, Morven had assumed a majesty of air which the son of the
+      herdsman knew not in his earlier days; and albeit his stature was short,
+      and his limbs halted, yet his countenance was grave and high. He only of
+      the tribe wore a garment that swept the ground, and his head was bare and
+      his long black hair descended to his girdle, and rarely was change or
+      human passion seen in his calm aspect. He feasted not, nor drank wine, nor
+      was his presence frequent in the streets. He laughed not, neither did he
+      smile, save when alone in the forest,&mdash;and then he laughed at the
+      follies of his tribe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So he walked slowly through the crowd, neither turning to the left nor to
+      the right, as the crowd gave way; and he supported his steps with a staff
+      of the knotted pine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And when he came to the place where the chiefs were met, and the two
+      princes stood in the centre, he bade the people around him proclaim
+      silence; then mounting on a huge fragment of rock, he thus spake to the
+      multitude:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Princes, Warriors, and Bards! ye, O council of the wise men! and ye, O
+      hunters of the forests and snarers of the fishes of the streams! hearken
+      to Morven, the son of Osslah. Ye know that I am lowly of race and weak of
+      limb; but did I not give into your hands the tribe of Alrich, and did ye
+      not slay them in the dead of night with a great slaughter? Surely, ye must
+      know this of himself did not the herdsman&rsquo;s son; surely he was but the
+      agent of the bright gods that love the children of Oestrich! Three nights
+      since when slumber was on the earth, was not my voice heard in the
+      streets? Did I not proclaim woe to the kingly house of Oestrich? and
+      verily the dark arm had fallen on the bosom of the mighty, that is no
+      more. Could I have dreamed this thing merely in a dream, or was I not as
+      the voice of the bright gods that watch over the tribes of Oestrich?
+      Wherefore, O men and chiefs! scorn not the son of Osslah, but listen to
+      his words; for are they not the wisdom of the stars? Behold, last night, I
+      sat alone in the valley, and the trees were hushed around, and not a
+      breath stirred; and I looked upon the star that counsels the son of
+      Osslah; and I said, &lsquo;Dread conqueror of the cloud! thou that bathest thy
+      beauty in the streams and piercest the pine-boughs with thy presence;
+      behold thy servant grieved because the mighty one hath passed away, and
+      many foes surround the houses of my brethren; and it is well that they
+      should have a king valiant and prosperous in war, the cherished of the
+      stars. Wherefore, O star! as thou gavest into our hands the warriors of
+      Alrich, and didst warn us of the fall of the oak of our tribe, wherefore I
+      pray thee give unto the people a token that they may choose that king whom
+      the gods of the night prefer!&rsquo; Then a low voice, sweeter than the music of
+      the bard, stole along the silence. &lsquo;Thy love for thy race is grateful to
+      the stars of night: go, then, son of Osslah, and seek the meeting of the
+      chiefs and the people to choose a king, and tell them not to scorn thee
+      because thou art slow to the chase, and little known in war; for the stars
+      give thee wisdom as a recompense for all. Say unto the people that as the
+      wise men of the council shape their lessons by the flight of birds, so by
+      the flight of birds shall a token be given unto them, and they shall
+      choose their kings. For, saith the star of night, the birds are the
+      children of the winds, they pass to and fro along the ocean of the air,
+      and visit the clouds that are the war-ships of the gods; and their music
+      is but broken melodies which they glean from the harps above. Are they not
+      the messengers of the storm? Ere the stream chafes against the bank, and
+      the rain descends, know ye not, by the wail of birds and their low circle
+      over the earth, that the tempest is at hand? Wherefore, wisely do ye deem
+      that the children of the air are the fit interpreters between the sons of
+      men and the lords of the world above. Say then to the people and the
+      chiefs that they shall take, from among the doves that build their nests
+      in the roof of the palace, a white dove, and they shall let it loose in
+      the air, and verily the gods of the night shall deem the dove as a prayer
+      coming from the people, and they shall send a messenger to grant the
+      prayer and give to the tribes of Oestrich a king worthy of themselves.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With that the star spoke no more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the friends of Voltoch murmured among themselves, and they said,
+      &ldquo;Shall this man dictate to us who shall be king?&rdquo; But the people and the
+      warriors shouted, &ldquo;Listen to the star; do we not give or deny battle
+      according as the bird flies,&mdash;shall we not by the same token choose
+      him by whom the battle should be led?&rdquo; And the thing seemed natural to
+      them, for it was after the custom of the tribe. Then they took one of the
+      doves that built in the roof of the palace, and they brought it to the
+      spot where Morven stood, and he, looking up to the stars and muttering to
+      himself, released the bird.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a copse of trees at a little distance from the spot, and as the
+      dove ascended, a hawk suddenly rose from the copse and pursued the dove;
+      and the dove was terrified, and soared circling high above the crowd, when
+      lo, the hawk, poising itself one moment on its wings, swooped with a
+      sudden swoop, and, abandoning its prey, alighted on the plumed head of
+      Siror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Behold,&rdquo; cried Morven in a loud voice, &ldquo;behold your king!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hail, all hail the king!&rdquo; shouted the people. &ldquo;All hail the chosen of the
+      stars!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Morven lifted his right hand and the hawk left the prince and
+      alighted on Morven&rsquo;s shoulder. &ldquo;Bird of the gods!&rdquo; said he, reverently,
+      &ldquo;hast thou not a secret message for my ear?&rdquo; Then the hawk put its beak to
+      Morven&rsquo;s ear, and Morven bowed his head submissively; and the hawk rested
+      with Morven from that moment and would not be scared away. And Morven
+      said, &ldquo;The stars have sent me this bird, that in the day-time when I see
+      them not, we may never be without a councillor in distress.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Siror was made king and Morven the son of Osslah was constrained by the
+      king&rsquo;s will to take Orna for his wife; and the people and the chiefs
+      honoured Morven the prophet above all the elders of the tribe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day Morven said unto himself, musing, &ldquo;Am I not already equal with the
+      king,&mdash;nay, is not the king my servant? Did I not place him over the
+      heads of his brothers? Am I not, therefore, more fit to reign than he is;
+      shall I not push him from his seat? It is a troublesome and stormy office
+      to reign over the wild men of Oestrich, to feast in the crowded hall, and
+      to lead the warriors to the fray. Surely if I feasted not, neither went
+      out to war, they might say, &lsquo;This is no king, but the cripple Morven;&rsquo; and
+      some of the race of Siror might slay me secretly. But can I not be greater
+      far than kings, and continue to choose and govern them, living as now at
+      mine own ease? Verily the stars shall give me a new palace, and many
+      subjects.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the wise men was Darvan; and Morven feared him, for his eye often
+      sought the movements of the son of Osslah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven said, &ldquo;It were better to <i>trust</i> this man than to <i>blind</i>,
+      for surely I want a helpmate and a friend.&rdquo; So he said to the wise man as
+      he sat alone watching the setting sun,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seemeth to me, O Darvan! that we ought to build a great pile in honour
+      of the stars, and the pile should be more glorious than all the palaces of
+      the chiefs and the palace of the king; for are not the stars our masters?
+      And thou and I should be the chief dwellers in this new palace, and we
+      would serve the gods of night and fatten their altars with the choicest of
+      the herd and the freshest of the fruits of the earth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Darvan said, &ldquo;Thou speakest as becomes the servant of the stars. But
+      will the people help to build the pile? For they are a warlike race and
+      they love not toil.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven answered, &ldquo;Doubtless the stars will ordain the work to be done.
+      Fear not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In truth thou art a wondrous man; thy words ever come to pass,&rdquo; answered
+      Darvan; &ldquo;and I wish thou wouldest teach me, friend, the language of the
+      stars.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Assuredly if thou servest me, thou shalt know,&rdquo; answered the proud
+      Morven; and Darvan was secretly wroth that the son of the herdsman should
+      command the service of an elder and a chief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And when Morven returned to his wife he found her weeping much. Now she
+      loved the son of Osslah with an exceeding love, for he was not savage and
+      fierce as the men she had known, and she was proud of his fame among the
+      tribe; and he took her in his arms and kissed her, and asked her why she
+      wept. Then she told him that her brother the king had visited her, and had
+      spoken bitter words of Morven: &ldquo;He taketh from me the affection of my
+      people,&rdquo; said Siror, &ldquo;and blindeth them with lies. And since he hath made
+      me king, what if he take my kingdom from me? Verily a new tale of the
+      stars might undo the old.&rdquo; And the king had ordered her to keep watch on
+      Morven&rsquo;s secrecy, and to see whether truth was in him when he boasted of
+      his commune with the Powers of night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Orna loved Morven better than Siror, therefore she told her husband
+      all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven resented the king&rsquo;s ingratitude, and was troubled much, for a
+      king is a powerful foe; but he comforted Orna, and bade her dissemble, and
+      complain also of him to her brother, so that he might confide to her
+      unsuspectingly whatsoever he might design against Morven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a cave by Morven&rsquo;s house in which he kept the sacred hawk, and
+      wherein he secretly trained and nurtured other birds against future need;
+      and the door of the cave was always barred. And one day he was thus
+      engaged when he beheld a chink in the wall that he had never noted before,
+      and the sun came playfully in; and while he looked he perceived the
+      sunbeam was darkened, and presently he saw a human face peering in through
+      the chink. And Morven trembled, for he knew he had been watched. He ran
+      hastily from the cave; but the spy had disappeared among the trees, and
+      Morven went straight to the chamber of Darvan and sat himself down. And
+      Darvan did not return home till late, and he started and turned pale when
+      he saw Morven. But Morven greeted him as a brother, and bade him to a
+      feast, which, for the first time, he purposed giving at the full of the
+      moon, in honour of the stars. And going out of Darvan&rsquo;s chamber he
+      returned to his wife, and bade her rend her hair, and go at the dawn of
+      day to the king her brother, and complain bitterly of Morven&rsquo;s treatment,
+      and pluck the black plans from the breast of the king. &ldquo;For surely,&rdquo; said
+      he, &ldquo;Darvan hath lied to thy brother, and some evil waits me that I would
+      fain know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So the next morning Orna sought the king, and she said, &ldquo;The herdsman&rsquo;s
+      son hath reviled me, and spoken harsh words to me; shall I not be
+      avenged?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the king stamped his feet and shook his mighty sword. &ldquo;Surely thou
+      shalt be avenged; for I have learned from one of the elders that which
+      convinceth me that the man hath lied to the people, and the base-born
+      shall surely die. Yea, the first time that he goeth alone into the forest
+      my brother and I will fall upon him and smite him to the death.&rdquo; And with
+      this comfort Siror dismissed Orna.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Orna flung herself at the feet of her husband. &ldquo;Fly now, O my beloved!&mdash;fly
+      into the forests afar from my brethren, or surely the sword of Siror will
+      end thy days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the son of Osslah folded his arms, and seemed buried in black
+      thoughts; nor did he heed the voice of Orna, until again and again she had
+      implored him to fly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fly!&rdquo; he said at length. &ldquo;Nay, I was doubting what punishment the stars
+      should pour down upon our foe. Let warriors fly. Morven the prophet
+      conquers by arms mightier than the sword.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Nevertheless Morven was perplexed in his mind, and knew not how to save
+      himself from the vengeance of the king. Now, while he was musing
+      hopelessly he heard a roar of waters; and behold, the river, for it was
+      now the end of autumn, had burst its bounds, and was rushing along the
+      valley to the houses of the city. And now the men of the tribe, and the
+      women, and the children, came running, and with shrieks, to Morven&rsquo;s
+      house, crying, &ldquo;Behold, the river has burst upon us! Save us, O ruler of
+      the stars!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the sudden thought broke upon Morven, and he resolved to risk his
+      fate upon one desperate scheme.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And he came out from the house calm and sad, and he said, &ldquo;Ye know not
+      what ye ask; I cannot save ye from this peril: ye have brought it on
+      yourselves.&rdquo; And they cried, &ldquo;How? O son of Osslah! We are ignorant of our
+      crime.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And he answered, &ldquo;Go down to the king&rsquo;s palace and wait before it, and
+      surely I will follow ye, and ye shall learn wherefore ye have incurred
+      this punishment from the gods.&rdquo; Then the crowd rolled murmuring back, as a
+      receding sea; and when it was gone from the place, Morven went alone to
+      the house of Darvan, which was next his own. And Darvan was greatly
+      terrified; for he was of a great age, and had no children, neither
+      friends, and he feared that he could not of himself escape the waters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven said to him soothingly, &ldquo;Lo, the people love me, and I will see
+      that thou art saved; for verily thou hast been friendly to me, and done me
+      much service with the king.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And as he thus spake, Morven opened the door of the house and looked
+      forth, and saw that they were quite alone. Then he seized the old man by
+      the throat and ceased not his gripe till he was quite dead; and leaving
+      the body of the elder on the floor, Morven stole from the house and shut
+      the gate. And as he was going to his cave he mused a little while, when,
+      hearing the mighty roar of the waves advancing, and far off the shrieks of
+      women, he lifted up his head and said proudly, &ldquo;No, in this hour terror
+      alone shall be my slave; I will use no art save the power of my soul.&rdquo; So,
+      leaning on his pine-staff, he strode down to the palace. And it was now
+      evening, and many of the men held torches, that they might see each
+      other&rsquo;s faces in the universal fear. Red flashed the quivering flames on
+      the dark robes and pale front of Morven; and he seemed mightier than the
+      rest, because his face alone was calm amidst the tumult. And louder and
+      hoarser became the roar of the waters; and swift rushed the shades of
+      night over the hastening tide.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven said in a stern voice, &ldquo;Where is the king; and wherefore is he
+      absent from his people in the hour of dread?&rdquo; Then the gate of the palace
+      opened, and, behold, Siror was sitting in the hall by the vast pine-fire,
+      and his brother by his side, and his chiefs around him: for they would not
+      deign to come amongst the crowd at the bidding of the herdsman&rsquo;s son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Morven, standing upon a rock above the heads of the people (the same
+      rock whereon he had proclaimed the king), thus spake:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ye desired to know, O sons of Oestrich! wherefore the river hath burst
+      its bounds, and the peril hath come upon you. Learn, then, that the stars
+      resent as the foulest of human crimes an insult to their servants and
+      delegates below. Ye are all aware of the manner of life of Morven, whom ye
+      have surnamed the Prophet! He harms not man nor beast; he lives alone;
+      and, far from the wild joys of the warrior tribe, he worships in awe and
+      fear the Powers of Night. So is he able to advise ye of the coming danger,&mdash;so
+      is he able to save ye from the foe. Thus are your huntsmen swift and your
+      warriors bold; and thus do your cattle bring forth their young, and the
+      earth its fruits. What think ye, and what do ye ask to hear? Listen, men
+      of Oestrich!&mdash;they have laid snares for my life; and there are
+      amongst you those who have whetted the sword against the bosom that is
+      only filled with love for you all. Therefore have the stern lords of
+      heaven loosened the chains of the river; therefore doth this evil menace
+      ye. Neither will it pass away until they who dug the pit for the servant
+      of the stars are buried in the same.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, by the red torches, the faces of the men looked fierce and
+      threatening; and ten thousand voices shouted forth, &ldquo;Name them who
+      conspired against thy life, O holy prophet, and surely they shall be torn
+      limb from limb.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven turned aside, and they saw that he wept bitterly; and he said,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ye have asked me, and I have answered: but now scarce will ye believe the
+      foe that I have provoked against me; and by the heavens themselves I
+      swear, that if my death would satisfy their fury, nor bring down upon
+      yourselves and your children&rsquo;s children the anger of the throned stars,
+      gladly would I give my bosom to the knife. Yes,&rdquo; he cried, lifting up his
+      voice, and pointing his shadowy arm towards the hall where the king sat by
+      the pine-fire,&mdash;&ldquo;yes, thou whom by my voice the stars chose above thy
+      brother; yes, Siror, the guilty one! take thy sword, and come hither;
+      strike, if thou hast the heart to strike, the Prophet of the Gods!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The king started to his feet, and the crowd were hushed in a shuddering
+      silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Morven resumed:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Know then, O men of Oestrich, that Siror and Voltoch his brother, and
+      Darvan the elder of the wise men, have purposed to slay your prophet, even
+      at such hour as when alone he seeks the shade of the forest to devise new
+      benefits for you. Let the king deny it, if he can!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Voltoch, of the giant limbs, strode forth from the hall, and his
+      spear quivered in his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rightly hast thou spoken, base son of my father&rsquo;s herdsman! and for thy
+      sins shalt thou surely die; for thou liest when thou speakest of thy power
+      with the stars, and thou laughest at the folly of them who hear thee:
+      wherefore put him to death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the chiefs in the hall clashed their arms, and rushed forth to slay
+      the son of Osslah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But he, stretching his unarmed hands on high, exclaimed, &ldquo;Hear him, O
+      dread ones of the night! Hark how he blasphemeth!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the crowd took up the word, and cried, &ldquo;He blasphemeth! he
+      blasphemeth against the prophet!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But the king and the chiefs, who hated Morven because of his power with
+      the people, rushed into the crowd; and the crowd were irresolute, nor knew
+      they how to act, for never yet had they rebelled against their chiefs, and
+      they feared alike the prophet and the king.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Siror cried, &ldquo;Summon Darvan to us, for he hath watched the steps of
+      Morven, and he shall lift the veil from my people&rsquo;s eyes.&rdquo; Then three of
+      the swift of foot started forth to the house of Darvan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven cried out with a loud voice, &ldquo;Hark! thus saith the star, who,
+      now riding through yonder cloud, breaks forth upon my eyes, &lsquo;For the lie
+      that the elder hath uttered against my servant, the curse of the stars
+      shall fall upon him.&rsquo; Seek, and as ye find him so may ye find ever the
+      foes of Morven and the gods!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A chill and an icy fear fell over the crowd, and even the cheek of Siror
+      grew pale; and Morven, erect and dark above the waving torches, stood
+      motionless with folded arms. And hark!&mdash;far and fast came on the
+      war-steeds of the wave; the people heard them marching to the land, and
+      tossing their white manes in the roaring wind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lo, as ye listen,&rdquo; said Morven, calmly, &ldquo;the river sweeps on. Haste, for
+      the gods will have a victim, be it your prophet or your king.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Slave!&rdquo; shouted Siror, and his spear left his hand, and far above the
+      heads of the crowd sped hissing beside the dark form of Morven, and rent
+      the trunk of the oak behind. Then the people, wroth at the danger of their
+      beloved seer, uttered a wild yell, and gathered round him with brandished
+      swords, facing their chieftains and their king. But at that instant, ere
+      the war had broken forth among the tribe, the three warriors returned, and
+      they bore Darvan on their shoulders, and laid him at the feet of the king,
+      and they said tremblingly, &ldquo;Thus found we the elder in the centre of his
+      own hall.&rdquo; And the people saw that Darvan was a corpse, and that the
+      prediction of Morven was thus verified. &ldquo;So perish the enemies of Morven
+      and the stars!&rdquo; cried the son of Osslah. And the people echoed the cry.
+      Then the fury of Siror was at its height, and waving his sword above his
+      head he plunged into the crowd, &ldquo;Thy blood, baseborn, or mine!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So be it!&rdquo; answered Morven, quailing not. &ldquo;People, smite the blasphemer!
+      Hark how the river pours down upon your children and your hearths! On, on,
+      or ye perish!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Siror fell, pierced by five hundred spears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Smite! smite!&rdquo; cried Morven, as the chiefs of the royal house gathered
+      round the king. And the clash of swords, and the gleam of spears, and the
+      cries of the dying, and the yell of the trampling people mingled with the
+      roar of the elements, and the voices of the rushing wave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three hundred of the chiefs perished that night by the swords of their own
+      tribe; and the last cry of the victors was, &ldquo;Morven the prophet! <i>Morven
+      the king!</i>&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the son of Osslah, seeing the waves now spreading over the valley, led
+      Orna his wife, and the men of Oestrich, their women, and their children,
+      to a high mount, where they waited the dawning sun. But Orna sat apart and
+      wept bitterly, for her brothers were no more, and her race had perished
+      from the earth. And Morven sought to comfort her in vain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the morning rose, they saw that the river had overspread the greater
+      part of the city, and now stayed its course among the hollows of the vale.
+      Then Morven said to the people, &ldquo;The star-kings are avenged, and their
+      wrath appeased. Tarry only here until the waters have melted into the
+      crevices of the soil.&rdquo; And on the fourth day they returned to the city,
+      and no man dared to name another, save Morven, as the king.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Morven retired into his cave and mused deeply; and then assembling the
+      people, he gave them new laws; and he made them build a mighty temple in
+      honour of the stars, and made them heap within it all that the tribe held
+      most precious. And he took unto him fifty children from the most famous of
+      the tribe; and he took also ten from among the men who had served him
+      best, and he ordained that they should serve the stars in the great
+      temple: and Morven was their chief. And he put away the crown they pressed
+      upon him, and he chose from among the elders a new king. And he ordained
+      that henceforth the servants only of the stars in the great temple should
+      elect the king and the rulers, and hold council, and proclaim war; but he
+      suffered the king to feast, and to hunt, and to make merry in the
+      banquet-halls. And Morven built altars in the temple, and was the first
+      who, in the North, sacrificed the beast and the bird, and afterwards human
+      flesh, upon the altars. And he drew auguries from the entrails of the
+      victim, and made schools for the science of the prophet; and Morven&rsquo;s
+      piety was the wonder of the tribe, in that he refused to be a king. And
+      Morven the high priest was ten thousand times mightier than the king. He
+      taught the people to till the ground and to sow the herb; and by his
+      wisdom, and the valour that his prophecies instilled into men, he
+      conquered all the neighbouring tribes. And the sons of Oestrich spread
+      themselves over a mighty empire, and with them spread the name and the
+      laws of Morven. And in every province which he conquered, he ordered them
+      to build a temple to the stars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But a heavy sorrow fell upon the fears of Morven. The sister of Siror
+      bowed down her head, and survived not long the slaughter of her race. And
+      she left Morven childless. And he mourned bitterly and as one distraught,
+      for her only in the world had his heart the power to love. And he sat down
+      and covered his face, saying:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lo! I have toiled and travailed; and never before in the world did man
+      conquer what I have conquered. Verily the empire of the iron thews and the
+      giant limbs is no more! I have founded a new power, that henceforth shall
+      sway the lands,&mdash;the empire of a plotting brain and a commanding
+      mind. But, behold! my fate is barren, and I feel already that it will grow
+      neither fruit nor tree as a shelter to mine old age. Desolate and lonely
+      shall I pass unto my grave. O Orna! my beautiful! my loved! none were like
+      unto thee, and to thy love do I owe my glory and my life! Would for thy
+      sake, O sweet bird! that nestled in the dark cavern of my heart,&mdash;would
+      for thy sake that thy brethren had been spared, for verily with my life
+      would I have purchased thine. Alas! only when I lost thee did I find that
+      thy love was dearer to me than the fear of others!&rdquo; And Morven mourned
+      night and day, and none might comfort him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But from that time forth he gave himself solely up to the cares of his
+      calling; and his nature and his affections, and whatever there was yet
+      left soft in him, grew hard like stone; and he was a man without love, and
+      he forbade love and marriage to the priest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, in his latter years, there arose <i>other</i> prophets; for the world
+      had grown wiser even by Morven&rsquo;s wisdom, and some did say unto themselves,
+      &ldquo;Behold Morven, the herdsman&rsquo;s son, is a king of kings: this did the stars
+      for their servant; shall we not also be servants to the star?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And they wore black garments like Morven, and went about prophesying of
+      what the stars foretold them. And Morven was exceeding wroth; for he, more
+      than other men, knew that the prophets lied. Wherefore he went forth
+      against them with the ministers of the temple, and he took them, and
+      burned them by a slow fire; for thus said Morven to the people: &ldquo;A true
+      prophet hath honour, but <i>I</i> only am a true prophet; to all false
+      prophets there shall be surely death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the people applauded the piety of the son of Osslah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven educated the wisest of the children in the mysteries of the
+      temple, so that they grew up to succeed him worthily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And he died full of years and honour; and they carved his effigy on a
+      mighty stone before the temple, and the effigy endured for a thousand
+      ages, and whoso looked on it trembled; for the face was calm with the
+      calmness of unspeakable awe!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Morven was the first mortal of the North that made Religion the
+      stepping-stone to Power. Of a surety Morven was a great man!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the last night of the old year, and the stars sat, each upon his
+      ruby throne, and watched with sleepless eyes upon the world. The night was
+      dark and troubled, the dread winds were abroad, and fast and frequent
+      hurried the clouds beneath the thrones of the kings of night. And ever and
+      anon fiery meteors flashed along the depths of heaven, and were again
+      swallowed up in the grave of darkness. But far below his brethren, and
+      with a lurid haze around his orb, sat the discontented star that had
+      watched over the hunters of the North.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And on the lowest abyss of space there was spread a thick and mighty
+      gloom, from which, as from a caldron, rose columns of wreathing smoke; and
+      still, when the great winds rested for an instant on their paths, voices
+      of woe and laughter, mingled with shrieks, were heard booming from the
+      abyss to the upper air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now, in the middest night, a vast figure rose slowly from the abyss,
+      and its wings threw blackness over the world. High upward to the throne of
+      the discontented star sailed the fearful shape, and the star trembled on
+      his throne when the form stood before him face to face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the shape said, &ldquo;Hail, brother! all hail!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know thee not,&rdquo; answered the star; &ldquo;thou art not the archangel that
+      visitest the kings of night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the shape laughed loud. &ldquo;I am the fallen star of the morning! I am
+      Lucifer, thy brother! Hast thou not, O sullen king, served me and mine;
+      and hast thou not wrested the earth from thy Lord who sittest above, and
+      given it to me, by darkening the souls of men with the religion of fear?
+      Wherefore come, brother, come; thou hast a throne prepared beside my own
+      in the fiery gloom. Come! The heavens are no more for thee!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the star rose from his throne, and descended to the side of Lucifer;
+      for ever hath the spirit of discontent had sympathy with the soul of
+      pride. And they sank slowly down to the gulf of gloom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the first night of the new year, and the stars sat each on his ruby
+      throne, and watched with sleepless eyes upon the world. But sorrow dimmed
+      the bright faces of the kings of night, for they mourned in silence and in
+      fear for a fallen brother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the gates of the heaven of heavens flew open with a golden sound, and
+      the swift archangel fled down on his silent wings; and the archangel gave
+      to each of the stars, as before, the message of his Lord, and to each star
+      was his appointed charge. And when the heraldry seemed done there came a
+      laugh from the abyss of gloom, and half-way from the gulf rose the lurid
+      shape of Lucifer the fiend!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou countest thy flock ill, O radiant shepherd! Behold! one star is
+      missing from the three thousand and ten!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Back to thy gulf, false Lucifer!&mdash;the throne of thy brother hath
+      been filled.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And, lo! as the archangel spake, the stars beheld a young and all-lustrous
+      stranger on the throne of the erring star; and his face was so soft to
+      look upon that the dimmest of human eyes might have gazed upon its
+      splendour unabashed: but the dark fiend alone was dazzled by its lustre,
+      and, with a yell that shook the flaming pillars of the universe, he
+      plunged backward into the gloom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, far and sweet from the arch unseen, came forth the voice of God,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Behold! on the throne of the discontented star sits the star of Hope; and
+      he that breathed into mankind the religion of Fear hath a successor in him
+      who shall teach earth the religion of Love!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And evermore the star of Fear dwells with Lucifer, and the star of Love
+      keeps vigil in heaven!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XX. GLENHAUSEN.&mdash;THE POWER OF LOVE IN SANCTIFIED PLACES.&mdash;A
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      PORTRAIT OF FREDERICK BARBAROSSA.&mdash;THE AMBITION OF MEN FINDS NO
+      ADEQUATE SYMPATHY IN WOMEN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;YOU made me tremble for you more than once,&rdquo; said Gertrude to the
+      student; &ldquo;I feared you were about to touch upon ground really sacred, but
+      your end redeemed all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The false religion always tries to counterfeit the garb, the language,
+      the aspect of the true,&rdquo; answered the German; &ldquo;for that reason, I
+      purposely suffered my tale to occasion that very fear and anxiety you
+      speak of, conscious that the most scrupulous would be contented when the
+      whole was finished.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This German was one of a new school, of which England as yet knows
+      nothing. We shall see hereafter what it will produce.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The student left them at Friedberg, and our travellers proceeded to
+      Glenhausen,&mdash;a spot interesting to lovers; for here Frederick the
+      First was won by the beauty of Gela, and, in the midst of an island vale,
+      he built the Imperial Palace, in honour of the lady of his love. This spot
+      is, indeed, well chosen of itself; the mountains of the Rhinegeburg close
+      it in with the green gloom of woods and the glancing waters of the Kinz.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still, wherever we go,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, &ldquo;we find all tradition is
+      connected with love; and history, for that reason, hallows less than
+      romance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is singular,&rdquo; said Vane, moralizing, &ldquo;that love makes but a small part
+      of our actual lives, but is yet the master-key to our sympathies. The
+      hardest of us, who laugh at the passion when they see it palpably before
+      them, are arrested by some dim tradition of its existence in the past. It
+      is as if life had few opportunities of bringing out certain qualities
+      within us, so that they always remain untold and dormant, susceptible to
+      thought, but deaf to action.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You refine and mystify too much,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, smiling; &ldquo;none of us
+      have any faculty, any passion, uncalled forth, if we have <i>really</i>
+      loved, though but for a day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Gertrude smiled, and drawing her arm within his, Trevylyan left Vane to
+      philosophize on passion,&mdash;a fit occupation for one who had never felt
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here let us pause,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, afterwards, as they visited the
+      remains of the ancient palace, and the sun glittered on the scene, &ldquo;to
+      recall the old chivalric day of the gallant Barbarossa; let us suppose him
+      commencing the last great action of his life; let us picture him as
+      setting out for the Holy Land. Imagine him issuing from those walls on his
+      white charger,&mdash;his fiery eye somewhat dimmed by years, and his hair
+      blanched; but nobler from the impress of time itself,&mdash;the clang of
+      arms; the tramp of steeds; banners on high; music pealing from hill to
+      hill; the red cross and the nodding plume; the sun, as now glancing on
+      yonder trees; and thence reflected from the burnished arms of the
+      Crusaders. But, Gela&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; said Gertrude, &ldquo;<i>she</i> must be no more; for she would have
+      outlived her beauty, and have found that glory had now no rival in his
+      breast. Glory consoles men for the death of the loved; but glory is
+      infidelity to the living.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, not so, dearest Gertrude,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, quickly; &ldquo;for my darling
+      dream of Fame is the hope of laying its honours at your feet! And if ever,
+      in future years, I should rise above the herd, I should only ask if <i>your</i>
+      step were proud and <i>your</i> heart elated.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was wrong,&rdquo; said Gertrude, with tears in her eyes; &ldquo;and for your sake I
+      can be ambitious.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps there, too, she was mistaken; for one of the common
+      disappointments of the heart is, that women have so rarely a sympathy in
+      our better and higher aspirings. Their ambition is not for great things;
+      they cannot understand that desire &ldquo;which scorns delight, and loves
+      laborious days.&rdquo; If they love us, they usually exact too much. They are
+      jealous of the ambition to which we sacrifice so largely, and which
+      divides us from them; and they leave the stern passion of great minds to
+      the only solitude which affection cannot share. To aspire is to be alone!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXI. VIEW OF EHRENBREITSTEIN.&mdash;A NEW ALARM IN GERTRUDE&rsquo;S
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      HEALTH.&mdash;TRARBACH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ANOTHER time our travellers proceeded from Coblentz to Treves, following
+      the course of the Moselle. They stopped on the opposite bank below the
+      bridge that unites Coblentz with the Petersberg, to linger over the superb
+      view of Ehrenbreitstein which you may there behold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was one of those calm noonday scenes which impress upon us their own
+      bright and voluptuous tranquillity. There stood the old herdsman leaning
+      on his staff, and the quiet cattle knee-deep in the gliding waters. Never
+      did stream more smooth and sheen than was at that hour the surface of the
+      Moselle mirror the images of the pastoral life. Beyond, the darker shadows
+      of the bridge and of the walls of Coblentz fell deep over the waves,
+      checkered by the tall sails of the craft that were moored around the
+      harbour. But clear against the sun rose the spires and roofs of Coblentz,
+      backed by many a hill sloping away to the horizon. High, dark, and
+      massive, on the opposite bank, swelled the towers and rock of
+      Ehrenbreitstein,&mdash;a type of that great chivalric spirit&mdash;the
+      HONOUR that the rock arrogates for its name&mdash;which demands so many
+      sacrifices of blood and tears, but which ever creates in the restless
+      heart of man a far deeper interest than the more peaceful scenes of life
+      by which it is contrasted. There, still&mdash;from the calm waters, and
+      the abodes of common toil and ordinary pleasure&mdash;turns the aspiring
+      mind! Still as we gaze on that lofty and immemorial rock we recall the
+      famine and the siege; and own that the more daring crimes of men have a
+      strange privilege in hallowing the very spot which they devastate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Below, in green curves and mimic bays covered with herbage, the gradual
+      banks mingled with the water; and just where the bridge closed, a solitary
+      group of trees, standing dark in the thickest shadow, gave that melancholy
+      feature to the scene which resembles the one dark thought that often
+      forces itself into our sunniest hours. Their boughs stirred not; no voice
+      of birds broke the stillness of their gloomy verdure: the eye turned from
+      them, as from the sad moral that belongs to existence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In proceeding to Trarbach, Gertrude was seized with another of those
+      fainting fits which had so terrified Trevylyan before; they stopped an
+      hour or two at a little village, but Gertrude rallied with such apparent
+      rapidity, and so strongly insisted on proceeding, that they reluctantly
+      continued their way. This event would have thrown a gloom over their
+      journey, if Gertrude had not exerted herself to dispel the impression she
+      had occasioned; and so light, so cheerful, were her spirits, that for the
+      time at least she succeeded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They arrived at Trarbach late at noon. This now small and humble town is
+      said to have been the Thronus Bacchi of the ancients. From the spot where
+      the travellers halted to take, as it were, their impression of the town,
+      they saw before them the little hostelry, a poor pretender to the Thronus
+      Bacchi, with the rude sign of the Holy Mother over the door. The peaked
+      roof, the sunk window, the gray walls, checkered with the rude beams of
+      wood so common to the meaner houses on the Continent, bore something of a
+      melancholy and prepossessing aspect. Right above, with its Gothic windows
+      and venerable spire, rose the church of the town; and, crowning the summit
+      of a green and almost perpendicular mountain, scowled the remains of one
+      of those mighty castles which make the never-failing frown on a German
+      landscape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The scene was one of quiet and of gloom: the exceeding serenity of the day
+      contrasted, with an almost unpleasing brightness, the poverty of the town,
+      the thinness of the population, and the dreary grandeur of the ruins that
+      overhung the capital of the perished race of the bold Counts of Spanheim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They passed the night at Trarbach, and continued their journey next day.
+      At Treves, Gertrude was for some days seriously ill; and when they
+      returned to Coblentz, her disease had evidently received a rapid and
+      alarming increase.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXII. THE DOUBLE LIFE.&mdash;TREVYLYAN&rsquo;S FATE.&mdash;SORROW THE
+      PARENT OF
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      FAME.&mdash;NIEDERLAHNSTEIN.&mdash;DREAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      THERE are two lives to each of us, gliding on at the same time, scarcely
+      connected with each other,&mdash;the life of our actions, the life of our
+      minds; the external and the inward history; the movements of the frame,
+      the deep and ever-restless workings of the heart! They who have loved know
+      that there is a diary of the affections, which we might keep for years
+      without having occasion even to touch upon the exterior surface of life,
+      our busy occupations, the mechanical progress of our existence; yet by the
+      last are we judged, the first is never known. History reveals men&rsquo;s deeds,
+      men&rsquo;s outward character, but <i>not themselves</i>. There is a secret self
+      that hath its own life &ldquo;rounded by a dream,&rdquo; unpenetrated, unguessed. What
+      passed within Trevylyan, hour after hour, as he watched over the declining
+      health of the only being in the world whom his proud heart had been ever
+      destined to love? His real record of the time was marked by every cloud
+      upon Gertrude&rsquo;s brow, every smile of her countenance, every&mdash;the
+      faintest&mdash;alteration in her disease; yet, to the outward seeming, all
+      this vast current of varying eventful emotion lay dark and unconjectured.
+      He filled up with wonted regularity the colourings of existence, and
+      smiled and moved as other men. For still, in the heroism with which
+      devotion conquers self, he sought only to cheer and gladden the young
+      heart on which he had embarked his all; and he kept the dark tempest of
+      his anguish for the solitude of night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That was a peculiar doom which Fate had reserved for him; and casting him,
+      in after years, on the great sea of public strife, it seemed as if she
+      were resolved to tear from his heart all yearnings for the land. For him
+      there was to be no green or sequestered spot in the valley of household
+      peace. His bark was to know no haven, and his soul not even the desire of
+      rest. For action is that Lethe in which alone we forget our former dreams,
+      and the mind that, too stern not to wrestle with its emotions, seeks to
+      conquer regret, must leave itself no leisure to look behind. Who knows
+      what benefits to the world may have sprung from the sorrows of the
+      benefactor? As the harvest that gladdens mankind in the suns of autumn was
+      called forth by the rains of spring, so the griefs of youth may make the
+      fame of maturity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gertrude, charmed by the beauties of the river, desired to continue the
+      voyage to Mayence. The rich Trevylyan persuaded the physician who had
+      attended her to accompany them, and they once more pursued their way along
+      the banks of the feudal Rhine. For what the Tiber is to the classic, the
+      Rhine is to the chivalric age. The steep rock and the gray dismantled
+      tower, the massive and rude picturesque of the feudal days, constitute the
+      great features of the scene; and you might almost fancy, as you glide
+      along, that you are sailing back adown the river of Time, and the
+      monuments of the pomp and power of old, rising, one after one, upon its
+      shores!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Vane and Du&mdash;&mdash;-e, the physician, at the farther end of the
+      vessel, conversed upon stones and strata, in that singular pedantry of
+      science which strips nature to a skeleton, and prowls among the dead bones
+      of the world, unconscious of its living beauty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They left Gertrude and Trevylyan to themselves; and, &ldquo;bending o&rsquo;er the
+      vessel&rsquo;s laving side,&rdquo; they indulged in silence the melancholy with which
+      each was imbued. For Gertrude began to waken, though doubtingly and at
+      intervals, to a sense of the short span that was granted to her life; and
+      over the loveliness around her there floated that sad and ineffable
+      interest which springs from the presentiment of our own death. They passed
+      the rich island of Oberwerth, and Hochheim, famous for its ruby grape, and
+      saw, from his mountain bed, the Lahn bear his tribute of fruits and corn
+      into the treasury of the Rhine. Proudly rose the tower of Niederlahnstein,
+      and deeply lay its shadow along the stream. It was late noon; the cattle
+      had sought the shade from the slanting sun, and, far beyond, the holy
+      castle of Marksburg raised its battlements above mountains covered with
+      the vine. On the water two boats had been drawn alongside each other; and
+      from one, now moving to the land, the splash of oars broke the general
+      stillness of the tide. Fast by an old tower the fishermen were busied in
+      their craft, but the sound of their voices did not reach the ear. It was
+      life, but a silent life, suited to the tranquillity of noon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is something in travel,&rdquo; said Gertrude, &ldquo;which constantly, even
+      amidst the most retired spots, impresses us with the exuberance of life.
+      We come to those quiet nooks and find a race whose existence we never
+      dreamed of. In their humble path they know the same passions and tread the
+      same career as ourselves. The mountains shut them out from the great
+      world, but their village is a world in itself. And they know and heed no
+      more of the turbulent scenes of remote cities than our own planet of the
+      inhabitants of the distant stars. What then is death, but the
+      forgetfulness of some few hearts added to the general unconsciousness of
+      our existence that pervades the universe? The bubble breaks in the vast
+      desert of the air without a sound.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why talk of death?&rdquo; said Trevylyan, with a writhing smile. &ldquo;These sunny
+      scenes should not call forth such melancholy images.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Melancholy,&rdquo; repeated Gertrude, mechanically. &ldquo;Yes, death is indeed
+      melancholy when we are loved!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They stayed a short time at Niederlahnstein, for Vane was anxious to
+      examine the minerals that the Lahn brings into the Rhine; and the sun was
+      waning towards its close as they renewed their voyage. As they sailed
+      slowly on, Gertrude said, &ldquo;How like a dream is this sentiment of
+      existence, when, without labour or motion, every change of scene is
+      brought before us; and if I am with you, dearest, I do not feel it less
+      resembling a dream, for I have dreamed of you lately more than ever; and
+      dreams have become a part of my life itself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Speaking of dreams,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, as they pursued that mysterious
+      subject, &ldquo;I once during my former residence in Germany fell in with a
+      singular enthusiast, who had taught himself what he termed &lsquo;A System of
+      Dreaming.&rsquo; When he first spoke to me upon it I asked him to explain what
+      he meant, which he did somewhat in the following words.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIII. THE LIFE OF DREAMS.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I WAS born,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;with many of the sentiments of the poet, but
+      without the language to express them; my feelings were constantly chilled
+      by the intercourse of the actual world. My family, mere Germans, dull and
+      unimpassioned, had nothing in common with me; nor did I out of my family
+      find those with whom I could better sympathize. I was revolted by
+      friendships,&mdash;for they were susceptible to every change; I was
+      disappointed in love,&mdash;for the truth never approached to my ideal.
+      Nursed early in the lap of Romance, enamoured of the wild and the
+      adventurous, the commonplaces of life were to me inexpressibly tame and
+      joyless. And yet indolence, which belongs to the poetical character, was
+      more inviting than that eager and uncontemplative action which can alone
+      wring enterprise from life. Meditation was my natural element. I loved to
+      spend the noon reclined by some shady stream, and in a half sleep to shape
+      images from the glancing sunbeams. A dim and unreal order of philosophy,
+      that belongs to our nation, was my favourite intellectual pursuit; and I
+      sought amongst the Obscure and the Recondite the variety and emotion I
+      could not find in the Familiar. Thus constantly watching the operations of
+      the inner mind, it occurred to me at last that sleep having its own world,
+      but as yet a rude and fragmentary one, it might be possible to shape from
+      its chaos all those combinations of beauty, of power, of glory, and of
+      love, which were denied to me in the world in which my frame walked and
+      had its being. So soon as this idea came upon me, I nursed and cherished
+      and mused over it, till I found that the imagination began to effect the
+      miracle I desired. By brooding ardently, intensely, before I retired to
+      rest, over any especial train of thought, over any ideal creations; by
+      keeping the body utterly still and quiescent during the whole day; by
+      shutting out all living adventure, the memory of which might perplex and
+      interfere with the stream of events that I desired to pour forth into the
+      wilds of sleep, I discovered at last that I could lead in dreams a life
+      solely their own, and utterly distinct from the life of day. Towers and
+      palaces, all my heritage and seigneury, rose before me from the depths of
+      night; I quaffed from jewelled cups the Falernian of imperial vaults;
+      music from harps of celestial tone filled up the crevices of air; and the
+      smiles of immortal beauty flushed like sunlight over all. Thus the
+      adventure and the glory that I could not for my waking life obtain, was
+      obtained for me in sleep. I wandered with the gryphon and the gnome; I
+      sounded the horn at enchanted portals; I conquered in the knightly lists;
+      I planted my standard over battlements huge as the painter&rsquo;s birth of
+      Babylon itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I was afraid to call forth one shape on whose loveliness to pour all
+      the hidden passion of my soul. I trembled lest my sleep should present me
+      some image which it could never restore, and, waking from which, even the
+      new world I had created might be left desolate forever. I shuddered lest I
+      should adore a vision which the first ray of morning could smite to the
+      grave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In this train of mind I began to wonder whether it might not be possible
+      to connect dreams together; to supply the thread that was wanting; to make
+      one night continue the history of the other, so as to bring together the
+      same shapes and the same scenes, and thus lead a connected and harmonious
+      life, not only in the one half of existence, but in the other, the richer
+      and more glorious half. No sooner did this idea present itself to me, than
+      I burned to accomplish it. I had before taught myself that Faith is the
+      great creator; that to believe fervently is to make belief true. So I
+      would not suffer my mind to doubt the practicability of its scheme. I shut
+      myself up then entirely by day, refused books, and hated the very sun, and
+      compelled all my thoughts (and sleep is the mirror of thought) to glide in
+      one direction,&mdash;the direction of my dreams,&mdash;so that from night
+      to night the imagination might keep up the thread of action, and I might
+      thus lie down full of the past dream and confident of the sequel. Not for
+      one day only, or for one month, did I pursue this system, but I continued
+      it zealously and sternly till at length it began to succeed. Who shall
+      tell,&rdquo; cried the enthusiast,&mdash;I see him now with his deep, bright,
+      sunken eyes, and his wild hair thrown backward from his brow,&mdash;&ldquo;the
+      rapture I experienced, when first, faintly and half distinct, I perceived
+      the harmony I had invoked dawn upon my dreams? At first there was only a
+      partial and desultory connection between them; my eye recognized certain
+      shapes, my ear certain tones common to each; by degrees these augmented in
+      number, and were more defined in outline. At length one fair face broke
+      forth from among the ruder forms, and night after night appeared mixing
+      with them for a moment and then vanishing, just as the mariner watches, in
+      a clouded sky, the moon shining through the drifting rack, and quickly
+      gone. My curiosity was now vividly excited; the face, with its lustrous
+      eyes and seraph features, roused all the emotions that no living shape had
+      called forth. I became enamoured of a dream, and as the statue to the
+      Cyprian was my creation to me; so from this intent and unceasing passion I
+      at length worked out my reward. My dream became more palpable; I spoke
+      with it; I knelt to it; my lips were pressed to its own; we exchanged the
+      vows of love, and morning only separated us with the certainty that at
+      night we should meet again. Thus then,&rdquo; continued my visionary, &ldquo;I
+      commenced a history utterly separate from the history of the world, and it
+      went on alternately with my harsh and chilling history of the day, equally
+      regular and equally continuous. And what, you ask, was that history?
+      Methought I was a prince in some Eastern island that had no features in
+      common with the colder north of my native home. By day I looked upon the
+      dull walls of a German town, and saw homely or squalid forms passing
+      before me; the sky was dim and the sun cheerless. Night came on with her
+      thousand stars, and brought me the dews of sleep. Then suddenly there was
+      a new world; the richest fruits hung from the trees in clusters of gold
+      and purple. Palaces of the quaint fashion of the sunnier climes, with
+      spiral minarets and glittering cupolas, were mirrored upon vast lakes
+      sheltered by the palm-tree and banana. The sun seemed a different orb, so
+      mellow and gorgeous were his beams; birds and winged things of all hues
+      fluttered in the shining air; the faces and garments of men were not of
+      the northern regions of the world, and their voices spoke a tongue which,
+      strange at first, by degrees I interpreted. Sometimes I made war upon
+      neighbouring kings; sometimes I chased the spotted pard through the vast
+      gloom of immemorial forests; my life was at once a life of enterprise and
+      pomp. But above all there was the history of my love! I thought there were
+      a thousand difficulties in the way of attaining its possession. Many were
+      the rocks I had to scale, and the battles to wage, and the fortresses to
+      storm, in order to win her as my bride. But at last&rdquo; (continued the
+      enthusiast), &ldquo;she <i>is</i> won, she is my own! Time in that wild world,
+      which I visit nightly, passes not so slowly as in this, and yet an hour
+      may be the same as a year. This continuity of existence, this successive
+      series of dreams, so different from the broken incoherence of other men&rsquo;s
+      sleep, at times bewilders me with strange and suspicious thoughts. What if
+      this glorious sleep be a real life, and this dull waking the true repose?
+      Why not? What is there more faithful in the one than in the other? And
+      there have I garnered and collected all of pleasure that I am capable of
+      feeling. I seek no joy in this world; I form no ties, I feast not, nor
+      love, nor make merry; I am only impatient till the hour when I may
+      re-enter my royal realms and pour my renewed delight into the bosom of my
+      bright Ideal. There then have I found all that the world denied me; there
+      have I realized the yearning and the aspiration within me; there have I
+      coined the untold poetry into the Felt, the Seen!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I found, continued Trevylyan, that this tale was corroborated by inquiry
+      into the visionary&rsquo;s habits. He shunned society; avoided all unnecessary
+      movement or excitement. He fared with rigid abstemiousness, and only
+      appeared to feel pleasure as the day departed, and the hour of return to
+      his imaginary kingdom approached. He always retired to rest punctually at
+      a certain hour, and would sleep so soundly that a cannon fired under his
+      window would not arouse him. He never, which may seem singular, spoke or
+      moved much in his sleep, but was peculiarly calm, almost to the appearance
+      of lifelessness; but, discovering once that he had been watched in sleep,
+      he was wont afterwards carefully to secure the chamber from intrusion. His
+      victory over the natural incoherence of sleep had, when I first knew him,
+      lasted for some years; possibly what imagination first produced was
+      afterwards continued by habit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I saw him again a few months subsequent to this confession, and he seemed
+      to me much changed. His health was broken, and his abstraction had
+      deepened into gloom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I questioned him of the cause of the alteration, and he answered me with
+      great reluctance,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is dead,&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;my realms are desolate! A serpent stung her, and
+      she died in these very arms. Vainly, when I started from my sleep in
+      horror and despair, vainly did I say to myself,&mdash;This is but a dream.
+      I shall see her again. A vision cannot die! Hath it flesh that decays; is
+      it not a spirit,&mdash;bodiless, indissoluble? With what terrible anxiety
+      I awaited the night! Again I slept, and the DREAM lay again before me,
+      dead and withered. Even the ideal can vanish. I assisted in the burial; I
+      laid her in the earth; I heaped the monumental mockery over her form. And
+      never since hath she, or ought like her, revisited my dreams. I see her
+      only when I wake; thus to wake is indeed to dream! But,&rdquo; continued the
+      visionary in a solemn voice, &ldquo;I feel myself departing from this world, and
+      with a fearful joy; for I think there may be a land beyond even the land
+      of sleep where I shall see her again,&mdash;a land in which a vision
+      itself may be restored.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And in truth, concluded Trevylyan, the dreamer died shortly afterwards,
+      suddenly, and in his sleep. And never before, perhaps, had Fate so
+      literally made of a living man (with his passions and his powers, his
+      ambition and his love) the plaything and puppet of a dream!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; said Vane, who had heard the latter part of Trevylyan&rsquo;s story,
+      &ldquo;could the German have bequeathed to us his secret, what a refuge should
+      we possess from the ills of earth! The dungeon and disease, poverty,
+      affliction, shame, would cease to be the tyrants of our lot; and to Sleep
+      we should confine our history and transfer our emotions.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gertrude,&rdquo; whispered the lover, &ldquo;what his kingdom and his bride were to
+      the Dreamer art thou to me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIV. THE BROTHERS.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE banks of the Rhine now shelved away into sweeping plains, and on their
+      right rose the once imperial city of Boppart. In no journey of similar
+      length do you meet with such striking instances of the mutability and
+      shifts of power. To find, as in the Memphian Egypt, a city sunk into a
+      heap of desolate ruins; the hum, the roar, the mart of nations, hushed
+      into the silence of ancestral tombs, is less humbling to our human vanity
+      than to mark, as along the Rhine, the kingly city dwindled into the humble
+      town or the dreary village,&mdash;decay without its grandeur, change
+      without the awe of its solitude! On the site on which Drusus raised his
+      Roman tower, and the kings of the Franks their palaces, trade now dribbles
+      in tobacco-pipes, and transforms into an excellent cotton factory the
+      antique nunnery of Konigsberg! So be it; it is the progressive order of
+      things,&mdash;the world itself will soon be one excellent cotton factory!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, as they sailed on, &ldquo;at yonder mountain, with its
+      two traditionary Castles of Liebenstein and Sternfels.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Massive and huge the ruins swelled above the green rock, at the foot of
+      which lay, in happier security from time and change, the clustered
+      cottages of the peasant, with a single spire rising above the quiet
+      village.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is there not, Albert, a celebrated legend attached to those castles?&rdquo;
+       said Gertrude. &ldquo;I think I remember to have heard their names in connection
+      with your profession of taleteller.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, &ldquo;the story relates to the last lords of those
+      shattered towers, and&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will sit here, nearer to me, and begin,&rdquo; interrupted Gertrude, in her
+      tone of childlike command. &ldquo;Come.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                           THE BROTHERS.
+
+                              A TALE.*
+
+  * This tale is, in reality, founded on the beautiful tradition
+    which belongs to Liebenstein and Sternfels.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      You must imagine then, dear Gertrude (said Trevylyan), a beautiful summer
+      day, and by the same faculty that none possess so richly as yourself, for
+      it is you who can kindle something of that divine spark even in me, you
+      must rebuild those shattered towers in the pomp of old; raise the gallery
+      and the hall; man the battlements with warders, and give the proud banners
+      of ancestral chivalry to wave upon the walls. But above, sloping half down
+      the rock, you must fancy the hanging gardens of Liebenstein, fragrant with
+      flowers, and basking in the noonday sun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the greenest turf, underneath an oak, there sat three persons, in the
+      bloom of youth. Two of the three were brothers; the third was an orphan
+      girl, whom the lord of the opposite tower of Sternfels had bequeathed to
+      the protection of his brother, the chief of Liebenstein. The castle itself
+      and the demesne that belonged to it passed away from the female line, and
+      became the heritage of Otho, the orphan&rsquo;s cousin, and the younger of the
+      two brothers now seated on the turf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And oh,&rdquo; said the elder, whose name was Warbeck, &ldquo;you have twined a
+      chaplet for my brother; have you not, dearest Leoline, a simple flower for
+      me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The beautiful orphan (for beautiful she was, Gertrude, as the heroine of
+      the tale you bid me tell ought to be,&mdash;should she not have to the
+      dreams of my fancy your lustrous hair, and your sweet smile, and your eyes
+      of blue, that are never, never silent? Ah, pardon me, that in a former
+      tale, I denied the heroine the beauty of your face, and remember that to
+      atone for it, I endowed her with the beauty of your mind)&mdash;the
+      beautiful orphan blushed to her temples, and culling from the flowers in
+      her lap the freshest of the roses, began weaving them into a wreath for
+      Warbeck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would be better,&rdquo; said the gay Otho, &ldquo;to make my sober brother a
+      chaplet of the rue and cypress; the rose is much too bright a flower for
+      so serious a knight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Leoline held up her hand reprovingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let him laugh, dearest cousin,&rdquo; said Warbeck, gazing passionately on her
+      changing cheek; &ldquo;and thou, Leoline, believe that the silent stream runs
+      the deepest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment, they heard the voice of the old chief, their father,
+      calling aloud for Leoline; for ever when he returned from the chase he
+      wanted her gentle presence; and the hall was solitary to him if the light
+      sound of her step and the music of her voice were not heard in welcome.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leoline hastened to her guardian, and the brothers were left alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing could be more dissimilar than the features and the respective
+      characters of Otho and Warbeck. Otho&rsquo;s countenance was flushed with the
+      brown hues of health; his eyes were of the brightest hazel: his dark hair
+      wreathed in short curls round his open and fearless brow; the jest ever
+      echoed on his lips, and his step was bounding as the foot of the hunter of
+      the Alps. Bold and light was his spirit; if at times he betrayed the
+      haughty insolence of youth, he felt generously, and though not ever ready
+      to confess sorrow for a fault, he was at least ready to brave peril for a
+      friend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Warbeck&rsquo;s frame, though of equal strength, was more slender in its
+      proportions than that of his brother; the fair long hair that
+      characterized his northern race hung on either side of a countenance calm
+      and pale, and deeply impressed with thought, even to sadness. His
+      features, more majestic and regular than Otho&rsquo;s, rarely varied in their
+      expression. More resolute even than Otho, he was less impetuous; more
+      impassioned, he was also less capricious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The brothers remained silent after Leoline had left them. Otho carelessly
+      braced on his sword, that he had laid aside on the grass; but Warbeck
+      gathered up the flowers that had been touched by the soft hand of Leoline,
+      and placed them in his bosom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The action disturbed Otho; he bit his lip, and changed colour; at length
+      he said, with a forced laugh,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must be confessed, brother, that you carry your affection for our fair
+      cousin to a degree that even relationship seems scarcely to warrant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is true,&rdquo; said Warbeck, calmly; &ldquo;I love her with a love surpassing
+      that of blood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How!&rdquo; said Otho, fiercely: &ldquo;do you dare to think of Leoline as a bride?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dare!&rdquo; repeated Warbeck, turning yet paler than his wonted hue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I have said the word! Know, Warbeck, that I, too, love Leoline; I,
+      too, claim her as my bride; and never, while I can wield a sword, never,
+      while I wear the spurs of knighthood, will I render my claim to a living
+      rival,&mdash;even,&rdquo; he added, sinking his voice, &ldquo;though that rival be my
+      brother!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Warbeck answered not; his very soul seemed stunned; he gazed long and
+      wistfully on his brother, and then, turning his face away, ascended the
+      rock without uttering a single word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This silence startled Otho. Accustomed to vent every emotion of his own,
+      he could not comprehend the forbearance of his brother; he knew his high
+      and brave nature too well to imagine that it arose from fear. Might it not
+      be contempt, or might he not, at this moment, intend to seek their father;
+      and, the first to proclaim his love for the orphan, advance, also, the
+      privilege of the elder born? As these suspicions flashed across him, the
+      haughty Otho strode to his brother&rsquo;s side, and laying his hand on his arm,
+      said,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whither goest thou; and dost thou consent to surrender Leoline?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does she love thee, Otho?&rdquo; answered Warbeck, breaking silence at last;
+      and his voice spoke so deep an anguish, that it arrested the passions of
+      Otho even at their height.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is thou who art now silent,&rdquo; continued Warbeck; &ldquo;speak. Doth she love
+      thee, and has her lip confessed it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have believed that she loved me,&rdquo; faltered Otho; &ldquo;but she is of maiden
+      bearing, and her lip, at least, has never told it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Enough,&rdquo; said Warbeck; &ldquo;release your hold.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stay,&rdquo; said Otho, his suspicions returning; &ldquo;stay,&mdash;yet one word;
+      dost thou seek my father? He ever honoured thee more than me: wilt thou
+      own to him thy love, and insist on thy right of birth? By my soul and my
+      hope of heaven, do it, and one of us two must fall!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor boy!&rdquo; answered Warbeck, bitterly; &ldquo;how little thou canst read the
+      heart of one who loves truly! Thinkest thou I would wed her if she loved
+      thee? Thinkest thou I could, even to be blessed myself, give her one
+      moment&rsquo;s pain? Out on the thought! away!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then wilt not thou seek our father?&rdquo; said Otho, abashed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our father!&mdash;has our father the keeping of Leoline&rsquo;s affection?&rdquo;
+       answered Warbeck; and shaking off his brother&rsquo;s grasp, he sought the way
+      to the castle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he entered the hall, he heard the voice of Leoline; she was singing to
+      the old chief one of the simple ballads of the time that the warrior and
+      the hunter loved to hear. He paused lest he should break the spell (a
+      spell stronger than a sorcerer&rsquo;s to him), and gazing upon Leoline&rsquo;s
+      beautiful form, his heart sank within him. His brother and himself had
+      each that day, as they sat in the gardens, given her a flower; his flower
+      was the fresher and the rarer; his he saw not, but she wore his brother&rsquo;s
+      in her bosom!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The chief, lulled by the music and wearied with the toils of the chase,
+      sank into sleep as the song ended, and Warbeck, coming forward, motioned
+      to Leoline to follow him. He passed into a retired and solitary walk, and
+      when they were a little distance from the castle, Warbeck turned round,
+      and taking Leoline&rsquo;s hand gently, said,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us rest here for one moment, dearest cousin; I have much on my heart
+      to say to thee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what is there,&rdquo; answered Leoline, as they sat on a mossy bank, with
+      the broad Rhine glancing below, &ldquo;what is there that my kind Warbeck would
+      ask of me? Ah, would it might be some favour, something in poor Leoline&rsquo;s
+      power to grant; for ever from my birth you have been to me most tender,
+      most kind. You, I have often heard them say; taught my first steps to
+      walk; you formed my infant lips into language, and, in after years, when
+      my wild cousin was far away in the forests at the chase, you would brave
+      his gay jest and remain at home, lest Leoline should be weary in the
+      solitude. Ah, would I could repay you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Warbeck turned away his cheek; his heart was very full, and it was some
+      moments before he summoned courage to reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My fair cousin,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;those were happy days; but they were the days
+      of childhood. New cares and new thoughts have now come on us; but I am
+      still thy friend, Leoline, and still thou wilt confide in me thy young
+      sorrows and thy young hopes, as thou ever didst. Wilt thou not, Leoline?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Canst thou ask me?&rdquo; said Leoline; and Warbeck, gazing on her face, saw
+      that though her eyes were full of tears, they yet looked steadily upon
+      his; and he knew that she loved him only as a sister.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He sighed, and paused again ere he resumed. &ldquo;Enough,&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;now to my
+      task. Once on a time, dear cousin, there lived among these mountains a
+      certain chief who had two sons, and an orphan like thyself dwelt also in
+      his halls. And the elder son&mdash;but no matter, let us not waste words
+      on <i>him</i>!&mdash;the younger son, then, loved the orphan dearly,&mdash;more
+      dearly than cousins love; and fearful of refusal, he prayed the elder one
+      to urge his suit to the orphan. Leoline, my tale is done. Canst thou not
+      love Otho as he loves thee?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And now lifting his eyes to Leoline, he saw that she trembled violently,
+      and her cheek was covered with blushes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say,&rdquo; continued he, mastering himself, &ldquo;is not that flower his&mdash;present&mdash;a
+      token that he is chiefly in thy thoughts?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, Warbeck! do not deem me ungrateful that I wear not yours also; but&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush!&rdquo; said Warbeck, hastily; &ldquo;I am but as thy brother; is not Otho more?
+      He is young, brave, and beautiful. God grant that he may deserve thee, if
+      thou givest him so rich a gift as thy affections!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I saw less of Otho in my childhood,&rdquo; said Leoline, evasively; &ldquo;therefore,
+      his kindness of late years seemed stranger to me than thine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And thou wilt not then reject him? Thou wilt be his bride?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And <i>thy</i> sister,&rdquo; answered Leoline.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bless thee, mine own dear cousin! one brother&rsquo;s kiss then, and farewell!
+      Otho shall thank thee for himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He kissed her forehead calmly, and, turning away, plunged into the
+      thicket; then, nor till then, he gave vent to such emotions as, had
+      Leoline seen them, Otho&rsquo;s suit had been lost forever; for passionately,
+      deeply as in her fond and innocent heart she loved Otho, the <i>happiness</i>
+      of Warbeck was not less dear to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the young knight had recovered his self-possession he went in search
+      of Otho. He found him alone in the wood, leaning with folded arms against
+      a tree, and gazing moodily on the ground. Warbeck&rsquo;s noble heart was
+      touched at his brother&rsquo;s dejection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cheer thee, Otho,&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;I bring thee no bad tidings; I have seen
+      Leoline, I have conversed with her&mdash;nay, start not,&mdash;she loves
+      thee! she is thine!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Generous, generous Warbeck!&rdquo; exclaimed Otho; and he threw himself on his
+      brother&rsquo;s neck. &ldquo;No, no,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;this must not be; thou hast the elder
+      claim,&mdash;I resign her to thee. Forgive me my waywardness, brother,
+      forgive me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Think of the past no more,&rdquo; said Warbeck; &ldquo;the love of Leoline is an
+      excuse for greater offences than thine. And now, be kind to her; her
+      nature is soft and keen. <i>I</i> know her well; for <i>I</i> have studied
+      her faintest wish. Thou art hasty and quick of ire; but remember that a
+      word wounds where love is deep. For my sake, as for hers, think more of
+      her happiness than thine own; now seek her,&mdash;she waits to hear from
+      thy lips the tale that sounded cold upon mine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With that he left his brother, and, once more re-entering the castle, he
+      went into the hall of his ancestors. His father still slept; he put his
+      hand on his gray hair, and blessed him; then stealing up to his chamber,
+      he braced on his helm and armour, and thrice kissing the hilt of his
+      sword, said, with a flushed cheek,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Henceforth be <i>thou</i> my bride!&rdquo; Then passing from the castle, he
+      sped by the most solitary paths down the rock, gained the Rhine, and
+      hailing one of the numerous fishermen of the river, won the opposite
+      shore; and alone, but not sad, for his high heart supported him, and
+      Leoline at least was happy, he hastened to Frankfort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The town was all gayety and life, arms clanged at every corner, the sounds
+      of martial music, the wave of banners, the glittering of plumed casques,
+      the neighing of war-steeds, all united to stir the blood and inflame the
+      sense. Saint Bertrand had lifted the sacred cross along the shores of the
+      Rhine, and the streets of Frankfort witnessed with what success!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On that same day Warbeck assumed the sacred badge, and was enlisted among
+      the knights of the Emperor Conrad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We must suppose some time to have elapsed, and Otho and Leoline were not
+      yet wedded; for, in the first fervour of his gratitude to his brother,
+      Otho had proclaimed to his father and to Leoline the conquest Warbeck had
+      obtained over himself; and Leoline, touched to the heart, would not
+      consent that the wedding should take place immediately. &ldquo;Let him, at
+      least,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;not be insulted by a premature festivity; and give him
+      time, amongst the lofty beauties he will gaze upon in a far country, to
+      forget, Otho, that he once loved her who is the beloved of thee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old chief applauded this delicacy; and even Otho, in the first flush
+      of his feelings towards his brother, did not venture to oppose it. They
+      settled, then, that the marriage should take place at the end of a year.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Months rolled away, and an absent and moody gloom settled upon Otho&rsquo;s
+      brow. In his excursions with his gay companions among the neighbouring
+      towns, he heard of nothing but the glory of the Crusaders, of the homage
+      paid to the heroes of the Cross at the courts they visited, of the
+      adventures of their life, and the exciting spirit that animated their war.
+      In fact, neither minstrel nor priest suffered the theme to grow cold; and
+      the fame of those who had gone forth to the holy strife gave at once
+      emulation and discontent to the youths who remained behind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And my brother enjoys this ardent and glorious life,&rdquo; said the impatient
+      Otho; &ldquo;while I, whose arm is as strong, and whose heart is as bold,
+      languish here listening to the dull tales of a hoary sire and the silly
+      songs of an orphan girl.&rdquo; His heart smote him at the last sentence, but he
+      had already begun to weary of the gentle love of Leoline. Perhaps when he
+      had no longer to gain a triumph over a rival the excitement palled; or
+      perhaps his proud spirit secretly chafed at being conquered by his brother
+      in generosity, even when outshining him in the success of love.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But poor Leoline, once taught that she was to consider Otho her betrothed,
+      surrendered her heart entirely to his control. His wild spirit, his dark
+      beauty, his daring valour, won while they awed her; and in the fitfulness
+      of his nature were those perpetual springs of hope and fear that are the
+      fountains of ever-agitated love. She saw with increasing grief the change
+      that was growing over Otho&rsquo;s mind; nor did she divine the cause. &ldquo;Surely I
+      have not offended him?&rdquo; thought she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the companions of Otho was one who possessed a singular sway over
+      him. He was a knight of that mysterious Order of the Temple, which
+      exercised at one time so great a command over the minds of men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A severe and dangerous wound in a brawl with an English knight had
+      confined the Templar at Frankfort, and prevented his joining the Crusade.
+      During his slow recovery he had formed an intimacy with Otho, and, taking
+      up his residence at the castle of Liebenstein, had been struck with the
+      beauty of Leoline. Prevented by his oath from marriage, he allowed himself
+      a double license in love, and doubted not, could he disengage the young
+      knight from his betrothed, that she would add a new conquest to the many
+      he had already achieved. Artfully therefore he painted to Otho the various
+      attractions of the Holy Cause; and, above all, he failed not to describe,
+      with glowing colours, the beauties who, in the gorgeous East,
+      distinguished with a prodigal favour the warriors of the Cross. Dowries,
+      unknown in the more sterile mountains of the Rhine, accompanied the hand
+      of these beauteous maidens; and even a prince&rsquo;s daughter was not deemed,
+      he said, too lofty a marriage for the heroes who might win kingdoms for
+      themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To me,&rdquo; said the Templar, &ldquo;such hopes are eternally denied. But you, were
+      you not already betrothed, what fortunes might await you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By such discourses the ambition of Otho was perpetually aroused; they
+      served to deepen his discontent at his present obscurity, and to convert
+      to distaste the only solace it afforded in the innocence and affection of
+      Leoline.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One night, a minstrel sought shelter from the storm in the halls of
+      Liebenstein. His visit was welcomed by the chief, and he repaid the
+      hospitality he had received by the exercise of his art. He sang of the
+      chase, and the gaunt hound started from the hearth. He sang of love, and
+      Otho, forgetting his restless dreams, approached to Leoline, and laid
+      himself at her feet. Louder then and louder rose the strain. The minstrel
+      sang of war; he painted the feats of the Crusaders; he plunged into the
+      thickest of the battle; the steed neighed; the trump sounded; and you
+      might have heard the ringing of the steel. But when he came to signalize
+      the names of the boldest knights, high among the loftiest sounded the name
+      of Sir Warbeck of Liebenstein. Thrice had he saved the imperial banner;
+      two chargers slain beneath him, he had covered their bodies with the
+      fiercest of the foe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gentle in the tent and terrible in the fray, the minstrel should forget
+      his craft ere the Rhine should forget its hero. The chief started from his
+      seat. Leoline clasped the minstrel&rsquo;s hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Speak,&mdash;you have seen him, he lives, he is honoured?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I myself am but just from Palestine, brave chief and noble maiden. I saw
+      the gallant knight of Liebenstein at the right hand of the imperial
+      Conrad. And he, ladye, was the only knight whom admiration shone upon
+      without envy, its shadow. Who then,&rdquo; continued the minstrel, once more
+      striking his harp, &ldquo;who then would remain inglorious in the hall? Shall
+      not the banners of his sires reproach him as they wave; and shall not
+      every voice from Palestine strike shame into his soul?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Right!&rdquo; cried Otho, suddenly, and flinging himself at the feet of his
+      father. &ldquo;Thou hearest what my brother has done, and thine aged eyes weep
+      tears of joy. Shall I only dishonour thine old age with a rusted sword?
+      No! grant me, like my brother, to go forth with the heroes of the Cross!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Noble youth,&rdquo; cried the harper, &ldquo;therein speaks the soul of Sir Warbeck;
+      hear him, sir, knight,&mdash;hear the noble youth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heaven cries aloud in his voice,&rdquo; said the Templar, solemnly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My son, I cannot chide thine ardour,&rdquo; said the old chief, raising him
+      with trembling hands; &ldquo;but Leoline, thy betrothed?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Pale as a statue, with ears that doubted their sense as they drank in the
+      cruel words of her lover, stood the orphan. She did not speak, she
+      scarcely breathed; she sank into her seat, and gazed upon the ground,
+      till, at the speech of the chief both maiden pride and maiden tenderness
+      restored her consciousness, and she said,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;<i>I</i>, uncle! Shall <i>I</i> bid Otho stay when his wishes bid him
+      depart?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He will return to thee, noble ladye, covered with glory,&rdquo; said the
+      harper: but Otho said no more. The touching voice of Leoline went to his
+      soul; he resumed his seat in silence; and Leoline, going up to him,
+      whispered gently, &ldquo;Act as though I were not;&rdquo; and left the hall to commune
+      with her heart and to weep alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can wed her before I go,&rdquo; said Otho, suddenly, as he sat that night in
+      the Templar&rsquo;s chamber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, that is true! and leave thy bride in the first week,&mdash;a hard
+      trial!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Better than incur the chance of never calling her mine. Dear, kind,
+      beloved Leoline!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Assuredly, she deserves all from thee; and, indeed, it is no small
+      sacrifice, at thy years and with thy mien, to renounce forever all
+      interest among the noble maidens thou wilt visit. Ah, from the galleries
+      of Constantinople what eyes will look down on thee, and what ears,
+      learning that thou art Otho the bridegroom, will turn away, caring for
+      thee no more! A bridegroom without a bride! Nay, man, much as the Cross
+      wants warriors, I am enough thy friend to tell thee, if thou weddest, to
+      stay peaceably at home, and forget in the chase the labours of war, from
+      which thou wouldst strip the ambition of love.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would I knew what were best,&rdquo; said Otho, irresolutely. &ldquo;My brother&mdash;ha,
+      shall he forever excel me? But Leoline, how will she grieve,&mdash;she who
+      left him for me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was that thy fault?&rdquo; said the Templar, gayly. &ldquo;It may many times chance
+      to thee again to be preferred to another. Troth, it is a sin under which
+      the conscience may walk lightly enough. But sleep on it, Otho; my eyes
+      grow heavy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day Otho sought Leoline, and proposed to her that their wedding
+      should precede his parting; but so embarrassed was he, so divided between
+      two wishes, that Leoline, offended, hurt, stung by his coldness, refused
+      the proposal at once. She left him lest he should see her weep, and then&mdash;then
+      she repented even of her just pride!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Otho, striving to appease his conscience with the belief that hers now
+      was the <i>sole</i> fault, busied himself in preparations for his
+      departure. Anxious to outshine his brother, he departed not as Warbeck,
+      alone and unattended, but levying all the horse, men, and money that his
+      domain of Sternfels&mdash;which he had not yet tenanted&mdash;would
+      afford, he repaired to Frankfort at the head of a glittering troop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Templar, affecting a relapse, tarried behind, and promised to join him
+      at that Constantinople of which he had so loudly boasted. Meanwhile he
+      devoted his whole powers of pleasing to console the unhappy orphan. The
+      force of her simple love was, however, stronger than all his arts. In vain
+      he insinuated doubts of Otho,&mdash;she refused to hear them; in vain he
+      poured with the softest accents into her ear the witchery of flattery and
+      song,&mdash;she turned heedlessly away; and only pained by the courtesies
+      that had so little resemblance to Otho, she shut herself up in her
+      chamber, and pined in solitude for her forsaker.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Templar now resolved to attempt darker arts to obtain power over her,
+      when, fortunately, he was summoned suddenly away by a mission from the
+      Grand Master of so high import, that it could not be resisted by a passion
+      stronger in his breast than love,&mdash;the passion of ambition. He left
+      the castle to its solitude; and Otho peopling it no more with his gay
+      companions, no solitude <i>could</i> be more unfrequently disturbed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile, though, ever and anon, the fame of Warbeck reached their ears,
+      it came unaccompanied with that of Otho,&mdash;of him they had no tidings;
+      and thus the love of the tender orphan was kept alive by the perpetual
+      restlessness of fear. At length the old chief died, and Leoline was left
+      utterly alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One evening as she sat with her maidens in the hall, the ringing of a
+      steed&rsquo;s hoofs was heard in the outer court; a horn sounded, the heavy
+      gates were unbarred, and a knight of a stately mien and covered with the
+      mantle of the Cross entered the hall. He stopped for one moment at the
+      entrance, as if overpowered by his emotion; in the next he had clasped
+      Leoline to his breast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dost thou not recognize thy cousin Warbeck?&rdquo; He doffed his casque, and
+      she saw that majestic brow which, unlike Otho&rsquo;s, had never changed or been
+      clouded in its aspect to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The war is suspended for the present,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;I learned my father&rsquo;s
+      death, and I have returned home to hang up my banner in the hall and spend
+      my days in peace.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Time and the life of camps had worked their change upon Warbeck&rsquo;s face;
+      the fair hair, deepened in its shade, was worn from the temples, and
+      disclosed one scar that rather aided the beauty of a countenance that had
+      always something high and martial in its character; but the calm it had
+      once worn had settled down into sadness; he conversed more rarely than
+      before, and though he smiled not less often, nor less kindly, the smile
+      had more of thought, and the kindness had forgot its passion. He had
+      apparently conquered a love that was so early crossed, but not that
+      fidelity of remembrance which made Leoline dearer to him than all others,
+      and forbade him to replace the images he had graven upon his soul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The orphan&rsquo;s lips trembled with the name of Otho, but a certain
+      recollection stifled even her anxiety. Warbeck hastened to forestall her
+      questions. Otho was well, he said, and sojourning at Constantinople; he
+      had lingered there so long that the crusade had terminated without his
+      aid: doubtless now he would speedily return,&mdash;a month, a week, nay, a
+      day, might restore him to her side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leoline was inexpressibly consoled, yet something remained untold. Why, so
+      eager for the strife of the sacred tomb, had he thus tarried at
+      Constantinople? She wondered, she wearied conjecture, but she did not dare
+      to search further.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The generous Warbeck concealed from her that Otho led a life of the most
+      reckless and indolent dissipation,&mdash;wasting his wealth in the
+      pleasures of the Greek court, and only occupying his ambition with the
+      wild schemes of founding a principality in those foreign climes, which the
+      enterprises of the Norman adventurers had rendered so alluring to the
+      knightly bandits of the age.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cousins resumed their old friendship, and Warbeck believed that it was
+      friendship alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They walked again among the gardens in which their childhood had strayed;
+      they sat again on the green turf whereon they had woven flowers; they
+      looked down on the eternal mirror of the Rhine,&mdash;ah! could it have
+      reflected the same unawakened freshness of their life&rsquo;s early spring!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The grave and contemplative mind of Warbeck had not been so contented with
+      the honours of war but that it had sought also those calmer sources of
+      emotion which were yet found among the sages of the East. He had drunk at
+      the fountain of the wisdom of those distant climes, and had acquired the
+      habits of meditation which were indulged by those wiser tribes from which
+      the Crusaders brought back to the North the knowledge that was destined to
+      enlighten their posterity. Warbeck, therefore, had little in common with
+      the ruder chiefs around; he did not summon them to his board; nor attend
+      at their noisy wassails. Often late at night, in yon shattered tower, his
+      lonely lamp shone still over the mighty stream, and his only relief to
+      loneliness was in the presence and the song of his soft cousin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Months rolled on, when suddenly a vague and fearful rumour reached the
+      castle of Liebenstein. Otho was returning home to the neighbouring tower
+      of Sternfels; but not alone. He brought back with him a Greek bride of
+      surprising beauty, and dowered with almost regal wealth. Leoline was the
+      first to discredit the rumour; Leoline was soon the only one who
+      disbelieved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bright in the summer noon flashed the array of horsemen; far up the steep
+      ascent wound the gorgeous cavalcade; the lonely towers of Liebenstein
+      heard the echo of many a laugh and peal of merriment. Otho bore home his
+      bride to the hall of Sternfels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night there was a great banquet in Otho&rsquo;s castle; the lights shone
+      from every casement, and music swelled loud and ceaselessly within.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the side of Otho, glittering with the prodigal jewels of the East, sat
+      the Greek. Her dark locks, her flashing eye, the false colours of her
+      complexion, dazzled the eyes of her guests. On her left hand sat the
+      Templar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the holy rood,&rdquo; quoth the Templar, gayly, though he crossed himself as
+      he spoke, &ldquo;we shall scare the owls to-night on those grim towers of
+      Liebenstein. Thy grave brother, Sir Otho, will have much to do to comfort
+      his cousin when she sees what a gallant life she would have led with
+      thee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor damsel!&rdquo; said the Greek, with affected pity, &ldquo;doubtless she will now
+      be reconciled to the rejected one. I hear he is a knight of a comely
+      mien.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Peace!&rdquo; said Otho, sternly, and quaffing a large goblet of wine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Greek bit her lip, and glanced meaningly at the Templar, who returned
+      the glance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nought but a beauty such as thine can win my pardon,&rdquo; said Otho, turning
+      to his bride, and gazing passionately in her face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Greek smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Well sped the feast, the laugh deepened, the wine circled, when Otho&rsquo;s eye
+      rested on a guest at the bottom of the board, whose figure was mantled
+      from head to foot, and whose face was covered by a dark veil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beshrew me!&rdquo; said he, aloud, &ldquo;but this is scarce courteous at our revel:
+      will the stranger vouchsafe to unmask?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      These words turned all eyes to the figure, and they who sat next it
+      perceived that it trembled violently; at length it rose, and walking
+      slowly, but with grace, to the fair Greek, it laid beside her a wreath of
+      flowers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a simple gift, ladye,&rdquo; said the stranger, in a voice of such
+      sweetness that the rudest guest was touched by it; &ldquo;but it is all I can
+      offer, and the bride of Otho should not be without a gift at my hands. May
+      ye both be happy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With these words, the stranger turned and passed from the hall silent as a
+      shadow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bring back the stranger!&rdquo; cried the Greek, recovering her surprise.
+      Twenty guests sprang up to obey her mandate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no!&rdquo; said Otho, waving his hand impatiently. &ldquo;Touch her not, heed her
+      not, at your peril.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Greek bent over the flowers to conceal her anger, and from amongst
+      them dropped the broken half of a ring. Otho recognized it at once; it was
+      the broken half of that ring which he had broken with his betrothed. Alas!
+      he required not such a sign to convince him that that figure, so full of
+      ineffable grace, that touching voice, that simple action so tender in its
+      sentiment, that gift, that blessing, came only from the forsaken and
+      forgiving Leoline.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Warbeck, alone in his solitary tower, paced to and fro with agitated
+      steps. Deep, undying wrath at his brother&rsquo;s falsehood mingled with one
+      burning, one delicious hope. He confessed now that he had deceived himself
+      when he thought his passion was no more; was there any longer a bar to his
+      union with Leoline?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In that delicacy which was breathed into him by his love, he had forborne
+      to seek, or to offer her the insult of consolation. He felt that the shock
+      should be borne alone, and yet he pined, he thirsted, to throw himself at
+      her feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nursing these contending thoughts, he was aroused by a knock at his door;
+      he opened it. The passage was thronged by Leoline&rsquo;s maidens, pale,
+      anxious, weeping. Leoline had left the castle, with but one female
+      attendant, none knew whither; they knew too soon. From the hall of
+      Sternfels she had passed over in the dark and inclement night to the
+      valley in which the convent of Bornhofen offered to the weary of spirit
+      and the broken of heart a refuge at the shrine of God.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At daybreak the next morning, Warbeck was at the convent&rsquo;s gate. He saw
+      Leoline. What a change one night of suffering had made in that face, which
+      was the fountain of all loveliness to him! He clasped her in his arms; he
+      wept; he urged all that love could urge: he besought her to accept that
+      heart which had never wronged her memory by a thought. &ldquo;Oh, Leoline! didst
+      thou not say once that these arms nursed thy childhood; that this voice
+      soothed thine early sorrows? Ah, trust to them again and forever. From a
+      love that forsook thee turn to the love that never swerved.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said Leoline; &ldquo;no. What would the chivalry of which thou art the
+      boast,&mdash;what would they say of thee, wert thou to wed one affianced
+      and deserted, who tarried years for another, and brought to thine arms
+      only that heart which he had abandoned? No; and even if thou, as I know
+      thou wouldst be, wert callous to such wrong of thy high name, shall I
+      bring to thee a broken heart and bruised spirit? Shalt thou wed sorrow and
+      not joy; and shall sighs that will not cease, and tears that may not be
+      dried, be the only dowry of thy bride? Thou, too, for whom all blessings
+      should be ordained! No, forget me; forget thy poor Leoline! She hath
+      nothing but prayers for thee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In vain Warbeck pleaded; in vain he urged all that passion and truth could
+      urge; the springs of earthly love were forever dried up in the orphan&rsquo;s
+      heart, and her resolution was immovable. She tore herself from his arms,
+      and the gate of the convent creaked harshly on his ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A new and stern emotion now wholly possessed him; though naturally mild
+      and gentle, he cherished anger, when once it was aroused, with the
+      strength of a calm mind. Leoline&rsquo;s tears, her sufferings, her wrongs, her
+      uncomplaining spirit, the change already stamped upon her face,&mdash;all
+      cried aloud to him for vengeance. &ldquo;She is an orphan,&rdquo; said he, bitterly;
+      &ldquo;she hath none to protect, to redress her, save me alone. My father&rsquo;s
+      charge over her forlorn youth descends of right to me. What matters it
+      whether her forsaker be my brother? He is <i>her</i> foe. Hath he not
+      crushed her heart? Hath he not consigned her to sorrow till the grave? And
+      with what insult! no warning, no excuse; with lewd wassailers keeping
+      revel for his new bridals in the hearing&mdash;before the sight&mdash;of
+      his betrothed! Enough! the time hath come when, to use his own words, &lsquo;One
+      of us two must fall!&rsquo;&rdquo; He half drew his sword as he spoke, and thrusting
+      it back violently into the sheath, strode home to his solitary castle. The
+      sound of steeds and of the hunting horn met him at his portal; the bridal
+      train of Sternfels, all mirth and gladness, were parting for the chase.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That evening a knight in complete armour entered the banquet-hall of
+      Sternfels, and defied Otho, on the part of Warbeck of Liebenstein, to
+      mortal combat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even the Templar was startled by so unnatural a challenge; but Otho,
+      reddening, took up the gage, and the day and spot were fixed.
+      Discontented, wroth with himself, a savage gladness seized him; he longed
+      to wreak his desperate feelings even on his brother. Nor had he ever in
+      his jealous heart forgiven that brother his virtues and his renown.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the appointed hour the brothers met as foes. Warbeck&rsquo;s vizor was up,
+      and all the settled sternness of his soul was stamped upon his brow. But
+      Otho, more willing to brave the arm than to face the front of his brother,
+      kept his vizor down; the Templar stood by him with folded arms. It was a
+      study in human passions to his mocking mind. Scarce had the first trump
+      sounded to this dread conflict, when a new actor entered on the scene. The
+      rumour of so unprecedented an event had not failed to reach the convent of
+      Bornhofen; and now, two by two, came the sisters of the holy shrine, and
+      the armed men made way, as with trailing garments and veiled faces they
+      swept along into the very lists. At that moment one from amongst them left
+      her sisters with a slow majestic pace, and paused not till she stood right
+      between the brother foes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Warbeck,&rdquo; she said in a hollow voice, that curdled up his dark spirit as
+      it spoke, &ldquo;is it thus thou wouldst prove thy love, and maintain thy trust
+      over the fatherless orphan whom thy sire bequeathed to thy care? Shall I
+      have murder on my soul?&rdquo; At that question she paused, and those who heard
+      it were struck dumb, and shuddered. &ldquo;The murder of one man by the hand of
+      his own brother! Away, Warbeck! <i>I command</i>.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall I forget thy wrongs, Leoline?&rdquo; said Warbeck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wrongs! they united me to God! they are forgiven, they are no more. Earth
+      has deserted me, but Heaven hath taken me to its arms. Shall I murmur at
+      the change? And thou, Otho&rdquo;&mdash;here her voice faltered&mdash;&ldquo;thou,
+      does thy conscience smite thee not? Wouldst thou atone for robbing me of
+      hope by barring against me the future? Wretch that I should be, could I
+      dream of mercy, could I dream of comfort, if thy brother fell by thy sword
+      in my cause? Otho, I have pardoned thee, and blessed thee and thine. Once,
+      perhaps, thou didst love me; remember how I loved thee,&mdash;cast down
+      thine arms.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Otho gazed at the veiled form before him. Where had the soft Leoline
+      learned to command? He turned to his brother; he felt all that he had
+      inflicted upon both; and casting his sword upon the ground, he knelt at
+      the feet of Leoline, and kissed her garment with a devotion that votary
+      never lavished on a holier saint.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The spell that lay over the warriors around was broken; there was one loud
+      cry of congratulation and joy. &ldquo;And thou, Warbeck?&rdquo; said Leoline, turning
+      to the spot where, still motionless and haughty, Warbeck stood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have I ever rebelled against thy will?&rdquo; said he, softly; and buried the
+      point of his sword in the earth. &ldquo;Yet, Leoline, yet,&rdquo; added he, looking at
+      his kneeling brother, &ldquo;yet art thou already better avenged than by this
+      steel!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art! thou art!&rdquo; cried Otho, smiting his breast; and slowly, and
+      scarce noting the crowd that fell back from his path, Warbeck left the
+      lists.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leoline said no more; her divine errand was fulfilled. She looked long and
+      wistfully after the stately form of the knight of Liebenstein, and then,
+      with a slight sigh, she turned to Otho, &ldquo;This is the last time we shall
+      meet on earth. Peace be with us all!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She then, with the same majestic and collected bearing, passed on towards
+      the sisterhood; and as, in the same solemn procession, they glided back
+      towards the convent, there was not a man present&mdash;no, not even the
+      hardened Templar&mdash;who would not, like Otho, have bent his knee to
+      Leoline.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once more Otho plunged into the wild revelry of the age; his castle was
+      thronged with guests, and night after night the lighted halls shone down
+      athwart the tranquil Rhine. The beauty of the Greek, the wealth of Otho,
+      the fame of the Templar, attracted all the chivalry from far and near.
+      Never had the banks of the Rhine known so hospitable a lord as the knight
+      of Sternfels. Yet gloom seized him in the midst of gladness, and the revel
+      was welcome only as the escape from remorse. The voice of scandal,
+      however, soon began to mingle with that of envy at the pomp of Otho. The
+      fair Greek, it was said, weary of her lord, lavished her smiles on others;
+      the young and the fair were always most acceptable at the castle; and,
+      above all, her guilty love for the Templar scarcely affected disguise.
+      Otho alone appeared unconscious of the rumour; and though he had begun to
+      neglect his bride, he relaxed not in his intimacy with the Templar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was noon, and the Greek was sitting in her bower alone with her
+      suspected lover; the rich perfumes of the East mingled with the fragrance
+      of flowers, and various luxuries, unknown till then in those northern
+      shores, gave a soft and effeminate character to the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I tell thee,&rdquo; said the Greek, petulantly, &ldquo;that he begins to suspect;
+      that I have seen him watch thee, and mutter as he watched, and play with
+      the hilt of his dagger. Better let us fly ere it is too late, for his
+      vengeance would be terrible were it once roused against us. Ah, why did I
+      ever forsake my own sweet land for these barbarous shores! There, love is
+      not considered eternal, nor inconstancy a crime worthy death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Peace, pretty one!&rdquo; said the Templar, carelessly; &ldquo;thou knowest not the
+      laws of our foolish chivalry. Thinkest thou I could fly from a knight&rsquo;s
+      halls like a thief in the night? Why, verily, even the red cross would not
+      cover such dishonour. If thou fearest that thy dull lord suspects, let us
+      part. The emperor hath sent to me from Frankfort. Ere evening I might be
+      on my way thither.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I left to brave the barbarian&rsquo;s revenge alone? Is this thy chivalry?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, prate not so wildly,&rdquo; answered the Templar. &ldquo;Surely, when the object
+      of his suspicion is gone, thy woman&rsquo;s art and thy Greek wiles can easily
+      allay the jealous fiend. Do I not know thee, Glycera? Why, thou wouldst
+      fool all men&mdash;save a Templar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And thou, cruel, wouldst thou leave me?&rdquo; said the Greek, weeping. &ldquo;How
+      shall I live without thee?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Templar laughed slightly. &ldquo;Can such eyes ever weep without a
+      comforter? But farewell; I must not be found with thee. To-morrow I depart
+      for Frankfort; we shall meet again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the door closed on the Templar, the Greek rose, and pacing the
+      room, said, &ldquo;Selfish, selfish! how could I ever trust him? Yet I dare not
+      brave Otho alone. Surely it was his step that disturbed us in our
+      yesterday&rsquo;s interview? Nay, I will fly. I can never want a companion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She clapped her hands; a young page appeared; she threw herself on her
+      seat and wept bitterly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The page approached, and love was mingled with his compassion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why weepest thou, dearest lady?&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;Is there aught in which
+      Conrad&rsquo;s services&mdash;services!&mdash;ah, thou hast read his heart&mdash;<i>his
+      devotion</i> may avail?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Otho had wandered out the whole day alone; his vassals had observed that
+      his brow was more gloomy than its wont, for he usually concealed whatever
+      might prey within. Some of the most confidential of his servitors he had
+      conferred with, and the conference had deepened the shadow of his
+      countenance. He returned at twilight; the Greek did not honour the repast
+      with her presence. She was unwell, and not to be disturbed. The gay
+      Templar was the life of the board.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou carriest a sad brow to-day, Sir Otho,&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;good faith, thou
+      hast caught it from the air of Liebenstein.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have something troubles me,&rdquo; answered Otho, forcing a smile, &ldquo;which I
+      would fain impart to thy friendly bosom. The night is clear and the moon
+      is up, let us forth alone into the garden.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Templar rose, and he forgot not to gird on his sword as he followed
+      the knight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Otho led the way to one of the most distant terraces that overhung the
+      Rhine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir Templar,&rdquo; said he, pausing, &ldquo;answer me one question on thy knightly
+      honour. Was it thy step that left my lady&rsquo;s bower yester-eve at vesper?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Startled by so sudden a query, the wily Templar faltered in his reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The red blood mounted to Otho&rsquo;s brow. &ldquo;Nay, lie not, sir knight; these
+      eyes, thanks to God! have not witnessed, but these ears have heard from
+      others of my dishonour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As Otho spoke, the Templar&rsquo;s eye resting on the water perceived a boat
+      rowing fast over the Rhine; the distance forbade him to see more than the
+      outline of two figures within it. &ldquo;She was right,&rdquo; thought he; &ldquo;perhaps
+      that boat already bears her from the danger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Drawing himself up to the full height of his tall stature, the Templar
+      replied haughtily,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir Otho of Sternfels, if thou hast deigned to question thy vassals,
+      obtain from them only an answer. It is not to contradict such minions that
+      the knights of the Temple pledge their word!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Enough,&rdquo; cried Otho, losing patience, and striking the Templar with his
+      clenched hand. &ldquo;Draw, traitor, draw!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alone in his lofty tower Warbeck watched the night deepen over the
+      heavens, and communed mournfully with himself. &ldquo;To what end,&rdquo; thought he,
+      &ldquo;have these strong affections, these capacities of love, this yearning
+      after sympathy, been given me? Unloved and unknown I walk to my grave, and
+      all the nobler mysteries of my heart are forever to be untold.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus musing, he heard not the challenge of the warder on the wall, or the
+      unbarring of the gate below, or the tread of footsteps along the winding
+      stair; the door was thrown suddenly open, and Otho stood before him.
+      &ldquo;Come,&rdquo; he said, in a low voice trembling with passion; &ldquo;come, I will show
+      thee that which shall glad thine heart. Twofold is Leoline avenged.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Warbeck looked in amazement on a brother he had not met since they stood
+      in arms each against the other&rsquo;s life, and he now saw that the arm that
+      Otho extended to him dripped with blood, trickling drop by drop upon the
+      floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come,&rdquo; said Otho, &ldquo;follow me; it is my last prayer. Come, for Leoline&rsquo;s
+      sake, come.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At that name Warbeck hesitated no longer; he girded on his sword, and
+      followed his brother down the stairs and through the castle gate. The
+      porter scarcely believed his eyes when he saw the two brothers, so long
+      divided, go forth at that hour alone, and seemingly in friendship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Warbeck, arrived at that epoch in the feelings when nothing stuns,
+      followed with silent steps the rapid strides of his brother. The two
+      castles, as you are aware, are scarce a stone&rsquo;s throw from each other. In
+      a few minutes Otho paused at an open space in one of the terraces of
+      Sternfels, on which the moon shone bright and steady. &ldquo;Behold!&rdquo; he said,
+      in a ghastly voice, &ldquo;behold!&rdquo; and Warbeck saw on the sward the corpse of
+      the Templar, bathed with the blood that even still poured fast and warm
+      from his heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hark!&rdquo; said Otho. &ldquo;He it was who first made me waver in my vows to
+      Leoline; he persuaded me to wed yon whited falsehood. Hark! he, who had
+      thus wronged my real love, dishonoured me with my faithless bride, and
+      thus&mdash;thus&mdash;thus&rdquo;&mdash;as grinding his teeth, he spurned again
+      and again the dead body of the Templar&mdash;&ldquo;thus Leoline and myself are
+      avenged!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And thy wife?&rdquo; said Warbeck, pityingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fled,&mdash;fled with a hireling page. It is well! she was not worth the
+      sword that was once belted on&mdash;by Leoline.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The tradition, dear Gertrude, proceeds to tell us that Otho, though often
+      menaced by the rude justice of the day for the death of the Templar,
+      defied and escaped the menace. On the very night of his revenge a long and
+      delirious illness seized him; the generous Warbeck forgave, forgot all,
+      save that he had been once consecrated by Leoline&rsquo;s love. He tended him
+      through his sickness, and when he recovered, Otho was an altered man. He
+      forswore the comrades he had once courted, the revels he had once led. The
+      halls of Sternfels were desolate as those of Liebenstein. The only
+      companion Otho sought was Warbeck, and Warbeck bore with him. They had no
+      topic in common, for on one subject Warbeck at least felt too deeply ever
+      to trust himself to speak; yet did a strange and secret sympathy re-unite
+      them. They had at least a common sorrow; often they were seen wandering
+      together by the solitary banks of the river, or amidst the woods, without
+      apparently interchanging word or sign. Otho died first, and still in the
+      prime of youth; and Warbeck was now left companionless. In vain the
+      imperial court wooed him to its pleasures; in vain the camp proffered him
+      the oblivion of renown. Ah! could he tear himself from a spot where
+      morning and night he could see afar, amidst the valley, the roof that
+      sheltered Leoline, and on which every copse, every turf, reminded him of
+      former days? His solitary life, his midnight vigils, strange scrolls about
+      his chamber, obtained him by degrees the repute of cultivating the darker
+      arts; and shunning, he became shunned by all. But still it was sweet to
+      hear from time to time of the increasing sanctity of her in whom he had
+      treasured up his last thoughts of earth. She it was who healed the sick;
+      she it was who relieved the poor; and the superstition of that age brought
+      pilgrims from afar to the altars that she served.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many years afterwards, a band of lawless robbers, who ever and anon broke
+      from their mountain fastnesses to pillage and to desolate the valleys of
+      the Rhine,&mdash;who spared neither sex nor age, neither tower nor hut,
+      nor even the houses of God Himself,&mdash;laid waste the territories round
+      Bornhofen, and demanded treasure from the convent. The abbess, of the bold
+      lineage of Rudesheim, refused the sacrilegious demand. The convent was
+      stormed; its vassals resisted; the robbers, inured to slaughter, won the
+      day; already the gates were forced, when a knight, at the head of a small
+      but hardy troop, rushed down from the mountain side and turned the tide of
+      the fray. Wherever his sword flashed fell a foe; wherever his war-cry
+      sounded was a space of dead men in the thick of the battle. The fight was
+      won, the convent saved; the abbess and the sisterhood came forth to bless
+      their deliverer. Laid under an aged oak, he was bleeding fast to death;
+      his head was bare and his locks were gray, but scarcely yet with years.
+      One only of the sisterhood recognized that majestic face; one bathed his
+      parched lips; one held his dying hand; and in Leoline&rsquo;s presence passed
+      away the faithful spirit of the last lord of Liebenstein!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; said Gertrude, through her tears; &ldquo;surely you must have altered the
+      facts,&mdash;surely&mdash;surely&mdash;it must have been impossible for
+      Leoline, with a woman&rsquo;s heart, to have loved Otho more than Warbeck?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My child,&rdquo; said Vane, &ldquo;so think women when they read a tale of love, and
+      see <i>the whole heart</i> bared before them; but not so act they in real
+      life, when they see only the surface of character, and pierce not its
+      depths&mdash;until it is too late!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXV. THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.&mdash;A COMMON INCIDENT NOT
+      BEFORE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      DESCRIBED.&mdash;TREVYLYAN AND GERTRUDE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      THE day now grew cool as it waned to its decline, and the breeze came
+      sharp upon the delicate frame of the sufferer. They resolved to proceed no
+      farther; and as they carried with them attendants and baggage, which
+      rendered their route almost independent of the ordinary accommodation,
+      they steered for the opposite shore, and landed at a village beautifully
+      sequestered in a valley, and where they fortunately obtained a lodging not
+      often met with in the regions of the picturesque.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Gertrude, at an early hour, retired to bed, Vane and Du&mdash;&mdash;-e
+      fell into speculative conversation upon the nature of man. Vane&rsquo;s
+      philosophy was of a quiet and passive scepticism; the physician dared more
+      boldly, and rushed from doubt to negation. The attention of Trevylyan, as
+      he sat apart and musing, was arrested in despite of himself. He listened
+      to an argument in which he took no share, but which suddenly inspired him
+      with an interest in that awful subject which, in the heat of youth and the
+      occupations of the world, had never been so prominently called forth
+      before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What,&rdquo; thought he, with unutterable anguish, as he listened to the
+      earnest vehemence of the Frenchman and the tranquil assent of Vane, &ldquo;if
+      this creed were indeed true,&mdash;if there be no other world,&mdash;Gertrude
+      is lost to me eternally, through the dread gloom of death there would
+      break forth no star!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That is a peculiar incident that perhaps occurs to us all at times, but
+      which I have never found expressed in books, namely, to hear a doubt of
+      futurity at the very moment in which the present is most overcast; and to
+      find at once this world stripped of its delusion and the next of its
+      consolation. It is perhaps for others, rather than ourselves, that the
+      fond heart requires a Hereafter. The tranquil rest, the shadow, and the
+      silence, the mere pause of the wheel of life, have no terror for the wise,
+      who know the due value of the world.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;After the billows of a stormy sea,
+      Sweet is at last the haven of repose!&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      But not so when that stillness is to divide us eternally from others; when
+      those we have loved with all the passion, the devotion, the watchful
+      sanctity of the weak human heart, are to exist to us no more! when, after
+      long years of desertion and widowhood on earth, there is to be no hope of
+      reunion in that INVISIBLE beyond the stars; when the torch, not of life
+      only, but of love, is to be quenched in the Dark Fountain, and the grave,
+      that we would fain hope is the great restorer of broken ties, is but the
+      dumb seal of hopeless, utter, inexorable separation! And it is this
+      thought, this sentiment, which makes religion out of woe, and teaches
+      belief to the mourning heart that in the gladness of united affections
+      felt not the necessity of a heaven! To how many is the death of the
+      beloved the parent of faith!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Stung by his thoughts, Trevylyan rose abruptly, and stealing from the
+      lowly hostelry, walked forth amidst the serene and deepening night; from
+      the window of Gertrude&rsquo;s room the light streamed calm on the purple air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With uneven steps and many a pause, he paced to and fro beneath the
+      window, and gave the rein to his thoughts. How intensely he felt the ALL
+      that Gertrude was to him! how bitterly he foresaw the change in his lot
+      and character that her death would work out! For who that met him in later
+      years ever dreamed that emotions so soft, and yet so ardent, had visited
+      one so stern? Who could have believed that time was when the polished and
+      cold Trevylyan had kept the vigils he now held below the chamber of one so
+      little like himself as Gertrude, in that remote and solitary hamlet; shut
+      in by the haunted mountains of the Rhine, and beneath the moonlight of the
+      romantic North?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While thus engaged, the light in Gertrude&rsquo;s room was suddenly
+      extinguished; it is impossible to express how much that trivial incident
+      affected him! It was like an emblem of what was to come; the light had
+      been the only evidence of life that broke upon that hour, and he was now
+      left alone with the shades of night. Was not this like the herald of
+      Gertrude&rsquo;s own death; the extinction of the only living ray that broke
+      upon the darkness of the world?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His anguish, his presentiment of utter desolation, increased. He groaned
+      aloud; he dashed his clenched hand to his breast; large and cold drops of
+      agony stole down his brow. &ldquo;Father,&rdquo; he exclaimed with a struggling voice,
+      &ldquo;let this cup pass from me! Smite my ambition to the root; curse me with
+      poverty, shame, and bodily disease; but leave me this one solace, this one
+      companion of my fate!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment Gertrude&rsquo;s window opened gently, and he heard accents steal
+      soothingly upon his ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is not that your voice, Albert?&rdquo; said she, softly. &ldquo;I heard it just as I
+      lay down to rest, and could not sleep while you were thus exposed to the
+      damp night air. You do not answer; surely it is your voice: when did I
+      mistake it for another&rsquo;s?&rdquo; Mastering with a violent effort his emotions,
+      Trevylyan answered, with a sort of convulsive gayety,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why come to these shores, dear Gertrude, unless you are honoured with the
+      chivalry that belongs to them? What wind, what blight, can harm me while
+      within the circle of your presence; and what sleep can bring me dreams so
+      dear as the waking thought of you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is cold,&rdquo; said Gertrude, shivering; &ldquo;come in, dear Albert, I beseech
+      you, and I will thank you to-morrow.&rdquo; Gertrude&rsquo;s voice was choked by the
+      hectic cough, that went like an arrow to Trevylyan&rsquo;s heart; and he felt
+      that in her anxiety for him she was now exposing her own frame to the
+      unwholesome night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He spoke no more, but hurried within the house; and when the gray light of
+      morn broke upon his gloomy features, haggard from the want of sleep, it
+      might have seemed, in that dim eye and fast-sinking cheek, as if the
+      lovers were not to be divided&mdash;even by death itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0026" id="link2HCH0026">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVI. IN WHICH THE READER WILL LEARN HOW THE FAIRIES WERE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      RECEIVED BY THE SOVEREIGNS OF THE MINES.&mdash;THE COMPLAINT OF THE LAST
+      OF THE FAUNS.&mdash;THE RED HUNTSMAN.&mdash;THE STORM.&mdash;DEATH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      IN the deep valley of Ehrenthal, the metal kings&mdash;the Prince of the
+      Silver Palaces, the Gnome Monarch of the dull Lead Mine, the President of
+      the Copper United States&mdash;held a court to receive the fairy wanderers
+      from the island of Nonnewerth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The prince was there, in a gallant hunting-suit of oak leaves, in honour
+      to England; and wore a profusion of fairy orders, which had been
+      instituted from time to time, in honour of the human poets that had
+      celebrated the spiritual and ethereal tribes. Chief of these, sweet
+      Dreamer of the &ldquo;Midsummer Night&rsquo;s Dream,&rdquo; was the badge crystallized from
+      the dews that rose above the whispering reeds of Avon on the night of thy
+      birth,&mdash;the great epoch of the intellectual world! Nor wert thou, O
+      beloved Musaeus! nor thou, dim-dreaming Tieck! nor were ye, the wild
+      imaginer of the bright-haired Undine, and the wayward spirit that invoked
+      for the gloomy Manfred the Witch of the breathless Alps and the spirits of
+      earth and air!&mdash;nor were ye without the honours of fairy homage! Your
+      memory may fade from the heart of man, and the spells of new enchanters
+      may succeed to the charm you once wove over the face of the common world;
+      but still in the green knolls of the haunted valley and the deep shade of
+      forests, and the starred palaces of air, ye are honoured by the beings of
+      your dreams, as demigods and kings! Your graves are tended by invisible
+      hands, and the places of your birth are hallowed by no perishable worship!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even as I write,* far away amidst the hills of Scotland, and by the forest
+      thou hast clothed with immortal verdure, thou, the maker of &ldquo;the Harp by
+      lone Glenfillan&rsquo;s spring,&rdquo; art passing from the earth which thou hast
+      &ldquo;painted with delight.&rdquo; And such are the chances of mortal fame, our
+      children&rsquo;s children may raise new idols on the site of thy holy altar, and
+      cavil where their sires adored; but for thee the mermaid of the ocean
+      shall wail in her coral caves, and the sprite that lives in the waterfalls
+      shall mourn! Strange shapes shall hew thy monument in the recesses of the
+      lonely rocks! ever by moonlight shall the fairies pause from their roundel
+      when some wild note of their minstrelsy reminds them of thine own,&mdash;ceasing
+      from their revelries, to weep for the silence of that mighty lyre, which
+      breathed alike a revelation of the mysteries of spirits and of men!
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * It was just at the time the author was finishing this work
+    that the great master of his art was drawing to the close
+    of his career.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The King of the Silver Mines sat in a cavern in the valley, through which
+      the moonlight pierced its way and slept in shadow on the soil shining with
+      metals wrought into unnumbered shapes; and below him, on a humbler throne,
+      with a gray beard and downcast eye, sat the aged King of the Dwarfs that
+      preside over the dull realms of lead, and inspire the verse of &mdash;&mdash;-,
+      and the prose of &mdash;&mdash;-! And there too a fantastic household elf
+      was the President of the Copper Republic,&mdash;a spirit that loves
+      economy and the Uses, and smiles sparely on the Beautiful. But, in the
+      centre of the cave, upon beds of the softest mosses, the untrodden growth
+      of ages, reclined the fairy visitors, Nymphalin seated by her betrothed.
+      And round the walls of the cave were dwarf attendants on the sovereigns of
+      the metals, of a thousand odd shapes and fantastic garments. On the abrupt
+      ledges of the rocks the bats, charmed to stillness but not sleep,
+      clustered thickly, watching the scene with fixed and amazed eyes; and one
+      old gray owl, the favourite of the witch of the valley, sat blinking in a
+      corner, listening with all her might that she might bring home the scandal
+      to her mistress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And tell me, Prince of the Rhine-Island Fays,&rdquo; said the King of the
+      Silver Mines, &ldquo;for thou art a traveller, and a fairy that hath seen much,
+      how go men&rsquo;s affairs in the upper world? As to ourself, we live here in a
+      stupid splendour, and only hear the news of the day when our brother of
+      lead pays a visit to the English printing-press, or the President of
+      Copper goes to look at his improvements in steam-engines.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed,&rdquo; replied Fayzenheim, preparing to speak like AEneas in the
+      Carthaginian court,&mdash;&ldquo;indeed, your Majesty, I know not much that will
+      interest you in the present aspect of mortal affairs, except that you are
+      quite as much honoured at this day as when the Roman conqueror bent his
+      knee to you among the mountains of Taunus; and a vast number of little
+      round subjects of yours are constantly carried about by the rich, and
+      pined after with hopeless adoration by the poor. But, begging your
+      Majesty&rsquo;s pardon, may I ask what has become of your cousin, the King of
+      the Golden Mines? I know very well that he has no dominion in these
+      valleys, and do not therefore wonder at his absence from your court this
+      night; but I see so little of his subjects on earth that I should fear his
+      empire was well nigh at an end, if I did not recognize everywhere the most
+      servile homage paid to a power now become almost invisible.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The King of the Silver Mines fetched a deep sigh. &ldquo;Alas, prince,&rdquo; said he,
+      &ldquo;too well do you divine the expiration of my cousin&rsquo;s empire. So many of
+      his subjects have from time to time gone forth to the world, pressed into
+      military service and never returning, that his kingdom is nearly
+      depopulated. And he lives far off in the distant parts of the earth, in a
+      state of melancholy seclusion; the age of gold has passed, the age of
+      paper has commenced.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Paper,&rdquo; said Nymphalin, who was still somewhat of a <i>precieuse</i>,&mdash;&ldquo;paper
+      is a wonderful thing. What pretty books the human people write upon it!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! that&rsquo;s what I design to convey,&rdquo; said the silver king. &ldquo;It is the age
+      less of paper money than paper government: the Press is the true bank.&rdquo;
+       The lord treasurer of the English fairies pricked up his ears at the word
+      &ldquo;bank;&rdquo; for he was the Attwood of the fairies: he had a favourite plan of
+      making money out of bulrushes, and had written four large bees&rsquo;-wings full
+      upon the true nature of capital.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While they were thus conversing, a sudden sound as of some rustic and rude
+      music broke along the air, and closing its wild burden, they heard the
+      following song:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      THE COMPLAINT OF THE LAST FAUN.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+I. The moon on the Latmos mountain  Her pining vigil keeps;
+And ever the silver fountain  In the Dorian valley weeps.
+But gone are Endymion&rsquo;s dreams;  And the crystal lymph
+  Bewails the nymph
+Whose beauty sleeked the streams!
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+II. Round Arcady&rsquo;s oak its green  The Bromian ivy weaves;
+But no more is the satyr seen  Laughing out from the glossy leaves.
+Hushed is the Lycian lute,  Still grows the seed
+  Of the Moenale reed,
+But the pipe of Pan is mute!
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+III. The leaves in the noon-day quiver;  The vines on the mountains wave;
+And Tiber rolls his river  As fresh by the Sylvan&rsquo;s cave.
+But my brothers are dead and gone;  And far away
+  From their graves I stray,
+And dream of the past alone!
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+IV. And the sun of the north is chill;  And keen is the northern gale;
+Alas for the Song of the Argive hill;  And the dance in the Cretan vale!
+The youth of the earth is o&rsquo;er,  And its breast is rife
+  With the teeming life
+Of the golden Tribes no more!
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+V. My race are more blest than I,  Asleep in their distant bed;
+‘T were better, be sure, to die  Than to mourn for the buried Dead:
+To rove by the stranger streams,  At dusk and dawn
+  A lonely faun,
+The last of the Grecian&rsquo;s dreams.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      As the song ended a shadow crossed the moonlight, that lay white and
+      lustrous before the aperture of the cavern; and Nymphalin, looking up,
+      beheld a graceful yet grotesque figure standing on the sward without, and
+      gazing on the group in the cave. It was a shaggy form, with a goat&rsquo;s legs
+      and ears; but the rest of its body, and the height of the stature, like a
+      man&rsquo;s. An arch, pleasant, yet malicious smile played about its lips; and
+      in its hand it held the pastoral pipe of which poets have sung,&mdash;they
+      would find it difficult to sing to it!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And who art thou?&rdquo; said Fayzenheim, with the air of a hero.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am the last lingering wanderer of the race which the Romans worshipped;
+      hither I followed their victorious steps, and in these green hollows have
+      I remained. Sometimes in the still noon, when the leaves of spring bud
+      upon the whispering woods, I peer forth from my rocky lair, and startle
+      the peasant with my strange voice and stranger shape. Then goes he home,
+      and puzzles his thick brain with mopes and fancies, till at length he
+      imagines me, the creature of the South! one of his northern demons, and
+      his poets adapt the apparition to their barbarous lines.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ho!&rdquo; quoth the silver king, &ldquo;surely thou art the origin of the fabled
+      Satan of the cowled men living whilom in yonder ruins, with its horns and
+      goatish limbs; and the harmless faun has been made the figuration of the
+      most implacable of fiends. But why, O wanderer of the South, lingerest
+      thou in these foreign dells? Why returnest thou not to the bi-forked
+      hill-top of old Parnassus, or the wastes around the yellow course of the
+      Tiber?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My brethren are no more,&rdquo; said the poor faun; &ldquo;and the very faith that
+      left us sacred and unharmed is departed. But here all the spirits not of
+      mortality are still honoured; and I wander, mourning for Silenus, though
+      amidst the vines that should console me for his loss.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou hast known great beings in thy day,&rdquo; said the leaden king, who loved
+      the philosophy of a truism (and the history of whose inspirations I shall
+      one day write).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, yes,&rdquo; said the faun; &ldquo;my birth was amidst the freshness of the world,
+      when the flush of the universal life coloured all things with divinity;
+      when not a tree but had its Dryad, not a fountain that was without its
+      Nymph. I sat by the gray throne of Saturn, in his old age, ere yet he was
+      discrowned (for he was no visionary ideal, but the arch monarch of the
+      pastoral age), and heard from his lips the history of the world&rsquo;s birth.
+      But those times are gone forever,&mdash;they have left harsh successors.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is the age of paper,&rdquo; muttered the lord treasurer, shaking his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What ho, for a dance!&rdquo; cried Fayzenheim, too royal for moralities, and he
+      whirled the beautiful Nymphalin into a waltz. Then forth issued the
+      fairies, and out went the dwarfs. And the faun leaning against an aged
+      elm, ere yet the midnight waned, the elves danced their charmed round to
+      the antique minstrelsy of his pipe,&mdash;the minstrelsy of the Grecian
+      world!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hast thou seen yet, my Nymphalin,&rdquo; said Fayzenheim, in the pauses of the
+      dance, &ldquo;the recess of the Hartz, and the red form of its mighty hunter?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a fearful sight,&rdquo; answered Nymphalin; &ldquo;but with thee I should not
+      fear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Away then!&rdquo; cried Fayzenheim; &ldquo;let us away at the first cock-crow, into
+      those shaggy dells; for there is no need of night to conceal us, and the
+      unwitnessed blush of morn or the dreary silence of noon is, no less than
+      the moon&rsquo;s reign, the season for the sports of the superhuman tribes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Nymphalin, charmed with the proposal, readily assented; and at the last
+      hour of night, bestriding the starbeams of the many-titled Friga, away
+      sped the fairy cavalcade to the gloom of the mystic Hartz.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fain would I relate the manner of their arrival in the thick recesses of
+      the forest,&mdash;how they found the Red Hunter seated on a fallen pine
+      beside a wide chasm in the earth, with the arching bows of the wizard oak
+      wreathing above his head as a canopy, and his bow and spear lying idle at
+      his feet. Fain would I tell of the reception which he deigned to the
+      fairies, and how he told them of his ancient victories over man; how he
+      chafed at the gathering invasions of his realm; and how joyously he
+      gloated of some great convulsion* in the northern States, which, rapt into
+      moody reveries in those solitary woods, the fierce demon broodingly
+      foresaw. All these fain would I narrate, but they are not of the Rhine,
+      and my story will not brook the delay. While thus conversing with the
+      fiend, noon had crept on, and the sky had become overcast and lowering;
+      the giant trees waved gustily to and fro, and the low gatherings of the
+      thunder announced the approaching storm. Then the hunter rose and
+      stretched his mighty limbs, and seizing his spear, he strode rapidly into
+      the forest to meet the things of his own tribe that the tempest wakes from
+      their rugged lair.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  * Which has come to pass.&mdash;1847.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      A sudden recollection broke upon Nymphalin. &ldquo;Alas, alas!&rdquo; she cried,
+      wringing her hands; &ldquo;what have I done! In journeying hither with thee, I
+      have forgotten my office. I have neglected my watch over the elements, and
+      my human charge is at this hour, perhaps, exposed to all the fury of the
+      storm.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cheer thee, my Nymphalin,&rdquo; said the prince, &ldquo;we will lay the tempest;&rdquo;
+       and he waved his sword and muttered the charms which curb the winds and
+      roll back the marching thunder: but for once the tempest ceased not at his
+      spells. And now, as the fairies sped along the troubled air, a pale and
+      beautiful form met them by the way, and the fairies paused and trembled;
+      for the power of that Shape could vanquish even them. It was the form of a
+      Female, with golden hair, crowned with a chaplet of withered leaves; her
+      bosoms, of an exceeding beauty, lay bare to the wind, and an infant was
+      clasped between them, hushed into a sleep so still, that neither the roar
+      of the thunder, nor the livid lightning flashing from cloud to cloud,
+      could even ruffle, much less arouse, the slumberer. And the face of the
+      female was unutterably calm and sweet (though with a something of severe);
+      there was no line nor wrinkle in the hueless brow; care never wrote its
+      defacing characters upon that everlasting beauty. It knew no sorrow or
+      change; ghostlike and shadowy floated on that Shape through the abyss of
+      Time, governing the world with an unquestioned and noiseless sway. And the
+      children of the green solitudes of the earth, the lovely fairies of my
+      tale, shuddered as they gazed and recognized&mdash;the form of DEATH,&mdash;death
+      vindicated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why,&rdquo; said the beautiful Shape, with a voice soft as the last sighs
+      of a dying babe,&mdash;&ldquo;why trouble ye the air with spells? Mine is the
+      hour and the empire, and the storm is the creature of my power. Far yonder
+      to the west it sweeps over the sea, and the ship ceases to vex the waves;
+      it smites the forest, and the destined tree, torn from its roots, feels
+      the winter strip the gladness from its boughs no more! The roar of the
+      elements is the herald of eternal stillness to their victims; and they who
+      hear the progress of my power idly shudder at the coming of peace. And
+      thou, O tender daughter of the fairy kings, why grievest thou at a
+      mortal&rsquo;s doom? Knowest thou not that sorrow cometh with years, and that to
+      live is to mourn? Blessed is the flower that, nipped in its early spring,
+      feels not the blast that one by one scatters its blossoms around it, and
+      leaves but the barren stem. Blessed are the young whom I clasp to my
+      breast, and lull into the sleep which the storm cannot break, nor the
+      morrow arouse to sorrow or to toil. The heart that is stilled in the bloom
+      of its first emotions, that turns with its last throb to the eye of love,
+      as yet unlearned in the possibility of change,&mdash;has exhausted already
+      the wine of life, and is saved only from the lees. As the mother soothes
+      to sleep the wail of her troubled child, I open my arms to the vexed
+      spirit, and my bosom cradles the unquiet to repose!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The fairies answered not, for a chill and a fear lay over them, and the
+      Shape glided on; ever as it passed away through the veiling clouds they
+      heard its low voice singing amidst the roar of the storm, as the dirge of
+      the water-sprite over the vessel it hath lured into the whirlpool or the
+      shoals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0027" id="link2HCH0027">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVII. THURMBERG.&mdash;A STORM UPON THE RHINE.&mdash;THE RUINS OF
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      RHEINFELS.&mdash;PERIL UNFELT BY LOVE.&mdash;THE ECHO OF THE LURLEI-BERG.&mdash;ST.
+      GOAR.&mdash;KAUB, GUTENFELS, AND PFALZGRAFENSTEIN.&mdash;A CERTAIN
+      VASTNESS OF MIND IN THE FIRST HERMITS.&mdash;THE SCENERY OF THE RHINE TO
+      BACHARACH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      OUR party continued their voyage the next day, which was less bright than
+      any they had yet experienced. The clouds swept on dull and heavy,
+      suffering the sun only to break forth at scattered intervals. They wound
+      round the curving bay which the Rhine forms in that part of its course,
+      and gazed upon the ruins of Thurmberg, with the rich gardens that skirt
+      the banks below. The last time Trevylyan had seen those ruins soaring
+      against the sky, the green foliage at the foot of the rocks, and the quiet
+      village sequestered beneath, glassing its roofs and solitary tower upon
+      the wave, it had been with a gay summer troop of light friends, who had
+      paused on the opposite shore during the heats of noon, and, over wine and
+      fruits, had mimicked the groups of Boccaccio, and intermingled the lute,
+      the jest, the momentary love, and the laughing tale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What a difference now in his thoughts, in the object of the voyage, in his
+      present companions! The feet of years fall noiseless; we heed, we note
+      them not, till tracking the same course we passed long since, we are
+      startled to find how deep the impression they leave behind. To revisit the
+      scenes of our youth is to commune with the ghost of ourselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this time the clouds gathered rapidly along the heavens, and they were
+      startled by the first peal of the thunder. Sudden and swift came on the
+      storm, and Trevylyan trembled as he covered Gertrude&rsquo;s form with the rude
+      boat-cloaks they had brought with them; the small vessel began to rock
+      wildly to and fro upon the waters. High above them rose the vast
+      dismantled ruins of Rheinfels, the lightning darting through its shattered
+      casements and broken arches, and brightening the gloomy trees that here
+      and there clothed the rocks, and tossed to the angry wind. Swift wheeled
+      the water-birds over the river, dipping their plumage in the white foam,
+      and uttering their discordant screams. A storm upon the Rhine has a
+      grandeur it is in vain to paint. Its rocks, its foliage, the feudal ruins
+      that everywhere rise from the lofty heights, speaking in characters of
+      stern decay of many a former battle against time and tempest; the broad
+      and rapid course of the legendary river,&mdash;all harmonize with the
+      elementary strife; and you feel that to see the Rhine only in the sunshine
+      is to be unconscious of its most majestic aspects. What baronial war had
+      those ruins witnessed! From the rapine of the lordly tyrant of those
+      battlements rose the first Confederation of the Rhine,&mdash;the great
+      strife between the new time and the old, the town and the castle, the
+      citizen and the chief. Gray and stern those ruins breasted the storm,&mdash;a
+      type of the antique opinion which once manned them with armed serfs; and,
+      yet in ruins and decay, appeals from the victorious freedom it may no
+      longer resist!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Clasped in Trevylyan&rsquo;s guardian arms, and her head pillowed on his breast,
+      Gertrude felt nothing of the storm save its grandeur; and Trevylyan&rsquo;s
+      voice whispered cheer and courage to her ear. She answered by a smile and
+      a sigh, but not of pain. In the convulsions of nature we forget our own
+      separate existence, our schemes, our projects, our fears; our dreams
+      vanish back into their cells. One passion only the storm quells not, and
+      the presence of Love mingles with the voice of the fiercest storms, as
+      with the whispers of the southern wind. So she felt, as they were thus
+      drawn close together, and as she strove to smile away the anxious terror
+      from Trevylyan&rsquo;s gaze, a security, a delight; for peril is sweet even to
+      the fears of woman, when it impresses upon her yet more vividly that she
+      is beloved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A moment more and we reach the land,&rdquo; murmured Trevylyan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish it not,&rdquo; answered Gertrude, softly. But ere they got into St. Goar
+      the rain descended in torrents, and even the thick coverings round
+      Gertrude&rsquo;s form were not sufficient protection against it. Wet and
+      dripping she reached the inn; but not then, nor for some days, was she
+      sensible of the shock her decaying health had received.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The storm lasted but a few hours, and the sun afterwards broke forth so
+      brightly, and the stream looked so inviting, that they yielded to
+      Gertrude&rsquo;s earnest wish, and, taking a larger vessel, continued their
+      course; they passed along the narrow and dangerous defile of the Gewirre,
+      and the fearful whirlpool of the &ldquo;Bank;&rdquo; and on the shore to the left the
+      enormous rock of Lurlei rose, huge and shapeless, on their gaze. In this
+      place is a singular echo, and one of the boatmen wound a horn, which
+      produced an almost supernatural music,&mdash;so wild, loud, and oft
+      reverberated was its sound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The river now curved along in a narrow and deep channel amongst rugged
+      steeps, on which the westering sun cast long and uncouth shadows; and here
+      the hermit, from whose sacred name the town of St. Goar derived its own,
+      fixed his abode and preached the religion of the Cross. &ldquo;There was a
+      certain vastness of mind,&rdquo; said Vane, &ldquo;in the adoption of utter solitude,
+      in which the first enthusiasts of our religion indulged. The remote
+      desert, the solitary rock, the rude dwelling hollowed from the cave, the
+      eternal commune with their own hearts, with nature, and their dreams of
+      God,&mdash;all make a picture of severe and preterhuman grandeur. Say what
+      we will of the necessity and charm of social life, there is a greatness
+      about man when he dispenses with mankind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As to that,&rdquo; said Du&mdash;&mdash;-e, shrugging his shoulders, &ldquo;there was
+      probably very good wine in the neighbourhood, and the females&rsquo; eyes about
+      Oberwesel are singularly blue.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They now approached Oberwesel, another of the once imperial towns, and
+      behind it beheld the remains of the castle of the illustrious family of
+      Schomberg, the ancestors of the old hero of the Boyne. A little farther
+      on, from the opposite shore, the castle of Gutenfels rose above the busy
+      town of Kaub.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Another of those scenes,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, &ldquo;celebrated equally by love and
+      glory, for the castle&rsquo;s name is derived from that of the beautiful ladye
+      of an emperor&rsquo;s passion; and below, upon a ridge in the steep, the great
+      Gustavus issued forth his command to begin battle with the Spaniards.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It looks peaceful enough now,&rdquo; said Vane, pointing to the craft that lay
+      along the stream, and the green trees drooping over a curve in the bank.
+      Beyond, in the middle of the stream itself, stands the lonely castle of
+      Pfalzgrafenstein, sadly memorable as a prison to the more distinguished of
+      criminals. How many pining eyes may have turned from those casements to
+      the vine-clad hills of the free shore! how many indignant hearts have
+      nursed the deep curses of hate in the dungeons below, and longed for the
+      wave that dashed against the gray walls to force its way within and set
+      them free!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here the Rhine seems utterly bounded, shrunk into one of those delusive
+      lakes into which it so frequently seems to change its course; and as you
+      proceed, it is as if the waters were silently overflowing their channel
+      and forcing their way into the clefts of the mountain shore. Passing the
+      Werth Island on one side and the castle of Stahleck on the other, our
+      voyagers arrived at Bacharach, which, associating the feudal recollections
+      with the classic, takes its name from the god of the vine; and as Du&mdash;&mdash;-e
+      declared with peculiar emphasis, quaffing a large goblet of the peculiar
+      liquor, &ldquo;richly deserves the honour!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0028" id="link2HCH0028">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVIII. THE VOYAGE TO BINGEN.&mdash;THE SIMPLE INCIDENTS IN THIS
+      TALE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      EXCUSED.&mdash;THE SITUATION AND CHARACTER OF GERTRUDE.&mdash;THE
+      CONVERSATION OF THE LOVERS IN THE TEMPEST.&mdash;A FACT CONTRADICTED.&mdash;THOUGHTS
+      OCCASIONED BY A MADHOUSE AMONGST THE MOST BEAUTIFUL LANDSCAPES OF THE
+      RHINE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      THE next day they again resumed their voyage, and Gertrude&rsquo;s spirits were
+      more cheerful than usual. The air seemed to her lighter, and she breathed
+      with a less painful effort; once more hope entered the breast of
+      Trevylyan; and, as the vessel bounded on, their conversation was steeped
+      in no sombre hues. When Gertrude&rsquo;s health permitted, no temper was so gay,
+      yet so gently gay, as hers; and now the <i>naive</i> sportiveness of her
+      remarks called a smile to the placid lip of Vane, and smoothed the anxious
+      front of Trevylyan himself; as for Du&mdash;&mdash;-e, who had much of the
+      boon companion beneath his professional gravity, he broke out every now
+      and then into snatches of French songs and drinking glees, which he
+      declared were the result of the air of Bacharach. Thus conversing, the
+      ruins of Furstenberg, and the echoing vale of Rheindeibach, glided past
+      their sail; then the old town of Lorch, on the opposite bank (where the
+      red wine is said first to have been made), with the green island before it
+      in the water. Winding round, the stream showed castle upon castle alike in
+      ruins, and built alike upon scarce accessible steeps. Then came the chapel
+      of St. Clements and the opposing village of Asmannshausen; the lofty
+      Rossell, built at the extremest verge of the cliff; and now the tower of
+      Hatto, celebrated by Southey&rsquo;s ballad, and the ancient town of Bingen.
+      Here they paused a while from their voyage, with the intention of visiting
+      more minutely the Rheingau, or valley of the Rhine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It must occur to every one of my readers, that, in undertaking, as now, in
+      these passages in the history of Trevylyan, scarcely so much a tale as an
+      episode in real life, it is very difficult to offer any interest save of
+      the most simple and unexciting kind. It is true that to Trevylyan every
+      day, every hour, had its incident; but what are those incidents to others?
+      A cloud in the sky; a smile from the lip of Gertrude,&mdash;these were to
+      him far more full of events than had been the most varied scenes of his
+      former adventurous career; but the history of the heart is not easily
+      translated into language; and the world will not readily pause from its
+      business to watch the alternations in the cheek of a dying girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the immense sum of human existence what is a single unit? Every sod on
+      which we tread is the grave of some former being; yet is there something
+      that softens without enervating the heart in tracing in the life of
+      another those emotions that all of us have known ourselves. For who is
+      there that has not, in his progress through life, felt all its ordinary
+      business arrested, and the varieties of fate commuted into one chronicle
+      of the affections? Who has not watched over the passing away of some
+      being, more to him at that epoch than all the world? And this unit, so
+      trivial to the calculation of others, of what inestimable value was it not
+      to him? Retracing in another such recollections, shadowed and mellowed
+      down by time, we feel the wonderful sanctity of human life, we feel what
+      emotions a single being can awake; what a world of hope may be buried in a
+      single grave! And thus we keep alive within ourselves the soft springs of
+      that morality which unites us with our kind, and sheds over the harsh
+      scenes and turbulent contests of earth the colouring of a common love.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is often, too, in the time of year in which such thoughts are
+      presented to us, a certain harmony with the feelings they awaken. As I
+      write I hear the last sighs of the departing summer, and the sere and
+      yellow leaf is visible in the green of nature. But when this book goes
+      forth into the world, the year will have passed through a deeper cycle of
+      decay; and the first melancholy signs of winter have breathed into the
+      Universal Mind that sadness which associates itself readily with the
+      memory of friends, of feelings, that are no more. The seasons, like
+      ourselves, track their course by something of beauty, or of glory, that is
+      left behind. As the traveller in the land of Palestine sees tomb after
+      tomb rise before him, the landmarks of his way, and the only signs of the
+      holiness of the soil, thus Memory wanders over the most sacred spots in
+      its various world, and traces them but by the graves of the Past.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now that Gertrude began to feel the shock her frame had received in
+      the storm upon the Rhine. Cold shiverings frequently seized her; her cough
+      became more hollow, and her form trembled at the slightest breeze.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Vane grew seriously alarmed; he repented that he had yielded to Gertrude&rsquo;s
+      wish of substituting the Rhine for the Tiber or the Arno; and would even
+      now have hurried across the Alps to a warmer clime, if Du&mdash;&mdash;-e
+      had not declared that she could not survive the journey, and that her sole
+      chance of regaining her strength was rest. Gertrude herself, however, in
+      the continued delusion of her disease, clung to the belief of recovery,
+      and still supported the hopes of her father, and soothed, with secret talk
+      of the future, the anguish of her betrothed. The reader may remember that
+      in the most touching passage in the ancient tragedians, the most pathetic
+      part of the most pathetic of human poets&mdash;the pleading speech of
+      Iphigenia, when imploring for her prolonged life, she impresses you with
+      so soft a picture of its innocence and its beauty, and in this Gertrude
+      resembled the Greek&rsquo;s creation&mdash;that she felt, on the verge of death,
+      all the flush, the glow, the loveliness of life. Her youth was filled with
+      hope and many-coloured dreams; she loved, and the hues of morning slept
+      upon the yet disenchanted earth. The heavens to her were not as the common
+      sky; the wave had its peculiar music to her ear, and the rustling leaves a
+      pleasantness that none whose heart is not bathed in the love and sense of
+      beauty could discern. Therefore it was, in future years, a thought of deep
+      gratitude to Trevylyan that she was so little sensible of her danger; that
+      the landscape caught not the gloom of the grave; and that, in the Greek
+      phrase, &ldquo;death found her sleeping amongst flowers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At the end of a few days, another of those sudden turns, common to her
+      malady, occurred in Gertrude&rsquo;s health; her youth and her happiness rallied
+      against the encroaching tyrant, and for the ensuing fortnight she seemed
+      once more within the bounds of hope. During this time they made several
+      excursions into the Rheingau, and finished their tour at the ancient
+      Heidelberg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One morning, in these excursions, after threading the wood of Niederwald,
+      they gained that small and fairy temple, which hanging lightly over the
+      mountain&rsquo;s brow, commands one of the noblest landscapes of earth. There,
+      seated side by side, the lovers looked over the beautiful world below; far
+      to the left lay the happy islets, in the embrace of the Rhine, as it wound
+      along the low and curving meadows that stretch away towards
+      Nieder-Ingelheim and Mayence. Glistening in the distance, the opposite Nah
+      swept by the Mause tower, and the ruins of Klopp, crowning the ancient Bingen,
+      into the mother tide. There, on either side the town, were the mountains
+      of St. Roch and Rupert, with some old monastic ruin saddening in the sun.
+      But nearer, below the temple, contrasting all the other features of
+      landscape, yawned a dark and rugged gulf, girt by cragged elms and
+      mouldering towers, the very prototype of the abyss of time,&mdash;black
+      and fathomless amidst ruin and desolation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think sometimes,&rdquo; said Gertrude, &ldquo;as in scenes like these we sit
+      together, and rapt from the actual world, see only the enchantment that
+      distance lends to our view,&mdash;I think sometimes what pleasure it will
+      be hereafter to recall these hours. If ever you should love me less, I
+      need only whisper to you, &lsquo;The Rhine,&rsquo; and will not all the feelings you
+      have now for me return?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, there will never be occasion to recall my love for you,&mdash;it can
+      never decay.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a strange thing is life!&rdquo; said Gertrude; &ldquo;how unconnected, how
+      desultory seem all its links! Has this sweet pause from trouble, from the
+      ordinary cares of life&mdash;has it anything in common with your past
+      career, with your future? You will go into the great world; in a few years
+      hence these moments of leisure and musing will be denied to you. The
+      action that you love and court is a jealous sphere,&mdash;it allows no
+      wandering, no repose. These moments will then seem to you but as yonder
+      islands that stud the Rhine,&mdash;the stream lingers by them for a
+      moment, and then hurries on in its rapid course; they vary, but they do
+      not interrupt the tide.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are fanciful, my Gertrude; but your simile might be juster. Rather
+      let these banks be as our lives, and this river the one thought that flows
+      eternally by both, blessing each with undying freshness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Gertrude smiled; and, as Trevylyan&rsquo;s arm encircled her, she sank her
+      beautiful face upon his bosom, he covered it with his kisses, and she
+      thought at the moment, that, even had she passed death, that embrace could
+      have recalled her to life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They pursued their course to Mayence, partly by land, partly along the
+      river. One day, as returning from the vine-clad mountains of Johannisberg,
+      which commands the whole of the Rheingau, the most beautiful valley in the
+      world, they proceeded by water to the town of Ellfeld, Gertrude said,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is a thought in your favourite poet which you have often repeated,
+      and which I cannot think true,&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  &ldquo;&lsquo;In nature there is nothing melancholy.&rsquo; 
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To me, it seems as if a certain melancholy were inseparable from beauty;
+      in the sunniest noon there is a sense of solitude and stillness which
+      pervades the landscape, and even in the flush of life inspires us with a
+      musing and tender sadness. Why is this?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot tell,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, mournfully; &ldquo;but I allow that it is
+      true.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is as if,&rdquo; continued the romantic Gertrude, &ldquo;the spirit of the world
+      spoke to us in the silence, and filled us with a sense of our mortality,&mdash;a
+      whisper from the religion that belongs to nature, and is ever seeking to
+      unite the earth with the reminiscences of Heaven. Ah, what without a
+      heaven would be even love!&mdash;a perpetual terror of the separation that
+      must one day come! If,&rdquo; she resumed solemnly, after a momentary pause, and
+      a shadow settled on her young face, &ldquo;if it be true, Albert, that I must
+      leave you soon&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It cannot! it cannot!&rdquo; cried Trevylyan, wildly; &ldquo;be still, be silent, I
+      beseech you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look yonder,&rdquo; said Du&mdash;&mdash;-e, breaking seasonably in upon the
+      conversation of the lovers; &ldquo;on that hill to the left, what once was an
+      abbey is now an asylum for the insane. Does it not seem a quiet and serene
+      abode for the unstrung and erring minds that tenant it? What a mystery is
+      there in our conformation!&mdash;those strange and bewildered fancies
+      which replace our solid reason, what a moral of our human weakness do they
+      breathe!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It does indeed induce a dark and singular train of thought, when, in the
+      midst of these lovely scenes, we chance upon this lone retreat for those
+      on whose eyes Nature, perhaps, smiles in vain. <i>Or is it in vain?</i>
+      They look down upon the broad Rhine, with its tranquil isles: do their
+      wild delusions endow the river with another name, and people the valleys
+      with no living shapes? Does the broken mirror within reflect back the
+      countenance of real things, or shadows and shapes, crossed, mingled, and
+      bewildered,&mdash;the phantasma of a sick man&rsquo;s dreams? Yet, perchance,
+      one memory unscathed by the general ruin of the brain can make even the
+      beautiful Rhine more beautiful than it is to the common eye; can calm it
+      with the hues of departed love, and bids its possessor walk over its
+      vine-clad mountains with the beings that have ceased to <i>be</i>! There,
+      perhaps, the self-made monarch sits upon his throne and claims the vessels
+      as his fleet, the waves and the valleys as his own; there, the enthusiast,
+      blasted by the light of some imaginary creed, beholds the shapes of
+      angels, and watches in the clouds round the setting sun the pavilions of
+      God; there the victim of forsaken or perished love, mightier than the
+      sorcerers of old, evokes the dead, or recalls the faithless by the philter
+      of undying fancies. Ah, blessed art thou, the winged power of Imagination
+      that is within us! conquering even grief, brightening even despair. Thou
+      takest us from the world when reason can no longer bind us to it, and
+      givest to the maniac the inspiration and the solace of the bard! Thou, the
+      parent of the purer love, lingerest like love, when even ourself forsakes
+      us, and lightest up the shattered chambers of the heart with the glory
+      that makes a sanctity of decay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0029" id="link2HCH0029">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIX. ELLFELD.&mdash;MAYENCE.&mdash;HEIDELBERG.&mdash;A
+      CONVERSATION BETWEEN
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      VANE AND THE GERMAN STUDENT.&mdash;THE RUINS OF THE CASTLE OF HEIDELBERG
+      AND ITS SOLITARY HABITANT.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      IT was now the full noon; light clouds were bearing up towards the
+      opposite banks of the Rhine, but over the Gothic towers of Ellfeld the sky
+      spread blue and clear; the river danced beside the old gray walls with a
+      sunny wave, and close at hand a vessel crowded with passengers, and loud
+      with eager voices, gave a merry life to the scene. On the opposite bank
+      the hills sloped away into the far horizon, and one slight skiff in the
+      midst of the waters broke the solitary brightness of the noonday calm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The town of Ellfeld was the gift of Otho the First to the Church; not far
+      from thence is the crystal spring that gives its name to the delicious
+      grape of Markbrunner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; quoth Du&mdash;&mdash;-e, &ldquo;doubtless the good bishops of Mayence
+      made the best of the vicinity!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They stayed some little time at this town, and visited the ruins of
+      Scharfenstein; thence proceeding up the river, they passed Nieder Walluf,
+      called the Gate of the Rheingau, and the luxuriant garden of Schierstein;
+      thence, sailing by the castle-seat of the Prince Nassau Usingen, and
+      passing two long and narrow isles, they arrived at Mayence, as the sun
+      shot his last rays upon the waters, gilding the proud cathedral-spire, and
+      breaking the mists that began to gather behind, over the rocks of the
+      Rheingau.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ever memorable Mayence,&mdash;memorable alike for freedom and for song,
+      within those walls how often woke the gallant music of the Troubadour; and
+      how often beside that river did the heart of the maiden tremble to the
+      lay! Within those walls the stout Walpoden first broached the great scheme
+      of the Hanseatic league; and, more than all, O memorable Mayence, thou
+      canst claim the first invention of the mightiest engine of human
+      intellect,&mdash;the great leveller of power, the Demiurgus of the moral
+      world,&mdash;the Press! Here too lived the maligned hero of the greatest
+      drama of modern genius, the traditionary Faust, illustrating in himself
+      the fate of his successors in dispensing knowledge,&mdash;held a monster
+      for his wisdom, and consigned to the penalties of hell as a recompense for
+      the benefits he had conferred on earth!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Mayence, Gertrude heard so much and so constantly of Heidelberg, that
+      she grew impatient to visit that enchanting town; and as Du&mdash;&mdash;-e
+      considered the air of Heidelberg more pure and invigorating than that of
+      Mayence, they resolved to fix within it their temporary residence. Alas!
+      it was the place destined to close their brief and melancholy pilgrimage,
+      and to become to the heart of Trevylyan the holiest spot which the earth
+      contained,&mdash;the KAABA of the world. But Gertrude, unconscious of her
+      fate, conversed gayly as their carriage rolled rapidly on, and, constantly
+      alive to every new sensation, she touched with her characteristic vivacity
+      on all that they had seen in their previous route. There is a great charm
+      in the observations of one new to the world; if we ourselves have become
+      somewhat tired of &ldquo;its hack sights and sounds,&rdquo; we hear in their freshness
+      a voice from our own youth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the haunted valley of the Neckar, the most crystal of rivers, stands
+      the town of Heidelberg. The shades of evening gathered round it as their
+      heavy carriage rattled along the antique streets, and not till the next
+      day was Gertrude aware of all the unrivalled beauties that environ the
+      place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Vane, who was an early riser, went forth alone in the morning to
+      reconnoitre the town; and as he was gazing on the tower of St. Peter, he
+      heard himself suddenly accosted. He turned round and saw the German
+      student whom they had met among the mountains of Taunus at his elbow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Monsieur has chosen well in coming hither,&rdquo; said the student; &ldquo;and I
+      trust our town will not disappoint his expectations.&rdquo; Vane answered with
+      courtesy, and the German offering to accompany him in his walk, their
+      conversation fell naturally on the life of a university, and the current
+      education of the German people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is surprising,&rdquo; said the student, &ldquo;that men are eternally inventing
+      new systems of education, and yet persevering in the old. How many years
+      ago is it since Fichte predicted in the system of Pestalozzi the
+      regeneration of the German people? What has it done? We admire, we praise,
+      and we blunder on in the very course Pestalozzi proves to be erroneous.
+      Certainly,&rdquo; continued the student, &ldquo;there must be some radical defect in a
+      system of culture in which genius is an exception, and dulness the result.
+      Yet here, in our German universities, everything proves that education
+      without equitable institutions avails little in the general formation of
+      character. Here the young men of the colleges mix on the most equal terms;
+      they are daring, romantic, enamoured of freedom even to its madness. They
+      leave the University: no political career continues the train of mind they
+      had acquired; they plunge into obscurity; live scattered and separate, and
+      the student inebriated with Schiller sinks into the passive priest or the
+      lethargic baron. His college career, so far from indicating his future
+      life, exactly reverses it: he is brought up in one course in order to
+      proceed in another. And this I hold to be the universal error of education
+      in all countries; they conceive it a certain something to be finished at a
+      certain age. They do not make it a part of the continuous history of life,
+      but a wandering from it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have been in England?&rdquo; asked Vane.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; I have travelled over nearly the whole of it on foot. I was poor at
+      that time, and imagining there was a sort of masonry between all men of
+      letters, I inquired at each town for the <i>savants</i>, and asked money
+      of them as a matter of course.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Vane almost laughed outright at the simplicity and naive unconsciousness
+      of degradation with which the student proclaimed himself a public beggar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how did you generally succeed?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In most cases I was threatened with the stocks, and twice I was consigned
+      by the <i>juge de paix</i> to the village police, to be passed to some
+      mystic Mecca they were pleased to entitle &lsquo;a parish.&rsquo; Ah&rdquo; (continued the
+      German with much <i>bonhomie</i>), &ldquo;it was a pity to see in a great nation
+      so much value attached to such a trifle as money. But what surprised me
+      greatly was the tone of your poetry. Madame de Stael, who knew perhaps as
+      much of England as she did of Germany, tells us that its chief character
+      is the <i>chivalresque</i>; and, excepting only Scott, who, by the way, is
+      <i>not</i> English, I did not find one chivalrous poet among you. Yet,&rdquo;
+       continued the student, &ldquo;between ourselves, I fancy that in our present age
+      of civilization, there is an unexamined mistake in the general mind as to
+      the value of poetry. It delights still as ever, but it has ceased to
+      teach. The prose of the heart enlightens, touches, rouses, far more than
+      poetry. Your most philosophical poets would be commonplace if turned into
+      prose. Verse cannot contain the refining subtle thoughts which a great
+      prose writer embodies; the rhyme eternally cripples it; it properly deals
+      with the common problems of human nature, which are now hackneyed, and not
+      with the nice and philosophizing corollaries which may be drawn from them.
+      Thus, though it would seem at first a paradox, commonplace is more the
+      element of poetry than of prose.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This sentiment charmed Vane, who had nothing of the poet about him; and he
+      took the student to share their breakfast at the inn, with a complacency
+      he rarely experienced at the remeeting with a new acquaintance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After breakfast, our party proceeded through the town towards the
+      wonderful castle which is its chief attraction, and the noblest wreck of
+      German grandeur.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now pausing, the mountain yet unscaled, the stately ruin frowned upon
+      them, girt by its massive walls and hanging terraces, round which from
+      place to place clung the dwarfed and various foliage. High at the rear
+      rose the huge mountain, covered, save at its extreme summit, with dark
+      trees, and concealing in its mysterious breast the shadowy beings of the
+      legendary world. But towards the ruins, and up a steep ascent, you may see
+      a few scattered sheep thinly studding the broken ground. Aloft, above the
+      ramparts, rose, desolate and huge, the Palace of the Electors of the
+      Palatinate. In its broken walls you may trace the tokens of the lightning
+      that blasted its ancient pomp, but still leaves in the vast extent of pile
+      a fitting monument of the memory of Charlemagne. Below, in the distance,
+      spread the plain far and spacious, till the shadowy river, with one
+      solitary sail upon its breast, united the melancholy scene of earth with
+      the autumnal sky.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See,&rdquo; said Vane, pointing to two peasants who were conversing near them
+      on the matters of their little trade, utterly unconscious of the
+      associations of the spot, &ldquo;see, after all that is said and done about
+      human greatness, it is always the greatness of the few. Ages pass, and
+      leave the poor herd, the mass of men, eternally the same,&mdash;hewers of
+      wood and drawers of water. The pomp of princes has its ebb and flow, but
+      the peasant sells his fruit as gayly to the stranger on the ruins as to
+      the emperor in the palace.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will it be always so?&rdquo; said the student.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us hope not, for the sake of permanence in glory,&rdquo; said Trevylyan.
+      &ldquo;Had <i>a people</i> built yonder palace, its splendour would never have
+      passed away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Vane shrugged his shoulders, and Du&mdash;&mdash;-e took snuff.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But all the impressions produced by the castle at a distance are as
+      nothing when you stand within its vast area and behold the architecture of
+      all ages blended into one mighty ruin! The rich hues of the masonry, the
+      sweeping facades&mdash;every description of building which man ever framed
+      for war or for luxury&mdash;is here; all having only the common character,&mdash;RUIN.
+      The feudal rampart, the yawning fosse, the rude tower, the splendid arch,
+      the strength of a fortress, the magnificence of a palace,&mdash;all
+      united, strike upon the soul like the history of a fallen empire in all
+      its epochs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is one singular habitant of these ruins,&rdquo; said the student,&mdash;&ldquo;a
+      solitary painter, who has dwelt here some twenty years, companioned only
+      by his Art. No other apartment but that which he tenants is occupied by a
+      human being.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a poetical existence!&rdquo; cried Gertrude, enchanted with a solitude so
+      full of associations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps so,&rdquo; said the cruel Vane, ever anxious to dispel an illusion,
+      &ldquo;but more probably custom has deadened to him all that overpowers
+      ourselves with awe; and he may tread among these ruins rather seeking to
+      pick up some rude morsel of antiquity, than feeding his imagination with
+      the dim traditions that invest them with so august a poetry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Monsieur&rsquo;s conjecture has something of the truth in it,&rdquo; said the German;
+      &ldquo;but then the painter is a Frenchman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There is a sense of fatality in the singular mournfulness and majesty
+      which belong to the ruins of Heidelberg, contrasting the vastness of the
+      strength with the utterness of the ruin. It has been twice struck with
+      lightning, and is the wreck of the elements, not of man; during the great
+      siege it sustained, the lightning is supposed to have struck the powder
+      magazine by accident.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What a scene for some great imaginative work! What a mocking interference
+      of the wrath of nature in the puny contests of men! One stroke of &ldquo;the red
+      right arm&rdquo; above us, crushing the triumph of ages, and laughing to scorn
+      the power of the beleaguers and the valour of the besieged!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They passed the whole day among these stupendous ruins, and felt, when
+      they descended to their inn, as if they had left the caverns of some
+      mighty tomb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0030" id="link2HCH0030">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXX. NO PART OF THE EARTH REALLY SOLITARY.&mdash;THE SONG OF THE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      FAIRIES.&mdash;THE SACRED SPOT.&mdash;THE WITCH OF THE EVIL WINDS.&mdash;THE
+      SPELL AND THE DUTY OF THE FAIRIES.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      BUT in what spot of the world is there ever utter solitude? The vanity of
+      man supposes that loneliness is <i>his</i> absence! Who shall say what
+      millions of spiritual beings glide invisibly among scenes apparently the
+      most deserted? Or what know we of our own mechanism, that we should deny
+      the possibility of life and motion to things that we cannot ourselves
+      recognize?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At moonlight, in the Great Court of Heidelberg, on the borders of the
+      shattered basin overgrown with weeds, the following song was heard by the
+      melancholy shades that roam at night through the mouldering halls of old,
+      and the gloomy hollows in the mountain of Heidelberg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      SONG OF THE FAIRIES IN THE RUINS OF HEIDELBERG.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     From the woods and the glossy green,
+       With the wild thyme strewn;
+     From the rivers whose crisped sheen
+       Is kissed by the trembling moon;
+     While the dwarf looks out from his mountain cave,
+       And the erl king from his lair,
+     And the water-nymph from her moaning wave,
+       We skirr the limber air.
+
+     There&rsquo;s a smile on the vine-clad shore,
+       A smile on the castled heights;
+     They dream back the days of yore,
+       And they smile at our roundel rites!
+                    Our roundel rites!
+
+     Lightly we tread these halls around,
+       Lightly tread we;
+     Yet, hark! we have scared with a single sound
+       The moping owl on the breathless tree,
+                    And the goblin sprites!
+     Ha, ha! we have scared with a single sound
+       The old gray owl on the breathless tree,
+                    And the goblin sprites!
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They come not,&rdquo; said Pipalee; &ldquo;yet the banquet is prepared, and the poor
+      queen will be glad of some refreshment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a pity! all the rose-leaves will be over-broiled,&rdquo; said Nip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us amuse ourselves with the old painter,&rdquo; quoth Trip, springing over
+      the ruins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well said,&rdquo; cried Pipalee and Nip; and all three, leaving my lord
+      treasurer amazed at their levity, whisked into the painter&rsquo;s apartment.
+      Permitting them to throw the ink over their victim&rsquo;s papers, break his
+      pencils, mix his colours, mislay his nightcap, and go whiz against his
+      face in the shape of a great bat, till the astonished Frenchman began to
+      think the pensive goblins of the place had taken a sprightly fit,&mdash;we
+      hasten to a small green spot some little way from the town, in the valley
+      of the Neckar, and by the banks of its silver stream. It was circled round
+      by dark trees, save on that side bordered by the river. The wild-flowers
+      sprang profusely from the turf, which yet was smooth and singularly green.
+      And there was the German fairy describing a circle round the spot, and
+      making his elvish spells; and Nymphalin sat droopingly in the centre,
+      shading her face, which was bowed down as the head of a water-lily, and
+      weeping crystal tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There came a hollow murmur through the trees, and a rush as of a mighty
+      wind, and a dark form emerged from the shadow and approached the spot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The face was wrinkled and old, and stern with a malevolent and evil
+      aspect. The frame was lean and gaunt, and supported by a staff, and a
+      short gray mantle covered its bended shoulders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Things of the moonbeam!&rdquo; said the form, in a shrill and ghastly voice,
+      &ldquo;what want ye here; and why charm ye this spot from the coming of me and
+      mine?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dark witch of the blight and blast,&rdquo; answered the fairy, &ldquo;THOU that
+      nippest the herb in its tender youth, and eatest up the core of the soft
+      bud; behold, it is but a small spot that the fairies claim from thy
+      demesnes, and on which, through frost and heat, they will keep the herbage
+      green and the air gentle in its sighs!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And, wherefore, O dweller in the crevices of the earth, wherefore wouldst
+      thou guard this spot from the curses of the seasons?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We know by our instinct,&rdquo; answered the fairy, &ldquo;that this spot will become
+      the grave of one whom the fairies love; hither, by an unfelt influence,
+      shall we guide her yet living steps; and in gazing upon this spot shall
+      the desire of quiet and the resignation to death steal upon her soul.
+      Behold, throughout the universe, all things are at war with one another,&mdash;the
+      lion with the lamb; the serpent with the bird; and even the gentlest bird
+      itself with the moth of the air; or the worm of the humble earth! What
+      then to men, and to the spirits transcending men, is so lovely and so
+      sacred as a being that harmeth none; what so beautiful as Innocence; what
+      so mournful as its untimely tomb? And shall not that tomb be sacred; shall
+      it not be our peculiar care? May we not mourn over it as at the passing
+      away of some fair miracle in Nature, too tender to endure, too rare to be
+      forgotten? It is for this, O dread waker of the blast, that the fairies
+      would consecrate this little spot; for this they would charm away from its
+      tranquil turf the wandering ghoul and the evil children of the night.
+      Here, not the ill-omened owl, nor the blind bat, nor the unclean worm
+      shall come. And thou shouldst have neither will nor power to nip the
+      flowers of spring, nor sear the green herbs of summer. Is it not, dark
+      mother of the evil winds,&mdash;is it not <i>our</i> immemorial office to
+      tend the grave of Innocence, and keep fresh the flowers round the
+      resting-place of Virgin Love?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the witch drew her cloak round her, and muttered to herself, and
+      without further answer turned away among the trees and vanished, as the
+      breath of the east wind, which goeth with her as her comrade, scattered
+      the melancholy leaves along her path!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0031" id="link2HCH0031">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXI. GERTRUDE AND TREVYLYAN, WHEN THE FORMER IS AWAKENED TO THE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      APPROACH OF DEATH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      THE next day, Gertrude and her companions went along the banks of the
+      haunted Neckar. She had passed a sleepless and painful night, and her
+      evanescent and childlike spirits had sobered down into a melancholy and
+      thoughtful mood. She leaned back in an open carriage with Trevylyan, ever
+      constant, by her side, while Du&mdash;&mdash;-e and Vane rode slowly in
+      advance. Trevylyan tried in vain to cheer her; even his attempts (usually
+      so eagerly received) to charm her duller moments by tale or legend were,
+      in this instance, fruitless. She shook her head gently, pressed his hand,
+      and said, &ldquo;No, dear Trevylyan, no; even your art fails to-day, but your
+      kindness never!&rdquo; and pressing his hand to her lips, she burst passionately
+      into tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alarmed and anxious, he clasped her to his breast, and strove to lift her
+      face, as it drooped on its resting-place, and kiss away its tears. &ldquo;Oh,&rdquo;
+       said she, at length, &ldquo;do not despise my weakness; I am overcome by my own
+      thoughts: I look upon the world, and see that it is fair and good; I look
+      upon you, and I see all that I can venerate and adore. Life seems to me so
+      sweet, and the earth so lovely; can you wonder, then, that I should shrink
+      at the thought of death? Nay, interrupt me not, dear Albert; the thought
+      must be borne and braved. I have not cherished, I have not yielded to it
+      through my long-increasing illness; but there have been times when it has
+      forced itself upon me, and now, <i>now</i> more palpably than ever. Do not
+      think me weak and childish. I never feared death till I knew you; but to
+      see you no more,&mdash;never again to touch this dear hand, never to thank
+      you for your love, never to be sensible of your care,&mdash;to lie down
+      and sleep, <i>and never, never, once more to dream of you</i>! Ah, that is
+      a bitter thought! but I will brave it,&mdash;yes, brave it as one worthy
+      of your regard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Trevylyan, choked by his emotions, covered his own face with his hands,
+      and, leaning back in the carriage, vainly struggled with his sobs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps,&rdquo; she said, yet ever and anon clinging to the hope that had
+      utterly abandoned <i>him</i>, &ldquo;perhaps, I may yet deceive myself; and my
+      love for you, which seems to me as if it could conquer death, may bear me
+      up against this fell disease. The hope to live with you, to watch you, to
+      share your high dreams, and oh! above all, to soothe you in sorrow and
+      sickness, as you have soothed me&mdash;has not that hope something that
+      may support even this sinking frame? And who shall love thee as I love;
+      who see thee as I have seen; who pray for thee in gratitude and tears as I
+      have prayed? Oh, Albert, so little am I jealous of you, so little do I
+      think of myself in comparison, that I could close my eyes happily on the
+      world if I knew that what I could be to thee another will be!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gertrude,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, and lifting up his colourless face, he gazed
+      upon her with an earnest and calm solemnity, &ldquo;Gertrude, let us be united
+      at once! If Fate must sever us, let her cut the last tie too; let us feel
+      that at least upon earth we have been all in all to each other; let us
+      defy death, even as it frowns upon us. Be mine to-morrow&mdash;this day&mdash;oh,
+      God! be mine!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Over even that pale countenance, beneath whose hues the lamp of life so
+      faintly fluttered, a deep, radiant flush passed one moment, lighting up
+      the beautiful ruin with the glow of maiden youth and impassioned hope, and
+      then died rapidly away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Albert,&rdquo; she said sighing; &ldquo;no! it must not be. Far easier would come
+      the pang to you, while yet we are not wholly united; and for my own part I
+      am selfish, and feel as if I should leave a tenderer remembrance on your
+      heart thus parted,&mdash;tenderer, but not so sad. I would not wish you to
+      feel yourself widowed to my memory; I would not cling like a blight to
+      your fair prospects of the future. Remember me rather as a dream,&mdash;as
+      something never wholly won, and therefore asking no fidelity but that of
+      kind and forbearing thoughts. Do you remember one evening as we sailed
+      along the Rhine&mdash;ah! happy, happy hour!&mdash;that we heard from the
+      banks a strain of music,&mdash;not so skilfully played as to be worth
+      listening to for itself, but, suiting as it did the hour and the scene, we
+      remained silent, that we might hear it the better; and when it died
+      insensibly upon the waters, a certain melancholy stole over us; we felt
+      that a something that softened the landscape had gone, and we conversed
+      less lightly than before? Just so, my own loved, my own adored Trevylyan,
+      just so is the influence that our brief love, your poor Gertrude&rsquo;s
+      existence, should bequeath to your remembrance. A sound, a presence,
+      should haunt you for a little while, but no more, ere you again become
+      sensible of the glories that court your way!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But as Gertrude said this, she turned to Trevylyan, and seeing his agony,
+      she could refrain no longer; she felt that to soothe was to insult; and
+      throwing herself upon his breast, they mingled their tears together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0032" id="link2HCH0032">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXII. A SPOT TO BE BURIED IN.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      ON their return homeward, Du&mdash;&mdash;-e took the third seat in the
+      carriage, and endeavoured, with his usual vivacity, to cheer the spirits
+      of his companions; and such was the elasticity of Gertrude&rsquo;s nature, that
+      with her, he, to a certain degree, succeeded in his kindly attempt.
+      Quickly alive to the charms of scenery, she entered by degrees into the
+      external beauties which every turn in the road opened to their view; and
+      the silvery smoothness of the river, that made the constant attraction of
+      the landscape, the serenity of the time, and the clearness of the heavens,
+      tended to tranquillize a mind that, like a sunflower, so instinctively
+      turned from the shadow to the light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once Du&mdash;&mdash;-e stopped the carriage in a spot of herbage, bedded
+      among the trees, and said to Gertrude, &ldquo;We are now in one of the many
+      places along the Neckar which your favourite traditions serve to
+      consecrate. Amidst yonder copses, in the early ages of Christianity, there
+      dwelt a hermit, who, though young in years, was renowned for the sanctity
+      of his life. None knew whence he came, nor for what cause he had limited
+      the circle of life to the seclusion of his cell. He rarely spoke, save
+      when his ghostly advice or his kindly prayer was needed; he lived upon
+      herbs, and the wild fruits which the peasants brought to his cave; and
+      every morning and every evening he came to this spot to fill his pitcher
+      from the water of the stream. But here he was observed to linger long
+      after his task was done, and to sit gazing upon the walls of a convent
+      which then rose upon the opposite side of the bank, though now even its
+      ruins are gone. Gradually his health gave way beneath the austerities he
+      practised; and one evening he was found by some fishermen insensible on
+      the turf. They bore him for medical aid to the opposite convent; and one
+      of the sisterhood, the daughter of a prince, was summoned to attend the
+      recluse. But when his eyes opened upon hers, a sudden recognition appeared
+      to seize both. He spoke; and the sister threw herself on the couch of the
+      dying man, and shrieked forth a name, the most famous in the surrounding
+      country,&mdash;the name of a once noted minstrel, who, in those rude
+      times, had mingled the poet with the lawless chief, and was supposed,
+      years since, to have fallen in one of the desperate frays between prince
+      and outlaw, which were then common; storming the very castle which held
+      her, now the pious nun, then the beauty and presider over the tournament
+      and galliard. In her arms the spirit of the hermit passed away. She
+      survived but a few hours, and left conjecture busy with a history to which
+      it never obtained further clew. Many a troubadour in later times furnished
+      forth in poetry the details which truth refused to supply; and the place
+      where the hermit at sunrise and sunset ever came to gaze upon the convent
+      became consecrated by song.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The place invested with this legendary interest was impressed with a
+      singular aspect of melancholy quiet; wildflowers yet lingered on the turf,
+      whose grassy sedges gently overhung the Neckar, that murmured amidst them
+      with a plaintive music. Not a wind stirred the trees; but at a little
+      distance from the place, the spire of a church rose amidst the copse; and,
+      as they paused, they suddenly heard from the holy building the bell that
+      summons to the burial of the dead. It came on the ear in such harmony with
+      the spot, with the hour, with the breathing calm, that it thrilled to the
+      heart of each with an inexpressible power. It was like the voice of
+      another world, that amidst the solitude of nature summoned the lulled
+      spirit from the cares of this; it invited, not repulsed, and had in its
+      tone more of softness than of awe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gertrude turned, with tears starting to her eyes, and, laying her hand on
+      Trevylyan&rsquo;s, whispered, &ldquo;In such a spot, so calm, so sequestered, yet in
+      the neighbourhood of the house of God, would I wish this broken frame to
+      be consigned to rest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0033" id="link2HCH0033">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER THE LAST. THE CONCLUSION OF THIS TALE.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      FROM that day Gertrude&rsquo;s spirit resumed its wonted cheerfulness, and for
+      the ensuing week she never reverted to her approaching fate; she seemed
+      once more to have grown unconscious of its limit. Perhaps she sought,
+      anxious for Trevylyan to the last, not to throw additional gloom over
+      their earthly separation; or, perhaps, once steadily regarding the
+      certainty of her doom, its terrors vanished. The chords of thought,
+      vibrating to the subtlest emotions, may be changed by a single incident,
+      or in a single hour; a sound of sacred music, a green and quiet
+      burial-place, may convert the form of death into the aspect of an angel.
+      And therefore wisely, and with a beautiful lore, did the Greeks strip the
+      grave of its unreal gloom; wisely did they body forth the great principle
+      of Rest by solemn and lovely images, unconscious of the northern madness
+      that made a Spectre of REPOSE!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But while Gertrude&rsquo;s <i>spirit</i> resumed its healthful tone, her <i>frame</i>
+      rapidly declined, and a few days now could do the ravage of months a
+      little while before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One evening, amidst the desolate ruins of Heidelberg, Trevylyan, who had
+      gone forth alone to indulge the thoughts which he strove to stifle in
+      Gertrude&rsquo;s presence, suddenly encountered Vane. That calm and almost
+      callous pupil of the adversities of the world was standing alone, and
+      gazing upon the shattered casements and riven tower, through which the sun
+      now cast its slant and parting ray.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Trevylyan, who had never loved this cold and unsusceptible man, save for
+      the sake of Gertrude, felt now almost a hatred creep over him, as he
+      thought in such a time, and with death fastening upon the flower of his
+      house, he could yet be calm, and smile, and muse, and moralize, and play
+      the common part of the world. He strode slowly up to him, and standing
+      full before him, said with a hollow voice and writhing smile, &ldquo;You amuse
+      yourself pleasantly, sir: this is a fine scene; and to meditate over
+      griefs a thousand years hushed to rest is better than watching over a sick
+      girl and eating away your heart with fear!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Vane looked at him quietly, but intently, and made no reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Vane!&rdquo; continued Trevylyan, with the same preternatural attempt at calm,
+      &ldquo;Vane, in a few days all will be over, and you and I, the things, the
+      plotters, the false men of the world, will be left alone,&mdash;left by
+      the sole being that graces our dull life, that makes by her love either of
+      us worthy of a thought!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Vane started, and turned away his face. &ldquo;You are cruel,&rdquo; said he, with a
+      faltering voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, man!&rdquo; shouted Trevylyan, seizing him abruptly by the arm, &ldquo;can <i>you</i>
+      feel? Is your cold heart touched? Come then,&rdquo; added he, with a wild laugh,
+      &ldquo;come, let us be friends!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Vane drew himself aside, with a certain dignity, that impressed Trevylyan
+      even at that hour. &ldquo;Some years hence,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;you will be called cold
+      as I am; sorrow will teach you the wisdom of indifference&mdash;it is a
+      bitter school, sir,&mdash;a bitter school! But think you that I do indeed
+      see unmoved my last hope shivered,&mdash;the last tie that binds me to my
+      kind? No, no! I feel it as a man may feel; I cloak it as a man grown gray
+      in misfortune should do! My child is more to me than your betrothed to
+      you; for you are young and wealthy, and life smiles before you; but I&mdash;no
+      more&mdash;sir, no more!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forgive me,&rdquo; said Trevylyan, humbly, &ldquo;I have wronged you; but Gertrude is
+      an excuse for any crime of love; and now listen to my last prayer,&mdash;give
+      her to me, even on the verge of the grave. Death cannot seize her in the
+      arms, in the vigils of a love like mine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Vane shuddered. &ldquo;It were to wed the dead,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;No!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Trevylyan drew back, and without another word, hurried away; he returned
+      to the town; he sought, with methodical calmness, the owner of the piece
+      of ground in which Gertrude had wished to be buried. He purchased it, and
+      that very night he sought the priest of a neighbouring church, and
+      directed it should be consecrated according to the due rite and
+      ceremonial.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The priest, an aged and pious man, was struck by the request, and the air
+      of him who made it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall it be done forthwith, sir?&rdquo; said he, hesitating.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forthwith,&rdquo; answered Trevylyan, with a calm smile,&mdash;&ldquo;a bridegroom,
+      you know, is naturally impatient.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For the next three days, Gertrude was so ill as to be confined to her bed.
+      All that time Trevylyan sat outside her door, without speaking, scarcely
+      lifting his eyes from the ground. The attendants passed to and fro,&mdash;he
+      heeded them not; perhaps as even the foreign menials turned aside and
+      wiped their eyes, and prayed God to comfort him, he required compassion
+      less at that time than any other. There is a stupefaction in woe, and the
+      heart sleeps without a pang when exhausted by its afflictions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But on the fourth day Gertrude rose, and was carried down (how changed,
+      yet how lovely ever!) to their common apartment. During those three days
+      the priest had been with her often, and her spirit, full of religion from
+      her childhood, had been unspeakably soothed by his comfort. She took food
+      from the hand of Trevylyan; she smiled upon him as sweetly as of old. She
+      conversed with him, though with a faint voice, and at broken intervals.
+      But she felt no pain; life ebbed away gradually, and without a pang. &ldquo;My
+      father,&rdquo; she said to Vane, whose features still bore their usual calm,
+      whatever might have passed within, &ldquo;I know that you will grieve when I am
+      gone more than the world might guess; for I alone know what you were years
+      ago, ere friends left you and fortune frowned, and ere my poor mother
+      died. But do not&mdash;do not believe that hope and comfort leave you with
+      me. Till the heaven pass away from the earth there shall be comfort and
+      hope for all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They did not lodge in the town, but had fixed their abode on its
+      outskirts, and within sight of the Neckar; and from the window they saw a
+      light sail gliding gayly by till it passed, and solitude once more rested
+      upon the waters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The sail passes from our eyes,&rdquo; said Gertrude, pointing to it, &ldquo;but still
+      it glides on as happily though we see it no more; and I feel&mdash;yes,
+      Father, I feel&mdash;I know that it is so with <i>us</i>. We glide down
+      the river of time from the eyes of men, but we cease not the less to <i>be</i>!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And now, as the twilight descended, she expressed a wish, before she
+      retired to rest, to be left alone with Trevylyan. He was not then sitting
+      by her side, for he would not trust himself to do so, but with his face
+      averted, at a little distance from her. She called him by his name; he
+      answered not, nor turned. Weak as she was, she raised herself from the
+      sofa, and crept gently along the floor till she came to him, and sank in
+      his arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, unkind!&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;unkind for once! Will you turn away from me?
+      Come, let us look once more on the river: see! the night darkens over it.
+      Our pleasant voyage, the type of our love, is finished; our sail may be
+      unfurled no more. Never again can your voice soothe the lassitude of
+      sickness with the legend and the song; the course is run, the vessel is
+      broken up, night closes over its fragments; but now, in this hour, love
+      me, be kind to me as ever. Still let me be your own Gertrude, still let me
+      close my eyes this night, as before, with the sweet consciousness that I
+      am loved.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Loved! O Gertrude! speak not to me thus!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, that is yourself again!&rdquo; and she clung with weak arms caressingly
+      to his breast. &ldquo;And now,&rdquo; she said more solemnly, &ldquo;let us forget that we
+      are mortal; let us remember only that life is a part, not the whole, of
+      our career; let us feel in this soft hour, and while yet we are unsevered,
+      the presence of The Eternal that is within us, so that it shall not be as
+      death, but as a short absence; and when once the pang of parting is over,
+      you must think only that we are shortly to meet again. What! you turn from
+      me still? See, I do not weep or grieve, I have conquered the pang of our
+      absence; will you be outdone by me? Do you remember, Albert, that you once
+      told me how the wisest of the sages of old, in prison, and before death,
+      consoled his friends with the proof of the immortality of the soul? Is it
+      not a consolation; does it not suffice; or will you deem it wise from the
+      lips of wisdom, but vain from the lips of love?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush, hush!&rdquo; said Trevylyan, wildly; &ldquo;or I shall think you an angel
+      already.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But let us close this commune, and leave unrevealed the <i>last</i> sacred
+      words that ever passed between them upon earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Vane and the physician stole back softly into the room, Trevylyan
+      motioned to them to be still. &ldquo;She sleeps,&rdquo; he whispered; &ldquo;hush!&rdquo; And in
+      truth, wearied out by her own emotions, and lulled by the belief that she
+      had soothed one with whom her heart dwelt now, as ever, she had fallen
+      into sleep, or it may be, insensibility, on his breast. There as she lay,
+      so fair, so frail, so delicate, the twilight deepened into shade, and the
+      first star, like the hope of the future, broke forth upon the darkness of
+      the earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing could equal the stillness without, save that which lay
+      breathlessly within. For not one of the group stirred or spoke, and
+      Trevylyan, bending over her, never took his eyes from her face, watching
+      the parted lips, and fancying that he imbibed the breath. Alas, the breath
+      was stilled! from sleep to death she had glided without a sigh,&mdash;happy,
+      most happy in that death! cradled in the arms of unchanged love, and
+      brightened in her last thought by the consciousness of innocence and the
+      assurances of Heaven!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      .......
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Trevylyan, after a long sojourn on the Continent, returned to England. He
+      plunged into active life, and became what is termed in this age of little
+      names a distinguished and noted man. But what was mainly remarkable in his
+      future conduct was his impatience of rest. He eagerly courted all
+      occupations, even of the most varied and motley kind,&mdash;business,
+      letters, ambition, pleasure. He suffered no pause in his career; and
+      leisure to him was as care to others. He lived in the world, as the
+      worldly do, discharging its duties, fostering its affections, and
+      fulfilling its career. But there was a deep and wintry change within him,&mdash;<i>the
+      sunlight of his life was gone</i>; the loveliness of romance had left the
+      earth. The stem was proof as heretofore to the blast, but the green leaves
+      were severed from it forever, and the bird had forsaken its boughs. Once
+      he had idolized the beauty that is born of song, the glory and the ardour
+      that invest such thoughts as are not of our common clay; but the well of
+      enthusiasm was dried up, and the golden bowl was broken at the fountain.
+      With Gertrude the poetry of existence was gone. As she herself had
+      described her loss, a music had ceased to breathe along the face of
+      things; and though the bark might sail on as swiftly, and the stream swell
+      with as proud a wave, a something that had vibrated on the heart was
+      still, and the magic of the voyage was no more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Gertrude sleeps on the spot where she wished her last couch to be
+      made; and far&mdash;oh, far dearer, is that small spot on the distant
+      banks of the gliding Neckar to Trevylyan&rsquo;s heart than all the broad lands
+      and fertile fields of his ancestral domain. The turf too preserves its
+      emerald greenness; and it would seem to me that the field flowers spring
+      up by the sides of the simple tomb even more profusely than of old. A
+      curve in the bank breaks the tide of the Neckar; and therefore its stream
+      pauses, as if to linger reluctantly, by that solitary grave, and to mourn
+      among the rustling sedges ere it passes on. And I have thought, when I
+      last looked upon that quiet place, when I saw the turf so fresh, and the
+      flowers so bright of hue, that aerial hands might <i>indeed</i> tend the
+      sod; that it was by no <i>imaginary</i> spells that I summoned the fairies
+      to my tale; that in truth, and with vigils constant though unseen, they
+      yet kept from all polluting footsteps, and from the harsher influence of
+      the seasons, the grave of one who so loved their race; and who, in her
+      gentle and spotless virtue claimed kindred with the beautiful Ideal of the
+      world. Is there one of us who has not known some being for whom it seemed
+      not too wild a fantasy to indulge such dreams?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      THE END. <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pilgrims Of The Rhine, by E. Bulwer Lytton
+#189 in our series by E. Bulwer Lytton
+
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+Title: The Pilgrims Of The Rhine
+
+Author: E. Bulwer Lytton
+
+Release Date: June, 2005 [EBook #8206]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on July 2, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PILGRIMS OF THE RHINE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Dagny and by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+                     THE PILGRIMS OF THE RHINE
+
+                       TO WHICH IS PREFIXED
+                         THE IDEAL WORLD
+
+                                BY
+                      EDWARD BULWER LYTTON
+                          (LORD LYTTON)
+
+
+
+                     THE PILGRIMS OF THE RHINE
+
+
+
+TO HENRY LYTTON BULWER.
+
+ALLOW me, my dear Brother, to dedicate this Work to you.  The greater
+part of it (namely, the tales which vary and relieve the voyages of
+Gertrude and Trevylyan) was written in the pleasant excursion we made
+together some years ago.  Among the associations--some sad and some
+pleasing--connected with the general design, none are so agreeable to me
+as those that remind me of the friendship subsisting between us, and
+which, unlike that of near relations in general, has grown stronger and
+more intimate as our footsteps have receded farther from the fields where
+we played together in our childhood.  I dedicate this Work to you with
+the more pleasure, not only when I remember that it has always been a
+favourite with yourself, but when I think that it is one of my writings
+most liked in foreign countries; and I may possibly, therefore, have
+found a record destined to endure the affectionate esteem which this
+Dedication is intended to convey.
+
+Yours, etc.
+
+E. L. B.
+LONDON, April 23, 1840.
+
+
+
+ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIRST EDITION.
+
+COULD I prescribe to the critic and to the public, I would wish that this
+work might be tried by the rules rather of poetry than prose, for
+according to those rules have been both its conception and its execution;
+and I feel that something of sympathy with the author's design is
+requisite to win indulgence for the superstitions he has  incorporated
+with his tale, for the floridity of his style, and the redundance of his
+descriptions.  Perhaps, indeed, it would be impossible, in attempting to
+paint the scenery and embody some of the Legends of the Rhine, not to
+give (it may be, too loosely) the reins to the imagination, or to escape
+the influence of that wild German spirit which I have sought to transfer
+to a colder tongue.
+
+I have made the experiment of selecting for the main interest of my work
+the simplest materials, and weaving upon them the ornaments given chiefly
+to subjects of a more fanciful nature.  I know not how far I have
+succeeded, but various reasons have conspired to make this the work,
+above all others that I have written, which has given me the most delight
+(though not unmixed with melancholy) in producing, and in which my mind
+for the time has been the most completely absorbed.  But the ardour of
+composition is often disproportioned to the merit of the work; and the
+public sometimes, nor unjustly, avenges itself for that forgetfulness of
+its existence which makes the chief charm of an author's solitude,--and
+the happiest, if not the wisest, inspiration of his dreams.
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+WITH the younger class of my readers this work has had the good fortune
+to find especial favour; perhaps because it is in itself a collection of
+the thoughts and sentiments that constitute the Romance of youth.  It has
+little to do with the positive truths of our actual life, and does not
+pretend to deal with the larger passions and more stirring interests of
+our kind.  It is but an episode out of  the graver epic of human
+destinies.  It requires no explanation of its purpose, and no analysis of
+its story; the one is evident, the other simple,--the first seeks but to
+illustrate visible nature through the poetry of the affections; the other
+is but the narrative of the most real of mortal sorrows, which the Author
+attempts to take out of the region of pain by various accessories from
+the Ideal.  The connecting tale itself is but the string that binds into
+a garland the wild-flowers cast upon a grave.
+
+The descriptions of the Rhine have been considered by Germans
+sufficiently faithful to render this tribute to their land and their
+legends one of the popular guide-books along the course it
+illustrates,--especially to such tourists as wish not only to take in
+with the eye the inventory of the river, but to seize the peculiar spirit
+which invests the wave and the bank with a beauty that can only be made
+visible by reflection.  He little comprehends the true charm of the Rhine
+who gazes on the vines on the hill-tops without a thought of the
+imaginary world with which their recesses have been peopled by the
+graceful credulity of old; who surveys the steep ruins that overshadow
+the water, untouched by one lesson from the pensive morality of Time.
+Everywhere around us is the evidence of perished opinions and departed
+races; everywhere around us, also, the rejoicing fertility of
+unconquerable Nature, and the calm progress of Man himself through the
+infinite cycles of decay.  He who would judge adequately of a landscape
+must regard it not only with the painter's eye, but with the poet's.  The
+feelings which the sight of any scene in Nature conveys to the mind--more
+especially of any scene on which history or fiction has left its
+trace--must depend upon our sympathy with those associations which make
+up what may be called the spiritual character of the spot.  If
+indifferent to those associations, we should see only hedgerows and
+ploughed land in the battle-field of Bannockburn; and the traveller would
+but look on a dreary waste, whether he stood amidst the piles of the
+Druid on Salisbury plain, or trod his bewildered way over the broad
+expanse on which the Chaldaean first learned to number the stars.
+
+To the former editions of this tale was prefixed a poem on "The Ideal,"
+which had all the worst faults of the author's earliest compositions in
+verse.  The present poem (with the exception of a very few lines) has
+been entirely rewritten, and has at least the comparative merit of being
+less vague in the thought, and less unpolished in the diction, than that
+which it replaces.
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+
+THE IDEAL WORLD
+
+
+
+THE PILGRIMS OF THE RHINE
+
+CHAPTER I.
+In which the Reader is Introduced to Queen Nymphalin
+
+CHAPTER II.
+The Lovers
+
+CHAPTER III.
+Feelings
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+The Maid of Malines
+
+CHAPTER V.
+Rotterdam.--The Character of the Dutch.--Their Resemblance to the
+Germans.--A Dispute between Vane and Trevylyan, after the manner of the
+ancient Novelists, as to which is preferable, the Life of Action, or the
+Life of Repose.--Trevylyan's Contrast between Literary Ambition and the
+Ambition of Public Life
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+Gorcum.--The Tour of the Virtues: a Philosopher's Tale
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+Cologne.--The Traces of the Roman Yoke.--The Church of St.
+Maria.--Trevylyan's Reflections on the Monastic Life.--The Tomb of the
+Three Kings.--An Evening Excursion on the Rhine
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+The Soul in Purgatory; or, Love Stronger than Death
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+The Scenery of the Rhine analogous to the German Literary Genius.--The
+Drachenfels
+
+CHAPTER X.
+The Legend of Roland.--The Adventures of Nymphalin on the Island of
+Nonnewerth.--Her Song.--The Decay of the Fairy-Faith in England
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+Wherein the Reader is made Spectator with the English Fairies of the
+Scenes and Beings that are beneath the Earth
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+The Wooing of Master Fox
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+The Tomb of a Father of Many Children
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+The Fairy's Cave, and the Fairy's Wish
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+The Banks of the Rhine.--From the Drachenfels to Brohl.--An Incident that
+suffices in this Tale for an Epoch
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+Gertrude.--The Excursion to Hammerstein.--Thoughts
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+Letter from Trevylyan to -----
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+Coblentz.--Excursion to the Mountains of Taunus; Roman Tower in the
+Valley of Ehrenbreitstein.--Travel, its Pleasures estimated differently
+by the Young and the Old.--The Student of Heidelberg: his Criticisms on
+German Literature
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+The Fallen Star; or, the History of a False Religion
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+Glenhausen.--The Power of Love in Sanctified Places.--A Portrait of
+Frederick Barbarossa.--The Ambition of Men finds no adequate Sympathy in
+Women
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+View of Ehrenbreitstein.--A New Alarm in Gertrude's Health.--Trarbach
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+The Double Life.--Trevylyan's Fate.--Sorrow the Parent of
+Fame.--Niederlahnstein.--Dreams
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+The Life of Dreams
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+The Brothers
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+The Immortality of the Soul.--A Common Incident not before Described.
+--Trevylyan and Gertrude
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+In which the Reader will learn how the Fairies were received by the
+Sovereigns of the Mines.--The Complaint of the Last of the Fauns.--The
+Red Huntsman.--The Storm.--Death
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+Thurmberg.--A Storm upon the Rhine.--The Ruins of Rheinfels.--Peril
+Unfelt by Love.--The Echo of the Lurlei-berg.--St. Goar.--Kaub,
+Gutenfels, and Pfalzgrafenstein.--A certain Vastness of Mind in the First
+Hermits.--The Scenery of the Rhine to Bacharach
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+The Voyage to Bingen.--The Simple Incidents in this Tale Excused.--The
+Situation and Character of Gertrude.--The Conversation of the Lovers in
+the Tempest.--A Fact Contradicted.--Thoughts occasioned by a Madhouse
+amongst the most Beautiful Landscapes of the Rhine
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+Ellfeld.--Mayence.--Heidelberg.--A Conversation between Vane and the
+German Student.--The Ruins of the Castle of Heidelberg and its Solitary
+Habitant
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+No Part of the Earth really Solitary.--The Song of the Fairies.--The
+Sacred Spot.--The Witch of the Evil Winds.--The Spell and the Duty of the
+Fairies
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+Gertrude and Trevylyan, when the former is awakened to the Approach of
+Death
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+A Spot to be Buried in
+
+CHAPTER THE LAST
+The Conclusion of this Tale
+
+
+
+                          THE IDEAL WORLD
+
+
+
+I.
+
+THE IDEAL WORLD,--ITS REALM IS EVERYWHERE AROUND US; ITS INHABITANTS ARE
+THE IMMORTAL PERSONIFICATIONS OF ALL BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS; TO THAT WORLD WE
+ATTAIN BY THE REPOSE OF THE SENSES.
+
+AROUND "this visible diurnal sphere"
+  There floats a World that girds us like the space;
+On wandering clouds and gliding beams career
+  Its ever-moving murmurous Populace.
+There, all the lovelier thoughts conceived below
+  Ascending live, and in celestial shapes.
+To that bright World, O Mortal, wouldst thou go?
+  Bind but thy senses, and thy soul escapes:
+To care, to sin, to passion close thine eyes;
+Sleep in the flesh, and see the Dreamland rise!
+Hark to the gush of golden waterfalls,
+Or knightly tromps at Archimagian Walls!
+In the green hush of Dorian Valleys mark
+  The River Maid her amber tresses knitting;
+When glow-worms twinkle under coverts dark,
+  And silver clouds o'er summer stars are flitting,
+With jocund elves invade "the Moone's sphere,
+Or hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear;"*
+Or, list! what time the roseate urns of dawn
+  Scatter fresh dews, and the first skylark weaves
+Joy into song, the blithe Arcadian Faun
+  Piping to wood-nymphs under Bromian leaves,
+While slowly gleaming through the purple glade
+Come Evian's panther car, and the pale Naxian Maid.
+
+  * "Midsummer Night's Dream."
+
+Such, O Ideal World, thy habitants!
+  All the fair children of creative creeds,
+All the lost tribes of Fantasy are thine,--
+From antique Saturn in Dodonian haunts,
+  Or Pan's first music waked from shepherd reeds,
+To the last sprite when Heaven's pale lamps decline,
+Heard wailing soft along the solemn Rhine.
+
+
+
+II.
+
+OUR DREAMS BELONG TO THE IDEAL.--THE DIVINER LOVE FOR WHICH YOUTH SIGHS
+NOT ATTAINABLE IN LIFE, BUT THE PURSUIT OF THAT LOVE BEYOND THE WORLD OF
+THE SENSES PURIFIES THE SOUL AND AWAKES THE GENIUS.--PETRARCH.--DANTE.
+
+Thine are the Dreams that pass the Ivory Gates,
+  With prophet shadows haunting poet eyes!
+Thine the belov'd illusions youth creates
+  From the dim haze of its own happy skies.
+In vain we pine; we yearn on earth to win
+  The being of the heart, our boyhood's dream.
+The Psyche and the Eros ne'er have been,
+  Save in Olympus, wedded!  As a stream
+Glasses a star, so life the ideal love;
+Restless the stream below, serene the orb above!
+Ever the soul the senses shall deceive;
+Here custom chill, there kinder fate bereave:
+For mortal lips unmeet eternal vows!
+And Eden's flowers for Adam's mournful brows!
+We seek to make the moment's angel guest
+  The household dweller at a human hearth;
+We chase the bird of Paradise, whose nest
+  Was never found amid the bowers of earth.*
+
+  * According to a belief in the East, which is associated with one
+    of the loveliest and most familiar of Oriental superstitions,
+    the bird of Paradise is never seen to rest upon the earth, and
+    its nest is never to be found.
+
+Yet loftier joys the vain pursuit may bring,
+  Than sate the senses with the boons of time;
+The bird of Heaven hath still an upward wing,
+  The steps it lures are still the steps that climb;
+And in the ascent although the soil be bare,
+More clear the daylight and more pure the air.
+Let Petrarch's heart the human mistress lose,
+He mourns the Laura but to win the Muse.
+Could all the charms which Georgian maids combine
+Delight the soul of the dark Florentine,
+Like one chaste dream of childlike Beatrice
+Awaiting Hell's dark pilgrim in the skies,
+Snatched from below to be the guide above,
+And clothe Religion in the form of Love?*
+
+  * It is supposed by many of the commentators on Dante, that in
+    the form of his lost Beatrice, who guides him in his Vision
+    of Heaven, he allegorizes Religious Faith.
+
+
+
+III.
+
+GENIUS, LIFTING ITS LIFE TO THE IDEAL, BECOMES ITSELF A PURE IDEA: IT
+MUST COMPREHEND ALL EXISTENCE, ALL HUMAN SINS AND SUFFERINGS; BUT IN
+COMPREHENDING, IT TRANSMUTES THEM.--THE POET IN HIS TWO-FOLD BEING,--THE
+ACTUAL AND THE IDEAL.--THE INFLUENCE OF GENIUS OVER THE STERNEST
+REALITIES OF EARTH; OVER OUR PASSIONS; WARS AND SUPERSTITIONS.--ITS
+IDENTITY IS WITH HUMAN PROGRESS.--ITS AGENCY, EVEN WHERE UNACKNOWLEDGED,
+IS UNIVERSAL.
+
+Oh, thou true Iris! sporting on thy bow
+  Of tears and smiles! Jove's herald, Poetry,
+Thou reflex image of all joy and woe,
+  /Both/ fused in light by thy dear fantasy!
+Lo! from the clay how Genius lifts its life,
+  And grows one pure Idea, one calm soul!
+True, its own clearness must reflect our strife;
+  True, its completeness must comprise our whole;
+But as the sun transmutes the sullen hues
+  Of marsh-grown vapours into vermeil dyes,
+And melts them later into twilight dews,
+  Shedding on flowers the baptism of the skies;
+So glows the Ideal in the air we breathe,
+  So from the fumes of sorrow and of sin,
+Doth its warm light in rosy colours wreathe
+  Its playful cloudland, storing balms within.
+
+Survey the Poet in his mortal mould,
+  Man, amongst men, descended from his throne!
+The moth that chased the star now frets the fold,
+  Our cares, our faults, our follies are his own.
+Passions as idle, and desires as vain,
+Vex the wild heart, and dupe the erring brain.
+From Freedom's field the recreant Horace flies
+To kiss the hand by which his country dies;
+From Mary's grave the mighty Peasant turns,
+And hoarse with orgies rings the laugh of Burns.
+While Rousseau's lips a lackey's vices own,--
+Lips that could draw the thunder on a throne!
+But when from Life the Actual GENIUS springs,
+  When, self-transformed by its own magic rod,
+It snaps the fetters and expands the wings,
+  And drops the fleshly garb that veiled the god,
+How the mists vanish as the form ascends!
+How in its aureole every sunbeam blends!
+By the Arch-Brightener of Creation seen,
+  How dim the crowns on perishable brows!
+The snows of Atlas melt beneath the sheen,
+  Through Thebaid caves the rushing splendour flows.
+Cimmerian glooms with Asian beams are bright,
+And Earth reposes in a belt of light.
+Now stern as Vengeance shines the awful form,
+Armed with the bolt and glowing through the storm;
+Sets the great deeps of human passion free,
+And whelms the bulwarks that would breast the sea.
+Roused by its voice the ghastly Wars arise,
+Mars reddens earth, the Valkyrs pale the skies;
+Dim Superstition from her hell escapes,
+With all her shadowy brood of monster shapes;
+Here life itself the scowl of Typhon* takes;
+There Conscience shudders at Alecto's snakes;
+From Gothic graves at midnight yawning wide,
+In gory cerements gibbering spectres glide;
+And where o'er blasted heaths the lightnings flame,
+Black secret hags "do deeds without a name!"
+Yet through its direst agencies of awe,
+Light marks its presence and pervades its law,
+And, like Orion when the storms are loud,
+It links creation while it gilds a cloud.
+By ruthless Thor, free Thought, frank Honour stand,
+Fame's grand desire, and zeal for Fatherland.
+The grim Religion of Barbarian Fear
+With some Hereafter still connects the Here,
+Lifts the gross sense to some spiritual source,
+And thrones some Jove above the Titan Force,
+Till, love completing what in awe began,
+From the rude savage dawns the thoughtful man.
+
+  * The gloomy Typhon of Egypt assumes many of the mystic attributes
+    of the Principle of Life which, in the Grecian Apotheosis of the
+    Indian Bacchus, is represented in so genial a character of
+    exuberant joy and everlasting youth.
+
+Then, oh, behold the Glorious comforter!
+  Still bright'ning worlds but gladd'ning now the hearth,
+Or like the lustre of our nearest star,
+  Fused in the common atmosphere of earth.
+It sports like hope upon the captive's chain;
+Descends in dreams upon the couch of pain;
+To wonder's realm allures the earnest child;
+To the chaste love refines the instinct wild;
+And as in waters the reflected beam,
+Still where we turn, glides with us up the stream,
+And while in truth the whole expanse is bright,
+Yields to each eye its own fond path of light,--
+So over life the rays of Genius fall,
+Give each his track because illuming all.
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+FORGIVENESS TO THE ERRORS OF OUR BENEFACTORS.
+
+Hence is that secret pardon we bestow
+  In the true instinct of the grateful heart,
+Upon the Sons of Song.  The good they do
+  In the clear world of their Uranian art
+Endures forever; while the evil done
+  In the poor drama of their mortal scene,
+Is but a passing cloud before the sun;
+  Space hath no record where the mist hath been.
+Boots it to us if Shakspeare erred like man?
+  Why idly question that most mystic life?
+Eno' the giver in his gifts to scan;
+  To bless the sheaves with which thy fields are rife,
+Nor, blundering, guess through what obstructive clay
+The glorious corn-seed struggled up to day.
+
+
+
+V.
+
+THE IDEAL IS NOT CONFINED TO POETS.--ALGERNON SIDNEY RECOGNIZES HIS IDEAL
+IN LIBERTY, AND BELIEVES IN ITS TRIUMPH WHERE THE MERE PRACTICAL MAN
+COULD BEHOLD BUT ITS RUINS; YET LIBERTY IN THIS WORLD MUST EVER BE AN
+IDEAL, AND THE LAND THAT IT PROMISES CAN BE FOUND BUT IN DEATH.
+
+But not to you alone, O Sons Of Song,
+The wings that float the loftier airs along.
+Whoever lifts us from the dust we are,
+  Beyond the sensual to spiritual goals;
+Who from the MOMENT and the SELF afar
+  By deathless deeds allures reluctant souls,
+Gives the warm life to what the Limner draws,--
+Plato but thought what godlike Cato was.*
+Recall the Wars of England's giant-born,
+  Is Elyot's voice, is Hampden's death in vain?
+Have all the meteors of the vernal morn
+  But wasted light upon a frozen main?
+Where is that child of Carnage, Freedom, flown?
+The Sybarite lolls upon the martyr's throne.
+Lewd, ribald jests succeed to solemn zeal;
+And things of silk to Cromwell's men of steel.
+Cold are the hosts the tromps of Ireton thrilled,
+And hushed the senates Vane's large presence filled.
+In what strong heart doth the old manhood dwell?
+Where art thou, Freedom?  Look! in Sidney's cell!
+There still as stately stands the living Truth,
+Smiling on age as it had smiled on youth.
+Her forts dismantled, and her shrines o'erthrown,
+The headsman's block her last dread altar-stone,
+No sanction left to Reason's vulgar hope,
+Far from the wrecks expands her prophet's scope.
+Millennial morns the tombs of Kedron gild,
+The hands of saints the glorious walls rebuild,--
+Till each foundation garnished with its gem,
+High o'er Gehenna flames Jerusalem!
+O thou blood-stained Ideal of the free,
+Whose breath is heard in clarions,--Liberty!
+Sublimer for thy grand illusions past,
+Thou spring'st to Heaven,--Religion at the last.
+Alike below, or commonwealths or thrones,
+Where'er men gather some crushed victim groans;
+Only in death thy real form we see,
+All life is bondage,--souls alone are free.
+Thus through the waste the wandering Hebrews went,
+Fire on the march, but cloud upon the tent.
+At last on Pisgah see the prophet stand,
+Before his vision spreads the PROMISED LAND;
+But where revealed the Canaan to his eye?--
+Upon the mountain he ascends to die.
+
+  * What Plato thought, and godlike Cato was.--POPE.
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+YET ALL HAVE TWO ESCAPES INTO THE IDEAL WORLD; NAMELY, MEMORY AND
+HOPE.--EXAMPLE OF HOPE IN YOUTH, HOWEVER EXCLUDED FROM ACTION AND
+DESIRE.--NAPOLEON'S SON.
+
+Yet whatsoever be our bondage here,
+All have two portals to the phantom sphere.
+What hath not glided through those gates that ope
+Beyond the Hour, to MEMORY or to HOPE!
+Give Youth the Garden,--still it soars above,
+Seeks some far glory, some diviner love.
+Place Age amidst the Golgotha,--its eyes
+Still quit the graves, to rest upon the skies;
+And while the dust, unheeded, moulders there,
+Track some lost angel through cerulean air.
+
+Lo! where the Austrian binds, with formal chain,
+The crownless son of earth's last Charlemagne,--
+Him, at whose birth laughed all the violet vales
+  (While yet unfallen stood thy sovereign star,
+O Lucifer of nations).  Hark, the gales
+  Swell with the shout from all the hosts, whose war
+Rended the Alps, and crimsoned Memphian Nile,--
+  "Way for the coming of the Conqueror's Son:
+Woe to the Merchant-Carthage of the Isle!
+  Woe to the Scythian ice-world of the Don!
+O Thunder Lord, thy Lemnian bolts prepare,
+The Eagle's eyry hath its eagle heir!"
+Hark, at that shout from north to south, gray Power
+  Quails on its weak, hereditary thrones;
+And widowed mothers prophesy the hour
+  Of future carnage to their cradled sons.
+What! shall our race to blood be thus consigned,
+  And Ate claim an heirloom in mankind?
+Are these red lots unshaken in the urn?
+Years pass; approach, pale Questioner, and learn
+Chained to his rock, with brows that vainly frown,
+The fallen Titan sinks in darkness down!
+And sadly gazing through his gilded grate,
+Behold the child whose birth was as a fate!
+Far from the land in which his life began;
+Walled from the healthful air of hardy man;
+Reared by cold hearts, and watched by jealous eyes,
+His guardians jailers, and his comrades spies.
+Each trite convention courtly fears inspire
+To stint experience and to dwarf desire;
+Narrows the action to a puppet stage,
+And trains the eaglet to the starling's cage.
+On the dejected brow and smileless cheek,
+What weary thought the languid lines bespeak;
+Till drop by drop, from jaded day to day,
+The sickly life-streams ooze themselves away.
+Yet oft in HOPE a boundless realm was thine,
+  That vaguest Infinite,--the Dream of Fame;
+Son of the sword that first made kings divine,
+  Heir to man's grandest royalty,--a Name!
+Then didst thou burst upon the startled world,
+And keep the glorious promise of thy birth;
+Then were the wings that bear the bolt unfurled,
+  A monarch's voice cried, "Place upon the earth!"
+A new Philippi gained a second Rome,
+And the Son's sword avenged the greater Caesar's doom.
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+EXAMPLE OF MEMORY AS LEADING TO THE IDEAL,--AMIDST LIFE HOWEVER HUMBLE,
+AND IN A MIND HOWEVER IGNORANT.--THE VILLAGE WIDOW.
+
+But turn the eye to life's sequestered vale
+  And lowly roofs remote in hamlets green.
+Oft in my boyhood where the moss-grown pale
+  Fenced quiet graves, a female form was seen;
+Each eve she sought the melancholy ground,
+And lingering paused, and wistful looked around.
+If yet some footstep rustled through the grass,
+Timorous she shrunk, and watched the shadow pass;
+Then, when the spot lay lone amidst the gloom,
+Crept to one grave too humble for a tomb,
+There silent bowed her face above the dead,
+For, if in prayer, the prayer was inly said;
+Still as the moonbeam, paused her quiet shade,
+Still as the moonbeam, through the yews to fade.
+Whose dust thus hallowed by so fond a care?
+What the grave saith not, let the heart declare.
+  On yonder green two orphan children played;
+By yonder rill two plighted lovers strayed;
+In yonder shrine two lives were blent in one,
+And joy-bells chimed beneath a summer sun.
+Poor was their lot, their bread in labour found;
+No parent blessed them, and no kindred owned;
+They smiled to hear the wise their choice condemn;
+They loved--they loved--and love was wealth to them!
+Hark--one short week--again the holy bell!
+Still shone the sun; but dirge like boomed the knell,--
+The icy hand had severed breast from breast;
+Left life to toil, and summoned Death to rest.
+Full fifty years since then have passed away,
+Her cheek is furrowed, and her hair is gray.
+Yet, when she speaks of /him/ (the times are rare),
+Hear in her voice how youth still trembles there.
+The very name of that young life that died
+Still heaves the bosom, and recalls the bride.
+Lone o'er the widow's hearth those years have fled,
+The daily toil still wins the daily bread;
+No books deck sorrow with fantastic dyes;
+Her fond romance her woman heart supplies;
+And, haply in the few still moments given,
+(Day's taskwork done), to memory, death, and heaven,
+To that unuttered poem may belong
+Thoughts of such pathos as had beggared song.
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+HENCE IN HOPE, MEMORY, AND PRAYER, ALL OF US ARE POETS.
+
+Yes, while thou hopest, music fills the air,
+  While thou rememberest, life reclothes the clod;
+While thou canst feel the electric chain of prayer,
+  Breathe but a thought, and be a soul with God!
+Let not these forms of matter bound thine eye.
+  He who the vanishing point of Human things
+Lifts from the landscape, lost amidst the sky,
+  Has found the Ideal which the poet sings,
+Has pierced the pall around the senses thrown,
+And is himself a poet, though unknown.
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+APPLICATION OF THE POEM TO THE TALE TO WHICH IT IS PREFIXED.--THE
+RHINE,--ITS IDEAL CHARACTER IN ITS HISTORICAL AND LEGENDARY ASSOCIATIONS.
+
+Eno'!--my song is closing, and to thee,
+  Land of the North, I dedicate its lay;
+As I have done the simple tale to be
+  The drama of this prelude!
+                                  Faraway
+Rolls the swift Rhine beneath the starry ray;
+But to my ear its haunted waters sigh;
+Its moonlight mountains glimmer on my eye;
+On wave, on marge, as on a wizard's glass,
+Imperial ghosts in dim procession pass;
+Lords of the wild, the first great Father-men,
+Their fane the hill-top, and their home the glen;
+Frowning they fade; a bridge of steel appears
+With frank-eyed Caesar smiling through the spears;
+The march moves onwards, and the mirror brings
+The Gothic crowns of Carlovingian kings
+Vanished alike!  The Hermit rears his Cross,
+And barbs neigh shrill, and plumes in tumult toss,
+While (knighthood's sole sweet conquest from the Moor)
+Sings to Arabian lutes the Tourbadour.
+  Not yet, not yet; still glide some lingering shades,
+Still breathe some murmurs as the starlight fades,
+Still from her rock I hear the Siren call,
+And see the tender ghost in Roland's mouldering hall!
+
+
+
+X.
+
+APPLICATION OF THE POEM CONTINUED.--THE IDEAL LENDS ITS AID TO THE MOST
+FAMILIAR AND THE MOST ACTUAL SORROW OF LIFE.--FICTION COMPARED TO
+SLEEP,--IT STRENGTHENS WHILE IT SOOTHES.
+
+Trite were the tale I tell of love and doom,
+(Whose life hath loved not, whose not mourned a tomb?)
+But fiction draws a poetry from grief,
+As art its healing from the withered leaf.
+Play thou, sweet Fancy, round the sombre truth,
+  Crown the sad Genius ere it lower the torch!
+When death the altar and the victim youth,
+  Flutes fill the air, and garlands deck the porch.
+As down the river drifts the Pilgrim sail,
+Clothe the rude hill-tops, lull the Northern gale;
+With childlike lore the fatal course beguile,
+And brighten death with Love's untiring smile.
+Along the banks let fairy forms be seen
+"By fountain clear, or spangled starlike sheen."*
+Let sound and shape to which the sense is dull
+Haunt the soul opening on the Beautiful.
+And when at length, the symbol voyage done,
+Surviving Grief shrinks lonely from the sun,
+By tender types show Grief what memories bloom
+From lost delight, what fairies guard the tomb.
+Scorn not the dream, O world-worn; pause a while,
+New strength shall nerve thee as the dreams beguile,
+Stung by the rest, less far shall seem the goal!
+As sleep to life, so fiction to the soul.
+
+  * "Midsummer Night's Dream."
+
+
+
+                     THE PILGRIMS OF THE RHINE
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+IN WHICH THE READER IS INTRODUCED TO QUEEN NYMPHALIN.
+
+IN one of those green woods which belong so peculiarly to our island (for
+the Continent has its forests, but England its woods) there lived, a
+short time ago, a charming little fairy called Nymphalin.  I believe she
+is descended from a younger branch of the house of Mab; but perhaps that
+may only be a genealogical fable, for your fairies are very susceptible
+to the pride of ancestry, and it is impossible to deny that they fall
+somewhat reluctantly into the liberal opinions so much in vogue at the
+present day.
+
+However that may be, it is quite certain that all the courtiers in
+Nymphalin's domain (for she was a queen fairy) made a point of asserting
+her right to this illustrious descent; and accordingly she quartered the
+Mab arms with her own,--three acorns vert, with a grasshopper rampant.
+It was as merry a little court as could possibly be conceived, and on a
+fine midsummer night it would have been worth while attending the queen's
+balls; that is to say, if you could have got a ticket, a favour not
+obtained without great interest.
+
+But, unhappily, until both men and fairies adopt Mr. Owen's proposition,
+and live in parallelograms, they will always be the victims of /ennui/.
+And Nymphalin, who had been disappointed in love, and was still
+unmarried, had for the last five or six months been exceedingly tired
+even of giving balls.  She yawned very frequently, and consequently
+yawning became a fashion.
+
+"But why don't we have some new dances, my Pipalee?" said Nymphalin to
+her favourite maid of honour; "these waltzes are very old-fashioned."
+
+"Very old-fashioned," said Pipalee.
+
+The queen gaped, and Pipalee did the same.
+
+It was a gala night; the court was held in a lone and beautiful hollow,
+with the wild brake closing round it on every side, so that no human step
+could easily gain the spot.  Wherever the shadows fell upon the brake a
+glow-worm made a point of exhibiting itself, and the bright August moon
+sailed slowly above, pleased to look down upon so charming a scene of
+merriment; for they wrong the moon who assert that she has an objection
+to mirth,--with the mirth of fairies she has all possible sympathy.  Here
+and there in the thicket the scarce honeysuckles--in August honeysuckles
+are somewhat out of season--hung their rich festoons, and at that moment
+they were crowded with the elderly fairies, who had given up dancing and
+taken to scandal.  Besides the honeysuckle you might see the hawkweed and
+the white convolvulus, varying the soft verdure of the thicket; and
+mushrooms in abundance had sprung up in the circle, glittering in the
+silver moonlight, and acceptable beyond measure to the dancers: every one
+knows how agreeable a thing tents are in a /fete champetre/!  I was
+mistaken in saying that the brake closed the circle entirely round; for
+there was one gap, scarcely apparent to mortals, through which a fairy at
+least might catch a view of a brook that was close at hand, rippling in
+the stars, and checkered at intervals by the rich weeds floating on the
+surface, interspersed with the delicate arrowhead and the silver
+water-lily.  Then the trees themselves, in their prodigal variety of
+hues,--the blue, the purple, the yellowing tint, the tender and silvery
+verdure, and the deep mass of shade frowning into black; the willow, the
+elm, the ash, the fir, and the lime, "and, best of all, Old England's
+haunted oak;" these hues were broken again into a thousand minor and
+subtler shades as the twinkling stars pierced the foliage, or the moon
+slept with a richer light upon some favoured glade.
+
+It was a gala night; the elderly fairies, as I said before, were chatting
+among the honeysuckles; the young were flirting, and dancing, and making
+love; the middle-aged talked politics under the mushrooms; and the queen
+herself and half-a-dozen of her favourites were yawning their pleasure
+from a little mound covered with the thickest moss.
+
+"It has been very dull, madam, ever since Prince Fayzenheim left us,"
+said the fairy Nip.
+
+The queen sighed.
+
+"How handsome the prince is!" said Pipalee.
+
+The queen blushed.
+
+"He wore the prettiest dress in the world; and what a mustache!" cried
+Pipalee, fanning herself with her left wing.
+
+"He was a coxcomb," said the lord treasurer, sourly.  The lord treasurer
+was the honestest and most disagreeable fairy at court; he was an
+admirable husband, brother, son, cousin, uncle, and godfather,--it was
+these virtues that had made him a lord treasurer.  Unfortunately they had
+not made him a sensible fairy.  He was like Charles the Second in one
+respect, for he never did a wise thing; but he was not like him in
+another, for he very often said a foolish one.
+
+The queen frowned.
+
+"A young prince is not the worse for that," retorted Pipalee.  "Heigho!
+does your Majesty think his Highness likely to return?"
+
+"Don't tease me," said Nymphalin, pettishly.
+
+The lord treasurer, by way of giving the conversation an agreeable turn,
+reminded her Majesty that there was a prodigious accumulation of business
+to see to, especially that difficult affair about the emmet-wasp loan.
+Her Majesty rose; and leaning on Pipalee's arm, walked down to the supper
+tent.
+
+"Pray," said the fairy Trip to the fairy Nip, "what is all this talk
+about Prince Fayzenheim?  Excuse my ignorance; I am only just out, you
+know."
+
+"Why," answered Nip, a young courtier, not a marrying fairy, but very
+seductive, "the story runs thus: Last summer a foreigner visited us,
+calling himself Prince Fayzenheim: one of your German fairies, I fancy;
+no great things, but an excellent waltzer.  He wore long spurs, made out
+of the stings of the horse-flies in the Black Forest; his cap sat on one
+side, and his mustachios curled like the lip of the dragon-flower.  He
+was on his travels, and amused himself by making love to the queen.  You
+can't fancy, dear Trip, how fond she was of hearing him tell stories
+about the strange creatures of Germany,--about wild huntsmen,
+water-sprites, and a pack of such stuff," added Nip, contemptuously, for
+Nip was a freethinker.
+
+"In short?" said Trip.
+
+"In short, she loved," cried Nip, with a theatrical air.
+
+"And the prince?"
+
+"Packed up his clothes, and sent on his travelling-carriage, in order
+that he might go at his ease on the top of a stage-pigeon; in short--as
+you say--in short, he deserted the queen, and ever since she has set the
+fashion of yawning."
+
+"It was very naughty in him," said the gentle Trip.
+
+"Ah, my dear creature," cried Nip, "if it had been you to whom he had
+paid his addresses!"
+
+Trip simpered, and the old fairies from their seats in the honeysuckles
+observed she was "sadly conducted;" but the Trips had never been too
+respectable.
+
+Meanwhile the queen, leaning on Pipalee, said, after a short pause, "Do
+you know I have formed a plan!"
+
+"How delightful!" cried Pipalee.  "Another gala!"
+
+"Pooh, surely even you must be tired with such levities: the spirit of
+the age is no longer frivolous; and I dare say as the march of gravity
+proceeds, we shall get rid of galas altogether."  The queen said this
+with an air of inconceivable wisdom, for the "Society for the Diffusion
+of General Stupefaction" had been recently established among the fairies,
+and its tracts had driven all the light reading out of the market.  "The
+Penny Proser" had contributed greatly to the increase of knowledge and
+yawning, so visibly progressive among the courtiers.
+
+"No," continued Nymphalin; "I have thought of something better than
+galas.  Let us travel!"
+
+Pipalee clasped her hands in ecstasy.
+
+"Where shall we travel?"
+
+"Let us go up the Rhine," said the queen, turning away her head.  "We
+shall be amazingly welcomed; there are fairies without number all the way
+by its banks, and various distant connections of ours whose nature and
+properties will afford interest and instruction to a philosophical mind."
+
+"Number Nip, for instance," cried the gay Pipalee.
+
+"The Red Man!" said the graver Nymphalin.
+
+"Oh, my queen, what an excellent scheme!" and Pipalee was so lively
+during the rest of the night that the old fairies in the honeysuckle
+insinuated that the lady of honour had drunk a buttercup too much of the
+Maydew.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE LOVERS.
+
+I WISH only for such readers as give themselves heart and soul up to
+me,--if they begin to cavil I have done with them; their fancy should put
+itself entirely under my management; and, after all, ought they not to be
+too glad to get out of this hackneyed and melancholy world, to be run
+away with by an author who promises them something new?
+
+From the heights of Bruges, a Mortal and his betrothed gazed upon the
+scene below.  They saw the sun set slowly amongst purple masses of cloud,
+and the lover turned to his mistress and sighed deeply; for her cheek was
+delicate in its blended roses, beyond the beauty that belongs to the hues
+of health; and when he saw the sun sinking from the world, the thought
+came upon him that /she/ was his sun, and the glory that she shed over
+his life might soon pass away into the bosom of the "ever-during Dark."
+But against the clouds rose one of the many spires that characterize the
+town of Bruges; and on that spire, tapering into heaven, rested the eyes
+of Gertrude Vane.  The different objects that caught the gaze of each was
+emblematic both of the different channel of their thoughts and the
+different elements of their nature: he thought of the sorrow, she of the
+consolation; his heart prophesied of the passing away from earth, hers of
+the ascension into heaven.  The lower part of the landscape was wrapped
+in shade; but just where the bank curved round in a mimic bay, the waters
+caught the sun's parting smile, and rippled against the herbage that
+clothed the shore, with a scarcely noticeable wave.  There are two of the
+numerous mills which are so picturesque a feature of that country,
+standing at a distance from each other on the rising banks, their sails
+perfectly still in the cool silence of the evening, and adding to the
+rustic tranquillity which breathed around.  For to me there is something
+in the still sails of one of those inventions of man's industry
+peculiarly eloquent of repose: the rest seems typical of the repose of
+our own passions, short and uncertain, contrary to their natural
+ordination; and doubly impressive from the feeling which admonishes us
+how precarious is the stillness, how utterly dependent on every wind
+rising at any moment and from any quarter of the heavens!  They saw
+before them no living forms, save of one or two peasants yet lingering by
+the water-side.
+
+Trevylyan drew closer to his Gertrude; for his love was inexpressibly
+tender, and his vigilant anxiety for her made his stern frame feel the
+first coolness of the evening even before she felt it herself.
+
+"Dearest, let me draw your mantle closer round you."
+
+Gertrude smiled her thanks.
+
+"I feel better than I have done for weeks," said she; "and when once we
+get into the Rhine, you will see me grow so strong as to shock all your
+interest for me."
+
+"Ah, would to Heaven my interest for you may be put to such an ordeal!"
+said Trevylyan; and they turned slowly to the inn, where Gertrude's
+father already awaited them.
+
+Trevylyan was of a wild, a resolute, and an active nature.  Thrown on the
+world at the age of sixteen, he had passed his youth in alternate
+pleasure, travel, and solitary study.  At the age in which manhood is
+least susceptible to caprice, and most perhaps to passion, he fell in
+love with the loveliest person that ever dawned upon a poet's vision.  I
+say this without exaggeration, for Gertrude Vane's was indeed the beauty,
+but the perishable beauty, of a dream.  It happened most singularly to
+Trevylyan (but he was a singular man), that being naturally one whose
+affections it was very difficult to excite, he should have fallen in love
+at first sight with a person whose disease, already declared, would have
+deterred any other heart from risking its treasures on a bark so utterly
+unfitted for the voyage of life.  Consumption, but consumption in its
+most beautiful shape, had set its seal upon Gertrude Vane, when Trevylyan
+first saw her, and at once loved.  He knew the danger of the disease; he
+did not, except at intervals, deceive himself; he wrestled against the
+new passion: but, stern as his nature was, he could not conquer it.  He
+loved, he confessed his love, and Gertrude returned it.
+
+In a love like this, there is something ineffably beautiful,--it is
+essentially the poetry of passion.  Desire grows hallowed by fear, and,
+scarce permitted to indulge its vent in the common channel of the senses,
+breaks forth into those vague yearnings, those lofty aspirations, which
+pine for the Bright, the Far, the Unattained.  It is "the desire of the
+moth for the star;" it is the love of the soul!
+
+Gertrude was advised by the faculty to try a southern climate; but
+Gertrude was the daughter of a German mother, and her young fancy had
+been nursed in all the wild legends and the alluring visions that belong
+to the children of the Rhine.  Her imagination, more romantic than
+classic, yearned for the vine-clad hills and haunted forests which are so
+fertile in their spells to those who have once drunk, even sparingly, of
+the Literature of the North.  Her desire strongly expressed, her declared
+conviction that if any change of scene could yet arrest the progress of
+her malady it would be the shores of the river she had so longed to
+visit, prevailed with her physicians and her father, and they consented
+to that pilgrimage along the Rhine on which Gertrude, her father, and her
+lover were now bound.
+
+It was by the green curve of the banks which the lovers saw from the
+heights of Bruges that our fairy travellers met.  They were reclining on
+the water-side, playing at dominos with eye-bright and the black specks
+of the trefoil; namely, Pipalee, Nip, Trip, and the lord treasurer (for
+that was all the party selected by the queen for her travelling
+/cortege/), and waiting for her Majesty, who, being a curious little elf,
+had gone round the town to reconnoitre.
+
+"Bless me!" said the lord treasurer; "what a mad freak is this!  Crossing
+that immense pond of water!  And was there ever such bad grass as this?
+One may see that the fairies thrive ill here."
+
+"You are always discontented, my lord," said Pipalee; "but then you are
+somewhat too old to travel,--at least, unless you go in your nutshell and
+four."
+
+The lord treasurer did not like this remark, so he muttered a peevish
+pshaw, and took a pinch of honeysuckle dust to console himself for being
+forced to put up with so much frivolity.
+
+At this moment, ere the moon was yet at her middest height, Nymphalin
+joined her subjects.
+
+"I have just returned," said she, with a melancholy expression on her
+countenance, "from a scene that has almost renewed in me that sympathy
+with human beings which of late years our race has well-nigh
+relinquished.
+
+"I hurried through the town without noticing much food for adventure.  I
+paused for a moment on a fat citizen's pillow, and bade him dream of
+love.  He woke in a fright, and ran down to see that his cheeses were
+safe.  I swept with a light wing over a politician's eyes, and
+straightway he dreamed of theatres and music.  I caught an undertaker in
+his first nap, and I have left him whirled into a waltz.  For what would
+be sleep if it did not contrast life?  Then I came to a solitary chamber,
+in which a girl, in her tenderest youth, knelt by the bedside in prayer,
+and I saw that the death-spirit had passed over her, and the blight was
+on the leaves of the rose.  The room was still and hushed, the angel of
+Purity kept watch there.  Her heart was full of love, and yet of holy
+thoughts, and I bade her dream of the long life denied to her,--of a
+happy home, of the kisses of her young lover, of eternal faith, and
+unwaning tenderness.  Let her at least enjoy in dreams what Fate has
+refused to Truth!  And, passing from the room, I found her lover
+stretched in his cloak beside the door; for he reads with a feverish and
+desperate prophecy the doom that waits her; and so loves he the very air
+she breathes, the very ground she treads, that when she has left his
+sight he creeps, silently and unknown to her, to the nearest spot
+hallowed by her presence, anxious that while yet she is on earth not an
+hour, not a moment, should be wasted upon other thoughts than those that
+belong to her; and feeling a security, a fearful joy, in lessening the
+distance that /now/ only momentarily divides them.  And that love seemed
+to me not as the love of the common world, and I stayed my wings and
+looked upon it as a thing that centuries might pass and bring no parallel
+to, in its beauty and its melancholy truth.  But I kept away the sleep
+from the lover's eyes, for well I knew that sleep was a tyrant, that
+shortened the brief time of waking tenderness for the living, yet spared
+him; and one sad, anxious thought of her was sweeter, in spite of its
+sorrow, than the brightest of fairy dreams.  So I left him awake, and
+watching there through the long night, and felt that the children of
+earth have still something that unites them to the spirits of a finer
+race, so long as they retain amongst them the presence of real love!"
+
+And oh! is there not a truth also in our fictions of the Unseen World?
+Are there not yet bright lingerers by the forest and the stream?  Do the
+moon and the soft stars look out on no delicate and winged forms bathing
+in their light?  Are the fairies and the invisible hosts but the children
+of our dreams, and not their inspiration?  Is that all a delusion which
+speaks from the golden page?  And is the world only given to harsh and
+anxious travellers that walk to and fro in pursuit of no gentle shadows?
+Are the chimeras of the passions the sole spirits of the universe?  No!
+while my remembrance treasures in its deepest cell the image of one no
+more,--one who was "not of the earth, earthy;" one in whom love was the
+essence of thoughts divine; one whose shape and mould, whose heart and
+genius, would, had Poesy never before dreamed it, have called forth the
+first notion of spirits resembling mortals, but not of them,--no,
+Gertrude! while I remember you, the faith, the trust in brighter shapes
+and fairer natures than the world knows of, comes clinging to my heart;
+and still will I think that Fairies might have watched over your sleep
+and Spirits have ministered to your dreams.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+FEELINGS.
+
+GERTRUDE and her companions proceeded by slow and, to her, delightful
+stages to Rotterdam.  Trevylyan sat by her side, and her hand was ever in
+his; and when her delicate frame became sensible of fatigue, her head
+drooped on his shoulder as its natural resting-place.  Her father was a
+man who had lived long enough to have encountered many reverses of
+fortune, and they had left him, as I am apt to believe long adversity
+usually does leave its prey, somewhat chilled and somewhat hardened to
+affection; passive and quiet of hope, resigned to the worst as to the
+common order of events, and expecting little from the best, as an
+unlooked-for incident in the regularity of human afflictions.  He was
+insensible of his daughter's danger, for he was not one whom the fear of
+love endows with prophetic vision; and he lived tranquilly in the
+present, without asking what new misfortune awaited him in the future.
+Yet he loved his child, his only child, with whatever of affection was
+left him by the many shocks his heart had received; and in her
+approaching connection with one rich and noble as Trevylyan, he felt even
+something bordering upon pleasure.  Lapped in the apathetic indifference
+of his nature, he leaned back in the carriage, enjoying the bright
+weather that attended their journey, and sensible--for he was one of fine
+and cultivated taste--of whatever beauties of nature or remains of art
+varied their course.  A companion of this sort was the most agreeable
+that two persons never needing a third could desire; he left them
+undisturbed to the intoxication of their mutual presence; he marked not
+the interchange of glances; he listened not to the whisper, the low
+delicious whisper, with which the heart speaks its sympathy to heart.  He
+broke not that charmed silence which falls over us when the thoughts are
+full, and words leave nothing to explain; that repose of feeling; that
+certainty that we are understood without the effort of words, which makes
+the real luxury of intercourse and the true enchantment of travel.  What
+a memory hours like these bequeath, after we have settled down into the
+calm occupation of common life!  How beautiful, through the vista of
+years, seems that brief moonlight track upon the waters of our youth!
+
+And Trevylyan's nature, which, as I have said before, was naturally hard
+and stern, which was hot, irritable, ambitious, and prematurely tinctured
+with the policy and lessons of the world, seemed utterly changed by the
+peculiarities of his love.  Every hour, every moment was full of incident
+to him; every look of Gertrude's was entered in the tablets of his heart;
+so that his love knew no languor, it required no change: he was absorbed
+in it,--/it was himself/!  And he was soft, and watchful as the step of a
+mother by the couch of her sick child; the lion within him was tamed by
+indomitable love; the sadness, the presentiment, that was mixed with all
+his passion for Gertrude, filled him too with that poetry of feeling
+which is the result of thoughts weighing upon us, and not to be expressed
+by ordinary language.  In this part of their journey, as I find by the
+date, were the following lines written; they are to be judged as the
+lines of one in whom emotion and truth were the only inspiration:--
+
+
+
+I.
+
+As leaves left darkling in the flush of day,
+  When glints the glad sun checkering o'er the tree,
+I see the green earth brightening in the ray,
+  Which only casts a shadow upon me!
+
+
+II.
+
+What are the beams, the flowers, the glory, all
+  Life's glow and gloss, the music and the bloom,
+When every sun but speeds the Eternal Pall,
+  And Time is Death that dallies with the Tomb?
+
+
+III.
+
+And yet--oh yet, so young, so pure!--the while
+  Fresh laugh the rose-hues round youth's morning sky,
+That voice, those eyes, the deep love of that smile,
+  Are they not soul--/all/ soul--and /can/ they die?
+
+
+IV.
+
+Are there the words "NO MORE" for thoughts like ours?
+  Must the bark sink upon so soft a wave?
+Hath the short summer of thy life no flowers
+  But those which bloom above thine early grave?
+
+
+V.
+
+O God! and what is life, that I should live?
+  (Hath not the world enow of common clay?)
+And she--the Rose--whose life a soul could give
+  To the void desert, sigh its sweets away?
+
+
+VI.
+
+And I that love thee thus, to whom the air,
+  Blest by thy breath, makes heaven where'er it be,
+Watch thy cheek wane, and smile away despair,
+  Lest it should dim one hour yet left to Thee.
+
+
+VII.
+
+Still let me conquer self; oh, still conceal
+  By the smooth brow the snake that coils below;
+Break, break my heart! it comforts yet to feel
+  That /she/ dreams on, unwakened by my woe!
+
+
+VIII.
+
+Hushed, where the Star's soft angel loves to keep
+  Watch o'er their tide, the morning waters roll;
+So glides my spirit,--darkness in the deep,
+  But o'er the wave the presence of thy soul!
+
+
+
+Gertrude had not as yet the presentiments that filled the soul of
+Trevylyan.  She thought too little of herself to know her danger, and
+those hours to her were hours of unmingled sweetness.  Sometimes, indeed,
+the exhaustion of her disease tinged her spirits with a vague sadness, an
+abstraction came over her, and a languor she vainly struggled against.
+These fits of dejection and gloom touched Trevylyan to the quick; his eye
+never ceased to watch them, nor his heart to soothe.  Often when he
+marked them, he sought to attract her attention from what he fancied,
+though erringly, a sympathy with his own forebodings, and to lead her
+young and romantic imagination through the temporary beguilements of
+fiction; for Gertrude was yet in the first bloom of youth, and all the
+dews of beautiful childhood sparkled freshly from the virgin blossoms of
+her mind.  And Trevylyan, who had passed some of his early years among
+the students of Leipsic, and was deeply versed in the various world of
+legendary lore, ransacked his memory for such tales as seemed to him most
+likely to win her interest; and often with false smiles entered into the
+playful tale, or oftener, with more faithful interest, into the graver
+legend of trials that warned yet beguiled them from their own.  Of such
+tales I have selected but a few; I know not that they are the least
+unworthy of repetition,--they are those which many recollections induce
+me to repeat the most willingly.  Gertrude loved these stories, for she
+had not yet lost, by the coldness of the world, one leaf from that soft
+and wild romance which belonged to her beautiful mind; and, more than
+all, she loved the sound of a voice which every day became more and more
+musical to her ear.  "Shall I tell you," said Trevylyan, one morning, as
+he observed her gloomier mood stealing over the face of Gertrude,--"shall
+I tell you, ere yet we pass into the dull land of Holland, a story of
+Malines, whose spires we shall shortly see?"  Gertrude's face brightened
+at once, and as she leaned back in the carriage as it whirled rapidly
+along, and fixed her deep blue eyes on Trevylyan, he began the following
+tale.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE MAID OF MALINES.
+
+IT was noonday in the town of Malines, or Mechlin, as the English usually
+term it; the Sabbath bell had summoned the inhabitants to divine worship;
+and the crowd that had loitered round the Church of St. Rembauld had
+gradually emptied itself within the spacious aisles of the sacred
+edifice.
+
+A young man was standing in the street, with his eyes bent on the ground,
+and apparently listening for some sound; for without raising his looks
+from the rude pavement, he turned to every corner of it with an intent
+and anxious expression of countenance.  He held in one hand a staff, in
+the other a long slender cord, the end of which trailed on the ground;
+every now and then he called, with a plaintive voice, "Fido, Fido, come
+back!  Why hast thou deserted me?"  Fido returned not; the dog, wearied
+of confinement, had slipped from the string, and was at play with his
+kind in a distant quarter of the town, leaving the blind man to seek his
+way as he might to his solitary inn.
+
+By and by a light step passed through the street, and the young
+stranger's face brightened.
+
+"Pardon me," said he, turning to the spot where his quick ear had caught
+the sound, "and direct me, if you are not much pressed for a few moments'
+time, to the hotel 'Mortier d'Or.'"
+
+It was a young woman, whose dress betokened that she belonged to the
+middling class of life, whom he thus addressed.  "It is some distance
+hence, sir," said she; "but if you continue your way straight on for
+about a hundred yards, and then take the second turn to your right
+hand--"
+
+"Alas!" interrupted the stranger, with a melancholy smile, "your
+direction will avail me little; my dog has deserted me, and I am blind!"
+
+There was something in these words, and in the stranger's voice, which
+went irresistibly to the heart of the young woman.  "Pray forgive me,"
+she said, almost with tears in her eyes, "I did not perceive your--"
+misfortune, she was about to say, but she checked herself with an
+instinctive delicacy.  "Lean upon me, I will conduct you to the door;
+nay, sir," observing that he hesitated, "I have time enough to spare, I
+assure you."
+
+The stranger placed his hand on the young woman's arm; and though Lucille
+was naturally so bashful that even her mother would laughingly reproach
+her for the excess of a maiden virtue, she felt not the least pang of
+shame, as she found herself thus suddenly walking through the streets of
+Malines along with a young stranger, whose dress and air betokened him of
+rank superior to her own.
+
+"Your voice is very gentle," said he, after a pause; "and that," he
+added, with a slight sigh, "is the only criterion by which I know the
+young and the beautiful!"  Lucille now blushed, and with a slight mixture
+of pain in the blush, for she knew well that to beauty she had no
+pretension.  "Are you a native of this town?" continued he.
+
+"Yes, sir; my father holds a small office in the customs, and my mother
+and I eke out his salary by making lace.  We are called poor, but we do
+not feel it, sir."
+
+"You are fortunate! there is no wealth like the heart's
+wealth,--content," answered the blind man, mournfully.
+
+"And, monsieur," said Lucille, feeling angry with herself that she had
+awakened a natural envy in the stranger's mind, and anxious to change the
+subject--"and, monsieur, has he been long at Malines?"
+
+"But yesterday.  I am passing through the Low Countries on a tour;
+perhaps you smile at the tour of a blind man, but it is wearisome even to
+the blind to rest always in the same place.  I thought during
+church-time, when the streets were empty, that I might, by the help of my
+dog, enjoy safely at least the air, if not the sight of the town; but
+there are some persons, methinks, who cannot have even a dog for a
+friend!"
+
+The blind man spoke bitterly,--the desertion of his dog had touched him
+to the core.  Lucille wiped her eyes.  "And does Monsieur travel then
+alone?" said she; and looking at his face more attentively than she had
+yet ventured to do, she saw that he was scarcely above two-and-twenty.
+"His father, and his /mother/," she added, with an emphasis on the last
+word, "are they not with him?"
+
+"I am an orphan!" answered the stranger; "and I have neither brother nor
+sister."
+
+The desolate condition of the blind man quite melted Lucille; never had
+she been so strongly affected.  She felt a strange flutter at the heart,
+a secret and earnest sympathy, that attracted her at once towards him.
+She wished that Heaven had suffered her to be his sister!
+
+The contrast between the youth and the form of the stranger, and the
+affliction which took hope from the one and activity from the other,
+increased the compassion he excited.  His features were remarkably
+regular, and had a certain nobleness in their outline; and his frame was
+gracefully and firmly knit, though he moved cautiously and with no
+cheerful step.
+
+They had now passed into a narrow street leading towards the hotel, when
+they heard behind them the clatter of hoofs; and Lucille, looking hastily
+back, saw that a troop of the Belgian horse was passing through the town.
+
+She drew her charge close by the wall, and trembling with fear for him,
+she stationed herself by his side.  The troop passed at a full trot
+through the street; and at the sound of their clanging arms, and the
+ringing hoofs of their heavy chargers, Lucille might have seen, had she
+looked at the blind man's face, that its sad features kindled with
+enthusiasm, and his head was raised proudly from its wonted and
+melancholy bend.  "Thank Heaven!" she said, as the troop had nearly
+passed them, "the danger is over!"  Not so.  One of the last two soldiers
+who rode abreast was unfortunately mounted on a young and unmanageable
+horse.  The rider's oaths and digging spur only increased the fire and
+impatience of the charger; it plunged from side to side of the narrow
+street.
+
+"Look to yourselves!" cried the horseman, as he was borne on to the place
+where Lucille and the stranger stood against the wall.  "Are ye mad?  Why
+do you not run?"
+
+"For Heaven's sake, for mercy's sake, he is blind!" cried Lucille,
+clinging to the stranger's side.
+
+"Save yourself, my kind guide!" said the stranger.  But Lucille dreamed
+not of such desertion.  The trooper wrested the horse's head from the
+spot where they stood; with a snort, as it felt the spur, the enraged
+animal lashed out with its hind-legs; and Lucille, unable to save /both/,
+threw herself before the blind man, and received the shock directed
+against him; her slight and delicate arm fell broken by her side, the
+horseman was borne onward.  "Thank God, /you/ are saved!" was poor
+Lucille's exclamation; and she fell, overcome with pain and terror, into
+the arms which the stranger mechanically opened to receive her.
+
+"My guide! my friend!" cried he, "you are hurt, you--"
+
+"No, sir," interrupted Lucille, faintly, "I am better, I am well.  /This/
+arm, if you please,--we are not far from your hotel now."
+
+But the stranger's ear, tutored to every inflection of voice, told him at
+once of the pain she suffered.  He drew from her by degrees the
+confession of the injury she had sustained; but the generous girl did not
+tell him it had been incurred solely in his protection.  He now insisted
+on reversing their duties, and accompanying /her/ to her home; and
+Lucille, almost fainting with pain, and hardly able to move, was forced
+to consent.  But a few steps down the next turning stood the humble
+mansion of her father.  They reached it; and Lucille scarcely crossed the
+threshold, before she sank down, and for some minutes was insensible to
+pain.  It was left to the stranger to explain, and to beseech them
+immediately to send for a surgeon, "the most skilful, the most practised
+in the town," said he.  "See, I am rich, and this is the least I can do
+to atone to your generous daughter, for not forsaking even a stranger in
+peril."
+
+He held out his purse as he spoke, but the father refused the offer; and
+it saved the blind man some shame, that he could not see the blush of
+honest resentment with which so poor a species of renumeration was put
+aside.
+
+The young man stayed till the surgeon arrived, till the arm was set; nor
+did he depart until he had obtained a promise from the mother that he
+should learn the next morning how the sufferer had passed the night.
+
+The next morning, indeed, he had intended to quit a town that offers but
+little temptation to the traveller; but he tarried day after day, until
+Lucille herself accompanied her mother, to assure him of her recovery.
+
+You know, at least I do, dearest Gertrude, that there is such a thing as
+love at the first meeting,--a secret, an unaccountable affinity between
+persons (strangers before) which draws them irresistibly together,--as if
+there were truth in Plato's beautiful fantasy, that our souls were a
+portion of the stars, and that spirits, thus attracted to each other,
+have drawn their original light from the same orb, and yearn for a
+renewal of their former union.  Yet without recurring to such fanciful
+solutions of a daily mystery, it was but natural that one in the forlorn
+and desolate condition of Eugene St. Amand should have felt a certain
+tenderness for a person who had so generously suffered for his sake.
+
+The darkness to which he was condemned did not shut from his mind's eye
+the haunting images of Ideal beauty; rather, on the contrary, in his
+perpetual and unoccupied solitude, he fed the reveries of an imagination
+naturally warm, and a heart eager for sympathy and commune.
+
+He had said rightly that his only test of beauty was in the melody of
+voice; and never had a softer or more thrilling tone than that of the
+young maiden touched upon his ear.  Her exclamation, so beautifully
+denying self, so devoted in its charity, "Thank God, /you/ are saved!"
+uttered too in the moment of her own suffering, rang constantly upon his
+soul, and he yielded, without precisely defining their nature, to vague
+and delicious sentiments, that his youth had never awakened to till then.
+And Lucille--the very accident that had happened to her on his behalf
+only deepened the interest she had already conceived for one who, in the
+first flush of youth, was thus cut off from the glad objects of life, and
+left to a night of years desolate and alone.  There is, to your beautiful
+and kindly sex, a natural inclination to /protect/.  This makes them the
+angels of sickness, the comforters of age, the fosterers of childhood;
+and this feeling, in Lucille peculiarly developed, had already
+inexpressibly linked her compassionate nature to the lot of the
+unfortunate traveller.  With ardent affections, and with thoughts beyond
+her station and her years, she was not without that modest vanity which
+made her painfully susceptible to her own deficiencies in beauty.
+Instinctively conscious of how deeply she herself could love, she
+believed it impossible that she could ever be so loved in return.  The
+stranger, so superior in her eyes to all she had yet seen, was the first
+who had ever addressed her in that voice which by tones, not words,
+speaks that admiration most dear to a woman's heart.  To /him/ she was
+beautiful, and her lovely mind spoke out, undimmed by the imperfections
+of her face.  Not, indeed, that Lucille was wholly without personal
+attraction; her light step and graceful form were elastic with the
+freshness of youth, and her mouth and smile had so gentle and tender an
+expression, that there were moments when it would not have been the blind
+only who would have mistaken her to be beautiful.  Her early childhood
+had indeed given the promise of attractions, which the smallpox, that
+then fearful malady, had inexorably marred.  It had not only seared the
+smooth skin and brilliant hues, but utterly changed even the character of
+the features.  It so happened that Lucille's family were celebrated for
+beauty, and vain of that celebrity; and so bitterly had her parents
+deplored the effects of the cruel malady, that poor Lucille had been
+early taught to consider them far more grievous than they really were,
+and to exaggerate the advantages of that beauty, the loss of which was
+considered by her parents so heavy a misfortune.  Lucille, too, had a
+cousin named Julie, who was the wonder of all Malines for her personal
+perfections; and as the cousins were much together, the contrast was too
+striking not to occasion frequent mortification to Lucille.  But every
+misfortune has something of a counterpoise; and the consciousness of
+personal inferiority had meekened, without souring, her temper, had given
+gentleness to a spirit that otherwise might have been too high, and
+humility to a mind that was naturally strong, impassioned, and energetic.
+
+And yet Lucille had long conquered the one disadvantage she most dreaded
+in the want of beauty.  Lucille was never known but to be loved.
+Wherever came her presence, her bright and soft mind diffused a certain
+inexpressible charm; and where she was not, a something was absent from
+the scene which not even Julie's beauty could replace.
+
+"I propose," said St. Amand to Madame le Tisseur, Lucille's mother, as he
+sat in her little salon,--for he had already contracted that acquaintance
+with the family which permitted him to be led to their house, to return
+the visits Madame le Tisseur had made him, and his dog, once more
+returned a penitent to his master, always conducted his steps to the
+humble abode, and stopped instinctively at the door,--"I propose," said
+St. Amand, after a pause, and with some embarrassment, "to stay a little
+while longer at Malines; the air agrees with me, and I like the quiet of
+the place; but you are aware, madam, that at a hotel among strangers, I
+feel my situation somewhat cheerless.  I have been thinking"--St. Amand
+paused again--"I have been thinking that if I could persuade some
+agreeable family to receive me as a lodger, I would fix myself here for
+some weeks.  I am easily pleased."
+
+"Doubtless there are many in Malines who would be too happy to receive
+such a lodger."
+
+"Will you receive me?" asked St. Amand, abruptly.  "It was of /your/
+family I thought."
+
+"Of us?  Monsieur is too flattering.  But we have scarcely a room good
+enough for you."
+
+"What difference between one room and another can there be to me?  That
+is the best apartment to my choice in which the human voice sounds most
+kindly."
+
+The arrangement was made, and St. Amand came now to reside beneath the
+same roof as Lucille.  And was she not happy that /he/ wanted so constant
+an attendance; was she not happy that she was ever of use?  St. Amand was
+passionately fond of music; he played himself with a skill that was only
+surpassed by the exquisite melody of his voice, and was not Lucille happy
+when she sat mute and listening to such sounds as in Malines were never
+heard before?  Was she not happy in gazing on a face to whose melancholy
+aspect her voice instantly summoned the smile?  Was she not happy when
+the music ceased, and St. Amand called  "Lucille"?  Did not her own name
+uttered by that voice seem to her even sweeter than the music?  Was she
+not happy when they walked out in the still evenings of summer, and her
+arm thrilled beneath the light touch of one to whom she was so necessary?
+Was she not proud in her happiness, and was there not something like
+worship in the gratitude she felt to him for raising her humble spirit to
+the luxury of feeling herself beloved?
+
+St. Amand's parents were French.  They had resided in the neighbourhood
+of Amiens, where they had inherited a competent property, to which he had
+succeeded about two years previous to the date of my story.
+
+He had been blind from the age of three years.  "I know not," said he, as
+he related these particulars to Lucille one evening when they were
+alone,--"I know not what the earth may be like, or the heaven, or the
+rivers whose voice at least I can hear, for I have no recollection beyond
+that of a confused but delicious blending of a thousand glorious colours,
+a bright and quick sense of joy, A VISIBLE MUSIC.  But it is only since
+my childhood closed that I have mourned, as I now unceasingly mourn, for
+the light of day.  My boyhood passed in a quiet cheerfulness; the least
+trifle then could please and occupy the vacancies of my mind; but it was
+as I took delight in being read to, as I listened to the vivid
+descriptions of Poetry, as I glowed at the recital of great deeds, as I
+was made acquainted by books with the energy, the action, the heat, the
+fervour, the pomp, the enthusiasm of life, that I gradually opened to the
+sense of all I was forever denied.  I felt that I existed, not lived; and
+that, in the midst of the Universal Liberty, I was sentenced to a prison,
+from whose blank walls there was no escape.  Still, however, while my
+parents lived, I had something of consolation; at least I was not alone.
+They died, and a sudden and dread solitude, a vast and empty dreariness,
+settled upon my dungeon.  One old servant only, who had attended me from
+my childhood, who had known me in my short privilege of light, by whose
+recollections my mind could grope back its way through the dark and
+narrow passages of memory to faint glimpses of the sun, was all that
+remained to me of human sympathies.  It did not suffice, however, to
+content me with a home where my father and my mother's kind voice were
+/not/.  A restless impatience, an anxiety to move, possessed me, and I
+set out from my home, journeying whither I cared not, so that at least I
+could change an air that weighed upon me like a palpable burden.  I took
+only this old attendant as my companion; he too died three months since
+at Bruxelles, worn out with years.  Alas! I had forgotten that he was
+old, for I saw not his progress to decay; and now, save my faithless dog,
+I was utterly alone, till I came hither and found /thee/."
+
+Lucille stooped down to caress the dog; she blessed the desertion that
+had led him to a friend who never could desert.
+
+But however much, and however gratefully, St. Amand loved Lucille, her
+power availed not to chase the melancholy from his brow, and to reconcile
+him to his forlorn condition.
+
+"Ah, would that I could see thee! would that I could look upon a face
+that my heart vainly endeavours to delineate!"
+
+"If thou couldst," sighed Lucille, "thou wouldst cease to love me."
+
+"Impossible!" cried St. Amand, passionately.  "However the world may find
+thee, /thou/ wouldst become my standard of beauty; and I should judge not
+of thee by others, but of others by thee."
+
+He loved to hear Lucille read to him, and mostly he loved the
+descriptions of war, of travel, of wild adventure, and yet they
+occasioned him the most pain.  Often she paused from the page as she
+heard him sigh, and felt that she would even have renounced the bliss of
+being loved by him, if she could have restored to him that blessing, the
+desire for which haunted him as a spectre.
+
+Lucille's family were Catholic, and, like most in their station, they
+possessed the superstitions, as well as the devotion of the faith.
+Sometimes they amused themselves of an evening by the various legends and
+imaginary miracles of their calendar; and once, as they were thus
+conversing with two or three of their neighbours, "The Tomb of the Three
+Kings of Cologne" became the main topic of their wondering recitals.
+However strong was the sense of Lucille, she was, as you will readily
+conceive, naturally influenced by the belief of those with whom she had
+been brought up from her cradle, and she listened to tale after tale of
+the miracles wrought at the consecrated tomb, as earnestly and
+undoubtingly as the rest.
+
+And the Kings of the East were no ordinary saints; to the relics of the
+Three Magi, who followed the Star of Bethlehem, and were the first
+potentates of the earth who adored its Saviour, well might the pious
+Catholic suppose that a peculiar power and a healing sanctity would
+belong.  Each of the circle (St. Amand, who had been more than usually
+silent, and even gloomy during the day, had retired to his own apartment,
+for there were some moments when, in the sadness of his thoughts, he
+sought that solitude which he so impatiently fled from at others)--each
+of the circle had some story to relate equally veracious and
+indisputable, of an infirmity cured, or a prayer accorded, or a sin
+atoned for at the foot of the holy tomb.  One story peculiarly affected
+Lucille; the narrator, a venerable old man with gray locks, solemnly
+declared himself a witness of its truth.
+
+A woman at Anvers had given birth to a son, the offspring of an illicit
+connection, who came into the world deaf and dumb.  The unfortunate
+mother believed the calamity a punishment for her own sin.  "Ah, would,"
+said she, "that the affliction had fallen only upon me!  Wretch that I
+am, my innocent child is punished for my offence!"  This, idea haunted
+her night and day; she pined and could not be comforted.  As the child
+grew up, and wound himself more and more round her heart, his caresses
+added new pangs to her remorse; and at length (continued the narrator)
+hearing perpetually of the holy fame of the Tomb of Cologne, she resolved
+upon a pilgrimage barefoot to the shrine.  "God is merciful," said she;
+"and He who called Magdalene his sister may take the mother's curse from
+the child."  She then went to Cologne; she poured her tears, her
+penitence, and her prayers at the sacred tomb.  When she returned to her
+native town, what was her dismay as she approached her cottage to behold
+it a heap of ruins!  Its blackened rafters and yawning casements
+betokened the ravages of fire.  The poor woman sank upon the ground
+utterly overpowered.  Had her son perished?  At that moment she heard the
+cry of a child's voice, and, lo! her child rushed to her arms, and called
+her "mother!"
+
+He had been saved from the fire, which had broken out seven days before;
+but in the terror he had suffered, the string that tied his tongue had
+been loosened; he had uttered articulate sounds of distress; the curse
+was removed, and one word at least the kind neighbours had already taught
+him to welcome his mother's return.  What cared she now that her
+substance was gone, that her roof was ashes?  She bowed in grateful
+submission to so mild a stroke; her prayer had been heard, and the sin of
+the mother was visited no longer on the child.
+
+I have said, dear Gertrude, that this story made a deep impression upon
+Lucille.  A misfortune so nearly akin to that of St. Amand removed by the
+prayer of another filled her with devoted thoughts and a beautiful hope.
+"Is not the tomb still standing?" thought she.  "Is not God still in
+heaven?--He who heard the guilty, may He not hear the guiltless?  Is He
+not the God of love?  Are not the affections the offerings that please
+Him best?  And what though the child's mediator was his mother, can even
+a mother love her child more tenderly than I love Eugene?  But if,
+Lucille, thy prayer be granted, if he recover his sight, /thy/ charm is
+gone, he will love thee no longer.  No matter! be it so,--I shall at
+least have made him happy!"
+
+Such were the thoughts that filled the mind of Lucille; she cherished
+them till they settled into resolution, and she secretly vowed to perform
+her pilgrimage of love.  She told neither St. Amand nor her parents of
+her intention; she knew the obstacles such an announcement would create.
+Fortunately she had an aunt settled at Bruxelles, to whom she had been
+accustomed once in every year to pay a month's visit, and at that time
+she generally took with her the work of a twelvemonths' industry, which
+found a readier sale at Bruxelles than at Malines.  Lucille and St. Amand
+were already betrothed; their wedding was shortly to take place; and the
+custom of the country leading parents, however poor, to nourish the
+honourable ambition of giving some dowry with their daughters, Lucille
+found it easy to hide the object of her departure, under the pretence of
+taking the lace to Bruxelles, which had been the year's labour of her
+mother and herself,--it would sell for sufficient, at least, to defray
+the preparations for the wedding.
+
+"Thou art ever right, child," said Madame le Tisseur; "the richer St.
+Amand is, why, the less oughtest thou to go a beggar to his house."
+
+In fact, the honest ambition of the good people was excited; their pride
+had been hurt by the envy of the town and the current congratulations on
+so advantageous a marriage; and they employed themselves in counting up
+the fortune they should be able to give to their only child, and
+flattering their pardonable vanity with the notion that there would be no
+such great disproportion in the connection after all.  They were right,
+but not in their own view of the estimate; the wealth that Lucille
+brought was what fate could not lessen, reverse could not reach; the
+ungracious seasons could not blight its sweet harvest; imprudence could
+not dissipate, fraud could not steal, one grain from its abundant
+coffers!  Like the purse in the Fairy Tale, its use was hourly, its
+treasure inexhaustible.
+
+St. Amand alone was not to be won to her departure; he chafed at the
+notion of a dowry; he was not appeased even by Lucille's representation
+that it was only to gratify and not to impoverish her parents.  "And
+/thou/, too, canst leave me!" he said, in that plaintive voice which had
+made his first charm to Lucille's heart.  "It is a double blindness!"
+
+"But for a few days; a fortnight at most, dearest Eugene."
+
+"A fortnight! you do not reckon time as the blind do," said St. Amand,
+bitterly.
+
+"But listen, listen, dear Eugene," said Lucille, weeping.
+
+The sound of her sobs restored him to a sense of his ingratitude.  Alas,
+he knew not how much he had to be grateful for!  He held out his arms to
+her.  "Forgive me," said he.  "Those who can see Nature know not how
+terrible it is to be alone."
+
+"But my mother will not leave you."
+
+"She is not you!"
+
+"And Julie," said Lucille, hesitatingly.
+
+"What is Julie to me?"
+
+"Ah, you are the only one, save my parents, who could think of me in her
+presence."
+
+"And why, Lucille?"
+
+"Why!  She is more beautiful than a dream."
+
+"Say not so.  Would I could see, that I might prove to the world how much
+more beautiful thou art!  There is no music in her voice."
+
+The evening before Lucille departed she sat up late with St. Amand and
+her mother.  They conversed on the future; they made plans; in the wide
+sterility of the world they laid out the garden of household love, and
+filled it with flowers, forgetful of the wind that scatters and the frost
+that kills.  And when, leaning on Lucille's arm, St. Amand sought his
+chamber, and they parted at his door, which closed upon her, she fell
+down on her knees at the threshold, and poured out the fulness of her
+heart in a prayer for his safety and the fulfilment of her timid hope.
+
+At daybreak she was consigned to the conveyance that performed the short
+journey from Malines to Bruxelles.  When she entered the town, instead of
+seeking her aunt, she rested at an /auberge/ in the suburbs, and
+confiding her little basket of lace to the care of its hostess, she set
+out alone, and on foot, upon the errand of her heart's lovely
+superstition.  And erring though it was, her faith redeemed its weakness,
+her affection made it even sacred; and well may we believe that the Eye
+which reads all secrets scarce looked reprovingly on that fanaticism
+whose only infirmity was love.
+
+So fearful was she lest, by rendering the task too easy, she might impair
+the effect, that she scarcely allowed herself rest or food.  Sometimes,
+in the heat of noon, she wandered a little from the roadside, and under
+the spreading lime-tree surrendered her mind to its sweet and bitter
+thoughts; but ever the restlessness of her enterprise urged her on, and
+faint, weary, and with bleeding feet, she started up and continued her
+way.  At length she reached the ancient city, where a holier age has
+scarce worn from the habits and aspects of men the Roman trace.  She
+prostrated herself at the tomb of the Magi; she proffered her ardent but
+humble prayer to Him before whose Son those fleshless heads (yet to faith
+at least preserved) had, eighteen centuries ago, bowed in adoration.
+Twice every day, for a whole week, she sought the same spot, and poured
+forth the same prayer.  The last day an old priest, who, hovering in the
+church, had observed her constantly at devotion, with that fatherly
+interest which the better ministers of the Catholic sect (that sect which
+has covered the earth with the mansions of charity) feel for the unhappy,
+approached her as she was retiring with moist and downcast eyes, and
+saluting her, assumed the privilege of his order to inquire if there was
+aught in which his advice or aid could serve.  There was something in the
+venerable air of the old man which encouraged Lucille; she opened her
+heart to him; she told him all.  The good priest was much moved by her
+simplicity and earnestness.  He questioned her minutely as to the
+peculiar species of blindness with which St. Amand was afflicted; and
+after musing a little while, he said, "Daughter, God is great and
+merciful; we must trust in His power, but we must not forget that He
+mostly works by mortal agents.  As you pass through Louvain in your way
+home, fail not to see there a certain physician, named Le Kain.  He is
+celebrated through Flanders for the cures he has wrought among the blind,
+and his advice is sought by all classes from far and near.  He lives hard
+by the Hotel de Ville, but any one will inform you of his residence.
+Stay, my child, you shall take him a note from me; he is a benevolent and
+kindly man, and you shall tell him exactly the same story (and with the
+same voice) you have told to me."
+
+So saying the priest made Lucille accompany him to his home, and forcing
+her to refresh herself less sparingly than she had yet done since she had
+left Malines, he gave her his blessing, and a letter to Le Kain, which he
+rightly judged would insure her a patient hearing from the physician.
+Well known among all men of science was the name of the priest, and a
+word of recommendation from him went further, where virtue and wisdom
+were honoured, than the longest letter from the haughtiest sieur in
+Flanders.
+
+With a patient and hopeful spirit, the young pilgrim turned her back on
+the Roman Cologne; and now about to rejoin St. Amand, she felt neither
+the heat of the sun nor the weariness of the road.  It was one day at
+noon that she again passed through Louvain, and she soon found herself by
+the noble edifice of the Hotel de Ville.  Proud rose its spires against
+the sky, and the sun shone bright on its rich tracery and Gothic
+casements; the broad open street was crowded with persons of all classes,
+and it was with some modest alarm that Lucille lowered her veil and
+mingled with the throng.  It was easy, as the priest had said, to find
+the house of Le Kain; she bade the servant take the priest's letter to
+his master, and she was not long kept waiting before she was admitted to
+the physician's presence.  He was a spare, tall man, with a bald front,
+and a calm and friendly countenance.  He was not less touched than the
+priest had been by the manner in which she narrated her story, described
+the affliction of her betrothed, and the hope that had inspired the
+pilgrimage she had just made.
+
+"Well," said he, encouragingly, "we must see our patient.  You can bring
+him hither to me."
+
+"Ah, sir, I had hoped--" Lucille stopped suddenly.
+
+"What, my young friend?"
+
+"That I might have had the triumph of bringing you to Malines.  I know,
+sir, what you are about to say, and I know, sir, your time must be very
+valuable; but I am not so poor as I seem, and Eugene, that is, M. St.
+Amand, is very rich, and--and I have at Bruxelles what I am sure is a
+large sum; it was to have provided for the wedding, but it is most
+heartily at your service, sir."
+
+Le Kain smiled; he was one of those men who love to read the human heart
+when its leaves are fair and undefiled; and, in the benevolence of
+science, he would have gone a longer journey than from Louvain to Malines
+to give sight to the blind, even had St. Amand been a beggar.
+
+"Well, well," said he, "but you forget that M. St. Amand is not the only
+one in the world who wants me.  I must look at my notebook, and see if I
+can be spared for a day or two."
+
+So saying, he glanced at his memoranda.  Everything smiled on Lucille; he
+had no engagements that his partner could not fulfil, for some days; he
+consented to accompany Lucille to Malines.
+
+Meanwhile, cheerless and dull had passed the time to St. Amand.  He was
+perpetually asking Madame le Tisseur what hour it was,--it was almost his
+only question.  There seemed to him no sun in the heavens, no freshness
+in the air, and he even forbore his favourite music; the instrument had
+lost its sweetness since Lucille was not by to listen.
+
+It was natural that the gossips of Malines should feel some envy at the
+marriage Lucille was about to make with one whose competence report had
+exaggerated into prodigal wealth, whose birth had been elevated from the
+respectable to the noble, and whose handsome person was clothed, by the
+interest excited by his misfortune, with the beauty of Antinous.  Even
+that misfortune, which ought to have levelled all distinctions, was not
+sufficient to check the general envy; perhaps to some of the damsels of
+Malines blindness in a husband would not have seemed an unwelcome
+infirmity!  But there was one in whom this envy rankled with a peculiar
+sting: it was the beautiful, the all-conquering Julie!  That the humble,
+the neglected Lucille should be preferred to her; that Lucille, whose
+existence was well-nigh forgot beside Julie's, should become thus
+suddenly of importance; that there should be one person in the world, and
+that person young, rich, handsome, to whom she was less than nothing,
+when weighed in the balance with Lucille, mortified to the quick a vanity
+that had never till then received a wound.  "It is well," she would say
+with a bitter jest, "that Lucille's lover is blind.  To be the one it is
+necessary to be the other!"
+
+During Lucille's absence she had been constantly in Madame le Tisseur's
+house; indeed, Lucille had prayed her to be so.  She had sought, with an
+industry that astonished herself, to supply Lucille's place; and among
+the strange contradictions of human nature, she had learned during her
+efforts to please, to love the object of those efforts,--as much at least
+as she was capable of loving.
+
+She conceived a positive hatred to Lucille; she persisted in imagining
+that nothing but the accident of first acquaintance had deprived her of a
+conquest with which she persuaded herself her happiness had become
+connected.  Had St. Amand never loved Lucille and proposed to Julie, his
+misfortune would have made her reject him, despite his wealth and his
+youth; but to be Lucille's lover, and a conquest to be won from Lucille,
+raised him instantly to an importance not his own.  Safe, however, in his
+affliction, the arts and beauty of Julie fell harmless on the fidelity of
+St. Amand.  Nay, he liked her less than ever, for it seemed an
+impertinence in any one to counterfeit the anxiety and watchfulness of
+Lucille.
+
+"It is time, surely it is time, Madame le Tisseur, that Lucille should
+return?  She might have sold all the lace in Malines by this time," said
+St. Amand, one day, peevishly.
+
+"Patience, my dear friend, patience; perhaps she may return to-morrow."
+
+"To-morrow! let me see, it is only six o'clock,--only six, you are sure?"
+
+"Just five, dear Eugene.  Shall I read to you?  This is a new book from
+Paris; it has made a great noise," said Julie.
+
+"You are very kind, but I will not trouble you."
+
+"It is anything but trouble."
+
+"In a word, then, I would rather not."
+
+"Oh, that he could see!" thought Julie; "would I not punish him for
+this!"
+
+"I hear carriage wheels; who can be passing this way?  Surely it is the
+/voiturier/ from Bruxelles," said St. Amand, starting up; "it is his
+day,--his hour, too.  No, no, it is a lighter vehicle," and he sank down
+listlessly on his seat.
+
+Nearer and nearer rolled the wheels; they turned the corner; they stopped
+at the lowly door; and, overcome, overjoyed, Lucille was clasped to the
+bosom of St. Amand.
+
+"Stay," said she, blushing, as she recovered her self-possession, and
+turned to Le Kain; "pray pardon me, sir.  Dear Eugene, I have brought
+with me one who, by God's blessing, may yet restore you to sight."
+
+"We must not be sanguine, my child," said Le Kain; "anything is better
+than disappointment."
+
+
+
+To close this part of my story, dear Gertrude, Le Kain examined St.
+Amand, and the result of the examination was a confident belief in the
+probability of a cure.  St. Amand gladly consented to the experiment of
+an operation; it succeeded, the blind man saw!  Oh, what were Lucille's
+feelings, what her emotion, what her joy, when she found the object of
+her pilgrimage, of her prayers, fulfilled!  That joy was so intense that
+in the eternal alternations of human life she might have foretold from
+its excess how bitter the sorrows fated to ensue.
+
+As soon as by degrees the patient's new sense became reconciled to the
+light, his first, his only demand was for Lucille.  "No, let me not see
+her alone; let me see her in the midst of you all, that I may convince
+you that the heart never is mistaken in its instincts."  With a fearful,
+a sinking presentiment, Lucille yielded to the request, to which the
+impetuous St. Amand would hear indeed no denial.  The father, the mother,
+Julie, Lucille, Julie's younger sisters, assembled in the little parlour;
+the door opened, and St. Amand stood hesitating on the threshold.  One
+look around sufficed to him; his face brightened, he uttered a cry of
+joy.  "Lucille!  Lucille!" he exclaimed, "it is you, I know it, /you/
+only!"  He sprang forward /and fell at the feet of Julie/!
+
+Flushed, elated, triumphant, Julie bent upon him her sparkling eyes;
+/she/ did not undeceive him.
+
+"You are wrong, you mistake," said Madame le Tisseur, in confusion; "that
+is her cousin Julie,--this is your Lucille."
+
+St. Amand rose, turned, saw Lucille, and at that moment she wished
+herself in her grave.  Surprise, mortification, disappointment, almost
+dismay, were depicted in his gaze.  He had been haunting his prison-house
+with dreams, and now, set free, he felt how unlike they were to the
+truth.  Too new to observation to read the woe, the despair, the lapse
+and shrinking of the whole frame, that his look occasioned Lucille, he
+yet felt, when the first shock of his surprise was over, that it was not
+thus he should thank her who had restored him to sight.  He hastened to
+redeem his error--ah! how could it be redeemed?
+
+From that hour all Lucille's happiness was at an end; her fairy palace
+was shattered in the dust; the magician's wand was broken up; the Ariel
+was given to the winds; and the bright enchantment no longer
+distinguished the land she lived in from the rest of the barren world.
+It is true that St. Amand's words were kind; it is true that he
+remembered with the deepest gratitude all she had done in his behalf; it
+is true that he forced himself again and again to say, "She is my
+betrothed, my benefactress!" and he cursed himself to think that the
+feelings he had entertained for her were fled.  Where was the passion of
+his words; where the ardour of his tone; where that play and light of
+countenance which her step, her voice, could formerly call forth?  When
+they were alone he was embarrassed and constrained, and almost cold; his
+hand no longer sought hers, his soul no longer missed her if she was
+absent a moment from his side.  When in their household circle he seemed
+visibly more at ease; but did his eyes fasten upon her who had opened
+them to the day; did they not wander at every interval with a too
+eloquent admiration to the blushing and radiant face of the exulting
+Julie?  This was not, you will believe, suddenly perceptible in one day
+or one week, but every day it was perceptible more and more.  Yet
+still--bewitched, ensnared, as St. Amand was he never perhaps would have
+been guilty of an infidelity that he strove with the keenest remorse to
+wrestle against, had it not been for the fatal contrast, at the first
+moment of his gushing enthusiasm, which Julie had presented to Lucille;
+but for that he would have formed no previous idea of real and living
+beauty to aid the disappointment of his imaginings and his dreams.  He
+would have seen Lucille young and graceful, and with eyes beaming
+affection, contrasted only by the wrinkled countenance and bended frame
+of her parents, and she would have completed her conquest over him before
+he had discovered that she was less beautiful than others; nay,
+more,--that infidelity never could have lasted above the first few days,
+if the vain and heartless object of it had not exerted every art, all the
+power and witchery of her beauty, to cement and continue it.  The
+unfortunate Lucille--so susceptible to the slightest change in those she
+loved, so diffident of herself, so proud too in that diffidence--no
+longer necessary, no longer missed, no longer loved, could not bear to
+endure the galling comparison between the past and the present.  She fled
+uncomplainingly to her chamber to indulge her tears, and thus, unhappily,
+absent as her father generally was during the day, and busied as her
+mother was either at work or in household matters, she left Julie a
+thousand opportunities to complete the power she had begun to wield
+over--no, not the heart!--the /senses/ of St. Amand!  Yet, still not
+suspecting, in the open generosity of her mind, the whole extent of her
+affliction, poor Lucille buoyed herself at times with the hope that when
+once married, when, once in that intimacy of friendship, the unspeakable
+love she felt for him could disclose itself with less restraint than at
+present,--she would perhaps regain a heart which had been so devotedly
+hers, that she could not think that without a fault it was irrevocably
+gone: on that hope she anchored all the little happiness that remained to
+her.  And still St. Amand pressed their marriage, but in what different
+tones!  In fact, he wished to preclude from himself the possibility of a
+deeper ingratitude than that which he had incurred already.  He vainly
+thought that the broken reed of love might be bound up and strengthened
+by the ties of duty; and at least he was anxious that his hand, his
+fortune, his esteem, his gratitude, should give to Lucille the only
+recompense it was now in his power to bestow.  Meanwhile, left alone so
+often with Julie, and Julie bent on achieving the last triumph over his
+heart, St. Amand was gradually preparing a far different reward, a far
+different return, for her to whom he owed so incalculable a debt.
+
+There was a garden, behind the house, in which there was a small arbour,
+where often in the summer evenings Eugene and Lucille had sat
+together,--hours never to return!  One day she heard from her own
+chamber, where she sat mourning, the sound of St. Amand's flute swelling
+gently from that beloved and consecrated bower.  She wept as she heard
+it, and the memories that the music bore softening and endearing his
+image, she began to reproach herself that she had yielded so often to the
+impulse of her wounded feelings; that chilled by /his/ coldness, she had
+left him so often to himself, and had not sufficiently dared to tell him
+of that affection which, in her modest self-depreciation, constituted her
+only pretension to his love.  "Perhaps he is alone now," she thought;
+"the air too is one which he knows that I love;" and with her heart in
+her step, she stole from the house and sought the arbour.  She had scarce
+turned from her chamber when the flute ceased; as she neared the arbour
+she heard voices,--Julie's voice in grief, St. Amand's in consolation.  A
+dread foreboding seized her; her feet clung rooted to the earth.
+
+"Yes, marry her, forget me," said Julie; "in a few days you will be
+another's, and I--I--forgive me, Eugene, forgive me that I have disturbed
+your happiness.  I am punished sufficiently; my heart will break, but it
+will break in loving you."  Sobs choked Julie's voice.
+
+"Oh, speak not thus," said St. Amand.  "I, /I/ only am to blame,--I,
+false to both, to both ungrateful.  Oh, from the hour that these eyes
+opened upon you I drank in a new life; the sun itself to me was less
+wonderful than your beauty. But--but--let me forget that hour.  What do I
+not owe to Lucille?  I shall be wretched,--I shall deserve to be so; for
+shall I not think, Julie, that I have embittered your life with our
+ill-fated love?  But all that I can give--my hand, my home, my plighted
+faith--must be hers.  Nay, Julie, nay--why that look?  Could I act
+otherwise?  Can I dream otherwise?  Whatever the sacrifice, /must/ I not
+render it?  Ah, what do I owe to Lucille, were it only for the thought
+that but for her I might never have seen thee!"
+
+Lucille stayed to hear no more; with the same soft step as that which had
+borne her within hearing of these fatal words, she turned back once more
+to her desolate chamber.
+
+That evening, as St. Amand was sitting alone in his apartment, he heard a
+gentle knock at the door.  "Come in," he said, and Lucille entered.  He
+started in some confusion, and would have taken her hand, but she gently
+repulsed him.  She took a seat opposite to him, and looking down, thus
+addressed him:--
+
+"My dear Eugene, that is, Monsieur St. Amand, I have something on my mind
+that I think it better to speak at once; and if I do not exactly express
+what I would wish to say, you must not be offended with Lucille: it is
+not an easy matter to put into words what one feels deeply."  Colouring,
+and suspecting something of the truth, St. Amand would have broken in
+upon her here; but she with a gentle impatience motioned him to be
+silent, and continued:--
+
+"You know that when you once loved me, I used to tell you that you would
+cease to do so could you see how undeserving I was of your attachment.  I
+did not deceive myself, Eugene; I always felt assured that such would be
+the case, that your love for me necessarily rested on your affliction.
+But for all that I never at least had a dream or a desire but for your
+happiness; and God knows, that if again, by walking barefooted, not to
+Cologne, but to Rome--to the end of the world--I could save you from a
+much less misfortune than that of blindness, I would cheerfully do it;
+yes, even though I might foretell all the while that, on my return, you
+would speak to me coldly, think of me lightly, and that the penalty to me
+would--would be--what it has been!"  Here Lucille wiped a few natural
+tears from her eyes.  St. Amand, struck to the heart, covered his face
+with his hands, without the courage to interrupt her.  Lucille
+continued:--
+
+"That which I foresaw has come to pass; I am no longer to you what I once
+was, when you could clothe this poor form and this homely face with a
+beauty they did not possess.  You would wed me still, it is true; but I
+am proud, Eugene, and cannot stoop to gratitude where I once had love.  I
+am not so unjust as to blame you; the change was natural, was inevitable.
+I should have steeled myself more against it; but I am now resigned.  We
+must part; you love Julie--that too is natural--and /she/ loves you; ah!
+what also more in the probable course of events?  Julie loves you, not
+yet, perhaps, so much as I did; but then she has not known you as I have,
+and she whose whole life has been triumph cannot feel the gratitude that
+I felt at fancying myself loved; but this will come--God grant it!
+Farewell, then, forever, dear Eugene; I leave you when you no longer want
+me; you are now independent of Lucille; wherever you go, a thousand
+hereafter can supply my place.  Farewell!"
+
+She rose, as she said this, to leave the room; but St. Amand seizing her
+hand, which she in vain endeavoured to withdraw from his clasp, poured
+forth incoherently, passionately, his reproaches on himself, his eloquent
+persuasion against her resolution.
+
+"I confess," said he, "that I have been allured for a moment; I confess
+that Julie's beauty made me less sensible to your stronger, your holier,
+oh! far, far holier title to my love!  But forgive me, dearest Lucille;
+already I return to you, to all I once felt for you; make me not curse
+the blessing of sight that I owe to you.  You must not leave me; never
+can we two part.  Try me, only try me, and if ever hereafter my heart
+wander from you, /then/, Lucille, leave me to my remorse!"
+
+Even at that moment Lucille did not yield; she felt that his prayer was
+but the enthusiasm of the hour; she felt that there was a virtue in her
+pride,--that to leave him was a duty to herself.  In vain he pleaded; in
+vain were his embraces, his prayers; in vain he reminded her of their
+plighted troth, of her aged parents, whose happiness had become wrapped
+in her union with him: "How,--even were it as you wrongly believe,--how,
+in honour to them, can I desert you, can I wed another?"
+
+"Trust that, trust all, to me," answered Lucille; "your honour shall be
+my care, none shall blame /you/; only do not let your marriage with Julie
+be celebrated here before their eyes: that is all I ask, all they can
+expect.  God bless you! do not fancy I shall be unhappy, for whatever
+happiness the world gives you, shall I not have contributed to bestow it?
+and with that thought I am above compassion."
+
+She glided from his arms, and left him to a solitude more bitter even
+than that of blindness.  That very night Lucille sought her mother; to
+her she confided all.  I pass over the reasons she urged, the arguments
+she overcame; she conquered rather than convinced, and leaving to Madame
+le Tisseur the painful task of breaking to her father her unalterable
+resolution, she quitted Malines the next morning, and with a heart too
+honest to be utterly without comfort, paid that visit to her aunt which
+had been so long deferred.
+
+The pride of Lucille's parents prevented them from reproaching St. Amand.
+He could not bear, however, their cold and altered looks; he left their
+house; and though for several days he would not even see Julie, yet her
+beauty and her art gradually resumed their empire over him.  They were
+married at Courtroi, and to the joy of the vain Julie departed to the gay
+metropolis of France.  But, before their departure, before his marriage,
+St. Amand endeavoured to appease his conscience by obtaining for M. le
+Tisseur a much more lucrative and honourable office than that he now
+held.  Rightly judging that Malines could no longer be a pleasant
+residence for them, and much less for Lucille, the duties of the post
+were to be fulfilled in another town; and knowing that M. le Tisseur's
+delicacy would revolt at receiving such a favour from his hands, he kept
+the nature of his negotiation a close secret, and suffered the honest
+citizen to believe that his own merits alone had entitled him to so
+unexpected a promotion.
+
+
+
+Time went on.  This quiet and simple history of humble affections took
+its date in a stormy epoch of the world,--the dawning Revolution of
+France.  The family of Lucille had been little more than a year settled
+in their new residence when Dumouriez led his army into the Netherlands.
+But how meanwhile had that year passed for Lucille?  I have said that her
+spirit was naturally high; that though so tender, she was not weak.  Her
+very pilgrimage to Cologne alone, and at the timid age of seventeen,
+proved that there was a strength in her nature no less than a devotion in
+her love.  The sacrifice she had made brought its own reward.  She
+believed St. Amand was happy, and she would not give way to the
+selfishness of grief; she had still duties to perform; she could still
+comfort her parents and cheer their age; she could still be all the world
+to them: she felt this, and was consoled.  Only once during the year had
+she heard of Julie; she had been seen by a mutual friend at Paris, gay,
+brilliant, courted, and admired; of St. Amand she heard nothing.
+
+My tale, dear Gertrude, does not lead me through the harsh scenes of war.
+I do not tell you of the slaughter and the siege, and the blood that
+inundated those fair lands,--the great battlefield of Europe.  The people
+of the Netherlands in general were with the cause of Dumouriez, but the
+town in which Le Tisseur dwelt offered some faint resistance to his arms.
+Le Tisseur himself, despite his age, girded on his sword; the town was
+carried, and the fierce and licentious troops of the conqueror poured,
+flushed with their easy victory, through its streets.  Le Tisseur's house
+was filled with drunken and rude troopers; Lucille herself trembled in
+the fierce gripe of one of those dissolute soldiers, more bandit than
+soldier, whom the subtle Dumouriez had united to his army, and by whose
+blood he so often saved that of his nobler band.  Her shrieks, her cries,
+were vain, when suddenly the troopers gave way.  "The Captain! brave
+Captain!" was shouted forth; the insolent soldier, felled by a powerful
+arm, sank senseless at the feet of Lucille, and a glorious form, towering
+above its fellows,--even through its glittering garb, even in that
+dreadful hour, remembered at a glance by Lucille,--stood at her side; her
+protector, her guardian!  Thus once more she beheld St. Amand!
+
+The house was cleared in an instant, the door barred.  Shouts, groans,
+wild snatches of exulting song, the clang of arms, the tramp of horses,
+the hurrying footsteps, the deep music sounded loud, and blended terribly
+without.  Lucille heard them not,--she was on that breast which never
+should have deserted her.
+
+Effectually to protect his friends, St. Amand took up his quarters at
+their house; and for two days he was once more under the same roof as
+Lucille.  He never recurred voluntarily to Julie; he answered Lucille's
+timid inquiry after her health briefly, and with coldness, but he spoke
+with all the enthusiasm of a long-pent and ardent spirit of the new
+profession he had embraced.  Glory seemed now to be his only mistress;
+and the vivid delusion of the first bright dreams of the Revolution
+filled his mind, broke from his tongue, and lighted up those dark eyes
+which Lucille had redeemed to day.
+
+She saw him depart at the head of his troops; she saw his proud crest
+glancing in the sun; she saw his steed winding through the narrow street;
+she saw that his last glance reverted to her, where she stood at the
+door; and, as he waved his adieu, she fancied that there was on his face
+that look of deep and grateful tenderness which reminded her of the one
+bright epoch of her life.
+
+She was right; St. Amand had long since in bitterness repented of a
+transient infatuation, had long since distinguished the true Florimel
+from the false, and felt that, in Julie, Lucille's wrongs were avenged.
+But in the hurry and heat of war he plunged that regret--the keenest of
+all--which embodies the bitter words, "TOO LATE!"
+
+Years passed away, and in the resumed tranquillity of Lucille's life the
+brilliant apparition of St. Amand appeared as something dreamed of, not
+seen.  The star of Napoleon had risen above the horizon; the romance of
+his early career had commenced; and the campaign of Egypt had been the
+herald of those brilliant and meteoric successes which flashed forth from
+the gloom of the Revolution of France.
+
+You are aware, dear Gertrude, how many in the French as well as the
+English troops returned home from Egypt blinded with the ophthalmia of
+that arid soil.  Some of the young men in Lucille's town, who had joined
+Napoleon's army, came back darkened by that fearful affliction, and
+Lucille's alms and Lucille's aid and Lucille's sweet voice were ever at
+hand for those poor sufferers, whose common misfortune touched so
+thrilling a chord of her heart.
+
+Her father was now dead, and she had only her mother to cheer amidst the
+ills of age.  As one evening they sat at work together, Madame le Tisseur
+said, after a pause,--
+
+"I wish, dear Lucille, thou couldst be persuaded to marry Justin; he
+loves thee well, and now that thou art yet young, and hast many years
+before thee, thou shouldst remember that when I die thou wilt be alone."
+
+"Ah, cease, dearest mother, I never can marry now; and as for love--once
+taught in the bitter school in which I have learned the knowledge of
+myself--I cannot be deceived again."
+
+"My Lucille, you do not know yourself.  Never was woman loved if Justin
+does not love you; and never did lover feel with more real warmth how
+worthily he loved."
+
+And this was true; and not of Justin alone, for Lucille's modest virtues,
+her kindly temper, and a certain undulating and feminine grace, which
+accompanied all her movements, had secured her as many conquests as if
+she had been beautiful.  She had rejected all offers of marriage with a
+shudder; without even the throb of a flattered vanity.  One memory,
+sadder, was also dearer to her than all things; and something sacred in
+its recollections made her deem it even a crime to think of effacing the
+past by a new affection.
+
+"I believe," continued Madame le Tisseur, angrily, "that thou still
+thinkest fondly of him from whom only in the world thou couldst have
+experienced ingratitude."
+
+"Nay, Mother," said Lucille, with a blush and a slight sigh, "Eugene is
+married to another."
+
+While thus conversing, they heard a gentle and timid knock at the door;
+the latch was lifted.  "This," said the rough voice of a /commissionaire/
+of the town, "this, monsieur, is the house of Madame le Tisseur, and
+/voila mademoiselle/!"  A tall figure, with a shade over his eyes, and
+wrapped in a long military cloak, stood in the room.  A thrill shot
+across Lucille's heart.  He stretched out his arms.  "Lucille," said that
+melancholy voice, which had made the music of her first youth, "where art
+thou, Lucille?  Alas! she does not recognize St. Amand."
+
+Thus was it indeed.  By a singular fatality, the burning suns and the
+sharp dust of the plains of Egypt had smitten the young soldier, in the
+flush of his career, with a second--and this time with an
+irremediable--blindness!  He had returned to France to find his hearth
+lonely.  Julie was no more,--a sudden fever had cut her off in the midst
+of youth; and he had sought his way to Lucille's house, to see if one
+hope yet remained to him in the world!
+
+And when, days afterwards, humbly and sadly he re-urged a former suit,
+did Lucille shut her heart to its prayer?  Did her pride remember its
+wound; did she revert to his desertion; did she reply to the whisper of
+her yearning love, "/Thou hast been before forsaken/"?  That voice and
+those darkened eyes pleaded to her with a pathos not to be resisted.  "I
+am once more necessary to him," was all her thought; "if I reject him who
+will tend him?"  In that thought was the motive of her conduct; in that
+thought gushed back upon her soul all the springs of checked but
+unconquered, unconquerable love!  In that thought, she stood beside him
+at the altar, and pledged, with a yet holier devotion than she might have
+felt of yore, the vow of her imperishable truth.
+
+And Lucille found, in the future, a reward, which the common world could
+never comprehend.  With his blindness returned all the feelings she had
+first awakened in St. Amand's solitary heart; again he yearned for her
+step, again he missed even a moment's absence from his side, again her
+voice chased the shadow from his brow, and in her presence was a sense of
+shelter and of sunshine.  He no longer sighed for the blessing he had
+lost; he reconciled himself to fate, and entered into that serenity of
+mood which mostly characterizes the blind.
+
+Perhaps after we have seen the actual world, and experienced its hollow
+pleasures, we can resign ourselves the better to its exclusion; and as
+the cloister, which repels the ardour of our hope, is sweet to our
+remembrance, so the darkness loses its terror when experience has wearied
+us with the glare and travail of the day.  It was something, too, as they
+advanced in life, to feel the chains that bound him to Lucille
+strengthening daily, and to cherish in his overflowing heart the
+sweetness of increasing gratitude; it was something that he could not see
+years wrinkle that open brow, or dim the tenderness of that touching
+smile; it was something that to him she was beyond the reach of time, and
+preserved to the verge of a grave (which received them both within a few
+days of each other) in all the bloom of her unwithering affection, in all
+the freshness of a heart that never could grow old!
+
+
+
+Gertrude, who had broken in upon Trevylyan's story by a thousand anxious
+interruptions, and a thousand pretty apologies for interrupting, was
+charmed with a tale in which true love was made happy at last, although
+she did not forgive St. Amand his ingratitude, and although she declared,
+with a critical shake of the head, that "it was very unnatural that the
+mere beauty of Julie, or the mere want of it in Lucille, should have
+produced such an effect upon him, if he had ever /really/ loved Lucille
+in his blindness."
+
+As they passed through Malines, the town assumed an interest in
+Gertrude's eyes to which it scarcely of itself was entitled.  She looked
+wistfully at the broad market-place, at a corner of which was one of
+those out-of-door groups of quiet and noiseless revellers, which Dutch
+art has raised from the Familiar to the Picturesque; and then glancing to
+the tower of St. Rembauld, she fancied, amidst the silence of noon, that
+she yet heard the plaintive cry of the blind orphan, "Fido, Fido, why
+hast thou deserted me?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+ROTTERDAM.--THE CHARACTER OF THE DUTCH.--THEIR RESEMBLANCE TO THE
+GERMANS.--A DISPUTE BETWEEN VANE AND TREVYLYAN, AFTER THE MANNER OF THE
+ANCIENT NOVELISTS, AS TO WHICH IS PREFERABLE, THE LIFE OF ACTION OR THE
+LIFE OF REPOSE.--TREVYLYAN'S CONTRAST BETWEEN LITERARY AMBITION AND THE
+AMBITION OF PUBLIC LIFE.
+
+OUR travellers arrived at Rotterdam on a bright and sunny day.  There is
+a cheerfulness about the operations of Commerce,--a life, a bustle, an
+action which always exhilarate the spirits at the first glance.
+Afterwards they fatigue us; we get too soon behind the scenes, and find
+the base and troublous passions which move the puppets and conduct the
+drama.
+
+But Gertrude, in whom ill health had not destroyed the vividness of
+impression that belongs to the inexperienced, was delighted at the
+cheeriness of all around her.  As she leaned lightly on Trevylyan's arm,
+he listened with a forgetful joy to her questions and exclamations at the
+stir and liveliness of a city from which was to commence their pilgrimage
+along the Rhine.  And indeed the scene was rife with the spirit of that
+people at once so active and so patient, so daring on the sea, so
+cautious on the land.  Industry was visible everywhere; the vessels in
+the harbour, the crowded boat putting off to land, the throng on the
+quay,--all looked bustling and spoke of commerce.  The city itself, on
+which the skies shone fairly through light and fleecy clouds, wore a
+cheerful aspect.  The church of St. Lawrence rising above the clean, neat
+houses, and on one side trees thickly grouped, gayly contrasted at once
+the waters and the city.
+
+"I like this place," said Gertrude's father, quietly; "it has an air of
+comfort."
+
+"And an absence of grandeur," said Trevylyan.
+
+"A commercial people are one great middle-class in their habits and train
+of mind," replied Vane; "and grandeur belongs to the extremes,--an
+impoverished population and a wealthy despot."
+
+They went to see the statue of Erasmus, and the house in which he was
+born.  Vane had a certain admiration for Erasmus which his companions did
+not share; he liked the quiet irony of the sage, and his knowledge of the
+world; and, besides, Vane was at that time of life when philosophers
+become objects of interest.  At first they are teachers; secondly,
+friends; and it is only a few who arrive at the third stage, and find
+them deceivers.  The Dutch are a singular people.  Their literature is
+neglected, but it has some of the German vein in its strata,--the
+patience, the learning, the homely delineation, and even some traces of
+the mixture of the humorous and the terrible which form that genius for
+the grotesque so especially German--you find this in their legends and
+ghost-stories.  But in Holland activity destroys, in Germany indolence
+nourishes, romance.
+
+They stayed a day or two at Rotterdam, and then proceeded up the Rhine to
+Gorcum.  The banks were flat and tame, and nothing could be less
+impressive of its native majesty than this part of the course of the
+great river.
+
+"I never felt before," whispered Gertrude, tenderly, "how much there was
+of consolation in your presence; for here I am at last on the Rhine,--the
+blue Rhine, and how disappointed I should be if you were not by my side!"
+
+"But, my Gertrude, you must wait till we have passed Cologne, before the
+/glories/ of the Rhine burst upon you."
+
+"It reverses life, my child," said the moralizing Vane; "and the stream
+flows through dulness at first, reserving its poetry for our
+perseverance."
+
+"I will not allow your doctrine," said Trevylyan, as the ambitious ardour
+of his native disposition stirred within him.  "Life has always action;
+it is our own fault if it ever be dull: youth has its enterprise, manhood
+its schemes; and even if infirmity creep upon age, the mind, the mind
+still triumphs over the mortal clay, and in the quiet hermitage, among
+books, and from thoughts, keeps the great wheel within everlastingly in
+motion.  No, the better class of spirits have always an antidote to the
+insipidity of a common career, they have ever energy at will--"
+
+"And never happiness!" answered Vane, after a pause, as he gazed on the
+proud countenance of Trevylyan, with that kind of calm, half-pitying
+interest which belonged to a character deeply imbued with the philosophy
+of a sad experience acting upon an unimpassioned heart.  "And in truth,
+Trevylyan, it would please me if I could but teach you the folly of
+preferring the exercise of that energy of which you speak to the golden
+luxuries of REST.  What ambition can ever bring an adequate reward?  Not,
+surely, the ambition of letters, the desire of intellectual renown!"
+
+"True," said Trevylyan, quietly; "that dream I have long renounced; there
+is nothing palpable in literary fame,--it scarcely perhaps soothes the
+vain, it assuredly chafes the proud.  In my earlier years I attempted
+some works which gained what the world, perhaps rightly, deemed a
+sufficient need of reputation; yet it was not sufficient to recompense
+myself for the fresh hours I had consumed, for the sacrifices of pleasure
+I had made.  The subtle aims that had inspired me were not perceived; the
+thoughts that had seemed new and beautiful to me fell flat and lustreless
+on the soul of others.  If I was approved, it was often for what I
+condemned myself; and I found that the trite commonplace and the false
+wit charmed, while the truth fatigued, and the enthusiasm revolted.  For
+men of that genius to which I make no pretension, who have dwelt apart in
+the obscurity of their own thoughts, gazing upon stars that shine not for
+the dull sleepers of the world, it must be a keen sting to find the
+product of their labour confounded with a class, and to be mingled up in
+men's judgment with the faults or merits of a tribe.  Every great genius
+must deem himself original and alone in his conceptions.  It is not
+enough for him that these conceptions should be approved as good, unless
+they are admitted as inventive, if they mix him with the herd he has
+shunned, not separate him in fame as he has been separated in soul.  Some
+Frenchman, the oracle of his circle, said of the poet of the 'Phedre,'
+'Racine and the other imitators of Corneille;' and Racine, in his wrath,
+nearly forswore tragedy forever.  It is in vain to tell the author that
+the public is the judge of his works.  The author believes himself above
+the public, or he would never have written; and," continued Trevylyan,
+with enthusiasm, "he /is/ above them; their fiat may crush his glory, but
+never his self-esteem.  He stands alone and haughty amidst the wrecks of
+the temple he imagined he had raised 'To THE FUTURE,' and retaliates
+neglect with scorn.  But is this, the life of scorn, a pleasurable state
+of existence?  Is it one to be cherished?  Does even the moment of fame
+counterbalance the years of mortification?  And what is there in literary
+fame itself present and palpable to its heir?  His work is a pebble
+thrown into the deep; the stir lasts for a moment, and the wave closes
+up, to be susceptible no more to the same impression.  The circle may
+widen to other lands and other ages, but around /him/ it is weak and
+faint.  The trifles of the day, the low politics, the base intrigues,
+occupy the tongue, and fill the thought of his contemporaries.  He is
+less known than a mountebank, or a new dancer; his glory comes not home
+to him; it brings no present, no perpetual reward, like the applauses
+that wait the actor, or the actor-like murmur of the senate; and this,
+which vexes, also lowers him; his noble nature begins to nourish the base
+vices of jealousy, and the unwillingness to admire.  Goldsmith is
+forgotten in the presence of a puppet; he feels it, and is mean; he
+expresses it, and is ludicrous.  It is well to say that great minds will
+not stoop to jealousy; in the greatest minds, it is most frequent.*  Few
+authors are ever so aware of the admiration they excite as to afford to
+be generous; and this melancholy truth revolts us with our own ambition.
+Shall we be demigods in our closets at the price of sinking below
+mortality in the world?  No! it was from this deep sentiment of the
+unrealness of literary fame, of dissatisfaction at the fruits it
+produced, of fear for the meanness it engendered, that I resigned betimes
+all love for its career; and if, by the restless desire that haunts men
+who think much to write ever, I should be urged hereafter to literature,
+I will sternly teach myself to persevere in the indifference to its
+fame."
+
+  * See the long list of names furnished by Disraeli, in that most
+    exquisite work, "The Literary Character," vol. ii. p. 75.  Plato,
+    Xenophon, Chaucer, Corneille, Voltaire, Dryden, the Caracci,
+    Domenico Venetiano, murdered by his envious friend, and the gentle
+    Castillo fainting away at the genius of Murillo.
+
+"You say as I would say," answered Vane, with his tranquil smile; "and
+your experience corroborates my theory.  Ambition, then, is not the root
+of happiness.  Why more in action than in letters?"
+
+"Because," said Trevylyan, "in action we commonly gain in our life all
+the honour we deserve: the public judge of men better and more rapidly
+than of books.  And he who takes to himself in action a high and pure
+ambition, associates it with so many objects, that, unlike literature,
+the failure of one is balanced by the success of the other.  He, the
+creator of deeds, not resembling the creator of books, stands not alone;
+he is eminently social; he has many comrades, and without their aid he
+could not accomplish his designs.  This divides and mitigates the
+impatient jealousy against others.  He works for a cause, and knows early
+that he cannot monopolize its whole glory; he shares what he is aware it
+is impossible to engross.  Besides, action leaves him no time for
+brooding over disappointment.  The author has consumed his youth in a
+work,--it fails in glory.  Can he write another work?  Bid him call back
+another youth!  But in action, the labour of the mind is from day to day.
+A week replaces what a week has lost, and all the aspirant's fame is of
+the present.  It is lipped by the Babel of the living world; he is ever
+on the stage, and the spectators are ever ready to applaud.  Thus
+perpetually in the service of others self ceases to be his world; he has
+no leisure to brood over real or imaginary wrongs; the excitement whirls
+on the machine till it is worn out--"
+
+"And kicked aside," said Vane, "with the broken lumber of men's other
+tools, in the chamber of their son's forgetfulness.  Your man of action
+lasts but for an hour; the man of letters lasts for ages."
+
+"We live not for ages," answered Trevylyan; "our life is on earth, and
+not in the grave."
+
+"But even grant," continued Vane--"and I for one will concede the
+point--that posthumous fame is not worth the living agonies that obtain
+it, how are you better off in your poor and vulgar career of action?
+Would you assist the rulers?--servility!  The people?--folly!  If you
+take the great philosophical view which the worshippers of the past
+rarely take, but which, unknown to them, is their sole excuse,--namely,
+that the changes which /may/ benefit the future unsettle the present; and
+that it is not the wisdom of practical legislation to risk the peace of
+our contemporaries in the hope of obtaining happiness for their
+posterity,--to what suspicions, to what charges are you exposed!  You are
+deemed the foe of all liberal opinion, and you read your curses in the
+eyes of a nation.  But take the side of the people.  What caprice, what
+ingratitude!  You have professed so much in theory, that you can never
+accomplish sufficient in practice.  Moderation becomes a crime; to be
+prudent is to be perfidious.  New demagogues, without temperance, because
+without principle, outstrip you in the moment of your greatest services.
+The public is the grave of a great man's deeds; it is never sated; its
+maw is eternally open; it perpetually craves for more.  Where, in the
+history of the world, do you find the gratitude of a people?  You find
+fervour, it is true, but not gratitude,--the fervour that exaggerates a
+benefit at one moment, but not the gratitude that remembers it the next
+year.  Once disappoint them, and all your actions, all your sacrifices,
+are swept from their remembrance forever; they break the windows of the
+very house they have given you, and melt down their medals into bullets.
+Who serves man, ruler or peasant, serves the ungrateful; and all the
+ambitious are but types of a Wolsey or a De Witt."
+
+"And what," said Trevylyan, "consoles a man in the ills that flesh is
+heir to, in that state of obscure repose, that serene inactivity to which
+you would confine him?  Is it not his conscience?  Is it not his
+self-acquittal, or his self-approval?"
+
+"Doubtless," replied Vane.
+
+"Be it so," answered the high-souled Trevylyan; "the same consolation
+awaits us in action as in repose.  We sedulously pursue what we deem to
+be true glory.  We are maligned; but our soul acquits us.  Could it do
+more in the scandal and the prejudice that assail us in private life?
+You are silent; but note how much deeper should be the comfort, how much
+loftier the self-esteem; for if calumny attack us in a wilful obscurity,
+what have we done to refute the calumny?  How have we served our species?
+Have we 'scorned delight and loved laborious days'?  Have we made the
+utmost of the 'talent' confided to our care?  Have we done those good
+deeds to our race upon which we can retire,--an 'Estate of
+Beneficence,'--from the malice of the world, and feel that our deeds are
+our defenders?  This is the consolation of virtuous actions; is it so
+of--even a virtuous--indolence?"
+
+"You speak as a preacher," said Vane,--"I merely as a calculator; you of
+virtue in affliction, I of a life in ease."
+
+"Well, then, if the consciousness of perpetual endeavour to advance our
+race be not alone happier than the life of ease, let us see what this
+vaunted ease really is.  Tell me, is it not another name for /ennui/?
+This state of quiescence, this objectless, dreamless torpor, this
+transition /du lit a la table, de la table au lit/,--what more dreary and
+monotonous existence can you devise?  Is it pleasure in this inglorious
+existence to think that you are serving pleasure?  Is it freedom to be
+the slave to self?  For I hold," continued Trevylyan, "that this jargon
+of 'consulting happiness,' this cant of living for ourselves, is but a
+mean as well as a false philosophy.  Why this eternal reference to self?
+Is self alone to be consulted?  Is even our happiness, did it truly
+consist in repose, really the great end of life?  I doubt if we cannot
+ascend higher.  I doubt if we cannot say with a great moralist, 'If
+virtue be not estimable in itself, we can see nothing estimable in
+following it for the sake of a bargain.'  But, in fact, repose is the
+poorest of all delusions; the very act of recurring to self brings about
+us all those ills of self from which, in the turmoil of the world, we can
+escape.  We become hypochondriacs.  Our very health grows an object of
+painful possession.  We are so desirous to be well (for what is
+retirement without health?) that we are ever fancying ourselves ill; and,
+like the man in the 'Spectator,' we weigh ourselves daily, and live but
+by grains and scruples.  Retirement is happy only for the poet, for to
+him it is /not/ retirement.  He secedes from one world but to gain
+another, and he finds not /ennui/ in seclusion: why?  Not because
+seclusion hath /repose/, but because it hath /occupation/.  In one word,
+then, I say of action and of indolence, grant the same ills to both, and
+to action there is the readier escape or the nobler consolation."
+
+Vane shrugged his shoulders.  "Ah, my dear friend," said he, tapping his
+snuff-box with benevolent superiority, "you are much younger than I am!"
+
+But these conversations, which Trevylyan and Vane often held together,
+dull as I fear this specimen must seem to the reader, had an
+inexpressible charm for Gertrude.  She loved the lofty and generous vein
+of philosophy which Trevylyan embraced, and which, while it suited his
+ardent nature, contrasted a demeanour commonly hard and cold to all but
+herself.  And young and tender as she was, his ambition infused its
+spirit into her fine imagination, and that passion for enterprise which
+belongs inseparably to romance.  She loved to muse over his future lot,
+and in fancy to share its toils and to exult in its triumphs.  And if
+sometimes she asked herself whether a career of action might not estrange
+him from her, she had but to turn her gaze upon his watchful eye,--and
+lo, he was by her side or at her feet!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+GORCUM.--THE TOUR OF THE VIRTUES: A PHILOSOPHER'S TALE.
+
+IT was a bright and cheery morning as they glided by Gorcum.  The boats
+pulling to the shore full of fishermen and peasants in their national
+costume; the breeze freshly rippling the waters; the lightness of the
+blue sky; the loud and laughing voices from the boats,--all contributed
+to raise the spirit, and fill it with that indescribable gladness which
+is the physical sense of life.
+
+The tower of the church, with its long windows and its round dial, rose
+against the clear sky; and on a bench under a green bush facing the water
+sat a jolly Hollander, refreshing the breezes with the fumes of his
+national weed.
+
+
+
+"How little it requires to make a journey pleasant, when the companions
+are our friends!" said Gertrude, as they sailed along.  "Nothing can be
+duller than these banks, nothing more delightful than this voyage."
+
+"Yet what tries the affections of people for each other so severely as a
+journey together?" said Vane.  "That perpetual companionship from which
+there is no escaping; that confinement, in all our moments of ill-humour
+and listlessness, with persons who want us to look amused--ah, it is a
+severe ordeal for friendship to pass through!  A post-chaise must have
+jolted many an intimacy to death."
+
+"You speak feelingly, dear father," said Gertrude, laughing; "and, I
+suspect, with a slight desire to be sarcastic upon us.  Yet, seriously, I
+should think that travel must be like life, and that good persons must be
+always agreeable companions to each other."
+
+"Good persons, my Gertrude!" answered Vane, with a smile.  "Alas! I fear
+the good weary each other quite as much as the bad.  What say you,
+Trevylyan,--would Virtue be a pleasant companion from Paris to
+Petersburg?  Ah, I see you intend to be on Gertrude's side of the
+question.  Well now, if I tell you a story, since stories are so much the
+fashion with you, in which you shall find that the Virtues themselves
+actually made the experiment of a tour, will you promise to attend to the
+moral?"
+
+"Oh, dear father, anything for a story," cried Gertrude; "especially from
+you, who have not told us one all the way.  Come, listen, Albert; nay,
+listen to your new rival."
+
+And, pleased to see the vivacity of the invalid, Vane began as follows:--
+
+
+
+                      THE TOUR OF THE VIRTUES:
+
+                       A PHILOSOPHER'S TALE.
+
+ONCE upon a time, several of the Virtues, weary of living forever with
+the Bishop of Norwich, resolved to make a little excursion; accordingly,
+though they knew everything on earth was very ill prepared to receive
+them, they thought they might safely venture on a tour from Westminster
+Bridge to Richmond.  The day was fine, the wind in their favour, and as
+to entertainment,--why, there seemed, according to Gertrude, to be no
+possibility of any disagreement among the Virtues.
+
+They took a boat at Westminster stairs; and just as they were about to
+push off, a poor woman, all in rags, with a child in her arms, implored
+their compassion.  Charity put her hand into her reticule and took out a
+shilling.  Justice, turning round to look after the luggage, saw the
+folly which Charity was about to commit.  "Heavens!" cried Justice,
+seizing poor Charity by the arm, "what are you doing?  Have you never
+read Political Economy?  Don't you know that indiscriminate almsgiving is
+only the encouragement to Idleness, the mother of Vice?  You a Virtue,
+indeed!  I'm ashamed of you.  Get along with you, good woman;--yet stay,
+there is a ticket for soup at the Mendicity Society; they'll see if
+you're a proper object of compassion."  But Charity is quicker than
+Justice, and slipping her hand behind her, the poor woman got the
+shilling and the ticket for soup too.  Economy and Generosity saw the
+double gift.  "What waste!" cried Economy, frowning; "what! a ticket and
+a shilling? /either/ would have sufficed."
+
+"Either!" said Generosity, "fie!  Charity should have given the poor
+creature half-a-crown, and Justice a dozen tickets!"  So the next ten
+minutes were consumed in a quarrel between the four Virtues, which would
+have lasted all the way to Richmond, if Courage had not advised them to
+get on shore and fight it out.  Upon this, the Virtues suddenly perceived
+they had a little forgotten themselves, and Generosity offering the first
+apology, they made it up, and went on very agreeably for the next mile or
+two.
+
+The day now grew a little overcast, and a shower seemed at hand.
+Prudence, who had on a new bonnet, suggested the propriety of putting to
+shore for half an hour; Courage was for braving the rain; but, as most of
+the Virtues are ladies, Prudence carried it.  Just as they were about to
+land, another boat cut in before them very uncivilly, and gave theirs
+such a shake that Charity was all but overboard.  The company on board
+the uncivil boat, who evidently thought the Virtues extremely low
+persons, for they had nothing very fashionable about their exterior,
+burst out laughing at Charity's discomposure, especially as a large
+basket full of buns, which Charity carried with her for any
+hungry-looking children she might encounter at Richmond, fell pounce into
+the water.  Courage was all on fire; he twisted his mustache, and would
+have made an onset on the enemy, if, to his great indignation, Meekness
+had not forestalled him, by stepping mildly into the hostile boat and
+offering both cheeks to the foe.  This was too much even for the
+incivility of the boatmen; they made their excuses to the Virtues, and
+Courage, who is no bully, thought himself bound discontentedly to accept
+them.  But oh! if you had seen how Courage used Meekness afterwards, you
+could not have believed it possible that one Virtue could be so enraged
+with another.  This quarrel between the two threw a damp on the party;
+and they proceeded on their voyage, when the shower was over, with
+anything but cordiality.  I spare you the little squabbles that took
+place in the general conversation,--how Economy found fault with all the
+villas by the way, and Temperance expressed becoming indignation at the
+luxuries of the City barge.  They arrived at Richmond, and Temperance was
+appointed to order the dinner; meanwhile Hospitality, walking in the
+garden, fell in with a large party of Irishmen, and asked them to join
+the repast.
+
+Imagine the long faces of Economy and Prudence, when they saw the
+addition to the company!  Hospitality was all spirits; he rubbed his
+hands and called for champagne with the tone of a younger brother.
+Temperance soon grew scandalized, and Modesty herself coloured at some of
+the jokes; but Hospitality, who was now half seas over, called the one a
+milksop, and swore at the other as a prude.  Away went the hours; it was
+time to return, and they made down to the water-side, thoroughly out of
+temper with one another, Economy and Generosity quarrelling all the way
+about the bill and the waiters.  To make up the sum of their
+mortification, they passed a boat where all the company were in the best
+possible spirits, laughing and whooping like mad; and discovered these
+jolly companions to be two or three agreeable Vices, who had put
+themselves under the management of Good Temper.
+
+"So you see, Gertrude, that even the Virtues may fall at loggerheads with
+each other, and pass a very sad time of it, if they happen to be of
+opposite dispositions, and have forgotten to take Good Temper with them."
+
+"Ah," said Gertrude, "but you have overloaded your boat; too many Virtues
+might contradict one another, but not a few."
+
+"Voila ce que veux dire," said Vane; "but listen to the sequel of my
+tale, which now takes a new moral."
+
+At the end of the voyage, and after a long, sulky silence, Prudence said,
+with a thoughtful air, "My dear friends, I have been thinking that as
+long as we keep so entirely together, never mixing with the rest of the
+world, we shall waste our lives in quarrelling amongst ourselves and run
+the risk of being still less liked and sought after than we already are.
+You know that we are none of us popular; every one is quite contented to
+see us represented in a vaudeville, or described in an essay.  Charity,
+indeed, has her name often taken in vain at a bazaar or a subscription;
+and the miser as often talks of the duty he owes to /me/, when he sends
+the stranger from his door or his grandson to jail: but still we only
+resemble so many wild beasts, whom everybody likes to see but nobody
+cares to possess.  Now, I propose that we should all separate and take up
+our abode with some mortal or other for a year, with the power of
+changing at the end of that time should we not feel ourselves
+comfortable,--that is, should we not find that we do all the good we
+intend; let us try the experiment, and on this day twelvemonths let us
+all meet under the largest oak in Windsor Forest, and recount what has
+befallen us."  Prudence ceased, as she always does when she has said
+enough; and, delighted at the project, the Virtues agreed to adopt it on
+the spot.  They were enchanted at the idea of setting up for themselves,
+and each not doubting his or her success,--for Economy in her heart
+thought Generosity no Virtue at all, and Meekness looked on Courage as
+little better than a heathen.
+
+Generosity, being the most eager and active of all the Virtues, set off
+first on his journey.  Justice followed, and kept up with him, though at
+a more even pace.  Charity never heard a sigh, or saw a squalid face, but
+she stayed to cheer and console the sufferer,--a kindness which somewhat
+retarded her progress.
+
+Courage espied a travelling carriage, with a man and his wife in it
+quarrelling most conjugally, and he civilly begged he might be permitted
+to occupy the vacant seat opposite the lady.  Economy still lingered,
+inquiring for the cheapest inns.  Poor Modesty looked round and sighed,
+on finding herself so near to London, where she was almost wholly
+unknown; but resolved to bend her course thither for two reasons: first,
+for the novelty of the thing; and, secondly, not liking to expose herself
+to any risks by a journey on the Continent.  Prudence, though the first
+to project, was the last to execute; and therefore resolved to remain
+where she was for that night, and take daylight for her travels.
+
+The year rolled on, and the Virtues, punctual to the appointment, met
+under the oak-tree; they all came nearly at the same time, excepting
+Economy, who had got into a return post-chaise, the horses to which,
+having been forty miles in the course of the morning, had foundered by
+the way, and retarded her journey till night set in.  The Virtues looked
+sad and sorrowful, as people are wont to do after a long and fruitless
+journey; and, somehow or other, such was the wearing effect of their
+intercourse with the world, that they appeared wonderfully diminished in
+size.
+
+"Ah, my dear Generosity," said Prudence, with a sigh, "as you were the
+first to set out on your travels, pray let us hear your adventures
+first."
+
+"You must know, my dear sisters," said Generosity, "that I had not gone
+many miles from you before I came to a small country town, in which a
+marching regiment was quartered, and at an open window I beheld, leaning
+over a gentleman's chair, the most beautiful creature imagination ever
+pictured; her eyes shone out like two suns of perfect happiness, and she
+was almost cheerful enough to have passed for Good Temper herself.  The
+gentleman over whose chair she leaned was her husband; they had been
+married six weeks; he was a lieutenant with one hundred pounds a year
+besides his pay.  Greatly affected by their poverty, I instantly
+determined, without a second thought, to ensconce myself in the heart of
+this charming girl.  During the first hour in my new residence I made
+many wise reflections such as--that Love never was so perfect as when
+accompanied by Poverty; what a vulgar error it was to call the unmarried
+state 'Single /Blessedness/;' how wrong it was of us Virtues never to
+have tried the marriage bond; and what a falsehood it was to say that
+husbands neglected their wives, for never was there anything in nature so
+devoted as the love of a husband--six weeks married!
+
+"The next morning, before breakfast, as the charming Fanny was waiting
+for her husband, who had not yet finished his toilet, a poor,
+wretched-looking object appeared at the window, tearing her hair and
+wringing her hands; her husband had that morning been dragged to prison,
+and her seven children had fought for the last mouldy crust.  Prompted by
+me, Fanny, without inquiring further into the matter, drew from her
+silken purse a five-pound note, and gave it to the beggar, who departed
+more amazed than grateful.  Soon after, the lieutenant appeared.  'What
+the devil, another bill!' muttered he, as he tore the yellow wafer from a
+large, square, folded, bluish piece of paper.  'Oh, ah! confound the
+fellow, /he/ must be paid.  I must trouble you, Fanny, for fifteen pounds
+to pay this saddler's bill.'
+
+"'Fifteen pounds, love?' stammered Fanny, blushing.
+
+"'Yes, dearest, the fifteen pounds I gave you yesterday.'
+
+"'I have only ten pounds,' said Fanny, hesitatingly; 'for such a poor,
+wretched-looking creature was here just now, that I was obliged to give
+her five pounds.'
+
+"'Five pounds? good Heavens!' exclaimed the astonished husband; 'I shall
+have no more money this three weeks.' He frowned, he bit his lips, nay,
+he even wrung his hands, and walked up and down the room; worse still, he
+broke forth with--'Surely, madam, you did not suppose, when you married a
+lieutenant in a marching regiment, that he could afford to indulge in the
+whim of giving five pounds to every mendicant who held out her hand to
+you?  You did not, I say, madam, imagine'--but the bridegroom was
+interrupted by the convulsive sobs of his wife: it was their first
+quarrel, they were but six weeks married; he looked at her for one moment
+sternly, the next he was at her feet.  'Forgive me, dearest
+Fanny,--forgive me, for I cannot forgive myself.  I was too great a
+wretch to say what I did; and do believe, my own Fanny, that while I may
+be too poor to indulge you in it, I do from my heart admire so noble, so
+disinterested, a generosity.'  Not a little proud did I feel to have been
+the cause of this exemplary husband's admiration for his amiable wife,
+and sincerely did I rejoice at having taken up my abode with these /poor/
+people.  But not to tire you, my dear sisters, with the minutiae of
+detail, I shall briefly say that things did not long remain in this
+delightful position; for before many months had elapsed, poor Fanny had
+to bear with her husband's increased and more frequent storms of passion,
+unfollowed by any halcyon and honeymoon suings for forgiveness: for at my
+instigation every shilling went; and when there were no more to go, her
+trinkets and even her clothes followed.  The lieutenant became a complete
+brute, and even allowed his unbridled tongue to call me--me, sisters,
+/me/!--'heartless Extravagance.'  His despicable brother-officers and
+their gossiping wives were no better; for they did nothing but animadvert
+upon my Fanny's ostentation and absurdity, for by such names had they the
+impertinence to call /me/.  Thus grieved to the soul to find myself the
+cause of all poor Fanny's misfortunes, I resolved at the end of the year
+to leave her, being thoroughly convinced that, however amiable and
+praiseworthy I might be in myself, I was totally unfit to be bosom friend
+and adviser to the wife of a lieutenant in a marching regiment, with only
+one hundred pounds a year besides his pay."
+
+The Virtues groaned their sympathy with the unfortunate Fanny; and
+Prudence, turning to Justice, said, "I long to hear what you have been
+doing, for I am certain you cannot have occasioned harm to any one."
+
+Justice shook her head and said: "Alas! I find that there are times and
+places when even I do better not to appear, as a short account of my
+adventures will prove to you.  No sooner had I left you than I instantly
+repaired to India, and took up my abode with a Brahmin.  I was much
+shocked by the dreadful inequalities of condition that reigned in the
+several castes, and I longed to relieve the poor Pariah from his
+ignominious destiny; accordingly I set seriously to work on reform.  I
+insisted upon the iniquity of abandoning men from their birth to an
+irremediable state of contempt, from which no virtue could exalt them.
+The Brahmins looked upon my Brahmin with ineffable horror.  They called
+/me/ the most wicked of vices; they saw no distinction between Justice
+and Atheism.  I uprooted their society--that was sufficient crime.  But
+the worst was, that the Pariahs themselves regarded me with suspicion;
+they thought it unnatural in a Brahmin to care for a Pariah!  And one
+called me 'Madness,' another, 'Ambition,' and a third, 'The Desire to
+innovate.' My poor Brahmin led a miserable life of it; when one day,
+after observing, at my dictation, that he thought a Pariah's life as much
+entitled to respect as a cow's, he was hurried away by the priests and
+secretly broiled on the altar as a fitting reward for his sacrilege.  I
+fled hither in great tribulation, persuaded that in some countries even
+Justice may do harm."
+
+"As for me," said Charity, not waiting to be asked, "I grieve to say that
+I was silly enough to take up my abode with an old lady in Dublin, who
+never knew what discretion was, and always acted from impulse; my
+instigation was irresistible, and the money she gave in her drives
+through the suburbs of Dublin was so lavishly spent that it kept all the
+rascals of the city in idleness and whiskey.  I found, to my great
+horror, that I was a main cause of a terrible epidemic, and that to give
+alms without discretion was to spread poverty without help.  I left the
+city when my year was out, and as ill-luck would have it, just at the
+time when I was most wanted."
+
+"And oh," cried Hospitality, "I went to Ireland also.  I fixed my abode
+with a squireen; I ruined him in a year, and only left him because he had
+no longer a hovel to keep me in."
+
+"As for myself," said Temperance, "I entered the breast of an English
+legislator, and he brought in a bill against ale-houses; the consequence
+was, that the labourers took to gin; and I have been forced to confess
+that Temperance may be too zealous when she dictates too vehemently to
+others."
+
+"Well," said Courage, keeping more in the background than he had ever
+done before, and looking rather ashamed of himself, "that travelling
+carriage I got into belonged to a German general and his wife, who were
+returning to their own country.  Growing very cold as we proceeded, she
+wrapped me up in a polonaise; but the cold increasing, I inadvertently
+crept into her bosom.  Once there I could not get out, and from
+thenceforward the poor general had considerably the worst of it.  She
+became so provoking that I wondered how he could refrain from an
+explosion.  To do him justice, he did at last threaten to get out of the
+carriage; upon which, roused by me, she collared him--and conquered.
+When he got to his own district, things grew worse, for if any
+/aide-de-camp/ offended her she insisted that he might be publicly
+reprimanded; and should the poor general refuse she would with her own
+hands confer a caning upon the delinquent.  The additional force she had
+gained in me was too much odds against the poor general, and he died of a
+broken heart, six months after my /liaison/ with his wife.  She after
+this became so dreaded and detested, that a conspiracy was formed to
+poison her; this daunted even me, so I left her without delay,--/et me
+voici/!"
+
+"Humph," said Meekness, with an air of triumph, "I, at least, have been
+more successful than you.  On seeing much in the papers of the cruelties
+practised by the Turks on the Greeks, I thought my presence would enable
+the poor sufferers to bear their misfortunes calmly.  I went to Greece,
+then, at a moment when a well-planned and practicable scheme of
+emancipating themselves from the Turkish yoke was arousing their youth.
+Without confining myself to one individual, I flitted from breast to
+breast; I meekened the whole nation; my remonstrances against the
+insurrection succeeded, and I had the satisfaction of leaving a whole
+people ready to be killed or strangled with the most Christian
+resignation in the world."
+
+The Virtues, who had been a little cheered by the opening
+self-complacence of Meekness, would not, to her great astonishment, allow
+that she had succeeded a whit more happily than her sisters, and called
+next upon Modesty for her confession.
+
+"You know," said that amiable young lady, "that I went to London in
+search of a situation.  I spent three months of the twelve in going from
+house to house, but I could not get a single person to receive me.  The
+ladies declared that they never saw so old-fashioned a gawkey, and
+civilly recommended me to their abigails; the abigails turned me round
+with a stare, and then pushed me down to the kitchen and the fat
+scullion-maids, who assured me that, 'in the respectable families they
+had the honour to live in, they had never even heard of my name.' One
+young housemaid, just from the country, did indeed receive me with some
+sort of civility; but she very soon lost me in the servants' hall.  I now
+took refuge with the other sex, as the least uncourteous.  I was
+fortunate enough to find a young gentleman of remarkable talents, who
+welcomed me with open arms.  He was full of learning, gentleness, and
+honesty.  I had only one rival,--Ambition.  We both contended for an
+absolute empire over him.  Whatever Ambition suggested, I damped.  Did
+Ambition urge him to begin a book, I persuaded him it was not worth
+publication.  Did he get up, full of knowledge, and instigated by my
+rival, to make a speech (for he was in parliament), I shocked him with
+the sense of his assurance, I made his voice droop and his accents
+falter.  At last, with an indignant sigh, my rival left him; he retired
+into the country, took orders, and renounced a career he had fondly hoped
+would be serviceable to others; but finding I did not suffice for his
+happiness, and piqued at his melancholy, I left him before the end of the
+year, and he has since taken to drinking!"
+
+The eyes of the Virtues were all turned to Prudence.  She was their last
+hope.  "I am just where I set out," said that discreet Virtue; "I have
+done neither good nor harm.  To avoid temptation I went and lived with a
+hermit to whom I soon found that I could be of no use beyond warning him
+not to overboil his peas and lentils, not to leave his door open when a
+storm threatened, and not to fill his pitcher too full at the
+neighbouring spring.  I am thus the only one of you that never did harm;
+but only because I am the only one of you that never had an opportunity
+of doing it!  In a word," continued Prudence, thoughtfully,--"in a word,
+my friends, circumstances are necessary to the Virtues themselves.  Had,
+for instance, Economy changed with Generosity, and gone to the poor
+lieutenant's wife, and had I lodged with the Irish squireen instead of
+Hospitality, what misfortunes would have been saved to both!  Alas! I
+perceive we lose all our efficacy when we are misplaced; and /then/,
+though in reality Virtues, we operate as Vices.  Circumstances must be
+favourable to our exertions, and harmonious with our nature; and we lose
+our very divinity unless Wisdom direct our footsteps to the home we
+should inhabit and the dispositions we should govern."
+
+The story was ended, and the travellers began to dispute about its moral.
+Here let us leave them.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+COLOGNE.--THE TRACES OF THE ROMAN YOKE.--THE CHURCH OF ST.
+MARIA.--TREVYLYAN'S REFLECTIONS ON THE MONASTIC LIFE.--THE TOMB OF THE
+THREE KINGS.--AN EVENING EXCURSION ON THE RHINE.
+
+ROME--magnificent Rome! wherever the pilgrim wends, the traces of thy
+dominion greet his eyes.  Still in the heart of the bold German race is
+graven the print of the eagle's claws; and amidst the haunted regions of
+the Rhine we pause to wonder at the great monuments of the Italian yoke.
+
+At Cologne our travellers rested for some days.  They were in the city to
+which the camp of Marcus Agrippa had given birth; that spot had resounded
+with the armed tread of the legions of Trajan.  In that city, Vitellius,
+Sylvanus, were proclaimed emperors.  By that church did the latter
+receive his death.
+
+As they passed round the door they saw some peasants loitering on the
+sacred ground; and when they noted the delicate cheek of Gertrude they
+uttered their salutations with more than common respect.  Where they then
+were the building swept round in a circular form; and at its base it is
+supposed by tradition to retain something of the ancient Roman masonry.
+Just before them rose the spire of a plain and unadorned church,
+singularly contrasting the pomp of the old with the simplicity of the
+innovating creed.
+
+The church of St. Maria occupies the site of the Roman Capitol, and the
+place retains the Roman name; and still something in the aspect of the
+people betrays the hereditary blood.
+
+Gertrude, whose nature was strongly impressed with /the venerating
+character/, was fond of visiting the old Gothic churches, which, with so
+eloquent a moral, unite the living with the dead.
+
+"Pause for a moment," said Trevylyan, before they entered the church of
+St. Maria.  "What recollections crowd upon us!  On the site of the Roman
+Capitol a Christian church and a convent are erected!  By whom?  The
+mother of Charles Martel,--the Conqueror of the Saracen, the arch-hero of
+Christendom itself!  And to these scenes and calm retreats, to the
+cloisters of the convent once belonging to this church, fled the bruised
+spirit of a royal sufferer,-the victim of Richelieu,--the unfortunate and
+ambitious Mary de Medicis.  Alas! the cell and the convent are but a vain
+emblem of that desire to fly to God which belongs to Distress; the
+solitude soothes, but the monotony recalls, regret.  And for my own part
+in my frequent tours through Catholic countries, I never saw the still
+walls in which monastic vanity hoped to shut out the world, but a
+melancholy came over me!  What hearts at war with themselves! what
+unceasing regrets! what pinings after the past! what long and beautiful
+years devoted to a moral grave, by a momentary rashness, an impulse, a
+disappointment!  But in these churches the lesson is more impressive and
+less sad.  The weary heart has ceased to ache; the burning pulses are
+still; the troubled spirit has flown to the only rest which is not a
+deceit.  Power and love, hope and fear, avarice, ambition,--they are
+quenched at last!  Death is the only monastery, the tomb is the only
+cell."
+
+"Your passion is ever for active life," said Gertrude.  "You allow no
+charm to solitude, and contemplation to you seems torture.  If any great
+sorrow ever come upon you, you will never retire to seclusion as its
+balm.  You will plunge into the world, and lose your individual existence
+in the universal rush of life."
+
+"Ah, talk not of sorrow!" said Trevylyan, wildly.  "Let us enter the
+church."
+
+They went afterwards to the celebrated cathedral, which is considered one
+of the noblest of the architectural triumphs of Germany; but it is yet
+more worthy of notice from the Pilgrim of Romance than the searcher after
+antiquity, for here, behind the grand altar, is the Tomb of the Three
+Kings of Cologne,--the three worshippers whom tradition humbled to our
+Saviour.  Legend is rife with a thousand tales of the relics of this
+tomb.  The Three Kings of Cologne are the tutelary names of that golden
+superstition which has often more votaries than the religion itself from
+which it springs and to Gertrude the simple story of Lucille sufficed to
+make her for the moment credulous of the sanctity of the spot.  Behind
+the tomb three Gothic windows cast their "dim, religious light" over the
+tessellated pavement and along the Ionic pillars.  They found some of the
+more credulous believers in the authenticity of the relics kneeling
+before the tomb, and they arrested their steps, fearful to disturb the
+superstition which is never without something of sanctity when contented
+with prayer and forgetful of persecution.  The bones of the Magi are
+still supposed to consecrate the tomb, and on the higher part of the
+monument the artist has delineated their adoration to the infant Saviour.
+
+That evening came on with a still and tranquil beauty, and as the sun
+hastened to its close they launched their boat for an hour or two's
+excursion upon the Rhine.  Gertrude was in that happy mood when the quiet
+of nature is enjoyed like a bath for the soul, and the presence of him
+she so idolized deepened that stillness into a more delicious and
+subduing calm.  Little did she dream as the boat glided over the water,
+and the towers of Cologne rose in the blue air of evening, how few were
+those hours that divided her from the tomb!  But, in looking back to the
+life of one we have loved, how dear is the thought that the latter days
+were the days of light, that the cloud never chilled the beauty of the
+setting sun, and that if the years of existence were brief, all that
+existence has most tender, most sacred, was crowded into that space!
+Nothing dark, then, or bitter, rests with our remembrance of the lost:
+/we/ are the mourners, but pity is not for the mourned,--our grief is
+purely selfish; when we turn to its object, the hues of happiness are
+round it, and that very love which is the parent of our woe was the
+consolation, the triumph, of the departed!
+
+The majestic Rhine was calm as a lake; the splashing of the oar only
+broke the stillness, and after a long pause in their conversation,
+Gertrude, putting her hand on Trevylyan's arm, reminded him of a promised
+story: for he too had moods of abstraction, from which, in her turn, she
+loved to lure him; and his voice to her had become a sort of want.
+
+"Let it be," said she, "a tale suited to the hour; no fierce
+tradition,--nay, no grotesque fable, but of the tenderer dye of
+superstition.  Let it be of love, of woman's love,--of the love that
+defies the grave: for surely even after death it lives; and heaven would
+scarcely be heaven if memory were banished from its blessings."
+
+"I recollect," said Trevylyan, after a slight pause, "a short German
+legend, the simplicity of which touched me much when I heard it; but,"
+added he, with a slight smile, "so much more faithful appears in the
+legend the love of the woman than that of the man, that /I/ at least
+ought scarcely to recite it."
+
+"Nay," said Gertrude, tenderly, "the fault of the inconstant only
+heightens our gratitude to the faithful."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE SOUL IN PURGATORY; OR LOVE STRONGER THAN DEATH.
+
+THE angels strung their harps in heaven, and their music went up like a
+stream of odours to the pavilions of the Most High; but the harp of
+Seralim was sweeter than that of his fellows, and the Voice of the
+Invisible One (for the angels themselves know not the glories of
+Jehovah--only far in the depths of heaven they see one Unsleeping Eye
+watching forever over Creation) was heard saying,--
+
+"Ask a gift for the love that burns in thy song, and it shall be given
+thee."  And Seralim answered,--
+
+"There is in that place which men call Purgatory, and which is the escape
+from hell, but the painful porch of heaven, many souls that adore Thee,
+and yet are punished justly for their sins; grant me the boon to visit
+them at times, and solace their suffering by the hymns of the harp that
+is consecrated to Thee!"
+
+And the Voice answered,--
+
+"Thy prayer is heard, O gentlest of the angels! and it seems good to Him
+who chastises but from love.  Go!  Thou hast thy will."
+
+Then the angel sang the praises of God; and when the song was done he
+rose from his azure throne at the right hand of Gabriel, and, spreading
+his rainbow wings, he flew to that melancholy orb which, nearest to
+earth, echoes with the shrieks of souls that by torture become pure.
+There the unhappy ones see from afar the bright courts they are hereafter
+to obtain, and the shapes of glorious beings, who, fresh from these
+Fountains of Immortality, walk amidst the gardens of Paradise, and feel
+that their happiness hath no morrow; and this thought consoles amidst
+their torments, and makes the true difference between Purgatory and Hell.
+
+Then the angel folded his wings, and entering the crystal gates, sat down
+upon a blasted rock and struck his divine lyre, and a peace fell over the
+wretched; the demon ceased to torture and the victim to wail.  As sleep
+to the mourners of earth was the song of the angel to the souls of the
+purifying star: one only voice amidst the general stillness seemed not
+lulled by the angel; it was the voice of a woman, and it continued to cry
+out with a sharp cry,--
+
+"Oh, Adenheim, Adenheim! mourn not for the lost!"
+
+The angel struck chord after chord, till his most skilful melodies were
+exhausted; but still the solitary voice, unheeding--unconscious of--the
+sweetest harp of the angel choir, cried out,--
+
+"Oh, Adenheim, Adenheim! mourn not for the lost!"
+
+Then Seralim's interest was aroused, and approaching the spot whence the
+voice came, he saw the spirit of a young and beautiful girl chained to a
+rock, and the demons lying idly by.  And Seralim said to the demons,
+"Doth the song lull ye thus to rest?"
+
+And they answered, "Her care for another is bitterer than all our
+torments; therefore are we idle."
+
+Then the angel approached the spirit, and said in a voice which stilled
+her cry--for in what state do we outlive sympathy?--"Wherefore, O
+daughter of earth, wherefore wailest thou with the same plaintive wail;
+and why doth the harp that soothes the most guilty of thy companions fail
+in its melody with thee?"
+
+"O radiant stranger," answered the poor spirit, "thou speakest to one who
+on earth loved God's creature more than God; therefore is she thus justly
+sentenced.  But I know that my poor Adenheim mourns ceaselessly for me,
+and the thought of his sorrow is more intolerable to me than all that the
+demons can inflict."
+
+"And how knowest thou that he laments thee?" asked the angel.
+
+"Because I know with what agony I should have mourned for /him/," replied
+the spirit, simply.
+
+The divine nature of the angel was touched; for love is the nature of the
+sons of heaven.  "And how," said he, "can I minister to thy sorrow?"
+
+A transport seemed to agitate the spirit, and she lifted up her mistlike
+and impalpable arms, and cried,--
+
+"Give me--oh, give me to return to earth, but for one little hour, that I
+may visit my Adenheim; and that, concealing from him my present
+sufferings, I may comfort him in his own."
+
+"Alas!" said the angel, turning away his eyes,--for angels may not weep
+in the sight of others,--"I could, indeed, grant thee this boon, but thou
+knowest not the penalty.  For the souls in Purgatory may return to Earth,
+but heavy is the sentence that awaits their return.  In a word, for one
+hour on earth thou must add a thousand years to the torture of thy
+confinement here!"
+
+"Is that all?" cried the spirit.  "Willingly then will I brave the doom.
+Ah, surely they love not in heaven, or thou wouldst know, O Celestial
+Visitant; that one hour of consolation to the one we love is worth a
+thousand ages of torture to ourselves!  Let me comfort and convince my
+Adenheim; no matter what becomes of me."
+
+Then the angel looked on high, and he saw in far distant regions, which
+in that orb none else could discern, the rays that parted from the
+all-guarding Eye; and heard the VOICE of the Eternal One bidding him act
+as his pity whispered.  He looked on the spirit, and her shadowy arms
+stretched pleadingly towards him; he uttered the word that loosens the
+bars of the gate of Purgatory; and lo, the spirit had re-entered the
+human world.
+
+It was night in the halls of the lord of Adenheim, and he sat at the head
+of his glittering board.  Loud and long was the laugh, and merry the jest
+that echoed round; and the laugh and the jest of the lord of Adenheim
+were louder and merrier than all.  And by his right side sat a beautiful
+lady; and ever and anon he turned from others to whisper soft vows in her
+ear.
+
+"And oh," said the bright dame of Falkenberg, "thy words what ladye can
+believe?  Didst thou not utter the same oaths, and promise the same love,
+to Ida, the fair daughter of Loden, and now but three little months have
+closed upon her grave?"
+
+"By my halidom," quoth the young lord of Adenheim, "thou dost thy beauty
+marvellous injustice.  Ida!  Nay, thou mockest me; /I/ love the daughter
+of Loden!  Why, how then should I be worthy thee?  A few gay words, a few
+passing smiles,--behold all the love Adenheim ever bore to Ida.  Was it
+my fault if the poor fool misconstrued such common courtesy?  Nay,
+dearest lady, this heart is virgin to thee."
+
+"And what!" said the lady of Falkenberg, as she suffered the arm of
+Adenheim to encircle her slender waist, "didst thou not grieve for her
+loss?"
+
+"Why, verily, yes, for the first week; but in thy bright eyes I found
+ready consolation."
+
+At this moment, the lord of Adenheim thought he heard a deep sigh behind
+him; he turned, but saw nothing, save a slight mist that gradually faded
+away, and vanished in the distance.  Where was the necessity for Ida to
+reveal herself?
+
+  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
+
+"And thou didst not, then, do thine errand to thy lover?" said Seralim,
+as the spirit of the wronged Ida returned to Purgatory.
+
+"Bid the demons recommence their torture," was poor Ida's answer.
+
+"And was it for this that thou added a thousand years to thy doom?"
+
+"Alas!" answered Ida, "after the single hour I have endured on Earth,
+there seems to be but little terrible in a thousand fresh years of
+Purgatory!"*
+
+  * This story is principally borrowed from a foreign soil.  It
+    seemed to the author worthy of being transferred to an English
+    one, although he fears that much of its singular beauty in the
+    original has been lost by the way.
+
+
+
+"What! is the story ended?" asked Gertrude.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Nay, surely the thousand years were not added to poor Ida's doom; and
+Seralim bore her back with him to Heaven?"
+
+"The legend saith no more.  The writer was contented to show us the
+perpetuity of woman's love--"
+
+"And its reward," added Vane.
+
+"It was not /I/ who drew that last conclusion, Albert," whispered
+Gertrude.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE SCENERY OF THE RHINE ANALOGOUS TO THE GERMAN LITERARY GENIUS.--THE
+DRACHENFELS.
+
+ON leaving Cologne, the stream winds round among banks that do not yet
+fulfil the promise of the Rhine; but they increase in interest as you
+leave Surdt and Godorf.  The peculiar character of the river does not,
+however, really appear, until by degrees the Seven Mountains, and  "THE
+CASTLED CRAG OF DRACHENFELS" above them all, break upon the eye.  Around
+Nieder Cassel and Rheidt the vines lie thick and clustering; and, by the
+shore, you see from place to place the islands stretching their green
+length along, and breaking the exulting tide.  Village rises upon
+village, and viewed from the distance as you sail, the pastoral errors
+that enamoured us of the village life crowd thick and fast upon us.  So
+still do these hamlets seem, so sheltered from the passions of the
+world,--as if the passions were not like winds, only felt where they
+breathe, and invisible save by their effects!  Leaping into the broad
+bosom of the Rhine come many a stream and rivulet upon either side.
+Spire upon spire rises and sinks as you sail on.  Mountain and city, the
+solitary island, the castled steep, like the dreams of ambition, suddenly
+appear, proudly swell, and dimly fade away.
+
+"You begin now," said Trevylyan, "to understand the character of the
+German literature.  The Rhine is an emblem of its luxuriance, its
+fertility, its romance.  The best commentary to the German genius is a
+visit to the German scenery.  The mighty gloom of the Hartz, the feudal
+towers that look over vines and deep valleys on the legendary Rhine; the
+gigantic remains of antique power, profusely scattered over plain, mount,
+and forest; the thousand mixed recollections that hallow the ground; the
+stately Roman, the stalwart Goth, the chivalry of the feudal age, and the
+dim brotherhood of the ideal world, have here alike their record and
+their remembrance.  And over such scenes wanders the young German
+student.  Instead of the pomp and luxury of the English traveller, the
+thousand devices to cheat the way, he has but his volume in his hand, his
+knapsack at his back.  From such scenes he draws and hives all that
+various store which after years ripen to invention.  Hence the florid
+mixture of the German muse,--the classic, the romantic, the
+contemplative, the philosophic, and the superstitious; each the result of
+actual meditation over different scenes; each the produce of separate but
+confused recollections.  As the Rhine flows, so flows the national
+genius, by mountain and valley, the wildest solitude, the sudden spires
+of ancient cities, the mouldered castle, the stately monastery, the
+humble cot,--grandeur and homeliness, history and superstition, truth and
+fable, succeeding one another so as to blend into a whole.
+
+"But," added Trevylyan, a moment afterwards, "the Ideal is passing slowly
+away from the German mind; a spirit for the more active and the more
+material literature is springing up amongst them.  The revolution of mind
+gathers on, preceding stormy events; and the memories that led their
+grandsires to contemplate will urge the youth of the next generation to
+dare and to act."*
+
+  * Is not this prediction already fulfilled?--1849.
+
+Thus conversing, they continued their voyage, with a fair wave and
+beneath a lucid sky.
+
+The vessel now glided beside the Seven Mountains and the Drachenfels.
+
+The sun, slowly setting, cast his yellow beams over the smooth waters.
+At the foot of the mountains lay a village deeply sequestered in shade;
+and above, the Ruin of the Drachenfels caught the richest beams of the
+sun.  Yet thus alone, though lofty, the ray cheered not the gloom that
+hung over the giant rock: it stood on high, like some great name on which
+the light of glory may shine, but which is associated with a certain
+melancholy, from the solitude to which its very height above the level of
+the herd condemned its owner!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE LEGEND OF ROLAND.--THE ADVENTURES OF NYMPHALIN ON THE ISLAND OF
+NONNEWERTH.--HER SONG.--THE DECAY OF THE FAIRY-FAITH IN ENGLAND.
+
+ON the shore opposite the Drachenfels stand the Ruins of
+Rolandseck,--they are the shattered crown of a lofty and perpendicular
+mountain, consecrated to the memory of the brave Roland; below, the trees
+of an island to which the lady of Roland retired, rise thick and verdant
+from the smooth tide.
+
+Nothing can exceed the eloquent and wild grandeur of the whole scene.
+That spot is the pride and beauty of the Rhine.
+
+The legend that consecrates the tower and the island is briefly told; it
+belongs to a class so common to the Romaunts of Germany.  Roland goes to
+the wars.  A false report of his death reaches his betrothed.  She
+retires to the convent in the isle of Nonnewerth, and takes the
+irrevocable veil.  Roland returns home, flushed with glory and hope, to
+find that the very fidelity of his affianced had placed an eternal
+barrier between them.  He built the castle that bears his name, and which
+overlooks the monastery, and dwelt there till his death,--happy in the
+power at least to gaze, even to the last, upon those walls which held the
+treasure he had lost.
+
+The willows droop in mournful luxuriance along the island, and harmonize
+with the memory that, through the desert of a thousand years, love still
+keeps green and fresh.  Nor hath it permitted even those additions of
+fiction which, like mosses, gather by time over the truth that they
+adorn, yet adorning conceal, to mar the simple tenderness of the legend.
+
+All was still in the island of Nonnewerth; the lights shone through the
+trees from the house that contained our travellers.  On one smooth spot
+where the islet shelves into the Rhine met the wandering fairies.
+
+"Oh, Pipalee! how beautiful!" cried Nymphalin, as she stood enraptured by
+the wave, a star-beam shining on her, with her yellow hair "dancing its
+ringlets in the whistling wind."  "For the first time since our departure
+I do not miss the green fields of England."
+
+"Hist!" said Pipalee, under her breath; "I hear fairy steps,--they must
+be the steps of strangers."
+
+"Let us retreat into this thicket of weeds," said Nymphalin, somewhat
+alarmed; "the good lord treasurer is already asleep there."  They whisked
+into what to them was a forest, for the reeds were two feet high, and
+there sure enough they found the lord treasurer stretched beneath a
+bulrush, with his pipe beside him, for since he had been in Germany he
+had taken to smoking; and indeed wild thyme, properly dried, makes very
+good tobacco for a fairy.  They also found Nip and Trip sitting very
+close together, Nip playing with her hair, which was exceedingly
+beautiful.
+
+"What do you do here?" said Pipalee, shortly; for she was rather an old
+maid, and did not like fairies to be too close to each other.
+
+"Watching my lord's slumber," said Nip.
+
+"Pshaw!" said Pipalee.
+
+"Nay," quoth Trip, blushing like a sea-shell; "there is no harm in
+/that/, I'm sure."
+
+"Hush!" said the queen, peeping through the reeds.
+
+And now forth from the green bosom of the earth came a tiny train;
+slowly, two by two, hand in hand, they swept from a small aperture,
+shadowed with fragrant herbs, and formed themselves into a ring: then
+came other fairies, laden with dainties, and presently two beautiful
+white mushrooms sprang up, on which the viands were placed, and lo, there
+was a banquet!  Oh, how merry they were! what gentle peals of laughter,
+loud as a virgin's sigh! what jests! what songs!  Happy race! if mortals
+could see you as often as I do, in the soft nights of summer, they would
+never be at a loss for entertainment.  But as our English fairies looked
+on, they saw that these foreign elves were of a different race from
+themselves: they were taller and less handsome, their hair was darker,
+they wore mustaches, and had something of a fiercer air.  Poor Nymphalin
+was a little frightened; but presently soft music was heard floating
+along, something like the sound we suddenly hear of a still night when a
+light breeze steals through rushes, or wakes a ripple in some shallow
+brook dancing over pebbles.  And lo, from the aperture of the earth came
+forth a fay, superbly dressed, and of a noble presence.  The queen
+started back, Pipalee rubbed her eyes, Trip looked over Pipalee's
+shoulder, and Nip, pinching her arm, cried out amazed, "By the last new
+star, that is Prince von Fayzenheim!"
+
+Poor Nymphalin gazed again, and her little heart beat under her
+bee's-wing bodice as if it would break.  The prince had a melancholy air,
+and he sat apart from the banquet, gazing abstractedly on the Rhine.
+
+"Ah!" whispered Nymphalin to herself, "does he think of me?"
+
+Presently the prince drew forth a little flute hollowed from a small
+reed, and began to play a mournful air.  Nymphalin listened with delight;
+it was one he had learned in her dominions.
+
+When the air was over, the prince rose, and approaching the banqueters,
+despatched them on different errands; one to visit the dwarf of the
+Drachenfels, another to look after the grave of Musaeus, and a whole
+detachment to puzzle the students of Heidelberg.  A few launched
+themselves upon willow leaves on the Rhine to cruise about in the
+starlight, and an other band set out a hunting after the gray-legged
+moth.  The prince was left alone; and now Nymphalin, seeing the coast
+clear, wrapped herself up in a cloak made out of a withered leaf; and
+only letting her eyes glow out from the hood, she glided from the reeds,
+and the prince turning round, saw a dark fairy figure by his side.  He
+drew back, a little startled, and placed his hand on his sword, when
+Nymphalin circling round him, sang the following words:--
+
+
+
+THE FAIRY'S REPROACH.
+
+
+I.
+
+By the glow-worm's lamp in the dewy brake;
+  By the gossamer's airy net;
+By the shifting skin of the faithless snake,
+  Oh, teach me to forget:
+        For none, ah none
+Can teach so well that human spell
+        As thou, false one!
+
+
+II.
+
+By the fairy dance on the greensward smooth;
+  By the winds of the gentle west;
+By the loving stars, when their soft looks soothe
+  The waves on their mother's breast,
+        Teach me thy lore!
+    By which, like withered flowers,
+    The leaves of buried Hours
+      Blossom no more!
+
+
+III.
+
+By the tent in the violet's bell;
+  By the may on the scented bough;
+By the lone green isle where my sisters dwell;
+  And thine own forgotten vow,
+        Teach me to live,
+      Nor feed on thoughts that pine
+      For love so false as thine!
+      Teach me thy lore,
+      And one thou lov'st no more
+        Will bless thee and forgive!
+
+
+
+"Surely," said Fayzenheim, faltering, "surely I know that voice!"
+
+And Nymphalin's cloak dropped off her shoulder.  "My English fairy!" and
+Fayzenheim knelt beside her.
+
+I wish you had seen the fay kneel, for you would have sworn it was so
+like a human lover that you would never have sneered at love afterwards.
+Love is so fairy-like a part of us, that even a fairy cannot make it
+differently from us,--that is to say, when we love truly.
+
+There was great joy in the island that night among the elves.  They
+conducted Nymphalin to their palace within the earth, and feasted her
+sumptuously; and Nip told their adventures with so much spirit that he
+enchanted the merry foreigners.  But Fayzenheim talked apart to
+Nymphalin, and told her how he was lord of that island, and how he had
+been obliged to return to his dominions by the law of his tribe, which
+allowed him to be absent only a certain time in every year.  "But, my
+queen, I always intended to revisit thee next spring."
+
+"Thou need'st not have left us so abruptly," said Nymphalin, blushing.
+
+"But do /thou/ never leave me!" said the ardent fairy; "be mine, and let
+our nuptials be celebrated on these shores.  Wouldst thou sigh for thy
+green island?  No! for /there/ the fairy altars are deserted, the faith
+is gone from the land; thou art among the last of an unhonoured and
+expiring race.  Thy mortal poets are dumb, and Fancy, which was thy
+priestess, sleeps hushed in her last repose.  New and hard creeds have
+succeeded to the fairy lore.  Who steals through the starlit boughs on
+the nights of June to watch the roundels of thy tribe?  The wheels of
+commerce, the din of trade, have silenced to mortal ear the music of thy
+subjects' harps!  And the noisy habitations of men, harsher than their
+dreaming sires, are gathering round the dell and vale where thy co-mates
+linger: a few years, and where will be the green solitudes of England?"
+
+The queen sighed, and the prince, perceiving that he was listened to,
+continued,--
+
+"Who, in thy native shores, among the children of men, now claims the
+fairy's care?  What cradle wouldst thou tend?  On what maid wouldst thou
+shower thy rosy gifts?  What barb wouldst thou haunt in his dreams?
+Poesy is fled the island, why shouldst thou linger behind?  Time hath
+brought dull customs, that laugh at thy gentle being.  Puck is buried in
+the harebell, he hath left no offspring, and none mourn for his loss; for
+night, which is the fairy season, is busy and garish as the day.  What
+hearth is desolate after the curfew? What house bathed in stillness at
+the hour in which thy revels commence?  Thine empire among men hath
+passed from thee, and thy race are vanishing from the crowded soil; for,
+despite our diviner nature, our existence is linked with man's.  Their
+neglect is our disease, their forgetfulness our death.  Leave then those
+dull, yet troubled scenes, that are closing round the fairy rings of thy
+native isle.  These mountains, this herbage, these gliding waves, these
+mouldering ruins, these starred rivulets, be they, O beautiful fairy! thy
+new domain.  Yet in these lands our worship lingers; still can we fill
+the thought of the young bard, and mingle with his yearnings after the
+Beautiful, the Unseen.  Hither come the pilgrims of the world, anxious
+only to gather from these scenes the legends of Us; ages will pass away
+ere the Rhine shall be desecrated of our haunting presence.  Come then,
+my queen, let this palace be thine own, and the moon that glances over
+the shattered towers of the Dragon Rock witness our nuptials and our
+vows!"
+
+In such words the fairy prince courted the young queen, and while she
+sighed at their truth she yielded to their charm.  Oh, still may there be
+one spot on the earth where the fairy feet may press the legendary soil!
+still be there one land where the faith of The Bright Invisible hallows
+and inspires!  Still glide thou, O majestic and solemn Rhine, among
+shades and valleys, from which the wisdom of belief can call the
+creations of the younger world!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+WHEREIN THE READER IS MADE SPECTATOR WITH THE ENGLISH FAIRIES OF THE
+SCENES AND BEINGS THAT ARE BENEATH THE EARTH.
+
+DURING the heat of next day's noon, Fayzenheim took the English visitors
+through the cool caverns that wind amidst the mountains of the Rhine.
+There, a thousand wonders awaited the eyes of the fairy queen.  I speak
+not of the Gothic arch and aisle into which the hollow earth forms
+itself, or the stream that rushes with a mighty voice through the dark
+chasm, or the silver columns that shoot aloft, worked by the gnomes from
+the mines of the mountains of Taunus; but of the strange inhabitants that
+from time to time they came upon.  They found in one solitary cell, lined
+with dried moss, two misshapen elves, of a larger size than common, with
+a plebeian working-day aspect, who were chatting noisily together, and
+making a pair of boots: these were the Hausmannen or domestic elves, that
+dance into tradesmen's houses of a night, and play all sorts of
+undignified tricks.  They were very civil to the queen, for they are
+good-natured creatures on the whole, and once had many relations in
+Scotland.  They then, following the course of a noisy rivulet, came to a
+hole from which the sharp head of a fox peeped out.  The queen was
+frightened.  "Oh, come on," said the fox, encouragingly, "I am one of the
+fairy race, and many are the gambols we of the brute-elves play in the
+German world of romance."  "Indeed, Mr. Fox," said the prince, "you only
+speak the truth; and how is Mr. Bruin?"  "Quite well, my prince, but
+tired of his seclusion; for indeed our race can do little or nothing now
+in the world; and lie here in our old age, telling stories of the past,
+and recalling the exploits we did in our youth,--which, madam, you may
+see in all the fairy histories in the prince's library."
+
+"Your own love adventures, for instance, Master Fox," said the prince.
+
+The fox snarled angrily, and drew in his head.
+
+"You have displeased your friend," said Nymphalin.
+
+"Yes; he likes no allusions to the amorous follies of his youth.  Did you
+ever hear of his rivalry with the dog for the cat's good graces?"
+
+"No; that must be very amusing."
+
+"Well, my queen, when we rest by and by, I will relate to you the history
+of the fox's wooing."
+
+The next place they came to was a vast Runic cavern, covered with dark
+inscriptions of a forgotten tongue; and sitting on a huge stone they
+found a dwarf with long yellow hair, his head leaning on his breast, and
+absorbed in meditation.  "This is a spirit of a wise and powerful race,"
+whispered Fayzenheim, "that has often battled with the fairies; but he is
+of the kindly tribe."
+
+Then the dwarf lifted his head with a mournful air; and gazed upon the
+bright shapes before him, lighted by the pine torches that the prince's
+attendants carried.
+
+"And what dost thou muse upon, O descendant of the race of Laurin?" said
+the prince.
+
+"Upon TIME!" answered the dwarf, gloomily.  "I see a River, and its waves
+are black, flowing from the clouds, and none knoweth its source.  It
+rolls deeply on, aye and evermore, through a green valley, which it
+slowly swallows up, washing away tower and town, and vanquishing all
+things; and the name of the River is TIME."
+
+Then the dwarf's head sank on his bosom, and he spoke no more.
+
+The fairies proceeded.  "Above us," said the prince, "rises one of the
+loftiest mountains of the Rhine; for mountains are the Dwarf's home.
+When the Great Spirit of all made earth, he saw that the hollows of the
+rocks and hills were tenantless, and yet that a mighty kingdom and great
+palaces were hid within them,--a dread and dark solitude, but lighted at
+times from the starry eyes of many jewels; and there was the treasure of
+the human world--gold and silver--and great heaps of gems, and a soil of
+metals.  So God made a race for this vast empire, and gifted them with
+the power of thought, and the soul of exceeding wisdom, so that they want
+not the merriment and enterprise of the outer world; but musing in these
+dark caves is their delight.  Their existence rolls away in the luxury of
+thought; only from time to time they appear in the world, and betoken woe
+or weal to men,--according to their nature, for they are divided into two
+tribes, the benevolent and the wrathful."  While the prince spoke, they
+saw glaring upon them from a ledge in the upper rock a grisly face with a
+long matted beard.  The prince gathered himself up, and frowned at the
+evil dwarf, for such it was; but with a wild laugh the face abruptly
+disappeared, and the echo of the laugh rang with a ghastly sound through
+the long hollows of the earth.
+
+The queen clung to Fayzenheim's arm.  "Fear not, my queen," said he.
+"The evil race have no power over our light and aerial nature; with men
+only they war; and he whom we have seen was, in the old ages of the
+world, one of the deadliest visitors to mankind."
+
+But now they came winding by a passage to a beautiful recess in the
+mountain empire; it was of a circular shape of amazing height; in the
+midst of it played a natural fountain of sparkling waters, and around it
+were columns of massive granite, rising in countless vistas, till lost in
+the distant shade.  Jewels were scattered round, and brightly played the
+fairy torches on the gem, the fountain, and the pale silver, that gleamed
+at frequent intervals from the rocks.  "Here let us rest," said the
+gallant fairy, clapping his hands; "what, ho! music and the feast."
+
+So the feast was spread by the fountain's side; and the courtiers
+scattered rose-leaves, which they had brought with them, for the prince
+and his visitor; and amidst the dark kingdom of the dwarfs broke the
+delicate sound of fairy lutes.  "We have not these evil beings in
+England," said the queen, as low as she could speak; "they rouse my fear,
+but my interest also.  Tell me, dear prince, of what nature was the
+intercourse of the evil dwarf with man?"
+
+"You know," answered the prince, "that to every species of living thing
+there is something in common; the vast chain of sympathy runs through all
+creation.  By that which they have in common with the beast of the field
+or the bird of the air, men govern the inferior tribes; they appeal to
+the common passions of fear and emulation when they tame the wild steed,
+to the common desire of greed and gain when they snare the fishes of the
+stream, or allure the wolves to the pitfall by the bleating of the lamb.
+In their turn, in the older ages of the world, it was by the passions
+which men had in common with the demon race that the fiends commanded or
+allured them.  The dwarf whom you saw, being of that race which is
+characterized by the ambition of power and the desire of hoarding,
+appealed then in his intercourse with men to the same characteristics in
+their own bosoms,--to ambition or to avarice.  And thus were his victims
+made!  But, not now, dearest Nymphalin," continued the prince, with a
+more lively air,--"not now will we speak of those gloomy beings.  Ho,
+there! cease the music, and come hither all of ye, to listen to a
+faithful and homely history of the Dog, the Cat, the Griffin, and the
+Fox."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE WOOING OF MASTER FOX.*
+
+  * In the excursions of the fairies, it is the object of the author
+    to bring before the reader a rapid phantasmagoria of the various
+    beings that belong to the German superstitions, so that the work
+    may thus describe the outer and the inner world of the land of
+    the Rhine.  The tale of the Fox's Wooing has been composed to
+    give the English reader an idea of a species of novel not
+    naturalized amongst us, though frequent among the legends of our
+    Irish neighbours; in which the brutes are the only characters
+    drawn,--drawn too with shades of distinction as nice and subtle
+    as if they were the creatures of the civilized world.
+
+You are aware, my dear Nymphalin, that in the time of which I am about to
+speak there was no particular enmity between the various species of
+brutes; the dog and the hare chatted very agreeably together, and all the
+world knows that the wolf, unacquainted with mutton, had a particular
+affection for the lamb.  In these happy days, two most respectable cats,
+of very old family, had an only daughter.  Never was kitten more amiable
+or more seducing; as she grew up she manifested so many charms, that in a
+little while she became noted as the greatest beauty in the
+neighbourhood.  Need I to you, dearest Nymphalin, describe her
+perfection?  Suffice it to say that her skin was of the most delicate
+tortoiseshell, that her paws were smoother than velvet, that her whiskers
+were twelve inches long at the least, and that her eyes had a gentleness
+altogether astonishing in a cat.  But if the young beauty had suitors in
+plenty during the lives of monsieur and madame, you may suppose the
+number was not diminished when, at the age of two years and a half, she
+was left an orphan, and sole heiress to all the hereditary property.  In
+fine, she was the richest marriage in the whole country.  Without
+troubling you, dearest queen, with the adventures of the rest of her
+lovers, with their suit and their rejection, I come at once to the two
+rivals most sanguine of success,--the dog and the fox.
+
+Now the dog was a handsome, honest, straightforward, affectionate fellow.
+"For my part," said he, "I don't wonder at my cousin's refusing Bruin the
+bear, and Gauntgrim the wolf: to be sure they give themselves great airs,
+and call themselves '/noble/,' but what then?  Bruin is always in the
+sulks, and Gauntgrim always in a passion; a cat of any sensibility would
+lead a miserable life with them.  As for me, I am very good-tempered when
+I'm not put out, and I have no fault except that of being angry if
+disturbed at my meals.  I am young and good-looking, fond of play and
+amusement, and altogether as agreeable a husband as a cat could find in a
+summer's day.  If she marries me, well and good; she may have her
+property settled on herself: if not, I shall bear her no malice; and I
+hope I sha'n't be too much in love to forget that there are other cats in
+the world."
+
+With that the dog threw his tail over his back, and set off to his
+mistress with a gay face on the matter.
+
+Now the fox heard the dog talking thus to himself, for the fox was always
+peeping about, in holes and corners, and he burst out a laughing when the
+dog was out of sight.
+
+"Ho, ho, my fine fellow!" said he; "not so fast, if you please: you've
+got the fox for a rival, let me tell you."
+
+The fox, as you very well know, is a beast that can never do anything
+without a manoeuvre; and as, from his cunning, he was generally very
+lucky in anything he undertook, he did not doubt for a moment that he
+should put the dog's nose out of joint.  Reynard was aware that in love
+one should always, if possible, be the first in the field; and he
+therefore resolved to get the start of the dog and arrive before him at
+the cat's residence.  But this was no easy matter; for though Reynard
+could run faster than the dog for a little way, he was no match for him
+in a journey of some distance.  "However," said Reynard, "those
+good-natured creatures are never very wise; and I think I know already
+what will make him bait on his way."
+
+With that, the fox trotted pretty fast by a short cut in the woods, and
+getting before the dog, laid himself down by a hole in the earth, and
+began to howl most piteously.
+
+The dog, hearing the noise, was very much alarmed.  "See now," said he,
+"if the poor fox has not got himself into some scrape!  Those cunning
+creatures are always in mischief; thank Heaven, it never comes into my
+head to be cunning!"  And the good-natured animal ran off as hard as he
+could to see what was the matter with the fox.
+
+"Oh, dear!" cried Reynard; "what shall I do?  What shall I do?  My poor
+little sister has fallen into this hole, and I can't get her out; she'll
+certainly be smothered."  And the fox burst out a howling more piteously
+than before.
+
+"But, my dear Reynard," quoth the dog, very simply, "why don't you go in
+after your sister?"
+
+"Ah, you may well ask that," said the fox; "but, in trying to get in,
+don't you perceive that I have sprained my back and can't stir?  Oh,
+dear! what shall I do if my poor little sister is smothered!"
+
+"Pray don't vex yourself," said the dog; "I'll get her out in an
+instant."  And with that he forced himself with great difficulty into the
+hole.
+
+Now, no sooner did the fox see that the dog was fairly in, than he rolled
+a great stone to the mouth of the hole and fitted it so tight, that the
+dog, not being able to turn round and scratch against it with his
+forepaws, was made a close prisoner.
+
+"Ha, ha!" cried Reynard, laughing outside; "amuse yourself with my poor
+little sister, while I go and make your compliments to Mademoiselle the
+Cat."
+
+With that Reynard set off at an easy pace, never troubling his head what
+became of the poor dog.  When he arrived in the neighbourhood of the
+beautiful cat's mansion, he resolved to pay a visit to a friend of his,
+an old magpie that lived in a tree and was well acquainted with all the
+news of the place.  "For," thought Reynard, "I may as well know the blind
+side of my mistress that is to be, and get round it at once."
+
+The magpie received the fox with great cordiality, and inquired what
+brought him so great a distance from home.
+
+"Upon my word," said the fox, "nothing so much as the pleasure of seeing
+your ladyship and hearing those agreeable anecdotes you tell with so
+charming a grace; but to let you into a secret--be sure it don't go
+further--"
+
+"On the word of a magpie," interrupted the bird.
+
+"Pardon me for doubting you," continued the fox; "I should have
+recollected that a pie was a proverb for discretion.  But, as I was
+saying, you know her Majesty the lioness?"
+
+"Surely," said the magpie, bridling.
+
+"Well; she was pleased to fall in--that is to say--to--to--take a caprice
+to your humble servant, and the lion grew so jealous that I thought it
+prudent to decamp.  A jealous lion is no joke, let me assure your
+ladyship.  But mum's the word."
+
+So great a piece of news delighted the magpie.  She could not but repay
+it in kind, by all the news in her budget.  She told the fox all the
+scandal about Bruin and Gauntgrim, and she then fell to work on the poor
+young cat.  She did not spare her foibles, you may be quite sure.  The
+fox listened with great attention, and he learned enough to convince him
+that however much the magpie might exaggerate, the cat was very
+susceptible to flattery, and had a great deal of imagination.
+
+When the magpie had finished she said, "But it must be very unfortunate
+for you to be banished from so magnificent a court as that of the lion?"
+
+"As to that," answered the fox, "I console myself for my exile with a
+present his Majesty made me on parting, as a reward for my anxiety for
+his honour and domestic tranquillity; namely, three hairs from the fifth
+leg of the amoronthologosphorus.  Only think of that, ma'am!"
+
+"The what?" cried the pie, cocking down her left ear.
+
+"The amoronthologosphorus."
+
+"La!" said the magpie; "and what is that very long word, my dear
+Reynard?"
+
+"The amoronthologosphorus is a beast that lives on the other side of the
+river Cylinx; it has five legs, and on the fifth leg there are three
+hairs, and whoever has those three hairs can be young and beautiful
+forever."
+
+"Bless me!  I wish you would let me see them," said the pie, holding out
+her claw.
+
+"Would that I could oblige you, ma'am; but it's as much as my life's
+worth to show them to any but the lady I marry.  In fact, they only have
+an effect on the fair sex, as you may see by myself, whose poor person
+they utterly fail to improve: they are, therefore, intended for a
+marriage present, and his Majesty the lion thus generously atoned to me
+for relinquishing the tenderness of his queen.  One must confess that
+there was a great deal of delicacy in the gift.  But you'll be sure not
+to mention it."
+
+"A magpie gossip indeed!" quoth the old blab.
+
+The fox then wished the magpie good night, and retired to a hole to sleep
+off the fatigues of the day, before he presented himself to the beautiful
+young cat.
+
+The next morning, Heaven knows how! it was all over the place that
+Reynard the fox had been banished from court for the favour shown him by
+her Majesty, and that the lion had bribed his departure with three hairs
+that would make any lady whom the fox married young and beautiful
+forever.
+
+The cat was the first to learn the news, and she became all curiosity to
+see so interesting a stranger, possessed of "qualifications" which, in
+the language of the day, "would render any animal happy!"  She was not
+long without obtaining her wish.  As she was taking a walk in the wood
+the fox contrived to encounter her.  You may be sure that he made her his
+best bow; and he flattered the poor cat with so courtly an air that she
+saw nothing surprising in the love of the lioness.
+
+Meanwhile let us see what became of his rival, the dog.
+
+"Ah, the poor creature!" said Nymphalin; "it is easy to guess that he
+need not be buried alive to lose all chance of marrying the heiress."
+
+"Wait till the end," answered Fayzenheim.
+
+When the dog found that he was thus entrapped, he gave himself up for
+lost.  In vain he kicked with his hind-legs against the stone,--he only
+succeeded in bruising his paws; and at length he was forced to lie down,
+with his tongue out of his mouth, and quite exhausted.  "However," said
+he, after he had taken breath, "it won't do to be starved here, without
+doing my best to escape; and if I can't get out one way, let me see if
+there is not a hole at the other end."  Thus saying, his courage, which
+stood him in lieu of cunning, returned, and he proceeded on in the same
+straightforward way in which he always conducted himself.  At first the
+path was exceedingly narrow, and he hurt his sides very much against the
+rough stones that projected from the earth; but by degrees the way became
+broader, and he now went on with considerable ease to himself, till he
+arrived in a large cavern, where he saw an immense griffin sitting on his
+tail, and smoking a huge pipe.
+
+The dog was by no means pleased at meeting so suddenly a creature that
+had only to open his mouth to swallow him up at a morsel; however, he put
+a bold face on the danger, and walking respectfully up to the griffin,
+said, "Sir, I should be very much obliged to you if you would inform me
+the way out of these holes into the upper world."
+
+The griffin took the pipe out of his mouth, and looked at the dog very
+sternly.
+
+"Ho, wretch!" said he, "how comest thou hither?  I suppose thou wantest
+to steal my treasure; but I know how to treat such vagabonds as you, and
+I shall certainly eat you up.
+
+"You can do that if you choose," said the dog; "but it would be very
+unhandsome conduct in an animal so much bigger than myself.  For my own
+part, I never attack any dog that is not of equal size,--I should be
+ashamed of myself if I did.  And as to your treasure, the character I
+bear for honesty is too well known to merit such a suspicion."
+
+"Upon my word," said the griffin, who could not help smiling for the life
+of him, "you have a singularly free mode of expressing yourself.  And
+how, I say, came you hither?"
+
+Then the dog, who did not know what a lie was, told the griffin his whole
+history,--how he had set off to pay his court to the cat, and how Reynard
+the fox had entrapped him into the hole.
+
+When he had finished, the griffin said to him, "I see, my friend, that
+you know how to speak the truth; I am in want of just such a servant as
+you will make me, therefore stay with me and keep watch over my treasure
+when I sleep."
+
+"Two words to that," said the dog.  "You have hurt my feelings very much
+by suspecting my honesty, and I would much sooner go back into the wood
+and be avenged on that scoundrel the fox, than serve a master who has so
+ill an opinion of me.  I pray you, therefore, to dismiss me, and to put
+me in the right way to my cousin the cat."
+
+"I am not a griffin of many words," answered the master of the cavern,
+"and I give you your choice,--be my servant or be my breakfast; it is
+just the same to me.  I give you time to decide till I have smoked out my
+pipe."
+
+The poor dog did not take so long to consider.  "It is true," thought he,
+"that it is a great misfortune to live in a cave with a griffin of so
+unpleasant a countenance; but, probably, if I serve him well and
+faithfully, he'll take pity on me some day, and let me go back to earth,
+and prove to my cousin what a rogue the fox is; and as to the rest,
+though I would sell my life as dear as I could, it is impossible to fight
+a griffin with a mouth of so monstrous a size."  In short, he decided to
+stay with the griffin.
+
+"Shake a paw on it," quoth the grim smoker; and the dog shook paws.
+
+"And now," said the griffin, "I will tell you what you are to do.  Look
+here," and moving his tail, he showed the dog a great heap of gold and
+silver, in a hole in the ground, that he had covered with the folds of
+his tail; and also, what the dog thought more valuable, a great heap of
+bones of very tempting appearance.  "Now," said the griffin, "during the
+day I can take very good care of these myself; but at night it is very
+necessary that I should go to sleep, so when I sleep you must watch over
+them instead of me."
+
+"Very well," said the dog.  "As to the gold and silver, I have no
+objection; but I would much rather that you would lock up the bones, for
+I'm often hungry of a night, and--"
+
+"Hold your tongue," said the griffin.
+
+"But, sir," said the dog, after a short silence, "surely nobody ever
+comes into so retired a situation!  Who are the thieves, if I may make
+bold to ask?"
+
+"Know," answered the griffin, "that there are a great many serpents in
+this neighbourhood.  They are always trying to steal my treasure; and if
+they catch me napping, they, not contented with theft, would do their
+best to sting me to death.  So that I am almost worn out for want of
+sleep."
+
+"Ah," quoth the dog, who was fond of a good night's rest, "I don't envy
+you your treasure, sir."
+
+At night, the griffin, who had a great deal of penetration, and saw that
+he might depend on the dog, lay down to sleep in another corner of the
+cave; and the dog, shaking himself well, so as to be quite awake, took
+watch over the treasure.  His mouth watered exceedingly at the bones, and
+he could not help smelling them now and then; but he said to himself, "A
+bargain's a bargain, and since I have promised to serve the griffin, I
+must serve him as an honest dog ought to serve."
+
+In the middle of the night he saw a great snake creeping in by the side
+of the cave; but the dog set up so loud a bark that the griffin awoke,
+and the snake crept away as fast as he could.  Then the griffin was very
+much pleased, and he gave the dog one of the bones to amuse himself with;
+and every night the dog watched the treasure, and acquitted himself so
+well that not a snake, at last, dared to make its appearance,--so the
+griffin enjoyed an excellent night's rest.
+
+The dog now found himself much more comfortable than he expected.  The
+griffin regularly gave him one of the bones for supper; and, pleased with
+his fidelity, made himself as agreeable a master as a griffin could be.
+Still, however, the dog was secretly very anxious to return to earth; for
+having nothing to do during the day but to doze on the ground, he dreamed
+perpetually of his cousin the cat's charms, and, in fancy, he gave the
+rascal Reynard as hearty a worry as a fox may well have the honour of
+receiving from a dog's paws.  He awoke panting; alas! he could not
+realize his dreams.
+
+One night, as he was watching as usual over the treasure, he was greatly
+surprised to see a beautiful little black and white dog enter the cave;
+and it came fawning to our honest friend, wagging its tail with pleasure.
+
+"Ah, little one," said our dog, whom, to distinguish, I will call the
+watch-dog, "you had better make the best of your way back again.  See,
+there is a great griffin asleep in the other corner of the cave, and if
+he wakes, he will either eat you up or make you his servant, as he has
+made me."
+
+"I know what you would tell me," says the little dog; "and I have come
+down here to deliver you.  The stone is now gone from the mouth of the
+cave, and you have nothing to do but to go back with me.  Come, brother,
+come."
+
+The dog was very much excited by this address.  "Don't ask me, my dear
+little friend," said he; "you must be aware that I should be too happy to
+escape out of this cold cave, and roll on the soft turf once more: but if
+I leave my master, the griffin, those cursed serpents, who are always on
+the watch, will come in and steal his treasure,--nay, perhaps, sting him
+to death."  Then the little dog came up to the watch-dog, and
+remonstrated with him greatly, and licked him caressingly on both sides
+of his face; and, taking him by the ear, endeavoured to draw him from the
+treasure: but the dog would not stir a step, though his heart sorely
+pressed him.  At length the little dog, finding it all in vain, said,
+"Well, then, if I must leave, good-by; but I have become so hungry in
+coming down all this way after you, that I wish you would give me one of
+those bones; they smell very pleasantly, and one out of so many could
+never be missed."
+
+"Alas!" said the watchdog, with tears in his eyes, "how unlucky I am to
+have eaten up the bone my master gave me, otherwise you should have had
+it and welcome.  But I can't give you one of these, because my master has
+made me promise to watch over them all, and I have given him my paw on
+it.  I am sure a dog of your respectable appearance will say nothing
+further on the subject."
+
+Then the little dog answered pettishly, "Pooh, what nonsense you talk!
+surely a great griffin can't miss a little bone fit for me?" and nestling
+his nose under the watch-dog, he tried forthwith to bring up one of the
+bones.
+
+On this the watch-dog grew angry, and, though with much reluctance, he
+seized the little dog by the nape of the neck and threw him off, but
+without hurting him.  Suddenly the little dog changed into a monstrous
+serpent, bigger even than the griffin himself, and the watch-dog barked
+with all his might.  The griffin rose in a great hurry, and the serpent
+sprang upon him ere he was well awake.  I wish, dearest Nymphalin, you
+could have seen the battle between the griffin and the serpent,--how they
+coiled and twisted, and bit and darted their fiery tongues at each other.
+At length the serpent got uppermost, and was about to plunge his tongue
+into that part of the griffin which is unprotected by his scales, when
+the dog, seizing him by the tail, bit him so sharply that he could not
+help turning round to kill his new assailant, and the griffin, taking
+advantage of the opportunity, caught the serpent by the throat with both
+claws, and fairly strangled him.  As soon as the griffin had recovered
+from the nervousness of the conflict, he heaped all manner of caresses on
+the dog for saving his life.  The dog told him the whole story, and the
+griffin then explained that the dead snake was the king of the serpents,
+who had the power to change himself into any shape he pleased.  "If he
+had tempted you," said he, "to leave the treasure but for one moment, or
+to have given him any part of it, ay, but a single bone, he would have
+crushed you in an instant, and stung me to death ere I could have waked;
+but none, no, not the most venomous thing in creation, has power to hurt
+the honest!"
+
+"That has always been my belief," answered the dog; "and now, sir, you
+had better go to sleep again and leave the rest to me."
+
+"Nay," answered the griffin, "I have no longer need of a servant; for now
+that the king of the serpents is dead, the rest will never molest me.  It
+was only to satisfy his avarice that his subjects dared to brave the den
+of the griffin."
+
+Upon hearing this the dog was exceedingly delighted; and raising himself
+on his hind paws, he begged the griffin most movingly to let him return
+to earth, to visit his mistress the cat, and worry his rival the fox.
+
+"You do not serve an ungrateful master," answered the griffin.  "You
+shall return, and I will teach you all the craft of our race, which is
+much craftier than the race of that pettifogger the fox, so that you may
+be able to cope with your rival."
+
+"Ah, excuse me," said the dog, hastily, "I am equally obliged to you; but
+I fancy honesty is a match for cunning any day, and I think myself a
+great deal safer in being a dog of honour than if I knew all the tricks
+in the world."
+
+"Well," said the griffin, a little piqued at the dog's bluntness, "do as
+you please; I wish you all possible success."
+
+Then the griffin opened a secret door in the side of the cabin, and the
+dog saw a broad path that led at once into the wood.  He thanked the
+griffin with all his heart, and ran wagging his tail into the open
+moonlight.  "Ah, ah, master fox," said he, "there's no trap for an honest
+dog that has not two doors to it, cunning as you think yourself."
+
+With that he curled his tail gallantly over his left leg, and set off on
+a long trot to the cat's house.  When he was within sight of it, he
+stopped to refresh himself by a pool of water, and who should be there
+but our friend the magpie.
+
+"And what do /you/ want, friend?" said she, rather disdainfully, for the
+dog looked somewhat out of case after his journey.
+
+"I am going to see my cousin the cat," answered he.
+
+"/Your cousin/! marry come up," said the magpie; "don't you know she is
+going to be married to Reynard the fox?  This is not a time for her to
+receive the visits of a brute like you."
+
+These words put the dog in such a passion that he very nearly bit the
+magpie for her uncivil mode of communicating such bad news.  However, he
+curbed his temper, and, without answering her, went at once to the cat's
+residence.
+
+The cat was sitting at the window, and no sooner did the dog see her than
+he fairly lost his heart; never had he seen so charming a cat before.  He
+advanced, wagging his tail, and with his most insinuating air, when the
+cat, getting up, clapped the window in his face, and lo! Reynard the fox
+appeared in her stead.
+
+"Come out, thou rascal!" said the dog, showing his teeth; "come out, I
+challenge thee to single combat; I have not forgiven thy malice, and thou
+seest that I am no longer shut up in the cave, and unable to punish thee
+for thy wickedness."
+
+"Go home, silly one!" answered the fox, sneering; "thou hast no business
+here, and as for fighting thee--bah!" Then the fox left the window and
+disappeared.  But the dog, thoroughly enraged, scratched lustily at the
+door, and made such a noise, that presently the cat herself came to the
+window.
+
+"How now!" said she, angrily; "what means all this rudeness?  Who are
+you, and what do you want at my house?"
+
+"Oh, my dear cousin," said the dog, "do not speak so severely.  Know that
+I have come here on purpose to pay you a visit; and, whatever you do, let
+me beseech you not to listen to that villain Reynard,--you have no
+conception what a rogue he is!"
+
+"What!" said the cat, blushing; "do you dare to abuse your betters in
+this fashion?  I see you have a design on me.  Go, this instant, or--"
+
+"Enough, madam," said the dog, proudly; "you need not speak twice to
+me,--farewell."
+
+And he turned away very slowly, and went under a tree, where he took up
+his lodgings for the night.  But the next morning there was an amazing
+commotion in the neighbourhood; a stranger, of a very different style of
+travelling from that of the dog, had arrived at the dead of the night,
+and fixed his abode in a large cavern hollowed out of a steep rock.  The
+noise he had made in flying through the air was so great that it had
+awakened every bird and beast in the parish; and Reynard, whose bad
+conscience never suffered him to sleep very soundly, putting his head out
+of the window, perceived, to his great alarm, that the stranger was
+nothing less than a monstrous griffin.
+
+Now the griffins are the richest beasts in the world; and that's the
+reason they keep so close under ground.  Whenever it does happen that
+they pay a visit above, it is not a thing to be easily forgotten.
+
+The magpie was all agitation.  What could the griffin possibly want
+there?  She resolved to take a peep at the cavern, and accordingly she
+hopped timorously up the rock, and pretended to be picking up sticks for
+her nest.
+
+"Holla, ma'am!" cried a very rough voice, and she saw the griffin putting
+his head out of the cavern.  "Holla! you are the very lady I want to see;
+you know all the people about here, eh?"
+
+"All the best company, your lordship, I certainly do," answered the
+magpie, dropping a courtesy.
+
+Upon this the griffin walked out; and smoking his pipe leisurely in the
+open air, in order to set the pie at her ease, continued,--
+
+"Are there any respectable beasts of good families settled in this
+neighbourhood?"
+
+"Oh, most elegant society, I assure your lordship," cried the pie.  "I
+have lived here myself these ten years, and the great heiress, the cat
+yonder, attracts a vast number of strangers."
+
+"Humph! heiress, indeed! much you know about heiresses!" said the
+griffin.  "There is only one heiress in the world, and that's my
+daughter."
+
+"Bless me! has your lordship a family?  I beg you a thousand pardons; but
+I only saw your lordship's own equipage last night, and did not know you
+brought any one with you."
+
+"My daughter went first, and was safely lodged before I arrived.  She did
+not disturb you, I dare say, as I did; for she sails along like a swan:
+but I have got the gout in my left claw, and that's the reason I puff and
+groan so in taking a journey."
+
+"Shall I drop in upon Miss Griffin, and see how she is after her
+journey?" said the pie, advancing.
+
+"I thank you, no.  I don't intend her to be seen while I stay here,--it
+unsettles her; and I'm afraid of the young beasts running away with her
+if they once heard how handsome she was: she's the living picture of me,
+but she's monstrous giddy!  Not that I should care much if she did go off
+with a beast of degree, were I not obliged to pay her portion, which is
+prodigious; and I don't like parting with money, ma'am, when I've once
+got it.  Ho, ho, ho!"
+
+"You are too witty, my lord.  But if you refused your consent?" said the
+pie, anxious to know the whole family history of so grand a seigneur.
+
+"I should have to pay the dowry all the same.  It was left her by her
+uncle the dragon.  But don't let this go any further."
+
+"Your lordship may depend on my secrecy.  I wish your lordship a very
+good morning."
+
+Away flew the pie, and she did not stop till she got to the cat's house.
+The cat and the fox were at breakfast, and the fox had his paw on his
+heart.  "Beautiful scene!" cried the pie; the cat coloured, and bade the
+pie take a seat.
+
+Then off went the pie's tongue, glib, glib, glib, chatter, chatter,
+chatter.  She related to them the whole story of the griffin and his
+daughter, and a great deal more besides, that the griffin had never told
+her.
+
+The cat listened attentively.  Another young heiress in the neighbourhood
+might be a formidable rival.  "But is this griffiness handsome?" said
+she.
+
+"Handsome!" cried the pie; "oh, if you could have seen the father!--such
+a mouth, such eyes, such a complexion; and he declares she's the living
+picture of himself!  But what do you say, Mr. Reynard,--you, who have
+been so much in the world, have, perhaps, seen the young lady?"
+
+"Why, I can't say I have," answered the fox, waking from a revery; "but
+she must be wonderfully rich.  I dare say that fool the dog will be
+making up to her."
+
+"Ah, by the way," said the pie, "what a fuss he made at your door
+yesterday; why would you not admit him, my dear?"
+
+"Oh," said the cat, demurely, "Mr. Reynard says that he is a dog of very
+bad character, quite a fortune-hunter; and hiding the most dangerous
+disposition to bite under an appearance of good nature.  I hope he won't
+be quarrelsome with you, dear Reynard!"
+
+"With me?  Oh, the poor wretch, no!--he might bluster a little; but he
+knows that if I'm once angry I'm a devil at biting;--one should not boast
+of oneself."
+
+In the evening Reynard felt a strange desire to go and see the griffin
+smoking his pipe; but what could he do?  There was the dog under the
+opposite tree evidently watching for him, and Reynard had no wish to
+prove himself that devil at biting which be declared he was.  At last he
+resolved to have recourse to stratagem to get rid of the dog.
+
+A young buck of a rabbit, a sort of provincial fop, had looked in upon
+his cousin the cat, to pay her his respects, and Reynard, taking him
+aside, said, "You see that shabby-looking dog under the tree?  He has
+behaved very ill to your cousin the cat, and you certainly ought to
+challenge him.  Forgive my boldness, nothing but respect for your
+character induces me to take so great a liberty; you know I would
+chastise the rascal myself, but what a scandal it would make!  If I were
+already married to your cousin, it would be a different thing.  But you
+know what a story that cursed magpie would hatch out of it!"
+
+The rabbit looked very foolish; he assured the fox he was no match for
+the dog; that he was very fond of his cousin, to be sure! but he saw no
+necessity to interfere with her domestic affairs; and, in short, he tried
+all he possibly could to get out of the scrape; but the fox so artfully
+played on his vanity, so earnestly assured him that the dog was the
+biggest coward in the world and would make a humble apology, and so
+eloquently represented to him the glory he would obtain for manifesting
+so much spirit, that at length the rabbit was persuaded to go out and
+deliver the challenge.
+
+"I'll be your second," said the fox; "and the great field on the other
+side the wood, two miles hence, shall be the place of battle: there we
+shall be out of observation.  You go first, I'll follow in half an hour;
+and I say, hark!--in case he does accept the challenge, and you feel the
+least afraid, I'll be in the field, and take it off your paws with the
+utmost pleasure; rely on /me/, my dear sir!"
+
+Away went the rabbit.  The dog was a little astonished at the temerity of
+the poor creature; but on hearing that the fox was to be present,
+willingly consented to repair to the place of conflict.  This readiness
+the rabbit did not at all relish; he went very slowly to the field, and
+seeing no fox there, his heart misgave him; and while the dog was putting
+his nose to the ground to try if he could track the coming of the fox,
+the rabbit slipped into a burrow, and left the dog to walk back again.
+
+Meanwhile the fox was already at the rock; he walked very soft-footedly,
+and looked about with extreme caution, for he had a vague notion that a
+griffin-papa would not be very civil to foxes.
+
+Now there were two holes in the rock,--one below, one above, an upper
+story and an under; and while the fox was peering about, he saw a great
+claw from the upper rock beckoning to him.
+
+"Ah, ah!" said the fox, "that's the wanton young griffiness, I'll swear."
+
+He approached, and a voice said,--
+
+"Charming Mr. Reynard, do you not think you could deliver an unfortunate
+griffiness from a barbarous confinement in this rock?"
+
+"Oh, heavens!" cried the fox, tenderly, "what a beautiful voice! and, ah,
+my poor heart, what a lovely claw!  Is it possible that I hear the
+daughter of my lord, the great griffin?"
+
+"Hush, flatterer! not so loud, if you please.  My father is taking an
+evening stroll, and is very quick of hearing.  He has tied me up by my
+poor wings in the cavern, for he is mightily afraid of some beast running
+away with me.  You know I have all my fortune settled on myself."
+
+"Talk not of fortune," said the fox; "but how can I deliver you?  Shall I
+enter and gnaw the cord?"
+
+"Alas!" answered the griffiness, "it is an immense chain I am bound with.
+However, you may come in and talk more at your ease."
+
+The fox peeped cautiously all round, and seeing no sign of the griffin,
+he entered the lower cave and stole upstairs to the upper story; but as
+he went on, he saw immense piles of jewels and gold, and all sorts of
+treasure, so that the old griffin might well have laughed at the poor cat
+being called an heiress.  The fox was greatly pleased at such
+indisputable signs of wealth, and he entered the upper cave, resolved to
+be transported with the charms of the griffiness.
+
+There was, however, a great chasm between the landing-place and the spot
+where the young lady was chained, and he found it impossible to pass; the
+cavern was very dark, but he saw enough of the figure of the griffiness
+to perceive, in spite of her petticoat, that she was the image of her
+father, and the most hideous heiress that the earth ever saw!
+
+However, he swallowed his disgust, and poured forth such a heap of
+compliments that the griffiness appeared entirely won.
+
+He implored her to fly with him the first moment she was unchained.
+
+"That is impossible," said she; "for my father never unchains me except
+in his presence, and then I cannot stir out of his sight."
+
+"The wretch!" cried Reynard, "what is to be done?"
+
+"Why, there is only one thing I know of," answered the griffiness, "which
+is this: I always make his soup for him, and if I could mix something in
+it that would put him fast to sleep before he had time to chain me up
+again I might slip down and carry off all the treasure below on my back."
+
+"Charming!" exclaimed Reynard; "what invention! what wit!  I will go and
+get some poppies directly."
+
+"Alas!" said the griffiness, "poppies have no effect upon griffins.  The
+only thing that can ever put my father fast to sleep is a nice young cat
+boiled up in his soup; it is astonishing what a charm that has upon him!
+But where to get a cat?--it must be a maiden cat too!"
+
+Reynard was a little startled at so singular an opiate.  "But," thought
+he, "griffins are not like the rest of the world, and so rich an heiress
+is not to be won by ordinary means."
+
+"I do know a cat,--a maiden cat," said he, after a short pause; "but I
+feel a little repugnance at the thought of having her boiled in the
+griffin's soup.  Would not a dog do as well?"
+
+"Ah, base thing!" said the griffiness, appearing to weep; "you are in
+love with the cat, I see it; go and marry her, poor dwarf that she is,
+and leave me to die of grief."
+
+In vain the fox protested that he did not care a straw for the cat;
+nothing could now appease the griffiness but his positive assurance that
+come what would poor puss should be brought to the cave and boiled for
+the griffin's soup.
+
+"But how will you get her here?" said the griffiness.
+
+"Ah, leave that to me," said Reynard.  "Only put a basket out of the
+window and draw it up by a cord; the moment it arrives at the window, be
+sure to clap your claw on the cat at once, for she is terribly active."
+
+"Tush!" answered the heiress; "a pretty griffiness I should be if I did
+not know how to catch a cat!"
+
+"But this must be when your father is out?" said Reynard.
+
+"Certainly; he takes a stroll every evening at sunset."
+
+"Let it be to-morrow, then," said Reynard, impatient for the treasure.
+
+This being arranged, Reynard thought it time to decamp.  He stole down
+the stairs again, and tried to filch some of the treasure by the way; but
+it was too heavy for him to carry, and he was forced to acknowledge to
+himself that it was impossible to get the treasure without taking the
+griffiness (whose back seemed prodigiously strong) into the bargain.
+
+He returned home to the cat, and when he entered her house, and saw how
+ordinary everything looked after the jewels in the griffin's cave, he
+quite wondered how he had ever thought the cat had the least pretensions
+to good looks.  However, he concealed his wicked design, and his mistress
+thought he had never appeared so amiable.
+
+"Only guess," said he, "where I have been!--to our new neighbour the
+griffin; a most charming person, thoroughly affable, and quite the air of
+the court.  As for that silly magpie, the griffin saw her character at
+once; and it was all a hoax about his daughter,--he has no daughter at
+all.  You know, my dear, hoaxing is a fashionable amusement among the
+great.  He says he has heard of nothing but your beauty, and on my
+telling him we were going to be married, he has insisted upon giving a
+great ball and supper in honour of the event.  In fact, he is a gallant
+old fellow, and dying to see you.  Of course, I was obliged to accept the
+invitation."
+
+"You could not do otherwise," said the unsuspecting young creature, who,
+as I before said, was very susceptible to flattery.
+
+"And only think how delicate his attentions are," said the fox.  "As he
+is very badly lodged for a beast of his rank, and his treasure takes up
+the whole of the ground floor, he is forced to give the /fete/ in the
+upper story, so he hangs out a basket for his guests, and draws them up
+with his own claw.  How condescending!  But the great /are/ so amiable!"
+
+The cat, brought up in seclusion, was all delight at the idea of seeing
+such high life, and the lovers talked of nothing else all the next
+day,--when Reynard, towards evening, putting his head out of the window,
+saw his old friend the dog lying as usual and watching him very grimly.
+"Ah, that cursed creature!  I had quite forgotten him; what is to be done
+now?  He would make no bones of me if he once saw me set foot out of
+doors."
+
+With that, the fox began to cast in his head how he should get rid of his
+rival, and at length he resolved on a very notable project; he desired
+the cat to set out first, and wait for him at a turn in the road a little
+way off.  "For," said he, "if we go together we shall certainly be
+insulted by the dog; and he will know that in the presence of a lady, the
+custom of a beast of my fashion will not suffer me to avenge the affront.
+But when I am alone, the creature is such a coward that he will not dare
+say his soul's his own; leave the door open and I'll follow immediately."
+
+The cat's mind was so completely poisoned against her cousin that she
+implicitly believed this account of his character; and accordingly, with
+many recommendations to her lover not to sully his dignity by getting
+into any sort of quarrel with the dog, she set off first.
+
+The dog went up to her very humbly, and begged her to allow him to say a
+few words to her; but she received him so haughtily, that his spirit was
+up; and he walked back to the tree more than ever enraged against his
+rival.  But what was his joy when he saw that the cat had left the door
+open!  "Now, wretch," thought he, "you cannot escape me!"  So he walked
+briskly in at the back door.  He was greatly surprised to find Reynard
+lying down in the straw, panting as if his heart would break, and rolling
+his eyes in the pangs of death.
+
+"Ah, friend," said the fox, with a faltering voice, "you are avenged, my
+hour is come; I am just going to give up the ghost: put your paw upon
+mine, and say you forgive me."
+
+Despite his anger, the generous dog could not set tooth on a dying foe.
+
+"You have served me a shabby trick," said he; "you have left me to starve
+in a hole, and you have evidently maligned me with my cousin: certainly I
+meant to be avenged on you; but if you are really dying, that alters the
+affair."
+
+"Oh, oh!" groaned the fox, very bitterly; "I am past help; the poor cat
+is gone for Doctor Ape, but he'll never come in time.  What a thing it is
+to have a bad conscience on one's death-bed!  But wait till the cat
+returns, and I'll do you full justice with her before I die."
+
+The good-natured dog was much moved at seeing his mortal enemy in such a
+state, and endeavoured as well as he could to console him.
+
+"Oh, oh!" said the fox; "I am so parched in the throat, I am burning;"
+and he hung his tongue out of his mouth, and rolled his eyes more
+fearfully than ever.
+
+"Is there no water here?" said the dog, looking round.
+
+"Alas, no!--yet stay! yes, now I think of it, there is some in that
+little hole in the wall; but how to get at it!  It is so high that I
+can't, in my poor weak state, climb up to it; and I dare not ask such a
+favour of one I have injured so much."
+
+"Don't talk of it," said the dog: "but the hole's very small, I could not
+put my nose through it."
+
+"No; but if you just climb up on that stone, and thrust your paw into the
+hole, you can dip it into the water, and so cool my poor parched mouth.
+Oh, what a thing it is to have a bad conscience!"
+
+The dog sprang upon the stone, and, getting on his hind legs, thrust his
+front paw into the hole; when suddenly Reynard pulled a string that he
+had concealed under the straw, and the dog found his paw caught tight to
+the wall in a running noose.
+
+"Ah, rascal!" said he, turning round; but the fox leaped up gayly from
+the straw, and fastening the string with his teeth to a nail in the other
+end of the wall, walked out, crying, "Good-by, my dear friend; have a
+care how you believe hereafter in sudden conversions!"  So he left the
+dog on his hind legs to take care of the house.
+
+Reynard found the cat waiting for him where he had appointed, and they
+walked lovingly together till they came to the cave.  It was now dark,
+and they saw the basket waiting below; the fox assisted the poor cat into
+it.  "There is only room for one," said he, "you must go first!"  Up rose
+the basket; the fox heard a piteous mew, and no more.
+
+"So much for the griffin's soup!" thought he.
+
+He waited patiently for some time, when the griffiness, waving her claw
+from the window, said cheerfully, "All's right, my dear Reynard; my papa
+has finished his soup, and sleeps as sound as a rock!  All the noise in
+the world would not wake him now, till he has slept off the boiled cat,
+which won't be these twelve hours.  Come and assist me in packing up the
+treasure; I should be sorry to leave a single diamond behind."
+
+"So should I," quoth the fox.  "Stay, I'll come round by the lower hole:
+why, the door's shut! pray, beautiful griffiness, open it to thy
+impatient adorer."
+
+"Alas, my father has hid the key!  I never know where he places it.  You
+must come up by the basket; see, I will lower it for you."
+
+The fox was a little loth to trust himself in the same conveyance that
+had taken his mistress to be boiled; but the most cautious grow rash when
+money's to be gained, and avarice can trap even a fox.  So he put himself
+as comfortably as he could into the basket, and up he went in an instant.
+It rested, however, just before it reached the window, and the fox felt,
+with a slight shudder, the claw of the griffiness stroking his back.
+
+"Oh, what a beautiful coat!" quoth she, caressingly.
+
+"You are too kind," said the fox; "but you can feel it more at your
+leisure when I am once up.  Make haste, I beseech you."
+
+"Oh, what a beautiful bushy tail!  Never did I feel such a tail."
+
+"It is entirely at your service, sweet griffiness," said the fox; "but
+pray let me in.  Why lose an instant?"
+
+"No, never did I feel such a tail!  No wonder you are so successful with
+the ladies."
+
+"Ah, beloved griffiness, my tail is yours to eternity, but you pinch it a
+little too hard."
+
+Scarcely had he said this, when down dropped the basket, but not with the
+fox in it; he found himself caught by the tail, and dangling half way
+down the rock, by the help of the very same sort of pulley wherewith he
+had snared the dog.  I leave you to guess his consternation; he yelped
+out as loud as he could,--for it hurts a fox exceedingly to be hanged by
+his tail with his head downwards,--when the door of the rock opened, and
+out stalked the griffin himself, smoking his pipe, with a vast crowd of
+all the fashionable beasts in the neighbourhood.
+
+"Oho, brother," said the bear, laughing fit to kill himself; "who ever
+saw a fox hanged by the tail before?"
+
+"You'll have need of a physician," quoth Doctor Ape.
+
+"A pretty match, indeed; a griffiness for such a creature as you!" said
+the goat, strutting by him.
+
+The fox grinned with pain, and said nothing.  But that which hurt him
+most was the compassion of a dull fool of a donkey, who assured him with
+great gravity that he saw nothing at all to laugh at in his situation!
+
+"At all events," said the fox, at last, "cheated, gulled, betrayed as I
+am, I have played the same trick to the dog.  Go and laugh at him,
+gentlemen; he deserves it as much as I can, I assure you."
+
+"Pardon me," said the griffin, taking the pipe out of his mouth; "one
+never laughs at the honest."
+
+"And see," said the bear, "here he is."
+
+And indeed the dog had, after much effort, gnawed the string in two, and
+extricated his paw; the scent of the fox had enabled him to track his
+footsteps, and here he arrived, burning for vengeance and finding himself
+already avenged.
+
+But his first thought was for his dear cousin.  "Ah, where is she?" he
+cried movingly; "without doubt that villain Reynard has served her some
+scurvy trick."
+
+"I fear so indeed, my old friend," answered the griffin; "but don't
+grieve,--after all, she was nothing particular.  You shall marry my
+daughter the griffiness, and succeed to all the treasure; ay, and all the
+bones that you once guarded so faithfully."
+
+"Talk not to me," said the faithful dog.  "I want none of your treasure;
+and, though I don't mean to be rude, your griffiness may go to the devil.
+I will run over the world, but I will find my dear cousin."
+
+"See her then," said the griffin; and the beautiful cat, more beautiful
+than ever, rushed out of the cavern, and threw herself into the dog's
+paws.
+
+A pleasant scene this for the fox!  He had skill enough in the female
+heart to know that it may excuse many little infidelities, but to be
+boiled alive for a griffin's soup--no, the offence was inexpiable.
+
+"You understand me, Mr. Reynard," said the griffin, "I have no daughter,
+and it was me you made love to.  Knowing what sort of a creature a magpie
+is, I amused myself with hoaxing her,--the fashionable amusement at
+court, you know."
+
+The fox made a mighty struggle, and leaped on the ground, leaving his
+tail behind him.  It did not grow again in a hurry.
+
+"See," said the griffin, as the beasts all laughed at the figure Reynard
+made running into the wood, "the dog beats the fox with the ladies, after
+all; and cunning as he is in everything else, the fox is the last
+creature that should ever think of making love!"
+
+
+
+"Charming!" cried Nymphalin, clasping her hands; "it is just the sort of
+story I like."
+
+"And I suppose, sir," said Nip, pertly, "that the dog and the cat lived
+very happily ever afterwards?  Indeed the nuptial felicity of a dog and
+cat is proverbial!"
+
+"I dare say they lived much the same as any other married couple,"
+answered the prince.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE TOMB OF A FATHER OF MANY CHILDREN.
+
+THE feast being now ended, as well as the story, the fairies wound their
+way homeward by a different path, till at length a red steady light
+glowed through the long basaltic arches upon them, like the Demon
+Hunters' fires in the Forest of Pines.
+
+The prince sobered in his pace.  "You approach," said he, in a grave
+tone, "the greatest of our temples; you will witness the tomb of a mighty
+founder of our race!"  An awe crept over the queen, in spite of herself.
+Tracking the fires in silence, they came to a vast space, in the midst of
+which was a long gray block of stone, such as the traveller finds amidst
+the dread silence of Egyptian Thebes.
+
+And on this stone lay the gigantic figure of a man,--dead, but not
+death-like, for invisible spells had preserved the flesh and the long
+hair for untold ages; and beside him lay a rude instrument of music, and
+at his feet was a sword and a hunter's spear; and above, the rock wound,
+hollowed and roofless, to the upper air, and daylight came through,
+sickened and pale, beneath red fires that burned everlastingly around
+him, on such simple altars as belong to a savage race.  But the place was
+not solitary, for many motionless but not lifeless shapes sat on large
+blocks of stone beside the tomb.  There was the wizard, wrapped in his
+long black mantle, and his face covered with his hands; there was the
+uncouth and deformed dwarf, gibbering to himself; there sat the household
+elf; there glowered from a gloomy rent in the wall, with glittering eyes
+and shining scale, the enormous dragon of the North.  An aged crone in
+rags, leaning on a staff, and gazing malignantly on the visitors, with
+bleared but fiery eyes, stood opposite the tomb of the gigantic dead.
+And now the fairies themselves completed the group!  But all was dumb and
+unutterably silent,--the silence that floats over some antique city of
+the desert, when, for the first time for a hundred centuries, a living
+foot enters its desolate remains; the silence that belongs to the dust of
+eld,--deep, solemn, palpable, and sinking into the heart with a leaden
+and death-like weight.  Even the English fairy spoke not; she held her
+breath, and gazing on the tomb, she saw, in rude vast characters,--
+
+     THE TEUTON.
+
+"/We/ are all that remain of his religion!" said the prince, as they
+turned from the dread temple.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE FAIRY'S CAVE, AND THE FAIRY'S WISH.
+
+IT was evening; and the fairies were dancing beneath the twilight star.
+
+"And why art thou sad, my violet?" said the prince; "for thine eyes seek
+the ground!"
+
+"Now that I have found thee," answered the queen, "and now that I feel
+what happy love is to a fairy, I sigh over that love which I have lately
+witnessed among mortals, but the bud of whose happiness already conceals
+the worm.  For well didst thou say, my prince, that we are linked with a
+mysterious affinity to mankind, and whatever is pure and gentle amongst
+them speaks at once to our sympathy, and commands our vigils."
+
+"And most of all," said the German fairy, "are they who love under our
+watch; for love is the golden chain that binds all in the universe: love
+lights up alike the star and the glow-worm; and wherever there is love in
+men's lot, lies the secret affinity with men, and with things divine."
+
+"But with the human race," said Nymphalin, "there is no love that
+outlasts the hour, for either death ends, or custom alters.  When the
+blossom comes to fruit, it is plucked and seen no more; and therefore,
+when I behold true love sentenced to an early grave, I comfort myself
+that I shall not at least behold the beauty dimmed, and the softness of
+the heart hardened into stone.  Yet, my prince, while still the pulse can
+beat, and the warm blood flow, in that beautiful form which I have
+watched over of late, let me not desert her; still let my influence keep
+the sky fair, and the breezes pure; still let me drive the vapour from
+the moon, and the clouds from the faces of the stars; still let me fill
+her dreams with tender and brilliant images, and glass in the mirror of
+sleep the happiest visions of fairy-land; still let me pour over her eyes
+that magic, which suffers them to see no fault in one in whom she has
+garnered up her soul!  And as death comes slowly on, still let me rob the
+spectre of its terror, and the grave of its sting; so that, all gently
+and unconscious to herself, life may glide into the Great Ocean where the
+shadows lie, and the spirit without guile may be severed from its mansion
+without pain!"
+
+The wish of the fairy was fulfilled.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE BANKS OF THE RHINE.--FROM THE DRACHENFELS TO BROHL.--AN INCIDENT THAT
+SUFFICES IN THIS TALE FOR AN EPOCH.
+
+FROM the Drachenfels commences the true glory of the Rhine; and once more
+Gertrude's eyes conquered the languor that crept gradually over them as
+she gazed on the banks around.
+
+Fair blew the breeze, and freshly curled the waters; and Gertrude did not
+feel the vulture that had fixed its talons within her breast.  The Rhine
+widens, like a broad lake, between the Drachenfels and Unkel; villages
+are scattered over the extended plain on the left; on the right is the
+Isle of Werth and the houses of Oberwinter; the hills are covered with
+vines; and still Gertrude turned back with a lingering gaze to the lofty
+crest of the Seven Hills.
+
+On, on--and the spires of Unkel rose above a curve in the banks, and on
+the opposite shore stretched those wondrous basaltic columns which extend
+to the middle of the river, and when the Rhine runs low, you may see them
+like an engulfed city beneath the waves.  You then view the ruins of
+Okkenfels, and hear the voice of the pastoral Gasbach pouring its waters
+into the Rhine.  From amidst the clefts of the rocks the vine peeps
+luxuriantly forth, and gives a richness and colouring to what Nature,
+left to herself, intended for the stern.
+
+"But turn your eye backward to the right," said Trevylyan; "those banks
+were formerly the special haunt of the bold robbers of the Rhine, and
+from amidst the entangled brakes that then covered the ragged cliffs they
+rushed upon their prey.  In the gloomy canvas of those feudal days what
+vigorous and mighty images were crowded!  A robber's life amidst these
+mountains, and beside this mountain stream, must have been the very
+poetry of the spot carried into action."
+
+They rested at Brohl, a small town between two mountains.  On the summit
+of one you see the gray remains of Rheinech.  There is something weird
+and preternatural about the aspect of this place; its soil betrays signs
+that in the former ages (from which even tradition is fast fading away)
+some volcano here exhausted its fires.  The stratum of the earth is black
+and pitchy, and the springs beneath it are of a dark and graveolent
+water.  Here the stream of the Brohlbach falls into the Rhine, and in a
+valley rich with oak and pine, and full of caverns, which are not without
+their traditionary inmates, stands the castle of Schweppenbourg, which
+our party failed not to visit.
+
+Gertrude felt fatigued on their return, and Trevylyan sat by her in the
+little inn, while Vane went forth, with the curiosity of science, to
+examine the strata of the soil.
+
+They conversed in the frankness of their plighted troth upon those topics
+which are only for lovers: upon the bright chapter in the history of
+their love; their first meeting; their first impressions; the little
+incidents in their present journey,--incidents noticed by themselves
+alone; that life /within/ life which two persons know together,--which
+one knows not without the other, which ceases to both the instant they
+are divided.
+
+"I know not what the love of others may be," said Gertrude, "but ours
+seems different from all of which I have read.  Books tell us of
+jealousies and misconstructions, and the necessity of an absence, the
+sweetness of a quarrel; but we, dearest Albert, have had no experience of
+these passages in love.  /We/ have never misunderstood each other; /we/
+have no reconciliation to look back to.  When was there ever occasion for
+me to ask forgiveness from you?  Our love is made up only of one
+memory,--unceasing kindness!  A harsh word, a wronging thought, never
+broke in upon the happiness we have felt and feel."
+
+"Dearest Gertrude," said Trevylyan, "that character of our love is caught
+from you; you, the soft, the gentle, have been its pervading genius; and
+the well has been smooth and pure, for you were the spirit that lived
+within its depths."
+
+And to such talk succeeded silence still more sweet,--the silence of the
+hushed and overflowing heart.  The last voices of the birds, the sun
+slowly sinking in the west, the fragrance of descending dews, filled them
+with that deep and mysterious sympathy which exists between Love and
+Nature.
+
+It was after such a silence--a long silence, that seemed but as a
+moment--that Trevylyan spoke, but Gertrude answered not; and, yearning
+once more for her sweet voice, he turned and saw that she had fainted
+away.
+
+This was the first indication of the point to which her increasing
+debility had arrived.  Trevylyan's heart stood still, and then beat
+violently; a thousand fears crept over him; he clasped her in his arms,
+and bore her to the open window.  The setting sun fell upon her
+countenance, from which the play of the young heart and warm fancy had
+fled, and in its deep and still repose the ravages of disease were darkly
+visible.  What were then his emotions!  His heart was like stone; but he
+felt a rush as of a torrent to his temples: his eyes grew dizzy,--he was
+stunned by the greatness of his despair.  For the last week he had taken
+hope for his companion; Gertrude had seemed so much stronger, for her
+happiness had given her a false support.  And though there had been
+moments when, watching the bright hectic come and go, and her step
+linger, and the breath heave short, he had felt the hope suddenly cease,
+yet never had he known till now that fulness of anguish, that dread
+certainty of the worst, which the calm, fair face before him struck into
+his soul; and mixed with this agony as he gazed was all the passion of
+the most ardent love.  For there she lay in his arms, the gentle breath
+rising from lips where the rose yet lingered, and the long, rich hair,
+soft and silken as an infant's, stealing from its confinement: everything
+that belonged to Gertrude's beauty was so inexpressibly soft and pure and
+youthful!  Scarcely seventeen, she seemed much younger than she was; her
+figure had sunken from its roundness, but still how light, how lovely
+were its wrecks! the neck whiter than snow, the fair small hand!  Her
+weight was scarcely felt in the arms of her lover; and he--what a
+contrast!--was in all the pride and flower of glorious manhood!  His was
+the lofty brow, the wreathing hair, the haughty eye, the elastic form;
+and upon this frail, perishable thing had he fixed all his heart, all the
+hopes of his youth, the pride of his manhood, his schemes, his energies,
+his ambition!
+
+"Oh, Gertrude!" cried he, "is it--is it thus--is there indeed no hope?"
+
+And Gertrude now slowly recovering, and opening her eyes upon Trevylyan's
+face, the revulsion was so great, his emotions so overpowering, that,
+clasping her to his bosom, as if even death should not tear her away from
+him, he wept over her in an agony of tears; not those tears that relieve
+the heart, but the fiery rain of the internal storm, a sign of the fierce
+tumult that shook the very core of his existence, not a relief.
+
+Awakened to herself, Gertrude, in amazement and alarm, threw her arms
+around his neck, and, looking wistfully into his face, implored him to
+speak to her.
+
+"Was it my illness, love?" said she; and the music of her voice only
+conveyed to him the thought of how soon it would be dumb to him forever.
+"Nay," she continued winningly, "it was but the heat of the day; I am
+better now,--I am well; there is no cause to be alarmed for me!" and with
+all the innocent fondness of extreme youth, she kissed the burning tears
+from his eyes.
+
+There was a playfulness, an innocence in this poor girl, so unconscious
+as yet of her destiny, which rendered her fate doubly touching, and which
+to the stern Trevylyan, hackneyed by the world, made her irresistible
+charm; and now as she put aside her hair, and looked up gratefully, yet
+pleadingly, into his face, he could scarce refrain from pouring out to
+her the confession of his anguish and despair.  But the necessity of
+self-control, the necessity of concealing from /her/ a knowledge which
+might only, by impressing her imagination, expedite her doom, while it
+would embitter to her mind the unconscious enjoyment of the hour, nerved
+and manned him.  He checked by those violent efforts which only men can
+make, the evidence of his emotions; and endeavoured, by a rapid torrent
+of words, to divert her attention from a weakness, the causes of which he
+could not explain.  Fortunately Vane soon returned, and Trevylyan,
+consigning Gertrude to his care, hastily left the room.
+
+Gertrude sank into a revery.
+
+"Ah, dear father!" said she, suddenly, and after a pause, "if I indeed
+were worse than I have thought myself of late, if I were to die now, what
+would Trevylyan feel?  Pray God I may live for his sake!"
+
+"My child, do not talk thus; you are better, much better than you were.
+Ere the autumn ends, Trevylyan's happiness will be your lawful care.  Do
+not think so despondently of yourself."
+
+"I thought not of myself," sighed Gertrude, "but of /him/!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+GERTRUDE.--THE EXCURSION TO HAMMERSTEIN.--THOUGHTS.
+
+THE next day they visited the environs of Brohl.  Gertrude was unusually
+silent; for her temper, naturally sunny and enthusiastic, was accustomed
+to light up everything she saw.  Ah, once how bounding was that step! how
+undulating the young graces of that form! how playfully once danced the
+ringlets on that laughing cheek!  But she clung to Trevylyan's proud form
+with a yet more endearing tenderness than was her wont, and hung yet more
+eagerly on his words; her hand sought his, and she often pressed it to
+her lips, and sighed as she did so.  Something that she would not tell
+seemed passing within her, and sobered her playful mood.  But there was
+this noticeable in Gertrude: whatever took away from her gayety increased
+her tenderness.  The infirmities of her frame never touched her temper.
+She was kind, gentle, loving to the last.
+
+They had crossed to the opposite banks, to visit the Castle of
+Hammerstein.  The evening was transparently serene and clear; and the
+warmth of the sun yet lingered upon the air, even though the twilight had
+passed and the moon risen, as their boat returned by a lengthened passage
+to the village.  Broad and straight flows the Rhine in this part of its
+career.  On one side lay the wooded village of Namedy, the hamlet of
+Fornech, backed by the blue rock of Kruezborner Ley, the mountains that
+shield the mysterious Brohl; and on the opposite shore they saw the
+mighty rock of Hammerstein, with the green and livid ruins sleeping in
+the melancholy moonlight.  Two towers rose haughtily above the more
+dismantled wrecks.  How changed since the alternate banners of the
+Spaniard and the Swede waved from their ramparts, in that great war in
+which the gorgeous Wallenstein won his laurels!  And in its mighty calm
+flowed on the ancestral Rhine, the vessel reflected on its smooth
+expanse; and above, girded by thin and shadowy clouds, the moon cast her
+shadows upon rocks covered with verdure, and brought into a dim light the
+twin spires of Andernach, tranquil in the distance.
+
+"How beautiful is this hour!" said Gertrude, with a low voice, "surely we
+do not live enough in the night; one half the beauty of the world is
+slept away.  What in the day can equal the holy calm, the loveliness, and
+the stillness which the moon now casts over the earth?  These," she
+continued, pressing Trevylyan's hand, "are hours to remember; and
+/you/--will you ever forget them?"
+
+Something there is in recollections of such times and scenes that seem
+not to belong to real life, but are rather an episode in its history;
+they are like some wandering into a more ideal world; they refuse to
+blend with our ruder associations; they live in us, apart and alone, to
+be treasured ever, but not lightly to be recalled.  There are none living
+to whom we can confide them,--who can sympathize with what then we felt?
+It is this that makes poetry, and that page which we create as a
+confidant to ourselves, necessary to the thoughts that weigh upon the
+breast.  We write, for our writing is our friend, the inanimate paper is
+our confessional; we pour forth on it the thoughts that we could tell to
+no private ear, and are relieved, are consoled.  And if genius has one
+prerogative dearer than the rest, it is that which enables it to do
+honour to the dead,--to revive the beauty, the virtue that are no more;
+to wreathe chaplets that outlive the day around the urn which were else
+forgotten by the world!
+
+When the poet mourns, in his immortal verse, for the dead, tell me not
+that fame is in his mind!  It is filled by thoughts, by emotions that
+shut out the living.  He is breathing to his genius--to that sole and
+constant friend which has grown up with him from his cradle--the sorrows
+too delicate for human sympathy! and when afterwards he consigns the
+confession to the crowd, it is indeed from the hope of honour--, honour
+not for himself, but for the being that is no more.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+LETTER FROM TREVYLYAN TO -----.
+                         COBLENTZ.
+
+I AM obliged to you, my dear friend, for your letter; which, indeed, I
+have not, in the course of our rapid journey, had the leisure, perhaps
+the heart, to answer before.  But we are staying in this town for some
+days, and I write now in the early morning, ere any one else in our hotel
+is awake.  Do not tell me of adventure, of politics, of intrigues; my
+nature is altered.  I threw down your letter, animated and brilliant as
+it was, with a sick and revolted heart.  But I am now in somewhat less
+dejected spirits.  Gertrude is better,--yes, really better; there is a
+physician here who gives me hope; my care is perpetually to amuse, and
+never to fatigue her,--never to permit her thoughts to rest upon herself.
+For I have imagined that illness cannot, at least in the unexhausted
+vigour of our years, fasten upon us irremediably unless we feed it with
+our own belief in its existence.  You see men of the most delicate frames
+engaged in active and professional pursuits, who literally have no time
+for illness.  Let them become idle, let them take care of themselves, let
+them think of their health--and they die!  The rust rots the steel which
+use preserves; and, thank Heaven, although Gertrude, once during our
+voyage, seemed roused, by an inexcusable imprudence of emotion on my
+part, into some suspicion of her state, yet it passed away; for she
+thinks rarely of herself,--I am ever in her thoughts and seldom from her
+side, and you know, too, the sanguine and credulous nature of her
+disease.  But, indeed, I now hope more than I have done since I knew her.
+
+When, after an excited and adventurous life which had comprised so many
+changes in so few years, I found myself at rest in the bosom of a retired
+and remote part of the country, and Gertrude and her father were my only
+neighbours, I was in that state of mind in which the passions, recruited
+by solitude, are accessible to the purer and more divine emotions.  I was
+struck by Gertrude's beauty, I was charmed by her simplicity.  Worn in
+the usages and fashions of the world, the inexperience, the trustfulness,
+the exceeding youth of her mind, charmed and touched me; but when I saw
+the stamp of our national disease in her bright eye and transparent
+cheek, I felt my love chilled while my interest was increased.  I fancied
+myself safe, and I went daily into the danger; I imagined so pure a light
+could not burn, and I was consumed.  Not till my anxiety grew into pain,
+my interest into terror, did I know the secret of my own heart; and at
+the moment that I discovered this secret, I discovered also that Gertrude
+loved me!  What a destiny was mine! what happiness, yet what misery!
+Gertrude was my own--but for what period?  I might touch that soft hand,
+I might listen to the tenderest confession from that silver voice; but
+all the while my heart spoke of passion, my reason whispered of death.
+You know that I am considered of a cold and almost callous nature, that I
+am not easily moved into affection; but my very pride bowed me here into
+weakness.  There was so soft a demand upon my protection, so constant an
+appeal to my anxiety.  You know that my father's quick temper burns
+within me, that I am hot, and stern, and exacting; but one hasty word,
+one thought of myself, here were inexcusable.  So brief a time might be
+left for her earthly happiness,--could I embitter one moment?  All that
+feeling of uncertainty which should in prudence have prevented my love,
+increased it almost to a preternatural excess.  That which it is said
+mothers feel for an only child in sickness, I feel for Gertrude.  /My/
+existence is not!--I exist in her!
+
+Her illness increased upon her at home; they have recommended travel.
+She chose the course we were to pursue, and, fortunately, it was so
+familiar to me, that I have been enabled to brighten the way.  I am ever
+on the watch that she shall not know a weary hour; you would almost smile
+to see how I have roused myself from my habitual silence, and to find
+me--me, the scheming and worldly actor of real life--plunged back into
+the early romance of my boyhood, and charming the childish delight of
+Gertrude with the invention of fables and the traditions of the Rhine.
+
+But I believe that I have succeeded in my object; if not, what is left to
+me?  /Gertrude is better!/--In that sentence what visions of hope dawn
+upon me!  I wish you could have seen Gertrude before we left England; you
+might then have understood my love for her.  Not that we have not, in the
+gay capitals of Europe, paid our brief vows to forms more richly
+beautiful; not that we have not been charmed by a more brilliant genius,
+by a more tutored grace.  But there is that in Gertrude which I never saw
+before,--the union of the childish and the intellectual, an ethereal
+simplicity, a temper that is never dimmed, a tenderness--O God! let me
+not speak of her virtues, for they only tell me how little she is suited
+to the earth.
+
+You will direct to me at Mayence, whither our course now leads us, and
+your friendship will find indulgence for a letter that is so little a
+reply to yours.
+
+     Your sincere friend,
+
+          A. G. TREVYLYAN.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+COBLENTZ.--EXCURSION TO THE MOUNTAINS OF TAUNUS; ROMAN TOWER IN THE
+VALLEY OF EHRENBREITSTEIN.--TRAVEL, ITS PLEASURES ESTIMATED DIFFERENTLY
+BY THE YOUNG AND THE OLD.--THE STUDENT OF HEIDELBERG; HIS CRITICISMS ON
+GERMAN LITERATURE.
+
+GERTRUDE had, indeed, apparently rallied during their stay at Coblentz;
+and a French physician established in the town (who adopted a peculiar
+treatment for consumption, which had been attended with no ordinary
+success) gave her father and Trevylyan a sanguine assurance of her
+ultimate recovery.  The time they passed within the white walls of
+Coblentz was, therefore, the happiest and most cheerful part of their
+pilgrimage.  They visited the various places in its vicinity; but the
+excursion which most delighted Gertrude was one to the mountains of
+Taunus.
+
+They took advantage of a beautiful September day; and, crossing the
+river, commenced their tour from the Thal, or valley of Ehrenbreitstein.
+They stopped on their way to view the remains of a Roman tower in the
+valley; for the whole of that district bears frequent witness of the
+ancient conquerors of the world.  The mountains of Taunus are still
+intersected with the roads which the Romans cut to the mines that
+supplied them with silver.  Roman urns and inscribed stones are often
+found in these ancient places.  The stones, inscribed with names utterly
+unknown,--a type of the uncertainty of fame! the urns, from which the
+dust is gone, a very satire upon life!
+
+Lone, gray, and mouldering, this tower stands aloft in the valley; and
+the quiet Vane smiled to see the uniform of a modern Prussian, with his
+white belt and lifted bayonet, by the spot which had once echoed to the
+clang of the Roman arms.  The soldier was paying a momentary court to a
+country damsel, whose straw hat and rustic dress did not stifle the
+vanity of the sex; and this rude and humble gallantry, in that spot, was
+another moral in the history of human passions.  Above, the ramparts of a
+modern rule frowned down upon the solitary tower, as if in the vain
+insolence with which present power looks upon past decay,--the living
+race upon ancestral greatness.  And indeed, in this respect, rightly! for
+modern times have no parallel to that degradation of human dignity
+stamped upon the ancient world by the long sway of the Imperial Harlot,
+all slavery herself, yet all tyranny to earth; and, like her own
+Messalina, at once a prostitute and an empress!
+
+They continued their course by the ancient baths of Ems, and keeping by
+the banks of the romantic Lahn, arrived at Holzapfel.
+
+"Ah," said Gertrude, one day, as they proceeded to the springs of the
+Carlovingian Wiesbaden, "surely perpetual travel with those we love must
+be the happiest state of existence!  If home has its comforts, it also
+has its cares; but here we are at home with Nature, and the minor evils
+vanish almost before they are felt."
+
+"True," said Trevylyan, "we escape from 'THE LITTLE,' which is the curse
+of life; the small cares that devour us up, the grievances of the day.
+We are feeding the divinest part of our nature,--the appetite to admire."
+
+"But of all things wearisome," said Vane, "a succession of changes is the
+most.  There can be a monotony in variety itself.  As the eye aches in
+gazing long at the new shapes of the kaleidoscope, the mind aches at the
+fatigue of a constant alternation of objects; and we delightedly return
+to 'REST,' which is to life what green is to the earth."
+
+In the course of their sojourn among the various baths of Taunus, they
+fell in, by accident, with a German student of Heidelberg, who was
+pursuing the pedestrian excursions so peculiarly favoured by his tribe.
+He was tamer and gentler than the general herd of those young wanderers,
+and our party were much pleased with his enthusiasm, because it was
+unaffected.  He had been in England, and spoke its language almost as a
+native.
+
+"Our literature," said he, one day, conversing with Vane, "has two
+faults,--we are too subtle and too homely.  We do not speak enough to the
+broad comprehension of mankind; we are forever making abstract qualities
+of flesh and blood.  Our critics have turned your 'Hamlet' into an
+allegory; they will not even allow Shakspeare to paint mankind, but
+insist on his embodying qualities.  They turn poetry into metaphysics,
+and truth seems to them shallow, unless an allegory, which is false, can
+be seen at the bottom.  Again, too, with our most imaginative works we
+mix a homeliness that we fancy touching, but which in reality is
+ludicrous.  We eternally step from the sublime to the ridiculous; we want
+taste."
+
+"But not, I hope, French taste.  Do not govern a Goethe, or even a
+Richter, by a Boileau!" said Trevylyan.
+
+"No; but Boileau's taste was false.  Men who have the reputation for good
+taste often acquire it solely because of the want of genius.  By taste I
+mean a quick tact into the harmony of composition, the art of making the
+whole consistent with its parts, the /concinnitas/.  Schiller alone of
+our authors has it.  But we are fast mending; and by following shadows so
+long we have been led at last to the substance.  Our past literature is
+to us what astrology was to science,--false but ennobling, and conducting
+us to the true language of the intellectual heaven."
+
+Another time the scenes they passed, interspersed with the ruins of
+frequent monasteries, leading them to converse on the monastic life, and
+the various additions time makes to religion, the German said: "Perhaps
+one of the works most wanted in the world is the history of Religion.  We
+have several books, it is true, on the subject, but none that supply the
+want I allude to.  A German ought to write it; for it is, probably, only
+a German that would have the requisite learning.  A German only, too, is
+likely to treat the mighty subject with boldness, and yet with
+veneration; without the shallow flippancy of the Frenchman, without the
+timid sectarianism of the English.  It would be a noble task, to trace
+the winding mazes of antique falsehood; to clear up the first glimmerings
+of divine truth; to separate Jehovah's word from man's invention; to
+vindicate the All-merciful from the dread creeds of bloodshed and of
+fear: and, watching in the great Heaven of Truth the dawning of the True
+Star, follow it--like the Magi of the East--till it rested above the real
+God.  Not indeed presuming to such a task," continued the German, with a
+slight blush, "I have about me a humble essay, which treats only of one
+part of that august subject; which, leaving to a loftier genius the
+history of the true religion, may be considered as the history of a false
+one,--of such a creed as Christianity supplanted in the North; or such as
+may perhaps be found among the fiercest of the savage tribes.  It is a
+fiction--as you may conceive; but yet, by a constant reference to the
+early records of human learning, I have studied to weave it up from
+truths.  If you would like to hear it,--it is very short--"
+
+"Above all things," said Vane; and the German drew a manuscript neatly
+bound from his pocket.
+
+"After having myself criticised so insolently the faults of our national
+literature," said he, smiling, "you will have a right to criticise the
+faults that belong to so humble a disciple of it; but you will see that,
+though I have commenced with the allegorical or the supernatural, I have
+endeavoured to avoid the subtlety of conceit, and the obscurity of
+design, which I blame in the wilder of our authors.  As to the style, I
+wished to suit it to the subject; it ought to be, unless I err, rugged
+and massive,--hewn, as it were, out of the rock of primeval language.
+But you, madam--doubtless you do not understand German?"
+
+"Her mother was an Austrian," said Vane; "and she knows at least enough
+of the tongue to understand you; so pray begin."
+
+Without further preface, the German then commenced the story, which the
+reader will find translated* in the next chapter.
+
+  * Nevertheless I beg to state seriously, that the German student
+    is an impostor; and that he has no right to wrest the parentage
+    of the fiction from the true author.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE FALLEN STAR; OR THE HISTORY OF A FALSE RELIGION.
+
+AND the STARS sat, each on his ruby throne, and watched with sleepless
+eyes upon the world.  It was the night ushering in the new year, a night
+on which every star receives from the archangel that then visits the
+universal galaxy its peculiar charge.  The destinies of men and empires
+are then portioned forth for the coming year, and, unconsciously to
+ourselves, our fates become minioned to the stars.  A hushed and solemn
+night is that in which the dark gates of time open to receive the ghost
+of the Dead Year, and the young and radiant Stranger rushes forth from
+the clouded chasms of Eternity.  On that night, it is said that there are
+given to the spirits that we see not a privilege and a power; the dead
+are troubled in their forgotten graves, and men feast and laugh, while
+demon and angel are contending for their doom.
+
+It was night in heaven; all was unutterably silent; the music of the
+spheres had paused, and not a sound came from the angels of the stars;
+and they who sat upon those shining thrones were three thousand and ten,
+each resembling each.  Eternal youth clothed their radiant limbs with
+celestial beauty, and on their faces was written the dread of calm,--that
+fearful stillness which feels not, sympathizes not with the doom over
+which it broods.  War, tempest, pestilence, the rise of empires and their
+fall, they ordain, they compass, unexultant and uncompassionate.  The
+fell and thrilling crimes that stalk abroad when the world sleeps,--the
+parricide with his stealthy step and horrent brow and lifted knife; the
+unwifed mother that glides out and looks behind, and behind, and
+shudders, and casts her babe upon the river, and hears the wail, and
+pities not--the splash, and does not tremble,--these the starred kings
+behold, to these they lead the unconscious step; but the guilt blanches
+not their lustre, neither doth remorse wither their unwrinkled youth.
+Each star wore a kingly diadem; round the loins of each was a graven
+belt, graven with many and mighty signs; and the foot of each was on a
+burning ball, and the right arm drooped over the knee as they bent down
+from their thrones.  They moved not a limb or feature, save the finger of
+the right hand, which ever and anon moved slowly pointing, and regulated
+the fates of men as the hand of the dial speaks the career of time.
+
+One only of the three thousand and ten wore not the same aspect as his
+crowned brethren,--a star smaller than the rest, and less luminous; the
+countenance of this star was not impressed with the awful calmness of the
+others, but there were sullenness and discontent upon his mighty brow.
+
+And this star said to himself, "Behold! I am created less glorious than
+my fellows, and the archangel apportions not to me the same lordly
+destinies.  Not for me are the dooms of kings and bards, the rulers of
+empires, or, yet nobler, the swayers and harmonists of souls.  Sluggish
+are the spirits and base the lot of the men I am ordained to lead through
+a dull life to a fameless grave.  And wherefore?  Is it mine own fault,
+or is it the fault which is not mine, that I was woven of beams less
+glorious than my brethren?  Lo! when the archangel comes, I will bow not
+my crowned head to his decrees.  I will speak, as the ancestral Lucifer
+before me: /he/ rebelled because of his glory, /I/ because of my
+obscurity; /he/ from the ambition of pride, and /I/ from its discontent."
+
+And while the star was thus communing with himself, the upward heavens
+were parted as by a long river of light, and adown that stream swiftly,
+and without sound, sped the archangel visitor of the stars.  His vast
+limbs floated in the liquid lustre, and his outspread wings, each plume
+the glory of a sun, bore him noiselessly along; but thick clouds veiled
+his lustre from the eyes of mortals, and while above all was bathed in
+the serenity of his splendour, tempest and storm broke below over the
+children of the earth: "He bowed the heavens and came down, and darkness
+was under his feet."
+
+And the stillness on the faces of the stars became yet more still, and
+the awfulness was humbled into awe.  Right above their thrones paused the
+course of the archangel; and his wings stretched from east to west,
+overshadowing with the shadow of light the immensity of space.  Then
+forth, in the shining stillness, rolled the dread music of his voice:
+and, fulfilling the heraldry of God, to each star he appointed the duty
+and the charge; and each star bowed his head yet lower as he heard the
+fiat, while his throne rocked and trembled at the Majesty of the Word.
+But at last, when each of the brighter stars had, in succession, received
+the mandate, and the viceroyalty over the nations of the earth, the
+purple and diadems of kings, the archangel addressed the lesser star as
+he sat apart from his fellows.
+
+"Behold," said the archangel, "the rude tribes of the North, the
+fishermen of the river that flows beneath, and the hunters of the forests
+that darken the mountain tops with verdure! these be thy charge, and
+their destinies thy care.  Nor deem thou, O Star of the sullen beams,
+that thy duties are less glorious than the duties of thy brethren; for
+the peasant is not less to thy master and mine than the monarch; nor doth
+the doom of empires rest more upon the sovereign than on the herd.  The
+passions and the heart are the dominion of the stars,--a mighty realm;
+nor less mighty beneath the hide that garbs the shepherd than under the
+jewelled robes of the eastern kings."
+
+Then the star lifted his pale front from his breast, and answered the
+archangel.
+
+"Lo!" he said, "ages have passed, and each year thou hast appointed me to
+the same ignoble charge.  Release me, I pray thee, from the duties that I
+scorn; or, if thou wilt that the lowlier race of men be my charge, give
+unto me the charge not of many, but of one, and suffer me to breathe into
+him the desire that spurns the valleys of life, and ascends its steeps.
+If the humble are given to me, let there be amongst them one whom I may
+lead on the mission that shall abase the proud; for, behold, O Appointer
+of the Stars, as I have sat for uncounted years upon my solitary throne,
+brooding over the things beneath, my spirit hath gathered wisdom from the
+changes that shift below.  Looking upon the tribes of earth, I have seen
+how the multitude are swayed, and tracked the steps that lead weakness
+into power; and fain would I be the ruler of one who, if abased, shall
+aspire to rule."
+
+As a sudden cloud over the face of noon was the change on the brow of the
+archangel.
+
+"Proud and melancholy star," said the herald, "thy wish would war with
+the courses of the invisible DESTINY, that, throned far above, sways and
+harmonizes all,--the source from which the lesser rivers of fate are
+eternally gushing through the heart of the universe of things.  Thinkest
+thou that thy wisdom, of itself, can lead the peasant to become a king?"
+
+And the crowned star gazed undauntedly on the face of the archangel, and
+answered,--
+
+"Yea!  Grant me but one trial!"
+
+Ere the archangel could reply, the farthest centre of the Heaven was rent
+as by a thunderbolt; and the divine herald covered his face with his
+hands, and a voice low and sweet and mild, with the consciousness of
+unquestionable power, spoke forth to the repining star.
+
+"The time has arrived when thou mayest have thy wish.  Below thee, upon
+yon solitary plain, sits a mortal, gloomy as thyself, who, born under thy
+influence, may be moulded to thy will."
+
+The voice ceased as the voice of a dream.  Silence was over the seas of
+space, and the archangel, once more borne aloft, slowly soared away into
+the farther heaven, to promulgate the divine bidding to the stars of
+far-distant worlds.  But the soul of the discontented star exulted within
+itself; and it said, "I will call forth a king from the valley of the
+herdsman that shall trample on the kings subject to my fellows, and
+render the charge of the contemned star more glorious than the minions of
+its favoured brethren; thus shall I revenge neglect! thus shall I prove
+my claim hereafter to the heritage of the great of earth!"
+
+  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
+
+At that time, though the world had rolled on for ages, and the pilgrimage
+of man had passed through various states of existence, which our dim
+traditionary knowledge has not preserved, yet the condition of our race
+in the northern hemisphere was then what we, in our imperfect lore, have
+conceived to be among the earliest.
+
+  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
+
+By a rude and vast pile of stones, the masonry of arts forgotten, a
+lonely man sat at midnight, gazing upon the heavens.  A storm had just
+passed from the earth; the clouds had rolled away, and the high stars
+looked down upon the rapid waters of the Rhine; and no sound save the
+roar of the waves, and the dripping of the rain from the mighty trees,
+was heard around the ruined pile.  The white sheep lay scattered on the
+plain, and slumber with them.  He sat watching over the herd, lest the
+foes of a neighbouring tribe seized them unawares, and thus he communed
+with himself: "The king sits upon his throne, and is honoured by a
+warrior race, and the warrior exults in the trophies he has won; the step
+of the huntsman is bold upon the mountain-top, and his name is sung at
+night round the pine-fires by the lips of the bard; and the bard himself
+hath honour in the hall.  But I, who belong not to the race of kings, and
+whose limbs can bound not to the rapture of war, nor scale the eyries of
+the eagle and the haunts of the swift stag; whose hand cannot string the
+harp, and whose voice is harsh in the song,--/I/ have neither honour nor
+command, and men bow not the head as I pass along; yet do I feel within
+me the consciousness of a great power that should rule my species--not
+obey.  My eye pierces the secret hearts of men.  I see their thoughts ere
+their lips proclaim them; and I scorn, while I see, the weakness and the
+vices which I never shared.  I laugh at the madness of the warrior; I
+mock within my soul at the tyranny of kings.  Surely there is something
+in man's nature more fitted to command, more worthy of renown, than the
+sinews of the arm, or the swiftness of the feet, or the accident of
+birth!"
+
+As Morven, the son of Osslah, thus mused within himself, still looking at
+the heavens, the solitary man beheld a star suddenly shooting from its
+place, and speeding through the silent air, till it suddenly paused right
+over the midnight river, and facing the inmate of the pile of stones.
+
+As he gazed upon the star, strange thoughts grew slowly over him.  He
+drank, as it were, from its solemn aspect the spirit of a great design.
+A dark cloud rapidly passing over the earth snatched the star from his
+sight, but left to his awakened mind the thoughts and the dim scheme that
+had come to him as he gazed.
+
+When the sun arose, one of his brethren relieved him of his charge over
+the herd, and he went away, but not to his father's home.  Musingly he
+plunged into the dark and leafless recesses of the winter forest; and
+shaped out of his wild thoughts, more palpably and clearly, the outline
+of his daring hope.  While thus absorbed he heard a great noise in the
+forest, and, fearful lest the hostile tribe of the Alrich might pierce
+that way, he ascended one of the loftiest pine-trees, to whose perpetual
+verdure the winter had not denied the shelter he sought; and, concealed
+by its branches, he looked anxiously forth in the direction whence the
+noise had proceeded.  And IT came,--it came with a tramp and a crash, and
+a crushing tread upon the crunched boughs and matted leaves that strewed
+the soil; it came, it came,--the monster that the world now holds no
+more,--the mighty Mammoth of the North!  Slowly it moved its huge
+strength along, and its burning eyes glittered through the gloomy shade;
+its jaws, falling apart, showed the grinders with which it snapped
+asunder the young oaks of the forest; and the vast tusks, which, curved
+downward to the midst of its massive limbs, glistened white and ghastly,
+curdling the blood of one destined hereafter to be the dreadest ruler of
+the men of that distant age.
+
+The livid eyes of the monster fastened on the form of the herdsman, even
+amidst the thick darkness of the pine.  It paused, it glared upon him;
+its jaws opened, and a low deep sound, as of gathering thunder, seemed to
+the son of Osslah as the knell of a dreadful grave.  But after glaring on
+him for some moments, it again, and calmly, pursued its terrible way,
+crashing the boughs as it marched along, till the last sound of its heavy
+tread died away upon his ear.*
+
+  * /The Critic/ will perceive that this sketch of the beast, whose
+    race has perished, is mainly intended to designate the remote
+    period of the world in which the tale is cast.
+
+Ere yet, however, Morven summoned the courage to descend the tree, he saw
+the shining of arms through the bare branches of the wood, and presently
+a small band of the hostile Alrich came into sight.  He was perfectly
+hidden from them; and, listening as they passed him, he heard one say to
+another,--
+
+"The night covers all things; why attack them by day?"
+
+And he who seemed the chief of the band, answered,--
+
+"Right.  To-night, when they sleep in their city, we will upon them.  Lo!
+they will be drenched in wine, and fall like sheep into our hands."
+
+"But where, O chief," said a third of the band, "shall our men hide
+during the day? for there are many hunters among the youth of the
+Oestrich tribe, and they might see us in the forest unawares, and arm
+their race against our coming."
+
+"I have prepared for that," answered the chief.  "Is not the dark cavern
+of Oderlin at hand?  Will it not shelter us from the eyes of the
+victims?"
+
+Then the men laughed, and, shouting, they went their way adown the
+forest.
+
+When they were gone, Morven cautiously descended, and, striking into a
+broad path, hastened to a vale that lay between the forest and the river
+in which was the city where the chief of his country dwelt.  As he passed
+by the warlike men, giants in that day, who thronged the streets (if
+streets they might be called), their half garments parting from their
+huge limbs, the quiver at their backs, and the hunting spear in their
+hand, they laughed and shouted out, and, pointing to him, cried, "Morven
+the woman!  Morven the cripple! what dost thou among men?"
+
+For the son of Osslah was small in stature and of slender strength, and
+his step had halted from his birth; but he passed through the warriors
+unheedingly.  At the outskirts of the city he came upon a tall pile in
+which some old men dwelt by themselves, and counselled the king when
+times of danger, or when the failure of the season, the famine or the
+drought, perplexed the ruler, and clouded the savage fronts of his
+warrior tribe.
+
+They gave the counsels of experience, and when experience failed, they
+drew, in their believing ignorance, assurances and omens from the winds
+of heaven, the changes of the moon, and the flights of the wandering
+birds.  Filled--by the voices of the elements, and the variety of
+mysteries, which ever shift along the face of things, unsolved by the
+wonder which pauses not, the fear which believes, and that eternal
+reasoning of all experience, which assigns causes to effect--with the
+notion of superior powers, they assisted their ignorance by the
+conjectures of their superstition.  But as yet they knew no craft and
+practised no /voluntary/ delusion; they trembled too much at the
+mysteries which had created their faith to seek to belie them.  They
+counselled as they believed, and the bold dream of governing their
+warriors and their kings by the wisdom of deceit had never dared to cross
+men thus worn and gray with age.
+
+The son of Osslah entered the vast pile with a fearless step, and
+approached the place at the upper end of the hall where the old men sat
+in conclave.
+
+"How, base-born and craven-limbed!" cried the eldest, who had been a
+noted warrior in his day, "darest thou enter unsummoned amidst the secret
+councils of the wise men?  Knowest thou not, scatterling! that the
+penalty is death?"
+
+"Slay me, if thou wilt," answered Morven, "but hear!  As I sat last night
+in the ruined palace of our ancient kings, tending, as my father bade me,
+the sheep that grazed around, lest the fierce tribe of Alrich should
+descend unseen from the mountains upon the herd, a storm came darkly on;
+and when the storm had ceased, and I looked above on the sky, I saw a
+star descend from its height towards me, and a voice from the star said:
+'Son of Osslah, leave thy herd and seek the council of the wise men and
+say unto them, that they take thee as one of their number, or that sudden
+will be the destruction of them and theirs.'  But I had courage to answer
+the voice, and I said, 'Mock not the poor son of the herdsman.  Behold,
+they will kill me if I utter so rash a word, for I am poor and valueless
+in the eyes of the tribe of Oestrich, and the great in deeds and the gray
+of hair alone sit in the council of the wise men.'
+
+"Then the voice said: 'Do my bidding, and I will give thee a token that
+thou comest from the Powers that sway the seasons and sail upon the
+eagles of the winds.  Say unto the wise men this very night if they
+refuse to receive thee of their band, evil shall fall upon them, and the
+morrow shall dawn in blood.'
+
+"Then the voice ceased, and the cloud passed over the star; and I
+communed with myself, and came, O dread father, mournfully unto you; for
+I feared that ye would smite me because of my bold tongue, and that ye
+would sentence me to the death, in that I asked what may scarce be given
+even to the sons of kings."
+
+Then the grim elders looked one at the other, and marvelled much, nor
+knew they what answer they should make to the herdsman's son.
+
+At length one of the wise men said, "Surely there must be truth in the
+son of Osslah, for he would not dare to falsify the great lights of
+Heaven.  If he had given unto men the words of the star, verily we might
+doubt the truth.  But who would brave the vengeance of the gods of
+night?"
+
+Then the elders shook their heads approvingly; but one answered and
+said,--
+
+"Shall we take the herdsman's son as our equal?  No!"  The name of the
+man who thus answered was Darvan, and his words were pleasing to the
+elders.
+
+But Morven spoke out: "Of a truth, O councillors of kings, I look not to
+be an equal with yourselves.  Enough if I tend the gates of your palace,
+and serve you as the son of Osslah may serve;" and he bowed his head
+humbly as he spoke.
+
+Then said the chief of the elders, for he was wiser than the others, "But
+how wilt thou deliver us from the evil that is to come?  Doubtless the
+star has informed thee of the service thou canst render to us if we take
+thee into our palace, as well as the ill that will fall on us if we
+refuse."
+
+Morven answered meekly, "Surely, if thou acceptest thy servant, the star
+will teach him that which may requite thee; but as yet he knows only what
+he has uttered."
+
+Then the sages bade him withdraw, and they communed with themselves, and
+they differed much; but though fierce men, and bold at the war-cry of a
+human foe, they shuddered at the prophecy of a star.  So they resolved to
+take the son of Osslah, and suffer him to keep the gate of the
+council-hall.
+
+He heard their decree and bowed his head, and went to the gate, and sat
+down by it in silence.
+
+And the sun went down in the west, and the first stars of the twilight
+began to glimmer, when Morven started from his seat, and a trembling
+appeared to seize his limbs.  His lips foamed; an agony and a fear
+possessed him; he writhed as a man whom the spear of a foeman has pierced
+with a mortal wound, and suddenly fell upon his face on the stony earth.
+
+The elders approached him; wondering, they lifted him up.  He slowly
+recovered as from a swoon; his eyes rolled wildly.
+
+"Heard ye not the voice of the star?" he said.
+
+And the chief of the elders answered, "Nay, we heard no sound."
+
+Then Morven sighed heavily.
+
+"To me only the word was given.  Summon instantly, O councillors of the
+king, summon the armed men, and all the youth of the tribe, and let them
+take the sword and the spear, and follow thy servant!  For lo! the star
+hath announced to him that the foe shall fall into our hands as the wild
+beasts of the forests."
+
+The son of Osslah spoke with the voice of command, and the elders were
+amazed.  "Why pause ye?" he cried.  "Do the gods of the night lie?  On my
+head rest the peril if I deceive ye."
+
+Then the elders communed together; and they went forth and summoned the
+men of arms, and all the young of the tribe; and each man took the sword
+and the spear, and Morven also.  And the son of Osslah walked first,
+still looking up at the star, and he motioned them to be silent, and
+moved with a stealthy step.
+
+So they went through the thickest of the forest, till they came to the
+mouth of a great cave, overgrown with aged and matted trees, and it was
+called the Cave of Oberlin; and he bade the leaders place the armed men
+on either side the cave, to the right and to the left, among the bushes.
+
+So they watched silently till the night deepened, when they heard a noise
+in the cave and the sound of feet, and forth came an armed man; and the
+spear of Morven pierced him, and he fell dead at the mouth of the cave.
+Another and another, and both fell!  Then loud and long was heard the
+war-cry of Alrich, and forth poured, as a stream over a narrow bed, the
+river of armed men.  And the sons of Oestrich fell upon them, and the foe
+were sorely perplexed and terrified by the suddenness of the battle and
+the darkness of the night; and there was a great slaughter.
+
+And when the morning came, the children of Oestrich counted the slain,
+and found the leader of Alrich and the chief men of the tribe amongst
+them; and great was the joy thereof.  So they went back in triumph to the
+city, and they carried the brave son of Osslah on their shoulders, and
+shouted forth, "Glory to the servant of the star."
+
+And Morven dwelt in the council of the wise men.
+
+Now the king of the tribe had one daughter, and she was stately amongst
+the women of the tribe, and fair to look upon.  And Morven gazed upon her
+with the eyes of love, but he did not dare to speak.
+
+Now the son of Osslah laughed secretly at the foolishness of men; he
+loved them not, for they had mocked him; he honoured them not, for he had
+blinded the wisest of their leaders.  He shunned their feasts and
+merriment, and lived apart and solitary.  The austerity of his life
+increased the mysterious homage which his commune with the stars had won
+him, and the boldest of the warriors bowed his head to the favourite of
+the gods.
+
+One day he was wandering by the side of the river, and he saw a large
+bird of prey rise from the waters, and give chase to a hawk that had not
+yet gained the full strength of its wings.  From his youth the solitary
+Morven had loved to watch, in the great forests and by the banks of the
+mighty stream, the habits of the things which nature has submitted to
+man; and looking now on the birds, he said to himself, "Thus is it ever;
+by cunning or by strength each thing wishes to master its kind."  While
+thus moralizing, the larger bird had stricken down the hawk, and it fell
+terrified and panting at his feet.  Morven took the hawk in his hands,
+and the vulture shrieked above him, wheeling nearer and nearer to its
+protected prey; but Morven scared away the vulture, and placing the hawk
+in his bosom he carried it home, and tended it carefully, and fed it from
+his hand until it had regained its strength; and the hawk knew him, and
+followed him as a dog.  And Morven said, smiling to himself, "Behold, the
+credulous fools around me put faith in the flight and motion of birds.  I
+will teach this poor hawk to minister to my ends."  So he tamed the bird,
+and tutored it according to its nature; but he concealed it carefully
+from others, and cherished it in secret.
+
+The king of the country was old, and like to die, and the eyes of the
+tribe were turned to his two sons, nor knew they which was the worthier
+to reign.  And Morven, passing through the forest one evening, saw the
+younger of the two, who was a great hunter, sitting mournfully under an
+oak, and looking with musing eyes upon the ground.
+
+"Wherefore musest thou, O swift-footed Siror?" said the son of Osslah;
+"and wherefore art thou sad?"
+
+"Thou canst not assist me," answered the prince, sternly; "take thy way."
+
+"Nay," answered Morven, "thou knowest not what thou sayest; am I not the
+favourite of the stars?"
+
+"Away, I am no graybeard whom the approach of death makes doting: talk
+not to me of the stars; I know only the things that my eye sees and my
+ear drinks in."
+
+"Hush," said Morven, solemnly, and covering his face; "hush! lest the
+heavens avenge thy rashness.  But, behold, the stars have given unto me
+to pierce the secret hearts of others; and I can tell thee the thoughts
+of thine."
+
+"Speak out, base-born!"
+
+"Thou art the younger of two, and thy name is less known in war than the
+name of thy brother: yet wouldst thou desire to be set over his head, and
+to sit on the high seat of thy father?"
+
+The young man turned pale.  "Thou hast truth in thy lips," said he, with
+a faltering voice.
+
+"Not from me, but from the stars, descends the truth."
+
+"Can the stars grant my wish?"
+
+"They can: let us meet to-morrow."  Thus saying, Morven passed into the
+forest.
+
+The next day, at noon, they met again.
+
+"I have consulted the gods of night, and they have given me the power
+that I prayed for, but on one condition."
+
+"Name it."
+
+"That thou sacrifice thy sister on their altars; thou must build up a
+heap of stones, and take thy sister into the wood, and lay her on the
+pile, and plunge thy sword into her heart; so only shalt thou reign."
+
+The prince shuddered, and started to his feet, and shook his spear at the
+pale front of Morven.
+
+"Tremble," said the son of Osslah, with a loud voice.  "Hark to the gods
+who threaten thee with death, that thou hast dared to lift thine arm
+against their servant!"
+
+As he spoke, the thunder rolled above; for one of the frequent storms of
+the early summer was about to break.  The spear dropped from the prince's
+hand; he sat down, and cast his eyes on the ground.
+
+"Wilt thou do the bidding of the stars, and reign?" said Morven.
+
+"I will!" cried Siror, with a desperate voice.
+
+"This evening, then, when the sun sets, thou wilt lead her hither, alone;
+I may not attend thee.  Now, let us pile the stones."
+
+Silently the huntsman bent his vast strength to the fragments of rock
+that Morven pointed to him, and they built the altar, and went their way.
+
+And beautiful is the dying of the great sun, when the last song of the
+birds fades into the lap of silence; when the islands of the cloud are
+bathed in light, and the first star springs up over the grave of day!
+
+"Whither leadest thou my steps, my brother?" said Orna; "and why doth thy
+lip quiver; and why dost thou turn away thy face?"
+
+"Is not the forest beautiful; does it not tempt us forth, my sister?"
+
+"And wherefore are those heaps of stone piled together?"
+
+"Let others answer; I piled them not."
+
+"Thou tremblest, brother: we will return."
+
+"Not so; by these stones is a bird that my shaft pierced today,--a bird
+of beautiful plumage that I slew for thee."
+
+"We are by the pile; where hast thou laid the bird?"
+
+"Here!" cried Siror; and he seized the maiden in his arms, and, casting
+her on the rude altar, he drew forth his sword to smite her to the heart.
+
+Right over the stones rose a giant oak, the growth of immemorial ages;
+and from the oak, or from the heavens, broke forth a loud and solemn
+voice, "Strike not, son of kings! the stars forbear their own: the maiden
+thou shalt not slay; yet shalt thou reign over the race of Oestrich; and
+thou shalt give Orna as a bride to the favourite of the stars.  Arise,
+and go thy way!"
+
+The voice ceased: the terror of Orna had overpowered for a time the
+springs of life; and Siror bore her home through the wood in his strong
+arms.
+
+"Alas!" said Morven, when, at the next day, he again met the aspiring
+prince; "alas! the stars have ordained me a lot which my heart desires
+not: for I, lonely of life, and crippled of shape, am insensible to the
+fires of love; and ever, as thou and thy tribe know, I have shunned the
+eyes of women, for the maidens laughed at my halting step and my sullen
+features; and so in my youth I learned betimes to banish all thoughts of
+love.  But since they told me (as they declared to /thee/), that only
+through that marriage, thou, O beloved prince! canst obtain thy father's
+plumed crown, I yield me to their will."
+
+"But," said the prince, "not until I am king can I give thee my sister in
+marriage; for thou knowest that my sire would smite me to the dust if I
+asked him to give the flower of our race to the son of the herdsman
+Osslah."
+
+"Thou speakest the words of truth.  Go home and fear not; but, when thou
+art king, the sacrifice must be made, and Orna mine.  Alas! how can I
+dare to lift mine eyes to her!  But so ordain the dread kings of the
+night!--who shall gainsay their word?"
+
+"The day that sees me king sees Orna thine," answered the prince.
+
+Morven walked forth, as was his wont, alone; and he said to himself, "The
+king is old, yet may he live long between me and mine hope!" and he began
+to cast in his mind how he might shorten the time.  Thus absorbed, he
+wandered on so unheedingly that night advanced, and he had lost his path
+among the thick woods and knew not how to regain his home.  So he lay
+down quietly beneath a tree, and rested till day dawned; then hunger came
+upon him, and he searched among the bushes for such simple roots as those
+with which, for he was ever careless of food, he was used to appease the
+cravings of nature.
+
+He found, among other more familiar herbs and roots, a red berry of a
+sweetish taste, which he had never observed before.  He ate of it
+sparingly, and had not proceeded far in the wood before he found his eyes
+swim, and a deadly sickness came over him.  For several hours he lay
+convulsed on the ground, expecting death; but the gaunt spareness of his
+frame, and his unvarying abstinence, prevailed over the poison, and he
+recovered slowly, and after great anguish.  But he went with feeble steps
+back to the spot where the berries grew, and, plucking several, hid them
+in his bosom, and by nightfall regained the city.
+
+The next day he went forth among his father's herds, and seizing a lamb,
+forced some of the berries into his stomach, and the lamb, escaping, ran
+away, and fell down dead.  Then Morven took some more of the berries and
+boiled them down, and mixed the juice with wine, and he gave the wine in
+secret to one of his father's servants, and the servant died.
+
+Then Morven sought the king, and coming into his presence, alone, he said
+unto him, "How fares my lord?"
+
+The king sat on a couch made of the skins of wolves, and his eye was
+glassy and dim; but vast were his aged limbs, and huge was his stature,
+and he had been taller by a head than the children of men, and none
+living could bend the bow he had bent in youth; gray, gaunt, and worn, as
+some mighty bones that are dug at times from the bosom of the earth,--a
+relic of the strength of old.
+
+And the king said faintly, and with a ghastly laugh, "The men of my years
+fare ill.  What avails my strength?  Better had I been born a cripple
+like thee, so should I have had nothing to lament in growing old."
+
+The red flush passed over Morven's brow; but he bent humbly,--
+
+"O king, what if I could give thee back thy youth?  What if I could
+restore to thee the vigour which distinguished thee above the sons of
+men, when the warriors of Alrich fell like grass before thy sword?"
+
+Then the king uplifted his dull eyes, and he said,--
+
+"What meanest thou, son of Osslah?  Surely I hear much of thy great
+wisdom, and how thou speakest nightly with the stars.  Can the gods of
+the night give unto thee the secret to make the old young?"
+
+"Tempt them not by doubt," said Morven, reverently.  "All things are
+possible to the rulers of the dark hour; and, lo! the star that loves thy
+servant spake to him at the dead of night, and said, 'Arise, and go unto
+the king; and tell him that the stars honour the tribe of Oestrich, and
+remember how the king bent his bow against the sons of Alrich; wherefore,
+look thou under the stone that lies to the right of thy dwelling, even
+beside the pine tree, and thou shalt see a vessel of clay, and in the
+vessel thou wilt find a sweet liquid, that shall make the king thy master
+forget his age forever.' Therefore, my lord, when the morning rose I went
+forth, and looked under the stone, and behold the vessel of clay; and I
+have brought it hither to my lord the king."
+
+"Quick, slave, quick! that I may drink and regain my youth!"
+
+"Nay, listen, O king! further said the star to me,--
+
+"'It is only at night, when the stars have power, that this their gift
+will avail; wherefore the king must wait till the hush of the midnight,
+when the moon is high, and then may he mingle the liquid with his wine.
+And he must reveal to none that he hath received the gift from the hand
+of the servant of the stars.  For THEY do their work in secret, and when
+men sleep; therefore they love not the babble of mouths, and he who
+reveals their benefits shall surely die."
+
+"Fear not," said the king, grasping the vessel; "none shall know: and,
+behold, I will rise on the morrow; and my two sons, wrangling for my
+crown--verily I shall be younger than they!"
+
+Then the king laughed loud; and he scarcely thanked the servant of the
+stars, neither did he promise him reward; for the kings in those days had
+little thought save for themselves.
+
+And Morven said to him, "Shall I not attend my lord?--for without me,
+perchance, the drug might fail of its effect."
+
+"Ay," said the king, "rest here."
+
+"Nay," replied Morven; "thy servants will marvel and talk much, if they
+see the son of Osslah sojourning in thy palace.  So would the displeasure
+of the gods of night perchance be incurred.  Suffer that the lesser door
+of the palace be unbarred, so that at the night hour, when the moon is
+midway in the heavens, I may steal unseen into thy chamber, and mix the
+liquid with thy wine."
+
+"So be it," said the king.  "Thou art wise, though thy limbs are crooked
+and curt; and the stars might have chosen a taller man."  Then the king
+laughed again; and Morven laughed too, but there was danger in the mirth
+of the son of Osslah.
+
+The night had begun to wane, and the inhabitants of Oestrich were buried
+in deep sleep, when, hark! a sharp voice was heard crying out in the
+streets, "Woe, woe!  Awake, ye sons of Oestrich! woe!" Then forth, wild,
+haggard, alarmed, spear in hand, rushed the giant sons of the rugged
+tribe, and they saw a man on a height in the middle of the city,
+shrieking  "Woe!" and it was Morven, the son of Osslah!  And he said unto
+them, as they gathered round him, "Men and warriors, tremble as ye hear.
+The star of the west hath spoken to me, and thus said the star: 'Evil
+shall fall upon the kingly house of Oestrich,--yea, ere the morning dawn;
+wherefore, go thou mourning into the streets, and wake the inhabitants to
+woe!'  So I rose and did the bidding of the star."  And while Morven was
+yet speaking, a servant of the king's house ran up to the crowd, crying
+loudly, "The king is dead!"  So they went into the palace and found the
+king stark upon his couch, and his huge limbs all cramped and crippled by
+the pangs of death, and his hands clenched as if in menace of a foe,--the
+Foe of all living flesh!  Then fear came on the gazers, and they looked
+on Morven with a deeper awe than the boldest warrior would have called
+forth; and they bore him back to the council-hall of the wise men,
+wailing and clashing their arms in woe, and shouting, ever and anon,
+"Honour to Morven the prophet!"  And that was the first time the word
+PROPHET was ever used in those countries.
+
+At noon, on the third day from the king's death, Siror sought Morven, and
+he said, "Lo, my father is no more, and the people meet this evening at
+sunset to elect his successor, and the warriors and the young men will
+surely choose my brother, for he is more known in war.  Fail me not
+therefore."
+
+"Peace, boy!" said Morven, sternly; "nor dare to question the truth of
+the gods of night."
+
+For Morven now began to presume on his power among the people, and to
+speak as rulers speak, even to the sons of kings; and the voice silenced
+the fiery Siror, nor dared he to reply.
+
+"Behold," said Morven, taking up a chaplet of coloured plumes, "wear this
+on thy head, and put on a brave face, for the people like a hopeful
+spirit, and go down with thy brother to the place where the new king is
+to be chosen, and leave the rest to the stars.  But, above all things,
+forget not that chaplet; it has been blessed by the gods of night."
+
+The prince took the chaplet and returned home.
+
+It was evening, and the warriors and chiefs of the tribe were assembled
+in the place where the new king was to be elected.  And the voices of the
+many favoured Prince Voltoch, the brother of Siror, for he had slain
+twelve foemen with his spear; and verily, in those days, that was a great
+virtue in a king.
+
+Suddenly there was a shout in the streets, and the people cried out, "Way
+for Morven the prophet, the prophet!"  For the people held the son of
+Osslah in even greater respect than did the chiefs.  Now, since he had
+become of note, Morven had assumed a majesty of air which the son of the
+herdsman knew not in his earlier days; and albeit his stature was short,
+and his limbs halted, yet his countenance was grave and high.  He only of
+the tribe wore a garment that swept the ground, and his head was bare and
+his long black hair descended to his girdle, and rarely was change or
+human passion seen in his calm aspect.  He feasted not, nor drank wine,
+nor was his presence frequent in the streets.  He laughed not, neither
+did he smile, save when alone in the forest,--and then he laughed at the
+follies of his tribe.
+
+So he walked slowly through the crowd, neither turning to the left nor to
+the right, as the crowd gave way; and he supported his steps with a staff
+of the knotted pine.
+
+And when he came to the place where the chiefs were met, and the two
+princes stood in the centre, he bade the people around him proclaim
+silence; then mounting on a huge fragment of rock, he thus spake to the
+multitude:--
+
+"Princes, Warriors, and Bards! ye, O council of the wise men! and ye, O
+hunters of the forests and snarers of the fishes of the streams! hearken
+to Morven, the son of Osslah.  Ye know that I am lowly of race and weak
+of limb; but did I not give into your hands the tribe of Alrich, and did
+ye not slay them in the dead of night with a great slaughter?  Surely, ye
+must know this of himself did not the herdsman's son; surely he was but
+the agent of the bright gods that love the children of Oestrich!  Three
+nights since when slumber was on the earth, was not my voice heard in the
+streets?  Did I not proclaim woe to the kingly house of Oestrich? and
+verily the dark arm had fallen on the bosom of the mighty, that is no
+more.  Could I have dreamed this thing merely in a dream, or was I not as
+the voice of the bright gods that watch over the tribes of Oestrich?
+Wherefore, O men and chiefs! scorn not the son of Osslah, but listen to
+his words; for are they not the wisdom of the stars?  Behold, last night,
+I sat alone in the valley, and the trees were hushed around, and not a
+breath stirred; and I looked upon the star that counsels the son of
+Osslah; and I said, 'Dread conqueror of the cloud! thou that bathest thy
+beauty in the streams and piercest the pine-boughs with thy presence;
+behold thy servant grieved because the mighty one hath passed away, and
+many foes surround the houses of my brethren; and it is well that they
+should have a king valiant and prosperous in war, the cherished of the
+stars.  Wherefore, O star! as thou gavest into our hands the warriors of
+Alrich, and didst warn us of the fall of the oak of our tribe, wherefore
+I pray thee give unto the people a token that they may choose that king
+whom the gods of the night prefer!'  Then a low voice, sweeter than the
+music of the bard, stole along the silence.  'Thy love for thy race is
+grateful to the stars of night: go, then, son of Osslah, and seek the
+meeting of the chiefs and the people to choose a king, and tell them not
+to scorn thee because thou art slow to the chase, and little known in
+war; for the stars give thee wisdom as a recompense for all.  Say unto
+the people that as the wise men of the council shape their lessons by the
+flight of birds, so by the flight of birds shall a token be given unto
+them, and they shall choose their kings.  For, saith the star of night,
+the birds are the children of the winds, they pass to and fro along the
+ocean of the air, and visit the clouds that are the war-ships of the
+gods; and their music is but broken melodies which they glean from the
+harps above.  Are they not the messengers of the storm?  Ere the stream
+chafes against the bank, and the rain descends, know ye not, by the wail
+of birds and their low circle over the earth, that the tempest is at
+hand?  Wherefore, wisely do ye deem that the children of the air are the
+fit interpreters between the sons of men and the lords of the world
+above.  Say then to the people and the chiefs that they shall take, from
+among the doves that build their nests in the roof of the palace, a white
+dove, and they shall let it loose in the air, and verily the gods of the
+night shall deem the dove as a prayer coming from the people, and they
+shall send a messenger to grant the prayer and give to the tribes of
+Oestrich a king worthy of themselves.'
+
+"With that the star spoke no more."
+
+
+
+Then the friends of Voltoch murmured among themselves, and they said,
+"Shall this man dictate to us who shall be king?"  But the people and the
+warriors shouted, "Listen to the star; do we not give or deny battle
+according as the bird flies,--shall we not by the same token choose him
+by whom the battle should be led?"  And the thing seemed natural to them,
+for it was after the custom of the tribe.  Then they took one of the
+doves that built in the roof of the palace, and they brought it to the
+spot where Morven stood, and he, looking up to the stars and muttering to
+himself, released the bird.
+
+There was a copse of trees at a little distance from the spot, and as the
+dove ascended, a hawk suddenly rose from the copse and pursued the dove;
+and the dove was terrified, and soared circling high above the crowd,
+when lo, the hawk, poising itself one moment on its wings, swooped with a
+sudden swoop, and, abandoning its prey, alighted on the plumed head of
+Siror.
+
+"Behold," cried Morven in a loud voice, "behold your king!"
+
+"Hail, all hail the king!" shouted the people.  "All hail the chosen of
+the stars!"
+
+Then Morven lifted his right hand and the hawk left the prince and
+alighted on Morven's shoulder.  "Bird of the gods!" said he, reverently,
+"hast thou not a secret message for my ear?"  Then the hawk put its beak
+to Morven's ear, and Morven bowed his head submissively; and the hawk
+rested with Morven from that moment and would not be scared away.  And
+Morven said, "The stars have sent me this bird, that in the day-time when
+I see them not, we may never be without a councillor in distress."
+
+So Siror was made king and Morven the son of Osslah was constrained by
+the king's will to take Orna for his wife; and the people and the chiefs
+honoured Morven the prophet above all the elders of the tribe.
+
+One day Morven said unto himself, musing, "Am I not already equal with
+the king,--nay, is not the king my servant?  Did I not place him over the
+heads of his brothers?  Am I not, therefore, more fit to reign than he
+is; shall I not push him from his seat?  It is a troublesome and stormy
+office to reign over the wild men of Oestrich, to feast in the crowded
+hall, and to lead the warriors to the fray.  Surely if I feasted not,
+neither went out to war, they might say, 'This is no king, but the
+cripple Morven;' and some of the race of Siror might slay me secretly.
+But can I not be greater far than kings, and continue to choose and
+govern them, living as now at mine own ease?  Verily the stars shall give
+me a new palace, and many subjects."
+
+Among the wise men was Darvan; and Morven feared him, for his eye often
+sought the movements of the son of Osslah.
+
+And Morven said, "It were better to /trust/ this man than to /blind/, for
+surely I want a helpmate and a friend."  So he said to the wise man as he
+sat alone watching the setting sun,--
+
+"It seemeth to me, O Darvan! that we ought to build a great pile in
+honour of the stars, and the pile should be more glorious than all the
+palaces of the chiefs and the palace of the king; for are not the stars
+our masters?  And thou and I should be the chief dwellers in this new
+palace, and we would serve the gods of night and fatten their altars with
+the choicest of the herd and the freshest of the fruits of the earth."
+
+And Darvan said, "Thou speakest as becomes the servant of the stars.  But
+will the people help to build the pile?  For they are a warlike race and
+they love not toil."
+
+And Morven answered, "Doubtless the stars will ordain the work to be
+done.  Fear not."
+
+"In truth thou art a wondrous man; thy words ever come to pass," answered
+Darvan; "and I wish thou wouldest teach me, friend, the language of the
+stars."
+
+"Assuredly if thou servest me, thou shalt know," answered the proud
+Morven; and Darvan was secretly wroth that the son of the herdsman should
+command the service of an elder and a chief.
+
+And when Morven returned to his wife he found her weeping much.  Now she
+loved the son of Osslah with an exceeding love, for he was not savage and
+fierce as the men she had known, and she was proud of his fame among the
+tribe; and he took her in his arms and kissed her, and asked her why she
+wept.  Then she told him that her brother the king had visited her, and
+had spoken bitter words of Morven: "He taketh from me the affection of my
+people," said Siror, "and blindeth them with lies.  And since he hath
+made me king, what if he take my kingdom from me?  Verily a new tale of
+the stars might undo the old."  And the king had ordered her to keep
+watch on Morven's secrecy, and to see whether truth was in him when he
+boasted of his commune with the Powers of night.
+
+But Orna loved Morven better than Siror, therefore she told her husband
+all.
+
+And Morven resented the king's ingratitude, and was troubled much, for a
+king is a powerful foe; but he comforted Orna, and bade her dissemble,
+and complain also of him to her brother, so that he might confide to her
+unsuspectingly whatsoever he might design against Morven.
+
+There was a cave by Morven's house in which he kept the sacred hawk, and
+wherein he secretly trained and nurtured other birds against future need;
+and the door of the cave was always barred.  And one day he was thus
+engaged when he beheld a chink in the wall that he had never noted
+before, and the sun came playfully in; and while he looked he perceived
+the sunbeam was darkened, and presently he saw a human face peering in
+through the chink.  And Morven trembled, for he knew he had been watched.
+He ran hastily from the cave; but the spy had disappeared among the
+trees, and Morven went straight to the chamber of Darvan and sat himself
+down.  And Darvan did not return home till late, and he started and
+turned pale when he saw Morven.  But Morven greeted him as a brother, and
+bade him to a feast, which, for the first time, he purposed giving at the
+full of the moon, in honour of the stars.  And going out of Darvan's
+chamber he returned to his wife, and bade her rend her hair, and go at
+the dawn of day to the king her brother, and complain bitterly of
+Morven's treatment, and pluck the black plans from the breast of the
+king.  "For surely," said he, "Darvan hath lied to thy brother, and some
+evil waits me that I would fain know."
+
+So the next morning Orna sought the king, and she said, "The herdsman's
+son hath reviled me, and spoken harsh words to me; shall I not be
+avenged?"
+
+Then the king stamped his feet and shook his mighty sword.  "Surely thou
+shalt be avenged; for I have learned from one of the elders that which
+convinceth me that the man hath lied to the people, and the base-born
+shall surely die.  Yea, the first time that he goeth alone into the
+forest my brother and I will fall upon him and smite him to the death."
+And with this comfort Siror dismissed Orna.
+
+And Orna flung herself at the feet of her husband.  "Fly now, O my
+beloved!--fly into the forests afar from my brethren, or surely the sword
+of Siror will end thy days."
+
+Then the son of Osslah folded his arms, and seemed buried in black
+thoughts; nor did he heed the voice of Orna, until again and again she
+had implored him to fly.
+
+"Fly!" he said at length.  "Nay, I was doubting what punishment the stars
+should pour down upon our foe.  Let warriors fly.  Morven the prophet
+conquers by arms mightier than the sword."
+
+Nevertheless Morven was perplexed in his mind, and knew not how to save
+himself from the vengeance of the king.  Now, while he was musing
+hopelessly he heard a roar of waters; and behold, the river, for it was
+now the end of autumn, had burst its bounds, and was rushing along the
+valley to the houses of the city.  And now the men of the tribe, and the
+women, and the children, came running, and with shrieks, to Morven's
+house, crying, "Behold, the river has burst upon us!  Save us, O ruler of
+the stars!"
+
+Then the sudden thought broke upon Morven, and he resolved to risk his
+fate upon one desperate scheme.
+
+And he came out from the house calm and sad, and he said, "Ye know not
+what ye ask; I cannot save ye from this peril: ye have brought it on
+yourselves."  And they cried, "How? O son of Osslah!  We are ignorant of
+our crime."
+
+And he answered, "Go down to the king's palace and wait before it, and
+surely I will follow ye, and ye shall learn wherefore ye have incurred
+this punishment from the gods."  Then the crowd rolled murmuring back, as
+a receding sea; and when it was gone from the place, Morven went alone to
+the house of Darvan, which was next his own.  And Darvan was greatly
+terrified; for he was of a great age, and had no children, neither
+friends, and he feared that he could not of himself escape the waters.
+
+And Morven said to him soothingly, "Lo, the people love me, and I will
+see that thou art saved; for verily thou hast been friendly to me, and
+done me much service with the king."
+
+And as he thus spake, Morven opened the door of the house and looked
+forth, and saw that they were quite alone.  Then he seized the old man by
+the throat and ceased not his gripe till he was quite dead; and leaving
+the body of the elder on the floor, Morven stole from the house and shut
+the gate.  And as he was going to his cave he mused a little while, when,
+hearing the mighty roar of the waves advancing, and far off the shrieks
+of women, he lifted up his head and said proudly, "No, in this hour
+terror alone shall be my slave; I will use no art save the power of my
+soul."  So, leaning on his pine-staff, he strode down to the palace.  And
+it was now evening, and many of the men held torches, that they might see
+each other's faces in the universal fear.  Red flashed the quivering
+flames on the dark robes and pale front of Morven; and he seemed mightier
+than the rest, because his face alone was calm amidst the tumult.  And
+louder and hoarser became the roar of the waters; and swift rushed the
+shades of night over the hastening tide.
+
+And Morven said in a stern voice, "Where is the king; and wherefore is he
+absent from his people in the hour of dread?"  Then the gate of the
+palace opened, and, behold, Siror was sitting in the hall by the vast
+pine-fire, and his brother by his side, and his chiefs around him: for
+they would not deign to come amongst the crowd at the bidding of the
+herdsman's son.
+
+Then Morven, standing upon a rock above the heads of the people (the same
+rock whereon he had proclaimed the king), thus spake:--
+
+"Ye desired to know, O sons of Oestrich! wherefore the river hath burst
+its bounds, and the peril hath come upon you.  Learn, then, that the
+stars resent as the foulest of human crimes an insult to their servants
+and delegates below.  Ye are all aware of the manner of life of Morven,
+whom ye have surnamed the Prophet!  He harms not man nor beast; he lives
+alone; and, far from the wild joys of the warrior tribe, he worships in
+awe and fear the Powers of Night.  So is he able to advise ye of the
+coming danger,--so is he able to save ye from the foe.  Thus are your
+huntsmen swift and your warriors bold; and thus do your cattle bring
+forth their young, and the earth its fruits.  What think ye, and what do
+ye ask to hear?  Listen, men of Oestrich!--they have laid snares for my
+life; and there are amongst you those who have whetted the sword against
+the bosom that is only filled with love for you all.  Therefore have the
+stern lords of heaven loosened the chains of the river; therefore doth
+this evil menace ye.  Neither will it pass away until they who dug the
+pit for the servant of the stars are buried in the same."
+
+Then, by the red torches, the faces of the men looked fierce and
+threatening; and ten thousand voices shouted forth, "Name them who
+conspired against thy life, O holy prophet, and surely they shall be torn
+limb from limb."
+
+And Morven turned aside, and they saw that he wept bitterly; and he
+said,--
+
+"Ye have asked me, and I have answered: but now scarce will ye believe
+the foe that I have provoked against me; and by the heavens themselves I
+swear, that if my death would satisfy their fury, nor bring down upon
+yourselves and your children's children the anger of the throned stars,
+gladly would I give my bosom to the knife.  Yes," he cried, lifting up
+his voice, and pointing his shadowy arm towards the hall where the king
+sat by the pine-fire,--"yes, thou whom by my voice the stars chose above
+thy brother; yes, Siror, the guilty one! take thy sword, and come hither;
+strike, if thou hast the heart to strike, the Prophet of the Gods!"
+
+The king started to his feet, and the crowd were hushed in a shuddering
+silence.
+
+Morven resumed:--
+
+"Know then, O men of Oestrich, that Siror and Voltoch his brother, and
+Darvan the elder of the wise men, have purposed to slay your prophet,
+even at such hour as when alone he seeks the shade of the forest to
+devise new benefits for you.  Let the king deny it, if he can!"
+
+Then Voltoch, of the giant limbs, strode forth from the hall, and his
+spear quivered in his hand.
+
+"Rightly hast thou spoken, base son of my father's herdsman! and for thy
+sins shalt thou surely die; for thou liest when thou speakest of thy
+power with the stars, and thou laughest at the folly of them who hear
+thee: wherefore put him to death."
+
+Then the chiefs in the hall clashed their arms, and rushed forth to slay
+the son of Osslah.
+
+But he, stretching his unarmed hands on high, exclaimed, "Hear him, O
+dread ones of the night!  Hark how he blasphemeth!"
+
+Then the crowd took up the word, and cried, "He blasphemeth! he
+blasphemeth against the prophet!"
+
+But the king and the chiefs, who hated Morven because of his power with
+the people, rushed into the crowd; and the crowd were irresolute, nor
+knew they how to act, for never yet had they rebelled against their
+chiefs, and they feared alike the prophet and the king.
+
+And Siror cried, "Summon Darvan to us, for he hath watched the steps of
+Morven, and he shall lift the veil from my people's eyes."  Then three of
+the swift of foot started forth to the house of Darvan.
+
+And Morven cried out with a loud voice, "Hark! thus saith the star, who,
+now riding through yonder cloud, breaks forth upon my eyes, 'For the lie
+that the elder hath uttered against my servant, the curse of the stars
+shall fall upon him.' Seek, and as ye find him so may ye find ever the
+foes of Morven and the gods!"
+
+A chill and an icy fear fell over the crowd, and even the cheek of Siror
+grew pale; and Morven, erect and dark above the waving torches, stood
+motionless with folded arms.  And hark!--far and fast came on the
+war-steeds of the wave; the people heard them marching to the land, and
+tossing their white manes in the roaring wind.
+
+"Lo, as ye listen," said Morven, calmly, "the river sweeps on.  Haste,
+for the gods will have a victim, be it your prophet or your king."
+
+"Slave!" shouted Siror, and his spear left his hand, and far above the
+heads of the crowd sped hissing beside the dark form of Morven, and rent
+the trunk of the oak behind.  Then the people, wroth at the danger of
+their beloved seer, uttered a wild yell, and gathered round him with
+brandished swords, facing their chieftains and their king.  But at that
+instant, ere the war had broken forth among the tribe, the three warriors
+returned, and they bore Darvan on their shoulders, and laid him at the
+feet of the king, and they said tremblingly, "Thus found we the elder in
+the centre of his own hall."  And the people saw that Darvan was a
+corpse, and that the prediction of Morven was thus verified.  "So perish
+the enemies of Morven and the stars!" cried the son of Osslah.  And the
+people echoed the cry.  Then the fury of Siror was at its height, and
+waving his sword above his head he plunged into the crowd, "Thy blood,
+baseborn, or mine!"
+
+"So be it!" answered Morven, quailing not.  "People, smite the
+blasphemer!  Hark how the river pours down upon your children and your
+hearths!  On, on, or ye perish!"
+
+And Siror fell, pierced by five hundred spears.
+
+"Smite! smite!" cried Morven, as the chiefs of the royal house gathered
+round the king.  And the clash of swords, and the gleam of spears, and
+the cries of the dying, and the yell of the trampling people mingled with
+the roar of the elements, and the voices of the rushing wave.
+
+Three hundred of the chiefs perished that night by the swords of their
+own tribe; and the last cry of the victors was, "Morven the prophet!
+/Morven the king!/"
+
+And the son of Osslah, seeing the waves now spreading over the valley,
+led Orna his wife, and the men of Oestrich, their women, and their
+children, to a high mount, where they waited the dawning sun.  But Orna
+sat apart and wept bitterly, for her brothers were no more, and her race
+had perished from the earth.  And Morven sought to comfort her in vain.
+
+When the morning rose, they saw that the river had overspread the greater
+part of the city, and now stayed its course among the hollows of the
+vale.  Then Morven said to the people, "The star-kings are avenged, and
+their wrath appeased.  Tarry only here until the waters have melted into
+the crevices of the soil."  And on the fourth day they returned to the
+city, and no man dared to name another, save Morven, as the king.
+
+But Morven retired into his cave and mused deeply; and then assembling
+the people, he gave them new laws; and he made them build a mighty temple
+in honour of the stars, and made them heap within it all that the tribe
+held most precious.  And he took unto him fifty children from the most
+famous of the tribe; and he took also ten from among the men who had
+served him best, and he ordained that they should serve the stars in the
+great temple: and Morven was their chief.  And he put away the crown they
+pressed upon him, and he chose from among the elders a new king.  And he
+ordained that henceforth the servants only of the stars in the great
+temple should elect the king and the rulers, and hold council, and
+proclaim war; but he suffered the king to feast, and to hunt, and to make
+merry in the banquet-halls.  And Morven built altars in the temple, and
+was the first who, in the North, sacrificed the beast and the bird, and
+afterwards human flesh, upon the altars.  And he drew auguries from the
+entrails of the victim, and made schools for the science of the prophet;
+and Morven's piety was the wonder of the tribe, in that he refused to be
+a king.  And Morven the high priest was ten thousand times mightier than
+the king.  He taught the people to till the ground and to sow the herb;
+and by his wisdom, and the valour that his prophecies instilled into men,
+he conquered all the neighbouring tribes.  And the sons of Oestrich
+spread themselves over a mighty empire, and with them spread the name and
+the laws of Morven.  And in every province which he conquered, he ordered
+them to build a temple to the stars.
+
+But a heavy sorrow fell upon the fears of Morven.  The sister of Siror
+bowed down her head, and survived not long the slaughter of her race.
+And she left Morven childless.  And he mourned bitterly and as one
+distraught, for her only in the world had his heart the power to love.
+And he sat down and covered his face, saying:--
+
+"Lo! I have toiled and travailed; and never before in the world did man
+conquer what I have conquered.  Verily the empire of the iron thews and
+the giant limbs is no more!  I have founded a new power, that henceforth
+shall sway the lands,--the empire of a plotting brain and a commanding
+mind.  But, behold! my fate is barren, and I feel already that it will
+grow neither fruit nor tree as a shelter to mine old age.  Desolate and
+lonely shall I pass unto my grave.  O Orna! my beautiful! my loved! none
+were like unto thee, and to thy love do I owe my glory and my life!
+Would for thy sake, O sweet bird! that nestled in the dark cavern of my
+heart,--would for thy sake that thy brethren had been spared, for verily
+with my life would I have purchased thine.  Alas! only when I lost thee
+did I find that thy love was dearer to me than the fear of others!"  And
+Morven mourned night and day, and none might comfort him.
+
+But from that time forth he gave himself solely up to the cares of his
+calling; and his nature and his affections, and whatever there was yet
+left soft in him, grew hard like stone; and he was a man without love,
+and he forbade love and marriage to the priest.
+
+Now, in his latter years, there arose /other/ prophets; for the world had
+grown wiser even by Morven's wisdom, and some did say unto themselves,
+"Behold Morven, the herdsman's son, is a king of kings: this did the
+stars for their servant; shall we not also be servants to the star?"
+
+And they wore black garments like Morven, and went about prophesying of
+what the stars foretold them.  And Morven was exceeding wroth; for he,
+more than other men, knew that the prophets lied.  Wherefore he went
+forth against them with the ministers of the temple, and he took them,
+and burned them by a slow fire; for thus said Morven to the people: "A
+true prophet hath honour, but /I/ only am a true prophet; to all false
+prophets there shall be surely death."
+
+And the people applauded the piety of the son of Osslah.
+
+And Morven educated the wisest of the children in the mysteries of the
+temple, so that they grew up to succeed him worthily.
+
+And he died full of years and honour; and they carved his effigy on a
+mighty stone before the temple, and the effigy endured for a thousand
+ages, and whoso looked on it trembled; for the face was calm with the
+calmness of unspeakable awe!
+
+And Morven was the first mortal of the North that made Religion the
+stepping-stone to Power.  Of a surety Morven was a great man!
+
+
+
+It was the last night of the old year, and the stars sat, each upon his
+ruby throne, and watched with sleepless eyes upon the world.  The night
+was dark and troubled, the dread winds were abroad, and fast and frequent
+hurried the clouds beneath the thrones of the kings of night.  And ever
+and anon fiery meteors flashed along the depths of heaven, and were again
+swallowed up in the grave of darkness.  But far below his brethren, and
+with a lurid haze around his orb, sat the discontented star that had
+watched over the hunters of the North.
+
+And on the lowest abyss of space there was spread a thick and mighty
+gloom, from which, as from a caldron, rose columns of wreathing smoke;
+and still, when the great winds rested for an instant on their paths,
+voices of woe and laughter, mingled with shrieks, were heard booming from
+the abyss to the upper air.
+
+And now, in the middest night, a vast figure rose slowly from the abyss,
+and its wings threw blackness over the world.  High upward to the throne
+of the discontented star sailed the fearful shape, and the star trembled
+on his throne when the form stood before him face to face.
+
+And the shape said, "Hail, brother! all hail!"
+
+"I know thee not," answered the star; "thou art not the archangel that
+visitest the kings of night."
+
+And the shape laughed loud.  "I am the fallen star of the morning!  I am
+Lucifer, thy brother!  Hast thou not, O sullen king, served me and mine;
+and hast thou not wrested the earth from thy Lord who sittest above, and
+given it to me, by darkening the souls of men with the religion of fear?
+Wherefore come, brother, come; thou hast a throne prepared beside my own
+in the fiery gloom.  Come!  The heavens are no more for thee!"
+
+Then the star rose from his throne, and descended to the side of Lucifer;
+for ever hath the spirit of discontent had sympathy with the soul of
+pride.  And they sank slowly down to the gulf of gloom.
+
+It was the first night of the new year, and the stars sat each on his
+ruby throne, and watched with sleepless eyes upon the world.  But sorrow
+dimmed the bright faces of the kings of night, for they mourned in
+silence and in fear for a fallen brother.
+
+And the gates of the heaven of heavens flew open with a golden sound, and
+the swift archangel fled down on his silent wings; and the archangel gave
+to each of the stars, as before, the message of his Lord, and to each
+star was his appointed charge.  And when the heraldry seemed done there
+came a laugh from the abyss of gloom, and half-way from the gulf rose the
+lurid shape of Lucifer the fiend!
+
+"Thou countest thy flock ill, O radiant shepherd!  Behold! one star is
+missing from the three thousand and ten!"
+
+"Back to thy gulf, false Lucifer!--the throne of thy brother hath been
+filled."
+
+And, lo! as the archangel spake, the stars beheld a young and
+all-lustrous stranger on the throne of the erring star; and his face was
+so soft to look upon that the dimmest of human eyes might have gazed upon
+its splendour unabashed: but the dark fiend alone was dazzled by its
+lustre, and, with a yell that shook the flaming pillars of the universe,
+he plunged backward into the gloom.
+
+Then, far and sweet from the arch unseen, came forth the voice of God,--
+
+"Behold! on the throne of the discontented star sits the star of Hope;
+and he that breathed into mankind the religion of Fear hath a successor
+in him who shall teach earth the religion of Love!"
+
+And evermore the star of Fear dwells with Lucifer, and the star of Love
+keeps vigil in heaven!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+GLENHAUSEN.--THE POWER OF LOVE IN SANCTIFIED PLACES.--A PORTRAIT OF
+FREDERICK BARBAROSSA.--THE AMBITION OF MEN FINDS NO ADEQUATE SYMPATHY IN
+WOMEN.
+
+"YOU made me tremble for you more than once," said Gertrude to the
+student; "I feared you were about to touch upon ground really sacred, but
+your end redeemed all."
+
+"The false religion always tries to counterfeit the garb, the language,
+the aspect of the true," answered the German; "for that reason, I
+purposely suffered my tale to occasion that very fear and anxiety you
+speak of, conscious that the most scrupulous would be contented when the
+whole was finished."
+
+This German was one of a new school, of which England as yet knows
+nothing.  We shall see hereafter what it will produce.
+
+The student left them at Friedberg, and our travellers proceeded to
+Glenhausen,--a spot interesting to lovers; for here Frederick the First
+was won by the beauty of Gela, and, in the midst of an island vale, he
+built the Imperial Palace, in honour of the lady of his love.  This spot
+is, indeed, well chosen of itself; the mountains of the Rhinegeburg close
+it in with the green gloom of woods and the glancing waters of the Kinz.
+
+"Still, wherever we go," said Trevylyan, "we find all tradition is
+connected with love; and history, for that reason, hallows less than
+romance."
+
+"It is singular," said Vane, moralizing, "that love makes but a small
+part of our actual lives, but is yet the master-key to our sympathies.
+The hardest of us, who laugh at the passion when they see it palpably
+before them, are arrested by some dim tradition of its existence in the
+past.  It is as if life had few opportunities of bringing out certain
+qualities within us, so that they always remain untold and dormant,
+susceptible to thought, but deaf to action."
+
+"You refine and mystify too much," said Trevylyan, smiling; "none of us
+have any faculty, any passion, uncalled forth, if we have /really/ loved,
+though but for a day."
+
+Gertrude smiled, and drawing her arm within his, Trevylyan left Vane to
+philosophize on passion,--a fit occupation for one who had never felt it.
+
+"Here let us pause," said Trevylyan, afterwards, as they visited the
+remains of the ancient palace, and the sun glittered on the scene, "to
+recall the old chivalric day of the gallant Barbarossa; let us suppose
+him commencing the last great action of his life; let us picture him as
+setting out for the Holy Land.  Imagine him issuing from those walls on
+his white charger,--his fiery eye somewhat dimmed by years, and his hair
+blanched; but nobler from the impress of time itself,--the clang of arms;
+the tramp of steeds; banners on high; music pealing from hill to hill;
+the red cross and the nodding plume; the sun, as now glancing on yonder
+trees; and thence reflected from the burnished arms of the Crusaders.
+But, Gela--"
+
+"Ah," said Gertrude, "/she/ must be no more; for she would have outlived
+her beauty, and have found that glory had now no rival in his breast.
+Glory consoles men for the death of the loved; but glory is infidelity to
+the living."
+
+"Nay, not so, dearest Gertrude," said Trevylyan, quickly; "for my darling
+dream of Fame is the hope of laying its honours at your feet!  And if
+ever, in future years, I should rise above the herd, I should only ask if
+/your/ step were proud and /your/ heart elated."
+
+"I was wrong," said Gertrude, with tears in her eyes; "and for your sake
+I can be ambitious."
+
+Perhaps there, too, she was mistaken; for one of the common
+disappointments of the heart is, that women have so rarely a sympathy in
+our better and higher aspirings.  Their ambition is not for great things;
+they cannot understand that desire "which scorns delight, and loves
+laborious days."  If they love us, they usually exact too much.  They are
+jealous of the ambition to which we sacrifice so largely, and which
+divides us from them; and they leave the stern passion of great minds to
+the only solitude which affection cannot share.  To aspire is to be
+alone!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+VIEW OF EHRENBREITSTEIN.--A NEW ALARM IN GERTRUDE'S HEALTH.--TRARBACH.
+
+ANOTHER time our travellers proceeded from Coblentz to Treves, following
+the course of the Moselle.  They stopped on the opposite bank below the
+bridge that unites Coblentz with the Petersberg, to linger over the
+superb view of Ehrenbreitstein which you may there behold.
+
+It was one of those calm noonday scenes which impress upon us their own
+bright and voluptuous tranquillity.  There stood the old herdsman leaning
+on his staff, and the quiet cattle knee-deep in the gliding waters.
+Never did stream more smooth and sheen than was at that hour the surface
+of the Moselle mirror the images of the pastoral life.  Beyond, the
+darker shadows of the bridge and of the walls of Coblentz fell deep over
+the waves, checkered by the tall sails of the craft that were moored
+around the harbour.  But clear against the sun rose the spires and roofs
+of Coblentz, backed by many a hill sloping away to the horizon.  High,
+dark, and massive, on the opposite bank, swelled the towers and rock of
+Ehrenbreitstein,--a type of that great chivalric spirit--the HONOUR that
+the rock arrogates for its name--which demands so many sacrifices of
+blood and tears, but which ever creates in the restless heart of man a
+far deeper interest than the more peaceful scenes of life by which it is
+contrasted.  There, still--from the calm waters, and the abodes of common
+toil and ordinary pleasure--turns the aspiring mind!  Still as we gaze on
+that lofty and immemorial rock we recall the famine and the siege; and
+own that the more daring crimes of men have a strange privilege in
+hallowing the very spot which they devastate.
+
+Below, in green curves and mimic bays covered with herbage, the gradual
+banks mingled with the water; and just where the bridge closed, a
+solitary group of trees, standing dark in the thickest shadow, gave that
+melancholy feature to the scene which resembles the one dark thought that
+often forces itself into our sunniest hours.  Their boughs stirred not;
+no voice of birds broke the stillness of their gloomy verdure: the eye
+turned from them, as from the sad moral that belongs to existence.
+
+In proceeding to Trarbach, Gertrude was seized with another of those
+fainting fits which had so terrified Trevylyan before; they stopped an
+hour or two at a little village, but Gertrude rallied with such apparent
+rapidity, and so strongly insisted on proceeding, that they reluctantly
+continued their way.  This event would have thrown a gloom over their
+journey, if Gertrude had not exerted herself to dispel the impression she
+had occasioned; and so light, so cheerful, were her spirits, that for the
+time at least she succeeded.
+
+They arrived at Trarbach late at noon.  This now small and humble town is
+said to have been the Thronus Bacchi of the ancients.  From the spot
+where the travellers halted to take, as it were, their impression of the
+town, they saw before them the little hostelry, a poor pretender to the
+Thronus Bacchi, with the rude sign of the Holy Mother over the door.  The
+peaked roof, the sunk window, the gray walls, checkered with the rude
+beams of wood so common to the meaner houses on the Continent, bore
+something of a melancholy and prepossessing aspect.  Right above, with
+its Gothic windows and venerable spire, rose the church of the town; and,
+crowning the summit of a green and almost perpendicular mountain, scowled
+the remains of one of those mighty castles which make the never-failing
+frown on a German landscape.
+
+The scene was one of quiet and of gloom: the exceeding serenity of the
+day contrasted, with an almost unpleasing brightness, the poverty of the
+town, the thinness of the population, and the dreary grandeur of the
+ruins that overhung the capital of the perished race of the bold Counts
+of Spanheim.
+
+They passed the night at Trarbach, and continued their journey next day.
+At Treves, Gertrude was for some days seriously ill; and when they
+returned to Coblentz, her disease had evidently received a rapid and
+alarming increase.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+THE DOUBLE LIFE.--TREVYLYAN'S FATE.--SORROW THE PARENT OF
+FAME.--NIEDERLAHNSTEIN.--DREAMS.
+
+THERE are two lives to each of us, gliding on at the same time, scarcely
+connected with each other,--the life of our actions, the life of our
+minds; the external and the inward history; the movements of the frame,
+the deep and ever-restless workings of the heart!  They who have loved
+know that there is a diary of the affections, which we might keep for
+years without having occasion even to touch upon the exterior surface of
+life, our busy occupations, the mechanical progress of our existence; yet
+by the last are we judged, the first is never known.  History reveals
+men's deeds, men's outward character, but /not themselves/.  There is a
+secret self that hath its own life "rounded by a dream," unpenetrated,
+unguessed.  What passed within Trevylyan, hour after hour, as he watched
+over the declining health of the only being in the world whom his proud
+heart had been ever destined to love?  His real record of the time was
+marked by every cloud upon Gertrude's brow, every smile of her
+countenance, every--the faintest--alteration in her disease; yet, to the
+outward seeming, all this vast current of varying eventful emotion lay
+dark and unconjectured.  He filled up with wonted regularity the
+colourings of existence, and smiled and moved as other men.  For still,
+in the heroism with which devotion conquers self, he sought only to cheer
+and gladden the young heart on which he had embarked his all; and he kept
+the dark tempest of his anguish for the solitude of night.
+
+That was a peculiar doom which Fate had reserved for him; and casting
+him, in after years, on the great sea of public strife, it seemed as if
+she were resolved to tear from his heart all yearnings for the land.  For
+him there was to be no green or sequestered spot in the valley of
+household peace.  His bark was to know no haven, and his soul not even
+the desire of rest.  For action is that Lethe in which alone we forget
+our former dreams, and the mind that, too stern not to wrestle with its
+emotions, seeks to conquer regret, must leave itself no leisure to look
+behind.  Who knows what benefits to the world may have sprung from the
+sorrows of the benefactor?  As the harvest that gladdens mankind in the
+suns of autumn was called forth by the rains of spring, so the griefs of
+youth may make the fame of maturity.
+
+Gertrude, charmed by the beauties of the river, desired to continue the
+voyage to Mayence.  The rich Trevylyan persuaded the physician who had
+attended her to accompany them, and they once more pursued their way
+along the banks of the feudal Rhine.  For what the Tiber is to the
+classic, the Rhine is to the chivalric age.  The steep rock and the gray
+dismantled tower, the massive and rude picturesque of the feudal days,
+constitute the great features of the scene; and you might almost fancy,
+as you glide along, that you are sailing back adown the river of Time,
+and the monuments of the pomp and power of old, rising, one after one,
+upon its shores!
+
+Vane and Du-----e, the physician, at the farther end of the vessel,
+conversed upon stones and strata, in that singular pedantry of science
+which strips nature to a skeleton, and prowls among the dead bones of the
+world, unconscious of its living beauty.
+
+They left Gertrude and Trevylyan to themselves; and, "bending o'er the
+vessel's laving side," they indulged in silence the melancholy with which
+each was imbued.  For Gertrude began to waken, though doubtingly and at
+intervals, to a sense of the short span that was granted to her life; and
+over the loveliness around her there floated that sad and ineffable
+interest which springs from the presentiment of our own death.  They
+passed the rich island of Oberwerth, and Hochheim, famous for its ruby
+grape, and saw, from his mountain bed, the Lahn bear his tribute of
+fruits and corn into the treasury of the Rhine.  Proudly rose the tower
+of Niederlahnstein, and deeply lay its shadow along the stream.  It was
+late noon; the cattle had sought the shade from the slanting sun, and,
+far beyond, the holy castle of Marksburg raised its battlements above
+mountains covered with the vine.  On the water two boats had been drawn
+alongside each other; and from one, now moving to the land, the splash of
+oars broke the general stillness of the tide.  Fast by an old tower the
+fishermen were busied in their craft, but the sound of their voices did
+not reach the ear.  It was life, but a silent life, suited to the
+tranquillity of noon.
+
+"There is something in travel," said Gertrude, "which constantly, even
+amidst the most retired spots, impresses us with the exuberance of life.
+We come to those quiet nooks and find a race whose existence we never
+dreamed of.  In their humble path they know the same passions and tread
+the same career as ourselves.  The mountains shut them out from the great
+world, but their village is a world in itself.  And they know and heed no
+more of the turbulent scenes of remote cities than our own planet of the
+inhabitants of the distant stars.  What then is death, but the
+forgetfulness of some few hearts added to the general unconsciousness of
+our existence that pervades the universe?  The bubble breaks in the vast
+desert of the air without a sound."
+
+"Why talk of death?" said Trevylyan, with a writhing smile.  "These sunny
+scenes should not call forth such melancholy images."
+
+"Melancholy," repeated Gertrude, mechanically.  "Yes, death is indeed
+melancholy when we are loved!"
+
+They stayed a short time at Niederlahnstein, for Vane was anxious to
+examine the minerals that the Lahn brings into the Rhine; and the sun was
+waning towards its close as they renewed their voyage.  As they sailed
+slowly on, Gertrude said, "How like a dream is this sentiment of
+existence, when, without labour or motion, every change of scene is
+brought before us; and if I am with you, dearest, I do not feel it less
+resembling a dream, for I have dreamed of you lately more than ever; and
+dreams have become a part of my life itself."
+
+"Speaking of dreams," said Trevylyan, as they pursued that mysterious
+subject, "I once during my former residence in Germany fell in with a
+singular enthusiast, who had taught himself what he termed 'A System of
+Dreaming.' When he first spoke to me upon it I asked him to explain what
+he meant, which he did somewhat in the following words."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+THE LIFE OF DREAMS.
+
+"I WAS born," said he, "with many of the sentiments of the poet, but
+without the language to express them; my feelings were constantly chilled
+by the intercourse of the actual world.  My family, mere Germans, dull
+and unimpassioned, had nothing in common with me; nor did I out of my
+family find those with whom I could better sympathize.  I was revolted by
+friendships,--for they were susceptible to every change; I was
+disappointed in love,--for the truth never approached to my ideal.
+Nursed early in the lap of Romance, enamoured of the wild and the
+adventurous, the commonplaces of life were to me inexpressibly tame and
+joyless.  And yet indolence, which belongs to the poetical character, was
+more inviting than that eager and uncontemplative action which can alone
+wring enterprise from life.  Meditation was my natural element.  I loved
+to spend the noon reclined by some shady stream, and in a half sleep to
+shape images from the glancing sunbeams.  A dim and unreal order of
+philosophy, that belongs to our nation, was my favourite intellectual
+pursuit; and I sought amongst the Obscure and the Recondite the variety
+and emotion I could not find in the Familiar. Thus constantly watching
+the operations of the inner mind, it occurred to me at last that sleep
+having its own world, but as yet a rude and fragmentary one, it might be
+possible to shape from its chaos all those combinations of beauty, of
+power, of glory, and of love, which were denied to me in the world in
+which my frame walked and had its being.  So soon as this idea came upon
+me, I nursed and cherished and mused over it, till I found that the
+imagination began to effect the miracle I desired.  By brooding ardently,
+intensely, before I retired to rest, over any especial train of thought,
+over any ideal creations; by keeping the body utterly still and quiescent
+during the whole day; by shutting out all living adventure, the memory of
+which might perplex and interfere with the stream of events that I
+desired to pour forth into the wilds of sleep, I discovered at last that
+I could lead in dreams a life solely their own, and utterly distinct from
+the life of day.  Towers and palaces, all my heritage and seigneury, rose
+before me from the depths of night; I quaffed from jewelled cups the
+Falernian of imperial vaults; music from harps of celestial tone filled
+up the crevices of air; and the smiles of immortal beauty flushed like
+sunlight over all.  Thus the adventure and the glory that I could not for
+my waking life obtain, was obtained for me in sleep.  I wandered with the
+gryphon and the gnome; I sounded the horn at enchanted portals; I
+conquered in the knightly lists; I planted my standard over battlements
+huge as the painter's birth of Babylon itself.
+
+"But I was afraid to call forth one shape on whose loveliness to pour all
+the hidden passion of my soul.  I trembled lest my sleep should present
+me some image which it could never restore, and, waking from which, even
+the new world I had created might be left desolate forever.  I shuddered
+lest I should adore a vision which the first ray of morning could smite
+to the grave.
+
+"In this train of mind I began to wonder whether it might not be possible
+to connect dreams together; to supply the thread that was wanting; to
+make one night continue the history of the other, so as to bring together
+the same shapes and the same scenes, and thus lead a connected and
+harmonious life, not only in the one half of existence, but in the other,
+the richer and more glorious half.  No sooner did this idea present
+itself to me, than I burned to accomplish it.  I had before taught myself
+that Faith is the great creator; that to believe fervently is to make
+belief true.  So I would not suffer my mind to doubt the practicability
+of its scheme.  I shut myself up then entirely by day, refused books, and
+hated the very sun, and compelled all my thoughts (and sleep is the
+mirror of thought) to glide in one direction,--the direction of my
+dreams,--so that from night to night the imagination might keep up the
+thread of action, and I might thus lie down full of the past dream and
+confident of the sequel.  Not for one day only, or for one month, did I
+pursue this system, but I continued it zealously and sternly till at
+length it began to succeed.  Who shall tell," cried the enthusiast,--I
+see him now with his deep, bright, sunken eyes, and his wild hair thrown
+backward from his brow,--"the rapture I experienced, when first, faintly
+and half distinct, I perceived the harmony I had invoked dawn upon my
+dreams?  At first there was only a partial and desultory connection
+between them; my eye recognized certain shapes, my ear certain tones
+common to each; by degrees these augmented in number, and were more
+defined in outline.  At length one fair face broke forth from among the
+ruder forms, and night after night appeared mixing with them for a moment
+and then vanishing, just as the mariner watches, in a clouded sky, the
+moon shining through the drifting rack, and quickly gone.  My curiosity
+was now vividly excited; the face, with its lustrous eyes and seraph
+features, roused all the emotions that no living shape had called forth.
+I became enamoured of a dream, and as the statue to the Cyprian was my
+creation to me; so from this intent and unceasing passion I at length
+worked out my reward.  My dream became more palpable; I spoke with it; I
+knelt to it; my lips were pressed to its own; we exchanged the vows of
+love, and morning only separated us with the certainty that at night we
+should meet again.  Thus then," continued my visionary, "I commenced a
+history utterly separate from the history of the world, and it went on
+alternately with my harsh and chilling history of the day, equally
+regular and equally continuous.  And what, you ask, was that history?
+Methought I was a prince in some Eastern island that had no features in
+common with the colder north of my native home.  By day I looked upon the
+dull walls of a German town, and saw homely or squalid forms passing
+before me; the sky was dim and the sun cheerless.  Night came on with her
+thousand stars, and brought me the dews of sleep.  Then suddenly there
+was a new world; the richest fruits hung from the trees in clusters of
+gold and purple.  Palaces of the quaint fashion of the sunnier climes,
+with spiral minarets and glittering cupolas, were mirrored upon vast
+lakes sheltered by the palm-tree and banana.  The sun seemed a different
+orb, so mellow and gorgeous were his beams; birds and winged things of
+all hues fluttered in the shining air; the faces and garments of men were
+not of the northern regions of the world, and their voices spoke a tongue
+which, strange at first, by degrees I interpreted.  Sometimes I made war
+upon neighbouring kings; sometimes I chased the spotted pard through the
+vast gloom of immemorial forests; my life was at once a life of
+enterprise and pomp.  But above all there was the history of my love!  I
+thought there were a thousand difficulties in the way of attaining its
+possession.  Many were the rocks I had to scale, and the battles to wage,
+and the fortresses to storm, in order to win her as my bride.  But at
+last" (continued the enthusiast), "she /is/ won, she is my own!  Time in
+that wild world, which I visit nightly, passes not so slowly as in this,
+and yet an hour may be the same as a year.  This continuity of existence,
+this successive series of dreams, so different from the broken
+incoherence of other men's sleep, at times bewilders me with strange and
+suspicious thoughts.  What if this glorious sleep be a real life, and
+this dull waking the true repose?  Why not?  What is there more faithful
+in the one than in the other?  And there have I garnered and collected
+all of pleasure that I am capable of feeling.  I seek no joy in this
+world; I form no ties, I feast not, nor love, nor make merry; I am only
+impatient till the hour when I may re-enter my royal realms and pour my
+renewed delight into the bosom of my bright Ideal.  There then have I
+found all that the world denied me; there have I realized the yearning
+and the aspiration within me; there have I coined the untold poetry into
+the Felt, the Seen!"
+
+I found, continued Trevylyan, that this tale was corroborated by inquiry
+into the visionary's habits.  He shunned society; avoided all unnecessary
+movement or excitement.  He fared with rigid abstemiousness, and only
+appeared to feel pleasure as the day departed, and the hour of return to
+his imaginary kingdom approached.  He always retired to rest punctually
+at a certain hour, and would sleep so soundly that a cannon fired under
+his window would not arouse him.  He never, which may seem singular,
+spoke or moved much in his sleep, but was peculiarly calm, almost to the
+appearance of lifelessness; but, discovering once that he had been
+watched in sleep, he was wont afterwards carefully to secure the chamber
+from intrusion.  His victory over the natural incoherence of sleep had,
+when I first knew him, lasted for some years; possibly what imagination
+first produced was afterwards continued by habit.
+
+I saw him again a few months subsequent to this confession, and he seemed
+to me much changed.  His health was broken, and his abstraction had
+deepened into gloom.
+
+I questioned him of the cause of the alteration, and he answered me with
+great reluctance,--
+
+"She is dead," said he; "my realms are desolate!  A serpent stung her,
+and she died in these very arms.  Vainly, when I started from my sleep in
+horror and despair, vainly did I say to myself,--This is but a dream.  I
+shall see her again.  A vision cannot die!  Hath it flesh that decays; is
+it not a spirit,--bodiless, indissoluble?  With what terrible anxiety I
+awaited the night!  Again I slept, and the DREAM lay again before me,
+dead and withered.  Even the ideal can vanish.  I assisted in the burial;
+I laid her in the earth; I heaped the monumental mockery over her form.
+And never since hath she, or ought like her, revisited my dreams.  I see
+her only when I wake; thus to wake is indeed to dream!  But," continued
+the visionary in a solemn voice, "I feel myself departing from this
+world, and with a fearful joy; for I think there may be a land beyond
+even the land of sleep where I shall see her again,--a land in which a
+vision itself may be restored."
+
+And in truth, concluded Trevylyan, the dreamer died shortly afterwards,
+suddenly, and in his sleep.  And never before, perhaps, had Fate so
+literally made of a living man (with his passions and his powers, his
+ambition and his love) the plaything and puppet of a dream!
+
+"Ah," said Vane, who had heard the latter part of Trevylyan's story,
+"could the German have bequeathed to us his secret, what a refuge should
+we possess from the ills of earth!  The dungeon and disease, poverty,
+affliction, shame, would cease to be the tyrants of our lot; and to Sleep
+we should confine our history and transfer our emotions."
+
+"Gertrude," whispered the lover, "what his kingdom and his bride were to
+the Dreamer art thou to me!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+THE BROTHERS.
+
+THE banks of the Rhine now shelved away into sweeping plains, and on
+their right rose the once imperial city of Boppart.  In no journey of
+similar length do you meet with such striking instances of the mutability
+and shifts of power.  To find, as in the Memphian Egypt, a city sunk into
+a heap of desolate ruins; the hum, the roar, the mart of nations, hushed
+into the silence of ancestral tombs, is less humbling to our human vanity
+than to mark, as along the Rhine, the kingly city dwindled into the
+humble town or the dreary village,--decay without its grandeur, change
+without the awe of its solitude!  On the site on which Drusus raised his
+Roman tower, and the kings of the Franks their palaces, trade now
+dribbles in tobacco-pipes, and transforms into an excellent cotton
+factory the antique nunnery of Konigsberg!  So be it; it is the
+progressive order of things,--the world itself will soon be one excellent
+cotton factory!
+
+"Look," said Trevylyan, as they sailed on, "at yonder mountain, with its
+two traditionary Castles of Liebenstein and Sternfels."
+
+Massive and huge the ruins swelled above the green rock, at the foot of
+which lay, in happier security from time and change, the clustered
+cottages of the peasant, with a single spire rising above the quiet
+village.
+
+"Is there not, Albert, a celebrated legend attached to those castles?"
+said Gertrude.  "I think I remember to have heard their names in
+connection with your profession of taleteller."
+
+"Yes," said Trevylyan, "the story relates to the last lords of those
+shattered towers, and--"
+
+"You will sit here, nearer to me, and begin," interrupted Gertrude, in
+her tone of childlike command.  "Come."
+
+
+
+                           THE BROTHERS.
+
+                              A TALE.*
+
+  * This tale is, in reality, founded on the beautiful tradition
+    which belongs to Liebenstein and Sternfels.
+
+You must imagine then, dear Gertrude (said Trevylyan), a beautiful summer
+day, and by the same faculty that none possess so richly as yourself, for
+it is you who can kindle something of that divine spark even in me, you
+must rebuild those shattered towers in the pomp of old; raise the gallery
+and the hall; man the battlements with warders, and give the proud
+banners of ancestral chivalry to wave upon the walls.  But above, sloping
+half down the rock, you must fancy the hanging gardens of Liebenstein,
+fragrant with flowers, and basking in the noonday sun.
+
+On the greenest turf, underneath an oak, there sat three persons, in the
+bloom of youth.  Two of the three were brothers; the third was an orphan
+girl, whom the lord of the opposite tower of Sternfels had bequeathed to
+the protection of his brother, the chief of Liebenstein.  The castle
+itself and the demesne that belonged to it passed away from the female
+line, and became the heritage of Otho, the orphan's cousin, and the
+younger of the two brothers now seated on the turf.
+
+"And oh," said the elder, whose name was Warbeck, "you have twined a
+chaplet for my brother; have you not, dearest Leoline, a simple flower
+for me?"
+
+The beautiful orphan (for beautiful she was, Gertrude, as the heroine of
+the tale you bid me tell ought to be,--should she not have to the dreams
+of my fancy your lustrous hair, and your sweet smile, and your eyes of
+blue, that are never, never silent?  Ah, pardon me, that in a former
+tale, I denied the heroine the beauty of your face, and remember that to
+atone for it, I endowed her with the beauty of your mind)--the beautiful
+orphan blushed to her temples, and culling from the flowers in her lap
+the freshest of the roses, began weaving them into a wreath for Warbeck.
+
+"It would be better," said the gay Otho, "to make my sober brother a
+chaplet of the rue and cypress; the rose is much too bright a flower for
+so serious a knight."
+
+Leoline held up her hand reprovingly.
+
+"Let him laugh, dearest cousin," said Warbeck, gazing passionately on her
+changing cheek; "and thou, Leoline, believe that the silent stream runs
+the deepest."
+
+At this moment, they heard the voice of the old chief, their father,
+calling aloud for Leoline; for ever when he returned from the chase he
+wanted her gentle presence; and the hall was solitary to him if the light
+sound of her step and the music of her voice were not heard in welcome.
+
+Leoline hastened to her guardian, and the brothers were left alone.
+
+Nothing could be more dissimilar than the features and the respective
+characters of Otho and Warbeck.  Otho's countenance was flushed with the
+brown hues of health; his eyes were of the brightest hazel: his dark hair
+wreathed in short curls round his open and fearless brow; the jest ever
+echoed on his lips, and his step was bounding as the foot of the hunter
+of the Alps.  Bold and light was his spirit; if at times he betrayed the
+haughty insolence of youth, he felt generously, and though not ever ready
+to confess sorrow for a fault, he was at least ready to brave peril for a
+friend.
+
+But Warbeck's frame, though of equal strength, was more slender in its
+proportions than that of his brother; the fair long hair that
+characterized his northern race hung on either side of a countenance calm
+and pale, and deeply impressed with thought, even to sadness.  His
+features, more majestic and regular than Otho's, rarely varied in their
+expression.  More resolute even than Otho, he was less impetuous; more
+impassioned, he was also less capricious.
+
+The brothers remained silent after Leoline had left them.  Otho
+carelessly braced on his sword, that he had laid aside on the grass; but
+Warbeck gathered up the flowers that had been touched by the soft hand of
+Leoline, and placed them in his bosom.
+
+The action disturbed Otho; he bit his lip, and changed colour; at length
+he said, with a forced laugh,--
+
+"It must be confessed, brother, that you carry your affection for our
+fair cousin to a degree that even relationship seems scarcely to
+warrant."
+
+"It is true," said Warbeck, calmly; "I love her with a love surpassing
+that of blood."
+
+"How!" said Otho, fiercely: "do you dare to think of Leoline as a bride?"
+
+"Dare!" repeated Warbeck, turning yet paler than his wonted hue.
+
+"Yes, I have said the word!  Know, Warbeck, that I, too, love Leoline; I,
+too, claim her as my bride; and never, while I can wield a sword, never,
+while I wear the spurs of knighthood, will I render my claim to a living
+rival,--even," he added, sinking his voice, "though that rival be my
+brother!"
+
+Warbeck answered not; his very soul seemed stunned; he gazed long and
+wistfully on his brother, and then, turning his face away, ascended the
+rock without uttering a single word.
+
+This silence startled Otho.  Accustomed to vent every emotion of his own,
+he could not comprehend the forbearance of his brother; he knew his high
+and brave nature too well to imagine that it arose from fear.  Might it
+not be contempt, or might he not, at this moment, intend to seek their
+father; and, the first to proclaim his love for the orphan, advance,
+also, the privilege of the elder born?  As these suspicions flashed
+across him, the haughty Otho strode to his brother's side, and laying his
+hand on his arm, said,--
+
+"Whither goest thou; and dost thou consent to surrender Leoline?"
+
+"Does she love thee, Otho?" answered Warbeck, breaking silence at last;
+and his voice spoke so deep an anguish, that it arrested the passions of
+Otho even at their height.
+
+"It is thou who art now silent," continued Warbeck; "speak.  Doth she
+love thee, and has her lip confessed it?"
+
+"I have believed that she loved me," faltered Otho; "but she is of maiden
+bearing, and her lip, at least, has never told it."
+
+"Enough," said Warbeck; "release your hold."
+
+"Stay," said Otho, his suspicions returning; "stay,--yet one word; dost
+thou seek my father?  He ever honoured thee more than me: wilt thou own
+to him thy love, and insist on thy right of birth?  By my soul and my
+hope of heaven, do it, and one of us two must fall!"
+
+"Poor boy!" answered Warbeck, bitterly; "how little thou canst read the
+heart of one who loves truly!  Thinkest thou I would wed her if she loved
+thee?  Thinkest thou I could, even to be blessed myself, give her one
+moment's pain?  Out on the thought! away!"
+
+"Then wilt not thou seek our father?" said Otho, abashed.
+
+"Our father!--has our father the keeping of Leoline's affection?"
+answered Warbeck; and shaking off his brother's grasp, he sought the way
+to the castle.
+
+As he entered the hall, he heard the voice of Leoline; she was singing to
+the old chief one of the simple ballads of the time that the warrior and
+the hunter loved to hear.  He paused lest he should break the spell (a
+spell stronger than a sorcerer's to him), and gazing upon Leoline's
+beautiful form, his heart sank within him.  His brother and himself had
+each that day, as they sat in the gardens, given her a flower; his flower
+was the fresher and the rarer; his he saw not, but she wore his brother's
+in her bosom!
+
+The chief, lulled by the music and wearied with the toils of the chase,
+sank into sleep as the song ended, and Warbeck, coming forward, motioned
+to Leoline to follow him.  He passed into a retired and solitary walk,
+and when they were a little distance from the castle, Warbeck turned
+round, and taking Leoline's hand gently, said,--
+
+"Let us rest here for one moment, dearest cousin; I have much on my heart
+to say to thee."
+
+"And what is there," answered Leoline, as they sat on a mossy bank, with
+the broad Rhine glancing below, "what is there that my kind Warbeck would
+ask of me?  Ah, would it might be some favour, something in poor
+Leoline's power to grant; for ever from my birth you have been to me most
+tender, most kind.  You, I have often heard them say; taught my first
+steps to walk; you formed my infant lips into language, and, in after
+years, when my wild cousin was far away in the forests at the chase, you
+would brave his gay jest and remain at home, lest Leoline should be weary
+in the solitude.  Ah, would I could repay you!"
+
+Warbeck turned away his cheek; his heart was very full, and it was some
+moments before he summoned courage to reply.
+
+"My fair cousin," said he, "those were happy days; but they were the days
+of childhood.  New cares and new thoughts have now come on us; but I am
+still thy friend, Leoline, and still thou wilt confide in me thy young
+sorrows and thy young hopes, as thou ever didst.  Wilt thou not,
+Leoline?"
+
+"Canst thou ask me?" said Leoline; and Warbeck, gazing on her face, saw
+that though her eyes were full of tears, they yet looked steadily upon
+his; and he knew that she loved him only as a sister.
+
+He sighed, and paused again ere he resumed.  "Enough," said he; "now to
+my task.  Once on a time, dear cousin, there lived among these mountains
+a, certain chief who had two sons, and an orphan like thyself dwelt also
+in his halls.  And the elder son--but no matter, let us not waste words
+on /him/!--the younger son, then, loved the orphan dearly,--more dearly
+than cousins love; and fearful of refusal, he prayed the elder one to
+urge his suit to the orphan.  Leoline, my tale is done.  Canst thou not
+love Otho as he loves thee?"
+
+And now lifting his eyes to Leoline, he saw that she trembled violently,
+and her cheek was covered with blushes.
+
+"Say," continued he, mastering himself, "is not that flower
+his--present--a token that he is chiefly in thy thoughts?"
+
+"Ah, Warbeck! do not deem me ungrateful that I wear not yours also;
+but--"
+
+"Hush!" said Warbeck, hastily; "I am but as thy brother; is not Otho
+more?  He is young, brave, and beautiful.  God grant that he may deserve
+thee, if thou givest him so rich a gift as thy affections!"
+
+"I saw less of Otho in my childhood," said Leoline, evasively;
+"therefore, his kindness of late years seemed stranger to me than thine."
+
+"And thou wilt not then reject him?  Thou wilt be his bride?"
+
+"And /thy/ sister," answered Leoline.
+
+"Bless thee, mine own dear cousin! one brother's kiss then, and farewell!
+Otho shall thank thee for himself."
+
+He kissed her forehead calmly, and, turning away, plunged into the
+thicket; then, nor till then, he gave vent to such emotions as, had
+Leoline seen them, Otho's suit had been lost forever; for passionately,
+deeply as in her fond and innocent heart she loved Otho, the /happiness/
+of Warbeck was not less dear to her.
+
+When the young knight had recovered his self-possession he went in search
+of Otho.  He found him alone in the wood, leaning with folded arms
+against a tree, and gazing moodily on the ground.  Warbeck's noble heart
+was touched at his brother's dejection.
+
+"Cheer thee, Otho," said he; "I bring thee no bad tidings; I have seen
+Leoline, I have conversed with her--nay, start not,--she loves thee! she
+is thine!"
+
+"Generous, generous Warbeck!" exclaimed Otho; and he threw himself on his
+brother's neck.  "No, no," said he, "this must not be; thou hast the
+elder claim,--I resign her to thee.  Forgive me my waywardness, brother,
+forgive me!"
+
+"Think of the past no more," said Warbeck; "the love of Leoline is an
+excuse for greater offences than thine.  And now, be kind to her; her
+nature is soft and keen.  /I/ know her well; for /I/ have studied her
+faintest wish.  Thou art hasty and quick of ire; but remember that a word
+wounds where love is deep.  For my sake, as for hers, think more of her
+happiness than thine own; now seek her,--she waits to hear from thy lips
+the tale that sounded cold upon mine."
+
+With that he left his brother, and, once more re-entering the castle, he
+went into the hall of his ancestors.  His father still slept; he put his
+hand on his gray hair, and blessed him; then stealing up to his chamber,
+he braced on his helm and armour, and thrice kissing the hilt of his
+sword, said, with a flushed cheek,--
+
+"Henceforth be /thou/ my bride!"  Then passing from the castle, he sped
+by the most solitary paths down the rock, gained the Rhine, and hailing
+one of the numerous fishermen of the river, won the opposite shore; and
+alone, but not sad, for his high heart supported him, and Leoline at
+least was happy, he hastened to Frankfort.
+
+The town was all gayety and life, arms clanged at every corner, the
+sounds of martial music, the wave of banners, the glittering of plumed
+casques, the neighing of war-steeds, all united to stir the blood and
+inflame the sense.  Saint Bertrand had lifted the sacred cross along the
+shores of the Rhine, and the streets of Frankfort witnessed with what
+success!
+
+On that same day Warbeck assumed the sacred badge, and was enlisted among
+the knights of the Emperor Conrad.
+
+We must suppose some time to have elapsed, and Otho and Leoline were not
+yet wedded; for, in the first fervour of his gratitude to his brother,
+Otho had proclaimed to his father and to Leoline the conquest Warbeck had
+obtained over himself; and Leoline, touched to the heart, would not
+consent that the wedding should take place immediately.  "Let him, at
+least," said she, "not be insulted by a premature festivity; and give him
+time, amongst the lofty beauties he will gaze upon in a far country, to
+forget, Otho, that he once loved her who is the beloved of thee."
+
+The old chief applauded this delicacy; and even Otho, in the first flush
+of his feelings towards his brother, did not venture to oppose it.  They
+settled, then, that the marriage should take place at the end of a year.
+
+Months rolled away, and an absent and moody gloom settled upon Otho's
+brow.  In his excursions with his gay companions among the neighbouring
+towns, he heard of nothing but the glory of the Crusaders, of the homage
+paid to the heroes of the Cross at the courts they visited, of the
+adventures of their life, and the exciting spirit that animated their
+war.  In fact, neither minstrel nor priest suffered the theme to grow
+cold; and the fame of those who had gone forth to the holy strife gave at
+once emulation and discontent to the youths who remained behind.
+
+"And my brother enjoys this ardent and glorious life," said the impatient
+Otho; "while I, whose arm is as strong, and whose heart is as bold,
+languish here listening to the dull tales of a hoary sire and the silly
+songs of an orphan girl."  His heart smote him at the last sentence, but
+he had already begun to weary of the gentle love of Leoline.  Perhaps
+when he had no longer to gain a triumph over a rival the excitement
+palled; or perhaps his proud spirit secretly chafed at being conquered by
+his brother in generosity, even when outshining him in the success of
+love.
+
+But poor Leoline, once taught that she was to consider Otho her
+betrothed, surrendered her heart entirely to his control.  His wild
+spirit, his dark beauty, his daring valour, won while they awed her; and
+in the fitfulness of his nature were those perpetual springs of hope and
+fear that are the fountains of ever-agitated love.  She saw with
+increasing grief the change that was growing over Otho's mind; nor did
+she divine the cause.  "Surely I have not offended him?" thought she.
+
+Among the companions of Otho was one who possessed a singular sway over
+him.  He was a knight of that mysterious Order of the Temple, which
+exercised at one time so great a command over the minds of men.
+
+A severe and dangerous wound in a brawl with an English knight had
+confined the Templar at Frankfort, and prevented his joining the Crusade.
+During his slow recovery he had formed an intimacy with Otho, and, taking
+up his residence at the castle of Liebenstein, had been struck with the
+beauty of Leoline.  Prevented by his oath from marriage, he allowed
+himself a double license in love, and doubted not, could he disengage the
+young knight from his betrothed, that she would add a new conquest to the
+many he had already achieved.  Artfully therefore he painted to Otho the
+various attractions of the Holy Cause; and, above all, he failed not to
+describe, with glowing colours, the beauties who, in the gorgeous East,
+distinguished with a prodigal favour the warriors of the Cross.  Dowries,
+unknown in the more sterile mountains of the Rhine, accompanied the hand
+of these beauteous maidens; and even a prince's daughter was not deemed,
+he said, too lofty a marriage for the heroes who might win kingdoms for
+themselves.
+
+"To me," said the Templar, "such hopes are eternally denied.  But you,
+were you not already betrothed, what fortunes might await you!"
+
+By such discourses the ambition of Otho was perpetually aroused; they
+served to deepen his discontent at his present obscurity, and to convert
+to distaste the only solace it afforded in the innocence and affection of
+Leoline.
+
+One night, a minstrel sought shelter from the storm in the halls of
+Liebenstein.  His visit was welcomed by the chief, and he repaid the
+hospitality he had received by the exercise of his art.  He sang of the
+chase, and the gaunt hound started from the hearth.  He sang of love, and
+Otho, forgetting his restless dreams, approached to Leoline, and laid
+himself at her feet.  Louder then and louder rose the strain.  The
+minstrel sang of war; he painted the feats of the Crusaders; he plunged
+into the thickest of the battle; the steed neighed; the trump sounded;
+and you might have heard the ringing of the steel.  But when he came to
+signalize the names of the boldest knights, high among the loftiest
+sounded the name of Sir Warbeck of Liebenstein.  Thrice had he saved the
+imperial banner; two chargers slain beneath him, he had covered their
+bodies with the fiercest of the foe.
+
+Gentle in the tent and terrible in the fray, the minstrel should forget
+his craft ere the Rhine should forget its hero.  The chief started from
+his seat.  Leoline clasped the minstrel's hand.
+
+"Speak,--you have seen him, he lives, he is honoured?"
+
+"I myself am but just from Palestine, brave chief and noble maiden.  I
+saw the gallant knight of Liebenstein at the right hand of the imperial
+Conrad.  And he, ladye, was the only knight whom admiration shone upon
+without envy, its shadow.  Who then," continued the minstrel, once more
+striking his harp, "who then would remain inglorious in the hall?  Shall
+not the banners of his sires reproach him as they wave; and shall not
+every voice from Palestine strike shame into his soul?"
+
+"Right!" cried Otho, suddenly, and flinging himself at the feet of his
+father.  "Thou hearest what my brother has done, and thine aged eyes weep
+tears of joy.  Shall I only dishonour thine old age with a rusted sword?
+No! grant me, like my brother, to go forth with the heroes of the Cross!"
+
+"Noble youth," cried the harper, "therein speaks the soul of Sir Warbeck;
+hear him, sir, knight,--hear the noble youth."
+
+"Heaven cries aloud in his voice," said the Templar, solemnly.
+
+"My son, I cannot chide thine ardour," said the old chief, raising him
+with trembling hands; "but Leoline, thy betrothed?"
+
+Pale as a statue, with ears that doubted their sense as they drank in the
+cruel words of her lover, stood the orphan.  She did not speak, she
+scarcely breathed; she sank into her seat, and gazed upon the ground,
+till, at the speech of the chief both maiden pride and maiden tenderness
+restored her consciousness, and she said,--
+
+"/I/, uncle!  Shall /I/ bid Otho stay when his wishes bid him depart?"
+
+"He will return to thee, noble ladye, covered with glory," said the
+harper: but Otho said no more.  The touching voice of Leoline went to his
+soul; he resumed his seat in silence; and Leoline, going up to him,
+whispered gently, "Act as though I were not;" and left the hall to
+commune with her heart and to weep alone.
+
+"I can wed her before I go," said Otho, suddenly, as he sat that night in
+the Templar's chamber.
+
+"Why, that is true! and leave thy bride in the first week,--a hard
+trial!"
+
+"Better than incur the chance of never calling her mine.  Dear, kind,
+beloved Leoline!"
+
+"Assuredly, she deserves all from thee; and, indeed, it is no small
+sacrifice, at thy years and with thy mien, to renounce forever all
+interest among the noble maidens thou wilt visit.  Ah, from the galleries
+of Constantinople what eyes will look down on thee, and what ears,
+learning that thou art Otho the bridegroom, will turn away, caring for
+thee no more!  A bridegroom without a bride!  Nay, man, much as the Cross
+wants warriors, I am enough thy friend to tell thee, if thou weddest, to
+stay peaceably at home, and forget in the chase the labours of war, from
+which thou wouldst strip the ambition of love."
+
+"I would I knew what were best," said Otho, irresolutely.  "My
+brother--ha, shall he forever excel me?  But Leoline, how will she
+grieve,--she who left him for me!"
+
+"Was that thy fault?" said the Templar, gayly.  "It may many times chance
+to thee again to be preferred to another.  Troth, it is a sin under which
+the conscience may walk lightly enough.  But sleep on it, Otho; my eyes
+grow heavy."
+
+The next day Otho sought Leoline, and proposed to her that their wedding
+should precede his parting; but so embarrassed was he, so divided between
+two wishes, that Leoline, offended, hurt, stung by his coldness, refused
+the proposal at once.  She left him lest he should see her weep, and
+then--then she repented even of her just pride!
+
+But Otho, striving to appease his conscience with the belief that hers
+now was the /sole/ fault, busied himself in preparations for his
+departure.  Anxious to outshine his brother, he departed not as Warbeck,
+alone and unattended, but levying all the horse, men, and money that his
+domain of Sternfels--which he had not yet tenanted--would afford, he
+repaired to Frankfort at the head of a glittering troop.
+
+The Templar, affecting a relapse, tarried behind, and promised to join
+him at that Constantinople of which he had so loudly boasted.  Meanwhile
+he devoted his whole powers of pleasing to console the unhappy orphan.
+The force of her simple love was, however, stronger than all his arts.
+In vain he insinuated doubts of Otho,--she refused to hear them; in vain
+he poured with the softest accents into her ear the witchery of flattery
+and song,--she turned heedlessly away; and only pained by the courtesies
+that had so little resemblance to Otho, she shut herself up in her
+chamber, and pined in solitude for her forsaker.
+
+The Templar now resolved to attempt darker arts to obtain power over her,
+when, fortunately, he was summoned suddenly away by a mission from the
+Grand Master of so high import, that it could not be resisted by a
+passion stronger in his breast than love,--the passion of ambition.  He
+left the castle to its solitude; and Otho peopling it no more with his
+gay companions, no solitude /could/ be more unfrequently disturbed.
+
+Meanwhile, though, ever and anon, the fame of Warbeck reached their ears,
+it came unaccompanied with that of Otho,--of him they had no tidings; and
+thus the love of the tender orphan was kept alive by the perpetual
+restlessness of fear.  At length the old chief died, and Leoline was left
+utterly alone.
+
+One evening as she sat with her maidens in the hall, the ringing of a
+steed's hoofs was heard in the outer court; a horn sounded, the heavy
+gates were unbarred, and a knight of a stately mien and covered with the
+mantle of the Cross entered the hall.  He stopped for one moment at the
+entrance, as if overpowered by his emotion; in the next he had clasped
+Leoline to his breast.
+
+"Dost thou not recognize thy cousin Warbeck?"  He doffed his casque, and
+she saw that majestic brow which, unlike Otho's, had never changed or
+been clouded in its aspect to her.
+
+"The war is suspended for the present," said he.  "I learned my father's
+death, and I have returned home to hang up my banner in the hall and
+spend my days in peace."
+
+Time and the life of camps had worked their change upon Warbeck's face;
+the fair hair, deepened in its shade, was worn from the temples, and
+disclosed one scar that rather aided the beauty of a countenance that had
+always something high and martial in its character; but the calm it had
+once worn had settled down into sadness; he conversed more rarely than
+before, and though he smiled not less often, nor less kindly, the smile
+had more of thought, and the kindness had forgot its passion.  He had
+apparently conquered a love that was so early crossed, but not that
+fidelity of remembrance which made Leoline dearer to him than all others,
+and forbade him to replace the images he had graven upon his soul.
+
+The orphan's lips trembled with the name of Otho, but a certain
+recollection stifled even her anxiety.  Warbeck hastened to forestall her
+questions.  Otho was well, he said, and sojourning at Constantinople; he
+had lingered there so long that the crusade had terminated without his
+aid: doubtless now he would speedily return,--a month, a week, nay, a
+day, might restore him to her side.
+
+Leoline was inexpressibly consoled, yet something remained untold.  Why,
+so eager for the strife of the sacred tomb, had he thus tarried at
+Constantinople?  She wondered, she wearied conjecture, but she did not
+dare to search further.
+
+The generous Warbeck concealed from her that Otho led a life of the most
+reckless and indolent dissipation,--wasting his wealth in the pleasures
+of the Greek court, and only occupying his ambition with the wild schemes
+of founding a principality in those foreign climes, which the enterprises
+of the Norman adventurers had rendered so alluring to the knightly
+bandits of the age.
+
+The cousins resumed their old friendship, and Warbeck believed that it
+was friendship alone.
+
+They walked again among the gardens in which their childhood had strayed;
+they sat again on the green turf whereon they had woven flowers; they
+looked down on the eternal mirror of the Rhine,--ah! could it have
+reflected the same unawakened freshness of their life's early spring!
+
+The grave and contemplative mind of Warbeck had not been so contented
+with the honours of war but that it had sought also those calmer sources
+of emotion which were yet found among the sages of the East.  He had
+drunk at the fountain of the wisdom of those distant climes, and had
+acquired the habits of meditation which were indulged by those wiser
+tribes from which the Crusaders brought back to the North the knowledge
+that was destined to enlighten their posterity.  Warbeck, therefore, had
+little in common with the ruder chiefs around; he did not summon them to
+his board; nor attend at their noisy wassails.  Often late at night, in
+yon shattered tower, his lonely lamp shone still over the mighty stream,
+and his only relief to loneliness was in the presence and the song of his
+soft cousin.
+
+Months rolled on, when suddenly a vague and fearful rumour reached the
+castle of Liebenstein.  Otho was returning home to the neighbouring tower
+of Sternfels; but not alone.  He brought back with him a Greek bride of
+surprising beauty, and dowered with almost regal wealth.  Leoline was the
+first to discredit the rumour; Leoline was soon the only one who
+disbelieved.
+
+Bright in the summer noon flashed the array of horsemen; far up the steep
+ascent wound the gorgeous cavalcade; the lonely towers of Liebenstein
+heard the echo of many a laugh and peal of merriment.  Otho bore home his
+bride to the hall of Sternfels.
+
+That night there was a great banquet in Otho's castle; the lights shone
+from every casement, and music swelled loud and ceaselessly within.
+
+By the side of Otho, glittering with the prodigal jewels of the East, sat
+the Greek.  Her dark locks, her flashing eye, the false colours of her
+complexion, dazzled the eyes of her guests.  On her left hand sat the
+Templar.
+
+"By the holy rood," quoth the Templar, gayly, though he crossed himself
+as he spoke, "we shall scare the owls to-night on those grim towers of
+Liebenstein.  Thy grave brother, Sir Otho, will have much to do to
+comfort his cousin when she sees what a gallant life she would have led
+with thee."
+
+"Poor damsel!" said the Greek, with affected pity, "doubtless she will
+now be reconciled to the rejected one.  I hear he is a knight of a comely
+mien."
+
+"Peace!" said Otho, sternly, and quaffing a large goblet of wine.
+
+The Greek bit her lip, and glanced meaningly at the Templar, who returned
+the glance.
+
+"Nought but a beauty such as thine can win my pardon," said Otho, turning
+to his bride, and gazing passionately in her face.
+
+The Greek smiled.
+
+Well sped the feast, the laugh deepened, the wine circled, when Otho's
+eye rested on a guest at the bottom of the board, whose figure was
+mantled from head to foot, and whose face was covered by a dark veil.
+
+"Beshrew me!" said he, aloud, "but this is scarce courteous at our revel:
+will the stranger vouchsafe to unmask?"
+
+These words turned all eyes to the figure, and they who sat next it
+perceived that it trembled violently; at length it rose, and walking
+slowly, but with grace, to the fair Greek, it laid beside her a wreath of
+flowers.
+
+"It is a simple gift, ladye," said the stranger, in a voice of such
+sweetness that the rudest guest was touched by it; "but it is all I can
+offer, and the bride of Otho should not be without a gift at my hands.
+May ye both be happy!"
+
+With these words, the stranger turned and passed from the hall silent as
+a shadow.
+
+"Bring back the stranger!" cried the Greek, recovering her surprise.
+Twenty guests sprang up to obey her mandate.
+
+"No, no!" said Otho, waving his hand impatiently.  "Touch her not, heed
+her not, at your peril."
+
+The Greek bent over the flowers to conceal her anger, and from amongst
+them dropped the broken half of a ring.  Otho recognized it at once; it
+was the broken half of that ring which he had broken with his betrothed.
+Alas! he required not such a sign to convince him that that figure, so
+full of ineffable grace, that touching voice, that simple action so
+tender in its sentiment, that gift, that blessing, came only from the
+forsaken and forgiving Leoline.
+
+But Warbeck, alone in his solitary tower, paced to and fro with agitated
+steps.  Deep, undying wrath at his brother's falsehood mingled with one
+burning, one delicious hope.  He confessed now that he had deceived
+himself when he thought his passion was no more; was there any longer a
+bar to his union with Leoline?
+
+In that delicacy which was breathed into him by his love, he had forborne
+to seek, or to offer her the insult of consolation.  He felt that the
+shock should be borne alone, and yet he pined, he thirsted, to throw
+himself at her feet.
+
+Nursing these contending thoughts, he was aroused by a knock at his door;
+he opened it.  The passage was thronged by Leoline's maidens, pale,
+anxious, weeping.  Leoline had left the castle, with but one female
+attendant, none knew whither; they knew too soon.  From the hall of
+Sternfels she had passed over in the dark and inclement night to the
+valley in which the convent of Bornhofen offered to the weary of spirit
+and the broken of heart a refuge at the shrine of God.
+
+At daybreak the next morning, Warbeck was at the convent's gate.  He saw
+Leoline.  What a change one night of suffering had made in that face,
+which was the fountain of all loveliness to him!  He clasped her in his
+arms; he wept; he urged all that love could urge: he besought her to
+accept that heart which had never wronged her memory by a thought.  "Oh,
+Leoline! didst thou not say once that these arms nursed thy childhood;
+that this voice soothed thine early sorrows?  Ah, trust to them again and
+forever.  From a love that forsook thee turn to the love that never
+swerved."
+
+"No," said Leoline; "no.  What would the chivalry of which thou art the
+boast,--what would they say of thee, wert thou to wed one affianced and
+deserted, who tarried years for another, and brought to thine arms only
+that heart which he had abandoned?  No; and even if thou, as I know thou
+wouldst be, wert callous to such wrong of thy high name, shall I bring to
+thee a broken heart and bruised spirit?  Shalt thou wed sorrow and not
+joy; and shall sighs that will not cease, and tears that may not be
+dried, be the only dowry of thy bride?  Thou, too, for whom all blessings
+should be ordained!  No, forget me; forget thy poor Leoline!  She hath
+nothing but prayers for thee."
+
+In vain Warbeck pleaded; in vain he urged all that passion and truth
+could urge; the springs of earthly love were forever dried up in the
+orphan's heart, and her resolution was immovable.  She tore herself from
+his arms, and the gate of the convent creaked harshly on his ear.
+
+A new and stern emotion now wholly possessed him; though naturally mild
+and gentle, he cherished anger, when once it was aroused, with the
+strength of a calm mind.  Leoline's tears, her sufferings, her wrongs,
+her uncomplaining spirit, the change already stamped upon her face,--all
+cried aloud to him for vengeance.  "She is an orphan," said he, bitterly;
+"she hath none to protect, to redress her, save me alone.  My father's
+charge over her forlorn youth descends of right to me.  What matters it
+whether her forsaker be my brother?  He is /her/ foe.  Hath he not
+crushed her heart?  Hath he not consigned her to sorrow till the grave?
+And with what insult! no warning, no excuse; with lewd wassailers keeping
+revel for his new bridals in the hearing--before the sight--of his
+betrothed!  Enough! the time hath come when, to use his own words, 'One
+of us two must fall!'"  He half drew his sword as he spoke, and thrusting
+it back violently into the sheath, strode home to his solitary castle.
+The sound of steeds and of the hunting horn met him at his portal; the
+bridal train of Sternfels, all mirth and gladness, were parting for the
+chase.
+
+That evening a knight in complete armour entered the banquet-hall of
+Sternfels, and defied Otho, on the part of Warbeck of Liebenstein, to
+mortal combat.
+
+Even the Templar was startled by so unnatural a challenge; but Otho,
+reddening, took up the gage, and the day and spot were fixed.
+Discontented, wroth with himself, a savage gladness seized him; he longed
+to wreak his desperate feelings even on his brother.  Nor had he ever in
+his jealous heart forgiven that brother his virtues and his renown.
+
+At the appointed hour the brothers met as foes.  Warbeck's vizor was up,
+and all the settled sternness of his soul was stamped upon his brow.  But
+Otho, more willing to brave the arm than to face the front of his
+brother, kept his vizor down; the Templar stood by him with folded arms.
+It was a study in human passions to his mocking mind.  Scarce had the
+first trump sounded to this dread conflict, when a new actor entered on
+the scene.  The rumour of so unprecedented an event had not failed to
+reach the convent of Bornhofen; and now, two by two, came the sisters of
+the holy shrine, and the armed men made way, as with trailing garments
+and veiled faces they swept along into the very lists.  At that moment
+one from amongst them left her sisters with a slow majestic pace, and
+paused not till she stood right between the brother foes.
+
+"Warbeck," she said in a hollow voice, that curdled up his dark spirit as
+it spoke, "is it thus thou wouldst prove thy love, and maintain thy trust
+over the fatherless orphan whom thy sire bequeathed to thy care?  Shall I
+have murder on my soul?"  At that question she paused, and those who
+heard it were struck dumb, and shuddered.  "The murder of one man by the
+hand of his own brother!  Away, Warbeck!  /I command/."
+
+"Shall I forget thy wrongs, Leoline?" said Warbeck.
+
+"Wrongs! they united me to God! they are forgiven, they are no more.
+Earth has deserted me, but Heaven hath taken me to its arms.  Shall I
+murmur at the change?  And thou, Otho"--here her voice faltered--"thou,
+does thy conscience smite thee not?  Wouldst thou atone for robbing me of
+hope by barring against me the future?  Wretch that I should be, could I
+dream of mercy, could I dream of comfort, if thy brother fell by thy
+sword in my cause?  Otho, I have pardoned thee, and blessed thee and
+thine.  Once, perhaps, thou didst love me; remember how I loved
+thee,--cast down thine arms."
+
+Otho gazed at the veiled form before him.  Where had the soft Leoline
+learned to command?  He turned to his brother; he felt all that he had
+inflicted upon both; and casting his sword upon the ground, he knelt at
+the feet of Leoline, and kissed her garment with a devotion that votary
+never lavished on a holier saint.
+
+The spell that lay over the warriors around was broken; there was one
+loud cry of congratulation and joy.  "And thou, Warbeck?" said Leoline,
+turning to the spot where, still motionless and haughty, Warbeck stood.
+
+"Have I ever rebelled against thy will?" said he, softly; and buried the
+point of his sword in the earth.  "Yet, Leoline, yet," added he, looking
+at his kneeling brother, "yet art thou already better avenged than by
+this steel!"
+
+"Thou art! thou art!" cried Otho, smiting his breast; and slowly, and
+scarce noting the crowd that fell back from his path, Warbeck left the
+lists.
+
+Leoline said no more; her divine errand was fulfilled.  She looked long
+and wistfully after the stately form of the knight of Liebenstein, and
+then, with a slight sigh, she turned to Otho, "This is the last time we
+shall meet on earth.  Peace be with us all!"
+
+She then, with the same majestic and collected bearing, passed on towards
+the sisterhood; and as, in the same solemn procession, they glided back
+towards the convent, there was not a man present--no, not even the
+hardened Templar--who would not, like Otho, have bent his knee to
+Leoline.
+
+Once more Otho plunged into the wild revelry of the age; his castle was
+thronged with guests, and night after night the lighted halls shone down
+athwart the tranquil Rhine.  The beauty of the Greek, the wealth of Otho,
+the fame of the Templar, attracted all the chivalry from far and near.
+Never had the banks of the Rhine known so hospitable a lord as the knight
+of Sternfels.  Yet gloom seized him in the midst of gladness, and the
+revel was welcome only as the escape from remorse.  The voice of scandal,
+however, soon began to mingle with that of envy at the pomp of Otho.  The
+fair Greek, it was said, weary of her lord, lavished her smiles on
+others; the young and the fair were always most acceptable at the castle;
+and, above all, her guilty love for the Templar scarcely affected
+disguise.  Otho alone appeared unconscious of the rumour; and though he
+had begun to neglect his bride, he relaxed not in his intimacy with the
+Templar.
+
+It was noon, and the Greek was sitting in her bower alone with her
+suspected lover; the rich perfumes of the East mingled with the fragrance
+of flowers, and various luxuries, unknown till then in those northern
+shores, gave a soft and effeminate character to the room.
+
+"I tell thee," said the Greek, petulantly, "that he begins to suspect;
+that I have seen him watch thee, and mutter as he watched, and play with
+the hilt of his dagger.  Better let us fly ere it is too late, for his
+vengeance would be terrible were it once roused against us.  Ah, why did
+I ever forsake my own sweet land for these barbarous shores!  There, love
+is not considered eternal, nor inconstancy a crime worthy death."
+
+"Peace, pretty one!" said the Templar, carelessly; "thou knowest not the
+laws of our foolish chivalry.  Thinkest thou I could fly from a knight's
+halls like a thief in the night?  Why, verily, even the red cross would
+not cover such dishonour.  If thou fearest that thy dull lord suspects,
+let us part.  The emperor hath sent to me from Frankfort.  Ere evening I
+might be on my way thither."
+
+"And I left to brave the barbarian's revenge alone?  Is this thy
+chivalry?"
+
+"Nay, prate not so wildly," answered the Templar.  "Surely, when the
+object of his suspicion is gone, thy woman's art and thy Greek wiles can
+easily allay the jealous fiend.  Do I not know thee, Glycera?  Why, thou
+wouldst fool all men--save a Templar."
+
+"And thou, cruel, wouldst thou leave me?" said the Greek, weeping.  "How
+shall I live without thee?"
+
+The Templar laughed slightly.  "Can such eyes ever weep without a
+comforter?  But farewell; I must not be found with thee.  To-morrow I
+depart for Frankfort; we shall meet again."
+
+As soon as the door closed on the Templar, the Greek rose, and pacing the
+room, said, "Selfish, selfish! how could I ever trust him?  Yet I dare
+not brave Otho alone.  Surely it was his step that disturbed us in our
+yesterday's interview?  Nay, I will fly.  I can never want a companion."
+
+She clapped her hands; a young page appeared; she threw herself on her
+seat and wept bitterly.
+
+The page approached, and love was mingled with his compassion.
+
+"Why weepest thou, dearest lady?" said he.  "Is there aught in which
+Conrad's services--services!--ah, thou hast read his heart--/his
+devotion/ may avail?"
+
+Otho had wandered out the whole day alone; his vassals had observed that
+his brow was more gloomy than its wont, for he usually concealed whatever
+might prey within.  Some of the most confidential of his servitors he had
+conferred with, and the conference had deepened the shadow of his
+countenance.  He returned at twilight; the Greek did not honour the
+repast with her presence.  She was unwell, and not to be disturbed.  The
+gay Templar was the life of the board.
+
+"Thou carriest a sad brow to-day, Sir Otho," said he; "good faith, thou
+hast caught it from the air of Liebenstein."
+
+"I have something troubles me," answered Otho, forcing a smile, "which I
+would fain impart to thy friendly bosom.  The night is clear and the moon
+is up, let us forth alone into the garden."
+
+The Templar rose, and he forgot not to gird on his sword as he followed
+the knight.
+
+Otho led the way to one of the most distant terraces that overhung the
+Rhine.
+
+"Sir Templar," said he, pausing, "answer me one question on thy knightly
+honour.  Was it thy step that left my lady's bower yester-eve at vesper?"
+
+Startled by so sudden a query, the wily Templar faltered in his reply.
+
+The red blood mounted to Otho's brow.  "Nay, lie not, sir knight; these
+eyes, thanks to God! have not witnessed, but these ears have heard from
+others of my dishonour."
+
+As Otho spoke, the Templar's eye resting on the water perceived a boat
+rowing fast over the Rhine; the distance forbade him to see more than the
+outline of two figures within it.  "She was right," thought he; "perhaps
+that boat already bears her from the danger."
+
+Drawing himself up to the full height of his tall stature, the Templar
+replied haughtily,--
+
+"Sir Otho of Sternfels, if thou hast deigned to question thy vassals,
+obtain from them only an answer.  It is not to contradict such minions
+that the knights of the Temple pledge their word!"
+
+"Enough," cried Otho, losing patience, and striking the Templar with his
+clenched hand.  "Draw, traitor, draw!"
+
+Alone in his lofty tower Warbeck watched the night deepen over the
+heavens, and communed mournfully with himself.  "To what end," thought
+he, "have these strong affections, these capacities of love, this
+yearning after sympathy, been given me?  Unloved and unknown I walk to my
+grave, and all the nobler mysteries of my heart are forever to be
+untold."
+
+Thus musing, he heard not the challenge of the warder on the wall, or the
+unbarring of the gate below, or the tread of footsteps along the winding
+stair; the door was thrown suddenly open, and Otho stood before him.
+"Come," he said, in a low voice trembling with passion; "come, I will
+show thee that which shall glad thine heart.  Twofold is Leoline
+avenged."
+
+Warbeck looked in amazement on a brother he had not met since they stood
+in arms each against the other's life, and he now saw that the arm that
+Otho extended to him dripped with blood, trickling drop by drop upon the
+floor.
+
+"Come," said Otho, "follow me; it is my last prayer.  Come, for Leoline's
+sake, come."
+
+At that name Warbeck hesitated no longer; he girded on his sword, and
+followed his brother down the stairs and through the castle gate.  The
+porter scarcely believed his eyes when he saw the two brothers, so long
+divided, go forth at that hour alone, and seemingly in friendship.
+
+Warbeck, arrived at that epoch in the feelings when nothing stuns,
+followed with silent steps the rapid strides of his brother.  The two
+castles, as you are aware, are scarce a stone's throw from each other.
+In a few minutes Otho paused at an open space in one of the terraces of
+Sternfels, on which the moon shone bright and steady.  "Behold!" he said,
+in a ghastly voice, "behold!" and Warbeck saw on the sward the corpse of
+the Templar, bathed with the blood that even still poured fast and warm
+from his heart.
+
+"Hark!" said Otho.  "He it was who first made me waver in my vows to
+Leoline; he persuaded me to wed yon whited falsehood.  Hark! he, who had
+thus wronged my real love, dishonoured me with my faithless bride, and
+thus--thus--thus"--as grinding his teeth, he spurned again and again the
+dead body of the Templar--"thus Leoline and myself are avenged!"
+
+"And thy wife?" said Warbeck, pityingly.
+
+"Fled,--fled with a hireling page.  It is well! she was not worth the
+sword that was once belted on--by Leoline."
+
+
+
+The tradition, dear Gertrude, proceeds to tell us that Otho, though often
+menaced by the rude justice of the day for the death of the Templar,
+defied and escaped the menace.  On the very night of his revenge a long
+and delirious illness seized him; the generous Warbeck forgave, forgot
+all, save that he had been once consecrated by Leoline's love.  He tended
+him through his sickness, and when he recovered, Otho was an altered man.
+He forswore the comrades he had once courted, the revels he had once led.
+The halls of Sternfels were desolate as those of Liebenstein.  The only
+companion Otho sought was Warbeck, and Warbeck bore with him.  They had
+no topic in common, for on one subject Warbeck at least felt too deeply
+ever to trust himself to speak; yet did a strange and secret sympathy
+re-unite them.  They had at least a common sorrow; often they were seen
+wandering together by the solitary banks of the river, or amidst the
+woods, without apparently interchanging word or sign.  Otho died first,
+and still in the prime of youth; and Warbeck was now left companionless.
+In vain the imperial court wooed him to its pleasures; in vain the camp
+proffered him the oblivion of renown.  Ah! could he tear himself from a
+spot where morning and night he could see afar, amidst the valley, the
+roof that sheltered Leoline, and on which every copse, every turf,
+reminded him of former days?  His solitary life, his midnight vigils,
+strange scrolls about his chamber, obtained him by degrees the repute of
+cultivating the darker arts; and shunning, he became shunned by all.  But
+still it was sweet to hear from time to time of the increasing sanctity
+of her in whom he had treasured up his last thoughts of earth.  She it
+was who healed the sick; she it was who relieved the poor; and the
+superstition of that age brought pilgrims from afar to the altars that
+she served.
+
+Many years afterwards, a band of lawless robbers, who ever and anon broke
+from their mountain fastnesses to pillage and to desolate the valleys of
+the Rhine,--who spared neither sex nor age, neither tower nor hut, nor
+even the houses of God Himself,--laid waste the territories round
+Bornhofen, and demanded treasure from the convent.  The abbess, of the
+bold lineage of Rudesheim, refused the sacrilegious demand.  The convent
+was stormed; its vassals resisted; the robbers, inured to slaughter, won
+the day; already the gates were forced, when a knight, at the head of a
+small but hardy troop, rushed down from the mountain side and turned the
+tide of the fray.  Wherever his sword flashed fell a foe; wherever his
+war-cry sounded was a space of dead men in the thick of the battle.  The
+fight was won, the convent saved; the abbess and the sisterhood came
+forth to bless their deliverer.  Laid under an aged oak, he was bleeding
+fast to death; his head was bare and his locks were gray, but scarcely
+yet with years.  One only of the sisterhood recognized that majestic
+face; one bathed his parched lips; one held his dying hand; and in
+Leoline's presence passed away the faithful spirit of the last lord of
+Liebenstein!
+
+"Oh!" said Gertrude, through her tears; "surely you must have altered the
+facts,--surely--surely--it must have been impossible for Leoline, with a
+woman's heart, to have loved Otho more than Warbeck?"
+
+"My child," said Vane, "so think women when they read a tale of love, and
+see /the whole heart/ bared before them; but not so act they in real
+life, when they see only the surface of character, and pierce not its
+depths--until it is too late!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.--A COMMON INCIDENT NOT BEFORE
+DESCRIBED.--TREVYLYAN AND GERTRUDE.
+
+THE day now grew cool as it waned to its decline, and the breeze came
+sharp upon the delicate frame of the sufferer.  They resolved to proceed
+no farther; and as they carried with them attendants and baggage, which
+rendered their route almost independent of the ordinary accommodation,
+they steered for the opposite shore, and landed at a village beautifully
+sequestered in a valley, and where they fortunately obtained a lodging
+not often met with in the regions of the picturesque.
+
+When Gertrude, at an early hour, retired to bed, Vane and Du-----e fell
+into speculative conversation upon the nature of man.  Vane's philosophy
+was of a quiet and passive scepticism; the physician dared more boldly,
+and rushed from doubt to negation.  The attention of Trevylyan, as he sat
+apart and musing, was arrested in despite of himself.  He listened to an
+argument in which he took no share, but which suddenly inspired him with
+an interest in that awful subject which, in the heat of youth and the
+occupations of the world, had never been so prominently called forth
+before.
+
+"What," thought he, with unutterable anguish, as he listened to the
+earnest vehemence of the Frenchman and the tranquil assent of Vane, "if
+this creed were indeed true,--if there be no other world,--Gertrude is
+lost to me eternally, through the dread gloom of death there would break
+forth no star!"
+
+That is a peculiar incident that perhaps occurs to us all at times, but
+which I have never found expressed in books, namely, to hear a doubt of
+futurity at the very moment in which the present is most overcast; and to
+find at once this world stripped of its delusion and the next of its
+consolation.  It is perhaps for others, rather than ourselves, that the
+fond heart requires a Hereafter.  The tranquil rest, the shadow, and the
+silence, the mere pause of the wheel of life, have no terror for the
+wise, who know the due value of the world.
+
+     "After the billows of a stormy sea,
+      Sweet is at last the haven of repose!"
+
+But not so when that stillness is to divide us eternally from others;
+when those we have loved with all the passion, the devotion, the watchful
+sanctity of the weak human heart, are to exist to us no more! when, after
+long years of desertion and widowhood on earth, there is to be no hope of
+reunion in that INVISIBLE beyond the stars; when the torch, not of life
+only, but of love, is to be quenched in the Dark Fountain, and the grave,
+that we would fain hope is the great restorer of broken ties, is but the
+dumb seal of hopeless, utter, inexorable separation!  And it is this
+thought, this sentiment, which makes religion out of woe, and teaches
+belief to the mourning heart that in the gladness of united affections
+felt not the necessity of a heaven!  To how many is the death of the
+beloved the parent of faith!
+
+Stung by his thoughts, Trevylyan rose abruptly, and stealing from the
+lowly hostelry, walked forth amidst the serene and deepening night; from
+the window of Gertrude's room the light streamed calm on the purple air.
+
+With uneven steps and many a pause, he paced to and fro beneath the
+window, and gave the rein to his thoughts.  How intensely he felt the ALL
+that Gertrude was to him! how bitterly he foresaw the change in his lot
+and character that her death would work out!  For who that met him in
+later years ever dreamed that emotions so soft, and yet so ardent, had
+visited one so stern?  Who could have believed that time was when the
+polished and cold Trevylyan had kept the vigils he now held below the
+chamber of one so little like himself as Gertrude, in that remote and
+solitary hamlet; shut in by the haunted mountains of the Rhine, and
+beneath the moonlight of the romantic North?
+
+While thus engaged, the light in Gertrude's room was suddenly
+extinguished; it is impossible to express how much that trivial incident
+affected him!  It was like an emblem of what was to come; the light had
+been the only evidence of life that broke upon that hour, and he was now
+left alone with the shades of night.  Was not this like the herald of
+Gertrude's own death; the extinction of the only living ray that broke
+upon the darkness of the world?
+
+His anguish, his presentiment of utter desolation, increased.  He groaned
+aloud; he dashed his clenched hand to his breast; large and cold drops of
+agony stole down his brow.  "Father," he exclaimed with a struggling
+voice, "let this cup pass from me!  Smite my ambition to the root; curse
+me with poverty, shame, and bodily disease; but leave me this one solace,
+this one companion of my fate!"
+
+At this moment Gertrude's window opened gently, and he heard accents
+steal soothingly upon his ear.
+
+"Is not that your voice, Albert?" said she, softly.  "I heard it just as
+I lay down to rest, and could not sleep while you were thus exposed to
+the damp night air.  You do not answer; surely it is your voice: when did
+I mistake it for another's?"  Mastering with a violent effort his
+emotions, Trevylyan answered, with a sort of convulsive gayety,--
+
+"Why come to these shores, dear Gertrude, unless you are honoured with
+the chivalry that belongs to them?  What wind, what blight, can harm me
+while within the circle of your presence; and what sleep can bring me
+dreams so dear as the waking thought of you?"
+
+"It is cold," said Gertrude, shivering; "come in, dear Albert, I beseech
+you, and I will thank you to-morrow."  Gertrude's voice was choked by the
+hectic cough, that went like an arrow to Trevylyan's heart; and he felt
+that in her anxiety for him she was now exposing her own frame to the
+unwholesome night.
+
+He spoke no more, but hurried within the house; and when the gray light
+of morn broke upon his gloomy features, haggard from the want of sleep,
+it might have seemed, in that dim eye and fast-sinking cheek, as if the
+lovers were not to be divided--even by death itself.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+IN WHICH THE READER WILL LEARN HOW THE FAIRIES WERE RECEIVED BY THE
+SOVEREIGNS OF THE MINES.--THE COMPLAINT OF THE LAST OF THE FAUNS.--THE
+RED HUNTSMAN.--THE STORM.--DEATH.
+
+IN the deep valley of Ehrenthal, the metal kings--the Prince of the
+Silver Palaces, the Gnome Monarch of the dull Lead Mine, the President of
+the Copper United States--held a court to receive the fairy wanderers
+from the island of Nonnewerth.
+
+The prince was there, in a gallant hunting-suit of oak leaves, in honour
+to England; and wore a profusion of fairy orders, which had been
+instituted from time to time, in honour of the human poets that had
+celebrated the spiritual and ethereal tribes.  Chief of these, sweet
+Dreamer of the "Midsummer Night's Dream," was the badge crystallized from
+the dews that rose above the whispering reeds of Avon on the night of thy
+birth,--the great epoch of the intellectual world!  Nor wert thou, O
+beloved Musaeus! nor thou, dim-dreaming Tieck! nor were ye, the wild
+imaginer of the bright-haired Undine, and the wayward spirit that invoked
+for the gloomy Manfred the Witch of the breathless Alps and the spirits
+of earth and air!--nor were ye without the honours of fairy homage!  Your
+memory may fade from the heart of man, and the spells of new enchanters
+may succeed to the charm you once wove over the face of the common world;
+but still in the green knolls of the haunted valley and the deep shade of
+forests, and the starred palaces of air, ye are honoured by the beings of
+your dreams, as demigods and kings!  Your graves are tended by invisible
+hands, and the places of your birth are hallowed by no perishable
+worship!
+
+Even as I write,* far away amidst the hills of Scotland, and by the
+forest thou hast clothed with immortal verdure, thou, the maker of "the
+Harp by lone Glenfillan's spring," art passing from the earth which thou
+hast "painted with delight."  And such are the chances of mortal fame,
+our children's children may raise new idols on the site of thy holy
+altar, and cavil where their sires adored; but for thee the mermaid of
+the ocean shall wail in her coral caves, and the sprite that lives in the
+waterfalls shall mourn!  Strange shapes shall hew thy monument in the
+recesses of the lonely rocks! ever by moonlight shall the fairies pause
+from their roundel when some wild note of their minstrelsy reminds them
+of thine own,--ceasing from their revelries, to weep for the silence of
+that mighty lyre, which breathed alike a revelation of the mysteries of
+spirits and of men!
+
+  * It was just at the time the author was finishing this work
+    that the great master of his art was drawing to the close
+    of his career.
+
+The King of the Silver Mines sat in a cavern in the valley, through which
+the moonlight pierced its way and slept in shadow on the soil shining
+with metals wrought into unnumbered shapes; and below him, on a humbler
+throne, with a gray beard and downcast eye, sat the aged King of the
+Dwarfs that preside over the dull realms of lead, and inspire the verse
+of -----, and the prose of -----!  And there too a fantastic household
+elf was the President of the Copper Republic,--a spirit that loves
+economy and the Uses, and smiles sparely on the Beautiful.  But, in the
+centre of the cave, upon beds of the softest mosses, the untrodden growth
+of ages, reclined the fairy visitors, Nymphalin seated by her betrothed.
+And round the walls of the cave were dwarf attendants on the sovereigns
+of the metals, of a thousand odd shapes and fantastic garments.  On the
+abrupt ledges of the rocks the bats, charmed to stillness but not sleep,
+clustered thickly, watching the scene with fixed and amazed eyes; and one
+old gray owl, the favourite of the witch of the valley, sat blinking in a
+corner, listening with all her might that she might bring home the
+scandal to her mistress.
+
+"And tell me, Prince of the Rhine-Island Fays," said the King of the
+Silver Mines, "for thou art a traveller, and a fairy that hath seen much,
+how go men's affairs in the upper world?  As to ourself, we live here in
+a stupid splendour, and only hear the news of the day when our brother of
+lead pays a visit to the English printing-press, or the President of
+Copper goes to look at his improvements in steam-engines."
+
+"Indeed," replied Fayzenheim, preparing to speak like AEneas in the
+Carthaginian court,--"indeed, your Majesty, I know not much that will
+interest you in the present aspect of mortal affairs, except that you are
+quite as much honoured at this day as when the Roman conqueror bent his
+knee to you among the mountains of Taunus; and a vast number of little
+round subjects of yours are constantly carried about by the rich, and
+pined after with hopeless adoration by the poor.  But, begging your
+Majesty's pardon, may I ask what has become of your cousin, the King of
+the Golden Mines?  I know very well that he has no dominion in these
+valleys, and do not therefore wonder at his absence from your court this
+night; but I see so little of his subjects on earth that I should fear
+his empire was well nigh at an end, if I did not recognize everywhere the
+most servile homage paid to a power now become almost invisible."
+
+The King of the Silver Mines fetched a deep sigh.  "Alas, prince," said
+he, "too well do you divine the expiration of my cousin's empire.  So
+many of his subjects have from time to time gone forth to the world,
+pressed into military service and never returning, that his kingdom is
+nearly depopulated.  And he lives far off in the distant parts of the
+earth, in a state of melancholy seclusion; the age of gold has passed,
+the age of paper has commenced."
+
+"Paper," said Nymphalin, who was still somewhat of a /precieuse/,--"paper
+is a wonderful thing.  What pretty books the human people write upon it!"
+
+"Ah! that's what I design to convey," said the silver king.  "It is the
+age less of paper money than paper government: the Press is the true
+bank."  The lord treasurer of the English fairies pricked up his ears at
+the word "bank;" for he was the Attwood of the fairies: he had a
+favourite plan of making money out of bulrushes, and had written four
+large bees'-wings full upon the true nature of capital.
+
+While they were thus conversing, a sudden sound as of some rustic and
+rude music broke along the air, and closing its wild burden, they heard
+the following song:--
+
+
+
+THE COMPLAINT OF THE LAST FAUN.
+
+
+I.
+
+The moon on the Latmos mountain
+  Her pining vigil keeps;
+And ever the silver fountain
+  In the Dorian valley weeps.
+But gone are Endymion's dreams;
+  And the crystal lymph
+  Bewails the nymph
+Whose beauty sleeked the streams!
+
+
+II.
+
+Round Arcady's oak its green
+  The Bromian ivy weaves;
+But no more is the satyr seen
+  Laughing out from the glossy leaves.
+Hushed is the Lycian lute,
+  Still grows the seed
+  Of the Moenale reed,
+But the pipe of Pan is mute!
+
+
+III.
+
+The leaves in the noon-day quiver;
+  The vines on the mountains wave;
+And Tiber rolls his river
+  As fresh by the Sylvan's cave.
+But my brothers are dead and gone;
+  And far away
+  From their graves I stray,
+And dream of the past alone!
+
+
+IV.
+
+And the sun of the north is chill;
+  And keen is the northern gale;
+Alas for the Song of the Argive hill;
+  And the dance in the Cretan vale!
+The youth of the earth is o'er,
+  And its breast is rife
+  With the teeming life
+Of the golden Tribes no more!
+
+
+V.
+
+My race are more blest than I,
+  Asleep in their distant bed;
+'T were better, be sure, to die
+  Than to mourn for the buried Dead:
+To rove by the stranger streams,
+  At dusk and dawn
+  A lonely faun,
+The last of the Grecian's dreams.
+
+
+
+As the song ended a shadow crossed the moonlight, that lay white and
+lustrous before the aperture of the cavern; and Nymphalin, looking up,
+beheld a graceful yet grotesque figure standing on the sward without, and
+gazing on the group in the cave.  It was a shaggy form, with a goat's
+legs and ears; but the rest of its body, and the height of the stature,
+like a man's.  An arch, pleasant, yet malicious smile played about its
+lips; and in its hand it held the pastoral pipe of which poets have
+sung,--they would find it difficult to sing to it!
+
+"And who art thou?" said Fayzenheim, with the air of a hero.
+
+"I am the last lingering wanderer of the race which the Romans
+worshipped; hither I followed their victorious steps, and in these green
+hollows have I remained.  Sometimes in the still noon, when the leaves of
+spring bud upon the whispering woods, I peer forth from my rocky lair,
+and startle the peasant with my strange voice and stranger shape.  Then
+goes he home, and puzzles his thick brain with mopes and fancies, till at
+length he imagines me, the creature of the South! one of his northern
+demons, and his poets adapt the apparition to their barbarous lines."
+
+"Ho!" quoth the silver king, "surely thou art the origin of the fabled
+Satan of the cowled men living whilom in yonder ruins, with its horns and
+goatish limbs; and the harmless faun has been made the figuration of the
+most implacable of fiends.  But why, O wanderer of the South, lingerest
+thou in these foreign dells?  Why returnest thou not to the bi-forked
+hill-top of old Parnassus, or the wastes around the yellow course of the
+Tiber?"
+
+"My brethren are no more," said the poor faun; "and the very faith that
+left us sacred and unharmed is departed.  But here all the spirits not of
+mortality are still honoured; and I wander, mourning for Silenus, though
+amidst the vines that should console me for his loss."
+
+"Thou hast known great beings in thy day," said the leaden king, who
+loved the philosophy of a truism (and the history of whose inspirations I
+shall one day write).
+
+"Ah, yes," said the faun; "my birth was amidst the freshness of the
+world, when the flush of the universal life coloured all things with
+divinity; when not a tree but had its Dryad, not a fountain that was
+without its Nymph.  I sat by the gray throne of Saturn, in his old age,
+ere yet he was discrowned (for he was no visionary ideal, but the arch
+monarch of the pastoral age), and heard from his lips the history of the
+world's birth.  But those times are gone forever,--they have left harsh
+successors."
+
+"It is the age of paper," muttered the lord treasurer, shaking his head.
+
+"What ho, for a dance!" cried Fayzenheim, too royal for moralities, and
+he whirled the beautiful Nymphalin into a waltz.  Then forth issued the
+fairies, and out went the dwarfs.  And the faun leaning against an aged
+elm, ere yet the midnight waned, the elves danced their charmed round to
+the antique minstrelsy of his pipe,--the minstrelsy of the Grecian world!
+
+"Hast thou seen yet, my Nymphalin," said Fayzenheim, in the pauses of the
+dance, "the recess of the Hartz, and the red form of its mighty hunter?"
+
+"It is a fearful sight," answered Nymphalin; "but with thee I should not
+fear."
+
+"Away then!" cried Fayzenheim; "let us away at the first cock-crow, into
+those shaggy dells; for there is no need of night to conceal us, and the
+unwitnessed blush of morn or the dreary silence of noon is, no less than
+the moon's reign, the season for the sports of the superhuman tribes."
+
+Nymphalin, charmed with the proposal, readily assented; and at the last
+hour of night, bestriding the starbeams of the many-titled Friga, away
+sped the fairy cavalcade to the gloom of the mystic Hartz.
+
+Fain would I relate the manner of their arrival in the thick recesses of
+the forest,--how they found the Red Hunter seated on a fallen pine beside
+a wide chasm in the earth, with the arching bows of the wizard oak
+wreathing above his head as a canopy, and his bow and spear lying idle at
+his feet.  Fain would I tell of the reception which he deigned to the
+fairies, and how he told them of his ancient victories over man; how he
+chafed at the gathering invasions of his realm; and how joyously he
+gloated of some great convulsion* in the northern States, which, rapt
+into moody reveries in those solitary woods, the fierce demon broodingly
+foresaw.  All these fain would I narrate, but they are not of the Rhine,
+and my story will not brook the delay.  While thus conversing with the
+fiend, noon had crept on, and the sky had become overcast and lowering;
+the giant trees waved gustily to and fro, and the low gatherings of the
+thunder announced the approaching storm.  Then the hunter rose and
+stretched his mighty limbs, and seizing his spear, he strode rapidly into
+the forest to meet the things of his own tribe that the tempest wakes
+from their rugged lair.
+
+  * Which has come to pass.--1847.
+
+A sudden recollection broke upon Nymphalin.  "Alas, alas!" she cried,
+wringing her hands; "what have I done!  In journeying hither with thee, I
+have forgotten my office.  I have neglected my watch over the elements,
+and my human charge is at this hour, perhaps, exposed to all the fury of
+the storm."
+
+"Cheer thee, my Nymphalin," said the prince, "we will lay the tempest;"
+and he waved his sword and muttered the charms which curb the winds and
+roll back the marching thunder: but for once the tempest ceased not at
+his spells.  And now, as the fairies sped along the troubled air, a pale
+and beautiful form met them by the way, and the fairies paused and
+trembled; for the power of that Shape could vanquish even them.  It was
+the form of a Female, with golden hair, crowned with a chaplet of
+withered leaves; her bosoms, of an exceeding beauty, lay bare to the
+wind, and an infant was clasped between them, hushed into a sleep so
+still, that neither the roar of the thunder, nor the livid lightning
+flashing from cloud to cloud, could even ruffle, much less arouse, the
+slumberer.  And the face of the female was unutterably calm and sweet
+(though with a something of severe); there was no line nor wrinkle in the
+hueless brow; care never wrote its defacing characters upon that
+everlasting beauty.  It knew no sorrow or change; ghostlike and shadowy
+floated on that Shape through the abyss of Time, governing the world with
+an unquestioned and noiseless sway.  And the children of the green
+solitudes of the earth, the lovely fairies of my tale, shuddered as they
+gazed and recognized--the form of DEATH,--death vindicated.
+
+"And why," said the beautiful Shape, with a voice soft as the last sighs
+of a dying babe,--"why trouble ye the air with spells?  Mine is the hour
+and the empire, and the storm is the creature of my power.  Far yonder to
+the west it sweeps over the sea, and the ship ceases to vex the waves; it
+smites the forest, and the destined tree, torn from its roots, feels the
+winter strip the gladness from its boughs no more!  The roar of the
+elements is the herald of eternal stillness to their victims; and they
+who hear the progress of my power idly shudder at the coming of peace.
+And thou, O tender daughter of the fairy kings, why grievest thou at a
+mortal's doom?  Knowest thou not that sorrow cometh with years, and that
+to live is to mourn?  Blessed is the flower that, nipped in its early
+spring, feels not the blast that one by one scatters its blossoms around
+it, and leaves but the barren stem.  Blessed are the young whom I clasp
+to my breast, and lull into the sleep which the storm cannot break, nor
+the morrow arouse to sorrow or to toil.  The heart that is stilled in the
+bloom of its first emotions, that turns with its last throb to the eye of
+love, as yet unlearned in the possibility of change,--has exhausted
+already the wine of life, and is saved only from the lees.  As the mother
+soothes to sleep the wail of her troubled child, I open my arms to the
+vexed spirit, and my bosom cradles the unquiet to repose!"
+
+The fairies answered not, for a chill and a fear lay over them, and the
+Shape glided on; ever as it passed away through the veiling clouds they
+heard its low voice singing amidst the roar of the storm, as the dirge of
+the water-sprite over the vessel it hath lured into the whirlpool or the
+shoals.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+THURMBERG.--A STORM UPON THE RHINE.--THE RUINS OF RHEINFELS.--PERIL
+UNFELT BY LOVE.--THE ECHO OF THE LURLEI-BERG.--ST. GOAR.--KAUB,
+GUTENFELS, AND PFALZGRAFENSTEIN.--A CERTAIN VASTNESS OF MIND IN THE FIRST
+HERMITS.--THE SCENERY OF THE RHINE TO BACHARACH.
+
+OUR party continued their voyage the next day, which was less bright than
+any they had yet experienced.  The clouds swept on dull and heavy,
+suffering the sun only to break forth at scattered intervals.  They wound
+round the curving bay which the Rhine forms in that part of its course,
+and gazed upon the ruins of Thurmberg, with the rich gardens that skirt
+the banks below.  The last time Trevylyan had seen those ruins soaring
+against the sky, the green foliage at the foot of the rocks, and the
+quiet village sequestered beneath, glassing its roofs and solitary tower
+upon the wave, it had been with a gay summer troop of light friends, who
+had paused on the opposite shore during the heats of noon, and, over wine
+and fruits, had mimicked the groups of Boccaccio, and intermingled the
+lute, the jest, the momentary love, and the laughing tale.
+
+What a difference now in his thoughts, in the object of the voyage, in
+his present companions!  The feet of years fall noiseless; we heed, we
+note them not, till tracking the same course we passed long since, we are
+startled to find how deep the impression they leave behind.  To revisit
+the scenes of our youth is to commune with the ghost of ourselves.
+
+At this time the clouds gathered rapidly along the heavens, and they were
+startled by the first peal of the thunder.  Sudden and swift came on the
+storm, and Trevylyan trembled as he covered Gertrude's form with the rude
+boat-cloaks they had brought with them; the small vessel began to rock
+wildly to and fro upon the waters.  High above them rose the vast
+dismantled ruins of Rheinfels, the lightning darting through its
+shattered casements and broken arches, and brightening the gloomy trees
+that here and there clothed the rocks, and tossed to the angry wind.
+Swift wheeled the water-birds over the river, dipping their plumage in
+the white foam, and uttering their discordant screams.  A storm upon the
+Rhine has a grandeur it is in vain to paint.  Its rocks, its foliage, the
+feudal ruins that everywhere rise from the lofty heights, speaking in
+characters of stern decay of many a former battle against time and
+tempest; the broad and rapid course of the legendary river,--all
+harmonize with the elementary strife; and you feel that to see the Rhine
+only in the sunshine is to be unconscious of its most majestic aspects.
+What baronial war had those ruins witnessed!  From the rapine of the
+lordly tyrant of those battlements rose the first Confederation of the
+Rhine,--the great strife between the new time and the old, the town and
+the castle, the citizen and the chief.  Gray and stern those ruins
+breasted the storm,--a type of the antique opinion which once manned them
+with armed serfs; and, yet in ruins and decay, appeals from the
+victorious freedom it may no longer resist!
+
+Clasped in Trevylyan's guardian arms, and her head pillowed on his
+breast, Gertrude felt nothing of the storm save its grandeur; and
+Trevylyan's voice whispered cheer and courage to her ear.  She answered
+by a smile and a sigh, but not of pain.  In the convulsions of nature we
+forget our own separate existence, our schemes, our projects, our fears;
+our dreams vanish back into their cells.  One passion only the storm
+quells not, and the presence of Love mingles with the voice of the
+fiercest storms, as with the whispers of the southern wind.  So she felt,
+as they were thus drawn close together, and as she strove to smile away
+the anxious terror from Trevylyan's gaze, a security, a delight; for
+peril is sweet even to the fears of woman, when it impresses upon her yet
+more vividly that she is beloved.
+
+"A moment more and we reach the land," murmured Trevylyan.
+
+"I wish it not," answered Gertrude, softly.  But ere they got into St.
+Goar the rain descended in torrents, and even the thick coverings round
+Gertrude's form were not sufficient protection against it.  Wet and
+dripping she reached the inn; but not then, nor for some days, was she
+sensible of the shock her decaying health had received.
+
+The storm lasted but a few hours, and the sun afterwards broke forth so
+brightly, and the stream looked so inviting, that they yielded to
+Gertrude's earnest wish, and, taking a larger vessel, continued their
+course; they passed along the narrow and dangerous defile of the Gewirre,
+and the fearful whirlpool of the "Bank;" and on the shore to the left the
+enormous rock of Lurlei rose, huge and shapeless, on their gaze.  In this
+place is a singular echo, and one of the boatmen wound a horn, which
+produced an almost supernatural music,--so wild, loud, and oft
+reverberated was its sound.
+
+The river now curved along in a narrow and deep channel amongst rugged
+steeps, on which the westering sun cast long and uncouth shadows; and
+here the hermit, from whose sacred name the town of St. Goar derived its
+own, fixed his abode and preached the religion of the Cross.  "There was
+a certain vastness of mind," said Vane, "in the adoption of utter
+solitude, in which the first enthusiasts of our religion indulged.  The
+remote desert, the solitary rock, the rude dwelling hollowed from the
+cave, the eternal commune with their own hearts, with nature, and their
+dreams of God,--all make a picture of severe and preterhuman grandeur.
+Say what we will of the necessity and charm of social life, there is a
+greatness about man when he dispenses with mankind."
+
+"As to that," said Du-----e, shrugging his shoulders, "there was probably
+very good wine in the neighbourhood, and the females' eyes about
+Oberwesel are singularly blue."
+
+They now approached Oberwesel, another of the once imperial towns, and
+behind it beheld the remains of the castle of the illustrious family of
+Schomberg, the ancestors of the old hero of the Boyne.  A little farther
+on, from the opposite shore, the castle of Gutenfels rose above the busy
+town of Kaub.
+
+"Another of those scenes," said Trevylyan, "celebrated equally by love
+and glory, for the castle's name is derived from that of the beautiful
+ladye of an emperor's passion; and below, upon a ridge in the steep, the
+great Gustavus issued forth his command to begin battle with the
+Spaniards."
+
+"It looks peaceful enough now," said Vane, pointing to the craft that lay
+along the stream, and the green trees drooping over a curve in the bank.
+Beyond, in the middle of the stream itself, stands the lonely castle of
+Pfalzgrafenstein, sadly memorable as a prison to the more distinguished
+of criminals.  How many pining eyes may have turned from those casements
+to the vine-clad hills of the free shore! how many indignant hearts have
+nursed the deep curses of hate in the dungeons below, and longed for the
+wave that dashed against the gray walls to force its way within and set
+them free!
+
+Here the Rhine seems utterly bounded, shrunk into one of those delusive
+lakes into which it so frequently seems to change its course; and as you
+proceed, it is as if the waters were silently overflowing their channel
+and forcing their way into the clefts of the mountain shore.  Passing the
+Werth Island on one side and the castle of Stahleck on the other, our
+voyagers arrived at Bacharach, which, associating the feudal
+recollections with the classic, takes its name from the god of the vine;
+and as Du-----e declared with peculiar emphasis, quaffing a large goblet
+of the peculiar liquor, "richly deserves the honour!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+THE VOYAGE TO BINGEN.--THE SIMPLE INCIDENTS IN THIS TALE EXCUSED.--THE
+SITUATION AND CHARACTER OF GERTRUDE.--THE CONVERSATION OF THE LOVERS IN
+THE TEMPEST.--A FACT CONTRADICTED.--THOUGHTS OCCASIONED BY A MADHOUSE
+AMONGST THE MOST BEAUTIFUL LANDSCAPES OF THE RHINE.
+
+THE next day they again resumed their voyage, and Gertrude's spirits were
+more cheerful than usual.  The air seemed to her lighter, and she
+breathed with a less painful effort; once more hope entered the breast of
+Trevylyan; and, as the vessel bounded on, their conversation was steeped
+in no sombre hues.  When Gertrude's health permitted, no temper was so
+gay, yet so gently gay, as hers; and now the /naive/ sportiveness of her
+remarks called a smile to the placid lip of Vane, and smoothed the
+anxious front of Trevylyan himself; as for Du-----e, who had much of the
+boon companion beneath his professional gravity, he broke out every now
+and then into snatches of French songs and drinking glees, which he
+declared were the result of the air of Bacharach.  Thus conversing, the
+ruins of Furstenberg, and the echoing vale of Rheindeibach, glided past
+their sail; then the old town of Lorch, on the opposite bank (where the
+red wine is said first to have been made), with the green island before
+it in the water.  Winding round, the stream showed castle upon castle
+alike in ruins, and built alike upon scarce accessible steeps.  Then came
+the chapel of St. Clements and the opposing village of Asmannshausen; the
+lofty Rossell, built at the extremest verge of the cliff; and now the
+tower of Hatto, celebrated by Southey's ballad, and the ancient town of
+Bingen.  Here they paused a while from their voyage, with the intention
+of visiting more minutely the Rheingau, or valley of the Rhine.
+
+It must occur to every one of my readers, that, in undertaking, as now,
+in these passages in the history of Trevylyan, scarcely so much a tale as
+an episode in real life, it is very difficult to offer any interest save
+of the most simple and unexciting kind.  It is true that to Trevylyan
+every day, every hour, had its incident; but what are those incidents to
+others?  A cloud in the sky; a smile from the lip of Gertrude,--these
+were to him far more full of events than had been the most varied scenes
+of his former adventurous career; but the history of the heart is not
+easily translated into language; and the world will not readily pause
+from its business to watch the alternations in the cheek of a dying girl.
+
+In the immense sum of human existence what is a single unit?  Every sod
+on which we tread is the grave of some former being; yet is there
+something that softens without enervating the heart in tracing in the
+life of another those emotions that all of us have known ourselves.  For
+who is there that has not, in his progress through life, felt all its
+ordinary business arrested, and the varieties of fate commuted into one
+chronicle of the affections?  Who has not watched over the passing away
+of some being, more to him at that epoch than all the world?  And this
+unit, so trivial to the calculation of others, of what inestimable value
+was it not to him?  Retracing in another such recollections, shadowed and
+mellowed down by time, we feel the wonderful sanctity of human life, we
+feel what emotions a single being can awake; what a world of hope may be
+buried in a single grave!  And thus we keep alive within ourselves the
+soft springs of that morality which unites us with our kind, and sheds
+over the harsh scenes and turbulent contests of earth the colouring of a
+common love.
+
+There is often, too, in the time of year in which such thoughts are
+presented to us, a certain harmony with the feelings they awaken.  As I
+write I hear the last sighs of the departing summer, and the sere and
+yellow leaf is visible in the green of nature.  But when this book goes
+forth into the world, the year will have passed through a deeper cycle of
+decay; and the first melancholy signs of winter have breathed into the
+Universal Mind that sadness which associates itself readily with the
+memory of friends, of feelings, that are no more.  The seasons, like
+ourselves, track their course by something of beauty, or of glory, that
+is left behind.  As the traveller in the land of Palestine sees tomb
+after tomb rise before him, the landmarks of his way, and the only signs
+of the holiness of the soil, thus Memory wanders over the most sacred
+spots in its various world, and traces them but by the graves of the
+Past.
+
+It was now that Gertrude began to feel the shock her frame had received
+in the storm upon the Rhine.  Cold shiverings frequently seized her; her
+cough became more hollow, and her form trembled at the slightest breeze.
+
+Vane grew seriously alarmed; he repented that he had yielded to
+Gertrude's wish of substituting the Rhine for the Tiber or the Arno; and
+would even now have hurried across the Alps to a warmer clime, if
+Du-----e had not declared that she could not survive the journey, and
+that her sole chance of regaining her strength was rest.  Gertrude
+herself, however, in the continued delusion of her disease, clung to the
+belief of recovery, and still supported the hopes of her father, and
+soothed, with secret talk of the future, the anguish of her betrothed.
+The reader may remember that in the most touching passage in the ancient
+tragedians, the most pathetic part of the most pathetic of human
+poets--the pleading speech of Iphigenia, when imploring for her prolonged
+life, she impresses you with so soft a picture of its innocence and its
+beauty, and in this Gertrude resembled the Greek's creation--that she
+felt, on the verge of death, all the flush, the glow, the loveliness of
+life.  Her youth was filled with hope and many-coloured dreams; she
+loved, and the hues of morning slept upon the yet disenchanted earth.
+The heavens to her were not as the common sky; the wave had its peculiar
+music to her ear, and the rustling leaves a pleasantness that none whose
+heart is not bathed in the love and sense of beauty could discern.
+Therefore it was, in future years, a thought of deep gratitude to
+Trevylyan that she was so little sensible of her danger; that the
+landscape caught not the gloom of the grave; and that, in the Greek
+phrase, "death found her sleeping amongst flowers."
+
+At the end of a few days, another of those sudden turns, common to her
+malady, occurred in Gertrude's health; her youth and her happiness
+rallied against the encroaching tyrant, and for the ensuing fortnight she
+seemed once more within the bounds of hope.  During this time they made
+several excursions into the Rheingau, and finished their tour at the
+ancient Heidelberg.
+
+One morning, in these excursions, after threading the wood of Niederwald,
+they gained that small and fairy temple, which hanging lightly over the
+mountain's brow, commands one of the noblest landscapes of earth.  There,
+seated side by side, the lovers looked over the beautiful world below;
+far to the left lay the happy islets, in the embrace of the Rhine, as it
+wound along the low and curving meadows that stretch away towards
+Nieder-Ingelheim and Mayence.  Glistening in the distance, the opposite
+Nah swept by the Mause tower, and the ruins of Klopp, crowning the
+ancient Bingen, into the mother tide.  There, on either side the town,
+were the mountains of St. Roch and Rupert, with some old monastic ruin
+saddening in the sun.  But nearer, below the temple, contrasting all the
+other features of landscape, yawned a dark and rugged gulf, girt by
+cragged elms and mouldering towers, the very prototype of the abyss of
+time,--black and fathomless amidst ruin and desolation.
+
+"I think sometimes," said Gertrude, "as in scenes like these we sit
+together, and rapt from the actual world, see only the enchantment that
+distance lends to our view,--I think sometimes what pleasure it will be
+hereafter to recall these hours.  If ever you should love me less, I need
+only whisper to you, 'The Rhine,' and will not all the feelings you have
+now for me return?"
+
+"Ah, there will never be occasion to recall my love for you,--it can
+never decay."
+
+"What a strange thing is life!" said Gertrude; "how unconnected, how
+desultory seem all its links!  Has this sweet pause from trouble, from
+the ordinary cares of life--has it anything in common with your past
+career, with your future?  You will go into the great world; in a few
+years hence these moments of leisure and musing will be denied to you.
+The action that you love and court is a jealous sphere,--it allows no
+wandering, no repose.  These moments will then seem to you but as yonder
+islands that stud the Rhine,--the stream lingers by them for a moment,
+and then hurries on in its rapid course; they vary, but they do not
+interrupt the tide."
+
+"You are fanciful, my Gertrude; but your simile might be juster.  Rather
+let these banks be as our lives, and this river the one thought that
+flows eternally by both, blessing each with undying freshness."
+
+Gertrude smiled; and, as Trevylyan's arm encircled her, she sank her
+beautiful face upon his bosom, he covered it with his kisses, and she
+thought at the moment, that, even had she passed death, that embrace
+could have recalled her to life.
+
+They pursued their course to Mayence, partly by land, partly along the
+river.  One day, as returning from the vine-clad mountains of
+Johannisberg, which commands the whole of the Rheingau, the most
+beautiful valley in the world, they proceeded by water to the town of
+Ellfeld, Gertrude said,--
+
+"There is a thought in your favourite poet which you have often repeated,
+and which I cannot think true,--
+
+  "'In nature there is nothing melancholy.'
+
+"To me, it seems as if a certain melancholy were inseparable from beauty;
+in the sunniest noon there is a sense of solitude and stillness which
+pervades the landscape, and even in the flush of life inspires us with a
+musing and tender sadness.  Why is this?"
+
+"I cannot tell," said Trevylyan, mournfully; "but I allow that it is
+true."
+
+"It is as if," continued the romantic Gertrude, "the spirit of the world
+spoke to us in the silence, and filled us with a sense of our
+mortality,--a whisper from the religion that belongs to nature, and is
+ever seeking to unite the earth with the reminiscences of Heaven.  Ah,
+what without a heaven would be even love!--a perpetual terror of the
+separation that must one day come!  If," she resumed solemnly, after a
+momentary pause, and a shadow settled on her young face, "if it be true,
+Albert, that I must leave you soon--"
+
+"It cannot! it cannot!" cried Trevylyan, wildly; "be still, be silent, I
+beseech you."
+
+"Look yonder," said Du-----e, breaking seasonably in upon the
+conversation of the lovers; "on that hill to the left, what once was an
+abbey is now an asylum for the insane.  Does it not seem a quiet and
+serene abode for the unstrung and erring minds that tenant it?  What a
+mystery is there in our conformation!--those strange and bewildered
+fancies which replace our solid reason, what a moral of our human
+weakness do they breathe!"
+
+It does indeed induce a dark and singular train of thought, when, in the
+midst of these lovely scenes, we chance upon this lone retreat for those
+on whose eyes Nature, perhaps, smiles in vain.  /Or is it in vain?/  They
+look down upon the broad Rhine, with its tranquil isles: do their wild
+delusions endow the river with another name, and people the valleys with
+no living shapes?  Does the broken mirror within reflect back the
+countenance of real things, or shadows and shapes, crossed, mingled, and
+bewildered,--the phantasma of a sick man's dreams?  Yet, perchance, one
+memory unscathed by the general ruin of the brain can make even the
+beautiful Rhine more beautiful than it is to the common eye; can calm it
+with the hues of departed love, and bids its possessor walk over its
+vine-clad mountains with the beings that have ceased to /be/!  There,
+perhaps, the self-made monarch sits upon his throne and claims the
+vessels as his fleet, the waves and the valleys as his own; there, the
+enthusiast, blasted by the light of some imaginary creed, beholds the
+shapes of angels, and watches in the clouds round the setting sun the
+pavilions of God; there the victim of forsaken or perished love, mightier
+than the sorcerers of old, evokes the dead, or recalls the faithless by
+the philter of undying fancies.  Ah, blessed art thou, the winged power
+of Imagination that is within us! conquering even grief, brightening even
+despair.  Thou takest us from the world when reason can no longer bind us
+to it, and givest to the maniac the inspiration and the solace of the
+bard!  Thou, the parent of the purer love, lingerest like love, when even
+ourself forsakes us, and lightest up the shattered chambers of the heart
+with the glory that makes a sanctity of decay.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+ELLFELD.--MAYENCE.--HEIDELBERG.--A CONVERSATION BETWEEN VANE AND THE
+GERMAN STUDENT.--THE RUINS OF THE CASTLE OF HEIDELBERG AND ITS SOLITARY
+HABITANT.
+
+IT was now the full noon; light clouds were bearing up towards the
+opposite banks of the Rhine, but over the Gothic towers of Ellfeld the
+sky spread blue and clear; the river danced beside the old gray walls
+with a sunny wave, and close at hand a vessel crowded with passengers,
+and loud with eager voices, gave a merry life to the scene.  On the
+opposite bank the hills sloped away into the far horizon, and one slight
+skiff in the midst of the waters broke the solitary brightness of the
+noonday calm.
+
+The town of Ellfeld was the gift of Otho the First to the Church; not far
+from thence is the crystal spring that gives its name to the delicious
+grape of Markbrunner.
+
+"Ah," quoth Du-----e, "doubtless the good bishops of Mayence made the
+best of the vicinity!"
+
+They stayed some little time at this town, and visited the ruins of
+Scharfenstein; thence proceeding up the river, they passed Nieder Walluf,
+called the Gate of the Rheingau, and the luxuriant garden of Schierstein;
+thence, sailing by the castle-seat of the Prince Nassau Usingen, and
+passing two long and narrow isles, they arrived at Mayence, as the sun
+shot his last rays upon the waters, gilding the proud cathedral-spire,
+and breaking the mists that began to gather behind, over the rocks of the
+Rheingau.
+
+Ever memorable Mayence,--memorable alike for freedom and for song, within
+those walls how often woke the gallant music of the Troubadour; and how
+often beside that river did the heart of the maiden tremble to the lay!
+Within those walls the stout Walpoden first broached the great scheme of
+the Hanseatic league; and, more than all, O memorable Mayence, thou canst
+claim the first invention of the mightiest engine of human
+intellect,--the great leveller of power, the Demiurgus of the moral
+world,--the Press!  Here too lived the maligned hero of the greatest
+drama of modern genius, the traditionary Faust, illustrating in himself
+the fate of his successors in dispensing knowledge,--held a monster for
+his wisdom, and consigned to the penalties of hell as a recompense for
+the benefits he had conferred on earth!
+
+At Mayence, Gertrude heard so much and so constantly of Heidelberg, that
+she grew impatient to visit that enchanting town; and as Du-----e
+considered the air of Heidelberg more pure and invigorating than that of
+Mayence, they resolved to fix within it their temporary residence.  Alas!
+it was the place destined to close their brief and melancholy pilgrimage,
+and to become to the heart of Trevylyan the holiest spot which the earth
+contained,--the KAABA of the world.  But Gertrude, unconscious of her
+fate, conversed gayly as their carriage rolled rapidly on, and,
+constantly alive to every new sensation, she touched with her
+characteristic vivacity on all that they had seen in their previous
+route.  There is a great charm in the observations of one new to the
+world; if we ourselves have become somewhat tired of "its hack sights and
+sounds," we hear in their freshness a voice from our own youth.
+
+In the haunted valley of the Neckar, the most crystal of rivers, stands
+the town of Heidelberg.  The shades of evening gathered round it as their
+heavy carriage rattled along the antique streets, and not till the next
+day was Gertrude aware of all the unrivalled beauties that environ the
+place.
+
+Vane, who was an early riser, went forth alone in the morning to
+reconnoitre the town; and as he was gazing on the tower of St. Peter, he
+heard himself suddenly accosted.  He turned round and saw the German
+student whom they had met among the mountains of Taunus at his elbow.
+
+"Monsieur has chosen well in coming hither," said the student; "and I
+trust our town will not disappoint his expectations."  Vane answered with
+courtesy, and the German offering to accompany him in his walk, their
+conversation fell naturally on the life of a university, and the current
+education of the German people.
+
+"It is surprising," said the student, "that men are eternally inventing
+new systems of education, and yet persevering in the old.  How many years
+ago is it since Fichte predicted in the system of Pestalozzi the
+regeneration of the German people?  What has it done?  We admire, we
+praise, and we blunder on in the very course Pestalozzi proves to be
+erroneous.  Certainly," continued the student, "there must be some
+radical defect in a system of culture in which genius is an exception,
+and dulness the result.  Yet here, in our German universities, everything
+proves that education without equitable institutions avails little in the
+general formation of character.  Here the young men of the colleges mix
+on the most equal terms; they are daring, romantic, enamoured of freedom
+even to its madness.  They leave the University: no political career
+continues the train of mind they had acquired; they plunge into
+obscurity; live scattered and separate, and the student inebriated with
+Schiller sinks into the passive priest or the lethargic baron.  His
+college career, so far from indicating his future life, exactly reverses
+it: he is brought up in one course in order to proceed in another.  And
+this I hold to be the universal error of education in all countries; they
+conceive it a certain something to be finished at a certain age.  They do
+not make it a part of the continuous history of life, but a wandering
+from it."
+
+"You have been in England?" asked Vane.
+
+"Yes; I have travelled over nearly the whole of it on foot.  I was poor
+at that time, and imagining there was a sort of masonry between all men
+of letters, I inquired at each town for the /savants/, and asked money of
+them as a matter of course."
+
+Vane almost laughed outright at the simplicity and naive unconsciousness
+of degradation with which the student proclaimed himself a public beggar.
+
+"And how did you generally succeed?"
+
+"In most cases I was threatened with the stocks, and twice I was
+consigned by the /juge de paix/ to the village police, to be passed to
+some mystic Mecca they were pleased to entitle 'a parish.'  Ah"
+(continued the German with much /bonhomie/), "it was a pity to see in a
+great nation so much value attached to such a trifle as money.  But what
+surprised me greatly was the tone of your poetry.  Madame de Stael, who
+knew perhaps as much of England as she did of Germany, tells us that its
+chief character is the /chivalresque/; and, excepting only Scott, who, by
+the way, is /not/ English, I did not find one chivalrous poet among you.
+Yet," continued the student, "between ourselves, I fancy that in our
+present age of civilization, there is an unexamined mistake in the
+general mind as to the value of poetry.  It delights still as ever, but
+it has ceased to teach.  The prose of the heart enlightens, touches,
+rouses, far more than poetry.  Your most philosophical poets would be
+commonplace if turned into prose.  Verse cannot contain the refining
+subtle thoughts which a great prose writer embodies; the rhyme eternally
+cripples it; it properly deals with the common problems of human nature,
+which are now hackneyed, and not with the nice and philosophizing
+corollaries which may be drawn from them.  Thus, though it would seem at
+first a paradox, commonplace is more the element of poetry than of
+prose."
+
+This sentiment charmed Vane, who had nothing of the poet about him; and
+he took the student to share their breakfast at the inn, with a
+complacency he rarely experienced at the remeeting with a new
+acquaintance.
+
+After breakfast, our party proceeded through the town towards the
+wonderful castle which is its chief attraction, and the noblest wreck of
+German grandeur.
+
+And now pausing, the mountain yet unscaled, the stately ruin frowned upon
+them, girt by its massive walls and hanging terraces, round which from
+place to place clung the dwarfed and various foliage.  High at the rear
+rose the huge mountain, covered, save at its extreme summit, with dark
+trees, and concealing in its mysterious breast the shadowy beings of the
+legendary world.  But towards the ruins, and up a steep ascent, you may
+see a few scattered sheep thinly studding the broken ground.  Aloft,
+above the ramparts, rose, desolate and huge, the Palace of the Electors
+of the Palatinate.  In its broken walls you may trace the tokens of the
+lightning that blasted its ancient pomp, but still leaves in the vast
+extent of pile a fitting monument of the memory of Charlemagne.  Below,
+in the distance, spread the plain far and spacious, till the shadowy
+river, with one solitary sail upon its breast, united the melancholy
+scene of earth with the autumnal sky.
+
+"See," said Vane, pointing to two peasants who were conversing near them
+on the matters of their little trade, utterly unconscious of the
+associations of the spot, "see, after all that is said and done about
+human greatness, it is always the greatness of the few.  Ages pass, and
+leave the poor herd, the mass of men, eternally the same,--hewers of wood
+and drawers of water.  The pomp of princes has its ebb and flow, but the
+peasant sells his fruit as gayly to the stranger on the ruins as to the
+emperor in the palace."
+
+"Will it be always so?" said the student.
+
+"Let us hope not, for the sake of permanence in glory," said Trevylyan.
+"Had /a people/ built yonder palace, its splendour would never have
+passed away."
+
+Vane shrugged his shoulders, and Du-----e took snuff.
+
+But all the impressions produced by the castle at a distance are as
+nothing when you stand within its vast area and behold the architecture
+of all ages blended into one mighty ruin!  The rich hues of the masonry,
+the sweeping facades--every description of building which man ever framed
+for war or for luxury--is here; all having only the common
+character,--RUIN.  The feudal rampart, the yawning fosse, the rude tower,
+the splendid arch, the strength of a fortress, the magnificence of a
+palace,--all united, strike upon the soul like the history of a fallen
+empire in all its epochs.
+
+"There is one singular habitant of these ruins," said the student,--"a
+solitary painter, who has dwelt here some twenty years, companioned only
+by his Art.  No other apartment but that which he tenants is occupied by
+a human being."
+
+"What a poetical existence!" cried Gertrude, enchanted with a solitude so
+full of associations.
+
+"Perhaps so," said the cruel Vane, ever anxious to dispel an illusion,
+"but more probably custom has deadened to him all that overpowers
+ourselves with awe; and he may tread among these ruins rather seeking to
+pick up some rude morsel of antiquity, than feeding his imagination with
+the dim traditions that invest them with so august a poetry."
+
+"Monsieur's conjecture has something of the truth in it," said the
+German; "but then the painter is a Frenchman."
+
+There is a sense of fatality in the singular mournfulness and majesty
+which belong to the ruins of Heidelberg, contrasting the vastness of the
+strength with the utterness of the ruin.  It has been twice struck with
+lightning, and is the wreck of the elements, not of man; during the great
+siege it sustained, the lightning is supposed to have struck the powder
+magazine by accident.
+
+What a scene for some great imaginative work!  What a mocking
+interference of the wrath of nature in the puny contests of men!  One
+stroke of "the red right arm" above us, crushing the triumph of ages, and
+laughing to scorn the power of the beleaguers and the valour of the
+besieged!
+
+They passed the whole day among these stupendous ruins, and felt, when
+they descended to their inn, as if they had left the caverns of some
+mighty tomb.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+NO PART OF THE EARTH REALLY SOLITARY.--THE SONG OF THE FAIRIES.--THE
+SACRED SPOT.--THE WITCH OF THE EVIL WINDS.--THE SPELL AND THE DUTY OF THE
+FAIRIES.
+
+BUT in what spot of the world is there ever utter solitude?  The vanity
+of man supposes that loneliness is /his/ absence!  Who shall say what
+millions of spiritual beings glide invisibly among scenes apparently the
+most deserted?  Or what know we of our own mechanism, that we should deny
+the possibility of life and motion to things that we cannot ourselves
+recognize?
+
+At moonlight, in the Great Court of Heidelberg, on the borders of the
+shattered basin overgrown with weeds, the following song was heard by the
+melancholy shades that roam at night through the mouldering halls of old,
+and the gloomy hollows in the mountain of Heidelberg.
+
+
+
+SONG OF THE FAIRIES IN THE RUINS OF HEIDELBERG.
+
+From the woods and the glossy green,
+  With the wild thyme strewn;
+From the rivers whose crisped sheen
+  Is kissed by the trembling moon;
+While the dwarf looks out from his mountain cave,
+  And the erl king from his lair,
+And the water-nymph from her moaning wave,
+  We skirr the limber air.
+
+There's a smile on the vine-clad shore,
+  A smile on the castled heights;
+They dream back the days of yore,
+  And they smile at our roundel rites!
+               Our roundel rites!
+
+Lightly we tread these halls around,
+  Lightly tread we;
+Yet, hark! we have scared with a single sound
+  The moping owl on the breathless tree,
+               And the goblin sprites!
+Ha, ha! we have scared with a single sound
+  The old gray owl on the breathless tree,
+               And the goblin sprites!
+
+
+
+"They come not," said Pipalee; "yet the banquet is prepared, and the poor
+queen will be glad of some refreshment."
+
+"What a pity! all the rose-leaves will be over-broiled," said Nip.
+
+"Let us amuse ourselves with the old painter," quoth Trip, springing over
+the ruins.
+
+"Well said," cried Pipalee and Nip; and all three, leaving my lord
+treasurer amazed at their levity, whisked into the painter's apartment.
+Permitting them to throw the ink over their victim's papers, break his
+pencils, mix his colours, mislay his nightcap, and go whiz against his
+face in the shape of a great bat, till the astonished Frenchman began to
+think the pensive goblins of the place had taken a sprightly fit,--we
+hasten to a small green spot some little way from the town, in the valley
+of the Neckar, and by the banks of its silver stream.  It was circled
+round by dark trees, save on that side bordered by the river.  The
+wild-flowers sprang profusely from the turf, which yet was smooth and
+singularly green.  And there was the German fairy describing a circle
+round the spot, and making his elvish spells; and Nymphalin sat
+droopingly in the centre, shading her face, which was bowed down as the
+head of a water-lily, and weeping crystal tears.
+
+There came a hollow murmur through the trees, and a rush as of a mighty
+wind, and a dark form emerged from the shadow and approached the spot.
+
+The face was wrinkled and old, and stern with a malevolent and evil
+aspect.  The frame was lean and gaunt, and supported by a staff, and a
+short gray mantle covered its bended shoulders.
+
+"Things of the moonbeam!" said the form, in a shrill and ghastly voice,
+"what want ye here; and why charm ye this spot from the coming of me and
+mine?"
+
+"Dark witch of the blight and blast," answered the fairy, "THOU that
+nippest the herb in its tender youth, and eatest up the core of the soft
+bud; behold, it is but a small spot that the fairies claim from thy
+demesnes, and on which, through frost and heat, they will keep the
+herbage green and the air gentle in its sighs!"
+
+"And, wherefore, O dweller in the crevices of the earth, wherefore
+wouldst thou guard this spot from the curses of the seasons?"
+
+"We know by our instinct," answered the fairy, "that this spot will
+become the grave of one whom the fairies love; hither, by an unfelt
+influence, shall we guide her yet living steps; and in gazing upon this
+spot shall the desire of quiet and the resignation to death steal upon
+her soul.  Behold, throughout the universe, all things are at war with
+one another,--the lion with the lamb; the serpent with the bird; and even
+the gentlest bird itself with the moth of the air; or the worm of the
+humble earth!  What then to men, and to the spirits transcending men, is
+so lovely and so sacred as a being that harmeth none; what so beautiful
+as Innocence; what so mournful as its untimely tomb?  And shall not that
+tomb be sacred; shall it not be our peculiar care?  May we not mourn over
+it as at the passing away of some fair miracle in Nature, too tender to
+endure, too rare to be forgotten?  It is for this, O dread waker of the
+blast, that the fairies would consecrate this little spot; for this they
+would charm away from its tranquil turf the wandering ghoul and the evil
+children of the night.  Here, not the ill-omened owl, nor the blind bat,
+nor the unclean worm shall come.  And thou shouldst have neither will nor
+power to nip the flowers of spring, nor sear the green herbs of summer.
+Is it not, dark mother of the evil winds,--is it not /our/ immemorial
+office to tend the grave of Innocence, and keep fresh the flowers round
+the resting-place of Virgin Love?"
+
+Then the witch drew her cloak round her, and muttered to herself, and
+without further answer turned away among the trees and vanished, as the
+breath of the east wind, which goeth with her as her comrade, scattered
+the melancholy leaves along her path!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+GERTRUDE AND TREVYLYAN, WHEN THE FORMER IS AWAKENED TO THE APPROACH OF
+DEATH.
+
+THE next day, Gertrude and her companions went along the banks of the
+haunted Neckar.  She had passed a sleepless and painful night, and her
+evanescent and childlike spirits had sobered down into a melancholy and
+thoughtful mood.  She leaned back in an open carriage with Trevylyan,
+ever constant, by her side, while Du-----e and Vane rode slowly in
+advance.  Trevylyan tried in vain to cheer her; even his attempts
+(usually so eagerly received) to charm her duller moments by tale or
+legend were, in this instance, fruitless.  She shook her head gently,
+pressed his hand, and said, "No, dear Trevylyan, no; even your art fails
+to-day, but your kindness never!" and pressing his hand to her lips, she
+burst passionately into tears.
+
+Alarmed and anxious, he clasped her to his breast, and strove to lift her
+face, as it drooped on its resting-place, and kiss away its tears.  "Oh,"
+said she, at length, "do not despise my weakness; I am overcome by my own
+thoughts: I look upon the world, and see that it is fair and good; I look
+upon you, and I see all that I can venerate and adore.  Life seems to me
+so sweet, and the earth so lovely; can you wonder, then, that I should
+shrink at the thought of death?  Nay, interrupt me not, dear Albert; the
+thought must be borne and braved.  I have not cherished, I have not
+yielded to it through my long-increasing illness; but there have been
+times when it has forced itself upon me, and now, /now/ more palpably
+than ever.  Do not think me weak and childish.  I never feared death till
+I knew you; but to see you no more,--never again to touch this dear hand,
+never to thank you for your love, never to be sensible of your care,--to
+lie down and sleep, /and never, never, once more to dream of you/!  Ah,
+that is a bitter thought! but I will brave it,--yes, brave it as one
+worthy of your regard."
+
+Trevylyan, choked by his emotions, covered his own face with his hands,
+and, leaning back in the carriage, vainly struggled with his sobs.
+
+"Perhaps," she said, yet ever and anon clinging to the hope that had
+utterly abandoned /him/, "perhaps, I may yet deceive myself; and my love
+for you, which seems to me as if it could conquer death, may bear me up
+against this fell disease.  The hope to live with you, to watch you, to
+share your high dreams, and oh! above all, to soothe you in sorrow and
+sickness, as you have soothed me--has not that hope something that may
+support even this sinking frame?  And who shall love thee as I love; who
+see thee as I have seen; who pray for thee in gratitude and tears as I
+have prayed?  Oh, Albert, so little am I jealous of you, so little do I
+think of myself in comparison, that I could close my eyes happily on the
+world if I knew that what I could be to thee another will be!"
+
+"Gertrude," said Trevylyan, and lifting up his colourless face, he gazed
+upon her with an earnest and calm solemnity, "Gertrude, let us be united
+at once!  If Fate must sever us, let her cut the last tie too; let us
+feel that at least upon earth we have been all in all to each other; let
+us defy death, even as it frowns upon us.  Be mine to-morrow--this
+day--oh, God! be mine!"
+
+Over even that pale countenance, beneath whose hues the lamp of life so
+faintly fluttered, a deep, radiant flush passed one moment, lighting up
+the beautiful ruin with the glow of maiden youth and impassioned hope,
+and then died rapidly away.
+
+"No, Albert," she said sighing; "no! it must not be.  Far easier would
+come the pang to you, while yet we are not wholly united; and for my own
+part I am selfish, and feel as if I should leave a tenderer remembrance
+on your heart thus parted,--tenderer, but not so sad.  I would not wish
+you to feel yourself widowed to my memory; I would not cling like a
+blight to your fair prospects of the future.  Remember me rather as a
+dream,--as something never wholly won, and therefore asking no fidelity
+but that of kind and forbearing thoughts.  Do you remember one evening as
+we sailed along the Rhine--ah! happy, happy hour!--that we heard from the
+banks a strain of music,--not so skilfully played as to be worth
+listening to for itself, but, suiting as it did the hour and the scene,
+we remained silent, that we might hear it the better; and when it died
+insensibly upon the waters, a certain melancholy stole over us; we felt
+that a something that softened the landscape had gone, and we conversed
+less lightly than before?  Just so, my own loved, my own adored
+Trevylyan, just so is the influence that our brief love, your poor
+Gertrude's existence, should bequeath to your remembrance.  A sound, a
+presence, should haunt you for a little while, but no more, ere you again
+become sensible of the glories that court your way!"
+
+But as Gertrude said this, she turned to Trevylyan, and seeing his agony,
+she could refrain no longer; she felt that to soothe was to insult; and
+throwing herself upon his breast, they mingled their tears together.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+A SPOT TO BE BURIED IN.
+
+ON their return homeward, Du-----e took the third seat in the carriage,
+and endeavoured, with his usual vivacity, to cheer the spirits of his
+companions; and such was the elasticity of Gertrude's nature, that with
+her, he, to a certain degree, succeeded in his kindly attempt.  Quickly
+alive to the charms of scenery, she entered by degrees into the external
+beauties which every turn in the road opened to their view; and the
+silvery smoothness of the river, that made the constant attraction of the
+landscape, the serenity of the time, and the clearness of the heavens,
+tended to tranquillize a mind that, like a sunflower, so instinctively
+turned from the shadow to the light.
+
+Once Du-----e stopped the carriage in a spot of herbage, bedded among the
+trees, and said to Gertrude, "We are now in one of the many places along
+the Neckar which your favourite traditions serve to consecrate.  Amidst
+yonder copses, in the early ages of Christianity, there dwelt a hermit,
+who, though young in years, was renowned for the sanctity of his life.
+None knew whence he came, nor for what cause he had limited the circle of
+life to the seclusion of his cell.  He rarely spoke, save when his
+ghostly advice or his kindly prayer was needed; he lived upon herbs, and
+the wild fruits which the peasants brought to his cave; and every morning
+and every evening he came to this spot to fill his pitcher from the water
+of the stream.  But here he was observed to linger long after his task
+was done, and to sit gazing upon the walls of a convent which then rose
+upon the opposite side of the bank, though now even its ruins are gone.
+Gradually his health gave way beneath the austerities he practised; and
+one evening he was found by some fishermen insensible on the turf.  They
+bore him for medical aid to the opposite convent; and one of the
+sisterhood, the daughter of a prince, was summoned to attend the recluse.
+But when his eyes opened upon hers, a sudden recognition appeared to
+seize both.  He spoke; and the sister threw herself on the couch of the
+dying man, and shrieked forth a name, the most famous in the surrounding
+country,--the name of a once noted minstrel, who, in those rude times,
+had mingled the poet with the lawless chief, and was supposed, years
+since, to have fallen in one of the desperate frays between prince and
+outlaw, which were then common; storming the very castle which held her,
+now the pious nun, then the beauty and presider over the tournament and
+galliard.  In her arms the spirit of the hermit passed away.  She
+survived but a few hours, and left conjecture busy with a history to
+which it never obtained further clew.  Many a troubadour in later times
+furnished forth in poetry the details which truth refused to supply; and
+the place where the hermit at sunrise and sunset ever came to gaze upon
+the convent became consecrated by song."
+
+The place invested with this legendary interest was impressed with a
+singular aspect of melancholy quiet; wildflowers yet lingered on the
+turf, whose grassy sedges gently overhung the Neckar, that murmured
+amidst them with a plaintive music.  Not a wind stirred the trees; but at
+a little distance from the place, the spire of a church rose amidst the
+copse; and, as they paused, they suddenly heard from the holy building
+the bell that summons to the burial of the dead.  It came on the ear in
+such harmony with the spot, with the hour, with the breathing calm, that
+it thrilled to the heart of each with an inexpressible power.  It was
+like the voice of another world, that amidst the solitude of nature
+summoned the lulled spirit from the cares of this; it invited, not
+repulsed, and had in its tone more of softness than of awe.
+
+Gertrude turned, with tears starting to her eyes, and, laying her hand on
+Trevylyan's, whispered, "In such a spot, so calm, so sequestered, yet in
+the neighbourhood of the house of God, would I wish this broken frame to
+be consigned to rest."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THE LAST.
+
+THE CONCLUSION OF THIS TALE.
+
+FROM that day Gertrude's spirit resumed its wonted cheerfulness, and for
+the ensuing week she never reverted to her approaching fate; she seemed
+once more to have grown unconscious of its limit.  Perhaps she sought,
+anxious for Trevylyan to the last, not to throw additional gloom over
+their earthly separation; or, perhaps, once steadily regarding the
+certainty of her doom, its terrors vanished.  The chords of thought,
+vibrating to the subtlest emotions, may be changed by a single incident,
+or in a single hour; a sound of sacred music, a green and quiet
+burial-place, may convert the form of death into the aspect of an angel.
+And therefore wisely, and with a beautiful lore, did the Greeks strip the
+grave of its unreal gloom; wisely did they body forth the great principle
+of Rest by solemn and lovely images, unconscious of the northern madness
+that made a Spectre of REPOSE!
+
+But while Gertrude's /spirit/ resumed its healthful tone, her /frame/
+rapidly declined, and a few days now could do the ravage of months a
+little while before.
+
+One evening, amidst the desolate ruins of Heidelberg, Trevylyan, who had
+gone forth alone to indulge the thoughts which he strove to stifle in
+Gertrude's presence, suddenly encountered Vane.  That calm and almost
+callous pupil of the adversities of the world was standing alone, and
+gazing upon the shattered casements and riven tower, through which the
+sun now cast its slant and parting ray.
+
+Trevylyan, who had never loved this cold and unsusceptible man, save for
+the sake of Gertrude, felt now almost a hatred creep over him, as he
+thought in such a time, and with death fastening upon the flower of his
+house, he could yet be calm, and smile, and muse, and moralize, and play
+the common part of the world.  He strode slowly up to him, and standing
+full before him, said with a hollow voice and writhing smile, "You amuse
+yourself pleasantly, sir: this is a fine scene; and to meditate over
+griefs a thousand years hushed to rest is better than watching over a
+sick girl and eating away your heart with fear!"
+
+Vane looked at him quietly, but intently, and made no reply.
+
+"Vane!" continued Trevylyan, with the same preternatural attempt at calm,
+"Vane, in a few days all will be over, and you and I, the things, the
+plotters, the false men of the world, will be left alone,--left by the
+sole being that graces our dull life, that makes by her love either of us
+worthy of a thought!"
+
+Vane started, and turned away his face.  "You are cruel," said he, with a
+faltering voice.
+
+"What, man!" shouted Trevylyan, seizing him abruptly by the arm, "can
+/you/ feel?  Is your cold heart touched?  Come then," added he, with a
+wild laugh, "come, let us be friends!"
+
+Vane drew himself aside, with a certain dignity, that impressed Trevylyan
+even at that hour.  "Some years hence," said he, "you will be called cold
+as I am; sorrow will teach you the wisdom of indifference--it is a bitter
+school, sir,--a bitter school!  But think you that I do indeed see
+unmoved my last hope shivered,--the last tie that binds me to my kind?
+No, no!  I feel it as a man may feel; I cloak it as a man grown gray in
+misfortune should do!  My child is more to me than your betrothed to you;
+for you are young and wealthy, and life smiles before you; but I--no
+more--sir, no more!"
+
+"Forgive me," said Trevylyan, humbly, "I have wronged you; but Gertrude
+is an excuse for any crime of love; and now listen to my last
+prayer,--give her to me, even on the verge of the grave.  Death cannot
+seize her in the arms, in the vigils of a love like mine."
+
+Vane shuddered.  "It were to wed the dead," said he.  "No!"
+
+Trevylyan drew back, and without another word, hurried away; he returned
+to the town; he sought, with methodical calmness, the owner of the piece
+of ground in which Gertrude had wished to be buried.  He purchased it,
+and that very night he sought the priest of a neighbouring church, and
+directed it should be consecrated according to the due rite and
+ceremonial.
+
+The priest, an aged and pious man, was struck by the request, and the air
+of him who made it.
+
+"Shall it be done forthwith, sir?" said he, hesitating.
+
+"Forthwith," answered Trevylyan, with a calm smile,--"a bridegroom, you
+know, is naturally impatient."
+
+For the next three days, Gertrude was so ill as to be confined to her
+bed.  All that time Trevylyan sat outside her door, without speaking,
+scarcely lifting his eyes from the ground.  The attendants passed to and
+fro,--he heeded them not; perhaps as even the foreign menials turned
+aside and wiped their eyes, and prayed God to comfort him, he required
+compassion less at that time than any other.  There is a stupefaction in
+woe, and the heart sleeps without a pang when exhausted by its
+afflictions.
+
+But on the fourth day Gertrude rose, and was carried down (how changed,
+yet how lovely ever!) to their common apartment.  During those three days
+the priest had been with her often, and her spirit, full of religion from
+her childhood, had been unspeakably soothed by his comfort.  She took
+food from the hand of Trevylyan; she smiled upon him as sweetly as of
+old.  She conversed with him, though with a faint voice, and at broken
+intervals.  But she felt no pain; life ebbed away gradually, and without
+a pang.  "My father," she said to Vane, whose features still bore their
+usual calm, whatever might have passed within, "I know that you will
+grieve when I am gone more than the world might guess; for I alone know
+what you were years ago, ere friends left you and fortune frowned, and
+ere my poor mother died.  But do not--do not believe that hope and
+comfort leave you with me.  Till the heaven pass away from the earth
+there shall be comfort and hope for all."
+
+They did not lodge in the town, but had fixed their abode on its
+outskirts, and within sight of the Neckar; and from the window they saw a
+light sail gliding gayly by till it passed, and solitude once more rested
+upon the waters.
+
+"The sail passes from our eyes," said Gertrude, pointing to it, "but
+still it glides on as happily though we see it no more; and I feel--yes,
+Father, I feel--I know that it is so with /us/.  We glide down the river
+of time from the eyes of men, but we cease not the less to /be/!"
+
+And now, as the twilight descended, she expressed a wish, before she
+retired to rest, to be left alone with Trevylyan.  He was not then
+sitting by her side, for he would not trust himself to do so, but with
+his face averted, at a little distance from her.  She called him by his
+name; he answered not, nor turned.  Weak as she was, she raised herself
+from the sofa, and crept gently along the floor till she came to him, and
+sank in his arms.
+
+"Ah, unkind!" she said, "unkind for once!  Will you turn away from me?
+Come, let us look once more on the river: see! the night darkens over it.
+Our pleasant voyage, the type of our love, is finished; our sail may be
+unfurled no more.  Never again can your voice soothe the lassitude of
+sickness with the legend and the song; the course is run, the vessel is
+broken up, night closes over its fragments; but now, in this hour, love
+me, be kind to me as ever.  Still let me be your own Gertrude, still let
+me close my eyes this night, as before, with the sweet consciousness that
+I am loved."
+
+"Loved! O Gertrude! speak not to me thus!"
+
+"Come, that is yourself again!" and she clung with weak arms caressingly
+to his breast.  "And now," she said more solemnly, "let us forget that we
+are mortal; let us remember only that life is a part, not the whole, of
+our career; let us feel in this soft hour, and while yet we are
+unsevered, the presence of The Eternal that is within us, so that it
+shall not be as death, but as a short absence; and when once the pang of
+parting is over, you must think only that we are shortly to meet again.
+What! you turn from me still?  See, I do not weep or grieve, I have
+conquered the pang of our absence; will you be outdone by me?  Do you
+remember, Albert, that you once told me how the wisest of the sages of
+old, in prison, and before death, consoled his friends with the proof of
+the immortality of the soul?  Is it not a consolation; does it not
+suffice; or will you deem it wise from the lips of wisdom, but vain from
+the lips of love?"
+
+"Hush, hush!" said Trevylyan, wildly; "or I shall think you an angel
+already."
+
+But let us close this commune, and leave unrevealed the /last/ sacred
+words that ever passed between them upon earth.
+
+When Vane and the physician stole back softly into the room, Trevylyan
+motioned to them to be still.  "She sleeps," he whispered; "hush!"  And
+in truth, wearied out by her own emotions, and lulled by the belief that
+she had soothed one with whom her heart dwelt now, as ever, she had
+fallen into sleep, or it may be, insensibility, on his breast.  There as
+she lay, so fair, so frail, so delicate, the twilight deepened into
+shade, and the first star, like the hope of the future, broke forth upon
+the darkness of the earth.
+
+Nothing could equal the stillness without, save that which lay
+breathlessly within.  For not one of the group stirred or spoke, and
+Trevylyan, bending over her, never took his eyes from her face, watching
+the parted lips, and fancying that he imbibed the breath.  Alas, the
+breath was stilled! from sleep to death she had glided without a
+sigh,--happy, most happy in that death! cradled in the arms of unchanged
+love, and brightened in her last thought by the consciousness of
+innocence and the assurances of Heaven!
+
+  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
+
+Trevylyan, after a long sojourn on the Continent, returned to England.
+He plunged into active life, and became what is termed in this age of
+little names a distinguished and noted man.  But what was mainly
+remarkable in his future conduct was his impatience of rest.  He eagerly
+courted all occupations, even of the most varied and motley
+kind,--business, letters, ambition, pleasure.  He suffered no pause in
+his career; and leisure to him was as care to others.  He lived in the
+world, as the worldly do, discharging its duties, fostering its
+affections, and fulfilling its career.  But there was a deep and wintry
+change within him,--/the sunlight of his life was gone/; the loveliness
+of romance had left the earth.  The stem was proof as heretofore to the
+blast, but the green leaves were severed from it forever, and the bird
+had forsaken its boughs.  Once he had idolized the beauty that is born of
+song, the glory and the ardour that invest such thoughts as are not of
+our common clay; but the well of enthusiasm was dried up, and the golden
+bowl was broken at the fountain.  With Gertrude the poetry of existence
+was gone.  As she herself had described her loss, a music had ceased to
+breathe along the face of things; and though the bark might sail on as
+swiftly, and the stream swell with as proud a wave, a something that had
+vibrated on the heart was still, and the magic of the voyage was no more.
+
+And Gertrude sleeps on the spot where she wished her last couch to be
+made; and far--oh, far dearer, is that small spot on the distant banks of
+the gliding Neckar to Trevylyan's heart than all the broad lands and
+fertile fields of his ancestral domain.  The turf too preserves its
+emerald greenness; and it would seem to me that the field flowers spring
+up by the sides of the simple tomb even more profusely than of old.  A
+curve in the bank breaks the tide of the Neckar; and therefore its stream
+pauses, as if to linger reluctantly, by that solitary grave, and to mourn
+among the rustling sedges ere it passes on.  And I have thought, when I
+last looked upon that quiet place, when I saw the turf so fresh, and the
+flowers so bright of hue, that aerial hands might /indeed/ tend the sod;
+that it was by no /imaginary/ spells that I summoned the fairies to my
+tale; that in truth, and with vigils constant though unseen, they yet
+kept from all polluting footsteps, and from the harsher influence of the
+seasons, the grave of one who so loved their race; and who, in her gentle
+and spotless virtue claimed kindred with the beautiful Ideal of the
+world.  Is there one of us who has not known some being for whom it
+seemed not too wild a fantasy to indulge such dreams?
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Pilgrims Of The Rhine, by E. Bulwer Lytton
+
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