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of life was suspended between his lips, night I have dreamed a good dream.” like a thin morning mist in the vallies, Old Gertrude was a living repository of which the slightest gust of wind is capadreams she hunted out every dream of ble of dissipating altogether. Matilda the servants, and whenever she could had perfect intelligence of every thing seize one, imagined an interpretation that was going forward within doors. It that depended on herself only to fulfil ; was not either from caprice or prudery for the most agreeable dreams in her that she had declined the knight's invita- system boded nothing but squabbles tion. It cost her a hard conflict between and scolding. "Let me hear thy dream, head and heart-reason and inclination, that I may interpret it,” said she.—“ Í before she could firmly resolve not to thought," replied Matilda, " that I was hearken to the call of her beloved. But at home with my mother, she took me on the one hand she was desirous of aside, and taught me how to prepare a proving the constancy of her fiery suitor, broth from nine sorts of herbs, which and she hesitated on the other to extort cures all sickness, if you do but take its last wish from the musk-ball: for she three spoonfuls. Prepare this broth for considered that a new dress was neces- thy master, and he will not die, but get sary to the bride; and her godmother better from the hour he shall eat of it." had charged her not to lavish away her Gertrude, much struck at the relation of wishes thoughtlessly. Nevertheless, on this dream, refraining for the present the feast day she felt very heavy at heart, from all allegorical interpretations.retired to a corner, and wept bitterly." Thy dream," said she," is too exThe Count's illness, of which she easily divined the cause, gave her still greater concern; and when she heard of his extreme danger, she was quite inconsolable.

The seventh day, according to the prognostication of the physicians, was to determine for life or death. We may easily conjecture that Matilda voted in favour of her beloved; that she might be instrumental in his recovery was a very probable conjecture, only she could not devise any method of bringing forward her services. However, among the thousand talents which love imparts or unfolds, that of invention is included. In the morning Matilda waited as usual, upon the housekeeper, to receive her instructions respecting the bill of fare. But old Gertrude was in too deep tribulation to be capable of arranging the simplest matter, much less could she regulate the important affair of dinner. Big tears rolled down her leathern cheeks: "Ah! Matilda," she sobbed, "our good master will not live out the day." These were gloomy tidings: the young lady was ready to sink for sorrow; she soon, however, recovered her spirits, and said, "Do not despair of our lord's life, he will not die, but recover; this

traordinary to have come by chance. Go, this instant, and make ready thy broth, and I will try if I cannot prevail on our lord to taste it."

Sir Conrad lay feeble, motionless, and immersed in meditations upon his departure hence he was desirous of receiving the sacrament of extreme unction. In this situation Gertrude entered into his chamber, and by the suppleness of her tongue soon turned aside his thoughts from the contemplation of the four last things. In order to deliver himself from the torment of her well-meant loquacity, he was fain to promise whatever she desired. Meanwhile Matilda prepared an excellent restorative soup, with all sorts of garden herbs and costly spices, and when she had dished it, she dropped the diamond ring, given her by the knight as a pledge of constancy, into the basin, and then bade the servant to carry it up.

The patient so much dreaded the housekeeper's boisterous eloquence, which still echoed in his ears, that he constrained himself to swallow a couple of spoonfuls. In stirring his mess to the bottom he felt a hard body, which could have no business there. He fished

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girl, how you came by the ring I foundin the basin in which my breakfast was serv

it out with the spoon, and beheld, to his astonishment, his own diamond ring. His eye immediately beamed life and youth-ed up." "Noble knight," replied the

ful fire; his pale, deathy countenance cleared up to the great satisfaction of Gertrude, and the servants in waiting, he emptied the whole basin, with visible signs of a good appetite. They all ascribed this happy change to the soup, for the knight had taken care to keep his ring concealed from the bystanders. He now turned to Gertrude, and enquired, "Who prepared this good soup for me, that restores my strength, and calls me back to life?" The motherly The motherly dame wished the reviving patient to keep himself still, and by no means to exert himself in speaking, she therefore replied, "Do not give yourself any concern, good sir knight, about the person who prepared the soup: God be praised that it has had the good effect for which all of us prayed!" This evasion was not likely to satisfy the Count: he gravely insisted on an answer to his question, when the housekeeper gave him this information: "There is a young gypsey servant in the kitchen, she understands the virtues of every herb and plant, it was she who prepared the soup that has done you so much good." "Bring her to me this moment," resumed the knight, "that I may thank and recompense her for the life she has saved." Pardon me, I beseech you, Sir," returned Gertrude, "but the very sight of her would make you ill again. She is as ugly as a toad: she has a great hunch on her back; her clothes are black and greasy; her hands and face are bedaubed with soot and ashes." "Do as I order you," concluded the Count," and let me hear no longer demurs." Old Gertrude obeyed in silence: she summoned Matilda quickly from the kitchen, and threw over her shoulders her own veil, which she wore at mass, and ushered her, thus caparisoned, into the sick chamber. The knight gave orders that every one should retire, and shut the door close. He then addressed the gypsey, "You must acknowledge freely, my

damsel, "I received the ring out of your own hands: you presented it to me the second evening we danced together at the public rejoicings, it was when you vowed eternal love and constancy to me.-Look now, and say whether my figure or station deserves that on my account you should sink into an early grave. In compassion for the condition to which you were reduced, I could no longer suffer you to remain in such a mistake."

Count Conrad's weak stomach was not prepared for so strong an antidote to love; he surveyed her some moments in astonishment, and paused. But his imagination soon presented the idea of his charming partner, with whom he by no means reconcile the contrast before his eyes. He naturally conceived a suspicion, that his amour had been betrayed, and his friends were practising a pious fraud to extricate him. Still, however, the genuine ring was proof positive that the beautiful stranger was some way or other concerned in the plot. He therefore determined to cross-examine and convict her out of her own mouth: "If you are indeed," said he, "the lovely maiden to whom I devoted my heart, be assured that I am ready to fulfil my engagement; but take care how you attempt to impose upon me. assume but the form under which you appeared two successive nights at the ball-room; make your body taper and straight like a young pine; strip off your scaly skin, like the snake; and like the cameleon change your colour; and the words which I uttered when I delivered this ring to you shall be sacred and inviolable. But if you cannot perform these requisitions, I shall cause you to be corrected for a vile impostor and a thief, unless you satisfy me how you gained possession of this ring."

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Alas!" replied Matilda, sighing, "if it be only the glare of beauty that has dazzled your eyes, woe be to me when

time or chance shall rob me of these transient charmes; when age shall have spoiled this tender shape, and bowed me down to the ground; when the roses and lilies shall fade, and this sleek skin become shrivelled! When the borrowed form, under which I now appear, shall, as some time it will, belong to me, what will become of your vows and promises?"

Sir Conrad was staggered at this speech, which seemed much too considerate for a kitchen wench. "Know," he replied, "that beauty captivates the heart of man, but virtue alone can retain in the soft bandage of love."-" Be it so," returned the damsel in disguise;

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I go to fulfil your requisitions: the decision of my fate shall be left to your own heart."

Sir Conrad fluctuated between hope and the dread of a new deception: he called old Gertrude to him, and gave her strict orders :-" Attend this girl to her chamber, and wait at the door while she puts on her clean clothes. Be sure you do not stir till she comes out." Old Gertrude took her prisoner under charge, without being able to guess the intention of her lord's injunctions. As they were going up stairs, she enquired, "If thou hast any fine clothes, why dost thou never shew them to me? but if thou hast no change, follow me to my chamber, and I will lend thee what thou needest." Hereupon she went through the whole inventory of her old-fashioned wardrobe, by the help of which she had made conquests half a century ago. As she reckoned them up, article by article, a gleam of recollection of past days darted upon her mind. Matilda took little notice of her catalogue: she only asked for a bit of soap and a handful of bran, took up a wash-hand basin, entered her attic, and shut the door, while the new-appointed duenna watched on the outside with all the punctuality that had been recommended to her.

The knight, big with expectation, quitted his bed, put on his most elegant suit, and betook himself to his drawing

room, there to abide the final issue of his love adventure. His impatience made the time seem long, and under his uncertainty he paced quickly up and down the room. Just as the finger of the Italian clock on the Augspurg townhall pointed to eighteen o'clock, the hour of mid-day, the folding doors flew open of a sudden; the train of a silk negligee rustled along the antichamber: Matilda, arrayed like a bride, and beautiful as the Goddess of Love, stepped into the room. Sir Conrad exclaimed, in the transport of a lover intoxicated with joy, "Goddess or mortal! whichsoever you may be, behold me prostrate at your feet, ready to renew the vows I have already made, and to confirm them by the most solemn oaths, provided you do not desdain to receive this hand and heart."

The lady modestly raised the suppliant knight: "Gently, sir knight, I pray do not be too rash with your vows; you behold me here in my right shape, but in all other respects I am an utter stranger to you. Many a man has been deceived by a smooth face. You have still the ring on your finger." Sir Conrad instantly drew it off, and it sparkled on his partner's hand, and she resigned herself to the knight. "Henceforward," she said, "you are the beloved of my heart. I have no longer any secret for you. I am the daughter of Siegfried the Strong, that stout and honorable knight, whose misfortunes, doubtless, are well known to you. I escaped with difficulty from the downfall of my father's house; and under your roof, though in mean estate, have I found safety and protection." She proceeded to relate the whole of her story, without even suppressing the mystery of the musk-ball. Count Conrad, utterly forgetting that he had just been sick to death, invited, for the following day, all the guests who had been driven away by his dejection, before whom he solemnly espoused his bride; and when the sewer had served up dinner, and counted round, he found that there was no cover too much The knight now relinquished

the order, and celebrated the marriage with great magnificence. But amid all these important transactions, old Gertrude was totally inactive. The day she kept watch at Matilda's chamber-door, so great was the consternation with which she was seized, at seeing a lady in sumptuous apparel come forth, that she tumbled backward off her seat, dislocated her hip-bone, and limped all her life afterwards.

The new-married couple spent their honey-moon in Augspurg, in mutual happiness and innocent enjoyments, like the first human pair in the garden of Eden. The youthful bride, penetrated by the tender passion, would often recline on her husband's bosom, and pour out the artless dictates of her pure affection. One day, with the most endearing affection, she enquired, "If you have any latent wish in your breast, impart it to me; I will adopt it, and you shall instantly be gratified. For my own part, the possession of you has left me without any thing further to desire; so I shall willingly excuse the musk-ball the wish which is still in reserve." Count Conrad clasped his affectionate bride fondly in his arms, and firmly protested that he had nothing further to ask for upon earth, except the continuance of their mutual felicity. The musk-ball, therefore, lost all its value in the eyes of its fair possessor, nor had she any motive for preserving it, except a grateful remembrance of her benefactress.

Count Conrad's mother was still living. She passed her widowhood in retirement, at the family seat at Swabeck. Her dutiful daughter-in-law had for some time longed, out of pure filial affection, to beg her blessing, and thank her for the noble son whom she had borne. But the Count always found some pretext for declining the visit; he now proposed, instead, a summer excursion to an estate that had lately fallen to him, and bordered upon the grounds belonging to Siegfried's demolished fortress. Matilda consented with great eagerness. She rejoiced at the idea

of revisiting the spot where she had spent her early youth. She explored the ruins of her father's residence; dropped a duteous tear over the ashes of her parents; walked to the Naiad's fountain, and hoped her presence would induce the Nymph to manifest herself, Many a pebble dropped into the springhead, without the desired effect. Even the musk-ball floatted on the surface like an empty bubble, and Matilda herself was fain to be at the trouble of fishing it out again. No Nicksy rose to view, although another christening was at hand; for the lady was on the point of bestowing on her Count one of the blessings of wedlock. She brought forth a boy beautiful as Cupid; and the joy of the parents was so extravagant, that they had almost stifled him with kindness. The mother would never part with him from her arms. She herself watched every breath of the little innocent, although the Count had hired a discreet nurse to attend the infant. But the third night, while all within the castle were buried in profound sleep, after a day of tumultuous rejoicing, and a light slumber had fallen upon the watchful mother, on awaking she found the child vanished out of her arms. She called out in a voice of surprise and terror, "Nurse! where have you laid my babe?" "Noble lady," replied the

nurse,

arms."

the dear infant lies in your

The bed and bedchamber were strictly searched, but nothing could be found, except a few spots of blood upon the floor. The nurse, on perceiving this, uttered a loud scream, "God and all his holy saints have mercy on us! -the Great Griffin has been here, and carried off the child." The lady pined for the loss of her child, till she became pale and emaciated, and Sir Conrad was inconsolable. Though the belief in the Great Griffin did not weigh a single grain of mustard in his mind, yet, as he could not explain the accident in any plausible manner, he allowed the nurse's prattle free range, and applied himself to comfort his afflicted' wife;

and she, out of deference to him, who thou shalt now sleep an everlasting hated all sadness, forced a chearful countenance.

Time, the assuager of grief, closed by degrees the wound of the mother's heart, and love made up her loss by a second son. Boundless joy for the new heir reigned throughout the palace. The Count feasted with all his neighbours for a whole day's journey round about; the bowl of congratulation passed incessantly from hand to hand; from the lord and his guests to the porter at the door, all drank to the health of the young Count. The anxious mother would not part with the boy; and she resisted the influence of sleep as long as ever her strength would permit. When at last she was no longer able to refuse the call of nature, she took the golden chain from her neck, slung it round the infant's body, and fastened the other end on her own arm: she then crossed herself and the child, that the Great Griffin might have no power to hurt it, and soon after was overtaken by an irresistible slumber. She awoke at the first ray of morning, but-horrible to tell! the sweet babe had vanished out of her arms. In the first alarm she called as before, "Nurse! where have you laid my infant?" and nurse replied, "Noble lady, the babe lies in your arms.” Matilda examined the golden chain that was wrapped round her arm; she found that one of the links had been cut through by a pair of sharp scissars, and swooned away at the discovery. The nurse raised an alarm in the house; and Count Conrad, upon hearing what had befallen his lady, drew his knightly sword in a transport of rage and indignation, firmly resolved to inflict condign punishment on the nurse.

"Wretched woman!" he exclaimed in a voice of thunder, "did I not give thee strict charge to watch all night, and never once to turn aside thine eye from the infant, that when the monster came to rob the sleeping mother, thou mightest raise the house by thy outcries, and scare the Great Griffin away? But

sleep."

The woman fell down on her knees before him: "Yes, my noble lord, I entreat you, as you hope for mercy hereafter, to slay me this instant, that I may carry to the grave the horrid deed mine eyes have seen this night; and which neither rewards nor punishments shall extort from me."-The Count paused: "What deed," he asked, "have thine eyes beheld this night, too horrid for thy tongue to tell? Better confess, as becomes a faithful servant, than have thy secrets extorted from thee by the rack." "Alas!" replied the woman, "what does your ill-fortune instigate you to force from me! Better the fa

tal secret were buried with me in the cold ground." The Count, whose curiosity was only raised the more by suspence, took the woman aside into a private apartment, and by threats and promises forced from her a discovery, which he would fain have been saved the pain of making. "Your lady, since I must needs disclose it, is a vile sorceress; but she doats without reserve upon you, insomuch that she does not spare even the fruit of her own body to procure the means of preserving your love, and her own beauty unperishable. At the dead of night, when every thing was hushed in repose, she feigned herself asleep, and I, without well knowing why, did the same. Not long afterwards she called me by my name, but I took no notice of her proceedings, and feigned to be sound asleep. Supposing me fast asleep, she raised herself upright in her bed, took the infant, and pressing it to her bosom, kissed it fondly, and lisped these words, which I distinctly overheard, Child of bone, be transformed into a charm to secure me thy father's love. Now, thou little innocent, go to thy brother, and then I will prepare, from nine sorts of herbs and thy bones, a potent draught, which will perpetuate my beauty and thy father's fondness.'-Having said this, she drew a diamond needle out of her hair, forced

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