Illustrated Article.

OLD STORIES OF THE RHINE CASTLES.

By Roger Calverley.

FOR THE OLIO.

THE SILVER BELL. A STORY OF THE RHEINGAU.

Like her to whom, at dead of night, The lover, with his looks of light, Came in the flush of love and pride, And scaled the terrace of his bride; When, as she saw him rashly spring, And, midway up, in danger cling,

She fiung him down her long black hair, Exclaiming breathless, 'There love! there!' See! light, as up their granite steeps

The rock goats of Arabia clamber, Fearless from crag to crag he leaps, And now is in the maiden's chamber.

As soon as the boat has passed the much dreaded whirlpool of the Bingerloch, the traveller sees before him the village of Ashmannshausen ; on the left hand bank the ivied wreck of Bauzberg Castle crumbles ghastily away; and the ruins of Konigstein and, a little lower down, the old towers of Falkenbourg present their mossy walls, among VOL. IX.

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a profusion of undisturbed verdure. On the right hand bank the town of Lorich forms the frontier of the Rheingau. It is hereabouts that the mountain entitled Kedrich, or the Devil's Staircase, buries its huge head in the clouds; and with this mountain our story has much to do.

Not far from the town of Lorich you are shewn, even to the present day, the remains of an ancient chateau, which was formerly inhabited by Sibol van Lorich, a knight of distinguished valour, but of a disposition which was anything but amiable.

It happened one night during very stormy weather, that a little old man with a long gray beard solicited shelter at the castle gate. The knight of Lorich having reconnoitred this singular figure through a loop-hole in the porter's lodge, refused him admission in a tone and manner sufficiently harsh.

"Oh! just as you please! I will call you to an account for it, however," was the only reply of Father Graybeard, and with the utmost composure he pursued his journey. Sir Sibol paid no great attention to these words at the time, but

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when at noon, the following day, he assumed his canopied seat at the high table in his baronial hall, the mighty bear's ham stood untouched, the savoury venison ceased to steam, the ruddy wine bubbles blinked and died on the goblet's gold-wrought brim, for Garlind, the only surviving pledge of his dead wife, Garlind, by turns the consolation and amusement of his widowhood-Garlind, a beautiful little girl, twelve years old, was waited for in vain! The vassals were immediately dispatched in every direction; and at last Sibol himself set forth to seek her. A young shepherd, from whom the distracted father made inquiries to that effect, apprised him that he had noticed a young girl in the cooler hours of the morning, on the side of the Kedrich mountain, employed in gathering the scarlet, yellow, and blue flowers, that variegate its green grasses in brilliant multitudes. A short time afterward, he saw a crowd of little men advance towards her, and finally carry her away up the craggy mountain as easily as if they were walking on a plain.

"God forbid!" added the shepherd, crossing himself devoutly, "that they should have been those mischievous Gnomes who inhabit the înterior of the mountain, and who are very easily provoked."

Sir Sibol, seized with horror at this account, cast his eyes towards the summit of the Kedrich, and sure enough there he beheld his pretty little Garlind, who seemed to stretch out her arms towards him for help. Sibol immediately assembled all his vassals, to see if there was not one among them who could scramble up to the top of the mountain. The enormous reward offered by the agonized father induced many to undertake the attempt, but not one succeeded. The first fell and broke his leg; another lost an eye; and a third, when near the summit, was dashed from crag to crag, till he lay a lifeless and mangled mass at the bottom. Sir Sibol then ordered them to prepare their tools for cutting out a road in the mountain. His commands were obeyed with the utmost promptitude, for Garlind was a general favourite; but the labourers had scarcely commenced their work, when, from the pinnacles of the mountain there was launched upon them such a multitude of stones, that they were compelled to consult their safety by flight. They, one and all, declared that at the same time they heard a voice proceeding apparently from the centre of the moun

tain, which pronounced distinctly these words:

"It is thus we return the hospitality of Sir Sibol van Lorich!"

Sir Sibol bad recourse to all manner of projects for the recovery of his darling from the power of the Gnomes. According to the superstition of the age, he made more than one vow, and distributed munificent largesses to the monastic orders and to the poor. But all was in vain: no one could give him good counsel as to the means to be pursued; and much less, after the frightful examples that had been made, durst any body offer his assistance in regaining poor Garlind.

Days, weeks, months, thus flowed away, and the wretched father had no other consolation than the certainty that his child was still in life; for his first look in the morning, and his last at nightfall, rested on the summit of the Kedrich; and there he always saw Garlind, extending to her dear father her white arms in a manner that cleft his yearning heart in twain. It was at those periods alone that the Gnomes permitted her to be visible to his eyes; and, perhaps, it would be difficult to decide whether pleasure or pain predominated in the effects of this truly tantalean punishment.

Meanwhile, the Gnomes took the utmost possible care of the little girl; fondling her with the most affectionate caresses, and endeavouring to win her young heart by the most lavish gifts and indulgences. In the most romantic and inviolate recesses of their domain, they built her a beautiful pavillion; the walls they encrusted with the most magnificently variegated shells, and the dome was of dazzling crystal. The softened lustre of the sun floated in upon its checkered marble pavement; and tall alabaster pillars, lightly curtained with pink and palegreen silks, disclosed the groves and parterres of a richly planted garden, from whence soft and sleepy zephyrs, swelling the dainty draperies, wafted a thousand odours around the fluttering ringlets of Garlind. A large basin under the centre of the dome, entirely of coral, was surrounded with a little trellice of white, yellow, and red roses, clustering over a border of the most rare mosses, which were kept in perpetual verdure by the silver sprinklings of the fountain. The nightingale, the blackbird, and the throstle, here lavished their most bewitching melodies; and the mountain spirits, by their art, pro

hibited the approach of storin or rain. Their females also made up sumptuous dresses for Garlind, and gave her necklaces of emeralds, diamonds, and ru bies. Her table was every day loaded with dainties, for which the four elements were put in requisition, and which were served up in gold and silver vessels of the most marvellous workmanship; and the Gnomes emulated each other in striving to enliven her with songs, ballads, legends, and fairy tales.

There was, in particular, a little old woman, whom the others called Trud, who distinguished herself in fondling and indulging the pretty Garlind, she was for ever whispering in her ear:

"Be of good cheer, my darling, my love; I am preparing a marriage dowry for you, which a king's daughter need not disdain!"

Four mortal years had now rolled away from the fatal morning on which she was carried off to the Kedrich; and Garlind, from a little playful far scinating girl, had become a beautiful, blushing, graceful virgin a prize for a summer day's tournament. The first sparkling beam of the morn, and the last tranquil crimson of the evening sky, still revealed to Sir Sibol de Lo rich the form of his lost child, from the summit of the Kedrich; and with these momentary interviews, the unhappy knight began to think he must content bimself for the rest of his miserable life. Affairs wore this aspect, when Sir Ruthelm of Konigstein, a young and valorous chevalier, and of an ancient family in the neighbourhood, returned to his ancestral castle, from Hungary, where he had gilded gloriously his maiden sword with Turkish blood, on the banks of the Danube. His roman tic mansion, weaving like a garland its groves of beech-trees, amidst which its gray spires, and turrets, and burnished fanns glistened to the sun, might be descried from Sir Sibol's battlements.

Ruthelm of Konigstein had no sooner learnt the affliction that had befallen his old neighbour, than he resolved to attempt the rescue of Garlind. He ac cordingly repaired to the castle of Lorich, where he found every thing me lancholy enough. On the great tower over the gateway waved a huge black banner, surging in the morning wind against the blue and sunny, as if it wished to blot out the resplendence of nature. The seneschal, attired in deep mourning, and without uttering a word, marshalled the young knight through

deserted courts that drearily echoed to his clinking spurs of gold,

A steep covered stair, hung with black, ascended from the low browed arch of the inner tower to the great hall; but the sun no longer gleamed upon its trophies of the battle and the chase. Its gorgeous arched windows no longer displayed the patrician or equestrian emblazonments of the family; its hearth smouldered in white ashes; a single cresset, swinging from the roof, made darkness visible; and, in the deep recess of the tall embayed oreille, skulked, like a hunted wild beast in its lair, what might once have been the fiery and indomitable knight of Lorich. His hair and beard were grown to a frightful length, his eyes gleamed, like decayed comets, over his ghastly cheeks; a long black robe enfolded his skeleton figure, and dust and ashes defiled his head and smeared his countenance. Ruthelm had prepared himself for a vehemence of sorrow in accordance with Sir Sibol's impatient spirit; but for such horrible tokens of deliberate despair he had not, he could not have looked; and the shock completely arrested his utterance. A gleam of something like satisfaction shot athwart Sibol's haggard features, as he recognised the son of his old brotherin-arms; but it was connected with something intolerably painful, for in the next moment, with an earthquake groan, the poor old knight was stretched sense less on the pavement, Buthelm, in compliance with the usages of chivalry, had been brought up in Sir Sibol's castle; and an alliance between him and Garlind had always been a favourite topic with the two sires of Konigstein and Lorich.

It was sometime ere the wretched old man recovered his senses; when at length he unclosed his eyes, and found himself supported in the affectionate arms of Sir Ruthelm, and read, in the sorrow of his handsome countenance, the profound sympathy be felt for his affliction, he wrung the young warrior's hand with warmth.

Ruthelm my gallant boy! I am wretched! I would say curelessly wretched, but thou art here: I will not add to my sins by doubting that Heaven's providence hath sent thee to rescue my Garlind from those demons, and her poor father from a desperate grave!"

That very day at sunset Sir Ruthelin repaired to the foot of Mount Kedrich, for the purpose of reconnoitring: but

t

he soon saw the physical impossibility of scrambling up a rock which was almost perpendicular. Ruminating on the untoward aspect of affairs, he was about to return slowly and reluctantly to his castle, when he beheld advancing towards him an old man of a stature dwarfish in the last extreme.

"Good day, my fair young gentleman!" squeaked the mannikin, "I suppose you, too, have heard of the charming Garlind who dwells there, over the way, on the top of Kedrich. That pretty damsel is my ward; and if, as I have no doubt, you want to make her your wife, you have nothing to do but go and find her!"

"Done!" said the knight, holding out his hand.

"I am but a dwarf in comparison of you," rejoined the little old body, nevertheless my word is as good as your's. I give up the girl to you, provided the road to her dwelling does not discourage you. But, believe me, you will be well repaid for your trouble, for there is not, in all the Rheingan, a virgin who is her fellow for beauty, for modesty, and for wit!"

After uttering these words, the malicious old dwarf disappeared with a loud peal of laughter; and young Ruthelm shook his sunny curls, and bit his downy lip in pure vexation at being so mocked by the hideous abortion. "Find her out!" he said, looking wistfully at the impracticable crags of the Kedrich, "ay, with wings perhaps I might !"

A smart rap on his shoulder, accompanied with a shrill voice, saying,"You may do it even without wings!" made Sir Ruthelm start; and, turning briskly round, he perceived a little old woman, whose puckered features bore a strong family likeness to her brother, the graybeard, except that their general expression was illumined with an air of benevolence which never shone over his crabbed spiteful physiognomy.

"I have overheard the conversation which my brother has been holding with thee," said the old lady, looking up with good-humoured shrewdness at the handsome young knight; " and, if read that comely face aright, there is no necessity I should inform thee that thou art his laughing-stock!",

Blushes, thrice crimson-dyed, mantled over Ruthelm's neck, cheek, and forehead: he cleared his voice, stammered, and tried to look dignified.

"I- -old gentlewoman! really-" "Old gentle woman!" retorted Trud,

"'tis well for thee that I am not quite so snappish as my brother Kobold!— But, well-a-day! thou art but a poor blind mortal after all, and I pity thee. Besides, I love fun better than vengeance! Harkee, young man! my brother Kobold has had a rare chuckle at thy expence, what sayest thou,shall we make him laugh on the other side of his mouth?"

Our knight stared at the facetious pigmy, who thus continued :—

"Ah! I see thou hast more brawn in thine arm than brain in thy head!but thou hast a good heart that outvalues both, and 'tis for that I love thee?"

"The devil you do!" muttered Ruthelm.

The officious Trud seemed extremely discomposed

"I beg of you not to use that name in my presence, or you shall never see Garlind!"

"Ho, ho!" sits the halcyon towards that quarter!" thought our hero, greatly relieved; for (truth to tell) from the tenour of her speech, he began to think the old lady meditated consoling him, and outwitting her brother, by substituting her own somewhat over-ripened charms for the blossomed beauties of Garlind. Sir Ruthelm therefore assumed an air of the most respectful attention, which greatly mollified the placable Trud.

"A good lad!" she exclaimed, "and now thou hast recovered thy manners, listen to me!"

Assuredly, madam, and with eter

nal-"

"Bah! insect of a day! be contented if thou mayest expand thy spangled wings while it is noon;--painted bubble! be thankful that thy colours sparkle in the sunshine before they burst! thou hast nought here eternal; woe to thee if thou hadst! Enough!-listenand let me speak!"

Ruthelm, like a chidden school-boy, bowed and looked meek; while Trud continued

"Take this little silver hand-bell, and repair this night to the shadowy hollows of the Wisperthal. There thou wilt find an old mine, which they have long ceased to work; at its entrance, a beech, and a fir, two huge trees, interlace their thick boughs, they will serve to point out the place to thee. Enter the mine without fear."

Ruthelm felt as though, in such a cause, the bare suspicion of fear was an insult; and perhaps he looked it also, for the Gnome pursued

"Beseech thee! attend, and do not start and snort, like an impatient charger, lest thou stumble also!-When thou art in the mine, ring thy bell three times; my younger brother inhabits the, interior, and will no sooner have heard the sound of the bell, than he will be at thy side. The bell itself will be a token that I have sent thee; be discreet, be courageous, and I shall not have sent thee in vain!"

With these words Trud vanished as her brother Kobold had done; and (if the truth must be told), without leaving much more satisfactory impressions behind. To the dismal phantom-famed ravines of the Wisperthal at nightfall did Sir Ruthelm repair. The sky was starless-a waning moon, more dismal than eclipse, shed a shy and swarthy light over the umbered landscape. Enormous trees, congregated in gloomy clumps, or feathering with their rampant boughs and billowy foliage, down the craggy hills, waved in mysterious and shapeless phantasmagoria, to the solemn wailings of the Wisper wind that swelled and eddied through the desert vale. The curling waters of the Rhine, tinged with the sullen moonbeam, glared ghastly here and there, between the thick trunks of the pines and beech trees, whose voluminous foliage undulated over them like a funeral pall. Spectres, whose dim misty visages wore an aspect of menace, shot, tall and white, athwart the pitch-black hollows in the distance; the owls, each from his blasted tree, seemed to utter accents of discouragement and dismay; the very bats, as they wheeled with creaking leathern wings around his head, were fraught to Ruthelm's imagination with messages of disaster. Still the knight persevered, and at length he discovered the mine pointed out by Trud. He entered, and had scarcely rung the silver bell, for the third time, when a little man, attired in gray, and holding in his hand a little lighted lamp ascended from the bottom of the mine, and demanded Sir Ruthelm's name and business. Our hero promptly complied, and was listened to with much complaisance by gray frock, who, having heard him patiently to an end, said,

My elder brother has been bitterly affronted, it is true, by the knight of Lorich; but, in my opinion, as well as that of my sister Trud, the four years penance he has undergone is sufficient to have expiated his offence. Kobold, however, is of a different opinion, and continues so implacable, that if left to

his own will, it is to be feared he will never restore Garlind.

"He has nevertheless given you a hold upon him in the promise he made you, and which he thinks he has nullified by the extravagance of its conditions. You must know that we Gnomes are extremely punctilious in abiding by our words to the very letter; we outwit where we can, but we never break our words. So that if you can once reach Garlind she is as securely yours as if she had never seen the Kedrich."

Sir Ruthelm's eyes glistened with hope at the grayfrock's speech.

"Kind spirit!" he exclaimed, "only give me the means, the very slenderest means, only place me within the verge of possibility, and see if difficulty or danger can deter me, when love and friendship invite me forward!"

"Good!" rejoined the spirit of the mine: "those means I promise thee. But be on thy guard. Kobold is mine elder, and mightier than I; he may thwart us, if he discover our designs.

Here Sir Ruthelm fancied he heard sounds as of violent laughter, half sup pressed, echo along the distant hollows of the mine; but as the Gnome did not notice it, he attributed it to imagination overheated by the strange scene, and remained silent, while grayfrock thus

went on.

"Return to thy castle, and at daybreak be at the foot of the Kedrich: it shall not be my fault if thou art not soon at its summit."

At the same time he drew a little whistle from his pocket, and whistled three times. In an instant the whole valley glimmered as with ten million glow-worms; while countless myrmidons of dwarfs, each holding his tiny lamp, swarmed over its grassy surface. Apparently, grayfrock did not wish our hero to witness their proceedings, for he stamped his little foot, and waved his hand impatiently. In compliance with these injunctions, Sir Ruthelm turned away from the mouth of the mine, and hied him homeward.

The warder of Konigstein castle looked down right gladly on the dancing plumes, as the night air blew them aside at the gateway, and gave to view Sir Ruthelm's well-known crest, fleckered by the red torch flame; and the seneschal's old eye brightened as he saw his young lord enter with a firmer step and a more cheery countenance than he had shewn since his return; while the old privileged nurse blessed herself at the keen appetite that her darling dis