🧚 Legends and Tales., part 11 · page 2

I felt sure they would come to blows right over my head.55 Happily a melodious voice struck in, and interrupted the quarrel.56

"I am Don Carlos, the unhappy son of Philip of Spain, and the victim of priestly bigotry.57 The Inquisitors gained my royal father's permission to make away with me, a son who loved him truly.58

"I escaped, and History does not tell what became of me, simply because she does not know.59 I fled here to Princess Ilse for refuge, but I approached her at an unfavourable moment, and she transformed me into this spruce.60 If I could only be set free I would carry out my ideas of freedom."61

"You are too late, my young friend," cried Castiglione. "62 Your ideas have been carried out.63 You don't seem to have kept up with the history of events.64 Bismarck has set the Germans free, and cleansed the moral atmosphere of the whole empire, sent the Jesuits adrift, and put a bayonet into the hands of every eighty men in a hundred to keep them out."65

Here a deep sigh was heard.66

"Oh, I am tired with standing so long!67 Walking isn't half so fatiguing.68 Oh, how my back aches!"69

"Who are you?" cried Castiglione.70

"I am the Wandering Jew.71 They keep up the story of my wanderings, but I have stood here in this tree for ages, shivering or roasting."72

I felt quite bewildered, and almost afraid in the midst of this odd _Gesellschaft_, and shuddered as I thought more dreadful additions would speedily be made to it.73

Suddenly a radiant form stood before me.74 Such beauty no mortal eye ever beheld outside of a dream.75 It was the Princess Ilse.76 Her long golden curls fell nearly to her feet, over a silvery-like robe almost transparent.77

Her eyes were deep violet with an expression none could describe.78

Above her milk-white regal brow glittered a diadem of brilliants and sapphires.79 Bracelets and rings of diamonds and pearls adorned her fair arms.80

Extending her swan-white hand, with a ravishing smile, she said, "Come, I will show thee my home, my palace, and thou shalt dine with me."81

We entered the Ilsenstein under a gigantic arch of mountain crystal; a group of white-robed maidens met us, and attended us to the great throne-room.82

This was an immense chamber, lighted by a chandelier of brilliants hung in the centre, and single lamp-shaped rubies and carbuncles hung along the sides and in the corners.83

The floor was of white and red roses, which were not crushed by the tread, but remained ever in rich fulness.84

On each side of this regal chamber were sixteen colossal Norman arches, through which one saw, on the right advancing up it, a garden of every sort of fruit-tree, all bearing ripe fruits.85

At the left, flowers of every clime.86 Fountains played, white-robed maidens moved among the fruit and flowers, or reclined on banks of violets and roses.87

Soft music floated around us.88 Between each arch was a seat.89 Every seat was a bank of flowers, each different from the other.90

Above each seat was a statue of a fairy of the Harz, alternately in mountain crystal and snowy alabaster.91

At the upper end, under a majestic arch, stood Princess Ilse's throne.92

The throne was one ruby, the canopy a single pearl, the steps leading up to the throne were emeralds.93

Near the throne, in front of an arch, stood a table of silver, and two chairs of mountain crystal beside it.94

The service was of gold, filled with the viands of the fairy world, and the choicest fruits and flowers.95

A group of fair maidens sat in a rose arbour playing harp, lute, and harpsichord, while others stood by the table in attendance.96

A pearl plate was handed us, and Princess Ilse herself poured the crimson wine into gilded crystal goblets bearing her monogram in diamonds and sapphires, touched her glass to mine, and saying, "I drink to thy happiness," she pressed her own glass to my lips, when lo!97 I awoke, and there stood Josephine, poking a fern in my face.98

"Oh, Josie!"99 I exclaimed, "you can never know of how much you have robbed me with that stupid fern!"100

The Red-haired Trude101

At a time when very few men lived upon the earth, when towns and villages were few and very widely separated, when there were no roads in the mountains, and before Romulus and Remus were rescued by the motherly wolf on the yellow Tiber, or Nausikaa fell in love with Odysseus, there stood a house on the site of Schloss Ilsenburg, inhabited by a widow and her daughter Trude.102

Deeper in among the mountains stood an old stone Schloss, on the granite wall connecting the Ilsenstein and the opposite-lying Westerberg, which had been bought, and was inhabited by a father and his fair daughter Ilse.103

Nobody knew who the father was, but it was supposed--as people do in many cases--that he was some fallen and deposed Prince.104

During the absence of the Prince and Princess Ilse on a journey, a stranger, handsome and gay, without money, sack, or scrip, but rich in self-confidence and flattering words, sought hospitality of the widow and her daughter, and was warmly received and entertained.105

Ralf "fell in love" with Trude, and a blissful summer was spent gathering wild fruits and flowers and hunting birds' nests among the mountains.106

The nuptials were near, and the widow was busy with the bride's trousseau, when unexpectedly with Autumn arrived the foreign Prince and fair Ilse from their mysterious journey.107

Ritter Ralf, it must be confessed, was very naughty.108 With an eagle-eye he perceived the radiant charms of Princess Ilse, and poor Trude was forsaken.109

The widow reproached him with his perfidy, but he replied, "The eagle mates but with the eagle, and though I have fled from a severe father, I am of noble blood, and have found a Braut of my own rank."110

The widow swore revenge, and consoled the weeping Trude, begging her only to wait till Walpurgisnacht[1] and her perfidious lover should be punished.111

[1] Night before the first of May, when all evil spirits and witches, according to the legend, meet on the Brocken.112 See Goethe's "Faust."113

She made a league with the evil spirits of the mountains and the air, and devoted herself to the unholy arts of a witch.114

Walpurgisnacht arrived, the widow stood on the balcony of her house and invoked the demons and witches, who swept through the night, which rested black as destruction on the mountains, heavy as the day of wrath and vengeance.115

From the Brocken broke a terrible tempest.116 Awful thunders rolled, lightnings in fiery serpents cut their way through the heavens and mountains, and a tremendous flood swept down from the Brocken, destroying all in its course.117

The coalers clung to the rocky walls, but Princess Ilse looked calmly on the wild scene, saw the rocks rent on which her father's castle stood, and it, her lover, father, and servants all swept away; and as she too was about to perish, a tall manly form, with majestic head and black locks--probably the Fairy King--seized her in his strong arms, wrapped her in a white mantle, and vanished.118

Poor Trude, from the balcony by her mother's side, saw her faithless Ralf carried down the torrent, threw herself over after him, and when the flood had subsided the widow found them in each other's arms, washed up on the banks of the river.119