Page:Curious myths of the Middle Ages (1876).djvu/600

 humbly to succour her, and reprove the injury that wickedly to her was imposed by the sayd erle.”

The council broke up, and lords and ladies were scattered along the banks of the Meuse. “So, as they stray’d, a swan they saw Sail stately up and strong, And by a silver chain she drew A little boat along, Whose streamer to the gentle breeze, Long floating, flutter’d light, Beneath whose crimson canopy There lay reclined a knight.

“With arching crest and swelling breast On sail’d the stately swan, And lightly up the parting tide The little boat came on. And onward to the shore they drew, And leapt to land the knight, And down the stream the little boat Fell soon beyond the sight.” Rudiger. Of course this knight, who is Helias, fights the Count of Frankfort, overcomes him, and wins the heart of the daughter of the duchess. Thus Helias became Duke of Bouillon.

But before marrying the lady, he warned her that if she asked his name, he would have to leave her.

At the end of nine months, the wife of