Page:Legends of Rubezahl, and Other Tales (1845).djvu/116

 delightful. But he, poor novice, with all his fancied progress in knowledge of the sex, never suspected the real cause of the cross and crabbed humours of her whom he adored. He imagined the heart of Emma as free as his own had been until he saw her; and, in his simplicity, he deemed her love his due, as a matter of course, as ’twere a piece of unoccupied land, which he, as first claimant, was entitled to of right.

The Gnome was altogether out in his reckoning; for it so happened that Ratibor, a young prince whose states, on the banks of the Oder, were contiguous to those of the sovereign of Silesia, had already inspired Emma with that first love which, as people say, is as durable as brass. Already the happy pair were awaiting with impatience the day on which they were to renew their vows at the altar, when the betrothed suddenly disappeared. The terrible news turned Ratibor Inamorato into Orlando Furioso. He quitted his capital, wandered all by himself through the forest, over the mountains, making the rocks re-echo with his cries and groans. Meantime his faithful Emma sighed her secret grief in her splendid prison, taking care to conceal her real feelings from the Gnome, that she might the more readily secure the means of deceiving his vigilance and of recovering her liberyliberty [sic]. After many a sleepless night she thought of a scheme which appeared to her at all events worth trying.