Page:Legends of Rubezahl, and Other Tales (1845).djvu/280

 For a long time Count Ulric stood silently viewing himself in the glass, excess of wonder and joy having deprived him of utterance. At length, he threw himself at the feet of his benefactress, seized the hand which had operated so great a change, and poured forth a torrent of words, expressive of his heartfelt gratitude. The Signora then led him back into the saloon, and Ughella and her companions clapped their hands for joy, that their amiable friend had been relieved from his only blemish.

The extreme impatience of Ulric to commence his journey did not allow him to close his eyes that night. Not Jerusalem now, but Goslar, was to him the promised land. Day at length appeared; he took an affectionate leave of the ladies immediately after breakfast, and then vaulting on his good horse, and giving it the spur, gallopped off towards the haven of his hopes. His passionate desire to breathe once more the same air, to be once more beneath the same roof, to sit once more at the same table, with Lucretia, deprived him of all ordinary precaution. ‘Fair and softly goes far,’ says the proverb; Ulric did not go fair and softly, but furiously and senselessly, and the consequence was, that as he gallopped down a steep hill, near Brixen, his horse stumbled, and the rider got a fall, which broke one of his arms. This disaster sorely afflicted him, for he feared lest Lucretia, before his return, should be-