Page:Libussa, Duchess of Bohemia; also, The Man Without a Name.djvu/18

2 neighing of war-horses; even the violent Erl-King took alarm, and removed his seat to a more distant wilderness. One only of the Elves could not resolve upon separating from her favourite oak; and when the forest was cut down here and there, to make room for arable land, she alone had courage enough to defend her tree against the new-comers, and chose its very summit for her residence.

Among the retinue of the Duke there was a squire, by name Krokus, full of spirit and mettle, strong and well knit, and of gentle accomplishments, to whose care the duke’s favourite horses were confided. He often drove them far into the forest to graze, and sometimes reposed under the oak which the Elf inhabited. She saw the stranger with gladness; and when at night he slumbered at the foot of the tree, she whispered pleasant dreams into his ear, announced to him in significant images the events of the coming day, or if one of the horses had gone astray, and he had lost its track and fallen asleep full of anxiety about it, he saw in his dream the marks of the secret path which led to the place where the stray horse was grazing.

The new settlers extended daily their sphere of activity, and thus approached nearer and