Page:Rambles and Researches in Thuringian Saxony.djvu/246

210 him, and under the condition of becoming his wife, which, misled by a fatal dream, he had promised.]

“Ottilia wept with joy at the tidings of her beloved lord’s return, and often pressed the letter to her trembling lips. But on perusing its contents, the tears soon ceased to flow, and, with bitter exclamations, she execrated the Crusade as the source of all her woes, and ill brooked the thought of sharing with another her husband’s love, &c.”

[Here again, however, a nightly vision is described. Ottilia sees her husband returned: he embraced her and her children; while in the back ground stood a lovely female, of angelic countenance, who seemed to view with kind attention this loving scene. She began to reflect, that without the fair Saracen’s aid, she had perhaps never more seen her beloved, and changing her determination, sends a favourable reply to the Count’s wishes. This reaches him at Rome, where Melechsala had abjured her faith, and turned to the doctrines of the all-saving Church. She was baptized Angelica. The joy which the holy father felt was taken advantage of by Count Ernest to propose the double marriage; but in vain. That, however, which his solicitations failed to procure, the beauty of Ange-