Page:Select Popular Tales from the German of Musaeus.djvu/126

112 glowed with warmth and health. As soon as the maiden looked on this noble knight, all the sleeping feelings of love were awakened in her soul; she drank from his eyes delight and rapture, and took a solemn vow, to give her hand to no other man. Now great wonder seized her, that the figure of this handsome knight should be quite unknown and strange to her; she had never seen him at her court, although there was not a young cavalier in Brabant who had not sought her. She therefore carefully inspected the marks of his armour and livery, stood a whole hour before the mirror, without turning her eyes from the attractive form which she looked at in it; every feature, the whole attitude, and the least peculiarity, which she observed, were fixed in her memory.

In the mean time, the suitors became impatient in the antechamber; the ayah and the maiden’s attendants waited till their mistress should come forth from her chamber. The maiden at last unwillingly drew down the curtain, opened the door, and when she saw the ayah, she embraced the worthy dame, and said with loving demeanour, “I have found him, the man of my heart;—congratulate me, your loved one,—the handsomest man in Brabant is mine! The holy Bishop Medardus, my patron, has appeared to me in a dream, and has shown me this husband, appointed for me by Heaven.” This falsehood the cunning Richilda invented; for she would not disclose the secret of the magic mirror, and beside her, no mortal knew it. The governess, highly rejoiced at the resolution of her young mistress, eagerly asked who the happy prince was, chosen by Heaven to lead home the beautiful bride. All the noble maidens of the court pricked up their ears; they soon turned over in their minds this and that valiant knight, and one might be heard whispering, somewhat loudly, in the ear of another, the name of the intended husband. But the beautiful Richilda, when she had somewhat recovered her spirits, opened her mouth and said, “It is not in my power to inform you of my betrothed’s name, nor to say where he dwells; he is not among the princes and nobles of my court, nor have I ever seen him; but his form is imprinted on my soul, and when he comes to lead me home, I will not refuse him.

At this speech, the wise ayah and all the ladies wondered not a little; they supposed that the maiden had contrived this invention, to evade the necessary choice of a husband; but she persisted in her resolution, to have no other spouse forced on her, than he to whom the Bishop Medardus had married her in her dream. The knights had, during this controversy, waited long in the antechamber, and would now be admitted to learn their fate. The beautiful Richilda stepped forward, made a speech with much dignity and courtesy, and concluded thus: “Suppose not, noble lords, that I speak to you with deceitful words; I will inform you of the figure and form of the unknown knight,—in case any one can