Page:Select Popular Tales from the German of Musaeus.djvu/127

Rh give me notice who he is, and where he may be found.” Hereupon she described the figure, from top to toe, and added;—“His armour is golden, painted with azure; on his shield is a black lion in silver, on a field strewn with red hearts; and the livery of his sash and sword-belt is the colour of the morning dawn, peach-blossom and orange.

When she was silent, the Count of Brabant, heir of her lands, took up the word and said, “We are not here, beloved cousin, to contend with you; you have the power and will to do what you please; it is enough for us to know your intention honourably to dismiss us, and not further to deceive us with false hopes; for this we pay you just thanks. But what relates to the noble knight, whom you have seen in a dream, and of whom you fancy that he is intended by Heaven for your husband, I may not conceal from you. He is well known to me, and is my vassal; for by your description of the marks of his armour and livery, he can be no other than Count Gombald of the Lion; but he is already married, and, therefore, cannot be yours.”

At these words the Countess grew so faint, that she thought she should have fallen down; she had not supposed that her mirror would play her this trick, and show her a man whose lawful love she could not share; also, she could not bear that the handsomest man in Brabant should wear any fetters but hers. Still the Countess asserted that her dream might, perhaps, have a concealed interpretation; at least, it seemed to indicate that she should not give her hand, at present, in any contract of marriage. The wooers all left together, some went this way, some that, and the Countess’s court was at once solitary and desolate.

Hundred-tongued fame, in the meanwhile, spread the strange news of the wonderful dream in every highway; and it came to the ears of Count Gombald himself. This count was a son of Theobald, called the Brother-heart, because he was attached to his younger brother, Botho, with such sincere love, that he lived with him in constant concord, and allowed to his posterity all the prerogatives and possessions of a first-born. Both brothers dwelt together in one castle; their wives loved each other like sisters, and, because the elder brother had only one son, and the younger a daughter, the parents thought to bequeath their friendship to their children, and betrothed them in the cradle. The young pair were educated together, and as death early divided these heirs from the side of their parents, they found it written in their parents’ last will, that no other choice remained to them but to marry. For three years they had been married, and lived after the example of their peaceful parents, in a happy marriage, when Count Gombald heard of the wonderful dream of the beautiful Richilda. Fame, which exaggerates everything, added, that she loved him so passionately, that she had taken a vow to go into