Page:Select Popular Tales from the German of Musaeus.djvu/136

122 was over, and sacristan and clerks had hastened from the cold church to their warm beds, the charming maiden jumped up out of the grave, with a joyous heart. But when she found herself in the arms of a young man, who wished to lead her thence, fear and terror came over her, and she said, with a bashful countenance, “Think well of what you do, young man; ask your heart if your intentions be pure and sincere; if you disappoint the confidence that I place in you, know, that the vengeance of Heaven will pursue you.” The knight answered discreetly, “The holy Virgin be witness to the purity of my intentions, and may the curse of Heaven strike me, if there be a guilty thought in my soul!”

Then the maiden sprang with confidence on a horse, and Godfrey led her safe to Ardennes to his mother, who received her with the tenderest affection, and took as much care of her as if she had been her own beloved daughter. The soft sympathetic feelings of love were soon awakened in the hearts of the young knight and the lovely Blanche; the wishes of the good mother and of the whole court conspired in wishing the union of this noble pair, sealed by the holy rite of marriage.

But Godfrey, in the midst of the preparations for marriage, left his residence, and went to Brabant, to the Countess Richilda, who was still occupied with her second choice; and, as she now had no mirror of which to take counsel, she had never come to any conclusion. As soon as Godfrey of Ardennes appeared at the court, his fine figure so drew on him the eyes of the Countess, that she gave him the preference above all the other nobles. He called himself the Knight of the Grave, and this was the only thing Lady Richilda found to object to; she wished he had a more pleasing surname, for life had still many charms for her, and she always, with horror, cast away all thoughts of the grave. She explained it to herself that the surname of the knight of Ardennes meant the holy grave, and signified that he had made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and was a knight of the Holy Sepulchre; and so she acquiesced in it without farther inquiry. When she had held a consultation with her heart, she found that, among the assembled knights who came and went, Knight Godfrey held the first rank. She knew how, by art, to revive her charms, and to conceal those that were faded, and to adorn her head with the finest Brabant tissues. She omitted not to make the most alluring advances to her favourite, and to charm him by every art in her power.

With feigned enthusiasm, Godfrey, one day, kneeling at her feet, addressed the Countess and said, “Cease, beloved cruel one, to tear my heart by your powerful charms, and to awake sleeping wishes, that confuse my brain; love without hope is worse than death.” Sweetly smiling, Richilda raised him with her swan-white arms, and answered him with mild persuasion; “Poor