Page:Select Popular Tales from the German of Musaeus.djvu/157

Rh good-looking, for which reason also, in bygone times, the honour of being visited by the fairies was attributed to him. After a strong appeal made in vain, the Princess perceived that she was the weaker, and must obey. “The King’s will is a command for me,” said she; “I follow you.” As she said this, she went to her box, in order, as she pretended, to fling over her a cloak as a protection against the night air, but in truth to perform the trick of the thumbstall, and to disappear suddenly. But the captain had strict orders, and was rude enough to refuse this little compliance to the lovely prisoner. Neither prayers nor tears had any effect on the hard-hearted soldier; he seized her in his muscular arms, and carried her nimbly out of the chamber, of which justice immediately took possession, and caused it to be bolted up. Below, at the outer gate, stood a sedan borne by two mules, in which the weeping lady, in the most careless négligé, must needs take her seat; and now their route went by torchlight, silently and sadly, like a midnight funeral, through the solitary streets and out at the gate, to a distance of twelve miles, to a sequestered convent well walled round, where the tearful prisoner was locked up in a frightful cell, forty fathoms below the earth.

King Garsias had, since the disagreeable feast-day, on which his food had disappeared from the dish, been so ill-humoured, that nothing could be done with him. One half of his ministers and attendants had incurred his displeasure, and the other half, fearing the same fate, sought most industriously to drive away this splenetic paroxysm. For this purpose, many expedients were proposed; among the rest a hunting-party, which had the preference, as a means of diversion. It did not effect, however, what was hoped from it. The King could not get over the disappearance of the chef d’œuvre of cookery, and hinted intelligibly his opinion that this vanishing had not happened in a lawful manner; nay, he even, contrary to his usual confidence, expressed a suspicion of the bad sin of magic against the Princess. Other suspicious circumstances, also, came to light, and as Urraca had at court a large party of enemies, they no sooner perceived in what point of view the King now appeared to view her, than the spirit of cabal delayed not to employ this opportunity for the destruction of her good name.

A court-commission was now unceasingly employed in hunting through the effects of this unhappy Princess, in order to discover proofs of magic—perhaps a talisman, with magic characters, or even a contract with the wicked enemy, or a copy of such a contract. All her jewels, and other valuables, as well as all the fairy preparations, were faithfully noted down; but notwithstanding all the trouble employed, weak-minded justice could discover nothing which appeared to have any connexion with enchantment. The actual “corpus delicti,” the booty of Ro-