Page:Select Popular Tales from the German of Musaeus.djvu/162

148 favour, and despised right. As Rips would not be the instrument of unrighteousness, he refused his services to the judge, and, in consequence, was thrown into prison, out of which, however, in the usual way of spirits, he easily made his escape by the keyhole.

It was impossible that this first attempt in the study of mankind could make a favourable impression upon him. He returned back in disgust to his rocky fortress, from thence beheld the smiling plain which human industry had made beautiful, and wondered that mother nature could lend her gifts to such a heartless brood. Notwithstanding this, he again ventured on a journey into the plain, to resume the study of humanity.

His next adventure was a love one. He became enamoured of the fair Princess Emma, the daughter of the King of Silesia, whom he once accidentally fell in with as she strolled about, among the woods and streams of her father’s domain, with her attendant maidens. He forthwith determined upon an abduction, and one day, when the fair princess had wandered further than usual, and was reclining alone under the shade of a spreading tree, he carried her off, and had arrived with her in his subterraneous palace long before her attendants had discovered their loss. The affair caused great consternation and grief to her father and his whole court, but especially to the young Prince Ratibor, the betrothed of the fair Emma. Long and anxious were their searches after the lost one, but in vain.

Meantime the object of their anxiety was not so uncomfortable as might have been supposed. Her apartments in the gnome’s palace were truly magnificent, and contained everything she could wish for, while the gnome himself, having taken the form of a handsome young man, knelt at her feet, and offered up to her his vows of ardent devotion.

Observing that his lovely idol languished for society, the obliging gnome presented her with a basket of fresh and full-grown turnips, giving her at the same time a silver wand, by means of which she metamorphosed these vegetables into well-dressed and well-bred courtiers. Enchanted with her imposing retinue, the Princess Emma would now roam through every crook and cranny of her subterraneous dwelling, and, when tired of exploring its numerous halls and chambers, pace every alley and shady walk of the spacious garden, throughout which reigned a perpetual spring.

But, alas! even in a fairy land it would appear that nothing is certain but change. It surpassed the art even of a courtier to conceal the ravages of a decay which too plainly advanced with rapid strides. The Princess, in fact, beheld her graceful retinue gradually sinking into a company of old and withered hags, with tottering feet and trembling arms; and, in a fit of high indignation, she ordered them all from her presence, and ran to lay her grievances