Page:Select Popular Tales from the German of Musaeus.djvu/69

Rh without doubt, not unknown to you; sorrowfully, I escaped from the ruin of my father’s house, and have in your dwelling, though in a mean condition, found shelter and security.” Then she related to him her history, and did not conceal from him the secret of the musk-apple.

Count Conrad no more remembered that he had been at the point of death, but on the following day again invited the guests, whom his dejection had previously scared away so easily, and when the server served up, and counted around, no extra cover was found. Then the knight quitted the order, left the court, and solemnized his marriage with great splendour. The newly-married couple passed the first year of their union at Augsburg, in joy and innocent mirth. Impressed with feelings of delightful emotion, the youthful wife, leaning on the bosom of her wedded lord, confided to him the happy feelings of her heart, which overflowed with joy. “My heart, beloved lord,” said she once, “in possessing you is at rest; no other wish remains to me; I give up the third wish of my musk-apple; if you have any concealed desire in your heart, make it known to me; I will make it mine, and from that hour it shall be accomplished.” Count Conrad pressed his beloved wife heartily in his arms, and protested that no wish remained to him on earth but the continuance of their happiness. The musk-apple thus lost all its value in the eyes of its possessor, and she only preserved it in thankful remembrance of her godmother Nixa. Count Conrad had still a mother alive, who lived on her jointure at Schwabeck, whose hand the innocent daughter-in-law had a great desire to kiss, and to thank her for her valiant son; still the Count, under various pretences, declined the journey to his mother; but showed an inclination to visit a fief which had fallen to him, and which was not far from Wackerman’s ruined castle. Matilda was very willing to visit once more the land where she had passed the days of her first youth. She sought out the ruins of her father’s house, wept over the ashes of her parents, went to the Nixa’s spring, and hoped that her presence would again invite the Nymph to make herself visible. Many stones dropped into the spring without the hoped-for effect, even the musk-apple swam like a bubble on the water, and she had the trouble of fishing it out for herself. The Nymph no more appeared, although another sponsorship was impending, for Lady Matilda was on the point of presenting her husband with a marriage blessing. She gave birth to a son as beautiful as Cupid, and the joy of the parents was so great that they nearly hugged him to death; the mother would not put him out of her arms, and watched every breath of the innocent little angel, although the Count had hired a cunning nurse to take care of the little child. But on the third night, when all in the castle lay buried in sleep, after the noise and bustle of a feast, the mother awoke from a sweet slumber, and when she awoke the baby was