Page:The Enchanted Knights; or The Chronicle of the Three Sisters.djvu/103

Rh picture into a little devil with two horns, claws, tail and horse leg, as see in the moon a man carrying a bundle of sticks on his back.

Udo, having taken leave of his host in the most cordial manner, bent his steps towards Mecklenburg, following the advice of his phropheticprophetic [sic] entertainer. The hermeneutic of common sense could give no better explanation of the source of his misfortunes. He determined to maintain there the strictest incognito, and, although it seemed very improbable to him to make his fortune at the residence of his vanquisher, he wisely refrained from troubling his mind about it, and left the solution of this anomaly to time and chance. The town of Mecklenburg was the capital of the Obotrites, and the residence of the king; it was the European Bagdad or Cairo, regarding its size and population, or rather the London and Paris of Germany. Cruco had raised this town to the height of prosperity; he held there a splendid court surrounded by all the princes and vassals conquered by his glorious achievements. He extended the frontiers of his empire in an heroic manner, by the force of the strong over the weak, and the whole race of the Obotrites obeyed his sceptre; but in spite of all this his happiness was not complete. He wanted a male heir;