Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 6.djvu/539

Rh joined his tears to those of his mother; whilst, with a more calm but deep-felt sorrow than she displayed, he knelt quietly at her side.

The violent expression of this wretched woman's grief was succeeded by a torrent of expostulations, which rushed from her in broken sentences, reminding one of a mountain stream whose course is interrupted by impeding rocks. Her natural expressions, short and abrupt, were forcible and pathetic: vain would be the endeavour to translate them into our idiom; we must be satisfied with their general meaning. "They have murdered thee, poor animal, murdered thee without cause! Tamely thou wouldst have lain down to await our arrival; for thy feet pained thee, and thy claws were powerless. Thou didst lack thy burning native sun to bring thee to maturity. Thou wert the most beautiful animal of thy kind! Whoever beheld a more noble royal tiger stretched out to sleep, than thou art as thou liest here, never to rise again? When in the morning thou awokest at the earliest dawn of day, opening thy wide jaws, and stretching out thy ruddy tongue, thou seemedst to us to smile; and even when a growl burst from thee, still didst thou ever playfully take thy food from the hand of a woman, or from the fingers of a child. Long did we accompany thee in thy travels, and long was thy society to us as indispensable as profitable. To us, in very truth, did food come from the ravenous, and sweet refreshment from the strong. But alas, alas! this can never be again!"

She had not quite ended her lamentations, when a troop of horsemen was observed riding in a body over the heights which led from the castle. They were soon recognised as the hunting cavalcade of the prince, and he himself was at their head. Riding amongst the distant hills, they had observed the dark columns of smoke which obscured the atmosphere; and pushing on over hill and dale, as if in the heat of the chase,