Page:Undine (Lumley).djvu/19



has hap])ened, nor, in this respect, will he be the last. Quite other- wise did the poet forebode by an impending exploit of arms, when describing the victory of the Swedes over the Finns, where Otho of 'I'rautwangen, rushing on the enemy's infantry, shouts exult- ingly to his squadron of horsemen, " Strike ye, my Swedes 1 strike ye !" As he wrote these words, and whenever he afterwards read them, he was seized by a deeply powerful, and, as one might say, melancholy inspiration. In the battle of Liitzen, where at the head of his J.-igers he rushed on a French battalion, he felt the fulfilment of it ; and thinking on Otho of TraUtwangen, mingled in the huzza-cry of his squadron his own jubilant call, " Strike, my Jagers ! strike !" And manifold tones besides, from out the magic ring sounding and re-echoing in the souls of my brethren in arms, accompanied me joyfully all through the great and event- ful year of " thirteen ;" at the same time, often meeting me from cities and castles, through which and to which the marches of the army or crusades, as in more senses than one they might be Ccdled, conducted us.

A gallant young prince, — I had just been sent out upon com- mand, and still bore the trace of a slight wound between the eye- brows, — once asked, when riding in front of the Jager squadron, a volunteer, known to him through my acquaintance, " Where is Heerdegen of Lichtenried .'"

" Whom does your royal highness mean ?" " I mean him with the scar upon his brow — Fouque." So now, again, unlock thyself once more, my dear " Magic Ring," and that just as thou wert first unlocked; only now be decked with more adornment than at that time, which indeed has not despoiled thee of thy propriety, since already for twenty years thy second edition has brought it to thee, and thereto thy name (of " ring," I mean) well belongs.

From pumerous quarters it was ardently desired ; and many a real ring tor nobie hands has since then been fashioned after it. Some have gone so far as to desire of me a fourth part to the three which already have existence. My answer has been, that as for the ririff there remained no additions ; let it as a ring be recognised and for such be taken. What, in other respects, may have contributed to imi>art to the book a peculiar vigour is, the author's familiarity with its materiel, — as weapons, horses, castles, and other like characteristics of the period ; vivified still more through his own