most prized success is the result of circumstances that he never could or did control, or whether God, with a view to his own harmonious and sublime ends, has implanted this principle in the human breast, in order to teach us dependence on a superior power, it is certain that few reach a state of mind so calculating and reasoning as not to trust some portion of that which is to come, to the chances of Fortune, or to Providence; for so we term the directing power, as the mind clings to o rejects the immediate agency of the Deity, in the conduct of the subordinate concerns o. .ife. In the age of which we write, intelligence had not made sufficient progress to elevate ordinary minds above the arts of necromancy. Men no longer openly consulted the entrails of brutes, in order to learn the will of fate, but they often submitted to a dictation scarcely less beastly, and few indeed were they who were able to separate piety from superstition, or the grand dispensations of Providence from the insignificant interests of selfishness. It is not surprising, therefore, that Berchthold and Meta should cling to the singular interest that the hermit manifested in them respectively, as an omen propitious to their common hopes; common, for though the maiden had not so far relinquished the reserve she still deemed essential to her sex, as to acknowledge all she felt, that subtle instinct which unites the young and innocent left little doubt in the mind of either, of the actual state of the other's inclinations. Old Ilse had consequently ample time to rest her frame, after the painful toil of the ascent between the town and the camp. When Meta at length approached to arouse her, the garrulous woman broke out in exclamations of surprise at the shortness of the interview with the hermit, for the soundness of her slumbers left her in utter ignorance of the appearance and disappearance of Berchthold. "It is but a moment, Meta dear," she said, "since we came up the hill, and I fear thou hast not given sufficient heed to the wise words of the holy man. We should not reject a wholesome draught because it proves bitter to the mouth, child, but swallow all to the last drop, when we think there is healing in the cup. Didst deal fairly by the hermit, and tell him honestly of thy evil nature?" "Thou forgettest, Ilse, the hermit has not even the tonsure, and cannot shrive and pardon." 66 Nay, nay-I know not that! A hermit is a man of God; and a man of God is holy; and any Christian may, ay, and should pardon; and as to shriving, give me a self-denying recluse, who passes his time in prayer, mortifying soul and body, before any monk of Limburg, say I! There is more virtue in one blessing from such a man, than in a dozen from a carousing Abbot-I know not but I might say fifty." "But I had his blessing, nurse." "Well, that is comforting, and we have not wearied our limbs for naught; but thou shouldst have told him of thy wish to wear the laced boddice, at the last mass, in order that thy equals might envy thy beauty. It would have been wholesome to have acknowledged that sin, at least." "But he questioned me not of my sins. All his discourse was of my father's house, and of my good mother, and-and of other matters." "Thou shouldst then have edged the boddice in among the other matters. Have I not always forewarned thee, Meta, of the danger of pride, and of stirring envy in the bosom of a companion? There is naught more uncomfortable than envy, as I know by experience. Oh! I am no longer young; and come to me if thou wouldst wish to know what envy is, or any other dangerous vice, and I warrant thee thou shalt hear it well explained! Ay, thou wert very wrong not to have spoken of the bod dice!" "Had it been fit to confess, I might have found more serious sins to own, than any that belong to dress." 66 I know not that! Dress is a great beguiler of the young heart, and of the handsome face. If thou hast beauty in thy house, break thy mirrors that the young should not know it, is what I have heard a thousand times; and as thou art both young and fair, I will repeat it, though all Deurckheim gainsay my words, thou art in danger if thou knowest it. No, hadst thou told the hermit of that boddice, it might have done much good. What matters it to such a man, whether he hath the tonsure or not? He hath prayers, and fastings, and midnight thought, and great bodily suffering, and these are surely worth as much hair as hath ever fallen from all the monks in the Palatinate. I would thou hadst told him of that boddice, child!" "Since thou so wishest it, at our next meeting it shall be said, dear Ilse; so set thy heart at peace." "This will give thy dear mother great pleasure; else, why should she consent that a daughter of her's should visit a heathenish camp, at so late an hour? I warrant thee that she thought of the boddice !" "Do cease speaking of the garment, nurse; my thoughts are bent on something else." 66 Well, if indeed thou thinkest of something else, it may be amiss to say more at present, though, Heaven it knows! thou hast great occasion to recall that vain-glorious mass to thy mind. How suddenly thy communion with the hermit ended tonight, Meta!" "We have not been long on the mountain, truly, Ilse. But we must hasten back, lest my mother should be uneasy." And why should she be so? Am I not with thee? Is age nothing, and experience, and prudence, and an old head, ay, and, for that matter, an old body too, and a good memory, and such eyes as no other in Deurckheim of my years hath-I say of my years, for thou hast better; and thy dear mother's are little worse than thine-but of my years, few have their equal. At thy age, girl, I was not the old Ilse, but the lively Ilse, and the active, and, God forgive me if there be vain-glory in the words! but truth should always be spoken-the handsome Ilse, and this too without aid from any such boddice as that of thine." "Wilt never forget the boddice! here, lean on me, nurse, or thy foot may fail thee in the steep descent." Here they began to descend, and as they were now at a point of the path where much caution was necessary, the conversation in a great measure ceased. He who visits Deurckheim now, will find sufficient remaining evidence to show that the town formerly extended more towards the base of the mountain than its present site would prove. There are the ruins of walls and towers among the vineyards that ornament the foot of the hill, and tradition speaks of fortifications that have long since disappeared, rendered useless by those improvements in warfare that have robbed so many other strong places of their importance. Then, every group of houses on an eminence was more or less a place of defence; but the use of gunpowder and artillery centuries ago rendered all these targets useless, and he who would now.seek a citadel, is most sure to find it buried in some plain or morass. The world has reached another crisis in improvement for the introduction of steam is likely to alter all its systems of offence and defence both by In and sea; but be the future as it may, the skill of the engineer had not so far ripened at the period of our tale, as to prevent Meta and her attendant from entering within walls of ancient construction, clumsily adapted to meet the exigencies of the imperfect state of the existing art. As the hour was early, they had no difficulty in reaching the Burgomaster's door without attracting remark. CHAPTER V "What news?" “None, my lord; but that the world is grown honest." Hamlet. WITHIN the whole of these widely extenued states, there is scarcely a single vestige of the manner of life led by those who first settled in the wilderness. Little else is found to arrest the eye of the antiquary in the shape of a ruin, except the walls of some fortress or the mounds of an intrenchment of the war of independence. We have, it is true, some faint remains of times still more remote; and there are even a few circumvallations, or other inventions of defence, that are believed to have once been occupied by the red man; but in no part of the country did there ever exist an edifice, of either a public or a private nature, that bore any material resemblance to a feudal castle. In order, therefore, that the reader shall have as clear a picture as our feeble powers can draw, of the hold occupied by the sturdy baron who is destined to act a conspicuous part in the remainder of this legend, it has become necessary to enter at some length into a description of the surrounding localities, and of |