ry, crossed the mountains with his Slavonic hordes, to
seek a new dwelling-place in this spot. The beautiful inhabitants of
the aged oaks, of rocks, caves and grottoes, as well as those of the
reeds in ponds and marshes fled from the noise of weapons, and the
snorting of war-horses. Even for the mighty Erl-king the tumult was
too much, and he removed his court to the more remote deserts. One elf
alone could not resolve to quit her beloved oak, and when the wood was
hewn down in every direction to make the land arable, she alone had the
courage to defend her tree against the power of the new comers, and
chose its lofty top for her abode.

Among the courtiers of the duke was a young squire, named Crocus, full
of courage and youthful fire, active, well made, and of noble stature.
To him was entrusted the care of his master's horses, which he
sometimes drove out to feed in the forest. Often he rested under the
oak which the elf inhabited; she regarded the stranger with pleasure,
and when at night he slumbered by the root, she whispered pleasant
dreams into his ear, predicted to him in significant images the events
of the coming day; or if one of his horses had strayed in the
wilderness, and the keeper had lost all traces of him, and went to
sleep with heavy heart, he saw in his dream the marks of the concealed
path which led to the spot where the stray horse was feeding.

The farther the new settlers spread the nearer did they approach the
dwelling of the elf, who by means of her faculty of divination foresaw
how soon the axe threatened her tree of life, and therefore resolved to
communicate her trouble to her friend. One moonlight summer's evening
Crocus drove his herd later than usual into the fence, and hastened to
his usual couch beneath the tall oak. His road wound about a lake well
stored with fish, in the silver waves of which the golden crescent was
reflected in the shape of a glittering cone. Straight over this
shining part of the lake, on the opposite shore, he perceived in the
vicinity of the oak a female form, that seemed to be walking on the
cool bank. This apparition surprised the young warrior. "Whence," he
thought to himself, "could this maiden come, so solitary in these
deserts, at the time of evening twilight?" But the adventure was of
such a nature, that to a young man it was more alluring than alarming
to search into the affair. He doubled his pace without losing sight of
the form which occup