p.
"Youth is ever confident," says the bard. Happy, happy season! The
moonlit hours passed by on silver wings, the twinkling stars looked
friendly down upon him. Confiding in their youthful sentinel, sound
slept the valorous toxophilites, as up and down, and there and back
again, marched on the noble Childe. At length his repeater told him,
much to his satisfaction, that it was half-past eleven, the hour when
his watch was to cease; and so, giving a playful kick to the slumbering
Wolfgang, that good-humored fellow sprung up from his lair, and, drawing
his sword, proceeded to relieve Otto.

The latter laid him down for warmth's sake on the very spot which his
comrade had left, and for some time could not sleep. Realities and
visions then began to mingle in his mind, till he scarce knew which was
which. He dozed for a minute; then he woke with a start; then he went
off again; then woke up again. In one of these half-sleeping moments he
thought he saw a figure, as of a woman in white, gliding into the room,
and beckoning Wolfgang from it. He looked again. Wolfgang was gone. At
that moment twelve o'clock clanged from the town, and Otto started up.

CHAPTER IX.

THE LADY OF WINDECK.

As the bell with iron tongue called midnight, Wolfgang the Archer,
pacing on his watch, beheld before him a pale female figure. He did not
know whence she came: but there suddenly she stood close to him. Her
blue, clear, glassy eyes were fixed upon him. Her form was of faultless
beauty; her face pale as the marble of the fairy statue, ere yet the
sculptor's love had given it life. A smile played upon her features, but
it was no warmer than the reflection of a moonbeam on a lake; and yet
it was wondrous beautiful. A fascination stole over the senses of
young Wolfgang. He stared at the lovely apparition with fixed eyes and
distended jaws. She looked at him with ineffable archness. She lifted
one beautifully rounded alabaster arm, and made a sign as if to beckon
him towards her. Did Wolfgang--the young and lusty Wolfgang--follow?
Ask the iron whether it follows the magnet?--ask the pointer whether it
pursues the partridge through the stubble?--ask the youth whether the
lollipop-shop does not attract him? Wolfgang DID follow. An antique
door opened, as if by magic. There was no light, and yet they saw quite
plain; they passed through the innumerable ancient chambers, and yet
they did not wake any of the owls and bats roosting there. We know