as young and handsome, but thoughtful exceedingly. He looked through
the loophole out upon the Odense-Au, when the bed of the water was yet
broad, and the monks' meadow was still a lake; he looked out over it,
and over the rampart, and over the nuns' hill opposite, where the
convent lay, and the light gleamed forth from the nun's cell; he had
known the nun right well, and he thought of her, and his heart beat
quicker as he thought. Ding-dong! ding-dong!"

Yes, this was the story the bell told.

"Into the tower came also the dapper man-servant of the bishop; and
when I, the bell, who am made of metal, rang hard and loud, and swung
to and fro, I might have beaten out his brains. He sat down close
under me, and played with two little sticks as if they had been a
stringed instrument; and he sang to it. 'Now I may sing it out aloud,
though at other times I may not whisper it. I may sing of everything
that is kept concealed behind lock and bars. Yonder it is cold and
wet. The rats are eating her up alive! Nobody knows of it! Nobody
hears of it! Not even now, for the bell is ringing and singing its
loud Ding-dong! ding-dong.'

"There was a king in those days; they called him Canute. He bowed
himself before bishop and monk; but when he offended the free peasants
with heavy taxes and hard words, they seized their weapons and put him
to flight like a wild beast. He sought shelter in the church, and shut
gate and door behind him. The violent band surrounded the church; I
heard tell of it. The crows, ravens, and magpies started up in terror
at the yelling and shouting that sounded around. They flew into the
tower and out again, they looked down upon the throng below, and they
also looked into the windows of the church, and screamed out aloud
what they saw there. King Canute knelt before the altar in prayer, his
brothers Eric and Benedict stood by him as a guard with drawn swords;
but the king's servant, the treacherous Blake, betrayed his master;
the throng in front of the church knew where they could hit the king,
and one of them flung a stone through a pane of glass, and the king
lay there dead! The cries and screams of the savage horde and of the
birds sounded through the air, and I joined in it also; for I sang
'Ding-dong! ding-dong!'

"The church bell hangs high and looks far around, and sees the birds
around it, and understands their language; the wind roars in upon it
through windows and loopholes; and the wind knows eve