softly towards him,
and then she revealed the resolution which was in her heart. Count
Heribert was overwhelmed with grief, but he pressed a loving kiss on
her pure forehead.

The day came, when down below on the island Nonnenwert, the convent
bells rang solemnly. A new novice, Count Heribert's lovely daughter,
knelt before the altar. In the holy stillness of the convent she
sought the peace which she could not find in the castle of her father.
With a last great convulsive sob she had torn her lover's name from
her heart, had quenched the flame of sorrowing love for him, and now
her soul was to be filled ever with the holy fire of the love of God.
In vain her afflicted father hoped that the unaccustomed loneliness
of the convent would shake her resolution, and that when the first
year's trial was over, she would return to him. But no! the pious
young maiden fervently begged the bishop, who was a relation of her
father, to release her from the year's trial and to allow her after a
short time to take her final vows. Her longing desire was fulfilled.
After a month Hildegunde's golden locks were no more, and the lovely
daughter of the Drachenburg was dedicated to the Lord forever.

IV.

Time rolled on. Spring had vanished and the sheaves were ripening in
the fields. Where the river reaches the end of the Rhine valley
crowned by the Seven Giants, a knight with his horse stopped to rest.
Far away in the south, where the valley of Ronceval lies bathed in
sunshine, he had lain in the hut of a poor herd. There the faithful
squire had dragged his master pierced by a Moorish lance. The bold
hero and leader had remained for weeks and months on his sick-bed
struggling with death, till the force of his iron nature had at last
conquered. Roland was recovering under loving care, while they were
mourning him as dead in the land of the Franks. Then having recovered,
he hurried back to the Rhine urged by an irresistible longing.

A wooded island lay in the deep-blue waters. The setting sun threw a
golden light over the hills; numberless vineyards flanked the
mountains, hedges of beeches were on one side, the murmur of waters
on the other, and above the pinnacles of a knight's castle among the
legendary rocks where once a terrible beast lived, over all the
heavens clothed with a garment of silver stars.

Silently the knight paused, his glance resting admiringly on the
beautiful picture. Now as in months before an inexplicable feel