at least
to gaze, even to the last, upon those walls which held the treasure he
had lost.

The willows droop in mournful luxuriance along the island, and harmonize
with the memory that, through the desert of a thousand years, love still
keeps green and fresh. Nor hath it permitted even those additions of
fiction which, like mosses, gather by time over the truth that they
adorn, yet adorning conceal, to mar the simple tenderness of the legend.

All was still in the island of Nonnewerth; the lights shone through the
trees from the house that contained our travellers. On one smooth spot
where the islet shelves into the Rhine met the wandering fairies.

"Oh, Pipalee! how beautiful!" cried Nymphalin, as she stood enraptured
by the wave, a star-beam shining on her, with her yellow hair "dancing
its ringlets in the whistling wind." "For the first time since our
departure I do not miss the green fields of England."

"Hist!" said Pipalee, under her breath; "I hear fairy steps,--they must
be the steps of strangers."

"Let us retreat into this thicket of weeds," said Nymphalin, somewhat
alarmed; "the good lord treasurer is already asleep there." They whisked
into what to them was a forest, for the reeds were two feet high, and
there sure enough they found the lord treasurer stretched beneath a
bulrush, with his pipe beside him, for since he had been in Germany he
had taken to smoking; and indeed wild thyme, properly dried, makes very
good tobacco for a fairy. They also found Nip and Trip sitting very
close together, Nip playing with her hair, which was exceedingly
beautiful.

"What do you do here?" said Pipalee, shortly; for she was rather an old
maid, and did not like fairies to be too close to each other.

"Watching my lord's slumber," said Nip.

"Pshaw!" said Pipalee.

"Nay," quoth Trip, blushing like a sea-shell; "there is no harm in
_that_, I'm sure."

"Hush!" said the queen, peeping through the reeds.

And now forth from the green bosom of the earth came a tiny train;
slowly, two by two, hand in hand, they swept from a small aperture,
shadowed with fragrant herbs, and formed themselves into a ring: then
came other fairies, laden with dainties, and presently two beautiful
white mushrooms sprang up, on which the viands were placed, and lo,
there was a banquet! Oh, how merry they were! what gentle peals of
laughter, loud as a virgin's sigh! what jests! what songs! Happy race!
if mortals could see you as often as I