e home of her happy childhood. Yet she bore all patiently
and without complaint or murmur, only at times when she looked from
terrace or tower her gaze travelled beyond the deep pine-woods, and in
a wistful day-dream she retraced, beyond the great lake and the Black
Forest, all the long way she had ridden so joyfully with her dear
husband by her side.

One day in the springtime, when the birds of passage had flown
northward, carrying her tears and kisses with them, she bethought her
of the rich apparel in which she had been wed, and took it from the
carved oaken coffer to sweeten in the sun. Among her jewels she came
upon her betrothal ring, and the glitter of it reminded her of what her
lord had said of its enchantment and the strange stories told of it.
"Are any of them so sad and strange as mine?" she wondered with tears
in her eyes; then kissing the ring in memory of that first kiss she had
given it, she laid it on a table in the window-bay, and busied herself
with the bridal finery; and while she was so busied she was called away
to some cares of her household, and left the chamber.

When she returned to put away her marriage treasures, the betrothal
ring was missing. On the instant a cold fear came over her. In vain
she searched the coffer and the chamber; in vain she endeavoured to
persuade herself that she must have mislaid the jewel, or that
perchance the Count had seen it, and partly in jest and partly in
rebuke of her carelessness, had taken it. The ring had vanished, and
in spite of herself she felt that its disappearance portended some
terrible evil. Too fearful to arouse her husband's anger, she breathed
no word of her loss, and trusted to time or oblivion for a remedy.

No great while after this, as the Swabian page was rambling in the wood
near the convent, he heard a great outcry of ravens around a nest in an
ancient fir-tree, and prompted partly by curiosity to know the cause of
the disquiet, and partly by the wish to have a young raven for sport in
the winter evenings, he climbed up to the nest. Looking into the great
matted pack of twigs, heather and lamb's wool, he caught sight of a
gold ring curiously chased and set with sparkling gems; and slipping it
gleefully on his finger he descended the tree and went his way homeward
to the castle.

A few days later when the Count by chance cast his eye on the jewel, he
recognised it at a glance for the enchanted ring of many strange
stories. Th