Ekkehard. Vol. II (of II).

Wildkir

n his cloud-cap,--smilingly looking down into the depths below, where the towns of men, shrivel up to the size of ant-hills. All around him, there is a company of fine, stalwart fellows, made of the same metal, and there, they put their bold heads together, and jestingly blow misty veils into each ot

castle-dungeon, and had debated a good deal, whether the Devil had burnt him up at midnight, or whether he had escaped

s side, and he carried a spear in his right hand. Often, he pushed the iron point in

ing over the wild valley, where the Sitter comes out of the Seealpsee; whilst at the s

ous race of herdsmen, were then but scantily peopled. Only the cell of the Abbot

wilderness. Their descendants were still living there, in scattered, shingle-covered houses, and in summer they drove their herds up into the Alps. They were a race o

llen on his head from above; upon which he cast up a searching look, to see whether the grim canopy of stones, would yet delay falling down, till he had pass

ry step he took. The dark precipice at his side came nearer and nearer; a giddy depth yawning up at him, ... and

igh of relief, when his feet touched ground again on the other side, he tu

e dark fir-trees. Opposite, in their armour of ice and snow, there rose the host of mountain-giants; and the pen feels a shudder of delight pass through it, when called upon to write down their names. The long stretched bewildering Kamor; the tremendous walls of the Boghartenfirst; the Sige

ndeur of the spectacle before him. Many hundreds of mountain-swallows fluttered out of the

of rudely carved wood, stood beside it. Stems of fir-trees, heaped up on one side, and interlaced with branches of the same

before the cross, and pr

e place where he knelt,

ter Praxedis had freed him. The next morning found him wea

I might leave my people and go from them!" said he in the words of the

ll restore my soul's health.' Perhaps he would never have become a saint, if he had thought and acted differently. Try to conquer thy grief. When the eagle feels sick, and his eyes gro

ibed the road

f the world for the last twenty years. His name is Gottshalk. Give him

church was deserted, and the Devil tempted Gottshalk to take a keepsake to Germany. So, he took as much of the saint's body as he could carry away under his habit; an arm, a foot and some spine-bones, and secretly departed with his spoil. But from that hour he had lost his inward peace. By day and night, the saint appeared to him in her torn and mutilated condit

he when they were about to part company, "lest their tittle-tattle should be the ruin of thee. Jeers and derision are worse than punishment. 'Tis true that thou d

skin were his parti

still bore visible traces of the ravages of the Huns. Some windows were lighted up, and seemed to beckon to him; but he only hurried onwards the qu

ce of the cavern, waiting for Gottshalk the hermit's coming out

h juice from Alpine herbs on the bright-coloured rock. A stone trough caught up the wa

hich probably had served as a hearth. In a corner there lay a coarse fishing-net

aw and dry leaves, which looked rotten and decayed. Two rats

mongst the mountaineers in those parts; but nobody answered. In a jug, the milk it had once contained, had become a crusty s

uld not banish a feeling of unutterable woe from his heart. Alone and God-forsaken he stood there on the solitary height. He strained his faculty of hearing t

s becam

moment. He still had provisions for three days with him. So he sat down before the cave

s on the opposite rocks, whose peaks o

repared himself a new couch, in the place of the old one. The cool evening air began to be felt. So he wrapped himself up in Moengal's mantle

king up, he saw a light shining out from the darkest recess of the cavern. He believed himself to be under the delusion of a dream; that he was still in his dungeon and that Praxedis was coming to free him. But the light came nearer

ant tresses were fastened behind by a massive silver pin, in the shape of a spoon. The braided basket o

say, be welcome! My father will be very glad to hear that we have got a new mountain-brother. One can w

like the voice

still sleep

d you!" ejacul

, may God reward

before he could put any more queries, she ran away with h

owed by a grey-bearded herdsman, wrap

not believe i

is youth, could threw a stone of a hundred weight above twenty paces, without losing an inch of his grou

in-brother?" said he, good-naturedly e

mbarrassed at the strang

a visit to Brother

as if he had been bitten by a snake, and pointing over at the Hohenkasten, he cried: 'holy Anastasia, thou art made whole again, and standest on both feet, and beckonest to me with both thy arms!' ... and down he jumped, as if there had been no abyss between the rock he stoo

said the maiden, giv

wherever they like. And if that won't satisfy you, you can ask for more, for we are no niggards and misers up here. In return, you will preach us a sermon each Sunday,

a delicious feeling for him, to know that there were human be

the depths of the mountai

p is!" exclaimed the young girl co

ments of stones were lying across the path. Often they had to bend down their heads, to be able to proceed. Faint, reddish gleams of light played on the projecting edges of the walls, and soon the flaring dayl

lue gentians, grew there in great profusion; and the Apollo, the magnificent butterfly of

s of the cavern, a magnificent and extensiv

p outlines the mountain-peaks stood out against the blue sky,--like giant isles rising out of the sea of mists. The Bodensee too, was covered up with vapoury clouds, and the rows of the far off Rhetian mountains, with their craggy pin

aid the old herdsman. "I can tell

om the Abbot has not sent out

sovereignty does not extend here. We pay him our tithes, when his stewards come here to look at our cottages, on the day when the milk is examined,

mes long ago, there were meadows and pasture-grounds enough; but a proud and overbearing man lived there, who was a giant, and whose pride increased with his flocks, so that he said: 'I will be king over all, that my eyes survey.' But in the depths of the S?ntis, there arose a roaring

ll as a kindly heart could be perceived in his words. His daughter, meanwhi

thy name?

edic

, fastening the Alpine roses to his

him wince, and then, seizing the Alpine horn which hung su

; strong, wild-looking men, and assembled round the old man; whom,--on account of his good q

rother," said he. "I suppose

al, and then stepping up to Ekkehard, they bade him welcome; and

ut some new shingles into the gaps of the roof, that wind and weather had caused in Gottshalk's blockhouse. By degrees, Ekkehard accustomed himself to the narrow confinement of his new domicile, and on the following Sunday he carried the wooden cross into the foreground of the cavern; adorned it with a wreath of newly gathered flowers, and rang the bell which had hung at the

ve we not the S?ntis and the Kamor standing beside us?--and they als

etical, and he had never read such a simile in any of the churchfathers before. But the

Sunday bodice, which encircled her bosom like a coat of mail. She brought a ne

o finely, and have spoken well of our mountains,--and if anybody sh

il. "These, I have gathered for you," added she,

is thanks, she had disappeare

n are the

n like t

o would m

the sa

chly, whils

mile rose to E

urs were yet reverberating within; like the thunderclaps of an Alpin

d himself lying under it; sleeping the calm sleep of the dead; and he sat down on it, and looked over the pine-clad mountains far away towards the Bodensee,--dreaming. It was not well that he could see the lake from his cell, as the sight called

shed towards her, she had the face of the woman of the wood, and grinned at him scoffingly. When he awoke from his uneasy slumbers in the early morning, his heart would often beat wildly, a

een Alpine air, figures and events assumed clearer and more objective outlines before his inward eye, and he was tormented by the thought t

muttered he to himself; and then he felt, as

e; quite forgetting that a blameworthy action is only blot

Whenever he sat all alone in his silent cavern, he fancied he heard voices that mockingly talked to him of foolish hopes, and the deceits of this world. Th

easily deceived and apt to believe all the old legends and tales, which assert th

hen the moon-beams fell right into the cavern. Two white clouds were sailing along the sky, one behind the

hurrying down the steep rocky walls, she stood still on the Kamor, right opposite the cavern, and then floating down to

and thousands, and chaunting psalms and swinging rods in their

t from the recesses of the cavern. "Away with you, out from the Alps!" cried they threateningly. All his pulses throbbed in t

the moon: "I cannot help thee," said she wi

to him, and yet he caught hold of projecting parts of the rocks, and used his spear

, he darted past precipices, and at last came down to level ground, beside the lake. The goats often fell

which the silvery moon-beams danced and trembled. The rotten trunks, lying about

" cried he, "for my hea

hrough his feverish limbs. The water already reached to his breast, when he stopped and looked up confusedly. The white clouds had disappeared;

m and serious, the furrowed head of the "old man" and to the right, towering above its double belt of glaciers, the s

t the waters closed over his head, and rising again after a while,

rted through Ekkehard's brain. The mountains around him, began to rock and dance; a wailing sound streamed through the

to the top of the M?glisalp. There, she sat on the soft velvety grass, and shook th

d threw them over, and the old man tore off his head and flung it at the pyramid of the S?ntis. Now the S?ntis stood on the right side, and the old man was flying before him to the left;--but the lady of the lake, looked on in smiling composure, a

on again, and singing a sad, mournful strain, he returned to his old place. And the S

e lay in his cavern, shaken with feverish c

n, and saw him lying there trembling, and wrapped in his wolf's sk

better let me know, so that I can lead you. The goat-boy who met you before sunr

ang the midday