half laughing, on the ground; then lifted the entranced
Hildegardis on his steed, and galloped with her silently into
the ever-deepening gloom of night.

"All ye noble lords and knights, who yesterday contended
gallantly for the prize of victory and the hand of the
peerless Hildegardis, arise, arise! saddle your steeds, and
to the rescue! The peerless Hildegardis is carried away!"

Thus proclaimed many a herald through castle and town in the
bright red dawn of the following day; and on all sides rose
the dust from the tread of knights and noble squires along
those roads by which so lately, in the evening twilight,
Hildegardis in proud repose had gazed on her approaching
suitors.

Two of them, well known to us, remained inseparably together,
but they knew as little as the others whether they had taken
the right direction, for how and when the adored lady could
have disappeared from her apartments was still to the whole
castle a fearful and mysterious secret.

Edwald and Froda rode as long as the sun moved over their
heads, unwearied as he; and now, when he sank in the waves of
the river, they thought to win the race from him, and still
spurred on their jaded steeds. But the noble animals
staggered and panted, and the knights were constrained to
grant them some little refreshment in a grassy meadow. Secure
of bringing them back at their first call, their masters
removed both bit and curb, that they might be refreshed with