chiefest I saw myself as little Red-riding-hood, under the forest-trees
with Gotz, who did me a thousand services and preferred me above all
others till, for Gertrude's sake, he departed beyond seas, and set my
childish soul in a turmoil.

Then came the joy and the pain I had had by reason of the loves of
Herdegen and Ann, and then my Hans crossed my path, and how glad I was to
remember him and the bliss he had brought me! But or ever I had come to
the bitterest hour of my young days, sleep overcame me, and the manly
form of Gotz, steeled by much peril and strife for his life, came to me
in my dreams; and he did not, as Hans would have done, give me his hand;
Oh no! He snatched me up in his arms and carried me, as Saint
Christopher bears the Holy Child, and strode forward with a firm step
over plains and abysses, whithersoever he desired; and I suffered him to
go as he would, and made no resistance, and felt scarce a fear, albeit
meseemed the strong grip of his iron arm hurt me. And thus we went on
and on, through ancient mountain-forests, while the boughs lashed my face
and I could look into the nests of the eagles and wood-pigeons, of the
starlings and squirrels. It was a wondrous ramble; now and then I gasped
for breath, yet on we went till, on the topmost bough of an oak, behold,
there was Lorenz Abenberger, and the evil words he spoke made me wake up.

After this I could sleep no more, and in thought I followed Gotz through
the snow-storm. And in spirit I saw Waldtrud, the fair daughter of
Grubner, the chief forester, bidding him welcome, and giving him hot
spiced wine after his cold ride, and sipping the cup with her rosy lips.
Hereupon a pang pierced my heart, and methought indeed how well favored
a maid was the forester's daughter, and not more than a year older than
I, and by every right deemed the fairest in all the forest. And the evil
fiend jealousy, which of yore had had so little hold over me that I could