Then, again, a bright queen, resplendent in a dazzling bark, would seem to glide past him, and salute him graciously,--and if he strove to approach any of those he found nothing but cloud, and mist, and vapour.

Of all this many a lay might be sung.

But so much he learnt from them all--that the fair Lady Aslauga accepted his service, and that he was now indeed and in truth become her knight.
Meanwhile the winter had come and gone.

In northern lands this season never fails to bring to those who understand and love it many an image full of beauty and meaning, with which a child of man might well be satisfied, so far as earthly happiness can satisfy, through all his time on earth.

But when the spring came glancing forth with its opening buds and flowing waters there came also bright and sunny tidings from the land of Germany to Fuhnen.
There stood on the rich banks of the Maine, where it pours its waters through the fertile land of Franconia, a castle of almost royal magnificence, whose orphan-mistress was a relation of the German emperor.