Thereupon answered and said the reverend magistrate,
smiling:
“There thou remindest me aptly of how we console
the poor fellow,
After his house has been burned, by recounting the
gold and the silver
Melted and scattered abroad in the rubbish, that still
is remaining.
Little enough, it is true; but even that little is
precious.
Then will the poor wretch after it dig and rejoice
if he find it.
Thus I likewise with happier thoughts will gratefully
turn me
Towards the few beautiful deeds of which I preserve
the remembrance.
Yes, I will not deny, I have seen old quarrels forgotten,
Ill to avert from the state; I also have witnessed
how friendship,
Love of parent and child, can impossibilities venture;
Seen how the stripling at once matured into man; how
the aged
Grew again young; and even the child into youth was
developed,
Yea, and the weaker sex too, as we are accustomed
to call it,
Showed itself brave and strong and ready for every
emergence.
Foremost among them all, one beautiful deed let me
mention,
Bravely performed by the hand of a girl, an excellent
maiden;
Who, with those younger than she, had been left in
charge of a farmhouse,
Since there, also, the men had marched against the
invader.
Suddenly fell on the house a fugitive band of marauders,
Eager for booty, who crowded straightway to the room
of the women.
There they beheld the beautiful form of the fully
grown maiden,
Looked on the charming young girls, who rather might
still be called children.
Savage desire possessed them; at once with merciless
passion
They that trembling band assailed and the high-hearted
maiden.
But she had snatched in an instant the sword of one
from its scabbard,
Felled him with might to the ground, and stretched
him bleeding before her.
Then with vigorous strokes she bravely delivered the
maidens,
Smiting yet four of the robbers; who saved themselves
only by flying.
Then she bolted the gates, and, armed, awaited assistance.”
Now when this praise the minister heard bestowed on
the maiden,
Rose straightway for his friend a feeling of hope
in his bosom,
And he had opened his lips to inquire what further
befell her,
If on this mournful flight she now with her people
were present;
When with a hasty step the village doctor approached
them,
Twitched the clergyman’s coat, and said in his
ear in a whisper:
“I have discovered the maiden at last among
several hundreds;
By the description I knew her, so come, let thine
own eyes behold her!
Bring too the magistrate with thee, that so we may
hear him yet further.”
But as they turned to go, the justice was summoned
to leave them,
Sent for by some of his people by whom his counsel
was needed.