’And oh! to lace his armour up,
          And speed him to the field;
          To pledge him in a kissing-cup,
          The knight that will not yield!

I am sure he is tender, aunt.  Notice how gentle he looks now and then.’

’Thou girl!  Yes, I believe she is madly in love with him.  Tender, and gentle!  So is the bear when you’re outside his den; but enter it, maiden, and try!  Thou good Ursula, preserve me from such a fate.’

’Fear not, dear aunt!  Have not a fear of it!  Besides, it is not always the men that are bad.  You must not forget Dalilah, and Lot’s wife, and Pfalzgrafin Jutta, and the Baroness who asked for a piece of poor Kraut.  But, let us work, let us work!’

Margarita sat down before Siegfried, and contemplated the hero.  For the first time, she marked a resemblance in his features to Farina:  the same long yellow hair scattered over his shoulders as that flowing from under Siegfried’s helm; the blue eyes, square brows, and regular outlines.  ‘This is a marvel,’ thought Margarita.  ’And Farina! it was to watch over me that he roamed the street last night, my best one!  Is he not beautiful?’ and she looked closer at Siegfried.

Aunt Lisbeth had begun upon the dragon with her usual method, and was soon wandering through skeleton halls of the old palatial castle in Bohemia.  The woolly tongue of the monster suggested fresh horrors to her, and if Margarita had listened, she might have had fair excuses to forget her lover’s condition; but her voice only did service like a piece of clock-work, and her mind was in the prison with Farina.  She was long debating how to win his release; and meditated so deeply, and exclaimed in so many bursts of impatience, that Aunt Lisbeth found her heart melting to the maiden.  ‘Now,’ said she, ’that is a well-known story about the Electress Dowager of Bavaria, when she came on a visit to the castle; and, my dear child, be it a warning.  Terrible, too!’ and the little woman shivered pleasantly.  ’She had—­I may tell you this, Margarita—­yes, she had been false to her wedded husband.—­You understand, maiden; or, no! you do not understand:  I understand it only partly, mind.  False, I say——­’

‘False—­not true:  go on, dear aunty,’ said Margarita, catching the word.

‘I believe she knows as much as I do!’ ejaculated Aunt Lisbeth; ’such are girls nowadays.  When I was young-oh! for a maiden to know anything then—­oh! it was general reprobation.  No one thought of confessing it.  We blushed and held down our eyes at the very idea.  Well, the Electress! she was—­you must guess.  So she called for her caudle at eleven o’clock at night.  What do you think that was?  Well, there was spirit in it:  not to say nutmeg, and lemon, and peach kernels.  She wanted me to sit with her, but I begged my mistress to keep me from the naughty woman:  and no friend of Hilda of Bayern was Bertha of Bohmen, you may be sure.  Oh! the things she talked while she was drinking her caudle.