fled, as if pursued by evil
spirits, back to his lonely chamber, and there he was able to sing
songs which brought him delicious dreams, and, in them, the Beloved
herself.

"'For a long time he had succeeded in avoiding the sight of the towers
of the Wartburg; but one day he got into the forest--he scarce could
tell how--the forest which lies in front of the Wartburg, on going out
of which one has the castle close before his sight. He had come to a
part of the woods where strangely-shaped crags rise up, covered with
many-tinted mosses, surrounded by thick copses and ugly, stunted,
prickly underwood. With some difficulty he clambered halfway up these
rocks, so that, through a cleft, he could see the towers of the
Wartburg rising in the distance. There he sat himself down, and,
vanquishing the pain of his gloomy fancies, lost himself in dreams of
the sweetest hope.

"'The sun had been some time set, and from out the gloomy clouds which
had come down and spread upon the hill, the moon rose, red and fiery.
The night wind began to sigh through the lofty trees, and, touched by
its icy breath, the thicket shuddered and shivered like one in the
chills of fever. The night birds rose screaming from the rocks, and
began their wavering flight. The woodland streams rushed louder--the
distant waterfalls lifted their voices. But as the moon begun to shine
more brightly through the trees, the tones of distant singing came
faintly over the valley. Heinrich rose. He thought how the masters on
the Wartburg were now beginning their pious evening hymns. He saw
Mathilda, as she retired, casting looks of affection at Wolfframb--whom
she loved--with a heart brimming over with fondness and longing.
Heinrich took his lute and begun a song such as perhaps he had never
sung before. The night wind paused; the thickets and trees kept
silence; the tones went gleaming through the woodland shadows as if
they were part of the moonlight. But as this song was dying away in
sighs of bitter sorrow, a sudden burst of shrill, piercing laughter
rang out behind him. He turned quickly round, startled, and saw a tall
dark form, which, ere he could collect his thoughts, began to speak in
a disagreeable, sneering tone:

"'"Aha! I have been searching about here for a considerable time to see
who might be singing so beautifully at this hour of the night. So it is
you, is it, Heinrich of Ofterdingen? Ha! I might have known that, for
you are certainly by far the po