uchsafed to the pious and childlike of
spirit. A dark presentiment seizes me. I think of what drove you from
the Wartburg, and the circumstances in which you have returned. Many
things may succeed with you, it is true; perhaps the beautiful star of
hope to which I have been raising my eyes may set for me for ever.
Still, Heinrich--here, take my hand on it--never can any ill-will
towards you find place in my heart. Notwithstanding the good fortune
which is streaming over you now, should you one day suddenly find
yourself on the brink of some deep, bottomless abyss, and the whirl of
giddiness seizes you, and you are about to fall down and be destroyed,
I shall be standing behind you, firm in heart, and I will hold you fast
with my strong arms."

"'Heinrich had listened in profound silence to all that Wolfframb said.
He now covered his face with his mantle, and dashed rapidly in amongst
the thick trees. And Wolfframb heard him sighing and gently sobbing as
he sped quickly away.

"'THE CONTEST ON THE WARTBURG.

"'Much as at first the other masters marvelled at the haughty
Heinrich's songs, and praised them, ere long they began to talk
of spuriousness in the "manners," of emptiness and superficial
display--nay, of absolute wickedness--in the works which he brought
before them. Lady Mathilda, and she alone, had turned to the singer
with her whole soul; and he praised her charms in a "manner" which all
the other masters (except Wolfframb of Eschinbach, who reserved his
opinion) declared to be heathenish and abominable. Before very long
Lady Mathilda became a wholly altered creature. She looked down upon
the other masters with scornful arrogance, and even withdrew her favour
from Wolfframb of Eschinbach. She carried matters so far as to ask
Heinrich of Ofterdingen to give her instruction in the craft of song,
and began to write compositions herself quite in the style of his. From
this time all beauty and attractiveness seemed to abandon this poor
deluded lady. Discarding everything which serves to adorn noble ladies,
and leaving off all womanly ways, she became an uncanny creature,
neither woman nor man, detested by the women and laughed at by the men.
The Landgrave, fearing that this disorder of hers might infect the
other ladies of the Court, issued strict commands that no lady should
occupy herself in composition under pain of banishment, and for this
the men, who were much horrified at Mathilda's s