ngers'-contest was to
begin and end. In the castle court lists had been set, almost as if for
a tourney. In the centre of the arena there were two seats, draped with
black, for the contending singers, and behind them a lofty scaffold.
The Landgrave had chosen two noble gentlemen, versed in the singer's
craft (they were the same who had escorted Master Klingsohr to the
Wartburg), and appointed them arbiters. For them and the Landgrave
lofty seats were erected over against those of the contending masters,
and beside them were the places for the ladies and other spectators.
The masters were to take their places on a bench draped with black,
near the contending singers and the scaffold.

"'Thousands of spectators filled the space, and from all the windows
and roofs of the Wartburg an eager throng looked down. The Landgrave,
with the arbiters, entered by the castle gate, to the sound of trumpets
and muffled drums, and took their seats. The masters, in habits of
ceremony, headed by Walther of the Vogelweid, approached, and occupied
the seats allotted to them. Upon the scaffold stood Stempel the
executioner from Eisenach, with his attendants. He was a gigantic man,
of wild, arrogant aspect, wrapped in a wide, blood-red mantle, from the
folds of which peeped out the glittering hilt of his enormous sword.
Father Leonard, the Landgrave's confessor, took his place in front of
the scaffold, to stand by the vanquished in the hour of death.

"A silence of anticipation lay upon the vast assemblage, till the
Landgrave's Marshal, wearing the insignia of his office, stepped
forward to the centre of the arena, and read aloud the conditions of
the contest, and the Landgrave's irreversible decree that he who was
vanquished should have his head struck off by the sword. Father Leonard
raised the crucifix, and all the masters rose from their seats, and on
bended knees vowed, bareheaded, to submit, gladly and readily, to the
Landgrave's decree. Stempel then swung his broad, flashing sword three
times through the air, and cried, in a voice which echoed through the
arena:

"'"Him who is delivered into my hands I will despatch according to the
best of my power and conscience."

"'The trumpets now sounded; the Marshal advanced to the centre of the
arena, and cried aloud, three times running:

"'"Heinrich of Ofterdingen! Heinrich of Ofterdingen! Heinrich of
Ofterdingen!"

"And as though Heinrich had been standing unobserved close to the
barr