a
little child. I think it is the dream I had last night" (for the Devil
had given her a dream as he had given Faust, and in it she had seen
her future husband). "I think it is because I expect every moment
since my dream, to see the one who is to love and cherish me the rest
of my life." The simple folk of Marguerite's time believed in dreams
and portents of all kinds.
There she sat in her chair and recalled how handsome the lover of her
dream was, and how truly she already loved him. Then she decided to go
to bed, and while she was folding her few things, putting her apron
away, combing out her long and beautiful hair, she sang an old Gothic
song, of the King of Thule:
[Music:
There was a king in Thule
Was faithful till the grave
To whom his mistress, dying,
A golden goblet gave.
Naught was to him more precious,
He drained it at ev'ry bout.
His eyes with tears ran over
As oft as he drank thereout.]
When came his time of dying,
The towns in his land he told;
Naught else to his heir denying
Except the goblet of gold.
He sat at the royal banquet,
With his knights of high degree,
In the lofty hall of his fathers,
In the castle by the sea.
There stood the old carouser,
And drank the last life-glow,
And hurled the hallow'd goblet
Into the tide below.
He saw it plunging and filling,
And sinking deep in the sea,
Then his eyelids fell forever,
And never more drank he.
There was a King once in Thule,
Faithful was he--to the grave.
Then the Devil, who was watching all, summoned his imps. This time
they took the form of Will-o'-the-wisps.
"Come! dance and confuse this maiden, and see what we can do to help
this lovesick Faust," he cried to them, and at once they began a
wonderful dance. Marguerite watched them entranced, and by the time
Faust appeared from the folds of the curtains she was half dazed and
confused by the unreal spectacle she had seen. Then she recognized the
handsome fellow as the one she had seen in her dream.
"I have seen thee in my dreams," she said, "and thou wert one who
loved me well." Faust, entranced with her beauty and goodness,
promised to love her forever; and as he embraced her, the Devil
suddenly popped in.
"Hasten," he cried. "We must be off."
"Who is this man?" Marguerite cried in affright.
"A brute," Faus
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