his head,--the stroke
should have fallen flat, but who can control a fiery horse or a drawn
sword? The bleeding shepherd, with a cloven skull, falls down the
precipice; his frightened flock bleats on the mountain. Only the little
lamb runs in its terror to the orchard, pushes itself through the
garden-rails, and lies at Verena's feet, as if asking for help, all
red with its master's blood. She took it up in her arms, and from that
moment never suffered Weigand the Slender to appear again before her
face. She continued to cherish the little lamb, and seemed to take
pleasure in nothing else in the world, and became pale and turned
towards heaven, as the lilies are. She would soon have taken the veil,
but just then I came to aid her father in a bloody war, and rescued
him from his enemies. The old man represented this to her, and, softly
smiling, she gave me her lovely hand. His grief would not suffer the
unhappy Weigand to remain in his own country. It drove him forth as a
pilgrim to Asia, whence our forefathers came, and there he did wonderful
deeds, both of valour and self-abasement. Truly, my heart was strangely
weak when I heard him spoken of at that time. After some years he
returned, and wished to build a church or monastery on that mountain
towards the west, whence the walls of my castle are distinctly seen.
It was said that he wished to become a priest there, but it fell out
otherwise. For some pirates had sailed from the southern seas, and,
hearing of the building of this monastery, their chief thought to
find much gold belonging to the lord of the castle and to the master
builders, or else, if he surprised and carried them off, to extort from
them a mighty ransom. He did not yet know northern courage and northern
weapons; but he soon gained that knowledge. Having landed in the creek
under the black rocks, he made his way through a by-path up to the
building, surrounded it, and thought in himself that the affair was now
ended. Ha! then out rushed Weigand and his builders, and fell upon them
with swords and hatchets and hammers. The heathens fled away to their
ships, with Weigand behind to take vengeance on them. In passing by our
castle he caught a sight of Verena on the terrace, and, for the first
time during so many years, she bestowed a courteous and kind salutation
on the glowing victor. At that moment a dagger, hurled by one of the
pirates in the midst of his hasty flight, struck Weigand's uncovered
head, an