do, in the soft nights of summer,
they would never be at a loss for entertainment. But as our English
fairies looked on, they saw that these foreign elves were of a different
race from themselves: they were taller and less handsome, their hair was
darker, they wore mustaches, and had something of a fiercer air. Poor
Nymphalin was a little frightened; but presently soft music was heard
floating along, something like the sound we suddenly hear of a still
night when a light breeze steals through rushes, or wakes a ripple in
some shallow brook dancing over pebbles. And lo, from the aperture of
the earth came forth a fay, superbly dressed, and of a noble presence.
The queen started back, Pipalee rubbed her eyes, Trip looked over
Pipalee's shoulder, and Nip, pinching her arm, cried out amazed, "By the
last new star, that is Prince von Fayzenheim!"

Poor Nymphalin gazed again, and her little heart beat under her
bee's-wing bodice as if it would break. The prince had a melancholy air,
and he sat apart from the banquet, gazing abstractedly on the Rhine.

"Ah!" whispered Nymphalin to herself, "does he think of me?"

Presently the prince drew forth a little flute hollowed from a small
reed, and began to play a mournful air. Nymphalin listened with delight;
it was one he had learned in her dominions.

When the air was over, the prince rose, and approaching the banqueters,
despatched them on different errands; one to visit the dwarf of the
Drachenfels, another to look after the grave of Musaeus, and a whole
detachment to puzzle the students of Heidelberg. A few launched
themselves upon willow leaves on the Rhine to cruise about in the
starlight, and an other band set out a hunting after the gray-legged
moth. The prince was left alone; and now Nymphalin, seeing the coast
clear, wrapped herself up in a cloak made out of a withered leaf; and
only letting her eyes glow out from the hood, she glided from the reeds,
and the prince turning round, saw a dark fairy figure by his side. He
drew back, a little startled, and placed his hand on his sword, when
Nymphalin circling round him, sang the following words:--

THE FAIRY'S REPROACH.

I. By the glow-worm's lamp in the dewy brake;
By the gossamer's airy net;
By the shifting skin of the faithless snake,
Oh, teach me to forget:
For none, ah none
Can teach so well that human spell
As thou, false one!

II. By the fair