with mighty words, but all to no purpose.
When the garrison returned they were powerless to render aid, for the
castellan was threatened with death should his followers attack the
castle. In the end a truce was made, and the English were allowed to
retire unmolested with their King. Although urged by him, the maid
refused to accompany Blondel, so, giving her a gold ring as a memento,
he parted from her.

Returning again many years afterward, the minstrel once more heard the
same song which the King had sung to his harp in the castle of
Trifels. Entering the inn, he recognized in the landlord the one-time
shepherd-boy. From him he learnt that the castellan had perished by an
unknown hand, and that his pretty niece, having, as she thought, plumbed
the depths of masculine deceit, had entered the nunnery of Eberstein at
Baden.

Thann in Alsace

Thann is known to legend by two things: a steeple and a field. The
steeple was built in a season of great drought. Water had failed
everywhere; there was only the thinnest trickle from the springs
and fountains with which the people might allay their thirst. Yet,
strangely, the vineyards had yielded a wonderful harvest of luscious
grapes, and the wine was so abundant that the supply of casks and
vessels was insufficient for the demand. Therefore did it happen that
the mortar used for building the steeple was mixed with wine, wherefore
the lime was changed to must. And it is said that even to this day,
when the vines are in blossom, a delicate fragrance steals from the old
steeple and on the stones a purple dew is seen, while some declare that
there is a deeper tone in the harmony of the bells.

The Lying-field

The field is a terrible place, barren and desolate, for it is avoided
as a spot accursed. No living thing moves upon it; the earth is streaked
with patches of dark moss and drifts of ghastly skulls, like a scattered
harvest of death. Once, says the legend, a wayfarer, surprised by the
swift-fallen night, lost himself on the plain. As he stumbled in the
darkness he heard the clocks of the town near by strike the hour of
midnight. At this the stillness about the wanderer was broken. Under his
feet the earth seemed to tremble, there was a rattling of weapons, and
there sounded the tramp of armed men and the tumult of battle.

Suddenly the shape of a man in armour appeared before him, terrific and
menacing.

"What do you seek here, in a field that has been accursed throu