The stony eyes of the knight took fire and sparkled as he heard this, a
soft smile beautified his stern features, and he looked with affection
into the goblet.

'Ah, dear beloved Ingelheim! how sweet it sounds! the noble castle of
my knightly Kaiser. So, even in these days thy name is named! and the
vines still bloom which Karl first planted by _his_ Ingelheim! Do the
men who live now ever speak of Roland? or of his great master?'

'That you must ask of the mortal here,' said Jude; 'he calls himself
Doctor and Master of Arts, and he must give you an account of his
race.' The giant turned his eyes inquiringly on me, and I said, 'Noble
Paladin, mankind has indeed grown bad and careless of all that is great
and lofty: its blind gaze is fixed upon the present, and looks neither
before nor after. Yet so wretched are we not yet become, as to have
wholly ceased to remember the glorious figures that once trod our
native land; they still cast their shadow through the ages till it
touches even us. Still are there hearts that fly for refuge to the
memories of the past, when the present has become too stale and mean
for reflection. Still are there pulses which beat higher at the naming
of mighty names, still men who wander with reverence through the ruins
where sat the first German Kaiser on his throne with his Paladins and
his bards around him. Karl and Oliver, Eginhard and the lovely Emma are
still familiar in men's mouths. And where Karl is renowned there too is
Roland unforgotten. Next to him thou stoodst in life, and next to him
thou wilt stand in song and saga and history till Memory itself shall
be no more. The final blast of thy warhorn still echoes in the hills of
Roncesvalles, and will echo and echo on till it fades into the blare of
the Latest Trumpet.' 'Not in vain, my Kaiser, not in vain have we
lived! There _is_ a posterity which does honour to our name,' cried the
knight. 'True,' cried Frau Rosa, 'these men would deserve to drink the
water of the Rhine instead of the vine blossom of its hills if they
could forget the name of the man who first planted us in the Rheingau.
My dear friends and apostles, up! a health to our glorious founder and
ancestor! to Kaiser Karl, to Kaiser Karl!' The glasses rang again; but
Bacchus said, 'Yes, it was a beautiful and a glorious time, and I
rejoice in it as I did a thousand years ago. Where now there is one
long wonderful garden from the shore of the stream to the tops of the
hills,