where grape climbs after grape up and down the terraces, there
was nothing but wild dark forest before he came. Then he looked down
from the mountains from his castle at Ingelheim, and he saw how even in
March the sun greeted the hills so warmly as the snow slid down them
into the stream; saw how early the trees became leafy there, and how
tender and fresh the young grass looked as it burst upwards from the
earth in the spring. And then there awakened in him the thought of
planting vines where the wood grew. And a busy life began to move in
the Rheingau beside Ingelheim; the wood vanished, and the earth was
cleared to receive the vine. Then Karl sent men to Hungary and Spain,
to Italy and Burgundy, to Champagne and Lothringen, and had vines
brought from thence, and entrusted the cuttings to dear mother earth.
And my heart rejoiced that he should extend my kingdom beside the noble
stream of Germany, and when the first shoots blossomed there I came
with all my train, and we camped upon the hills, and we worked in the
earth, and we worked in the air, and we spread out delicate nets and
caught the dews of spring lest they should fall too heavily; and we
rose up and caught the rays of the sunshine, and poured them round the
little swelling clusters, and we dived down and brought up water from
the green Rhine for the roots, and water for the leaves. And when in
autumn the first tender child of the Rheingau lay in its cradle we kept
a great feast, and invited all the elements to celebrate it; and each
came with some costly gift for the child. Fire laid his hand upon its
eyes and said, "Thou shalt bear my sign upon thee for ever--there shall
be fire in thee, albeit of such purity and transparency, that thou
shalt impart noble courage beyond all other juice of the grape." And
Air came in her golden garment of gossamer, and laid her hand upon the
child's forehead and blessed him. "Be thy colour as bright and delicate
as the golden edge of morning light upon the hills, as the golden
tresses of the fair women of the Rheingau." And Water ran past him, all
rustling with silver, and bent towards the child, saying, "I will be
ever near thy roots, that thou mayst bloom and be green and cover the
banks of the Rhine." But when Earth came she kissed his mouth tenderly,
and blew with her sweet breath upon him. "The perfumes of all my most
delicate herbs, the honey of all my fairest flowers," she said, "have I
collected as an offering for the