Seven days Kaiser Heinrich remained
camped outside Cologne. Six times in six successive
days the Kaiser attempted to enter the city, and was
foiled.
‘Beard of Barbarossa!’
said the Kaiser, ’this is the first stronghold
that ever resisted me.’
The warrior bishops, electors, pfalzgrafs,
and knights of the Empire, all swore it was no shame
not to be a match for the Demon.
‘If,’ said the reflective
Kaiser, ’we are to suffer below what poor Cologne
is doomed to undergo now, let us, by all that is savoury,
reform and do penance.’
The wind just then setting on them
dead from Cologne made the courtiers serious.
Many thought of their souls for the first time.
This is recorded to the honour of Monk Gregory.
On the seventh morning, the Kaiser
announced his determination to make a last trial.
It was dawn, and a youth stood before
the Kaiser’s tent, praying an audience.
Conducted into the presence of the
Kaiser, the youth, they say, succeeded in arousing
him from his depression, for, brave as he was, Kaiser
Heinrich dreaded the issue. Forthwith order was
given for the cavalcade to set out according to the
rescript, Kaiser Heinrich retaining the youth at his
right hand. But the youth had found occasion
to visit Gottlieb and Margarita, each of whom he furnished
with a flash, [flask?] curiously shaped, and charged
with a distillation.
As the head of the procession reached
the gates of Cologne, symptoms of wavering were manifest.
Kaiser Heinrich commanded an advance, at all cost.
Pfalzgraf Nase, as the old chronicles
call him in their humour, but assuredly a great noble,
led the van, and pushed across the draw-bridge.
Hesitation and signs of horror were
manifest in the assemblage round the Kaiser’s
person. The Kaiser and the youth at his right
hand were cheery. Not a whit drooped they!
Several of the heroic knights begged the Kaiser’s
permission to fall back.
‘Follow Pfalzgraf Nase!’
the Kaiser is reported to have said.
Great was the wonderment of the people
of Cologne to behold Kaiser Heinrich riding in perfect
stateliness up the main street toward the Cathedral,
while right and left of him bishops and electors were
dropping incapable.
The Kaiser advanced till by his side the youth rode
sole.
‘Thy name?’ said the Kaiser.
He answered: ‘A poor youth, unconquerable
Kaiser! Farina I am called.’
‘Thy recompense?’ said the Kaiser.
He answered: ’The hand
of a maiden of Cologne, most gracious Kaiser and master!’
‘She is thine!’ said the Kaiser.
Kaiser Heinrich looked behind him,
and among a host grasping the pommels of their saddles,
and reeling vanquished, were but two erect, a maiden
and an old man.
‘That is she, unconquerable Kaiser!’ Farina
continued, bowing low.
‘It shall be arranged on the spot,’ said
the Kaiser.
A word from Kaiser Heinrich sealed Gottlieb’s
compliance.
Said he: ’Gracious Kaiser
and master! though such a youth could of himself never
have aspired to the possession of a Groschen, yet when
the Kaiser pleads for him, objection is as the rock
of Moses, and streams consent. Truly he has done
Cologne good service, and if Margarita, my daughter,
can be persuaded ’
The Kaiser addressed her with his blazing brows.
Margarita blushed a ready autumn of rosy-ripe acquiescence.
‘A marriage registered yonder!’ said the
Kaiser, pointing upward.
’I am thine, murmured Margarita, as Farina drew
near her.
‘Seal it! seal it!’ quoth
the Kaiser, in hearty good humour; ’take no
consent from man or maid without a seal.’
Farina tossed the contents of a flask
in air, and saluted his beloved on the lips.
This scene took place near the charred
round of earth where the Foulest descended to his
kingdom below.
Men now pervaded Cologne with flasks,
purifying the atmosphere. It became possible
to breathe freely.
‘We Germans,’ said Kaiser
Heinrich, when he was again surrounded by his courtiers,
’may go wrong if we always follow Pfalzgraf Nase;
but this time we have been well led.’ Whereat
there was obsequious laughter.
The Pfalzgraf pleaded a susceptible nostril.
‘Thou art, I fear, but a timid mortal,’
said the Kaiser.
‘Never have I been found so
on the German Field, Imperial Majesty!’ returned
the Pfalzgraf. ’I take glory to myself that
this Nether reek overcomes me.’
‘Even that we must combat, you
see!’ exclaimed Kaiser Heinrich; ’but
come all to a marriage this night, and take brides
as soon as you will, all of you. Increase, and
give us loyal subjects in plenty. I count prosperity
by the number of marriages in my empire!’
The White Rose Club were invited by
Gottlieb to the wedding, and took it in vast wrath
until they saw the Kaiser, and such excellent stout
German fare present, when immediately a battle raged
as to who should do the event most honour, and was
in dispute till dawn: Dietrich Schill being the
man, he having consumed wurst the length of his arm,
and wine sufficient to have floated a St. Goar salmon;
which was long proudly chronicled in his family, and
is now unearthed from among the ancient honourable
records of Cologne.
The Goshawk was Farina’s bridesman,
and a very spiriting bridesman was he! Aunt Lisbeth
sat in a corner, faintly smiling.
‘Child!’ said the little
lady to Margarita when they kissed at parting, ’your
courage amazes me. Do you think? Do you know?
Poor, sweet bird, delivered over hand and foot!’
‘I love him! I love him,
aunty! that’s all I know,’ said Margarita:
‘love, love, love him!’
‘Heaven help you!’ ejaculated Aunt Lisbeth.
‘Pray with me,’ said Margarita.
The two knelt at the foot of the bride-bed,
and prayed very different prayers, but to the same
end. That done, Aunt Lisbeth helped undress the
White Rose, and trembled, and told a sad nuptial anecdote
of the Castle, and put her little shrivelled hand
on Margarita’s heart, and shrieked.
‘Child! it gallops!’ she cried.
‘’Tis happiness,’ said Margarita,
standing in her hair.
‘May it last only!’ exclaimed Aunt Lisbeth.
‘It will, aunty! I am humble:
I am true’; and the fair girl gathered the frill
of her nightgown.
‘Look not in the glass,’
said Lisbeth; ’not to-night! Look, if you
can, to-morrow.’
She smoothed the White Rose in her
bed, tucked her up, and kissed her, leaving her as
a bud that waits for sunshine.