The city lay
glittering before them, and the evening sun that gilded her towers,
lent its grateful warmth to dry their soaked garments.
X.--OF THEIR WAY OF LIFE IN THE TOWN
The sudden disappearance of the young Knight Huldbrand of Ringstetten
had made a great stir in the city, and distressed the inhabitants,
with whom his gallantry in the lists and the dance, and his gentle,
courteous manners, had made him very popular. His retainers would not
leave the place without their master, but yet none had the courage to
seek him in the haunted forest. They therefore remained in their
hostelry, idly hoping, as men are so apt to do, and keeping alive the
remembrance of their lost lord by lamentations. But soon after, when
the tempest raged and the rivers overflowed, few doubted that the
handsome stranger must have perished. Bertalda, among others, mourned
him for lost, and was ready to curse herself, for having urged him to
the fatal ride through the forest. Her ducal foster parents had
arrived to take her away, but she prevailed upon them to wait a
little, in hope that a true report of Huldbrand's death or safety
might reach them. She tried to persuade some of the young knights who
contended for her favour, to venture into the forest and seek for the
noble adventurer. But she would not offer her hand as the reward,
because she still hoped to bestow it some day on the wanderer himself;
and to obtain a glove, a scarf, or some such token from her, none of
them cared to expose his life to bring back so dangerous a rival.
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