THE STORY OF KOLAND AND HILDEGtUND.

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magne had recalled him to France to take part in tlie warsagainst the Saracens, wlio were then ravaging the north ofSpain ?

Did the lovers part there by the dingle of Wolkenburgthat we can see now, like a red cloud, peeping from behind theedge of the Dragon's Rock ? and was yon the place wherethe maiden, sad with her presentiments, let fall the tear-dropswhich, the legend teils us, rusted ever after the scabbard ofthe sword she then gave back to Roland ?

We can almost fancy we see now the form of the anxiousHildegund amid the misty peaks of the Drachenfels, watching,as we are told she did, day by day, when months had flownby, for Roland's promised return; or Standing there on thesummit of the higher Lohrberg—which we cau just catchsight of, beautifully veiled with air, between the openings ofthe nearer mountains — so that she might see farther into thedistance; at one time gazing anxiously towards Cologne, atanother looking, under her fair palm, along the plains to-wards the Castle of Godesberg, and then up the river towardsOber-winter,—that little village yonder, with the white cot-tages, like a flock of lambs, crouching under the mountains, atthe vcry end, as it were, of the Rhino itself.

But Hildegund, the story runs, watched and watched invain; for though each day she saw her Roland Coming, andfancied that every distant horseman was he, the loved onenever returned to her again. For soon a rumour spreadamong the bourgraves round about that the brave Count ofAngers had fallen beneath the infidels' swords. The sadtidings passed along the Rhine-shore from stronghold tostronghold (for tlie fame of the knight was known to all), tili,at length, the fatal news came to the Castle of Drachenfelsitself, that the " flower of chivalry" had perished in battleagainst the Saracens.

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