up the hill with a crutch. “Art thou bringing me my bird, my pearls, my dog?” cried she to him. “See how injustice punishes itself! No one but I was Walther, was Hugo.”
“God of Heaven!” said Eckbert, muttering to himself; “in what frightful solitude have I passed my life?”
“And Bertha was thy sister.”
Eckbert sank to the ground.
“Why did she leave me deceitfully? All would have been fair and well; her time of trial was already finished. She was the daughter of a knight, who had her nursed in a shepherd’s house; the daughter of thy father.”
“Why have I always had a forecast of this dreadful thought?” cried Eckbert.
“Because in early youth thy father told thee: he could not keep this daughter by him for his second wife, her stepmother.”
Eckbert lay distracted and dying on the ground. Faint and bewildered, he heard the old woman speaking, the dog barking, and the bird repeating its song.
1Prefatory Introduction to Tieck, suprà, at p. 330, Vol. VI. of Works (Vol. I. of Miscellanies).
THE TRUSTY ECKART
BRAVE BURGUNDY NO longer
Could fight for fatherland;
The foe they were the stronger,
Upon the bloody sand.
He said: “The foe prevaileth,
My friends and followers fly,
My striving naught availeth,
My spirits sink and die.
No more can I exert me,
Or sword and lance can wield;
O, why did he desert me,
Eckart, our trusty shield!
In fight he used to guide me,
In danger was my stay;
Alas, he’s not beside me,
But stays at home today!
The crowds are gathering faster,
Took captive shall I be?
I may not run like dastard,
I’ll die like soldier free.”
Thus Burgundy so bitter,
Has at his breast his sword;
When, see, breaks-in the Ritter
Eckart, to save his lord!
With cap and armour glancing,
Bold on the foe he rides,
His troop behind him prancing,
And his two sons besides.
Burgundy sees their token,
And cries: “Now, God be praised!
Not yet we’re beat or broken,
Since Eckart’s flag is raised.”
Then like a true knight, Eckart
Dash’d gaily through the foe:
But with his red blood flecker’d,
His little son lay low.
And when the fight was ended,
Then Burgundy he speaks:
“Thou hast me well befriended,
Yet so as wets my cheeks.
The foe is smote and flying;
Thou’st saved my land and life;
But here thy boy is lying,
Returns not from the strife.”
Then Eckart wept almost,
The tear stood in his eye;
He clasp’d the son he’d lost,
Close to his breast the boy.
“Why diedst thou, Heinz, so early,
And scarce wast yet a man?
Thou’rt fallen in battle fairly;
For thee I’ll not complain.
Thee, Prince, we have deliver’d;
From danger thou art free:
The boy and I are sever’d;
I give my son to thee.”
Then Burgundy our chief,
His eyes grew moist and dim;
He felt such joy and grief,
So great that love to him.
His heart was melting, flaming,
He fell on Eckart’s breast,
With sobbing voice exclaiming:
“Eckart, my champion best,
Thou stoodst when every other
Had fled from me away;
Therefore thou art my brother
Forever from this day.
The people shall regard thee
As wert thou of my line;
And could I more reward thee,
How gladly were it thine!”
And when we heard the same,
We joy’d as did our prince;
And Trusty Eckart is the name
We’ve call’d him ever since.
The voice of an old peasant sounded over the rocks, as he sang this ballad; and the Trusty Eckart sat in his grief, on the declivity of the hill, and wept aloud. His youngest boy was standing by him: “Why weepest thou aloud, my father Eckart?” said he: “Art thou not great and strong, taller and braver than any other man? Whom, then, art thou afraid
