suits of armour ranged on either side of him. It was his daily custom, by way of company, to have the armour of his ancestors, with closed vizors, placed all round the table at which he sat. The father and son began conversing as follows:

"Where is Rolf?"

"I do not know, father: I lost sight of him in the mountains."

"I will have Rolf shot, if he cannot take better care than that of my only child."

“Then, father, you will have your only child shot at the same time, for without Rolf I cannot live; and if even one single dart is aimed at him, I will be there to receive it, and to shield his true and faithful heart."

"Is it so ?-Then Rolf shall not be shot, but he shall be driven from the castle."

"In that case, father, you will see me go away also; and I will give myself up to serve him in forests, in mountains, in

"Is it so ?-Well, then, Rolf must remain here."

"That is just what I think, father."

"Were you riding quite alone?"

"No, father; but with a strange pilgrim: he said that he knew you very well-perhaps, too well." And thereupon Sintram began to relate and to describe all that had passed with the pale man.

I know him also very well," said Biorn. "He is halfcrazed and half-wise, as we sometimes are astonished at seeing that people can be. But do you, my boy, go to rest after your wild journey. I give you my word that Rolf shall be kindly received if he arrives here; and that if he does not come soon, he shall be sought for in the mountains."

"I trust to your word, father," said Sintram, with a mixture of pride and humility in his tone; and he proceeded to obey the command of the grim lord of the castle.

CHAPTER IV.

It was getting towards evening when Sintram awoke. He saw the good Rolf sitting at his bedside, and looked up in the old man's kind face with a smile of unusual innocent brightness. But soon again his dark brows were knit, and he asked: “How did my father receive you, Rolf? Did he say a harsh word to you ?"

"No, my dear young lord, he did not-indeed, he did not speak to me at all. At first he looked very wrathful; but he controlled himself, and ordered a servant to bring me food and wine to refresh me, and afterwards to take me to your room."

"He might have kept his word better. But he is my father, and I must not judge him too severely. I will now go down to the evening meal." So saying, he sprang up and threw on his furred mantle. But Rolf stopped him, and said in a tone of entreaty: "My dear young master, you would do better to take your meal to-day alone here in your own apartment. For there is a guest with your father, in whose company I should be very sorry to see you. If you will remain here I will entertain you with pleasant tales and songs."

"There is nothing in the world which I should like better, dear Rolf," answered Sintram, "but it does not befit me to shun the company of any man. Tell me, whom should I find

with my father?"

"Alas!" said the old man, "you have already found him in the mountain. Formerly, when I used to ride about the country with Biorn, we often met with him, but I was forbidden to tell you anything about him; and this is the first time that he has ever come to the castle."

"Oh! the crazy pilgrim!" replied Sintram; and he stood some moments buried in thought, and apparently weighing the

whole matter in his mind. At last rousing himself he said: "Dear old friend, I would most willingly stay here with you this evening and listen to your stories and songs, and all the pilgrims in the world should not make me leave this quiet room. But one thing must be considered. I feel a kind of dread of that pale, tall man, and by such fears no true knight's son can ever suffer himself to be overcome. So do not be

angry, dear Rolf, if I determine to go and look that strange Palmer in the face." And he shut the door of the chamber behind him, and with firm and echoing steps proceeded to the hall.

The pilgrim and the knight were sitting opposite to each other at the great table, on which many lights were burning; and it was fearful, amongst all the lifeless armour, to see those two tall grim men move, and eat, and drink. As the pilgrim looked up on the boy's entrance, Biorn said: "You know him already he is my only child, and your fellow-traveller this morning." The Palmer fixed an earnest look on Sintram, and answered, shaking his head: "I do not know what you mean." Then the boy burst forth impatiently: "It must be confessed that you deal very unfairly by us! You say that you know my father but too well, and now it appears that you do not know me at all. Who allowed you to ride on his horse, and in return had his good steed driven almost wild? Answer if you can!"

Biorn put on a somewhat displeased look, but was in truth delighted at any such outbreak of his son's unruly temper; while the pilgrim shuddered as if terrified and overcome by some secret irresistible power. At length with a trembling voice he said these words: "Yes, yes, my dear young lord, you are surely quite right; you are perfectly right in every thing which you may please to assert."

Then the lord of the castle laughed aloud, and said: "Why you strange pilgrim, what is become of all your wonderfully fine speeches and warnings now? Has the boy all at once struck you dumb and powerless? Beware, you prophet messenger, beware!" But the Palmer cast a fearful look on Biorn, which seemed to quench the light of his fiery eyes, and said in

thundering accents: "Between me and thee, old man, the case stands quite otherwise. We have nothing to reproach each other with. And now suffer me to sing a song to you on the lute." He stretched out his hand, and took down from the wall an old worn out lute which was hanging there, and having with surprising skill and rapidity put it in a state fit to be used, he struck some chords, and the low melancholy tones of the instrument seemed well adapted to the words he began to sing : "The flow'ret was mine own, mine own,

But I have lost its fragrance rare.
And knightly name and freedom fair,
Thro' sin, thro' sin alone.

The flow'ret was thine own, thine own,
Why cast away what thou didst win?
Thou knight no more, but slave of sin,
Thou'rt fearfully alone!"

"Have a care!" shouted he at the close in a pealing voice, as he pulled the strings with such tremendous force that they all broke, and a cloud of dust rose from the instrument, which spread round him like a mist. Sintram had been watching him narrowly whilst he was singing, and more and more did he feel convinced that it was impossible that this man and his fellow-traveller of the morning could be one and the same person. Every doubt was removed when the stranger again looked round at him with the same timid, anxious air, and with many excuses and low reverences replaced the lute in its former position, and then ran out of the hall as if bewildered with terror; his manner forming a strange contrast with the proud and stately deportment which he had assumed towards Biorn.

The eyes of the boy were now directed to his father, and he perceived that he had sunk back senseless in his seat, as though he had been struck by a sudden blow. Sintram's cries summoned Rolf and other attendants, but it was only by their united exertions that they succeeded in restoring their lord to animation; his looks were still wild and disordered, but he suffered himself to be taken to rest without making any opposition.

CHAPTER V.

A LONG illness followed this sudden attack, and during the course of it, the stout old knight, in the midst of his delirious ravings, did not cease to affirm confidently that he must and should recover' at last. He would laugh proudly when his fever fits came on, and rebuke them for daring to attack him so needlessly. Then he would murmur to himself: "That was not the right one yet; there must still be another one out in the cold mountains."

At such expressions Sintram involuntarily shuddered; they seemed to confirm his idea that the being who had ridden with him, and he who had sat at table in the castle, were two quite distinct persons: and he knew not why, but this thought was an inexpressibly awful one to him.

Biorn recovered, and appeared to have entirely forgotten his adventure with the Palmer. He hunted in the mountains, he carried on his usual wild warfare with his neighbours, and Sintram became his almost constant companion; whereby each year the youth acquired a fearful increase of strength of body, with an equal fierceness of spirit. Every one trembled at the sight of his sharp pallid features, his dark rolling eyes, his tall, muscular, and somewhat lean form,—and yet no one hated him, not even those whom he distressed or injured to gratify his wildest humours. This might arise in part out of regard to old Rolf, who seldom left him for long, and who always held a softening influence over him; but also many of those who had known the Lady Verena before she retired from the world, affirmed that a faint reflection of the heavenly expression which had lighted up her features, could often be traced in those of her son, however unlike they might be in form,—and that by this their hearts were won.