Illustrated Article. OLD STORIES OF THE RHINE THE VEIL AND THE DIADEM. By Roger Calverley. FOR THE OLIO. No! thou proud dream, That play'st so subtly with a king's repose, I am a king that find thee, and I know 'Tis not the balm, the sceptre and the ball, The sword, the mace, the crown imperial, The intertissued robe of gold and pearl, The farced title running 'fore the king, The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp That beats upon the high shore of this world, No! not all these (thrice gorgeous ceremony)Not all these, laid in bed majestical, Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave! SHAKSPEARE. On the extinction of the Carlovingian dynasty, Germany was for some time in the most deplorable state of anarchy. The whole country was distributed into independent sovereignties and factions, and, on every opportunity of aggression, such as the death of a prince or baron, the invasion of his territory VOL. IX. 1570397 of 1 See page 355 by another potentate, the internal disorganisation of his dominions, or (above all) the vacancy of the imperial throne, the Germanic Magnates were always ready to afford a practical illustration of Rob Roy's good old rule That they should take who have the power, It was near the close of the thirteenth century, that the Emperor Adolf of Nassau was engaged in a war with Philip the Fair of France; it having been long the policy of that crafty and cruel monarch to foment dissentions in the empire, with a view to his individal aggrandisement. Adolf had entered Alsace, at the head of a division of his troops, for the purpose of attacking the Bishop of Strasburgh, who adhered to the French interests. It happened that he was severely wounded in a skirmish, near the village of Schwarzach, distinguished, even to the present day, by the magnificent edifice of its ancient Benedictine Abbey. Found by some of the sisterhood, on the field, he was carried insensible into the convent, where the compas 245 sionate nuns left no means untried for his recovery. The manly beauty of his person, and the mild and melodious tones of his voice, when he became able to thank his kind leeches for their cares, quite won the hearts of the simple nuns. None of them, however, for a moment, imagined the illustrious rank of the handsome patient; and many a white hand, that now so skilfully removed and replaced the dressings from his wounded bosom, would have trembled at the thought that it was the Emperor it was seeking to heal;-many a gentle eye, that mingled pity for the ghastly wound with admiration of the white skin that it disfigured, would have been downcast in submissive awe ;-many a hooded cheek, that lost its conventual paleness in the blush which the wounded monarch's ardent gratitude awakened, would have grown thrice pale, to have known that the Sovereign of the Holy Roman Empire-the Germanic Cæsar himself was receiving his life again from a lowly Benedictine sisterhood. Meanwhile, Adolf himself was in a very perplexing situation: his wound, though at first highly alarming, had yielded to the pharmacy of the amiable Benedictines;-but, among those Benedictines, there was one, who, from the moment the Emperor had begun to recover his senses, had gone far towards depriving him of them again, and who, while closing the gash in his anointed body, had effected a monstrous breach in his heart. Amidst the many fair faces that gleamed, like stars, successively, or in constellations, through the curtains of his sick couch, there was one the Diana of the rest. Such a majestic stature !-such an imperial gait,-eyes! whose lustre lightened along her clear olive cheek, like watchfires to the shipwrecked, and full coral lips that seemed loath to leave off kissing each other, even when the voice, a note of music, gushed through them, redolent of kindness and encouragement. Sister Imagine was of a noble family, whose chateau elevates its white towers over the wildly-forested mountains of the Vosges,-a great chain extending, nearly parallel to the course of the Rhine, from Bale to Spires. She had been a professed nun about two years; and though Warm with youth she bade the world farewell. She had never yet experienced the passion of love. Now, we would appeal to any man who happens to be about his Imperial Majesty's age and our own-namely, thirty, who finds himself gradually emerging from the cavern of death, in which he had reason to suppose himself shut up for ever, and who, with reviving consciousness and strength, perceives that he is led thence by an escort of fair gentle girls, and, amongst them, a stoled queen, as pre-eminent in her beauty, as she is distinguished by her unwearied watch over his recovery,-what could the Emperor do? What he did tradition hath ascertained:-he had been nearly a month confined to his monastic sick room, and, his wound rapidly healing, the return of health brought with it its usual concomitants; the lusty blood bounded merrily from the heart to the wrist; and, when the taper fingers of Imagine pressed that broad wrist, to ascertain the patient's pulse, it could not stop the tide from tingling to the very ends of a large white hand, that suddenly closed upon the little ivory palm, and as suddenly transported it to a pair of moustached lips, stopping thereby a murmured jargon of admiration and delight. Now, Sister Imagine was certainly rather astounded at this proceeding par voie de fait; but, it seemed such a very natural ebullition of gratitude, that she knew not how exactly to reprove, so she e'en said nothing; but, doubtless, the kindling of her large black eye, and the flushing of her majestic brow, answered the same purpose that the levin flash of artillery and the enfurled blazon of the banner does on an assaulted fortress, shewing that it is prepared to defend and repulse. When, however, a few days afterwards, those imperial moustaches, grown saucy with success, dared to invade the very lips that had breathed a vestal's vow, Imagine, though no prude, thought it high time to keep her distance ;-she neither exclaimed nor scolded; but, giving him a glance that might have melted every jewel in the Cæsarean diadem, she quietly but statelily marched out of the room. Adolf was in despair; his own imperial soul recognised the glow of kindred majesty in that offended eye, and he felt as if he had insulted the sanctity of an archangel. Oh! how impatiently did he endure the presence of the other nuns, as they came in turn to take their watch in his chamber. How ardently did he expect the reappearance of Imagine, that he might express the lowliest contrition for his offence, and atone for it by the most delicate and respectful conduct. The hour had long past, and three nuns had successively taken their place as his nurses, ere Adolf trusted his lips with the question, "why Sister Imagine came not?" It was the out-cast idolator seeking after the desecrated shrine of his deity! "Sister Imagine was indisposed!" The reply brought the heart of Adolf to his throat; his lips became parched, his tongue clove to the roof of his mouth; if it had been to save his life he could not have uttered another word. His thoughts, however, forth with commenced a stormy parley, the result of which was a determination to reveal at the first opportunity his actual rank to Imagine, which he fondly trusted would diminish the heinousness of the liberty he had taken, even if it did not tempt her to listen to his love. He was spared the trouble. Three days had now passed without his seeing any thing of his idolized nun. The young Emperor's disposi tion seemed utterly changed; he became absent, moody, and even stern to his kind Benedictine nurses. He could hardly bring himself to speak a civil word to them; in short, there was no bearing his ill-temper; and the sisterhood had already resolved on hinting to him the propriety of his changing his quarters with his manners, when an unexpected incident anticipated their purpose, and filled the noble Abbey of Schwarzach with astonishment and dismay. On the third night after Imagine's disappearance from his chamber, Adolf was tossing on his bed, a mental malady having succeeded to the bodily anguish which the Benedictines had so skilfully healed. It was about ten o'clock; the nightly watches in the Emperor's chamber had been discontinued, on the score of his amended health, and he was left with no other company, save the gorgeous dames and barons bold impictured on the tapestry hangings, and which glared in the lamp light till they produced a disgust, which would have little gratified the original embroiderer of that parti-coloured web. His eye, wakeful and weariful, was counting the innumerable little fanns which the embroiderer had crowded into the arras on every sharp spire and round turret of a pillared building full of doors and windows, which the worsted legend declared to be "DER EHRENSTHURM," or the Tower of Honour, when suddenly he heard his chamber door softly open, and (sight of rapture!) the well known majesty of Imagine's figure, carrying a lighted cresset, but covered from head to foot with the black veil of her order, disclosed itself to the eyes of the delighted Emperor. Adolf had not thrown off his clothes, but without thinking of repose, had flung himself on the settee, from which at this unexpected vision he sprang with rapture. "Fair and noble lady!" he exclaimed, throwing himself on his knees before Imagine, "I am now a bankrupt indeed; since, how can my gratitude repay that vigilant kindness which has not suffered itself to be repulsed even by presumption and rudeness." "Most dread Sire!" the nun began. Adolf started from his kneeling posture. "You know me then?" he exclaimed, and as he spoke, a beautiful wolfhound, snowy white, and of prodigious size, bounded into the apartment, and leaping upon the Emperor, testified his delight by the most extravagant caresses; but still with that extraordinary exertion of instinct which one sees in those animals, his caresses were accompanied by low whimpers, as if he felt the necessity of repressing the bark of transport. "Ha, Wolfric! hast thou discovered thy master? Nay, then, concealment were hopeless;-down, my poor knave, and on thy life be silent." "My Liege, the most precious life in Germany depends upon his silence. The imperial eagle," continued the nun, pointing to the hounds silver collar, embossed with the cognizance of the German Cæsars, has, a second time, found the recreant, and betrayed its liege Lord. The dog, thus decora ted, has for two days been inseparable from the great abbey gate; he has been identified with your majesty, from these circumstances, by those whom (if his handmaiden may speak,) the imprudence of Adolf hath made hostile to the Emperor !" "Ha! then those tiresome women, to whom I suppose I spoke not sufficiently in the strain of a wounded cavalier to tickle their saintly vanity—" "Nay, Lord Emperor, scoff not at those but for whom thou mightest have perished." "And nay, my Lady Nun, or rather my tutelary angel! chide not at him, whom thy charms made discourteous!" "At least, Sire, you should have veiled your feelings." "Lady, I was looking for the violet; what marvel that I chafed at seeing nothing but primroses !” "Oh! break we off this idle talk; the moments are diamonds that we are wasting. My Liege, you are in the most imminent danger!" "Danger hath done its worst," interrupted the impassioned Monarch. "I was defenceless when the danger came; Imagine, my bosom was bleeding and bare, yet the danger spared me not! it glided into my veins, and it has stormed the citadel of my heart! But oh! Imagine, it wore no veil till its conquest was complete!" "Oh hear me, gracious Sire! the Abbess hath dispatched missives to the Bishop of Strasburgh, apprising him of her suspicions that his deadly enemy is a wounded inmate of her Abbey." "And the generous, the devoted Imagine, comes to tell her Adolf to fly like a felon to save his life-that life which was never dear till he saw her " The young Monarch's cheek was flushed, his tones inexpressibly mournful and tender, and his majestic eyelight beamed with irresistible softness as he spoke. "I come," hesitated Imagine, "I come, my Liege-I-1," and here she stopped, and Adolf felt her hand tremble violently in his. The Emperor saw his triumph and pursued it. "Beautiful Lady! counsel me not to fly! it is in vain! let them take my life, let them usurp my crown! I will fight for them no longer,-unless," he added, in a low faltering stone, "unless my lovely Benedictine add a jewel to them worth fighting for." Imagine remained silent a moment, and then faintly uttered, Oh, Emperor! what have you said?" "Imagine! what I will never recal! Do you hate me, Imagine?" The Benedictine answered not. "Imagine, you love me! and now that envious veil has for once been useful, in hiding those innocent blushes,Imagine, discard it for ever!-start not, deliberate not! The Holy Faher esteems me dear; he shall unbind thine unnatural vows. The Church shall resign its votary to Cæsar's nuptial bed; thou shalt be an Empress, Imagine, and yet, no where in all the realms of the Danube and the Rhine, so absolute as in Adolf's heart!" A faint sob, accompanied by a gush of tears, was perceptible under the veil, another moment, and that veil was thrown aside, and Imagine's cheek lay tearful and glowing on the breast of Adolf. The lovely Benedictine was the first to break the silent transport that ensued. "We must delay no longer!-even while we linger, the Bishop's forces may be thundering at the Abbey gates. There is a postern rarely used, and almost hidden under the old linden trees at the bottom of the convent garden; it opens into the forest, where there is a footpath little known, leading down to the Rhine, whose banks we may reach in half an hour. Speed, speed, my Sovereign! and, in after days, when Imagine's tears flow for her fault, never make her repent that she robbed Heaven for you." The lovers fled, and reached in safety the Germanic territory. A dispensation was, with some difficulty, procured from Pope Boniface the Eighth; and the imperial bridal was celebrated at the princely castle of Adolfseck, built expressly for the bride, amidst the most beautiful and romantic scenery of the Rhine. Here the generous-hearted Adolf forgot for a space, in the arms of Imagine, the cares and the vicissitudes which had accompanied him through life. But alas! brief was the interval of repose; nor was it merely the cares of royalty and the concerns of vast empire that disturbed the imperial consorts in their bridal paradise. at At Albert of Austria, surnamed 'The Triumphant,' had long ambitioned the German throne, and he was powerfully assisted in his designs by the Elector Archbishop of Mayence, a nobleman of the seignorial house of Eppenstein, nearly related to Adolf of Nassau, but, at the same time, his mortal enemy. It was during that magnificent ceremonial, the coronation of Wenceslaus, Prague, that a confederacy was formed for the deposition of Adolf, which was afterwards matured at Vienna. length the Diet, summoned at Mayence (at which the Electors of Mayence, Saxony, and Brandenburg, and the Ambassadors of Bohemia and Cologne, were present), drew up a long list of grievances against the Emperor Adolf, among which his sacrilegious abduction of a nun from her convent, and her subsequent elevation to the imperial purple, formed a conspicuous charge. He was cited to answer these accusations before the august tribunal of the empire; but, secure in his resources, Adolf continued to indulge in his passion for his newly-crowned Empress, in the peaceful seclusion of Adolfseck; and, peremptorily refusing to obey the mandate, was formally deposed, and Albert of Austria raised to the Imperial throne. Not even the charms of his fascinating Empress, and the stately tranquillity of his Rhenish castle could render Adolf insensible to this astounding blow. He started like a war-horse from his ignoble repose, and set on foot the most prompt and vigorous measures for the defence of his crown. He had powerful auxiliaries in Rhodolph the Elector Palatine, the Duke of Lower Bavaria, and the Elector of Cologne, whom he had succeeded in detaching from the formidable confederacy against him; besides many princes and states of the empire. Thus supported, Adolf was not slow in marching to encounter his Austrian rival, at the head of a vast army; and Imagine, the faithful Imagine, after bidding him farewell, followed him in male attire. It was on the eve of the decisive engagement of Gelheim, that Adolf recognised the Empress in her disguise; and it required all his authority as well as persuasion, to induce her to resume the female habit, and to await in the cloisters of Rosenthal, near Worms, the event of the battle. In the great church of the monastery, on her knees, at the foot of the high altar, dissolved in tears, and pouring forth the most agonised orisons for the success and safety of her lord, the lovely Empress remained the whole day. The sun had now poured his evening glories through the great painted windows of the church; the rainbows of the coloured lattices had ceased to stain the pavement with their magic tints; deeper and darker shadows every moment stole along the dusky aisles, veiled every standard and escutcheon, and hovered over each ancestral sepulchre; yet no tidings of the Emperor or of the fight! Complete darkness at length sank down upon the solemn pile; still the ardently breathed murmurs of Imagine's prayers might be heard interrupted only by occasional sobs of agony, that soon died amidst the dreary echoes of the church;--at last the tranquil moon poured her pallid illumination upon the gloom, and once more the monarchs, the confessors, the martyrs, and the monks, emblazoned upon the storied panes, gleamed (but like ghosts of themselves) with wan and livid lustre in their wide gothic arches. At this moment the white wolfhound, which always followed the Emperor, and had not quitted him even in the fury of the combat, bounded into the choir. Imagine's heart throbbed tumultuously at his appearance. "It is the herald of Adolf!" she ex claimed-" He comes triumphant!Adolf! Adolf! tarry not! Thou art mocking thy Imagine!" Here the huge animal approached her with a low whimpering howl, and going back two or three steps every now and then, seemed anxious to draw the attention of the Empress towards the door. But Imagine was lost in her ecstatic hopes. "Hark" she exclaimed, "tis his shout of victory! Towered Abbey, why does thy belfry delay to shake its jangled thunder over the provinces in reply? Why do not the festal fires ruddy these high windows, instead of that pale, sickly, moonlight? Or rather, why doth the Empress tarry to welcome the triumph of her lord? Peace, Wolfric! I will not heed thee; he must, he shall be, he is, victorious! Austria is humbled!-the Anti-Cæsar is trampled into dust!" A tread of many steps was now heard without the choir. Imagine hurried down the steps of the high altar, and Wolfric rushed towards the archway with loud and piteons bark. A mingled group of soldiers and monks entered the church; Imagine tottered up to them, - a red mass of torchlight formed a canopy over their sombre figures, disclosed the white and scarlet plumes of the Austrian uniform, and, in the midst of them, shed down a livid glow upon the blood-stained corpse of the Emperor! The Anti-Cæsar had encountered him in the battle, and slain him with his own hand. This took place in the year 1298. Albert, The Triumphant, was elected Emperor of Germany; and, ten years afterward, met with a more deplorable end than his rival, being assassinated in the neighbourhood of Brugh by his nephew, John, Duke of Suabia, and four young barons,-Walter de Eschenbach, Rhodolf de Balm, Conrad de Tagersfeld, and Rhodolf de Wart, as he was setting out on his expedition against the revolted Swiss Cantons. The miserable Empress refused all nourishment from the day of Adolf's death; his dead body was interred in the Abbey of Rosenthal, and, on his tomb, was the beautiful Imagine found, extended lifeless and cold. Traveller! when thou visitest the romantic castles rock-throned upon the Rhine, pause at the grey portal of Adolfseck,-think of its ill-starred lovers, and bless Heaven thou art not a king. |