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Irmgard seated herself obediently; the man stood before her, and began: "Hear from me what happened after the battle of the Allemanns:

"The stars were shining; I lay deadly weary on the gravely bank of the stream, the red banner of the Romans wound round my feeble arm. The night wind groaned the death lament, the waves roared, my body was cold, and my brain dizzy. Then a sorrowful face bent over me; it was the fortune-teller of the Allemanns, a wise woman, the confidant of the gods. 'I seek thee, Ingo, among the bodies of men, that I may preserve thy life, as thou hast done mine.' She conveyed me away from the bank, spread a warm covering over my limbs, and offered me a strengthening drink; after that she tore the long spear from the foreign banner, and with prayers threw the broken stick back into the stream. She concealed the weary man in the thicket of the forest, and sat by his bed like a mother night and day.

"On my departure she seized the purple token, and said: 'Here I show thee the threads which govern thy fate; the gods leave the choice to the Hero. If thou throw from thee the spell spun by the Romans, thou mayest grow old in peaceful quiet, concealed among the people, patient in life, and free from fate. Yet if thou keep the purple figure with malicious eyes and fiery tongue, then, though the minstrel may sing thy praise among the warriors, and thy memory may live long among others, I fear that the dragon will consume thy fortune and body. Choose now, Ingo; for the gods grant to man his fate according to his own thoughts, and from his own deeds his lot falls --- the heavy and the light; as he throws, so will be his fate.'

"Then I said, 'Long ago, dear mother, did the gods and the deeds of my ancestors cast for me my earthly lot. From the gods I came upon man's earth; inglorious repose on soft furs I may not choose; thou knowest it thyself: to tread with my comrades in the front of battle, to lead up the men of the earth to the cloud-hall of heroes --- that is my duty. If I am a stranger among foreign races, yet I fear not the directing finger of the Fates; with a firm heart will I tread among the heroes, I will joyfully trust to my man's courage. If the dragon bring me hatred, renown will procure me friends; never will I conceal my head from the light of the sun.'

"Then the mother took the purple in her hand; she divided the heads of the dragon from the spiral body; the heads she kept, the body she threw into the flames of the hearth. 'Perhaps I may thus redeem thy days from the threatening evil,' she said, standing by the hearth. The flames rose up high; discolored exhalations filled the room. She rushed out, and dragged me into the open air. Then she bound the heads with flexible willow, tied the knots, whispered a song, and offered me the bundle in a leathern pocket, that I might keep it secret from every one. 'It will protect from water, but not from fire; thy life I commend to the keeping of the gods.' Then she directed me northward, with a blessing on my journey.

"This, noble lady, is the secret of my life, which I tell you willingly. What the gods may ordain for me, I know not, but I have confided to thee what none other knows. For since I came into this land, and have beheld thee, my mind is altered, and it appears to me better to sit near thee, or to ride on horseback over the plain, than to go with the vulture to the tumult of battle. My thoughts are much changed, and my spirit is greatly depressed, because I am an unsettled man, who formerly cared little for his fate, and trusted in his arm and in a propitious God, who might, perhaps, some day recall the banished man to his old home. But now I see that I am driven about like this pine branch, with its clod in the running stream."

He pointed to a young pine tree, which was torn away with its moss and earth from the place where it stood by the mountain stream, and was driven erect through the whirling water. "The clod will become smaller," said Ingo, seriously; "the earth breaks away, and at last it disappears among the stones." Irmgard rose, and followed with eager look the path of the wild plant; it went down the valley, twisted itself in the eddy, and hastened forward, till what with mist and flood it became almost invisible.

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