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"Thou speakest as befits thee," said the Queen, kindly, "and the King knows well thy value. Take for thy news, even though it should be unpleasant, the reward of a king's messenger." She made a sign to her serving-maid, who pushed the heavy chest in front of her feet; she put her hand in, and without making a choice, offered to the minstrel a gold drinking-vessel. The minstrel looked at her startled, but seeing the Queen knit her brows angrily, he took the cup which she reached him, and bowed low upon her hand.

"If thy rapid foot can tarry with us yet a while, do thou teach my maidens the new dance melody, which thou broughtest the last time to our hall. And afterward come where thou wilt be near me."

She gave him a gracious sign to depart. The King looked after him with a dissatisfied air.

"Thou art liberal with the gold out of thy chest," he said, sulkily.

"The King makes a good bargain when he can by gold repair the injustice that he has done to an inferior. It is little to the honor of my lord to betray his anxieties to the traveling man who sings from hall to hall for pay. Thou hast only the choice of closing the mouth of the man by a cup, or forever by a stroke of the sword; therefore I gave him the cup to propitiate him, that he might be silent; for he is a far-famed man, and it would be dangerous to kill the witness of thy fear."

The King continued dejectedly, terrified, as often happened to him, by the proud spirit of the Queen, "What dost thou advise with respect to the stranger, whom the forest people have received as a friendly guest as a defiance to me? Shall I offer him also gold, or iron?"

"Thy favor, King Bisino; for Ingo, the son of Ingbert, is an illustrious man."

"Is it to my advantage that he can make the king's leap?" asked the King again.

Gisela looked at him, and remained silent. "Confidence alone binds a noble mind," she replied at last, and stood before the King. "If my lord would avoid danger, let him invite the stranger himself to his court, and show him the honor due to him. The King's son may be dangerous, perhaps, among the peasants of the forest, but not in thy castle, and in the midst of thy army; here, as thy friendly guest, his oath and thy power will bind him."

The King reflected.

"Thou advisest well, Gisela, and thou knowest I respect thy words. I will await what the future brings." He rose; the Queen made a sign to the maiden to leave her.

When she was alone, she paced up and down the room with rapid steps. "I am called Gisela; I am fettered in a foreign land to the joyless bed of a low-minded man. For years has the daughter of the King of Burgundy sat in misery on the throne, and her thoughts return to the land of her own people, and to the time of her childhood. There I saw him whom once my father destined for my husband, when I was a child and he was a boy. Ingo, the banished man, hard was thy traveling fare, and bitter thy drink in thy banishment, but bitterer yet is my grief in the King's castle! Whenever a wandering warrior came from foreign lands, I inquired after thy lot. Now thy steps approach the path along which I tread, be thou welcome to me, whether for weal or woe; for I am weary of my solitude."

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