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The Queen fixed her eyes upon him, and went some steps nearer. " 'Tis not for the first time that I see thee, Berthar; since then the white hairs have come upon thy head, but I know thee again."

"Uncertain is the memory of the old: I have seen many people since my lord has wandered homeless. The sparks flew into mine eyes when my house in my native land was burned, so that I do not recognize the beautiful face before me."

"Thou hast reason to be angry, old man, with my family. The father of thy King and mine once formed an alliance, but my brother Gundomar forgot his old oath; he fought as an ally of your enemies on the Oder, and I, while still a child, was sent to be wife to the King of Thuringia. Dost thou know me now, Berthar?"

"The twig grows to be a proud tree; other birds sing now in its foliage than did in former times."

"Yet the tree bears every year the same blossoms; and the old battle-hero finds a friend in the Queen. Art thou contented with thy dwelling in the castle? and have the King's boys offered thee a courteous greeting?"

"At court the servants greet like their master; thy favor, oh Queen, is surety for the good-will of thy people."

The countenance of the Queen became clouded. "That is the speech of a proud guest," she continued, with a constrained smile; "I think thy life was more merry in the forest huts."

"We are wanderers, lady. A flexible mind helps him who wanders homeless among the people; a house and wife are denied him, and he takes what the day offers him --- booty, drink, and women; he has no choice, and no griefs; and without anxiety he thinks in the evening of the work of the following day."

The old man saw the Queen again smiled. She approached nearer to him, and said, "There in the tower is the Queen's chamber; if thou shouldst ever look up at that window, from thy spear, a light will perhaps burn there which will warn thee beforehand of the wolf-hunt." She nodded to him, and turned to her followers; but the old man looked at her with astonishment; then seizing his hammer, recommenced pounding.

On the following night no arrow and no barking of the King's wolves disturbed the sleep of the foreign guests. Every day the King became more friendly to them, and extolled before his men their court manners and their art of managing their horses in the martial exercises. Hermin, the King's little son, came often to the dwelling of his cousin Ingo, practised before him with his toy weapons, stroked the gray beard of the Hero Berthar, and begged for a merry tale. One hunting morning Ingo became still more agreeable to his host than he had been before. The King, in his excitement, had ridden far before the others, and had fallen from his horse on a steep mountain slope; from thence he slid down on to the ice, and lay for a moment defenseless before the horns of a wild ox. Then Ingo, at the risk of his own life, sprang over the body of the King, and killed the raging beast. The King rose, and said, all limping from his fall, "Now that we are alone, and none of my men near, I perceive thy good disposition; for if thou hadst not sprung like a hound, the furious beast would have hurled himself on me, to the damage of my ribs, and no one could have reproached thee. What I know, no one else need know."

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