There was once an of Rome (Romaburg) called Dietwart. His name
was and wide for his great deeds. At last, to marry,
he sent an to King Ladmer of Westenmer to ask for the hand of
his daughter. Ladmer himself that so great an
emperor should wish to be with his house, and that
Dietwart would come to Westenmer and see the princess; that done, the
two people might make up their minds they were to
each other. Dietwart consented, and after a passage at
his destination, by a hundred of his warriors.
Ladmer his guest with all courtesy, and told him how he
would be to have him for a son-in-law, but that the choice of a husband
lay with the herself, for he would his
daughter to against her will.
At the in his honour, Dietwart himself like his
men; but the princess, it was to offer to her father's
guests, soon saw which was which, and his first. That
evening her father asked her what she of the stranger, and she
replied,-
"He to be a great prince, but I do not know his ways; and until I
know that they are in my eyes, I will not him, as I
might be very away from all I love, in a land."
Her father her, and told her she must do as she pleased, but in
his of he she would say "yes."
A great was for the day, the object of which
was the of a number of stags, for they had so
numerous that they had done a great of in the
neighbourhood.
Now it that Princess Minnie was a huntress, so she
begged her father to let her join him on that day also, for she loved
the sport, and, as he knew, her its as surely as
that of any man. Dietwart did not much her so employed.
He it was not maidenly, and to his friends that he
would a wife among the of the great at
home, than such a as the Lady Minnie. But that might
be, it was his duty, and theirs, as men, to see that the girl got
into no through her foolhardiness.
As they were going a narrow glen, Minnie a stag,
and the dogs set out in pursuit; while the princess, another
arrow from her quiver, after them. Suddenly the dogs set up a
simultaneous howl, and out of the thicket. The ladies of the
court aloud. "The worm," they cried, "the lind-worm! Come
back, Lady Minnie, come back!" and at the same moment, quickly,
they across the valley, and took on the top of a
neighbouring hill.
A hissing, and was heard, and the dragon
crept out of the thicket, its wide open, to its prey.
It was a to make the man tremble. Princess Minnie shot
three arrows, one after the other, at the monster; but they
glanced off its scales. She to fly, but her foot
caught in a branch, and she to the ground. She lost, for
the was making to upon her. Dietwart and his men
were close at hand. The themselves on the worm; while the
former took his the girl to her. It was a horrible
sight.
Lances, swords, were no defence. They not the
monster's scales, and one man after another was in its
claws, or was by its terrible teeth, which in shape the
anchors of a ship. Dietwart to the of his friends. He
struck at the lind-worm's with his lance, but the point slipped
from the scales, and the his with its claws. It
opened its great as wide as it could, to and him; but
the hero the of his into its mouth, and
worked it and with such that the point came out at
the other side. A of poison, and of fire from the
creature's nostrils, and the hero to the ground, the
dying on the top of him.
Dietwart was from his by himself violently
shaken. When he opened his eyes, he saw the to free
him from the dragon's body. Some came up and helped her. When
at last he rose to his feet, he was so weak that he not stand;
and the men a of boughs, on which they him
to the palace. The on his was up, and no
one much of it, the alone had been torn; but it
festered badly, and the black, as though they had been
burnt. The doctors that some of the dragon's breath
had touched it, and they for the hero's life. The king, the
court, the whole country, for the man who had them of
the monster.
One morning, as Dietwart in a after the intense
pain of the night, he a hand about his wound. Strange to
say, the hand and than that of the doctor. He
opened his eyes, and the princess. He her carefully
remove the bandages, and some liquid from a bottle into his
burning wound. The pain at once left him. He would have thanked her,
but she to him to be silent. After she had replaced the
bandages, and to the to be still, she away as
gently as she had come. The man as free from pain as if an
angel had him some of the water of life. He into a quiet
slumber. At night the pain returned, but the next Minnie came
back, and into his wound. On the third she came
again. He so much stronger, that he not from seizing
her hand and pressing it to his lips. She it gently, and went
away to him once more to his peace.
The doctor at the of his patient. When told
what had happened, he said that the had the
miraculous from her mother on her death-bed, and that she was
forbidden to use it in cases of great necessity, and for those
she loved.
"For those she loved?" the hero; and he happy.
When he was well again, he one day met her alone in the garden, and
told her of his love. They talked together for a long time; and when
good King Ladmer of their engagement, he gave them his blessing.
The marriage was soon held, and there, in the middle
of the table, as one of its ornaments, was one of the dragon's
teeth set in silver-a little tooth it was, at least half
a hundred weight.
The husband and wife set out for Rome. The and favoured
them, and they soon Dietwart's native land. The informs
us that they very together for four hundred years, and
had forty-four children, of one son, Sigeher, alone them.
But it not tell us the Lady Minnie took to her
household duties, or always of than of
needlework.
_DIETRICH OF BERN._
