I  feel,  I  know  not  why,  such  fear !  —
Would  mother  came !  —  where  can  she  bide?
My  body  's  chill  and  shuddering,  —
I  'm  but  a  silly,  fearsome  thing !

(She  begins  to  sing,  while  undressing.)

There  was  a  King  in  Thule,"
Was  faithful  till  the  grave,  —
To  whom  his  mistress,  dying,
A  golden  goblet  gave.
Naught  was  to  him  more  precious ;
He  drained  it  at  every  bout :
His  eyes  with  tears  ran  over,
As  oft  as  he  drank  thereout.
SCENE   VIII.  121

When  came  his  time  of  dying,
The  towns  in,  his  land  he  told,
Naught  else  to  his  heir  denying
Except  the  goblet  of  gold.
He  sat  at  the  royal  banquet
With  his  knights  of  high  degree,
In  tlie  lofty  hall  of  his  fathers
In  the  Castle  by  the  Sea.
There  stood  the.  oldcarouser.
And  drank  the  last  life-glow ;
And  hurled  the  hallowed  goblet
Into  the  tide  below.
He  saw  it  plunging  and  filling.
And  sinking  deep  in  the  sea :_
Then  fell  his  eyehds  forever.
And  never  more  drank  he  !

[She  of  ens  the  press  in  order  to  arrange  her  clothes,  and  per-
ceives the  casket  of  jewels. )

How  comes  that  lovely  casket  here  to  me  ?

I  locked  the  press,  most  certainly.
'T  is  truly  wonderful !     What  can  within  it  be  ?

Perhaps  't  was  brought  by  some  one  as  a  pawn,

And  mother  gave  a  loan  thereon  ?_

And  here  there  hangs  a  key  to  fit:

I  have  a  mind  to  open  it.
