BALLADS AND METRICAL TALES. RUDIGER. Divers princes and noblemen being assembled in a beautiful and fair palace, which was situate upon the river Rhine, they beheld a boat or small barge make toward the shore, drawn by a swan in a silver chain, the one end fastened about her neck, the other to the vessel; and in it an unknown soldier, a man of a comely personage and graceful presence, who stept upon the shore; which done, the boat guided by the swan left him, and floated down the river. This man fell afterward in league with a fair gentlewoman, married her, and by her had many children. After some years, the same swan came with the same barge unto the same place; the soldier entering into it, was carried thence the way he came, left wife, children, and family, and was never seen amongst them after. Now who can judge this to be other than one of those spirits that are named incubi? says Thomas Heywood. I have adopted this story, but not his solution, making the unknown soldier not an evil spirit, but one who had purchased happiness of a malevolent being, by the promised sacrifice of his firstborn child. BRIGHT on the mountain's heathy slope And rich with many a radiant hue, And many a one from Waldhurst's walls As ruffling o'er the pleasant stream B So as they strayed a swan they saw And by a silver chain she drew Whose streamer to the gentle breeze, Long floating, fluttered light, Beneath whose crimson canopy There lay reclined a knight. With arching crest and swelling breast And onward to the shore they drew, Was never a knight in Waldhurst's walls Was never youth at aught esteemed Was never a maid in Waldhurst's walls Her cheek was fair, her eyes were dark, And many a rich and noble youth Had strove to win the fair, At every tilt and tourney he Still bore away the prize, For knightly feats superior still |