the Earth, to prove by unasked-for services his devotedness to her person; and on public festivities and state processions he made his sword glitter before her eyes, as if he wished to keep its services in her remembrance.
Libussa, however, seemed, according to the general custom of the world, to have soon forgotten the promoters of her fortune; for when an obelisk is once raised, nobody pays any attention to the lever and other instruments which have served in erecting it; at least, it was thus that the competitors for the hand of the young lady explained her indifference. Both were, however, mistaken in their opinions. The noble princess was neither unfeeling nor ungrateful; but her heart was no more in her keeping, and she could not therefore dispose of it. Love had already pronounced its verdict in favour of the slender hunter. The first impression which he had made upon her heart was so strong, that no other could efface it. It was therefore less astonishing that she could resist the entreaties of the flower of the Bohemian knighthood, than it was on the part of Penelope, the beautiful Queen of Ithaca, to have resisted a countless number of wooers, having only the grey-bearded Ulysses in perspective. Rank and birth, however,
