resigned to his fate, though for some time after he was as much affected as if a good bargain for malt had been broken off. Yet he had no reason to despair; his native place abounded in amiable girls, many of whom exemplified King Solomon’s description, being well qualified to make unexceptionable wives. So, spite of this disappointment, he still relied firmly on the assistance of his patron saint, who requited his faith so well, that ere the end of the month he had placed his promised gift with much ceremony on St. Christopher’s altar.
But as to poor lady Brigitta she was once more compelled to restore her spinning-wheel to its place, and proceed with business. Affairs flowed back into their old channel; Mela recovered her cheerfulness, and her bloom;—she set to work with alacrity, and never omitted going to church. Her mother, however, could not disguise her grief at the failure of all her plans, her fond and favourite hope;—and she grew peevish and melancholy. But on the day appointed for the marriage of the King of Hops, she became quite unwell, and suffered extreme pain and uneasiness. Her sighs and groans, as she beheld the procession, attended by all the trumpeters, and fiddlers, and pipers in the city, proceeding towards church, were truly pitiable. They were the same she had uttered when she first heard tidings that her husband and all his fortune had
