But when he heard Cordelia's death-who died indeed for love Of her dear father, in whose cause she did this battle move He swooning fell upon her breast, from whence he never parted, But on her bosom left his life, that was so truly hearted. THE ICE-MAIDEN. I. SPRING had unfolded her fresh green garlands of walnut and chestnut trees, which were bursting into bloom, particularly in the country that extends from the bridge at St. Maurice to the Lake of Geneva and the banks of the Rhone, which with wild speed rushes from its sources under the green glaciers—the Ice-palace where the Ice-maiden dwells-whence on the keen wind she permits herself to be borne up to the highest fields of snow, and in the warm sunshine reclines on their drifting masses. Here she sat and gazed fixedly down into the deep valley beneath, where human beings, like ants on a sun-lit stone, were to be seen moving busily about. 2. "Beings of mental power, as the children of the sun call you," cried the Ice-maiden, “ye are but vermin! Let a snowball but fall down, and you and your houses and your villages are crushed and overwhelmed." And she raised her proud head higher, and looked with death-threatening eyes around her and below her. But from the valley arose a strange sound; it was the blasting of rocks the work of men-the forming of roads and tunnels before the railway was laid down. |