“Ah, happy happy _she_ to bear This other glittering toy; Would that true knight give me to wear But of his hair a ringlet, How full were I of joy!” Ere long the knight came in again, Did well the ring approve: “Thou’st made me, goldsmith, best of men, The gifts with rarest cunning, For my sweet lady-love. “Yet would I prove them how they sit; So prithee, maiden, here Let me on thee for trial fit My darling’s bridal jewels: In beauty she’s thy peer.” ’Twas on a Sunday morn betime; It happed the maiden fair, Expectant of the matin chime, Had donned her best of raiment With more than wonted care.” With coyness all aglow, behold The maid before him stand; He crowns her with the crown of gold, The ring upon her finger He sets, then takes her hand. “Heléna sweet, Heléna true, I’ve ended now the jest; That fairest bride is none but you, By whom I would the crownlet And ring should be possest. “Mid gold and pearl and jewel fine Hath been thy childhood’s home; Be this to thee a welcome sign That thou to heights of honour With me shalt duly come.” There is a great dramatic beauty in the accident of the girl having put on her best apparel to make ready to go to church, so that the knight has only to furnish her with the bridal accessaries to prepare her at a moment’s notice to go to church with him. A ferry-boat is a favourite subject for painters; and the navigation of his native Neckar has been to Uhland the occasion of some of his sweetest verse-pictures. In the poem called ‘The Boat’ he shows how a freight of people, before unacquainted with each other, and therefore silent, struck up an intimacy, and parted with regret, when some improvised music had once furnished an introduction. THE BOAT. The boat is swiftly going, Adown the river’s flowing; No word beguiles the labour, For no one knows his neighbour. What pulls from coat the stranger, The tawny forest-ranger? A horn that sounds so mildly, The stream-banks echo wildly. Then haft and stopper screwing, His staff to flute undoing, Another, deftly playing, Chimes with the cornet’s braying.