The prince ... took out of his box a walnut, which he cracked ... and saw a small hazel nut, which he cracked also ... and found therein a kernel of wax.... In this kernel of wax was hidden a single grain of wheat, and in the grain a small millet seed.... On opening the millet, he drew out a web of cloth 400 yards long, and in it was woven all sorts of birds, beasts, and fishes; fruits and flowers; the sun, moon, and stars; the portraits of kings and queens, and many other wonderful designs.--Comtesse D’Aunoy, _Fairy Tales_ (“The White Cat,” 1682). =Walpurgis=, saint who converted the Saxons to Christianity. =Walpurgis Night.= May 1, when witches dance upon the Brocken in the Hartz Mountains. =Walsingham=, the affianced of Helen Mowbray. Deceived by appearances, he believed that Helen was the mistress of Lord Athunree, and abandoned her; but when he discovered his mistake he married her.--S. Knowles, _Woman’s Wit, etc._ (1838). _Walsingham_ (_Lord_) of Queen Elizabeth’s court.--Sir W. Scott, _Kenilworth_ (time, Elizabeth). =Walter=, marquis of Saluzzo, in Italy, and husband of Grisilda, the peasant’s daughter (_q.v._).--Chaucer, _Canterbury Tales_ (“The Clerk’s Tale,” 1388). ⁂ This tale, of course, is allegorical; Lord Walter takes the place of deity, and Grisilda typifies the true Christian. In all her privations, in all her sorrows, in all her trials, she says to her lord and master, “Thy will be done.” _Walte_ (_Master_), “the hunchback,” guardian of Julia. A worthy man, liberal and charitable, frank and honest, who turns out to be the earl of Rochdale and father of Julia.--S. Knowles, _The Hunchback_ (1831). =Walter Debree=, a Protestant clergyman, who, driven as he imagines, by conscience, takes orders in the Roman Catholic Church. His wife seeks him out and makes an eloquent appeal to him in the name of their former love, their dead child, and their once common faith. His heart and conscience thus aroused, combine to urge reconsideration of his belief. He resolves to return to the Mother Church, and makes his plans to take the Lord’s Supper with his wife on a certain Sabbath. On his way to church, he is overtaken by a fierce snow-storm and buried in the drifts. It is his lifeless body which is taken to the waiting wife. “Is this all, Walter?” she sobbed. “Is this the end? Yes, and it is a good end.... I did not seek you for myself. It never was for myself!” The effort to subdue the human love to the Divine triumphed in the midst of tears.--Robert Lowell, _The New Priest of Conception Bay_ (1858). =Walter= [=Furst=], father-in-law of Tell.--Rossini, _Guglielmo Tell_ (opera, 1829).