Then Æneas sends back Achates to the ships, that he might bring the good news to Ascanius; for on him was centred all the care and affection of his father. But Dame Venus, whose head is rife with new cunning, wishes to enflame Dido's heart with love for Æneas. So she removed Ascanius to the distant Idalian groves and gave his form to the God of love; who divesting himself of his wings, and imitating the carriage and gait of Ascanius, followed the Trojans sent to fetch him, and thus appeared before the queen in her palace at Carthago. "Often she thus could be found, with her soul in her eyes, gazing at him, Then too, many a time, she presses him close to her bosom, Little knowing, poor queen, to what God she is giving a shelter. Bent on his mother's designs, in her heart he effaces the image Of Sichæus her spouse; then tries to rekindle her passions, Calling up feelings within her, which long had slumber'd forgotten." "Stop a moment," said Dame Hadwig. "This part, I think, is again very poor, and weakly conceived." "Poor, and weakly conceived?" asked Ekkehard. "What need is there of Amor," she said. "Could it not happen without using cunning and deceit, and without his interference that the memory of her first husband could be effaced in the heart of a widow?" "If a God himself made the mischief," said Ekkehard, "then queen Dido's behaviour is excused, or even justified;--that I believe is the intention of the poet." Ekkehard probably thought this a very clever remark, but the Duchess now rose, and pointedly said: "Oh that of course alters the matter! So she needed an excuse!--really that idea did not strike me! Good night." Proudly she stepped through the chamber; her long flowing garments rustling reproachfully. "'Tis strange," thought Ekkehard, "but to read Virgil with women, has certainly its difficulties." Further his reflections did not go ... The following day he was going over the courtyard, when Audifax the goat-herd came to him; kissed the hem of his garment, and then looked up at him, with beseeching eyes. "What dost thou want?" asked Ekkehard. "I should like to know the spell," replied Audifax timidly. "What spell?" "To lift the treasure, out of the deeps." "That spell I should like to know also," said Ekkehard laughing. "Oh, you have got it, holy man," said the boy eagerly. "Have you not got the great book, out of which you read to the Duchess, in the evening?" Ekkehard looked at him sharply. He became suspicious; remembering the way, in which he had come to the Hohentwiel. "Has anybody prompted thee,--thus to interrogate me?" "Yes." "Who?" Then Audifax began to cry, and sobbed out, "Hadumoth." Ekkehard did not understand him. "And who is Hadumoth?" "The goose-girl," faltered the boy. "Thou art a foolish boy, who ought to mind his business." But Audifax did not go.