"They knew not the evil consequences," replied Tausdorf, leaning his heavy head in his hand, "or they had not done so." "Ah! they should have been more on their guard with strange cunning women," rejoined Henry. "You certainly would not have drank of it, Herr Tausdorf!" "Who knows, my child?" said Tausdorf, the innocent remark going to his heart: "Perhaps I might." "Wicked witch!" cried the boy, and threatened the picture with his fist. "But did she not at last find her master?" "Oh yes," said Tausdorf, turning over the leaf. "On this Ulysses was depicted, holding his sword to the breast of the enchantress, without fear of her powerful wand, or of the devil-masks that surrounded him, grinning and menacing." "Heaven be praised!" cried Henry; "there's a German subscription again. He read, "Ulysses compels her to disenchant his companions." "That's right!" he cried--"who was Ulysses?" "A Greek hero," replied Tausdorf. "The heathen god, Mercury, had supplied him with a herb, called _moy_, that protected him against the enchantment." "Or he too had been metamorphosed?" asked Henry with vexation. "No doubt," replied the knight mournfully. "He, whom God does not uphold in the hour of temptation, falls, and falls deeply." "But it is not all really true?" added the boy, after some reflection. "There is a good wholesome truth in the story," returned Tausdorf; "only the painter has veiled it in images. The beautiful, wicked Circe is intended to prefigure the human passions, the impulse of the senses. Whoever empties her cup, she robs him of reason, and makes him like the beasts in the wood. Recollect, Henry, how you were wrath, not long ago, with your play-fellow for some trifle, and screamed, and struck about you, and would not be satisfied,--then you had become a little wild beast in your anger." "I will not do so again," said Henry, ashamed and kissed the knight's hand. "But what is the meaning of the herb moly, which protected the great hero from this enchantress?" "It is religion," replied Tausdorf, embracing the boy in deep emotion. "If in every purpose you remember that God looks on; if you ask yourself whether it would be acceptable to him; and if in the slightest doubt of this you abandon it, then you have got the right talisman against sin." "I will be truly good, Herr Tausdorf; I will, indeed," said the boy, and gently rested his auburn head against the knight's breast, when the sound of horses' feet was heard before the window. "That is my mother!" he shouted, wiping away his tears, and running out of the room. Tausdorf started from his seat--"Air! the child has made me warm with his questions. It is hard to teach good to others, when one has to accuse one's self of evil. Oh Circe! Circe!" Again he looked at the picture of Ulysses.