And now on the green sward they danced and they sang, In their holiday gowns, a pretty parterre, With oft sounding echoes the castle walls rang, To the joy of the Count of Gruyere. Then slim as a lily, a beauteous maid, Took the Count by the hand to join the gay throng. "And now you're our captive, sweet master," she said, "And our leader in dancing and song." Then, the Count at the head, away they all went, A-singing and dancing, through forest and dell. O'er valleys and hillsides, with force all unspent, Till the sun set and starry night fell. The first day fled fast, and the second dawned fair, The third was declining, when over the hills Quick lightning flashed whitely--the Count was not there! "Has he vanished?" they asked of the rills. The black storm clouds have burst, the streams are like blood By the red lightning's glare, and dark night is rent, Oh, look! where our lost one fights hard with the flood, Until a branch saves him, pale and spent. "The mountains which drew me with smiles to their heights, With thunders have kept me, their lover, at bay. Their streams have engulfed me, not these the delights I dreamed of, dancing the hours away. "Farewell, ye green Alps! youths and maidens so gay, Farewell! happy days when a shepherd was I, Stern fates I have questioned have answered me nay, So I leave ye, with smiles and a sigh. "My poor heart's still burning, the dance tempts me yet, So ask me no longer, my lily, my belle! For you, love and frolic, but I must forget, Take me back, then, my frowning castel." No attacks from feudal lords or from rival cities threatened Gruyere during the reign of Count Antoine, which came to its end in undisturbed tranquility. The kindly and _complaisant_ father, brother and lover essayed as he grew in years to correct some of the follies of his youth, and according to the opinion of Gruyere's principal historian married the mother of the children he had already legitimized. A pious and lamenting widower, he instituted many masses and anniversaries for the repose of the soul of his wife, the Countess Jeanne de Noyer of blessed memory; and erecting a chapel to his patron St. Antoine in the parochial church of Gruyere caused to be painted therein the kneeling portraits of himself and his countess, in perpetual testimony of his devotion to the rites of matrimony and religion. [Illustration: FORTIFIED HOUSES--NORTH WALL] CHAPTER V THE BURGUNDIAN WARS (Count Francois I)