THE MAGIC RING. OLIVER & BOYD, PRINTERS. THE MAGIC RING; A ROMANCE, FROM THE GERMAN OF FREDERICK, BARON DE LA MOTTE FOUQUÉ IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. EDINBURGH; PUBLISHED BY OLIVER & BOYD, TWEEDDALE-COURT; AND GEO. B. WHITTAKER, LONDON. 1825. TO CONRAD CHARLES, FREYHERR VON ÄMSELNBURG, IN BERLIN, TRANSLATOR OF _“The Lady of the Lake,” “The Bridal of Triermain,” and “The Antiquary.”_ I know not, my dear friend, whether you recollect a conversation that we had some time since respecting the Baron de la Motte Fouqué and his writings. If you do not, I take the liberty of calling it to your remembrance,--as what you then said has not only induced me to execute the following translation, but may likewise serve as an introductory notice to the readers of the work. I remember well that, when speaking of the Baron, (in whose company we had dined that day at Charlottenburg,) you bestowed great praise on his various publications;--but, being then an incompetent judge of their merits, I could only reply, that I doubted not they deserved the eulogiums you passed upon them, since the Baron was certainly a jovial and pleasant companion,--a “chevalier, _sans peur et sans reproche_,” if one might judge from the serenity of his aspect, and the complacency with which he quaffed his old Hochheimer and Johannisberg. I had indeed, as a tyro in the German language, tried to read over his “Magic Ring,” the only work of his which had fallen in my way; but I had not been long at Berlin ere I was informed of the high reputation he had acquired by his writings on various subjects. I heard of his early devotion to literature; of his friendship with the Schlegels; of his being “_in utrumque paratus_,” with the pen and the sword; of his campaigns as an officer, when the tumults and devastations of the French invasion were at their height; and especially of his conduct in the battles of Kulm in Bohemia, of Lutzen, of Leipsig, and afterwards on the banks of the “castellated Rhine.” I had opportunities of meeting with the Baron, and was invited to pass some days at his country residence of Nennhausen; though circumstances rendered it impossible for me to profit sufficiently by his hospitality.