I saw very well that the old hero had just then died. I placed your victorious trophy beside him, and now thought that I would keep watch there till some of his usual attendants came. But the great Odin only knows how it came to pass!--A resistless horror stole over me as I looked through the long desolate apartment. It seemed to me as if the dead man would suddenly start again into life,--that he would open his eyes, and be as much terrified at my presence as I would be at the sight of him. Then, if he shrieked aloud, his voice, amid the silence of that wide lonely fortress, would have shaken my inmost heart, and thenceforth I should have wandered through the wide world as an incurable madman. “Sir knight, I trust you have already proved that I am no coward; yet in that place I could not withstand the apprehensions that assailed me. Besides, I said to myself, ‘Thou hast fulfilled the purpose of thine embassy, inasmuch as thou hast brought the banner to the old hero, and his people may, if they think fit, lay it with him in the grave. Also, thou canst announce to his son, that Sir Hugh of Trautwangen now sits quaffing mead with the glorified champions of Valhalla.’ Thereupon I hastened down stairs and remounted my horse; but, ere I had proceeded far from the gates, I heard the frightful lamentations of the squires, who had by this time returned, and found that their master was no longer living. Here then I am once more at home, and, as you desired, have described to you all that came to pass at your father’s castle.” The darkness of the night, which had now settled around them, concealed from Swerker’s eyes that expression of grief and despair which had changed the countenance of Sir Otto. In a few kind words he instructed the Swede to ride onward to the camp, and await there his coming. Meanwhile he proceeded on his way to the castle of the Lady Minnatrost, and though he struggled against his grief, yet, as he walked along through the darkness of the night, he could not help weeping bitterly. When he had arrived at the Druda’s castle, and had entered that pleasant chamber so mildly illuminated, as if by soft moonlight, and in which stood the round banquet-table, the lady could not have failed to observe his pale countenance, his dishevelled hair, and wildly-rolling eyes. But at this time she was not alone;--besides the sea-monarch, there was another guest,--a warlike champion, to whom they seemed to listen with great attention, and who, as soon as the door was opened, rose from his seat, and threw himself into Sir Otto’s arms.