Herr von Wegen came as the Master, at the head of a number of Knights of the Order; their white mantles with the black cross, harmonised well with the old dining-hall, which thus gained historical animation. The German Order also greeted the new mistress; the poem, of whose authorship the fair-haired District Deputy was guiltless, while his brother-in-law, Dr. Kuhl, was universally thought to be its composer, contained some humourous flashes; it spoke of a fair lady who had not, as in former times, surreptitiously entered the house of the Order, and by the back way, but like a mistress, who is entitled to go up the principal wide staircase. Thus the Order was completely secularised, and by this brilliant example the Order of wilful old bachelors equally so, as was demonstrated by the master himself, and his friend, the Prussian heathen. And now, armed with a mighty club, Dr. Kuhl stepped forth as an ancient Prussian at the head of a band dressed in skins; he greeted Giulia in the name of the original inhabitants of the land, who alone possessed a right to these forests and lakes; he declared war to the knights who had been imported into this free land, to those monks of the sword, that black-crossed hypocrisy; with his people he would destroy this Castle to its very foundations if the presence of so beautiful a guardian goddess did not compel him to lay his club in homage at her feet; he concluded with the words-- "I swear it by every sacred god To-day all wars for ever cease, No more our blood shall soil the sod For hence shall reign eternal peace. When the gods clamour for foemen dead Our goddess shall offer the olive instead." Then followed another series of more stately pictures, and merry jests. Salomon had conceived the unhappy idea of appearing as Ariosto, introducing himself as the Italian Heinrich Heine, and in a mixture of verses, which were collected, partly from the _Ottave rime_ of the poet of Reggio, partly from free thinking verses by the Parisian Aristophanes, and speaking of Herr von Blanden as Orlando, who had delivered Angelica, bound to the rock of the stage. A tall girl, whose form was as redundant as those of the Genoese women, appeared as "Italia," a basket of fruit in her hands, a wreath of perfumed orange blossoms in her hair. It was Iduna; she had left Fräulein Baute's school, after having met with frequent insults from the mistress, and openly displayed contempt on the part of her Theodore Körner, Dr. Sperner. Her father owned a small estate in the neighbourhood, and thus she was invited to the entertainment.