XII.
Now the girl went to her window pane
Threw it wide, and leaned out in the rain.
"Friends!" she cried aloud, "My forest friends!
Wretched Lura's fate on thee depends!
Come, ye creatures of the wood – appear!
Lynx and lion, wolf and fox and bear,
Come! Oh, badger, squirrel, shrew and mole
Deer and otter, wild boar and vole!
Heed thy princess in her darkest hour:
Come, my forest friends, unto my bower!"
Now the woods began to stir and shake
The border copses seemed to part and break
Then – O! Marvellous! O wondrous sight!
A thousand creatures came into the light
Creeping, bounding, leaping – out they came
The great, the small, the nimble and the lame,
The noblest of God's creatures, and the least,
The fiercest hunter and the gentlest beast:
All emerged and to the castle wended
Through the thickets where the forest ended,
'Cross wide pastures, over mead and heath
To the royal castle, where beneath
Lura's window they did swarm en masse.
"What's thy will, fair maid?" they asked the lass.
Quoth the princess, "Friends, I do beseech
An essential favour from ye, each:
Grant me one small piece of hide or hair,
Just a tuft of what thou canst well spare.
For a cloak of furs, all patched and pied
I would fain construct, in which to hide.
Please it God, equipped with such a cape,
I'll devise the means of my escape."
...
END OF PART I.