Then lost was banner, spear, and shield, At Sempach in the flight, The cloister vaults at Konig'sfield Hold many an Austrian knight. It was the Archduke Leopold, But he came against the Switzer churls, The heifer said unto the bull, "And shall I not complain? There came a foreign nobleman "One thrust of thine outrageous horn Has gall'd the knight so sore, That to the churchyard he is borne, To range our glens no more." An Austrian noble left the stour, And fast the flight 'gan take; And he arrived in luckless hour He and his squire a fisher call'd, Receive us in thy boat." Their anxious call the fisher heard, And, glad the meed to win, His shallop to the shore he steer'd, And took the flyers in. And while against the tide and wind He should the boatman slay. The fisher's back was to them turn'd, The squire his dagger drew, Hans saw his shadow in the lake, The boat he overthrew. He 'whelm'd the boat, and as they strove, He stunn'd them with his oar, "Now, drink ye deep, my gentle sirs, You'll ne'er stab boatman more. "Two gilded fishes in the lake This morning have I caught, Their silver scales may much avail, It was a messenger of woe Has sought the Austrian land; "Ah! gracious lady, evil news! My lord lies on the strand. 2 B "At Sempach, on the battle field, His bloody corpse lies there :" "Ah, gracious God!" the lady cried, "What tidings of despair!" Now would you know the minstrel wight, Albert the Souter is he hight, A merry man was he, I wot, Where God had judged the day. 355 THE NOBLE MORINGER. AN ANCIENT BALLAD, TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN. THE original of these verses occurs in a collection of German popular songs, entitled Sammlung Deutchen Volkslieder, Berlin 1807, published by Messrs Busching and Von der Hagen, both, and more especially the last, distinguished for their acquaintance with the ancient popular poetry and legendary history of Germany. In the German Editor's notice of the ballad, it is stated to have been extracted from a manuscript Chronicle of Nicolaus Thomann, chaplain to Saint Leonard in Weisenhorn, which bears the date 1533; and the song is stated by the author to have been generally sung in the neighbourhood at that early period. Thomann, as quoted by the German Editor, seems faithfully to have believed the event he narrates. He quotes tomb-stones and obituaries to prove the existence of the personages of the ballad, and discovers that there |