Thus I likewise with happier thoughts will gratefully turn me Towards the few beautiful deeds of which I preserve the remembrance. Yes, I will not deny, I have seen old quarrels forgotten, Ill to avert from the state; I also have witnessed how friendship, Love of parent and child, can impossibilities venture; Seen how the stripling at once matured into man; how the aged Grew again young; and even the child into youth was developed, Yea, and the weaker sex too, as we are accustomed to call it, Showed itself brave and strong and ready for every emergence. Foremost among them all, one beautiful deed let me mention, Bravely performed by the hand of a girl, an excellent maiden; Who, with those younger than she, had been left in charge of a farmhouse, Since there, also, the men had marched against the invader. Suddenly fell on the house a fugitive band of marauders, Eager for booty, who crowded straightway to the room of the women. There they beheld the beautiful form of the fully grown maiden, Looked on the charming young girls, who rather might still be called children. Savage desire possessed them; at once with merciless passion They that trembling band assailed and the high-hearted maiden. But she had snatched in an instant the sword of one from its scabbard, Felled him with might to the ground, and stretched him bleeding before her. Then with vigorous strokes she bravely delivered the maidens, Smiting yet four of the robbers; who saved themselves only by flying. Then she bolted the gates, and, armed, awaited assistance." Now when this praise the minister heard bestowed on the maiden, Rose straightway for his friend a feeling of hope in his bosom, And he had opened his lips to inquire what further befell her, If on this mournful flight she now with her people were present; When with a hasty step the village doctor approached them, Twitched the clergyman's coat, and said in his ear in a whisper: "I have discovered the maiden at last among several hundreds; By the description I knew her, so come, let thine own eyes behold her! Bring too the magistrate with thee, that so we may hear him yet further." But as they turned to go, the justice was summoned to leave them, Sent for by some of his people by whom his counsel was needed. Straightway the preacher, however, the lead of the doctor had followed Up to a gap in the fence where his finger he meaningly pointed. "Seest thou the maiden?" he said: "she has made some clothes for the baby Out of the well-known chintz,--I distinguish it plainly; and further There are the covers of blue that Hermann gave in his bundle. Well and quickly, forsooth, she has turned to advantage the presents. Evident tokens are these, and all else answers well the description. Mark how the stomacher's scarlet sets off the arch of her bosom, Prettily laced, and the bodice of black fits close to her figure; Neatly the edge of her kerchief is plaited into a ruffle, Which, with a simple grace, her chin's rounded outline encircles; Freely and lightly rises above it the bead's dainty oval, And her luxuriant hair over silver bodkins is braided. Now she is sitting, yet still we behold her majestical stature, And the blue petticoat's ample plaits, that down from her bosom Hangs in abundant folds about her neatly shaped ankles, She without question it is; come, therefore, and let us discover Whether she honest and virtuous be, a housewifely maiden."