into her mother’s apartment not a veſtige of ſadneſs could be perceived on her brow. Friedbert had nearly fallen a ſecond time into the ſuſpicion of practiſing magic, eſpecially when the old lady was aſſured by the parties, that the preliminaries to an indiſſoluble union were as good as ſigned; for ſhe had never imagined that the vow of the wandering knight to deliver a ring to the lady of his heart, aimed at the conqueſt of her heart, eſpecially as ſhe ſuppoſed an earlier competitor had taken poſſeſſion of it, and in proof of his right had kindled fire on the altar, as on his own property. However high the ſtranger ſtood in the princeſs’s good graces, this predilection had no influence on her royal prejudices in favour of high birth; and before Zoe gave her final conſent, ſhe required the adventurer to ſubmit to a regular proof of his pedigree. Now though at Naxos, as well as elſewhere, there are genealogical ſmiths, in whoſe ſhop he might have had a brazen tableof
