Show the prototype of A pools story by LEO lutfey lUt FEi n when a boy of twelve years his fatlich placed him according to alio tho custom of the age with a noble dame of high station where ho was to gearu the chivalrous service in the capacity of a page conjectures jec tures this dame to have been agnes of alio was married first to henry the warlike of austria but to ulrick duke of carenthia Ca rinthia As a mere boy he fell this illustrious mistress of his and he made her his dame he biad only one doubt alio was rather hiigli for him but then he might climb to lier altitude in every way lie manifested ID S love and adoration other he pursued her with enamored eyes he brought her flowers and lie secretly drank the water in which she had washed herself when his was completed ho numbered 18 years it does not appear that he really learned anything except the court service and etiquette reading and writing were to him unknown arts for he kept a clerk to whom he dedicated his and who would read to him the incoming letters from his adored mistress he rendered himself to the court of leopold the magnificent who knighted him in the year 1223 at once he vowed to devote and sacrifice his whole life to knightly deeds but wherein consisted these in an aimless adventurous roaming through the world in a no more sensible jousting and knocking around and endless breaking of lances running or being run in the dust all this barbarous but highly chivalrous pastime in honor of the mistress another mans wife A higher ideal he did not possess for the highest of lue were to him as ho mentions himself at the close of his booke fair women fine clothes beautiful helmet crest brave horses and palatable food and drink A female relative of his who WM living at the court of the dame me dialed his lova commerce with her through her he sent her poesies and posies without however having met with a very favorable reception for the lady expressed herself ill suited mouthpiece war not inviting for kisses he had a double lower lip if that is an obstacle thinks our lovesick knight there is a remedy for it he mounts hig horse rides over to prague and has the superfluous labial appendage cut off the wound required a long time to heal when he at last meets his damo again ho conducts himself so awkwardly and boorishly that she laughs at him right out thence in despair he sends her through his cousin a longwinded desperate epis tie wherein he ventilates his alcest she answers him in a letter As ho however cannot read and his clerk is absent he is obliged I carry the letter about wi world and every one he meeta in briesach friesach Frie sach where a grand tournament is going on he breaks no less than a hundred lancea for his honor everywhere lie fares pretty well only in trieste two years later one of his fingers receives a violent thrust which renders it crooked and stiff A year after aliis ulrick undertakes a to rome on his he learns that his hearts lady believes that he has a stiff finger ulrick incensed at this is no less determined than in the ase of the lip he has a friend cut off tho stiff and useless finger and sends it with a small volume of poetry to bis beloved dame she is terrified over this awful story and says such a thing she would never have expected of a man in his five senses by all this ulrick has not come a hairs breadth nearer his love reward lie does not however lose courage he now undertakes a magnificent expedition a most singular adventure convinced thereby to break the bard mind of his dame from vou ice he journeys as dame venus throughout the world from venice to bohemia by tho messengers whom he sends out riding ahead he proclaims his greeting to the whole knighthood in lombardy friall Ca rinthia shyria austria and bos hernia announcing that dame venus was about to visit them in person to teach them service every knight who would break a lance with lier would receive a gold en ring but whomsoever dame venus would bring down he was to make obeisance m bis ladys honor to the four cardinal points the journey begins knight ulrick is in fact arrayed as damo venus ho wears a fine chemise a white gown a white velvet mantle with beasts embroidered in gold lace false hair braids interwoven with pearls a costly coiffure and over it a bonnet richly adorned with pea bosk plumes thu he proceeds on wards everywhere jousting and throwing his opponents in tho course of the narrative of this expedition he mentions by the way thai ho was married for he says that when the jousting at gingg altz was over he left with his the inn to his wife and children with whom he stayed three days and whom ho pretends to love moat heartily although be had a mistress the poor cifes namo was bertha from the family of but on this fools expedition everything did not go off smoothly and knight ulrick appears not to have been aa faithful to his damo as the love code would have required neither did hi erratic dorotio adventures escape the cognizance of tho lady of hia heart for she sent him word that she hated him as he was serving other women besides her on this roaster ulrica becomes so mad that the blood from hia nose anil mouth at once he als patches a messenger to his beloved ono to mollify her jealousy for tho answer he waits at his home with his wedded wife the mistress who is only sporting with him but un to the big fool allows herself to be pacified and end him word that ho i ready to receive him provided ilat he pm one more test llo waa to mix with the lepers and beggars clad like them and come with them before her castle when they went fetching their alms and the sunday pottage without grumbling our knight ulrick rides forty leagues wilh tiia page until ho comes the caballo of his mistress where ho liall and makes his ignoble toilet lie palls on the jacket of leper has bis hair aborn short and dyed gray takes a root in his mouth atu that his faco swells and turns pale he arms himself with the stair and boup ger of the lepers proceeds with thirty and odd of these loathsome castaways casta ways of medieval society to the castle gate aid there to complete the comedy ho deplores in sad strains his poverty and misery when they hand tho beggars food and drink out to the supplicants he cats with tho mthm although the swill turns liis dainty stomach meanwhile hia ladya is looking on from tho window her dames of honor taking an immense delight in the ludicrous spectacle and having precious fun over her love sick swain it is not difficult to imagine in what lively conversation tho fair and frolicsome spectators indulged while the wretched fool was sitting down in the courtyard most antly forcing down his abominable beggar soup thus the last ordeal was passed he h id stood th last test required of him the blissful hour when his most ardent wish was to be gratified and sweet reward of his love was to be accorded ta lulu had at last come the lady makes on appointment for a rendezvous on the next night another day and another night however he is condemned to wait and this under the storm and rain in an adjoining cornfield without shelter or even sufficient clothing why he dd not while away the interval in the neighboring inn ho docs not mention in his autobiographical epic but it is most probable that this probation was a part of the pro gramme of the lady who seems to have been determined to give the poor idiot an ample foretaste of purgatory and that other place a story or two be low at last it grows dark knight ulrick scrambles down in the moat t the castle where with the assistance of hi faithful valet he changes his suit with the splendid raiment of the courtier and nobleman to present himself in a fitting appearance to liis inamorata A long winding sheet is let down on which the chambermaids pull him up to the window of his dames apartment she is awaiting him but surrounded by her women she is seated on her couch arrayed in mag she wears a fine linen chemise a scarlet jacket richly lined with ermine nd a green velvet gown with fur trimmings trimmin gt tho bcd consisted of a mattress likewise of green a ehaet of dazzling whiteness and soft downy pillows all these luxiA es of in those days in fact it was a royal couch imagine the in which oui hero fell when he his misi tress thus before him and deemed at life goal of hia desires but he was not quito there yet in the effusion of his yearning he threw on his knees before her and implored her not to make him longer but to hia to litot roundly that alo would faithless to her inego lord and con sort a netious scruple puts hero quite out of hia wits hois however obstinate and does not desist so soon I appears even from his own truthful i aport of the delicate encounter that lie became rather importunate for at last only to get rid of him she promises him to yield to liis wishes on the condition that ho bo once more lowered into the castle moat and pulled up again by her maids this done she would no longer resist his entreaties again our knightly idiot is taken in not having the least suspicion of the game they are playing with him she herself con to the window and sees him get into the sheet then they lower him a little As ho is dangling outside between heaven and earth she has her royal sport with him stroking and patting him and finally inviting him to kiss her As ho is about executing this pleasant command the sheet is suddenly let loose and down he goes with a crash and a flash into the moat then fortunately dry this was a rather bad practical joke and might easily have cost our kight arm and leg or even his neck if ho bad not possessed most solid bones he himself finds consolation in the pious consideration that bod had taken him in his special care it is to be expected that even a patent fool would have been cured of his infatuation by such amenities and comprehended how much he was being made aport of but our friend Ul ricks folly rests on n rocky foundation and is not easily undeceived ho carries his folly with german thoroughness lie is at first rather vexed over this cruel joke and departs for the gay vienna where he indemnifier indemnifies himself with the fair women of the danube it is possible that he oven intended to give up his duet nm but when she sent a messenger after him who brought him her head pillowy hereby th idea of the prospective granting of his desires waa to be conveyed ho was again caught on and for many more years ho performs in good earnest the part of the greatest love cracy fool of the holy german empire after he has bertch her faithfully thirteen years at last the truth ashes in upon him lie leaves the ungrateful woman and chooses an other mistress as he cannot be without lady and love in honor of this mistress he undertakes another ro alantic journey through the country thin time as king artus hia crazy freaks lose nothing in number or intensity this i the atory of knight lunch ai a i told by in hi it is not hard to be fool and most every ono can commit foolish acts but to write hia own follies down and bring them into verse athla stamps a man aa complete fool I THE na clark in the house yesterday in produced trod a bill for erecting in wash ington a monument to oen ouster and aho officers and privates of the seventh cavalry who were killed in the battle of the little big born |