So
red were the cheeks of the goddess, I thought
The wine to her crown had mounted.
"I am growing old," she said with a sigh,
"Oh, many's the year I've counted.
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"I
was born on the day they began to build
This town; I am the daughter
Of the queen of the haddocks who then held sway
At the mouth of the Elbe's fair water.
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"My
father, too, was a monarch proud
Called Carolus Magnus, a Kaiser
As renowned as the Prussian Frederick the Great,
Nay, mightier even and wiser.
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"The
chair that they crowned him in, stands in state
At Aix-la-Chapelle; the other
That was less ceremonially used of a night,
Was left to my widowed mother.
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"She
bequeathed it to me. To look at it, none
From a common old chair could tell it;
But were Rothschild to offer me all his gold,
I should flatly refuse to sell it.
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"You
can see the old thing in the corner there,
The leather all torn and battered;
The stuffing, too, I am sorry to say,
Is sadly moth-eaten and tattered.
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7
"But
if you will cross to it now, and lift
The cushion from off the settle,
You will find a circular hole beneath,
And below that again, a kettle.
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"'Tis
the kettle enchanted, in which are brewed
The powers of magic; put your
Head into the circular hole and you'll see
The face of the hidden future.
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"Yes,
Germany's future before your gaze
Will roll in waves phantasmal;
But shudder not, should the brew emit
Effluvia miasmal."
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As
she spoke she laughed a peculiar laugh,
But, caution completely scorning,
I stuck my head in the horrible hole,
Too eager to heed her warning.
