GERMANY AND THE LOW COUNTRIES 267

'Now, dearest love, we two must sunder,
for seven years have I to wander/

He, of course, overstays his leave, and returns with a tale of his own
fickleness. As the lady does nothing but wish him well, he at last
reveals himself as her true-love. These tests give the ballad its
alternative title (Liebesprobe), and, apart from the final declaration,

we have here the matter of the old French Belle Doette. The
German ballad has, however, an elusive, wistful charm of its own,
and its own power to expand into Poland and other lands. There
are other typical returns (Erk-Bohme 49, 93, 112, 191, 201),
according as the lady was dead or indifferent or remarried.

Then there are ballads of separation which have a more tragic
cast. Several very fine German and Dutch pieces tell the history
of the knight who was ambushed by his lady's friends, and how
she found his body and broke her heart over it (Erk-Bohme 94-6,
Todfenamt, Sec.). Brunswick is given as the scene of the tragedy,
which may have been an actual event. Parental opposition might
go to any extreme. The most powerful was the mother's malison
(Erk-Bohme 192-4: Blaublumletn, &c.). More novelesque is the
sort of opposition seen in The cruel Brother (Erk-Bohme 186),
known also in Denmark, and The King of Milan (Erk-Bohme 97).
In both the lady has been imprudent, but that is no reason why
her kin should murder her. In one ballad the King of Milan
rescues her and all ends happily; in the other the King of England
arrives too late. He kills the brother,

and took the baby in his arm:

*No mother have we, God keep thee from harm!'

A kitchen-boy was the lover in another case, and one does not know
who killed her murderer:

Now Kirstie was burled beneath the rose-tree,
the young Margrave they broke upon the wheel.

For Kirstie all the bells were rung,
the Margrave to the crows they flung.

Other deaths are accidental. Count Frederick's Wife (Erk-
Bohme 107) was accidentally pierced by his sword; her relatives
avenged her, but a sign from heaven justified the count. The
Miller's Daughter (Erk-Bohme 108) was caught in the mill-wheel,
and The young Margravine (Erk-Bohme 109) died in childbirth at