“My own Guta,” he whispered fondly. “And wouldst thou refuse an emperor to marry me?”
“Yea, truly,” answered the maid, “a hundred emperors. I feared thou hadst forsaken me altogether,” she added naively.
Richard laughed.
“Would I be a worthy Emperor an I did not keep my troth with such as thou?” he asked.
“The Emperor—thou?” cried Guta, starting back.
“Yea, the Emperor, and none other,” said her brother reverently. And once more Guta hid her face on Richard’s breast.
Within a week they were married, and Guta accompanied her husband to the court as Empress of Germany.
To the castle where his bride had passed her maidenhood Richard gave the name of Gutenfels—’Rock of Guta’—which name it has retained to this day.
The Story of Schönburg
The castle of Schönburg, not far from the town of Bacharach, is now in ruins, but was once a place of extraordinary fame, for here dwelt at one time seven sisters of transcendent beauty, who were courted the more assiduously because their father, the Graf von Schönburg, was reputed a man of great wealth. This wealth was no myth, but an actuality, and in truth it had been mainly acquired in predatory forays; but the nobles of Rhineland recked little of this, and scores of them flitted around and pressed their suit on the young ladies. None of these, however, felt inclined toward marriage just yet, each vowing its yoke too galling; and so the gallants came in vain to the castle, their respective addresses being invariably dallied with and then dismissed. Suitor after suitor retired in despair, pondering on the strange ways of womankind; but one evening a large party of noblemen chanced to be assembled at the schloss, and putting their heads together, they decided to press matters to a conclusion. They agreed that all of them, in gorgeous raiment, should gather in the banqueting-hall of the castle; the seven sisters should be summoned and called upon in peremptory fashion to have done with silken dalliance and to end matters by selecting seven husbands from among them. The young ladies received the summons with some amusement, all of them being blessed with the saving grace of humour, and they bade the knight who had brought the message return to his fellows and tell them that the suggested interview would be held. “Only give us time,” said the sisters, “for the donning of our most becoming dresses.”