But she saw a stately maiden,
With such pure and dove-like eyes,
Clothed in beauty like a flower,
Or a saint from Paradise.
"No wonder my son, so youthful,
Fixed his heart on one like thee;
For if I were a Prince of Dessau,
Willing captive I might be.
"But you are a doctor's daughter,
My son's of a princely line;
You may wed with one more humble,
But never with son of mine.
"But my son is very wilful,
We must conquer him with guile;
To foreign courts he shall away,
Where most noble ladies smile.
"One he'll see whose rank is princely,
Fair of form and fair of face;
She shall win him by her beauty
From his love in the market-place."
Said the lily maiden weeping,
"'Twere well we had never met,
Go, my Prince, to be with princes,
Be happy, and so forget."
Said the Prince of Anhalt Dessau:
"What's to be God keeps in store;
I am Prince of Anhalt Dessau,
But your lover for evermore.
"Duty is the yoke of princes,
It is good I go away;
For that widow's son there's blessing,
Who his mother can obey.
"But we who are ruling princes,
Should be patterns of faith and truth,
The Prince thou hast loved, my lily,
Shall never deceive thy youth.
"For as sure as to the ocean
Arrow-swift flows on the Rhine,
I go for my mother's pleasure,
I am coming back for thine."