"Roland the Brave, the brave Roland!
False tidings reach'd the Rhenish strand
That he had fall'n in fight!
And thy faithful bosom swoon'd with pain,
Thou fairest maid of Allemain.
Why so rash has she ta'en the veil
In yon Nonnenwerder's cloister pale?
For the fatal vow was hardly spoken,
And the fatal mantel o'er her flung.
When the Drachenfels' echoes rung—