Dark and fearful were thofe ancient forel'rs, as tradition tells, where ?ood the oaks'and the blood-rained altars of the Pagan gods in the days of King Siegmund. None dared wan der there without his fword at his fide and his fpear in his hand. The hunter might purfue the beafis of prey through the lonely woods and vales for many a day and neither meet a human being nor find a path. The f'rars of heaven and the courfe of the waters were his only guides in the va?t wildernefs. Ravenous wild beafis of enormous firength and fearful nature, fuch as are now no longer feen, the urochs. And the bear, the lion and the wolf, prowled through the woods, and filled the air with their fierce and hungry cries, making the forefis re-echo with their founds. And when the lofty oaks ruf?ed, and the branches cracked and fnapped afunder, and the winds moaned and whiftled in angry founds from the rocks and caves, it feemed as if the fpirit of the florm had come with horfe and hound, to chafe the wild inhabitants of the forefis.