Alba Longa

“ And when they had recovered from the spell which had been upon them, they said that as she had come in with the dawn and vanished with the day, it must have been the Beautiful Alba, the enchanting queen of the fairies.
“The festa lasted for three days, and every night at the same hour the beautiful Alba reappeared, enchanting all so wonderfully, that even the ladies forgot their jealousy, and were as much fascinated by her as were the men. ”

“ Mit dem Ausruf: „O, Mutter! Mutter! Was hast Du mir gethan?“ fiel Alba tot neben Eis und Schnee hin. Baba Coaja stieß einen so furchtbaren Fluch aus, daß der Berg wankte, ihre Burg zusammenstürzte und sie samt ihrem Golde unter ihren Trümmern begrub. —
An der Stelle aber, wo die schöne Alba ihr Leben ausgehaucht hatte, keimte eine weiße Blume in weißem Samtkleide auf, die man seitdem „Alba Regina,“3 zu deutsch „Edelweiß,“4 genannt hat. Sie blüht nur dicht beim ewigen Schnee, der den Geliebten bedeckt, so weiß und rein, wie sie selber war. ”

“ Also ten squadrons of horsemen were chosen out of the men of Alba. But after certain days, when the Romans had now conquered the Sabines, and had made treaties of peace with the Etrurians, and were in great peace and prosperity, they and their King, there was brought tidings to Rome that there had fallen a shower of stones on Mount Alba. Which when men could scarce believe, they sent messengers to learn if these things were true, who having come to Alba, found the stones lying on the ground, even as it had been hail. ”

“ Then suddenly fear came upon the maiden.
“Are all these human beings?” she asked, as they rode at a foot’s-pace through the streets. “And does not the wind blow down these tiny houses?”
“Nay,” laughed Porfirie. “The wind does not blow here as hard as it does up yonder.”
“See, my people,” he cried to the folk as he passed, “here I bring you your Queen. She is a fairy-blossom, and I plucked her from yonder cliff!”
“But I am no Queen,” said Alba in affright.
“I am a King, and since thou art to be my wife, thou wilt become Queen also.” ”

“ And then remember, Alba, how happy he could make you. You often long to have beautiful things—pearls and jewels and splendid dresses—and you sigh to go away in the ships that we see setting sail for distant lands, and to see fair cities, and the great mountains, and the countries where it is always summer and the flowers never die. Marcel would give you all these wishes; and then he would let you be so good and generous to the poor! ”

“ Aber Alba ward ganz still. Bleich wie der Tod neigte sie das Haupt unter der Last: „Du bist 36 härter als meine Mutter!“ sagte sie; „die1 wollte mich keinem Manne geben, damit ich nicht unglücklich würde,2 Du aber rufst selber das Leid auf mich herab!“
Niemand verstand diese Rede, und Alba war nicht dazu3 zu bewegen, sie zu erklären, was das allgemeine Mißtrauen vermehrte. Sie sah so traurig aus, daß das Volk in ihr gar nicht mehr die strahlende Maid von gestern erkannte, und alle Worte der Liebe ihres jungen Gemahls konnten nicht die Wolken von ihrer Stirn scheuchen. ”

“ Nothing could have been finer or more pleasing than when this blonde, blooming Venetian figure, in the fullness of its ripe beauty, advanced to meet this slim, foreign-looking, dazzling gypsy, and the hands of the two charming creatures met, and their eyes beamed upon one another. On the other hand, it was one of the funniest and most picturesque sights imaginable when gaunt Alba bore down with his stiff, spidery walk upon the holy martyr, while the Capuchin paid homage to the Suabian maiden in all kinds of cringing and fawning attitudes. ”

“ Und wirklich dauerte es nicht lange, da eilte Alba, vom Wandern matt, im weißen Samtkleide, daß vom Staube befleckt war, den Berg herauf.
„Wo, wo ist er?“ fragte sie mit blassen Lippen.
„So!“ sprach die Alte, „mir4 bist Du entlaufen, mit einem fremden Mann, und kommst wieder und fragst nicht nach mir, sondern nach ihm? Er ist nicht hier!“ —
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„Doch,1 doch, ich fand seine Spur, bis zu dem Schnee dort!“
„Weiter kam er auch2 nicht!“ lachte die Alte. „Er ist in Deinen Edelsteinen erstickt! ”

“ Without seeking for more than a chance likeness between the names—a name that ranges from the Euxine to the Hudson—without seeking in any sort to identify the Ἀλβανοί of Dionysios and the Ἀλβανοί of imperial Anna, it is still with a curious feeling of coincidence that the eyes which not many 223 days before were looking up to the mount of Alba, now look across the sea to the wilder mountains of Albania. ”

“ The isolated Alban range, that natural stronghold of Latium, which offered to settlers the most wholesome air, the freshest springs, and the most secure position, would doubtless be first occupied by the new comers. Here accordingly, along the narrow plateau above Palazzuola, between the Alban lake (Lago di Castello) and the Alban mount (Monte Cavo) extended the town of Alba, which was universally regarded as the primitive seat of the Latin stock, and the mother-city of Rome, as well as of all the other Old Latin communities. ”

“ With hearts that burned with longing for their father and their friends, did Finola and her brothers reach the sea of Moyle. Cold were its wintry waters, black and fearful were the steep rocks overhanging Alba’s far-stretching coasts. From hunger, too, the swans suffered. Dark indeed was all, and darker yet as the children of Lir remembered the still waters of Lake Darvra and the fond Dedannan host on its peaceful shores. Here the sighing of the wind among the reeds no longer soothed their sorrow, but the roar of the breaking surf struck fresh terror in their souls. ”

“ But Alba, as if instinct warned her of the coming visit, hastened out of the house, and fled across the moor until she was safe in the shelter of the park, and then she flung herself down on the moss-grown trunk that had a memory of its own, and buried her face in the primroses and cried her heart out in pity for Hermann.
After this it was impossible to mention Marcel Caboff’s name in her presence. “I loathe the very thought of him, mother! I would rather die than marry him!” she said; and Virginie felt that Providence was against her, and surrendered. ”

“ Sie ist eine Wunderblume, und ich habe sie mir vom Felsen gepflückt.“
„Aber ich bin keine Königin!“ sagte Alba erschrocken.
„Ich, ich bin ein König, und da Du mein Weib wirst, so wirst Du Königin!“
„Dein Weib? Aber ich sollte ja keinen Mann haben, sagte meine Mutter.“
„Das hat sie nur so gesagt, weil sie wußte, daß keiner Dich haben sollte, außer mir!“
„Bist Du denn gar nicht böse?“
„Nein, ich bin nicht böse.“
„Du bist also kein Mensch?“
„Doch, das1 bin ich.“
„Aber die Mutter sagt, alle Menschen sind böse, und ich soll nichts mit ihnen zu schaffen haben. ”

“ Von wem sind die Juwelen?“ sagte eine andere etwas lauter.
„Von meinen Freunden,“ antwortete Alba. „Wollt Ihr sie haben? Ich habe noch viel solches Spielzeug zu Hause,“ und die Smaragden vom Halse lösend, gab sie jedem der Mädchen einen derselben.
Mit den Perlenschnüren hätte3 sie es ebenso gemacht, wenn die Königin sie nicht daran verhindert hätte.
„Sind denn Deine Freunde so reich?“ fragte sie.
„Das weiß ich nicht. Was ist denn reich? Sie bringen alles in Säcken aus der Erde herauf, und wenn sie nicht genug bringen, so werden sie gestraft. ”

“ It exercises a discipline of the entire heart, sometimes irreconcilable with the clearness of the intelligence. Alba looked at her friend with a glance full of an astonishment, almost sorrowful, and she embraced her, saying:
"Peppino is not worthy even to kiss the ground on which you tread, that is my opinion, and if he does not spend his entire life in trying to be worthy of you, it will be a crime." ”

“ Das Gras ist glatt, und die Abgründe sind tief, und ein Fehltritt, so liegt man zerschmettert da unten!“
Alba dachte lange darüber2 nach, warum es für die Pferde gefährlich sei, da doch die Schafe so sicher gingen; sie bekam aber auch hierauf keine Antwort, da sie nicht zu fragen wagte. Die Bergmännlein kamen ihr nun noch viel häßlicher vor, als früher, und das Gold war ihr so zuwider, sie konnte es gar nicht mehr sehen. Sie dachte nur an das schöne, schöne Pferd und an den Jüngling, dem es den Hals kosten sollte, wenn er sich wieder sehen ließe.3 Warum wollte ihm die Mutter den Hals brechen? ”

“ In the northern provinces the Spanish power was only a shadow, but in the southern ones also hatred of the Spaniards was already bursting into flames, and Requesens was too weak to extinguish them.
The King and Barbara’s political friends perceived that Alba’s pitiless, murderous severity had injured the cause of the crown and the Church far more than it had benefited them. Personally, he had treated her on the whole kindly, but he had inflicted two offences which were hard to conquer. In the first place, he urged her to leave Brussels and settle in Mons ”

“ Sick and disgusted, she left Burgos at the end of July 1582, with Anne of S. Bartholomew and Theresa of Jesus, her niece, and went to Palencia, Medina del Campo, and Alba, which latter place she visited at the request of Maria Henriquez, Duchess of Alba, who was anxious to meet with her. There she died. ”

“ Unfortunately, the spirit of religiosity, which is to religion what sentimentality is to sentiment, has taken possession of her burial place. If you do go to Alba, however, make it a day's excursion from Salamanca. The evening was over before we reached the town, and we drove in darkness from the station, bumping over the ruts of an awful road. Railway and villages seem often at enmity in Spain; though we had passed directly by the gleaming lights of Alba, we ran on some miles further before stopping in its station, hence the necessity of a drive of several kilometers back to the town. ”

“ To spoil a Requesens's game was no difficult task for the man who, though by no means as harmless as the dove, was certainly as wise as the serpent; but that the Duke of Alba, the tried, inflexible commander, had been obliged to yield and retire vanquished before the little, merry, industrious, thoroughly peaceful nation which intrusted itself to the leadership of William of Orange, had been too much for her and, when it happened, seemed like a miracle. ”

“ Thence ofttimes in the young summer would they sail southwards. No bluer blue, no greener green, had it been given mortal eye to behold. And throughout the land of Alba was it told of the fame of the sons of Usna, and no poet or bard had a song so fair as that which sang of the wondrous beauty of Deirdre.
Thence ofttimes in the young summer would they sail southward
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In his dazzling palace in the Green Isle of Erin, Concobar dwelt with gloomy thoughts of vengeance. ”

“ Albano took his journey, happy through remembrance, still happier through hope. He had now courage to imagine to himself the day when Linda, a queen, should entwine with the shining crown of her spirit the soft bridal-wreath,—when this sun should rise as a Luna,—when a father, whom his own father loved, should interrupt the high festival by one of the highest,—and when for once two beings might say to each other: Now we love each other forever. So blest, and with an infinite love and sunny-warm soul, he arrived at the Prince's garden. ”

“ Even in the time of Pliny, Albion, as the name of the island, had fallen out of use with Latin authors; but not so with the Greeks, or with the Celts themselves, at any rate those of the Goidelic branch; for they are probably right who suppose that we have but the same word in the Irish and Scotch Gælic Alba, genitive Alban, the kingdom of Alban or Scotland beyond the Forth. Albion would be a form of the name according to the Brythonic pronunciation of it. ... ”

“ The Lady Adelaide, whose nerves were already upset by the storm and by the weird sounds which were heard about the castle, was doubly overwhelmed with emotion by the sight before her. It was a shock from which it was not easy for her to recover, to see her niece in the arms of any man. She had so long looked upon Countess Erna as cold and devoid of all warm human passion, that she could scarcely believe the evidence of her own senses now that she beheld the countess with her lips pressed to those of a lover. ”

“ For rowing were threescore men. When Colum Cille founded Hii, he went on his circuit of instruction among the men of Alba, and the Britons and Saxons, until he brought them to faith and religion, after he had wrought many miracles, and had awakened the dead from death. ”

“ Wiesen was radiantly beautiful: those aërial ranges of the hills that separate Albula from Julier soared crystal-clear above their forests; and for a foreground, on the green fields starred with lilac crocuses, careered a group of children on their sledges. Then came the row of giant peaks—Pitz d'Aela, Tinzenhorn, and Michelhorn, above the deep ravine of Albula—all seen across wide undulating golden swards, close-shaven and awaiting winter. ”

“ Ja, sie setzte sich sogar einmal selbst ans Rad, während die Mutter fort war, und spann ein Stück, 26 indem sie nur gutes wünschte. Als aber Baba Coaja nach Hause kam, wurde sie ganz wütend, schlug ihre Tochter unbarmherzig und sagte: „Du sollst nicht eher heiraten, als bis Du Dein eigenes Gespinst wieder erkennst!“ und damit1 warf sie das Stück zu dem übrigen.
Die Alte war im Herzen froh, daß sie einen Vorwand hatte, ihre Tochter bei sich zu behalten, da ihr prophezeit war, Alba werde2 sehr unglücklich werden und früh sterben. ”