In Santen Castle, one day, there was a strange and confusion. Everybody was hurrying aimlessly about, and no one seemed to know just what to do. On every side there were restless whisperings, and hasty gestures, and loud commands. The and were busy donning their war-coats, and on their swords and helmets. Wise King Siegmund sat in his council-chamber, and the knowing men of the kingdom stood around him; and the minds of all seemed troubled with doubt, if not with fear.  
What could have caused so great an uproar in the once quiet old castle? What could have brought perplexity to the mind of the wisest king in all Rhineland? It was this: a had just come from the seashore, bringing word that a strange fleet of a hundred white-sailed had cast anchor off the coast, and that an army of ten thousand fighting men had landed, and were making ready to march against Santen. Nobody had ever heard of so large a fleet before; and no one could guess who the strangers might be, nor whence they had come, nor why they should thus, without asking leave, land in the country of a peace-loving king.
 
The news spread quickly over all the land. People from every part came hastening to the friendly shelter of the castle. The townsmen, with their goods and cattle, hurried within the walls. The sentinels on the ramparts paced uneasily to and fro, and scanned with eye every stranger that came near the walls. The warders stood ready to the drawbridge, and close the gate, at the first signal given by the watchman above, who was straining his eyes to their utmost in order to see the first approach of the .
 
A heavy mist hung over the meadow-lands between Santen and the sea, and nothing was visible beyond the gates of the town. The ten thousand strange warriors might be within half a league of the castle, and yet the sharpest eagle-eye could not see them.
 
All at once a of horse’s was heard; the dark mist rose up from the ground, and began to roll away, like a great cloud, into the sky; and then strange sunbeam-flashes were seen where the fog had lately rested.
 
“They come!” cried one of the sentinels. “I see the glitter of their shields and lances.”
 
“Not so,” said the watchman from his place on the tower above. “I see but one man, and he rides with the speed of the wind, and lightning flashes from the mane of the horse which carries him.”
 
The drawbridge was hastily . The heavy gates were quickly shut, and fastened with bolts and bars. Every man in the castle was at his post, ready to defend the with his life. In a short time the horse and his rider drew near. All who looked out upon them were dazzled with the golden brightness of the hero’s armor, as well as with the lightning gleams that flashed from the horse’s mane. And some whispered,—
 
“This is no man who thus comes in such kingly . More likely it is Odin on one of his journeys, or the Shining Balder come again to earth.”
 
As the stranger paused on the outer edge of the moat, the sentinels challenged him,—
 
“Who are you who come thus, uninvited and unheralded, to Santen?”
 
“One who has the right to come,” answered the stranger. “I am Siegfried; and I have come to see my father, the good Siegmund, and my mother, the gentle Sigelind.”
 
It was indeed Siegfried; and he had come from his kingdom in the Nibelungen Land, with his great fleet, and the noblest of his warriors, to see once more his boyhood’s home, and to cheer for a time the hearts of his loving parents. For he had done many noble deeds, and had ruled wisely and well, and he felt that he was now not unworthy to be called the son of Siegmund, and to claim kinship with the heroes of the earlier days.
 
As soon as it was surely known that he who stood before the castle-walls was the young prince who had been gone so many years, and about whom they had heard so many wonderful stories, the drawbridge was hastily let down, and the great gates were thrown wide open. And Siegfried, whose return had been so long wished for, stood once again in his fath............