He led her back to his palace, and for many years they
governed the beautiful land together. All of the five sons which his
wife bore to him, came into the world with the grey lock. They all grew
to be brave men and loyal subjects of their father, whom they served
faithfully in war, holding fraternally together and greatly enlarging the
boundaries of his dukedom by their prowess.
A long time passed and generation after generation of the descendants of
the worthy Sir Wendelin followed one another. The first-born son always
bore the name of the progenitor of the family, and the fairy Clementine
always appeared at the baptism. No one ever saw her; but a gentle
tinkling through the palace betrayed her presence, and when that ceased,
the grey lock on the infant's temple was always found to have twisted
itself into a curl.
At the end of five hundred years, Wendelin XV. was carried to his grave.
No Greylock had ever possessed a more luxuriant grey curl than his, and
yet he had died young. The wise men of the land said that even to the
most favoured only a fixed measure of happiness and good luck was
granted, and that Wendelin XV.
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