And Helga pleaded softly, earnestly, that but for one moment she might be allowed to ascend up thither, and to cast one single glance on those heavenly scenes.
Then he raised her amidst splendour and magnificence, and a stream of delicious music. It was not around her only that all seemed to be brightness and music, but the light seemed to stream in her soul, and the sweet tones to be echoed there. Words cannot describe what she felt.
"We must now return," he said; "thou wilt be missed."
"Only one more glance!" she entreated. "Only one short minute!"
"We must return to earth--the guests are all departing."
And Helga stood again in the verandah, but all the torches outside were extinguished; all the light in the bridal saloon was gone; the storks were gone; no guests were to be seen--no bridegroom. All had vanished in these three short minutes.
Then Helga felt anxious. She wandered through the vast empty halls--there slept foreign soldiers. She opened the side door which led to her own chambers, and, as she fancied she was entering them, she found herself in the garden: it had not stood there. Red streaks crossed the skies; it was the dawn of day.
Only three minutes in heaven, and a whole night on earth had passed away.
Then she perceived the storks. She called to them, spoke their language, and the old stork turned his head towards her, listened, and drew near.
"Thou dost speak our language," said he. "What wouldst thou? Whence comest thou, thou foreign maiden?"
"It is I--it is Helga! Dost thou not know me? Three minutes ago we were talking together in the verandah."
"That is a mistake," said the stork. "Thou must have dreamt this."
"No, no," she said, and reminded him of the Viking's castle, "the wild morass," the journey thence.
"That is a very old story; I have heard it from my great, great-grandmother's time. Yes, truly there was once in Egypt a princess from the Danish land; but she disappeared on the evening of her wedding, many hundred years ago, and was never seen again. Thou canst read that thyself upon the monument in the garden, upon which are sculptured both swans and storks, and above it stands one like thyself in the white marble."
And so it was. Helga saw, comprehended it all, and sank on her knees.