Enchantment of Charlemagne tells the tale of a gypsy girl who scaled the walls of Charlemagne's castle and gained entry into his bed chamber. The breaking of the lock on the late empress' jewellery chest awakened the aged emperor. The thief, seeking a hasty retreat, slipped a ring onto her finger and made her way to the window. She was promptly apprehended and brought before the outraged emperor whose heart melted at the very sight of this beautiful jackdaw.
Despite the good council of the Archbishop the Emperor ordered that he and the girl should be married, a marriage which would have taken place were it not for the girl's untimely and mysterious death. Her passage from this life did not change the Emperor's love for her and he ordered that her body be preserved in a large glass tank full of fluids and be placed in his bed chamber. It was with a melancholy, adoring fascination that he would gaze at his lost love.
The Archbishop, suspecting a corruption of nature, inspected the body to find the ring, the source of the Emperor's enchantment, secreted beneath the gypsy's tongue. The moment that the Archbishop removed it the emperor became instantly repelled by the cadaver and ordered its immediate burial and duly directed his passion toward the Archbishop. His eminence, fleeing the embraces of his emperor, in as courtly manner as possible confined the ring to the depths of Lake Constance at the shores of which the Emperor spent his final days and into which his body was finally lowered.
1
