"the German ballad of Leonora?..."See in text(Book the Second: The Golden Thread - Chapter IX)
The German “Ballad of Leonora” was written by Gottfried Augustus Bürger in the early 1770s. Though written in German, the Ballad was translated into English in the 1790s. In the ballad, Leonora loses her lover to battle and longs for death; her lover miraculously appears to carry her off to their “marriage bed.” The bed, however, is a grave, and “‘Twas Death that clasp’d the maid.” Dickens’s simile suggests a similarly grim outcome for Monsieur Gabelle as he makes his escape on a “double-laden” galloping horse.
"like a new version of the German ballad of Leonora..."See in text(Book the Second: The Golden Thread - Chapter IX)
Dickens employs a simile that compares the speed of the horse to the German ballad of Leonora. This ballad was so popular English translators vied with one another to create new translations.
