The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-09 00:00:00

HO.

(from the Times' Correspondent)
BADEN BADEN, Sept. 7.
I have run the round of Baden dissipations, and
my head aches and my eyes are burning with the
consequences, for lam a slave to the habit of early
rising, and this burning of the candle at both ends
is, I find, terrible work. I shall leave to others the
enjoyment of the forthcoming festivities—the bals
pares, eclipsing all the lustre of Almack's or the
Tuileries—we had one last evening in all the blaze
of the really grand and gorgeous Nouveaux Salons
in the Louis XIV. style ; " Don Pasquale," with
Patti as Norina ; the dainty French plays—we have
one by Georges Sandes, " Le Marquis de Villemar,"
this very evening ; the fireworks, the fetes for the
Grand Duke's birthday, all " treats," in short,
which make Baden so especially attractive through-
out September. I shall leave all ; I have had my
share.

The tide of holyday-makers is still setting in
strongly; very few as yet give signs of any disposi-
tion to leave, and to the question so often put by
people as they meet, " How long do you stay ?" the
almost invariable answer is, "to the end of the
month." Bear in mind, however, that the English,
for a variety of reasons which I have already en-
deavoured to explain, do not by any means make
up the majority of the gay people at Baden ; nay,
they willingly allow themselves to be outdone in the
way of rank, of high-sounding names and titles, of
wealth, and the display of all such things, and live
here very quietly. Baden, strictly speaking, belongs
to the French ; the Russians, Austrians, and Prus-
sians come in with the Gallic rulers, but in an acces-
sory and almost subordinate capacity.
The King of • Prussia has left us for Darmstadt,
where he is to meet, it is said, the Queen of Eng-
land on her return from Coburg. .We have the
other members of the Royal family of Prussia still
here, however, and we number Prince Nicholas of
Nassau and Prince Henry of Reuss among the
recent comers. These and many more, sure to
make their appearance in the course of the day, will
give sufficient brilliancy to the steeplechases which
are to close the
.race season this afternoon.
There is more in and about Baden, however, than
the butterflies of this gay world seem to be aware
of ; more than they see in all these race-meetings,
these reUnions at the assembly-rooms, all this gather-
ing of whatever European rank and fashion can
muster. Go up to the hills, right or left, you can
. hardly go wrong; drive up the paradise of the Murg
Thal, or climb the heights of the Groose and Kleine
Stauffen (the Mercurius Berg), or the more remote
range of the Hornis Grinde, seek the solitude of
those weird mountain lakes, the Mammelsee, the
Wildsee, &c., visit the ruins of Ebersteinburg, of
the Yburg, of the Windeck, •of 100 other castles,
abbeys, and nunneries, listen to the legends handed
down among the peasantry for centuries, search
this Schwartz-wald far and near, and then acknow-
ledge that it is not easy to find another part of.
Germany, or of Europe, on which your imagination
may dwell with keener or more undying interest.
Out of these numberless Sagen, or traditions of the
Black Forest, 14 have been splendidly illustrated by
Gotzenberger in as many large frescoes decorating
the handsome portico of the Trinkhalle, erected here
in 1843 ; hundreds more have been treasured up in
books ; a few have become the theme for some of
the liveliest strains in German ballad literature. It
is hardly to be conceived how any region on earth
can harbour so many gnomes, dwarfs, sprites, and
goblins as are to be found in these districts, and yet
manage to feed their present generation besides.
Another place, where the Prince of Darkness plays
so conspicuous a part, where he is perfectly at home,
is not to be easily named, nor one boasting so many
Devil's Bridges, Devil's Pulpits, Devil's Mills,
Devil's Chapels. Everywhere the Angels of Light
and the Spirits of the Deep, the Ormuzd and
Arimanes of Medieval Christianity, have been
waging war in this their debateable ground, and
the traces of the struggle are apparent at every
step. The marks of the powerless rage of the
routed fiend are still shown on the rock—the very
spot on which he gave his last kick—'. Der Teurcl's
Huf. risen" (the Devil's Horse-shoe), a name prov-
ing him to be an imp of another breed from the one
we are familiar with in England; no connexion, I
should guess, with that cloven-footed fiend whom
St. Dunstan and Ingoldsby have painted so black.
And then the ghosts! Where shall we look for
the dark side of nature with better chance of success
than in the deep gloom of these fir woods ? Singing
and sighing ghosts, sneezing ghosts, sereeching
ghosts, mass-saying, bell-ringing,, dancing and ban-
filleting ghosts! wild huntsman, the White Lady, a
sister, belike, of the dread apparition of Berlin, Bay-
reuth, and other places, the bearer of tidings of death
or calamity to the Princes of Baden as to other pri-
vileged reigning houses; or the Black Lady, that
Fran Jutta of the Alte Schloss, near at hand, an un-
natural monster, poisoner of her own sons from ava-
rice, now doomed to haunt the scene of her crimes to
the end of time. All these uneasy souls, flitting about
like bats, the rustle of their long, trailing garments
blanching the cheeks, the stare of their stony eyes
curdling the blood in the beholder's veins.
As a contrast, the wonder-working images, the
blessed Liebfrau of the cloister of Lichtenthal, to
whose shelter the terrified nuns flocked as a band of
lawless marauders were storming at their cell doors,
when the Lady Superior laid her bunch of keys on
. her patroness's lap, and the latter stepped down
from the altar, met the miscreants on the threshold,
and sent them trooping back, dismayed, clown hearted,
like so many hounds with their tails between their
legs; or, again, the same blissful apparition, and
the unspeakable comfort she brought to Catherine
of Austria, widow of Charles I. of Baden, when the
pestilence had struck clown her Margrave at Pforz-
hehn, and, in the terror of that all-sweeping morta-
lity, she had taken refuge in the highest turret of
her stronghold at Ilohenbaden, all alone, shun-
- ning contact with the scene of desolation around.
With uplifted hands, and deep faith in her heart,
the noble lady called upon Heaven, not for herself,
but for her people, and for the two blooming infants
now sleeping before her iu a gap between the battle-
ments, and the Queen of Heaven came down and
• smiled, and the clouds around her gathered in fan-
tastic shapes, bodying forth on her right the hot
springs of Baden, on her left the cloister of Lichten-
thal. The Margravine read the portent aright. The
hot springs were let free•to flood the town and the
country around. The plague was washed off and
the two babes were set apart for God's service ; Mar-
garet grew up to be -Abbess. of Liebtentalil, Frdderic
took orders and died Bishop of Utrecht.
rhen we have the water-wonders,—mermaids or
water-witches as plentiful as trout or carp in any of
the dark pools everywhere dotting the deep gorges
of the Black Mountain region—bottomless in the
belief of these innocent rustics. Alone or in crowds
nymphs emerge froul those still waters
these lovely
by moonlight, with starry diadems on their heads
their knees, and white
and silver veils on their shoulders, with harps on
hands neshtrumngtsmloarnin
or° un-
wary(Ay at
their feet, dangerous to the
stray
brings
that
whomlitllw-lausckwistlddsueenhlvan
swain
in sight
of their charms.
Peter of Stauffenberg fell in once on the margin of
the Wildsee. The spell was over him, he offered
love and marriage, and was accepted on condition
that on his ever swerving from his allegiance his life
should be the forfeit. The happy mortal and the
mysterious being lived together, :man and wife;
for a year and a clay, and at the end :of that
period their union was even blessed with an
infant ; but by that time the Knight had
wearied of the sameness- of his castle life ; love
of adventure drove him to battle-fields, where
his valour restored the sinking fortunes of
Burgundy: Ile won the good graces of the Duke,
he won the hands .of the Duke's daughter Aldc-
gunde ; but on his wedding-day, as he was walking
with his bride along the bank of the stream in the
Duke's garden, the myrtle wreath from Aldegunde's
brow fell into the water ; the gallant knight plunged
iu to the rescue, the waters closed over his head,
and he was out of sight for evermore.
Not a fern out of so many talcs of wonder do not
go beyond the boundaries of natural occurrences,
and these have by no means the least enduring
charm. Take, as an instance, the Crucifix in the
Baden Friedhof. We have all read of that stone

figure at Andernach which used to come down from
the Cross in the night, went and did a good turn in
behalf of some poor family, withdrew at cockcrow,
and nailed itself back in its place, demure and still
as if it had never stirred from the spot. To the
Baden Crucifix a far more touching legend is at-
tached. The stonemason who carved it had buried
on this spot a daughter who was seduced by a false
friend, and whose heart was broken. He lured the
betrayer to his daughter's grave, and there slew
him. When his deed of blood and revenge was to
be atoned for on the scaffold, he acknowledged the
justice of his sentence, but asked for so long a
respite as would enable him to leave behind him a
token of his skill no less than a remembrance of
his guilt! elle boon was granted; the artist shut
himself up in his chamber, and on the features of
his Redeemer he cut in stone the very anguish of ,
his own prolonged agony. The work was ready ;
wondering crowds gathered to see the awful per-
formance, the Margrave of Baden among the num-
ber, who would do no less than tender the work-
man his free pardon. But the man shook his head.
The pang of death was already past ; the feeble
thread of existence that had borne him up in that
long ordeal of terror and remorse snapped, and he
was laid on the morrow under the sod to repose
with his child and his child's destroyer, under the
very sod on which his monument was reared for the
wonder and worship of after ages.
Naval and Military Intelligence. •

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.