The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1875-05-02
THE INVASION
YEGOF THE FOOL.
fContinued. ]
CHAPTER XVIII.

fContinued.I
CHAPTER XVIII.
During the entire battle, until nightfall, the
people of Grandfontaine saw the fool, Yegof,
tanding on the summit of Little Donop, his
crown upon his head, his sceptre waving in his
hand. There he stood, like Q Marovingian
king, issuing his orders to his imaginary
armies. What feelings shook him as he saw
the Germans beaten back, routed, no man may
say. At the last echo of the cannon he disap-
peared. Whittier had he gonei This is what
the people of Tiefenbach say:
At the time of which I speak, two stran &c
ngs-sisters-lived on the Bocksberg. One
was called Little Kateline; the other Tall
Berbel These two ragged creatures made
their home in the cavern of Luitprand, go
named, as old chronicles aver, from the fact
that the King of the Germani, before descend.
lug into Alsace, buried beneath its immense
vault of red stone the barbarian chiefs who
had fallen at Blutfeld. The hot spring, which
always bubbles and steAms from the middle
of the cave, secured the sisters from the fierce
cold of mountain winters and Daniel Horn, Of
Tiefenbach, the wood-cutter, had the charity
to close the main entrance from without with
great heaps of broom and brushwood. At the
side of the hot spring was another spring, cold
as ice and clear crystal.
Ksteline always drank ut this spring, and
was not more than four feet in height; but
what che lacked in length she made up in
rotund breadth; and her wondering look,
round eyes, and enormous throat, gave her the
appearance of q meditstive mstronIy hen.
Every Sunday she bore an osier basket to tho
village of Tiefenbach, and the good people
there filed it with cooked potatoes, loaves of
bread, and sometimes, on holidays, with cakes
and other remnants of their festivities. Then
the poor creature would make her way back
to the cave, breathless, laughing, chattering,
rejoicing.
But Tall Berbel was ever careful not to
drink at the cold spring. She was bony, flesh
less q bat, and had lost an eye; her nose
was aat, her ears large, and her single orb
sparkled like a coal she lived upon the fruits
Of her sisters sallies. She never left Books
berg. But in July, when the heat was greatest,
standing upon the height, she shook q with
BRED thistle over the grain of those who had
not regularly filed KatelIne's basket; and
fearful tempestS, or hail, or swarms of rats or
ruined the budding harvest. The |
spells of Berbel were feared like pestilence {;
Tho was everywhere known as the HettSrheGS,
,r storm witch, while little Ksteline was es-
,eemed the good fairy of Tiefenbacb. In this
way Berbel lived in idleness, and Kateline
begged food for both
Unfortunately for the two sisters, Yegof had
or some years previously established his win
er residence in the cavern of Luitprand.
Thence he departed in the spring, to visit his
A.. \ T.. l
les, as far as Geierstein in the Hundsruck.
Every year, toward the end of November, after
he first sno VS., he arrived with his raven-an
vent which the storm witch always bitterly
"Again thy plants" he was wont to say, as
o TRANQUILITY Installed himself in the most
omfortable spot the cave afforded; "dO yOu
OF both live upon my domainsi am very
God to suffer two VausyTS, useless in the Val
oller of my fathers, to remain here"
Then would Berbel, aroused to fury, over
helm him with reproach and insult, and
ateline looked offended bnt he, careless of I
le storm he raised, would only light his old
Ok wood pipe, and relate his far-off wander c
gs among the souls of the German warriors, b
no, for sixteen centuries, lay buried in the
Ivern, calling them by name, and speaking to
lem as to men yet living. You may imagine I
it'll what delight Berbel and Kateline looked p
rward to the coming of the fool with his dis &
al tales.
But this year Yegof had not come, and tho q
sters believed him dead, and duly rejoiced
-er the prospect of seeing him more. Y
tho Wetterhexe had observed the o