The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1878-08-14
"A dull splash far below told that the
babble was gone, and the rushing OF .
heavy robe announced the departure Of

~
heavy robe announced the departure Of
its wearer.
A moment after the horses of Anselm
and his servants clattered over the bridge
and away from the castle, followed, with
in the hour, by party of rough riders
friends and admirers Of Amalle, who had
taken up arms on the instant to avenge
the insult she felt she had received
Anselm was not overtaken before he
reached his home, and when his pursuers
arrived there they were welcomed with
such shower Of cross bow and arqueDus
ssots as left but one of them tc tell the
story. He, dying Of a terrible wound, at
Amalie's feet, when he returned, gasped
out the news, and the stern old Duke mar
shaled his forces at once to punish the
quondam lover Of his daughter, now the
mortal foe of his house.
The Baron, on his part, fortified him.
self, and gathered all his retainers togeth-
or under his banner to repulse the enemy.
The feud, thus hastily renewed, was
bitterer than of old. Battle after battle,
siege after siege, sortle after sortie, fol-
lowed in fierce succession, and the gal
liant young Baron almost always came off
victorious. The Dukes estate was seized
upon, one after another OF his castles taken
and his people put to death, until, IN q
grand final siege before Sperlingstein,th e
whole race was annihilated and the castle
left ruin. Id its battered and smolder
ing debris the lifeless forms of the Duke,
his once-lovely daughter and few brave
men at arms who had clustered around
them till the last, were permitted to lie.
The wreck of their greatness was tho
fittest sepulcher for them, perhaps.
Then Aaselm returned to his castle, far
beyond the Thranenthal, and made q
great feast at high-tide to celebrate his
victory. But all noted his weary and
absent air. A melancholy fell upon him
in the midst of his triumph, and ghost
seemed to haunt him every where, till ne
was like to lose his reason. ........ f.
In vain he sought forgetfulness in the
affairs of his estates-in identifying them
and overcoming the rudeness that nature
had stamped upon forest and hill. In
vain he visited other lands, travelling
abroad in luxurious state, and studying
how to amuse himself only. At the end
of few years he settled down to re-
signed and silent sorrow that ever preyed
upon MIN. .... ....... .........- .........s..
His friends observed that he spent
much of his time about the Sperlingstein
and its ruin, now overgrown with vines
and moss. Under pretense of shooting
and fishing, he rambled over the almost
inaccessible crags, and loitered for hours
by the still, black waters beneath.
In truth, he was thinking only of the
jeweled crown that lay in the depths of
the stream, and of her whose fair fore
head it cnce adorned. ....+
D And one bright morning, as he sat
modify in his boat gazing down into
the waves, a strange vision uprose from
an eddy that boiled between two half
sunken rocks-a vision of beautious
maiden, like to Ama!ie, with golden hair
and snowy arms, reckoning him to her.
His boat drifted slowly toward the danger
Gus current, but he needed nothing save
the exquisite song of the apparition a
slow and dreamy chant OF wonderful
cadances and weird modulations:
Where the slow and swirling waves
Wash and slap the sides of the hollow cave,
And shifting currents TREMENDOUSLY play
Upon its floors OF many colOred pebbles and
of tawny sand, ..a ID III. &
There let us dwell forever!
Down there beneath the tide.
Where fair, white-bOsomed nymphs go cir
cling hand-in- hand, ~ -. ~. =.
Their long hair floating golden green upon
the water, ..-. ... +
With glimmer of pale light, like submerged
stars
Down there, O handsome boatman!
O true love, follow mel"
The boat, or rather the wreck of it, was
found on the Jagged rocks, about which
the eddy boiled and foamed. Aselmu
was seen no more. .....
A half century atterward fisherman
got his line entangled in the rocks below
the Sperlingstein, and brought up bis
hook and lead only with much difficulty
When drawn to the surface he discovered
that the hook had caught in a human
skull, upon which was tightly fitted a
splendid corouet of gems. .. -.
The chance of the waves and currents
had placed the crown upon the head of
the lover whom it had separated from
his love. T..