American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1879-09-27
THE LADY OF w1NDEcK.
ALegend of the Rhine.

Last of the mighty race of Windeck,
famed for brave men and lovely women,
was Adelheid, heiress of the castle and
broad lands that had been owned by her
ancestors, and, so far as beauty went,
she was worthy of her lineage, but of a
proud and naughty temper. So proud
was she that among all the mobiles of
Brisgau she could find none whom she
thought worthy to call her lord; and
year after year passed on, finding her
still unwedded, and every year some un-
fortunate lover or other turned from the
castle gates with looks of scorn and
words of ridicule
Among those whom she had, after her
fashion, first attracted to her by every
art, and afterward repealed with bitter
derision, was young man of noble
family, but slender fortune, who had
long been in her service as page or
squire, as the fashion of those DAYS de-
manded.
After years of patient waiting and
hope, the youth ventured to declare him
self, and was received by the lady with
a storm of sarcasm that literally over
whelmed him. Stung to the heart by
her hard speeches, and by the sense of
his own folly and presumption, which
suddenly poured in upon him like a
flood, he left his mistress's presence only
to write a word of farewell to his moth
er, whose only son he was, and whom
he tenderly loved, then threw himself
into the Rhine.
A few days afterward, a woman, mad
dened with rage and sorrow, widow
whose only son had died a suicides
death, sought the Lady Adelheid in her
castle on the hill, accused her of being
the murderess of her boy, and heaped
upon her head the bitterest curses that
her outraged mother-heart could devise,
or her woman's tongue utter.
"Unloved you shall live," she cried,
..and unregretted die. Even in the
grave you shall find no peace; even there
my revenge shall follow you, and send
you forth to wander, a restless, misera-
bic ghost-restless forever!"
"Ah!" cried the Lady Adelheid,
with white face and scared eyes, all her
haughtiness flown, ado not utter such
terrible words! Have you no mercyPr
The wretched mother smiled grimly
"Yes, 1 will have mercy she said
Thus shall your spirit wander through
these very halls until you find lover as
true, as honest, as purc-hearted, rs INV
poor lost son, willing to WOO the phan-
tom for his bride. Then only you shall
rest in peace.
Under this curse, says the legend, the
Lady of Windeck lived and died. She
was the last of her race, and not many
years after her death the castle, unin-
habited and deserted, fell into ruins. Its
new owners had, indeed, made many
attempts to inhabit it, but had been alb
solutely driven out of the place by the
unearthly sounds which disturbed the
stiffness of night, and which scarcely al
lowed living soul in the building so
much as to close an eye from midnight
to cock-crow. Doors would open and
shut mysteriously, footsteps resound
through the silent corridors, lights, illu-
mined by no visible hand, suddenly burn
in the windows, while over every mirror
in the house the shadowy form of a
woman, clothed in white, with long
black hair hanging below her shoulders,
would be seen-would pass-disappear-
ing in one place only to appear the next
moment in another.
Ii happened, however, that one day
young hunter of noble family, stran-
ger guest in one Of the neighboring cas-
ties, was led, in the excitement of the
chase, up to the very gate of the desert
ed mansion. The deer which he was
pursuing, rushed by him into the very
ruins, as though it were taking sanctu-
airy. The young man, by name Kurt
Won Stein, had heard some curious
legends as connected with ruined cas-