Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-04-01
Iales aud $ketehes.
THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM.
By WASHINGTON IRSING.
He that supper for is Digit,
He Ives full cold, trow. this night!
Yestreeu to chamber / him led.


Sir Eoer. Sir Grahame and Sir Grdy-sfeet
On the summit of one of the heights OF
the Odenwald, a wild and romantic tract
of Upper Germany, that lies not far from
the confluence OF the Main and the Kline,
there stood not many years since, the cas-
tie of the Baron Won Landshort. 1t IS now
quite fallen to decay. and almost buried
among beech trees and dark frs; above
which, however. its old watch-tower may
still be struggling. like the former pos
SCISSOR have mentioned. to carry high
head, and look down upon nelghborlng
country.
The Baron was dry branch of the great
family of ACKNOWLEDGMENT. and inherited
the relics of the property and all the pride
of his ancestors. Though the warike dis
position of his predecessors had much i'm
paired the family possessions, yet the
Baron still endeavored to keep up some
show of former state. The times were
peaceable, and the German mobiles in gen
eral had abandoned their inconvenient old
castles, perched like eagles nests among
the mountains, and had built more con-
venient residences IN the valleys; still the
Baron remained proudly drawn up in his
little fortress, cherishing with hereditary
inveteracy all the old family feuds SO that
be was en- i'll terms with some of his near
est neighbors, on account OF disputes that
had happened between their great-great-
grand fathers.
The Baron had but one child. daugh-
ter; but Nature, when she grants but one
child always compensates by making it a
prodigy; and so it was with the daughter
of the Baron. All the nurses. gossips and
country cousins assured her father that she
had not her equal for beauty in all Ger
many; and who should know better than
they? She had, moreover, been brought
up with great care, under the superinten-
dence of two maiden aunts, who had spent
some years of their early life at one of the
little German courts, and were skilled in
all the branches of knowledge necessary
to the education of fine lady Under
their instructions she became a miracle of
accomplishments.
By the time she was eighteen she could
embroider to admiration, and had worked
whole histories of the saints in tapestry,
with such strength of expression in their
countenances that they looked like 80 many
souls in purgatory. She could read with.
out much difficulty, and had spelled her
way through several church legends and
almost all the chivalric wonders of the
Heldenbuch. She had even made consid-
cradle proficiency in writing, could sign
her name without missing letter, and so
legibly that her aunts could read it with
out spectacles. She excelled in making
little good-tor-nothing lady-like knicknacks
of all kinds; was versed in the most alb
struse dancing of the day; played num-
Der of airs on the harp and guitar; and
knew all the tender ballads of the Mime
lieders by heart.
Her aunts, too, having been great flirts
and coquettes in their younger days, were
admirably calculated to the vigilant guardi.
ans and strict censors of the conduct Of
their niece; for there IS no duenna so rig.
idly prudent and inexorably decorous as q
superannuated coquette.
She was rarely suffered out of theil
sight: never went beyond the domains OF
the castle unless well attended or rather
well watched; had continual lectures read
to her about strict decorum and implicit
obedience and as to the men-pah she
was taught to hold them at such distance
and distrust that unless properly author
lied, she would not have cast a glance up
on the handsomest cavalier in the world
no. not if he were even dying at her feet
The good effects of this system were
wonderfully apparent. The young lady
was pattern of docilty and correctness
While others were wasting their sweetness
in the glare of the world and liable to be
plucked and thrown aside by every hand
he, tl,rk
lovely womanhood under the protection OIL
those immaculate spnsters, like rose
bud blushing forth among guardian
thorns. He: aunts looked upon her with
pride and exultation, and Wanted that
though all the other young ladies in the
world might 90 astray. yet thank Heaven
nothing of the kind could happen to the
heiress of Acknowledgment.
But however scantily the Baron Won
Landshort might be provided with chill
dren. his household was by no means a
small one, for Providence had enriched
him with abundance of poor relations.
They, one and all, possessed the affection.
ate disposition common to humble rela
tives were wonderfully attached to the
Baron, and took every possible occasion
to come in swarms and enliven the castle
All family festivals were commemorated
by these good people at the Baron's ex-
pense; and when they were filled with
good cheer, they would declare that there
was nothing on earth so delightful as these
family meetings, these jubiees of the
heart.
The Baron, though small man, had a
large soul. and it swelled with satisfaction
at the consciousness of being the greatest
man in the little world about HIM. He
loved to tell long stories about the stark
old warriors whose portraits looked grim.
ly down from the walls around, and he
found no listeners equal to those who fed
at his expense. He was much given te
the marvellous, and firm believer
in all those supernatural tales with
which every mountain and valley
abounds. The faith of his guests even
exceeded his own; they listened to
every tale of wonder with open eyes and
mouth, and never failed to be astonished
even though repeated for the hundreth
time. Thus lived the Baron Won Land
short, the oracle of this table, the absolute
monarch of his little territory, and happy.
above all things, in the persuasion that he
was the wisest man of the age.
! At the time of which nv story treats
there was great family gathering at the
castle, on an affair of the utmost impor-
lancet was to receive the destined
bridegroom of the Baron's daughter. A
negotiation had been carried on between
! the father and an old nobleman of Rsva.