The Delta independent., 1890-01-28
THE ENCHANTED LADY.
From the Germau,l

once there was young peasant girl,
who was the handsomest maiden in all
the country round, but she was wretch
edly poor in everything except good
blood
Her cheeks were as red as two
peonies, and one day when she cut her
LSnd with the sickle, it seemed as if
the blood would never stop flowing.
Fortunately the shepherds house was
not far off, and the shepherd was at
home. He was man who understood
more about the art of healing than ten
city doctors. He repeated charm
and. as an extra precaution, stuck a
plaster over the wound. Then it
stopped bleeding, and Of course 1t was
the charm that did it.
Three days afterward the beautiful
girl took her apron to the brook to
wash out the drops of blood which had
fallen on it. The water came down
from wooded hill, which was crown
ed with an old, ruined, castle, and not
far from its source formed wide,
deep basin, on whose shores grew
willows and alder-bushes. The maid
en- knelt down by the edge of the
water and began her work without
looking up.
|. But after while she chanced to
raise her eyes, and to her astonishment
,he saw that she was not alone. Oppo-
site her on the other side of the brook
knelt beautiful pale woman, dressed
in pure white, who was also trying to
wash some blood-stained linen. But
as often as she took the garment out
Of the stream, the drops rolled off as
from the feathers of swan; the cloth
remained dry, and the stains es bright
crimson as before. The maiden
looked with amazement at the strange
washerwoman and scarcely dared to
breathe.
AT last the pale lady saw that her
work was useless. Sadly she looked
at the bloody garment and said half
aloud:
"NIy veil have washed for three hundred
years,
But as bloody as ever it still appears"
Then the maiden was seized with
terror: she jumped up and ran in wild
haste away from the uncanny washer
woman and back to the village.
In the village lived an old wise-wo-
man who could give advice about oil
sorts of things. After the angelus,
The young girl went to her and told
her what had happened.
"'That was the enchanted lady Of the
mountain-castle," said the old woman,
and then she related what she knew of
her history.
"Many years ago knight lived up
there in the castle, and he had q wife
who was beautiful beyond all compare,
but likewise proud and vain. And
because she priced beauty above every
thing else, she had recourse to witch
craft, and committed most horrible
Iced. When her little child was bern
she stabbed it through the heart and
batllcd herself in the warm blood. By
this means she expected to win eternal
youth and imperishable beauty. AS
the penalty for her crime, she finds no
rest i'll the grave, but has to wander
| about in the ruins of the old castle.
The huntsmen and wood-cutters often
see her as she goes about wailing and
wringing her hands.
"The long veil which floats down
from her head IS dotted with red
pinks; in reality they are drops of
blood. And when the day on which
| she committed the horrible crime comes
around, she goes down to the water in
the forest TO wash the blood stains
from her veil, bat she never has sue
ceedcd and never will. They say be-
ides that she guards q treasure, which
les buried in the old castle, and who
knows, my child, but it might have
allen to your lot, if you had held
'our ground.
The young girl listened TO the old
| woman with awe.
But in spite Of her fear she ventured
the next day TO go to the brook again,
where the ghostly wasIicrwoman had
appeared to her, but the pale lady did
not come. Indeed the ol4 woman