The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-02-05
HEART OF HARE.


in their shoes.
There we're deep dungeons beneath the
castle, and In them many prisoners were
shut up. Every day these prisoners wero
led out to work, some to keep the ramparts
in repair, others to dig in the castle gar
den. Among them was an old woman
who was a sorceress. She had sworn to
be revenged on the knight for his i'll treat
lnent of her and waited year after year for
her opportunity.
One day as she was working in the gar
den the knight came walking along and
sat himself down on a bench. He was
tired, for he had just returned from a toll
some campaign. So presently his eyes
closed and he fell asleep.
The old witch, who had been Watching
him, went to a bed of peoples, and gather
ing some poppy seed in her hand crept up
to the knight. She scattered the poppy
seed over his eyes to make him sleep the
sounder, and then she took an aspen
branch and struck him on the breast over
his heart. At once his breast opened, SO
that you could look in and see his heart as
it lay there and beat. Then the old witch
laughed an evil laugh, stretched out her
bony arm, and with her hooked fingers
drew out the knights heart SO quietly that
he never even stirred. Next she took a
hare's heart, which she kept hidden upon
Der cloak, put it into the breast and closed
up the opening. Creeping away on tiptoe,
she hid herself behind a clump of bushes
to see the effect of her wicked work
The knight was not long in finding out
the change the hare's heart was making
in him. He began to SILVER in his sleep
and turn uneasiIy from side to side, for
he. who had never known fear, was begin
ming to dream horribly. He woke with
shudder and sat up. His forehead was
damp with sweat, and he felt as if his
arnor were crushing him. Over the wall
came the voices of his hounds barking in
their kennels. Once he had delighted in
the sound and dearly he had loved their
deep baying rs he followed them through
the forest after the wild boar. But now
he quaked from head to heel and fled out
of the garden for his life. AS he ran up
the stairs to his room the clang of his ar
NOR, the Jingle of his silver spurs, the
chatter of his sword, possessed him with
such terror that he tore them off, and,
f1irging them from him, sank upon his
bed.
Fear followed him even in his sleep.
Night after night the challenge of his
sen tries upon the ramparts, the barking
of his watch dogs in the court, kept him
shuddering as he lay on his bed, and he
buried his face like a frightened child in
the pillow. Night after night he wept to
think that he was such a coward and
paused in the midst of his tears to shudder
the castle roof, or the sound of the river
as it Tapped the foundation walls far be-
low.
at length body of his enemies took
heart and came to besiege him in his cas-
tle The knights soldiers eyed their mas
ter and waited for him TO give the word
and lead them forth. They could not IN
derstand why he delayed. But he, whose
heart had used to swell at the sound, when
he heard the clash of arms, the shouts of
men and the tramp of horses hoofs, fed
up and up to the topmost chamber of his
castle and from there looked down upon
the enemys force. And when he remem-
bered his deeds in time past his campaigns
and combats and victories, he fell on his
knees and clasped his hands together and
cried out aloud:
80 God give me back my courage.
Give me the old strength and vigor of
heart. Already my men have taken the
field, and I, who used to lead them, now
peer out upon the enemy, like girl,
through the highest loophole. Give my
old self back to me and send me forth
man again
As he prayed he seemed to awake from
a dream. He ran down to his chamber,
buckled on his armor, leaped upon his
horse and rode out at the castle gate. His
soldiers shouted as he came and sounded
the trumpets. The knight spurred his
y
in his secret heart he was afraid, and
when his men pressed after him and gal
1antly engaged the enemy, his fear grew
and grew, and he turned and fed.
Even when he ws.s back in his fortress,
safe behind the thick walls, the fear did
not leave him. He tottered down from
his horse, ran to an inner cham Der and
there, quite unnamed, sat down and
waited for shameful death.
But as il haDDaDad he was eafa for his
men had turned the foe and chased them
off the field. The guards cheered as they
returned victorious, and the trumpets
sounded along the battlements. But when
they came to looZl for their chief, they
found him hiding, half dead, in a deep
cellar.
The unhappy knight did not live long
after this. During the winter he tried to
warm his limbs by the big freside of his
castle, but they shivered and shook all the
time. When spring came, he would open
his windows to the sunshine and fresh air,
and one day a swallow that had built its
nest under the caves of the roof came
sweeping by and brushed the knights face
with its wing. AS if struck by lightning
the poor man fell down upon the ground
and in a short while died.
All his men mourned for their master
for they knew that nothing but enchant-
ment could have changed SO good knight.
And about year after, when some sorcer-
esseS were undergoing the ordeal for keep
ing off the rain, one of them confessed that
she had stolen the knights heart and put
a hare's heart in its place. Then they IN
derstood why man who had once been so
bold had become SO fearful, and dragging
the witch to his grave they put her to
death there.-A. T. Quiller-Coueh.