Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1907-09-05
Colo Elsie


If she had examined the lock crit
ically, she would have seen that her
effort to brace her slender frame
was wholly unnecessary, for heavy
bolt had sprung forward against which
the feeble efforts of the mad woman
were wholly powerless.
"Will you open this door," shriekeG
Bertha, you transparent, fragile
creature! Ha, ha, ha! Gold Elsie, the
old growing bear that hate like poi
pom calls her. The old wretch will nor
be pious; well, let him go to hell, l
will be blessed, bless ed, blessed! Gold
Elsie he calls her, because she has
amber hair. Phew! how ugly you are,
you yellow fox. My hair is black as the
ravens wing. I am beautiful, thous-
and times more beautiful than YOU
Do you hear that, you monkey face
out there?"
She was silent from exhaustion.
Wolf, too, paused in his work of des-
truction upon the SILL At that moment
a distant bell rang out through the
evening stiffness Of the forest tree
tops. Elizabeth knew what it meant
A funeral train was moving from the
ruins of Gnadeck down the mountain
side. The mortal remains of Lila were
leaving the house against whose walls
the beautiful gypsy child had once
despairingly beaten her forehead. She
was borne through the forest, the
longing for which had broken her
heart two centuries ago.
Bertha, too, seemed to be listening
to the toIling. She did not move.
"They are tolling!" she screamed
suddenly. Come, Wolf, let us go to
church. She must stay up there among
the clouds; they will descend upon
her in the night. The storm shall tear
her hair and the ravens come and
peck at her eyes, for she is accursed,
accursed."
She began her hymn again. Her
dreadful vonce resounded cruelty
against the narrow walls of the
tower. She sprang, singing, across
the level in the direction which she
had come.
Not once did she turn toward the
tower. Now that she had turned her
back upon it she seemed not to know
that the object of her hatred was
standing above her behind the gray
stone parapet. Her scarlet skirt was
visible once ia the dark foliage. and
then Bertha and her dread companion
disappeared. Gradually her song too
died away; the gentle breeze brought
the tolling only to the hermit on the
tOwer-roof.
With breath of relief she ahan.
ooned her post of defence, which she
mad mechanically retained, and reach
ed toward the lock, but the old rustv
knob remained as motionless as under
Berthas hands. With terror she dis
covered the sprung bolt which had
oetrlended and defended her brayeIv
out held her a prisoner now. It wouId
not move for all her efforts. Exhausted
and disheartened, the girl finally gave
it up.
What should she do nowq She
thought anxiously of her parents. who
must surely be uneasy about her al
ready for she had meant to be pres.
emit at the interment, as a matter Of
course.
Inc mighty heads of the forest
ranged themselves about her, bathed
rosily here and there IN the paIing
rays of the setting sun. Far, far away
a light streak adjoined the dark
masses. There nestled L, with it's
proud castle on the height. whose
long arrays of windows bIazed I'D.
only to be finally extinguished. And
here rose the mountain with the Gna-
deck ruins, but the forest concealed
the familiar home. Not even the flag
stan could be seen from here.
Elizabeth abandoned at once all hope
of being seen, and said to herself
that her feeble cry for help m Ist
away unheard, for the tower lay
buried so deep in the woods no high
way passed near by, and who would
traverse at eventide a path that led
to the nuns tower?
Nevertheless she made one attempt
and sent a cry out into the air. How
feeble it sounded. 1t seemed to have
been absorbed by the nearest tree
top. 1t had merely aroused some neigh
boring ravens, who now flew, cawing,
above the girls head Then all was
still, painfully still again. Then Lind
hof church-bell had died away. In
the west there was still a feeble red
some tiny clouds delicately bordered
with gold: but the woods lay in deep
shadow.
Elizabeth paced in great perplexity
up and down the room of the nuns
tower. She paused often at one cor
ner in the direction of Lindhof Castle,
for that was nearest the nuns tower,
and then she raised her voice in vain
cries for help. At last she abandoned
the effort, and seated herself upon
bench which, built into the outer wall
of the tower, was comparatively well
protected by the slate-roof from wind
and weather
She was not afraid Of being forced
to spend the night up there, for it
was certain that she would be search.
ed for in the woods. But what hours
of torturing uncertainty her beloved