🧚 Legends and Tales., part 3

"And mine too!" sobbed Lina in his arms.1

"Or wilt thou flee with me?2 We will hide ourselves far from our native land, where no searcher can find us, and undisturbed we will be happy."3

But Lina refused, "My oath, my oath, would it leave us peace?4 Would I not draw down thy soul to perdition?5 See, my anguish will soon be over, and I will wait for thee above.6 Give me up for this life, that God may grant us a blessed future, Lindor."7

He gazed on the ground and was silent.8 At last he gave her the hand. "9 Let it be so," he said, struggling for firmness. "10 Thou art still mine; if not here, there above."11

Meanwhile the storm-clouds had blackened, and a loud clap of thunder rolled over the heads of the parting lovers.12 Both looked up, but did not see the Abbess, who was watching them for their destruction.13

"Now let us part for this life," said Lina, who felt her soul elevated and strengthened.14

"Must it be so?15 Must I lose thee, when I have just found thee?"16

As they gave each other a parting embrace, Lina could not tear herself from her lover's arms, and cried, "O Father in heaven! give me strength in this parting hour, and forgive me if my love is sin; but if it is not sin, bless our union."17

"Bless our union!" repeated Lindor.18 At this moment the Abbess with her nuns came forward, when lo, a flash of lightning lit up the darkness; the lovers stood in a sea of dazzling light; it seemed to them they saw heaven open.19 Arm-in-arm, struck by the stroke, they sank lifeless to the ground.20 Almost unhurt in appearance, they found them under the lindens, heavenly joy painted on their faces, and there they made their grave.21

The terrified Abbess had scarcely sprung back into the convent when a stream of fire, after a terrific thunder-clap, dashed the building to ruins, out of which arose a pillar of dust and flame.22

Only a few of the nuns were rescued.23 The Abbess and her plotting nuns were found awfully disfigured; and now, it is said, the Abbess appears in form of a serpent every seven years near the grave under the lindens.24

Legends of the Regenstein.25

Who that has visited the romantic Harz has not climbed the lordly sandstone mountain, the Reinstein, wondered at its vast chambers hewn in solid rock, and gazed in silent rapture on a prospect more beautiful than that from the Brocken?26

In the year 479, according to the chroniclers, the sharp contest between the tribes of Thuringia and the Sassen[1] took place for the possession of the Harz mountains.27 McIverich, King of Thuringia, with his army thirsting for war, crossed the mountains to repulse the Sassen then dwelling on the north borders of the Harz.28

[1]Saxons.29

Near Wernigerode a bloody battle was fought, in which the Thuringians were defeated, and five thousand left dead on the field.30

Perhaps the Hun Stones still standing between Heimburg and Benzingerode have reference to this fiery collision, and the ancient burial-places discovered in the vicinity were the graves of those fallen in this contest.31

After the battle the Sassen recognized the fact that to their leader, Hatebolt, they owed the victory; and to prove their gratitude they offered to build him a castle on the north borders of the Harz, in any spot he might choose.32 So Hatebolt rode till he came to a stone mountain, which was, as if by nature, formed for a stronghold.33 It rose rugged and steep from the sandy heath to a mighty rock, and formed a row of impassable cliffs, the western summits of which widened into a table-land sufficiently broad for the site of a castle.34

And Hatebolt pointed to the row of rocks and cried in the language of the Sassen, "On this Regenstein[2] my Burg shall stand!"35

[2] _Regenstein_, or _Reinstein_, row of rocks.36

That is the fortress whose magnificent position still delights us, at whose ruins we gaze in amazement, in whose halls and chambers, almost entirely hewn in the rocks, we see the work of a far distant time, when comfort and luxury were unknown in this region.37

From these grey ruins, from the grim vaults, the half-fallen tower, and the deep dungeon, breathes the spirit of the past, and whispers many a legendary note in the ear.38 Is it the mysterious Devil's Hole in an ancient vault, with the date 1090, near which house spectres, whose employment it is ever to fill this four feet deep and wide hole with stones; or the opening in one of the largest rock walls, which proclaims a conquest of the castle; or the ruinated chapel, with its tiny Gothic door and two windows, and the aumbry still in the wall at the right on entering, the over-grown moat to the east and south, the arched entrance, the many half-broken flights of stone steps?39 All this has an untold mystic charm.40

The opening in the wall was made at a seizure of the castle, which tradition tells us was accomplished by stratagem.41

The besiegers had lain long before the stronghold in vain, had stormed the walls and the stronger rocks without success, and finally, evidently convinced that the fortress was impregnable, had raised the siege.42 And now there were feasting and joy, and the Earl von Regenstein commanded the best wine to be brought.43 But for security, in case of another attack, he resolved to lay in fresh provisions, and accordingly sent a messenger to the surrounding villages with an order to the people forthwith to bring the needful supplies.44

In a short time a troop of peasants, men and women, appeared, half-bent from the weight of baskets on their backs, and tubs of butter and cheese under the arm.45 The great gates were opened, the drawbridge lowered, and the troop entered.46 But once inside, they threw baskets and tubs to the winds, seized their arms, drove back the surprised guard, and at the same time a party in ambush rushed over the drawbridge.47 They cut down all that opposed them, but the Earl was nowhere to be found.48 When he saw himself outwitted, and that all opposition was useless, and every issue from the fortress in possession of the enemy, he caused himself to be sewed up in a bed, and let down on the north and perpendicular side of the rocks with ropes.49 The opening is still shown in one of the rocky chambers through which he is said to have escaped.50

Another legend is connected with the dungeon, which is hewn deep down in the rocks.51 A captured maiden had been imprisoned here, and had sat long in the darkness of constant night, hearing no sound save that of the raging storms that beat against the rocks.52 Escape was impossible.53 One day she lay on her bed of straw, and sought comfort in fervent prayer.54 And there dawned a distant hope in her mind.55 She listened to the storm, and heard the hail beat against the rock walls of the dungeon, hence they must be thin.56 Might she perhaps break through the rocks?57 They are only very porous sandstone.58 It is a bold thought, no sooner awakened in her mind than put in execution.59 She used the ring of the dungeon to break away bits of the rock, and worked many moons till she had an opening large enough to creep through.60 But what was her despair to find she stood on a dizzy height, and the fearful depth yawned beneath her.61 Still she did not hesitate, but began climbing down the smooth rocks, which offered only here and there a crevice to her aid.62 But Tradition, who believeth all things and never faileth, says she reached the foot of the mountain and her father's castle in safety.63