Well

proceeded from a natural arbour close to the river. knew he the tone of those melodious voices, and his curiosity being by this time fully excited, he crept up to the arbour, and, himself unseen, surveyed the merry group. There were the six sisters listening to Cunigunda—that Cunigunda, for whom he would have laid down his life, and held the sacrifice light, and who was now narrating, with sickening distinctness and unfeeling irony, the details of his vehement protestations, his urgent entreaties, and his ungovernable disappointment, when she sarcastically declined the honour of his alliance.

The history of his repulse seemed to afford a treat of the highest description to all; but when she came to the paroxysm of astonishment and despair that followed her final answer, their glee was so perfectly fiendish, that Herbert could bear it no more, and his reason gave way before it. His eyes flashed, his hands clenched, his frame trembled, his brain reeled, and the glare of a maniac fell upon the silent rolling of the mighty waters. A heavy splash and a gurgling cry startled the sisters from their cruel enjoyment, as a dark and struggling form was whirled away before their eyes by the swift waves.

A fearful and deadly chill now fell for the first time upon their stony hearts, for they well knew what that sight of horror portended; and the recollections of the many whose hopes they had thus blighted, and whose hearts they had thus crushed, came back in appalling vividness to their minds. That terrible object they had just gazed upon would not be driven from their eyes. They still saw it, though it had passed away, and they felt that the curse of blood was upon them.

Not daring to remain on that dreadful spot, they returned to the castle in silence and sorrow, almost expecting that some visible manifestation of divine wrath would fall upon their guilty heads. Each retired to her chamber, to brood in solitude over the mournful event of the day. Earthly enjoyment was not for those who had so recently shuddered at the aspect of death, and their places at the banquet were vacant that evening and evermore.

Frightful visions and dreams of horror haunted the pillows of the sisters that weary night, and at early dawn they quitted their uneasy couches unrefreshed. Not daring to face the guests in the banqueting hall, and yet dreading to remain alone, they assembled in a remote and solitary tower, far from the tumult and confusion of the castle. With sad and melancholy hearts, their eyes sought comfort in one another's countenance, yet none dared to speak, and they heard, in silence and astonishment, a strain of wild and plaintive music, that seemed to rise from the Rhine. They felt themselves attracted towards it by a secret spell that they could not resist, and were seen walking slowly, hand in hand, along the bank, and looking anxiously about in all directions, as if in search of something. But the spot whence these mysterious sounds proceeded was occupied by no human being, and the syren voice itself seemed to be about crossing the river as they reached it.

A fisherman's skiff lay moored close by, and into it the spell-bound sisters, as if controlled by some invisible agency, entered, and pushed off from the shore. Unable to resist the mysterious influence, they floated down with the stream till they had passed the turn of the river below Oberwesel,

from which town they were observed, earnestly listening to, and apparently entranced with, the unearthly melody.

Here that sound which had hitherto hovered over their heads suddenly ceased, a violent heaving and bubbling of the waters rocked their little bark, the waves opened, and a beautiful but now angry and menacing form stood close to them on the surface of the Rhine. Clinging together in their fear, the terrified sisters quailed beneath the withering glances of the supernatural being that stood before them, who regarded them with a look of unrelenting displeasure; and that melodious voice, now rose to a threatening harshness as it pronounced the terrible doom, "LET HEARTS OF STONE BE ROCKS OF

STONE HENCEFORTH AND FOR EVER.

The boat sunk instantly with its marble freight, and the seven rocks that have remained there ever since, attest alike the hard-heartedness and cruelty of the Seven Sisters of Schönberg

172

THE MEADOW DANCE.

Nor far from Aschersleben, lies a verdant strip of land, known by the name of the Dancing Meadow,- -a name which the following tradition will serve to illustrate. Ages ago, the blooming daughters of the neighbouring burghers were often in the habit of assembling on a summer's evening, when the weather was fine, to enjoy one another's society in this enchanting vale; during which the dance was never forgotten. Besides, it was a custom for all the young brides, on the day before their nuptials, to meet here the playmates of their infant years, whose circle they were about to quit for ever, and to join in a parting dance, along with the bordering tenants of the well-known scene. And long did this celebration of youthful joys continue uninterrupted, until the time of its being profaned and violated by one of the adjacent lords of Rubburg.

A party happened to have met on the second evening of these rural ceremonies, previous to a wedding, and were on the point of escorting home their rich and beautiful betrothed late on a clear moonlight night, with all the mirthful triumph of dancing, innocent gaiety, and song. Not the whole of the guests, however, were destined to reach their home. Two of the most beautiful maidens disappeared; and, notwithstanding the most active exertions on the part of their friends and relatives, no trace of them could be discovered; their seats remained that night vacant in the domestic circle, and within

a few hours all was confusion, no less among the parents than in the surrounding abodes. Many weeping eyes were kept awake. Their lovers vowed the deadliest revenge, for they found reason to suspect, that, under the veil of night, a grievous wrong had been premeditated, and perhaps accomplished.

And in part their fears were well grounded: some domestics in the service of the chief of Arnstein becoming acquainted with the hour of the intended festival, had the audacity, for the purpose of amusing themselves, and indulging their master's propensities, to lie concealed in an adjacent thicket. Under cover of the night, they succeeded in seizing upon two of the dancers, who, happening to stray from their companions, had approached nearest to them, and they were instantly conveyed, amid shouts of surrounding revelry and rejoicings, unheard, into the neighbouring Hartz mountains, until a fit time should occur to convey them to their ultimate destination in Rubburg.

Scarcely had the sun streaked the horizon on the following morning, when a number of the citizens, whose anxiety had kept them awake, were seen assembled before their doors, to advise with the suffering parents on the best measures to be adopted. Soon they heard that a secret messenger, who had been despatched upon some private affair, and was returning, ere day-break, over the mountains, had heard sufficient to prove the forcible abduction of the young women, although he had lost the track of the robbers among the hills. There was reason, however, to conclude, that they must reside somewhere upon the Arnstein, but their haunts were still a secret. The magistrates upon this, being made acquainted with the facts, instantly called a meeting of the relatives of the abducted parties, along with all the elders of the place, while