Mary forbade her to speak of this; and now the ferryman came across the river, and told them new wonders.  As it was growing dark, a stranger of large size had come to him, and had hired his boat till sunrise, but with this condition, that the boatman should remain quiet in his house—­at least should not cross the threshold of his door.  “I was frightened,” continued the old man, “and the strange bargain would not let me sleep.  I slipped softly to the window, and looked toward the river.  Great clouds were driving restlessly through the sky, and the distant woods were rustling fearfully; it was as if my cottage shook, and moans and lamentations glided round it.  On a sudden, I perceived a white streaming light that grew broader and broader, like many thousands of falling stars; sparkling and waving, it proceeded forward from the dark Fir-ground, moved over the fields, and spread itself along toward the river.  Then I heard a trampling, a jingling, a bustling, and rushing, nearer and nearer; it went forward to my boat, and all stepped into it, men and women; as it seemed, and children; and the tall stranger ferried them over.  In the river, by the boat, were swimming many thousands of glittering forms; in the air white clouds and lights were wavering; and all lamented and bewailed that they must travel forth so far, far away, and leave their beloved dwelling.  The noise of the rudder and the water creaked and gurgled between whiles, and then suddenly there would be silence.  Many a time the boat landed, and went back, and was again laden; many heavy casks, too, they took along with them, which multitudes of horrid-looking little fellows carried and rolled; whether they were devils or goblins, Heaven only knows.  Then came, in waving brightness, a stately train; it seemed an old man, mounted on a small white horse, and all were crowding round him.  I saw nothing of the horse but its head; for the rest of it was covered with costly glittering cloths and trappings; on his brow the old man had a crown, so bright that, as he came across, I thought the sun was rising there and the redness of the dawn glimmering in my eyes.  Thus it went on all night; I at last fell asleep in the tumult, half in joy, half in terror.  In the morning all was still; but the river is, as it were, run off, and I know not how I am to use my boat in it now.”

The same year there came a blight; the woods died away, the springs ran dry; and the scene, which had once been the joy of every traveler, was in autumn standing waste, naked, and bald, scarcely showing here and there, in the sea of sand, a spot or two where grass, with a dingy greenness, still grew up.  The fruit-trees all withered, the vines faded away, and the aspect of the place became so melancholy that the Count, with his people, next year left the castle, which in time decayed and fell to ruins.

Elfrida gazed on her rose day and night with deep longing, and thought of her kind playmate; and as it drooped and withered, so did she also hang her head; and before the spring, the little maiden had herself faded away.  Mary often stood upon the spot before the hut, and wept for the happiness that had departed.  She wasted herself away like her child, and in a few years she too was gone.  Old Martin, with his son-in-law, returned to the quarter where he had lived before.