“Otto,” cried the ghost in weird, sepulchral tones, “I alone am thy lawful spouse; through thee I lost all hopes of Heaven, and now I am come to reward thee for thy evil deeds.”  The Count turned livid with fear, and the blush on Eldegarda’s cheek faded to an ashen hue; but the spectre remained with them throughout the night.  And night after night she came to them thus, till at last Otto grew desperate and summoned to his aid a Churchman who happened to be in the neighbourhood, the Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux.

Now this Bernard enjoyed no small fame as a worker of miracles, but when Otto unfolded his case to him the Abbot declared straightway that no miracle would be justifiable in the present instance, and that only by repentance and by complete renunciation of the world might the Count be released from his nightly menace.  Otto hung his head on hearing this verdict, and as he stood hesitating, pondering whether it were possible for him to forgo all earthly joys, his old henchman, Riguenbach, chanced to enter, and learning his master’s quandary, he laughed loudly and advised the Count to eject Bernard forcibly.  The Abbot met the retainer’s mirth with a look of great severity, and on Riguenbach showing that he was still bent on insolence, the Churchman cried to him:  “Get thee behind me, Satan”; whereupon a flame of lightning darted suddenly across the chamber, and the man who had long aided and abetted the Count’s wickedness was consumed to ashes.

For a moment Otto stood aghast at the awful fate of his retainer; and now, beholding how terrible a thing is divine vengeance, he began at last to feel truly repentant.  He consented to have his marriage annulled without delay, and even declared that he himself would become a monk.  At the same time he counselled his wife to take the veil, and they parted, thinking never to see each other again.  But one night, ere either of them had taken the irrevocable vows, the Virgin Mary appeared to Abbot Bernard and told him he had acted unwisely in parting the bride and bridegroom in this wise, for was not Eldegarda wholly innocent?  The Churchman instantly returned to Otto’s presence, and on the following day the Count and his wife were duly remarried.  The newly found piety of the penitent found expression in the building and endowment of a religious edifice upon his domains.

So it was, then, that the Abbey of Rosebach was founded, and though the ruthless hand of time has levelled its walls, the strange events to which they owed their being long ago are still remembered and recited in the lovely vale of Hammerstein; for, though all human things must needs perish, a good story long outlives them all.

The Dancers of Ramersdorf

At Ramersdorf every Sunday afternoon the lads and lasses of the hamlet gathered on the village green and danced gaily through the sunny hours.  But wild prophecies of the coming end of the world, when the year 1000 should break, were spreading throughout the countryside, and the spirit of fear haunted the people, so that music died away from their hearts and there was no more dancing on the village green.  Instead they spent the hours praying in the church for divine mercy, and the Abbot of Loewenburg was well pleased.