“Conrad,” she said in failing tones, “I also am to blame.  Without thy love life was nothing to me, and I resolved to die by thy hand.  Forget my folly, remember only that I loved thee.  Farewell!” And with these words she expired.  Conrad flung himself down by her side, convulsed with grief and remorse.  From that hour a change came over him.  Ere he set out to the Holy Land he caused the body of Maria to be interred on the summit of the Kreuzberg, and bestowed the greater part of his estates on a pious brotherhood, enjoining them to raise a nunnery over the tomb.  Thus was the convent of Marienberg founded, and in time it came to be one of the richest and most celebrated on the Rhine.

Arrived in Palestine, Conrad became a Knight-Templar, fighting bravely and utterly oblivious to all danger.  It was not until Acre had been won, however, that death met him.  An arrow dispatched by an unknown hand found its quarry as he was walking the ramparts at night meditating on the lady he had slain and whose death had restored her to a place in his affections.

Liebenstein and Sterrenberg

Near the famous monastery of Bornhofen, and not far from the town of Camp, supposed to be an ancient Roman site, are the celebrated castles of Liebenstein and Sterrenberg, called ‘the Brothers,’ perhaps because of their contiguity to each other rather than through the legend connected with the name.  History is practically silent concerning these towers, which occupy two steep crags united by a small isthmus which has partially been cut through.  Sterrenberg lies nearest the north, Liebenstein to the south.  A wooden bridge leads from one to the other, but a high wall called the Schildmauer was in the old days reared between them, obviously with the intention of cutting off communication.  The legend has undoubtedly become sophisticated by literary influences, and was so altered by one Joseph Kugelgen as to change its purport entirely.  It is the modern version of the legend we give here, in contradistinction to that given in the chapter on the Folklore and Literature of the Rhine (see pp. 84 et seq.).

The Brothers

Heinrich and Conrad were the sons of Kurt, a brave knight who had retired from the wars, and now dwelt in his ancestral castle Liebenstein.  The brothers were alike in all matters pertaining to arms and chivalry.  But otherwise they differed, for Heinrich, the elder, was quiet and more given to the arts of peace; whereas Conrad was gay, and inclined to like fighting for fighting’s sake.

Brought up along with them was Hildegarde, a relative and an orphan, whom the brothers believed to be their sister.  On reaching manhood, however, their father told them the truth concerning her, expressing the wish that one of them should marry the maiden.