--- title: A Historical Tale., part 2 — Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains · full text with trees · page 2 description: A Historical Tale., part 2, «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: Henry had no sympathy for prayers and church-going, neglected his pale, youthful wife, seldom visiting the wing of the gloomy --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74323/19/page/2/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74323/) / A Historical Tale., part 2 # A Historical Tale., part 2 · page 2 [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74323/19/) **2** "I will seek a divorce, declare the children of the Duchess illegitimate, and we will be married."[77](../../77/ "tree and pragmatics") "Under the ban of Kaiser and Pope!" cried Eva, wringing her hands in despair.[78](../../78/ "tree and pragmatics") After a pause, in which Eva remained buried in thought, she resumed, "I have a plan, Henry, but the world shall know nothing of our secret.[79](../../79/ "tree and pragmatics") You shall give me your left hand, but I \_must die\_--I mean \_seem\_ to.[80](../../80/ "tree and pragmatics") I shall resign my office at Court and retire, ostensibly to return to my uncle's.[81](../../81/ "tree and pragmatics") On the journey I will be attacked with the plague in the convent of Gandersheim, and die in a few hours; and then there must be a public funeral; the world and the Court shall see me buried.[82](../../82/ "tree and pragmatics") I leave the carrying out of the details to you.[83](../../83/ "tree and pragmatics") Leave Wolfenbüttel on some plausible plea, and in your absence I will retire.[84](../../84/ "tree and pragmatics") Dead to the world, I will live only for you."[85](../../85/ "tree and pragmatics") Henry, enraptured, caught her in his arms. "[86](../../86/ "tree and pragmatics") My darling Eva! will you indeed do that?[87](../../87/ "tree and pragmatics") Oh! then I am happy, and could defy the world.[88](../../88/ "tree and pragmatics") Here is the seal of our bond," and he placed a diamond ring on her finger.[89](../../89/ "tree and pragmatics") They walked arm-in-arm under the silent lindens back to the castle.[90](../../90/ "tree and pragmatics") The moon had risen, and bathed the night in her mystic light; the stars looked mournfully down on the betrayed maiden.[91](../../91/ "tree and pragmatics") Was there no hand to save her from this ruinous step--no voice to warn the betrayer of his sin?[92](../../92/ "tree and pragmatics") The following day, after a stormy scene between the Duke and Duchess, Henry left the castle to attend to business, as he said, and on his return found that the new maid of honour had resigned her office and left the Court.[93](../../93/ "tree and pragmatics") The Capuchin convent of Gandersheim, situated in the Duchy of Brunswick, on the river Gande, enjoyed an equal rank with the abbeys of Drübeck and Quedlinburg.[94](../../94/ "tree and pragmatics") The Abbesses of these three mitred convents\[6\] had a seat and vote in the Reichstag, and during the earliest period of their existence the abbesses were of the blood-royal, and only princesses and daughters of the nobility were admitted into their sacred retirement.[95](../../95/ "tree and pragmatics") \[6\] \_Mitred convents\_--those which had a right to a seat and vote in the Reichstag.[96](../../96/ "tree and pragmatics") This imperial convent Gandersheim, once endowed with such wealth and power, was founded by Duke Ludolf of Saxony in the last half of the ninth century.[97](../../97/ "tree and pragmatics") It obtained its greatest power under the Ottos, and the imperial princesses were often sent here for their education, or for security in times of danger.[98](../../98/ "tree and pragmatics") To this ancient convent I must beg my readers to accompany me.[99](../../99/ "tree and pragmatics") It is midnight.[100](../../100/ "tree and pragmatics") A fearful tempest sweeps over the mountains.[101](../../101/ "tree and pragmatics") The \_Wilde Jäger\_\[7\] is out with his ghostly train, and \_Tut-Ursel's\_\[8\] howlings ring through the darkness.[102](../../102/ "tree and pragmatics") \[7\] \_Wild Hunter\_.[103](../../103/ "tree and pragmatics") \[8\] \_Tut Ursel\_--Tooting Ursula--the nun who broke her vow.[104](../../104/ "tree and pragmatics") The rain beats against the windows of the convent as if it would force an entrance, flashes of lightning illuminate the night, and the thunder shakes the old building in its fury, as if it would uproot its very foundations.[105](../../105/ "tree and pragmatics") Before a convent altar stands a bridal pair.[106](../../106/ "tree and pragmatics") The bridegroom places the nuptial ring on the bride's hand; kneeling they receive the priest's blessing, the young wife rises Frau von Kirchberg, and after remaining some days in concealment in the convent, she escapes in the disguise of a monk to Schloss Staufenburg.[107](../../107/ "tree and pragmatics") Meanwhile tidings reach the Court at Wolfenbüttel that the retired Court lady has been attacked with a virulent plague on her homeward journey, and has expired after a painful illness of only a few hours.[108](../../108/ "tree and pragmatics") The Court is aghast at the news; Henry retires to his private apartments.[109](../../109/ "tree and pragmatics") Duchess Maria, softened to hear of the lady Eva's death, sends members of her Court to attend the funeral.[110](../../110/ "tree and pragmatics") And now we have the second act of the drama in old Gandersheim.[111](../../111/ "tree and pragmatics") The convent church is brilliant with a thousand tapers.[112](../../112/ "tree and pragmatics") High on a rich catafalque before the great altar stands Eva's coffin in a blaze of light.[113](../../113/ "tree and pragmatics") The face of the dead is of a wondrous beauty, the long brown curls fall over the breast, the small white hands, marked with plague-spots, are crossed above the still, cold heart.[114](../../114/ "tree and pragmatics") The nuns, the Abbess at their head, chant the mournful dirge, and the organ weeps and wails as if it were the very soul of sorrow.[115](../../115/ "tree and pragmatics") The courtiers wear the deepest black, and are completely overwhelmed with the awful solemnity of the scene.[116](../../116/ "tree and pragmatics") Through all the ceremony the novice Alice seems like one in a dream.[117](../../117/ "tree and pragmatics") The suddenness of the thing is to her incomprehensible.[118](../../118/ "tree and pragmatics") Only a few days ago she took leave of her foster-sister, and now she gazes on the dead\![119](../../119/ "tree and pragmatics") Finally the coffin is lowered; they are about to close it for ever, when Alice, before the Abbess or the two priests, who alone knew the truth, can prevent her, rushes forward with a cry of agony and kisses the cold hands in her sorrow.[120](../../120/ "tree and pragmatics") Suddenly she discovers they are only wax\![121](../../121/ "tree and pragmatics") Conscious of the danger to herself if she betrays her discovery, she weeps and sobs louder than ever, and must be almost forcibly removed.[122](../../122/ "tree and pragmatics") They bear the coffin to the convent vaults, the courtiers return to the Court to picture the marvellous beauty of the departed Eva to the Duke and Duchess.[123](../../123/ "tree and pragmatics") In the meantime novice Alice is no novice.[124](../../124/ "tree and pragmatics") She ponders over the matter in secret.[125](../../125/ "tree and pragmatics") "Eva is not dead," she reflects. "[126](../../126/ "tree and pragmatics") Where can she be?[127](../../127/ "tree and pragmatics") What can it all mean?[128](../../128/ "tree and pragmatics") I will find her if I walk every inch of the Harz mountains.[129](../../129/ "tree and pragmatics") I will disguise myself as an old woman, a seller of lace; thus I can gain admittance everywhere.[130](../../130/ "tree and pragmatics") But I must get away from here without exciting suspicion."[131](../../131/ "tree and pragmatics") As the result of these soliloquies, Alice informs the Abbess she must relinquish her plan of becoming a nun, at least for the present, and go to her mother, who must be in great distress at the sudden loss of her nursling.[132](../../132/ "tree and pragmatics") But on her arrival at the castle of Wolfenbüttel, Magda has disappeared, and no one knows what has become of her.[133](../../133/ "tree and pragmatics") For a period of four years, Alice, disguised in a grey wig, with an artificial hump on her back, sought Eva, wandering from castle to castle, from town to town through the mountains; but without discovering the faintest trace of either Eva or nurse Magda.[134](../../134/ "tree and pragmatics") The princes of the House of Brunswick were, as I said before, passionate lovers of the chase, and Henry the Younger was no exception to his race.[135](../../135/ "tree and pragmatics") But suddenly this penchant increased to such an extent that his time was almost entirely absorbed with this pastime.[136](../../136/ "tree and pragmatics") He began to be absent weeks and even months in his favourite Harz.[137](../../137/ "tree and pragmatics") At length these long absences excited the suspicions of the Court and the Duchess.[138](../../138/ "tree and pragmatics") Tales came to their ears of a lady in white, who had been seen at the deserted old Staufenburg.[139](../../139/ "tree and pragmatics") Spies were sent out several times to watch the castle, but no discovery was made.[140](../../140/ "tree and pragmatics") Eva remained dead for the world.[141](../../141/ "tree and pragmatics") Alice, who heard these reports, knowing what others did not, that Eva was not in the vaults of the convent at Gandersheim, resolved to make a visit to the Staufenburg, thinking very likely the reports of the lady in white were not simply wild mountain tales, but having some truth in them.[142](../../142/ "tree and pragmatics") This she felt to be all the more probable, since in all her ramblings from town to castle no trace of the lost girl was to be found.[143](../../143/ "tree and pragmatics") [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74323/19/) **2** - ← previous: [page 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74323/19/) - next →: [A Historical Tale., part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74323/20/) - ↑ back to [Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74323/)