fence that would
decorate it so well. And just as she was forming, with both of her
hands, the figure of the cross, her magic disguise fell off like a
torn glove; and when she had washed herself in the clear water of the
fountain near, and in amazement looked at her delicate white hands,
she made the sign of the cross between herself and the dead priest;
then her lips moved, then her tongue was loosened; and that name
which so often, during the ride through the forest, she had heard
spoken and chanted, became audible from her mouth--she exclaimed,
"JESUS CHRIST!"

When the frog's skin had fallen off she was again the beautiful
maiden; but her head drooped heavily, her limbs seemed to need
repose--she slept.

Her sleep was only a short one, however; she awoke about midnight, and
before her stood the dead horse full of life; its eyes glittered, and
light seemed to proceed from the wound in its neck. Close to it the
dead Christian priest showed himself--"more beautiful than Baldur,"
the Viking's wife would have said; and yet he came as a flash of fire.

There was an earnestness in his large, mild eyes, a searching,
penetrating look--grave, almost stern--that thrilled the young
proselyte to the utmost depths of her heart. Helga trembled before
him; and her memory awoke as if with the power it would exercise on
the great day of doom. All the kindness that had been bestowed on her,
every affectionate word that had been said to her, came back to her
mind with an impression deeper than they had ever before made. She
understood that it was love that, during the days of trial here, had
supported her--those days of trial in which the offspring of a being
with a soul, and a form of mud, had writhed and struggled. She
understood that she had only followed the promptings of her own
disposition, and done nothing to help herself. All had been bestowed
on her--all had been ordained for her. She bowed herself in lowly
humility and shame before Him who must be able to read every thought
of the heart; and at that moment she felt as if a purifying flame
darted through her--a light from the Holy Spirit.

"Daughter of the dust!" said the Christian priest, "from dust, from
earth hast thou arisen--from earth shalt thou again arise! A ray from
God's invisible sun shall stream on thee. No soul shall be lost. But
far off is the time when life takes flight into eternity. I come from
the land of the dead. Thou also shalt once pass through the