of frightened crows the knights and their paramours fled, and
only a few terrified squires and servants muttered prayers over the
body of the lord of Sooneck.

THE RUINS OF FUeRSTENBERG

The Mother's Ghost

Lambert of Fuerstenberg was a hearty jovial knight, and had married
Wiltrud, a daughter of the Florsheim family. He was attached to his
gentle wife, who had just presented him with a son and heir. But an
evil genius entered the castle in the person of a noble maiden called
Luckharde. This maiden who had suddenly been left an orphan, belonged
to a family long befriended by the house of Fuerstenberg. She was only
eighteen, but possessed a lascivious beauty, very dangerous to men.

The lady of the castle, who had been in delicate health since the
birth of her child, gave Luckharde a warm-hearted welcome into the
bosom of her family, trusting that the young woman would be of great
service to her in the management of her little realm, and would repay
her kindness by sisterly love and sympathy. Luckharde however was of a
vain and frivolous disposition, and had little love for household
affairs, or womanly duties.

As the months passed, Luckharde's ripening and dangerous beauty gained
gradually and almost imperceptibly more and more influence over the
susceptible heart of the lord of the castle, and soon the day came
when he yielded himself entirely to the charms of this beautiful
woman. Wiltrud's eyes were by no means blind to the shameful
ingratitude of the adulteress, and the godless conduct of her husband.
Her weakness however, prevented her from calling down the judgment of
heaven on the sinners. Luckharde, led on by her unbridled passion, now
formed a devilish design which would enable her to take the place of
the lawful wife of Lambert. One night she slipped into the chamber of
the lady of the castle, approached the bed of the sleeping woman with
a cat-like step, and smothered her with the pillows, the poor invalid
offering but a feeble and ineffective resistance.

Wiltrud's death was deeply mourned by the household, who believed that
she had died of a broken heart. Lambert too might be grieved, but in
the arms of his raven-locked enchantress he soon forgot his deceased
wife, and in a few weeks Luckharde was made lady of Fuerstenberg. The
little boy whom Wiltrud had borne to her unfaithful husband was
hateful to the second wife, who fondled her lord, and flattered him
with the hope of the children she