ou hast met yonder youth, as thou sayest, hast thou felt
this trouble before?"

"Alas! yes, my father. I remember now that at his aspect my heart would
beat; my head grow giddy, and my ears would tingle; and then a faintness
would come over me, as though it were a pain I felt, and yet it was a
pleasant pain. There was nothing in him that could cause me ill; was
there, father?"

The Ober-Amtmann's brow grew dark as Bertha proceeded; but, after a
moment's reflection, he murmured to himself--"Love! oh, no! It is
impossible! She and he! The noble's daughter and the low-born youngster.
It could not be! There is no doubt! Witchcraft has been at work! How
long has it been thus with thee, my child?" he added with solicitude.

"I cannot tell, my father. Some five or six months past it came upon me.
I know not when or how!"

"Bears he no charm upon him?" exclaimed the Ober-Amtmann aloud.

"He bears a charm upon him!" cried the witchfinder in triumph. "And ask
who bound it round his neck?"

"It is false! I bear no charm!" cried Gottlob eagerly. "She herself
denied that it was such."

"Of what does he speak?" cried the Ober-Amtmann.

"It was but a gift of affection, and no charm. She gave me this ring,"
said Gottlob, pointing to the ring hung by a small riband round his
neck; "and I have worn it, as she requested, in remembrance of some
unworthy kindness I had shown her."

"And how long since was it," enquired the Ober-Amtmann, "that she
bestowed this supposed gift upon you?"

"Some five or six months past," was Gottlob's unlucky answer; "not long
after I first brought her to reside with me in my poor dwelling."

During this examination the agitation of Magdalena had become extreme;
and when, upon the Ober-Amtmann's command that the ring should be handed
up to him, Gottlob removed it from his neck, and gave it into the hands
of one of the guards, she cried, in much excitement, "No, no; give it
not, Gottlob!"

The ring, however, was passed on to the Ober-Amtmann; and Magdalena,
covering her face with her hands, fell back, with a stifled groan, into
her former crouching position.

The sight of the ring seemed indeed to have the power of a necromancer's
charm upon the Ober-Amtmann. No sooner had his eyes fallen upon it, than
his cheek grew pale--his usually severe and stern face was convulsed
with agitation--and he sank back in his chair with the low cry, "That
ring! O God! After so many years of dearly-sought oblivion