vows, the Virgin Mary appeared to Abbot
Bernard and told him he had acted unwisely in parting the bride and
bridegroom in this wise, for was not Eldegarda wholly innocent? The
Churchman instantly returned to Otto's presence, and on the following
day the Count and his wife were duly remarried. The newly found piety
of the penitent found expression in the building and endowment of a
religious edifice upon his domains.

So it was, then, that the Abbey of Rosebach was founded, and though
the ruthless hand of time has levelled its walls, the strange events to
which they owed their being long ago are still remembered and recited in
the lovely vale of Hammerstein; for, though all human things must needs
perish, a good story long outlives them all.

The Dancers of Ramersdorf

At Ramersdorf every Sunday afternoon the lads and lasses of the hamlet
gathered on the village green and danced gaily through the sunny hours.
But wild prophecies of the coming end of the world, when the year 1000
should break, were spreading throughout the countryside, and the spirit
of fear haunted the people, so that music died away from their hearts
and there was no more dancing on the village green. Instead they spent
the hours praying in the church for divine mercy, and the Abbot of
Loewenburg was well pleased.

The dreaded year came and went, yet the world had not ceased; the sun
still rose and set, life went on just the same. So fear passed from the
hearts of the people, and because they were happy again the young folk
once more assembled to dance the Sundays away on the village green. But
the abbot was wroth at this. When the music began he appeared among
the villagers, commanding them to cease from their revels and bethink
themselves of the House of God. But the lads and lasses laughed, and the
music went on as they footed it gaily. Then the abbot was angered; he
raised his hands to heaven and cursed the thoughtless crowd, condemning
the villagers to dance there unceasingly for a year and a day.

As they heard the dreadful words the young folk tried to stop, but their
feet must needs go on to the endless music. Faster and faster in giddy
round they went, day and night, rain and shine, throughout the changing
seasons, until the last hours of the extra day, when they fell in a
senseless heap in the hollow worn by their unresting feet. When they
awoke to consciousness all reason had passed from them. To the day of
their death they remained help