attempt
to soothe his irate patron, revealed all--all, that is, save the place
where the fugitives were concealed, and that he firmly refused to
divulge. The priest was committed to the lowest dungeon, a vile den to
which access could only be got by means of a trap-door and a rope.

With his own hands the baron swung to the massive trap, swearing a deep
oath.

"If I forgive my daughter, or any of her accomplices, may I die suddenly
where I now stand, and may my soul perish for ever!"

The disappointed bridegroom soon returned to his own land, and the
baron, whose increasing moroseness made him cordially hated by his
attendants, was left to the bitterness of his thoughts.

Meanwhile Rudolph and his bride had escaped unseen from the castle rock
and now dwelt in the forests skirting the Seven Mountains. While the
summer lasted all went well with them; they, and the little son who was
born to them, were content with the sustenance the forest afforded. But
in the winter all was changed. Starvation stared them in the face. More
and more pitiful became their condition, till at length Rudolph resolved
to seek the baron, and give his life, if need be, to save his wife and
child.

That very day Rheinhard was out hunting in the forest. Imagine his
surprise when a gaunt figure, clad in a bearskin, stepped from the
undergrowth and bade him follow, if he wished to see his daughter alive.
The startled old man obeyed the summons, and arrived at length before
a spacious cavern, which his guide motioned him to enter. Within, on
a pile of damp leaves, lay Etelina and her child, both half-dead with
starvation. Rheinhard's anger speedily melted at the pathetic sight, and
he freely forgave his daughter and Rudolph, his hitherto unrecognized
guide, and bade them return with him to Okkenfels.

Etelina's first request was for a pardon for the old chaplain, and
Rheinhard himself went to raise the heavy trap-door. While peering
into the gloom, however, he stumbled and fell headlong into the dungeon
below. "A judgment!" he shrieked as he fell, then all was silence.

The bruised remains of the proud baron were interred in the parish
church of Linz, and henceforth Etelina and her husband lived happily
at Okkenfels. But both they and the old chaplain offered many a pious
prayer for the soul of the unhappy Baron Rheinhard.

Oberwoerth

In the middle of the Rhine, a little above Coblentz, lies the island
of Oberwoerth, where at one time stoo