Legends -- France; Legends -- Germany; Legends -- Rhine River Valley
When the injured woman learned the true character of her lover her love
changed to a frenzied hate. Her whole being became absorbed in a
desire for revenge, her thoughts by day being occupied by schemes for
compassing his death, her dreams by night being reddened by his blood.
At last she plotted with a band of ruffians, promising them great
rewards if they would assassinate her enemy. They agreed and, waylaying
the noble, stabbed him fatally in the name of the woman he had wronged
and slighted, then, carrying the hacked body into the village church,
they flung it at the foot of the altar.
That night the nun, in a passion of insensate fury, stole into the holy
place. Down the length of the church she dragged her lover's corpse,
and out into the graveyard, tearing open his body and plucking his heart
therefrom with a fell purpose that never wavered. With a shriek she
flung it on the ground and trampled upon it in a ruthlessness of hate
terrible to contemplate.
And the legend goes on to tell that after her death she still pursued
her lover with unquenchable hatred. It is said that when the midnight
bell is tolling she may yet be seen seeking his tomb, from which she
lifts a bloody heart. She gazes on it with eyes aflame, then, laughing
with hellish glee, flings it three times toward the skies, only to let
it fall to earth, where she treads it beneath her feet, while from
her thick white veil runnels of blood pour down and all around dreary
death-lights burn and shed a ghastly glow upon the awful spectre.
Ingelheim: Charlemagne the Robber
Among the multitude of legends which surround the name of Charlemagne
there can hardly be found a quainter or more interesting one than that
which has for a background the old town of Ingelheim (Angel's Home),
where at one time the Emperor held his court.
It is said that one night when Charlemagne had retired to rest he was
disturbed by a curious dream. In his vision he saw an angel descend on
broad white pinions to his bedside, and the heavenly visitant bade
him in the name of the Lord go forth and steal some of his neighbour's
goods. The angel warned him ere he departed that the speedy forfeiture
of throne and life would be the penalty for disregarding the divine
injunction.
The astonished Emperor pondered the strange message, but finally
decided that it was but a dream, and he turned on his side to finish his
interrupted slumbers. Scarcely had he closed his eyelids, however,
ere the divine messenger was again at his side, exhorting him in
still stronger terms to go forth and steal ere the night passed, and
threatening him this time with the loss of his soul if he failed to
obey.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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