Legends -- Rhine River; Legends -- Rhine River Valley
God's acre was silent, but for the rustling of the autumn leaves of
the weeping willows. Stillness of death everywhere!--No answer came to
her faint cry for help.--The horror of her situation however wakened
her declining strength. She took up the lantern which the robbers had
left behind them and with feeble steps reached the entrance of the
churchyard.
The streets were desolate. The stars overhead alone perceived the
slowly moving form, every now and then resting against the walls of
the houses.--At last she reached the New-market and stood before the
door of her home. Dark and quiet it seemed. But from the window in the
magistrate's room a faint light shone forth. A quiver ran through the
frame of the poor wife, and a wild longing desire seized her to be
sheltered by his loving arms and to feel in his embrace that she had
really returned to life again.
With a last effort she seized the knocker, and listened with newly
awakened hope to the tapping sound which rang clear through the night.
A few minutes elapsed. Then an old servant peeping out of the window
in the door, perceived the white ghostly figure of his late mistress.
Horror seized him, his hair stood on end. Richmodis called him by his
name and begged him to open the door. At the sound of her voice the
old man started, ran upstairs, dashed into his master's room uttering
incoherent sounds, and stammering: "O Lord, the dead rise; outside
stands our good Mistress and demands entrance!" But the Magistrate
shook his head in deep grief: "Richmodis, my beloved wife is dead and
will never return, never, never," he repeated in unspeakable sorrow;
"I will rather believe that my two white horses will burst from their
halters in the stable and mount the stairs to the tower."
A terrible sound suddenly filled the quiet house, a noise like thunder
was heard, and Mengis of Aducht and his servant saw the two white
steeds tearing and tramping in haste upstairs.
A moment later two horses looked out of the tower windows into the
night, and shortly afterwards the Magistrate laughing and crying with
joy at the same time, held in his arms his wife who had returned from
the grave.
For many years Richmodis lived happily with her husband, surrounded by
several lovely children. Deep piety remained the motive power of
Richmodis' being, and nobody ever saw her smile again.
If you come to Cologne, reader, you will still see the old house of
the Aduchts at the New-market, with two white wooden horses' heads
looking out of the top window.
The Goblins
This story goes back to the "good old times" of which we modern people
always speak with a sigh of regret.
It was then when good-natured goblins appeared to mortal eyes, and
tried to render the life of the troubled human race a little more
cheerful. In groves and dens they had magnificent dwellings and
watched there over the enormous mineral treasures of the earth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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