Much graver, if not less mannered, is the style of Brentano's most famous story, _Geschichte vom braven Kasperl und dem schönen Annerl_ ("The Story of Brave Kasperl and Fair Annerl"). The subject is taken from _Des Knaben Wunderhorn_. In the second volume of the collection, p. 204, is to be found a short ballad, _Weltlich Recht_ ("Earthly Justice"), which tells the tale of the execution of Fair Nanerl, who is glad to die and go to her child:-- "Der Fähndrich kam geritten und schwenket seine Fahn: 'Halt still mit der schönen Nanerl, ich bringe Pardon.' 'Fähndrich, lieber Fähndrich, sie ist ja schon todt. 'Gute nacht, meine schöne Nanerl, deine Seel ist bei Gott.'"[5] In Brentano's version the whole story is told in the street, on a long summer evening, by a poor old woman of eighty-eight, the beautiful Annerl or Nanerl's grandmother. He has been so successful in reproducing this aged, pious, and very superstitious woman's language, that we seem to see her before us all the time. With consummate art, he manages to keep the reader in constant suspense by the erratic manner in which she tells her story, hurrying onward and then turning back to catch up the thread she has let fall. We are never told enough during the course of the narration to give us a clear understanding of the whole position of affairs, but always enough to keep up our interest and make us anxious to know the answer of the riddle, to get at the explanation of the story-teller's mysterious hints. Seldom have the veils concealing a series of incidents from the reader been raised so skilfully, one by one.