Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive Transcriber's Notes: 1. Page scan source: http://www.archive.org/details/vulturemaidendie00hilluoft. COLLECTION OF GERMAN AUTHORS. VOL. 29. * * * * * THE VULTURE MAIDEN BY W. von HILLERN. IN ONE VOLUME. TAUCHNITZ EDITION. By the same Author, THE HOUR WILL COME . . . . . 2 vols. THE VULTURE MAIDEN [DIE GEIER-WALLY.] BY WILHELMINE von HILLERN. FROM THE GERMAN BY C. BELL AND E. F. POYNTER. _Authorized Edition_, LEIPZIG 1876 BERNHARD TAUCHNITZ. LONDON: SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE & RIVINGTON. CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET. PARIS: C. REINWALD, 15, RUE DES SAINTS PÈRES; THE GALIGNANI LIBRARY, 224, RUE DE RIVOLI. _The Author reserves the Right of dramatizing this Tale_. TO BERTHOLD AUERBACH, Esq. Permit me to offer you the fruit that I have gathered in a field peculiarly your own. Under your powerful hand the difficult ground of German peasant-life has yielded up its wealth of poetry; and if others, with myself, now reap in the field tilled by you, it is our first duty to think of you with gratitude, and to render to you the honour that is rightly yours. _Freiburg in Brisgau_, April 1875. The Author. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I. Joseph, the Bear-hunter -- II. Unbending -- III. Outcast -- IV. Munzoll's Child -- V. Old Luckard -- VI. A Day at Home -- VII. "Hard Wood" -- VIII. The Klotz Family of Rofen -- IX. In the Wilderness -- X. The Mistress of the Sonnenplatte -- XI. At Last -- XII. In the Night -- XIII. Back to her Father -- XIV. The Message of Grace THE VULTURE-MAIDEN. A TALE OF THE TYROLESE ALPS.