Page:Famous stories from foreign countries.djvu/12



Hans Bartsch is the Austrian writer who won the attention of world critics so quickly by the three books—Vom sterbenden Rokoko, Elizabeth Kött, and Zwölf aus der Steiermark.

In Vellhagen and Klasing’s Monthly, Dr. Carl Busse says of him: “Because he is such a creator—by the grace of God—while all that he writes is so genuine that it seems to have come from some divine source, we love this Austrian writer. No story teller, of to-day surpasses him in depth of contents, and charm and grace of surface. Few possess such natural gifts.”

The story we give is from Vom sterbenden Rokoko, a book in which he paints powerful and delightful pictures of the 18th Century.