Page:Foreign Tales and Traditions (Volume 1).djvu/385

 gled wildly with one another,—yawning cliffs opened, and from above a large figure, itself like a mountain, descended with a gigantic club, seized the peasant, and flew up with him to the height. Then a large rock fell down in a thousand pieces. The son heard the moaning of his father, farther and still farther in the distance, and for a long time lay in deep stupor. At last the hurricane ceased to war, the sky cleared up, and the boy, struck with terror, sought the chapel to recommend himself to God. At the same hour the lady at Liegnitz died. 

Warmbrun there lived a sober and industrious tradesman, who occupied a lonely house. His appearance bespoke great poverty; it was seldom that he entered into conversation with any person; and report alleged, that he occupied himself in chemical researches, with the hope of discovering the golden essence, and suddenly amassing great treasures. He would often wander forth alone into the wild district behind the Kynast, where he would bury himself for hours together in the dark woods, and only return to his hut in the twilight. To one person only had he intrusted the secret of that spell which attracted him so frequently to this wild region,—he had told him in an hour of confidence, how