Page:Legends of Rubezahl, and Other Tales (1845).djvu/136

 and absolutely menacing all the judges with excommunication, if they continued to refuse his demand. As soon as Rubezahl heard of this he flew off in a terrible pet to his mountains, to await the day of execution.

During the interval he made excursions through the mountains and valleys. In one of his rambles, he came upon a young girl who was reclined beneath a tree; her head, resting upon a hand whiter than alas basteralabaster [sic], sank mournfully upon her bosom. Her dres-dress [sic] was plain, but clean and neat. From time to time she wiped away a burning tear from her pale cheek, while deep sighs agitated her bosom. Ten centuries before, the Gnome had felt the powerful influence of woman’s tears; and he was now so strongly affected by the distress of the girl before him, that he resolved she should be an exception to the vow he had made to torment and injure all such children of Adam as came in his way in the mountains: and not only this, he determined to assist her in her grief. For this purpose, having assumed the form of a respectable burgher, he approached the mourner, and addressed her in friendly tones: “My child, why weepest thou here alone in this solitude? Tell me all thy sorrows, that I may see whether I can remove them.”

The poor girl, who had been so absorbed in her grief as not to have perceived the speaker’s approach, looked up, seized with alarm, when she heard herself