Page:Legends of Rubezahl, and Other Tales (1845).djvu/191

 money, and take charge of for thee. I will then write in Italian a letter, which shall announce to thee that thy brother, who, we will say, many years ago went to the Indies to seek his fortune, has just died at Venice on his return home, and has left thee all his money, on condition that the priest of thy parish shall have the management of it for thy sole use and benefit, uncontrolled by any other person whatever. For myself, I require neither reward nor thanks; but thou wilt, I am sure, feel, that to Holy Church thou owest thy gratitude for the blessing which Heaven has thus bestowed upon thee.” The worthy woman was delighted with this plan, and readily promised to give a rich surplice for mass; the priest then weighed the gold with the most scrupulous precision, and having safely deposited it for the present in the church-chest, its happy owner took her leave, and returned home with a light heart.

Rubezahl was no less a defender of the fair than was the priest of Kirsdorf, but with a difference; the latter professing a general attachment, of course of a purely virtuous and benevolent character, for the whole sex, without any especial predilection for one more than another, which profession he had so uniformly acted up to, that not even the breath of scandal had brought suspicion upon his conduct; whereas the other, though he had a general antipathy to women, on account of having been outwitted by one