Page:Popular Tales and Romances of the Northern Nations (Volume 1).djvu/303

 memory, like interceding angels pleading in her behalf. His unnerved hand could not take the dagger which the sorcerer presented to him. “The blow must be struck even now:” said the latter, “shouldst thou delay but an hour, she will lie at day-break on thy bosom, sucking the warm life-drops from thy heart.”

“Horrible! most horrible!” faultered the trembling Walter, and turning away his face, he thrust the dagger into her bosom, exclaiming: “I curse thee for ever!”—and the cold blood gushed upon his hand. Opening her eyes once more, she cast a look of ghastly horror on her husband, and, in a hollow dying accent said:—“Thou too art doomed to perdition.”

“Lay now thy hand upon her corse,” said the sorcerer, “and swear the oath.”—Walter did as commanded, saying:—“Never will I think of her with love, never recall her to mind intentionally, and, should her image recur to my mind involuntarily, so will I exclaim to it: be thou accursed.”

“Thou hast now done every thing,” returned the sorcerer;—restore her therefore to the earth, from which thou so foolishly recalled her; and