Page:Terrible Tales; German.djvu/13



a Protestant clergyman, and have for the last twenty years of my life lived among the good people of F. It has been my practice during that time to keep a diary of events as they have occurred. Some chapters of this diary should be known. I have therefore taken the trouble to transcribe about fifty pages of it. After I had settled as the clergyman of this parish, I often felt a melancholy pleasure in recalling my youthful impressions. I thought especially of the happy years I had spent in D, where I had indeed lived on a very slender income, yet had the good fortune to secure many kind and sympathising friends. On this account I used to take great interest in all news concerning that place. One day I was horrified by the following passage in a letter handed to me by a friend, who, knowing of my former residence there, thought the news would interest me:—