Page:The German Novelists (Volume 3).djvu/91

 from abroad, bearing a heavy cross upon his shoulders, like a true penitent, with the mark of two nails in his hands, two in his feet, and one in his side, his hair all entangled like a crown of thorns, approached the castle. He entered; asked for water to wash his feet, and a piece of bread. Agreeably to our custom I prepared him a bath, and then, without the least veneration for his sanctity, I took and shaved him quite clean and close. But, alas! the pious man uttered a heavy curse, which he laid upon me in the following words: ‘Oh! thou reprobate—after death both heaven and hell—yea, the iron gates of purifying purgatory, shall alike be closed against thy soul! It shall remain a perpetual spectre within these very walls, until a traveller of his own accord, shall retaliate on thee this thy evil deed!’

“I felt myself grow sick, as he concluded the curse—the marrow wasted in my bones; I fell into a lingering decay, till I became a very shadow, and my soul soon separated from its mortal tabernacle. It remained, however, in these walls, as the pious man commanded; and in vain I looked for deliverance from the chains that bound me to the spot. I was denied the repose for which the soul pines on leaving the body; and every year which I have spent here, has appeared an age of torment. As a greater punishment I was compelled, also, to con-