Page:Works of Heinrich Heine 01.djvu/101

Rh hotel, for thus he thought he could through me again resume his former acquaintance in the Faubourg Saint Germain, and his old brilliant place in society. And when I flatly refused this he called me a cursed goblin-ghost, a vampire, and a child of death'

"Laurence suddenly stopped and shuddering said, as she heaved a sigh from her very heart—

Ah! I wish he had left me lying with my mother in the grave!'

"When I prayed her to explain these mysterious words, a flood of tears burst from her eyes, and trembling and sobbing she confessed that the drummer woman in mourning whom she called 'mother' had once told her that a strange rumour current as to her birth was not a mere fable. 'For in the town where we dwelt,' continued Laurence, 'I was always called the Death Child. Old women said I was really the daughter of a Count of that place, who maltreated his wife terribly, and when she died gave her a magnificent funeral. But she was far gone with child, and not really dead. Certain thieves, tempted by the richness of her funeral attire, burst open the tomb and took out the Countess, whom they found in the pangs of parturition. She died while giving birth to Laurence. The thieves laid her body again in the tomb, closed it, and carried the babe to the