“Other places were afterwards pointed out to me as the repository of this buried wealth; but no better success attended their examination. At length I resolved to set my workmen to clear out that subterraneous passage, the falling-in of whose roof had so nearly proved your destruction. It seemed to me much more probable, that I should find here that of which I was in search, than in those places which I had already examined; but it was my full determination, in case of discovering the supposed treasures, not to give them up to the Bishop, but to reserve them for the heiress of Carlsheim and Sargans, who had lately been rescued from Landenberg’s power, and was now Countess of Torrenburg. It was however less my object to find wealth which I despised, than to furnish my followers with a harmless occupation, and by restoring the concealed passage (which in our turbulent times is absolutely necessary in every fortress) to render a trifling service to posterity. The work was difficult and tedious; however, I was just rejoicing in the reflection, that a few days would suffice to finish it, when the Bishop of Coira found it impossible to delay any longer with common decency the restoring of Sargans to the Countess Amalberga and her husband. One branch of the passage alone remained in ruins, and I would gladly have completed my task; but Count Eginhart was already at the gates of Sargans. I hastened to deliver up every thing, which had been committed to my custody, and we renewed our former friendship; a friendship, which in the earlier part of our lives had been most intimate.
“It was my intention to request his permission to finish the repairs of the subterraneous caverns: unluckily, as we sat conversing together, and recalling the events of former days over our flowing goblets, he mentioned the sister of his bride, who had once made upon my heart a very forcible impression; but my passion was not strong enough to make me consent to commit my honour to the keeping of a daughter of Count Donat. The Count painted in glowing colours the happiness, which he enjoyed with Amalberga; and he finally accused me of having treated the Lady Emmeline unworthily, and of having driven her into the jaws of perdition by my rigour and contempt. As her relations have always wrapt in mystery the latter scenes of Emmeline’s life, I am even at this moment ignorant, as to what is become of Her, who was once so dear to me; nor could I understand, to what the Count alluded in the conclusion of his speech. I could not, however, allow, that I had acted by her with injustice, and asserted, with that warmth which is natural to me, that no man of prudence and honour would have acted otherwise. Our conversation grew bitter; and at length we parted in such anger, that it was impossible for me to submit to asking of him as a favour, that I might prosecute my subterraneous labours.
“Perhaps you will be surprised at my being so anxious about such a trifle, as the repairs of these vaults; I must therefore confess to you, that the real motive of my wish to examine this passage thoroughly, was nothing more than a dream; but that dream was in truth a very remarkable one.
“The first time that I broke a lance at a public tournament, it was my fortune to obtain the prize, a ring apparently of considerable value. I was pleased both with the jewel, and with the manner in which I obtained it, and never failed to wear it on all solemn festivals; till a person well skilled in precious stones convinced me, that the diamond was false and the ring itself scarcely worth three golden shields[[3]]. Incensed at having been so grossly imposed upon, I snatched it from my finger, and threw it over the battlements: the circumstance of its having been the reward of my address soon made me wish to recover it; but though my squire was immediately dispatched, he returned without having been able to find it. I had quite forgotten this ring and all its circumstances; but on both the two nights preceding Torrenburg’s entry into the Castle of Sargans, I dreamt, that in traversing the subterraneous passage I found my lost ring, and that the false stone was changed into a diamond, which illuminated the whole cavern with its radiance.
[3]. A coin so called, from its bearing a shield imprest upon it.
“I cannot account for the strong impression, which this dream made upon my fancy; yet (Heaven knows!) I set but little store upon the treasures of this world, and were I possest of all the diamonds which the earth contains, I should only employ them to adorn our Redeemer’s cross; that cross, which it is my firm resolution to wear in future against the Saracens, and other enemies of our holy religion. Yet in spite of this contempt of wealth, and of the little faith which I put in omens, the repetition of this dream struck my imagination so forcibly, that I could not rest without ascertaining, whether the vaults did really contain the ring, which I had so long lost.
“My disagreement with Torrenburg had made it impossible for me to satisfy my doubts by means of the Castle-entrance: but I thought it by no means unlikely, that there might be some communication between the passage and the ruined Abbey of Curwald, which was situated at no great distance, and was just beginning to be rebuilt.
“I was well acquainted with Father John; a worthy man, who had lately been appointed the Superior of those few Monks, who had escaped from Count Donat’s barbarity. He readily acceded to my request, and I immediately began my work.
“For several days the ruins were examined without success: yet the assurance of one of the elder Monks, that he remembered having heard (but merely as a tradition) that a private communication had formerly existed between the Convent and Sargans, made me unwilling to give up the pursuit. It was frequently my custom after dismissing my labourers (wearied with their fruitless endeavours to discover that, which they were firmly persuaded had no existence) to wander by myself, and mark the melancholy contrast made by the slowly-rising walls of the new building, with the ruins of the old one which had not yet been removed. The vaults beneath the Convent being generally the scene of our enquiries, as affording us the best chance for finding the so much wished-for passage, I frequently loitered here alone, after my workmen had left me for the evening, A fixed melancholy had taken possession of my soul: in truth, it could not well be otherwise, surrounded as I was on all sides by memorials of mortality, and the marks of celestial judgments!
—“Where,” said I often to myself, “where are now the voluptuous pleasures of the Monks of Curwald? where the pride and power of the tyrants of Carlsheim and Sargans? The grave has swallowed them all; nothing remains of them, but the memory of their crimes and the detestation of posterity!—Herman, still preserve in your heart unshaken the love of virtue, and not less the hatred of vice: be at once the terror of the profligate and the friend of the innocent and the helpless. Bring equally before the world’s eye the rights of the opprest and the crimes of the oppressor, and unite in one person the protecting and the avenging angel.”—