And as the group parted, Bernhard beheld Adelheid, a flush of surprise upon her cheek, coming towards him down the line of eager, questioning maidens. The tide of sorrow which had gone nigh to drown his soul, turned to a flood of great joy, which swept every fear and doubt away. He sprang forward and cried, as he fell at her feet—
“Oh love, my love! that I thought by my folly to have lost! But thanks be to Heaven, who in the fear of the loss hath made certain to me the joy of the gain! Here, before all men, I own my love, too long hidden, and offer thee my heart and my life.”
So, in all the company, the brief moment of sorrow was turned to sweet rejoicing, and most of all in the hearts of Bernhard and Adelheid, who never to their lives’ end had any need to regret the events of that mysterious night.
So soon as she heard the story, and that no one else was missing from the castle, Adelheid felt sure she knew who the mysterious lady had been; it was the “white lady” of her dreams and fancies, the guardian of the maidens of Kynsburg, who had thus found a way to end her long uncertainty. But the question was not so easily answered for the rest of the company, and some doubting spirits insisted that the well should be explored. Blazing torches were lowered into its dark, silent depths, and long poles thrust down to sound it; but nothing was discovered, and the glare of the torches showed only the damp, moss-grown walls and the calm face of the slumbering water.
So the story was proudly added to the annals of Kynsburg, and since then many peasant youths and maidens have been quite sure that the “white lady” watches over their love-affairs, and that they have seen her wandering by night in the woods of the castle, and beside the old well.
[XV]
A LEGEND OF WALPURGIS-NIGHT
