Hildegard and the Hainerburg.
In the thirteenth century there lived in Mühlhausen a respectable locksmith, who was also an alderman.
This Herr Adam had six sons and an only daughter, Hildegard, who was the loveliest maiden of all the plains of Germany.
The father's pride and joy were in these children, but his happiness was doomed to annihilation.
A wild and lawless knight of the Castle Hainerburg surprised Hildegard alone at home, her father and brothers being absent in the terrors of a fire in the city, and carried her off in a deadly swoon to his castle. Inexpressible rage filled the hearts of the citizens at the news of this violence, and they agreed to unite the coming week for the destruction of the castle.
But the father, distracted with grief, determined at once to rescue his child.
The very next night, the Ritter of the Hainerburg being absent on some villainous scheme, the father with his six sons knelt in the church of the Virgin, and besought her aid in his bold project.
And the petition was heard, for midnight was hardly past before the knights left behind in the Burg had been overpowered by the strong arms of the avengers of innocence, and thrust in the deepest dungeon.
They prayed again for strength, and now the walls and towers fell thundering into the moat, for the Virgin had appeared on the battlements encouraging them, and their strength had become superhuman.
And when morning dawned, the sun illuminated only a shapeless mass of ruins, and on the ruins the conquerors knelt and thanked heaven for the given strength.