Page:Popular Tales of the Germans (Volume 1).djvu/242

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224
THE STEALING

pedition; we repeated it ſeveral times, without our mother’s knowledge, till I became the victim of my elder ſiſters’ curioſity. Ah, where does the malignant enchanter, who lurks in ſecret to rob the bathing nymphs of their veil, conceal himſelf? Do thou, holy man, exorciſe the deſpiteful ſorcerer, that he may fall down headlong before my feet, out of the air, if he is an inhabitant of the upper regions; or, if he ſhuns the light, let him aſcend at the ſolemn hour of midnight out of the gaping earth, and reſtore me my property and inheritance, which can neither render him ſervice nor procure him pleaſure.’

Friedbert was not a little rejoiced at the miſtake of the charming Calliſta reſpecting the author of the theft, and did all he could to confirm her in it. He invented a ſtory of ſome prince, who for his ſins, as tradition ſays, was damned to wander about the Swans-field, where he takes a malicious pleaſure in annoying the wingedviſitants