Page:Popular Tales of the Germans (Volume 1).djvu/272

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254
THE STEALING

tirement of a cloiſter, weeps over her untoward fate, and is utterly unſuſceptible of any other affection.’ Friedbert, at this fragment of Zoe’s family hiſtory, affected an air of amazement, but was glad in his heart that he had detected the abode of his miſtreſs; ſtill more was he rejoiced at ſo irreproachable a teſtimony, from her mother’s own mouth, of the princeſs’s affection for her humble ſervant. He did not fail to extort from the open-hearted dowager, a full account of this ſingular adventure. She gratified his apparent curioſity with an allegorical hiſtory; nor had he any difficulty in unravelling the ſecret meaning.

‘Calliſta,’ ſhe related, ‘was one day walking on the ſea ſhore with her ſiſters, whom curioſity had led to viſit an unfrequented ſhore beyond the limits of their mother’s reſidence. A corſair lay at anchor beyond an eminence of the winding coaſt. The careleſs maidens apprehended no danger, when a pirate jumped‘from