my wedded wife? Yield her up to me, or by heaven thou diest !"

"She is no wife of thine, false knight; Elsbeth is my betrothed, my wife before God! My life and this good sword are between her and thee."

"Have at thee then, Baron Benno! This night shall one of us die."

And the two men engaged in deadly combat. As swordsmen they were not unevenly matched, each knew how much depended on the strength of his arm and his skill in fence, and both fought with the fierce determination of tigers and the coolness of gladiators. Elsbeth stood silently by, her hands raised imploringly to heaven; she knew too well the danger of disturbing her lover's attention even by a single word. Only once she interfered. Lodomar being hardly pressed by his adversary, began to call aloud, "Help here, help!" in the hope that some of the Elohmen, or his own retainers, might hear his voice, when Elsbeth stepped forward, holding her weapon aloft.

"Silence, coward!" she cried, "speak another word, and I will stab thee with my dagger."

Round and round, backward and forward went

the foemen, sometimes they paused from mutual exhaustion, and it was long ere either of them appeared to gain the least advantage, but at length, Benno's foot slipped on the wet leaves that lay upon the ground, and before he could recover himself he received, what he thought at the moment, a slight wound. Count Lodomar, encouraged by this turn in his favour, lost some of his previous caution, gave his opponent a chance for which he had long been watching—the next moment Benno made a tremendous lunge forward, and thrust his sword up to the hilt through the body of the count, who fell backward on the turf and never spoke more.

"Thank heaven!" exclaimed Elsbeth fervently, "thou hast done no murder, my Benno, Lodomar was not only thy own enemy, but the sworn foe of thy country. But what ails thee? thou staggerestthou pressest thy hand on thy heart. Holy Virgin, he is wounded! He falls!" Benno sunk on the leaves. Elsbeth knelt beside him-she put her arms around him-she pillowed his head on her bosom-she wiped the heavy drops of perspiration from his brow. The crimson stream of his life was ebbing fast away.

"Elsbeth, dear Elsbeth!" he whispered, as she bent her ear to her lover's dying lips, "I have been true, I swore that in life and in death I would be thine, I have kept my oath."

"And I too, Benno, will keep my oath. In death, dearest, will I be thine-yet a few moments, and we shall be together in a land where all is peace and love." And she pressed her burning mouth upon that of her dead lover, upon his cheeks, upon his brow; she closed his eyes, and then placing the sharp point of the dagger against her tender bosom, she thrust it unshrinkingly into her heart, and throwing her arms round Benno's body, and laying her cheek on his, Elsbeth yielded up her pure and loving spirit to heaven.

*

The next day, the three bodies were discovered in the glen. The Baron von Elohmen was terrorstricken and heart-broken, for he loved his daughter dearly. He caused the unhappy lovers to be buried in one grave, and then, assuming the cowl of a monk, spent the short remainder of his days in a convent. With the two barons perished the races of Elohmen and Birken: their lands have passed to

strangers, their castles have long since been swept away, but in the name of the glen by the Bautzener road the memory of the tragedy is still preserved ; and no traveller can journey by the highway from Dresden to Weisser Hirsch, or from Dresden to Loschwitz, without passing Murder Glen, and traversing Murder Glen Bridge.

THE KATESTONE OF ANNABERG.

T was towards the close of a short day in winter, that the miner Günzer-a decent and pious man-left his work in the

mine, and started on his way to his cottage, in the village of Frohnau, near Annaberg. The snow was falling fast, the shades of evening were rapidly darkening around him, the forest path was already invisible, the rising wind moaned dismally amongst the tall pines; and Günzer, with bent head, battling against the rising storm, hurried swiftly homeward. At a sharp turn in the road a stranger suddenly emerging from a thicket joined and accosted him.

"The snow falls fast," said the new comer, "night is upon us, the way through these woods hard to find.

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