Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 1.djvu/415

ST. IDA 401 Everard, count of Spanheim, and in 1190 took the veil at Bingen, where her sister, B. Margaret (10), was abbess. Both are called "Saints" by Bncolinns and Menar- dus. Ida is sometimes confounded with St. Ida (G). St. Ida (8), May 30, Nov. 3, 5, 115(5-1226 (Idda, Ideburga, Itha, Itta, JuDiTHA, Yda, Ydd), patron of Fischin- gen, is represented (1) reading by the light of flames proceeding from the points of the horns of a stag : the stag attended to give light in her cave, and accompanied her to her convent after- wards; (2) a raven flying away with her ring. The story told by Ott is this— - Count Henry of Toggenburg (also spelt Tockenburg, Dockenbourg, and in other ways) was a handsome man and a brave knight, and had many castles and villages at his home in Switzerland; his only drawback was a violent temper. Once, on his homeward journey from a tournament at Cologne, he rested at the castle of Eirchberg, in Swabia, the resi- dence of Count Hartmann, founder of the ^Eunous Benedictine monastery of Wiblingen. Hartmann had a beautiful daughter, Ida. Henry married Ida in 1197, and they went to his castle of Toggenburg. As ofken as her household duties would permit, Ida went to church in the cloister at Fischingen, or to the chapel of the B. Y. Mary in the meadow. She had no children, but she made herself the mother of the poor, and ruled her people wisely and kindly. All loved and honoured her except one page, an Italian, called Domenic, who attended on Count Henry, and had won his master's confidence by flattery and by his cleverness and attention to every wish of his lord. Ida, unsuspecting, treated him with the same kindness as the others. He flattered himself that she would return his guilty passion for her. One day he dared to avow his feeling, and was answered with such anger and contempt that his wicked love changed into deadly hate, and he deter- mined to revenge himself by insult and violence. As she was on her way to church, walking along in silent prayer, whore great oak trees cast a dark shadow, he assaulted her. Another servant, named Kuno, who was hunting, heard the screams of the countess, and came to the rescue. Ida remembered her husband's temper, and knew he would kill the wretch, so she dissuaded Euno from dragging him into the presence of his master, and bade Domenic repent and be converted. After this she always showed great favour to Euno. The villain saw it, and put into the count's head the wicked suspicion that she favoured Euno more than became her rank and her duty. Ida soon perceived that her husband was jealous, but she did not know of whom, and did not suspect that Domenic was conspiring against her. She sat in her own room, sewing, and cried, and looked across the dark woods towards the distant home of her parents, who all this time supposed that their daughter was the happiest of wives. One day, in spring, a fancy seized her to take out her wedding dress and air it with some beautiful things her husband had given her. She dusted her jewels, and spread them on a table at the window, sighed over her wedding ring, and laid it beside the others. Then she went to see to some household matters, and towards evening she folded the clothes again, and put them back in the shelves, and re- placed the jewels in the casket. But, oh, horror I her wedding ring was gone I She searched the whole room in vain. A raven had stolen it. Not very long afterwards, Euno went hunting. After many hours of vain search for game, he was returning home, disappointed, when a large nest attracted his attention. He climbed the tree and found it to be a raven's nest, and in it he saw a sparkling ring. He knew the thievish ways of ravens. He did not know whose ring it was, for Ida had not told the household of her loss. He put it on his finger, took the young ravens, and came down from the tree. When he got home he showed it to his fellow- servants. Domenic recognized it and laid a fiendish plot. He went and told the count that now there was proof of the guilty intimacy of the countess wiiK 1 i