Page:Select Popular Tales from the German of Musaeus.djvu/73

dying one threw herself here and there; the musk-apple, which she always carried about with her, fell to the ground, she picked it up immediately, and cried, “Oh! Godmother Nixa, if it be in your power, free me from an ignominious death, and make my innocence clear.” She hastily took the lid off, there arose from the musk-apple a thick mist, which spread itself through the whole chamber, and the Countess immediately perceived that there arose a coolness, so that she felt no more anguish and heat. The cloud of vapour at last collected into a tall figure, and the lady Matilda, who now no longer thought of dying, saw, with unspeakable delight, the lovely Nymph before her, the dear little baby in her arms, wrapped up in a little chrism-cloth, and in her hand the other little boy, in white robes, with rose-coloured borders. “Welcome, beloved Matilda,” said the Nymph. “Well for thee that thou didst not use the third wish of the musk-apple so thoughtlessly as thou didst the two first. Here are two living witnesses of thine innocence, with which thou wilt triumph over the black calumny under which thou wast almost slain. The evil star of thy life has now declined to its fall, henceforth the musk-apple will not grant any more wishes, because nothing now remains for thee to wish more; but I will explain to thee the riddle of thy mournful lot. Know that the mother of thy husband is the author of all thy misfortunes. To this proud woman her son’s marriage was as a poniard stab in her heart; she believed that Count Conrad had disgraced the nobility of his house by marrying a kitchen-maid; she immediately uttered curses and execrations against him, and would no longer acknowledge him as her son. All her thoughts and meditations were directed to destroy thee, although the vigilance of thy husband always prevented this wicked design. Still she contrived at last to deceive him by the hypocritical nurse. By great promises, she prevailed on this woman to take thy firstborn son in sleep from thy arms, and to throw it, like a dog, into the water. Luckily she selected the spring from my grotto for this crime; I received the boy with loving arms, and watched over him as a mother. Thus too she confided to me the second son of my beloved Matilda. This deceitful nurse was thy accuser; she persuaded the Count that thou wert a magician; that a salamander flame came out of the musk-apple (whose secret thou shouldst have carefully preserved) and destroyed the boy, whose ashes thou preparedst into a love-drink. She showed thy husband a small vessel, filled with pigeon and chicken bones, which he believed to be the remains of his child, and he gave orders to smother thee in the bath during his absence. In a few hours thou wilt again lean upon his friendly bosom.” When the Nymph had thus spoken, she bent over the Countess’s face, kissed her forehead, and, without waiting for an answer, wrapped herself in her thick veil of vapour, and vanished away.