y that
his well-tried skill failed him, and he was the next moment thrown under
its feet. The struggle now became desperate, for the animal had no
common foe to contend with. Before it could wound him with its tusks,
which seemed of unusual size, it required not an instant's thought in
Rudolf to draw his dagger from his belt, and the next instant it was
buried to its hilt in the throat of his adversary. At the same moment
the tusks of the boar entered his side. Rudolf breathed a few words of
an almost forgotten prayer, when the animal, uttering a dreadful yell,
gave a convulsive spring into the air, and fell lifeless, half
smothering the Baron with its gore.

Life was now fast ebbing from the side of Rudolf, when he was aroused by
the sound of a voice, whose tones even at this dreadful moment thrilled
through his soul with horror. Enveloped in a thick fog which had been
gradually spreading around the scene of the combat, he could discern the
fiend Heidelberger and his charmed circle; with an air of triumph they
chanted the following lines:--

Mortal vain, thy course is run,
Thou hast seen thy setting sun--
Told I not true when I saw thee last,
That 'ere the circling year had passed,
Under the greenwood thou should'st be dying,
On the bloody greensward lying!

Deceived once, I tell thee never
Shall my victim from me sever--
Thou hast dared to brave our hate,
Rashly run upon thy fate!
Thou art on the greensward dying,
Underneath the greenwood lying!

The hounds bayed. The moon entered a dark cloud; and, when it emerged,
its pale beams fell upon the green amphitheatre and the aged tree; but
there was no one under its shade.

The following tradition is still related amongst the surrounding
peasantry:--The Baron Rudolf, it is said, was enticed to sign over the
bodies and souls of his future offspring to the fiend, Heidelberger, on
condition that the latter would enable him to gain the person and
possessions of the Lady Agatha. The contract, however, was obliged to be
renewed at the birth of each child. Should he violate this convocation
(which he signed with his own blood,) he granted similar power over
himself; and the legend goes on to relate, that the whole of the members
of the charmed circle were persons similarly enticed, who were doomed to
a sort of perpetual labour, being compelled to chisel out their coffins
in stone, which as soon as finished, were broken in pieces, when they
were