Project Gutenberg's Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf, by George W. M. Reynolds

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Title: Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf

Author: George W. M. Reynolds

Release Date: November 8, 2008 [EBook #27202]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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WAGNER, THE WEHR-WOLF.

By GEORGE W. M. REYNOLDS.

NEW YORK
HURST & COMPANY
PUBLISHERS

_PART I._

PROLOGUE.

It was the month of January, 1516.

The night was dark and tempestuous; the thunder growled around; the
lightning flashed at short intervals: and the wind swept furiously along
in sudden and fitful gusts.

The streams of the great Black Forest of Germany babbled in playful
melody no more, but rushed on with deafening din, mingling their torrent
roar with the wild creaking of the huge oaks, the rustling of the firs,
the howling of the affrighted wolves, and the hollow voices of the
storm.

The dense black clouds were driving restlessly athwart the sky; and when
the vivid lightning gleamed forth with rapid and eccentric glare, it
seemed as if the dark jaws of some hideous monster, floating high above,
opened to vomit flame.

And as the abrupt but furious gusts of wind swept through the forest,
they raised strange echoes--as if the impervious mazes of that mighty
wood were the abode of hideous fiends and evil spirits, who responded in
shrieks, moans, and lamentations to the fearful din of the tempest.

It was, indeed, an appalling night!

An old--old man sat in his cottage on the verge of the Black Forest.

He had numbered ninety years; his head was completely bald--his mouth
was toothless--his long beard was white as snow, and his limbs were
feeble and trembling.

He was alone in the world; his wife, his children, his grandchildren,
all his relations, in fine, _save one_, had preceded him on that long,
last voyage, from which no traveler returns.

And that _one_ was a gra