ct that must have had considerable influence on art
and literature; the other as being the story out of which the Faust
legend was developed.

After these legends, we turn to her panegyric on the Emperor Otho.
This she opens by acknowledging her debt to the Abbess Gerberg, niece
of Otho the Great, for aiding her in her literary work with her
superior knowledge, and for giving her the necessary information
concerning the royal doings. Then by humbly likening her mental
perplexity and fear on entering upon so vast a subject to the feelings
of one who has to cross a forest in winter when snow has obliterated
the track, she in a few words pictures for us the natural wooded
surroundings of the convent. Her poem--for such it really is--then
sets forth the personal history of this monarch and his predecessors,
rather than public events, and is thus of value more on account of its
poetical than its historical quality. But one episode, picturesque in
its quaint setting, and interesting historically because its stirring
details are not to be found elsewhere, is worthy of record. It
centres round Adelheid, the young and beautiful widow of Lothair, a
Lombard king. Taken prisoner by his successor, the tyrant Berengarius,
she is immured in a castle on the Lago di Garda, and threatened with a
forced marriage with the son of her oppressor. This threat seems to
endow her with superhuman power. Bidding defiance to all difficulty
and danger, she contrives gradually to dig a secret way through the
soft earth, and suddenly finds herself free. Dawn is just breaking.
But how can she make use of her freedom before her guards awake and
discover her escape? Quickly is her mind made up. But let Roswitha
herself tell the story:--

As soon as black night yielded to the twilight, and the
heavens began to pale before the rays of the sun, warily
hiding herself in secluded caves, now she wanders in the
woods, now lurks in the furrows amongst the ripe ears of
Ceres, until returning night, clothed in its wonted gloom,
again veils the earth in darkness. Then once more is she
diligent to pursue her way begun. And her guards, not
finding her, all-trembling make it known to the officer
charged with the safe keeping of the lady. And he, struck to
the heart with the terror of grievous fear, set forth with
much company to make diligent search for her, and when he
failed, and moreover could not disco