ng untoward happen.

Guntram wondered at his words, but at length fell asleep. Some hours
later he was awakened suddenly by the rustling of a woman's gown and the
soft strains of a harp, which seemed to come from the adjoining room.
The knight rose quietly and looked through a chink in the door, when
he beheld a lady dressed in white and bending over a harp of gold. He
recognized in her the original of the veiled portrait, and saw that even
the lovely picture had done her less than justice. For a moment he stood
with hands clasped in silent admiration. Then with a low sound, half
cry, half sob, she cast the harp from her and sank down in an attitude
of utter despondency. The knight could bear it no longer and (quite
forgetting his paternoster) he flung open the door and knelt at her
feet, raising her hand to his lips. Gradually she became composed. "Do
you love me, knight?" she said. Guntram swore that he did, with many
passionate avowals, and the lady slipped a ring on his finger. Even as
he embraced her the cry of a screech-owl rang through the night air,
and the maiden became a corpse in his arms. Overcome with terror,
he staggered through the darkness to his room, where he sank down
unconscious.

On coming to himself again, he thought for a moment that the experience
must have been a dream, but the ring on his hand assured him that the
vision was a ghastly reality. He attempted to remove the gruesome token,
but he found to his horror that it seemed to have grown to his finger.

In the morning he related his experience to the attendant. "Alas, alas!"
said the old man, "in three times nine days you must die."

Guntram was quite overcome by the horror of his situation, and seemed
for a time bereft of his senses. Then he had his horse saddled,
and galloped as hard as he was able to Falkenburg. Liba greeted him
solicitously. She could see that he was sorely troubled, but forbore to
question him, preferring to wait until he should confide in her of his
own accord. He was anxious that their wedding should be hastened, for he
thought that his union with the virtuous Liba might break the dreadful
spell.

When at length the wedding day arrived everything seemed propitious,
and there was nothing to indicate the misfortune which threatened the
bridegroom. The couple approached the altar and the priest joined their
hands. Suddenly Guntram fell to the ground, foaming and gasping, and was
carried thence to his home. The faith