Irving, Washington / 2008-11-11 00:00:00

1819-20
THE SKETCH BOOK
THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM
A TRAVELLER'S TALE*
by Washington Irving
* The erudite reader, well versed in good-for-nothing lore, will
perceive that the above Tale must have been suggested to the old Swiss
by a little French anecdote, a circumstance said to have taken place
at Paris.
He that supper for is dight,
He lyes full cold, I trow, this night!
Yestreen to chamber I him led,
This night Gray-Steel has made his bed.
SIR EGER, SIR GRAHAME, AND SIR GRAY-STEEL.
ON THE summit of one of the heights of the Odenwald, a wild and
romantic tract of Upper Germany, that lies not far from the confluence
of the Main and the Rhine, there stood, many, many years since, the
Castle of the Baron Von Landshort. It is now quite fallen to decay,
and almost buried among beech trees and dark firs; about which,
however, its old watch-tower may still be seen, struggling, like the
former possessor I have mentioned, to carry a high head, and look down
upon the neighboring country.
The baron was a dry branch of the great family of Katzenellenbogen,*
and inherited the relics of the property, and all the pride of his
ancestors. Though the warlike disposition of his predecessors had much
impaired the family possessions, yet the baron still endeavored to
keep up some show of former state.
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Parts: 1