“Here you can dream yourself back again in the old home in the cave,”
said the king; “here is the work with which you employed yourself. It will
amuse you now in the midst of all this splendor to think of that time.”
When Eliza saw all these things which lay so near her heart, a smile
played around her mouth, and the crimson blood rushed to her cheeks. She
thought of her brothers, and their release made her so joyful that she kissed
the king’s hand. Then he pressed her to his heart. Very soon the joyous
church bells announced the marriage feast, and that the beautiful dumb girl
out of the wood was to be made the queen of the country. Then the
archbishop whispered wicked words in the king’s ear, but they did not sink
into his heart. The marriage was still to take place, and the archbishop
himself had to place the crown on the bride’s head; in his wicked spite, he
pressed the narrow circlet so tightly on her forehead that it caused her pain.
But a heavier weight encircled her heart-sorrow for her brothers. She felt
not bodily pain. Her mouth was closed; a single word would cost the lives
of her brothers. But she loved the kind, handsome king, who did everything
to make her happy more and more each day; she loved him with all her
heart, and her eyes beamed with the love she dared not speak. Oh! if she
had only been able to confide in him and tell him of her grief. But dumb she
must remain till her task was finished. Therefore at night she crept away
into her little chamber, which had been decked out to look like the cave, and
quickly wove one coat after another. But when she began the seventh she
found she had no more flax. She knew that the nettles she wanted to use
grew in the churchyard, and that she must pluck them herself. How should
she get out there? “Oh, what is the pain in my fingers to the torment which
my heart endures?” said she. “I must venture, I shall not be denied help
from heaven.” Then with a trembling heart, as if she were about to perform
a wicked deed, she crept into the garden in the broad moonlight, and passed
through the narrow walks and the deserted streets, till she reached the
churchyard. Then she saw on one of the broad tombstones a group of
ghouls. These hideous creatures took off their rags, as if they intended to
bathe, and then clawing open the fresh graves with their long, skinny
