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KATRINA VAX TASSEL 
 
THE LEGEND OF 
 
 Sleepy Hollow, 
 
 The Spectre Bridegroom. 
 
 FROM THE "SKETCH BOOK 
 
 BY 
 
 V 
 
 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH ORIGINAL DESIGNS BY EMINENT ARTISTS. 
 
 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 J. B. LIPPINOOTT & CO. !$H|N 
 
 LONDON 
 16 SOUTHAMPTON ST., COVENT GARDEN. 
 
•A) 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District 
 
 of New York. 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., 
 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
 r f J. B ■ LX P PI *I OOT TfcCQ.J i 
 
LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 
 
 STEEL PLATE. 
 
 Hudson Highlands, Drawn by W. M. Oddie, Engraved by 
 J. Duthie . . . . . . . . Frontispiece. 
 
 ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD BY RICHARDSON, FROM ORIGINAL DESIGNS. 
 
 PAG 
 
 Facing Title. 
 
 2. Portrait of Katrina Van Tassel 
 
 3. View in Sleepy Hollow 
 
 4. Ichabod's Evening Walk 
 
 5. Katrina at the Spinning-Wheel 
 
 6. sunnyside 
 
 7. ichabod and katrina .... 
 
 8. The Messenger ... 
 
 9. The Tappan Zee and Sleepy Hollow 
 
 10. Church at Sleepy Hollow 
 
 11. The Old Bridge 
 
 12. Brom Bones and Ichabod 
 
 7 
 11 
 18 
 20 
 26 
 29 
 33 
 39 
 45 
 47 
 
 SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM. 
 
 1. The Inn Kitchen — The Story 
 
 2. Castle of the Odenwald 
 
 3. The Spectre Bridegroom 
 
 57 
 59' 
 75 
 

THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 
 
 FOUND AMONG THE PAPERS OF THE LATE DIEDRICH 
 KNICKERBOCKER. 
 
 "A pleasing land of drowsy head it was, 
 
 Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye ; 
 And of gay castles in the clouds that pass, 
 Forever flushing round a summer sky." 
 
 Castle of Indolence. 
 
 N the bosom of one of those spacious 
 coves which indent the eastern shore 
 of the Hudson, at that broad expansion 
 of the river denominated b j the ancient 
 Dutch navigators the Tappan Zee, and where they always pru- 
 dently shortened sail, and implored the protection of St. 
 Nicholas when they crossed, there lies a small market-town or 
 
g THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 rural port, which by some is called Greensburgh, but which is 
 more generally and properly known by the name of Tarry 
 Town. This name was given, we are told, in former days, by 
 the good housewives of the adjacent country, from the inveter- 
 ate propensity of their husbands to linger about the village 
 tavern on market-days. Be that as it may, I do not vouch for 
 the fact, but merely advert to it, for the sake of being precise 
 and authentic. Not far from this village, perhaps about two 
 miles, there is a little valley, or rather lap of land, among high 
 hills, which is one of the quietest places in the whole world. 
 A small brook glides through it, with just murmur enough to 
 lull one to repose; and the occasional whistle of a quail, or 
 tapping of a woodpecker, is almost the only sound that ever 
 breaks in upon the uniform tranquillity. 
 
 I recollect that, when a stripling, my first exploit in squirrel- 
 shooting was in a grove of tall walnut-trees that shades one 
 side of the valley. I had wandered into it at noon-time, when 
 all nature is peculiarly quiet, and was startled by the roar of 
 my own gun, as it broke the Sabbath stillness around, and was 
 prolonged and reverberated by the angry echoes. If ever I 
 should wish for a retreat, whither I might steal from the world 
 and its distractions, and dream quietly away the remnant of a 
 troubled life, I know of none more promising than this little 
 valley. 
 
 From the listless repose of the place, and the peculiar charac- 
 ter of its inhabitants, who are descendants from the original 
 Dutch settlers, this sequestered glen has long been known by 
 the name of Sleepy Hollow, and its rustic lads are called the 
 Sleepy Hollow Boys throughout all the neighboring country. 
 A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and 
 to pervade the very atmosphere. Some say that the place was 
 
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 9 
 
 bewitched by a high German doctor, during the early days of 
 the settlement; others, that an old Indian chief, the prophet or 
 wizard of his tribe, held his powwows there before the country 
 was discovered by Master Hendrick Hudson. Certain it is, the 
 place still continues under the sway of some witching power, 
 that holds a spell over the minds of the good people, causing 
 them to walk in a continual reverie. They are given to all 
 kinds of marvellous beliefs; are subject to trances and visions; 
 and frequently see strange sights, and hear music and voices in 
 the air. The whole neighborhood abounds with local tales, 
 haunted spots, and twilight superstitions : stars shoot and me- 
 teors glare oftener across the valley than - in any other part 
 of the country, and the nightmare, with her whole nine fold, 
 seems to make it the favorite scene of her gambols. 
 
 The dominant spirit, however, that haunts this enchanted 
 region, and seems to be commander-in-chief of all the powers of 
 the air, is the apparition of a figure on horseback without a 
 head. It is said by some to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper, 
 whose head had been carried away by a cannon-ball, in some 
 nameless battle during the revolutionary war ; and who is ever 
 and anon seen by the country folk, hurrying along in the gloom 
 of night, as if on the wings of the wind. His haunts are not 
 confined to the valley, but extend at times to the adjacent 
 roads, and especially to the vicinity of a church at no great dis- 
 tance. Indeed, certain of the most authentic historians of those 
 parts, who have been careful in collecting and collating the 
 floating facts concerning this spectre, allege that the body of 
 the trooper having been buried in the churchyard, the ghost 
 rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head; 
 and that the rushing speed with which he sometimes passes 
 along the Hollow, like a midnight blast, is owing to his being 
 
10 THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 belated, and in a hurry to get back to the churchyard before 
 daybreak. 
 
 Such is -the general purport of this legendary superstition, 
 which has furnished materials for many a wild story in that 
 region of shadows; and the spectre is known, at all the coun- 
 try firesides, by the name of the Headless Horseman of Sleepy 
 Hollow. 
 
 It is remarkable that the visionary propensity I have men- 
 tioned is not confined to the native inhabitants of the valley, 
 but is unconsciously imbibed by every one who resides there 
 for a time. However wide awake they may have been before 
 they entered that sleepy region, they are sure, in a little while, 
 to inhale the witching influence of the air, and begin to 
 grow imaginative — to dream dreams, and see apparitions. 
 
 I mention this peaceful spot with all possible laud; for it is 
 in such little retired Dutch valleys, found here and there 
 embosomed in the great State of New York, that population, 
 manners, and customs, remain fixed ; while the great torrent of 
 migration and improvement, which is making such incessant 
 changes in other parts of this restless country, sweeps by them 
 unobserved. They are like those little nooks of still water 
 which border a rapid stream ; where we may see the straw and 
 bubble riding quietly at anchor, or slowly revolving in their 
 mimic harbor, undisturbed by the rush of the passing current. 
 Though many years have elapsed since I trod the drowsy 
 shades of Sleepy Hollow, yet I question whether I should not 
 still find the same trees and the same families vegetating in its • 
 sheltered bosom. 
 
 In this by -place of nature, there abode, in a remote period of 
 American history, that is to say, some thirty years since, a. 
 worthy wight of the name of Ichabod Crane; who sojourned,. 
 
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 
 
 11 
 
 or, as he expressed it, " tarried," in Sleepy Hollow, for the pur- 
 pose of instructing the children of the vicinity. He was a 
 native of Connecticut; a State which supplies the Union with 
 pioneers for the mind as well as for the forest, and sends forth 
 yearly its legions of frontier woodsmen and country school- 
 masters. The cognomen of Crane was not inapplicable to his 
 person. He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoul- 
 
22 THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 ders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his 
 sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole 
 frame most" loosely hung together. His head was small, and 
 flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long 
 snipe nose, so that it looked like a weather-cock, perched upon 
 his spindle neck, to tell which way the wind blew. To see him 
 striding along the profile of a hill on a windy day, with his 
 clothes bagging and fluttering about him, one might have mis- 
 taken him for the genius of famine descending upon the earth, 
 or some scarecrow eloped from a corn-field. 
 
 His school-house was a low building of one large room, rude- 
 ly constructed of logs ; the windows partly glazed, and partly 
 patched with leaves of old copy-books. It was most ingenious- 
 ly secured at vacant hours, by a withe twisted in the handle 
 of the door, and stakes set against the window-shutters ; so that, 
 though a thief might get in with perfect ease, he would find 
 some embarrassment in getting out; an idea most probably 
 borrowed by the architect, Yost Yan Houten, from the mystery 
 of an eel-pot. The school-house stood in a rather lonely but 
 pleasant situation, just at the foot of a woody hill, with a brook 
 running close by, and a formidable birch-tree growing at one 
 end of it. From hence the low murmur of his pupils' voices, 
 conning over their lessons, might be heard in a drowsy sum- 
 mer's day, like the hum of a bee-hive; interrupted now and 
 then by the authoritative voice of the master, in the tone of 
 menace or command ; or, peradventure, by the appalling sound 
 of the birch, as he urged some tardy loiterer along the flowery 
 path of knowledge. Truth to say, he was a conscientious man, 
 and ever bore in mind the golden maxim, " Spare the rod and 
 spoil the child." — Ichabod Crane's scholars certainly were not 
 spoiled. 
 
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. jg 
 
 I would not have it imagined, however, that he was one 
 of those cruel potentates of the school, who joy in the smart 
 of their subjects; on the contrary, he administered justice with 
 discrimination rather than severity; taking the burden off the 
 backs of the weak, and laying it on those of the strong. Your 
 mere puny stripling, that winced at the least flourish of the 
 rod, was passed by with indulgence; but the claims of justice 
 were satisfied by inflicting a double portion on some little, 
 tough, wrong-headed, broad-skirted Dutch urchin, who sulked 
 and swelled, and grew dogged and sullen beneath the birch. 
 All this he called "doing his duty by their parents;" and he 
 never inflicted a chastisement without following it by the as- 
 surance, so consolatory to the smarting urchin, that " he would 
 remember it, and thank him for it the longest day he had to 
 live." 
 
 When school hours were over, he was even the companion 
 and playmate of the larger boys; and on holiday afternoons 
 would convoy some of the smaller ones home, who happened to 
 have pretty sisters, or good housewives for mothers, noted for 
 the comforts of the cupboard. Indeed, it behooved him to 
 keep on good terms with his pupils. The revenue arising from 
 his school was small, and would have been scarcely sufficient 
 to furnish him with daily bread, for he was a huge feeder, and, 
 though lank, had the dilating powers of an anaconda; but to 
 help out his maintenance, he was, according to country custom 
 in those parts, boarded and lodged at the houses of the farmers, 
 whose children he instructed. With these he lived successive- 
 ly a week at a time; thus going the rounds of the neighbor- 
 hood, with all his worldly effects tied up in a cotton handker- 
 chief. 
 
 That all this might not be too onerous on the purses of his 
 
14 THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 rustic patrons, who are apt to consider the cost of schooling 
 a grievous burden, and schoolmasters as mere drones, he had 
 various ways of rendering himself both useful and agreeable. 
 He assisted the farmers occasionally in the lighter labors of 
 their farms; helped to make hay; mended the fences; took 
 the horses to water; drove the cows from pasture; and cut 
 wood for the winter fire. He laid aside, too, all the dominant 
 dignity and absolute sway with which he lorded it in his little 
 empire, the school, and became wonderfully gentle and in- 
 gratiating. He found favor in the eyes of the mothers, by 
 petting the children, particularly the youngest; and like the 
 lion bold, which whilom so magnanimously the lamb did hold, 
 he would sit with a child on one knee, and rock a cradle with 
 his foot for whole hours together. 
 
 In addition to his other vocations, he was the singing-master 
 of the neighborhood, and picked up many bright shillings 
 by instructing the young folks in psalmody. It was a matter 
 of no little vanity to him, on Sundays, to take his station in 
 front of the church gallery, with a band of chosen singers; 
 where, in his own mind, he completely carried away the palm 
 from the parson. Certain it is, his voice resounded far above 
 all the rest of the congregation ; and there are peculiar quavers 
 still to be heard in that church, and which may even be heard 
 half a mile off, quite to the opposite side of the mill-pond, on 
 a still Sunday morning, which are said to be legitimately de- 
 scended from the nose of Ichabod Crane. Thus, by divers 
 little make-shifts in that ingenious way which is commonly 
 denominated "by hook and by crook," the worthy pedagogue 
 got on tolerably enough, and was thought, by all who under- 
 stood nothing of the labor of headwork, to have a wonderfully 
 easy life of it. 
 
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 15 
 
 The schoolmaster is generally a man of some importance in 
 the female circle of a rural neighborhood; being considered 
 a kind of idle gentlemanlike personage, of vastly superior taste 
 and accomplishments to the rough country swains, and, indeed, 
 inferior in learning only to the parson. His appearance, there- 
 fore, is apt to occasion some little stir at the tea-table of a farm- 
 house, and the addition of a supernumerary dish of cakes or 
 sweetmeats, or, peradventure, the parade of a silver teapot 
 Our man of letters, therefore, was peculiarly happy in the 
 smiles of all the country damsels. How he would figure among 
 them in the churchyard, between services on Sundays ! gather- 
 ing grapes for them from the wild vines that overrun the sur- 
 rounding trees; reciting for their amusement all the epitaphs 
 on the tombstones ; or sauntering, with a whole bevy of them, 
 along the banks of the adjacent mill-pond; while the more 
 bashful country bumpkins hung sheepishly back, envying his 
 superior elegance and address. 
 
 From his half itinerant life, also, he was a kind of travelling 
 gazette, carrying the whole budget of local gossip from house 
 to house; so that his appearance was always greeted with satis- 
 faction. He was, moreover, esteemed by the women as a man 
 of great erudition, for he had read several books quite through, 
 and was a perfect master of Cotton Mather's history of New 
 England Witchcraft, in which, by the way, he most firmly and 
 potently believed. 
 
 He was, in fact, an odd mixture of small shrewdness and 
 simple credulity. His appetite for the marvellous, and his 
 powers of digesting it, were equally extraordinary; and both 
 had been increased by his residence in this spellbound region. 
 No tale was too gross or monstrous for his capacious swallow. 
 It was often his delight, after his school was dismissed in the 
 
16 
 
 THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 afternoon, to stretch himself on the rich bed of clover, bordering 
 the little brook that whimpered by his school-house, and there 
 con over . old Mather's direful tales, until the gathering dusk 
 of the evening made the printed page a mere mist before his 
 eyes. Then, as he wended his way, by swamp and stream and 
 awful woodland, to the farm-house where he happened to be 
 quartered, every sound of nature, at that witching hour, flut- 
 tered his excited imagination : the moan of the whip-poor-will* 
 from the hill-side; the boding cry of the tree-toad, that har- 
 binger of storm; the dreary hooting of the screech-owl, or the 
 sudden rustling in the thicket of birds frightened from their 
 roost. The fire-flies, too, which sparkled most vividly in the 
 darkest places, now and then startled him, as one of uncommon 
 brightness would stream across his path ; and if, by chance, a 
 huge blockhead of a beetle came winging his blundering flight 
 against him, the poor varlet was ready to give up the ghost, 
 with the idea that he was struck with a witch's token. His 
 only resource on such occasions, either to drown thought, or 
 drive away evil spirits, was to sing psalm tunes ; — and the good 
 people of Sleepy Hollow, as they sat by their doors of an even- 
 ing, were often filled with awe, at hearing his nasal melody, "in 
 linked sweetness long drawn out," floating from the distant hill, 
 or along the dusky road. 
 
 Another of his sources of fearful pleasure was, to pass long 
 winter evenings with the old Dutch wives, as they sat spinning 
 by the fire, with a row of apples roasting and spluttering along 
 the hearth, and listen to their marvellous tales of ghosts and 
 goblins, and haunted fields, and haunted brooks, and haunted 
 
 * The whip-poor-will is a bird which is only heard at night. It receives its 
 name from its note, which is thought to resemble those words. 
 
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 17 
 
 bridges, and haunted houses, and particularly of the headless 
 horseman, or galloping Hessian of the Hollow, as they some- 
 times called him. He would delight them equally by his anec- 
 dotes of witchcraft, and of the direful omens and portentous 
 sights and sounds in the air, which prevailed in the earlier 
 times of Connecticut ; and would frighten them wofully with 
 speculations upon comets and shooting stars ; and with the 
 alarming fact that the world did absolutely turn round, and that 
 they were half the time topsy-turvy ! 
 
 But if there was a pleasure in all this, while snugly cuddling 
 in the chimney corner of a chamber that was all of a ruddy 
 glow from the crackling wood fire, and where, of course, no 
 spectre dared to show his face, it was dearly purchased by the 
 terrors of his subsequent walk homewards. What fearful 
 shapes and shadows beset his path amidst the dim and ghastly 
 glare of a snowy night ! — With what wistful look did he eye 
 every trembling ray of light streaming across the waste fields 
 from some distant window ! — How often was he appalled by 
 some shrub covered with snow, which, like a sheeted spectre, 
 beset his very path ! — How often did he shrink with curdling 
 awe at the sound of his own steps on the frosty crust beneath 
 his feet ; and dread to look over his shoulder, lest he should 
 behold some uncouth being tramping close behind him ! — and 
 how often was he thrown into complete dismay by some rushing 
 blast, howling among the trees, in the idea that it was the 
 Galloping Hessian on one of his nightly scourings! 
 
 All these, however, were mere terrors of the night, phantoms 
 of the mind that walk in darkness ; and though he had seen 
 many spectres in his time, and been more than once beset by 
 Satan in divers shapes, in his lonely perambulations, yet day- 
 light put an end to all these evils ; and he would have passed a 
 
 B 
 
18 
 
 THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 Ill 
 
 
 mmmSm "s 
 } : {> ■ I ' : ' Ml 
 
 pleasant life of it, in despite of the devil and all his works, if 
 his path had not been crossed by a being that causes more 
 perplexity to mortal man than ghosts, goblins, and the whole 
 race of witches put together, and that was — a woman. 
 
 Among the musical disciples who assembled, one evening in 
 each week, to receive his instructions in psalmody, was Katrina 
 
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 19 
 
 Van Tassel, the daughter and only child of a substantial Dutch 
 farmer. She was a blooming lass of fresh eighteen ; plump as a 
 partridge ; ripe and melting and rosy cheeked as one of her 
 fathers peaches, and universally famed, not merely for her 
 beauty, but her vast expectations. She was withal a little of a 
 coquette, as might be perceived even in her dress, which was a 
 mixture of ancient and modern fashions, as most suited to set 
 off her charms. She wore the ornaments of pure yellow gold, 
 which her great-great-grandmother had brought over from Saar- 
 dam ; the tempting stomacher of the olden time ; and withal a 
 provokingly short petticoat, to display the prettiest foot and 
 ankle in the country round. 
 
 Ichabod Crane had a soft and foolish heart towards the sex ; 
 and it is not to be wondered at, that so tempting a morsel soon 
 found favor in his eyes ; more especially after he had visited 
 her in her paternal mansion. Old Baltus Van Tassel was a 
 perfect picture of a thriving, contented, liberal-hearted farmer. 
 He seldom, it is true, sent either his eyes or his thoughts beyond 
 the boundaries of his own farm ; but within those every thing 
 was snug, happy, and well-conditioned. He was satisfied with 
 his wealth, but not proud of it ; and piqued himself upon the 
 hearty abundance, rather than the style in which he lived. His 
 stronghold was situated on the banks of the Hudson, in one 
 of those green, sheltered, fertile nooks, in Avhich the Butch 
 farmers are so fond of nestling. A great elm-tree spread its 
 broad branches over it ; at the foot of which bubbled up a spring 
 of the softest and sweetest water, in a little well, formed of a 
 barrel ; and then stole sparkling away through the grass, to a 
 neighboring brook, that bubbled along among alders and dwarf 
 willows. Hard by the farm-house was a vast barn, that might 
 have served for a church ; every window and crevice of which 
 
20 
 
 THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 
 seemed bursting forth with the treasures of the farm ; the 
 flail was busily resounding within it from morning to night ; 
 swallows and martins skimmed twittering about the eaves ; and 
 rows of pigeons, some with one eye turned up, as if watching 
 the weather, some with their heads under their wings, or buried 
 in their bosoms, and others swelling, and cooing, and bowing 
 about their dames, were enjoying the sunshine on the roof. 
 Sleek unwieldy porkers were grunting in the repose and abun- 
 dance of their pens ; whence sallied forth, now and then, troops 
 of sucking pigs, as if to snuff the air. A stately squadron of 
 
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 
 
 21 
 
 snowy geese were riding in an adjoining pond, convoying whole 
 fleets of ducks ; regiments of turkeys were gobbling through 
 the farmyard, and guinea fowls fretting about it, like ill- 
 tempered housewives, with their peevish discontented cry. 
 Before the barn door strutted the gallant cock, that pattern of 
 a husband, a warrior, and a fine gentleman, clapping his bur- 
 nished wings, and crowing in the pride and gladness of his 
 heart — sometimes tearing up the earth with his feet, and then 
 generously calling his ever-hungry family of wives and children 
 to enjoy the rich morsel which he had discovered. 
 
 The pedagogue's mouth watered, as he looked upon this 
 sumptuous promise of luxurious winter fare. In his devouring 
 mind's eye, he pictured to himself every roasting-pig running 
 about with a pudding in his belly, and an apple in his mouth ; 
 the pigeons were snugly put to bed in a comfortable pie, and 
 tucked in with a coverlet of crust ; the geese were swimming in 
 their own gravy ; and the ducks pairing cosily in dishes, like 
 snug married couples, with a decent competency of onion sauce. 
 In the porkers he saw carved out the future sleek side of bacon, 
 and juicy relishing ham ; not a turkey but he beheld daintily 
 trussed up, with its gizzard under its wing, and, peradventure, 
 a necklace of savory sausages ; and even bright chanticleer 
 himself lay sprawling on his back, in a side-dish, with uplifted 
 claws, as if craving that quarter which his chivalrous spirit 
 disdained to ask while living. 
 
 As the enraptured Ichabod fancied all this, and as he rolled 
 his great green eyes over the fat meadow-lands, the rich fields of 
 wheat, of rye, of buckwheat, and Indian corn, and the orchards 
 burthened with ruddy fruit, which surrounded the warm tene- 
 ment of Van Tassel, his heart yearned after the damsel who 
 was to inherit these domains, and his imagination expanded with 
 
22 THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 the idea, how they might be readily turned into cash, and the 
 money invested in immense tracts of wild land, and shingle 
 palaces in the wilderness. Kay, his busy fancy already realized 
 his hopes, and presented to him the blooming Katrina, with a 
 whole family of children, mounted on the top of a wagon loaded 
 with household trumpery, with pots and kettles dangling 
 beneath ; and he beheld himself bestriding a pacing mare, with 
 a colt at her heels, setting out for Kentucky, Tennessee, or the 
 Lord knows where. 
 
 When he entered the house the conquest of his heart was 
 complete. It was one of those spacious farm-houses, with 
 high-ridged, but lowly-sloping roofs, built in the style handed 
 down from the first Dutch settlers ; the low projecting eaves 
 forming a piazza along the front, capable of being closed up in 
 bad weather. Under this were hung flails, harness, various 
 utensils of husbandry, and nets for fishing in the neighboring 
 river. Benches were built along the sides for summer use ; and 
 a great spinning-wheel at one end, and a churn at the other, 
 showed the various uses to which this important porch might 
 be devoted. From this piazza the wondering Ichabod entered 
 the hall, which formed the centre of the mansion and the place 
 of usual residence. Here, rows of resplendent pewter, ranged 
 on a long dresser, dazzled his eyes. In one corner stood a huge 
 bag of wool ready to be spun ; in another a quantity of linsey- 
 woolsey just from the loom ; ears of Indian corn, and strings of 
 dried apples and peaches, hung in gay festoons along the walls, 
 mingled with the gaud of red peppers ; and a door left ajar gave 
 him a peep into the best parlor, where the claw-footed chairs, 
 and dark mahogany tables, shone like mirrors ; and irons, with 
 their accompanying shovel and tongs, glistened from their covert 
 of asparagus tops ; mock-oranges and conch-shells decorated the 
 
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 23 
 
 \ 
 
 mantel-piece ; strings of various colored birds' eggs were sus- 
 pended above it ; a great ostrich egg was hung from the centre 
 of the room, and a corner cupboard, knowingly left open, 
 displayed immense treasures of old silver and well-mended 
 china. 
 
 From the moment Ichabod laid his eyes upon these regions 
 of delight, the peace of his mind was at an end, and his only 
 study was how to gain the affections of the peerless daughter of 
 Van Tassel. In this enterprise, however, he had more real 
 difficulties than generally fell to the lot of a knight-errant of 
 yore, who seldom had any thing but giants, enchanters, fiery 
 dragons, and such like easily-conquered adversaries, to contend 
 with ; and had to make his way merely through gates of iron 
 and brass, and walls of adamant, to the castle keep, where the 
 lady of his heart was confined ; all which he achieved as easily 
 as a man would carve his way to the centre of a Christmas pie ; 
 and then the lady gave him her hand as a matter of course. 
 Ichabod, on the contrary, had to win his way to the heart of a 
 country coquette, beset with a labyrinth of whims and caprices, 
 which were forever presenting new difficulties and impediments ; 
 and he had to encounter a host of fearful adversaries of real 
 flesh and blood, the numerous rustic admirers, who beset every 
 portal to her heart ; keeping a watchful and angry eye upon 
 each other, but ready to fly out in the common cause against 
 any new competitor. 
 
 Among these the most formidable was a burly, roaring, 
 roystering blade, of the name of Abraham, or, according to 
 the Dutch abbreviation, Brom Yan Brunt, the hero of the 
 country round, which rang with his feats of strength and 
 hardihood. He was broad-shouldered and double-jointed, with 
 short curly black hair, and a bluff, but not unpleasant counte- 
 
24 THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 nance, having a mingled air of fun and arrogance. From his 
 Herculean frame and great powers of limb, he had received 
 the nickname of Brom Bones, by which he was universally 
 known. He was famed for great knowledge and skill in 
 horsemanship, being as dexterous on horseback as a Tartar. 
 He was foremost at all races and cock-fights ; and, with the 
 ascendency which, bodily strength acquires in rustic life, was 
 the umpire in all disputes, setting his hat on one side, and 
 giving his decisions with an air and tone admitting of no gain- 
 say or appeal. He was always ready for either a fight or a 
 frolic ; but had more mischief than ill-will in his composition ; 
 and, with all his overbearing roughness, there was a strong dash 
 of waggish good humor at bottom. He had three or four boon 
 companions, who regarded him as their model, and at the head 
 of whom he scoured the country, attending every scene of feud 
 or merriment for miles round. In cold weather he was 
 distinguished by a fur cap, surmounted with a flaunting fox's 
 tail ; and when the folks at a country gathering descried this 
 well-known crest at a distance, whisking about among a squad 
 of hard riders, they always stood by for a squall. Sometimes 
 his crew would be heard dashing along past the farm-houses 
 at midnight, with whoop and halloo, like a troop of Don Cos- 
 sacks ; and the old dames, startled out of their sleep, would 
 listen for a moment till the hurry-scurry had clattered by, 
 and then exclaim, " Ay, there goes Brom Bones and his gang I" 
 The neighbors looked upon him with a mixture of awe, ad- 
 miration, and good-will ; and when any madcap prank, or rustic 
 brawl, occurred in the vicinity, always shook their heads, and 
 warranted Brom Bones was at the bottom of it. 
 
 This rantipole hero had for some time singled out the bloom- 
 ing Katrina for the object of his uncouth gallantries ; and 
 
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 
 
 25 
 
 though his amorous toyings were something like the gentle 
 caresses and endearments of a bear, yet it was whispered that 
 she did not altogether discourage his hopes. Certain it is, 
 his advances were signals for rival candidates to retire, who felt 
 no inclination to cross a lion in his amours ; insomuch, that when 
 his horse was seen tied to Yan Tassel's paling, on a Sunday 
 night, a sure sign that his master was courting, or, as it is 
 termed, "sparking," within, all other suitors passed by in 
 despair, and carried the war into other quarters. 
 
 Such was the formidable rival with whom Ichabod Crane had 
 to contend ; and, considering all things, a stouter man than he 
 would have shrunk from the competition, and a wiser man 
 would have despaired. He had, however, a happy mixture of 
 pliability and perseverance in his nature ; he was in form and 
 spirit like a supple-jack — yielding, but tough; though he 
 bent, he never broke ; and though he bowed beneath the 
 slightest pressure, yet, the moment it was away — -jerk ! he was 
 as erect, and carried his head as high as ever. 
 
 To have taken the field openly against his rival would have 
 been madness ; for he was not a man to be thwarted in his 
 amours, any more than that stormy lover, Achilles. Ichabod, 
 therefore, made his advances in a quiet and gently-insinuating 
 manner. Under cover of his character of singing-master, he 
 made frequent visits at the farm-house ; not that he had any 
 thing to apprehend from the meddlesome interference of 
 parents, which is so often a stumbling-block in the path of 
 lovers. Bait Yan Tassel was an easy, indulgent soul ; he loved 
 his daughter better even than his pipe, and, like a reasonable 
 man and an excellent father, let her have her way in every 
 thing. His notable little wife, too, had enough to do to attend 
 to her housekeeping and manage her poultry ; for, as she sagely 
 
20 
 
 THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 observed, ducks and geese are foolish things, and must be 
 looked after, but girls can take care of themselves. Thus, while 
 the busy dame bustled about the house, or plied her spinning- 
 wheel at one end of the piazza, honest Bait would sit smoking 
 his evening pipe at the other, watching the achievements of 
 a little wooden warrior, who, armed with a sword in each hand. 
 
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 37 
 
 was most valiantly fighting the wind on the pinnacle of the 
 barn. In the mean time, Ichabod would carry on his suit with 
 the daughter by the side of the spring under the great elm, 
 or sauntering along in the twilight, that hour so favorable to the 
 lover's eloquence. 
 
 I profess not to know how women's hearts are wooed and 
 won. To me they have always been matters of riddle and 
 admiration. Some seem to have but one vulnerable point, or 
 door of access ; while others have a thousand avenues, and may 
 be captured in a thousand different ways. It is a great triumph 
 of skill to gain the former, but a still greater proof of general- 
 ship to maintain possession of tl\e- latter, for the man must 
 battle for his fortress at every door and window. He who wins 
 a thousand common hearts is therefore entitled to some renown ; 
 but he who keeps undisputed sway over the heart of a coquette, 
 is indeed a hero. Certain it is, this was not the case with the 
 redoubtable Brom Bones ; and from the moment Ichabod Crane 
 made his advances, the interests of the former evidently de- 
 clined; his horse was no longer seen tied at the palings on 
 Sunday nights, and a deadly feud gradually arose between him 
 and the preceptor of Sleepy Hollow. 
 
 Brom, who had a degree of rough chivalry in his nature, 
 would fain have carried matters to open warfare, and have 
 settled their pretensions to the lady according to the mode 
 of those most concise and simple reasoners, the knights-errant 
 of yore — by single combat ; but Ichabod was too conscious of 
 the superior might of his adversary to enter the lists against 
 him : he had overheard a boast of Bones, that he would "double 
 the schoolmaster up, and lay him on a shelf of his own school - 
 house ;" and he was too wary to give him an opportunity. 
 There was something extremely provoking in this obstinately 
 
28 THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 pacific system ; it left Brom no alternative but to draw upon 
 the funds of rustic waggery in his disposition, and to play off 
 boorish practical jokes upon his rival. Ichabod became the 
 object of whimsical persecution to Bones, and his gang of rough 
 riders. They harried his hitherto peaceful domains; smoked 
 out his singing-school, by stopping up the chimney ; broke into 
 the school-house at night, in spite of its formidable fastenings of 
 with and window-stakes, and turned every thing topsy-turvy : 
 so that the poor schoolmaster began to think all the witches in 
 the country held their meetings there. But what was still more 
 annoying, Brom took all opportunities of turning him into 
 ridicule in presence of his mistress, and had a scoundrel dog 
 which he taught to whine in the most ludicrous manner, 
 and introduced as a rival of Ichabod's to instruct her in 
 psalmody. 
 
 In this way matters went on for some time, without producing 
 any material effect on the relative situation of the contending 
 powers. On a fine autumnal afternoon, Ichabod, in pensive 
 mood, sat enthroned on the lofty stool whence he usually 
 watched all the concerns of his little literary realm. In his 
 hand he swayed a ferule, that sceptre of despotic power ; the 
 birch of justice reposed on three nails, behind the throne, a 
 constant terror to evil-doers; while on the desk before him 
 might be seen sundry contraband articles and prohibited 
 weapons, detected upon the persons of idle urchins ; such as 
 half-munched apples, popguns, whirligigs, fly-cages, and whole 
 legions of rampant little paper game-cocks. Apparently there 
 had been some appalling act of justice recently inflicted, for his 
 scholars were all busily intent upon their books, or slyly whis- 
 pering behind them with one eye kept upon the master ; and a 
 kind of buzzing stillness reigned throughout the school-room. 
 
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 
 
 29 
 
 M 
 
 It was suddenly interrupted by the appearance of- a negro, in 
 tow-cloth, jacket and trousers, a round-crowned fragment of a 
 hat, like the cap of Mercury, and mounted on the back of a 
 ragged, wild, half-broken colt, which he managed with a rope by 
 way of halter. He came clattering up to the school door, with 
 an invitation to Ichabod to attend a merry-making or " quilting 
 frolic," to be held that evening at Mynheer Van Tassel's ; and 
 having delivered his message with that air of importance, and 
 effort at fine language, which a negro is apt to display on petty 
 embassies of the kind, he dashed over the brook, and was seen 
 scampering away up the hollow, full of the importance and 
 hurry of his mission. 
 
 All was now bustle and hubbub in the late quiet school- 
 room. The scholars were hurried through their lessons, with- 
 
30 
 
 THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 out stopping at trifles ; those who were nimble skipped over 
 half with impunity, and those who were tardy had a smart 
 application now and then in the rear, to quicken their speed, 
 or help them over a tall word. Books were flung aside without 
 being put away on the shelves, inkstands were overturned, 
 benches thrown down, and the whole school was turned loose 
 an hour before the usual time, bursting forth like a legion of 
 young imps, yelping and racketing about the green, in joy at 
 their early emancipation. 
 
 The gallant Ichabod now spent at least an extra half hour 
 at his toilet, brushing and furbishing up his best, and indeed 
 only suit of rusty black, and arranging his looks by a bit of 
 broken looking-glass, that hung up in the school-house. That 
 he might make his appearance before his mistress in the true 
 style of a cavalier, he borrowed a horse from the farmer with 
 whom he was domiciliated, a choleric old Dutchman, of the 
 name of Hans V an Ripper, and, thus gallantly mounted, issued 
 forth, like a knight- errant in quest of adventures. But it is 
 meet I should, in the true spirit of romantic story, give some 
 account of the looks and equipments of my hero and his steed. 
 The animal he bestrode was a broken-down plough-horse, that 
 had outlived almost every thing but his viciousness. He was 
 gaunt and shagged, with a ewe neck and a head like a hammer; 
 his rusty mane and tail were tangled and knotted with burrs ; 
 one eye had lost its pupil, and was glaring and spectral; but 
 the other had the gleam of a genuine devil in it. Still he must 
 have had fire and mettle in his day, if we may judge from the 
 name he bore of Gunpowder. He had, in fact, been a favorite 
 steed of his master's, the choleric "Van Ripper, who was a 
 furious rider, and had infused, very probably, some of his own 
 spirit into the animal ; for, old and broken-down as he looked, 
 
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 
 
 31 
 
 there was more of the lurking devil in him than in any young 
 filly in the country. • 
 
 Ichabod was a suitable figure for such a steed. He rode 
 with short stirrups, which brought his knees nearly up to the 
 pommel of the saddle ; his sharp elbows stuck out like grass- 
 hoppers' ; he carried his whip perpendicularly in his hand, like 
 a sceptre, and, as his horse jogged on, the motion of his arms 
 was not unlike the flapping of a pair of wings. A small wool 
 hat rested on the top of his nose, for so his scanty strip of 
 forehead might be called; and the skirts of his black coat 
 fluttered out almost to the horse's tail. Such was the appear- 
 ance of Ichabod and his steed, as they shambled out of the gate 
 of Hans Yan Kipper, and it was altogether such an apparition 
 as is seldom to be met with in broad daylight. 
 
 It was, as I have said, a fine autumnal day ; the sky was clear 
 and serene, and nature wore that rich and golden livery which 
 we always associate with the idea of abundance. The forests 
 had put on their sober brown and yellow, while some trees of 
 the tenderer kind had been nipped by the frosts into brilliant 
 dyes of orange, purple, and scarlet. Streaming files of wild 
 ducks began to make their appearance high in the air; the bark 
 of the squirrel might be heard from the groves of beech and 
 hickory nuts, and the pensive whistle of the quail at intervals 
 from the neighboring stubble-field. 
 
 The small birds were taking their farewell banquets. In the 
 fulness of their revelry, they fluttered, chirping and frolicking, 
 from bush to bush, and tree to tree, capricious from the very 
 profusion and variety around them. There was the honest 
 cock-robin, the favorite game of stripling sportsmen, with its 
 loud, querulous note ; and the twittering blackbirds flying in 
 sable clouds; and the golden-winged woodpecker, with his 
 
32 THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 crimson crest, his broad black gorget,' and splendid plumage ; 
 and the cedar-bird, with its red-tipt wings and yellow-tipt tail, 
 and its little montero cap of feathers ; and the blue jay, that 
 noisy coxcomb, in his gay light-blue coat and white under- 
 clothes — screaming and chattering, nodding and bobbing and 
 bowing, and pretending to be on good terms with every songster 
 of the grove. 
 
 As Ichabod jogged slowly on his way, his eye, ever open to 
 every symptom of culinary abundance, ranged with delight 
 over the treasures of jolly autumn. On all sides he beheld 
 vast store of apples ; some hanging in oppressive opulence on 
 the trees ; some gathered into baskets and barrels for the 
 market; others heaped up in rich piles for the cider-press. 
 Farther on he beheld great fields of Indian corn, with its golden 
 ears peeping from their leafy coverts, and holding out the 
 promise of cakes and hasty -pudding ; and the yellow pumpkins 
 lying beneath them, turning up their fair round bellies to the 
 sun, and giving ample prospects of the most luxurious of pies ; 
 and anon he passed the fragrant buckwheat fields, breathing 
 the odor of the bee-hive, and as he beheld them soft anticipa- 
 tions stole over his mind of dainty slapjacks, well buttered, and 
 garnished with honey or treacle, by the delicate little dimpled 
 hand of Katrina Yan Tassel. 
 
 Thus feeding his mind with many sweet thoughts and 
 "sugared suppositions," he journeyed along the sides of a 
 range of hills which look out upon some of the goodliest scenes 
 of the mighty Hudson. The sun gradually wheeled his broad 
 disk down into the west. The wide bosom of the Tappan Zee 
 lay motionless and glassy, excepting that here and there a 
 gentle undulation waved and prolonged the blue shadow of the 
 distant mountain. A few amber clouds floated in the sky, 
 
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 
 
 33 
 
 without a breath of air to move them. The horizon was of a 
 
 fine golden tint, changing gradually into a pure apple green, 
 
 and from that into the deep blue of the mid-heaven. A slanting 
 
 ray lingered on the woody crests of the precipices that overhung 
 
 some parts of the river, giving greater depth to the dark-gray 
 
 and purple of their rocky sides. A sloop was loitering in the 
 
 distance, dropping slowly down with the tide, her sail hanging 
 
 c 
 
34 THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 uselessly against the mast; and as the reflection of the sky 
 gleamed along the still water, it seemed as if the vessel was 
 suspended in the air. 
 
 It was toward evening that Ichabod arrived at the castle of 
 the Heer Van Tassel, which he found thronged with the pride 
 and flower of the adjacent country; — old farmers, a spare, 
 leathern-faced race, in homespun coats and breeches, blue 
 stockings, huge shoes, and magnificent pewter buckles; their 
 brisk withered little dames, in close crimped caps, long-waisted 
 shortgowns, homespun petticoats, with scissors and pincushions, 
 and gay calico pockets hanging on the outside ; buxom lasses, 
 almost as antiquated as their mothers, excepting where a straw 
 hat, a fine ribbon, or perhaps a white frock, gave symptoms of 
 city innovation; the sons, in short square-skirted coats, with 
 rows of stupendous brass buttons, and their hair generally 
 queued in the fashion of the times, especially if they could 
 procure an eel-skin for the purpose, it being esteemed, through- 
 out the country, as a potent nourisher and strengthener of the 
 hair. 
 
 Brom Bones, however, was the hero of the scene, having come 
 to the gathering on his favorite steed Daredevil, a creature, like 
 himself, full of mettle and mischief, and which no one but 
 himself could manage. He was, in fact, noted for preferring 
 vicious animals, given to all kinds of tricks, which kept the 
 rider in constant risk of his neck, for he held a tractable, well- 
 broken horse as unworthy of a lad of spirit. 
 
 Fain would I pause to dwell upon the world of charms that 
 burst upon the enraptured gaze of my hero, as he entered the 
 state parlor of Yan Tassel's mansion ; — not those of the bevy 
 of buxom lasses, with their luxurious display of red and white ; 
 but the ample charms of a genuine Dutch country tea-table, in 
 
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 35 
 
 the sumptuous time of autumn. Such heaped-up platters of 
 cakes of various and almost indescribable kinds, known only 
 to experienced Dutch housewives ! There was the doughty 
 dough-nut, the tenderer oly koek, and the crisp and crumbling 
 kruller; sweet-cakes and short-cakes, ginger-cakes and honey- 
 cakes, and the whole family of cakes. And then there were 
 apple-pies and peach-pies and pumpkin-pies ; besides slices of 
 ham and smoked beef ; and moreover delectable dishes of pre- 
 served plums, and peaches, and pears, and quinces ; not to 
 mention broiled shad and roasted chickens ; together with 
 bowls of milk and cream, all mingled higgledy-piggledy, pretty 
 much as I have enumerated them, with the motherly tea-pot 
 sending up its clouds of vapor from the midst — Heaven bless 
 the mark ! I want breath and time to discuss this banquet as 
 it deserves, and am too eager to get on with my story. Happily, 
 Ichabod Crane was not in so great a hurry as his historian, but 
 did ample justice to every dainty. 
 
 He was a kind and thankful creature, whose heart dilated in 
 proportion as his skin was filled with good cheer ; and whose 
 spirits rose with eating as some men's do with drink. He 
 could not help, too, rolling his large eyes round him as he ate, 
 and chuckling with the possibility that he might one day be 
 lord of all this scene of almost unimaginable luxury and splen- 
 dor. Then, he thought, how soon he'd turn his back upon the 
 old school-house; snap his fingers in the face of Hans Yan 
 Eipper, and every other niggardly patron, and kick any itiner- 
 ant pedagogue out of doors that should dare to call him 
 comrade ! 
 
 Old Baltus Van Tassel moved about among his guests with 
 a face dilated with content and good-humor, round and jolly as 
 the harvest moon. His hospitable attentions were brief, but 
 
36. THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 expressive, being confined to a shake of the hand, a slap on the 
 shoulder, a loud laugh, and a pressing invitation to " fall to and 
 help themselves." 
 
 And now the sound of the music from the common room, 
 or hall, summoned to the dance. The musician was an old 
 grayheaded negro, who had been the itinerant orchestra of the 
 neighborhood for more than half a century. His instrument 
 was as old and battered as himself. The greater part of the 
 time he scraped on two or three strings, accompanying every 
 movement of the bow with a motion of the head ; bowing 
 almost to the ground, and stamping with his foot whenever a 
 fresh couple were to start. 
 
 Ichabod prided himself upon his dancing as much as upon his 
 vocal powers. Not a limb, not a fibre about him was idle ; and 
 to have seen his loosely hung frame in full motion, and clattering 
 about the room, you would have thought Saint Vitus himself, 
 that blessed patron of the dance, was figuring before you in 
 person. He was the admiration of all the negroes ; who having 
 gathered, of all ages and sizes, from the farm and the neighbor- 
 hood, stood forming a pyramid of shining black faces at every 
 door and window, gazing with delight at the scene, rolling their 
 white eye-balls, and showing grinning rows of ivory from ear 
 to ear. How could the flogger of urchins be otherwise than 
 animated and joyous ? the lady of his heart was his partner in 
 the dance, and smiling graciously in reply to all his amorous 
 oglings; while Brom Bones, sorely smitten with love and 
 jealousy, sat brooding by himself in one corner. 
 
 When the dance was at an end, Ichabod was attracted to a 
 knot of the sager folks, who, with old Yan Tassel, sat smoking 
 at one end of the piazza, gossiping over former times, and draw- 
 ing out long stories about the war. 
 
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 
 
 37 
 
 This neighborhood, at the time of which I am speaking, was 
 one of those highly -favored places which abound with chronicle 
 and great men. The British and American line had run near 
 it during the war ; it had, therefore, been the scene of maraud- 
 ing, and infested with refugees, cow-boys, and all kinds of 
 border chivalry. Just sufficient time had elapsed to enable 
 each story-teller to dress up his tale with a little becoming- 
 fiction, and, in the indistinctness of his recollection, to make 
 himself the hero of every exploit. 
 
 There was the story of Doffue Martling, a large blue-bearded 
 Dutchman, who had nearly taken a British frigate with an old 
 iron nine-pounder from a mud breastwork, only that his gun 
 burst at the sixth discharge. And there was an old gentleman 
 who shall be nameless, being too rich a mynheer to be lightly 
 mentioned, who, in the battle of Whiteplains, being an ex- 
 cellent master of defence, parried a musket-ball with a small 
 sword, insomuch that he absolutely felt it whiz round the blade, 
 and glance off at the hilt : in proof of which, he was ready at 
 any time to show the sword, with the hilt a little bent. There 
 were several more that had been equally great in the field, not 
 one of whom but was persuaded that he had a considerable 
 hand in bringing the war to a happy termination. 
 
 But all these were nothing to the tales of ghosts and appari- 
 tions that succeeded. The neighborhood is rich in legendary 
 treasures of the kind. Local tales and superstitions thrive best 
 in these sheltered long-settled retreats ; but are trampled under 
 foot by the shifting throng that forms the population of most 
 of our country places. Besides, there is no encouragement for 
 ghosts in most of our villages, for they have scarcely had time 
 to finish their first nap, and turn themselves in their graves, 
 before their surviving friends have travelled away from the 
 
38 THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 neighborhood; so that -when they turn out at night to walk 
 their rounds, they have no acquaintance left to call upon. This 
 is perhaps the reason why we so seldom hear of ghosts except 
 in our long-established Dutch communities. 
 
 The immediate cause, however, of the prevalence of super- 
 natural stories in these parts, was doubtless owing to the vicinity 
 of Sleepy Hollow. There was a contagion in the very air that 
 blew from that haunted region ; it breathed forth an atmosphere 
 of dreams and fancies infecting all the land. Several of the 
 Sleepy Hollow people were present at Yan Tassel's, and, as 
 usual, were doling out their wild and wonderful legends. 
 Many dismal tales were told about funeral trains, and mourn- 
 ing cries and wailings heard and seen about the great tree 
 where the unfortunate Major Andre was taken, and which 
 stood in the neighborhood. Some mention was made also of 
 the woman in white, that haunted the dark glen at Eaven 
 Rock, and was often heard to shriek on winter nights before a 
 storm, having perished there in the snow. The chief part 
 of the stories, however, turned upon the favorite spectre of 
 Sleepv Hollow, the headless horseman, who had been heard 
 several times of late, patrolling the country ; and, it was said, 
 tethered his horse nightly among the graves in the church- 
 yard. 
 
 The sequestered situation of this church seems always to 
 have made it a favorite haunt of troubled spirits. It stands 
 on a knoll, surrounded by locust-trees and lofty elms, from 
 among which its decent whitewashed walls shine modestly 
 forth, like Christian purity beaming through the shades of 
 retirement. A gentle slope descends from it to a silver sheet 
 of water, bordered by high trees, between which, peeps may 
 be caught at the blue hills of the Hudson. To look upon its 
 
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 
 
 39* 
 
 grass-grown yard, where the sunbeams seem to sleep so quietly,. 
 one would think that there at least the dead might rest in 
 peace. On one side of the church extends a wide woody dell, 
 along which raves a large brook among broken rocks and 
 trunks of fallen trees. Over a deep black part of the stream,, 
 not far from the church, was formerly thrown a wooden 
 bridge ; the road that led to it, and the bridge itself, were 
 thickly shaded by overhanging trees, which cast a gloom 
 about it, even in the daytime; but occasioned a fearful dark- 
 ness at night. This was one of the favorite haunts of the 
 headless horseman ; and the place where he was most frequently 
 encountered. The tale was told of old Brouwer, a most hereti- 
 cal disbeliever in ghosts, how he met the horseman returning 
 from his foray into Sleepy Hollow, and was obliged to get- 
 up behind him; how they galloped over bush and brake,, 
 over hill and swamp, until they reached the bridge ; when the 
 
4() THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 horseman suddenly turned into a skeleton, threw old Brouwer 
 into the brook, and sprang awaj over the tree-tops with a clap 
 of thunder. 
 
 This story was immediately matched by a thrice marvellous 
 adventure of Brom Bones, who made light of the galloping 
 Hessian as an arrant jockey. He affirmed that, on returning 
 one night from the neighboring village of Sing Sing, he had 
 been overtaken by this midnight trooper ; that he had offered 
 to race with him for a bowl of punch, and should have won it 
 too, for Daredevil beat the goblin horse all hollow, but, just as 
 they came to the church-bridge, the Hessian bolted, and vanished 
 in a flash of fire. 
 
 All these tales, told in that drowsy undertone with which men 
 talk in the dark, the countenances of the listeners only now and 
 then receiving a casual gleam from the glare of a pipe, sank 
 deep in the mind of Ichabod. He repaid them in kind with 
 large extracts from his invaluable author, Cotton Mather, and 
 added many marvellous events that had taken place in his 
 native State of Connecticut, and fearful sights which he had 
 seen in his nightly walks about Sleepy Hollow. 
 
 The revel now gradually broke up. The old farmers 
 gathered together their families in their wagons, and were 
 heard for some time rattling along the hollow roads, and over 
 the distant hills. Some of the damsels mounted on pillions 
 behind their favorite swains, and their light-hearted laughter, 
 mingling with the clatter of hoofs, echoed along the silent 
 woodlands, sounding fainter and fainter until they gradually 
 died away — and the late scene of noise and frolic was all silent 
 and deserted. Ichabod only lingered behind, according to the 
 custom of country lovers, to have a tete-a-tete with the heiress, 
 fully convinced that he was now on the high road to success. 
 
THE LEGEND OE SLEEPY HOLLOW. ^ 
 
 What passed at this interview I will not pretend to say, for 
 in fact I do not know. Something, however, I fear me, must 
 have gone wrong, for he certainly sallied forth, after no very 
 great interval, with an air quite desolate and chop -fallen. — Oh 
 these women ! these women ! Could that girl have been play- 
 ing off any of her coquettish tricks ? — Was her encouragement 
 of the poor pedagogue all a mere sham to secure her conquest 
 of his rival ? — Heaven only knows, not I ! — Let it suffice to 
 say, Ichabod stole forth with the air of one who had been 
 sacking a hen-roost, rather than a fair lady's heart. Without 
 looking to the right or left to notice the scene of rural wealth, 
 on which he had so often gloated, he went straight to the 
 stable, and with several hearty cuffs and kicks, roused his 
 steed most uncourteously from the comfortable quarters in 
 which he was soundly sleeping, dreaming of mountains of corn 
 and oats, and whole valleys of timothy and clover. 
 
 It was the very witching time of night that Ichabod, heavy- 
 hearted and crest-fallen, pursued his travel homewards, along 
 the sides of the lofty hills which rise above Tarry Town, and 
 which he had traversed so cheerily in the afternoon. The 
 hour was as dismal as himself. Far below him, the Tappan 
 Zee spread its dusky and indistinct waste of waters, with here 
 and there the tall mast of a sloop, riding quietly at anchor 
 under the land. In the dead hush of midnight, he could even 
 hear the barking of the watch- dog from the opposite shore 
 of the Hudson ; but it was so vague and faint as only to give 
 an idea of his distance from this faithful companion of man. 
 Now and then, too, the long-drawn crowing of a cock, acciden- 
 tally awakened, would sound far, for off, from some farm-house 
 away among the hills — but it was like a dreaming sound in his 
 ear. No signs of life occurred near him, but occasionally the 
 
42 THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 melancholy chirp of a cricket, or perhaps the guttural twang 
 of a bull-frog, from a neighboring marsh, as if sleeping uncom 
 fbrtably,. and turning suddenly in his bed. 
 
 All the stories of ghosts and goblins that he had heard in the 
 afternoon, now came crowding upon his recollection. The 
 night grew darker and darker ; the stars seemed to sink deeper 
 in the sky, and driving clouds occasionally hid them from his 
 sight. He had never felt so lonely and dismal. He was, 
 moreover, approaching the very place where many of the 
 scenes of the ghost stories had been laid. In the centre of the 
 road stood an enormous tulip-tree, which towered like a giant 
 above all the other trees of the neighborhood, and formed a 
 kind of landmark. Its limbs were gnarled and fantastic, large 
 enough to form trunks for ordinary trees, twisting down almost 
 to the earth, and rising again into the air. It was connected 
 with the tragical story of the unfortunate Andre, who had 
 been taken prisoner hard by ; and was universally known by 
 the name of Major Andre's tree. The common people regarded 
 it with a mixture of respect and superstition, partly out of 
 sympathy for the fate of its ill-starred namesake, and partly 
 from the tales of strange sights and doleful lamentations told 
 concerning it. 
 
 As Ichabod approached this fearful tree, he began to whistle: 
 he thought his whistle was answered — it was but a blast 
 sweeping sharply through the dry branches. As he approached 
 a little nearer, he thought he saw something white, hanging in 
 the midst of the tree — he paused and ceased whistling ; but 
 on looking more narrowly, perceived that it was a place where 
 the tree had been scathed by lightning, and the white wood 
 laid bare. Suddenly he heard a groan — his teeth chattered 
 and his knees smote against the saddle ; it was but the rubbing 
 
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. ,o 
 
 of one huge bough, upon another, as they were swayed about 
 by the breeze. He passed the tree in safety, but new perils 
 lay before him. 
 
 About two hundred yards from the tree a small brook 
 crossed the road, and ran into a marshy and thickly-wooded 
 glen, known by the name of Wiley's swamp. A few rough 
 logs, laid side by side, served for a bridge over this stream. 
 On that side of the road where the brook entered the wood, a 
 group of oaks and chestnuts, matted thick with wild grape- 
 vines, threw a cavernous gloom over it. To pass this bridge 
 was the severest trial. It was at this identical spot that the 
 unfortunate Andre was captured, and under the covert of those 
 chestnuts and vines were the sturdy yeomen concealed who 
 surprised him. This has ever since been considered a haunted 
 stream, and fearful are the feelings of the schoolboy who has 
 to pass it alone after dark. 
 
 As he approached the stream his heart began to thump ; he 
 summoned up, however, all his resolution, gave his horse half 
 a score of kicks in the ribs, and attempted to dash briskly 
 across the bridge ; but instead of starting forward, the perverse 
 old animal made a lateral movement, and ran broadside against 
 the fence. Ichabod, whose fears increased with the delay, 
 jerked the reins on the other side, and kicked lustily with the 
 contrary foot : it was all in vain ; his steed started, it is true, 
 but it was only to plunge to the opposite side of the road into 
 a thicket of brambles and alder bushes. The schoolmaster now 
 bestowed both whip and heel upon the starveling ribs of old 
 Gunpowder, who dashed forward, snuffling and snorting, but 
 came to a stand just by the bridge, with a suddenness that had 
 nearly sent his rider sprawling over his head. Just at this 
 moment a plashy tramp by the side of the bridge caught the 
 
44 THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 sensitive ear of Ichabod. In the dark shadow of the grove, on 
 the margin of the brook, he beheld something huge, misshapen, 
 black, and towering. It stirred not, but seemed gathered up in 
 the gloom, like some gigantic monster ready to spring upon the 
 traveller. 
 
 The hair of the affrighted pedagogue rose upon his head with 
 terror. What was to be done? To turn and fly was now too 
 late ; and besides, what chance was there of escaping ghost or 
 goblin, if such it was, which could ride upon the wings of the 
 wind? Summoning up, therefore, a show of courage, he 
 demanded in stammering accents — " Who are you ?" He 
 received no reply. He repeated his demand in a still more 
 agitated voice. Still there was no answer. Once more he 
 cudgelled the sides of the inflexible Gunpowder, and, shutting 
 his eyes, broke forth with involuntary fervor into a psalm-tune. 
 Just then the shadowy object of alarm put itself in motion, 
 and, with a scramble and a bound, stood at once in the middle 
 of the road. Though the night was dark and dismal, yet the 
 form of the unknown might now in some degree be ascertained. 
 He appeared to be a horseman of large dimensions, and 
 mounted on a black horse of powerful frame. He made no 
 offer of molestation or sociability, but kept aloof on one side 
 of the road, jogging along on the blind side of old Gunpowder, 
 who had now got over his fright and waywardness. 
 
 Ichabod, who had no relish for this strange midnight com- 
 panion, and bethought himself of the adventure of Brom Bones 
 with the Galloping Hessian, now quickened his steed, in hopes 
 of leaving him behind. The stranger, however, quickened his 
 horse to an equal pace. Ichabod pulled up, and fell into a 
 walk, thinking to lag behind — the other did the same. His 
 heart began to sink within him ; he endeavored to resume his 
 
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 
 
 45 
 
 psalm-tune, but his parched tongue clove to the roof of his 
 mouth, and he could not utter a stave. There was something 
 in the moody and dogged silence of this pertinacious compan- 
 ion, that was mysterious and appalling. It was soon fearfully 
 accounted for. On mounting a rising ground, which brought 
 the figure of his fellow-traveller in relief against the sky, 
 gigantic in height, and muffled in a cloak, Ichabod was horror- 
 struck on perceiving that he was headless !— but his horror 
 was still more increased, on observing that the head, which 
 should have rested on his shoulders, was carried before him on 
 the pommel of the saddle : his terror rose to desperation ; he 
 
46 THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 rained a shower of kicks and blows upon Gunpowder, hoping 
 by sl sudden movement, to give his companion the slip — but 
 the spectre started full jump with him. Away then they 
 dashed, through thick and thin ; stones flying, and sparks 
 flashing at every bound. Ichabod's flimsy garments fluttered 
 in the air, as he stretched his long lank body away over his 
 horse's head, in the eagerness of his flight. 
 
 They had now reached the road which turns off to Sleepy 
 Hollow ; but Gunpowder, who seemed possessed with a demon, 
 instead of keeping up it, made an opposite turn, and plunged 
 headlong down hill to the left. This road leads through a 
 sandy hollow, shaded by trees for about a quarter of a mile, 
 where it crosses the bridge famous in goblin story, and just 
 beyond swells the green knoll on which stands the whitewashed 
 church. 
 
 As yet, the panic of the steed had given his unskilful rider 
 an apparent advantage in the chase ; but just as he had got 
 half way through the hollow, the girths of the saddle gave 
 way, and he felt it slipping from under him. He seized it by 
 the pommel, and endeavored to hold it firm, but in vain ; and 
 had just time to save himself by clasping old Gunpowder round 
 the neck, when the saddle fell to the earth, and he heard it 
 trampled under foot by his pursuer. For a moment the terror 
 of Hans Van Kipper's wrath passed across his mind — for it was 
 his Sunday saddle ; but this was no time for petty fears ; the 
 goblin was hard on his haunches ; and (unskilful rider that he 
 was !) he had much ado to maintain his seat ; sometimes slip- 
 ping on one side, sometimes on another, and sometimes jolted 
 on the high ridge of his horse's backbone, with a violence that 
 he verily feared would cleave him asunder. 
 
 An opening in the trees now cheered him with the hopes 
 
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 
 
 47 
 
 that the church bridge was at hand. The wavering reflection 
 of a silver star in the bosom of the brook told him that he was 
 not mistaken. He saw the walls of the church dimly glaring 
 under the trees beyond. He recollected the place where Brom 
 Bones's ghostly competitor had disappeared. " If I can but 
 reach that bridge," thought Ichabod, "I am safe." Just then 
 
4^ THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 he heard the black steed panting and blowing close behind 
 him; he even fancied that he felt his hot breath. Another 
 convulsive kick in the ribs, and old Gunpowder sprang upon 
 the bridge ; he thundered over the resounding planks ; he 
 gained the opposite side ; and now Ichabod cast a look behind, 
 to see if his pursuer should vanish, according to rule, in a flash 
 of fire and brimstone. Just then he saw the goblin rising in 
 his stirrups, and in the very act of hurling his head at hhn 
 Ichabod endeavored to dodge the horrible missile, but too late. 
 It encountered his cranium with a tremendous crash — he was 
 tumbled headlong into the dust, and Gunpowder, the black 
 steed, and the goblin rider, passed by like a whirlwind. 
 
 The next morning the old horse was found without his 
 saddle, and with the bridle under his feet, soberly cropping 
 the grass at his master's gate. Ichabod did not make his 
 appearance at breakfast — dinner-hour came, but no Ichabod. 
 The boys assembled at the school-house, and strolled idly 
 about the banks of the brook ; but no schoolmaster. Hans 
 Yan Ripper now began to feel some uneasiness about the fate 
 of poor Ichabod, and his saddle. An inquiry was set on foot, 
 and after diligent investigation they came upon his traces. 
 In one part of the road leading to the church was found the 
 saddle trampled in the dirt ; the tracks of horses' hoofs deeply 
 dented in the road, and evidently at furious speed, were traced 
 to the bridge, beyond which, on the bank of a broad part of 
 the brook, where the water ran deep and black, was found the 
 hat. of the unfortunate Ichabod, and close beside it a shattered 
 pumpkin. 
 
 The brook was searched, but the body of the schoolmaster 
 was not to be discovered. Hans Van Ripper, as executor of 
 his estate, examined the bundle which contained all his worldly 
 
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 49 
 
 effects. They consisted of two shirts and a half; two stocks 
 for the neck ; a pair or two of worsted stockings ; an old pair 
 of corduroy small-clothes; a rusty razor; a book of psalm- 
 tunes, full of dogs' ears; and a broken pitchpipe. As to the 
 books and furniture of the school-house, they belonged to the 
 community, excepting Cotton Mather's History of Witchcraft, a 
 New England Almanac, and a book of dreams and fortune- 
 telling ; in which last was a sheet of foolscap much scribbled 
 and blotted, in several fruitless attempts to make a copy of 
 verses in honor of the heiress of Van Tassel. These magic 
 books and the poetic scrawl were forthwith consigned to the 
 flames by Hans Van Kipper; who from that time forward 
 determined to send his children no more to school ; observ- 
 ing, that he never knew any good come of this same reading 
 and writing. Whatever money the schoolmaster possessed, and 
 he had received his quarter's pay but a day or two before, he 
 must have had about his person at the time of his disappear- 
 ance. 
 
 The mysterious event caused much speculation at the 
 church on the following Sunday. Knots of gazers and gossips 
 were collected in the churchyard, at the bridge, and at the 
 spot where the hat and pumpkin had been found. The stories 
 of Brouwer, of Bones, and a whole budget of others, were 
 called to mind ; and when they had diligently considered them 
 all, and compared them with the symptoms of the present 
 case, they shook their heads, and came to the conclusion that 
 Ichabod had been carried off by the Galloping Hessian. As 
 he was a bachelor, and in nobody's debt, nobody troubled his 
 head any more about him. The school was removed to a dif- 
 ferent quarter of the hollow, and another pedagogue reigned in 
 
 his stead. 
 
 j) 
 
50 
 
 THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 It is true, an old farmer, who had been down to New York 
 on a visit several years after, and from whom this account 
 of the ghostly adventure was received, brought home the 
 intelligence that Ichabod Crane was still alive ; that he had 
 left the neighborhood, partly through fear of the goblin and 
 Hans Yan Eipper, and partly in mortification at having been 
 suddenly dismissed by the heiress; that he had changed his 
 quarters to a distant part of the country ; had kept school 
 and studied law at the same time, had been admitted to the bar, 
 turned politician, electioneered, written for the newspapers, 
 and finally had been made a justice of the Ten Pound Court. 
 Brom Bones too, who shortly after his rival's disappearance 
 conducted the blooming Katrina in triumph to the altar, was 
 observed to look exceedingly knowing whenever the story of 
 Ichabod was related, and always burst into a hearty laugh at 
 the mention of the pumpkin ; which led some to suspect that 
 he knew more about the matter than he chose to tell. 
 
 The old country wives, however, who are the best judges of 
 these matters, maintain to this day that Ichabod was spirited 
 away by supernatural means ; and it is a favorite story often 
 told about the neighborhood round the winter evening fire. 
 The bridge became more than ever an object of superstitious 
 awe, and that may be the reason why the road has been altered 
 of late years, so as to approach the church by the border of 
 the mill-pond. The school-house, being deserted, soon fell to 
 decay, and was reported to be haunted by the ghost of the un- 
 fortunate pedagogue ; and the ploughboy, loitering homeward 
 of a still summer evening, has often fancied his voice at a dis- 
 tance, chanting a melancholy psalm-tune among the tranquil 
 solitudes of Sleepy Hollow. 
 
The preceding Tale is given almost in the precise words in which I 
 heard it related, at a Corporation meeting of the ancient city of Man- 
 hattoes, at which were present many of its sagest and most illustrious 
 burghers. The narrator was a pleasant, shabby, gentlemanly old fellow 
 in pepper-and-salt clothes, with a sadly humorous face ; and one whom 
 I strongly suspected of being poor, — he made such efforts to be enter- 
 taining. When his story was concluded, there was much laughter and 
 approbation, particularly from two or three deputy aldermen, who had 
 been asleep the greater part of the time. There was, however, one tall 
 dry-looking old gentleman, with beetling eyebrows, who maintained a 
 grave and rather severe face throughout : now and then folding his arms 
 inclining his head, and looking down upon the floor, as if turning a 
 doubt over in his mind. He was one of your wary men, who never 
 laugh but upon good grounds — when they have reason and the law on 
 their side. When the mirth of the rest of the company had subsided, 
 and silence was restored, he leaned one arm on the elbow of his chair, 
 and, sticking the other akimbo, demanded, with a slight but exceedingly 
 sage motion of the head, and contraction of the brow, what was the 
 moral of the story, and what it went to prove? 
 
 The story-teller, who was just putting a glass of wine to his lips, as 
 
52 THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 a refreshment after his toils, paused for a moment, looked at his in- 
 quirer with an air of infinite deference, and, lowering the glass slowly 
 to the table, observed, that the story was intended most logically to 
 prove : — 
 
 "That there is no situation in life but has its advantages and 
 pleasures — provided we will but take a joke as we find it : 
 
 " That, therefore, he that runs races with goblin troopers is likely to 
 have a rough riding of it. 
 
 " Ergo, for a country schoolmaster to be refused the hand of a Dutch 
 heiress, is a certain step to high preferment in the state." 
 
 The cautious old gentleman knit his brows tenfold closer after this 
 explanation, being sorely puzzled by the ratiocination of the syllogism ; 
 while, methought, the one in pepper-and-salt eyed him with something 
 of a triumphant leer. At length he observed that all this was very 
 well, but still he thought the story a little on the extravagant — there 
 were one or two points on which he had his doubts. 
 
 " Faith, sir," replied the story-teller, " as to that matter, I don't 
 
 believe one-half of it myself/' 
 
 D. K. 
 
The Spectre Bridegroom. 
 
nSTTRODUOTIOISr TO 
 
 THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM. 
 
 ' ft Wife " 
 
 THE INN KITCHEN. 
 
 Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn?" 
 
 Falstaff. 
 
 UEINGr a journey that I once made 
 through the Netherlands, I had ar- 
 rived one evening at the Pomme d'Or, 
 the principal inn of a small Flemish 
 village. It was after the hour of the 
 table d'hote, so that I was obliged to 
 make a solitary supper from the relics of its ampler 
 board. The weather was chilly; I was seated alone in one 
 end of a great gloomy dining-room, and, my repast being over, 
 I had the prospect before me of a long, dull evening, without 
 any visible means of enlivening it. I summoned mine host, 
 and requested something to read : he brought me the whole 
 literary stock of his household, a Dutch family Bible, an alma- 
 nac in the same language, and a number of old Paris newspa- 
 pers. As I sat dozing over one of the latter, reading old and 
 stale criticisms, my ear was now and then struck with bursts 
 of laughter which seemed to proceed from the kitchen. Every 
 one that has travelled on the continent must know how favorite 
 a resort the kitchen of a country inn is to the middle and infe- 
 rior order of travellers ; particularly in that equivocal kind of 
 weather, when a fire becomes agreeable toward evening. I 
 
56 THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 threw aside the newspaper, and explored my way to the kitchen, 
 to take a peep at the group that appeared to be so merry. It 
 was composed partly of travellers who had arrived some hours 
 before in a diligence, and partly of the usual attendants and 
 hangers-on of inns. They were seated round a great burnished 
 stove, that might have been mistaken for an altar, at which 
 they were worshipping. It was covered with various kitchen- 
 vessels of resplendent brightness ; among which steamed and 
 hissed a huge copper tea-kettle. A large lamp threw a strong 
 mass of light upon the group, bringing out many odd features 
 in strong relief. Its yellow rays partially illumined the spacious 
 kitchen, dying duskily away into remote corners ; except where 
 they settled in mellow radiance on the broad side of a flitch of 
 bacon, or were reflected back from well-scoured utensils, that 
 gleamed from the midst of obscurity. A strapping Flemish 
 lass, with long golden pendants in her ears, and a necklace with 
 a golden heart suspended to it, was the presiding priestess of 
 the temple. 
 
 Many of the company were furnished with pipes, and most of 
 them with some kind of evening potation. I found their mirth 
 was occasioned by anecdotes, which a little swarthy Frenchman, 
 with a dry weazen face and large whiskers, was giving of his 
 love-adventures ; at the end of each of which there was one of 
 those bursts of honest, unceremonious laughter, in which a man 
 indulges in that temple of true liberty, an inn. 
 
 As I had no better mode of getting through a tedious, blus- 
 tering evening, I took my seat near the stove, and listened to a 
 variety of travellers' tales, some very extravagant, and most very 
 dull. All of them, however, have faded from my treacherous 
 memory except one, which I will endeavor to relate. I fear, 
 however, it derived its chief zest from the manner in which it 
 
THE INN KITCHEN. 
 
 57 
 
 was told, and the peculiar air and appearance of the narraxor. 
 He was a corpulent old Swiss, who had the look of a veteran 
 traveller. He was dressed in a tarnished green travelling-jacket, 
 with a broad belt round his waist, and a pair of overalls, with 
 buttons from the hips to the ankles. He was of a full, rubicund 
 countenance, with a double chin, aquiline nose, and a jneasant, 
 
58 THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 twinkling eye. His hair was light, and curled from under an 
 old green velvet travelling-cap stuck on one side of his head. 
 He was interrupted more than once by the arrival of guests, or 
 the remarks of his auditors, and paused now and then to replen- 
 ish his pipe ; at which times he had generally a roguish leer, and 
 a sly joke for the buxom kitchen-maid. 
 
 I wish my readers could imagine the old fellow lolling in a 
 huge arm-chair, one arm akimbo, the other holding a curiously- 
 twisted tobacco-pipe, formed of genuine ecume de mer, decorated 
 with silver chain and silken tassel — his head cocked on one 
 side, and a whimsical cut of the eye occasionally, as he related 
 the following story. 
 
THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM. 
 
 A TRAVELLER'S TALE.* 
 
 " 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 G-rahame, 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 Yon Landshort. It 
 
 * 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 Taris. 
 
gO THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 is now quite fallen to decay, and almost buried among beech- 
 trees and dark firs ; above 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 Katzenel- 
 lenbogen,* 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. 
 The times were peaceable, and the German nobles, in general, 
 had abandoned their inconvenient old castles, perched like 
 eagles' nests among the mountains, and had built more conve- 
 nient residences in the valleys : still the baron remained proudly 
 drawn up in his little fortress, cherishing, with hereditary invet- 
 eracy, all the old family feuds ; so that he was on ill terms with 
 some of his nearest neighbors, on account of disputes that had 
 happened between their great-great-grandfathers. 
 
 The baron had but one child, a daughter ; but Nature, when 
 she grants but one child, always compensates by making it a 
 prodigy ; and so it Avas with the daughter of the baron. All the 
 nurses, gossips, and country cousins, assured her father that she 
 had not her equal for beauty in all Germany ; and who should 
 know better than they ? She had, moreover, been brought up 
 with great care under the superintendence of two maiden aunts, 
 who had spent some years of their early life at one of the little 
 German courts, and were skilled in all the branches of knowl- 
 edge necessary to the education of a fine lady. Under their 
 
 * i. e., Cat's-Elbow. The name of a family of those parts, very powerful in 
 former times. The appellation, we are told, was given in compliment to a peerless 
 dame of the familv, celebrated for her fine arm. 
 
THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM. 
 
 61 
 
 instructions she became a miracle of accomplishments. By the 
 time she was eighteen, she could embroider to admiration, 
 and had worked whole histories of the saints in tapestry, with 
 such strength of expression in their countenances, that they 
 looked like so many souls in purgatory. She could read with- 
 out great difficulty, and had spelled her way through several 
 church legends, and almost all the chivalric wonders of the 
 Heldenbuch. She had even made considerable proficiency in 
 Avriting ; could sign her own name without missing a letter, and 
 so legibly, that her aunts could read it without spectacles. She 
 excelled in making little elegant good-for-nothing lady -like nick- 
 nacks of all kinds ; was versed in the most abstruse dancing of 
 the day ; played a number of airs on the harp and guitar ; and 
 knew all the tender ballads of the Minnie-lieders by heart. 
 
 Her aunts, too, having been great flirts and coquettes in their 
 younger days, were admirably calculated to be vigilant guardi- 
 ans and strict censors of the conduct of their niece ; for there is 
 no duenna so rigidly prudent, and inexorably decorous, as a 
 superannuated coquette. She was rarely suffered out of their 
 sight ; never went beyond the domains of the castle, unless well 
 attended, or rather well watched ; had continual lectures read to 
 her about strict decorum and implicit obedience ; and, as to the 
 men — pah ! — she was taught to hold them at such a distance, 
 and in such absolute distrust, that, unless properly authorized, 
 she would not have cast a glance upon the handsomest cav- 
 alier in the world — no, not if he were even dying at her 
 feet. 
 
 The good effects of this system were wonderfully apparent. 
 The young lady was a pattern of docility and correctness. 
 While others were wasting their sweetness in the glare of the 
 world, and liable to be plucked and thrown aside by every 
 
(32 THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 hand, she was coyly blooming into fresh and lovely womanhood 
 under the protection of. those immaculate spinsters, like a rose- 
 bud blushing forth among guardian thorns. Her aunts looked 
 upon her with pride and exultation, and vaunted that though 
 all the other young ladies in the world might go astray, yet, 
 thank Heaven, nothing of the kind could happen to the heiress 
 of Katzenellenbogen. 
 
 But, however scantily the Baron Yon Landshort might be 
 provided with children, his household was by no means a small 
 one ; for Providence had enriched him with abundance of poor 
 relations. They, one and all, possessed the affectionate disposi- 
 tion common to humble relatives ; were wonderfully attached to 
 the baron, and took every possible occasion to come in swarms 
 and enliven the castle. All family festivals were commemorated 
 by these good people at the baron's expense ; and when they 
 were filled with good cheer, they would declare that there was 
 nothing on earth so delightful as these family meetings, these 
 jubilees of the heart. 
 
 The baron, though a small man, had a large soul, and it 
 swelled with satisfaction at the consciousness of being the 
 greatest man in the little world about him. He loved to tell 
 long stories about the dark old warriors whose portraits looked 
 grimly down from the walls around, and he found no listeners 
 equal to those who fed at his expense. He was much given to 
 the marvellous, and a firm believer in all those supernatural tales 
 with which every mountain and valley in Germany abounds. 
 The faith of his guests exceeded even his own : they listened 
 to every tale of wonder with open eyes and mouth, and never 
 failed to be astonished, even though repeated for the hundredth 
 time. Thus lived the Baron Yon Landshort, the oracle of his 
 table, the absolute monarch of his little territory, and happy, 
 
THE SPECTRE BEIDEGEOOM. (53 
 
 above all things, in the persuasion that he was the wisest man 
 of the age. 
 
 At the time of which my story treats, there was a great family 
 gathering at the castle, on an affair of the utmost importance : it 
 was to receive the destined bridegroom of the baron's daughter. 
 A negotiation had been carried on between the father and an 
 old nobleman of Bavaria, to unite the dignity of their houses 
 by the marriage of their children. The preliminaries had been 
 conducted with proper punctilio. The young people were be- 
 trothed without seeing each other ; and the time was appointed 
 for the marriage ceremony. The young Count Yon Altenburg 
 had been recalled from the army for the purpose, and was actu- 
 ally on his way to the baron's to receive his bride. Missives 
 had even been received from him, from Wurtzburg, where he 
 was accidentally detained, mentioning the day and hour when 
 he might be expected to arrive. 
 
 The castle was in a tumult of preparation to give him a 
 suitable welcome. The fair bride had been decked out with 
 uncommon care. The two aunts had superintended her toilet, 
 and quarrelled the whole morning about every article of her 
 dress. The young lady had taken advantage of their contest 
 to follow the bent of her own taste ; and fortunately it was a 
 good one. She looked as lovely as youthful bridegroom could 
 desire ; and the nutter of expectation heightened the lustre of 
 her charms. 
 
 The suffusions that mantled her face and neck, the gentle 
 heaving of the bosom, the eye now and then lost in reverie, all 
 betrayed the soft tumult that was going on in her little heart. 
 The aunts were continually hovering around her; for maiden 
 aunts are apt to take great interest in affairs of this nature. 
 They were giving her a world of staid counsel how to deport 
 
g4 THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 herself, what to say, and in what manner to receive the expected 
 lover. 
 
 The baron was no lees busied in preparations. He had, in 
 truth, nothing exactly to do : but he was naturally a fuming, 
 bustling little man, and could not remain passive when all the 
 world was in a hurry. He worried from top to bottom of the 
 castle with an air of infinite anxiety ; he continually called the 
 servants from their work, to 'exhort them to be diligent ; and 
 buzzed about every hall and chamber, as idly restless and im- 
 portunate as a blue-bottle fly on a warm summer's day. 
 
 In the mean time, the fatted calf had been killed ; the forests 
 had rung with the clamor of the huntsmen ; the kitchen was 
 crowded with good cheer ; the cellars had yielded up whole 
 oceans of Rhein-wein and Ferne-wein ; and even the great Hei- 
 delburg tun had been laid under contribution. Every thing 
 was ready to receive the distinguished guest with Saus unci 
 Brans in the true spirit of German hospitalit} T — but the guest 
 delayed to make his appearance. Hour rolled after hour. The 
 sun, that had poured his downward rays upon the rich forest 
 of the Odenwalcl, now just gleamed along the summits of the 
 mountains. The baron mounted the highest tower, and strained 
 his eyes in hope of catching a distant sight of the count and his 
 attendants. Once he thought he beheld them: the sound of 
 horns came floating from the valley, prolonged by the mountain 
 echoes. A number of horsemen were seen far below, slowly 
 advancing along the road; but when they had nearly reached 
 the foot of the mountain, they suddenly struck off in a different 
 direction. The last ray of sunshine departed — the bats began 
 to flit by in the twilight — the road grew dimmer and dimmer to 
 the view ; and nothing appeared stirring in it but now and then 
 a peasant lagging homeward from his labor. 
 
THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM. Qfr 
 
 While the old castle of Landshort was in this state of per- 
 plexity, a very interesting scene was transacting in a different 
 part of the Odenwald. 
 
 The young Count Yon Altenburg was tranquilly pursuing his 
 route in that sober, jog-trot way, in which a man travels toward 
 matrimony when his friends have taken all the trouble and un- 
 certainty of courtship off his hands, and a bride is waiting for 
 him, as certainly as a dinner at the end of his journey. He had 
 encountered, at Wurtzburg, a youthful companion in arms, with 
 whom he had seen some service on the frontiers — Herman Yon 
 Starkenfaust, one of the stoutest hands and worthiest hearts of 
 Grerman chivalry, who was now returning from the army. His 
 father's castle was not far distant from the old fortress of Land- 
 short, although an hereditary feud rendered the families hostile, 
 and strangers to each other. 
 
 In the warm-hearted moment of recognition, the young friends 
 related all their past adventures and fortunes; and the count 
 gave the whole history of his intended nuptials with a young 
 lady whom he had never seen, but of whose charms he had 
 received the most enrapturing descriptions. 
 
 As the route of the friends lay in the same direction, they 
 agreed to perform the rest of their journey together ; and, that 
 they might do it the more leisurely, set off from Wurtzburg at 
 an early hour, the count having given directions for his retinue 
 to follow and overtake him. 
 
 They beguiled their wayfaring with recollections of their 
 military scenes and adventures ; but the count was apt to be a 
 little tedious, now and then, about the reputed charms of his 
 bride, and the felicity that awaited him. 
 
 In this way they had entered among the mountains of the 
 Odenwald, and were traversing one of its most lonely and 
 
QQ THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 thickly-wooded passes. It is well known that the forests of 
 Germany have always been as much infested by robbers as its 
 castles- by spectres ; and, at this time, the former were particu- 
 larly numerous, from the hordes of disbanded soldiers wandering 
 about the country. It will not appear extraordinary, therefore, 
 that the cavaliers were attacked by a gang of these stragglers, 
 in the midst of the forest. They defended themselves with 
 bravery, but were nearly overpowered, when the count's retinue 
 arrived to their assistance. At sight of them the robbers fled, 
 but not until the count had received a mortal wound. He was 
 slowly and carefully conveyed back to the city of Wurtzburg, 
 and a friar summoned from a neighboring convent, who was 
 famous for his skill in administering to both soul and body ; 
 but half of his skill was superfluous : the moments of the unfor- 
 tunate count were numbered. 
 
 • With his dying breath he entreated his friend to repair in- 
 stantly to the castle of Landshort, and explain the fatal cause 
 of his not keeping his appointment with his bride. Though not 
 the most ardent of lovers, he was one of the most punctilious of 
 men, and appeared earnestly solicitous that his mission should 
 be speedily and courteously executed. " Unless this is done," 
 said he, u I shall not sleep quietly in my grave !" He repeated 
 these last words with peculiar solemnity. A request, at a mo- 
 ment so impressive, admitted no hesitation. Starkenfaust en- 
 deavored to soothe him to calmness ; promised faithfully to 
 execute his wish, and gave him his hand in solemn pledge. 
 The dying man pressed it in acknowledgment, but soon lapsed 
 into delirium — raved about his bride — his engagements — his 
 plighted word; ordered his horse, that he might ride to the 
 castle of Landshort ; and expired in the fancied act of vaulting 
 into the saddle. 
 
THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM. 07 
 
 Starkenfaust bestowed a sigh and a soldier's tear on the un- 
 timely fate of his comrade ; and then pondered on the awkward 
 mission he had undertaken. His heart was heavy, and his head 
 perplexed; for he was to present himself an unbidden guest 
 among hostile people, and to damp their festivity with tidings 
 fatal to their hopes. Still there were certain whisperings of 
 curiosity in his bosom to see this far-famed beauty of Katzenel- 
 lenbogen, so cautiously shut up from the world ; for he was a 
 passionate admirer of the sex, and there was a dash of eccentri- 
 city and enterprise in his character that made him fond of all 
 singular adventure. 
 
 Previous to his departure he made all due arrangements with 
 the holy fraternity of the convent for the funeral solemnities of 
 his friend, who was to be buried in the cathedral of Wurtzburg, 
 near some of his illustrious relatives ; and the mourning retinue 
 of the count took charge of his remains. 
 
 It is now high time that we should return to the ancient fam- 
 ily of Katzenellenbogen, who were impatient for their guest, and 
 still more for their dinner ; and to the worthy little baron, 
 whom we left airing himself on the watch-tower. 
 
 Night closed in, but still no guest arrived. The baron de- 
 scended from the tower in despair. The banquet, which had 
 been delayed from hour to hour, could no longer be postponed. 
 The meats were already overdone ; the cook in an agony ; and 
 the whole household had the look of a garrison that had been 
 reduced by famine. The baron was obliged reluctantly to give 
 orders for the feast without the presence of the guest. All were 
 seated at table, and just on the point of commencing, when the 
 sound of a horn from without the gate gave notice of the ap- 
 proach of a stranger. Another long blast filled the old courts 
 of the castle with its echoes, and was answered by the warder 
 
gg THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 from the walls. The baron hastened to receive his future son- 
 in-law. 
 
 The . drawbridge had been let down, and the stranger was 
 before the gate. He was a tall, gallant cavalier, mounted on a 
 black steed. His countenance was pale, but he had a beaming, 
 romantic eye, and an air of stately melancholy. The baron was 
 a little mortified that he should have come in this simple, soli- 
 tary style. His dignity for a moment was ruffled, and he felt 
 disposed to consider it a want of proper respect for the impor- 
 tant occasion, and the important family with which he was to be 
 connected. He pacified himself, however, with the conclusion, 
 that it must have been youthful impatience which had induced 
 him thus to spur on sooner than his attendants. 
 
 "I am sorry," said the stranger, "to break in upon you thus 
 unseasonably — ' ' 
 
 Here the baron interrupted him with a world of compliments 
 and greetings ; for, to tell the truth, he prided himself upon his 
 courtesy and eloquence. The stranger attempted, once or twice, 
 to stem the torrent of words, but in vain ; so he bowed his head, 
 and suffered it to flow on. By the time the baron had come to 
 a pause, they had reached the inner court of the castle ; and the 
 stranger was again about to speak, when he was once more in- 
 terrupted by the appearance of the female part of the family, 
 leading forth the shrinking and blushing bride. He gazed on 
 her for a moment as one entranced ; it seemed as if his whole 
 soul beamed forth in the gaze, and rested upon that lovely form. 
 One of the maiden aunts whispered something in her ear : she 
 made an effort to speak ; her moist blue eye was timidly raised ; 
 gave a shy glance of inquiry on the stranger; and was cast 
 again to the ground. The words died away ; but there was a 
 sweet smile playing about her lips, and a soft dimpling of the 
 
THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM. QQ 
 
 cheek that showed her glance had not been unsatisfactory. It 
 was impossible for a girl of the fond age of eighteen, highly 
 predisposed for love and matrimony, not to be pleased with so 
 gallant a cavalier. 
 
 The late hour at which the guest had arrived left no time for 
 parley. The baron was peremptory, and deferred all particular 
 conversation until the morning, and led the way to the untasted 
 banquet. 
 
 It was served up in the great hall of the castle. Around the 
 walls hung the hard-favored portraits of the heroes of the house 
 of Katzenellenbogen, and the trophies which they had gained in 
 the field and in the chase. Hacked corslets, splintered jousting- 
 spears, and tattered banners, were mingled with the spoils of 
 sylvan warfare ; the jaws of the wolf and the tusks of the boar 
 grinned horribly among cross-bows and battle-axes, and a huge 
 pair of antlers branched immediately over the head of the youth- 
 ful bridegroom. 
 
 The cavalier took but little notice of the company or the 
 entertainment. He scarcely tasted the banquet, but seemed 
 absorbed in admiration of his bride. He conversed in a low 
 tone, that could not be overheard — for the language of love is 
 never loud ; but where is the female ear so dull that it cannot 
 catch the softest whisper of the lover? There was a mingled 
 tenderness and gravity in his manner, that appeared to have 
 a powerful effect upon the young lady. Her color came and 
 went as she listened with deep attention. Now and then she 
 made some blushing reply, and when his eye was turned away, 
 she would steal a sidelong glance at his romantic counte- 
 nance, and heave a gentle sigh of tender happiness. It was 
 evident that the young couple were completely enamored. The 
 aunts, who were deeply versed in the mysteries of the heart, 
 
70 THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 declared that they had fallen in love with each other at first 
 sight. 
 
 The feast went on merrily, or at least noisily, for the guests 
 were all blessed with those keen appetites that attend upon light 
 purses and mountain air. The baron told his best and longest 
 stories, and never had he told them so well, or with such great 
 effect. If there was any thing marvellous, his auditors were 
 lost in astonishment; and if any thing facetious, they were sure 
 to laugh exactly in the right place. The baron, it is true, like 
 most great men, was too dignified to utter any joke but a dull 
 one ; it was always enforced, however, by a bumper of excellent 
 Hockheimer ; and even a dull joke, at one's own table, served 
 up with jolly old wine, is irresistible. Many good things were 
 said by poorer and keener wits that would not bear repeating, 
 except on similar occasions; many sly speeches whispered in 
 ladies' ears, that almost convulsed them with suppressed laugh- 
 ter ; and a song or two roared out by a poor but merry and 
 broad-faced cousin of the baron, that absolutely made the maiden 
 aunts hold up their fans. 
 
 Amidst all this revelry, the stranger-guest maintained a most 
 singular and unseasonable gravity. His countenance assumed 
 a deeper cast of dejection as the evening advanced ; and, strange 
 as it may appear, even the baron's jokes seemed only to render 
 him the more melancholy. At times he was lost in thought, 
 and at times there was a perturbed and restless wandering of 
 the eye that bespoke a mind but ill at ease. His conversations 
 with the bride became more and more earnest and mysterious. 
 Lowering clouds began to steal over the fair serenity of her 
 brow, and tremors to run through her tender frame. 
 
 All this could not escape the notice of the company. Their 
 gayety was chilled by the unaccountable gloom of the bride- 
 
THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM. 71 
 
 groom ; their spirits were infected ; whispers and glances were 
 interchanged, accompanied by shrugs and dubious shakes of the 
 head. The song and the laugh grew less and less frequent; 
 there were dreary pauses in the conversation, which were at 
 length succeeded by wild tales and supernatural legends. One 
 dismal story produced another still more dismal, and the baron 
 nearly frightened some of the ladies into hysterics with the his- 
 tory of the goblin horseman that carried away the fair Leonora ; 
 a dreadful story, which has since been put into excellent verse, 
 and is read and believed by all the world. 
 
 The bridegroom listened to this tale with profound attention. 
 He kept his eyes steadily fixed on the baron, and, as the story 
 drew to a close, began gradually to rise from his seat, growing 
 taller and taller, until, in the baron's entranced eye, he seemed 
 almost to tower into a giant. The moment the tale was finished, 
 he heaved a deep sigh, and took a solemn farewell of the com- 
 pany. They were all amazement. The baron was perfectly 
 thunder-struck. 
 
 "What! going to leave the castle at midnight? why, every 
 thing was prepared for his reception ; a chamber was ready for 
 him if he wished to retire." 
 
 The stranger shook his head mournfully and mysteriously. 
 " I must lay my head in a different chamber to-night !" 
 
 There was something in this reply, and the tone in which it 
 was uttered, that made the baron's heart misgive him ; but he 
 rallied his forces, and repeated his hospitable entreaties. 
 
 The stranger shook his head silently, but positively, at every 
 offer ; and, waving his farewell to the company, stalked slowly 
 out of the hall. The maiden aunts were absolutely petrified — 
 the bride hung her head, and a tear stole to her eye. 
 
 The baron followed the stranger to the great court of the 
 
72 THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 castle, where the black charger stood pawing the earth, and 
 snorting with impatience. When they had reached the portal, 
 whose deep archway was dimly lighted by a cresset, the stranger 
 paused, and addressed the baron in a hollow tone of voice, which 
 the vaulted roof rendered still more sepulchral. 
 
 "Now that we are alone," said he, "I will impart to you the 
 reason of my going. I have a solemn, an indispensable engage- 
 ment — " 
 
 "Why," said the baron, "cannot you send some one in your 
 place?" 
 
 "It admits of no substitute — I must attend it in person — I 
 must away to Wurtzburg cathedral — " 
 
 "Ay," said the baron, plucking up spirit, "but not until to- 
 morrow — to-morrow you shall take your bride there." 
 
 " No ! no !" replied the stranger, with tenfold solemnity, " my 
 engagement is with no bride — the worms ! the worms expect 
 me ! I am a dead man — I have been slain by robbers — my body 
 lies at Wurtzburg — at midnight I am to be buried — the grave is 
 waiting for me — I must keep my appointment!" 
 
 He sprang on his black charger, dashed over the drawbridge, 
 and the clattering of his horse's hoofs Was lost in the whistling 
 of the night blast. 
 
 The baron-returned to the hall in the utmost consternation, 
 and related what had passed. Two ladies fainted outright, 
 others sickened at the idea of having banqueted with a spectre. 
 It was the opinion of some, that this might be the wild hunts- 
 man, famous in German legend. Some talked of mountain- 
 sprites, of wood-demons, and of other supernatural beings, with 
 which the good people of Germany have been so grievously 
 harassed since time immemorial. One of the poor relations 
 ventured to suggest that it might be some sportive evasion of 
 
THE SPECTEE BKIDEGEOOM. 73 
 
 the young cavalier, and that the very gloominess of the caprice 
 seemed to accord with so melancholy a personage. This, how- 
 ever drew on him the indignation of the whole company, and 
 especially of the baron, who looked upon him as little better 
 than an infidel ; so that he was fain to abjure his heresy as 
 speedily as possible, and come into the faith of the true be- 
 lievers. 
 
 But whatever may have been the doubts entertained, they 
 were completely put to an end by the arrival, next day, of reg- 
 ular missives, confirming the intelligence of the young count's 
 murder, and his interment in Wurtzburg cathedral. 
 
 The dismay at the castle may well be imagined. The baron 
 shut himself up in his chamber. The guests, who had come to 
 rejoice with him, could not think of abandoning him in his dis- 
 tress. They wandered about the courts, or collected in groups 
 in the hall, shaking their heads and shrugging their shoulders, 
 at the troubles of so good a man ; and sat longer than ever at 
 table, and ate and drank more stoutly than ever, by way of 
 i?3eping up their spirits. But the situation of the widowed 
 bride was the most pitiable. To have lost a husband before 
 she had even embraced him — and such a husband ! if the very 
 spectre could be so gracious and noble, what must have been 
 the living man ? She filled the house with lamentations. 
 
 On the night of the second day of her widowhood, she had 
 retired to her chamber, accompanied by one of her aunts, who 
 insisted on sleeping with her. The aunt, who was one of the 
 best tellers of ghost-stories in all Germany, had just been re- 
 counting one of her longest, and had fallen asleep in the very 
 midst of it. The chamber was remote, and overlooked a small 
 garden. The niece lay pensively gazing at the beams of the 
 they trembled on the leaves of an aspen-tree 
 
74 THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 before the lattice. The castle clock had just tolled midnight, 
 when a soft strain of music stole up from the garden. She rose 
 hastily from her bed, and stepped lightly to the window. A tall 
 figure stood among the shadows of the trees. As it raised its 
 head, a beam of moonlight fell upon the countenance. Heaven 
 and earth ! she beheld the Spectre Bridegroom ! A loud shriek 
 at that moment burst upon her ear, and her aunt, who had been 
 awakened by the music, and had followed her silently to the 
 window, fell into her arms. When she looked again, the spectre 
 had disappeared. 
 
 Of the two females, the aunt now required the most soothing, 
 for she was perfectly beside herself with terror. As to the young 
 lady, there was something, even in the spectre of her lover, that 
 seemed endearing. There was still the semblance of manly 
 beauty; and though the shadow of a man is but little calcu- 
 lated to satisfy the affections of a love-sick girl, yet, where the 
 substance is not to be had, even that is consoling. The aunt 
 declared she would never sleep in that chamber again ; the 
 niece, for once, was refractory, and declared as strongly that 
 she would sleep in no other in the castle : the consequence was, 
 that she had to sleep in it alone : but she drew a promise from 
 her aunt not to relate the story of the spectre, lest she should be 
 denied the only melancholy pleasure left her on earth — that of 
 inhabiting the chamber over which the guardian shade of her 
 lover kept its nightly vigils. 
 
 How long the good old lady would have observed this prom- 
 ise is uncertain, for she dearly loved to talk of the marvellous, 
 and there is a triumph in being the first to tell a frightful story ; 
 it is, however, still quoted in the neighborhood, as a memorable 
 instance of female secrecy, that she kept it to herself for a whole 
 week ; when she was suddenly absolved from all further restraint 
 
THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM. 
 
 75 
 
 4 CXA. 
 
 by intelligence brought to the breakfast-table one morning that 
 the young lady was not to be found. Her room was empty— 
 the bed had not been slept in — the window was open, and the 
 bird had flown. 
 
 The astonishment and concern with which the intelligence 
 was received, can only be imagined by tnose who have wit- 
 nessed the agitation which the mishaps of a great man cause 
 among his friends. Even the poor relations mused for a mo- 
 ment from the indefatigable labors of the trencher; when the 
 
76 THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 aunt, who had at first been struck speechless, wrung her hands, 
 and shrieked out, " The goblin ! the goblin ! she's carried away 
 by the goblin I" 
 
 In a few words she related the fearful scene of the garden, 
 and concluded that the spectre must have carried off his bride. 
 Two of the domestics corroborated the opinion, for they had 
 heard the clattering of a horse's hoofs down the mountain about 
 midnight, and had no doubt that it was the spectre on his black 
 charger, bearing her away to the tomb. All present were struck 
 with the direful probability ; for events of the kind are extreme- 
 ly common in Germany, as many well-authenticated histories 
 bear witness. 
 
 What a lamentable situation was that of the poor baron ! 
 What a heart-rending dilemma for a fond father, and a member 
 of the great family of Katzenellenbogen ! His only daughter 
 had either been rapt away to the grave, or he was to have some 
 wood-demon for a son-in-law, and perchance a troop of goblin 
 grandchildren. As usual, he was completely bewildered, and 
 all the castle in an uproar. The men were ordered to take 
 horse, and scour every road and path and glen of the Odenwalcl. 
 The baron himself had just drawn on his jack-boots, girded on 
 his sword, and was about to mount his steed to sally forth on 
 the doubtful quest, when he was brought to a pause by a new 
 apparition. A lady was seen approaching the castle, mounted 
 on a palfrey, attended by a cavalier on horseback. She gal- 
 loped up to the gate, sprang from her horse, and, falling at the 
 baron's feet, embraced his knees. It was his lost daughter, and 
 her companion — the Spectre Bridegroom ! The baron was as - 
 tounded. He looked at his daughter, then at the spectre, and 
 almost doubted the evidence of his senses. The latter, too, was 
 wonderfully improved in his appearance since his visit to the 
 
THE SPECTKE BEIDEGKOOM. 77 
 
 world of spirits. His dress was splendid, and set off a noble 
 figure of manly symmetry. He was no longer pale and melan- 
 choly. His fine countenance was flushed with the glow of 
 youth, and joy rioted in his large dark eye. 
 
 The mystery was soon cleared up. The cavalier (for, in 
 truth, as you must have known all the while, he was no goblin) 
 announced himself as Sir Herman Yon Starkenfaust He re- 
 lated his adventure with the young count. He told how he had 
 hastened to the castle to deliver the unwelcome tidings, but that 
 the eloquence of the baron had interrupted him in every attempt 
 to tell his tale. How the sight of the bride had completely 
 captivated him, and that, to pass a few hours near her, he had 
 tacitly suffered the mistake to continue. How he had been 
 sorely perplexed in what way to make a decent retreat, until 
 the baron's goblin-stories had suggested his eccentric exit. How, 
 fearing the feudal hostility of the family, he had repeated his 
 visits by stealth — had haunted the garden beneath the young 
 lady's window — had wooed — had won — had borne away in tri- 
 umph — and, in a word, had wedded the fair. 
 
 Under any other circumstances the baron would have been 
 inflexible, for he was tenacious of paternal authority, and de- 
 voutly obstinate in all family feuds : but he loved his daugh- 
 ter; he had lamented her as lost; he rejoiced to find her still 
 alive; and, though her husband was of a hostile house, yet, 
 thank Heaven, he was not a goblin ! There was something, 
 it must be acknowledged, that did not exactly accord with his 
 notions of strict veracity, in the joke the knight had passed 
 upon him of his being a dead man ; but several old friends 
 present, who had served in the wars, assured him that every 
 stratagem was excusable in love, and that the cavalier was enti- 
 tled to especial privilege, having lately served as a trooper. 
 
78 THE SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 Matters, therefore, were happily arranged. The baron par- 
 doned the young couple on the spot. The revels at the castle 
 were resumed. The poor relations overwhelmed this new mem- 
 ber of the family with loving-kindness ; he was so gallant, so 
 generous — and so rich. The aunts, it is true, were somewhat 
 scandalized that their system of strict seclusion and passive 
 obedience should be so badly exemplified, but attributed it all 
 to their negligence in not having the windows grated. One of 
 them was particularly mortified at having her marvellous story 
 marred, and that the only spectre she had ever seen should turn 
 out a counterfeit ; but the niece seemed perfectly happy at hav- 
 ing found him substantial flesh and blood — and so the story 
 ends. 
 

 
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