230 FIRST FORMS OF VEGETATION. 
the 26th of July, a widow, chancing to be alone in 
her house, in the village of Castelenschloss, sud- 
denly beholds a frightful spectacle, blood spring- 
ing from the earth all around her; she rushes in 
alarm into the cottage . . . but oh, horrible! blood 
is flowing everywhere, from the earth, from the 
wainscot, and from the stones ; it falls in a stream 
from a basin on a shelf, and even the child’s cradle 
overflows with it. The woman imagines that the in- 
visible hand of an assassin has been at work, and 
rushes in distraction out of doors, crying, “Murder, 
murder The villagers and the monks of a 
neighbouring convent assemble at the noise; they 
partly succeed in effacing the bloody stains ; but 
a little later in the day the other inhabitants of 
the house, sitting down in terror to eat their even- 
ing meal under the projecting eaves, suddenly dis- 
cover blood bubbling up in a pond, blood flowing 
from the loft, blood covering all the walls of the 
house. Blood, blood! everywhere blood! The 
bailiff of Schenkenberg and the pastor of Dalheim 
arrive, inquire into the matter, and immediately 
report it to the Lords of Berne and to Zwingle.’ 
This extraordinary and alarming effusion of 
blood, along with the previously mentioned in- 
stances of bleeding hosts, and showers of blood, 
although plainly exaggerated by the dilated eye 
of fear, which in those troubled times saw every- 
1? 
