274 
The Lily. 
for excellency. Hence the lily’s three leaves, in the arms of 
France, meaneth piety, justice, and charity. The following 
pretty legend is related, and devoutly believed in, by the in¬ 
habitants of the Hartz Mountains, of the night-blooming lily 
of Lauenberg. 
Beautiful Alice dwelt with her widowed mother in a small 
cottage at the foot of the Hartz Mountains. Her principal 
occupation was that of gathering forest straw —that is, the 
foliage of the pine and fir tribe, which is very much used in 
certain parts of Germany as a stuffing for beds, &c. Thus was 
the pretty maiden occupied when the lord of Lauenberg 
Castle rode by. With wily words he extolled her looks, and 
swore that she was too pretty a blossom to be hid in a peasant’s 
humble cot, and begged her to come and dwell in his lordly 
castle, where she would have nothing to do but command, and 
where all would obey her commands. 
The simple girl was dazzled by the brilliant prospect, but, 
true in her simplicity, flew to her mother, and related all that 
had transpired. The terrified mother wept bitterly over her 
darling’s communication; for too well she knew the character 
of Lauenberg’s dissolute baron. Hastily packing up her few 
household treasures, she carried off her wondering and sorrow¬ 
ful child to the shelter of a neighbouring convent, within whose 
sacred walls she believed poor Alice might rest in security. 
Not long, however, had the simple country girl been immured 
in the holy edifice before the enraged nobleman discovered her 
retreat, and, determined to obtain his prey, assembled his 
vassals, forced an entrance into the convent, and, seizing the 
object of his licentious passion, bore her, half dead with dread, 
to his castle. 
On arriving, at midnight, in the garden in front of his em¬ 
battled dwelling, he alighted with his senseless burden in his 
arms; but, as he attempted to enter the castle, the guardian 
spirits of the place snatched the poor maiden out of his grasp, 
and on the very spot where her feet had been, sprang up the 
beautiful lily of Lauenberg. 
The annual appearance of the lily at midnight is anxiously 
looked forward to by the inhabitants of the Hartz, and many 
of them are said to perform a nightly pilgrimage to see it, 
returning to their homes overpowered with its dazzling beauty, 
