"I fancy I can enlighten you," responded the doctor.
"I thought it likely that the 'county clock' could tell us something
about it," laughingly interpolated the vice-palatine.
"You may laugh as much as you like, but I always tell what is true,"
retorted the "county clock." "They say that the baroness was betrothed
to a gentleman from Bavaria, that the wedding-day was set, when the
bridegroom heard that the lady he was about to marry was--"
"Hush!" hastily whispered the justice; "the servants might hear you."
"Oh, it is n't anything scandalous. All that the bridegroom heard was
that the baroness was a Lutheran; and as the _matrimonia mixta_ are
forbidden in Vienna and in Bavaria, the bridegroom withdrew from the
engagement. In her grief over the affair, the _sposa repudiata_ said
farewell to the world, and determined to wear the_parta_[2] for the
remainder of her days. That is why she chose this remote region as a
residence."
[Footnote 2: A head-covering worn only by Hungarian maidens.]
Here the bell in the church tower began to ring. It was followed by a
roar from the mortars on the hilltop.
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