On the Cross: A Romance of the Passion Play at Oberammergau

Near the Goal. CONCLUSION. From Illusion to Truth. INTRODUCTION. It was in the Garden of Gethsemane that the risen So...

A PHANTOM. Solemn and lofty against the evening sky towers the Kofel, the land-mark and protecting rock-bulwark of Oberammergau, bearing aloft its solitary cross, like a threateni...

OLD AMMERGAU. At last, alter a long circuit and many enquiries, the goal was gained. The dripping, sorely shaken equipage stopped with two wheels in a ditch filled with rain water...

YOUNG AMMERGAU. The valet served the tea. The prince had provided for everything, remembered everything. He had even brought English biscuits. The little repast exerted a very ch...

EXPELLED FROM THE PLAY. The storm had spent its fury, the winds sung themselves softly to sleep, a friendly face looked down between the dispersing clouds and cast its mild light ...

"Oh, how harsh!" cried the countess; "And in a land where human beings are so near to nature, and in circumstances where the poor girls are so little guarded." "Yes, we are aware ...

MODERN PILGRIMS. "What do you think. The Countess von Wildenau is founding an Orphan's Home!" said the prince, as, leaving the Gross house, he joined a group of gentlemen who were...

THE EVENING BEFORE THE PLAY. Josepha sat in the countess' room at work on her new dress. She was calm and quiet; the delight in finery which never abandons a woman to her latest h...

THE PASSION PLAY. Day was dawning. The first rays of the morning sun, ever broader and brighter, were darting through the air, whose blue waves surged and quivered under the flami...

FREYER. The Play was over. "Christ is risen!" He had burst the sepulchre and hurled the guards in the dust by the sight of His radiant apparition. He had appeared to the Penitent ...

SIGNS AND WONDERS. The great number of strangers who were unable to get tickets the day before had rendered a second performance necessary. The countess did not attend it. To her ...

IN THE EARLY MORNING. "Rise Mary! Night is darkening and the wintry storms are raging--but be comforted, in the early morning, in the Spring garden, you will see me again." The c...

MARY AND MAGDALENE. "On the cross"--was it a consolation or a menace? Who could decipher this rune? It was like all the sayings of oracles. History would explain its meaning, and ...

BRIDAL TORCHES. "Magdalene--Wife--Angel--what shall I call you?" cried Freyer, extending his arms. "Oh, if only we were not in the open fields, that I might press you to my heart ...

BANISHED FROM EDEN. Silence reigned on the height. The winds had died away, the clouds were scattering swiftly, like an army of ghosts. The embers of the wood below crackled softl...

PIETA. Twilight was gathering when the pair reached the valley. The Passion Theatre loomed like a vast shadow by the roadside, and both, as if moved by the _same_ impulse, turned...

THE CROWING OF THE COCK. A loud step roused the rapt enthusiast from her visions. The sacristan was passing through the church, extinguishing the candles which, meanwhile, had bur...

PRISONED. The prince had left the room, and she heard him walk through the work-shop. Silence fell upon the house and the street. The tortured woman, utterly exhausted, sank upon ...

FLYING FROM THE CROSS. The burgomaster went to the office every morning at six o'clock, for the work to be accomplished during the day was very great and required an early beginni...

THE MARRIAGE. On a wooded height, hidden in the heart of the forests of the Bavarian highlands, stood an ancient hunting castle, the property of the Wildenau family. A steep mount...

AT THE CHILD'S BEDSIDE. The stars were already twinkling above the Griess, here and there one looked as if impaled on a giant flagstaff, as they sparkled just above the tops of th...

CONFLICTS. It was morning! The lamp had almost burned out! Josepha and the countess were busied with the boy, whose sleep was disturbed by a short, dry cough. The mother had remai...

UNACCOUNTABLE. A moment--and a turning point in a life! The countess was "herself" again, as she called it. "Thank God!" The Ammergau episode--with all its tragic consequences--...

FALLING STARS. "The new mistress of ceremonies isn't popular." "Countess Wildenau is said to have fallen into disgrace already; she did not ride in the queen's carriage at the re...

NOLI ME TANGERE. "I have attracted you by a Play--for you were a child, and children are taught by games. But when one method of instruction is exhausted it is cast aside and exch...

ATTEMPTS TO RESCUE. The countess remained absent a long time, while the duke sat at the window of the boudoir gazing out into the frosty winter morning, but without seeing what wa...

DAY IS DAWNING. In the quiet chamber in the ancient hunting-castle, on the spot formerly occupied by the little bed, a casket now stood on two chairs near a wooden crucifix. Frey...

THE LAST SUPPORT. There was alarm in the Wildenau Palace. The countess had suddenly returned, without notifying the servants--in plain words, without asking the servants' permissi...

BETWEEN POVERTY AND DISGRACE. Three weary days had passed. The countess was ill. At least she permitted her household to believe that she was unable to leave her room. No one was ...

PARTING. Several minutes have passed--to the duke a world of happiness--to the countess of misery. The duke bent over the beautiful trembling form to clasp her in his arms for the...

IN THE DESERTED HOUSE. The night had passed, day was shining through the closed curtains--but Countess Wildenau still sat in the same spot where Freyer had left her. Yes, he had g...

THE "WIESHERRLE." High above the rushing Wildbach, where the stream bursts through the crumbling rocks and in its fierce rush sends heavy stones grinding over one another--a man l...

THE RETURN HOME. The "Wies" towered like an island from amid a grey sea of clouds. All the mountains of Trauchgau and Pfront, Allgau and Tyrol, which surround it like distant shor...

TO THE VILLAGE. The burgomaster's house, with its elaborate fresco, "Christ before Pilate," still stood without any signs of life in the grey dawn. The burgomaster was asleep. He ...

RECEIVED AGAIN. All through the morning the street where Ludwig's house stood was crowded with people. Toward noon a whisper ran through the throng: "He is coming!" and Freyer app...

AT DAISENBERGER's GRAVE. It was high noon. The children were at school, the grown people had gone to their work. The village was silent and no one stopped Freyer as he hurried dow...

THE WATCHWORD. While the lost son of Ammergau was quietly and sadly permitting the miracle of his home to produce its effect upon him, and rising from one revelation to another al...

MEMORIES. Amid conflicts such as those just described, the countess lived, passing from one stage of development to another and unconsciously growing older--mentally maturing. Sev...

THE MEASURE IS FULL. From that day the countess showed an unwonted degree of interest in the newspapers. The first question when she waked in the morning was for the papers. But t...

ON THE WAY TO THE CROSS. It was Sunday. Again the throngs surged around the Passion Theatre, more devout, more numerous than ever. Slowly, as if his feet could scarcely support h...

STATIONS OF SORROW. "I am his wife!" Heaven and earth have heard it. She had conquered. The tremendous deed, fear of which had led her to the verge of crime--love had now done in ...

NEAR THE GOAL. From that hour Magdalena Freyer never left her husband's bedside. Though friends came in turn to share the night-watches, she remained with them. After a few days t...