Two days after the terrible fire, some who loved and pitied the desolate
Margareta forcibly entered her brother’s room. They found Basil dead.
He lay on the floor, his marble face upturned to their horror-stricken
view. There might have been agony in his last moments, for the hands were
tightly pressed upon the heart; but all was calmness now. The features
had settled into their eternal repose. How or when the spirit parted
none knew, save Him who gave it, and who had now reclaimed his gift. The
book of Michael Meyer lay beside the student; and firmly clasped in the
stiffened fingers was a long tress of woman’s hair. More than this, all
was mystery.
Many years after, when the memory of the student of Cologne had long been
forgotten, an aged nun died in a convent not far from the city. It was
Margareta, the only sister of Basil Wolgemuth the Rosicrucian.
[Illustration]
[1] The Elle-maid, or wood-woman, is a kind of sprite, who in front
appears as a beautiful damsel, but seen behind is hollow like a mask. She
sits on the roadside, offering her wine-cup and her kiss; but the moment
a youth has tasted either, he becomes raving mad. There are many legends
of this sort current in Germany.
[2] After the death of Christian Rosencreutz, their founder, the sect of
the Rosicrucians kept their doctrines secret for a hundred and twenty
years. Michael Meyer, an alchemist and physician, was the first to reveal
their secrets, by a book entitled “Themis Aurea, hoc est de legibus
Fraternitatis Rosæ Crucis,” which he published at Cologne in 1615.
[Illustration]