He applied his inestimable relic to the lock, and--whiz! crash! clang! bang! whang!--the gate flew open! the organ went off in a fugue--the lights quivered over the tapers, and then went off towards the ceiling--the ghosts assembled rushed away with a skurry and a scream--the bride howled, and vanished--the fat bishop waddled back under his brass plate--the dean flounced down into his family vault--and the canon Schidnischmidt, who was making a joke, as usual, on the bishop, was obliged to stop at the very point of his epigram, and to disappear into the void whence he came.
Otto fell fainting at the porch, while Wolfgang tumbled lifeless down at the altar-steps; and in this situation the archers, when they arrived, found the two youths.

They were resuscitated, as we scarce need say; but when, in incoherent accents, they came to tell their wondrous tale, some sceptics among the archers said--"Pooh! they were intoxicated!" while others, nodding their older heads, exclaimed--"THEY HAVE SEEN THE LADY OF WINDECK!" and recalled the stories of many other young men, who, inveigled by her devilish arts, had not been so lucky as Wolfgang, and had disappeared--for ever! This adventure bound Wolfgang heart and soul to his gallant preserver; and the archers--it being now morning, and the cocks crowing lustily round about--pursued their way without further delay to the castle of the noble patron of toxophilites, the gallant Duke of Cleves..