"And I could remove them," she said at last, sighing.

"But the castle fountain is covered, from which I formerly used to have that precious water, so purifying to the skin.

Oh, had I this evening only a single flask of it!" "Is that all ?" cried an alert waiting-maid, laughing as she glided out of the apartment.
"She will not be so foolish," said Bertalda, well-pleased and surprised, "as to cause the stone cover of the fountain to be taken off this very evening ?" That instant they heard the tread of men passing along the court-yard, and could see from the window where the officious maiden was leading them directly up to the fountain, and that they carried levers and other instruments on their shoulders.
"It is certainly my will," said Bertalda with a smile, "if it does not take them too long." And pleased with the thought, that a word from her was now sufficient to accomplish what had formerly been refused with a painful reproof, she looked down upon their operations in the bright moonlit castle-court.
The men raised the enormous stone with an effort; some one of the number indeed would occasionally sigh, when he recollected they were destroying the work of their former beloved mistress.

Their labour, however, was much lighter than they had expected.

It seemed as if some power from within the fountain itself aided them in raising the stone.
"It appears," said the workmen to one another in astonishment, "as if the confined water had become a springing fountain." And the stone rose more and more, and, almost without the assistance of the work-people, rolled slowly down upon the pavement with a hollow sound.