HISTORIC STAINS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15551, 7 March 1914, Page 5 (Supplement)

HISTORIC STAINS.

TRADITION OF LUTHER-

Visitors to the famous castle of Wartburg, in Germany, are always very carefully shown a big black patch upon the wall. The room where this stain upon the wall is shown was occupied by Martin Luther when he was a prisoner in this castle, and "here he commenced bis famous translation of the Bible. . The tradition is that Satan appeared to Tiim. in this room in order to make certain plausible suggestions to the great Reformer. His replywas to take up his inkstand and throw it at his visitor's head. It crashed and smashed against the wall, leaving a stain which has been reverently preserved ever since. Undoubtedly the most interesting room in Scotland is the sleeping chamber. of Mary Queen of Scots, in the Palace of Holyrood, which still stands as it was when she occupied it. The walls are hung with tapestry, and half covered by it is a small door leading to Queen Mary's secret stair. It was by this secret stair in the year 1566 that tlie assassins of the Queen's Italian secretary, Rizzio, entered the Royal apartment. tie was murdered with daggers in the presence of the Queen and his body dragged out of the room. The Stains of blood on the floor are still pointed out, and are very plainly visible. After witnessing Napoleon's interview with Bismarck at a wayside cottage, and his subsequent surrender, Archibald Forbes and a fellow war correspondent slept at the chateau which the fallen emperor had occupied the night before. The bedroom was just as Napoleon had left it, and by the. bed the opon book with which he had ret.d himself to sleep. It was Lytton's "Last of the Barons." Sitting at the adjoining writing-table, Forbes wrote his despatch whilst his companion gnawed at a ham-bone, their sole remainder of food. Irate at the little eating it furnished, be flung it across the room, and upset the inkstand into which Forbes was dipping. When Forbes revisited the chateau a month or so later, the inkstain was pointed out as caused by Napoleon's rage on learning the German terms of peace!