Biener’s Wife

In the ancient castle of Büchsenhausen, which stands just above

Innsbruck, still wanders about the apparition of one of its former

possessors. The legend does not say to whom the castle originally

belonged, but old chronicles relate that it passed, in the sixteenth

century, into the hands of the celebrated iron-founder, Gregor Löffler,

who gave it the name of “Büchsenhausen” (home of guns), because he had

established there a gunfoundry. Later on it fell into the power of

the reigning family of Austria, and the Archduchess Claudia presented

it to her favourite Chancellor, Wilhelm von Biener, a liberal-minded

nobleman, gifted with the doubtful talent of writing the most cutting

satires, whose venomous point he turned against the nobility and

church, and, for this reason, he brought upon himself the hatred of all

those against whose opinion he wrote; but the favour of the Archduchess

protected the talented statesman, who was most faithfully devoted to

her interests.

On the 2nd of August, 1648, the Archduchess died, and then the

enemies of Herr von Biener set to work so energetically that, after

a short time, they succeeded in turning him out of his position, and

imprisoned him on the 28th of August, 1650. A royal commission of

noblemen, consisting of Biener’s greatest enemies, hastened down to

Büchsenhausen, and claimed from his wife all his papers and documents,

amongst which they discovered satires, which were most useful to their

purpose. He was accused of high-treason, and, as his enemies were both

his accusers and judges, he was condemned to death. His wife visited

him while he was in prison, and he, who knew himself to be guiltless of

any crime, always consoled her with these words:--“There can be no God

in Heaven if they are allowed to murder an innocent man.”

On the 17th of July, 1651, Herr von Biener was executed in public.

The sword which was used on the occasion is still to be seen in the

castle of Büchsenhausen. His wife had sent a messenger to the Emperor

to pray for a reprieve, which he had granted; but one of Biener’s most

deadly enemies, President Schmaus, of the Austrian Court, stopped the

messenger, and of course the execution ensued.

A few days afterwards, the rascal who had stopped the merciful errand

of the Emperor was found dead through the judgment of God. Frau von

Biener went raving mad; through the whole house she tore from room to

room, crying, “There is no God; there is no God.” At last she climbed

up the peak behind the Martinswand, and threw herself over a precipice

into a deep chasm, out of which she was carried a corpse to Höttingen,

where she was buried on the left-hand side of the altar, under a plain

tombstone bearing no inscription, and with only a cross cut upon it.

Since her death she has appeared very often as a wandering ghost to a

great number of persons, and the inhabitants of the surrounding country

have given her the name of the “Bienerweibele” (Biener’s Wife). Clad

in long black robes, slowly and solemnly she walks along through all

the rooms in the castle, passes through firmly locked doors, stops with

a woeful look at the bedside of peacefully sleeping people, appears

to each proprietor and his wife before their death with wonderful

consolation, always foretelling the immediate approach of the “Dreaded

Spirit,” and never harms those who have never done her any injury.

But in the year 1720, it happened that a descendant of one who had

been instrumental in her husband’s death, who was sleeping in the

castle, was found dead in his bed on the following morning, with a most

fearfully contorted neck. The ghost appears in a black velvet mantle,

and bears on her head a little bonnet, called in the dialect of the

country, “Hierinnen,” embroidered with black lace, and on the back

of her head a beautiful little golden crown, which is fastened on her

hair by the means of a silver pin. People say that in former times the

apparition was quite black, but at present it is more grey, and every

day she is becoming more light, until at last her unhappy spirit will

be redeemed.