At the Ziegelkopf near Lucelle there is a cave that runs deep into the mountain. When the monastery was destroyed during the Swedish war, the following event is said to have taken place there, according to the common tradition of the local people.
A lay brother named Arsen, who was said to practice the black arts, rode into the cave every Saturday on a black goat and each time brought out a burden of silver money, which was used for rebuilding the monastery. Neither the abbot nor the fathers knew where the money came from, since Arsen always laid it down secretly in a certain place. One Saturday, however, the abbot ordered Arsen to keep watch all night beside a sick man. He obeyed; but when midnight came, the hour at which the lay brother usually went into his cave, he was seized by such a sweat that the water ran through the floor. From that night on, he put an end to his mysterious ride.
News of this, it seems, spread among the people, and several had already dared to enter the cave in the hope of finding silver.
Only a few years later, some men attempted it again, all equipped with lights. They had been warned on no account to whistle once inside. But scarcely had they entered the cave when such an urge to whistle came over them that they could not hold back. At once their lights went out, except for one little stump of a candle that had been blessed. By the faint gleam of this light they went forward, perhaps a hundred and fifty paces, and then came into a spacious chamber in the middle of which there was a great hole. There a long leather rope was fastened, by which one could let oneself down into the depths. Two of the men grasped it and slid down. In the lower chamber they found an old table with several old-fashioned little lamps; brother Arsen’s coat was hanging from a nail; but there was no money or silver there.
Not far from this cave, the true Silver Hole is said to lie. Men who have gone into it report that at a distance of sixty paces there is a lake, across which runs a narrow bridge, though no human being could cross it without breaking through. Beyond the lake, everything is said to gleam with pure silver.
