On the Schuttplatz, which marked the site of the former lepers’ house of Mulhouse, there still stood at the beginning of that century the Chapel of Saint Catherine. It was there that a bridal couple was once to be married; but just as they were about to cross the threshold of the church, the bridegroom vanished from the bride’s side. In vain she looked around for him, called him by name, and at last, overcome by unbearable grief, fell to the ground in a faint. Everyone was thrown into confusion. They searched and searched — in the chapel, in the neighborhood, in every street of the town, in the surrounding countryside — but no one had seen the young man, a respected and well-liked citizen, and neither the deeply stricken bride nor anyone else ever saw him alive again.
A hundred years after this घटना, a young traveler entered through the Basel Gate, dressed in festive but old-fashioned clothing. He was covered head to foot in dust, which was all the more striking because it had been raining steadily for several days. His speech resembled the Mulhouse dialect, yet he used words and turns of phrase that had long since fallen out of use.
Since the gatekeeper could make nothing of his questions and answers, he led him to the town hall. There the stranger gave his name, which belonged to a family once known in Mulhouse but long extinct, and asked after his bride and his kin. No one could tell him anything. At last, an old man remembered that, in his youth, he had heard the strange tale of a lost bridegroom, said to have occurred when his own father was still a schoolboy. They consulted the town records and indeed found the event written there.
The old-fashioned bridegroom then confessed that on his wedding day, as he was entering the church, a thought had suddenly arisen in him: what would things be like among us in a hundred years, and who would live to see it? At that moment, he said, all consciousness left him, and he did not know what had happened after that.
Those standing around were filled with wonder at this account and pitied the poor, lonely man with all their hearts. He then expressed a deep wish to visit his bride’s grave. They accompanied him to the cemetery and, after a long search, found the weathered cross beneath which she lay. He immediately threw himself upon the grass and, before the eyes of the onlookers, collapsed into dust and ashes.
