The Knight Jan Lholák and Jaromíra the Cellar Maid

One evening the country knight Jan Lholák of Lhota, who had come to Prague to seek service at court, was walking along one of the Lesser Town streets. He saw a little wine shop in a house beside an old palace, went in, and over his wine made the acquaintance of the beautiful cellar maid Jaromíra. He fell in love with her in a short while and promised her his hand as well. When she went down into the cellar, he followed her out of wilfulness; but his light went out and he groped in the dark from step to step until he found himself in a chapel in the palace. There stood Jaromíra at the altar in princely robes, and about her the grave figures of noble persons and a priest, to join her in marriage with the knight. Jan was horrified by it all, and fearing that he had fallen into the power of evil spirits, he fled back along the passage by which he had come. With horror he heard a voice behind him: 'Alas, we must wait another five hundred years,' and the palace and the chapel came crashing down. Yet he escaped safely. It is told that ages ago a proud noblewoman lived there who, to her father's great grief, would not marry and several times fled from her bridegroom at the very altar. When she died, it was decreed for her soul to find peace only if a young man should choose her for his wife and be wedded to her in the chapel of that palace from which she had fled from her bridegrooms.