De Nevelhekse

In 1886, Albert Steenbergen began writing De Nevelhekse. The story of De Nevelhekse takes place around the Hollandsche Veld, in 1705. Allard Bentinck, who has given up his medical practice, comes to Hoogeveen. On his journey through the Hollandsche Veld, he meets the girl Cilie. Strange stories circulate about Cilie: she is said to be a witch and dances in the mists of morning and evening. Bentinck adores Cilie, but his family matches him with a lady from higher circles. When he goes to visit his family, Cilie gets the impression that her lover has said goodbye for good. She drowns herself in the lake. Here is a passage from The Nevelhekse. It is the night Cilie decides to drown herself, while Bentinck is still with his family:  

'On a stormy night, in the last of September, Bentinck had been put to bed, and Cilie, who had been somewhat calmer the night before, had also now without much opposition laid down beside the housekeeper.  

Sleep had -as he explained later- caught him easily, but soon his rest was disturbed by frightening dreams. At first in completely indeterminate forms. He felt that something was threatening him, but what it was he could not possibly determine. He thought there was danger in every corner, and he saw the whole room filled with shapeless and wriggling creatures.  

Then he heard a fearsome hissing, as of the vipers and snakes of the banks of the Coppename, then a roaring as of the tigers of the plains, and then as of the roaring of hurricanes through the dense foliage of the West Indian forests. And in between, voices sounded, and figures from a long-gone, yet all but forgotten past appeared; figures, which, waking as well as dreaming, had troubled him all too often.  

And behind him now rose a new and equally menacing form. She was cloaked in a gleaming white robe and had the features and posture of Cilie. And as she grew larger and shinier, she pointed with her hand to a dark corner, at the foot of a tall tree, where something lay hidden by high bushes. What this was, he knew only too well, and with horror he turned away.   

But it did not avail him, for a terrific rustling as of a waterfall approached, and the wind blew bare the corpse lying there -bleeding and with glazed eyes. He uttered a cry of dismay and awoke. [...]  

Three days after Cilie's disappearance, Allard arrived at the colony, and his grief knew no bounds when he had been informed of the latest events. But still flattering himself with the hope that the girl would be hiding here or there, he traversed for days the surroundings of the large lake, calling out the dear name. But nothing but an echo answered his call. Cillie's voice was forever hushed.