Now when a young knight named Conrad von Geisberg heard this, he said that if the castle were his he would destroy that chamber, so that no foolish person might have the chance to bring so dreadful a misfortune upon himself and afflict such as loved him with the memory of it.

Straightway, the company privately laid their heads together to contrive some way to get this superstitious young man to sleep in that chamber.
And they succeeded--in this way.

They persuaded his betrothed, a lovely mischievous young creature, niece of the lord of the castle, to help them in their plot.

She presently took him aside and had speech with him.

She used all her persuasions, but could not shake him; he said his belief was firm, that if he should sleep there he would wake no more for fifty years, and it made him shudder to think of it.