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 I
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST.
 
 a/>ts 
 
 Cun^v-v-o-pL-< the OsQstdfasis M? /f6<c 
 DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 AUTHOK OF THE « HEIE OE EEDCLYEFE." 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 3Tonbon : 
 
 M A C M ILLAN A X D CO. 
 1866.
 
 LONDON: 
 
 R. CI.AV, MON, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS, 
 
 BREAD STREET HILL.
 
 $13 
 
 yu 
 
 v,\ 
 
 INTRODUCTION, 
 
 In sending fortli this little book, I am inclined to 
 add a few explanatory words as to the use I have 
 made of historical personages. The origin of the 
 whole story was probably Freytag's first series of 
 Pictures of German life : probably, I say, for its first 
 commencement was a dream, dreamt some weeks 
 after reading that most interesting collection of 
 sketches. The return of the squire with the tidings 
 of the deaths of the two knights was vividly depicted 
 in sleep ; and, though without local habitation or 
 name, the scene was most likely to have been a 
 reflection from the wild scenes so lately read of. 
 
 In fact, waking thoughts decided that such a 
 catastrophe could hardly have happened anywhere 
 but in Germany or in Scotland ; and the con- 
 trast between the cultivation in the free cities and 
 the savagery of the independent baron made the 
 ^ former the more suitable region for the auventures. 
 The time could only be before the taming • and 
 bringing into order of the empire, when the Imperial 
 •ities were in their greatest splendour, the last free 
 nobles in course of being reduced from their lawless 
 liberty, and the House of Austria beginning to
 
 VI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 acquire its preponderance over the other princely 
 families. 
 
 M. Freytag's books, and Hegewisch's History of 
 Maximilian, will, I think, be found fully to bear out 
 the picture I have tried to give of the state of things 
 in the reign of the Emperor Friedrich III., when, for 
 want of any other law, Faust recht, or fist right, ruled ; 
 i.e. an offended nobleman, having once sent a Fehde- 
 hrief to his adversary, was thenceforth at liberty to 
 revenge himself by a private war, iri which, for the 
 wrong inflicted, no justice was exacted. 
 
 Hegewisch remarks that the only benefit of this 
 custom was, that the honour of subscribing a feud 
 brief was so highly esteemed that it induced the 
 nobles to learn to write ! The League of St. George 
 and the Swabian League were the means of gradually 
 putting down this authorized condition of deadly 
 feud. 
 
 This was in the days of Maximilian's youth. He 
 is a prince who seems to have been almost as in- 
 ferior in his foreign to what he was in his domestic 
 policy as was Queen Elizabeth. He is chiefly 
 familiar to us as failing to keep up his authority 
 in Flanders after the death of Mary of Burgundy, 
 as lingering to fulfil his engagement with Anne of 
 Brittany till he lost her and her duchy, as incurring 
 ridicule by his ill-managed schemes in Italy, and the 
 vast projects that he was always forming without
 
 INTRODUCTION. VU 
 
 either means or steadiness to carry them out, by his 
 perpetual impecuniosity and slippery dealing; and 
 in his old age he has become rather the laughing- 
 stock of historians. 
 
 But there is much that is melancholy in the 
 sight of a man endowed with genius, unbalanced by 
 the force of character that secures success, and 
 with an ardent nature whose intention overleapt 
 obstacles that in practice he found insuperable. At 
 home, Maximilian raised the Imperial power from 
 a mere cipher to considerable weight. We judge 
 him as if he had been born in the purple and suc- 
 ceeded to a defined power like his descendants. We 
 forget that the head of the Holy Eoman Empire had 
 been, ever since the extinction of the Swabian line, a 
 mere mark for ambitious princes to shoot at, with 
 everything expected from him, and no means to do 
 anything. Maximilian's own father was an avari- 
 cious, undignified old man, not until near his death 
 Archduke of even all Austria, and with anarchy pre- 
 vailing everywhere under his nominal rule. It was 
 in the time of Maximilian that the Empire became 
 as compact and united a body as could be hoped of 
 anything so unwieldy, that law was at least acknow- 
 ledged, faust recJit for ever abolished, and the Em- 
 peror became once more a real power. 
 
 The man under whom all this was effected could 
 have been no fool ; yet, as he said himself, he reigned
 
 Vlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 over a nation of kings, who each chose to rule for 
 himself; and the uncertainty of supplies of men or 
 money to be gained from them made him so often 
 fail necessarily in his engagements, that he acquired 
 a shiftiness and callousness to breaches of promise, 
 which became the worst flaw in his character. But 
 of the fascination of his manner there can be no 
 doubt. Even Henry VIIL's English ambassadors, 
 when forced to own how little they could depend on 
 him, and how dangerous it was to let subsidies pass 
 through his fingers, still show themselves under a 
 sort of enchantment of devotion to his person, and 
 this in his old age, and when his conduct was most 
 inexcusable and provoking. 
 
 His variety of powers was wonderful. He was 
 learned in many languages — in all those of his em- 
 pire or hereditary states, and in many besides ; and 
 he had an ardent love of books, both classical and 
 modern. He delighted in music, painting, architecture, 
 and many arts of a more mechanical description ; 
 wrote treatises on all these, and on other subjects, es- 
 pecially gardening and gunnery. He was the inventor 
 of an improved lock to the arquebus, and first divined 
 how to adapt the disposition of his troops to the use 
 of the newly-discovered fire-arms. And in all these 
 things his versatile head and ready hand were person- 
 ally employed, not by deputy; while coupled with 
 so much artistic taste was a violent passion for hunt-
 
 INTRODUCTION. IX 
 
 ing, which carried him through many hairbreadth 
 'scapes. "It was plain," he used to say, "that God 
 Almighty ruled the world, or how could things go on 
 with a rogue like Alexander VI. at the head of the 
 Church, and a mere huntsman like himself at the 
 head of the Empire." His hon-mots are numerous, all 
 thoroughly characteristic, and showing that brilliancy 
 in conversation must have been one of his greatest 
 charms. It seems as if only self-control and resolu- 
 tion were wanting to have made him a Charles, or 
 an Alfred, the Great. 
 
 The romance of his marriage with the heiress of 
 Burgundy is one of the best known parts of his life. 
 He was scarcely two and-twenty when he lost her, 
 who perhaps would have given him the stability he 
 wanted ; but his tender love for her endured through 
 life. It is not improbable that it was this still 
 abiding attachment that made him slack in over- 
 coming difficulties in the way of other contracts, and 
 that he may have hoped that his engagement to 
 Bianca Sforza would come to nothing, like so many 
 others. 
 
 The most curious record of him is, however, in 
 two books, the materials for which he furnished, and 
 whose composition and illustration he superintended, 
 " Der Weise King," and " Theurdank," of both of 
 which he is well known to be the hero. The White, 
 or the Wise King, it is uncertain which, is a history of
 
 X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 his education and exploits, in prose. Every alternate 
 page has its engraving, showing how the Young White 
 King obtains instruction in painting, architecture, 
 language, and all arts and sciences, the latter in- 
 cluding magic — which he learns of an old woman 
 with a long-tailed demon sitting, like Mother Hub- 
 bard's cat, on her shoulder — and astrology. In the 
 illustration of this study an extraordinary figure of a 
 cross within a circle appears in the sky, which pro- 
 bably has some connexion with his scheme of nativity, 
 for it also appears on the breast of Ehrenhold, his 
 constant companion in the metrical history of his 
 career, under the name of Theurdank. 
 
 The poetry of " Theurdank " was composed by 
 Maximilian's old writing-master, Melchior Pfinznig ; 
 but the adventures were the Kaisar's own, communi- 
 cated by himself, and he superintended the wood- 
 cuts. The name is explained to mean "craving 
 glory," — Glorisememor. The Germans laugh to scorn 
 a French translator, who rendered it " Cherruerci." 
 It was annotated very soon after its publication, and 
 each exploit explained and accounted for. It is re- 
 markable and touching in a man who married at 
 eighteen, and was a widower at twenty-two, that, in 
 both books, the happy union with his lady love is 
 placed at the end — not at the beginning of the book ; 
 and in u Theurdank," at least, the eternal reunion is 
 clearly meant.
 
 INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 In this curious book, Konig Eomreich, by whom 
 every contemporary understood poor Charles of Bur- 
 gundy — thus posthumously made King of Eome by 
 Maximilian, as the only honour in his power, betroths 
 his daughter Ehrenreich (rich in honour) to the Bitter 
 Theurdank. Soon after, by a most mild version of 
 Duke Charles's frightful end, Konig Eomreich is seen 
 on his back dying in a garden, and Ehrenreich (as 
 Mary really did) despatches a ring to summon her 
 betrothed. 
 
 But here, Theurdank returns for answer that he 
 means first to win honour by his exploits, and sets 
 out with his comrade, Ehrenhold, in search thereof. 
 Ehrenhold never appears of the smallest use to him 
 in any of the dire adventures into which he falls, 
 but only stands complacently by, and in effect may 
 represent Fame, or perhaps that literary sage whom 
 Don Quixote always supposed to be at hand to record 
 his deeds of prowess. 
 
 Kext we are presented with the German imper- 
 sonation of Satan as a wise old magician, only with 
 claws instead of feet, commissioning his three cap- 
 tains (Jiavptleuteni) Eiirwitz, Umfallo, and Neidel- 
 hard, to beset and ruin Theurdank. They are inter- 
 preted as the dangers of youth, middle life, and old 
 age — Bashness, Disaster, and Distress (or Envy). 
 One at a time they encounter him — not once, but 
 again and again ; and he has ranged under each head,
 
 Xll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 in entire contempt of real order of time, the perils he 
 thinks owing to each foe. Fiirwitz most justly gets 
 the credit of Maximilian's perils on the steeple of 
 Ulin, though, unfortunately, the artist has represented 
 the daring climber as standing. not much above the 
 shoulders of Fiirwitz and Ehrenhold ; and although 
 the annotation tells us that his "hinder half foot" 
 overhung the scaffold, the danger in the print is not 
 appalling. Fiirwitz likewise inveigles him into put- 
 ting the point (schnabel) of his shoe into the wheel 
 of a mill for turning stone balls, where he certainly 
 hardly deserved to lose nothing but the leak of his 
 shoe. This enemy also brings him into numerous 
 unpleasant predicaments on precipices, where he 
 hangs by one hand; while the chamois stand de- 
 lighted on every available peak, Fiirwitz grins male- 
 volently, and Ehrenhold stands pointing at him over 
 his shoulder. Time and place are given in the notes 
 for all these escapes. After some twenty adventures 
 Fiirwitz is beaten off, and Umfallo tries his powers. 
 Here the misadventures do not involve so much folly 
 on the hero's part — though, to be sure, he ventures 
 into a lion's den unarmed, and has to beat off the in- 
 mates with a shovel. But the other adventures are 
 more rational. He catches a jester — of admirably 
 foolish expression — putting a match to a powder- 
 magazine ; he is wonderfully preserved in mountain 
 avalanches and hurricanes ; reins up his horse on the
 
 INTRODUCTION. Xlll 
 
 verge of an abyss ; falls through ice in Holland 
 and shows nothing but his head above it; cures 
 himself of a fever by draughts of water, to the great 
 disgust of his physicians, andescapes a fire bursting 
 out of a tall stove. 
 
 Xeidelhard brings his real battles and perils. From 
 this last he is in danger of shipwreck, of assassination, 
 of poison, in single combat, or in battle ; tumults of 
 the people beset him ; he is imprisoned as at Ghent, 
 But finally Xeidelhard is beaten back ; and the hero 
 is presented to Ehrenreich. Ehrenhold recounts his 
 triumphs, and accuses the three captains. One is 
 hung, another beheaded, the third thrown headlong 
 from a tower, and a guardian angel then summons 
 Theurdank to his union with his Queen. Xo doubt 
 this reunion was the life-dream of the harassed, busy, 
 inconsistent man, who flashed through the turmoil 
 of the early sixteenth century. 
 
 The adventures of Maximilian which have been 
 adverted to in the story are all to be found in Theur- 
 dank, and in his early life he was probably the 
 brilliant eager person we have tried in some degree 
 to describe. In his latter years it is well known that 
 he was much struck by Luther's arguments ; and, in- 
 deed, he had long been conscious of need of Church 
 reform, though his plans took the grotesque form of 
 getting himself made Pope, and taking all into his 
 own hands.
 
 XIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Perhaps it was unwise to have ever so faintly- 
 sketched Ebbo's career through the ensuing troubles ; 
 but the history of the star and of the spark in the 
 stubble seemed to need completion ; and the working 
 out of the character of the survivor was unfinished 
 till his course had been thought over from the dawn 
 of the Wittenberg teaching, which must have seemed 
 no novelty to an heir of the doctrine of Tauler, and 
 of the veritably Catholic divines of old times. The 
 idea is of the supposed course of a thoughtful, refined, 
 conscientious man, through the earlier times of the 
 Keformation, glad of the hope of cleansing the 
 Church, but hoping to cleanse, not to break away 
 from her — a hope that Luther himself long cherished, 
 and which was not entirely frustrated till the re- 
 assembly at Trent in the next generation. Justice 
 has never been done to the men who feared to loose 
 their hold on the Church Catholic as the one body 
 to which the promises were made. Their loyalty has 
 been treated as blindness, timidity, or superstition : 
 but that there were many such persons, and those 
 among the very highest minds of their time, no one 
 can have any doubt after reading such lives as 
 those of Friedrich the Wise of Saxony, of Erasmus, 
 of Vittoria Colonna, or of Cardinal Giustiniani. 
 
 April 9, 1866.
 
 CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAG!'. 
 
 master Gottfried's workshop 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE EYRIE 36 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE FLOTSOM AND JET80M OF THE DEBATEADLE FORD . . 63 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 SNOW-WREATHS WHEN 'TIS THAW 81 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE YOUNG FKEIHERR 98 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE BLESSED FRIEDMUND's WAKE 109
 
 XVI CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE SCHNEIDERLEIN's RETURN 135 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PASSING THE OUBLIETTE 153 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE EAGLETS 176 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE EAGLE'S PREY 190 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE CHOICE IN LIFE , 209 
 
 CHAPTER XI I. 
 
 BACK TO THE DOVECOTE 229 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE EAGLETS IN THE CITY 248
 
 THE 
 
 DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 MASTEE GOTTFRIED'S WOEKSHOP. 
 
 The upper lattices of a tall, narrow window were 
 open, and admitted the view, of first some richly- 
 tinted vine leaves and purpling grapes, then, in 
 dazzling freshness of new white stone, the lacework 
 fabric of a half-built minster spire, with a mason's 
 crane on the summit, bending as though craving for 
 a further supply of materials ; and beyond, peeping 
 through every crevice of the exquisite open fretwork, 
 was the intensely blue sky of early autumn. 
 
 The lower longer panes of the window were closed, 
 and the glass, divided into circles and quarrels, made 
 the scene less distinct ; but still the huge stone tower 
 was traceable, and, farther off, the slope of a gently- 
 
 VOL. L B
 
 2 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE S NEST. 
 
 Tising hill, clothed with vineyards blushing into 
 .autumn richness. Below, the view was closed by the 
 gray wall of a court-yard, laden with fruit-trees in full 
 bearing, and inclosing paved paths that radiated from 
 a central fountain, and left spaces between, where a 
 few summer flowers still lingered, and the remains of 
 others showed what their past glory had been. 
 
 The interior of the room was wainscoted, the floor 
 paved with bright red and cream-coloured tiles, and 
 the tall stove in one corner decorated with the same. 
 'The eastern end of the apartment was adorned with 
 an exquisite small group carved in oak, representing 
 the carpenter's shop at Nazareth, with the Holy Child 
 instructed by Joseph in the use of tools, and the 
 Mother sitting with her book, " pondering these 
 things in her heart." All around were blocks of 
 wood and carvings in varying states of progress — 
 some scarcely shaped out, and others in perfect 
 completion. And the subjects were equally various. 
 Here was an adoring angel with folded wings, clasped 
 hands, and rapt face ; here a majestic head of an 
 •apostle or prophet ; here a lovely virgin saint, seem- 
 ing to play smilingly with the instrument of her 
 martyrdom ; here a grotesque miserere group, illus- 
 trating a fairy tale, or caricaturing a popular fable ;
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S XEST. 3 
 
 here a beauteous festoon of flowers and fruit, emu- 
 lating nature in all save colour ; and on the work- 
 table itself, growing under the master's hand, was 
 a long wreath, entirely composed of leaves and seed- 
 vessels in their quaint and beauteous forms — the 
 heart-shaped shepherd's purse, the mask-like skull- 
 cap, and the crowned urn of the henbane. The 
 starred cap of the poppy was actually being shaped 
 under the tool, copied from a green capsule, sur- 
 mounted with purple velvety rays, which, together 
 with its rough and wavy leaf, was held in the hand 
 of a young maiden who knelt by the table, watching 
 the work with eager interest. 
 
 She was not a beautiful girl — not one of those 
 whose "bright eyes rain influence, and judge the 
 prize." She was too small, too slight, too retiring for 
 such a position. If there was something lily-like in 
 her drooping grace, it was not the queen-lily of the 
 garden that she resembled, but the retiring lily of the 
 valley — so purely, transparently white was her skin, 
 scarcely tinted by a roseate blush on the cheek, so 
 tender and modest the whole effect of her slender 
 figure, and the soft, downcast, pensive brown eyes, 
 utterly dissimilar in hue from those of all her friends 
 and kindred, except perhaps the bright, quick ones of 
 b2
 
 4 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 her uncle, the master-carver. Otherwise, his portly 
 form, open visage, and good-natured stateliness, as 
 well as his furred cap and gold chain, were 
 thoroughly those of the German burgomaster of the 
 fifteenth century ; but those glittering black eyes had 
 not ceased to betray their French, or rather Walloon, 
 origin, though for several generations back the family 
 had been settled at Ulm. Perhaps, too, it was Wal- 
 loon quickness and readiness of wit that had made 
 them, so soon as they became affiliated, so prominent 
 in all the councils of the good free city, and so noted 
 for excellence in art and learning. Indeed the pre- 
 sent head of the family, Master Gottfried Sorel, was 
 so much esteemed for Iris learning that he had once 
 had serious thoughts of terming himself Magister 
 Gothofredus Oxalicus, and might have carried it out 
 but for the very decided objections of his wife, Dame 
 Johanna, and his little niece, Christina, to being 
 dubbed by any such surname. 
 
 Master Gottfried had had a scapegrace younger 
 brother named Hugh, who had scorned both books 
 and tools, had been the plague of the workshop, and, 
 instead of coming back from his wandering-year of 
 improvement, had joined a band of roving Lanz- 
 knechts. No more had been heard of him for a
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLES XEST. D 
 
 dozen or fifteen years, when lie suddenly arrived at 
 the paternal mansion at Ulm, half-dead with inter- 
 mittent fever, and with a young, broken-hearted, and 
 nearly expiring wife, his spoil in his Italian cam- 
 paigns. His rude affection had utterly failed to 
 console her for her desolated home and slaughtered 
 kindred, and it had so soon turned to brutality that, 
 when brought to comparative peace and rest in his 
 brother's home, there was nothing left for the poor 
 Italian but to lie down and die, commending her babe 
 in broken German to Hausfrau Johanna, and blessing 
 Master Gottfried for his flowing Latin assurances 
 that the child should be to them even as the little 
 maiden who was lying in the God's acre upon the 
 hill-side. 
 
 And verily the little Christina had been a precious 
 gift to the bereaved couple. Her father had no sooner 
 recovered than he returned to his roving life, and, 
 except for a report that he had been seen among the 
 retainers of one of the robber barons of the Swabian 
 Alps, nothing had been heard of him ; and Master 
 Gottfried only hoped to be spared the actual pain 
 and scandal of knowing when his eyes were blinded 
 and his head swept off at a blow, or when he was 
 tumbled headlong into a moat, suspended from a
 
 6 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S XEST. 
 
 tree, or broken on the wheel : a choice of fates that 
 was sure sooner or later to befall him. Meantime, 
 both the bnrgomeister and burgomeisterinn did their 
 utmost to forget that the gentle little girl was not 
 their own ; they set all their hopes and joys on her, 
 and, making her supply the place at once of son and 
 daughter, they bred her up in all the refinements and 
 accomplishments in which the free citizens of Ger- 
 many took the lead in the middle and latter part of 
 the fifteenth century. To aid her aunt in all house- 
 wifely arts, to prepare dainty food and varied liquors, 
 and to spin, weave, and broider, was only a part of 
 Christina's training ; her uncle likewise set great 
 store by her sweet Italian voice, and caused her to be 
 carefully taught to sing and play on the lute, and he 
 likewise delighted in hearing her read aloud to him 
 from the hereditary store of MSS. and from the dark 
 volumes that began to proceed from the press. Xay, 
 Master Gottfried had made experiments in printing 
 and wood-engraving on his own account, and had 
 found no head so intelligent, no hand so desirous to 
 aid him, as his little Christina's, who, in all that 
 needed taste and skill rather than strength, was 
 worth all his prentices and journeymen together. 
 Some fine bold wood cuts had been produced by their
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE S NEST. J 
 
 joint efforts ; but these less important occupations * 
 had of late been set aside by the engrossing interest 
 of the interior fittings of the great "Dome Kirk," 
 which for nearly a century had been rising by the 
 united exertions of the burghers, without any assist- 
 ance from without. The foundation had been laid in 
 1377 ; and at length, in the year of grace 1472, the 
 crown of the apse had been closed in, and matters 
 were so forward that Master Gottfried's stall work 
 was already in requisition for the choir. 
 
 "Three cubits more," he reckoned. "Child, hast 
 thou found me fruits enough for the completing of 
 this border % " 
 
 " yes, mine uncle. I have the wild rosehij , and 
 the flat shield of the moonwort, and a pea-pod, and 
 more whose names I know not. But should they all 
 be seed and fruit ? " 
 
 " Yea, truly, my Stina, for this wreath shall speak 
 of the goodly fruits of a completed life." 
 
 " Even as that which you carved in spring told of 
 the blossom and fair promise of youth," returned the 
 maiden. "Methinks the one is the most beautiful^ 
 as it ought to be ; " then, after a little pause, and 
 some reckoning, " I have scarce seed-pods enough in 
 store, uncle ; might we not seek some rarer shapes
 
 8 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLES NEST. 
 
 in the herb-garden of Master Gerhard, the physician? 
 He, too, might tell me the names of some of these." 
 
 " True, child ; or we might ride into the country 
 beyond the walls, and seek them. "What, little one, 
 wouldst thou not ? " 
 
 " So we go not far," faltered Christina, colouring. 
 
 " Ha, thou hast not forgotten the fright thy com- 
 panions had from the Schlangenwald reitern when 
 gathering Maydew ? Fear not, little coward ; if we 
 go beyond the suburbs we will take Hans and Peter 
 with their halberts. But I believe thy silly little 
 heart can scarce be free for enjoyment if it can fancy 
 a Eeiter within a dozen leagues of thee." 
 
 " At your side I would not fear. That is, I would 
 not vex thee by my folly, and I might forget it," 
 replied Christina, looking down. 
 
 " My gentle child ! " the old man said approvingly. 
 " Moreover, if our good Kaiser has his way, we shall 
 soon be free of the reitern of Schlangenwald, and 
 Adlerstein, and all the rest of the mouse-trap barons. 
 He is hoping to form a league of us free imperial 
 cities with all the more reasonable and honest nobles, 
 to preserve the peace of the country. Even now a 
 letter from him was read in the Town Hall to that 
 effect ; and, when all are united against them, my
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLES NEST. U 
 
 lords-mousers must needs become pledged to the 
 league, or go down before it." 
 
 " Ah ! that will be well," cried Christina. " Then 
 will our wagons be no longer set upon at the Debate- 
 able Ford by Schlangenwald or Acllerstein ; and our 
 wares will come safely, and there will be wealth 
 enough to raise our spire ! uncle, what a day of 
 joy will that be when Our Lady's great statue will 
 be set on the summit ! " 
 
 " A day that I shall scarce see, and it will be well 
 if thou dost," returned her uncle, " unless the hearts 
 of the burghers of Ulm return to the liberality of 
 their fathers, who devised that spire ! But what 
 trampling do I hear?" 
 
 There was indeed a sudden confusion in the house, 
 and, before the uncle and niece could rise, the door 
 was opened by a prosperous apple-faced dame, ex- 
 claiming in a hasty whisper, " Housefather, House- 
 father, there are a troop of reitern at the door, dis- 
 mounting already;" and, as the master came forward, 
 brushing from his furred vest the shavings and dust 
 of his work, she added in a more furtive, startled 
 accent, " and, if I mistake not, one is thy brother ! " 
 
 " He is welcome," replied Master Gottfried, in his 
 cheery fearless voice ; " he brought us a choice gift
 
 10 THE DO YE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 last time lie came ; and it may be he is ready to seek 
 peace among us after his wanderings. Come hither, 
 Christina, my little one ; it is well to be abashed, 
 but thou art not a child who need fear to meet a 
 father." 
 
 Christina's extreme timidity, however, made her 
 pale and crimson by turns, perhaps by the infection 
 of anxiety from her aunt, who could not conceal 
 a certain dissatisfaction and alarm, as the maiden, 
 led on either side by her adopted parents, thus 
 advanced from the little studio into a hand- 
 somely-carved wooden gallery, projecting into a 
 great wainscoted room, with a broad carved stair 
 leading down into it. Down this stair the three 
 proceeded, and reached the stone hall that lay 
 beyond it, just as there entered from the trellised 
 porch, that covered the steps into the street, a 
 thin wiry man, in a worn and greasy buff suit, 
 guarded on the breast and arms with rusty steel, 
 and a battered helmet with the vizor up, disclosing 
 a weather-beaten bronzed face, with somewhat wild 
 dark eyes, and a huge grizzled moustache forming 
 a straight line over his lips. Altogether he was a 
 complete model of the lawless Eeiter or Lanzknecht, 
 the terror of Swabia, and the bugbear of Christina's
 
 11 
 
 imagination. The poor child's heart died within her 
 as she perceived the mutual recognition between her 
 uncle and the new comer ; and, while Master Gott- 
 fried held out his hands with a cordial greeting of 
 " Welcome home, brother Hugh," she trembled from 
 head to foot, as she sank on her knees, and murmured, 
 " Your blessing, honoured father." 
 
 " Ha ? "What, this is my girl ? What says she ? 
 My blessing, eh? There then, thou hast it, child, 
 such as I have to give, though they'll tell thee at 
 Adlerstein that I am more wont to give the other 
 sort of blessing ! Now, give me a kiss, girl, and let 
 me see thee ! How now ! " as he folded her in his 
 rough arms, " thou art a mere feather, as slight as our 
 sick Jungfrau herself." And then, regarding her, as 
 she stood drooping, " Thou art not half the woman 
 thy mother was — she was stately and straight as a 
 column, and tall withal." 
 
 " True ! " replied Hausfrau Johanna, in a marked 
 tone ; " but both she and her poor babe had been so 
 harassed and wasted with long journeys and hard- 
 ships, that with all our care of our Christina, she has 
 never been strong or well-grown. The marvel is that 
 she lived at all." 
 
 " Our Christina is not beautiful, we know," added
 
 12 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S XEST. 
 
 her uncle, reassuringly taking her hand ; " but she is 
 a good and meek maiden." 
 
 " Well, well," returned the Lanzknecht, " she will 
 answer the purpose well enough, or better than if she 
 were fair enough to set all our fellows together by 
 the ears for her. Camilla, I say — no, what's her 
 name, Christina? — put up thy gear and be ready to 
 start with me to-morrow mormng for Adlerstein." 
 
 " For Adlerstein ? " re-echoed the housemother, in 
 a tone of horrified dismay ; and Christina would have 
 dropped on the floor but for her uncle's sustaining 
 hand, and the cheering glance with which he met 
 her imploring look. 
 
 " Let us come up to the gallery, and understand 
 what you desire, brother," said Master Gottfried, 
 gravely. " Fill the cup of greeting, Hans. Your 
 followers shall be entertained in the hall," he added. 
 
 " Ay, ay," quoth Hugh, " I will show you reason 
 over a goblet of the old Eosenburg. Is it all gone 
 yet, brother Goetz ? No ? I reckon there would not 
 be the scouring of a glass left of it in a week if it 
 were at Adlerstein." 
 
 So saying, the trooper crossed the lower room, 
 which contained a huge tiled baking oven, various 
 brilliantly-burnished cooking utensils, and a great
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 13 
 
 carved cupboard like a wooden bedstead, and, pass- 
 ing the door of the bathroom, clanked up the oaken 
 stairs to the gallery, the reception-room of the house. 
 It had tapestry hangings to the wall, and cushions 
 both to the carved chairs and deep windows, which 
 looked out into the street, the whole storey projecting 
 into close proximity with the corresponding apart- 
 ment of the Syndic Moritz, the goldsmith on the 
 opposite side. An oaken table stood in the centre, 
 and the gallery was adorned with a dresser, display- 
 ing not only bright pewter, but goblets and drinking 
 cups of beautifully-shaped and coloured glass, and 
 saltcellars, tankards, &c. of gold and silver. 
 
 "Just as it was in the old man's time," said the 
 soldier, throwing himself into the housefather's chair. 
 "A handful of Lanzknechts would make short work 
 witli your pots and pans, good sister Johanna." 
 
 " Heaven forbid ! " said poor Johanna under her 
 breath. 
 
 "Much good they do yon, up in a row there, 
 making you a slave to furbishing them. There's 
 more sense in a chair like this — that does rest a 
 man's bones. Here, Camilla, girl, unlace my helmet ! 
 What, know'st not how? AYhat is a woman made 
 for but to let a soldier free of his trappings ? Thou
 
 14 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 hast clone it ! There ! Now my boots," stretching out 
 his legs. 
 
 "Hans shall draw off your boots, fair brother," 
 began the dame ; but poor Christina, the more anxious 
 to propitiate him in little things, because of the 
 horror and dread with which his main purpose in- 
 spired her, was already on her knees, pulling with 
 her small quivering hands at the long steel-guarded 
 boot— a task to which she would have been utterly 
 inadequate, but for some lazy assistance from her 
 father's other foot. She further brought a pair of 
 her uncle's furred slippers, while Eeiter Hugh pro- 
 ceeded to dangle one of the boots in the air, expa- 
 tiating on its frail condition, and expressing his 
 intention of getting a new pair from Master Matthias, 
 the sutor, ere he should leave. Ulm on the morrow. 
 Then, again, came the dreaded subject ; his daughter 
 must go with him. 
 
 " What would you with Christina, brother ? " 
 gravely asked Master Gottfried, seating himself on 
 the opposite side of the stove, while out of sight the 
 frightened girl herself knelt on the floor, her head on 
 her aunt's knees, trying to derive comfort from Dame 
 Johanna's clasping hands, and vehement murmurs 
 that they would not let their child be taken from
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE \s XEST. 15 
 
 them. Alas ! these assurances were little in accord- 
 ance with Hugh's rough reply, " And what is it to 
 you what I do with mine own ? " 
 
 " Only this, that, having bred her up as my child 
 and intended heiress, I might have some voice." 
 
 " Oh ! in choosing her mate ! Some mincing artificer, 
 I trow, fiddling away with wood and wire to make 
 gauds for the fair-day ! Hast got him here ? If I 
 like him, and she likes him, I'll bring her back when 
 her work is done." 
 
 " There is no such person as yet in the case," said 
 Gottfried. " Christina is not yet seventeen, and I 
 would take my time to find an honest, pious burgher, 
 who will value this precious jewel of mine." 
 
 " And let her polish his flagons to the end of her 
 days," laughed Hugh grimly, but manifestly some- 
 what influenced by the notion of his brother's wealth. 
 " What, hast no child of thine own ? " he added. 
 
 " None, save in Paradise," answered Gottfried, 
 crossing himself. "And thus, if Christina should 
 remain with me, and be such as I would have her, 
 then, brother, my wealth, after myself and my good 
 housewife, shall be hers, with due provision for thee, 
 if thou shouldst weary of thy wild life. Otherwise," 
 he added, looking down, and speaking in an under
 
 16 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 tone, " my poor savings should go to the completing 
 of the Dome Kirk." 
 
 " And who told thee, Goetz, that I would do ought 
 with the girl that should hinder her from being the 
 very same fat, sourkrout-cooking, pewter-scrubbing 
 housewife of thy mind's eye ? " 
 
 "I have heard nothing of thy designs as yet, 
 brother Hugh, save that thou wouldst take her to 
 Adlerstein, which men greatly belie if it be not a 
 nest of robbers." 
 
 " Aha ! thou hast heard of Adlerstein ! We have 
 made the backs of your jolly merchants tingle as 
 well as they could through their well-lined doublets ! 
 Ulm knows of Adlerstein, and the Debateable 
 Ford!" 
 
 " It knows little to its credit," said Gottfried, 
 gravely ; " and it knows also that the Emperor is 
 about to make a combination against all the Swabian 
 robber-holds, and that such as join not in it will fare 
 the worse." 
 
 " Let Kaiser Fritz catch his bear ere he sells its 
 hide ! He has never tried to mount the Eagle's 
 Ladder ! Why, man, Adlerstein might be held 
 against five hundred men by sister Johanna with 
 her rock and spindle ! 'Tis a free barony, Master
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 17 
 
 Gottfried, I tell thee — lias never sworn allegiance to 
 Kaiser or Duke of Swabia either ! Freiherr Eber- 
 hard is as much a king on his own rock as Kaiser 
 Fritz ever was of the Bomans, and more too, for I 
 never could find out that they thought much of 
 our king at Piome ; and, as to gainsaying our old 
 Freiherr, one might as well leap over the abyss at 
 once." 
 
 " Yes, those old free barons are pitiless tyrants," 
 said Gottfried, " and I scarce think I can understand 
 thee aright when I hear thee say thou wouldst cany 
 thy daughter to such an abode." 
 " " It is the Freiherr's command," returned Hugh. 
 " Look you, they have had wondrous ill-luck with 
 their children ; the Freiherrinn Kunigunde has had 
 a dozen at least, and only two are alive, my young 
 Freiherr and my young Lady Ermentrude ; and no 
 wonder, you would say, if you could see the gracious 
 Freiherrinn, for surely Dame Holda made a blunder 
 when she fished her out of the fountain woman 
 instead of man. She is Adlerstein herself by birth, 
 married her cousin, and is prouder and more dour 
 than our old Freiherr himself— fitter far to handle 
 shield than swaddled babe. And now our Jungfrau 
 has fallen into a pining waste, that 'tis a pity to see 
 
 c
 
 18 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE' S NEST. 
 
 how her cheeks have fallen away, and how she mopes 
 and fades. Now, the old Freiherr and her brother, 
 they both dote on her, and would do anything for her. 
 They thought she was bewitched, so we took old 
 Mother Ilsebill and tried her with the ordeal of 
 water ; but, look you, she sank as innocent as a 
 puppy dog, and Ursel was at fault to fix on any one 
 else. Then one day, when I looked into the chamber, 
 I saw the poor maiden sitting, with her head hang- 
 ing down, as if 'twas too heavy for her, on a high- 
 backed chair, no rest for her feet, and the wind 
 blowing keen all round her, and nothing to taste 
 but scorched beef, or black bread and sour wine, 
 and her mother rating her for foolish fancies that 
 gave trouble. And, when my young Freiherr was 
 bemoaning himself that we could not hear of a Jew 
 physician passing our way to catch and bring up 
 to cure her, I said to him at last that no doctor 
 could do for her what gentle tendance and nursing 
 would, for what the poor maiden needed was to be 
 cosseted and laid down softly, and fed with broths 
 and possets, and all that women know how to do 
 with one another. A proper scowl and hard words 
 I got from my gracious lady, for wanting to put 
 burgher softness into an Adlerstein ; but my old
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAC4LE'S XEST. 19 
 
 lord and his son opened on the scent at once. 
 'Thou hast a daughter?' quoth the Freiherr. 'So 
 please your gracious lordship/ quoth I ; ' that is, if 
 she still lives, for I left her a puny infant.' ' Well, 5 
 said my lord, ' if thou wilt bring her here, and her 
 care restores my daughter to health and strength,. 
 then will I make thee my body squire, with a right 
 to a fourth part of all the spoil, and feed for two 
 horses in my stable.' And young Freiherr Eberhard 
 gave his word upon it." 
 
 Gottfried suggested that a sick nurse was the 
 person required rather than a child like Christina ; 
 but, as Hugh truly observed, no nurse would volun- 
 tarily go to Adlerstein, and it was no use to wait for 
 the hopes of capturing one by raid or foray. His 
 daughter was at his own disposal, and her services 
 would be repaid by personal advantages to himself 
 which he was not disposed to forego ; in effect these 
 were the only means that the baron had of requiting 
 any attendance upon his daughter. 
 
 The citizens of old Germany had the strongest 
 and most stringent ideas of parental authority, and 
 regarded daughters as absolute chattels of their 
 father ; and Master Gottfried Sorel, though he alone 
 had done the part of a parent to his niece, felt 
 c2
 
 20 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 entirely unable to withstand the nearer claim, except 
 by representations ; and these fell utterly disregarded, 
 as in truth every counsel had hitherto done, upon 
 the ears of Eeiter Hugh, ever since he had emerged 
 from his swaddling clothes. The plentiful supper, 
 full cup of wine, the confections, the soft chair, 
 together perhaps with his brother's grave speech, 
 soon, however, had the effect of sending him into 
 a doze, whence he started to accept civilly the 
 proposal of being installed in the stranger's room, 
 where he was speedily snoring between two feather 
 beds. 
 
 Then there could be freedom of speech in the 
 gallery, where the uncle and aunt held anxious 
 counsel over the poor little dark-tressed head that 
 still lay upon good Johanna's knees. The dame was 
 indignant and resolute : " Take the child back with 
 him into a very nest of robbers ! — her own innocent 
 dove whom they had shielded from all evil like a 
 very nun in a cloister ! She should as soon think 
 of yielding her up to be borne off by the great Satan 
 himself with his horns and hoofs." 
 
 " Huoh is her father, housewife," said the master- 
 
 ies 
 
 carver. 
 
 The right of parents is with those that have done
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 21 
 
 the duty of parents/' returned Johanna. " What 
 said the kid in the fable to the goat that claimed 
 her from the sheep that bred her up ? I am ashamed 
 of you, housefather, for not better loving your own 
 niece." 
 
 "Heaven knows how I love her," said Gottfried, 
 as the sweet face was raised up to him with a look 
 acquitting him of the charge, and he bent to smooth 
 back the silken hair, and kiss the ivory brow ; " but 
 Heaven also knows that I see no means of with- 
 holding her from one whose claim is closer than my 
 own — none save one ; and to that even thou, house- 
 mother, wouldst not have me resort." 
 
 " "What is it ?" asked the dame, sharply, yet with 
 some fear. 
 
 " To denounce him to the burgomasters as one of 
 the Adlerstein retainers who robbed Phillipp der 
 Schmidt, and have him fast laid by the heels." 
 
 Christina shuddered, and Dame Johanna herself 
 recoiled ; but presently exclaimed, " Nay, you could 
 not do that, good man, but wherefore not threaten 
 him therewith ? Stand at his bedside in early dawn, 
 and tell him that, if he be not off ere daylight 
 with both his cut-throats, the halberdiers will be 
 upon him."
 
 22 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 " Threaten what I neither could nor would per- 
 form, mother ? That were a shrewish resource." 
 
 " Yet would it save the child," muttered Johanna. 
 But, in the meantime, Christina was rising from the 
 floor, and stood before them with loose hair, tearful 
 eyes, arid wet, flushed cheeks. " It must be thus," 
 she said, in a low, but not unsteady voice. I can 
 bear it better since I have heard of the poor young 
 lady, sick and with none to care for her. I will go 
 with my father ; it is my duty. I will do my best ; 
 but oh 1 uncle, so work with him that he may bring 
 me back again." 
 
 " This from thee, Stina !" exclaimed her aunt, 
 " from thee who art sick for fear of a lanzknecht !" 
 
 " The saints will be with me, and you will pray 
 for me," said Christina, still trembling. 
 
 " I tell thee, child, thou know'st not what these 
 vile dens are. Heaven forefend thou shouldst ! " 
 -exclaimed her aunt. " Go only to Father Balthazar, 
 housefather, and see if he doth not call it a sending 
 ■of a lamb among wolves." 
 
 " Mind'st thou the carving I did for Father Bal- 
 thazar's own oratory ?" replied Master Gottfried. 
 
 " I talk not of carving ! I talk of our child !" said 
 the dame, petulantly.
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S XEST. 23 
 
 " Ut agnus inter Iwpos" softly said Gottfried, look- 
 ing tenderly, though sadly, at his niece, who not 
 only understood the quotation, but well remembered 
 the carving of the cross-marked lamb going forth 
 from its fold among the howling wolves. 
 
 " Alas ! I am not an apostle," said she. 
 
 " Xay, but, in the path of duty, 'tis the same hand 
 that sends thee forth," answered her uncle, u and the 
 same will guard thee." 
 
 " Duty, indeed I" exclaimed Johanna. " As if any 
 duty could lead that silly helpless child among 
 that herd of evil men, and women yet worse, with 
 a good-for-nothing father, who would sell her for 
 a good horse to the first dissolute Junker who fell 
 in his way." 
 
 " I will take care that he knows it is worth his 
 while to restore her safe to us. Nor do I think so 
 ill of Hugh as thou dost, mother. And, for the rest, 
 Heaven and the saints and her own discretion must 
 be her guard till she shall return to us." 
 
 " How can Heaven be expected to protect her 
 when you are flying in its face by not taking counsel 
 with Father Balthazar ?" 
 
 " That shalt thou do," replied Gottfried, readily, 
 secure that Father Balthazar would see the matter
 
 24 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 in the same light as himself, and tranquillize the 
 good woman. It was not yet so late but that a 
 servant could be despatched with a request that 
 Father Balthazar, who lived not many houses off in 
 the same street, would favour the Burgomeisterinn 
 Sorel by coming to speak with her. In a few minutes 
 he appeared, — an aged man, with a sensible face, of 
 the fresh pure bloom preserved by a temperate life. 
 He was a secular parish-priest, and, as well as his 
 friend Master Gottfried, held greatly by the views 
 left by the famous Strasburg preacher, Master John 
 Tauler. After the good housemother had, in strong 
 terms, laid the case before him, she expected a 
 trenchant decision on her own side, but, to her sur- 
 prise and disappointment, he declared that Master 
 Gottfried was right, and that, unless Hugh Sorel 
 demanded anything absolutely sinful of his daughter, 
 it was needful that she should submit. He repeated, 
 in stronger terms, the assurance that she would be 
 protected in the endeavour to do right, and the 
 Divine promises which he quoted from the Latin 
 Scriptures gave some comfort to the niece, who 
 understood them, while they impressed the aunt, 
 who did not. There was always the hope that, 
 whether the young lady died or recovered, the con-
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 25 
 
 elusion of lier illness would be the term of Christina's 
 stay at Adlerstein, and with this trust Johanna must 
 content herself. The priest took leave, after appoint- 
 ing with Christina to meet her in the confessional 
 early in the morning before mass ; and half the 
 night was spent by the aunt and niece in preparing 
 Christina's wardrobe for her sudden journey. 
 
 Many a tear was shed over the tokens of the little 
 services she was wont to render, her half-done works, 
 and pleasant studies so suddenly broken off, and all 
 the time Hausfrau Johanna was running on with a 
 lecture on the diligent preservation of her maiden 
 discretion, with plentiful warnings against swagger- 
 ing men-at-arms, drunken lanzknechts, and, above 
 all, against young barons, who most assuredly could 
 mean no good by any burgher maiden. The good 
 aunt blessed the saints that her Stina was likely 
 only to be lovely in affectionate home eyes ; but, 
 for that matter, idle men, shut up in a castle, with 
 nothing but mischief to think of, would be dangerous 
 to Little Three Eyes herself, and Christina had best 
 never stir a yard from her lady's chair, when forced 
 to meet them. All this was interspersed with mo- 
 therly advice how to treat the sick lady, and receipts 
 for cordials and possets ; for Johanna began to regard
 
 26 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 the case as a sort of second-hand one of her own. 
 ISTay, she even turned it over in her mind whether 
 she should not offer herself as the Lady Ermentrude's 
 sick-nurse, as being a less dangerous commodity than 
 her little niece: but fears for the well-being of the 
 master-carver, and his Wirthschaft, and still more 
 the notion of gossip Gertrude Grundt hearing that 
 she had ridden off with a wild lanzknecht, made 
 her at once reject the plan, without even mentioning 
 it to her husband or his niece. 
 
 By the time Hugh Sorel rolled out from between 
 his feather beds, and was about to don his greasy 
 buff, a handsome new suit, finished point device, and 
 a pair of huge boots to correspond, had been laid 
 by his bedside. 
 
 " Ho, ho ! Master Goetz," said he, as he stumbled 
 into the Stube, " I see thy game. Thou wouldst 
 make it worth my while to visit the father-house 
 atUlm?" 
 
 " It shall be worth thy while, indeed, if thou 
 briugest me back my white dove," was Gottfried's 
 answer. 
 
 "And how if I bring her back with a strapping 
 reiter son-in-law?" lauoiiecl Hu^h. "What wel- 
 
 o o 
 
 come should the fellow receive?"
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEOT. 27 
 
 " That would depend on what he might be," re- 
 plied Gottfried; and Hugh, his love of tormenting 
 a little allayed by satisfaction in his buff suit, and 
 by an eye to a heavy purse that lay by his brother's 
 hand on the table, added, " Little fear of that. Our 
 fellows would look for lustier brides than yon little 
 pale face. 'Tis whiter than ever this morning, — but 
 no tears. That is my brave girl." 
 
 "Yes, father, I am ready to do your bidding," 
 replied Christina, meekly. 
 
 " That is well, child. Mark me, no tears. Thy 
 mother wept day and night, and, when she had wept 
 out her tears, she was sullen, when I would have 
 been friendly towards her. It was the worse for her. 
 But, so long as thou art good daughter to me, thou 
 shalt find me good father to thee ; " and for a mo- 
 ment there was a kindliness in his eye which made 
 it sufficiently like that of his brother to give some 
 consolation to the shrinking heart that he was rend- 
 ing from all it loved ; and she steadied her voice for 
 another gentle profession of obedience, for which 
 she felt strengthened by the morning's orisons. 
 
 "Well said, child. Now canst sit on old Mbelung's 
 croup ? His back-bone is somewhat sharper than if 
 he had battened in a citizen's stall; but, if thine
 
 28 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 aunt can find thee some sort of pillion, I'll promise 
 thee the best ride thou hast had since we came from 
 Innspruck, ere thou canst remember." 
 
 " Christina has her own mule/' replied her uncle, 
 " without troubling Mbelung to carry double." 
 
 " Ho ! her own ! An overfed burgomaster sort of 
 a beast, that will turn restive at the first sight of the 
 Eagle's Ladder ! However, he may carry her so far, 
 and, if we cannot get him up the mountain, I shall 
 know what to do with him," he muttered to himself. 
 
 But Hugh, like many a gentleman after him, was 
 recusant at the sight of his daughter's luggage ; and 
 yet it only loaded one sumpter mule, besides form- 
 ing a few bundles which could be easily bestowed 
 upon the saddles of his two knappen, while her 
 lute hung by a silken string on her arm. Both 
 she and her aunt thought she had been extremely 
 moderate ; but his cry was, What could she want 
 with so much ? Her mother had never been allowed 
 more than would go into a pair of saddle-bags ; and 
 his own Jungfrau — she had never seen so much gear 
 together in her life ; he would be laughed to scorn 
 for his presumption in bringing such a fine lady into 
 the castle ; it would be well if Freiherr Eberhard's 
 bride brought half as much.
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 29 
 
 Still he had a certain pride in it — he was, after 
 all, by birth and breeding a burgher — and there had 
 been evidently a softening and civilizing influence in 
 the night spent beneath his paternal roof, amid old 
 habits, and perhaps likewise in the submission he 
 had met with from his daughter. The attendants, 
 too, who had been pleased with their quarters, 
 readily undertook to carry their share of the 
 burthen, and, though he growled and muttered a 
 little, he at length was won over to consent, chiefly, 
 as it seemed, by Christina's obliging readiness to leave 
 behind the bundle that contained her holiday kirtle. 
 
 He had been spared all needless irritation. Before 
 his waking, Christina had been at the priest's cell, 
 and had received his last blessings and counsels, and 
 she had, on the way back, exchanged her farewells 
 and tears with her two dearest friends, Barbara 
 Schmidt, and Kegina Grundt, confiding to the former 
 her cage of doves, and to the latter the myrtle, 
 which, like every German maiden, she cherished in 
 her window, to supply her future bridal wreath. 
 Now pale as death, but so resolutely composed as 
 to be almost disappointing to her demonstrative 
 aunt, she quietly went through her home partings ; 
 while Hausfrau Johanna adjured her father by all
 
 30 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 that was sacred to be a true guardian and protector 
 of the child, and he could not forbear from a few 
 tormenting auguries about the lanzkneclit son-in- 
 law. Their effect was to make the good dame more 
 passionate in her embraces and admonitions to 
 Christina to take care of herself. She would have 
 a mass said every day that Heaven might have a 
 care of her ! 
 
 Master Gottfried was going to ride as far as the 
 confines of the free city's territory, and his round, 
 sleek, cream-coloured palfrey, used to ambling in 
 civic processions, was as great a contrast to raw- 
 boned, wild-eyed Nibelung, all dappled with misty 
 grey, as was the stately, substantial burgher to his 
 lean, hungry-looking brother, or Dame Johanna's 
 dignified, curled, white poodle, which was forcibly 
 withheld from following Christina, to the coarse- 
 bristled, wolfish-looking hound who glared at the 
 household pet with angry and contemptuous eyes, 
 and made poor Christina's heart throb with terror 
 whenever it bounded near her. 
 
 Close to her uncle she kept, as beneath the trellised 
 porches that came down from the projecting gables 
 of the burghers' houses many a well-known face 
 gazed and nodded, as they took their way through
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 31 
 
 the crooked streets, many a beggar or poor widow 
 waved her a blessing. Out into the market-place, 
 with its clear fountain adorned with arches and 
 statues, past the rising Dome Kirk, where the 
 swarms of workmen unbonneted to the master- 
 carver, and the reiter paused with an irreverent 
 sneer at the small progress made since he could 
 first remember the building. How poor little 
 Christina's soul clung to every cusp of the lace-work 
 spire, every arch of the window, each of which she 
 had hailed as an achievement ! The tears had well- 
 nigh blinded her in a gush of feeling that came on 
 her unawares, and her mule had his own way as he 
 carried her under the arch of the tall and beautifully- 
 sculptured bridge tower, and over the noble bridge 
 across the Danube. 
 
 Her uncle spoke much, low and earnestly, to his 
 brother. She knew it was in commendation of her 
 to his care, and an endeavour to impress him with a 
 sense of the kind of protection she would require, 
 and she kept out of ear-shot. It was enough for her 
 to see her uncle" still, and feel that his tenderness 
 was with her, and around her. But at last he drew 
 his rein. " And now, my little one, the daughter of 
 my heart, I must bid thee farewell," he said.
 
 32 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 Christina could not be restrained from springing 
 from her mule, and kneeling on the grass to receive 
 his blessing, her face hidden in her hands, that her 
 father might not see her tears. 
 
 " The good God bless thee, my child," said Gottfried, 
 who seldom invoked the saints ; " bless thee, and 
 bring thee back in His own good time. Thou hast 
 been a good child to us ; be so to thine own father. 
 Do thy work, and come back to us again." 
 
 The tears rained down his cheeks, as Christina's 
 head lay on his bosom, and then with a last kiss he 
 lifted her again on her mule, mounted his horse, and 
 turned back to the city, with his servant. 
 
 Hugh was merciful enough to let his daughter 
 gaze long after the retreating figure ere he summoned 
 her on. All day they rode, at first through meadow 
 lands and then through more broken, open ground, 
 where at mid- day they halted, and dined upon the 
 plentiful fare with which the housemother had pro- 
 vided them, over which Hugh smacked his lips, and 
 owned that they did live well in the old town ! 
 Could Christina make such sausages ? 
 " Not as well as my aunt." 
 
 " Well, do thy best, and thou wilt win favour with 
 the baron."
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 33 
 
 The evening began to advance, and Christina was 
 very weary, as the purple mountains that she had 
 long watched with a mixture of fear and hope began 
 to look more distinct, and the ground was often in 
 abrupt ascents. Her father, without giving space 
 for complaints, hurried her on. He must reach the 
 Debateable Ford ere dark. It was, however, twilight 
 when they came to an open space, where, at the foot 
 of thickly forest-clad rising ground, lay an expanse 
 of turf and rich grass, through which a stream made 
 its way, standing in a wide tranquil pool as if to rest 
 after its rough course from the mountains. Above 
 rose, like a dark wall, crag upon crag, peak on peak, 
 in purple masses, blending with the sky ; and Hugh, 
 pointing upwards to a turreted point, apparently 
 close above their heads, where a star of light was 
 burning, told her that there was Adlerstein, and this 
 was the Debateable Ford. 
 
 In fact, as he explained, while splashing through 
 the shallow expanse, the stream had changed its 
 course. It was the boundary between the lands of 
 Schlangenwald and Adlerstein, but it had within the 
 last sixty years burst forth in a flood, and had then 
 declined to return to its own bed, but had flowed in 
 a fresh channel to the right of the former one. The 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 Freiherren von Adlerstein claimed the ground to the 
 •old channel, the Graffen von Schlangenwald held 
 that the river was the landmark ; and the dispute 
 had a greater importance than seemed explained 
 from the worth of the rushy space of ground in 
 question, for this was the passage of the Italian 
 merchants on their way from Constance, and every 
 load that was overthrown in the river was regarded 
 as the lawful prey of the noble on whose banks the 
 catastrophe befell. 
 
 Any freight of goods was anxiously watched by 
 "both nobles, and it was not their fault if no disaster 
 befell the travellers. Hugh talked of the Schlan- 
 genwald marauders with the bitterness of a deadly 
 feud, but manifestly did not breathe freely till his 
 whole convoy were safe across both the wet and the 
 dry channel. 
 
 Christina supposed they should now ascend to the 
 castle ; but her father laughed, saying that the castle 
 was not such a step off as she fancied, and that they 
 must have daylight for the Eagle's Stairs. He led 
 the way through the trees, up ground that she 
 thought mountain already, and finally arrived at a 
 miserable little hut, which served the purpose of 
 an inn.
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 35 
 
 He was received there with much obsequiousness, 
 and was plainly a great authority there. Christina, 
 weary and frightened, descended from her mule, and 
 was put under the protection of a wild, rough-look- 
 ing peasant woman, who stared at her like something 
 from another world, but at length showed her a nook 
 behind a mud partition, where she could spread her 
 mantle, and at least lie down, and tell her beads 
 unseen, if she could not sleep in the stifling, smoky 
 atmosphere, amid the sounds of carousal among her 
 father and his fellows. 
 
 The great hound came up and smelt to her. His 
 outline was so wolfish, that she had nearly screamed ; 
 but, more in terror at the men who might have 
 helped her than even at the beast, she tried to 
 smoothe him with her trembling hand, whispered 
 his name of " Festhold," and found him licking her 
 hand, and wagging his long rough tail. And he 
 finally lay down at her feet, as though to protect 
 her. 
 
 " Is it a sign that good angels will not let me be 
 hurt ? " she thought, and, wearied out, she slept. 
 
 D 2
 
 36 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 .CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE EYRIE. 
 
 Cheistina Soeel awoke to a scene most unlike 
 that which had been wont to meet her eyes in her 
 own little wainscoted chamber high in the gabled 
 front of her uncle's house. It was a time when the 
 imperial free towns of Germany had advanced nearly 
 as far as those of Italy in civilization, and had 
 reached a point whence they retrograded grievously 
 during the Thirty Years' War, even to an extent that 
 they have never entirely recovered. The country 
 immediately around them shared the benefits of their 
 civilization, and the free peasant-proprietors lived 
 in great ease and prosperity, in beautiful and pic- 
 turesque farmsteads, enjoying a careless abundance, 
 and keeping numerous rural or religious feasts, 
 where old Teutonic mythological observances had 
 received a Christian colouring and adaptation. 
 
 In the mountains, or around the castles, it was 
 usually very different. The elective constitution of
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 37 
 
 the empire, the frequent change of dynasty, the 
 many disputed successions, had combined to render 
 the sovereign authority uncertain and feeble, and 
 it was seldom really felt save in the hereditary 
 dominions of the Kaiser for the time being. Thus, 
 while the cities advanced in the power of self-govern- 
 ment, and the education it conveyed, the nobles, 
 especially those whose abodes were not easily acces- 
 sible, were often practically under no government at 
 all, and felt themselves accountable to no man. The 
 old wild freedom of the Suevi, and other Teutonic 
 tribes, still technically, and in many cases practically, 
 existed. The Heretogen, Heerzogen, or, as we call 
 them, Dukes, had indeed accepted employment from 
 the Kaiser as his generals, and had received rewards 
 from him ; the Gerefen, or Graffen, of all kinds were 
 his judges, the titles of both being proofs of their 
 holding commissions from, and being thus dependent 
 on, the court. But the Freiherren, a word very inade- 
 quately represented by our French term of baron, 
 were absolutely free, " never in bondage to any 
 man," holding their own, and owing no duty, no 
 office; poorer, because unendowed by the royal autho- 
 rity, but holding themselves infinitely higher, than 
 the pensioners of the court. Left behind, however,
 
 38 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 by their neighbours, who did their part by society, 
 and advanced with it, the Freiherren had been for 
 the most part obliged to give up their independence 
 and fall into the system, but so far in the rear, that 
 they ranked, like the barons of France and England, 
 as the last order of nobility. 
 
 Still, however, in the wilder and more mountainous 
 parts of the country, some of the old families of un- 
 reduced, truly free Freiherren lingered, their hand 
 against every man, every man's hand against them, 
 and ever becoming more savage, both positively and 
 still more proportionately, as their isolation and the 
 general progress around them became greater. The 
 House of Austria, by gradually absorbing here- 
 ditary states into its own possessions, was, however, 
 in the fifteenth century, acquiring a preponderance 
 that rendered its possession of the imperial throne 
 almost a matter of inheritance, and moreover ren- 
 dered the supreme power far more effective than it 
 had ever previously been. Freidrich III. a man still 
 in full vigour, and with an able and enterprising son 
 already elected to the succession, was making his 
 rule felt, and it was fast becoming apparent that the 
 days of the independent baronies were numbered, 
 and that the only choice that would soon be left
 
 THE DOTE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 39 
 
 tliem would be between making terms and being 
 forcibly reduced. Von Adlerstein was one of the 
 oldest of these free families. If the lords of the 
 Eagle's Stone had ever followed the great Konrads 
 and Freidrichs of Swabia in their imperial days, their 
 descendants had taken care to forget the weakness, 
 and believed themselves absolutely free from all 
 allegiance. 
 
 And the wildness of their territory was what 
 might be expected from their hostility to all outward 
 influences. The hostel, if it deserved the name, was 
 little more than a charcoal-burner's hut, hidden in 
 the woods at the foot of the mountain, serving as a 
 halting-place for the Freiherren's retainers ere they 
 attempted the ascent. The inhabitants were allowed 
 to ply their trade of charring wood in the forest on 
 condition of supplying the castle with charcoal, and 
 of affording a lodging to the followers on occasions 
 like the present. 
 
 Grimy, half-clad, and brawny, with the whites of 
 his eyes gleaming out of his black face, Jobst the 
 Kohler startled Christina terribly when she came 
 into the outer room, and met him returning from his 
 night's work, with his long stoking-pole in his hancL 
 Her father shouted with laughter at her alarm.
 
 40 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 " Thou tliinkest thyself in tlie land of the kobolds 
 and dwarfs, my girl ! Never mind, thon wilt see 
 worse than honest Jobst before thon hast done. 
 Now, eat a morsel and be ready — mountain air will 
 make thee hungry ere thon art at the castle. And, 
 hark thee, Jobst, thon mnst give stable-room to yon 
 snmpter-mnle for the present, and let some of my 
 daughter's gear lie in the shed." 
 
 " father ! " exclaimed Christina, in dismay. 
 
 " We'll bring it up, child, by piecemeal," he said 
 in a low voice, " as we can ; but if such a freight 
 came to the castle at once, my lady would have her 
 claws on it, and little more wouldst thou ever see 
 thereof. Moreover, I shall have enough to do to look 
 after thee up the ascent, without another of these 
 city-bred beasts." 
 
 " I hope the poor mule will be well cared for. I 
 
 can pay for " began Christina ; but her father 
 
 squeezed her arm, and drowned her soft voice in his 
 loud tones. 
 
 " Jobst will take care of the beast, as belonging to 
 me. Woe betide him, if I find it the worse ! " — and 
 his added imprecations seemed unnecessary, so earnest 
 were the asseverations of both the man and his wife 
 that the animal should be well cared for.
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 41 
 
 " Look you, Christina," said Hugh Sorel, as soon 
 as he had placed her on her mule, and led her out of 
 hearing, " if thou hast any gold about thee, let it be 
 the last thing thou ownest to any living creature up 
 there." Then, as she was about to speak — " Do not 
 even tell me. I will not know." The caution did 
 not add much to Christina's comfort ; but she pre- 
 sently asked, " Where is thy steed, father ? " 
 
 " I sent him up to the castle with the Schneider- 
 lein and Yellow Lorentz," answered the father. " I 
 shall have ado enough on foot with thee before we 
 are up the Ladder." 
 
 The father and daughter were meantime proceeding 
 along a dark path through oak and birch woods, 
 constantly ascending, until the oak grew stunted and 
 disappeared, and the opening glades showed steep, 
 stony, torrent-furrowed ramparts of hillside above 
 them, looking to Christina's eyes as if she were set to 
 climb up the cathedral side like a snail or a fly. She 
 quite gasped for breath at the very sight, and was 
 told in return to wait and see what she would yet 
 say to the Adlerstreppe, or Eagle's Ladder. Poor 
 child ! she had no raptures for romantic scenery ; 
 she knew that jagged peaks made very pretty back- 
 grounds in illuminations, but she had much rather
 
 42 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 Lave been in the smooth meadows of the environs of 
 Ulm. The Danube looked much more agreeable to 
 her, silver- winding between its green banks, than did 
 the same waters leaping down with noisy voices in 
 their stony, worn beds to feed the river that she only 
 knew in his grave breadth and majesty. Yet, alarmed 
 as she was, there was something in the exhilaration 
 and elasticity of the mountain air that gave her an 
 entirely new sensation of enjoyment and life, and 
 seemed to brace her limbs and spirits for whatever 
 might be before her ; and, willing to show herself 
 ready to be gratified, she observed on the freshness 
 and sweetness of the air. 
 
 " Thou find'st it out, child ? Ay, 'tis worth all the 
 feather-beds and pouncet-boxes in Ulm; is it not? 
 That accursed Italian fever never left me till I came 
 up here. A man can scarce draw breath in your 
 foggy meadows below there. Now then, here is the 
 view open. What think you of the Eagle's Nest ? " 
 
 For, having passed beyond the region of wood, 
 they had come forth upon the mountain-side. A not 
 immoderately steep slope of boggy, mossy-looking 
 ground covered with bilberries, cranberries, &c. and 
 with bare rocks here and there rising, went away 
 above out of her ken; but the path she was upon
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 43 
 
 turned round the shoulder of the mountain, and to 
 the left, on a ledge of rock cut off apparently on their 
 side by a deep ravine, and with a sheer precipice 
 above and below it, stood a red stone pile, with one 
 turret far above the rest. 
 
 " And this is Schloss Adlerstein ? " she exclaimed. 
 
 " That is Schloss Adlerstein ; and there shalt thou 
 be in two hours' time, unless the devil be more than 
 usually busy, or thou mak'st a fool of thyself. If so, 
 not Satan himself could save thee." 
 
 It was well that Christina had resolution to pre- 
 vent her making a fool of herself on the spot, for the 
 thought of the pathway turned her so dizzy that 
 she could only shut her eyes, trusting that her father 
 did not see her terror. Soon the turn round to the 
 side of the mountain was made, and the road became 
 a mere track worn out on the turf on the hill-side, 
 with an abyss beneath, close to the edge of which the 
 mule, of course, walked. 
 
 When she ventured to look again, she perceived 
 that the ravine was like an enormous crack open on 
 the mountain-side, and that the stream that formed 
 the Debateable Ford flowed down the bottom of it. 
 The ravine itself went probably all the way up the 
 mountain, growing shallower as it ascended higher j
 
 44 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 but here, where Christina beheld it, it was extremely 
 deep, and savagely desolate and bare. She now saw 
 that the Eagle's Ladder was a succession of bare 
 gigantic terraces of rock, of which the opposite side 
 of the ravine was composed, and on one of which 
 stood the castle. It was no small mystery to her 
 how it had ever been built, or how she was ever to get 
 there. She saw in the opening of the ravine the green 
 meadows and woods far below ; and, when her father 
 pointed out to her the Debateable Ford, apparently 
 much nearer to the castle than they themselves were 
 at present, she asked why they had so far overpassed 
 the castle, and come by this circuitous course. 
 
 " Because," said Hugh, " we are not eagles out- 
 right, Seest thou not, just beyond the castle court, 
 this whole crag of ours breaks off short, falls like the 
 town wall straight down into the plain ? Even this 
 cleft that we are crossing by, the only road a horse 
 can pass, breaks off short and sudden too, so that the 
 river is obliged to take leaps which nought else but a 
 chamois could compass. A footpath there is, and 
 Freiherr Eberhard takes it at all times, being born to 
 it ; but even I am too stiff for the like. Ha ! ha ! 
 Thy uncle may talk of the Kaiser and his League, but 
 he would change his note if we had him here."
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 45 
 
 " Yet castles have been taken by hunger," said 
 Christina. 
 
 " What, knowest thou so much ? — True ! But look 
 you/' pointing to a white foamy thread that descended 
 the opposite steeps, " yonder beck dashes through the 
 castle court, and it never dries ; and see you the 
 ledge the castle stands on ? It winds on out of your 
 sight, and forms a path which leads to the village of 
 Adlerstein, out on the other slope of the mountains ; 
 and ill were it for the serfs if they victualled not the 
 castle well." 
 
 The fearful steepness of the ground absorbed all 
 Christina's attention. The road, or rather stairs, came 
 down to the stream at the bottom of the fissure, and 
 then went again on the other side up still more tre- 
 mendous steeps, which Hugh climbed with a staff, 
 sometimes with his hand on the bridle, but more 
 often only keeping a watchful eye on the sure-footed 
 mule, and an arm to steady his daughter in the 
 saddle when she grew absolutely faint with giddi- 
 ness at -the abyss around her. She w r as too much 
 in awe of him to utter cry or complaint, and, when 
 he saw her effort to subdue her mortal terror, he was 
 far from unkind, and let her feel his protecting 
 strength.
 
 46 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 Presently a voice was heard above — " What, Sorel, 
 hast brought her ! Trudchen is wearying for her." 
 
 The words were in the most boorish dialect and 
 pronunciation, the stranger to Christina's ears, because 
 intercourse with foreign merchants, and a growing 
 affectation of Latinism, had much -refined the city 
 language to which she was accustomed ; and she was 
 surprised to perceive by her father's gesture and 
 address that the speaker must be one of the lords of 
 the castle. She looked up, and saw on the pathway 
 above her a tall, large-framed young man, his skin 
 dyed red with sun and wind, in odd contrast with his 
 pale shaggy hair, moustache, and beard, as though the 
 weather had tanned the one and bleached the other. 
 His dress was a still shabbier buff suit than her 
 father had worn, but with a richly-embroidered belt 
 sustaining a hunting-horn with finely-chased orna- 
 ments of tarnished silver, and an eagle's plume was 
 fastened into his cap with a large gold Italian coin. 
 He stared hard at the maiden, but vouchsafed her no 
 token of greeting — only distressed her considerably 
 by distracting her father's attention from her mule 
 by his questions about the journey, all in the same 
 rude, coarse tone and phraseology. Some amount of 
 illusion was dispelled. Christina was quite prepared
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE 'S NEST. 47 
 
 to find the mountain lords dangerous ruffians, but 
 she had expected the graces of courtesy and high 
 birth ; but, though there was certainly an air of 
 command and freedom of bearing about the present 
 specimen, his manners and speech were more uncouth 
 than those of any newly-caught apprentice of her 
 uncle, and she could not help thinking that her good 
 aunt Johanna need not have troubled herself about 
 the danger of her taking a liking to any such young 
 Freiherr as she here beheld. 
 
 By this time a last effort of the mule had climbed 
 to the level of the castle. As her father had shown 
 her, there was precipice on two sides of the building ; 
 on the third, a sheer wall of rock going up to a huge 
 height before it reached another of the Eagle's Steps ; 
 and on the fourth, where the gateway was, the little 
 beck had been made to flow in a deep channel that 
 had been hollowed out to serve as a moat, before it 
 bounded down to swell the larger water-course in the 
 ravine. A temporary bridge had been laid across ; 
 the drawbridge was out of order, and part of Hugh's 
 business had been to procure materials for mending 
 its apparatus. Christina was told to dismount and 
 cross on foot. The unrailed board, so close to the 
 abyss, and with the wild water foaming above and
 
 48 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 below, was dreadful to her ; and, though she durst not 
 speak, she hung back with an involuntary shudder, 
 as her father, occupied with the mule, did not think 
 of giving her a hand. The young baron burst out 
 into an unrestrained laugh — a still greater shock to 
 her feelings ; but at the same time he roughly took 
 her hand, and almost dragged her across, saying, 
 " City bred — ho, ho ! " " Thanks, sir," she strove to 
 say, but she was very near weeping with the terror 
 and strangeness of all around. 
 
 The low-browed gateway, barely high enough to 
 admit a man on horseback, opened before her, almost 
 to her feelings like the gate of the grave, and she 
 could not help crossing herself, with a silent prayer 
 for protection, as she stepped under it, and came into 
 the castle court — not such a court as gave its name 
 to fair courtesy, but, if truth must be told, far more 
 resembling an ill-kept, ill-savoured stable-yard, with 
 the piggeries opening into it. In unpleasantly close 
 quarters, the Schneiderlein, or little tailor, i.e. the 
 biggest and fiercest of all the knappen, was grooming 
 Mbelung; three long-backed, long-legged, frightful 
 swine were grubbing in a heap of refuse ; four or five 
 gaunt ferocious-looking dogs came bounding up to 
 greet their comrade Festhold ; and a great old long-
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S XEST. 49 
 
 bearded goat stood on the top of the mixen, looking 
 much disposed to butt at any new comer. The Sorel 
 family had brought cleanliness from Flanders, and 
 Hausfrau Johanna was scrupulously dainty in all her 
 appointments. Christina scarcely knew how she con- 
 veyed herself and her blue kirtle across the bemired 
 stones to the next and still darker portal, under 
 which a wide but rough ill-hewn stair ascended. The 
 stables, in fact, occupied the lower floor of the main 
 building, and not till these stairs had ascended above 
 them did they lead out into the castle hall. Here 
 were voices — voices rude and harsh, like those Chris- 
 tina had shrunk from in passing drinking booths. 
 There was a long table, with rough men-at-arms 
 lounging about, and staring rudely at her ; and at the 
 upper end, by a great open chimney, sat, half-dozing, 
 an elderly man, more rugged in feature than his son ; 
 and yet, when he roused himself and spoke to Hugh, 
 there was a shade more of breeding, and less of 
 clownishness, in his voice and deportment, as if he 
 had been less entirely devoid of training. A tall 
 darkly-robed woman stood beside him — it was her 
 harsh tone of reproof and command that had so 
 startled Christina as she entered — and her huge 
 towering cap made her look gigantic in the dim light 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 of the smoky hall. Her features had been handsome, 
 but had become hardened into a grim wooden aspect ; 
 and with sinking spirits Christina paused at the step 
 of the dai's, and made her reverence, wishing she 
 could sink beneath the stones of the pavement out of 
 sight of these terrible personages. 
 
 " So that's the wench you have taken all this 
 trouble for/' was Freiherrinn Kunigunde's greeting. 
 " She looks like another sick baby to nurse ; but I'll 
 have no trouble about her ; — that is all. Take her up 
 to Ermentrude ; and thou, girl, have a care thou dost 
 her will, and puttest none of thy city fancies into her 
 head." 
 
 " And hark thee, girl," added the old Freiherr, 
 sitting up. " So thou canst nurse her well, thou shalt 
 have a new gown and a stout husband." 
 
 " That way," pointed the lady towards one of the 
 four corner towers ; and Christina moved doubtfully 
 towards it, reluctant to quit her father, her only pro- 
 tector, and afraid to introduce herself. The younger 
 Freiherr, however, stepped before her, went striding 
 two or three steps at a time up the turret stair, and, 
 before Christina had wound her way up, she heard 
 a thin, impatient voice say, " Thou saidst she was 
 come, Elbo."
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 51 
 
 " Yes, even so," she heard Freiherr Eberhard re- 
 turn ; " but she is slow and townbred. She was 
 afraid of crossing the moat," And then both laughed., 
 so that Christina's cheeks tingled as she emerged 
 from the turret into another vaulted room. " Here 
 she is," quoth the brother ; " now will she make thee 
 quite well." 
 
 It was a very bare and desolate room, with no 
 hangings to the rough stone walls, and scarcely any 
 furniture, except a great carved bedstead, one wooden 
 chair, a table, and some stools. On the bare floor, in 
 front of the fire, her arm under her head, and a pro- 
 fusion of long hair falling round her like flax from a 
 distaff, lay wearily a little figure, beside whom Sir 
 Eberhard was kneeling on one knee. 
 
 " Here is my sisterling," said lie, looking up to 
 the new-comer. " They say you burgherwomen have 
 ways of healing the sick. Look at her. Think you 
 you can heal her ? " 
 
 In an excess of dumb shyness Ermentrude half 
 rose, and effectually hindered any observations on 
 her looks by hiding her face away upon her brother's 
 knee. It was the gesture of a child of five years old. 
 but Ermentrude's length of limb forbade Christina 
 to suppose her less than fourteen or fifteen. " What, ^* 
 
 E 2 
 
 *F 
 
 
 \
 
 52 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 wilt not look at her?" he said, trying to raise her 
 head; and then, holding out one of her wasted, 
 feverish hands to Christina, he again asked, with a 
 wistfulness that had a strange effect from the large, 
 tall man, almost ten years her elder, " Canst thou 
 cure her, maiden ? " 
 
 " I am no doctor, sir," replied Christina ; " but I 
 could, at least, make her more comfortable. The 
 stone is too hard for her." 
 
 " I will not go away ; I want the fire," murmured 
 the sick girl, holding out her hands towards it, and 
 shivering. 
 
 Christina quickly took off her own thick cloth 
 mantle, well lined with dressed lambskins, laid it on 
 the floor, rolled the collar of it over a small log of 
 wood — the only substitute she could see for a pillow — 
 and showed an inviting couch in an instant. Ermen- 
 trude let her brother lay her down, and then was 
 covered with the ample fold. She smiled as she 
 turned up her thin, wasted face, faded into the same 
 whitey-brown tint as her hair. " That is good," she 
 said, but without thanks ; and, feeling the soft 
 lambswool : " Is that what you burgh erwomen wear ? 
 Father is to give me a furred mantle, if only some 
 court dame would pass the Debateable Ford. But the
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 53 
 
 Schlangenwaldern got the last before ever we could 
 get down. Jobst was so stupid. He did not give us 
 warning in time ; but he is to be hung next time if 
 he does not." 
 
 Christina's blood curdled as she heard this speech 
 in a weak little complaining tone, that otherwise put 
 her sadly in mind of Barbara Schmidt's little sister, 
 who had pined and wasted to death. " Xever mind, 
 Trudchen," answered the brother kindly ; " meantime 
 I have kept all the wild catskins for thee, and may 
 be this — this — she could sew them up into a mantle 
 for thee." 
 
 " let me see," cried the young lady eagerly ; and 
 Sir Eberhard, walking off, presently returned with an 
 armful of the beautiful brindled furs of the moun- 
 tain cat, reminding Christina of her aunt's gentle 
 domestic favourite. Ermentrude sat up, and re- 
 garded the placing out of them with great interest ; 
 and thus her brother left her employed, and so much 
 delighted that she had not flagged, when a great bell 
 proclaimed that it was the time for the noontide 
 meal, for which Christina, in spite of all her fears 
 of the company below stairs, had been constrained 
 by mountain air to look forward with satisfaction. 
 
 Ermentrude, she found, meant to go down, but
 
 54 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 with no notion of the personal arrangements that 
 Christina had been wont to think a needful pre- 
 liminary. With all her hair streaming, down she 
 went, and was so gladly welcomed by her father that 
 it was plain that her presence was regarded as an 
 unusual advance towards recovery, and Christina 
 feared lest he might already be looking out for the 
 stout husband. She had much to tell him about the 
 catskin cloak, and then she was seized with eager 
 curiosity at the sight of Christina's bundles, and 
 especially at her lute, which she must hear at once. 
 
 " Not now," said her mother, " there will be jan- 
 gling and jingling enough by and by — meat now." 
 
 The whole establishment were taking their places 
 — or rather tumbling into them. A battered, shape- 
 less metal vessel seemed to represent the salt-cellar, 
 and next to it Hugh Sorel seated himself, and kept 
 a place for her besiole him. Otherwise she would 
 hardly have had seat or food. She was now able to 
 survey the inmates of the castle. Besides the family 
 themselves, there were about a dozen men, all ruf- 
 fianly-looking, and of much lower grade than her 
 father, and three women. One, old Ursel, the wife 
 •of Hatto the forester, was a bent, worn, but not ill- 
 looking woman, with a motherly face : the younger
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S XEST. 55 
 
 ones were hard, bold creatures, from whom Christina 
 felt a shrinking recoil. The meal was dressed by Ursel 
 and her kitchen boy. From a great cauldron, goat's 
 flesh and broth together were ladled out into wooden 
 bowls. That every one provided their own spoon 
 and knife — no fork — was only what Christina was 
 used to in the most refined society, and she had the 
 implements in a pouch hanging to her girdle ; but 
 she was not prepared for the unwashed condition of 
 the bowls, nor for being obliged to share that of her 
 father — far less for the absence of all blessing on the 
 meal, and the coarse boisterousness of manners pre- 
 vailing thereat. Hungry as she was, she did not 
 find it easy to take food under these circumstances, 
 and she was relieved when Ermentrude was over- 
 come by the turmoil, grew giddy, and was carried up- 
 stairs by her father, who laid her down upon her 
 great bed, and left her ';o the attendance of Christina. 
 Ursel had followed, but was petulantly repulsed by 
 her young lady in favour of the new-comer, and 
 went away grumbling. 
 
 Nestled on her bed, Ermentrude insisted on hear- 
 ing the lute, and Christina had to creep down to 
 fetch it, with some other of her goods, in trembling 
 haste, and redoubled disgust at the aspect of the
 
 56 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 meal, which looked even more repulsive in this 
 later stage, and to one who was no longer partaking 
 of it. 
 
 Low and softly, with a voice whence she could 
 scarcely banish tears, and in dread of attracting 
 attention, Christina sung to the sick girl, who lis- 
 tened with a sort of rude wonder, and finally was 
 lulled to sleep. Christina ventured to lay down her 
 instrument and move towards the window, heavily 
 mullioned with stone, barred with iron, and glazed 
 with thick glass ; being in fact the only glazed win- 
 dow in the castle. To her great satisfaction it did 
 not look out over the loathsome court, but over the 
 opening of the ravine. The apartment occupied the 
 whole floor of the keep ; it was stone-paved, but the 
 roof was boarded, and there was a round turret at 
 each angle. One contained the staircase, and was 
 that which ran up above the keep, served as a watch- 
 tower, and supported the Eagle banner. The other 
 three were empty, and one of these, which had a 
 strong door, and a long loophole window looking out 
 over the open country, Christina hoped that she 
 might appropriate. The turret was immediately 
 over the perpendicular cliff that descended into the 
 plain. A stone thrown from the window would have
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S XEST. 57 
 
 gone straight down, she knew not where. Close to 
 her ears rushed the descending waterfall in its leap 
 over the rock side, and her eyes could rest themselves 
 on the green meadow land below, and the smooth 
 water of the Debateable Ford: nay — far, far away 
 beyond retreating ridges of wood and field — she 
 thought she could track a silver line, and guided by 
 it, a something that might be a city. Her heart 
 leapt towards it, but she was recalled by Errnen- 
 trude's fretfully imperious voice. 
 
 " I was only looking forth from the window, lady," 
 she said, returning. 
 
 " Ah ! thou saw'st no travellers at the Ford ?" cried 
 Ermentrude, starting up with lively interest. 
 
 " Ko, lady ; I was gazing at the far distance. 
 Know you if it be indeed Ulm that we see from 
 these windows ?" 
 
 " Ulm ? That is where thou comest from ? " said 
 Ermentrude languidly. 
 
 " My happy home, with my dear uncle and aunt ! 
 0, if I can but see it hence, it will be joy !" 
 
 " I do not know. Let me see," said Ermentrude, 
 rising ; but at the window her pale blue eyes gazed 
 vacantly as if she did not know what she was look- 
 ing at or for.
 
 58 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 " All ! if the steeple of the Dome Kirk were but 
 finished, I could not mistake it," said Christina. 
 " How beauteous the white spire will look from 
 hence ! " 
 
 "Dome Kirk?" repeated Ermentrude; "what is 
 that ?" 
 
 Such an entire blank as the poor child's mind 
 seemed to be was inconceivable to the maiden, who 
 had been bred up in the busy hum of men, where 
 the constant resort of strange merchants, the daily- 
 interests of a self-governing municipality, and the 
 numerous festivals, both secular and religious, were 
 an unconscious education, even without that which 
 had been bestowed upon her by teachers, as well as 
 by her companionship with her uncle, and participa- 
 tion in his studies, taste, and arts. 
 
 Ermentrude von Adlerstein had, on the contrary, 
 not only never gone beyond the Kohler's hut on the 
 one side, and the mountain village on the other, but 
 •she had never seen more of life than the festival at 
 the wake at the hermitage chapel there on Mid- 
 summer-day. The only strangers who ever came to 
 the castle were disbanded lanzknechts who took 
 service with her father, or now and then a captive 
 whom he put to ransom. She knew absolutely
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 59 
 
 nothing of the world, except for a general belief that 
 Freiherren lived there to do what they chose with 
 other people, and that the House of Adlerstein was 
 the freest and noblest in existence. Also there was 
 a very positive hatred to the House of Schlangen- 
 wald, and no less to that of Adlerstein "Wildschloss, 
 for no reason that Christina could discover save 
 that, being a younger branch of the family, they 
 had submitted to the Emperor. To destroy either 
 the Graf von Schlangenwald, or her ^Vildschloss 
 cousin, was evidently the highest gratification Er- 
 mentrude could conceive ; and, for the rest, that her 
 father and brother should make successful captures 
 at the Debateable Ford was the more abiding, be- 
 cause more practicable hope. She had no further ideas, 
 except perhaps to elude her mother's severity, and 
 to desire her brother's success in chamois-hunting. 
 The only mental culture she had ever received was 
 that old Ursel had taught her the Credo, Pater 
 Xoster, and Ave, as correctly as might be expected 
 from a long course of traditionary repetitions of an 
 incomprehensible language. And she knew besides 
 a few German rhymes and jingles, half Christian, 
 half heathen, with a legend or two which, if the 
 names were Christian, ran grossly wild from all
 
 60 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 Christian meaning or morality. As to the amenities, 
 nay, almost the proprieties, of life, they were less 
 known in that baronial castle than in any artisan's 
 house at Ulm. So little had the sick girl figured 
 them to herself, that she did not even desire any 
 greater means of ease than she possessed. She 
 moaned and fretted indeed, with aching limbs and 
 blank weariness, but without the slightest formed 
 desire for anything to remove her discomfort, except 
 the few ameliorations she knew, such as sitting on 
 her brother's knee, with her head on his shoulder, 
 or tasting the mountain berries that he gathered for 
 her. Any other desire she exerted herself to frame 
 was for finery to be gained from the spoils of 
 travellers. 
 
 And this was Christina's charge, whom she must 
 look upon as the least alien spirit in this dreadful 
 castle of banishment ! The young and old lords 
 seemed to her savage bandits, who frightened her 
 only less than did the proud sinister expression of the 
 old lady, for she had not even the merit of showing 
 any tenderness towards the sickly girl, of whom she 
 was ashamed, and evidently regarded the town-bred 
 attendant as a contemptible interloper. 
 
 Long, long did the maiden weep and pray that
 
 THE DOYE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 61 
 
 night after Ermentracle had sunk to sleep. She 
 strained her eyes with home-sick longings to detect 
 lights where she thought Ulni might be ; and, as she 
 thought of her uncle and aunt, the poodle and the 
 cat round the stove, the maids spinning and the 
 prentices knitting as her uncle read aloud some 
 grave good book, most probably the legend of the 
 saint of the day, and contrasted it with the rude 
 gruff sounds of revelry that found their way up the 
 turret stairs, she could hardly restrain her sobs from 
 awakening the young lady whose bed she was to 
 share. She thought almost with envy of her own 
 patroness, who was cast into the lake of Bolsena 
 with a millstone about her neck — a better fate, 
 thought she, than to live on in such an abode of 
 loathsomeness and peril. 
 
 But then had not St. Christina floated up alive, 
 bearing up her millstone with her? And had not 
 she been put into a dungeon full of venomous rep- 
 tiles who, when they approached her, had all been 
 changed to harmless doves? Christina had once 
 asked Father Balthazar how this could be ; and had 
 he not replied that the Church did not teach these 
 miracles as matters of faith, but that she might 
 there discern in figure how meek Christian holiness
 
 62 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 rose above all crushing burthens, and transformed 
 the rudest natures. This poor maiden — dying, per- 
 haps ; and oh ! how unfit to live or die ! — might it 
 be her part to do some good work by her, and infuse 
 some Christian hope, some godly fear % Could it be 
 for this that the saints had led her hither ?
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 63 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE FLOTSOM AND JETSOM OF THE DEBATEABLE 
 FORD. 
 
 Life in Scliloss Adlerstein was little less intolerable 
 than Christina's imagination had depicted it. It was 
 entirely devoid of all the graces of chivalry, and its 
 squalor and coarseness, magnified into absurdity by 
 haughtiness and violence, were almost inconceivable. 
 Fortunately for her, the inmates of the castle resided 
 almost wholly below stairs in the hall and kitchen, 
 and in some dismal dens in the thickness of their 
 walls. The height of the keep was intended for 
 dignity and defence, rather than for habitation ; and 
 the upper chamber, with its great state-bed, where 
 everybody of the house of Adlerstein was born and 
 died, was not otherwise used, except when Ermentrude. 
 unable to bear the oppressive confusion below stairs, 
 had escaped thither for quietness' sake. Xo one else 
 wished to inhabit it. The, chamber above was filled 
 with the various appliances for the defence of the
 
 64 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 castle ; and no one would have ever gone up the turret 
 stairs had not a warder been usually kept on the roof 
 to watch the roads leading to the Ford. Otherwise 
 the Adlersteiners had all the savage instinct of herd- 
 ing together in as small a space as possible. 
 
 Freiherrinn Kunigunde hardly ever mounted to her 
 daughter's chamber. All her affection was centred 
 on the strong and manly son, of whom she was 
 proud, while the sickly pining girl, who would hardly 
 find a mate of her own rank, and who had not even 
 dowry enough for a convent, was such a shame and 
 burthen to her as to be almost a distasteful object. 
 But perversely, as it seemed to her, the only daughter 
 was the darling of both father and brother, who were 
 ready to do anything to gratify the girl's sick fancies, 
 and hailed with delight her pleasure in her new 
 attendant. Old Ursel was at first rather envious and 
 contemptuous of the childish fragile stranger, but her 
 gentleness disarmed the old woman ; and, when it 
 was plain that the young lady's sufferings were greatly 
 lessened by tender care, dislike gave way to attach- 
 ment, and there was little more murmuring at the 
 menial services that were needed by the two maidens, 
 even when Ermentrude's feeble fancies, or Christina's 
 views of dainty propriety, rendered them more onerous
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 65 
 
 than before. She was even heard to rejoice that some 
 Christian care and tenderness had at last reached her 
 poor neglected child. 
 
 It was well for Christina that she had such an all}'. 
 The poor child never crept downstairs to the dinner 
 or supper, to fetch food for Ermentrude, or water for 
 herself, without a trembling and shrinking of heart 
 and nerves. Her father's authority guarded her from 
 rude actions, but from rough tongues he neither could 
 nor would guard her, nor understand that what to 
 some would have been a compliment seemed to her 
 an alarming insult ; and her chief safeguard lay in 
 her own insignificance and want of attraction, and 
 still more in the modesty that concealed her terror at 
 rude jests sufficiently to prevent frightening her from 
 becoming an entertainment. 
 
 Her father, whom she looked on as a cultivated 
 person in comparison with the rest of the world, did 
 his best for her after his own views, and gradually 
 brought her all the properties she had left at the 
 Kohler's hut. Therewith she made a great difference 
 in the aspect of the chamber, under the full sanction 
 of the lords of the castle. Wolf, deer, and sheep 
 skins abounded ; and with these, assisted by her 
 father and old Hatto, she tapestried the lower part 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 66 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 of the bare grim walls, a great bear's hide covered 
 trie neighbourhood of the hearth, and cushions 
 were made of these skins, and stuffed from Ursel's 
 stores of feathers. All these embellishments were 
 watched with great delight by Ermentrude, who had 
 never been made of so much importance, and was as 
 much surprised as relieved by such attentions. She 
 was too young and too delicate to reject civilization, 
 and she let Christina braid her hair, bathe her, and 
 arrange her dress, with sensations of comfort that 
 were almost like health. To train her into occupying 
 herself was, however, as Christina soon found, in her 
 present state, impossible. She could spin and sew a 
 little, but hated both ; and her clumsy listless fingers 
 only soiled and wasted Christina's needles, silk, and 
 lute strings, and such damage was not so easily re- 
 medied as in the streets of Ulm. She was best pro- 
 vided for when looking on at her attendant's busy 
 hands, and asking to be sung to, or to hear tales of 
 the active, busy scenes of the city life — the dresses, 
 fairs, festivals, and guild processions. 
 
 The gentle nursing and the new interests made her 
 improve in health, so that her father w 7 as delighted, 
 and Christina began to hope for a return home. 
 Sometimes the two girls would take the air, either,
 
 07 
 
 on still days, upon the battlements, where Ermen- 
 trude watched the Debateable Eord, and Christina 
 gazed at the Danube and at Ulm ; or they would 
 find their way to a grassy nook on the niountain-side, 
 where Christina gathered gentians and saxifrage, 
 trying to teach her yonng lady that they were worth 
 looking at, and sighing at the thought of Master 
 Gottfried's wreath when she met with the asphodel 
 seed-vessels. Once the quiet mule was brought into 
 requisition ; and, with her brother walking by her, 
 and Sorel and his daughter in attendance, Ermen- 
 trude rode towards the village of Adlerstein. It was 
 a collection of miserable huts, on a sheltered slope 
 towards the south, where there was earth enough to 
 grow some wretched rye and buckwheat, subject to 
 severe toll from the lord of the soil. Perched on a 
 hollow rock above the slope was a rude little church, 
 over a cave where a hermit had once lived and died 
 in such odour of sanctity that, his day happening to 
 coincide with that of St. John the Baptist, the Blessed 
 Friedmuncl had acquired the credit of the lion's share 
 both of the saint's honours and of the old solstitial 
 feast of Midsummer. This wake was the one gaiety 
 of the year, and attracted a fair which was the sole 
 occasion of coming honestly by anything from the 
 F2
 
 68 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 outer world; nor had his cell ever lacked a pro- 
 fessional anchorite. 
 
 The Freiherr of his day had been a devout man, 
 who had gone pilgrimage with Kaiser Friedrich of 
 the Bed Beard, and had brought home a bit of stone 
 from the council chamber of Nicsea, with which he 
 had presented the little church that he had built 
 over the cavern. He had named his son Friedmund ; 
 and there were dim memories of his days as of a 
 golden age, before the Wilclschlossen had carried off 
 the best of the property, and when all went well. 
 
 This was Christina's first sight of a church since 
 her arrival, except that in the chapel, which was a 
 dismal neglected vault, where a ruinous altar and 
 mouldering crucifix testified to its sacred purpose. 
 The old baron had been excommunicated for twenty 
 years, ever since he had harried the w^ains of the 
 Bishop of Augsburg on his w T ay to the Diet ; and, 
 though his household and family were not under the 
 same sentence, " Sunday didna come abune the pass." 
 Christina's entreaty obtained permission to enter the 
 little building, but she had knelt there only a few 
 moments before her father came to hurry her away, 
 and her supplications that he would some day take 
 her to mass there were whistled down the wind ; and
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S XEST. 69 
 
 indeed the hermit was a layman, and the church was 
 only served on great festivals by a nionk from the 
 convent of St. Buprecht, on the distant side of the 
 mountain, which was further supposed to be in the 
 Schlangenwald interest. Her best chance lay in in- 
 fusing the desire into Ermentrude. who by watching 
 her prayers and asking a few questions had begun to 
 acquire a few clearer ideas. And what Ermentrude 
 wished had always hitherto been acquiesced in by 
 the two lords. 
 
 The elder baron came little into Christina's way. 
 He meant to be kind to her, but she was dreadfully 
 afraid of him, and, when he came to visit his daugh- 
 ter, shrank out of his notice as much as possible, 
 shuddering most of all at his attempts at civilities. 
 His son she viewed as one of the thickwitted giants 
 meant to be food for the heroism of good knights of 
 romance. Except that he was fairly conversant with 
 the use of weapons, and had occasionally ridden 
 beyond the shadow of his own mountain, his range 
 was quite as limited as his sister's ; and he had an 
 equal scorn for all beyond it. His unfailing kindness 
 to his sister was, however, in his favour, and he 
 always eagerly followed up any suggestion Christina 
 made for her pleasure. Much of his time was spent
 
 70 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 on the child, whose chief nurse and playmate he had 
 been throughout her malady ; and when she showed 
 him the stranger's arrangements, or repeated to him, 
 in a wondering, blundering way, with constant ap- 
 peals to her attendant, the new tales she had heard, he 
 used to listen with a pleased awkward amazement at 
 his little Ermentrucle's astonishing cleverness, joined 
 sometimes with real interest, which was evinced by 
 his inquiries of Christina, He certainly did not ad- 
 mire the little slight pale bower-maiden, but he seemed 
 to look upon her like some strange, almost uncanny, 
 wise spirit out of some other sphere, and his manner 
 towards her had none of the offensive freedom ap- 
 parent in even the old man's patronage. It was, as 
 Ermentrude once said, laughing, almost as if he 
 feared that she might do something to him. 
 
 Christina had expected to see a ruffian, and had 
 found a boor ; but she was to be convinced that the 
 ruffian existed in him. Notice came up to the castle 
 of a convoy of waggons, and all was excitement. 
 Men-at-arms were mustered, horses led down the 
 Eagle's Ladder, and an ambush prepared in the 
 woods. The autumn rains were already swelling the 
 floods, and the passage of the ford would be difficult 
 enough to afford the assailants an easy prey.
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLES XEST. J I 
 
 The Freiherrinn Kunigunde herself, and all the 
 women of the castle, hurried into Ermentrude's room 
 to enjoy the view from her window. The young lady 
 herself was full of eager expectation, but she knew 
 enough of her maiden to expect no sympathy from 
 her, and loved her well enough not to bring down on 
 her her mother's attention; so Christina crept into 
 her turret, unable to withdraw her eyes from the 
 sight, trembling, weeping, praying, longing for power 
 to give a warning signal. Could they be her own 
 townsmen stopped on the way to dear Ulm ? 
 
 She could see the waggons in mid-stream, the 
 warriors on the bank ; she heard the triumphant out- 
 cries of the mother and daughter in the outer room. 
 She saw the overthrow, the struggle, the flight of a 
 few scattered dark figures on the farther side, the 
 drawing out of the goods on the nearer. Oh ! were 
 those leaping waves bearing down any good men's 
 corpses to the Danube, slain, foully slain by her own 
 father and this gang of robbers ? 
 
 She was glad that Ermentrude went down with 
 her mother to watch the return of the victors. She 
 crouched on the floor, sobbing, shuddering with grief 
 and indignation, and telling her beads alike for mur- 
 dered and murderers, till, after the sounds of welcome
 
 72 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 and exultation, she heard Sir Eberhard's heavy tread, 
 as he carried his sister upstairs. Ermentrude went 
 up at once to Christina. 
 
 " After all there was little for us ! " she said. " It 
 Avas only a wain of wine barrels ; and now will the 
 drunkards downstairs make good cheer. But Ebbo 
 could only win for me this gold chain and medal, 
 which was round the old merchant's neck." 
 
 " Was he slain ? " Christina asked with pale 
 lips. 
 
 " I only know I did not kill him," returned the 
 baron ; " I had him down and got the prize, and that 
 was enough for me. What the rest of the fellows 
 may have done, I cannot say." 
 
 " But he has brought thee something, Stina," con- 
 tinued Ermentrude. " Show it to her, brother." 
 
 " My father sends you this for your care of my 
 sister," said Eberhard, holding out a brooch that had 
 doubtless fastened the band of the unfortunate ^due- 
 merchant's bonnet. 
 
 " Thanks, sir ; but, indeed, I may not take it," said 
 Christina, turning crimson, and drawing back. 
 
 " So ! " he exclaimed, in amaze ; then bethinking 
 himself, — " They are no townsfolk of yours, but Con- 
 stance cowards."
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE S NEST. 73 
 
 " Take it, take it, Stina, or you will anger my 
 father," added Ernientrade. 
 
 " No, lady, I thank the barons both, but it were sin 
 in me," said Christina, with trembling voice. 
 
 " Look you," said Eberhard ; * we have the full 
 right — 'tis a seignorial right — to all the goods of 
 every wayfarer that may be overthrown in our river — 
 as I am a true knight ! " he added, earnestly. 
 
 " A true knight ! " repeated Christina, pushed hard, 
 and very indignant in all her terror. " The true 
 knight's part is to aid, not rob, the weak." And the 
 dark eyes flashed a vivid light. 
 
 " Christina ! " exclaimed Ermentrude, in the ex- 
 tremity of her amazement, " know you what you 
 have said ? — that Eberhard is no true knight ! " 
 
 He meanwhile stood silent, utterly taken by sur- 
 prise, and letting his little sister fight his battles. 
 
 " I cannot help it, Lady Ermentrude," said Chris- 
 tina, with trembling lips, and eyes filling with tears. 
 "You may drive me from the castle — I only long to be 
 away from it ; but I cannot stain my soul by sayin g 
 that spoil and rapine are the deeds of a true knight." 
 
 " My mother will beat you," cried Ermentrude, 
 passionately, ready to fly to the head of the stairs ; 
 but her brother laid his hand upon her.
 
 74 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE 's NEST. 
 
 " Tush, Trudclien ; keep thy tongue still, child ! 
 What does it hurt me ? " 
 
 And he turned on his heel and went downstairs. 
 Christina crept into her turret, weeping bitterly and 
 with many a wild thought. Would they visit her 
 offence on her father ? Would they turn them both 
 out together ? If so, would not her father hurl her 
 down the rocks rather than return her to Ulm; 
 Could she escape? Climb down the dizzy rocks, it 
 might be, succour the merchant lying half dead on 
 the meadows, protect and be protected, be once more 
 among God-fearing Christians ? And as she felt her 
 helplessness, the selfish thoughts passed into a gush 
 of tears for the murdered man, lying suffering there, 
 and for his possible wife and children watching for 
 him. Presently Ermentrude peeped in. 
 
 " Stina, Stina, don't cry ; I will not tell my mother I 
 Come out, and finish my kerchief ! Come out ! No 
 one shall beat you." 
 
 " That is not what I wept for, lady," said Chris- 
 tina. " I do not think you would bring harm on me. 
 But oh ! I would I were at home ! I grieve for the 
 bloodshed that I must see and may not hinder, and 
 for that poor merchant." 
 
 " Oh," said Ermentrude, " you need not fear for
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 75 
 
 him ! I saw his own folk return and lift him up. 
 But what is he to thee or to us ? " 
 
 " I am a burgher maid, lady," said Christina, re- 
 covering herself, and aware that it was of little use 
 to bear testimony to such an auditor as poor little 
 Ermentrude against the deeds of her own father and 
 brother, which had in reality the sort of sanction 
 Sir Eberhard had mentioned, much akin to those 
 coast rights that were the temptation of wreckers. 
 
 Still she could not but tremble at the thought of 
 her speech, and went clown to supper in greater 
 trepidation than usual, dreading that she should be 
 expected to thank the Freiherr for his gift. But, 
 fortunately, manners were too rare at Adlerstein for 
 any such omission to be remarkable, and the whole 
 establishment was in a state of noisy triumph and 
 merriment over the excellence of the French wine 
 they had captured, so that she slipped into her seat 
 unobserved. 
 
 Every available drinking-horn and cup was full. 
 Ermentrude was eagerly presented with draughts by 
 both father and brother, and presently Sir Eberhard 
 exclaimed, turning towards the shrinking Christina 
 with a rough laugh, " Maiden, I trow thou wilt not 
 taste ? "
 
 76 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 Christina shook her head, and framed a negative 
 with her lips. 
 
 " What's this ? " asked her father, close to whom 
 she sat. " Is't a fast-clay ? " 
 
 There was a panse. Many were present who re- 
 garded a fast-day much more than the lives or goods 
 •of their neighbours. Christina again shook her 
 head. 
 
 " No matter," said good-natured Sir Eberhard, 
 evidently wishing to avert any ill consequences 
 from her. " Tis only her loss." 
 
 The mirth went on rough and loud, and Christina 
 felt this the worst of all the miserable meals she had 
 partaken of in fear and trembling at this place of 
 her captivity. Ermentrude, too, was soon in such a 
 state of excitement, that not only was Christina's 
 womanhood bitterly ashamed and grieved for her, 
 but there was serious danger that she might at any 
 moment break, out with some allusion to her maiden's 
 recusancy in her reply to Sir Eberhard. 
 
 Presently, however, Ermentrude laid down her 
 head and began to cry — violent headache had come 
 on — and her brother took her in his arms to carry 
 her up the stairs ; but his potations had begun before 
 hers, and his step was far from steady ; he stumbled
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLES NEST. 77 
 
 more than once on the steps, shook and frightened 
 his sister, and set her down weeping petulantly. 
 And then came a more terrible moment ; his awe 
 of Christina had passed away; he swore that she 
 was a lovely maiden, with only too free a tongue, and 
 that a kiss must be the seal of her pardon. 
 
 A house full of intoxicated men, no living creature 
 who would care to protect her, scarce even her father ! 
 But extremity of terror gave her strength. She 
 spoke resolutely — 
 
 "Sir Eberhard, your sister is ill — you are in no 
 state to be here. Go down at once, nor insult a free 
 maiden." 
 
 Probably the low-toned softness of the voice, so 
 utterly different from the shrill wrangling notes of 
 all the other women he had known, took him by 
 surprise. He was still sober enough to be subdued, 
 almost cowed, by resistance of a description unlike 
 all j he had ever seen ; his alarm at Christina's 
 superior power returned in full force, he staggered 
 to the stairs, Christina rushed after him, closed the 
 heavy door with all her force, fastened it inside, and 
 would have sunk down to weep but for Ermentrude's 
 peevish wail of distress. 
 
 Happily Ermentrude was still a child, and, neg- 

 
 78 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 lected as she had been, she still had had no one to 
 make her precocious in matters of this kind. She 
 was quite willing to take Christina's view of the 
 case, and not resent the exclusion of her brother ; 
 indeed, she was unwell enough to dread the loudness 
 of his voice and rudeness of his revelry. 
 
 So the door remained shut, and Christina's resolve 
 was taken that she would so keep it while the wine 
 lasted. And, indeed, Ermentrude had so much fever 
 all that night and the next day that no going down 
 could be thought of. Nobody came near the maidens 
 but Ursel, and she described one continued orgie that 
 made Christina shudder again with fear and disgust. 
 Those below revelled without interval, except for 
 sleep ; and they took their sleep just where they 
 happened to sink down, then returned again to the 
 liquor. The old baroness repaired to the kitchen 
 when the revelry went beyond even her bearing ; 
 but all the time the vine held out, the swine in the 
 court were, as Ursel averred, better company than 
 the men in the hall. Yet there might have been 
 worse even than this ; for old Ursel whispered that 
 at the bottom of the stairs there was a trap-door. 
 Did the maiden know what it covered ? It was an 
 oubliette. There was once a Strasburg armourer
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 79 
 
 who had refused ransom, and talked of appealing to 
 
 the Kaisar. He trod on that door and Ursel 
 
 pointed downwards. "But since that time/' she 
 said, " my young lord has never brought home a 
 prisoner." 
 
 No wonder that all this time Christina cowered at 
 the discordant sounds below, trembled, and prayed 
 while she waited on her poor young charge, who 
 tossed and moaned in fever and suffering. She was 
 still far from recovered when the materials of the 
 debauch failed, and the household began to return to 
 its usual state. She was soon restlessly pining for 
 her brother; and when her father came up to see 
 her, received him with scant welcome, and entreaties 
 for Ebbo. She knew she should be better if she 
 might only sit on his knee, and lay her head on his 
 shoulder. The old Ereiherr offered to accommodate 
 her ; but she rejected him petulantly, and still called 
 for Ebbo, till he went down, promising that her 
 brother should come. 
 
 With a fluttering heart Christina awaited the 
 noble whom she had perhaps insulted, and whose 
 advances had more certainly insulted her. \Vould 
 he visit her with his anger, or return to that more 
 offensive familiarity? She longed to flee out of
 
 80 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 sight, when, after a long interval, his heavy tread 
 was heard ; but she could not even take refuge in 
 her turret, for Ermentrude was leaning against her. 
 Somehow, the step was less assured than usual ; he 
 absolutely knocked at the door ; and, when he came 
 in, he acknowledged her by a slight inclination of 
 the head. If she only had known it, this was the 
 first time that head had ever been bent to any being, 
 human or Divine ; but all she did perceive was that 
 Sir Eberhard was in neither of the moods she 
 dreaded, only desperately shy and sheepish, and ex- 
 tremely ashamed, not indeed of his excess, which 
 would have been, even to a much tamer German 
 baron, only a happy accident, but of what had passed 
 between himself and her. 
 
 He was much grieved to perceive how much 
 ground Ermentrude had lost, and gave himself up 
 to fondling and comforting her ; and in a few days 
 more, in their common cares for the sister, Christina 
 lost her newly-acquired horror of the brother, and 
 could not but be grateful for his forbearance ; while 
 she was almost entertained by the increased awe of 
 herself shown by this huge robber baron.
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE' S NEST. 81 
 
 CHAPTEK IV. 
 
 SNOW-WREATHS WHEN 'TIS THAW. 
 
 Ermentrude had by no means recovered the 
 ground she had lost, before the winter set in; and 
 blinding snow came drifting down day and night, 
 rendering the whole view, above and below, one 
 expanse of white, only broken by the peaks of rock 
 which were too steep to sustain the snow. The 
 waterfall lengthened its icicles daily, and the whole 
 court was heaped with snow, up even to the top 
 of the high steps to the hall; and thus, Christina 
 was told, would it continue all the winter. What 
 had previously seemed to her a strangely door-like 
 window above the porch now became the only mode 
 of egress, when the barons went out bear or wolf- 
 hunting, or the younger took his crossbow and 
 hound to provide the wild-fowl, which, under Chris- 
 tina's skilful hands, would tempt the feeble appetite 
 of Ermentrude when she was utterly unable to touch 
 the salted meats and sausages of the household. 
 
 vol. I. G
 
 82 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE' S NEST. 
 
 In spite of all endeavours to guard the windows 
 and keep up the fire, the cold withered the poor 
 child like a fading leaf, and she needed more and 
 more of tenderness and amusement to distract her 
 attention from her ailments. Christina's resources 
 were unfailing. Out of the softer pine and birch 
 woods provided for the fire, she carved a set of 
 draughtsmen, and made a board by ruling squares 
 on the end of a settle, and painting the alternate 
 ones with a compound of oil and charcoal. Even 
 the old baron was delighted with this contrivance, 
 and the pleasure it gave his daughter. He remem- 
 bered playing at draughts in that portion of his 
 youth which had been a shade more polished, and 
 he felt as if the game were making Ermentrude 
 more like a lady. Christina was encouraged to 
 proceed with a set of chessmen, and the shaping 
 of their characteristic heads under her dexterous 
 fingers was watched by Ermentrude like something 
 magical. Indeed, the young lady entertained the 
 belief that there was no limit to her attendant's 
 knowledge or capacity. 
 
 Truly there was a greater brightness and clearness 
 beginning to dawn even upon poor little Ermen- 
 trude's own dull mind. She took more interest in
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 83 
 
 everything : songs were not solely lullabies, but she 
 cared to talk them over ; tales to which she would 
 once have been incapable of paying attention were 
 eagerly sought after; and, above all, the spiritual 
 vacancy that her mind had hitherto presented was 
 beginning to be filled up. Christina had brought 
 her own books — a library of extraordinary extent 
 for a maiden of the fifteenth century, but which she 
 owed to her uncle's connexion with the arts of wood- 
 cutting and printing. A Vulgate from Dr. Faustus's 
 own press, a mass book and breviary, Thomas 
 a Kempis's " Imitation/' and the " Nurernburg 
 Chronicle" all in Latin, and the poetry of the 
 gentle Minnesinger and bird lover, Walther von 
 Vogelweide, in the vernacular : these were her stock, 
 which Hausfrau Johanna had viewed as a foolish 
 encumbrance, and Hugh Sorel would never have 
 transported to the castle unless they had been so 
 well concealed in Christina's kirtles that he had 
 taken them for parts of her wardrobe. 
 
 Most precious were they now, when, out of the 
 reach of all teaching save her own, she had to infuse 
 into the sinking girl's mind the great mysteries of 
 life and death, that so she might not leave the world 
 without more hope or faith than her heathen fore- 
 g2
 
 84 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 fathers. For that Ermentrude would live Christina 
 had never hoped, since that fleeting improvement 
 had been cut short by the fever of the wine-cup ; 
 the look, voice, and tone had become so completely 
 the same as those of Eegina Grundt's little sister 
 who had pined and died. She knew she could not 
 cure, but she could, she felt she could, comfort, 
 cheer, and soften, and she no longer repined at her 
 enforced sojourn at Adlerstein. She heartily loved 
 her charge, and could not bear to think how desolate 
 Ermentrude would be without her. And now the 
 poor girl had become responsive to her care. She 
 was infinitely softened in manner, and treated her 
 parents with forms of respect new to them ; she had 
 learnt even to thank old Ursel, dropped her im- 
 perious tone, and struggled with her petulance ; 
 and, towards her brother, the domineering uncouth 
 adherence was becoming real tender affection ; while 
 the dependent, reverent love she bestowed upon 
 Christina was touching and endearing in the ex- 
 treme. 
 
 Ereiherr von Adlerstein saw the change, and con- 
 gratulated himself on the effect of having a town- 
 bred bower woman ; nay, spoke of the advantage it 
 would be to his daughter, if lie could persuade
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLES NEST. 85 
 
 himself to make the submission to the Kaiser 
 which the late improvements decided on at the 
 Diet were rendering more and more inevitable. 
 Novj how happy would be the winner of his gentle 
 Ermentrude ! 
 
 Freiherrinn von Adlerstein thought the alteration 
 the mere change from child to woman, and felt in- 
 sulted by the supposition that any one might not 
 have been proud to match with a daughter of Adler- 
 stein, be she what she might. As to submission to 
 the Kaiser, that was mere folly and weakness — 
 kaisers, kings, dukes, and counts had broken their 
 teeth against the rock of Adlerstein before now ! 
 What had come over her husband and her son to 
 make them cravens ? 
 
 For Freiherr Eberhard was more strongly con- 
 vinced than was his father of the untenableness of 
 their present position. Hugh Sorel's reports of what 
 he heard at Ulm had shown that the league that 
 had been discussed at Eegensburg was far more for- 
 midable than anything that had ever previously 
 threatened Schloss Adlerstein, and that if the Graf 
 von Schlangenwald joined in the coalition, there 
 would be private malice to direct its efforts against 
 the . Adlerstein family. Feud-letters or challenges
 
 86 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 had been made unlawful for ten years, and was not 
 Adlerstein at feud with the world ? 
 
 Nor did Eberhard look on the submission with the 
 sullen rage and grief that his father felt in bringing 
 himself to such a declension from the pride of his 
 ancestors. What the young baron heard upstairs 
 was awakening in him a sense of the poorness and 
 narrowness of his present life. Ermentrude never 
 spared him what interested her; and, partly from 
 her lips, partly through her appeals to her attendant, 
 he had learnt that life had better things to offer than 
 independence on these bare rocks, and that homage 
 might open the way to higher and worthier exploits 
 than preying upon overturned waggons. 
 
 Dietrich of Berne and his two ancestors, whose 
 lengthy legend Christina could sing in a low soft 
 recitative, were revelations to him of what she 
 meant by a true knight — the lion in war, the lamb 
 in peace ; the quaint oft-repeated portraits, and still 
 quainter cities, of the " Chronicle," with her explana- 
 tions and translations, opened his mind to aspirations 
 for intercourse with his fellows, for an honourable 
 name, and for esteem in its degree such as was paid 
 to Sir Parzival, to Karl the Great, or to Eodolf of 
 Hapsburgh, once a mountain lord like himself. Nay,
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 87 
 
 as Ernientrude said, stroking his cheek, and smooth- 
 ing the flaxen beard, that somehow had become much 
 less rough and tangled than it used to be, "Some 
 day wilt thou be another Good Ereiherr Eberhard, 
 whom all the country-side loved, and who gave 
 bread at the castle-gate to all that hungered." 
 
 Her brother believed nothing of her slow declen- 
 sion in strength, ascribing all the change he saw to 
 the bitter cold, and seeing but little even of that 
 alteration, though he spent many hours in her room, 
 holding her in his arms, amusing her, or talking to 
 her and to Christina. All Christina's fear of him 
 was gone. As long as there was no liquor in the 
 house, and he was his true self, she felt him to be 
 a kind friend, bound to her by strong sympathy in 
 the love and care for his sister. She could talk 
 almost as freely before him as when alone with her 
 young lady ; and as Ermentrude's religious feelings 
 grew stronger, and were freely expressed to him, 
 surely his attention was not merely kindness and 
 patience with the sufferer. 
 
 The girl's soul ripened rapidly under the new in- 
 fluences during her bodily decay ; and, as the days 
 lengthened, and the stern hold of winter relaxed 
 upon the mountains, Christina looked with strange
 
 88 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 admiration upon the expression that had dawned 
 upon the features once so vacant and dull, and 
 listened with the more depth of reverence to the 
 sweet words of faith, hope, and love, because she 
 felt that a higher, deeper teaching than she could 
 give must have come to mould the spirit for the new 
 world to which it was hastening. 
 
 1 ' Like an army defeated, 
 The snow had retreated," 
 
 out of the valley, whose rich green shone smiling 
 round the pool into which the Debateable Ford 
 spread. The waterfall had burst its icy bonds, and 
 dashed down with redoubled voice, roaring rather than 
 babbling. Blue and pink hepaticas — or, as Christina 
 called them, liver-krauts — had pushed up their starry 
 heads, and had even been gathered by Sir Eberhard, 
 and laid on his sister's pillow. The dark peaks of 
 rock came out all glistening with moisture, and the 
 snow only retained possession of the deep hollows 
 and crevices, into which, however, its retreat was far 
 more graceful than when, in the city, it was trodden 
 by horse and man, and soiled with smoke. 
 
 Christina dreaded, indeed, that the roads should 
 be open, but she could not love the snow ; it spoke
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S XEST. 80- 
 
 to her of dreariness, savagery, and captivity, and she 
 watched the dwindling stripes with satisfaction, and 
 hailed the fall of the petty avalanches from one 
 Eagle's Step to another as her forefathers might have 
 rejoiced in the defeat of the Frost giants. 
 
 But Ermentrnde had a love for the white sheet 
 that lay covering a gorge running np from the ravine. 
 She watched its diminution day by day with a fancy 
 that she was melting away with it ; and, indeed, it 
 was on the very day that a succession of drifting 
 showers had left the sheet alone, and separated it 
 from the masses of white above, that it first full}' 
 dawned upon the rest of the family that, for the little 
 daughter of the house, spring was only bringing 
 languor and sinking instead of recovery. 
 
 Then it was that Sir Eberhard first really listened 
 to her entreaty that she might not die without a 
 priest, and comforted her by passing his word to her 
 that, if — he would not say when — the time drew 
 near, he would bring her one of the priests who had 
 only come from St. Euprecht's cloister on great days, 
 by a sort of sufferance, to say mass at the Blessed 
 Eriedmund's hermitage chapel. 
 
 The time was slow in coming. Easter had passed 
 with Ermentrude far too ill for Christina to make
 
 90 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 the effort she had intended of going to the church, 
 even if she could get no escort but old Ursel — the 
 sheet of snow had dwindled to a mere wreath — the 
 ford looked blue in the sunshine — the cascade tinkled 
 merrily down its rock — mountain primroses peeped 
 out, when, as Father Norbert came forth from saying 
 his ill-attended Pentecostal mass, and was parting with 
 the infirm peasant hermit, a tall figure strode up the 
 pass, and, as the villagers fell back to make way, 
 stood before the startled priest, and said, in a voice 
 choked with grief, " Come with me." 
 
 " Who needs me V began the astonished monk. 
 
 "Follow him not, father!" whispered the hermit. 
 " It is the young Freiherr. — have mercy on him, 
 gracious sir ; he has done your noble lordships no 
 wrong." 
 
 " I mean him no ill," replied Eberhard, clearing 
 his voice with difficulty ; " I would but have him do 
 his office. Art thou afraid, priest?" 
 
 "Who needs my office?" demanded Father ETor- 
 bert. " Show me fit cause, and what should I dread ? 
 Wherefore dost thou seek me ?" 
 
 " For my sister," replied Eberhard, his voice 
 thickening again. " My little sister lies at the point 
 of death, and I have sworn to her that a priest she
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S XEST. 91 
 
 shall have. \Yilt thou come, or shall I drag thee 
 down the pass?" 
 
 " I come, I come with all my heart, sir knight/' 
 was the ready response. "A few moments and I 
 am at your bidding." 
 
 He stepped back into the hermit's cave, whence a 
 stair led up to the chapel. The anchorite followed 
 him, whispering — " Good father, escape ! There 
 will be full time ere he misses you. The north door 
 leads to the Gemsbock's Pass ; it is open now." 
 
 " AYhy should I baulk him ? Why should I deny 
 my office to the dying V* said JSorbert. 
 
 " Alas ! holy father, thou art new to this country, 
 and know'st not these men of blood ! It is a snare 
 to make the convent ransom thee, if not worse. 
 The Freilierrinn is a fiend for malice, and the Freiherr 
 is excommunicate." 
 
 " I know it,"my son," said ISTorbert ; " but wherefore 
 should their child perish unassoilzied?" 
 
 " Art coming, priest ?" shouted Eberhard, from his 
 stand at the mouth of the cave. 
 
 And, as Xorbert at once appeared with the pyx 
 and other appliances that he had gone to fetch, the 
 Freiherr held out his hand with an offer to "carry 
 his gear for him ;" and, when the monk refused,
 
 92 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 with, an inward shudder at entrusting a sacred 
 charge to such unhallowed hands, replied, " You will 
 have work enow, for both hands ere the castle is 
 reached." 
 
 But Father Norbert was by birth a sturdy Switzer, 
 and thought little of these Swabian Alps ; and he 
 climbed after his guide through the most rugged 
 passages of Eberhard's shortest and most perpen- 
 dicular cut without a moment's hesitation, and with 
 agility worthy of a chamois. The young baron 
 turned for a moment, when the level of the castle 
 had been gained, perhaps to see whether he were 
 following, but at the same time came to a sudden 
 speechless pause. 
 
 On the white masses of vapour that floated on the 
 opposite side of the mountain was traced a gigantic 
 shadowy outline of a hermit, with head bent eagerly 
 forward, and arm outstretched. 
 
 The monk crossed himself. Eberhard stood still 
 for a moment, and then said, hoarsely, — " The Blessed 
 Friedmund ! He is come for her ;" then strode on 
 towards the postern gate, followed by Brother Nor- 
 bert, a good deal reassured both as to the genuine- 
 ness of the young baron's message and the probable 
 condition of the object of his journey, since the
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S XEST. 93 
 
 patron saint of her race was evidently on the watch 
 to speed her departing spirit. 
 
 Sir Eberhard led the way up the turret stairs to 
 the open door, and the monk entered the death- 
 chamber. The elder baron sat near the fire in the 
 large wooden chair, half-turned towards his daugh- 
 ter, as one who must needs be present, but with his 
 face buried in his hands, unable to endure the spec- 
 tacle. Nearer was the tall form of his wife, standing 
 near the foot of the bed, her stern, harsh features 
 somewhat softened by the feelings of the moment. 
 Ursel waited at hand, with tears running down her 
 furrowed cheeks. 
 
 For such as these Father Norbert was prepared; 
 but he little expected to meet so pure and sweet 
 a gaze of reverential welcome as beamed on him 
 from the soft dark eyes of the little white-cheeked 
 maiden who sat on the bed, holding the sufferer in 
 her arms. Still less had he anticipated the serene 
 blessedness that sat on the wasted features of the 
 dying girl, amid all the anguish of labouring breath. 
 
 She smiled a smile of joy, held up her hand, and 
 thanked her brother. Her father scarcely lifted his 
 head, her mother made a rigid curtsey, and with a 
 grim look of sorrow coming over her features, laid
 
 94 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 her hand over the old Baron's shoulder. " Come 
 away, Herr Vater," she said ; " he is going to hear 
 her confession, and make her too holy for the like 
 of ns to touch." 
 
 The old man rose up, and stepped towards his 
 child. Ermentrude held out her arms to him, and 
 murmured — 
 
 ** Father, father, pardon me ; I would have been 
 
 a better daughter if I had only known " He 
 
 gathered her in his arms ; he was quite past speak- 
 ing; and they only heard his heavy breathing, and 
 one more whisper from Ermentrude — " And oh ! 
 father, one day wilt thou seek to be absolved ? " 
 Whether he answered or not they knew not ; he 
 only gave her repeated kisses, and laid her down on 
 her pillows, then rushed to the door, and the pas- 
 sionate sobs of the strong man's uncontrolled nature 
 might be heard upon the stair. The parting with 
 the others was not necessarily so complete, as they 
 were not, like him, under censure of the Church; 
 but Kuniguncle leant down to kiss her; and, in 
 return to her repetition of her entreaty for pardon, 
 replied, " Thou hast it, child, if it will ease thy 
 mind ; but it is all along of these new fancies that 
 ever an Adlerstein thought of pardon. There, there,
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S XEST. 95 
 
 I blame thee not, poor maid ; if thou wert to die, it 
 may be even best as it is. Now must I to thy 
 father ; he is troubled enough about this gear." 
 
 But when Eberhard moved towards his sister, she 
 turned to the priest, and said, imploringly, " Not far, 
 not far ! Oh ! let them," pointing to Eberhard and 
 Christina, " let them not be quite out of sight ! " 
 
 " Out of hearing is all that is needed, daughter," 
 replied the priest ; and Ermentrucle looked content 
 as Christina moved towards the empty north turret, 
 where, with the door open, she was in full view, 
 and Eberhard followed her thither. It was indeed 
 fully out of ear-shot of the child's faint, gasping, 
 confession. Gravely and sadly both stood there. 
 Christina looked up the hill-side for the snow- 
 wreath. The May sunshine had dissolved it ; the 
 green pass lay sparkling without a vestige of its 
 white coating. Her eyes full of tears, she pointed 
 the spot out to Eberhard. He understood ; but, 
 leaning towards her, told, under his breath, of the 
 phantom he had seen. Her eyes expanded with awe of 
 the supernatural. " It was the Blessed Friedmund," 
 said Eberhard. "Never hath he so greeted one of 
 our race since the pious Freiherrinn Hildegarde. 
 Maiden, hast thou brought us back a blessing ? "
 
 96 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 " All ! well may she be blessed — well may the 
 saints stoop to greet her," murmured Christina, 
 with strangled voice, scarcely able to control her 
 sobs. 
 
 Father Norbert came towards them. The simple 
 confession had been heard, and he sought the aid 
 of Christina in performing the last rites of the 
 Church. 
 
 " Maiden," he said to her, " thou hast done a 
 great and blessed work, such as many a priest might 
 envy thee." i 
 
 Eberhard was not excluded during the final ser- 
 vices by which the soul was to be dismissed from 
 its earthly dwelling-place. True, he comprehended 
 little of their import, and nothing of the words, 
 but he gazed meekly, with uncovered head, and a 
 bewildered look of sadness, while Christina made her 
 responses and took her part with full intelligence and 
 deep fervour, sorrowing indeed for the companion 
 who had become so dear to her, but deeply thankful 
 for the spiritual consolation that had come at last. 
 Ermentrude lay calm, and, as it were, already rapt 
 into a higher world, lighting up at the German 
 portions of the service, and not wholly devoid of 
 comprehension of the spirit even of the Latin, as,
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 97 
 
 indeed, she had come to the border of the region 
 where human tongues and languages are no more. 
 
 She was all but gone when the rite of extreme 
 unction was completed, and they could only stand 
 round her, Eberhard, Christina, Ursel, and the old 
 baroness, who had returned again, watching the last 
 flutterings of the breath, the window thrown wide 
 open that nothing might impede the passage of the 
 soul to the blue vault above. 
 
 The priest spoke the beautiful commendation, 
 '•'Depart, Christian soul." There was a faint 
 gesture in the midst for Christina to lift her in her 
 arms — a sign to bend down and kiss her brow — but 
 her last look was for her brother, her last murmur, 
 u Come after me ; be the Good Baron Ebbo." 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST, 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE YOUNG FEEIHEPJt. 
 
 Ermentpxde vox Adlee stein slept with her fore- 
 fathers in the vaults of the hermitage chapel, and 
 Christina Sorel's work was done. 
 
 Surely it was time for her to return home, though 
 she should be more sorry to leave the mountain 
 castle than she could ever have believed possible. 
 She entreated her father to take her home, but she 
 received a sharp answer that she did not know what 
 she was talking of : the Schlangenwald Eeitern were 
 besetting all the roads ; and, moreover, the Ulm 
 burghers had taken the capture of the Constance 
 wine in such dudgeon that for a retainer of Acller- 
 stein to show himself in the streets would be an 
 absolute asking for the wheel. 
 
 But was there any hope for her? Could he not 
 take her to some nunnery midway, and let her write 
 to her uncle to fetch her from thence ?
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 99 
 
 He swore at woman's pertinacity, but allowed at 
 last that if the plan, talked of by the Barons, of 
 going to make their submission to the Emperor at 
 Linz, with a view to which all violence at the ford 
 had ceased, should hold good, it might be' possible 
 thus to drop her on their way. 
 
 With this Christina must needs content herself. 
 Poor child, not only had Ermentrude's death deprived 
 her of the sole object of her residence at Schloss 
 Adlerstein, but it had infinitely increased the diffi- 
 culties of her position. Xo one interfered with her 
 possession of the upper room and its turrets ; and 
 it was only at meal times that she was obliged to 
 mingle with the other inhabitants, who, for the most 
 part, absolutely overlooked the little shrinking pale 
 maiden : but with one exception, and that the most 
 perplexing of all. She had been on terms with 
 Ereiherr Eberhard that were not so easily broken 
 off as if she had been an old woman of Ursel's age. 
 All through his sister's decline she had been his 
 comforter, assistant, director, living in intercourse 
 and sympathy that ought surely to cease when she 
 was no longer his sister's attendant, yet which must 
 be more than ever missed in the full freshness of 
 the stroke. 
 
 H 2
 
 100 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLES NEST. 
 
 Even on the earliest day of bereavement, a sudden 
 thought of Hausfrau Johanna flashed upon Christina, 
 and reminded her of the guard she must keep over 
 herself if she would return to Ulm the same modest 
 girl whom her aunt could acquit of all indiscretion. 
 Her cheeks flamed, as she sat alone, with the very 
 thought, and the next time she heard the well- 
 known tread on the stair, she fled hastily into her 
 own turret chamber, and shut the door. Her heart 
 beat fast. She could hear Sir Eberhard moving 
 about the room, and listened to his heavy sigh as 
 lie threw himself into the large chair. Presently 
 lie called her by name, and she felt it needful to 
 open her door and answer, respectfully, 
 
 " What would you, my lord ? " 
 
 " What would I ? A little peace, and heed to her 
 who is gone. To see my father and mother one 
 would think that a partridge had but flown away. 
 I have seen my father more sorrowful when his 
 dog had fallen over the abyss." 
 
 "Mayhap there is more sorrow for a brute that 
 cannot live again," said Christina. " Our bird has 
 her nest by an Altar that is lovelier and brighter 
 than even our Dome Kirk will ever be." 
 
 " Sit down, Christina," he said, dragging a chair
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 101 
 
 nearer the hearth. " My heart is sore, and I cannot 
 bear the din below. Tell me where my bird is 
 flown." 
 
 " Ah ! sir ; pardon me. I must to the kitchen," 
 said Christina, crossing her hands over her breast, 
 to still her trembling heart, for she was very sorry 
 for his grief, but moving resolutely. 
 
 "Must? And wherefore? Thou hast nought to 
 do there ; speak truth ! Why not stay with me ? " 
 as his great light eyes opened wide. 
 
 " A burgher maid may not sit down with a noble 
 baron." 
 
 " The devil ! Has my mother been plaguing thee, 
 child?" 
 
 11 No, my lord," said Christina, " she recks not of 
 me ; but " — steadying her voice with great difficulty 
 — " it behoves me the more to be discreet." 
 
 " And you would not have me come here I " he 
 said, with a wistful tone of reproach. 
 
 "I have no power to forbid you; but if you do, 
 I must betake me to Ursel in the kitchen," said 
 Christina, very low, trembling and half choked. 
 
 "Among the rude wenches there!" he cried, 
 starting up. " Nay, nay, that shall not be ! Kather 
 will I go. But this is very cruel of thee, maiden,"
 
 102 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 he added, lingering, " when I give thee my knightly 
 word that all should be as when she whom we both 
 loved was here," and his voice shook. 
 
 " It could not so be, my lord," returned Christina, 
 with drooping, blushing face ; " it would not be 
 maidenly in me. 0, my lord, you are kind and 
 generous, make it not hard for me to do what other 
 maidens less lonely have friends to do for them ! " 
 
 " Kind and generous ? " said Eberhard, leaning 
 over the back of the chair as if trying to begin 
 a fresh score. " This from you, who told me once 
 I was no true knight ! " 
 
 " I shall call you a true knight with all my 
 heart," cried Christina — the tears rushing into her 
 eyes, " if you will respect my weakness and lone- 
 liness." 
 
 He stood up again, as if to move away; then 
 paused, and, twisting his gold chain, said, " And 
 how am I ever to be what the happy one bade 
 me, if you will not show me how ? " 
 
 " My error would never show you the right," said 
 Christina, with a strong effort at firmness, and 
 retreating at once through the door of the staircase, 
 whence she made her way to the kitchen, and with 
 great difficulty found an excuse for her presence there.
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S XEST. 103 
 
 It had been a hard struggle with her compassion 
 and gratitude, and, poor little Christina felt with 
 dismay, with something more than these. Else why 
 was it that, even while principle and better sense 
 summoned her back to Ulm, she experienced a 
 deadly weariness of the city-pent air, of the grave 
 heavy roll of the river, nay, even of the quiet, well- 
 regulated household ? Why did such a marriage as 
 she had thought her natural destiny, with some 
 worthy kind-hearted brother of the guild, become so 
 hateful to her that she could only aspire to a convent 
 life ? This same burgomaster would be an estimable 
 man, no doubt, and those around her were ruffians, 
 but she felt utterly contemptuous and impatient of 
 him. And why was the interchange of greetings, 
 the few words at meals, worth all the rest of the 
 day beside to her ? Her own heart was the traitor, 
 and to her own sensations the poor little thing had, 
 in spirit at least, transgressed all Aunt Johanna's 
 precepts against young barons. She wept apart, and 
 resolved, and prayed, cruelly ashamed of every start 
 of joy or pain that the sight of Eberhard cost her. 
 From almost the first he had sat next her at the 
 single table that accommodated the whole household 
 at meals, and the custom continued, though on some
 
 104 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 days lie treated her with sullen silence, which she 
 blamed herself for not rejoicing in, sometimes he 
 spoke a few friendly words ; but he observed, better 
 than she could have dared to expect, her test of his 
 true knighthood, and never again forced himself into 
 her apartment, though now and then he came to the 
 door with flowers, with mountain strawberries, and 
 once with two young doves. " Take them, Christina," 
 he said, " they are very like yourself;" and he always 
 delayed so long that she was forced to be resolute, 
 and shut the door on him at last. 
 
 Once, when there was to be a mass at the chapel, 
 Hugh Sorel, between a smile and a growl, informed 
 his daughter that he would take her thereto. She 
 gladly prepared, and, bent on making herself agree- 
 able to her father, did not once press on him the 
 necessity of her return to Ulm. To her amazement 
 and pleasure, the young baron was at church, and 
 when, on the way home, he walked beside her mule, 
 she could see no need of sending him away. 
 
 He had been in no school of the conventionalities 
 of life, and, when he saw that Hugh Sorel's presence 
 had obtained him this favour, he wistfully asked, 
 " Christina, if I bring your father with me, will you 
 not let me in?"
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S XEST. 105 
 
 " Entreat me not, my lord/' she answered, with 
 fluttering breath. 
 
 She felt the more that she was right in this 
 decision, when she encountered her father's broad 
 grin of surprise and diversion, at seeing the young 
 baron help her to dismount. It was a look of 
 receiving an idea both new, comical, and flattering, 
 but by no means the look of a father who would 
 resent the indignity of attentions to his daughter 
 from a man whose rank formed an insuperable 
 barrier to marriage. 
 
 The effect was a new, urgent, and most piteous 
 entreaty, that he would find means of sending her 
 home. It brought upon her the hearing put into 
 words what her own feelings had long shrunk from 
 confessing to hersel£ 
 
 " Ha ! Why, what now ? What, is the young 
 baron after thee ? Ha ! ha ! petticoats are few enough 
 up here, but he must have been ill off ere he took to 
 a little ghost like thee ! I saw he was moping and 
 doleful, but I thought it was all for his sister." 
 
 " And so it is, father." 
 
 " Tell me that, when he watches every turn of that 
 dark eye of thine — the only good thing thou took'st 
 of mine ! Thou art a witch, Stina."
 
 106 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 " Hush, oil hush, for pity's sake, father, and let me 
 go home !" 
 
 u What, thou likest him not \ Tliy mind is all 
 for the mincing goldsmith opposite, as I ever told 
 thee." 
 
 " My mind is — is to return to my uncle and aunt 
 the true-hearted maiden they parted with," said 
 Christina, with clasped hands. " And oh, father, as 
 you were the son of a true and faithful mother, be 
 a father to me now ! Jeer not your motherless child, 
 but protect her and help her." 
 
 Hugh Sorel was touched by this appeal, and he 
 likewise recollected how much it was for his own 
 interest that his brother should be satisfied with the 
 care he took of his daughter. He became convinced 
 that the sooner she was out of the castle the better, 
 and at length bethought him that, among the mer- 
 chants who frequented the Midsummer fair at the 
 Blessed Friedmund's Wake, a safe escort might be 
 found to convey her back to Ulm. 
 
 If the truth were known, Hugh Sorel was not 
 devoid of a certain feeling akin to contempt, both for 
 his young master's taste, and for his forbearance in 
 not having pushed matters further with a being so 
 helpless, meek, and timid as Christina, more espe-
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE' S XEST. 107 
 
 cially as such slackness had not been his wont in 
 other cases where his fancy had been caught. 
 
 But Sorel did not understand that it was not 
 physical beauty that here had been the attraction, 
 though, to some persons, the sweet pensive eyes, the 
 delicate pure skin, the slight tender form, might seem 
 to exceed in loveliness the fully developed animal 
 comeliness chiefly esteemed at Adlerstein. It was 
 rather the strangeness of the power and purity of 
 this timid, fragile creature, that had struck the 
 young noble. With all their brutal manners, reve- 
 rence for a lofty female nature had been in the 
 German character ever since their Yelleda pro- 
 phesied to them, and this reverence in Eberhard 
 bowed at the feet of the pure gentle maiden, so 
 strong yet so weak, so wistful and entreating even 
 in her resolution, refined as a white flower on a heap 
 of refuse, wise and dextrous beyond his slow and 
 didl conception, and the first being in whom he had 
 ever seen piety or goodness ; and likewise with a 
 tender, loving spirit of consolation such as he had 
 both beheld and tasted by his sister's, deathbed. 
 
 There was almost a fear mingled with his reverence. 
 If he had been more familiar with the saints, he 
 would thus have regarded the holy virgin martyrs,
 
 108 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 nay, even Our Lady herself; and lie durst not push 
 her so hard as to offend her, and excite the anger or 
 the grief that he alike dreaded. He was wretched 
 and forlorn without the resources he had found in 
 his sister's room ; the new and better cravings of his 
 higher nature had been excited only to remain unsup- 
 plied and disappointed ; and the affectionate heart in 
 the freshness of its sorrow yearned for the comfort that 
 such conversation had supplied : but the impression 
 that had been made on him was still such, that he 
 knew that to use rough means of pressing his wishes 
 would no more lead to his real gratification than it 
 would to appropriate a snow-bell by crushing it in 
 his gauntlet. 
 
 And it was on feeble little Christina, yielding in 
 heart., though not in will, that it depended to preserve 
 this reverence, and return unscathed from this castle, 
 more perilous now than ever.
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 109 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 THE BLESSED FREIDMUND'S WAKE. 
 
 Midsummer-day arrived, and the village of Adler- 
 stein presented a most unusual spectacle. The wake 
 was the occasion of a grand fair for all the mountain 
 side, and it was an understood thing that the Barons, 
 instead of molesting the pedlars, merchants, and 
 others who attended it, contented themselves with 
 demanding a toll from every one who passed the 
 Kohler's hut on the one side, or the Gemshock's 
 Pass on the other ; and this toll, being the only coin 
 by which they came honestly in the course of the 
 year, was regarded as a certainty and highly valued. 
 Moreover, it was the only time that any purchases 
 could be made, and the flotsam of the Ford did not 
 always include all even of the few requirements of 
 the inmates of the castle ; it was the only holiday, 
 sacred or secular, that ever gladdened the Eagle's 
 Pock.
 
 110 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 So all the inmates of the castle prepared to enjoy 
 themselves, except the heads of the house. The 
 Freiherr had never been at one of these wakes since 
 the first after he was excommunicated, when he 
 had stalked round to show his indifference to the 
 sentence; and the Freiherrinn snarled out such 
 sentences of disdain towards the concourse, that 
 it might be supposed that she hated the sight of 
 her kind; but Ursel had all the household purchases 
 to make, and the kitchen underlings were to take 
 turns to go and come, as indeed were the men-at- 
 arms, who were set to watch the toll-bars. 
 
 Christina had packed up a small bundle, for the 
 chance of being unable to return to the castle with- 
 out missing her escort, though she hoped that the 
 fair might last two days, and that she should thus 
 be enabled to return and bring away the rest of her 
 property. She was more and more resolved on 
 going, but her heart was less and less inclined to 
 departure. And bitter had been her weeping through 
 all the early light hours of the long morning — weep- 
 ing that she tried to think was all for Ermentrude ; 
 and ail, amid prayers she could scarce trust herself 
 to offer, that the generous kindly nature might yet 
 work free of these evil surroundings, and fulfil the
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. J 11 
 
 sister's dying wish. She should never see it; but, 
 when she should hear that the Debateable Ford was 
 the Friendly Ford, then would she know that it was 
 the doing of the Good Baron Ebbo. Could she 
 venture on telling him so 1 Or were it not better 
 that there were no farewell? And she wept again 
 that he should think her ungrateful. She could not 
 persuade herself to release the doves, but committed 
 the charge to Ursel to let them go in case she should 
 not return. 
 
 So tear-stained was her face, that, ashamed that it 
 should be seen, she wrapped it closely in her hood 
 and veil when she came down and joined her father. 
 The whole scene swam in tears before her eyes when 
 she saw the whole green slope from the chapel 
 covered with tents and booths, and swarming with 
 pedlars and mountaineers in their picturesque dresses. 
 Women and girls were exchanging the yarn of their 
 winter's spinning for bright handkerchiefs ; men 
 drove sheep, goats, or pigs to barter for knives, 
 spades, or weapons ; others were gazing at simple 
 shows — a dancing bear or ape — or clustering round 
 a Minnesinger ; many even then congregatin 6 in 
 booths for the sale of beer. Further up, on the flat 
 space of sward above the chapel, were some la}'
 
 112 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLES NEST. 
 
 brothers, arranging for the representation of a 
 mystery — a kind of entertainment which Germany 
 owed to the English who came to the Council of 
 Constance, and which the monks of St. Euprecht's 
 hoped might infuse some religious notions into the 
 wild ignorant mountaineers. 
 
 First, however, Christina gladly entered the church. 
 Crowded though it were, it was calmer than the busy 
 scene without. Faded old tapestry was decking its 
 walls, representing apparently some subject entirely 
 alien to St. John or the blessed hermit ; Christina 
 rather thought it was Mars and Yenus, but that was 
 all the same to everyone else. And there was a 
 terrible figure of St. John, painted life-like, with 
 a real hair-cloth round his loins, just opposite to 
 her, on the step of the Altar ; also poor Friedmund's 
 bones, dressed up in a new serge amice and hood ; 
 the stone from Nicsea was in a gilded box, ready in 
 due time to be kissed ; and a preaching friar (not 
 one of the monks of St. Euprecht's) was in the midst 
 of a sermon, telling how St. John presided at the 
 Council of Nicsea till the Emperor Maximius cut off 
 his head at the instance of Herodias — full justice 
 being done to the dancing — and that the blood was 
 sprinkled on this very stone, whereupon our Holy
 
 THE DOVE IK THE EAGLE'S NEST. 113 
 
 Father the Pope decreed that whoever would kiss 
 the said stone, and repeat the Credo five times after- 
 wards, should be capable of receiving an indulgence 
 for 500 years : which indulgence must however be 
 purchased at the rate of six groschen, to be bestowed 
 in alms at Eome. And this inestimable benefit he, 
 poor Friar Peter, had come from his brotherhood of 
 St. Francis at Offingen solely to dispense to the poor 
 mountaineers. 
 
 It was disappointing to find this profane mummery 
 going on instead of the holy services to which Chris- 
 tina had looked forward for strength and comfort ; 
 she was far too well instructed not to be scandalized 
 at the profane deception which was ripening fast for 
 Luther, only thirty years later ; and, when the stone 
 was held up by the friar in one hand, the printed 
 briefs of indulgence in the other, she shrank back. 
 Her father, however, said, " Wilt have one, child ? 
 Five hundred years is no bad bargain." 
 
 " My uncle has small trust in indulgences," she 
 whispered. 
 
 "All lies, of course," quoth Hugh ; "yet they've 
 the "Pope's seal, and I have more than half a mind 
 to get one. Five hundred years is no joke, and I am 
 
 vol. I. I
 
 114 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 sure of purgatory, since I bought this medal at the 
 Holy House of Loretto." 
 
 And he went forward, and invested six groschen 
 in one of the papers, the most religious action poor 
 Christina had ever seen him perform. Other pur- 
 chasers came forward — several of the castle knappen, 
 and a few peasant women who offered yarn or 
 cheeses as equivalents for money, but were told 
 with some insolence to go and sell their goods, 
 and bring the coin. 
 
 After a time, the friar, finding his traffic slack, 
 thought fit to remove, with his two lay assistants, 
 outside the chapel, and try the effects of an out-of- 
 door sermon. Hugh Sorel, who had been hitherto 
 rather diverted by the man's gestures and persuasions, 
 now decided on going out into the fair in quest of 
 an escort for his daughter, but as she saw Father 
 Norbert and another monk ascending from the stairs 
 leading to the hermit's cell, she begged to be allowed 
 to remain in the church, where she was sure to be 
 safe, instead of wandering about with him in the 
 fair. 
 
 He was glad to be unencumbered, though he 
 thought her taste unnatural ; and, promising to re- 
 turn for her when he had found an escort, he left her.
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 115 
 
 Father Xorbert had come for the very purpose 
 of hearing confessions, and Christina's next hour 
 was the most comfortable she had spent since 
 Ermentrude's death. 
 
 After this, however, the priests were called away, 
 and long, long did Christina first kneel and then sit 
 in the little lonely church, hearing the various sounds 
 without, and imagining that her father had forgotten 
 her, and that he and all the rest were drinking, and 
 then what would become of her? Why had she 
 quitted old Ursel's protection ? 
 
 Hours of waiting and nameless alarm must have 
 passed, for the sun was waxing low, when at length 
 she heard steps coming up the hermit's cell, and a 
 head arose above the pavement which she recognised 
 with a wild throb of joy, but, repressing her sense 
 of gladness, she only exclaimed, " Oh, where is my 
 father!" 
 
 " I have sent him to the toll at the Gemsbock's 
 Pass," replied Sir Eberhard, who had by this time 
 come up the stairs, followed by Brother Peter and 
 the two lay assistants. Then, as Christina turned 
 on him her startled terrified eyes in dismay and 
 reproach for such thoughtlessness, he came towards 
 her, and, bending his head and opening his hand, he 
 12
 
 116 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S XEST. 
 
 showed on his palm two gold rings. " There, little 
 one/' he said ; " now shalt thou never again shut 
 me out." 
 
 Her senses grew dizzy. " Sir," she faintly said, 
 " this is no place to delude a poor maiden." 
 
 " I delude thee not. The brother here waits to 
 wed us." 
 
 " Impossible ! a burgher maid is not for such as 
 you." 
 
 u None but a burgher maid will I wed/' returned 
 Sir Eberhard, with all the settled resolution of habits 
 of command. " See, Christina, thou art sweeter and 
 better than any lady in the land ; thou canst make 
 me what she — the blessed one who lies there — 
 would have me. I love thee as never knight loved 
 lady. I love thee so that I have not spoken a word 
 to offend thee when my heart was bursting ; and " — 
 as he saw her irrepressible tears — " I think thou 
 lovest me a little." 
 
 " Ah ! " she gasped with a sob, " let me go." 
 
 " Thou canst not go home ; there is none here fit 
 to take charge of thee. Or if there were, I would 
 slay him rather than let thee go. No, not so," he 
 said, as he saw how little those words served his 
 cause ; " but without thee I were a mad and despe-
 
 THE DOTE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 117 
 
 rate man. Christina, I will not answer for myself 
 if thou dost not leave this place my wedded 
 wife." 
 
 " Oh ! " implored Christina, " if you would only 
 betroth me, and woo me like an honourable maiden 
 from my home at Ulm ! " 
 
 " Betroth thee, ay, and wed thee at once," replied 
 Eberhard, who, all along, even while his words were 
 most pleading, had worn a look and manner of de- 
 termined authority and strength, good-natured in- 
 deed, but resolved. " I am not going to miss my 
 opportunity, or baulk the friar." 
 
 The friar, who had meantime been making a few 
 needful arrangements for the ceremony, advanced 
 towards them. He was a good-humoured, easy- 
 going man, who came prepared to do any office that 
 came in his way on such festival days at the villages 
 round; and peasant marriages at such times were 
 not uncommon. But something now staggered him, 
 and he said anxiously — 
 
 " This maiden looks convent-bred ! Herr Reiter, 
 pardon me ; but if this be the breaking of a cloister, 
 I can have none of it." 
 
 "No such thing," said Eberhard; "she is town- 
 bred, that is all."
 
 118 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 " You would swear it, on the holy mass yonder, 
 both of you ? " said the friar, still suspiciously. 
 
 " Yea/' replied Eberhard, " and so dost thou, 
 Christina." 
 
 This was the time if ever to struggle against her 
 destiny. The friar would probably have listened to 
 her if she had made any vehement opposition to 
 a forced marriage, and if not, a few shrieks would 
 have brought perhaps Father ."Nbrbert, and certainly 
 the whole population ; but the horror and shame 
 of being found in such a situation, even more than 
 the probability that she might meet with vengeance 
 rather than protection, withheld her. Even the friar 
 could hardly have removed her, and this was her 
 only chance of safety from the Baroness's fury. 
 Had she hated and loathed Sir Eberhard, perhaps 
 she had striven harder, but his whole demeanour 
 constrained and quelled her, and the chief effort 
 she made against yielding was the reply, " I am no 
 cloister maid, holy father, but " 
 
 The "but" was lost in the friar's jovial speech. 
 " 0, then, all is well ! Take thy place, pretty one, 
 there, by the door, thou know'st it should be in the 
 porch, but — ach, I understand ! " as Eberhard quietly 
 drew the bolt within. " ISTo, no, little one, I have no
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 119 
 
 time for bride scruples and coyness ; I have to train 
 three dull-headed louts to be Shem, Ham, and Japhet 
 before dark. Hast confessed of late \ " 
 
 " This morning, but " said Christina, and 
 
 "This morning," to her great joy, said Eberhard, 
 
 and, in her satisfaction thereat, her second "but " 
 
 was not followed up. 
 
 The friar asked their names, and both gave the 
 Christian name alone ; then the brief and simple 
 rite was solemnized in its shortest form. Christina 
 had, by very force of surprise and dismay, gone 
 through all without signs of agitation, except the 
 quivering of her whole frame, and the icy coldness 
 of the hand, where Eberhard had to place the ring- 
 on each finger in turn. 
 
 But each mutual vow was a strange relief to her 
 long-tossed and divided mind, and it was rest indeed 
 to let her affection have its will, and own him indeed 
 as a protector to be loved instead of shunned. When 
 all was over, and he gathered the two little cold 
 hands into his large one, his arm supporting her 
 trembling form, she felt for the moment, poor little 
 thing, as if she could never be frightened again. 
 
 Parish registers were not, even had this been a 
 parish church, but Brother Peter asked, when he had
 
 120 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S XEST. 
 
 concluded, " Well, my son, which of his flock am I 
 to report to your Pfarrer as linked together ? " 
 
 " The less your tongue wags on that matter till I 
 call on you, the better," was the stern reply. " Look 
 yon, no ill shall befall you if you are wise, but re- 
 member, against the day I call you to bear witness, 
 that you have this day wedded Baron Eberhard von 
 Acllerstein the younger, to Christina, the daughter 
 of Hugh Sorel, the Esquire of Ulm." 
 
 " Thou hast played me a trick, Sir Baron 1 " said 
 the friar, somewhat dismayed, but more amused, 
 looking up at Eberhard, who, as Christina now saw, 
 had divested himself of his gilt spurs, gold chain, 
 silvered belt and horn, and eagle's plume, so as to 
 have passed for a simple Lanzknecht. " I would have 
 had no such gear as this ! " 
 
 " So 1 supposed," said Eberhard, coolly. 
 
 " Young folks ! young folks ! " laughed the friar, 
 changing his tone, and holding up his finger slyly ; 
 " the little bird so cunningly nestled in the church to 
 fly out my Lady Baroness ! Well, so thou hast a 
 pretty, timid lambkin there, Sir Baron. Take care 
 you use her mildly."' 
 
 Eberhard looked into Christina's face with a smile, 
 that to her, at least, was answer enough ; and he
 
 THE DOYE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 121 
 
 held out half a dozen links of his gold chain to the 
 friar, and tossed a coin to each of the lay brethren. 
 
 •' Not for the poor friar himself,'' explained Brother 
 Peter, on receiving this marriage-fee ; " it all goes to 
 the weal of the brotherhood."' 
 
 "As you please," said Eberhard. "Silence, that 
 is all ! And thy friary ? "' 
 
 " The poor house of St. Francis at Offingen for the 
 present, noble sir," said the priest. " There will you 
 hear of me, if you find me not. And now, fare thee 
 well, my gracious lady. I hope one day thou wilt 
 have more words to thank the poor brother who has 
 made thee a noble Baroness." 
 
 " Ah, good father, pardon my fright and confusion," 
 Christina tried to murmur, but at that moment a 
 sudden glow and glare of light broke out on the 
 eastern rock, illuminating the fast darkening little 
 church with a flickering glare, that made her start in 
 terror as if the fires of heaven were threatening this 
 stolen marriage; but the friar and Eberhard both 
 exclaimed, " The Needfire alight already ! " And 
 she recollected how often she had seen these bonfires 
 on Midsummer night shining red on every hill 
 around Ulm. Loud shouts were greeting the up- 
 rising flame, and the people gathering thicker and
 
 122 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 thicker on the slope. The friar undid the door to 
 hasten out into the throng, and Eberhard said he had 
 left his spurs and belt in the hermit's cell, and must 
 return thither, after which he would walk home with 
 his bride, moving at the same time towards the stair, 
 and thereby causing a sudden scuffle and fall. " So, 
 master hermit," quoth Eberhard, as the old man 
 picked himself up, looking horribly frightened ; 
 " that's your hermit's abstraction, is it ? No whin- 
 ing, old man, I am not going to hurt thee, so thou 
 canst hold thy tongue. Otherwise I will smoke thee 
 out of thy hole like a wild cat ! What, thou aiding 
 me with my belt, my lovely one ? Thanks ; the 
 snap goes too hard for thy little hands. Now, then, 
 the fire will light us gaily down the mountain side." 
 
 But it soon appeared that to depart was impos- 
 sible, unless by forcing a way through the busy 
 throng in the full red glare of the firelight, and they 
 were forced to pause at the opening of the hermit's 
 cave, Christina leaning on her husband's arm, and 
 a fold of his mantle drawn round her to guard her 
 from the night-breeze of the mountain, as they 
 waited for a quiet space in which to depart un- 
 noticed. It was a strange wild scene ! The fire was 
 on a bare flat rock, which probably had been yearly
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 123 
 
 so employed ever since the Kelts had brought from 
 the East the rite that they had handed on to the 
 Swabians — the Beltane fire, whose like was blazing 
 everywhere in the Alps, in the Hartz, nay, even in 
 England, Scotland, and on the granite points of 
 Ireland. Heaped up for many previous days with 
 faggots from the forest, then apparently inexhaustible, 
 the fire roared and crackled, and rose high, red and 
 smoky, into the air, paling the moon, and obscuring 
 the stars. Bound it, completely hiding the bonfire 
 itself, were hosts of dark figures swarming to ap- 
 proach it — all with a purpose. All held old shoes 
 or superannuated garments in their hands to feed the 
 flame ; for it was esteemed needful that every villager 
 should contribute something from his house — once, 
 no doubt, as an offering to Bel, but now as a mere 
 unmeaning observance. And shrieks of merriment 
 followed the contribution of each too well-known 
 article of rubbish that had been in reserve for the 
 Needfire ! Girls and boys had nuts to throw in, in 
 pairs, to judge by their bounces of future chances of 
 matrimony. Then came a shouting, tittering, and 
 falling back, as an old boor came forward like a 
 priest with something heavy and ghastly in his 
 arms, which was thrown on with a tremendous
 
 124 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 shout, darkened the glow for a moment, then hissed, 
 cracked, and emitted a horrible odour. 
 
 It was a horse's head, the right owner of which 
 had been carefully kept for the occasion, though long 
 past work. Christina shuddered, and felt as if she 
 had fallen upon a Pagan ceremony ; as indeed was 
 true enough, only that the Adlersteiners attached no 
 meaning to the performance, except a vague notion 
 of securing good luck. 
 
 With the same idea the faggots were pulled down, 
 and arranged so as to form a sort of lane of fire. 
 Young men rushed along it, and then bounded over 
 the diminished pile, amid loud shouts of laughter 
 and either admiration or derision; and, in the 
 meantime, a variety of odd recusant noises, grunts, 
 squeaks, and lowings proceeding from the darkness 
 were explained to the startled little bride by her 
 husband to come from all the cattle of the mountain 
 farms around, who were to have their weal secured 
 by being driven through the Xeedfire. 
 
 It may well be imagined that the animals were 
 less convinced of the necessity of this performance 
 than their masters. Wonderful was the clatter and 
 confusion, horrible the uproar raised behind to make 
 the poor things proceed at all, desperate the shout
 
 THE DOVE EN THE EAGLE'S XEST. 125 
 
 when some half-frantic creature kicked or attempted 
 a charge, wild the glee when a persecuted goat or 
 sheep took heart of grace, and flashed for one mo- 
 ment between the crackling, flaring, smoking walls. 
 When one cow or sheep off a farm went, all the 
 others were pretty sure to follow it, and the owner 
 had then only to he on the watch at the other end to 
 turn them Lack, with their flame-dazzled eyes, from 
 going unawares down the precipice, a fate from 
 which the passing through the fire was evidently not 
 supposed to insure them. The swine, those special 
 German delights, were of course the. most refractory 
 of all. Some, by dint of being pulled away from 
 the lane of fire, were induced to rush through it ; 
 but about half-way they generally made a bolt, 
 either sidelong through the flaming fence or back- 
 wards among the legs of their persecutors, who were 
 upset amid loud imprecations. One huge old lean 
 high-hacked sow, with a large family, truly feminine 
 in her want of presence of mind, actually charged 
 into the midst of the bonfire itself, scattering it to 
 the right and left with her snout, and emitting so 
 horrible a smell of singed bacon, that it might almost 
 be feared that some of her progeny were anticipating 
 the Chinese invention of roasting-pig«. However,
 
 126 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 their proprietor, Jobst, counted them out all safe on 
 the other side, and there only resulted some sighs 
 and lamentations among the seniors, such as Hatto 
 and Ursel, that it boded ill to have the Needfire 
 trodden out by an old sow. 
 
 All the castle live-stock were undergoing the same 
 ceremony. Eberhard concerned himself little about 
 the vagaries of the sheep and pigs, and only laughed 
 a little as the oreat black q-oat, who had seen several 
 Midsummer nights, and stood on his cmard, made a 
 sudden short run and butted down old Hatto, then 
 skipped off like a chamois into the darkness, un- 
 heeding, the old rogue, the whispers that connected 
 his unlucky hue with the doings of the Walpurgis- 
 nacht. But when it came to the horses, Eberhard 
 could not well endure the sight of the endeavours 
 to force them, snorting, rearing, and struggling, 
 through anything so abhorrent to them as the hedge 
 of fire. 
 
 The Schneiderlein, with all the force of his power- 
 ful arm, had hold of Eberhard's own young white 
 mare, who, with ears turned back, nostrils dilated, 
 and wild eyes, her fore-feet firmly planted wide 
 apart, was using her whole strength for resistance ; 
 and, when a heavy blow fell on her, only plunged
 
 THE DOTE IX THE EAGLE' S NEST. 127 
 
 backwards, and kicked without advancing. It was 
 more than Eberhard could endure, and Christina's 
 impulse was to murmur, " do not let him do it ; " 
 but this he scarcely heard, as he exclaimed, "Wait 
 for me here !" and, as he stepped forward, sent his 
 voice before him, forbidding all blows to the mare. 
 
 The creature's extreme terror ceased at once upon 
 hearing his voice, and there was an instant relax- 
 ation of all violence of resistance as he came up to 
 her, took her halter from the Schneiderlein, patted 
 her glossy neck, and spoke to her. But the tumult 
 of warning voices around him assured him that it 
 would be a fatal thing to spare the steed the passage 
 through the fire, and he strove by encouragements 
 and caresses with voice and hand to get her forward, 
 leading her himself ; but the poor beast trembled so 
 violently, and, though making a few steps forward, 
 stopped again in such exceeding horror of the flame, 
 that Eberhard had not the heart to compel her, 
 turned her head away, and assured her that she 
 should not be further tormented. 
 
 "The gracious lordship is wrong," said public 
 opinion, by the voice of old Bauer Ulrich, the sacri- 
 ficer of the horse's head. " Heaven forfend that evil 
 befall him and that mare in the course of the year."
 
 128 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 And the buzz of voices concurred in telling of the 
 recusant pigs who had never developed into sausages, 
 the sheep who had only escaped to be eaten by 
 wolves, the mule whose bones had been found at the 
 bottom of an abyss. 
 
 Old Ursel was seriously concerned, and would 
 have laid hold on her young master to remonstrate, 
 but a fresh notion had arisen — Would the gracious 
 Freiherr set a-rolling the wheel, which was already 
 being lighted in the fire, and was to conclude the 
 festivities by being propelled down the hill — figuring, 
 only that no one present knew it, the sun's declen- 
 sion from his solstitial height ? Eberhard made no 
 objection ; and Christina, in her shelter by the cave, 
 felt no little dismay at being left alone there, and, 
 moreover, had a strange, weird feeling at the wild, 
 uncanny ceremony he was engaged in, not knowing, 
 indeed, that it was sun-worship, but afraid that it 
 could be no other than unholy sorcery. 
 
 The wheel, flaring or reddening in all its spokes, 
 was raised from the bonfire, and was driven down 
 the smoothest piece of greensward, which formed an 
 inclined plane towards the stream. If its course 
 was smooth, and it only became extinguished by 
 leaping into the water, the village would flourish ;
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 129 
 
 and prosperity above all was expected if it should 
 spring over the narrow channel, and attempt to run 
 up the other side. Such things had happened in the 
 days of the good Freiherren Ebbo and Friedel, though 
 the wheel had never gone right since the present 
 baron had been excommunicated ; but his heir 
 having been twice seen at mass in this last month, 
 great hopes were founded upon him. 
 
 There was a shout to clear the slope. Eberhard, 
 in great earnest and some anxiety, accepted the 
 gauntlet that he was offered to protect his hand, 
 steadied the wheel therewith, and, with a vigorous 
 impulse from hand and foot, sent it bounding down 
 the slope, among loud cries and a general scattering 
 of the idlers who had crowded full into the very path 
 of the fiery circle, which flamed up brilliantly for 
 the moment as it met the current of air. But either 
 there was an obstacle in the way, or the young baron's 
 push had not been quite straight : the wheel sud- 
 denly swerved aside, its course swerved to the right, 
 maugre all the objurgations addressed to it as if it 
 had been a living thing, and the next moment it had 
 disappeared, all but a smoky, smouldering spot of 
 red, that told where it lay, charring and smoking on 
 its side, without having fulfilled a quarter of its course. 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S XEST. 
 
 People drew off gravely and silently, and Eberhard 
 himself was strangely discomfited when he came 
 back to the hermitage, and, wrapping Christina in 
 his cloak, prepared to return, so soon as the glare 
 of the fire should have faded from his eyesight 
 enough to make it safe to tread so precipitons a 
 path. He had indeed this day made a dangerous 
 venture, and both he and Christina could not but 
 feel disheartened by the issue of all the omens of 
 the year, the more because she had a vague sense 
 of wrong in consulting or trusting them. It seemed 
 to her all one frightened, uncomprehended dream 
 ever since her father had left her in the chapel ; 
 and, though conscious of her inability to have pre- 
 vented her marriage, yet she blamed herself, felt 
 despairing as she thought of the future, and, above 
 all, dreaded the baron and baroness and their anger. 
 Eberhard, after his first few words, was silent, and 
 seemed solely absorbed in leading her safely along 
 the rocky path, sometimes lifting her when he 
 thought her in clanger of stumbling. It was one of 
 the lightest, shortest nights of the year, and a young 
 moon added to the brightness in open places, while 
 in others it made the rocks and stones cast strange 
 elvish shadows. The distance was not entirely lost ;
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST.. 131 
 
 other Beltane fires could be seen, like beacons, on 
 
 every hill, and the few lights in the castle shone out 
 
 like red fiery eyes in its heavy dark pile of building. 
 Before entering, Eberhard paused, pulled off his 
 own wedding-ring, and put it into his bosom, and 
 
 taking his bride's hand in his, did the same for 
 her, and bade her keep the ring till they could 
 
 wear them openly. 
 
 "Alas! then," said Christina, "you would have 
 
 this secret ? " 
 
 " Unless I would have to seek thee down the 
 oubliette, my little one," said Eberhard ; " or, what 
 
 might even be worse, see thee burnt on the hill-side 
 for bewitching me with thine arts ! No, indeed, my 
 darling. Were it only my father, I could make him 
 love thee ; but my mother — I could not trust her 
 where she thought the honour of our house con- 
 cerned. It shall not be for long. Thou know'st we 
 are to make peace with the Kaiser, and then will 
 I get me employment among Kurfurst Albrecht's 
 companies of troops, and then shalt thou prank it 
 as my Lady Freikerrinn, and teach me the ways 
 of cities." 
 
 " Alas ! I fear me it has been a great sin ! " sighed 
 the poor little wife. 
 
 k2
 
 132 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 " For thee — thou couldst not help it," said Eber- 
 harcl ; " for me — who knows how many deadly ones 
 it may hinder ? Cheer up, little one ; no one can 
 harm thee while the secret is kept." 
 
 Poor Christina had no choice but submission ; but 
 it was a sorry bridal evening, to enter her husband's 
 home in shrinking terror; with the threat of the 
 oubliette before her, and with a sense of shame 
 and deception hanging upon her, making the wonted 
 scowl of the old baroness cut her both with remorse 
 and dread. 
 
 She did indeed sit beside her bridegroom at the 
 supper, but how little like a bride! even though 
 he pushed the salt-cellar, as if by accident, below 
 her place. She thought of her myrtle, tended in 
 vain at home by Barbara Schmidt ; she thought of 
 Ulm courtships, and how all ought to have been ; 
 the solemn ambassage to her uncle, the stately 
 negotiations ; the troth plight before the circle of 
 ceremonious kindred and merry maidens, of whom 
 she had often been one— the subsequent attentions 
 of the betrothed on all festival days, the piles of 
 linen and all plenishings accumulated since baby- 
 hood, and all reviewed and laid out for general 
 admiration (Ah ! poor Aunt Johanna still spinning
 
 133 
 
 away to add to the many webs in her walnut 
 presses !) — then the grand procession to fetch home 
 the bride, the splendid festival with the musicians, 
 dishes, and guest-tables to the utmost limit that was 
 allowed by the city laws, and the bride's hair so 
 joyously covered by her matron's curch. amid the 
 merriment of her companion maidens. 
 
 Poor child ! After she had crept away to her own 
 room, glad that her father was not yet returned, she 
 wept bitterly over the wrong that she felt she had 
 done to the kind uncle and aunt, who must now 
 look in vain for their little Christina, and would 
 think her lost to them, and to all else that was 
 good. At least she had had the Church's blessing — 
 but that, strange to say, was regarded, in burgher 
 life before the Eeformation, as rather the ornament 
 of a noble marriage than as essential to the civil 
 contract; and a marriage by a priest was regarded 
 by the citizens rather as means of eluding the need 
 of obtaining the parents' consent, than as a more 
 regular and devout manner of wedding. However, 
 Christina felt this the one drop of peace. The 
 blessings and prayers were warm at her heart, and 
 gave her hope. And as to drops of joy, of them 
 there was no lack, for had not she now a right to
 
 134 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 love Eberliard with all her heart and conscience,, 
 and was not it a wonderful love on his part that 
 had made him stoop to the little white-faced burgher 
 maid, despised even by her own father? better 
 far to wear the maiden's uncovered head for him 
 than the myrtle wreath for any one else !
 
 THE DOYE IN THE EAGLE' S NEST. 135 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE SCHNEIDERLEIN'S RETURN. 
 
 The poor little unowned bride had more to un- 
 dergo than her imagination had conceived at the 
 first moment. 
 
 When she heard that the marriage was to be a 
 secret, she had not understood that Eberhard was 
 by no means disposed to observe much more caution 
 than mere silence. A rough, though kindly man, 
 he did not thoroughly comprehend the shame and 
 confusion that he was bringing upon her by depart- 
 ing from his former demeanour. He knew that, so 
 enormous was the distance then supposed to exist 
 between the noble and the burgher, there was no 
 chance of any one dreaming of the true state of 
 the case, and that as long as Christina was not 
 taken for his wife, there was no personal danger for 
 her from his mother, who — so lax were the morals 
 of the German nobility with regard to all of inferior
 
 136 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 rank — would tolerate her with complacency as his 
 favourite toy ; and he was taken by surprise at the 
 agony of grief and shame with which she slowly 
 comprehended his assurance that she had nothing 
 to fear. 
 
 There was no help for it. The oubliette would 
 probably be the portion of the low-born girl who 
 had interfered with the sixteen quarterings of the 
 Adlerstein shield, and poor Christina never stepped 
 across its trap-door without a shudder lest it should 
 open beneath her. And her father would probably 
 have been hung from the highest tower, in spite of 
 his shrewd care to be aware of nothing. Christina 
 consoled herself with the hope that he knew all 
 the time why he had been sent out of the way, 
 for, with a broad grin that had made her blush 
 painfully, he had said he knew she would be well 
 taken care of, and that he hoped she was not break- 
 ing her heart for want of an escort. She tried to 
 extort Eberhard's permission to let him at least 
 know how it was; but Eberhard laughed, saying 
 he believed the old fox knew just as much as 
 he chose ; and, in effect, Sorel, though now and then 
 gratifying his daughter's scruples, by serving as a 
 shield to her meetings with the young baron, never
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 137 
 
 allowed himself to hear a hint of the true state of 
 affairs. 
 
 Eberhard's love and reverence were undiminished, 
 and the time spent with him would have been per- 
 fectly happy could she ever have divested herself 
 of anxiety and alarm ; but the periods of his absence 
 from the castle were very terrible to her, for the 
 other women of the household, quick to perceive 
 that she no longer repelled him, had lost that awe 
 that had hitherto kept them at a distance from her, 
 and treated her with a familiarity, sometimes coarse, 
 sometimes spiteful, always hateful and degrading. 
 Even old Ursel had become half-pitying, half- 
 patronizing ; and the old baroness, though not molest- 
 ing her, took not the slightest notice of her. 
 
 This state of things lasted much longer than there 
 had been reason to expect at the time of the mar- 
 riage. The tw r o Freiherren then intended to set out 
 in a very short time to make their long talked-of 
 submission to the Emperor at Katisbon ; but, partly 
 from their German tardiness of movement, partly 
 from the obstinate delays interposed by the proud 
 old Freiherrinn, who was as averse as ever to the 
 measure, partly from reports that the Court was not 
 yet arrived at Piatisbon, the expedition was again
 
 138 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 and again deferred, and did not actually take place 
 till September was far advanced. 
 
 Poor Christina would have given worlds to go 
 with them, and even entreated to be sent to Ulm 
 with an avowal of her marriage to her uncle and 
 aunt, but of this Eberhard would not hear. He said 
 the Ulmers would thus gain a hostage, and hamper 
 his movements ; and, if her wedding was not to be 
 confessed — poor child! — she could better bear to 
 remain where she was than to face Hausfrau Jo- 
 hanna. Eberhard was fully determined to enrol 
 himself in some troop, either Imperial, or, if not, 
 among the Free Companies, among whom men of 
 rank were often found, and he would then fetch or 
 send for his wife and avow her openly, so soon as 
 she should be out of his mother's reach. He longed 
 to leave her father at home, to be some protection 
 to her, but Hugh Sorel was so much the most intel- 
 ligent and skilful of the retainers as to be absolutely 
 indispensable to the party — he was their only scribe ; 
 and, moreover, his new suit of buff rendered him a 
 creditable member of a troop that had been very 
 hard to equip. It numbered about ten men-at-arms, 
 only three being left at home to garrison the castle — 
 aamely, Hatto, who was too old to take ; Hans, who
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE 's XEST. 130 
 
 had been hopelessly lame and deformed since the 
 old Baron had knocked him off a cliff in a passion ; 
 and Squinting Matz, a runaway servant, who had 
 murdered his master, the mayor of Strasburg, and 
 might be caught and put to death if any one 
 recognised him. If needful, the villagers could 
 always be called in to defend the castle : but of 
 this there was little or no danger — the Eagle's Steps 
 were defence enough in themselves, and the party 
 were not likely to be absent more than a week or 
 ten days — a grievous length of time, poor Christina 
 thought, as she stood straining her eyes on the top 
 of the watch-tower, to watch them as far as possible 
 along the plain. Her heart was very sad, and the 
 omen of the burning wheel so continually haunted 
 her that even in her sleep that night she saw its 
 brief course repeated, beheld its rapid fall and ex- 
 tinction, and then tracked the course of the sparks 
 that darted from it, one rising and gleaming high 
 in air till it shone like a star, another pursuing 
 a fitful and irregular, but still bright course amid 
 the dry grass on the hill-side, just as she had indeed 
 watched some of the sparks on that night, mind- 
 ing her of the words of the Allhallow-tide legend : 
 " Fulgebimt justi et tanquam scintilla in arundinek
 
 140 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 discurrent" — a sentence which remained with her 
 when awake, and led her to seek it out in her 
 Latin Bible in the morning. 
 
 Eeluctantly had she gone down to the noontide 
 meal, feeling, though her hnshand and father were 
 far less of guardians than they should have been, 
 yet that there was absolute rest, peace, and pro- 
 tection in their presence compared with what it was 
 to be alone with Freiherrinn Kunigunde and her 
 rude women without them. A few sneers on her 
 daintiness and uselessness had led her to make an 
 offer of assisting in the grand chopping of sausage- 
 meat and preparation of winter stores, and she had 
 been answered with contempt that my young lord 
 would not have her soil her delicate hands, when 
 one of the maids who had been sent to fetch beer 
 from the cellar came back with startled looks, and 
 the exclamation, " There is the Schneiderlein riding 
 up the Eagle's Ladder upon Freiherr Ebbo's white 
 mare ! " 
 
 All the women sprang up together, and rushed to 
 the window, whence they could indeed recognise 
 both man and horse ; and presently it became plain 
 that both were stained with blood, weary, and spent ; 
 indeed, nothing but extreme exhaustion would have
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 141 
 
 induced the man-at-arms to trust the tired, stum- 
 bling horse up such a perilous path. 
 
 Loud were the exclamations, " Ah, no good could 
 come of not leading that mare through the Johan- 
 nisfeuer." 
 
 " This shameful expedition ! Only harm could 
 befall. This is thy doing, thou mincing city-girl." 
 
 " All was certain to go wrong when a pale mist 
 widow came into the place." 
 
 The angry and dismayed cries all blended them- 
 selves in confusion in the ears of the only silent 
 woman present ; the only one that sounded distinctly 
 on her brain was that of the last speaker, " A pale, 
 mist widow," as, holding herself a little in the rear 
 of the struggling, jostling little mob of women, who 
 hardly made way even for their acknowledged lady, 
 she followed with failing limbs the universal rush 
 to the entrance as soon as man and horse had 
 mounted the slope and were lost sight of. 
 
 A few moments more, and the throng of expectants 
 was at the foot of the hall steps, just as the lans- 
 knecht reached the arched entrance. His comrade 
 Hans took his bridle, and almost lifted him from 
 his horse ; he reeled and stumbled as, pale, battered, 
 and bleeding, he tried to advance to Freiherrinn
 
 142 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 Kunigunde, and, in answer to her hasty interro- 
 gation, faltered out, " 111 news, gracious lady. We 
 have been set upon by the accursed Schlangen- 
 waldern, and I am the only living man left." 
 
 Christina scarce heard even these last words ; 
 senses and powers alike failed her, and she sank 
 back on the stone steps in a deathlike swoon. 
 
 "When she came to herself she was lying on her 
 bed, Ursel and Else, another of the women, busy 
 over her, and Ursel's voice was saying, " Ah, she is 
 coming round. Look up, sweet lady, and fear not. 
 You are our gracious Lady Baroness." 
 
 " Is he here ? 0, has he said so ? 0, let me see 
 him — Sir Eberhard," faintly cried Christina with 
 sobbing breath. 
 
 " Ah, no, no," said the old woman ; " but see here," 
 and she lifted up Christina's powerless, bloodless 
 hand, and showed her the ring on the finger. Her 
 bosom had been evidently searched when her dress 
 was loosened in her swoon, and her ring found and 
 put in its place. "There, you can hold up your 
 head with the best of them ; he took care of that — 
 my dear young Freiherr, the boy that I nursed," 
 and the old woman's burst of tears brought back 
 the truth to Christina's reviving senses.
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 143 
 
 " tell me," she said, trying to raise herself, 
 <f was it indeed so ? say it was not as he said ! " 
 
 " Ah, woe's me, woe's me, that it was even so," 
 lamented Ursel ; " but oh, be still, look not so wild, 
 dear lady. The dear, true-hearted young lord, he 
 spent his last breath in owning you for his true 
 lady, and in bidding us cherish you and our young 
 baron that is to be. And the gracious lady below 
 — she owns you ; there is no fear of her now ; so 
 vex not yourself, dearest, most gracious lady." 
 
 Christina did not break out into the wailing and 
 weeping that the old nurse expected ; she was still 
 far too much stunned and overwhelmed, and she 
 entreated to be told all, lying still, but gazing at 
 Ursel with piteous bewildered eyes. Ursel and Else 
 helping one another out, tried to tell her, but they 
 were much confused ; all they knew was that the 
 party had been surprised at night in a village hostel 
 by the Schlangenwaldern, and all slain, though the 
 young baron had lived long enough to charge the 
 Schneiderlein with his commendation of his wife to 
 his mother ; but all particulars had been lost in the 
 general confusion. 
 
 "Olet me see the Schneiderlein," implored Christina, 
 by this time able to rise and cross the room to the
 
 144 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 large carved chair ; and Ursel immediately turned 
 to her underling, saying, " Tell the Schneiderlein 
 that the gracious Lady Baroness desires his pre- 
 sence." 
 
 Else's wooden shoes clattered downstairs, but the 
 next moment she returned. "He cannot come ; he 
 is quite spent, and he will let no one touch his 
 arm till Ursel can come, not even to get off his 
 doublet." 
 
 " I will go to him," said Christina, and, revived 
 by the sense of being wanted, she moved at once 
 to the turret, where she kept some rag and some 
 ointment, which she had found needful in the latter 
 stages of Ermentrude's illness — indeed, household 
 surgery was a part of regular female education, and 
 Christina had had plenty of practice in helping her 
 charitable aunt, so that the superiority of her skill 
 to that of Ursel had long been avowed in the castle. 
 Ursel made no objection further than to look for 
 something that could be at once converted into a 
 widow's veil — being in the midst of her grief quite 
 alive to the need that no matronly badge should be 
 omitted — but nothing came to hand in time, and 
 Christina was descending the stairs, on her way to 
 the kitchen, where she found the fugitive man-at-
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 145 
 
 arms seated on a rough settle, his head and wounded 
 arm resting on the table, while groans of pain, 
 weariness, and impatience were interspersed with 
 imprecations on the stupid awkward girls who sur- 
 rounded him. 
 
 Pity and the instinct of affording relief must needs 
 ake the precedence even of the desire to hear of her 
 husband's fate ; and, as the girls hastily whispered, 
 " Here she is," and the Lanzknecht hastily tried to 
 gather himself up, and rise with tokens of respect ; 
 she bade him remain still, and let her see what she 
 could do for him. In fact, she at once perceived that 
 he was in no condition to give a coherent account of 
 anything, he was so completely worn out, and in so 
 much suffering. She bade at once that some water 
 should be heated, and some of the broth of the dinner 
 set on the fire ; then with the shears at her girdle, 
 and her soft, light fingers, she removed the torn strip 
 of cloth that had been wound round the arm, and cut 
 away the sleeve, showing the arm not broken, but 
 gashed at the shoulder, and thence the whole length 
 grazed and wounded by the descent of the sword 
 down to the wrist. So tender was her touch, that he 
 scarcely winced or moaned under her hand ; and, 
 when she proceeded, with Ursel's help, to bathe the 
 VOL. i. L
 
 146 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 wound with the warm water, the relief was such that 
 the wearied man absolutely slumbered during the 
 process, which Christina protracted on that very 
 account. She then dressed and bandaged the arm, 
 and proceeded to skim — as no one else in the castle 
 would do — the basin of soup, with which she then 
 fed her patient as he leant back in the corner of the 
 settle, at first in the same somnolent, half-conscious 
 state in which he had been ever since the relief from 
 the severe pain ; but after a few spoonfuls the light 
 and life came back to his eye, and he broke out, 
 " Thanks, thanks, gracious lady ! This is the Lady 
 Baroness for me ! My young lord was the only wise 
 man ! Thanks, lady ; now am I my own man again. 
 It had been long ere the old Freiherrinn had clone so 
 much for me ! I am your man, lady, for life or 
 death ! " And, before she knew what he was about, 
 the gigantic Schneiderlein had slid down on his 
 knees, seized her hand, and kissed it — the first act 
 of homage to her rank, but most startling and dis- 
 tressing to her. " Nay," she faltered, " prithee do 
 not; thou must rest. Only if — if thou canst only 
 tell me if he, my own dear lord, sent me any greet- 
 ing, I would wait to hear the rest till thou hast 
 slept."
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 147 
 
 w All ! the dog of Sclilangenwald ! " was the first 
 answer ; then, as he continued, " You see, lady, we 
 had ridden merrily as far as Jacob Hurler's hostel, 
 the traitor," it became, plain that he meant to begin 
 at the beginning. She allowed Ursel to seat her on 
 the bench opposite to his settle, and, leaning forward, 
 heard his narrative like one in a dream. There, the 
 Schneiderlein proceeded to say, they put up for the 
 night, entirely unsuspicious of evil ; Jacob Midler, 
 who was known to himself, as well as to Sorel and to 
 the others, assuring them that the way was clear to 
 Eatisbon, and that he heard the Emperor was most 
 favourably disposed to any noble who would tender 
 his allegiance. Jacob's liquors were brought out, and 
 were still' in course of being enjoyed, when the house 
 was suddenly surrounded by an overpowering number 
 of the retainers of Schlangenwald, with their Count 
 himself at their head. He had been evidently re- 
 solved to prevent the timely submission of the ene- 
 mies of his race, and suddenly presenting himself 
 before the elder Baron, had challenged him to in- 
 stantaneous battle, claiming credit to himself for not 
 having surprised them when asleep. The disadvan- 
 tage had been scarcely less than if this had been the 
 case, for the Adlersteinern were all half-intoxicated, 
 l2
 
 148 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 and far inferior in numbers — at least, on the showing 
 of the Schneiderlein — and a desperate fight had ended 
 by his being flung aside in a corner, bound fast by 
 the ancles and wrists, the only living prisoner, except 
 his young lord, who, having several terrible wounds, 
 the worst in his chest, was left unbound. 
 
 Both lay helpless, untended, and silent, while the 
 revel that had been so fatal to them was renewed by 
 their captors, who finally all sunk into a heavy sleep. 
 The torches were not all spent, and the moonlight 
 shone into* the room, when the Schneiderlein, des- 
 perate from the agony caused by the ligature round 
 his wounded arm, sat up and looked about him. A 
 knife thrown aside by one of the drunkards lay near 
 enough to be grasped by his bound hands, and he 
 had just reached it when Sir Eberhard made a sign 
 to him to put it into his hand, and therewith con- 
 trived to cut the rope round both hands and feet — 
 then pointed to the door. 
 
 There was nothing to hinder an escape ; the men 
 slept the sleep of the drunken ; but the Schneider- 
 lein, with the rough fidelity of a retainer, would have 
 lingered with a hope of saving his master. But 
 Eberhard shook his head, and signed again to escape ; 
 then, making him bend down close to him, he used
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 140 
 
 all his remaining power to whisper, as lie pressed his 
 sword into the retainer's hand, — 
 
 " Go home ; tell my mother — all the world — that 
 Christina Sorel is my wife, wedded on the Friedmund 
 Wake by Friar Peter of Offingen, and if she should 
 bear a child, he is my true and lawful heir. My 
 sword for him — my love to her. And if my mother 
 would not be haunted by me, let her take care of 
 her/' 
 
 These words were spoken with extreme difficulty, 
 for the nature of the wound made utterance nearly 
 impossible, and each broken sentence cost a terrible 
 effusion of blood. The final words brought on so 
 choking and fatal a gush that, said the Schneiderlein, 
 " he fell back as I tried to hold him up, and I saw 
 that it was all at an end, and a kind and friendly 
 master and lord gone from me. I laid him down, 
 and put his cross on his breast that I had seen him 
 kissing many a time that evening ; and I crossed his 
 hands, and wiped the blood from them and his face. 
 And, lady, he had put on his ring ; I trust the robber 
 caitiffs may have left it to him in his grave. And so 
 I came forth, walking soft, and opening the door in 
 no small dread, not of the snoring swine, but of the 
 dogs without. But happily they were still, and even
 
 150 THE DOTE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 by the door I saw all our poor fellows stark and 
 stiff" 
 
 " My father ? " asked Christina. 
 
 " Ay, with his head cleft open by the Graf himself. 
 He died like a true soldier, lady, and we have lost 
 the best head among us in him. Well, the knave 
 that should have watched the horses was as drunken 
 as the rest of them, and I made a shift to put the 
 bridle on the white mare and ride off." 
 
 Such was the narrative of the Schneiderlein, and 
 all that was left to Christina was the picture of her 
 husband's dying effort to guard her, and the haunting 
 fancy of those long hours of speechless agony on the 
 floor of the hostel, and how direful must have been 
 his fears for her. Sad and overcome, yet not sinking 
 entirely while any work of comfort remained, her 
 heart yearned over her companion in misfortune, the 
 mother who had lost both husband and son ; and all 
 her fears of the dread Freiherrinn could not prevent 
 her from bending her steps, trembling and palpi- 
 tating as she was, towards the hall, to try whether 
 the daughter-in-law's right might be vouchsafed to 
 her, of weeping with the elder sufferer. 
 
 The Freiherrinn sat by the chimney, rocking her- 
 self to and fro, and holding consultation with Hatto.
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 151 
 
 She started as she saw Christina approaching, and 
 made a gesture of repulsion ; but, with the feeling of 
 being past all terror in this desolate moment, Chris- 
 tina stepped nearer, knelt, and, clasping her hands, 
 said, " Yonr pardon, lady." 
 
 " Pardon ! " returned the harsh voice, even harsher 
 for very grief, " thou hast naught to fear, girl. As 
 things stand, thou canst not have thy deserts. Dost 
 hear?" 
 
 " Ah, lady, it was not such pardon that I meant. 
 If you would let me be a daughter to you." 
 
 " A daughter ! A wood-carver's girl to be a 
 daughter of Adlerstein ! " half laughed the grim ba- 
 roness. u Come here, wench," and Christina under- 
 went a series of sharp searching questions on the 
 evidences of her marriage. 
 
 " So," ended the old lady, " since better may not 
 be, we must own thee for the nonce. Hark ye all, 
 tins is the Frau Freiherrinn, Freiherr Eberhard's 
 widow, to be honoured as such," she added, raising 
 her voice. " There, girl, thou hast what thou didst 
 strive for. Is not that enough ? " 
 
 " Alas ! lady," said Christina, her eyes swimming 
 in tears, " I would fain have striven to be a com- 
 forter, or to weep together."
 
 152 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 "What! to bewitch me as thou didst my poor 
 son and daughter, and well-nigh my lord himself! 
 Girl ! Girl ! Thou know'st I cannot burn thee now : 
 but away with thee ; try not my patience too far." 
 
 And, more desolate than ever, the crushed and 
 broken-hearted Christina, a widow before she had 
 been owned a wife, returned to the room that was 
 now so full of memories as to be even more home 
 than Master Gottfried's gallery at Ulm.
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 153 
 
 CHAPTEK VIII. 
 
 PASSING THE OUBLIETTE. 
 
 Who can describe the dreariness of being snowed- 
 up all the winter with such a mother-in-law as 
 Freiherrinn Kunigunde ? 
 
 Yet it was well that the snow came early, for it 
 was the best defence of the lonely castle from any 
 attack on the part of the Schlangenwaldern, the 
 Swabian League, or the next heir, Freiherr Kasimir 
 von Adlerstein Wildschloss. The elder baroness had, 
 at least, the merit of a stout heart, and, even with 
 her sadly-reduced garrison, feared none of them. 
 She had been brought up in the faith that Adler- 
 stein was impregnable, and so she still believed; 
 and, if the disaster that had cut off her husband 
 and son was to happen at all, she was glad that 
 it had befallen before the homage had been paid. 
 Probably the Schlangenwald Count knew how tough 
 a morsel the castle was like to prove, and Wild- 
 schloss was serving at a distance, for nothing was
 
 154 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 heard of either during the short interval while the 
 roads were still open. During this time an attempt 
 had been made through Father Norbert to ascertain 
 what had become of the corpses of the two barons 
 and their followers, and it had appeared that the 
 Count had carried them all off from the inn, no 
 doubt to adorn his castle with their limbs, or to 
 present them to the Emperor in evidence of his zeal 
 for order. The old baron could not indeed have 
 been buried in consecrated ground, nor have masses 
 said for him; but for the weal of her son's soul 
 Dame Kunigunde gave some of her few ornaments, 
 and Christina added her gold earrings, and all her 
 scanty purse, that both her husband and father 
 might be joined in the prayers of the Church — 
 trying with all her might to put confidence in Hugh 
 Sorel's Loretto relic, and the Indulgence he had 
 bought, and trusting with more consolatory thoughts 
 to the ever stronger dawnings of good she had 
 watched in her own Eberhard. 
 
 She had some consoling intercourse with the 
 priest while all this was pending; but throughout 
 the winter she was entirely cut off from every 
 creature save the inmates of the castle, where, as 
 far as the old lady was concerned, she only existed
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 155 
 
 on sufferance, and all her meekness and gentleness 
 could not win for her more than the barest toleration. 
 That Eberhard had for a few hours survived his 
 father, and that thus the Freiherrinn Christina was 
 as much the Dowager Baroness as Kunigunde her- 
 self, was often insisted on in the kitchen by Ursel, 
 Hatto, and the Schneiderlein, whom Christina had 
 unconsciously rendered her most devoted servant, 
 not only by her daily care of his wound, but by 
 her kind courteous words, and by her giving him 
 his proper name of Heinz, dropping the absurd nom 
 de guerre of the Schneiderlein, or little tailor, which 
 had been originally conferred on him in allusion to 
 the valiant Tailorling who boasted of having killed 
 seven flies at a blow, and had been carried on 
 chiefly because of the contradiction between such a 
 title and his huge brawny strength and fierce cou- 
 rage. Poor Eberhard, with his undaunted bravery 
 and free reckless goodnature, a rufhan far more by 
 education than by nature, had been much loved by 
 his followers. His widow would have reaped the 
 benefit of that affection even if her exceeding sweet- 
 ness had not gained it on her own account ; and 
 this giant was completely gained over to her, when, 
 amid all her sorrow and feebleness, she never failed
 
 156 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 to minister to his sufferings to the utmost, while 
 her questions about his original home, and revival 
 of the name of his childhood, softened him, and 
 awoke in him better feelings. He would have died 
 to serve her, and she might have headed an oppo- 
 sition party in the castle, had she not been quite 
 indifferent to all save her grief; and, except by 
 sitting above the salt at the empty table, she 
 laid no claim to any honours or authority, and was 
 more seldom than ever seen beyond what was now 
 called her own room. 
 
 At last, when for the second time she was seeing 
 the snow wreaths dwindle, and the drops shine forth 
 in moisture again, while the mountain paths were 
 set free by the might of the springtide sun, she 
 spoke almost for the first time with authority, as 
 she desired Heinz to saddle her mule, and escort 
 her to join in the Easter mass at the Blessed Fried- 
 mund's Chapel. Ursel heaped up objections ; but 
 so urgent was Christina for confession and for mass, 
 that the old woman had not the heart to stop her 
 by a warning to the elder baroness, and took the 
 alternative of accompanying her. It was a glorious 
 sparkling Easter day, lovely blue sky above, herbage 
 and flowers glistening below, snow dazzling in the
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 157 
 
 hollows, peasants assembling in holiday garb, and 
 all rejoicing. Even the lonely widow, in her heavy 
 veil and black mufflings, took hope back to her 
 heart, and smiled when at the church door a little 
 child came timidly up to her with a madder-tinted 
 Easter egg — a gift once again like the happy home 
 customs of Ulm. She gave the child a kiss — she 
 had nothing else to give, but the sweet face sent it 
 away strangely glad. 
 
 The festival mass in all its exultation was not 
 fully over, when anxious faces began to be seen at 
 the door, and whisperings went round and many 
 passed out. Nobody at Adlerstein was particular 
 about silence in church, and, when the service was 
 not in progress, voices were not even lowered, and, 
 after many attempts on the part of the Schneiderlein 
 to attract the attention of his mistress, his voice 
 immediately succeeded the Ite missa est, " Gracious 
 lady, we must be gone. Your mule is ready. There 
 is a party at the Debateable Eord, whether Schlan- 
 genwald or Wildschloss we know not yet, but either 
 way you must be the first thing placed in safety." 
 
 Christina turned deadly pale. She had long been 
 ready to welcome death as a peaceful friend; but, 
 sheltered as her girlhood had been in the quiet
 
 158 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 city, slie had never been brought in contact with 
 warfare, and her nervous, timid temperament made 
 the thought most appalling and frightful to her, 
 certain as she was that the old baroness would 
 resist to the uttermost. Father Norbert saw her 
 extreme terror, and, with the thought that he might 
 comfort and support her, perhaps mediate between 
 the contending parties, plead that it was holy-tide, 
 and. proclaim the peace of the church, or at the 
 worst protect the lady herself, he offered his com- 
 pany; but, though she thanked him, it was as if 
 she scarcely understood his kindness, and a shudder 
 passed over her whenever the serfs, hastily sum- 
 moned to augment the garrison, came hurrying down 
 the path, or turning aside into the more rugged and 
 shorter descents. It was strange, the good father 
 thought, that so timorous and fragile a being should 
 have her lot cast amid these rugged places and 
 scenes of violence, with no one to give her the care 
 and cherishing she so much required. 
 
 Even when she crept up the castle stairs, she 
 was met with an angry rebuke, not so much for the 
 peril she had incurred as for having taken away 
 the Schneiderlein, by far the most availing among 
 the scanty remnant of the retainers of Adlerstein.
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 159 
 
 Attempting no answer, and not even daring to ask 
 from what quarter came the alarm, Christina made 
 her way out of the turmoil to that chamber of her 
 own, the scene of so much fear and sorrow, and 
 yet of some share of peace and happiness. But 
 from the window, near the fast subsiding waters of 
 the Debateable Ford, could plainly be seen the small 
 troop of warriors, of whom Jobst the Kohler had 
 brought immediate intelligence. The sun glistened 
 on their armour, and a banner floated gaily on the 
 wind ; but they were a fearful sight to the inmates 
 of the lonely castle. 
 
 A stout heart was, however, Kunigunde's best 
 endowment ; and, with the steadiness and precision 
 of a general, her commands rang out, as she arranged 
 and armed her garrison, perfectly resolved against 
 any submission, and confident in the strength of her 
 castle ; nay, not without a hope of revenge either 
 against Schlangenwald or \Yildschlo3s, whom, as a 
 degenerate Adlerstein, she hated only less than the 
 slayer of her husband and son. 
 
 The afternoon of Easter day, however, passed away 
 without any movement on the part of the enemy, 
 and it was not till the following day that they 
 could be seen struggling through the ford, and pre-
 
 160 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 paring to ascend the mountain. Attacks had some- 
 times been disconcerted by posting men in the most 
 dangerous passes ; but, in the lack of numbers, and 
 of trustworthy commanders, the Freiherrinn had 
 judged it wiser to trust entirely to her walls, and 
 keep her whole force within them. 
 
 The new comers could hardly have had any hostile 
 intentions, for, though well armed and accoutred, 
 their numbers did not exceed twenty-five. The 
 banner borne at their head was an azure one, with 
 a white eagle, and their leader could be observed 
 looking with amazement at the top of the watch- 
 tower, where the same eagle had that morni ng been 
 hoisted for the first time since the fall of the two 
 Freiherren. 
 
 So soon as the ascent had been made, the leader 
 wound his horn, and, before the echoes had died 
 away among the hills, Hatto, acting as seneschal, 
 was demanding his purpose. 
 
 " I am Kasimir von Adlerstein Wilclschloss," was 
 the reply. " I have hitherto been hindered by stress 
 of weather from coming to take possession of my 
 inheritance. Admit me, that I may arrange with 
 the widowed Frau Freiherrinn as to her dower and 
 residence."
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 161 
 
 " The widowed Frau Freiherrinn, born of Adler- 
 stein," returned Hatto, " thanks the Freiherr von 
 Adlerstein Wildschloss ; but she holds the castle 
 as guardian to the present head of the family, the 
 Freiherr von Adlerstein." 
 
 " It is false, old man," exclaimed Wildschloss ; 
 " the Freiherr had no other son." 
 
 " No," said Hatto, " but Freiherr Eberhard hath 
 left us twin heirs, our young lords, for whom we 
 hold this castle." 
 
 " This trifling will not serve ! " sternly spoke the 
 knight. " Eberhard von Adlerstein died unmarried." 
 
 " Not so/' returned Hatto, " our gracious Frau 
 Freiherrinn, the younger, was wedded to him at 
 the last Friedmund Wake, by the special blessing 
 of our good patron, who would not see our house 
 extinct." 
 
 " I must see thy lady, old man," said Sir Kasimir, 
 impatiently, not in the least crediting the story, and 
 believing his cousin Kunigunde quite capable of any 
 measure that could preserve to her the rule in Schloss 
 Adlerstein, even to erecting some passing love affair 
 of her son's into a marriage. And he hardly did 
 her injustice, for she had never made any inquiry 
 beyond the castle into the validity of Christinas 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 162 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 espousals, nor sought after the friar who had per- 
 formed the ceremony. She consented to an interview 
 with the claimant of the inheritance, and descended 
 to the gateway for the purpose. The court was at 
 its cleanest, the thawing snow having newly washed 
 away its impurities, and her proud figure, under her 
 black hood and veil, made an imposing appearance 
 as she stood tall and defiant in the archway. 
 
 Sir Kasimir was a handsome man of about thirty, 
 of partly Polish descent, and endowed with Slavonic 
 grace and courtesy, and he had likewise been em- 
 ployed in negotiations with Burgundy, and had 
 acquired much polish and knowledge of the world. 
 
 " Lady," he said, " I regret to disturb and intrude 
 on a mourning family, but I am much amazed at 
 the tidings I have heard; and I must pray of you 
 to confirm them." 
 
 * I thought they would confound you," composedly 
 replied Kunigunde. 
 
 " And pardon me, lady, but the Diet is very nice 
 in requiring full proofs. I would be glad to learn 
 what lady was chosen by my deceased cousin Eber- 
 hard." 
 
 " The lady is Christina, daughter of his esquire, 
 Hugh Sorel, of an honourable family at Ulm."
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 163 
 
 " Ha ! I know who and what Sorel was ! " ex- 
 claimed Wildschloss. " Lady cousin, thou wouldst 
 not stain the shield of Adler stein with owning aught 
 that cannot bear the examination of the Diet ! " 
 
 " Sir Kasimir," said Kunigunde, proudly, " had I 
 known the truth ere my son's death, I had strangled 
 the girl with mine own hands ! But I learnt it 
 only by his dying confession ; and, had she been 
 a beggar's child, she was his wedded wife, and her 
 babes are his lawful heirs." 
 
 " Knowest thou time — place — witnesses ? " in- 
 quired Sir Kasimir. 
 
 " The time, the Friedmuncl Wake ; the place, the 
 Friedmund Chapel," replied the Baroness. " Come 
 hither, Schneiderlein. Tell the knight thy young 
 lord's confession." 
 
 He bore emphatic testimony to poor Eberhard's 
 last words ; but as to the point of who had per- 
 formed the ceremony, he knew not — his mind had 
 not retained the name. 
 
 " I must see the Frau herself," said Wildschloss, 
 feeling certain that such a being as he expected in 
 a daughter of the dissolute lansknecht Sorel would 
 soon, by dexterous questioning, be made to expose 
 the futility of her pretensions so flagrantly that 
 M 2
 
 164 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 even Kunigunde could not attempt to maintain 
 them. 
 
 For one moment Kunigunde hesitated, hut sud- 
 denly a look of malignant satisfaction crossed her 
 face. She spoke a few words to Squinting Matz, 
 and then replied that Sir Kasimir should he allowed 
 to satisfy himself, hut that she could admit no one 
 else into the castle ; her's was a widow's household, 
 the twins were only a few hours old, and she could 
 not open her gates to admit any person besides 
 himself. 
 
 So resolved on judging for himself was Adlerstein 
 \Yildschloss that all this did not stagger him ; for, 
 even if he had believed more than he did of the 
 old lady's story, there would have been no sense 
 of intrusion or impropriety in such a visit to the 
 mother. Indeed, had Christina been living in the 
 civilized world, her chamber would have been hung 
 with black cloth, black velvet would have enveloped 
 her up to the eyes, and the blackest of cradles 
 would have stood ready for her fatherless babe ; 
 two steps, in honour of her baronial rank, would 
 have led to her bed, and a beaufet with the due 
 baronial amount of gold and silver plate would have 
 held the comfits and caudle to be dispensed to all
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 165 
 
 visitors. As it was, the two steps built into the 
 floor of the room, and the black hood that Ursel 
 tied over her young mistress's head, were the only 
 traces that such etiquette had ever been heard of. 
 
 But when Baron Kasimir had clanked up the 
 turret stairs, each step bringing to her many a 
 memory of him who should have been there, and 
 when he had been led to the bedside, he was 
 completely taken by surprise. 
 
 Instead of the great, flat-faced, coarse comeliness 
 of a German wench, treated as a lady in order to 
 deceive him, he saw a delicate, lily-like face, white 
 as ivory, and the soft sweet brown eyes under their 
 drooping lashes, so full of innocence and sad though 
 thankful content, that he felt as if the inquiries he 
 came to make were almost sacrilege. 
 
 He had seen enough of the world to know that no 
 agent in a clumsy imposition would look like this 
 pure white creature, with her arm encircling the two 
 1 ittle swaddled babes, whose red faces and bald heads 
 alone were allowed to appear above their mummy- 
 like wrappings ; and lie could only make an obeisance 
 lower and infinitely more respectful than that with 
 which he had favoured the Baroness n6e, von Adler- 
 stein, with a few words of inquiry and apology.
 
 166 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 But Christina had her sons' right to defend now, 
 and she had far more spirit to do so than ever she 
 had had in seeming her own position, and a delicate 
 rose tint came into her cheek as she said in her soft 
 voice, " The Baroness tells me, that you, noble sir, 
 would learn who wedded me to my dear and blessed 
 lord, Sir Eberhard. It was Friar Peter of the Fran- 
 ciscan brotherhood of Offingen, an agent for selling 
 indulgences. Two of his lay brethren were present. 
 My dear lord gave his own name and mine in full 
 after the holy rite ; the friar promising his testimony 
 if it were needed. He is to be found, or at least 
 heard of, at his own cloister ; and the hermit at the 
 chapel likewise beheld a part of the ceremony." 
 
 " Enough, enough, lady," replied Sir Kasimir ; " for- 
 give me for having forced the question upon you." 
 
 " Nay," replied Christina, with her blush deepen- 
 ing, " it is but just and due to us all;" and her soft 
 eyes had a gleam of exultation, as she looked at the 
 two little mummies that made up the us — " I would 
 have all inquiries made in full." 
 
 " They shall be made, lady, as will be needful for 
 the establishment of your son's right as a free baron 
 of the empire, but not with any doubt on my part, or 
 desire to controvert that right. I am fully convinced,
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 167 
 
 and only wish to serve yon and my little cousins. 
 AVhich of them is the head of our family ? " he added, 
 looking at the two absolutely undistinguishable little 
 chrysalises, so exactly alike that Christina herself 
 was obliged to look for the black ribbon, on which a 
 medal had been hung, round the neck of the elder. 
 Sir Kasimir put one knee to the ground as he kissed 
 the red cheek of the infant and the white hand of the 
 mother. 
 
 " Lady cousin," he said to Kunigunde, who had 
 stood by all this time with an anxious, uneasy, 
 scowling expression on her face, " I am satisfied. I 
 own this babe as the true Freiherr von Adlerstein, 
 and far be it from me to trouble his heritage. Eather 
 point out the way in which I may serve you and 
 him. Shall I represent all to the Emperor, and obtain 
 his wardship, so as to be able to protect you from any 
 attacks by the enemies of the house ? " 
 
 " Thanks, sir," returned the elder lady, severely, 
 seeing Christina's gratified, imploring face. " The 
 right line of Adlerstein can take care of itself with- 
 out greedy guardians appointed by usurpers. Our 
 submission has never been made, and the Emperor 
 cannot dispose of our wardship." 
 
 And Kunigunde looked defiant, regarding herself
 
 168 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 and her grandson as quite as good as the Emperor, 
 and ready to blast her daughter-in-law with her eyes 
 for • murmuring gratefully and wistfully, " Thanks, 
 noble sir, thanks ! " 
 
 " Let me at least win a friendly right in my young 
 cousins," said Sir Kasimir, the more drawn by pity- 
 ing admiration towards their mother, as he perceived 
 more of the grandmother's haughty repulsiveness and 
 want of comprehension of the dangers of her position. 
 " They are not baptized? Let me become their god- 
 father." 
 
 Christina's face was all joy and gratitude, and 
 even the grandmother made no objection ; in fact, it 
 was the babes' only chance of a noble sponsor ; and 
 Father Norbert, who had already been making ready 
 for the baptism, was sent for from the hall. Kuni- 
 gunde, meantime, moved about restlessly, went half- 
 way clown the stairs, and held counsel with some one 
 there ; Ursel, likewise, bustled about, and Sir Kasimir 
 remained seated on the chair that had been placed 
 for him near Christina's bed. 
 
 She was able again to thank him, and add, " It 
 may be that you will have more cause than the lady 
 grandmother thinks to remember your offer of pro- 
 tection to my poor orphans. Their father and grand-
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S REST. 1G9 
 
 father were, in very deed, on their way to make 
 submission." 
 
 " That is well known to me," said SirKasimir. "Lady, 
 I will do all in my power for you. The Emperor 
 shall hear the state of things ; and, while no violence 
 is offered to travellers," he added, lowering his tone, 
 " I doubt not he will wait for full submission till 
 this young baron be of age to tender it." 
 
 " We are scarce in force to offer violence," said 
 Christina, sighing. " I have no power to withstand 
 the Lady Baroness. I am like a stranger here ; but 
 oh ! sir, if the Emperor and Diet will be patient and 
 forbearing with this desolate house, my babes, if they 
 live, shall strive to requite their mercy by loyalty. 
 And the blessing of the widow and fatherless will 
 fall on you, most generous knight," she added, fer- 
 vently, holding out her hand. 
 
 " I would I could do more for you," said the knight. 
 " Ask, and all I can do is at your service." 
 
 " Ah, sir," cried Christina, her eyes brightening, 
 " there is one most inestimable service you could 
 render me — to let my uncle, Master Gottfried, the 
 wood-carver of Ulm, know where I am, and of my 
 state, and of my children." 
 
 Sir Kasimir repeated the name.
 
 170 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 " Yes/' she said. * There was my home, there 
 was I brought up by my dear uncle and aunt, till 
 my father bore me away to attend on the young 
 lady here. It is eighteen months since they had 
 any tidings from her who was as a daughter to 
 them." 
 
 " I will see them myself," said'Kasimir ; " I know 
 the name. Carved not Master Gottfried the stall- 
 work at Augsburg ? " 
 
 " Yes, indeed ! In chestnut leaves ! And the 
 misereres all with fairy tales ! " exclaimed Christina. 
 " sir, thanks indeed ! Bear to the dear, dear uncle 
 and aunt their child's duteous greetings, and tell 
 them she loves them with all her heart, and prays 
 them to forgive her, and to pray for her and her 
 little ones ! And," she added, " my uncle may not 
 have learnt how his brother, my father, died by his 
 lord's side. Oh ! pray him, if ever he loved his little 
 Christina, to have masses sung for my father and my 
 own dear lord." 
 
 As she promised, Ursel came to make the babes 
 ready for their baptism, and Sir Kasimir moved away 
 towards the window. Ursel was looking uneasy and 
 dismayed, and, as she bent over her mistress, she 
 whispered, " Lady, the Schneiderlein sends you word
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 171 
 
 that Matz lias called him to help in removing the 
 props of the door you wot of when he yonder steps 
 across it. He would know if it be your will ? " 
 
 The oubliette ! This was Frau Kunigunde's usage 
 of the relative who was doing his best for the welfare 
 of her grandsons ! Christina's whole countenance 
 looked so frozen with horror, that Ursel felt as if she 
 had killed her on the spot; but the next moment 
 a flash of relief came over the pale features, and the 
 trembling lip commanded itself to say, " My best 
 thanks to good Heinz ! Say to him that I forbid it. 
 If he loves the life of his master's children, he will 
 abstain ! Tell him so. My blessings on him if this 
 knight leave the castle safe, Ursel." And her ter- 
 rified earnest eyes impelled Ursel to hasten to do 
 her bidding ; but whether it had been executed, there 
 was no knowing, for almost immediately the Frei- 
 herrinn and Father Norbert entered, and Ursel re- 
 turned with them. Nay, the message given, who 
 could tell if Heinz would be able to act upon it ? In 
 the ordinary condition of the castle, he was indeed 
 its most efficient inmate; Matz did not approach 
 him in strength, Hans was a cripple, Hatto would 
 be on the right side ; but Jobst the Kohler, and the 
 other serfs who had been called in for the defence,
 
 172 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 were more likely to hold with the elder than the 
 younger lady. And Frau Kuniguncle herself, knowing 
 well that the five-and-twenty men outside would be 
 incompetent to avenge their master, confident in 
 her narrow-minded, ignorant pride that no one coidd 
 take Schloss Adlerstein, and incapable of under- 
 standing the changes in society that were rendering 
 her isolated condition untenable, was certain to scout 
 any representation of the dire consequences that the 
 crime would entail. Kasimir had no near kindred, 
 and private revenge was the only justice the Baroness 
 believed in ; she only saw in her crime the satis- 
 faction of an old feud, and the union of the Wild- 
 schloss property with the parent stem. 
 
 Seldom could such a christening have taken place 
 as that of which Christina's bedroom was the scene — 
 the mother scarcely able even to think of the holy 
 sacrament for the horror of knowing that the one 
 sponsor was already exulting in the speedy de- 
 struction of the other ; and, poor little feeble thing, 
 rallying the last remnants of her severely-tried 
 powers to prevent the crime at the most terrible 
 of risks. 
 
 p The elder babe received from his grandmother 
 the hereditary name of Eberhard, but Sir Kasimir
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 173 
 
 looked at the mother inquiringly, ere he gave the 
 other to the priest. Christina had well-nigh said, 
 " Oubliette/' but, recalling herself in time, she feebly 
 uttered the name she had longed after from the 
 moment she had known that two sons had been 
 her Easter gift, " Gottfried," after her beloved uncle. 
 But Kunigunde caught the sound, and exclaimed, 
 " No son of Adlerstein shall bear a base craftsman's 
 name. Call him Eacher (the avenger) ;" and in the 
 word there already rang a note of victory and 
 revenge that made Christina's blood run cold. Sir 
 Kasimir marked her trouble. "The lady mother 
 loves not the sound," he said, kindly. " Lady, 
 have you any other wish ? Then will I call him 
 Friedmund." 
 
 Christina had almost smiled. To her the omen 
 was of the best. Baron Friedmund had been the last 
 common ancestor of the two branches of the family, 
 the patron saint was so called, his wake was her 
 wedding day, the sound of the word imported peace, 
 and the good Barons Ebbo and Friedel had ever 
 been linked together lovingly by popular memory. 
 And so the second little baron received the name 
 of Friedmund, and then the Knight of Wildschloss, 
 perceiving, with consideration rare in a warrior, that
 
 174 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 the mother looked worn out and feverish, at once 
 prepared to kiss her hand and take leave. 
 
 " One more favour, Sir Knight," she said, lifting 
 up her head, while a burning spot rose on either 
 cheek, " I beg of you to take my two babes down 
 — yes, both, both, in your own arms, and show 
 them to your men, owning them as your kinsmen 
 and godsons." 
 
 Sir Kasimir looked exceedingly amazed, as if he 
 thought the lady's senses taking leave of her, and 
 Dame Kunigunde broke out into declarations that 
 it was absurd, and she did not know what she was 
 talking of; but she repeated almost with passion, 
 "Take them, take them, you know not how much 
 depends on it." Ursel, with unusual readiness of 
 wit, signed and whispered that the young mother 
 must be humoured, for fear of consequences ; till 
 the knight, in a good-natured, confused way, sub- 
 mitted to receive the two little bundles in his 
 arms, while he gave place to Kunigunde, who hastily 
 stepped before him in a manner that made Christina 
 trust that her precaution would be effectual. 
 
 The room was reeling round with her. The agony 
 of those few minutes was beyond all things un- 
 speakable. What had seemed just before like a
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 175 
 
 certain way of saving the guest without real danger 
 to her children, now appeared instead the most cer- 
 tain destruction to all, and herself the unnatural 
 mother who had doomed her new-born babes for a 
 stranger's sake. She could not even pray ; she 
 would have shrieked to have them brought back, 
 but her voice was dead within her, her tongue clave 
 to the roof of her mouth, ringings in her ears 
 hindered her even from listening to the descending 
 steps. She lay as one dead, when ten minutes 
 afterwards the cry of one of her babes struck on 
 her ear, and the next moment Ursel stood beside 
 her, laying them down close to her, and saying 
 exultingly, " Safe ! safe out at the gate, and down 
 the hill side, and my old lady ready to gnaw off 
 her hands for spite ! "
 
 176 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST, 
 
 CHAPTEK IX. 
 
 THE EAGLETS. 
 
 Christina's mental and bodily constitution had 
 much similarity — apparently most delicate, tender, 
 and timid, yet capable of a vigour, health, and 
 endurance that withstood shocks that might have 
 been fatal to many apparently stronger persons. 
 The events of that frightful Easter Monday morning 
 did indeed almost kill her; but the effects, though 
 severe, were not lasting ; and by the time the last 
 of Ermentrude's snow-wreath had vanished, she was 
 sunning her babes at the window, happier than she 
 had ever thought to be — above all, in the possession 
 of both the children. A nurse had been captured 
 for the little Baron from the village on the hill- 
 side ; but the woman had fretted, the child had 
 pined, and had been given back to his mother to 
 save his life : and ever since both had thriven per- 
 fectly under her sole care, so that there was very 
 nearly joy in that room.
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE*S XEST. 177 
 
 Outside it, there was more bitterness than ever. 
 The grandmother had softened for a few moments 
 at the birth of the children, with satisfaction at 
 obtaining twice as much as she had hoped ; but 
 the frustration of her vengeance upon Kasimir of 
 Adlerstein "Wildschloss had renewed all her hatred, 
 and she had no scruple in abusing " the burgher- 
 woman " to the whole household for her artful desire 
 to captivate another nobleman. She, no doubt, ex- 
 pected that degenerate fool of a vVildschlosser to 
 come wooing after her ; " if he did he should meet 
 his deserts." It was the favourite reproach when- 
 ever she chose to vent her fury on the mute, blush- 
 ing, weeping young widow, whose glance at her 
 babies was her only appeal against the cruel ac- 
 cusation. 
 
 On Midsummer eve, Heinz the Schneiderlein, who 
 had all day been taking toll from the various at- 
 tendants at the Friedmund Wake, came up and 
 knocked at the door. He had a bundle over his 
 shoulder and a bag in his hand, which last he 
 offered to her. 
 
 » The toll ! It is for the Lady Baroness." 
 
 " You are my Lady Baroness. I levy toll for this 
 my young lord." 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 178 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 " Take it to her, good Heinz, slie must have the 
 charge, and needless strife I will not breed." 
 
 The angry notes of Dame Kunigunde came up : 
 " How now, knave Schneiderlein ! Come down with 
 the toll instantly. It shall not be tampered with ! 
 Down, I say, thou thief of a tailor." 
 
 " Go ; prithee go, vex her not," entreated Christina. 
 
 " Coming, lady !" shouted Heinz, and, disregarding 
 all further objurgations from beneath, he proceeded 
 to deposit his bundle, and explain that it had been 
 entrusted to him by a pedlar from Ulm, who would 
 likewise take charge of anything she might have 
 to send in return, and he then ran down just in 
 time to prevent a domiciliary visit from the old lady. 
 
 From Ulm ! The very sound was joy; and Christina 
 with trembling hands unfastened the cords and 
 stitches that secured the canvas covering, within 
 which lay folds on folds of linen, and in the midst 
 a rich silver goblet, long ago brought by her father 
 from Italy, a few of her own possessions, and a 
 letter from her uncle secured with black floss silk, 
 with a black seal. 
 
 She kissed it with transport, but the contents 
 were somewhat chilling by their grave formality. 
 The opening address to the "honour-worthy Lady
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 179 
 
 Baroness and love-worthy niece," conveyed to her 
 a doubt on good Master Gottfried's part whether 
 she were still truly worthy of love or honour. The 
 slaughter at Jacob Miiller's had been already knowD 
 to him, and he expressed himself as relieved, but 
 greatly amazed, at the information he had received 
 from the Baron of Adlerstein Wildschloss, who had 
 visited him at Ulm, after having verified what had 
 been alleged at Schloss Adlerstein by application 
 to the friar at Omngen. 
 
 Freiherr von Adlerstein Wildschloss had further 
 requested him to make known that, feud-briefs having 
 regularly passed between Schlangenwald and Adler- 
 stein, and the two barons not having been within the 
 peace of the empire, no justice could be exacted for 
 their deaths ; yet, in consideration of the tender age 
 of the present heirs, the question of forfeiture or 
 submission should be waived till they could act for 
 themselves, and Schlangenwald should be withheld 
 from injuring them so long as no molestation was 
 offered to travellers. It was plain that Sir Kasimir 
 had well and generously done his best to protect the 
 helpless twins, and he sent respectful but cordial 
 greetings to their mother. These, however, were far 
 less heeded by her than the coldness of her uncle's 
 n2
 
 180 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 letter. She had drifted beyond the reckoning of her 
 kindred, and they were sending her her property and 
 bridal linen, as if they had done with her, and had 
 lost their child in the robber-baron's wife. Yet at 
 the end there was a touch of old times in offering a 
 blessing, should she still value it, and the hopes that 
 heaven and the saints would comfort her ; " for surely, 
 thou poor child, thou must have suffered much, and, 
 if thou wiliest still to write to thy city kin, thine 
 aunt would rejoice to hear that thou and thy babes 
 were in good health." 
 
 Precise grammarian and scribe as was Uncle Gott- 
 fried, the lapse from the formal Sie to the familiar Du 
 went to his niece's heart. Whenever her little ones 
 left her any leisure, she spent this her first wedding- 
 day in writing so earnest and loving a letter as, in 
 spite of mediaeval formality, must assure the good 
 burgomaster that, except in having suffered much 
 and loved much, his little Christina was not changed 
 since she had left him. 
 
 No answer could be looked for till another wake- 
 day ; but, when it came, it was full and loving, and 
 therewith were sent a few more of her favourite books, 
 a girdle, and a richly-scented pair of gloves, together 
 with two ivory boxes of comfits, and two little purple
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 181 
 
 silk, gold-edged, straight, narrow garments, and tight 
 round brimless lace caps, for the two little Barons. 
 Nor did henceforth a wake-day pass by without 
 bringing some such token, not only delightful as 
 gratifying Christina's affection by the kindness that 
 suggested them, but supplying absolute wants in the 
 dire stress of poverty at Schloss Adlerstein. 
 
 Christina durst not tell her mother-in-law of the 
 terms on which they were unmolested, trusting to 
 the scantiness of the retinue and to her own influence 
 with the Schneiderlein to hinder any serious violence. 
 Indeed, while the Count of Schlangenwald was in the 
 neighbourhood, his followers took care to secure all 
 that could be captured at the Debateable Ford, and 
 the broken forces of Adlerstein would have been 
 insane had they attempted to contend with such su- 
 perior numbers. That the castle remained unattached 
 was attributed by the elder Baroness to its own 
 merits ; nor did Christina undeceive her. They had 
 no intercourse with the outer world, except that once 
 a pursuivant arrived with a formal intimation from 
 their kinsman, the Baron of Adlerstein Wildschloss, 
 of his marriage with the noble Fraulein, Countess 
 Valeska von Trautbach, and a present of a gay dagger 
 for each of his godsons. Frau Kunigunde triumphed
 
 182 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 a good deal over the notion of Christina's supposed 
 disappointment ; but the tidings were most welcome 
 to the younger lady, who trusted they would put an 
 end to all future taunts about Wildschloss. Alas ! 
 the handle for abuse was too valuable to be relin- 
 quished. 
 
 The last silver cup the castle had possessed had to 
 be given as a reward to the pursuivant, and mayhap 
 Frau Kunigunde reckoned this as another offence of 
 her daughter-in-law, since, had Sir Kasimir been safe 
 in the oubliette, the twins might have shared his 
 broad lands on the Danube, instead of contributing 
 to the fees of his pursuivant. The cup could indeed 
 be ill spared. The cattle and swine, the dues of the 
 serfs, and the yearly toll at the wake were the sole 
 resources of the household; and though there was 
 no lack of meat, milk, and black bread, sufficient 
 garments could scarce be come by, with all the spin- 
 ning of the household, woven by the village webster, 
 of whose time the baronial household, by prescriptive 
 right, owned the lion's share. 
 
 These matters little troubled the two beings in 
 whom Christina's heart was wrapped up. Though 
 running about barefooted and bareheaded, they were 
 healthy, handsome, straight -limbed, noble -looking
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 183 
 
 creatures, so exactly alike, and so inseparable, that 
 no one except herself could tell one from the other 
 save by the medal of Our Lady worn by the elder, 
 and the little cross carved by the mother for the 
 younger ; indeed, at one time, the urchins themselves 
 would feel for cross or medal, ere naming themselves 
 " Ebbo," or " Friedel." They were tall for their age, 
 but with the slender make of their foreign ancestry ; 
 and, though their fair rosy complexions were bright- 
 ened by mountain mists and winds, their rapidly 
 darkening hair, and large liquid brown eyes, told of 
 their Italian blood. Their grandmother looked on 
 their colouring as a taint, and Christina herself had 
 hoped to see their father's simple, kindly blue eyes 
 revive in his boys; but she could hardly have de- 
 sired anything different from the dancing, kindling, 
 or earnest glances that used to flash from under their 
 long black lashes when they were nestling in her 
 lap, or playing by her knee, making music with their 
 prattle, or listening to her answers with faces alive 
 with intelligence. They scarcely left her time for 
 sorrow or regret. 
 
 They were never quarrelsome. Either from the 
 influence of her gentleness, or from their absolute 
 union, they coidd do and enjoy nothing apart, and
 
 184 THE DOVE EN' THE EAGLE'S NEST, 
 
 would as soon have thought of their right and left 
 hands falling out as of Ebbo and Friedel disputing. 
 EbbOj however, was always the right hand. TJic 
 Freiherr, as he had been called from the first, had. 
 from the time he could sit at the table at all. been 
 put into the baronial chair with the eagle carved at 
 the back ; every member of the household, from his 
 grandmother downwards, placed him foremost, and 
 Friedel followed their example, at the less loss to 
 hiinself, as his hand was always in Ebbo's. and all 
 their doings were in common. Sometimes, however, 
 the mother doubted whether there would have been 
 this perfect absence of all contest had the medal of 
 the firstborn chanced to hang round Friedmmid's 
 neck instead of Eberhard's. At first they were en- 
 tirely left to her. Their grandmother heeded them 
 little as long as they were healthy, and evidently 
 regarded them more as heirs of Adlerstein than as 
 grandchildren: but, as they grew older, she showed 
 anxiety lest their mother should interfere with the 
 fierce lawless spirit proper to their line. 
 
 One winter day. when they were nearly six years 
 old, Christina, spinning at her window, had been 
 watching them snowballing in the castle court, 
 smiling and applauding every large handful held up
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLK's NEST. 185 
 
 to her, every laughing combat, every well-aimed hit, 
 as the hardy little fellows scattered the snow in 
 showers round them, raising their merry fur-capped 
 faces to the bright eyes that " rained influence and 
 judged the prize." 
 
 By and by they stood still; Ebbd — she know him 
 by the tossed head and commanding air — was pro- 
 posing what Friedel seemed to disapprove ; but, after 
 a short discussion, Ebbo flung away from him, and 
 went towards a shed where was kept a wolf-cub, re- 
 cently presented to the young barons by old Ulfich's 
 son. The whelp was so young as to be quite harmless, 
 but it was far from amiable ; Friedel never willingly 
 approached it, and the snarling and winning replies 
 to all advances had begun to weary and irritate Ebbo. 
 He dragged it out by its chain, and, tethering it to 
 a post, made it a mark for his snowballs, which, 
 kneaded hard, and delivered with hearty good-will 
 by his sturdy arms, made the poor little beast yelp 
 with pain and terror, till the more tender-hearted 
 Friedel threw himself on his brother to withhold 
 him, while Matz stood by laughing and applauding 
 the baron. Seeing Ebbo shake Friedel off with un- 
 usual petulance, and pitying the tormented animal, 
 Christina flung a cloak round her head and hastened
 
 186 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 downstairs, entering the court just as the terrified 
 whelp had made a snap at the boy, which was re- 
 turned by angry, vindictive pelting, not merely with 
 snow, but with stones. Friedel sprang to her crying, 
 and her call to Ebbo made him turn, though with 
 fury in his face, shouting, " He would bite me ! the 
 evil beast ! " 
 
 " Come with me, Ebbo," she said. 
 
 " He shall suffer for it, the spiteful, ungrateful 
 brute ! Let me alone, mother ! " cried Ebbo, stamp- 
 ing on the snow, but still from habit yielding to her 
 hand on his shoulder. 
 
 " What now ? " demanded the old Baroness, appear- 
 ing on the scene. " Who is thwarting the Baron ? " 
 , , " She j she will not let me deal with yonder savage 
 whelp/' cried the boy. 
 
 " She ! Take thy way, child," said the old lady. 
 " Visit him well for his malice. None shall with- 
 stand thee here. At thy peril ! " she added, turning on 
 Christina. " What, art not content to have brought 
 base mechanical blood into a noble house ? Wouldst 
 make slaves and cowards of its sons ? " 
 
 " I would teach them true courage, not cruelty," 
 she tried to say. 
 
 " What should such as thou know of ^ courage ?
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 187 
 
 Look here, girl : another word to daunt the spirit of 
 my grandsons, and I'll have thee scourged down the 
 mountain-side ! On ! At him, Ebbo ! That's my 
 gallant young knight ! Out of the way, girl, with thy 
 whining looks ! "What, Friedel, be a man, and aid 
 thy brother ! Has she made thee a puling woman 
 already?" And Kunigunde laid an ungentle grasp 
 upon Friedmund, who was clinging to his mother, 
 hiding Ins face in her gown. He struggled against 
 the clutch, and would not look up or be detached. 
 
 " Fie, poor little coward ! " taunted the old lady ; 
 " never heed him, Ebbo, my brave baron ! " 
 
 Cut to the heart, Christina took refuge in her 
 room, and gathered her Friedel to her bosom, as he 
 sobbed out, " Oh, mother, the poor little wolf ! Oh, 
 mother, are you weeping too ? The grandmother 
 should not so speak to the sweetest, dearest mother- 
 ling," he added, throwing his arms round her neck. 
 
 " Alas, Friedel, that Ebbo should learn that it is 
 brave to hurt the weak ! " 
 
 " It is not like Walther of Vogelwiede," said Frie- 
 del, whose mind had been much impressed by the 
 Minnesinger's bequest to the birds. 
 
 " Nor like any true Christian knight. Alas, my
 
 188 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 poor boys, must you be taught foul cruelty, and I 
 too weak and cowardly to save you ? " 
 
 " That never will be," said Friedel, lifting his head 
 from her shoulder. " Hark ! what a howl was that ! " 
 " Listen not, dear child ; it does but pain thee." 
 " But Ebbo is not shouting. Oh, mother, he is 
 vexed — he is hurt ! " cried Friedel, springing from her 
 lap ; but, ere either could reach the window, Ebbo 
 had vanished from the scene. They only saw the 
 young wolf stretched dead on the snow, and the 
 same moment in burst Ebbo, and flung himself on 
 the floor in a passion of weeping. Stimulated by the 
 applause of his grandmother and of Matz, he had 
 furiously pelted the poor animal with all missiles that 
 came to hand, till a blow, either from him or Matz, 
 had produced such a howl and struggle of agony, and 
 then such terrible stillness, as had gone to the young 
 Baron's very heart, a heart as soft as that of his 
 father had been by nature. Indeed, his sobs were so 
 piteous that his mother was relieved to hear only, 
 " The wolf ! the poor wolf ! " and to find that he him- 
 self was unhurt ; and she was scarcely satisfied of 
 this when dame Kunigunde came up also alarmed, 
 and thus turned his grief to wrath. " As if I would 
 cry in that w T ay for a bite ! " he said. " Go, gran-
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 189 
 
 dame ; you made me do it, the poor beast ! " with a 
 fresh sob. 
 
 " Ulrich shall get thee another cub, my child." 
 
 " No, no ; I never will have another cub ! Why 
 did you let me kill it?" 
 
 " For shame, Ebbo ! Weep for a spiteful brute ! 
 That's no better than thy mother or Friedel." 
 
 " I love my mother ! I love Friedel ! They would 
 have withheld me. Go, go ; I hate you ! " 
 
 " Peace, peace, Ebbo," exclaimed his mother ; " you 
 know not what you say. Ask your grandmother's 
 pardon." 
 
 " Peace, thou fool ! " screamed the old lady. " The 
 Baron speaks as he will in his own castle. He is not 
 to be checked here, and thwarted there, and taught to 
 mince his words like a cap-in-hand pedlar. Pardon ! 
 When did an Adlerstein seek pardon ? Come with 
 me, my baron ; I have still some honey-cakes." 
 
 " Not I," replied Ebbo ; " honey-cakes will not 
 cure the wolf whelp. Go : I want my mother aud 
 Friedel." 
 
 Alone with them his pride and passion were gone ; 
 but alas ! what augury for the future of her boys' was 
 left with the mother !
 
 190 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE EAGLE'S PREY. 
 
 It fell about the Lammas tide, 
 "When moor men win their hay,' 
 
 that all the serfs of Adlerstein were collected to 
 collect their lady's hay to be stored for the winter's 
 fodder of the goats, and of poor Sir Eberhard's old 
 white mare, the only steed as yet ridden by the 
 young Barons. 
 
 The boys were fourteen years old. So monotonous 
 was their mother's life that it was chiefly their 
 growth that marked the length of her residence in 
 the castle. Otherwise there had been no change, 
 except that the elder Baroness was more feeble in 
 her limbs, and still more irritable and excitable in 
 temper. There were no events, save a few hunting 
 adventures of the boys, or the yearly correspondence 
 with Ulm ; and the same life continued, of shrinking 
 in dread from the old lady's tyrannous dislike, and
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S XEST. 191 
 
 of the constant endeavour to infuse better principles 
 into the boys, without the open opposition for which 
 there was neither power nor strength. 
 
 The boys' love was entirely given to their mother. 
 Far from diminishing with their dependence on her, 
 it increased with the sense of protection ; and, now 
 that they were taller than herself, she seemed to 
 be cherished by them more than ever. Moreover, 
 she was their oracle. Quick-witted and active- 
 minded, loving books the more because their grand- 
 mother thought signing a feud-letter the utmost 
 literary effort becoming to a noble, they never rested 
 till they had acquired all that their mother could 
 teach them ; or, rather, they then became more 
 restless than ever. Long ago had her whole store 
 of tales and ballads become so familiar, by repeti- 
 tion, that the boys could correct her in the smallest 
 variation ; reading and writing were mastered as 
 for pleasure ; and the " Nuremberg Chronicle," with 
 its wonderful woodcuts, excited such a passion of 
 curiosity that they must needs conquer its Latin 
 and read it for themselves. This " World History," 
 with Alexander and the Nine Worthies, the cities 
 and landscapes, and the oft-repeated portraits, was 
 Eberhard's study ; but Friedmund continued con-
 
 192 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 stant to Waltlier of Vogelweide. Eberhard cared 
 for no character in the Vulgate so much as for 
 Judas the Maccabee ; but Friedmund's heart was all 
 for King David ; and to both lads, shut up from 
 companionship as they were, every acquaintance 
 in their books was a living being whose like they 
 fancied might be met beyond their mountain. And, 
 when they should go forth, like Dietrich of Berne, 
 in search of adventures, doughty deeds were chiefly 
 to fall to the lot of Ebbo's lance ; while Friedel was 
 to be their Minnesinger ; and indeed certain verses, 
 that he had murmured in his brother's ear, had left 
 no doubt in Ebbo's mind that the exploits would be 
 worthily sung. 
 
 The soft dreamy eye was becoming Friedel's cha- 
 racteristic, as fire and keenness distinguished his 
 brother's glance. When at rest, the twins could be 
 known apart by their expression, though in all other 
 respects they were as alike as ever ; and let Ebbo 
 look thoughtful or Friedel eager, and they were again 
 undistinguishable ; and, indeed, they were constantly 
 changing looks. Had not Friedel been beside him, 
 Ebbo would have been deemed a wondrous student 
 for his years ; had not Ebbo been the standard of 
 comparison, Friedel would have been in high repute
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 193 
 
 for spirit and enterprise and skill as a cragsman, 
 with the cross-bow, and in all feats of arms that 
 the Schneiderlein could impart. They shared all 
 occupations ; and it was by the merest shade that 
 Ebbo excelled with the weapon, and Friedel with 
 the book or tool. For the artist nature was in 
 them, not intentionally excited by their mother, but 
 far too strong to be easily discouraged. They had 
 long daily gazed at Ulm in the distance, hoping to 
 behold the spire completed ; and the illustrations 
 in their mother's books excited a strong desire to 
 imitate them. The floor had often been covered 
 with charcoal outlines even before Christina was 
 persuaded to impart the rules she had learnt from 
 her uncle ; and her carving-tools were soon seized 
 upon. At first they were used only upon knobs of 
 sticks ; but one day when the boys, roaming on 
 the mountain, had lost their way, and coming to the 
 convent had been there hospitably welcomed by Father 
 Norbert, they came home wild to make carvings 
 like what they had seen in the chapel. Jobst the 
 Kohler .was continually importuned for soft wood ; 
 the fair was ransacked for knives ; and even the old 
 Baroness could not find great fault with the occu- 
 pation, base and mechanical though it were, which 
 vol. i. o
 
 194 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 disposed of the two restless spirits during the many 
 hours when winter storms confined them to the 
 castle. Paide as was their work, the constant ob- 
 servation and choice of subjects were an unsuspected 
 training and softening. It was not in vain that they 
 lived in the glorious mountain fastness, and saw the 
 sun descend in his majesty, dyeing the masses of 
 rock with purple and crimson; not in vain that 
 they beheld peak and ravine clothed in purest 
 snow, flushed with rosy light at morn and eve, or 
 contrasted with the purple blue of the sky ; or that 
 they stood marvelling at ice caverns with gigantic 
 crystal pendants shining with the most magical pure 
 depths of sapphire and emerald, " as if," said Friedel, 
 " winter kept in his service all the jewel-forging 
 dwarfs of the motherling's tales." And, when the snow 
 melted and the buds returned, the ivy spray, the 
 smiling saxifrage, the purple gentian bell, the feathery 
 rowan leaf, the symmetrical lady's mantle, were 
 hailed and loved first as models, then for themselves. 
 One regret their mother had, almost amounting 
 to shame. Every virtuous person believed in the 
 efficacy of the rod, and, maugre her own docility, 
 she had been chastised with it almost as a religious 
 duty; but her sons had never felt the weight of a
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 195 
 
 blow, except once when their grandmother caught 
 them carving a border of eagles and doves round 
 the hall table, and then Ebbo had returned the 
 blow with all his might. As to herself, if she ever 
 worked herself up to attempt chastisement, the Ba- 
 roness was sure to fall upon her for insulting the 
 noble birth of her sons, and thus gave them a triumph 
 far worse for them than impunity. In truth, the 
 boys had their own way, or rather the Baron had 
 his way, and his way was Baron Friedmund's. Poor, 
 bare, and scanty as were all the surroundings of 
 their life, everything was done to feed their arro- 
 gance, with only one influence to counteract their 
 education in pride and violence — a mother's influ- 
 ence, indeed, but her authority was studiously taken 
 from her, and her position set at nought, with no 
 power save what she might derive from their love 
 and involuntary honour, and the sight of the pain 
 caused her by their wrong-doings. 
 
 And so the summer's hay-harvest was come. Pea- 
 sants clambered into the green nooks between the 
 rocks, to cut down with hook or knife the flowery 
 grass, for there was no space for the sweep of a 
 scythe. The best crop was on the bank of the 
 Braunwasser, by the Debateable Ford, but this was 
 o2
 
 196 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 cut and carried on the backs of the serfs, much 
 earlier than the mountain grass, and never without 
 much vigilance against the Schlangenwalclern ; but 
 this year the Count was absent at his Styrian castle, 
 and little had been seen or heard of his people. 
 
 The full muster of serfs appeared, for Frau Kuni- 
 <?unde admitted of no excuses, and the sole absentee 
 was a widow who lived on the ledge of the mountain 
 next above that on which the castle stood. Her son 
 reported her to be very ill, and with tears in his 
 eyes entreated Baron Friedel to obtain leave for 
 him to return to her, since she was quite alone in 
 her solitary hut, with no one even to give her a 
 drink of water. Friedel rushed with the entreaty 
 to his grandmother, but she laughed it to scorn. 
 Lazy Koppel only wanted an excuse, or, if not, the 
 woman was old and useless, and men could not 
 be spared. «, 
 
 "Ah! good grandame," said Friedel, "his father 
 died with ours." 
 
 " The more honour for him ! The more he is 
 bound to work for us. Off, Junker, make no 
 loiterers." 
 
 Grieved and discomfited, Friedel betook himself 
 to his mother and brother.
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S XEST. 197 
 
 " Foolish lad not to have come to me ! " said 
 the young Baron. " Where is he ? I '11 send him 
 at once." 
 
 But Christina interposed an offer to go and take 
 Koppel's place beside his mother, and her skill was 
 so much prized over all the mountain-side, that the 
 alternative was gratefully accepted, and she was 
 escorted up the steep path by her two boys to the 
 hovel, where she spent the day in attendance on 
 the sick woman. 
 
 Evening came on, the patient was better, but 
 Koppel did not return, nor did the young Barons 
 come to fetch their mother home. The last sunbeams 
 were dying off the mountain-tops, and, beginning to 
 suspect something amiss, she at length set off, and 
 half way down met Koppel, who replied to her 
 question, " Ah, then, the gracious lady has not heard 
 of our luck. Excellent booty, and two prisoners ! 
 The young Baron has been a hero indeed, and has 
 won himself a knightly steed." And, on her further 
 interrogation, he added, that an unusually rich but 
 small company had been reported by Jobst the 
 Kohler to be on the way to the ford, where he had 
 skilfully prepared a stumbling-block. The gracious 
 Baroness had caused Hatto to jodel all the hay-
 
 198 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 makers together, and they had fallen on the travellers 
 by the straight path down the crag. " Ach ! did not 
 the young Baron spring like a young genisbock ? 
 And in midstream down came their pack-horses and 
 their wares ! Some of them took to flight, but, pfui, 
 there were enough for my young lord to show his 
 mettle upon. Such a prize the saints have not sent 
 since the old Baron's time." 
 
 Christina pursued her walk in dismay at this new 
 beginning of freebooting in its worst form, over- 
 throwing all her hopes. The best thing that could 
 happen would be the immediate interference of the 
 Swabian League, while her sons were too young to 
 be personally held guilty. Yet this might involve 
 ruin and confiscation ; and, apart from all conse- 
 quences, she bitterly grieved that the stain of 
 robbery should have fallen on her hitherto innocent 
 sons. 
 
 Every peasant she met greeted her with praises 
 of their young lord, and, when she mounted the 
 hall-steps, she found the floor strewn with bales 
 of goods. 
 
 " Mother," cried Ebbo, flying up to her, " have you 
 heard ? I have a horse ! a spirited bay, a knightly 
 charger, and Friedel is to ride him by turns with me.
 
 199 
 
 Where is Eriedel? And, mother, Heinz said I struck 
 as good a stroke as any of them, and I have a sword 
 for Friedel now. Why does he not come? And, 
 motherling, this is for you, a gown of velvet, a 
 real black velvet, that will make you fairer than our 
 Lady at the Convent. Come to the window and see 
 it, mother dear." 
 
 The boy was so joyously excited that she could 
 hardly withstand his delight, but she did not move. 
 
 " Don't you like the velvet ?" he continued. " We 
 always said that, the first prize we won, the mother- 
 ling should wear velvet. Do but look at it." 
 
 " Woe is me, my Ebbo ! " she sighed, bending to 
 kiss his brow. 
 
 He understood her at once, coloured, and spoke 
 hastily and in defiance. u It was in the river, mother, 
 the horses fell ; it is our right." 
 
 " Fairly, Ebbo ? " she asked in a low voice. 
 
 " Nay, mother, if Jobst did hide a branch in mid- 
 stream, it was no doing of mine ; and the horses fell. 
 The Schlangenwaldern don't even wait to let them 
 fall. We cannot live, if we are to be so nice and 
 dainty." 
 
 " Ah ! my son, I thought not to hear you call 
 mercy and honesty mere niceness."
 
 200 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 " What do I hear ? " exclaimed Frau Kunigunde, 
 entering from the storeroom, where she had been 
 disposing of some spices, a much esteemed com- 
 modity. " Are yon chiding and daunting this boy, 
 as you have done with the other ? " 
 
 " My mother may speak to me ! " cried Ebbo, 
 hotly, turning round. 
 
 " And quench thy spirit with whining fooleries ! 
 Take the Baron's bounty, woman, and vex him not 
 after his first knightly exploit." 
 
 " Heaven knows, and Ebbo knows," said the 
 trembling Christina, " that, were it a knightly ex- 
 ploit, I were the first to exult." 
 
 " Thou ! thou craftsman's girl ! dost presume to 
 call in question the knightly deeds of a noble house ! 
 There ! " cried the furious Baroness, striking her face. 
 " Now ! dare to be insolent again." Her hand was 
 uplifted for another blow, when it was grasped by 
 Eberhard, and, the next moment, he likewise held 
 the other hand, with youthful strength far exceeding 
 hers. She had often struck his mother before, but 
 not in his presence, and the greatness of the shock 
 seemed to make him cool and absolutely dignified. 
 
 "Be still, grandame," he said. "No, mother, I 
 am not hurting her," and indeed the surprise seemed
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 201 
 
 to have taken away her rage and volubility, and 
 unresistingly she allowed him to seat her in a chair. 
 Still holding her arm, he made his clear boyish voice 
 resound through the hall, saying, " Eetainers all, 
 know that, as I am your lord and master, so is my 
 honoured mother lady of the castle, and she is never 
 to be gainsayed, let her say or do what she will." 
 
 " You are right, Herr Ereiherr," said Heinz. " The 
 Erau Christina is our gracious and beloved dame. 
 Long live the Freiherrinn Christina ! " And the 
 voices of almost all the serfs present mingled in the 
 cry. 
 
 " And hear you all," continued Eberhard, " she 
 shall rule all, and never be trampled on more. Gran- 
 dame, you understand ? " 
 
 The old woman seemed confounded, and cowered 
 in her chair without speaking. Christina, almost 
 dismayed by this silence, would have suggested to 
 Ebbo to say something kind or consoling; but at 
 that moment she was struck with alarm by his 
 renewed inquiry for his brother. 
 
 " Friedel ! Was not he with thee ? " 
 
 " No ; I never saw him ! " 
 
 Ebbo flew up the stairs, and shouted for his brother; 
 then, coming down, gave orders for the men to go out
 
 202 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 on the mountain-side, and search and jo-del. He was 
 hurrying with them, but his mother caught his arm. 
 " O Ebbo, how can I let you go ? It is dark, and the 
 crags are so perilous ! " 
 
 " Mother, I cannot stay ! " and the boy flung his 
 arms round her neck, and whispered in her ear, 
 " Eriedel said it would be a treacherous attack, and 
 I called him a craven. Oh, mother, we never parted 
 thus before ! He went up the hill-side. Oh, where 
 is he?" 
 
 Infected by the boy's despairing voice, yet relieved 
 that Friedel at least had withstood the temptation, 
 Christina still held Ebbo's hand, and descended the 
 steps with him. The clear blue sky was fast showing 
 the stars, and into the evening stillness echoed the 
 loud wide jodeln, cast back from the other side of the 
 ravine. Ebbo tried to raise his voice, but broke down 
 in the shout, and, choked with agitation, said, " Let 
 me go, mother. None know his haunts as I do ! " 
 
 " Hark ! " she said, only grasping him tighter. 
 
 Thinner, shriller, clearer came a far-away cry from 
 the heights, and Ebbo thrilled from head to foot, then 
 sent up another pealing mountain shout, responded 
 to by a jodel so pitched as to be plainly not an echo. 
 " Towards the Red Eyrie," said Hans.
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 203 
 
 ■ He will have been to the Ptarmigan's Pool," said 
 Ebbo, sending up his voice again, in hopes that the 
 answer would sound less distant ; but, instead of this, 
 its intonations conveyed, to these adepts in mountain 
 language, that Friedel stood in need of help. 
 
 u Depend upon it," said the startled Ebbo, " that 
 he has got up amongst those rocks where the dead 
 chamois rolled down last summer;" then, as Christina 
 uttered a faint cry of terror, Heinz added, a Fear not, 
 lady, those are not the jodeln of one who has met 
 with a hurt. Baron Friedel has the sense to be 
 patient rather than risk his bones if he cannot 
 move safely in the dark." 
 
 " Up after him ! " said Ebbo, emitting a variety of 
 shouts intimating speedy aid, and receiving a halloo 
 in reply that reassured even his mother. Equipped 
 with a rope and sundry torches of pinewood, Heinz 
 and two of the serfs were speedily ready, and Christina 
 implored her son to let her come so far as where she 
 should not impede the others. He gave her his arm, 
 and Heinz held his torch so as to guide her up a 
 winding path, not in itself very steep, but which she 
 could never have climbed had daylight shewn her 
 what it overhung. Guided by the constant exchange 
 of jodeln, they reached a height where the wind blew
 
 204 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 cold and wild, and Ebbo pointed to an intensely- 
 black shadow overhung by a peak rising like the 
 gable of a house into the sky. "Yonder lies the 
 tarn," he said. " Don't stir. This way lies the cliff. 
 Fried — mund ! " exchanging the jodel for the name. 
 
 " Here ! — this way ! Under the Eed Eyrie," called 
 back the wanderer; and steering their course round 
 the rocks above the pool, the rescuers made their 
 way towards the base of the peak, which was in fact 
 the summit of the mountain, the top of the Eagle's 
 Ladder, the highest step of which they had attained. 
 The peak towered over them, and beneath, the castle 
 lights seemed as if it would be easy to let a stone fall 
 straight down on them. 
 
 Eriedel's cry seemed to come from under their 
 feet. " I am here ! I am safe ; only it grew so dark 
 that I durst not climb up or down." 
 
 The Schneiderlein explained that he would lower 
 down a rope, which, when fastened round Friedel's 
 waist, would enable him to climb safely up ; and, 
 after a breathless space, the torchlight shone upon 
 the longed-for face, and Eriedel springing on the 
 path, cried, " The mother ! — and here ! " 
 
 " Friedel, where have you been ? What is this 
 in your arms ? "
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S XEST. 205 
 
 He showed them the innocent face of a little 
 white kid. 
 
 " Whence is it, Friedel ? " 
 
 He pointed to the peak, saying, " I was lying on 
 my back by the tarn, when my lady eagle came 
 sailing overhead, so low that I could see this poor 
 little thing, and hear it bleat." 
 
 " Thou hast been to the Eyrie — the inaccessible 
 Eyrie ! " exclaimed Ebbo, in amazement. 
 
 " That's a mistake. It is not hard after the first,' 1 
 said Friedel. * I only waited to watch the old birds 
 out again." 
 
 " Eobbed the eagles ! And the young ones ? " 
 
 " Well," said Friedmund, as if half ashamed, " they 
 were twin eaglets, and their mother had left them, 
 and I felt as though I could not harm them ; so I 
 only bore off their provisions, and stuck some feathers 
 in my cap. But by that time the sun was down, and 
 soon I could not see my footing ; and, when I found 
 that I had missed the path, I thought I had best nestle 
 in the nook where I was, and wait for day. I grieved 
 for my mother's fear ; but oh, to see her here ! " 
 
 " Ah, Friedel ! didst do it to prove my words 
 false ? " interposed Ebbo, eagerly. 
 
 " What words ? "
 
 206 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 " Thou knowest. Make me not speak them again." 
 " Oh, those ! " said Friedel, only now recalling 
 them. " No, verily ; they were but a moment's anger. 
 I wanted to save the kid. I think it is old mother 
 Eika's white kid. But oh, motherling ! I grieve to 
 have thus frightened you." 
 
 Not a single word passed between them upon 
 Ebbo's exploits. Whether Friedel had seen all from 
 the heights, or whether he intuitively perceived that 
 his brother preferred silence, he held his peace, and 
 both were solely occupied in assisting their mother 
 down the pass, the difficulties of which were far more 
 felt now than in the excitement of the ascent ; only 
 when they were near home, and the boys were walk- 
 ing in the darkness with arms round one another's 
 necks, Christina heard Friedel say low and rather 
 sadly, " I think I shall be a priest, Ebbo." 
 To which Ebbo only answered, " Pfui ! " 
 Christina understood that Friedmund meant that 
 robbery must be a severance between the brothers. 
 Alas ! had the moment come when their paths must 
 diverge ? Could Ebbo's step not be redeemed ? 
 
 Ursel reported that Dame Kunigunde had scarcely 
 spoken again, but had retired, like one stunned, into 
 her bed. Friedel was half asleep after the exertions
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 207 
 
 of the day ; Ebbo did not speak, and both soon be- 
 took themselves to their little turret chamber within 
 their mother's. 
 
 Christina prayed long that night, her heart full of 
 dread of the consequence of this transgression. Ru- 
 mours of freebooting castles destroyed by the Swabian 
 League had reached her every wake day, and, if this 
 outrage were once known, the sufferance that left 
 Adlerstein unmolested must be over. There was 
 hope, indeed, in the weakness and uncertainty of the 
 Government ; but present safety would in reality be 
 the ruin of Ebbo, since he would be encouraged to 
 persist in the career of violence now unhappily begun. 
 She knew not what to ask, save that her sons might 
 be shielded from evil, and might fulfil that promise 
 of her dream, the star in heaven, the light on earth. 
 And for the present ! — the good God guide her and 
 her sons through the difficult morrow, and turn the 
 heart of the unhappy old woman below ! 
 
 When, exhausted with weeping and watching; she 
 rose from her knees, she stole softly into her sons' 
 turret for a last look at them. Generally they were 
 so much alike in their sleep that even she was at 
 fault between them ; but that night there was no 
 doubt. Friedel, pale after the day's hunger and
 
 208 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE' S NEST. 
 
 fatigue, slept with relaxed features in the most com- 
 plete calm ; but though Ebbo's eyes were closed, 
 there was no repose in his face — his hair was tossed, 
 his colour flushed, his brow contracted, the arm flung 
 across his brother had none of the ease of sleep. She 
 doubted whether he were not awake ; but, knowing 
 that he would not brook any endeavour to force con- 
 fidence he did not offer, she merely hung over them 
 both, murmured a prayer and blessing, and left them.
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 209 
 
 CHAPTEE XL 
 
 THE CHOICE IN LIFE. 
 
 " Friedel, wake ! 
 
 " Is it day ? " said Friedel, slowly wakening, and 
 crossing himself as he opened his eyes. " Surely the 
 sun is not up ? " 
 
 " We must be before the sun ! " said Ebbo, who 
 was on his feet, beginning to dress himself. " Hush, 
 and come ! Do not wake the mother. It must be ere 
 she or aught else be astir ! Thy prayers — I tell thee 
 this is a work as good as prayer." 
 
 Half awake, and entirely bewildered, Friedel dipped 
 his finger in the pearl mussel shell of holy water 
 over their bed, and crossed his own brow and his 
 brother's ; then, carrying their shoes, they crossed 
 their mother's chamber, and crept downstairs. Ebbo 
 muttered to his brother, " Stand thou still there, and 
 pray the saints to keep her asleep ; " and then, with 
 bare feet, moved noiselessly behind the wooden par- 
 tition that shut off his m?andmother's box-bedstead 
 
 VOL. I. P
 
 ' 210 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 from the rest of the hall. She lay asleep with open 
 mouth, snoring loudly, and on her pillow lay the 
 bunch of castle keys, that was always carried to her 
 at night. It was a moment of peril wdien Ebbo 
 touched it; but he had nerved himself to be both 
 steady and dexterous, and he secured it without a 
 jingle, and then, without entering the hall, descended 
 into a passage lit by a rough opening cut in the rock. 
 Eriedel, who began to comprehend, followed him 
 close and joyfully, and at the first door he fitted in, 
 and with some difficulty turned, a key, and pushed 
 open the door of a vault, where morning light, stream- 
 ing through the grated window, showed two captives, 
 who had started to their feet, and now stood regard- 
 ing the pair in the doorway as if they thought their 
 dreams were multiplying the young baron who had 
 led the attack. 
 
 " Signori " began the principal of the two ; 
 
 but Ebbo spoke. 
 
 " Sir, you have been brought here by a mistake in 
 the absence of my mother, the lady of the castle. If 
 you will follow me, I will restore all that is within 
 my reach, and put you on your way." 
 
 The merchant's knowledge of German was small, 
 but the purport of the words was plain, and he gladly
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 211 
 
 left the damp, chilly vault. Ebbo pointed to the 
 bales that strewed the hall. " Take all that can be 
 carried/' he said. " Here is your sword, and your 
 purse," he said, for these had been given to him in 
 the moment of victory. " I will bring out your horse 
 and lead you to the pass/' 
 
 " Give him food," whispered Frieclel ; but the mer- 
 chant was too anxious to have any appetite. Only 
 he faltered in broken German a proposal to pay his 
 respects to the Signora Castellana, to whom he owed 
 so much. 
 
 " No ! Dormit in lecto" said Ebbo, with a sudden 
 inspiration caught from the Latinized sound of some 
 of the Italian words, but colouring desperately as he 
 spoke. 
 
 The Latin proved most serviceable, and the mer- 
 chant understood that his property was restored, and 
 made all speed to gather it together, and transport it 
 to the stable. One or two of his beasts of burden 
 had been lost in the fray, and there were more 
 packages than could well be carried by the mer- 
 chant, his servant, and his horse. Ebbo gave the aid 
 of the old white mare — now very white indeed — and 
 in truth the boys pitied the merchant's fine young 
 bay for being put to base trading uses, and were 
 p2
 
 212 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 rather shocked to hear that it had been taken in 
 payment for a knight's branched velvet gown, and 
 would be sold again at Ulm. 
 
 " What a poor coxcomb of a knight ! " said they to 
 one another, as they patted the creature's neck with 
 such fervent admiration that the merchant longed to 
 present it to them, when he saw that the old white 
 mare was the sole steed they possessed, and watched 
 their tender guidance both of her and of the bay up 
 the rocky path so familiar to them. 
 
 " But ah, signorini miei, I am an infelice, infelicis- 
 simo, ever persecuted by le Fate." 
 
 " By whom ? 'A count like Schlangenwald ?" asked 
 Ebbo. 
 
 " Das Schicksal" whispered Friedel. 
 
 " Three long miserable years did I spend as a 
 captive among the Moors, having lost all, my ships 
 and all I had, and being forced to row their galleys, 
 gli scomunicati." 
 
 " Galleys ! " exclaimed Ebbo ; " there are some pic- 
 tured in our World History before Carthage. Would 
 that I could see one." 
 
 " The signorino would soon have seen his fill, were 
 he between the decks, chained to the bench for weeks 
 together, without ceasing to row for twenty-four hours
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 213 
 
 together, with a renegade standing over to lash us, 
 or to put a morsel into our mouths if we were 
 fainting." 
 
 " The dogs ! Do they thus use Christian men ? " 
 cried Friedel. 
 
 " Si, si — ja wohl. There were a good fourscore of 
 us, and among them a Tedesco, a good man and true, 
 from whom I learnt la lingua low!' 
 
 " Our tongue ! — from whom ? " asked one twin of 
 the other. 
 
 " A Tedesco, a fellow-countryman of sue eccelle7ize" 
 
 " Deutscher ! " cried both boys, turning in horror, 
 " our Germans so treated by the pagan villains ? " 
 
 " Yea, truly, signorini miei. This fellow-captive of 
 mine was a cavaliere in his own land, but he had 
 been betrayed and sold by his enemies, and he 
 mourned piteously for la sjposa sua — his bride, as 
 they say here. A goodly man and a tall, piteously 
 cramped in the narrow deck, I grieved to leave him 
 there when the good confratemita at Genoa paid my 
 ransom. Having learnt to speak il Tedesco, and being 
 no longer able to fit out a vessel, I made my venture 
 beyond the Alps ; but, alas ! till this moment fortune 
 has still been adverse. My mules died of the toil of 
 crossing the mountains; and, when with reduced
 
 214 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 baggage I came to the river beneatli there — when my 
 horses fell and my servants fled, and the peasants 
 came down with their hayforks — I thought myself in 
 hands no better than those of the Moors themselves." 
 
 " It was wrongly done," said Ebbo, in an honest, 
 open tone, though blushing. " I have indeed a right 
 to what may be stranded on the bank, but never more 
 shall foul means be employed for the overthrow." 
 
 The boys had by this time led the traveller through 
 the Gemsbock's Pass, within sight of the convent. 
 " There," said Ebbo, " will they give you harbourage, 
 food, a guide, and a beast to carry the rest of your 
 goods. We are now upon convent land, and none 
 will dare to touch your bales ; so I will unload old 
 Schimmel." 
 
 " Ah, signorino, if I might offer any token of gra- 
 titude " 
 
 * Nay," said Ebbo, with boyish lordliness, " make 
 me not a spoiler." 
 
 " If the signorini should ever come to Genoa," 
 continued the trader, " and would honour Gian Bat- 
 tista dei Battiste with a call, his whole house would 
 be at their feet." 
 
 " Thanks ; I would that we could see strange 
 lands ! " said Ebbo. " But come, Friedel, the sun is
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S XEST. 215 
 
 high, and I locked them all into the castle to make 
 matters safe." 
 
 " May the liberated captive know the name of his 
 deliverers, that he may commend it to the saints ? " 
 asked the merchant. 
 
 " I am Eberhard, Freiherr von Adlerstein, and this 
 is Freiherr Friedmund, my brother. Farewell, sir." 
 
 u Strange," muttered the merchant, as he watched 
 the two boys turn clown the pass, " strange how like 
 one barbarous name is to another. Eberardo ! That 
 was what we called il Tedesco, and, when he once 
 told me his family name, it ended in stino ; but all 
 these foreign names sound alike. Let us speed on, 
 lest these accursed peasants should wake, and be 
 beyond the control of the signorino." 
 
 " Ah ! " sighed Ebbo, as soon as he had hurried out 
 of reach of the temptation, " small use in being a 
 baron if one is to be no better mounted ! n 
 
 " Thou art glad to have let that fair creature go 
 free, though," said Friedel. 
 
 " Nay, my mother's eyes would let me have no rest 
 
 in keeping him. Otherwise Talk not to me of 
 
 gladness, Friedel ! Thou shouldst know better. How 
 is one to be a knight with nothing to ride but a beast 
 old enough to be his grandmother ? "
 
 216 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 " Knighthood of the heart may be content to go 
 afoot," said Friedel. " Ebbo, what a brother thou 
 art ! How happy the mother will be ! " 
 
 " Pfui, Friedel ; what boots heart without spur ? 
 I am sick of being mewed up here within these 
 walls of rock ! No sport, not even with falling on a 
 traveller. I am worse off than ever were my fore- 
 fathers!" 
 
 " But how is it ? I cannot understand," asked 
 Friedel. What has changed thy mind ? " 
 
 " Thou, and the mother, and, more than all, the 
 grandame. Listen, Friedel : when thou earnest up, 
 in all the whirl of eagerness and glad preparation, 
 with thy grave face and murmur that Jobst had put 
 forked stakes in the stream, it was past man's en- 
 durance to be baulked of the fray. Thou hast for- 
 gotten what I said to thee then, good Friedel ? " 
 
 " Long since. No doubt I thrust in vexatiously." 
 
 * Not so," said Ebbo ; " and I saw thou hadst 
 reason, for the stakes were most maliciously planted, 
 with long branches hid by the current; but the 
 fellows were showing fight, and I could not stay to 
 think then, or I should have seemed to fear them ! 
 I can tell you we made them run ! But I never 
 meant the grandmother to put yon poor fellow in the
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 217 
 
 dungeon, and use him worse than a dog. I wot that 
 he was my captive, and none of hers'. And then came 
 the mother ; and oh, Friedel, she looked as if I were 
 slaying her when she saw the spoil ; and, ere I had 
 made her see right and reason, the old lady came 
 swooping down in full malice and spite, and actually 
 came to blows. She struck the motherling — struck 
 her on the face, Friedel ! " 
 
 " I fear me it has so been before," said Friedel, 
 sadly. 
 
 " Never will it be so again," said Ebbo, standing 
 still. " I took the old hag by the hands, and told her 
 she had ruled long enough ! My father's wife is as 
 good a lady of the castle as my grandfather's, and 
 I myself am lord thereof ; and, since my Lady Kuni- 
 gunde chooses to cross me and beat my mother about 
 this capture, why she has seen the last of it, and ma}' 
 learn who is master, and who is mistress ! " 
 
 " Ebbo ! I would I had seen it ! But was not 
 she outrageous ? "Was not the mother shrinking and 
 ready to give back all her claims at once ? " 
 
 " Perhaps she would have been, but just then she 
 found thou wast not with me, and I found thou wast 
 not with her, and we thought of nought else. But 
 thou must stand by me, Friedel, and help to keep
 
 218 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 the grandmother in her place, and the mother in 
 hers." 
 
 " If the mother will be kept," said Friedel. " I 
 fear me she will only plead to be left to the gran- 
 dame's treatment, as before." 
 
 " Never, Friedel ! I will never see her so used 
 again. I released this man solely to show that she 
 is to rule here. — Yes, I know all about freebooting 
 being a deadly sin, and moreover that it will bring 
 the League about our ears; and it was a cowardly 
 trick of Jobst to put those branches in the stream. 
 Did I not go over it last night till my brain was 
 dizzy ? But still, it is but living and dying like our 
 fathers, and I hate tameness or dullness, and it is like 
 a fool to go back from what one has once begun." 
 
 " No ; it is like a brave man, when one has begun 
 wrong," said Friedel. 
 
 " But then I thought of the grandame triumphing 
 over the gentle mother — and I know the mother 
 wept over her beads half the night. She shall find 
 she has had her own way for once this morning." 
 
 Friedel was silent for a few moments, then said, 
 " Let me tell thee what I saw yesterday, Ebbo." 
 
 " So," answered the other brother. 
 
 " I liked not to vex my mother by my tidings, so
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 219 
 
 I climbed up to the tarn. There is something always 
 healing in that spot, is it not so, Ebbo ? When the 
 grandmother has been raving" (hitherto Friedel's 
 worst grievance) " it is like getting up nearer the 
 quiet sky in the stillness there, when the sky seems 
 to have come down into the deep blue water, and all 
 is so still, so wondrous still and calm. I wonder if, 
 when we see the great Dome Kirk itself, it will give 
 one's spirit wings, as does the gazing up from the 
 Ptarmigan's Pool." 
 
 " Thou minnesinger, was it the blue sky thou hadst 
 to tell me of?" 
 
 " "No, brother, it was ere I reached it that I saw 
 this sight. I had scaled the peak where grows the 
 stunted rowan, and I sat down to look down on the 
 other side of the gorge. It was clear where I sat, 
 but the ravine was filled with clouds, and upon 
 them " 
 
 " The shape of the blessed Friedmund, thy patron V 
 
 " Our patron," said Friedel ; " I saw him, a giant 
 form in gown and hood, traced in grey shadow upon 
 the dazzling white cloud ; and oh, Ebbo ! he was 
 struggling with a thinner, darker, wilder shape bear- 
 ing a club. He strove to withhold it ; his gestures 
 threatened and warned ! I watched like one spell-
 
 220 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 bound, for it was to me as the guardian spirit of our 
 race striving for thee with the enemy." 
 
 "How did it end?" 
 
 " The cloud darkened, and swallowed them ; nor 
 should I have known the issue, if suddenly, on the 
 very cloud where the strife had been, there had not 
 beamed forth a rainbow — not a common rainbow, 
 Ebbo, but a perfect ring, a soft-glancing, many-tinted 
 crown of victory. Then I knew the saint had won, 
 and that thou wouldst win." 
 
 " I ! What, not thyself — his own namesake ? " 
 
 " I thought, Ebbo, if the fight went very hard — 
 nay, if for a time the grandame led thee her way — 
 that belike I might serve thee best by giving up all, 
 and praying for thee in the hermit's cave, or as a 
 monk." 
 
 " Thou ! — thou, my other self ! Aid -me by bur- 
 rowing in a hole like a rat ! What foolery wilt say 
 next ? No, no, Friedel, strike by my side, and I will 
 strike with thee ; pray by my side, and I will pray 
 with thee ; but if thou takest none of the strokes, 
 then will I none of the prayers ! " 
 
 " Ebbo, thou knowst not what thou sayst." 
 
 " No one knows better ! See, Friedel, wouldst thou 
 have me all that the old Adlersteinen were, and
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 221 
 
 worse too ? then wilt thou leave me and hide thine 
 head in some priestly cowl. Maybe thou thinkest 
 to pray my soul into safety at the last moment as a 
 favour to thine own abundant sanctity ; but I tell 
 thee, Friedel, that's no manly way to salvation. If 
 thou follow'st that track, I'll take care to get past the 
 border-line within which prayer can help." 
 
 Friedel crossed himself, and uttered an imploring 
 exclamation of horror at these wild words. 
 
 " Stay," said Ebbo ; " I said not I meant any such 
 thing — so long as thou wilt be with me. My purpose 
 is to be a good man and true, a guard to the weak, a 
 defence against the Turk, a good lord to my vassals, 
 and, if it may not be otherwise, I will take my oath 
 to the Kaiser, and keep it. Is that enough for thee, 
 Friedel, or wouldst thou see me a monk at once ? " 
 
 " Ebbo, this is what we ever planned. I only 
 dreamed of the other when — when thou didst seem 
 to be on the other track." 
 
 " Well, what can I do more than turn back ? I'll 
 get absolution on Sunday, and tell Father Norbert 
 that I will do any penance he pleases; and warn 
 Jobst that, if he sets any more traps in the river, 
 I will drown him there next ! Only get this priestly 
 fancy away, Friedel, once and for ever ! "
 
 222 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 " Never, never could I think of what would sever 
 us," cried Friedel, " save — when — " he added, hesi- 
 tating, unwilling to harp on the former string. Ebbo 
 broke in imperiously, — 
 
 " Friedmund von Adlerstein, give me thy solemn 
 word that I never again hear of this freak of turning- 
 priest or hermit. — What ! art slow to speak ? Thinkest 
 me too bad for thee ? " 
 
 " No, Ebbo. Heaven knows thou art stronger, 
 more resolute than I. I am more likely to be too 
 bad for thee. But so long as we can be true, faithful,. 
 God-fearing Junkern together, Heaven forbid that we 
 should part ! " 
 
 " It is our bond ! " said Ebbo ; " nought shall 
 part us." 
 
 " Nought but death," said Friedmund, solemnly. 
 
 " For my part," said Ebbo, with perfect seriousness, 
 " I do not believe that one of us can live or die with- 
 out the other. But, hark ! there's an outcry at the 
 castle ! They have found out that they are locked 
 in ! Ha ! ho ! hilloa, Hatto, how like you playing 
 prisoner % " 
 
 Ebbo would have amused himself with the dismay 
 of his garrison a little longer, had not Friedel re- 
 minded him that their mother might be suffering for
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 223 
 
 their delay, and this suggestion made him march in 
 hastily. He found her standing drooping under the 
 pitiless storm which Frau Kunigunde was pouring 
 out at the highest pitch of her cracked, trembling 
 voice, one hand uplifted and clenched, the other 
 grasping the hack of a chair, while her whole frame 
 shook with rage too mighty for her strength. 
 
 " Grandame," said Ebbo, striding up to the scene 
 of action, " cease. Eemember my words yester- 
 eve." 
 
 " She has stolen the keys ! She has tampered with 
 the servanda ! She has released the prisoner — thy 
 prisoner, Ebbo ! She has cheated us as she did with 
 Wildschloss ! False burgherinn ! I trow she wanted 
 another suitor ! Bane — pest of Adlerstein ! " 
 
 Friedmnnd threw a supporting arm round his 
 mother, but Ebbo confronted the old lady. * Grand- 
 mother," he said, " I freed the captive. I stole the 
 keys — I and Eriedel ! Xo one else knew my pur- 
 pose. He was my captive, and I released him because 
 he was foully taken. I have chosen my lot in life," 
 he added ; and, standing in the middle of the hall, he 
 took off his cap, and spoke gravely : — " I will not be 
 a treacherous robber-outlaw, but, so help me God, a 
 faithful, loyal, godly nobleman."
 
 224 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 His mother and Friedel breathed an " Amen " with 
 all their hearts ; and he continued, — 
 
 " And thou, grandame, peace ! Such reverence 
 shalt thou have as befits my father's mother ; but 
 henceforth mine own lady-mother is the mistress of 
 this castle, and whoever speaks a rude word to her 
 offends the Freiherr von Adlerstein." 
 
 That last day's work had made a great step in 
 Ebbo's life, and there he stood, grave and firm, ready 
 for the assault ; for, in effect, he and all besides 
 expected that the old lady would fly at him or at his 
 mother like a wild cat, as she would assuredly have 
 done in a like case a year earlier ; but she took them 
 all by surprise by collapsing into her chair and sob- 
 bing piteously. Ebbo, much distressed, tried to make 
 her understand that she was to have all care and 
 honour; but she muttered something about ingrati- 
 tude, and continued to exhaust herself with weeping, 
 spurning away all who approached her ; and thence- 
 forth she lived in a gloomy, sullen acquiescence in 
 her deposition. 
 
 Christina inclined to the opinion that she must 
 have had some slight stroke in the night, for she was 
 never the same woman again ; her vigour had passed 
 away, and she would sit spinning, or rocking herself
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 225 
 
 in her chair, scarcely alive to what passed, or scolding 
 and fretting like a shadow of her old violence. No- 
 thing pleased her but the attentions of her grandsons, 
 and happily she soon ceased to know them apart, 
 and gave Ebbo credit for all that was done for her by 
 Eriedel, whose separate existence she seemed to have 
 forgotten. 
 
 As long as her old spirit remained she would not 
 suffer the approach of her daughter-in-law, and Chris- 
 tina could only make suggestions for her comfort 
 to be acted on by Ursel; and though the reins of 
 government fast dropped from the aged hands, they 
 were but gradually and cautiously assumed by the 
 younger Baroness. 
 
 Only Else remained of the rude, demoralized girls 
 whom she had found in the castle, and their successors, 
 though dull and uncouth, were meek and manage- 
 able. The men of the castle had all, except Matz, 
 been always devoted to the Frau Christina, and Matz, 
 to her great relief, ran away so soon as he found that 
 decency and honesty were to be the rule. Old Hatto, 
 humpbacked Hans, and Heinz the Schneiderlein, were 
 the whole male establishment, and had at least the 
 merit of attachment to herself and her sons ; and in 
 time there was a shade of greater civilization about 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 the castle, though impeded both by dire poverty and 
 the doggeduess of the old retainers. At least the 
 court was cleared of the swine, and, within doors, the 
 table was spread with dainty linen out of the parcels 
 from Ulm, and the meals served with orderliness 
 that annoyed the boys at first, but soon became a 
 subject of pride and pleasure. 
 
 Frau Kunigunde lingered long, with increasing 
 infirmities. After the winter day, when, running- 
 down at a sudden noise, Friedel picked her up from 
 the hearthstone, scorched, bruised, almost senseless, 
 she accepted Christina's care with nothing worse 
 than a snarl, and gradually seemed to forget the iden- 
 tity of her nurse with the interloping burgher girl. 
 Thanks or courtesy had been no part of her nature, 
 least of all towards her own sex, and she did little 
 but grumble, fret, and revile her attendant ; but she 
 soon depended so much on Christina's care, that it 
 was hardly possible to leave her. At her best and 
 strongest, her talk was maundering abuse of her son's 
 low-born wife ; but at times her wanderings showed 
 black gulfs of iniquity and coarseness of soul that 
 would make the gentle listener tremble, and be 
 thankful that her sons were out of hearing. And 
 thus did Christina von Adlerstein requite fifteen 
 years of persecution.
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 227 
 
 The old lady's first failure had been in the summer 
 of 1488 ; it was the Advent season of 1489, when 
 the snow was at the deepest, and the frost at the 
 hardest, that the two hardy mountaineer grandsons 
 fetched over the pass Father Norbert, and a still 
 sturdier, stronger monk, to the dying woman. 
 
 " Are we in time, mother ? " asked Ebbo, from the 
 door of the upper chamber, where the Adler steins 
 began and ended life, shaking the snow from his 
 mufnings. Buddy with exertion in the sharp wind, 
 what a contrast he was to all within the room ! 
 
 " Who is that ? " said a thin, feeble voice. 
 
 " It is Ebbo. It is the Baron," said Christina. 
 " Come in, Ebbo. She is somewhat revived." 
 
 " Will she be able to speak to the priest ? " asked 
 Ebbo. 
 
 " Priest ! " feebly screamed the old woman. " No 
 priest for me ! My lord died unshriven, unassoilzied. 
 Where he is, there will I be. Let a priest approach 
 me at his peril ! " 
 
 Stony insensibility ensued ; nor did she speak 
 again, though life lasted many hours longer. The 
 priests did their office; for, impenitent as the life 
 and frantic as the words had been, the opinions of 
 the time deemed that their rites might yet give the 
 Q2
 
 228 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 departing soul a chance, though the body was un- 
 conscious. 
 
 When all was over, snow was again falling, shifting 
 and drifting, so that it was impossible to leave the 
 castle, and the two monks were kept there for a full 
 fortnight, during which Christmas solemnities were 
 observed in the chapel, for the first time since the 
 days of Friedmund the Good. The corpse of Kuni- 
 gunde, preserved — we must say the word — salted, 
 was placed in a coffin, and laid in that chapel to 
 await the melting of the snows, when the vault at 
 the Hermitage could be opened. And this could not 
 be effected till Easter had nearly come round again, 
 and it was within a week of their sixteenth birthday 
 that the two young Barons stood together at the 
 coffin's head, serious indeed, but more with the 
 thought of life than of death.
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 229 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 BACK TO THE DOVECOTE. 
 
 For the first time in her residence at Adlerstein, now 
 full half her life, the Freiherrinn Christina ventured 
 to send a messenger to Ulm, namely, a lay brother of 
 the convent of St. Ruprecht, who undertook to convey 
 to Master Gottfried Sorel her letter, informing him 
 of the death of her mother-in-law, and requesting 
 him to send the same tidings to the Freiherr von 
 Adlerstein Wildschloss, the kinsman and godfather 
 of her sons. 
 
 She was used to wait fifty-two weeks for answers 
 to her letters, and was amazed when, at the end of 
 three, two stout serving-men were guided by Jobst 
 up the pass ; but her heart warmed to their flat caps 
 and round jerkins, they looked so like home. They 
 bore a letter of invitation to her and her sons to 
 come at once to her uncle's house. The King of the 
 Romans, and perhaps the Emperor, were to come to 
 the city early in the summer, and there could be no
 
 230 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 better opportunity of presenting the young Barons 
 to their sovereign. Sir Kasimir of Adlerstein Wild- 
 schloss would meet them there for the purpose, and 
 would obtain their admission to the League, in which 
 all Swabian nobles had bound themselves to put 
 down robbery and oppression, and outside which 
 there was nothing but outlawry and danger. 
 
 " So must it be ? " said Ebbo, between his teeth, as 
 he leant moodily against the wall, while his mother 
 was gone to attend to the fare to be set before the 
 messengers. 
 
 " What! art not glad to take wing at last?" ex- 
 claimed Friedel, cut short in an exclamation of 
 delight. 
 
 " Take wing, forsooth ! To be guest of a greasy 
 burgher, and call cousin with him ! Fear not, Friedel ; 
 I'll not vex the motherling. Heaven knows she has 
 had pain, grief, and subjection enough in her lifetime, 
 and I would not hinder her visit to her home ; but 
 I would she could go alone, nor make us show, our 
 poverty to the swollen city folk, and listen to their 
 endearments. I charge thee, Friedel, do as I do ; be 
 not too familiar with them. Could we but strain an 
 ankle over the crag " 
 
 " Nay, she would stay to nurse us," said Friedel,
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 231 
 
 laughing ; " besides, thou art needed for the matter of 
 homage." 
 
 " Look, Friedel," said Ebbo, sinking his voice, " I 
 shall not lightly yield my freedom to king or kaisar. 
 Maybe, there is no help for it ; but it irks me to 
 think that I should be the last Lord of Adlerstein to 
 whom the title of Freiherr is not a mockery. Why 
 dost bend thy brow, brother? what art thinking of?" 
 
 " Only a saying in my mother's book, that well- 
 ordered service is true freedom," said Friedel. " And 
 methinks there will be freedom in rushing at last 
 into the great far-off ! " — the boy's eye expanded and 
 glistened with eagerness. " Here are we prisoners — 
 to ourselves, if you like — but prisoners still, pent up 
 in the rocks, seeing no one, hearing scarce an echo 
 from the knightly or the poet world, nor from all 
 the wonders that pass. And the world has a history 
 going on still, like the ' Chronicle.' Oh, Ebbo, think 
 of being in the midst of life, with lance and sword, 
 and seeing the Kaisar — the Kaisar of the holy Eoman 
 Empire ! " 
 
 " With lance and sword, well and good ; but would 
 it were not at the cost of liberty 1 " 
 
 However, Ebbo forbore to damp his mother's joy, 
 save by the one warning — " Understand, mother, that
 
 232 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 I will not be pledged to anything. I will not bend 
 to tbe yoke ere I have seen and judged for myself." 
 
 The manly sound of the words gave a sweet sense 
 of exultation to the mother, even while she dreaded 
 the proud spirit, and whispered, " God direct thee, 
 my son." 
 
 Certainly Ebbo, hitherto the most impetuous and 
 least thoughtful of the two lads, had a gravity and 
 seriousness about him, that, but for his naturally 
 sweet temper, would have seemed sullen. His aspira- 
 tions for adventure had hitherto been more vehement 
 than Friedel's ; but, when the time seemed at hand, 
 his regrets at what he might have to yield over- 
 powered his hopes of the future. The fierce haugh- 
 tiness of the old Adlersteins could not brook the 
 descent from the crag, even while the keen, clear 
 burgher wit that Ebbo inherited from the other side of 
 the house taught him that the position was untenable, 
 and that his isolated glory was but a poor mean 
 thing after all. And the struggle made him sad and 
 moody. 
 
 Eriedel, less proud, and with nothing to yield, was 
 open to blithe anticipations of what Iris fancy pic- 
 tured as the home of all the beauty, sacred or ro- 
 mantic, that he had glimpsed at through his mother.
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 233 
 
 Beligion, poetry, learning, art, refinement, had all 
 come to him through her ; and though he had a soul 
 that dreamt and soared in the lonely grandeur of the 
 mountain heights, it craved further aliment for its 
 yearnings for completeness and perfection. Long ago 
 had Friedel come to the verge of such attainments as 
 he could work out of his present materials, and keen 
 had been his ardour for the means of progress, 
 though only the mountain tarn had ever been witness 
 to the full outpouring of the longings with which 
 he gazed upon the dim, distant city like a land of 
 enchantment. 
 
 The journey was to be at once, so as to profit by 
 the escort of Master Sorel's men. Means of transport 
 were scanty, but Ebbo did not choose that the mes- 
 sengers should report the need, and bring back a 
 bevy of animals at the burgher's expense ; so the 
 mother was mounted on the old white mare, and her 
 sons and Heinz trusted to their feet. By setting out 
 early on a May morning, the journey could be per- 
 formed ere night, and the twilight would find them 
 in the domains of the free city, where their small 
 numbers would be of no importance. As to their 
 appearance, the mother wore a black woollen gown 
 and mantle, and a black silk hood tied under her
 
 234 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 chin, and sitting loosely round the stiff frame of her 
 white cap — a nun-like garb, save for the soft brown 
 hair, parted over her brow, and more visible than she 
 sometimes thought correct, but her sons would not 
 let her wear it out of sight. 
 
 The brothers had piece by piece surveyed the 
 solitary suit of armour remaining in the castle ; but, 
 though it might serve for defence, it could not be 
 made fit for display, and they must needs be con- 
 tented with blue cloth, spun, woven, dyed, fashioned, 
 and sewn at home, chiefly by their mother, and by 
 her embroidered on the breast with the white eagle 
 of Adlerstein. Short blue cloaks and caps of the 
 same, with an eagle plume in each, and leggings 
 neatly fashioned of deerskin, completed their equip- 
 ments. Ebbo wore his father's sword, Frieclel had 
 merely a dagger and crossbow. There was not a 
 gold chain, not a brooch, not an approach to an 
 ornament among the three, except the medal that 
 had always distinguished Ebbo, and the coral rosary 
 at Christina's girdle. Her own trinkets had gone in 
 masses for the souls of her father and husband ; and 
 though a few costly jewels had been found in Frau 
 Kunigunde's hoards, the mode of their acquisition 
 was so doubtful, that it had seemed fittest to be-
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 235 
 
 stow them in alms and masses for the good of her 
 soul. 
 
 " What ornament, what glory could any one desire 
 better than two such sons?" thought Christina, as 
 for the first time for eighteen years she crossed the 
 wild ravine where her father had led her, a trembling 
 little captive, longing for wings like a dove's to flutter 
 home again. Who would then have predicted that 
 she should descend after so long and weary a time, 
 and with a gallant boy on either side of her, eager to 
 aid her every step, and reassure her at each giddy 
 pass, all joy and hope before her and them ? Yet she 
 was not without some dread and misgiving, as she 
 watched her elder son, always attentive to her, but 
 unwontedly silent, with a stern gravity on his young 
 brow, a proud sadness on his lip. And when he had 
 come to the Debateable Ford, and was about to pass 
 the boundaries of his own lands, he turned and gazed 
 back on the castle and mountain with a silent but 
 passionate ardour, as though he felt himself doing 
 them a wrong by perilling their independence. 
 
 The sun had lately set, and the moon was silvering 
 the Danube, when the travellers came full in view of 
 the imperial free city, girt in with mighty walls and 
 towers— the vine-clad hill dominated by its crowning
 
 236 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 church ; the irregular outlines of the unfinished spire 
 of the cathedral traced in mysterious dark lacework 
 against the pearly sky; the lofty steeple-like gate- 
 tower majestically guarding the bridge. Christina 
 clasped her hands in thankfulness, as at the familiar 
 face of a friend ; Friedel glowed like a minstrel in- 
 troduced to his fair dame, long wooed at a distance ; 
 Ebbo could not but exclaim, " Yea, truly, a great city 
 is a solemn and a glorious sight ! " 
 
 The gates were closed, and the serving-men had to 
 parley at the barbican ere the heavy door was opened 
 to admit the party to the bridge, between deep bat- 
 tlemented stone walls, with here and there loopholes, 
 showing the shimmering of the river beneath. The 
 slow, tired tread of the old mare sounded hollow ; 
 the river rushed below with the full swell of evening 
 loudness ; a deep-toned convent-bell tolled gravely 
 through the stillness, while, between its reverbera- 
 tions, clear, distinct notes of joyous music were borne 
 on the summer wind, and a nightingale sung in one 
 of the gardens that bordered the banks. 
 
 " Mother, it is all that I dreamt ! " breathlessly 
 murmured Friedel, as they halted under the dark 
 arch of the great gateway tower. 
 
 Not, however, in Friedel's dreams had been the
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S XEST. 237 
 
 hearty voice that proceeded from the lighted guard- 
 room in the thickness of the gateway. " Freiherrinn 
 von Adlerstein ! Is it she ? Then must I greet my 
 old playmate ! " And the captain of the watch ap- 
 peared among upraised lanterns and torches that 
 showed a broad, smooth, plump face beneath a plain 
 steel helmet. 
 
 " Welcome, gracious lady, welcome to your old 
 city. What ! do you not remember Lippus Grundt, 
 your poor Valentine \ " 
 
 " Master Philip Grundt ! " exclaimed Christina, 
 amazed at the breadth of visage and person ; " and 
 how fares it with my good Eegina ? " 
 
 " Excellent well, good lady. She manages her 
 trade and house as well as the good man Bartolaus 
 Fleischer himself. Blithe will she be to show you 
 her goodly ten, as I shall my eight," he continued, 
 walking by her side : " and Barbara — you remember 
 Barbara Schmidt, lady " 
 
 " My dear Barbara ? — That do I indeed ! Is she 
 your wife ? " 
 
 " Ay, truly, lady," he answered, in an odd sort of 
 apologetic tone ; " you see, you returned not, and the 
 housefathers, they would have it so — and Barbara is 
 a good housewife."
 
 238 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 " Truly clo I rejoice I" said Christina, wishing she 
 could convey to him how welcome he had been to 
 marry any one he liked, as far as she was concerned 
 — he, in whom her fears of mincing goldsmiths had 
 always taken form — then signing with her hand, " I 
 have my sons likewise to show her." 
 
 " Ah, on foot ! " muttered Schmidt, as a not well- 
 conceived apology for not having saluted the young 
 gentlemen. " I greet you well, sirs," with a bow, 
 most haughtily returned by Ebbo, who was heartily 
 wishing himself on his mountain. " Two lusty, well- 
 grown Junkern indeed, to whom my Martin will be 
 proud to show the humours of Ulm. A fair good 
 night, lady ! You will find the old folks right 
 cheery." 
 
 Well did Christina know the turn down the street, 
 darkened by the overhanging brows of the tall houses, 
 but each lower window laughing with the glow of 
 light within that threw out the heavy mullions and 
 the circles and diamonds of the latticework, and here 
 and there the brilliant tints of stained glass sparkled 
 like jewels in the upper panes, pictured with Scripture 
 scene, patron saint, or trade emblem. The familiar 
 porch was reached, the familiar knock resounded on 
 the iron-studded door. Friedel lifted his mother from
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 239 
 
 her horse, and felt that she was quivering from head 
 to foot, and at the same moment the light streamed 
 from the open door on the white horse, and the two 
 young faces, one eager, the other with knit brows and 
 uneasy eyes. A kind of echo pervaded the house, 
 " She is come ! she is come ! " and as one in a dream 
 Christina entered, crossed the well-known hall, looked 
 up to her uncle and aunt on the stairs, perceived little 
 change on their countenances, and sank upon her 
 knees, with bowed head and clasped hands. 
 
 " My child ! my dear child ! " exclaimed her uncle, 
 raising her with one hand, and crossing her brow in 
 benediction with the other. "Art thou indeed re- 
 turned ? " and he embraced her tenderly. 
 
 " Welcome, fair niece ! " said Hausfrau Johanna, 
 more formally. " I am right glad to greet you here." 
 
 " Dear, clear mother ! " cried Christina, courting 
 her fond embrace by gestures of the most eager 
 affection, " how have I longed for this moment, and, 
 above all, to show you my boys ! Herr Uncle, let 
 me present my sons — my Eberhard, my Friedmund. 
 Housemother, are not my twins well-grown lads ? " 
 And she stood with a hand on each, proud that their 
 heads were so far above her own, and looking still so 
 slight and girlish in figure that she might better have
 
 240 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 been their sister than their mother. The cloud that 
 the sudden light had revealed on Ebbo's brow had 
 cleared away, and he made an inclination neither 
 awkward nor ungracious in its free mountain dignity 
 and grace, but not devoid of mountain rusticity and 
 shy pride, and far less cordial than was Friedel's 
 manner. Both were infinitely relieved to detect 
 nothing of the greasy burgher, and were greatly 
 struck with the fine venerable head before them; 
 indeed, Erieclel would, like his mother, have knelt 
 to ask a blessing, had he not been under command 
 not to outrun his brother's advances towards her 
 kindred. 
 
 " Welcome, fair Junkern ! " said Master Gottfried ; 
 " welcome both for your mother's sake and your own ! 
 These thy sons, my little one ? " he added, smiling. 
 " Art sure I neither dream nor see double ! Come to 
 the gallery, and let me see thee better." 
 
 And, ceremoniously giving his hand, he proceeded 
 to lead his niece up the stairs, while Ebbo, labouring 
 under ignorance of city forms and uncertainty of 
 what befitted his dignity, presented his hand to his 
 aunt with an air that half-amused, half-offended the 
 shrewd dame. 
 
 " All is as if I had left you but yesterday ! " ex-
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 241 
 
 claimed Christina. " Uncle, nave you pardoned me ? 
 You bade me return when my work was done." 
 
 " I should have known better, child. Such return 
 is not to be sought on this side the grave. Thy work 
 has been more than I then thought of." 
 
 " Ah ! and now will you deem it begun — not 
 done ! " softly said Christina, though with too much 
 heartfelt exultation greatly to doubt that all the 
 world must be satisfied with two such boys, if only 
 Ebbo would be his true self. 
 
 The luxury of the house, the wainscoted and 
 tapestried walls, the polished furniture, the lamps 
 and candles, the damask linen, the rich array of 
 silver, pewter, and brightly-coloured glass, were a 
 great contrast to the bare walls and scant necessaries 
 of Schloss Adlerstein ; but Ebbo was resolved not to 
 expose himself by admiration, and did his best to 
 stifle Friedel's exclamations of surprise and delight. 
 Were not these citizens to suppose that everything 
 was tenfold more costly at the baronial castle ? And 
 truly the boy deserved credit for the consideration 
 for his mother, which made him merely reserved, 
 while he felt like a wild eagle in a poultry-yard. It 
 was no small proof of his affection to forbear more 
 interference with his mother's happiness than was 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 the inevitable effect of that intuition which made her 
 aware that he was chafing and ill at ease. For his 
 sake, she allowed herself to be placed in the seat of 
 honour, though she longed, as of old, to nestle at her 
 uncle's feet, and be again his child ; but, even while 
 she felt each acceptance of a token of respect as 
 almost an injury to them, every look and tone was 
 showing how much the same Christina she had 
 returned. 
 
 In truth, though her life had been mournful and 
 oppressed, it had not been such as to age her early. 
 It had been all submission, without wear-and-tear 
 of mind, and too simple in its trials for care and 
 moiling; so the fresh, lily-like sweetness of her 
 maiden bloom was almost intact, and, much as she 
 had undergone, her once frail health had been so 
 braced by the mountain breezes, that, though deli- 
 cacy remained, sickliness was gone from her appear- 
 ance. There was still the exquisite purity and tender 
 modesty of expression, but with greater sweetness in 
 the pensive brown eyes. 
 
 " Ah, little one ! " said her uncle, after duly con- 
 templating her ; " the change is all for the better ! 
 Thou art grown a wondrously fair dame. There will 
 scarce be a lovelier in the Kaisarly train."
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 243 
 
 Ebbo almost pardoned his great-uncle for being 
 his great-uncle. 
 
 " When she is arrayed as becomes the Frau Frei- 
 herrinn," said the housewife aunt, looking with con- 
 cern at the coarse texture of her black sleeve. * I 
 long to see our own lady ruffle it in her new gear. 
 I am glad that the lofty pointed cap has passed out ; 
 the coif becomes my child far better, and I see our 
 tastes still accord as to fashion." 
 
 " Fashion scarce came above the Debateable Ford," 
 said Christina, smiling. " I fear my boys look as if 
 they came out of the ' Weltgeschichte,' for I could 
 only shape their garments after my remembrance of 
 the gallants of eighteen years ago." 
 
 " Their garments are your own shaping ? " ex- 
 claimed the aunt, now in an accent of real, not 
 conventional respect. 
 
 " Spinning and weaving, shaping and sewing," said 
 Friedel, coming near to let the housewife examine 
 the texture. 
 
 " Close woven, even threaded, smooth tinted ! Ah, 
 
 Stina, thou didst learn something ! Thou wert not 
 
 quite spoilt by the housefather's books and carvings." 
 
 " I cannot tell whose teachings have served me 
 
 best, or been the most precious to me," said Chris- 
 
 R2
 
 244 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 tina, with clasped hands, looking from one to another 
 with earnest love. 
 
 " Thou art a good child. Ah ! little one, forgive 
 me ; you look so like our child that I cannot bear in 
 mind that you are the Frau Freiherrinn." 
 
 " Nay, I should deem myself in disgrace with you, 
 did you keep me at a distance, and not thou me, as 
 your little Stina," she fondly answered, half regretting 
 her fond eager movement, as Ebbo seemed to shrink 
 together with a gesture perceived by her uncle. 
 
 " It is my young lord there who would not for- 
 give the freedom," he said, good-humouredly, though 
 gravely. 
 
 " Not so," Ebbo forced himself to say ; " not so, if 
 it makes my mother happy." 
 
 He held up his head rather as if he thought it a 
 fool's paradise, but Master Gottfried answered : " The 
 noble Freiherr is, from all I have heard, too good 
 a son to grudge his mother's duteous love even to 
 burgher kindred." 
 
 There was something in the old man's frank dig- 
 nified tone of grave reproof that at once impressed 
 Ebbo with a sense of the true superiority of that wise 
 and venerable old age to his own petulant baronial 
 self-assertion. He had both head and heart to feel
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 245 
 
 the burgher's victory, and with a deep blush, though 
 not without dignity, he answered, " Truly, sir, my 
 mother has ever taught us to look up to you as her 
 kindest and best " 
 
 He was going to say " friend," but a look into the 
 grand benignity of the countenance completed the 
 conquest, and he turned it into " father." Friedel at 
 the same instant bent his knee, exclaiming, "It is 
 true what Ebbo says ! We have both longed for the 
 day. Bless us, honoured uncle, as you have blessed 
 my mother." 
 
 For in truth there was in the soul of the boy, who 
 had never had any but women to look up to, a strange 
 yearning towards reverence, which was called into 
 action with inexpressible force by the very aspect and 
 tone of such a sage elder and counsellor as Master 
 Gottfried Sorel, and took advantage of the first open- 
 ing permitted by his brother. And the sympathy 
 always so strong between the two quickened the like 
 feeling in Ebbo, so that the same movement drew 
 him on his knee beside Friedel in oblivion or renun- 
 ciation of all lordly pride towards a kinsman such as 
 he had here encountered. 
 
 " Truly and heartily, my fair youths," said Master 
 Gottfried, with the same kind dignity, " do I pray
 
 246 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 the good God to bless you, and render you faithful 
 and loving sons, not only to your mother, but to your 
 fatherland." 
 
 He was unable to distinguish between the two 
 exactly similar forms that knelt before him, yet there 
 was something in the quivering of Friedei's head, 
 which made him press it with a shade more of ten- 
 derness than the other. And in truth tears were 
 welling into the eyes veiled by the fingers that Friedel 
 clasped over his face, for such a blessing was strange 
 and sweet to him. 
 
 Their mother was ready to weep for joy. There 
 was now no drawback to her bliss, since her son and 
 her uncle had accepted one another; and she re- 
 paired to her own beloved old chamber a happier 
 being than she had been since she had left its wain- 
 scoted walls. Nay, as she gazed out at the familiar 
 outlines of roof and tower, and felt herself truly at 
 home, then knelt by the little undisturbed altar of 
 her devotions, with the cross above and her own 
 patron saint below in carved wood, and the flowers 
 which the good aunt had ever kept as a freshly- 
 renewed offering, she felt that she was happier, more 
 fully thankful and blissful than even in the girlish 
 calm of her untroubled life. Her prayer that she
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 247 
 
 might come again in peace had been more than ful- 
 filled ; nay, when she had seen her boys kneel meekly 
 to receive her uncle's blessing, it was in some sort to 
 her as if the work was done, as if the millstone had 
 been borne up for her, and had borne her and her 
 dear ones with it. 
 
 But there was much to come. She knew full well 
 that, even though her son's first step had been in the 
 right direction, it was in a path beset with difficul- 
 ties ; and how would her proud Ebbo meet them ?
 
 248 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE EAGLETS IN THE CITY. 
 
 After having once accepted Master Gottfried, Ebbo 
 froze towards him and Dame Johanna no more, save 
 that a naturally imperious temper now and then led 
 to fitful stiffnesses and momentary haughtiness, which 
 were easily excused in one so new to the world and 
 afraid of compromising his rank. In general he 
 could afford to enjoy himself with a zest as hearty 
 as that of the simpler-minded Eriedel. 
 
 They were early afoot, but not before the heads of 
 the household were coming forth for the morning 
 devotions at the cathedral ; and the streets were 
 stirring into activity, and becoming so peopled that 
 the boys supposed that it was a great fair day. 
 They had never seen so many people together even 
 at the Friedmund Wake, and it was several days 
 before they ceased to exclaim at every passenger as 
 a new curiosity.
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 249 
 
 The Dome Kirk awed and hushed them. They 
 had looked to it so long that perhaps no sublunary 
 thing could have realized their expectations, and 
 Friedel avowed that he did not know what he 
 thought of it. It was not such as he had dreamt, 
 and, like a German as he was, he added that he 
 could not think, he could only feel, that there was 
 something ineffable in it ; yet he was almost dis- 
 appointed to find his visions unfulfilled, and the 
 hues of the painted glass less pure and translucent 
 than those of the ice crystals on the mountains. 
 However, after his eye had become trained, the deep 
 influence of its dim solemn majesty, and of the 
 echoes of its organ tones and chants of high praise 
 or earnest prayer, began to enchain his spirit ; and, if 
 ever he were missing, he was sure to be found among 
 the mysteries of the cathedral aisles, generally with 
 Ebbo, who felt the spell of the same grave fascina- 
 tion, since whatever was true of the one brother was 
 generally true of the other. They were essentially 
 alike, though some phases of character and taste were 
 more developed in the one or the other. 
 
 Master Gottfried was much edified by their perfect 
 knowledge of the names and numbers of his books. 
 They instantly, almost resentfully, missed the Cicero's
 
 250 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 Offices that he had parted with, and joyfully hailed 
 his new acquisitions, often sitting with heads together 
 over the same book, reading like active-minded 
 youths who were used to out-of-door life and exercise 
 in superabundant measure, and to study as a valued 
 recreation, with only food enough for the intellect to 
 awaken instead of satisfying it. 
 
 They were delighted to obtain instruction from a 
 travelling student, then attending the schools of 
 Ulm — a meek timid lad who, for love of learning 
 and desire of the priesthood, had endured fright- 
 ful tyranny from the Bacchanten or elder scholars, 
 and, having at length attained that rank, had so 
 little heart to retaliate on the juniors that his con- 
 temporaries despised him, and led him a cruel life, 
 until he obtained food and shelter from Master Gott- 
 fried at the pleasant cost of lessons to the young- 
 barons. Poor Bastien ! this land of quiet, civility, 
 and books was a foretaste of Paradise to him after 
 the hard living, barbarity, and coarse vices of his 
 comrades, of whom he now and then disclosed traits 
 that made his present pupils long to give battle to 
 the big shaggy youths who used to send out the lesser 
 lads to beg and steal for them, and cruelly maltreated 
 such as failed in the quest.
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE* S XEST. 251 
 
 Lessons in music and singing were gladly accepted 
 by both lads, and from their uncle's carving they 
 could not keep their hands. Ebbo had begun by 
 enjoining Friedel to remember that the work that 
 had been sport in the mountains would be basely 
 mechanical in the city, and Friedel as usual yielded 
 his private tastes ; but on the second day Ebbo him- 
 self was discovered in the workshop, watching the 
 magic touch of the deft workman, and he was soon 
 so enticed by the perfect appliances as to take tool 
 in hand and prove himself not unadroit in the craft. 
 Friedel, however, excelled in delicacy of touch and 
 grace and originality of conception, and produced 
 such workmanship that Master Gottfried could not 
 help stroking his hair and telling him it was a pity 
 he was not born to belong to the guild. 
 
 " I cannot spare him, sir," cried Ebbo ; " priest, 
 scholar, minstrel, artist — all want him." 
 
 • What, Hans of all streets, Ebbo ? " interrupted 
 Friedel. 
 
 " And guildmaster of none," said Ebbo, " save as a 
 warrior ; the rest only enough for a gentleman ! For 
 what I am thou must be ! " 
 
 But Ebbo did not find fault with the skill Friedel 
 was bestowing on his work — a carving in wood of a
 
 252 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 dove brooding over two young eagles — the device 
 that both were resolved to assume. When their 
 mother asked what their lady-loves would say to 
 this, Ebbo looked up, and with the fullest conviction 
 in his lustrous eyes declared that no love should ever 
 rival his motherling in his heart. For truly her 
 tender sweetness had given her sons' affection a 
 touch of romance, for which Master Gottfried liked 
 them the better, though his wife thought their fami- 
 liarity with her hardly accordant with the patriarchal 
 discipline of the citizens. 
 
 The youths held aloof from these burghers, for 
 Master Gottfried wisely desired to give them time to 
 be tamed before running risk of offence, either to, or 
 by, their wild shy pride ; and their mother contrived 
 to time her meetings with her old companions when 
 her sons were otherwise occupied. Master Gott- 
 fried made it known that the marriage portion he 
 had designed for his niece had been intrusted to a 
 merchant trading in peltry to Muscovy, and the sum 
 thus realized was larger than any bride had yet 
 brought to Adlerstein. Master Gottfried would have 
 liked to continue the same profitable speculations 
 with it ; but this would have been beyond the young 
 Baron's endurance, and his eyes sparkled when his
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 253 
 
 mother spoke of repairing the castle, refitting the 
 chapel, having a resident chaplain, cultivating more 
 land, increasing the scanty stock of cattle, and 
 attempting the improvements hitherto prevented by 
 lack of means. He fervently declared that the 
 motherling was more than equal to the wise spin- 
 ning Queen Bertha of legend and lay ; and the first 
 pleasant sense of wealth came in the acquisition of 
 horses, weapons, and braveries. In his original mood, 
 Ebbo would rather have stood before the Diet in his 
 home-STJun blue than have figured in cloth of gold 
 at a burgher's expense ; but he had learned to love 
 his uncle, he regarded the marriage portion as family 
 property, and, moreover, he sorely longed to feel him- 
 self and his brother well mounted, and scarcely less 
 to see his mother in a velvet gown. 
 
 Here was his chief point of sympathy with the 
 housemother, who, herself precluded from wearing 
 miniver, velvet, or pearls, longed to deck her niece 
 therewith, in time to receive Sir Kasimir of Adlersteiu 
 Wildschloss, as he had promised to meet his godsons 
 at Ulm. The knight's marriage had lasted only a 
 few years, and had left him no surviving children 
 except one little daughter, whom he had placed in a 
 nunnery at Ulm, under the care of her mother's
 
 254 THE DOVE 1ST THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 sister. His lands lay higher up the Danube, and he 
 was expected at Ulm shortly before the Emperor's 
 arrival. He had been chiefly in Flanders with the 
 King of the Romans, and had- only returned to 
 Germany when the Netherlander had refused the 
 regency of Maximilian, and driven him out of their 
 country, depriving him of the custody of his chil- 
 dren. 
 
 Pfingsttag, or Pentecost-day, was the occasion of 
 Christina's first full toilette, and never was bride 
 more solicitously or exultingly arrayed than she, 
 while one boy held the mirror and the other criticised 
 and admired as the aunt adjusted the pearl-bordered 
 coif, and long white veil floating over the long-desired 
 black velvet dress. How the two lads admired and 
 gazed, caring far less for their own new and noble 
 attire ! Friedel was indeed somewhat concerned that 
 the sword by his side was so much handsomer than 
 that which Ebbo wore, and which, for all its dinted 
 scabbard and battered hilt, he was resolved never to 
 discard. 
 
 It was a festival of brilliant joy. Wreaths of 
 flowers hung from the windows ; rich tapestries 
 decked the Dome Kirk, and the relics were displayed 
 in shrines of wonderful costliness of material and
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 255 
 
 beauty of workmanship ; little birds, with thin cakes 
 fastened to their feet, were let loose to fly about the 
 church, in strange allusion to the event of the day ; 
 the clergy wore their most gorgeous robes ; and the 
 exulting music of the mass echoed from the vaults 
 of the long-drawn aisles, and brought a rapt look of 
 deep calm ecstasy over Friedel's sensitive features. 
 The beggars evidently considered a festival as a 
 harvest-day, and crowded round the doors of the 
 cathedral. As the Lady of Adlerstein came out, 
 leaning on Ebbo's arm, with Friedel on her other 
 side, they evidently attracted the notice of a woman 
 whose thin brown face looked the darker for the 
 striped red and yellow silk kerchief that bound the 
 dark locks round her brow, as, holding out a beringed 
 hand, she fastened her glittering jet black eyes on 
 them, and exclaimed, " Alms ! if the fair dame and 
 knightly Junkern would hear what fate has in store 
 for them." 
 
 " We meddle not with the future, I thank thee," 
 said Christina, seeing that her sons, to whom gipsies 
 were an amazing novelty, were in extreme surprise 
 at the fortune-telling proposal. 
 
 " Yet could I tell much, lady," said the woman, 
 still standing in the way. " What would some here
 
 256 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 present give to know that the locks that were 
 shrouded by the widow's veil ere ever they wore 
 the matron's coif shall yet return to the coif once 
 more?" 
 
 Ebbo gave a sudden start of dismay and passion ; 
 his mother held him fast. " Push on, Ebbo mine ; 
 heed her not ; she is a mere Bohemian." 
 
 " But how knew she your history, mother ? " asked 
 Eriedel, eagerly. 
 
 " That might be easily learnt at our wake," began 
 Christina ; but her steps were checked by a call 
 from Master Gottfried just behind. " Frau Ereiher- 
 rinn, Junkern, not so fast. Here is your noble 
 kinsman." 
 
 A tall, fine-looking person, in the long rich robe 
 worn on peaceful occasions, stood forth, doffing his 
 eagle-plumed bonnet, and, as the lady turned and 
 curtsied low, he put his knee to the ground and 
 kissed her hand, saying, " Well met, noble dame ; I 
 felt certain that I knew you when I beheld you in 
 the Dom." 
 
 " He was gazing at her all the time," whispered 
 Ebbo to his brother; while their mother, blushing, 
 replied, " You do me too much honour, Herr Erei- 
 herr."
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 257 
 
 " Once seen, never to be forgotten," was the cour- 
 teous answer ; " and truly, but for the stately height 
 of these my godsons, I would not believe how long 
 since our meeting was." 
 
 Thereupon, in true German fashion, Sir Kasimir 
 embraced each youth in the open street, and then, 
 removing his long embroidered Spanish glove, he 
 offered his hand, or rather the tips of his fingers, to 
 lead the Frau Christina home. 
 
 Master Sorel had invited him to become his guest 
 at a very elaborate ornamental festival meal in honour 
 of the great holiday, at which were to be present 
 several wealthy citizens with their wives and families, 
 old connexions of the Sorel family. Ebbo had re- 
 solved upon treating them with courteous reserve 
 and distance ; but he was surprised to find his cousin 
 of "Wildschloss comporting himself among the burgo- 
 masters and their dames as freely as though they 
 had been his equals, and to see that they took such 
 demeanour as perfectly natural. Quick to perceive, 
 the boy gathered that the gulf between noble and 
 burgher was so great that no intimacy could bridge 
 it over, no reserve widen it, and that his own bashful 
 hauteur was almost a sign that he knew that the gulf 
 had been passed by his own parents ; but shame and 
 
 VOL. i. s
 
 258 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 consciousness did not enable him to alter his manner 
 but rather added to its stiffness. 
 
 " The Junker is like an Englishman," said Sir 
 Kasimir, who had met many of the exiles of the 
 Koses at the court of Mary of Burgundy; and 
 then he turned to discuss with the guildmasters 
 the interruption to trade caused by Flemish 
 jealousies. 
 
 After the lengthy meal, the tables were removed, 
 the long gallery was occupied by musicians, and 
 Master Gottfried crossed the hall to tell his eldest 
 grandnephew that to liim he should depute the 
 opening of the dance with the handsome bride of the 
 Eathsherr, Ulrich Burger. Ebbo blushed up to the 
 eyes, and muttered that he prayed his uncle to 
 excuse Mm. 
 
 " So ! " said the old citizen, really displeased ; " thy 
 kinsman might have proved to thee that it is no 
 derogation of thy lordly dignity. I have been patient 
 
 with thee, but thy pride passes " 
 
 " Sir," interposed Eriedel hastily, raising his sweet 
 candid face with a look between shame and merri- 
 ment, " it is not that ; but you forget what poor 
 mountaineers we are. Never did we tread a measure 
 save now and then with our mother on a winter
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 259 
 
 evening, and we know no more than a chamois of 
 your intricate measures." 
 
 Master Gottfried looked perplexed, for these dances 
 were matters of great punctilio. It was but seven 
 years since the Lord of Praunstein had defied the 
 whole city of Frankfort because a damsel of that 
 place had refused to dance with one of his cousins ; 
 and, though " Fistright " and letters of challenge had 
 been made illegal, yet the whole city of Ulm would 
 have resented the affront put on it by the young lord 
 of Adlerstein. Happily the Freiherr of Adlerstein 
 Wildschloss was at hand. " Herr Burgomaster," he 
 said, " let me commence the dance with your fair 
 lady niece. By your testimony," he added, smiling 
 to the youths, " she can tread a measure. And, after 
 marking us, you may try your success with the 
 Bathsherrinn." 
 
 Christina would gladly have transferred her noble 
 partner to the Bathsherrinn, but she feared to mortify 
 her good uncle and aunt further, and consented to 
 figure alone with Sir Kasimir in one of the majestic, 
 graceful dances performed by a single couple before 
 a gazing assembly. So she let him lead her to her 
 place, and they bowed and bent, swept past one 
 another, and moved in interlacing lines and curves, 
 s2
 
 260 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 with a grand slow movement that displayed her 
 quiet grace and his stately port and courtly air. 
 
 " Is it not beautiful to see the motherling ? " said 
 Friedel to his brother ; " she sails like a white cloud 
 in a soft wind. And he stands grand as a stag at gaze." 
 
 " Like a malapert peacock, say I," returned Ebbo ; 
 " didst not see, Friedel, how he kept his eyes on her 
 in church ? My uncle says the Bohemians are mere 
 deceivers. Depend on it the woman had spied his 
 insolent looks when she made her ribald prediction." 
 
 " See," said Friedel, who had been watching the 
 steps rather than attending, " it will be easy to dance 
 it now. It is a figure my mother once tried to teach 
 us. I remember it now." 
 
 " Then go and do it, since better may not be." 
 
 " Nay, but it should be thou." 
 
 " Who will know which of us it is ? I hated his 
 presumption too much to mark his antics." 
 
 Friedel came forward, and the substitution was 
 undetected by all save their mother and uncle ; by 
 the latter only because, addressing Ebbo, he received 
 a reply in a tone such as Friedel never used. 
 
 Natural grace, quickness of ear and eye, and a 
 skilful partner, rendered Friedel' s so fair a perform- 
 ance that he ventured on sending his brother to
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 261 
 
 attend the councilloress with wine and comfits ; 
 while he in his own person performed another dance 
 with the city dame next in pretension, and their 
 mother was amnsed by Sir Kasimir's remark, that 
 her second son danced better that the elder, but both 
 must learn. 
 
 The remark displeased Ebbo. In his isolated 
 castle he knew no superior, and his nature might 
 yield willingly, but rebelled at being put down. His 
 brother was his perfect equal in all mental and bodily 
 attributes, but it was the absence of all self-assertion 
 that made Ebbo so often give him the preference ; it 
 was his mother's tender meekness in which lay her 
 power with him ; and, if he yielded to Gottfried 
 Sorel's wisdom and experience, it was with the in- 
 ward consciousness of voluntary deference to one of 
 lower rank. But here was 'Wildschloss, of the same 
 noble blood with himself, his elder, his sponsor, his 
 protector, with every right to direct him, so that there 
 was no choice between grateful docility and head- 
 strong folly. If the fellow had been old, weak, or in 
 any way inferior, it would have been more bearable ; 
 but he was a tried warrior, a sage counsellor, in the 
 prime vigour of manhood, and with a kindly reason- 
 able authority to which only a fool could fail to
 
 262 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 attend, and which for that very reason chafed Ebbo 
 excessively. 
 
 Moreover, there was the gipsy prophecy ever rank- 
 ling in the lad's heart, and embittering to him the 
 sight of every civility from his kinsman to his mother. 
 Sir Kasimir lodged at a neighbouring hostel ; but he 
 spent much time with his cousins, and tried to make 
 them friends with his squire, Count Eudiger. A 
 great offence to Ebbo was, however, the criticisms of 
 both knight and squire on the bearing of the young 
 Barons in military exercises. Truly, with no in- 
 structor but the rough lanzknecht Heinz, they must, 
 as Eriedel said, have been born paladins to have 
 equalled youths whose life had been spent in chival- 
 rous training. 
 
 " See us in a downright fight," said Ebbo ; " we 
 could strike as hard as any courtly minion." 
 
 " As hard, but scarce as dextrously," said Eriedel, 
 " and be called for our pains the wild mountaineers. 
 I heard the men-at-arms saying I sat my horse as 
 though it were always going up or down a precipice ; 
 and Master Schmidt went into his shop the other day 
 shrugging his shoulders, and saying we hailed one 
 another across the market-place as if we thought 
 Ulm was a mountain full of gemsbocks."
 
 TEE DOVE IN THE EAGLE S NEST. 263 
 
 " Thou heardst ! and didst not cast his insolence in 
 his teeth ? " cried Ebbo. 
 
 " How could I," laughed Friedel, " when the echo 
 was casting back in my teeth my own shout to thee ? 
 I could only laugh with Paidiger." 
 
 " The chief delight I could have, next to getting 
 home, would be to lay that fellow Paidiger on his 
 back in the tilt-yard/' said Ebbo. 
 
 But, as Eudiger was by four years his senior, and 
 very expert, the upshot of these encounters was quite 
 otherwise, and the young gentlemen were disabused 
 of the notion that fighting came by nature, and found 
 that, if they desired success in a serious conflict, they 
 must practise diligently in the city tilt-yard, where 
 young men were trained to arms. The crossbow was 
 the only weapon with which they excelled ; and, as 
 shooting was a favourite exercise with the burghers, 
 their proficiency was not as exclusive as had seemed 
 to Ebbo a baronial privilege. Harquebuses were 
 novelties to them, and they despised them as burgher 
 weapons, in spite of Sir Kasimir's assurance that 
 firearms were a great subject of study and interest to 
 the King of the Piomans. The name of this per- 
 sonage was, it may be feared, highly distasteful to 
 the Freiherr von Adlerstein, both as Wildschloss's
 
 264 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 model of knightly perfection, and as one who claimed 
 submission from his haughty spirit. "When Sir 
 Kasimir spoke to him on the subject of giving his 
 allegiance, he stiffly replied, " Sir, that is a question 
 for ripe consideration." 
 
 "It is the question," said Wildschloss, rather 
 more lightly than agreed with the Baron's dignity, 
 " whether you like to have your castle pulled down 
 about your ears." 
 
 " That has never happened yet to Adlerstein ! " 
 said Ebbo, proudly. 
 
 " No, because since the days of the Hohenstaufen 
 there has been neither rule nor union in the empire. 
 But times are changing fast, my Junker, and within 
 the last ten years forty castles such as yours have 
 been consumed by the Swabian League, as though 
 they were so many walnuts." 
 
 " The shell of Adlerstein was too hard for them, 
 though. They never tried." 
 
 " And wherefore, friend Eberhard ? It was because 
 I represented to the Kaisar and the Graf von Wurtern- 
 berg that little profit and no glory would accrue from 
 attacking a crag full of women and babes, and that I, 
 having the honour to be your next heir, should 
 prefer having the castle untouched, and under the
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 265 
 
 peace of the empire, so long as that peace was kept. 
 When you should come to years of discretion, then 
 it would be for you to carry out the intention where- 
 with your father and grandfather left home." 
 
 " Then we have been protected by the peace of 
 the empire all this time ? " said Friedel, while Ebbo 
 looked as if the notion were hard of digestion. 
 
 " Even so ; and, had you not freely and nobly re- 
 leased your Genoese merchant, it had gone hard with 
 Adlerstein." 
 
 " Could Adlerstein be taken ? " demanded Ebbo 
 triumphantly. 
 
 * Your grandmother thought not," said Sir Kasimir, 
 with a shade of irony in his tone. " It would be a 
 troublesome siege ; but the League numbers 1,500 
 horse, and 9,000 foot, and, with Schlangenwald's con- 
 currence, you would be assuredly starved out." 
 
 Ebbo was so much the more stimulated to take his 
 chance, and do nothing on compulsion ; but Friedel 
 put in the question to what the oaths would bind 
 him. 
 
 " Only to aid the Emperor with sword and counsel 
 in field or Diet, and thereby win fame and honour 
 such as can scarce be gained by carrying prey to yon 
 eagle roost."
 
 266 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 " One may preserve one's independence without 
 robbery," said Ebbo, coldly. 
 
 " Nay, lad ; did you ever hear of a wolf that could 
 live without marauding ? or if he tried, would he 
 get credit for so doing ? " 
 
 "After all/' said Erieclel, "does not the present 
 agreement hold till we are of age ? I suppose the 
 Swabian League would attempt nothing against 
 minors, unless we break the peace ? " 
 
 " Probably not ; I will do my utmost to give the 
 Freiherr there time to grow beyond his grandmother's 
 maxims," said Wildschloss. "If Schlangenwald do 
 not meddle in the matter, he may have the next five 
 years to decide whether Adlerstein can hold out 
 against all Germany." 
 
 "Freiherr Kasimir von Adlerstein Wildschloss," 
 said Eberhard, turning solemnly on him, " I do you 
 to wit once for all that threats will not serve with 
 me. If I submit, it will be because I am convinced 
 it is right. Otherwise we had rather both be buried 
 in the ruins of our castle, as its last free lords." 
 
 " So ! " said the provoking kinsman ; " such burials 
 look grim when the time comes, but happily it is not 
 coming yet ! " 
 
 Meantime, as Ebbo said to Eriedel, how much
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S XEST. 267 
 
 might happen — a disruption of the empire, a crusade 
 against the Turks, a war in Italy, some grand means 
 of making the Diet value the sword of a free baron, 
 without chaining him down to gratify the greed of 
 hungry Austria. If only "Wildschloss could be 
 shaken off! But he only became constantly more 
 friendly and intrusive, almost paternal. Xo wonder, 
 when the mother and her uncle made him so welcome, 
 and were so intolerably grateful for his impertinent 
 interference, while even Friedel confessed the reason- 
 ableness of his counsels, as if that were not the very 
 sting of them. 
 
 He even asked leave to bring his little daughter 
 Thekla from her convent to see the lady of Adlerstein. 
 She was a pretty, flaxen-haired maiden of five years 
 old, in a round cap, and long narrow frock, with a 
 little cross at the neck. She had never seen any one 
 beyond the walls of the nunnery ; and, when her 
 father took her from the lay sister's arms, and carried 
 her to the gallery, where sat Hausfrau Johanna, in 
 dark green, slashed with cherry colour, Master Gott- 
 fried, in sober crimson, with gold medal and chain, 
 Freiherrin Christina, in silver-broidered black, and 
 the two Junkern stood near in the shining mail in 
 which they were going to the tilt-yard, she turned
 
 268 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 her head in terror, struggled with her scarce known 
 father, and shrieked for Sister Gretliel. 
 
 "It was all too sheen," she sobbed, in the lay 
 sister's arms; "she did not want to be in Paradise 
 yet, among the saints ! ! take her back ! The 
 two bright, holy Michaels would let her go, for indeed 
 she had made but one mistake in her Ave." 
 
 Vain was the attempt to make her lift her face 
 from the black serge shoulder where she had hidden 
 it. Sister Grethel coaxed and scolded, Sir Kasimir 
 reproved, the housemother offered comfits, and Chris- 
 tina's soft voice was worst of all, for the child, 
 probably taking her for Our Lady herself, began 
 to gasp forth a general confession. " I will never do 
 so again ! Yes, it was a fib, but Mother Hildegard 
 
 gave me a bit of marchpane not to tell " Here 
 
 the lay sister took strong measures for closing the 
 little mouth, and Christina drew back, recommending 
 that the child should be left gradually to discover 
 their terrestrial nature. Ebbo had looked on with 
 extreme disgust, trying to hurry Friedel, who had 
 delayed to trace some lines for his mother on her 
 broidery pattern. In passing the step where Grethel 
 sat with Thekla on her lap, the clank of their armour 
 caused the uplifting of the little flaxen head, and two
 
 THE DOVE IX THE EAGLE'S NEST. 269 
 
 wide blue eyes looked over Grethel's shoulder, and 
 met Friedel's sunny glance. He smiled ; she laughed 
 back again. He held out his arms, and, though his 
 hands were gauntleted, she let him lift her up, and 
 curiously smoothed and patted his cheek, as if he 
 had been a strange animal. 
 
 " You have no wings," she said. " Are you St. 
 George, or St. Michael % " 
 
 " Neither the one nor the other, pretty one. Only 
 your poor cousin Friedel von Adlerstein, and here is 
 Ebbo, my brother." 
 
 It was not in Ebbo's nature not to smile encourage- 
 ment at the fair little face, with its wistful look. He 
 drew off his glove to caress her silken hair, and for a 
 few minutes she was played with by the two brothers 
 like a newly-invented toy, receiving their attentions 
 with pretty half-frightened graciousness, until Count 
 Rudiger hastened in to summon them, and Friedel 
 placed her on his mother's knee, where she speedily 
 became perfectly happy, and at ease. 
 
 Her extreme delight, when towards evening the 
 Junkern returned, was flattering even to Ebbo ; and, 
 when it was time for her to be taken home, she made 
 strong resistance, clinging fast to Christina, with 
 screams and struggles. To the lady's promise of
 
 270 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 coming to see her she replied, "Friedel and Ebbo, 
 too/' and, receiving no response to this request, she 
 burst out, " Then I won't come ! I am the Freiher- 
 rinn Thekla, the heiress of Adlerstein Wildschloss 
 and Felsenbach. I won't be a nun. I'll be married ! 
 You shall be my husband," and she made a dart at 
 the nearest youth, who happened to be Ebbo. 
 
 " Ay, ay, you shall have him. He will come for 
 you, sweetest Fraulein," said the perplexed Grethel, 
 " so only you will come home ! Nobody will come 
 for you if you are naughty." 
 
 " Will you come if I am good ? " said the spoilt 
 cloister pet, clinging tight to Ebbo. 
 
 "Yes," said her father, as she still resisted, " come 
 back, my child, and one day shall you see Ebbo, and 
 have him for a brother." 
 
 Thereat Ebbo shook off the little grasping fingers, 
 almost as if they had belonged to a noxious insect. 
 
 "The matron's coif should succeed the widow's 
 veil." He might talk with scholarly contempt of the 
 new race of Bohemian imposters ; but there was no 
 forgetting that sentence. And in like manner, though 
 his grandmother's allegation that his mother had been 
 bent on captivating Sir Kasimir in that single inter- 
 view at Adlerstein, had always seemed to him the
 
 THE DOVE IN THE EAGLE'S NEST. 271 
 
 most preposterous of all Kunigunde's forms of out- 
 rage, the recollection would recur to him; and he 
 could have found it in his heart to wish that his 
 mother had never heard of the old lady's designs as 
 to the oubliette. He did most sincerely wish Master 
 Gottfried had never let Wildschloss know of the 
 mode in which his life had been saved. Yet, while 
 it would have seemed to him profane to breathe even 
 to Friedel the true secret of his repugnance to this 
 meddlesome kinsman, it was absolutely impossible to 
 avoid his most distasteful authority and patronage. 
 
 And the mother herself was gently, thankfully 
 happy and unsuspicious, basking in the tender home 
 affection of which she had so long been deprived, 
 proud of her sons, and, though anxious as to Ebbo's 
 decision, with a quiet trust in his foundation of 
 principle, and above all trusting to prayer. 
 
 END OF VOL. I.
 
 LONDON : 
 
 R. CLAY, SON, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS, 
 
 BREAD STREET HILL. 
 
 31 &2lH