The Dove in the Eagle's Nest [120]
by the Baron, "never fear; I know who the fellow is as well as you do. I shall be at the foot of the stairs, and woe to whoever tries to step up them past me."
"There is no reason to apprehend treason, Heinz, yet to be on our guard can do no harm."
"Nay, lady, I could look to the gear for the oubliette if you would speak the word."
"For heaven's sake, no, Heinz. This man has come hither trusting to our honour, and you could not do your lord a greater wrong, nor one that he could less pardon, than by any attempt on our guest."
"Would that he had never eaten our bread!" muttered Heinz. "Vipers be they all, and who knows what may come next?"
"Watch, watch, Heinz; that is all," implored Christina, "and, above all, not a word to any one else."
And Christina dismissed the man-at-arms gruff and sullen, and herself retired ill at ease between fears of, and for, the unwelcome guest whose strange powers of fascination had rendered her, in his absence, doubly distrustful.
CHAPTER XXI: RITTER THEURDANK
The snow fell all night without ceasing, and was still falling on the morrow, when the guest explained his desire of paying a short visit to the young Baron, and then taking his departure. Christina would gladly have been quit of him, but she felt bound to remonstrate, for their mountain was absolutely impassable during a fall of snow, above all when accompanied by wind, since the drifts concealed fearful abysses, and the shifting masses insured destruction to the unwary wayfarer; nay, natives themselves had perished between the hamlet and the castle.
"Not the hardiest cragsman, not my son himself," she said, "could venture on such a morning to guide you to--"
"Whither, gracious dame?" asked Theurdank, half smiling.
"Nay, sir, I would not utter what you would not make known."
"You know me then?"
"Surely, sir, for our noble foe, whose generous trust in our honour must win my son's heart."
"So!" he said, with a peculiar smile, "Theurdank--Dankwart--I see! May I ask if your son likewise smelt out the Schlangenwald?"
"Verily, Sir Count, my Ebbo is not easily deceived. He said our guest could be but one man in all the empire."
Theurdank smiled again, saying, "Then, lady, you shudder not at a man whose kin and yours have shed so much of one another's blood?"
"Nay, ghostly knight, I regard you as no more stained therewith than are my sons by the deeds of their grandfather."
"If there were more like you, lady," returned Theurdank, "deadly feuds would soon be starved out. May I to your son? I have more to say to him, and I would fain hear his views of the storm."
Christina could not be quite at ease with Theurdank in her son's room, but she had no choice, and she knew that Heinz was watching on the turret stair, out of hearing indeed, but as ready to spring as a cat who sees her young ones in the hand of a child that she only half trusts.
Ebbo lay eagerly watching for his visitor, who greeted him with the same almost paternal kindness he had evinced the night before, but consulted him upon the way from the castle. Ebbo confirmed his mother's opinion that the path was impracticable so long as the snow fell, and the wind tossed it in wild drifts.
"We have been caught in snow," he said, "and hard work have we had to get home! Once indeed, after a bear hunt, we fully thought the castle stood before us, and lo! it was all a cruel snow mist in that mocking shape. I was even about to climb our last Eagle's Step, as I thought, when behold, it proved to be the very brink of the abyss."
"Ah! these ravines are well-nigh as bad as those of the Inn. I've known what it was to be caught on the ledge of a precipice by a sharp wind, changing its course, mark'st thou, so swiftly that it verily tore my hold from the rock, and had well-nigh swept me into a chasm of mighty depth. There was nothing for it but to make the best spring I might towards the crag on the other side, and grip for my life at my alpenstock, which by Our Lady's grace was firmly planted, and I held on till I
"There is no reason to apprehend treason, Heinz, yet to be on our guard can do no harm."
"Nay, lady, I could look to the gear for the oubliette if you would speak the word."
"For heaven's sake, no, Heinz. This man has come hither trusting to our honour, and you could not do your lord a greater wrong, nor one that he could less pardon, than by any attempt on our guest."
"Would that he had never eaten our bread!" muttered Heinz. "Vipers be they all, and who knows what may come next?"
"Watch, watch, Heinz; that is all," implored Christina, "and, above all, not a word to any one else."
And Christina dismissed the man-at-arms gruff and sullen, and herself retired ill at ease between fears of, and for, the unwelcome guest whose strange powers of fascination had rendered her, in his absence, doubly distrustful.
CHAPTER XXI: RITTER THEURDANK
The snow fell all night without ceasing, and was still falling on the morrow, when the guest explained his desire of paying a short visit to the young Baron, and then taking his departure. Christina would gladly have been quit of him, but she felt bound to remonstrate, for their mountain was absolutely impassable during a fall of snow, above all when accompanied by wind, since the drifts concealed fearful abysses, and the shifting masses insured destruction to the unwary wayfarer; nay, natives themselves had perished between the hamlet and the castle.
"Not the hardiest cragsman, not my son himself," she said, "could venture on such a morning to guide you to--"
"Whither, gracious dame?" asked Theurdank, half smiling.
"Nay, sir, I would not utter what you would not make known."
"You know me then?"
"Surely, sir, for our noble foe, whose generous trust in our honour must win my son's heart."
"So!" he said, with a peculiar smile, "Theurdank--Dankwart--I see! May I ask if your son likewise smelt out the Schlangenwald?"
"Verily, Sir Count, my Ebbo is not easily deceived. He said our guest could be but one man in all the empire."
Theurdank smiled again, saying, "Then, lady, you shudder not at a man whose kin and yours have shed so much of one another's blood?"
"Nay, ghostly knight, I regard you as no more stained therewith than are my sons by the deeds of their grandfather."
"If there were more like you, lady," returned Theurdank, "deadly feuds would soon be starved out. May I to your son? I have more to say to him, and I would fain hear his views of the storm."
Christina could not be quite at ease with Theurdank in her son's room, but she had no choice, and she knew that Heinz was watching on the turret stair, out of hearing indeed, but as ready to spring as a cat who sees her young ones in the hand of a child that she only half trusts.
Ebbo lay eagerly watching for his visitor, who greeted him with the same almost paternal kindness he had evinced the night before, but consulted him upon the way from the castle. Ebbo confirmed his mother's opinion that the path was impracticable so long as the snow fell, and the wind tossed it in wild drifts.
"We have been caught in snow," he said, "and hard work have we had to get home! Once indeed, after a bear hunt, we fully thought the castle stood before us, and lo! it was all a cruel snow mist in that mocking shape. I was even about to climb our last Eagle's Step, as I thought, when behold, it proved to be the very brink of the abyss."
"Ah! these ravines are well-nigh as bad as those of the Inn. I've known what it was to be caught on the ledge of a precipice by a sharp wind, changing its course, mark'st thou, so swiftly that it verily tore my hold from the rock, and had well-nigh swept me into a chasm of mighty depth. There was nothing for it but to make the best spring I might towards the crag on the other side, and grip for my life at my alpenstock, which by Our Lady's grace was firmly planted, and I held on till I