The Dove in the Eagle's Nest [65]
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 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 grandame'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 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?"
"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 bearing a club. He strove to withhold it; his gestures threatened and warned! I watched like one spell-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 burrowing 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 knowest not what thou sayest."
"No one knows better! See, Friedel, wouldst thou have me all that the old Adlersteinen were, and 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
"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 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 grandame'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 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?"
"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 bearing a club. He strove to withhold it; his gestures threatened and warned! I watched like one spell-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 burrowing 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 knowest not what thou sayest."
"No one knows better! See, Friedel, wouldst thou have me all that the old Adlersteinen were, and 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