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Updated: May 27, 2025
Walther was lamenting that he had so far to go to get back home, and Eckbert proposed that he remain there and spend half the night in familiar talk, and then sleep until morning in one of the rooms of the castle.
He had a small income, and was therefore dependent upon no one. Eckbert often accompanied him on his lonely rambles, and thus a closer friendship developed between the two men with each succeeding year. There are hours in which it worries a man to keep from a friend a secret, which hitherto he has often taken great pains to conceal.
Without answering she left the room. Walther also lay down to sleep, but Eckbert continued to walk up and down the room. "Aren't human beings fools?" he finally asked himself. "I myself induced my wife to tell her story, and now I regret this confidence! Will he not perhaps misuse it? Will he not impart it to others?
"I could easily imagine that that man was no other than Walther." He looked back once more it was indeed no one else but Walther! Eckbert spurred on his horse as fast as it could run through meadows and forests, until, completely exhausted, it collapsed beneath him. Unconcerned, he continued his journey on foot. Dreamily he ascended a hill.
"Why have I always had a presentiment of these facts?" cried Eckbert. "Because in your early youth you heard your father tell of them. On his wife's account he could not bring up this daughter himself, for she was the child of another woman." Eckbert was delirious as he breathed his last; dazed and confused he heard the old woman talking, the dog barking, and the bird repeating its song.
Nobody came so often to the castle as did Philip Walther, a man to whom Eckbert had become greatly attached, because he found in him very much his own way of thinking. His home was really in Franconia, but he often spent more than half a year at a time in the vicinity of Eckbert's castle, where he busied himself gathering herbs and stones and arranging them in order.
"You should have seen her then," broke in Eckbert quickly. "Her youth, her innocence, her beauty and what an incomprehensible charm her solitary breeding had given her! To me she seemed like a wonder, and I loved her inexpressibly. I had no property, but with the help of her love I attained my present condition of comfortable prosperity.
Eckbert felt relieved and calm, and yet a feeling of horror drove him back to his castle. He had a long distance to go, for he had wandered far into the forest. When he arrived home, Bertha had already died before her death she had spoken a great deal about Walther and the old woman. For a long time Eckbert lived in greatest seclusion.
In a region of the Hartz Mountains there lived a knight whom people generally called simply Fair Eckbert. He was about forty years old, scarcely of medium height, and short, very fair hair fell thick and straight over his pale, sunken face.
Then again Eckbert reproached himself for his ignoble distrust of his loyal friend, but he was unable to get the notion entirely out of his mind. All night long he tossed about with these thoughts and slept but little. Bertha was sick and could not appear for breakfast. Walther seemed little concerned about it, and furthermore he left the knight in a rather indifferent manner.
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