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Updated: July 23, 2025
Imposing secrecy on his followers, so that the Countess might still retain her unshaken belief that not even an outlaw would harm a little child, the Count returned to his castle to make preparations for a complete and final campaign of extinction against the scourge of the Hundsrueck, but the Outlaw had withdrawn his men far from the scene of his latest successful exploit and the Count never came up with him.
It is possible that if the dwellers along the river had realised at first the kind of neighbour that had been produced by burning out the Baron, they might, by combination have hunted him down in the widespread forests of the Hundsrueck, but as the years went on, the Outlaw acquired such knowledge of the interminable mazes of this wilderness, that it is doubtful whether all the troops in the Empire could have brought his band to bay.
At last she said: "Your followers are the men of Schonburg and Gudenfels, doubtless?" "No, your Majesty. Those you mention, acknowledge my father as their leader. My men were known as the Outlaws of the Hundsrueck, who have deposed von Weithoff, chosen me as their chief, and now desire to lead honest lives." The dark eyes of the Empress blazed again.
"You are the leader of this unwarranted incursion?" said the Count, sternly, as he looked upon the pinioned lad. "Warranted or unwarranted, I was the leader." "Who are you?" "I am Wilhelm, only son of the Outlaw of Hundsrueck." "The only son," murmured the Count, more to himself than to his auditors, the lines hardening round his firm mouth.
"Our house has little cause to confer favour on any kin of the Outlaw of Hundsrueck," the lady said at last. "I do not ask for favour, my Lady. I have come to give your revenge completeness, if it is revenge you seek. The young man now imprisoned in Schonburg is so little esteemed by my uncle that not a single blow has been struck on his behalf.
"By the great wine tub of Hundsrueck!" exclaimed Gottlieb in amazement, "that cellar is a large one. It seems to thirst for the whole flood of the Main." "Send a messenger," cried Wilhelm, "to the house you are guarding outside the gates and discover for me whether your men have captured any prisoners."
She seemed to keep no count of the years, nor to realise that if her son returned he would return as a young man and not as a child. To the mind of Beatrix he seemed always her boy of four. When seventeen years had elapsed after the abduction of the heir of Schonburg, there came a rumour that the Outlaw of Hundsrueck was again at his depredations in the neighbourhood of Coblentz.
"Your Majesty puts it harshly," he said, "I merely petition for a stroke of the pen which will add half a thousand loyal men to the ranks of the Emperor's supporters." Brunhilda pondered on this, then suddenly seemed to arrive at a decision. Calling one of the ministers of state to her side, she said, peremptorily: "Prepare a pardon for the Outlaws of the Hundsrueck.
Herbert von Schonburg was thoroughly convinced that his son was dead, mutilated beyond recognition by the Outlaw of Hundsrueck, yet this he would not tell to Beatrix, his wife, who cherished the unshaken belief that the boy still lived and would be restored to her before she died.
Thus Baron von Wiethoff became known as the Outlaw of the Hundsrueck, and being as intrepid as he was merciless, soon made the Rhenish nobility withdraw attention from other people's quarrels in order to bestow strict surveillance upon their own.
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