United States or South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Arrayed, as her sons loved to see her, in black velvet, and with pearl-bordered cap, Christina sat by her aunt in the tapestried balcony, and between them stood or sat little Thekla von Adlerstein Wildschloss, whose father had entrusted her to their care, to see the procession pass by.
"They can scarce pay meal and poultry enough for our daily fare; and if we were to flay them alive, we should not get sixty groschen from the whole." "True enough! Knighthood must wait till we win it," said Ebbo, gloomily. "Nay, it is accepted," said Wildschloss. "The Kaisar loves his iron chest too well to let you go back.
"She has stolen the keys! She has tampered with the servants! 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!" Friedmund threw a supporting arm round his mother, but Ebbo confronted the old lady. "Grandmother," he said, "I freed the captive. I stole the keys I and Friedel!
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.
"I must see the Frau herself," said Wildschloss, feeling certain that such a being as he expected in a daughter of the dissolute lanzknecht Sorel would soon, by dexterous questioning, be made to expose the futility of her pretensions so flagrantly that even Kunigunde could not attempt to maintain them.
Those days had no delicacies as to the lady's side taking the initiative: and, in effect, the wealth and power of Wildschloss so much exceeded those of the elder branch that it would have been presumptuous on Eberhard's part to have made the proposal. It was more a treaty than an affair of hearts, and Sir Kasimir had not even gone through the form of inquiring if Ebbo were fancy-free.
I came out here to avoid the gaping throng, who don't know what a hunter can do. I have been in worse case in the Tyrol. Snowdrifts are worse footing than stone vine leaves." "Where abides your highness?" asked Wildschloss. "I ride back again to the halting-place for the night, and meet my father in time to do my part in the pageant.
"Then must the vigil be kept to- night." "The boy thinks these are the days of Roland and Karl the Great," said Wildschloss. "He would fain watch his arms in the moonlight in the Dome Kirk! Alas! no, my Friedel! Knighthood in these days smacks more of bezants than of deeds of prowess." "Unbearable fellow!" cried Ebbo, when he had latched the door of the room he shared with his brother.
"And who will do so," said Master Gottfried. "For morning gift he promises the farms and lands of Grunau rich both in forest and corn glebe. Likewise, her dower shall be upon Wildschloss where the soil is of the richest pasture, and there are no less than three mills, whence the lord obtains large rights of multure.
"That child," said Ebbo, with half a smile and half a blush, "is my wife, the daughter of Wildschloss, who prayed me to espouse her thus early, that so my mother might bring her up." By this time they had reached the castle court, now a well-kept, lordly-looking enclosure, where the pilgrim looked about him as one bewildered.
Word Of The Day