Lucas Handlein shall carve his tomb, and thou shalt sit for the likeness.'
'So may it end,' said Friedel, 'but either I will know him dead, or endeavour somewhat in his behalf. And that the need is real, as well as the purpose blessed, I have become the more certain, for, Ebbo, as I rose to descend the hill, I saw on the cloud our patron's very form--I saw myself kneel before him and receive his blessing.'
Ebbo burst out laughing. 'Now know I that it is indeed as saith Schleiermacher,' he said, 'and that these phantoms of the Blessed Friedmund are but shadows cast by the sun on the vapours of the ravine. See, Friedel, I had gone to seek thee at the chapel, and meeting Father Norbert, I bent my knee, that I might take his farewell blessing. I had the substance, thou the shadow, thou dreamer!'
Friedel was as much mortified for the moment as his gentle nature could be. Then he resumed his sweet smile, saying, 'Be it so! I have oft read that men are too prone to take visions and special providences to themselves, and now I have proved the truth of the saying.'
'And,' said Ebbo, 'thou seest thy purpose is as baseless as thy vision?'
'No, Ebbo. It grieves me to differ from thee, but my resolve is older than the fancy, and may not be shaken because I was vain enough to believe that the Blessed Friedmund could stoop to bless me.'
'Ha!' shouted Ebbo, glad to see an object on which to vent his secret annoyance. 'Who goes there, skulking round the rocks? Here, rogue, what art after here?'
'No harm,' sullenly replied a half-clad boy.
'Whence art thou? From Schlangenwald, to spy what more we can be robbed of? The lash--'
'Hold,' interposed Friedel. 'Perchance the poor lad had no evil purposes. Didst lose thy way?'
'No, sir, my mother sent me.'
'I thought so,' cried Ebbo. 'This comes of sparing the nest of thankless adders!'
'Nay,' said Friedel, 'mayhap it is because they are not thankless that the poor fellow is here.'
'Sir,' said the boy, coming nearer, 'I will tell YOU--YOU I will tell--not him who threatens. Mother said you spared our huts, and the lady gave us bread when we came to the castle gate in winter, and she would not see the reiters lay waste your folk's doings down there without warning you.'
'My good lad! What saidst thou?' cried Ebbo, but the boy seemed dumb before him, and Friedel repeated the question ere he answered: 'All the lanzknechts and reiters are at the castle, and the Herr Graf has taken all my father's young sheep for them, a plague upon him. And our folk are warned to be at the muster rock to-morrow morn, each with a bundle of straw and a pine brand; and Black Berend heard the body squire say the Herr Graf had sworn not to go to the wars till every stick at the ford be burnt, every stone drowned, every workman hung.'
Ebbo, in a transport of indignation and gratitude, thrust his hand into his pouch, and threw the boy a handful of groschen, while Friedel gave warm thanks, in the utmost haste, ere both brothers sprang with headlong speed down the wild path, to take advantage of the timely intelligence.
The little council of war was speedily assembled, consisting of the barons, their mother, Master Moritz Schleiermacher, Heinz, and Hatto. To bring up to the castle the workmen, their families, and the more valuable implements, was at once decided; and Christina asked whether there would be anything left worth defending, and whether the Schlangenwalden might not expend their fury on the scaffold, which could be newly supplied from the forest, the huts, which could be quickly restored, and the stones, which could hardly be damaged. The enemy must proceed to the camp in a day or two, and the building would be less assailable by their return; and, besides, it was scarcely lawful to enter on a private war when the imperial banner was in the field.
'Craving your pardon, gracious lady,' said the architect, 'that blame rests with him who provokes the war. See, lord baron, there is time to send to Ulm, where the two guilds, our allies, will at once equip their trained bands and despatch them. We meanwhile will hold the knaves in check, and, by the time our burghers come up, the snake brood will have had such a lesson as they will not soon forget. Said I well, Herr Freiherr?'
'Right bravely,' said Ebbo. 'It consorts not with our honour or rights, with my pledges to Ulm, or the fame of my house, to shut ourselves up and see the rogues work their will scatheless. My own score of men, besides the stouter masons, carpenters, and serfs, will be fully enough to make the old serpent of the wood rue the day, even without the aid of the burghers. Not a word against it, dearest mother. None is so wise as thou in matters of peace, but honour is here concerned.'
'My question is,' persevered the mother, 'whether honour be not better served by obeying the summons of the king against the infidel, with the men thou hast called together at his behest? Let the count do his worst; he gives thee legal ground of complaint to lay before the king and the League, and all may there be more firmly established.'
'That were admirable counsel, lady,' said Schleiermacher, 'well suited to the honour-worthy guildmaster Sorel, and to our justice- loving city; but, in matters of baronial rights and aggressions, king and League are wont to help those that help themselves, and those that are over nice as to law and justice come by the worst.'
'Not the worst in the long run,' said Friedel.
'Thine unearthly code will not serve us here, Friedel mine,' returned his brother. 'Did I not defend the work I have begun, I should be branded as a weak fool. Nor will I see the foes of my house insult me without striking a fair stroke. Hap what hap, the Debateable Ford shall be debated! Call in the serfs, Hatto, and arm them. Mother, order a good supper for them. Master Moritz, let us summon thy masons and carpenters, and see who is a good man with his hands among them.'
Christina saw that remonstrance was vain. The days of peril and violence were coming back again; and all she could take comfort in was, that, if not wholly right, her son was far from wholly wrong, and that with a free heart she could pray for a blessing on him and on his arms.
CHAPTER XIX: THE FIGHT AT THE FORD
By the early September sunrise the thicket beneath the pass was sheltering the twenty well-appointed reiters of Adlerstein, each standing, holding his horse by the bridle, ready to mount at the instant. In their rear were the serfs and artisans, some with axes, scythes, or ploughshares, a few with cross-bows, and Jobst and his sons with the long blackened poles used for stirring their charcoal fires. In advance were Master Moritz and the two barons, the former in a stout plain steel helmet, cuirass, and gauntlets, a sword, and those new-fashioned weapons, pistols; the latter in full knightly armour, exactly alike, from the gilt-spurred heel to the eagle- crested helm, and often moving restlessly forward to watch for the enemy, though taking care not to be betrayed by the glitter of their mail. So long did they wait that there was even a doubt whether it might not have been a false alarm; the boy was vituperated, and it was proposed to despatch a spy to see whether anything were doing at Schlangenwald.
At length a rustling and rushing were heard; then a clank of armour. Ebbo vaulted into the saddle, and gave the word to mount; Schleiermacher, who always fought on foot, stepped up to him. 'Keep back your men, Herr Freiherr. Let his design be manifest. We must not be said to have fallen on him on his way to the muster.'
'It would be but as he served my father!' muttered Ebbo, forced, however, to restrain himself, though with boiling blood, as the tramp of horses shook the ground, and bright armour became visible on the further side of the stream.
For the first time, the brothers beheld the foe of their line. He was seated on a clumsy black horse, and sheathed in full armour, and was apparently a large heavy man, whose powerful proportions were becoming unwieldy as he advanced in life. The dragon on his crest and shield would have made him known to the twins, even without the deadly curse that passed the Schneiderlein's lips at the sight. As the armed troop, out-numbering the Adlersteiners by about a dozen, and followed by a rabble with straw and pine brands, came forth on the meadow, the count halted and appeared to be giving orders.
'The ruffian! He is calling them on! Now--' began Ebbo.
'Nay, there is no sign yet that he is not peacefully on his journey to the camp,' responded Moritz; and, chafing with impatient fury, the knight waited while Schlangenwald rode towards the old channel of the Braunwasser, and there, drawing his rein, and sitting like a statue in his stirrups, he could hear him shout: 'The lazy dogs are not astir yet. We will give them a reveille. Forward with your brands!'
'Now!' and Ebbo's cream-coloured horse leapt forth, as the whole band flashed into the sunshine from the greenwood covert.
'Who troubles the workmen on my land?' shouted Ebbo.
'Who you may be I care not,' replied the count, 'but when I find strangers unlicensed on my lands, I burn down their huts. On, fellows!'
