"No doubt it is very picturesque, as you go up the Rhine, or across the
See Kreis, or through the Lombard plains, to see every height crowned
with its castle. Yes, one cannot help admiring. They are like beautiful
flowers that have blossomed up from the valleys and the plains below.
But who tilled the land, that these should grow there on every height?
Are you not forced to think of the toiling wretches who labored and
labored to carry stone by stone up the crest of the hill? They did not
get much enjoyment out of the grandeur and picturesqueness of the
castles."

"But they gave that labor for their own protection," Lady Evelyn said,
with a smile. "The great lords and barons were their protectors."

"The great lords and barons said so, at least," said the girl, without
any smile at all, "and I suppose the peasantry believed them; and were
quite willing to leave their vineyards and go and shed their blood
whenever the great lords and barons quarrelled among themselves."

"Well said! well said!" Brand exclaimed, quickly; though, indeed, this
calm, gentle-eyed, self-possessed girl was in no need of any champion.

"I am afraid you are a great Radical, Miss Lind," said Lady Evelyn.

"Perhaps it is your English air, Lady Evelyn," said the girl, with a
smile.

Lord Evelyn's mother, notwithstanding her impassive, unimaginative
nature, soon began to betray a decided interest in this new guest, and
even something more. She was attracted, to begin with, by the singular
beauty of the young Hungarian lady, which was foreign-looking, unusual,