"It knows little to its credit," said Gottfried, gravely; "and it
knows also that the Emperor is about to make a combination against
all the Swabian robber-holds, and that such as join not in it will
fare the worse."

"Let Kaiser Fritz catch his bear ere he sells its hide! He has never
tried to mount the Eagle's Ladder! Why, man, Adlerstein might be
held against five hundred men by sister Johanna with her rock and
spindle! 'Tis a free barony, Master Gottfried, I tell thee--has
never sworn allegiance to Kaiser or Duke of Swabia either! Freiherr
Eberhard is as much a king on his own rock as Kaiser Fritz ever was
of the Romans, and more too, for I never could find out that they
thought much of our king at Rome; and, as to gainsaying our old
Freiherr, one might as well leap over the abyss at once."

"Yes, those old free barons are pitiless tyrants," said Gottfried,
"and I scarce think I can understand thee aright when I hear thee say
thou wouldst carry thy daughter to such an abode."

"It is the Freiherr's command," returned Hugh. "Look you, they have
had wondrous ill-luck with their children; the Freiherrinn Kunigunde
has had a dozen at least, and only two are alive, my young Freiherr
and my young Lady Ermentrude; and no wonder, you would say, if you
could see the gracious Freiherrinn, for surely Dame Holda made a
blunder when she fished her out of the fountain woman instead of man.
She is Adlerstein herself by birth, married her cousin, and is
prouder and more dour than our old Freiherr himself--fitter far to
handle shield than swaddled babe. And now our Jungfrau has fallen
into a pining waste, that 'tis a pity to see how her cheeks have
fallen away, and how she mopes and fades. Now, the old Freiherr and