"That is well, child. Mark me, no tears. Thy mother wept day and
night, and, when she had wept out her tears, she was sullen, when I
would have been friendly towards her. It was the worse for her.
But, so long as thou art good daughter to me, thou shalt find me good
father to thee;" and for a moment there was a kindliness in his eye
which made it sufficiently like that of his brother to give some
consolation to the shrinking heart that he was rending from all it
loved; and she steadied her voice for another gentle profession of
obedience, for which she felt strengthened by the morning's orisons.

"Well said, child. Now canst sit on old Nibelung's croup? His back-
bone is somewhat sharper than if he had battened in a citizen's
stall; but, if thine aunt can find thee some sort of pillion, I'll
promise thee the best ride thou hast had since we came from
Innspruck, ere thou canst remember."

"Christina has her own mule," replied her uncle, "without troubling
Nibelung to carry double."

"Ho! her own! An overfed burgomaster sort of a beast, that will turn
restive at the first sight of the Eagle's Ladder! However, he may
carry her so far, and, if we cannot get him up the mountain, I shall
know what to do with him," he muttered to himself.

But Hugh, like many a gentleman after him, was recusant at the sight
of his daughter's luggage; and yet it only loaded one sumpter mule,
besides forming a few bundles which could be easily bestowed upon the
saddles of his two knappen, while her lute hung by a silken string on
her arm. Both she and her aunt thought she had been extremely