coin. He stared hard at the maiden, but vouchsafed her no token of
greeting--only distressed her considerably by distracting her
father's attention from her mule by his questions about the journey,
all in the same rude, coarse tone and phraseology. Some amount of
illusion was dispelled. Christina was quite prepared to find the
mountain lords dangerous ruffians, but she had expected the graces of
courtesy and high birth; but, though there was certainly an air of
command and freedom of bearing about the present specimen, his
manners and speech were more uncouth than those of any newly-caught
apprentice of her uncle, and she could not help thinking that her
good aunt Johanna need not have troubled herself about the danger of
her taking a liking to any such young Freiherr as she here beheld.

By this time a last effort of the mule had climbed to the level of
the castle. As her father had shown her, there was precipice on two
sides of the building; on the third, a sheer wall of rock going up to
a huge height before it reached another of the Eagle's Steps; and on
the fourth, where the gateway was, the little beck had been made to
flow in a deep channel that had been hollowed out to serve as a moat,
before it bounded down to swell the larger water-course in the
ravine. A temporary bridge had been laid across; the drawbridge was
out of order, and part of Hugh's business had been to procure
materials for mending its apparatus. Christina was told to dismount
and cross on foot. The unrailed board, so close to the abyss, and
with the wild water foaming above and below, was dreadful to her;
and, though she durst not speak, she hung back with an involuntary
shudder, as her father, occupied with the mule, did not think of
giving her a hand. The young baron burst out into an unrestrained
laugh--a still greater shock to her feelings; but at the same time he
roughly took her hand, and almost dragged her across, saying, "City