In vain her stepmother, Agatha the Angular, urged her to marry. In
vain her father, the Margrave of Buggensberg, commanded her to choose
the one or the other of the suitors.

Her heart remained unswervingly true to the Gimlet.

From time to time love tokens passed between the lovers. From
Jerusalem Guido had sent to her a stick with a notch in it to signify
his undying constancy. From Pannonia he sent a piece of board, and
from Venetia about two feet of scantling. All these Isolde treasured.
At night they lay beneath her pillow.

Then, after years of wandering, Guido had determined to crown his love
with a final achievement for Isolde's sake.

It was his design to return to Ghent, to scale by night the castle
cliff and to prove his love for Isolde by killing her father for her,
casting her stepmother from the battlements, burning the castle, and
carrying her away.

This design he was now hastening to put into execution. Attended by
fifty trusty followers under the lead of Carlo the Corkscrew and
Beowulf the Bradawl, he had made his way to Ghent. Under cover of
night they had reached the foot of the castle cliff; and now, on their
hands and knees in single file, they were crawling round and round the
spiral path that led up to the gate of the fortress. At six of the
clock they had spiralled once. At seven of the clock they had
reappeared at the second round, and as the feast in the hall reached
its height, they reappeared on the fourth lap.