"
"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.
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