"Look you, Christina," said Hugh Sorel, as soon as he had placed her
on her mule, and led her out of hearing, "if thou hast any gold about
thee, let it be the last thing thou ownest to any living creature up
there." Then, as she was about to speak--"Do not even tell me. I
WILL not know." The caution did not add much to Christina's comfort;
but she presently asked, "Where is thy steed, father?"
"I sent him up to the castle with the Schneiderlein and Yellow
Lorentz," answered the father. "I shall have ado enough on foot with
thee before we are up the Ladder."
The father and daughter were meantime proceeding along a dark path
through oak and birch woods, constantly ascending, until the oak grew
stunted and disappeared, and the opening glades showed steep, stony,
torrent-furrowed ramparts of hillside above them, looking to
Christina's eyes as if she were set to climb up the cathedral side
like a snail or a fly. She quite gasped for breath at the very
sight, and was told in return to wait and see what she would yet say
to the Adlerstreppe, or Eagle's Ladder.
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