She knew absolutely nothing of the world, except for a
general belief that Freiherren lived there to do what they chose with
other people, and that the House of Adlerstein was the freest and
noblest in existence. Also there was a very positive hatred to the
house of Schlangenwald, and no less to that of Adlerstein
Wildschloss, for no reason that Christina could discover save that,
being a younger branch of the family, they had submitted to the
Emperor. To destroy either the Graf von Schlangenwald, or her
Wildschloss cousin, was evidently the highest gratification
Ermentrude could conceive; and, for the rest, that her father and
brother should make successful captures at the Debateable Ford was
the more abiding, because more practicable hope. She had no further
ideas, except perhaps to elude her mother's severity, and to desire
her brother's success in chamois-hunting. The only mental culture
she had ever received was that old Ursel had taught her the Credo,
Pater Noster, and Ave, as correctly as might be expected from a long
course of traditionary repetitions of an incomprehensible language.
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