And it was on feeble little Christina, yielding in heart, though not
in will, that it depended to preserve this reverence, and return
unscathed from this castle, more perilous now than ever.
CHAPTER VI: THE BLESSED FRIEDMUND'S WAKE
Midsummer-Day arrived, and the village of Adlerstein presented a most
unusual spectacle. The wake was the occasion of a grand fair for all
the mountain-side, and it was an understood thing that the Barons,
instead of molesting the pedlars, merchants, and others who attended
it, contented themselves with demanding a toll from every one who
passed the Kohler's hut on the one side, or the Gemsbock's Pass on
the other; and this toll, being the only coin by which they came
honestly in the course of the year, was regarded as a certainty and
highly valued. Moreover, it was the only time that any purchases
could be made, and the flotsam of the ford did not always include all
even of the few requirements of the inmates of the castle; it was the
only holiday, sacred or secular, that ever gladdened the Eagle's
Rock.
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