Eberhard
was fully determined to enrol himself in some troop, either Imperial,
or, if not, among the Free Companies, among whom men of rank were
often found, and he would then fetch or send for his wife and avow
her openly, so soon as she should be out of his mother's reach. He
longed to leave her father at home, to be some protection to her, but
Hugh Sorel was so much the most intelligent and skilful of the
retainers as to be absolutely indispensable to the party--he was
their only scribe; and moreover his new suit of buff rendered him a
creditable member of a troop that had been very hard to equip. It
numbered about ten men-at-arms, only three being left at home to
garrison the castle--namely, Hatto, who was too old to take; Hans,
who had been hopelessly lame and deformed since the old Baron had
knocked him off a cliff in a passion; and Squinting Matz, a runaway
servant, who had murdered his master, the mayor of Strasburg, and
might be caught and put to death if any one recognized him. If
needful the villagers could always be called in to defend the castle:
but of this there was little or no danger--the Eagle's Steps were
defence enough in themselves, and the party were not likely to be
absent more than a week or ten days--a grievous length of time, poor
Christina thought, as she stood straining her eyes on the top of the
watch-tower, to watch them as far as possible along the plain.
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