I would be glad to learn what lady was chosen by my deceased
cousin Eberhard."
"The lady is Christina, daughter of his esquire, Hugh Sorel, of an
honourable family at Ulm."
"Ha! I know who and what Sorel was!" exclaimed Wildschloss. "Lady
cousin, thou wouldst not stain the shield of Adlerstein with owning
aught that cannot bear the examination of the Diet!"
"Sir Kasimir," said Kunigunde proudly, "had I known the truth ere my
son's death, I had strangled the girl with mine own hands! But I
learnt it only by his dying confession; and, had she been a beggar's
child, she was his wedded wife, and her babes are his lawful heirs."
"Knowest thou time--place--witnesses?" inquired Sir Kasimir.
"The time, the Friedmund Wake; the place, the Friedmund Chapel,"
replied the Baroness. "Come hither, Schneiderlein. Tell the knight
thy young lord's confession."
He bore emphatic testimony to poor Eberhard's last words; but as to
the point of who had performed the ceremony, he knew not,--his mind
had not retained the name.
"I must see the Frau herself," said Wildschloss, feeling certain that
such a being as he expected in a daughter of the dissolute lanzknecht
Sorel would soon, by dexterous questioning, be made to expose the
futility of her pretensions so flagrantly that even Kunigunde could
not attempt to maintain them.
Pages:
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194