"Ah! good grandame," said Friedel, "his father died with ours."
"The more honour for him! The more he is bound to work for us. Off,
junker, make no loiterers."
Grieved and discomfited, Friedel betook himself to his mother and
brother.
"Foolish lad not to have come to me!" said the young Baron. "Where
is he? I'll send him at once."
But Christina interposed an offer to go and take Koppel's place
beside his mother, and her skill was so much prized over all the
mountain-side, that the alternative was gratefully accepted, and she
was escorted up the steep path by her two boys to the hovel, where
she spent the day in attendance on the sick woman.
Evening came on, the patient was better, but Koppel did not return,
nor did the young Barons come to fetch their mother home. The last
sunbeams were dying off the mountain-tops, and, beginning to suspect
something amiss, she at length set off, and half way down met Koppel,
who replied to her question, "Ah, then, the gracious lady has not
heard of our luck. Excellent booty, and two prisoners! The young
Baron has been a hero indeed, and has won himself a knightly steed.
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