"
"Deutscher!" cried both boys, turning in horror, "our Germans so
treated by the pagan villains?"
"Yea, truly, signorini miei. This fellow-captive of mine was a
cavaliere in his own land, but he had been betrayed and sold by his
enemies, and he mourned piteously for la sposa sua--his bride, as
they say here. A goodly man and a tall, piteously cramped in the
narrow deck, I grieved to leave him there when the good confraternita
at Genoa paid my ransom. Having learnt to speak il Tedesco, and
being no longer able to fit out a vessel, I made my venture beyond
the Alps; but, alas! till this moment fortune has still been adverse.
My mules died of the toil of crossing the mountains; and, when with
reduced baggage I came to the river beneath there--when my horses
fell and my servants fled, and the peasants came down with their
hayforks--I thought myself in hands no better than those of the Moors
themselves."
"It was wrongly done," said Ebbo, in an honest, open tone, though
blushing. "I have indeed a right to what may be stranded on the
bank, but never more shall foul means be employed for the overthrow.
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