"What has
changed thy mind?"
"Thou, and the mother, and, more than all, the grandame. Listen,
Friedel: when thou camest up, in all the whirl of eagerness and glad
preparation, with thy grave face and murmur that Jobst had put forked
stakes in the stream, it was past man's endurance to be baulked of
the fray. Thou hast forgotten what I said to thee then, good
Friedel?"
"Long since. No doubt I thrust in vexatiously."
"Not so," said Ebbo; "and I saw thou hadst reason, for the stakes
were most maliciously planted, with long branches hid by the current;
but the fellows were showing fight, and I could not stay to think
then, or I should have seemed to fear them! I can tell you we made
them run! But I never meant the grandmother to put yon poor fellow
in the dungeon, and use him worse than a dog. I wot that he was my
captive, and none of hers. And then came the mother; and oh,
Friedel, she looked as if I were slaying her when she saw the spoil;
and, ere I had made her see right and reason, the old lady came
swooping down in full malice and spite, and actually came to blows.
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