She struck the motherling--struck her on the face, Friedel!"
"I fear me it has so been before," said Friedel, sadly.
"Never will it be so again," said Ebbo, standing still. "I took the
old hag by the hands, and told her she had ruled long enough! My
father's wife is as good a lady of the castle as my grandfather's,
and I myself am lord thereof; and, since my Lady Kunigunde chooses to
cross me and beat my mother about this capture, why she has seen the
last of it, and may learn who is master, and who is mistress!"
"Oh, Ebbo! I would I had seen it! But was not she outrageous? Was
not the mother shrinking and ready to give back all her claims at
once?"
"Perhaps she would have been, but just then she found thou wast not
with me, and I found thou wast not with her, and we thought of nought
else. But thou must stand by me, Friedel, and help to keep the
grandmother in her place, and the mother in hers."
"If the mother WILL be kept," said Friedel. "I fear me she will only
plead to be left to the grandame's treatment, as before.
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