Her own trinkets had gone in masses
for the souls of her father and husband; and though a few costly
jewels had been found in Frau Kunigunde's hoards, the mode of their
acquisition was so doubtful, that it had seemed fittest to bestow
them in alms and masses for the good of her soul.
"What ornament, what glory could any one desire better than two such
sons?" thought Christina, as for the first time for eighteen years
she crossed the wild ravine where her father had led her, a trembling
little captive, longing for wings like a dove's to flutter home
again. Who would then have predicted that she should descend after
so long and weary a time, and with a gallant boy on either side of
her, eager to aid her every step, and reassure her at each giddy
pass, all joy and hope before her and them? Yet she was not without
some dread and misgiving, as she watched her elder son, always
attentive to her, but unwontedly silent, with a stern gravity on his
young brow, a proud sadness on his lip. And when he had come to the
Debateable Ford, and was about to pass the boundaries of his own
lands, he turned and gazed back on the castle and mountain with a
silent but passionate ardour, as though he felt himself doing them a
wrong by perilling their independence.
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