They were delighted to obtain instruction from a travelling student,
then attending the schools of Ulm--a meek, timid lad who, for love of
learning and desire of the priesthood, had endured frightful tyranny
from the Bacchanten or elder scholars, and, having at length attained
that rank, had so little heart to retaliate on the juniors that his
contemporaries despised him, and led him a cruel life until he
obtained food and shelter from Master Gottfried at the pleasant cost
of lessons to the young Barons. Poor Bastien! this land of quiet,
civility, and books was a foretaste of Paradise to him after the hard
living, barbarity, and coarse vices of his comrades, of whom he now
and then disclosed traits that made his present pupils long to give
battle to the big shaggy youths who used to send out the lesser lads
to beg and steal for them, and cruelly maltreated such as failed in
the quest.
Lessons in music and singing were gladly accepted by both lads, and
from their uncle's carving they could not keep their hands. Ebbo had
begun by enjoining Friedel to remember that the work that had been
sport in the mountains would be basely mechanical in the city, and
Friedel as usual yielded his private tastes; but on the second day
Ebbo himself was discovered in the workshop, watching the magic touch
of the deft workman, and he was soon so enticed by the perfect
appliances as to take tool in hand and prove himself not unadroit in
the craft.
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