Sir Kasimir lodged at a neighbouring hostel;
but he spent much time with his cousins, and tried to make them
friends with his squire, Count Rudiger. A great offence to Ebbo was
however the criticisms of both knight and squire on the bearing of
the young Barons in military exercises. Truly, with no instructor
but the rough lanzknecht Heinz, they must, as Friedel said, have been
born paladins to have equalled youths whose life had been spent in
chivalrous training.
"See us in a downright fight," said Ebbo; "we could strike as hard as
any courtly minion."
"As hard, but scarce as dexterously," said Friedel, "and be called
for our pains the wild mountaineers. I heard the men-at-arms saying
I sat my horse as though it were always going up or down a precipice;
and Master Schmidt went into his shop the other day shrugging his
shoulders, and saying we hailed one another across the market-place
as if we thought Ulm was a mountain full of gemsbocks."
"Thou heardst! and didst not cast his insolence in his teeth?" cried
Ebbo.
"How could I," laughed Friedel, "when the echo was casting back in my
teeth my own shout to thee? I could only laugh with Rudiger.
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