"'What? up there?" said Maximilian, smiling. "Thou hast the tread of
a chamois-hunter."
"Friedel has been on the Red Eyrie," exclaimed Ebbo; then, thinking
he had spoken foolishly, he coloured.
"Which is the Red Eyrie?" good-humouredly asked the king.
"It is the crag above our castle," said Friedel, modestly.
"None other has been there," added Ebbo, perceiving his auditor's
interest; "but he saw the eagle flying away with a poor widow's kid,
and the sight must have given him wings, for we never could find the
same path; but here is one of the feathers he brought down"--taking
off his cap so as to show a feather rather the worse for wear, and
sheltered behind a fresher one.
"Nay," said Friedel, "thou shouldst say that I came to a ledge where
I had like to have stayed all night, but that ye all came out with
men and ropes."
"We know what such a case is!" said the king. "It has chanced to us
to hang between heaven and earth; I've even had the Holy Sacrament
held up for my last pious gaze by those who gave me up for lost on
the mountain-side.
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