"Has he seen the priest?" asked Friedel.
The peasants looked as if this were one of Sir Friedel's
unaccountable fancies. Ebbo paused, frowned, and muttered, but
seeing a move as if to drag the wretch towards the stunted bush
overhanging an abyss, he shouted, "Hold, Ulrich! Little Hans, do
thou run down to the castle, and bring Father Jodocus to do his
office!"
The serfs were much disgusted. "It never was so seen before, Herr
Freiherr," remonstrated Heinz; "fang and hang was ever the word."
"What shrift had my lord's father, or mine?" added Koppel.
"Look you!" said Ebbo, turning sharply. "If Schlangenwald be a
godless ruffian, pitiless alike to soul and body, is that a cause
that I should stain myself too?"
"It were true vengeance," growled Koppel.
"And now," grumbled Ulrich, "will my lady hear, and there will be
feeble pleadings for the vermin's life."
Like mutterings ensued, the purport of which was caught by Friedel,
and made him say to Ebbo, who would again have escaped the
disagreeableness of the scene, "We had better tarry at hand.
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