It grieves me to differ from thee, but my resolve is
older than the fancy, and may not be shaken because I was vain enough
to believe that the Blessed Friedmund could stoop to bless me."
"Ha!" shouted Ebbo, glad to see an object on which to vent his secret
annoyance. "Who goes there, skulking round the rocks? Here, rogue,
what art after here?"
"No harm," sullenly replied a half-clad boy.
"Whence art thou? From Schlangenwald, to spy what more we can be
robbed of? The lash--"
"Hold," interposed Friedel. "Perchance the poor lad had no evil
purposes. Didst lose thy way?"
"No, sir, my mother sent me."
"I thought so," cried Ebbo. "This comes of sparing the nest of
thankless adders!"
"Nay," said Friedel, "mayhap it is because they are not thankless
that the poor fellow is here."
"Sir," said the boy, coming nearer, "I will tell YOU--YOU I will
tell--not him who threatens. Mother said you spared our huts, and
the lady gave us bread when we came to the castle gate in winter, and
she would not see the reiters lay waste your folk's doings down there
without warning you.
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