Mother,
order a good supper for them. Master Moritz, let us summon thy
masons and carpenters, and see who is a good man with his hands among
them."
Christina saw that remonstrance was vain. The days of peril and
violence were coming back again; and all she could take comfort in
was, that, if not wholly right, her son was far from wholly wrong,
and that with a free heart she could pray for a blessing on him and
on his arms.
CHAPTER XIX: THE FIGHT AT THE FORD
By the early September sunrise the thicket beneath the pass was
sheltering the twenty well-appointed reiters of Adlerstein, each
standing, holding his horse by the bridle, ready to mount at the
instant. In their rear were the serfs and artisans, some with axes,
scythes, or ploughshares, a few with cross-bows, and Jobst and his
sons with the long blackened poles used for stirring their charcoal
fires. In advance were Master Moritz and the two barons, the former
in a stout plain steel helmet, cuirass, and gauntlets, a sword, and
those new-fashioned weapons, pistols; the latter in full knightly
armour, exactly alike, from the gilt-spurred heel to the eagle-
crested helm, and often moving restlessly forward to watch for the
enemy, though taking care not to be betrayed by the glitter of their
mail.
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