So long did they wait that there was even a doubt whether it
might not have been a false alarm; the boy was vituperated, and it
was proposed to despatch a spy to see whether anything were doing at
Schlangenwald.
At length a rustling and rushing were heard; then a clank of armour.
Ebbo vaulted into the saddle, and gave the word to mount;
Schleiermacher, who always fought on foot, stepped up to him. "Keep
back your men, Herr Freiherr. Let his design be manifest. We must
not be said to have fallen on him on his way to the muster."
"It would be but as he served my father!" muttered Ebbo, forced,
however, to restrain himself, though with boiling blood, as the tramp
of horses shook the ground, and bright armour became visible on the
further side of the stream.
For the first time, the brothers beheld the foe of their line. He
was seated on a clumsy black horse, and sheathed in full armour, and
was apparently a large heavy man, whose powerful proportions were
becoming unwieldy as he advanced in life. The dragon on his crest
and shield would have made him known to the twins, even without the
deadly curse that passed the Schneiderlein's lips at the sight.
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