"Nay, Ebbo, he thought thy part most gallant. I heard him say so,
not only to me, but below stairs--both wise and true. Thou didst
know him then?"
"From the first glance of his princely eye--the first of his keen
smiles. I had seen him disguised before. I thought you knew him
too, mother; I never guessed that your mind was running on
Schlangenwald when we talked at cross purposes last night."
"Would that I had; but though I breathed no word openly, I encouraged
Heinz's precautions. My boy, I could not help it; my heart would
tremble for my only one, and I saw he could not be what he seemed."
"And what doth he here? Who were the men who were advancing?"
"They were the followers he had left at St. Ruprecht's, and likewise
Master Schleiermacher and Sir Kasimir of Wildschloss."
"Ha!"
"What--he had not told thee?"
"No. He knew that I knew him, was at no pains to disguise himself,
yet evidently meant me to treat him as a private knight. But what
brought Wildschloss here?"
"It seems," said Christina, "that, on the return from Carinthia, the
Kaisar expressed his intention of slipping away from his army in his
own strange fashion, and himself inquiring into the matter of the
Ford.
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