"Then, holy Father Abbot," said Maximilian, "let us ratify this happy
and Christian reconciliation by the blessed sacrifice of peace, over
which these two faithful knights shall unite in swearing good-will
and brotherhood."
Such solemn reconciliations were frequent, but, alas were too often a
mockery. Here, however, both parties were men who felt the awe of
the promise made before the Pardon-winner of all mankind. Ebbo, bred
up by his mother in the true life of the Church, and comparatively
apart from practical superstitions, felt the import to the depths of
his inmost soul, with a force heightened by his bodily state of
nervous impressibility; and his wan, wasted features and dark shining
eyes had a strange spiritual beam, "half passion and half awe," as he
followed the words of universal forgiveness and lofty praise that he
had heard last in his anguished trance, when his brother lay dying
beside him, and leaving him behind. He knew now that it was for
this.
His deep repressed ardour and excitement were no small contrast to
the sober, matter-of-fact demeanour of the Teutonic knight, who
comported himself with the mechanical decorum of an ecclesiastic, but
quite as one who meant to keep his word.
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