"
"Who then is yonder child, who told me she was Wildschloss?"
"That child," said Ebbo, with half a smile and half a blush, "is my
wife, the daughter of Wildschloss, who prayed me to espouse her thus
early, that so my mother might bring her up."
By this time they had reached the castle court, now a well-kept,
lordly-looking enclosure, where the pilgrim looked about him as one
bewildered. He was so infirm that Ebbo carefully helped him up the
stone stairs to the hall, where he already saw his mother prepared
for the hospitable reception of the palmer. Leaving him at the
entrance, Ebbo crossed the hall to say to her in a low voice, "This
pilgrim is one of the old lanzknechts of my grandfather's time. I
wonder whether you or Heinz will know him. One of the old sort--
supremely discontented at change."
"And thou hast walked up, and wearied thyself!" exclaimed Christina,
grieved to see her son's halting step.
"A rest will soon cure that," said Ebbo, seating himself as he spoke
on a settle near the hall fire; but the next moment a strange wild
low shriek from his mother made him start up and spring to her side.
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