The fifteen
nobles, who had been offered for ransom, were taken to
Constantinople, to await its arrival, and they had promised Sir
Eberhard to publish his fate on their return to their homes; and,
though he knew the family resources too well to have many hopes, he
was rather hurt to find that their promise had been unfulfilled.
"Alas! they had no opportunity," said Ebbo. "Gulden were scarce, or
were all in Kaisar Friedrich's great chest; the ransoms could not be
raised, and all died in captivity. I heard about it when I was at
Wurms last month."
"The boy at Wurms?" almost gasped Sir Eberhard in amaze.
"I had to be there about matters concerning the Wildschloss lands and
the bridge," said Ebbo; "and both Dankwart von Schlangenwald and I
made special inquiries about that company in case you should have
shared their fate. I hoped to have set forth at that time, but the
Kaisar said I was still too lame, and refused me license, or letters
to the Sultan."
"You would not have found me," said his father, narrating how he with
a large troop of captives had been driven down to the coast; where
they were transferred to a Moorish slave-dealer, who shipped them off
for Tunis.
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