Father, father, pardon me; I would have been a better daughter if I had only known He gathered her in his arms; he was quite past speaking; and they only heard his heavy breathing, and one more whisper from ErmentrudeAnd oh! father, one day wilt thou seek to be absolved? Whether he answered or not they knew not; he only gave her repeated kisses, and laid her down on her pillows, then rushed to the door, and the passionate sobs of the strong mans uncontrolled nature might be heard upon the stair. The parting with the others was not necessarily so complete, as they were not, like him, under censure of the Church; but Kunigunde leant down to kiss her; and, in return to her repetition of her entreaty for pardon, replied, Thou hast it, child, if it will ease thy mind; but it is all along of these new fancies that ever an Adlerstein thought of pardon. There, there, I blame thee not, poor maid; it thou wert to die, it may be even best as it is. Now must I to thy father; he is troubled enough about this gear.
But when Eberhard moved towards his sister, she turned to the priest, and said, imploringly, Not far, not far! Oh! let them, pointing to Eberhard and Christina, let them not be quite out of sight!
Out of hearing is all that is needed, daughter, replied the priest; and Ermentrude looked content as Christina moved towards the empty north turret, where, with the door open, she was in full view, and Eberhard followed her thither. It was indeed fully out of earshot of the childs faint, gasping confession. Gravely and sadly both stood there. Christina looked up the hillside for the snow-wreath. The May sunshine had dissolved it; the green pass lay sparkling without a vestige of its white coating. Her eyes full of tears, she pointed the spot out to Eberhard. He understood; but, leaning towards her, told, under his breath, of the phantom he had seen. Her eyes expanded with awe of the supernatural. It was the Blessed Friedmund, said Eberhard. Never hath he so greeted one of our race since the pious Freiherrinn Hildegarde. Maiden, hast thou brought us back a blessing?
Ah! well may she be blessedwell may the saints stoop to greet her, murmured Christina, with strangled voice, scarcely able to control her sobs.
Father Norbert came towards them. The simple confession had been heard, and he sought the aid of Christina in performing the last rites of the Church.
Maiden, he said to her, thou hast done a great and blessed work, such as many a priest might envy thee.
Eberhard was not excluded during the final services by which the soul was to be dismissed from its earthly dwelling-place. True, he comprehended little of their import, and nothing of the words, but he gazed meekly, with uncovered head, and a bewildered look of sadness, while Christina made her responses and took her part with full intelligence and deep fervour, sorrowing indeed for the companion who had become so dear to her, but deeply thankful for the spiritual consolation that had come at last. Ermentrude lay calm, and, as it were, already rapt into a higher world, lighting up at the German portions of the service, and not wholly devoid of comprehension of the spirit even of the Latin, as indeed she had come to the border of the region where human tongues and languages are no more.
She was all but gone when the rite of extreme unction was completed, and they could only stand round her, Eberhard, Christina, Ursel, and the old Baroness, who had returned again, watching the last flutterings of the breath, the window thrown wide open that nothing might impede the passage of the soul to the blue vault above.
The priest spoke the beautiful commendation, Depart, O Christian soul. There was a faint gesture in the midst for Christina to lift her in her armsa sign to bend down and kiss her browbut her last look was for her brother, her last murmur, Come after me; be the Good Baron Ebbo.
CHAPTER V
THE YOUNG FREIHERR
Ermentrude von Adlerstein slept with her forefathers in the vaults of the hermitage chapel, and Christina Sorels work was done.
Surely it was time for her to return home, though she should be more sorry to leave the mountain castle than she could ever have believed possible. She entreated her father to take her home, but she received a sharp answer that she did not know what she was talking of: the Schlangenwald Reitern were besetting all the roads; and moreover the Ulm burghers had taken the capture of the Constance wine in such dudgeon that for a retainer of Adlerstein to show himself in the streets would be an absolute asking for the wheel.
But was there any hope for her? Could he not take her to some nunnery midway, and let her write to her uncle to fetch her from thence?
He swore at womans pertinacity, but allowed at last that if the plan, talked of by the Barons, of going to make their submission to the Emperor at Linz, with a view to which all violence at the ford had ceased, should hold good, it might be possible thus to drop her on their way.
With this Christina must needs content herself. Poor child, not only had Ermentrudes death deprived her of the sole object of her residence at Schloss Adlerstein, but it had infinitely increased the difficulties of her position. No one interfered with her possession of the upper room and its turrets; and it was only at meal times that she was obliged to mingle with the other inhabitants, who, for the most part, absolutely overlooked the little shrinking pale maiden but with one exception, and that the most perplexing of all. She had been on terms with Freiherr Eberhard that were not so easily broken off as if she had been an old woman of Ursels age. All through his sisters decline she had been his comforter, assistant, director, living in intercourse and sympathy that ought surely to cease when she was no longer his sisters attendant, yet which must be more than ever missed in the full freshness of the stroke.
Even on the earliest day of bereavement, a sudden thought of Hausfrau Johanna flashed upon Christina, and reminded her of the guard she must keep over herself if she would return to Ulm the same modest girl whom her aunt could acquit of all indiscretion. Her cheeks flamed, as she sat alone, with the very thought, and the next time she heard the well-known tread on the stair, she fled hastily into her own turret chamber, and shut the door. Her heart beat fast. She could hear Sir Eberhard moving about the room, and listened to his heavy sigh as he threw himself into the large chair. Presently he called her by name, and she felt it needful to open her door and answer, respectfully:
What would you, my lord?
What would I? A little peace, and heed to her who is gone. To see my father and mother one would think that a partridge had but flown away. I have seen my father more sorrowful when his dog had fallen over the abyss.
Mayhap there is more sorrow for a brute that cannot live again, said Christina. Our bird has her nest by an Altar that is lovelier and brighter than even our Dome Kirk will ever be.
Sit down, Christina, he said, dragging a chair nearer the hearth. My heart is sore, and I cannot bear the din below. Tell me where my bird is flown.
Ah! sir; pardon me. I must to the kitchen, said Christina, crossing her hands over her breast, to still her trembling heart, for she was very sorry for his grief, but moving resolutely.
Must? And wherefore? Thou hast nought to do there; speak truth! Why not stay with me? and his great light eyes opened wide.
A burgher maid may not sit down with a noble baron.
The devil! Has my mother been plaguing thee, child?
The devil! Has my mother been plaguing thee, child?
No, my lord, said Christina, she reeks not of me; butsteadying her voice with great difficultyit behoves me the more to be discreet.
And you would not have me come here! he said, with a wistful tone of reproach.
I have no power to forbid you; but if you do, I must betake me to Ursel in the kitchen, said Christina, very low, trembling and half choked.
Among the rude wenches there! he cried, starting up. Nay, nay, that shall not be! Rather will I go.
But this is very cruel of thee, maiden, he added, lingering, when I give thee my knightly word that all should be as when she whom we both loved was here, and his voice shook.
It could not so be, my lord, returned Christina with drooping, blushing face; it would not be maidenly in me. Oh, my lord, you are kind and generous, make it not hard for me to do what other maidens less lonely have friends to do for them!
Kind and generous? said Eberhard, leaning over the back of the chair as if trying to begin a fresh score. This from you, who told me once I was no true knight!
I shall call you a true knight with all my heart, cried Christina, the tears rushing into her eyes, if you will respect my weakness and loneliness.
He stood up again, as if to move away; then paused, and, twisting his gold chain, said, And how am I ever to be what the happy one bade me, if you will not show me how?
My error would never show you the right, said Christina, with a strong effort at firmness, and retreating at once through the door of the staircase, whence she made her way to the kitchen, and with great difficulty found an excuse for her presence there.
It had been a hard struggle with her compassion and gratitude, and, poor little Christina felt with dismay, with something more than these. Else why was it that, even while principle and better sense summoned her back to Ulm, she experienced a deadly weariness of the city-pent air, of the grave, heavy roll of the river, nay, even of the quiet, well-regulated household? Why did such a marriage as she had thought her natural destiny, with some worthy, kind-hearted brother of the guild, become so hateful to her that she could only aspire to a convent life? This same burgomaster would be an estimable man, no doubt, and those around her were ruffians, but she felt utterly contemptuous and impatient of him. And why was the interchange of greetings, the few words at meals, worth all the rest of the day besides to her? Her own heart was the traitor, and to her own sensations the poor little thing had, in spirit at least, transgressed all Aunt Johannas precepts against young Barons. She wept apart, and resolved, and prayed, cruelly ashamed of every start of joy or pain that the sight of Eberhard cost her. From almost the first he had sat next her at the single table that accommodated the whole household at meals, and the custom continued, though on some days he treated her with sullen silence, which she blamed herself for not rejoicing in, sometimes he spoke a few friendly words; but he observed, better than she could have dared to expect, her test of his true knighthood, and never again forced himself into her apartment, though now and then he came to the door with flowers, with mountain strawberries, and once with two young doves. Take them, Christina, he said, they are very like yourself; and he always delayed so long that she was forced to be resolute, and shut the door on him at last.
Once, when there was to be a mass at the chapel, Hugh Sorel, between a smile and a growl, informed his daughter that he would take her thereto. She gladly prepared, and, bent on making herself agreeable to her father, did not once press on him the necessity of her return to Ulm. To her amazement and pleasure, the young Baron was at church, and when on the way home, he walked beside her mule, she could see no need of sending him away.
He had been in no school of the conventionalities of life, and, when he saw that Hugh Sorels presence had obtained him this favour, he wistfully asked, Christina, if I bring your father with me, will you not let me in?
Entreat me not, my lord, she answered, with fluttering breath.
She felt the more that she was right in this decision, when she encountered her fathers broad grin of surprise and diversion, at seeing the young Baron help her to dismount. It was a look of receiving an idea both new, comical, and flattering, but by no means the look of a father who would resent the indignity of attentions to his daughter from a man whose rank formed an insuperable barrier to marriage.
The effect was a new, urgent, and most piteous entreaty, that he would find means of sending her home. It brought upon her the hearing put into words what her own feelings had long shrunk from confessing to herself.
Ah! Why, what now? What, is the young Baron after thee? Ha! ha! petticoats are few enough up here, but he must have been ill off ere he took to a little ghost like thee! I saw he was moping and doleful, but I thought it was all for his sister.
And so it is, father.
Tell me that, when he watches every turn of that dark eye of thinethe only good thing thou tookst of mine! Thou art a witch, Stina.
Hush, oh hush, for pitys sake, father, and let me go home!
What, thou likest him not? Thy mind is all for the mincing goldsmith opposite, as I ever told thee.
My mind isis to return to my uncle and aunt the true-hearted maiden they parted with, said Christina, with clasped hands. And oh, father, as you were the son of a true and faithful mother, be a father to me now! Jeer not your motherless child, but protect her and help her.
Hugh Sorel was touched by this appeal, and he likewise recollected how much it was for his own interest that his brother should be satisfied with the care he took of his daughter. He became convinced that the sooner she was out of the castle the better, and at length bethought him that, among the merchants who frequented the Midsummer Fair at the Blessed Friedmunds Wake, a safe escort might be found to convey her back to Ulm.
If the truth were known, Hugh Sorel was not devoid of a certain feeling akin to contempt, both for his young masters taste, and for his forbearance in not having pushed matters further with a being so helpless, meek, and timid as Christina, more especially as such slackness had not been his wont in other cases where his fancy had been caught.
But Sorel did not understand that it was not physical beauty that here had been the attraction, though to some persons, the sweet, pensive eyes, the delicate, pure skin, the slight, tender form, might seem to exceed in loveliness the fully developed animal comeliness chiefly esteemed at Adlerstein. It was rather the strangeness of the power and purity of this timid, fragile creature, that had struck the young noble. With all their brutal manners reverence for a lofty female nature had been in the German character ever since their Velleda prophesied to them, and this reverence in Eberhard bowed at the feet of the pure gentle maiden, so strong yet so weak, so wistful and entreating even in her resolution, refined as a white flower on a heap of refuse, wise and dexterous beyond his slow and dull conception, and the first being in whom he had ever seen piety or goodness; and likewise with a tender, loving spirit of consolation such as he had both beheld and tasted by his sisters deathbed.
There was almost a fear mingled with his reverence. If he had been more familiar with the saints, he would thus have regarded the holy virgin martyrs, nay, even Our Lady herself; and he durst not push her so hard as to offend her, and excite the anger or the grief that he alike dreaded. He was wretched and forlorn without the resources he had found in his sisters room; the new and better cravings of his higher nature had been excited only to remain unsupplied and disappointed; and the affectionate heart in the freshness of its sorrow yearned for the comfort that such conversation had supplied: but the impression that had been made on him was still such, that he knew that to use rough means of pressing his wishes would no more lead to his real gratification than it would to appropriate a snow-bell by crushing it in his gauntlet.