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the news which she carried. โ€œMy father says that thy father is out in the woods somewhere yonder, back of the castle, for Fritz, the swineherd, told my father that last night he had seen a fire in the woods, and that he had crept up to it without anyone knowing. There he had seen the Baron Conrad and six of his men, and that they were eating one of the swine that they had killed and roasted. Maybe,โ€ said she, seating herself upon the edge of Ottoโ€™s couch; โ€œmaybe my father will kill thy father, and they will bring him here and let him lie upon a black bed with bright candles burning around him, as they did my uncle Frederick when he was killed.โ€

โ€œGod forbid!โ€ said Otto, and then lay for a while with his hands clasped. โ€œDost thou love me, Pauline?โ€ said he, after a while.

โ€œYes,โ€ said Pauline, โ€œfor thou art a good child, though my father says that thy wits are cracked.โ€

โ€œMayhap they are,โ€ said Otto, simply, โ€œfor I have often been told so before. But thou wouldst not see me die, Pauline; wouldst thou?โ€

โ€œNay,โ€ said Pauline, โ€œI would not see thee die, for then thou couldst tell me no more stories; for they told me that uncle Frederick could not speak because he was dead.โ€

โ€œThen listen, Pauline,โ€ said Otto; โ€œif I go not away from here I shall surely die. Every day I grow more sick and the leech cannot cure me.โ€ Here he broke down and, turning his face upon the couch, began crying, while little Pauline sat looking seriously at him.

โ€œWhy dost thou cry, Otto?โ€ said she, after a while.

โ€œBecause,โ€ said he, โ€œI am so sick, and I want my father to come and take me away from here.โ€

โ€œBut why dost thou want to go away?โ€ said Pauline. โ€œIf thy father takes thee away, thou canst not tell me any more stories.โ€

โ€œYes, I can,โ€ said Otto, โ€œfor when I grow to be a man I will come again and marry thee, and when thou art my wife I can tell thee all the stories that I know. Dear Pauline, canst thou not tell my father where I am, that he may come here and take me away before I die?โ€

โ€œMayhap I could do so,โ€ said Pauline, after a little while, โ€œfor sometimes I go with Casper Max to see his mother, who nursed me when I was a baby. She is the wife of Fritz, the swineherd, and she will make him tell thy father; for she will do whatever I ask of her, and Fritz will do whatever she bids him do.โ€

โ€œAnd for my sake, wilt thou tell him, Pauline?โ€ said Otto.

โ€œBut see, Otto,โ€ said the little girl, โ€œif I tell him, wilt thou promise to come indeed and marry me when thou art grown a man?โ€

โ€œYes,โ€ said Otto, very seriously, โ€œI will promise.โ€

โ€œThen I will tell thy father where thou art,โ€ said she.

โ€œBut thou wilt do it without the Baron Henry knowing, wilt thou not, Pauline?โ€

โ€œYes,โ€ said she, โ€œfor if my father and my mother knew that I did such a thing, they would strike me, mayhap send me to my bed alone in the dark.โ€





IX. How One-eyed Hans came to Trutz-Drachen.

Fritz, the swineherd, sat eating his late supper of porridge out of a great, coarse, wooden bowl; wife Katherine sat at the other end of the table, and the half-naked little children played upon the earthen floor. A shaggy dog lay curled up in front of the fire, and a grunting pig scratched against a leg of the rude table close beside where the woman sat.

โ€œYes, yes,โ€ said Katherine, speaking of the matter of which they had already been talking. โ€œIt is all very true that the Drachenhausens are a bad lot, and I for one am of no mind to say no to that; all the same it is a sad thing that a simple-witted little child like the young Baron should be so treated as the boy has been; and now that our Lord Baron has served him so that he, at least, will never be able to do us โ€˜harm, I for one say that he should not be left there to die alone in that black cell.โ€

Fritz, the swineherd, gave a grunt at this without raising his eyes from the bowl.

โ€œYes, good,โ€ said Katherine, โ€œI know what thou meanest, Fritz, and that it is none of my business to be thrusting my finger into the Baronโ€™s dish. But to hear the way that dear little child spoke when she was here this mornโ€”it would have moved a heart of stone to hear her tell of all his pretty talk. Thou wilt try to let the red-beard know that that poor boy, his son, is sick to death in the black cell; wilt thou not, Fritz?โ€

The swineherd dropped his wooden spoon into the bowl with a clatter. โ€œPotstausand!โ€ he cried; โ€œart thou gone out of thy head to let thy wits run upon such things as this of which thou talkest to me? If it should come to our Lord Baronโ€™s ears he would cut the tongue from out thy head and my head from off my shoulders for it. Dost thou think I am going to meddle in such a matter as this? Listen! these proud Baron folk, with their masterful ways, drive our sort hither and thither; they beat us, they drive us, they kill us as they choose. Our lives are not as much to them as one of my black swine. Why should I trouble my head if they choose to lop and trim one another? The fewer there are of them the better for us, say I. We poor folk have a hard enough life of it without thrusting our heads into the noose to help them out of their troubles. What thinkest thou would happen to us if Baron Henry should hear of our betraying his affairs to the Red-beard?โ€

โ€œNay,โ€ said Katherine, โ€œthou hast naught to do in the matter but to tell the Red-beard in what part of the castle the little Baron lies.โ€

โ€œAnd what good would that do?โ€ said Fritz, the swineherd.

โ€œI know not,โ€ said Katherine, โ€œbut I have promised the little one that thou wouldst find the Baron Conrad and tell him that much.โ€

โ€œThou hast promised a mareโ€™s egg,โ€ said her husband, angrily. โ€œHow shall I find the Baron Conrad to bear a message to him, when our Baron has been looking for him in vain for two days past?โ€

โ€œThou has found him once and thou mayst find him again,โ€ said Katherine, โ€œfor it is not likely that he will keep far away from here whilst his boy is in such sore need of help.โ€

โ€œI will have nothing to do with it!โ€ said Fritz, and he got up from the wooden block whereon he was sitting and stumped out of the house. But, then, Katherine had heard him talk in that way before, and knew, in spite of his saying โ€œno,โ€ that, sooner or later, he would do as she wished.

Two days later a very stout

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