“I care nothing for the opinion of that harridan, except that it may bring harsh usage to you; but Beatrix, I have told you bluntly of my love for you, answer me as honestly.” “My Lord, you spoke just now of a woodlander--” “Ah, there is one then. Indeed, I feared as much, for there can be none on all the Rhine as beautiful or as good as you.” “There are many woodlanders, my Lord, and many women more beautiful than I. What I was about to say was that I would rather be the wife of the poorest forester, and lived in the roughest hut on the hillside, than dwell otherwise in the grandest castle on the Rhine.” “Surely, surely. But you shall dwell in my castle of Schonburg as my most honoured wife, if you but will it so.” “Then, my Lord, I must bid you beware of what you propose. Your wife must be chosen from the highest in the land, and not from the lowliest. It is not fitting that you should endeavour to raise a serving-maid to the position of Countess von Schonburg. You would lose caste among your equals, and bring unhappiness upon us both.” Count Herbert grasped his sword and lifting it, cried angrily: “By the Cross I serve, the man who refuses to greet my wife as he would greet the Empress, shall feel the weight of this blade.” “You cannot kill a whisper with a sword, my Lord.” “I can kill the whisperer.” “That can you not, my Lord, for the whisperer will be a woman.” “Then out upon them, we will have no traffic with them. I have lived too long away from the petty restrictions of civilisation to be bound down by them now, for I come from a region where a man’s sword and not his rank preserved his life.” As he spoke he again raised his huge weapon aloft, but now held it by the blade so that it stood out against the bright window like a black cross of iron, and his voice rang forth defiantly: “With that blade I won my honour; by the symbol of its hilt I hope to obtain my soul’s salvation, on both united I swear to be to you a true lover and a loyal husband.” With swift motion the girl covered her face with her hands and Herbert saw the crystal drops trickle between her fingers. For long she could not speak and then mastering her emotion, she said brokenly: “I cannot accept, I cannot now accept. I can take no advantage of a helpless prisoner. At midnight I shall come and set you free, thus my act may atone for the great wrong of your imprisonment; atone partially if not wholly. When you are at liberty, if you wish to forget your words, which I can never do, then am I amply repaid that my poor presence called them forth. If you remember them, and demand of the Countess that I stand as hostage for peace, she is scarce likely to deny you, for she loves not war. But know that nothing you have said is to be held against you, for I would have you leave this castle as free as when you entered it. And now, my Lord, farewell.”