“Does this—­does this happen often?”

“Alas! yes, my Lord.”

“Poor lad, poor lad!  The sins of the fathers shall be visited on the children to the third and fourth generation.  Hildegunde, forgive me.  Let us away and forget it all.”

The next morning the Countess began her imprisonment in Pfalz.

XV

JOURNEYS END IN LOVERS’ MEETING

Roland slept until the sun was about an hour high over the western hills.  He found the captain waiting patiently for him to awake, and then that useful martinet instantly set his crew at tying up the bales which had been torn open, placing them once more in the hold.  He was about to do the same with the weapons captured from Furstenberg, but Greusel stepped forward, and asked him to put pikes, battle-axes, and the long swords into the cabin.

Roland nodded his approval, saying: 

“They may prove useful instruments in case of an attack on the barge.  Our own swords are just a trifle short for adding interest to an assault.”

When once more the hatches were down, and the deck clear, supper was served.  Shortly after sunset, Roland told the captain to cast off, directing him to keep to the eastern shore, passing between what might be called the marine Castle of Pfalz and the village of Caub, with the strictest silence he could enjoin upon his crew.  Pfalz stands upon a rock in the Rhine, a short distance up the river from Caub, while above that village on the hill behind are situated the strong, square towers of Gutenfels.

“Don’t you intend to pay a call upon Pfalzgrafenstein?” asked Ebearhard.  “It is notoriously the most pestilent robber’s nest between Mayence and Cologne.”

“No,” said Roland.  “On this occasion Pfalz shall escape.  You see, Ebearhard, on our first trip down the Rhine it is not my intention to fight if I can avoid conflict.  The plan which proved successful with the four castles we have visited is impossible so far as Pfalz is concerned.  If we attempted to enter this waterschloss by stealth, we would be discovered by those levying contributions on the barge.  There is no cover to conceal us, so I shall give Pfalz the go-by, and also Gutenfels, because the latter is not a robber castle, but is owned by the Count Palatine, a true gentleman and no thief.  The next object of our attentions will be Schonburg, on the western side of the river, near Oberwesel.”

As the grotesque, hexagonal bulk of the Pfalz, with its numerous jutting corners and turrets, and over all the pentagonal tower, appeared dimly in the center of the Rhine, under the clear stars, the captain ordered his men to lie flat on the deck, himself following their example.  Roland and his company were already seated in the cabin, and the great barge, lying so low in the water as to be almost invisible with its black paint, floated noiseless as a dream down the swift current.