When their private conference was over, the duke advanced, and took the Lady Margaret by the hand.  “I am selfish enough,” he said, “to deprive you of your brother for a few weeks, to assist me by his counsel, and protect me by his arm, should it be necessary, in a little adventure we have resolved to undertake.”

“I am too true to you, my lord,” replied Margaret, “to desire my brother’s society when you request his assistance.  Were I a young knight, I should esteem it no light favor to march—­no matter where—­as an escort to Rodolph, Duke of Suabia.”

“And I, fair maiden,” returned the duke, “could wander to the end of the world with such a companion.”

“I hope you may not find Henry so agreeable as to carry you so far, for I expect to welcome you back in a week.”

“If I consulted my pleasure,” said Rodolph, “I should not be absent a day, but my duty may detain me a month.  I will not offer an apology for so long a stay, because I fear that before sunset you will have ceased to think of me, or remember me only in connection with your brother.”

“A noble duke,” replied the lady, “whose name is heard wherever the minstrel tunes his harp, whose word was never plighted in vain, whose sword was never stained in an unrighteous cause, whose arm and purse are ever at the command of the poor and persecuted, whose courage and clemency, wisdom and piety, so well entitle him to the love of all his people, is not so easily forgotten.”

“I assure you, on my honor,” exclaimed Rodolph, “that I value your words more than all the songs of all the minstrels I ever heard.  I would I were worthy your praise; but you have inspired me to deserve it.  Farewell!  I see that Henry is impatient, and we must not lose the early morning.”

He bade adieu to the baron and his daughter, and turned to mount his horse, when Bertha touched his arm, and placed in his hand something enveloped in silk.  Bertha said not one word, but she looked earnestly up in Rodolph’s face, and then walked away as swiftly and silently as she came.  The duke could not help remarking the wild beauty of her pale and wasted face, and remained some moments gazing after her with a painful interest.  He removed the silk and found that it contained a ring garnished with a stone of rare value.  He started as his eye fell upon the trinket, for he remembered that years ago he had given it to the Lord of Hers.  How could it have come into Bertha’s possession, was the question that naturally occurred to him; but the answer came not so readily as the question.  While the duke was thus pondering, Henry had embraced his father and sister, and leaped upon his horse.  Rodolph mounted slowly, after examining the girths with his own hand; and the little troop, waving a parting salute, swept over the drawbridge, and were soon lost among the trees.