“My sword, my sword!” cried Eggerich, springing up, while Elbegast sank back into the shadows.

“Nay,” said the lady, trying to calm her husband.  “You did but hear the wind, or perhaps it was an evil dream.  Thou hast had many evil dreams of late, Eggerich; methinks there is something lies heavily on thy mind.  Wilt thou not tell thy wife?”

Elbegast listened intently while with soft words and caresses the lady strove to win her husband’s secret.

“Well,” said Eggerich at last in sullen tones, “we have laid a plot, my comrades and I. To-morrow we go to Ingelheim, and ere noon Charlemagne shall be slain and his lands divided among us.”

“What!” shrieked the lady.  “Murder my brother!  That will you never while I have strength to warn him.”  But the villain, with a brutal oath, struck her so fiercely in the face that the blood gushed out, and she sank back unconscious.

The robber was not in a position to avenge the cruel act, but he crawled nearer the couch and caught some of the blood in his gauntlet, for a sign to the Emperor.  When he was once more outside the castle he told his companion all that had passed and made as though to return.

“I will strike off his head,” said he.  “The Emperor is no friend of mine, but I love him still.”

“What is the Emperor to us?” cried Charlemagne.  “Are you mad that you risk our lives for the Emperor?” The black knight looked at him solemnly.

“An we had not sworn friendship,” said he, “your life should pay for these words.  Long live the Emperor!” Charlemagne, secretly delighted with the loyalty of the outlawed knight, recommended him to seek the Emperor on the morrow and warn him of his danger.  But Elbegast, fearing the gallows, would not consent to this; so his companion promised to do it in his stead and meet him afterward in the forest.  With that they parted, the Emperor returning to his palace, where he found all as he had left it.

In the morning he hastily summoned his council, told them of his dream and subsequent adventures, and of the plot against his life.  The paladins were filled with horror and indignation, and Charlemagne’s secretary suggested that it was time preparations were being made for the reception of the assassins.  Each band of traitors as they arrived was seized and cast into a dungeon.  Though apparently clad as peaceful citizens, they were all found to be armed.  The last band to arrive was led by Eggerich himself.  Great was his dismay when he saw his followers led off in chains, and angrily he demanded to know the reason for such treatment.

Charlemagne thereupon charged him with treason, and Eggerich flung down the gauntlet in defiance.  It was finally arranged that the Emperor should provide a champion to do battle with the traitor, the combat to take place at sunrise on the following morning.

A messenger rode to summon Elbegast, but he had much difficulty in convincing the black knight that it was not a plot to secure his undoing.