e old crone turned fiercely upon the one-eyed Hans. "Thou fool!"
she cried, "why didst thou bring him here? Thou hast killed thy lady!"

"I did not know," said the one-eyed Hans, stupidly.

III. How the Baron came Home Shorn.

But Baron Conrad was not dead. For days he lay upon his hard bed, now
muttering incoherent words beneath his red beard, now raving fiercely
with the fever of his wound. But one day he woke again to the things
about him.

He turned his head first to the one side and then to the other; there
sat Schwartz Carl and the one-eyed Hans. Two or three other retainers
stood by a great window that looked out into the courtyard beneath,
jesting and laughing together in low tones, and one lay upon the heavy
oaken bench that stood along by the wall snoring in his sleep.

"Where is your lady?" said the Baron, presently; "and why is she not
with me at this time?"

The man that lay upon the bench started up at the sound of his voice,
and those at the window came hurrying to his bedside. But Schwartz Carl
and the one-eyed Hans looked at one another, and neither of them spoke.
The Baron saw the look and in it read a certain meaning that brought
him to his elbow, though only to sink back upon his pillow again with a
groan.

"Why do you not answer me?" said he at last, in a hollow voice; then
to the one-eyed Hans, "Hast no tongue, fool, that thou standest gaping
there like a fish? Answer me, where is thy mistress?"

"I--I do not know," stammered poor Hans.

For a while the Baron lay silently looking from one face to the other,
then he spoke again. "How long have I been lying here?" said he.

"A sennight, my lord," said Master Rudolph, the steward, who had come
into the room and who now stood among the others at the bedside.

"A sennight," repeated the Baron, in a low voice, and then to Master
Rudolph, "And has the Baroness been often beside me in that time?"
Master Rudolph hesitated. "Answer me," said the Baron, harshly.

"Not--not often," said Master Rudolph, hesitatingly.

The Baron lay silent for a long time. At last he passed his hands over
his face and held them there for a minute, then of a sudden, before
anyone knew what he was about to do, he rose upon his elbow and then sat
upright upon the bed. The green wound broke out afresh and a dark red
spot grew and spread upon the linen wrappings; his face was drawn and
haggard with the pain of his moving, and his eyes wild and bloodshot.
Great dr