er
I had considered that blood would perchance be shed, and ended by
counselling me kindly: "So stay at home, little Margery!"

"I am as obedient as ever," was my ready answer, "but whereas I am now
well in the saddle, I will stay in the saddle."

At this the old man knew not whether to take a jest as a jest, or to
give me a stern order; and while he and the others were getting into
their stirrups he said: "Have done with folly when matters are so
serious, madcap child! We have enough to do to think of Ann, and more
than enough! So dismount, Margery, with all speed."

"All in good time," said I then, "I will dismount that minute when we
have found Ann. Till then the giant Goliath shall not move me from the
saddle!"

Hereupon the old man lost patience, he settled himself on his big brown
horse and cried out in a wrathful and commanding tone: "Do not rouse me
to anger, Margery. Do as I desire and dismount."

But that moment he could more easily have made me to leap into the fire
than to leave Ann in the lurch; I raised the bridle and whip, and as
the bay broke into a gallop Uncle Conrad cried out once more, in greater
wrath than before: "Do as I bid you!" and I joyfully replied "That I
will if you come and fetch me!" And my horse carried me off and away,
through the open gate.

The gentlemen tore after me, and if I had so desired they would never
have caught me till the day of judgment, inasmuch as that my Hungarian
palfrey, which my Hans had brought for me from the stables of Count von
Cilly, the father of Queen Barbara, was far swifter than their heavy
hook-nosed steeds; yet as I asked no better than to seek Ann in all
peace with them, and as my uncle was a mild and wise man, who would not
take the jest he could not now spoil over seriously, I suffered them to
gain upon me and we concluded a bargain to the effect that all was to be
forgotten and forgiven, but that I was pledged to turn the bay and
make the best of my way home at the first sign of danger. And if the
gentlemen had come to the stables in a gloomy mood and much fear, the
wild chase after me had recovered their high spirits; and, albeit my own
heart beat sadly enough, I did my best to keep of good cheer, and verily
the sight of Kubbeling helped to that end. He was to show us the way to
the spot where he had found Eppelem, and was now squatted on a very
big black horse, from which his little legs, with their strange gear
of catskins, stuck out after a