o withstand it. The froward wretches had
plotted to fall upon him and to escape with the wench from their prison,
even if it were over his dead body.

One of the bear-leaders had made shift to strip the cords from his hands,
and when my brother entered into the dark place where the prisoners lay,
they flew at him to fell him. But even on the threshold Herdegen saw
through their purpose, and had no sooner shut the door than he drew his
hunting knife. Then the old beldame gripped him by the throat and clawed
him tooth and nail; one of the ruffians beat him with a stave torn from
the bedstead till he weened he had broken or bruised all his limbs, while
the other, whose hands were yet bound, pressed between him and the door.
In truth he would have come to a bad end, but that the younger woman
saved him at the risk of her own life. The man who had rid himself of his
bonds had raised the heavy earthen pitcher to break Herdegen's head
withal, when the brave wench clutched the wretch by the arm and hung on
to him till Herdegen stuck him with his knife. Thus the ringleader fell,
and my brother pulled up his deliverer and dragged her to the door. As he
opened it the old woman and the other prisoner put forth their last
strength to force their way out, but with his strong arm he thrust them
back and locked the door upon them.

Thus he led the young woman, who had come off better than he had feared
in the fray, forth to freedom, to keep his word to her.

Out in the wood, in spite of thunder and lightning, he made her to put on
Eppelein's weed and mount the nag. Thereafter he led her horse to the
brook, which floweth through the woods down to the meadow-land, and bid
her ride along in the water so far as she might, to put the hounds off
the scent. The bread in the saddle-bag would feed her for a few days, and
now it lay with her to escape pursuit. And this good deed of my brother's
had smitten the lost creature to the heart; when he was about to help her
to mount he dropped down on the wet ground from loss of blood, but as he
opened his eyes again, behold, his head was resting on her lap and she
kissed his brow. Despite her own peril she had not left him in such evil
plight, but had done all she could to bring him to his senses; nay, she
had gathered leaves by the glare of the lightning to staunch the blood
which flowed freely from the worst of his wounds. Nor was she to be moved
to go on her way till he showed her that in truth he