ake such lads as you are for hostages?"

And in truth they were not an imposing couple--the elder a slim, fragile
youth, whose eyes were already tearful at the prospect of confronting
his uncle's captor; while the younger was a mere boy, sanguine and
adventuresome as children often are.

"I will challenge this knight," said the boy seriously. "I will draw
sword for my uncle, for I also am a knight."

"Hush, Cuno," said his brother, smiling in spite of himself at the boy's
ardour. "We must not talk of fighting. We must entreat the knight to let
our uncle go free."

"What would you have, Imma? Entreat? Nay, that we shall not." He
stopped awkwardly, and his sister's rising colour showed plainly her
embarrassment at having her sex thus suddenly revealed.

The old woman looked at her kindly.

"I knew from the first that thou wert a maid disguised," she said.
"Go, and God speed you! Tell the knight of Windeck that the people of
Strassburg mean to attack his castle on the morrow, and that his only
means of resisting them is to dig a deep trench across the one possible
approach. But stay--there is no time for that; I will give you something
wherewith to dig the trench."

She whistled shrilly and in answer to her call a grey hen fluttered
toward her; this she gave to the young people. "When the moon rises,"
she said, "take the hen and place it where you wish the trench to be."

Then with a few words to the hen in a strange tongue, she bade the
brother and sister farewell and went on her way.

The two continued their journey and upon arriving at Windeck they were
agreeably surprised in the lord of the castle, for he was young and
handsome and very courteous, not at all the ogre they had imagined. In
faltering tones Imma told him their mission, conveyed to him the old
witch's warning, and presented the grey hen.

When he heard that they proposed to gain their uncle's freedom by
themselves taking his place, the knight regarded his visitors with
mingled feelings of pity and astonishment. The gentle, appealing glance
of the elder, no less than the naive candour of the younger, appealed
to his sympathies. In a very short time Cuno, who had quite forgotten to
challenge his host, was on the best of terms with him.

Meanwhile the Dean, very impatient and incensed, paced his small chamber
like a caged lion, or bemoaned his lost liberty and meditated on the
chances of escape. He was roused from a reverie by the sound of familia