tender
pity and commiseration. Sonnenkamp knew that Clodwig was, of all things
else, a patriot, and he was ready to strike this chord. Eric looked at
Roland, to see if he noticed the hypocrisy, for it was no longer ago
than Sunday, that Sonnenkamp had expressed himself so strangely and
contemptuously, when the conversation turned on the subject of voting.
But Roland's features were motionless.

In one view, it was encouraging that the inconsiderate mind of the
youth did not perceive the contradiction; while in another, Eric saw
here an enhancement of the difficulty of his work as an educator; it
was indeed his principal problem, to awaken and to establish in the
mind of his pupil the consecutiveness and interlinking of all thought
and all action.

Sonnenkamp expatiated, too, on the many strange things imputed to him;
and yet no one had really made the charge: but he himself, together
with Pranken, had spread the report, that he was desirous of giving his
own name to the castle, the line of the original family having long
since become extinct. It was reported that the Rauhenberg coat of arms
was not accurately known, and yet that it was purposed to place it
again over the entrance of the restored castle.

Clodwig, who prided himself, notwithstanding all his liberality, in
knowing the genealogy of all the princely and noble families, with
their coats of arms, affirmed that the Rauhenberg coat of arms was
unmistakably certain, and that it had as a device a Moor's head on a
blue ground in the left field, and in the right, a pair of scales. The
family had greatly distinguished itself in the crusades, and had been
at that time invested with a high judicial function.

Sonnenkamp smiled in a very friendly manner, and he almost grinned, as
he requested the count to favor him, as soon as possible, with a
drawing.

Eric's rich store of knowledge was again a matter of surprise, as he
excited attention by the information he gave concerning armorial
mottoes.

They were in very good spirits whilst assigning to some one of their
circle of acquaintance one and another motto, which sometimes seemed a
laughable contrast to the real character, and sometimes a striking
expression of it.

"What motto would you select for yourself?" Sonnenkamp asked Eric; and
he gave for a reply these two simple words:--

"I serve."

CHAPTER IX.

A DOUBLE RESCUE.

It happened,