to sting thus
early, and asked in anger, "Did you ever hear such words from me or
from the knight Tausdorf, whose name is always in your mouth?"

"No," stammered the terrified child, already struggling with his tears;
"but uncle Netz, and the rest of the knights, call the Schweidnitzers
by no other name when they talk of them."

"Have these then so suddenly become your models? Formerly you were of a
different opinion; but shame upon you for so soon forgetting the
lessons of your mother. What have I told you of the different classes
in the world?"

"They are all established by God," repeated the boy, amidst a flood of
tears, "and therefore the high should never despise the low, for he is
his brother."

"And what did I say to you of the citizens and peasants?"

"They are for the whole more useful and indispensable than the noble,
who in reviling them disgraces himself."

"You, then, have disgraced the nobility which you are so proud of. Go
to your own room, and reflect with yourself seriously upon your
injustice, and pray to God to forgive you such want of charity. That
you may have leisure for this, you shall neither play nor eat till the
evening."

"Dear mother!" said the little one imploringly, and raised his folded
hands.

"I am fixed," she replied with great earnestness; and the poor boy left
the room slowly and with loud sobbings.

"God grant me strength to banish this evil spirit, the last in the pure
mind of my child," prayed Althea fervently, as her brother-in-law,
Netz, rushed into the room with wild unceasing laughter. Vexed at this
interruption of her better thoughts, she exclaimed, "What have you been
about now?"

"Oh, I have been enjoying a fine piece of sport. Since we were here
with the bishop, your cits have had a little respect for us, because
they see that we hang together manfully. So we touch them up now and
then, till they are ready to run against the walls from terror."

"Alas! I have already heard much of this kind of exploits, but in truth
they do you little honour."

Netz, passing over the remark, continued: "Just now I amused myself
with riding on my war-horse into a publican's house, and even into the
tap-room on the ground floor. The old witch of a hostess crept forward
immediately, and, quaking and trembling, begged of me to dismount; but
I cut as furious a grimace as I could, and roared out, 'Pity on the
noble blood that has been spilt! let any one of the Schweidnitzers come