ted, sometimes violently but, on the whole, people
believed him more readily than would have happened in the case of any
other person; for every one admitted that, as the brother-in-law of the
older E, he had a right to express his indignation in words.

Meanwhile his twins often returned to his memory. The thought ought to
have restrained him from such base conduct; but the idea that he was
avenging the wrong inflicted upon their father's honour, and thus upon
theirs, urged him further and further.

Not until a long ride through the forest had sobered him did he see his
conduct in the proper light.

Insult and disgrace would certainly await him in the city. His brothers
would receive him kindly. They were of his own blood and could not help
welcoming his sharp sword. Side by side with them he would fight and, if
it must be, die. A voice within warned him against making common cause
with those who had robbed the family of which he had become a member,
yet he again used the remembrance of his innocent darlings to palliate
his purpose. For their sakes only he desired to go to his death, sword
in hand, like a valiant knight in league with those who were risking
their lives in defence of the ancient privilege of their class. They
must not even suspect that their father had been shut out from the
tournament, but grow up in the conviction that he had fallen as a heroic
champion of the cause of the lesser knights to whom he belonged, and on
whose neck the Emperor had set his foot.

The assurance which Biberli brought Heinz Schorlin that Seitz Siebenburg
had joined those whom he was ordered to punish, placed the task assigned
him by the Emperor in a new and attractive light; but the servant's
report, so far as it concerned the Ortlieb sisters, pierced the inmost
depths of his soul. He alone was to blame for the disgrace which had
fallen upon innocent maidens. By the destruction of the calumny he would
at least atone for a portion of his sin. But this did not suffice. It
was his duty to repair the wrong he had done the sisters. How? That he
could not yet determine; for whilst wielding the executioner's sword
in his master's service all these thoughts must be silenced; he could
consider nothing save to fulfil the task confided to him by his imperial
benefactor and commander in chief, according to his wishes, and show him
that he had chosen wisely in trusting him to "crack the nut" which he
himself had pronounced a hard one. Th