Cuno conducted his old teacher to the drawbridge,
and assisted him into the sedan. They stopped at the foot of the
mountain, before the hut of Frau Feldheimerin, and found her waiting
with a bundle full of glasses, dishes, and medicines.

But Cuno's action was not looked at in the light prophesied by the
countess. It was thought to be noble and praiseworthy that he should
try to cheer the last days of the old Frau Feldheimerin, and that he
should take Father Joseph into his castle. The only ones who disliked
and slandered him were his brothers and his stepmother. But only to
their own hurt; for everybody took an aversion to such unnatural
brothers, and by way of retaliation the story went that they lived in
continual strife with their mother and did all they could to harm one
another. Count Cuno made several attempts to reconcile his brothers to
himself, for it was unbearable to him when they rode by his castle
without stopping, or when they met him in the field and forest and
greeted him as coldly as though he were a stranger. But his attempts
failed, and only increased their bitterness towards him.

One day a plan occurred to him by which he might perhaps win their
hearts, for he knew that they were miserly and avaricious. There was a
pond situated at about an equal distance from the three castles, but
lying in Cuno's domain. This pond contained the finest pike and carp
to be found any where; and it was one of the chief grievances of the
twin-brothers, who were fond of fishing, that their father had not
included this pond in the land he had given them. They were too proud
to fish there without their brother's knowledge, neither would they ask
permission of him. But Cuno knew that his brothers had set their hearts
on this pond, so he sent an invitation to them to meet him there on a
certain day.

It was a beautiful Spring morning, as, nearly at the same moment, the
three brothers from the three castles met.

"Why, look you!" said Schalk; "we are well met! I rode away from
Schalksberg just on the stroke of seven."

"So did I,"--"and I," repeated the brothers from Hirschberg and
Zollern.

"Well, then, the pond must lie precisely in the middle," continued
Schalk. "It is a beautiful sheet of water."

"Yes, and for that reason did I choose this spot for our meeting. I
know that you are both fond of fishing, and although I sometimes throw
a line myself, yet there are fish enough here for three castles, and on
these