Kunz whistled softly. He listened for a moment; another whistle
answered his own, and a rope-ladder was slowly lowered from one of the
windows. Kunz mounted it, and made his way to the room where the two
little princes were sleeping under the charge of an old governess. He
seized the eldest, a boy of fourteen, and carried him down the ladder,
and Mosen followed with a second child in his arms. This boy kept
calling out, 'I am not one of the princes; I am their playfellow, Count
von Bardi. Let me go! Let me go!' Thereupon, telling the others to ride
on with Prince Ernst in order to secure him, Kunz dashed up the ladder
again, and ran to the princes' room, where he found little Prince
Albrecht hiding under the bed. He caught him up and descended again with
him. As he went, the Electress, roused by the boys' cries and finding
her door bolted, rushed to the window and begged and implored him not to
take her children.

'My husband shall grant all your demands, I swear to you,' she cried,
'only leave me my children!'

'Tell the Elector, Madam,' laughed Kunz, looking up, 'that I _can_ burn
the fish in the ponds!'

Then he mounted his horse, which his servant was holding, and away they
rode as fast as the horses would carry them. They had not ridden many
miles before the clang of bells broke on their ears. The alarm peal of
the castle had awakened that of the town, and in a few hours every bell
in every belfry in Saxony was ringing an alarm. The sun rose, and Kunz
and his followers plunged deeper into the forest, riding through
morasses and swamps, over rough and stony ground--anywhere to escape
from the din of those alarm bells. At last the ride for dear life was
nearly over; the band was within an hour's journey of the castle of
Isenburg, when Prince Albrecht declared that he was dying of thirst.

'For the love of Heaven, give me something to drink, Sir Knight,' he
implored.

Kunz bade the others ride on, and giving his squire his horse to hold he
dismounted, lifted Albrecht down, and began looking for bilberries for
him.

Whilst he was doing so, a charcoal-burner with his dog came up. He was
much surprised to see such grand people in the forest, and asked,

'What are you doing with the young lord?'

'He has run away from his parents,' answered Kunz, impatiently. 'Can you
tell me where bilberries are to be found here?'

'I do not know,' replied the charcoal-burner, still staring at the
strangers.

Anxious to make