Her cheeks were glowing.

They sat there at table so near together, and so far--far apart were
they from each other. Eric and Manna looked at each other only once;
there was in their glance an expression full of intelligence. Roland
said softly to Eric,--

"When the huntsman came home from court there were potatoes on his
table."

Eric laid his hand consolingly on his shoulder; he knew everything that
was going on in the soul of the youth from this reminiscence. The
huntsman was innocent, and here?

Pranken displayed all his tact in managing to bring forward every safe
subject of conversation; the building of the castle furnished him
abundant material.

They rose from the table, and all separated as before. Roland requested
Eric to allow him to remain alone by himself for that day.

CHAPTER XI.

THE BOND OF HONOR.

It was evening. Roland was going through the village. In the streets
floated an odor of the May wine; everybody was merry and bustling; the
wine-presses were creaking and dripping in the streets, men were moving
along slowly with full heavy tubs on their backs.

Roland gazed at everybody with questioning look; he would have liked to
cry out,--

See, here is a beggar, he begs of you something of love, of kindness,
of pity for him and his father. Ah, only a little charity!

He saw the houses to which on his births day he had carried
joy-bringing gifts; the people returned his greetings, but they were
not, as formerly, gladdened and honored by them; he left the village.

Outside of it, on the river-bank, he sat behind a hedge, as he did
before he ran away to Eric. Now he was sitting in unspeakable sadness,
that bade fair to wither his life-strength. A water-ousel flew up near
him. With childish self-forgetfulness, he bent the boughs away from
each other, and saw a nest with five young ones stretching out their
bills. How happy he would have been in by-gone days to have made such a
discovery! Now, he stood there, and said to himself sadly,--

Ah! you are at home.

He heard a carriage come rattling towards him on the road, and he
thought of that poor servant in the night, who would rather hunger and
beg than possess property unjustly acquired.

Not far from him on the bank a boat was loosened from its chain; he
heard the chain rattle, and at the same moment he felt in his heart as
if he heard the slaves, who, bound in one long