l
him how she had spent his money, lest he might make some unpleasant
reflections on the subject; besides, she suspected that he would not
appreciate the advantages she had secured for him. But this was after
Ava had been sent away to Nimptsch.

CHAPTER FOUR.

Eric, now a close prisoner in the Castle of Schweinsburg, felt very
indignant at the treatment he had received, and apprehensive of the
consequences of his capture by his father's enemy. Though the fierce
Baron would not have scrupled to put an ordinary man to death, he did
not think he would venture to injure him or his person further than
keeping him shut up. It was on his father's account that he was most
anxious, as he guessed that the Baron had seized him for the sake of
enforcing his unjust claims on Count von Lindburg, and that unless these
were yielded to, he himself might be kept a prisoner for years. Who
indeed was to say what had become of him? The Baron and his retainers
were the only people cognisant of his capture, except little Platter,
and of course he would have run away, and must have been too frightened
to be able to give any clear account of the matter. It would be, of
course, supposed that he and Hans had been set on by robbers, of whom
there were many prowling about the country, and been murdered in some
wood, and their bodies buried or thrown into a pond.

"Patience, my dear young master," answered Hans, when Eric had thus
expressed his apprehensions; "we are in a difficulty, of that there is
no doubt, but I have been in a worse one and escaped out of it. Once
your honoured father and I were captured by the Saracens, and we fully
expected to lose our heads, but the very last night we thought that we
should be alive on earth we had a file conveyed to us in a loaf of bread
by a little damsel who had taken a fancy to his handsome countenance,
and we were able to let ourselves down from the window of our prison. A
couple of fleet horses were in readiness, and we were away and in
Christian territory before the morning dawned. I have been praying
heartily to the Holy Virgin and to the Saints, and I have no doubt that
they will help us."

"I have not the slightest hope of any such thing, my good Hans," said
Eric, who had already imbibed many Protestant opinions. "It is God in
heaven who hears our prayers. If He will not attend to them, no one
else will, for He loves us more than human beings can, whether they are
in this world o