ll
cried aloud to him for vengeance. "She is an orphan," said he,
bitterly; "she hath none to protect, to redress her, save me alone. My
father's charge over her forlorn youth descends of right to me. What
matters it whether her forsaker be my brother? He is her foe. Hath he
not crushed her heart? Hath he not consigned her to sorrow till the
grave? And with what insult! no warning, no excuse; with lewd
wassailers keeping revel for his new bridals in the hearing--before the
sight--of his betrothed! Enough! the time hath come when, to use his
own words, 'One of us two must fall!" He half drew his sword as he
spoke, and thrusting it back violently into the sheath, strode home to
his solitary castle. The sound of steeds and of the hunting-horn met
him at his portal; the bridal train of Sternfels, all mirth and
gladness, were parting for the chase.

That evening a knight in complete armour entered the banquet-hall of
Sternfels, and defied Otho, on the part of Warbeck of Liebenstein, to
mortal combat.

Even the Templar was startled by so unnatural a challenge; but Otho,
reddening, took up the gage, and the day and spot were fixed.
Discontented, wroth with himself, a savage gladness seised him;--he
longed to wreak his desperate feelings even on his brother. Nor had he
ever in his jealous heart forgiven that brother his virtues and his
renown.

At the appointed hour the brothers met as foes. Warbeck's vizor was
up, and all the settled sternness of his soul was stamped upon his
brow. But Otho, more willing to brave the arm than to face the front
of his brother, kept his vizor down; the Templar stood by him with
folded arms. It was a study in human passions to his mocking mind.
Scarce had the first trump sounded to this dread conflict, when a new
actor entered on the scene. The rumour of so unprecedented an event
had not failed to reach the convent of Bornhofen;--and now, two by two,
came the sisters of the holy shrine, and the armed men made way, as
with trailing garments and veiled faces they swept along into the very
lists. At that moment one from amongst them left her sisters with a
slow majestic pace, and paused not till she stood right between the
brother foes.

"Warbeck," she said in a hollow voice, that curdled up his dark spirit
as it spoke, "Is it thus thou wouldst prove thy love, and maintain thy
trust over the fatherless orphan whom thy sire bequeathed to thy care?
Shall I have murder on my soul?