The Red AxeWell do I, Hugo Gottfried, remember the night of snow and moonlight when first they brought the Little Playmate home. I had been sleeping -- a sturdy, well-grown fellow I, ten years or so as to my age -- in a stomacher of blanket and a bed-gown my mother had made me before she died at the beginning of the cold weather. Suddenly something awoke me out of my sleep. So, all in the sharp chill of the night, I got out of my bed, sitting on the edge with my legs dangling, and looked curiously at the bright streams of moonlight which crossed the wooden floor of my garret. I thought if only I could swim straight up one of them, as the motes did in the sunshine, I should be sure to come in time to the place where my mother was -- the place where all the pretty white things came from -- the sunshine, the moonshine, the starshine, and the snow. "Come down and be killed, foul brood of the Red Axe!" the children cried. And with that they ran as near as they dared, and spat on the wall of our house, or at least on the little wooden panel which opened inward in the great trebly spiked iron door of the Duke's courtyard. |
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answered arms asked Bishop Peter Black Riders blood-hounds Burgomeister castle city of Thorn court-yard cried dark dead Dessauer door Duke Casimir Duke Otho Duke's eyes face father fear gate Gerard von Sturm Gottfried Gottfried hand hath head hear heard heart Helene Hereditary Justicer honor horses Hugo Gottfried Jorian and Boris Katrin kissed knew Lady Ysolinde laughed LENOX AND TILDEN LIBRARY ASTOR little maid Little Playmate looked Lubber Fiend Master Gerard Michael Texel Miller's Son never night noble old Hanne Otho von Reuss Prince Karl Prince of Plassenburg Princess of Plassenburg Red Axe Red Tower ride rode Saint Helena seen shoulder smile soldiers speak stairs stood strange street sword tell thing thought took turned voice waiting wall Weiss Thor Wendish White Wolf window Wolfmark Wolfsberg woman women words YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY young
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Page 248 - Are you coming — are you coming oo-out to night ? There will be-ee, good compan-ee-ee. Dancing and deray — lots of pretty girls ; no proud churls. Ten by the clock, when the doors all lock. As it was in the beginning, is now, ever shall be, world without end, Aaa-men ! ' These were, of course, only the lay brothers, and I hope the friars were better behaved. I decided, however, that for the sake of my respect for religion, I should omit to ask Dessauer. Because I saw even the Abbot Tobias lean...