"Permit me, dear Count, to offer you a trifling souvenir," said the lord of the castle, drawing a heavy gold chain from a casket. "Wear this in remembrance of me, and may our friendship ever remain as pure and true as this noble metal! Have you nothing, Hermengarde, to give to our worthy friend?"
At these words, the young girl took from one of her waiting-women a richly chiselled cup of gold, on whose cover was sculptured St. George trampling upon the Dragon.
"Deign to accept this slight mark of our friendship and gratitude!" said she.
"I trust, my dear Count, that we shall meet again ere long," added Guido. "Milan is not far distant, and an excursion to our mountains will break the monotony of your camp-life."
"I will gladly avail myself on every possible occasion of your invitation," answered Rechberg. "Farewell, dear Bonello; God keep you, noble lady!"
And as she extended him her hand, he knelt and kissed it.
Guido accompanied his guest to the court-yard, and in a few moments, the hoofs of the knight's charger were ringing upon the drawbridge of the castle.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE SIEGE.
Erwin was soon able to realize the devastations committed by the Emperor's army. In the place of smiling hamlets and rich villas, nothing could be seen but smoking ruins; the fruit-trees had been uprooted, the vines pulled up, the crops laid waste. Here and there were the bodies of peasants swinging from the trees, the ground was strewed with booty abandoned carelessly by the marauders. The plain once so green and smiling, appeared as sad and barren as a Russian steppe.