"I should hold it as my own," Conrad said. "Goldstein has destroyed Waldensturm. Waldensturm in turn captures Goldstein. I should appeal to the emperor, if the elector takes part against me, and shall offer to hold the fiefs of Goldstein and Waldensturm as the emperor's vassal. I know that he would grant it to me, and that, were the elector to besiege the castle he would lay his orders on some of the neighbouring princes, either Hesse or Luxembourg, to give me aid."
"Then in that case, count, you may reckon upon the aid of fully a hundred men. There is not only the hate against the baron and his followers, but the prospect of becoming your vassals instead of those of the baron; which would mean prosperity and happiness instead of being ground down by his unjust demands, and exposed to constant insults and injury from him and his. And now, my lord, I will call my daughter in, tell her your designs, and bid her not only to answer your questions, but to aid you by every means in her power."
Bertha was sent for; she was a pretty, modest-looking girl, but her face told of recent suffering.
"Bertha," her father said, "this is the Count von Waldensturm. He has returned home from the wars to rescue his sister, and I charge you to answer all his questions, and to aid him in every way to the best of your powers."
"That will I readily, for the young countess has been very kind to me, and we pity her deeply. She saved us from insult on the part of the baron's son, and she appealed to the baron himself to allow us to remain always with her, and not even to descend to the kitchens to fetch her food; and the baron, who evidently wishes to humour her in small matters, gave the order."
"That is just what I should have thought of Minna," Conrad said in a tone of deep pleasure. "Now, fräulein, in what part of the castle is my sister confined?"
"In a room in the north angle. It is some fifty feet from the courtyard into which it looks."
"Is the window barred?"