He shook his head. "I prefer to submit and to suffer," said he.
"Don't be a fool," whispered Praxedis. "First you built your castle on the glittering rain-bow, and now that it has all tumbled down, you will allow them to illtreat you, into the bargain? As if they had a right to drag you away and to flog you! And you will let them have the pleasure of witnessing your humiliation?... it would be a nice spectacle for them, to be sure! 'One does not see an honest man hung every day,' said a man to me once in Constantinople, when I asked him why he was running."
"Where should I go to?" asked Ekkehard.
"Neither to the Reichenau, nor to your monastery," said Praxedis. "There is still many a hiding-place left in this world." She was getting impatient, and seizing Ekkehard by the hand, she dragged him on. "Forwards!" whispered she. He allowed himself to be led.
They slunk past the sleeping watchman; and now they stood in the courtyard, where the fountain was splashing merrily. Ekkehard bent over the spout, and took a long draught of the cool water.
"All is over now," said he. "And now away!"
It was a stormy night. "As the bridge is drawn up, you cannot go out by the doorway;" said Praxedis, "but you can get down between the rocks, on the eastern side. Our shepherd-boy has tried that path before."
They entered the little garden. A gust of wind was rocking the branches of the maple-tree, to and fro. Ekkehard felt as if he were in a dream.
He mounted the battlement. Steep and rugged the grey rocks sloped into the valley, that now looked like a dark yawning abyss. Black clouds were chasing each other, along the dusky sky; weird uncouth shapes, resembling two bears pursuing a winged dragon. After a while, the fantastic forms united into one shapeless mass, which the wind drifted onwards towards the Bodensee, that glittered faintly in the distance. The whole landscape could only be seen in indistinct outlines.
"Blessings on your way," said Praxedis.