“Ye were meant for one another, my children,” he said philosophically; “therefore it is not for man to separate you. I will marry you at once, and I know a place where you may safely hide for a season.”
It was nearing midnight on the eve of the day fixed for Rheinhard’s return, so there was no time to be lost. The three repaired to the chapel, where the marriage was at once solemnized. Taking a basket of bread, meat, and wine, a lamp, and some other necessaries, the old man conducted the newly married pair through a subterranean passage to a cavern in the rock whereon the castle stood, a place known only to himself. Then, having blessed them, he withdrew.
Early on the following morning came the baron and his train, with the noble knight chosen as a husband for Etelina.
Rheinhard looked in vain for his daughter among the crowd of retainers who waited to welcome him. “Where is my little maid?” he asked.
The chaplain answered evasively. The damsel was ill abed, he replied. When the noble lord had refreshed himself he should see her.
Directly the repast was over he hastened to his daughter’s apartment, only to find her flown! Dismayed and angry, he rushed to the chaplain and demanded an explanation. The good old man, after a vain attempt to soothe his irate patron, revealed all—all, that is, save the place where the fugitives were concealed, and that he firmly refused to divulge. The priest was committed to the lowest dungeon, a vile den to which access could only be got by means of a trap-door and a rope.
With his own hands the baron swung to the massive trap, swearing a deep oath.
“If I forgive my daughter, or any of her accomplices, may I die suddenly where I now stand, and may my soul perish for ever!”
The disappointed bridegroom soon returned to his own land, and the baron, whose increasing moroseness made him cordially hated by his attendants, was left to the bitterness of his thoughts.
Meanwhile Rudolph and his bride had escaped unseen from the castle rock and now dwelt in the forests skirting the Seven Mountains. While the summer lasted all went well with them; they, and the little son who was born to them, were content with the sustenance the forest afforded. But in the winter all was changed. Starvation stared them in the face. More and more pitiful became their condition, till at length Rudolph resolved to seek the baron, and give his life, if need be, to save his wife and child.