“What means this outrage?” cried the Count, looking from one to the other.
“Thou art a traitor,” said Ludwig, “and must suffer the death of a traitor.”
Adalbert addressed himself to the Bishop.
“And thou,” he said, “thou gavest me thine oath that thou wouldst bring me in safety to Ehrenfels.”
“And did I not do so, fool?” replied Hatto contemptuously. “Was it my fault if thou didst not exact a pledge ere we set out for the second time?”
Adalbert saw now the trap into which he had fallen, and his fettered limbs trembled with anger against the crafty priest. But he was impotent.
“Away with him to the block!” said the Emperor.
“Amen,” sneered Hatto, still chuckling over the success of his strategy.
And so Adalbert went forth to his doom, the victim of the cruel Churchman’s treachery.
Rheingrafenstein