Angrily the knight rode away, declaring that he would return again in three days more. The time passed very slowly in the gloomy tower. In spite of the raven’s faithful visits, the girls became faint and weak from hunger.
On the sixth day Williswind was sitting at the window, watching eagerly for the bird’s return. Suddenly she saw the figure of a knight come from the thicket. As she looked at him, she saw that it was not the robber knight; his armor was entirely different. Hope came to her at once, and she called out loudly and waved her handkerchief through the bars.
The knight heard the call and turned in the direction of the tower. Williswind uttered a cry of rapture; it was her brother. In his haste to reach home as quickly as possible, he had taken this path through the forest.
Just at this moment the robber knight came riding up. Seeing Othmar he challenged him to fight. Down across the open space before the tower the two horses came, and met with a loud clash in the center. Othmar held his saddle, but the robber knight was stretched upon the ground.
Othmar was not a little surprised when he entered the old Castle to find that it was his beloved sister who had called to him from the tower. It was not long before Williswind was safe once more in the beautiful Castle of Stolzenfels.
Othmar was greatly pleased at the skill with which the raven had provided for his sister, so he adopted a new Coat-of-Arms, with the raven as his emblem, and set the little figure above the gate of the Castle, to tell to all the world the story of the faithful raven.
THE NIGHT OF THE STOLEN TREASURE
Little Hans and his mother were standing down by the Mummelsee. It was a big round sheet of water, surrounded by rocky slopes. On these grew dark pine trees, which cast their shadows far out into the water.