One morning Hulda stood by the window, looking out over the woods at the sunlight on the river. Suddenly she gave an excited cry. “Some horsemen are riding up the Rhine road!” she exclaimed. “They are coming this way.”
Willeswind flew to the casement and watched as they drew near. Straight along the forest path they advanced, so close that the watchers could see their faces.
“Oh!” cried the lady of Stolzenfels. “It is Othmar and his men. The war is over and they are coming home.”
She called loudly, waving her handkerchief between the grating, and Othmar saw and heard. “We are up here, prisoners in the tower!” she shouted, as he galloped nearer. And a minute later the Stolzenfels men were battering at the castle gate.
“For your mistress, comrades!” called Rupert the forester’s son, as he led the charge.
The robber baron knew the Stolzenfels force was too strong for him to hold out against, for with right on their side they had even greater strength. He surrendered, and the captives were freed.
The Stolzenfels towers never looked as fair to their owners, as when on the return they beheld them through the trees. It was a joyful homecoming to both lord and vassal, and to the raven, for he flew in and out of its windows as if overcome with gladness. Othmar watched its joyous flight with a smile.
“We will always keep the bird,” he said, “for it saved you from the baron’s power.”
And they did keep it until it died. Then, in memory of its service, they placed its stone image on the castle gate and carved its likeness on the Stolzenfels shield.
Centuries passed. The robber bands that had been the terror of the Rhine valley became a part of the past, and Castle Stolzenfels fell into decay, for hundreds of years being one of the noblest ruins on the river. Then the German emperor restored it. He rebuilt the crumbling towers and bastions where bats made their nests, furnished it after the fashion of long ago, and today it is a favorite summer home of the imperial family. And still on the outer gate a stone raven stands, and to all who know the Rhine stories it speaks eloquently of that olden time when knights were bold, and of a gratitude offering made by the forester’s son to the daughter of the castle.