The next morning Katrina, in a blue cotton frock, her golden hair
curled prettily, stood at the entrance to the castle. She was waiting
there to see the lady who had spoken to her of Saint Elizabeth. Her
father said the lady had told him she would come. In the child’s hands
was a bunch of crimson roses gathered from the bush just outside the
gates.
Katrina had not been there long when she heard the sound of wheels,
and, looking down, she saw a carriage in which were two ladies and a
gentleman, being driven slowly up the Wartburg hill. One of the ladies
was she for whom Katrina had stood waiting, and the little girl felt
her heart beat faster and faster, as she saw the three visitors step
from the carriage and make their way up toward the castle.
“Ah, you are here again, my dear,” the lady said, as she came upon
Katrina standing at the gate. “I am very glad to see you, but we shall
not be satisfied to-day to leave you outside; you must come into the
castle with us.”
But at that moment Katrina’s thoughts were upon her roses, and the
purpose for which they had been gathered.
“These are for you, _gnadige frau_,” Katrina said, her voice trembling
with a sudden childish fear, and she held out her lovely crimson
offering toward the lady.
“The roses of Saint Elizabeth!” the lady murmured, as she took them in
her hand. “How beautiful they are, and how good you are, my child, to
give them to me.”
Again Katrina caught the name “Saint Elizabeth”; but why the lady
should have called them “the roses of Saint Elizabeth” Katrina did not
understand.
“You must come with me to the Elizabethan Gallery,” the lady went on to
say. “I want to show you the pictures there. You will see these same
beautiful crimson roses and learn a lesson from them.”
“Won’t you please tell me what the lesson is?” asked Katrina, very
softly.
The lady looked into the great searching eyes and answered: “They will
teach you that under the power of love, or goodness, even the simplest,
homeliest thing may be transformed, that is to say changed, into a
thing of beauty. This picture of which I speak represents Elizabeth
on her errands of mercy. She is carrying a basket of food to the poor
of Eisenach when her husband meets her on the way. He wishes to know
what she carries in her basket, and lifts the top to see. On looking
in he beholds, not bread, with which she had started on her way, but
exquisite and fragrant crimson roses,--such roses, my dear, as these.”
With this the speaker stooped and kissed Katrina on the forehead; while
at the same moment the child caught sight of a small, silver Maltese
cross shining on the lady’s breast.
“Now, Katrina, we must not keep the others waiting. Come with me;
I want my good friends over here to know such a dear little castle
maiden.” Whereupon the lady led the way to where her two companions
stood. Both Mrs. Shaler and her son, when Katrina was introduced, and
made them a quaint and pretty curtsy, showed much pleasure; while
the former whispered something about the dear, old-fashioned child.
To the little girl’s delight, she found that all three of her new
acquaintances spoke her own language well. They had spent several
years in Germany, and Mr. Robert Shaler had only lately taken a degree
at Leipsic.
“You will go with us, won’t you, dear? Your father will be willing, I
am sure.” The lady, as she spoke, looked questioningly toward Rudolf,
who, with a bunch of keys swinging in his hand, had just come out to
meet them and show them through the castle.
“But Fritz!” the child protested as her father, having given his
consent, selected one of the keys, with which he unlocked the iron
gates.
“Who is Fritz?” the lady asked.
“He’s my comrade,” replied Katrina; “and he has waited a long, long
time to see the castle. He’s had so many chances; but he said he
wouldn’t go inside until I could see it with him. What would he think
if I should go without him!”
“Then, if you and Fritz have agreed to go together, you must surely
carry out your promise; so we will take him with us.”
“But Fritz isn’t here,” and there was a look of distress in the child’s
usually sunny face. “He lives down there in Eisenach.”
At this point Robert Shaler offered a suggestion; he would go in the
carriage and bring Fritz back with him.
“If it wouldn’t put you to any inconvenience,” Rudolf said, “I might
drive down and get the lad myself. I would like to ask how his father
is; he was injured yesterday in a wreck. Here, Hans, take my place,”
and Rudolf, the visitors having assented readily to his wish, handed
the bunch of keys to a young assistant who had come in answer to his
signal.
“But,” said Katrina’s friend, “we prefer to wait until you return with
Fritz; for we must all go in together. Katrina shall have her wish.”
“We can entertain ourselves out here in the courtyard,” Mrs. Shaler
said, after Rudolf had driven off; “there is almost as much to interest
one outside as inside these ancient strongholds.”
Then after looking at the old drawbridge, and other relics of that
feudal past, they all sat down upon the outer wall to enjoy the
beautiful panorama far below them.