THE BEAUTIFUL CASTLE
"FATHER'S coming, father's coming," cried Bertha, as she ran down the
steps and out into the street.
Her father had been away for two days, and Hans had gone with him. They
had been to Heidelberg. Bertha and Gretchen had never yet visited that
city, although it was not more than twenty miles away.
"Oh, dear, I don't know where to begin," Hans told the girls that
evening.
"Of course, I liked to watch the students better than anything else.
The town seems full of them. They all study in the university, of
course, but they are on the streets a good deal. They seem to have a
fine time of it. Every one carries a small cane with a button on the
end of it. They wear their little caps down over their foreheads on one
side."
"What colour do they have for their caps, Hans?" asked Gretchen.
"All colours, I believe. Some are red, some blue, some yellow, some
green. Oh, I can't tell you how many different kinds there are. But
they were bright and pretty, and made the streets look as though it
must be a festival day."
"I have heard that the students fight a good many duels. Is that so,
Hans?"
"If you should see them, you would certainly think so. Many of the
fellows are real handsome, but their faces are scarred more often than
not.
"'The more scars I can show, the braver people will think I am.' That
is what the students seem to think. They get up duels with each other
on the smallest excuse. When they fight, they always try to strike the
face. Father says their duelling is good practice. It really helps to
make them brave. If I were a student, I should want to fight duels,
too."
Bertha shuddered. Duelling was quite the fashion in German
universities, but the little girl was very tender-hearted. She could
not bear to think of her brother having his face cut up by the sword of
any one in the world.
"What do you think, girls?" Hans went on. "Father had to go to the
part of the town nearest the castle. He said he should be busy for
several hours, and I could do what I liked. So I climbed up the hill to
the castle, and wandered all around it. I saw a number of English and
American people there. I suppose they had come to Heidelberg on purpose
to see those buildings.
"'Isn't it beautiful!' I heard them exclaim again and again. And I saw
a boy about my own age writing things about it in a note-book. He
told his mother he was going to say it was the most beautiful ruin in
Germany. He was an American boy, but he spoke our language. I suppose
he was just learning it, for he made ever so many mistakes. I could
hardly tell what he was trying to say."
"What did his mother answer?" asked Bertha.
"She nodded her head, and then pointed out some of the finest carvings
and statues. But she and her son moved away from me before long, and
then I found myself near some children of our country. They must
have been rich, for they were dressed quite grandly. Their governess
was with them. She told them to notice how many different kinds of
buildings there were, some of them richly carved, and some quite plain.
'You will find here palaces, towers, and fortresses, all together,' she
said. 'For, in the old days, it was not only a grand home, but it was
also a strong fortress.'"
[Illustration: COURTYARD OF HEIDELBERG CASTLE.]
"You know father told us it was not built all at once," said Gretchen.
"Different parts were added during four hundred years."
"Yes, and he said it had been stormed by the enemy, and burned and
plundered," added Bertha. "It has been in the hands of those horrid
Frenchmen several different times. Did you see the blown-up tower,
Hans?"
"Of course I did. Half of it, you know, fell into the moat during one
of the sieges, but linden-trees have grown about it, and it makes a
shady nook in which to rest one's self."
"You did not go inside of the castle, did you, Hans?" asked Gretchen.
"No. It looked so big and gloomy, I stayed outside in the pretty
gardens. I climbed over some of the moss-grown stairs, though, and I
kept discovering something I hadn't seen before. Here and there were
old fountains and marble statues, all gray with age."
"They say that under the castle are great, dark dungeons," said Bertha,
shivering at the thought.
"What would a castle be without dungeons?" replied her brother. "Of
course there are dungeons. And there are also hidden, underground
passages through which the people inside could escape in times of war
and siege."
"Oh, Hans! did you see the Heidelberg Tun?" asked Gretchen.
Now, the Heidelberg Tun is the largest wine-cask in the whole world.
People say that it holds forty-nine thousand gallons. Just think of it!
But it has not been filled for more than a hundred years.
"No, I didn't see it," replied Hans. "It is down in the cellar, and I
didn't want to go there without father. I heard some of the visitors
telling about the marks of the Frenchmen's hatchets on its sides. One
of the times they captured the castle, they tried to break open the
tun. They thought it was full of wine. But they did not succeed in
hacking through its tough sides."
"Good! Good!" cried his sisters. They had little love for France and
her people.
That evening, after Hans had finished telling the girls about his
visit, their father told them the legend of Count Frederick, a brave
and daring man who once lived in Heidelberg Castle.
Count Frederick was so brave and successful that he was called
"Frederick the Victorious."
Once upon a time he was attacked by the knights and bishops of the
Rhine, who had banded together against him. When he found what great
numbers of soldiers were attacking his castle, Count Frederick was not
frightened in the least. He armed his men with sharp daggers, and
marched boldly out against his foes.
They attacked the horses first of all. The daggers made short work, and
the knights were soon brought to the ground. Their armour was so heavy
that it was an easy matter then to make them prisoners and take them
into the castle.
But Frederick treated them most kindly. He ordered a great banquet to
be prepared, and invited his prisoners to gather around the board,
where all sorts of good things were served.
One thing only was lacking. There was no bread. The guests thought it
was because the servants had forgotten it, and one of them dared to
ask for a piece. Count Frederick at once turned toward his steward and
ordered the bread to be brought. Now his master had privately talked
with the steward and had told him what words to use at this time.
"I am very sorry," said the steward, "but there is no bread."
"You must bake some at once," ordered his master.
"But we have no flour," was the answer.
"You must grind some, then," was the command.
"We cannot do so, for we have no grain."
"Then see that some is threshed immediately."
"That is impossible, for the harvests have been burned down," replied
the steward.
"You can at least sow grain, that we may have new harvests as soon as
possible."
"We cannot even do that, for our enemies have burned down all the
buildings where the grain was stored for seed-time."
Frederick now turned to his visitors, and told them they must eat their
meat without bread. But that was not all. He told them they must give
him enough money to build new houses and barns to take the places of
those they had destroyed, and also to buy new seed for grain.
"It is wrong," he said, sternly, "to carry on war against those who
are helpless, and to take away their seeds and tools from the poor
peasants."
It was a sensible speech. It made the knights ashamed of the way they
had been carrying on war in the country, and they left the castle wiser
and better men.
All this happened long, long ago, before Germany could be called
one country, for the different parts of the land were ruled over by
different people and in different ways.
This same Count Frederick, their father told them, had great love for
the poor. When he was still quite young, he made a vow. He said, "I
will never marry a woman of noble family."
Not long after this, he fell in love with a princess. But he could not
ask her to marry him on account of the vow he had made.
He was so unhappy that he went into the army. He did not wish to live,
and hoped he would soon meet death.
But the fair princess loved Frederick as deeply as he loved her, and as
soon as she learned of the vow he had made, she made up her mind what
to do.
She put on the dress of a poor singing-girl, and left her grand home.
She followed Frederick from place to place. They met face to face one
beautiful evening. Then it was that the princess told her lover she had
given up her rank and title for his sake.
How joyful she made him as he listened to her story! You may be sure
they were soon married, and the young couple went to live in Heidelberg
Castle, where they were as happy and as merry as the day is long.