Brave Otto! thy exertions were
rewarded at last!
For he lighted at length upon the very apartment where Wolfgang had
partaken of supper, and where the old couple who had been in the
picture-frames, and turned out to be the lady's father and mother, were
now sitting at the table.
"Well, Bertha has got a husband at last," said the lady.
"After waiting four hundred and fifty-three years for one, it was quite
time," said the gentleman. (He was dressed in powder and a pigtail,
quite in the old fashion.)
"The husband is no great things," continued the lady, taking snuff. "A
low fellow, my dear; a butcher's son, I believe. Did you see how the
wretch ate at supper? To think my daughter should have to marry an
archer!"
"There are archers and archers," said the old man. "Some archers are
snobs, as your ladyship states; some, on the contrary, are gentlemen
by birth, at least, though not by breeding. Witness young Otto, the
Landgrave of Godesberg's son, who is listening at the door like a
lackey, and whom I intend to run through the--"
"Law, Baron!" said the lady.
"I will, though," replied the Baron, drawing an immense sword, and
glaring round at Otto: but though at the sight of that sword and that
scowl a less valorous youth would have taken to his heels, the undaunted
Childe advanced at once into the apartment.
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