It was
too tight for him. And the old soldier burst into tears, when he found
he could not buckle it. Such a man was not fit to encounter the terrible
Rowski in single combat.
Nor could he hope to make head against him for any time in the field.
The Prince's territories were small; his vassals proverbially lazy and
peaceable; his treasury empty. The dismallest prospects were before him:
and he passed a sleepless night writing to his friends for succor, and
calculating with his secretary the small amount of the resources which
he could bring to aid him against his advancing and powerful enemy.
Helen's pillow that evening was also unvisited by slumber. She lay awake
thinking of Otto,--thinking of the danger and the ruin her refusal to
marry had brought upon her dear papa. Otto, too, slept not: but HIS
waking thoughts were brilliant and heroic: the noble Childe thought
how he should defend the Princess, and win LOS and honor in the ensuing
combat.
CHAPTER XII.
THE CHAMPION.
And now the noble Cleves began in good earnest to prepare his castle for
the threatened siege. He gathered in all the available cattle round the
property, and the pigs round many miles; and a dreadful slaughter of
horned and snouted animals took place,--the whole castle resounding with
the lowing of the oxen and the squeaks of the gruntlings, destined to
provide food for the garrison.
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