He had tamed him, whispered he to the old woman,--he had tamed the boy with a single word.
At any future wantonness of Otto's, gravity and terror would immediately return should any one ask him, What word did the German Heinrich whisper into thy ear?
"Only ask him," had Heinrich said.
In a perfectly natural manner there lay, truly, enchantment in Heinrich's words, even although it were not that enchantment which the superstition of the old woman would have signified.

A revelation of the connection of affairs would have removed her doubts, but here an explanation was impossible to Otto.

He pressed her hand, besought her to be calm; no sorrow lay heavy on his heart, except the loss of his dear grandfather.
"Every evening have I named your name it my prayers," said the old grandmother.

"Each time when the harbingers of bad weather showed themselves, and my sons were on the sea, so that we hung out flags or lighted beacons as signals, did I think of the words which had escaped my lips, and which the wicked Heinrich had caught up; I feared lest our Lord might cause my children to suffer for my injustice." "Be calm, my dear old woman!" said Otto.

"Keep for yourself the holy cross, on the virtue of which you rely; may it remove each sorrow from your own heart!" "No, I am guilty of my own sorrow! yours has a stranger laid upon your heart! Only the sorrow of the guiltless will the cross bear." The beautiful sentiment which, unconsciously to her, lay in these words, affected Otto.