You will quibble no longer concerning tithes and tolls with Casimir of the Wolfmark." And the Duke lifted his hand and smote the man on the cheek with his open hand.
Yet the captive only hushed the child that wailed aloud to see her guardian smitten.
He looked Duke Casimir steadfastly in the eyes and spoke no word.
"Great God, man, have you nothing to say to me ere you die ?" cried Duke Casimir, choked with hot, sudden anger to be so crossed.
The elder man gazed steadily at his captor.
"God will judge betwixt me, a man about to die, and you, Casimir of the Wolfmark," he said at last, very slowly--"by the eyes of this little maid He will judge!" "Like enough," cried Casimir, sneeringly.

"Bishop Peter hath told me as much.

But then God's payments are long deferred, and, so far as I can see, I can take Him into my own hand.

And your little maid--pah! since one day you took from me the mother, I, in my turn, will take the daughter and make her a titbit for the teeth of my blood-hounds." The man answered not again, but only hushed and fondled the little one.
Duke Casimir turned quickly to my father, showing his long teeth like a snarling dog: "Take the child," he said, "and cast her into the kennels before the man's eyes, that he may learn before he dies to dread more than God's Judgment Seat the vengeance of Duke Casimir!" Then all the men-at-arms turned away, heart-sick at the horror.

But the man with the child never blanched.
High perched on the top tower, I also heard the words and loved the maid.
And they tell me (though I do not remember it) that I cried down from the leads of the Red Tower: "My father, save the little maid and give her to me--or else I, Hugo Gottfried, will cast myself down on the stones at your feet!" At which all the men looked up and saw me in white, a small, lonely figure, with my legs hanging over the top of the wall.
"Go back!" my father shouted.