armed only with a sword--mine was still in its scabbard.

"It seemed to me that Theobald trembled, when I spoke to him of the love
of Jesus; but as soon as I had raised my shield, he became furious, and
seizing his sword with both hands, he urged his horse against mine, and
struck me on the head with all his force, so that I was overthrown and
my casque cleft by the blow.

"See in this, my father, the hand of God; for it was thus that he saved
my life. When I came to myself, I was in a cottage, in the midst of a
wood, and surrounded by three of my brethren, who had transported me
thither. My wound was stanched; I did not suffer much, and my soul was
in perfect peace. I was able to sleep a little towards the latter part
of this night--alas, so fatal for the unfortunate Theobald and his men!"

"To his men also?" asked Gottfried, almost betraying the secret of his
heart.

"Ah! the vengeance of our soldiers, I was told, was terrible! As soon as
they saw me fall, they threw themselves furiously upon the enemy.
Theobald, they said, was overwhelmed by numbers and killed in a thick
wood, whither he had fled. His troops were repulsed and routed, and
many lives lost; and about midnight a soldier came from one of the
chieftains, to tell us that they were about to seize on the fort of
Rothenwald.

"Then my heart was moved. I thought of the wife and children of the
unfortunate Theobald, and I entreated one of my brethren, a captain, in
great favor with his chieftain, to bear to the latter a letter which I
wrote, notwithstanding my great weakness, in which I earnestly