IV
THE DISTURBING JOURNEY OF FATHER AMBROSE
The setting summer sun shone full on the western side of Sayn Castle,
sending the shadow of that tenth-century edifice far along the
greensward of the upper valley. Upon a balcony, perched like a swallow's
nest against the eastern end of Sayn Castle, a lovely girl of eighteen
leaned, meditating, with arms resting on the balustrade, the harshness
of whose stone surface was nullified by the soft texture of a
gaudily-covered robe flung over it. This ample cloth, brought from the
East by a Crusading ancestor of the girl, made a gay patch of scarlet
and gold against the somber side of the Castle.
The youthful Countess Hildegunde von Sayn watched the slow oncoming of a
monk, evidently tired, who toiled along the hillside deep in the shadow
of the Castle, as if its cool shade was grateful to him. Belonging, as
he did, to the very practical Order of the Benedictines, whose belief
was in work sanctioned by prayer, the Reverend Father did not deny
himself this temporary refuge from the hot rays of the sun, which had
poured down upon him all day.
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