"What's wrong, captain?" cried Kurzbold, getting on his feet again and
running aft.
"I fear, sir, 'tis an anchored chain."
"Can't you cut it?"
"That is impossible, mein Herr."
"Then get out your sweeps, and turn back. Where are we, do you think?"
"Under the battlements of Furstenberg Castle."
"Damnation! Put some speed into your men, and let us get away from
here."
The captain ordered his crew to hurry, but all their efforts could not
release the boat from the chain, against which it ground up and down
with a tearing noise, and even the un-nautical swordsmen saw that the
current was impelling it diagonally toward the shore, and all the while
the deep bell tolled on.
"What in the fiend's name is the meaning of that bell?" demanded
Kurzbold.
"It is the Castle bell, mein Herr," replied the captain.
Before Kurzbold could say anything more the air quivered with shout
after shout of laughter. Torches began to glisten among the trees, and
there was a clatter of horses' hoofs on the echoing rock.
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