A temporal Emperor
and a vice-regent of Heaven upon earth, his hand was destined to hold
the invisible hilt of the Almighty's sword of vengeance. The words "I
will repay" were to reach their fulfillment through his action.
Notwithstanding his youth, or perhaps because of it, he was animated by
deep religious feeling, and this, rather than ambition, explained the
celerity with which he agreed to the proposals of the Archbishops.
The personage the prisoners saw standing on the rock-ledge of
Furstenberg was vastly different from the young man who, a comrade of
comrades, had departed from Frankfort in their company. They beheld him
plainly enough, for there was now no need of torches along the
foreshore; the night was crimson in its brilliancy, and down the hill
came a continuous roar, like that of the Rhine Fall seventy leagues
away.
Into this red glare the small boat and its four occupants entered, and
Roland saw with a smile that two well-filled casks formed its freight.
The bales were now aboard the barge again, and the Commander ordered the
crew to help the quartette in the small boat with the lifting of the
heavy barrels.
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