The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1912-01-30

edge and my profession is diplomacy
I have neither taste for arms nor
time to perfect myself in their use
Nevertheless | shall avail myself OF
my only chance"
Although those were rough times
and Bertha was a real, not a sham,
| fighter, she did not mean by wearing
the ruby that the man who would win
her must stab her In the heart. 1t
was intended to give notice that he
must be sufficiently skillful to do SO.
She told Count Hubert that he must
place the point Of his rapier upon the
ruby, leaving him to infer that II he
went further he would kill her. The
count was appalled, and ready to fore
90 the trial. but Bertha egged him on,
saying that she felt perfect confidence
In being able to protect herself. Be
side himself with a love which he
must take so great a risk to crafty,
he consented to the meeting, declaring
that If through a mishap he killed her
he would plunge his weapon into his
own heart.
From the staircase Bertha went to
her room, where she dressed herself in
fencing costume, and instead Of the
ruby on her heart she wore a heart
made of red silk, a much better tar
get than the jewel. Rejoining Count
Hubert, the two went to the armory,
where, taking up swords that had al
ready been used In such encounters,
they put themselves In fencing posi-
lions.
Now the count, as has been said,
was no swordsmai4, but a diplomat.
Knowing that II he won at all 1t must
be by diplomacy, he sought a plan
that would bring him success by a
ruse. But no plan suggested itself
except one fraught with danger, and
he was loath to use it. For an hour he
fenced with his antagonist, hoping to
tire her out. but at the end Of that
time she seemed as fresh as ever.
while he had lost strength. Then he
determined, as a last resort, to put
into practice his stratagem. Pressing
his antagonist holly, he forced her to
assume the defensive. and when she
did 30, their swords being crossed, he
guided the point OF hers into a feshy
part Of his right side.
Bertha, horror stricken, withdrew
her sword, then dropped it. Hubert
stood immovable till he heard the
weapon rattle on the floor. then, taking
his own sword by the blade. made n
lunge and touched the red heart on her
breast with It's hilt. Flinging his weap-
on away, he cried exultingly:
II have won"
Gummoning assistance, Bertha had
the count. who was weak from loss of
blood. carried to his room. A surgeon
was called, but since in those days
there was no remedy except blood let
ting and the patient had quite enough
Of that there was nothing to do but
bind up the wound.
One Of the counts escort, hearing
that his leader had been stabbed, rush
ed into the room where Bertha was
bending over the wounded man, seeing
MS cOnoltlOn, shouted:
"Treasonl The prince has been as
sassinated."
"The princew exclaimed Bertha.
aghast.
Eyes, the prince-the crown prince"
Peace" said the wounded man. ~
have not been assassinated. have
met with an accident In play"
And thus 1t came out that Count HUI
bert was the crown prince, who incog-
nito was making tour with view to
assembling force to meet the king of
Sweden, who had just declared war
Bertha sent at once messenger to her
father urging him to return and When
he came announced that she was be
trothed to the heir to kingdom. When
the baron learned this he was SO pleas
ed that he was ready to forego plum
dering luckless merchants and march
himself at the head of double the force
that the king had asked for.
Baron Eidenreid never returned to
his castle, for he was killed In the war
and his daughter had no need Of her
former home, because she became
crown princess and afterward queen.
So the castle fell gradually into decay
which was perhaps just as well for the
traflc ON the Rhine below. At any
rate there were no more customs COL
Iectors shooting out from the mouth Of
the stream beneath the stronghold.