XVI

The Countess [tha
F

N the days of King Coceur-de-Lion the
good Count Hartmann ruled in Kirch-
berg in the happy Swabian land. And never
had that fair land been happier than it was
in those days, for the Count was a devout
Christian, a lover of peace in the midst of
warlike and rapacious barons, and a ruler
just and merciful to his vassals. Among
the green and pleasant hills on his domain
he had founded a monastery for the monks
of St. Benedict, and thither he often rode
with his daughter Itha, the delight of his
heart and the light of the grim old castle of
the Kirchberg ; so that, seeing the piety of
her father, she grew up in the love and fear
of God, and from her gentle mother she
learned to feel a deep compassion for the
poor and afflicted.
No sweeter maid than she, with her blue
eyes and light brown hair, was there in all