Part One: Count Eberhard von Alderstein was one of the robber barons who flourished in Europe during the Middle Ages. He was cruel and lawless, plundered the merchants who passed his castle, and cared for no one, except his little sister, Ermyntrude. The child fell sick and the Eagle sent a retainer to the valley below to get a nurse to care for the little one. The man returned with Christine, a young village girl, famed alike for her beauty and virtue. She cared for Ermyntrude tenderly, but in vain, and when she returned to her home in the valley the Eagle was desolate, for he had learned to love the nurse. Her gentle influence had caused him to look with abhorrence on his former ways, and the merchants now passed his castle without fear, for the Eagle "soared no more for prey." The Eagle sought out the village girl in her home and asked her to be his wife, and because Christine had learned to love the baron, she consented gladly, and returned with him to the castle. Part Two: Twin sons blessed the union of Eberhard von Alderstein and Christine, the village maid, and the Eagle spent all of his time about the castle in the happy companionship of his wife and sons. But at last a summons came from the king, commanding the Eagle to follow him to war. The Eagle complied, and in a skirmish was captured by a baron enemy, and consigned to the galleys as a slave. The victorious baron forced his way into the Eagle's castle, and falsely telling the Dove that her husband was dead, tried to make her marry him. But the Dove, true to her husband, believed that he would return to her and patiently awaited his return. The Eagle's enemy occupied the castle with his troops, and one day an opportunity presented itself which would have rid the Dove of him forever, if she had cared to avail herself of it. One of her retainers came to her and whispered that as the enemy passed over the oubliette (which was the prison of the castle), he would press a secret lever and the baron would plunge to his death in the room below. The Dove, knowing her pleading could not move her retainer from his purpose, sent her twin sons with the baron, and the Eagle's enemy escaped an awful death, for the retainer could not permit the young nobles to share the fate of their father's enemy. In the end, aided by the retainer, the Eagle made his escape from the galleys and went to the instant relief of his wife and children.