Otto of the Silver Hand - Howard Pyle




Afterword

[Illustration] from Otto of the Silver Hand by Howard Pyle

The ruins of Drachenhausen were rebuilt, for the walls were there as sound as ever, though empty and gaping to the sky; but it was no longer the den of a robber baron for beneath the scutcheon over the great gate was carved a new motto of the Vuelphs; a motto which the Emperor Rudolph himself had given:


"Manus argentea quam manus ferrea melior est"