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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/5549.txt b/5549.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3007c94 --- /dev/null +++ b/5549.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2787 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook In The Fire Of The Forge, by Georg Ebers, v7 +#110 in our series by Georg Ebers + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: In The Fire Of The Forge, Volume 7. + +Author: Georg Ebers + +Release Date: April, 2004 [EBook #5549] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on July 26, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIRE OF THE FORGE, BY EBERS, V7 *** + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + + + +IN THE FIRE OF THE FORGE + +A ROMANCE OF OLD NUREMBERG + +By Georg Ebers + +Volume 7. + + + +CHAPTER X. + +A few minutes later the sisters left the Town Hall. Their white Rieses +were wound so closely about their faces that their features were +completely hidden, but the thin material permitted them to see Herr +Vorchtel, leaning upon the arm of the young burgomaster, Hans Nutzel, +leave the Council chamber, where the other Honourables were still +deliberating. Pointing to the old man, the city clerk told Els with a +significant smile that Ursula Vorchtel was engaged to the talented, +attractive young merchant now walking with her father, and that he had +promised Herr Vorchtel to aid him and his younger son in the management +of his extensive business. This was a great pleasure to the noble old +merchant, and when he, the city clerk, met Ursula that morning, spite of +her deep mourning, she again looked out upon the world like the happy +young creature she was. Her new joy had greatly increased her beauty, +and her lover was the very person to maintain it. Herr Schedel thought +it would be pleasant news to Els, too. The young girl pressed his hand +warmly; for these good tidings put the finishing touch to the glad +tidings she had just heard. The reproach which, unjust as it might be, +had spoiled many an hour for Wolff and entailed such fatal consequences, +was now removed, and to her also "Ursel's" altered manner had often +seemed like a silent accusation. She felt grateful, as if it were a +personal joy, for the knowledge that the girl who had believed herself +deserted by Wolff, her own lover, was now a happy betrothed bride. + +Ursula's engagement removed a burden from Eva's soul, too, only she did +not understand how a girl whose heart had once opened to a great love +could ever belong to anyone else. Els understood her; nay, in Ursula's +place she would have done the same, if it were only to weave a fresh +flower in her afflicted father's fading garland of joy. + +The city clerk accompanied them to the great entrance door of the Town +Hall. + +Several jailers and soldiers in the employ of the city were standing +there, and whilst their old friend was promising to do his utmost to +secure Ernst Ortlieb's liberation and recommending the girls to the +protection of one of the watchmen, Eva's cheeks flushed; for a messenger +of the Council had just approached the others, and she heard him utter +the name of Sir Heinz Schorlin and his follower Walther Biberli. Els +listened, too, but whilst her sister in embarrassment pressed her hand +upon her heart, she frankly asked the city clerk what had befallen the +knight and his squire, who was betrothed to her maid. She heard that at +the last meeting of the Council an order had been issued for Biberli's +arrest. + +His name must have been brought up during the discussions of the slanders +which had so infamously pursued the Ortlieb sisters, but she could not +enquire how or in what connection, for the sun was already low in the +western sky, and if the girls wished to see their father there was no +time to lose. + +Yet, though Katterle had just said that Countess von Montfort was waiting +outside in her great sedan-chair for the young ladies, they were still +detained, for they would not leave the Town Hall without thanking the +city clerk and saying farewell to him. He was still near, but the +captain of the city soldiers had drawn him aside and was telling him +something which seemed to permit no delay, and induced the old gentleman +to glance at the sisters repeatedly. + +Eva did not notice it; for Biberli's arrest, which probably had some +connection with Heinz and herself, had awakened a series of anxious +thoughts associated with her lover and his faithful follower. Els +troubled herself only about the events occurring in her immediate +vicinity, and felt perfectly sure that the captain's communications +referred not only to the four itinerant workmen and the three women who +had just been led across the courtyard to the "Hole," and to whom the +speaker pointed several times, but especially to her and her sister. + +When the city clerk at last turned to them again, he remarked carelessly +that a disagreeable mob in front of the Ortlieb mansion had been +dispersed, and then, with urgent cordiality, invited the two girls to +spend the night under the protection of his old housekeeper. When they +declined, he assured them that measures would be taken to guard them +from every insult. He had something to tell their uncle, and the +communication appeared to permit no delay, for with a haste very unusual +in the deliberate old gentleman he left the two sisters with a brief +farewell. + +Meanwhile Countess Cordula had become weary of waiting in the sedan- +chair. She came striding to meet her new friends, attired in a rustling +canary-green silk robe whose train swept the ground, but it was raised so +high in front that the brown hunting-boots encasing her well-formed feet +were distinctly visible. She was swinging her heavy riding-whip in her +hand, and her favourite dogs, two black dachshunds with yellow spots over +their eyes, followed at her heels. + +As it was against the rules to bring dogs into the Town Hall, the +doorkeeper tried to stop her, but without paying the slightest attention +to him, she took Els by the hand, beckoned to Eva, and was turning to +leave the path leading to the market-place. + +In doing so her eyes fell upon the courtyard, where, just after the Ave +Maria, a motley throng had gathered. Here, guarded by jailers, stood +vagabonds and disreputable men and women, sham blind beggars and +cripples, swindlers, and other tatterdemalions, who had been caught in +illegal practices or without the beggar's sign. In another spot, dark- +robed servants of the Council were discussing official and other matters. +Near the "Hole" a little party of soldiers were resting, passing from +hand to hand the jug of wine bestowed by the Honourable Council. The +"Red Coat"--[Executioner]--was giving orders to his "Life"-- +[Executioner's assistant ("Lion")]--as they carried across the courtyard +a new instrument of torture intended for the room adjoining the Council +chamber, where those who refused to make depositions were forced to it. +In a shady corner sat old people, poorly clad women, and pale-faced +children, the city poor, who at this hour received food from the kitchen +of the Town Hall. A few priests and monks were going into the wing of +the building which contained the "Hole," with its various cells and the +largest chamber of torture, to give the consolations of religion to the +prisoners and those tortured by the rack who had not yet been conveyed +to the hospital at Schweinau. + +The countess's keen glance wandered from one to another. When they +reached the group of paupers they rested upon a woman with deadly pale, +hollow cheeks, pressing a pitifully emaciated infant to her dry breast, +and her eyes swiftly filled with tears. + +"Here," she whispered to old Martsche, taking several gold coins from the +pocket that hung at her belt, "give these to the poorest ones. You are +sensible. Divide it so that several will have a share and the money will +reach the right hands. You can take your time. We need neither you nor +Katterle. Go back to the house. I will carry your young mistresses to +their father and home again. Where I am you need have no fear that harm +will befall them." + +Then she turned again towards the "Hole," and seeing the people yelling +and shouting while awaiting imprisonment, she pointed to them with her +whip, saying, "That's a part of the pack which was set upon you. You +shall hear about it presently. But now come." + +As she spoke she went before the girls and urged them to step quickly +into the large, handsome sedan-chair, around which an unusual number of +people had assembled, for she wished to avoid any recognition of the +sisters by the curious spectators. The gilded box, borne between two +powerful Brabant horses in such a way that it hung between the tail of +the first and the head of the second, would have had room for a fourth +occupant. + +When it moved forward, swaying from side to side, Cordula pointed to the +curtained windows, and said: "Shameful, isn't it? But it is better so, +children. That arch-rascal Siebenburg robbed the people of the little +sense they possessed, and that cat of a candle-dealer, with her mate, the +tailor, or rather his followers, poisoned the minds of the rest. How +quickly it worked! Goodness, it seems to me, acts more slowly. True, +your hot-tempered father spoiled the old rascal's inclination to woo +pretty Metz for a while; but his male and female gossips, aunts, cousins, +and work-people apparently allowed themselves to be persuaded by his +future mother-in-law to the abominable deed, which caused the brawling +rabble you saw in the Town Hall court to content themselves with a hard +couch in the 'Hole' overnight." + +"They have done everything bad concerning us, though I don't know exactly +what," cried Els indignantly. + +"Wished to do, Miss Wisdom," replied the countess, patting Els's arm +soothingly. "We kept our eyes open, and I helped to put a stop to their +proceedings. The rabble gathered in front of your house, yelling and +shrieking, and when I stepped into your bow-window there was as great +an outcry as if they were trying to bring down the walls of Jericho a +second time. Some boys even flung at me everything they could find in +the mire of the streets. The most delightful articles! There was +actually a dead rat! I can see its tail flying now! Our village lads +know how to aim better. Before the worst came, by the advice of the +equerry and our wise chaplain, whom I consulted, we had done what was +necessary, and summoned the guard at the Frauenthor to our assistance. +But the soldiers were in no great haste; so when matters were going too +far, I stepped into the breach myself, called down to tell them my name, +and also showed my crossbow with an arrow on the string. This had an +effect. Only a few women still continued to load me with horrible abuse. +Then the chaplain came to the window and this restored silence; but, in +spite of his earnest words, not a soul stirred from the spot until the +patrol arrived, dispersed the rabble, and arrested some of them." + +Els, who sat by Cordula's side, drew her towards her and kissed her +gratefully; but Eva's eyes had filled with tears of grief at the +beginning of the countess's report of this new insult, and the hostility +of so many of the townsfolk; yet she succeeded in controlling herself. +She would not weep. She had even forced herself to gaze, without the +quiver of an eyelash, at the sorrowful and horrible spectacle outside of +the "Hole." She must cease being a weak child. How true her dying +mother's words had been! To be able to struggle and conquer, she must +not withdraw from life and its influences, which, if she did not spare +herself, promised to transform her into the resolute woman she desired to +become. + +She had listened with labouring breath to the speaker's last words, and +when Els embraced Cordula, she raised her little clenched hand, +exclaiming with passionate emotion: "Oh, if I had only been at home with +you! You are brave, Countess, but I, too, would not have shrunk from +them. I would voluntarily have made myself the target for their malice, +and called to their faces that only miserably deluded people or shameless +rascals could throw stones at my Els, who is a thousand times better than +any of them!" + +"Or at you, you dear, brave child," added Cordula in an agitated tone. + +From the day following the burning of the convent the countess had given +up her whim of winning Heinz Schorlin. She now knew that all her nobler +feelings spoke more loudly in favour of the quiet man who had borne her +out of the flames. Sir Boemund Altrosen's love had proved genuine, and +she would reward him for it; but the heart of the pretty creature +opposite to her was also filled with deep, true love, and she would do +everything in her power for Eva, whom she had loved ever since her +affliction had touched her tender heart. + +Both sisters were now aware of Cordula's kind intentions, and the warm +pleasure she displayed when Els told her what the Council had determined, +showed plainly enough that the motherless young countess, who had neither +brother nor sister, clung to the daughters of her host like a third +sister. Old Herr Vorchtel's treatment of the man who had inflicted so +deep a sorrow upon him touched her inmost soul. It was grand, noble; the +Saviour himself would have rejoiced over it. "If it would only please +the good old man," she exclaimed, "I would rather offer him my lips to +kiss than the handsomest young knight." + +Though two of Count von Montfort's mounted huntsmen and several +constables accompanied the unusually large and handsome sedan-chair, +a curious crowd had followed it; but the opinion probably prevailed that +the countess's companions were some of her waiting-women. When they +alighted in front of the watch-tower, however, an elderly laundry-maid +who had worked for the Ortliebs recognised the sisters and pointed them +out to the others, protesting that it was hard for a woman of her chaste +spirit to have served in a house where such things could have happened. +Then a tailor's apprentice, who considered the whole of the guild +insulted in the wounded Meister Seubolt, put his fingers to his wide +mouth and emitted a long, shrill whistle; but the next instant a blow +from a powerful fist silenced him. It was young Ortel, who had come to +the watch-tower to seek Herr Ernst and tell him that he and his sister +Metz, spite of their mother and guardian, meant to stay in his service. +His heart's blood would not have been too dear to guard Eva, whom he +instantly recognised, from every insult; but he had no occasion to use +his youthful strength a second time, for the soldiers who guarded the +tower and the city mercenaries drove back the crowd and kept the square +in front of the tower open. + +The countess would not be detained long, for the sun had already sunk +behind the towers and western wall of the fortress, and the reflection of +the sunset was tinging the eastern sky with a roseate hue. The warden +really ought to have refused them admittance, for the time during which +he was permitted to take visitors to the imprisoned "Honourable" had +already passed. But for the daughters of Herr Ernst Ortlieb, to whom he +was greatly indebted, he closed his eyes to this fact, and only entreated +them to make their stay brief, for the drawbridge leading to the tower +must be raised when darkness gathered. + +The young girls found their father, absorbed in grief as if utterly +crushed, seated at a table on which stood a leaden inkstand with several +sheets of paper. He still held the pen in his hand. + +He received his daughters with the exclamation, "You poor, poor +children!" But when Els tried to tell him what had given her so much +pleasure, he interrupted her to accuse himself, with deep sorrow, of +having again permitted sudden passion to master him. Probably this was +the last time; such experiences would cool even the hottest blood. Then +he began to relate what had induced him to raise his hand against the +tailor, and as, in doing so, he recalled the insolent hypocrite's +spiteful manner, he again flew into so violent a rage that the blow which +he dealt the table made the ink splash up and soil both the paper lying +beside it and his own dress, still faultlessly neat even in prison. This +caused fresh wrath, and he furiously crushed the topmost sheet, already +half covered with writing, and hurled it on the floor. + +Not until Els stooped to pick it up did he calm himself, saying, with a +shrug of the shoulders, "Who can remain unmoved when the whirlwind of +despair seizes him? When a swarm of hornets attacks a horse, and it +rears, who wonders? And I--What stings and blows has Fate spared me?" +Els ventured to speak soothingly to him, and remind him of God, and the +saints to whom he had made such generous offerings in building the +convent; but this awakened an association, and he asked if it were true +that Eva had refused to take the veil. + +She made a silent gesture of assent, expecting another outburst of anger; +but her father only shook his head sorrowfully, clasped her right hand in +both his, and said sadly: "Poor, poor child! But she, she--your mother-- +would probably----The last words her dear lips bestowed upon us concerned +you, child, and I believe their meaning----" + +Here the warden interrupted him to remind the girls that it was time to +depart; but whilst Els was begging the man for a brief delay, Herr Ernst +looked first at the paper and writing materials, then at his daughters, +and added with quiet decision: "Before you go, you must hear that, in +spite of everything, I did not wholly lose courage, but began to act." + +"That is right, dear father," exclaimed Els, and told him briefly and +quickly what the Council had decided, how warmly old Berthold Vorchtel +had interceded for Wolff, and that the management of the business was to +be confided solely to him. + +These tidings swiftly and powerfully revived the fading hopes of the +sorely stricken man. He drew up his short figure as if the vigour of +youth had returned, declaring that he now felt sure that this first star +in the dark night would soon be followed by others. "It will now be your +Wolff's opportunity," he exclaimed, "to make amends for much that Fate +But I was commencing something else. Give me that bit of crumpled paper. +I'll look at it again early to-morrow morning; it is a letter to the +Emperor I was composing. Your brother ought not to have given up his +young life on the battlefield for the Crown in vain. He owes me +compensation for the son, you for the brother. He is certainly a fair- +minded man, and therefore will not shut his ears to my complaint. Just +wait, children! And you, my devout Eva, pray to your saint that the +petition, which concerns you also, may effect what I expect." + +"And what is that?" asked Eva anxiously. "That the wrong done you, you +poor, deceived child, shall be made good," replied Herr Ernst with +imperious decision. + +Eva clasped his hand, pleading warmly and tenderly: "By all that you hold +dear and sacred, I beseech you, father, not to mention me and Sir Heinz +Schorlin in your letter. If he withdrew his love from me, no imperial +decree--" + +The veins on the Councillor's brow again swelled with wrath, and though +he did not burst into a passion, he exclaimed in violent excitement: +"A nobleman who declares his love to a chaste Nuremberg maiden of noble +birth assumes thereby a duty which, if unfulfilled, imposes a severe +punishment upon him. This just punishment, at least, the tempter shall +not escape. The Emperor, who proclaimed peace throughout the land and +cleared the highways of the bands of robbers, will consider it his first +duty--" + +Here the warden interrupted him by calling from the threshold of the room +that the draw-bridge would be raised and the young ladies must follow him +without delay. + +Eva again besought her father not to enter an accusation against the +knight, and Els warmly supported her sister; but their brief, ardent +entreaty produced no effect upon the obstinate man except, after he had +pressed a farewell kiss upon the brows of both, to tell them with +resolute dignity that the night would bring counsel, and he was quite +sure that this time, as usual, he should pursue the right course for the +real good of his dear children. + +Hitherto Herr Ernst had indeed proved himself a faithful and prudent head +of his family, but this time his daughters left him with heavy, anxious +hearts. + +Fear of her father's intention tortured Eva like a new misfortune, and +Els and the countess also hoped that the petition would go without the +accusation against Heinz. + +Whilst the sedan-chair was bearing the girls home few words were +exchanged. Not until they approached the Frauenthor did they enter into +a more animated conversation, which referred principally to Biberli and +the question whether the Honourable Council would call Katterle to +account also, and what could be done to save both from severe punishment. +Cordula had drawn aside the curtain on the right and was gazing into the +street, apparently from curiosity, but really with great anxiety. But +Herr Pfinzing had done his part, and with the exception of several +soldiers in the pay of the city there were few people in sight near the +Ortlieb mansion. + +A horse was being led up and down on the opposite side of the courtyard, +and behind the chains stood a sedan-chair with several men, to whom Metz +had just brought from the kitchen a coal of fire to light their torches. +The pretty girl looked as bright as if she felt small concern for the +severe wound of the grey-haired tailor who had chosen her for his wife. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +As the young girls were getting out of their sedan-chair, the Frauenthor, +which was closed at nightfall, opened to admit another whose destination +also seemed to be the Ortlieb mansion. + +Katterle was standing in the lower entry with her apron raised to her +face. She had learned that her true and steadfast lover had been carried +to the "Hole," and was waiting here for her mistresses and also for Herr +Pfinzing and his wife, whom old Martsche had conducted to the sittingroom +in the second story. Herr Pfinzing, in her opinion, had as much power as +the Emperor, and his wife was famed all over the city for her charitable +and active kindness. When the noble couple came down Katterle meant to +throw herself on her knees at their feet and beseech them to have mercy +on her betrothed husband. The sisters and Cordula comforted her with the +promise that they would commend Biberli's cause to the magistrate; but as +they went upstairs they again expressed to one another the fear that +Katterle herself would sooner or later follow the man she loved to +prison. + +They found Herr Pfinzing and his wife in the sitting-room. + +Katterle was not wrong in expecting kindly help from this lady, for a +more benevolent face than hers could scarcely be imagined, and, more +over, Fran Christine certainly did not lack strength to do what she +deemed right. Though not quite so broad as her short, extremely +corpulent husband, she surpassed him in height by several inches, and +time had transformed the pretty, slender, modest girl into a majestic +woman. The slight arch of the nose, the lofty brow, the light down on +the upper lip, and the deep voice even gave her a somewhat imperious +aspect. Had it not been for the kind, faithful eyes, and an extremely +pleasant expression about the mouth, one might have wondered how she +could succeed in inspiring everyone at the first glance with confidence +in her helpful kindness of heart. + +Her grey pug had also been brought with her. How could an animal supply +the place of beloved human beings? Yet the pug had become necessary to +her since her son, like so many other young men who belonged to patrician +Nuremberg families, had fallen in the battle of Marchfield, and her +daughter had accompanied her husband to his home in Augsburg. The +onerous duties of her husband's office compelled him to leave her alone a +great deal, and even in her extremely active life there were lonely hours +when she needed a living creature that was faithfully devoted to her. + +She was often overburdened with work, for every charitable institution +sought her as a "fosterer." True, in many cases their request was vain. +Whatever she undertook must be faultlessly executed, and the charge of +the orphan children in the city, the Beguines, and the hospital at her +summer residence occupied her sufficiently. During the winter she lived +with her husband at his official quarters in the castle, but as soon as +spring came she longed for her little manor at Schweinau, for she had +taken into the institution erected there for the widows of noble +crusaders, but in which only the last four of these ladies were now +supported, a number of Beguines. These were godly girls and women who +did not wish to submit to convent rules, or did not possess the favour or +the money required for admission. + +Without pledging themselves to celibacy or any of the other restrictions +imposed upon the nuns, they desired only, in association with others of +the same mind, to lead a life pleasing in the sight of God and devoted to +Christian charity. Schweinau afforded abundant opportunity for +charitable women to aid suffering fellow-mortals, since it was here that +the unfortunates who had been mutilated by the hands of the executioner +and his assistants, or wounded on the rack, often nearly unto death, were +brought to be bandaged, and as far as possible healed. The Beguines +occupied themselves in nursing them, but had many a conflict with the +spiritual authorities, who preferred the monks and nuns bound by a +monastic vow. The order of St. Francis alone regarded them with favour, +interceded for them, and watched over them with kindly interest, taking +care that they were kept aloof from everything which would expose them to +reproach or blame. + +Frau Christine, the Abbess Kunigunde's sister, aided her in this effort, +and the Beguines, to whom the magistrate's wife in no way belonged, but +who had given them a home on her own estate, silently rendered her +obedience when she wished to see undesirable conditions in their common +life removed. + +Els, as well as Eva, had long since told Frau Christine, who was equally +dear to both, everything that afforded ground for the shameful calumnies +which had now urged their father to a deed for which he was atoning in +prison. + +When, a few hours before, a messenger from her husband informed her of +what had occurred, she had instantly come to the city to see that the +right thing was done, and take the girls thus bereft of their father from +the desolate Ortlieb mansion to her own house. Herr Pfinzing had warmly +approved this plan, and accompanied her to the "Es," as he, too, was fond +of calling his nieces. + +When she had been told what motives induced Eva not to confide herself +just now to the protection of the convent, Frau Christine struck her +broad hips, exclaiming, "There's something in blood! The young creature +acts as if her old aunt had thought for her." + +Her invitation sounded so loving and cordial, her husband pressed it with +such winning, jovial urgency, and the pug Amicus, whose attachment to Eva +was especially noticeable, supported his mistress's wish with such ardent +zeal, that she called the sisters' attention to his intercession. + +Meanwhile the girls had already expressed to each other, with the mute +language of the eyes, their inclination to accept the invitation so +affectionately extended. Els only made the condition that they were not +to go to Schweinau until early the following morning, after their visit +to their father; Eva, on the other hand, desired to go as soon as +possible, gladly and gratefully confessing to her aunt how much more +calmly she would face the future now that she was permitted to be under +her protection. + +"Just creep under the old hen's wings, my little chicken; she will keep +you warm," said the kind-hearted woman, kissing Eva. But, as she began +to plan for the removal of the sisters, more visitors were announced-- +indeed, several at once; first, Albert Ebner, of the Council, and his +wife, then Frau Clara Loffelholz, who came without her husband, and the +two daughters of the imperial ranger Waldstromer, Els's most intimate +friends. They had come in from the forest-house the day before to attend +Frau Maria Ortlieb's burial. Now, with their mother's permission, they +came to invite the deserted girls to the forest. The others also begged +the sisters to come to them, and so did Councillors Schurstab, Behaim, +Gross, Holzschuher, and Pirckheimer, who came, some with their wives and +some singly, to look after the daughters of their imprisoned colleague. + +The great sitting-room was filled with guests, and the stalwart figures +and shrewd, resolute faces of the men, the kind, good, and usually +pleasing countenances of the women, whose blue eyes beamed with +philanthropic benevolence, though they carried their heads high enough, +afforded a delightful spectacle, and one well calculated to inspire +respect. There could be no doubt that those whose locks were already +grey represented distinguished business houses and were accustomed to +manage great enterprises. There was not a single one whom the title +"Honour of the Family" could not have well befitted; and what cheerful +self-possession echoed in the deep voices of the men, what maternal +kindness in those of the elder women, most of whom also spoke in sonorous +tones! + +Els and Eva often cast stolen glances at each other as they greeted the +visitors, thanked them, answered questions, gave explanations, accepted +apologies, received and courteously declined invitations. They did not +comprehend what had produced this sudden change of feeling in so many of +their equals in rank, what had brought them in such numbers at so late an +hour, as if the slightest delay was an offence, to their quiet house, +which that very day had seemed to Frau Vorkler too evil to permit her +children to remain in its service. + +The old magistrate and his wife, on the contrary, thought that they knew. +They had helped the sisters to receive the first callers; but when Frau +Barbara Behaim, a cousin of the late Frau Maria, had appeared, they gave +up their post to her, and slipped quietly into the next room to escape +the throng. + +There they retired to the niche formed by the deep walls of the broad +central window of the house, and Herr Berthold Pfinzing whispered to his +wife: "There was too much philanthropy and kindness for me in there. A +great deal of honey at once cloys me. But you, prophetess, foresaw what +is now occurring, and I, too, scarcely expected anything different. So +long as one still has a doublet left compassion is in no haste, but when +the last shirt is stripped from the body charity--thank the saints!-- +moves faster. We are most ready to help those who, we feel very sure, +are suffering more than they deserve. There are many motherless +children; but young girls who have lost both parents, exposed to every +injustice----" + +"Are certainly rare birds," his wife interrupted, "and this will +undoubtedly be of service to the children. But if they are now invited +to the houses of the same worthy folk who, a few hours ago, thought +themselves too good to attend the funeral of their admirable mother, and +anxiously kept their own little daughters away from them, they probably +owe it especially to the right mediators, noble old Vorchtel and +another." + +"To-day, if ever, certainly furnished evidence how heavily the testimony +and example of a really estimable man weighs on the scale. The First +Losunger interceded for the children as if they were his own daughters, +attacked the slanderers, and of course I didn't leave him in the lurch." + +"Peter Holzschuher declared that you defended them like the Roman +Cicero," cried Frau Christine merrily. "But don't be vexed, dear +husband; no matter how heavily the influence of the two Bertholds-- +Vorchtel's and yours--weighed in the balance, nay, had that of a third +and a fourth of the best Councillors been added, what is now taking place +before our eyes and ears would not have happened, if---" + +"Well?" asked the magistrate eagerly. + +"If," replied the matron in a tone of the firmest conviction, "they had +not all been far from believing, even for a moment, in their inmost souls +the shameful calumny which baseness dared to cast upon those two--just +look more closely." + +"Yet if that was really the case--" her husband began to object, but she +eagerly continued: "Many did not utter their better knowledge or faith +because the evil heart believes in wickedness rather than virtue, +especially if their own house contains something--we will say a young +daughter--whose shining purity is thereby brought into a clearer light. +Besides, we ourselves have often been vexed by--let us do honour to the +truth!--by the defiant manner in which your devout godchild--yonder +'little saint'--held aloof in her spiritual arrogance from the companions +of her own age----" + +"And then," the corpulent husband added, "two young girls cannot be +called 'the beautiful Es' unpunished in houses which contain a less +comely T, S, and H. Just think of the Katerpecks. There--thank the +saints!--they are taking leave already." + +"Don't say anything about them!" said Frau Christine, shaking her finger +threateningly. "They are good, well-behaved children. It was pretty +Ermengarde Muffel yonder by the fireplace who, after the dance at the +Town Hall, assailed your godchild most spitefully with her sharp tongue. +My friend Frau Nutzel heard her." + +"Ah, that dance!" said the magistrate, sighing faintly. "But the child +was certainly distinguished in no common way. The Emperor Rudolph +himself looked after her as if an angel had appeared to him. You +yourself heard his sister's opinion of her. Her husband, the old +Burgrave, and his son, handsome Eitelfritz--But you know all that. Half +would have been enough to stir ill-will in many a heart." + +"And to turn her pretty little head completely," added his wife. + +"That, by our Lady, Christine," protested the magistrate, "that, at +least, did not happen. It ran off from her like water from an oil jar. +I noticed it myself, and the abbess--" + +"Your sister," interrupted the matron thoughtfully, "she was the very one +who led her into the path that is not suited for her." + +"No, no," the magistrate eagerly asserted. "God did not create a girl, +the mere sight of whom charms so many, to withdraw her from the gaze of +the world." + +"Husband! husband!" exclaimed Frau Christine, tapping his arm gaily. +"But there go the Schurstabs and Ebners. What a noise there is in the +street below!" + +Her husband looked out of the bow window, pointed down, and asked her to +come and stand beside him. When she had risen he passed his arm around +the slenderest part of her waist, which, however, he could not quite +clasp, and eagerly continued: "Just look! One would think it was a +banquet or a dance. The whole street is filled with sedan-chairs, +servants, and torch-bearers. A few hours ago the constables had hard +work to prevent the deluded people from destroying the house of the +profligate Es, and now one half of the distinguished honourable +Councillors come to pay their homage. Do you know, dear, what pleases +the most in all this?" + +"Well?" asked Frau Christine, turning her face towards him with a look +of eager enquiry, which showed that she expected to hear something good. +But he nodded slightly, and answered: + +"We members of patrician families cling to old customs; each wants to +keep his individuality, as he would share or exchange his escutcheon +with no one. Then, when one surpasses the rest in external things, +whatever name they may bear, no one hastens to imitate him. We men are +independent, rugged fellows. But if the heart and mind of any one of us +are bent upon something really good and which may be said to be pleasing +in the sight of God, and he successfully executes it, then, Christine, +then--I have noticed it in a hundred instances--then the rest rush after +him like sheep after the bellwether." + +"And this time you, and the other Berthold, were the leaders," cried Fran +Christine, hastily pressing a kiss upon her old husband's cheek behind +the curtain. + +Then she turned back into the dusky chamber, pointed to the open door of +the sitting-room, and said, "just look! If that isn't---- There comes +Ursula Vorchtel with her betrothed husband, young Hans Nutzel! What a +fine-looking man the slender youth has become! Ursel--her visit is +probably the greatest pleasure which Els has had during this blessed +hour." + +The wise woman was right; for when Ursel held out her hands to her former +friend, whom she had studiously avoided so long, the eyes of both girls +were moist, and Els's cheeks alternately flushed and paled, like the play +of light and shadow on the ground upon a sunny morning in a leafy wood +when the wind sways the tree tops. + +What did they not have to say to each other! As soon as they were +unnoticed a moment Ursel kissed her newly regained friend, and whispered, +pointing to her lover, with whom Fran Barbara Behaim was talking: "He +first taught me to know what true love is, and since then I have realised +that it was wrong and foolish for me to be angry with you, my dear Els, +and that Wolff did right to keep his troth, hard as his family made it +for him to do so. Had my Hans met me a little sooner, we should not now +have to mourn our poor Ulrich. I know--for I have tried often enough to +soothe his resentment--how greatly he incensed your lover. Oh, how sad +it all is! But your aunt, the abbess, was right when she told us before +our confirmation, 'When the cross that is imposed upon us weighs too +heavily, an angel often comes, lifts it, and twines it with lovely +roses!' That has been my experience, dear Els; and what great injustice +I did you when I kept out of your way so meanly! I always felt drawn to +you. But when that evil gossip began I turned against them all and bade +them be silent in my presence, for it was all false, base lies. I upheld +your Eva, too, as well as you, though she had been very ungracious +whenever we met." + +How joyously Els opened her heart to these confessions! How warmly she +interceded for her sister! The girls had passed their arms around each +other, as if they had returned to the days of their childhood, and when +Ursel's lover glanced at his betrothed bride, who, spite of her well- +formed figure and pleasant face, could not be classed amongst the most +beautiful of women, he thought she might compare in attractiveness with +the loveliest maidens, but no one could equal her in kindness of heart. +She saw this in the warm, loving look with which he sought her pleasant +grey eyes, as he approached to remind her that it was time to go; but +beckoning to him, she begged him to wait just a moment longer, which she +employed in whispering to Els: "You should find shelter with us, and no +one else, if my father---- Don't think he refused to let me invite you +on account of poor Ulrich, or because he was angry with you. It's only +because---- After the session to-day they all praised his noble heart, +and I don't know what else, so loudly and with such exaggeration that it +was too much to believe. If he interceded for the Eysvogel firm and you +poor children, it was only because, as a just man, he could not do +otherwise." + +"Oh, Ursel!" Els here interrupted, wishing to join in her father's +praise; but the latter would not listen and eagerly continued: + +"No, no, he really felt so. His modesty made him unwilling to awaken the +belief that he asked the betrothed bride of the man--you understand and +her sister into his house, to set an example of Christian reconciliation. +False praise, he says, weighs more heavily than disgrace. He has already +heard more of it than he likes, and therefore, for no other reason, he +does not open his house to you, but upon his counsel and his aid, he bids +me tell you, you can confidently rely." + +Then the friends took leave of each other, and Ursula also embraced Eva, +who approached her with expressions of warm gratitude, kissed her, and +said, as she went away, "When next we meet, Miss Ungracious, I hope we +shall no longer turn our backs on each other." + +When Ursel had gone with her lover, and most of the others had followed, +Els felt so elated by thankfulness that she did not understand how her +heart, burdened with such great and heavy anxieties, could be capable of +rising to such rapturous delight. + +How gladly she would have hastened to Wolff to give him his share of this +feeling! But, even had not new claims constantly pressed upon her, she +could on no account have sought his hiding-place at this hour. + +When the last guest and the abbess also had retired, Aunt Christine +asked Els to pack whatever she and her sister needed for the removal +to Schweinau, for Eva was to go there with her at once. + +Countess Cordula, who, much as she regretted the necessity of being +separated from her companions, saw that they were right to abandon the +house from which their father had been torn, wanted to help Els, but just +as the two girls were leaving the room a new visitor arrived--Casper +Teufel, of the Council, a cousin of Casper Eysvogel, who had leaned on +his arm for support when he left the session that afternoon. + +Els would not have waited for any other guest, but this one, as his first +words revealed, came from the family to which she felt that she belonged, +and the troubled face of the greyhaired, childless widower, who was +usually one of the most jovial of men, as well as the unusually late hour +of his call, indicated so serious a reason for his coming that she +stopped, and with anxious urgency asked what news he had brought. + +It was not unexpected, yet his brief report fell heavily on the heart of +Els, which had just ventured to beat gaily and lightly. + +Her uncle and aunt, Eva and the countess, also listened to the story. + +He had accompanied Casper Eysvogel to his home and remained with him +whilst, overflowing with resentment and vehement, unbridled complaints of +the injustice and despotism to which--owing specially to the hostility +and self-conceit of old Berthold Vorchtel--he had fallen a victim, he +informed Fran Rosalinde and her mother what the Council had determined +concerning his own future and that of his family. + +When he finally reported that he himself and the ladies must leave the +house and the city, Countess Rotterbach, with a scornful glance at her +deeply humiliated son-in-law, exclaimed, "This is what comes of throwing +one's self away!" The unfortunate man, already shaken to the inmost +depths of his being, sank on his knees. + +Conrad Teufel had instantly placed him in bed and sent for the leech; +but even after they had bathed his head with cold water and bled him he +did not regain consciousness. His left side seemed completely paralysed, +and his tongue could barely lisp a few unintelligible words. + +At the leech's desire a Sister of Charity had been sent for. Isabella +Siebenburg, the sufferer's daughter, had already gone with her twin sons, +in obedience to her husband's wish, to Heideck Castle. + +She had departed in anger, because she had vainly endeavoured to induce +her mother and grandmother, who opposed her, to speak more kindly of her +husband. When they disparaged the absent man with cruel harshness, she +felt--she had told her cousin so--as if the infants could understand the +insult offered to their father, and, to protect the children even more +than herself, from her husband's feminine foes, she left the falling +house, in spite of the entreaties and burning tears with which, in the +hour of parting, her mother strove to detain her. + +Ere her departure she gave her jewels and the silver which her +grandfather had bequeathed to her to Conrad Teufel, to satisfy the most +urgent demands of her husband's creditors. Her father and she had parted +kindly, and he made no attempt to oppose her. + +No one except the Sister of Charity was now in attendance upon the old +gentleman; for his wife wept and wailed without finding strength to do +anything, and even reproached her own mother, whom she accused of having +plunged them all into misfortune, and caused the stroke of paralysis from +which her husband was suffering. + +The grey-haired countess, the cousin went on, had passed from one attack +of convulsions into another, and when he approached her had shrieked the +words "ingratitude" and "base reward" so shrilly at him, in various +tones, that they were still ringing in his ears. + +Everything in the luckless household was out of gear, and its noble +guest, the Duke von Gulich, would feel the consequences, for the servants +had lost their wits too. Spite of the countless men and maids, he had +been obliged to go himself to the pump to get a glass of water for the +sick man, and the fragments of the vase which the grandmother had flung +at him with her own noble hand were still lying on the floor. His name +was Teufel--[devil]--but even in his home in Hades things could scarcely +be worse. + +When Herr Teufel at last paused, the magistrate and his wife exchanged a +significant glance, while Eva gazed with deep suspense, and Cordula with +earnest pity, at Els, who had listened to the story fairly panting for +breath. + +When she raised her tearful eyes to Herr Pfinzing and Frau Christine, +saying mournfully, "I must beg you to excuse me, my dear aunt and uncle; +you have heard how much my Wolff's father needs me," all saw their +expectations fulfilled. + +"Hard, hard!" said the magistrate, patting her on the shoulder. "Yet the +lead with which we burden ourselves from kindly intentions becomes wood, +or at last even feathers." + +But Frau Christine was not content with uttering cheering words; she +offered to accompany Els and secure the place to which she was entitled. +Frau Rosalinde had formerly often visited the matron to seek counsel, and +had shown her, with embarrassing plainness, how willingly she admitted +her superior ability. She disliked the old countess--but with whom would +not the self-reliant woman, conscious of her good intentions, have dared +to cope? Since the daughter of the house had left her relatives, the +place beside his father's sick-bed belonged to the son's future wife. +Frau Rosalinde was weak, but not the worst of women. "Just wait, child," +Aunt Christine concluded, "she will see soon enough what a blessing +enters the house and the sick-room with you. We will try to erect a wall +against the old woman's spite." + +Conrad Teufel confessed that he had come with the hope of inducing Els, +who had nursed her own mother so skilfully and patiently, to make so +praiseworthy a resolution. In taking leave he promised to keep a sharp +lookout for her rights, and, if necessary, to show the old she-devil his +own cloven foot. + +After he, too, had gone, the preparations for the sisters' departure were +commenced. Whilst Cordula was helping Eva to select the articles she +wished to take to Schweinau, and her older sister, with Katterle's +assistance, was packing the few pieces of clothing she needed as a nurse +in the Eysvogel family, the countess offered to visit Herr Ernst in the +watch-tower early the following morning and tell him what detained his +daughters. Towards evening Eva could come into the city under the +protection of her aunt, who had many claims upon her the next day, and +see the prisoner. + +This time, to the surprise of her sister, who had always relieved her of +such cares, Eva herself did the packing. When she had finished she led +the weeping Katterle to her uncle, that she might beg for mercy upon her +lover. + +The magistrate was thoroughly aware of the course of affairs, and talked +to the maid with the gentle manner, pervaded with genuine kindness of +heart, which was one of his characteristics. Biberli had already been +subjected to an examination by torture; but even on the rack he had not +said one word about his betrothed bride, and had resolutely denied +everything which could criminate his master. A second trial awaited him +on the morrow, but the magistrate promised to do all in his power to +obtain the mildest possible sentence for him. At any rate, like all +whose blood was shed by a legal sentence, he would be sent to Schweinau +to be cured, and as Katterle would accompany Eva there, she could find an +opportunity of nursing her betrothed husband herself. + +With these words he dismissed the girl, but when again alone with his +wife he admitted to her that the poor fellow might easily fare badly-- +nay, might even lose his tongue--if on the rack, which was one of the +instruments of torture to which he must again be subjected, he confessed +having forced his way into the house of an "Honourable" at night. True, +the fact that in doing so he had only followed his master, would mitigate +the offence. He must bind the judges to secrecy, should it prove +impossible to avoid the necessity of informing them of Eva's +somnambulism. If the sentence were very severe, he might perhaps be able +to delay its execution. Sir Heinz Schorlin, who stood high in the +Emperor's favour, would then be asked to apply to the sovereign to annul +it, or at any rate to impose a lighter punishment. + +Here he was interrupted by his nieces and Cordula, and soon after Frau +Christine went out with Els to go to the Eysvogels. Herr Pfinzing +remained with the others. + +A personage of no less distinction than the Duchess Agnes had complained +to him of the reckless countess. Only yesterday she had ridden into the +forest with her father, and when the young Bohemian princess met her, +Cordula's dogs had assailed her skittish Arabian so furiously that it +would have been difficult for a less practised rider to keep her seat in +the saddle. This time the docile animals had refused to obey their +mistress, and the duchess expressed the suspicion that she had not +intended to call them off; for, though she had carelessly apologised, she +asked, as if the words were a gibe, if there was anything more delightful +than to curb a refractory steed. She had an answer ready for Cordula, +however, and retorted that the disobedience of her dogs proved that, if +she understood how to obtain from horses what she called the greatest +delight, she certainly failed in the case of other living creatures. She +therefore offered her royal condolence on the subject. + +Then she remarked to the magistrate that the incident had occurred in the +imperial forest where, as she understood, the unrestricted wandering of +strange hunting dogs was prohibited. Therefore, in future, Countess von +Montfort might be required to leave hers at home when she rode to the +woods. + +The magistrate now brought the complaint to the person against whom it +was made, adopting a merry jesting tone, in which Cordula gaily joined. + +When the old gentleman asked whether she had previously angered the +irritable princess, she answered laughing, "The saints have hitherto +denied to the wife of the Emperor's son, as well as to other girls of +thirteen or fourteen, the blessing of children, so she likes to play with +dolls. She chanced to prefer the same one for which she saw me stretch +out my hands." + +The old magistrate vainly sought to understand this jest; but Eva knew +whom the countess meant by the doll, and it grieved her to see two women +hostile to each other, seeking to amuse themselves with one who bore so +little resemblance to a toy, and to whom she looked up with all the +earnestness of a soul kindled by the deepest passion. + +While the magistrate and the countess were gaily arguing and jesting +together she sat silent, and the others did not disturb her. + +After a long time Frau Christine returned. Traces of tears were plainly +visible, though she had tried, whilst in the sedan-chair, to efface them. +The scenes which Els had experienced at the Eysvogels' had certainly been +far worse than she had feared--nay, the old countess's attack upon her +was so insulting, Frau Rosalinde's helpless grief and Herr Casper's +condition were so pitiable, that she had thought seriously of bringing +the poor girl back with her, and removing her from these people who, she +was sure, would make Els's life a torment as soon as she herself had +gone. + +The grandmother's enquiry whether Jungfrau Ortlieb expected to find her +Swiss gallant there, and similar insolent remarks, seemed fairly steeped +with rancour. + +What a repulsive spectacle the old woman, utterly bereft of dignity, +presented as with solemn mockery she courtesied to Els again and again, +as if announcing herself her most humble servant; but the poor child kept +silence until Frau Christine herself spoke, and assigned her niece to the +place beside Herr Casper's sick-bed, which no one else could fill so +well. + +Stillness reigned in this chamber, and Els scarcely had occasion to dread +much disturbance, for the countess had been strictly forbidden to enter +the sufferer's room. Frau Rosalinde seemed to fear the sight of the +helpless man, and the Sister of Charity was a strong, resolute woman, who +welcomed Els with sincere cordiality, and promised Frau Christine to let +no evil befall her. + +The sedan-chairs were already waiting outside, and the lady would have +gladly deferred her account of these sorrowful events until later, but +Cordula so affectionately desired to learn how her friend had fared in +her lover's home, that she hurriedly and swiftly gratified her wish. +Speaking of the matter relieved her heart, and in a somewhat calmer mood +she was carried to Schweinau. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +The little Pfinzing castle in Schweinau was neither spacious nor +splendid, but it was Fran Christine's favourite place of abode. + +The heat of summer found no entrance through the walls--three feet in +thickness--of the ancient building. Early in the morning and at evening +it was pleasant to stay in the arbour, a room open in the front, +extending the whole length of the edifice, where one could breathe the +fresh air even during rainy weather. It overlooked the herb garden, +which was specially dear to its mistress, for it contained roses, lilies, +pinks, and other flowers; and part of the beds, after being dug by the +gardener, who had charge of the kitchen garden in the rear, were planted +and tended by her own hand. + +The hour between sunrise and mass was devoted to this work, in which Eva +was to help her, and it would afford her much information; for her aunt +raised many plants which possessed healing power. Some of the seeds or +bulbs had been brought from foreign lands, but she was perfectly familiar +with the virtues of all. Schweinau afforded abundant opportunity to use +them, and the nurses in the city hospital, and the leech Otto, and other +physicians, as well as many noble dames in the neighbourhood who took the +place of a physician among their peasants and dependents, applied to Fran +Christine when they needed certain roots, leaves, berries, and seeds for +their sick. Nor did the monks and nuns, far and near, ever come to her +for such things in vain. + +True, the life at Castle Schweinau was by no means so quiet as the one +which Eva had hitherto loved. + +When she accepted the invitation she knew that, if she shared all her +aunt's occupations, she would not have even a single half hour of her +own; but this was not her first visit here, and she had learned that Frau +Christine allowed her entire liberty, and required nothing which she did +not offer of her own free will. + +When she saw the matron, after the mass and the early repast which her +husband shared with her before going to the city, visit the aged widows +of the crusaders in the little institution behind the kitchen garden and +inspect and regulate the work of the Beguines, she often wondered where +this woman, whose age was nearer seventy than sixty, found strength for +all this, as well as the duties which followed. First there were orders +to give in the kitchen that the principal meal, after the vesper bells +had rung, should always win from the master of the house the "Couldn't be +better," which his wife heard with the same pleasure as ever. Then, +after visiting the wash-house, the bleachcry, the linen presses, the +cellar, the garret, and even the beehives to see that everything was in +order, and emerging from the hands of the maid as a well-dressed +noblewoman, she received visit after visit. Members of the patrician +families of Nuremberg arrived; monks and nuns on various errands for +their cloisters and their poor; gentlemen and ladies from ecclesiastical +and secular circles, in both city and country, among them frequently the +most aristocratic attendants of the Reichstag; for she numbered the +Burgrave and his wife among her friends, and when questioned about the +Nuremberg women, the Burgrave Frederick mentioned her as second to none +in ability, shrewdness, and kindness of heart. + +Both he and his worthy wife sometimes sought her in the sphere of +occupation which consumed the lion's share of her time and strength--the +superintendence of the Schweinau hospital. True, she often let days +elapse without entering it; but if anything went wrong and her assistance +was desirable or necessary in serious cases, she remained there until +late at night, or even until the following morning. + +At such times even the most distinguished visitors were sent home with +the message that Frau Christine could not leave the sick. + +The Burgrave and his wife were the only persons permitted to follow her +into the hospital, and they had probably gained the privilege of speaking +to her there because they were among its most liberal supporters, and +three of their sons wore the cross of the Knights Hospitaller, and often +spent weeks there, as the rule of the order prescribed, in nursing the +sufferers. + +Women also had the right to enter the hospital to be cured of the wounds +inflicted by the scourge or the iron of the executioner. + +Each sufferer was to be nursed there only three days, but Frau Christine +took care that no one to whom such treatment might be harmful should be +put out. The Honourable Council was obliged, willing or unwilling, to +defray the necessary expense. The magistrate had many a battle to fight +for these encroachments, but he always found a goodly majority on the +side of the hospital and his wife. If the number of those who required +longer nursing increased too rapidly they did not spare their own fine +residence. + +The hospital and the hope of being allowed to help within its walls had +brought Eva to Schweinau. The experiences of the past few days had swept +through the peace of her young soul like a tempest, overthrowing firmly +built structures and fanning glimmering sparks to flames. Since her +quiet self-examination in the room of the city clerk, she had known what +she lacked and what duty required her to become. The bond which united +her to her saint and the Saviour still remained, but she knew what was +commanded by him from whom St. Clare's mission also came, what Francis of +Assisi had enjoined upon his followers whose experiences had been like +hers. + +They were to strive to restore peace to their perturbed souls by faithful +toil for their brothers and sisters; and what toil better suited a feeble +girl like herself than the alleviation of her unhappy neighbour's +suffering? The harder the duties imposed upon her in the service of +love, the better. She would set to work in the hope of making herself +the true, resolute woman which her mother, with the eyes of the soul, had +seen her fragile child become; but she could imagine nothing more +difficult than the tasks to be fulfilled here. This was the real fierce +heat of the forge fire to which the dead woman had wished to entrust her +purification and transformation. She would not shun, but hasten to it. +While her lover was wielding the sword she, too, had a battle to fight. +She had heard from Biberli that Heinz wished to undergo the most severe +trials. This was noble, and her enthusiastic nature, aspiring to the +loftiest goal, was filled with the same desire. Eager to learn how they +would bear the test, she scanned her young shoulders and gazed at the +burden which she intended to lay upon them. + +When, the year before, her aunt took her to the hospital for the first +time, she had returned home completely unnerved. She had not even had +the slightest suspicion that there was such suffering on earth, such pain +amongst those near her, such depravity amongst those of her own sex. +What comparison was there between what Els had done for her gentle, +patient mother, or what she would do for old Herr Casper, who lay in a +soft bed--it had been shown to her as something of rare beauty, of ebony +and ivory--and the task of nursing these infamous gallows-birds bleeding +from severe wounds, and these depraved sick women? But if God's own Son +gave up His life amidst the most cruel suffering for sinful humanity, how +dared she, the weak, erring, slandered girl, who had no goodness save her +passionate desire to do what was right, shrink from helping the most +pitiable of her neighbours? Here in the hospital at Schweinau lay the +heavy burden which she wished to take upon herself. + +She desired it also in order to maintain the bond which had united her to +the Saviour. She would be constantly reminded here of his own words, +"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, +ye have done it unto me." To become a bride of Jesus Christ and, closely +united to Him in her inmost soul, await the hour when He would open His +divine arms to her, had seemed the fairest lot in life. Now she had +pledged herself in the world to another, and yet she did not wish to give +up her Saviour. She desired to show Him that though she neither could +nor would resign her earthly lover, her heart still throbbed for the +divine One as tenderly as of yore. And could He who was Love incarnate +condemn her, when He saw how, without even being permitted to hope that +her lover would find his way back to her, she clung with inviolable +steadfastness to her troth, though no one save He and His heavenly Father +had witnessed her silent vow? + +She belonged to Heinz, and he--she knew it--to her. Even though later, +after all the world had acknowledged her innocence, the walls of convent +and monastery divided them, their souls would remain indissolubly united. +If there should be no meeting for them here below, in the other world the +Saviour would lead them to each other the more surely, the more +obediently they strove to fulfil His divine command. As Heinz desired to +take up the cross in imitation of Christ she, too, would bear it. It was +to be found beside the straw pallets of the wounded criminals. The +fulfilment of every hard duty which she voluntarily performed seemed like +a step that brought her nearer to the Saviour, and at the same time to +the union with her lover, even though in another world. + +The first request she made to her aunt on the way to mass, early in the +morning of the first day of her stay in Schweinau, was an entreaty for +permission to work in the hospital. It was granted, but not until the +eyes of the experienced woman, ever prompt in decision, had rested with +anxious hesitation upon the beautiful face and exquisite lithe young +figure. The thought that it would be a pity for such lovely, pure, +stainless girlish charms to be used in the service of these outcasts had +almost determined her to utter a resolute "No"; but she did not do it; +nay, a flush of shame crimsoned her face as her eyes rested on the image +of the crucified Redeemer which stood beside the road leading to the +little village church; for whom had He, the Most High, summoned to His +service and deemed specially worthy of the kingdom of heaven? The +simple-hearted, the children, the adulterers, the sinners and publicans, +the despised, and the poor! No, no, it would not degrade the lovely +child to help the miserable creatures yonder, any more than it did the +rarest plant which she raised in her herb garden when she used it to heal +the hurts of some abandoned wretch. + +And besides, with what deep loathing she herself had gone to the hospital +at first, and how fully conscious of her own infinite superiority she had +returned from amongst these depraved beings to the outdoor air. + +Yet how this feeling, which had stirred within her heart, gradually +changed! + +During her closer acquaintance with the poor and the despised, the nature +and work of Christ first became perfectly intelligible to her; for how +many traits of simple, self-sacrificing readiness to help, what touching +contentment and grateful joy in the veriest trifle, what childlike piety +and humble resignation even amidst intolerable suffering, these +unfortunates had shown! Nay, when she had become familiar with the lives +of many of her protegees and learned how they had fallen into the hands +of the executioner and reached Schweinau, she had asked herself whether, +under similar circumstances, the majority of those who belonged to her +own sphere in life would not have found the way there far more speedily, +and whether they would have endured the punishment inflicted half so +patiently or with so much freedom from bitterness and rebellion against +the decrees of the Most High. She had discovered salutary sap in many a +human plant that had at first seemed absolutely poisonous; where she had +shrunk from touching such impurity, violets and lilies had bloomed amidst +the mire. Instead of holding her head haughtily erect, she had often +left the hospital with a sense of shame, and it was long since she had +ceased to use the proud privilege of her rank to despise people of lower +degree. If sometimes tempted to exercise it, the impulse was roused far +more frequently by those of her own station, who were base in mind and +heart, than by the sufferers in the hospital. + +She had become very modest in regard to herself, why should she wake to +new life the arrogance now hushed in Eva's breast? + +Much secret distress of mind and anguish of soul had been endured by the +poor child, who yesterday had opened her whole heart to her, when she +went to rest in her chamber. How lowly she felt, how humble was the +little saint who recently had elevated herself above others only too +quickly and willingly! It would do her good to descend to the lowest +ranks and measure her own better fate by their misery. She who felt +bereaved could always be the giver in the hospital, and she felt with +subtle sympathy what attracted Eva to her sufferers. + +The magistrate's wife was a religious matron, devoted to her Church, but +in her youth she had been by no means fanatical. The Abbess Kunigunde, +her younger sister, however, had fought before her eyes the conflict of +the soul, which had finally sent the beautiful, much-admired girl within +convent walls. No one except her quiet, silent sister Christine had been +permitted to witness the mental struggle, and the latter now saw repeated +in her young niece what Kunigunde had experienced so many years before. +Difficult as it had then been for her to understand the future abbess, +now, after watching many a similar contest in others, it was easy to +follow every emotion in Eva's soul. + +During a long and happy married life, in which year by year mutual +respect had increased, the magistrate and his wife had finally attained +the point of holding the same opinions on important questions; but when +Herr Berthold returned from the city, and finding Eva already at the +hospital, told his wife, at the meal which she shared with him, that from +his point of view she ought to have strenuously opposed her niece's +desire, and he only hoped that her compliance might entail no disastrous +consequences upon the excitable, sensitive child, the remarkable thing +happened that Frau Christine, without as usual being influenced by him, +insisted upon her own conviction. + +So it happened that this time the magistrate was robbed of the little +nap which usually followed the meal, and yet, in spite of the best will +to yield, he could not do his wife the favour of allowing himself to be +convinced. Still, he did not ask her to retract the consent which she +had once given, so Eva was permitted to continue to visit the hospital. + +The nurse, a woman of estimable character and strong will, would +faithfully protect her whatever might happen. Frau Christine had placed +the girl under her special charge, and the Beguine Hildegard, a woman of +noble birth and the widow of a knight who had yielded his life in Italy +for the Emperor Frederick, received her with special warmth because she +had a daughter whom, just at Eva's age, death had snatched from her. + +Yet the magistrate would not be soothed. Not until he saw from the +arbour, whilst the dessert still remained on the table; Cordula riding up +on horseback did he cease recapitulating his numerous objections and go +to meet the countess. + +To his straightforward mind and calm feelings the most incomprehensible +thing had been Frau Christine's description of the soul-life of her +sister and her niece. He knew the terrible impressions which even a man +could not escape amongst the rabble in the hospital, and had used the +comparison that what awaited Eva there was like giving a weak child +pepper. + +As Countess Cordula, aided by the old man's hand, swung herself from the +saddle of her spirited dappled steed, he thought: "If it were she who +wanted to tend our sick rascals instead of the delicate Eva, I wouldn't +object. She'd manage Satan himself whilst my little godchild was holding +intercourse with her angels in heaven." + +In the arbour Cordula explained why she had not come before; but her +account told the elderly couple nothing new. + +When she went to see Ernst Ortlieb in the watch-tower that morning he had +already been taken to the Town Hall. No special proceedings were +required, since he was his own accuser, and many trustworthy witnesses +deposed that he had been most grossly irritated--nay, as his advocate +represented, had wounded the tailor in self-defence. Yet Ernst Ortlieb +could not be dismissed from imprisonment at once, because the tailor's +representative demanded a much larger amount of blood-money than the +court was willing to grant. The wound was not dangerous to life, but +still prevented his leaving his bed and appearing in person before his +judges. The candle-dealer was nursing him in his own house and +instigating him to make demands whose extravagance roused the judges' +mirth. As after a tedious discussion Meister Seubolt still insisted upon +them, the magistrates from the Council and the Chief of Police, who +composed the court, advised Herr Ernst to have the sentence deferred and +recognise the tailor's claim that his case belonged to the criminal +court. Out of consideration for the citizens and the excited state of +the whole guild of tailors, it seemed advisable to avoid any appearance +of partiality, yet in that case the self-accuser must submit to +imprisonment until the sentence was pronounced. This delay, however, was +of trivial importance; for Herr Pfinzing had promised his brother-in-law +that his cause should be considered and settled on the following day. + +Herr Berthold had told his wife all this soon after his return, and +added, with much admiration of the valiant fellow's steadfastness, that +Biberli, Sir Heinz Schorlin's servant, had again been subjected to an +examination by torture and was racked far more severely than justice +could approve. + +The countess reported that after her friend's father had been taken back +to the watch-tower a few hours before, she had found him in excellent +spirits. + +True, the Burgrave von Zollern had not come to visit him in person, like +many "Honourables" and gentlemen, but he had sent his son Eitelfritz to +enquire how he fared, and the prisoner was occupied with the petition +which he wished to send the sovereign the next day through Meister +Gottlieb von Passau, the Emperor Rudolph's protonotary. He had told +Cordula, with a resolute air, that it contained the charge that Sir Heinz +Schorlin had found his way into his house at night, and would not even +suffer her to finish her entreaty to omit the accusation. "And now," the +countess added mournfully, "I urge you, to whom the young girl is dear, +to consider the pitiable manner in which, by her own father's folly, +Eva's name will be on the tongues of the whole court, and what the +gossips throughout the city will say about the poor child in connection +with such an accusation." + +Frau Pfinzing sighed heavily, and rose, but her husband, who perceived +her intention, stopped her with the remark that it would be useless to go +that day, for the sun was already setting and the watchtower was closed +at nightfall. + +This induced the matron to return to her seat; but she had scarcely +touched the easy-chair ere she again rose and told the servant to saddle +the big bay. She would ride to the city on horseback this time; the +bearers moved too slowly. Then turning to her husband, she said gaily: + +"I thank you for the excuse you have made for me, but I cannot use it in +this case. My foolish brother must on no account make the charge which +will expose his daughter; it would be a serious misfortune were I to +arrive too late. What is the use of being the wife of the imperial +magistrate, if a Nuremberg drawbridge cannot be raised for me even after +sunset? If the petition has already gone, I must see Meister Gottlieb. +True, it was not to be sent until to-morrow, but there is nothing of +which we are more glad to rid ourselves than the disagreeable +transactions from which we shrink. Give me a pass for the warder, +Pfinzing; and you, Countess, excuse me; it is you who send me away." + +Whilst the maid brought her headkerchief and her cloak, and the +magistrate in a low tone told he servant to have his horse ready, too, +Frau Christine asked Cordula to bring Eva from the hospital, if she felt +no disgust at the sight of common people suffering from wounds. + +"The huts of our wood-cutters, labourers, and fishermen look cleaner, it +is true, than the hovels of the charcoal burners and quarrymen in the +Montfort forests and mountains; yet none of them are perfumed with +sandal-wood and attar of roses, and the blow of the axe which gashes one +of our wood-cutter's flesh presents a similar spectacle to the wounds +which your criminals bring with them to Schweinau. And let me tell you, +I am the leech in Montfort, and unless death is near, and the chaplain +accompanies me bearing the sacrament, I often go alone with the +manservant, the maid, or the pages who carry my medicines. Since I grew +up I have attended to our sick, and I cannot tell you how many fractures, +wounds, hurts, and fevers I have cured or seen progress to a fatal end. +I stand godmother to nearly all the newborn infants in our villages and +hamlets. The mothers whom I nurse insist upon it. There are almost as +many Cordulas as girls on the Montfort estates, and in many a hut there +are two or three of them. Michel the fisherman has a Cordula, a Cordel, +and a Dulla. Therefore it follows that I am accustomed to severe wounds, +though my heart often aches at the sight of them. I know how to bandage +as well as a barber, and, if necessary, can even use the knife." + +"I thought so," cried the magistrate, much comforted. "Set my delicate +little Eva an example if her courage fails; or, what would be still +better, if you see that the horrible business goes too much against the +grain, persuade her to give up work which requires stronger hands and a +less sensitive nature. But there are the horses already. I want to go +to the city, too, Christel, and it's lucky that I don't have to go alone +at night." + +"So said the man who jumped in to save somebody from drowning," replied +Fran Christine laughing: "It's lucky it happened, because I was just +going to take a bath!" But it pleased her to have her husband's +companionship, and she did not approach her horse until he had examined +the saddle-girth and the bridle with the utmost care. + +Before putting her foot in the stirrup, she told the old housekeeper to +take Countess von Montfort to the hospital and commend her to the special +care of Sister Hildegard. She would call for Cordula and Eva on her +return from the city; but they must not wait for her should the strength +of either fail. She had ordered a sedan-chair to be kept ready for her +niece at the hospital. A second one would be at the countess's disposal. + +"That's what I call foresight!" cried the magistrate laughing. "Only, my +dear countess, see that our little saint doesn't attempt anything too +hard. Her pious heart would run her little head against the wall if +matters came to that and, like the noble Moorish steeds, she would drop +dead in her tracks rather than stop. Such a delicate creature is like a +lute. When the key is raised higher and higher the string snaps, and we +want to avoid that. With you, my young heroine----" + +"There is no danger of that kind," Cordula gaily protested. "This +instrument is provided with metal strings; the tone is neither sweet +nor musical, but they are durable." + +"Good, firm material, such as I like," the magistrate declared. Then +he helped his wife mount her horse, placed the bridle in her left hand, +looked at the saddle-girth again, and, spite of his corpulence, swung +himself nimbly enough on his strong steed. Then, with Frau Christine, +he trotted after the torch-bearers towards the city. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +The drawbridge before the watch-tower was promptly lowered for the +imperial magistrate and his wife. He would have dissuaded Frau Chris the +from the ride and come alone, had not experience taught him that Ernst +Ortlieb was more ready to listen to her than to him. But they came too +late; just before sunset Herr Ernst had availed himself of the visit of +the imperial forester, Waldstromer, to give him the petition to convey to +the protonotary, by whom it was to reach the Emperor. Nor did he regret +this decision, but insisted that his duty as a father and a Nuremberg +"Honourable" would not permit the wrong done to his child and his +household by a foreign knight to pass unpunished. + +True, Fran Christine exerted all her powers of persuasion to change his +opinion, and her husband valiantly supported her, but they accomplished +nothing except to gain the prisoner's consent that if the paper had not +yet reached the Emperor the protonotary might defer its presentation +until he was asked for it. + +Herr Ernst had made this concession after the magistrate's representation +that Sir Heinz Schorlin had been subjected to an experience which had +stirred the inmost depths of his soul, and soon after had been +unexpectedly sent in pursuit of the Siebenburgs. Hence he had found no +time to speak to the father. If he persisted in his intention of +entering a monastery, the petition would be purposeless. If it proved +that he was merely trifling with Eva, there would be time enough to call +upon the Emperor to punish him. Besides, he knew from Maier of Silenen +that the knight had firmly resolved to renounce the world. + +But the magistrate and his wife did not take their nocturnal ride in +vain, for after leaving the watch-tower they met the protonotary at St. +Sebald's. He had received the petition, but had not yet delivered it to +his royal master, and promised to withhold it for a time. + +Rejoicing over this success, Herr Pfinzing accompanied Fran Christine, +who wanted to visit Els, to the Eysvogel residence. + +The din of many voices and loud laughter greeted them from the spacious +entry. Three mendicant friars, with overflowing pouches, pressed past +them, and two others were still standing with the men and the +maidservants assembled in the light of the lanterns. They had filled the +barefooted monks' bags, for the salvation of their own souls, with the +provisions of the house, and were talking garrulously, already half +intoxicated by the jugs of wine which the butler willingly filled to earn +a sweet reward from the young maids, who eagerly sought the favour of the +rotund bachelor whose hair was just beginning to turn grey. + +The magistrate's entrance startled them, and the butler vainly strove to +hide a large jar whose shape betrayed that it came from Sicily and +contained the noble vintage of Syracuse. Two of the maids slid under +their aprons the big hams and pieces of roast meat with which they had +already begun to regale themselves. + +Herr Berthold, smiling sadly, watched the conduct of the masterless +servants; then raising his cap, bowed with the utmost respect to the +disconcerted revellers, and said courteously, "I hope it will agree with +you all." + +The startled group looked sheepishly at one another. The butler was the +only person who quickly regained his composure, came forward to the +magistrate cap in hand, and said obsequiously that he and his fellow- +servants were in evil case. The house had no master. No one knew from +whom he or she was to receive orders. Most of them had been discharged +by the Honourable Councillor, but no one knew when he was to leave or +whom to ask for his wages. + +The magistrate then informed them that Herr Wolff Eysvogel had the right +to give orders, and during his absence his betrothed bride, Jungfrau Els +Ortlieb. The next morning a member of the Council would examine the +claims of each, pay the wages, and with Frau Rosalinde and Jungfrau Els +determine the other matters. + +The butler had imbibed a goodly share of the noble wine. His fat cheeks +glowed, and at the magistrate's last remark he laughed softly: "If we +wait for the folk upstairs to agree we shall stay here till the Pegnitz +flows up the valley. Just listen to their state of harmony, sir!" + +In fact the shrill, angry accents of a woman's loud voice, with which +mingled deeper tones that were very familiar to Herr Berthold, echoed +down into the entry. It certainly looked ill for the concord of the +women of the house; yet the magistrate could not permit the unprincipled +servant's insolence to pass unpunished, so he answered quietly: + +"You are right, fellow. One can put a stop to this shameful conduct more +quickly than several, and by virtue of my office I will therefore be the +one to command here. You will leave this house and service to-morrow." + +But when the angry butler, with the hoarse tones of a drunkard, declared +that in Nuremberg none save rascals were turned out of doors directly +after a discharge, the magistrate, with grave dignity, cut him short by +remarking that he would do better not to bring before the magistrates the +question of what beseemed the servant who wasted the valuable property +entrusted to his care, as had been done here. + +With these words he pointed to the spot where the jug of wine which he +had plainly seen was only half concealed, and the threat silenced the +man, whose conscience reproached him far more than Herr Pfinzing could +imagine. + +Meanwhile quiet had not been restored upstairs. Frau Christine had +released Els from a store-room in which the old countess, after +persuading her daughter to this spiteful and childish trick, had locked +her. A serious discussion amongst the women followed, which was closed +only by the interposition of the magistrate. Perhaps this might have +been accomplished less quickly had not the leech Otto appeared as a +welcome aid. + +Frau Rosalinde penitently besought forgiveness, her mother was again +forbidden to come to the lower story, and threatened, if she approached +the sick-room, with immediate removal from the house. + +This strictness was necessary to render it possible for Els to maintain +her difficult position. + +The day had been filled with painful incidents and shameful humiliations. +The old countess had summoned two relatives, both elderly canonesses, to +aid her in her assault upon the intruder, and perhaps they were the +persons who advised locking up Sir Casper's nurse, to whom they denied +the right of still calling herself the bride of the young master of the +house. + +Frau Christine had arrived at the right time. Els was beginning to lose +courage. She had found nothing which could aid her to sustain it. + +Since Biberli had been deprived of his liberty she had rarely heard from +Wolff, and his invalid father, for whose sake she remained in the house, +seemed to view her with dislike. At first he had tried neither to speak +to nor look at her, but that morning, while raising a refreshing cup to +his parched lips, he had cast at her from the one eye whose lid still +moved a glance whose enmity still haunted her. + +Even the priest who visited him several times was by no means kindly +disposed towards her. He belonged to the Dominican order, and was the +confessor of the old countess and Frau Rosalinde. They must have +slandered her sorely to him; and as the order of St. Francis, to which +the Sisters of St. Clare belonged, was a thorn in his flesh, he bore her +a grudge because, as the Abbess Kunigunde's niece, she stood by her and +her convent, and threatened to win the Eysvogel household over to the +Franciscans. + +Before the magistrate and his wife left their niece, Herr Berthold +ordered the men and maidservants to stand in separate rows, then, in the +physician's presence, introduced Els to them as the mistress whom they +were to obey, and requested her to choose those whose services she wished +to retain. The rest would be compensated at the Town Hall the next day +for their abrupt dismissal. + +Els had never found it harder to say good-by to her relatives; but the +leech Otto remained with her some time, and was soon joined by Conrad +Teufel, thereby rendering it a little easier for her to persist in the +performance of her difficult duty. On the way home to Schweinau the +magistrate and his wife talked together as eagerly as if they had just +met after a long separation. They had gone back to the query how nursing +the wounded criminals would affect Eva, and both hoped that Cordula's +presence and encouragement would strengthen her power of resistance. + +But what did this mean? + +As they approached the little castle they saw from the road in the +arbour, which was lighted with links, the figure of the countess. She +was sitting in Frau Christine's easy chair, but Eva was nowhere in view. +Had her strength failed, and was Cordula awaiting their return after +putting her more delicate friend to bed? And Boemund Altrosen, who stood +opposite to her, leaning against one of the pillars which supported the +arched ceiling of the room, how came he here? The Pfinzings had known +him from early childhood, for his father had been a dear friend and +brother in arms of the magistrate; and--whilst Boemund, as a boy, was +enjoying the instruction of the Benedictines in the monastery of St. +AEgidius, he had been a favourite comrade of Frau Christine's son, who +had fallen in battle, and always found a cordial reception in his +parents' house. + +With what tender anxiety the knight gazed into Cordula's pale face! +Something must have befallen the blooming, vigorous huntress and daring +horsewoman, and both Herr Berthold and his wife feared that it concerned +Eva. + +The young couple now perceived their approach, and Cordula, rising, waved +her handkerchief to them. Yet how slowly she rose, how feebly the +vivacious girl moved her hand. + +Herr Berthold helped his wife from the saddle as quickly as possible, and +both hurried anxiously towards the arbour. Frau Christine did not remain +in the winding path, but though usually she strictly insisted that no one +should tread on the turf, hastily crossed it to reach her goal more +quickly. But ere she could put the question she longed to ask, Cordula +sorrowfully exclaimed: "Don't judge me too severely. 'He who exalts +himself shall be humbled,' says the Bible, and also that the first shall +be last, and the last first; but I have been forced to sit upon the +ground whilst Eva occupies the throne. I belong at the end of the last +rank, whilst she leads the foremost." + +"Please explain the riddle at once," pleaded Frau Christine. + +Sir Boemund Altrosen came forward, held out his hand to his old friend, +and spoke for Cordula "The horror and loathsomeness were too much for +her, whilst Jungfrau Ortlieb endured them." + +"Eva remained at the hospital," the countess added dejectedly, "because a +dying woman would not let her go; whilst I--the knight is right--could +bear it no longer." + +Frau Christine glanced triumphantly at her husband, but when she saw +Cordula's pale cheeks she exclaimed: "Poor child! And there was no one +here to---- One moment, Countess!" + +Throwing down her riding-whip and gloves as she spoke, she was hurrying +towards the sideboard on which stood the medicine-case, to prepare a +strengthening drink; but Cordula stopped her, saying: "The housekeeper +has already supplied the necessary stimulant. I will only ask to have my +horse brought to the door, or my father will be anxious. I was obliged +to await your return, because---- Well, my flight from the hospital +certainly was not praiseworthy, and it affords me no special pleasure to +confess it. But you must not think me even more pitiful than I proved +myself, so I stayed to tell you myself----" + +That it is one thing," interrupted Sir Boemund, "to nurse worthy wood- +cutters, gamekeepers, fishermen, and charcoal-burners, who, when wounded +and ill, look up to their gracious mistress as if she were an angel of +deliverance, and quite a different matter to mingle with the miserable +rabble yonder. The bloody stripes which the executioner's lash cuts in +the criminal's back do not render him more gentle; the mutilation which +he curses, and the disgrace with which an abandoned woman----" + +"Stop!" interrupted Cordula, whose lips and cheeks had again grown +colourless. "Do not mention those scenes which have poisoned my soul. +It was too hideous, too terrible! And how the woman with the red band +around her neck, the mark of the rope by which she carried the stone, +rushed at the other whose eye had been put out! how they fought on the +floor, scratching, biting, tearing each other's hair----" + +Here the tender-hearted girl, covering her convulsed face with her hands, +sobbed aloud. + +Frau Christine drew her compassionately to her heart, pressed the +motherless child's head to her bosom, and let her weep her fill there, +whilst the magistrate said to Sir Boemund: "And Eva Ortlieb also +witnessed this hideous scene, yet the delicate young creature +endured it?" + +Altrosen nodded assent, adding eagerly, as if some memory rose vividly +before him: "She often looked distressed by these horrors, but usually-- +how shall I express it?--usually calm and content." + +"Content," repeated the magistrate thoughtfully. Then, suddenly +straightening his short, broad figure, he thrust his little fat hand into +a fold of the knight's doublet, exclaiming: "Boemund, do you want to know +the most difficult riddle that the Lord gives to us men to solve? It is +--take heed--a woman's soul." + +"Yes," replied Altrosen curtly; the word sounded like a sigh. + +While speaking, his dark eye was bent on Cordula, whose head still rested +on Frau Christine's breast. + +Then, adjusting the bandage which since the fire had been wound around +his forehead and his dark hair, he continued in a tone of explanation: +"Count von Montfort sent me, when it grew dark, to accompany his daughter +home. From your little castle I was directed to the hospital, where I +found her amongst the horrible women. She had struggled faithfully +against her loathing and disgust, but when I arrived her power of +resistance was already beginning to fail. Fortunately the sedan-chair +was there, for she felt that her feet would scarcely carry her back. I +ordered one to be prepared for Jungfrau Ortlieb, though I remembered the +dying woman who kept her. As if the matter were some easy task, she +begged the countess to excuse her, and remained beside the wretched straw +pallet." + +The deeply agitated girl had just released herself from the matron's +embrace, and begged the knight to have her Roland saddled; but Frau +Christine stopped him, and entreated Cordula, for her sake, to use her +sedan-chair instead of the horse. + +"If it will gratify you," replied the countess smiling; "but I should +reach home safely on the piebald." + +"Who doubts it?" asked the matron. "Give her your arm, husband. The +bearers are ready, and you will soon overtake them on your horse, +Boemund." + +"The walk through the warm June night will do me good," the latter +protested. + +Soon after the sedan-chair which conveyed Cordula, lighted by several +torch-bearers on foot and on horseback, began to move towards the city. + +At St. Linhard, Boemund Altrosen, who walked beside it, asked the +question, "Then I may hope, Countess? I really may?" + +She nodded affectionately, and answered under her breath: "You may; but +we must first try whether the flower of love which blossomed for you out +of my weakness is the real one. I believe it will be." + +He joyously raised her hand to his lips, but a torch-bearer's shout--" +Count von Montfort and his train!"--urged him back from the sedan chair. +A few seconds after Cordula welcomed her father, who had anxiously ridden +forth to meet his jewel. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +"I can hardly do more, and yet I must," groaned Frau Christine, as she +gazed after the torch-bearers who preceded Cordula. Her husband, +however, tried to detain her, offering to go to their young guest in her +place. + +But the effort was vain. The motherless child, whom the captive father +probably believed to be in safety with her sensible sister, was at a post +of danger, and only a woman's eye could judge whether it would do to +yield to Eva's wish, which the housekeeper had just told her mistress, +and allow her--it was already past midnight-to remain longer at the +hospital. + +She would not have hesitated to require her niece's return home had not +maternal solicitude urged her to deprive her of nothing which could aid +her troubled soul to regain its poise. If possible at all, it would be +through devotion to an arduous work of charity that she would understand +her own nature, and find an answer to the question whether, when the +slanderers were silenced, she would take the veil or cling firmly to the +hopeless love which had mastered her young heart. + +If she succeeded in remaining steadfast here and, in spite of the glad +consciousness of having conquered by the sign of the cross, was still +loyal to her worldly love, then the latter was genuine and strong, and +Eva did not belong to the convent; then her sister, the abbess, was +mistaken in the girl whose soul she had guided from early childhood. + +Frau Christine, who usually formed an opinion quickly and resolutely, had +not dared to give Eva a positive answer the previous evening. + +With sympathising emotion the matron had heard her confess that during +her nocturnal wanderings a new feeling, which she could no longer still, +had awakened in her breast. When she also told her the image of true +love which she had formed, she could not bring herself to undeceive her. + +The abbess had made a somewhat similar confession to her, the older +sister, when her young heart--how long ago it seemed!--had also been +mastered by love. The object of its ardent passion was no less a +personage than the Burgrave von Zollern. + +Frau Christine had seen his marriage with the Hapsburg princess awaken +her sister's desire to renounce the world. Kunigunde was then a maiden +of rare, majestic beauty, and only the Burgrave's exalted station had +prevented his wedding "Eva," as she was called before she took the veil. + +As a husband and father, he had found deep happiness in the love of the +Countess Elizabeth, the future Emperor Rudolph's sister, yet he had +remained a warm friend of the abbess; and when he treated Eva with such +marked distinction at the dance, she owed it not only to her own charms +but also to the circumstance that, like the girl whom he had loved in his +youth, she bore the name of "Eva Ortlieb," and the expression of her eyes +vividly recalled the happiest time in his life. + +The abbess, after a still more severe renunciation, had attained even +greater happiness in the convent. Her sister could not blame her for +wishing the same lot for the devout young niece, whose fate seemed to +bear a closer and closer resemblance to her own; but yesterday she had +argued with her, for Kunigunde had insisted firmly that if the girl did +not voluntarily knock at the convent door she should be forced to enter, +not only for her own sake but also Sir Heinz Schorlin's. Nothing could +rouse the ire of every true Christian more than the thought that a noble +knight, for whose conversion Heaven had wrought a miracle, could turn a +deaf ear to the summons for the sake of a girl scarcely beyond childhood. +To place convent walls between the pair would therefore be a work +pleasing in the sight of God-nay, necessary for the example. + +This statement sounded so resolute and imperative that Frau Christine, +who knew her sister's gentle nature, had been convinced that she was +obeying the mandate of a superior. Soon afterward she learned that +Kunigunde had followed the dictates of the zealous prior of the +Dominicans, who was regarded as the supreme judge in religious affairs. +At a chance meeting she had imprudently asked this man, who had never +been friendly to her or her order, to give his opinion concerning this +matter, which gave her no rest. + +Frau Christine had eagerly opposed her. The case of Heinz Schorlin was +different from that of the Burgrave Frederick, who could never be +permitted to wed the daughter of a Nuremberg merchant. If the Swiss +renounced his intention of entering the monastery, there was nothing to +prevent his wooing Eva. It should by no means be as the prior of the +Dominicans had said: "They must both renounce the world," but, "They must +test themselves, and if the world holds them firmly, and the Emperor, who +is a fatherly friend to Heinz, makes no objection, it would be a duty to +unite the pair." + +The decisive hour for Eva was now at hand, and Fran Christine, eager to +learn in what condition she should find her niece, had herself carried to +the hospital. + +Her husband and several men-servants accompanied her, for at this late +hour the neighbourhood, where so many criminals were nursed for a short +time, was by no means safe. Companions, friends, and relatives of the +criminals were often attracted thither by sympathy, curiosity, or +business affairs. Whoever had occasion to shun appearing by daylight in +a place which never lacked bailiffs and city soldiers, slunk to the +hospital at night. + +As a heavy rain had just begun to fall, the short distance to be +traversed by the magistrate and his wife was empty. Ample provision also +seemed to have been made to guard the place of healing, for several armed +troopers belonging to the city guard were pacing up and down before he +board fence which surrounded it, and the approach of the late visitors +was heralded by the deep baying of large hounds. + +The magistrate was well known here, and the doorkeeper, roused from his +sleep, hastened to light the way for him and his wife with a lantern. +In spite of the planks which had been placed in he courtyard, the task of +crossing it was by no means easy; for the night was intensely dark, and +the foot passed beyond the boards, it plunged into the mire, on which +they floated rather than lay. + +At first the barking of the dogs had drowned very other sound, but as +they approached the house thatched with straw, where the wounded men were +nursed, harsh voices, interrupted at times by the angry oaths of some +patient roused from sleep, or the watchman's command to keep quiet, +reached them in a loud uproar. + +A narrow passage dimly lighted by a lantern led to the women's quarters, +where Eva had remained. The magistrate entered the men's dormitory to +make an inspection, while his wife, needing no guidance, passed on to the +women, meeting no one on her way except a Sister of Charity and two men- +servants who, under the guidance of a sleepy Dominican monk, were bearing +out the corpse of some one who had just passed away. + +Sister Hildegard, who was sitting at the door of the dormitory, half +asleep, started up as Frau Christine crossed the threshold. + +The knight's widow, a vigorous matron, whose hair had long been grey, +pointed with the rosary in her hand to the end of the long, dimly lighted +apartment, and said in a low tone: "The sick woman seems to be asleep +now. The prior sent the old Dominican to whom Eva is talking. He is +said to be the most learned and eloquent member of the order. If I am +right, he came here to appeal to your niece's conscience. At least his +first question was for her, and you see how eagerly he is speaking. When +yonder sick woman seemed to be drawing near her end she asked for the +sacrament, which was administered by the Dominican. It was a sorrowful +farewell on account of her children, but the barber thinks we may perhaps +save her yet. Father Benedictus, the old Minorite, who was found on the +road and brought to us, seems, on the other hand, to be dying. We will +gladly keep him in the Beguines home until the angel summons him. +Unfortunately, yonder poor woman's third day will end tomorrow. We are +not permitted to shelter her here any longer, and if we turn her out--" + +"What is the matter with the woman?" interrupted Frau Christine, but the +other gazed into her face with warm sympathising affection and such +tender entreaty that the magistrate's wife, before she began her reply, +exclaimed: "So it is the old, pitiful story! But let her stay! Yes, +even though, instead of every pound of farthings, she cost us ten times +as much in gold! But we will spare what is necessary for her. I see by +your face that it will not be wasted." + +"Certainly not," replied Sister Hildegard gratefully. "Oh, how she came +here! Now, it is true, she has more than she needs. Your dear niece-- +she is an angel of charity--sent her Katterle out to get what was wanted. +But where is the girl? "She gazed around the spacious chamber as she +spoke, but could not find Katterle. + +True, a dim light pervaded the whole apartment, and Sister Hildegard, +referring to it, added "The light keeps many of the patients awake, and +we have a better use for the pennies which the oil and chips cost. When +there are brilliant entertainments to be given, or works of mercy done +which the whole world sees, the Honourables let their gold flow freely +enough, but who beholds the abodes of horror? We look best in the dark, +and no one will miss what we save in light." + +Certainly no one present incurred any danger of seeing at this hour the +pitiable spectacles visible by day; for what was occurring at the +opposite end of the room could not be perceived from the door. So when +it closed Eva could not distinguish who had entered. + +But this was agreeable to Frau Christine; for before going to her niece +she wished to inquire about the woman by whom she had been detained. + +Like the others, she was lying upon the board platform which surrounded +the four walls of the room, interrupted only by the door through which +she had just passed. It rose in a slanting direction towards the wall, +that the sufferers' heads might be higher than their feet. Instead of +cushions, it was covered with a thick layer of straw, the beds of the +patients who were nursed here. It seemed to be changed very rarely, for +especially near the door at which the two women were still standing a +damp, unpleasant odour emanated from the straw. It belonged here, +however, as feathers are a part of birds, and the people who were nursed +within its walls were accustomed to nothing better. When, fifteen years +before, the oversight of the hospital was entrusted to Frau Christine, +she had found the condition of affairs still worse, and the idea of +procuring beds for the injured persons to be cured here was as far from +her thoughts, or those of the rest of the world, as cushioning the +stable. + +That was the way things were at Schweinau. Straw of all sorts might be +expected to be found here, not only on the wooden platform but on the +floor, in the yard, and everywhere else, as surely as leaves upon the +ground of a wood in the autumn. To leave the house without taking stalks +in the hair and garments was as impossible as for any person accustomed +to better conditions, who did not wish to faint from discomfort, to do +without a scent bottle. + +Formerly Frau Christine had endeavoured to obtain better air, but even +her kind-hearted husband had laughed at the foolish idea, because such +things would benefit only herself and some of the nurses. In the taverns +usually frequented by the inmates of the hospital they learned to endure +a different atmosphere, which was stifling to him. + +After contagious diseases certain precautions were always taken. On +Sunday morning it was even fumigated with juniper-berries on hot tin and +boiling vinegar. + +Frau Christine had introduced this disinfectant herself by the advice of +Otto the leech, when all who had been brought hither with open wounds, +among them vigorous young men, had died like flies. At that time the +distinguished physician had even succeeded in getting the Honourable +Council to defray the cost of having the walls newly white washed and +fresh clay stamped on the floor. He had also directed that the old straw +should be replaced by clean every Sunday morning, and now matters were +better still, for the rule was that every sick person should have a fresh +layer. True, it was not always fulfilled, and many a person was forced +to be content with his predecessor's couch. + +In the women's room, however, the change of straw was more rigidly +required. The nurse herself attended to it, and Sister Hildegard gave +her energetic assistance. + +In difficult cases the influence of the leech Otto was called to her aid, +but he had grown old and no longer came to Schweinau. Two barbers now +cared for the bandaging and healing of the wounds, and if they were at a +loss the younger city physician was summoned. + +Sister Hildegard now pointed to the couch beside which the Dominican was +talking to Eva, and said: "She is the widow of a carrier and the child of +worthy people; her father was the sexton of St. Sebald's. True, he died +long ago, at the same time as her mother. It was twelve years since, +during the plague. + +"Reicklein, yonder, had no other relatives here--her parents were from +Bamberg--but she was well off, and her husband, Veit, earned enough by +his travels through the country. But on St. Blaise's day, early in the +month of February, during a trip to Vogtland, it was at Hof, he was +overtaken by a snowstorm, and the worthy man was found frozen under a +drift, with his staff and pouch. The sad news reached her just after the +birth of a little boy, and there were two other mouths to feed besides. +Her savings went quickly enough, and she fell into dire poverty, for she +had not yet recovered her strength, and could not do housework. During +Passion Week she sold her bed to pay what she had borrowed and to feed +the children. It was cold, she had not a copper, nor any possibility of +earning anything. Then the rest went, too, and there was no way of +getting food enough for the children and herself. + +"But as her father had been in the employ of the city and was an honest +man, by the advice of the provost of St. Sebald's, who had been her +confessor from childhood, she applied to the Honourable Council, and +received the answer that old Hans Schab was by no means forgotten, and +therefore, to relieve her need, she was referred to the beadle, who would +give her the permit which enabled her to ask alms from those who went to +St. Sebald's Church, and had already afforded many a person ample +support. + +"For her children's sake she crushed the pride which rebelled against it, +and stood at the church door, not once, but again and again. The other +mendicants, however, treated her so roughly, and the cruel enmity with +which they tried to crowd her out of her place seemed so unbearable, that +she could not hold out. Once, when they insulted her too much, and again +thrust her back so spitefully that not even one of the many churchgoers +noticed her, she, fled to her children in the little room, determined to +stop this horrible begging. This happened the Saturday before +Whitsuntide, and as she had gone out hoping this time to bring something +back, she had promised the children food enough to satisfy their hunger. +They should have some Whitsuntide cakes, too, as they did years ago. +When she reached the house and little Walpurga--you'll see her presently, +a pretty child six years old--ran to meet her, asking for the cakes and +the bread to satisfy her hunger, while Annelein, who is somewhat older, +but less bright and active, did the same, she felt as if she should die, +and carrying the baby, which she had held in her arms while begging at +the church door, back into the room, she told Walpurga to watch it, as +she had long been in the habit of doing, until she came back with the +bread. + +"For the children's sake she would try begging once more, but she could +not go to St. Sebald's. + +"So she went from house to house, asking alms; but she was a well-formed +woman, who did not show her serious illness. She kept herself tidy, +too, and looked better in her poor rags than many who were better off. +Had she carried her nursing infant, perhaps she might have succeeded +better, but even the most compassionate housewives either turned her from +their doors or offered her work at the wash-tub, or in cleaning or +gardening. The weakness from which she had suffered since the birth of +her child made stooping so painful that she could not do what they +required. + +"When she was at last obliged to turn homeward, because the baby had +probably been screaming for her a long time, she had only one small +copper coin, with which she went to the baker Kilian's, in the +Stopfelgasse, to ask for a penny's worth of bread. The baker's wife was +not there, and her spinster sister-in-law, an elderly, ill-natured woman, +was serving the customers in her place. + +"As she turned to cut the bit of bread, and all sorts of nice sweet cakes +lay on the shining counters before poor Riecklein, the children seemed to +stand before her, headed by Walpurga, asking for the cakes and the bread +she had promised them to eat their fill; and as no one was passing in the +quiet street, Satan stirred within her for the first time, and a sweet +jumble slid into the little basket on her arm. Had she stopped there she +might have escaped unpunished; but there were two hungry little beaks +agape in the nest, and she saw a pretty lamb with a little red flag on +its back. If Walpurga could only have it! And with the clumsiness due +to her inexperience in such matters she seized that, too, and put it with +the other. + +"Meanwhile the sister-in-law had turned, and instead of enquiring at a +time so near the holy feast what had induced her to commit such a crime, +she shrieked, "Stop thief!" and similar cries. + +"So the widow was taken to the Hole, and as she had hitherto borne an +unsullied reputation and was the child of a good man, justice allowed +itself to be satisfied with having her scourged with rods privately +instead of in public. So she came here. But as her poor body was too +fragile to withstand all the trouble which had come upon her, she had a +violent attack of fever, and a few hours ago death stretched its hand +towards her." + +"And the children?" asked Frau Christine, deeply moved. + +"She was allowed to have the baby," answered Sister Hildegard, "but she +told us about the others and their desolate condition. In the delirium +of fever she saw them stealing and the constable seizing them. Then your +Eva encouraged me to send for them by promising to provide their food. +So they came here. The worker on cloth from whom she rented her little +room had helped them, and it was from her that Sister Pauline, whom I +sent there, first learned that Walpurga, for whose sake she had so sadly +forgotten her duty, was not even her own child, but an adopted one whom +her late husband, on one of his trips, had found abandoned on the +highroad at Vierzehnheiligen, beside an image of the Virgin, and brought +home with him." + +Here Sister Hildegard paused, and Frau Christine also remained silent a +long time. + +Yet, it was horrible here, and the air was impure; but had Countess +Cordula looked more closely she would probably have seen one of the +beautiful flowers which often bloomed amidst all the weeds, the poisonous +and parasitic vegetation. + +Eva was right to pity this woman, and if her life could be saved she +herself would relieve her necessities and secure her children's future. +She silently made this resolve whilst the Sister led the way to the couch +of the scourged thief. The unfortunate woman should learn that God often +compels us to traverse the roughest and stoniest paths in the wilderness +ere he leads us into the Promised Land. + +Eva was so deeply absorbed in her conversation with the Dominican that +she did not see her aunt until she stood before her. + +They greeted each other with a silent nod, and a smile of satisfaction +flitted over the girl's face as she motioned to the sleeper whose slumber +she was watching. + +The young mother's pretty face still glowed with the flush of fever. One +arm clasped the baby, which lay amidst the white linen Katterle had just +brought. He was a pretty child, who showed no traces of the poverty in +which he had been reared. Beside the widow were two little girls about +six years old. The one at the left was sound asleep, with her head +resting on her little fat arm. The other, at the sick woman's right, +pressed her fair head upon her breast. Her slumber was very light, and +she often opened her large, blue eyes and gazed with touching anxiety at +the sick woman. This was the adopted child, Walpurga, and never had the +matron beheld amongst the poor and suffering so lovely a human flower as +this little six-year-old child, struggling with sleep in her affectionate +desire to render aid. The other little girl's free hand also touched her +mother, and thus these four, united in poverty and sorrow, but also in +love, seemed to form a single whole. What a peaceful, charming picture! + +Frau Christine gazed with earnest sympathy at each member of this group. +How well-formed was every one! how pure and innocent the features of the +children looked! how kind and loving those of the suffering mother, who +was a thief, and whose tender back had felt the scourge of the +executioner! + +The thought made her shudder. But when little Walpurga, half asleep, +raised her tiny hand and lovingly stroked the wounded shoulder of her +adopted mother, the matron, as usual when anything pleasant moved her +heart, longed to have her husband at her side. How easily, since he was +so near, she could afford him a sight of this touching picture! It +should prove that she had been right to let Eva remain here. + +Faithful to her custom of permitting no delay in the execution of a good +resolution, she wanted to send Katterle to call her husband, but the girl +could not be found. + +Then Frau Christine went herself, beckoning to Eva to follow; but they +had scarcely reached the centre of the room when a peal of shrill +laughter greeted them from a couch on the left. + +The person from whom it came was the barber's widow, whose attack had +alarmed Eva so terribly the day before in front of the pillory. It +pealed loudly and shrilly through the stillness of the night, and when +the matron turned angrily to reprove the person who so inconsiderately +disturbed the rest of the others, the woman clapped her hands and +instantly a chorus of sharp, screaming voices rose around her. The +barber's widow, who knew everybody who lived in Nuremberg, had recognised +the magistrate's wife at her entrance, and secretly incited her +neighbours to follow her example and, as soon as she gave the signal, +demand better fare and make Frau Christine, the patroness of the +hospital, feel what they thought of the cruelty of her husband, who had +delivered them to the executioner. + +The female thieves and swindlers-in short, all the reprobate women around +Frau Ratzer, whose feet had just been tied on account of her unruly +behaviour in the Countess von Montfort's presence--obeyed her signal, +and the fierce voices raised in demand and invective woke those who were +sleeping farther away. Weeping, wailing, and screaming they started up, +clamouring to know what danger threatened them, whilst Frau Ratzer and +her fellow-conspirators shrieked for beer or wine instead of water, for +meat with the black bread and wretched broth and, yelling and howling, +bade the patroness tell her husband that they thought him a brute and a +bloodhound. + +There was a hideous, confused, ear-splitting din, which threatened +serious consequences, for some of the women, leaving their straw beds, +hastened towards the door or surrounded Frau Christine and Eva with +uplifted fists and threatening nails. + +The warning voices of the matrons, to whose aid the Beguines had +hastened, were drowned by the uproar, but the danger which specially +threatened Eva, whom the barber's widow pointed out to her neighbour who +had stolen a child to train it to beg, was soon ended, for the wild cries +had reached the men's building, from which Herr Berthold Pfinzing came +hurrying in, accompanied by the superintendent, his assistants, and +several monks. + +If the women reproached the magistrate, who in reality was a lenient +judge, with being a cruel tyrant, they were now to learn that he +certainly did not lack uncompromising energy. The unpleasant position +in which he found his wife and his beloved godchild did not incline him +to gentleness. He would have liked to have tied the hands of all these +women, most of whom had forfeited the consideration due their sex. This +was really done to the most unruly, while the barber's widow was carried +to the prison-chamber, which the hospital did not lack. + +After quiet was at last restored and Frau Christine had told her husband +that she had been attacked while on her way to show him a delightful +scene in the midst of all this terrible misery, he angrily exclaimed: +"A magnificent picture! Balm for the eyes and ears of your own brother's +virginal daughter! The saints be praised that you both escaped so +easily. Can there be in the worst hell anything more horrible than what +has just been witnessed here? Really, where a Countess Cordula cannot +endure----" + +Here Frau Christine soothingly interrupted her irate husband, and so +great was her influence over him, that his tone sounded like friendly +encouragement as he added: "You wanted to show me something special, but +I was detained over there. Though it was late, I wanted to see the +worthy fellow again. What a man he is! I mean Sir Heinz Schorlin's +squire." + +"Poor Biberli?" asked Eva eagerly; and there was a faint tone of reproach +in her voice as she continued, "You promised to look after him." + +"So I did, child," the magistrate protested. "But justice must take its +course, and the rack is part of the examination by torture. He might +easily have lost his tongue, and if his master doesn't return soon and +another accuser should appear, who knows what will happen!" + +"But that must not, shall not be!" cried Eva, the old defiance echoing +imperiously in her voice. "Heinz Schorlin--you said so yourself--would +not plead in vain for mercy to the Emperor; and before I will see the +faithful fellow----" + +"Gently, child," whispered Frau Christine to her niece, laying her hand +on her arm, but the magistrate, shaking his finger at her, answered +soothingly: "Jungfrau Ortlieb would rather thrust her own little feet +into the Spanish boot. Be comforted! The three pairs we have are all +too large to squeeze them." + +Eva lowered her eyes in embarrassment, and exclaimed in a modest, +beseeching tone: "But, uncle, do not you, too, feel that it would be +cruel and unjust to make this honest fellow a cripple in return for his +faithful services?" + +"I do feel it," answered Herr Berthold, his face assuming an expression +of regret; "and for that very reason I ventured to take a girl over whom +I have no authority out of her service." + +"Katterle?" asked Eva anxiously. + +Her uncle nodded assent, adding: "First hear what interested me so +quickly in the strange fellow. At the first charge, which merely accused +him of having carried a message of love from his master to Jungfrau +Ortlieb, I interceded for him, and yesterday the other magistrates, to +whom I had explained the case, joined me. So he escaped with a sentence +of exile from the city for five years. I hoped it would not be necessary +to present the second accusation, for it was signed by no name, but +merely bore three crosses, and for a long time most of the magistrates, +following my example, have considered such things as treacherous attacks +made by cowards who shun the light of day; but it was impossible to +suppress it entirely, because the law commands me to withhold no +complaint made to the court. So it was read aloud, and Hans Teufel's +motion to let it drop without any action met with no approval, warmly as +I supported it. + +"We must not blame the gentlemen. They all wish to act for your benefit, +and desire nothing except a clear understanding of this vexatious +business. But in that indictment Biberli was charged with having forced +his way into an Honourable's house at night to obtain admittance for his +master. In collusion with a maid-servant he was also said to have +maintained the love correspondence between Herr Ernst Ortlieb's two +daughters, a Swiss knight, and Boemund Altrosen." + +"Infamous!" cried Eva. "What, in the name of all the saints, have we to +do with Altrosen? "You certainly have very little," replied Frau +Christine, "but the Ortlieb mansion has all the more. To-night he will +again be seen before its door, and if still later he appears with his +lute under Countess Cordula's windows and is heard singing to her, it +wouldn't surprise me." + +"And people," exclaimed Eva with increasing indignation, "will add +another link to the chain of slander. If a Vorkler and her companions +repeat the calumny, who can wonder? But that the magistrates should +believe such shameful things about the brothers of their own fellow- +member----" + +"It was precisely because they do not believe it and wish to keep you +away from the court," her uncle interrupted, "that they insisted upon the +examination. They desired to show the people by their verdict and the +severity of the procedures how thoroughly in earnest they were. But +whilst I was compelled to absent myself an hour because the Emperor +wished to inspect the new towers on the city wall, and I had to attend +him in the character of showman, they sentenced the poor fellow, since +his loose tongue had brought the whole rout and rabble against him, to +torture so severe that I shuddered when told of it." + +"And Biberli?" asked Eva, trembling with suspense. + +"All honour is due the man!" cried Herr Berthold, raising his cap. "The +rods scourged his fettered limbs, his thumbs were pressed in the screws, +bound to the ladder, he was dragged over the larded hare---" + +"Oh, hush!" cried Fran Christine with uplifted hands, and her husband +nodded understandingly. Then, with a faint sigh, he added: + +"Why should I torture you with these horrors? Nothing was spared him. +Yet the worthy fellow stuck to his statement that he had accompanied his +master to your house in the full moonlight to take a somnambulist who had +wandered out of the open door back to her friends. Sir Heinz Schorlin +had met Jungfrau Ortlieb only once--at the dance in the Town Hall. +Though he had sometimes appeared before her father's house, it was not +on account of Herr Ernst's daughters, but--and this was an allusion to +Cordula von Montfort--for the sake of another lady. + +"After the lightning had killed his master's horse under him he had +avoided every woman, because he wished to enter a monastery. He could +prove all these statements by many witnesses. Yesterday he named them, +and Count Gleichen and his retainers appeared with several others. The +Minorite Benedictus was vainly sought at the Franciscans." + +"He is here in the house of the Beguines," replied Frau Christine, "and +weak as he is, he will have strength enough to make a deposition in the +knight's favour." + +The magistrate said that this might be necessary if a new charge were +brought against the servitor, Katterle, and perhaps even Sir Heinz +Schorlin himself. Rarely had he seen a bad cause maintained with so much +obstinacy. The complainants had witnesses who testified under oath what +they had heard in taverns and tap-rooms from Sir Seitz Siebenburg and +those who repeated his tales. Their examination had lasted a long time, +and what they alleged was as absurd as possible, yet for that very reason +difficult to refute. These depositions had aided the cause of the +accused, but in consequence of such numerous charges many questions of +course were put to Biberli, and thus the torture had been cruelly +increased and prolonged. + +Here Eva interrupted the speaker with another outburst of indignation, +but he only shrugged his shoulders pityingly, saying: "Gently, child! +A shoemaker who recently upbraided the 'Honourables' for something +similar was publicly scourged, and if cruelties have been practised here +it is the fault of the law, not of the judges. But worse yet may come, +if the pack is not silenced by a higher will." + +"The Emperor?" asked the girl with quivering lips. + +"Yes, child," was the reply, "and your old godfather had thought of +bringing this evil cause before our royal master. He gladly exercises +mercy, but only after carefully investigating the pros and cons. In this +case there is but one person in whom he has full confidence, and who is +also in a position to tell him the exact truth." + +"Heinz Schorlin!" cried Eva. "He must be informed at once, without +delay." + +"Certainly," replied Herr Pfinzing quietly. "And since, as the uncle and +godfather of Jungfrau Eva, who would have gladly undertaken the ride, I +could not order her horse to be saddled, I sent some one else whose heart +also will point out the way." + +"Uncle!" Eva eagerly interrupted, raising her clasped hands in gratitude. +"But whom can you----" + +Here she hesitated, then suddenly exclaimed as if sure of her point: "Oh, +I know the messenger, Countess von Montfort----" + +"You've aimed too high," replied Herr Berthold smiling, "yet I think the +choice was no worse. Your maid, child, the poor fellow's sweetheart." + +Frau Christine and Eva, in the same breath, uttered an exclamation of +surprise and assent, and both asked how the magistrate had chanced to +select her. + +A waggon from Schwabach, which happened opportunely to be on its way to +Siebenburg, had brought Biberli to Schweinau on its homeward trip, just +before the magistrate and his wife reached the hospital. + +Katterle had been present when the tortured man was brought out and laid +upon his couch of straw. + +She did not recognise him until, with pathetic reproach, he called her +by name and, horrified by the spectacle he presented, she fell upon her +knees. But the couch at her side had already been prepared for him, and +she did not need to rise again in order to stroke him, comfort him, and +promise not to desert him, even if he should be a miserable cripple for +life. + +When the magistrate approached the couple, to offer Biberli his friendly +aid, the latter faltered that he had only one desire--to see his beloved +master once more. Besides, his case was hopeless unless the knight +obtained a pardon for him from the Emperor Rudolph, for his persecutors +would not cease their pursuit of him, and he could not endure the torture +a second time. + +Here the magistrate paused in his narrative, for he thought of an +incident which he was reluctant to mention in the presence of the +Dominican who had administered the sacrament to the suffering widow and +now joined the group of listeners. This was, that a member of the +latter's order had approached Biberli and exhorted him not to fear +another examination by torture, for the Lord gave the innocent strength +to maintain the truth even under the keenest suffering. A peculiar smile +hovered around the lips of the poor tortured fellow, which Herr Berthold +fully understood; for the brave servitor had by no means stuck to the +truth during the pangs inflicted upon him. + +"Oh, my dear ones," Herr Pfinzing continued, "a harder heart than mine +would have been touched by what I saw and heard beside that couch of +straw when I was left alone with poor Biberli and his sweetheart. If you +could have seen how Katterle threw herself upon her lover after I had +told her that even the most agonizing torture could not force him to +confirm the charge which had been brought against her! Rarely does one +mortal pour forth such a flood of ardent gratitude upon another; and when +Biberli repeated that his dear master's help would be necessary to +protect her and him from another examination, she offered to go in search +of him at once, notwithstanding the rain and the darkness. + +"Then I thought that no messenger could be found who was more familiar +with the course of affairs, and at the same time inspired with more +loving zeal. So, as the waggon in which Biberli had come was still +waiting outside, I spoke to the carter, who had brought a load of wheat +to Nuremberg, and now, on his way home, had ample room under the tilt. +I knew the man, and we soon came to an agreement. From Schwabach, his +brother, who knows every foot of the road, will take her to the imperial +troops who are fighting with the Siebenburgs. I undertook to arrange +with you for her absence. She is now rolling along in the old carter +Apel's waggon towards Schwabach and Sir Heinz Schorlin." + +Hitherto the magistrate had maintained his composure, but now his deep +voice lost its firmness, and it was neither the loving words of +appreciation whispered by his wife nor the gratitude which Eva tenderly +displayed that checked his speech, but the remembrance of the parting +between the man so cruelly tortured and his sweetheart. + +Biberli had hoped that she would nurse him; the sight of her would have +cheered his eyes and heart, yet he sent her out into darkness and danger. +Gratitude and love, the consciousness that just now she could be of +infinite importance to him and do much for him, bound her to his couch +like so many fetters, yet she had gone, and had even assumed the +appearance of doing so willingly and being confident of success. + +How their faces had brightened when the magistrate told them that his +wife and Eva would take charge of him, and he himself would see that he +had a better bed! + +Biberli murmured sadly: "Straw and I have been used to each other in many +a tavern, but now a somewhat softer couch might be of service, for +wherever my racked body was touched I believe there would be something +out of joint." + +Herr Berthold had no reason to be ashamed of his emotion, for he had +learned from the barber that the poor fellow had by no means exaggerated, +and, as a witness of part of the torture, he knew that even the most +cruel anguish had not conquered the faithful Biberli's firm resolve to +bring neither his master nor his sweetheart before the judge. + +In recalling this noble act of the lowly servitor he grew eloquent, and +described minutely what the poor fellow had suffered, and how, after +Katterle had left him, he lay motionless, with his thin, pale face +irradiated by a grateful smile. + +The women, too, and the monk AEgidius, an old Minorite, who had been +watching beside the aged Brother of his order, Benedictus, and had just +joined them, shed tears at his story; but Eva, from the very depths of +her soul, exclaimed aloud, "Happy is he who is permitted to endure such +tortures for love's sake!" + +The others gazed in surprise at the young girl who, with her clasped +hands pressed upon her heaving bosom, and her large eyes uplifted, looked +as if she beheld heaven opening before her. + +The old Minorite's heart swelled at this confession and the sight of the +maiden. Thus, though far less richly endowed with the divine gift of +beauty, he had seen St. Clare absorbed in prayer. The words uttered by +the fresh lips of this favoured girl, whom he beheld for the first time, +expressed a feeling which might guide her into the path of the Holy +Martyrs and, filled with pious enthusiasm, he approached, drew her +clasped hands away from her breast, pressed them in his own and, +remembering what the Abbess Kunigunde had told him yesterday beside +the couch of Benedictus concerning her severe conflict, exclaimed: + +"Whoever said that, knows the words of Holy Writ which promise the crown +of eternal life to those who are faithful unto death. Obey the voice, +my child, which unites you to those who are called. St. Clare herself +summons you to her heavenly home." + +The others listened to the old monk in silence. Eva slightly shook her +head. But when the disappointed Minorite released her hands she clasped +his thin one, saying modestly: "How could I be worthy of so sublime a +promise? The poor servant on his straw bed, with his T and St +embroidered on cap and cloak, of whom my uncle told us, has a tenfold +greater claim, I think, to the crown of life, for which, as yet, I have +been permitted to do so little. But I hope to win it, and the saint who +calls everything that breathes and lives brothers and sisters, as +children of the same exalted Father, cannot teach that the fidelity shown +in the world deserves less reward than that of the chosen ones in the +convent." + +"That is a foolish and sacrilegious opinion," answered the Dominican +sternly. "We will take care, my dear daughter, to guide your soul from +pathless wandering into the right path which Holy Church has marked out +for you." + +He turned his back upon the group as he spoke, but the grey-haired +Minorite, smiling sadly, turned to Eva, saying: "I cannot contradict him. +Fidelity to those whom we love, my child, is far less meritorious than +that which we show to Heaven. To you, daughter, its doors have already +opened. How strong must be the pleasure felt by the children of the +world in this brief earthly happiness, since they are so ready to +sacrifice for it the certainty of eternal bliss! Your error will grieve +the abbess and Father Benedictus." + +With these words he, too, took his leave, but Frau Christine whispered to +her niece: "These monks are not the Holy Church to which we both belong +as obedient daughters. To my poor mind and heart it seems as if the +Saviour would deem you right." + +"Amen," added the magistrate, who had heard his wife's murmured words. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +False praise, he says, weighs more heavily than disgrace + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIRE OF THE FORGE, BY EBERS, V7 *** + +********** This file should be named 5549.txt or 5549.zip ********** + +This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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