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+The Project Gutenberg EBook Fire Of The Forge, by Georg Ebers, Entire
+#112 in our series by Georg Ebers
+
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+Title: In The Fire Of The Forge, Complete
+
+Author: Georg Ebers
+
+Release Date: April, 2004  [EBook #5551]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on July 26, 2002]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIRE OF THE FORGE, BY EBERS, ALL ***
+
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+
+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, Complete
+
+A ROMANCE OF OLD NUREMBERG
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+Volume 1.
+
+Translated from the German by Mary J. Safford
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+On the eve of St. Medard's Day in the year 1281, the moon, which had just
+risen, was shining brightly upon the imperial free city of Nuremberg; its
+rays found their way into the street leading from the strong Marienthurm
+to the Frauenthor, but entrance to the Ortlieb mansion was barred by a
+house, a watchtower, and--most successfully of all--by a tall linden
+tree.  Yet there was something to be seen here which even now, when
+Nuremberg sheltered the Emperor Rudolph and so many secular and
+ecclesiastical princes, counts, and knights, awakened Luna's curiosity.
+True, this something had naught in common with the brilliant spectacles
+of which there was no lack during this month of June; on the contrary, it
+was very quiet here.  An imperial command prohibited the soldiery from
+moving about the city at night, and the Frauenthor, through which during
+the day plenty of people and cattle passed in and out had been closed
+long before.  Very few of the worthy burghers--who went to bed betimes
+and rose so early that they rarely had leisure to enjoy the moonlight
+long--passed here at this hour.  The last one, an honest master weaver,
+had moved with a very crooked gait.  As he saw the moon double--like
+everything else around and above him--he had wondered whether the man up
+there had a wife.  He expected no very pleasant reception from his own at
+home.  The watchman, who--the moon did not exactly know why--lingered a
+short time in front of the Ortlieb mansion, followed the burgher.  Then
+came a priest who, with the sacristan and several lantern bearers, was
+carrying the sacrament to a dying man in St. Clarengasse.
+
+There was usually more to be seen at this hour on the other side of the
+city--the northwestern quarter--where the fortress rose on its hill,
+dominating the Thiergartenthor at its foot; for the Emperor Rudolph
+occupied the castle, and his brother-in-law, Burgrave Friedrich von
+Zollern, his own residence.  This evening, however, there was little
+movement even there; the Emperor and his court, the Burgrave and his
+train, with all the secular and ecclesiastical princes, counts, and
+knights, had gone to the Town Hall with their ladies.  High revel was
+held there, and inspiring music echoed through the open windows of the
+spacious apartment, where the Emperor Rudolph also remained during the
+ball.  Here the moonbeams might have been reflected from glittering steel
+or the gold, silver, and gems adorning helmets, diadems, and gala robes;
+or they might surely have found an opportunity to sparkle on the ripples
+of the Pegnitz River, which divided the city into halves; but the
+heavenly wanderer, from the earliest times, has preferred leafy hidden
+nooks to scenes of noisy gaiety, a dim light to a brilliant glare.  Luna
+likes best to gaze where there is a secret to be discovered, and mortals
+have always been glad to choose her as a confidante.  Something exactly
+suited to her taste must surely be going on just now near the linden
+which, in all the splendour of fullest bloom, shaded the street in front
+of the Ortlieb mansion; for she had seen two fair girls grow up in the
+ancient dwelling with the carved escutcheon above the lofty oak door, and
+the ample garden--and the younger, from her earliest childhood, had been
+on especially intimate terms with her.
+
+Now the topmost boughs of the linden, spite of their dense foliage,
+permitted a glimpse of the broad courtyard which separated the patrician
+residence from the street.
+
+A chain, which with graceful curves united a short row of granite posts,
+shut out the pedestrians, the vehicles and horsemen, the swine and other
+animals driven through the city gate.  In contrast with the street, which
+in bad weather resembled an almost impassable swamp, it was always kept
+scrupulously clean, and the city beadle might spare himself the trouble
+of looking there for the carcasses of sucking pigs, cats, hens, and rats,
+which it was his duty to carry away.
+
+A young man with an unusually tall and powerful figure was standing in
+this yard, gazing up at a window in the second story.  The shadow of the
+linden concealed his features and his dress, but the moon had already
+seen him more than once in this very spot and knew that he was a handsome
+fellow, whose bronzed countenance, with its prominent nose and broad
+brow, plainly indicated a strong will.  She had also seen the scar
+stretching from the roots of his long brown locks across the whole
+forehead to the left cheek-bone, that lent the face a martial air.  Yet
+he belonged to no military body, but was the son of a noble family of
+Nuremberg, which boasted, it is true, of "knightly blood" and the right
+of its sons to enter the lists of the tournament, but was engaged in
+peaceful pursuits; for it carried on a trade with Italy and the
+Netherlands, and every male scion of the Eysvogel race had the birthright
+of being elected a member of the Honourable Council and taking part in
+the government of Nuremberg.
+
+The moon had long known that the young man in the courtyard was an
+Eysvogel, nor was this difficult to discover.  Every child in Nuremberg
+was familiar with the large showy coat of arms lately placed above the
+lofty doorway of the Eysvogel mansion; and the nocturnal visitor wore a
+doublet on whose left breast was embroidered the same coat of arms, with
+three birds in the shield and one on the helmet.
+
+He had already waited some time in vain, but now a young girl's head
+appeared at the window, and a gay fresh voice called his Christian name,
+"Wolff!"
+
+Waving his cap, he stepped nearer to the casement, greeted her warmly,
+and told her that he had come at this late hour to say good-night, though
+only from the front yard.
+
+"Come in," she entreated.  "True, my father and Eva have gone to the
+dance at the Town Hall, but my aunt, the abbess, is sitting with my
+mother."
+
+"No, no," replied Wolff, "I only stopped in passing.  Besides, I am
+stealing even this brief time."
+
+"Business?" asked the young girl.  "Do you know, I am beginning to be
+jealous of the monster which, like an old spider, constantly binds you
+closer and closer in its web.  What sort of dealing is this?--to give the
+whole day to business, and only a few minutes of moonlight to your
+betrothed bride!
+
+"I wish it were otherwise," sighed Wolff.  "You do not know how hard
+these times are, Els!  Nor how many thoughts beset my brain, since my
+father has placed me in charge of all his new enterprises."
+
+"Always something new," replied Els, with a shade of reproach in her
+tone.  "What an omnivorous appetite this Eysvogel business possesses!
+Ullmann Nutzel said lately: 'Wherever one wants to buy, the bird--
+[vogel]--has been ahead and snapped up everything in Venice and Milan.
+And the young one is even sharper at a bargain,' he added."
+
+"Because I want to make a warm nest for you, dearest," replied Wolff.
+
+"As if we were shopkeepers anxious to secure customers!" said the girl,
+laughing.  "I think the old Eysvogel house must have enough big stoves to
+warm its son and his wife.  At the Tuckers the business supports seven,
+with their wives and children.  What more do we want?  I believe that we
+love each other sincerely, and though I understand life better than Eva,
+to whom poverty and happiness are synonymous, I don't need, like the
+women of your family, gold plates for my breakfast porridge or a bed of
+Levantine damask for my lapdog.  And the dowry my father will give me
+would supply the daughters of ten knights."
+
+"I know it, sweetheart," interrupted Wolff dejectedly; "and how gladly I
+would be content with the smallest--"
+
+"Then be so!" she exclaimed cheerily.  "What you would call 'the
+smallest,' others term wealth.  You want more than competence, and I--the
+saints know-would be perfectly content with 'good.'  Many a man has been
+shipwrecked on the cliffs of 'better' and 'best.'"
+
+Fired with passionate ardour, he exclaimed, "I am coming in now."
+
+"And the business?" she asked mischievously.  "Let it go as it will," he
+answered eagerly, waving his hand.  But the next instant he dropped it
+again, saying thoughtfully: "No, no; it won't do, there is too much at
+stake."
+
+Els had already turned to send Katterle, the maid, to open the heavy
+house door, but ere doing so she put her beautiful head out again, and
+asked:
+
+"Is the matter really so serious?  Won't the monster grant you even a
+good-night kiss?"
+
+"No," he answered firmly.  "Your menservants have gone, and before the
+maid could open----There is the moon rising above the linden already.
+It won't do.  But I'll see you to-morrow and, please God, with a lighter
+heart.  We may have good news this very day."
+
+"Of the wares from Venice and Milan?" asked Els anxiously.
+
+"Yes, sweetheart.  Two  waggon trains will meet at Verona.  The first
+messenger came from Ingolstadt, the second from Munich, and the one from
+Landshut has been here since day before yesterday.  Another should have
+arrived this morning, but the intense heat yesterday, or some cause--at
+any rate there is reason for anxiety.  You don't know what is at stake."
+
+"But peace was proclaimed yesterday," said Els, "and if robber knights
+and bandits should venture----But, no!  Surely the waggons have a strong
+escort."
+
+"The strongest," answered Wolff.  "The first wain could not arrive before
+to-morrow morning."
+
+"You see!"  cried the girl gaily.  "Just wait patiently.  When you are
+once mine I'll teach you not to look on the dark side.  O Wolff, why is
+everything made so much harder for us than for others?  Now this evening,
+it would have been so pleasant to go to the ball with you."
+
+"Yet, how often, dearest, I have urged you in vain----" he began, but she
+hastily interrupted "Yes, it was certainly no fault of yours, but one of
+us must remain with my mother, and Eva----"
+
+"Yesterday she complained to me with tears in her eyes that she would be
+forced to go to this dance, which she detested."
+
+"That is the very reason she ought to go," explained Els.  "She is
+eighteen years old, and has never yet been induced to enter into any of
+the pleasures other girls enjoy.  When she isn't in the convent she is
+always at home, or with Aunt Kunigunde or one of the nuns in the woods
+and fields.  If she wants to take the veil later, who can prevent it, but
+the abbess herself advises that she should have at least a glimpse of the
+world before leaving it.  Few need it more, it seems to me, than our
+Eva."
+
+"Certainly," Wolff assented.  "Such a lovely creature!  I know no girl
+more beautiful in all Nuremberg."
+
+"Oh! you----," said his betrothed bride, shaking her finger at her lover,
+but he answered promptly,
+
+"You just told me that you preferred 'good' to 'better,' and so doubtless
+'fair' to 'fairer,' and you are beautiful, Els, in person and in soul.
+As for Eva, I admire, in pictures of madonnas and angels, those wonderful
+saintly eyes with their uplifted gaze and marvellously long lashes, the
+slight droop of the little head, and all the other charms; yet I gladly
+dispense with them in my heart's darling and future wife.  But you, Els--
+if our Lord would permit me to fashion out of divine clay a life
+companion after my own heart, do you know how she would look?"
+
+"Like me--exactly like Els Ortlieb, of course," replied the girl
+laughing.
+
+"A correct guess, with all due modesty," Wolff answered gaily.  "But take
+care that she does not surpass your wishes.  For you know, if the little
+saint should meet at the dance some handsome fellow whom she likes better
+than the garb of a nun, and becomes a good Nuremberg wife, the excess of
+angelic virtue will vanish; and if I had a brother--in serious earnest--
+I would send him to your Eva."
+
+"And," cried Els, "however quickly her mood changes, it will surely do
+her no harm.  But as yet she cares nothing about you men.  I know her,
+and the tears she shed when our father gave her the costly Milan
+suckenie, in which she went to the ball, were anything but tears of joy."
+
+     [Suckenie--A long garment, fitting the upper part of the body
+     closely and widening very much below the waist, with openings for
+     the arms.]
+
+"I only wonder," added Wolff, "that you persuaded her to go; the pious
+lamb knows how to use her horns fiercely enough."
+
+"Oh, yes," Els assented, as if she knew it by experience; then she
+eagerly continued, "She is still just like an April day."
+
+"And therefore," Wolff remarked, "the dance which she began with tears
+will end joyously enough.  The young knights and nobles will gather round
+her like bees about honey.  Count von Montfort, my brother-in-law
+Siebenburg says, is also at the Town Hall with his daughter."
+
+"And  the comet Cordula was followed, as usual, by a long train of
+admirers," said Els.  "My father was obliged to give the count lodgings;
+it could not be avoided.  The Emperor Rudolph had named him to the
+Council among those who must be treated with special courtesy.  So he was
+assigned to us, and the whole suite of apartments in the back of the
+house, overlooking the garden, is now filled with Montforts, Montfort
+household officials, menservants, squires, pages, and chaplains.
+Montfort horses and hounds crowd our good steeds out of their stalls.
+Besides the twenty stabled here, eighteen were put in the brewery in the
+Hundsgasse, and eight belong to Countess Cordula.  Then the constant
+turmoil all day long and until late at night!  It is fortunate that they
+do not lodge with us in the front of the house!  It would be very bad for
+my mother!"
+
+"Then you can rejoice over the departure all the more cordially,"
+observed Wolff.
+
+"It will hardly cause us much sorrow," Els admitted.  "Yet the young
+countess brings much merriment into our quiet house.  She is certainly a
+tireless madcap, and it will vex your proud sister Isabella to know that
+your brother-in-law Siebenburg is one of her admirers.  Did she not go to
+the Town Hall?"
+
+"No," Wolff answered; "the twins have changed her wonderfully.  You saw
+the dress my mother pressed upon her for the ball--Genoese velvet and
+Venetian lace!  Its cost would have bought a handsome house.  She was
+inclined, too, to appear as a young mother at the festival, and I assure
+you that she looked fairly regal in the magnificent attire.  But this
+morning, after she had bathed the little boys, she changed her mind.
+Though my mother, and even my grandmother, urged her to go, she insisted
+that she belonged to the twins, and that some evil would befall the
+little ones if she left them."
+
+"That is noble!" cried Els in delight, "and if I should ever---.  Yet no,
+Isabella and I cannot be compared.  My husband will never be numbered
+among the admirers of another woman, like your detestable brother-in-law.
+Besides, he is wasting time with Cordula.  Her worldliness repels Eva,
+it is true, but I have heard many pleasant things about her.  Alas! she
+is a motherless girl, and her father is an old reveller and huntsman,
+who rejoices whenever she does any audacious act.  But he keeps his purse
+open to her, and she is kind-hearted and obliging to a degree----"
+
+"Equalled by few," interrupted Wolff, with a sneer.  "The men know how
+to praise her for it.  No paternoster would be imposed upon her in the
+confessional on account of cruel harshness."
+
+"Nor for a sinful or a spiteful deed," replied Els positively.  "Don't
+say anything against her to me, Wolff, in spite of your dissolute
+brother-in-law.  I have enough to do to intercede for her with Eva and
+Aunt Kunigunde since she singed and oiled the locks of a Swiss knight
+belonging to the Emperor's court.  Our Katterle brought the coals.  But
+many other girls do that, since courtesy permits it.  Her train to the
+Town Hall certainly made a very brave show; the fifty freight waggons you
+are expecting will scarcely form a longer line."
+
+The young merchant started.  The comparison roused his forgotten anxiety
+afresh, and after a few brief, tender words of farewell he left the
+object of his love.  Els gazed thoughtfully after him; the moonlight
+revealed his tall, powerful figure for a long time.  Her heart throbbed
+faster, and she felt more deeply than ever how warmly she loved him.
+He moved as though some heavy burden of care bowed his strong shoulders.
+She would fain have hastened after him, clung to him, and asked what
+troubled him, what he was concealing from her who was ready to share
+everything with him, but the Frauenthor, through which he entered the
+city, already hid him from her gaze.
+
+She turned back into the room with a faint sigh.  It could scarcely be
+solely anxiety about his expected goods that burdened her lover's mind.
+True, his weak, arrogant mother, and still more his grandmother, the
+daughter of a count, who lived with them in the Eysvogel house and still
+ruled her daughter as if she were a child, had opposed her engagement to
+Wolff, but their resistance had ceased since the betrothal.  On the other
+hand, she had often heard that Fran Eysvogel, the haughty mother,
+dowerless herself, had many poor and extravagant relations besides her
+daughter and her debt-laden, pleasure-loving husband, Sir Seitz
+Siebenburg, who, it could not be denied, all drew heavily upon the
+coffers of the ancient mercantile house.  Yet it was one of the richest
+in Nuremberg.  Yes, something of which she was still ignorant must be
+oppressing Wolff, and, with the firm resolve to give him no peace until
+he confessed everything to her, she returned to the couch of her invalid
+mother.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Wolff had scarcely vanished from the street, and Els from the window,
+when a man's slender figure appeared, as if it had risen from the earth,
+beside the spurge-laurel tree at the left of the house.  Directly after
+some one rapped lightly on the pavement of the yard, and in a few minutes
+the heavy ironbound oak doors opened and a woman's hand beckoned to the
+late guest, who glided swiftly along in the narrow line of shadow cast by
+the house and vanished through the entrance.
+
+The moon looked after him doubtfully.  In former days the narrow-
+shouldered fellow had been seen near the Ortlieb house often enough, and
+his movements had awakened Luna's curiosity; for he had been engaged in
+amorous adventure even when work was still going on at the recently
+completed convent of St. Clare--an institution endowed by the Ebner
+brothers, to which Herr Ernst Ortlieb added a considerable sum.  At that
+time--about three years before--the bold fellow had gone there to keep
+tryst evening after evening, and the pretty girl who met him was
+Katterle, the waiting maid of the beautiful Els, as Nuremberg folk called
+the Ortlieb sisters, Els and Eva.  Many vows of ardent, changeless love
+for her had risen to the moon, and the outward aspect of the man who made
+them afforded a certain degree of assurance that he would fulfil his
+pledges, for he then wore the long dark robe of reputable people, and on
+the front of his cap, from which a net shaped like a bag hung down his
+back, was a large S, and on the left shoulder of his long coat a T, the
+initials of the words Steadfast and True.  They bore witness that the
+person who had them embroidered on his clothing deemed these virtues the
+highest and noblest.  It might have been believed that the lean fellow,
+who scarcely looked his five-and-thirty years, possessed these lofty
+traits of character; for, though three full years had passed since his
+last meeting with Katterle at the building site, he had gone to his
+sweetheart with his wonted steadfastness and truth immediately after the
+Emperor Rudolph's entry.
+
+He had given her reason to rely upon him; but the moon's gaze reaches
+far, and had discovered the quality of Walther Biberli's "steadfastness
+and truth."
+
+In one respect it proved the best and noblest; for among thousands of
+servitors the moon had not seen one who clung to his lord with more loyal
+devotion.  Towards pretty young women, on the contrary, he displayed his
+principal virtues in a very singular way; for the pallid nocturnal
+wanderer above had met him in various lands and cities, and wherever he
+tarried long another maid was added to the list of those to whom Biberli
+vowed steadfastness and truth.
+
+True, whenever Sir Long Coat's travels led him back to any one to whom he
+had sworn eternal love, he went first to her, if she, too, retained the
+old affection.  But Katterle had cause to care for him most, for he was
+more warmly devoted to her than to any of the others, and in his own
+fashion his intentions were honest.  He seriously intended, as soon as
+his master left the imperial court--which he hoped would not happen too
+soon--and returned to his ancestral castle in his native Switzerland, to
+establish a home of his own for his old age, and no one save Katterle
+should light the hearth fire.  Her outward circumstances pleased him, as
+well as her disposition and person.  She was free-born, like himself--the
+son of a forest keeper--and, again like him, belonged to a Swiss family;
+her heritage (she was an orphan), which consisted of a house and arable
+land in her home, Sarnen, where she still sent her savings, satisfied his
+requirements.  But above all she believed in him and admired his
+versatile mind and his experience.  Moreover, she gave him absolute
+obedience, and loved him so loyally that she had remained unwedded,
+though a number of excellent men had sought her in marriage.
+
+Katterle had met him for the first time more than three years before
+when, after the battle of Marchfield, he remained several weeks in
+Nuremberg.  They had sat side by side at a tournament, and, recognising
+each other as Swiss-born by the sharp sound of the letters "ch" and the
+pronunciation of other words, were mutually attracted.
+
+Katterle had a kind heart; yet at that time she almost yielded to the
+temptation to pray Heaven not to hasten the cure of a brave man's wounds
+too quickly, for she knew that Biberli was a squire in the service of the
+young Swiss knight Heinz Schorlin, whose name was on every lip because,
+in spite of his youth, he had distinguished himself at the battle of
+Marchfield by his rare bravery, and that the young hero would remain in
+Nuremberg only until his severe injuries were completely healed.  His
+departure would bring to her separation from his servant, and sometimes
+when homesickness tortured her she thought she would be unable to survive
+the parting.  Meanwhile Biberli nursed his master with faithful zeal, as
+if nothing bound him to Nuremberg, and even after his departure Katterle
+remained in good health.
+
+Now she had him again.  Directly after the Emperor Rudolph's entrance,
+five days before, Biberli had come openly to the Ortlieb house and
+presented himself to Martsche,--[Margaret]--the old house keeper, as the
+countryman and friend of the waiting maid, who had brought her a message
+from home.
+
+True, it had been impossible to say anything confidential either in the
+crowded kitchen or in the servants' hall.  To-night's meeting was to
+afford the opportunity.
+
+The menservants, carrying sedan chairs and torches, had all gone out with
+their master, who had taken his younger daughter, Eva, to the dance.
+They were to wait in front of the Town Hall, because it was doubtful
+whether the daughter of the house, who had been very reluctant to go to
+the entertainment, might not urge an early departure.  Count von
+Montfort, whose quarters were in the Ortlieb mansion, and his whole train
+of male attendants, certainly would not come back till very late at night
+or even early morning, for the Countess Cordula remained at a ball till
+the close, and her father lingered over the wine cup till his daughter
+called him from the revellers.
+
+All this warranted the lovers in hoping for an undisturbed interview.
+The place of meeting was well chosen.  It was unsatisfactory only to the
+moon for, after Biberli had closed the heavy door of the house behind
+him, Luna found no chink or crevice through which a gliding ray might
+have watched what the true and steadfast Biberli was saying to Katterle.
+There was one little window beside the door, but it was closed, and the
+opening was covered with sheepskin.  So the moon's curiosity was not
+gratified.
+
+Instead of her silver rays, the long entry of the Ortlieb house, with its
+lofty ceiling, was illumined only by the light of three lanterns, which
+struggled dimly through horn panes.  The shining dots in a dark corner of
+the spacious corridor were the eyes of a black cat, watching there for
+rats and mice.
+
+The spot really possessed many advantages for the secret meeting of two
+lovers, for as it ran through the whole width of the house, it had two
+doors, one leading to the street, the other into the yard.  In the right
+wall of the entry there were also two small doors, reached by a flight of
+steps.  At this hour both closed empty rooms, for the office and the
+chamber where Herr Ernst Ortlieb received his business friends had not
+been occupied since sunset, and the bathroom and dressing-room adjoining
+were used only during the day.
+
+True, some unbidden intruder might have come down the long broad
+staircase leading to the upper story.  But in that case the lovers had
+the best possible hiding-place close at hand, for here large and small
+boxes, standing side by side and one above another, formed a protecting
+wall; yonder heaps of sacks and long rows of casks afforded room for
+concealment behind them.  Rolls of goods packed in sacking leaned against
+the chests, inviting a fugitive to slip back of them, and surely no one
+would suspect the presence of a pair of lovers in the rear of these
+mountains of hides and bales wrapped in matting.  Still it would scarcely
+have been advisable to remain near them; for these packages, which the
+Ortlieb house brought from Venice, contained pepper and other spices that
+exhaled a pungent odor, endurable only by hardened nerves.
+
+Valuable goods of various kinds lay here until they could be placed in
+cellars or storehouses or sold.  But there was many an empty space, too,
+in the broad corridor for, spite of Emperor Rudolph's strictness, robbery
+on the highroads had by no means ceased, and Herr Ernst Ortlieb was still
+compelled to use caution in the transportation of costly wares.
+
+After Biberli and his sweetheart had assured themselves that the ardour
+of their love had by no means cooled, they sat down on some bags filled
+with cloves and related to each other the experiences through which they
+had passed during the period of separation.
+
+Katterle's life had flowed on in a pleasant monotony.  She had no cause
+to complain of her employers.
+
+Fran Maria Ortlieb, the invalid mistress of the house, rarely needed her
+services.
+
+During a ride to visit relatives in Ulm, the travellers, who were under
+the same escort of men at arms as a number of Nuremberg freight waggons,
+had been attacked by the robber knights Absbach and Hirschhorn.  An arrow
+had struck Frau Ortlieb's palfrey, causing the unfortunate woman a severe
+fall, which produced an internal injury, from which she had not yet
+recovered.  The assault resulted unfortunately for young Hirschhorn, who
+led it; he met with a shameful death on the gallows.
+
+The information enraged Biberli.  Instead of feeling any sympathy for the
+severely injured lady, he insisted that the Nuremberg burghers had dealt
+with Hirschhorn in a rascally fashion; for he was a knight, and
+therefore, as honest judges familiar with the law, they ought to have put
+him to death by the sword instead of with the rope.  And Katterle agreed
+with him; she never contradicted his opinions, and surely Biberli must
+know what treatment befitted a knight, since he was the foster-brother of
+one.
+
+Nor did the maid, who was in the personal service of the daughters of the
+house, make any complaint against them.  Indeed, she could not praise
+Els, the elder, sufficiently.  She was very just, the careful nurse of
+her invalid mother, and always unvarying in her cheerful kindness.
+
+She had no fault to find with Eva either, especially as she was more
+religious than any one in the whole house.  Spite of her marvellous
+beauty--Katterle knew that there was nothing false about it--she would
+probably end by joining the nuns in the convent.  But her mood changed
+with every breath, like the weathercock on the steeple.  If she got out
+of bed the wrong way, or one did not guess her wishes before they were
+uttered, she would fly into a rage at the least trifle.  Then she
+sometimes used very unkind words; but no one could cherish anger against
+her long, for she had an indescribably lovely manner of trying to atone
+for the offences which her hasty young blood made her commit.  She had
+gone to the ball that night as if it were a funeral; she shunned men like
+poison, and even kept out of the way of her sister's friends.
+
+Biberli laughed, as if there could be no doubt of his opinion, and
+exclaimed: "Just wait a while!  My master will meet her at the Town Hall
+tonight, and if the scrawny little squirrel I saw three years ago has
+really grown up into such a beauty, if he does not get on her track and
+capture her, my name isn't Biberli."
+
+"But  surely,"  replied  Katterle  doubtfully, "you told me that you had
+not yet succeeded in persuading him to imitate you in steadfastness and
+truth."
+
+"But he is  a knight," replied  the servant, striking himself pompously
+under the T on his shoulder, as if he, too, belonged to this favoured
+class, "and so he is as free to pursue a woman as to hunt the game in the
+forest.  And my Heinz Schorlin!  You saw him, and admitted that he was
+worth looking at.  And that was when he had scarcely recovered from his
+dangerous wounds, while now----The French Knight de Preully, in Paris,
+with whom my dead foster-brother, until he fell sick-----"  Here he
+hesitated; an enquiring look from his sweetheart showed that--perhaps for
+excellent reasons--he had omitted to tell her about his sojourn in Paris.
+
+Now that he had grown older and abandoned the wild revelry of that period
+in favour of truth and steadfastness, he quietly related everything she
+desired to know.
+
+He had acquired various branches of learning while sharing the studies of
+his foster-brother, the eldest son of the old Knight Schorlin, who was
+then living, and therefore, when scarcely twenty, was appointed
+schoolmaster at Stansstadt.  Perhaps he might have continued to teach--
+for he promised to be successful--had not a vexatious discovery disgusted
+him with his calling.
+
+He was informed that the mercenaries in the Schnitzthurm guard were paid
+five shillings a week more than he, spite of the knowledge he had gained
+by so much toil.
+
+In his indignation he went back to Schorlin Castle, which was always open
+to him, and he arrived just at the right time.
+
+His present master's older brother, whose health had always been
+delicate, being unable to follow the profession of arms, was on the eve
+of departing to attend the university at Paris, accompanied by the
+chaplain and an equerry.  When the Lady Wendula, his master's mother,
+learned what an excellent reputation Biberli had gained as a
+schoolmaster, she persuaded her husband to send him as esquire
+with their sickly son.
+
+In Paris there was at first no lack of pleasures of every description,
+especially as they met among the king's mercenaries many a dissolute
+Swiss knight and man at arms.  His foster-brother, to his sorrow, was
+unable to resist the temptations which Satan scatters in Paris as the
+peasants elsewhere sow rye and oats, and the young knight was soon
+attacked, by a severe illness.  Then Biberli's gay life ended too.
+For months he did not leave his foster-brother's sick bed a single hour,
+by day or night, until death released him from his suffering.
+
+On his return to Castle Schorlin he found many changes; the old knight
+had been called away from earth a few days before his son's death, and
+Heinz Schorlin, his present master, had fallen heir to castle and lands.
+This, however, was no great fortune, for the large estates of the
+Schorlin family were burdened by heavy debts.
+
+The dead lord, as countryman, boon companion, and brother in arms of the
+Emperor Rudolph, had been always ready to place his sword at his service,
+and whenever a great tournament was held he never failed to be present.
+So the property had been consumed, and the Lady Wendula and her son and
+three daughters were left in moderate circumstances.  The two older girls
+had taken the veil, while the youngest, a merry little maiden, lived with
+her mother.
+
+But the Emperor Rudolph had by no means forgotten the Lady Wendula and
+her dead husband, and with the utmost kindness requested her to send him
+her only son as soon as he was able to wield a sword and lance.  He
+intended to repay Heinz for the love and loyalty his father had shown him
+through his whole life.
+
+"And the Hapsburg," Biberli added, "had kept his word."
+
+In a few years his young lord was ready for a position at court.
+
+Gotthard von Ramsweg, the Lady Wendula's older brother, a valiant knight,
+went to his sister's home after her husband's death to manage the estate
+and instruct his nephew in all the exercises of knighthood.  Soon the
+strong, agile, fearless son of a brave father, under the guidance of such
+a teacher, excelled many an older youth.  He was barely eighteen when the
+Lady Wendula sent him to his imperial master.  She had given him, with
+her blessing, fiery horses, the finest pieces of his father's suits of
+mail, an armour bearer, and a groom to take with him on his journey; and
+his uncle had agreed to accompany him to Lausanne, where the Emperor
+Rudolph was then holding his court to discuss with Pope Gregory--the
+tenth of the name--arrangements for a new crusade.  But nothing had yet
+been said about Biberli.  On the evening before the young noble's
+departure, however, a travelling minstrel came to the castle, who sang
+of the deeds of former crusaders, and alluded very touchingly to the
+loneliness of the wounded knight, Herr Weisenthau, on his couch of pain.
+Then the Lady Wendula remembered her eldest son, and the fraternal
+tendance which Biberli had given him.
+
+"And so," the servant went on, "in the anxiety of a mother's heart she
+urged me to accompany Heinz, her darling, as esquire; and watch over his
+welfare."
+
+"Since I could use a pen, I was to write now and then what a mother
+desires to hear of a son.  She felt great confidence in me, because she
+believed that I was true and steadfast.  And I have kept in every respect
+the vow I then made to the Lady Wendula--that she should not find herself
+mistaken in me.  I remember that evening as if it were only yesterday.
+To keep constantly before my eyes the praise my mistress had bestowed
+upon me, I ventured to ask my young master' sister to embroider the T and
+the S on the cap and the new coat, and the young lady did so that very
+night.  Since that time these two initials have gone with me wherever our
+horses bear us, and as, after the battle of Marchfield, Biberli nursed
+his master back to health with care and toil, he thinks he can prove to
+you, his sole sweetheart, that he wears his T and S with good reason."
+
+In return for these words Katterle granted her friend the fitting reward
+with such resignation that it was robbing the moon not to permit her to
+look on.  Her curiosity, however, was not to remain wholly ungratified;
+for when Biberli found that it was time for him to repair to the Town
+Hall to learn whether his master, Heinz Schorlin, needed his services,
+Katterle came out of the house door with him.
+
+They found much more to say and to do ere they parted.
+
+First, the Swiss maid-servant wished to know how the Emperor Rudolph had
+received Heinz Schorlin; and she had the most gratifying news.
+
+During their stay at Lausanne, where he won the victory in a tournament,
+Heinz was knighted; but after the battle of Marchfield he became still
+dearer to the Emperor, especially when a firm friendship united the young
+Swiss to Hartmann, Rudolph's eighteen-year-old son, who was now on the
+Rhine.  That very day Heinz had received a tangible proof of the imperial
+favour, on account of which he had gone to the dance in an extremely
+cheerful mood.
+
+This good news concerning the knight, whom her young mistress had perhaps
+already met, awakened in the maid, who was not averse to the business of
+matchmaking, so dear to her sex, very aspiring plans which aimed at
+nothing less than a union between Eva and Heinz Schorlin.  But Biberli
+had scarcely perceived the purport of Katterle's words when he anxiously
+interrupted her and, declaring that he had already lingered too long, cut
+short the suggestion by taking leave.
+
+His master's marriage to a young girl who belonged to the city nobility,
+which in his eyes was far inferior in rank to a Knight Schorlin, should
+cast no stone in the pathway of fame that was leading him so swiftly
+upward.  Many things must happen before Biberli could honestly advise him
+to give up his present free and happy life and seek rest in his own nest.
+
+If Eva Ortlieb were as lovely as the Virgin herself, and Sir Heinz's
+inflammable heart should blaze as fervently as it always did, she should
+not lure him into the paralysing bondage of wedlock so long as he was
+there and watched over him.
+
+If he must be married, Biberli had something else in view for him--
+something which would make him a great lord at a single stroke.  But it
+was too soon even for that.
+
+When he crossed the Fleischbrucke in the market place and approached the
+brilliantly lighted Town Hall, he had considerable difficulty in moving
+forward, for the whole square was thronged with curious spectators,
+servants in gala liveries, sedan chairs, richly caparisoned steeds, and
+torchbearers.  The von Montfort retinue, which had quarters in the
+Ortlieb house, was one of the most brilliant and numerous of all, and
+Biberli's eyes wandered with a look of satisfaction over the gold-mounted
+sedan chair of the young countess.  He would rather have given his master
+to her than to the Nuremberg maiden whom Katterle compared to a
+weathercock, and who therefore certainly did not possess the lofty virtue
+of steadfastness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Sir Heinz Schorlin's servant was on intimate terms with many of the
+servitors of the imperial family, and one of them conducted him to the
+balcony of the city pipers, which afforded a view of the great hall.
+The Emperor sat there at the head of the banquet table, and by his side,
+on a lower throne, his sister, the Burgravine von Zollern.  Only the most
+distinguished and aristocratic personages whom the Reichstag attracted to
+Nuremberg, with their ladies, shared the feast given by the city in their
+honour.
+
+But yonder, at a considerable distance from them, though within the space
+enclosed by a black and yellow silk cord, separated from the glittering
+throng of the other guests, he perceived--he would not trust his own
+eyes--the Knight Heinz Schorlin, and by his side a wonderfully charming
+young girl.
+
+Biberli had not seen Eva Ortlieb for three years, yet he knew that it was
+no other than she.  But into what a lovely creature the active, angular
+child with the thin little arms had developed!
+
+The hall certainly did not lack superb women of all ages and every style
+of figure and bearing suited to please the eye.  Many might even boast of
+more brilliant, aristocratic beauty, but not one could vie in witchery
+with her on whom Katterle had cast an eye for his master.  She had only
+begun a modest allusion to it, but even that was vexatious; for Biberli
+fancied that she had thereby "talked of the devil," and he did not wish
+him to appear.
+
+With a muttered imprecation, by no means in harmony with his character,
+he prepared to leave the balcony; but the scene below, though it
+constantly filled him with fresh vexation, bound him to the spot
+as if by some mysterious spell.
+
+Especially did he fancy that he had a bitter taste in his mouth when his
+gaze noted the marvellous symmetry of Heinz Schorlin's powerful though
+not unusually tall figure, his beautiful waving locks, and the
+aristocratic ease with which he wore his superb velvet robe-sapphire blue
+on the left side and white on the right, embroidered with silver falcons-
+or perceived how graciously the noblest of the company greeted him after.
+the banquet; not, indeed, from envy, but because it pierced his very
+heart to think that this splendid young favourite of fortune, already so
+renowned, whom he warmly loved, should throw himself away on the daughter
+of a city merchant, though his motley wares, which he had just seen, were
+adorned by the escutcheon of a noble house.
+
+But Heinz Schorlin had already been attracted by many more aristocratic
+fair ones, only to weary of them speedily enough.  This time, also,
+Biberli would have relied calmly on his fickleness had Katterle's foolish
+wish only remained unuttered, and had Heinz treated his companion in the
+gay, bold fashion which usually marked his manner to other ladies.  But
+his glance had a modest, almost devout expression when he gazed into the
+large blue eyes of the merchant's daughter.  And now she raised them!
+It could not fail to bewitch the most obdurate woman hater!
+
+Faithful, steadfast Biberli clenched his fists, and once even thought
+of shouting "Fire!", into the ballroom below to separate all who were
+enjoying themselves there wooing and being wooed.
+
+But those beneath perceived neither him nor his wrath--least of all his
+master and the young girl who had come hither so reluctantly.
+
+At home Eva had really done everything in her power to be permitted to
+stay away from the Town Hall.  Herr Ernst Ortlieb, her father, however,
+had been inflexible.  The chin of the little man with beardless face and
+hollow cheeks had even begun to tremble, and this was usually the
+precursor of an outburst of sudden wrath which sometimes overpowered him
+to such a degree that he committed acts which he afterwards regretted.
+
+This time he had been compelled not to tolerate the opposition of his
+obstinate child.  Emperor Rudolph himself had urged the "honourable"
+members of the Council to gratify him and his daughter-in-law Agnes, whom
+he wished to entertain pleasantly during her brief visit, by the presence
+of their beautiful wives and daughters at the entertainment in the Town
+Hall.
+
+Herr Ortlieb's invalid wife could not spare Els, her older daughter and
+faithful nurse, so he required Eva's obedience, and compelled her to give
+up her opposition to attending the festival; but she dreaded the vain,
+worldly gaiety--nay, actually felt a horror of it.
+
+Even while still a pupil at the convent school she had often asked
+herself whether it would not be the fairest fate for her, like her Aunt
+Kunigunde, the abbess of the convent of St. Clare, to vow herself to the
+Saviour and give up perishable joys to secure the rapture of heaven,
+which lasted throughout eternity, and might begin even here on earth, in
+a quiet life with God, a complete realisation of the Saviour's loving
+nature, and the great sufferings which he took upon himself for love's
+sake.  Oh, even suffering and bleeding with the Most High were rich in
+mysterious delight!  Aye, no earthly happiness could compare with the
+blissful feeling left by those hours of pious ecstasy.
+
+Often she had sat with closed eyes for a long time, dreaming that she was
+in the kingdom of heaven and, herself an angel, dwelt with angels.  How
+often she had wondered whether earthly love could bestow greater joy than
+such a happy dream, or the walks through the garden and forest, during
+which the abbess told her of St. Francis of Assisi, who founded her
+order, the best and most warmhearted among the successors of Christ, of
+whom the Pope himself said that he would hear even those whom God would
+not!  Moreover, there was no plant, no flower, no cry of any animal in
+the woods which was not familiar to the Abbess Kunigunde.  Like St.
+Francis; she distinguished in everything which the ear heard and the eye
+beheld voices that bore witness to the goodness and greatness of the Most
+High.  The abbess felt bound by ties of sisterly affection to every one
+of God's creatures, and taught Eva to love them, too, and, as a person
+who treats a child kindly wins the mother's heart also, to obtain by love
+of his creatures that of the Creator.
+
+Others had blamed her because she held aloof from her sister's friends
+and amusements.  They were ignorant of the joys of solitude, which her
+aunt and her saint had taught her to know.
+
+She had endured interruptions and reproaches, often humbly, oftener
+still, when her hot blood swept away her self-control, with vehement
+indignation and tears; but meanwhile she had always cherished the secret
+thought that the time would come when she, too, would be permitted, at
+one with God and the Saviour, to enjoy the raptures of eternal bliss.
+She loved her invalid mother and, often as his sudden fits of passion
+alarmed her, she was tenderly attached to her father; yet it would have
+seemed to her an exquisite delight to be permitted to imitate the saints
+and sever all bonds which united her to the world and its clogging
+demands.  She had long been yearning for the day when she would be
+allowed to entreat the abbess to grant her admittance to the convent,
+whose doors would be flung wide open for her because, next to the
+brothers Ebner, who founded it, her parents had contributed the largest
+sum for its support.
+
+But she was obliged to wait patiently, for Els, her older sister, would
+probably soon marry her Wolff, and then it would be her turn to nurse her
+invalid mother.  Her own heart dictated this, and the abbess had said:
+"Let her enter eternity clasping your hand before you begin, with us, to
+devote all your strength to securing your own salvation.  Besides, you
+will thereby ascend a long row of steps nearer to your sublime goal."
+
+But Eva would far rather have given her hand now, aloof from the world,
+to the Most High in an inviolable bond.  What marvel that, with such a
+goal in view, she was deeply reluctant to enter the gay whirl of a noisy
+ball!
+
+With serious repugnance she had allowed Katterle and her sister to adorn
+her, and entered the sedan chair which was to convey her to the Town
+Hall.  Doubtless her own image, reflected in the mirror, had seemed
+charming enough, and the loud expressions of delight from the servants
+and others who admired her rich costume had pleased her; but directly
+after she realized the vanity of this emotion and, while approaching the
+ballroom in her chair, she prayed to her saint to help her conquer it.
+
+Striving honestly to vanquish this error, she entered the hall soon after
+the Emperor and his young daughter-in-law; but there she was greeted from
+the balcony occupied by the city pipers and musicians, long before
+Biberli entered it, with the same fanfare that welcomed the illustrious
+guests of the city, and with which blended the blare of the heralds'
+trumpets.  Thousands of candles in the chandeliers and candelabra
+diffused a radiance as brilliant as that of day and, confused by the
+noise and waves of light which surged around her, she had drawn closer
+to her father, clinging to him for protection.  She especially missed
+her sister, with whom she had grown up, who had become her second self,
+and whom she needed most when she emerged from her quiet life of
+introspection into the gay world.
+
+At first she had stood with downcast lashes, but soon her eyes wandered
+over the waving plumes and flashing jewels, the splendour of silk and
+velvet, the glitter of gold and glimmer of pearls.
+
+Sometimes the display in church had been scarcely less brilliant, and
+even without her sister's request she had gazed at it, but how entirely
+different it was!  There she had rejoiced in her own modest garb, and
+told herself that her simplicity was more pleasing to God and the saints
+than the vain splendour of the others, which she might so easily have
+imitated or even surpassed.  But here the anxious question of how she
+appeared among the rest of the company forced itself upon her.
+
+True, she knew that the brocade suckenie, which her father had ordered
+from Milan, was costly; that the sea-green hue of the right side
+harmonised admirably with the white on the left; that the tendrils and
+lilies of the valley wrought in silver, which seemed to be scattered over
+the whole, looked light and airy; yet she could not shake off the feeling
+that everything she wore was in disorder--here something was pulled awry,
+there something was crushed.  Els, who had attended to her whole toilet,
+was not there to arrange it, and she felt thoroughly uncomfortable in the
+midst of this worldly magnificence and bustle.
+
+Notwithstanding her father's presence, she had never been so desolate as
+among these ladies and gentlemen, nearly all of whom were strangers.
+
+Her sister was intimate with the other girls of her age and station,
+few of whom were absent, and if Eva could have conjured her to her side
+doubtless many would have joined them; but she knew no one well, and
+though many greeted her, no one lingered.  Everybody had friends with
+whom they were on far more familiar terms.  The young Countess von
+Montfort, a girl of her own age and an inmate of her own home, also gave
+her only a passing word.  But this was agreeable to her--she disliked
+Cordula's free manners.
+
+Many who were friends of Els had gathered around Ursula Vorchtel, the
+daughter of the richest man in the city, and she intentionally avoided
+the Ortliebs because, before Wolff Eysvogel sued for Els's hand, he and
+Ursula had been intended for each other.
+
+Eva was just secretly vowing that this first ball should also be the
+last, when the imperial magistrate, Herr Berthold Pfinzing, her
+godfather, came to present her to the Emperor, who had requested to see
+the little daughter of the Herr Ernst Ortlieb whose son had fallen in
+battle for him.  His "little saint," Herr Pfinzing added, looked no less
+lovely amid the gay music of the Nuremberg pipers than kneeling in prayer
+amid the notes of the organ.
+
+Every tinge of colour had faded from Eva's cheeks, and though a few hours
+before she had asked her sister what the Emperor's greatness signified in
+the presence of God that she should be forced, for his sake, to be
+faithless to the holiest things, now fear of the majesty of the powerful
+sovereign made her breath come quicker.
+
+How, clinging to her godfather's hand, she reached the Emperor Rudolph's
+throne she could never describe, for what happened afterwards resembled a
+confused dream of mingled bliss and pain, from which she was first
+awakened by her father's warning that the time of departure had come.
+
+When she raised her downcast eyes the monarch was standing before the
+throne placed for him.  She had been compelled to bend her head backward
+in order to see his face, for his figure, seven feet in height, towered
+like a statue of Roland above all who surrounded him.  But when, after
+the Austrian duchess, his daughter-in-law, who was scarcely beyond
+childhood, and the Burgrave von Zollern, his sister, had graciously
+greeted her, and Eva with modest thanks had also bowed low before the
+Emperor Rudolph, a smile, spite of her timidity, flitted over her lips,
+for as she bent the knee her head barely reached above his belt.  The
+Burgravine, a vivacious matron, must have noticed it, for she beckoned to
+her, and with a few kind words mentioned the name of the young knight who
+stood behind her, between her own seat and that of the young Duchess
+Agnes of Austria, and recommended him as an excellent dancer.  Heinz
+Schorlin, the master of the true and steadfast Biberli, had bowed
+courteously, and answered respectfully that he hoped he should not
+prove himself unworthy of praise from such lips.
+
+Meanwhile his glance met Eva's, and the Burgravine probably perceived
+with what, ardent admiration the knight's gaze rested on the young
+Nuremberg beauty, for she had scarcely stepped back after the farewell
+greeting when the noble lady said in a low tone, but loud enough for
+Eva's quick ear to catch the words, "Methinks yonder maiden will do well
+to guard her little heart this evening against you, you unruly fellow!
+What a sweet, angelic face!"
+
+Eva's cheeks crimsoned with mingled shame and pleasure at such words from
+such lips, and she would have been only too glad to hear what the knight
+whispered to the noble lady.
+
+The attention of the young Duchess Agnes, daughter of King Ottocar of
+Bohemia and wife of the Emperor's third son, who also bore the name of
+Rudolph, had been claimed during this incident by the Duke of Nassau, who
+had presented his ladies to her, but they had scarcely retired when she
+beckoned to Heinz Schorlin, and while talking with him gazed into his
+eyes with such warm, childlike pleasure that Eva was incensed; she
+thought it unseemly for a wife and a duchess to be on such familiar terms
+with a simple knight.  Nay, her disapproval of the princess's conduct
+must have been very deep, for during the whole time of her conversation
+with the knight there was a loud singing in the young girl's ears.  The
+Bohemian's face might be considered pretty; her dark eyes sparkled
+brightly, animating the immature features, now slightly sunburnt; and
+although four years younger than Eva, her figure, though not above middle
+height, was well developed and, in spite of its flexibility, aristocratic
+in bearing.  While conversing with Heinz Schorlin she seemed joyously
+excited, unrestrainedly cordial, but her manner expressed disappointment
+and royal hauteur as another group of ladies and gentlemen came forward
+to be presented, compelling her to turn her back upon the young Swiss
+with a regretful shrug of her shoulders.
+
+The counts and countesses, knights and ladies who thronged around her
+concealed her from Eva's eyes, who, now that Heinz Schorlin had left the
+Bohemian, again turned her attention to the Emperor, and even ventured to
+approach him.  What paternal gentleness Rudolph's deep tones expressed!
+How much his face attracted her!
+
+True, it could make no pretensions to beauty--the thin, hooked nose was
+far too large and long; the corners of the mouth drooped downward too
+much; perhaps it was this latter peculiarity which gave the whole face so
+sorrowful an aspect.  Eva thought she knew its source.  The wound dealt a
+few months before by the death of his faithful wife, the love of his
+youth, still ached.  His eyes could not be called either large or bright;
+but how kindly, how earnest, shrewd and, when an amusing thought passed
+through his mind, how mischievous they could look!  His light-brown hair
+had not yet turned very grey, spite of his sixty-three years, but the
+locks had lost their luxuriance and fell straight, except for a slight
+curl at the lower ends, below his neck.
+
+Eva's father, when a young man, had met Frederic II, of the Hohenstaufen
+line, in Italy, and was wont to call this a special boon of fate.  True,
+her aunt, the abbess, said she did not envy him the honour of meeting the
+Antichrist; yet that very day after mass she had counselled Eva to
+impress the Emperor Rudolph's appearance on her memory.  To meet noble
+great men elevates our hearts and makes us better, because in their
+presence we become conscious of our own insignificance and the duty of
+emulating them.  She would willingly have given more than a year of her
+life to be permitted to gaze into the pure, loving countenance of St.
+Francis, who had closed his eyes seven years after her birth.
+
+So Eva, who was accustomed to render strict obedience to her honoured
+aunt, honestly strove to watch every movement of the Emperor; but her
+attention had been continually diverted, mainly by the young knight, from
+whom--the Emperor's sister, Burgravine Elizabeth, had said so herself--
+danger threatened her heart.
+
+But the young Countess Cordula von Montfort, the inmate of her home,
+also compelled her to gaze after her, for Heinz Schorlin had approached
+the vivacious native of the Vorarlberg, and the freedom with which she
+treated him--allowing herself to go so far as to tap him on the arm with
+her fan--vexed and offended her like an insult offered to her whole sex.
+To think that a girl of high station should venture upon such conduct
+before the eyes of the Emperor and his sister!
+
+Not for the world would she have permitted any man to talk and laugh with
+her in such a way.  But the young knight whom she saw do this was again
+the Swiss.  Yet his bright eyes had just rested upon her with such devout
+admiration that lack of respect for a lady was certainly not in his
+nature, and he merely found himself compelled, contrary to his wish, to
+defend himself against the countess and her audacity.
+
+Eva had already heard much praise of the great valour of the young knight
+Heinz Schorlin.  When Katterle, whose friend and countryman was in his
+service, spoke of him--and that happened by no means rarely--she had
+always called him a devout knight, and that he was so, in truth, he
+showed her plainly enough; for there was fervent devotion in the eyes
+which now again sought hers like an humble penitent.
+
+The musicians had just struck up the Polish dance, and probably the
+knight, whom the Emperor's sister had recommended to her for a partner,
+wished by this glance to apologise for inviting Countess Cordula von
+Montfort instead.  Therefore she did not need to avoid the look, and
+might obey the impulse of her heart to give him a warning in the language
+of the eyes which, though mute, is yet so easily understood.  Hitherto
+she had been unable to answer him, even by a word, yet she believed that
+she was destined to become better acquainted, if only to show him that
+his power, of which the Burgravine had spoken, was baffled when directed
+against the heart of a pious maiden.
+
+And something must also attract him to her, for while she had the honour
+of being escorted up and down the hall by one of the handsome sons of the
+Burgrave von Zollern to the music of the march performed by the city
+pipers, Heinz Schorlin, it is true, did the same with his lady, but he
+looked away from her and at Eva whenever she passed him.
+
+Her partner was talkative enough, and his description of the German order
+which he expected to enter, as his two brothers had already done, would
+have seemed to her well worthy of attention at any other time, but now
+she listened with but partial interest.
+
+When the dance was over and Sir Heinz approached, her heart beat so
+loudly that she fancied her neighbours must hear it; but ere he had
+spoken a single word old Burgrave Frederick himself greeted her, inquired
+about her invalid mother, her blithe sister, and her aunt, the abbess,
+who in her youth had been the queen of every dance, and asked if she
+found his son a satisfactory partner.
+
+It was an unusual distinction to be engaged in conversation by this
+distinguished gentleman, yet Eva would fain have sent him far away, and
+her replies must have sounded monosyllabic enough; but the sweet shyness
+that overpowered her so well suited the modest young girl, who had
+scarcely passed beyond childhood, that he did not leave her until the
+'Rai' began, and then quitted her with the entreaty that she would remove
+the cap which had hitherto rendered her invisible, to the injury of
+knights and gentlemen, and be present at the dance which he should soon
+give at the castle.
+
+The pleasant old nobleman had scarcely left her when she turned towards
+the young man who had just approached with the evident intention of
+leading her to the dance, but he was again standing beside Cordula von
+Montfort, and a feeling of keen resentment overpowered her.
+
+The young countess was challenging his attention still more boldly,
+tossing her head back so impetuously that the turban-like roll on her
+hair, spite of the broad ribbon that fastened it under her chin, almost
+fell on the floor.  But her advances not only produced no effect, but
+seemed to annoy the knight.  What charm could he find in a girl who, in a
+costume which displayed the greatest extreme of fashion, resembled a Turk
+rather than a Christian woman?  True, she had an aristocratic bearing,
+and perhaps Els was right in saying that her strongly marked features
+revealed a certain degree of kindliness, but she wholly lacked the spell
+of feminine modesty.  Her pleasant grey eyes and full red lips seemed
+created only for laughter, and the plump outlines of her figure were
+better suited to a matron than a maiden in her early girlhood.  Not the
+slightest defect escaped Eva during this inspection.  Meanwhile she
+remembered her own image in the mirror, and a smile of satisfaction
+hovered round her red lips.
+
+Now the knight bowed.
+
+Was he inviting the countess to dance again?  No, he turned his back to
+her and approached Eva, whose lovely, childlike face brightened as if a
+sun beam had shone upon it.  The possibility of refusing her hand for the
+'Rai' never entered her head, but he told her voluntarily that he had
+invited Countess Cordula for the Polish dance solely in consequence of
+the Burgravine's command, but now that he was permitted to linger at her
+side he meant to make up for lost time.
+
+He kept his word, and was by no means content with the 'Rai'; for, after
+the young Duchess Agnes had summoned him to a 'Zauner', and during its
+continuance again talked with him far more confidentially than the modest
+Nuremberg maiden could approve, he persuaded Eva to try the 'Schwabeln'
+with him also; and though she had always disliked such dances she
+yielded, and her natural grace, as well as her quick ear for time, helped
+her to catch the unfamiliar steps without difficulty.  While doing so he
+whispered that even the angels in heaven could have no greater bliss than
+it afforded him to float thus through the hall, clasping her in his arm,
+while she glanced up at him with a happy look and bent her little head in
+assent.  She would gladly have exclaimed warmly: "Yes, indeed!  Yet the
+Burgravine says that danger threatens me from you, you dear, kind fellow,
+and I should do well to avoid you."
+
+Besides, she felt indebted to him.  What would have befallen her here in
+his absence!  Moreover, it gave her a strange sense of pleasure to gaze
+into his eyes, allow herself to be borne through the wide hall by his
+strong arm, and while pressed closely to his side imagine that his
+swiftly throbbing heart felt the pulsing of her own.  Instead of injuring
+her, wishing her evil, and asking her to do anything wrong, he certainly
+had only good intentions.  He had cared for her as if he occupied the
+place of her own brother who fell in the battle of Marchfield.  It would
+have given him most pleasure--he had said so himself--to dance everything
+with her, but decorum and the royal dames who kept him in attendance
+would not permit it.  However, he came to her in every pause to exchange
+at least a few brief words and a glance.  During the longest one, which
+lasted more than an hour and was devoted to the refreshment of the
+guests, he led her into a side room which had been transformed into a
+blossoming garden.
+
+Seats were placed behind the green birch trees--amid whose boughs hung
+gay lamps--and the rose bushes which surrounded a fountain of perfumed
+water, and Eva had already followed the Swiss knight across the threshold
+when she saw among the branches at the end of the room the Countess
+Cordula, at whose feet several young nobles knelt or reclined, among them
+Seitz Siebenburg, the brother-in-law of Wolff Eysvogel, her sister's
+betrothed bridegroom.
+
+The manner of the husband and father whose wife, only six weeks before,
+had become the mother of twin babies--beautiful boys--and who for
+Cordula's sake so shamefully forgot his duties, crimsoned her cheeks with
+a flush of anger, while the half-disapproving, half-troubled look that
+Sir Boemund Altrosen cast, sometimes at the countess, sometimes at
+Siebenburg, showed her that she herself was on the eve of doing something
+which the best persons could not approve; for Altrosen, who leaned
+silently against the wall beside the countess, ever and anon pushing back
+the coal-black hair from his pale face, had been mentioned by her
+godfather as the noblest of the younger knights gathered in Nuremberg.
+A voice in her own heart, too, cried out that this was no fitting place
+for her.
+
+If Els had been with her, Eva said to herself, she certainly would not
+have permitted her to enter this room, where such careless mirth
+prevailed, alone with a knight, and the thought roused her for a short
+time from the joyous intoxication in which she had hitherto revelled, and
+awakened a suspicion that there might be peril in trusting herself to
+Heinz Schorlin without reserve.
+
+"Not here," she entreated, and he instantly obeyed her wish, though the
+Countess Cordula, as if he were alone, instead of with a lady, loudly and
+gaily bade him stay where pleasure had built a hut under roses.
+
+Eva was pleased that her new friend did not even vouchsafe the young
+countess an answer.  His obedience led her also to believe that her
+anxiety had been in vain.  Yet she imposed greater reserve of manner upon
+herself so rigidly that Heinz noticed it, and asked what cloud had dimmed
+the pure radiance of her gracious sunshine.
+
+Eva lowered her eyes and answered gently: "You ought not to have taken
+me where the diffidence due to modesty is forgotten."  Heinz Schorlin
+understood her and rejoiced to hear the answer.  In his eyes, also,
+Countess Cordula this evening had exceeded the limits even of the liberty
+which by common consent she was permitted above others.  He believed that
+he had found in Eva the embodiment of pure and beautiful womanhood.
+
+He had given her his heart from the first moment that their eyes met.
+To find her in every respect exactly what he had imagined, ere he heard a
+single word from her lips, enhanced the pleasure he felt to the deepest
+happiness which he had ever experienced.
+
+He had already been fired with a fleeting fancy for many a maiden, but
+not one had appeared to him, even in a remote degree, so lovable as this
+graceful young creature who trusted him with such childlike confidence,
+and whose innocent security by the side of the dreaded heart-breaker
+touched him.
+
+Never before had it entered his mind concerning any girl to ask himself
+the question how she would please his mother at home.  The thought that
+she whom he so deeply honoured might possess a magic mirror which showed
+her her reckless son as he dallied with the complaisant beauties whose
+graciousness, next to dice-playing, most inflamed his blood, had
+sometimes disturbed his peace of mind when Biberli suggested it.  But
+when Eva looked joyously up at him with the credulous confidence of a
+trusting child, he could imagine no greater bliss than to hear his
+mother, clasping the lovely creature in her arms, call her her dear
+little daughter.
+
+His reckless nature was subdued, and an emotion of tenderness which he
+had never experienced before thrilled him as she whispered, "Take me to
+a place where everybody can see us, but where we need not notice anyone
+else."
+
+How significant was that little word "we"!  It showed that already she
+united herself and him in her thoughts.  To her pure nature nothing could
+be acceptable which must be concealed from the light of the sun and the
+eyes of man.  And her wish could be fulfilled.
+
+The place where Biberli had discovered them, and where refreshments had
+just been served to the Emperor and the ladies and gentlemen nearest to
+his person, who had been joined by several princes of the Church, was
+shut off by the bannerets, thus preventing the entrance of any uninvited
+person; but Heinz Schorlin belonged to the sovereign's suite and had
+admittance everywhere.
+
+So he led Eva behind the black and yellow rope to two vacant chairs at
+the end of the enclosed space where the banquet had been swiftly arranged
+for the Emperor and the other illustrious guests of Nuremberg.
+
+These seats were in view of the whole company, yet it would have been as
+difficult to interrupt him and his lady as any of the table companions of
+the imperial pair.  Eva followed the knight without anxiety, and took her
+place beside him in the well-chosen seat.
+
+A young cup-bearer of noble birth, with whom Heinz was well acquainted,
+brought unasked to him and his companion sparkling Malvoisie in
+Venetian glasses, and Heinz began the conversation by inviting Eva to
+drink to the many days brightened by her favour which, if the saints
+heard his prayer, should follow this, the most delightful evening of his
+life.  He omitted to ask her to pour the wine for him, knowing that many
+of the guests in the ballroom were watching them; besides the saucy
+little count came again and again to fill his goblet, and he wished to
+avoid everything which might elicit sarcastic comment.  The young cup-
+bearer desisted as soon as he noticed the respectful reserve with which
+Heinz treated his lady, and the youth was soon obliged to leave the hall
+with his liege lord, Duke Rudolph of Austria, who was to set out for
+Carinthia early the following morning, and withdrew with his wife without
+sharing the banquet.  The latter accompanied her husband to the castle,
+but she was to remain in Nuremberg during the session of the Reichstag
+with the lonely widowed Emperor, who was especially fond of the young
+Bohemian princess.  Before and during the dance with Heinz the latter had
+requested him to use the noble Arabian steed, a gift from the Sultan
+Kalaun to the Emperor, who had bestowed it upon her, and also expressed
+the hope of meeting the knight frequently.
+
+In the conversation which Heinz began with Eva he was at first obliged to
+defend himself, for she had admitted that she had heard the Burgravine's
+warning to beware of him.
+
+At the same time she had found opportunity to tell him that her heart
+yearned for something different from worldly love, and that she felt safe
+from every one because St. Clare was constantly watching over her.
+
+He replied that he had been reared in piety, that he knew the close
+relations existing between her patron saint and the holy Francis of
+Assisi, and that he, too, had experienced many things from this man of
+God.  Eva, with warm interest, asked when and where, and he willingly
+told her.
+
+On the way from Augsburg to Nuremberg, while riding in advance of the
+imperial court, he had met an old barefooted man who, exhausted by the
+heat of the day, had sunk down by the side of the road as if lifeless,
+with his head resting against the trunk of a tree.  Moved with
+compassion, he dismounted, to try to do something for the greybeard.
+A few sips of wine had restored him to consciousness, but his weary,
+wounded feet would carry him no farther.  Yet it would have grieved the
+old man sorely to be forced to interrupt his journey, for the Chapter
+General in Portiuncula, in Italy, had sent him with an important message
+to the brothers of his order in Germany, and especially in Nuremberg.
+
+The old Minorite monk was especially dignified in aspect, and when he
+chanced to mention that he had known St. Francis well and was one of
+those who had nursed him during his last illness, a dispute had arisen
+between Heinz Schorlin, the armor bearer, and his servant Walther
+Biberli, for each desired to give up his saddle to the old man and pursue
+his journey on foot for his sake and the praise of God.
+
+But the Minorite could not be persuaded to break his vow never again to
+mount a knight's charger and, even had it not been evident from his
+words, Heinz asserted that the aristocratic dignity of his bearing would
+have shown that he belonged to a noble race.
+
+Biberli's eloquence gained the victory in this case also, and though the
+groom led by the bridle another young stallion which the ex-schoolmaster
+might have mounted, he had walked cheerily beside the old monk, sweeping
+up the dust with his long robe.  At the tavern the knight and his
+attendants had been abundantly repaid for their kindness to the Minorite,
+for his conversation was both entertaining and edifying; and Heinz
+repeated to his lady, who listened attentively, much that the monk had
+related about St. Francis.
+
+Eva, too, was also on the ground dearest and most familiar to her.  Her
+little tongue ran fast enough, and her large blue eyes sparkled with an
+unusually bright and happy lustre as she completed and corrected what the
+young knight told her about the saint.
+
+How much that was lovable, benevolent, and wonderful there was to relate
+concerning this prophet of peace and good-will, this apostle of poverty
+and toil who, in every movement of nature, perceived and felt a summons
+to recognise the omnipotence and goodness of God, an invitation to devout
+submission to the Most High!
+
+How many amusing, yet edifying and touching anecdotes, the Abbess
+Kunigunde had narrated of him and the most beloved of his followers!
+Much of this conversation Eva repeated to the knight, and her pleasure in
+the subject of the conversation increased the vivacity of her active
+mind, and soon led her to talk with eager eloquence.  Heinz Schorlin
+fairly hung on her lips, and his eyes, which betrayed how deeply all that
+he was hearing moved him, rested on hers until a flourish of trumpets
+announced that the interval between the dances was over.
+
+He had listened in delight and, he felt, was forever bound to her.  When
+duty summoned him to attend the Emperor he asked himself whether such a
+conversation had ever been held in the midst of a merry dance; whether
+God, in his goodness, had ever created a being so perfect in soul and
+body as this fair saint, who could transform a ballroom into a church.
+
+Aye, Eva had done so; for, ardent as was the knight's love, something
+akin to religious devotion blended with his yearning desire.  The last
+words which he addressed to her before leading her back to the others
+contained the promise to make her patron saint, St. Clare, his own.
+
+The Princess of Nassau had invited him for the next dance, but she found
+Heinz Schorlin, whom the young Duchess Agnes had just said was merry
+enough to bring the dead to life, a very quiet partner; while young Herr
+Schurstab, who danced with Eva and, like all the members of the
+Honourable Council, knew that she desired to take the veil, afterwards
+told his friends that the younger beautiful E would suit a Carthusian
+convent, where speech is prohibited, much better than a ballroom.
+
+But after this "Zauner" Heinz Schorlin again loosed her tongue.  When he
+had told her how he came to the court, and she had learned that he had
+joined the Emperor Rudolph at Lausanne just as he took the vow to take
+part in the crusade, there was no end to her questions concerning the
+reason that the German army had not already marched against the infidels,
+and whether he himself did not long to make them feel his sword.
+
+Then she asked still further particulars concerning Brother Benedictus,
+the old Minorite whom he had treated so kindly.  Heinz told her what he
+knew, and when he at last enquired whether she still regretted having met
+him whom she feared, she gazed frankly into his eyes and, smiling
+faintly, shook her head.
+
+This increased his ardour, and he warmly entreated her to tell him where
+he could meet her again, and permit him to call her his lady.  But she
+hesitated to reply, and ere he could win from her even the faintest
+shadow of consent, Ernst Ortlieb, who had been talking with other members
+of the council in the room where the wine was served, interrupted him to
+take his daughter home.
+
+She went reluctantly.  The clasp of the knight's hand was felt all the
+way to the house, and it would have been impossible and certainly
+ungracious not to return it.
+
+Heinz Schorlin had obtained no assent, yet the last glance from her eyes
+had been more eloquent than many a verbal promise, and he gazed after her
+enraptured.
+
+It seemed like desecration to give the hand in which hers had rested to
+lead any one else to the dance, and when the rotund Duke of Pomerania
+invited him to a drinking bout at his quarters at the Green Shield he
+accepted; for without Eva the hall seemed deserted, the light robbed of
+its brilliancy, and the gay music transformed to a melancholy dirge.
+
+But when at the Green Shield the ducal wine sparkled in the beakers, the
+gold shone and glistened on the tables, and the rattle of the dice
+invited the bystanders to the game, he thought that whatever he undertook
+on such a day of good fortune must have a lucky end.
+
+The Emperor had filled his purse again, but the friendly gift did not
+cover his debts, and he wanted to be rid of them before he told his
+mother that he had found a dear, devout daughter for her, and intended to
+return home to settle in the ancestral castle, his heritage, and share
+with his uncle the maintenance of his rights and the management of fields
+and forests.
+
+Besides, he must test for the first time the power of his new patroness,
+St. Clare, instead of his old one, St. Leodegar.  But the former served
+him ill enough--she denied him her aid, at any rate in gambling.  The
+full purse was drained to its last 'zecchin' only too soon, and Heinz,
+laughing, turned it inside out before the eyes of his comrades.  But
+though the kind-hearted Duke of Pomerania, with whom Heinz was a special
+favourite, pushed a little heap of gold towards him with his fat hands,
+that the Swiss might try his luck again with borrowed money, which brings
+good fortune, he remained steadfast for Eva's sake.
+
+On his way to the Green Shield he had confessed to Biberli--who, torch in
+hand, led the way--that he intended very shortly to turn his back on the
+court and ride home, because this time he had found the right chatelaine
+for his castle.
+
+"That means the last one," the ex-schoolmaster answered quietly,
+carefully avoiding fanning the flame of his young master's desire by
+contradiction.  Only he could not refrain from entreating him not to
+burn his fingers with the dice, and, to confirm it, added that luck in
+gambling was apt to be scanty where fortune was so lavish in the gifts
+of love.
+
+Heinz now remembered this warning.  It had been predicted to his darling
+that meeting him would bring her misfortune, but he was animated by the
+sincere determination to force the jewel of his heart to remember Heinz
+Schorlin with anything but sorrow and regret.
+
+What would have seemed impossible to him a few hours before, he now
+realised.  With a steady hand he pushed back the gold to the duke, who
+pressed it upon him with friendly glances from his kind little eyes and
+an urgent whispered entreaty, and took his leave, saying that to-night
+the dice and he were at odds.
+
+With these words he left the room, though the host tried to detain him
+almost by force, and the guests also earnestly endeavoured to keep the
+pleasant, jovial fellow.  The loss, over which Biberli shook his head
+angrily, did, not trouble him.  Even on his couch Heinz found but a short
+time to think of his empty purse and the lovely maid who was to make the
+old castle among his beloved Swiss mountains an earthly paradise, for
+sleep soon closed his eyes.
+
+The next morning the events of the evening seemed like a dream.  Would
+that they had been one!  Only he would not have missed, at any cost, the
+sweet memories associated with Eva.  But could she really become his own?
+He feared not; for the higher the sun rose the more impracticable his
+intentions of the night before appeared.  At last he even thought of the
+religious conversation in the dancing hall with a superior smile, as if
+it had been carried on by some one else.  The resolve to ask from her
+father the hand of the girl he loved he now rejected.  No, he was not yet
+fit for a husband and the quiet life in the old castle.  Yet Eva should
+be the lady of his heart, her patron saint should be his, and he would
+never sue for the love of any other maiden.  Hers he must secure.  To
+press even one kiss on her scarlet lips seemed to him worth the risk of
+life.  When he had stilled this fervent longing he could ride with her
+colour on helm and shield from tourney to tourney, and break a lance for
+her in every land through which he passed with the Emperor.  What would
+happen afterwards let the saints decide.  As usual, Biberli was his
+confidant, and declared himself ready to use Katterle's services in his
+master's behalf.
+
+He had his own designs in doing this.  He could rely upon the waiting
+maid's assistance, and if there were secret meetings between Eva Ortlieb
+and his lord, which would appease the knight's ardour, even in a small
+degree, the task of disgusting Heinz with his luckless idea of an early
+marriage would not prove too difficult.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Eva Ortlieb had been borne home from the ball in her sedan chair with a
+happy smile hovering round her fresh young lips.
+
+It still lingered there when she found her sister in their chamber,
+sitting at the spinning wheel.  She had not left her suffering mother
+until her eyes closed in slumber, and was now waiting for Eva, to hear
+whether the entertainment had proved less disagreeable than she feared,
+and--as she had sent her maid to bed--to help her undress.
+
+One glance at Eva told her that she had perhaps left the ballroom even
+more reluctantly than she entered it; but when Els questioned her so
+affectionately, and with maternal care began to unfasten the ribbon which
+tied her cap, the young girl, who in the sedan chair had determined to
+confess to no one on earth what so deeply moved her heart, could not
+resist the impulse to clasp her in her arms and kiss her with impetuous
+warmth.
+
+Els received the caress with surprise for, though both girls loved each
+other tenderly, they, like most sisters, rarely expressed it by tangible
+proofs of tenderness.  Not until Eva released her did Els exclaim in
+merry amazement: "So it was delightful, my darling?"
+
+"Oh, so delightful!" Eva protested with hands uplifted, and at the same
+time met her sister's eyes with a radiant glance.
+
+Yet the thought entered her mind that it ill beseemed her to express so
+much pleasure in a worldly amusement.  Her glance fell in shame, and she
+gently continued in that tone of self-compassion which was by no means
+unfamiliar to the members of her family.  "True, though the Emperor is so
+noble, and both he and the Burgravine were so gracious to me, at first--
+and not only for a brief quarter of an hour, but a very long time I could
+feel no real pleasure.  What am I saying? Pleasure!  I was indescribably
+desolate and alone among all those vain, bedizened strangers.  I was like
+a shipwrecked sailor washed ashore by the waves and surrounded by people
+whose language is unfamiliar."
+
+"But half Nuremberg was at the ball," her sister interrupted.  "Now you
+see the trouble, darling.  Whoever, like you, remains in seclusion and
+mounts a tall tree to be entirely alone, will be deserted; for who would
+be kind-hearted enough to learn to climb for your sake?  But it seems
+that afterwards one and another----"
+
+"Oh!" Eva interrupted, "if you think that any of your friends gave me
+more than a passing greeting, you are mistaken.  Not even Barbel, Ann,
+or Metz took any special notice of your sister.  They kept near Ursel
+Vorchtel, and she and her brother Ulrich, of course, behaved as if I wore
+a fern cap and had become invisible.  I cannot tell you how uncomfortable
+I felt, and then--yes, Els, then I first realised distinctly what you are
+to me.  Obstinate as I often am, in spite of all your kindness and care,
+ungraciously as I often treat you, to-night I clearly perceived that we
+belong together, like a pair of eyes, and that without you I am only half
+myself--or, at any rate--not complete.  And--as we are speaking in
+images--I felt like a sapling whose prop has been removed; even your
+Wolff can never have longed for you more ardently.  My father found
+little time to give me.  As soon as he saw me take my place in the Polish
+dance he went with Uncle Pfinzing to the drinking room, and I did not see
+him again till he came to bring me home.  He had asked Fran Nutzel to
+look after me, but her Kathrin was taken ill, as I heard when we were
+leaving, and she disappeared with her during the first dance.  So I moved
+forlornly here and there until he--Heinz Schorlin--came and took charge
+of me."
+
+"He?  Sir Heinz Schorlin?" asked Els in surprise, a look of anxious
+suspense clouding her pretty, frank face.  "The reckless Swiss, whom
+Countess Cordula said yesterday was the pike in the dull carp pond of
+the court, and the only person for whom it was worth while to bear the
+penance imposed in the confessional?"
+
+"Cordula von  Montfort!" cried  Eva scornfully.  "If she speaks to me I
+shall not answer her, I can tell you.  My cheeks crimson when I think of
+the liberty----"
+
+"Never mind her," said her sister soothingly.  "She is a motherless
+child, and therefore unlike us.  As for Heinz Schorlin, he is certainly a
+gallant knight; but, my innocent lambkin, he is a wolf nevertheless."
+
+"A wolf?" asked Eva, opening her large eyes as wide as if they beheld
+some terrible object.  But she soon laughed softly, and added quietly:
+"But a very harmless wolf, who humbly changes his nature when the right
+hand strokes him.  How you stare at me!  I am not thinking of your
+beloved Wolff, whom you have tamed tolerably well, but the wolf of
+Gubbio, which did so much mischief, and to which St. Francis went forth,
+accosted him as Brother Wolf, and reminded him that they both owed their
+lives to the goodness of the same divine Father.  The animal seemed to
+understand this, for it nodded to him.  The saint now made a bargain with
+the wolf, which gave him its paw in pledge of the oath; and it kept the
+promise, for it followed St. Francis into the city, and never again
+harmed anyone.  The citizens of Gubbio fed the good beast, and when it
+died sincerely mourned it.  If you wish to know from whom I heard this
+edifying story--which is true, and can be confirmed by some one now in
+Nuremberg who witnessed it--let me tell you that it was the wicked wolf
+himself; not the Gubbio one, but he from Switzerland.  An old Minorite
+monk, to whom he compassionately gave his horse, is the witness I
+mentioned.  At the tavern the priest told him what he had beheld with his
+own eyes.  Do you still inveigh against the dangerous beast, which acts
+like the good Samaritan, and finds nothing more delightful than hearing
+or speaking of our dear saint?"
+
+"And this in the Town Hall during the dance?"  asked Els, clasping her
+hands as if she had heard something unprecedented.
+
+Eva, fairly radiant with joy, nodded assent; and Els heard the ring of
+pleasure in her clear voice, too, as she exclaimed: "That was just what
+made the ball so delightful.  The dancing!  Oh, yes, it is easy enough to
+walk and turn in time to the music when one has such a knight for a
+partner; but that was by no means the pleasantest part of it.  During the
+interval--it seemed but an instant, yet it really lasted a considerable
+time--we first entered into conversation."
+
+"In one of the side rooms?" asked Els, the bright colour fading from her
+cheeks.
+
+"What are you thinking of?" replied Eva in a tone of offence.  "I believe
+I know what is seemly as well as anybody else.  True, your Countess
+Cordula did not set the most praiseworthy example.  She allowed the whole
+throng of knights to surround her in the ante-room, and your future
+brother-in-law, Siebenburg, outdid them all.  We--Heinz Schorlin and I--
+sat near the Emperor's table in the great hall, where everybody could see
+us.  There the conversation naturally passed from the old Minorite to the
+holy founder of his order, and remained there.  And if ever valiant
+knight possessed a devout mind, it is Heinz Schorlin.  Whoever goes into
+battle without relying upon God and his saints,' he said, 'will find his
+courage lack wings, and his armour the surest defensive 'weapon.'"
+
+"In the ballroom!" again fell from her sister's lips in the same tone of
+amazement.
+
+"Where else?" asked Eva angrily.  "I never met him except there.  What do
+you other girls talk about at such entertainments, if it surprises you?
+Besides, St. Francis was by no means our only subject; we spoke of the
+future crusade, too.  And oh!--you may believe me--we would have been
+glad to talk of such things for hours.  He knew many things about our
+saint; but the precise one which makes him especially great and lovable,
+and withal so powerful that he attracted all whom he deemed worthy to
+follow him, he had not understood, and I was permitted to be the first
+person to bring it clearly before his mind.  Ah! and his wit is as keen
+as his sword, and his heart is as open to all that is noble and sacred as
+it is loyal to his lord and Emperor.  If we meet again I shall win him
+for the white cross on the black mantle and the battle against the
+enemies of the faith."
+
+"But, Eva," interrupted her sister, still under the spell of
+astonishment, "such conversation amid the merry music of the pipers!"
+
+"'Wherever three Christians meet, even though they are only laymen, there
+is a church,' says Tertullian," Eva answered impressively.  "One need not
+go to the house of God to talk about the things which ought to be the
+highest and dearest to every one; and Heinz Schorlin--I know it from his
+own lips--is of the same opinion, for he told me voluntarily that he
+would never forget the few hours which we had enjoyed together."
+
+"Indeed!" said her sister thoughtfully.  "But whether he does not owe
+this pleasure more to the dancing than to the edifying conversation----"
+
+"Certainly not!" replied Eva, very positively.  "I can prove it, too;
+for later, after he had heard many things about St. Clare, the female
+counterpart of Francis, he vowed to make her his patron saint.  Or do you
+suppose that a knight changes his saints, as he does his doublet and coat
+of mail, without having any great and powerful motive?  Do you think it
+possible that the idle pleasure of the dance led him to so important a
+decision?"
+
+"Certainly not.  Nothing led him to it except the irresistible zeal of my
+devout sister," answered Els, smiling, as she continued to comb her fair
+hair.  "She spoke with tongues in the ballroom, as the apostles did at
+Pentecost, and thus our 'little saint' performed her first miracle: the
+conversion of a godless knight during the dancing."
+
+"Call it so, if you choose," replied Eva, her red lips pouting
+scornfully, as if she felt raised above such pitiful derision.  "How you
+hurt, Els!  You are pulling all the hair out of my head!"
+
+The object of this rebuke had used the comb with the utmost care, but
+the great luxuriance of the long, fair, waving locks had presented many
+an impediment, and Eva seemed unusually sensitive that night.  Els
+thought she knew why, and made no answer to the unjust charge.  She knew
+her sister; and as she wound the braids about her head, and then, in the
+maid's place, hung part of her finery on hooks, and laid part carefully
+in the chest, she asked her numerous questions about the dance, but was
+vouchsafed only monosyllabic replies.
+
+At last Els knelt before the prie-dieu.  Eva did the same, resting her
+head so long upon her clasped hands that the patient older sister could
+not wait for the "Amen," but, in order not to disturb Eva's devotion,
+only pressed a light kiss upon her head and then carefully drew the
+curtains closely over the windows which, instead of glass, contained
+oiled parchment.
+
+Eva's excitement filled her with anxiety.  She knew, too, what a powerful
+influence the bright moonlight sometimes exerted upon her while she
+slept, and cast another glance at the closely curtained window before she
+went to her own bed.  There she lay a long time, with eyes wide open,
+pondering over her sister's words, and in doing so perceived more and
+more clearly that love was now knocking at the heart of the child
+kneeling before the prie-dieu.  Sir Heinz Schorlin, the wild butterfly,
+desired to sip the honey from this sweet, untouched flower, and then
+probably abandon her like so many before her.  Love and anxiety made the
+girl, whose opinion was usually milder than her sister's, a stern and
+unwise judge, for she assumed that the Swiss--whose character in reality
+was far removed from base hypocrisy--the man whom she had just termed a
+wolf, had donned sheep's clothing to make her poor lambkin an easier
+prey.  But she was on guard and ready to spoil his game.
+
+Did Eva really fail to understand the new feeling which had seized her
+so swiftly and powerfully?  Did she lull herself in the delusion that
+she cared only for the welfare of the soul of the pious young knight?
+
+Yes, it might be so, and prudent Els, who had watched her own little
+world intently enough, said to herself that it would be pouring oil upon
+the flames to tease Eva about the defeat which she, the "little saint,"
+had sustained in the battle against the demands of the world and of the
+feminine heart.  Besides, her sister was too dear for her to rejoice in
+her humiliation.  Els resolved not to utter a word about the Swiss unless
+compelled to do so.
+
+Eva's prayers before retiring were often very long, but to-night it
+seemed as if they would never end.
+
+"She is not appealing to St. Clare for herself alone, but for another,"
+thought Els.  "I spend less time in doing it.  True, a Heinz Schorlin
+needs longer intercession than my Eva, my Wolff, and my poor pious
+mother.  But I won't disturb her yet."
+
+Sighing faintly, she changed her position, but remained sitting propped
+against the white pillows in order not to allow herself to be overcome by
+sleep.  But it was a hard struggle, and her lids often fell, her head
+drooped upon her breast.
+
+Dawn was already glimmering without when the supplicant at last rose and
+sought her couch.  Her sister let her lie quietly for a while, then she
+rose and put out the lamp which Eva had forgotten to extinguish.  The
+latter noticed it, turned her face towards her and called her gently.
+"To think that you should have to get up again, my poor Els!  Give me
+a good-night kiss."
+
+"Gladly, dearest," replied the other.  "But it is really quite time to
+say 'good-morning."'
+
+"And you have kept awake so long!" replied Eva compassionately, as she
+threw her arms gratefully around her sister's neck, kissed her tenderly,
+and then pressed her hot cheek to hers.
+
+"What is this?" cried Els, with sincere anxiety.  "Are you hurt, child?
+Surely you are weeping?"
+
+"No, no," was the reply.  "I am only--I only thought that I had adorned
+myself, decked myself out with idle finery, although I know how many poor
+people are starving in want and misery, and how much more pleasing in the
+sight of the Lord is the grey robe of the cloistered nun.  I could
+scarcely leave the hall in my overweening pleasure, and yet it would have
+beseemed me far better to share the sufferings of the crucified Saviour."
+
+"But, child," replied Els, striving to soothe her sister, "how often I
+have heard from you and our aunt, the abbess, that no one was so cheerful
+and so glad to witness the enjoyment of human beings and animals as your
+St. Francis!"
+
+"He--he!" groaned Eva, "he who attained the highest goal, who heard the
+voice of the Lord wherever he listened; he who chose poverty as his
+beloved bride, who scorned show and parade and the trappings of wealth,
+as he disdained earthly love; he who celebrated in song the love of the
+soul glowing for the highest things, as no troubadour could do--oh, how
+ardently he knew how to love, but to love the things which do not belong
+to this world!"
+
+Els longed to ask what Eva knew about the ardent fire of love; but she
+restrained herself, darkened the bed as well as she could with the
+movable curtain which hung from the ceiling on both sides above the
+double couch, and said: "Be sensible, child, and put aside such thoughts.
+How loudly the birds are twittering outside!  If our father is obliged to
+breakfast alone there may be a storm, and I should be glad to have an
+hour's nap.  You need slumber, too.  Dancing is tiresome.  Shut your eyes
+and sleep as long as you can.  I'll be as quiet as a mouse while I am
+dressing."
+
+As she spoke she turned away from her sister and no longer resisted the
+sleep which soon closed her weary eyes.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Shipwrecked on the cliffs of 'better' and 'best'
+
+
+
+
+
+IN THE FIRE OF THE FORGE
+
+A ROMANCE OF OLD NUREMBERG
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+Volume 2.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+As her father had ordered the servants not to disturb the young girls,
+Els did not wake till the sun was high in the heavens.  Eva's place at
+her side was empty.  She had already left the room.  For the first time
+it had been impossible to sleep even a few short moments, and when she
+heard from the neighbouring cloister the ringing of the little bell that
+summoned the nuns to prayers, she could stay in bed no longer.
+
+Usually she liked to dress slowly, thinking meanwhile of many things
+which stirred her soul.  Sometimes while the maid or Els braided her hair
+she could read a book of devotion which the abbess had given her.  But
+this morning she had carried the clothes she needed into the next room on
+tiptoe, that she might not wake her sister, and urged Katterle, who
+helped her dress, to hurry.
+
+She longed to see her aunt at the convent.  While kneeling at the prie-
+dieu, she had reached the certainty that her patron saint had led Heinz
+Schorlin to her.  He was her knight and she his lady, so he must render
+her obedience, and she would use it to estrange him from the vanity of
+the world and make him a champion of the holy cause of the Church of
+Christ, the victorious conqueror of her foes.  Sky-blue, the Holy
+Virgin's colour, should be hers, and thus his also, and every victory
+gained by the knight with the sky-blue on his helmet, under St. Clare's
+protection, would then be hers.
+
+Heinz Schorlin was already one of the boldest and strongest knights; her
+love must render him also one of the most godly.  Yes, her love!  If St.
+Francis had not disdained to make a wolf his brother, why might she not
+feel herself the loving sister of a youth who would obey her as a noble
+falcon did his mistress, and whom she would teach to pursue the right
+quarry?  The abbess would not forbid such love, and the impulse that drew
+her so strongly to the convent was the longing to know how her aunt would
+receive her confession.
+
+The night before when, after her conversation with Els, she began to
+pray, she had feared that she had fallen into the snare of earthly love,
+and dreaded the confession which she had to make to her aunt Kunigunde.
+Now she found that it was no fleshly bond which united her to the knight.
+Oh, no!  As St. Francis had gone forth to console, to win souls for the
+Lord, to bring peace and exhort to earnest labour in the service of the
+Saviour, as his disciples had imitated him, and St. Clare had been
+untiring in working, in his spirit, among women, she, too, would obey the
+call which had come to her saint in Portiuncula, and prove herself for
+the first time, according to the Scripture, "a fisher of souls."
+
+Now she gladly anticipated the meeting; for though her sister did not
+understand her, the abbess must know how to sympathise with what was
+passing in her mind.  This expectation was fulfilled; for as soon as she
+was alone with her aunt she poured forth all her hopes and feelings
+without reserve, eagerly and joyfully extolling her good fortune that,
+through St. Clare, she had been enabled to find the noblest and most
+valiant knight, that she might win him for the Holy War under her saint's
+protection and to her honour.
+
+The abbess, who knew women's hearts, had at first felt the same fear as
+Els; but she soon changed her opinion, and thought that she might be
+permitted to rejoice over the new emotion in her darling's breast.
+
+No girl in love talked so openly and joyously of the conquest won, least
+of all would her truthful, excitable niece, whom she had drawn into her
+own path, speak thus of the man who disturbed her repose.  No sensitive
+girl, unfamiliar with the world and scarcely beyond childhood, would
+decide with such steadfast firmness, so wholly free from every selfish
+wish, the future of the man dearest to her heart.  No, no!  Eva had
+already attained her new birth, and was not to be compared with other
+girls  She had already once reached that ecstatic rapture which followed
+only a long absorption in God and an active sympathy with the deep human
+love of the Saviour and the unspeakable sufferings which he had taken
+upon himself.  Little was to be feared from earthly love for one who
+devoted herself with all the passion of her fervid nature to the divine
+Bridegroom.  Among the many whom Kunigunde received into the convent as
+novices, she was most certainly "called."  If she felt something which
+resembled love for the young knight--and she made no concealment of it--
+it was only the result of the sweet joy of winning for the Lord, the
+faith, and her saint a soul which seemed to her worthy of such grace.
+
+Dear, highly gifted child!
+
+She, the abbess Kunigunde, was willing it should be so, and that Eva
+should surpass herself.  She should prove that genuine piety conquers
+even the yearning of a quickly throbbing heart.
+
+True, she must keep her eyes open in order to prevent Satan, who is
+everywhere on the watch, from mingling in a game not wholly free from
+peril.  But, on the other hand, the abbess intended to help her beloved
+niece to reap the reward of her piety.
+
+It was scarcely to be doubted that Heinz Schorlin was fired with ardent
+love for Eva; but, for that very reason, he would be ready to yield her
+obedience, and therefore it was advisable to tell her exactly to what she
+must persuade him.  She must win him to join the Order of Malta, and if
+the famous champion of Marchfield performed heroic deeds with the white
+cross on his black mantle, or in war on his red tunic, he, the Emperor's
+favourite, would be sure of a high position among the military members of
+the order.
+
+The young girl listened eagerly, but the elderly abbess herself became
+excited while encouraging the young future "Sister" to her noble task.
+The days when, with the inmates of the convent, she had prayed that the
+Emperor Rudolph might fulfil the Pope's desire, and in a new crusade
+again wrest the Holy Land from the infidels, came back to her memory, and
+Heinz Schorlin, guided by the nuns of St. Clare, seemed the man to bring
+the fulfilment of this old and cherished wish.
+
+It appeared like a leading of the saints and a sign from God that Heinz
+had been dubbed a knight, and commenced his glorious career at Lausanne
+while the Emperor Rudolph pledged himself to a new crusade.
+
+She detained Eva so long that dinner was over at the Ortlieb mansion, and
+her impatient father would have sent for her had not the invalid mother
+urged him to let her remain.
+
+True, she longed to have a talk with her darling, who for the first time
+in her life had attended a great entertainment, and doubtless it grieved
+her to think that Eva did not feel the necessity of pouring out her heart
+to her own mother rather than to any one else, and sharing with her all
+the new emotions which undoubtedly had thrilled it; but she knew her
+child, and would have considered it selfish to place any obstacle in the
+pathway to eternal salvation of the elect whom God summoned with so loud
+a voice.  Formerly she would rather have seen the young girl, whose
+charms were developing into such rare beauty, wedded to some good man;
+but now she rejoiced in the idea that Eva was summoned to rule over the
+nuns in the neighbouring cloister some day as abbess, in the place of her
+sister-in-law Kunigunde.  Her own days, she knew, were numbered, but
+where could her child more surely find the happiness she desired for her
+than with the beloved sisters of St. Clare, whose home she and her
+husband had helped to build?
+
+Els had concealed from her parents what she fancied she had discovered,
+for any anxiety injured the invalid, and no one could anticipate how her
+irritable father might receive the information of her fear.  On the other
+hand, she could confide her troubles without anxiety to Wolff, her
+betrothed husband.  He was wise, prudent, loved Eva like a sister, and in
+exchanging thoughts with him she always discovered the right course to
+pursue; but though she expected him so eagerly and confidently, he did
+not come.
+
+When, in the afternoon, Eva returned home, her whole manner expressed
+such firm, cheerful composure that Els began to hope she might have been
+mistaken.  The undemonstrative yet tender affection with which she met
+her mother, too, by no means harmonised with her fears.
+
+How lovely the young girl looked as she sat on a low stool at the head of
+the invalid's couch and, with her mother's emaciated hand clasped in
+hers, told her all that she had seen and experienced the evening before!
+To please the beloved sufferer, she dwelt longer on the description of
+the gracious manner of the Emperor Rudolph and his sister to her and her
+father, the conversation with which the Burgrave had honoured her, and
+his son's invitation to dance.  Then for the first time she mentioned
+Heinz Schorlin, whom she had found a godly knight, and finally spoke
+briefly of the distinguished foreign nobles and ladies whom he had
+pointed out and named.
+
+All this reminded the mother of former days and, in spite of the warning
+of watchful Els not to talk too much, she did not cease questioning or
+recalling the time when she herself attended such festivals, and as one
+of the fairest maidens received much homage.
+
+It had been a good day, for it was long since she had enjoyed so much
+quiet in her own home.  The von Montforts, she told Eva, had set off
+early, with a great train of knights and servants, to ride to Radolzburg,
+the castle of the Burgrave von Zollern.  Her father thought they would
+probably have a dance there, for the young sons of the Burgrave would act
+as hosts.
+
+Eva asked carelessly who rode with Cordula this time to submit to her
+whims, but Els perceived by her sister's flushed cheeks and the tone of
+her voice what she desired to know, and answered as if by accident that
+Sir Heinz Schorlin certainly was not one of her companions, for he had
+ridden through the Frauenthor that afternoon in the train of the Emperor
+Rudolph and his Bohemian daughter-in-law.
+
+Twilight was already beginning to gather, and Els could not see whether
+this news afforded Eva pleasure or annoyance, for her mother had taken
+too little heed of her weakness, and one of the attacks which the
+physician so urgently ordered her to avoid by caution commenced.
+
+Els and the convent Sister Renata, who helped her nurse the invalid, were
+now completely absorbed in caring for her, but Eva turned away from the
+beloved sufferer--her sensitive nature could not endure the sight of her
+convulsions.
+
+As soon as her mother again lay weak but quiet on the pillows which Els
+had rearranged for her, Eva obeyed her entreaty to go away, and went to
+her own chamber.  When another attack drew her back to the invalid, a
+sign from her sister as she reached the threshold bade her keep away from
+the couch.  Should it prove necessary, she whispered, she would call her.
+If Wolff came, Eva was to tell him that she could not leave her mother,
+but he must be sure to return early the next morning, as she had a great
+deal to say to him.
+
+Eva then went to her father, who was dressing to attend a banquet at the
+house of Herr Berthold Vorchtel, the first Losunger--[Presiding Officer]
+--in the Council, from which he would be loath to absent himself for the
+very reason that his host's family had been hostile to him ever since the
+rumour of the betrothal of Wolff Eysvogel, whom the Vorchtels had
+regarded as their daughter Ursula's future husband.
+
+Nevertheless, Herr Ernst would not have gone to the entertainment had his
+wife's condition given cause for anxiety.  But he was familiar with these
+convulsions which, it is true, weakened the invalid, but produced no
+other results; so he permitted Eva to help him put the last touches to
+his dress, on which he lavished great care.  Spick and span as if he were
+just out of a bandbox, the elderly man, before leaving the house, went
+once more to the sick-room, and Eva stood near as, after many questions
+and requests, he whispered something to Els which she did not hear.  With
+excited curiosity she asked what he had said so secretly, but he only
+answered hurriedly, "The name of the Man in the Moon's dog," kissed her
+cheek, and ran downstairs.
+
+At the foot he again turned to Eva and told her to send for him if her
+mother should grow worse, for these entertainments at the Vorchtels
+usually lasted a long time.
+
+"Will the Eysvogels be there too?" asked the girl.
+
+"Who knows," replied her father.  "I shall be glad if Wolff comes."
+
+The tone in which he uttered the name of his future son-in-law distinctly
+showed how little he desired to meet any other member of the family, and
+Eva said sympathisingly, "Then I hope you will have an opportunity to
+remember me to Wolff."
+
+"Shall I say nothing to Ursel?"  asked  the father, pressing a good-night
+kiss upon the young girl's forehead.
+
+"She would not care for it," was the reply.  "It cannot be easy to forget
+a man like Wolff."
+
+"I wish he had stuck to Ursel, and let Els alone," her father answered
+angrily.  "It would have been better for both."
+
+"Why, father," interrupted Eva reproachfully, "do not our lovers seem
+really created for each other?"
+
+"If the  Eysvogels  were only of the same opinion," exclaimed Ernst
+Ortlieb, shrugging his shoulders with a faint sigh.  "Whoever marries,
+child, weds not only a man or a woman; all their kindred, unhappily, must
+be taken into the bargain.  However, Els did not lack earnest warning.
+When your time comes, girl, your father will be more careful."
+
+Smiling tenderly, he passed his hand over the little cap which covered
+her thick, fair hair, and went out.
+
+Eva returned to her room and sat down at the spinning-wheel in the bow
+window, where Katterle had just drawn the curtains closely and lighted
+the hanging lamp.  But the distaff remained untouched, and her thoughts
+wandered swiftly to the evening before and the ball at the Town Hall.
+Heinz Schorlin's image rose more and more distinctly before her mind, and
+this pleased her, for she fancied that he wore on his helm the blue
+favour which she had chosen, and it led her to consider against what foe
+she should first send him in the service of his lady and the Holy Church.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+Eva had gazed into vacancy a long time, and beheld a succession of
+pleasing pictures, in every one of which, Heinz Schorlin appeared.  Once,
+in imagination, she placed a wreath on his helmet after a great victory
+over the infidels.
+
+Why should not this vision become a reality?  Doubtless it owed its
+origin to a memory, for Wolff Eysvogel had been fired with love for her
+sister while Els was winding laurel around his helmet.
+
+After the Honourable Council had resolved that the youths belonging to
+noble families, who had fought in the battle of Marchfield and returned
+victorious, should be adorned with wreaths by the maidens of their
+choice, Fate had appointed her sister to crown Eysvogel.
+
+At that time Wolff had but recently recovered from the severe wounds with
+which he had returned from the campaign.  But while he knelt before Els
+and his eyes met hers, love had overmastered him so swiftly and
+powerfully, that at the end of a few days he determined to woo her.
+
+Meanwhile his own family resolutely opposed his choice.  The father
+declared that he had made an agreement with Berthold Vorchtel to marry
+him to his daughter Ursula, and withdrawal on his son's part would
+embarrass him.  His grandmother, the arrogant old Countess Rotterbach,
+agreed with him, and declared that Wolff ought to wed no one except a
+lady of the most aristocratic birth or an heiress like Ursula.  Her
+daughter Rosalinde Eysvogel, as usual, was the echo of her mother.
+
+Herr Ernst Ortlieb, too, would far rather have seen his Els marry into
+another home; but Wolff himself was a young man of such faultless honour,
+and the bride he had chosen was so eager to become his, that he deemed it
+a duty to forget the aversion inspired by the suitor's family.
+
+As for Wolff, he had so firmly persisted in his resolve that his parents
+at last permitted him to ask for his darling's hand, but his father had
+made it a condition that the betrothal, on account of the youth of the
+lovers, should not be announced till after Wolff had returned from Milan,
+where he was to finish the studies commenced in Venice.  True, everyone
+had supposed that they were completed long ago, but Eysvogel senior
+insisted upon his demand, and afterwards succeeded in deferring the
+announcement of the betrothal, until the resolute persistence of Wolff,
+who meanwhile had entered the great commercial house, and the wish of his
+own aged mother, a sensible woman, who from the first had approved her
+grandson's choice and to whom Herr Casper was obliged to show a certain
+degree of consideration, compelled him to give it publicity.
+
+A few days later Herr Casper's brother died, and soon after his estimable
+old mother.  He used these events as a pretext for longer delay, saying
+that both he and his wife needed at least six months' interval ere they
+could forget their mourning in a gay wedding festival.  Besides, he would
+prefer not to have the marriage take place until after Wolff's election
+to the Council, which, in all probability, would occur after Walpurgis of
+the coming year.
+
+Ernst Ortlieb had sullenly submitted to all this.  Nothing but his love
+for his child and respect for Herr Casper's dead mother, who had taken
+Els to her heart like a beloved granddaughter, would have enabled him
+to conquer his hasty temper in his negotiations with the man whom he
+detested in his inmost soul, and not hurl back the consent so reluctantly
+granted to his son.
+
+The friends who knew him admired the strength of will with which he
+governed his impetuous nature in this transaction.  Some asserted that
+secret obligations compelled him to yield to the rich Eysvogel; for
+though the Ortlieb mercantile house was reputed wealthy, the business
+prudence of its head resulted in smaller profits, and people had not
+forgotten that it had suffered heavy losses during the terrible period of
+despotism which had preceded the Emperor Rudolph's accession to the
+throne.
+
+The insecurity of the high-roads had injured every merchant, but in
+trying to find some explanation for Herr Ortlieb's submission the attacks
+which had cost him one and another train of wares were regarded as
+specially disastrous.
+
+Finally, the dowry which Els was to bring bore no comparison to the large
+sums Ernst Ortlieb had lavished upon the erection of the St. Clare
+Convent, and hence it was inferred that the wealth of the firm had
+sustained considerable losses.  This found ready credence, owing to the
+retired life led by the Ortliebs,--whose house had formerly been one of
+the most hospitable in the city,--ever since the wife had become an
+invalid and Eva had grown up with an aversion to the world.  Few took
+the trouble to inquire into the very apparent causes for the change.
+
+Yet this view of the matter was opposed by many-nay, when the
+conversation turned upon these subjects, Herr Berthold Vorchtel, perhaps
+the richest and most distinguished man in Nuremberg, who rented the
+imperial taxes, made comments from which, had it not been so difficult to
+believe, people might have inferred that Casper Eysvogel was indebted to
+Ernst Ortlieb rather than the latter to him.
+
+Yet the cautious, prudent man never explained the foundation of his
+opinion, for he very rarely mentioned either of the two firms; yet prior
+to the battle of Marchfield he had believed that his own daughter Ursula
+and Wolff Eysvogel would sooner or later wed.  Herr Casper, the young
+man's father, had strengthened this expectation.  He himself and his wife
+esteemed Wolff, and his "Ursel" had shown plainly enough that she
+preferred him to the other friends of her elder brother Ulrich.
+
+When he returned home the two met like brother and sister, and the
+parents of Ursula Vorchtel had expected Wolff's proposal until the day
+on which the wreaths were bestowed had made them poorer by a favourite
+wish and destroyed the fairest hope of their daughter Ursula.
+
+The worthy merchant, it is true, deemed love a beautiful thing, but in
+Nuremberg it was the parents who chose wives and husbands for their sons
+and daughters; yet, after marriage, love took possession of the newly
+wedded pair.  A transgression of this ancient custom was very rare, and
+even though Wolff's heart was fired with love for Els Ortlieb, his
+father, Herr Vorchtel thought, should have refused his consent to the
+betrothal, especially as he had already treated Ursel as his future
+daughter.  Some compulsion must have been imposed upon him when he
+permitted his son to choose a wife other than the one selected.
+
+But what could render one merchant dependent upon another except business
+obligations?--and Berthold Vorchtel was sharp-sighted.  He knew the heavy
+draft which Herr Casper had made upon the confidence reposed in the old
+firm, and thought he had perceived that the great splendour displayed by
+the women of the Eysvogel family, the liberality with which Herr Casper
+had aided his impoverished noble relatives, and the lavish expenditure of
+his son-in-law, the debt-laden Sir Seitz Siebenburg, drew too heavily
+upon the revenues of the ancient house.
+
+Even now Casper Eysvogel's whole conduct proved how unwelcome was his
+son's choice.  To him, Ursula's father, he still intimated on many an
+occasion that he had by no means resigned every hope of becoming, through
+his son, more nearly allied to his family, for a betrothal was not a
+wedding.
+
+Berthold Vorchtel, however, was not the man to enter into such double-
+dealing, although he saw plainly enough how matters stood with his poor
+child.  She had confided her feelings to no one; yet, in spite of
+Ursula's reserved nature, even a stranger could perceive that something
+clouded her happiness.  Besides, she had persistently refused the
+distinguished suitors who sought the wealthy Herr Berthold's pretty
+daughter, and only very recently had promised her parents, of her own
+free will, to give up her opposition to marriage.
+
+Ever since the betrothal, to the sincere sorrow of Els, she had
+studiously avoided Wolff's future bride, who had been one of her dearest
+friends; and Ulrich, Herr Vorchtel's oldest son, took his sister's part,
+and at every opportunity showed Wolff--who from a child, and also in the
+battle of Marchfield, had been a favourite comrade--that he bore him a
+grudge, and considered his betrothal to any one except Ursula an act of
+shameful perfidy.
+
+The fair-minded father did not approve of his son's conduct, for his wife
+had learned from her daughter that Wolff had never spoken to her of love,
+or promised marriage.
+
+Therefore, whenever Herr Berthold Vorchtel met Els's father--and this
+often happened in the Council--he treated him with marked respect, and
+when there was an entertainment in his house sent him an invitation, as
+in former years, which Ernst Urtlieb accepted, unless something of
+importance prevented.
+
+But though the elder Vorchtel was powerless to change his children's
+conduct, he never wearied of representing to his son how unjust and
+dangerous were the attacks with which, on every occasion, he irritated
+Wolff, whose strength and skill in fencing were almost unequalled in
+Nuremberg.  In fact, the latter would long since have challenged his
+former friend had he not been so conscious of his own superiority, and
+shrunk from the thought of bringing fresh sorrow upon Ursula and her
+parents, whom he still remembered with friendly regard.
+
+Eva was fond of her future brother-in-law, and it had not escaped her
+notice that of late something troubled him.
+
+What was it?
+
+She thoughtfully gave the wheel a push, and as it turned swiftly she
+remembered the Swiss dance the evening before, and suddenly clenched her
+small right hand and dealt the palm of her left a light blow.
+
+She fancied that she had discovered the cause of Wolff's depression, for
+she again saw distinctly before her his sister Isabella's husband, Sir
+Seitz Siebenburg, as he swung Countess Cordula around so recklessly that
+her skirt, adorned with glittering jewels, fluttered far out from her
+figure.  In the room adjacent to the hall he had flung himself upon his
+knees before the countess, and Eva fancied she again beheld his big, red
+face, with its long, thick, yellow mustache, whose ends projected on both
+sides in a fashion worn by few men of his rank.  The expression of the
+watery blue eyes, with which he stared Cordula in the face, were those of
+a drunkard.
+
+To-day he had followed her to the Kadolzburg, and probably meant to spend
+the night there.  So Wolff had ample reason to be anxious about his
+sister and her peace of mind.  That must be it!
+
+Perhaps he would yet come that evening, to give Els at least a greeting
+from the street.  How late was it?
+
+She hastily tried to draw the curtains aside from the window, but this
+was not accomplished as quickly as she expected--they had been care fully
+fastened with pins.  Eva noticed it, and suddenly remembered her father's
+whispered words to Els.
+
+They were undoubtedly about the window.  According to the calendar, the
+moon would be full that day, and she knew very well that it had a strange
+influence upon her.  True, within the past year it appeared to have lost
+its power; but formerly, especially when she had devoted herself very
+earnestly to religious exercises, she had often, without knowing how or
+why, left her bed and wandered about, not only in her chamber but through
+the house.  Once she had climbed to the dovecot in the courtyard, and
+another time had mounted to the garret where, she did not know in what
+way, she had been awakened.  When she looked around, the moon was shining
+into the spacious room, and showed her that she was perched on one of the
+highest beams in the network of rafters which, joined with the utmost
+skill, supported the roof.  Below her yawned a deep gulf, and as she
+looked down into it she was seized with such terror that she uttered a
+loud shriek for help, and did not recover her calmness until the old
+housekeeper, Martsche, who had started from her bed in alarm, brought her
+father to her.
+
+She had been taken down with the utmost care.  No one was permitted to
+help except white-haired Nickel, the old head packer, who often let a
+whole day pass without opening his lips; for Herr Ernst seemed to lay
+great stress upon keeping the moon's influence on Eva a secret.  There
+was indeed something uncanny about this night-walking, for even now it
+seemed incomprehensible how she had reached the beam, which was at least
+the height of three men above the floor.  A fall might have cost her
+life, and her father was right in trying to prevent a repetition of such
+nocturnal excursions.  This time Els had helped him.
+
+How faithfully she cared for them all!
+
+Yes, she had barred out even the faintest glimmer.  Eva smiled as she saw
+the numerous pins with which her sister had fastened the curtain, and an
+irresistible longing seized her to see once more the wonderful light that
+promoted the growth of the hair if cut during its increase, and also
+exerted so strange an influence upon her.
+
+She must look up at the moon!
+
+Swiftly and skilfully, as if aided by invisible hands, her dainty fingers
+opened curtain and window.
+
+Drawing a deep breath, with an emotion of pleasure which she had not
+experienced for a long time, she gazed at the linden before the house
+steeped in silvery radiance, and upward to the pure disk of the full moon
+sailing in the cloudless sky.  How beautiful and still the night was!
+How delightful it would be to walk up and down the garden, with her aunt
+the abbess, with Els, and perhaps--she felt the blood crimson her cheeks-
+-with Heinz Schorlin!
+
+Where was he now?
+
+Undoubtedly with the Emperor and his ladies, perhaps at the side of the
+Bohemian princess, the young Duchess Agnes, who yesterday had so plainly
+showed her pleasure in his society.
+
+Just then the watch, marching from the Marienthurn to the Frauenthor,
+gave her vagrant thoughts a new turn.  The city guard was soon followed
+by a troop of horse, which probably belonged to the Emperor's train.
+
+It was delightful to gaze, at this late hour, into the moonlit street,
+and she wondered that she had never enjoyed it before.  True, it would
+have been still pleasanter had Els borne her company; and, besides, she
+longed to tell her the new explanation she had found for Wolff's altered
+manner.
+
+Perhaps her mother was asleep, and she could come with her.
+
+How still the house was!
+
+Cautiously opening the door of the sick-room, she glanced in.  Els was
+standing at the head of the bed, supporting her mother with her strong
+young arms, while Sister Renata pushed the cushions between the
+sufferer's back and the bedstead.
+
+The old difficulty of breathing had evidently attacked her again.
+
+Yes, yes, the dim light of the lamp was shining on her pale face, and the
+large sunken eyes were gazing with imploring anguish at the image of the
+Virgin on the opposite wall.
+
+How gladly Eva would have afforded her relief!  She looked with a faint
+sense of envy at her sister, whose skilful, careful hands did everything
+to the satisfaction of the beloved sufferer, while in nursing she failed
+only too often in giving the right touch.  But she could pray--implore
+the aid of her saint very fervently; nay, she was more familiar with her,
+and might hope that she would fulfil a heartfelt wish of hers more
+quickly than for her sister.  It would not do to call Els to the window.
+She closed the door gently, returned to her chamber, knelt and implored
+St. Clare, with all the fervour of her heart, to grant her mother a good
+night.  Then she again drew the curtains closely over the window, and
+went to call Katterle to help her undress.
+
+But the maid was just entering with fresh water.  What was the matter
+with her?
+
+Her hand trembled as she braided her young mistress's hair and sometimes,
+with a faint sigh, she stopped the movement of the comb.
+
+Her silence could be easily explained; for Eva had often forbidden
+Katterle to talk, when she disturbed her meditation.  Yet the girl must
+have had some special burden on her mind, for when Eva had gone to bed
+she could not resolve to leave the room, but remained standing on the
+threshold in evident embarrassment.
+
+Eva encouraged her to speak, and Katterle, so confused that she often
+hesitated for words and pulled at her ribbons till she was in danger of
+tearing them from her white apron, stammered that she did not come on her
+own account, but for another person.  It was well known in the household
+that her betrothed husband, the true and steadfast Walther Biberli,
+served a godly knight, her countryman.
+
+"I know it," said Eva with apparent composure, "and your Biberli has
+commissioned you to bear me the respectful greeting of Sir Heinz
+Schorlin."
+
+The girl looked at her young mistress in surprise.  She had been prepared
+for a sharp rebuke, and had yielded to her lover's entreaties to under
+take this service amid tears, and with great anxiety; for if her act
+should be betrayed, she would lose, amid bitter reproaches, the place she
+so greatly prized.  Yet Biberli's power over her and her faith in him
+were so great that she would have followed him into a lion's den; and it
+had scarcely seemed a more desirable venture to carry a love-greeting to
+the pious maiden who held men in such disfavour, and could burst into
+passionate anger as suddenly as her father.
+
+And now?
+
+Eva had expected such a message.  It seemed like a miracle to Katterle.
+
+With a sigh of relief, and a hasty thanksgiving to her patron saint, she
+at once began to praise the virtue and piety of the servant as well as
+his lord; but Eva again interrupted, and asked what Sir Heinz Schorlin
+desired.
+
+Katterle, with new-born confidence, repeated, as if it were some trivial
+request, the words Biberli had impressed upon her mind.
+
+"By virtue of the right of every good and devout knight to ask his lady
+for her colour, Sir Heinz Schorlin, with all due reverence, humbly prays
+you to name yours; for how could he hold up his head before you and all
+the knights if he were denied the privilege of wearing it in your honour,
+in war as well as in peace?"
+
+Here her mistress again interrupted with a positive "I know," and, still
+more emboldened, Katterle continued the ex-schoolmaster's lesson to the
+end:
+
+"His lord, my lover says, will wait here beneath the window, in all
+reverence, though it should be till morning, until you show him your
+sweet face.  No, don't interrupt me yet, Mistress Eva, for you must know
+that Sir Heinz's lady mother committed her dear son to my Biberli's
+care, that he might guard him from injury and illness.  But since his
+master met you, he has been tottering about as though he had received a
+spear-thrust, and as the knight confessed to his faithful servitor that
+no leech could help him until you permitted him to open his heart to you
+and show you with what humble devotion----"
+
+But here the maid was interrupted in a manner very different from her
+expectations, for Eva had raised herself on her pillows and, almost
+unable to control her voice in the excess of her wrath, exclaimed:
+
+"The master who presumes to seek through his servant----  And by what
+right does the knight dare thus insolently----  But no!  Who knows what
+modest wish was transformed in your mouth to so unprecedented a demand?
+He desired to see my face?  He wanted to speak to me in person, to
+confess I know not what?  From you--you, Katterle, the maid--the knight
+expects----"
+
+Here she struck her little hand angrily against the wood of the bedstead
+and, panting for breath, continued:
+
+"I'll show him!----  Yet no!  What I have to answer no one else----  From
+me, from me alone, he shall learn without delay.  There is paper in
+yonder chest, on the very top; bring it to me, with pen and ink."
+
+Katterle silently hurried to obey this order, but Eva pressed her hand
+upon her heaving bosom, and gazed silently into vacancy.
+
+The manservant and the maid whom Heinz Schorlin had made his messengers
+certainly could have no conception of the bond that united her to him;
+even her own sister had misunderstood it.  He should now learn that Eva
+Ortlieb knew what beseemed her!  But she, too, longed for another
+meeting, and this conduct rendered it necessary.
+
+The sooner they two had a conversation, the better.  She could
+confidently venture to invite him to the meeting which she had in view;
+her aunt, the abbess, had promised to stand by her side, if she needed
+her, in her intercourse with the knight.
+
+But her colour?
+
+Katterle had long since laid the paper and writing materials before her,
+but she still pondered.  At last, with a smile of satisfaction, she
+seized the pen.  The manner in which she intended to mention the colour
+should show him the nature of the bond which united them.
+
+She was mistress of the pen, for in the convent she had copied the
+gospels, the psalms, and other portions of the Scriptures, yet her hand
+trembled as she committed the following lines to the paper:
+
+"I am angered--nay, even grieved--that you, a godly knight, who knows the
+reverence due to a lady, have ventured to await my greeting in front
+of my father's house.  If you are a true knight, you must be aware that
+you voluntarily promised to obey my every glance.  I can rely upon this
+pledge, and since I find it necessary to talk with you, I invite you to
+an interview--when and where, my maid, who is betrothed to your servant,
+shall inform him.  A friend, who has your welfare at heart as well as
+mine, will be with me.  It must be soon, with the permission of St.
+Clare, who, since you have chosen her for your patron saint, looks down
+upon you as well as on me.
+
+"As for my colour, I know not what to name; the baubles associated with
+earthly love are unfamiliar to me.  But blue is the colour of the pure
+heaven and its noble queen, the gracious Virgin.  If you make this colour
+yours and fight for it, I shall rejoice, and am willing to name it mine."
+
+At the bottom of the little note she wrote only her Christian name "Eva,"
+and when she read it over she found that it contained, in apt and seemly
+phrases, everything that she desired to say to the knight.
+
+While folding the paper and considering how she could fasten it, as there
+was no wax at hand, she thought of the narrow ribbons with which Els tied
+together, in sets of half a dozen, the fine kerchiefs worn over the neck
+and bosom, when they came from the wash.  They were sky-blue, and nothing
+could be more suitable for the purpose.
+
+Katterle brought one from the top of the chest.  Eva wound it swiftly
+around the little roll, and the maid hastily left the room, sure of the
+gratitude of the true and steadfast Biberli.
+
+When Eva was again alone, she at first thought that she might rejoice
+over her hasty act; but on asking herself what Els would say, she felt
+certain that she would disapprove of it and, becoming disconcerted,
+began to imagine what consequences it might entail.
+
+The advice which her father had recently given Wolff, never to let any
+important letter pass out of his hands until at least one night had
+elapsed, returned to her memory, and from that instant the little note
+burdened her soul like a hundred-pound weight.
+
+She would fain have started up to get it back again, and a strong
+attraction drew her towards the window to ascertain whether Heinz
+Schorlin had really come and was awaiting her greeting.
+
+Perhaps Katterle had not yet delivered the note.  What if she were still
+standing at the door of the house to wait for Biberli?  If, to be
+absolutely certain, she should just glance out, that would not be looking
+for the knight, and she availed herself of the excuse without delay.
+
+In an instant she sprang from her bed and gently drew the curtain aside.
+The street was perfectly still.  The linden and the neighbouring houses
+cast dark, sharply outlined shadows upon the light pavement, and from the
+convent garden the song of the nightingale echoed down the quiet moonlit
+street.
+
+Katterle had probably already given the note to Heinz Schorlin who,
+obedient to his lady's command, as beseemed a knight, had gone away.
+This soothed her anxiety, and with a sigh she went back to bed.
+
+But the longing to look out into the street again was so strong that she
+yielded to the temptation; yet, ere she reached the window, she summoned
+the strength of will which was peculiar to her and, lying down, once more
+closed her lids, with the firm resolve to see and hear nothing.  As she
+had not shut her eyes the night before and, from dread of the ball, had
+slept very little during the preceding one, she soon, though the moon was
+shining in through the parted curtains, lapsed into a condition midway
+between sleep and waking.  Extreme fatigue had deadened consciousness,
+yet she fancied that at times she heard the sound of footsteps on the
+pavement outside, and the deep voices of men.
+
+Nor was what she heard in her half-dozing state, which was soon followed
+by the sound slumber of youth, any delusion of the senses.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+The moon found something in front of the Ortlieb house worth looking at.
+Rarely had she lighted with purer, brighter radiance the pathway of the
+mortals who excited her curiosity, than that of the two handsome young
+men who, at a moderate interval of time, passed through the Frauenthor,
+and finally entered the courtyard of the Ortlieb residence almost at the
+same instant.
+
+Luna first saw them pace silently to and fro, and delighted in the
+resentful glances they cast at each other.  This joy increased as the one
+in the long coat, embroidered on the shoulder with birds, and then the
+other, whose court costume well became his lithe, powerful limbs, sat
+down, each on one of the chains connecting the granite posts between the
+street and the courtyard.
+
+The very tall one, who looked grave and anxious, was Wolff Eysvogel; the
+other, somewhat shorter, who swung gaily to and fro on the chain as if it
+afforded him much amusement, Heinz Schorlin.
+
+Both frequently glanced up at the lighted bow-window and the smaller one
+on the second story, behind which Eva lay half asleep.  This was the
+first meeting of the two men.
+
+Wolff, aware of his excellent right to remain on this-spot, would have
+shown the annoying intruder his displeasure long before, had he not
+supposed that the other, whom at the first glance he recognised as a
+knight, was one of Countess Cordula von Montfort's admirers.  Yet he soon
+became unable to control his anger and impatience.  Yielding to a hasty
+impulse, he left the chain, but as he approached the stranger the latter
+gave his swaying seat a swifter motion and, without vouchsafing him
+either greeting or introductory remark, said carelessly, "This is a
+lovely night."
+
+"I am of the same opinion," replied Wolff curtly.  "But I would like to
+ask, sir, what induced you to choose the courtyard of this house to enjoy
+it?"
+
+"Induced?" asked the Swiss in astonishment; then, looking the other in
+the face with defiant sharpness, he added scornfully:
+
+"I am warming the chain because it suits me to do so."
+
+"You are allowed the pleasure," returned Wolff in an irritated tone;
+"nay, I can understand that night birds of your sort find no better
+amusement.  Still, it seems to me that a knight who wishes to keep iron
+hot might attain his object better in another way."
+
+"Why, of course," cried Heinz Schorlin, springing swiftly to his feet
+with rare elasticity.  "It gives a pleasant warmth when blade strikes
+blade or the hot blood wets them.  I am no friend to darkness, and it
+seems to me, sir, as if we were standing in each other's light here."
+
+"There our opinions concur for the second time this lovely night,"
+quietly replied the patrician's son, conscious of his unusual strength
+and skill in fencing, with a slight touch of scorn.  "Like you, I am
+always ready to cross blades with another; only, the public street is
+hardly the fitting place for it."
+
+"May the plague take you!" muttered the Swiss in assent to Wolff's
+opinion.  "Besides, sir, who ever grasps iron so swiftly is worth a
+parley.  To ask whether you are of knightly lineage would be useless
+trouble, and should it come to a genuine sword-dance.
+
+"You will find a partner in me at any time," was the reply, "as I, who
+wear my ancient escutcheon with good right, would gladly give you a
+crimson memento of this hour--though you were but the son of a cobbler.
+But first let us ascertain--for I, too, dislike darkness--whether we are
+really standing in each other's light.  With all due respect for your
+fancy for warming chains, it would be wise, ere Sir Red Coat--[The
+executioner]--puts his round our ankles for disturbing the peace, to have
+a sensible talk."
+
+"Try it, for aught I care," responded Heinz Schorlin cheerily.
+"Unluckily for me, I live in a state of perpetual feud with good sense.
+One thing, however, seems certain without any serious reflection: the
+attraction which draws me here, as well as you, will not enter the
+cloister as a monk, but as a little nun, wears no beard, but braids her
+hair.  Briefly, then, if you are here for Countess Cordula von Montfort's
+sake, your errand is vain; she will sleep at Kadolzburg to-night."
+
+"May her slumber be sweet!" replied Wolff calmly.  "She is as near to me
+as yonder moon."
+
+"That gives the matter a more serious aspect," cried the knight angrily.
+"You or I.  What is your lady's name?"
+
+"That, to my mind, is asking too much," replied Wolff firmly.
+
+"And the law of love gives you the right to withhold an answer.  But,
+sir, we must nevertheless learn for the sake of what fairest fair we have
+each foregone sleep."
+
+"Then tell me, by your favour, your lady's colour," Wolff asked the
+Swiss.
+
+The latter laughed gaily: "I am still putting that question to my saint."
+
+Then, noticing Wolff's shake of the head, he went on in a more serious
+tone: "If you will have a little patience, I hope I may be able to tell
+you, ere we part."
+
+This assurance also seemed to Wolff an enigma.  Who in the wide world
+would come from under the respectable Ortlieb roof, at this hour, to tell
+a stranger anything whatsoever concerning one of its daughters?  Neither
+could have given him the right to regard her as his lady, and steal at
+night, like a marten, around the house which contained his dearest
+treasure.  This obscurity was an offence to Wolff Eysvogel, and he was
+not the man to submit to it.  Yonder insolent fellow should learn, to his
+hurt, that he had made a blunder.
+
+But scarcely had he begun to explain to Heinz that he claimed the right
+to protect both the daughters of this house, the younger as well as the
+older, since they had no brother, when the knight interrupted:
+
+"Oho!  There are two of them, and she, too, spoke of a sister.  So, if it
+comes to sharing, sir, we need not emulate the judgment of Solomon.  Let
+us see!  The colour is uncertain, but to every Christian mortal a name
+clings as closely as a shadow and, if I mention the initial letter of the
+one which adorns my lady, I believe I shall commit no offence that a
+court of love could condemn.  The initial, which I like because it is
+daintily rounded and not too difficult to write-mark it well--is 'E.'"
+
+Wolff Eysvogel started slightly and gripped the dagger in his belt, but
+instantly withdrew his hand and answered with mingled amusement and
+indignation: "Thanks for your good will, Sir Knight, but this, too,
+brings us no nearer our goal; the E is the initial of both the Ortlieb
+sisters.  The elder who, as you may know, is my betrothed bride, bears
+the name of Elizabeth, or Els, as we say in Nuremberg."
+
+"And the younger," cried Heinz joyously, "honours with her gracious
+innocence the name of her through whom sin came into the world."
+
+"But you, Sir Knight," exclaimed Wolff fiercely, "would do better not to
+name sin and Eva Ortlieb in the same breath.  If you are of a different
+opinion----"
+
+"Then," interrupted the Swiss, "we come back to warming the iron."
+
+"As you  say," cried Wolff  resolutely.  "In spite of the peace of the
+country, I will be at your service at any time.  As you see, I went out
+unarmed, and it would not be well done to cross swords here."
+
+"Certainly not," Heinz assented.  "But many days and nights will follow
+this moonlight one, and that you may have little difficulty in finding me
+whenever you desire, know that my name is Heinrich--or to more intimate
+friends, among whom you might easily be numbered if we don't deprive each
+other of the pleasure of meeting again under the sun--Heinz Schorlin."
+
+"Schorlin?" asked Wolff in surprise.  "Then you are the knight who, when
+a beardless boy, cut down on the Marchfield the Bohemian whose lance had
+slain the Emperor's charger, the Swiss who aided him to mount the steed
+of Ramsweg of Thurgau--your uncle, if I am not mistaken--and then took
+the wild ride to bring up the tall Capeller, with his troops, who so
+gloriously decided the day."
+
+"And," laughed Heinz, "who was finally borne off the field as dead before
+the fulfilment of his darling wish to redden Swiss steel with royal
+Bohemian blood.  This closed the chronicle, Herr--what shall I call you?"
+
+"Wolff Eysvogel, of Nuremberg," replied the other.
+
+"Aha!  A son of the rich merchant where the Duke of Gulich found
+quarters?"  cried the Swiss, lifting his cap bordered with fine miniver.
+"May confusion seize me!  If I were not my father's son, I wouldn't mind
+changing places with you.  It must make the neck uncommonly stiff,
+methinks, to have a knightly escutcheon on door and breast, and yet be
+able to fling florins and zecchins broadcast without offending the devil
+by an empty purse.  If you don't happen to know how such a thing looks, I
+can show you."
+
+"Yet rumour says," observed Wolff, "that the Emperor is gracious to you,
+and knows how to fill it again."
+
+"If one  doesn't go too far," replied  Heinz, "and my royal master, who
+lacks spending money himself only too often, doesn't keep his word that
+it was done for the last time.  I heard that yesterday morning, and
+thought that the golden blessing which preceded it would last the dear
+saints only knew how long.  But ere the cock had crowed even once this
+morning the last florin had vanished.  Dice, Herr Wolff Eysvogel--dice!"
+
+"Then I would keep my hands off them," said the other meaningly.
+
+"If the Old Nick or some one else did not always guide them back!  Did
+you, a rich man's son, never try what the dice would do for you?"
+
+"Yes, Sir Knight.  It was at Venice, where I was pursuing my studies, and
+tried my luck at gambling on many a merry evening with other sons of
+mercantile families from Nuremberg, Augsburg, and Cologne."
+
+"And your feathers were generously plucked?"
+
+"By no means.  I usually left a winner.  But after they fleeced a dear
+friend from Ulm, and he robbed his master, I dropped dice."
+
+"And you did so as easily as if it were a short fast after an abundant
+meal?"
+
+"It was little more difficult," Wolff asserted.  "My father would have
+gladly seen me outdo my countrymen, and sent me more money than I needed.
+Why should I deprive honest fellows who had less?"
+
+"That's just the difficulty," cried his companion eagerly.  "It was easy
+for you to renounce games of chance because your winnings only added more
+to the rest, and you did not wish to pluck poorer partners.  But I!
+A poor devil like me cannot maintain armour-bearer, servants, and steeds
+out of what the dear little mother at home in her faithful care can spare
+from crops and interest.  How could we succeed in making a fair
+appearance at court and in the tournament if it were not for the dice?
+And then, when I lose, I again become but the poor knight the saints made
+me; when I win, on the contrary, I am the great and wealthy lord I would
+have been born had the Lord permitted me to choose my own cradle.
+Besides, those who lose through me are mainly dukes, counts, and
+gentlemen with rich fiefs and fat bourgs, whom losing doubtless benefits,
+as bleeding relieves a sick man.  What suits the soldier does not befit
+the merchant.  We live wholly amid risks and wagers.  Every battle, every
+skirmish is a game whose stake is life.  Whoever reflects long is sure to
+lose.  If I could only describe, Herr Eysvogel, what it is to dash
+headlong upon the foe!"
+
+"I could imagine that vividly enough," Wolff eagerly interposed.
+"I, too, have broken many a lance in the lists and shed blood enough."
+
+"What a dunce I am!" cried Heinz in amazement, pressing his hand upon his
+brow.  "That's why your face was so familiar!  By my saint!  I am no
+knight if I did not see you then, before the battle waxed hot.  It was
+close beside your Burgrave Frederick, who held aloft the imperial
+banner."
+
+"Probably," replied Wolff in a tone of assent.  "He sometimes entrusted
+the standard to me, when it grew too heavy for his powerful arm, because
+I was the tallest and the strongest of our Nuremberg band.  But,
+unluckily, I could not render this service long.  A scimitar gashed my
+head.  The larger part of the little scar is hidden under my hair."
+
+"The little scar!" repeated Heinz gaily.  "It was wide enough, at any
+rate, for the greatest soul to slip through it.  A scar on the head from
+a wound received four years ago, and yet distinctly visible in the
+moonlight!"
+
+"It should serve as a warning," replied Wolff, glancing anxiously up the
+street.  "If the patrol, or any nocturnal reveller should catch sight of
+us, it would be ill for the fair fame of the Ortlieb sisters, for
+everybody knows that only one--Els's betrothed lover--has a right to
+await a greeting here at so late an hour.  So follow me into the shadow
+of the linden, I entreat you; for yonder--surely you see it too--a figure
+is gliding towards us."
+
+Heinz Schorlin's laugh rang out like a bell as he whispered to the
+Nuremberg patrician: "That figure is familiar to me, and neither we nor
+our ladies need fear any evil from it.  Excuse me moment, and I'll wager
+twenty gold florins against yonder linden leaf that, ere the moonlight
+has left the curbstone, I can tell you my lady's colour."
+
+As he spoke he hastened towards the figure, now, standing motionless
+within the shadow of the door post beside the lofty entrance.
+
+Wolff Eysvogel remained alone, gazing thoughtfully upon the ground.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+The silent wanderer above had expected to behold a scene very unlike an
+interview between two men.  The latter required neither her purest,
+fullest light, nor the shadow of a blossoming linden.
+
+Now Luna saw the young Nuremberg merchant gaze after the Swiss with an
+expression of such deep anxiety and pain upon his manly features that she
+felt the utmost pity for him.  He did not look upward as usual to the
+window of his beautiful Els, but either fixed his eyes upon the spot
+where his new acquaintance was conversing with another person, or bent
+them anxiously upon the ground.
+
+As Wolff thought of Heinz Schorlin, it seemed as if Fate had thrown him
+into the way of the Swiss that he might feel with twofold anguish the
+thorns besetting his own life path.  The young knight was proffered the
+rose without the thorn.  What cares had he?  The present threw into his
+lap its fairest blessings, and when he looked into the future he beheld
+only the cheering buds of hope.
+
+Yet this favourite of fortune had expressed a desire to change places
+with him.  The thought that many others, too, would be glad to step into
+his shoes tortured Wolff's honest heart as though he himself were to
+blame for the delusion of these short-sighted folk.
+
+Apart from his strength and health, his well-formed body, his noble
+birth, his faith in the love of his betrothed bride--at this hour he
+forgot how much these things were--he found nothing in his lot which
+seemed worth desiring.
+
+He might not even rejoice in his stainless honesty with the same perfect
+confidence as in his betrothal.
+
+Yes, he had cared for noble old Berthold Vorchtel's daughter as if she
+were his sister.  He had even found pleasure in the thought that Ursula
+was destined to become his wife, yet no word either of love or allusion
+to future marriage had been exchanged between them.  He had felt free,
+and had a right to consider himself so, when love for Els Ortlieb
+overwhelmed him so swiftly and powerfully.
+
+Yet Ursula and her oldest brother treated him as if he had been guilty of
+base disloyalty.  His pure conscience, however, enabled him to endure
+this more easily than the other burden, of which he became aware on the
+long-anticipated day when his father made him a partner in the old firm
+and gave him an insight into the condition of the property and the course
+of the business.
+
+Then he had learned the heavy losses which had been sustained recently,
+and the sad disparity existing between the great display by which his
+father and mother, as well as his grandmother, the countess, maintained
+the appearance of their former princely wealth, and the balances of the
+last few years.
+
+When he had just boasted to the reckless young knight that he had given
+up gaming, he told but half the truth, for though since his period of
+study in Venice, and later in Milan, he had not touched dice, he had been
+forced to consent to a series of enterprises undertaken by his father,
+whose stakes were far different from the gambling of the knights and
+nobles at the Green Shield or in the camp.
+
+Yet he intended to bind the fate of the woman he loved to his own, for
+Els, spite of the opposition of his family, would have been already
+indissolubly united to him, had not one failure after another destroyed
+his courage to take her hand.  Finally, he deemed it advisable to await
+the result of the last great enterprise, now on the eve of decision.  It
+might compensate for many of the losses of recent years.  Should it be
+favourable, the heaviest burden would be lifted from his soul; in the
+opposite case the old house would be shaken to its foundations.  Yet
+even its fall would have been easier for him to endure than this cruel
+uncertainty, to which was added the torturing anxiety of bearing the
+responsibility of things for which he was not to blame, and of which,
+moreover, he was even denied a clear view.  Yet he felt absolutely
+certain that his father was concealing many things, perhaps the worst,
+and often felt as if he were walking in the darkness over a mouldering
+bridge.  Ah, if it could only be propped up, and then rebuilt!  But if it
+must give way, he hoped the catastrophe would come soon.  He knew that he
+possessed the strength to build a new home for Els and himself.  Even
+were it small and modest, it should be erected on a firm foundation and
+afford a safe abode for its inmates.
+
+What did the young, joyous-hearted fellow who was wooing Eva know of such
+cares?  Fate had placed him on the sunny side of life, where everything
+flourished, and set him, Wolff, in the shade, where grass and flowers
+died.
+
+There is a magic in fame which the young soul cannot easily escape, and
+the name of Heinz Schorlin was indeed honoured and on every lip.  The
+imagination associated with it the cheerful nature which, like a loyal
+comrade, goes hand in hand with success, deserved and undeserved good
+fortune, woman's favour, doughty deeds, the highest and strongest traits
+of character.
+
+An atmosphere like sunshine, which melts all opposition, emanated from
+Heinz.  Wolff had experienced it himself.  He had seriously intended to
+make the insolent intruder feel his strong arm, but since he had learned
+the identity of the Swiss his acts and nature appeared in a new light.
+His insolence had gained the aspect of self-confidence which did not lack
+justification, and when a valiant knight talked to him so frankly, like a
+younger brother to an older and wiser one, it seemed to the lonely man
+who, of late, completely absorbed in the course of business, had held
+aloof from the sports, banquets, and diversions of the companions of his
+own age, that he had experienced something unusually pleasant.  How
+tender and affectionate it sounded when Heinz alluded to the "little
+mother" at home!  He, Wolff, on the contrary, could think only with a
+shade of bitterness of the weak woman to whom he owed his existence, and
+whom filial duty and earnest resolution alike commanded him to love, yet
+who made it so difficult for him to regard her with anything save anxiety
+or secret disapproval.
+
+Perhaps the greatest advantage which the Swiss possessed over him was his
+manner of speaking of his family.  How could it ever have entered Wolff
+Eysvogel's mind to call the tall, stiff woman, who was the feeble echo of
+her extravagant, arrogant mother, and who rustled towards him, even in
+the early morning, adorned with feathers and robed in rich brocade, his
+"dear little mother"?
+
+Whoever spoke in the warm, loving tones that fell from the lips of Sir
+Heinz when he mentioned his relatives at home certainly could have no
+evil nature.  No one need fear, though his usual mode of speech was so
+wanton, that he would trifle with a pure, innocent creature like Eva.
+
+How Heinz had succeeded in winning so speedily the devout child, who was
+so averse to the idle coquetries of the companions of her own age, seemed
+incomprehensible, but he had no time to investigate now.
+
+He must go, for he had long been burning with impatience to depart.  The
+declaration of peace had taken effect only a few hours before, and the
+long waggon trains from Italy, of which he had told Els yesterday, were
+still delayed.  The freight of spices and Levantine goods, Milan velvets,
+silks, and fine Florentine cloths, which they were bringing from the city
+of St. Mark, represented a large fortune.  If it arrived in time, the
+profits would cover a great portion of the losses of the past two years,
+and the house would again be secure.  If the worst should befall, how
+would his family submit to deprivation, perhaps even to penury?  He had
+less fear of his grandmother's outbursts of wrath, but what would become
+of his feeble mother, who was as dependent as a child on her own mother?
+Yet he loved her; he felt deeply troubled by the thought of the severe
+humiliation which menaced her.  His sister Isabella, too, was dear to
+him, in spite of her husband, the reckless Sir Seitz Siebenburg, in whose
+hands the gold paid from the coffers of the firm melted away, yet who was
+burdened with a mountain of debts.
+
+Wolff had left orders at home to have his horse saddled.  He had intended
+only to wave a greeting to his Els and then ride to Neumarkt, or, if
+necessary, as far as Ingolstadt, to meet the wains.
+
+A word of farewell to the new acquaintance, who was probably destined to
+be his brother-in, law, and then--But just at that moment Heinz
+approached, and in reply to Wolff's low question "And your lady's
+colour?"  he answered joyously, pointing to the breast of his doublet:
+"I am carrying the messenger which promises to inform me, here on my
+heart.  In the darkness it was silent; but the bright moonlight yonder
+will loose its tongue, unless the characters here are too unlike those of
+the prayer-book."
+
+Drawing out Eva's little roll as he spoke, he approached a brightly
+lighted spot, pointed to the ribbon which fastened it, and exclaimed:
+"Doubtless she used her own colour to tie it.  Blue, the pure, exquisite
+blue of her eyes!  I thought so Forget-me-not blue!  The most beautiful
+of colours.  You must pardon my impatience!"
+
+He was about to begin to read the lines; but Wolff stopped him by
+pointing to the Ortlieb residence and to two drunken soldiers who came
+out of the tavern "For Thirsty Troopers," and walked, singing and
+staggering, up the opposite side of the street.  Then, extending his hand
+to Heinz in farewell, he asked in a low tone, pointing to Biberli's
+figure just emerging from the shade, who was the messenger of love who
+served him so admirably.
+
+"My shadow," replied the knight.  "I loosed him from my heels and bade
+him stand there.  But no offence, Herr Wolff Eysvogel; you'll make the
+queer fellow's acquaintance if, like myself, it would be agreeable to you
+to meet often, not only on iron chains, but on friendly terms with each
+other."
+
+"Nothing would please me more," replied the other.  "But how in the world
+could it happen that this well-guarded fortress surrendered to you after
+so short a resistance?"
+
+"Heinz Schorlin rides swiftly," he interrupted; but Wolff exclaimed:
+
+"A swift ride awaits me, too, though of a different kind.  When I return,
+I shall expect you to tell me how you won our 'little saint,' my sister-
+in-law Eva.  The two beautiful Ortlieb 'Es' are one in the eyes of the
+townsfolk, so we also will be often named in the same breath, and shall
+do well to feel brotherly regard for each other.  There shall be no fault
+on my part.  Farewell, till we meet again, an' it please God in and not
+outside of our ladies' dwelling."
+
+While speaking he clasped the knight's hand with so firm a grasp that it
+seemed as if he wished to force him to feel its pressure a long time, and
+hastened through the Frauenthor.
+
+Heinz Schorlin gazed thoughtfully after him a short time, then beckoned
+to Biberli and, though the interval required for him to reach his
+master's side was very brief, it was sufficient for the bold young lover,
+tortured by his ardent longing, to form another idea.
+
+"Look yonder, Biberli!" he exclaimed.  "The holy-water basin on the door-
+post, the escutcheon on the lintel above, the helmet, which would
+probably bear my weight.  From there I can reach the window-sill with my
+hand, and once I have grasped it, I need only make one bold spring and,
+hurrah!  I'm on it."
+
+"May our patron saint have mercy on us!" cried the servant in horror.
+"You can get there as easily as you can spring on your two feet over two
+horses; but the coming down would certainly be a long distance lower than
+you would fancy--into the 'Hole,' as they call the prison here, and,
+moreover, though probably not until some time later, straight to the
+flames of hell; for you would have committed a great sin against a noble
+maiden rich in every virtue, who deemed you worthy of her love.  And,
+besides, there are two Es.  They occupy the same room, and the house is
+full of men and maid servants."
+
+"Pedagogue!" said the knight, peevishly.
+
+"Ay, that was Biberli's calling once," replied the servant, "and, for the
+sake of your lady mother at home, I wish I were one still, and you, Sir
+Heinz, would have to obey me like an obedient pupil.  You are well aware
+that I rarely use her sacred name to influence you, but I do so now; and
+if you cherish her in your heart and do not wish to swoop down on the
+innocent little dove like a destroying hawk, turn your back upon this
+place, where we have already lingered too long."
+
+But this well-meant warning seemed to have had brief influence upon the
+person to whom it was addressed.  Suddenly, with a joyous: "There she
+is!"  he snatched his cap from his head and waved a greeting to the
+window.
+
+But in a few minutes he replaced it with a petulant gesture of the hand,
+saying sullenly: "Vanished!  She dared not grant me a greeting, because
+she caught sight of you."
+
+"Let us thank and praise a kind Providence for it," said his servitor
+with a sigh of relief, "since our Lord and Saviour assumed the form of a
+servant, that of a scarecrow, in which he has done admirable service, is
+far too noble and distinguished for Biberli."
+
+As he spoke he walked on before the knight, and pointing to the tavern
+beside the Frauenthurm whose sign bore the words "For Thirsty Troopers,"
+he added: "A green bush at the door.  That means, unless the host is a
+rogue, a cask fresh broached.  I wonder whether my tongue is cleaving to
+my palate from dread of your over-hasty courage, or whether it is really
+so terribly sultry here!"
+
+"At any rate," Heinz interrupted, "a cup of wine will harm neither of us;
+for I myself feel how oppressive the air is.  Besides, it is light in the
+tavern, and who knows what the little note will tell me."
+
+Meanwhile they passed the end of St. Klarengasse and went up to the green
+bush, which projected from the end of a pole far out into the street.
+
+Soldiers in the pay of the city, and men-at-arms in the employ of the
+Emperor and the princes who had come to attend the Reichstag, were
+sitting over their wine in the tavern.  From the ceiling hung two crossed
+iron triangles, forming a six-pointed star.  The tallow candles burning
+low in their sockets, which it contained, and some pitch-pans in the
+corners, diffused but a dim light through the long apartment.
+
+Master and man found an empty table apart from the other guests, in a
+niche midway down the rear wall.
+
+Without heeding the brawling and swearing, the rude songs and disorderly
+shouts, the drumming of clenched fists upon the oak tables, the wild
+laughter of drunken soldiers, the giggling and screeching of bar-maids,
+and the scolding and imperious commands of the host, they proved that the
+green bush had not lied, for the wine really did come from a freshly
+opened cask just brought up from the cellar.  But as the niche was
+illumined only by the tiny oil lamp burning beneath the image of the
+Virgin, bedizened with flowers and gold and silver tinsel, fastened
+against the wall, Biberli asked the weary bar-maid for a brighter light.
+
+When the girl withdrew he sighed heavily, saying: "O my lord, if you only
+knew!  Even now, when we are again among men and the wine has refreshed
+me, I feel as if rats were gnawing at my soul.  Conscience, my lord-
+conscience!"
+
+"You, too, are usually quite ready to play the elf in the rose-garden of
+love," replied Heinz gaily.  "Moreover, I shall soon need a T and an S
+embroidered on my own doublet, for----Why don't they bring the light?
+Another cup of wine, the note, and then with renewed vigour we'll go back
+again."
+
+"For God's sake," interrupted Biberli, "do not speak, do not even think,
+of the bold deed you suggested!  Doesn't it seem like a miracle that not
+one of the many Ortlieb and Montfort servants crossed your path?  Even
+such a child of good luck as yourself can scarcely expect a second one
+the same evening.  And if there is not, and you go back under the window,
+you will be recognised, perhaps even seized, and then--O my lord,
+consider this!--then you will bear throughout your life the reproach of
+having brought shame and bitter sorrow upon a maiden whom you yourself
+know is lovely, devout, and pure.  And I, too, who serve you loyally in
+your lady mother's behalf, as well as the poor maid who, to pleasure me,
+interceded for you with her mistress, will run the risk of our lives if
+you are caught climbing into the window or committing any similar
+offence; for in this city they are prompt with the stocks, the stone
+collar, the rack, and the tearing of the tongue from the mouth whenever
+any one is detected playing the part of go-between in affairs of love."
+
+"Usually, old fellow," replied Heinz in a tone of faint reproach, "we
+considered it a matter of course that, though we took the most daring
+risks in such things, we were certain not to be caught.  Yet, to be
+frank, some incomprehensible burden weighs upon my soul.  My feelings
+are confused and strange.  I would rather tear the crown from the head of
+yonder image of the Virgin than do aught to this sweet innocence for
+which she could not thank me."
+
+Here he paused, for the bar-maid brought a two-branched candelabrum, in
+which burned two tallow candles.
+
+Heinz instantly opened the little roll.
+
+How delicate were the characters it contained!  His heart's beloved had
+committed them to the paper with her own hand, and the knight's blood
+surged hotly through his veins as he gazed at them.  It seemed as though
+he held in his hand a portion of herself and, obeying a hasty impulse, he
+kissed the letter.
+
+Then he eagerly began to study the writing; he had never seen anything so
+delicate and peculiar in form.
+
+The deciphering of the first lines in which, it is true, she called him a
+godly knight, but also informed him that his boldness had angered her,
+caused him much difficulty, and Biberli was often obliged to help.
+
+Would she have rebuffed him so ungraciously with her lips as with the
+pen?  Was it possible that, on account of a request which every lover
+ventured to address to his lady, she would withdraw the favour which
+rendered him so happy?  Oh, yes, for innocence is delicate and sensitive.
+She ought to have repelled him thus.  He was secretly rejoiced to see the
+sweet modesty which had so charmed him again proved.  He must know what
+the rest of the letter contained, and the ex-schoolmaster was at hand to
+give the information at once.
+
+True, the hastily written sentences presented some difficulties even for
+Biberli, but after glancing through the whole letter, he exclaimed with a
+satisfied smile: "Just as I expected!  At the first look one might think
+that the devout little lady was wholly unlike the rest of her sex, but on
+examining more closely she proves as much like any other beautiful girl
+as two peas.  With good reason and prudent caution she forbids the
+languishing knight to remain beneath her window, yet she will risk a
+pleasant little interview in some safe nook.  That is wise for so young a
+girl, and at the same time natural and womanly.  I don't know why you
+knit your brows.  Since the first Eve came from a crooked rib, all her
+daughters prefer devious ways.  But first hear what she writes."  Then,
+without heeding his master's gloomy face, he began to read the note
+aloud.
+
+Heinz listened intently, and after he had heard that the lady of his love
+did not desire to meet him alone, but only under the protection of a
+friend and her saint, when he heard her name her colour, it is true, but
+also express the expectation that, as a godly knight, he would fight for
+her sake in honour of the gracious Virgin, his face brightened.
+
+During Biberli's scoffing comments he had felt as if a tempest had hurled
+her pure image in the dust.  But now that he knew what she asked of him,
+it returned as a matter of course to its old place and, with a sigh of
+relief, he felt that he need not be ashamed of the emotions which this
+wonderful young creature had awakened in his soul.  She had opened her
+pious heart like a trusting sister to an older brother, and what he had
+seen there was something unusual--things which had appeared sacred to him
+even when a child.  Since he took leave of her in the ball-room he had
+felt as though Heaven had loaned this, its darling, to earth for but a
+brief space, and her brocade robe must conceal angel wings.  Should it
+surprise him that the pure innocence which filled her whole being was
+expressed also in her letter, if she summoned him, not to idle love-
+dalliance but to a covenant of souls, a mutual conflict for what was
+highest and most sacred?  Such a thing was incomprehensible to Biberli;
+but notwithstanding her letter--nay, even on its account--he longed still
+more ardently to lead her home to his mother and see her receive the
+blessing of the woman whom he so deeply honoured.
+
+He had Eva's letter read for the second and the third time.  But when
+Biberli paused, and in a few brief sentences cast fresh doubts upon the
+writer, Heinz angrily stopped him.  "The longing of the godly heart of a
+pure maiden--mark this well--has naught in common with that diabolical
+delight in secret love--dalliance for which others yearn.  My wish to
+force my way to her was sinful, and it was punished severely enough, for
+during your rude scoffs I felt as though you had set fire to the house
+over my head.  But from this I perceive in what a sacred, inviolable spot
+her image had found a place.  True, it is denied you to follow the lofty,
+heavenward aspiration of a pure soul--"
+
+"O my lord," interrupted the servitor with hands uplifted in defence,
+"who besought you not to measure this innocent daughter of a decorous
+household, who was scarcely beyond childhood, by the standard you applied
+to others?  Who  entreated you to spare her fair fame?  And if you deem
+the stuff of which the servant is made too coarse to understand what
+moves so pure a soul, you do Biberli injustice, for, by my patron saint,
+though duty commanded me to interpose doubts and scruples between you and
+a passion from which could scarcely spring aught that would bring joy to
+your mother's heart I, too, asked myself the question why, in these days,
+a devout maiden should not long to try her skill in conversion upon a
+valiant knight who served her.  Ever since St. Francis of Assisi appeared
+in Italy, barefooted monks and grey-robed nuns, who follow him,
+Franciscans and Sisters of St. Clare stream hither as water flows into a
+mill-race when the sluice-gates are opened.  With what edification we,
+too, listened to the old Minorite whom we picked up by the wayside, at
+the tavern where we usually found pleasure in nothing but drinking,
+gambling, shouting, and singing!  Besides, I know from my sweetheart with
+what exemplary devotion the lovely Eva follows St. Clare."
+
+"Who is now and will remain my patron saint also, old Biber," interrupted
+Heinz with joyful emotion, as he laid his hand gratefully on his
+follower's shoulder; then rising and beckoning to the bar-maid, added:
+"The stuff of which you are made, old comrade, is inferior to no man's.
+Only now and then the pedagogue plays you a trick.  Had you uttered your
+real opinion in the first place, the wine would have tasted better to us
+both.  Let Eva try the work of conversion on me!  What, save my lady's
+love, is more to me than our holy faith?  It must indeed be a delight to
+take the field for the Church and against her foes!"  While speaking, he
+paid the reckoning and went out with Biberli.
+
+The moon was now pouring her silver beams, with full radiance, over the
+quiet street, the linden in front of the Ortlieb house, and its lofty
+gable roof.  Only a single room in the spacious mansion was still
+lighted, the bow-windowed one occupied by the two sisters.
+
+Heinz, without heeding Biberli's renewed protest, looked upward, silently
+imploring Eva's pardon for having misjudged her even a moment.  His gaze
+rested devoutly on the open window, behind which a curtain was stirring.
+Was it the night breeze that almost imperceptibly raised and lowered it,
+or was her own dear self concealed behind it?
+
+Just at that moment he suddenly felt his servant's hand on his arm, and
+as he followed his horror-stricken gaze, a chill ran through his own
+veins.  From the heavy door of the house, which stood half open, a white-
+robed figure emerged with the solemn, noiseless footfall of a ghost, and
+advanced across the courtyard towards him.
+
+Was it a restless spirit risen from its grave at the midnight hour, which
+must be close at hand?  Through his brain, like a flash of lightning,
+darted the thought that Eva had spoken to him of her invalid mother.  Had
+she died?  Was her wandering soul approaching him to drive him from the
+threshold of the house which hid her endangered child?
+
+But no!
+
+The figure had stopped before the door and now, raising its head, gazed
+with wide eyes upward at the moon, and--he was not mistaken--it was no
+spectre of darkness; it was she for whom every pulse of his heart
+throbbed--Eva!
+
+No human creature had ever seemed to him so divinely fair as she in her
+long white night-robe, over which fell the thick waves of her light hair.
+The horror which had seized him yielded to the most ardent yearning.
+Pressing his hand upon his throbbing heart, he watched her every
+movement.  He longed to go forward to meet her, yet a supernatural spell
+seemed to paralyse his energy.  He would sooner have dared clasp in his
+arms the image of a beautiful Madonna than this embodiment of pure,
+helpless, gracious innocence.
+
+Now she herself drew nearer, but he felt as if his will was broken, and
+with timid awe he drew back one step, and then another, till the chain
+stopped him.
+
+Just at that moment she paused, stretched out her white arm with a
+beckoning gesture, and again turned towards the house, Heinz following
+because he could not help it, her sign drew him after her with magnetic
+power.
+
+Now Eva entered the dimly lighted corridor, and again her uplifted hand
+seemed to invite him to follow.  Then--the impetuous throbbing of his
+heart almost stifled him--she set her little white foot on the first step
+of the stairs and led the way up to the first landing, where she paused,
+lifting her face to the open window, through which the moonbeams streamed
+into the hall, flooding her head, her figure, and every surrounding
+object with their soft light.
+
+Heinz followed step by step.  It seemed as if the wild surges of a sea
+were roaring in his ears, and glittering sparks were dancing before his
+yearning, watchful eyes.
+
+How he loved her!  How intense was the longing which drew him after her!
+And yet another emotion stirred in his heart with still greater power-
+grief, sincere grief, which pierced his in, most soul, that she could
+have beckoned to him, permitted him to follow her, granted him what he
+would never have ventured to ask.  Nay, when he set his foot on the first
+step, it seemed as if the temple which contained his holiest treasure
+fell crashing around him, and an inner voice cried loudly: "Away, away
+from here!  Would you exchange the purest and loftiest things for what
+tomorrow will fill you with grief and loathing?"  it continued to
+admonish.  "You will relinquish what is dearest and most sacred to secure
+what is ready to rush into your arms on all the high-roads.
+
+"Hence, hence, you poor, deluded mortal, ere it is too late!"
+
+But even had he known it was the fair fiend Venus herself moving before
+him under the guise of Eva, the spell of her unutterable beauty would
+have constrained him to follow her, though the goal were the Horselberg,
+death, and hell.
+
+On the second landing she again stood still and, leaning against a
+pillar, raised her arms and extended them towards the moon, in whose
+silvery light they gleamed like marble.  Heinz saw her lips move, heard
+his own name fall from them, and all self-control vanished.
+
+"Eva!" he cried with passionate fervor, holding out his arms to clasp
+her; but, ere he even touched her, a shriek of despairing anguish echoed
+loudly back from the walls.
+
+The sound of her own name had broken the threads with which the
+mysterious power of the moonlight had drawn her from her couch, down
+through the house, out of doors, and again back to the stairs.
+
+Sleep vanished with the dream which she had shared with him and,
+shuddering, she perceived where she was, saw the knight before her,
+became conscious that she had left her chamber in her night-robe, with
+disordered hair and bare feet; and, frantic with horror at the thought of
+the resistless might with which a mysterious force constrained her to
+obey it against her own will, deeply wounded by the painful feeling that
+she had been led so far across the bounds of maidenly modesty, hurt and
+angered by the boldness of the man before her, who had dared to follow
+her into her parents' house, she again raised her voice, this time to
+call her from whom she was accustomed to seek and find help in every
+situation in life.
+
+"Els!  Els!" rang up the stairs; and the next moment Els, who had already
+heard Eva's first scream, sprang down the few steps to her sister's side.
+
+One glance at the trembling girl in her nightrobe, and at the moonlight
+which still bathed her in its rays, told Els what had drawn Eva to the
+stairs.
+
+The knight must have slipped into the house and found her there.  She
+knew him and, before Heinz had time to collect his thoughts, she said
+soothingly to her sister, who threw her arms around her as though seeking
+protection, "Go up to your room, child!--Help her, Katterle.  I'll come
+directly."
+
+While Eva, leaning on the maid's arm, mounted the stairs with trembling
+knees, Els turned to the Swiss and said in a grave, resolute tone: "If
+you are worthy of your escutcheon, Sir Knight, you will not now fly like
+a coward from this house across whose threshold you stole with shameful
+insolence, but await me here until I return.  You shall not be detained
+long.  But, to guard yourself and another from misinterpretation, you
+must hear me."
+
+Heinz nodded assent in silence, as if still under the spell of what he
+had recently experienced.  But, ere he reached the entry below, Martsche,
+the old housekeeper, and Endres, the aged head packer, came towards him,
+just as they had risen from their beds, the former with a petticoat flung
+round her shoulders, the latter wrapped in a horse-blanket.
+
+Eva's shriek had waked both, but Els enjoined silence on everyone and,
+after telling them to go back to bed, said briefly that Eva in her
+somnambulism had this time gone out into the street and been brought back
+by the knight.  Finally, she again said to Heinz, "Presently!" and then
+went to her sister.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+When Biberli bade farewell to his sweetheart, who gave him Eva's little
+note, he had arranged to meet her again in an hour or, if his duties
+detained him longer, in two; but after the "true and steadfast" fellow
+left her, her heart throbbed more and more anxiously, for the wrong she
+had done in acting as messenger between the young daughter of her
+employers and a stranger knight was indeed hard to forgive.
+
+Instead of waiting in the kitchen or entry for her lover's return, as she
+had intended, she had gone to the image of the Virgin at the gate of the
+Convent of St. Clare, before which she had often found consolation,
+especially when homesick yearning for the mountains of her native
+Switzerland pressed upon her too sorely.  This time also it had been
+gracious to her, for after she had prayed very devoutly and vowed to give
+a candle to the Mother of God, as well as to St. Clare, she fancied that
+the image smiled upon her and promised that she should go unpunished.
+
+On her return the knight had just followed Eva into the house, and
+Biberli pursued his master as far as the stairs.  Here Katterle met her
+lover, but, when she learned what was occurring, she became greatly
+enraged and incensed by the base interpretation which the servant placed
+upon Eva's going out into the street and, terrified by the danger into
+which the knight threatened to plunge them all, she forgot the patience
+and submission she was accustomed to show the true and steadfast Biberli.
+But--resolved to protect her young mistress from the presumptuous knight-
+scarcely had she angrily cried shame upon her lover for this base
+suspicion, protesting that Eva had never gone to seek a knight but, as
+she had often done on bright moonlight nights, walked in her sleep down
+the stairs and out of doors, when the young girl's shriek of terror
+summoned her to her aid.
+
+Biberli looked after her sullenly, meanwhile execrating bitterly enough
+the wild love which had robbed his master of reason and threatened to
+hurl him, Biberli, and even the innocent Katterle, whose brave defence of
+her mistress had especially pleased him, into serious misfortune.
+
+When old Endres appeared he had slipped behind a wall formed of bales
+heaped one above another, and did not stir until the entry was quiet
+again.
+
+To his amazement he had then found his master standing beside the door
+of the house, but his question--which, it is true, was not wholly devoid
+of a shade of sarcasm--whether the knight was waiting for the return of
+his sleep-walking sweetheart, was so harshly rebuffed that he deemed it
+advisable to keep silence for a time.
+
+Though Heinz Schorlin had perceived that he had followed an unconscious
+somnambulist, he was not yet capable of calmly reflecting upon what had
+occurred or of regarding the future with prudence.  He knew one thing
+only: the fear was idle that the lovely creature whose image, surrounded
+by a halo of light, still hovered before him like a vision from a higher,
+more beautiful world, was an unworthy person who, with a face of angelic
+innocence, transgressed the laws of custom and modesty.  Her shriek of
+terror, her horror at seeing him, and the cry for help which had brought
+her sister to her aid and roused the servants from their sleep, gave him
+the right to esteem her as highly as ever; and this conviction fanned
+into such a blaze the feeling of happiness which love had awakened and
+his foolish distrust had already begun to stifle, that he was firmly
+resolved, cost what it might, to make Eva his own.
+
+After he had reached this determination he began to reflect more quietly.
+What cared he for liberty and a rapid advance in the career upon which he
+had entered, if only his future life was beautified by her love!
+
+If he were required to woo her in the usual form, he would do so.  And
+what a charming yet resolute creature was the other E, who, in her
+anxiety about her sister, had crossed his path with such grave, firm
+dignity!  She was Wolff Eysvogel's betrothed bride, and it seemed to him
+a very pleasant thing to call the young man, whom he had so quickly
+learned to esteem, his brother-in-law.
+
+If the father refused his daughter to him, he would leave Nuremberg and
+ride to the Rhine, where Hartmann, the Emperor Rudolph's son, whom he
+loved like a younger brother, was now living.  Heinz had instructed the
+lad of eighteen in the use of the lance and the sword, and Hartmann had
+sent him word the day before that the Rhine was beautiful, but without
+him he but half enjoyed even the pleasantest things.  He needed him.
+Hundreds of other knights and squires could break in the new horses for
+the Emperor and the young Bohemian princess, though perhaps not quite so
+skilfully.  Hartmann would understand him and persuade his imperial
+father to aid him in his suit.  The warmhearted youth could not bear to
+see him sorrowful, and without Eva there was no longer joy or happiness.
+
+He was roused from these thoughts and dreams by his own name called in a
+low tone.
+
+Katterle had gone with Eva to the chamber, whither the older sister
+followed them.  Tenderly embracing the weeping girl, she had kissed her
+wet eyes and whispered in an agitated voice, with which, however, blended
+a great deal of affectionate mischief: "The wolf who forced his way into
+the house does not seem quite so harmless as mine, whom I have succeeded
+in taming very tolerably.  Go to mother now, darling.  I'll be back
+directly."
+
+"What do you intend to do?"  asked Eva timidly, still unable, under the
+influence of her strange experiences, to regain her self-control.
+
+"To look around the house," replied her sister, beckoning to Katterle to
+accompany her.
+
+In the entry she questioned the maid with stern decision, and the
+trembling girl owned, amid her tears, that Eva had sent a little note to
+the knight in reply to his request that she would name her colour, and
+whatever else her anxious mistress desired hastily to learn.
+
+After a threatening "We will discuss your outrageous conduct later," Els
+hurried down-stairs, and found in the entry the man whose pleasure in the
+pursuit of the innocent child whom she protected she meant to spoil.  But
+though she expressed her indignation to the knight with the utmost
+harshness, he besought a hearing with so much respect and in such seemly
+words, that she requested him, in a gentler tone, to speak freely.  But
+scarcely had he begun to relate how Eva, at the ball, had filled his
+heart with the purest love, when the trampling of horses' hoofs, which
+had come nearer and nearer to the house, suddenly ceased, and Biberli,
+who had gone into the court-yard, came hurrying back, exclaiming in a
+tone of warning, "The von Montforts!"
+
+At the same moment two men-servants threw back both leaves of the door,
+torchlight mingled with the moonbeams in the courtyard, and the next
+instant a goodly number of knights and gentlemen entered the hall.
+
+Biberli was not mistaken.  The von Montforts had returned home, instead
+of spending the night at Kadolzburg, and neither Els nor the Swiss had
+the time or disposition to seek concealment.
+
+The intruders were preceded by men-servants, whose torches lighted the
+long, lofty storehouse brilliantly.  It seemed to Els as if her heart
+stopped beating and she felt her cheeks blanch.
+
+Here she beheld Count von Montfort's bronzed face, the countenance of a
+sportsman and reveller; yonder the frank, handsome features of the young
+Burgrave, Eitelfritz von Zollern, framed by the hood of the Knights of
+St. John, drawn up during the night-ride; there the pale, noble visage of
+the quiet knight Boemund Altrosen, far famed for his prowess with lance
+and sword; beyond, the scarred, martial countenance of Count Casper
+Schlick, set in a mass of tangled brown locks; and then the watery, blue
+eyes of Sir Seitz Siebenburg, the husband of her future sister-in-law
+Isabella.
+
+They had pressed in, talking eagerly, laughing, and rejoicing that the
+wild night ride proposed by Cordula von Montfort, which had led over dark
+forest paths, lighted only by a stray moonbeam, and often across fields
+and ditches and through streams, had ended without mischance to man or
+beast.
+
+Now they all crowded around the countess, Seitz Siebenburg bending
+towards her with such zeal that the ends of his huge mustache brushed the
+plumes in her cap, and Boemund Altrosen, who had just been gazing into
+the flushed face of the daring girl with the warm joy of true love, cast
+a look of menace at him.
+
+Els, too, greatly disliked "the Mustache," as her future brother-
+in-law was called because the huge ornament on his upper lip made him
+conspicuous among the beardless knights.  She was aware that he returned
+the feeling, and had left no means untried to incite Wolff Eysvogel's
+parents to oppose his betrothal.  Now he was one of the first to notice
+her and, after whispering with a malicious smile to the countess and
+those nearest to him, he looked at her so malevolently that she could
+easily guess what interpretation he was trying to put upon her nocturnal
+meeting with the Swiss in the eyes of his companions.
+
+Her cheeks flamed with wrath, and like a flash of lightning came the
+thought of the pleasure it would afford this wanton company, whose
+greatest delight was to gloat over the errors of their neighbours,
+if the knight who had brought her into this suspicious situation, or she
+herself, should confess that not she, but the devout Eva, had attracted
+Heinz hither.  What a satisfaction it would be to this reckless throng to
+tell such a tale of a young girl of whom the Burgravine von Zollern had
+said the evening before to their Uncle Pfinzing, that purity and piety
+had chosen Eva's lovely face for a mirror!
+
+What if Heinz Schorlin, to save her, Els, from evil report, should
+confess that she was here only to rebuke his insolent intrusion into a
+decorous household?
+
+This must be prevented, and Heinz seemed to understand her; for after
+their eyes had met, his glance of helpless enquiry told her that he would
+leave her to find an escape from this labyrinth.
+
+The merry party, who now perceived that they had interrupted the
+nocturnal tryst of lovers, did not instantly know what to do and, as one
+looked enquiringly at another, an embarrassed silence followed their
+noisy jollity.
+
+But the hush did not last long, and its interruption at first seemed to
+Els to bode the worst result; it was a peal of gay, reckless laughter,
+ringing from the lips of the very Cordula von Montfort, into whose eyes,
+as the only one of her own sex who was present, Els had just gazed with a
+look imploring aid.
+
+Had Eva's aversion to the countess been justified, and was she about to
+take advantage of her unpleasant position to jeer at her?
+
+Had the two quarreled at the ball the night before, and did Cordula now
+perceive an opportunity to punish the younger sister by the humiliation
+of the older one?
+
+Yet her laugh sounded by no means spiteful--rather, very gay and natural.
+The pleasant grey eyes sparkled with the most genuine mirth, and she
+clapped her little hands so joyously that the falcon's chain on the
+gauntlet of her riding glove rattled.
+
+And what was this?
+
+No one looks at a person whom one desires to wound with an expression of
+such cheerful encouragement as the look with which Cordula now gazed at
+Els and Heinz Schorlin, who stood by her side.  True, they were at first
+extremely perplexed by the words she now shouted to those around her in a
+tone of loud exultation, as though announcing a victory; but from the
+beginning they felt that there was no evil purpose in them.  Soon they
+even caught the real meaning of the countess's statement, and Els was
+ashamed of having feared any injury from the girl whose defender she had
+always been.
+
+"Won, Sir Knight--cleverly won!" was her first sentence to Heinz.
+
+Then, turning to Els, she asked with no less animation: "And you, my fair
+maid and very strict housemate, who has won the wager now?  Do you still
+believe it is an inconceivable thought that the modest daughter of a
+decorous Nuremberg race, entitled to enter the lists of a tourney, would
+grant a young knight a midnight meeting?  "And addressing her companions,
+she continued, in an explanatory yet  still  playful tone: "She was ready
+to wager the beautiful brown locks which she now hides modestly under a
+kerchief, and even her betrothed lover's ring.  It should be mine if I
+succeeded in leading her to commit such an abominable deed.  But I was
+content, if I won the wager, with a smaller forfeit; yet now that I have
+gained it, Jungfrau Ortlieb, you must pay!"
+
+The whole company listened in astonishment to this speech, which no one
+understood, but the countess, nodding mischievously to her nearest
+neighbours, went on:
+
+"How bewildered you all look!  It might tempt me to satisfy your
+curiosity less speedily, but, after the delightful entertainment you gave
+us, my Lord Burgrave, one becomes merciful.  So you shall hear how I, as
+wise as the serpent, craftily forced this haughty knight"--she tapped
+Heinz Schorlin's arm with her riding whip--"and you, too, Jungfrau
+Ortlieb, whose pardon I now entreat, to help me win the bet.  No offence,
+noble sirs!  But this bet was what compelled me to drag you all from
+Kadolzburg and its charms so early, and induce you to attend me on the
+reckless ride through the moonlit night.  Now accept the thanks of a lady
+whose heart is grateful; for your obedience helped me win the wager.
+Look yonder at my handsome, submissive knight, Sir Heinz Schorlin, so
+rich in every virtue.  I commanded, him, on pain of my anger, to meet me
+at midnight at the entrance of our quarters--that is, the entry of the
+Ortlieb mansion; and to this modest and happy betrothed bride (may she
+pardon the madcap!) I represented how it troubled me and wounded my timid
+delicacy to enter so late at night, accompanied only by gentlemen, the
+house which so hospitably sheltered us, and go to my sleeping room,
+though I should not fear the Sultan and his mamelukes, if with this in my
+hand"--she motioned to her riding whip--"and my dear father at my side,
+I stood on my own feet which, though by no means small, are well-shod and
+resolute.  Yet, as we are apt to measure others by our own standard, the
+timid, decorous girl believed me, and poor Cordula, who indeed brought
+only her maids and no female guardian, and therefore must dispense with
+being received on her return by a lady capable of commanding respect, did
+not appeal in vain to the charitable feelings of her beautiful housemate.
+She promised faithfully to come down into the entry, when the horses
+approached, to receive the poor lamb, surrounded by lynxes, wild-cats,
+foxes, and wolves, and lead it into the safe fold--if one can call this
+stately house by such a name.  Both Sir Heinz Schorlin and Jungfrau
+Elizabeth Ortlieb kept their word and joined each other here--to their
+extreme amazement, I should suppose, as to my knowledge they never met
+before--to receive me, and thus had an interview which, however loudly
+they may contradict it, I call a nocturnal meeting.  But my wager, fair
+child, is won, and tomorrow you will deliver to me the exquisite carved
+ivory casket, while I shall keep my bracelet."
+
+Here she paused, paying no heed to the merry threats, exclamations of
+amazement, and laughter of her companions.
+
+But while her father, striking his broad chest, cried again and again,
+with rapturous delight, "A paragon of a woman!" and Seitz Siebenburg,
+in bitter disappointment, whispered, "The fourteen saintly helpers in
+time of need might learn from you how to draw from the clamps what is not
+worth rescue and probably despaired of escape," she was trying to give
+time to recover more composure her young hostess, to whom she was
+sincerely attached, and who, she felt sure, could have met Heinz
+Schorlin, who perhaps had come hither on her own account, only by some
+cruel chance.  So she added in a quieter tone: "And now, Jungfrau
+Ortlieb, in sober earnest I will ask your protection and guidance through
+the dark house, and meanwhile you shall tell me how Sir Heinz greeted you
+and what passed between you, either good or bad, during the time of
+waiting."
+
+Els summoned up her courage and answered loud enough to be heard by all
+present: "We were speaking of you, Countess Cordula, and the knight said:
+
+"I ventured to remark, Countess," said Heinz, interrupting the new ally,
+"that though you might understand how to show a poor knight his folly, no
+kinder heart than yours throbbed under any bodice in Switzerland, Swabia,
+or France."  Cordula struck him lightly on the shoulder with her riding
+whip, saying with a laugh: "Who permits you to peep under women's bodices
+through so wide a tract of country, you scamp?  Had I been in Jungfrau
+Ortlieb's place I should have punished your entry into a respectable
+house:
+
+"Oh, my dear Countess," Heinz interrupted, and his words bore so
+distinctly the stamp of truth and actual experience that even Sir Seitz
+Siebenburg was puzzled, "though I am always disposed to be grateful to
+you, I cannot feel a sense of obligation for this lady's reception of me,
+even to the most gracious benefactress.  For, by my patron saint, she
+forbade me the house as if I were a thief and a burglar."
+
+"And she was right!" exclaimed the countess.  "I would have treated you
+still more harshly.  Only you would have spared yourself many a sharp
+word had you confessed at once that it was I who summoned you here.  I'll
+talk with you tomorrow, and am I not right, Jungfrau Elsyou won't make
+him suffer for losing the wager, but exercise your domestic authority
+after a more gentle fashion?"
+
+While speaking, she looked at Els with a glance so full of meaning that
+the young girl's cheeks crimsoned, and the longing to put an end to this
+deceitful game became almost uncontrollable.  The thought of Eva alone
+sealed her lips.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+IN THE FIRE OF THE FORGE
+
+A ROMANCE OF OLD NUREMBERG
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+Volume 3.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+One person only besides Sir Seitz Siebenburg had not been deceived--the
+young knight Boemund Altrosen, whose love for Cordula was genuine, and
+who, by its unerring instinct, felt that she had invented her tale and
+for a purpose which did honour to her kindness of heart.  So his calm
+black eyes rested upon the woman he loved with proud delight, while Seitz
+Siebenburg twisted his mustache fiercely.  Not a look or movement of
+either of the two girls had escaped his notice, and Cordula's bold
+interference in behalf of the reckless Swiss knight, who now seemed to
+have ensnared his future sister-in-law also, increased the envy and
+jealousy which tortured him until he was forced to exert the utmost self-
+restraint in order not to tell the countess to her face that he, at
+least, was far from being deceived by such a fable.  Yet he succeeded in
+controlling himself.  But as he forced his lips to silence he gazed with
+the most open scorn at the bales of merchandise heaped around him.  He
+would show the others that, though the husband of a merchant's daughter,
+he retained the prejudices of his knightly rank.
+
+But no one heeded the disagreeable fellow, who had no intimate friends in
+the group.  Most of the company were pressing round Heinz Schorlin with
+jests and questions, but bluff Count von Montfort warmly clasped Els's
+hand, while he apologised for the bold jest of his young daughter who, in
+spite of her recklessness, meant kindly.
+
+Nothing could have been more unwelcome to a girl in so unpleasant a
+situation than this delay.  She longed most ardently to get away but,
+ere she succeeded in escaping from the friendly old noble, two gentlemen
+hastily entered the brightly lighted entry, at sight of whom her heart
+seemed to stop beating.
+
+The old count, who noticed her blanched face, released her, asking
+sympathisingly what troubled her, but Els did not hear him.
+
+When she felt him loose her hand she would fain have fled up the stairs
+to her mother and sister, to avoid the discussions which must now follow.
+But she knew into what violent outbursts of sudden anger her usually
+prudent father could be hurried if there was no one at hand to warn him.
+
+There he stood in the doorway, his stern, gloomy expression forming a
+strange contrast to the merry party who had entered in such a jovial
+mood.
+
+His companion, Herr Casper Eysvogel, had already noticed his future
+daughter-in-law, recognised her by an amazed shrug of the shoulders which
+was anything but a friendly greeting, and now eyed the excited revellers
+with a look as grave and repellent as that of the owner of the house.
+Herr Casper's unusual height permitted him to gaze over the heads of the
+party though, with the exception of Count von Montfort, they were all
+tall, nay, remarkably tall men, and the delicacy of his clear-cut,
+pallid, beardless face had never seemed to Els handsomer or more
+sinister.  True, he was the father of her Wolff, but the son resembled
+this cold-hearted man only in his unusual stature, and a chill ran
+through her veins as she felt the stately old merchant's blue eyes,
+still keen and glittering, rest upon her.
+
+On the day of her betrothal she had rushed into his arms with a warm and
+grateful heart, and he had kissed her, as custom dictated; but it was
+done in a strange way--his thin, well-cut lips had barely brushed her
+brow.  Then he stepped back and turned to his wife with the low command,
+"It is your turn now, Rosalinde."  Her future mother-in-law rose quickly,
+and doubtless intended to embrace her affectionately, but a loud cough
+from her own mother seemed to check her, for ere she opened her arms to
+Els she turned to her and excused her act by the words, "He wishes it."
+Yet Els was finally clasped in Frau Rosalinde's arms and kissed more
+warmly than--from what had previously occurred--she had expected.
+
+Wolff's grandmother, old Countess Rotterbach, who rarely left the huge
+gilt armchair in her daughter's sitting-room, had watched the whole scene
+with a scornful smile; then, thrusting her prominent chin still farther
+forward, she said to her daughter, loud enough for Els to hear, "This
+into the bargain?"
+
+All these things returned to the young girl's memory as she gazed at the
+cold, statuesque face of her lover's father.  It seemed as if he held his
+tall, noble figure more haughtily erect than usual, and that his plain
+dark garments were of richer material and more faultless cut than ever;
+nay, she even fancied that, like the lion, which crouches and strains
+every muscle ere it springs upon its victim, he was summoning all his
+pride and sternness to crush her.
+
+Els was innocent; nay, the motive which had brought her here to defend
+her sister could not fail to be approved by every well-disposed person,
+and certainly not last by her father, and it would have suited her
+truthful nature to contradict openly Countess Cordula's friendly
+falsehood had not her dread of fatally exposing Eva imposed silence.
+
+How her father's cheeks glowed already!  With increasing anxiety, she
+attributed it to the indignation which overpowered him, yet he was only
+heated by the haste with which, accompanied by his future son-in-law's
+father, he had rushed here from the Frauenthor as fast as his feet would
+carry him.  Casper Eysvogel had also attended the Vorchtel entertainment
+and accompanied Ernst Ortlieb into the street to discuss some business
+matters.
+
+He intended to persuade him to advance the capital for which he had just
+vainly asked Herr Vorchtel.  He stood in most urgent need for the next
+few days of this great sum, of which his son and business partner must
+have no knowledge, and at first Wolff Eysvogel's future father-in-law saw
+no reason to refuse.  But Herr Ernst was a cautious man, and when his
+companion imposed the condition that his son should be kept in ignorance
+of the loan, he was puzzled.  He wished to learn why the business partner
+should not know what must be recorded in the books of the house; but
+Casper Eysvogel needed this capital to silence the Jew Pfefferkorn, from
+whom he had secretly borrowed large sums to conceal the heavy losses
+sustained in Venice the year before at the gaming table.
+
+At first courteously, then with rising anger, he evaded the questions
+of the business man, and his manner of doing so, with the little
+contradictions in which the arrogant man, unaccustomed to falsehood,
+involved himself, showed Herr Ernst that all was not as it should be.
+
+By the time they reached the Frauenthor, he had told Casper Eysvogel
+positively that he would not fulfil the request until Wolff was informed
+of the matter.
+
+Then the sorely pressed man perceived that nothing but a frank confession
+could lead him to his goal.  But what an advantage it would give his
+companion, what a humiliation it would impose upon himself!  He could not
+force his lips to utter it, but resolved to venture a last essay by
+appealing to the father, instead of to the business man; and therefore,
+with the haughty, condescending manner natural to him, he asked Herr
+Ernst, as if it were his final word, whether he had considered that his
+refusal of a request, which twenty other men would deem it an honour to
+fulfil, might give their relations a form very undesirable both to his
+daughter and himself?
+
+"No, I did not suppose that a necessity," replied his companion firmly,
+and then added in an irritated tone: "But if you need the loan so much
+that you require for your son a father-in-law who will advance it to you
+more readily, why, then, Herr Casper--"
+
+Here he paused abruptly.  A flood of light streamed into the street from
+the doorway of the Ortlieb house.  It must be a fire, and with the
+startled cry, "St. Florian aid us! my entry is burning!" he rushed
+forward with his companion to the endangered house so quickly that the
+torchbearers, who even in this bright night did good service in the
+narrow streets, whose lofty houses barred out the moonlight, could
+scarcely follow.
+
+Thus Herr Ernst, far more anxious about his invalid, helpless wife than
+his imperilled wares, soon reached his own door.  His companion crossed
+the threshold close behind him, sullen, deeply incensed, and determined
+to order his son to choose between his love and favour and the daughter
+of this unfriendly man, whom only a sudden accident had prevented from
+breaking the betrothal.
+
+The sight of so many torches blazing here was an exasperating spectacle
+to Ernst Ortlieb, who with wise caution and love of order insisted that
+nothing but lanterns should be used to light his house, which contained
+inflammable wares of great value; but other things disturbed his
+composure, already wavering, to an even greater degree.
+
+What was his Els doing at this hour among these gentlemen, all of whom
+were strangers?
+
+Without heeding them or the countess, he was hastening towards her to
+obtain a solution of this enigma, but the young Burgrave Eitelfritz von
+Zollern, the Knight of Altrosen, Cordula von Montfort, and others barred
+his way by greeting him and eagerly entreating him to pardon their
+intrusion at so late an hour.
+
+Having no alternative, he curtly assented, and was somewhat soothed as he
+saw old Count von Montfort, who was still standing beside Els, engaged in
+an animated conversation with her.  His daughter's presence was probably
+due to that of the guests quartered in his home, especially Cordula,
+whom, since she disturbed the peace of his quiet household night after
+night, he regarded as the personification of restlessness and reckless
+freedom.  He would have preferred to pass her unnoticed, but she had
+clung to his arm and was trying, with coaxing graciousness, to soften his
+indignation by gaily relating how she had come here and what had detained
+her and her companions.  But Ernst Ortlieb, who would usually have been
+very susceptible to such an advance from a young and aristocratic lady,
+could not now succeed in smoothing his brow.  In his excitement he was
+not even able to grasp the meaning of the story she related merrily,
+though with well-feigned contrition.  While listening to her with one
+ear, he was straining the other to catch what Sir Seitz Siebenburg was
+saying to his father-in-law, Casper Eysvogel.
+
+He gathered from Countess Cordula's account that she had succeeded in
+playing some bold prank in connection with Els and the Swiss knight Heinz
+Schorlin, and the words "the Mustache" was whispering to his father-in-
+law-the direction of his glance betrayed it--also referred to Els and the
+Swiss.  But the less Herr Ernst heard of this conversation the more
+painfully it excited his already perturbed spirit.
+
+Suddenly his pleasant features, which, on account of the lady at his
+side, he had hitherto forced to wear a gracious aspect, assumed an
+expression which filled the reckless countess with grave anxiety, and
+urged the terrified Els, who had not turned her eyes from him, to a hasty
+resolution.  That was her father's look when on the point of an outbreak
+of fury, and at this hour, surrounded by these people, he must not allow
+himself to yield to rage; he must maintain a tolerable degree of
+composure.
+
+Without heeding the young Burgrave Eitelfritz or Sir Boemund Altrosen,
+who were just approaching her, she forced her way nearer to her father,
+He still maintained his self-control, but already the veins on his brow
+had swollen and his short figure was rigidly erect.  The cause of his
+excitement--she had noticed it--was some word uttered by Seitz
+Siebenburg.  Her father was the only person who had understood it, but
+she was not mistaken in the conjecture that it referred to her and the
+Swiss knight, and she believed it to be base and spiteful.
+
+In fact, after his father-in-law had told him that Ernst Ortlieb thought
+his house was on fire, "the Mustache," in reply to Herr Casper's enquiry
+how his son's betrothed bride happened to be there, answered scornfully:
+"Els?  She did not hasten hither, like the old man, to put the fire out,
+but because one flame was not enough for her.  Wolff must know it to-
+morrow.  By day the slender little flame of honourable betrothed love
+flickers for him; by night it blazes more brightly for yonder Swiss
+scoundrel.  And the young lady chooses for the scene of this toying with
+fire the easily ignited warehouse of her own father!"
+
+"I will secure mine against such risks," Casper Eysvogel answered; then,
+casting a contemptuous glance at Els and a wrathful one at the Swiss
+knight, he added with angry resolution: "It is not yet too late.  So long
+as I am myself no one shall bring peril and disgrace upon my house and my
+son."
+
+Then Herr Ernst had suddenly become aware of the suspicion with which his
+beautiful, brave, self-sacrificing child was regarded.  Pale as death, he
+struggled for composure, and when his eyes met the imploring gaze of the
+basely defamed girl, he said to himself that he must maintain his self-
+control in order not to afford the frivolous revellers who surrounded him
+an entertaining spectacle.
+
+Wolff was dear to him, but before he would have led his Els to the house
+where the miserable "Mustache" lived, and whose head was the coldhearted,
+gloomy man whose words had just struck him like a poisoned arrow, he,
+whom the Lord had bereft of his beloved, gallant son, would have been
+ready to deprive himself of his daughters also and take both to the
+convent.  Eva longed to go, and Els might find there a new and beautiful
+happiness, like his sister, the Abbess Kunigunde.  In the Eysvogel house,
+never!
+
+During these hasty reflections Els extended her hand toward him, and the
+shining gold circlet which her lover had placed on her ring finger
+glittered in the torchlight.  A thought darted through his brain with the
+speed of lightning, and without hesitation he drew the ring from the hand
+of his astonished daughter, whispering curtly, yet tenderly, in reply to
+her anxious cry, "What are you doing?"
+
+"Trust me, child."
+
+Then hastily approaching Casper Eysvogel, he beckoned to him to move a
+little aside from the group.
+
+The other followed, believing that Herr Ernst would now promise the sum
+requested, yet firmly resolved, much as he needed it, to refuse.
+
+Ernst Ortlieb, however, made no allusion to business matters, but with a
+swift gesture handed him the ring which united their two children.  Then,
+after a rapid glance around had assured him that no one had followed
+them, he whispered to Herr Casper: "Tell your Wolff that he was, and
+would have remained, dear to us; but my daughter seems to me too good for
+his father's house and for kindred who fear that she will bring injury
+and shame upon them.  Your wish is fulfilled.  I hereby break the
+betrothal."
+
+"And, in so doing, you only anticipate the step which I intended to take
+with more cogent motives," replied Casper Eysvogel with cool composure,
+shrugging his shoulders contemptuously.  "The city will judge to-morrow
+which of the two parties was compelled to sever a bond sacred in the
+sight of God and men.  Unfortunately, it is impossible for me to give
+your daughter the good opinion you cherish of my son."
+
+Drawing his stately figure to its full height as he spoke, he gazed at
+his diminutive adversary with a look of haughty contempt and, without
+vouchsafing a word in farewell, turned his back upon him.
+
+Repressed fury was seething in Ernst Ortlieb's breast, and he would
+scarcely have succeeded in controlling himself longer but for the
+consolation afforded by the thought that every tie was sundered between
+his daughter and this cold, arrogant, unjust man and his haughty, evil
+disposed kindred.  But when he again looked for the daughter on whom his
+hasty act had doubtless inflicted a severe blow, she was no longer
+visible.
+
+Directly after he took the ring she had glided silently, unnoticed by
+most of the company, up the stairs to the second story.  Cordula von
+Montfort told him this in a low tone.
+
+Els had made no answer to her questions, but her imploring, tearful eyes
+pierced the young countess to the heart.  Her quick ear had caught
+Siebenburg's malicious words and Casper Eysvogel's harsh response and,
+with deep pity, she felt how keenly the poor girl must suffer.
+
+The happiness of a whole life destroyed without any fault of her own!
+From their first meeting Els had seemed to her incapable of any careless
+error, and she had merely tried, by her bold, interference, to protect
+her from the gossip of evil tongues.  But Heinz Schorlin had just
+approached and whispered that, by his knightly honour, Els was a total
+stranger to him, and he only wished he might find his own dear sister at
+home as pure and free from any fault.
+
+Poor child!  But the countess knew who had frustrated her intervention in
+behalf of Els.  It was Sir Seitz Siebenburg, "the Mustache," whose
+officious homage, at first amusing, had long since become repulsive.  Her
+heart shrank from the thought that, merely from vain pleasure in having a
+throng of admirers, she had given this scoundrel more than one glance of
+encouragement.  The riding whip fairly quivered in her right hand as,
+after informing Ernst Ortlieb where Els had gone, she warned the
+gentlemen that it was time to depart, and Seitz Siebenburg submissively,
+yet as familiarly as if he had a right to her special favour, held out
+his hand in farewell.
+
+But Countess Cordula withdrew hers with visible dislike, saying in a tone
+of chilling repulse: "Remember me to your wife, Sir Knight.  Tell her to
+take care that her twin sons resemble their father as little as
+possible."
+
+"Then you want to have two ardent admirers the less?" asked Siebenburg
+gaily, supposing that the countess's remark was a jest.
+
+But when she did not, as he expected, give these insulting words an
+interpretation favourable to him, but merely shrugged her shoulders
+scornfully, he added, glancing fiercely at the Swiss knight:
+
+"True, you would doubtless be better pleased should the boys grow up to
+resemble the lucky Sir Heinz Schorlin, for whose sake you proved yourself
+the inventor of tales more marvellous, if not more credible, than the
+most skilful travelling minstrel."
+
+"Perhaps so," replied the countess with contemptuous brevity.  "But I
+should be satisfied if the twins--and this agrees with my first wish
+should grow up honest men.  If you should pay me the honour of a visit
+during the next few days, Sir Seitz, I could not receive it."
+
+With these words she turned away, paying no further heed to him, though
+he called her name aloud, as if half frantic.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+It was after midnight when the servants closed the heavy door of the
+Ortlieb mansion.  The late guests had left it, mounted their horses, and
+ridden away together through the Frauenthor into the city.
+
+The moon no longer lighted their way.  A sultry wind had swept from the
+southwest masses of grey clouds, which constantly grew denser and darker.
+Heinz Schorlin did not notice it, but his follower, Biberli, called his
+attention to the rising storm and entreated him to choose the nearest
+road to the city.  To remain outside the gate in such darkness would be
+uncomfortable, nay, perhaps not without peril, but the knight merely
+flung him the peevish answer, "So much the better," and, to Biberli's
+surprise, turned into St. Klarengasse, which brought him by no means
+nearer to his distant lodgings in the Bindergasse.
+
+It was unfortunate to be warmly devoted to a master who had no fear, whom
+he was obliged to serve as a messenger of love, and who now probably
+scarcely knew himself whither this love would lead him.
+
+But true and steadfast Biberli would really have followed Sir Heinz, not
+only in a dangerous nocturnal ramble, but through all the terrors of.
+hell.  So he only glanced down at his long, lean legs, which would be
+exposed here to the bites of the dogs, with whom he stood on especially
+bad terms, raised his long robe higher, as the paths over which they must
+pass were of doubtful cleanliness, and deemed it a good omen when his
+foot struck against a stout stick, which his patron saint had perhaps
+thrown in his way as a weapon.  Its possession was somewhat soothing, it
+is true, yet he did not regain the pleasant consciousness of peace in
+which his soul had rejoiced a few short hours before.
+
+He knew what to expect from the irritable mood into which recent events
+appeared to have thrown his master.  Heinz usually soon forgot any such
+trivial disappointment, but the difficulty threatening himself and
+Katterle was far worse--nay, might even assume terrible proportions.
+
+These alarming thoughts made him sigh so deeply that Heinz turned towards
+him.
+
+He would gladly have relieved his own troubled breast in the same way.
+Never before had the soul of this light-hearted child of good fortune
+served as the arena for so fierce a struggle of contending emotions.
+
+He loved Eva, and the image of her white, supernaturally beautiful
+figure, flooded by the moonlight, still stood before him as distinctly as
+when, after her disappearance, he had resolved to plead his suit for her
+to her sister; but the usually reckless fellow asked himself, shuddering,
+what would have happened had he obeyed Eva's summons and been found with
+her, as he had just been surprised with her sister.  She was not wholly
+free from guilt, for her note had really contained an invitation to a
+meeting; yet she escaped.  But his needless impetuosity and her sudden
+appearance before the house had placed her modest, charming sister, the
+betrothed bride of the gallant fellow who had fought with him in the
+Marchfield, in danger of being misunderstood and despised.  If the finger
+of scorn were pointed at her, if a stain rested on her fair fame, the
+austere Wolff Eysvogel would hardly desire to make her his wife, and then
+this also would be his fault.
+
+His kind, honest heart suffered keenly under these self-accusations, the
+first which he had ever heeded.
+
+Hitherto the volatile young fellow, who had often gaily risked his life
+in battle and his last penny at the gaming table, had never thought of
+seriously examining his own soul, battling by his own strength of will
+against some secret longing and shunning its cause.  On the contrary,
+from childhood he had accustomed himself to rely on the protection and
+aid of the Virgin and the saints; and when they passed the image with the
+ever-burning lamp, where Katterle had just sought and found consolation,
+he implored it not to let his bold intrusion into the home of the maiden
+he loved bring evil upon her and her sister.  He also vowed to the
+convent and its saint--which, come what might, should also be his--a rich
+gift whenever the Emperor or the gaming table again filled his purse.
+
+The thought of being burdened his whole life long with the reproach of
+having made two such charming, innocent creatures miserable seemed
+unendurable.  He would gladly have given gold and blood to remove it.
+
+It was too late that day, but he resolved to go to the confessional on
+the morrow, for absolution had always relieved and lightened his heart.
+But how trivial his errors had been!  True, the wrong he had now
+committed was not a mortal sin, and would hardly impose a severe penance
+upon him, yet it burdened him like the most infamous crime.  He did not
+understand himself, and often wondered why he, reckless Heinz, thus made
+a mountain out of a molehill.  Yet when, after this reflection, he
+uttered a sigh of relief, it seemed as if a voice within commanded him
+not to think lightly of what had passed, for on that evening he had
+ceased to bestow pleasure on every one, and instead of, as usual, being
+helpful and agreeable, he had plunged others who had done him no wrong--
+nay, perhaps a whole household, whose daughter had given him the first
+love of her young heart-into misery and disgrace.  Had he considered the
+consequences of his act, he would still be merry Heinz.  Then he
+remembered how, when a boy, playing with other lads high up among the
+mountains just as it was beginning to thaw, he had hurled the work they
+had finished with so much toil, a snow man, down the slope, rejoicing
+with his playfellows over its swift descent towards the valley, until
+they noticed with what frightful speed its bulk increased as it sped over
+its snowy road, till at last, like a terrible avalanche, it swept away a
+herdsman's hut--fortunately an empty one.  Now, also, his heedlessness
+had set in motion a mass which constantly rolled onward, and how terrible
+might be the harm it would do!
+
+If Hartmann, the Emperor's son, were only there!  He confided everything
+to him, for he was sure of his silence.  Both his duty as a knight and
+his conscience forbade him to relate his experiences and ask counsel from
+any one else.
+
+He was still absorbed in these gloomy thoughts when, just before reaching
+the Walch, he heard Biberli's deep sigh.  Here, behind and beside the
+frames of the cloth weavers, stood the tents before which the followers
+and soldiers of the princes and dignitaries who had come to the Reichstag
+were still sitting around the camp fire, carousing and laughing.
+
+Any interruption was welcome to him, and to Biberli it seemed like a
+deliverance to be permitted to use his poor endangered tongue, for his
+master had asked what grief oppressed him.
+
+"If you desired to know what trouble did not burden my soul I could find
+a speedier answer," replied Biberli piteously.  "Oh, this night, my lord!
+What has it not brought upon us and others!  Look at the black clouds
+rising in the south.  They are like the dark days impending over us poor
+mortals."
+
+Then he confided to Heinz his fears for himself and Katterle.  The
+knight's assurance that he would intercede for him and, if necessary,
+even appeal to the Emperor's favour, somewhat cheered his servitor's
+drooping spirits, it is true, but by no means restored his composure,
+and his tone was lugubrious enough as he went on:
+
+"And  the poor  innocent  girl in  the Ortlieb house!  Your little lady,
+my lord, broke the bread she must now eat herself, but the other, the
+older E."
+
+"I know," interrupted the knight sorrowfully.  "But if the gracious
+Virgin aids us, they will continue to believe in the wager Cordula von
+Montfort----"
+
+"She! she!" Biberli exclaimed, enthusiastically waving his stick aloft.
+"The Lord created her in a good hour.  Such a heart!  Such friendly
+kindness!  And to think that she interposed so graciously for you--you,
+Sir Heinz, to whom she showed the favour of combing your locks, as if
+you were already her promised husband, and who afterwards, for another's
+sake, left her at the ball as if she wore a fern cap and had become
+invisible.  I saw the whole from the musician's gallery.  True, the
+somnambulist is marvellously beautiful."
+
+But the knight interrupted him by exclaiming so vehemently: "Silence!"
+that he paused.
+
+Both walked on without speaking for some distance ere Heinz began again:
+
+"Even though I live to grow old and grey, never shall I behold aught more
+beautiful than the vision of that white-robed girlish figure on the
+stairs."
+
+True and steadfast Biberli sighed faintly.  Love for Eva Ortlieb held his
+master as if in a vise; but a Schorlin seemed to him far too good a match
+for a Nuremberg maiden who had grown up among sacks of pepper and chests
+of goods and, moreover, was a somnambulist.  He looked higher for his
+Heinz, and had already found the right match for him.  So, turning to him
+again, he said earnestly:
+
+"Drive the bewitching vision from your mind, Sir Heinz.  You don't know
+--but I could tell you some tales about women who walk in their sleep by
+moonlight."
+
+"Well?"  asked Heinz eagerly.
+
+"As a maiden," Biberli continued impressively, with the pious intention
+of guarding his master from injury, "the somnambulist merely runs the
+risk of falling from the roof, or whatever accident may happen to a
+sleepwalker; but if she enters the estate of holy matrimony, the evil
+power which has dominion over her sooner or later transforms her at
+midnight into a troll, which seizes her husband's throat in his sleep and
+strangles him."
+
+"Nursery tales!"  cried  Heinz  angrily,  but Biberli answered calmly:
+
+"It can make no difference to you what occurs in the case of such
+possessed women, for henceforward the Ortlieb house will be closed
+against you.  And--begging your pardon--it is fortunate.  For, my lord,
+the horse mounted by the first Schorlin--the chaplain showed it to you in
+the picture--came from the ark in which Noah saved it with the other
+animals from the deluge, and the first Lady Schorlin whom the family
+chronicles mention was a countess.  Your ancestresses came from citadels
+and castles; no Schorlin ever yet brought his bride from a tradesman's
+house.  You, the proudest of them all, will scarcely think of making such
+an error, though it is true--"
+
+"Ernst Ortlieb, spite of his trade, is a man of knightly lineage, to whom
+the king of arms opens the lists at every tournament!" exclaimed Heinz
+indignantly.
+
+"In the combat with blunt weapons," replied Biberli contemptuously.
+
+"Nay, for the jousts and single combat," cried Heinz excitedly.
+"The Emperor Frederick himself dubbed Herr Ernst a knight."
+
+"You  know best,"  replied  Biberli modestly.  But his coat of arms, like
+his entry, smells of cloves and pepper.  Here is another, however, who,
+like your first ancestress, has a countess's title, and who has a right--
+My name isn't Biberli if your lady mother at home would not be more than
+happy were I to inform her that the Countess von Montfort and the darling
+of her heart, which you are:
+
+"The name of Montfort and what goes with it," Heinz interrupted, "would
+surely please those at home.  But the rest!  Where could a girl be found
+who, setting aside Cordula's kind heart, would be so great a contrast to
+my mother in every respect?"
+
+"Stormy  mornings merge into quiet days," said the servant.  "Everything
+depends, my lord, upon the heart of which you speak so slightingly--the
+heart and, even above that, upon the blood.  'Help is needed there,'
+cried the kind heart just now, and then the blood did its 'devoir'.  The
+act followed the desire as the sound follows the blow of the hammer, the
+thunder the flash of lightning.  Well for the castle that is ruled by
+such a mistress!  I am only the servant, and respect commands me to curb
+my tongue; but to-day I had news from home through the Provost Werner, of
+Lucerne, whom I knew at Stansstadt.  I meant to tell you of it over the
+wine at the Thirsty Troopers, but that accursed note and the misfortune
+which followed prevented.  It will not make either of us more cheerful,
+but whoever is ordered by the leech to drink gall and wormwood does
+wisely to swallow the dose at one gulp.  Do you wish to empty the cup
+now?"
+
+The knight nodded assent, and Biberli went on.  "Home affairs are not
+going as they ought.  Though your uncle's hair is already grey, the
+knightly blood in his veins makes him grasp the sword too quickly.  The
+quarrel about the bridge-toll has broken out again more violently than
+ever.  The townsfolk drove off our cattle as security and, by way of
+punishment, your uncle seized the goods of their merchants, and they came
+to blows.  True, the Schorlin retainers forced back the men from town
+with bloody heads, but if the feud lasts much longer we cannot hold out,
+for the others have the money, and since the war cry has sounded less
+frequently there has been no lack of men at arms who will serve any one
+who pays.  Besides, the townsfolk can appeal to the treaty of peace, and
+if your uncle continues to seize the merchant's wares they will apply to
+the imperial magistrate, and then:
+
+"Then," cried Heinz eagerly, "then the time will have come for me to
+leave the court and return home to look after my rights."
+
+"A single arm, no matter how strong it may be, can avail nothing there,
+my lord," Biberli protested earnestly.  "Your Uncle Ramsweg has scarcely
+his peer as a leader, but even were it not so you could not bring
+yourself to send the old man home and put yourself in his place.
+Besides, it would be as unwise as it is unjust.  What is lacking at home
+is money to pay the town what it demands for the use of the bridge, or to
+increase the number of your men, and therefore:
+
+"Well?" asked Heinz eagerly.
+
+"Therefore seek the Countess von Montfort, who favours you above every
+one else," was the reply; "for with her all you need will be yours
+without effort.  Her dowry will suffice to settle twenty such bridge
+dues, and if it should come to a fray, the brave huntress will ride to
+the field at your side with helmet and spear.  Which of the four Fs did
+Countess Cordula von Montfort ever lack?"
+
+"The four Fs?"  asked Heinz, listening intently.  "The Fs," explained the
+ex-pedagogue, "are the four letters which marriageable knights should
+consider.  They are: Family, figure, favour, and fortune.  But hold your
+cap on!  What a hot blast this is, as if the storm were coming straight
+from the jaws of hell.  And the dust!  Where did all these withered
+leaves come from in the month of June?  They are whirling about as if the
+foliage had already fallen.  There are big raindrops driving into my face
+too  B-r-r!  You need all four Fs.  No rain will wash a single one of
+them away, and I hope it won't efface the least word of my speech either.
+What, according to human foresight, could be lacking to secure the
+fairest happiness, if you and the countess--"
+
+"Love," replied Heinz Schorlin curtly.
+
+"That will come of itself," cried Biberli, as if sure of what he was
+saying, "if the bride is Countess Cordula."
+
+"Possibly," answered the  knight, "but the heart must not be filled by
+another's image."
+
+Here he paused, for in the darkness he had stumbled into the ditch by the
+road.
+
+The whirlwind which preceded the bursting of the storm blew such clouds
+of dust and everything it contained into their faces that it was
+difficult to advance.  But Biberli was glad, for he had not yet found a
+fitting answer.  He struggled silently on beside his master against the
+wind, until it suddenly subsided, and a violent storm of rain streamed in
+big warm drops on the thirsty earth and the belated pedestrians.  Then,
+spite of Heinz's protestations, Biberli hurriedly snatched the long robe
+embroidered with the St from his shoulders and threw it over his master,
+declaring that his shirt was as safe from injury as his skin, but the
+rain would ruin the knight's delicate embroidered doublet.
+
+Then he drew over his head the hood which hung from his coat, and
+meanwhile must have decided upon an answer, for as soon as they moved on
+he began again: "You must drive your love for the beautiful sleepwalker
+out of your mind.  Try to do so, my dear, dear master, for the sake of
+your lady mother, your young sister who will soon be old enough to marry,
+our light-hearted Maria, and the good old castle.  For your own
+happiness, your lofty career, which began so gloriously, you must hear
+me!  O master, my dear master, tear from your heart the image of the
+little Nuremberg witch, tempting though it is, I admit.  The wound will
+bleed for a brief time, but after so much mirthful pleasure a fleeting
+disappointment in love, I should think, would not be too hard to bear if
+it will be speedily followed by the fairest and most enduring happiness."
+
+Here a flash of lightning, which illumined the hospital door close before
+them, and made every surrounding object as bright as day, interrupted the
+affectionate entreaty of the faithful fellow, and at the same time a
+tremendous peal of thunder crashed and rattled through the air.
+
+Master and servant crossed themselves, but Heinz exclaimed:
+
+"That struck the tower yonder.  A little farther to the left, and all
+doubts and misgivings would have been ended."
+
+"You  can say  that!" exclaimed Biberli reproachfully while passing with
+his master through the gate which had just been opened for an imperial
+messenger.  "And you dare to make such a speech in the midst of this
+heavenly wrath!  For the sake of a pair of lovely eyes you are ready to
+execrate a life which the saints have so blessed with every gift that
+thousands and tens of thousands would not give it up from sheer gratitude
+and joy, even if it were not a blasphemous crime!"
+
+Again the lightning and thunder drowned his words.  Biberli's heart
+trembled, and muttering prayers beseeching protection from the avenging
+hand above, he walked swiftly onward till they reached the Corn Market.
+Here they were again stopped, for, notwithstanding the late hour, a
+throng of people, shouting and wailing, was just pouring from the
+Ledergasse into the square, headed by a night watchman provided with
+spear, horn, and lantern, a bailiff, torchbearers, and some police
+officers, who were vainly trying to silence the loudest outcries.
+
+Again a brilliant flash of lightning pierced the black mass of clouds,
+and Heinz, shuddering, pointed to the crowd and asked, "Do you suppose
+the lightning killed the man whom they are carrying yonder?"
+
+"Let me see," replied Biberli, among whose small vices curiosity was by
+no means the least.  He must have understood news gathering thoroughly,
+for he soon returned and informed Heinz, who had sought shelter from the
+rain under the broad bow window of a lofty house, that the bearers were
+just carrying to his parents' home a young man whose thread of life had
+been suddenly severed by a stab through the breast in a duel.  After the
+witnesses had taken the corpse to the leech Otto, in the Ledergasse, and
+the latter said that the youth was dead, they had quickly dispersed,
+fearing a severe punishment on account of the breach of the peace.  The
+murdered man was Ulrich Vorchtel, the oldest son of the wealthy Berthold
+Vorchel, who collected the imperial taxes.
+
+Again Heinz shuddered.  He had seen the unfortunate young man the
+day before yesterday at the fencing school, and yesterday, full of
+overflowing mirth, at the dance, and knew that he, too, had fought in
+the battle of Marchfield.  His foe must have been master of the art of
+wielding the sword, for the dead man had been a skilful fencer, and was
+tall and stalwart in figure.
+
+When the servant ended his story Heinz stood still in the darkness for a
+time, silently listening.  The bells had begun to ring, the blast of the
+watchman's horn blended with the wailing notes summoning aid, and in two
+places--near the Thiergartenthor and the Frauenthor--the sky was
+crimsoned by the reflection of a conflagration, probably kindled by some
+flash of lightning, which flickered over the clouds, alternately rising
+and falling, sometimes deeper and anon paler in hue.  Throngs of people,
+shouting "Fire!" pressed from the cross streets into the square.  The
+stillness of the night was over.
+
+When Heinz again turned to Biberli he said in a hollow tone:
+
+"If the earth should swallow up Nuremberg tonight it would not surprise
+me.  But over yonder--look, Biber, the Duke of Pomerania's quarters in
+the Green Shield are still lighted.  I'll wager that they are yet at the
+gaming table.  A plague upon it!  I would be there, too, if my purse
+allowed.  I feel as if yonder dead man and his coffin were burdening my
+soul.  If it was really good fortune in love that snatched the zecchins
+from my purse yesterday:
+
+"Then," cried Biberli eagerly, "to-night is the very time, ere Countess
+Cordula teaches you to forget what troubles you, to win them back.  The
+gold for the first stake is at your disposal."
+
+"From the Duke of Pomerania, you think?"  asked Heinz; then, in a quick,
+resolute tone, added: "No!  Often as the duke has offered me his purse,
+I never borrow from my peers when the prospect of repayment looks so
+uncertain."
+
+"Gently, my lord," returned Biberli, slapping his belt importantly.
+"Here is what you need for the stake as your own property.  No miracles
+have been wrought for us, only I forgot  But look!  There are the black
+clouds rolling northward over the castle.  That was a frightful storm!
+But a spendthrift doesn't keep house long-and the thunder has not yet
+followed that last flash of lightning.  There is plenty of uproar without
+it.  It's hard work to hear one's self speak amid all the ringing,
+trumpeting, yelling, and shrieking.  It seems as if they expected to
+put out the fire with noise.  The fathers of the city can attend to that.
+It doesn't appear to disturb the duke and his guests at their dice; and
+here, my lord, are fifty florins which, I think, will do for the
+beginning."
+
+Biberli handed the knight a little bag containing this sum, and when
+Heinz asked in perplexity where he obtained it, the ex-schoolmaster
+answered gaily: "They came just in the nick of time.  I received them
+from Suss, the jockey, while you were out riding this afternoon."
+
+"For the black?" Heinz enquired.
+
+"Certainly,  my lord.  It's a pity about  the splendid stallion.  But,
+as you know, he has the staggers, and when I struck him on the coronet
+he stood as if rooted to the earth, and the equerry, who was there, said
+that the disease was proved.  So the Jew silently submitted, let the
+horse be led away, and paid back what we gave him.  Fifty heavy florins!
+More than enough for a beginning.  If I may advise you, count on the two
+and the five when fixed numbers are to be thrown or hit.  Why?  Because
+you must turn your ill luck in love to advantage: and those from whom it
+comes are the two beautiful Ortlieb Es, as Nuremberg folk call the ladies
+Els and Eva.  That makes the two.  But E is the fifth letter in the
+alphabet, so I should choose the five.  If Biberli did not put things
+together shrewdly--"
+
+"He would be as oversharp as he has often been already," Heinz
+interrupted, but he patted Biberli's wet arm as he spoke, and added
+kindly "Yet every day proves that my Biberli is a true and steadfast
+fellow; but where in the wide world did you, a schoolmaster, gain
+instruction in the art of throwing the dice?"
+
+"While we were studying in  Paris, with my dead foster brother," replied
+the servant with evident emotion.  "But now go up, my lord, before the
+fire alarm, and I know not what else, makes the people upstairs separate.
+The iron must be forged during this wild night.  Only a few drops of rain
+are falling.  You can cross the street dry even without my long garment."
+
+While speaking he divested the knight of his robe, and continued eagerly:
+"Now, my lord, from the coffin, or let us say rather the leaden weight,
+which oppresses your soul, let a bolt be melted that will strike
+misfortune to the heart.  Glittering gold has a cheering colour."
+
+"Stop! stop!"  Heinz  interrupted  positively.  "No good wishes on the
+eve of hunting or gaming.
+
+"But if I come bounding down the stairs of the Green Shield with a purse
+as heavy as my heart is just now--why, Biberli, success puts a new face
+on many things, and yours shall again look at me without anxiety."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+The thunderclouds had gathered in the blackest masses above the
+Frauenthor and the Ortlieb mansion.  Ere the storm burst the oppressive
+atmosphere had burdened the hearts within as heavily as it weighed
+outside upon tree, bush, and all animated creation.
+
+In the servants' rooms under the roof the maids slept quietly and
+dreamlessly; and the men, with their mouths wide open, snored after the
+labour of the day, unconscious of what was passing outside in the sky or
+the events within which had destroyed the peace of their master and his
+family.
+
+The only bed unoccupied was the one in the little room next to the
+stairs leading to the garret, which was occupied by Katterle.  The Swiss,
+kneeling before it with her face buried in the coarse linen pillow case,
+alternately sobbed, prayed, and cursed herself and her recklessness.
+
+When the gale, which preceded the thunderstorm, blew leaves and straws
+in through the open window she started violently, imagining that Herr
+Ortlieb had come to call her to account and her trial was to begin.  The
+barber's widow, whom she had seen a few days before in the pillory, with
+a stone around her neck, because she had allowed a cloth weaver's
+heedless daughter to come to her lodging with a handsome trumpeter who
+belonged to the city musicians, rose before her mental vision.  How the
+poor thing had trembled and moaned after the executioner's assistant hung
+the heavy stone around her neck!  Then, driven frantic by the jeers and
+insults of the people, the missiles flung by the street boys, and the
+unbearable burden, she could control herself no longer but, pouring forth
+a flood of curses, thrust out her tongue at her tormentors.
+
+What a spectacle!  But ere she, Katterle, would submit to such disgrace
+she would bid farewell to life with all its joys; and even to the
+countryman to whom her heart clung, and who, spite of his well-proven
+truth and steadfastness, had brought misery upon her.
+
+Now the memory of the hateful word which she, too, had called to the
+barber's widow weighed heavily on her heart.  Never, never again would
+she be arrogant to a neighbour who had fallen into misfortune.
+
+This vow, and many others, she made to St. Clare; then her thoughts
+wandered to the city moat, to the Pegnitz, the Fischbach, and all the
+other streams in and near Nuremberg, where it was possible to drown and
+thus escape the terrible disgrace which threatened her.  But in so doing
+she had doubtless committed a heavy sin; for while recalling the Dutzen
+Pond, from whose dark surface she had often gathered white water lilies
+after passing through the Frauenthor into the open fields, and wondering
+in what part of its reedy shore her design could be most easily executed,
+a brilliant flash of lightning blazed through her room, and at the same
+time a peal of thunder shook the old mansion to its foundations.
+
+That was meant for her and her wicked thoughts.  No!  For the sake of
+escaping disgrace here on earth, she dared not trifle with eternal
+salvation and the hope of seeing her dead mother in the other world.
+
+The remembrance of that dear mother, who had laboured so earnestly to
+train her in every good path, soothed her.  Surely she was looking down
+upon her and knew that she had remained upright and honest, that she had
+not defrauded her employers of even a pin, and that the little fault
+which was to be so grievously punished had been committed solely out of
+love for her countryman, who in his truth and steadfastness meant
+honestly by her.  What Biberli requested her to do could be no heavy sin.
+
+But the powers above seemed to be of a different opinion; for again a
+dazzling glare of light illumined the room, and the crash and rattle of
+the thunder of the angry heavens accompanied it with a deafening din.
+Katterle shrieked aloud; it seemed as if the gates of hell had opened
+before her, or the destruction of the world had begun.
+
+Frantic with terror, she sprang back from the window, through which the
+raindrops were already sprinkling her face.  They cooled her flushed
+cheeks and brought her back to reality.  The offence she had just
+committed was no trivial one.  She, whom Herr Ortlieb, with entire
+confidence, had placed in the service of the fair young girl whose
+invalid mother could not care for her, had permitted herself to be
+induced to persuade Eva, who was scarcely beyond childhood, to a
+rendezvous with a man whom she represented to the inexperienced maiden as
+a godly, virtuous knight, though she knew from Biberli how far the latter
+surpassed his master in fidelity and steadfastness.
+
+"Lead us not into temptation!"  How often she had repeated the words in
+the Lord's Prayer, and now she herself had become the serpent that
+tempted into sin the innocent child whom duty should have commanded her
+to guard.
+
+No, no!  The guilt for which she was threatened with punishment was by no
+means small, and even if her earthly judge did not call her to account,
+she would go to confession to-morrow and honestly perform the penance
+imposed.
+
+Moved by these thoughts, she gazed across the courtyard to the convent.
+Just at that moment the lightning again flashed, the thunder pealed, and
+she covered her face with her hands.  When she lowered her arms she saw
+on the roof of the nuns' granary, which adjoined the cow-stable, a
+slender column of smoke, followed by a narrow tongue of flame, which grew
+steadily brighter.
+
+The lightning had set it on fire.
+
+Sympathy for the danger and losses of others forced her own grief and
+anxiety into the background and, without pausing to think, she slipped on
+her shoes, snatched her shawl from the chest, and ran downstairs,
+shouting: "The lightning has struck!  The convent is burning!"
+
+Just at that moment the door of the chamber occupied by the two sisters
+opened, and Ernst Ortlieb, with tangled hair and pallid cheeks, came
+toward her.
+
+Within the room the dim light of the little lamp and the fiery glare of
+the lightning illumined tear-stained, agitated faces.
+
+After Heinz Schorlin had called to her, and Els had hurried to her aid,
+Eva, clad in her long, plain night robe, and barefooted, just as she had
+risen from her couch, followed the maid to her room.  What must the
+knight, who but yesterday, she knew, had looked up to her as to a saint,
+think of her now?
+
+She felt as if she were disgraced, stained with shame.  Yet it was
+through no fault of her own, and overwhelmed by the terrible conviction
+that mysterious, supernatural powers, against which resistance was
+hopeless, were playing a cruel game with her, she had felt as if the
+stormy sea were tossing her in a rudderless boat on its angry surges.
+
+Unable to seek consolation in prayer, as usual, she had given herself up
+to dull despair, but only for a short time.  Els had soon returned, and
+the firm, quiet manner with which her prudent, helpful friend and sister
+met her, and even tried to raise her drooping courage by a jest ere she
+sent her to their mother's sick room, had fallen on her soul like
+refreshing dew; not because Els promised to act for her--on the contrary,
+what she intended to do roused her to resistance.
+
+She had been far too guilty and oppressed to oppose her, yet indignation
+concerning the sharp words which Els had uttered about the knight, and
+her intention of forbidding him the house, perhaps forever, had
+stimulated her like strong acid wine.
+
+Not until after her sister had left her did she become capable of clearly
+understanding what she had felt during her period of somnambulism.
+
+While her mother, thanks to a narcotic, slept soundly, breathing quietly,
+and in the entry below something, she knew not what, perhaps due to her
+father's return, was occurring, she sat thinking, pondering, while an
+impetuous throng of rebellious wishes raised their voices, alternately
+asking and denying, in her agitated breast.
+
+How she had happened to rise from her couch and go out had vanished
+utterly from her memory, but she was still perfectly conscious of her
+feelings during the night walk.  If hitherto she had yearned to drain
+heavenly bliss from the chalice of faith, during her wanderings through
+the house she had longed for nothing save to drink her fill from the cup
+of earthly joy.  Ardent kisses, of which she had forbidden herself even
+to think, she awaited with blissful delight.  Her timorous heart, held in
+check by virgin modesty, accustomed to desire nothing save what she could
+have confessed to her sister and the abbess, seemed as if it had cast off
+every fetter and boldly resolved to risk the most daring deeds.  The
+somnambulist had longed for the moment when, after Heinz Schorlin's
+confession that he loved her, she could throw her arms around his neck
+with rapturous gratitude.
+
+If, while awake, she had desired only to speak to him of her saint and of
+his duty to overthrow the foes of the Church, she had wished while gazing
+at the moon from the stairs, and in front of the house door, to whisper
+sweet words of love, listen to his, and in so doing forget herself, the
+world, and everything which did not belong to him, to her, and their
+love.
+
+And she remembered this longing and yearning in a way very unlike a mere
+dream.  It seemed rather as if, while the moon was attracting her by its
+magic power, something, which had long slumbered in the depths of her
+soul, had waked to life; something, from which formerly, ere her heart
+and mind had been able rightly to understand it, she had shrunk with
+pious horror, had assumed a tangible form.
+
+Now she dreaded this newly recognised sinful part of her own nature,
+which she had imagined a pure vessel that had room only for what was
+noble, sacred, and innocent.
+
+She, too--she knew it now--was only a girl like those on whose desire for
+love she had looked down with arrogant contempt, no bride of heaven or
+saint.
+
+She had not yet taken the veil, and it was fortunate, for what would have
+become of her had she not discovered until after her profession this part
+of her nature, which she thought every true nun, if she possessed it,
+must discard, like the hair which was shorn from her head, before taking
+the vow of the order.
+
+During this self-inspection it became more and more evident that she was
+not one person, but two in one--a twofold nature with a single body and
+two distinct souls; and this conviction caused her as much pain as if the
+cut which had produced the separation were still bleeding.
+
+Just at that moment her eyes fell upon the image of the Virgin opposite,
+and the usual impulse to lift her soul in prayer took possession of her
+even more powerfully than a short time before.
+
+With fervent warmth she besought her to release her from this newly
+awakened nature, which surely could not be pleasing in the sight of
+Heaven, and let her once more become what she was before the unfortunate
+ramble in the moonlight.
+
+But the composure she needed for prayer was soon destroyed, for the image
+of the knight rose before her again and again, and it seemed as if her
+own name, which he had called with such ardent longing, once more rang in
+her ears.
+
+Whoever thus raises his voice in appeal to another loves that person.
+Heinz Schorlin's love was great and sincere and, instead of heeding the
+inner voice that warned her to return to prayer, she cried defiantly,
+"I will not!"
+
+She could not yet part from the man for whom her heart throbbed with such
+passionate yearning, who was so brave and godly, so ardently devoted to
+her.
+
+True, it had been peacefully beautiful to dream herself into the bright
+glory of heaven, yet the stormy rapture she had felt while thinking of
+him and his love seemed richer and greater.  She could not, would not
+part from him.
+
+Then she remembered her sister's intention of driving Heinz--Eva already
+called the knight by that name in her soliloquy--from her presence, and
+the thought that she might perhaps wound him so keenly that knightly
+honour would forbid his return alarmed and incensed her.
+
+What right had Els to distrust him?  A godly knight played no base game
+with the chosen lady of, his heart, and that, yes, that she certainly
+was, since she had named her colour to him.  Nothing should separate
+them.  She needed him for her happiness as much as she did light and air.
+Hitherto she had longed for bliss in another world, but she was so young
+she probably had a long life before her, and what could existence on
+earth offer if robbed of the hope of his possession?
+
+The newly awakened part of her nature demanded its rights.  It would
+never again allow itself to be forced into the old slumber.
+
+If her sister came back and boasted of having driven away the dangerous
+animal forever, she would show her that she had a different opinion of
+the knight, and would permit no one to interpose between them.  But,
+while still pondering over this plan, the door of the sick-room was
+softly opened and her father beckoned to her to follow him.
+
+Silently leading the way through the dusky corridor, no longer illumined
+by the moonlight, he entered his daughter's room before her.  The lamp,
+still burning there, revealed the agitated face of her sister who,
+resting her chin on her hand, sat on the stool beside the spinning wheel.
+
+Eva's courage, which had blazed up so brightly, instantly fell again.
+
+"Good heavens!  What has happened?" she cried in terror; but her father
+answered in a hollow tone:
+
+"For the sake of your noble sister, to whom I pledged my word, I will
+force myself to remain calm.  But look at her!  Her poor heart must be
+like a graveyard, for she was doomed to bury what she held dearest.  And
+who," he continued furiously, so carried away by grief and indignation as
+to be unmindful of his promise to maintain his composure, "who is to
+blame for it all, save you and your boundless imprudence?"
+
+Eva, with uplifted hands, tried to explain how, unconscious of her acts,
+she had walked in her sleep down the stairs and out of the house, but he
+imperiously cut her short with:
+
+"Silence!  I know all.  My daughter gave a worthless tempter the right
+to expect the worst from her.  You, whom we deemed the ornament of this
+house, whose purity hitherto was stainless, are to blame if people
+passing on the street point at it!  Alas! alas!  Our honour, our ancient,
+unsullied name!"
+
+Groaning aloud, the father struck his brow with his clenched hand; but
+when Els rose and passed her arm around his shoulders to speak words of
+consolation, Eva, who hitherto had vainly struggled for words, could
+endure no more.
+
+"Whoever says that of me, my father," she exclaimed with flashing eyes;
+scarcely able to control her voice, "has opened his ears to slander;
+and whoever terms Heinz Schorlin a worthless tempter, is blinded by a
+delusion, and I call him to his face, even were it my own father,
+to whom I owe gratitude and respect--"
+
+But here she stopped and extended her arms to keep off the deeply angered
+man, for he had started forward with quivering lips, and--she perceived
+it clearly--was already under the spell of one of the terrible fits of
+fury which might lead him to the most unprecedented deeds.  Els, however,
+had clung to him and, while holding him back with all her strength, cried
+out in a tone of keen reproach, "Is this the way you keep your promise?"
+
+Then, lowering her voice, she continued with loving entreaty: "My dear,
+dear father, can you doubt that she was asleep, unconscious of her acts,
+when she did what has brought so much misery upon us?"
+
+And, interrupting herself, she added eagerly in a tone of the firmest
+conviction: "No, no, neither shame nor misery has yet touched you, my
+father, nor the poor child yonder.  The suspicion of evil rests on me,
+and me alone, and if any one here must be wretched it is I."
+
+Then Herr Ernst, regaining his self-control, drew back from Eva, but the
+latter, as if fairly frantic, exclaimed: "Do you want to drive me out of
+my senses by your mysterious words and accusations?  What, in the name of
+all the saints, has happened that can plunge my Els into misery and
+shame?"
+
+"Into misery and shame," repeated her father in a hollow tone, throwing
+himself into a chair, where he sat motionless, with his face buried in
+his hands, while Els told her sister what had occurred when she went down
+into the entry to speak to the knight.
+
+Eva listened to her story, fairly gasping for breath.  For one brief
+moment she cherished the suspicion that Cordula had not acted from pure
+sympathy, but to impose upon Heinz Schorlin a debt of gratitude which
+would bind him to her more firmly.  Yet when she heard that her father
+had given back his daughter's ring to Herr Casper Eysvogel and broken his
+child's betrothal she thought of nothing save her sister's grief and,
+sobbing aloud, threw herself into Els's arms.
+
+The girls held each other in a close embrace until the first flash of
+lightning and peal of thunder interrupted the conversation.
+
+The father and daughters had been so deeply agitated that they had not
+heard the storm rising outside, and the outbreak of the tempest surprised
+them.  The peal of thunder, which so swiftly followed the lightning, also
+startled them and when, soon after, a second one shook the house with its
+crashing, rattling roar, Herr Ernst went out to wake the chief packer.
+But old Endres was already keeping watch among the wares entrusted to him
+and when, after a brief absence, the master of the house returned, he
+found Eva again clasped in her sister's arms, and saw the latter kissing
+her brow and eyes as she tenderly strove to comfort her.
+
+But Eva seemed deaf to her soothing words.  Els, her faithful Els, was no
+longer the betrothed bride of her Wolff; her great, beautiful happiness
+was destroyed forever.  On the morrow all Nuremberg would learn that Herr
+Casper had broken his son's betrothal pledge, because his bride, for the
+sake of a tempter, Sir Heinz Schorlin, had failed to keep her troth with
+him.
+
+How deeply all this pierced Eva's heart!  how terrible was the torture
+of the thought that she was the cause of this frightful misfortune!
+Dissolved in an agony of tears, she entreated the poor girl to forgive
+her; and Els did so willingly, and in a way that touched her father to
+the very depths of his heart.  How good the girls must be who, spite of
+the sore suffering which one had brought upon the other, were still so
+loving and loyal!
+
+Convinced that Eva, too, had done nothing worthy of punishment, he went
+towards them to clasp both in his arms, but ere he could do so the clap
+of thunder which had frightened Katterle so terribly shook the whole
+room.  "St. Clare, aid us!" cried Eva, crossing herself and falling upon
+her knees; but Els rushed to the window, opened it, and looked down the
+street.  Nothing was visible there save a faint red glow on the distant
+northern horizon, and two mailed soldiers who were riding into the city
+at a rapid trot.  They had been sent from the stables in the Marienthurm
+to keep order in case a fire should break out.  Several men with hooks
+and poles followed, also hurrying to the Frauenthor.
+
+In reply to the question where the fire was and where they going, they
+answered: "To the Fischbach, to help.  Flames have burst out apparently
+under the fortress at the Thiergartenthor."
+
+The long-drawn call for help from the warder's horn, which came at the
+same moment, proved that the men were right.
+
+Herr Ernst hastened out of the room just as Katterle's shriek, "The
+lightning struck! the convent is burning!" rung from the upper step of
+the stairs.
+
+He had already pronounced her sentence, and the sight of her roused his
+wrath again so vehemently that, spite of the urgent peril, he shouted to
+her that, whatever claimed his attention now, she certainly should not
+escape the most severe punishment for her shameful conduct.
+
+Then he ordered old Endres and two of the menservants to watch the
+sleeping-room of his invalid wife, that in case anything should happen
+the helpless woman might be instantly borne to a place of safety.
+
+Ere he himself went to the scene of the conflagration he hurried back to
+his daughters.
+
+While the girls were giving him his hat and cloak he told them where the
+fire had broken out, and this caused another detention of the anxious
+master of the house, for Eva seized her shoes and stockings and, kicking
+her little slippers from her feet, declared that she, too, would not
+remain absent from the place when her dear nuns were in danger.  But her
+father commanded her to stay with her mother and sister, and went to the
+door, turning back once more on the threshold to his daughters with the
+anxious entreaty: "Think of your mother!"
+
+Another peal of thunder drowned the sound of his footsteps hurrying down
+the stairs.  When Els, who had watched her father from the window a short
+time, went back to her sister, Eva dried her eyes and cheeks, saying:
+"Perhaps he is right; but whenever my heart urges me to obey any warm
+impulse, obstacles are put in my way.  What a weak nonentity is the
+daughter of an honourable Nuremberg family!"
+
+Els heard this complaint with astonishment.  Was this her Eva, her
+"little saint," who yesterday had desired nothing more ardently than with
+humble obedience, far from the tumult of the world, to become worthy of
+her Heavenly Bridegroom, and in the quiet peace of the convent raise her
+soul to God?  What had so changed the girl in these few hours?  Even the
+most worldly-minded of her friends would have taken such an impeachment
+ill.
+
+But she had no time now to appeal to the conscience of her misguided
+sister.  Love and duty summoned her to her mother's couch.  And then!
+The child had become aware of her love, and was she, Els, who had been
+parted from Wolff by her own father, and yet did not mean to give him up,
+justified in advising her sister to cast aside her love and the hope of
+future happiness with and through the man to whom she had given her
+heart?
+
+What miracles love wrought!  If in a single night it had transformed the
+devout future Bride of Heaven into an ardently loving woman, it could
+accomplish the impossible for her also.
+
+While Eva was gazing out of the window Els returned to her mother.  She
+was still asleep and, without permitting either curiosity or longing to
+divert her from her duty, Els kept her place beside the couch of the
+beloved invalid, spite of the fire alarm which, though somewhat subdued,
+was heard in the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Eva was standing at the open window.  The violence of the storm seemed
+exhausted.  The clouds were rolling northward, and the thunder followed
+the flashes of lightning at longer and longer intervals.  Peace was
+restored to the heavens, but the crowd and noise in the city and the
+street constantly increased.
+
+The iron tongues of the alarm bells had never swung so violently, the
+warder's horn had never made the air quiver with such resonant appeals
+for aid.
+
+Nor did the metallic voices above call for help in vain, for while a
+roseate glow tinged the linden in front of her window and the houses on
+the opposite side of the street with the hues of dawn, the crowds
+thronging from the Frauenthor to St. Klarengasse grew denser and denser.
+
+The convent was not visible from her chamber, but the acrid odor of the
+smoke and the loud voices which reached her ear from that direction
+proved that the fire was no trivial one.  While she was seeking out the
+spot from which Heinz must have looked up to her window, the Ortlieb
+menservants, with some of the Montfort retainers, came out of the house
+with pails and ladders.
+
+A female figure glided into the dark street after them.  A black shawl
+concealed her head and the upper part of her figure, and she held a
+bundle in her hand.
+
+It must be Katterle.
+
+Where was she going at this hour?  As she was carrying the package, she
+could scarcely intend to help in putting out the fire.  Was she stealing
+away from fear of punishment?  Poor thing!  Even the maid was hurled into
+misfortune through her guilt.
+
+It pierced her very heart.  But while she called to Katterle to stop her,
+something else, which engrossed her still more, diverted her attention--
+the loud voice of Countess Cordula reached her from the street door.
+With whom was she talking?  Did the girl, who ventured upon so many
+things which ill-beseemed a modest maiden, intend to join the men?  Eva
+forgot that she, too, would have hurried to the nuns had not her father
+prevented it.  The countess was already standing in the courtyard.
+
+After Eva had given her a hasty glance she again looked for the maid, but
+Katterle had already vanished in the darkness.  This grieved her; she had
+neglected something which might have saved the girl, to whom she was
+warmly attached, from some imprudent act.  But while attracted by the
+strange appearance of the countess she had forgotten the other.
+
+Cordula had probably just left her couch, for she wore only a plain dress
+tucked up very high, short boots, which she probably used in hunting, and
+a shawl crossed over her bosom; another was wound round her head in the
+fashion of the peasant women who brought their goods to market on cold
+winter days.  No farmer's wife could be more simply clad, and yet--Eva
+was forced to admit it--there was something aristocratic in her firm
+bearing.
+
+Her companions were her father's chaplain and the equerry who had grown
+grey in his service.  Both were trying to dissuade her.  The former
+pointed to a troop of women who were following the chief of police and
+some city constables, and said warningly: "Those are all wanton queans,
+whom the law of this city compels to lend their aid in putting out fires.
+How would it beseem your rank to join these who shame their sex----
+No, no!  It would be said to-morrow that the ornament of the house of
+Montfort had----"
+
+"That Countess Cordula had used her hands in extinguishing the fire," she
+interrupted with gay self-confidence.  "Is there any disgrace in that?
+Must my noble birth debar me from being numbered among those who help
+their neighbours so far as lies in their power?  If any good is
+accomplished here, those poor women yonder will make it no worse by
+their aid.  If people here believe that they do, it will give me double
+pleasure to ennoble it by working with them.  Putting out the flames will
+not degrade me, and will make the women better.  So, forward!  See how
+the fire is blazing yonder!  Help is needed there and, thank Heaven, I am
+no weakling.  Besides, there are women who want assistance and, to women
+in peril, the most welcome aid is woman's."
+
+The old equerry, his eyes glittering with tears, nodded assent, and led
+the way into the street; but the countess, instead of following
+instantly, glanced back for the page who was to carry the bandages which
+she had learned to use among her retainers at home.  The agile boy did
+not delay her long; but while his mistress was looking to see that he had
+forgotten nothing of importance, he perceived at the window Eva, whose
+beauty had long since fired his young heart, and cast a languishing
+glance at her.  Then Cordula also noticed her and called a pleasant
+greeting.  Eva was on the point of answering in the same tone, when she
+remembered that Cordula had spoken of Heinz Schorlin in the presence of
+others as if he were awaiting her in all submission.  Anger surged hotly
+in her breast, and she drew back into the room as if she had not heard
+the salutation.
+
+The countess perceived it, and shrugged her shoulders pityingly.
+
+Eva, dissatisfied with herself, continued to gaze down into the street
+long after the crowds of people flocking from the city had concealed
+Cordula from her eyes.  It seemed as though she would never again succeed
+in anything that would bring contentment.  Never had she felt so weak, so
+ill-tempered, so devoid of self-reliance.  Yet she could not, as usual,
+seek consolation with her saint.  There was so much here below to divert
+her attention.
+
+The roseate glow on the linden had become a crimson glare, the flickering
+light on the opposite walls a dazzling illumination.  The wind, now
+blowing from the west, bore from St. Klarengasse burning objects which
+scattered sparks around them--bundles of hay caught by the flames--from
+the convent barn to the Marienthurm opposite, and into the street.
+Besides, the noise above and behind, before and below her, grew louder
+and louder.  The ringing of the bells and the blare of trumpets from the
+steeples continued, and with this constant ringing, pealing, and crashing
+from above, mingled the high, clear voices of the choir of nuns in the
+convent, beseeching in fervent litanies the help of their patron saint.
+True, the singing was often drowned by the noise from the street, for the
+fire marshals and quartermasters had been informed in time, and watchmen,
+soldiers in the pay of the city, men from the hospital, and the abandoned
+women (required by law to help put out the fires) came in little groups,
+while bailiffs and servants of the Council, barbers (who were obliged to
+lend their aid, but whose surgical skill could find little employment
+here), members of the Council, priests and monks arrived singly.  The
+street also echoed with the trampling of many steeds, for mounted
+troopers in coats of mail first dashed by to aid the bailiffs in
+maintaining order, then the inspector of water works, with his chief
+subordinate, trotted along to St. Klarengasse on the clumsy horses placed
+at their disposal by the Council in case of fire.  He was followed by the
+millers, with brass fire engines.  While their well-fed nags drew on
+sledges, with little noise, through the mire of the streets now softened
+by the rain, the heavy wooden water barrels needed in the work of
+extinguishing the flames, there was a loud rattling and clanking as the
+carts appeared on which the men from the Public Works building were
+bringing large and small ladders, hooks and levers, pails and torches,
+to the scene of the conflagration.
+
+Besides those who were constrained by the law, many others desired to aid
+the popular Sisters of St. Clare and thereby earn a reward from God.  A
+brewer had furnished his powerful stallions to convey to the scene of
+action, with their tools, the eight masons whose duty it was to use their
+skill in extinguishing the flames.  All sorts of people--men and women--
+followed, yelling and shrieking, to seek their own profit during the work
+of rescue.  But the bailiffs kept a sharp eye on them, and made way when
+the commander of the German knights, with several companions on whose
+black mantles the white cross gleamed, appeared on horseback, and at last
+old Herr Berthold Vorchtel trotted up on his noble grey, which was known
+to the whole city.  He still had a firm seat in the saddle, but his head
+was bowed, and whoever knew that only one hour before the corpse of his
+oldest son, slain in a duel, had been brought home, admired the aged
+magistrate's strength of will.  As First Losunger and commander in chief
+he was the head of the Council, and therefore of the city also.  Duty had
+commanded him to mount his steed, but how pale and haggard was his shrewd
+face, usually so animated!
+
+Just in front of the Ortlieb mansion the commander of the German knights
+rode to his side, and Eva saw how warmly he shook him by the hand, as if
+he desired to show the old man very cordially his deep sympathy in some
+sore trouble which had assailed him.
+
+Ever since Wolff's betrothal to Els had been announced the Vorchtels had
+ceased to be on terms of intimacy with the Ortliebs; but old Herr
+Berthold, though he himself had probably regarded young Eysvogel as his
+"Ursel's" future husband, had always treated Eva kindly, and she was not
+mistaken--tears were glittering on his cheeks in the torchlight.  The
+sight touched the young girl's inmost heart.  How eagerly she desired to
+know what had befallen the Vorchtels, and to give the old man some token
+of sympathy!  What could have caused him so much sorrow?  Only a few
+hours before her father had returned from a gay entertainment at his
+house.  It could scarcely concern Herr Berthold's wife, his daughter
+Ursula, or either of his two vigorous sons.  Perhaps death had only
+bereft him of some more distant, though beloved relative, yet surely she
+would have known that, for the Ortliebs were connected by marriage both
+with the old gentleman and his wife.
+
+Tortured by a presentiment of evil, Eva gazed after him, and also watched
+for Heinz Schorlin among the people in the street.  Must not anxiety for
+her bring him hither, if he learned how near her house the fire was
+burning?
+
+Whenever a helmet or knight's baret appeared above the crowd she thought
+that he was coming.  Once she believed that she had certainly recognised
+him, for a tall young man of knightly bearing appeared, not mounted, but
+on foot, and stopped opposite to the Ortlieb house.  That must be he!
+But when he looked up to her window, the reflection of the fire showed
+that the man who had made her heart beat so quickly was indeed a young
+and handsome knight, but by no means the person for whom she had mistaken
+him.  It was Boemund Altrosen, famed as victor in many a tournament, who
+when a boy had often been at the house of her uncle, Herr Pfinzing.
+There was no mistaking his coal-black, waving locks.  It was said that
+the dark-blue sleeve of a woman's robe which he wore on his helmet in the
+jousts belonged to the Countess von Montfort.  She was his lady, for whom
+he had won so many victories.
+
+Heinz Schorlin had mentioned him at the ball as his friend, and told her
+that the gallant knight would vainly strive to win the reckless countess.
+Perhaps he was now looking at the house so intently on Cordula's account.
+Or had Heinz, his friend, sent him to watch over her while he was
+possibly detained by the Emperor?
+
+But, no; he had just gone nearer to the house to question a man in the
+von Montfort livery, and the reply now led him to move on towards the
+convent.
+
+Were the tears which filled Eva's eyes caused by the smoke that poured
+from the fire more and more densely into the street, or to disappointment
+and bitter anguish?
+
+The danger which threatened her aunt and her beloved nuns also increased
+her excitement.  True, the sisters themselves seemed to feel safe, for
+snatches of their singing were still audible amid the ringing of the
+bells and the blare of the trumpets, but the fire must have been very
+hard to extinguish.  This was proved by the bright glow on the linden
+tree and the shouts of command which, though unintelligible, rose above
+every other sound.
+
+The street below was becoming less crowded.  Most of those who had left
+their beds to render aid had already reached the scene of the
+conflagration.  Only a few stragglers still passed through the open gate
+towards the Marienthurm.  Among them were horsemen, and Eva's heart again
+throbbed more quickly, but only for a short time.  Heinz Schorlin was far
+taller than the man who had again deceived her, and his way would hardly
+have been lighted by two mounted torch bearers.  Soon her rosy lips even
+parted in a smile, for the sturdy little man on the big, strong-boned
+Vinzgau steed, whom she now saw distinctly, was her dearest relative, her
+godfather, the kind, shrewd, imperial magistrate, Berthold Pfinzing, the
+husband of her father's sister, good Aunt Christine.
+
+If he looked up he would tell her about old Herr Vorchtel.  Nor did he
+ride past his darling's house without a glance at her window, and when he
+saw Eva beckon he ordered the servants to keep back, and stopped behind
+the chains.
+
+After he had briefly greeted his niece and she had enquired what had
+befallen the Vorchtels, he asked anxiously: "Then you know nothing yet?
+And Els--has it been kept from her, too?"
+
+"What, in the name of all the saints?"  asked Eva, with increasing alarm.
+
+Then Herr Pfinzing, who saw that the door of the house was open, asked
+her to come down.  Eva was soon standing beside her godfather's big bay,
+and while patting the smooth neck of the splendid animal he said
+hurriedly, in a low tone: "It's fortunate that it happened so.  You can
+break it gradually to your sister, child.  To-night  Summon up your
+courage, for there are things which even a man--To make the story short,
+then: Tonight Wolff Eysvogel and young Vorchtel quarreled, or rather
+Ulrich irritated your Wolff so cruelly that he drew his sword--"
+
+"Wolff!" shrieked Eva, whose hand had already dropped from the horse.
+"Wolff!  He is so terribly strong, and if he drew his sword in anger----"
+
+"He dealt his foe one powerful thrust," replied the imperial magistrate
+with an expressive gesture.  "The sword pierced him through.  But I must
+go on  Only this one thing more: Ulrich was borne back to his parents as
+a corpse.  And Wolff  Where is he hiding?  May the saints long be the
+only ones who know!  A quarrel with such a result under the Emperor's
+eyes, now when peace has just been declared throughout the land!  Who
+knows what sentence will be pronounced if the bailiffs show themselves
+shrewder this time than usual!  My office compelled me to set the pack
+upon him.  That is the reason I am so late.   Tell Els as cautiously as
+possible."
+
+He bowed gallantly and trotted on, but Eva, as if hunted by enemies,
+rushed up the staircase, threw herself on her knees before the prie dieu,
+and sobbed aloud.
+
+Young Vorchtel had undoubtedly heard of the events in the entry, taunted
+Wolff with his betrothed bride's nocturnal interview with a knight, and
+thus roused the strong man to fury.  How terrible it all was!  How could
+she bear it!  Her thoughtlessness had cost a human life, robbed parents
+of their son!  Through her fault her sister's betrothed husband, whom she
+also loved, was in danger of being placed under ban, perhaps even of
+being led to the executioner's block!
+
+She had no thought of any other motive which might have induced the hot-
+blooded young men to cross swords and, firmly convinced that her luckless
+letter had drawn Heinz Schorlin to the house and thus led to all these
+terrible things, she vainly struggled for composure.
+
+Sometimes she beheld in imagination the despairing Els; sometimes the
+aged Vorchtels, grieving themselves to death; sometimes Wolff, outlawed,
+hiding like a hunted deer in the recesses of the forest; sometimes the
+maid, fleeing with her little bundle into the darkness of the night;
+sometimes the burning convent; and at intervals also Heinz Schorlin, as
+he knelt before her and raised his clasped hands with passionate
+entreaty.
+
+But she repelled every thought of him as a sin, and even repressed the
+impulse to look out into the street to seek him.  Her sole duty now was
+to pray to her patron saint and the Mother of God in behalf of her
+sister, whom she had hurled into misfortune, and her poor heart bleeding
+from such deep wounds; but the consolation which usually followed the
+mere uplifting of her soul in prayer did not come, and it could not be
+otherwise, for amid her continual looking into her own heart and
+listening to what went on around her no real devotion was possible.
+
+Although she constantly made fresh efforts to collect her thoughts, and
+continued to kneel with clasped hands before the prie dieu, not a hoof-
+beat, not a single loud voice, escaped her ear.  Even the alternate
+deepening and paling of the reflection of the fire, which streamed
+through the window, attracted her attention, and the ringing of bells and
+braying of trumpets, which still continued, maintained the agitation in
+her soul.
+
+Yet prayer was the sole atonement she could make for the wrong she had
+done her sister; so she did not cease her endeavours to plead for her to
+the Great Helper above, but her efforts were futile.  Yet even when she
+heard voices close by the house, among which she distinguished Countess
+Cordula's and--if she was not mistaken--her father's, she resisted the
+impulse to rise from her knees.
+
+At last the vain struggle was ended by an interruption from without.
+After unusually loud voices exclaiming and questioning had reached her
+from the entry, the door of her chamber suddenly opened and old Martsche
+looked in.  The housekeeper was seeking something; but when she found the
+devout child on her knees she did not wish to disturb her, and contented
+herself with the evidence of her eyes.  But Eva stopped her, and learned
+that she was searching for Katterle, who could neither be found in her
+room, or anywhere else.  Herr Ortlieb had brought Countess von Montfort
+home severely burned, and there were all sorts of things for the maid to
+do.
+
+Eva clung shuddering to the back of the prie dieu, for the certainty that
+the unfortunate girl had really fled was like strewing salt on her
+wounds.
+
+When Martsche left her and Els entered, her excitement had risen to such
+a pitch that she flung herself before her, as if frantic and, clinging to
+her knees, heaping self-accusations upon herself with passionate
+impetuosity, she pleaded, amid her sobs, for pardon and mercy.
+
+Meanwhile Els had been informed by her father of her lover's fatal deed,
+and as soon as she perceived what tortured her sister she relieved her,
+with loving words of explanation, from the reproach of being the cause of
+this misfortune also, for the quarrel had taken place so early that no
+tidings of the meeting in the entry could have reached young Vorchtel
+when he became involved in the fray with Wolff.
+
+Nor was it solely to soothe Eva that she assured her that, deeply as she
+mourned the death of the hapless Ulrich and his parents' grief, Wolff's
+deed could not diminish either her love or her hope of becoming his.
+
+Eva listened to this statement with sparkling eyes.  The love in her
+sister's heart was as immovably firm as the ancient stones of her native
+stronghold, which defied every storm, and on which even the destroying,
+kindling lightning could inflict no injury.  This made her doubly dear,
+and from the depths of dull despair her soul, ever prone to soar upwards,
+rose swiftly to the heights of hopeful exaltation.
+
+When Els at last entreated her to go to rest without her, she willingly
+consented, for her mother was comfortable, and Sister Renata was watching
+at her bedside.
+
+Eva kept her promise, after Els, who wanted to see the Countess von
+Montfort, had satisfied her concerning the welfare of the nuns and
+promised to go to rest herself as soon as possible.
+
+The stopping of the alarm bells proved that the fire was under control.
+Even its reflection had disappeared, but the eastern sky was beginning to
+be suffused with a faint tinge of rose colour.
+
+When her sister left her Eva herself drew the curtains before the window,
+and sleep soon ended her thoughts and yearnings, her grief and her hope.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+Countess Cordula von Montfort's room faced the east and looked out into
+the garden.  The sun of the June morning had just risen, filling it with
+cheerful light.
+
+The invalid's maid had wished to deny Els admittance, but the countess
+called eagerly to her, and then ordered the windows to be opened, because
+she never felt comfortable unless it was light around her and she could
+breathe God's pure air.
+
+The morning breeze bore the smoke which still rose from the fire in
+another direction, and thus a refreshing air really entered the room from
+the garden, for the thunderstorm had refreshed all nature, and flower
+beds and grass, bush and tree, exhaled a fresh odour of earth and leafage
+which it was a delight to breathe.
+
+The leech Otto, to whom the severely wounded Ulrich Vorchtel had been
+carried, had just left the countess.  The burns on her hands and arms had
+been bandaged--nay, the old gentleman had cut out the scorched portions
+of her tresses with his own hand.  Cordula's energetic action had made
+the famous surgeon deem her worthy of such care.  He had also advised her
+to seek the nursing of the oldest daughter of her host, whose invalid
+wife he was attending, and she had gladly assented; for Els had attracted
+her from their first meeting, and she was accustomed to begin the day at
+sunrise.
+
+"How does it happen that you neither weep nor even hang your head after
+all the sorrow which last night brought you?" asked Cordula, as the
+Nuremberg maiden sat down beside her bed.  "You are a stranger to the
+Swiss knight, and when we surprised you with him you had not come to a
+meeting--I know that full well.  But if so true and warm a love unites
+you to young Eysvogel, how does it happen that your joyous courage is so
+little damped by his father's denial and his own unhappy deed, which at
+this time could scarcely escape punishment?  You do not seem frivolous,
+and yet--"
+
+"Yet," replied Els with a pleasant smile, "many things have made a deeper
+impression.  We are not all alike, Countess, yet there is much in your
+nature which must render it easy for you to understand me; for,
+Countess----"
+
+"Call me Cordula," interrupted the girl in a tone of friendly entreaty.
+"Why should I deny that I am fond of you?  and at the risk of making you
+vain, I will betray----"
+
+"Well?" asked Els eagerly.
+
+"That the splendid old leech described you to me exactly as I had
+imagined you," was the reply.  You were one of those, he said, whose mere
+presence beside a sick-bed was as good as medicine, and so you are; and,
+dear Jungfrau Els, this salutary medicine benefits me."
+
+"If I am to dispense with the 'Countess,'" replied the other, "you must
+spare me the 'Jungfrau.'  Nursing you will give me all the more pleasure
+on account of the warm gratitude----"
+
+"Never mind that," interrupted Cordula.  "But please look at the bandage,
+beneath which the flesh burns and aches more than is necessary, and then
+go on with your explanation."
+
+Els examined the countess's arm, and then applied a household remedy
+whose use she had learned from the wife of Herr Pfinzing, her Aunt
+Christine, who was familiar with the healing art.  It relieved the pain,
+and when Cordula told her so, Els went on with her explanation.  "When
+all these blows fell upon me, they at first seemed, indeed, unprecedented
+and scarcely possible to endure.  When afterwards my Wolff's unhappy deed
+was added, I felt as though I were standing in a dense, dark mist, where
+each step forwards must lead me into a stifling morass or over a
+precipice.  Then I began to reflect upon what had happened, as is my
+custom; I separated, in my thoughts, the evil menacing in the future from
+the good, and had scarcely made a little progress in this way when morass
+and abyss lost their terrors; both, I found, could be left to take care
+of themselves, since neither Wolff nor I lack love and good will, and we
+possess some degree of prudence and caution."
+
+"Yes, this  thinking and considering!" cried the countess, with a faint
+sigh.  "It succeeds in my case, too, only, unluckily, I usually don't
+begin until it is too late and the folly has been committed."
+
+"Then, henceforth, you must reverse the process," answered Els cheerily.
+But directly after she changed her tone, which sounded serious enough as
+she added: "The sorrow of the poor Vorchtels and the grief my betrothed
+husband must endure, because the dead man was once a dear friend,
+certainly casts a dark shadow upon many things; but you, who love the
+chase, must surely be familiar with the misty autumn mornings to which I
+allude.  Everything, far and near, is covered by a thick veil, yet one
+feels that there is bright sunshine behind it.  Suddenly the mist
+scatters----"
+
+"And mountain and forest, land and water, lie before us in the radiant
+sunlight!" cried the countess.  "How well I know such scenes!  And how I
+should rejoice if a favourable wind would sweep the grey mist away for
+you right speedily!  Only--indeed, I am not disposed to look on the dark
+side--only, perhaps you do not know how resolute the Emperor is that the
+peace of the country shall be maintained.  If your lover allowed himself
+to be carried away----"
+
+"This was not the first time," Els eagerly interrupted, "that young
+Vorchtel tried to anger him in the presence of others; and he believed
+that he was justified in bearing a grudge against his former friend--it
+was considered a settled thing that Wolff and his sister Ursula were to
+marry."
+
+"Until," Cordula broke in, "he gazed into your bright eyes."
+
+"How could you know that?"  asked Els in confusion.
+
+"Because,  in  love and  hate, as well  as in reckoning, two and three
+follow one," laughed the countess.  "As for your Wolff, in particular,
+I will gladly believe, with you, that he can succeed in clearing himself
+before the judges.  But with regard to old Eysvogel, who looks as though,
+if he met our dear Lord Himself, he would think first which of the two
+was the richer, your future brother-in-law Siebenburg, that disagreeable
+'Mustache,' and his poor wife, who sits at home grieving over her
+dissolute husband--what gratitude you can expect from such kindred--"
+
+"None," replied Els sadly.  Yet a mischievous smile hovered around her
+lips as, bending over the invalid, she added in a whisper: "But the good
+I expect from all the evil is, that we and the Eysvogels will be
+separated as if by wall and moat.  They will never cross them, but Wolff
+would find the way back to me, though we were parted by an ocean, and
+mountains towering to the sky divided----"
+
+"This confidence, indeed, maintains the courage," said the countess, and
+with a faint sigh she added: "Whatever evil may befall you, many might
+envy you."
+
+"Then love has conquered you also?" Els began; but Cordula answered
+evasively:
+
+"Let that pass, dear Jungfrau.  Perhaps love treats me as a mother deals
+with a froward child, because I asked too much of her.  My life has
+become an endless battue.  Much game of all kinds is thus driven out to
+be shot, but the sportsman finds true pleasure only in tracking the
+single heathcock, the solitary chamois.  Yet, no," and in her eagerness
+she flung her bandaged hand so high into the air that she groaned with
+pain and was forced to keep silence.  When able to speak once more, still
+tortured by severe suffering, she exclaimed angrily: "No, I want neither
+driving nor stalking.  What do I care for the prey?  I am a woman, too.
+I would fain be the poor persecuted game, which the hunter pursues at the
+risk of breaking his bones and neck.  It must be delightful; one would
+willingly bear the pain of a wound for its sake.  I don't mean these
+pitiful burns, but a deep and deadly one."
+
+"You ought to have spared yourself these," said Els in a tone of
+affectionate warning.  "Consider what you are to your father, and how
+your suffering pains him!  To risk a precious human life for the sake of
+a stupid brute--"
+
+"They call it a sin, I know," Cordula burst forth.  "And yet I would
+commit the same tomorrow at the risk of again--Oh, you cautious city
+people, you maidens with snow-white hands!  What do you know of a girl
+like me?  You cannot even imagine what my child life was; and yet it is
+told in a single word--motherless!  I was never permitted to see her, to
+hear her dear, warning voice.  She paid with her own life for giving me
+mine.  My father?  How kind he is!  He meant to supply his dead wife's
+place by anticipating my every wish.  Had I desired to feast my eyes on
+the castle in flames, it would, perhaps, now lie in ashes.  So I became
+what I am.  True--and this is something--I grew to be at least one
+person's joy--his.  No, no, at home there are others also, though they
+dwell in wretched hovels, who would gladly welcome me back.  But except
+these, who will ask about the reckless countess?  I myself do not care to
+linger long when the mirror shows me my image.  Do you wish to know what
+this has to do with the fire?  Much; for otherwise I should scarcely have
+been wounded.  The lightning had struck only the convent barn; the cow
+stable, when we arrived, was still safe, but the flames soon reached
+it also.  Neither the nuns nor the men had thought of driving the cattle
+out.  Poor city cattle!  In the country the animals have more friendly
+care.  When the work of rescue was at last commenced the cows naturally
+refused to leave their old home.  Some prudent person had torn the door
+off the hinges that they might not stifle.  Just in front of it stood
+a pretty red cow with a white star on her face.  A calf was by her side,
+and the mother had already sunk on her knees and was licking it in mortal
+terror.  I pitied the poor thing, and as Boemund Altrosen, the black-
+haired knight who entered your house with the rest after the ride to
+Kadolzburg, had just come there, I told him to save the calf.  Of course
+he obeyed my wish, and as it struggled he dragged it out of the stable
+with his strong arms.  The building was already blazing, and the thatched
+roof threatened to fall in.  Just at that moment the old cow looked at me
+so piteously and uttered such a mournful bellow that it touched me to the
+heart.  My eyes rested on the calf, and a voice within whispered that it
+would be motherless, like me, and miss during the first part of its life
+God's best gift.  But since, as you have heard, I act before I think,
+I went myself--I no longer know how--into the burning stable.  It was
+hard to breathe in the dense smoke, and fiery sparks scorched my shawl
+and my hair, but I was conscious of one thought: You must save the
+helpless little creature's mother!  So I called and lured her, as I do at
+home, where all the cows are fond of me, but it was useless; and just as
+I perceived this the thatched roof fell in, and I should probably have
+perished had not Altrosen this time carried my own by no means light
+figure out of the stable instead of the calf."
+
+"And you?" asked Els eagerly.
+
+"I submitted," replied the countess.
+
+"No, no," urged Els.  "Your heart throbbed faster with grateful joy,
+for you saw the desire of your soul fulfilled.  A hunter, and one of the
+noblest of them all, risked his life in the pursuit of your love.  O
+Countess Cordula, I remember that knight well, and if the dark-blue
+sleeve which he wore on his helm in the tournament was yours--"
+
+"I believe it was," Cordula interrupted indifferently.  "But, what was of
+more importance, when I opened my eyes again the cow was standing
+outside, licking her recovered calf."
+
+"And the knight?" asked Els.  "Whoever so heroically risks his life for
+his lady's wish should be sure of her gratitude."
+
+"Boemund can rely on that," said Cordula positively.  "At least, what
+he did this time for my sake weighs more heavily in the scale than the
+lances he has broken, his love songs, or the mute language of his longing
+eyes.  Those are shafts which do not pierce my heart.  How reproachfully
+you look at me!  Let him take lessons from his friend Heinz Schorlin, and
+he may improve.  Yes, the Swiss knight!  He would be the man for me,
+spite of your involuntary meeting with him and your devout sister, for
+whom he forgot every one else, and me also, in the dancing hall.  O
+Jungfrau Els, I have the hunter's eyes, which are keen-sighted!  For his
+sake your beautiful Eva, with her saintly gaze, might easily forget to
+pray.  It was not you, but she, who drew him to-night to your house.  Had
+this thought entered my head downstairs in the entry I should probably,
+to be honest, have omitted my little fairy tale and let matters take
+their course.  St. Clare ought to have protected her future votary.
+Besides, it pleases the arrogant little lady to show me as plainly as
+possible, on every occasion, that I am a horror to her.  Let those who
+will accept such insults.  My Christianity does not go far enough to
+offer her the right cheek too.  And shall I tell you something?  To spoil
+her game, I should be capable, in spite of all the life preservers in the
+world, of binding Schorlin to me in good earnest."
+
+"Do not!" pleaded Els, raising her clasped hands beseechingly, and added,
+as if in explanation: "For the noble Boemund Altrosen's sake, do not."
+
+"To promise that, my darling, is beyond my power," replied Cordula
+coolly, "because I myself do not know what I may do or leave undone
+tomorrow or the day after.  I am like a beech leaf on the stream.  Let us
+see where the current will carry it.  It is certain," and she looked at
+her bandaged hands, "that my greatest beauty, my round arms, are
+disfigured.  Scars adorn a man; on a woman they are ugly and repulsive.
+At a dance they can be hidden under tight sleeves, but how hot that would
+be in the 'Schwabeln' and 'Rai'!  So I had better keep away from these
+foolish gaieties in future.  A calf turns a countess out of a ballroom!
+What do you think of that?  New things often happen."
+
+Here she was interrupted;  the  housekeeper called Els.  Sir Seitz
+Siebenburg, spite of the untimely hour, had come to speak to her about
+an important matter.  Her father had gone to rest and sleep.  The knight
+also enquired sympathisingly about Countess von Montfort and presented
+his respects.
+
+"Of which I can make no use!" cried Cordula angrily.  "Tell him so,
+Martsche."
+
+As the housekeeper withdrew she exclaimed impatiently: "How it burns!
+The heat would be enough to convert the rescued calf into an appetising
+roast.  I wish I could sleep off the pain of my foolish prank!  The
+sunlight is beginning to be troublesome.  I cannot bear it; it is
+blinding.  Draw the curtain over the window."
+
+Cordula's own maid hastened to obey the order.  Els helped the countess
+turn on her pillows, and as in doing so she touched her arm, the sufferer
+cried angrily: "Who cares what hurts me?  Not even you!"
+
+Here she paused.  The pleading glance which Els had cast at her must have
+pierced her soft heart, for her bosom suddenly heaved violently and,
+struggling to repress her sobs, she gasped, "I know you mean kindly, but
+I am not made of stone or iron either.  I want to be alone and go to
+sleep."
+
+She closed her eyes as she spoke and, when Els bent to kiss her, tears
+bedewed her cheeks.
+
+Soon after Els went down into the entry to meet her lover's brother-in-
+law.  He had refused to enter the empty sitting-room.  The Countess von
+Montfort's unfriendly dismissal had vexed him sorely, yet it made no
+lasting impression.  Other events had forced into the background the
+bitter attack of Cordula, for whom he had never felt any genuine regard.
+
+The experiences of the last few hours had converted the carefully
+bedizened gallant into a coarse fellow, whose outward appearance bore
+visible tokens of his mental depravity.  The faultlessly cut garment was
+pushed awry on his powerful limbs and soiled on the breast with wine
+stains.  The closely fitting steel chain armour, in which he had ridden
+out, now hung in large folds upon his powerful frame.  The long mustache,
+which usually curled so arrogantly upwards, now drooped damp and limp
+over his mouth and chin, and his long reddish hair fell in dishevelled
+locks around his bloated face.  His blue eyes, which usually sparkled so
+brightly, now looked dull and bleared, and there were white spots on his
+copper-coloured cheeks.
+
+Since Countess Cordula gave him the insulting message to his wife he had
+undergone more than he usually experienced in the course of years.
+
+"An accursed night!" he had exclaimed, in reply to the housekeeper's
+question concerning the cause of his disordered appearance.
+
+Els, too, was startled by his looks and the hoarse sound of his voice.
+Nay, she even drew back from him, for his wandering glance made her fear
+that he was intoxicated.
+
+Only a short time before, it is true, he had scarcely been able to stand
+erect, but the terrible news which had assailed him had quickly sobered
+him.
+
+He had come at this unwontedly early hour to enquire whether the Ortliebs
+had heard anything of his brother-in-law Wolff.  There was not a word of
+allusion to the broken betrothal.
+
+In return for the promise that she would let the Eysvogels know as
+soon as she received any tidings of her lover, which Els gave unasked,
+Siebenburg, who had always treated her repellently or indifferently,
+thanked her so humbly that she was surprised.  She did not know how to
+interpret it; nay, she anticipated nothing good when, with urgent
+cordiality, he entreated her to forget the unpleasant events of the
+preceding night, which she must attribute to a sudden fit of anger on
+Herr Casper's part.  She was far too dear to all the members of the
+family for them to give her up so easily.  What had occurred--she
+must admit that herself--might have induced even her best friend to
+misunderstand it.  For one brief moment he, too, had been tempted to
+doubt her innocence.  If she knew old Eysvogel's terrible situation she
+would certainly do everything in her power to persuade her father to
+receive him that morning, or--which would be still better--go to his
+office.  The weal and woe of many persons were at stake, her own above
+all, since, as Wolff's betrothed bride, she belonged to him inseparably.
+
+"Even without the ring?" interrupted Els bitterly; and when Siebenburg
+eagerly lamented that he had not brought it back, she answered proudly
+"Don't trouble yourself, Sir Seitz!  I need this sacred pledge as little
+as the man who still wears mine.  Tell your kinsfolk so.  I will inform
+my father of Herr Casper's wish; he is asleep now.  Shall I guess aright
+in believing that the other disasters which have overtaken you are
+connected with the waggon trains Wolff so anxiously expected?"
+
+Siebenburg, twirling his cap in confusion, assented to her question,
+adding that he knew nothing except that they were lost and, after
+repeating his entreaty that she would accomplish a meeting between the
+two old gentlemen, left her.
+
+It would indeed have been painful for him to talk with Els, for a
+messenger had brought tidings that the waggons had been attacked and
+robbed, and the perpetrators of the deed were his own brothers and their
+cousin and accomplice Absbach.  True, Seitz himself had had no share in
+the assault, yet he did not feel wholly blameless for what had occurred,
+since over the wine and cards he had boasted, in the presence of the
+robbers, of the costly wares which his father-in-law was expecting, and
+mentioned the road they would take.
+
+Seitz Siebenburg's conscience was also burdened with something quite
+different.
+
+Vexed and irritated by the countess's insulting rebuff, he had gone to
+the Green Shield to forget his annoyance at the gaming table in the Duke
+of Pomerania's quarters.  He had fared ill.  There was no lack of fiery
+Rhine wine supplied by the generous host; the sultry atmosphere caused by
+the rising thunderstorm increased his thirst and, half intoxicated, and
+incensed by the luck of Heinz Schorlin, in whom he saw the preferred
+lover of the lady who had so suddenly withdrawn her favour, he had been
+led on to stakes of unprecedented amount.  At last he risked the lands,
+castle, and village which he possessed in Hersbruck as his wife's dower.
+Moreover, he was aware of having said things which, though he could not
+recall them to memory in detail, had roused the indignation of many of
+those who were present.  The remarks referred principally to the Ortlieb
+sisters.
+
+Amid the wild uproar prevailing around the gaming table that night the
+duel which had cost young Vorchtel his life was not mentioned until the
+last dice had been thrown.  In the discussion the victor's betrothed
+bride had been named, and Siebenburg clearly remembered that he had
+spoken of the breaking of his brother-in-law's engagement, and connected
+it with accusations which involved him in a quarrel with several of the
+guests, among them Heinz Schorlin.
+
+Similar occurrences were frequent, and he was brave, strong, and skilful
+enough to cope with any one, even the dreaded Swiss; only he was vexed
+and troubled because he had disputed with the man to whom he had lost his
+property.  Besides, his father-in-law had so earnestly enjoined it upon
+him to put no obstacle in the way of his desire to make peace with the
+Ortliebs that he was obliged to bow his stiff neck to them.
+
+The arrogant knight's position was critical, and real inward dignity was
+unknown to him.  Yet he would rather have been dragged with his brothers
+to the executioner's block than humbled himself before the Swiss.  But he
+must talk with him for the sake of his twin sons, whose heritage he had
+so shamefully gambled away.  True, the utmost he intended was the
+confession that, while intoxicated, he had staked his property at the
+gaming table and said things which he regretted.  Heinz Schorlin's
+generosity was well known.  Perhaps he might offer some acceptable
+arrangement ere the notary conveyed his estate to him.  He did not yet
+feel that he could stoop so low as to receive a gift from this young
+upstart.
+
+If his father-in-law, who supported him, was really ruined, as he had
+just asserted, he would indeed be plunged into beggary, with his wife,
+whose stately figure constantly rose before him, with a look of mute
+reproach, his beautiful twin boys, and his load of debt.
+
+The gigantic man felt physically crushed by the terrible blows of fate
+which had fallen upon him during this last wakeful night.  He would fain
+have gone to the nearest tavern and there left it to the wine to bring
+forgetfulness.  To drink, drink constantly, and in the intervals sleep
+with his head resting on his arms, seemed the most tempting prospect.
+But he was obliged to return to the Eysvogels.  There was too much at
+stake.  Besides, he longed to see the twins who resembled him so closely,
+and of whom Countess Cordula had said that she hoped they would not be
+like their father.
+
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Abandoned women (required by law to help put out the fires)
+The heart must not be filled by another's image
+
+
+
+
+
+
+IN THE FIRE OF THE FORGE
+
+A ROMANCE OF OLD NUREMBERG
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+Volume 4.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+The city gates were already open.  Peasants and peasant women bringing
+vegetables and other farm produce to market thronged the streets, wains
+loaded with grain or charcoal rumbled along, and herds of cattle and
+swine, laden donkeys, the little carts of the farmers and bee keepers
+conveying milk and honey to the city, passed over the dyke, which was
+still softened by the rain of the preceding night.
+
+The thunderstorm had cooled the air, but the rays of the morning sun were
+already scorching.  A few heavy little clouds were darkly relieved
+against the blue sky, and a peasant, driving two sucking pigs before him,
+called to another, who was carrying a goose under each arm, that the sun
+was drawing water, and thundershowers seldom came singly.
+
+Yet the city looked pleasant enough in the freshness of early June.  The
+maidservants who were opening the shutters glanced gaily out into the
+streets, and arranged the flowers in front of the windows or bowed
+reverently as a priest passed by on his way to mass.  The barefooted
+Capuchin, with his long beard, beckoned to the cook or the tradesman's
+wife and, as she put something into his beggar's sack and he thanked her
+kindly with some pious axiom, she felt as if she herself and all her
+household had gained a right to the blessing of Heaven for that day,
+and cheerily continued her work.
+
+The brass counter in the low, broad bow window of the baker's house
+glittered brightly, and the pale apprentice wiped the flour from his face
+and gave his master's rosy-cheeked daughter fresh warm cakes to set on
+the shining shelves.  The barber's nimble apprentice hung the towel and
+basin at the door, while his master, wearied by the wine-bibbing and talk
+at the tavern or his labour at the fire, was still asleep.  His active
+wife had risen before him, strewed the shop with fresh sand, and renewed
+the goldfinch's food.
+
+The workshops and stores were adorned with birch branches, and the young
+daughters of the burghers, in becoming caps, the maid servants and
+apprentices, who were going to market with baskets on their arms, wore a
+flower or something green on their breasts or in their caps.
+
+The first notes of the bells, pealing solemnly, were summoning
+worshippers to mass, the birds were singing in the garden, and the cocks
+were crowing in the yards of the houses.  The animals passing in the
+street lowed, grunted, and cackled merrily in the dawn of the young day.
+
+Gay young men, travelling students who had sought cheap quarters in the
+country, now entered the city with a merry song on their lips just shaded
+by the first down of manhood, and when a maiden met them she lowered her
+eyes modestly before the riotous fellows.
+
+The terrors of the frightful thunderstorm seemed forgotten.  Nuremberg
+looked gladsome; a carpet hung from many a bow-window, and flags and
+streamers fluttered from roofs and balconies to honour the distinguished
+guests.  Many signs of their presence were visible, squires and
+equerries, in their masters' colours, were riding spirited horses, and
+a few knights who loved early rising were already in the saddle, their
+shining helmets and coats of mail flashing brightly in the sunshine.
+
+The gigantic figure of Sir Seitz Siebenburg moved with drooping head
+through the budding joy of this June day towards the Eysvogel dwelling.
+
+His gloomy, haggard face and disordered attire made two neatly dressed
+young shoemaker's apprentices, on their way to their work, nudge each
+other and look keenly at him.
+
+"I'd rather meet him here in broad daylight among houses and people than
+in the dusk on the highway," remarked one of them.
+
+"There's no danger," replied the other.  "He wears the curb now.  He
+moved from the robber nest into the rich Eysvogel house opposite.  That's
+Herr Casper's son-in-law.  But such people can never let other folks'
+property alone.  Only here they work in another way.  The shoes he wears
+were made in our workshop, but the master still whistles for his pay,
+and he owes everybody--the tailor, the lacemaker, the armourer, the
+girdlemaker, and the goldsmith.  If an apprentice reminds him of the
+debt, let him beware of bruises."
+
+"The Emperor Rudolph ought to issue an edict against such injustice!"
+wrathfully exclaimed the other and taller youth, the handsome son of a
+master of the craft from Weissenburg on the Sand, who expected soon to
+take his father's place.  "Up at Castle Graufels, which is saddled on our
+little town, master and man would be going barefoot but for us; yet for
+three years we haven't seen so much as a penny of his, though my father
+says times have already improved, since the Hapsburg, as a just man----"
+
+"Things have not been so bad here for a long while, the saints be
+praised!" his companion broke in.  "Siebenburg, or some of his wife's
+rich kindred, will at last be compelled to settle matters.  We have the
+law and the Honourable Council to attend to that.  Look up!  Yonder
+stately old house gave its daughter to the penniless knight.  She is one
+of our customers too; a handsome woman, and not one of the worst either.
+But her mother, who was born a countess--if the shoe doesn't make a foot
+small which Nature created big, there's such an outcry!  True, the old
+woman, her mother, is worse still; she scolds and screams.  But look up
+at the bow window.  There she stands.  I'm only a poor brewer's son, but
+before I----"
+
+"You don't say so!"  the other interrupted.  Have you seen the owl in the
+cage in front of the guardhouse at the gate of the hospital?  It is her
+living image; and how her chin projects and moves up and down, as though
+she were chewing leather!"
+
+"And yet," said the other, as if insisting upon something difficult to
+believe, "and yet the old woman is a real countess."
+
+The Weissenburg apprentice expressed his astonishment with another: "You
+don't say so!" but as he spoke he grasped his companion's arm, adding
+earnestly: "Let us go.  That ugly old woman just looked at me, and if it
+wasn't the evil eye I shall go straight to the church and drive away the
+misfortune with holy water."
+
+"Come, then," answered the Nuremberg youth, but continued thoughtfully:
+"Yet my master's grandmother, a woman of eighty, is probably older than
+the one up there, but nobody could imagine a kinder, pleasanter dame.
+When she looks approvingly at one it seems as if the dear God's blessing
+were shining from two little windows."
+
+"That's just like my grandmother at home!" exclaimed the Weissenburg
+apprentice with sparkling eyes.
+
+Turning from the Eysvogel mansion as they spoke, they pursued their way.
+
+Siebenburg had overtaken the apprentices, but ere crossing the threshold
+of the house which was now his home he stopped before it.
+
+It might, perhaps, be called the largest and handsomest in Nuremberg; but
+it was only a wide two-story structure, though the roof had been adorned
+with battlements and the sides with a small bow-windowed turret.  At the
+second story a bracket, bearing an image of the Madonna, had been built
+out on one side, and on the other the bow window from which old Countess
+Rotterbach had looked down into the street.
+
+The coat of arms was very striking and wholly out of harmony with the
+simplicity of the rest of the building.  Its showy splendour, visible for
+a long distance, occupied the wide space between the door of the house
+and the windows of the upper story.  The escutcheon of the noble family
+from which Rosalinde, Herr Casper's wife, had descended rested against
+the shield bearing the birds.  The Rotterbach supporters, a nude man and
+a bear standing on its hind legs, rose on both sides of the double
+escutcheon, and the stone cutter had surmounted the Eysvogel helmet with
+a count's coronet.
+
+This elaborate decoration of the ancient patrician house had become
+one of the sights of the city, and had often made Herr Casper, at the
+Honourable Council and elsewhere, clench his fist under his mantle, for
+it had drawn open censure and bitter mockery upon the arrogant man, but
+his desire to have it replaced by a more modest one had been baffled by
+the opposition of the women of his family.  They had had it put up, and
+would not permit any one to touch it, though Wolff, after his return from
+Italy, had strenuously urged its removal.
+
+It had brought the Eysvogels no good fortune, for on the day of its
+completion the business received its first serious blow, and it also
+served to injure the commercial house externally in a very obvious
+manner.  Whereas formerly many wares which needed to be kept dry had been
+hoisted from the outer door and the street to the spacious attic, this
+was now prevented by the projecting figures of the nude men and the
+bears.  Therefore it became necessary to hoist the goods to be stored in
+the attic from the courtyard, which caused delay and hindrances of many
+kinds.  Various expedients had been suggested, but the women opposed them
+all, for they were glad that the ugly casks and bales no longer found
+their way to the garret past their windows, and it also gratified their
+arrogance that they were no longer visible from the street.
+
+Siebenburg now looked up at the huge escutcheon and recalled the day
+when, after having been specially favoured by Isabella Eysvogel at a
+dance in the Town Hall, he had paused in the same place.  A long line of
+laden waggons had just stopped in front of the door surmounted by the
+double escutcheon, and if he had previously hesitated whether to profit
+by the favour of Isabella, whose haughty majesty, which attracted him,
+also inspired him with a faint sense of uneasiness, he was now convinced
+how foolish it would be not to forge the iron which seemed aglow in his
+favour.  What riches the men-servants were carrying into the vaulted
+entry, which was twice as large as the one in the Ortlieb mansion!
+Besides, the escutcheon with the count's coronet had given the knight
+assurance that he would have no cause to be ashamed, in an assembly of
+his peers, of his alliance with the Nuremberg maiden.  Isabella's hand
+could undoubtedly free him from the oppressive burden of his debts, and
+she was certainly a magnificent woman!  How well, too, her tall figure
+would suit him and the Siebenburgs, whose name was said to be derived
+from the seven feet of stature which some of them measured!
+
+Now he again remembered the hour when she had laid her slender hand
+in his.  For a brief period he had been really happy; his heart had not
+felt so light since early childhood, though at first he had ventured to
+confess only one half his load of debt to his father-in-law.  He had
+even assumed fresh obligations to relieve his brothers from their most
+pressing cares.  They had attended his brilliant wedding, and it had
+flattered his vanity to show them what he could accomplish as the wealthy
+Eysvogel's son-in-law.
+
+But how quickly all this had changed!  He had learned that, besides the
+woman who had given him her heart and inspired him with a passion
+hitherto unknown, he had wedded two others.
+
+Now, as the image of old Countess Rotterbach, Isabella's grandmother,
+forced itself upon his mind, he unconsciously knit his brow.  He had not
+heard her say much, but with every word she bestowed upon him he was
+forced to accept something bitter.  She rarely left her place in the
+armchair in the bow window in the sitting-room, but it seemed as if her
+little eyes possessed the power of piercing walls and doors, for she knew
+everything that concerned him, even his greatest secrets, which he
+believed he had carefully concealed.  More on her account than on that
+of his mother-in-law, who did nothing except what the former commanded,
+he had repeatedly tried to remove with his wife to the estate of
+Tannenreuth, which had been assigned to him on the day of the marriage,
+that its revenues might support the young couple, but the mother and
+grandmother detained his wife, and their wishes were more to her than
+his.  Perhaps, however, he might have induced her to go with him had not
+his father-in-law made his debts a snare, which he drew whenever it was
+necessary to stifle his wishes, and he, too, wanted to retain his
+daughter at home.
+
+Since Wolff's return from Italy he had become aware that the stream of
+gold from the Eysvogel coffers flowed more sparingly, or even failed
+altogether to satisfy his extravagant tastes.  Therefore his relations
+with his brother-in-law, whose prudent caution he considered avarice, and
+whose earnest protests against his often unprecedented demands frequently
+roused his ire, became more and more unfriendly.
+
+The inmates of the Eysvogel house rendered his home unendurable, and from
+the experiences of his bachelor days he knew only too well where mirth
+reigned in Nuremberg.  So he became a rare guest at the Eysvogels, and
+when Isabella found herself neglected and deceived, she made him feel her
+resentment in her own haughty and--as soon as she deemed herself injured
+--harsh manner.
+
+At first her displeasure troubled him sorely, but the ardent passion
+which had absorbed him during the early days of their marriage had died
+out, and only flamed up with its old fervour occasionally; but at such
+times the haughty, neglected wife repulsed him with insulting severity.
+
+Yet she had never permitted any one to disparage her husband behind his
+back.  True, Siebenburg did not know this, but he perceived more and more
+plainly that both the Eysvogels, father and son, were oppressed by some
+grave anxiety, and that the sums which Wolff now paid him no longer
+sufficed to hold his creditors in check.  He was not accustomed to impose
+any restraint upon himself, and thus it soon became known throughout the
+city that he did not live at peace with his wife and her family.
+
+Yet five weeks ago matters had appeared to improve.  The birth of the
+twins had brought something new into his life, which drew him nearer to
+Isabella.
+
+The children at first seemed to him two lovely miracles.  Both boys, both
+exactly like him.  When they were brought to him on their white, lace-
+trimmed pillows, his heart had swelled with joy, and it was his greatest
+delight to gaze at them.
+
+This was the natural result.
+
+He, the stalwart Siebenburg, had not become the father of one ordinary
+boy, but of two little knights at once.  When he returned home--even if
+his feet were unsteady--his first visit was to them, and he had often
+felt that he was far too poor and insignificant to thank his neglected
+wife aright for so precious a gift.
+
+Whenever this feeling took possession of him he expressed his love to
+Isabella with tender humility; while she, who had bestowed her hand upon
+him solely from love, forgot all her wrongs, and her heart throbbed
+faster with grateful joy when she saw him, with fatherly pride, carry the
+twins about with bent knees, as if their weight was too heavy for his
+giant arms to bear.
+
+The second week after their birth Isabella fell slightly ill.  Her mother
+and grandmother undertook the nursing, and as the husband found them both
+with the twins whenever he came to see the infants and their mother, the
+sick-room grew distasteful to him.  Again, as before their birth, he
+sought compensation outside of the house for the annoyance caused by the
+women at home; but the memory of the little boys haunted him, and when he
+met his companions at the tavern he invited them to drink the children's
+health in the host's best wine.
+
+So life went on until the Reichstag brought the von Montforts, whom he
+had met at a tournament in Augsburg, to the city of Nuremberg.
+
+Mirth reigned wherever Countess Cordula appeared, and Siebenburg needed
+amusement and joined the train of her admirers--with what evil result he
+now clearly perceived for the first time.
+
+He again stood before the stately dwelling where he had hoped to find
+luxury and wealth, but where his heart now throbbed more anxiously than
+those of his kinsmen had formerly done in the impoverished castle of his
+father, who had died so long ago.
+
+The Eysvogel dwelling, with its showy escutcheon above the door, was
+threatened by want, and hand in hand with it, he knew, the most hideous
+of all her children--disgrace.
+
+Now he also remembered what he himself had done to increase the peril
+menacing the ancient commercial house.  Perhaps the old man within was
+relying upon the estate of Tannenreuth, which he had assigned to him, to
+protect some post upon which much depended, and he had gambled it away.
+This must now be confessed, and also the amount of his own debts.
+
+An unpleasant task confronted him but, humiliating and harassing as was
+the interview awaiting him beyond the threshold before which he still
+lingered, at least he would not find Wolff there.  This seemed a boon,
+since for the first time he would have felt himself in the wrong in the
+presence of his unloved brother-in-law.  Even the burden of his debts
+weighed less heavily on his conscience than the irritating words with
+which he had induced his father-in-law to break off Wolff's betrothal to
+Els Ortlieb.  The act was base and malicious.  Greatly as he had erred,
+he had never before been guilty of such a deed, and with a curse upon
+himself on his bearded lips he approached the door; but when half way to
+it he stopped again and looked up to the second-story windows behind
+which the twins slept.  With what delight he had always thought of them!
+But this time the recollection of the little boys was spoiled by Countess
+Cordula's message to his wife to rear them so that they would not be like
+him, their father.
+
+An evil wish!  And yet the warmest love could have devised no better one
+in behalf of the true welfare of the boys.
+
+He told himself so as he passed beneath the escutcheon through the heavy
+open door with its iron ornaments.  He was expected, the steward told
+him, but he arched his broad breast as if preparing for a wrestling
+match, pulled his mustache still longer, and went up the stairs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+The spacious, lofty sitting-room which Seitz Siebenburg entered looked
+very magnificent.  Gay Flanders tapestries hung on the walls.  The
+ceiling was slightly vaulted, and in the centre of each mesh of the net
+designed upon it glittered a richly gilded kingfisher from the family
+coat of arms.  Bear and leopard skins lay on the cushions, and upon the
+shelf which surrounded three sides of the apartment stood costly vases,
+gold and silver utensils, Venetian mirrors and goblets.  The chairs and
+furniture were made of rare woods inlaid with ebony and mother of pearl,
+brought by way of Genoa from Moorish Spain.  In the bow window jutting
+out into the street, where the old grandmother sat in her armchair, two
+green and yellow parrots on brass perches interrupted the conversation,
+whenever it grew louder, with the shrill screams of their ugly voices.
+
+Siebenburg found all the family except Wolff and the twins.  His wife was
+half sitting, half reclining, on a divan.  When Seitz entered she raised
+her head from the white arm on which it had rested, turned her oval face
+with its regular features towards him, and gathered up the fair locks
+which, released from their braids, hung around her in long, thick
+tresses.  Her eyes showed that she had been weeping violently, and as her
+husband approached she again sobbed painfully.
+
+Her grandmother seemed annoyed by her lamentations for, pointing to
+Isabella's tears, she exclaimed sharply, glancing angrily at Siebenburg:
+
+"It's a pity for every one of them!"
+
+The knight's blood boiled at the words, but they strengthened his
+courage.  He felt relieved from any consideration for these people, not
+one of whom, except the poor woman shedding such burning tears, had given
+him occasion to return love for love.  Had they flowed only for the lost
+wealth, and not for him and the grief he caused Isabella, they would not
+have seemed "a pity" to the old countess.
+
+Siebenburg's breath came quicker.
+
+The gratitude he owed his father-in-law certainly did not outweigh the
+humiliations with which he, his weak wife, and ill-natured mother-in-law
+had embittered his existence.
+
+Even now the old gentleman barely vouchsafed him a greeting.  After he
+had asked about his son, called himself a ruined man, and upbraided the
+knight with insulting harshness because his brothers--the news had been
+brought to him a short time before--were the robbers who had seized his
+goods, and the old countess had chimed in with the exclamation, "They are
+all just fit for the executioner's block!"  Seitz could restrain himself
+no longer; nay, it gave him actual pleasure to show these hated people
+what he had done, on his part, to add to their embarrassments.  He was no
+orator, but now resentment loosened his tongue, and with swift, scornful
+words he told Herr Casper that, as the son-in-law of a house which liked
+to represent itself as immensely rich, he had borrowed from others what--
+he was justified in believing it--had been withheld through parsimony.
+Besides, his debts were small in comparison with the vast sums Herr
+Casper had lavished in maintaining the impoverished estates of the
+Rotterbach kindred.  Like every knight whose own home was not pleasant,
+he sometimes gambled; and when, yesterday, ill luck pursued him and he
+lost the estate of Tannenreuth, he sincerely regretted the disaster, but
+it could not be helped.
+
+Terror and rage had sealed the old countess's lips, but now they parted
+in the hoarse cry: "You deserve the wheel and the gallows, not the
+honourable block!"  and her daughter, Rosalinde Eysvogel, repeated in a
+tone of sorrowful lamentation, "Yes, the wheel and the gallows."
+
+A scornful laugh from Siebenburg greeted the threat, but when Herr
+Casper, white as death and barely able to control his voice, asked
+whether this incredible confession was merely intended to frighten the
+women, and the knight assured him of the contrary, he groaned aloud:
+"Then the old house must succumb to disgraceful ruin."
+
+Years of life spent together may inspire and increase aversion instead of
+love, but they undoubtedly produce a certain community of existence.  The
+bitter anguish of his aged household companion, the father of his wife,
+to whom bonds of love still unsevered united him, touched even Seitz
+Siebenburg.  Besides, nothing moves the heart more quickly than the grief
+of a proud, stern man.  Herr Casper's confession did not make him dearer
+to the knight, but it induced him to drop the irritating tone which he
+had assumed, and in an altered voice he begged him not to give up his
+cause as lost without resistance.  For his daughter's sake old Herr
+Ortlieb must lend his aid.  Els, with whom he had just spoken, would
+cling firmly to Wolff, and try to induce her father to do all that was
+possible for her lover's house.  He would endeavour to settle with his
+own creditors himself.  His sharp sword and strong arm would be welcome
+everywhere, and the booty he won----  Here he was interrupted by the
+grandmother's query in a tone of cutting contempt: "Booty?  On the
+highway, do you mean?"
+
+Once more the attack from the hostile old woman rendered the knight's
+decision easier, for, struggling not to give way to his anger, he
+answered: "Rather, I think, in the Holy Land, in the war against the
+infidel Saracens.  At any rate, my presence would be more welcome
+anywhere than in this house, whose roof shelters you, Countess.  If, Herr
+Casper, you intend to share with my wife and the twins what is left after
+the old wealth has gone, unfortunately, I cannot permit you to do so.
+I will provide for them also.  True, it was your duty; for ever since
+Isabella became my wife you have taken advantage of my poverty and
+impaired my right to command her.  That must be changed from this very
+day.  I have learned the bitter taste of the bread which you provide.
+I shall confide them to my uncle, the Knight Heideck.  He was my dead
+mother's only brother, and his wife, as you know, is the children's
+godmother.  They are childless, and would consider it the most precious
+of gifts to have such boys in the castle.  My deserted wife must stay
+with him, while I--I know not yet in what master's service--provide that
+the three are not supported only by the charity of strangers---"
+
+"Oh, Seitz, Seitz!" interrupted Isabella, in a tone of urgent entreaty.
+She had risen from her cushions, and was hurrying towards him.  "Do not
+go!  You must not go so!"
+
+Her tall figure nestled closely against him as she spoke, and she threw
+her arms around his neck; but he kissed her brow and eyes, saying, with a
+gentleness which surprised even her: "You are very kind, but I cannot,
+must not remain here."
+
+"The children, the little boys!" she exclaimed again, gazing up at him
+with love-beaming eyes.  Then his tortured heart seemed to shrink, and,
+pressing his hand on his brow, he paused some time ere he answered
+gloomily: "It is for them that I go.  Words have been spoken which appeal
+to me, and to you, too, Isabella: 'See that the innocent little creatures
+are reared to be unlike their unhappy father.'  And the person who
+uttered them----"
+
+"A sage, a great sage," giggled the countess, unable to control her
+bitter wrath against the man whom she hated; but Siebenburg fiercely
+retorted:
+
+"Although no sage, at least no monster spitting venom."
+
+"And you permit this insult to be offered to your grandmother?"  Frau
+Rosalinde Eysvogel wailed to her daughter as piteously as if the injury
+had been inflicted on herself.  But Isabella only clung more closely to
+her husband, heeding neither her mother's appeal nor her father's warning
+not to be deluded by Siebenburg's empty promises.
+
+While the old countess vainly struggled for words, Rosalinde Eysvogel
+stood beside the lofty mantelpiece, weeping softly.  Before Siebenburg
+appeared, spite of the early hour and the agitating news which she had
+just received, she had used her leisure for an elaborate toilette.  A
+long trailing robe of costly brocade, blue on the left side and yellow on
+the right, now floated around her tall figure.  When the knight returned
+she had looked radiant in her gold and gems, like a princess.  Now,
+crushed and feeble, she presented a pitiable image of powerless yet
+offensively hollow splendour.  It would have required too much exertion
+to assail her son-in-law with invectives, like her energetic mother; but
+when she saw her daughter, to whom she had already appealed several times
+in a tone of anguished entreaty, rest her proud head so tenderly on her
+husband's broad breast, as she had done during the first weeks of their
+marriage, but never since, the unhappy woman clearly perceived that the
+knight's incredible demand was meant seriously.  What she had believed an
+idle boast he actually requested.  Yonder hated intruder expected her to
+part with her only daughter, who was far more to her than her unloved
+husband, her exacting mother, or the son who restricted her wishes, whom
+she had never understood, and against whom her heart had long been
+hardened.  But it could not be and, losing all self-control and dignity,
+she shrieked aloud, tore the blue headband from her hair and, repeating
+the "never" constantly as if she had gone out of her senses, gasped:
+"Never, never, never, so long as I live!"
+
+As she spoke she rushed to her startled husband, pointed to her son-in-
+law, who still held his wife in a close embrace, and in a half-stifled
+voice commanded Herr Casper to strike down the gambler, robber,
+spendthrift, and kidnapper of children, or drive him out of the house
+like some savage, dangerous beast.  Then she ordered Isabella to leave
+the profligate who wanted to drag her down to ruin; and when her daughter
+refused to obey, she burst into violent weeping, sobbing and moaning
+till her strength failed and she was really attacked with one of the
+convulsions she had often feigned, by the advice of her own mother,
+to extort from her husband the gratification of some extravagant wish.
+
+Indignant, yet full of sincere sympathy, Herr Casper supported his wife,
+whose queenly beauty had once fired his heart, and in whose embrace he
+had imagined that he would be vouchsafed here below the joys of the
+redeemed.  As she rested her head, with its long auburn tresses, still so
+luxuriant, upon his shoulder, exquisite pictures of the past rose before
+the mental vision of the elderly man; but the spell was quickly broken,
+for the kerchief with which he wiped her face was dyed red from her
+rouged cheeks.
+
+A bitter smile hovered around his well-formed, beardless lips, and the
+man of business remembered the vast sums which he had squandered to
+gratify the extravagant wishes of the mother and daughter, and show these
+countesses that he, the burgher, in whose veins ran noble blood,
+understood as well as any man of their own rank how to increase the charm
+of life by luxury and splendour.
+
+While he supported his wife, and the old countess was seeking to relieve
+her, Isabella also prepared to hasten to her mother's assistance, but her
+husband stopped her with resistless strength, whispering: "You know that
+these convulsions are not dangerous.  Come with me to the children.
+I want to bid them farewell.  Show me in this last hour, at least, that
+these women are not more to you than I."  He released her as he spoke,
+and the mental struggle which for a short time made her bosom heave
+violently with her hurried breathing ended with a low exclamation, "I
+will come."
+
+The nurse, whom Isabella sent out of the room when she entered with her
+husband, silently obeyed, but stopped at the door to watch.  She saw the
+turbulent knight kneel beside the children's cradle before the wife whom
+he had so basely neglected, raise his tearful eyes to the majestic woman,
+whose stature was little less than his own and, lifting his clasped
+hands, make a confession which she could not hear; saw her draw him
+towards her, nestle with loving devotion against his broad breast, and
+place first one and then the other twin boy in his arms.
+
+The young mother's cheeks as well as the father's were wet, but the eyes
+of both sparkled with grateful joy when Isabella, in taking leave of her
+husband, thanked him with a last loving kiss for the vow that, wherever
+he might go, he would treasure her and the children in his heart, and do
+everything in his power to secure a fate that should be worthy of them.
+
+As Siebenburg went downstairs he met his father-in-law on the second-
+story landing.  Herr Casper, deadly pale, was clinging with his right
+hand to the baluster, pressing his left on his brow, as he vainly
+struggled for composure and breath.  He had forgotten to strengthen
+himself with food and drink, and the terrible blows of fate which had
+fallen upon him during these last hours of trial crushed, though but for
+a short time, his still vigorous strength.  The knight went nearer to
+help him, but when he offered Herr Casper his arm the old merchant
+angrily thrust it back and accepted a servant's support.
+
+While the man assisted him upstairs he repented that he had yielded
+to resentment, and not asked his son-in-law to try to discover Wolff's
+hiding place, but no sooner had food and fiery wine strengthened him than
+his act seemed wise.  The return of the business partner, without whose
+knowledge he had incurred great financial obligations, would have placed
+him in the most painful situation.  The old gentleman would have been
+obliged to account to Wolff for the large sum which he owed to the Jew
+Pfefferkorn, the most impatient of his creditors, though he need not have
+told him that he had used it in Venice to gratify his love of gaming.
+How should he answer his son if he asked why he had rejected his
+betrothed bride, and soon after condescended to receive her again as his
+daughter and enter into close relations with her father?  Yet this must
+be done.  Ernst Ortlieb was the only person who could help him.  It had
+become impossible to seek aid from Herr Berthold Vorchtel, the man whose
+oldest son Wolff had slain, and yet he possessed the means to save the
+sinking ship from destruction.
+
+When the news of the duel reached him the messenger's blanched face had
+made him believe that Wolff had fallen.  In that moment he had perceived
+that his loss would have rendered him miserable for the rest of his life.
+This was a source of pleasure, for since Wolff had extorted his consent
+to the betrothal with Els Ortlieb, and thus estranged him from the
+Vorchtels, he had seriously feared that he had ceased to love him.  Nay,
+in many an hour when he had cause to feel shame in the presence of his
+prudent, cautious, and upright partner, it had seemed as if he hated him.
+Now the fear of the judge whom he saw in Wolff was blended with sincere
+anxiety concerning his only son, whose breach of the peace menaced him
+with banishment--nay, if he could not pay the price of blood which the
+Vorchtels might demand, with death.  Doubtless he had done many things
+to prejudice Wolff against his betrothed bride, yet he who had cast the
+first stone at her now felt that, in her simple purity, she would be
+capable of no repudiation of the fidelity she owed her future husband.
+However strongly he had struggled against this conviction, he knew that
+she, if any one, could make his son happy--far happier than he had ever
+been with the tall, slender, snow-white, unapproachable countess, who had
+helped bring him to ruin.
+
+While consuming the food and drink, he heard his wife, usually a most
+obedient daughter, disputing with her mother.  This was fortunate; for,
+if they were at variance, he need not fear that they would act as firm
+allies against him when he expressed the wish to have Wolff's marriage
+solemnised as soon as circumstances would permit.
+
+It was not yet time to discuss the matter with any one.  He would first
+go to the Jew Pfefferkorn once more to persuade him to defer his claims,
+and then, before the meeting of the Council, would repair to the
+Ortliebs, to commit to Herr Ernst the destiny of the Eysvogel firm and
+his partner Wolff, on which also depended the welfare of the young
+merchant's betrothed bride.  If the father remained obdurate, if he
+resented the wrong he had inflicted yesterday upon him and his daughter,
+he was a lost man; for he had already availed himself of the good will of
+all those whose doors usually stood open to him.  Doubtless the news of
+his recent severe losses were in every one's mouth, and the letter which
+he had just received threatened him with an indictment.
+
+The luckless Siebenburg's creditors, too, would now be added to his own.
+It was all very well for him to say that he would settle his debts him
+self.  As soon as it was rumoured abroad that he had gambled away the
+estate of Tannenreuth, whose value gave the creditors some security,
+they would rise as one man, and the house assailed would be his, Casper
+Eysvogel's.
+
+The harried man's thoughts of his son-in-law were by no means the most
+kindly.
+
+Meanwhile the latter set out for the second distasteful interview of the
+morning.
+
+His purpose was to make some arrangement with Heinz Schorlin about the
+lost estate and obtain definite knowledge concerning his quarrel with
+him, of which he remembered nothing except that intoxication and jealousy
+had carried him further than would have happened otherwise.  He had
+undoubtedly spoken insultingly of Els; his words, when uttered against a
+lady, had been sharper than beseemed a knight.  Yet was not any one who
+found a maiden alone at night with this man justified in doubting her
+virtue?  In the depths of his soul he believed in her innocence, yet he
+avoided confessing it.  Why should not the Swiss, whom Nature had given
+such power over the hearts of women, have also entangled his brother-in-
+law's betrothed bride in a love affair?  Why should not the gay girl who
+had pledged her troth to a grave, dull fellow like Wolff, have been
+tempted into a little love dalliance with the bold, joyous Schorlin?
+
+Not until he had received proof that he had erred would he submit to
+recall his charges.
+
+He had left his wife with fresh courage and full of good intentions.  Now
+that he was forced to bid her farewell, he first realised what she had
+been to him.  No doubt both had much to forgive, but she was a splendid
+woman.  Though her father's storehouses contained chests of spices and
+bales of cloth, he did not know one more queenly.  That he could have
+preferred, even for a single moment, the Countess von Montfort, whose
+sole advantage over her was her nimble tongue and gay, bold manners, now
+seemed incomprehensible.  He had joined Cordula's admirers only to forget
+at her feet the annoyances with which he had been wearied at home.  He
+had but one thing for which to thank the countess--her remark concerning
+the future of the twins.
+
+Yet was he really so base that it would have been a disgrace for his
+darlings to resemble him?  "No!" a voice within cried loudly, and as the
+same voice reminded him of the victories won in tournaments and sword
+combats, of the open hand with which, since he had been the rich
+Eysvogel's son-in-law, he had lent and given money to his brothers, and
+especially of the manly resolve to provide for his wife and children as a
+soldier in the service of some prince, another, lower, yet insistent,
+recalled other things.  It referred to the time when, with his brothers,
+he had attacked a train of freight waggons and not cut down their
+armed escort alone.  The curse of a broad-shouldered Nordlinger carrier,
+whose breast he had pierced with a lance though he cried out that he was
+a father and had a wife and child to support, the shriek of the pretty
+boy with curling brown hair who clung to the bridle of his steed as he
+rode against the father, and whose arm he had cut off, still seemed to
+ring in his ears.  He also remembered the time when, after a rich capture
+on the highway which had filled his purse, he had ridden to Nuremberg in
+magnificent new clothes at the carnival season in order, by his brothers'
+counsel, to win a wealthy bride.  Fortune and the saints had permitted
+him to find a woman to satisfy both his avarice and his heart, yet he had
+neither kept faith with her nor even showed her proper consideration.
+But, strangely enough, the warning voice reproached him still more
+sharply for having, in the presence of others, accused and disparaged his
+brother-in-law's betrothed bride, whose guilt he believed proved.  Again
+he felt how ignoble and unworthy of a knight his conduct had been.  Why
+had he pursued this course?  Merely--he admitted it now--to harm Wolff,
+the monitor and niggard whom he hated; perhaps also because he secretly
+told himself that, if Wolff formed a happy marriage, he and his children,
+not Siebenburg's twin boys, would obtain the larger share of the Eysvogel
+property.
+
+This greed of gain, which had brought him to Nuremberg to seek a wife,
+was probably latent in his blood, though his reckless accumulation of
+debts seemed to contradict it.  Yesterday, at the Duke of Pomerania's,
+it had again led him into that wild, mad dice-throwing.
+
+Seitz Siebenburg was no calm thinker.  All these thoughts passed singly
+in swift flashes through his excited brain.  Like the steady monotone of
+the bass accompanying the rise and fall of the air, he constantly heard
+the assurance that it would be a pity if his splendid twins should
+resemble him.
+
+Therefore they must grow up away from his influence, under the care of
+his good uncle.  With this man's example before their eyes they would
+become knights as upright and noble as Kunz Heideck, whom every one
+esteemed.
+
+For the sake of the twins he had resolved to begin a new and worthier
+life himself.  His wife would aid him, and love should lend him strength
+to conduct himself in future so that Countess von Montfort, and every one
+who meant well by his sons, might wish them to resemble their father.
+
+He walked on, holding his head proudly erect.  Seeing the first
+worshippers entering the Church of Our Lady, he went in, too, repeated
+several Paternosters, commended the little boys and their mother to the
+care of the gracious Virgin, and besought her to help him curb the
+turbulent impulses which often led him to commit deeds he afterwards
+regretted.
+
+Many people knew Casper Eysvogel's tall, haughty son-in-law and marvelled
+at the fervent devotion with which, kneeling in the first place he found
+near the entrance, beside two old women, he continued to pray.  Was it
+true that the Eysvogel firm had been placed in a very critical situation
+by the loss of great trains of merchandise?  One of his neighbours had
+heard him sigh, and declared that something must weigh heavily upon the
+"Mustache."  She would tell her nephew Hemerlein, the belt-maker, to whom
+the knight owed large sums for saddles and harnesses, that he would be
+wise to look after his money betimes.
+
+Siebenburg quitted the church in a more hopeful mood than when he entered
+it.
+
+The prayers had helped him.
+
+When he reached the fruit market he noticed that people gazed at him in
+surprise.  He had paid no heed to his dress since the morning of the
+previous day, and as he always consumed large quantities of food and
+drink he felt the need of refreshment.  Entering the first barber's shop,
+he had the stubble removed from his cheeks and chin, and arranged his
+disordered attire, and then, going to a taproom close by, ate and drank,
+without sitting down, what he found ready and, invigorated in body and
+mind, continued his walk.
+
+The fruit market was full of busy life.  Juicy strawberries and early
+cherries, red radishes, heads of cabbages, bunches of greens, and long
+stalks of asparagus were offered for sale, with roses and auriculas,
+balsams and early pinks, in pots and bouquets, and the ruddy peasant
+lasses behind the stands, the stately burgher women in their big round
+hats, the daughters of the master workmen with their long floating locks
+escaping from under richly embroidered caps, the maidservants with neat
+little baskets on their round arms, afforded a varied and pleasing scene.
+Everything that reached the ear, too, was cheery and amusing, and
+rendered the knight's mood brighter.
+
+Proud of his newly acquired power of resistance, he walked on, after
+yielding to the impulse to buy the handsomest bouquet of roses offered by
+the pretty flower girl Kuni, whom, on Countess Cordula's account, during
+the Reichstag he had patronised more frequently than usual.  Without
+knowing why himself, he did not tell the pretty girl, who had already
+trusted him very often, for whom he intended it, but ordered it to be
+charged with the rest.
+
+At the corner of the Bindergasse, where Heinz Schorlin lodged, he found a
+beggar woman with a bandaged head, whom he commissioned to carry the
+roses to the Eysvogel mansion and give them to his wife, Fran Isabella
+Siebenburg, in his--Sir Seitz's--name.
+
+In front of the house occupied by the master cloth-maker Deichsler, where
+the Swiss had his quarters, the tailor Ploss stopped him.  He came from
+Heinz Schorlin, and reminded Siebenburg of his by no means inconsiderable
+debt; but the latter begged him to have patience a little longer, as he
+had met with heavy losses at the gaming table the night before, and Ploss
+agreed to wait till St. Heinrich's day--[15th July].
+
+How many besides the tailor had large demands! and when could Seitz begin
+to cancel his debts?  The thought even darted through his mind that
+instead of carrying his good intentions into effect he had not paid for
+the roses--but flowers were so cheap in June!
+
+Besides, he had no time to dwell upon this trifle, for while quieting the
+tailor he had noticed a girl who, notwithstanding the heat of the day,
+kept her face hidden so far under her Riese--[A kerchief for the head,
+resembling a veil, made of fine linen.]--that nothing but her eyes and
+the upper part of her nose were visible.  She had given him a hasty nod
+and, if he was not mistaken, it was the Ortlieb sisters' maid, whom he
+had often seen.
+
+When he again looked after the muffled figure she was hurrying up the
+cloth-maker's stairs.
+
+It was Katterle herself.
+
+At the first landing she had glanced back, and in doing so pushed the
+kerchief aside.  What could she want with the Swiss?  It could scarcely
+be anything except to bring him a message from one of her mistresses,
+doubtless Els.
+
+So he had seen aright, and acted wisely not to believe the countess.
+
+Poor Wolff!  Deceived even when a betrothed lover!  He did not exactly
+wish him happiness even now, and yet he pitied him.
+
+Seitz could now stand before Heinz Schorlin with the utmost confidence.
+The Swiss must know how matters stood between the older E and him self,
+though his knightly duty constrained him to deny it to others.
+Siebenburg's self-reproaches had been vain.  He had suspected no innocent
+girl--only called a faithless betrothed bride by the fitting name.
+
+The matter concerning his estate of Tannenreuth was worse.  It had been
+gambled away, and therefore forfeited.  He had already given it up in
+imagination; it was only necessary to have the transfer made by the
+notary.  The Swiss should learn how a true knight satisfies even the
+heaviest losses at the gaming table.  He would not spare Heinz Schorlin.
+He meant to reproach the unprincipled fellow who by base arts had
+alienated the betrothed bride of an honest man--for that Wolff certainly
+was--when adverse circumstances prevented his watching the faithless
+woman himself.  Twisting the ends of his mustache with two rapid motions,
+he knocked at the young knight's door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+Twice, three times, Siebenburg rapped, but in vain.  Yet the Swiss was
+there.  His armour-bearer had told Seitz so downstairs, and he heard his
+voice within.  At last he struck the door so heavily with the handle of
+his dagger that the whole house echoed with the sound.  This succeeded;
+the door opened, and Biberli's narrow head appeared.  He looked at the
+visitor in astonishment.
+
+"Tell  your  master," said  the  latter  imperiously, recognising Heinz
+Schorlin's servant, "that if he closes his lodgings against dunning
+tradesfolk--"
+
+"By your knock, my lord," Biberli interrupted, we really thought the
+sword cutler had come with hammer and anvil.  My master, however, need
+have no fear of creditors; for though you may not yet know it, Sir
+Knight, there are generous noblemen in Nuremberg during the Reichstag who
+throw away castles and lands in his favour at the gaming table."
+
+"And hurl their fists even more swiftly into the faces of insolent
+varlets!" cried Siebenburg, raising his right hand threateningly.
+"Now take me to your master at once!"
+
+"Or, at any rate, within his four walls," replied the servitor, preceding
+Seitz into the small anteroom from which he had come.  "As to the 'at
+once,' that rests with the saints, for you must know----"
+
+"Nonsense!"  interrupted the knight.  "Tell your master that Siebenburg
+has neither time nor inclination to wait in his antechamber."
+
+"And certainly nothing could afford Sir Heinz Schorlin greater pleasure
+than your speedy departure," Biberli retorted.
+
+"Insolent knave!" thundered Seitz, who perceived the insult conveyed in
+the reply, grasping the neck of his long robe; but Biberli felt that he
+had seized only the hood, swiftly unclasped it, and as he hurried to a
+side door, through which loud voices echoed, Siebenburg heard the low cry
+of a woman.  It came from behind a curtain spread over some clothes that
+hung on the wall, and Seitz said to himself that the person must be the
+maid whom he had just met.  She was in Els Ortlieb's service, and he was
+glad to have this living witness at hand.
+
+If he could induce Heinz to talk with him here in the anteroom it would
+be impossible for her to escape.  So, feigning that he had noticed
+nothing, he pretended to be much amused by Biberli's nimble flight.
+Forcing a laugh, he flung the hood at his head, and before he opened
+the door of the adjoining room again asked to speak to his master.
+Biberli replied that he must wait; the knight was holding a religious
+conversation with a devout old mendicant friar.  If he might venture to
+offer counsel, he would not interrupt his master now; he had received
+very sad news, and the tailor who came to take his measure for his
+mourning garments had just left him.  If Seitz had any business with the
+knight, and expected any benefit from his favour and rare generosity----
+
+But Siebenburg let him get no farther.  Forgetting the stratagem which
+was to lure Heinz hither, he burst into a furious rage, fiercely
+declaring that he sought favour and generosity from no man, least of all
+a Heinz Schorlin and, advancing to the door, flung the servant who barred
+his passage so rudely against the wall that he uttered a loud cry of
+pain.
+
+Ere it had died away Heinz appeared on the threshold.  A long white robe
+increased the pallor of his face, but yesterday so ruddy, and his
+reddened eyes showed traces of recent tears.
+
+When he perceived what had occurred, and saw his faithful follower,
+with a face distorted by pain, rubbing his shoulder, his cheeks flushed
+angrily, and with just indignation he rebuked Siebenburg for his unseemly
+intrusion into his quarters and his brutal conduct.
+
+Then, without heeding the knight, he asked Biberli if he was seriously
+injured, and when the latter answered in the negative he again turned to
+Seitz and briefly enquired what he wanted.  If he desired to own that,
+while in a state of senseless intoxication he had slandered modest
+maidens, and was ignorant of his actions when he staked his castle and
+lands against the gold lying before him, Heinz Schorlin, he might keep
+Tannenreuth.  The form in which he would revoke his calumny to Jungfrau
+Ortlieb he would discuss with him later.  At present his mind was
+occupied with more important matters than the senseless talk of a
+drunkard, and he would therefore request the knight to leave him.
+
+As Heinz uttered the last words he pointed to the door, and this
+indiscreet, anything but inviting gesture robbed Siebenburg of the last
+remnant of composure maintained with so much difficulty.
+
+Nothing is more infuriating to weak natures than to have others expect
+them to pursue a course opposite to that which, after a victory over
+baser impulses, they have recognised as the right one and intended to
+follow.  He who had come to resign his lost property voluntarily was
+regarded by the Swiss as an importunate mendicant; he who stood here to
+prove that he was perfectly justified in accusing Els Ortlieb of a crime,
+Schorlin expected to make a revocation against his better knowledge.  And
+what price did the insolent fellow demand for the restored estate and the
+right to brand him as a slanderer?  The pleasure of seeing the unwelcome
+guest retire as quickly as possible.  No greater degree of contempt and
+offensive presumption could be imagined, and as Seitz set his own
+admirable conduct during the past few hours far above the profligate
+behaviour of the Swiss, he was fired with honest indignation and, far
+from heeding the white robe and altered countenance of his enemy, gave
+the reins to his wrath.
+
+Pale with fury, he flung, as it were, the estate the Swiss had won from
+him at his feet, amid no lack of insulting words.
+
+At first Heinz listened to the luckless gambler's outbreak of rage in
+silent amazement, but when the latter began to threaten, and even clapped
+his hand on his sword, the composure which never failed him in the
+presence of anything that resembled danger quickly returned.
+
+He had felt a strong aversion to Siebenburg from their first meeting, and
+the slanderous words with which he had dragged in the dust the good name
+of a maiden who, Heinz knew, had incurred suspicion solely through his
+fault, had filled him with scorn.  So, with quiet contempt, he let him
+rave on; but when the person to whom he had just been talking--the old
+Minorite monk whom he had met on the highroad and accompanied to
+Nuremberg--appeared at the door of the next room, he stopped Seitz with a
+firm "Enough!" pointed to the old man, and in brief, simple words, gave
+the castle and lands of Tannenreuth to the monastery of the mendicant
+friars of the Franciscan order in Nuremberg.
+
+Siebenburg listened with a contemptuous shrug of the shoulders, then he
+said bitterly: "I thought that a life of poverty was the chief rule in
+the order of St. Francis.  But no matter!  May the gift won at the gaming
+table profit the holy Brothers.  For you, Sir Knight, it will gain the
+favour of the Saint of Assisi, whose power is renowned.  So you have
+acted wisely."
+
+Here he hesitated; he felt choked with rage.  But while the Minorite was
+thanking Heinz for the generous gift, Siebenburg's eyes again rested on
+the curtain behind which the maid was concealed.
+
+It was now his turn to deal the Swiss a blow.  The old mendicant friar
+was a venerable person whose bearing commanded respect, and Heinz seemed
+to value his good opinion.  For that very reason the Minorite should
+learn the character of this patron of his order.
+
+"Since you so earnestly desire to be rid of my company, Sir Heinz
+Schorlin," he continued, "I will fulfil your wish.  Only just now you
+appeared to consider certain words uttered last night in reference to a
+lady--"
+
+"Let that pass," interrupted Heinz with marked emphasis.
+
+"I might expect that desire," replied Siebenburg scornfully; "for as you
+are in the act of gaining the favour of Heaven by pious works, it will be
+agreeable to you--"
+
+"What?" asked the Swiss sharply.
+
+"You will surely desire," was the reply, "to change conduct which is an
+offence to honourable people, and still more to the saints above.  You
+who have estranged a betrothed bride from her lover and lured her to
+midnight interviews, no doubt suppose yourself safe from the future
+husband, whom the result of a duel--as you know--will keep from her side.
+But Wolff happens to be my brother-in-law, and if I feel disposed to take
+his place and break a lance with you----"
+
+Heinz, pale as death, interrupted him, exclaiming in a tone of the
+deepest indignation: "So be it, then.  We will have a tilt with lances,
+and then we will fight with our swords."
+
+Siebenburg looked at him an instant, as if puzzled by his adversary's
+sharp assault, but quickly regained his composure and answered: "Agreed!
+In the joust--[single combat in the tourney]--with sharp weapons it will
+soon appear who has right on his side."
+
+"Right?" asked Heinz in astonishment, shrugging his shoulders scornfully.
+
+"Yes, right," cried the other furiously, "which you have ceased to
+prize."
+
+"So far from it," the Swiss answered quietly, "that before we discuss the
+mode of combat with the herald I must ask you to recall the insults with
+which yesterday, in your drunkenness, you injured the honour of a
+virtuous maiden in the presence of other knights and gentlemen."
+
+"Whose protector," laughed Seitz, "you seem to have constituted yourself,
+by your own choice, in her bridegroom's place."
+
+"I accept  the position,"  replied Heinz with cool deliberation.
+"Not you, nay, I will fight in Wolff Eysvogel's stead--and with his
+consent, I think.  I know him, and esteem him so highly----"
+
+"That you invite his plighted bride to nocturnal love dalliance, and
+exchange love messages with her," interrupted the other.
+
+This was too much for Heinz Schorlin and, with honest indignation, he
+cried: "Prove it!  Or, by our Lord's blood!--My sword, Biberli!--Spite of
+the peace proclaimed throughout the land, you shall learn, ere you open
+your slandering lips again----"
+
+Here he paused suddenly, for while Biberli withdrew to obey the command
+which, though it probably suited his wishes, he was slow in executing,
+doubtless that he might save his master from a reckless act, Siebenburg,
+frantic with fury, rushed to the curtain.  Ere Heinz could interfere, he
+jerked it back so violently that he tore it from the fastenings and
+forced the terrified maid, whose arm he grasped, to approach the knight
+with him.
+
+Heinz had seen Katterle only by moonlight and in the twilight, so her
+unexpected appearance gave him no information.  He gazed at her
+enquiringly, with as much amazement as though she had risen from the
+earth.  Siebenburg gave him no time to collect his thoughts, but dragged
+the girl before the monk and, raising his voice in menace, commanded:
+"Tell the holy Brother who you are, woman!"
+
+"Katterle of Sarnen," she answered, weeping.  "And whom do you serve?"
+the knight demanded.
+
+"The Ortlieb sisters, Jungfrau Els and Jungfrau Eva," was the reply.
+
+"The beautiful Es, as they are called here, holy Brother," said
+Siebenburg with a malicious laugh, "whose maid I recognise in this girl.
+If she did not come hither to mend the linen of her mistress's friend--"
+
+But here Biberli, who on his return to the anteroom had been terrified by
+the sight of his sweetheart, interrupted the knight by turning to Heinz
+with the exclamation: "Forgive me, my lord.  Surely you know that she is
+my betrothed bride.  She came just now--scarcely a dozen Paternosters
+ago-to talk with me about the marriage."
+
+Katterle had listened in surprise to the bold words of her true and
+steadfast lover, yet she was not ill pleased, for he had never before
+spoken of their marriage voluntarily.  At the same time she felt the
+obligation of aiding him and nodded assent, while Siebenburg rudely
+interrupted the servant by calling to the monk: "Lies and deception,
+pious Brother.  Black must be whitened here.  She stole, muffled, to her
+mistress's gallant, to bring a message from the older beautiful E, with
+whom this godly knight was surprised last night."
+
+Again the passionate outbreak of his foe restored the Swiss to composure.
+With a calmness which seemed to the servant incomprehensible, though it
+filled him with delight, he turned to the monk, saying earnestly and
+simply: "Appearances may be against me, Pater Benedictus.  I will tell
+you all the circumstances at once.  How this maid came here will be
+explained later.  As for the maiden whom this man calls the older
+beautiful E, never--I swear it by our saint--have I sought her love or
+received from her the smallest token of her favour."
+
+Then turning to Siebenburg he continued, still calmly, but with menacing
+sternness: "If I judge you aright, you will now go from one to another
+telling whom you found here, in order to injure the fair fame of the
+maiden whom your wife's valiant brother chose for his bride, and to place
+my name with hers in the pillory."
+
+"Where Els Ortlieb belongs rather than in the honourable home of a
+Nuremberg patrician," retorted Siebenburg furiously.  "If she became too
+base for my brother-in-law, the fault is yours.  I shall certainly take
+care that he learns the truth and knows where, and at what an hour, his
+betrothed bride met foreign heartbreakers.  To open the eyes of others
+concerning her will also be a pleasant duty."
+
+Heinz sprang towards Biberli to snatch the sword from his hand, but he
+held it firmly, seeking his master's eyes with a look of warning
+entreaty; but his faithful solicitude would have been futile had not
+the monk lent his aid.  The old man's whispered exhortation to his young
+friend to spare the imperial master, to whom he was so deeply indebted, a
+fresh sorrow, restored to the infuriated young knight his power of self-
+control.  Pushing the thick locks back from his brow with a hasty
+movement, he answered in a tone of the most intense contempt:
+
+"Do what you will, but remember this: Beware that, ere the joust begins,
+you do not ride the rail instead of the charger.  The maidens whose pure
+name you so yearn to sully are of noble birth, and if they appear to
+complain of you----"
+
+"Then I will proclaim the truth," Siebenburg retorted, "and the Court of
+Love and Pursuivant at Arms will deprive you, the base seducer, of the
+right to enter the lists rather than me, my handsome knight!"
+
+"So be it," replied Heinz quietly.  "You can discuss the other points
+with my herald.  Wolff Eysvogel, too--rely upon it--will challenge you,
+if you fulfil your base design."
+
+Then, turning his back upon Seitz without a word of farewell, he motioned
+the monk towards the open door of the antechamber, and letting him lead
+the way, closed it behind them.
+
+"He will come to you, you boaster!"  Siebenburg shouted contemptuously
+after the Swiss, and then turned to Biberli and the maid with a
+patronising question; but the former, without even opening his lips in
+reply, hastened to the door and, with a significant gesture, induced the
+knight to retire.
+
+Seitz submitted and hastened down the stairs, his eyes flashing as if he
+had won a great victory.  At the door of the house he grasped the hilt of
+his sword, and then, with rapid movements, twisted the ends of his
+mustache.  The surprise he had given the insolent Swiss by the discovery
+of his love messenger--it had acted like a spell--could not have
+succeeded better.  And what had Schorlin alleged in justification?
+Nothing, absolutely nothing at all.  Wolff Eysvogel's herald should
+challenge the Swiss, not him, who meant to open the deceived lover's
+eyes concerning his betrothed bride.
+
+He eagerly anticipated the joust and the sword combat with Heinz.  The
+sharper the herald's conditions the better.  He had hurled more powerful
+foes than the Swiss from the saddle, and from knightly "courtoisie" not
+even used his strength without consideration.  Heinz Schorlin should feel
+it.
+
+He gazed around him like a victor, and throwing his head back haughtily
+he went down the Bindergasse, this time past the Franciscan monastery
+towards the Town Hall and the fish market.  Eber, the sword cutler, lived
+there and, spite of the large sum he owed him, Seitz wished to talk with
+him about the sharp weapons he needed for the joust.  On his way he gave
+his imagination free course.  It showed him his impetuous onset, his
+enemy's fall in the sand, the sword combat, and the end of the joust, the
+swift death of his hated foe.
+
+These pictures of the future occupied his thoughts so deeply that he
+neither saw nor heard what was passing around him.  Many a person for
+whom he forgot to turn aside looked angrily after him.  Suddenly he found
+his farther progress arrested.  The crier had just raised his voice to
+announce some important tidings to the people who thronged around him
+between the Town Hall and the Franciscan monastery.  Perhaps he might
+have succeeded in forcing a passage through the concourse, but when he
+heard the name "Ernst Ortlieb," in the monotonous speech of the city
+crier, he followed the remainder of his notice.  It made known to the
+citizens of Nuremberg that, since the thunderstorm of the preceding
+night, a maid had been missing from the house of the Honourable Herr
+Ernst Ortlieb, of the Council, a Swiss by birth, Katharina of Sarnen,
+called Katterle, a woman of blameless reputation.  Whoever should learn
+anything concerning the girl was requested to bring the news to the
+Ortlieb residence.
+
+What did this mean?
+
+If the girl had vanished at midnight and not returned to her employers
+since, she could scarcely have sought Heinz Schorlin as a messenger of
+love from Els.  But if she had not come to the Swiss from one of the Es,
+what proof did he, Seitz, possess of the guilt of his brother-in-law's
+bride?  How should he succeed in making Wolff understand that his beloved
+Els had wronged him if the maid was to play no part in proving it?
+Yesterday evening he had not believed firmly in her guilt; that very
+morning it had even seemed to him a shameful thing that he had cast
+suspicion upon her in the presence of others.  The encounter with the
+maid at the Swiss knight's lodgings had first induced him to insist on
+his accusation so defiantly.  And now?  If Heinz Schorlin, with the help
+of the Ortliebs, succeeded in proving the innocence of those whom he had
+accused, then--ah, he must not pursue that train of thought--then, at the
+lady's accusation, he might be deprived of the right to enter the lists
+in the tournament; then all the disgrace which could be inflicted upon
+the slanderous defamer of character threatened him; then Wolff would
+summon him to a reckoning, as well as Heinz Schorlin.  Wolff, whom he had
+begun to hate since, with his resistless arm of iron, he had exposed him
+for the first time to the malicious glee of the bystanders in the fencing
+hall.
+
+Yet it was not this which suddenly bowed his head and loudly admonished
+him that he had again behaved like a reckless fool.  Cowardice was his
+least fault.  He did not fear what might befall him in battle.  Whether
+he would be barred out from the lists was the terrible question which
+darkened the bright morning already verging towards noon.  He had charged
+Els with perfidy in the presence of others, and thereby exposed her, the
+plighted bride of a knight, to the utmost scorn.  And besides--fool that
+he was!--his brothers had again attacked a train of waggons on the
+highway and would soon be called to account as robbers.  This would
+certainly lead the Swiss and others to investigate his own past, and the
+Pursuivant at Arms excluded from joust and tourney whoever "injured trade
+or merchant."  What would not his enemy, who was in such high favour with
+the Emperor, do to compass his destruction?  But--and at the thought he
+uttered a low imprecation--how could he ride to the joust if his father-
+in-law closed his strong box which, moreover, was said to be empty?  If
+the old man was forced to declare himself bankrupt Siebenburg's creditors
+would instantly seize his splendid chargers and costly suits of armour,
+scarcely one half of which were paid for.  How much money he needed as
+security in case of defeat!  His sole property was debts.  Yet the
+thought seemed like an illumination--his wife's valuable old jewels could
+probably still be saved, and she might be induced to give him part of the
+ornaments for the tournament.  He need only make her understand that his
+honour and that of the twins were at stake.  Would that Heaven might
+spare his boys such hours of anxiety and self-accusation!
+
+But what was this?  Was he deluding himself?  Did his over-excited
+imagination make him hear a death knell pealing for his honour and his
+hopes, which must be borne to their grave?  Yet no!  All the citizens and
+peasants, men and women, great and small, who thronged the salt market,
+which he had just entered, raised their heads to listen with him; for
+from every steeple at once rang the mournful death knell which announced
+to the city the decease of an "honourable" member of the Council, a
+secular or ecclesiastical prince.  The mourning banner was already waving
+on the roof of the Town Hall, towards which he turned.  Men in the
+service of the city were hoisting other black flags upon the almshouse,
+and now the Hegelein--[Proclaimer of decrees]--in mourning garments,
+mounted on a steed caparisoned with crepe, came riding by at the head of
+other horsemen clad in sable, proclaiming to the throng that Hartmann,
+the Emperor Rudolph's promising son, had found an untimely end.  The
+noble youth was drowned while bathing in the Rhine.
+
+It seemed as if a frost had blighted a blooming garden.  The gay bustle
+in the market place was paralysed.  The loud sobs of many women blended
+with exclamations of grief and pity from bearded lips which had just been
+merrily bargaining for salt and fish, meat and game.  Messengers with
+crepe on their hats or caps forced a passage through the throng, and a
+train of German knights, priests, and monks passed with bowed heads,
+bearing candles in their hands, between the Town Hail and St. Sebald's
+Church towards the corn magazine and the citadel.
+
+Meanwhile dark clouds were spreading slowly over the bright-blue vault of
+the June sky.  A flock of rooks hovered around the Town Hall, and then
+flew, with loud cries, towards the castle.
+
+Seitz watched them indifferently.  Even the great omnipotent sovereign
+there had his own cross to bear; tears flowed in his proud palace also,
+and sighs of anguish were heard.  And this was just.  He had never wished
+evil to any one who did not injure him, but even if he could have averted
+this sore sorrow from the Emperor Rudolph he would not have stirred a
+finger.  His coronation had been a blow to him and to his brothers.
+Formerly they had been permitted to work their will on the highways, but
+the Hapsburg, the Swiss, had pitilessly stopped their brigandage.  Now
+for the first time robber-knights were sentenced and their castles
+destroyed.  The Emperor meant to transform Germany into a sheepfold,
+Absbach exclaimed.  The Siebenburg brothers were his faithful allies, and
+though they complained that the joyous, knightly clank of arms would be
+silenced under such a sovereign, they themselves took care that the loud
+battle shouts, cries of pain, and shrieks for aid were not hushed on the
+roads used for traffic by the merchants.  But this was not Seitz's sole
+reason for shrugging his shoulders at the expressions of the warmest
+sympathy which rose around him.  The Emperor was tenderly attached to
+Heinz Schorlin, and the man who was so kindly disposed to his foe could
+never be his friend.  Perhaps to-morrow Rudolph might behead his brothers
+and elevate Heinz Schorlin to still greater honors.  Seitz, whose eyes
+had overflowed with tears when the warder of his native castle lost his
+aged wife, who had been his nurse, now found no cause to grieve with the
+mourners.
+
+So he continued his way, burdened with his own anxieties, amid the tears
+and lamentations of the multitude.  The numerous retinue of servants in
+the Eysvogel mansion were moving restlessly to and fro; the news of the
+prince's death had reached them.  Herr Casper had left the house.  He was
+probably at Herr Ernst Ortlieb's.  If the latter had already learned what
+he, Seitz Siebenburg, had said at the gaming table of his daughter,
+perhaps his hand had dealt the first decisive blow at the tottering
+house where, so long as it stood, his wife and the twins would under
+any circumstances find shelter.  Resentment against the Swiss, hatred,
+and jealousy, had made him a knave, and at the same time the most
+shortsighted of fools.
+
+As he approached the second story, in which the nursery was situated and
+where he expected to find his wife, it suddenly seemed as if a star had
+risen amid the darkness.  If he poured out his heart to Isabella and let
+her share the terrible torture of his soul, perhaps it would awaken a
+tender sympathy in the woman who still loved him, and who was dearer to
+him than he could express.  Her jewels were certainly very valuable, but
+far more precious was the hope of being permitted to rest his aching head
+upon her breast and feel her slender white hand push back the hair from
+his anxious brow.  Oh, if misfortune would draw her again as near to him
+as during the early months of their married life and directly before it,
+he could rise from his depression with fresh vigour and transform the
+battle, now half lost, into victory.  Besides, she was clever and had
+power over the hearts of her family, so perhaps she might point out the
+pathway of escape, which his brain, unused to reflection, could not
+discover.
+
+His heart throbbed high as, animated by fresh hope, he entered the
+corridor from which opened the rooms which he occupied with her.  But his
+wish to find her alone was not to be fulfilled; several voices reached
+him.
+
+What was the meaning of the scene?
+
+Isabella, her face deadly pale, and her tall figure drawn up to its
+full height, stood before the door of the nursery with a stern, cold
+expression on her lovely lips, like a princess pronouncing sentence upon
+a criminal.  She was panting for breath, and before her, her mother, and
+her grandmother, Countess Cordula's pretty page, whom Siebenburg knew
+only too well, was moving to and fro with eager gestures.  He held in his
+hand the bunch of roses which Seitz had sent to his newly-won wife and
+darling as a token of reconciliation, and Siebenburg heard his clear,
+boyish tones urge: "I have already said so and, noble lady, you may
+believe me, this bouquet, which the woman brought us, was intended for my
+gracious mistress, Countess von Montfort.  It was meant to give her a
+fair morning greeting, and--Do not let this vex you, for it was done
+only in the joyous game of love, as custom dictated.  Ever since we came
+here your lord has daily honoured my countess with the loveliest flowers
+whose buds unfold in the region near the Rhine.  But my gracious
+mistress, as you have already heard, believes that you, noble lady, have
+a better right to these unusually beautiful children of the spring than
+she who last evening bade your lord behold in you, not in her, fair lady,
+the most fitting object of his homage.  So she sent me hither, most
+gracious madam, to lay what is yours at your feet."
+
+As he spoke, the agile boy, with a graceful bow, tried to place the
+flowers in Isabella's hand, but she would not receive the bouquet, and
+the abrupt gesture with which she pushed them back flung the nosegay on
+the floor.  Paying no further heed to it, she answered in a cold, haughty
+tone: "Thank your mistress, and tell her that I appreciated her kind
+intention, but the roses which she sent me were too full of thorns."
+Then, turning her back on the page, she advanced with majestic pride to
+the door of the nursery.
+
+Her mother and grandmother tried to follow, but Siebenburg pressed
+between them and his wife, and his voice thrilled with the anguish of a
+soul overwhelmed by despair as he cried imploringly: "Hear me, Isabella!
+There is a most unhappy misunderstanding here.  By all that is sacred to
+me, by our love, by our children, I swear those roses were intended for
+you, my heart's treasure, and for you alone."
+
+But Countess Rotterbach cut him short by exclaiming with a loud chuckle:
+"The unripe early pears will probably come from the fruit market to the
+housewife's hands later; the roses found their way to Countess von
+Montfort more quickly."
+
+The malicious words were followed like an echo by Frau Rosalinde's
+tearful "It is only too true.  This also!"
+
+The knight, unheeding the angry, upbraiding woman, hastened in pursuit
+of his wife to throw himself at her feet and confess the whole truth; but
+she, who had heard long before that Sir Seitz was paying Countess Cordula
+more conspicuous attention than beseemed a faithful husband, and who,
+after the happy hour so recently experienced, had expected, until the
+arrival of the page, the dawn of brighter, better days, now felt doubly
+abased, deceived, betrayed.
+
+Without vouchsafing the unfortunate man even a glance or a word, she
+entered the nursery before he reached her; but he, feeling that he must
+follow her at any cost, laid his hand on the lock of the door and tried
+to open it.  The strong oak resisted his shaking and pulling.  Isabella
+had shot the heavy iron bolt into its place.  Seitz first knocked with
+his fingers and then with his clenched fist, until the grandmother
+exclaimed: "You have destroyed the house, at least spare the doors."
+
+Uttering a fierce imprecation, he went to his own chamber, hastily thrust
+into his pockets all the gold and valuables which he possessed, and then
+went out again into the street.  His way led him past Kuni, the flower
+girl from whom he had bought the roses.  The beggar who was to carry them
+to his wife did not hear distinctly, on account of her bandaged head, and
+not understanding the knight, went to the girl from whom she had seen him
+purchase the blossoms to ask where they belonged.  Kuni pointed to the
+lodgings of the von Montforts, where she had already sent so many
+bouquets for Siebenburg.  The latter saw both the flower-seller and the
+beggar woman, but did not attempt to learn how the roses which he
+intended for his wife had reached Countess Cordula.  He suspected the
+truth, but felt no desire to have it confirmed.  Fate meant to destroy
+him, he had learned that.  The means employed mattered little.  It
+would have been folly to strive against the superior power of such an
+adversary.  Let ruin pursue its course.  His sole wish was to forget his
+misery, though but for a brief time.  He knew he could accomplish this by
+drink, so he entered the Mirror wine tavern and drained bumper after
+bumper with a speed which made the landlord, though he was accustomed to
+marvellous performances on the part of his guests, shake the head set on
+his immensely thick neck somewhat suspiciously.
+
+The few persons present had gathered in a group and were talking sadly
+about the great misfortune which had assailed the Emperor.  The universal
+grief displayed so hypocritically, as Seitz thought, angered him, and he
+gazed at them with such a sullen, threatening look that no one ventured
+to approach him.  Sometimes he stared into his wine, sometimes into
+vacancy, sometimes at the vaulted ceiling above.  He harshly rebuffed the
+landlord and the waiter who tried to accost him, but when the peasant's
+prediction was fulfilled and the thunderstorm of the preceding night
+was followed at midnight by one equally severe, he arose and left the
+hostelry.  The rain tempted him into the open air.  The taproom was so
+sultry, so terribly sultry.  The moisture of the heavens would refresh
+him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+The fury of the tempest had ceased, but the sky was still obscured by
+clouds.  A cool breeze blew from the northeast through the damp, heavy
+air.
+
+Heinz Schorlin was coming from the fortress, and after crossing the
+Diligengasse went directly towards his lodgings.  His coat of mail,
+spurs, and helmeted head were accoutrements for the saddle, yet he was on
+foot.  A throng of men, women, and children, whispering eagerly together,
+accompanied him.  One pointed him out to another, as if there was
+something unusual about him.  Two stalwart soldiers in the pay of the
+city followed, carrying his saddle and the equipments of his horse, and
+kept back the boys or women who boldly attempted to press too near.
+
+Heinz did not heed the throng.  He looked pale, and his thick locks,
+falling in disorder from under his helmet, floated around his face.  The
+chain armour on his limbs and his long surcoat were covered with mire.
+The young knight, usually so trim, looked disordered and, as it were,
+thrown off his balance.  His bright face bore the impress of a horror
+still unconquered, as he gazed restlessly into vacancy, and seemed to be
+seeking something, now above and now in the ground.
+
+The pretty young hostess, Frau Barbara Deichsler, holding her little
+three-year-old daughter by the hand, stood in front of the house in the
+Bindergasse where he lodged.  The knight usually had a pleasant or merry
+word for her, and a gay jest or bit of candy for Annele.  Nay, the young
+noble, who was fond of children, liked to toss the little one in his arms
+and play with her.
+
+Frau Barbara had already heard that, as Heinz was returning from the
+fortress, the lightning had struck directly in front of him, killing his
+beautiful dun charger, which she had so often admired.  It had happened
+directly before the eyes of the guard, and the news had gone from man to
+man of the incredible miracle which had saved the life of the young
+Swiss, the dearest friend of the Emperor's dead son.
+
+When Heinz approached the door Frau Barbara stepped forward with Annele
+to congratulate him that the dear saints had so graciously protected him,
+but he only answered gravely: "What are we mortals?  Rejoice in the
+child, Frau Barbara, so long as she is spared to you."
+
+He passed into the entry as he spoke, but Frau Deichsler hastily prepared
+to call his armour-bearer, a grey-bearded Swiss who had served the
+knight's father and slept away the hours not devoted to his duties or
+to the wine cup.  He must supply the place of Biberli, who had left the
+house a long time before, and for the first time in many years was
+keeping his master waiting.  But Heinz knew where he was, and while the
+armour-bearer was divesting him, awkwardly enough, of his suit of mail
+and gala attire, he was often seized with anxiety about his faithful
+follower, though many things with which the morning had burdened his soul
+lay nearer to his heart.
+
+Never had he been so lucky in gambling as last night in the Duke of
+Pomerania's quarters.  Biberli's advice to trust to the two and five had
+been repeatedly tested, and besides the estate of Tannenreuth, which
+Siebenburg had staked against all his winnings, he had brought home more
+gold than he had ever seen before.
+
+Yet he had gone to rest in a mood by no means joyous.  It was painful to
+him to deprive any one of his lands and home.  He had even resisted
+accepting Siebenburg's reckless stake, but his obstinate persistence and
+demand could not be opposed.  The calumnies by which the "Mustache" had
+assailed the innocent Els Ortlieb haunted him,  and many others had shown
+their indignation against the traducer.  Probably thirty gentlemen at the
+gaming table had been witnesses of these incidents, and if, to-morrow, it
+was in everybody's mouth that he, Heinz, had been caught at mid-night in
+an interview with the elder beautiful Ortlieb E, the fault was his, and
+he would be burdened with the guilt of having sullied the honour and name
+of a pure maiden, the betrothed bride of an estimable man.
+
+And Eva!
+
+When he woke in the morning his first thought had been of her.  She had
+seemed more desirable than ever.  But his relatives at home, and the
+counsel Biberli had urged upon him during their nocturnal wandering, had
+constantly interposed between him and the maiden whom he so ardently
+loved.  Besides, it seemed certain that the passion which filled his
+heart must end unhappily.  Else what was the meaning of this unexampled
+good luck at the gaming table?  The torture of this thought had kept him
+awake a long time.  Then he had sunk into a deep, dreamless sleep.  In
+the morning Biberli, full of delight, roused him, and displayed three
+large bags filled with florins and zecchins, the gains of the night
+before.
+
+The servant had begged to be permitted to count the golden blessing,
+which in itself would suffice to buy the right to use the bridge from the
+city of Luzerne twice over, and the best thing about which was that it
+would restore the peace of mind of his lady mother at Schorlin Castle.
+
+Now, in the name of all the saints, let him continue his life of liberty,
+and leave the somnambulist to walk over the roofs, and suffer Altrosen,
+who had worn her colour so patiently, to wed the countess.
+
+But how long the servitor's already narrow face became when Heinz, with a
+grave resolution new to Biberli, answered positively that no ducats would
+stray from these bags to Schorlin Castle.  If, last night, anxiety had
+burdened his mind like the corpse of a murdered man, these gains weighed
+upon his soul like the loathsome body of a dead cat.  Never in his whole
+life had he felt so poor as with this devil's money.  The witch-bait
+which Biberli had given him with the two and the five had drawn it out of
+the pockets of his fellow gamblers.  He would be neither a cut-purse nor
+a dealer in the black arts.  The wages of hell should depart as quickly
+as they came.  While speaking, he seized the second largest bag and gave
+it to the servant, exclaiming: "Now keep your promise to Katterle like an
+honest man.  The poor thing will have a hard time at her employer's.  I
+make but one condition: you are to remain in my service.  I can't do
+without you."
+
+While the armour-bearer, in the agile Biberli's place, was handing him
+the garments to be worn in the house, Heinz again remembered how the
+faithful fellow had thrown himself on his knees and kissed his master's
+hands and arms in the excess of his joyful surprise, and yet he had felt
+as if a dark cloud was shadowing the brightness of his soul.  The morning
+sun had shone so radiantly into his window, and Annele had come with such
+bewitching shyness to bring him a little bunch of lilies of the valley
+with a rose in the centre, and a pleasant morning greeting from her
+mother, that the cloud could not remain, yet it had only parted
+occasionally to close again speedily, though it was less dense and dark
+than before.
+
+Yet he had taken the child in his arms and looked down into the narrow
+street to show her the people going to market so gaily in the early
+morning.  But he soon put her down again, for he recognised in a horseman
+approaching on a weary steed Count Curt Gleichen, the most intimate
+friend of young Prince Hartmann and himself, and when he called to him he
+had slid from his saddle with a faint greeting.
+
+Heinz instantly rushed out of the house to meet him, but he had found him
+beside his steed, which had sunk on its knees, and then, trembling and
+panting, dragged itself, supported by its rider's hand, into the entry.
+There it fell, rolled over on its side, and stretched its limbs stiffly
+in death.  It was the third horse which the messenger had killed since he
+left the Rhine, yet he was sure of arriving too soon; for he had to
+announce to a father the death of his promising son.
+
+Heinz listened, utterly overwhelmed, to the narrative of the eye-witness,
+who described how Hartmann, ere he could stretch out a hand to save
+him, had been dragged into the depths by the waves of the Rhine.
+
+In spite of the sunny brightness of the morning the young Swiss had had a
+presentiment of some great misfortune, and had told himself that he would
+welcome it if it relieved him from the burden which had darkened his soul
+since the disgraceful good luck of the previous night.  Now it had
+happened, and how gladly he would have continued to bear the heaviest
+load to undo the past.  He had sobbed on his friend's breast like a
+child, accusing Heaven for having visited him with this affliction.
+
+Hartmann had been not only his friend but his pupil--and what a pupil!
+He had instructed him in horsemanship and the use of the sword, and
+during the last year shared everything with him and young Count Gleichen
+as if they were three brothers and, like a brother, the prince had
+constantly grown closer to his heart.  Had he, Heinz, accompanied
+Hartmann to the Rhine and been permitted to remain with him, neither or
+both would have fallen victims to the river!  And Hartmann's aged father,
+the noble man to whom he owed everything, and who clung with his whole
+soul to the beloved youth, his image in mind and person--how would the
+Emperor Rudolph endure this?  But a few months ago death had snatched
+from him his wife, the love of his youth, the mother of his children, the
+companion of his glorious career!  The thought of him stirred Heinz to
+the depths of his soul, and he would fain have hastened at once to the
+castle to help the stricken father bear the new and terrible burden
+imposed upon him.  But he must first care for the messenger of these
+terrible tidings who, with lips white from exhaustion, needed
+refreshment.
+
+Biberli, who saw and thought of everything, had already urged the hostess
+to do what she could, and sent the servant to the tailor that, when Heinz
+rode to the fortress, he might not lack the mourning--a tabard would
+suffice--which could be made in a few hours.
+
+Frau Barbara had just brought the lunch and promised to obey the command
+to keep the terrible news which she had just heard a secret from every
+one, that the rumor might not reach the fortress prematurely, when
+another visitor appeared--Heinz Schorlin's cousin, Sir Arnold Maier of
+Silenen, a tall, broad-shouldered man of fifty, with stalwart frame and
+powerful limbs.
+
+His grave, bronzed countenance, framed by a grey beard, revealed that he,
+too, brought no cheering news.  He had never come to his young cousin's
+at so early an hour.
+
+His intelligent, kindly grey eyes surveyed Heinz with astonishment.  What
+had befallen the happy-hearted fellow?  But when he heard the news which
+had wet the young knight's eyes with tears, his own lips also quivered,
+and his deep, manly tones faltered as he laid his heavy hands on the
+mourner's shoulders and gazed tearfully into his eyes.  At last he
+exclaimed mournfully: "My poor, poor boy!  Pray to Him to whom we owe all
+that is good, and who tries us with the evil.  Would to God I had less
+painful tidings for you!"
+
+Heinz shrank back, but his cousin told him the tidings learned from a
+Swiss messenger scarcely an hour before.  The dispute over the bridge
+toll had caused a fight.  The uncle who supplied a father's place to
+Heinz and managed his affairs--brave old Walther Ramsweg--was killed;
+Schorlin Castle had been taken by the city soldiery and, at the command
+of the chief magistrate, razed to the ground.  Wendula Schorlin, Heinz's
+mother, with her daughter Maria, had fallen into the hands of the city
+soldiers and been carried to the convent in Constance, where she and her
+youngest child now remained with the two older daughters.
+
+Heinz, deeply agitated by the news, exclaimed:  "Uncle Ramsweg, our kind
+second father, also in the grave without my being able to press his
+brave, loyal hand in farewell!  And Maria, our singing bird, our nimble
+little squirrel, with those grave, world-weary Sisters!  And my mother!
+You, too, like every one, love her, Cousin--and you know her.  She who
+has been accustomed to command, and to manage the house and the lands,
+who like a saint dried tears far and near amid trouble and deprivation--
+she, deprived of her own strong will, in a convent!  Oh, Cousin, Cousin!
+To hear this, and not be able to rush upon the rabble who have robbed us
+of the home of our ancestors, as a boy crushes a snail shell!  Can it be
+imagined?  No Castle Schorlin towering high above the lake on the cliff
+at the verge of the forest.  The room where we all saw the light of the
+world and listened to our mother's songs destroyed; the sacred chamber
+where the father who so lovingly protected us closed his eyes; the chapel
+where we prayed so devoutly and vowed to the Holy Virgin a candle from
+our little possessions, or, in the lovely month of May, brought flowers
+to her from our mother's little garden, the cliff, or the dark forest.
+The courtyard where we learned to manage a steed and use our weapons, the
+hall where we listened to the wandering minstrels, in ruins!  Gone, gone,
+all gone!  My mother and Maria weeping prisoners!"
+
+Here his cousin broke in to show him that love was leading him to look on
+the dark side.  His mother had chosen the convent for her daughter's
+sake; she was by no means detained there by force.  She could live
+wherever she pleased, and her dowry, with what she had saved, would be
+ample to support her and Maria, in the city or the country, in a style
+suited to their rank.
+
+This afforded Heinz some consolation, but enough remained to keep his
+grief alive, and his voice sounded very sorrowful as he added: "That
+lessens the bitterness of the cup.  But who will re build the ancient
+castle?  Who will restore our uncle?  And the Emperor, my beloved,
+fatherly master, dying of grief!  Our Hartmann dead!  Washed away like a
+dry branch which the swift Reuss seizes and hurries out of our sight!
+Too much, too hard, too terrible!  Yet the sun shines as brightly as
+before!  The children in the street below laugh as merrily as ever!"
+
+Groaning aloud, he covered his face with his hands, and those from whom
+he might have expected consolation were forced to leave him in the midst
+of the deepest sorrow; for the Swiss mail, which had come to Maier of
+Silenen as the most distinguished of his countrymen, was awaiting
+distribution, and Count Gleichen was forced to fulfill his sorrowful duty
+as messenger.  His friend Heinz had lent him his second horse, the black,
+to ride to the fortress.
+
+While Heinz, pursued by grief and care, sometimes paced up and down the
+room, sometimes threw himself into the armchair which Frau Barbara, to do
+him special honour, had placed in the sitting-room, the Minorite monk
+Benedictus, whom he had brought to Nuremberg, had come uninvited from the
+neighbouring monastery to give him a morning greeting.  The enthusiasm
+with which St. Francis had filled his soul in his early years had not
+died out in his aged breast.  He who in his youth had borne the
+escutcheon of his distinguished race in many a battle and tourney, as a
+knight worthy of all honour, sympathised with his young equal in rank,
+and found him in the mood to provide for his eternal salvation.  On the
+ride to Nuremberg he had perceived in Heinz a pious heart and a keen
+intellect which yearned for higher things.  But at that time the joyous
+youth had not seemed to him ripe for the call of Heaven; when he found
+him bowed with grief, his eyes, so radiant yesterday, swimming in tears,
+the conviction was aroused that the Omnipotent One Himself had taken him
+by the hand to lead the young Swiss, to whom he gratefully wished the
+best blessings, into the path which the noble Saint of Assisi himself had
+pointed out to him, and wherein he had found a bliss for which in the
+world he had vainly yearned.
+
+But his conversation with his young friend had been interrupted, first by
+the tailor who was to make his mourning garb, then by Siebenburg, and
+even later he had had no opportunity to school Heinz; for after Seitz had
+gone Biberli and Katterle had needed questioning.  The result of this was
+sufficiently startling, and had induced Heinz to send the servant and his
+sweetheart on the errand from which the former had not yet returned.
+
+When the young knight found himself alone he repeated what the monk had
+just urged upon him.  Then Eva's image rose before him, and he had asked
+himself whether she, the devout maiden, would not thank her saint when
+she learned that he, obedient to her counsel, was beginning to provide
+for his eternal salvation.
+
+Moved by such thoughts, he had smiled as he told himself that the
+Minorite seemed to be earnestly striving to win him for the monastery.
+The old man meant kindly, but how could he renounce the trade of arms,
+for which he was reared and which he loved?
+
+Then he had been obliged to ride to the fortress to wait upon the Emperor
+and tell him how deeply he sympathised with his grief.  But he was denied
+admittance.  Rudolph desired to be alone, and would not see even his
+nearest relatives.
+
+On the way home he wished to pass through the inner gate of the
+Thiergartnerthor into Thorstrasse to cross the milk market.  The violence
+of the noonday thundershower had already begun to abate, and he had
+ridden quietly forward, absorbed in his grief, when suddenly a loud,
+rattling crash had deafened his ears and made him feel as if the earth,
+the gate, and the fortress were reeling.  At the same moment his horse
+leaped upward with all four feet at once, tossed its clever head
+convulsively, and sank on its knees.
+
+Half blinded by the dazzling light he saw, and bewildered by the
+sulphurous vapour he noticed, Heinz nevertheless retained his presence of
+mind, and had sprung from the saddle ere the quivering steed fell on its
+side.  Several of the guard at the gate quickly hastened to his
+assistance, examined the horse with him, and found the noble animal
+already dead.  The lightning had darted along the iron mail on its
+forehead and the steel bit, and struck the ground without injuring Heinz
+himself.  The soldiers and a Dominican monk who had sought shelter from
+the rain in the guardhouse extolled this as a great miracle.  The people
+who had crowded to the spot were also seized with pious awe, and followed
+the knight to whom Heaven had so distinctly showed its favour.
+
+Heinz himself only felt that something extraordinary had happened.  The
+world had gained a new aspect.  His life, which yesterday had appeared so
+immeasurably long, now seemed brief, pitifully brief.  Perhaps it would
+end ere the sun sank to rest in the Haller meadows.  He must deem every
+hour that he was permitted to breathe as a gift, like the earnest money
+he, placed in the trainer's hand in a horse trade.  According to human
+judgment the lightning should have killed him as well as the horse.  If
+he still lived and breathed and saw the grey clouds drifting across the
+sky, this was granted only that he might secure his eternal salvation, to
+which hitherto he had given so little concern.  How grateful he ought to
+be that this respite had been allowed him--that he had not been snatched
+away unwarned, like Prince Hartmann, in the midst of his sins!
+
+Would not Eva feel the same when she learned what had befallen him?
+Perhaps Biberli would come back soon--he had been gone so long--and could
+tell him about her.
+
+Even before the thunderbolt had stirred the inmost depths of his being,
+when he was merely touched by his deep grief and the monk's admonition,
+he had striven to guide the servant and his sweetheart into the right
+path, and the grey-haired monk aided him.  The monastic life, it is true,
+would not have suited Biberli, but he had shown himself ready to atone
+for the wrong done the poor girl who had kept her troth for three long
+years and, unasked, went back with her to her angry master.
+
+Ere Heinz set forth on his ride to the fortress he had gone out declaring
+that he would prove the meaning of his truth and steadfastness, thereby
+incurring a peril which certainly gave him a right to wear the T and St
+on his long robe and cap forever.  He must expect to be held to a strict
+account by Ernst Ortlieb.  If the incensed father, who was a member of
+the Council, used the full severity of the law, he might fare even worse
+than ill.  But he had realised the pass to which he had brought his
+sweetheart, and the Minorite led his honest heart to the perception of
+the sin he would commit if he permitted her to atone for an act which she
+had done by his desire--nay, at his command.
+
+With the gold Heinz had given him, and after his assurance that he would
+retain him in his service even when a married man, he could, it is true,
+more easily endure being punished with her who, as his wife, would soon
+be destined to share evil with him as well as good.  He had also secured
+the aid of both his master and the Minorite, and had arranged an account
+of what had occurred, which placed his own crime and the maid's in a
+milder light.  Finally--and he hoped the best result from this--Katterle
+would bring the Ortliebs good news, and he was the very man to make it
+useful to Jungfrau Els.
+
+So he had committed his destiny to his beloved master, behind whom was
+the Emperor himself, to the Minorite, who, judging from his great age and
+dignified aspect, might be an influential man, St. Leodogar, and his own
+full purse and, with a heart throbbing anxiously, entered the street with
+the closely muffled Katterle, to take the unpleasant walk to the
+exasperated master and father.
+
+The morning had been rife with important events to Biberli also.  The
+means of establishing a household, the conviction that it would be hard
+for him to remain a contented man without the idol of his heart, and the
+still more important one that it would not be wise to defer happiness
+long, because, as the death of young Prince Hartmann had shown, and Pater
+Benedictus made still more evident, the possibility of enjoying the
+pleasures of life might be over far too speedily.
+
+He had been within an ace of losing his Katterle forever, and through no
+one's guilt save that of the man on whose truth and steadfastness she so
+firmly relied.  After Siebenburg's departure she had confessed with tears
+to him, his master, and the monk, what had befallen her, and how she had
+finally reached the Bindergasse and Sir Heinz Schorlin's lodgings.
+
+When, during the conflagration, fearing punishment, she had fled, she
+went first to the Dutzen pond.  Determined to end her existence, she
+reached the goal of her nocturnal and her life pilgrimage.  The
+mysterious black water with its rush-grown shore, where ducks quacked and
+frogs croaked in the sultry gloom, lay before her in the terrible
+darkness.  After she had repeated several Paternosters, the thought that
+she must die without receiving the last unction weighed heavily on her
+soul.  But this she could not help, and it seemed more terrible to stand
+in the stocks, like the barber's widow, and be insulted, spit upon by the
+people, than to endure the flames of purgatory, where so many others--
+probably among them Biberli, who had brought her to this pass--would be
+tortured with her.
+
+So she laid down the bundle which--she did not know why herself--
+she had brought with her, and took off her shoes as if she were going
+into the water to bathe.  Just at that moment she suddenly saw a red
+light glimmering on the dark surface of the water.  It could not be the
+reflection of the fires of purgatory, as she had thought at first.  It
+certainly did not proceed from the forge on the opposite shore, now
+closed, for its outlines rose dark and motionless against the moon.
+No--a brief glance around verified it--the light came from the burning of
+the convent.  The sky was coloured a vivid scarlet in two places, but the
+glow was brightest towards the southeastern part of the city, where St.
+Klarengasse must be.  Then she was overpowered by torturing curiosity.
+Must she die without knowing how much the fire had injured the newly
+built convent, on whose site she had enjoyed the springtime of love, and
+how the good Sisters fared?  It seemed  impossible,  and  her greatest
+fault for the first time proved a blessing.  It drew her back from the
+Dutzen pond to the city.
+
+On reaching the Marienthurm she learned that only a barn and a cow stable
+had b@en destroyed by the flames.  For this trivial loss she had suffered
+intense anxiety and been faithless to her resolution to seek death, which
+ends all fears.
+
+Vexed by her own weakness, she determined to go back to her employer's
+house and there accept whatever fate the saints bestowed.  But when she
+saw a light still shining through the parchment panes in the room
+occupied by the two Es, she imagined that Herr Ernst was pronouncing
+judgment upon Eva.  In doing so her own guilt must be recalled, and the
+thought terrified her so deeply that she joined the people returning from
+the fire, for whom the Frauenthor still stood open, and allowed the crowd
+to carry her on with them to St. Kunigunde's chapel in St. Lawrence's
+church; and when some, passing the great Imhof residence, turned into the
+Kotgasse, she followed.
+
+Hitherto she had walked on without goal or purpose, but here the question
+where to seek shelter confronted her; for the torchbearers who had
+lighted the way disappeared one after another in the various houses.
+Deep darkness suddenly surrounded her, and she was seized with terror.
+But ere the last torch vanished, its light fell upon one of the brass
+basins which hung in front of the barbers' shops.
+
+The barber!  The woman whom she had seen in the stocks was the widow of
+one, and the house where she granted the lovers the meeting, on whose
+account she had been condemned to so severe a punishment, was in the
+Kotgasse, and had been pointed out to her.  It must be directly opposite.
+The thought entered her mind that the woman who had endured such a
+terrible punishment, for a crime akin to her own, would understand better
+than any one else the anguish of her heart.  How could the widow yonder
+refuse her companion in guilt a compassionate reception!
+
+It was a happy idea, but she would never have ventured to rouse the woman
+from her sleep, so she must wait.  But the first grey light of dawn was
+already appearing in the eastern horizon on the opposite side of the
+square of St. Lawrence, and perhaps Frau Ratzer would open her house
+early.
+
+The street did honour to the name of Kotgasse--[Kot or koth-mire].
+Holding her dress high around her, Katterle waded across to the northern
+row of houses and reached the plank sidewalk covered with mud to her
+ankles; but at the same moment a door directly in front of her opened,
+and two persons, a man and a woman, entered the street and glided by; but
+they came from Frau Ratzer's--she recognised it by the bow-window above
+the entrance.  The maid hurried towards the door, which still stood open,
+and on its threshold was the woman to whom she intended to pay her early
+visit.
+
+Almost unable to speak, she entreated her to grant a poor girl, who did
+not know where to seek shelter at this hour, the protection of her house.
+
+The widow silently drew Katterle into the dark, narrow entry, shut the
+door, and led her into a neat, gaily ornamented room.  A lamp which was
+still burning hung from the ceiling, but Frau Ratzer raised the tallow
+candle she had carried to the door, threw its light upon her face, and
+nodded approvingly.  Katterle was a pretty girl, and the flush of shame
+which crimsoned her cheeks was very becoming.  The widow probably thought
+so, too, for she stroked them with her fat hand, promising, as she did
+so, to receive her and let her want for nothing if she proved an obedient
+little daughter.  Then she pinched the girl's arm with the tips of her
+fingers so sharply that she shrank back and timidly told the woman what
+had brought her there, saying that she was and intended to remain a
+respectable girl, and had sought shelter with Frau Ratzer because she
+knew what a sore disgrace she had suffered for the same fault which had
+driven her from home.
+
+But the widow, starting as if stung by a scorpion, denounced Katterle as
+an impudent hussy, who rightfully belonged in the stocks, to which the
+base injustice of the money-bags in the court had condemned her.  There
+was no room in her clean house for anyone who reminded her of this
+outrage and believed that she had really committed so shameful an act.
+Then, seizing the maid by the shoulders, she pushed her into the street.
+
+Meanwhile it had grown light.  The sun had just risen in the east above
+the square of St. Lawrence and spread a golden fan of rays over the azure
+sky.  The radiant spectacle did not escape the eyes of the frightened
+girl, and she rejoiced because it gave her the assurance that the
+terrifying darkness of the night was over.
+
+How fresh the morning was, how clear and beautiful the light of the young
+day!  And it shone not only on the great and the good, but on the lowly,
+the poor, and the wicked.  Even for the horrible woman within the sky
+adorned itself with the exquisite blue and glorious brilliancy.
+
+Uttering a sigh of relief she soon reached the Church of St. Lawrence,
+which the old sexton was just opening.  She was the first person who
+entered the stately house of God that morning and knelt in one of the
+pews to pray.
+
+This had been the right thing for her to do.  Dear Lord!  Where was there
+any maid in greater trouble, yet Heaven had preserved her from the death
+on a red-hot gridiron which had rendered St. Lawrence, whose name the
+church bore, a blessed martyr.  Compared with that, even standing in the
+pillory was not specially grievous.  So she poured out her whole soul to
+the saint, confessing everything which grieved and oppressed her, until
+the early mass began.  She had even confided to him that she was from
+Sarnen in Switzerland, and had neither friend nor countryman here in
+Nuremberg save her lover, the true and steadfast Biberli.  Yet no!  There
+was one person from her home who probably would do her a kindness, the
+wife of the gatekeeper in the von Zollern castle, a native of Berne, who
+had come to Nuremberg and the fortress as the maid of the Countess
+Elizabeth of Hapsburg, the present Burgravine.  This excellent woman
+could give her better counsel than any one, and she certainly owed the
+recollection of Frau Gertrude to her patron saint.
+
+After a brief thanksgiving she left the church and went to the fortress.
+
+As she expected, her countrywoman received her kindly; and after Katterle
+had confided everything to her, and in doing so mentioned Wolff Eysvogel,
+the betrothed husband of the elder of her young mistresses, Frau Gertrude
+listened intently and requested her to wait a short time.
+
+Yet one quarter of an hour after another elapsed before she again
+appeared.  Her husband, the Bernese warder, a giant of a man to whom the
+red and yellow Swiss uniform and glittering halberd he carried in his
+hand were very becoming, accompanied his wife.
+
+After briefly questioning Katterle, he exacted a solemn promise of
+secrecy and then motioned to her to follow him.  Meanwhile the maid had
+been informed how the duel between Wolff Eysvogel and Ulrich Vorchtel had
+ended, but while she still clasped her hands in horror, the Swiss had
+opened the door of a bright, spacious apartment, where Els Ortlieb's
+betrothed husband received her with a kind though sorrowful greeting.
+Then he continued his writing, and at last gave her two letters.  One, on
+whose back he drew a little heart, that she might not mistake it for the
+other, was addressed to his betrothed bride; the second to Heinz
+Schorlin, whom Wolff--no, her ears did not deceive her--called the future
+husband of his sister-in-law Eva.  At breakfast, which she shared with
+her country people and their little daughter, Katterle would have liked
+to learn how Wolff reached the fortress, but the gatekeeper maintained
+absolute silence on this subject.
+
+The maid at last, without hindrance, reached the Deichsler house and
+found Biberli (not) at home.  She ought to have returned to the Ortliebs
+in his company long before, but the knight still vainly awaited his
+servant's appearance.  He missed him sorely, since it did not enter his
+head that his faithful shadow, Biberli, knew nothing of the thunderbolt
+which had almost robbed him of his master and killed his pet, the dun
+horse.  Besides, he was anxious about his fate and curious to learn how
+he had found the Ortlieb sisters; for, though Eva alone had power to make
+Heinz Schorlin's heart beat faster, the misfortune of poor Els affected
+him more deeply as the thought that he was its cause grew more and more
+painful.
+
+Wolff's letter, which Katterle delivered to him, revealed young
+Eysvogel's steadfast love for the hapless girl.  In it he also alluded to
+his nocturnal interview with Heinz, and in cordial words admitted that he
+thought he had found in him a sincere friend, to whom, if to any one, he
+would not grudge his fair young sister-in-law Eva.  Then he described how
+the unfortunate duel had occurred.
+
+After mentioning what had excited young Ulrich Vorchtel's animosity, he
+related that, soon after his interview with Heinz, he had met young
+Vorchtel, accompanied by several friends.  Ulrich had barred his way,
+loading him with invectives so fierce and so offensive to his honour,
+that he was obliged to accept the challenge.  As he wore no weapon save
+the dagger in his belt, he used the sword which a German knight among
+Ulrich's companions offered him.  Calm in the consciousness that he had
+given his former friend's sister no reason to believe in his love, and
+firmly resolved merely to bestow a slight lesson on her brother, he took
+the weapon.  But when Ulrich shouted to the crusader that the blade he
+lent was too good for the treacherous hand he permitted to wield it, his
+blood boiled, and with his first powerful thrust all was over.
+
+The German knight had then introduced himself as a son of the Burgrave
+von Zollern and taken him to the castle, where, with his father's
+knowledge, the noble young Knight Hospitaller concealed him, and the
+point now was to show the matter, which was undoubtedly a breach of the
+peace, to the Emperor Rudolph in the right light.  The young Burgrave
+thought that he, Heinz Schorlin, could aid in convincing the sovereign,
+who would lend him a ready ear, that he, Wolff, had only drawn his sword
+under compulsion.  So truly as Heinz himself hoped to be a happy man
+through Eva's love, he must help him to bridge the chasm which, by his
+luckless deed, separated him from his betrothed bride.
+
+Heinz had had this letter read aloud twice.  Then when Biberli had gone
+and he rode to the fortress, he had resolved to do everything in his
+power for the young Nuremberg noble who had so quickly won his regard,
+but the sorely stricken imperial father had refused to see him, and
+therefore it was impossible to take any step in the matter.
+
+Yet Wolff's letter had showed that he believed him in all earnestness to
+be Eva's future husband, and thus strengthened his resolve to woo her as
+soon as he felt a little more independent.
+
+After the thunderbolt had killed the horse under him, and the old
+Minorite had again come and showed him that the Lord Himself, through the
+miracle He had wrought, had taken him firmly and swiftly by the hand as
+His chosen follower, it seemed to his agitated mind, when he took up the
+letter a second time, as though everything Wolff had written about him
+and Els's sister was not intended for him.
+
+Eva was happiness--but Heaven had vouchsafed a miracle to prove the
+transitoriness of earthly life, that by renunciation here he might attain
+endless bliss above.  Sacrifice and again sacrifice, according to the
+Minorite, was the magic spell that opened the gates of heaven, and what
+harder sacrifice could he offer than that of his love?  "Renounce!
+renounce!"  he heard a voice within cry in his ears as, with much
+difficulty, he himself read Wolff's letter, but whatever he might cast
+away of all that was his, he still would fail to take up his cross as
+Father Benedictus required; for even as an unknown beggar he would have
+enjoyed--this he firmly believed--in Eva's love the highest earthly
+bliss.  Yet divine love was said to be so much more rapturous, and how
+much longer it endured!
+
+And she?  Did not the holy expression of her eyes and the aspiration of
+her own soul show that she would understand him, approve his sacrifice,
+imitate it, and exchange earthly for heavenly love?  Neither could
+renounce it without inflicting deep wounds on the heart, but every drop
+of blood which gushed from them, the Minorite said, would add new and
+heavy weight to their claim to eternal salvation.
+
+Ay, Heinz would try to resign Eva!  But when he yielded to the impulse
+to read Wolff's letter again he felt like a dethroned prince whom some
+stranger, ignorant of his misfortune, praises for his mighty power.
+
+The visions of the future which the greyhaired monk conjured up, all that
+he told hint of his own regeneration, transformation, and the happiness
+which he would find as a disciple of St. Francis in poverty, liberty, and
+the silent struggle for eternal bliss, everything which he described with
+fervid eloquence, increased the tumult in the young knight's deeply
+agitated soul.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Deem every hour that he was permitted to breathe as a gift
+
+
+
+
+
+
+IN THE FIRE OF THE FORGE
+
+A ROMANCE OF OLD NUREMBERG
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+Volume 5.
+
+
+
+
+IN THE FIRE OF THE FORGE--PART II.
+
+CHAPTER 1.
+
+The vesper bells had already died away, yet Heinz was still listening
+eagerly to the aged Minorite, who was now relating the story of St.
+Francis, his breach with everything that he loved, and the sorrowful
+commencement of his life.  The monk could have desired no more attentive
+auditor.  Only the young knight often looked out of the window in search
+of Biberli, who had not yet returned.
+
+The latter had gone to the Ortlieb mansion with Katterle.
+
+The runaway maid, whose disappearance, at old Martsche's earnest request,
+had already been "cried" in the city, had no cause to complain of her
+reception; for the housekeeper and the other servants, who knew nothing
+of her guilt, greeted her as a favourite companion whom they had greatly
+missed, and Biberli had taken care that she was provided with answers to
+the questions of the inquisitive.  The story which he had invented began
+with the false report that a fire had broken out in the fortress.  This
+had startled Katterle, and attracted her to the citadel to aid her
+countrywoman and her little daughter.  Then came the statement that she
+spent the night there, and lastly the tale that in the morning she was
+detained in the Swiss warder's quarters by a gentleman of rank--perhaps
+the Burgrave himself--who, after he had learned who she was, wished to
+give her some important papers for Herr Ernst Ortlieb.  She had waited
+hours for them and finally, on the way home, chanced to meet Biberli.
+
+At first the maid found it difficult to repeat this patchwork of truth
+and fiction in proper order, but the ex-schoolmaster impressed it so
+firmly on his sweetheart's mind that at last it flowed from her lips as
+fluently as his pupils in Stanstadt had recited the alphabet.
+
+So she became among the other servants the heroine of an innocent
+adventure whose truth no one doubted, least of all the housekeeper, who
+felt a maternal affection for her.  Some time elapsed ere she could reach
+the Es; they were still with their mother, who was so ill that the leech
+Otto left the sick-room shaking his head.
+
+As soon as he had gone Biberli stopped Els, who had accompanied the
+physician outside the door of the sufferer's chamber, and earnestly
+entreated her to forgive him and Katterle--who stood at his side with
+drooping head, holding her apron to her eyes and persuade her father also
+to let mercy take the place of justice.
+
+But kind-hearted Els proved sterner than the maid had ever seen her.
+
+As her mother had been as well as usual when she woke, they had told her
+of the events of the previous night.  Her father was very considerate,
+and even kept back many incidents, but the invalid was too weak for so
+unexpected and startling a communication.  She was well aware of her
+excitable daughter's passionate nature; but she had never expected that
+her little "saint," the future bride of Heaven, would be so quickly fired
+with earthly love, especially for a stranger knight.  Moreover, the
+conduct of Eva who, though she entreated her forgiveness, by no means
+showed herself contritely ready to resign her lover, had given her so
+much food for thought that she could not find the rest her frail body
+required.
+
+Soon after these disclosures she was again attacked with convulsions,
+and Els thought of them and the fact that they were caused by Eva's
+imprudence, instigated by the maid, when she refused Biberli her
+intercession with her father in behalf of him and his bride, as he now
+called Katterle.
+
+The servitor uttered a few touching exclamations of grief, yet meanwhile
+thrust his hand into the pocket of his long robe and, with a courteous
+bow and the warmest message of love from her betrothed husband, whom
+Katterle had seen in perfect health and under the best care in the
+Zollern castle, delivered to the indignant girl the letter which Wolff
+had entrusted to the maid.  Els hurried with the missive so impatiently
+expected to the window in the hall, through which the sun, not yet
+reached by the rising clouds, was shining, and as it contained nothing
+save tender words of love which proved that her betrothed husband firmly
+relied upon her fidelity and, come what might, would not give her up, she
+returned to the pair, and hurriedly, but in a more kindly tone, informed
+them that her father was greatly incensed against both, but she would try
+to soften him.  At present he was in  his office with  Herr Casper
+Eysvogel; Biberli might wait in the kitchen till the latter went away.
+
+Els then entered the sick-chamber, but Biberli put his hand under his
+sweetheart's chin, bent her head back gently, and said: "Now you see how
+Biberli and other clever people manage.  The best is kept until the last.
+The result of the first throw matters little, only he who wins the last
+goes home content.  To know how to choose the bait is also an art.  The
+trout bites at the fly, the pike at the worm, and a yearning maiden at
+her lover's letter.  Take notice!  To-day, which began with such cruel
+sorrow, will yet have a tolerable end."
+
+"Nay," cried Katterle, nudging him angrily with her elbow, "we never had
+a day begin more happily for us.  The gold with which we can set up
+housekeeping--"
+
+"Oh, yes," interrupted Biberli, "the zecchins and gold florins are
+certainly no trifle.  Much can be bought with them.  But Schorlin Castle
+razed to the ground, my master's lady mother and Fraulein Maria held as
+half captives in the convent, to say nothing of the light-hearted Prince
+Hartmann and Sir Heinz's piteous grief--if all these things could be
+undone, child, I should not think the bag of gold, and another into the
+bargain, too high a price to pay for it.  What is the use of a house
+filled with fine furniture when the heart is so full of sorrow?  At home
+we all eat together out of a cracked clay dish across which a tinker had
+drawn a wire, with rude wooden spoons made by my father, yet how we all
+relished it!--what more did we want?"
+
+As he spoke he drew her into the kitchen, where he found a friendly
+reception.
+
+True, the Ortlieb servants were attached to their employers and sincerely
+sorry for the ill health of the mistress of the house, but for several
+years the lamentations and anxiety concerning her had been ceaseless.
+The young prince's death had startled rather than saddened them.  They
+did not know him, but it was terrible to die so young and so suddenly.
+They would not have listened to a merry tale which stirred them to
+laughter, but Biberli's stories of distant lands, of the court, of war,
+of the tournament, just suited their present mood, and the narrator was
+well pleased to find ready listeners.  He had so many things to forget,
+and he never succeeded better than when permitted to use his tongue
+freely.  He wagged it valiantly, too, but when the thunderstorm burst he
+paused and went to the window.  His narrow face was blanched, and his
+agile limbs moved restlessly.  Suddenly remarking, "My master will need
+me," he held out his hand to Katterle in farewell.  But as the zigzag
+flash of lightning had just been followed by the peal of thunder, she
+clung to him, earnestly beseeching him not to leave her.  He yielded,
+but went out to learn whether Herr Casper was still in the office, and
+in a short time returned, exclaiming angrily: "The old Eysvogel seems to
+be building his nest here!"
+
+Then, to the vexation of the clumsy old cook, whom he interrupted by his
+restless movements in the Paternosters she was repeating on her rosary,
+he began to stride up and down before the hearth.
+
+His light heart had rarely been so heavy.  He could not keep his thoughts
+from his master, and felt sure that Heinz needed him; that he, Biberli,
+would have cause to regret not being with him at this moment.  Had the
+storm destroyed the Ortlieb mansion he would have considered it only
+natural; and as he glanced around the kitchen in search of Katterle, who,
+like most of the others, was on her knees with her rosary in her hand,
+old Martsche rushed in, hurried up to the cook, shook her as if to rouse
+her from sleep, and exclaimed:  "Hot water for the blood-letting!  Quick!
+Our mistress--she'll slip through our hands."
+
+As she spoke, the young kitchen maid Metz helped the clumsy woman up, and
+Biberli also lent his aid.
+
+Just as the jug was filled, Els, too, hastened in, snatched it from the
+hand of Martsche, whose old feet were too slow for her, and hurried with
+it into the entry and up the stairs, passing her father, to whom she had
+called on the way down.
+
+Casper Eysvogel stood at the bottom of the steps, and called after her
+that it would not be his fault, but her father's, if everything between
+her and his son was over.
+
+She probably heard the words, but made no answer, and hastened as fast as
+her feet would carry her to her mother's bed.
+
+The old physician was holding the gasping woman in his arms, and Eva
+knelt beside the high bedstead sobbing, as she covered the dry, burning
+hand with kisses.
+
+When Ernst Ortlieb entered the chamber of his beloved wife a cold chill
+ran down his back, for the odour of musk, which he had already inhaled
+beside many a deathbed, reached him.
+
+It had come to this!  The end which he had so long delayed by tender love
+and care was approaching.  The flower which had adorned his youth and,
+spite of its broken stem, had grown still dearer and was treasured beyond
+everything else that bloomed in his garden, would be torn from him.
+
+This time no friendly potion had helped her to sleep through the noise
+of the thunderstorm.  Soon after the attack of convulsions the agitated,
+feeble sufferer had started up in terror at the first loud peal of
+thunder.  Fright followed fright, and when the leech came voluntarily to
+enquire for her, he found a dying woman.
+
+The bleeding restored her to consciousness for a short time, and she
+evidently recognised her husband and her children.  To the former she
+gave a grateful, tender glance of love, to Els an affectionate,
+confidential gesture, but Eva, her pride and joy, whom the past night had
+rendered a child of sorrow, claimed her attention most fully.
+
+Her kind, gentle eyes rested a long time upon her: then she looked toward
+her husband as if beseeching him to cherish this child with special
+tenderness in his heart; and when he returned the glance with another, in
+which all the wealth of his great and loyal love shone through his tears,
+her fever-flushed features brightened.  Memories of the spring of her
+love seemed to irradiate her last moments and, as her eyes again rested
+on Eva, her lips once more smiled with the bewitching expression, once
+her husband's delight, which had long deserted them.
+
+It seemed during this time as if she had forgotten the faithful nurse who
+for years had willingly sacrificed the pleasures of her days and the
+sleep of her nights, to lavish upon the child of her anxiety all that her
+mother-heart still contained, which was naught save love.
+
+Els doubtless noticed it, but with no bitter or sorrowful thoughts.  She
+and the beloved dying woman understood one another.  Each knew what she
+was to the other.  Her mother need not doubt, nor did she, that, whatever
+obstacles life might place in her pathway, Els would pursue the right
+course even without counsel and guidance.  But Eva needed her love and
+care so much just now, and when the sufferer gave her older daughter also
+a tender glance and vainly strove to falter a few words of thanks, Els
+herself replaced in Eva's the hand which her mother had withdrawn.
+
+Fran Maria nodded gently to Els, as if asking her sensible elder daughter
+to watch over her forsaken sister in her place.
+
+Then her eyes again sought her husband, but the priest, to whom she had
+just confessed, approached her instead.
+
+After the holy man had performed the duties of his office, she again
+turned her head toward Eva.  It seemed as though she was feasting her
+eyes on her daughter's charms.  Meanwhile she strove to utter what more
+she desired to say, but the bystanders understood only the words--they
+were her last: "We thought--should be untouched--But now Heaven----"
+
+Here she paused and, after closing her eyes for a time, went on in a
+lower but perfectly distinct tone: "You are good--I hope--the forge-fire
+of life--it is fortunate for you  The heart and its demands  The hap--pi
+--ness--which it--gave--me----  It ought--it must--you, too----"
+
+Whilst speaking she had again glanced towards her husband, then at the
+Abbess Kunigunde, who knelt beside him, and as the abbess met the look
+she thought, "She is entrusting the child to me, and desires Eva to be
+happy as one of us and the fairest of the brides of Heaven!"  Ernst
+Ortlieb, wholly overpowered by the deepest grief, was far from enquiring
+into the meaning of these last words of his beloved dying wife.
+
+Els, on the contrary, who had learned to read the sufferer's features and
+understood her even without words when speech was difficult, had watched
+every change in the expression of her features with the utmost attention.
+Without reflecting or interpreting, she was sure that the movements of
+her dying mother's lips had predicted to Eva that the "forge fire of
+life" would exert its purifying and moulding influence on her also, and
+wished that in the world, not in the convent, she might be as happy as
+she herself had been rendered by her father's love.
+
+After these farewell words Frau Maria's features became painfully
+distorted, the lids drooped over her eyes, there was a brief struggle,
+then a slight gesture from the physician announced to the weeping group
+that her earthly pilgrimage was over.
+
+No one spoke.  All knelt silently, with clasped hands, beside the couch,
+until Eva, as if roused from a dream, shrieked, "She will never come back
+again!" and with passionate grief threw herself upon the lifeless form to
+kiss the still face and beseech her to open her dear eyes once more and
+not leave her.
+
+How often she had remained away from the invalid in order to let her aunt
+point out the path for her own higher happiness whilst Els nursed her
+mother; but now that she had left her, she suddenly felt what she had
+possessed and lost in her love.  It seemed as if hitherto she had walked
+beneath the shadow of leafy boughs, and her mother's death had stripped
+them all away as an autumn tempest cruelly tears off the foliage.
+Henceforth she must walk in the scorching sun without protection or
+shelter.  Meanwhile she beheld in imagination fierce flames blazing
+brightly from the dark soot--the forge fire of life, to which the dead
+woman's last words had referred.  She knew what her mother had wished to
+say, but at the present time she lacked both the desire and the strength
+to realise it.
+
+For a time each remained absorbed by individual grief.  Then the father
+drew both girls to his heart and confessed that, with their mother's
+death life, already impoverished by the loss of his only son, had been
+bereft of its last charm.  His most ardent desire was to be summoned soon
+to follow the departed ones.
+
+Els summoned up her courage and asked: "And we--are we nothing to you,
+father?"
+
+Surprised by this rebuke, he started, removed his wet handkerchief from
+his eyes, and answered: "Yes, yes--but the old do not reckon  Ay, much is
+left to me.  But he who is robbed of his best possession easily forgets
+the good things remaining, and good you both are."
+
+He kissed his daughter lovingly as he spoke, as if wishing to retract the
+words which had wounded her; then gazing at the still face of the dead,
+he said: "Before you dress her, leave her alone with me for a time----
+There is a wild turmoil here and here"--he pointed to his breast and
+brow--"and yet  The last hours----There is so much to settle and consider
+in a future without her  With her, with her dear calm features before my
+eyes----"
+
+Here a fresh outburst of grief stifled his voice; but Els pointed to the
+image of the Virgin on the wall and beckoned to her sister.
+
+Wholly engrossed by her own sorrow, Eva had scarcely heeded her father's
+words, and now impetuously refused to leave her mother.  Herr Ernst,
+pleased by this immoderate grief for the one dearest to him, permitted
+her to remain, and asked Els to attend to the outside affairs which a
+death always brought with it.
+
+Els accepted the new duty as a matter of course and went to the door; but
+at the threshold she turned back, rushed to the deathbed, kissed the pure
+brow and closed eyelids of the sleeper, and then knelt beside her in
+silent prayer.  When she rose she clasped Eva, who had knelt and risen
+with her, in a close embrace, and whispered: "Whatever happens, you may
+rely on me."
+
+Then she consulted her father concerning certain arrangements which must
+be made, and also asked him what she should say to the maid's lover, who
+had come to beseech his forgiveness.
+
+"Tell him to leave me in peace!"  cried Herr Ernst vehemently.  Els tried
+to intercede for the servant, but her father pressed both hands over his
+ears, exclaiming: "Who can reach a decision when he is out of his senses
+himself?  Let the man come to-morrow, or the day after.  Whoever may
+call, I will see no one, and don't wish to know who is here."
+
+But the peace and solitude for which he longed seemed denied him.  A few
+hours after he left the chamber of death he was obliged to go to the Town
+Hall on business which could not be deferred; and when, shortly before
+sunset, he returned home and locked himself into his own room, old
+Eysvogel again appeared.
+
+He looked pale and agitated, and ordered the manservant--who denied him
+admittance as he had been directed--to call Jungfrau Els.  His voice
+trembled as he entreated her to persuade her father to see him again.
+The matter in question was the final decision of the fate of his ancient
+house, of Wolff, and also her own and her marriage with his son.  Perhaps
+the death of his beloved wife might render her father's mood more gentle.
+He did not yet know all  Now he must learn it.  If he again said "No," it
+would seal the ruin of the Eysvogel firm.
+
+How imploringly he could plead! how humbly the words fell from the old
+merchant's lips, moving Els to her inmost heart as she remembered the
+curt inflexibility with which, only yesterday, this arrogant man, in that
+very spot, had refused any connection with the Ortliebs!  How much it
+must cost him to bow his stiff neck before her, who was so much younger,
+and approach her father, whose heart he had so pitilessly trampled under
+foot, in the character of a supplicant for aid, perhaps a beggar!
+
+Besides, Wolff was his son!
+
+Whatever wrong the father had done her she must forget it, and the task
+was not difficult; for now--she felt it--no matter from what motive, he
+honestly desired to unite her to his son.  If her lover now led her
+through the door adorned with the huge, showy escutcheon, she would no
+longer come as a person unwillingly tolerated, but as a welcome helper-
+perhaps as the saviour of the imperilled house.  Of the women of the
+Eysvogel family she forbade herself to think.
+
+How touching the handsome, aristocratic, grey-haired man seemed to her in
+his helpless weakness!  If her father would only receive him, he would
+find it no easier than she to deny him the compassion he so greatly
+needed.
+
+She knocked at the lonely mourner's door and was admitted.
+
+He was sitting, with his head bowed on his hands, opposite to the large
+portrait of her dead mother in her bridal robes.  The dusk of the
+gathering twilight concealed the picture, but he had doubtless gazed long
+at the lovely features, and still beheld them with his mental vision.
+
+Els was received with a mournful greeting; but when Herr Ernst heard what
+had brought her to him, he fiercely commanded her to tell Herr Casper
+that he would have nothing more to do with him.
+
+Els interceded for the unfortunate man, begging, pleading, and assuring
+her father that she would never give up Wolff.  The happiness of her
+whole life was centred in him and his love.  If he refused the Eysvogels
+the aid besought by the old merchant who, in his humility, seemed a
+different man----
+
+Here her father indignantly broke in, ordering her to disturb him no
+longer.  But now the heritage of his own nature asserted itself in Els
+and, with an outburst of indignation, she pointed to the picture of her
+mother, whose kind heart certainly could not have endured to see a
+broken-hearted man, on whose rescue the happiness of her own child
+depended, turned from her door like an importunate beggar.
+
+At this the man whose locks had long been grey sprang from his chair with
+the agility of a youth, exclaiming in vehement excitement: "To embitter
+the hours devoted to the most sacred grief is genuine Eysvogel
+selfishness.  Everything for themselves!  What do they care for others?
+I except your Wolff; let the future decide what concerns him and you.
+I will stand by you.  But to hope for happiness and peace-nay, even a
+life without bitter sorrow for you from the rest of the kin--is to expect
+to gather sweet pears from juniper bushes.  Ever since your betrothal
+your mother and I have had no sleep, disturbed whenever we talked to each
+other about your being condemned to live under the same roof with that
+old devil, the countess, her pitiable daughter, and that worthless
+Siebenburg.  But within the past few hours all this has been changed.
+The table-cloth has been cut between the Eysvogels and the Ortliebs.  No
+power in the world can ever join it.  I have not told you what has
+happened.  Now you may learn that you----  But first listen, and then
+decide on whose side you will stand.
+
+"Early this morning I went to the session of the Council.  In the market-
+place I met first one member of it, then a second, third, and fourth;
+each asked me what had happened to the beautiful E, my lovely little
+daughter.  Gradually I learned what had reached their ears.  Yesterday
+evening, on his way home from here, the man outside, Casper Eysvogel,
+sullied your--our--good name, child, in a way  I have just learned the
+particulars.  He boasted, in the presence of those estimable old
+gentlemen, the Brothers Ebner, that he had flung at my feet the ring
+which bound you to his son.  You had been surprised at midnight, he said,
+in the arms of a Swiss knight, and that base scoundrel Siebenburg, his
+daughter's husband, dared at the gaming-table, before a number of knights
+and gentlemen--among them young Hans Gross, Veit Holzschuher, and others-
+to put your interview with the Swiss in so false a light that  No, I
+cannot bring my lips to utter it----
+
+"You need hear only this one thing more: the wretch said that he thanked
+his patron saint that they had discovered the jade's tricks in time.  And
+this, child, was the real belief of the whole contemptible crew!  But now
+that the water is up to their necks, and they need my helping hand to
+save them from drowning-now they will graciously take Ernst Ortlieb's
+daughter if he will give them his property into the bargain, that they
+may destroy both fortune and child.  No--a thousand times no!  It is not
+seemly, at this hour, to yield to the spirit of hate; but she who is
+lying in her last sleep above would not have counselled me by a single
+word to such suicidal folly.  I did not learn the worst until I went to
+the Council, or I would have turned the importunate fellow from the door
+this morning.  Tell the old man so, and add that Ernst Ortlieb will have
+nothing more to do with him."
+
+Here the deeply incensed father pointed to the door.
+
+Els had listened with eyes dilating in horror.  The result surpassed her
+worst fears.
+
+She had felt so secure in her innocence, and the countess had interceded
+for her so cleverly that, absorbed by anxieties concerning Eva, Cordula,
+and her mother, she had already half forgotten the disagreeable incident.
+
+Yet, now that her fair name was dragged through the mire, she could
+scarcely be angry with those who pointed the finger of scorn at her; for
+faithlessness to a betrothed lover was an offence as great as infidelity
+to a husband.  Nay, her friends were more ready to condemn a girl who
+broke her vow than a wife who forgot her duty.
+
+And if Wolff, in his biding-place in the citadel, should learn what was
+said of his Els, to whom yesterday old and young raised their hats in
+glad yet respectful greeting, would he not believe those who appealed to
+his own father?
+
+Yet ere she had fully realised this fear, she told herself that it was
+her duty and her right to thrust it aside.  Wolff would not be Wolff if
+even for a moment he believed such a thing possible.  They ought not,
+could not, doubt each other.  Though all Nuremberg should listen to the
+base calumny and turn its back upon her, she was sure of her Wolff.  Ay,
+he would cherish her with twofold tenderness when he learned by whom this
+terrible suffering had been inflicted upon her.
+
+Drawing a long breath, she again fixed her eyes upon her mother's
+portrait.  Had she now rushed out to tell the old man who had so cruelly
+injured her--oh, it would have lightened her heart!--the wrong he had
+done and what she thought of him, her mother would certainly have stopped
+her, saying: "Remember that he is your betrothed husband's father."  She
+would not forget it; she could not even hate the ruined man.
+
+Any effort to change her father's mood now--she saw it plainly--would be
+futile.  Later, when his just anger had cooled, perhaps he might be
+persuaded to aid the endangered house.
+
+Herr Ernst gazed after her sorrowfully as, with a gesture of farewell,
+she silently left the room to tell her lover's father that he had come in
+vain.
+
+The old merchant was waiting in the entry, where the wails of the
+servants and the women in the neighbourhood who, according to custom,
+were beating their brows and breasts and rending their garments, could be
+heard distinctly.
+
+Deadly pale, as if ready to sink, he tottered towards the door.
+
+When Els saw him hesitate at the top of the few steps leading to the
+entry, she gave him her arm to support him down.  As he cautiously put
+one foot after the other on the stairs, she wondered how it was possible
+that this man, whose tall figure and handsome face were cast in so noble
+a mould, could believe her to be so base; and at the same moment she
+remembered the words which old Berthold Vorchtel had uttered in her
+presence to his son Ulrich: "If anything obscure comes between you and a
+friend, obtain a clear understanding and peace by truth."
+
+Had the young man who had irritated his misjudged friend into crossing
+swords with him followed this counsel, perhaps he would have been alive
+now.  She would take it herself, and frankly ask Wolff's father what
+justified him in accusing her of so base a deed.
+
+The lamps were already lighted in the hall, and the rays from the central
+one fell upon Herr Casper's colourless face, which wore an expression of
+despair.  But just as her lips parted to ask the question the odour of
+musk reached her from the death-chamber, whose door Eva had opened.  Her
+mother's gentle face, still in death, rose before her memory, and she was
+forced to exert the utmost self-control not to weep aloud.  Without
+further reflection she imposed silence upon herself and--yesterday she
+would not have ventured to do it--threw her arm around Herr Casper's
+shoulders, gazed affectionately at him, and whispered: "You must not
+despair, father.  You have a faithful ally in this house in Els."
+
+The old man looked down at her in astonishment, but instead of drawing
+her closer to him he released himself with courteous coldness, saying
+bitterly: "There is no longer any bond between us and the Ortliebs,
+Jungfrau Els.  From this day forth I am no more your father than you are
+the bride of my son.  Your will may be good, but how little it can
+accomplish has unfortunately been proved."
+
+Shrugging his shoulders wearily as he spoke, he nodded a farewell and
+left the house.
+
+Four bearers were waiting outside with the sedan-chair, three servants
+with torches, and two stout attendants carrying clubs over their
+shoulders.  All wore costly liveries of the Eysvogel colours, and when
+their master had taken his seat in the gilded conveyance and the men
+lifted it, Els heard a weaver's wife, who lived near by, say to her
+little boy:  "That's the rich Herr Eysvogel, Fritzel.  He has as much
+money to spend every hour as we have in a whole year, and he is a very
+happy man."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Els went back into the house.
+
+The repulse which she had just received caused her bitter sorrow.  Her
+father was right.  Herr Casper had treated her kindly from a purely
+selfish motive.  She herself was nothing to him.
+
+But there was so much for her to do that she found little time to grieve
+over this new trouble.
+
+Eva was praying in the death-chamber for the soul of the beloved dead
+with some of the nuns from the convent, who had lost in her mother a
+generous benefactress.
+
+Els was glad to know that she was occupied; it was better that her sister
+should be spared many of the duties which she was obliged to perform.
+Whilst arranging with the coffin-maker and the "Hegelein," the sexton and
+upholsterer, ordering a large number of candles and everything else
+requisite at the funeral of the mistress of an aristocratic household,
+she also found time to look after her father and Countess Cordula, who
+was better.  Yet she did not forget her own affairs.
+
+Biberli had returned.  He had much to relate; but when forced to admit
+that nothing was urgent, she requested him to defer it until later, and
+only commissioned him to go to the castle, greet Wolff in her name, and
+announce her mother's death; Katterle would accompany him, in order to
+obtain admittance through her countryman, the Swiss warder.
+
+Els might have sent one of the Ortlieb servants; but, in the first place,
+the fugitive's refuge must be concealed, and then she told herself that
+Biberli, who had witnessed the occurrence of the previous evening, could
+best inform Wolff of the real course of events.  But when she gave him
+permission to tell her betrothed husband all that he had seen and heard
+the day before at the Ortlieb mansion, Biberli replied that a better
+person than he had undertaken to do so.  As he left his master, Sir Heinz
+was just going to seek her lover.  When she learned all that had befallen
+the knight, she would understand that he was no longer himself.  Els,
+however, had no time to listen, and promised to hear his story when he
+returned; but he was too full of the recent experience to leave it
+untold, and briefly related how wonderfully Heaven had preserved his
+master's life.  Then he also told her hurriedly that the trouble which
+had come upon her through Sir Heinz's fault burdened his soul.  Therefore
+he would not let the night pass without at least showing her betrothed
+husband how he should regard the gossip of idle tongues if it penetrated
+to his hiding-place.
+
+Els uttered a sigh of relief.  Surely Wolff must trust her!  Yet what
+viciously coloured reports might reach him from the Eysvogels!  Now that
+he would learn the actual truth from the most credible eye-witnesses she
+no longer dreaded even the worst calumny.
+
+No one appeared at supper except her father.  Eva had begged to be
+excused.  She wished to remain undisturbed; but the world, with rude yet
+beneficent hand, interrupted even her surrender to her grief for her
+mother.
+
+The tailor, who protested that, owing to the mourning for young Prince
+Hartmann, he had fairly "stolen" this hour for the beautiful Ortlieb
+sisters, came with his assistant, and at the same time a messenger
+arrived from the cloth-house in the market-place bringing the packages of
+white stuffs for selection.  Then it was necessary to decide upon the
+pattern and material; the sisters must appear in mourning the next
+morning at the consecration, and later at the mass for the dead.
+
+Eva had turned to these worldly matters with sincere repugnance, but Els
+would not release her from giving them due attention.
+
+It was well for her tortured soul and the poor eyes reddened by weeping.
+But when she again knelt in the chamber of death beside her dear nuns and
+saw the grey robe, which they all wore, the wish to don one, which she
+had so often cherished, again awoke.  No other was more pleasing to her
+Heavenly Bridegroom, and she forbade herself in this hour to think of the
+only person for whose sake she would gladly have adorned herself.  Yet
+the struggle to forget him constantly recalled him to her mind, no matter
+how earnestly she strove to shut out his image whenever it appeared.
+But, after her last conversation, must not her mother have died in the
+belief that she would not give up her love?  And the dead woman's last
+words?  Yet, no matter what they meant, here and now nothing should come
+between her and the beloved departed.  She devoted herself heart and soul
+to the memory of the longing for her.
+
+Grief for her loss, repentance for not having devoted herself faithfully
+enough to her, and the hope that in the convent her prayers might obtain
+a special place in the world beyond for the beloved sleeper, now revived
+her wish to take the veil.  She felt bound to the nuns, who shared her
+aspirations.  When her father came to send her to her rest and asked
+whether, as a motherless child, she intended to trust his love and care
+or to choose another mother who was not of this world, she answered
+quietly with a loving glance at the picture of St. Clare, "As you wish,
+and she commands."
+
+Herr Ernst kindly replied that she still had ample time to make her
+decision, and then again urged her to leave the watch beside the dead to
+the women who had been appointed to it and the nuns, who desired to
+remain with the body; but Eva insisted so eagerly upon sharing it that
+Els, by a significant gesture to her father, induced him to yield.
+
+She kept her sister away whilst the corpse was being laid out and the
+women were performing their other duties by asking Eva to receive their
+Aunt Christine, the wife of Berthold Pfinzing, who had hurried to the
+city from Schweinau as soon as she had news of her sister-in-law's death.
+
+Nothing must cloud the memory of the beloved sufferer in the mind of her
+child, and Els knew that Frau Christine had been a dear friend of the
+dead woman, that Eva clung to her like a second mother, and that nothing
+could reach her sister from her honest heart which would not benefit her.
+Nor was she mistaken, for the warm, affectionate manner in which the
+matron greeted the young girl restored her composure; nay, when Fran
+Christine was obliged to go, because her time was claimed by important
+duties, she would gladly have detained her.
+
+When Eva, in a calmer mood than before, at last entered the hall where
+her mother's body now lay in a white silk shroud on the snowy satin
+pillows, as she was to be placed before the altar for the service of
+consecration on the morrow, she was again overwhelmed with all the
+violence of the deepest grief; nay, the burning anguish of her
+soul expressed itself so vehemently that the abbess, who had returned
+whilst the sisters were still taking leave of their Aunt Christine, did
+not succeed in soothing her until, drawing her aside, she whispered:
+"Remember our saint, child.  He called everything, even the sorest agony,
+'Sister Sorrow'.  So you, too, must greet sorrow as a sister, the
+daughter of your heavenly Father.  Remember the supreme, loving hand
+whence it came, and you will bear it patiently."
+
+Eva nodded gratefully, and when grief threatened to overpower her she
+thought of the saint's soothing words, "Sister Sorrow," and her heart
+grew calmer.
+
+Els knew how much the emotions of the previous nights must have wearied
+her, and had permitted her to share the vigil beside the corpse only
+because she believed that she would be unable to resist sleep.  She had
+slipped a pillow between her back and that of the tall, handsome chair
+which she had chosen for a seat, but Eva disappointed her expectation;
+for whatever she earnestly desired she accomplished, and whilst Els often
+closed her eyes, she remained wide awake.  When sleep threatened to
+overpower her she thought of her mother's last words, especially one
+phrase, "the forge fire of life," which seemed specially pregnant with
+meaning.  Yet, ere she had reached any definite understanding of its
+true significance, the cocks began to crow, the song of the nightingale
+ceased, and the twittering of the other birds in the trees and bushes in
+the garden greeted the dawning day.
+
+Then she rose and, smiling, kissed Els, who was sleeping, on the
+forehead, told Sister Renata that she would go to rest, and lay down on
+her bed in the darkened chamber.
+
+Whilst praying and reflecting she had thought constantly of her mother.
+Now she dreamed that Heinz Schorlin had borne her in his strong arms out
+of the burning convent, as Sir Boemund Altrosen had saved the Countess
+von Montfort, and carried her to the dead woman, who looked as fresh and
+well as in the days before her sickness.
+
+When, three hours before noon, she awoke, she returned greatly refreshed
+to her dead mother.  How mild and gentle her face was even now; yet the
+dear, silent lips could never again give her a morning greeting and,
+overwhelmed by grief, she threw herself on her knees before the coffin.
+
+But she soon rose again.  Her recent slumber had transformed the
+passionate anguish into quiet sorrow.
+
+Now, too, she could think of external things.  There was little to be
+done in the last arrangement of the dead, but she could place the
+delicate, pale hands in a more natural position, and the flowers which
+the gardener had brought to adorn the coffin did not satisfy her.  She
+knew all that grew in the woods and fields near Nuremberg, and no one
+could dispose bouquets more gracefully.  Her mother had been especially
+fond of some of them, and was always pleased when she brought them home
+from her walks with the abbess or Sister Perpetua, the experienced old
+doctress of the convent.  Many grew in the forest, others on the brink of
+the water.  The beloved dead should not leave the house, whose guide and
+ornament she had been, without her favourite blossoms.
+
+Eva arranged the flowers brought by the gardener as gracefully as
+possible, and then asked Sister Perpetua to go to walk with her, telling
+her father and sister that she wished to be out of doors with the nun for
+a short time.
+
+She told no one what she meant to do.  Her mother's favourite flowers
+should be her own last gift to her.
+
+Old Martsche received the order to send Ortel, the youngest manservant in
+the household, a good-natured fellow eighteen years old, with a basket,
+to wait for her and Sister Perpetua at the weir.
+
+After the thunderstorm of the day before the air was specially fresh and
+pure; it was a pleasure merely to breathe.  The sun shone brightly from
+the cloudless sky.  It was a delightful walk through the meadows and
+forest over the footpath which passed near the very Dutzen pool, where
+Katterle the day before had resolved to seek death.  All Nature seemed
+revived as though by a refreshing bath.  Larks flew heavenward with a low
+sweet song, from amidst the grain growing luxuriantly for the winter
+harvest, and butterflies hovered above the blossoming fields.  Slender
+dragon-flies and smaller busy insects flitted buzzing from flower to
+flower, sucking honey from the brimming calyxes and bearing to others the
+seeds needed to form fruit.  The songs of finches and the twitter of
+white-throats echoed from many a bush by the wayside.
+
+In the forest they were surrounded by delightful shade animated by
+hundreds of loud and low voices far away and close at hand.  Countless
+buds were opening under the moss and ferns, strawberries were ripening
+close to the ground, and the delicate leafy boughs of the bilberry bushes
+were full of juicy green oared fruit.
+
+Near the weir they heard a loud clanking and echoing, but it had a very
+different effect from the noise of the city; instead of exciting
+curiosity there was something soothing in the regularity of the blows of
+the iron hammer and the monotonous croaking of the frogs.
+
+In this part of the forest, where the fairest flowers grew, the morning
+dew still hung glittering from the blossoms and grasses.  Here it was
+secluded, yet full of life, and amidst the wealth of sounds in which
+might be heard the tapping of the woodpecker, the cry of the lapwing, and
+the call of the distant wood-pigeon, it was so still and peaceful
+that Eva's heart grew lighter in spite of her grief.
+
+Sister Perpetua spoke only to answer a question.  She sympathised with
+Eva's thought when she frankly expressed her pleasure in every new
+discovery, for she knew for whom and with what purpose she was seeking
+and culling the flowers and, instead of accusing her of want of feeling,
+she watched with silent emotion the change wrought in the innocent child
+by the effort to render, in league with Nature, an act of loving service
+to the one she held dearest.
+
+True, even now grief often rudely assailed Eva's heart.  At such times
+she paused, sighing silently, or exclaimed to her companion, "Ah, if she
+could be with us!" or else asked thoughtfully if she remembered how her
+mother had rejoiced over the fragrant orchid or the white water-lily
+which she had just found.
+
+Sister Perpetua had taken part of the blossoms which she had gathered;
+but Ortel already stood waiting with the basket, and the house-dog,
+Wasser, which had followed the young servant, ran barking joyously to
+meet the ladies.  Eva already had flowers enough to adorn the coffin as
+she desired, and the sun showed that it was time to return.
+
+Hitherto they had met no one.  The blossoms could be arranged here in the
+forest meadow under the shade of the thick hazel-bushes which bordered
+the pine wood.
+
+After Eva had thrown hers on the grass, she asked the nun to do the same
+with her own motley bundle.
+
+Between the thicket and the road stood a little chapel which had been
+erected by the Mendel family on the spot where a son of old Herr Nikolaus
+had been murdered.  Four Frank robber knights had attacked him and the
+train of waggons he had ridden out to meet, and killed the spirited young
+man, who fought bravely in their defence.
+
+Such an event would no longer have been possible so near the city.  But
+Eva knew what had befallen the Eysvogel wares and, although she did not
+lack courage, she started in terror as she heard the tramp of horses'
+hoofs and the clank of weapons, not from the city, but within the forest.
+
+She hastily beckoned to her companion who, being slightly deaf had heard
+nothing, to hide with her behind the hazel-bushes, and also told the
+young servant, who had already placed the basket beside the flowers, to
+conceal himself, and all three strained their ears to catch the sounds
+from the wood.
+
+Ortel held the dog by the collar, silenced him, and assured his mistress
+that it was only another little band of troopers on their way from
+Altdorf to join the imperial army.
+
+But this surmise soon proved wrong, for the first persons to appear were
+two armed horsemen, who turned their heads as nimbly as their steeds,
+now to the right and now to the left, scanning the thickets along the
+road distrustfully.  After a somewhat lengthy interval the tall figure of
+an elderly man followed, clad in deep mourning.  Beneath his cap,
+bordered with fine fur, long locks fell to his shoulders, and he was
+mounted on a powerful Binzgau charger.  At his side, on a beautiful
+spirited bay, rode a very young woman whose pliant figure was extremely
+aristocratic in its bearing.
+
+As soon as the hazel-bushes and pine trees, which had concealed the noble
+pair, permitted a view of them, Eva recognised in the gentleman the
+Emperor Rudolph, and in his companion Duchess Agnes of Austria, his young
+daughter-in-law, whom she had not forgotten since the dance at the Town
+Hall.  Behind them came several mailed knights, with the emblems of the
+deepest mourning on their garments and helmets, and among those nearest
+to the Emperor Eva perceived--her heart almost stood still--the person
+whom she had least expected to meet here--Heinz Schorlin.
+
+Whilst she was gathering the flowers for her mother's coffin his image
+had almost vanished from her mind.  Now he appeared before her in person,
+and the sight moved her so deeply that Sister Perpetua, who saw her turn
+pale and cling to the young pine by her side, attributed her altered
+expression to fear of robber knights, and whispered, "Don't be troubled,
+child; it is only the Emperor."
+
+Neither the first horsemen-guards whom the magistrate, Berthold Pfinzing,
+Eva's uncle, had assigned to the sovereign without his knowledge, to
+protect him from unpleasant encounters during his early morning ride--
+nor the Emperor and his companions could have seen Eva whilst they were
+passing the chapel; but scarcely had they reached it when the dog Wasser,
+which had escaped from Ortel's grasp, burst through the hazel copse and,
+barking furiously, dashed towards the duchess's horse.
+
+The spirited animal leaped aside, but a few seconds later Heinz Schorlin
+had swung himself from the saddle and dealt the dog so vigorous a kick
+that it retreated howling into the thicket.  Meanwhile he had watched
+every movement of the bay, and at the right instant his strong hand had
+grasped its nostrils and forced it to stand.
+
+"Always alert and on the spot at the right time!" cried the Emperor, then
+added mournfully, "So was our Hartmann, too."
+
+The duchess bent her head in assent, but the grieving father pointed to
+Heinz, and added: "The boy owed his blithe vigour partly to the
+healthful Swiss blood with which he was born, but yonder knight, during
+the decisive years of life, set him the example.  Will you dismount,
+child, and let Schorlin quiet the bay?"
+
+"Oh, no," replied the duchess, "I understand the animal.  You have not
+yet broken the wonderful son of the desert of shying, as you promised.
+It was not the barking cur, but yonder basket that has dropped from the
+skies, which frightened him."
+
+She pointed, as she spoke, to the grass near the chapel where, beside
+Eva's flowers, stood the light willow basket which was to receive them.
+
+"Possibly, noble lady," replied Heinz, patting the glossy neck of the
+Arabian, a gift to the Emperor Rudolph from the Egyptian Mameluke Sultan
+Kalaun.  "But perhaps the clever creature merely wished to force his
+royal rider to linger here.  Graciously look over yonder, Your Highness;
+does it not seem as if the wood fairy herself had laid by the roadside
+for your illustrious Majesty the fairest flowers that bloom in field and
+forest, mere and moss?"
+
+As he spoke he stooped, selected from the mass of blossoms gathered by
+Eva those which specially pleased his eye, hastily arranged them in a
+bouquet, and with a respectful bow presented them to the duchess.
+
+She thanked him graciously, put the nosegay in her belt, and gazed at him
+with so warm a light in her eyes that Eva felt as if her heart was
+shrinking as she watched the scene.
+
+Even princesses, who were separated from him by so wide a gulf, could not
+help favouring this man.  How could she, the simple maiden whom he had
+assured of his love, ever have been able to give him up?
+
+But she had no time to think and ponder; the Emperor was already riding
+on with the Bohemian princess, and Heinz went to his horse, whose bridle
+was held by one of the troopers who followed the train.
+
+Ere he swung himself into the saddle again, however, he paused to
+reflect.
+
+The thought that he had robbed some flower or herb-gatherer of a portion
+of the result of her morning's work had entered his mind and, obeying a
+hasty impulse, he flung a glittering zecchin into the basket.
+
+Eva saw it, and every fibre of her being urged her to step forward, tell
+him that the flowers were hers, and thank him in the name of the poor for
+whom she destined his gift; but maidenly diffidence held her in check,
+although he gave her sufficient opportunity; for when he perceived the
+image of the Virgin in the Mendel chapel, he crossed himself, removed his
+helmet, and bending the knee repeated, whilst the others rode on without
+him, a silent prayer.  His brown locks floated around his head, and his
+features expressed deep earnestness and glowing ardour.
+
+Oh, how gladly Eva would have thrown herself on her knees beside him,
+clasped his hands, and--nay, not prayed, her heart was throbbing too
+stormily for that-rested her head upon his breast and told him that she
+trusted him, and felt herself one with him in earthly as well as heavenly
+love!
+
+Whoever prayed thus in solitude had a soul yearning for the loftiest
+things.  Others might say what they chose, she knew him better.  This
+man, from the first hour of their meeting, had loved her with the most
+ardent but also with the holiest passion; never, never had he sought her
+merely for wanton amusement.  Her mother's last wish would be fulfilled.
+She need only trust him with her whole soul, and leave the "forge fire of
+life" to strengthen and purify her.
+
+Now she remembered where the dying woman had heard the phrase.
+
+Her Aunt Christine had used it recently in her mother's presence.  Young
+Kunz Schurstab had fallen into evil ways in Lyons.  Every one, even his
+own father, had given him up for lost; but after several years he
+returned home and proved himself capable of admirable work, both in his
+father's business and in the Council.  In reply to Frau Ortlieb's enquiry
+where this transformation in the young man had occurred, her aunt
+answered:
+
+"In the forge fire of life."  Eva told herself that she had intentionally
+kept aloof from its flames, and in the convent, perhaps, they would never
+have reached her.  Yesterday they had seized upon her for the first time,
+and henceforward she would not evade them, that she might obey her mother
+and become worthy of the man praying silently yonder.  He owed to his
+heroic courage and good sword a renowned name; but what had she ever done
+save selfishly to provide for her own welfare in this world and the next?
+She had not even been strong enough to hold the head of the mother, to
+whom she owed everything and who had loved her so tenderly, when the
+convulsions attacked her.
+
+Even after she closed her eyes in death--she had noticed it--she had been
+kept from every duty in the household and for the beloved dead, because
+it was deemed unsuitable for her, and Els and every one avoided putting
+the serious demands of life between the "little saint" and her
+aspirations towards the bliss of heaven.  Yet Eva knew that she could
+accomplish whatever she willed to do, and instead of using the strength
+which she felt stirring with secret power in her fragile body, she had
+preferred to let it remain idle, in order to dwell in another world from
+that in which she had been permitted to prove her might.  The fire of the
+forge, by whose means pieces of worthless iron were transformed into
+swords and ploughshares, should use its influence upon her also.  Let it
+burn and torture her, if it only made her a genuine, noble woman, a woman
+like her Aunt Christine, from whom her mother had heard the phrase of
+"the forge fire of life," who aided and pointed out the right path to
+hundreds, and probably, at her age, had needed neither an Els nor an
+Abbess Kunigunde to keep her, body and soul, in the right way.  She loved
+both; but some impulse within rebelled vehemently against being treated
+like a child, and--now that her mother was dead--subjecting her own will
+to that of any other person than the man to whom she would have gladly
+looked up as a master.
+
+Whilst Heinz knelt in front of the chapel without noticing Sister
+Perpetua, who was praying before the altar within, these thoughts darted
+through Eva's brain like a flash of lightning.  Now he rose and went to
+his horse, but ere he mounted it the dog, barking furiously, again broke
+from the thicket close at her side.
+
+Heinz must have seen her white mourning robes, for her own name reached
+her ears in a sudden cry, and soon after--she herself could not have told
+how--Heinz was standing beside the basket amidst the flowers, with her
+hand clasped in his, gazing into her eyes so earnestly and sadly that he
+seemed a different person from the reckless dancer in the Town Hall,
+though the look was equally warm and tender.  Whilst doing so, he spoke
+of the deep wound inflicted upon her by her mother's death.  Fate had
+dealt him a severe blow also, but grief taught him to turn whither she,
+too, had directed him.
+
+Just at that moment the blast of the horn summoning the Emperor's train
+to his side echoed through the forest.
+
+"The Emperor!" cried Heinz; then bending towards the flowers he seized a
+few forget-me-nots, and, whilst gazing tenderly at them and Eva, murmured
+in a low tone, as if grief choked his utterance: "I know you will give
+them to me, for they wear the colour of the Queen of Heaven, which is
+also yours, and will be mine till my heart and eyes fail me."
+
+Eva granted his request with a whispered "Keep them"; but he pressed his
+hand to his brow and, as if torn by contending emotions, hastily added:
+"Yes, it is that of the Holy Virgin.  They say that Heaven has summoned
+me by a miracle to serve only her and the highest, and it often seems to
+me that they are right.  But what will be the result of the conflicting
+powers which since that flash of lightning have drawn one usually so
+prompt in decision as I, now here, now there?  Your blue, Eva, the hue of
+these flowers, will remain mine whether I wear it in honour of the
+Blessed Virgin, or--if the world does not release me--in yours.  She or
+you!  You, too, Eva, I know, stand hesitating at the crossing of two
+paths--which is the right one?  We will pray Heaven to show it to you and
+to me."
+
+As he spoke he swung himself swiftly into the saddle and, obeying the
+summons, dashed after his imperial master.
+
+Eva gazed silently at the spot where he had vanished behind a group of
+pine trees; but Ortel, who had gathered a few early strawberries for her,
+soon roused her from her waking dream by exclaiming, as he clapped his
+big hands: "I'll be hanged, Jungfrau Eva, if the knight who spoke to you
+isn't the Swiss to whom the great miracle happened yesterday!"
+
+"The miracle?" she asked eagerly, for Els had intentionally concealed
+what she heard, and this evidently had something to do with the
+"wonderful summons" of which Heinz had spoken without being understood.
+
+"Yes, a great, genuine miracle," Ortel went on eagerly.  "The lightning--
+I heard it from the butcher boy who brings the meat, he learned it from
+his master's wife herself, and now every child in the city knows it--the
+lightning struck the knight's casque during the thundershower yesterday;
+it ran along his armour, flashing brightly; the horse sank dead under him
+without moving a limb, but he himself escaped unhurt, and the mark of a
+cross can be seen in the place where the lightning struck his helmet."
+
+"And you think this happened to the very knight who took the flowers
+yonder?" asked Eva anxiously.
+
+"As certainly as I hope to have the sacrament before I die, Jungfrau
+Eva," the youth protested.  "I saw him riding with that lank Biberli,
+Katterle's lover, who serves him, and such noblemen are not found by the
+dozen.  Besides, he is one of those nearest to the Emperor Rudolph's
+person.  If it isn't he, I'll submit to torment----"
+
+"Fie upon your miserable oaths!" Eva interrupted reprovingly.  "Do you
+know also that the tall, stately gentleman with the long grey hair----"
+
+"That was the Emperor Rudolph!" cried Ortel, sure he was right.  "Whoever
+has once seen him does not forget him.  Everything on earth belongs to
+him; but when the knight took our flowers so freely just now as if they
+were his own, I thought  But there--there--there!  See for yourself,
+Jungfrau!  A heavy, unclipped yellow zecchin!"
+
+As he spoke he took the coin in his hand, crossed himself, and added
+thoughtfully: "The little silver coin, or whatever he flung in here--
+perhaps to pay for the flowers, which are not worth five shillings--has
+been changed into pure gold by the saint who wrought the miracle for him.
+My soul!  If many in Nuremberg paid so high for forage, the rich Eysvogel
+would leave the Council and go in search of wild flowers!"
+
+Eva begged the man to leave the zecchin, promising to give him another at
+home and half a pound in coppers as earnest money.  "This is what I call
+a lucky morning!"  cried Ortel.  But directly after he changed his tone,
+remembering Eva's white mourning robe and the object of their expedition,
+and his fresh voice sounded very sympathetic as he added: "If one could
+only call your lady mother back to life!  Ah, me!  I'd spend all my
+savings to buy for the saints as many candles as my mother has in her
+little shop, if that would change things."
+
+Whilst speaking he filled the basket with flowers, and the nun helped
+him.  Eva walked before them with bowed head.
+
+Could she hope to wed the man for whom Heaven had performed such a
+miracle?  Was it no sin to hope and plead that he would wear their common
+colour, not in honour of the Queen of Heaven, but of the lowly Eva, in
+whom nothing was strong save the desire for good?  Was not Heinz forcing
+her to enter into rivalry with one the most distant comparison with whom
+meant defeat?  Yet, no!  Her gracious Friend above knew her and her
+heart.  She knew with what tender love and reverence she had looked up to
+her from childhood, and she now confided the love in her heart to her who
+had shown herself gracious a thousand times when she raised her soul to
+her in prayer.
+
+Eva was breathing heavily when she emerged from the forest and stopped to
+wait until Sister Perpetua had finished her prayer in the chapel and
+overtook her.  Her heart was heavy, and when, in the meadow beyond the
+woods, the heat of the sun, which was already approaching the zenith,
+made itself felt, it seemed as if she had left the untroubled happiness
+of childhood behind her in the green thicket.  Yet she would not have
+missed this forest walk at any price.  She knew now that she had no rival
+save the one whom Heinz ought to love no less than she.  Whether they
+both decided in favour of the world or the cloister, they would remain
+united in love for her and her divine Son.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Outside the courtyard of the Ortlieb mansion Eva saw Biberli going
+towards the Frauenthor.  He had been with Els a long time, giving a
+report as frankly as ever.  The day before he said to Katterle: "Calm
+yourself, my little lamb.  Now that the daughters need you and me to
+carry secret messages, the father will leave us in peace too.  A member
+of the Council would be like the receiver of stolen goods if he allowed a
+man whom he deemed worthy of the stocks to render him many services."
+
+And Herr Ernst Ortlieb really did let him alone, because he was forced to
+recognise that Biberli and Katterle were indispensable in carrying on his
+daughter's intercourse with Wolff.
+
+Els had forgiven the clever fellow the more willingly the more consoling
+became the tidings he brought her from her betrothed bridegroom.
+Besides, she regarded it as specially fortunate that she learned through
+him many things concerning Heinz Schorlin, which for her sister's sake
+she was glad to know.
+
+True, it would have been useless trouble to try to extort from the true
+and steadfast Biberli even a single word which, for his master's sake, it
+would have been wiser to withhold, yet he discussed matters patiently,
+and told her everything that he could communicate conscientiously.  So,
+when Eva returned, she was accurately informed of all that had befallen
+and troubled the knight the day before.
+
+She listened sympathisingly to the servant's lamentation over the
+marvellous change which had taken place in Heinz since his horse was
+killed under him.  But she shook her head incredulously at Biberli's
+statement that his master seriously intended to seek peace in the
+cloister, like his two older sisters; yet at the man's animated
+description of how Father Benedictus had profited by Sir Heinz's mood
+to estrange him from the world, the doubt vanished.
+
+Biberli's assurance that he had often seen other young knights rush into
+the world with specially joyous recklessness, who had suddenly halted as
+if in terror and known no other expedient than to change the coat of mail
+for the monk's cowl, reminded her of similar incidents among her own
+acquaintances.  The man was right in his assertion that most of them had
+been directed to the monastery by monks of the Order of St. Francis,
+since the name of the Saint of Assisi and the miracles he performed had
+become known in this country also.  Whoever believed it impossible to see
+the gay Sir Heinz in a monk's cowl, added the experienced fellow, might
+find himself mistaken.
+
+He had intentionally kept silence concerning Sir Seitz Siebenburg's
+challenge and his master's other  dealings  with  the  "Mustache."  On
+the other hand, he had eagerly striven to inform Els of the minutest
+details of the reception he met with from her betrothed lover.  With what
+zealous warmth he related that Wolff, like the upright man he was, had
+rejected even the faintest shadow of doubt of her steadfastness and
+truth, which were his own principal virtues also.
+
+Even before Sir Heinz Schorlin's visit young Herr Eysvogel had known what
+to think of the calumnies which, it is true, were repeated to him.  His
+calm, unclouded courage and clear mind were probably best shown by the
+numerous sheets of paper he had covered with estimates, all relating to
+the condition of the Eysvogel business.  He had confided these documents
+also to him to be delivered to his father, and after discharging this
+duty he had come to her.  According to his custom, he had reserved the
+best thing for the last, but it was now time to give it to her.
+
+As he spoke he drew from the breast pocket of his long coat a wrought-
+iron rose.  Els knew it well; it had adorned the clasp of her lover's
+belt, and the unusual delicacy of the workmanship had often aroused her
+admiration.  What the gift was to announce she read on the paper
+accompanying it, which contained the following simple lines:
+
+         "The iron rude, when shaped by fire and blows,
+          Delights our eyes as a most beauteous rose.
+          So may the lies which strove to work us ill
+          But serve our hearts with greater love to fill."
+
+Biberli withdrew as soon as he had delivered the gift; his master was
+awaiting him on his return from his early ride with the Emperor; but Els,
+with glowing cheeks, read and reread the verse which brought such
+cheering consolation from her lover.  It seemed like a miracle that they
+recalled the words of her dying mother concerning the forge fire which,
+in her last moments, she had mentioned in connection with Eva's future.
+Here it had formed from rude iron the fairest of flowers.  Nothing
+sweeter or lovelier, the sister thought, could be made from her darling.
+But would the fire also possess the power to lead Eva, as it were, from
+heaven to earth, and transform her into an energetic woman, symmetrical
+in thought and deed?  And what was the necessity?  She was there to guide
+her and remove every stone from her path.
+
+Ah, if she should renounce the cloister and find a husband like her
+Wolff!  Again and again she read his greeting and pressed the beloved
+sheet to her lips.  She would fain have hastened to her mother's corpse
+to show it to her.  But just at that moment Eva returned.  She must
+rejoice with her over this beautiful confirmation of her hope, and as,
+with flushed cheeks and brow moist with perspiration, she stood before
+her, Els tenderly embraced her and, overflowing with gratitude, showed
+her her lover's gift and verse, and invited her to share the great
+happiness which so brightly illumined the darkness of her grief.  Eva,
+who was so weary that she could scarcely stand thought, like her sister,
+as Els read Wolff's lines aloud, of her mother's last words.  But the
+forge fire of life must not transform her into a rose; she would become
+harder, firmer, and she knew why and for whose sake.  Only yesterday, had
+she been so exhausted, nothing would have kept her, after a few brief
+words to prevent Els's disappointment, from lying down, arranging her
+pillows comfortably, and refreshing herself with some cooling drink; but
+now she not only succeeded in appearing attentive, but in sympathising
+with all her heart in her sister's happiness.  How delightful it was,
+too, to be able to give something to the person from whom hitherto she
+had only received.
+
+She succeeded so fully in concealing the struggle against the claims of
+her wearied body that Els, after joyously perceiving how faithfully her
+sister sympathised with her own delight, continued to relate what she had
+just heard.  Eva forced herself to listen and behave as if her account of
+Heinz Schorlin's wonderful escape and desire to enter a monastery was
+news to her.
+
+Not until Els had narrated the last detail did she admit that she needed
+rest; and when the former, startled by her own want of perception, urged
+her to lie down, she would not do so until she had put the flowers she
+had brought home into water.  At last she stretched herself on the couch
+beside her sister, who had so long needed sleep and rest, and a few
+minutes after the deep dreamless slumber of youth chained both, until
+Katterle, at the end of an hour, woke them.
+
+Both used the favourable moments which follow the awakening from a sound
+sleep to cherish the best thoughts and most healthful resolutions.  When
+Eva left her chamber she had clearly perceived what the last hours had
+taken and bestowed, and found a positive answer to the important question
+which she must now confront.
+
+Els, like her lover, would cling fast to her love, and strive with
+tireless patience to conquer whatever obstacles it might encounter,
+especially from the Eysvogel family.
+
+Before leaving home Eva adorned the beloved dead with the flowers,
+leaves, and vines which the gardener had brought and she herself had
+gathered, and at the church she put the last touches to this work so dear
+to her heart.  She gave the preference to the flowers which had been her
+mother's favourites, but the others were also used.  With a light hand
+and a delicate appreciation of harmony and beauty she interwove the
+children of the forest with those of the garden.  She could not be
+satisfied till every one was in the right place.
+
+Countess Cordula had insisted upon attending the consecration, but she
+had not known who cared for its adornment.  Yet when she stood in the
+church by the side of the open coffin she gazed long at the gentle face
+of the quiet sufferer, charming even in death, who on her bright couch
+seemed dreaming in a light slumber.  At last she whispered to Els: "How
+wonderfully beautiful!  Did you arrange it?"
+
+The latter shook her head, but Cordula added, as if soliloquising: "It
+seems as though the hands of the Madonna herself had adorned a sleeping
+saint with garden flowers, and child-angels had scattered over her the
+blossoms of the forest."
+
+Then Els, who hitherto had refused to talk in this place and this solemn
+hour, broke her silence and briefly told Cordula who had artistically and
+lovingly adorned her mother.
+
+"Eva?" repeated the countess, as if surprised, gazing at her friend's
+younger sister who, as the music of the organ and the alternate chanting
+had just begun, had already risen from her knees.  Cordula felt
+spellbound, for the young girl looked as fresh as a May rose and so
+touchingly beautiful in the deep, earnest devotion which filled her whole
+being, and the white purity of her mourning robes, that the countess did
+not understand how she could ever have disliked her.  Eva, with her up
+lifted eyes, seemed to be gazing directly into the open heavens.
+
+Cordula paid little attention to the sacred service, but watched the Es,
+as she liked to call the sisters, all the more closely.  The elder,
+though so overwhelmed with grief that she could not help sobbing aloud,
+did not cease to think of her dear ones, and from time to time gazed with
+tender sympathy at her father or with quiet sorrow at her sister.  Eva,
+on the contrary, was completely absorbed by her own anguish and the
+memory of her to whom it was due.  The others appeared to have no
+existence for her.  Whilst the large tears rolled slowly down her cheeks,
+she sometimes gazed tenderly at the face of the beloved dead; sometimes,
+with fervent entreaty, at the image of the Virgin.  The pleading
+expression of the large blue eyes seemed to the countess to express such
+childlike need of help that the impetuous girl would fain have clasped
+her to her heart and exclaimed:
+
+"Wait, you lovely, obstinate  little orphan; Cordula, whom you dislike,
+is here, and though you don't wish to receive any kindness from her, you
+must submit.  What do I care for all the worshippers of a very poor idol
+who call themselves my 'adorers'?  I need only detain wandering pilgrims,
+or invite minnesingers to the castle, to shorten the hours.  And he for
+whom yonder child-angel's heart yearns--would he not be a fool to prefer
+a Will-o'-the-wisp like me?  Besides, it is easy for the peasant to give
+his neighbour the cloud which hangs over his field.  True, before the
+dance----But the past is past.  Boemund Altrosen is the only person who
+is always the same.  One can rely upon him, but I really need neither.
+If I could only do without the open air, the forest, horses, and hunting,
+I should suit convent walls far better than this Eva, whom Heaven itself
+seems to have created to be the delight of every man's heart.  We will
+see what she herself decides."
+
+Then she recognised Sir Boemund Altrosen in the congregation and pursued
+her train of thought.  "He is a noble man, and whoever thus makes himself
+miserable about me I ought to try to cure.  Perhaps I will yet do so."
+
+Similar reflections occupied her mind until she saw Heinz Schorlin
+kneeling, half concealed by a pillar, behind Boemund Altrosen.  He had
+learned from Biberli at what hour the consecration would take place, and
+his honest heart bade him attend the service for the dead woman who had
+so much to forgive him.
+
+The Ortlieb sisters did not see him, but Cordula unconsciously shook her
+head as she gazed.  Was this grave man, so absorbed in devotion that he
+did not vouchsafe those who surrounded him even a single glance, the
+Heinz whose delightful gaiety had captivated her heart?  The linden, with
+foliage withered by the autumn blasts, was more like the same tree in the
+spring when the birds were singing in its boughs, than yonder absorbed
+supplicant resembled the bold Heinz of a few days ago.  The old mocker,
+Chamberlain Wiesenthau, was right when he told her and her father that
+morning that the gay Swiss had been transformed by the miracle which had
+befallen him, like the Saul of holy writ, in the twinkling of an eye,
+into a Paul.  The calendar-makers were already preparing to assign a day
+to St. Schorlin.
+
+But she ought not to have joined in the boisterous laugh with which her
+father rewarded the old slanderer's news.  No!  The knight's experience
+must have made a deeper impression than the others suspected.
+
+Perhaps little Eva's love would result in her seeking with the sisters of
+St. Clare, and Heinz with the Franciscans, peace and a loftier passion.
+She was certainly to be pitied if love had taken as firm a hold upon her
+heart as Cordula thought she had perceived.
+
+Again her kind heart throbbed with tender sympathy, and when the sisters
+left the sedan chairs which had brought them back to the house, and
+Cordula met Eva in the corridor, she held out her hand with frank
+cordiality, saying, "Clasp it trustingly, girl.  True, you do not value
+it much, but it is offered to no one to whom Cordula does not mean
+kindly."
+
+Eva, taken by surprise, obeyed her request.  How frank and kindly her
+grey eyes were!  Cordula herself must be so, too, and, obeying a hasty
+impulse, she nodded with friendly warmth; then, as if ashamed of her
+change of mood, hurried past her up the stairs.
+
+The following day had been appointed for the mass for the dead in St.
+Sebald's Church.
+
+Els had told Eva that the countess had seen Heinz Schorlin at the
+consecration.  The news pleased her, and she expressed her joy so
+animatedly and spoke so confidently of the knight's love that Els felt
+anxious.  But she did not have courage to disturb her peace of mind, and
+her father's two sisters, the abbess, and Herr Pfinzing's wife, also said
+nothing to Eva concerning the future as they helped Els to arrange the
+dead woman's clothing, which was to be given to the poor, decide to what
+persons or charitable institutions it should be sent, and listened to her
+account of the facts that formed the foundation of the slanders against
+her, which were being more loudly and universally discussed throughout
+the city.
+
+Eva felt painfully how incapable of rendering assistance the others
+considered her, and her pride forbade her to urge it upon them.  Even her
+Aunt Kunigunde scarcely asked her a question.  It seemed to the abbess
+that the right hour for a decisive enquiry had not yet come, and wise
+Aunt Christine never talked with her younger niece upon religious
+subjects unless she herself requested her to do so.
+
+The mass for the dead was to be celebrated at an unusually early hour,
+for another, which would be attended by the whole city and all the
+distinguished persons, knights, and nobles who had come to the Reichstag,
+was to begin four hours  before noon.  This was for Prince Hartmann, who
+had been snatched away so prematurely.
+
+The Ortliebs, with all their kindred and servants, the members of the
+Council with their wives and daughters, and many burghers and burgher
+women, assembled soon after sunrise in St. Sebald's Church.
+
+Those present were almost lost in the spacious, lofty interior with its
+three naves.  At first there was little appearance of devotion, for the
+early arrivals had many things to ask and whisper to one another.  The
+city architect lowered his loud voice very little as he discussed with a
+brother in the craft from Cologne in what way the house of God, which
+originally had been built in the Byzantine style, could be at least
+partly adapted to the French pointed arch which was used with such
+remarkable success in Germany, at Cologne and Marburg.  They discussed
+the eastern choir, which needed complete rebuilding, the missing
+steeples, and the effect of the pointed arch which harmonised so
+admirably with the German cast of character, and did not cease until the
+music began.  Now the great number of those present showed how much love
+the dead woman had sowed and reaped.  The sisters, when they first looked
+around them, saw with grateful joy the father of the young man who had
+fallen in the duel with Wolff, old Herr Berthold Vorchtel, his wife, and
+Ursula.  On the other hand, the pew adorned with the Eysvogel coat of
+arms was still empty.  This wounded Els deeply; but she uttered a sigh
+of relief when--the introitus had just begun--at least one member of
+the haughty family to which she felt allied through Wolff appeared,
+Isabella Siebenburg, her lover's sister.  It was kind in her to come
+notwithstanding the absence of the others, and even her own husband.
+Els would return it to her and her twins.
+
+The music, whose heart-stirring notes accompanied the solemn service,
+deeply moved the souls of both sisters; but when, after the Gloria in
+excelsis Deo, the Cum Sancto Spiritu pealed forth, Eva, who, absorbed in
+devotion, had long since ceased to gaze around her, felt her sister's
+hand touch her arm and, following the direction of her glance, saw at
+some distance the man for whom her heart yearned, and the grave, devout
+knight yonder seemed far nearer to her than the gay companion who, in the
+mazes of the dance, had gazed so boldly into the faces of the men, so
+tenderly into those of the fair women.  How fast her heart throbbed!  how
+ardently she longed for the moment when he would raise his head and look
+across at her!  But when he moved, it was only to follow the sacred
+service and with it Christ's sacrifice upon the cross.
+
+Then Eva reproached herself for depriving her dead mother, to the repose
+of whose soul this hour was dedicated, of her just due, and she strove
+with all her power to regain the spirit of devotion which she had lost.
+But her lover sat opposite and, though she lowered her eyes, her earnest
+endeavour to concentrate her thoughts was futile.
+
+Her struggle was interrupted by the commencement of the Credo, and during
+this confession, which brings before the Christian in a fixed form what
+it is incumbent upon him to believe, the thought entered her mind of
+beseeching her whose faithful love had always guided her safely and for
+her good--the Queen of Heaven, to whom Heinz was as loyally devoted as
+she herself--that she might give her a sign whether she might continue to
+believe in his love and keep faith with him, or whether she should return
+to the path which led to a different form of happiness.
+
+During the singing of the Credo the heavenly Helper, for whose aid she
+hoped, made known to her that if, before the end of the Sanctus, which
+immediately followed the Credo, Heinz looked over at her and returned her
+glance, she might deem it certain that the Holy Virgin would permit her
+to hope for his love.  If he omitted to do so, then she would consider it
+decided that he renounced his earthly for his heavenly love, and try
+herself to give up the earthly one, in which, however, she believed she
+had recognised something divine.  The Credo closed and died away, the
+resonant harmonies of the Sanctus filled the wide space, and the knight,
+with the same devout attention, followed the sacred service in which, in
+the imagination of believers, the bread and wine is transformed into the
+body and blood of Christ, and a significant, painless ceremony represents
+the Saviour's bloody death upon the cross.
+
+Eva told herself that she ought to have followed with the same intentness
+as Heinz the mass celebrated for the soul of her own mother, but she
+could no longer succeed in doing so.  Besides, she was denied the
+privilege of looking freely and often at him upon whose movements
+depended the fate of her life.  Many glances were undoubtedly directed
+at her, the daughter of the dead woman in whose memory so many citizens
+had gathered; many, perhaps, had come solely to see the beautiful Es.
+Therefore propriety and modesty forbade her to watch Heinz.  She only
+ventured to cast a stolen glance at him.
+
+Every note of the Sanctus was familiar to her, and when it drew near the
+end Heinz retained the same position.  The fairest hope of her life must
+be laid with the flowers in her mother's coffin.
+
+Now the last bars of the Sanctus were commencing.  He had scarcely had
+time to change his attitude since her last secret glance at him, yet she
+could not resist the temptation, though it was useless, of looking at him
+once more.  She felt like the prisoner who sees the judge rise and does
+not know whether he intends to acquit or condemn him.  The city lute-
+player who led the choir was just raising his hands again to let them
+fall finally at the close of the Sanctus, and as she turned her eyes from
+him in the direction whence only too soon she was to be deprived of the
+fairest of rights, a burning blush suddenly crimsoned her cheeks.  Heinz
+Schorlin's eyes had met hers with a full, clear gaze.
+
+Eva pressed her clasped hands, as if beseeching aid, upon her bosom,
+which rose and fell beneath them with passionate emotion; and  No, she
+could not be mistaken; he had understood her, for his look expressed a
+wealth of sympathy, the ardent, sorrowful sympathy which only love knows.
+Then the eyes of both fell.  When their glances met again, the hosanna of
+the choir rang out to both like a shout of welcome with which liberated
+Nature exultingly greets the awakening spring; and to the deeply agitated
+knight, who had resolved to fly from the world and its vain pleasures,
+the hosanna which poured its waves of sound towards him, whilst the eyes
+of the woman he loved met his for the second time, seemed to revive the
+waning joy of existence.  The shout which had greeted the Saviour on his
+entry into Jerusalem reached the "called" man like a command from love to
+open wide the gate of the heart, and whether he willed it or not, love,
+amidst the solemn melody of the hosanna, made a new and joyous entrance
+into his grateful soul.  But during the Benedictus he was already making
+the first attempt to resist this emotion; and whilst Eva, first offering
+thanks for the cheering decision, and then earnestly striving to enter
+with her whole soul into the sacred service, modestly denied herself the
+pleasure of looking across at her lover, Heinz was endeavouring to crush
+the hopes which had again mastered the soul resolved on renunciation.
+
+Yet he found the conflict harder than he expected and as, at the close of
+the mass, the Dona nobis pacem (grant us peace) began, he joined
+beseechingly in the prayer.
+
+It was not granted, for even during the high mass for the soul of his
+dearest friend, which also detained the Ortliebs in church, he sought
+Eva's glance only too often, but always in vain.  Once only, when the
+Dona nobis pacem pealed forth again, this time for the prince, his eyes
+met those of the woman he loved.
+
+The young Duchess Agnes noticed whither he looked so often, but when
+Countess Cordula knelt beside the Ortliebs, cordially returned every
+glance of the knight's, and once even nodded slightly to him, the young
+Bohemian believed the report that Heinz Schorlin and the countess were
+the same as betrothed, and it vexed her--nay, spoiled the whole of the
+day which had just begun.
+
+When Heinz left the church Eva's image filled his heart and mind.  He
+went directly from the sanctuary to his lodgings; but there neither Frau
+Barbara, his pretty young hostess, nor Biberli would believe their eyes
+or ears, when the former heard in the entry, the latter in the adjoining
+room, the lash of a scourge upon naked limbs, and loud groans.  Both
+sounds were familiar to Barbel through her father, and to Biberli from
+the time of penance after his stay in Paris, and his own person.
+
+Heinz Schorlin, certainly for the first time in his life, had scourged
+himself.
+
+It was done by the advice of Father Benedictus but, although he followed
+the counsel so earnestly that for a long time large bloody stripes
+covered his back and shoulders, this remedy for sinful thoughts produced
+an effect exactly opposite to the one expected; for, whenever the places
+where the scourge had struck him so severely smarted under his armour,
+they reminded him of her for whose sake he had raised his hand against
+himself, and the blissful glance from her eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+During the days which succeeded the mass for the dead the Ortlieb mansion
+was very silent.  The Burgrave von Zollern, who still gladly concealed in
+his castle the brave companion in arms to whom he had entrusted the
+imperial standard on the Marchfield, when his own strong arm needed rest,
+had permitted Herr Ernst, as the young man's future father-in-law, to
+visit him.  Both were now in constant communication, as Els hoped, for
+the advantage of the Eysvogel business.
+
+Biberli did not cease acting as messenger between her and her future
+bridegroom; nay, he could now devote the lion's share of his days to it;
+his master, for the first time since he had entered his service, had left
+him.
+
+The Emperor had been informed of the great shock experienced by the young
+knight, but it was unnecessary; an eye far less keen would not have
+failed to note the change in Heinz Schorlin.
+
+The noble man who, even as a sovereign, retained the warmth of heart
+which had characterised him in his youth as a count, sincerely loved his
+blithe, loyal, brave young countryman, whose father he had valued, whose
+mother he highly esteemed, and who had been the dearest friend of the son
+whom death had so early snatched from him.
+
+He knew him thoroughly, and had watched his development with increasing
+warmth of sympathy, the more so as many a trait of character which he
+recognised in Heinz reminded him of his own nature and aspirations at his
+age.
+
+At the court of Frederick II he too had not always walked in the paths of
+virtue but, like Heinz, he had never let this merge into licentiousness,
+and had maintained the chivalrous dignity of his station even more
+strictly than the former.
+
+Neither had he at any time deviated from the sincere piety which he had
+brought from his home to the imperial court, and this was far more
+difficult in the train of the bold and intellectual Hohenstaufen, who was
+prone to blaspheme even the holiest things, than for Heinz.  Finally he,
+too, had lapsed into the mood which threatened to lead the light-hearted
+Schorlin into a monastery.
+
+The mighty impulse which, at that time, owing to the example and
+teachings of St. Francis in Italy, had taken possession of so many minds,
+also left its impress on his young soul, already agitated by sympathy
+with many an extravagant idea, many an opinion condemned by the Church.
+But ere he had taken even the first decisive step he was summoned home.
+His father had resolved to obtain on the sacred soil of Palestine the
+mercy of Heaven which was denied to the excommunicated Emperor, and
+desired his oldest son, Rudolph, to represent him at home.
+
+Before his departure he confided to his noble son his aspirations for the
+grandeur and enlargement of his house, and the youth of twenty-one did
+not venture to tell the dignified, far-sighted man, whom his subjects
+rightly surnamed "the Wise," his ardent desire to live henceforth solely
+for the salvation of his endangered soul.
+
+The sense of duty inherited from father and mother, which both had
+imprinted deeply upon his soul, and also the ambition that had been
+sedulously fostered at the court of the Emperor Frederick, had given him
+courage to repress forever the wish with which he had left the
+Hohenstaufen court.  The sacrifice was hard, but he made it willingly as
+soon as it became apparent to his reflective mind that not only his
+earthly but his heavenly Father had appointed the task of devoting the
+full wealth of his talents and the power of his will to the elevation of
+the house of Hapsburg.
+
+The very next year he stood in the place of his father who fell at
+Ascalon, deeply lamented.
+
+The arduous labour imposed by the management of his own great
+possessions, and the ceaseless endeavour to enlarge them, in accordance
+with the dead man's wishes, gave him no time to cherish the longing for
+the peace of the cloister.
+
+After his election as King of Germany, which had long been neglected
+under the government of sham emperors, increased the burden of his duties
+the more seriously he took them, and the more difficult the Bohemian king
+Ottocar, especially, rendered it for him to maintain the crown he had
+won, the more eagerly he strove, particularly after the victory of
+Marchfield had secured his sovereignty, to increase the power of his
+house.
+
+A binding duty, a difficult task, must also withhold Heinz Schorlin from
+the wish for whose fulfilment his fiery young soul now fervently longed,
+and which he knew was receiving powerful sustenance from a worthy and
+eloquent Minorite.
+
+Rudolph's own brother had died in peace as canon of Basel and Strasbourg;
+his sister was happy in her convent as a modest Dominican; but the young
+knight over whose welfare he had promised his mother to watch, and whom
+he loved, was not fitted for the monastic life.
+
+However earnest might be his intention--after the miracle which seemed to
+have been wrought specially for him--of renouncing the world, sooner or
+later the time must come when Heinz would long to return to it and the
+profession of arms, for which he was born and reared.  But if he could
+not be deterred from entering the modest order of the mendicant monks,
+who proudly called poverty their beloved bride, and should become the
+head of a bishopric while young, he would inevitably be one of those
+fighting prelates who seemed to the Emperor--who disliked halfway
+measures--neither knight nor priest, and with whom he had had many a
+quarrel.
+
+Opposition would merely have sharpened the young knight's desire;
+therefore his imperial patron had treated him as if he were ignorant of
+what was passing in his mind.  Without circumlocution, he commanded him,
+at the head of several bodies of Frank, Swabian, and Swiss troopers, whom
+he placed at his orders, to attack the brothers Siebenburg and their
+allies, and destroy their castle.  If possible, he was to bring them
+alive before the imperial judgment seat, and recover for the Eysvogels
+the merchandise of which they had been robbed.
+
+When Heinz, after the Emperor Rudolph had mentioned the latter name,
+earnestly entreated him to prevent Wolff's persecution, the sovereign
+promised to fulfil the wish as soon as the proper time came.  He himself
+desired to be gracious to the brave champion of Marchfield, who under
+great irritation had drawn his sword.  But when Heinz also asked the
+Emperor to send his friend Count Gleichen with him, the request was
+refused.  He must have the entire responsibility of the expedition which
+he commanded; for nothing except an important duty that no one would help
+him bear, gave promise of making him forget everything that usually
+engrossed his attention, and thus his new object of longing.  Besides,
+if he returned victorious his fame and reward would be undivided.
+
+The Hapsburg wished to try upon his young favourite the means which had
+availed to keep his own footsteps in the path which he desired to see
+Heinz follow: constant occupation associated with heavy responsibility,
+the success which brings with it the hope of future achievement and
+thereby rouses ambition.
+
+The wisdom and kindness of heart of the Emperor Rudolph, whom the grey-
+haired ruler's friends called "Wisdom," had certainly chosen the right
+course for Heinz.  But he who had always regarded every opportunity of
+drawing his sword for his master as a rare piece of good fortune, shrank
+in dismay from this, the most important and honourable charge that had
+ever been bestowed upon him.  It drew him away from the new path in which
+he did not yet feel at home, because the love he could not abjure
+constantly thrust him into the world, into the midst of the life and
+tumult from which Heaven itself commanded him to turn aside.
+
+The Minorite had scarcely been right in the assertion that only the first
+rounds of the ladder which leads to heavenly bliss were hard to climb.
+
+How quickly he had set his foot on the first step; but each upward stride
+was followed by one that dragged him down-nay, it had seemed advisable
+wholly to renounce the effort to ascend them, when the monk expected him
+to sever the bond which united him to the Emperor, and to tell the
+sovereign that he had entered the service of a greater Master, who
+commanded him to fight with other weapons than the sword and lance.
+
+Heinz had regarded this demand as a summons to turn traitor.  It did not
+seem to be the call of the devout, experienced director of souls to the
+disciples, but the Guelph to the Ghibelline, for Ghibelline he meant to
+remain.  Gratitude was a Christian virtue, too, and to refuse his service
+to the Emperor, who had been a father to him, to whom he had sworn
+fealty, and who had loaded him with benefits, could not be pleasing in
+the sight of any God.  He could never become a Guelph, he told his
+venerable friend.  The Emperor Rudolph was his beloved master, from whom
+he had received nothing but kindness.  He might as well be required to
+refuse obedience to his own father.
+
+"What Guelph?  What Ghibelline?" cried the Minorite in a tone of grave
+rebuke.  "The question is submission to the Most High, or to the world
+and its claims.  And why should not Heaven require, as you term it, that
+you should obey the Lord more willingly than your earthly father--you,
+whom the mercy of God summoned amidst thunder and lightning in the
+presence of thousands?  When Francis, our beloved model, the son of Pier
+Bernardone, was threatened with his father's curse if he did not turn
+back from the path which led to the highest goal, Francis restored all
+that he had received from him, except his last garment, and with the
+exclamation, 'Our Father who art in heaven, not Pier Bernardone,' he made
+the choice between his earthly and his heavenly Father.  From the former
+he would have received in abundance everything that the heart of a child
+of the world desires-wealth, paternal love, and the blessing which is
+said to build houses on earth.  But Francis preferred poverty and
+contempt, nay, even his father's curse and the reproach of ingratitude,
+receiving in exchange possessions of a nobler nature and more lasting
+character.  You have heard their names.  To obtain them, means to share
+the bliss of heaven.  And you"--he continued loudly, adopting for the
+first time a tone of authoritative severity--"if you really yearned for
+the greatest possessions, go to the fortress this very hour, and with the
+cry in your heart, though not on your lips, 'Our Father who art in
+heaven, not my gracious master and benefactor Rudolph,' inform the
+Emperor what higher Lord you have vowed to serve."
+
+This kindled a fierce conflict in Heinz Schorlin's soul, which perhaps
+might have ended in favour of a new career and St. Francis, had not
+Biberli, ere he reached a conclusion, rushed into the room shouting:
+"Seitz Siebenburg, the Mustache, has joined his brothers, and the Knight
+of Absbach, with several others--von Hirsdorf, von Streitberg, and
+whatever their names may be--have made common cause with them!  It is
+said that they also expected reinforcements from the Main, in order that
+the right to the road----"
+
+"Gossip, or positive news?"  interrupted Heinz, drawing himself up to his
+full height with the cool composure which he attained most easily when
+any serious danger threatened him.
+
+"As positive," replied his follower eagerly, "as that Siebenburg is the
+greatest rascal in Germany.  You will be robbed of your joust with him,
+for he'll mount the block instead of the steed, just as you predicted.
+The ladies will drive him from the lists with pins and rods, to say
+nothing of the scourging by which knight and squire will silence him.
+Oh, my lord, if you only knew!"
+
+"Well?" asked the knight anxiously.
+
+Then Biberli, paying no further heed to his master's orders never
+to mention the Ortlieb sisters again in his presence, burst forth
+indignantly: "It might move a stone to pity to know the wrong the
+monster has done Jungfrau Eva and her pure and virtuous sister, the loyal
+betrothed bride of a brave man--and the abominable names bestowed on the
+young ladies, whom formerly young and old, hat in hand, called the
+beautiful Es."
+
+Heinz stamped his foot on the floor and, half frantic, impetuously
+exclaimed, his blood boiling with honest indignation: "May the air he
+breathes destroy the slandering scoundrel!  May I be flayed on the rack
+if----"
+
+Here he was interrupted by a low exclamation of warning from the
+Minorite, who perceived in the knight's fierce oaths a lamentable
+relapse.  Heinz himself felt ashamed of the ungodly imprecations; yet he
+could by no means succeed in regaining his former composure as, drawing
+a long breath, he continued: "And those city hypocrites, who call
+themselves Christians, and build costly cathedrals for the good of their
+souls, are not ashamed--yes, holy Father, it is true--basely to deny our
+Lord and Saviour, who is Love itself, and deemed even the Magdalen worthy
+of His mercy, and rub their hands in fiendish malignity when unpunished
+they can sully the white robe of innocence, and drag pious, lovely
+simplicity to the pillory."
+
+"That is the very reason, my son," the monk interrupted soothingly, "that
+we disciples of the Saint of Assisi go forth to show the deluded what the
+Lord requires of them.  Therefore leave behind you the dust of the world,
+which defiles both body and soul, join us, who did so before you, and
+help, as one of our order, to make those who are perishing in sin and
+dishonouring the name of Christ better and purer, genuine Christians.
+In this hour of stress lay the sword out of your hand, and leave the
+steed----"
+
+"I shall ride forth, rely upon it, holy Father," Heinz burst forth
+afresh.  "With the sky-blue of the gracious Virgin, whom I love, on my
+shield and helmet, I will dash like the angel Michael amongst the
+Siebenburgs and their followers.  And let me tell you, holy Father--you
+who were once a knight also--if the Mustache, weltering in his blood at
+my feet, prays for mercy, I'll teach him----"
+
+"Son! son!" interrupted the monk again, this time raising his hands
+imploringly; but Heinz, paying no heed, exclaimed hoarsely:
+
+"Where did you get this news?"
+
+"From our Berne countryman at the fortress," replied the servant eagerly;
+"Brandenstein, Schweppermann, and Heidenab brought the tidings.  The
+Emperor received them at the gate of the citadel, where he was keeping
+watch ere he mounted his steed.  He heard him call to the messengers,
+'So our Heinz Schorlin will have a hard nut to crack.'"
+
+"Which he will crush after his own heart!"  cried Heinz, with flashing
+eyes.
+
+Then, forcing himself to be calm, he exclaimed in broken sentences,
+whilst Biberli was helping him put on his armour: "Your wish, reverend
+Father, is also mine.  The world--the sooner I can rid myself of it the
+better; yet what you describe in the most alluring terms is the peace in
+your midst, I--I--Never, never will my heart be calm until----"
+
+Here he paused suddenly, struck his breast swiftly and repeatedly with
+his fists, and continued eagerly: "Here, Father Benedictus, here are old
+and strong demands, which you, too, must once have known ere you offered
+the other cheek to the foe.  I know not what to call them, but until they
+are satisfied I shall never be yours.  They must be fulfilled; then, if
+in battle and bloodshed I can also forget the love which ever rises again
+when I think I have given it the deathblow, if Heaven still desires poor,
+heartsick Heinz Schorlin, it shall have him."
+
+The Minorite received the promise with a silent bend of the head.  He
+felt that he might seriously endanger the fulfilment of his ardent wish
+to gain this soul for heaven if he urged Heinz further now.  Patiently
+awaiting a more fitting season, he therefore contented himself with
+questioning him carelessly about the foe and his castles.
+
+The day was hot, and as Biberli laced the gambeson--the thick, quilted
+undergarment over which was worn the heavy leather coat covered with
+scales and rings--the monk exclaimed: "When the duty which you believe
+you owe to the world has been fulfilled, you will gratefully learn, as
+one of our order, how pleasant it is to walk with liberated soul in our
+light-brown cowl."
+
+But he ought to have repressed the remark, for Heinz cast a glance at him
+which expressed his astonishment at being so misunderstood, and answered
+with unyielding resolution: "If I long for anything in your order,
+reverend Father, it is not for easy tasks, but for the most difficult
+burden of all.  Your summons to take our Redeemer's cross upon me pleases
+me better."
+
+"And I, my son, believe that your words will be inscribed amongst those
+which are sure of reward," the monk answered; then with bowed head added
+"At that moment you were nearer the kingdom of heaven than the aged
+companion of St. Francis."
+
+But perceiving how impatiently Heinz shrugged his shoulders, and
+convinced that it would be advisable to leave him to himself for a time,
+the old man blessed him with paternal affection and went his way.  When
+the fiery youth had performed the task which now claimed all his powers,
+he hoped to find him more inclined to allow himself to be led farther
+along the path which he had entered.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+IN THE FIRE OF THE FORGE
+
+A ROMANCE OF OLD NUREMBERG
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+Volume 6.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+The Minorite had gone.  Biberli had noticed with delight that his master
+had not sought as usual to detain him.  The iron now seemed to him hot,
+and he thought it would be worth while to swing the hammer.
+
+The danger in which Heinz stood of being drawn into the monastery made
+him deeply anxious, and he had already ventured several times to oppose
+his design.  Life was teaching him to welcome a small evil when it barred
+the way to a greater one, and his master's marriage, even with a girl of
+far lower station than Eva Ortlieb, would have been sure of his favour,
+if only it would have deterred him from the purpose of leaving the world
+to which he belonged.
+
+"True," the servitor began, "in such heat it is easier to walk in the
+thin cowl than in armour.  The holy Father is right there.  But when it
+is necessary to be nimble, the knight has his dancing dress also.  Oh, my
+lord, what a sight it was when you were waltzing with the lovely Jungfrau
+Eva!  Look at Heinz Schorlin, the brave hero of Marchfield, and the girl
+with the angel face who is with him!' said those around me, as I was
+gazing down from the balcony.  And just think--I can't help speaking of
+it again--that now respectable people dare to point their fingers at the
+sisters and join in the base calumny uttered by a scoundrel!"
+
+Then Heinz fulfilled Biberli's secret longing to be questioned about the
+Es and the charges against them, and he forged the iron.
+
+Not from thirst, he said, but to ascertain what fruit had grown from the
+hellish seeds sown by Siebenburg, and probably the still worse ones of
+the Eysvogel women, he went from tavern to tavern, and there he heard
+things which made him clench his fists, and, at the Red Ox, roused him to
+such violent protest that he went out of the tap-room faster than he
+entered it.
+
+Thereupon, without departing far from the truth, he related what was said
+about the beautiful Es in Nuremberg.
+
+It was everywhere positively asserted that a knight belonging to the
+Emperor's train had been caught at the Ortlieb mansion, either in a
+nocturnal interview or while climbing into the window.  Both sisters were
+said to be guilty.  But the sharpest arrows were aimed at Els, the
+betrothed bride of the son of a patrician family, whom many a girl would
+have been glad to wed.  That she preferred the foreigner, whether a
+Bohemian, a Swabian, or even a Swiss, made her error doubly shameful in
+the eyes of most persons.
+
+Whenever Biberli had investigated the source of these evil tales, he had
+invariably found it to be Seitz Siebenburg, his retainers, the Eysvogel
+butler, or some man or maidservant in their employ.
+
+The Vorchtels, who, as he knew from Katterle, would have had the most
+reason to cherish resentment against the Ortliebs, had no share in these
+slanders.
+
+The shrewd fellow had discovered the truth, for after Seitz Siebenburg
+had wandered about in the open air during the storm, he again tried to
+see his wife.  But the effort was vain.  Neither entreaties nor threats
+would induce her to open the door.  Meanwhile it had grown late and, half
+frantic with rage, he went to the Duke of Pomerania's quarters in the
+Green Shield to try his luck in gaming.  The dice were again moving
+rapidly, but no one grasped the box when he offered a stake.  No more
+insulting rebuff could be imagined, and the repulse which he received
+from his peers, and especially the duke, showed him that he was to be
+excluded from this circle.
+
+He was taught at the same time that if he answered the challenge of the
+Swiss he would not be permitted to enter the lists.  Thus he confronted
+the impossibility of satisfying a demand of honour, and this terrible
+thought induced him to declare war against everything which honour had
+hitherto enjoined, and with it upon its guardians.
+
+If they treated him as a robber and a dishonoured man, he would behave
+like one; but those who had driven him so far should suffer for it.
+
+During the rest of the night and on the following day, until the gate was
+closed, he wandered, goblet in hand, only half conscious of what he was
+doing, from tavern to tavern, to tell the guests what he knew about the
+beautiful Es; and at every repetition of the accusations, of whose
+justice he was again fully convinced, his hatred against the sisters, and
+those who were their natural defenders and therefore his foes, increased.
+Every time he repeated the old charges an addition increasing the slander
+was made and, as if aided by some mysterious ally, it soon happened that
+in various places his own inventions were repeated to him by the lips of
+others who had heard them from strangers.  True, he was often
+contradicted, sometimes violently but, on the whole, people believed him
+more readily than would have happened in the case of any other person;
+for every one admitted that, as the brother-in-law of the older E, he had
+a right to express his indignation in words.
+
+Meanwhile his twins often returned to his memory.  The thought ought to
+have restrained him from such base conduct; but the idea that he was
+avenging the wrong inflicted upon their father's honour, and thus upon
+theirs, urged him further and further.
+
+Not until a long ride through the forest had sobered him did he see his
+conduct in the proper light.
+
+Insult and disgrace would certainly await him in the city.  His brothers
+would receive him kindly.  They were of his own blood and could not help
+welcoming his sharp sword.  Side by side with them he would fight and, if
+it must be, die.  A voice within warned him against making common cause
+with those who had robbed the family of which he had become a member, yet
+he again used the remembrance of his innocent darlings to palliate his
+purpose.  For their sakes only he desired to go to his death, sword in
+hand, like a valiant knight in league with those who were risking their
+lives in defence of the ancient privilege of their class.  They must not
+even suspect that their father had been shut out from the tournament, but
+grow up in the conviction that he had fallen as a heroic champion of the
+cause of the lesser knights to whom he belonged, and on whose neck the
+Emperor had set his foot.
+
+The assurance which Biberli brought Heinz Schorlin that Seitz Siebenburg
+had joined those whom he was ordered to punish, placed the task assigned
+him by the Emperor in a new and attractive light; but the servant's
+report, so far as it concerned the Ortlieb sisters, pierced the inmost
+depths of his soul.  He alone was to blame for the disgrace which had
+fallen upon innocent maidens.  By the destruction of the calumny he would
+at least atone for a portion of his sin.  But this did not suffice.  It
+was his duty to repair the wrong he had done the sisters.  How?  That he
+could not yet determine; for whilst wielding the executioner's sword in
+his master's service all these thoughts must be silenced; he could
+consider nothing save to fulfil the task confided to him by his imperial
+benefactor and commander in chief, according to his wishes, and show him
+that he had chosen wisely in trusting him to "crack the nut" which he
+himself had pronounced a hard one.  The yearning and renunciation, the
+reproaches and doubts which disturbed his life, until recently so easy,
+had disgusted him with it.  He would not spare it.  Yet if he fell he
+would be deprived of the possibility of doing anything whatever for those
+who through his imprudence had lost their dearest possession--their good
+name.  Whenever this picture rose before him it sometimes seemed as if
+Eva was gazing at him with her large, bright eyes as trustingly as during
+the pause in the dancing, and anon he fancied he saw her as she looked at
+her mother's consecration in her deep mourning before the altar.  At that
+time her grief and pain had prevented her from noticing how his gaze
+rested on her; yet never had she appeared more desirable, never had he
+longed more ardently to clasp her in his arms, console her, and assure
+her that his love should teach her to forget her grief, that she was
+destined to find new happiness in a union with him.
+
+This had happened to him just as he commenced the struggle for a new
+life.  Startled, he confessed it to his grey-haired guide, and used the
+means which the Minorite advised him to employ to attain forgetfulness
+and renunciation, but always in vain.  Had he, like St. Francis, rushed
+among briers, his blood would not have turned into roses, but doubtless
+fresh memories of her whose happiness his guilt had so suddenly and
+cruelly destroyed.
+
+For her sake he had already begun to doubt his vocation on the very
+threshold of his new career, and did not recover courage until Father
+Benedictus, who had communicated with the Abbess Kunigunde, informed him
+that Eva was wax in her hands, and within the next few days she would
+induce her niece to take the veil.
+
+This news had exerted a deep influence upon the young knight's soul.  If
+Eva entered the cloister before him, the only strong tie which united him
+to the world would be severed, and nothing save the thought of his mother
+would prevent his following his vocation.  Yet vehement indignation
+seized him when he heard from Biberli that the slanderer's malice would
+force Eva to seek refuge with the Sisters.
+
+No, a thousand times no!  The woman whom he loved should need to seek
+refuge from nothing for which Heinz Schorlin's desire and resolve alike
+commanded him to make amends.
+
+He must succeed in proving to the whole world that she and her sister
+were as pure as they lived in his imagination, either by offering in the
+lists the boldest defiance to every one who refused to acknowledge that
+both were the most chaste and decorous ladies in the whole world, and
+Eva, at the same time, the loveliest and fairest, or by the open
+interference of the Emperor or the Burggravine in behalf of the
+persecuted sisters, after he had confessed the whole truth to his
+exalted patrons.
+
+But when Biberli pointed out the surest way of restoring the endangered
+reputation of the woman he loved, and begged him to imagine how much more
+beautiful she would look in the white bridal veil than in her mourning
+Riese--[Kerchief of fine linen, arranged like a veil]--he ordered him to
+keep silence.
+
+The miracle wrought in his behalf forbade him to yearn for happiness and
+joy here below.  It was intended rather to open his eyes and urge him to
+leave the path which led to eternal damnation.  It pointed him to the
+kingdom of heaven and its bliss, which could be purchased only by severe
+sacrifice and the endurance of every grief which the Saviour had taken
+upon Himself.  But he could at least pay one honour to the maiden to whom
+he was so strongly attracted, and whose happiness for life was menaced by
+his guilt.  When he had assembled his whole force at Schwabach, he would
+go into battle with her colour on his helmet and shield.  The Queen of
+Heaven would not be angry with him if he wore her light blue to atone to
+the pure and pious Eva, who was hers even more fully than he himself, for
+the wrong inflicted upon her by spiteful malice.
+
+Heinz Schorlin's friends thought the change in his mood a natural
+consequence of the events which had befallen him; young Count Gleichen,
+his most intimate companion, even looked up to him since his "call" as a
+consecrated person.
+
+His grey-haired cousin, Sir Arnold Maier, of Silenen, was a devout man
+whose own son led a happy life as a Benedictine monk at Engelberg.  The
+sign by which Heaven had signified its will to Heinz had made a deep
+impression upon him, and though he would have preferred to see him
+continue in the career so auspiciously begun, he would have considered it
+impious to dissuade him from obeying the summons vouchsafed by the Most
+High.  So he offered no opposition, and sent by the next courier a letter
+to Lady Wendula Schorlin, his young cousin's mother, in which, with
+Heinz's knowledge-nay, at his request--he related what her son had
+experienced, and entreated her not to withhold him from the vocation of
+which God deemed him worthy.
+
+Meanwhile, Biberli wrote to his master's mother in a different strain,
+and did not desist from expressing his opinion, to Heinz, and assuring
+him that his place was on a battle charger, with his sword in its sheath
+or in his hand, rather than in a monastery with a rosary hanging from a
+hempen girdle.
+
+This had vexed Heinz--nay, made him seriously angry with the faithful
+fellow; and when in full armour he prepared to mount his steed to receive
+the last directions of his imperial master, and Biberli asked him on
+which horse he should follow, he answered curtly that this time he would
+go without him.
+
+Yet when he saw tears fill the eyes of his "true and steadfast"
+companion, he patted the significant St. on his cap, and added kindly:
+"Never mind, Biber, everything will be unchanged between us till I obey
+my summons, and you build your own nest with Katterle."
+
+So Biberli had remained in Nuremberg whilst Heinz Schorlin, after the
+Emperor with fatherly kindness had dismissed him, granting him full
+authority, set forth at the head of his troops as their commander, to
+take the field against the Siebenburgs and their allies.
+
+The servant was permitted to attend him only to the outskirts of the
+city.
+
+Before the Spitalthor, Countess Cordula, though she was returning from a
+ride into the country, had wheeled her spirited dappled horse and joined
+him as familiarly as though she belonged to him.  Heinz, who would have
+liked best to be alone, and to whom any other companion would have been
+more welcome, showed her this plainly enough, but she did not seem to
+notice it, and during the whole of their ride together gave her tongue
+free rein and, though he often indignantly interrupted her, described
+with increasing warmth what the Ortlieb sisters had suffered through his
+fault.  In doing so she drew so touching a picture of Eva's silent sorrow
+that Heinz sometimes longed to thank her, but more frequently to have her
+driven away by his men at arms; for he had mounted his horse with the
+intention of dividing the time of his ride between pious meditations and
+plans for the arrangement of the expedition.  What could be more
+unwelcome than the persistent loquacity of the countess, who filled his
+heart and mind with ideas and wishes that threatened most seriously to
+imperil his design?
+
+Cordula plainly perceived how unwillingly he listened.  Nay, as Heinz
+more and more distinctly, at last even offensively, showed her how little
+he desired her society, it only increased the animation of her speech,
+which seemed to her not to fail wholly in the influence she desired to
+exert in Eva's favour; therefore she remained at his side longer than she
+had at first intended.  She did not even turn back when they met the
+young Duchess Agnes, who with her train was returning to the city from a
+ride.
+
+The Bohemian princess had known that Heinz would ride through the
+Spitalthor at this hour to confront his foe, and had intended that the
+meeting with her should seem like a good omen.  The thought of wishing
+him success on his journey had been a pleasant one.  True, Cordula's
+presence did not prevent this, but it disturbed her, and she was vexed
+to find the countess again at Heinz Schorlin's side.
+
+She showed her displeasure so plainly that her Italian singing mistress,
+the elderly spinster Caterina de Celano, took sides with her, and
+scornfully asked the countess whether she had brought her curling irons
+with her.
+
+But she bit her lips at Cordula's swift retort "O no!  Malice meets us on
+every road, but in Germany we do not pull one another's hair on the
+highway over every venomous or foolish word."
+
+She turned her back on her as she spoke until the duchess had taken leave
+of Heinz, and then rode on with him; but as soon as a portion of the road
+intervened between her and the countess the young Bohemian exclaimed: "We
+must certainly try to save Sir Heinz from this disagreeable shrew!"
+
+"And the saints will aid the good work," the Italian protested, "for they
+themselves have a better right to the charming knight.  How grave he
+looked!  Take care, your Highness, he is following, as my nimble cousin
+Frangipani did a short time ago, in the footsteps of the Saint of
+Assisi."
+
+"But he must not, shall not, go into the monastery!" cried the young
+duchess, with childish refractoriness.  "The Emperor is opposed to it,
+and he, too, does not like the von Montfort's boisterous manner.  We will
+see whether I cannot accomplish something, Caterina."
+
+Here she stopped.  They had again reached the village of Rottenpach, and
+in front of the newly built little church stood its pastor, with the
+dignitaries of the parish, and the children were scattering flowers in
+the path.  She checked her Arabian, dismounted, and graciously inspected
+the new house of God, the pride of the congregation.
+
+On the way home, just beyond the village, her horse again shied.  The
+animal had been startled by an old Minorite monk who sat under a crab
+apple tree.  It was Father Benedictus, who had set out early to
+anticipate Heinz and surprise him in his night quarters by his presence.
+But he had overestimated his strength, and advanced so slowly that Heinz
+and his troopers, from whom he had concealed himself behind a dusty
+hawthorn bush, had not seen him.  From Schweinau the walk had become
+difficult, especially as it was contrary to the teaching of the saint to
+use a staff.  Many a compassionate peasant, many a miller's lad and
+Carter, had offered him a seat on the back of his nag or in his waggon
+but, without accepting their friendly offers, he had plodded on with his
+bare feet.
+
+Perhaps this journey would be his last, but on it he would redeem the
+promise which he had made his dying master, to go forth according to the
+command of the Saviour, which Francis of Assisi had made his own and that
+of his order, to preach and to proclaim, "The kingdom of heaven is at
+hand!"
+
+"Without price," ran the words, "have ye received, without price give."
+He had no regard for earthly reward, therefore he yearned the more
+ardently for the glad knowledge that he had saved a soul for heaven.
+
+He had learned to love Heinz as the saint had formerly loved him, and he
+did not grudge him the happiness which, at the knight's age, had fallen
+to the lot of the man whose years now numbered eighty.  How long he had
+been permitted to enjoy this bliss!  True, during the last decades it had
+been clouded by many a shadow.
+
+He had endured much hardship in the service of his sacred cause, but the
+greater the sacrifice he offered the more exquisite was the reward reaped
+by his soul.  Oh, if this pilgrimage might yield him Heinz Schorlin's vow
+to follow his saint and with him the Saviour!--if he might be permitted,
+clasping in his the hand of the beloved youth he had saved, to exchange
+this world for eternal bliss!
+
+Earth had nothing more to offer; for he who was one of the leaders of his
+brotherhood beheld with grief their departure from the paths of their
+founder.  Poverty, which secures freedom to the body, which knows nothing
+of the anxieties of this world and the burden of possession, which
+permits the soul to soar unfettered far above the dust--poverty, the
+divine bride of St. Francis, was forsaken in many circles of his brother
+monks.  With property, ease and the longing for secular influence had
+stolen into many a monastery.  Many shunned the labour which the saint
+enjoined upon his disciples, and the old jugs were often filled with new
+wine, which he, Benedictus, never tasted, and which the saint rejected as
+poison.
+He was no longer young and strong enough to let his grief and indignation
+rage like a purifying thunderstorm amidst these abuses.
+
+But Heinz Schorlin!
+
+If this youth of noble blood, equally gifted in mind and person, whom
+Heaven itself had summoned with lightning and thunder, devoted himself
+from sincere conviction, with a heart full of youthful enthusiasm, to his
+sacred cause--if Heinz, consecrated by him, and fully aware of the real
+purposes of the saint, who, also untaught and rich only in knowledge of
+the heart, had begun a career so momentous in consequences, announced
+himself as a fearless champion of St. Francis's will, then the St. George
+had been found who was summoned to slay the dragon, and with his blood
+instil new life at last into the monasteries of Germany, then perhaps the
+fresh prosperity which he desired for the order was at hand.  The larger
+number of its recruits came from the lower ranks of the people.  Sir
+Heinz Schorlin's example would perhaps bring it also, as an elevating
+element, the sons of his peers.
+
+So, bathed in perspiration, and often on the point of fainting, he
+followed Heinz through the dust of the highway.
+
+Often, when his strength failed, and he sat down by the roadside to take
+breath, his soul-life gained a loftier aspiration.
+
+After Heinz rode by without seeing him he continued his way until his
+feet grew so heavy that he was forced to sit down beside the road.  Then
+he imagined that the Saviour Himself came towards him, gazed lovingly
+into his face, and turned to beckon some one, Benedictus did not know
+whom, heavenward.  Suddenly the clouds that had covered the sky parted,
+and the old man fancied he heard the song of the troubadour whose soul
+had been subdued by love for God, which his friend and master had
+addressed to his Redeemer.  It must come from the lips of his angels on
+high, but he longed to join in the strain.  True, his aged lips, rapidly
+as they moved, uttered no sound, but he fancied he was sharing in this
+song of the soul, glowing with fervent, consuming flames of love,
+dedicated to the Saviour, the source of all love:
+
+              "Love's flames my kindling heart control,
+               Love for my Bridegroom fair,
+               When on my hand he placed the ring,
+               The Lamb whose fervent love I share
+               Did pierce my inmost soul,"
+
+the fiery song began, and an absorbing yearning for death and the beloved
+Redeemer, whose form had vanished in the sea of flames surging before his
+dilated eyes, moved the very depths of his soul as he commenced the
+second verse:
+
+              "My heart amidst Love's tortures broke,
+               Slain by the might of Love's keen stroke,
+               To earth my senseless body sank,
+               Love's flames my life-blood drank."
+
+With flushed cheeks, utterly borne away from the world and everything
+which surrounded him, he raised his arms towards heaven, then they
+suddenly fell.  Starting up, he passed his hand over his dazzled eyes and
+shook his head sorrowfully.  Instead of the angels' song, he heard the
+beat of horses' hoofs coming nearer and nearer.  The open heavens had
+closed again; he lay a poor exhausted mortal, with burning brow, beside
+the road.
+
+Duchess Agnes, after visiting the new church at Rottenpach, rode past him
+on her return to Nuremberg.
+
+Neither she nor her train heeded the old monk.  But the Italian who, as
+she rode by, had been attracted by the noble features of the aged man,
+whose eyes still sparkled with youthful enthusiasm, gazed at him
+enquiringly.  Her glance met his, and the Minorite's wrinkled features
+wore a look of eager enquiry.  He longed to rise and ask the name of the
+black-eyed lady at the duchess's side.  But ere he could stand erect, the
+party had passed on.
+
+Disturbed in mind, and scarcely able to set one sore foot before the
+other, he dragged himself forward.
+
+Before he reached Rottenpach he met one of the duchess's pages who had
+remained at the village forge and was now riding after his mistress.
+Father Benedictus called to him, and the boy, awed by the grey-haired
+monk, answered his questions, and told him that the lady on the horse
+with the white star on its face was the duchess's Italian singing
+mistress, Caterina de Celano.
+
+Every drop of blood receded from the Minorite's fever-flushed cheeks, and
+the page was about to spring from his saddle to support him, but the monk
+waved him back impatiently, and by the exertion of all his strength of
+will forced himself to stagger on.
+
+He had just felt happy in the heart of eternal love; but now the
+expression of his countenance changed, and his dark, sunken eyes flashed
+angrily.
+
+The faded woman beside the duchess bore the name of the lady whose
+faithlessness had first induced him to seek rest and forgetfulness
+in the peace of the cloister, and led him to despise her whole sex.
+
+The horsewoman must be a granddaughter, daughter, or niece of the woman
+who had so basely betrayed him.  How much she resembled the traitress,
+but she did not understand how to hide her real nature as well; her faded
+features wore a somewhat malicious expression.  The resentment which he
+thought he had conquered again awoke.  He would have liked to rush after
+her and call her to her face----.  Yet what would that avail?  How was
+she to blame for the treachery of another person, whom perhaps she did
+not even know?
+
+Yet he longed to follow her.
+
+His fevered blood urged him on, but his exhausted, aching limbs refused
+to serve him.  One more violent effort, and sparks flashed before his
+eyes, his lips were wet with blood, and he sank gasping on the ground.
+
+After some time he succeeded in dragging himself to the side of the road,
+where he lay until a Nuremberg carrier, passing with his team of four
+horses, lifted him, with the help of his servant, into his cart and took
+him on.
+
+At Schweinau the jolting of the vehicle became unendurable to the
+sufferer, and the carrier willingly fulfilled his wish to be taken to
+the hospital where mangled criminals, tortured by the rack, were nursed.
+
+There, however, they instantly perceived that his place was not in this
+house dedicated to criminal misfortune, and the kind Beguines of
+Schweinau took charge of him.
+
+On the way the old monk suffered severely in both soul and body.  It
+seemed like treason, like a rejection of his pure and pious purposes,
+that Heaven itself barred the path along which he was wearily wandering
+to win it a soul.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+The entombment of the magnificent coffin of Frau Maria Ortlieb under the
+pavement of the family chapel was over.  The little group of sympathising
+friends had left the church.  Only the widower and his daughters
+remained, and when he knew that he could no longer be seen by the few who
+still lingered in the house of God, he clasped the two girls to his heart
+with a suppressed sob.
+
+Never had he experienced such deep sorrow, such anguish of soul.  He had
+not even been permitted to take leave of his beloved companion with
+unmixed grief; fierce resentment had mingled with his trouble.
+
+To remain alone in the house with his daughters after the burial and
+answer their questions seemed to him impossible.
+
+The meeting of the Council, which would soon begin, served as a pretence
+for leaving them.  Eva was to blame for what he had just suffered; but he
+knew everything concerning the rumours about the inexperienced girl and
+Heinz Schorlin, and there fore was aware that her fault was trivial.  To
+censure her seemed as difficult as to discuss calmly with her and the
+sensible Els what could be done under existing circumstances; besides, he
+was firmly convinced that Eva had nothing left except to take, without
+delay, the veil for which she had longed from childhood.  His sister, the
+Abbess Kunigunde, was keeping the door of the convent open.  She had
+promised the girl to await her at home.  In taking leave of his
+daughters, he begged them not to wait for him, because the Council were
+to decide the fate of the Eysvogel business, and the session might last
+a long while.
+
+Then his Els gazed at him with a look of such earnest entreaty that he
+nodded, and in a tone of the warmest compassion began: "I shall be more
+than glad to aid your Wolff, my dear girl, but he himself told you how
+the case stands.  What would it avail if I beggared myself and you for
+the Eysvogels and their tottering house?  I must remain hard now, in
+order later to smooth the path for Wolff and you, Els.  If Berthold
+Vorchtel would make up his mind to join me, it might be different, but he
+summoned the Council as a complainant, and if he is the one to overthrow
+the reeling structure, who can blame him?  We shall see.  Whatever I can
+reasonably do for the unfortunate family shall be accomplished, my girl."
+
+Then he kissed his older daughter on the forehead, hastily gave the
+younger the same caress, and left the chapel.  But Els detained him,
+whispering: "Whatever wrong was inflicted upon us yesterday, do not let
+it prejudice you, father.  It was meant neither for her whose peace
+nothing can now disturb, nor for you.  We alone----"
+
+"You  certainly," Herr Ernst interrupted bitterly, "were made to feel how
+far superior in virtue they considered themselves to you, who are better
+and purer than all of them.  But keep up Eva's courage.  I have been
+talking with your Uncle Pfinzing and your Aunt Christine.  You yourself
+took them into your confidence, and we will consult together how the
+serpent's head is to be crushed."
+
+He turned away as he spoke, but Els went back to her sister, and after a
+brief prayer they left the church with bowed heads.
+
+The sedan-chairs were waiting outside.  Each was to be borne home
+separately, but both preferred, spite of the bright summer weather, to
+draw the curtains, that unseen they might weep, and ask themselves how
+such wrongs could have been inflicted upon the dead woman and themselves.
+
+The respect of high and low for the Ortlieb family had been most
+brilliantly displayed when the body of the son, slain in battle, had been
+interred in the chapel of his race.  And their mother?  How many had held
+her dear! to how many she had been kind, loving, and friendly!  How great
+a sympathy the whole city had shown during her illness, and how many of
+all classes had attended the mass for her soul!  And the burial which had
+just taken place?
+
+True, on her father's account all the members of the Council were
+present, but scarcely half the wives had appeared.  Their daughters--Els
+had counted them--numbered only nine, and but three were included among
+her friends.  The others had probably come out of curiosity.  And the
+common people, the artisans, the lower classes, who in countless numbers
+had accompanied her brother's coffin to its resting place, and during the
+mass for the dead had crowded the spacious nave of St. Sebald's?  There
+had been now only a scanty group.  The nuns from the convent were
+present, down to the most humble lay Sister; but they were under great
+obligations to her mother, and their abbess was her father's sister.
+There were few other women except the old crones from the hospitals and
+nurseries, who were never absent when there was an opportunity to weep or
+to backbite.  In going through the nave of the church into the chapel the
+sisters had passed a group of younger lads and maidens, who had nudged
+one another in so disrespectful a way, whispering all sorts of things,
+that Els had tried to draw Eva past them as swiftly as possible.
+
+Her wish to keep her more sensitive sister from noticing the disagreeable
+gestures and insulting words of the cruel youths and girls was gratified.
+True, Eva also felt with keen indignation that far too little honour was
+paid to her beloved dead; that the blinded people believed the slanderers
+who repeated even worse things of her Els than of herself, and made their
+poor mother, who had lived and suffered like a saint, atone for what they
+imagined were the sins of her daughters; but the jeers and scorn which
+had obtruded themselves upon her father and sister from more than one
+quarter, in many a form, had entirely escaped her notice.  She had
+accustomed herself from childhood to indulge in reflections and emotions
+apart from the demands of the world.  Whatever occupied her mind or soul
+absorbed her completely; here she had been wholly engrossed in this
+silent intercourse with the departed, and a single glance at the group
+assembled in the church had showed her everything which she desired to
+know of her surroundings.
+
+Heinz had gone to the field the day before yesterday.  Her silent
+colloquy concerned him also.  How difficult he made it for her to
+maintain the resolution which she had formed during the mass for the
+dead, since he remained aloof, without giving even the slightest token of
+remembrance.  True, an inward voice constantly repeated that he could not
+part from her any more easily than she from him;  but her maidenly pride
+rebelled against the neglect with which he grieved her.  The defiant
+desire to punish him for departing without a word of farewell urged her
+back to the convent.  She had spent many hours there daily, and in its
+atmosphere of peace felt better and happier than in her father's house or
+any other spot which she visited.  The close association with her aunt,
+the abbess, was renewed.  True, she had not urged Eva to a definite
+statement by so much as a single word, yet she had made her feel plainly
+how deeply it would wound her if her pupil should resolve to disappoint
+the hopes which she herself had fostered.  If Eva refused to take the
+veil, would not her kind friend be justified in charging her with
+unequalled ingratitude? and whose opinion did she value even half as
+much, if she excepted her lover's, whose approval was more to her than
+that of all the rest of the world?
+
+He was better than she, and who could tell what important motive kept him
+away?  Countless worldly wishes had blended with the devotion which she
+felt in the convent; and had not the abbess herself taught her to obey,
+without regard to individuals or their opinion, the demands of her own
+nature, which were in harmony with the will of the Most High?  and how
+loudly every voice within commanded her to be loyal to her love!  She had
+made her decision, but offended pride, the memory of the happy, peaceful
+hours in the convent and, above all, the fear of grieving the beloved
+guide of her childhood, withheld her from the firm and irrevocable
+statement to which her nature, averse to hesitation and delay, impelled
+her.
+
+The nearer the sedan-chair came to the Ortlieb mansion the faster her
+heart beat, for that very day, probably within the next few hours, the
+abbess would compel her to choose between her father's house and the
+convent.
+
+She was panting for breath and deadly pale when, just after Els's
+arrival, she stepped from the chair.  It had become intensely hot.
+Within the vaulted corridor with its solid, impenetrable walls, a cooler
+atmosphere received her, and she hoped to find in her own chamber
+fresher, purer air, and--at least for the next few hours--undisturbed
+peace.
+
+But what was the meaning of this scene?  At her entrance, the
+conversation which Els had evidently just commenced with several other
+women at the door of the office suddenly ceased.  It must be due to
+consideration for her; for she had not failed to notice the significant
+glance with which her sister looked at her and then removed her finger
+from her lips.
+
+The abbess, who had been concealed by a wall of chests piled one above
+another, now came forward and laid her hand upon the shoulder of a little
+elderly woman, who must have been disputing vehemently with the old
+housekeeper, Martsche, for she was flushed with excitement, and the
+housekeeper's chin still quivered.
+
+Usually Eva paid little heed to the quarrels of the servants, but this
+one appeared to have some connection with herself, and the cause could be
+no trivial one, since Aunt Kunigunde took part in it.
+
+But she had no sooner approached the other women than the abbess drew
+her aside and asked her a few unimportant questions.  They were probably
+intended to keep her away from the disputants.  But Eva knew the little
+woman, and wished to learn what offence had been given modest, humble
+Widow Vorkler.  Her husband had been employed by the Ortlieb firm as a
+carrier, who had driven his team of six horses to Milan faithfully until
+killed in the Tyrol during an attack by robber knights in the lawless
+period before the coronation of the Emperor Rudolph.
+
+With the aid of Herr Ernst Ortlieb, the widow had then set up a little
+shop for the sale of wax candles, images of the saints, rosaries, and
+modest confirmation gifts, by which means she gained an honest livelihood
+for her seven children and herself.  Her oldest son, who on account of
+hip disease was not fit for hard work, helped her, and the youngest was
+Ortel, who had carried Eva's basket on the day of her dead mother's
+consecration.  Her daughter Metz was also in the Ortlieb's service as
+assistant to the chief cook.
+
+When Frau Vorkler had come to see her children, she had scarcely
+been able to find words which sufficiently expressed her grateful
+appreciation, but to-day she seemed like a different person.
+
+The brief colloquy between the abbess and Eva already appeared to her too
+long, and when the former bade her finish her business later with Els and
+old Martsche, she angrily declared that, with all due reverence for the
+Lady Abbess, she must inform Jungfrau Eva also what compelled her, a
+virtuous woman with a grateful heart, to take her children from the
+service of the employer for whom her husband had sacrificed his life.
+
+Els, who was eager to conceal the woman's insulting errand from Eva,
+tried to silence Frau Vorkler, but she defiantly persisted, and with
+redoubled zeal protested that speak she must or her heart would break.
+Then she declared that she had been proud to place her children in so
+godly a household, but now everything was changed, and though it grieved
+her to the soul, she must insist upon taking Metz and Ortel from its
+service.  She lived by the piety of people who bought candles for the
+dear saints and rosaries for praying; but even the most devout had eyes
+everywhere, and if it were known that her young children were serving in
+a house where such things happened, as alas!  were reported through the
+whole city concerning the daughters of this family----
+
+Here old Martsche with honest indignation interrupted the excited woman;
+but Fran Vorkler would not be silenced, and asked what a poor girl like
+her Metz possessed except her good name.  How quickly suspicion would
+rest on a lass whose respectability was questioned!  People had begun to
+do so ever since the Ortlieb sisters were called the "beautiful" instead
+of the pious and virtuous Es.  This showed how such notice of the face
+and figure benefited Christian maidens.  Yesterday and to-day she had
+given a three-farthing candle to her saint as a thank offering that this
+horror had not reached their mother's ears.  The dead woman had been a
+truly devout and noble lady, and her soul would be grateful to her for
+impressing upon the minds of her motherless daughters that the path which
+they had recklessly entered----
+
+This was too much for Ortel, who, concealed behind a heap of sacks, had
+listened to the discussion, and clasping his hands beseechingly, he now
+went up to his mother and entreated her to beware of repeating the
+slanders of evil-minded people who had dared to cast stones at the
+gracious maidens, who were as pure and innocent as their saint herself.
+
+Poor Ortel!  His kind young eyes  streaming with tears might have
+softened a rock; but the enraged candle-dealer misinterpreted his honest
+emotion, and he certainly would not have been allowed to go on so far had
+not rage and amazement kept her silent.  But Frau Vorkler never lost the
+use of her tongue long, and what a flood of abuse of the degenerate
+children of the time, who forgot the respect and gratitude due to their
+own mother, she began to pour forth!  But when faithful Endres, who had
+grown grey in the Ortlieb service, and under whose orders Ortel was
+placed to help in unpacking, commanded her to be silent or leave the
+house, and told her son, instead of following her, to stay with his old
+employer, Frau Vorkler proceeded to lament over the corruption of the
+whole world, and did not fail to deal a few side-thrusts at the two
+daughters of the house.
+
+But here also she made little progress, for the abbess led Eva up the
+stairs, and the two old family servants, Martsche representing the
+guiding mind and Endres the rude strength, made common cause.  The latter
+upheld Ortel in his refusal to leave the house, and the former declared
+that Metz must remain the usual time after giving notice.  She would not
+help Frau Vorkler to force the poor child into an unequal, miserable
+marriage with the old miser to whom she wanted to give her.
+
+This remark was aimed at the master-tailor Seubolt, the guardian of the
+Vorkler children, who, though forty years her senior, wanted to make
+pretty Metz his wife, and who had also promised the widow to obtain for
+his future brother-in-law Ortel an excellent place in the stables of the
+German order of military monks.  Not outraged morality, but the guardian
+and suitor in one person, had induced the candle-dealer to take her
+children from their good places in the Ortlieb household.  The widow's
+fear of having her real motive detected spared the necessity of using
+force.  But whilst slowly retiring backwards, crab fashion, she shrieked
+at her antagonists the threat that her children's guardian, no less a
+personage than master-tailor Nickel Seubolt, was a man who would help her
+gain her just rights and snatch the endangered souls of Ortel and her
+poor young Metz from temporal and eternal destruction in this Sodom and
+Gomorrah----
+
+The rest of the burden which oppressed her soul she was forced to confide
+to the street.  Endres closed the heavy door of the house behind her with
+a strength and celerity marvellous in a man of his years.
+
+Ortel was terribly agitated.  Soon after his mother's departure he went
+with his sister to the woodhouse, where both wept bitterly; for Metz had
+given her heart to a young carrier who was expected to return from a trip
+to Frankfort the first of July, and would rather have thrown herself into
+the Pegnitz than married the rich old tailor to whom she knew her mother
+had promised her pretty daughter; whilst her brother, like many youths of
+his station, thought that the place of driver of a six-horse wain was the
+most delightful calling in the world, and both were warmly attached to
+their employer and the family whom they served.  And yet both felt that
+it was a heavy sin to refuse to obey their mother.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Eva was spared witnessing the close of this unpleasant incident.  The
+abbess had led her up the stairs into the sitting-room.  St. Clare
+herself, she thought, had sent Fran Vorkler to render the choice she
+intended to place before her niece that very day easier for Eva.
+
+Even whilst ascending the broad steps she put her arm around her, but in
+the apartment, whence the noonday sun had been shut out and they were
+greeted with a cool atmosphere perfumed with the fragrance of the
+bouquets of roses and mignonette which Eva and the gardener had set in
+jars on the mantelpiece early in the morning, the abbess drew her darling
+closer to her side, saying, "The world is again showing you its most
+disagreeable face, my poor child, ere you bid it farewell."
+
+She kissed her brow and eyes tenderly as she spoke, expecting Eva, as
+she had often done when anything troubled her young soul, to return the
+caress impulsively, and accept with grateful impetuosity the invitation
+to the shelter which she offered; but the vile assault of the coarse
+woman who brought to her knowledge what people were thinking and saying
+about her produced upon the strange child, who had already given her many
+a surprise, an effect precisely opposite to her expectations.  No, Eva
+had by no means forgotten the pain inflicted by Frau Vorkler's base
+accusations; but if whilst in the sedan-chair she had feared that she
+should lack courage to inflict upon her beloved aunt and friend so great
+a disappointment, she now felt that this dread had been needless, and
+that her offended maidenly pride absolved her from consideration for
+any person.
+
+With cautious tenderness she released herself from the arms of the
+abbess, gazed sorrowfully at her with her large eyes as if beseeching
+forgiveness then, as she saw her aunt look at her with pained surprise,
+again threw herself on her breast.
+
+Instead of being protectingly embraced by the elder woman, the young girl
+clasped her closely to her heart, kissed and patted her with caressing
+love, and with the winning charm peculiar to her besought her forgiveness
+if she denied herself and her that which she had long desired as the
+fairest and noblest goal.
+
+When the abbess interrupted her to represent what awaited her in the
+world and in the convent, Eva listened, nestling closely to her side
+until she had finished, then sighing as deeply as if her own resolve
+caused her the keenest suffering, threw her head back, exclaiming,
+"Yet, in spite of everything, I cannot, must not enter the convent now."
+Clasping the abbess's hand, she explained what prevented her from
+fulfilling the wish of her childhood's guide, which had so long been her
+own, extolling with warm, sincere gratitude the quiet happiness and sweet
+anticipations enjoyed with her beloved nuns ere love had conquered her.
+
+During the recent days of sorrow she had again sought the path to her
+saints and found the greatest solace in prayer; but whenever she uplifted
+her heart to the Saviour, whose bride she had once so fervently vowed to
+become, the Redeemer had indeed appeared as usual before the eyes of her
+soul, but he resembled in form and features Sir Heinz Schorlin, and,
+instead of turning her away from the world to divine love, she had
+surrendered herself completely to earthly affection.  Prayer had become
+sin.  The saint's song:
+
+                   "O Love, Love's reign announcing,
+                        Why dost thou wound me so?
+                    Into thy fiercest flames I fling
+                        My heart, my life below."
+
+no longer invited her to give herself up to be fused into divine love,
+but merely rendered the need of her own soul clearer, and expressed in
+words the yearning of her heart for her lover.
+
+Here her aunt interrupted her with the assurance that all this--she had
+had the same experience when, renouncing the love of the noblest and best
+of men, she took the veil--would be different, wholly different, when
+with St. Clare's aid she had again found the path on which she had
+already once so nearly reached heaven.  Even now she beheld in
+imagination the day when Eva would look back upon the world she had left
+as if it were a mere formless mass of clouds.  These were no idle words.
+The promise was something derived from her own experience.
+
+On her pilgrimage to Rome she had gazed from an Alpine peak and beheld at
+her feet nothing save low hills, forests, valleys, and flashing streams,
+with here and there a village; but she could distinguish neither human
+beings nor animals; a light mist had veiled everything, converting it
+into one monotonous surface.  But above her head the sky, like a giant
+dome free from cloud and mist, arched in a beautiful vault, blue as
+turquoise and sapphire.  It seemed so close that the eagle soaring near
+her might reach it with a few strokes of his pinions.  She was steeped in
+radiance, and the sun shone down upon her with overpowering brilliancy
+like the eye of God.
+
+Close at her side a gay butterfly hovered about the solitary little
+white flower which grew from a bare rock on the topmost summit.  In the
+brilliant light and amidst the solemn silence that butterfly seemed like
+a transfigured soul, and aroused the question, Who that was permitted to
+live on this glowing height, so near the Most High, could desire to
+return to the grey mist below?
+
+So the human soul which soared to the shining height where it was so near
+heaven, would blissfully enjoy the purity of the air and the un shadowed
+light which bathed it, and all that was passing in the world below would
+blend into a single vanquished whole, whose details could no longer be
+distinguished.  Thus Heinz Schorlin's image would also mingle with the
+remainder of the world, lying far below her, to which he belonged.  It
+should merely incite her to rise nearer and nearer to heaven, to the
+radiant light above, to which her soul would mount as easily as the eagle
+that before the pilgrim's eyes had vanished in the divine blue and the
+golden sunshine.
+
+"So come and dare the flight!" she concluded with warm enthusiasm.
+"The wings you need have grown from your soul, you chosen bride of
+Heaven.  Use them.  That which now most repels you from the goal will
+fall away as the snake sheds its skin.  Like the phoenix rising from its
+ashes, the destruction of the little earthly love which even now causes
+you more pain than pleasure, will permit the ascent of the great love for
+Him Who is Love incarnate, the love which encompasses the lonely
+butterfly on the white blossom in the silent, deserted mountain solitude,
+which lacks no feather on its wings, no tiniest hair on its feelers, as
+warmly and carefully as the vast, unlimited universe whose duration ends
+only with eternity."
+
+Eva, with labouring breath, had fairly hung upon the lips of the revered
+woman, who at last gazed upwards with dilated eyes like a prophetess.
+
+When she paused the young girl nodded assent.  Her teacher and friend
+seemed to have crushed her resistance.
+
+Like the eagle which had disappeared before the pilgrim's eyes in the
+azure vault of heaven, the radiant light on the pure summit summoned her
+pure soul to dare the flight.
+
+The abbess watched with delight the influence of her words upon the soul
+of her darling, who, gazing thoughtfully at the floor, now seemed to be
+pondering over what she had urged.
+
+But suddenly Eva raised her bowed head, and her eyes, sparkling with a
+brighter light, sought those of the abbess.
+
+Her quick intellect had attentively considered what she had heard, and
+her vivid power of imagination had enabled her to transfer to reality the
+picture which had already half won her over to her friend's wishes.
+
+"No, Aunt Kunigunde, no!" she began, raising her hands as if in repulse.
+"Your radiant height strongly allures me also, yet, gladly as I believe
+that, for many the world would be easily forgotten above, where no sound
+from it reaches us and the mist conceals individual figures from our
+eyes, for me, now that love has filled my heart, it would be impossible
+to ascend the peak alone and without him.
+
+"Hear me, aunt!
+
+"What was it that attracted me so powerfully from the beginning?  At
+first, as you know, the hope of making him a combatant for the
+possessions which I have learned through you to regard as the highest and
+most sacred.  Then, when love came, when a new power, heretofore unknown,
+awoke within me and--everything must be told--I longed for his wooing and
+his embrace, I also felt that our union could take root and put forth
+blossoms only in the full harmony of our mutual love for God and the
+Saviour.  And though since the mass for the dead was celebrated for my
+mother--it wounded me, and defiance and the wish to punish him urged me
+to put the convent walls between us--no further token of his love has
+come, though I know as well as you that he desired to quit the world,
+this by no means impairs--nay, it only strengthens--the confidence I feel
+that our souls belong to one another as inseparably as though the
+sacrament had hallowed our union.
+
+"Therefore I should never succeed in coming so near heaven as you, the
+lonely, devout pilgrim, attained on the summit of your mountain peak,
+unless he accompanied me in spirit, unless his soul joined mine in the
+ascent or the flight.  It rests in mine as mine rests in his, and were
+they separated both would bleed as if from severed veins.  For this
+reason, aunt, he can never blend into a uniform mass with the rest of the
+world below me; for if I gained the radiant height, he would remain at my
+side and gaze with me at the mist-veiled world beneath.  He can never
+vanish from the eyes of my soul, and so, dear aunt, because I owe it to
+him to avoid even the semblance----"
+
+Here she hesitated; for from the adjoining room they heard a man's deep
+voice telling Els something in loud, excited tones.
+
+This interruption was welcome to the abbess; she had as yet found no
+answer to her niece's startling objection.
+
+Eva answered her questioning glance with the exclamation, "Uncle
+Pfinzing!"
+
+"He?" replied the abbess dejectedly.  "His opinion has some weight with
+you, and this very day, during the burial, he told me how glad he should
+be to see you sheltered in the convent from the hateful calumnies caused
+by your imprudence!"
+
+"Yet--you will see it directly," the girl declared, "he will surely
+understand me when I explain that I would rather endure the worst than
+appear to seek refuge from evil tongues in flight.  Whoever has expected
+Eva Ortlieb to shelter herself from malice behind strong walls will be
+mistaken.  Heinz is certainly aware of the shameful injustice which has
+pursued us, and if he returns he must find me where he left me.  I am now
+encountering what my dead mother called the forge fire of life, and I
+will not shun it like a coward.  Heinz, I know, will overthrow the man
+who unchained this generation of vipers against us; but if he does not
+return, or can bring himself to cast the love that unites us behind him
+with the world from which he would fain turn, then, aunt"--and Eva's eyes
+flashed brightly with passionate fire, and her clear voice expressed the
+firm decision of a vigorous will--"then I will commit our cause to One
+who will not suffer falsehood to conquer truth or wrong to triumph over
+right.  Then, though it should be necessary to walk over red-hot
+ploughshares, let the ordeal bear witness for us."
+
+The abbess, startled, yet rejoicing at the fulness of faith flaming in
+her darling's passionate speech, approached Eva to soothe her; but
+scarcely had she begun to speak when the door opened and Berthold
+Pfinzing entered with his older niece.
+
+He was holding Els by the hand, and it was evident that some sorrowful
+thought occupied the minds of both.
+
+"Has any new horror happened?" fell in tones of anxious enquiry from
+Eva's lips before she even greeted her dearest relative.
+
+"Think of something very bad," was her sister's reply, in a tone so
+dejected and mournful, that Eva, with a low cry--"My father!"--pressed
+her hand upon her heart.
+
+"Not  dead,  darling,"  said  the  magistrate, stroking her head
+soothingly with his short, broad hand, "by all the saints, not even
+wounded or ill.  Yet the daughter has guessed aright, and I have kept the
+'Honourables' waiting, that I might tell you the news myself; for what
+may not such tidings become whilst passing from lip to lip!  It is a
+toad, a very ugly toad, and I would not permit a dragon to be brought
+into the house to you poor things in its place."
+
+He poured all this forth very rapidly, for, notwithstanding the intense
+heat, and the burden of business at the Town Hall, he had left it, though
+only to do his dear Es a kindness, lie and his worthy wife Christine, the
+sister of Herr Ernst Ortlieb and of the abbess, had long been familiar
+with all the tales which slander had called to life, and had striven
+zealously enough to refute them.  What he had now to relate filled him
+with honest indignation against the evil tongues, and he knew how deeply
+it would excite and grieve Eva, his godchild, who stood especially near
+his heart.  He would gladly have said a few kind words to her before
+beginning his story, but he was obliged to return to the Town Hall
+immediately to open the important conference concerning the fate of the
+Eysvogel business.
+
+His appearance showed how rapidly he had hurried to the house through
+the burning sunshine, for drops of perspiration were trickling down his
+broad, low forehead over his plump, smoothshaven cheeks and thick red
+neck, in which his small chin vanished as if it were a cushion.  Besides,
+he constantly raised a large linen handkerchief to his face, and his huge
+chest laboured for breath as he hastily repeated to Eva and the abbess
+what he had just announced to Els in a few rapid words.
+
+Herr Ernst Ortlieb had gone to the Town Hall, where he attended an
+examination in his character as magistrate, and had entered the court
+yard to enjoy the cool air for a short time with a few other
+"Honourables," in the shady walk near the main gate.
+
+Just then master-tailor Seubolt, the guardian of Ortel and his sister,
+who were in service at the Ortlieb mansion, approached the Town Hall.
+No one could have supposed that the tall, grey-headed man with the bowed
+back, who was evidently nearing sixty, really meant to make a young girl
+like Metz Vorkler his wife.  Besides, he assumed a very humble, modest
+demeanour when, passing through the vaulted entrance of the Town Hall,
+which stood open to every citizen, he approached Herr Ernst to ask, with
+many bows and humble phrases, for the permission, which he had been
+refused at the Ortlieb house, to remove his wards from a place which
+their mother, as well as he himself, felt sure--he had supposed that the
+"Honourable" would have no objection--would  be harmful to them in both
+body and soul.
+
+Surprised and indignant, but perfectly calm, Herr Ernst had requested him
+to tell him whatever he had to say at a more convenient time.  But as the
+tailor insisted that the matter would permit no delay, he invited him to
+step aside with him, in order not to make the councillors who were with
+him witnesses of the unpleasant discussion.
+
+Seubolt, however, seemed to have no greater desire than to be heard by as
+many people as possible.  Raising his voice to a very loud tone, though
+he still maintained an extremely humble manner, he began to give the
+reasons which induced him, spite of his deep regret, to remove his wards
+from the Ortlieb house.  And now, sheltering himself behind frequent
+repetitions of "As people say" and "Heaven forbid that I should believe
+such things," he began to relate what the most venomous slander had dared
+to assert concerning the beautiful Es.
+
+For a time Herr Ernst had forced himself to listen quietly to this
+malicious abuse of those whom he held dearest, but at last it became too
+much for the quick-tempered man.  The tailor had ventured to allude to
+Jungfrau Els "who certainly had scarcely given full cause for such evil
+slander" in words which caused even the councillors standing near to
+contradict him loudly, and induced Herr Pfinzing, who had just come up,
+to beckon to the city soldiers.  At that instant the blood mounted to the
+insulted father's brain, and the misfortune happened; for as the tailor,
+with an unexpected gesture of the arm he was flourishing, brushed Herr
+Ernst's cap, the latter, fairly insane with rage, snatched the pike from
+one of the men who, obeying Herr Pfinzing's signal, were just approaching
+the tailor, and with a wild cry struck down the base traducer.
+
+Herr Pfinzing, with the presence of mind characteristic of him, instantly
+ordered the beadles to carry the wounded man into the Town Hall, and thus
+prevented the luckless deed of violence from creating any excitement.
+
+The few persons in the courtyard had been detained, and perhaps
+everything might yet be well.  Herr Ernst had instantly delivered himself
+up to justice, and instead of being taken to prison like a common
+criminal, had been conveyed in a closed sedan-chair to the watch-tower.
+
+The pike had pierced the tailor's shoulder, but the wound did not seem to
+be mortal, and Herr Ernst's rash deed might be made good by the payment
+of blood-money, though, it is true, on account of the tailor's position
+and means, this might be a large sum.
+
+"My horse," said Herr Berthold in conclusion, "was waiting for me, and
+brought me here as swiftly as he must carry me back again.  But, you poor
+things!  as for you, my Els, you have a firm nature, and if you insist
+upon refusing the invitation to our house, why, wait here to learn
+whether your father needs you.  You, my little goddaughter Eva, are
+provided for.  This sorrow, of course, will throw the veil over your fair
+head."
+
+The worthy man, as he spoke, laid his hand on her shoulder and looked at
+her with a glance which seemed to rely on her assent, but she interrupted
+him with the exclamation, "No, uncle!  Until you have convinced yourself
+that no one will dare assail Eva Ortlieb's honour, do not ask her again
+if she desires the protection of the convent."
+
+The magistrate hurriedly passed his huge handkerchief over his face; then
+taking Eva's head between his hands, kissed her brow, and--turning the
+shrewd, twinkling eyes, which were as round as everything else about his
+person, towards the others, said: "Did any one suggest this, or did the
+'little saint' have the sensible idea herself?"
+
+When Eva, smiling, pointed to her own forehead, he exclaimed: "My
+respects, child.  They say that what stirs up there descends from
+godfather to godchild, and I'll never put goblet to my lips again if I--"
+
+Here he stopped, and called after Els that he had not meant to hint, for
+she was hurrying out to get her uncle something to drink.  But ere the
+door closed behind her he went on eagerly:
+
+"But to you, my saintly child, I will say: your piety soars far too high
+for me to follow with my heavy body; yet on the ride here I, old sinner
+that I am, longed--no offence, sister-in-law abbess!--to warn you against
+the convent, for the very reason which keeps you away from your saint.
+We'll find the gag to stop the mouths of these accursed slanderers
+forever, and then, if you want to enter the convent, they shall not say,
+when you take the veil, 'Eva Ortlieb is hiding from her own shame and the
+tricks with which we frightened her out of the world.'  No! All Nuremberg
+shall join in the hosanna!"
+
+Then taking the goblet which Els had just filled, he drained it with
+great satisfaction, and rushing off, called back to the sisters: "I'll
+soon see you again, you brave little Es.  My wife is coming to talk over
+the matter with you.  Don't let that worthless candle-dealer's children
+leave the house till their time is up.  If you wish to visit your father
+in the watch-tower there will be no difficulty.  I'll tell the warder.
+Only the drawbridge will be raised after sunset.  You can provide for his
+bodily needs, too, Els.  We cannot release him yet; the law must take its
+course."
+
+At the door he stopped again and called back into the room: "We can't be
+sure.  If Frau Vorkler and the tailor's friends make an outcry and molest
+you, send at once to the Town Hall.  I'll keep my eyes open and give the
+necessary orders."
+
+A few minutes after he trotted through the Frauenthor on his clumsy
+stallion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+The watch-tower was in the northern part of the city, in the corn
+magazine of the fortress, and the whole width of Nuremberg must be
+traversed to reach it.  Even before Herr Pfinzing had left the house the
+sisters determined to go to their father, and the abbess approved the
+plan.  She invited the girls to spend the night at the convent, if they
+found the deserted house too lonely, but they did not promise to do so.
+
+Countess Cordula, who was on friendly terms with Eva, also emptied the
+vials of her wrath with all the impetuosity of her nature upon Sir Seitz
+Siebenburg and the credulity and malice of the people.  From the
+beginning she had been firmly convinced that the "Mustache," as she now
+called the knight in a tone of the most intense aversion, had contrived
+this base conspiracy, and her opinion was strengthened by Biberli.  Now
+she would gladly have torn herself into pieces to mitigate the sisters'
+hard lot.  She wanted to accompany them to the watch-tower, to have them
+taken there in her sedan-chair carried by horses, which had room for
+several persons, and at last begged for the favour of being allowed to
+spend the night in the room adjoining theirs.  If the girls, amidst all
+these base suspicions, should find Nuremberg unendurable, she would leave
+the scene of the Reichstag with them to-morrow, if necessary, and take
+them to her castle in the Vorarlberg.  She had other plans for them, too,
+in her mind, but lacked time now to explain them to the sisters; they
+could not obtain admittance to their father's prison after sundown, and
+in a few hours the long summer day would be over.
+
+It was not advisable to use their sedan-chairs adorned with the Ortlieb
+coat of arms, which every one knew, so they went on foot with their faces
+shrouded by the 'Reise' which was part of their mourning dress; and, in
+order not to violate usage, were accompanied by two servants, old
+Martsche and Katterle.
+
+From the Fleischbrucke they might have avoided the market-place, but Els
+wanted to enquire whether the Eysvogel matter was being discussed.  One
+of the "Honourables"--all of whom she knew--was always to be found near
+the Town Hall, and Eva understood her sister's anxiety and went with her
+willingly.
+
+But when they were passing the prison she became frightened.
+
+Through the squares formed by the iron grating in front of the broad
+window of the largest one, head after head, hand after hand, was thrust
+into the street.  The closely cropped heads of the prisoners, many of
+which showed mutilations by the hand of the executioner, which had barely
+healed, formed, as separated only by the iron bars, they protruded above,
+below, and beside one another into the open air, a mosaic picture,
+startlingly repulsive in appearance; for savage greed glittered in the
+eyes of most, and showed itself in the movements of the long, thin hands
+extended for gifts.  Bitter need and passionate longing gazed defiantly,
+beseechingly, and threateningly at the people who crowded round the
+window.  Few were silent; they implored the curious and pitying men,
+women, and children, who in the presence of their misery rejoiced in
+their more favoured lot, for aid in their distress, and rarely in vain;
+for many a mother gave her children a loaf to hand to the unfortunates,
+and meanwhile impressed on their minds the lesson that they would fare as
+badly as the most horrible of the mutilated prisoners unless they were
+good and obedient to their parents and teachers.
+
+Street boys held out an apple or a bit of bread, to snatch it away just
+as they touched it with their finger-tips, thus playing with them for
+their own amusement, but the tribulation of the wretched captives.  Then
+some man who had seen better days, or a criminal whom sudden passion had
+made a murderer, would burst into a rage and, seizing the iron bars,
+shake them savagely, whilst the others, shrieking, drew in their heads.
+Then fierce curses, threats, and invectives echoed over the market-place
+and, screaming aloud, the boys ran back; but they soon resumed their
+malicious sport.
+
+Often, it is true, a mother came who placed her gift in the hands of her
+child, or a modest old woman, tradesman, or soldier, from motives of
+genuine compassion, offered the prisoners a jug of new milk or
+strengthening wine.  Nor was there any lack of priests or monks who
+desired to give the consolations of religion to the pitiable men behind
+the bars, but most of them reaped little gratitude; only a few listened
+to their exhortations with open hearts, and but too frequently they were
+silenced by insults and rude outcries.
+
+Whilst the sisters, attended by their maidservants, were passing these
+pitiable people, Frau Tucher, whose daughter had been very ill, sent, for
+the love of God, a large basket of freshly baked bread to the prisoners.
+One of her servants was distributing it, and they greedily snatched the
+welcome gift from his hand.  A woman, who was about to give one of the
+rolls to the hollow-eyed child in her arms just as a rude fellow who had
+lost his ears snatched it, scratched his dirty, freckled face with her
+sharp nails, and the sight of the blood which dripped from his lip over
+his chin upon the roll was so hideous a spectacle that Eva clung closer
+to her sister, who had just put her hand into the pocket hanging from her
+belt to give the unfortunates a few shillings, and drew her away with
+her.
+
+Both, followed by the two maids, made their way as fast as possible
+through the people who had flocked hither in great numbers for a purpose
+which the sisters were to learn only too soon.
+
+It was a long time since they had been here, and a few weeks previously
+the "Honourables" had had the pillory moved from the other side of the
+Town Hall to this spot.  Katterle's warning was not heard in the din
+around them.
+
+The crowd grew denser every moment, and Eva had already asked her sister
+to turn back, when Els saw the man who brought to her father the summons
+to the meetings of the Council, and requested him to accompany them
+through the throng to the courtyard; but amidst the uproar of shouts and
+cries he misunderstood her, and supposing that she wished to witness the
+spectacle which had attracted so many, forced a way for the sisters into
+the very front rank.
+
+The person who had just been bound in this place of shame was the
+barber's widow from the Kotgasse, who had already been here once for
+giving lovers an opportunity for secret meetings, and to whom Katterle
+had fled for shelter.  Bowed by the weight of the stone which had been
+hung around her neck, the woman, with outstretched head, looked furiously
+around the circle of her tormentors like a wild beast crouched to spring,
+and scarcely had the messenger brought the sisters and their servants to
+a place near her when, recognising Katterle, she shrieked shrilly to the
+crowd that there were the right ones, the dainty folk who, if they did
+not belong to a rich family, would be put in the place where, in spite of
+the Riese over their faces, with which they mourned for their lost good
+name, they had more reason to be than she, who was only the lowly widow
+of a barber.
+
+Overwhelmed with horror the girls pressed on, and at Eva's terrified
+exclamation, "Let us, O let us go!" the man did his best.  But they made
+slow progress through the crowd, whose yells, hisses, and catcalls
+pursued them to the entrance of the neighbouring Town Hall.
+
+Here the guard, with crossed halberds, kept back the people who were
+crowding after the insulted girls, and it was fortunate, for Eva's feet
+refused to carry her farther, and her older sister's strength to support
+her failed.
+
+Sighing deeply, Els led her to a bench which stood between two pillars,
+and then ordered old Martsche, and Katterle, who was trembling in every
+limb, to watch Eva till her return.
+
+Before they went on, her sister must have some rest, and Martin Schedel,
+the old Clerk of the Council, was the man with whom to obtain it.
+
+She went in search of him as fast as her feet would bear her, and by a
+lucky accident met the kind old man, whom she had known from childhood,
+on the stairs leading to the Council chamber and the upper offices.
+
+Ernst Ortlieb's unhappy deed, and the story of the base calumnies in
+circulation about the unfortunate man's daughters, which he had just
+heard from Herr Pfinzing, had filled the worthy old clerk's heart with
+pity and indignation; so he eagerly embraced the opportunity afforded to
+atone to the young girls for the wrongs committed against them by their
+fellow-citizens.  Telling the maidservants to wait in the antechamber of
+the orphan's court-room, he led the sisters to his own office, helping
+Eva up the long flight of stairs with an arm which, though aged, was
+still vigorous.  After insisting that she should sit in the armchair
+before the big desk, and placing wine and water before her, he begged the
+young girls to wait until his return.  He was obliged to be present at
+the meeting, which had probably already begun.  The matter in question
+was the Eysvogel business, and if Els would remain he could tell her the
+result.  Then he left them.
+
+Eva, deadly pale, leaned back with closed eyes in the clerk's high
+chair.  Els bathed her brow with a wet handkerchief, consoling her by
+representing how foolish it would be to suffer the lowest of the populace
+to destroy her happiness.
+
+Her sister nodded assent, saying: "Did you notice the faces of those
+people behind the bars?  Most of them, I thought, looked stupid rather
+than evil."  Here she hesitated, and then added thoughtfully: "Yet they
+cannot be wise.  These poor creatures seldom obtain any great sum by
+thieving and cheating.  To what terrible punishments they expose
+themselves both in this world and the next!  And conscience!"
+
+"Yes, conscience!" Els eagerly repeated.  "So long as we can say that we
+have done nothing wrong, we can suffer even the worst to be said of us
+without grieving."
+
+"Still," sighed Eva, "I feel as if that horrible woman's insults had
+sullied me with a stain no water can wash away.  What sorrows have come
+upon us since our mother died, Els!"
+
+Her sister nodded, and added mournfully: "Our father, my Wolff, your
+poor, stricken heart, and below in the Council chamber, Eva, perhaps
+whilst we are talking, those who are soon to be my kindred are being
+doomed.  That is harder to bear, child, than the invectives with which a
+wicked woman slanders us.  Often I do not know myself where I get the
+strength to keep up my courage."
+
+She turned away as she spoke to wipe the tears from her eyes without
+being seen; but Eva perceived it, and rose to clasp her in her arms and
+whisper words of cheer.  Ere she had taken the first step, however, she
+started; in rising she had upset the clerk's tin water-pail, which fell
+rattling on the floor.
+
+"The water!" she exclaimed sadly, "and my tongue is parched."
+
+"I'll fetch more," said Els consolingly; "Herr Martin brought it from
+over yonder."
+
+Opening the door to which she had pointed, she entered a low, spacious
+anteroom, in which was a brass fire engine, ladders, pails, and various
+other utensils for extinguishing a fire in the building, hung on the
+rough plastered wall which separated this room from the office of the
+city clerk.  The centre of the opposite wall was occupied by two small
+windows surmounted by a broad, semicircular arch, and separated by a
+short Roman pillar.  The sashes of both, whose leaden casings were filled
+with little round horn panes, stood wide open.  This double window was in
+the upper part of the Council chamber, which occupied two stories.  To
+create a draught this hot day it had been flung wide open, and Els could
+distinguish plainly the words uttered below.  The first that reached her
+was the name: "Wolff Eysvogel."
+
+A burning sensation thrilled her.  If she went nearer to the window she
+could hear what the Honourables decided concerning the Eysvogel house;
+and, overpowered by her ardent desire not to lose a single word of the
+discussion which was to determine the happiness of Wolff's life, and
+therefore hers, she instantly silenced the voice which admonished her
+that listening was wrong.  Yet the habit of caring for Eva was so dear to
+her, and ruled her with such power, that before listening to what was
+passing in the Council chamber below she looked for the water, which she
+speedily found, took it to the thirsty girl, and hurriedly told her what
+she had discovered in the next room and how she intended to profit by it.
+
+In spite of Eva's entreaty not to do it, she hastened back to the open
+window.
+
+The younger sister, though she shook her head, gazed after her with a
+significant smile.
+
+To Eva this was no accident.
+
+Perhaps it was her saint herself who, when her sister went to seek
+refreshment for her, had guided her to the window.  Eva deemed it a boon
+to be permitted to find here in solitude the rest needful for her body
+which, though usually so strong, had been shaken by horror, and to
+struggle and pray for a clear understanding of the many things which
+troubled her; for to her prayer was far more than the petition for a
+spiritual or earthly blessing; nay, she prayed far less frequently to
+implore anything than from yearning for the Most High to whose presence
+the wings of prayer raised her.  So long as she was absorbed in it, she
+felt removed from the world and borne into the abode of God.
+
+Now also, whilst Els was listening, she brought no earthly matter to the
+Power who guided the universe as well as her own little individual life,
+but merely lost herself in supplication and in her intercourse with the
+Omnipotent One, who seemed to her a familiar friend; she forgot what
+grieved and troubled her and how she had been pained.  But meanwhile the
+prediction she had made to the abbess was verified; she felt as if her
+lover's soul rose with hers to the pure height where she dwelt, and that
+the earthly love which filled her heart and his was but an effluence of
+the Eternal Love, whose embodiment to her was God and the Saviour.
+
+The union of herself and Heinz seemed imaged by two streams flowing from
+the same great inexhaustible, pure, and beneficent fountain, which, after
+having run through separate channels, meet to traverse as a single river
+the blooming meadows and keep them fresh and green.  God's love, her own,
+and his were each separate and yet the same, portions of the great fount
+which animated, saved, and blessed her, him, and the whole vast universe.
+The spring gushing from her love and his was eternal, and therefore
+neither could be exhausted, no matter how much it gave.
+
+But both were still in the world.  As he would certainly put forth all
+his might to show himself worthy of the confidence placed in him by his
+Emperor and master, she too must test her youthful strength in the
+arduous conflict which she had begun.  Her recent experiences were the
+flames of the forge fire of life of which her mother had spoken--and how
+pitifully she had endured their glow!  This must be changed.  She had
+often proved that when the body is wearied the soul gains greater power
+to soar.  Should she not begin to avail herself of this to make her
+feeble body obey her will?  With compressed lips and clenched hand she
+resolved to try.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+Whilst Eva, completely absorbed in herself, was forming this resolution,
+Els, panting for breath, stood at the open window under the ceiling of
+the Council chamber, gazing down and listening to the sounds from
+beneath.
+
+Directly opposite to her was the inscription
+
+"Feldt Urtel auf erden, als ir dort woldt geurtheilt werden," in the
+German and Latin languages, and below this motto, urging the magistrates
+to justice, was a large fresco representing the unjust judge Sisamnes
+being flayed by an executioner in the costume of the Nuremberg Leben--
+[Executioner's assistant.  Really "Lowen."]--before the eyes of King
+Cambyses, in order to cover the judgment seat with his skin.  Another
+picture represented this lofty throne, on which sat the ruler of Persia
+dispensing justice.  The subject of a third was the Roman army
+interrupted in its march by the order of the Emperor Trajan, that he
+might have time to hear a widow's accusation of the murderer of her son
+and to punish the criminal.
+
+Els did not bestow a single glance upon these familiar pictures, but
+gazed down at the thirteen elderly and the same number of much younger
+men, who in their high-backed chairs were holding council together at her
+left hand far below her.  These were the burgomasters of the city, of
+whom an elder and a younger one directed for the space of a month, as
+"Questioner," the government of the public affairs of the city and the
+business of the "Honourable Council."
+
+At this time the office was filled by Albert Ebner and Jorg Stromer,
+whilst in the secret council formed by seven of the older gentlemen, as
+the highest executive authority, Hans Schtirstab as the second and
+Berthold Vorchtel as first Losunger filled the chief offices.
+
+So this year the deeply offended father held the highest place in the
+Council, and in the whole community of Nuremberg he, more than any one
+else, would decide the fate of the Eysvogels.
+
+Els knew this, and with an anxious heart saw him gaze earnestly and sadly
+at the papers which Martin Schedel, the city clerk, had just brought to
+him from a special desk.  At his side, in the centre of the table covered
+with green cloth, sat the listener's uncle, the magistrate Berthold
+Pfinzing, who in the Emperor's name presided over the court of justice.
+
+He also appeared in his character of protector of the Jews, and Samuel
+Pfefferkorn, a Hebrew usurer, had just left the hall after an
+examination.
+
+Casper Eysvogel was gazing after him with a face white as death.  His
+handsome head shook as the imperial magistrate, turning to Berthold
+Vorchtel, the chief Losunger, said in a tone loud enough to be heard by
+all present, "So this is also settled.  Herr Casper contracted the great
+debt to the Jew without the knowledge of his son and partner, and this
+explains to a florin the difference between the accounts of the father
+and son.  The young man was intentionally kept in the dark about the
+greatest danger which threatened the business.  To him the situation of
+the house must have appeared critical, but by no means hopeless.  But for
+the Siebenburgs and the other bandits, who transformed the last important
+and promising venture of the firm into a great loss, and with the sale of
+the landed property, it might perhaps have speedily risen, and under
+prudent and skilful management regained its former prosperity.  The
+enormous sum to which the debt to Samuel Pfefferkorn increased gives the
+position of affairs a different aspect.  Since, as protector of the Jew,
+I must insist upon the payment of this capital with the usual interest,
+the old Eysvogel firm will be unable to meet its obligations--nay, its
+creditors can be but partially paid.  Therefore nothing remains for us to
+do save to consider how to protect as far as possible our city and the
+citizens who are interested.  Yet, in my opinion, the entire firm does
+not deserve punishment--only the father, who concealed from his upright
+son his own accounts and those of Samuel Pfefferkorn, and--it is hard for
+me to say this in Herr Casper's presence;--also, when the peril became
+urgent, illegally deprived his business partner of the possibility of
+obtaining a correct view of the real situation of affairs.  So, in the
+Emperor's name, let justice take its course."
+
+These words pronounced the doom of the ancient, great, and wealthy
+Eysvogel firm; yet the heart of Els throbbed high with joy when, after
+a brief interchange of opinions between the assembled members of the
+Council, the imperial magistrate, turning to Herr Vorchtel, again began:
+"As Chief Losunger, it would be your place, Herr Berthold, to raise your
+voice on the part of the Honourable Council in defence of the accused;
+but since we are all aware of the great grief inflicted upon you by the
+son of the man in whose favour you would be obliged to speak, we should,
+I think, spare you this duty, and transfer it to Herr Hans Schtirstab,
+the second Losunger, or to Herr Albert Ebner, the oldest of the governing
+burgomasters, who, though equally concerned in this sad case, are less
+closely connected with the Eysvogels themselves."
+
+Els uttered a sigh of relief, for both the men named were friendly to
+Wolff; but Herr Vorchtel had already risen and began to speak, turning
+his wise old head slowly to and fro, and drawing his soft grey beard
+through his hand.
+
+He commenced his address as quietly as if he were talking with friends at
+his own table, and the tones of his deep voice, as well as the expression
+of his finely moulded aged features, exerted a soothing influence upon
+his listeners.
+
+Els, with a throbbing heart, felt that nothing which this man advocated
+could be wrong, and that whatever he recommended would be sure of
+acceptance; for he stood amongst his young and elderly fellow directors
+of the Nuremberg republic like an immovably steadfast guardian of duty
+and law, who had grown grey in the atmosphere of honesty and honour.
+Thus she had imagined the faithful Eckart, thus her own Wolff might look
+some day when age had bleached his hair and labour and anxiety had lined
+his lofty brow with wrinkles; Berthold Vorchtel, and other "Honourables"
+who resembled him; grey-haired Conrad Gross; tall, broad-shouldered
+Friedrich Holzschuher, whose long, snow-white hair fell in thick waves to
+his shoulders; Ulrich Haller, in whose locks threads of silver were just
+appearing, princely in form and bearing; stately Hermann Waldstromer, who
+had the keen eyes of a huntsman; the noble Ebner brothers, who would have
+attracted attention even in an assembly of knights and counts--nay, the
+Emperor Rudolph was probably thinking of the men below when he said that
+the Nuremberg Council reminded him of a German oak wood, where firm
+reliance could be placed on every noble trunk.
+
+Herr Berthold Vorchtel was just such a noble, reliable tree.  Els told
+herself so, and though she knew how deeply he was wounded when Wolff
+preferred her to his daughter Ursula, and how sorely he mourned his son
+Ulrich's death, she was nevertheless convinced that this man would bear
+the Eysvogels no grudge for the grief suffered through them, for no word
+which was not just and estimable would cross his aged lips.
+
+She was not mistaken; for after Herr Berthold had insisted upon his right
+to raise his voice, not in behalf of Herr Casper but for his business
+firm and its preservation, he remarked, by way of introduction, that for
+the sake of Nuremberg he would advise that the Eysvogel house should not
+be abandoned without ceremony to the storm which its chief had aroused
+against the ancient, solid structure.
+
+Then he turned to the papers and parchments, to which the city clerk had
+just added several books and rolls.  His address, frequently interrupted
+by references to the documents before him, sounded clear and positive.
+The amount of the sums owed by the Eysvogel firm, as well as the names of
+its creditors in Nuremberg, Augsburg, Ulm, and Regensburg, Venice, Milan,
+Bruges, and other German and foreign cities, formed the most important
+portion of his speech.  During its progress he frequently seized a bit of
+chalk and blackboard, writing rapidly on the green table whole rows of
+figures, and the young burgomasters especially exchanged admiring smiles
+as the experienced old merchant added and subtracted in an instant sums
+for which they themselves would have needed twice as much time.
+
+The figures and names buzzed in the ears of the listener at the window
+like the humming of a swarm of gnats.  To understand and remember them
+was impossible, and she gazed in astonishment at the old man who so
+clearly comprehended the confused tangle and drew from it so readily just
+what he needed for his purpose.
+
+When he closed, and with a loud "Therefore" began to communicate the
+result, she summoned all the mental power she possessed in order to
+understand it.  She succeeded, but her knees fairly trembled when she
+heard the sum which the house was obliged to repay to others.
+
+Yet, when Herr Berthold lastly gave the estimate of the Eysvogel property
+in merchandise, buildings, and estates, she was again surprised.  She had
+not supposed that Wolff's proud family was so wealthy; but the close of
+this report brought fresh disappointment, for including the sum which
+Herr Casper had borrowed from the Jew Pfefferkorn, the debts of the firm
+exceeded its possessions far more than Els had expected from the amount
+of its riches.
+
+She was wholly ignorant of the condition of her own father's property;
+but she thought she knew that it was far from being enough to suffice
+here.  And this appeared to be the case, for when Berthold Vorchtel
+resumed his speech he alluded to Ernst Ortlieb.  In words full of
+sympathy he lamented the unprecedented insult which had led him to commit
+the deed of violence that prevented his sharing in this consultation.
+But before his removal he had given him an important commission.  Upon
+certain conditions--but only upon them--he would place a considerable
+portion of his fortune at his disposal for the settlement of this affair.
+Still, large as was the promised sum, it would by no means be sufficient
+to save the Eysvogel business from ruin.  Yet he, Berthold Vorchtel, was
+of the opinion that its fall must be prevented at any cost.  The
+sincerity of this conviction he intended to prove by the best means
+at a merchant's command-the pledge of his own large capital.
+
+These words deeply moved the whole assembly, and Els saw her uncle glance
+at the old gentleman with a look which expressed the warm appreciation of
+a man of the same mind.
+
+Casper Eysvogel, who, lost in thought, had permitted the statements of
+the Losunger, which were mingled with many a bitter censure of his own
+conduct, to pass without contradiction--nay, apparently in a state
+of apathy in which he was no longer capable of following details--
+straightened his bowed figure and gazed enquiringly into Herr Berthold's
+face as if he did not venture to trust his own ears; but the other looked
+past him, as he added that what he was doing for the Eysvogel business
+was due to no consideration for the man who had hitherto directed it, or
+his family, but solely on account of the good city whose business affairs
+the confidence of the Council had summoned him to direct, and her
+commerce, whose prosperity was equally dear to most of the Honourables
+around him.
+
+Cries and gestures of assent accompanied the last sentence; but Berthold
+Vorchtel recognised the demonstration by remarking that it showed him
+that the Council, in the name of the city, would be disposed to do its
+share in raising the amount still lacking.
+
+This statement elicited opposition, expressed in several quarters in low
+tones, and from one seat loudly, and Herr Berthold heard it.  Turning to
+Peter Ammon, one of the Eysvogels' principal creditors, who was making
+the most animated resistance, he remarked that no one could be more
+unwilling than himself to use the means of the community to protect from
+the consequences of his conduct a citizen whose own errors had placed him
+in a perilous position, but, on the other hand, he would always--and in
+this case with special zeal--be ready to aid such a person in spite of
+the faults committed, if he believed that he could thus protect the
+community from serious injury.
+
+Then he asked permission to make a digression, and being greeted with
+cries of "Go on!" from all sides, began in brief, clear sentences to show
+how the commerce of Nuremberg from small beginnings had reached its
+present prosperity.  Instead of the timid, irregular exchange of goods
+as far as the Rhine, the Main, and the Danube, regular intercourse with
+Venice, Milan, Genoa, Bohemia, and Hungary, Flanders, Brabant, and the
+coast of the Baltic had commenced.  Trade with the Italian cities, and
+through them, even with the Levant, had made its first successful opening
+under the Hohenstaufen rule; but during the evil days when the foreign
+monarchs had neglected Germany and her welfare, it sustained the most
+serious losses.  By the election of Rudolph of Hapsburg who, with vigour,
+good-will, and intelligence, had devoted his attention to the security of
+commerce in the countries over which he reigned, better days for the
+merchant had returned, and it was very evident what his work required,
+what injured and robbed it of its well-earned reward.  Confidence at home
+and abroad was the foundation of prosperity, not alone of the Nuremberg
+merchant but of trade in general.  Under the Hohenstaufen rule their
+upright ancestors had so strengthened this confidence that wherever he
+went the Nuremberg merchant received respect and confidence above many--
+perhaps all others.  The insecurity of the roads and of justice in the
+lawless times before the election of the Hapsburgs might have impaired
+this great blessing; but since Rudolph had wielded the sceptre with
+virile energy, made commerce secure, and administered justice, confidence
+had also returned, and to maintain it no sacrifice should be too great.
+As for him, Berthold Vorchtel, he would not spare himself, and if he
+expected the city to imitate him he would know how to answer for it.
+
+Here he was interrupted by loud shouts of applause; but, without heeding
+them, he quietly went on: "And it is necessary to secure confidence in
+the Nuremberg merchant in two directions: his honesty and the capital at
+his command.  Our business friends, far and near, must be permitted to
+continue to rely upon our trustworthiness as firmly as upon rock and
+iron.  If we brought the arrogant Italian to say of us that, amongst the
+German cities who were blind, Nuremberg was the one-eyed, we ought now to
+force them to number us amongst those who see with both eyes, the honest,
+trust-inspiring blue eyes of the German.  But to attain this goal we need
+the imperial protection, the watchful power of a great and friendly
+ruler.  The progress which our trade owed to the Hohenstaufen proves
+this; the years without an Emperor, on the contrary, showed what
+threatens our commerce as soon as we lack this aid.  Rights and
+privileges from sovereigns smoothed the paths in which we have surpassed
+others.  To obtain new and more important ones must be our object.  From
+the first Reichstag which the Emperor Rudolph held here, he has shown
+that he esteems us and believes us worthy of his confidence.  Many
+valuable privileges have revealed this.  To maintain this confidence,
+which is and will remain the source of the most important favours to
+Nuremberg, is enjoined upon us merchants by prudence, upon us directors
+of the city by regard for its prosperity.  But, my honourable friends,
+reluctantly as I do so, I must nevertheless remind you that this
+confidence, here and there, has already received a shock through the
+errors of individuals.  Who could have forgotten the tale of the
+beautiful cap of the unhappy Meister Mertein, who has preceded us into
+the other world?  Doubtless it concerned but one scabby sheep, yet it
+served to bring the whole flock into disrepute.  Perhaps the fact that it
+occurred so soon after Rudolph's election to the sovereignty, during the
+early days of his residence in our goodly city, imprinted it so deeply
+upon our imperial master's memory.  A few hours ago he asked for some
+information concerning the sad affair which now occupies our attention,
+and when I represented that the public spirit and honesty of my
+countrymen, fellow-citizens, and associate members of the Council would
+prevent it from injuring our trade at home or abroad, he alluded to that
+story, by no means in the jesting way with which he formerly mentioned
+the vexatious incident that redounded to the honour of no one more than
+that of his own shrewdness, which at that time--seven years ago--was so
+often blended with mirth."
+
+When the speaker began to allude to this much-discussed incident a smile
+had flitted over the features of his listeners, for they remembered it
+perfectly, and the story of Emperor Rudolph and the cap was still related
+to the honour of the presence of mind of the wise Hapsburg judge.
+
+During the period of the assembly of the princes a Nuremberg citizen had
+taken charge of a bag containing two hundred florins for a foreign
+merchant who had lodged with him, but when he was asked for the property
+entrusted to him denied that he had received it.
+
+This disgraceful occurrence was reported to the Emperor, but he
+apparently paid no heed to it, and received Master Mertein, amongst other
+citizens who wished to be presented to him.  The dishonest man appeared
+in a rich gala dress and as, embarrassed by the Emperor's piercing gaze,
+he awkwardly twirled his cap--a magnificent article bordered with costly
+fur; the sovereign took it from his hand, examined it admiringly and,
+with the remark that it would suit even a king, placed it on his own
+royal head.  Then he approached one after another to exchange a few words
+and, as if forgetting that he wore the head-gear, left the apartment to
+order a messenger to take the cap at once to its owner's wife, show it to
+her as a guarantee of trustworthiness, and ask her to bring the bag which
+the foreign merchant had given him to the castle.  The woman did so and
+the cheat was unmasked.
+
+Everyone present, like Els, was familiar with this story, which wrongly
+cast so evil a light upon the uprightness of the citizens of Nuremberg.
+Who could fail to be painfully affected by the thought that Rudolph,
+during his present stay amongst them, must witness the injury of others
+by a Nuremberg merchant?  Who could have now opposed Herr Berthold, when
+he asked, still more earnestly than before, that the community would do
+its share to maintain confidence in the reliability of the Nuremberg
+citizens, and especially of the Honourable Council and everyone of its
+members?
+
+But when he mentioned the large sum which he himself, and the other which
+Ernst Ortlieb intended on certain conditions to devote to the settlement
+of this affair, Peter Ammon also withdrew his opposition.  The First
+Losunger's proposal was unanimously accepted, and also the condition made
+by his associate, Ernst Ortlieb.  Casper Eysvogel, on whom the resolution
+bore most heavily, submitted in silence, shrugging his shoulders.
+
+How high Els's heart throbbed, how she longed to rush down into the
+Council chamber and clasp the hand of the noble old man at the green
+table, when he said that in consequence of Ernst Ortlieb's condition--
+which he also made--the charge of the newly established Eysvogel business
+must be transferred from Herr Casper's hands to those of his son, Herr
+Wolff, as soon as the imperial pardon permitted him to leave his hiding-
+place.  He, Berthold Vorchtel, would make no complaint against him, for
+he knew that Wolff had been forced to cross swords with his Ulrich.  He
+had formed this resolution after a severe struggle with himself; but as a
+Christian and a fair-minded man he had renounced the human desire for
+revenge, and as God had wished to give him a token of his approval, he
+had sent to his house a substitute for his dead son.  Fresh cries of
+approval interrupted this communication, whose meaning Els did not
+understand.
+
+Not a word of remonstrance was uttered when the imperial magistrate at
+last proposed that Casper Eysvogel and the women of his family should
+leave the city and atone for his great offence by ten years in exile.
+One of his estates, which he advised the city to buy, could be assigned
+him as a residence.  Herr Casper's daughter, Frau Isabella Siebenburg,
+had already, with her twin sons, found shelter at the Knight Heideck's
+castle.  Her husband, who had joined his guilty brothers, would speedily
+fall into the hands of justice and reap what he had sowed.  For the final
+settlement of this affair he begged the Honourable Council to appoint
+commissioners, whom he would willingly join.
+
+Then Herr Vorchtel again rose and requested his honourable friends to
+treat the new head of the house with entire confidence; for from the
+books of the firm and the statements which he had made in his hiding-
+place and sent to the Council, both he and the city clerk had become
+convinced that he was one of the most cautious and upright young
+merchants in Nuremberg.  Their opinion was also shared by the most
+prominent business acquaintances of the house.
+
+This pleased the listener.  But whilst the speaker sat down amidst the
+eager assent of his associates in office, and Herr Casper Eysvogel,
+leaning on the arm of his cousin, Conrad Teufel, left the hall with
+tottering steps, utterly crushed, she saw the city clerk Schedel, after a
+hasty glance upwards, approach the side door, through which he could
+reach the staircase leading to his rooms.
+
+He evidently intended to tell the result of the discussion.  But the old
+gentleman would need considerable time to reach her, so she again
+listened to what was passing below.
+
+She heard her uncle, the magistrate, speak of her father's unfortunate
+deed, and tell the Council how the name of Herr Ernst's daughters, who
+were held in such honour, had become innocently, through evil gossip, the
+talk of the people.  Just at that moment the old man's shuffling step
+sounded close by the door.
+
+Els stopped listening to hasten towards the messenger of good tidings,
+and the old gentleman could scarcely believe his own eyes when he saw the
+happiness beaming in the girl's beautiful fresh face, whose anxiety and
+pallor had just roused his deep sympathy.
+
+It was scarcely possible that anyone could have anticipated him with the
+glad news, and spite of his seventy-two years the city clerk had retained
+the keen eyes of youth.  When he entered the anteroom with Els and saw
+the open window and beside it the white Riese which she had removed in
+order to hear better, he released himself from the arm she had passed
+around his shoulders, shook his finger threateningly at her, and cried:
+"It's fortunate that I find only the Riese, and not the listener,
+otherwise I should be compelled to deliver her to the jailer, or even the
+torturer, for unwarranted intrusion into the secrets of the honourable
+Council.  I can hardly institute proceedings against a bit of linen!"
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Welcome a small evil when it barred the way to a greater one
+
+
+
+
+
+
+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
+
+
+
+
+
+
+IN THE FIRE OF THE FORGE
+
+A ROMANCE OF OLD NUREMBERG
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+Volume 8.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+Day followed day, a week elapsed, and no message had reached Schweinau
+from Heinz Schorlin or Katterle.
+
+The magistrate had learned that the Siebenburg brothers, with the robber
+knights who had joined them, were obstinately defending their castles and
+making it difficult for Heinz Schorlin to perform his task.  The day
+before news had come that the Absbach's strong mountain fortress had
+fallen; that the allied knights, in a sortie which merged into a
+miniature battle, had been defeated, and the Siebenburgs could not hold
+out much longer; but in the stress of his duties the knight seemed to
+have forgotten to make the slightest effort in behalf of his faithful
+servant.  At least the protonotary Gottlieb, a friend of Herr Berthold,
+through whose hands passed all letters addressed to the Emperor,
+positively assured them that, though plenty of military reports had
+arrived, in not a single one had the young commander mentioned his
+servant even by a word.  He, the protonotary, had taken advantage of a
+favourable hour to urge his royal master, as a reward for Biberli's rare
+fidelity, to protect him from further persecution by the citizens of
+Nuremberg; but the Emperor Rudolph did not even allow him to finish,
+because, as a matter of principle, he refrained from interference in
+matters whose settlement rightfully pertained to the Honourable Council.
+
+When soon after Herr Pfinzing availed himself of a report which he had to
+deliver to the Emperor to intercede himself for the valiant fellow, the
+Hapsburg, with the ruler's strong memory, recalled the protonotary's plea
+and referred Herr Berthold to the answer the former had received,
+remarking, less graciously than usual, that the imperial magistrate ought
+to know that he would be the last to assail the privileges which he had
+himself bestowed upon the city.
+
+Finally even Burgrave Frederick, whose sympathy had been enlisted in
+Biberli's behalf by Herr Berthold, fared no better.
+
+His interests were often opposed to those of the Council and, kindly as
+was his disposition, disputes concerning many questions of law were
+constantly occurring between him and the Honourables.  When he began to
+persuade the Emperor to prevent by a pardon the cruelty which the Council
+intended to practise upon a servant of Sir Heinz Schorlin, who was doing
+such good service in the field, the sovereign told even him, his friend
+and brother-in-law, who had toiled so energetically to secure him the
+crown, that he would not interfere, though it were in behalf of a beloved
+brother, with the decrees of the Council, and the noble petitioner was
+silenced by the reasons which he gave.  The Burgrave deemed the Emperor's
+desire to maintain the Honourables' willingness to grant the large loan
+he intended to ask to fill his empty treasury still more weighty than
+those with which he had repulsed Herr Pfinzing.
+
+On the other hand, the pardon granted to Ernst Ortlieb and Wolff Eysvogel
+could only tend to increase the good will of the Council.  The former was
+given at once, the latter only conditionally after the First Losunger of
+the city, with several other Honourables, had recommended it.  The
+Emperor thought it advisable to defer this act of clemency.  A violation
+of the peace of the country committed under his own eyes ought not to be
+pardoned during his stay in the place where the bloody deed was
+committed.  It would have cast a doubt upon the serious intent of the
+important measure which threatened with the severest punishment any
+attempt upon the lives and property of others.
+
+So long as the Emperor held his court at Nuremberg, Wolff, against whom
+no accuser had yet appeared, must remain concealed.  When the sovereign
+had left the city he might again mingle with his fellow-citizens.  An
+imperial letter alluding to the gratitude which Rudolph owed to the
+soldiers of Marchfield, to whose band the evildoer belonged, and the
+whole good city of Nuremberg for the hospitable reception tendered to him
+and his household, should shield from punishment the young patrician who
+had only drawn his sword in self-defence, and fulfil the petition of the
+Council for Wolff Eysvogel's restoration to the rights which he had
+forfeited.
+
+The news of this promise gave Els the first happy hour after long days of
+discomfort and the most arduous mental conflict.  True, the measures
+adopted by her friends seemed to have guarded her from the attacks of the
+old Countess Rotterbach; but Fran Rosalinde, since she had been allowed
+more freedom to move about than her mother, who had been confined to the
+upper story, felt like a boat drifting rudderless down the stream.  She
+needed guidance and, as Els now ruled the house, asked direction from her
+for even the most simple matters.  Clinging to her like a child deserted
+by its nurse, she told her the most hostile and spiteful remarks which
+the countess never failed to make whenever it suited her daughter to bear
+her company.  During the last few days the old lady had again won
+Rosalinde over to her side, and in consequence an enmity towards Els had
+sprung up, which was often very spiteful in its manifestations, and was
+the more difficult to bear, the more rigidly her position as daughter of
+the house forbade energetic resistance.
+
+But most painful of all to the volunteer nurse was the sick man's manner;
+for though Herr Casper rarely regained perfect consciousness, he showed
+his unfriendly disposition often enough by glances, gestures, and words
+stammered with painful effort.
+
+Yet the brave girl's patience seemed inexhaustible, and she resolutely
+performed even the most arduous tasks imposed by nursing the sufferer.
+Nay, the thought that Wolff owed his life to him aided her always to be
+kind to her father-in-law, no matter how much he wounded her, and to tend
+him no less carefully than she had formerly cared for her invalid mother.
+
+So she had held out valiantly until, at the end of a long, torturing
+week, something occurred which destroyed her courage.  On returning from
+an errand in the city, she was received at the door of the sick-room by
+her future mother-in-law with the statement that she would take charge of
+her husband herself, and no longer allow the intruder to keep her from
+the place which belonged to her alone.  The old countess's power of
+persuasion had strengthened her courage, and the unwonted energy of the
+weak, more than yielding woman, exerted so startling and at the same time
+disheartening an effect upon the wearied, tortured young creature that
+she attempted no resistance.  The entreaties of the leech and kind Herr
+Teufel, however, induced her to persist a short time longer.
+
+But when, soon after, the same incident occurred a second time, it seemed
+impossible to remain in their house even another day.
+
+Without opposing her lover's mother, she retired to her chamber and,
+weeping silently, spite of the earnest entreaties of the Sister of
+Charity, packed the few articles she had brought with her and prepared to
+leave the post maintained with so much difficulty.  To be again with Eva
+under the protection of her uncle and aunt now seemed the highest goal of
+her longing.  She did not wish to go home; for after his liberation from
+the tower her father had had a long conversation with Wolff and old
+Berthold Vorchtel, and then, at the desire of the Council, had ridden to
+Augsburg and Ulm to arrange the affairs of the Eysvogel firm.  He had
+felt that he could be spared by his family, knowing that his younger
+daughter was safe at Schweinau, and having heard that Wolff's pardon
+would not be long delayed.
+
+Eva, too, had experienced toilsome days and many an anxious night.  True,
+Biberli and the carrier's widow, with her children, had been moved to the
+Beguines' house, where she could pursue her charitable work safe from the
+rude attacks of the criminal inmates of the hospital; but what heavy
+cares had burdened her concerning the two patients for whom she was
+battling with death! how eagerly she watched for tidings from the
+neighbourhood of the Siebenburgs! what hours of trouble were caused by
+the prior of the Dominicans and his envoys, who strove to convince her
+that her intention of renouncing her conventual life was treason to God,
+and that the boldness with which she had released herself from the former
+guides of her spiritual life and sought her own way would lead her to
+heresy and perdition!  How painful, too, was the feeling that she was
+being examined to discover whether the Abbess Kunigunde had any share in
+her change of purpose!
+
+The torture to which stronger men rarely succumbed seemed to threaten the
+life of the more delicate ex-schoolmaster.  At first the leech Otto, who,
+to please Els and Fran Christine, and touched by the brave spirit of this
+humble man, had daily visited Biberli, believed that he could not save
+him.  On the straw pallet, and with the incompetent nursing at the
+hospital, he would have died very speedily, and what would have befallen
+his poor mangled toes and fingers in the hands of the barbers who managed
+affairs there?
+
+At the Beguines the kindly, skilful old physician had bandaged his hands
+and feet as carefully as if he had been the most aristocratic gentleman,
+and no prince could have been more tenderly and patiently watched by
+trained nurses; for, wonderful to relate, Eva, who had so willingly left
+her sick mother to her sister's care, and had often been vexed with
+herself because she could not even remotely equal Els beside the couch of
+the beloved invalid, rendered the mangled squire every service with a
+touch so light and firm that the old physician often watched her with
+glad astonishment.
+
+Caution, the quality she most lacked, seemed to have suddenly waked from
+a long slumber with doubly clear, far-seeing eyes.  If it was necessary
+to turn the sick man, she paid special heed to every aching spot in his
+tortured body, and invented contrivances which she arranged with patient
+care to save him pain.
+
+Her own bed had been placed in the widow's chamber next to Biberli's, and
+from the night that her Aunt Christine had permitted her to remain in the
+Beguine house, she, who formerly had loved sleep and slumbered soundly,
+had been beside the sick woman at the least sign.  On the third day she
+rendered her, with her own hands, every service for which she had
+formerly needed a Beguine's aid.  She had possessed the gift of uttering
+words of cheer and comfort even to her invalid mother better than any one
+else, and often gave new courage to the suffering man when almost driven
+to despair by the anguish of pain assailing him in ten places at once.
+How kindly she taught him what comfort the sufferer finds who not only
+moves his lips and turns his rosary in prayer, as he had hitherto done,
+but commends himself and his pain to Him who endured still worse agonies
+on the cross!  What a smile of content rested on the lips of the man who,
+in the ravings of fever, had so often repeated the words "steadfast and
+true," when she told him that he had done honour most marvellously to his
+favourite virtue, represented by the T and St, and might expect his
+master's praise and gratitude!
+
+All these things fell from her lips more warmly the more vividly she
+conjured up the image of the man for whose sake the gallant fellow had
+endured this martyrdom, the happier it made her to help Heinz, though
+without his knowledge, to pay the great debt of gratitude which he owed
+the faithful servitor.  She was not aware of it, but the strongest of all
+educational powers--sorrow and love--were transforming the unsocial,
+capricious "little saint" into a noble, self-sacrificing woman.  She was
+training herself to be what she desired to become to her lover, and the
+secret power whose influence upon her whole being she distinctly felt at
+each success, she herself called--remembering the last words of her dying
+mother--"the forge fire of life."
+
+At first it had been extremely painful for Biberli to allow himself to be
+nursed with such devoted, loving care by the very person from whom he had
+earnestly endeavoured to estrange his master; but soon the warmest
+gratitude cast every other feeling into the shade, and when he woke from
+the light slumber into which he frequently fell and saw Eva beside his
+bed, his heart swelled and he often felt as if Heaven had sent her to him
+to restore the best gifts for which he was struggling--life and health.
+When he began to recover, the faithful fellow clung to her with the
+utmost devotion; but this by no means lessened his love for his master
+and his absent sweetheart.  On the contrary, the farther his
+convalescence progressed the more constantly and anxiously he thought of
+Heinz and Katterle, the more pleasure it afforded him to talk about them
+and to discuss with Eva what could have befallen both.
+
+It  was  impossible--Biberli  believed this as firmly as his nurse--that
+Heinz could coldly forget his follower or Katterle neglect what she had
+undertaken.  So both agreed in the conjecture that the messengers sent by
+the absent ones had been prevented from reaching their destination.
+
+The supposition was correct.  Two troopers despatched by Heinz had been
+captured by the Siebenburgs, and the maid's messenger had cheated her by
+pocketing the small fee which she paid him and performing another
+commission instead of going to Schweinau.  Of the knight's letters which
+had fallen into the wrong hands, one had besought the Emperor Rudolph to
+pardon the loyal servant, the other had thanked Biberli, and informed him
+that his master remembered and was working for him.
+
+Katterle had reached Heinz, had been required to tell him everything she
+knew about Eva and Biberli down to the minutest detail and had then
+been commissioned to repeat to the latter what had been also contained in
+the letter.  On the way home, however, she only reached Schwabach, for
+the long walk in the most terrible anxiety, drenched by a pouring rain,
+whilst enquiring her way to Heinz, and especially the terrible
+excitements of the last few days, had been too much even for her vigorous
+constitution.  Her pulse was throbbing violently and her brow was burning
+when she knocked at the door of Apel, the carrier, who had taken her into
+his waggon at Schweinau, and the good old man and his wife received and
+nursed her.  The fever was soon broken, but weakness prevented her
+journeying to Schweinau on foot, and, as Apel intended to go to Nuremberg
+the first of the following week, she had been forced to content herself
+with sending the messenger who had betrayed her confidence.
+
+How hard it was for Katterle to wait!  And her impatience reached its
+height when, before she could leave, some of the imperial troopers
+stabled their horses at the carrier's and reported that Castle Siebenburg
+and the robber stronghold of the Absbachs were destroyed.  Sir Heinz
+Schorlin had fought like St. George.  Now he was detained only by the
+fortresses of the knights Hirschhorn and Oberstein, whose situation on
+inaccessible crags threatened long to defy the imperial power.
+
+The thought that the strong Swiss girl might be ill never entered the
+mind of Biberli or Eva, but in quiet hours he asked himself which it
+would probably grieve him most to miss forever--his beautiful young nurse
+or his countrywoman and sweetheart.  His heart belonged solely to
+Katterle, but towards Eva he obeyed the old trait inherent in his nature,
+and clung with the same loyalty hitherto evinced for his master to her
+whom he now regarded as his future mistress.
+
+This she must and should be, because already life seemed to him no longer
+desirable without her voice.  Never had he heard one whose pure tones
+penetrated the heart more deeply.  And had Heinz been permitted to hear
+her talk with the Dominicans, he would have given up his wish to renounce
+the world and, instead of entering a monastery, striven with every power
+of his being to win this wonderful maiden, for whom his heart glowed with
+such ardent love.  When she persisted in her refusal to take the veil
+because she had learned that it is possible in the world to live at peace
+with one's self, feel in harmony with God, and follow in love and
+fidelity the footsteps of the Saviour, she had heard many a kindly word
+of admonition, many a sharp reproof, and many a fierce threat from the
+Dominicans, but she did not allow herself to be led astray, and
+understood how to defend herself so cleverly and forcibly that his heart
+dilated, and he asked himself how a girl of eighteen could maintain her
+ground so firmly, so shrewdly, and with such thorough knowledge of the
+Scriptures, against devout, highly educated men--nay, the most learned
+and austere.
+
+The Abbess Kunigunde had also appeared sometimes at his bedside, and
+Eva's conversations with her revealed to him that she had obtained her
+armour against the Dominicans from the Sisters of St. Clare.  True, at
+first the former had laboured with the utmost earnestness to win her back
+to the convent, but two days before she had met two Dominicans, and the
+evident efforts of one who seemed to hold a distinguished position among
+his brother monks to gain Eva for his own order and withdraw her from the
+Sisters of St. Clare, whom he believed to be walking in paths less
+pleasing to God, had so angered the abbess that she lost the power, and
+perhaps also the will, to maintain her usual composure.  Therefore,
+yesterday she had opposed her niece's wish to remain in the world less
+strongly than before; nay, on parting with her she had clasped her in her
+arms and, as it were, restored her freedom by admitting that various
+paths led to the kingdom of heaven.
+
+This was balm to the convalescent's wounds; for he cherished no wish more
+ardent than to accompany his master to the marriage altar, where Eva
+would give her hand to Heinz Schorlin as her faithful husband, and the
+abbess's last visit seemed to favour this desire.  Besides, he who had
+gazed at life with open eyes had never yet beheld a brave young warrior,
+soon after reaping well-earned renown, yearn for the monk's cowl.  Doubt,
+suffering, and a miraculous escape from terrible peril had inspired the
+joyous-hearted Heinz with the desire to renounce the world.  Now,
+perhaps, Heaven itself was showing him that he had not received the boon
+of life to bury himself in a monastery, but to be blessed with the
+fairest and noblest of gifts, the love of a woman who, in his opinion,
+had not her equal beneath the wide vault of the azure sky.
+
+Countess Cordula was not suited for his master.  During the long hours
+that he lay quietly on his pallet a hundred reasons strengthened this
+opinion.  The man for whom he had steadfastly endured such severe agony,
+and was suffering still, was worthy of a more beautiful, devout, and calm
+companion-nay, the very loveliest and best--and that, in his eyes, was
+the girl for whom Heinz had felt so overmastering a passion just before
+his luckless winnings at the gaming table.  This potent fire of love
+might doubtless be smothered with sand and ashes, but never extinguished.
+
+Such were Biberli's thoughts as he recalled the events of the previous
+day.  He had found Eva less equable in her tender management than usual.
+Some anxiety concerning something apart from her patients seemed to
+oppress her.  True, she had not wished to reveal it, but his eyes were
+keen.
+
+Soon after sunrise that morning she had carefully rebandaged his crushed
+thumb, which was not yet healed.  Then she had gone away, as she assured
+him, for only a few hours.  Now the sun was already high in the heavens,
+yet she did not return, though it was long past the time for the bandages
+to be renewed, and the drops to be given which sustained the life of the
+dying Minorite in the adjoining room.  It made him uneasy, and when
+anxiety had once taken root in his heart it sent its shoots forward and
+backward, and he remembered many things in which Eva had been different
+the day before.  Why had she whispered so long with Herr Pfinzing and
+then looked so sorrowfully at him, Biberli?  Why had Frau Christine come
+not less than three times yesterday afternoon, and  again  in  the
+evening?  She had some secret to discuss with the surgeon Otto.  Had any
+change taken place in his condition?  and did the leech intend to
+amputate his thumb, or even his hand?  But, no! only yesterday he had
+been assured that he could save all five fingers, and his sorely mangled
+left foot too.  The widow was better, and all hope of saving the
+Minorite's life had been relinquished two days ago.  Eva's anxiety must
+have some other cause, and he asked himself, in alarm, whether she could
+have received any bad news from his master or Katterle?
+
+A terrible sense of uneasiness overpowered him, and the necessity of
+confiding it to some one took such possession of the loquacious man that
+he called little Walpurga from the next room.  But instead of running to
+his bedside, she darted forward with the joyful cry, "She is coming!"
+towards the door and Eva.
+
+Soon after the latter, leading the child by the hand, entered the room.
+Biberli felt as if the sun were rising again.  How gay her greeting
+sounded!  The expression of her blue eyes seemed to announce something
+pleasant.  Whoever possessed this maiden would be sure to have no lack of
+light in his home, no matter how dark the night might be.
+
+He must have been mistaken concerning the anxiety which had seemed to
+oppress her on his account.  Instead of bad news, she was surely bringing
+good tidings.  Nay, she had the best of all; for Katterle, Eva told him,
+would soon arrive.  But his future wife had been ill too.  Her cheeks had
+not yet regained their roundness or their bright colour.
+
+Sharp-sighted Biberli noticed this, and exclaimed: "Then she is here
+already!  For, my mistress, how else could you know how her cheeks look?"
+
+Soon afterwards the maid was really standing beside her lover's couch.
+
+Eva allowed them to enjoy the happiness of meeting undisturbed, and went
+to her other two patients.  When she returned to the couple, Katterle had
+already related what she had experienced in Schwabach.  It was little
+more than Eva had already heard from her uncle and others.
+
+That Seitz Siebenburg, whom he bitterly hated, had fallen in a sword
+combat by his master's own hand, afforded Biberli the keenest delight.
+No portion of the narrative vexed him except the nonarrival of the
+messengers, and the probability that some time must yet elapse ere Heinz
+could sheathe his sword.
+
+Eva's cheeks flushed with joy and pride as she heard how nobly her lover
+had justified the confidence of his imperial patron.  But it seemed to be
+impossible to follow Biberli's flood of eloquence to the end.  She was in
+haste, and he had been right concerning the cares which oppressed her.
+
+She had stood beside his couch the day before with a heavy heart, and it
+required the exercise of all her strength to conceal the anxiety with
+which her mind was filled, for if she did not intercede for him that very
+day; if his pardon could not be announced early the following morning
+during the session of the court in the Town Hall, then the half-recovered
+man must be surrendered to the judges again, and Otto believed that the
+torture would be fatal to his enfeebled frame.
+
+The tailor and his adherents, as Eva knew from Herr Pfinzing, were making
+every effort to obtain his condemnation and prove to the city that they
+had not censured the proceedings of the Ortlieb household as mere
+reckless slanderers.  Eva and her sister would be again mentioned in the
+investigation, and were even threatened with an examination.
+
+At first this had startled her, but she believed her uncle's assurance
+that this examination would fully prove her innocence before the eyes of
+the whole world.  For her own sake Eva surely would not have suffered
+herself to be so tortured by anxiety night and day, or undertaken and
+resolved to dare so much.  The thought that the faithful follower whom
+her patient nursing had saved from death and to whom she had become
+warmly attached must now lose his life, and Heinz Schorlin be robbed of
+the possibility of doing anything for him, had cast every other fear in
+the shade, and had kept her constantly in motion the evening before and
+this morning.
+
+But all that she and her Aunt Christine had attempted in behalf of the
+imperilled man had been futile.  To apply to the Emperor again every one,
+including the magistrate, had declared useless, since even the Burgrave
+had been refused.
+
+The members of the Council and the judges in the court had already, at
+Aunt Christine's solicitation, deferred the proceedings four days, but
+the law now forbade longer delay.  Though individuals would gladly have
+spared the accused the torture, its application could scarcely be
+avoided, for how many accusers and witnesses appeared against him, and
+if there were weighty depositions and by no means truthful replies on the
+part of the prisoner, the torture could not be escaped.  It legally
+belonged to the progress of the investigation, and how many who had by no
+means recovered from the last exposure to the rack were constantly
+obliged to enter the torture chamber?  Besides, the judges would be
+charged with partiality by the tailor and his followers, and to show such
+visible tokens of favour threatened to prejudice the dignity of the
+court.
+
+She had found good will everywhere, but all had withheld any positive
+promise.  It was so easy to retreat behind the high-sounding words
+"justice and law," and then: who for the sake of a squire--who, moreover,
+was in the service of a foreign knight--would awaken the righteous
+indignation of the artisans, who made the tailor's cause their own.
+
+Whatever the aunt and niece tried had failed either wholly or partially.
+Besides, Eva had been obliged to keep in the background in order not to
+expose herself to the suspicion of pleading her own cause.  Many probably
+thought that Frau Christine herself was talking ostensibly in behalf of
+the servant and really for her brother's slandered daughter.
+
+When Eva met Katterle in front of the hospital, she had passed without
+noticing her, so completely had sorrow, anxiety, and the effort to think
+of some expedient engrossed her attention.
+
+It had been very difficult to meet Biberli with an untroubled manner, yet
+she had even succeeded in showing a bright face to the carrier's widow,
+as well as to Father Benedictus, whose hours seemed to be numbered, and
+who only yesterday had wounded her deeply.
+
+When she returned from the Minorite's room to Biberli's the lovers were
+no longer alone.  The fresh, pleasant face of a vigorous woman, who had
+already visited the sufferer several times, greeted her beside his couch.
+
+When, in the exchange of salutations, her eyes met Eva's the latter
+suddenly found the plan of action she had vainly sought.  Gertrude of
+Berne could help her take the chance which, in the last extremity, she
+meant to risk, for she was the wife of the Swiss warder in the Burgrave's
+castle.  It certainly would not be difficult for her to procure her an
+interview with the Burgravine Elizabeth.  If the noble lady could not aid
+herself, she could--her cheeks paled at the thought, yet she resolutely
+clung to it--present her to her brother, the Emperor.
+
+When Eva, in a low tone, told Frau Gertrude what she hoped to accomplish
+at the castle, she learned that the Emperor had ridden with the
+Archduchess Agnes and a numerous train to the imperial forest, to show
+his Bohemian daughter-in-law the beekeeper's hives, and would scarcely
+return before sunset; but the Burgravine had remained at home on account
+of a slight illness.
+
+Nevertheless Eva wished to go to the castle, and, whatever reception the
+noble lady bestowed upon her, she would return to Schweinau as soon as
+possible.  Father Benedictus was so ill that she could not remain away
+from him long.
+
+If the Burgravine could do nothing for Biberli, she would undertake the
+risk which made her tremble, because it compelled her, the young girl, to
+appear alone at the court with all its watchful eyes and sharp tongues.
+She would go to the fortress to beseech the Emperor herself for pardon.
+
+She could act with entire freedom to-day, for her uncle had ridden to the
+city and, Frau Gertrude said, was one of the party who accompanied the
+Emperor to the beekeeper's, whilst her aunt had just gone to Nuremberg to
+see Els, who had besought her, in a despairing letter, to let her come to
+Schweinau, for her power of endurance was exhausted.
+
+How gladly Eva would have accompanied her aunt to her sister to exhort
+her to take courage!  What a strange transformation of affairs!  Ever
+since she could think Els had sustained her by her superior strength and
+perseverance.  Now she was to be the stronger, and teach her to exercise
+patience.
+
+She thought she had gained the right to do so.  Whilst Eva was still
+explaining her plan to Frau Gertrude, she herself perceived that she had
+taken no account of time.
+
+It was nearly noon, and if she ordered a sedan-chair to convey her to the
+city and back again to Schweinau, it would be too late to approach the
+Emperor as a petitioner.  She could fulfil her design only by riding; but
+the warder's wife reminded her that it would be contrary to custom--nay,
+scarcely possible--to appear before the Emperor, or even his sister, in a
+riding habit.
+
+But the young girl speedily found a way to fulfil her ardent wish to aid.
+On her swift palfrey, which her uncle had sent to Schweinau long before
+that she might refresh herself, after her arduous duties, by a ride, she
+would go to the city, stop at her own home, and have her new expensive
+mourning clothes taken to the castle.  The only doubt was whether she
+could change her garments in the quarters of the Swiss, and whether Frau
+Gertrude would help her do so.
+
+The latter gladly assented.  There was no lack of room in her apartments,
+nor did Frau Gertrude, who had served the Burgravine as waiting maid many
+years before her marriage, lack either skill or good will.
+
+So she went directly home on her mule; but Eva, after promising her
+patients to return soon, hastened to her uncle's residence.
+
+There she mounted the palfrey and reached the city gate a long time
+before the Swiss.  The clothes she needed were soon found in the Ortlieb
+mansion, and she was then carried in a sedan-chair to the castle with her
+wardrobe, whilst the groom led her palfrey after her.  Countess Cordula
+was not at home; she, too, had ridden to the forest with the Emperor.
+
+The Burgravine Elizabeth willingly consented to receive the charming
+child whose fate had awakened her warm interest.  She had just been
+hearing the best and most beautiful things about Eva, for the leech Otto
+had been called to visit her in her attack of illness, and the old man
+was overflowing with praises of both sisters.  He indignantly mentioned
+the vile calumnies with which Heinz Schorlin's name was associated, and
+which base slander had fixed upon the innocent girls whose pure morality
+he would guarantee.
+
+The great lady, who probably remembered having directed Heinz's attention
+to Eva at the dance, understood very clearly that they could not fail to
+attract each other.  Of all the knights in her imperial brother's train,
+none seemed to the Burgravine more worthy of her favour than her gay
+young countryman, whose mother had been one of the friends of her youth.
+She would gladly have rendered him a service and, in this case, not only
+for his own sake but still more on account of the rare fidelity of his
+servant, who was also a native of her beloved Swiss mountains.  Yet,
+notwithstanding all this, it seemed impossible to bring this matter again
+before the Emperor.  She knew her husband, and after the rebuff he had
+received on account of the tortured man he would be angry if she should
+plead his cause with her royal brother.
+
+But her kind heart, and the regard which both Eva and Heinz Schorlin
+had inspired, strengthened her desire to aid, as far as lay in her power,
+the brave maiden who urged her suit with such honest warmth, and the
+petitioner's avowal of her intention, as a last resort, of appealing to
+the Emperor in person showed her how to convert her kind wishes into
+deeds.
+
+Let Eva's youth and beauty try to persuade the Emperor to an act of
+clemency which he had refused to wisdom and power.
+
+After supper her brother received various guests, and she could present
+the daughter of a Nuremberg patrician whom he already knew, and whose
+rare charms had attracted his notice.
+
+Though she had been compelled to forego the ride to the forest, she was
+well enough to appear at supper in the Emperor's residence, which was
+close to her own castle.  When the meal was over she would take Eva
+herself to her royal brother.
+
+She told her this, and the gratitude which she received was so warm and
+earnest that it touched her heart, and as she bade the beautiful, brave
+child farewell she clasped her in her arms and kissed her.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+Encouraged and hopeful, Eva again mounted her palfrey, and urged the
+swift animal outside the city to so rapid a pace that the old groom on
+his well-fed bay was left far behind.  But the change of dress, the
+waiting, and the numerous questions asked by the Burgravine had consumed
+so much time that the poplars were already casting long shadows when she
+dismounted before the hospital.
+
+Sister Hildegard received her with an embarrassment by no means usual,
+but which Eva thought natural when the former told her that the dying
+Father Benedictus had asked for her impatiently.  The widow was doing
+well, and Biberli would hardly need her; for the wife of a Swabian knight
+in whose service he had formerly been was sitting by his couch with her
+young daughter, and their visit seemed to please him.
+
+Eva remarked in surprise that she thought the sick man had never served
+any one except the Schurlins, but she was in too much haste for further
+questions, and entered the room where Biberli lay.
+
+Her face was flushed by the rapid ride; her thick, fair hair, which
+usually fell loosely on her shoulders, had been hastily braided before
+she mounted her horse, but the long, heavy braids had become unfastened
+on the way, and now hung in tresses round her face and pliant figure.
+
+She waved her hand gaily from the threshold to the patient for whom she
+had done and dared so much; but ere approaching his couch she modestly
+saluted the stately matron who was with Biberli, and nodded a pleasant
+welcome to her daughter, whose pretty, frank face attracted her.  After
+the Swabians had cordially returned her greeting, she briefly excused
+herself, as an urgent duty would not permit her to yield to her desire to
+remain with them.
+
+Lastly, she addressed a few hasty questions to the squire about his
+health, kissed little Walpurga, who had nestled to her side, bade her
+tell her another that she would come to her later, and entered the next
+room.
+
+"Well?" Biberli asked his visitors eagerly, after the door had closed
+behind her.
+
+"Oh, how beautiful she is!" cried the younger lady quickly, but her
+mother's voice trembled with deep emotion as she answered: "How I
+objected to my son's marriage with the daughter of a city family!  Nay,
+I intended to cast all the weight of my maternal influence between Heinz
+and the Nuremberg maiden.  Yet you did not say too much, my friend, and
+what your praise began Eva's own appearance has finished.  She will be
+welcome to me as a daughter.  I have scarcely ever seen anything more
+lovely.  That she is devout and charitable and, moreover, has a clear
+intellect and resolute energy, can be plainly perceived in spite of the
+few minutes which she could spare us.  If Heaven would really suffer our
+Heinz to win the heart of this rare creature----"
+
+"Every fibre of it is his already," interrupted Biberli.  "The rub--
+pardon me, noble lady!--is somewhere else.  Whether he--whether Heinz can
+be induced to renounce the thought of the monastery, is the question."
+
+He sighed faintly as he gazed into the still beautiful, strong, and yet
+kindly face of the Lady Wendula Schorlin, Sir Heinz's mother, for she was
+the older visitor.
+
+"We ought not to doubt that," replied the matron firmly.  "As the last of
+his ancient race, it is his duty to provide for its continuance, not
+solely for his own salvation.  He was always a dutiful son."
+
+"Yet," replied Biberli thoughtfully, "'Away with those who gave us life!'
+was the exhortation of Father Benedictus in the next room.  'Away with
+the service of sovereign and woman!' he cried to our knight.  'Away with
+everything that stands in the way of your own salvation!'  And," Biberli
+added, "St. Francis was not the first to devise that.  Our Lord and
+Saviour commanded His disciples to leave father and mother and to follow
+Him."
+
+"Who will prevent his walking in the paths of Jesus Christ?" replied the
+Lady Wendula?  "Yet, though he follows His footsteps, he must and can do
+so as a scion of a noble race, as a knight and the brave soldier and true
+servant of his Emperor, which he is, as a good son and, God willing, as a
+husband and father.  He is sure of my blessing if he wields his sword as
+a champion of his holy faith.  When my two daughters took the veil I
+submissively yielded.  They can pray for heavenly bliss for their brother
+and ourselves.  My only son, the last Schorlin, I neither can nor will
+permit to renounce the world, in which he has tasks to perform which God
+Himself assigned him by his birth."
+
+"And how could Heinz part from this angel," cried Maria--to whom, next to
+her mother, her brother was the dearest person on earth--"if he is really
+sure of her love!"
+
+She herself had not yet opened her heart to love.  To wander through
+forest and field with the aged head of her family, assist her mother in
+housekeeping, and nurse the sick poor in the village, had hitherto been
+the joy and duty of her life.  Gaily, often with a song upon her lips,
+she had carelessly seen one day follow another until Schorlin Castle was
+besieged and destroyed, and her dear uncle, the Knight Ramsweg, was slain
+in the defence of the fortress confided to his care.  Then she and her
+mother were taken to the convent at Constance.  Both remained there in
+perfect freedom, as welcome guests of the nuns, until the mounted courier
+brought a letter from the Knight Maier of Silenen, her cousin, who wrote
+from Nuremberg that Heinz, like his sisters, intended to renounce the
+world.
+
+Lady Schorlin set out at once, and with an anxious heart rode to
+Nuremberg with her daughter as fast as possible.
+
+They had arrived a few hours before and gone to their cousin from
+Silenen.  From him the Lady Wendula learned what her maternal love
+desired to know.  Biberli's fate brought her, after a brief rest, to the
+hospital, and how it comforted the faithful fellow's heart to see the
+noble lady who had confided his master to his care, and in whose house
+the T and St had been embroidered on his long coat and cap!
+
+Lady Wendula had remembered these letters, and when she spoke of them
+he replied that since he had partially verified what the T and St had
+announced to people concerning his character, and to which the letters
+had themselves incited him, he no longer needed them.
+
+Then he lapsed into silence, and at last, as the result of his
+meditations, told his mistress that there was something unusual about his
+insignificant self, because he earnestly desired to practise the virtues
+whose possession he claimed before the eyes of the people.  He had
+usually found the worst wine in the taverns with showy signs, and when
+the Lady Wendula's daughter had embroidered those letters on the cloth
+for him, what he furnished the guests was also of very doubtful quality.
+On his sick bed he had been obliged to place no curb upon his proneness
+to reflection, and in doing so had discovered that there was no virtue
+which can be owned like a house or a steed, but that each must be
+constantly gained anew, often amidst toil and suffering.  One thing,
+however, was now firmly established in his belief: that his favourite
+virtues were really the fairest of all, because--one will answer for all
+--man never felt happier than when he had succeeded in keeping his
+fidelity inviolate and maintaining his steadfastness.  He had learned,
+too, from Fraulein Eva that the Redeemer Himself promised the crown of
+eternal life to those who remain faithful unto death.  In this confidence
+he awaited the jailers, who perhaps would come very soon to lead him into
+the most joyless of all apartments--the Nuremberg torture chamber.
+
+Then he told the ladies what he knew of the love which united Heinz and
+Eva.  The four Fs which he had advised his master to heed in his wooing
+--Family, Figure, Favor, and Fortune--he no longer deemed the right
+touch-tones.  Whilst he was forced to lie idly here he had found that
+they should rather be exchanged for four Ss--Spirituality, Steadfastness,
+Stimulation, and Solace--for the eyes and the heart.
+
+All these were united in Eva and, moreover, there could be no objection
+to the family to which she belonged.
+
+Thereupon he had commenced so enthusiastic a eulogy of his beloved nurse
+and preserver that more than once Lady Wendula, smiling, stopped him,
+accusing him of permitting his grateful heart to lead him to such
+exaggeration that the maiden he wished to serve would scarcely thank him.
+
+Yet Eva's personal appearance had disappointed neither the experienced
+mother nor the easily won daughter.  Nay, when Maria Schorlin gazed at
+her through the half-open door of the Minorite's room, because she did
+not want to lose sight of the girl who had already attracted her on
+account of her hard battle in the cause of love, and who specially
+charmed her because it was her Heinz whom she loved, she thought no
+human being could resist the spell which emanated from Eva.
+
+With her finger on her lip she beckoned to her mother, and she, too,
+could not avert her eyes from the wonderful creature whom she hoped soon
+to call daughter, as she saw Eva standing, with eyes uplifted to heaven,
+beside the old man's couch, and heard her, in compliance with his wish,
+as she had often done before, half recite, half sing in a low voice the
+Song of the Sun, the finest work of St. Francis.
+
+The words were in the Italian language, in which this song had flowed
+from the poet heart of the Saint of Assisi, so rich in love to God and
+all animate nature; for she had learned to speak Italian in the Convent
+of St. Clare, to which several Italians had been transferred from their
+own home and that of their order and its founder.
+
+Lady Wendula and her daughter could also follow the song; for the
+mother had learned the beautiful language of the Saint of Assisi from
+the minnesingers in her youth, and in the early years of her marriage
+had accompanied the Emperor Frederick, with her husband, across the Alps.
+So she had taught Maria.
+
+As Lady Schorlin approached the door Eva, with her large eyes uplifted,
+was just beginning the second verse:
+
+         "Praised by His creatures all
+          Praised be the Lord my God
+          By Messer Sun, my brother, above all,
+          Who by his rays lights us and lights the day.
+          Radiant is he, with his great splendour stored,
+          Thy glory, Lord, confessing.
+
+         "By sister Moon and stars my Lord is praised,
+          Where clear and fair they in the heavens are raised.
+
+         "By brother Wind, my Lord, thy praise is said,
+          By air and clouds, and the blue sky o'erhead,
+          By which thy creatures all are kept and fed.
+
+         "By one most humble, useful, precious, chaste,
+          By sister Water, O my Lord, thou art praised.
+
+         "And praised is my Lord
+          By brother Fire-he who lights up the night;
+          Jocund, robust is he, and strong and bright.
+
+         "Praised art Thou, my Lord, by mother Earth,
+          Thou who sustainest her and governest,
+          And to her flowers, fruit, herbs, dost colour give and birth.
+
+         "And praised is my Lord
+          By those who, for Thy love, can pardon give
+          And bear the weakness and the wrongs of men.
+
+         "Blessed are those who suffer thus in peace,
+          By Thee, the Highest, to be crowned in heaven.
+
+         "Praised by our sister Death, my Lord, art Thou,
+          From whom no living man escapes.
+          Who die in mortal sin have mortal woe,
+          But blessed are they who die doing Thy will;
+          The second death can strike at them no blow.
+
+         "Praises and thanks and blessing to my Master be!
+          Serve ye Him all, with great humility."
+
+How God was loved by this saint, who beheld in everything the Most High
+had created kindred whom he loved and held intercourse with as with
+brother and sister!  Whatever the divine Father's love had formed--the
+sun, the moon and stars, the wood, water and fire, the earth and her fair
+children, the various flowers and plants--he made proclaim, each for
+itself and all in common, like a mighty chorus, the praise of God.  Even
+death joins in the hymn, and all these sons and daughters of the same
+exalted Father call to the minds of men the omnipotent, beneficent rule
+of the Lord.  They help mortals to appreciate God's majesty, fill their
+hearts with gratitude, and summon them to praise His sublimity and
+greatness.  In death, whom the poet also calls his sister, he sees no
+cruel murderer, because she, too, comes from the Most High.  "And what
+sister," asks the saint, "could more surely rescue the brother from
+sorrow and suffering?"  Whoever, as a child of God, feels like the loving
+Saint of Assisi, will gratefully suffer death to lead him to union with
+the Father.
+
+Benedictus had followed the magnificent poem with rapture.  At the lines,
+
+         "But blessed are they who die doing Thy will;
+          The second death can strike at them no blow,"
+
+he nodded gently, as if sure that the close of his earthly pilgrimage
+meant nothing to him except the beginning of a new and happy life; but
+when Eva ended with the command to serve the Lord with great humility, he
+lowered his eyes to the floor hesitatingly, as if not sure of himself.
+
+But he soon raised them again and fixed them on the young girl.
+They seemed to ask the question whether this noble hymn did not draw his
+nurse also to him who had sung it; whether, in spite of it, she still
+persisted, with sorrowful blindness, in her refusal to join the Sisters
+of St. Clare, whom the saintly singer also numbered amongst his
+followers.  Yet he felt too feeble to appeal to her conscience now,
+as he had often done, and bear the replies with which this highly gifted,
+peculiar creature, in every conversation his increasing weakness
+permitted him to share with her, had pressed him hard and sometimes even
+silenced him.
+
+True, they fought with unequal weapons.  Pain and illness paralysed his
+keen intellect, and difficulty of breathing often checked the eloquent
+tongue, both of which had served him so readily in his intercourse with
+Heinz Schorlin.  She contended with the most precious goal of youth
+before her eyes, fresh and healthy in mind and body, conscious, in the
+midst of the struggle, against doubt and suffering, for what she held
+dearest of her own vigorous energy, panoplied by the talisman of the last
+mandate from the lips of her dying mother.
+
+Benedictus, during a long life devoted to the highest aims, had battled
+enough.  He already saw Sister Death upon the threshold, and he wished to
+depart in peace and reap the reward for so much conflict, pain, and
+sacrifice.  The Lord Himself had broken his weapons.  The Minorite
+Egidius, his friend and companion in years, must carry on with Eva,
+Father Ignatius, the most eloquent member of the order in Nuremberg,
+with Heinz Schorlin, the work which he, Benedictus, had begun.  Though he
+himself must retire from the battlefield, he was sure that his post would
+not remain empty.
+
+The chant had placed him in the right mood to take leave of the Brothers,
+whose arrival Sister Hildegard had just announced.
+
+Since yesterday he had seen the Saviour constantly before his mental
+vision.  Sometimes he imagined that he beheld Him beckoning to him;
+sometimes that He extended His arms to him; sometimes he even fancied
+that he heard His voice, or that of St. Francis, and both invited him to
+approach.
+
+To-day-the leech had admitted it, and he himself felt it by his fevered
+brow, the failing pulsations of the heart, and the chill in the cold
+feet, perhaps already dead--he might expect to leave the dust of the
+world and behold those for whom he longed face to face in a purer light.
+
+He wished to await the end surrounded only by the Brothers, who were
+fighting the same battle, reminded by nothing of the world, as if in the
+outer court of heaven.
+
+Eva, the beautiful yet perverse woman, was one of the last persons whom
+he would have desired to have near him when he took the step into the
+other world.
+
+Speech was difficult.  A brief admonition to renounce her earthly love in
+order to share the divine one whose rich joys he hoped to taste that very
+day was the farewell greeting he vouchsafed Eva.  When she tried to kiss
+his hand he withdrew it as quickly as his weakness permitted.
+
+Then she retired, and Father AEgidius led the Brothers of the order in
+Nuremberg into the room.  Meanwhile it had grown dark, and the Beguine
+Paulina brought in a two-branched candelabrum with burning candles.  Eva
+took it from her hand and placed it so that the light should not dazzle
+her patient; but he saw her and, by pointing with a frowning brow to the
+door, commanded her to leave the room.
+
+She gladly obeyed.  When she had passed the Brothers, however, she paused
+on the threshold before going into the entry and again gazed at the old
+man's noble, pallid features illumined by the candlelight.
+
+She had never seen him look so.  He was gazing, radiant with joy, at the
+monks, who were to give him the benediction at his departure.  Then he
+raised his dark eyes as if transfigured; he was thanking Heaven for so
+much mercy, but the other Minorites fell on their knees beside the bed
+and prayed with him.
+
+How lovingly the old man looked into each face!  He had never favoured
+her with such a glance.  Yet no other nursing had been so difficult and
+often so painful.  At first he had shown a positive enmity to her, and
+even asked Sister Hildegard for another nurse; but no suitable substitute
+for Eva could be found.  Then he had earnestly desired to be removed to
+the Franciscan monastery in Nuremberg; this, however, could not be done
+because it would have hastened his death.  So he was forced to remain,
+and Eva felt that her presence was not the least thing which rendered the
+hospital distasteful.
+
+Yet, as his aged eyes refused their service and he liked to have someone
+read aloud from the gospels which he carried with him, or from notes
+written by his own hand, which also comprised some of the poems of St.
+Francis, and no one else in the house was capable of performing this
+office, he at last explicitly desired to keep her for his nurse.
+
+To anoint and bandage, according to the physician's prescription, his
+sore feet and the deep scars made on his back by severe scourging, which
+had reopened, became more difficult the more plainly he showed his
+aversion to her touch, because she--he had told her so himself--was a
+woman.  She certainly had not found it easy to keep awake and wear a
+pleasant expression when, after a toilsome day, he woke her at midnight
+and forced her to read aloud until the grey dawn of morning.  But hardest
+of all for Eva to bear were the bitter words with which he wounded her,
+and which sounded specially sharp and hostile when he reproached her for
+standing between Heinz Schorlin and the eternal salvation for which the
+knight so eagerly longed.  He seemed to bear her a grudge like that which
+the artist feels towards the culprit who has destroyed one of his
+masterpieces.
+
+Often, too, a chance word betrayed that he blamed Heaven for having
+denied him victory in the battle for the soul of Heinz.  Schorlin which
+he had begun to wage in its name.  True, such murmuring was always
+followed by deep repentance.  But in every mood he still strove to
+persuade Eva to renounce the world.
+
+When she confessed what withheld her from doing so, he at first tried to
+convince her by opposing reasons, but usually strength to continue the
+interchange of thought soon failed him.  Then he confined himself to
+condemning with harsh words her perverse spirit and worldly nature, and
+threatening her with the vengeance of Heaven.
+
+Once, after repeating the Song of the Sun, as she had done just now, he
+asked whether she, too, felt that nothing save the peace of the cloister
+would afford the possibility of feeling the greatness and love of the
+Most High as warmly and fully as this majestic song commands us to do.
+
+Then, summoning her courage, she assured him of the contrary.  Though but
+a simple girl, she, who had often been the guest of the abbess, felt the
+grandeur and glory of God as much more deeply in the world and during the
+fulfilment of the hardest duties which life imposed than with the Sisters
+of St. Clare, as the forests and fields were wider than the little
+convent garden.
+
+The old man, in a rage, upbraided her with being a blinded fool, and
+asked her whether she did not know that the world was finite and limited,
+whilst what the convent contained was eternal and boundless.
+
+Another time he had wounded her so deeply by his severity that she had
+found it impossible to restrain her tears.  But he had scarcely perceived
+this ere he repented his harshness.  Nothing but love ought to move his
+heart on the eve of a union with Him whom he had just called Love itself,
+and with earnest and tender entreaties he besought Eva to forgive him for
+the censure which was also a work of love.  Throughout the day he had
+treated her with affectionate, almost humble, kindness.
+
+All these things returned to Eva's thoughts as she left her grey-haired
+patient.
+
+He was standing on the threshold of the other world, and it was easy for
+her to think of him kindly, deeply as he had often wounded her.  Nay, her
+heart swelled with grateful joy because she had been so patient and
+suffered nothing to divert her from the arduous duty which she had
+undertaken in nursing the old man, who regarded her with such disfavour.
+
+A light had been brought into Biberli's room too.  When Eva entered with
+glowing cheeks she found the Swabians still sitting beside his couch.
+The door leading into the chamber of the dying man had been closed long
+before, yet the notes of pious litanies came from the adjoining room.
+Lady Schorlin noticed her deep emotion with sympathy, and asked her to
+sit down by her side.  Maria offered her own low stool, but Eva declined
+its use, because she would soon be obliged to ride back to the city.  She
+pressed her hand upon her burning brow, sighing, "Now, now--after such an
+hour, at court!"
+
+Lady Wendula urged her with such kindly maternal solicitude to take a
+little rest that the young girl yielded.
+
+The matron's remark that she, too, was invited to the reception at the
+imperial residence that evening brought an earnest entreaty from Eva to
+accept the invitation for her sake, and the Swabian promised to gratify
+her if nothing occurred to prevent.  At any rate, they would ride to the
+city together.
+
+Biberli's astonished enquiry concerning the cause of Eva's visit to the
+fortress was answered evasively, and she was glad when the singing in the
+next room led the Swabian to ask whether it was true that the master of
+her suffering friend on the couch, who intended to devote himself to a
+monastic life, meant to enter the order of the Minorite whom she had just
+left and become a mendicant friar.  When Eva assented, the lady remarked
+that members of this brotherhood had rarely come to her castle; but
+Biberli said that they were quiet, devout men who, content with the alms
+they begged, preached, and performed other religious duties.  They were
+recruited more from the people than from the aristocratic classes.  Many,
+however, joined them in order to live an idle life, supported by the
+gifts of others.
+
+Eva eagerly opposed this view, maintaining that true piety could be most
+surely found in the order of St. Francis.  Then, with warm enthusiasm,
+she praised its founder, asserting that, on the contrary, the Saint of
+Assisi had enjoined labour upon his followers.  For instance, one of his
+favourite disciples was willing to shake the nuts from the rotten
+branches of a nut tree which no one dared to climb if he might have half
+the harvest.  This was granted, but he made a sack of his wide brown
+cowl, filled it with the nuts, and distributed them amongst his poor.
+
+This  pleased the mother and daughter; yet when the former remarked that
+work of this kind seemed to her too easy for a young, noble, and powerful
+knight, Eva agreed, but added that the saint also required an activity in
+which the hands, it is true, remained idle, but which heavily taxed even
+the strongest soul.  St. Francis himself had set the example of
+performing this toil cheerfully and gladly.
+
+Whilst giving this information she had again risen.  Sister Hildegard had
+announced that her palfrey and the horses of the guests had been led up.
+
+Finally Eva promised to mount at the same time as the Swabians, bade
+farewell to Biberli, who looked after her with surprise, yet silently
+conjectured that this errand to the Emperor was in his behalf, and then
+went into the entry, where Sister Hildegard told her that Father
+Benedictus had just died.
+
+The monks were still chanting beside his deathbed.  Brother AEgidius, the
+friend and comrade of the dead man, however, had left them and approached
+Eva.
+
+Deeply agitated, he struggled to repress his sobs as he told her that the
+old man's longing was fulfilled and his Saviour had summoned him.  To die
+thus, richly outweighed the many sacrifices he had so willingly made here
+below during a long life.  If Eva had witnessed his death she would have
+perceived the aptness of the saying that a monk's life is bitter, but his
+death is sweet.  Such an end was granted only to those who cast the world
+aside.  Let her consider this once more, ere she renounced the eternal
+bliss for which formerly she had so devoutly yearned.
+
+Eva's only answer was the expression of her grief for his friend's
+decease.  But whilst passing out into the darkness she thought: the holy
+Brother certainly had a beautiful and happy death, yet how gently,
+trusting in the mercy of her Redeemer, my mother also passed away, though
+during her life and on her deathbed she remained in the world.  And then
+--whilst Father Benedictus was closing his eyes--what concern did he
+probably have for aught save his own salvation, but my mother forgot
+herself and thought only of others, of those whom she loved, whilst the
+Saviour summoned her to Himself.  Her eyes were already dim and her
+tongue faltered when she uttered the words which had guided her daughter
+until now.  The forge fire of life burns fiercely, yet to it my gratitude
+is due if the resolutions I formed in the forest after I had gathered the
+flowers for her and saw Heinz kneeling in prayer have not been vain, but
+have changed the capricious, selfish child into a woman who can render
+some service to others.
+
+If Heinz comes now and seeks me, I think I can say trustingly, "Here I
+am!"  We have both striven for the divine Love and recognised its
+glorious beauty.  If later, hand in hand, we can interweave it with the
+earthly one, why should it not be acceptable to the Saviour?  If Heinz
+offers me his affection I will greet it as "Sister Love," and it will
+certainly summon me with no lower voice to praise the Father from whom it
+comes and who has bestowed it upon me, as do the sun, the moon and stars,
+the fire and water.
+
+Whilst speaking she went out, and after learning that Frau Christine and
+her husband had not yet returned, she rode with the Swabians towards the
+city.
+
+In order not to pass through the whole length of Nuremberg, Eva guided
+her friends around the fortifications.  Their destination was almost the
+same, and they chose to enter at the Thiergartnerthor, which was in the
+northwestern part of the city, under the hill crowned by the castle,
+whilst the road to Schweinau usually led through the Spitalthor.
+
+On the way Lady Wendula induced Eva to tell her many things about
+herself, urging her to describe her father and her dead mother.  Her
+daughter Maria, on the other hand, was most interested in her sister Els,
+who, as she had heard from Biberli, was the second beautiful E.
+
+Eva liked to talk about her relatives, but her depression continued and
+she spoke only in reply to questions, for the Minorite's death had
+affected her, and her heart throbbed anxiously when she thought of the
+moment that she must appear amongst the courtiers and see the Emperor.
+
+Would her errand be vain?  Must poor Biberli pay for his resolute
+fidelity with his life?  What pain it would cause her, and how heavily it
+would burden his master's soul that he had failed to intercede for him!
+
+Not until Lady Schorlin questioned her did Eva confess what troubled her,
+and how she dreaded the venture which she had undertaken on her own
+responsibility.
+
+They were obliged to wait outside the Thiergartnerthor, for it had just
+been opened to admit a train of freight waggons.
+
+Whilst Eva remained on the high-road, with the castle before her eyes,
+she sighed from the depths of her troubled heart: "Why should the Emperor
+Rudolph grant me, an insignificant girl, what he refused his sister's
+husband, the powerful Burgrave, to whom he is so greatly indebted?  Oh,
+suppose he should treat me harshly and bid me go back to my spinning
+wheel!"
+
+Then she felt the arm of the dignified lady at her side pass round her
+and heard her say: "Cheer up, my dear girl.  The blessing of a woman who
+feels as kindly towards you as to her own daughter will accompany you,
+and no Emperor will ungraciously rebuff you, you lovely, loyal,
+charitable child."
+
+At these words from her kind friend Eva's heart opened as if the dear
+mother whom death had snatched from her had inspired her with fresh
+courage, and from the very depths of her soul rose the cry, "Oh, how I
+thank you!"
+
+She urged her nimble palfrey nearer the lady's horse to kiss her left
+hand, which held the bridle, but Lady Wendula would not permit it and,
+drawing her towards her, exclaimed, "Your lips, dear one," and as her red
+mouth pressed the kind lady's, Eva felt as if the caress had sealed an
+old and faithful friendship.  But this was not all.  Maria also wished to
+show the affection she had won, and begged for a kiss too.
+
+Without suspecting it, Eva, on the way to an enterprise she dreaded,
+received the proof that her lover's dearest relatives welcomed her with
+their whole hearts as a new member of the family.
+
+On the other side of the gate she was obliged to part from the Swabians.
+
+Lady Wendula bade her farewell with an affectionate "until we meet
+again," and promised positively to go to the reception at the castle.
+
+Eva uttered a sigh of relief.  It seemed like an omen of success that
+this lady, who had so quickly inspired her with such perfect confidence,
+was to witness her difficult undertaking.  She felt like a leader who
+takes the field with a scanty band of soldiers and is unexpectedly
+joined by the troops of a firm friend.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+When Arnold, the warder from Berne, helped Eva from the saddle, a blaze
+of light greeted her from the imperial residence.  The banquet was just
+beginning.
+
+Frau Gertrude had more than one piece of good news to tell while
+assisting the young girl.  Among the sovereign's guests was her uncle
+the magistrate, who had accompanied the Emperor to the beekeeper's,
+and with his wife, whom she would also find there, had been invited to
+the banquet.  Besides--this, as the best, she told her last--her father,
+Herr Ernst Ortlieb, had returned from Ulm and Augsburg, and a short time
+before had come to the fortress to conduct Jungfrau Els, by the
+Burgrave's gracious permission, to her betrothed husband's hiding place.
+Fran Gertrude had lighted her way, and a long separation might be borne
+for such a meeting.
+
+The ex-maid was obliged to bestir herself that Eva might have a few
+minutes for her sister and Wolff, yet she would fain have spent a much
+longer time over the long, thick, fair hair, which with increasing
+pleasure she combed until it flowed in beautiful waving tresses over the
+rich Florentine stuff of her plain white mourning robe.
+
+The Swiss had also provided white roses from the Burgrave's garden to
+fasten at the square neck of Eva's dress.  The latter permitted her to do
+this, but her wish to put a wreath of roses on the young girl's head,
+according to the fashion of the day, was denied, because Eva thought it
+more seemly to appear unadorned, and not as if decked for a festival when
+she approached the Emperor as a petitioner.  The woman whose life had
+been spent at court perceived the wisdom of this idea, and at last
+rejoiced that she had not obtained her wish; for when her work was
+finished Eva looked so bewitching and yet so pure and modest, that
+nothing could be removed or--even were it the wreath of roses--added
+without injuring the perfect success of her masterpiece.
+
+Lack of time soon compelled the young girl to interrupt the exclamations
+of admiration uttered by the skilful tiring woman herself, her little
+daughter, the maidservant, and the friend whom Fran Gertrude had invited
+to come in as if by accident.
+
+While following the warder's wife through various corridors and rooms,
+Eva thought of the hour in her own home before the dance at the Town
+Hall, and it seemed as if not days but a whole life intervened, and she
+was a different person, a complete contrast in most respects to the Eva
+of that time.
+
+Before the dance she had secretly rejoiced in the applause elicited by
+her appearance; now she was indifferent to it--nay, the more eagerly the
+spectators expressed their delight the more she grieved that the only
+person whom she desired to please was not among them.
+
+How easy it had been to be led to the dance, and how hard was the errand
+awaiting her!  Her heart shrank before the doubt awakened by the flood of
+light pouring from the windows of the imperial residence; the doubt
+whether her lover would not avoid her if--ah, had it only been possible!
+--if he should meet her among the guests yonder; whether the eloquent
+Father  Ignatius, who had followed him, might not already have won from
+the knight a vow compelling him to turn from her and summon all his
+strength of will to forget her.
+
+But, no!  He could no more renounce his love than she hers.  She would
+not, dare not, let such terrible thoughts torture her now.
+
+Heinz was far away, and the fate of her love would be decided later.
+The cause of her presence here was something very different, and the
+conviction that it was good, right, and certain of his approval,
+dispelled the pain that had overpowered her, and raised her courage.
+
+Unspeakably hard trials lay behind her, and harder ones must, perhaps,
+yet be vanquished.  But she no longer needed to fear them, for she felt
+that the strength which had awakened within her after she became
+conscious of her love was still sustaining and directing her, and would
+enable her to govern matters which she could not help believing that she
+herself would be too weak to guide to their goal.  She felt freed from
+her former wavering and hesitation, and as formerly in the modest house
+of the Beguines, now in the stately citadel she realised that, in sorrow
+and severe trial, she had learned to assert her position in life by her
+own strength.  Her father, whom she was to meet presently, would
+find little outward change in her, but when he had perceived the
+transformation wrought in the character of his helpless "little saint"
+it would please him to hear from her how wonderfully her mother's last
+prophetic words were being fulfilled.
+
+She was emerging from the forge fire of life, steeled for every conflict,
+yet those would be wrong who believed that, trusting to her own newly won
+strength, she had forgotten to look heavenward.  On the contrary, never
+had she felt nearer to her God, her Saviour, and the gracious Virgin.
+Without them she could accomplish nothing, yet for the first time she had
+undertaken tasks and sought to win goals which were worthy of beseeching
+them for aid.  Love had taught her to be faithful in worldly life, and
+she said to herself, "Better, far better I can certainly become; but
+firmer faith cannot be kept."
+
+Wolff's hiding place was a large, airy room, affording a view of the
+Frank country, with its meadows, fields, and forests.  Eva saw there by
+the light of the blazing pine chips her father, sister, and brother-in-
+law.
+
+Yet the meeting between all these beloved ones after a long separation
+partook more of sorrow than of joy.  Els had really resolved to leave the
+Eysvogel mansion, yet she met her Aunt Christine with the joyful cry:
+"I shall stay!  Wolff's father and I have become good friends."
+
+In fact, a few hours before Herr Casper had looked at her kindly and
+gratefully, and when she showed him how happy this rendered her, warmly
+entreated her in a broken voice not to leave him.  She had proved herself
+to be his good angel, and the sight of her was the only bright spot in
+his clouded life.  Then she had gladly promised to stay, and intended to
+keep her word.  She had only accompanied her father, who had unexpectedly
+returned for a short time, because she could trust the nun who shared her
+nursing of the paralysed patient, and he rarely recognised his watcher
+at night.
+
+How long Els had been separated from her lover!  When Eva greeted the
+reunited pair they had already poured forth to each other the events
+which had driven them to the verge of despair, and which now once more
+permitted them with budding hope to anticipate new happiness.
+
+Eva had little time, yet the sisters found an opportunity to confide many
+things to each other, though at first their father often interrupted them
+by opposing his younger daughter's intention of going to the Emperor as a
+supplicant.
+
+The girl whose wishes but a short time ago he had refused or gratified,
+according to the mood of the moment, like those of a child, had since
+gained, even in his eyes, so well founded a claim to respect, she opposed
+him in her courteous, modest way with such definiteness of purpose,
+Biberli's fate interested him so much, and the prospect of seeing his
+daughters brought before the court was so painful, that he admitted the
+force of Eva's reasons and let her set forth on her difficult mission
+accompanied by his good wishes.
+
+Els had dropped her maternal manner; nay, she received her sister as her
+superior, and began to describe her work in the hospital to Wolff in such
+vivid colours that Eva laid her hand on her lips and hurried out of the
+room with the exclamation, "If you insist upon our changing places, we
+will stand in future side by side and shoulder to shoulder!  Farewell
+till after the battle!"
+
+She could not have given much more time to her relatives under any
+circumstances, for the Burgravine's maid of honour who was to attend
+her to the reception was already waiting somewhat impatiently in Frau
+Gertrude's room, and took her to the castle without delay.
+
+The place where they were to stay was the large apartment adjoining the
+dining hall.
+
+The confidence which Eva had regained on her way to her relatives
+vanished only too quickly in the neighbourhood of the sovereign and the
+sight of the formal reception bestowed on all who entered.  Her heart
+throbbed more and more anxiously as she realised for the first time how
+serious a step she had taken; nay, it was long ere she succeeded in
+calming herself sufficiently to notice the clatter of the metal vessels
+and the Emperor's deep voice, which often drowned the lower tones of the
+guests.  Reverence for royalty was apparent everywhere.
+
+How much quieter this banquet was than those of the princes and nobles!
+The guests knew that the Emperor Rudolph disliked the boisterous manners
+of the German nobility.  Besides, the sovereign's mourning exerted a
+restraint upon mirth and recklessness.  All avoided loud laughter, though
+the monarch was fond of gaiety and heroically concealed the deep grief of
+his own soul.
+
+When the lord high steward announced to the maid of honour who had
+brought Eva here that dessert was served, the latter believed that the
+dreaded moment when she would be presented to the Emperor was close at
+hand, but quarter of an hour after quarter of an hour passed and she
+still heard the clanking of metal and the voices of the guests, which now
+began to grow louder, and amidst which she sometimes distinguished the
+strident tones of the court fool, Eyebolt, and the high ones of the
+Countess Cordula.
+
+Time moved at a snail's pace, and she already fancied her heart could no
+longer endure its violent throbbing, when at last--at last--the heavy oak
+chairs were pushed noisily back over the stone floor of the dining hall.
+
+From the balcony of the audience chamber a flourish of trumpets echoed
+loudly along the arches of the lofty, vaulted ceiling of the apartment,
+and the Emperor, leading the company, crossed the threshold attended by
+several dignitaries, the court jesters, and some pages.
+
+His august sister, the Burgravine Elizabeth, leaned on his arm.  The
+papal ambassador, Doria, in the brilliant robe of a cardinal, followed,
+escorting the Duchess Agnes, but he parted from her in the hall.  Among
+many other secular and ecclesiastical princes and dignitaries appeared
+also Count von Montfort and his daughter, the old First Losunger of
+Nuremberg, Berthold Vorchtel, and Herr Pfinzing with his wife.
+
+Several guests from the city entered at the same time through another
+door, among whom, robed in handsome festal garments, were Eva's new
+Swabian acquaintances.  How gladly she would have hastened to them!  But
+a grey-haired stately man of portly figure, whose fur-trimmed cloak hung
+to his ankles--Sir Arnold Maier of Silenen, led them to a part of the
+hall very distant from where she was standing.
+
+To make amends, Count von Montfort and Cordula came very near her; but
+she could not greet them.  Each person--she felt it--must remain in his
+or her place.  And the restraint became stronger as the Duchess Agnes,
+giving one guest a nod, another a few words, advanced nearer and nearer,
+pausing at last beside Count von Montfort.
+
+The old huntsman advanced respectfully towards the Bohemian princess, and
+Eva heard the fourteen-year-old wife ask, "Well, Count, how fares your
+wish to find the right husband for your wilful daughter?"
+
+"Of course it must be fulfilled, Duchess, since your Highness deigned to
+approve it," he answered, with his hand upon his heart.
+
+"And may his name be known?" she queried with evident eagerness, her dark
+eyes sparkling brightly and a faint flush tingeing the slight shade of
+tan on her child face.
+
+"The duty of a knight and paternal weakness unfortunately still seal my
+lips," he answered.  "Your Highness knows best that a lady's wish--even
+if she is your own child--is a command."
+
+"You are praised as an obedient father," replied the Bohemian with a
+slight shrug of the shoulders.  "Yet you probably need not conceal
+whether the happy man, who is not only encouraged, but this time also
+chosen by the charming huntress of many kinds of game, is numbered among
+our guests."
+
+"Unfortunately he is denied the pleasure, your Highness," replied the
+count; but Cordula, who had noticed Eva, and had heard the Duchess
+Agnes's last words, approached her royal foe, and with a low, reverential
+bow, said: "My poor heart must imagine him far away from here amid peril
+and privation.  Instead of breaking ladies' hearts, he is destroying the
+castles of robber knights and disturbers of the peace of the country."
+
+The duchess, in silent rage, clenched her white teeth upon her quivering
+lips, and was about to make an answer which would scarcely have flattered
+Cordula, when the Emperor, who had left his distinguished attendants,
+approached Eva, with the Burgravine still leaning on his arm.
+
+She did not notice it; she was vainly trying to interpret the meaning of
+Cordula's words.  True, she did not know that when no messenger brought
+Heinz Schorlin's intercession for Biberli, in whose fate the countess
+felt a sincere interest, she had commanded her own betrothed husband to
+ride his horse to death in order to tell the master of the sorely
+imperilled man what danger threatened his faithful servant, and remind
+him, in her name, that gratitude was one of the virtues which beseemed a
+true knight, even though the matter in question concerned only a servant
+Boemund Altrosen had obeyed, and must have overtaken Heinz long ago and
+probably aided him to rout the Siebenburgs and their followers.  But
+Cordula read the young Bohemian's child heart, and it afforded her
+special pleasure to deal her a heavy blow in the warfare they were
+waging, which perhaps might aid another purpose.
+
+The surprise and bewilderment which the countess's answer had aroused in
+Eva heightened the spell of her beauty.
+
+Had she heard aright?  Could Heinz really have sued for the countess's
+hand and been accepted?  Surely, surely not!  Neither was capable of such
+perfidy, such breach of faith.  Spite of the testimony of her own ears,
+she would not believe it.  But when she at last saw the Emperor's tall
+figure before her, and he gazed down at her with a kind, fatherly glance,
+she answered it with her large blue eyes uplifted beseechingly, and
+withal as trustilly, as if she sought to remind him that, if he only
+chose to do so, his power made it possible to convert everything which
+troubled and oppressed her to good.
+
+The tearful yet bright gaze of those resistless eyes pierced the
+Emperor's very soul, and he imagined how this lovely vision of purity and
+innocence, this rare creature, of whom he had heard such marvellous
+things from Herr Pfinzing during their ride through the forest, would
+have fired the heart of his eighteen-year-old son, so sensitive to every
+impression, whom death had snatched from him so suddenly.  And whilst
+remembering Hartmann, he also thought of his dead son's most loyal and
+dearest friend, Heinz Schorlin, who was again showing such prowess in his
+service, and had earned a right to recognition and reward.
+
+He did not know his young favourite's present state of mind concerning
+his desire for a monastic life, but he had probably become aware that his
+swiftly kindled, ardent love for yonder lovely child had led him into an
+act of culpable imprudence.  Besides, that very day many things had
+reached his ears concerning these two who suited each other as perfectly
+as Heinz Schorlin seemed--even to the Hapsburg, who was loyally devoted
+to the Holy Church--unfit for a religious life.
+
+The Emperor could do much to further the union of this pair, yet he too
+was obliged to exercise caution.  If he joined them in wedlock as though
+they were his own children he might be sure of causing loud complaints
+from the priesthood, and especially the Dominicans, who were very
+influential at the court of Rome--nay, he must be prepared for opposition
+directed against himself as well as the young pair.  The prior of the
+order had already complained to the nuncio of the lukewarmness of the
+Superior of the Sisters of St. Clare, who idly witnessed the estrangement
+from the Church of the soul of a maiden belonging to a distinguished
+family; and Doria had told the sovereign of this provoking matter, and
+expressed the prior's hope that Sir Heinz Schorlin, who enjoyed the
+monarch's favour, would be won for the monastic life.  Opposition to this
+marriage, which he approved, and therefore desired to favour, was also to
+be expected from another quarter.  Therefore he must act with the utmost
+caution, and in a manner which his antagonists could not oppose.
+
+At this reflection a peculiar smile, familiar to the courtiers as an omen
+of a gracious impulse, hovered around his lips, which during the past
+month had usually revealed by their expression the grief that burdened
+his soul and, raising his long forefinger in playful menace, he began:
+
+"Aha, Jungfrau Eva Ortlieb!  What have you been doing since I had the
+boon of meeting so rare a beauty at the dance?  Do you know that you have
+caused a turmoil amongst both ecclesiastical and secular authorities,
+and that many a precious hour has been shortened for me on your account?
+You have disturbed both the austere Dominican Fathers and the devout
+Sisters of St. Clare.  The former think the gentle nuns treat you too
+indulgently, and the latter charge the zealous followers of St. Domingo
+with too much strictness concerning you.
+
+"And, besides, if you were not so well aware of it yourself, you would
+scarcely believe it: for the sake of an insignificant serving man, who is
+under your special protection, I, who carry the burden of so many serious
+and weighty affairs, am beset by those of high and low degree.  How much,
+too, I have also suffered on account of his master, Sir Heinz Schorlin--
+again in connection with you, you lovely disturber of the peace!  To say
+nothing of the rest, your own father brings a charge against him.  The
+accusation is made in a letter which Meister Gottlieb, our protonotary,
+was to withhold by Herr Ortlieb's desire, but through a welcome accident
+it fell into my hands.  This letter contains statements, my lovely child,
+which I--Nay, don't be troubled; the roses on your cheeks are glowing
+enough already, and for their sake I will not mention its contents; only
+they force me to ask the question--come nearer--whether, though it caused
+you great annoyance that a certain young Swiss knight forced his way into
+your father's house under cover of the darkness, you do not hope with me,
+the more experienced friend, that this foolhardy fellow, misguided by
+ardent love, with the aid of the saints to whom he is beginning to turn,
+may be converted to greater caution and praiseworthy virtue?  Whether, in
+your great charity--which I have heard so highly praised--you would be
+capable"--Here he paused and, lowering his voice to a whisper, added:
+
+"Do me the favour to lend your ear--what a well-formed little thing it
+is!--a short time longer, to confide to the elderly man who feels a
+father's affection for you whether you would be wholly reluctant to
+attempt the reformation of the daring evil-doer yourself were he to
+offer, not only his heart, but the little ring with--I will guarantee it
+--his honourable, knightly hand?"
+
+"Oh, your Majesty!" cried Eva, gazing at the gracious sovereign with an
+expression of such imploring entreaty in her large, tearful blue eyes
+that, as if regretting his hasty question, he added soothingly:
+
+"Well, well, we will reach the goal, I think, at a slower pace.  Such a
+confession will probably flow more easily from the lips when sought by
+the person for whom it means happiness or despair, than when a stranger
+--even one as old and friendly as I--seeks to draw it from a modest
+maiden."
+
+Here he paused; he had just recognised Lady Wendula Schorlin.  Waving his
+hand to her in joyous greeting, he ordered a page to conduct her to him
+and, again turning to Eva, said: "Look yonder, my beautiful child: there
+is someone in whom you would confide more willingly than in me.  I think
+Sir Heinz's mother, who is worthy of all reverence and love--"
+
+Here surprise and joy forced from Eva's lips the question, "His mother?"
+and there was such amazement in the tone that, as the Lady Wendula,
+bowing low, approached the Emperor, after exchanging the first greetings
+which pass between old friends who have been long separated, he asked how
+it happened that though Eva seemed to have already met the matron, she
+heard with such surprise that she was the mother of his brave favourite.
+
+Lady Wendula then confessed the name she had given herself, that she
+might study the young girl without being known; and again that peculiar
+smile flitted across the Emperor Rudolph's beardless face, and lingered
+there, as he asked the widow of his dead companion in arms whether, after
+such an examination, she believed she had found the right wife for her
+son; and she replied that a long life would not give her time enough to
+thank Heaven sufficiently for such a daughter.
+
+The maiden who was the subject of this whispering, whose purport only a
+loving glance from the Lady Wendula revealed, pressed her hand upon her
+heart, whose impetuous throbbing stifled her breath.  Oh, how gladly she
+would have hastened to the mother of the man she loved and his young
+sister, who stood at a modest distance, to clasp them in her arms, and
+confide to them what seemed too great, too much, too beautiful for
+herself alone, yet which might crumble at a single word from her lover's
+lips like an undermined tower swept away by the wind!  But she was forced
+to have patience, and submit to whatever might yet be allotted to her.
+
+Nor was she to lack agitating experiences, for the Emperor's murmured
+question whether she desired to hear herself called "daughter" by this
+admirable lady had scarcely called forth an answer, which, though mute,
+revealed the state of her heart eloquently enough, than he added in a
+louder tone, though doubtfully: "Then, so far, all would be well; but,
+fair maiden, my young friend, unfortunately, was by no means satisfied,
+if I heard aright, with knocking at the door of a single heart.  Things
+have reached my ears--But this, too, must be----"
+
+Here he suddenly paused, for already during this conversation with the
+ladies there had been a noise at the door of the hall, and now the person
+whom the Emperor had just accused entered, closely followed by the
+chamberlain, Count Ebenhofen, whose face was deeply flushed from his vain
+attempts to keep Sir Heinz Schorlin back.
+
+Heinz's cheeks were also glowing from his struggle with the courtier, who
+considered it a grave offence that a knight should dare to appear before
+the Emperor at a peaceful social assembly clad in full armour.
+
+His appearance created a joyful stir among the other members of the
+court--nay, in spite of the sovereign's presence, cordial expressions of
+welcome fell from the lips of ladies and nobles.  The Bohemian princess
+alone cast an angry glance at the blue ribbon which adorned the helmet of
+the returning knight; for "blue" was Countess von Montfort's colour, and
+"rose red" her own.
+
+The ecclesiastics whom Heinz passed whispered eagerly together.  The
+Duchess Agnes's confessor, an elderly Dominican of tall stature, was
+listening to the provost of St. Sebald's, a grey-haired man a head
+shorter than he, of dignified yet kindly aspect, who, looking keenly at
+Heinz, remarked: "I fear that your prior hopes too confidently to win
+yonder young knight.  No one walks with that bearing who is on the eve
+of renouncing the world.  A splendid fellow!"
+
+"To whom armour is better suited than the cowl," observed the Bishop of
+Bamberg, a middleaged prelate of aristocratic appearance, approaching the
+others.  "Your prior, my dear brothers, would have little pleasure, I
+think, in the fish he is so eagerly trying to drag from the Minorite's
+net into his own.  He would leap ashore again all too quickly.  He is not
+fit for the monastery.  He would do better for a priest, and I would bid
+him welcome as a military brother in office."
+
+"Bold enough he certainly is," added the Dominican.  "I would not advise
+every one to enter the Emperor's presence and this distinguished
+gathering in such attire."
+
+In fact, Heinz showed plainly that he had come directly from the
+battlefield and the saddle, for a suit of stout chain armour, which
+covered the greater part of his tolerably long tunic, encased his limbs,
+and even the helmet which he bore on his arm, spite of the blue ribbon
+that adorned it, was by no means one of the delicate, costly ones worn in
+the tournament.  Besides, many a bruise showed that hard blows and
+thrusts had been dealt him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+At Heinz Schorlin's quarters the day before his young hostess, Frau
+Barbel, had had the costly armour entrusted to her care, and the
+trappings belonging to it, cleaned and put in order, but her labour was
+vain; for Heinz Schorlin had ridden directly to the fortress from
+Schweinau, without stopping at his lodgings in the city.
+
+Only a short time before he had learned that his two messengers had been
+captured and failed to reach their destination.  He owed this information
+to Sir Boemund Altrosen--and many another piece of news which Cordula had
+given him.
+
+The main portion of Heinz Schorlin's task was completed when the
+countess's ambassador reached him, so he set out on his homeward way at
+once, and this time his silent friend had been eloquent and told him
+everything which had occurred during his absence.
+
+He now knew that Boemund and Cordula had plighted their troth, what the
+faithful Biberli had done and suffered for him, and lastly--even to the
+minutest detail--the wonderful transformation in Eva.
+
+When he had ridden forth he had hoped to learn to renounce her whom he
+loved with all the might of his fervid soul, and to bring himself to
+close his career as a soldier with this successful campaign; but whilst
+he destroyed castles and attacked the foe, former wishes were stilled,
+and a new desire and new convictions took their place.  He could not give
+up the profession of arms, which all who bore the name of Schorlin had
+practised from time immemorial, and to resign the love which united him
+to Eva was impossible.  She must become his, though she resembled an
+April day, and Biberli's tales of the danger which threatened the husband
+from a sleep-walking wife returned more than once to his memory.
+
+Yet what beautiful April days he had experienced, and though Eva might
+have many faults, the devout child, with her angel beauty, certainly did
+not lack the will to do what was right and pleasing to God.  When she was
+once his she should become so good that even his mother at home would
+approve his choice.
+
+He had wholly renounced the idea of going into the monastery.  The
+Minorite Ignatius, whom Father Benedictus had sent after him that he
+might finish the work which the latter had begun, was a man who lacked
+neither intellect nor eloquence; but he did not possess the fiery
+enthusiasm and aristocratic confidence of the dead man.  Yet when the
+zealous monks, whom the prior of the Dominicans had despatched to
+complete Heinz's conversion, opposed him, the former entered into such
+sharp and angry arguments with them that the young knight, who witnessed
+more than one of their quarrels, startled and repelled, soon held aloof
+from all three and told them that he had resolved to remain in the world,
+and his onerous office gave him no time to listen to their well-meant
+admonitions.
+
+He was not created for the monastery.  If Heaven had vouchsafed him a
+miracle, it was done to preserve his life that--as Eva desired--he might
+fight to the last drop of his blood for the Church, his holy faith, and
+the beloved Emperor.  But if he remained in the world, Eva would do the
+same; they belonged to each other inseparably.  Why, he could not have
+explained, but the voice which constantly reiterated it could not lie.
+
+After he had slain Seitz Siebenburg in the sword combat, and destroyed
+his brother's castle, his resolve to woo Eva became absolutely fixed.
+
+His heart dictated this, but honour, too, commanded him to restore to the
+maiden and her sister the fair fame which his passionate impetuosity had
+injured.
+
+During the rapid ride which he and Boemund Altrosen took to Nuremberg he
+had stopped at Schweinau hospital, and found in Biberli, Eva's former
+enemy, her most enthusiastic panegyrist.  Heinz also heard from him how
+quickly she had won the hearts of his mother and Maria, and that he would
+find all three at the fortress.
+
+Lastly, Sister Hildegard had informed him of the great peril threatening
+his beloved faithful servant and companion, "old Biber," which had led
+Eva there to appeal to the Emperor.
+
+Beside the body of Father Benedictus he learned how beautiful had been
+the death of the old man who had so honestly striven to lead him into the
+path which he believed was the right one for him to tread.  In a brief
+prayer beside his devout friend Heinz expressed his gratitude, and called
+upon him to witness that, even in the world, he would not forget the
+shortness of this earthly pilgrimage, but would also provide for the
+other life which endured forever.  True, Heinz had but a few short
+moments to devote to this farewell, the cause of the faithful follower
+who, unasked, had unselfishly endured unutterable tortures for him, took
+precedence of everything else and would permit no delay.
+
+When the knight, with his figure drawn up to its full height, strode
+hastily into the royal hall, he beheld with joyful emotion those who were
+most dear to him, for whose presence he had longed most fervently during
+the ride--his mother, Eva, his sister, and the imperial friend he loved
+so warmly.
+
+Overwhelmed by agitation, he flung himself on his knees before his
+master, kissing his hand and his robe, but the Emperor ordered him to
+rise and cordially greeted him.
+
+Before speaking to his relatives, Heinz informed the monarch that he had
+successfully executed his commission and, receiving a few words of thanks
+and appreciation, modestly but with urgent warmth entreated the Emperor,
+if he was satisfied with his work, instead of any other reward, to save
+from further persecution the faithful servant who for his sake had borne
+the most terrible torture.
+
+The face of the sovereign, who had welcomed Heinz as if he were a long-
+absent son, assumed a graver expression, and his tone seemed to vibrate
+with a slight touch of indignation, as he exclaimed: "First, let us
+settle your own affairs.  Serious charges have been made against you,
+my son, as well as against your servant, on whose account I have been so
+tormented.  A father, who is one of the leading men in this city, accuses
+you of having destroyed his daughter's good name by forcing yourself into
+his house after assuring his child of your love."
+
+Heinz turned to Eva, to protest that he was here to atone for the wrong
+he had done her, but the Emperor would not permit him to speak.  It was
+important to silence at once any objection which could be made against
+the marriage by ecclesiastical and secular foes; therefore, eagerly as
+he desired to enjoy the happiness of the young pair, he forced himself
+to maintain the expression of grave dissatisfaction which he had assumed,
+and ordered a page to summon the imperial magistrate, the First Losunger
+of the city, and his protonotary, who were all amongst the guests, and,
+lastly, the Duchess Agnes.
+
+He could read the latter's child eyes like the clear characters of a
+book, and neither the radiant glow on her face at Heinz Schorlin's
+entrance nor her hostile glance at the Countess von Montfort had escaped
+his notice.  Both her affection and her jealous resentment should serve
+him.
+
+The young Bohemian now thought herself certain that Heinz Schorlin, and
+no other, was Cordula's chosen knight; the countess, at his entrance,
+had exclaimed to her father loudly enough, "Here he is again!"
+
+When the princess stood before the Emperor, with the gentlemen whom he
+had summoned, he asked her to decide the important question.
+
+"Yonder knight--he motioned towards Heinz--had been guilty of an act
+which could scarcely be justified.  Though he had wooed the daughter of
+a noble Nuremberg family, and even forced his way into her father's
+house, he had apparently forgotten the poor girl.
+
+"And," cried the young wife indignantly, "the unprincipled man has not
+only made a declaration of love to another, but formally asked her hand."
+
+"That would seem like him," said the Emperor.  "But we must not close our
+ears to the charge of the Nuremberg Honourable.  His daughter, a lovely,
+modest maiden of excellent repute, has been seriously injured by Heinz
+Schorlin, and so I beg you, child, to tell us, with the keen appreciation
+of the rights and duties of a lady which is peculiar to you, what
+sentence, in your opinion, should be imposed upon Sir Heinz Schorlin
+to atone for the wrong he has done to the young Nuremberg maiden."
+
+He beckoned to the protonotary, as he spoke, to command him to show Ernst
+Ortlieb's accusation to the duchess, but she seemed to have practised the
+art of reading admirably; for, more quickly than it would otherwise have
+appeared possible to grasp the meaning of even the first sentences, she
+exclaimed, drawing herself up to her full height and gazing at Cordula
+with haughty superiority: "There is but one decision here, if the
+morality of this noble city is to be preserved and the maiden daughters
+of her patrician families secured henceforward from the misfortune of
+being a plaything for the wanton levity of reckless heart breakers.  But
+this decision, on which I firmly and resolutely insist, as lady and
+princess, in the name of my whole sex and of all knightly men who, with
+me, prize the reverence and inviolable fidelity due a lady, is: Sir Heinz
+Schorlin must ask the honourable gentleman who, with full justice,
+brought this complaint to your imperial Majesty, for his daughter's hand
+and, if the sorely injured maiden vouchsafes to accept it, lead her to
+the marriage altar before God and the world."
+
+"Spoken according to the feelings of my own heart," replied the Emperor
+and, turning to the citizens of Nuremberg, he added: "So I ask you,
+gentlemen, who are familiar with the laws and customs of this good city
+and direct the administration of her justice, will such a marriage remove
+the complaint made against Sir Heinz Schorlin and his servant?"
+
+"It will," replied old Herr Berthold Vorchtel, gravely and firmly.
+
+Herr Pfinzing also assented, it is true, but added earnestly that an
+unfortunate meeting had caused another to suffer even more severely than
+Eva from the knight's imprudence.  This was her older sister, the
+betrothed bride of young Eysvogel.  For her sake, as well as to make the
+bond between Sir Heinz Schorlin and the younger Jungfrau Ortlieb valid,
+the father's consent was necessary.  If his imperial Majesty desired to
+bring to a beautiful end, that very day, the gracious work so
+auspiciously commenced there was no obstacle in the way, for Ernst
+Ortlieb was at the von Zollern Castle with the daughter who had been so
+basely slandered.
+
+The Emperor asked in surprise how they came there, and then ordered Eva's
+father and sister to be brought to him.  He was eager to make the
+acquaintance of the second beautiful E.
+
+"And Wolff Eysvogel?" asked the magistrate.
+
+"We agreed to release him after we had turned our back on Nuremberg,"
+replied the sovereign.  "Much as we have heard in praise of this young
+man, gladly as we have shown him how gratefully we prize the blood a
+brave man shed for us upon the Marchfield, no change can be made in what,
+by virtue of our imperial word----"
+
+"Certainly not, little brother," interrupted the court fool, Eyebolt,
+"but for that very reason you must open the Eysvogel's cage as quickly
+as possible and let him fly hither, for on the ride to the beekeeper's
+you crossed in your own seven-foot tall body the limits of this good
+city, whose length does not greatly surpass it--your imperial person,
+I mean.  So you as certainly turned your back upon it as you stand in
+front of things which lie behind you.  And as an emperor's word cannot
+have as much added or subtracted as a fly carries off on its tail, if it
+has one, you, little brother, are obliged and bound to have the strange
+monster, which is at once a wolf and a bird, immediately released and
+summoned hither."
+
+"Not amiss," laughed the  Emperor, "if the boundaries of Nuremberg saw
+our back for even so brief a space as it needs to make a wise man a fool.
+
+"We will follow your counsel, Eyebolt.--Herr Pfinzing, tell young
+Eysvogel that the Emperor's pardon has ended his punishment.  The breach
+of the country's peace may be forgiven the man who so heroically aided
+the battle for peace."
+
+Then turning to Meister Gottlieb, the protonotary, he whispered so low
+that he alone could hear the command, that he should commit to paper a
+form of words which would give the bond between Heinz Schorlin and Eva
+Ortlieb sufficient legal power to resist both secular authority and that
+of the Dominicans and Sisters of St. Clare.
+
+During this conference court etiquette had prevented the company from
+exchanging any remarks.  Whatever one person might desire to say to
+another he was forced to entrust to the mute language of the eyes, and a
+sportive impulse induced Emperor Rudolph to maintain the spell which held
+apart those who were most strongly attracted to each other.
+
+Meantime, whilst he was talking with the protonotary, the bolder guests
+ventured to move about more freely, and of them all Cordula imposed the
+least restraint upon herself.
+
+Ere Heinz had found time to address a word to Eva or to greet his mother
+she glided swiftly to his side and, with an angry expression on her face,
+whispered: "If Heaven bestowed the greatest happiness upon the most
+deserving, you must be the most favoured of mortals, for a more exquisite
+masterpiece than your future wife--I know her--was never created.  But
+now open your ears and follow my advice: Do not reveal the state of your
+heart until you have left the castle so far behind that you are out of
+sight of the Bohemian princess, or your ship of happiness may be wrecked
+within sight of port."
+
+Then, with a well-assumed air of indignation, she abruptly turned her
+back upon him.
+
+After moving away, she intentionally remained standing near the duchess,
+with drooping head.  The latter hastily approached her, saying with
+admirably simulated earnestness: "You, Countess, will probably be the
+last to refuse your approval of my interference against our knightly
+butterfly and in behalf of the poor inexperienced girl, his victim."
+
+"If that is your Highness's opinion," replied Cordula, shrugging her
+shoulders as if it were necessary to submit to the inevitable, "for my
+part I fear your kind solicitude may send me behind convent walls."
+
+"Countess von Montfort a nun!"  cried the child wife, laughing.  "If it
+were Sir Heinz Schorlin to whom you just alluded, you, too, are among the
+deluded ones whom we must pity, yet with prudent foresight you provided
+compensation long ago.  Instead of burying yourself in a convent, you,
+whom so many desire, would do better to beckon to one of your admirers
+and bestow on him the happiness of which the other was not worthy."
+
+Cordula fixed her eyes thoughtfully on the floor a short time, then,
+as if the advice had met with her approval, exclaimed: "Your Royal
+Highness's mature wisdom has found the right expedient this time also.
+I am not fit for the veil.  Perhaps you may hear news of me to-morrow.
+By that time my choice will be determined.  What would you say to the
+dark-haired Altrosen?"
+
+"A brave champion!" replied the Bohemian, and this time the laugh which
+accompanied her words came from the heart.  "Try him, in the name of all
+the saints!  But look at Sir Heinz Schorlin!  A gloomy face for a happy
+man!  He does not seem quite pleased with our verdict."
+
+She beckoned, as she spoke, to her chamberlain and the high steward, took
+leave of her imperial father-in-law and, with her pretty little head
+flung proudly back, rustled out of the hall.
+
+Soon after Herr Pfinzing ushered Ernst Ortlieb, his daughter, and Wolff
+into the presence of the sovereign, who gazed as if restored to youth
+at the handsome couple whose weal or woe was in his hands.  This
+consciousness afforded him one of the moments when he gratefully
+felt the full beauty and dignity of his responsible position.
+
+With friendly words he restored Wolff's liberty, and expressed the
+expectation that, with such a companion, he would raise the noble
+house of his ancestors to fresh prosperity.
+
+When he at last turned to Heinz again he asked in a low tone: "Do you
+know what this day means to me?"
+
+"Nineteen years ago it gave you poor Hartmann," replied the knight, his
+downcast eyes resting sadly on the floor.
+
+The kind-hearted sovereign nodded significantly, and said, "Then it must
+benefit those who, so long as he lives, may expect his father's favour."
+
+He gazed thoughtfully into vacancy and, faithful to his habit of fixing
+his eye on a goal, often distant, and then carefully carrying out the
+details which were to ensure success, ere he turned to the next one, he
+summoned the imperial magistrate and the First Losunger to his side.
+
+After disclosing to them his desire to allow the judges to decide and,
+should the verdict go against Biberli, release him from punishment by a
+pardon, both undertook to justify the absence of the accused from the
+trial.  The wise caution with which the Emperor Rudolph avoided
+interfering with the rights of the Honourable Council afforded old Herr
+Berthold Vorchtel great satisfaction.  Both he and the magistrate, sure
+of the result, could promise that this affair, which had aroused so much
+excitement, especially among the artisans, would be ended by the marriage
+of the two Ortlieb sisters and the payment of the blood money to the
+wounded tailor.  Any new complaint concerning them would then be lawfully
+rejected by both court and magistrate.
+
+Never had Heinz thanked his imperial benefactor more warmly for any gift,
+but though the Emperor received his gallant favourite's expressions of
+gratitude and appreciation kindly, he did not yet permit him to enjoy his
+new happiness.
+
+There were still some things which must be decided, and for the third
+time his peculiar smile showed the initiated that he was planning some
+pleasant surprise for those whom it concerned.
+
+The mention of the blood money which Herr Ernst Ortlieb owed the
+slandering tailor, who had not yet recovered from his wound, induced the
+Emperor to look at the father of the beautiful sisters.
+
+He knew that Herr Ernst had also lost a valiant son in the battle of
+Marchfield, and Eva's father had been described as an excellent man, but
+one with whom it was difficult to deal.  Now, spite of the new happiness
+of his children, the sovereign saw him glance gloomily, as if some wrong
+had been done him, from his daughters to Heinz, and then to Lady Schorlin
+and Maria, to whom he had not yet been presented.  He doubtless felt that
+the Emperor had treated him and his family with rare graciousness, and
+was entitled to their warmest gratitude yet, as a father and a member of
+the proud and independent Honourable Council of the free imperial city of
+Nuremberg, he considered his rights infringed--nay, it had cost him a
+severe struggle not to protest against such arbitrary measures.  He had
+his paternal rights even here--Els and Eva were not parentless orphans.
+
+The noble monarch and shrewd judge of human nature perceived what was
+passing in the Nuremberg merchant's mind, but the pleasant smile still
+rested on his lips as, with a glance at the ill-humoured Honourable, he
+exclaimed to his future son-in-law: "I have just remembered something,
+Heinz, which might somewhat cool your warm expressions of gratitude.
+Yonder lovely child consented to become yours, it is true, but that does
+not mean very much, for it was done without the consent of her father, by
+which the compact first obtains signature and seal.  Herr Ernst Ortlieb,
+however, seems to be in no happy mood.  Only look at him!  He is
+certainly mutely accusing me of vexatious interference with his paternal
+rights, and yet he may be sure that I feel a special regard for him.  His
+son's blood, which flowed for his Emperor's cause, gives him a peculiar
+claim upon our consideration, and we therefore devoted particular
+attention to his complaint.  In this he now demands, my son, that you
+restore to him, Herr Ernst Ortlieb, the two hundred silver marks which
+are awarded to the tailor as blood money and he must pay to the injured
+artisan.  The prudent business man can scarcely be blamed for making this
+claim, for the wound he inflicted upon the ill-advised tradesman who so
+basely, insulted those dearest to him would certainly not have been dealt
+had not your insolent intrusion into the Ortlieb mansion unchained evil
+tongues.  So, Heinz, you caused his hasty act, and therefor, are justly
+bound to answer for the consequence; If he brings the accusation, the
+judges will condemn you to pay the sum.  I therefore ask whether you have
+it ready."
+
+Here Herr Ernst attempted to explain that, in the present state of
+affairs, there could be no further mention of a payment which was only,
+intended to punish the disturber of his domestic peace more severely;
+but the Emperor stopper him and bade Heinz speak.
+
+The latter gazed in embarrassment at the helmet he held in his hand, and
+had not yet found; fitting answer when the Emperor cried: "What am I to
+think?  Was the Duke of Pomerani; wrong when he told me of a heap of
+gold----"
+
+"No, Your Majesty," Heinz here interrupter without raising his eyes.
+"What was left of the money would have more than sufficed to cover the sum
+required----"
+
+"I thought so!" exclaimed the sovereign with out letting him finish; "for
+a young knight who like a great lord, bestows a fine estate upon the
+pious Franciscans, certainly need only command his treasurer to open the
+strong box----"
+
+"You are mocking me, Your Majesty," Heinz quietly interposed.  "You are
+doubtless well aware whence the golden curse came to me.  I thrust it
+aside like noxious poison, and if I am reluctant to use it to buy, as it
+were, what is dearest and most sacred to me, indeed it does not spring
+from parsimony, for I had resolved to offer the two remaining purses to
+the devout Sisters of St. Clare and the zealous Minorite Brothers, one of
+the best of whom laboured earnestly for the salvation of my soul."
+
+"That is right, my son," fell from the Emperor's lips in a tone of warm
+approval.  "If the gold benefits the holy poverty of these pious Brothers
+and Sisters, the devil's gift may easily be transformed into a divine
+blessing.  You both--" he gazed affectionately at Heinz and Eva as he
+spoke--"have, as it were, deserted the cloister, and owe it compensation.
+But your depriving yourself of your golden treasure, my friend--for two
+hundred silver marks are no trifle to a young knight--puts so different
+a face upon this matter that--that----"  Here he lowered his voice and
+continued with affectionate  mirthfulness--"that a  friend must determine
+to do what he can for him.  True, my gallant Heinz, I see that your
+future father-in-law, the other Nuremberg Honourables, and even your
+mother, are ready to pay the sum; but he who is most indebted to you
+holds fast this privilege, and that man am I, my brave champion!  What
+you did for your Emperor and his best work, the peace of the country,
+deserves a rich reward and, thanks to the saints, I have something which
+will discharge my debt.  The Swabian fief of Reichenbach became vacant.
+It has a strong citadel, from which we command you to maintain the peace
+of the country and overthrow robber knights.  This fief shall be yours.
+You can enjoy it with your dear wife.  It must belong to your children
+and children's children forever; for that a Schorlin should be born who
+would be unworthy of such a fief and faithless to his lord and Emperor
+seems to me impossible.  Three villages and broad forests, with fields
+and meadows, pertain to the estate.  As lord of Reichenbach, it will be
+easy for you to pay the blood money, if your father-in-law is not too
+importunate a creditor."
+
+The latter certainly would not be that, and it cost Ernst Ortlieb no
+effort to bend the knee gratefully before the kindly monarch.
+
+The Emperor Rudolph accepted the homage, but he clasped the young lord of
+Reichenbach to his heart like a beloved son, and as he placed Eva's hand
+in his, and she raised her beautiful face to him, he stooped and kissed
+her with fatherly kindness.
+
+When Wolff entreated him to bless his alliance in the place of his
+suffering father, he did so gladly; and Els also willingly offered him
+her lips; when he requested the same favour her sister had granted him,
+that he might boast of the kisses bestowed on him by the two beautiful
+Es, Nuremberg's fairest maidens.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+Heinz heeded Cordula's warning.  In the royal hall every one would have
+been justified in believing him a very cool lover, but during the walk
+with Eva to the lodgings of his cousin Maier of Silenen, where the
+Schurlins, Ortliebs, Wolff, and Herr Pfinzing and his wife were to meet
+to celebrate the betrothal, the moon, whose increasing crescent was again
+in the sky, beheld many things which gave her pleasure.
+
+The priest soon united Heinz and Eva, but the celestial pilgrim willingly
+resigned the power formerly exerted over the maiden to the husband, who
+clasped her to his heart with tender love.
+
+Luna was satisfied with Wolff and Els also.  She afterwards watched the
+fate of both couples in Swabia and Nuremberg, and when the showy
+escutcheon was removed from the Eysvogel mansion, and a more modest one
+put in its place, she was gratified.
+
+She soon saw that a change had also been made in the one above the door
+of the Ortlieb house, for the Ortlieb coat of arms, in accordance with
+the family name, had borne the figure of a cat, the animal which loves
+the place,--[Ort, place.]--the house to which it belongs, but on the
+wedding day of the two beautiful Es the Emperor Rudolph had commanded
+that, in perpetual remembrance of its two loveliest daughters, the
+Ortliebs should henceforward bear on their escutcheon two linden leaves
+under tendrils, the symbol of loyal steadfastness.
+
+When, a few months after Wolff's union with his heart's beloved, the
+coffin of old Countess Rotterbach, adorned with a handsome coronet upon
+the costly pall, was borne out of the house at the quiet evening hour,
+she thought there was no cause to mourn.
+
+On the other hand, she grieved when, for a long time, she did not see old
+Casper Eysvogel, whose tall figure she had formerly watched with pleasure
+when, at a late hour, he returned from some banquet, his bearing erect,
+and his step as firm as if wine could not get the better of him.  But
+suddenly one warm September noon, when her pale, waxing crescent was
+plainly visible in the blue sky by daylight, she beheld him again.  He
+was less erect than before, but he seemed content with his fate; for, as
+a cooler breeze waved the light cobwebs in the little garden, into which
+he had been led, his daughter-in-law Els with loving care wrapped his
+feet in the rug which she had embroidered for him with the Eysvogel coat
+of arms, and he gratefully kissed her brow.
+
+It was fully ten years later that Luna saw him also borne to the grave.
+Frau Rosalinde, his son, and his beautiful wife followed his coffin with
+sincere sorrow.  The three gifted children whom Els had given to her
+Wolff remained standing in front of the house with Frau Rickel, their
+nurse.  The carrier's widow, who had long since regained her health in
+the Beguine House at Schweinau, had been taken into Frau Eysvogel's
+service.  Her little adopted daughter Walpurga, scarcely seventeen years
+old, had just been married to the Ortlieb teamster Ortel.  The moon heard
+the nurse tell what a pleasant, quiet man Herr Casper had been, and how,
+away from his own business affairs and those of the Council, his sole
+effort had seemed to be to interfere with no one.
+
+The moon had forgotten to look at Frau Rosalinde.  Besides, after her
+mother's death she was rarely seen even by the members of her own
+household, but when Els desired to seek her she was sure of finding her
+with the children.  The parents willingly afforded her the pleasure she
+derived from the companionship of the little ones, but they were often
+obliged to oppose her wish to dress her grandchildren magnificently.
+
+Frau Rosalinde rarely saw the twin sons of her daughter Isabella, who
+took the veil after her husband's death to pray for his sorely imperilled
+soul.
+
+The Knight Heideck, the uncle and faithful teacher of the boys, was
+unwilling to let them go to the city.  He ruled them strictly until
+they had proved that Countess Cordula's wish had been fulfilled and,
+resembling their unfortunate father only in figure and beauty, strength
+and courage, they had grown into valiant, honourable knights.
+
+Wolff justified the expectations of Berthold Vorchtel and the Honourable
+Council concerning his excellent ability.  When, eight years after he
+undertook the sole guidance of the business, the Reichstag again met in
+Nuremberg, it was the house of Eysvogel which could make the largest loan
+to the Emperor Rudolph, who often lacked necessary funds.
+
+At the Reichstag of the year 1289, whose memory is shadowed by many a
+sorrowful incident, most of the persons mentioned in our story met once
+more.
+
+Countess Cordula, now the happy wife of Sir Boemund Altrosen, had also
+come and again lodged in the Ortlieb house.  But this time the only
+person whose homage pleased her was the grey-haired, but still vigorous
+and somewhat irascible Herr Ernst Ortlieb.
+
+The Abbess Kunigunde alone was absent.  When, after many an arduous
+conflict, especially with the Dominicans, who did not cease to accuse her
+of lukewarmness, she felt death approaching, she had summoned her darling
+Eva from Swabia, and the young wife's husband, who never left her save
+when he was wielding his sword for the Emperor, willingly accompanied her
+to Nuremberg.
+
+With Eva's hand clasped in hers, and supported by Els, the abbess died
+peacefully, rich in beautiful hopes.  How often she had described such an
+end to her pupil as the fairest reward for the sacrifices in which
+convent life was so rich!  But the memory of her mother's decease had
+brought to Eva, while in Schweinau, the firm conviction that dwellers in
+the world were also permitted to find a similar end.  The Saviour Himself
+had promised the crown of eternal life to those who were faithful unto
+death, and she and her husband maintained inviolable fidelity to the
+Saviour, to each other, and to every duty which religion, law, and love
+commanded them to fulfil.  Therefore, why should they not be permitted to
+die as happily and confidently as her aunt, the abbess?
+
+Her life was rich in happiness, and though Heinz Schorlin as a husband
+and father, as the brave and loyal liegeman of his Emperor, and the
+prudent manager of his estate, regained his former light-heartedness, and
+taught his wife to share it, both never forgot the painful conflict by
+which they had won each other.
+
+When Eva passed the village forge and saw the smith draw the glowing iron
+from the fire and, with heavy hammer strokes, fashion it upon the anvil
+as he desired, she often remembered the grievous days after her mother's
+death, which had made the "little saint"--she did not admit it herself,
+but the whole Swabian nobility agreed in the opinion--the most faithful
+of wives and mothers, the Providence of the poor, the zealous promoter
+of goodness, the most simply attired of noblewomen far and near, yet the
+most aristocratic and distinguished in her appearance of them all.
+
+Hand in hand with her husband she devoted the most faithful care to their
+children, and if Biberli, the castellan of the castle, and Katterle his
+wife, who had remained childless, were too ready to read the wishes of
+their darlings in their eyes, she exclaimed warningly to the loyal old
+friend, "The fire of the forge!"  He and Katterle knew what she meant,
+for the ex-schoolmaster had explained it in the best possible way to his
+docile wife.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+His sole effort had seemed to be to interfere with no one
+No virtue which can be owned like a house or a steed
+Retreat behind the high-sounding words "justice and law"
+Strongest of all educational powers--sorrow and love
+Usually found the worst wine in the taverns with showy signs
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS FOR THE ENTIRE "FIRE OF THE FORGE":
+
+Abandoned women (required by law to help put out the fires)
+Deem every hour that he was permitted to breathe as a gift
+False praise, he says, weighs more heavily than disgrace
+His sole effort had seemed to be to interfere with no one
+No virtue which can be owned like a house or a steed
+Retreat behind the high-sounding words "justice and law"
+Shipwrecked on the cliffs of 'better' and 'best'
+Strongest of all educational powers--sorrow and love
+The heart must not be filled by another's image
+Usually found the worst wine in the taverns with showy signs
+Welcome a small evil when it barred the way to a greater one
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIRE OF THE FORGE, BY EBERS, ALL ***
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