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:
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 Project Gutenberg’s In The Fire Of The Forge, Complete, by Georg Ebers