We presently were standing by the lad’s bedside; Master Ulsenius had

just done with bandaging his head and body and arms; the poor fellow had

been indeed cruelly handled, and but for the Brunswicker’s help he must

have died. That Kubbeling should not have known him, although they had

often met in past years, was easy to explain; for I myself could scarce

have believed that the pale, hollow-eyed man who lay there, to all

seeming dying, was our brisk and nimble-witted Eppelein. Yet verily he

it was, and Ann flung herself on her knees by the bed, and it was right

piteous to hear her cry: “Poor, faithful Eppelein!” and many other

good words in low and loving tones. Yet did he not hear nor understand,

inasmuch as he was not in his senses. For the present there was nought

of tidings to be had from him, and this was all the greater pity by

reason that the thieves had stripped off his clothes, even to his boots,

and thus, if he were the bearer of any writing, he might now never

deliver it. Yet he had come with some message. When the men left us

there Ann bent over him and laid a wet kerchief on his hot head, and he

presently opened his eyes a little way, and pointed with his left hand,

which was sound, to the end of the bed-place where his feet lay, and

murmured, scarce to be heard and as though he were lost: “The letter,

oh, the letter!” But then he lost his senses; and presently he said

the same words again and again. So his heart and brain were full of one

thing, and that was the letter which some one--and who else than his

well-beloved Master--had straitly charged him to deliver rightly.

Every word he might speak in his fever might give us some important

tidings, and when at midnight my aunt bid us go to bed, Ann declared it

to be her purpose to keep watch by Eppelein all night, and I would not

for the world have quitted her at such a moment. And whereas she well

knew Master Ulsenius, and had already lent a helping hand of her own

free will to old Uhlwurm, the tending the sick man was wholly given over

to her; and I sat me down by the fire, gazing sometimes at the leaping

flames and flying sparks, and sometimes at the sick-bed and at all Ann

was doing. Then I waxed sleepy, and the hours flew past while I sat wide

awake, or dreaming as I slept for a few minutes. Then it was morning

again, and there was somewhat before my eyes whereof I knew not whether

it were happening in very truth, or whether it were still a dream,

yet meseemed it was so pleasant that I was still smiling when the

house-keeper came in, and that chased sleep away. I thought I had seen

Ann lead ugly old Uhlwurm to the window, and stroke down his rough

cheeks with her soft small hand. This being all unlike her wonted timid

modesty, it amused me all the more, and the old man’s demeanor likewise

had made me smile; he was surly, and notwithstanding courteous to her

and had said to her I know not what. Now, when I was wide-awake, Ann had

indeed departed, and the house-wife had seen her quit the house and walk

towards the stables, following old Uhlwurm.

Hereupon a strange unrest fell upon me, and when Kubbeling presently

answered to my questioning that old Uhlwurm had craved leave to be

absent till noon, to the end that he might go to the very spot where

they had found Eppelein, and make search for that letter which he

doubtless had had on his person, I plainly saw wherefor Ann had beguiled

the old man.

CHAPTER X.

“The old owl! I will give him somewhat to remember me by till some one

else can say ‘Gone’ over him!” This was what my Uncle Christian growled

a little later, out near the stables, where Matthew was putting the

bridle on my bay nag, while the other serving-men were saddling the

horses for the gentlemen. I had stolen hither, knowing full well that

the old folks would not have suffered me to ride forth after Ann, and

my good godfather even now ceased not from railing, in his fears for his

darling. “What else did we talk of yestereve, Master leech and I, all

the way we rode with the misguided maid, but of the wicked deeds done in

these last few weeks on the high roads, and here in this very wood? With

her own ears, she heard us say that the town constable required us

to take seven mounted men as outriders, by reason that the day before

yesterday the whole train of waggons of the Borchtels and the Schnods

was overtaken, and the convoy would of a certainty have been beaten if

they had not had the aid, by good-hap, of the fellowship marching with

the Maurers and the Derrers.--And it was pitch dark, owls were flitting,

foxes barking; it was enough to make even an old scarred soldier’s blood

run cold. It is a sin and a shame how the rogues ply their trade, even

close under the walls of the city! They cut off a bleacher’s man’s ears,

and when I wished that young Eber of Wichsenstein, and all the rout that

follows him might come to the gallows, Ann made bold to plead for them,

by reason that he only craved to visit on the Nurembergers the cruel

death they brought upon his father the famous thief. As if she did not

know full well that, since Eppelein of Gailingen was cast into prison,

our land has never been such a den of murder and robbery as at this day.

If there is less dust to be seen on the high-ways, said the keeper, it

is by reason that it is washed away in blood. And notwithstanding all

this the crazy maid runs straight into the Devil’s arms, with that old

dolt.”

Then, when I went into the stable to mount, Uncle Conrad turned on

Kubbeling in stormy ire for that he had suffered Uhlwurm to lead Ann

into such peril; howbeit the Brunswicker knew how to hold his own, and

declared at last that he could sooner have looked to see a falcon grow a

lion’s tail in place of feathers, than that old death-watch make common

cause with a young maiden. “He had come forth,” quoth he, “to counsel

their excellencies to take horse.” But my uncle’s question, whether

he, Kubbeling, believed that they had come forth to the stables to

hear mass, put an end to his discourse; the gentlemen called to the

serving-men to make speed, and I was already in the saddle. Then, when

I had commanded Endres to open the great gate, I bowed my head low

and rode out through the stable door, and bade the company a hearty

good-day. To this they made reply, while Uncle Conrad asked whether

I had forgotten his counsels, and whither it was my intent to ride;

whereupon I hastily replied: “Under safe guidance, that is to say yours,

to follow Ann.”

My uncle slashed his boot with his whip, and asked in wrath whether

I had considered that blood would perchance be shed, and ended by

counselling me kindly: “So stay at home, little Margery!”

“I am as obedient as ever,” was my ready answer, “but whereas I am now

well in the saddle, I will stay in the saddle.”

At this the old man knew not whether to take a jest as a jest, or to

give me a stern order; and while he and the others were getting into

their stirrups he said: “Have done with folly when matters are so

serious, madcap child! We have enough to do to think of Ann, and more

than enough! So dismount, Margery, with all speed.”

“All in good time,” said I then, “I will dismount that minute when we

have found Ann. Till then the giant Goliath shall not move me from the

saddle!”

Hereupon the old man lost patience, he settled himself on his big brown

horse and cried out in a wrathful and commanding tone: “Do not rouse me

to anger, Margery. Do as I desire and dismount.”

But that moment he could more easily have made me to leap into the fire

than to leave Ann in the lurch; I raised the bridle and whip, and as

the bay broke into a gallop Uncle Conrad cried out once more, in greater

wrath than before: “Do as I bid you!” and I joyfully replied “That I

will if you come and fetch me!” And my horse carried me off and away,

through the open gate.

The gentlemen tore after me, and if I had so desired they would never

have caught me till the day of judgment, inasmuch as that my Hungarian

palfrey, which my Hans had brought for me from the stables of Count von

Cilly, the father of Queen Barbara, was far swifter than their heavy

hook-nosed steeds; yet as I asked no better than to seek Ann in all

peace with them, and as my uncle was a mild and wise man, who would not

take the jest he could not now spoil over seriously, I suffered them to

gain upon me and we concluded a bargain to the effect that all was to be

forgotten and forgiven, but that I was pledged to turn the bay and

make the best of my way home at the first sign of danger. And if the

gentlemen had come to the stables in a gloomy mood and much fear, the

wild chase after me had recovered their high spirits; and, albeit my own

heart beat sadly enough, I did my best to keep of good cheer, and verily

the sight of Kubbeling helped to that end. He was to show us the way to

the spot where he had found Eppelem, and was now squatted on a very

big black horse, from which his little legs, with their strange gear

of catskins, stuck out after a fashion wondrous to behold. After we had

thus gone at a steady pace for some little space, my confidence began to

fail once more; even if Ann and her companion had been somewhat delayed

by their search, still ought we to have met them by this time, if

they had gone to the place without tarrying, and set forth to return

unhindered. And when, presently, we came to an open plot whence we might

see a long piece of the forest path, and yet saw nought but a little

charcoal burner’s cart, meseemed as though a cold hand had been laid on

my heart. Again and again I spied the distance, while a whole army of

thoughts and terrors tossed my soul. I pictured them in the power of the

vengeful Eber von Wichsenstein and his fierce robber fellows; methought

the covetous Bremberger had dragged them into his castle postern to

exact a great ransom--nor was this the worst that might befall. If

Abersfeld the wildest freebooter of all the plundering nobles far or

near were to seize her? My blood ran cold as I conceived of this chance.

Ann was so fair; what lord who might carry her off could she fail to

inflame? And then I minded me of what I had read of the Roman Lucretia,

and if I had been possessed of any magic art, I would have given the

first raven by the way a sharp bodkin that he should carry it to her.

In my soul’s anguish, while I held my bridle and whip together in my

left hand, with the right I lifted the gold cross on my breast to my

lips and in a silent heartfelt prayer I besought the Blessed Virgin, and

my own dear mother in Heaven to have her in keeping.

And so we rode on and on till we came to the pools by Pillenreuth. Hard

by the larger of these, known as the King’s pool, was a sign-post, and

not far away was the spot where they had found Eppelein, stripped

and plundered; and in truth it was the very place for highwaymen and

freebooters, lying within the wood and aside from the highway;

albeit, if it came to their taking flight, they might find it again by

Reichelstorf. Nor was there any castle nor stronghold anywhere nigh; the

great building with walls and moats which stood on the south side of the

King’s pool was but the peaceful cloister of the Augustine Sisters

of Pillenreuth. All about the water lay marsh-ground overgrown with

leafless bushes, rushes, tall grasses, and reeds. It was verily a right

dismal and ill-boding spot.

The boggy tract across which our path lay was white with fresh

hoar-frost, and the thicket away to the south was a haunt for crows such

as I never have seen again since; the black birds flew round and about

it in dark clouds with loud shrieks, as though in its midst stood a

charnel and gallows, and from the brushwood likewise, by the pool’s

edge, came other cries of birds, all as full of complaining as though

they were bewailing the griefs of the whole world.

Here we stayed our horses, and called and shouted; but none made answer,

save only toads and crows. “This is the place, for certain,” said Young

Kubbeling, and Grubner the head forester, sprang to his feet to help

him down from his tall mare. The gentlemen likewise dismounted, and

were about to follow the Trunswicker across the mead to the place where

Eppelein had been found; but he bid them not, inasmuch as they would mar

the track he would fain discover.

They, then, stood still and gazed after him, as I did likewise; and my

fears waxed greater till I verily believed that the crows were indeed

birds of ill-omen, as I saw a large black swarm of them wheel croaking

round Kubbeling. He, meanwhile, stooped low, seeking any traces on the

frosted grass, and his short, thick-set body seemed for all the world

one of the imps, or pixies, which dwell among the roots of trees and

in the holes in the rocks. He crept about with heedful care and never a

word, prying as he went, and presently I could see that he shook his

big head as though in doubt, nay, or in sorrow. I shuddered again, and

meseemed the grey clouds in the sky waxed blacker, while deathly pale

airy forms floated through the mist over the pools, in long, waving

winding-sheets. The thick black heads of the bulrushes stood up

motionless like grave-stones, and the grey silken tufts of the

bog-grass, fluttering in the cold breath of a November morning, were as

ghostly hands, threatening or warning me.

Ere long I was to forget the crows, and the fogs, and the reed-grass,

and all the foolish fears that possessed me, by reason of a real and

well-founded terror; again did Kubbeling shake his head, and then I

heard him call to my Uncle Conrad and Grubner the headforester, to come

close to him, but to tread carefully. Then they stood at his side, and

they likewise stooped low and then my uncle clasped his hands, and he

cried in horror, “Merciful Heaven!”

In two minutes I had run on tip-toe across the damp, frosted grass to

join them, and there, sure enough, I could see full plainly the mark of

a woman’s dainty shoe. The sole and the heel were plainly to be seen,

and, hard by, the print of a man’s large, broad shoes, with iron-shod

heels, which told Kubbeling that they were those of Uhlwurm’s great

boots. Yet though we had not met those we sought, the forest was full

of by-ways, by which they might have crossed us on the road; but nigh to

the foot-prints of the maid and the old man were there three others.

The old woodsman could discern them only too well; they had each and

all been made in the hoar-frost by men’s boots. Two, it was certain,

had been left by finely-cut soles, such as are made by skilled city

cordwainers; and one left a track which could only be that of a spur;

whereas the third was so flat and broad that it was for sure that of the

shoe of a peasant, or charcoal burner.

There was a green patch in the frost which could only be explained as

having been made by one who had lain long on the earth, and the back of

his head, where he had fallen, had left a print in the grass as big as a

man’s fist. Here was clear proof that Ann and her companion had, on this

very spot, been beset by three robbers, two of them knights and one of

low degree, that Uhlwurm had fought hard and had overpowered one of them

or had got the worst of it, and had been flung on the grass.

Alas! there could be no doubt, whereas Kubbeling found a foot-print of

Ann’s over which the spurred mark lay, plainly showing that she had come

thither before those men. And on the highway we found fresh tracks of

horses and men; thus it was beyond all doubt that knavish rogues had

fallen upon Ann and Uhlwurm, and had carried them off without bloodshed,

for no such trace was to be seen anywhere on the mead.

Meanwhile the forester had followed the scent with the bloodhounds,

starting from the place where the man had lain on the grass, and scarce

were they lost to sight among the brushwood when they loudly gave

tongue, and Grubner cried to us to come to him. Behind a tall alder

bush, which had not yet lost its leaves, was a wooden lean-to on piles,

built there by the Convent fisherman wherein to dry his nets; and

beneath this shelter lay an old man in the garb of a serving-man, who

doubtless had lost his life in the struggle with Uhlwurm. But Kubbeling

was soon kneeling by his side, and whereas he found that his heart still

beat, he presently discovered what ailed the fellow. He was sleeping

off a drunken bout, and more by token the empty jar lay by his side.

Likewise hard by there stood a hand-barrow, full of such wine-jars, and

we breathed more freely, for if the drunken rogue were not himself one

of the highway gang, they must have found him there and seized the good

liquor.

Now, while Kubbeling fetched water from the pool, Uncle Christian tried

the quality of the jars in the barrow, and the first he opened was fine

Malvoisie. Whether this were going to the Convent or no the drunken

churl should tell, and a stream of cold November-water ere long brought

him to his wits. Then was there much mirth, as the rogue thus waked on

a sudden from his sleep let the water drip off him in dull astonishment,

and stared at us open-mouthed; and it needed some patience till he was

able to tell us of many matters which we afterwards heard at greater

length and in fuller detail.

He was a serving-man to Master Rummel of Nuremberg, who had been

sent forth from Lichtenau to carry this good liquor to the nuns at

Pillenreuth; the market-town of Lichtenau lieth beyond Schwabach and had

of yore belonged to the Knight of Heideck, who had sold it to that city,

of which the Rummels, who were an old and honored family, had bought it,

with the castle.

Now, whereas yestereve the Knight of Heideck, the former owner of the

castle, a noble of staunch honor, was sitting at supper with Master

Rummel in the fortress of Lichtenau, a rider from Pillenreuth had come

in with a petition from the Abbess for aid against certain robber folk

who had carried away some cattle pertaining to the convent. Hereupon

the gentlemen made ready to go and succor the sisters, and with wise

foresight they sent a barrow-load of good wine to Pillenreuth, to await

them there, inasmuch as that no good liquor was to be found with the

pious sisters. When the gentlemen had, this very morning, come to the

place where the highwaymen had fallen on Eppelein, they had met Ann

who was known to them at the Forest lodge, where she was in the act of

making search for Herdegen’s letter, and they, in their spurred boots,

had helped her. At last they had besought her to go with them to the

Convent, by reason that the men-at-arms of Lichtenau had yesternight

gone forth to meet the thieves, and by this time peradventure had caught

them and found the letter on them. Ann had consented to follow this

gracious bidding, if only she might give tidings of where she would

be to those her friends who would for certain come in search of her.

Thereupon Master Rummel had commanded the servingman, who had come up

with the barrow, to tarry here and bid us likewise to the Convent; the

fellow, however, who had already made free on his way with the contents

of the jars, had tried the liquor again. And first he had tumbled

down on the frosted grass and then had laid him down to rest under the

fisherman’s hut.

Rarely indeed hath a maiden gone to the cloister with a lighter heart

than I, after I had heard these tidings, and albeit there was yet cause

for fear and doubting, I could be as truly mirthful as the rest, and or

ever I jumped into my saddle again I had many a kiss from bearded lips

as a safe conduct to the Sisters. My good godfather in the overflowing

joy of his heart rushed upon me to kiss me on both cheeks and on my

brow, and I had gladly suffered it and smiled afterwards to perceive

that he would allow the barrow-man to tarry no longer.

In the Convent there was fresh rejoicing. The mist had hidden us from

their sight, and we found them all at breakfast: the gentlemen and Ann,

the lady Abbess and a novice who was the youngest daughter of Uncle

Endres Tucher of Nuremberg, and my dear cousin, well-known likewise to

Ann. Albeit the Convent was closed to all other men, it was ever open

to its lord protector. Hereupon was a right happy meeting and glad

greeting, and at the sight of Ann for the second time this day, though

it was yet young, the bright tears rolled over Uncle Christian’s round

twice-double chin.

Now wheresoever a well-to-do Nuremberg citizen is taking his ease with

victuals and drink, if others join him they likewise must sit down

and eat with him, yea, if it were in hell itself. But the Convent of

Pillenreuth was a right comfortable shelter, and my lady the Abbess a

woman of high degree and fine, hospitable manners; and the table was

made longer in a winking, and laid with white napery and plates and

all befitting. None failed of appetite and thirst after the ride in the

sharp morning air, and how glad was my soul to have my Ann again safe

and unharmed.

We were seated at table by the time our horses were tied up in the

stables, and from the first minute there was a mirthful and lively

exchange of talk. For my part I forthwith fell out with the Knight von

Heideck, inasmuch as he was fain to sit betwixt Ann and me, and would

have it that a gallant knight must ever be a more welcome neighbor to a

damsel than her dearest woman-friend. And the loud cheer and merrymaking

were ere long overmuch for me; and I would gladly have withdrawn with

Ann to some lonely spot, there to think of our dear one.

At last we were released; Jorg Starch, the captain of the Lichtenau

horsemen, a tall, lean soldier, with shrewd eyes, a little turned-up

cock-nose, and thick full beard, now came in and, lifting his hand to

his helmet, said as sharply as though he were cutting each word short

off with his white teeth: “Caught; trapped; all the rabble!”

In a few minutes we were all standing on the rampart between the pools

and the Convent, and there were the miserable knaves whom Jorg Starch

and his men-at-arms had surrounded and carried off while they were

making good cheer over their morning broth and sodden flesh. They

had declared that they had been of Wichsenstein’s fellowship, but had

deserted Eber by reason of his over-hard rule, and betaken themselves to

robbery on their own account. Howbeit Starch was of opinion that matters

were otherwise. When he had been sent forth to seek them he had as yet

no knowledge of the attack on Eppelein; now, so soon as he heard that

they had stripped him of his clothes, he bid them stand in a row and

examined each one; in truth they were a pitiable crew, and had they

not so truly deserved our compassion their rags must have moved us to

laughter. One had made his cloak of a woman’s red petticoat, pulling it

over his head and cutting slits in it for arm-holes, and another great

fellow wore a friar’s brown frock and on his head a good-wife’s fur

turban tied on with an infant’s swaddling band. Jorg Starch’s enquiries

as to where were Eppelein’s garments made one of them presently point to

his decent and whole jerkin, another to his under coat, and the biggest

man of them all to his hat with the cock’s feather, which was all

unmatched with his ragged weed. Starch searched each piece for the

letter, and meanwhile Uhlwurm stooped his long body, groping on the

ground in such wise that it might have seemed that he was seeking the

four-leaved clover; and on a sudden he laid hands on the shoes of a

lean, low fellow, with hollow cheeks and a thrifty beard on his sharp

chin, who till now had looked about him, the boldest of them all; he

felt round the top of the shoes, and looking him in the face, asked him

in a threatening voice: “Where are the tops?”

“The tops?” said the man in affrighted tones. “I wear shoes, Master, and

shoes are but boots which have no tops; and mine....”

“And yours!” quoth Uhlwurm in scorn. “The rats have made shoes of

your boots and have eaten the tops, unless it was the mice? Look here,

Captain, if it please you....”

Starch did his bidding, and when he had made the lean knave put off his

left shoe he looked at it on all sides, stroked his beard the wrong way,

and said solemnly: “Well said, Master, this is matter for thought! All

this gives the case a fresh face.” And he likewise cried to the rogue:

“Where are the tops?” The fellow had had time to collect himself, and

answered boldly: “I am but a poor weak worm, my lord Captain; they were

full heavy for me, so I cut them away and cast them into the pool,

where by now the carps are feeding on them.” And he glanced round at

his fellows, as it were to read in their faces their praise of his quick

wit. Howbeit they were in overmuch dread to pay him that he looked for;

nay, and his bold spirit was quelled when Starch took him by the throat

and asked him: “Do you see that bough there, my lad? If another lie

passes your lips, I will load it with a longer and heavier pear than

ever it bore yet? Sebald, bring forth the ropes.--Now my beauty; answer

me three things: Did the messenger wear boots? How come you, who are one

of the least of the gang, to be wearing sound shoes? And again, Where

are the tops?”

Whereupon the little man craved, sadly whimpering, that he might be

asked one question at a time, inasmuch as he felt as it were a swarm of

humble-bees in his brain, and when Starch did his will he looked at the

others as though to say: “You did no justice to my ready wit,” and then

he told that he had in truth drawn off the boots from the messenger’s

feet and had been granted them to keep, by reason that they were too

small for the others, while he was graced with a small and dainty foot.

And he cast a glance at us ladies on whom he had long had an eye, a sort

of fearful leer, and went on: “The tops--they... “ and again he

stuck fast. Howbeit, as Starch once more pointed to the pear-tree, he

confessed in desperate terror that another man had claimed the tops,

one who had not been caught, inasmuch as they were so high and good.

Hereupon Starch laughed so loud and clapped his hand with such a smack

as made us maidens start, and he cried: “That’s it, that is the way of

it! Zounds, ye knaves! Then the Sow--[Eber, his name, means a boar. This

is a sort of punning insult]--of Wichsenstein was himself your leader

yesterday, and it was only by devilish ill-hap that the knave was not

with you when I took you! You ragged ruffians would never have given

over the tops in this marsh and moorland, to any but a rightful master,

and I know where the Sow is lurking--for the murderer of a messenger is

no more to be called a Boar. Now then, Sebald! In what hamlet hereabout

dwells there a cobbler?”

“There is crooked Peter at Neufess, and Hackspann at Reichelstorf,” was

the answer.

“Good; that much we needed to know,” said Starch. “And now, little one,”

and he gave the man another shaking, “Out with it. Did the Sow--or, that

there may be no mistake--did Eber of Wichsenstein ride away to Neufess

or to Reichelstorf? Who was to sew the tops to his shoes, Peter or

Hackspann?”

The terrified creature clasped his slender hands in sheer amazement, and

cried: “Was there ever such abounding wisdom born in the land since the

time of chaste Joseph, who interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams? The man who

shall catch you asleep, my lord Captain, must rise earlier than

such miserable hunted wretches as we are. He rode to Neufess, albeit

Hackspann is the better cobbler. Reichelstorf lies hard by the highway

by which you came, my lord; and if Eber does but hear the echo of your

right glorious name, my lord Baron and potent Captain....”

“And what is my name--your lord Baron and potent Captain?” Starch

thundered out.

“Yours?” said the little man unabashed. “Yours? Merciful Heaven! Till

this minute I swear I could have told you; but in such straits a poor

little tailor such as I might forget his own father’s honored name!”

At this Starch laughed out and clapped the little rogue in all kindness

behind the ears, and when his men-at-arms, whom he had commanded to make

ready, had mounted their horses, he cried to Uhlwurm: “I may leave the

rest to you, Master; you know where Barthel bestows the liquor!--Now,

Sebald, bind this rabble and keep them safe.--And make a pig-sty ready.

If I fail to bring the boar home this very night, may I be called Dick

Dule to the end of my days instead of Jorg Starch!”

And herewith he made his bow, sprang into his saddle, and rode away with

his men.

“A nimble fellow, after God’s heart!” quoth Master Rummel to my Uncle

Conrad as they looked after him. And that he was in truth; albeit we

could scarce have looked for it, we learned on the morrow that he

might bear his good name to the grave, inasmuch as he had taken Eber

of Wichsenstein captive in the cobbler’s work-place, and carried him to

Pillenreuth, whence he came to Nuremberg, and there to the gallows.

Starch had left a worthy man to fill his place; hardly had he departed

when old Uhlwurm pulled off the tailor’s right shoe, and now it was made

plain wherefor Eppelein had so anxiously pointed to his feet; the letter

entrusted to him had indeed been hid in his boot. Under the lining

leather of the sole it lay, but only one from Akusch addressed to

me. Howbeit, when we had threatened the now barefoot knave with cruel

torture, he confessed that, having been an honest tailor till of late,

he had soft feet by reason that he had ever sat over his needle. And

when he pulled on the stolen shoes somewhat therein hard hurt his sole,

and when he made search under the leather, behold a large letter closely

folded and sealed. This had been the cause and reason of his being ill

at ease, and he had opened it, being of an enquiring mind, and, inasmuch

as he was a schoolmaster’s son he could read with the best. Howbeit, at

that time the gang were about to light a fire to make their supper, and

whereas it would not burn by reason of the wet, they had taken the dry

paper and used it to make the feeble flame blaze up.

Thus there was nought more to be hoped for, save that the tailor might

by good hap remember certain parts of the letter; and in truth he was

able to tell us that it was written to a maid named Ann, and in it there

were such words of true love in great straits and bitter parting as

moved him to tears, by reason that he likewise had once had a true love.

While he spoke thus he perceived that Ann was the maiden to whom the

letter had been writ, and he forthwith poured forth a great flow of

fiery love-vows such as he may have learned from his Amadis, but never,

albeit he said it, from that letter.

One thing at least he could make known to us from Herdegen’s letter;

and that was that the writer said much concerning slavery and a great

ransom, and likewise of a malignant woman who was his foe, and of her

husband, whose wiles could by no means be brought to nought unless

it were by cunning and prudent craft. This, indeed, he could repeat

well-nigh word for word, by reason that he had conceived the plan of

urging Eber to set forth for the land of Egypt with his robber-band, and

deliver that guiltless slave from the hands of the misbelieving heathen.

Albeit he had made himself a highway thief, it was only by reason that

he had been told that von Wichsenstein had no other end than to restore

to the poor that of which the rich had robbed them, and to release the

oppressed from the power of the mighty. All this had not suffered him to

rest on his tailor’s bench till he had laid down the needle and seized

the cook’s great roasting spit. Ere long he had discovered that, like

master like man, each man cared for himself alone. He himself had been

forced to do many cruel and knavish deeds, sorely against his will and

all that was good in him. From his pious and gentle mother he had come

by a soft and harmless soul, so that in the winter season he would

strew sugar for the flies when they were starving, and it had even gone

against him to stick his needle into a flesh-colored garment for sheer

fear of hurting it. When the others had left the messenger-lad stripped

on the road, he had gone back alone and had bound up the wound in his

head with his own kerchief, and more by token that he spoke the truth

the kerchief bore his Christian name in the corner of it, “Pignot,”

which his good mother, God rest her, had sewn there. He was but a poor

orphan, and if... Here his voice failed him for sobs. But ere long he

recovered his good cheer; for Ann had indeed marked the letter P on

the cloth about Eppelein’s head, and the poor wight was of a truth none

other than he had declared. Hereupon we made bold to speak for him, and

it was to his own act of mercy and the letters set in his kerchief by

that pious mother that he owed it. He afterwards came to be an honest

and worthy master-tailor at Velden, and instead of taking up the cudgels

for his oppressed fellow men, he suffered stern treatment in much

humility at the hands of the great woman whom he chose to wife,

notwithstanding he was so small a man.

CHAPTER XI.

Herdegen’s letter was burnt with fire, and the letter from Akusch was to

me, and contained little besides thanks and assurances of faithfulness

due to me his “beloved mistress,” with greetings to Cousin Maud, who had

ever with just reproofs kept him in the right way, and to every member

of the household. The Pastscyiptum only contained tidings of great

import; and it was as follows:

“Moreover I declare and swear to you, my gracious lady, that my

kindred take as good care of my Lord Kunz as though he were at home in

Nuremberg. His wounds are bad, yet by faithful care, and by the grace

and help of God the all-merciful, they shall be healed. He lacks for

nothing. In the matter of my lord Herdegen’s ransom there are many

obstacles.

“Had God the all-merciful but granted to my dear father to hold his high

estate a few weeks longer, it would have been a small matter to him to

release a slave; but now he is cast into a dungeon by the evil malice of

his enemies. Oh! that the all-wise God should suffer such malignant men

to live as his foes and as that shameless woman whom you have long

known by the name of Ursula Tetzel! But you will have learnt by my lord

Herdegen’s letter all I could tell, and you will understand that your

humble servant will daily beseech the Most High God to prosper you, and

cause you to send hither some wise and potent captain to the end that we

may be delivered; inasmuch as the craft and fury of our foes are no less

than their power. They are lions and likewise poisonous serpents.”

These lines were signed with the name of Akusch, and the words, Ibn

Tagri Verdi al-Mahmudi, which is to say: Akusch, Son of Tagri Verdi

al-Mahmudi.

We were at home at the Forest-lodge or ever the sun had set; there we

found Aunt Jacoba more calm than we had hoped for, inasmuch as that not

only had her husband sent her brief tidings of us, but likewise she had

heard more exactly all that had kept us away. Kubbeling, albeit the lady

Abbess had bidden him to her table, had privily stolen forth to send a

messenger to the grieving lady, whereas the thought of her gave him no

peace among the feasters. Eppelein was neither better nor worse. But, in

his stead, Master Windecke the Imperial Councillor, who was learned in

the trading matters of all the world and who, in our absence, had wholly

won the heart of the other women and, above all, of Cousin Maud by his

good discourse, was able to interpret somewhat which had been dark to

us in Akusch’s letter. When I showed it to him he started to his feet in

amazement and declared that my squire’s father, Tagri Verdi al-Mahmudi,

had been one of the most famous Captains of the host who had struck the

great blow in Cyprus and carried off King Janus to the Sultan at Cairo.

Nay, and he could likewise tell us what had led to the overthrow of this

same Tagri Verdi, inasmuch as he had heard the tale from a certain noble

gentleman of Cyprus, who had come to the court of Emperor Sigismund to

entreat him to provide moneys for the ransom of King Janus, as follows:

When Akusch’s glorious father was raised to the dignity of a chief

Mameluke, together with Burs Bey, now the Sultan of Egypt, they were

both cast into prison during a certain war and lay in the same dungeon.

There had Tagri Verdi dreamed one night that his fellow, Burs Bey, would

in due time be placed on the throne, and had revealed this to him. Then,

when this prophecy was fulfilled, and Burs Bey was Sultan, Tagri Verdi

rose step by step to high honor, and had won many glorious fights as his

Sovereign’s chief Emir and Captain. The Sultan heaped him with honors

and treasure, until he learned that his former companion had dreamed

another dream, and this time that it was to be his fate to mount

the throne. Hereupon Burs Bey was sore afraid; thus he had cast the

victorious Captain into prison, and many feared for Tagri that his life

would not be spared.

And Master Windecke could tell us yet more of the matter; and whereas

from him we heard that our Emperor, by reason that his coffers were

empty, could do nought to ransom King Janus, and that the Republic of

Venice was fain to take it in hand, we were in greater fear than ever,

inasmuch as this must need add yet more to the high respect already

enjoyed by the Republic in the land of Egypt, and to that in which its

Consul Giustiniani was held; and thereby his wife Ursula might, with the

greater security, give vent to that malice she bore in her heart against

Herdegen.

Thus we went to our beds silent and downcast; and after we had lain

there a long time and found no sleep the words would come, and I said:

“My poor, dear Kunz! to be there in that hot Moorish land, wounded and

alone! Oh, Ann, that must be full hard to bear.”

“Hard indeed!” quoth she in a low voice. “But for a free man, and so

proud a man as Herdegen, to be a slave to a misbelieving Heathen, far

away from all he loves, and chidden and punished for every unduteous

look; Oh, Margery! to think of that!” And her voice failed.

I spoke to her, and showed that we had much to make us thankful,

inasmuch as we now at last knew that he we loved was yet alive.

Then was there silence in the chamber; but I minded me then of what

Akusch had written, that he besought some wise and mighty gentleman to

set forth from Nuremberg to overpower the foe, and now I racked my brain

to think whom we might send to take my brothers’ cause in hand--yet

still in vain. None could I think of who might conveniently quit home

for so long, or who was indeed fit for such an enterprise.

Which of us twain first fell asleep I wist not; when I woke in the

morning Ann had already quitted the chamber; and while Susan braided

my hair, all I had been planning in the night grew plainer to me, and I

went forth and down stairs full of a great purpose which made my heart

beat the faster. When I entered the ball, behold, I saw the same thing,

albeit I was now awake, as I had seen yestermorn in my half-sleep. Yet

was it not Uhlwurm, but Kubbeling, to whom Ann was paying court. As he

stood facing her, she looked him trustfully in the eyes, and held his

great hand in hers; nay, and when she saw me she did not let it go,

but cried out in a clear and thankful voice: “Then so it is, Father

Seyfried; and if you do as I beseech you, all will come to a good end

and you will remember so good a deed with great joy all your life long.”

“As to ‘great joy’ I know not,” replied he. “For if I be not the veriest

fool in all the land from Venice to Iceland, my name is not Kubbeling.

I scarce know myself! Howbeit, let that pass: I stand by my word, albeit

the pains I shall endure in the winter journey.”

“The Saints will preserve you on so pious an errand,” Ann declared. “And

if they should nevertheless come upon you, dear Father, I will tend you

as your own daughter would. And now again your hand, and a thousand,

thousand thanks.”

Whereupon Kubbeling, with a melancholy growl, and yet a smile on his

face, held forth his hand, and Ann held it fast and cried to me: “You

are witness, Margery, that he has promised to do my will. Oh, Margery, I

could fly for gladness!”

And verily meseemed as though the wings had grown, and her eyes sparkled

right joyfully and thankfully. And I had discerned from her very first

words whereunto she had beguiled Kubbeling; and verily to me it was a

marvel, inasmuch as I myself had imagined the self-same thing in the

watches of the night, and while my hair was doing: namely, to beseech

Kubbeling to be my fellow and keeper on a voyage to Egypt. Who but he

knew the way so well? Howbeit, Ann had prevented me, and now, whereas I

heard the sound of voices on the stair, I yet found time to cry to her:

“We go together, Ann; that is a settled matter!”

Hereupon she looked at me, at first in amazement and then with a

blissful consenting smile, and said “You had imagined the same thing, I

know. Yes, Margery, we will go.”

The others now trooped in, and I had no more time but hastily to clasp

her hand. Howbeit, when most of our guests had gone into the refectory,

where the morning meal was by this time steaming on the board, none were

left with us save Cousin Maud and Uncle Conrad and Uncle Christian; and

Uncle Conrad enquired of the Brunswicker whether he purposed indeed to

set forth this day, and the man answered No, if so be that his lordship

the grand-forester would grant him shelter yet awhile, and consent to a

plan to which he had been just now beguiled.

And my uncle gave him his hand, and said the longer he might stay the

better. And then he went on to ask with some curiosity what that plan

might be. Howbeit, I took upon me to speak, and I told him in few words

how that we had been thinking whom we might best send forth to help my

brethren, and that, with the morning sun, light had dawned on our minds,

and that whereas we had found a faithful and experienced companion, it

was our firm intent....

Here Cousin Maud broke in, having come close to me with open ears,

crying aloud in terror: “What?” Howbeit I looked her in the eyes and

went on:

“When our mind is set, Cousin, the thing will be done, of that you and

all may make certain--that stands as sure as the castle on the rock.

And be it known to you all, with all due respect, that this time I will

suffer none to cross my path. Once for all, I, Margery, and Ann with

me, are going forth to the land of Egypt in Kubbeling’s company, and to

Cairo itself!”

The worthy old woman gave a scream, and while the Brunswicker shut

the dining-hall door, that we might not be heard, she broke out, with

glowing eyes, beside herself with wrath: “Verily and indeed! So that is

your purpose! Thanks be to the Virgin, to say and to do are not one and

the same, far from it. Do you conceive that you hold all love for those

two youths yonder in sole fief or lease? As though others were not every

whit as ready as you to give their best to save them. A head that runs

at a wall cracks its skull! Maids should never touch matters which do

not beseem them! What next for a skittle-witted fancy!--That it should

have come into the brain of a Schopper is no marvel, but Ann, prudent

Ann! Would any man have dreamed of such a thing in our young days,

Master Cousin? There they stand, two well born Nuremberg damsels, who

have never been suffered to go next door alone after Ave Maria! And they

are fain to cross the seas to a dark outlandish place, into the very

jaws of the dreadful Heathen who butcher Christian people!” Whereupon

she clapped her hands and laughed aloud, albeit not from her heart, and

then raved on: “At least is it a new thing, and the first time that the

like hath ever been heard of in Nuremberg!”

If the whole of the holy Roman Empire had risen up to make resistance

and to mock us, it would have failed to move Ann or me, and I answered,

loud and steadfast: “Everything right and good that ever was done in

Nuremberg, my heart’s beloved Cousin, was done there once for the first

time; and it is right and good that we should go, and we mean to do it!”

Whereupon Cousin Maud drew back in disgust and amazement, and gazed from

one to the other of us with enquiring eyes, and as wondering a face as

though she were striving to rede some dark riddle. Then her vast bosom

began to heave up and down, and we, who knew her, could not fail to

perceive that somewhat great and strange was moving her. And whereas she

presently shook her heavy head to and fro, and set her fists hard on

her hips, I looked for a sudden and dreadful storm, and my Uncle Conrad

likewise gazed her in the face with expectant fear; yet it was long in

breaking forth. What then was my feeling when, at last, she took her

hands from her sides and struck her right hand in her left palm so that

it rang again, and burst forth eagerly, albeit with roguish good humor

and tearful eyes: “If indeed everything good and right that ever was

done in Nuremberg must have once been done there for the first time, our

good town shall now see that a grey-headed old woman with gout in

her toes can sail over seas, from the Pegnitz even to the land of the

barbarian Heathen and Cairo! Your hand on it, Young Kubbeling, and

yours, Maidens. We will be fellow-travellers. Signed and sealed. Strew

sand on it!”

Hereupon Ann, who was wont to be still, shrieked loudly and cast herself

first on my cousin’s neck and then on mine and then on my uncle’s;

he indeed stood as though deeply offended, as likewise did my good

godfather Christian. Yet they would not speak, that they might not mar

our joy, albeit Uncle Pfinzing growled forth that our plan was sheer

youthful folly, wilfulness, and the like. “At any rate it is an unlaid

egg, so long as my wife has not added mustard to the peppered broth,”

Uncle Conrad declared, and he departed to carry tidings to my aunt of

what mad folly these women’s heads had brewed.

Even Kubbeling shook his head, albeit he spoke not, inasmuch as he knew

that it was hard to contend with the powers beyond seas.

He and Cousin Maud had ever been on terms of good-fellowship with Uncle

Christian, but to-day my uncle was ill to please; neither look nor word

had he for his heart’s darling, Ann; and when he presently recovered

somewhat, he stormed around, with so red a face and such furious ire

that we feared lest he should have another dizzy stroke, saying “that

Kubbeling and Cousin Maud might be ashamed of themselves, inasmuch as

they were old enough to know better and were acting like a pair of

young madcaps.” And thus he went on, till it was overmuch for the

Brunswicker’s endurance, and on a sudden he cried out in great wrath

that that he had promised was in truth not wise, forasmuch as that he

would gain nought but mischief thereby, yet that it concerned him alone

and he took it all on himself, although Master Pfinzing might yet ask

for why and to what end he should risk a hurt by it, whereas, to his

knowledge, the ill-starred Junker Schopper could be little more to him

than the man in the moon. He was wont, quoth he, to take good care not

to risk his skin for other folks, but in this matter it seemed to him

not too dear a bargain. Neither the stoutest will nor the strongest fist

might avail against Mistress Ursula, the veriest witch in all the land

of Egypt; a better head was needed for that, than the heavy brain-pan

which God Almighty had set on his short neck, and yet he had sworn to

bring her knavery to nought. Our faithful hearts and shrewd heads would

be the aid he needed. He trusted to Cousin Maud to dare to dance with

old Nick himself, if need should arise. And he was man enough to protect

us all three. And now Master Pfinzing knew all about it and, if he yet

craved to hear more, he would find him among the birds, whereas Uhlwurm

was to depart on his way with them that very day, without him.

And he turned his back on my uncle, and quitted the chamber with a heavy

tread; but he turned on the threshold and cried: “Yet keep your lips

from telling what you have in your mind, Master, and in especial to

those who are at their meal in there, as touching that Tetzel-adder; for

the wind flies over seas faster than we can.”

While he spoke thus Uncle Christian had recovered his temper, and he

followed after Kubbeling with such a haste as his huge body would allow,

nor was it to quarrel with him any more.

The rest, who had sat at breakfast, had by good hap heard nought of our

disputing, by reason that Master Windecke had so much new matter for

discourse that every ear hung on his words; and he, again, forgot to

eat while he talked. In Cousin Maud, indeed, as she hearkened to

my godfather’s wrathful speech, certain doubts had arisen; yet even

stronger resistance would never have turned her aside from anything she

deemed truly good and right; howbeit she was more than willing to leave

it to us to settle matters with Aunt Jacoba. We went up-stairs to her,

and at her chamber door our courage failed us, inasmuch as we could hear

through the door my uncle’s angry speech, and that laugh which my aunt

was wont to utter when aught came to her ears which she was not fain to

hear.

“And if she were to say No?” said I to Ann. Hereupon a right sorrowful

and painful cloud overspread her face, and it was in a dejected tone

that she answered me that then indeed all must be at an end, and

her fondest hopes nipped, by reason that she owed more to Mistress

Waldstromer than ever she could repay, and whatsoever she might

undertake against her will would of a certainty come to no good end. And

we heard my aunt’s laugh again; but then I took heart, and raised the

latch, and Ann led the way into the chamber.

Howbeit, if we had cherished the smallest hope without, within it failed

us wholly. As we went in my uncle was standing close by my aunt; his

back was towards us, and he saw us not; but his mien alone showed us

that he was wroth and provoked: his voice quaked as he cried aloud with

a shrug of his shoulders and his hand uplifted: “Such a purpose is sheer

madness and most unseemly!”

Then, when for the third time I coughed to make our presence known to

him, he turned his red face towards us, and cried out in great fury:

“Here you are to answer for yourselves; and come what may, this at least

shall be said: ‘If mischief comes of it, I wash my hands in innocence!’”

Whereupon he went in all haste to the door and had lifted his hand to

slam it to, when he minded him of his beloved wife’s sick health and

gently shut it and softly dropped the latch.

We stood in front of Aunt Jacoba, and could scarce believe our eyes and

ears when she opened wide her arms and, with beaming eyes, cried in a

voice of glad content: “Come, come to my heart, children! Oh, you

good, dear, brave maids! Why, why am I so old, so fettered, so sick a

creature? Why may I not go with you?”

At her first words we had fallen on our knees by her side, and she

fervently clasped our heads to her bosom, kissed our lips and foreheads,

and cried, with ever-streaming eyes: “Yes, children, yes! It is brave,

and the right way; Courage and true love are not dead in the hearts of

the women of Nuremberg. Ah, and how many a time have I imagined that I

might myself rise and fly after my froward, dear, unduteous exile, my

own Gotz, be he where he may, over mountains and seas to the ends of the

earth!--I, a hapless, suffering skeleton! Yet what is denied to the old,

the young may do, and the Virgin and all the Saints shall guard you! And

Kubbeling, Young-Kubbeling, that bravest, truest Seyfried! Bring him up

to speak with me. So rough and so good!--My old man, to be sure, must

storm and rave, but then his feeble and sickly nobody of a little wife

can wind him round her finger. Leave him to me, and be sure you shall

win his blessing.” After noon Uhlwurm and the waggon of birds set forth

to Frankfort, where Kubbeling’s eldest son was tarrying to meet his

father with fresh falcons. Or ever the grim old grey-beard mounted his

horse, he whispered to Ann: “Truest of maidens, find some device to move

Seyfried to take me in your fellowship to the land of Egypt, and I will

work a charm which shall of a surety give your lover back to you, if

indeed he is not...” and he was about to cry “gone” as was his wont; yet

he refrained himself and spoke it not. Young Kubbeling tarried at the

Forest-lodge; and as for my uncle, it was soon plain enough that my aunt

had been in the right in the matter; nay, when we went home to the city,

meseemed as though he and his wife had from the first been of one mind.

Our purpose pleased him better as he learned to believe more surely that

our little women’s wits would peradventure be able to find his wandering

son, and to tempt him to return to his father’s forest home.

CHAPTER XII.

We carefully obeyed Kubbeling’s counsel that we should keep our purpose

dark, and it remained hidden even from the guests at the lodge. On the

other hand they had been told all that Herdegen’s letter had contained,

and that it was Ursula who was pursuing him with such malignant spite.

Yet albeit we bound over each one to hold his peace on the matter

in Nuremberg, no woman, nor perchance no man either, could keep such

strange doings privy from near kith and kin; and whereas we might

not tell what in truth it was which stood in the way of our brothers’

homecoming, it was rumored among our cousins and gossips that some vast

and unattainable sum was needed to ransom the two young Schoppers. And

other marvellous reports got abroad, painting my brother’s slavery in

terrible colors.

At first this made me wroth, but presently it provoked me less, inasmuch

as that great compassion was aroused; and those very citizens and dames

who of old were wont to chide Herdegen as a limb of Satan, and would

have gladly seen him led to the gallows, now remembered him otherwise.

Yea, fellow-feeling hath kindly eyes, widely open to all that is good,

and willing to be shut to all that is evil, and so it came to pass that

the noble gifts of the poor slave now lost to the town, were lauded

to the skies. Hereupon came a letter from my lord Cardinal with these

tidings of good comfort: that he was willing to administer extreme

unction to my grand-uncle Im Hoff, if his life should be in peril when

his eminence returned from England. Our next letters were, by his

order, to find him at Brussels, and when old Dame Pernhart had given her

consent to our journeying to the land of Egypt--whereas Aunt Jacoba held

her wisdom and shrewd wit in high honor,--and had moved her son and Dame

Giovanna to do likewise, Ann wrote a long letter to my lord Cardinal,

the venerable head of the Pernhart family, setting forth in touching

words for what cause and to what end she had dared so bold a venture.

She besought his aid and blessing, and declared that the inward voice,

which he had taught her to obey, gave her assurance that the purpose she

had in hand was pleasing in the eyes of God and the Virgin.

I, for my part, could never have writ so fair a letter; and how calmly

would Ann now fulfil the duties of each day, while Cousin Maud, albeit

her feet scarce might carry her, was here, there, and everywhere, like a

Will-o’-the-Wisp.

Ann it was who first conceived the idea of going with Young Kubbeling

to the Futterers’ house and there making enquiries as to the roads to

Genoa, and also concerning the merchants who might there be found ready

and willing to ship his falcons for sale in Alexandria; inasmuch as that

it was only by journeying in a galleon which sailed not from Venice that

we could escape Ursula’s spies; and that Kubbeling should suffer loss

through us we could by no means allow. And whereas old Master Futterer

himself was now in Nuremberg, he declared himself willing to buy the

birds on account of his own house, at the same price as the traders

in Venice; nor was the Brunswicker any whit loth, forasmuch as that he

might presently get a better price on the Lido, when it should be known

that he had other ways and means at his command. Also the journey by

Genoa gave us this advantage: that we were bound to no time or season.

Old Master Futterer pledged himself to find a ship at any time when

Kubbeling should need it.

Whereas we purposed to set forth in the middle of December, we went

to the forest-lodge early in that month, and as it was with me at that

time, so, for sure, must it be with the swallows and the nightingales or

ever they fly south over mountains and seas. Never had the pure air been

sweeter, never had I looked forward to the future with greater hope and

strength or higher purpose. And my feeble, sickly Aunt Jacoba, meseemed,

was like-minded with me. In spirit, ever eager, she was with us already

in that distant region, and albeit of old she ever had preferred Ann

above me, now on a sudden the tables were turned; she could never see

enough of me, and when at last Ann was fain to go home to town with

Uncle Christian, she besought so pressingly that I would stay with her

that I was bound to yield; and indeed I was well content to tarry there,

the forest being now in all its glory.

The daintiest lace was hung over the frosted trees. They had been

dipped, meseemed, in melted silver and crystal, and the whole forest was

broidered over with shining enamel and thickly strewn with clear diamond

sparks. And how brightly everything glittered when the sun rose up from

the morning mist, and blazed down on all this glory from a blue sky!

At night the moon lighted up the frosted forest with a softer and more

loving ray, and till a late hour I would gaze forth at it, or up at the

starry vault where the shooting stars came flying across from the dark

blue deep. Now it is well-known to many who are still in their green

youth that, whensoever it befalls that we are in the act of thinking of

some heartfelt wish just as a star falls, it is sure of fulfilment; and

behold, on the very next night, as I was gazing upwards and wondering in

my heart whether indeed we might be able to rescue my brothers, and to

find my Cousin Gotz as his sick mother so fervently hoped, a bright star

fell, as it were right in front of me. Whereupon I went to bed in such

good cheer and so sure of myself as I have rarely felt before or since

that night.

And next morning, as I went to my aunt in high spirits and happy mood,

she perceived that some good hap had befallen me. Then, when I had told

her what I had had in my mind as the star fell which, as little children

believe, is dropped from the hand of an angel blinded by the glory of

Almighty God, she looked me in the face with a sad smile and bid me sit

down by her side. And she took my hand in hers and opened her heart so

wide as she had never done till this hour. It was plain to see that she

had long been biding her time for this full and free discourse, and she

confessed that she had never shown me such love and care as were indeed

my due. The mere sight of me had ever hurt the open wound, inasmuch as

long ago, or ever I first went to school, her fondest hopes had been set

on me. She had looked on me ever as her only son’s future wife, and Gotz

himself had been of the same mind, whereas in his boyhood, and even when

his beard was coming, he loved nought better than little Margery in her

red hood.

And she reminded me now of many a kind act her son had done me, and how

that once on a time, when my lord the High Constable had bidden him with

other lads to Kadolzburg, which she and my uncle took as a great honor,

he had said, No, he would not go from home, by reason that Cousin Maud

was to come that day and bring me with her.

[Kadolzburg--A country lodge belonging to the High Constables of the

city of Nuremberg, and their favorite resort, even after they had

became Electors of Brandenburg. It was at about three miles and a

half west of the town]

Whereupon arose his first sharp dispute with his parents, and when my

uncle threatened that he would carry him thither by force he had stolen

away into the woods, and stayed all night with some bee-keeper folk, and

not come home till midday on the morrow, when it was too late to ride to

the Castle in good time. ‘To punish him for this he was locked up;

but hearing my voice below he had let himself down by the gutter-pipe,

seized my hand, and ran away to the woods with me, nor did he come back

till Ave Maria. And hereupon he was soundly thrashed, albeit he was even

then a great lad and of good counsel in all matters.

My uncle’s wrath at that time had dwelt in my mind, but my share in the

matter was new to me and brought the color to my face. Howbeit, I deemed

it might have been better if my aunt had never told me; for though it

was indeed good to hear and gladdened my soul, yet it would hinder me

from looking Gotz freely in the face if by good hap I should meet him.

Then she went on to tell me in full all that had befallen my cousin

until he had gone forth to wander. When they had parted in wrath, he had

written to her from the town to say that if she were steadfast in her

displeasure he should seek a new home for himself and his sweetheart in

a far country; and she had sent him a letter to tell him that her arms

were ever open to receive him, but that rather than suffer the only son

and heir of the old and noble race of Waldstromer to throw himself away

on a craftsman’s daughter, she would never more set eyes on him whom she

loved with all her heart. Never more, and she swore it by the Saviour’s

wounds with the crucifix in her hand, should his parents’ doors be

opened to him unless he gave up the coppersmith’s daughter and besought

his mother’s pardon.

And now the sick old woman bewailed her stern hardness and her

over-hasty oath with bitter tears; Gotz had been faithful to his

Gertrude in despite of her letter, and when, three years later, the

tidings reached him that his sweetheart had pined away for grief and

longing, and departed this life with his name on her lips, he had

written in the wild anguish of his young soul that, now Gertrude was

dead, he had nought more to crave of his parents; and that whereas his

mother had sworn with her hand on the image of the Saviour never to open

her doors to him till he had renounced his sweet, pure love, he now

made an oath not less solemn and binding, by the image of the Crucified

Christ, that he would never turn homewards till she bid him thither

of her own free will, and owned that she repented her of that innocent

maid’s early death, whereas there was not her like among all the noble

maidens of Nuremberg, whatever their names might be.

This letter I read myself, and I plainly saw that these twain had sadly

marred their best joy in life by over-hasty ire. Albeit, I knew full

well how stubborn a spirit was Aunt Jacoba’s, I nevertheless strove to

move her to send a letter to her son bidding him home; yet she would

not, though she bewailed herself sorely.

“Only one thing of those he requires of me can I in all truth grant

him,” quoth she. “If you find him, you may tell him that his mother

sends her fondest blessing, and assure him of my heart’s deepest

devotion; nay, and let him understand that I am pining with longing for

him, and that I obey his will inasmuch as that I truly mourn the death

of his beloved; for that is verily the truth, the Virgin and the Saints

be my witness. Yet I may not and I will not open my doors to him till

he has craved my forgiveness, and if I did so he must think of his own

mother as a perjured woman.”

Hereupon I showed her--and my eyes overflowed--that his oath stood forth

as against her oath, and that one was as weighty as the other in the

sight of the Most High.

“Set aside that cruel vow, my dear aunt,” cried I, “I will make any

pilgrimage with you, and I know full well that no penance will seem

overhard to you.”

“No, no, of a surety, Margery, no!” she replied with a groan. “And the

Chaplain said the like to me long ago; and yet I feel in my heart that

you and he are in the wrong. An oath sworn by Christ’s wounds!--Moreover

I am the elder and his mother, he is the younger and my son. It is his

part to come to me, and if he then shall make a pilgrimage it shall be

to Rome and the Holy Sepulchre. He has time before him in which to do

any penance the Holy Church may require of him. I--I would lay me on the

rack only to see him once more, I would fast and scourge myself till my

dying day; but I am his mother, and he is my son, and it is his part to

take the first step, not mine who bore him.”

How warmly I urged her again and again, and how often was she on the

point of yielding to her heart’s loud outcry! Yet she ever came back to

the same point: that it ill-beseemed her to be the first to put forth

her hand, albeit her every feeling drove her to it.

The letters sent to Gotz had reached him through a merchant’s house in

Venice. This his parents knew, and they had long since charged Kunz to

inquire where he dwelt. Yet had his pains been for nought, inasmuch as

the banished youth had forbidden the traders to tell any one, whosoever

might ask. Howbeit my uncle had implored his son in many a letter to

mind him of his mother’s sickness, and come home; and in his answers

Gotz had many a time given his parents assurance of his true and loving

devotion; yet had he kept his oath, and tarried beyond seas. These

letters likewise did my aunt show me, and while I read them she charged

me to make it my duty not to quit that merchant’s house and to take no

rest until I had learned where her son was dwelling: saying that what an

Italian might deny to a man a fair young maiden might yet obtain of him.

It was not yet dusk when Master Ulsenius came and broke off our

discourse. He had come forth in part to see Eppelein, and presently,

when a lamp was brought, as we stood by the faithful lad he called me by

name, and then Uncle Conrad, and said that albeit he was weary of limb

he was easy and comfortable; that he felt a smart now and then, and in

especial about his neck, yet that troubled him but little, inasmuch as

that it plainly showed him that the thought which had haunted him, that

he was really killed and in a darksome hell, was but a horrible dream.

Then when he had spoken thus much, with great pains, his pale face

turned red on a sudden, and again he asked, as he had many times in his

sickness, where was his master’s letter. Hereupon I hastily told him

that we had hunted down the robbers and rescued it, and it was a joy

to see how much comfort and delight this was to him. And when he had

swallowed a good cup of strong Malvoisie, he could sit up, and enquired

if the Baron von Im Hoff were minded to satisfy the Sultan’s over-great

demand. And to this I replied, to give him easement, that we had good

reason to hope so. And was his mind now clear enough to enable him to

remember how great a sum was demanded for ransom?

He smiled craftily, and said that even as a dead man he could scarce

have forgotten that, by reason that he had muttered the words to himself

on his way oftener than any old monk mumbles his Paternoster. And when

Uncle Conrad laughed and bid him jestingly repeat it, he said, like a

school boy who is sure of his task: “For Master Herdegen Schopper, slave

of the said unbeliever Abou Sef--[Father of the scimitar]--in the armory

of Sultan Burs Bey in the Castle of Cairo, a ransom is demanded of

twenty-four thousand Venice sequins. George--Christina! Death and fire

on the head of the misbelieving wretch!”

When we heard this we all believed that he had of a surety been wrong as

to the sum or the coin, likewise we thought his last strange words were

due to a wandering mind; howbeit, we were soon to learn that verily his

tidings were the truth. He forthwith went on to say with some pains that

his master had made him to use a means by which he might remember the

number from all others in case, by ill-hap, the letter should be lost.

And on this wise he gave us to know for certain that the vast sum

demanded was not an error on his part. It was to this end that he had

stamped on his memory the names of Saint George and Saint Christina,

whose days in the calendar are on the 24th of April and the 24th of

July, and the number of thousands named for the ransom was likewise

four and twenty. Also Herdegen had bid him think of twice the twelve

apostles, and of the twenty-four hours from midnight till midnight

again. It would seem beyond belief to most folks, he said, yet it

was indeed twenty-four thousand, and not hundred, sequins which that

devilish Sultan has asked, as indeed we must know from the letter.

Presently, when he had rested a while, we made him tell us more, and

we learned that the Sultan had been minded to set Herdegen free without

price, and he would have had him led forthwith to the imprisoned King

Janus of Cyprus, to whom he thought he might thus do a pleasure, but

that Ursula Tetzel, who was standing by with her husband, had whispered

to the Sultan that she would not see him robbed of a great profit

forasmuch as that yonder Christian slave--and she pointed to my

brother--was of one of the richest families of her native town, who

could pay a royal ransom for him and find it no great burthen; and that

the same was true of Sir Franz, who was likewise to have been set free.

Hereupon the Sultan, who at all times lacked moneys, notwithstanding the

heavy tribute he levied on all merchandise, commanded that Herdegen and

the Bohemian should be led away again and then he asked this overweening

ransom. Then Ursula took upon herself of her own free will to send

tidings of the Sultan’s demands to the slaves’ kith and kin, and of her

deep malice had never done so.

That evening we might not hear how and on what authority Eppelein knew

all this, for much talking had wearied him. All we could then learn was

that it was Ursula, and none other, whom the lad would still speak of

as the She-devil, who had plotted the snare which had well nigh cost

my other brother his life. Yet had he left him so far amended that he,

Eppelein, would be glad to be no worse.

Albeit these tidings of Kunz were good to cheer us, our hopes of

ransoming Herdegen were indeed far away, or rather in the realm of

nevermore; even if my grand-uncle were possessed of so great a sum, it

was a question whether he would be willing to pay it; and as for us, we

could never have raised it at the cost of all our fortune. At that time

the Venice sequin and Nuremberg gulden were not far asunder in value,

and what the sum of twenty-four thousand gulden meant any man may

imagine when I say that, no more than twelve years sooner, the liberty

of coining for the whole city was granted by the Emperor Sigismund to

Herdegen Valzner for four thousand Rhenish gulden; and that Master Ulman

Stromer purchased his fine dwelling-house behind the chapel of Our Lady,

with the houses pertaining thereto, and his share in the Rigler’s house

for two thousand eight hundred gulden. For such a sum as was demanded a

whole street in Nuremberg might have been sold; nay, the great castle of

Malmsbach on the Pegnitz would lately have been bought by the city for

a thousand Rhenish gulden, but that Master Ulrich Rummel, whose it was,

would not part with it. And we were now required to pay the price of

two dozen such strongholds! It was indeed an unheard-of and devilish

extortion; and when Kubbeling came to hear of it he turned his

wild-cat-skin pocket inside out, and fell to raging and storming.

Aunt Jacoba turned pale when she heard the great sum named, and she

likewise was of opinion that old Im Hoff, who had of late been spending

much money in vows and foundations, would never give forth so vast a

sum. The richest families in Nuremberg might be moved to pay fifty,

and at the most a hundred gulden for the ransom of a Christian and a

fellow-countryman, but if even twenty might be found so open-handed,

which was not to be looked for, and if my godfather Christian Pfinzing,

and the Waldstromers, and the Hallers should do their utmost, and we

should give the greater part of all our possessions, we could scarce

make it up to twenty-four thousand sequins if my grand-uncle did not

help.

Thus after a day of hope came a first night of despairing, and many

another must follow, and I was to know once more that misfortunes never

come singly.

I had hoped of a surety to speak with Eppelein once more or ever I

departed at noon, and to ask him of many matters; howbeit, when I went

up to his chamber Master Ulsenius met me with a face of care and told me

that the poor fellow was again wandering in his wits. When I presently

went forth from the house, a bee-keeper’s waggon was slowly moving from

the court-yard. The housewife waved her hand, and from beneath the tilt

the face of Dame Henneleinlein looked at me with a scornful grin. Since

her evil demeanor at the Pernbarts’ they had closed their house on her,

and when she had dared once to go to the Schopperhof, thence likewise

had she been shut out, and thus she felt no good-will towards us. Now

when I enquired of the housekeeper what might be the end and reason for

this visit, the woman hid beneath her apron a jar of honey which the old

dame had given her as a sweetmeat for the children; and she gave me to

understand that the worthy lady had come forth to the forest to collect

her widow’s dues of honey, and had tarried on her way for a little

friendly discourse. But methought that “little” must have had some

strange meaning, inasmuch as the housewife’s withered cheeks were of the

color of a robin’s breast. Hereupon I threatened her with my finger, and

enquired of her whether she had not betrayed more to the evil-tongued

old woman than she ought, but she eagerly denied the charge.

My ride home to the town after noon was not altogether a pleasant one,

by reason that icy rain poured from heaven in streams, mingled with

snow. The further we went the worse the roads were, and yet when my

companions turned at the city-gate to ride homewards again, a strange,

fierce confidence came upon me. Whether it were that the wet which ran

off from me and my stout horse had singularly refreshed me, or whether

it was the steadfast purpose I had set as I rode along, to risk my all

to the end that I might redeem my brethren, I know not. But to this hour

I mind me that, as I rode in through the dark streets, my heart beat

high with contentment, and that had I been such another man as Herdegen

I might have been ready enough to pick a quarrel with the first who

should have said me nay.

Thus I fared on past my grand-uncle’s house; there I beheld from afar a

lighted lantern, as it were a glow-worm at midsummer, moving along

the street, and when I perceived that it was none other than old

Henneleinlein who carried it, I put my horse, which till now had been

wading through the mire step by step, to a swift gallop, as fast as he

might go, and the servingman behind me, passing close by her. And what

simple glee was mine when our horses splashed the old woman from head

to foot, inasmuch as I wist for certain that she could have stolen to my

grand-uncle’s house at that late hour to no end but to reveal whatsoever

she might have picked up from her friend and gossip at the forest-lodge.

Thus I reached home in better cheer than I had hoped; and when Susan

told me that Cousin Maud was in the kitchen ordering the supper, I crept

up-stairs, hastily changed my wet raiment, sent forth my man to tell

Ann that she was to come to me, and then, in the best chamber, I fetched

forth the elecampane wine which I had ever found the best remedy when

my cousin needed some strength. Nor was my care in vain; for when I had

told her, little by little, as it were in small doses, all the tidings

I had heard yesterday, and ended with the great and cruel price demanded

by the Sultan, she shrieked aloud and clasped her hands to her heart in

such wise that I was verily in great fear. Then the elecampane wine did

good service; yet was it not till she had drunk of it many times that

her tongue spoke plainly again. And presently, when she was able to

wag it, it went on for a long time with no pause nor rest, in sheer

impatience and godless railing.

When she had thus relieved her mind, she began pacing up and down the

floor on one and the same plank, like a lion in its cage, and to call to

mind, one by one, all our earthly possessions, and to reckon at how

we might attain to selling it for gold. The whole sum was not much to

comfort us, for her worldly estate, like that of the Waldstromers, was

in land, and in these days of peril from the Hussites it was hard enough

to sell landed property, and her best portion was in meads and pasture

and a few vineyards near Wurzburg.

It was from the first her fixed intent, as though it were a matter of

course, to give everything she had, down to her jewels; and whereas

she conceived, and rightly, that for Herdegen’s sake I should be

like-minded, she asked me no questions but added to it in her mind, the

Schopper jewels which had come to me from my father and mother, and then

began to count and reckon. It might perchance come to so much as eleven

thousand sequins if we sold all we had to sell; yet our inheritance lay

in Chancery, and, as she knew full well, not a farthing thereof might

be given up but with the full and well-proven authority of Herdegen and

Kunz. Nor might I even have that which was mine own, by reason that our

inheritance had never been shared, and our houses and lands had not been

valued at a price. Thus I must have long patience or ever I came by my

own; all the more so whereas the gentlemen of the Chancery were required

to answer for the wealth of orphans in their keeping with their own.

Hereupon we again thought of my grand-uncle, and Cousin Maud declared

that he would of a certainty be ready to pay half the required ransom

for a purpose so pleasing in the eyes of God, and that the other half

might be raised by the help of our friends. Then she was fain to think

of the future. And the longer she did so, even when Ann had come to us

and had been told all our tidings, the better cheer she showed; nay,

it might have been conceived that it would be a far more easy and

delightful matter to live in narrow poverty than in superfluous

riches, and thereupon she put me in mind how that many a time, when the

men-folks were away from home, she and I had been content to make

good cheer with some sweet porridge, and had very gladly dined without

flesh-meat, which was so costly. We should be free from the vexation of

so many serving-men and wenches; and whereas of late she had been forced

to turn Brigitta out of the house, had she not herself scarce escaped

a fever from sheer worry of mind. Susan would ever be true to us; she

would be ready to share our poverty with us, and the unresting up-stairs

and down had long been a torment to her old feet.

The Magister was a well-disposed man, and if he found it an over-hard

matter to depart from us we might very gladly let him board with us,

if he could be content to live with us in her little house in the

Grassmarket, in which Rosmuller now dwelt. There was no lack of good

home-spun cloth in Nuremberg; nay, and if we should never again have new

garments that would be all the better for our souls’ health. As for me,

I might perchance have fewer suitors, but if one should pay his court

to me, he would have no thought but for Margery, and how she looked and

moved. Nay, take it for all in all, we owed much thanks to Ursula and

the reprobate heathen Sultan if we were by their means brought low from

ill-starred wealth and ease to God-pleasing poverty.

Ann was far less horror-struck at the fearful sum of the ransom than we

had been, by reason that she was ever possessed by the assurance that

Heaven had created her and Herdegen for each other, and would bring them

together at last.

Moreover she had good cause to build her hopes on my grand-uncle’s help.

In a letter from the Cardinal to her he said that now, as of old, he

could only counsel her to follow the voice of her heart; that he would

put no hindrance in the way of our departing, albeit he urgently prayed

us to put it off till after his homecoming, which should now be in a

short space. She was to let Baron Im Hoff know that he was ready to do

his will, albeit he hoped at his coming to find him in mended health.

She had forthwith carried these good tidings to my grand-uncle, and they

had so uplifted and comforted his heart that verily it seemed as though

my lord Cardinal’s good hopes might find fulfilment. And this very

morning she had seen him, and a right strange mind had come over him;

he had enquired of her straitly, and as though it was to him a great

matter, all that she could tell him of my lord Cardinal’s way of life,

of the duties of his office and the like; and whereas she answered him

that of all these matters she knew but little, yet had she heard

from his own mouth that his eminence was bound in thankfulness to his

Holiness the Pope, by reason that he had made him to be high Almoner of

the Papal treasury and thus put it into his power to do many good works;

and this she deemed, had brought great easement to my granduncle. Then

when she rose to depart from him, he had sent his serving-man to bid

Master Holzschuher, the notary, to come to him, and to bring with him

two trustworthy witnesses duly sworn to secrecy. As he bid her farewell

he had laughed, and whispered to her that his Eminence the Cardinal

would be well-content with old Im Hoff, yea, and she likewise, and her

lover.

All this gave us matter for thought, and also gave us good heart; only

it weighed upon our souls that our departing was not to be yet for some

weeks.

CHAPTER XIII.

Next morning Cousin Maud let me see in a right pleasant way how truly

she was in earnest in the matter of thrift henceforth; she would take

but one small pat of butter from the country wench who brought it,

she sent away the butcher’s man and would have no flesh meat, and at

breakfast she abstained from butter on her bread, as she was wont to eat

it. Likewise the chain and the great gold pin which she ever wore from

morning till night, flashing on her bosom like a watchman’s lantern,

were now laid aside, and while I was eating my porridge she showed me

the coffer wherein she had bestowed all she possessed of rings, pins,

and the like, which she would presently take to the weigh-house to be

weighed and then to a goldsmith to be valued. Howbeit, when I was fain

to do likewise with my jewels she would not have it so, inasmuch as

youth, quoth she, needed such bravery, and first we must learn how great

a portion of the ransom my grand-uncle would take upon himself to pay.

Hereupon, in fulfilment of my purpose yestereve, I made it my hard duty

to carry the evil tidings to the old baron, and humbly to remind him of

his promise to take care for Herdegen’s ransom. It was raining heavily,

and a wet west wind whistled along the miry streets. It was weariful to

wade through them, and when at last I reached the Im Hoff house Master

Ulsenius called to me down the stairs: “Silence, Mistress Margery; there

is worse weather in here than without doors!”

Thus as I went into the overheated chamber, I saw there was no good to

be hoped for: yet were matters worse than I had looked to find them. So

soon as my grand-uncle set eyes on me he frowned darkly, his hollow eyes

had an angry glare and, without answering my good-day, he croaked at me:

“You hoped that the old man might have passed away into eternity or ever

you set forth on your wild adventure? Hah, hah But you are mistaken. I

shall yet be granted time enough to show you whom you have to deal with,

as it has likewise been enough to show me what you truly are! Whereas

I trusted to have found a faithful and wise brain, what have I seen?

Loveless and malignant privity, miserable folly, and such schemes as

might have been dreamed of in a mad-house!”

“But, uncle, only hearken,” I tried to say, and forthwith the idea fell

into my mind, which I afterwards found to be a true one, that either

Henneleinlein, had yestereve betrayed to him or to her gossip his

housekeeper, all she had heard at the Forest Lodge. He would not suffer

me to speak to the end, but went on to chide and complain, and broke in

again and again, even when at last I found words and made it plain to

him that we had kept our purpose privy from him to no end but to save

him from grieving so long as we might; and albeit he might be wroth with

us, yet he must grant that heretofore we had ever been modest and seemly

maidens; but now, when it was a matter of life and freedom for those who

were nearest and dearest to our hearts....

Here he broke in with scornful laughter, and cried out that he, for his

part, might not indeed hope to be numbered among those chosen few. He

had ever known full well that when we did him any Samaritan service it

had been to no end save to draw from his purse the money to ransom

my brothers and Ann’s lover. Every kind word had been pure lies and

falseness; yea, and worse than either of us were that crafty witch out

in the forest, and the old scarecrow who made boast of having been as a

mother to me. Thus far had I suffered his railing in patience, but now

it was too much for the hot blood of the Schoppers; I could refrain

myself no longer, and broke out in great wrath and reproaches for so

vile an accusation. If it were not that his age and infirmities claimed

our compassion, I would, said I, after such evil treatment, desire of

Ann that she should never more cross the threshold of a man who could so

cruelly defame us, and those two good women to whom we owed so much.

I spoke right loudly, beside myself with rage, and my face aglow; nor

was it till I marked that my uncle was staring at me as at some marvel

that I recovered myself, and on a sudden held my peace, inasmuch as the

thought flashed through my brain that I was denying my brother even as

Peter denied the Lord, albeit not indeed through any fear of man, but by

giving way to my angered pride. Howbeit I had not long ceased when the

stern old man cried out in pitiful entreaty.

“Nay, Margery, in the name of the Saints I pray you! You will not make

Ann my foe. How hardhearted you can be, and how wroth, and against

an old man sick unto death on the edge of the grave!--what was it, in

truth, that brought the bitter words to my tongue, but my care and fears

for you, who are verily and indeed my only comfort and all I have

to love on earth? And now when I say again: I will not suffer you to

depart. I will sacrifice all, everything to keep you from running into

certain death, will you even then threaten to leave me alone in my

misery, and to beguile Ann to desert me likewise?”

Hereupon I spoke him fair and as lovingly as in truth I might, and

pledged my word that Ann should not set foot without the city gates or

ever my lord Cardinal had come into them, and had given him the comfort

of his blessing. And then he was of better cheer, and of his own free

will he minded me of his promise to pay certain moneys for Herdegen’s

ransom; and all this he spoke full lovingly and my heart overflowed with

true and fervent thankfulness, so that I took his thin hand and kissed

it. Howbeit, he knew not yet how great a sum was needed: and whereas I

was about to prepare his mind for the worst, Ann came into the chamber,

and as soon as my grand-uncle saw her he cried out in glad good cheer:

“Thank God, sweet maid, all is peace between us again. You forego your

mad purpose, and I--I will pay the ransom.” At this Ann flew to his side

and thanked him, with overflowing eyes, and little by little we led him

on, till he cried out: “Well, well, children, they surely cannot set the

price of a kingdom on that young scapegrace Schopper’s head!”

So Ann took courage, and told him that Ursula had, of her deep malice,

declared that Herdegen was one of the richest youths of Germany, and

that by reason of this the Sultan had demanded the great price of

twenty-four thousand sequins.

The truth was out; I marvelled to mark that my grand-uncle was not

dismayed as I had looked to see him; nay, but he laughed aloud and said:

“That would indeed be somewhat new and strange! You children would ever

rack your brains over the Italian poets rather than over matters of

mine and thine, albeit that is the axis on which the world turns. There

would, in truth, be no justice in so vast a sum, but that in the markets

of Egypt they reckon in Venice sequins with none but the Franks; nigh

upon thirteen of their dirhems go to the gold sequin, and thus we

have-let me reckon--the old trader has not forgotten his skill on his

sick-bed--we have one thousand eight hundred and forty and six sequins;

and that is a vast ransom still such as is never paid but for lords

of the highest degree. Four and twenty thousand sequins!” And again he

laughed aloud. “It is easily spoken, children, but you cannot even guess

what it would mean. Believe me when I tell you that many a well-to-do

merchant in Nuremberg, who is at the head of a fine trade, would be

at his wits’ end if he were desired to pay down half of your four and

twenty thousand sequins in hard coin!”

Then I took up my parable and told him how Eppelein had stamped the sum

on his mind, and that he for certain was in the right, both as to the

sum and as to the Venice sequins, forasmuch as that Herdegen, to the end

that he might know it rightly, had told him that they should be ducats

such as he had three in a red stuff wrapper, and Kunz and I likewise

each two, in our money-boxes as christening-gifts.

Now while I thus spoke the old man was sorely troubled, and his

wax-white face turned paler at each word. He raised himself up, leaning

on the arms of the great chair, so high that we were filled with

amazement, and he gazed about him with his glassy eyes and then

said, still holding himself up: “That, that.... And yesterday, only

yesterday.... The captive himself.... Four and twenty thousand sequins,

do you say?... and I--oh, what were my words?... But what old Im Hoff

promises that he will do.... And yet.... If you maids had but been

duteous children, if you had but come to me first, as trustful

daughters.... Only yesterday I might--Yes, perchance I might....” And

then he stormed forth: “But who is there indeed to care for me? Who ever

comes nigh me with true love and honest trustfulness? Not one, no, not

one!... Ursula--the lad whom from an infant--and you--both of you, what

have you done?... Yesterday, only yesterday!... But to-day.... Four and

twenty thousand sequins!” His arms on a sudden failed him, and he sank

back in a deep swoon, his colorless face drooping on his shoulder. Now,

while we did all in our power to revive him, and while one serving-man

ran for the leech and another for the friar, meseemed that the old man’s

left side was strangely stiff and numb; yet the low flame of his feeble

life was still burning.

Howbeit, when Master Ulsenius had let blood the old man opened his

right eye; and when presently he was able to say: “Book,” and then again

“Book,” we perceived by sundry signs that what he craved was water,

and that he spoke one word for another. And thus it was till his chief

confessor, Master Leonard Derrer, the reverend Prior of the Dominicans,

came in with the sacristan, to administer to him extreme unction. But

now, when the reverend Father came toward the dying man with the Body

of the Lord, there was so dreadful and sorrowful a sight to be seen as

I may never forget to my latter day. Instead of receiving that Holy

Sacrament in all thankful humility, my grand-uncle thrust away my

lord Prior--a whitebearded old man, of a venerable and commanding

presence--with great fury and ungoverned rage, storming at him in

strangely-mingled words, which for sure, he meant for others, but in a

voice and with a mien which plainly showed that he would have nought

of that Messenger of Grace. And from time to time he turned that eye

he could use on Ann, and albeit he spoke one word for another, he made

shift many times to repeat the Cardinal’s name with impatient bidding,

so that it was not hard to understand his meaning and his intent to

receive the Viaticum from none other than that high prelate.

Howbeit, to us it seemed nothing less than treason to the dying man to

interpret this to my lord Prior, in especial since my grand-uncle had,

but now, shown us so much favor. Indeed we were moved to show him all

loving kindness. Ann held his hand in hers, and whispered to him again

and again that he should take patience, and that his Eminence was

already on his way and would ere long be here. The reverend Prior showed

indeed true Christian forbearance, thinking that the departing soul was

more sorely troubled than was in truth the fact. He heeded not the old

man’s threats and struggles, but stood in silence at his post, and when

presently the old Baron’s hand dropped lifeless from Ann’s grasp he sent

us from the chamber.

We could hear through the door the good priest’s voice in prayer and

benediction, pronouncing absolution over the dying man, and at times my

grand uncle’s wrathful tones, feeble indeed, but terrible to hear. Each

time he broke in on the Prior’s pious words we shuddered, and when

at last the priest rang his little bell a great terror fell upon us,

whereas this ordinance is wont to bring comfort and edification to the

soul.

We had been on our knees some long space, praying fervently for that

hapless, imperilled soul, when the door was opened, and my lord Prior

declared in a loud voice that the noble Baron and Knight Sebald Im Hoff

had made a good end after receiving the most holy Sacrament.

Then thought I, a good end peradventure, by the grace of Christ and the

Virgin, but a peaceful end alas! by no means. And this might be seen

even in the dead man’s face. In later years, whensoever it has been my

lot to gaze on the face of the dead, I have ever perceived that death

hath lent them an aspect of peaceful calm so that the saying of common

folk, that the Angel of Death hath kissed them is right fitting; but

my grand-uncle’s face was as that of a man whose dignity is broken by a

mightier than he, and who hath suffered it in silent, gloomy rebellion.

With all our might and soul we prayed for him again and again; howbeit,

as must ever befall, other cares came crowding in, to swallow up that

one. As soon as the tidings of the old noble’s death were rumored

abroad, those who had known him in life came pouring in, and messengers

from the town-council, notaries with sealing-wax and seals, priests for

the burying, neighbors, and other good folk, and among them many

friars and nuns. Lastly came Doctor Holzschuher of the council, my

grand-uncle’s notary, and one of our own father’s most trusted friends,

in all points a man of such worth and honesty that no words befit him

so well as the Cardinal’s saying: that he reminded him of an oak of the

German forests.

When, now, this man, who in his youth had been one of the goodliest

in all Nuremberg, and who was still of noble aspect with his long

silver-grey hair lying on his shoulders--when he now greeted us maids

well-nigh gloomily, and with no friendly beck or nod, we knew forthwith

that he must have great and well-founded fears for our concerns. Yea,

and so it was. Presently, when he had held grave discourse with the

High Treasurer and the other chief men of the council, he called to him

Cousin Maud and me, and told us that old Im Hoff’s latest dealing was

such, to all seeming, as to take from us all hope that our inheritance

from him should help us to pay the ransom for Herdegen. And on the

morrow his will would be opened and read and we should learn thereby in

what way that old man had cared for those who were nearest and dearest

to him.

Hereupon we had no choice but to bury many a fair hope in the grave; and

notwithstanding this, we might owe no grudge to the departed; for albeit

he had cared first and chiefly for the salvation of his own sinful

soul, he nevertheless had taken thought to provide for my brothers and

likewise for Ann and to keep the pledge he had given. Never in all

his days--and this was confessed even by his enemies, of whom he had

many--had he broken his word, and it was plain to be seen from all his

instructions that the true cause of the deadly blow which had killed him

was the sudden certainty that, by his own act, he had bereft himself of

the power to redeem Herdegen by paying the ransom as he had promised.

And this was my uncle’s will:

When he had heard from Ann that my lord Cardinal was minded to hasten

his home-coming and give him extreme unction, and had likewise had

tidings that that high Prelate took great joy in his liberty of dealing

with the Papal treasury for alms, he had bidden to him, that very

evening, Doctor Holzschuher, his notary, and certain sworn witnesses,

and had in all due form cancelled his former will, and in a fine new one

had devised his estate as follows:

Ursula Tetzel was to have the five thousand gulden which he had promised

her when he had unwittingly killed young Tetzel.

To Kunz he bequeathed the great trade both in Nuremberg and Venice, with

all that pertained thereto and certain moneys in capital for carrying

it on; likewise his fine dwelling-house, inasmuch as Herdegen would have

our house for his own. And Kunz should be held bound to carry on the

said trade in the same wise as my grand-uncle had done in his life-time,

and pay out of it two-third parts of the profits to Herdegen and Ann;

and that these two should wed was the dearest wish of his old age. Not

a farthing was to be taken from the moneyed capital for twenty years to

come, and this was expressly recorded; nor might the trade be sold, or

cease to be carried on. If Kunz should die within that space, then he

charged the head clerk of the house to conduct the business under the

same pledge. And if and when Kunz should wed, then should he pay only

half the profits to his brother instead of two-thirds.

The eldest son of Herdegen and Ann was to fall next heir to the

business; but if this marriage came to nought, or they had no male

issue, then Herdegen’s son-in-law, or my son, or Kunz’s.

Likewise he believed that he had made good provision for the maintenance

of the young pair, inasmuch as though it could scarce be hoped that

Herdegen would be able to take the lead of the trading house, yet his

own fortune was not so great as to assure to Ann a life so free from

burthens, and in all ways so easy as he desired for her, and as beseemed

the mistress of so ancient a Nuremberg family.

His landed estates he had for the most part devised to the holy Church,

and the remainder in equal halves to Herdegen and to me.

Three thousand gulden, which he had lent to the Convent of

Vierzehnheiligen, and of which he might at any time require the

repayment, he had set apart to ransom Herdegen and pay for his

home-coming.

Of his possessions in hard coin, three thousand gulden were for

Herdegen’s share, and one thousand each for Ann and me as a bride-gift,

and he had devised goodly sums of money to the hospitals and poor of the

city, and the serving-folk and retainers of the household.

But then where was the great and well-nigh royal treasure of which old

Im Hoff had, not so long since, been possessed; so that in the time of

the Diet he had paid down in hard coin thirty thousand Hungarian ducats

to buy himself a Baron’s title? Master Holzschuher could tell us well

enough. When that old man had once said to Ann that she could scarce

believe how great profit might be gained in a few years by well-directed

trading with Venice, he spoke not without book. After endowing many

churches and convents in Franconia while he was yet living, with truly

lordly generosity, and providing for masses for his soul and other pious

offices, he had still a sum of forty and four thousand Hungarian ducats

to dispose of. And these moneys, notwithstanding Master Holzschuher’s

entreaties that he would devise at least half of these vast possessions

to his own town and near of kin, he had bequeathed to the alms-coffers

of his Holiness the Pope, to be dealt with at the pleasure of his

Eminence Cardinal Bernliardi, with this sole condition: that every

year, on his name-day, mass should be said by some high Prelate for his

miserable soul, which sorely needed such grace. Moreover he had provided

that the document, duly attested by the notary and witnesses, should be

sent to Rome on the morrow by a specially appointed messenger; thus it

was long since far away and out of reach when my grand-uncle had learnt

that all his remaining possessions were not enough to release Herdegen.

And this, as I have already said, had fallen heavy on his soul.

Verily there hath been no lack of fervent prayers for his soul on our

part; and at a later time, when I came to know to how many hapless

wretches his testament had brought a blessing, little by little I

forgave this strange bestowal of his wealth, and could pronounce over

his grave a clear “Requiescat in pace!” May he rest in peace!

When we had presently duly weighed and reckoned with Master Holzschuher

what we had indeed inherited from our rich kinsman, and how much we

might ere long hope to collect of our own and from Cousin Maud, we had

it before our eyes in plain writing that a large portion of the ransom

was yet lacking. The trade of the Im Hoffs’ was to be sure of great

money value; but by my grand-uncle’s will we might not touch it for

twenty years. Likewise Master Holzschuher pointed out to us by many an

example how wrong it would be, and in especial at this very time, to

sell landed estate at any price, that is to say at about one-third of

its real worth. And finally he told us that the Chancery guardians

were not at that present time suffered to pay down one farthing of our

inheritance from our father. Thus we were heavy at heart, while Doctor

Holzschuher was discoursing in a low voice with Uncle Christian and

Master Pernhart, and noting certain matters on paper.

Then those gentlemen rose up; and whereas I looked in the face of the

worthy notary meseemed it was as withered grass well bedewed with rain;

and glad assurance beamed on me from his goodly and noble features.

And I read the same promise in the looks of Uncle Christian and Master

Pernhart, and where three such men led the fray methought the victory

was certain.

And now we were told what was the matter of their discourse. If they

might find a fitting envoy, they might perchance move the Sultan to

forego some portion of the ransom; yet would they bear in mind what the

whole sum was. Much of our possessions we were indeed not suffered to

sell, yet might we borrow on them or pledge them, and the good feeling

of our friends and fellow citizens would, for sure, help us to the

remainder. Nay, and these gentlemen methought had some privy purpose;

yet, inasmuch as they told us nought of their own free will, we were

careful to put no questions. As we took leave they besought us yet to

delay our departing and to suffer them to be free to do what they would.

And we were fain to yield, albeit the blood of the Schoppers boiled at

the thought that I must tarry here idle, and others go round as it were

with the beggars’ staff, in our name, and for the sake of a son of our

house who had done no good to any man. Howbeit, I knew full well that

pride and defiance were now out of place; and while I was walking

homewards with Ann and Cousin Maud, on a sudden my cousin asked me: If

Lorenz Stromer were in Herdegen’s plight would I not gladly give of my

estate; and when I said yes, quoth she: “Then all is well.” And inasmuch

as she was of the same mind she could, without a qualm, suffer the

gentlemen to ask from door to door in Herdegen’s name and in her own.

It was our part only to show that we, as his nearest and dearest, were

foremost in giving. And on that same day Ann brought all she possessed

in gold and jewels, even to her christening coins which she had kept in

her money-box, and among them likewise a costly cross of diamonds which

my lord Cardinal had given her a few months ago.

That evening, again, as dusk was falling, Ann once more knocked at

our door, and the reason of her coming was in truth a sad one: her

grand-uncle, old Adam Heyden the organist, our friend of the tower, felt

that his last hour was nigh, and bid us go to see him. Thus it came to

pass that in two following days we had to stand by a death-bed. On each

lay an old man departing to the other world, and meseemed their end had

fallen so close together to yield warning and meditation to our young

souls. Now, as I toiled up the steep turret-stair, after flying,

yesterday, up the matted steps of the wealthy house of the Im Hoffs,

meseemed that the two men’s lives had been like to these staircases,

and, young as I was, I nevertheless could say to myself that the

humbler man’s steep stair, which of late he could not mount without much

panting, led up to a higher and brighter home than the wide steps of the

rich merchant’s palace.

Howbeit, when I had presently closed that good old man’s eyes, I would

not suffer myself to think thus of the twain, by reason that I could not

endure to mar my remembrance of that other, to whom, after all, we owed

much thanks.

The old organist had received the Holy Sacrament at mid-day from the

hand of his old friend Nikolas Laister, the Vicar of Saint Sebald’s.

He would have no one to see him save ourselves and Hans Richter the

churchwarden, a man after his own heart, and the Pernharts; and at first

he marked not our coming, inasmuch as he was just then giving a toy

to the deaf-mute boy, which he had carved with his own hand, and Dame

Giovanna had much pains to carry away the child, who had cast himself on

the old man with passionate love. Everything that moved the little one’s

soul he was forced, as it were, to express with unreasoning violence;

and now, when the child was so boisterous as to disturb the peace of the

others, his mother took him by the hand to lead him away into another

chamber; but the dying man signed to him with a look which none may

describe, and that moment the little fellow set his teeth hard and stood

in silence by the door. Whereupon the old man nodded to him as though

the child had done him some kindness.

Then he shut his eyes for a good while, and presently asked for some of

the fine Bacharach wine which Cousin Maud had sent him; but his voice

could scarce be heard. Ann reached him the glass, and at a sign from him

she tasted of it; then he drank it with much comfort while Dame Giovanna

held him sitting. The old, sweet smile was on his lips, and as he yet

held the stem of the glass with a shaking hand, and suffered that I

should help him, he cried in a clear voice: “Once more, Prosit, Elsie!

You have waited long enough up there for your old man. And Prosit,

likewise, to my dear old home, the fair city of Nuremberg.” Then he took

breath and added according to his wont: “Prosit, Adam! Thanks, Heyden!”

And emptied the cup which I tilted up for him, to the very bottom. Then,

when he fell back and gazed before him in silence, I found speech, and

noted, albeit it struck me in truth as somewhat strange, that he bore

our good town in mind then, in drinking his old pledge. Hereupon he

nodded kindly and added, with an enquiring glance at the churchwarden:

“It is rightly the duty of every true Christian man to pray for all

mankind! Well, well; but they are so many, so infinitely many; and I,

like every other man, have my own little world, inside the great world,

as it were, and that is my dear old, staunch town of Nuremberg. Never

have I been beyond its precincts, and it contains all on earth that

is dear and precious to me. To me the citizens of Nuremberg are all

mankind, and our city and so much as the eye can see from this tower all

my world, small though it may be. I could ever find some good matter for

thought in Nuremberg, something noble and well-compact, a fine whole. I

have never sought the boundaries of the other, greater world.”

Yet, that his world was in truth wider than he weened, was plain to us

from the prayer he murmured wherein we could hear my brothers’ names,

albeit land and seas parted them from him. And after that, for a space

all were silent, and he lay gazing at the bone crucifix on the wall; and

at last he besought Dame Giovanna to lift him somewhat higher, and he

drank again a little more, and said right softly as he cast a loving

glance upon us each in turn: “I have looked into my own heart and gazed

on Him on the Cross! That is our ensample! And I depart joyfully--and if

you would know what maketh death so easy to me; it is that I have needed

but little, and kept little for myself; and whereas I was wont to give

away what other men save, I came to know of a certainty that all the

good we do to others is the best we can do for ourselves. It is that, it

is that!”

And he stretched forth his hand, and when we had all kissed it, he cried

out: “My God, I now can say I thank Thee! What to-morrow may bring, Thou

alone canst know! Margery, Ann, my poor children! May the bright day

of meeting dawn for you! May Heaven in mercy protect the youths beyond

seas! Here, close at hand is Mistress Kreutzer with her orphan children,

you know them--you and Master Peter--they are in sore need of help--and

the good we do to others. But come close to me, come all of you--and the

little ones likewise.”

And we fell upon our knees by the bed, and he spread forth his hands and

said in a clear voice: “The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord lift

up his countenance upon you and be merciful unto you.”

And then he sighed deeply, and his hands fell, and Dame Giovanna closed

his eyes.

Yea! Death had come easy to this simple soul. Never knew I any man who

gave so much out of a little, and never have I seen a happier or more

peaceful face on a death-bed.

My grand-uncle’s burial was grand and magnificent. All the town-council,

and many of the nobles joined in the funeral-train. Bells tolling and

priests chanting, crape, tapers, incense and the rest of it--we had more

than enough of them all. Only one thing was lacking, namely, tears--not

those of the hirelings who attended it, but such as fall in silence from

a sorrowing eye.

In the Im Hoffs’ great house all was silence till the burying was done;

up in the tower, where old Adam Heyden lay asleep, the bells rang out as

they did every day, for wedding and christening, for mass and mourning;

yet by the low door which led to the narrow turret-stair I saw a crowd

of little lads and maids with their mothers; and albeit the leaves were

off the trees and the last flowers were frozen to death, many a child

had found a green twig or carried a little bunch of everlasting flowers

in its little hand to lay on the bier of that kind old friend. It was

all the sacristan could do to keep away the multitudes who were fain to

look on his face once more; and when he was borne to the grave-yard, not

above two hours after my grand-uncle, there was indeed a wondrous great

following. The snow was falling fast in the streets, and the fine folks

who had attended him to the grave were soon warming themselves at home

after the burying of old Im Hoff. But there came behind Adam Heyden’s

bier many right honest and respected folk, and a throng, reaching far

away, of such as might feel the wind whistling cold through the holes in

their sleeves and about their bare heads. And among these was there many

a penniless woman who wiped her eyes with her kerchief or her hand, and

many a widow’s child, who tightened its little belt as it saw him who

had so often given it a meal carried to the grave.

CHAPTER XIV.

Our good hope of going forth with good-speed into the wide world to risk

all for our lover and brother was not to be yet. We were fain to take

patience; and if this seemed hard to us maidens, it was even worse for

Kubbeling; the man was wont to wander free whither he would, and during

these days of tarrying at the forest-lodge, first he lost his mirthful

humor, and then he fell sick of a fever. For two long weeks had he to

be abed, he, who, as he himself told, had never to this day needed any

healing but such as the leech who medicined his beasts could give

him. We awaited the tidings of him with much fear; and at this time we

likewise knew not what to think of those gentlemen who heretofore had

been such steadfast and faithful friends to us, inasmuch as that Doctor

Holzschuher gave no sign, and soon after my grand-uncle’s burying Uncle

Christian and Master Pernhart had set forth for Augsburg on some privy

matters of the town council. Yet we could do nought but submit, by

reason that we knew that every good citizen thinks of the weal of the

Commonwealth before all else.

Even our nearest of kin had laid our concerns on the shelf, while day

and night alike it weighed on our souls, and we made ready for a long

time to come of want and humble cheer. The Virgin be my witness that at

that time I was ready and willing to give up many matters which we were

forced to forego; howbeit, we found out that it was easier to eat bread

without butter and no flesh meat, than to give up certain other matters.

As for my jewels, which Cousin Maud would not sell, but pledged them

to a goldsmith, I craved them not. Only a heart with a full great ruby

which I had ever worn as being my Hans’ first lovetoken, I would indeed

have been fain to keep, yet whereas Master Kaden set a high price on the

stone I suffered him to break it out, notwithstanding all that Cousin

Maud and Ann might say, and kept only the gold case. It was hard

likewise to send forth the serving-folk and turn a deaf ear to their

lamenting. Most of the men, when they heard how matters stood, would

gladly have stayed to serve us for a lesser wage, and each and all went

about looking as if the hail had spoilt their harvest; only old Susan

held her head higher than ever, by reason that we had chosen her to

share our portion during the years of famine. Likewise we were glad to

promise the old horse-keeper, who had served our father before us, that

we would care for him all his days; he besought me eagerly that I would

keep my own Hungarian palfrey, for, to his mind, a damsel of high degree

with no saddle nor steed was as a bird that cannot rise on its wings.

Howbeit, we found those who were glad to buy the horse, and never shall

I forget the hour when for the last time I patted the smooth neck of

my Bayard, the gift of my lost lover, and felt his shrewd little head

leaning against my own. Uncle Tucher bought him for his daughter Bertha,

and it was a comfort to me to think that she was a soft, kind hearted

maid, whom I truly loved. All the silver gear likewise, which we had

inherited, was pledged for money, and where it lay I knew not; yet of a

truth the gifts of God taste better out of a silver spoon than out of

a tin one. Cousin Maud, who would have no half measures, carried many

matters of small worth to the pawn-broker; yet all this grieved us but

lightly, although the sky hung dark over the town, by reason that other

events at that time befell which gave us better cheer.

The Magister, as soon as he had tidings of our purpose, came with right

good will to offer us his all, and declared his intent to share our

simple way of life, and this was no more than we had looked for, albeit

we steadfastly purposed only to take from him so much as he might easily

make shift to spare. But it was indeed a joyful surprise when, one right

dreary day, Heinz Trardorf, Herdegen’s best-beloved companion in his

youth, who had long kept far from the house, came to speak with us of

Herdegen’s concerns. He had now followed his father, who was dead, as

master in his trade, and was already so well thought of that the Council

had trusted his skilled hands to build a new great organ for the Church

of Saint Laurence. I knew full well, to be sure, that when Herdegen had

come back from Paris in all his bravery, he had cared but little for

Trardorf’s fellowship; but I had marked, many a time in church, that his

eyes were wont to rest full lovingly on me.

And now, when I gave him my hand and asked him what might be his will,

at first he could scarce speak, albeit he was a man of substance to whom

all folks would lift their hat. At last he made bold to tell me that he

had heard tidings of the sum demanded to ransom Herdegen, and that

he, inasmuch as that he dwelt in his own house and that his profits

maintained him in more than abundance, could have no greater joy than to

pay the moneys he had by inheritance to ransom my brother.

And as the good fellow spoke the tears stood in his eyes, and mine

likewise were about to flow; and albeit Cousin Maud here broke in and,

to hide how deeply her heart was touched, said, well-nigh harshly, that

without doubt the day was not far off when he would have a wife and

family, and might rue the deed by which he had parted with his estate,

never perchance to see it more, I freely and gladly gave him my hand,

and said to him that for my part his offering would be dearest to me of

any, and that for sure Herdegen would be of the same mind. And a beam

as of sunshine overspread his countenance, and while he shook my hand

in silence I could see that he hardly refrained himself from betraying

more. After this, I came to know from his good mother that this offer of

moneys had cost him a great pang, but only for this cause: that he had

loved me from his youth up, and his noble soul forbid him to pay court

to me when he had in truth done me so great a service.

Still, and in despite of these gleams of light, I must ever remember

those three weeks as a full gloomy and sorrowful time.

Kubbeling’s eldest son and his churlish helpmate had fared forth to

Venice instead of himself. They might not sail for the land of Egypt,

and this chafed Uhlwurm sorely, by reason that he was sure in himself

that he, far better than his master or than any man on earth, could do

good service there to Ann, on whom his soul was set more than on any

other of us.

Towards the end of the third week we rode forth to spend a few days

again at the lodge, and there we found Young Kubbeling well nigh healed

of his fever, and Eppelein’s tongue ready to wag and to tell us of his

many adventures without overmuch asking. Howbeit, save what concerned

his own mishaps, he had little to say that we knew not already.

The Saracen pirate who had boarded the galleon from Genoa which was

carrying him and his lord to Cyprus, had parted him from Herdegen and

Sir Franz, and sold him for a slave in Egypt. There had he gone through

many fortunes, till at last, in Alexandria, he had one day met Akusch.

At that time my faithful squire’s father was yet in good estate, and he

forthwith bought Eppelein, who was then a chattel of the overseer of the

market, to the end that the fellow might help his son in the search for

Herdegen. This search they had diligently pursued, and had discovered my

brother and Sir Franz together in the armory of the Sultan’s Palace, in

the fort over against Cairo, whither they had come after they had both

worked at the oars in great misery for two years, on board a Saracen

galley.