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.