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+The Project Gutenberg EBook In The Fire Of The Forge, by Georg Ebers, v6
+#109 in our series by Georg Ebers
+
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+Title: In The Fire Of The Forge, Volume 6.
+
+Author: Georg Ebers
+
+Release Date: April, 2004  [EBook #5548]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on July 26, 2002]
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIRE OF THE FORGE, BY EBERS, V6 ***
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
+
+
+
+[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the
+file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an
+entire meal of them.  D.W.]
+
+
+
+
+
+IN THE FIRE OF THE FORGE
+
+A ROMANCE OF OLD NUREMBERG
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+Volume 6.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+The Minorite had gone.  Biberli had noticed with delight that his master
+had not sought as usual to detain him.  The iron now seemed to him hot,
+and he thought it would be worth while to swing the hammer.
+
+The danger in which Heinz stood of being drawn into the monastery made
+him deeply anxious, and he had already ventured several times to oppose
+his design.  Life was teaching him to welcome a small evil when it barred
+the way to a greater one, and his master's marriage, even with a girl of
+far lower station than Eva Ortlieb, would have been sure of his favour,
+if only it would have deterred him from the purpose of leaving the world
+to which he belonged.
+
+"True," the servitor began, "in such heat it is easier to walk in the
+thin cowl than in armour.  The holy Father is right there.  But when it
+is necessary to be nimble, the knight has his dancing dress also.  Oh, my
+lord, what a sight it was when you were waltzing with the lovely Jungfrau
+Eva!  Look at Heinz Schorlin, the brave hero of Marchfield, and the girl
+with the angel face who is with him!' said those around me, as I was
+gazing down from the balcony.  And just think--I can't help speaking of
+it again--that now respectable people dare to point their fingers at the
+sisters and join in the base calumny uttered by a scoundrel!"
+
+Then Heinz fulfilled Biberli's secret longing to be questioned about the
+Es and the charges against them, and he forged the iron.
+
+Not from thirst, he said, but to ascertain what fruit had grown from the
+hellish seeds sown by Siebenburg, and probably the still worse ones of
+the Eysvogel women, he went from tavern to tavern, and there he heard
+things which made him clench his fists, and, at the Red Ox, roused him to
+such violent protest that he went out of the tap-room faster than he
+entered it.
+
+Thereupon, without departing far from the truth, he related what was said
+about the beautiful Es in Nuremberg.
+
+It was everywhere positively asserted that a knight belonging to the
+Emperor's train had been caught at the Ortlieb mansion, either in a
+nocturnal interview or while climbing into the window.  Both sisters were
+said to be guilty.  But the sharpest arrows were aimed at Els, the
+betrothed bride of the son of a patrician family, whom many a girl would
+have been glad to wed.  That she preferred the foreigner, whether a
+Bohemian, a Swabian, or even a Swiss, made her error doubly shameful in
+the eyes of most persons.
+
+Whenever Biberli had investigated the source of these evil tales, he had
+invariably found it to be Seitz Siebenburg, his retainers, the Eysvogel
+butler, or some man or maidservant in their employ.
+
+The Vorchtels, who, as he knew from Katterle, would have had the most
+reason to cherish resentment against the Ortliebs, had no share in these
+slanders.
+
+The shrewd fellow had discovered the truth, for after Seitz Siebenburg
+had wandered about in the open air during the storm, he again tried to
+see his wife.  But the effort was vain.  Neither entreaties nor threats
+would induce her to open the door.  Meanwhile it had grown late and, half
+frantic with rage, he went to the Duke of Pomerania's quarters in the
+Green Shield to try his luck in gaming.  The dice were again moving
+rapidly, but no one grasped the box when he offered a stake.  No more
+insulting rebuff could be imagined, and the repulse which he received
+from his peers, and especially the duke, showed him that he was to be
+excluded from this circle.
+
+He was taught at the same time that if he answered the challenge of the
+Swiss he would not be permitted to enter the lists.  Thus he confronted
+the impossibility of satisfying a demand of honour, and this terrible
+thought induced him to declare war against everything which honour had
+hitherto enjoined, and with it upon its guardians.
+
+If they treated him as a robber and a dishonoured man, he would behave
+like one; but those who had driven him so far should suffer for it.
+
+During the rest of the night and on the following day, until the gate was
+closed, he wandered, goblet in hand, only half conscious of what he was
+doing, from tavern to tavern, to tell the guests what he knew about the
+beautiful Es; and at every repetition of the accusations, of whose
+justice he was again fully convinced, his hatred against the sisters, and
+those who were their natural defenders and therefore his foes, increased.
+Every time he repeated the old charges an addition increasing the slander
+was made and, as if aided by some mysterious ally, it soon happened that
+in various places his own inventions were repeated to him by the lips of
+others who had heard them from strangers.  True, he was often
+contradicted, sometimes violently but, on the whole, people believed him
+more readily than would have happened in the case of any other person;
+for every one admitted that, as the brother-in-law of the older E, he had
+a right to express his indignation in words.
+
+Meanwhile his twins often returned to his memory.  The thought ought to
+have restrained him from such base conduct; but the idea that he was
+avenging the wrong inflicted upon their father's honour, and thus upon
+theirs, urged him further and further.
+
+Not until a long ride through the forest had sobered him did he see his
+conduct in the proper light.
+
+Insult and disgrace would certainly await him in the city.  His brothers
+would receive him kindly.  They were of his own blood and could not help
+welcoming his sharp sword.  Side by side with them he would fight and, if
+it must be, die.  A voice within warned him against making common cause
+with those who had robbed the family of which he had become a member, yet
+he again used the remembrance of his innocent darlings to palliate his
+purpose.  For their sakes only he desired to go to his death, sword in
+hand, like a valiant knight in league with those who were risking their
+lives in defence of the ancient privilege of their class.  They must not
+even suspect that their father had been shut out from the tournament, but
+grow up in the conviction that he had fallen as a heroic champion of the
+cause of the lesser knights to whom he belonged, and on whose neck the
+Emperor had set his foot.
+
+The assurance which Biberli brought Heinz Schorlin that Seitz Siebenburg
+had joined those whom he was ordered to punish, placed the task assigned
+him by the Emperor in a new and attractive light; but the servant's
+report, so far as it concerned the Ortlieb sisters, pierced the inmost
+depths of his soul.  He alone was to blame for the disgrace which had
+fallen upon innocent maidens.  By the destruction of the calumny he would
+at least atone for a portion of his sin.  But this did not suffice.  It
+was his duty to repair the wrong he had done the sisters.  How?  That he
+could not yet determine; for whilst wielding the executioner's sword in
+his master's service all these thoughts must be silenced; he could
+consider nothing save to fulfil the task confided to him by his imperial
+benefactor and commander in chief, according to his wishes, and show him
+that he had chosen wisely in trusting him to "crack the nut" which he
+himself had pronounced a hard one.  The yearning and renunciation, the
+reproaches and doubts which disturbed his life, until recently so easy,
+had disgusted him with it.  He would not spare it.  Yet if he fell he
+would be deprived of the possibility of doing anything whatever for those
+who through his imprudence had lost their dearest possession--their good
+name.  Whenever this picture rose before him it sometimes seemed as if
+Eva was gazing at him with her large, bright eyes as trustingly as during
+the pause in the dancing, and anon he fancied he saw her as she looked at
+her mother's consecration in her deep mourning before the altar.  At that
+time her grief and pain had prevented her from noticing how his gaze
+rested on her; yet never had she appeared more desirable, never had he
+longed more ardently to clasp her in his arms, console her, and assure
+her that his love should teach her to forget her grief, that she was
+destined to find new happiness in a union with him.
+
+This had happened to him just as he commenced the struggle for a new
+life.  Startled, he confessed it to his grey-haired guide, and used the
+means which the Minorite advised him to employ to attain forgetfulness
+and renunciation, but always in vain.  Had he, like St. Francis, rushed
+among briers, his blood would not have turned into roses, but doubtless
+fresh memories of her whose happiness his guilt had so suddenly and
+cruelly destroyed.
+
+For her sake he had already begun to doubt his vocation on the very
+threshold of his new career, and did not recover courage until Father
+Benedictus, who had communicated with the Abbess Kunigunde, informed him
+that Eva was wax in her hands, and within the next few days she would
+induce her niece to take the veil.
+
+This news had exerted a deep influence upon the young knight's soul.  If
+Eva entered the cloister before him, the only strong tie which united him
+to the world would be severed, and nothing save the thought of his mother
+would prevent his following his vocation.  Yet vehement indignation
+seized him when he heard from Biberli that the slanderer's malice would
+force Eva to seek refuge with the Sisters.
+
+No, a thousand times no!  The woman whom he loved should need to seek
+refuge from nothing for which Heinz Schorlin's desire and resolve alike
+commanded him to make amends.
+
+He must succeed in proving to the whole world that she and her sister
+were as pure as they lived in his imagination, either by offering in the
+lists the boldest defiance to every one who refused to acknowledge that
+both were the most chaste and decorous ladies in the whole world, and
+Eva, at the same time, the loveliest and fairest, or by the open
+interference of the Emperor or the Burggravine in behalf of the
+persecuted sisters, after he had confessed the whole truth to his
+exalted patrons.
+
+But when Biberli pointed out the surest way of restoring the endangered
+reputation of the woman he loved, and begged him to imagine how much more
+beautiful she would look in the white bridal veil than in her mourning
+Riese--[Kerchief of fine linen, arranged like a veil]--he ordered him to
+keep silence.
+
+The miracle wrought in his behalf forbade him to yearn for happiness and
+joy here below.  It was intended rather to open his eyes and urge him to
+leave the path which led to eternal damnation.  It pointed him to the
+kingdom of heaven and its bliss, which could be purchased only by severe
+sacrifice and the endurance of every grief which the Saviour had taken
+upon Himself.  But he could at least pay one honour to the maiden to whom
+he was so strongly attracted, and whose happiness for life was menaced by
+his guilt.  When he had assembled his whole force at Schwabach, he would
+go into battle with her colour on his helmet and shield.  The Queen of
+Heaven would not be angry with him if he wore her light blue to atone to
+the pure and pious Eva, who was hers even more fully than he himself, for
+the wrong inflicted upon her by spiteful malice.
+
+Heinz Schorlin's friends thought the change in his mood a natural
+consequence of the events which had befallen him; young Count Gleichen,
+his most intimate companion, even looked up to him since his "call" as a
+consecrated person.
+
+His grey-haired cousin, Sir Arnold Maier, of Silenen, was a devout man
+whose own son led a happy life as a Benedictine monk at Engelberg.  The
+sign by which Heaven had signified its will to Heinz had made a deep
+impression upon him, and though he would have preferred to see him
+continue in the career so auspiciously begun, he would have considered it
+impious to dissuade him from obeying the summons vouchsafed by the Most
+High.  So he offered no opposition, and sent by the next courier a letter
+to Lady Wendula Schorlin, his young cousin's mother, in which, with
+Heinz's knowledge-nay, at his request--he related what her son had
+experienced, and entreated her not to withhold him from the vocation of
+which God deemed him worthy.
+
+Meanwhile, Biberli wrote to his master's mother in a different strain,
+and did not desist from expressing his opinion, to Heinz, and assuring
+him that his place was on a battle charger, with his sword in its sheath
+or in his hand, rather than in a monastery with a rosary hanging from a
+hempen girdle.
+
+This had vexed Heinz--nay, made him seriously angry with the faithful
+fellow; and when in full armour he prepared to mount his steed to receive
+the last directions of his imperial master, and Biberli asked him on
+which horse he should follow, he answered curtly that this time he would
+go without him.
+
+Yet when he saw tears fill the eyes of his "true and steadfast"
+companion, he patted the significant St. on his cap, and added kindly:
+"Never mind, Biber, everything will be unchanged between us till I obey
+my summons, and you build your own nest with Katterle."
+
+So Biberli had remained in Nuremberg whilst Heinz Schorlin, after the
+Emperor with fatherly kindness had dismissed him, granting him full
+authority, set forth at the head of his troops as their commander, to
+take the field against the Siebenburgs and their allies.
+
+The servant was permitted to attend him only to the outskirts of the
+city.
+
+Before the Spitalthor, Countess Cordula, though she was returning from a
+ride into the country, had wheeled her spirited dappled horse and joined
+him as familiarly as though she belonged to him.  Heinz, who would have
+liked best to be alone, and to whom any other companion would have been
+more welcome, showed her this plainly enough, but she did not seem to
+notice it, and during the whole of their ride together gave her tongue
+free rein and, though he often indignantly interrupted her, described
+with increasing warmth what the Ortlieb sisters had suffered through his
+fault.  In doing so she drew so touching a picture of Eva's silent sorrow
+that Heinz sometimes longed to thank her, but more frequently to have her
+driven away by his men at arms; for he had mounted his horse with the
+intention of dividing the time of his ride between pious meditations and
+plans for the arrangement of the expedition.  What could be more
+unwelcome than the persistent loquacity of the countess, who filled his
+heart and mind with ideas and wishes that threatened most seriously to
+imperil his design?
+
+Cordula plainly perceived how unwillingly he listened.  Nay, as Heinz
+more and more distinctly, at last even offensively, showed her how little
+he desired her society, it only increased the animation of her speech,
+which seemed to her not to fail wholly in the influence she desired to
+exert in Eva's favour; therefore she remained at his side longer than she
+had at first intended.  She did not even turn back when they met the
+young Duchess Agnes, who with her train was returning to the city from a
+ride.
+
+The Bohemian princess had known that Heinz would ride through the
+Spitalthor at this hour to confront his foe, and had intended that the
+meeting with her should seem like a good omen.  The thought of wishing
+him success on his journey had been a pleasant one.  True, Cordula's
+presence did not prevent this, but it disturbed her, and she was vexed
+to find the countess again at Heinz Schorlin's side.
+
+She showed her displeasure so plainly that her Italian singing mistress,
+the elderly spinster Caterina de Celano, took sides with her, and
+scornfully asked the countess whether she had brought her curling irons
+with her.
+
+But she bit her lips at Cordula's swift retort "O no!  Malice meets us on
+every road, but in Germany we do not pull one another's hair on the
+highway over every venomous or foolish word."
+
+She turned her back on her as she spoke until the duchess had taken leave
+of Heinz, and then rode on with him; but as soon as a portion of the road
+intervened between her and the countess the young Bohemian exclaimed: "We
+must certainly try to save Sir Heinz from this disagreeable shrew!"
+
+"And the saints will aid the good work," the Italian protested, "for they
+themselves have a better right to the charming knight.  How grave he
+looked!  Take care, your Highness, he is following, as my nimble cousin
+Frangipani did a short time ago, in the footsteps of the Saint of
+Assisi."
+
+"But he must not, shall not, go into the monastery!" cried the young
+duchess, with childish refractoriness.  "The Emperor is opposed to it,
+and he, too, does not like the von Montfort's boisterous manner.  We will
+see whether I cannot accomplish something, Caterina."
+
+Here she stopped.  They had again reached the village of Rottenpach, and
+in front of the newly built little church stood its pastor, with the
+dignitaries of the parish, and the children were scattering flowers in
+the path.  She checked her Arabian, dismounted, and graciously inspected
+the new house of God, the pride of the congregation.
+
+On the way home, just beyond the village, her horse again shied.  The
+animal had been startled by an old Minorite monk who sat under a crab
+apple tree.  It was Father Benedictus, who had set out early to
+anticipate Heinz and surprise him in his night quarters by his presence.
+But he had overestimated his strength, and advanced so slowly that Heinz
+and his troopers, from whom he had concealed himself behind a dusty
+hawthorn bush, had not seen him.  From Schweinau the walk had become
+difficult, especially as it was contrary to the teaching of the saint to
+use a staff.  Many a compassionate peasant, many a miller's lad and
+Carter, had offered him a seat on the back of his nag or in his waggon
+but, without accepting their friendly offers, he had plodded on with his
+bare feet.
+
+Perhaps this journey would be his last, but on it he would redeem the
+promise which he had made his dying master, to go forth according to the
+command of the Saviour, which Francis of Assisi had made his own and that
+of his order, to preach and to proclaim, "The kingdom of heaven is at
+hand!"
+
+"Without price," ran the words, "have ye received, without price give."
+He had no regard for earthly reward, therefore he yearned the more
+ardently for the glad knowledge that he had saved a soul for heaven.
+
+He had learned to love Heinz as the saint had formerly loved him, and he
+did not grudge him the happiness which, at the knight's age, had fallen
+to the lot of the man whose years now numbered eighty.  How long he had
+been permitted to enjoy this bliss!  True, during the last decades it had
+been clouded by many a shadow.
+
+He had endured much hardship in the service of his sacred cause, but the
+greater the sacrifice he offered the more exquisite was the reward reaped
+by his soul.  Oh, if this pilgrimage might yield him Heinz Schorlin's vow
+to follow his saint and with him the Saviour!--if he might be permitted,
+clasping in his the hand of the beloved youth he had saved, to exchange
+this world for eternal bliss!
+
+Earth had nothing more to offer; for he who was one of the leaders of his
+brotherhood beheld with grief their departure from the paths of their
+founder.  Poverty, which secures freedom to the body, which knows nothing
+of the anxieties of this world and the burden of possession, which
+permits the soul to soar unfettered far above the dust--poverty, the
+divine bride of St. Francis, was forsaken in many circles of his brother
+monks.  With property, ease and the longing for secular influence had
+stolen into many a monastery.  Many shunned the labour which the saint
+enjoined upon his disciples, and the old jugs were often filled with new
+wine, which he, Benedictus, never tasted, and which the saint rejected as
+poison.
+He was no longer young and strong enough to let his grief and indignation
+rage like a purifying thunderstorm amidst these abuses.
+
+But Heinz Schorlin!
+
+If this youth of noble blood, equally gifted in mind and person, whom
+Heaven itself had summoned with lightning and thunder, devoted himself
+from sincere conviction, with a heart full of youthful enthusiasm, to his
+sacred cause--if Heinz, consecrated by him, and fully aware of the real
+purposes of the saint, who, also untaught and rich only in knowledge of
+the heart, had begun a career so momentous in consequences, announced
+himself as a fearless champion of St. Francis's will, then the St. George
+had been found who was summoned to slay the dragon, and with his blood
+instil new life at last into the monasteries of Germany, then perhaps the
+fresh prosperity which he desired for the order was at hand.  The larger
+number of its recruits came from the lower ranks of the people.  Sir
+Heinz Schorlin's example would perhaps bring it also, as an elevating
+element, the sons of his peers.
+
+So, bathed in perspiration, and often on the point of fainting, he
+followed Heinz through the dust of the highway.
+
+Often, when his strength failed, and he sat down by the roadside to take
+breath, his soul-life gained a loftier aspiration.
+
+After Heinz rode by without seeing him he continued his way until his
+feet grew so heavy that he was forced to sit down beside the road.  Then
+he imagined that the Saviour Himself came towards him, gazed lovingly
+into his face, and turned to beckon some one, Benedictus did not know
+whom, heavenward.  Suddenly the clouds that had covered the sky parted,
+and the old man fancied he heard the song of the troubadour whose soul
+had been subdued by love for God, which his friend and master had
+addressed to his Redeemer.  It must come from the lips of his angels on
+high, but he longed to join in the strain.  True, his aged lips, rapidly
+as they moved, uttered no sound, but he fancied he was sharing in this
+song of the soul, glowing with fervent, consuming flames of love,
+dedicated to the Saviour, the source of all love:
+
+              "Love's flames my kindling heart control,
+               Love for my Bridegroom fair,
+               When on my hand he placed the ring,
+               The Lamb whose fervent love I share
+               Did pierce my inmost soul,"
+
+the fiery song began, and an absorbing yearning for death and the beloved
+Redeemer, whose form had vanished in the sea of flames surging before his
+dilated eyes, moved the very depths of his soul as he commenced the
+second verse:
+
+              "My heart amidst Love's tortures broke,
+               Slain by the might of Love's keen stroke,
+               To earth my senseless body sank,
+               Love's flames my life-blood drank."
+
+With flushed cheeks, utterly borne away from the world and everything
+which surrounded him, he raised his arms towards heaven, then they
+suddenly fell.  Starting up, he passed his hand over his dazzled eyes and
+shook his head sorrowfully.  Instead of the angels' song, he heard the
+beat of horses' hoofs coming nearer and nearer.  The open heavens had
+closed again; he lay a poor exhausted mortal, with burning brow, beside
+the road.
+
+Duchess Agnes, after visiting the new church at Rottenpach, rode past him
+on her return to Nuremberg.
+
+Neither she nor her train heeded the old monk.  But the Italian who, as
+she rode by, had been attracted by the noble features of the aged man,
+whose eyes still sparkled with youthful enthusiasm, gazed at him
+enquiringly.  Her glance met his, and the Minorite's wrinkled features
+wore a look of eager enquiry.  He longed to rise and ask the name of the
+black-eyed lady at the duchess's side.  But ere he could stand erect, the
+party had passed on.
+
+Disturbed in mind, and scarcely able to set one sore foot before the
+other, he dragged himself forward.
+
+Before he reached Rottenpach he met one of the duchess's pages who had
+remained at the village forge and was now riding after his mistress.
+Father Benedictus called to him, and the boy, awed by the grey-haired
+monk, answered his questions, and told him that the lady on the horse
+with the white star on its face was the duchess's Italian singing
+mistress, Caterina de Celano.
+
+Every drop of blood receded from the Minorite's fever-flushed cheeks, and
+the page was about to spring from his saddle to support him, but the monk
+waved him back impatiently, and by the exertion of all his strength of
+will forced himself to stagger on.
+
+He had just felt happy in the heart of eternal love; but now the
+expression of his countenance changed, and his dark, sunken eyes flashed
+angrily.
+
+The faded woman beside the duchess bore the name of the lady whose
+faithlessness had first induced him to seek rest and forgetfulness
+in the peace of the cloister, and led him to despise her whole sex.
+
+The horsewoman must be a granddaughter, daughter, or niece of the woman
+who had so basely betrayed him.  How much she resembled the traitress,
+but she did not understand how to hide her real nature as well; her faded
+features wore a somewhat malicious expression.  The resentment which he
+thought he had conquered again awoke.  He would have liked to rush after
+her and call her to her face----.  Yet what would that avail?  How was
+she to blame for the treachery of another person, whom perhaps she did
+not even know?
+
+Yet he longed to follow her.
+
+His fevered blood urged him on, but his exhausted, aching limbs refused
+to serve him.  One more violent effort, and sparks flashed before his
+eyes, his lips were wet with blood, and he sank gasping on the ground.
+
+After some time he succeeded in dragging himself to the side of the road,
+where he lay until a Nuremberg carrier, passing with his team of four
+horses, lifted him, with the help of his servant, into his cart and took
+him on.
+
+At Schweinau the jolting of the vehicle became unendurable to the
+sufferer, and the carrier willingly fulfilled his wish to be taken to
+the hospital where mangled criminals, tortured by the rack, were nursed.
+
+There, however, they instantly perceived that his place was not in this
+house dedicated to criminal misfortune, and the kind Beguines of
+Schweinau took charge of him.
+
+On the way the old monk suffered severely in both soul and body.  It
+seemed like treason, like a rejection of his pure and pious purposes,
+that Heaven itself barred the path along which he was wearily wandering
+to win it a soul.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+The entombment of the magnificent coffin of Frau Maria Ortlieb under the
+pavement of the family chapel was over.  The little group of sympathising
+friends had left the church.  Only the widower and his daughters
+remained, and when he knew that he could no longer be seen by the few who
+still lingered in the house of God, he clasped the two girls to his heart
+with a suppressed sob.
+
+Never had he experienced such deep sorrow, such anguish of soul.  He had
+not even been permitted to take leave of his beloved companion with
+unmixed grief; fierce resentment had mingled with his trouble.
+
+To remain alone in the house with his daughters after the burial and
+answer their questions seemed to him impossible.
+
+The meeting of the Council, which would soon begin, served as a pretence
+for leaving them.  Eva was to blame for what he had just suffered; but he
+knew everything concerning the rumours about the inexperienced girl and
+Heinz Schorlin, and there fore was aware that her fault was trivial.  To
+censure her seemed as difficult as to discuss calmly with her and the
+sensible Els what could be done under existing circumstances; besides, he
+was firmly convinced that Eva had nothing left except to take, without
+delay, the veil for which she had longed from childhood.  His sister, the
+Abbess Kunigunde, was keeping the door of the convent open.  She had
+promised the girl to await her at home.  In taking leave of his
+daughters, he begged them not to wait for him, because the Council were
+to decide the fate of the Eysvogel business, and the session might last
+a long while.
+
+Then his Els gazed at him with a look of such earnest entreaty that he
+nodded, and in a tone of the warmest compassion began: "I shall be more
+than glad to aid your Wolff, my dear girl, but he himself told you how
+the case stands.  What would it avail if I beggared myself and you for
+the Eysvogels and their tottering house?  I must remain hard now, in
+order later to smooth the path for Wolff and you, Els.  If Berthold
+Vorchtel would make up his mind to join me, it might be different, but he
+summoned the Council as a complainant, and if he is the one to overthrow
+the reeling structure, who can blame him?  We shall see.  Whatever I can
+reasonably do for the unfortunate family shall be accomplished, my girl."
+
+Then he kissed his older daughter on the forehead, hastily gave the
+younger the same caress, and left the chapel.  But Els detained him,
+whispering: "Whatever wrong was inflicted upon us yesterday, do not let
+it prejudice you, father.  It was meant neither for her whose peace
+nothing can now disturb, nor for you.  We alone----"
+
+"You  certainly," Herr Ernst interrupted bitterly, "were made to feel how
+far superior in virtue they considered themselves to you, who are better
+and purer than all of them.  But keep up Eva's courage.  I have been
+talking with your Uncle Pfinzing and your Aunt Christine.  You yourself
+took them into your confidence, and we will consult together how the
+serpent's head is to be crushed."
+
+He turned away as he spoke, but Els went back to her sister, and after a
+brief prayer they left the church with bowed heads.
+
+The sedan-chairs were waiting outside.  Each was to be borne home
+separately, but both preferred, spite of the bright summer weather, to
+draw the curtains, that unseen they might weep, and ask themselves how
+such wrongs could have been inflicted upon the dead woman and themselves.
+
+The respect of high and low for the Ortlieb family had been most
+brilliantly displayed when the body of the son, slain in battle, had been
+interred in the chapel of his race.  And their mother?  How many had held
+her dear! to how many she had been kind, loving, and friendly!  How great
+a sympathy the whole city had shown during her illness, and how many of
+all classes had attended the mass for her soul!  And the burial which had
+just taken place?
+
+True, on her father's account all the members of the Council were
+present, but scarcely half the wives had appeared.  Their daughters--Els
+had counted them--numbered only nine, and but three were included among
+her friends.  The others had probably come out of curiosity.  And the
+common people, the artisans, the lower classes, who in countless numbers
+had accompanied her brother's coffin to its resting place, and during the
+mass for the dead had crowded the spacious nave of St. Sebald's?  There
+had been now only a scanty group.  The nuns from the convent were
+present, down to the most humble lay Sister; but they were under great
+obligations to her mother, and their abbess was her father's sister.
+There were few other women except the old crones from the hospitals and
+nurseries, who were never absent when there was an opportunity to weep or
+to backbite.  In going through the nave of the church into the chapel the
+sisters had passed a group of younger lads and maidens, who had nudged
+one another in so disrespectful a way, whispering all sorts of things,
+that Els had tried to draw Eva past them as swiftly as possible.
+
+Her wish to keep her more sensitive sister from noticing the disagreeable
+gestures and insulting words of the cruel youths and girls was gratified.
+True, Eva also felt with keen indignation that far too little honour was
+paid to her beloved dead; that the blinded people believed the slanderers
+who repeated even worse things of her Els than of herself, and made their
+poor mother, who had lived and suffered like a saint, atone for what they
+imagined were the sins of her daughters; but the jeers and scorn which
+had obtruded themselves upon her father and sister from more than one
+quarter, in many a form, had entirely escaped her notice.  She had
+accustomed herself from childhood to indulge in reflections and emotions
+apart from the demands of the world.  Whatever occupied her mind or soul
+absorbed her completely; here she had been wholly engrossed in this
+silent intercourse with the departed, and a single glance at the group
+assembled in the church had showed her everything which she desired to
+know of her surroundings.
+
+Heinz had gone to the field the day before yesterday.  Her silent
+colloquy concerned him also.  How difficult he made it for her to
+maintain the resolution which she had formed during the mass for the
+dead, since he remained aloof, without giving even the slightest token of
+remembrance.  True, an inward voice constantly repeated that he could not
+part from her any more easily than she from him;  but her maidenly pride
+rebelled against the neglect with which he grieved her.  The defiant
+desire to punish him for departing without a word of farewell urged her
+back to the convent.  She had spent many hours there daily, and in its
+atmosphere of peace felt better and happier than in her father's house or
+any other spot which she visited.  The close association with her aunt,
+the abbess, was renewed.  True, she had not urged Eva to a definite
+statement by so much as a single word, yet she had made her feel plainly
+how deeply it would wound her if her pupil should resolve to disappoint
+the hopes which she herself had fostered.  If Eva refused to take the
+veil, would not her kind friend be justified in charging her with
+unequalled ingratitude? and whose opinion did she value even half as
+much, if she excepted her lover's, whose approval was more to her than
+that of all the rest of the world?
+
+He was better than she, and who could tell what important motive kept him
+away?  Countless worldly wishes had blended with the devotion which she
+felt in the convent; and had not the abbess herself taught her to obey,
+without regard to individuals or their opinion, the demands of her own
+nature, which were in harmony with the will of the Most High?  and how
+loudly every voice within commanded her to be loyal to her love!  She had
+made her decision, but offended pride, the memory of the happy, peaceful
+hours in the convent and, above all, the fear of grieving the beloved
+guide of her childhood, withheld her from the firm and irrevocable
+statement to which her nature, averse to hesitation and delay, impelled
+her.
+
+The nearer the sedan-chair came to the Ortlieb mansion the faster her
+heart beat, for that very day, probably within the next few hours, the
+abbess would compel her to choose between her father's house and the
+convent.
+
+She was panting for breath and deadly pale when, just after Els's
+arrival, she stepped from the chair.  It had become intensely hot.
+Within the vaulted corridor with its solid, impenetrable walls, a cooler
+atmosphere received her, and she hoped to find in her own chamber
+fresher, purer air, and--at least for the next few hours--undisturbed
+peace.
+
+But what was the meaning of this scene?  At her entrance, the
+conversation which Els had evidently just commenced with several other
+women at the door of the office suddenly ceased.  It must be due to
+consideration for her; for she had not failed to notice the significant
+glance with which her sister looked at her and then removed her finger
+from her lips.
+
+The abbess, who had been concealed by a wall of chests piled one above
+another, now came forward and laid her hand upon the shoulder of a little
+elderly woman, who must have been disputing vehemently with the old
+housekeeper, Martsche, for she was flushed with excitement, and the
+housekeeper's chin still quivered.
+
+Usually Eva paid little heed to the quarrels of the servants, but this
+one appeared to have some connection with herself, and the cause could be
+no trivial one, since Aunt Kunigunde took part in it.
+
+But she had no sooner approached the other women than the abbess drew
+her aside and asked her a few unimportant questions.  They were probably
+intended to keep her away from the disputants.  But Eva knew the little
+woman, and wished to learn what offence had been given modest, humble
+Widow Vorkler.  Her husband had been employed by the Ortlieb firm as a
+carrier, who had driven his team of six horses to Milan faithfully until
+killed in the Tyrol during an attack by robber knights in the lawless
+period before the coronation of the Emperor Rudolph.
+
+With the aid of Herr Ernst Ortlieb, the widow had then set up a little
+shop for the sale of wax candles, images of the saints, rosaries, and
+modest confirmation gifts, by which means she gained an honest livelihood
+for her seven children and herself.  Her oldest son, who on account of
+hip disease was not fit for hard work, helped her, and the youngest was
+Ortel, who had carried Eva's basket on the day of her dead mother's
+consecration.  Her daughter Metz was also in the Ortlieb's service as
+assistant to the chief cook.
+
+When Frau Vorkler had come to see her children, she had scarcely
+been able to find words which sufficiently expressed her grateful
+appreciation, but to-day she seemed like a different person.
+
+The brief colloquy between the abbess and Eva already appeared to her too
+long, and when the former bade her finish her business later with Els and
+old Martsche, she angrily declared that, with all due reverence for the
+Lady Abbess, she must inform Jungfrau Eva also what compelled her, a
+virtuous woman with a grateful heart, to take her children from the
+service of the employer for whom her husband had sacrificed his life.
+
+Els, who was eager to conceal the woman's insulting errand from Eva,
+tried to silence Frau Vorkler, but she defiantly persisted, and with
+redoubled zeal protested that speak she must or her heart would break.
+Then she declared that she had been proud to place her children in so
+godly a household, but now everything was changed, and though it grieved
+her to the soul, she must insist upon taking Metz and Ortel from its
+service.  She lived by the piety of people who bought candles for the
+dear saints and rosaries for praying; but even the most devout had eyes
+everywhere, and if it were known that her young children were serving in
+a house where such things happened, as alas!  were reported through the
+whole city concerning the daughters of this family----
+
+Here old Martsche with honest indignation interrupted the excited woman;
+but Fran Vorkler would not be silenced, and asked what a poor girl like
+her Metz possessed except her good name.  How quickly suspicion would
+rest on a lass whose respectability was questioned!  People had begun to
+do so ever since the Ortlieb sisters were called the "beautiful" instead
+of the pious and virtuous Es.  This showed how such notice of the face
+and figure benefited Christian maidens.  Yesterday and to-day she had
+given a three-farthing candle to her saint as a thank offering that this
+horror had not reached their mother's ears.  The dead woman had been a
+truly devout and noble lady, and her soul would be grateful to her for
+impressing upon the minds of her motherless daughters that the path which
+they had recklessly entered----
+
+This was too much for Ortel, who, concealed behind a heap of sacks, had
+listened to the discussion, and clasping his hands beseechingly, he now
+went up to his mother and entreated her to beware of repeating the
+slanders of evil-minded people who had dared to cast stones at the
+gracious maidens, who were as pure and innocent as their saint herself.
+
+Poor Ortel!  His kind young eyes  streaming with tears might have
+softened a rock; but the enraged candle-dealer misinterpreted his honest
+emotion, and he certainly would not have been allowed to go on so far had
+not rage and amazement kept her silent.  But Frau Vorkler never lost the
+use of her tongue long, and what a flood of abuse of the degenerate
+children of the time, who forgot the respect and gratitude due to their
+own mother, she began to pour forth!  But when faithful Endres, who had
+grown grey in the Ortlieb service, and under whose orders Ortel was
+placed to help in unpacking, commanded her to be silent or leave the
+house, and told her son, instead of following her, to stay with his old
+employer, Frau Vorkler proceeded to lament over the corruption of the
+whole world, and did not fail to deal a few side-thrusts at the two
+daughters of the house.
+
+But here also she made little progress, for the abbess led Eva up the
+stairs, and the two old family servants, Martsche representing the
+guiding mind and Endres the rude strength, made common cause.  The latter
+upheld Ortel in his refusal to leave the house, and the former declared
+that Metz must remain the usual time after giving notice.  She would not
+help Frau Vorkler to force the poor child into an unequal, miserable
+marriage with the old miser to whom she wanted to give her.
+
+This remark was aimed at the master-tailor Seubolt, the guardian of the
+Vorkler children, who, though forty years her senior, wanted to make
+pretty Metz his wife, and who had also promised the widow to obtain for
+his future brother-in-law Ortel an excellent place in the stables of the
+German order of military monks.  Not outraged morality, but the guardian
+and suitor in one person, had induced the candle-dealer to take her
+children from their good places in the Ortlieb household.  The widow's
+fear of having her real motive detected spared the necessity of using
+force.  But whilst slowly retiring backwards, crab fashion, she shrieked
+at her antagonists the threat that her children's guardian, no less a
+personage than master-tailor Nickel Seubolt, was a man who would help her
+gain her just rights and snatch the endangered souls of Ortel and her
+poor young Metz from temporal and eternal destruction in this Sodom and
+Gomorrah----
+
+The rest of the burden which oppressed her soul she was forced to confide
+to the street.  Endres closed the heavy door of the house behind her with
+a strength and celerity marvellous in a man of his years.
+
+Ortel was terribly agitated.  Soon after his mother's departure he went
+with his sister to the woodhouse, where both wept bitterly; for Metz had
+given her heart to a young carrier who was expected to return from a trip
+to Frankfort the first of July, and would rather have thrown herself into
+the Pegnitz than married the rich old tailor to whom she knew her mother
+had promised her pretty daughter; whilst her brother, like many youths of
+his station, thought that the place of driver of a six-horse wain was the
+most delightful calling in the world, and both were warmly attached to
+their employer and the family whom they served.  And yet both felt that
+it was a heavy sin to refuse to obey their mother.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Eva was spared witnessing the close of this unpleasant incident.  The
+abbess had led her up the stairs into the sitting-room.  St. Clare
+herself, she thought, had sent Fran Vorkler to render the choice she
+intended to place before her niece that very day easier for Eva.
+
+Even whilst ascending the broad steps she put her arm around her, but in
+the apartment, whence the noonday sun had been shut out and they were
+greeted with a cool atmosphere perfumed with the fragrance of the
+bouquets of roses and mignonette which Eva and the gardener had set in
+jars on the mantelpiece early in the morning, the abbess drew her darling
+closer to her side, saying, "The world is again showing you its most
+disagreeable face, my poor child, ere you bid it farewell."
+
+She kissed her brow and eyes tenderly as she spoke, expecting Eva, as
+she had often done when anything troubled her young soul, to return the
+caress impulsively, and accept with grateful impetuosity the invitation
+to the shelter which she offered; but the vile assault of the coarse
+woman who brought to her knowledge what people were thinking and saying
+about her produced upon the strange child, who had already given her many
+a surprise, an effect precisely opposite to her expectations.  No, Eva
+had by no means forgotten the pain inflicted by Frau Vorkler's base
+accusations; but if whilst in the sedan-chair she had feared that she
+should lack courage to inflict upon her beloved aunt and friend so great
+a disappointment, she now felt that this dread had been needless, and
+that her offended maidenly pride absolved her from consideration for
+any person.
+
+With cautious tenderness she released herself from the arms of the
+abbess, gazed sorrowfully at her with her large eyes as if beseeching
+forgiveness then, as she saw her aunt look at her with pained surprise,
+again threw herself on her breast.
+
+Instead of being protectingly embraced by the elder woman, the young girl
+clasped her closely to her heart, kissed and patted her with caressing
+love, and with the winning charm peculiar to her besought her forgiveness
+if she denied herself and her that which she had long desired as the
+fairest and noblest goal.
+
+When the abbess interrupted her to represent what awaited her in the
+world and in the convent, Eva listened, nestling closely to her side
+until she had finished, then sighing as deeply as if her own resolve
+caused her the keenest suffering, threw her head back, exclaiming,
+"Yet, in spite of everything, I cannot, must not enter the convent now."
+Clasping the abbess's hand, she explained what prevented her from
+fulfilling the wish of her childhood's guide, which had so long been her
+own, extolling with warm, sincere gratitude the quiet happiness and sweet
+anticipations enjoyed with her beloved nuns ere love had conquered her.
+
+During the recent days of sorrow she had again sought the path to her
+saints and found the greatest solace in prayer; but whenever she uplifted
+her heart to the Saviour, whose bride she had once so fervently vowed to
+become, the Redeemer had indeed appeared as usual before the eyes of her
+soul, but he resembled in form and features Sir Heinz Schorlin, and,
+instead of turning her away from the world to divine love, she had
+surrendered herself completely to earthly affection.  Prayer had become
+sin.  The saint's song:
+
+                   "O Love, Love's reign announcing,
+                        Why dost thou wound me so?
+                    Into thy fiercest flames I fling
+                        My heart, my life below."
+
+no longer invited her to give herself up to be fused into divine love,
+but merely rendered the need of her own soul clearer, and expressed in
+words the yearning of her heart for her lover.
+
+Here her aunt interrupted her with the assurance that all this--she had
+had the same experience when, renouncing the love of the noblest and best
+of men, she took the veil--would be different, wholly different, when
+with St. Clare's aid she had again found the path on which she had
+already once so nearly reached heaven.  Even now she beheld in
+imagination the day when Eva would look back upon the world she had left
+as if it were a mere formless mass of clouds.  These were no idle words.
+The promise was something derived from her own experience.
+
+On her pilgrimage to Rome she had gazed from an Alpine peak and beheld at
+her feet nothing save low hills, forests, valleys, and flashing streams,
+with here and there a village; but she could distinguish neither human
+beings nor animals; a light mist had veiled everything, converting it
+into one monotonous surface.  But above her head the sky, like a giant
+dome free from cloud and mist, arched in a beautiful vault, blue as
+turquoise and sapphire.  It seemed so close that the eagle soaring near
+her might reach it with a few strokes of his pinions.  She was steeped in
+radiance, and the sun shone down upon her with overpowering brilliancy
+like the eye of God.
+
+Close at her side a gay butterfly hovered about the solitary little
+white flower which grew from a bare rock on the topmost summit.  In the
+brilliant light and amidst the solemn silence that butterfly seemed like
+a transfigured soul, and aroused the question, Who that was permitted to
+live on this glowing height, so near the Most High, could desire to
+return to the grey mist below?
+
+So the human soul which soared to the shining height where it was so near
+heaven, would blissfully enjoy the purity of the air and the un shadowed
+light which bathed it, and all that was passing in the world below would
+blend into a single vanquished whole, whose details could no longer be
+distinguished.  Thus Heinz Schorlin's image would also mingle with the
+remainder of the world, lying far below her, to which he belonged.  It
+should merely incite her to rise nearer and nearer to heaven, to the
+radiant light above, to which her soul would mount as easily as the eagle
+that before the pilgrim's eyes had vanished in the divine blue and the
+golden sunshine.
+
+"So come and dare the flight!" she concluded with warm enthusiasm.
+"The wings you need have grown from your soul, you chosen bride of
+Heaven.  Use them.  That which now most repels you from the goal will
+fall away as the snake sheds its skin.  Like the phoenix rising from its
+ashes, the destruction of the little earthly love which even now causes
+you more pain than pleasure, will permit the ascent of the great love for
+Him Who is Love incarnate, the love which encompasses the lonely
+butterfly on the white blossom in the silent, deserted mountain solitude,
+which lacks no feather on its wings, no tiniest hair on its feelers, as
+warmly and carefully as the vast, unlimited universe whose duration ends
+only with eternity."
+
+Eva, with labouring breath, had fairly hung upon the lips of the revered
+woman, who at last gazed upwards with dilated eyes like a prophetess.
+
+When she paused the young girl nodded assent.  Her teacher and friend
+seemed to have crushed her resistance.
+
+Like the eagle which had disappeared before the pilgrim's eyes in the
+azure vault of heaven, the radiant light on the pure summit summoned her
+pure soul to dare the flight.
+
+The abbess watched with delight the influence of her words upon the soul
+of her darling, who, gazing thoughtfully at the floor, now seemed to be
+pondering over what she had urged.
+
+But suddenly Eva raised her bowed head, and her eyes, sparkling with a
+brighter light, sought those of the abbess.
+
+Her quick intellect had attentively considered what she had heard, and
+her vivid power of imagination had enabled her to transfer to reality the
+picture which had already half won her over to her friend's wishes.
+
+"No, Aunt Kunigunde, no!" she began, raising her hands as if in repulse.
+"Your radiant height strongly allures me also, yet, gladly as I believe
+that, for many the world would be easily forgotten above, where no sound
+from it reaches us and the mist conceals individual figures from our
+eyes, for me, now that love has filled my heart, it would be impossible
+to ascend the peak alone and without him.
+
+"Hear me, aunt!
+
+"What was it that attracted me so powerfully from the beginning?  At
+first, as you know, the hope of making him a combatant for the
+possessions which I have learned through you to regard as the highest and
+most sacred.  Then, when love came, when a new power, heretofore unknown,
+awoke within me and--everything must be told--I longed for his wooing and
+his embrace, I also felt that our union could take root and put forth
+blossoms only in the full harmony of our mutual love for God and the
+Saviour.  And though since the mass for the dead was celebrated for my
+mother--it wounded me, and defiance and the wish to punish him urged me
+to put the convent walls between us--no further token of his love has
+come, though I know as well as you that he desired to quit the world,
+this by no means impairs--nay, it only strengthens--the confidence I feel
+that our souls belong to one another as inseparably as though the
+sacrament had hallowed our union.
+
+"Therefore I should never succeed in coming so near heaven as you, the
+lonely, devout pilgrim, attained on the summit of your mountain peak,
+unless he accompanied me in spirit, unless his soul joined mine in the
+ascent or the flight.  It rests in mine as mine rests in his, and were
+they separated both would bleed as if from severed veins.  For this
+reason, aunt, he can never blend into a uniform mass with the rest of the
+world below me; for if I gained the radiant height, he would remain at my
+side and gaze with me at the mist-veiled world beneath.  He can never
+vanish from the eyes of my soul, and so, dear aunt, because I owe it to
+him to avoid even the semblance----"
+
+Here she hesitated; for from the adjoining room they heard a man's deep
+voice telling Els something in loud, excited tones.
+
+This interruption was welcome to the abbess; she had as yet found no
+answer to her niece's startling objection.
+
+Eva answered her questioning glance with the exclamation, "Uncle
+Pfinzing!"
+
+"He?" replied the abbess dejectedly.  "His opinion has some weight with
+you, and this very day, during the burial, he told me how glad he should
+be to see you sheltered in the convent from the hateful calumnies caused
+by your imprudence!"
+
+"Yet--you will see it directly," the girl declared, "he will surely
+understand me when I explain that I would rather endure the worst than
+appear to seek refuge from evil tongues in flight.  Whoever has expected
+Eva Ortlieb to shelter herself from malice behind strong walls will be
+mistaken.  Heinz is certainly aware of the shameful injustice which has
+pursued us, and if he returns he must find me where he left me.  I am now
+encountering what my dead mother called the forge fire of life, and I
+will not shun it like a coward.  Heinz, I know, will overthrow the man
+who unchained this generation of vipers against us; but if he does not
+return, or can bring himself to cast the love that unites us behind him
+with the world from which he would fain turn, then, aunt"--and Eva's eyes
+flashed brightly with passionate fire, and her clear voice expressed the
+firm decision of a vigorous will--"then I will commit our cause to One
+who will not suffer falsehood to conquer truth or wrong to triumph over
+right.  Then, though it should be necessary to walk over red-hot
+ploughshares, let the ordeal bear witness for us."
+
+The abbess, startled, yet rejoicing at the fulness of faith flaming in
+her darling's passionate speech, approached Eva to soothe her; but
+scarcely had she begun to speak when the door opened and Berthold
+Pfinzing entered with his older niece.
+
+He was holding Els by the hand, and it was evident that some sorrowful
+thought occupied the minds of both.
+
+"Has any new horror happened?" fell in tones of anxious enquiry from
+Eva's lips before she even greeted her dearest relative.
+
+"Think of something very bad," was her sister's reply, in a tone so
+dejected and mournful, that Eva, with a low cry--"My father!"--pressed
+her hand upon her heart.
+
+"Not  dead,  darling,"  said  the  magistrate, stroking her head
+soothingly with his short, broad hand, "by all the saints, not even
+wounded or ill.  Yet the daughter has guessed aright, and I have kept the
+'Honourables' waiting, that I might tell you the news myself; for what
+may not such tidings become whilst passing from lip to lip!  It is a
+toad, a very ugly toad, and I would not permit a dragon to be brought
+into the house to you poor things in its place."
+
+He poured all this forth very rapidly, for, notwithstanding the intense
+heat, and the burden of business at the Town Hall, he had left it, though
+only to do his dear Es a kindness, lie and his worthy wife Christine, the
+sister of Herr Ernst Ortlieb and of the abbess, had long been familiar
+with all the tales which slander had called to life, and had striven
+zealously enough to refute them.  What he had now to relate filled him
+with honest indignation against the evil tongues, and he knew how deeply
+it would excite and grieve Eva, his godchild, who stood especially near
+his heart.  He would gladly have said a few kind words to her before
+beginning his story, but he was obliged to return to the Town Hall
+immediately to open the important conference concerning the fate of the
+Eysvogel business.
+
+His appearance showed how rapidly he had hurried to the house through
+the burning sunshine, for drops of perspiration were trickling down his
+broad, low forehead over his plump, smoothshaven cheeks and thick red
+neck, in which his small chin vanished as if it were a cushion.  Besides,
+he constantly raised a large linen handkerchief to his face, and his huge
+chest laboured for breath as he hastily repeated to Eva and the abbess
+what he had just announced to Els in a few rapid words.
+
+Herr Ernst Ortlieb had gone to the Town Hall, where he attended an
+examination in his character as magistrate, and had entered the court
+yard to enjoy the cool air for a short time with a few other
+"Honourables," in the shady walk near the main gate.
+
+Just then master-tailor Seubolt, the guardian of Ortel and his sister,
+who were in service at the Ortlieb mansion, approached the Town Hall.
+No one could have supposed that the tall, grey-headed man with the bowed
+back, who was evidently nearing sixty, really meant to make a young girl
+like Metz Vorkler his wife.  Besides, he assumed a very humble, modest
+demeanour when, passing through the vaulted entrance of the Town Hall,
+which stood open to every citizen, he approached Herr Ernst to ask, with
+many bows and humble phrases, for the permission, which he had been
+refused at the Ortlieb house, to remove his wards from a place which
+their mother, as well as he himself, felt sure--he had supposed that the
+"Honourable" would have no objection--would  be harmful to them in both
+body and soul.
+
+Surprised and indignant, but perfectly calm, Herr Ernst had requested him
+to tell him whatever he had to say at a more convenient time.  But as the
+tailor insisted that the matter would permit no delay, he invited him to
+step aside with him, in order not to make the councillors who were with
+him witnesses of the unpleasant discussion.
+
+Seubolt, however, seemed to have no greater desire than to be heard by as
+many people as possible.  Raising his voice to a very loud tone, though
+he still maintained an extremely humble manner, he began to give the
+reasons which induced him, spite of his deep regret, to remove his wards
+from the Ortlieb house.  And now, sheltering himself behind frequent
+repetitions of "As people say" and "Heaven forbid that I should believe
+such things," he began to relate what the most venomous slander had dared
+to assert concerning the beautiful Es.
+
+For a time Herr Ernst had forced himself to listen quietly to this
+malicious abuse of those whom he held dearest, but at last it became too
+much for the quick-tempered man.  The tailor had ventured to allude to
+Jungfrau Els "who certainly had scarcely given full cause for such evil
+slander" in words which caused even the councillors standing near to
+contradict him loudly, and induced Herr Pfinzing, who had just come up,
+to beckon to the city soldiers.  At that instant the blood mounted to the
+insulted father's brain, and the misfortune happened; for as the tailor,
+with an unexpected gesture of the arm he was flourishing, brushed Herr
+Ernst's cap, the latter, fairly insane with rage, snatched the pike from
+one of the men who, obeying Herr Pfinzing's signal, were just approaching
+the tailor, and with a wild cry struck down the base traducer.
+
+Herr Pfinzing, with the presence of mind characteristic of him, instantly
+ordered the beadles to carry the wounded man into the Town Hall, and thus
+prevented the luckless deed of violence from creating any excitement.
+
+The few persons in the courtyard had been detained, and perhaps
+everything might yet be well.  Herr Ernst had instantly delivered himself
+up to justice, and instead of being taken to prison like a common
+criminal, had been conveyed in a closed sedan-chair to the watch-tower.
+
+The pike had pierced the tailor's shoulder, but the wound did not seem to
+be mortal, and Herr Ernst's rash deed might be made good by the payment
+of blood-money, though, it is true, on account of the tailor's position
+and means, this might be a large sum.
+
+"My horse," said Herr Berthold in conclusion, "was waiting for me, and
+brought me here as swiftly as he must carry me back again.  But, you poor
+things!  as for you, my Els, you have a firm nature, and if you insist
+upon refusing the invitation to our house, why, wait here to learn
+whether your father needs you.  You, my little goddaughter Eva, are
+provided for.  This sorrow, of course, will throw the veil over your fair
+head."
+
+The worthy man, as he spoke, laid his hand on her shoulder and looked at
+her with a glance which seemed to rely on her assent, but she interrupted
+him with the exclamation, "No, uncle!  Until you have convinced yourself
+that no one will dare assail Eva Ortlieb's honour, do not ask her again
+if she desires the protection of the convent."
+
+The magistrate hurriedly passed his huge handkerchief over his face; then
+taking Eva's head between his hands, kissed her brow, and--turning the
+shrewd, twinkling eyes, which were as round as everything else about his
+person, towards the others, said: "Did any one suggest this, or did the
+'little saint' have the sensible idea herself?"
+
+When Eva, smiling, pointed to her own forehead, he exclaimed: "My
+respects, child.  They say that what stirs up there descends from
+godfather to godchild, and I'll never put goblet to my lips again if I--"
+
+Here he stopped, and called after Els that he had not meant to hint, for
+she was hurrying out to get her uncle something to drink.  But ere the
+door closed behind her he went on eagerly:
+
+"But to you, my saintly child, I will say: your piety soars far too high
+for me to follow with my heavy body; yet on the ride here I, old sinner
+that I am, longed--no offence, sister-in-law abbess!--to warn you against
+the convent, for the very reason which keeps you away from your saint.
+We'll find the gag to stop the mouths of these accursed slanderers
+forever, and then, if you want to enter the convent, they shall not say,
+when you take the veil, 'Eva Ortlieb is hiding from her own shame and the
+tricks with which we frightened her out of the world.'  No! All Nuremberg
+shall join in the hosanna!"
+
+Then taking the goblet which Els had just filled, he drained it with
+great satisfaction, and rushing off, called back to the sisters: "I'll
+soon see you again, you brave little Es.  My wife is coming to talk over
+the matter with you.  Don't let that worthless candle-dealer's children
+leave the house till their time is up.  If you wish to visit your father
+in the watch-tower there will be no difficulty.  I'll tell the warder.
+Only the drawbridge will be raised after sunset.  You can provide for his
+bodily needs, too, Els.  We cannot release him yet; the law must take its
+course."
+
+At the door he stopped again and called back into the room: "We can't be
+sure.  If Frau Vorkler and the tailor's friends make an outcry and molest
+you, send at once to the Town Hall.  I'll keep my eyes open and give the
+necessary orders."
+
+A few minutes after he trotted through the Frauenthor on his clumsy
+stallion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+The watch-tower was in the northern part of the city, in the corn
+magazine of the fortress, and the whole width of Nuremberg must be
+traversed to reach it.  Even before Herr Pfinzing had left the house the
+sisters determined to go to their father, and the abbess approved the
+plan.  She invited the girls to spend the night at the convent, if they
+found the deserted house too lonely, but they did not promise to do so.
+
+Countess Cordula, who was on friendly terms with Eva, also emptied the
+vials of her wrath with all the impetuosity of her nature upon Sir Seitz
+Siebenburg and the credulity and malice of the people.  From the
+beginning she had been firmly convinced that the "Mustache," as she now
+called the knight in a tone of the most intense aversion, had contrived
+this base conspiracy, and her opinion was strengthened by Biberli.  Now
+she would gladly have torn herself into pieces to mitigate the sisters'
+hard lot.  She wanted to accompany them to the watch-tower, to have them
+taken there in her sedan-chair carried by horses, which had room for
+several persons, and at last begged for the favour of being allowed to
+spend the night in the room adjoining theirs.  If the girls, amidst all
+these base suspicions, should find Nuremberg unendurable, she would leave
+the scene of the Reichstag with them to-morrow, if necessary, and take
+them to her castle in the Vorarlberg.  She had other plans for them, too,
+in her mind, but lacked time now to explain them to the sisters; they
+could not obtain admittance to their father's prison after sundown, and
+in a few hours the long summer day would be over.
+
+It was not advisable to use their sedan-chairs adorned with the Ortlieb
+coat of arms, which every one knew, so they went on foot with their faces
+shrouded by the 'Reise' which was part of their mourning dress; and, in
+order not to violate usage, were accompanied by two servants, old
+Martsche and Katterle.
+
+From the Fleischbrucke they might have avoided the market-place, but Els
+wanted to enquire whether the Eysvogel matter was being discussed.  One
+of the "Honourables"--all of whom she knew--was always to be found near
+the Town Hall, and Eva understood her sister's anxiety and went with her
+willingly.
+
+But when they were passing the prison she became frightened.
+
+Through the squares formed by the iron grating in front of the broad
+window of the largest one, head after head, hand after hand, was thrust
+into the street.  The closely cropped heads of the prisoners, many of
+which showed mutilations by the hand of the executioner, which had barely
+healed, formed, as separated only by the iron bars, they protruded above,
+below, and beside one another into the open air, a mosaic picture,
+startlingly repulsive in appearance; for savage greed glittered in the
+eyes of most, and showed itself in the movements of the long, thin hands
+extended for gifts.  Bitter need and passionate longing gazed defiantly,
+beseechingly, and threateningly at the people who crowded round the
+window.  Few were silent; they implored the curious and pitying men,
+women, and children, who in the presence of their misery rejoiced in
+their more favoured lot, for aid in their distress, and rarely in vain;
+for many a mother gave her children a loaf to hand to the unfortunates,
+and meanwhile impressed on their minds the lesson that they would fare as
+badly as the most horrible of the mutilated prisoners unless they were
+good and obedient to their parents and teachers.
+
+Street boys held out an apple or a bit of bread, to snatch it away just
+as they touched it with their finger-tips, thus playing with them for
+their own amusement, but the tribulation of the wretched captives.  Then
+some man who had seen better days, or a criminal whom sudden passion had
+made a murderer, would burst into a rage and, seizing the iron bars,
+shake them savagely, whilst the others, shrieking, drew in their heads.
+Then fierce curses, threats, and invectives echoed over the market-place
+and, screaming aloud, the boys ran back; but they soon resumed their
+malicious sport.
+
+Often, it is true, a mother came who placed her gift in the hands of her
+child, or a modest old woman, tradesman, or soldier, from motives of
+genuine compassion, offered the prisoners a jug of new milk or
+strengthening wine.  Nor was there any lack of priests or monks who
+desired to give the consolations of religion to the pitiable men behind
+the bars, but most of them reaped little gratitude; only a few listened
+to their exhortations with open hearts, and but too frequently they were
+silenced by insults and rude outcries.
+
+Whilst the sisters, attended by their maidservants, were passing these
+pitiable people, Frau Tucher, whose daughter had been very ill, sent, for
+the love of God, a large basket of freshly baked bread to the prisoners.
+One of her servants was distributing it, and they greedily snatched the
+welcome gift from his hand.  A woman, who was about to give one of the
+rolls to the hollow-eyed child in her arms just as a rude fellow who had
+lost his ears snatched it, scratched his dirty, freckled face with her
+sharp nails, and the sight of the blood which dripped from his lip over
+his chin upon the roll was so hideous a spectacle that Eva clung closer
+to her sister, who had just put her hand into the pocket hanging from her
+belt to give the unfortunates a few shillings, and drew her away with
+her.
+
+Both, followed by the two maids, made their way as fast as possible
+through the people who had flocked hither in great numbers for a purpose
+which the sisters were to learn only too soon.
+
+It was a long time since they had been here, and a few weeks previously
+the "Honourables" had had the pillory moved from the other side of the
+Town Hall to this spot.  Katterle's warning was not heard in the din
+around them.
+
+The crowd grew denser every moment, and Eva had already asked her sister
+to turn back, when Els saw the man who brought to her father the summons
+to the meetings of the Council, and requested him to accompany them
+through the throng to the courtyard; but amidst the uproar of shouts and
+cries he misunderstood her, and supposing that she wished to witness the
+spectacle which had attracted so many, forced a way for the sisters into
+the very front rank.
+
+The person who had just been bound in this place of shame was the
+barber's widow from the Kotgasse, who had already been here once for
+giving lovers an opportunity for secret meetings, and to whom Katterle
+had fled for shelter.  Bowed by the weight of the stone which had been
+hung around her neck, the woman, with outstretched head, looked furiously
+around the circle of her tormentors like a wild beast crouched to spring,
+and scarcely had the messenger brought the sisters and their servants to
+a place near her when, recognising Katterle, she shrieked shrilly to the
+crowd that there were the right ones, the dainty folk who, if they did
+not belong to a rich family, would be put in the place where, in spite of
+the Riese over their faces, with which they mourned for their lost good
+name, they had more reason to be than she, who was only the lowly widow
+of a barber.
+
+Overwhelmed with horror the girls pressed on, and at Eva's terrified
+exclamation, "Let us, O let us go!" the man did his best.  But they made
+slow progress through the crowd, whose yells, hisses, and catcalls
+pursued them to the entrance of the neighbouring Town Hall.
+
+Here the guard, with crossed halberds, kept back the people who were
+crowding after the insulted girls, and it was fortunate, for Eva's feet
+refused to carry her farther, and her older sister's strength to support
+her failed.
+
+Sighing deeply, Els led her to a bench which stood between two pillars,
+and then ordered old Martsche, and Katterle, who was trembling in every
+limb, to watch Eva till her return.
+
+Before they went on, her sister must have some rest, and Martin Schedel,
+the old Clerk of the Council, was the man with whom to obtain it.
+
+She went in search of him as fast as her feet would bear her, and by a
+lucky accident met the kind old man, whom she had known from childhood,
+on the stairs leading to the Council chamber and the upper offices.
+
+Ernst Ortlieb's unhappy deed, and the story of the base calumnies in
+circulation about the unfortunate man's daughters, which he had just
+heard from Herr Pfinzing, had filled the worthy old clerk's heart with
+pity and indignation; so he eagerly embraced the opportunity afforded to
+atone to the young girls for the wrongs committed against them by their
+fellow-citizens.  Telling the maidservants to wait in the antechamber of
+the orphan's court-room, he led the sisters to his own office, helping
+Eva up the long flight of stairs with an arm which, though aged, was
+still vigorous.  After insisting that she should sit in the armchair
+before the big desk, and placing wine and water before her, he begged the
+young girls to wait until his return.  He was obliged to be present at
+the meeting, which had probably already begun.  The matter in question
+was the Eysvogel business, and if Els would remain he could tell her the
+result.  Then he left them.
+
+Eva, deadly pale, leaned back with closed eyes in the clerk's high
+chair.  Els bathed her brow with a wet handkerchief, consoling her by
+representing how foolish it would be to suffer the lowest of the populace
+to destroy her happiness.
+
+Her sister nodded assent, saying: "Did you notice the faces of those
+people behind the bars?  Most of them, I thought, looked stupid rather
+than evil."  Here she hesitated, and then added thoughtfully: "Yet they
+cannot be wise.  These poor creatures seldom obtain any great sum by
+thieving and cheating.  To what terrible punishments they expose
+themselves both in this world and the next!  And conscience!"
+
+"Yes, conscience!" Els eagerly repeated.  "So long as we can say that we
+have done nothing wrong, we can suffer even the worst to be said of us
+without grieving."
+
+"Still," sighed Eva, "I feel as if that horrible woman's insults had
+sullied me with a stain no water can wash away.  What sorrows have come
+upon us since our mother died, Els!"
+
+Her sister nodded, and added mournfully: "Our father, my Wolff, your
+poor, stricken heart, and below in the Council chamber, Eva, perhaps
+whilst we are talking, those who are soon to be my kindred are being
+doomed.  That is harder to bear, child, than the invectives with which a
+wicked woman slanders us.  Often I do not know myself where I get the
+strength to keep up my courage."
+
+She turned away as she spoke to wipe the tears from her eyes without
+being seen; but Eva perceived it, and rose to clasp her in her arms and
+whisper words of cheer.  Ere she had taken the first step, however, she
+started; in rising she had upset the clerk's tin water-pail, which fell
+rattling on the floor.
+
+"The water!" she exclaimed sadly, "and my tongue is parched."
+
+"I'll fetch more," said Els consolingly; "Herr Martin brought it from
+over yonder."
+
+Opening the door to which she had pointed, she entered a low, spacious
+anteroom, in which was a brass fire engine, ladders, pails, and various
+other utensils for extinguishing a fire in the building, hung on the
+rough plastered wall which separated this room from the office of the
+city clerk.  The centre of the opposite wall was occupied by two small
+windows surmounted by a broad, semicircular arch, and separated by a
+short Roman pillar.  The sashes of both, whose leaden casings were filled
+with little round horn panes, stood wide open.  This double window was in
+the upper part of the Council chamber, which occupied two stories.  To
+create a draught this hot day it had been flung wide open, and Els could
+distinguish plainly the words uttered below.  The first that reached her
+was the name: "Wolff Eysvogel."
+
+A burning sensation thrilled her.  If she went nearer to the window she
+could hear what the Honourables decided concerning the Eysvogel house;
+and, overpowered by her ardent desire not to lose a single word of the
+discussion which was to determine the happiness of Wolff's life, and
+therefore hers, she instantly silenced the voice which admonished her
+that listening was wrong.  Yet the habit of caring for Eva was so dear to
+her, and ruled her with such power, that before listening to what was
+passing in the Council chamber below she looked for the water, which she
+speedily found, took it to the thirsty girl, and hurriedly told her what
+she had discovered in the next room and how she intended to profit by it.
+
+In spite of Eva's entreaty not to do it, she hastened back to the open
+window.
+
+The younger sister, though she shook her head, gazed after her with a
+significant smile.
+
+To Eva this was no accident.
+
+Perhaps it was her saint herself who, when her sister went to seek
+refreshment for her, had guided her to the window.  Eva deemed it a boon
+to be permitted to find here in solitude the rest needful for her body
+which, though usually so strong, had been shaken by horror, and to
+struggle and pray for a clear understanding of the many things which
+troubled her; for to her prayer was far more than the petition for a
+spiritual or earthly blessing; nay, she prayed far less frequently to
+implore anything than from yearning for the Most High to whose presence
+the wings of prayer raised her.  So long as she was absorbed in it, she
+felt removed from the world and borne into the abode of God.
+
+Now also, whilst Els was listening, she brought no earthly matter to the
+Power who guided the universe as well as her own little individual life,
+but merely lost herself in supplication and in her intercourse with the
+Omnipotent One, who seemed to her a familiar friend; she forgot what
+grieved and troubled her and how she had been pained.  But meanwhile the
+prediction she had made to the abbess was verified; she felt as if her
+lover's soul rose with hers to the pure height where she dwelt, and that
+the earthly love which filled her heart and his was but an effluence of
+the Eternal Love, whose embodiment to her was God and the Saviour.
+
+The union of herself and Heinz seemed imaged by two streams flowing from
+the same great inexhaustible, pure, and beneficent fountain, which, after
+having run through separate channels, meet to traverse as a single river
+the blooming meadows and keep them fresh and green.  God's love, her own,
+and his were each separate and yet the same, portions of the great fount
+which animated, saved, and blessed her, him, and the whole vast universe.
+The spring gushing from her love and his was eternal, and therefore
+neither could be exhausted, no matter how much it gave.
+
+But both were still in the world.  As he would certainly put forth all
+his might to show himself worthy of the confidence placed in him by his
+Emperor and master, she too must test her youthful strength in the
+arduous conflict which she had begun.  Her recent experiences were the
+flames of the forge fire of life of which her mother had spoken--and how
+pitifully she had endured their glow!  This must be changed.  She had
+often proved that when the body is wearied the soul gains greater power
+to soar.  Should she not begin to avail herself of this to make her
+feeble body obey her will?  With compressed lips and clenched hand she
+resolved to try.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+Whilst Eva, completely absorbed in herself, was forming this resolution,
+Els, panting for breath, stood at the open window under the ceiling of
+the Council chamber, gazing down and listening to the sounds from
+beneath.
+
+Directly opposite to her was the inscription
+
+"Feldt Urtel auf erden, als ir dort woldt geurtheilt werden," in the
+German and Latin languages, and below this motto, urging the magistrates
+to justice, was a large fresco representing the unjust judge Sisamnes
+being flayed by an executioner in the costume of the Nuremberg Leben--
+[Executioner's assistant.  Really "Lowen."]--before the eyes of King
+Cambyses, in order to cover the judgment seat with his skin.  Another
+picture represented this lofty throne, on which sat the ruler of Persia
+dispensing justice.  The subject of a third was the Roman army
+interrupted in its march by the order of the Emperor Trajan, that he
+might have time to hear a widow's accusation of the murderer of her son
+and to punish the criminal.
+
+Els did not bestow a single glance upon these familiar pictures, but
+gazed down at the thirteen elderly and the same number of much younger
+men, who in their high-backed chairs were holding council together at her
+left hand far below her.  These were the burgomasters of the city, of
+whom an elder and a younger one directed for the space of a month, as
+"Questioner," the government of the public affairs of the city and the
+business of the "Honourable Council."
+
+At this time the office was filled by Albert Ebner and Jorg Stromer,
+whilst in the secret council formed by seven of the older gentlemen, as
+the highest executive authority, Hans Schtirstab as the second and
+Berthold Vorchtel as first Losunger filled the chief offices.
+
+So this year the deeply offended father held the highest place in the
+Council, and in the whole community of Nuremberg he, more than any one
+else, would decide the fate of the Eysvogels.
+
+Els knew this, and with an anxious heart saw him gaze earnestly and sadly
+at the papers which Martin Schedel, the city clerk, had just brought to
+him from a special desk.  At his side, in the centre of the table covered
+with green cloth, sat the listener's uncle, the magistrate Berthold
+Pfinzing, who in the Emperor's name presided over the court of justice.
+
+He also appeared in his character of protector of the Jews, and Samuel
+Pfefferkorn, a Hebrew usurer, had just left the hall after an
+examination.
+
+Casper Eysvogel was gazing after him with a face white as death.  His
+handsome head shook as the imperial magistrate, turning to Berthold
+Vorchtel, the chief Losunger, said in a tone loud enough to be heard by
+all present, "So this is also settled.  Herr Casper contracted the great
+debt to the Jew without the knowledge of his son and partner, and this
+explains to a florin the difference between the accounts of the father
+and son.  The young man was intentionally kept in the dark about the
+greatest danger which threatened the business.  To him the situation of
+the house must have appeared critical, but by no means hopeless.  But for
+the Siebenburgs and the other bandits, who transformed the last important
+and promising venture of the firm into a great loss, and with the sale of
+the landed property, it might perhaps have speedily risen, and under
+prudent and skilful management regained its former prosperity.  The
+enormous sum to which the debt to Samuel Pfefferkorn increased gives the
+position of affairs a different aspect.  Since, as protector of the Jew,
+I must insist upon the payment of this capital with the usual interest,
+the old Eysvogel firm will be unable to meet its obligations--nay, its
+creditors can be but partially paid.  Therefore nothing remains for us to
+do save to consider how to protect as far as possible our city and the
+citizens who are interested.  Yet, in my opinion, the entire firm does
+not deserve punishment--only the father, who concealed from his upright
+son his own accounts and those of Samuel Pfefferkorn, and--it is hard for
+me to say this in Herr Casper's presence;--also, when the peril became
+urgent, illegally deprived his business partner of the possibility of
+obtaining a correct view of the real situation of affairs.  So, in the
+Emperor's name, let justice take its course."
+
+These words pronounced the doom of the ancient, great, and wealthy
+Eysvogel firm; yet the heart of Els throbbed high with joy when, after
+a brief interchange of opinions between the assembled members of the
+Council, the imperial magistrate, turning to Herr Vorchtel, again began:
+"As Chief Losunger, it would be your place, Herr Berthold, to raise your
+voice on the part of the Honourable Council in defence of the accused;
+but since we are all aware of the great grief inflicted upon you by the
+son of the man in whose favour you would be obliged to speak, we should,
+I think, spare you this duty, and transfer it to Herr Hans Schtirstab,
+the second Losunger, or to Herr Albert Ebner, the oldest of the governing
+burgomasters, who, though equally concerned in this sad case, are less
+closely connected with the Eysvogels themselves."
+
+Els uttered a sigh of relief, for both the men named were friendly to
+Wolff; but Herr Vorchtel had already risen and began to speak, turning
+his wise old head slowly to and fro, and drawing his soft grey beard
+through his hand.
+
+He commenced his address as quietly as if he were talking with friends at
+his own table, and the tones of his deep voice, as well as the expression
+of his finely moulded aged features, exerted a soothing influence upon
+his listeners.
+
+Els, with a throbbing heart, felt that nothing which this man advocated
+could be wrong, and that whatever he recommended would be sure of
+acceptance; for he stood amongst his young and elderly fellow directors
+of the Nuremberg republic like an immovably steadfast guardian of duty
+and law, who had grown grey in the atmosphere of honesty and honour.
+Thus she had imagined the faithful Eckart, thus her own Wolff might look
+some day when age had bleached his hair and labour and anxiety had lined
+his lofty brow with wrinkles; Berthold Vorchtel, and other "Honourables"
+who resembled him; grey-haired Conrad Gross; tall, broad-shouldered
+Friedrich Holzschuher, whose long, snow-white hair fell in thick waves to
+his shoulders; Ulrich Haller, in whose locks threads of silver were just
+appearing, princely in form and bearing; stately Hermann Waldstromer, who
+had the keen eyes of a huntsman; the noble Ebner brothers, who would have
+attracted attention even in an assembly of knights and counts--nay, the
+Emperor Rudolph was probably thinking of the men below when he said that
+the Nuremberg Council reminded him of a German oak wood, where firm
+reliance could be placed on every noble trunk.
+
+Herr Berthold Vorchtel was just such a noble, reliable tree.  Els told
+herself so, and though she knew how deeply he was wounded when Wolff
+preferred her to his daughter Ursula, and how sorely he mourned his son
+Ulrich's death, she was nevertheless convinced that this man would bear
+the Eysvogels no grudge for the grief suffered through them, for no word
+which was not just and estimable would cross his aged lips.
+
+She was not mistaken; for after Herr Berthold had insisted upon his right
+to raise his voice, not in behalf of Herr Casper but for his business
+firm and its preservation, he remarked, by way of introduction, that for
+the sake of Nuremberg he would advise that the Eysvogel house should not
+be abandoned without ceremony to the storm which its chief had aroused
+against the ancient, solid structure.
+
+Then he turned to the papers and parchments, to which the city clerk had
+just added several books and rolls.  His address, frequently interrupted
+by references to the documents before him, sounded clear and positive.
+The amount of the sums owed by the Eysvogel firm, as well as the names of
+its creditors in Nuremberg, Augsburg, Ulm, and Regensburg, Venice, Milan,
+Bruges, and other German and foreign cities, formed the most important
+portion of his speech.  During its progress he frequently seized a bit of
+chalk and blackboard, writing rapidly on the green table whole rows of
+figures, and the young burgomasters especially exchanged admiring smiles
+as the experienced old merchant added and subtracted in an instant sums
+for which they themselves would have needed twice as much time.
+
+The figures and names buzzed in the ears of the listener at the window
+like the humming of a swarm of gnats.  To understand and remember them
+was impossible, and she gazed in astonishment at the old man who so
+clearly comprehended the confused tangle and drew from it so readily just
+what he needed for his purpose.
+
+When he closed, and with a loud "Therefore" began to communicate the
+result, she summoned all the mental power she possessed in order to
+understand it.  She succeeded, but her knees fairly trembled when she
+heard the sum which the house was obliged to repay to others.
+
+Yet, when Herr Berthold lastly gave the estimate of the Eysvogel property
+in merchandise, buildings, and estates, she was again surprised.  She had
+not supposed that Wolff's proud family was so wealthy; but the close of
+this report brought fresh disappointment, for including the sum which
+Herr Casper had borrowed from the Jew Pfefferkorn, the debts of the firm
+exceeded its possessions far more than Els had expected from the amount
+of its riches.
+
+She was wholly ignorant of the condition of her own father's property;
+but she thought she knew that it was far from being enough to suffice
+here.  And this appeared to be the case, for when Berthold Vorchtel
+resumed his speech he alluded to Ernst Ortlieb.  In words full of
+sympathy he lamented the unprecedented insult which had led him to commit
+the deed of violence that prevented his sharing in this consultation.
+But before his removal he had given him an important commission.  Upon
+certain conditions--but only upon them--he would place a considerable
+portion of his fortune at his disposal for the settlement of this affair.
+Still, large as was the promised sum, it would by no means be sufficient
+to save the Eysvogel business from ruin.  Yet he, Berthold Vorchtel, was
+of the opinion that its fall must be prevented at any cost.  The
+sincerity of this conviction he intended to prove by the best means
+at a merchant's command-the pledge of his own large capital.
+
+These words deeply moved the whole assembly, and Els saw her uncle glance
+at the old gentleman with a look which expressed the warm appreciation of
+a man of the same mind.
+
+Casper Eysvogel, who, lost in thought, had permitted the statements of
+the Losunger, which were mingled with many a bitter censure of his own
+conduct, to pass without contradiction--nay, apparently in a state
+of apathy in which he was no longer capable of following details--
+straightened his bowed figure and gazed enquiringly into Herr Berthold's
+face as if he did not venture to trust his own ears; but the other looked
+past him, as he added that what he was doing for the Eysvogel business
+was due to no consideration for the man who had hitherto directed it, or
+his family, but solely on account of the good city whose business affairs
+the confidence of the Council had summoned him to direct, and her
+commerce, whose prosperity was equally dear to most of the Honourables
+around him.
+
+Cries and gestures of assent accompanied the last sentence; but Berthold
+Vorchtel recognised the demonstration by remarking that it showed him
+that the Council, in the name of the city, would be disposed to do its
+share in raising the amount still lacking.
+
+This statement elicited opposition, expressed in several quarters in low
+tones, and from one seat loudly, and Herr Berthold heard it.  Turning to
+Peter Ammon, one of the Eysvogels' principal creditors, who was making
+the most animated resistance, he remarked that no one could be more
+unwilling than himself to use the means of the community to protect from
+the consequences of his conduct a citizen whose own errors had placed him
+in a perilous position, but, on the other hand, he would always--and in
+this case with special zeal--be ready to aid such a person in spite of
+the faults committed, if he believed that he could thus protect the
+community from serious injury.
+
+Then he asked permission to make a digression, and being greeted with
+cries of "Go on!" from all sides, began in brief, clear sentences to show
+how the commerce of Nuremberg from small beginnings had reached its
+present prosperity.  Instead of the timid, irregular exchange of goods
+as far as the Rhine, the Main, and the Danube, regular intercourse with
+Venice, Milan, Genoa, Bohemia, and Hungary, Flanders, Brabant, and the
+coast of the Baltic had commenced.  Trade with the Italian cities, and
+through them, even with the Levant, had made its first successful opening
+under the Hohenstaufen rule; but during the evil days when the foreign
+monarchs had neglected Germany and her welfare, it sustained the most
+serious losses.  By the election of Rudolph of Hapsburg who, with vigour,
+good-will, and intelligence, had devoted his attention to the security of
+commerce in the countries over which he reigned, better days for the
+merchant had returned, and it was very evident what his work required,
+what injured and robbed it of its well-earned reward.  Confidence at home
+and abroad was the foundation of prosperity, not alone of the Nuremberg
+merchant but of trade in general.  Under the Hohenstaufen rule their
+upright ancestors had so strengthened this confidence that wherever he
+went the Nuremberg merchant received respect and confidence above many--
+perhaps all others.  The insecurity of the roads and of justice in the
+lawless times before the election of the Hapsburgs might have impaired
+this great blessing; but since Rudolph had wielded the sceptre with
+virile energy, made commerce secure, and administered justice, confidence
+had also returned, and to maintain it no sacrifice should be too great.
+As for him, Berthold Vorchtel, he would not spare himself, and if he
+expected the city to imitate him he would know how to answer for it.
+
+Here he was interrupted by loud shouts of applause; but, without heeding
+them, he quietly went on: "And it is necessary to secure confidence in
+the Nuremberg merchant in two directions: his honesty and the capital at
+his command.  Our business friends, far and near, must be permitted to
+continue to rely upon our trustworthiness as firmly as upon rock and
+iron.  If we brought the arrogant Italian to say of us that, amongst the
+German cities who were blind, Nuremberg was the one-eyed, we ought now to
+force them to number us amongst those who see with both eyes, the honest,
+trust-inspiring blue eyes of the German.  But to attain this goal we need
+the imperial protection, the watchful power of a great and friendly
+ruler.  The progress which our trade owed to the Hohenstaufen proves
+this; the years without an Emperor, on the contrary, showed what
+threatens our commerce as soon as we lack this aid.  Rights and
+privileges from sovereigns smoothed the paths in which we have surpassed
+others.  To obtain new and more important ones must be our object.  From
+the first Reichstag which the Emperor Rudolph held here, he has shown
+that he esteems us and believes us worthy of his confidence.  Many
+valuable privileges have revealed this.  To maintain this confidence,
+which is and will remain the source of the most important favours to
+Nuremberg, is enjoined upon us merchants by prudence, upon us directors
+of the city by regard for its prosperity.  But, my honourable friends,
+reluctantly as I do so, I must nevertheless remind you that this
+confidence, here and there, has already received a shock through the
+errors of individuals.  Who could have forgotten the tale of the
+beautiful cap of the unhappy Meister Mertein, who has preceded us into
+the other world?  Doubtless it concerned but one scabby sheep, yet it
+served to bring the whole flock into disrepute.  Perhaps the fact that it
+occurred so soon after Rudolph's election to the sovereignty, during the
+early days of his residence in our goodly city, imprinted it so deeply
+upon our imperial master's memory.  A few hours ago he asked for some
+information concerning the sad affair which now occupies our attention,
+and when I represented that the public spirit and honesty of my
+countrymen, fellow-citizens, and associate members of the Council would
+prevent it from injuring our trade at home or abroad, he alluded to that
+story, by no means in the jesting way with which he formerly mentioned
+the vexatious incident that redounded to the honour of no one more than
+that of his own shrewdness, which at that time--seven years ago--was so
+often blended with mirth."
+
+When the speaker began to allude to this much-discussed incident a smile
+had flitted over the features of his listeners, for they remembered it
+perfectly, and the story of Emperor Rudolph and the cap was still related
+to the honour of the presence of mind of the wise Hapsburg judge.
+
+During the period of the assembly of the princes a Nuremberg citizen had
+taken charge of a bag containing two hundred florins for a foreign
+merchant who had lodged with him, but when he was asked for the property
+entrusted to him denied that he had received it.
+
+This disgraceful occurrence was reported to the Emperor, but he
+apparently paid no heed to it, and received Master Mertein, amongst other
+citizens who wished to be presented to him.  The dishonest man appeared
+in a rich gala dress and as, embarrassed by the Emperor's piercing gaze,
+he awkwardly twirled his cap--a magnificent article bordered with costly
+fur; the sovereign took it from his hand, examined it admiringly and,
+with the remark that it would suit even a king, placed it on his own
+royal head.  Then he approached one after another to exchange a few words
+and, as if forgetting that he wore the head-gear, left the apartment to
+order a messenger to take the cap at once to its owner's wife, show it to
+her as a guarantee of trustworthiness, and ask her to bring the bag which
+the foreign merchant had given him to the castle.  The woman did so and
+the cheat was unmasked.
+
+Everyone present, like Els, was familiar with this story, which wrongly
+cast so evil a light upon the uprightness of the citizens of Nuremberg.
+Who could fail to be painfully affected by the thought that Rudolph,
+during his present stay amongst them, must witness the injury of others
+by a Nuremberg merchant?  Who could have now opposed Herr Berthold, when
+he asked, still more earnestly than before, that the community would do
+its share to maintain confidence in the reliability of the Nuremberg
+citizens, and especially of the Honourable Council and everyone of its
+members?
+
+But when he mentioned the large sum which he himself, and the other which
+Ernst Ortlieb intended on certain conditions to devote to the settlement
+of this affair, Peter Ammon also withdrew his opposition.  The First
+Losunger's proposal was unanimously accepted, and also the condition made
+by his associate, Ernst Ortlieb.  Casper Eysvogel, on whom the resolution
+bore most heavily, submitted in silence, shrugging his shoulders.
+
+How high Els's heart throbbed, how she longed to rush down into the
+Council chamber and clasp the hand of the noble old man at the green
+table, when he said that in consequence of Ernst Ortlieb's condition--
+which he also made--the charge of the newly established Eysvogel business
+must be transferred from Herr Casper's hands to those of his son, Herr
+Wolff, as soon as the imperial pardon permitted him to leave his hiding-
+place.  He, Berthold Vorchtel, would make no complaint against him, for
+he knew that Wolff had been forced to cross swords with his Ulrich.  He
+had formed this resolution after a severe struggle with himself; but as a
+Christian and a fair-minded man he had renounced the human desire for
+revenge, and as God had wished to give him a token of his approval, he
+had sent to his house a substitute for his dead son.  Fresh cries of
+approval interrupted this communication, whose meaning Els did not
+understand.
+
+Not a word of remonstrance was uttered when the imperial magistrate at
+last proposed that Casper Eysvogel and the women of his family should
+leave the city and atone for his great offence by ten years in exile.
+One of his estates, which he advised the city to buy, could be assigned
+him as a residence.  Herr Casper's daughter, Frau Isabella Siebenburg,
+had already, with her twin sons, found shelter at the Knight Heideck's
+castle.  Her husband, who had joined his guilty brothers, would speedily
+fall into the hands of justice and reap what he had sowed.  For the final
+settlement of this affair he begged the Honourable Council to appoint
+commissioners, whom he would willingly join.
+
+Then Herr Vorchtel again rose and requested his honourable friends to
+treat the new head of the house with entire confidence; for from the
+books of the firm and the statements which he had made in his hiding-
+place and sent to the Council, both he and the city clerk had become
+convinced that he was one of the most cautious and upright young
+merchants in Nuremberg.  Their opinion was also shared by the most
+prominent business acquaintances of the house.
+
+This pleased the listener.  But whilst the speaker sat down amidst the
+eager assent of his associates in office, and Herr Casper Eysvogel,
+leaning on the arm of his cousin, Conrad Teufel, left the hall with
+tottering steps, utterly crushed, she saw the city clerk Schedel, after a
+hasty glance upwards, approach the side door, through which he could
+reach the staircase leading to his rooms.
+
+He evidently intended to tell the result of the discussion.  But the old
+gentleman would need considerable time to reach her, so she again
+listened to what was passing below.
+
+She heard her uncle, the magistrate, speak of her father's unfortunate
+deed, and tell the Council how the name of Herr Ernst's daughters, who
+were held in such honour, had become innocently, through evil gossip, the
+talk of the people.  Just at that moment the old man's shuffling step
+sounded close by the door.
+
+Els stopped listening to hasten towards the messenger of good tidings,
+and the old gentleman could scarcely believe his own eyes when he saw the
+happiness beaming in the girl's beautiful fresh face, whose anxiety and
+pallor had just roused his deep sympathy.
+
+It was scarcely possible that anyone could have anticipated him with the
+glad news, and spite of his seventy-two years the city clerk had retained
+the keen eyes of youth.  When he entered the anteroom with Els and saw
+the open window and beside it the white Riese which she had removed in
+order to hear better, he released himself from the arm she had passed
+around his shoulders, shook his finger threateningly at her, and cried:
+"It's fortunate that I find only the Riese, and not the listener,
+otherwise I should be compelled to deliver her to the jailer, or even the
+torturer, for unwarranted intrusion into the secrets of the honourable
+Council.  I can hardly institute proceedings against a bit of linen!"
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Welcome a small evil when it barred the way to a greater one
+
+
+
+
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