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+The Project Gutenberg EBook Barbara Blomberg, by Georg Ebers, Vol. 1.
+#122 in our series by Georg Ebers
+
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+
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+Title: Barbara Blomberg, Volume 1.
+
+Author: Georg Ebers
+
+Release Date: April, 2004  [EBook #5561]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on August 6, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BARBARA BLOMBERG, BY EBERS, V1 ***
+
+
+
+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.]
+
+
+
+
+
+BARBARA BLOMBERG
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+Volume 1.
+
+
+Translated from the German by Mary J. Safford
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+The sun sometimes shone brightly upon the little round panes of the
+ancient building, the Golden Cross, on the northern side of the square,
+which the people of Ratisbon call "on the moor"; sometimes it was veiled
+by gray clouds.  A party of nobles, ecclesiastics, and knights belonging
+to the Emperor's train were just coming out.  The spring breeze banged
+behind them the door of the little entrance for pedestrians close beside
+the large main gateway.
+
+The courtiers and ladies who were in the chapel at the right of the
+corridor started.  "April weather!" growled the corporal of the Imperial
+Halberdiers to the comrade with whom he was keeping; guard at the foot of
+the staircase leading to the apartments of Charles V, in the second story
+of the huge old house.
+
+"St. Peter's day," replied the other, a Catalonian.  "At my home fresh
+strawberries are now growing in the open air and roses are blooming in
+the gardens.  Take it all in all, it's better to be dead in Barcelona
+than alive in this accursed land of heretics!"
+
+"Come, come," replied the other, "life is life!  'A live dog is better
+than a dead king,' says a proverb in my country."
+
+"And it is right, too," replied the Spaniard.  "But ever since we came
+here our master's face looks as if imperial life didn't taste exactly
+like mulled wine, either."
+
+The Netherlander lowered his halberd and answered his companion's words
+first with a heavy sigh, and then with the remark: "Bad weather upstairs
+as well as down--the very worst!  I've been in the service thirteen
+years, but I never saw him like this, not even after the defeat in
+Algiers.  That means we must keep a good lookout.  Present halberds!
+Some one is coming down."
+
+Both quickly assumed a more erect attitude, but the Spaniard whispered to
+his comrade: "It isn't he.  His step hasn't sounded like that since the
+gout--"
+
+"Quijada!" whispered the Netherlander, and both he and the man from
+Barcelona presented halberds with true military bearing; but the staves
+of their descending weapons soon struck the flags of the pavement again,
+for a woman's voice had detained the man whom the soldiers intended to
+salute, and in his place two slender lads rushed down the steps.
+
+The yellow velvet garments, with ash-gray facings, and cap of the same
+material in the same colours, were very becoming to these youths--the
+Emperor's pages--and, though the first two were sons of German and
+Italian counts, and the third who followed them was a Holland baron, the
+sentinels took little more notice of them than of Queen Mary's pointers
+following swiftly at their heels.
+
+"Of those up there," observed the halberdier from Haarlem under his
+breath, "a man would most willingly stiffen his back for Quijada."
+
+"Except their Majesties, of course," added the Catalonian with dignity.
+
+"Of course," the other repeated.  "Besides, the Emperor Charles himself
+bestows every honour on Don Luis.  I was in Algiers at the time.  A
+hundred more like him would have made matters different, I can tell you.
+If it beseemed an insignificant fellow like me, I should like to ask why
+his Majesty took him from the army and placed him among the courtiers."
+
+Here he stopped abruptly, for, in spite of the gaily dressed nobles and
+ladies, priests, knights, and attendants who were passing up and down the
+corridor, he had heard footsteps on the stairs which must be those of men
+in high position.  He was not mistaken--one was no less a personage than
+the younger Granvelle, the Bishop of Arras, who, notwithstanding his
+nine-and-twenty years, was already the favourite counsellor of Charles V;
+the other, a man considerably his senior, Dr. Mathys, of Bruges, the
+Emperor's physician.
+
+The bishop was followed by a secretary clad in black, with a portfolio
+under his arm; the leech, by an elderly assistant.
+
+The fine features of the Bishop of Arras, which revealed a nature capable
+of laughter and enjoyment, now looked as grave as his companion's--a fact
+which by no means escaped the notice of the courtiers in the corridor,
+but no one ventured to approach them with a question, although--it had
+begun to rain again--they stopped before going out of doors and stood
+talking together in low tones.
+
+Many would gladly have caught part of their conversation, but no one
+dared to move nearer, and the Southerners and Germans among them did not
+understand the Flemish which they spoke.
+
+Not until after the leech had raised his tall, pointed hat and the
+statesman had pressed his prelate's cap closer upon his short, wavy dark
+hair and drawn his sable-trimmed velvet cloak around him did several
+courtiers hasten forward with officious zeal to open the little side door
+for them.
+
+Something must be going wrong upstairs.
+
+Dr. Mathys's jovial face wore a very different expression when his
+imperial patient was doing well, and Granvelle always bestowed a friendly
+nod on one and another if he himself had cause to be content.
+
+When the door had closed behind the pair, the tongues of the
+ecclesiastics, the secular lords, and the ladies in the corridor were
+again loosed; but there were no loud discussions in the various languages
+now mingling in the Golden Cross, far less was a gay exclamation or a
+peal of laughter heard from any of the groups who stood waiting for the
+shower to cease.
+
+Although each individual was concerned about his own affairs, one
+thought, nevertheless, ruled them all--the Emperor Charles, his health,
+and his decisions.  Upon them depended not only the destiny of the world,
+but also the weal and woe of the greatest as well as the humblest of
+those assembled here.
+
+"Emperor Charles" was the spell by which the inhabitants of half the
+world obtained prosperity or ill-luck, war or peace, fulfilment or denial
+of the wishes which most deeply stirred their souls.  Even the highest in
+the land, who expected from his justice or favour fresh good-fortune or
+the averting of impending disasters, found their way to him wherever, on
+his long and numerous journeys, he established his court.
+
+Numerous petitioners had also flocked to Ratisbon, but the two great
+nobles who now entered the Golden Cross certainly did not belong to their
+number.  One shook the raindrops from his richly embroidered velvet cloak
+and the plumes in his cap, the other from his steel helmet and suit of
+Milan mail, inlaid with gold.  Chamberlain de Praet accosted the former,
+Duke Peter of Columna, in Italian; the latter, the Landgrave of
+Leuchtenberg, in a mixture of German and his Flemish native tongue.  He
+had no occasion to say much, for the Emperor wished to be alone.  He had
+ordered even crowned heads and ambassadors to be denied admittance.
+
+The Duke of Columna gaily begged for a dry shelter until the shower was
+over, but the Landgrave requested to be announced to the Queen of
+Hungary.
+
+The latter, however, had also declined to grant any audiences that
+afternoon.  The royal lady, the Emperor's favourite sister, was in her
+own room, adjoining her imperial brother's, talking with Don Luis
+Quijada, the brave nobleman of whom the Spanish and the Netherland
+soldiers had spoken with equal warmth.
+
+His personal appearance rendered it an easy matter to believe in the
+sincerity of their words, for the carriage of his slender, vigorous form
+revealed all the pride of the Castilian noble.  His face, with its
+closely cut pointed beard, was the countenance of a true warrior, and the
+expression of his black eyes showed the valiant spirit of a loyal, kind,
+and simple heart.
+
+The warm confidence with which Mary, the widow of the King of Hungary,
+who fell in the Turkish war, gazed into Quijada's finely modelled,
+slightly bronzed countenance proved that she knew how to estimate his
+worth aright.  She had sent for him to open her whole heart.
+
+The vivacious woman, a passionate lover of the chase, found life in
+Ratisbon unendurable.  She would have left the city long ago to perform
+her duties in the Netherlands--which she ruled as regent in the name of
+her imperial brother--and devote herself to hunting, to her heart's
+content, if the condition of the monarch's health had not detained her
+near him.
+
+She pitied Charles because she loved him, yet she was weary of playing
+the sick nurse.
+
+She had just indignantly informed Quijada what an immense burden of work,
+in spite of the pangs of the gout, her suffering brother had imposed upon
+himself ever since the first cock-crow.  But he would take no better care
+of himself, and therefore it was difficult to help him.  Was it not
+utterly unprecedented?  Directly after mass he had examined dozens of
+papers, made notes on the margins, and affixed his signature; then he
+received Father Pedro de Soto, his confessor, the nuncio, the English and
+the Venetian ambassadors; and, lastly, had an interview with young
+Granvelle, the Bishop of Arras, which had continued three full hours, and
+perhaps might be going on still had not Dr. Mathys, the leech, put an end
+to it.
+
+Queen Mary had just found him utterly exhausted, with his face buried in
+his hands.
+
+"And you, too," she added in conclusion, "can not help admitting that if
+this state of things continues there must be an evil end."
+
+Quijada bent his head in assent, and then answered modestly:
+
+"Yet your Majesty knows our royal master's nature.  He will listen calmly
+to you, whom he loves, or to me, who was permitted to remain at his side
+as a page, or probably to the two Granvelles, Malfalconnet, and others
+whom he trusts, when they venture to warn him--"
+
+"And yet keep on in his mad career," interrupted Queen Mary with an angry
+gesture of the hand.
+
+"Plus ultra--more, farther--is his motto," observed Quijada in a tone of
+justification.
+
+"Forward ceaselessly, for aught I care, so long as the stomach and the
+feet are sound!" replied the Queen, raising her hand to the high lace
+ruff, which oppressed the breathing of one so accustomed to the outdoor
+air.  "But when, like him, a man must give up deer-stalking and at every
+movement makes a wry face and can scarcely repress a groan--it might move
+a stone to pity!--he ought to choose another motto.  Persuade him to do
+so, Quijada, if you are really his friend."
+
+The smile with which the nobleman listened to this request plainly showed
+the futility of the demand.
+
+The Queen noticed it, threw her arm aloft as if she were hurling a
+hunting spear, and exclaimed "I'm not easily deceived, Luis.  Whether you
+could or not, the will is lacking.  You shun the attempt!  Because you
+are young yourself, and can still cope with the bear and wild boar, you
+like the motto, which will probably lead to new wars, and thereby to
+fresh renown.  But, alas!  my poor, poor brother, who--how long ago it
+is!--could once have thrown even you upon the sand, what can he do, with
+this accursed gout?  And besides, what more can the Emperor Charles gain,
+since there is no chance of obtaining the sovereignty of the world, of
+which he once dreamed?  He must learn to be content!  Surely at his age!
+It is easy to calculate, for his life began with the century, and this is
+its forty-sixth year.  Of course, with you soldiers the years of warfare
+count double, and he--Duke Alba said so--was born a general.  One need
+not be able to reckon far in order to number how many months he has spent
+in complete peace.  And then he attained his majority at fifteen, and
+with what weighty cares the man of the 'plus ultra' has loaded his
+shoulders since that time!  You, and many others at the court, had still
+more to do, but, Luis, one thing, and it is the hardest burden, you were
+all spared.  I know it.  It is called responsibility.  Compared with
+this all others are mere fluttering feathers.  Its weight may become
+unendurable when the weal and woe of half the world are at stake.  Thus
+every year of government was equal to three of war; but you, Luis--the
+question is allowable when put to a man-how old are you?"
+
+"Within a few months of forty."
+
+"So young!" cried the Queen.  "Yet, when one looks at you closely, your
+appearance corresponds with your years."
+
+Quijada pointed to the gray locks on his temples, but the Queen eagerly
+continued:
+
+I noticed that at Brussels.  And do you know what gave you those few
+white hairs?  Simply the responsibility that so cruelly shortened the
+Emperor's youth, and which at least grazes you.  As I saw him to-day,
+Luis, many a man of sixty has a more vigorous appearance."
+
+"And yet, if your Majesty will permit me to say so," Quijada replied with
+a low bow, "he may be in a very different condition to-morrow.  I heard
+Dr. Mathys himself remark that the life of a gouty patient was like a
+showery day in July--gloomy enough while the thunder-storm was raging,
+but radiant before and afterward until the clouds rose again.  Surely
+your Majesty remembers how erect, how vigorous, and how knightly his
+bearing was when he greeted you on your arrival.  The happiness of having
+his beloved sister again restored his paralyzed buoyancy speedily enough,
+although just at present there is certainly no lack of cares pressing
+upon him, and notwithstanding the disastrous conditions which we found
+existing among the godless populace here.  That this cruel
+responsibility, however, can mature the mind without harming the body
+your Majesty is a living example."
+
+"Nonsense!" retorted the regent in protest.  "From you, at least, I
+forbid idle flattery!"
+
+As she spoke she pointed with the riding whip, which, on account of her
+four-footed favourites, she carried in her hand, to her own hair.  True,
+so far as it was visible under the stiff jewelled velvet cap which
+covered her head, the fair tresses had a lustrous sheen, and the braids,
+interwoven with pearls, were unusually thick, but a few silver threads
+appeared amid the locks which clustered around the intellectual brow.
+
+Quijada saw them, and, with a respectful bow, answered.
+
+"The heavy burden of anxiety for the Netherlands, which is not always
+rewarded with fitting gratitude."
+
+"Oh, no," replied the Queen, shrugging her shoulders contemptuously.
+"Yes, many things in Brussels rouse my indignation, but they do not turn
+my hair gray.  It began to whiten up here, under the widow's cap, if you
+care to know it, and, if the Emperor's health does not improve, the locks
+there will soon look like my white Diana's."
+
+Here she hesitated, and, accustomed both in the discharge of the duties
+of her office and during the chase not to deviate too far from the goal
+she had in view, she first gave her favourite dog, which had leaped on
+Don Luis in friendly greeting, a blow with her whip, and then said in a
+totally different tone:
+
+"But I am not the person in question.  You have already heard that you
+must help me, Luis.  Did you see the Emperor yesterday after vespers?"
+
+"I had the honour, your Majesty."
+
+"And did not the conviction that he is in evil case force itself upon
+you?"
+
+"I felt it so keenly that I spoke to Dr. Mathys of his feeble appearance,
+his bowed figure, and the other things which I would so gladly have seen
+otherwise."
+
+"And these things?  Speak frankly!"
+
+"These things," replied the major-domo, after a brief hesitation, "are
+the melancholy moods to which his Majesty often resigns himself for
+hours."
+
+"And which remind you of Queen Juana, our unhappy mother?" asked the
+Queen with downcast eyes.
+
+"Remind is a word which your Majesty will permit me to disclaim," replied
+Quijada resolutely.  "The great thinker, who never loses sight of the
+most distant goal, who weighs and considers again and again ere he
+determines upon the only right course in each instance--the great general
+who understands how to make far-reaching plans for military campaigns as
+ably as to direct a cavalry attack--the statesman whose penetration
+pierces deeper than the keen intelligence of his famous councillors--the
+wise law-giver, the ruler with the iron strength of will and unfailing
+memory, is perhaps the soundest person mentally among all of us at court-
+nay, among the millions who obey him.  But, so far as my small share of
+knowledge extends, melancholy has nothing to do with the mind.  It is
+dependent upon the state of the spirits, and springs from bile----"
+
+"You learned that from Dr. Mathys," interrupted the royal lady, "and the
+quacks repeat it from their masters Hippocrates and Galen.  Such parrot
+gabble does not please me.  To my woman's reason, it seems rather that
+when the mind is ill we should try a remedy whose effect upon it has
+already been proved, and I think I have found it."
+
+"I am still ignorant of it," replied Quijada eagerly; "but I would swear
+by my saint that you have hit upon the right expedient."
+
+"Listen, then, and this time I believe you will have no cause to repent
+your hasty oath.  Since death robbed our sovereign lord of his wife, and
+the gout has prevented his enjoyment of the chief pleasures of life--
+hunting, the tournament, and the other pastimes which people of our rank
+usually pursue--in what can he find diversion?  The masterpieces of
+painters and other artists, the inventions of mechanicians and clock-
+makers, and the works of scholars have no place here, but probably----"
+
+"Then it is the noble art of music which your Majesty has in view,"
+Quijada eagerly interrupted.  "Admirable!  For, since the days of King
+Saul and the harper David----"
+
+"There is certainly no better remedy for melancholy," said the Queen,
+completing the exclamation of the loyal man.  "But it could affect no
+one more favourably than the Emperor.  You yourself know how keen a
+connoisseur he is, and how often this has been confirmed by our greatest
+masters.  Need I remind you of the high mass in Cologne, at which the
+magnificent singing seemed fairly to reanimate him after the defection of
+the heretical archbishop--which threatens to have a disastrous influence
+upon my Netherlanders also--had robbed him of the last remnant of his
+enjoyment of life, already clouded?  The indignation aroused by the
+German princes, and the difficult decision to which their conduct is
+forcing him, act upon his soul like poison.  But hesitation is not in
+my nature, so I thought: Let us have music--good, genuine music.  Then
+I sent a mounted messenger to order Gombert, the conductor of his
+orchestra, and the director of my choir of boys, to bring their musicians
+to Ratisbon.  The whole company will arrive this evening.  Dash forward
+is my motto, and not only while in the saddle during the chase.  But,
+Luis, you must now tell me--"
+
+"That your Majesty's sisterly affection has discovered the only right
+course," cried Quijada, deeply touched, pressing his lips respectfully to
+the flowing sleeve of her robe.
+
+The  major--domo's  assurance  undoubtedly sprang from the depths of his
+heart, yet the doubts which the hasty action of the vivacious sovereign
+aroused in his mind compelled him to represent to her, though with the
+courteous caution which his position demanded, that her bold measure
+might only too easily arouse the displeasure of the person whom it was
+intended to benefit.  The expense it would entail especially troubled
+Quijada, and the Queen herself appeared surprised when he estimated the
+sum which would be required for the transportation of the band and the
+boy choir from Brussels to Ratisbon and back again.
+
+Forty musicians, twelve boy singers, the leaders, and the paymaster must
+be moved, and in their train were numerous grooms and attendants, as well
+as conveyances for the baggage and the valuable instruments.
+
+Besides, the question of accommodation for this large number in the
+already crowded city now arose, for the Queen confessed that, in order
+to make the surprise complete, no one had been commissioned to find
+lodgings.
+
+The musicians, who had displayed the most praiseworthy promptness,
+would arrive three days earlier than she had expected.
+
+The royal lady readily admitted that the utmost haste was necessary.
+Yet she knew that, if any one could accomplish the impossible, it was
+Quijada, where the object in view was to serve her and the Emperor.
+
+The influence of this eulogy was doubled by a tender glance from her
+bright eyes, and the Spaniard promised to do everything in his power to
+secure the success of her beautiful surprise.  There would undoubtedly
+be difficulties with his Majesty and the treasurer on the score of the
+expense, for their finances were at the very lowest ebb.
+
+"There is always the same annoyance where money is concerned," cried the
+Queen irritably, "in spite of the vast sums which my Netherlands pour
+into the treasury--four times as much as Spain supplies, including the
+gold and silver of the New World.  You keep it secret, but two fifths of
+the revenue from all the countries over which Charles reigns are
+contributed by my provinces.  Torrents of ducats inundate your treasury,
+and yet--yet--it's enough to drive one mad!--in spite of this and the
+lamentable parsimony with which the Emperor deprives himself of both
+great and small pleasures--it is simply absurd!--the story is always:
+The finances are at the lowest ebb--save and save again.  To protect the
+plumes in his new cap from being injured by the rain, the sovereign of
+half the world ordered an old hat to be brought, and waited in the shower
+until the shabby felt came.  And where are the millions which this
+excellent economist saves from his personal expenses?  The dragon War
+devours them all.  True, he has vanquished foes enough, but the demon of
+melancholy, that makes even Dr. Mathys anxious, is far worse than the
+infidels before whom you were compelled to retreat in Algiers--far more
+terrible than the Turks and heretics combined.  Yet what are you and the
+wise treasurer doing?  The idea of lessening the salaries of the
+physician-in-ordinary and his colleagues has never entered the heads of
+the estimable gentlemen who call themselves his Majesty's faithful
+servants.  Very well!  Then put the musicians' travelling expenses upon
+the apothecary's bill.  They have as much right to be there as the senna
+leaves.  But, if the penny pinchers in the council of finance refuse to
+advance the necessary funds, why--charge this medicine to my account.
+I'll pay for it, in spite of the numerous leeches that suck my
+substance."
+
+"It certainly will not come to that, your Majesty," replied Quijada
+soothingly.  "Our sovereign lord knows, too, that it beseems him to be
+less rigid in saving.  Only yesterday he dipped into his purse deeply
+enough for another remedy."
+
+"What was that?"  asked the Queen in surprise.
+
+"He paid the debts of my colleague Malfalconnet, not less than ten
+thousand ducats."
+
+"There it is!"  exclaimed the regent, striking her hands sharply
+together.  "The baron dispels the Emperor's melancholy by his ready wit,
+which often hits the nail on the head, and his nimble tongue, but my
+medicine must provide the fitting mood for Malfalconnet's dearly bought
+jests and witticisms to exert the proper influence."
+
+"And, moreover," Quijada added gaily, "your Majesty will present the
+completed deed for the treasurer's action.  But now I most humbly entreat
+you to dismiss me.  I must inform the quartermasters at once, and look
+after the matter myself if your Majesty's costly magic pills are not to
+be spoiled by this wet April weather.  Besides, many of the musicians are
+not the strongest of men."
+
+Bowing as he spoke, he prepared to take leave of the Queen, but she
+detained him with the remark:
+
+"Our invitation went to Sir Wolf Hartschwert also.  He is a native of
+Ratisbon, and can aid you and the quartermasters in assigning lodgings."
+
+"A fresh proof of the wise caution of my august mistress," replied
+Quijada.  "If your Majesty will permit, I should like to talk with my
+royal patroness about this man shortly.  I have something in my mind
+concerning him which can not be easily explained in a few words,
+especially as I know that the modest, trustworthy fellow----"
+
+"If what you have in view is for his benefit," the Queen eagerly
+interrupted, "it is granted in advance."
+
+The promise reached Quijada just as he gained the threshold; ere he
+crossed it, Queen Mary called to him again, saying frankly: "I will not
+let you go so, Luis!  You are an honest man, and I am ashamed to deceive
+you.  The cure of his Majesty's melancholy is my principal object, it is
+true, but one half the expense of this medicine ought to be credited to
+me; for--but do not tell the treasurer--for it will afford me relief
+also.  I can endure these rooms no longer.  The forest is putting forth
+its first green leafage.  The birds are returning.  Red deer are plenty
+in the woods along the Danube.  I must get out of doors into the open
+air.  As matters are now, I could not leave his Majesty; but when the
+band and the boy choir are at his disposal, they will dispel his
+melancholy moods, and I can venture later to leave him to you and
+Malfalconnet, whose wit will be freshly seasoned by the payment of his
+debts.  O Luis! if only I can get out of doors!  Meanwhile, may music do
+for my imperial brother what we anticipate!  And one thing more: Take
+Master Adrian with you.  I released him from attendance upon the Emperor
+until midnight.  It was no easy matter.  When you have provided the
+favourites of Apollo with lodgings, come to me again, however late the
+hour may be.  Sir Wolf Hartschwert must call early to-morrow morning.
+The nuncio brought some new songs from Rome.  The music is too high for
+my voice, and the knight understands how to transpose the notes for me
+better than even the leader of the choir, Appenzelder."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+The April sun, ere it sank to rest, had won the victory and kindly
+dried the garments of the horsemen who were approaching Ratisbon by
+the Nuremberg road.
+
+A young man who had ridden forward in advance of the great train of
+travellers behind him checked his steed above the village of Kneiting,
+just where the highway descended in many a curve to the valley of the
+Danube, and gazed at the landscape whose green spring leafage, freshened
+by rain, appeared before him.
+
+His heart throbbed faster, and he thought that he had seen no fairer
+prospect in all the wide tract of earth over which he had wandered during
+the past five years.  Below him were green meadows and fields, pleasant
+villages, and the clear, full current of the Danube, along whose left
+bank extended a beautifully formed mountain chain, whose declivity toward
+the river presented a rich variety to the eye, for sometimes it was
+clothed in budding groves, sometimes displayed picturesque bare cliffs,
+and again vineyards in which labourers were working.  From the farthest
+distance the steeples of Ratisbon offered the first greeting to the
+resting horseman.
+
+What a wealth of memories this pleasant landscape awoke in the mind of
+the returning traveller!  How often he had walked through these charming
+valleys, climbed these heights, stopped in these villages!  It was
+difficult for him to turn from this view, but he let his bay horse have
+its way when the companion whom he had left behind overtook him here, and
+the animal followed the other's black Brabant steed, with which it had
+long been on familiar terms.  He rode slowly at his friend's side into
+the valley.
+
+Both silently feasted their eyes upon the scene opening with increasing
+magnificence before them.
+
+As they reached the village of Winzer, the victorious sun was approaching
+the western horizon, and diffused over it a fan of golden rays.  The gray
+cloud bank above, which a light breeze was driving before it, was
+bordered with golden edges.  The young green foliage, refreshed by the
+rain, glittered as richly and magnificently as emerald and chrysoprase,
+and the primroses and other early spring flowers, which had just grown up
+along the roadside and in the meadows, shone in brighter colours than in
+the full light of noon.  The big fresh drops on the leaves and blossoms
+sparkled and glittered in the last rays of the sun.
+
+Now Ratisbon also appeared.
+
+The city, with its throng of steeples, was surrounded by a damp vapour
+which the reflection of the sun coloured with a faint, scarcely
+perceptible roseate hue.  The notes of bells from the twin towers of the
+cathedral and the convent of Nieder Munster, from St. Emmeram on the
+right, and the church of the Dominicans on the left, echoed softly in
+this hour when Nature and human activity were at rest--often dying away
+in the distance--to greet the returning citizen.
+
+Obeying an involuntary impulse, Wolf Hartschwert raised his hat.  Within
+the shelter of the walls of this venerable city he had played as a boy,
+completed his school and student days, and early felt the first quickened
+throbbing of the heart.  Here he had first been permitted to test what
+knowledge he had won in the schools of poetry and music.
+
+He had remained in Ratisbon until his twenty-first year, then he had
+ventured out into the world, and, after an absence of five years, he was
+returning home again.
+
+But was the stately city before him really his home?
+
+When he had just gazed down upon it from the height, this question had
+occupied his thoughtful mind.
+
+He had not been born on the shore of this river, but of the Main.  All
+who had been dearest to him in Ratisbon--the good people who had reared
+him from his fourth year as their own child, the woman who gave him
+birth, and the many others to whom he was indebted for kindnesses--were
+no longer there.
+
+But why had he not thought first of the mother, who is usually the centre
+of the circle of love, and whose figure precedes every other, now that he
+was approaching the place where she rested beneath the turf?  He asked
+himself the question with a faint feeling of self-reproach, but he did
+not confess the true reason.
+
+When the summons to Ratisbon had reached him in Brussels, he had been
+joyously ready to obey it--nay, he had felt it a great happiness to see
+again the beloved place for which he had never ceased to long.  And yet,
+the nearer he approached it, the more anxiously his heart throbbed.
+
+When, soon after noonday, the rain drenched him, he had experienced
+no discomfort, because such exquisite sunny visions of the future had
+hovered before him; but as the sky cleared they had shrivelled and doubt
+of the result of the decision which he was riding to meet had cast
+everything else into the shade.
+
+Now the whole city appeared before him, and, as he looked at the
+cathedral, whose machicolated tower permitted the rosy hue of the sky to
+shine through, his heart rose again, and he gazed with grateful delight
+at the verdant spring attire of his home and the magnificence with which
+she greeted him; her returning son.
+
+"Isn't it beautiful here?" he asked, suddenly breaking the silence as
+he turned to Massi, the violinist, who rode at his side, and then was
+secretly grateful to him when, after a curt "Very pleasant," he disturbed
+him with no further speech.
+
+It was so delightful to listen to the notes of the bells, so familiar to
+him, whose pure tones had accompanied with their charming melody all his
+wanderings in childhood and youth.  At the same time, the mood in which
+the best musical ideas came to him suddenly overpowered him.  A new air,
+well worth remembering, pressed itself on him unbidden, and his excited
+imagination showed him in its train himself, and by his side, first, a
+romping, merry child, and then a girlish figure in the first budding
+charm of youth.  He thought he heard her sing, and old, unforgotten notes
+of songs swiftly crowded out his own musical creations.
+
+Every tone from the fresh red lips of the lovely fair-haired girl
+awakened a new memory.  The past lived again, and, without his volition,
+transformed the image of the child of whom he had thought whenever he
+recalled his youthful days in Ratisbon into that of a lovely bride, with
+the myrtle wreath on her waving hair, while beside her he beheld himself
+with the wedding bouquet on his slashed velvet holiday doublet.
+
+He involuntarily seized the saddlebag which contained the handsomest
+gift he had bought in Brussels for the person who had drawn him back to
+Ratisbon with a stronger power of attraction than anything else.  If all
+went well, that very day, perhaps, he might have the right to call her
+his own.
+
+These visions of the future aroused so joyous a feeling in his young soul
+that Massi, the violinist, read in his by no means mobile features what
+was passing in his mind.  His cheery "Well, Sir Knight!" awakened his
+ever-courteous colleague and travelling companion from his dream, and,
+when the latter started and turned toward him, Alassi gaily continued:
+"To see his home and his family again does, indeed, make any man glad!
+The sight of yonder shining steeples and roofs seems to make your heart
+laugh, Sir Wolf, and, by Our Lady, you have good reason to bestow one or
+more candles upon her, for, besides other delightful things, a goodly
+heritage is awaiting you in Ratisbon."
+
+Here he paused, for the sunny radiance vanished simultaneously from
+the sky and from his companion's face. The violinist, as if in apology,
+added: "Some trouble always precedes an inheritance, and who knows
+whether, in your case also, rumour did not follow the evil custom of
+lying or making a mountain out of a molehill?"
+
+Wolf Hartschwert slightly shrugged his shoulders and calmly answered:
+
+"It is all true about the heritage, Massi, and also the trouble, but it
+is unpleasant to hear you, too, call me 'Sir.'  Let it drop for the
+future, if we are to be intimate.  To others I shall, of course, be the
+knight or cavalier.  You know what the title procures for a man, though
+your saying--
+
+              'Knightly Knightly rank with lack of land
+               More care than joy hath at command,'
+
+is but too true.  As for the heritage, an old friend has really named me
+in his will, but you must not expect that it is a large bequest.  The man
+who left it to me was a plain person of moderate property, and I myself
+shall not learn until the next few days what I am to receive in addition
+to his modest house."
+
+"The more it is, the more cordially I shall congratulate you," cried the
+violinist, and then looked back toward the other travellers.
+
+Wolf did the same, and turned his horse.  If he did not urge on the
+loiterers the gate, which was closed at nightfall, would need to be
+opened for them, for the five troopers who acted as escort had deemed
+their duty done when Winzer was reached, and made themselves comfortable
+in the excellent tavern there.
+
+The carters had used the lash stoutly, yet it had been no easy matter to
+advance rapidly.  The rain had softened the road, and the horses and
+beasts of burden were sorely wearied by the long trip from Brussels to
+Ratisbon, which had been made in hurried days' journeys.  The train of
+horsemen and wagons stretched almost beyond the range of vision, for it
+comprised the whole world-renowned orchestra of the Emperor Charles, and
+Queen Mary's boy choir.
+
+Only the leaders were absent.  Gombert had left Brussels later than the
+others, and hastened after them with post-horses, overtaking them about
+an hour before, when he induced Appenzelder, the leader of the boy choir,
+to enter his carriage, though the latter was reluctant to leave the young
+singers who were intrusted to his care.  As to the other travellers, the
+Queen and Don Luis Quijada had made a great mistake in their
+calculations--the number considerably exceeded a hundred.  Neither had
+thought of the women and children who accompanied the musicians.
+
+Most of the women were the wives of the members of the orchestra, who
+had availed themselves of this opportunity to see something of the world.
+Others, from motives of love or jealousy, would not part from their
+husbands.  The little children had been taken because their mothers, who
+were fond of travelling and, like their husbands, were natives of all
+countries, possessed no relatives in Brussels who would care for them.
+
+The jealous spouses especially had not joined the party without cogent
+reasons, for the mirth in the first long wagon, covered with a linen
+tilt, was uproarious enough.
+
+Wolf and his companion heard shrill laughter and loud shrieks echoing
+from its dusky interior.
+
+The younger men and the women who liked journeying were sitting in motley
+confusion upon the straw which covered the bottom of the vehicle, and the
+boisterous mirth of the travellers gave ample proof that the huge jugs of
+wine carried with them as  the Emperor's provision for the journey had
+been freely used.
+
+In the second cart, an immense ark, swaying between four wheels and drawn
+by a team of four horses, grave older artists sat silently opposite to
+each other, all more or less exhausted by the continual rocking motion of
+the long ride.  These men and the other travellers were joyfully
+surprised by the news that the goal of the journey was already at hand.
+Pressing their heads together, they gazed out of the open linen tilt
+which arched above the first cart or crowded to the little windows of the
+coaches to see Ratisbon.
+
+Even the old Neapolitan nurse, who was predicting future events from a
+pack of cards, dropped them and peered out.  But the noise in the second
+tilted wagon was especially confused, for there the gay shouts of the boy
+choir, only half of whom were on horseback, mingled with the loud talking
+of the women, the screams of the babies, and the barking of the dogs.
+
+The groans of two young singers who were seriously ill were drowned by
+the din and heeded by no one except the old drummer's pitying wife, who
+sometimes wiped the perspiration from the sufferers' brows or supported
+their heads.
+
+Other carts, containing the musicians' instruments, followed this tilted
+wagon.  Some members of the orchestra would not part with theirs, and
+behind the saddle of many a mounted virtuoso or attendant was fastened a
+violin case or a shapeless bag which concealed some other instrument.
+
+A large number of musicians mounted on horses or mules surrounded the
+two-wheeled cart in which sat Hernbeize of Ghent, the treasurer of the
+orchestra, and his fat wife.  The corpulent couple, squeezed closely
+together, silent and out of humour, had taken no notice of each other or
+their surrounding since Frau Olympia had presumed to drag her husband by
+force out of the first wagon, where he was paying a visit to a clarionet
+player's pretty young wife.
+
+Whenever Wolf appeared he urged the horsemen and drivers to greater
+haste, and thus the musical caravan, with its unauthorized companions,
+succeeded in passing through the gate ere it closed.  Beyond it the
+travellers were received by Quijada, the imperial valet, Adrian Dubois,
+and several quartermasters, who meanwhile had provided lodgings.
+
+The major-domo greeted the musicians with dignified condescension, Wolf
+with familiar friendship.  Master Adrian, the valet, also shook hands
+cordially with him and Massi, the "first violin" of the orchestra.
+Finally Don Luis rode up to Wolf and informed him that the Queen of
+Hungary wished to speak to him early the next morning, and that he also
+had something important to discuss at the earliest opportunity.  Then he
+listened to the complaints of the quartermasters.
+
+These men, who performed their duties with great lack of consideration,
+had supposed that they had provided for all the expected arrivals, but,
+after counting heads, they discovered that the billets were sufficient
+for only half the number.  Their attempt to escape providing for the
+wives was baffled by the vigorous interposition of the treasurer and by
+a positive order from Quijada.
+
+Of course, under these circumstances they were very glad to have Sir Wolf
+Hartschwert return his billet--the room in the Crane allotted to him by
+the valet was large enough to accommodate half a dozen women.
+
+The nobleman returning to his home had no occasion to find shelter in a
+tavern.
+
+Yet, as he wished to remove the traces of the long ride ere he entered
+his own house and appeared before the person for whose sake he had gladly
+left Brussels, he asked Massi's permission to use his room in the Red
+Cock for a short time.
+
+Leonhard Leitgeb, the landlord, and his bustling better half received
+Wolf as a neighbour's son and an old acquaintance.  But, after they had
+shown him and Massi to the room intended for them and gone downstairs
+again, the landlady of the Cock shook her head, saying:
+
+"He was always a good lad and a clever one, too, but even if a duke's
+coronet should fall upon the thin locks of the poor knight's son I should
+never take him for a real nobleman."
+
+"Better let that drop," replied her husband.  "Besides, the fine fellow
+is of more consequence since he had the legacy.  If he should come here
+for our Kattl, I'll wager you wouldn't keep him waiting."
+
+"Indeed I wouldn't," cried the landlady, laughing.  "But just hear what a
+racket those soldiers are making again down below!"
+
+Meanwhile Wolf was hurriedly attending to his outer man.
+
+Massi had stretched himself on the thin cushion which covered the seat of
+the wooden bench in the bay-window, and thrust his feet far out in front
+of him.
+
+As he watched the Ratisbon knight diligently use the little hand mirror
+while arranging his smooth, fair locks, he straightened himself, saying:
+
+"No offence, Sir Knight, but when I think of the radiant face with which
+you gazed down into the valley of the Danube from the hill where you
+stopped before sunset, and now see how zealously you are striving to
+adorn your person, it seems to me that there must be in this good city
+some one for whom you care more than for all you left behind in Brussels.
+At your age, that is a matter of course, if there is a woman in the case,
+as I suppose.  I know very well what I should do if I were in your place.
+Longing often urges me back to Spain like a scourge.  I have already told
+you why I left my dear wife there in our home.  A few more years in the
+service, and our savings and the pension together will be enough to
+support us there and lay aside a little marriage dowry for our daughter.
+When I have what is necessary, I shall turn my back on the orchestra and
+the court of Brussels that very day, dear as music is to me, and sure as
+I am that I shall never again find a leader like our Gombert.  You do not
+yet know with how sharp a tooth yearning rends the soul of the man whom
+Fate condemns to live away from his family.  This place is your home, and
+dearer to you than any other, so build yourself a snug nest here with the
+person you have in mind."
+
+"How gladly I would do so!" replied the young knight, "but whether I can
+must be decided within the next few davs."
+
+"Inde-e-ed?"  drawled Massi; then he bent his eyes thoughtfully upon the
+floor for a short time, and, after calling Wolf by name in a tone of
+genuine friendly affection, he frankly added: "Surely you know how dear a
+comrade you are to me!  Yet precisely for that reason I stick to my
+counsel.  It's not only on account of the homesickness--I am, thinking
+rather of your position at court--and, let me speak candidly, it is
+unworthy of a nobleman and a musician of such ability.  The regent is
+graciously disposed toward you, and you praise her liberality, but do you
+yourself know the name of the office which you fill?  More than enough is
+placed upon you, and yet, so far as I see, nothing complete.  They
+understand admirably how to make use of you.  It would be well if that
+applied solely to the musician.  But sometimes she makes you secretary,
+and you have to waste whole days in writing letters and do penance for
+having learned so many languages; sometimes you must share in the folly
+of arranging performances, and your wealth of knowledge is industriously
+utilized in preparing mythological figures and devising new ideas for the
+exhibitions at which we have to furnish the music.  This affords plenty
+of labour, but others reap the credit.  Recently the Bishop of Arras even
+asked you to write in German what he dictated in French, although you
+are in the regent's service, and just at that time you were transposing
+the old church songs for the boy choir.  I regret to see you do such
+tradesmen's work without adequate reward.  Why, even if her Majesty would
+give you a fat living or appoint you to the imperial council which
+directs musical affairs in the Netherlands!  Pardon me, Sir Wolf!
+But give people an inch, and they take an ell, and your ever ready
+obligingness will injure you, for the harder it is to win a thing the
+higher its value becomes.  You made yourself too cheap at court here
+people will surely know how to put a higher value upon a man who is
+equally skilful in Netherland, Italian, and German music.  In
+counterpoint you are little inferior to Maestro Gombert, and, besides,
+you play as many instruments as you have fingers on your hands.  We all
+like to have you lead us, because you do it with such delicate taste and
+comprehension, and, moreover, with a vigour which one would scarcely
+expect from you.  You will not lack patrons.  Look around you here or
+elsewhere for a position as leader of an orchestra.  Goinbert, to relieve
+himself a little, would like to have de Hondt come from Antwerp to
+Brussels.  His place would be the very one for you if you find nothing
+worthy of you here, where you have a house of your own and other things
+that bind you to the city."
+
+"Here I should probably be obliged to crowd somebody else out of one in
+order to obtain a position," replied Wolf, "and I am unwilling to do so."
+
+"You are wrong," cried the violinist.  "The course of the world causes
+the stronger--and that you are--to take precedence of the weaker.  Learn
+at last to give up this modest withdrawal and elbow your way forward!"
+
+"Pressing and jostling are not in my nature;" replied Wolf with a slight
+shrug of the shoulders.  "Since I may hope to be relieved of anxiety
+concerning my daily bread, I am disposed to leave the court and seek
+quiet happiness in a more definite circle of duties at home.  You see,
+Massi, it is just the same with us human beings as with material things.
+There is my man cutting the rope from yonder package with his sharp
+knife.  The contents are distributed in a trice, and yet it was tiresome
+to collect them and pack them carefully.  Thus it would need only a word
+to separate myself from the court; but to join it again would be a
+totally different affair.  There have been numerous changes in this city
+since I went away, and many a hand which pressed mine in farewell is no
+longer here, or would perhaps be withdrawn, merely because I am a
+Catholic and intend to stay here among the Protestants.  Besides--lay the
+roll on the table, Janche--besides, as you have already heard, the final
+decision does not depend upon myself.--Take care, Jan.  That little
+package is breakable!"
+
+This last exclamation was addressed to Wolf's Netherland servant, who was
+just unpacking his master's leather bag.
+
+Massi noticed that the articles taken out could scarcely be intended for
+a man's use, and, pointing to a piece of Flanders velvet, he gaily
+remarked:
+
+"So my guess was correct.  Here, too, the verdict is to be pronounced by
+beardless lips."  Wolf blushed like a girl, but, after the violinist had
+waited a short time for the confirmation of his conjecture, he continued
+more gravely:
+
+"It ill befits me to intrude upon your secret.  Every one must go his own
+way, and I have wondered why a person who so readily renders a service to
+others pursues his own path so unsocially.  Will you ever let your friend
+know what stirs your heart?"
+
+"I should often have confided in you gladly," replied Wolf, "but a
+certain shyness always restrained me.  How can others be interested in
+what befalls a lonely, quiet fellow like me?  It is not my habit to talk
+much, but you will always find me ready to use hand and brain in behalf
+of one who is as dear to me as you, Massi."
+
+"You have already given me proof of that," replied the violinist, "and I
+often marvel how you find time, without neglecting your own business, to
+do so much for others with no payment except thanks.  I thought you would
+accomplish something great, because you paid no heed to women; but
+probably you depend on other powers, for if it is a pair of beautiful
+eyes whose glance is to decide so important a matter----"
+
+"Never mind that," interrupted Wolf beseechingly, raising his hand
+soothingly.  "I confess with Terentius that nothing human is strange to
+me.  As soon as the decision comes, I will tell you--but you alone--
+several particulars.  Now accept my thanks for your well-meant counsel
+and the use of your room.  I'll see you again early to-morrow.  I
+promised Gombert and the leader of the boy choir to lend them a helping
+hand, so we shall probably meet at the rehearsal.--Go to the stable,
+Janche, and see that the groom has rubbed the bay down thoroughly.  As
+for the rolls and packages here----"
+
+"I'll help you carry them," said the violinist, seizing his shoes; but
+Wolf eagerly declined his assistance, and went out to ask the landlord to
+let him have one of his men.
+
+But the servants of the overcrowded Red Cock all had their hands full,
+so the nine-year-old son of the Leitgeb couple and the cellar man's two
+somewhat younger boys, who had not yet gone to bed, were made bearers of
+the parcels.
+
+How eager they were to do something which suited grown people, and, when
+Wolf described the place where they were to carry the articles, Fran
+Leitgeb sympathizingly helped him, and charged the children to hold the
+valuable packages very carefully.  They must not spare the knocker in the
+second story of the cantor house, for old Ursula's hearing was no longer
+the best, and since the day before yesterday--Kathl had brought the news
+home--she had been ill.  "Some rare luck," the landlady continued, "will
+surely follow the knight up to the Blombergs.  The same old steep path,
+leads there; but as to Wawer!--it would be improper to say Jungfrau
+Barbara--you will surer open your eyes--" Here she was summoned to the
+kitchen, and Wolf followed his little assistants into the street.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+The cantor house was only a few steps from the Red Cock, and Wolf knew
+every stone in the street, which was named for the tavern.  Yet that very
+circumstance delayed him, for even the smallest trifle which had changed
+during his absence attracted his attention.
+
+He had already noticed at the familiar inn that the gay image of the
+Madonna and Cluld, and the little lamp above, were no longer there.  The
+pictures of the saints had been removed from the public rooms, and even
+the painting which had been impressed upon his memory from boyhood--like
+a sign of the house--had vanished.  A large red cock, crowing with wide-
+open beak at the Apostle Peter, had been there.
+
+This venerable work of an old artist ought to have been retained, no
+matter what doctrine the Leitgebs now professed.  Its disappearance
+affected the knight unpleasantly.
+
+It also induced him to see whether the Madonna with the swords in her
+heart, which, at the time of his departure, had adorned the Ark, the
+great house at the corner of the Haidplatz, had met with the same fate,
+and this sacred witness of former days had likewise been sacrificed to
+the iconoclasm of the followers of the new Protestant faith.  This also
+grieved him, and urged him to go from street to street, from church to
+church, from monastery to monastery, from one of the chapels which no
+great mansion in his native land lacked to another, in order to ascertain
+what else religious fanaticism had destroyed; but he was obliged to
+hasten if he wished to be received by those in his home whom he most
+desired to see.
+
+The windows of the second story in the Golden Cross, opposite to the Ark,
+were brilliantly lighted.  The Emperor Charles lodged there, and probably
+his royal sister also.  Wolf had given his heart to her with the devotion
+with which he had always clung to every one to whom he was indebted for
+anv kindness.  He knew her imperial brother's convictions, too, and when
+he saw at one of the windows a man's figure leaning, motionless against
+the casement with his hand pressed upon his brow, he realized what deep
+indignation had doubtless seized upon him at the sight of the changes
+which had taken place here during the five years of his absence.
+
+But Emperor Charles was not the man to allow matters which aroused his
+wrath and strong disapproval to pass unpunished.  Wolf suspected that
+the time was not far distant when yonder monarch at the window, who had
+won so many victories, would have a reckoning with the Smalcalds, the
+allied Protestants of Germany, and his vivid imagination surrounded him
+with an almost mystical power.
+
+He would surely succeed in becoming the master of the Protestant princes;
+but was the steel sword the right weapon to destroy this agitation of the
+soul which had sprung from the inmost depths of the German nature?  He
+knew the firm, obstinate followers of the new doctrine, for there had
+been a time when his own young mind had leaned toward it.
+
+Since those days, however, events had happened which had bound him by
+indestructible fetters to the old faith.  He had vowed to his dying
+mother to remain faithful to the Holy Church and loyally to keep his
+oath.  It was not difficult for one of his modest temperament to be
+content with the position of spectator of the play of life which he
+occupied.  He was not born for conflict, and from the seat to which he
+had retired he thought he had perceived that the burden of existence was
+easier to bear, and the individual not only obtained external comfort,
+but peace of mind more speedily, if he left to the Church many things
+which the Protestant was obliged to settle for himself.  Besides, as
+such, he would have missed many beautiful and noble things which the
+old faith daily bestowed upon him, the artist.
+
+People in Ratisbon held a different opinion.  Defection from the Roman
+Catholic Church, which seemed to him reprehensible, was considered here a
+sacred duty, worthy of every sacrifice.  This threatened to involve him
+in fresh spiritual conflicts, and, as he dreaded such things as nocturnal
+birds shun the sunlight, he stood still, thoughtfully asking himself
+whether he ought not at once to give up the desire of striking new roots
+into this perilous soil.
+
+Only one thing really bound him to Ratisbon, and that was by no means the
+house which he had inherited, but a very young girl, and, moreover, a
+very changeable one, of whose development and life he had heard nothing
+during his absence except that she had not become another's wife.
+Perhaps this girl, whose charm and musical talent, according to his
+opinion, were unequalled in Ratisbon, had remained free solely because
+she was keeping the promise made when, a child of sixteen, she bade him
+farewell.  She had told him, though only in her lively childish fashion,
+that she would wait for him and become his wife when he returned home a
+made man.  Yet it now seemed that she had been as sincerely in earnest in
+that youthful betrothal as he himself.
+
+This fair hope crowded every scruple far into the shade.  If Barbara had
+kept her troth to him, he would reward her.  Wherever he might build his
+nest with her, he would be sure of the richest happiness.  Therefore he
+persisted in making his decision for the future depend upon her
+reception.
+
+The only question was whether it had not already grown too late for him
+to visit her and her father, who went to bed with the chickens.  But the
+new clock in Jacobsplatz pealed only nine bell-like strokes through the
+stillness of the evening, and, as he had sent his gifts in advance, he
+was obliged to follow them.
+
+He might now regard the cantor house, which was quickly gained, as his
+own.  Though it was now in the deepest darkness, he gazed up at the high,
+narrow building, with the pointed arches of the windows and the bracket
+which supported the image of St. Cecilia carved from sandstone, as
+intently as if he could distinguish every defect in the windows, every
+ornament carved in the ends of the beams.
+
+The second story, which projected above the ground floor into the street,
+was completely dark; but a faint glimmer of light streamed from the
+little window over the spurge laurel tree, and--this was the main thing
+--the bow window in the third story was still lighted.
+
+She whom he sought was waiting there with her father, while beneath it
+was the former abode of the precentor and organist and his wife, who had
+reared Wolf, and whose heir, after the old man's death, he had become.
+
+He would take up his quarters in the room which he had occupied as a
+scholar, where he had studied, practised music, trained himself in the
+art of composition, and in leisure hours had even drawn and painted a
+little.
+
+Old Ursula, as he had learned from the legal document which informed him
+of his inheritance, was taking care of the property bequeathed to him.
+With what pleasure the old maid-servant, faithful soul, who had come with
+him--then a little four-year-old boy--and his mother to Ratisbon twenty-
+two years ago, would make a bed for him and again cook the pancakes,
+which she knew to be his favourite dish!
+
+The thought of the greeting awaiting him from her dispelled the timidity
+with which he had set his foot on the first of the three steps that led
+up to the threshold of the house.  He had no occasion to use the knocker;
+a narrow, long streak of light showed that, notwithstanding the late
+hour, the outer door was ajar.
+
+Now he heard an inner door open, and this again aroused the anxiety
+he had just conquered.  Suppose that he should find Wawerl below?
+Ardently as he yearned for her to whom all the love of his heart
+belonged, this meeting would have come too quickly.  Yet she might very
+easily happen to be in the lower story, for the lighted window beside the
+door belonged to the little house chapel, and since her confirmation she
+had undertaken to sweep it, clean the candlesticks and lamps, and keep
+them in order, fill the vases on the little altar with blossoms, and
+adorn the image of the Madonna with flowers on Lady day and other
+festivals.
+
+How often he had helped the child and heard her father call her "his
+little sacrist"!
+
+The chapel here had gained greater importance to him when the Blombergs
+placed above the altar the Madonna and Child which he, who tried all the
+arts, had copied with his own hand from an ancient painting.  This had
+been in July; but when, on the Virgin's Assumption day in August, Barbara
+was twining a beautiful garland of summer flowers around it, and he, with
+an overflowing heart, was helping her, his head accidentally struck
+against hers, and to comfort her he compassionately kissed the bruised
+spot.  Only a short time ago she had frankly thrown her arms around his
+neck if she wanted him to gratify a wish or forgive an offence without
+ever receiving a response to her affection.  This time he had been the
+aggressor, and received an angry rebuff; during the little scuffle which
+now followed, Wolf's heart suddenly grew hot, and his kiss fell upon her
+scarlet lips.  The first was followed by several others, until steps on
+the stairs parted the young lover from the girl, who offered but a feeble
+resistance.
+
+Now he remembered the incident, and his cheeks flushed again.  Oh, if
+to-day he should possess the right to have those refractory lips at his
+disposal!
+
+During the five months spent in Ratisbon after that attack in the chapel
+he had more than once been bold enough to strive for more kisses, but
+always in vain, and rarely without bearing away a sharp reprimand, for
+Barbara had felt her slight resistance in the chapel as a grave offence.
+She had permitted something forbidden under the eyes of the Virgin's
+image, and this had seemed to her so wicked that she had confessed it,
+and not only been sternly censured, but had a penance imposed.
+
+Barbara had not forgotten this, and had understood how to keep him aloof
+with maidenly austerity until, on the evening before his departure, he
+had hung around her neck the big gold thaler his godfather had given him.
+
+Then, obeying an impulse of gratitude, she had thrown her arms around his
+neck; but even then she would not allow him to kiss her lips again.
+Instead, she hastily drew back to examine the gold thaler closely,
+praised its weight and beauty, and then promised Wolf that when she was
+rich and he had become a great lord she would have a new goblet made for
+him out of just such coins, like one which she had seen at the Wollers in
+the Ark, the richest of her wealthy relatives.
+
+As Wolf now recalled this promise it vexed him again.
+
+What had he expected from that parting hour--the vow of eternal fidelity,
+a firm betrothal, ardent kisses, and a tender embrace?  But, instead of
+obtaining even one of these beautiful things, he had become involved in a
+dispute with Barbara because he desired to receive nothing from her, and
+only claimed the right of showering gifts upon her later.
+
+This had pleased her, and, when he urged her to promise to wait for him
+and become his wife when he returned home a made man, she laughed gaily,
+and declared that she liked him, and, if it should be he who obtained for
+her what she now had in mind, she would be glad.
+
+Then his loving heart overflowed, and with her hands clasped in his he
+entreated her to give up these arrogant thoughts, be faithful to him, and
+not make him wretched.
+
+The words had poured so ardently, so passionately from the quiet, sedate
+young man's lips that the girl was thoroughly frightened, and wrenched
+her hands from his grasp.  But when she saw how deeply her struggling
+hurt him, she voluntarily held out her right hand, exclaiming:
+
+"Only succeed while you are absent sufficiently to build a house like
+our old one in the Kramgasse, and when the roof is on and your knightly
+escutcheon above the door we will move in together, and life will be
+nothing but music and happiness."
+
+This was all that gave him the right to consider her as his betrothed
+bride, for after a brief farewell and a few kisses of the hand flung to
+him from the threshold, she had escaped to the little bow-windowed room
+and thereby also evaded from the departing lover an impressive, well-
+prepared speech concerning the duties of a betrothed couple.
+
+Yet in Rome and Brussels Wolf had held fast to the conviction that a
+beloved betrothed bride was awaiting him in Ratisbon.
+
+So long as his foster-parents lived he had had news from them of the
+Blombergs.  After the death of the old couple, Barbara's father had
+answered in a very awkward manner the questions which he had addressed to
+him in a letter, and his daughter wrote a friendly message under the old
+captain's signature.  True, it was extremely brief, but few fiery love
+letters ever made the recipient happier or were more tenderly pressed to
+the lips.
+
+The girl he loved still bore the name of Barbara Blomberg.
+
+This outweighed a whole archive of long letters.  The captain, who, for
+the sake of fighting the infidels, had so sadly neglected his property
+that his own house in the Kramgasse fell into the hands of his creditors,
+had rented the second story in the cantor house.  Barbara at that time
+was very small, but now she had ceased to be a child, and, after she
+devoted herself earnestly to acquiring the art of singing, the old
+warrior had undertaken to keep the little chapel in order.
+
+The task certainly seemed strangely ill-suited to the tall, broad-
+shouldered man with the bushy eyebrows, long beard, and mustache twisted
+stiffly up at the ends, who had obtained in Tunis and during the Turkish
+war the reputation of being one of the most fearless heroes, and carried
+away severe wounds; but he knew how to make scoffers keep their distance,
+and did not trouble himself at all about other people.
+
+Regularly every evening he went down the stairs and performed the duty he
+had undertaken with the punctilious care of a neat housewife.
+
+He was a devout man, and did his work there in the hope of pleasing the
+Holy Virgin, because the reckless old warrior was indebted to her for
+more than one deliverance from impending death, and because he trusted
+that she would repay it to him in his child.
+
+Besides, his income was not large enough for him to keep a maid-servant
+of his own, and he could not expect old Ursel, who had worked for the
+precentor and his wife, and performed the roughest labour in the third
+story for a mere "thank you," to take care of the chapel also.  She had
+plenty to do, and besides she had been a Protestant three years, and took
+the Lord's Supper in a different form.
+
+This would have induced him to break off every connection with his old
+friend's maid-servant had not his kind, grateful heart forbidden him to
+hurt her feelings.  Besides, she was almost indispensable to his daughter
+and himself; it was difficult enough, in any case, for the nobly born
+captain to meet the obligations imposed by his position.
+
+He now received only a very small portion of the profits of the lumber
+trade which had supported his ancestors, his father, and himself very
+handsomely, for he had been compelled to mortgage his share in the
+business.
+
+Notwithstanding the title of "Captain" with which his imperial commander
+had honoured him when he received his discharge, the pension he had was
+scarcely worth mentioning, and, besides, it was very irregularly paid.
+Therefore the father and daughter had tried to obtain some means of
+earning money which could be kept secret from their fellow-citizens.
+The "Captain" busied himself with tracing coats-of-arms, ornaments, and
+inscriptions upon tin goblets, mugs, tankards, and dishes.  Barbara, when
+she had finished her exercises in singing, washed fine laces.  This was
+done entirely in secret.  A certain Frau Lerch, who when a girl had
+served Barbara's dead mother as waiting maid, and now worked as a
+dressmaker for the most aristocratic women in Ratisbon, privately
+obtained this employment.  It was partly from affection for the young
+lady whom she had tended when a child; but the largest portion of
+Barbara's earnings returned to her, for she cut for the former all the
+garments she needed to appear among her wealthy relatives and young
+companions at dances, musical entertainments, banquets, and excursions to
+the country.  True, Frau Lerch, who was a childless woman, worked very
+cheaply for her, and, when she heard that Barbara had again been the
+greatest beauty, it pleased her, and she saw her seed ripening.
+
+What a customer the vain darling, who was very ambitious, promised
+to become in the future as the wife of a rich aristocrat!  She would
+undoubtedly be that.  There was absolute guarantee of it in her
+marvellously beautiful head, with its abundant golden hair, her
+magnificent figure, which--she could not help knowing it--
+was unequalled in Ratisbon, and her nightingale voice.
+
+Even old Blomberg, who kept aloof from the meetings of his distinguished
+fellow-citizens, but, on the other hand, when his supply of money would
+permit, enjoyed a drinking bout at the tavern with men of the sword all
+the more, rejoiced to hear his daughter's rare gifts lauded.  The use of
+the graver was thoroughly distasteful and unsuited to his rank; but even
+the most laborious work gained a certain charm for his paternal heart
+when, while wiping the perspiration from his brow, he thought of what his
+diligence would allow him to devote to the adornment and instruction of
+his daughter.
+
+He preferred to be alone at home, and his reserved, eccentric nature had
+caused his relatives to shun his house, which doubtless seemed to them
+contemptibly small.
+
+Barbara endured this cheerfully, for, though she had many relatives and
+acquaintances among the companions of her own age, she possessed no
+intimate friend.
+
+As a child, Wolf had been her favourite playmate, but now visits from
+her aunts and cousins would only have interrupted her secret work,
+and disturbed her practice of singing.
+
+When Wolf entered the house, the captain had just left the chapel.  He
+did not notice the returning owner, for people must have made their way
+into the quiet dwelling.  At least he had heard talking in the entry of
+the second story, where usually it was even more noiseless than in his
+lodgings in the third, since it was tenanted only by old Ursel, who was
+now confined to her bed.
+
+Wolf saw Barbara's father, whose height surpassed the stature of ordinary
+men by a head, hurrying up the stairs.  It was a strange, and, for
+children, certainly an alarming, sight--his left leg, which had been
+broken by a bullet from a howitzer, had remained stiff, and, as he leaped
+up three stairs at a time, he stretched his lean body so far forward that
+it seemed as though he could not help losing his balance at the next
+step.  He was in haste, for he thought that at last he could again acquit
+himself manfully and cope with one or rather with two or three of the
+burglars who, since the Duke of Bavaria had prohibited the conveyance of
+provisions into Ratisbon as a punishment for its desertion of the
+Catholic Church, had pursued their evil way in the city.
+
+He first discovered with what very small ill-doers he had to deal when he
+held the little lamp toward them, and, to his sincere vexation, found
+that they were only little boys, who, moreover, were the children of
+honest folk, and therefore could scarcely be genuine scoundrels.
+
+Yet it could hardly be any laudable purpose which brought them at so late
+an hour to the cantor house, and therefore, with the intention of turning
+the serious attack into a mirthful one; he shouted in a harsh voice the
+gibberish which he had compounded of scraps of all sorts of languages,
+and whose effect upon unruly youngsters he had tested to his own
+amusement.
+
+As his rough "Larum gardum quantitere runze punze ke hi voi la" now
+reached the little ones, the impression was far deeper than he had
+intended, for the cellar man's youngest son, a little fellow six years
+old, first shrieked aloud, and, when the terrible old man's long arms
+barred his way, he began to cry piteously.
+
+This troubled the kind-hearted giant, who was really fond of children,
+and, ere the little lad was aware of it, the captain's free left hand
+grasped the waistband of his little leather breeches and lifted him into
+the air.
+
+The swift act doubled the terror and anguish of the struggling little
+wight.
+
+As the strong man held him on his arm he fought bravely with his fat
+little fists and his sturdy little legs.  But though in the unequal
+conflict the boy pitilessly pulled the powerful monster's grayishy yellow
+imperial and bushy mustache, and the captain recognised the child from
+the Red Cock as one of the rascals who often shouted their nickname of
+"Turkey gobbler" after his tall figure, conspicuous from its height and
+costume, he strove with honest zeal to soothe the little one.
+
+His deep voice, meanwhile, sounded so gentle and friendly, and his
+promise to give him a piece of spice cake which he was bringing home to
+Ursel to sweeten the disagreeable taste of her medicine produced so
+soothing an influence, that little Hans at last looked up at him
+trustingly and hopefully.
+
+The cellar man's oldest son, who had violently assaulted the old
+gentleman to release his little brother, now stood penitently before him,
+and the landlord's boy related, in somewhat confused but perfectly
+intelligible words, the object of their coming, and in whose name they
+were bringing the roll and yonder little package to old Ursel.
+
+The story sounded humble enough, but as soon as the captain had set
+little Hans on his feet and bent curiously over the forerunners of the
+dear friend, which had been placed on the little bench by the door, the
+three boys dashed down the stairs, and the shrill voice of the landlord's
+son shrieked from the lowest step one "Turkey gobbler" and "Pope's slave"
+after another.
+
+"Satan's imps!" shouted the old man; but the outer door, which banged
+below him, showed that pursuit of the naughty mockers would result to his
+disadvantage.  Then as, with an angry shake of the head, he drew back
+from the banisters, he saw his daughter's playmate.
+
+How dear the latter was to him, and how fully his aged heart had retained
+its capacity of feeling, were proved by the reception which he gave the
+returning knight.  The injury just inflicted seemed to have been entirely
+forgotten.  With tears in his eyes and a voice tremulous with deep
+emotion, he drew Wolf toward him, kissing first his head, which reached
+only to his lips, then his cheeks and brow.  Then, with youthful
+vivacity, he expressed his pleasure in seeing him again, and, without
+permitting Wolf to speak, he repeatedly exclaimed:
+
+"And my Wawerl, and Ursel in there!  There'll be a jubilee!"
+
+When Wolf had at last succeeded in returning his old friend's greeting
+and then expressed a wish, first of all, to clasp the faithful old maid-
+servant's hand, the old gentleman's beaming face clouded, and he said,
+sighing:
+
+"What has not befallen us here since you went away, my dear Wolf!  My
+path has been bordered with tombstones as poplars line the highway.  But
+we will let the dead rest.  Nothing can now disturb their peace.  Old
+Ursel, too, is longing for the end of life, and we ought not to grudge it
+to her.  Only I dread the last hour, and still more the long eternity
+which will follow it, for the good, patient woman entered the snare of
+the Satanic Protestant doctrine, and will not hear of taking the holy
+sacrament."
+
+Wolf begged him to admit him at once, but Blomberg declared that, after
+the attack of apoplexy which she had recently had, one thing and another
+might happen if she should so unexpectedly see the man to whom her whole
+heart clung.  Wolf would do better first to surprise the girl upstairs,
+who had no suspicion of his presence.  He, Blomberg, must look after the
+old woman now.  He would carry those things--he pointed to the parcels
+which the boys had left--into the young nobleman's old room.  Ursel had
+always kept it ready for his return, as though she expected him daily.
+This suited Wolf, only he insisted upon having his own way about the
+articles he had brought, and took them upstairs with him.
+
+He would gladly have greeted the faithful nurse of his childhood at once,
+yet it seemed like a fortunate dispensation that, through the old man's
+delay below, his wish to have his first meeting with the woman he loved
+without witnesses should be fulfilled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+In spite of the darkness and the zigzag turns of the stairs, Wolf was so
+familiar with every corner of the old house that he did not even need to
+grope his way with his hand.
+
+He found the door of the Blomberg lodgings open.  Putting down in the
+anteroom whatever might be in his way while greeting Barbara, and
+carrying the roll of velvet under his arm and a little box in his pocket,
+he entered the chamber which the old man called his artist workshop.  It
+was in total darkness, but through the narrow open door in the middle of
+the left wall one could see what was going on in Barbara's little bow-
+windowed room.  This was quite brightly lighted, for she was ironing and
+crimping ruffs for the neck, small lace handkerchiefs, and cuffs.
+
+The light required for this purpose was diffused by a couple of tallow
+candles and also by the coals which heated the irons.
+
+As she bent over the glow, it shone into her beautiful face and upon her
+magnificent fair hair, which rippled in luxuriant confusion about her
+round head or fell in thick waves to her hips.  The red kerchief which
+had confined it was lying on the floor.  Another had slipped from her
+neck and was hanging on the corner of the ironing board.  Her stockings
+had lost their fastenings and slipped down to her feet, revealing limbs
+whose whiteness and beauty of form vied with the round arms which, after
+holding the iron near her hot cheeks, she moved with eager diligence.
+
+The image of a vivacious, early developed child had impressed itself upon
+Wolf's mind.  Now he stood before a maiden in the full bloom of her
+charms, whose superb symmetry of figure surprised and stirred him to the
+depths of his nature.
+
+In spite of her immature youth, he had cherished her in his inmost
+heart.  youth, she confronted him as an entirely new and doubly desirable
+creature.  The quiet longing which had mastered him was transformed into
+passionate yearning, but he restrained it by exerting all the strength of
+will peculiar to him, for a voice within cried out that he was too
+insignificant for this marvellous maiden.
+
+But when she dipped the tips of her fingers into the dainty little bowl,
+which he had once given her for a birthday present, sprinkled the linen
+with water, and meanwhile sang in fresh, clear notes the 'ut, re, me, fa,
+sol, la' of Perissone Cambio's singing lesson, new wonder seized him.
+What compass, what power, what melting sweetness the childish voice
+against whose shrillness his foster-father and he himself had zealously
+struggled now possessed!  Neither songstress nor member of the boy choir
+whom he had heard in Italy or the Netherlands could boast of such bell-
+like purity of tone!  He was a connoisseur, and yet it seemed as though
+every tone which he heard had received the most thorough cultivation.
+
+Who in Ratisbon could have been her teacher?  To whom did she owe this
+masterly training?  As if by a miracle, he knew not whether from looking
+or listening, he found a combination of notes which he had long been
+seeking for the motet on which he was working.  When he had registered
+it, and she sang a few passages from it, what an exquisite delight
+awaited him!  But what should he do now?  Ought he to surprise her in
+this way?  It would certainly have been proper to be first announced by
+her father; but he could not bring himself even to stir a foot.  Beads of
+perspiration stood upon his brow.  Panting for breath, he seized his
+handkerchief to wipe it, and in doing so the roll of velvet which he had
+held under his arm fell on the floor.
+
+Wolf stooped, and, ere he had straightened himself again, he heard
+Barbara call in a questioning tone, "Father?" and saw her put down the
+iron and stand listening.
+
+Then, willing or not, he was obliged to announce his presence, and, with
+a timid "It is I, Wolf," he approached the little bow-windowed room and
+hesitatingly crossed the threshold.
+
+"Wolf, my tame Wolf," she repeated gaily, without being in the least
+concerned about the condition of her dress.  "I knew that we should soon
+meet again, for, just think of it!  I dreamed of you last night.  I was
+entering a golden coach.  It was very high, so I put my foot on your
+hand, and you lifted me in."
+
+Then, without the least embarrassment, she held out her right hand, but
+slapped his fingers smartly when he passionately endeavoured to raise it
+to his lips.
+
+Yet the blow was not unkindly meant, for even while he drew back she
+voluntarily clasped both his hands, scrutinized him intently from head to
+foot, and said calmly:
+
+"Welcome to the old home, Sir Knight!"  Then, laughing gaily, she added:
+"Why, such a thing is unprecedented!  Not a feature, not a look is unlike
+what it used to be!  And yet you've been roaming five years in foreign
+lands!  Changes take place--only look at me!--changes take place more
+swiftly here in Ratisbon.  How you stare at me!  I thought so!  Out with
+it!  Hasn't the feather-head of those days become quite a charming young
+lady?"
+
+Now Wolf would gladly have made as many flattering speeches as she could
+desire, but his tongue refused to obey him.  The new meeting was too
+unlike his expectation.  The sight of the self-conscious woman who, in
+her wonderful beauty, stood leaning with folded arms on the ironing-table
+stirred his heart and senses too strongly.
+
+Standing motionless, he strove for words, while his eyes revealed plainly
+enough the passionate rapture which agitated his soul.  Barbara perceived
+what was passing in his thoughts, and also noticed how her dress had
+become disarranged during her work.
+
+Flushing slightly, she pursed up her lips as if to whistle, and with her
+head thrust forward she blew into the air in his direction.  Then,
+shaking her finger at him, she hastily sat down on the chest beside the
+fireplace, wound the kerchief which had fallen off closer around her
+neck, and, without the least embarrassment, pulled up her stockings.
+
+"What does it matter!" she cried with a slight shrug of the shoulders.
+"How often we two have waded together in water above our knees, like the
+storks!  And yet such a thing turns the head of a youth who has returned
+from foreign lands a made man, and closes his bearded lips!  Have you
+given me even a single honest word of welcome?  That's the way with all
+of you!  And you?  If you stand there already like a dumb sign-post, how
+will it be when I thoroughly turn your head like all the rest with my
+singing?"
+
+"I've heard you already!" he answered quickly; "magical, bewildering,
+magnificent!  Who in the world wrought this miracle with your voice?"
+
+"There we have it!" she cried, laughing merrily and clapping her hands.
+"To make you speak, one need only allude distantly to music.  That, too,
+has remained unchanged, and I am glad, for I have much to ask you in
+relation to it.  I can learn many things from you still.  But what have
+you there in your hand?  Is it anything pretty from Brabant?" This
+question flowed from her lips with coaxing tenderness, and she passed
+her soft hand swiftly over his cheek.
+
+How happy it made him!
+
+Hitherto he had been the receiver--nay, an unfair taker--but now he was
+to become the giver and she would be pleased with his present.
+
+As if relieved from a nightmare, he now told her that he had gone from
+Rome, through the Papal Legate Contarini, whom he had accompanied to
+Italy as a secretary skilled in German and music--to the imperial court,
+where he now enjoyed the special favour of the Regent of the Netherlands,
+the widowed Queen of Hungary; that the royal lady, the sister of the
+Emperor Charles, had chosen him to be director of her lessons in singing,
+and also permitted him to write German letters for her; and what
+assistance worthy of all gratitude he had enjoyed through the director
+of the imperial musicians, Gombert, the composer and leader of the royal
+orchestra, and his colleague Appenzelder, who directed the Queen's boy
+choir.
+
+At the mention of these names, Barbara listened intently.  She had sung
+several of Gombert's compositions, and was familiar with one of
+Appenzelder's works.
+
+When she learned that both must have arrived in Ratisbon several hours
+before, she anxiously asked Wolf if he would venture to make her
+acquainted with these great masters.
+
+Wolf assented with joyous eagerness, while Barbara's cheeks crimsoned
+with pleasure at so valuable a promise.
+
+Yet this subject speedily came to a close, for while talking Wolf had
+ripped the linen cover in which the roll of velvet was sewed, and, as
+soon as he unfolded the rich wine-coloured material, Barbara forgot
+everything else, and burst into loud exclamations of pleasure and
+admiration.  Then, when Wolf hastened out and with hurrying fingers
+opened the little package he had brought and gave her the costly fur
+which was to serve as trimming for the velvet jacket, she again laughed
+gleefully, and, ere Wolf was aware of it, she had thrown her arms around
+his neck and kissed him on both cheeks.
+
+He submitted as if dazed, and did not even regain his senses sufficiently
+to profit by what she had granted him with such unexpected liberality.
+Nor did she allow him to speak as she loosed her arms from his neck, for,
+with a bewitching light in her large, blue eyes, fairly overflowing with
+grateful tenderness, she cried:
+
+"You dear, dear, kind little Wolf!  To think that you should have
+remembered me so generously!  And how rich you must be!  If I had become
+so before you, I should have given myself a dress exactly like this.  Now
+it's mine, just as though it had dropped from the sky.  Wine-coloured
+Flanders velvet, with a border of dark-brown marten fur!  I'll parade in
+it like the Duchess of Bavaria or rich Frau Fugger.  Holy Virgin! if that
+isn't becoming to my golden hair!  Doesn't it just suit me, you little
+Wolf and great spendthrift?  And when I wear it at the dance in the New
+Scale or sing in it at the Convivium musicum, my Woller cousins and the
+Thun girl will turn yellow with envy."
+
+Wolf had only half listened to this outburst of delight, for he had
+reserved until the last his best offering--a sky-blue turquoise breastpin
+set with small diamonds.  It brought him enthusiastic thanks, and Barbara
+even allowed him to fasten the magnificent ornament with his own fingers,
+which moved slowly and clumsily enough.
+
+Then she hurried into her chamber to bring the hand-mirror, and when in
+an instant she returned and, at her bidding, he held the shining glass
+before her, she patted his cheeks with their thin, fair, pointed beard,
+and called him her faithful little Wolf, her clear, stupid pedant and
+Satan in person, who would fill her mind with vanity.
+
+Finally, she laid the piece of velvet over the back of a chair, let it
+fall down to the floor, and threw the bands of fur upon it.  Every graver
+word, every attempt to tell her what he expected from her, the girl cut
+short with expressions of gratitude and pleasure until her father
+returned from the suffering Ursel.
+
+Then, radiant with joy, she showed the old man her new treasures, and the
+father's admiration and expressions of gratitude were not far behind the
+daughter's.
+
+It seemed as though Fate had blessed the modest rooms in Red Cock Street
+with its most precious treasures.
+
+It might be either Wolf's return, the hopes for his daughter which were
+associated with it in the crippled old warrior's heart, or the unexpected
+costly gifts, to which Wolf had added for his old friend a Netherland
+drinking vessel in the form of a silver ship, which had moved the old
+gentleman so deeply, but at any rate he allowed himself to be tempted
+into an act of extravagance, and, in an outburst of good spirits which he
+had not felt for a long time, he promised Wolf to fetch from the cellar
+one of the jugs of wine which he kept there for his daughter's wedding.
+
+"Over this liquid we will open our hearts freely to each other, my boy,"
+he said.  "The night is still long, and even at the Emperor's court there
+is nothing better to be tasted.  My dead mother used to say that there
+are always more good things in a poor family which was once rich than in
+a rich one which was formerly poor."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+The captain limped out into the cellar, but Barbara was already standing
+behind the table again, moving the irons.
+
+"When I am rich," she exclaimed, in reply to Wolf, who asked her to stop
+her work in this happy hour and share the delicious wine with him and her
+father, "I shall shun such maid-servant's business.  But what else can be
+done?  We have less money than we need to keep up our position, and that
+must be remedied.  Besides, a neatly crimped ruff is necessary if a poor
+girl like me is to stand beside the others in the singing rehearsal early
+to-morrow morning.  Poor folks are alike everywhere, and, so long as I
+can do no better--but luck will come to me, too, some day--this right
+hand must be my maid.  Let it alone, or my iron will burn your fingers!"
+
+This threat was very nearly fulfilled, for Wolf had caught her right hand
+to hold it firmly while he at last compelled her to hear that his future
+destiny depended upon her decision.
+
+How much easier he had expected to find the wooing!  Yet how could it
+be otherwise?  Every young man in Ratisbon was probably courting this
+peerless creature.  No doubt she had already rebuffed many another as
+sharply as she had just prevented him from seizing her hand.  If her
+manner had grown more independent, she had learned to defend herself
+cleverly.
+
+He would first try to assail her heart with words, and they were at his
+disposal in black and white.  He had placed in the little box with the
+breastpin a piece of paper on which he had given expression to his
+feelings in verse.  Hitherto it had remained unnoticed and fluttered to
+the ground.  Picking it up, he introduced his suit, after a brief
+explanation, by reading aloud the lines which he had composed in
+Brussels to accompany his gifts to her.
+
+It was an easy task, for he had painted rather than written his poetic
+homage, with beautiful ornaments on the initial letters, and in the most
+careful red and black Gothic characters, which looked like print.  So,
+with a vivacity of intonation which harmonized with the extravagance of
+the poetry, he began:
+
+              "Queen of my heart wert thou in days of old,
+               Beloved maid, in childhood's garb so plain;
+               I bring thee velvet now, and silk and gold
+               Though I am but a poor and simple swain
+               That in robes worthy of thee may be seen
+               My sovereign, of all thy sex the queen."
+
+Barbara nodded pleasantly to him, saying: "Very pretty.  Perhaps you
+might arrange your little verse in a duo, but how you must have taxed
+your imagination, you poor fellow, to transform the flighty good-for-
+nothing whom you left five years ago into a brilliant queen!"
+
+"Because, even at that time," he ardently exclaimed.  "I had placed you
+on the throne of my heart, because the bud already promised--Yet no!  In
+those days I could not suspect that it would unfold into so marvellous a
+rose.  You stand before me now more glorious than I beheld you in the
+most radiant of all my dreams, and therefore the longing to possess you,
+which I could never relinquish, will make me appear almost insolently
+bold.  But it must be risked, and if you will fulfil the most ardent
+desire of a faithful heart--"
+
+"Gently, my little Wolf, gently," she interposed soothingly.  "If I am
+right, you mounted our narrow stairs to seek a wife and, when my father
+returns, you will ask for my hand."
+
+"That I will," the young knight declared with eager positiveness.  "Your
+'Yes' or 'No,' Wawerl, is to me the decree of Fate, to which even the
+gods submit without opposition."
+
+"Indeed?" she answered, uttering the word slowly, with downcast eyes.
+Then suddenly drawing herself to her full height, she added with a graver
+manner than he had ever seen her wear: "It is fortunate that I have
+learned the stories of the gods which are so popular in the Netherlands.
+If any one else should come to me with such pretences, I would scarcely
+believe that he had honest intentions.  You are in earnest, Wolf, and
+wish to make me your wife.  But 'Yes' and 'No' can not be spoken as
+quickly as you probably imagine.  You were always a good, faithful
+fellow, and I am sincerely attached to you.  But have I even the
+slightest knowledge of what you obtained abroad or what awaits you here?"
+
+"Wawerl!"  he  interrupted  reproachfully.  "Would I as an honest man
+seek your hand if I had not made money enough to support a wife whose
+expectations were not too extravagant?  You can not reasonably doubt
+that, and now, when the most sacred of bonds is in question, it ought--"
+
+"It ought, you think, to satisfy me?"  she interrupted with confident
+superiority.  "But one of two things must follow this sacred bond-
+happiness or misery in the earthly life which is entered from the church
+steps.  I am tired of the miserable starving and struggling, my dear
+Wolf.  Marriage must at least rid me of these gloomy spectres.  My father
+will not let you leave soon the good wine he allows himself and you to
+enjoy--you know that.  Tell him how you are situated at the court, and
+what prospects, you have here in Ratisbon or elsewhere; for instance,
+I would gladly go to the magnificent Netherlands with my husband.  Inform
+yourself better, too, of the amount of your inheritance.  The old man
+will take me into his confidence early to-morrow morning.  But I will
+confess this to you now: The most welcome husband to me would be a
+zealous and skilful disciple of music, and I know that wish will be
+fulfilled with you.  If, perhaps, you are already what I call a
+successful man, we will see.  But--I have learned that--no happiness will
+thrive on bread and water, and even a modest competence, as it is called,
+won't do for me."
+
+"But Wawerl," he interrupted dejectedly, "what could be better than true,
+loyal love?  Just hear what I was going to tell you, and have not yet
+reached."
+
+But Barbara would not listen, cutting his explanation short with the
+words:
+
+"All that is written as distinctly on the tender swain's face as if
+I had it before me in black letter, but unfortunately it has as little
+power to move me to reckless haste as the angry visage into which your
+affectionate one is now transformed.  The Scripture teaches us to prove
+before we retain.  Yet if, on this account, you take me for a woman whose
+heart and hand can be bought for gold, you are mistaken.  Worthy Peter
+Schlumperger is constantly courting me.  And I?  I have asked him to
+wait, although he is perhaps the richest man in the city.  I might have
+Bernard Crafft, too, at any time, but he, perhaps, is as much too young
+as Herr Peter is too old, yet, on the other hand, he owns the Golden
+Cross, and, besides, has inherited a great deal of money and a
+flourishing business.  I keep both at a distance, and I did the same--
+only more rigidly--last year when the Count Palatine von Simmern made me
+proposals which would have rendered me a rich woman, but only aroused my
+indignation.  I dealt more indulgently with the Ratisbon men, but I
+certainly shall take neither of them, for they care more for the wine in
+the taproom than the most exquisite pleasures which music offers, and,
+besides, they are foes of our holy faith, and Herr Schlumperger is even
+one of those who most zealously favour the heretical innovations."
+
+Here she hesitated and her eyes met his with distrustful keenness as she
+asked in an altered tone:
+
+"And you?  Have not you returned to the false doctrines with which your
+boyish head was bewildered in the school of poetry?"
+
+"I confided to you then," he exclaimed, deeply hurt, "the solemn vow I
+made to my poor mother ere she closed her eyes in death."
+
+"Then that obstacle is removed," Barbara answered in a more gentle tone,
+"but I will not take back even a single word of what I have said about
+other matters.  I am not like the rest of the girls.  My father--Holy
+Virgin!--how much too late he was born!  Among the Crusaders this
+fearless hero, whom the pepper-bags here jeer at as a 'Turkey gobbler,'
+would have been sure of every honour.  How ill-suited he is for any
+mercantile business, on the other hand, he has unfortunately proved.
+Wherever he attempted anything, disappointment followed disappointment.
+To fight in Tunis against the crescent, he let our flourishing lumber
+trade go to ruin!  And my mother!  How young I was when her dead body was
+borne out of the house, yet I can still see the haughty woman--whose
+image I am said to be--in her trailing velvet robe, with plumes waving
+amid the curls arranged in a towering mass upon her head.  She was
+dressed in that way when the men came to sell our house in the Kramgasse
+at auction.  She must have been one of the women under whose management,
+as a matter of course, the household is neglected."
+
+"How can you talk so about your own mother?" Wolf interrupted in a
+somewhat reproachful tone.
+
+"Because we are not here to flatter the dead or to speak falsely to
+each other, but to understand how matters are between us," she answered
+gravely.  "How you are constituted is best known to yourself, but it
+seems to me that while far away you have formed a totally false opinion
+of me, whom you placed upon the throne of your heart, and I wish to
+correct it, that you may not plunge into misfortune like a deluded
+simpleton and drag me with you.  Where, as in my case, so many things
+are different from what the good and humble would desire them to be,
+it is not very pleasant to open one's whole heart to another, and there
+is no one else in the world for whom I would do it.  Perhaps I shall
+not succeed at all, for often enough I am incomprehensible to myself.
+I shall understand myself most speedily if I bring before my mind my
+father's and my mother's nature, and recall the ancient saying that young
+birds sing like the old ones.  My father--I love him in spite of all his
+eccentricities and weaknesses.  Dear me! he needs me so much, and would
+be miserable without me.  Though he is a head taller than you, he has
+remained a child."
+
+"But a good, kind-hearted one!" Wolf interrupted with warm affection.
+
+"Of course," Barbara eagerly responded; "and if I have inherited from him
+anything which is ill-suited to me, it is the fearless courage which does
+not beseem us women.  We progress much farther if we hold back timidly.
+Therefore, often as it impels me to resistance, I yield unless it is too
+strong for me.  Besides, but for your interruption, I should have said
+nothing about my father.  What concerns us I inherited from my mother,
+and, as I mean kindly toward you, this very heritage compels me to warn
+you against marrying me if you are unable to support me so that I can
+make a good appearance among Ratisbon wives.  Moreover, poor church mouse
+though I am, I sometimes give them one thing and another to guess, and
+I haven't far to travel to learn what envy is.  In my present position,
+however, compassion is far more difficult to bear than ill-will.  But I
+by no means keep out of the way on that account.  I must be seen and
+heard if I am to be happy, and I shall probably succeed so long as my
+voice retains the melting tone which is now peculiar to it.  Should
+anything destroy that, there will be a change.  Then--I know this in
+advance--I shall tread in the footsteps of my mother, who had no means
+of satisfying her longing for admiration except her pretty face, her
+beautiful figure, and the finery which she stole from the poverty of her
+husband, and her only child.  How you are staring at me again!  But I can
+not forget that now; for, had it not been so, we should still be living
+in our own house as a distinguished family of knightly rank, and I should
+have no need to spend my best hours in secretly washing laces for others-
+-yes, for others, Wolf--to gain a wretched sum of which even my father
+must be ignorant.  You do not know how we are obliged to economize, and
+yet I can only praise the pride of my father, who induced me to return
+the gifts which the Council sends to the house by the town clerk when I
+sing in the Convivium musicum.  But what a pleasure it is to show the
+bloated fellow the door when he pulls out the linen purse!  True, many
+things must be sacrificed to do it, and how hard that often
+is can not be described.  I would not bear it long.  But, if I were your
+wife and you had only property enough for a modest competence, you would
+scarcely fare better, through my fault, than my poor father.  That would
+surely be the result"--she raised her voice in passionate eagerness as
+she spoke:
+
+"I know myself.  As for the immediate future, I feel that the ever-
+increasing longing for better days and the rank which is my due will kill
+me if I do not satisfy it speedily.  I shall never be content with any
+half-way position, and I fear you can not offer me more.  Talk with my
+father, and think of it during the night.  Were I in your place, I would
+at once resign the wish to win a person like me, for if you really love
+me as ardently as it seems, you will receive in exchange only a lukewarm
+liking for your person and a warm interest in what you can accomplish;
+but in other respects, far worse than nothing--peril after peril.  But
+if you will be reasonable and give up your suit, I shall not blame you
+a moment.  How bewildered you still stare at me!  But there comes father,
+and I must finish my work before the irons get cold."
+
+Wolf gazed after her speechlessly, while she withdrew behind the table
+as quietly as if they had been discussing the most commonplace things.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+A live dog is better than a dead king
+Always more good things in a poor family which was once rich
+Harder it is to win a thing the higher its value becomes
+No happiness will thrive on bread and water
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BARBARA BLOMBERG, BY EBERS, V1 ***
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