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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Barbara Blomberg, Complete, by Georg Ebers
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Barbara Blomberg, Complete
+
+Author: Georg Ebers
+
+Last Updated: March 10, 2009
+Release Date: October 17, 2006 [EBook #5571]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BARBARA BLOMBERG, COMPLETE ***
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+BARBARA BLOMBERG
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+
+Translated from the German by Mary J. Safford
+
+
+
+
+BOOK 1.
+
+
+
+
+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 any 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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+The old captain blew the dust from the wine flagon and carefully removed
+the seal. His presence prevented Wolf from renewing the interrupted
+conversation.
+
+Reflection doubtless warned him that it would be a dangerous venture to
+enter the same life-boat with this woman, yet how bewitchingly beautiful
+she had seemed to him in her proud superiority, in the agitation of soul
+aroused by the yearning for a fairer fate! Have her he must, even though
+he was permitted to call her his own but for a year, a month, an hour.
+
+Many of her words had been harsh and apparently unfeeling, yet how noble
+must be the soul of this young creature who, for the sake of being loyal
+to truth, the pure source of everything grand and lofty, paid no heed to
+much that is usually sacred to human beings!
+
+But Barbara's conduct during the next hour appeared to belie this
+opinion of the man who loved her, for scarcely had her father sat down
+with the knight before the venerable wine flagon than she flung down the
+smoothing iron, hastily piled the finished articles one above another,
+and then, without heeding the parchment on which Wolf's verses were
+written, rolled up the ruby velvet. Directly after, with the package
+under her arm, she wished the men a merry drinking bout, and added that
+poor Ursel might need her. Besides, she wanted to show her the beautiful
+material, which would please the faithful soul.
+
+Then, without even pausing at the rooms in the second story, she hurried
+swiftly down the stairs into the street.
+
+She was carrying Wolf's gift to Frau Lerch, her dressmaker.
+
+The Grieb, where the latter lived as wife of the keeper of the house,
+was only a few steps distant. If the skilful woman, who was indebted to
+her for many a customer, began the work of cutting at once, her cousins,
+the Wollers, could help her the next day with the sewing. True, these
+were the very girls who would "turn yellow with rage" at the sight of
+the velvet, but precisely because these rich girls had so many things
+of which she was deprived she felt that, in asking their aid, she was
+compelling Fate to atone for an injustice.
+
+Haste was necessary for, at the first glance at the velvet, she had
+determined to wear it at the next dance in the New Scales, and she also
+saw distinctly in imagination the person whose attention she desired to
+attract.
+
+True, the recruiting officer sent to Ratisbon, of whom she was thinking,
+was by no means a more acceptable suitor, but a handsome fellow, a scion
+of a noble family, and, above all, an excellent dancer.
+
+She did not love him--nay, she was not even captivated by him like
+so many others. But, if his heart throbbed faster for any one, it was
+Barbara. Yet perhaps his glances strayed almost as frequently to one
+other maiden. The velvet gown should now decide whether he gave the
+preference to her or to pretty Elspet Zohrer--of course, only in the
+dance--for she would never have accepted him as a serious suitor.
+
+Besides, the young noble, Pyramus Kogel, himself probably thought of no
+such folly.
+
+It was very different with Wolf Hartschwert. She had been told the small
+amount of his inheritance long before, and on that account she would
+have been obliged to refuse him positively at once, yet the affectionate
+relations existing between them must not be clouded. He might still
+become very useful to her and, besides, the modest companion of her
+childhood was dear to her. She would have sincerely regretted an
+irreparable breach with him.
+
+Her father indulged her in every respect, only he strictly forbade his
+beautiful child to leave the house alone after sunset. Therefore Barbara
+had not told him the real object of her visit. She now had no occasion
+to fear his following her.
+
+Yet she made all possible haste, and, as she found Frau Lerch at home,
+and the skilful little woman was instantly at her service, she crowded
+into the space of an hour the many points about the cutting which were
+to be discussed.
+
+Then she set out on her way home, expecting to traverse the short
+distance swiftly and without delay; but, when she had gone only a few
+paces from the Grieb, a tall man came toward her.
+
+To avoid him she crossed nimbly to the other side of the dark little
+street, but just where it turned into Red Cock Street he suddenly barred
+her way. She was startled, but the oft-proved courage of the Blomberg
+race, to which she had just alluded, really did animate her, and, with
+stern decision, she ordered her persecutor to stand aside.
+
+He, however, was not to be intimidated, but exclaimed as joyously as
+though some great piece of good fortune had befallen him:
+
+"Thanks for accosting me, Jungfrau Barbara, for, though the words are
+harsh, they prove that, in spite of the darkness here, my eyes did not
+deceive me. Heaven be praised!"
+
+Then the girl recognised the recruiting officer and excellent dancer
+of whom she had just been thinking in connection with the velvet upper
+robe, and answered sharply:
+
+"Certainly it is I; but if you are really a nobleman, Sir Pyramus, take
+care that I am not exposed by your fault to evil gossip, and can not
+continue to hold my head erect as I now do."
+
+"Who will see us in this little dark street?" he asked in low,
+persuasive tones. "May all the saints guard me from assailing the honour
+of a modest maiden, fairest Barbara; yet, if you fear that I might
+prevent your remaining in the future what the favour of the Most High
+permits you to be, I shall rather accuse you of having inflicted upon me
+what you fear may befall you; for, since the last dance, I am really no
+longer myself, and can never become so until I have received from your
+beautiful lips the modest consolation for which this poor, tortured,
+loyal soul is yearning. May I not linger at your side long enough to ask
+you one question, you severe yet ardently beloved maiden?"
+
+"Certainly not," replied Barbara with repellent harshness. "I never gave
+you a right to speak to me of love; but, above all, I shall not seek the
+sharer of a game of question and answer in the street."
+
+"Then name a place," he whispered with passionate ardour, trying
+meanwhile to clasp her hand, "where I may be permitted, in broad
+sunlight and before the eyes of the whole world, to say to you what robs
+me of rest by day and sleep by night. Drop the cruel harshness which
+so strangely and painfully contradicts the language of your glances the
+evening of the last dance. Your eyes have kindled these flames, and this
+poor heart will consume in their glow if I am not suffered to confess
+to you that I love you with more ardour than was ever bestowed on any
+maiden. This place--I will admit that it is ill-chosen--but what other
+was open to me? After all, here, too, a bit of the sky with its many
+stars is looking down upon us. But, if you still unkindly refuse me,
+or the dread of crossing the barrier of strict decorum forbids you to
+listen to me here, you can mercifully name another spot. Allow me to go
+to your father and beg him for the clear hand which, in a happier hour,
+by not resisting the pressure of mine, awakened the fairest hopes in my
+heart."
+
+"This is too much," Barbara indignantly broke in. "Make way for me at
+once, and, if you are well advised, you will spare yourself the visit to
+my father; for, even if you were in earnest with your love and came as
+an honest suitor to our modest house, it might easily happen that you
+would descend the staircase, which is very steep and narrow, in as
+sorrowful a mood as you climbed it secure of victory."
+
+Then Pyramus Kogel changed his tone, and said bitterly:
+
+"So your victorious eyes were only carrying on an idle game with my
+unsuspecting heart? You laugh! But I expected to find in my German
+native land only girls whose chaste reserve and simple honesty could
+be trusted. It would be a great sorrow if I should learn through you,
+Jungfrau Barbara, that here, too, it would have been advisable to arm
+myself against wanton deception. True, the French chansons you sing
+sound unlike our sincere German songs. And then you, the fairest of the
+fair, can choose at will among men; but the Emperor's service carries me
+from one country to another. I am only a poor nobleman--"
+
+"I care not," she interrupted him here with icy coldness; "you might be
+just good enough for the daughter of another nobleman, who has little
+more to call his own than you, Sir Knight, but nevertheless far too
+little for me to grant you permission to load me with unjust reproaches.
+Besides, you wholly lack the one advantage which the man to whom I am
+willing to betroth myself must possess."
+
+"And what is that?" he asked eagerly.
+
+"Neither gold nor lands, rank nor splendour," she answered proudly, "but
+changeless fidelity of the heart. Remember your fluttering from lovely
+Elspet Zohrer to me, and from me to Elspet, Sir Pyramus, and ask
+yourself what reason you would give me to expect the fulfilment of such
+a demand. Your fine figure and gay manner please us girls very well at a
+dance, but, though you should possess the wealth of the Fuggers and the
+power of the Sultan, it would be useless trouble to seek my consent.
+Stand out of my path at once! There come the Emperor's body guards, and,
+if you do not obey me, as surely as I hope for salvation I will call
+them!"
+
+The last words had escaped her lips in a raised voice, and vibrated
+with such honest indignation that the recruiting officer yielded; but a
+triumphant smile flitted over her beautiful face.
+
+Had she known before how complete a victory he had already won over
+pretty Elspet Zohrer, her most dangerous rival, this late errand would
+have been unnecessary.
+
+Yet she did not regret it; true, she cared no more for Pyramus Kogel
+than for any one else--the certainty that he, too, had succumbed to
+the spell of her beauty was associated with a feeling of pleasure whose
+charm she knew and valued.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Every one in Ratisbon or at the court who spoke of Sir Wolf Hartschwert
+called him an excellent fellow. In fact, he had so few defects and
+faults that perhaps it might have been better for his advancement in
+life and his estimation in the circle of society to which he belonged if
+more of them had clung to him.
+
+Hitherto the vice of avarice was the last with which he could have been
+reproached. But, when his old friend filled his glass with wine, the
+desire that the property left to him might prove larger than he had
+expected overpowered every other feeling.
+
+Formerly it had been welcome mainly as a testimonial of his old friend's
+affection. He did not need it for his own wants; his position at court
+yielded him a far larger income than he required for the modest life to
+which he was accustomed. For Barbara's sake alone he eagerly hoped that
+he had greatly underestimated his foster parents' possessions.
+
+Ought he to blame her because she desired to change the life of poverty
+with her father for one which better harmonized with her worth and
+tastes? He himself, who had lived years in a Roman palace, surrounded by
+exquisite works of the gloriously developed Italian art, and then in
+the one at Brussels, furnished with imperial splendour, did not feel
+perfectly content in the more than simple room which Blomberg called his
+"artist workshop."
+
+A few rude wooden chairs, a square table with clumsy feet, and an open
+cupboard in which stood a few tin cups, were, the sole furniture of the
+narrow, disproportionately long room, whose walls were washed with gray.
+The ceiling, with its exposed beams, was blackened by the pine torches
+which were often used for lights. Pieces of board were nailed over the
+defective spots in the floor, and the lines where the walls met rarely
+showed a right angle.
+
+The window disappeared in the darkness. It was in the back of the niche
+formed by the unusually thick walls. During the day its small, round
+panes gave the old gentleman light while he guided his graving tool.
+A wooden tripod supported the board on which his tools lay. The stool,
+which usually stood on a wooden trestle opposite to it, now occupied a
+place before the table bearing the flagon of wine, and was intended for
+Barbara.
+
+After the torches had ceased to burn, a single tallow candle in a
+wrought-iron candlestick afforded the two men light, and threatened to
+go out when, in the eagerness of their conversation, they forgot to use
+the snuffers.
+
+Neither curtain, carpet, nor noteworthy work of art pleased the eye in
+this bare, strangely narrow room. The weapons and pieces of armour of
+the aged champion of the faith, which hung high above the window, made
+no pretension to beauty. Besides, the rays of the dim candle did not
+extend to them any more than to the valueless pictures of saints and
+virgins on the wall.
+
+The door of Barbara's little bow-window room stood open. Nothing but a
+small oil lamp was burning there. But the articles it contained, though
+dainty in themselves, were standing and lying about in such confusion
+that it also presented an unpleasant aspect.
+
+Yet Barbara's beauty had shed such radiance upon this hideous
+environment that the scene of her industry had seemed to Wolf like an
+Eden.
+
+Now he could scarcely understand this; but he found it so much the
+easier to comprehend that these wretched surroundings no longer suited
+such a pearl, and that it behooved him to procure it a worthier setting.
+
+Still, it was by no means easy to ask the captain what he desired to
+know, for during the young knight's absence a great many important
+things had happened which Blomberg was longing to tell.
+
+He was in such haste to do this that he detained Wolf, who wanted to
+speak to old Ursel before he began to drink the wine, by the statement
+that she suffered from wakefulness, and he would disturb her just as she
+was falling asleep.
+
+The account of the property bequeathed to the young knight was only too
+quickly completed, for, though the precentor's will made his foster son
+the sole heir, the legacy consisted only of the house, some portable
+property, and scarcely more than a thousand florins.
+
+Yet perhaps something else was coming to Wolf; early yesterday Dr.
+Hiltner, the syndic of the city, had asked his place of residence, and
+added that he had some news for him which promised good fortune.
+
+After these communications Blomberg hoped to be able to mention the
+important events which had occurred in Ratisbon during his young
+friend's absence; but Wolf desired with such eager curiosity to hear the
+syndic's news first that it vexed the captain, and he angrily told him
+that he would bite off his tongue before he would even say "How are
+you?" to that man, and to play eavesdropper to any one was not at all in
+his line.
+
+Here his companion interrupted with the query, What had caused the
+learned scholar, whom every one, as well as the precentor, had highly
+esteemed, to forfeit his friend's good opinion?
+
+Blomberg had waited for such a question.
+
+He had been like a loaded culverin, and Wolf had now touched the burning
+match to the powder. To understand why he, Blomberg, who wished only
+the best fortune to every good Christian, would fain have this thorough
+scoundrel suffer all the torments of hell, the young knight must first
+learn what had happened in Ratisbon since the last Reichstag.
+
+Until then the good city had resisted the accursed new religious
+doctrines which had gained a victory in Nuremberg and the other cities
+of the empire.
+
+Here also, as Wolf himself had probably experienced, there had been
+no lack of inclination toward the Lutheran doctrine. It was certainly
+natural, since it suited the stomach better to fill itself, even during
+Lent, than to renounce meat; since there were shameless priests who
+would rather embrace a woman than to remain unmarried; since the Church
+property bestowed by pious souls was a welcome morsel to princes and
+to cities, and, finally, because licentiousness was more relished
+than wholesome discipline. The wicked desires inspired by all the evil
+spirits and their tool, the Antichrist Luther, had gained the upper hand
+here also, and Dr. Hiltner, above all others, had prepared the way for
+them in Ratisbon. Even at the last Reichstag his Majesty the Emperor had
+earnestly, but with almost too much gracious forbearance, endeavoured
+to effect a union between the contending parties, but directly after
+his departure from the city rebellion raised its head with boundless
+insolence. The very next year the Council formally introduced the evil
+which they called ecclesiastical reformation. The blinded people flocked
+to the new parish church to attend the first service, which they called
+"Protestant." Then the mischief hastened forward with gigantic strides.
+
+"Last year," cried the old gentleman, hoarse with indignation, striking
+the table with his clenched fist as if he were in camp, "I saw them with
+my own eyes throw down and drag away, I know not where, the pillar with
+the beautiful image of Mary, the masterpiece of Erhard Heydenreich,
+the architect of the cathedral, which stood in front of the new parish
+church. Songs had been composed in her honour, and she was dear and
+precious to you from early childhood, as well as to every native of
+Ratisbon; the precentor--God rest his soul!--read to me from your letter
+from Rome what exquisite works of art you saw there every day, but that
+you still remembered with pleasure the beautiful Virgin at home.
+
+"But what do these impious wretches care about beautiful and sacred
+things? The temple desecrators removed and destroyed one venerable,
+holy image after another. True, they did not venture into the cathedral,
+probably from fear of his Majesty the Emperor, and whoever had
+undertaken to lay hands upon the altar painting and the Madonna in our
+chapel would have paid for it--I am not boasting--with his life. Though
+'the beautiful Mary,' in her superabundant mercy, quietly endured the
+affront offered, our Lord himself punished it, for he inspired the
+illustrious Duke of Bavaria to issue an edict which forbids his subjects
+to trade with Ratisbon. Whoever even enters the city must pay a heavy
+fine. This set many people thinking. Ursel will tell you what sinful
+prices we have paid since for butter and meat. Even the innocent are
+obliged to buckle their belts tighter. Those who wished to escape
+fasting are now compelled by poverty to practise abstinence. It is said
+the Roman King Ferdinand is urging the revocation of the order. If I
+were in his place, I would advise making it more stringent till the
+rebels sweat blood and crept to the cross."
+
+Then Blomberg bewailed the untimely leniency of the Emperor, for there
+was not even any rumour of a serious assault upon the Turks. And yet,
+if only he, Blomberg, was commissioned to raise an army of the cross,
+Christianity would soon have rest from its mortal foe! But if it
+should come to fighting--no matter whether against the infidels or the
+heretics--in spite of Wawerl and his lame leg, he would take the field
+again. No death could be more glorious than in battle against the
+destroyer of souls. The scoundrels were flourishing like tares among the
+wheat. At the last Reichstag the Electors of Brandenburg and Saxony,
+as well as the Landgrave Philip of Hesse, brought their own preachers,
+whose sermons turned many heads, even the pastor of St. Emmeran's,
+Zollern, who was a child of Ratisbon. At Staufferhof Baron von Stauff,
+formerly a man worthy of all honour, had opened his chapel of St. Ann to
+all the citizens to permit them to participate in the Lutheran idolatry.
+Two Protestant ministers, one of whom, Dr. Forster, Luther himself had
+brought to Ratisbon, were liberally paid by the Council. Whether Wolf
+believed it or not, Father Hamberger, whom he surely remembered as Prior
+of the Minorites, and who at that time enjoyed universal esteem, had
+taken a wife, and the rest of the monks had followed the iniquitous
+example. Many other priests had married if it suited them, and, instead
+of the cowl, wore secular garments. The instruction given in the school
+of poets was perfectly abominable, as he heard from Councillor Steuerer,
+who was faithful to the Catholic Church, and strove to induce the Duke
+of Bavaria to adopt still sterner measures against all this disorder.
+
+Very recently men hitherto blameless, like Andreas Weinzierl and Georg
+Seidl, had sent their eighteen-year-old sons to the University
+of Wittenberg, where the Lutheran heresies were flourishing most
+luxuriantly.
+
+But the worst of all was that even faithful sons and daughters of Holy
+Church could not keep themselves wholly untouched by such mischief.
+Among these, alas! were he and his Wawerl, for he had been obliged to
+allow the girl to join the choristers who sang in the Convivium Musicum,
+which the Council had established in the summer three years before. Two
+councillors were assigned to each Convivium, and thus these arrangements
+were in Protestant hands.
+
+"Of course," he added dejectedly, "I wished to forbid her taking part in
+them, but, though with me it is usually bend or break, what can a man
+do when a woman is pestering him day and night, sometimes begging with
+tears, sometimes with caresses?
+
+"Besides, many a good Catholic entreated me to give up my opposition.
+They, do not grudge the girl her progress, and how much she already owes
+to the music teacher who now directs the Collegium Musicuin! Singing is
+everything to her, and what else can I give the poor child? At any
+rate, the Netherlander whom the Council brought here three years ago--so
+connoisseurs say--scarcely has his equal anywhere in knowledge and
+ability. The man came to me and frankly said that he needed the girl's
+voice for the Convivium, and, if I refused to let Wawerl take part, he
+would stop teaching her. As he is a just man of quiet temperament and
+advanced in years."
+
+"Where is he from, and what is his name?" Wolf eagerly interrupted.
+
+"Damian Feys," replied the captain, "and he is a native of Ghent in the
+Netherlands. Although he is in the pay of the city, he has remained--he
+told me so himself--a good Catholic. There was nothing to be feared for
+the child on the score of religion. The anxieties which are troubling me
+on her account come from another source."
+
+Then, with a mischievous mirthfulness usually foreign to his nature,
+Wolf raised his goblet, exclaiming:
+
+"Cast them upon me, Father Blomberg! I will gladly help you bear them as
+your loyal son-in-law."
+
+"So that's the way of it," was the captain's answer, his honest eyes
+betraying more surprise than pleasure.
+
+Yet he pledged Wolf, and, touching his glass to his, said:
+
+"I've often thought that this might happen if you should see how she has
+grown up. If she consents, nothing could please me better; but how
+many lovers she has already encouraged, and then, before matters became
+serious, dismissed! I have experienced it. If you succeed in putting an
+end to such trifling, may this hour be blessed! But do you know the huge
+maggots she keeps under her golden hair?"
+
+"Both large and small ones," cried Wolf, with glowing cheeks. "Truthful
+as she is, she did not conceal from the playmate of her youth a single
+impulse of her ambitious soul."
+
+"And did she give you hope?" asked the captain, thrusting his head
+eagerly forward.
+
+"Yes," replied the youth firmly; but he quickly corrected himself,
+and, in a less confident tone, added, "That is, if I could offer her a
+care-free life."
+
+"There it is," sighed the old man. "She knows what she wants, and holds
+firmly to it. You are the son of a knight, and on account of the music
+which you can pursue together--With her everything is possible and
+little is impossible. In any case, you will have no easy life with her,
+and, ere you order the wedding ring----" Here he suddenly stopped, for
+a bird-song, high, clear, and yet as insinuatingly sweet as though,
+on this evening in late April, the merriest and most skilful feathered
+songsters which had recently found their way home to the fresh green
+leafage on the shore of the Danube had made an appointment on the steps
+of the gloomy house in Red Cock Street, rose nearer and nearer to the
+two men who were sitting over their wine.
+
+It was difficult to believe that this whistling and chirping, trilling
+and cuckoo calling, came from the same throat; but when the bird notes
+ceased just outside the door, and Barbara, with bright mirthfulness and
+the airiest grace, sang the refrain of the Chant des Oiseaux, 'Car la
+saison est bonne', bowing gracefully meanwhile, the old enemy of the
+Turks fairly beamed with delight.
+
+His eyes, wet with tears of grateful joy, sought the young man's,
+and, though he had just warned him plainly enough against courting
+his daughter, his sparkling gaze now asked whether he had ever met an
+equally bewitching marvel.
+
+"The deuce!" he cried out to his daughter when she at last paused and
+extended her hand to him. He leaned comfortably farther back in his
+arm-chair as he spoke, but she kissed him lightly on the forehead, while
+her large blue eyes shone with cheerful content.
+
+She had gained her object.
+
+When she sang this song she was safe from any troublesome questions.
+Besides, Gombert, of Bruges, the director of the imperial orchestra, who
+had arrived in Ratisbon that very day, was the composer of the charming
+bird-song, and she knew from her singing master that, though her voice
+was best adapted to solemn hymns, nothing in the whole range of secular
+music suited it better than this "Car la saison est bonne." She longed
+for the praise of such a musician, and Wolf must accompany her to him.
+
+The young knight had not only been joyfully surprised, but most deeply
+delighted by the bewitching execution of this most charmingly arranged
+refrain.
+
+Maestro Gombert and his colleague Appenzelder, the conductor of the boy
+choir, must hear it on the morrow. And how gladly Barbara consented to
+fulfil this wish!
+
+She had received the greatest praise, she said, in the motet of the
+Blessed Virgin, by Josquin de Pres, in the noble song 'Ecce tu pulchra
+es'. Her teacher specially valued this master and his countryman
+Gombert, and his exquisite compositions were frequently and gladly sung
+at the Convivium.
+
+This pleased Wolf, for he had a right to call himself, not only the
+pupil, but the friend of the director of the orchestra. As, seizing the
+lute, he began Gombert's Shepherd and Shepherdess, Barbara, unasked,
+commenced the song.
+
+When, after Barbara's bell-like, well-trained voice had sung many other
+melodies, the young knight at last took leave of his old friends, he
+whispered that he had not expected to find home so delightful.
+
+She, too, went to rest in a joyous, happy mood, and, as she lay in her
+narrow bed, asked herself whether she could not renounce her ardent
+longing for wealth and splendour and be content with a modest life at
+Wolf's side.
+
+She liked him, he would cherish her, and lovingly devote the great
+skill which he had gained in Italy and the Netherlands to the final
+cultivation of her voice. Her house would become a home of art, her life
+would be pervaded and ennobled by song and music. What grander existence
+could earth offer?
+
+Before she found an answer to this question, sleep closed her weary
+eyes. But when, the next morning, the cobbler's one-eyed daughter, who,
+since old Ursel's illness, had done the rough work in the chambers and
+kitchen, waked her, she speedily changed her mind. It was hard to
+rise early after the day's ironing and the late hour at which she
+had retired, and, besides, when Barbara returned from mass, the maid
+reported that Frau Lerch had been there and left the message that Fran
+Itzenweck wanted the laces which had been promised to her early that
+day.
+
+So Barbara was obliged to go to work again immediately after the early
+breakfast. But, while she was loosening the laces from the pins and
+stirring her slender white fingers busily for the wretched pittance, her
+soul was overflowing with thoughts of the most sublime works of music,
+and the desire for success, homage, and a future filled with happiness
+and splendour.
+
+Vehement repugnance to the humble labour to which necessity forced her
+was like a bitter taste in her mouth, and, ere she had folded the last
+strips of lace, she turned her back to the work-table and pressed both
+hands upon her bosom, while from the inmost depths of her tortured soul
+came the cry: "I will never bear it! In one way or another I will put an
+end to this life of beggary."
+
+Thanks to old Ursel's care, Wolf had found his bed made and everything
+he needed at hand in his foster parents' deserted lodging. To avoid
+disturbing the sick woman, he removed his shoes in the entry, and then
+glided into his former little room. Weariness had soon closed his eyes
+also, but only for a few hours. His fevered blood, fear, and hope drove
+him from his couch at the first dawn of morning.
+
+Ere returning to the two men the evening before, Barbara had hastily
+spoken to Ursula, and brought her whatever she preferred to receive from
+her hands rather than those of the one-eyed maid who spent the night
+with her--her Sunday cap and a little sealed package which she kept in
+her chest. When Wolf tapped at her door early the next morning, she was
+already up, and had had her cap put on. This was intended to give her
+a holiday appearance, but the expression of her faithful eyes and the
+smile upon her sunken mouth showed her darling that his return was a
+festival to her.
+
+The stroke of apoplexy which had attacked the woman of seventy had been
+slight, and merely affected her speech a little. But she found plenty of
+words to show Wolf how happy it made her to see him again, and to tell
+him about his foster parents' last illness and death.
+
+The precentor and organist, aided by Bishop Pangraz Sinzenhofer and
+Blasius, the captain of the city guard, had endeavoured to collect the
+papers which proved Wolf's noble birth. The package that Barbara
+handed to her the evening before contained the patent of nobility newly
+authorized by King Frederick at Vienna and the certificate of baptism
+which proved him to be the only son of the Frank Knight Ullmann
+Hartschwert and the Baroness Wendula Sandhof.
+
+His mother's family died with her; on his father's side, as the
+precentor had learned, he still had an uncle, his father's older
+brother, but his castle had been destroyed during the Peasant War. He
+himself had commanded for several years a large troop of mercenaries in
+the service of the Queen of England, and his three children, a son and
+two daughters, had entered monastic and conventual life.
+
+The contents of the package confirmed all these statements. Moreover,
+the very Dr. Hiltner, of whom Barbara's father had spoken so
+disagreeably, had paid a visit the day before to Ursel, who had won the
+esteem of the preceptor's old friend, and told her that he wished to
+talk with Wolf about an important matter.
+
+It afforded the young man genuine pleasure to wait upon the faithful old
+woman and give her her medicine and barley-gruel. His mother had brought
+him to Ratisbon when he was a little boy four years old, and Ursel at
+that time had been his nurse. She had clung more closely to him than the
+woman to whom he owed his life, for his mother had deserted him to
+take the veil in the convent of the Sisters of St. Clare, but her
+maid-servant Ursel would not part from him. So she was received by his
+foster parents when they adopted him, and had served them faithfully
+until their deaths.
+
+The wrinkled countenance of the old woman, who, even on her sick-bed,
+retained her neat appearance, expressed shrewdness and energy.
+
+Wolf's services were a pleasure and an honour. A grateful, affectionate
+glance acknowledged each, and meanwhile he became clearly aware of the
+treasure which he, the orphaned youth, possessed in this faithful old
+friend.
+
+If he saw aright, she might yet live a long time, and this gave him
+heartfelt joy. With her he would lose the last witness of his childhood,
+the chronicle, as it were, of his earliest youth. He could not
+understand why he had never before induced her to tell him her
+recollections.
+
+During his boyhood, which was crowded with work, he had been content
+when she told him in general outlines that, during the Peasant War,
+fierce bands had attacked his father's castle, that one of his own
+bondmen had slain him with an axe, and that his mother had fled with
+Wolf to Ratisbon, where her brother lived as provost of the cathedral.
+He had invited her, at the outbreak of the peasant insurrection, to
+place herself under his protection.
+
+The old woman had also described to him how, amid great hardships, they
+had reached the city in midwinter, and finally that his mother found
+Baron Sandhof, her brother, at the point of death, and, after her hope
+of having a home with the provost of the cathedral was baffled, she had
+taken the veil in the convent of the Dominicans, called here the Black
+Penitents. Wolf's foster father, the organist Stenzel, who was closely
+connected with his uncle, had rendered this step easier for the deserted
+widow by receiving the little boy in his childless home.
+
+Ursel must give him more minute particulars concerning all these things.
+
+His mother, who knew that he was well cared for, had troubled herself
+very little about him, and devoted her life to the care of her own
+salvation and that of her murdered husband, who had died without the
+benefit of the holy sacrament.
+
+When he was fifteen, she closed her eyes on the world, and the hour
+when, on her death bed, she had asked of him a vow to be faithful to the
+Catholic Church and shut his heart against heresy, was as vividly before
+his memory as if she had just passed away.
+
+He did not allude to these things now, for his heart urged him to
+confide to the faithful old woman what he thought of Barbara, and the
+beautiful hopes with which he had left her.
+
+Ursel closed her eyes for a while and twirled the thumb of the hand she
+could use around the other for some time; but at last she gently nodded
+the little head framed in her big cap, and said carelessly:
+
+"So you would like to seek a wife, child? Well, well! It comes once
+to every one. And you are thinking of Wawerl? It would certainly be
+fortunate for the girl. Marriages are made in heaven, and God's mills
+grind slowly. If the result is not what you expect, you must not murmur,
+and, above all things, don't act rashly. But now I can use my heavy
+tongue no longer. Remember Dr. Hiltner. When duty will permit, you'll
+find time for another little chat with old Ursel."
+
+Casting a loving farewell glance at Wolf as she spoke, she turned over
+on the other side.
+
+As his footsteps receded from her bedside, she pressed her lips more
+firmly together, thinking: "Why should I spoil his beautiful dream of
+happiness? What Wawerl offers to the eyes and ears of men is certainly
+most beautiful. But her heart! It is lacking! Unselfish love would be
+precisely what the early orphaned youth needs, and that Wawerl will
+never give him. Yet I wish no heavier anxieties oppressed me! One thing
+is certain--the husband of the girl upstairs must wear a different look
+from my darling, with his modest worth. The Danube will flow uphill
+before she goes to the altar with him! So, thank Heaven, I can console
+myself with that!"
+
+But, soon after, she remembered many things which she had formerly
+believed impossible, yet which, through unexpected influence, had
+happened.
+
+Then torturing uneasiness seized her. She anxiously clasped her
+emaciated hands, and from her troubled bosom rose the prayer that the
+Lord would preserve her darling from the fulfilment of the most ardent
+desire of his heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+Wolf's first walk took him to the Golden Cross, the lodgings of the
+Emperor Charles and his court. The sky had clouded again, and a keen
+northwest wind was blowing across the Haidplatz and waving the banner
+on the lofty square battlemented tower at the right of the stately old
+edifice.
+
+It had originally belonged to the Weltenburg family as a strong
+offensive and defensive building, then frequently changed hands.
+
+The double escutcheon on the bow-window was that of the Thun and Fugger
+von Reh families, who had owned it in Wolf's childhood.
+
+Now he glanced up to see whether young Herr Crafft, to whom the building
+now belonged, had not also added an ornament to it. But when Wolf's
+gaze wandered so intently from the tower to the bow-window, and from the
+bow-window to the great entrance door, it was by no means from pleasure
+or interest in the exterior of the Golden Cross, but because Barbara had
+confessed that the nineteen-year-old owner of the edifice, who was still
+a minor, was also wooing her.
+
+What was the probable value of this stately structure, this aristocratic
+imperial abode? How rich its owner was! yet she, the brilliant young
+beauty who had grown up in poverty, disdained young Crafft because her
+heart did not attract her to him.
+
+So, in this case, faithful Ursel must deceive herself and misjudge the
+girl, for the old woman's strangely evasive words had revealed plainly
+enough that she did not consider Barbara the right wife for him.
+
+The good people of Ratisbon could not understand this rare creature! Her
+artist nature gave her peculiar, unusual traits of character, which were
+distasteful to the ways of German burghers. Whatever did not fit the
+usual forms, whatever surpassed ordinary models, was regarded with
+distrust. He himself had scarcely been able to understand how a girl so
+free and independent in her feelings, and probably also in her actions,
+such a mistress of the art of singing, whose performances fulfilled the
+highest demands, could have bloomed and matured in this environment.
+
+Old Ursel's evasion had wounded and troubled him; the thoughts
+associated with the double escutcheon on the bow-window, however,
+revived the clouded feeling of happiness, and, with head erect, he
+passed the guards at the entrance and went into the corridor, which was
+again crowded with lords and ladies of the court, priests of all ranks,
+knights, pages, and servants.
+
+His position gave him access to the Queen of Hungary's apartments
+without delay--nay, he might hope to be received by her Majesty sooner
+than many of the knights, lords and ladies, ecclesiastical and secular
+dignitaries who were waiting there; the stewards, chamberlains and
+heralds, the ladies of the court, pages, and lackeys knew that the royal
+lady not only summoned Sir Wolf Hartschwert frequently, but welcomed his
+presence.
+
+Nearly all were Spaniards or natives of the Netherlands, and it was
+fortunate for Wolf, on the one hand, that he had learned their language
+quickly and well in Italy and Brussels, and, on the other, that his
+birth entitled him to a place with nobles who had the rank of knights.
+
+How formal and stiffly precise everything was here! How many backs bowed
+low, how softly bombastic, high-sounding words were murmured! It seemed
+as if every free, warm impulse would lapse into stiffness and coldness;
+moreover, those assembled here were not the poor petitioners of other
+antechambers, but lords and ladies who belonged to the most illustrious
+and aristocratic families, while among the waiting ecclesiastics there
+was many a prelate with the dignified bearing of a bishop.
+
+Some of the Netherlanders alone frequently threw off the constraint
+which fettered all, and one even turned with the gayest ease from one
+person to another. This was Baron Malfalconnet, one of the Emperor's
+major-domos. He was permitted to do what no one else ventured, for his
+cheerfulness and wit, his gift of story-telling, and sharp tongue often
+succeeded in dispelling the clouds of melancholy from the brow of his
+imperial master.
+
+At Wolf's entrance the baron greeted him with merry banter, and then
+whispered to him that the regent was expecting him in her private room,
+where the leaders of the newly arrived musicians had already gone. As
+Wolf belonged to the "elect," he would conduct him to her Majesty before
+"the called" who were here in the waiting room.
+
+As he spoke he delivered him to the Emperor's confidential secretary,
+Gastelu, whom Wolf had often aided in the translation of German letters,
+and the latter ushered him into the Queen's reception room.
+
+It was the royal lady's sleeping apartment, a moderately wide, unusually
+deep chamber, looking out upon the Haidplatz. The walls were hung with
+Flanders Gobelin tapestry, whose coloured pictures represented woodland
+landscapes and hunters. The Queen's bed stood halfway down the long wall
+at the right.
+
+Little could be seen of her person, for heavy gold-embroidered damask
+curtains hung around the wide, lofty bedstead, falling from the canopy
+projecting, rootlike, above the top, where gilded child genii bore a
+royal crown. On the side toward the room the curtains were drawn back
+far enough to allow those who were permitted to approach the regent to
+see her head and the upper portion of her body, which was wrapped in an
+ermine cape.
+
+She leaned in a sitting posture against a pile of white satin pillows,
+and her thick locks, interwoven with strings of pearls, bore witness to
+the skill of the maid who had combed and curled them so artistically and
+adorned them with a heron's plume. Two beautiful English pointers and
+a slender hound were moving about and sometimes disturbed the repose of
+the two Wachtersbach badger dogs, who were trained to keep side by side
+everywhere--in the room as well as in hunting. When the door opened they
+only raised their sagacious little heads with a low growl.
+
+The other living beings who had obtained admittance to the Queen's
+chamber at so early an hour were constrained by etiquette to formal,
+silent quiescence. Only the ladies in waiting and the chamberlains moved
+to and fro unasked, but they also stepped lightly and graduated the
+depth of the bow with which they greeted each individual to suit his
+or her rank, while the pages used their nimble feet, whose tread silken
+shoes rendered noiseless, lightly and carelessly.
+
+The features of most of the persons present expressed reverence and
+expectation. But although, on account of the clouded sky and the small
+window panes, the rear of the deep apartment especially was only dimly
+lighted, the impression produced was neither gloomy nor depressing. This
+was prevented by the swift movements of the pages, the shrill screams
+of the gay parrots at the window, the paraphernalia of the chase hung on
+the wall, and especially by the regent herself, whose clear voice broke
+the silence with gay unconcern, and exerted a redeeming influence upon
+the constraint of the listeners.
+
+She had just received the Bishop of Hildesheim, the Prince of Savoy,
+and the Countess Tassis, but gave each only a brief audience, for
+the entrance of the conductor of the orchestra had not escaped her
+attention.
+
+Several other personages of the highest rank were still among the
+waiting group, and her chamberlain, Count Hochstraaten, asked in a low
+tone whether she would deign to receive the Count Palatine von Simmern;
+but she was determined to close the audience, for Wolf Hartschwert had
+entered the room, and the subjects which she desired to discuss with him
+and the musicians would permit no witnesses.
+
+So, without answering Hochstraaten's question, she turned her face
+toward the chamber, and said, loudly enough to be heard by all present:
+
+"This reception must suffice for to-day! Whoever does not know that I
+used last night in his Majesty's service for a better purpose than sleep
+will deem me a lazy sluggard. Would to Heaven I had no worse fault! The
+rising sun sees me more frequently at my station in the hunting grounds
+than it does many of you, my honoured friends, at the breakfast table.
+So, Hochstraaten, be kind enough to tell the ladies and gentlemen who
+have given me the pleasure of their visits, that their patience shall be
+less severely tried this evening before vespers."
+
+While speaking, she beckoned to the Marquise de Leria, her oldest lady
+in waiting, and, as the latter bent her aged back to adjust the pillows,
+the Queen whispered to her to detain the conductor of the orchestra and
+Sir Wolf Hartschwert.
+
+The order was instantly obeyed, but some time elapsed ere the last of
+those who had sought an audience left the room, for, although the regent
+vouchsafed no one a glance, but turned the pages of a note-book which
+had been lying on the little table at the head of her bed, each person,
+before crossing the threshold, bowed toward the couch in the slow,
+formal manner which etiquette dictated.
+
+As soon as Queen Mary found herself alone with the musicians and the
+marquise, she beckoned graciously to the former, but with familiar
+kindness to Wolf, and asked for a brief account of his journey. Then she
+confessed that the Emperor's sufferings and melancholy mood had induced
+her to subject them to the discomforts of the trip to Ratisbon. His
+Majesty was ignorant of their presence, but she anticipated the most
+favourable result upon her royal brother, who so warmly loved and keenly
+appreciated music, if he could hear unexpectedly the finest melodies,
+sometimes inspiring, sometimes cheering in tone.
+
+Her inquiry whether his Majesty's orchestra and her own boys would be
+able to give a performance that evening was eagerly answered in the
+affirmative by Maestro Gombert, the conductor of the orchestra, and
+Benedictus Appenzelder, conductor of the boy choir, who was in her
+personal service. She expressed her pleasure in the knowledge, and then
+proposed to surprise the Emperor at the principal meal, about midnight,
+with Jacob Hobrecht's Missa Graecorum, whose magnificent profundity his
+Majesty especially admired.
+
+Gombert forced himself to keep silence, but the significant smile on his
+delicate, beardless lips betrayed what he thought of this selection. The
+conductor of the boy choir was franker. He slightly shook his ponderous
+head, whose long, gray hair was parted in the middle, and then honestly
+admitted, in his deep tones, that the Missa Graecorum seemed to him
+too majestic and gloomy for this purpose. Wolf, too, disapproved of the
+Queen's suggestion for the same reason, and, though she pointed out
+that she had chosen this composition precisely on account of its deep
+religious earnestness, the former persisted in his opposition, and
+modestly mentioned the melody which would probably be best suited for a
+surprise at his imperial Majesty's repast.
+
+Maestro Gombert had recently composed a Benedictio Mensae for four
+voices, and, as it was one of his most effective creations, had never
+been executed, and therefore would be entirely new to the Emperor, it
+was specially adapted to introduce the concert with which the monarch
+was to be surprised at table.
+
+The Queen would have preferred that a religious piece should commence
+the musical performance, but assented to Wolf's proposal. Gombert
+himself dispelled her fear that his composition would be purely secular
+in character, and Wolf upheld him by singing to the musical princess,
+to the accompaniment of the lute, snatches of the principal theme of the
+Benedictio, which had impressed itself upon his faithful memory.
+
+Gombert assisted him, but Appenzelder stroked his long beard, signifying
+his approval by nods and brief exclamations of satisfaction. The Queen
+was now sincerely glad that this piece of music had been brought to her
+notice; certainly nothing more suitable for the purpose could have been
+found. Besides, her kindly nature and feminine tact made her grateful to
+Wolf for his hint of distinguishing, by the first performance of one
+of his works, the able conductor and fine composer upon whom she had
+imposed so fatiguing a journey.
+
+She would gladly have given Appenzelder also some token of her favour,
+but she could not have used any of his compositions--the most famous of
+which was a dirge--upon this occasion, and the blunt long-beard frankly
+admitted this, and declared unasked that he desired nothing better
+than to offer his Majesty, with the Benedictio, the first greeting of
+Netherland music.
+
+Gombert's bearing was that of an aristocrat, his lofty brow that of a
+thinker, and his mobile mouth rendered it easy to perceive what a wealth
+of joyous mirth dwelt within the soul of this artist, who was equally
+distinguished in grave and gay moods.
+
+Queen Mary was by no means blind to these merits, and lamented the
+impossibility of being on more familiar terms of intercourse with him
+and his colleague of the boy choir. But both were of humble birth, and
+from childhood custom had prohibited her, as well as the other female
+members of her family, from associating with persons who did not belong
+to the nobility. So there was no place for either in her household.
+
+Rough Appenzelder regarded this as fortunate; Gombert thought it a
+matter of course because custom so ordained.
+
+The stimulus which the Queen could expect from Wolf Hartschwert was
+certainly far less deep and varied; yet to him who, as a knight,
+belonged to her train, she granted many favours which she denied the
+famous Gombert. Besides, Wolf's musical knowledge was as remarkable
+as his usefulness as a secretary. Lastly, his equable disposition, his
+unerring sense of propriety, and his well-proved fidelity had gained the
+full confidence of the royal lady.
+
+By the side of the two composers and leaders of the musicians he looked
+almost boyish, yet, as the regent was overburdened with affairs of
+state, she confided to him alone the care of the further success of the
+surprise.
+
+He was familiar with the rooms of the Golden Cross, and before midnight
+would have posted the singers and musicians so that his Majesty would
+first learn through his ears the pleasure which they intended to bestow
+upon him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+The Queen's commission imposed upon Wolf a long series of inspections,
+inquiries, orders, and preparations, the most important of which
+detained him a long time at the Golden Cross.
+
+After he had done what was necessary there, he hastily took a lunch, and
+then went to the house of the Golden Stag. The steward of the Schiltl
+family, to whom the house belonged, but who were now in the country, had
+given the boy choir shelter there, and Wolf was obliged to inform
+the leader of his arrangements. Appenzelder had intended to practise
+exercises with his young pupils in the chapel belonging to this old
+house, familiar to all the inhabitants of Ratisbon, but Wolf found it
+empty. On the other hand, young, clear voices echoed from a room in the
+lower story.
+
+The door stood half open, and, before he crossed the threshold, he had
+heard with surprise the members of the boy choir, lads ranging from
+twelve to fifteen, discussing how they should spend the leisure time
+awaiting them.
+
+The ringleader, Giacomo Bianchi, from Bologna, was asserting that "the
+old bear"--he meant Appenzelder--"would never permit the incomplete
+choir to sing before the Emperor and his royal sister."
+
+"So we shall have the afternoon," he exclaimed. "The grooms will give me
+a horse, and after dinner I, and whoever cares to go with me, will ride
+back to the village where we last stopped. What do I want there? I'll
+get the kiss which the tavernkeeper's charming little daughter owes
+me. Her sweet mouth and fair braids with the bows of blue ribbon--I saw
+nothing prettier anywhere!"
+
+"Yes, these blondes!" cried Angelo Negri, a Neapolitan boy of thirteen,
+rolling his black eyes upward enthusiastically, and kissing, for lack of
+warm lips, the empty air.
+
+"Sweet, sweet, sweet," sighed Giacoma Bianchi.
+
+"Sweet enough," remarked little thick-set Cornelius Groen from Breda,
+in broken Italian. "Yet you surely are not thinking of that silly girl,
+with her flaxen braids, but of the nice honey and the light white pastry
+she brought us. If we can get that again, I'll ride there with you."
+
+"I won't," protested Wilhelm Haldema, from Leuwarden in Friesland. "I
+shall go down to the river with my pole. It's swarming with fish."
+
+Wolf had remained concealed until this moment. Now he entered the huge
+apartment.
+
+The boys rushed toward him with joyous ease, and, as they crowded around
+him, asking all sorts of questions, it was evident that he possessed
+their affection and confidence.
+
+He kindly motioned to them to keep silence, and asked what induced them
+to expect leisure time on that day, when, by the exertion of all their
+powers, they were to display their skill in the presence of their
+mistress and the Emperor.
+
+The answer was not delayed--nay, it sprang from many young lips at the
+same time. Unfortunately, its character was such that Wolf scarcely
+ventured to hope for the full success of the surprise.
+
+Johann of Cologne and Benevenuto Bosco of Catania, in Sicily, the two
+leaders and ornaments of the choir, were so very ill that their recovery
+could scarcely be expected even within the next few days. The native
+of Cologne had been attacked on the way by a hoarseness which made the
+fifteenyear-old lad uneasy, because signs of the approaching change of
+voice had already appeared.
+
+The break meant to the extremely musical youth, who had been
+distinguished by the bell-like purity of his tones, the loss of his
+well-paid position in the boy choir, which, for his poor mother's sake,
+he must retain as long as possible. So, with mingled grief and hope,
+he dipped deeply into his slender purse when, at Neumarkt, where the
+travelling musicians spent the night just at the time the annual fair
+was held, he met a quack who promised to help him.
+
+This extremely talkative old man, who styled himself "Body physician to
+many distinguished princes and courts," boasted of possessing a secret
+remedy of the famous Bartliolomaus Anglicus, which, besides other
+merits, also had the power of bestowing upon a harsh voice the melody of
+David's harp.
+
+Still, the young native of Cologne delayed some time before using the
+nostrum. Not until the hoarseness increased alarmingly did he in his
+need take the leech's prescription, and Benevenuto Bosco, whom he had
+admitted to his confidence, and who also felt a certain rawness in his
+throat, since beyond Nuremberg one shower of rain after another had
+drenched the travellers, asked him to let him use the medicine also.
+
+At first both thought that they felt a beneficial result; but soon their
+condition changed for the worse, and their illness constantly increased.
+
+On reaching Ratisbon they were obliged to go to bed, and a terrible
+night was followed by an equally bad morning.
+
+When Appenzelder returned from the audience at the Golden Cross, he
+found his two best singers in so pitiable a condition that he was
+obliged to summon the Emperor's leech, Dr. Mathys, to the sufferers.
+
+The famous physician was really under obligations to remain near the
+sovereign at this time of day. Yet he had gone at once to the Stag, and
+pronounced the patients there to be the victims of severe poisoning.
+
+A Ratisbon colleague, whom he found with the sufferers, was to
+superintend the treatment which he prescribed.
+
+He had left the house a short time before. Master Appenzelder, Wolf
+heard from the choir boys, was now with the invalids, and the knight set
+off to inquire about them at once.
+
+He had forbidden the idle young singers who wanted to go with him to
+follow, but one had secretly slipped after, and, in one of the dark
+corridors of the big house, full of nooks and corners, he suddenly heard
+a voice call his name. Ere he was aware of it, little Hannibal Melas,
+a young Maltese in the boy choir, whose silent, reserved nature had
+obtained for him from the others the nickname Tartaruga, the tortoise,
+seized his right hand in both his own.
+
+It was done with evident excitement, and his voice sounded eagerly
+urgent as he exclaimed:
+
+"I fix my last hope on you, Sir Knight, for you see there is scarcely
+one of the others who would not have an intercessor. But I! Who would
+trouble himself about me? Yet, if you would only put in a good word, my
+time would surely come now."
+
+"Your time?" asked Wolf in astonishment; but the little fellow eagerly
+continued:
+
+"Yes, indeed! What Johann of Cologne or at least what Benevenuto can do,
+I can trust myself to do too. The master need only try it with me, and,
+now that both are ill, put me in place of one or the other."
+
+Wolf, who knew what each individual chorister could do, shook his head,
+and began to tell the boy from Malta for what good reason the master
+preferred the two sick youths; but little Hannibal interrupted by
+exclaiming, in tones of passionate lamentation:
+
+"So you are the same? The master having begun it, all misjudge and crush
+me! Instead of giving me an opportunity to show what I can do in a solo
+part, I am forced back into the crowd. My best work disappears in the
+chorus. And yet, Sir Wolf, in spite of all, I heard the master's own
+lips say in Brussels--I wasn't listening--that he had never heard what
+lends a woman's voice its greatest charm come so softly and tenderly
+from the throat of a boy. Those are his own words. He will not deny
+them, for at least he is honest. What is to become of the singing
+without Johann and Benevenuto? But if they would try me, and at least
+trust a part of Bosco's music to me--"
+
+Here he stopped, for Master Appenzelder was just coming from the door
+of the sick-room into the corridor; but Wolf, with a playful gesture,
+thrust his fingers through the lad's bushy coal-black hair, turned him
+in the direction from which he came, and called after him, "Your cause
+is in good hands, you little fellow with the big name."
+
+Then, laying his hand on the arm of the deeply troubled musician, and
+pointing to the boy who was trotting, full of hope, down the corridor,
+he said: "'Hannibal ante portas!' A cry of distress that is full of
+terror; but the Maltese Hannibal who is vanishing yonder gave me an idea
+which will put an end to your trouble, my dear Maestro. The sooner the
+two poisoned lads recover the better, of course; yet the Benedictio
+Mensae need not remain unsung on account of their heedlessness, for
+little Hannibal showed me the best substitute."
+
+This promise flowed from Wolf's lips with such joyous confidence that
+the grave musician's sombre face brightened; but it swiftly darkened
+again, and he exclaimed, "We don't give such hasty work!" When the
+knight tried to tell him what he had in mind, the other brusquely
+interrupted with the request that he would first aid him in a more
+important matter. Wolf was acquainted with the city, and perhaps would
+spare him a walk by informing him where the sick lads would find the
+best shelter. The Stag was overcrowded, and he was reluctant to leave
+the poor fellows in the little sleeping room which they shared with
+their companions. The Ratisbon physician had ordered them to be sent to
+the hospital; but the boy from Cologne opposed it so impetuously that
+he, Appenzelder, thought it his duty to seek another shelter for the
+sufferers.
+
+When Wolf with the older man entered the low, close chamber, he found
+the lad, a handsome, vigorous boy, with his fair, curling hair tossed in
+disorder around his fevered face, standing erect in his bed. While the
+doctor was trying to compel him to obey and enter the litter which stood
+waiting for him, he beat him back with his strong young fists. He would
+rather jump into the open grave or into the rushing river, he shrieked
+to the corpulent leech, than be dragged into the hospital, which was the
+plague, death, hell.
+
+He emphasized his resistance with heavy blows, while his Italian
+companion in suffering, livid, ashen-gray, with bowed head and closed
+lids, permitted himself to be placed in the litter without moving.
+
+At Wolf's entrance the German youth, like a drowning man who sees a
+friend on the shore, shrieked an entreaty to save him from the murderers
+who wanted to drag him to death. The young knight gazed compassionately
+at the lad's flushed face, and, after a brief pause of reflection,
+proposed committing the sufferers to the care of the Knights
+Hospitallers.
+
+This removed the burden from the young Rhinelander's tortured soul, yet
+he insisted, with passionate impetuosity, upon having his master and the
+nobleman accompany him, that the physician whom, in his fevered fancy,
+he regarded as his mortal foe, should not drag him to the pest-house
+after all.
+
+Both musicians yielded to his wish. On the way Appenzelder held
+the lad's burning hand in his own, and never wearied of talking
+affectionately to him. Not until after he had seen his charges, with the
+physician's assistance, comfortably lodged, and had left the house of
+the Hospitallers, did he permit himself to test the almost incredible
+news which Sir Wolf Hartschwert had brought him.
+
+With what fiery zeal Wolf persuaded him, how convincing was his
+assurance that a substitute for Johann of Cologne, and a most admirable
+one, was actually to be found here in Ratisbon!
+
+He had no need to seek for fitting words in the description of Barbara
+Blomberg, the melody of her voice, and her admirable training. The fact
+that she was a woman, he protested, need not be considered, nay, it
+might be kept secret. The Church, it is true, prohibited the assistance
+of women, but the matter here was simply the execution of songs in a
+private house.
+
+At first Appenzelder listened grumbling, and shaking his head in
+dissent, but soon the proposal seemed worth heeding; nay, when he heard
+that the singer, whose talent and skill the quiet, intelligent German
+praised so highly, owed her training to his countryman, Damian Feys,
+whom he knew, he began to ask questions with, increasing interest.
+But, ere Wolf had answered the first queries, some one else made his
+appearance on the Haid, and the very person who was best fitted to give
+information about Barbara--her teacher, Feys, who had sought Gombert,
+his famous Brussels companion in art, and was just taking him to a
+rehearsal of the Convivium musicum. At this meeting the leader of the
+boy choir, in spite of his pleasure at seeing his valued countryman and
+companion in art, showed far less patience than before, for, after
+the first greeting, he at once asked Feys what he thought of his pupil
+Barbara. The answer was so favourable that Appenzelder eagerly accepted
+the invitation to attend the rehearsal also. So the four fellow-artists
+crossed the Haidplatz together, and Maestro Gombert was obliged to
+remind his colleague of the boy choir that people who occupied the
+conductor's desk forgot to run on a wager.
+
+Wolf's legs were by no means so long as those of the tall, broad
+musician, yet, in his joyous excitement, it was an easy matter to keep
+pace with him. In the happy consciousness of meriting the gratitude
+of the woman whom he loved, he gazed toward the New Scales, the large
+building beneath whose roof she whose image filled his heart and mind
+must already have found shelter.
+
+Did she see him coming? Did she suspect who his companions were, and
+what awaited her through them?
+
+Yet, sharply as he watched for her, he could discover no sign of her
+fair head behind any of the windows.
+
+Yet Barbara, from the little room where the singers laid aside their
+cloaks and wraps, had seen Wolf, with her singing master Feys and two
+other gentlemen, coming toward the New Scales, and correctly guessed the
+names of the slender, shorter stranger in the sable-trimmed mantle and
+the big, broad-shouldered, bearded one who accompanied her friend. Wolf
+had described them both, and a presentiment told her that something
+great awaited her through them.
+
+Gombert was the composer of the bird-song, and, as she remembered how
+the refrain of this composition had affected Wolf the day before, she
+heard the door close behind the group.
+
+Then the desire to please, which had never left her since she earned the
+first applause, seized upon her more fiercely than ever.
+
+Of what consequence were the listeners before whom she had hitherto
+sung compared with those whose footsteps were now echoing on the lowest
+stairs? And, half animated by an overpowering secret impulse, she sang
+the refrain "Car la saison est bonne" aloud while passing the stairs on
+her way into the dancing hall, where the rehearsal was to take place.
+
+What an artless delight in the fairest, most pleasing thing in Nature
+to a sensitive young human soul this simple sentence voiced to the
+Netherland musicians! It seemed to them as if the song filled the dim,
+cold corridor with warmth and sunlight. Thus Gombert had heard within
+his mind the praise of spring when he set it to music, but had never
+before had it thus understood by any singer, reproduced by any human
+voice.
+
+The excitable man stood as if spellbound; only a curt "My God! my
+God!" gave expression to his emotion. The blunter Appenzelder, on the
+contrary, when the singer suddenly paused and a door closed behind her,
+exclaimed: "The deuce, that's fine!--If that were your helper in need,
+Sir Wolf, all would be well!"
+
+"It is," replied Wolf proudly, with sparkling eyes; but the honest old
+fellow rushed after Barbara, held out both hands to her in his frank,
+cordial way, and cried:
+
+"Thanks, heartfelt thanks, my dear, beautiful young lady! But if you
+imagine that this drop of nectar will suffice, you are mistaken. You
+have awakened thirst! Now see--and Gombert will thank you too--that it
+is quenched with a fuller gift of this drink of the gods."
+
+The Netherlanders found the table spread, and this rehearsal of the
+Convivium musicum brought Barbara Blomberg the happiest hours which life
+had ever bestowed.
+
+She saw with a throbbing heart that her singing not only pleased, but
+deeply stirred the heart of the greatest composer of his time, whose
+name had filled her with timid reverence, and that, while listening
+to her voice, the eyes of the sturdy Appenzelder, who looked as if his
+broad breast was steeled against every soft emotion, glittered with
+tears.
+
+This had happened during the execution of Josquin de Pres's "Ecce tu
+pulchra es'."
+
+Barbara's voice had lent a special charm to this magnificent motet,
+and, when she concluded the "Quia amore langueo"--"Because I yearn for
+love"--to which she had long given the preference when she felt impelled
+to relieve her heart from unsatisfied yearning, she had seen Gombert
+look at the choir leader, and understood the "inimitable" which was not
+intended for her, but for his fellow-artist.
+
+Hitherto she had done little without pursuing a fixed purpose, but
+this time Art, and the lofty desire to serve her well, filled her
+whole being. In the presence of the most famous judges she imposed the
+severest demands upon herself. Doubtless she was also glad to show Wolf
+what she could do, yet his absence would not have diminished an iota of
+what she gave the Netherlanders. She felt proud and grateful that she
+belonged to the chosen few who are permitted to express, by means of a
+noble art, the loftiest and deepest feelings in the human breast. Had
+not Appenzelder been compelled to interrupt the rehearsal, she would
+gladly have sung on and on to exhaustion.
+
+She did not yet suspect what awaited her when, in well-chosen yet
+cordial words, Gombert expressed his appreciation.
+
+She neither saw nor heard the fellow-singers who surrounded her; nay,
+when Dr. Hiltner, the syndic's, daughter, seventeen years old, who had
+long looked up to her with girlish enthusiasm, pressed forward to her
+side, and her charming mother, sincerely pleased, followed more quietly,
+when others imitated their example and expressed genuine gratification
+or made pretty speeches, Barbara scarcely distinguished the one from the
+other, honest good will from bitter envy.
+
+She did not fully recover her composure until Appenzelder came up to her
+and held out his large hand.
+
+Clasping it with a smile, she permitted the old musician to hold her
+little right hand, while in a low tone, pointing to Wolf, who had
+followed him, he said firmly:
+
+"May I believe the knight? Would you be induced to bestow your
+magnificent art upon an ardent old admirer like myself, though to-day
+only as leader of the voices in the boy choir--"
+
+Here Wolf, who had noticed an expression of refusal upon Barbara's lips,
+interrupted him by completing the sentence with the words, addressed
+to her, "In order to let his Majesty the Emperor enjoy what delights us
+here?"
+
+The blood receded from Barbara's cheeks, and, as she clung to the
+window-sill for support, it seemed as though some magic spell had
+conveyed her to the summit of the highest steeple. Below her yawned the
+dizzy gulf of space, and the air was filled with a rain of sceptres,
+crowns, and golden chains of honour falling upon ermine and purple robes
+on the ground below.
+
+But after a few seconds this illusion vanished, and, ere Wolf could
+spring to the assistance of the pallid girl, she was already passing her
+kerchief across her brow.
+
+Then, drawing a long breath, she gave the companion of her childhood a
+grateful glance, and said to Appenzelder:
+
+"Dispose of my powers as you deem best," adding, after a brief pause,
+"Of course, with my father's consent."
+
+Appenzelder, as if rescued, shook her hand again, this time with so
+strong a pressure that it hurt her. Yet her blue eyes sparkled as
+brightly as if her soul no longer had room for pain or sorrow. After
+Barbara had made various arrangements with the choir leader, it seemed
+to her as though the sunny, blissful spring, which her song had just
+celebrated so exquisitely, had also made its joyous entry into the
+narrow domain of her life.
+
+On the way home she thanked the friend who accompanied her with the
+affectionate warmth of the days of her childhood, nay, even more eagerly
+and tenderly; and when, on reaching the second story of the cantor
+house, he took leave of her, she kissed his cheek, unasked, calling down
+the stairs as she ran up:
+
+"There is your reward! But, in return, you will accompany me first to
+the rehearsal with the singing boys, and then--if you had not arranged
+it yourself you would never believe it--go to the Golden Cross, to the
+Emperor Charles."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+The Emperor's table was laid in one of the lower rooms of the Golden
+Cross. The orchestra and the boy choir had been stationed in Saint
+Leonhard's chapel. A wide door led from the consecrated chamber, spanned
+by a vaulted roof, into the dining-room. When it was opened, the music
+and singing would pour in a full flood to those seated around the board.
+
+Shortly before midnight everything in kitchen and cellar was ready for
+the royal couple. The wax candles and lamps were already lighted when
+Queen Mary prepared to bring her imperial brother to the surprise which
+she had planned, and whose influence she eagerly anticipated.
+
+The Emperor had received the last report half an hour before, and then
+commissioned his physician, who had again warned him against the excess
+of work, to protect him from interruption--he desired to have an hour
+alone.
+
+Dr. Mathys had fulfilled this order with the utmost strictness. Even the
+English ambassador was dismissed. The members of the royal household and
+the nobles who during their stay in Ratisbon crowded around the royal
+brother and sister, and even at this late hour filled the rooms and
+corridors of the spacious building with busy life, had been commanded to
+step lightly and keep silent.
+
+The lord chamberlain, Count Heinrich of Nassau, saw that nothing was
+stirring near the apartment of his imperial master, and the stewards,
+Quijada and Malfalconnet, aided him. But they could not prevent the
+barking of Queen Mary's hunting dogs, and when their royal mistress
+followed them to accompany her illustrious brother to the dining-hall,
+Malfalconnet ventured to remark that the lion, when he retires to
+solitude, sometimes values rest more than the presence of even the most
+beloved and adorable member of his noble race; but the regent quickly
+retorted that she had not yet reached lion hunting, but she knew that
+even the king of beasts possessed a stomach, and would be glad to have
+rest seasoned with dainty food.
+
+"The banquet is ready," added Count Buren, and Malfalconnet, with a low
+bow, said:
+
+"And a portion of it is the covered chiming dish with which your
+Majesty's love and wisdom intends to surprise the illustrious epicure."
+
+While speaking, he cautiously opened the door of the royal apartment,
+but the dogs were held back by the pages who had carried the train of
+the festal robe. Two others zealously aided her to throw the trailing
+brocade across her arm, and in this manner she entered her distinguished
+brother's chamber.
+
+This was so deep that a short walk was necessary to reach the window
+near which the Emperor sat. The office of lighting the vast room was
+assigned to a dozen wax candles in a silver candelabrum, but they were
+so inadequate to the task that neither the mythological scenes on the
+Brabant Gobelin curtains with which the walls were hung, nor the very
+scanty furniture of the remainder of the long chamber could be seen from
+the door.
+
+Thus the prevailing dusk concealed the surroundings of the great monarch
+who was resting there, and the only object visible to the entering
+Queen was his figure illumined by the light. In her soul everything
+else receded far behind the person, welfare, and pleasure of this mighty
+sovereign. Yet she had already crossed half the room, and her entrance
+still remained unnoticed.
+
+The Emperor Charles, with his forehead resting on his hand, sat absorbed
+in thought before the papers which had occupied his attention. How
+mournful he looked, what sorrowful thoughts were doubtless again
+burdening that anxious brain! Never before had he seemed to his sister
+so old.
+
+Perhaps it was the ceaseless planning and pondering of the statesman and
+general which, during the last few years, had thinned the light-brown
+hair at the corners of the brow.
+
+The resting ruler now seemed to have brought his mind to repose also,
+for every emotion had vanished from his pallid face. Even the sharply
+cut nostrils of the long nose, which usually moved swiftly, were
+perfectly still. The heavy chin, framed by a thin, closely clipped
+beard, had sunk upon the high ruff as if for support, and the thick,
+loosely hanging lower lip appeared to have lost its elasticity.
+
+In this hour of rest and relaxation this tireless and successful
+sovereign, utterly exhausted, had even relinquished seeming what he
+was; his brown hair framed his brow and temples in a tangled, disordered
+mass; the lacings of his velvet doublet were loosened; a shabby woollen
+coverlet of anything but imperial appearance was wound around his lower
+limbs, and the foot in which the gout throbbed and ached rested on his
+sleeping hound, and was wrapped in the cloths which his valet Adrian
+found at hand after the Venetian ambassador, the confessor, and the
+leech had left his master.
+
+It pierced his sister to the heart to see her mighty brother, upon whose
+dominions, it was said, the sun never set, in this guise.
+
+Her glance rested sorrowfully upon him a long time, but even when she
+moved several paces nearer he retained the same motionless rigidity
+which had seized upon him and even communicated itself to the dog. The
+animal knew the regent, and did not let her disturb its repose.
+
+Then a terrible fear assailed her, and the image of the Cid Campeador
+who, mounted on horseback, went swaying on his steed to meet the foe,
+rose before her.
+
+"Your Majesty," then again "Your Majesty," she called in a low tone,
+that she might not startle him; but the answer for which she waited in
+breathless suspense did not come, and now the anxious dread that filled
+her sisterly heart forced from her lips the cry, "Carlos!" and once more
+"Carlos!"
+
+The dog stirred, and at the same time the Emperor raised his bowed head
+and turned toward his sister.
+
+Drawing a long breath, as if relieved from a heavy burden, she hastened
+to his side, and, clasping his delicately formed hand, kissed it with
+passionate tenderness; but the Emperor withdrew it, saying with a
+mournful smile, which gave his rigid countenance a new and more winning
+expression, in the Castilian language in which he always addressed her:
+
+"Why are you so agitated, Querida? Did the sight of the silent brother
+alarm the sister? Ay, darling, there are some things more terrible than
+the wild boar at which the brave huntress hurls her spear. Our mother's
+bequest----"
+
+Queen Mary, with hands outstretched beseechingly, bowed the knee before
+him; but he raised her with more strength than would have been expected
+from him just before, and, sighing faintly, continued:
+
+"There are hours, Mary, when the demon that overpowered the mother
+stretches his talons toward the son also. But, in spite of his satanic
+origin, he is a cowardly wight, and a loving face, a tender word, drives
+him away."
+
+"Then may my coming be blessed!" she answered warmly. "Yet it can
+scarcely be a demon or any being of mortal mould that is spoiling the
+life happiness of my beloved brother and sovereign lord. After all, they
+are tolerably alike in the main point, and what semblance would the son
+of hell wear that dares to assail the most powerful and vigorous mind
+of all the ages, and yet is seized with panic terror at the glance of a
+feeble woman? Whoever knows the anxieties which have recently burdened
+your Majesty, and the wide range of the decision to which the course
+of events is urging you, can not wonder if, as just now, your cheerful
+spirits desert you. No demons or evil creatures of that sort, Heaven
+knows, are needed to accomplish it."
+
+"Certainly not," replied the Emperor. "Yet it does not matter what name
+is borne by the unconquerable power which poisons with horrible images
+the few hours of repose allotted to the solitary man who is bereft of
+love and joy. But let us drop the subject! When you appear and raise
+your voice, it seems as though all gloomy thoughts heard the view
+hallo which drives your stags and roes back into their coverts, Mary. I
+suppose you have come to summon me to the table?"
+
+The Queen assented, and now he could not prevent her kissing his hand.
+Then she seized the dainty little bell on the table to ring for the
+valet Adrian; but the Emperor Charles stopped her with the exclamation:
+
+"Never mind him. I will go with you as I am, if you do not object to
+sharing your meal with such a scarecrow of a man. Only permit me to lock
+up these papers."
+
+"From Rome?" asked the regent eagerly.
+
+"That is easily discerned," replied the Emperor. "New and amazingly
+favourable promises. Nothing is required of me except the trifling
+obligation to allow the Protestants nothing in religious affairs
+which the Pope or the Council do not approve. If I agree to accept the
+promises, every one will think that I have the advantage, and yet, if
+the contract is made, it is tearing from the sky the political polestar
+of many a lustrum, and burying one of my clearest, ripest, most sacred
+hopes."
+
+Here the startled Queen interrupted him: "That would surely, inevitably
+be the evil fruit which would grow from such a treaty. It would deliver
+to the Pope, with fettered hands, this very Council which your Majesty
+so confidently expected would remove or diminish, in orderly methods,
+the abuses which are urging so many Christians to abandon the Catholic
+Church. How often I have heard even her most faithful sons acknowledge
+that such abuses exist! But if you make the alliance, the self-interest
+of the hierarchy will know how to prevent the introduction of even a
+single vigorous amendment, and, instead of the conqueror of the hydra of
+abuse, your Majesty will render yourself its guardian."
+
+"And," added the Emperor affectionately--he still retained his seat
+at the writing table--"this alliance, moreover, would force me to the
+painful necessity of opposing the earnest wish of the dearest, fairest,
+and wisest of my sisters."
+
+"Because it would render war with the evangelical princes inevitable,"
+cried the Queen excitedly. "Oh, your Majesty, you know that the
+heretical movement, which is making life a burden to me in my provinces,
+is going much too far for me, as well as for you here in Germany; nay,
+that it is hateful to me, because I value nothing more than our holy
+Church, her greatness and unity. But would it really redound to her
+welfare if the schism now existing, and which you yourself expected to
+heal through the Council, should by this very Council be embittered and
+even perhaps perpetuated? For a long time nothing has seemed to me more
+execrable than this war. Your Majesty knows that, and therefore my lord
+and brother can not be vexed with me if I remind him of the hour when, a
+few months ago, he promised to avoid it and do all in his power to
+bring what relates to religious matters in these German countries to a
+peaceful conclusion."
+
+The Emperor looked his sister full in the face, and, while struggling to
+his feet, said with majestic dignity:
+
+"And I have never given your Highness occasion to doubt my word." Then,
+changing his tone, he continued kindly: "No means--I repeat it--shall
+remain untried to preserve peace. I am in earnest, child, though there
+are now many reasons for breaking the promise. I put them together on
+the long list yonder, and the Spaniards at the court add new ones every
+hour. If you care to know them----"
+
+Here he hesitated, because the gout in his foot gave him a sharper
+twinge; but the Queen availed herself of the pause to exclaim: "I think
+I am aware of them. It is especially hard just now for the statesman and
+soldier to keep the sword in the sheath, because Rome offers more than
+ever, because at the present time no serious opposition is to be feared
+from the most important states, and because the princes of the empire
+have neglected nothing which could rouse the resentment of my imperial
+brother. I know all this, and yet it is as firmly established as Alpine
+mountains----"
+
+Here a low laugh escaped the Emperor's lips.
+
+"The political course which could be thus firmly established is to be
+found, you experienced regent, only in one place--the strong imagination
+of a high hearted woman, who desires to accomplish what she deems right.
+I, too, you may believe me, am opposed to this war, and, as matters
+stand now, the German renegades, rather than we, may expect a glorious
+result. But, nevertheless, it may happen that I shall be compelled to
+ask you to give me back my promise."
+
+"I should like to see the person who could compel my august brother to
+undertake anything against his imperial will," the Queen passionately
+interrupted.
+
+"We will hope that this superior being may not appear only too soon,"
+replied the Emperor, smiling bitterly. "The invincible oppressor
+bears the name of unexpected circumstances; I encountered one of his
+harbingers to-day. There lie the documents. Do you know to what those
+miserable papers force me, the Emperor?--ay, force, I repeat it. To
+nothing less, Mary, than consciously to deal a blow in the face of
+justice, whose defender I ought and desire to be. I am not exaggerating,
+for I am withdrawing a fratricide from the courts, nay, am paving the
+way for him to evade punishment."
+
+"You mean Alfonso Diaz, who had his brother murdered by a hired
+assassin because he abandoned the holy Church and accepted the Lutheran
+religion," said the Queen sorrowfully. "Malvenda was just telling
+me----"
+
+"He was the instigator of the crime," interrupted the Emperor. "Now he
+rejoices in it as a deed well pleasing to God, and many thousands, I
+know, agree with him. And I? Had Juan Diaz been a German Johannes or
+Hans, the Emperor Charles would have made Alfonso expiate his crime
+upon the block this very day. But the brothers were Spaniards, and that
+alters the case."
+
+With this sentence, which fell from his lips in firm, resolute tones,
+his bearing regained its old decision, and his eyes met his sister's
+with a flashing glance as he continued:
+
+"The seed which here in the North, in carefully prepared soil and under
+the fostering care of men only too skilful and ready for conflict, took
+deep root in the domain of religion, which we were obliged to tolerate
+because it grew too rapidly and strongly for us to extirpate or crush
+it without depopulating a great empire and jeopardizing other very
+important matters, would mean ruin to our Spain. Whoever dared to
+transplant the heresy to her soil would be the most infamous of the
+corrupters of a nation, for the holy Church and the kingdom of Spain
+are one. The mere thought of a Juan Diaz, who had absorbed the heretical
+Lutheran doctrine here, returning home to infect the hearts of the
+Castilians with its venom, makes my blood boil also. Therefore, for the
+sake of Spain, a higher justice compels me to offend the secular one.
+The people beyond the Pyrenees shall learn that, even for the brother,
+it is no sin, but a duty, to shorten the life of the brother who
+abandoned the holy Church. Let Alfonso Diaz strive to obtain absolution.
+It will not be difficult. He can sleep calmly, so far as the judges are
+concerned who dispense justice in the name of Charles V."
+
+As he spoke he waved his hand to repel the hound which, when he raised
+his voice, had pressed closer to him, and glanced at the artistically
+wrought Nuremberg clocks on the writing table, two of which struck the
+hour at the same time. Then he himself seized the little bell, rang it,
+and permitted the valet Adrian to brush his hair and make the necessary
+changes in his dress.
+
+Then he invited his sister to accompany him to the table.
+
+Walking without a shoe was difficult, and, when he saw the Queen look
+down sorrowfully at the cloths which swathed the foot, he said while
+toiling on:
+
+"Imagine that we have been hunting and the boot remained stuck in the
+mud. I am sure of indulgence from you. As to the others, even with only
+one shoe I am still the Emperor."
+
+He opened the door as he spoke, and, while the valet held the hound
+back, the Emperor, with chivalrous courtesy, insisted that his sister
+should precede him, though she resisted until Baron Malfalconnet, with a
+low bow to the royal dame, said:
+
+"The meal is served, your Majesty, and if you lead the way you will
+protect our Emperor and sovereign lord from the unworthy suspicion of
+wishing to be first at the trencher."
+
+He motioned toward the threshold as he uttered the words, but Charles,
+who often had a ready answer for the baron's jests, followed his sister
+in silence with a clouded brow.
+
+Leaning on her arm and the crutch which Quijada had mutely presented
+to him, Charles cautiously descended the stairs. He had indignantly
+rejected the leech's proposal to use a litter in the house also, if the
+gout tortured him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+Majesty, whose nature demands that people should look up to it, shuns
+the downward glance of compassion. Yet during this walk the Emperor
+Charles, even at the risk of presenting a pitiable spectacle, would
+gladly have availed himself of the litter.
+
+He, who had cherished the proud feeling of uniting in himself, his own
+imperial power, the temporal and ecclesiastical sovereignty over all
+Christendom, would now willingly have changed places with the bronzed,
+sinewy halberdiers who were presenting arms to him along the sides of
+the staircase. Yet he waved back Luis Quijada with an angry glance and
+the sharp query, "Who summoned you?" when, in an attitude of humble
+entreaty, he ventured to offer him the support of his strong arm. Still,
+pain compelled him to pause at every third step, and ever and anon to
+lean upon the strong hip of his royal sister.
+
+Queen Mary gladly rendered him the service, and, as she gazed into
+his face, wan with anxiety and suffering, and thought of the beautiful
+surprise which she had in store, she waved back, unnoticed by her royal
+brother, the pages and courtiers who were following close behind. Then
+looking up at him, she murmured:
+
+"How you must suffer, Carlos! But happiness will surely follow the
+martyrdom. Only a few steps, a few minutes more, and you will again look
+life in the face with joyous courage. You will not believe it? Yet it is
+true. I would even be inclined to wager my own salvation upon it."
+
+The Emperor shook his head dejectedly, and answered bitterly:
+
+"Such things should not be trifled with; besides, you would lose your
+wager. Joyous courage, Querida, was buried long ago, and too many cares
+insure its having no resurrection. The good gifts which Heaven formerly
+permitted me to enjoy have lost their zest; instead of bread, it now
+gives me stones. The best enjoyment it still grants me--I am honest
+and not ungrateful in saying so--is a well-prepared meal. Laugh, if you
+choose! If moralists and philosophers heard me, they would frown. But
+the consumption of good things affords them pleasure too. It's a pity
+that satiety so speedily ends it."
+
+While speaking, he again descended a few steps, but the Queen,
+supporting him with the utmost solicitude, answered cheerily:
+
+"The baser senses, with taste at their head, and the higher ones of
+sight and hearing, I know, are all placed by your Majesty in the same
+regiment, with equal rank; your obedient servant, on the contrary,
+bestows the commissions of officers only on the higher ones. That seems
+to me the correct way, and I don't relinquish the hope of winning for
+it the approval of the greatest general and most tasteful connoisseur of
+life."
+
+"If the new cook keeps his promise, certainly not," replied Charles,
+entering into his sister's tone. "De Rye asserts that he is peerless. We
+shall see. As to the senses, they all have an equal share in enabling us
+to receive our impressions and form an opinion from them. Why should
+the tongue and the palate--But stay! Who the devil can philosophize with
+such twinges in the foot?"
+
+"Besides, that can be done much better," replied the Queen, patting
+the sufferer's arm affectionately, "while the five unequal brothers are
+performing the duties of their offices. The saints be praised! Here we
+are at the bottom. No, Carlos, no! Not through the chapel! The stone
+flags there are so hard and cold."
+
+As she spoke she guided him around it into the dining-room, where a
+large table stood ready for the monarch's personal suite and a smaller
+one for his sister and himself.
+
+The tortured sovereign, still under the influence of the suffering which
+he had endured, crossed himself and sat down. Quijada and young Count
+Tassis, the Emperor's favourite page, placed the gouty foot in the most
+comfortable position, and Count Buren, the chamberlain, presented the
+menu. Charles instantly scanned the list of dishes, and his face
+clouded still more as he missed the highly seasoned game pasty which the
+culinary artist had proposed and he had approved. Queen Mary had ordered
+that it should be omitted, because Dr. Mathys had pronounced it poison
+for the gouty patient, and she confessed the offence.
+
+This was done with the frank affection with which she treated her
+brother, but Charles, after the first few words, interrupted her,
+harshly forbidding any interference, even hers, in matters which
+concerned himself alone, and in the same breath commanded Count Buren to
+see that the dish should still be made. Then, as if to show his sister
+how little he cared for her opposition, he seized the crystal jug with
+his own hand, without waiting for the cup-bearer behind him, filled the
+goblet with fiery Xeres wine, and hurriedly drained it, though the
+leech had forbidden him, while suffering from the gout, to do more than
+moisten his lips with the heating liquor.
+
+The eyes of the royal huntress, though she was by no means unduly
+soft-hearted, grew dim with tears. This was her brother's gratitude for
+the faithful care which she bestowed upon him! Who could tell whether
+her surprise, instead of pleasing him, might not rouse his anger? He
+was still frowning as though the greatest injury had been inflicted upon
+him, and his sister's tearful eyes led him to exclaim wrathfully, as if
+he wished to palliate his unchivalrous indignation to a lady:
+
+"I am deprived of one pleasure after another, and the little enjoyment
+remaining is lessened wherever it can be. Who has heavier loads of
+anxiety to endure?--yet you spoil my recreation during the brief hours
+when I succeed in casting off the burden."
+
+Here he paused and obstinately grasped the golden handle of the pitcher
+again. The Queen remained silent. Contradiction would have made the
+obdurate sovereign empty another goblet also. Even a look of entreaty
+would have been out of place on this occasion. So she fixed her eyes
+mutely and sadly upon her silver plate; but even her silence irritated
+the Emperor, and he was about to give fresh expression to his
+ill-humour, when the doors of the chapel opposite to him opened, and the
+surprise began.
+
+The signal for the commencement of the singing had been the delivery
+of the first dish from the steward to one of the great nobles, who
+presented it to their Majesties.
+
+The Queen's face brightened, and tears of heartfelt joy, instead of
+grief and disappointment, now moistened her eyes, for if ever a surprise
+had accomplished the purpose desired it was this one.
+
+Charles was gazing, as if the gates of Paradise had opened before him,
+toward the chapel doors, whence Maestro Gombert's Benedictio Mensae, a
+melody entirely new to him, was pouring like a holy benediction, devout
+yet cheering, sometimes solemn, anon full of joy.
+
+The lines of anxiety vanished from his brow as if at the spell of a
+magician. The dull eyes gained a brilliant, reverent light, the bent
+figure straightened itself. He seemed to his sister ten years younger.
+She saw in his every feature how deeply the music had affected him.
+
+She knew her imperial brother. Had not his heart and soul been fully
+absorbed by the flood of pure and noble tones which so unexpectedly
+streamed toward him, his eyes would have been at least briefly attracted
+by the dish which Count Krockow more than once presented, for it
+contained an oyster ragout which a mounted messenger had brought that
+noon from the Baltic Sea to the city on the Danube.
+
+Yet many long minutes elapsed ere he noticed the dish, though it was one
+of his favourite viands. Barbara's song stirred the imperial lover
+of music at the nocturnal banquet just as it had thrilled the great
+musicians a few hours before. He thought that he had never heard
+anything more exquisite, and when the Benedictio Mensa: died away he
+clasped his sister's hand, raised it two or three times to his lips,
+and thanked her with such affectionate warmth that she blessed the
+accomplishment of her happy idea, and willingly forgot the unpleasant
+moments she had just undergone.
+
+Now, as if completely transformed, he wished to be told who had had the
+lucky thought of summoning his orchestra and her boy choir, and how the
+plan had been executed; and when he had heard the story, he fervently
+praised the delicacy of feeling and true sportsmanlike energy of her
+strong and loving woman's heart.
+
+The court orchestra gave its best work, and so did the new head cook.
+The pheasant stuffed with snails and the truffle sauce with it seemed
+delicious to the sovereign, who called the dish a triumph of the
+culinary art of the Netherlands. The burden of anxieties and the pangs
+inflicted by the gout seemed to be forgotten, and when the orchestra
+ceased he asked to hear the boy choir again.
+
+This time it gave the most beautiful portion of Joscluin de Pres's hymn
+to the Virgin, "Ecce tu pulchra es"; and when Barbara's "Quia amore
+langueo" reached his ear and heart with its love-yearning melody, he
+nodded to his sister with wondering delight, and then listened, as if
+rapt from the world, until the last notes of the motet died away.
+
+Where had Appenzelder discovered the marvellous boy who sang this "Quia
+amore langueo"? He sent Don Luis Quijada to assure the leader and the
+young singer of his warmest approbation, and then permitted the Queen
+also to seek the choir and its leader to ask whom the latter had
+succeeded in obtaining in the place of the lad from Cologne, whom he had
+often heard sing the "tu pulchra es," but with incomparably less depth
+of feeling.
+
+When she returned she informed the Emperor of the misfortune which had
+befallen the two boys, and how successful Appenzelder had been in the
+choice of a substitute. Yet she still concealed the fact that a girl was
+now the leader of his choir, for, kindly as her brother nodded to her
+when she took her place at the table again, no one could tell how he
+would regard this anomaly.
+
+Besides, the next day would be the 1st of May, the anniversary of the
+death of his wife Isabella, who had passed away from earth seven years
+before, and the more she herself had been surprised by the rare and
+singular beauty of the fair-haired songstress, the less could she
+venture on that day or the morrow to blend with the memories of the
+departed Queen the image of another woman who possessed such unusual
+charms. The Emperor had already asked her a few questions about the
+young singers, and learned that the bell-like weaker voice, which
+harmonized so exquisitely with that of the invalid Johannes's
+substitute, belonged to the little Maltese lad Hannibal, whose darling
+wish, through Wolf's intercession, had been fulfilled. His inquiries,
+however, were interrupted by a fresh performance of the boy choir.
+
+This again extorted enthusiastic applause from the sovereign, and when,
+while he was still shouting "Brava!" the highly seasoned game pasty
+which meanwhile, despite the regent's former prohibition, had been
+prepared, and now, beautifully browned, rose from a garland of the most
+tempting accessories, was offered, he waved it away. As he did so his
+eyes sought his sister's, and his expressive features told her that he
+was imposing this sacrifice upon himself for her sake.
+
+It was long since he had bestowed a fairer gift. True, in this mood, it
+seemed impossible for him to refrain from the wine. It enlivened him and
+doubled the unexpected pleasure. Unfortunately, he was to atone only too
+speedily for this offence against medical advice, for his heated blood
+increased the twinges of the gout to such a degree that he was compelled
+to relinquish his desire to listen to the exquisite singing longer.
+
+Groaning, he suffered himself--this time in a litter--to be carried back
+to his chamber, where, in spite of the pangs that tortured him, he
+asked for the letter in which Granvelle informed his royal master every
+evening what he thought of the political affairs to be settled the
+next day. Master Adrian, the valet, had just brought it, but this time
+Charles glanced over the important expressions of opinion given by the
+young minister swiftly and without deeper examination. The saying that
+the Emperor could not dispense with him, but he might do without the
+Emperor, had originally applied to his father, whose position he filled
+to the monarch's satisfaction in every respect.
+
+The confessor had reminded the sovereign of the anniversary which had
+already dawned, and which he was accustomed to celebrate in his own way.
+
+Very early in the morning, after a few hours spent in suffering, he
+heard mass, and then remained for hours in the sable-draped room where
+he communed with himself alone.
+
+The regent knew that on this memorable day he would not be seen even by
+her. The success of the surprise afforded a guarantee that music would
+supply her place to him on the morrow also, and ere she left him she
+requested a short leave of absence to enjoy the hunting for which she
+longed, and permission to take his major-domo Quijada with her.
+
+An almost unintelligible murmur from the sufferer told her that he had
+granted the petition. It was done reluctantly, but the Queen departed
+at dawn with Don Luis and a small train of attendants, while the Emperor
+retired into the black-draped chamber.
+
+The gout would really have prohibited him from kneeling before the
+altar, whence the agonized face of the crucified Redeemer, carved in
+ivory by a great Florentine master, gazed at him, but he took this
+torture upon himself.
+
+Even in the period of health and happiness when, at the age of
+twenty-three, besides the great boon of health, besides fame, power,
+and woman's love, he had enjoyed in rich abundance all the gifts which
+Heaven bestows on mortals, his devout nature had led him to retreat into
+a gloomy, solitary apartment.
+
+The feeling that constantly drew him thither again was akin to the
+dread which the ancients had of the envy of the gods, and, moreover, the
+admonition of his pious teacher who afterward became Pope Adrian, that
+the less man spares himself the more confidently he can rely upon the
+forbearance of God.
+
+And, in truth, this mighty sovereign, racked by almost unendurable pain,
+dealt cruelly enough with himself when he compelled his aching knee to
+bend until consciousness threatened to fail under the excess of agony.
+
+Nowhere did he find more complete calmness than here, in no spot could
+he pray more fervently, and the boon which he most ardently besought
+from Heaven was that it would spare him the fate of his insane mother,
+hold aloof the fiend which in many a gloomy hour he saw stretching a
+hand toward him.
+
+Here, too, he sought to penetrate the nature of death. In this room,
+clothed with the sable hue of mourning, he felt that alreadv, while on
+earth, he had fallen into its all-levelling power. Here his mind, like
+that of a dying man's, grasped for brief intervals what life had
+offered and what awaited him beyond the confines of this short earthly
+existence, in eternity.
+
+While thus occupied, the sovereign, accustomed to speculation,
+encountered many a dangerous doubt, but he only needed to gaze at the
+crucified Saviour to find the way again to the promises of his Church.
+
+The last years had deprived him of so large a portion of the most
+valuable possessions and the best ornaments of his life, and inflicted,
+both in wardly and outwardly, such keen suffering, that it was easy for
+him to perceive what a gain death would bring.
+
+What it could take from him was easily lost; the relief it promised
+to afford no power, science, or art here on earth could procure for
+him--release from cruel suffering and oppressive cares.
+
+While he was learning the German language the name "Friend Hein,"
+which he heard applied to death, perplexed him; now he thought that he
+understood it, for the man with the scythe wore to him also the face of
+a friend, who when the time had come would not keep him waiting long. As
+he thought of his wife, of whose death this day was the anniversary, he
+felt inclined to envy her. What he had lost by her decease seemed very
+little to others who were aware of the long periods of time during
+which, separated from each other, they had gone their own ways; but he
+knew that it was more than they supposed, for with Isabella he had lost
+the certainty that the sincere, nay, perhaps affectionate interest of a
+being united to him by the sacrament of marriage accompanied his every
+step.
+
+His pleasure in life had withered with the growth of the harsh
+conviction that he was no longer loved by any one for his own sake.
+
+In this chamber, draped with sable hangings, his own heart seemed dead,
+like dry wood from which only a miracle could lure green leafage again.
+With the only real pity which was at his command, compassion on himself,
+he rose from the kneeling posture which had become unbearable.
+
+With difficulty he sank into the arm-chair which stood ready for him,
+and, panting for breath, asked himself whether every joy had indeed
+vanished. No!
+
+Music still stirred his benumbed heart to swifter throbbing. He thought
+of the pleasure which the previous evening had afforded, and suddenly
+it seemed as if he again heard the "Quia amore langueo"--"Because I long
+for love"--that had touched his soul the day before.
+
+Yes, he, too, still longed for love, for a different, a warmer feeling
+than the lukewarm blood of his royal mother had bestowed upon her
+children, or the devotion of the sister to whom the chase was dearer
+than aught else, certainly than his society.
+
+But such thoughts did not befit this room, which was consecrated to
+serious reflections. The anniversary summoned him to far different
+feelings. Yet, powerfully as he resisted them, his awakened senses
+continued to demand their rights, and, while he closed his eyes and
+pressed his brow against the base of the altar covered with black cloth,
+changeful images of happier days rose before him. He, too, had rejoiced
+in a vigorous, strong, and pliant body. In the jousts he had been
+sure of victory over even dreaded opponents; as a bull-fighter he had
+excelled the matador; as a skilful participant in riding at the ring, as
+well as a tireless hunter, he had scarcely found his equal. In the prime
+of his youth the hearts of many fair women had throbbed warmly for him,
+but he had been fastidious. Yet where he had aimed at victory, he had
+rarely failed.
+
+The sensuous, fair-haired Duchess of Aerschot, the dark-eyed Cornelia
+Annoni of Milan, the devout Dolores Gonzaga, with her large, calm,
+enthusiastic eyes, and again and again, crowding all the others into the
+background, the timid Johanna van der Gheynst, who under her delicate
+frame concealed a volcano of ardent passion. She had given him a
+daughter whose head was now adorned by a crown. In spite of the brief
+duration of their love bond, she had been clearer to him than all the
+rest--clearer even than the woman to whom the sacrament of marriage
+afterward united him. And she of whom seven years ago death had bereft
+him?
+
+At this question a bitter smile hovered around his full lips. How much
+better love than hers he had known! And how easy Isabella had rendered
+it not to weary of her, for during his long journeys and frequent
+dangerous campaigns, instead of accompanying him, she had led in some
+carefully guarded castle a life that suited her quiet tastes.
+
+A sorrowful smile curled his lips as he recalled the agreement which
+they had made just before a separation. At that time both were
+young, yet how willingly she had accepted his proposal that, when age
+approached, they should separate forever, that she in one cloister and
+he in another might prepare for the end of life!
+
+What reply would a woman with true love in her heart have made to such a
+demand?
+
+No, no, Isabella had felt as little genuine love for him as he for her!
+Her death had been a sorrow to him, but he had shed no tears over it.
+
+He could not weep. He no longer knew whether he was able to do so when
+a child. Since his beard had grown, at any rate, his eyes had remained
+dry. The words of the Roman satirist, that tears were the best portion
+of all human life, returned to his memory. Would he himself ever
+experience the relief which they were said to afford the human heart?
+
+But who among the living would he have deemed worthy of them? When
+his insane mother died, he could not help considering the poor Queen
+fortunate because Heaven had at last released her from such a condition.
+Of the children whom his wife Isabella and Johanna van der Gheynst had
+given him, he did not even think. An icy atmosphere emanated from
+his son Philip which froze every warm feeling that encountered it. He
+remembered his daughter with pleasure, but how rarely he was permitted
+to enjoy her society! Besides, he had done enough for his posterity,
+more than enough. To increase the grandeur of his family and render it
+the most powerful reigning house in the world, he had become prematurely
+old; had undertaken superhuman tasks of toil and care; even now he would
+permit himself no repose. The consciousness of having fulfilled his duty
+to his family and the Church might have comforted him in this hour,
+but the plus ultra--more, farther--which had so often led him into the
+conflict for the dream of a world sovereignty, the grandeur of his own
+race, and against the foes of his holy faith, now met the barrier of
+a more powerful fate. Instead of advancing, he had seemed, since the
+defeat at Algiers, to go backward.
+
+Besides, how often the leech threatened him with a speedy death if he
+indulged himself at table with the viands which suited his taste! Yet
+the other things that remained for him to enjoy scarcely seemed worth
+mentioning. To restore unity to the Church, to make the crowns which he
+wore the hereditary possessions of his house, were two aims worthy of
+the hardest struggles, but, unless he deceived himself, he could
+not hope to attain them. Thus life, until its end--perhaps wholly
+unexpectedly--arrived within a brief season, offered him nothing save
+suffering and sacrifice, disappointment, toil, and anxieties.
+
+With little cheer or elevation of soul, he looked up and rang the
+bell. Two chamberlains and Master Adrian appeared, and while Baron
+Malfalconnet, who did not venture to jest in this spot, offered him his
+arm and the valet the crutch, his confessor, Pedro de Soto, also entered
+the black-draped room.
+
+A single glance showed him that this time the quiet sojourn in the
+gloomy apartment, instead of exerting an elevating and brightening
+influence, had had a depressing and saddening effect upon the already
+clouded spirit of his imperial penitent. In spite of the most zealous
+effort, he had not succeeded in finding his way into the soul-life of
+this sovereign, equally great in intellect and energy, but neither frank
+nor truthful, yet, on the other hand, his penetration often succeeded in
+fathoming the causes of the Emperor's moods.
+
+With the quiet firmness which harmonized so perfectly with a personal
+appearance that inspired confidence, the priest now frankly but
+respectfully expressed what he thought he had observed.
+
+True, he attributed the Emperor's deep despondency to totally different
+causes, but he openly deplored the sorrowful agitation which the
+memories of the beloved dead had awakened in his Majesty.
+
+In natural, simple words, the learned man, skilled in the art of
+language, represented to the imperial widower how little reason he had
+to mourn his devout wife. He was rather justified in regarding her death
+hour as the first of a happy birthday. For the sleeper whose dream here
+on earth he, Charles, had beautified in so many ways, a happy waking had
+long since followed in the land for which she had never ceased to yearn.
+For him, the Emperor, Heaven still had great tasks in this world, and
+many a victory awaited him. If his prayer was heard, and his Majesty
+should decide to battle for the holiest cause, sorrowful anxieties would
+vanish from his pathway as the mists of dawn scatter before the rising
+sun. He well knew the gravity of the demands which every day imposed
+upon his Majesty, but he could give him the assurance that nothing could
+be more pleasing to Heaven than that he, who was chosen as its champion,
+should, by mastering them, enjoy the gifts with which Eternal Love set
+its board as abundantly for the poorest carter as for the mightiest
+ruler.
+
+Then he spoke of the surprise of the night before, and how gratefully he
+had heard that music had once more exerted its former magic power. Its
+effect would be permanent, even though physical suffering and sorrowful
+memories might interrupt it for a few brief hours.
+
+"That," he concluded, "Nature herself just at this season teaches us to
+hope. This day of fasting and sadness will be followed by a series of
+the brightest weeks--the time of leafage, blossom, and bird songs, which
+is so dear to the merciful mother of God. May the month of May, called
+by the Germans the joy month, and which dawns to-day with bright
+sunshine and a clear, blue sky, be indeed a season of joy to your
+Majesty!"
+
+"God grant it!" replied the Emperor dully, and then, with a shrug of
+the shoulders, added: "Besides, I can not imagine whence such joy should
+come to me. A boy's bell-like voice sang to me yesterday, 'Quia amore
+langueo.' This heart, too, longs for love, but it will never find it on
+earth."
+
+"Why not, if your Majesty sends forth to seek it?" replied the confessor
+eagerly. "The Gospel itself gives a guarantee of success. 'Seek, and
+ye shall find,' it promises. To the heart which longs for love the
+all-bountiful Father sends that for which it longs to meet it halfway."
+
+"When it is young," added the Emperor, shrugging his shoulders
+impatiently. "But when the soul's power of flight has failed, who will
+bestow the ability to traverse the half of the way allotted to it?"
+
+"The omnipotence which works greater miracles," replied the priest in a
+tone of the most ardent conviction, pointing upward.
+
+Charles nodded a mournful assent, and, after a sign which indicated to
+the confessor that he desired the interview to end, he continued his
+painful walk.
+
+He had waved aside the litter which the lord chamberlain, Count Heinrich
+of Nassau, had placed ready for him, and limped, amid severe suffering,
+to his room.
+
+There the Bishop of Arras awaited him with arduous work, and the Emperor
+did not allow himself a moment's rest while his sister was using the
+beautiful first of May to ride and hunt. Charles missed her, and still
+more the faithful man who had served him as a page, and whom he had been
+accustomed since to have in close attendance upon him.
+
+To gratify his sister's passion for the chase he had given Quijada leave
+of absence, and now he regretted it. True, he told no one that he missed
+Don Luis, but those who surrounded him were made to feel his ill-humour
+plainly enough. Only he admitted to the Bishop of Arras that the radiant
+light which was shining into his window was disagreeable. It made too
+strong a contrast to his gloomy soul, and it even seemed as though the
+course of the sun, in its beaming, unattainably lofty path, mocked the
+hapless, painful obstruction to his own motion.
+
+At noon he enjoyed very little of the meal, prepared for a fast day,
+which the new cook had made tempting enough.
+
+In reply to the Count of Nassau's inquiry whether he wished to hear any
+music, he had answered rudely that the musicians and the boy choir could
+play and sing in the chapel for aught he cared. Whether he would listen
+to the performance was doubtful.
+
+Single tones had reached his ears, but he did not feel in the mood to
+descend the stairs.
+
+He went to rest earlier than usual. The next morning, after mass, he
+himself asked for Josquin's "Ecce tu pulchra es." It was to be sung
+during the noonday meal. But when, instead of the Queen and Quijada,
+a little note came from his sister, requesting, in a jesting tone, an
+extension of the leave of absence because she trusted to the healing
+power of the sun and the medicine "music" upon her distinguished
+brother, and the chase bound her by a really magic spell to the green
+May woods, he flung the sheet indignantly away, and, just before the
+beginning of the meal, ordered the singing to be omitted.
+
+Either in consequence of the fasting or the warm sunshine, the pangs of
+the gout began to lessen; but, nevertheless, his mood grew still more
+melancholy, for he had believed in the sincere affection of two human
+beings, and Queen Mary left him alone in his misery, while his faithful
+Luis, to please the female Nimrod, did the same.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+During the singing in the chapel on the fast day Barbara had waited
+vainly for a word of appreciation from the Emperor. The Queen of Hungary
+had gone to the chase, and the monarch had remained in his apartments,
+while she had done her best below. A few lords and ladies of the court,
+several priests, knights, and pages had been the only listeners.
+
+This had sorely irritated her easily wounded sensitiveness, but she had
+appeared at the rehearsal in the New Scales on the following morning.
+Again she reaped lavish praise, but several times she met Appenzelder's
+well-founded criticisms with opposition.
+
+The radiant cheerfulness which, the day before yesterday, had invested
+her nature with an irresistible charm had vanished.
+
+When the tablatures were at last laid aside, and the invitation to
+sing in the Golden Cross did not yet arrive, her features and her whole
+manner became so sullen that even some of the choir boys noticed it.
+
+Since the day before a profound anxiety had filled her whole soul, and
+she herself wondered that it had been possible for her to conquer it
+just now during the singing.
+
+How totally different an effect she had expected her voice--which even
+the greatest connoisseurs deemed worthy of admiration--to produce upon
+the music-loving Emperor!
+
+What did she care if the evening of the day before yesterday the Queen
+of Hungary had paid her fine compliments and assured her of the high
+approval of her imperial brother, since Appenzelder had informed her
+yesterday that it was necessary to conceal from his Majesty the fact
+that a woman was occupying the place of the lad from Cologne, Johannes.
+The awkward giant had been unfriendly to women ever since, many years
+before, his young wife had abandoned him for a Neapolitan officer, and
+his bad opinion of the fairer sex had been by no means lessened when
+Barbara, at this communication, showed with pitiless frankness the anger
+and mortification which it aroused in her mind. A foul fiend, he assured
+Gombert, was hidden in that golden-haired delight of the eyes with the
+siren voice; but the leader of the orchestra had interceded for her, and
+thought that her complaint was just. So great an artist was too good to
+fill the place of substitute for a sick boy who sang for low wages.
+She had obliged him merely to win the applause of the Emperor and his
+illustrious sister, and to have the regent turn her back upon Ratisbon
+just at this time, and without having informed his Majesty whose voice
+had with reason aroused his delight, would be felt even by a gentler
+woman as an injury.
+
+Appenzelder could not help admitting this, and then dejectedly promised
+Barbara to make amends as soon as possible for the wrong which the
+regent, much against his will, had committed.
+
+He was compelled to use all the power of persuasion at his command to
+keep her in the boy choir, at least until the poisoned members could
+be employed again, for she threatened seriously to withdraw her aid in
+future.
+
+Wolf, too, had a difficult position with the girl whom his persuasion
+had induced to enter the choir. What Appenzelder ascribed to the
+devil himself, he attributed merely to the fervour of her fiery artist
+temperament. Yet her vehement outburst of wrath had startled him also,
+and a doubt arose in his mind as to what matrimonial life might be with
+a companion who, in spite of her youth, ventured to oppose elderly,
+dignified men so irritably and sharply. But at the very next song which
+had greeted him from her rosy lips this scruple was forgotten. With
+sparkling eyes he assented to Gombert's protestation that, in her wrath,
+she had resembled the goddess Nemesis, and looked more beautiful than
+ever.
+
+In spite of his gray hair, she seemed to have bewitched the great
+musician, like so many other men, and this only enhanced her value in
+Wolf's sight.
+
+Urgently, nay, almost humbly, he at last entreated her to have patience,
+for, if not at noon, his Majesty would surely desire to hear the boy
+choir in the evening. Besides, he added, she must consider it a great
+compliment that his Majesty had summoned the singers to the Glen Cross
+the evening before at all, for on such days of fasting and commemoration
+the Emperor was in the habit of devoting himself to silent reflection,
+and shunned every amusement.
+
+But honest Appenzelder, who frankly contradicted everything opposed to
+the truth, would not let this statement pass. Nay, he interrupted Wolf
+with the assurance that, on the contrary, the Emperor on such days
+frequently relied upon solemn hymns to transport him into a fitting
+mood. Besides, the anniversary was past, and if his Majesty did not
+desire to hear them to-day, business, or the gout, or indigestion, or
+a thousand other reasons might be the cause. They must simply submit
+to the pleasure of royalty. They was entirely in accordance with custom
+that his Majesty did not leave his apartments the day before. He never
+did so on such anniversaries unless he or Gombert had something unusual
+to offer.
+
+Barbara bit her lips, and, while the May sun shone brilliantly into the
+hall, exclaimed:
+
+"So, since this time you could offer him nothing 'unusual,' Master, I
+will beg you to grant me leave of absence." Then turning swiftly upon
+her heel and calling to Wolf, by way of explanation, "The Schlumpergers
+and others are going to Prufening to-day, and they invited me to the May
+excursion too. It will be delightful, and I shall be glad if you'll come
+with us."
+
+The leader of the choir saw his error, and with earnest warmth entreated
+her not to make his foolish old head suffer for it. "If, after all,
+his Majesty should desire to hear the choir that noon, it would only be
+because----"
+
+Here he hesitated, and then reluctantly made the admission--"Because you
+yourself, you fair one, who turns everybody's bead, are the 'unusual'
+something which our sovereign lord would fain hear once more, if the
+gout does not----"
+
+Then Barbara laughed gaily in her clear, bell like tones, seized the
+clumsy Goliath's long, pointed beard, and played all sorts of pranks
+upon him with such joyous mirth that, when she at last released him, he
+ran after her like a young lover to catch her; but she had nimbler feet,
+and he was far enough behind when she called from the threshold:
+
+"I won't let myself be caught, but since your pretty white goat's beard
+bewitches me, I'll be obliging to-day."
+
+She laughingly kissed her hand to him from the doorway as she spoke,
+and it seemed as though her yielding was to be instantly rewarded, for
+before she left the house Chamberlain de Praet appeared to summon the
+choir to the Golden Cross at one o'clock.
+
+Barbara's head was proudly erect as she crossed the square. Wolf
+followed her, and, on reaching home, found her engaged in a little
+dispute with her father.
+
+The latter had been much disgusted with himself for his complaisance the
+day before. Although Wolf had come to escort Barbara to the Emperor's
+lodgings, he had accompanied his child to the Golden Cross, where she
+was received by Maestro Appenzelder. Then, since he could only have
+heard the singing under conditions which seemed unendurable to his
+pride, he sullenly retired to drink his beer in the tap-room of the New
+Scales.
+
+As, on account of the late hour, he found no other guest, he did
+not remain there long, but returned to the Haidplatz to go home with
+Barbara.
+
+This he considered his paternal duty, for already he saw in imagination
+the counts and knights who, after the Emperor and the Queen had loaded
+her with praise and honour, would wish to escort her home. Dainty pages
+certainly would not be deprived of the favour of carrying her train and
+lighting her way with torches. But he knew courtiers and these saucy
+scions of the noblest houses, and hoped that her father's presence would
+hold their insolence in check. Therefore he had endeavoured to give to
+his outer man an appearance which would command respect, for he wore his
+helmet, his coat of mail, and over it the red scarf which his dead wife
+had embroidered with gold flowers and mountains-his coat-of-arms.
+
+In spite of the indispensable cane in his right hand, he wore his long
+battle sword, but he would have been wiser to leave it at home.
+
+While pacing up and down before the Golden Cross in the silent night to
+wait for his daughter, the halberdiers at the entrance noticed him.
+
+What was the big man doing here at this late hour? How dared he venture
+to wear a sword in the precincts of the Emperor's residence, contrary to
+the law, and, moreover, a weapon of such unusual length and width, which
+had not been carried for a long while?
+
+After the guards were relieved they had suddenly surrounded him, and,
+in spite of his vigorous resistance, would have taken him prisoner. But
+fortunately the musicians, among them Barbara and Wolf, had just come
+out into the street, and the latter had told the sergeant of the
+guards, whom he knew, how mistaken he had been concerning the suspicions
+pedestrian, and obtained his release. Thus the careful father's hopes
+had been frustrated. But when he learned that his daughter had not seen
+the Emperor at all, and had neither been seen nor spoken to by him, he
+gave--notwithstanding his reverence for the sacred person of his mighty
+commander--full expression to his indignation.
+
+Fool that he had been to permit Barbara to present herself at court with
+a troop of ordinary singing boys! Even on the following day he persisted
+in the declaration that it was his duty, as a father and a nobleman, to
+protect his daughter from further humiliations of this sort.
+
+Yet when, on the day of fasting, the invitation to sing came, he
+permitted Barbara to accept it, because it was the Emperor who summoned
+her. He had called for her again, and on the way home learned that
+neither his Majesty nor the regent had been among the listeners, and he
+had gone to rest like a knight who has been hurled upon the sand.
+
+The next morning, after mass, Barbara went to the rehearsal, and
+returned in a very joyous mood with the tidings that the Emperor wished
+to hear her about noon. But this time her father wanted to forbid her
+taking part in the performance, and Wolf had not found it easy to make
+him understand that this would insult and offend his Majesty.
+
+The dispute was by no means ended when the little Maltese summoned her
+to the New Scales. Wolf accompanied her only to the Haidplatz, for
+he had been called to the Town Hall on business connected with his
+inheritance; but Barbara learned in the room assigned to the musicians
+that the noon performance had just been countermanded, and no special
+reason had been given for the change.
+
+The leader of the orchestra had been accustomed to submit to the
+sovereign's arrangements as unresistingly as to the will of higher
+powers, and Barbara also restrained herself.
+
+True, wrath boiled and seethed in her breast, but before retiring
+she only said briefly, with a seriousness which revealed the contempt
+concealed beneath:
+
+"You were quite right, Maestro Appenzelder. The Emperor considered my
+voice nothing unusual, and nothing else is fit for the august ears of
+his Majesty. Now I will go to the green woods."
+
+The leader of the boy choir again did his best to detain her, for what
+the noon denied the evening would bring, and Gombert aided him with
+courteous flatteries; but Barbara listened only a short time, then,
+interrupting both with the exclamation, "I force myself upon no one, not
+even the highest!" she left the room, holding her head haughtily erect.
+
+Appenzelder fixed his eyes helplessly upon the ground.
+
+"I'd rather put a hoarse sailor or a croaking owl into my choir
+henceforward than such a trilling fair one, who has more whims in her
+head than hairs on it."
+
+Then he went out to look for Wolf, for he, as well as Gombert, had
+noticed that he possessed a certain degree of influence over Barbara.
+What should he say to their Majesties if they ordered the choir for the
+late meal and missed the voice about which the Queen had said so many
+complimentary things in the Emperor's name?
+
+Wolf had told him that he was summoned to the Town Hall. The maestro
+followed him, and when he learned there that he had gone to the syndic,
+Dr. Hiltner, he inquired the way to this gentleman's house.
+
+But the knight was no longer to be found there. For the third time
+the busy magistrate was not at home, but he had been informed that the
+syndic expected him that afternoon, as he wished to discuss a matter of
+importance. Dr. Hiltner's wife knew what it was, but silence had been
+enjoined upon her, and she was a woman who knew how to refrain from
+speech.
+
+She and her daughter Martina--who during Wolf's absence had grown to
+maidenhood--were sincerely glad to see him; he had been the favourite
+schoolmate of her adopted son, Erasmus Eckhart, and a frequent guest
+in her household. Yet she only confirmed to the modest young man, who
+shrank from asking her more minute questions, that the matter concerned
+an offer whose acceptance promised to make him a prosperous man. She
+was expecting her Erasmus home from Wittenberg that evening or early
+the next morning, and to find Wolf here again would be a welcome boon to
+him.
+
+What had the syndic in view? Evidently something good. Old Ursel should
+help counsel him. The doctor liked her, and, in spite of the severe
+illness, she had kept her clever brain.
+
+He would take Barbara into his confidence, too, for what concerned him
+concerned her also.
+
+But when he turned from the Haidplatz into Red Cock Street he saw three
+fine horses in front of the cantor house. A groom held their bridles.
+The large chestnut belonged to the servant. The other two-a big-boned
+bay and an unusually wellformed Andalusian gray, with a small head and
+long sweeping tail--had ladies' saddles.
+
+The sister of rich old Peter Schlumperger, who was paying court to
+Barbara, had dismounted from the former. She wanted to persuade the
+young girl, in her brother's name, to join the party to the wood
+adjoining Prfifening Abbey.
+
+At first she had opposed the marriage between the man of fifty and
+Barbara; but when she saw that her brother's affection had lasted two
+years, nay, had increased more and more, and afforded new joy to the
+childless widower, she had made herself his ally.
+
+She, too, was widowed and had a large fortune of her own. Her husband, a
+member of the Kastenmayr family, had made her his heiress. Blithe young
+Barbara, whose voice and beauty she knew how to value, could bring new
+life and brightness into the great, far too silent house. The girl's
+poverty was no disadvantage; she and her brother had long found it
+difficult to know what to do with the vast wealth which, even in these
+hard times, was constantly increasing, and the Blomberg family was as
+aristocratic as their own.
+
+The widow's effort to persuade the girl to ride had not been in vain,
+for Wolf met Frau Kastenmayr on the stairs, and Barbara followed in a
+plain dark riding habit, which had been her mother's.
+
+So, in spite of Maestro Appenzelder, Miss Self-Will had really
+determined to leave the city.
+
+Her hasty information that the Emperor did not wish to hear the choir
+at noon somewhat relieved his mind; but when, in answer to his no less
+hasty question about the singing at the late meal, the answer came,
+"What is that to me?" he perceived that the sensitiveness which
+yesterday had almost led her to a similar step had now urged her to
+an act that might cause Appenzelder great embarrassment, and rob her
+forever of the honour of singing before their Majesties.
+
+While the very portly Frau Kastenmayr went panting down the narrow
+stairs, Wolf again stopped Barbara with the question why she so
+carelessly trifled with what might be the best piece of good fortune in
+her life, and shook his head doubtfully as, tossing hers higher, with
+self-important pride she answered low enough not to be heard by the
+widow, "Because a ride through the green woods in the month of May is
+pleasanter than to sing into vacancy at midnight unheeded."
+
+Here the high, somewhat shrill voice of Frau Kastenmayr, who felt
+jealous in her brother's behalf at hearing Barbara whispering with the
+young knight, interrupted them.
+
+Her warning, "Where are you, my darling?" made the girl, with the skirt
+of her riding habit thrown over her arm, follow her swiftly.
+
+Wolf, offended and anxious, would have liked to make her feel his
+displeasure, but could not bring himself to let her go unattended,
+and, with some difficulty, first helped Frau Kastenmayr upon her strong
+steed, then, with very mingled feelings, aided Barbara to mount the
+noble Andalusian. While she placed her little foot in his hand to spring
+thence with graceful agility into the saddle, the widow, with forced
+courtesy, invited the young gentleman to accompany her and her brother
+to Prufening. There would be a merry meal, which she herself had
+provided, in the farmhouse on the abbey lands.
+
+Without giving a positive answer, Wolf bowed, and his heart quivered as
+Barbara, from her beautiful gray horse, waved her riding whip to him as
+a queen might salute a vassal.
+
+How erect she sat in her saddle! how slender and yet how well rounded
+her figure was! What rapture it would be to possess her charms!
+
+That she would accept the elderly Schlumperger for the sake of his money
+was surely impossible. And yet! How could she, with laughing lips, cast
+to the wind the rare favour of fortune which permitted her to display
+her art to the Emperor, and so carelessly leave him, Wolf, who had built
+the bridge to their Majesties, in the lurch, unless she had some special
+purpose in view; and what could that be except the resolution to become
+the mistress of one of the richest houses in Ratisbon? The words "My
+darling," which Frau Kastenmayr had called to Barbara, again rang in his
+ears, and when the two ladies and the groom had vanished, he returned in
+a very thoughtful mood to the faithful old maid-servant.
+
+Every one else who was in the street or at the window looked after
+Barbara, and pointed out to others the beautiful Jungfrau Blomberg and
+the proud security with which she governed the spirited gray. She had
+become a good rider, first upon her father's horses, and then at the
+Wollers in the country, and took risks which many a bold young noble
+would not have imitated.
+
+Her aged suitor's gray Andalusian was dearer than the man himself, whom
+she regarded merely as a sheet-anchor which could be used if everything
+else failed.
+
+The thought of what might happen when, after these days of working for
+her bread ended, still more terrible ones followed, had troubled her
+again and again the day before. Now she no longer recollected these
+miserable things. What a proud feeling it was to ride on horseback
+through the sweet May air, in the green woods, as her own mistress, and
+bid defiance to the ungrateful sovereign in the Golden Cross!
+
+The frustration of the hope that her singing would make the Emperor
+desire to hear her again and again had wounded her to the depths of her
+soul and spoiled her night's rest. The annoyance of having vainly put
+forth her best efforts to please him had become unendurable after the
+fresh refusal which, as it were, set the seal upon her fears, and in
+the defiant flight to the forest she seemed to have found the right
+antidote. As she approached the monarch's residence, she felt glad and
+proud that he, who could force half the world to obey him, could not
+rule her.
+
+To attract his notice by another performance would have been the most
+natural course, but Barbara had placed herself in a singular relation
+toward the Emperor Charles. To her he was the man, not the Emperor, and
+that he did not express a desire to hear her again seemed like an insult
+which the man offered to the woman, the artist, who was ready to obey
+his sign.
+
+Her perverse spirit had rebelled against such lack of appreciation of
+her most precious gifts, and filled her with rankling hatred against
+the first person who had closed his heart to the victorious magic of her
+voice.
+
+When she refused Appenzelder her aid in case the Emperor Charles
+desired to hear the choir that evening, and promised Frau Kastenmayr to
+accompany her to Prufening, she had been like a rebellious child filled
+with the desire to show the man who cared nothing for her that, against
+her will, he could not hear even a single note from her lips.
+
+They were to meet the other members of the party at St. Oswald's Church
+on the Danube, so they were obliged to pass the Golden Cross.
+
+This suited Barbara and, with triumphant selfconfidence, in which
+mingled a slight shade of defiance, she looked up to the Emperor's
+windows. She did not see him, it is true, but she made him a mute speech
+which ran: "When, foolish sovereign, who did not even think it worth
+while to grant me a single look, you hear the singing again to-night,
+and miss the voice which, I know full well, penetrated your heart, you
+will learn its value, and long for it as ardently as I desired your
+summons."
+
+Here her cheeks glowed so hotly that Frau Kastenmayr noticed it, and
+with maternal solicitude asked, from her heavy, steady bay horse:
+
+"Is the gray too gay for you, my darling?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Shortly after sunset Appenzelder received the order to have the boy
+choir sing before the Emperor.
+
+During the noon hour, which the monarch had spent alone, thoughts so
+sad, bordering upon melancholy, had visited him, although for several
+hours he had been free from pain, that he relinquished his resentful
+intention of showing his undutiful sister how little he cared for her
+surprise and how slight was his desire to enjoy music.
+
+In fact, he, too, regarded it as medicine, and hoped especially for
+a favourable effect from the exquisite soprano voice in the motet "Tu
+pulchra es."
+
+He still had some things to look over with Granvelle, but the orchestra
+and the boy choir must be ready by ten o'clock.
+
+Would it not have been foolish to bear this intolerable, alarming mood
+until the midnight meal? It must be dispelled, for he himself perceived
+how groundless it was. The pain had passed away, the despatches
+contained no bad news, and Dr. Mathys had permitted him to go out the
+next day. When Adrian already had his hand on the door knob, he called
+after him, "And Appenzelder must see that the exquisite new voice--he
+knows--is heard."
+
+Soon after, when Granvelle had just left him, the steward, Malfalconnet,
+entered, and, in spite of the late hour--the Nuremberg clock on the
+writing table had struck nine some time before--asked an audience for
+Sir Wolf Hartschwert, one of her Highness the regent's household,
+to whom she committed the most noiseless and the most noisy affairs,
+namely, the secret correspondence and the music.
+
+"The German?" asked Charles, and as the baron, with a low bow, assented,
+the Emperor continued: "Then it is scarcely an intrigue, at any rate a
+successful one, unless he is unlike the usual stamp. But no! I noticed
+the man. There is something visionary about him, like most of the
+Germans. But I have never seen him intoxicated."
+
+"Although he is of knightly lineage, and, as I heard, at home in
+the neighbourhood of the Main, where good wine matures," remarked
+Malfalconnet, with another bow. "At this moment he looks more than
+sober, rather as though some great fright had roused him from a carouse.
+Poor knight!"
+
+"Ay, poor knight!" the Emperor assented emphatically. "To serve my
+sister of Hungary in one position may be difficult for a man who is no
+sportsman, and now in two! God's death! These torments on earth will
+shorten his stay in purgatory."
+
+The Emperor Charles had spoken of his sister in a very different tone
+the day before, but now she remained away from him and kept with her a
+friend whom he greatly needed, so he repaid her for it.
+
+Therefore, with a shrug of the shoulders expressive of regret, he added,
+"However badly off we may be ourselves, there is always some one with
+whom we would not change places."
+
+"Were I, the humblest of the humble, lucky enough to be in your
+Majesty's skin," cried the baron gaily, "I wouldn't either. But since
+I am only poor Malfalconnet, I know of nobody--and I'm well acquainted
+with Sir Wolf--who seems to me more enviable than your Majesty."
+
+"Jest, or earnest?" asked the Emperor.
+
+"Earnest, deep, well-founded earnest," replied the other with an upward
+glance whose solemn devotion showed the sovereign that mischief was
+concealed behind it. "Let your Majesty judge for yourself. He is a
+knight of good family, and looks like a plain burgher. His name is Wolf
+Hartschwert, and he is as gentle as a lamb and as pliant as a young
+willow. He appears like the meek, whom our Lord calls blessed, and yet
+he is one of the wisest of the wise, and, moreover, a master in his
+art. Wherever he shows himself, delusion follows delusion, and every one
+redounds to his advantage, for whoever took him for an insignificant man
+must doff his hat when he utters his name. If a shrewd fellow supposed
+that this sheep would not know A from B, he'll soon give him nuts to
+crack which are far too hard for many a learned master of arts. Nobody
+expects chivalric virtues and the accompanying expenditure from this
+simple fellow; yet he practises them, and, when he once opens his hand,
+people stare at him as they do at flying fish and the hen that lays a
+golden egg. Appreciative surprise gazes at him, beseeching forgiveness,
+wherever he is known, as surely as happy faces welcome your Majesty's
+entry into any Netherland city. Fortune, lavish when she once departs
+from her wonted niggardliness, guards this her favourite child from
+disappointment and misconstruction."
+
+"The blessing of those who are more than they seem," replied the
+Emperor.
+
+"That is his also," sighed Malfalconnet. "That man, your Majesty, and I
+the poorest of the poor! I was born a baron, and, as the greatest piece
+of good fortune, obtained the favour of my illustrious master. Now
+everybody expects from me magnificence worthy of my ancient name, and
+a style of living in keeping with the much-envied grace that renders me
+happy. But if your Majesty's divine goodness did not sometimes pay my
+debts, which are now a part of me as the tail belongs to the comet--"
+
+"Oho!" cried the Emperor here. "If that is what is coming--"
+
+"Do I look so stupid," interrupted the baron humbly, "as to repeat
+to-day things which yesterday did not wholly fail to make an impression
+upon your Majesty?"
+
+"They would find deaf cars," Charles replied. "You are certainly less
+destitute of brains than of money, because you lack system. One proceeds
+in a contrary direction from the other. Besides, your ancient name,
+though worthy of all honour, does not inspire the most favourable
+impression. Malfalconnet! Mal is evil, and falconnet--or is it
+falconnelle?--is a cruel, greedy bird of prey. So whoever encounters
+no evil from you, whoever escapes you unplucked, also enjoys a pleasant
+surprise. As for not being plucked, I, at least, unfortunately have not
+experienced this. But we will not cloud by too long waiting the good
+fortune of the gentleman outside who was born under such lucky stars.
+What brings the Wolf in sheep's clothing to us?"
+
+"One would almost suppose," replied the baron with a crafty smile, "that
+he was coming to-day on a useless errand, and meant to apply to your
+Majesty for the payment of his debts."
+
+Here the Emperor interrupted him with an angry gesture; but Malfalconnet
+went on soothingly: "However, there is nothing to be feared from lambs
+in sheep's clothing. Just think, your Majesty, how warm they must be
+in their double dress! No; he comes from the musicians, and apparently
+brings an important message."
+
+"Admit him, then," the Emperor commanded. A few minutes later Wolf stood
+before the sovereign, and, in Appenzelder's name, informed him in a
+tone of sincere regret, yet with a certain degree of reserve, that the
+performance of the choir boys that day would leave much to be desired,
+for two of the best singers had not yet recovered.
+
+"But the substitute, the admirable substitute?" Charles impatiently
+interrupted.
+
+"That is just what troubles us," Wolf replied uneasily. "The magnificent
+new voice wishes to desert the maestro to-night."
+
+"Desert?" cried the Emperor angrily. "A choir boy in the service of her
+Majesty the Queen of Hungary! So there is still something new under the
+sun."
+
+"Certainly," replied Wolf with a low bow, still striving, in obedience
+to the regent's strict command, not to reveal the sex of the new member
+of the choir. "And this case is especially unusual. This voice is not in
+her Majesty's service. It belongs to a volunteer, as it were, a native
+of this city, whose wonderful instrument and rare ability we discovered.
+But, begging your Majesty's pardon, the soul of such an artist is a
+strange thing, inflammable and enthusiastic, but just as easily wounded
+and disheartened."
+
+"The soul of a boy!" cried Charles contemptuously. "Appenzelder does not
+look like a man who would permit such whims."
+
+"Not in his choir, certainly," said the young nobleman. "But this
+voice--allow me to repeat it--is not at his disposal. It was no easy
+matter to obtain it at all, and, keenly as the maestro disapproves of
+the caprices of this beautiful power, he can not force it--the power, I
+mean--to the obedience which his boys----"
+
+Here the Emperor laughed shrilly. "The power, the voice! The songstress,
+you should say. This whimsical volunteer with the voice of an angel,
+who is so tenderly treated by rough Appenzelder, is a woman, not a
+refractory choir boy. How you are blushing! You have proved a very inapt
+pupil in the art of dissimulation and disguise in my royal sister's
+service. Really and truly, I am right!"
+
+Here another bow from Wolf confirmed the Emperor's conjecture; but
+the latter, highly pleased with his own penetration, laughed softly,
+exclaiming to the baron: "Where were our ears? This masquerade is surely
+the work of the Queen, who so dearly loves the chase. And she forbade
+you too, Malfalconnet, to give me your confidence?" Again a silent bow
+assented.
+
+The Emperor bent his eyes on the ground a short time, and then said,
+half in soliloquy: "It was not possible otherwise. Whence could a boy
+learn the ardent, yearning longing of which that 'Quia amore langueo'
+was so full? And the second, less powerful voice, which accompanied her,
+was that a girl's too? No? Yet that also, I remember, had a suggestion
+of feminine tenderness. But only the marvellously beautiful melody of
+one haunted me. I can hear it still. The irresistible magic of this
+'Amore langueo' mingled even in my conversation with Granvelle."
+
+Then he passed his hand across his lofty brow, and in a different tone
+asked Wolf, "So it is a girl, and a native of this city?"
+
+"Yes, your Majesty," was the reply.
+
+"And, in spite of the praise of the gracious mother of God, a
+Protestant, like the other fools in this country?"
+
+"No, my lord," replied the nobleman firmly; "a pious Catholic
+Christian."
+
+"Of what rank?"
+
+"She belongs, through both parents, to a family of knightly lineage,
+entitled to bear a coat-of-arms and appear in the lists at tournaments.
+Her father has drawn his sword more than once in battle against the
+infidels--at the capture of Tunis, under your own eyes, your Majesty,
+and in doing so he unfortunately ruined the prosperity of his good,
+ancient house."
+
+"What is his name?"
+
+"Wolfgang Blomberg."
+
+"A big, broad-shouldered German fighter, with a huge mustache and
+pointed beard. Shot in the leg and wounded in the shoulder. Pious,
+reckless, with the courage of a lion. Afterward honoured with the title
+of captain."
+
+Full of honest amazement at such strength of memory, Wolf endeavoured
+to express his admiration; but the imperial general interrupted him with
+another question, "And the daughter? Does her appearance harmonize with
+her voice?"
+
+"I think so," replied Wolf in an embarrassed tone.
+
+"Wonderfully beautiful and very aristocratic," said the baron,
+completing the sentence, and raising the tips of his slender fingers to
+his lips.
+
+But this gesture seemed to displease his master, for he turned from
+him, and, looking the young Ratisbon knight keenly in the face, asked
+suspiciously, "She is full of caprices--I am probably right there
+also--and consequently refuses to sing?"
+
+"Pardon me, your Majesty," replied Wolf eagerly. "If I understand her
+feelings, she had hoped to earn your Majesty's approval, and when she
+received no other summons, nay, when your Majesty for the second time
+countermanded your wish to hear the boy choir, she feared that her art
+had found no favour in your Majesty's trained ears, and, wounded and
+disheartened--"
+
+"Nonsense!" the Emperor broke in wrathfully. "The contrary is true.
+The Queen of Hungary was commissioned to assure the supposed boy of my
+approval. Tell her this, Sir Wolf Hartschwert, and do so at once. Tell
+her--"
+
+"She rode to the forest with some friends," Wolf timidly ventured to
+interpose to save himself other orders impossible to execute. "If she
+has not returned home, it might be difficult--"
+
+"Whether difficult or easy, you will find her," Charles interrupted.
+"Then, with a greeting from her warmest admirer, Charles, the music
+lover, announce that he does not command, but entreats her to let him
+hear again this evening the voice whose melody so powerfully moved his
+heart.--You, Baron, will accompany the gentleman, and not return without
+the young lady!--What is her name?"
+
+"Barbara Blomberg."
+
+"Barbara," repeated the sovereign, as if the name evoked an old
+memory; and, as though he saw before him the form of the woman he was
+describing, he added in a low tone: "She is blue-eyed, fairskinned and
+rosy, slender yet well-rounded. A haughty, almost repellent bearing.
+Thick, waving locks of golden hair."
+
+"That is witchcraft!" the baron exclaimed. "Your Majesty is painting her
+portrait in words exactly, feature by feature. Her hair is like that of
+Titian's daughter."
+
+"Apparently you have not failed to scrutinize her closely," remarked the
+Emperor sharply. "Has she already associated with the gentlemen of the
+court?"
+
+Both promptly answered in the negative, but the Emperor continued
+impatiently: "Then hasten! As soon as she is here, inform me.--The meal,
+Malfalconnet, must be short-four courses, or five at the utmost, and no
+dessert. The boy choir is not to be stationed in the chapel, but in the
+dining hall, opposite to me.--We leave the arrangement to you, Sir Wolf.
+Of course, a chair must be placed for the lady.--Have the larger table
+set in another room, baron, and, for ought I care, serve with all twenty
+courses and a dessert. Old Marquise de Leria will remain here. She will
+occupy Queen Mary's seat at my side. On account of the singer, I mean.
+Besides, it will please the marquise's vanity."
+
+His eyes sparkled with youthful fire as he gave these orders. When the
+ambassadors were already on the threshold, he called after them:
+
+"Wherever she may be, however late it may become, you will bring
+her. And," he added eagerly, as the others with reverential bows were
+retiring, "and don't forget, I do not command--I entreat her."
+
+When he was alone, Charles drew a long breath, and, resting his head
+on his hand, his thoughts returned to the past. Half-vanished pictures
+unconsciously blended with the present, which had so unexpectedly
+assumed a bright colouring.
+
+"Barbara," he murmured, almost inaudibly. Then he continued in
+soliloquy: "The beautiful Jungfrau Groen in Brussels was also called
+Barbara, and she was the first. Another of this name, and perhaps the
+last. How can this ardent yearning take root in my seared soul and grow
+so vigorously?"
+
+Meanwhile he fancied that the "Quia amore langueo" again greeted him
+yearningly in the sweet melody of her voice.
+
+"How powerfully the ear affects the heart!" he continued, pursuing the
+same train of thought. "Slender, well-rounded, golden-haired. If
+she should really resemble the Brussels Barbara! Malfalconnet is a
+connoisseur. Perhaps, after these gloomy days and years, a semblance
+of sunlight may return. It is long enough since politics and war
+have granted me even the slightest refreshment of the heart. And yet,
+methinks Heaven might feel under obligation to do something for the man
+who has made it his life-task to hold its enemies in check."
+
+He rose quickly as he spoke, and, while moving forward to ring the
+little bell whose peal summoned the valet, not the slightest trace of
+the gouty pain in his foot was perceptible.
+
+Adrian saw with joyful surprise that his master approached without a
+crutch the door through which he had come, and the faithful servant
+expressed his astonishment in terms as eager as his position permitted.
+
+On reaching his sleeping-room, the Emperor interrupted him. He wished to
+be dressed for dinner.
+
+Master Adrian would not believe his own ears. He was to bring one of the
+new reception robes, and yet to-day not even the Queen of Hungary was to
+share his Majesty's repast. One of the costliest new costumes! What had
+come over his lord, who for months, when no distinguished guests were
+present, had worn only the most comfortable and often very shabby
+clothes at table, saving the better new garments like an economical
+housekeeper?
+
+But Charles was not satisfied even with these, for, when Adrian hung
+over the back of a chair a handsome black court dress, slashed with
+satin, his master signed to him to take it away, and asked for one of
+the newest works of art of his Brussels tailor, a violet velvet garment,
+with slashes of golden yellow sill: on the breast, in the puffed sleeves
+and short plush breeches. With this were silk stockings tightly incasing
+the feet and limbs, as well as a ruff and cuffs of Mechlin lace.
+
+Shaking his head, the valet took these articles of dress from the chest;
+but before he put them on his master, the latter sat down to have his
+hair and beard carefully arranged.
+
+For weeks he had performed this slight task himself, though with very
+ill success, for his hair and beard had seemed to his visitors rough
+and unkempt. This time, on the contrary, mirror in hand, he directed
+the work of the skilful servant with many an objection, showing as much
+vanity as in his youth.
+
+After Adrian had put on the new costume, the Emperor shook off the
+large, warm boot, and held out his gouty foot to the valet.
+
+The faithful fellow gazed beseechingly into his master's face, and
+modestly entreated him to remember the pain from which he had scarcely
+recovered; but the Emperor imperiously commanded, "The shoes!" and the
+servant brought them and cautiously, with grave anxiety, fitted the
+low-cut violet satin shoes on his feet.
+
+Lastly, the sovereign ordered the Golden Fleece, which he usually wore
+on a hook below his neck, to be put on the gold chain which, as the head
+of the order, he had a right to wear with it, and took from the jewel
+case several especially handsome rings and a very costly star of
+diamonds and rubies, which he had fastened in the knot of the bow of his
+ruff. The state sword and sheath, which Adrian handed to him unasked,
+were rejected.
+
+He needed no steel weapons to-day; the victory he sought must be won by
+his person.
+
+When the servant held the Venetian mirror before him, he was satisfied.
+The elderly, half-broken-down man of the day before had become a tall,
+stately noble in the prime of life; nay, in spite of his forty-six
+years, his eyes sparkled far more brightly and proudly than many a young
+knight's in his train.
+
+His features, even now, did not show beautiful symmetry, but they bore
+the stamp of a strong, energetic mind. The majestic dignity which he
+knew how to bestow upon it, made his figure, though it did not exceed
+middle height, appear taller; and the self-confident smile which rested
+on his full lips, as he was sure of a speedy triumph, well beseemed a
+general whose sword and brain had gained the most brilliant victories.
+
+Adrian had seen him thus more than once after battles had been won or
+when he had unhorsed some strong antagonist in the tournament, but it
+was many a long year ago. He felt as though a miracle was wrought before
+his eyes, and, deeply loved, kissed his master's sleeve.
+
+Charles noticed it, and, as if in token of gratitude, patted him lightly
+on the shoulder. This was not much, but it made the faithful fellow
+happy. How long it was since the last time his imperial aster had
+gladdened him by so friendly a sign of satisfaction!
+
+Were the days to return when, in the Netherlands, Charles had
+condescended to treat even humble folk with blunt familiarity?
+
+Adrian did not doubt that he should learn speedily enough what had
+caused this unexpected change; but the discovery of the real reason was
+now far from his alert mind, because he was still confident that the
+Emperor's heart had for years been closed against the charms of woman.
+Nevertheless, the experienced man told himself that some woman must be
+connected with this amazing rejuvenation. Otherwise it would surely have
+been one of the wonders which he knew only from legends.
+
+And lo! Chamberlain de Praet was already announcing a lady--the Marquise
+de Leria.
+
+If Master Adrian had ever permitted himself to laugh in his master's
+presence, it would certainly have happened this time, for the curtseying
+old woman in velvet, silk, and plumes, whose visit his Majesty did not
+refuse, was probably the last person for whose sake Charles endured the
+satin shoe on his sensitive foot.
+
+How oddly her round, catlike head, with its prominent cheek bones, and
+the white wig combed high on the top, contrasted with the rouged, sunken
+cheeks and eyebrows dyed coal black!
+
+Adrian hastily calculated that she was not far from seventy. But how
+tightly she laced, how erect was her bearing, how sweet the smile on
+her sunken mouth! And how did her aged limbs, which must have lost
+their flexibility long ago, accomplish with such faultless grace the low
+curtseys, in which she almost touched the floor?
+
+But the valet, who had grown gray in Charles's service, had witnessed
+still more surprising things, and beheld the presence of royalty bestow
+strength for performances which even now seemed incomprehensible. The
+lame had leaped before his eyes, and feeble invalids had stood erect
+long hours when the duties of the court, etiquette, the command of
+royalty, compelled them to do so.
+
+What a mistress in ruling herself the marquise had become during her
+long service at the French and Netherland courts! for not a feature
+betrayed her surprise at the Emperor's altered appearance while she was
+thanking him fervently for the favour of being permitted to share the
+meal with the august sovereign, which had bestowed so much happiness
+upon her.
+
+Charles cut this speech short, and curtly requested her to take under
+her charge, in his royal sister's place, a young lady of a noble family.
+
+The marquise cast a swift glance of understanding at the Emperor, and
+then, walking backward with a series of low bows, obeyed the sovereign's
+signal to leave him.
+
+Without any attempt to conceal from the valet the strong excitement
+that mastered him, Charles at last impatiently approached the window and
+looked down into the Haidplatz.
+
+When his master had turned his back upon him, Adrian allowed himself to
+smile contentedly. Now he knew all, and therefore thought, for the first
+time, that a genuine miracle had been wrought in the monarch. Yet it
+gave him pleasure; surely it was a piece of good fortune that this
+withering trunk was again putting forth such fresh buds.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+Wolf Hartschwert had asked the guards who were stationed at the end of
+Red Cock Street whether any riders had passed them.
+
+Several horses always stood saddled for the service of the court.
+Malfalconnet mounted his noble stallion, and Count Lanoi, the equerry,
+gave his companion a good horse and furnished two mounted torch-bearers.
+
+But the Emperor's envoys had not far to ride; halfway between the abbey
+of Prufening and Ratisbon, just outside the village of Dcchbetten, they
+met the returning excursionists.
+
+Barbara's voice reached Wolf from a considerable distance.
+
+He knew the playmate of his childhood; her words never sounded so loud
+and sharp unless she was excited.
+
+She had said little on the way out, and Herr Peter Schlumperger asked
+what had vexed her. Then she roused herself, and, to conquer the great
+anxiety which again and again took possession of her, she drank Herr
+Peter's sweet Malmsey wine more recklessly than usual.
+
+At last, more intoxicated by her own vivacity than by the juice of
+the grape, she talked so loudly and freely with the other ladies and
+gentlemen that it became too much even for Frau Kastenmayr, who had
+glanced several times with sincere anxiety from her golden-haired
+favourite to her brother, and then back to Barbara.
+
+Such reckless forwardness ill beseemed a chaste Ratisbon maiden and the
+future wife of a Peter Schlumperger, and she would gladly have urged
+departure. But some of the city pipers had been sent to the forest, and
+when they began to play, and Herr Peter himself invited the young people
+to dance, her good humour wholly disappeared; for Barbara, whom the
+young gentlemen eagerly sought, had devoted herself to dancing with
+such passionate zest that at last her luxuriant hair became completely
+loosened, and for several measures fluttered wildly around her. True,
+she had instantly hastened deeper into the woods with Nandl Woller,
+her cousin, to fasten it again, but the incident had most unpleasantly
+wounded Frau Kastenmayr's strict sense of propriety.
+
+Nothing unusual ought to happen to a girl of Barbara's age, and the
+careless manner in which she treated what had befallen her before
+the eyes of so many men angered the austere widow so deeply that
+she withdrew a large share of her favour. This was the result of the
+continual singing.
+
+Any other girl would fasten her hair firmly and resist flying in the
+dance from one man's arm to another's, especially in the presence of a
+suitor who was in earnest, and who held aloof from these amusements of
+youth.
+
+Doubtless it was her duty to keep her brother from marriage with a
+girl who, so long as her feet were moving in time to the violins and
+clarionets, did not even bestow a single side glance upon her estimable
+lover.
+
+So her displeasure had caused the early departure.
+
+Torch-bearers rode at the head of the tolerably long train of the
+residents of Ratisbon, and some of the guests carried cressets. So
+there was no lack of light, and as the lantern in her neighbour's hand
+permitted the baron to recognise Barbara, Malfalconnet, according to
+the agreement, rode up to the singer, while Wolf accosted Herr Peter
+Schlumperger, and informed him of the invitation which the steward, in
+the Emperor's name, was bringing his fair guest.
+
+The Ratisbon councillor allowed him to finish his explanation, and then
+with quiet dignity remarked that his Majesty's summons did not concern
+him. It rested entirely with jungfrau Blomberg to decide whether she
+would accept it at so late an hour.
+
+But Barbara had already determined.
+
+The assent was swift and positive, but neither the light of the more
+distant torches nor of the lantern close at hand was brilliant enough
+to show the baron how the girl's face blanched at the message that the
+Emperor Charles did not command, but only humbly entreated her to do him
+a favour that evening.
+
+She had with difficulty uttered a few words of thanks; but when the
+adroit baron, with flattering urgency, besought her to crown her
+kindness and remember the saying that whoever gives quickly gives
+doubly, she pressed her right hand on her throbbing heart, and rode to
+Frau Kastenmayr's side to explain briefly what compelled her to leave
+them, and say to her and her brother a few words of farewell and
+gratitude.
+
+Herr Peter replied with sincere kindness; his sister with equally
+well-meant chilling displeasure. Then Barbara rode on with the two
+envoys, in advance of the procession, at the swiftest trot. Her tongue,
+just now so voluble, seemed paralyzed. The violent throbbing of her
+heart fairly stopped her breath. A throng of contradictory thoughts and
+feelings filled her soul and mind. She was conscious of one thing only.
+A great, decisive event was imminent, and the most ardent wish her heart
+had ever cherished was approaching its fulfilment.
+
+It is difficult to talk while riding rapidly; but Malfalconnet was
+master of the power of speech under any circumstances, and the courtier,
+with ready presence of mind, meant to avail himself of the opportunity
+to win the favour of the woman whose good will might become a precious
+possession.
+
+But he was not to accomplish this, for, when he addressed the first
+question to Barbara, she curtly replied that she did not like to talk
+while her horse was trotting.
+
+Wolf thought of the loud voice which had reached him a short time before
+from the midst of the Ratisbon party, but he said nothing, and the baron
+henceforward contented himself with occasionally uttering a few words.
+
+The whole ride probably occupied only a quarter of an hour, but what
+a flood of thoughts and feelings swept in this short time through
+Barbara's soul!
+
+She had just been enraged with herself for her defiance and the reckless
+haste which perhaps had forever deprived her of the opportunity to
+show the Emperor Charles her skill as a singer. The cruel anxiety which
+tortured her on this account had urged her at Prufening to the loud
+forwardness which hitherto she had always shunned. She had undoubtedly
+noticed how deeply this had lowered her in Frau Kastenmayr's esteem, and
+the discovery had been painful and wounded her vanity; but what did
+she care now for her, for her brother, for all Ratisbon? She was riding
+toward the great man who longed to see her, and to whom--she herself
+scarcely knew whence she gained the courage--she felt that she belonged.
+
+She had looked up to him as to a mountain peak whose jagged summit
+touched the sky when her father and others had related his knightly
+deeds, his victories over the most powerful foes, and his peerless
+statesmanship. Only the day before yesterday she had listened to Wolf
+with silent amazement when he told her of the countries and nations over
+which this mightiest of monarchs reigned, and described the magnificence
+of his palaces in the Netherlands, in Spain, and in Italy. Of the extent
+of his wealth, and the silver fleets which constantly brought to him
+from the New World treasures of the noble metal of unprecedented value,
+Barbara had already heard many incredible things.
+
+Yet, during this ride through the silent night, she did not even bestow
+the lightest thought upon the riches of the man who was summoning her to
+his side. The gold, the purple, the ermine, the gems, and all the other
+splendours which she had seen, as if in a dream, hovering before her
+at the first tidings that she was invited to sing before the Emperor
+Charles, had vanished from her imagination.
+
+She only longed to display her art before the greatest of men, whose
+"entreaty" had intoxicated her with very different power from the
+Malmsey at Herr Peter's table, and show herself worthy of his approval.
+That the mightiest of the mighty could not escape pain seemed to her
+like a mockery and a spiteful cruelty of Fate, and at the early mass
+that day she had prayed fervently that Heaven might grant him recovery.
+
+Now she believed that it was in her own hands to bring it to him.
+
+How often had she been told that her singing possessed the power to
+cheer saddened souls! Surely the magic of her art must exert a totally
+different influence upon the man to whom her whole being attracted her
+than upon the worthy folk here, for whom she cared nothing. She,
+ay, she, was to free his troubled spirit from every care, and if she
+succeeded, and he confessed to her that he, too, found in her something
+unusual, something great in its way, then the earnest diligence which
+Master Feys had often praised in her would be richly rewarded; then she
+would be justified in the pride which, notwithstanding her poverty,
+was a part of her, like her eyes and her lips, and for which she had so
+often been blamed.
+
+She had always rejected coldly and unfeelingly the young men who sought
+her favour, but with what passionate yearning her heart throbbed for the
+first person whom she deemed worthy of it, yet from whom she expected
+nothing save warm sympathy for the musical talents which she held in
+readiness for him, earnest appreciation which raised her courage, and
+also, perhaps, the blissful gift of admiration!
+
+Never had she rejoiced so gleefully, so proudly, and so hopefully in the
+magic of her voice, and she also felt it as a piece of good fortune that
+she was beautiful and pure as the art with which she expected to elevate
+and cheer his soul.
+
+Transported out of herself, she did not heed the starry heavens above
+her head, at which she usually gazed with so much pleasure--Wolf had
+taught her to recognise the most beautiful planets and fixed stars--nor
+at the night birds which, attracted by the torches of the horsemen
+riding in advance, often darted close by her, nor the flattering words
+to which she was wont to listen willingly, and which few understood how
+to choose better than the well-trained breaker of hearts at her side.
+
+The envoys had taken care that the city gate should be kept open for
+them. Not until the hoofs of her gray horse rang upon the pavement did
+Barbara awake from the dream of longing which had held her captive. She
+started in alarm, raised her little plumed cap, and drew a long breath.
+The ancient, well-known houses along the sides of the streets brought
+her back to reality and its demands.
+
+She could not appear before the Emperor just as she was, in her riding
+habit, with disordered hair. Besides, her head was burning after the
+dancing and the wine which she had drunk. She must calm herself ere
+entering the presence of the royal connoisseur whose approval could
+render her so happy, whose dissatisfaction or indifference would make
+her wretched.
+
+Quickly forming her resolution, she turned to Malfalconnet and explained
+that she could not appear before his Majesty until after she had allowed
+herself a short period of rest; but the baron, who probably feared
+that some feminine caprice would spoil, even at the twelfth hour, the
+successful issue of his mission, thought that he must deny this wish,
+though in the most courteous manner and with the assurance that he would
+procure her an opportunity to collect her thoughts quietly in the Golden
+Cross.
+
+Barbara unexpectedly wheeled her horse, struck him a blow with the whip,
+and called to the astonished gentlemen, "In front of the Golden Cross in
+a quarter of an hour. You, Wolf, can wait for me at the Grieb."
+
+The last words were already dying away as she clashed swiftly up the
+street and across the Haidplatz. Bright sparks flashed from the paving
+stones struck by her horse's hoofs.
+
+"Confounded witch!" cried Malfalconnet. "And how the unruly girl wheels
+her horse and sits erect in her wild career over the flagstones! If the
+gray falls, it will do her no harm. Such rising stars may drop from the
+skies, but they will leap up again like the cats which I threw from the
+roof when a boy. His Majesty will get something to trouble him if
+he continues his admiration. Sacre Dieu! What a temperament!--and a
+German!"
+
+Hitherto both had ridden on at a walk, gazing after Barbara, although
+she had already vanished in the darkness, which was illumined only by
+the stars in the cloudless sky. Now the clock struck half-past ten, and
+Malfalconnet exclaimed, half to the young knight, half to himself, "If
+only the wild bird does not yet escape our snare!"
+
+"Have no fear," replied Wolf. "She will keep her promise, for she is
+truthfulness itself. But you would oblige me, Herr Baron, if in future
+you use a tone less light in speaking of this young lady, who is worthy
+of every honour. Her reputation is as faultless as the purity of her
+voice, and, obstinate as she may be----"
+
+"So this masterpiece of the Creator finds much favour in your eyes and
+your keen ears, Sir Knight," Malfalconnet gaily interrupted. "From any
+one else, my young friend, I should not suffer such a warning to pass;
+but we are now riding in the Emperor's precincts, so it would cause me
+sore embarrassment if my steel pierced you, for my neck, which is very
+precious to me, would then probably fall under the rude axe of the
+executioner. Besides, I wish you well, as you know, and I understand
+you German pedants. Henceforward--I swear it by all the saints!--I
+will utter no disrespectful word of your lovely countrywoman until you
+yourself release my tongue."
+
+"That will never be done!" Wolf eagerly protested, "and the mere
+supposition would force me to bare my sword, if it were not you----"
+
+"If it were not sheer madness for your thumb-long parade dagger to cross
+blades with my good sword," laughed Malfalconnet. "Ere you drew your
+rapier, I think your lust for murder would have fled. So let us leave
+our blades in their sheaths and permit my curiosity, to ask just one
+more question: What consideration induces you, Sir Knight, to constrain
+yourself to discreet peaceableness toward me, who, Heaven knows, excited
+your ire with no evil intent?"
+
+"The same which restrains you from the duel with me," replied Wolf
+quietly; and then, in a warmer tone, continued: "You are dear to me
+because you have shown me kindness ever since I came to the court. But
+you are the last person who would admit that gratitude should fetter the
+hand which desires to defend itself. In comparison with you, Baron, I am
+but an insignificant man, but noble blood flows in my veins as well as
+in yours, and I, too, am no coward. Perhaps you suspect it because I
+have accepted many things from you which I would overlook from no one
+else. But I know that, however your jesting tongue sins against me, it
+has nothing to do with your disposition, whose kindness has ever been
+proved when the occasion offered. But you are now denying respect to a
+lady--"
+
+"From that, too, my heart is as far removed as the starry sky above
+our heads from the wretched pavement of this square," Malfalconnet
+interrupted.
+
+"Yes, Sir Knight, you judged me aright, and God save me from thinking or
+speaking evil of a lady who is so dear to the heart of a friend!"
+
+As he spoke he held out his right hand to his companion with gay yet
+stately cordiality.
+
+Wolf eagerly clasped it, and directly after both swung themselves from
+their horses in the courtyard of the Golden Cross, Malfalconnet to
+inform the Emperor of the successful result of his ride, the Ratisbon
+knight to arrange for the proper stationing of the boy choir, and then,
+obedient to Barbara's injunction, to go to the Grieb.
+
+He knew the baron, and was aware that any one whom this chivalrous
+gentleman assured of his friendship might rely upon it, but that he did
+not spare even the most sacred things if he might hope thereby to win
+the approval and arouse the mirth of his imperial master.
+
+In the glad conviction that he had done his best for the woman he loved,
+and yet had not forfeited the favour of the influential man to whom he
+owed a debt of gratitude, whose active mind he admired, and who had,
+moreover, won his affection, he went to the neighbouring Grieb.
+
+The favour which the Emperor showed Barbara seemed to him not only
+a piece of great good fortune for her, but also for himself. He
+knew Charles's delicate appreciation of music, and could confidently
+anticipate that her voice would satisfy him and win his interest. But if
+this occurred, and the sovereign learned that Wolf wished to marry the
+singer to whom their Majesties owed such great pleasure, it would be an
+easy matter for the Emperor to place him in a position which could
+not fail to content the just desire of the girl whom he loved for an
+existence free from want. The interview with the monarch, to which he
+was to lead Barbara at once, therefore seemed to him like a bridge
+to her consent, and when he met at the Ark the court musician, Massi,
+followed by a servant carrying his violin case, he called to him: "Just
+look at the shining stars up above us, Massi! They are friendly to me,
+and, if they keep their promise, the journey here will be blessed."
+
+"Amen!" replied the other as he pressed his hand cordially and asked for
+further particulars; but Wolf put him off until the next day, exclaim
+ing: "Jungfrau Blomberg, whose voice and execution bewitched you also,
+is now to sing before his Majesty. Wish her the best luck, for on her
+success depend many things for her, and perhaps for your friend also.
+Once more, uphold us!"
+
+He turned toward the Grieb as he spoke, and the longing for Barbara
+quickened his pace.
+
+The fear that the gouty monarch could cherish any other wishes
+concerning the young girl than to enjoy her singing was farthest from
+his thoughts.
+
+Who would ever have seen an aspirant for woman's favour in the suffering
+Emperor, bowed during the last few years by the heaviest political
+cares, and whose comparative youthfulness was easily overlooked?
+
+At the main entrance of the Grieb Wolf was accosted by the master of the
+house.
+
+The wife of this obedient husband, Frau Lerch, known throughout all
+Ratisbon as "Lerch, the mantuamaker," had told him to keep watch, and
+impressed it upon him to let no one, no matter who it might be, enter
+her rooms on the ground floor except the cantor knight, as she called
+Wolf.
+
+Barbara had had little time for reflection as she fled from the
+Emperor's envoys, but a clever woman's brain thinks quickly when an
+important decision is to be made, and while turning the gray she had
+decided that it would be better for her purpose, and the haste connected
+with it, to go to Frau Lerch than to her own home.
+
+In the Grieb she was sure of finding admittance at once if she knocked
+at Frau Lerch's window, while the cantor house was closed early, and a
+long time might pass before the door opened to her. Besides, she did not
+know how her father, who could never be depended upon in such matters,
+would regard the honour that awaited her; thirdly--and this alone was
+decisive--the white dress, which she meant to wear instead of the riding
+habit, was at Frau Lerch's, and what good service the skilful, nimble
+fingers of her mother's ex-maid could render in this hurried change of
+garb.
+
+Besides, it had also darted into her mind that the baron might accompany
+her to her shabby abode, and that would have seemed like a humiliation.
+Why should the court know what indigent circumstances had been the
+portion of the artist to whom the Emperor, through no less a personage
+than Baron Malfalconnet, sent an "entreaty" for her appearance?
+
+All this had been clear to her in the course of a few seconds, and
+her choice had proved fortunate, for the gate of the Grieb was still
+unlocked, and the old hostler Kunz, who had been in the service of the
+Gravenreuths, the former owners of the Grieb, and had known "Wawerl"
+from childhood, was just coming out of the tavern, and willingly agreed
+to take the gray back to Peter Schlumperger's stable.
+
+When Barbara entered the huge building a ray of light shone from the
+private chapel at the left, dedicated to Saint Dorothea.
+
+This seemed to her like a sign from heaven, and, before knocking at
+Frau Lerch's door, she glided into the sanctuary, threw herself upon her
+knees before the image of the saint, and besought her to bestow the most
+melting sweetness and the deepest influence upon her voice while singing
+before his Majesty.
+
+Then it seemed as though the face of the kindly saint smiled assent, and
+in hurried words Barbara added that the great monarch was also the most
+thorough connoisseur, and the altar here should lack neither candles
+nor flowers if she would bestow upon her the power to win his approval.
+While speaking, she raised her clasped hands toward the Virgin's image,
+and concluded her fervent prayer with the passionate exclamation: "Oh,
+hear me, hear me, thou inexhaustible fountain of mercy, for if I do not
+fulfil what he expected when he entreated me to sing before him, and
+I see that he lets me go disappointed, the peace of this heart will be
+destroyed! Hear, oh, hear me, august Queen of Heaven!"
+
+Relieved and strengthened, she at last sprang up, and a few minutes
+after Frau Lerch, with loud exclamations of admiration, was combing her
+long, thick, waving locks of fair hair.
+
+Overflowing with delight at such beauty, the thin little woman then
+helped her "darling Wawerl," her "wonderfully sweet nightingale," to
+change her dress.
+
+Wolf's gift, the velvet robe with the marten border, would have been too
+heavy and oppressive for singing, and, besides, was not yet finished.
+Barbara, she declared, had done right to choose the white one, which
+was intended for the next dance at the New Scales. Nothing could be more
+becoming to her enchanting little princess, and Barbara yielded herself
+entirely to the experienced assistant, who had all the laces and ribbons
+she needed close at hand. She could even supply her with new and dainty
+satin shoes.
+
+While Frau Lerch was working with wonderful dexterity, she also
+permitted her nimble tongue no rest. In the tenderest accents of
+faithful maternal solicitude she counselled her how to conduct herself
+in his Majesty's presence. Hurriedly showing Barbara how the stiff
+Spanish ladies of the court curtsied, she exclaimed: "And another thing,
+my darling pet: It is important for all ladies, even those of royal
+blood, to try to win the favour of so great a monarch when they meet him
+for the first time. You can use your eyes, too, and how effectually!
+I saw you a short time ago, and, if I had been a young gentleman, how
+gladly I would have changed places with the handsome recruiting officer
+Pyramus at the New Scales! That was a flaming fire! Now, isn't it
+true, darling--now we no longer have even a single glance for such
+insignificant fellows! Consider that settled! But things of that
+sort have no effect upon his august Majesty. You must cast down your
+sparkling blue eyes in modest embarrassment, as if you still wore the
+confirmation wreath. All the fashionable sons of the burghers complain
+of your repellent coldness. Let his Majesty feel it too. That will pour
+oil on the flames, and they must blaze up high; I'd stake both my hands
+on it, much as I need them. But if it results as I expect, my darling,
+don't forget old Lerch, who loves you even more than your own mother
+did. How beautiful and stately she was! But she forgot her little Wawerl
+only too often. I have a faithful nature, child, and understand life.
+If, sooner or later, you need the advice of a true, helpful friend, you
+know where to find little old Lerch."
+
+These warnings had sounded impressive enough, but Barbara had by no
+means listened attentively. Instead, she had been anticipating, with
+torturing impatience, her appearance before the great man for whom
+she was adorned and the songs which she would have to sing. If she was
+permitted to choose herself, he would also hear the bird-song, with the
+"Car la saison est bonne," which had extorted such enthusiastic applause
+from the Netherland maestro.
+
+But no!
+
+She must choose something grander, more solemn, for she wished to make
+a deeper, stronger, more lasting impression upon the man who was now to
+listen to her voice.
+
+Mere lukewarm satisfaction would not content her in the case of the
+Emperor Charles; she wished to arouse his enthusiasm, his rapture. What
+bliss it would be if she was permitted to penetrate deeply into his
+soul, if it were allotted to her to make the ruler's grave eyes sparkle
+with radiant delight!
+
+In increasing excitement, she saw herself, in imagination, lowering the
+sheet of music, and the sovereign, deeply moved, holding out both hands
+to her.
+
+But that would have been too much happiness! What if the violent
+throbbing of her heart should silence her voice? What if the oppressive
+timidity, which conquers every one who for the first time is permitted
+to stand in the presence of majesty, should cause her to lose her memory
+and be unable to find the mood which she required in order to execute
+her task with the perfection that hovered before her mind?
+
+Yes, that would happen! With cruel self-torture she dwelt upon the
+terrible dread, for she thought she had noticed that the best success
+often followed when she had expected the worst result. Fran Lerch
+perceived what was passing in her mind, and instilled courage until she
+had finished her work and held up the mirror before Barbara.
+
+The girl, whether she desired to do so or not, could not help looking
+in. She did it reluctantly, and, after hastily assuring herself that
+she was presentable, she turned the glittering disk away and would not
+glance at it again.
+
+She feared that the contemplation of her own image might disturb her;
+she wished to think only of the worthy execution of her task, and the
+shorter time she kept the Emperor waiting the less she need fear having
+an ill-humoured listener.
+
+So she hurriedly ejaculated a few words of gratitude to the old
+attendant and seized the kerchief for her head, which she had taken to
+Prufening with her; but the dressmaker wound around her hair a costly
+lace veil which she had ready for a customer.
+
+"The valuable article may be lost," she thought. "But if, sooner or
+later, something happens which my lambkin, who thinks only of her sweet
+babble, does not dream, it will return to me with interest. Besides,
+she must see what maternal affection I feel for her." Then, with tender
+caution, she kissed the girl's glowing cheeks, and the blessing with
+which she at last dismissed her sounded devout and loving enough.
+
+Wolf had not waited long; it was just striking eleven when Barbara met
+him at the door talking with Herr Lerch, the owner of the house.
+
+Before leaving the Grieb, she again glanced into the chapel in the
+courtyard dedicated to Saint Dorothea, and uttered a swift though
+silent prayer for good success, and that her singing might have a deep
+influence upon the august hearer.
+
+Meanwhile she scarcely heeded what her friend was saying, and, while
+walking at his side the short distance through a part of Red Cock Street
+and across the Haidplatz, he had no words from her lips except the
+request that he would tell her father of the great honour awaiting her.
+
+Wolf, too, had imposed silence upon himself; it was necessary for
+the singer, on the eve of this important performance, to refrain from
+talking in the night air.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+Baron Malfalconnet possessed the gift of lending Time wings and using
+the simplest incident as the foundation for an entertaining story.
+
+He knew that his Majesty did not like waiting, and the quarter of an
+hour which Barbara had mentioned might easily become a longer period. So
+he adorned the description of his ride as an envoy most generously with
+many partially invented details. Wolf, Herr Peter Schlumperger,
+Frau Kastenmayr, his estimable sister, and the party of Ratisbon
+excursionists, upon whom he had scarcely bestowed a passing glance, all
+played a large and by no means enviable part.
+
+But he gained his object, for the impatient monarch listened gladly,
+and all the more willingly in proportion to the more brilliant eloquence
+with which the clever connoisseur of mankind placed Barbara in contrast
+to all the obscure, insignificant, and ridiculous personages whom he
+pretended to have met. The peculiar charm which her individuality thus
+obtained corresponded with the idea which the monarch himself had formed
+of the expected guest, and it flattered him to hear his conjecture so
+remarkably confirmed.
+
+A few questions from the monarch followed the baron's report. While the
+latter was still answering the last one, Chamberlain de Praet announced
+the singer's arrival, and Count Bueren escorted the aged Marquise de
+Leria to the monarch.
+
+The Emperor went at once to the table, and as he descended the stairs,
+leaning lightly on Malfalconnet's arm, it was scarcely perceptible that
+he used the left foot less firmly than the other.
+
+According to his command, only the small table at which he was to sit
+with the marquise had been laid in the dining-room. The boy choir had
+taken a position opposite to it.
+
+At his entrance Barbara rose quickly from the chair, into which she had
+sunk by no means from weariness.
+
+With a throbbing heart, and still heavily oppressed by anxiety, she
+awaited the next moments and what they would bring.
+
+The Benedictio Mensae was again to open the concert. She needed no notes
+for this familiar music. Yet she looked toward Appenzelder, who had
+thanked her for her appearance as if she had done him a great favour.
+
+Now the orchestra behind her was silent. Now she saw the lackeys and
+attendants bow profoundly. Now Appenzelder raised his arm.
+
+She saw it, but he had not yet touched the desk with the little ebony
+staff, and she availed herself of the pause to glance toward the
+anxiously expected sovereign, whose presence she felt.
+
+There he stood.
+
+Barbara scarcely noticed the old lady at his left; he, he alone
+captivated her eyes, her heart, her senses, her whole being.
+
+What a happy surprise!
+
+How Wolf, Maestro Gombert, and others had described the Emperor, and how
+he stood before her!
+
+This chivalrous, superb, almost youthful gentleman and hero, whose
+haughty, self-assured bearing so admirably suited the magnificence of
+his rich-hued garments, was said to be a gouty old man, bowed by the
+weight of care! Had it not been so abominable, it would have tempted her
+to laugh.
+
+How petty men were, how cruel was the fate of the great, to whom envy
+clings like their own shadow, and whose image was basely distorted even
+by those who knew the grandeur of their intellect and their deeds, and
+who owed to them their best success in life!
+
+Her heart beat for this man, not only with the artist's desire to
+satisfy the connoisseur, no, but with stormy passion--she felt it now;
+yet, though the god of love was called a blind boy, she had retained the
+full, clear strength of vision and the absolute power of discernment.
+
+No one, not even the handsomest young knight, could compare in her eyes
+with the mature, powerful guide of the destiny of many millions, whose
+lofty brow was illumined by the grandeur of his intellect, and with
+whose name the memory of glorious victories was associated. The pride
+justified by his birth had led him from one lofty deed to another, and
+he could not help carrying his head so high, for how far all the rest of
+mankind lay beneath him! There was no living mortal to whom the Emperor
+Charles would have been obliged to look up, or before whom he need bow
+his head at all.
+
+She would fain have been able to stamp his image deeply, ineffaceably
+upon her soul. But, alas!
+
+Just at that moment a short, imperious sound reached her ear.
+Appenzelder had struck the desk with his baton. The Benedictio must
+begin at once, and now her breath was really coming so quickly that it
+seemed impossible for her to sing in this condition.
+
+Deeply troubled, she pressed her hand upon her bosom.
+
+Then the cruel, tyrannical baton struck the wood a second time, and----
+
+But what did this mean?
+
+The Emperor had left his elderly companion after she was seated at the
+table, and was advancing--her eyes, clouded by anxious expectation, did
+not deceive her--and was walking with stately dignity toward the boy
+choir; no, not to it, but directly toward herself.--Now it seemed as
+though her heart stood still.
+
+At no price could she have produced even a single note.
+
+But it was not required, for the wave of the imperial hand which she saw
+was to Appenzelder, and commanded him to silence his choir.
+
+The unexpected movement concerned her alone, and ere Barbara found time
+to ask herself what brought him to her, he already stood before her.
+
+How friendly and yet how chivalrously stately as the slight bow which
+the monarch bestowed upon her; and he had scarcely done so when, in
+peculiar German, whose strange accent seemed to her extremely charming
+and musical, he exclaimed: "we welcome you to the Golden Cross, fairest
+of maidens. You now behold what man can accomplish when he strives for
+anything with genuine zeal. The wisest among the wise declare that even
+gods fail in the conflict against the obstinacy of beautiful women, and
+yet our longing desire succeeded in capturing you, lovely fugitive."
+
+Barbara alternately flushed and paled as she listened to these words.
+
+She had not heard Frau Lerch's counsel, and yet, obedient to a secret
+impulse, she timidly lowered her blue eyes. But not a word of the
+sovereign had escaped her, and, though she still lacked the power of
+speech, she found courage to smile and shake her head in denial.
+
+The Emperor did not miss a single change of feature, and, swiftly
+understanding her mute contradiction, went on gaily: "Look! look! So,
+fairest of the fair, you refuse to acknowledge our glorious victory?
+That bears witness to a specially independent comprehension of things.
+But we, how are we to explain such a denial of an accomplished fact?"
+
+Then Barbara summoned up courage and answered, still with downcast eyes,
+"But, your Majesty, how can I regard myself as conquered and captured
+when I voluntarily yielded to your Majesty's wish?"
+
+"And may I perhaps also hope that it gives you pleasure to grant my
+entreaty?" asked the sovereign in a subdued tone, gazing as he spoke
+deep into the eyes which the young girl had just raised to his.
+
+Barbara did not instantly find the reply she sought, and only bent her
+head in assent, but the Emperor was not satisfied with this mute answer,
+and eagerly desired to learn whether it was so difficult for her to
+admit what he so ardently wished to hear.
+
+Meanwhile her quick intellect had found the fitting response, and, with
+a look which told the questioner more than she intended to betray, she
+answered softly: "Why should I not have fulfilled your Majesty's request
+gladly and proudly? But what followed the walk here, what befell me
+here, is so much more beautiful and greater--"
+
+"And may we know," interrupted the Emperor urgently, "what you find here
+that affords your heart so much pleasure?
+
+"You and your favour," she answered quickly, and the flush which
+suddenly crimsoned her cheeks showed him how deeply she was moved.
+
+Then Charles went close to her and whispered: "And do you wish to know,
+most bewitching woman, how he, in whose presence you confess that you
+are glad to remain, looked forward to your coming? As he would greet
+happiness, spring. And note that I look you in the face, it seems as
+though Easter bells were pealing the resurrection of a love long buried
+in this breast. And you, maiden, you will not belie this hope?"
+
+Barbara clung to the back of the chair for support, while from her
+deeply agitated soul struggled the exclamation: "This poor heart,
+my lord, belongs to you--to you alone! How it mastered me, who can
+describe? But here, my lord, now----"
+
+Then the monarch whispered warmly: "You are right. What we have to say
+to each other requires a more fitting time and a different place, and we
+will find them."
+
+Then he stepped back, drew himself up to his full height, waved his
+hand to her with gracious condescension, and in a loud, imperious tone
+commanded Appenzelder to begin the Benedictio.
+
+"It rests with the lovely artist yonder," he added, glancing kindly
+at Barbara, "whether she will now ennoble with her wonderful voice the
+singing of the boy choir. Later she will probably allow us to hear
+the closing melody of the 'Ecce tu pulchra es', which, with such good
+reason, delighted the Queen of Hungary, and myself no less."
+
+He seated himself at the table as he spoke, and devoted himself to the
+dishes offered him so eagerly that it was difficult to believe in the
+deep, yearning emotion that ruled him. Only the marquise at his side and
+Malfalconnet, who had joined the attendant nobles, perceived that he ate
+more rapidly than usual, and paid no attention to the preparation of the
+viands.
+
+The aged eyes, of the Emperor's watchful companion, to whom up to
+the close of the repast he addressed only a few scattered words, also
+detected something else. Rarely, but nevertheless several times, the
+Emperor glanced at the boy choir, and when, in doing so, his Majesty's
+eyes met the singer's, it was done in a way which proved to the
+marquise, who had acquired profound experience at the French court,
+that an understanding existed between the sovereign and the artist which
+could scarcely date from that day. This circumstance must be considered,
+and behind the narrow, wrinkled brow of the old woman, whose cradle had
+stood in a ducal palace, thronged a succession of thoughts and plans
+precisely similar to those which had filled the mind of the dressmaker
+and ex-maid ere she gave Barbara her farewell kiss.
+
+What the marquise at first had merely conjectured and put together
+from various signs, became, by constant assiduous observation, complete
+certainty when the singer, after a tolerably long pause, joined in
+Josquin's hymn to the Virgin.
+
+In the Benedictio Mensae she remained silent, but at the first effective
+passage joined in the singing of the boys.
+
+Not until the 'Tu pulchra es' did she display the full power of her art.
+
+From the commencement she took part in the execution of this magnificent
+composition eagerly and with deep feeling, and when the closing bars
+began and the magic of her singing developed all its heart-thrilling
+power, the watchful lady in waiting perceived that his Majesty forgot
+the food and hung on Barbara's lips as though spellbound.
+
+This was something unprecedented. But when the monarch continued for
+some time to display an abstemiousness so unlike him, the marquise cast
+a hasty glance of inquiry at Malfalconnet. But the affirmative answer
+which she expected did not come. Had the baron's keen eye failed to
+notice so important a matter, or had his Majesty taken him into his
+confidence and commanded him to keep the secret?
+
+That Malfalconnet was merely avoiding making common cause with the
+old intriguer, was a suspicion which vanity led her to reject the more
+positively the more frequently her countryman sought her to learn what
+he desired to know.
+
+Besides, she soon required no further confirmation, for what now
+happened put an end to every doubt.
+
+Barbara had to sing the "Quia amore langueo" again, and how it sounded
+this time to the listening hearer!
+
+No voice which the Emperor Charles had ever heard had put such pure,
+bewitching melody into this expression of the deepest yearning. It
+seemed as though the longing of the whole world was flowing to him from
+those fresh, young, beautifully formed red lips.
+
+A heart which was not itself languishing for love could not pour forth
+to another with such convincing truth, overwhelming power, and glowing
+fervour the ardent longing of a soul seized by the omnipotence of love.
+
+The mighty pressure of rising surges of yearning dashed against the
+monarch's heart, and with tremendous impetuosity roused on all sides the
+tender desires which for a long time had been gathering in his soul. It
+seemed as though this "Because I long for love" was blending with the
+long-repressed and now uncontrollable yearning that filled his own
+breast, and he was obliged to restrain himself in order not to rush
+toward this gifted singer, this marvellously lovely woman, whose heart
+was his, and, before the eyes of all, clasp her in his embrace.
+
+The master of dissimulation forgot himself, and--what a delight to
+the eyes of the marquise!--the Emperor Charles, the great epicure and
+thirsty drinker, left the pasty and the wine, to listen standing, with
+hands resting on the table and outstretched head, to Barbara's voice.
+
+It seemed as though he feared his ear might miss a note of this song,
+his eye a movement of this source of melody.
+
+But when the song ceased, and Barbara, panting for breath, returned
+the ardent look of gratitude and delight which beamed upon her from his
+eyes, the Emperor left the table, and, without noticing Count Krockow,
+who was just lifting the silver cover from the roast capon, the last of
+the five dishes ordered, went up to Barbara.
+
+Would he really end the meal now? The old marquise thought it
+impossible, but if the incredible event occurred, then things were to be
+expected, things----
+
+But ere she had imagined how this unprecedented event could take place,
+the Emperor himself informed her, for, half addressing Barbara, half
+the lady in waiting, he exclaimed in a slightly muffled tone: "Thanks,
+cordial thanks for this great pleasure, my dear Jungfrau! But we wish
+to add to words another token of appreciation, a token of more lasting
+duration.--Do us the favour, Marquise de Leria, to conduct this noble
+artist to the upper rooms, that she may receive what we intended for
+her."
+
+He left the hall as he spoke; but the marquise beckoned to Barbara,
+detained her with words of sweet flattery a short time and then, with
+the young girl, ascended the stairs up which the Emperor had preceded
+them.
+
+Meanwhile the old noblewoman continued to talk with her; but Barbara did
+not listen. While following her guide, it seemed as though the steps her
+light foot trod were a heavenly ladder, and at their end the gates of
+Paradise would open.
+
+She felt with inexpressible delight that she had never before succeeded
+so well in expressing a strong feeling in music, and what her song
+endeavoured to tell the Emperor--no, the man whom she loved--had been
+understood, and found an echo in his soul.
+
+Could there be a greater happiness?
+
+And yet, while she was approaching him, he must be awaiting her.
+
+She had wished to arouse his attention, his approval, his delight in her
+singing. All three had become hers, and now new wishes had mastered
+her, and probably him also. She desired his love, he hers, and, fearing
+herself, she felt the great peril into which her aged companion was
+conducting her.
+
+The Emperor was indeed the greatest and noblest of men! The mere
+consciousness that he desired not only her singing, but her heart,
+inspired the deepest bliss. Yet it seemed as if she ought not to cross
+the threshold of the room which opened before her; as if she ought to
+rush down the stairs and fly from him, as she had dashed away when his
+messengers wished to lead her to his presence.
+
+But he was already advancing from the end of the large apartment, and
+the mere sight of him put an end to every further consideration and
+crushed her will.
+
+Obedient to a glance from the Emperor's eyes, the marquise, bowing
+reverently, retreated into the corridor whence they had come and closed
+the door.
+
+The clang against the jambs told Barbara that she was alone with the
+ruler of half the world, whom she dared to love.
+
+But she was not granted a moment to collect her thoughts; the Emperor
+Charles already stood before her, and with the exclamation, "Quia amore
+langueo!" opened his arms.
+
+She, too, was longing for love, and, as if intoxicated by the lofty
+feeling of being deemed worthy of the heart of this mighty sovereign,
+she yielded to his kisses; and as she herself threw her arm around his
+neck and felt--that she had a right to do so, it seemed as though an
+invisible hand was placing a royal crown upon her brow.
+
+The joy which filled her little heart appeared too rich and great for
+it when, repeating the "Amore langueo" with her head upon his breast, he
+whispered sweet love phrases and confessed that those words, since
+she had sung them for the first time, had echoed through his hours of
+reflection, through the cares of business, through the brief hours of
+repose which he allowed himself, and so it must continue, and her love,
+her voice, and her beauty render the downward path of life the fairest
+portion which he had traversed.
+
+Then Barbara, with the low exclamation, "Because I, too, long for love,"
+again offered him her lips, and he accepted the sweet invitation with
+impetuous passion.
+
+Already, for the second time since her entrance, the clock on Charles's
+writing-table struck the quarter of an hour, and, as if startled from a
+deep slumber, she withdrew from his embrace and gazed, as if bewildered,
+toward the door. Directly after it opened, and Don Luis Quijada with
+firm step entered the room.
+
+The trusted favourite of the Emperor was always free to seek his
+presence. He had returned to Ratisbon in advance of the Queen of
+Hungary, who would not arrive until the following morning, and, after
+a brief conversation with Malfalconnet and Master Adrian, the loyal
+nobleman had gone without delay, and at the risk of angering him, to his
+imperial master. Without even rising from the divan, and still clasping
+the hand which Barbara attempted to withdraw as Don Luis advanced,
+Charles asked with stern rebuke what had caused his entrance at so late
+an hour. Quijada requested a brief audience, but Charles replied that he
+had nothing to conceal from this companion.
+
+A low bow followed this remark; then, with quiet dignity, the major-domo
+reported that the leaders of the orchestra and the boy choir had been
+waiting below--and with them Sir Wolf Hartschwert and an old gentleman,
+the father of this lady--a considerable time for her return. So it
+seemed to him advisable, unless his majesty wished to reveal this sweet
+secret to the world, to part from his beautiful friend, at least for a
+short space.
+
+The Emperor Charles did not permit such suggestions even from those
+who were nearest and dearest to him, and he was already starting up
+indignantly to thrust Don Luis back behind the barriers through which he
+had broken, when Barbara with tender persuasion entreated her lover, for
+her sake, to exercise caution. Charles at last consented to part from
+her for a time. He was sure of her; for he read in the dewy brightness
+of her eyes how hard it was for her also to release herself from his
+embrace.
+
+Then, removing the diamond and ruby star from the lace at his neck, he
+pinned it on Barbara's bosom, with the exclamation, "In memory of this
+hour!"
+
+He afterward added, as if in explanation, that the star might show to
+those below what had detained her here, and asked earnestly whether
+he might hope to see her again in an hour, if a faithful man--here he
+motioned to Quijada--accompanied her hither, and later escorted her home
+again?
+
+A silent nod promised the fulfilment of this request.
+
+The Emperor then carried on a short conversation with Quijada, which
+was unintelligible to Barbara; and after he had retired to summon the
+marquise, Charles profited, like an impetuous youth, by the brief period
+in which he was again alone with his love, and entreated her to consider
+that, if she remained absent long, the "amore langueo" would rob him of
+his reason.
+
+"Your great intellect," she replied, with a faint sigh. "My small
+wits--Holy Virgin!--flew far away at the first word of love from the
+lips of my royal master."
+
+Then, drawing herself up to her full height, she passed her hand across
+her brow and defiantly exclaimed: "And why should I think and ponder? I
+will be happy, and make you happy also, my only love!"
+
+As she spoke she again threw herself upon his breast, but only for a
+few brief moments. Don Luis Quijada reappeared with the marquise, and
+conducted both ladies out of the imperial apartment.
+
+Outside the door the major-domo detained Barbara, and had a tolerably
+long conversation with her, of which the marquise vainly endeavoured to
+catch even a few words.
+
+At last he committed the girl to the old nobleman's charge and returned
+to the Emperor.
+
+The marquise received Barbara with the assurance that she had found in
+her a warm, nay, a maternal friend.
+
+If this beautiful creature was not alreadv the object of the Emperor's
+love, the experienced old woman told herself, she must very soon become
+so.
+
+Yet there had never been a favourite at this monarch's court, and she
+was curious to learn what position would be assigned to her.
+
+After accompanying the girl intrusted to her care down the stairs with
+flattering kindness, she committed her to the musicians and Wolf, who,
+with old Blomberg, were awaiting her in the chapel with increasing
+impatience. The captain had obtained admittance through Wolf.
+
+At her first glance at Barbara the eyes of the old marquise had rested
+on the glittering star which the Emperor had fastened on the lady of his
+love.
+
+The men did not notice it until after they had congratulated the singer
+upon her exquisite performance and the effect which it had produced upon
+his Majesty.
+
+Maestro Gombert perceived it before the others, and Captain Blomberg and
+Wolf rejoiced with him and Appenzelder over this tangible proof of the
+imperial favour.
+
+A conversation about the Emperor's judgment and the rarity with which he
+bestowed such costly tokens of his regard was commencing in the chapel,
+but Barbara speedily brought it to a close by the assurance that she was
+utterly exhausted and needed rest.
+
+On the way home she said very little, but when Wolf, in the second story
+of the house, held out his hand in farewell, she pressed it warmly, and
+thanked him with such evident emotion that the young man entered his
+rooms full of hope and deep secret satisfaction.
+
+After Barbara had crossed the threshold of hers, she said good-night to
+her father, who wished to learn all sorts of details, alleging that she
+could scarcely speak from weariness.
+
+The old gentleman went to rest grumbling over the weakness of women in
+these days, to which even his sturdy lass now succumbed; but Barbara
+threw herself on her knees beside the bed in her room, buried her
+face in the pillows, and sobbed aloud. Another feeling, however, soon
+silenced her desire to weep. Her lover's image and the memory of the
+happy moments which she had just experienced returned to her mind.
+Besides, she must hasten to arrange her hair again, and--this time with
+her own hands--change her clothing.
+
+While she was loosening her golden tresses and gazing into the mirror,
+her eyes again sparkled with joy. The greatest, the loftiest of
+mortals loved her. She belonged to him, body and soul, and she had been
+permitted to call him "her own."
+
+At this thought she drew herself up still more haughtily in proud
+self-consciousness, but, as her glance fell upon the image of the Virgin
+above the priedieu, she again bowed her head.
+
+Doubtless she desired to pray, but she could not.
+
+She need confess nothing to the august Queen of Heaven. She knew that
+she had neither sought nor desired what now burdened her heart so
+heavily, and yet rendered her so infinitely happy. She had obeyed the
+Emperor's summons in order to win approval and applause for her art,
+and to afford the monarch a little pleasure and cheer, and, instead, the
+love of the greatest of all men had flamed ardently from the earth, she
+had left her whole heart with him, and given herself and all that was
+in her into his power. Now he summoned her--the Holy Virgin knew this,
+too--and she must obey, though the pure face yonder looked so grave and
+threatening.
+
+And for what boon could she beseech the Queen of Heaven?
+
+What more had the woman, to whom the Emperor's heart belonged, to
+desire?
+
+The calmness of her soul was at an end, and not for all the kingdoms
+Charles possessed would she have exchanged the tumult and turmoil in her
+breast for the peace which she had enjoyed yesterday.
+
+Obeying a defiant impulse, she turned from the benign face, and her
+hands fairly flew as, still more violently agitated, she completed the
+changes in her dress.
+
+In unfastening the star, her lover's gift, she saw upon the gold at the
+back Charles's motto, "Plus ultra!"
+
+Barbara had known it before, but had not thought of it for a long time,
+and a slight tremor ran through her frame as she said to herself that,
+from early childhood, though unconsciously, it had been hers also.
+Heaven--she knew it now--Fate destined them for each other.
+
+Sighing heavily, she went at last, in a street dress, to open the
+bow-window which looked upon Red Cock Street.
+
+Barbara felt as if she had outgrown herself. The pathos which she had
+often expressed in singing solemn church music took possession of her,
+and left no room in her soul for any frivolous emotion. Proud of the
+lofty passion which drew her with such mighty power to her lover's arms,
+she cast aside the remorse, the anxiety, the deep sense of wrong which
+had overpowered her on her return home.
+
+What was greater than the certainty of being beloved by the greatest of
+men? It raised her far above all other women, and, since she loved him
+in return, this certainty could not fail to make her happy also, when
+she had once fully recovered her composure and ventured to look the
+wonderful event which had happened freely in the face.
+
+The stars themselves, following their appointed course in yonder blue
+firmament--his device taught that--made her belong to him. If she could
+have forced herself to silence the desire of her heart, it would have
+been futile. Whoever divides two trees which have grown from a single
+root, she said to herself, destroys at least one; but she would live,
+would be happy on the highest summit of existence. She could not help
+obeying his summons, for as soon as she listened to the warning voice
+within, the "Because I long for love" with which he had clasped her in
+his arms, urged her with irresistible power toward the lover who awaited
+her coming.
+
+The clock now struck two, and a tall figure in a Spanish cloak stood
+outside the door of the house. It was Don Luis Quijada, the Emperor's
+majordomo.
+
+It would not do to keep him waiting, and, as she turned back into the
+room to take the little lamp, her glance again fell upon the Virgin's
+image above the priedieu and rested upon her head.
+
+Then the figure of her imperial lover stood in tangible distinctness
+before her mind, and she imagined that she again heard the first cry
+of longing with which he clasped her in his arms, and without further
+thought or consideration she kissed her hand to the image, extinguished
+the little lamp, and hurried as fast as the darkness permitted into the
+entry and down the stairs.
+
+Outside the house Wolf returned to her memory a moment.
+
+How faithfully he loved her!
+
+Yet was it not difficult to understand how she could even think of the
+poor fellow at all while hastening to the illustrious sovereign whose
+heart was hers, and who had taught her with what impetuous power true
+love seizes upon the soul. Barbara threw her head back proudly, and,
+drawing a long breath, opened the door of the house. Outside she was
+received by Quijada with a silent bend of the head; but she remembered
+the far more profound bows with which he greeted the monarch, and,
+to show him of how lofty a nature was also the woman whom the Emperor
+Charles deemed worthy of his love, she walked with queenly dignity
+through the darkness at her aristocratic companion's side without
+vouchsafing him a single glance.
+
+Two hours later old Ursula was sitting sleepless in her bed in the
+second story of the cantor house. A slight noise was heard on the
+stairs, and the one-eyed maid-servant who was watching beside her
+exclaimed: "There it is again! just as it was striking two I said that
+the rats were coming up from the cellar into the house."
+
+"The rats," repeated the old woman incredulously; and then, without
+moving her lips, thought: "Rats that shut the door behind them? My poor
+Wolf!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+"Poor Wolf!" old Ursel had exclaimed. But whoever had met the young
+knight the following morning, as he went up the stairs to the Blombergs'
+rooms, would have deemed him, like Baron Malfalconnet, the happiest of
+mortals.
+
+He had obeyed Dr. Hiltner's summons, and remained a long time with him.
+Then he went home at a rapid pace, for he longed to tell Barbara how
+fair a prospect for their future was opening before him.
+
+She had showed her liking for him plainly enough yesterday when they
+parted. What should prevent her from becoming his now that he could
+promise an ample income?
+
+There was some one stirring in the private chapel as he passed, but he
+paid no heed; in former days many people from the neighbourhood prayed
+here frequently.
+
+He found no one in the Blombergs' home except the father.
+
+Barbara would certainly return immediately, the old man said. She had
+gone down to the chapel a short time before. She was not in the habit of
+doing so at this hour, but the great favour shown her by the Emperor had
+probably gone to her head, and who could wonder?
+
+Wolf also thought it natural that so great a success should excite her
+powerfully: but he, too, had a similar one to relate, and, with joyful
+emotion, he now told the old gentleman what the syndic had offered.
+
+The Council, which, by the establishment of the "Convivium," had already
+provided for the fostering of the noble art of music, wished to do still
+more. The project had been dear to the recently deceased Martin Luther,
+and the Ratisbon syndic, who had enjoyed his friendship, thought he was
+carrying out his wishes----
+
+Here Wolf was interrupted, for the table groaned under the blow of the
+old warrior's still powerful fist, coupled with the exclamation: "So
+there is still to be no rest from the accursed disturber of the peace,
+although he is dead! No offence, my lad; but there can be nothing
+edifying to a good Christian where that Wittenberg fellow is concerned."
+
+"Only have patience," Wolf interposed here, secure of victory, and now,
+slightly vexed with himself for his imprudence in mentioning Martin
+Luther's name to the old hater of Turks and heretics, he explained that
+Dr. Hiltner, in the name of the Council, had offered him the position of
+Damian Feys, Barbara's teacher. The Netherlander was going home, and the
+magistrate was glad to have found in him, Wolf, a native of Ratisbon who
+would be no less skilled in fostering music in this good city. To bind
+him securely, and avoid the danger of a speedy invitation elsewhere,
+the position offered was provided with an annual salary hitherto
+unprecedented in this country, and which far exceeded that of many an
+imperial councillor. This had been rendered possible through a bequest,
+whose interest was to be devoted to the development of music, and--if he
+should accept the place--to him and his future wife.
+
+When he heard this, he would fain have instantly bestowed the most
+beautiful candles upon the Holy Virgin, but the scruple concerning
+religion had prevented his rejoicing fully; and when he told the syndic
+that under no circumstances could he abandon the old faith, it was done
+with the fear that the glittering bird would fly away from him. But the
+result had been different, for Dr. Hiltner replied that religion did
+not enter into the matter. He knew Wolf and his peaceful nature, and
+therefore hoped that he would be advised that music was a language
+equally intelligible to all persons of feeling, whatever tongue they
+spoke and whatever creed they preferred. This opinion was also that of
+the Catholic maestro Feys, and he had therefore escaped all difficulty.
+Wolf must, of course, consider the circumstances which he would find
+here. If he would accommodate himself to them, the Council would be
+willing to overlook his faith; besides, Hiltner, on his own authority,
+had given him the three days' time to reflect, for which he had asked on
+Barbara's account.
+
+A long-drawn "H'm" from Blomberg followed this disclosure. Then he shook
+his clumsy head, and, grasping his mustache with his hand, as if he
+wanted in that way to stop the motion of his head, he said thoughtfully:
+"Not a whole thing, Wolf, rather a double one, or--if we look at it
+differently--it is only a half, for an honest friend of our Holy Church.
+The way into which they tempt you is paved with gold, but--but--I see
+the snares and pitfalls----"
+
+He rose as he spoke, muttering all sorts of unintelligible things, until
+he finally exclaimed, "Yet perhaps one might----"
+
+Then he looked impatiently toward the door, and asked: "Where is the
+girl loitering? Would Eve probably bite the apple of temptation also?"
+
+"Shall I call her?" cried Wolf eagerly.
+
+"No, no," said the captain. "It is sinful to disturb even our nearest
+relatives at prayer. Besides, you would not believe how the maestro's
+praises and the imperial gift have excited the vanity in her woman's
+nature. For the first time in I know not how many years, she overslept
+the hour of mass. It was probably ten o'clock when I knocked at her
+chamber door. Toward eleven there was a movement in her room. Then I
+opened the door to bid her good-morning, but she neither heard nor saw
+anything, and knelt at the priedieu as if turned to stone. Before going
+to sleep and early in the morning I expect such things, but when it is
+almost noon! Her porridge still stood untouched on the table here, and
+to-day there is no occasion for fasting. But I did not like to disturb
+her, and perhaps she would still be kneeling before the Virgin's image
+if the maid-servant hadn't blundered in to carry a bouquet which Herr
+Peter Schlumperger's servant had brought. Then Barbara started up as
+if a hornet had stung her. And how she looked at me! Once--I knew it
+instantly--I had gazed into such a marvellously beautiful face, such
+helpless blue eyes. Afterward I remembered who and where it had been.
+God guard me from sinning against my own child, but that was exactly the
+way the young girl looked who they--it was farther back in the past than
+you can remember--burned here for a witch, as the halberdiers and monks
+led her to the place of execution. Susanne Schindler--that was her
+name--was the daughter of a respectable notary's clerk, who was obliged
+to wander about the world a great deal, and perished in Hungary just as
+she reached womanhood. Her mother had died when she was born, and an old
+woman had taken care of her out of friendship. People called the lass
+'beautiful Susel,' and she was wonderfully charming. Pink and white,
+like the maiden in the fairy tale, and with glittering golden hair just
+like my Wawerl's. The old woman with whom she lived--her aunt or
+some other relative--had long practised the healing of all sorts of
+infirmities, and when a young Spanish count, who had come here with the
+Emperor Charles to the Reichstag in the year '31, fell under his horse
+in leaping a ditch, his limbs were injured so that he could not use
+them. As he did not recover under the care of the Knights of St. John,
+who first nursed him, he went to the herb doctress, and she took charge
+of him, and cured him, too, although the skill of the most famous
+doctors and surgeons had failed to help him.
+
+"But, to make amends, Satan, who probably had the largest share in the
+miracle, visited him with the sorest evil, for 'beautiful Susel,' who
+was the old woman's assistant, had so bewitched the young count that
+he not only fell in love with her, but actually desired to make her his
+wife.
+
+"Then all the noble relatives at home interfered. The Holy Inquisition
+commanded the investigation of the case, and sent a stern vicar
+general to direct the proceedings of the Dominicans, who had seized the
+temptress. Then it came to light that 'beautiful Susel' had bewitched
+the luckless young count and robbed him of reason by her wicked arts.
+
+"The old woman, whom they had also examined, escaped her just punishment
+because she died of the plague, which was raging here at that time, but
+'beautiful Susel' was burned, and I looked on while it was done.
+
+"When the Dominicans had led her to the stake, she turned toward the
+people who had flocked here from all quarters. Many doubtless pitied her
+on account of her marvellous beauty, and because the devil had given her
+the mask of the most touching kindness of heart; but she gazed directly
+into my face with her large, blue eyes as I stood close by, and for
+years I saw the witch's look distinctly before me. Yet what do we not at
+last forget? And now it must happen that what reminded me of her
+again is my own innocent child! Wawerl just looked into my eyes as if
+'beautiful Susel' had risen from her grave. It was not long, yet it
+seemed as if she shrank in terror from me, her own clear father. She
+gazed up at me in helpless despair, as if she feared God and the world.
+
+"I have learned little about shivering, but a chill ran down my spine.
+Of course, I did not let her notice anything. Poor child! after the
+honour bestowed yesterday, I thought there would be nothing to-day
+except laughter and loud singing. But my grandmother used to say that
+the grief which tortures a young girl--she herself knows not why--is
+the hardest to bear, and then Barbara must now make up her mind about
+marriage, for, besides you, there are Peter Schlumperger and young
+Crafft to be considered.
+
+"I remembered all this, and so, as usual, I took her face between my
+hands to give her her morning kiss. She always offers me her lips,
+but to-day she turned away so that my mouth barely brushed her cheeks.
+'Women's whims!' I thought, and therefore let it pass. You can imagine
+how glad I should have been to hear something more about yesterday
+evening, but I made no objection when she wished to go to the chapel
+at once, because she had overslept the hour of mass. She would be back
+again before the porridge was heated. But the little bowl has stood
+there probably three quarters of an hour, and we are still waiting in
+vain."
+
+Here he paused in his voluble flow of speech, and then burst forth
+angrily: "The devil may understand such a girl's soul! Usually Wawerl
+does just the opposite of what one expects; but if she does accept you,
+she will--as an honest man I ought not to conceal it from you--she will
+give you many a riddle to guess. Whims and freaks are as plenty with her
+as buttercups in spring turf; but you can't find a more pious girl in
+all Ratisbon. From ancient times the motto of the Blombergs has been
+'Faith, Courage, and Honour,' and for that very reason it seems to
+me highly improbable that Wawerl would advise you to accept an office
+which, after all, will force you to yield to the will of heretical
+superiors. The high pay alone will hardly win her."
+
+"It will not?" asked Wolf in astonishment. "It is for her alone, not for
+myself, that I value the increased income."
+
+"For her?" repeated the old man, shrugging his shoulders incredulously.
+"Open your eyes, and you will see what she cares for gold and jewels."
+
+"The splendid bouquet there--do you suppose that she even looked at it?
+Bright pinks, red roses, and stately lilies in the centre. Where were
+they obtained, since April is scarcely past? And yet she threw the
+costly birthday gift aside as if the flowers were apple parings. It was
+not she, but I, who afterward put them in the pitcher, for I can't bear
+to see any of God's creatures thirst, even though it is only a flower.
+Besides, we both know that the fullest purse in the city, and a man
+worthy of all respect to boot, are attached to the bouquet. Yes, indeed!
+For a long time she has been unwilling to share my poverty, and if Herr
+Peter had remained loyal to our holy religion, I would persuade her
+myself."
+
+Here, exhausted by his eager speech, he paused with flushed cheeks--for
+it was a hot day--and raised his long arm to take his hat from the hook,
+to refresh his dry palate at the tavern.
+
+But, after a brief pause for reflection, he restored it to its place.
+
+He had remembered that he had not stirred a finger that morning, and had
+promised to have an inscription on a jug completed early the next
+day. Besides, the baker had not been paid for four weeks, so, sighing
+heavily, he dragged himself to the workbench to move the burin with a
+weary hand.
+
+Wolf had followed him with his eyes, and the sight of the chivalrous
+hero, the father of the girl whom he loved, undertaking such a wretched
+occupation, in such a mood, pierced him to the heart.
+
+"Father Blomberg," he said warmly, putting his hand on his shoulder,
+"let your graver rest. I am a suitor for your child's hand. We are old
+friends, and if from my abundance I offer you----"
+
+Here the hot-blooded old man furiously exclaimed: "Don't forget to whom
+you are speaking, young fellow! How important he feels because he gets
+his living at court! True, there is no abundance here; but I practise
+this art merely because I choose, and because it cools my hot blood
+in this lukewarm time of peace. But if on that account," he added
+threateningly, while his prominent eyes protruded even farther than
+usual, "you ever again venture to talk to me as though I were a day
+labourer or a receiver of alms----"
+
+Here he hesitated, for in the midst of his outbreak Barbara had
+noiselessly entered the room. Now she approached him, and, in a more
+gentle and affectionate tone than she had ever used before, entreated
+him to rest.
+
+The captain, groaning, shook his head, but Barbara stepped lightly upon
+the low wooden bench on which he sat, drew his gray head toward her, and
+tenderly stroked his hair and beard, whispering: "Rise, father, and let
+somebody else finish the engraving, it is so cool and shady in the green
+woods where the birds are singing, and only yesterday you praised the
+refreshing drink at the Red Cock."
+
+Here he impatiently, yet with a pleased senile, endeavoured to release
+himself from her arms, but she interrupted his exclamation, "Don't
+you know, Miss Thoughtless," with the whispered entreaty: "Here me out
+first, father! Maestro Appenzelder asked me to add my voice to the boy
+choir a few times more, and yesterday evening the treasurer told me that
+the Queen of Hungary had commissioned him to give me as many ducats as
+the boys received pennies."
+
+She spoke the truth; but the old man laughed heartily in his deep tones,
+cast a quick glance at Wolf, who was looking up at his weapons,
+and, lowering his voice, cried gaily, "That's what I call a feminine
+Chrysostomus or golden mouth, and I should think----"
+
+Here he hesitated, for a doubt arose in his chivalrous mind whether it
+was seemly for a young girl who belonged to a knightly race to accept
+payment for her singing. But the thought that it came from the hand of
+royalty, and that even the great Duke of Alba, the renowned Granvelles,
+and so many princes, counts, and barons received golden wages for their
+services from the Emperor's hand, put an end to these scruples.
+
+So, in a happier frame of mind than he had experienced for a long time,
+he said in a low tone, that he might not be understood by their guest:
+"Greater people than we rejoice in the gifts which emperors and kings
+bestow, and--we can use them, can't we?"
+
+Then he rubbed his hands, laughed as if he had outwitted the people of
+whom he was thinking, and whispered to his daughter: "The baker will
+wonder when he gets paid this time in glittering gold, and the butcher
+and Master Reinhard! My boots still creak softly when I step, and you
+know what that means. The soles of your little shoes probably only sing,
+but they, too, are not silent."
+
+The old man, released from a heavy burden of care, laughed merrily again
+at this jest, and then, raising his voice, told his daughter and Wolf
+that he would first get a cool drink and then go outside the gate
+wherever his lame foot might carry him. Would not the young nobleman
+accompany him?
+
+But Wolf preferred to stay with Barbara, that he might plead his cause
+in person. There was something so quiet and diffident in her manner. If
+she would not listen to him to-day, she never would. In saying farewell,
+the captain remarked that he would not meddle in the affair of the
+Council. Wawerl alone must decide that.
+
+"When I return home," he concluded, "you will have come to an agreement,
+and, whatever the determination may be, I shall be satisfied. Perhaps
+some bright idea may come to me, too, over the wine. I'll go to the
+Black Bear, where I always meet fellow-soldiers."
+
+Then he raised his hand with a gay farewell salute, and left the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+As soon as the captain's limping steps died away on the stairs, Wolf
+summoned all his courage and moved nearer to Barbara.
+
+His heart throbbed anxiously as he told himself that the next few
+minutes would decide his future destiny.
+
+As he saw her before him, fairer than ever, with downcast eyes, silent
+and timid, without a trace of the triumphant self-assurance which she
+had gained during his absence, he firmly believed that he had made the
+right choice, and that her consent would render him the most enviable
+of happy mortals. If she refused him her hand--he felt this no less
+plainly--his life would be forever robbed of light and joy.
+
+True, he was no longer as blithe and full of hope as when he entered her
+plain lodgings a short time before.
+
+The doubt of the worthy man, behind whom the house door had just closed,
+had awakened his doubts also. Yet what he now had it in his power to
+offer, since his conversation with the syndic, was by no means trivial.
+He must hold fast to it, and as he raised his eyes more freely to her
+his courage increased, for she was still gazing at the floor in silent
+submission, as if ready to commit her fate into his hands; nay, in the
+brief seconds during which his eyes rested upon her, he perceived an
+expression which seemed wholly alien to her features, and bestowed upon
+this usually alert, self-assured, vivacious creature an air of weary
+helplessness.
+
+While he was generally obliged to maintain an attitude of defence toward
+her, she now seemed to need friendly consolation. So, obeying a hasty
+impulse, he warmly extended both hands, and in a gentle, sympathizing
+tone exclaimed, "Wawerl, my dear girl, what troubles you?"
+
+Then her glance met his, and her blue eyes flashed upon him with an
+expression of defiant resistance; but he could not help thinking of the
+young witch who was said to have resembled her, and a presentiment told
+him that she was lost to him.
+
+The confirmation of this foreboding was not delayed, for in a tone whose
+repellent sternness startled him, she angrily burst forth: "What should
+trouble me? It as ill becomes you to question me with such looks and
+queries as it pleases me." Wolf, in bewilderment, assured her that she
+had seemed to him especially charming in her gracious gentleness. If
+anything had happened to cloud her fearless joyousness, let her forget
+it, for the matter now to be considered concerned the happiness of two
+human lives.
+
+That was what she was saying to herself, Barbara replied in a more
+friendly tone, and, with newly awakened hope, the young knight informed
+her that the time had now come when, without offending against modesty,
+he might call himself a "made man."
+
+With increasing eagerness and confidence he then told her what the
+councillor had offered. Without concealing her father's scruples,
+he added the assurance that he felt perfectly secure against the
+temptations of which there would certainly be no lack while he was in
+the service of a Protestant magistracy.
+
+"And when you, devout, pure, true girl, stand by my side," he concluded
+with an ardour which surprised Barbara in this quiet, reserved man,
+"when you are once mine, my one love, then I shall conquer the hardest
+obstacle as if it were mere pastime, then I would not change places with
+the Emperor, for then my happiness would be----"
+
+Hitherto she had silently permitted him to speak, but now her cheeks
+suddenly flamed with a deep flush, and she warmly interrupted: "You
+deserve to be happy, Wolf, and I could desire nothing more ardently than
+to see you glad and content; but you would never become so through me.
+How pale you grow! For my sake, do not take it so much to heart; it
+grieves me to see you suffer. Only believe that. It cuts me to the heart
+to inflict such great sorrow upon one so loyal, good, and dear, who
+values me so much more than I deserve."
+
+Here Wolf, deeply agitated, wildly called her name, and besought her
+not to cast aside so harshly the wealth of love and fidelity which he
+offered.
+
+His own anguish of soul, and the pain inflicted by the cruel blow which
+crushed his dearest hopes, robbed him of fortitude and calmness. With
+tears in his eyes, he threw himself on his knees before her and gazed
+into her face with anxious entreaty, exclaiming brokenly: "Do not--do
+not inflict this suffering upon me, Wawerl! Rob me of everything except
+hope. Defer your acceptance until I can offer you a still fairer future,
+only be merciful and leave me hope!"
+
+Tears now began to glitter in Barbara's eyes also, and Wolf, noticing
+it, hastened with reviving courage to assure her how little it would
+cost him to reject, once for all, to please her, the tempting position
+offered to him here. He could soon obtain a good office elsewhere, since
+their Majesties were not only favourably disposed toward him, but now
+toward her also. True, to him even the most brilliant external gifts of
+life would be valueless and charmless without her love.
+
+But here Barbara imperatively commanded him to rise, and not make his
+own heart and hers still heavier without avail.
+
+Wolf pressed his hands upon his temples as violently as if he feared
+losing his senses; but the young girl voluntarily put her arm around
+his shoulders, and said with sincere emotion: "Poor Wolf! I know how
+thoroughly in earnest you are, but I dare not even leave you hope--I
+neither can nor ought. Yet you may hear this: From my childhood you have
+been dearer to me than any one else, and never shall I forget how firmly
+you cling to me, how hard it is for you to give me up."
+
+Then Sir Wolf vehemently asked to know what stood between them; and
+Barbara, after a brief pause for reflection, answered, "Love for
+another."
+
+The confession pierced him like a dagger thrust, and he passionately
+entreated her to tell him the name of the man who had defrauded him of
+the happiness to which he possessed an older and better right than any
+one else.
+
+He paced the room with long strides as he spoke, gazing around him as if
+he imagined that she had his rival concealed somewhere.
+
+In doing so his glance fell upon Herr Schlumperger's bouquet, and he
+wildly cried: "He? So, after all, wealth----"
+
+But this was too much for Barbara, and she stopped him with the
+exclamation: "Fool that you are! As if You did not know that I am not to
+be bought for the paltry florins of a Ratisbon moneybag!"
+
+But the next instant she had repented her outbreak, and in words so
+loving and gentle, so tender and considerate that his heart melted and
+he would fain have flung himself again at her feet, she explained to
+him more particularly why she was obliged to inflict this suffering upon
+him.
+
+Her heart was no longer free, and precisely because he was worthy of the
+whole affection of a loyal heart she would not repay him in worthless
+metal for the pure gold of his love. She was no prophetess, yet she knew
+full well that some day he would bless this hour. What she concealed
+from every one, even her father, as an inviolable secret, she had
+confessed to him because he deserved her confidence.
+
+Then she began to speak of Dr. Hiltner's offer, and discussed its pros
+and cons with interest as warm as if her own fate was to be associated
+with his.
+
+The result was that she dissuaded him from settling in Ratisbon. She
+expected higher achievements from him than he could attain here among
+the Protestants, who, on account of his faith, would place many a
+stumbling-block in his way.
+
+Then, changing her businesslike tone, she went on with greater warmth to
+urge him, for her sake, and that he might be the same to her as ever, to
+remain loyal to the religion they both professed. She could not fulfil
+his hopes, it is true, but her thoughts would often dwell with him and
+her wishes would follow him everywhere. His place was at court, where
+some day he would win a distinguished position, and nothing could render
+her happier than the news that he had attained the highest honour,
+esteem, and fame.
+
+How gentle and kind all this sounded! Wolf had not imagined that she
+could be so thoughtful, so forgetful of self, and so affectionate in
+her sympathy. He hung upon her lips in silent admiration, yet it was
+impossible for him to determine whether this sisterly affection from
+Barbara was pouring balm or acrid lye upon his wounds.
+
+Positively as she had refused to answer his question concerning the
+happy mortal whom she preferred to him, Wolf could not help secretly
+searching for him.
+
+Agitated and tortured to the verge of despair, even the friendliness
+with which she was trying to sweeten his cruel fate became unbearable,
+and while she was entreating him to continue to care for her and to
+remain on the same terms of intimacy with her father and herself, he
+suddenly seized her hand, covered it with ardent kisses, and then,
+without a farewell word, hastily left the room.
+
+When Barbara was alone she retired into the bow-window and fell into a
+silent reverie, during which she often shook her head, as if amazed at
+herself, and often curled her full lips in a haughty smile.
+
+The maid-servant brought in the modest meal.
+
+Her father had forgotten it, but he would undoubtedly find more
+substantial viands at the Black Bear. Barbara was speedily satisfied.
+How poorly the food was cooked, how unappetizing was the serving! When
+the maid had removed the dishes, Barbara continued her reverie, and even
+her father had never gazed into vacancy with such gloomy earnestness.
+
+What would she now have given for a mother, a reliable, faithful
+confidante! But she had none; and Wolf, on whose unselfish love she
+could depend, was the last person whom she could initiate into her
+secret.
+
+Her father!
+
+If she had confided to him the matter which so deeply troubled her and
+yet filled her with the greatest pride, the poor old warrior, who valued
+honour far more than life, would have turned her out of the house.
+
+Early that morning she had averted her lips from his because she felt
+as if the Emperor's kiss had consecrated them. She was still under the
+mastery of the feeling that some disagreeable dream had borne her back
+to these miserable rooms, while her true place was in the magnificent
+apartments of royalty.
+
+She had slept too late to attend mass, and therefore went to the private
+chapel, the abode of the only confidante to whom she could open her
+whole heart without reserve or timidity--the Mother of God.
+
+She had done this with entire devotion, and endeavoured to reflect upon
+what had happened and what obligations she must meet. But she had had
+little success, for as soon as she began to think, her august lover rose
+before her eyes, she imagined that she heard his tender words, and her
+mind wandered to the future.
+
+Only she had clearly perceived that she had lost something infinitely
+great, and obtained in its place something that was far more exquisite,
+that she had been deemed worthy of a loftier honour, a richer happiness
+than any one else.
+
+Ah, yes, she was happy, more than happy, and yet not entirely so, for
+happiness must be bright, and a dark, harassing shadow fell again and
+again over the sunny enthusiasm which irradiated her nature and lent her
+a haughtier bearing.
+
+She ascribed it to the novelty of her elevation to a height of which she
+had never dreamed. Eyes accustomed to twilight must also endure pain,
+she told herself, ere they became used to the brilliance of the sun.
+
+Perhaps Heaven, in return for such superabundant gifts, demanded a
+sacrifice, and denied complete enjoyment. She would gladly do all in her
+power to satisfy the claim, and so she formed the resolve--which seemed
+to her to possess an atoning power--no longer to deceive the worthy man
+who loved her so loyally, and for whom she felt an affection. At the
+very next opportunity Wolf should learn that she could never become his,
+and when she had just confessed it so gently and lovingly, she had only
+fulfilled the vow made in the chapel before the Virgin's image. There,
+too, she had determined, if the Emperor ever gave her any power over his
+decisions, to reward Wolf's loyal love by interceding for him wherever
+it could be done.
+
+Now he had left her; but she could wait for her father no longer. She
+must go to Fran Lerch.
+
+The idea of confiding to her the secret which filled her with happy
+dread was far from her thoughts; but love had both increased her vanity
+tenfold, and confined it within narrower limits. She could not be
+beautiful enough for the lover who awaited her, yet she wished to be
+beautiful for him alone. But her stock of gowns and finery was so very
+scanty, and no one understood how to set off her charms so well as
+the obliging, experienced old woman, who had an expedient for every
+emergency.
+
+Retiring to her little bow-windowed room, she examined her store of
+clothes.
+
+There, too, lay her royal lover's gift, the glittering star.
+
+She involuntarily seized it to take the jewel to the Grieb and show
+it to the old woman; but the next instant, with a strange feeling of
+dissatisfaction, she flung it back again among the other contents of the
+chest.
+
+Thus, in her impetuous fashion, she thrust it out of her sight. Maestro
+Gombert had pronounced the star extremely valuable, and she desired
+nothing from the Emperor Charles, nothing from her beloved lord save his
+love.
+
+She had already reached the outer door, when her two Woller cousins from
+the Ark greeted her. They were merry girls, by no means plain, and very
+fond of her. The younger, Anne Mirl, was even considered pretty, and had
+many suitors. They had learned from their house steward, who had been
+told by a fellow-countryman in the royal service, that his Majesty had
+rewarded Barbara for her exquisite singing with a magnificent ornament,
+and they wanted to see it.
+
+So Barbara was obliged to open the chest again, and when the star
+flashed upon them the rich girls clapped their hands in admiration, and
+Anne Mirl did not understand how any one could toss such an exquisite
+memento into a chest as if it were a worn-out glove. If the Emperor
+Charles had honoured her with such a gift, she would never remove it
+from her neck, but even wear it to bed.
+
+"Everybody to her taste," replied Barbara curtly, shrugging her
+shoulders.
+
+Never had her cousins seemed to her so insignificant and commonplace;
+and, besides, their visit was extremely inopportune.
+
+But the Woller sisters were accustomed to see her in all sorts of moods,
+and Nandl, the elder, a quiet, thoughtful girl, asked her how she felt.
+To possess such heavenly gifts as her voice and her beauty must be the
+most glorious of all glorious things.
+
+"And the honour, the honour!" cried Anne Mirl. "Do you know, Wawerl,
+one might almost want to poison you from sheer envy and jealousy. Holy
+Virgin! To be in your place when you sing to the Emperor Charles again!
+And to talk with him as you would to anybody else!"
+
+Barbara assured them that she would tell the whole story at their next
+meeting, but she had no time to spare now, for she was expected at the
+rehearsal.
+
+The sisters then bade her good-bye, but asked to see the star again, and
+Anne Mirl counted the jewels, to be able to describe it to her mother
+exactly.
+
+At last Barbara was free, but before, still vexed by the detention, she
+could set out for Fran Lerch's, she heard loud voices upon the stairs.
+It startled her, for if the Emperor sent Don Luis Quijada, or even
+Baron Malfalconnet, to her wretched lodgings, it would now be even more
+unpleasant than before.
+
+Barbara was obliged to wait some time in vain. Her cousins had been
+stopped below, and were talking there with her father and another man.
+At last the captain came stumping up the stairs with his limping steps.
+Barbara noticed that he was hurrying, and he reached the top more
+quickly than usual and opened the door.
+
+He looked merry, and his massive but well-formed and manly features were
+flushed. He came from Erbach in the Black Bear, it is true, but in so
+short a time--his daughter knew that--the spirits of the wine could have
+done him no harm. Besides, his voice sounded as deep and firm as
+usual as he called to her from the threshold: "A guest, Wawerl, a
+distinguished guest! A splendid fellow! You've already spoken of him,
+and I made his acquaintance in the Bear. I learned many and many a piece
+of news from him about how things are going in the world-news, I tell
+you, girl! My heart is fairly dancing in my body. And, besides, a little
+puss like you is always glad to hear of an admirer, and only a short
+time ago you praised him loudly enough as a splendid dancer. A downright
+good fellow, child, just as I was myself at his age. An uncle of his, a
+captain of arquebusiers, Pyramus Kogel."
+
+Hitherto Barbara, with increasing displeasure, had only suspected whom
+her father meant; but when he now mentioned his new friend's name, the
+indignant blood crimsoned her cheeks.
+
+She had liked the handsome officer, for it was true that few men so well
+understood the art of guiding a partner through the dance; she, fool
+that she was, had made eyes at him in order not to let pretty Elspet
+Zohrer have the precedence. But he had himself confessed how much
+farther he had entered the snare than she intended when, on her way home
+from Fran Lerch's after her meeting with Wolf, the young officer had met
+her outside of the Grieb and sued for her hand.
+
+Now the amorous swain had probably tried his luck with her father, and
+how the latter, in spite of poor Wolf and Herr Schlumperger, had treated
+him was evident from the fact that he, who usually closed his home
+against old friends, opened it wide to this stranger.
+
+This was not only unpleasant to Barbara, but anger crimsoned her cheeks.
+
+How dared the man whom she had so positively and sternly refused venture
+to continue his suit? Since the Emperor had loved her, she felt
+raised infinitely above the poor nobleman. Nay, she considered it a
+reprehensible impropriety that he still sought her. And, besides what
+consequences the visit of so stately a ladykiller, whose unusual height
+rendered him easily recognised, might now entail upon her! Suppose that
+he should meet a messenger from the Emperor on the stairs, or it should
+be rumoured at court that she received such visitors. How quickly
+whatever happened in Ratisbon was noised abroad among the people she had
+just learned through the Woller girls.
+
+The happiness which filled her was so great that everything which
+threatened to affect it, even remotely, alarmed her, and thus anxiety
+blended with indignation as, deeply agitated, she interrupted her
+father, and in the most unfilial manner reproached him for allowing the
+flattery of a boastful coxcomb to make him forget what he owned to her
+and her good name.
+
+The brave champion of the faith dejectedly, almost humbly, strove
+to soothe her, and at least induce her not to offend his guest by
+unfriendly words; but she ignored his warnings with defiant passion,
+and when the recruiting officer, who had been detained some time on
+the staircase by the Wollers, knocked at the door, she shot the bolt
+noisily, calling to her father in a tone so loud that it could not fail
+to be heard outside: "I repeat it, I will neither see nor speak to this
+importunate gentleman. When he attacked me in the street at night, I
+thought I showed him plainly enough how I felt. If he forces his way
+into our house now, receive him, for aught I care; you have a right to
+command here. But if he undertakes to speak to me, he can wait for an
+answer till the day of judgment!"
+
+Then she hastily slipped the bolt back again, darted past Pyramus Kogel,
+who did not know what had befallen him, without vouchsafing him a single
+glance, and then, with haughty composure, descended the stairs.
+
+The officer, incapable of uttering a word, gazed after her.
+
+The feeling that attracted him to Barbara was something entirely new,
+which since the last dance at the New Scales had robbed him of sleep by
+night and rest by day. He had fallen under her spell, body and soul, and
+he, whose business took him from city to city, from country to country,
+had resolved, ere he accosted Barbara in the street, to give up the
+free, gay life which he enjoyed with the eager zest of youth, and seek
+her hand in marriage.
+
+Her first rebuff had by no means discouraged him; nay, the handsome,
+spoiled soldier was firmly convinced that her ungracious treatment was
+not due to his proposal, but to its certainly ill-chosen place. A wife
+of such rigid austerity would suit him, for he would often be compelled
+to leave her a long time alone.
+
+When he heard the day before that he would find her among Peter
+Schlumperger's guests in Prufening, he had joined them, as if by
+accident, toward evening, and Barbara had danced with him twice.
+
+In the schwabeln she had trusted herself to his guidance even longer
+than usual, and with what perfect time, with what passionate enjoyment
+she had whirled around with him under the sway of the intense excitement
+which had mastered her! He imagined that he felt her heart throb against
+his own breast, and had surrendered himself to the hope that it was
+newly awakened love for him which had deprived her of her calm bearing.
+
+True, she had refused his company on the way home, but this was probably
+because she was afraid of being gossipped about in connection with him.
+
+Well satisfied with his success, he had gone to Red Cock Street the
+next morning to renew his suit. On the way he met her father, and in the
+Black Bear had tried on the old warrior, with excellent success, the art
+of winning other men, in which, as a recruiting officer, he had become
+an adept.
+
+Joyously confident of victory, he had accepted Blomberg's invitation,
+and now had experienced an unprecedentedly mortifying rebuff.
+
+With a face blanched to the pallor of death, he stood before the old
+man. The wound which he had received burned so fiercely, and paralyzed
+his will so completely, that the clumsy graybeard found fitting words
+sooner than the ready, voluble trapper of men.
+
+"You see," the captain began, "what is to be expected from one's own
+child in these days of insubordination and rebellion, though my Wawerl
+is as firm in her faith as the tower at Tunis of which I was telling
+you. But trust experience, Sir Pyramus! It is easier, far easier for you
+to exact obedience from a refractory squad of recruits than for a father
+to guide his little daughter according to his own will. For look! If it
+gets beyond endurance, you can seize the lash, or, if that won't do, a
+weapon; but where a fragile girl like that is concerned, we can't give
+vent to our rage, and, though she spoils the flavour of our food and
+drink by her pouting and fretting, we must say kind words to her into
+the bargain. Mine at least spares me the weeping and wailing in which
+many indulge, but it is easier to break iron than her obstinacy when
+her will differs from that of the person whom, on account of the fourth
+commandment, she----"
+
+Pyramus Kogel, with both hands resting on the large basket handle of
+his long rapier, had listened to him in silence; now he interrupted the
+captain with the exclamation: "Iron against iron, comrade! Throw it into
+the fire, and swing the hammer. It will bend then. All that is needed is
+the right man, and I know him. If I did not feel very sorry for such a
+charming creature, I would laugh at the insult and go my way. But, as it
+is, I have a good memory, and it will be a pleasure, methinks, to keep
+so unruly a beauty and artistic nightingale in mind. It shall be done
+until my turn comes. In my pursuit I do not always succeed at the first
+attempt, but whoever I once fix my eyes upon comes on the roll at last,
+and I will keep the foremost place open for your lovely, refractory
+daughter. We shall meet again, Captain, and I haven't said my last word
+to your ungracious daughter either."
+
+He held out his hand to Blomberg as he spoke, and after a brief delay
+the latter clasped it.
+
+The fearless foe of the Turks was troubled by the recruiting officer's
+mysterious menaces, but his kind heart forbade him to add a new offence
+to the bitter mortification inflicted upon this man by his daughter.
+Besides, he had taken a special fancy to the stately, vigorous soldier,
+whose height and breadth of shoulder were little inferior to his own,
+and while descending the stairs he thought, "It would serve Wawerl right
+if yonder fellow put a stop to her obstinacy, pranks, and caprices."
+
+But he quickly silenced the wish, for Barbara did not often give
+the rein to her self-will so freely, and her objectionable traits of
+character had been inherited from her mother. She was a good girl at
+heart, and how much pleasure and favour her beautiful gift brought, how
+much honour came to him and his ancient name through this rare child!
+Yet at that time he was not aware of the new benefit he was to owe to
+her within the next hour.
+
+Before Barbara had returned home the treasurer of the imperial and royal
+musicians came to his house and, in the regent's name, handed him the
+gold of which Barbara had spoken for services rendered in the boy choir
+of her Majesty Queen Mary. He was obliged to sign the receipt in his
+daughter's name, and when the portly Netherlander, who could also make
+himself understood in German, asked where a sup of good wine or beer
+could be had in Ratisbon, he was ready to act as his guide.
+
+Thanks to his daughter's rich gifts, he need not wield the graver any
+longer that day, and for the second time could grant himself a special
+treat.
+
+When he returned home he learned from the one-eyed maid that Barbara had
+been summoned by the Queen of Hungary to sing for her.
+
+Weary as he was, he went to rest, and soon after the young girl entered
+his room to bid him "good night."
+
+The Queen had been very gracious, and after the singing was over had
+inquired about hundreds of things--who had been her singing master, what
+her religion was, whether her mother was still living, what calling her
+father followed, whether he, too, had drawn the sword against the Turks,
+her husband's murderers, whether she was accustomed to riding, and,
+lastly, whether she was obliged to endure the narrow city streets in the
+summer.
+
+Barbara had then been able to answer that the Wollers sometimes invited
+her to their country seat at Abbach, and intentionally added that they
+were her nearest relatives, and owned the Ark, the large, handsome
+family mansion which stood exactly opposite to the Golden Cross and
+her Majesty's windows. She had also often been the guest of her uncle
+Wolfgang Lorberer, who stood at the head of the community at Landshut.
+
+It had gratified her to boast of these distinguished blood relations.
+
+She had then been asked whether she could consent to leave her father
+for a time to go into the country with the old Marquise de Leria, whom
+she knew, and who was charmed with the beauty of her singing.
+
+The leech desired to remove the invalid lady in waiting from the city
+air, and she had chosen Barbara for a companion.
+
+Here the young girl hesitated, and then carelessly asked her father what
+he thought of the plan.
+
+As Blomberg knew the name of Leria to be one of the most aristocratic in
+the empire, and many things were beckoning to him in the future in
+which Barbara's presence would only have been a hindrance, he left the
+decision to her.
+
+He had made the acquaintance at the Black Bear, through Pyramus Kogel,
+of various soldiers who had fought in the same ranks--good Catholics,
+eager for a fray, who were waiting here for the outbreak of the war
+against the Smalkalds. What delightful hours their companionship would
+bestow if Barbara was provided for at present, now that he himself was
+no longer obliged to save every shilling so carefully!
+
+But he had also thought of something else which was far more important,
+for the warlike conversation had affected him as the blast of a trumpet
+stirs the battle charger drawing a plough.
+
+He had found complete enjoyment of life only in war, in the presence of
+death, in cutting and slashing, and he felt by no means too old to keep
+his seat in the saddle and lead his company of horsemen to the assault.
+He was not mistaken there, and, besides not only the recruiting officer,
+but also the scarred old captain whom they called little Gorgl, asserted
+that the Emperor would welcome every brave, tried soldier, even though
+older than he, as soon as war was declared.
+
+Meanwhile Pyramus Kogel was constantly in his mind, and at last he
+thought it his duty to speak to Barbara about her unseemly treatment of
+this estimable man.
+
+He had intended ever since she entered to call her to account for it,
+but, though he did not admit it even to himself, the old soldier dreaded
+his daughter's firm power of resistance.
+
+Yet he could not keep silence this time; her behaviour had transgressed
+the bounds of propriety too far.
+
+So he summoned up his courage, and, with a "What I was going to say,"
+began to speak of the admirable officer whom he had brought into his
+house.
+
+Then, clearing his throat, he drew himself up, and, raising his
+voice, asked how she dared to assail this gallant nobleman with such
+abominable, arrogant, and insulting words.
+
+But he was to wait an answer in vain, for, with the brief declaration
+that she had not come to be lectured like a schoolgirl, Barbara banged
+the door behind her. Directly after, however, she opened it again, and
+with a pleasant, "No offence, father," wished the old gentleman a no
+less pleasant goodnight.
+
+Then she went to her room, but in old Ursel's chamber, at the same hour
+as on the preceding night, a similar conversation took place.
+
+The one-eyed maid spoke of the rats which had forced their way into the
+house, and the sick woman repeated impatiently, "The rats!" and, with
+prudent reserve, silently kept her thoughts to herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+The Queen of Hungary had returned home the evening before, and on the
+following morning summoned Barbara to the Golden Cross to sing with the
+boy choir.
+
+When the major-domo, Quijada, obedient to her command, entered the room
+at eleven o'clock, she called to him: "Miracles, Luis, mighty miracles
+in these godless times! I have just come from his Majesty, and in what
+did I find him occupied? Turning over music with Maestro Gombert--of
+course, for a female voice. Besides, he looked as if he had just
+defeated the Turks and Frenchmen at once. As for the gout, he'll be
+dancing the 'hoppedei' with the peasants presently."
+
+"Day before yesterday he surprised us by wearing satin shoes," remarked
+Quijada. "May I congratulate you on the really magical effect of your
+Majesty's prescription?"
+
+"Continue to think so, if it suits you," cried the Queen gaily. "Only a
+few powerful drops from elsewhere have probably fallen into the potion.
+But how stupidly artless you can look when you feign ignorance, Luis! In
+this case, however, you need not let your breathing be oppressed by
+the mask. I bow to your masculine secrecy--but why did my worldly-wise
+brother mingle a petticoat in this delicate business if he wishes to
+keep it hidden?"
+
+"The Marquise Leria!" cried the major-domo, shrugging his shoulders
+angrily, as if against an inevitable misfortune.
+
+"My senior lady in waiting," said the regent in assent to this
+conjecture. "Make haste to bestow a stately candle, because it is she,
+and no one else. You might spare yourself that smile; I know her better
+than you do. If she had as many teeth as she possesses vices, she might
+be happy; yet one admirable quality mingles with the evil traits in her
+character."
+
+"And that?" asked Quijada, as if he deemed a satisfactory answer
+impossible.
+
+"Secrecy," replied the Queen firmly. "She keeps what she has overheard
+to herself as closely as a miser guards his gold."
+
+"In order to turn it to account when the favourable moment comes,"
+remarked the major-domo. "Your Majesty will also permit me to observe
+that if the marquise has already betrayed what was intended to remain
+secret----"
+
+"Her boasted reticence can not be very great, you think," interrupted
+the Queen. "But justice for all, my handsome lord. At present she is in
+any service, and no other. Whose bread I eat, his song I sing--which
+in this case means: His secret I keep, and to him I carry whatever I
+discover. Besides, this time even the person betrayed owes her a debt
+of gratitude, for you know how difficult it is for him to use his limbs,
+and she is most obligingly smoothing the path for him. I tell you, Luis,
+with all due respect for his Majesty as a general and a statesman, in
+a skirmish of intrigue this woman will outwit you all. The schemes her
+aged brain invents have neither fault nor flaw. The wheels work upon
+one another as they do in the Emperor's best Nuremberg clock. I want to
+watch their turning before I go, for, be it known to you, early tomorrow
+morning--the saints be praised!--I start for Brussels."
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Quijada with an expression of sincere regret; but the
+Queen gravely said: "There can be no further delay, Luis. It may
+sound improbable that there is something which draws me back to the
+Netherlands more strongly than the desire for freedom of movement, a
+pleasant ride through the forest, and the excitement of the chase, which
+lends spice to the insipidity of my life, yet you may believe it."
+
+"Business matters?" asked the nobleman anxiously.
+
+The Queen nodded assent, and then eagerly continued: "And important
+ones which his Majesty himself solemnly enjoined upon me to hasten my
+departure. His zeal resembled a rude gesture toward the door, as much as
+one rotten egg looks like another, for, under certain circumstances, the
+affectionate brother prefers to have his beloved sister as far away as
+possible. Had I been of a more obstinate nature, I would stay; but there
+really are matters to be settled in the Netherlands which can not be
+deferred, and the manner of his farewell showed plainly enough that
+he no longer needed me. Merciful Heaven! When we parted yesterday, I
+dreaded his Majesty's anger. I had left him in the lurch to gratify my
+own love for copse and forest. I had remained beyond the allotted time,
+and had resolved, bend or break, to return to my post in Brussels. When
+I rode in here I really felt as though I was entering the lion's den.
+But then came miracle after miracle. Do you know something, Luis? The
+best results have often followed my most reckless acts."
+
+"Probably because even your Majesty's least prudent deeds merit a modest
+reward," replied Quijada, "and because, besides the heavenly powers,
+there are also less estimable ones that meddle with the affairs of this
+world."
+
+"Perhaps so!" exclaimed the Queen, astonished at this idea. "Perhaps the
+Prince of Darkness finds pleasure in this affair, and, as a fair-minded
+devil, is grateful to me. One thing is certain: What a woman of my age
+could not tell her daughter or--if she has none--her young niece, she
+should not meddle with. All this is by no means pleasing to me, and
+yet, Luis, yet We ought to rejoice in this love affair, not only for
+ourselves, but for his Majesty. De Soto, too, I know, is satisfied;
+nay, it seems as if he saw a special act of divine favour in this late
+blazing of the flames of love in a heart whose fires had apparently
+burned out."
+
+"Wherever this passion originates," observed Quijada, "it seems to have
+had a good influence upon his Majesty's mood. It is said that Satan
+often designs evil and yet works good, and if this late and very tender
+emotion is a gift of hell, it nevertheless affords our sovereign lord
+unexpected and therefore all the more exquisite joys."
+
+"In whose behalf it may also be said that they are numbered among
+those which can hardly be approved, or even forbidden ones," the regent
+eagerly interrupted. "But no matter! Happy is he whose pathway at the
+beginning of life's evening is once more so brilliantly illumined by the
+sun of love. In my devotion to the duties of government and the chase,
+I have not yet wholly forgotten enthusiasm. Whoever has once been really
+young retains this advantage, and I have, Luis. Therefore I could envy
+my beloved brother to-day no less sincerely than I pitied him yesterday.
+Joy is the best thing in life, and who bestows it more certainly and
+lavishly than the little winged god? It is fortunate for my Charles that
+he is again permitted to quaff the beaker of happiness! Only too soon--I
+know it--he will again withdraw it from his lips with his own hand, if
+it were only because the inclination to self-torture which he inherits,
+the ascetic instinct, that constantly increases in strength, destroys
+and stamps as sinful forgetfulness of duty every pleasure which he
+enjoys for any length of time. We will hope that he will not retain this
+new happiness too briefly. It would be of service to us all. What he
+might possibly have granted me after long hesitation and consideration,
+and with many a delay, he yielded after mass this morning with smiling
+lips. Love expands the heart, and at the same time enlarges the views,
+especially if it is not an unfortunate one; but this Barbara Blomberg is
+a genuine daughter of Eve, over whom the mother of nations, if she met
+her by chance, would rejoice. A German Venus, whom I would gladly send
+to Titian for a model. And her voice and the unexpected good fortune
+of finding such a teacher here! Appenzelder and Gombert are full of her
+praises. Good heavens! How she sang yesterday evening! It was enough to
+stir the dead. Afterward I drew her aside for a short time."
+
+"And your Majesty did her the honour to feel her teeth?"--[A German
+phrase meaning to sound a person's intentions.--TR.]--queried Quijada.
+
+"Feel her teeth?" replied the Queen. "It might have been worth while,
+for those that glitter between her rosy lips are white and beautifully
+formed. But I did even more--I tested the girl's heart and mind."
+
+"And the result?"
+
+"H'm!" said the Queen. "Very favourable. Yet no. If I must be honest,
+that is saying too little. She stood it very, surprisingly well. Her
+intellect is anything but limited; nay, her comprehension is so swift
+that she can be sure of not trying his Majesty's patience unduly.
+Her manners, too, are not amiss for a German; but what is the main
+point--she is pious, firm in the faith, and ardent in her hatred of the
+foes of the Holy Church. My life upon it! all this is as genuine as the
+diamond in my ring, and so the white raven is complete. That she has
+returned the Emperor Charles love for love by no means sullies her
+plumage. In my eyes, it only shines the more brightly, since one so
+great as he permits her, though only for a short distance, to share
+his glorious flight. This Barbara is certainly a rare bird. But in the
+chase, and as regent of a restless nation, one's sight becomes keen--"
+
+"And now," cried Quijada, "comes the 'but.'"
+
+"It does come," replied the regent firmly, "and I will point it out to
+you. I only found the trail; but you, Luis, as a good sportsman and a
+loyal friend of his Majesty, will keep a sharp watch upon it. This girl
+is obstinate to the verge of defiance, vain, and unusually ambitious."
+
+"She has already shown us the obstinacy," observed the Castilian.
+
+"When she wheeled her horse to escape you?" asked the Queen.
+
+"But there she was perfectly right. What a heedless, inconsiderate
+masculine idea, to usher a woman directly from a horseback ride into a
+company of gentlemen to sing before the Emperor! As to the vanity, I do
+not find much fault with that. It would be far worse if she lacked it.
+One can not imagine a genuine woman without it. It has been called pride
+in charms which we do not possess, but it also serves to place actual
+charms in a brighter light, and that I expect from this fair one. If she
+knows how to avoid extravagance, it will willingly be indulged. But her
+ambition, Luis; perils may arise from that. If it begins to stir too
+covetously, remember your duty as watcher--sound the horn and set the
+packs upon her."
+
+"For the sake of our sovereign lord, I will not fail," replied Quijada.
+"So far as she herself is concerned, she is one of those women whose
+beauty I acknowledge, but to whom I am indifferent. More modest manners
+please me better."
+
+"You are thinking of Dona Magdalena de Ulloa," observed the Queen, "you
+poor loyal widower, while the loveliest of wives still lives. Certainly
+this German bears so little resemblance to her----"
+
+"That I most humbly entreat your Majesty," interposed Quijada with
+haughty decision, "not to compare these two women, even by way of
+contrast."
+
+"B-r-r!" said the regent, extending her hands toward him as if to
+repel an assault. "Yet I like you in this mood, Luis. You are a true
+Castilian! So we will leave Dona Magdalena in her Villagarcia, and
+only permit myself to admire the self-sacrifice of a woman who grants
+a husband like you so long a leave of absence. As to the Ratisbon
+maiden----"
+
+"I should be very glad to know," Quijada began, this time in a
+submissive tone, "by what sign your Majesty's penetration discovered
+this young creature's ambition."
+
+"That is soon told," replied the regent kindly. "She specially mentioned
+her distinguished relatives in the city and in Landshut, and when
+I advised her to show due respect to the marquise, who, in spite of
+everything, is a woman of high rank and certainly an old lady, before
+whose gray hairs Scripture commands us to rise, something hovered around
+her lips--they are ripe for kisses--something which it is not easy to
+find exactly the right words to describe: a blending of repugnance,
+self-assertion, and resistance. She suffered it to remain on her
+beautiful face only a few minutes, but it gave me reason enough to urge
+you to sound a warning if his Majesty's late love should render him more
+yielding than is desirable."
+
+"The warned man will heed what prescient wisdom enjoins upon him," the
+major-domo protested, with his hand upon his heart. "But if I know his
+Majesty, his strong and well-warranted sense of imperial dignity will
+render my attentive solicitude needless. The moment that the singer
+assails it will put a speedy end to my royal master's love."
+
+The Queen shook her head, and answered doubtfully: "If only you do not
+undervalue the blind boy-god's power! Yet it must be owned that your
+theory has a certain degree of justification." She went to the window
+as she spoke, and added: "Karlowitz, the minister of Duke Maurice of
+Saxony, is leaving the house. He looks pleased, and if he has come to
+an agreement with the Bishop of Arras, that will also help to put the
+Emperor in a pleasant mood--"
+
+"And all of us!" exclaimed Quijada, grasping his sword hilt. "If this
+energetic young prince, with his military ability and his army, joins
+us, why, then----"
+
+"Then there will be war," interrupted the Queen, completing the
+sentence; "then there will be great joy among you younger, belligerent
+Castilians! What do you care for the tears of mothers and the blood
+of husbands and sons? Both will flow in streams, and, even if we were
+certain of victory--which we are not--what will the gain be?"
+
+"Triumph, the restored unity of Holy Church!" cried Quijada
+enthusiastically.
+
+"For which I daily pray," said the regent. "But even if you succeeded
+in gaining a complete victory, if every church in city and country again
+belonged to the only faith by which we can obtain salvation, I shall
+still see them deprived of their holy vocation, for they will stand
+empty, because then the men who would rather die than abjure their
+delusion will be lying silent upon battlefields."
+
+"May they rot there!" cried the Spaniard. "But we are not fighting only
+for to-day and tomorrow. New generations will again fill churches and
+chapels. We will shed the last drops of our blood to accomplish it, and
+every true Castilian thinks as I do."
+
+"I know it," sighed the regent, "and it is not my business to preach
+to deaf ears. But one thing more: Do you know that his Majesty has just
+accepted the Marquise de Leria's offer?"
+
+"No; but I should be greatly indebted to your royal----"
+
+"Then listen," the Queen hastily interrupted. "In the suburb of
+Prebrunn, in a large garden, stands the pretty little castle of the
+Prince Prior of Berchtesgaden--I don't mean the one belonging to the
+worthy Trainer, on whose preserves we hunted once in April, and which
+is erroneously called here the 'cassl.' The reverend owner offered it
+to his Majesty to shelter a guest of high rank. Now the marquise is
+to occupy it, because country air would benefit her. The singer will
+establish herself under the noblewoman's maternal care. You know the
+Marquise de Leria's huge litter, which was borne here by two
+strong mules that Ruy Gomez--what will not people do to find out
+something?--gave her. The black ark, with the coats-of-arms of the De
+Lerias and the Duke of Rency on the back, the front, and both sides, is
+probably well known here. At first the boys ran after the monster;
+now they are used to the thing, and no longer notice it. But it is
+comfortable, and it can be opened. When the old woman uses the litter
+the cover will be removed and people will see her; when it is closed,
+the most sharp-sighted can not discover who is within. If his Majesty
+desires to go out to Prebrunn and return here, he will take it, and,
+even if his foot pains him, will reach his fair goal unseen. The young
+girl consented yesterday to move there with the marquise, and directly
+after it will be your duty, aided by Master Adrian, to attend to the
+furnishing of the little castle. I will aid you. You will hear the
+particulars from his Majesty. The marquise will take Barbara directly to
+the chapel, where the choir is to sing. People must become accustomed to
+see and speak of the two together. What would you think of an alliance
+between Leria and Blomberg? If I see correctly, the old woman will train
+the girl to be a useful tool."
+
+"And if the tool cuts her fingers in the process," said Quijada, "I
+shall be glad."
+
+"So shall I!" assented the Queen, laughing. Then she dismissed the
+major-domo, and a short time later singing was heard in the chapel.
+
+The Emperor, after he had finished his meal, heard it also, and listened
+to Barbara as if enraptured when, in Hobrecht's motet for five voices,
+Salve crux arbor vitae, in the sublime O crux lignum triumphale, she
+raised her voice with a power, a wealth of pious devotion which he had
+never before heard in the execution of this forceful composition.
+
+The little Maltese Hannibal again acquitted himself admirably, and in
+one of the duets in the second part Johannes of Cologne could prove that
+he had recovered.
+
+His young companion in illness had also escaped lasting injury.
+
+Appenzelder, too, showed himself fully satisfied with Barbara's
+execution. Something new and powerful, rising from the inmost depth of
+the soul, a passion of devout exaltation, rang in her voice which he had
+not perceived during the first rehearsals. Her art seemed to him to
+grow under his eyes like a wonderful plant, and the quiet, reserved man
+expressed his delight so unequivocally that the Emperor beckoned to him
+and asked his opinion of the singer's performance.
+
+The musician expressed with unreserved warmth the emotions that filled
+his honest heart; but the monarch listened approvingly, and drew from
+his finger a costly ring to bestow it upon the discoverer of this
+glorious jewel.
+
+The leader of the choir, it is true, declined this title of honour to
+award it to Sir Wolf Hartschwert; but the Emperor asserted that he
+was grateful to him also for many a service, and then ordered the gold
+chain, which had long been intended for him, to be brought for Maestro
+Gombert.
+
+After these tokens of favour, which awakened the utmost surprise in
+those who were present, as the Emperor very rarely yielded to such
+impulses of generosity, the monarch's eyes sought Barbara's, and his
+glance seemed to say: "For your sake, love. Thus shall those who have
+deserved it from you be rewarded."
+
+Finally he accosted her, intentionally raising his voice as he did so.
+
+Word for word was intended to be heard by every one, even the remark
+that he wished to make the acquaintance of her father, whom he
+remembered as a brave comrade. Barbara would oblige him if she would
+request him to call upon him that afternoon. It was his duty to thank
+the man through whose daughter he enjoyed such lofty pleasure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+A short time after, the Emperor Charles, accompanied by the Queen of
+Hungary and several lords and ladies, took a ride in the open air for
+the first time after long seclusion.
+
+According to his custom, he had spent Passion week in the monastery.
+Easter had come on the latest day possible--the twenty-fifth of
+April--and when he bade farewell to the monks the gout had already
+attacked him again.
+
+Now he rode forth into the open country and the green woods like a
+rescued man; the younger Granvelle, long as he had been in his service,
+had never seen him so gay and unconstrained. He could now understand his
+father's tales of his Majesty's better days, his vigorous manly strength
+and eager delight in existence.
+
+True, the period of anxiety concerning the tidings of political affairs
+which had arrived the day before and that morning appeared to be over,
+for Herr von Parlowitz, the minister of Duke Maurice of Saxony, had
+expressed his conviction that this active young monarch might be induced
+to separate from the other Protestant princes and form an alliance
+with the Emperor, especially as his Majesty had not the most distant
+intention of mingling; religious matters in the war that was impending.
+
+Despatches had also been sent from Valladolid by Don Philip, the
+Emperor's oldest son, which afforded the greatest satisfaction to
+the sovereign. If war was waged against the Smalkalds, the allied
+Protestants of Germany, Spain, which had been taught to regard the
+campaign as a religious war, was ready to aid Charles with large
+subsidies of money and men.
+
+Lastly, it seemed as if two betrothals were to be made which promised to
+sustain the Emperor's statesmanship. Two of his nieces, the daughters of
+his brother Ferdinand, expected to marry--one the heir to the Bavarian
+throne, the other the Duke of Cleves.
+
+Thus many pleasant things came to him simultaneously with his recovery,
+and his mind, inclined to mysticism, received them as a sign that Heaven
+was favourable to his late happiness in love.
+
+Granvelle attributed the Emperor's unexpectedly rapid convalescence and
+the fortunate change which had taken place in his gloomy mood to the
+favourable political news, and perhaps also to the music which, as a
+zealous patron of art, he himself loved. He, who usually did not fail
+to note even the veriest trifle when he desired to trace the motives
+of events which were difficult to explain, now thought he need seek no
+further for causes.
+
+During the ride Barbara was not thought of, but in the Golden Cross it
+was to become evident to the keen intelligence of the young master of
+statecraft that something extremely important might escape even his
+penetration.
+
+While waiting with Malfalconnet in the reception room of the monarch,
+who had gone into his chamber, for Charles's return, and summing up
+to the baron in a most charming way the causes which had effected the
+wonderful rejuvenation of his Majesty, the other showed him that he,
+Granvelle, had been short-sighted enough to overlook the most powerful
+influence.
+
+This would have been vexatious to the statesman had not his mind been
+wholly occupied in considering how this unexpected event could be made
+most profitable to himself, and also to his master, whom he served with
+loyal devotion.
+
+Malfalconnet had received no confidence either from the Emperor or any
+male member of the court, yet he knew all, for, though the Marquise
+de Leria well deserved the reputation of secrecy, she did not keep her
+tongue sufficiently in check while talking with her gay countryman. What
+she overheard, he succeeded by his amiable wiles in learning, and this
+time also he had not failed.
+
+Soon after the Emperor had appeared again audience was given to several
+ambassadors. Then Chamberlain de Praet announced Captain Blomberg.
+
+The latter, clad in full armour, entered the apartment. Over the shining
+coat of mail, which he himself had cleaned with the utmost care, he wore
+a somewhat faded scarf, and his long battle sword hung at his left side.
+
+He looked stately enough, and his grave, oldfashioned, but thoroughly
+soldierly manners admirably suited the elderly warrior.
+
+The Emperor Charles accosted the father of the woman he loved with the
+same blunt friendliness that so easily won the hearts of the companions
+in arms to whom he condescended.
+
+Blomberg must tell him this thing and that, and the old man gazed into
+his face with honest amazement and sincere delight when the monarch
+supplied the names of places and persons which had escaped his own
+feeble memory.
+
+He accepted the praise of his daughter with a smile and the modest
+remark: "She is certainly a dear, kind-hearted child; and as for her
+voice, there were probably some to which people found less pleasure in
+listening. But, your Majesty, that of the nightingale battering down
+solid walls sounds still more beautiful to me."
+
+The Emperor knew that the German cannoneers gave their guns the name of
+nightingale, and was pleased with the comparison.
+
+But while he was still talking gaily with the old warrior, who had
+really displayed truly leonine courage on many an occasion, Count Buren
+brought in a new despatch, remarking, as he did so, that unfortunately
+the bearer, a young Spanish noble, had been thrown from his horse just
+outside the city, and was lying helpless with a broken leg.
+
+Sincere compassion was expressed, in which the Bishop of Arras joined,
+meanwhile glancing through the somewhat lengthy document.
+
+It came from the heir and regent, Don Philip, in Valladolid. The prince
+desired to know the state of the negotiations with Rome and with Duke
+Maurice of Saxony.
+
+After Granvelle had read the despatch he handed it to the monarch, and
+the latter, in a low tone, charged him not yet to inform his son of the
+fair prospects for an alliance with Maurice, but to send an answer at
+once.
+
+While the minister withdrew to the writing table, the Emperor asked
+whether a trustworthy horseman could be had, since the Spaniard was
+disabled; and Reitzenstein, Beust, and Van der Kapellen, in whom
+implicit confidence could be placed, had been sent off that morning.
+
+Then the Bishop of Arras again turned to the monarch, cast a significant
+glance at Malfalconnet, and, pointing to Blomberg, eagerly exclaimed:
+"If this valiant and faithful soldier still has a firm seat in the
+saddle, this highly important message might be intrusted to him."
+
+The proposal affected the adventure-loving old man like music. With
+youthful fire he protested that he could ride a horse as fast and endure
+fatigue as long as the youngest man, even though the goal were the end
+of the world.
+
+Such an exertion, however, was by no means expected of him, for he
+was to set sail at Flushing and land at Loredo in Spain. There
+Postmaster-General de Tassis would furnish him with horses.
+
+The Emperor had listened to this proposal from his counsellor with a
+smile of satisfaction. His purpose was sufficiently obvious.
+
+How thoroughly this young diplomat understood men! With how delicate a
+scent he had again discovered a secret and removed a stone of offence
+from his master's path! He was competent to fill his clever father's
+place in every respect. It was evident that neither promises nor gifts
+would have induced the old warrior to favour the tender wishes of his
+imperial master. Now he himself hastened to leave the field clear,
+and Granvelle had foreseen how he would receive the proposal.
+Charles intentionally refrained from taking any personal share in the
+arrangements with the old man which now followed. A communication from
+Malfalconnet appeared to claim his whole attention, until the Bishop of
+Arras announced that the captain had received his instructions and was
+ready to set out for Flushing and Valladolid.
+
+The monarch listened with a slight shake of the head, and expressed
+his hesitation about intrusting so important a message to a man of
+such advanced age; but Malfalconnet, in a tone of good-natured anxiety,
+called to the captain, "One may be the father of a nightingale, my brave
+hero, and yet miss the way to the south without a guide."
+
+"True, true," the Emperor assented. "So we will give our gallant friend
+a travelling companion who understands Castilian, and on whom we can
+also rely. Besides, affairs of so much moment are better cared for
+by two messengers than by one. What is the name of the cavalier,
+Malfalconnet, who spoke to you of the friendship which unites him to
+this brave old champion of the faith?"
+
+"Wolf Hartschwert, your Majesty," was the reply.
+
+"The musician," said the monarch, as if some memory was awakened in his
+mind. "A modest fellow, whose reliability my sister praised.--And now,
+my vigorous friend, a prosperous journey! Your daughter, whom the favour
+of Heaven has so richly endowed with beautiful gifts, has found, I
+have heard, a maternal guardian in the Marquise de Leria. We, too, will
+gladly interest ourselves in the charming singer who affords us such
+rare pleasure."
+
+As he spoke he showed his old companion in arms the unusual honour of
+extending his hand to him, and when the latter, deeply moved by such
+graciousness, ardently kissed it, he hurriedly withdrew it, saying, as
+he kindly patted his arm, "You are doing us a greater service than you
+imagine, Captain Blomberg."
+
+Then, wishing him a successful journey, he went to the writing table, on
+which the secretary Gastelu had laid the newly received despatches.
+
+Radiant with joy, the captain, making many profound bows, left the
+apartment of the gracious monarch, for whom now he would really have
+ridden to the world's end.
+
+On the stairs he was detained. Malfalconnet handed him two heavy rolls
+of gold for the expenses of the journey, and enjoined it upon him to
+be ready to set out early the following morning. He might make his own
+arrangements with Sir Wolf Hartschwert, and assure him of his Majesty's
+gratitude in advance.
+
+A short time after, Barbara was packing the gray-haired courier's
+knapsack.
+
+She had never yet worked for her father with so much filial solicitude.
+Everything that might be of use to him on the way was carefully
+considered.
+
+Though she had not been taken into his confidence, she knew the reason
+that he had been selected to undertake this toilsome journey.
+
+The Emperor Charles was sending the old man far away that the happiness
+of her love might be undisturbed and unclouded, and the consciousness
+weighed heavily upon her by no means unduly sensitive conscience.
+
+Wolf, who was already unhappy on her account, had fared the same. When
+her father told her that the knight was to accompany him, she had
+felt as if an incident of her childhood, which had often disturbed her
+dreams, was repeated.
+
+She had been swinging with boyish recklessness in the Woller garden.
+Suddenly one of the ropes broke, and the board which supported her feet
+turned over out of her reach. For a time, clinging with her hands to the
+uninjured rope, she swayed between heaven and earth. No one was near,
+and, though she soon stood once more on the firm ground unhurt, the
+moment when her feet, during the ascent, lost their support, was
+associated with feelings of so much terror that she--who at that time
+was considered the bravest of her playfellows--had never forgotten it.
+
+Now she felt as though something similar had befallen her.
+
+She had seen the props on which she might depend removed from under
+her feet. If her father and Wolf left her, she would look in vain for
+counsel and support.
+
+That her lover was the most powerful sovereign on earth, and she could
+appeal to him if she needed help, did not enter her mind. Nay, a vague
+foreboding told her that he and what was associated with him formed the
+power against which she must struggle.
+
+The sham affection of the aristocratic lady who was to be her chaperon;
+the Queen, who last evening had catechised her as if she were a child,
+and whom she distrusted; the servile flatterer, Malfalconnet, in whose
+mirthful manner that day for the first time she thought she had detected
+dislike and slight sarcasm; the imperial love messenger, Don Luis
+Quijada, who with icy, dutiful coldness scarcely vouchsafed a word to
+her; and, lastly, the confessor Pedro de Soto, who treated her like a
+person who needed pity, and probably only awaited a fitting time to hurl
+an anathema into her face--passed before her memory, and in all these
+persons, so far above her in birth and rank, she believed that she saw
+foes.
+
+But how was it with the man who could trample them all in the dust like
+worms--with her imperial lover?
+
+Until now he had been observant of her every sign, but yesterday night
+the lion had raised his paw against her.
+
+A slight pain had again made itself felt in his foot. She had eagerly
+lamented it, and in doing so deplored the fact that she would never be
+permitted to share the pleasure of dancing with the man she loved and
+who had first taught her how beautiful life was. This perhaps incautious
+remark had roused the ire of the suffering monarch.
+
+How sensitive was this man's consciousness of sovereignty, how much
+suspicion and bitterness must have gathered in his heart, if he could
+see in the girl's innocent compassion an offence to his dignity, a
+humiliating reproach!
+
+The rebuking sharpness with which he expressed his displeasure had
+pierced her very soul. She felt as if she were shivering with a sudden
+chill, and for a long time she could not recover the loving warmth with
+which she had previously treated him. True, he had soon done everything
+in his power to atone for the pain which his irritability had inflicted,
+but the incident had given her the perception that the poets whose songs
+she sung were right when they made sorrow go hand in hand with the joys
+of love.
+
+But as yet these joys of love far, far outweighed the suffering which it
+caused.
+
+Even while, before the full knapsack which only needed locking, she
+was trying to discover what fault was to be found with the man whom she
+loved, while saying to herself that Charles's inconsiderate, selfish
+treatment of her father was unworthy of a generous man, and while also
+thinking of the separation from the faithful Wolf, her heart still
+longed for her lover.
+
+Was she not, after all, under obligation to be grateful to him for
+everything for which she reproached him?
+
+How dear she must be to this great sovereign, since, in order to possess
+her freely and completely, he allowed himself to be urged to an act
+which was unworthy of him!
+
+If he had wounded her deeply, he had a right to expect her to excuse
+many things in him.
+
+How he loved her, and how delicately he could woo and flatter, and
+mingle with his tender speeches the costly gifts of his rich and mobile
+intellect! How beautifully and aptly he could speak of her own art, and
+induce her to oppose to his clever remarks her own modest opinion!
+He had cheerfully endured contradiction the night before during the
+conversation concerning music.
+
+But what had followed her luckless regret about his lame foot?
+
+The words had pierced her heart like knives; even now she did not
+understand where she obtained the strength to withhold the sharp answer
+for which her lips had already parted; but she knew her hasty spirit,
+which only too easily led her to outbreaks of anger. Had the power of
+love, or the magic spell which emanates from genuine royalty, forced her
+to silence?
+
+No matter.
+
+A good angel had aided her to control herself, and in a rapid prayer
+she besought the Holy Virgin to assist her in future if her august lover
+again roused her to rebellion.
+
+Now that she was losing her most sincere friends, the only ones who
+might have ventured a kindly warning, she must learn to guard herself.
+
+Perhaps it was fortunate that she had already discovered how necessary
+it was not only to show the mighty sovereign to whom her heart belonged
+that he was dear to her, but also to display the timid reverence with
+which millions bowed before him. But if she imposed this constraint upon
+herself, would her love still remain the same?
+
+"No, no, and again no!" cried the refractory spirit within.
+
+Was he not a weak, fallible mortal, subject, like every one else, to
+suffering and disease, overcome by his passion, who had even been guilty
+of an act which, had it been committed by the son of a Ratisbon family,
+would have seemed to her reprehensible?
+
+Again and again this question forced itself upon her, and with it
+another--whether she, the woman who had never tolerated such a thing
+from any one, ought not to undertake to defend herself against unjust
+assaults, which humiliated her in her own eyes, no matter whence they
+might come?
+
+Would she not hold a higher position in his sight if she showed him,
+whom no one ventured to contradict, that the woman he deemed worthy of
+his love dared to defend her dignity, although he had deprived her of
+her natural protectors?
+
+Precisely because she was conscious of loving him with her whole soul,
+because for his sake she had given the world the right to deny her
+honour and dignity, she was eager to show him that she prized both, and
+was not inclined to let them be assailed.
+
+Hitherto she had not regarded it as a disgrace, but as the highest
+distinction, to be deemed worthy of the love of the greatest monarch
+on earth, and, with a sense of pride, had sacrificed her most sacred
+possession to his wishes. But how could she retain this feeling if he no
+longer showed her that he, too, regarded her worthy of him?
+
+She had defied custom, law, the voice of her own conscience, and she did
+not regret that she had done so. On no account would she have changed
+what had occurred if only she succeeded in guarding herself from being
+humiliated by her lover. To accomplish this, it was worth while to
+confront a great danger boldly. It was the greatest of all, the peril of
+losing him, for what would she be if he deserted her?
+
+At the bare thought a torturing dread overwhelmed her.
+
+Never had she felt so irresolute, so deeply agitated, and she uttered a
+sigh of relief when her father returned from his visit to old Ursel, and
+praised the care with which she had selected the articles that filled
+his knapsack.
+
+The flushed cheeks which he noticed could scarcely be the result of
+the light labour which she had performed for him. With the instinct of
+paternal love, he probably perceived that she was agitated, but he had
+so little idea of the mental conflict which had taken possession of her
+soul that her anxiety pleased him. The separation must be hard for the
+poor child, and how could the honour bestowed upon the father fail to
+affect the daughter's mind also.
+
+He had hoped to find Wolf in Ursel's room, but he had already been away
+some time, and had told the old woman that he was going to the Hiltners,
+and should probably remain there a long while, as his schoolmate,
+Erasmus Eckhart, the nephew and adopted son of the syndic and his wife,
+had returned home from Wittenberg.
+
+To find Wolf and deliver the important message Blomberg would have been
+obliged to enter the accursed heretic's house, and, rather than do it,
+he protested he would inflict this and that upon himself.
+
+But whom should he trust to represent him? The best plan would be for
+Barbara to write to the young knight, informing him of the honour in
+store for him.
+
+He himself wielded the sword so much better than the pen.
+
+The obliging daughter put a speedy end to her father's embarrassment by
+offering to go in search of Wolf in person; she by no means shunned the
+Hiltners. In fact, the doctor's wife had always been especially kind to
+her at the Convivium musicum, and her young daughter Martina, during
+the months in which she, too, was permitted to sing in the chorus, had
+displayed, whenever opportunity offered, an admiration for Barbara which
+bordered on enthusiasm. Besides, there was no obligation to keep Barbara
+from this errand; the removal to Prebrunn to join the marquise was not
+to take place until noon of the following day.
+
+The pious captain, it is true, was as reluctant to let his daughter go
+to the heretic's as to a pesthouse, but Wolf's notification permitted no
+delay, so he consented, and expressed his willingness to accompany her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+Barbara had scarcely entered the street with her father when they were
+stopped by Master Adrian, the Emperor's valet. He came from his Majesty
+to inform Blomberg that the regent could not spare Sir Wolf Hartschwert,
+and the captain might choose another companion for his ride. The Emperor
+expected him to select only a loyal, trustworthy, and vigorous nobleman
+who had taken the oath of fealty to his Majesty. If he should be in the
+military service, the necessary leave of absence was granted in advance;
+only he must present himself to the Lord Bishop of Arras that very day.
+Sir Wolf Hartschwert must depart for Brussels in the regent's train
+early the next morning.
+
+This news by no means pleased the old soldier, yet, before the valet had
+finished the message, his features smoothed--he thought he had already
+found the right man.
+
+After assuring himself that the imperial messenger had fulfilled his
+commission, he took a hasty leave of him and his daughter.
+
+His kind heart impelled him to show his chosen companion his friendly
+remembrance of him, and thereby atone for the offence which had been
+inflicted upon him in his house. To Barbara's inquiry whom he would take
+with him, he hurriedly replied that he should not decide until he joined
+his military comrades in the Black Bear. As soon as this important
+matter was settled he would return home, for it had now become
+unnecessary to inform Wolf. The maid-servant could be sent to summon
+him to the Golden Cross. Barbara might go herself at once to Ursel and
+soothe her--anxiety about her beloved young knight weighed heavily upon
+her soul.
+
+During this conversation? Master Adrian had gone to her side; but as
+soon as Blomberg had retired, he informed Barbara, in his master's name,
+that he should expect her after vespers in the apartments of the Queen
+of Hungary. He longed to hear her voice. The regent desired to know
+whether she had any special wishes concerning the Prebrunn house. She
+need not restrict herself on the score of expense; the Prebrunn steward
+would be authorized to pay everything. True, most of the furniture was
+supplied and the necessary servants had been obtained, but her Majesty
+the Queen advised her to take with her a maid or companion whom she
+personally liked.
+
+Barbara's face crimsoned as she listened, and then asked anxiously
+whether the Emperor Charles knew of these arrangements.
+
+He had no doubt of it, the man replied, for he had heard his Majesty
+remark that, if the marquise's companion was not to become the toy
+of her caprices, she must be enabled to obtain what she desired
+independently of the old lady. He was anxious to make Barbara's life in
+Prebrunn a pleasant one.
+
+The latter, with downcast eyes, thanked Master Adrian and turned away;
+but he detained her with the inquiry whether he should probably find Sir
+Wolf Hartschwert at home, and received the answer that he had gone to
+Syndic Hiltner's.
+
+The valet then hastily took his leave, because just at that time his
+royal master needed him. Any one else could summon the knight to the
+regent in his place.
+
+In the corridor of the Golden Cross he met Brother Cassian, the body
+servant of the Confessor de Soto, a middle-aged Swabian, who had
+formerly as a lay brother worked as a bookbinder in the Dominican
+monastery at Cologne. He was clad in a half-secular, half-priestly
+garb, and was an humble, extremely devout man, whose yielding nature had
+rendered him popular among the servants at the court. His bullet-shaped
+head was unusually large, and his face, with its narrow brow and small,
+lustreless eyes, showed that he was not prone to thinking. Yet he
+fulfilled every order precisely according to directions, and possessed
+his full share of the cunning which is often a characteristic of narrow
+minds.
+
+He willingly undertook to summon Sir Wolf Hartschwert, whom he knew, to
+the presence of the Queen of Hungary. No special haste was needful, and,
+as he loved good wine and did not lack gifts from those who desired an
+audience with his master, he went first to the English Greeting, where
+the travelling clergy lodged and often deigned to accost him.
+
+Barbara had returned home with bowed head, and threw herself into her
+father's arm-chair in his workshop. She gazed into vacancy with a sore
+and anxious heart, and, as an insane violinist lures the same tone from
+the instrument again and again, she constantly returned to the same
+thought, "Lost! lost!--too late! too late!"
+
+Barbara gave herself up to this mood for several minutes, but at last
+she remembered her lover's summons for that evening.
+
+He longed to hear her voice, Master Adrian had said.
+
+Surely, surely he himself had clothed the expression in a totally
+different, a hundred times warmer form. How bewitchingly he, the great
+Emperor, understood how to flatter, and, with the memory of the charm
+of his manner, the thought of the blissful hours which she had enjoyed
+through his love returned to her mind. It was in his power to bestow the
+highest happiness which earth can give; after all, his love outweighed
+everything that she must sacrifice for it. To enjoy it, though but for a
+brief season, she ought not to refuse to bear the hardest, most terrible
+things, and, if what was now her secret became rumoured among the
+people, to accept humiliation, shame, and scorn. Let the respectable
+women of Ratisbon, in their pride of virtue, maliciously cast stones at
+her; they could not look down upon her, for, as the object of the most
+illustrious sovereign's love, she was raised far above them.
+
+Meanwhile, with a feeling of defiant self-confidence, she was again
+braiding her hair. But the mental firmness which she had regained did
+not last; more than once her hand faltered while the comb was dividing
+the wealth of her golden tresses. How ardently Charles had praised their
+luxuriant beauty!-and to-day he was to rejoice in it again. But why had
+not even one poor word from his own hand accompanied the summons?
+
+Why had his messenger been only a valet? Why had he wounded her so
+deeply the night before?
+
+Why did leaden weights seem to hang upon her soul when she attempted to
+soar upward?
+
+Oh, what a state of things!
+
+Who had given the regent, to whom nothing attracted her, the right to
+dispose of her as though she were a chattel or her captive?
+
+Had she, with her heart and her honour, also resigned her freedom to her
+lover?
+
+If she had only possessed one, one single person to whom she could utter
+her thoughts!
+
+Then her glance fell upon the knapsack, and she remembered Wolf. He was
+to set out on his journey early the next morning; her lover expected her
+after vespers; so perhaps she would not be permitted to see him again,
+for she scarcely dared to hope that, after the rebuff which he had
+experienced, he would seek her again. Yet she longed once more to clasp
+the hand of the man for whom she felt a sister's affection and yet had
+so deeply wounded.
+
+Without one kind farewell word from him, the bitterest drop of all would
+fall into the wormwood which already mingled in her happiness. It seemed
+incomprehensible that he who from childhood had given her his whole
+heart would henceforth deny her every friendly feeling. For her own
+sake, and also for his, this should not be.
+
+How many had sought her love! But perhaps the time would soon come when,
+on account of the one who must supply the place of all others, no one
+would care for her. Then she wished at least to be sure of the sympathy,
+the friendship of this good loyal man.
+
+There were still many things for her to do, but to seek Wolf she left
+them all, even the visit to Frau Lerch, whom she wished to ask to devote
+herself exclusively to her service in Prebrunn.
+
+Full of anxious cares, lofty anticipations, and the ardent desire to
+conciliate Wolf, she took the by no means lengthy walk to the Hiltners.
+Not until she reached the doctor's house did it occur to her that she
+had forgotten to execute her father's commission and relieve Ursel's
+anxiety about her darling.
+
+How did it happen that, if any affair of her own interested her, she
+always forgot what she owed to others?
+
+Barbara was obliged to wait in the broad, lofty hall of the syndic's
+house for the maid-servant, who announced her; and the stout man with
+the big head, who had seized the knocker just before she entered, shared
+her fate.
+
+He was now leaning with bowed head against the wall, both hands clasped
+under his beardless chin, and might have been taken for a monk repeating
+his prayers. The long, brown doublet fastened around his hips by a
+Hemp rope, instead of a girdle, made him resemble a Franciscan. But his
+thick, flaxen hair lacked the tonsure, the rope the rosary, and he wore
+coarse leather shoes on his large feet.
+
+Barbara fancied that she had seen this strange figure somewhere, and
+he, too, must have recognised her, for he bowed when she looked at him.
+There was not the slightest movement of the body except the small eyes,
+which wandered restlessly around the spacious room as if they missed
+something.
+
+The inquiry what he found lacking here was already rising to Barbara's
+lips when the syndic's wife came toward her, preceded by her daughter
+Martina, who, radiant with joy at seeing the ardently admired singer in
+her own house, kissed her with fervent affection.
+
+The mother merely extended her hand to Barbara, yet the whole manner of
+the gentle, reserved woman showed that she was a welcome guest.
+
+Frau Sabina loved and understood music, still enjoyed singing hymns with
+the members of her household, and had done everything in her power to
+aid the establishment of the Convivium musicum and foster its progress.
+
+Interest in music had also united her to Dr. Martin Luther, her
+husband's friend, and mane a composition of the Wittenberg ecclesiastic
+had first been performed at the Hiltners.
+
+The old faith offered so much more to charm the senses than the new one!
+Therefore it seemed a special cause for thanksgiving that singing and
+playing upon the organ occupied a prominent place in the Protestant
+religious service, and that Luther most warmly commended the fostering
+of music to those who professed the evangelical belief. Besides, her
+adopted son Erasmus, the new Wittenberg master of arts, had devoted
+himself eagerly to music, and composed several hymns which, if Damian
+Feys permitted it, would be sung in the Convivium musicum.
+
+Frau Sabina Hiltner had often met Barbara there, and had noticed with
+admiration and pleasure the great progress which this richly gifted
+young creature had made under the direction of the Netherland master.
+
+Other members of the Convivium, on the contrary, bore Barbara a grudge
+because she remained a Catholic, and many a mother of a daughter whom
+Barbara, as a singer, had cast too far into the shade, would gladly have
+thrust her out of the circle of music-loving citizens.
+
+Frau Sabina and Master Feys, who, like the much-envied girl, was a
+professor of the old faith, interceded for her all the more warmly.
+
+Besides, it afforded Frau Hiltner scarcely less pleasure to hear Barbara
+than it did Martina, and she could also fix her eyes with genuine
+devotion upon the girl's wonderfully beautiful and nobly formed
+features. The mother and daughter owed to this peerless singer the best
+enjoyment which the Collegium afforded them, and, when envy and just
+displeasure approached Frau Sabina to accuse Barbara of insubordination,
+obstinacy, pride, and forwardness, which were unseemly for one so young,
+as well as exchanging coquettish glances with the masculine members of
+the choir, the profoundly respected wife of the syndic and her young
+daughter warmly defended the persecuted girl.
+
+In this her husband strongly supported her, for, when necessary, he
+dealt weighty blows and upheld what he deemed just without fear of man
+and with the powerful aids of his strong intellect and the weight of the
+esteem he had won by a stainless, industrious life.
+
+Doubtless Frau Sabina also perceived something unusual in Barbara's
+nature and conduct, traits of defiance, almost rebellion, which would
+have troubled her in her Martina, who, though no beauty, was a pretty
+girl, with the most winning, childlike charm; but she secretly asked
+herself whether she would not accept it gratefully if, in exchange, her
+girl could possess such a wonderful gift of God; for, sharply as the eye
+of envy followed Barbara's every act, she had never given cause to doubt
+her chastity, and this Frau Hiltner considered greatly in her favour;
+for what tremendous temptations must have assailed this marvellously
+beautiful creature, this genuine artist, who had grown to womanhood
+without a mother, and whose only counsellor and protector was a
+crippled, eccentric old soldier.
+
+As Martina opened the door of the sitting room a loud conversation in
+men's voices became audible, and with the deep, resonant tones of the
+syndic Barbara recognised the higher, less powerful ones of the man whom
+she was seeking.
+
+The kiss of the scarcely unfolded bud of girlhood, the child of a
+mother whose presence in the Convivium had often helped her to curb an
+impetuous impulse, pleased Barbara, and yet awakened the painful feeling
+that in accepting it without resistance she was guilty of a deception.
+Besides, she had not confessed, and it seemed as if, in feeling the
+young heretic's kiss an honour, she were adding to the burden which had
+not yet been removed from her conscience.
+
+Yet she could not overcome an emotion of rare pleasure when Frau Sabina,
+after beckoning to her husband, took her hand and led her into the
+reception room. Erasmus Eckhart, the adopted son of the house, hastened
+toward Barbara to greet her as an acquaintance of his school days,
+flushing deeply in his surprise at her great beauty as he did so.
+
+But the mistress of the house gave him no time to renew the relations
+of childhood, and led her away from him to her husband and her
+mother-in-law, a woman of ninety, to whom she presented her with kind,
+nay, with extremely flattering, words. Barbara lowered her eyes in
+confusion, and did not see how, at her entrance, Wolf's face had
+blanched and old Frau Hiltner had sat up in her cushioned arm-chair at
+the window to look her sharply and fixedly in the eyes with the freedom
+of age.
+
+Meanwhile the man from the hall had stationed himself beside the door
+in the same attitude, with his hands clasped under his chin and his cap
+between his breast and arm, and stood motionless. He did not appear to
+be at ease, and gnawed his thick lower lip with a troubled look as he
+occasionally cast a glance at the strong countenance of Martin Luther,
+whose portrait, the size of life, gazed at him from its gilt frame on
+the opposite wall.
+
+Barbara did not regain complete self-control until the syndic asked his
+errand.
+
+The man in the brown doublet was Brother Cassian, the body servant of
+the Emperor's confessor. He now unclasped his hands to grasp the cap
+under his arm, which he twirled awkwardly in his fingers while saying,
+in a rapid, expressionless tone, as though he were repeating a lesson,
+that he had come to summon Wolf Hartschwert to the Queen of Hungary,
+with whom he must set out for Brussels early the next morning.
+
+Barbara then remarked in a subdued tone that she had come here for the
+same purpose, and also for another-to shake hands with the playmate of
+her childhood, because she probably would not see him again before his
+departure.
+
+Wolf listened to this statement in surprise, and then told the messenger
+that he would obey her Majesty's command.
+
+"Obey the command," Cassian repeated, according to his servant custom.
+Then he was about to retire, but Frau Sabina had filled a goblet with
+wine for him, and Martina, according too an old custom of the family,
+offered it to the messenger.
+
+But, much as Cassian liked the juice of the grape, he waved back the
+kindly meant gift of the mistress of the house with a hoarse "No, no!"
+and shaking his head, turned on his heel, and without a word of thanks
+or farewell left the room.
+
+"The heretic's wine," observed Dr. Hiltner, shrugging his shoulders
+regretfully, and then asked Wolf, "Do you know the queer fellow?"
+
+"The body servant of the almoner, Pedro de Soto," was the reply. The
+bang of the closed outer door was heard at the same moment, for Cassian
+had rushed into the open air as fast as his feet would carry him. After
+leaving part of the street behind him, he stopped, and with a loud
+"B-r-r-r!" shook himself like a poodle that has just come out of the
+water.
+
+Into what an abominable heretic house Master Adrian had sent him!
+
+To despatch a good Christian to such an unclean hole!
+
+No images of the Virgin and the saints, no crucifix nor anything else
+that elevates a human soul in the whole dwelling, but the portrait of
+the anti-Christ, the arch-heretic Luther, in the best place in the room!
+However he turned his eyes away, the fat heretic face had forced him to
+look at it. Meanwhile he had felt as if the devil himself was already
+stretching out his arm from the ample sleeve to seize him by the collar.
+
+"B-r-r-r!" he repeated, and hurried off to Saint Leonhard's chapel in
+the Golden Cross, where he sprinkled himself eagerly with holy water,
+and then sought Master Adrian. But the valet was with the Emperor,
+and so he went to his master and told him where he had unexpectedly
+wandered.
+
+The latter lent a willing ear and shook his sagacious head indignantly
+when he learned that, besides Sir Wolf Hartschwert, Cassian had also
+met "the singer" at the house of the syndic, the soul of the evangelical
+movement in Ratisbon.
+
+Meanwhile Barbara was taking leave of the friend of her youth at the
+Hiltner house.
+
+The others, with the exception of the deaf old dame, had considerately
+left the room.
+
+Wolf felt it gratefully, for a dark suspicion, which Barbara's
+information of her father's long ride as a messenger only confirmed,
+weighed heavily upon his heart.
+
+The man for whose sake the woman he loved had given him up must be Baron
+Malfalconnet.
+
+It was well known how recklessly this gay, gallant noble trifled with
+women's hearts, and he had mentioned Barbara in his presence in a way
+that justified the conjecture.
+
+Therefore, ere Wolf clasped her hand, he told her the suspicions which
+filled him with anxiety about her.
+
+But he was soon to discover the baselessness of this fear.
+
+Whatever the truthful girl so positively and solemnly denied must be far
+from her thoughts, and he now clasped her right hand in both his.
+
+The heavy anxiety that his "queen" had fallen into the baron's hands as
+a toy had been removed. The thought of the Emperor Charles was as far
+removed from his mind as heaven from earth, though Barbara emphasized
+the fact that the man whom she loved would be sure of his respect. She
+also, with deep emotion, assured him that she wished him the best and
+most beautiful life, and would always retain her friendship for him
+whatever Fate might have in store for both.
+
+The words sounded so truthful and loyal that Wolf's heart was moved to
+its inmost depths, and he now, in his turn, assured her that he would
+never forget her, and would treasure her image in his heart's core to
+the end. True, he must endure the keenest suffering for her sake, but he
+also owed her the greatest happiness life had granted him.
+
+The eyes of both were dim, but when he began to talk in the old pathetic
+way of the magic of love, which would at last bring together those whom
+Heaven destined for one another, she tore herself away, hastily begged
+him to say farewell to Fran Hiltner for her, and then went into the
+hall; but here Martina overtook the departing guest, threw herself
+impetuously into her arms, and whispered the question whether she would
+permit her to pay her a visit at Prebrunn when she was with her old
+marquise, she had so much, so very much, to tell her.
+
+But the wish, of which her mother was ignorant, remained unfulfilled,
+for Barbara, scarcely able to control her voice in her embarrassment,
+hurriedly replied that while with the lady in waiting she would no
+longer be her own mistress, pressed a hasty kiss upon the innocent
+child's brow, released herself from her embrace, and rushed through the
+door, which Wolf was holding open for her, into the street.
+
+The former gazed after her with a troubled heart, and, after she was out
+of sight, returned to the others. He conscientiously delivered Barbara's
+farewell, and the praise which Frau Sabina lavished upon her pleased
+him as much as if nothing had come between them. Finally he made an
+engagement to see Erasmus Eckhart that evening in his lodgings, and then
+went to the Queen of Hungary.
+
+After he had left the Hiltners Frau Sabina bent down to her
+mother-in-law's ear--though she had lost her quickness of hearing, she
+had retained her sight perfectly--and, raising her voice, told her the
+name of the young lady who had just left them. Then she asked if she,
+too, did not admire Barbara's beauty, and what she thought of her.
+
+The grandmother nodded, exclaiming in a low tone, "Beautiful,
+beautiful--a wonderfully beautiful creature!" Then she gazed
+thoughtfully into vacancy, and at last asked whether she had heard
+correctly that Jungfrau Blomberg was also a remarkable singer.
+
+Her daughter-in-law eagerly nodded assent to this question.
+
+The aged woman silently bowed her head, but quickly raised it again, and
+there was a faint tinge of regret in her voice as she began: "Too much,
+certainly too much. Such marvels are rare. But one thing or the
+other. For women of her stamp there are only two conditions, and no
+other--rapturous happiness and utter misery. She will be content with no
+average. It does not suit such natures."
+
+Here she paused abruptly, for Martina entered the room, and with
+affectionate solicitude said to her granddaughter: "Young Trainer was
+here just now. Has anything happened between you? I see by your eyes
+that you have been weeping."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+The Emperor Charles loved his sister Mary, and he now desired to show
+her how dear she was to his heart. She had been obliging to him, and he
+had in mind the execution of a great enterprise which she had hitherto
+zealously opposed, yet for which he needed her co-operation.
+
+It satisfied him to know that the father of his love would be absent
+from Ratisbon for the present. He did not care who accompanied him.
+
+When the regent reproached him for having taken Sir Wolf Hartschwert
+from her without a word of consultation, although she was unwilling to
+spare him, he had instantly placed Wolf at her disposal again.
+
+The simplest and cheapest plan would have been to let Blomberg pursue
+his journey alone; but the monarch feared that the despatch might not be
+quickly delivered if anything happened to the old man on the way, and
+he had said before witnesses that he would not allow him to go without
+companionship.
+
+He scarcely thought of Barbara's filial feeling. She loved him, and
+the place which she gave to any one else in her heart could and must
+therefore be extremely small.
+
+How powerfully the passionate love for this girl had seized him he
+dared not confess to himself. But he rejoiced in the late love which
+rejuvenated him and filled him with a joy in existence whose fresh
+blossoming would have seemed impossible a few days before.
+
+How superb a creature he had found in this German city, from which,
+since its change of religion, he had withdrawn his former favour! In
+his youth his heart had throbbed ardently for many a fair woman, but
+she surpassed in beauty, in swift intelligence, in fervour, in artistic
+ability, and, above all, in sincere, unfeigned devotion every one whom
+his faithful memory recalled.
+
+He would hold fast to the loved one who bestowed this happiness and
+fresh vigour of youth. To make warm the nest which was to receive his
+dear nightingale he had conquered the economy which was beginning
+to degenerate into avarice, and also intended to accomplish other
+sacrifices in order to procure her the position which she deserved.
+
+He no longer knew that he had wounded her deeply the night before. He
+was in the habit of casting aside whatever displeased him unless it
+appeared advantageous to impose restraint upon himself; and who would
+ever have dared to resist the expression of his indignation? Had Barbara
+obeyed her hasty temper and returned him a sharp answer, he certainly
+would not have forgotten it. The bare thought of her dispelled
+melancholy thoughts from his mind; the hope of soon seeing and hearing
+her again rendered him friendly and yielding to those about him. The
+trivial sin which this sweet love secret contained had been pardoned
+in the case of the man bound by no older obligation, after a slight
+penance, and now for the first time he fully enjoyed the wealth of the
+unexpected new happiness. It must also be acceptable to Heaven, for this
+was distinctly shown by the more and more favourable turn of politics,
+and he held the return gift.
+
+That it was the right one was proved by the nature of the gratifying
+news brought by the very last despatches. They urged him directly toward
+the war which hitherto, from the most serious motives, he had avoided,
+and, as his royal sister correctly saw, would destroy a slowly matured,
+earnest purpose; for it forced him to renounce the hope of effecting
+at Trent a reformation of the Church according to his own ideas, and a
+restoration of the unity of religion in a peaceful manner by yielding
+on one side and reasonable concessions on the other. He had long
+since perceived that many things in the old form of religion needed
+reformation. If war was declared, he would be compelled to resign the
+hope that these would be undertaken by Rome, and the opposition, the
+defiance, the bold rebellion of the Protestant princes destroyed every
+hope of propitiation on their part. They were forcing him to draw the
+sword, and he might venture to do so at this time, for he need now feel
+no fear of serious opposition from any of the great powers around
+him. Maurice of Saxony, too, was on the point of withdrawing from the
+Smalkalds and becoming his ally; so, with the assistance of Heaven, he
+might hope to win the victory for the cause of the Church, and with it
+also that of the crown.
+
+With regard to the probability of this war, he had much to expect
+from the activity of his sister in the Netherlands, and though she now
+advocated peace, in the twelfth hour, which must soon strike, he could
+rely upon her. Yet she was a woman, and it was necessary to bind her to
+him by every tie of the heart and intellect.
+
+He loved Barbara as warmly as he was capable of loving; but had Mary
+that evening required his separation from the singer as the price of her
+assistance in promoting his plans, the desire of the heart would perhaps
+have yielded to the wishes of the statesman.
+
+But the regent did not impose this choice; she did not grudge him his
+late happiness, and gratefully appreciated the transformation which
+Barbara's rare gifts had wrought.
+
+The affectionate sister's heart wished that the bond which produced so
+favourable a result might be of the longest possible duration, and she
+had therefore personally attended to the furnishing of the Prebrunn
+house, and made all sorts of arrangements to render Barbara's life with
+the marquise, not only endurable, but pleasant.
+
+The Emperor had allowed a considerable sum for this purpose, but she
+did not trouble herself about the amount allotted. If she exceeded it,
+Charles must undertake the payment, whether he desired it or not.
+
+Her vivid imagination had showed her how she, in the Emperor's place,
+would treat the object of his love, and she acted accordingly, without
+questioning him or the girl for whom her arrangements were made.
+
+Nothing was too expensive for the favoured being who dispelled the
+Emperor's melancholy, and she had proved how much can be accomplished in
+a brief space where there is good will on all sides.
+
+By her orders entirely separate suites of apartments had been prepared
+for Barbara and the marquise. Quijada had selected four of her own
+saddle horses for the stable of the little castle, and supplied it with
+the necessary servants. Her steward had been commissioned to provide the
+servants wanted in the kitchen, and one of her Netherland officials
+had received orders to manage the household of the marquise and her
+companion, and in doing so to anticipate Barbara's wishes in the most
+attentive manner. One of her best maids, the worthy and skilful Frau
+Lamperi, though she was reluctant to part with her, had been sent
+to Prebrunn to serve Barbara as garde-robiere. The advice that the
+Emperor's love should take her own waiting maid also came from her.
+She knew the value, amid new circumstances, of a person long known and
+trusted. The idea that Barbara would take her own maid with her rested,
+it is true, on the supposition that so well-dressed a young lady, who
+belonged to an ancient family, must as surely possess such a person as
+eyes and hands.
+
+Barbara had just induced Frau Lerch to accompany her to Prebrunn. The
+old woman's opposition had only been intended to extort more favourable
+terms. She knew nothing of the regent's arrangements.
+
+Queen Mary was grateful to Charles for so readily restoring the useful
+Sir Wolf Hartschwert, and when the latter presented himself he was
+received even more graciously than usual.
+
+She had some work ready for him. A letter in relation to the betrothal
+of her nieces, the daughters of King Ferdinand, was to be sent to the
+Imperial Councillor Schonberg at Vienna. It must be written in German,
+because the receiver understood no other language.
+
+After she had told the knight the purpose of the letter, she left him;
+the vesper service summoned her, and afterward Barbara detained her
+as she sang to the Emperor, alone and accompanied by Appenzelder's boy
+choir, several songs, and in a manner so thoroughly artistic that the
+Queen lingered not only in obedience to her brother's wish, but from
+pleasure in the magnificent music, until the end of the concert.
+
+Just as Wolf, seated in the writing room, which was always at his
+disposal, finished the letter, the major-domo, Don Luis Quijada, sought
+him.
+
+He had already intimated several times that he had something in view
+for him which promised to give Wolf's life, in his opinion, a new and
+favourable turn. Now he made his proposal.
+
+The duties imposed upon him by the service compelled him to live apart
+from his beloved, young, and beautiful wife, Dona Magdalena de Ulloa,
+who had remained at his castle Villagarcia in Spain. She possessed
+but one true comforter in her solitude--music. But the person who had
+hitherto instructed her--the family chaplain--was dead. So far as his
+ability and his taste were concerned, it would have been easy to replace
+him, but Quijada sought in his successor qualities which rarely adorned
+a single individual, but which he expected to find united in the knight.
+
+In the first place, the person he desired must be, like the chaplain,
+of noble birth; for to see his wife closely associated with a man of
+inferior station was objectionable to the Spanish grandee, who was
+perhaps the most popular of all the officers in the army, not only on
+account of his valour in the field, but also for the kindly good will
+and absolute justice which he bestowed upon even the humblest soldier.
+
+That the chaplain's successor must be a good artist, thoroughly familiar
+with Netherland and Italian music, was a matter of course. But Don Luis
+also demanded from Dona Magdalena's new teacher and household companion
+graceful manners, a modest disposition, and, above all things, a
+character on which he could absolutely rely. Not that he would have
+cherished any fears of the fidelity of the wife whom he honoured as the
+purest and noblest of her sex, and of whom he spoke to the knight with
+reverence and love; he desired only to guard her from any occurrence
+that might offend her.
+
+Wolf listened in surprise. He had firmly resolved that on no account
+would he stay in Ratisbon. What could he find save fresh anxiety and
+never-ending anguish of the heart if he remained near Barbara, who
+disdained his love?
+
+He possessed little ambition. It was only for the sake of the woman
+he loved that he had recently made more active exertions, but with his
+excellent acquirements and the fair prospects which were open to him at
+the court, it seemed, even to his modest mind, too humble a fate to bury
+himself in a Spanish castle in order to while away with music the lonely
+hours of a noblewoman, no matter how high her rank, how beautiful and
+estimable she might be, or how gladly he would render her admirable
+husband a favour.
+
+Quijada had said this to himself, and perceived plainly enough what was
+passing in the young knight's thoughts.
+
+So he frankly confessed that he was well aware how few temptations his
+invitation offered a man endowed with Wolf's rare advantages, but he
+came by no means with empty hands--and he now informed the listening
+musician what he could offer him.
+
+This certainly gave his proposal a different aspect.
+
+The aristocratic Quijada family--and as its head he himself--had in its
+gift a rich living, which annually yielded thousands of ducats, in the
+great capital of Valladolid. Many a son of a distinguished race sought
+it, but he wished to bestow it upon Wolf. It would insure him more than
+a comfortable support, permit him to marry the woman of his choice, and,
+if he remained several years in Villagarcia, afford him the possibility
+of accumulating a neat little property, as he would live in Quijada's
+castle as a welcome guest and scarcely ever be obliged to open his purse
+strings. Besides, music was cultivated in Valladolid, and if Don Luis
+introduced him to the clergy there, it might easily happen that they
+would avail themselves of his great knowledge and fine ability and
+intrust to him the amendment and perhaps, finally, the direction of the
+church music.
+
+As Dona Magdalena often spent several months with her brother, the
+Marquis Rodrigo de la Mota, Wolf could from time to time be permitted to
+visit the Netherlands or Italy to participate in the more active musical
+life of these countries.
+
+Wolf listened to this explanation with increasing attention.
+
+The narrow path which buried itself in the sand was becoming a
+thoroughfare leading upward. He was glad that he had withheld his
+refusal; but this matter was so important that the prudent young man,
+after warmly thanking Don Luis for his good opinion, requested some time
+for consideration.
+
+True, Quijada could assure him that, for the sake of his wife, Dona
+Magdalena de Ulloa, whom from childhood she had honoured with her
+special favour, the regent would place no obstacle in the way of his
+retirement from her service. But Wolf begged him to have patience with
+him. He was not a man to make swift decisions, and nowhere could he
+reflect better than in the saddle during a long ride. He would inform
+him of his determination by the first messenger despatched from Brussels
+to the Emperor. Even now he could assure him that this generous offer
+seemed very tempting, since solitude always had far more charm for him
+than the noisy bustle of the court.
+
+Quijada willingly granted the requested delay, and, before bidding him
+farewell, Wolf availed himself of the opportunity to deliver into his
+hands the papers collected by his adopted father, which he had on his
+person. They contained the proof that he was descended from the legal
+marriage of a knight and a baroness; and Don Luis willingly undertook
+to have them confirmed by the Emperor, and his patent renewed in a
+way which, if he accepted his proposal, might also be useful to him in
+Spain.
+
+So Wolf took leave of the major-domo with the conviction that he
+possessed a true friend in this distinguished man. If the regent did
+not arbitrarily detain him, he would show himself in Villagarcia to be
+worthy of his confidence.
+
+On the stairs he met the Emperor's confessor, Don Pedro de Soto. Wolf
+bowed reverently before the dignified figure of the distinguished
+Dominican, and the latter, as he recognised him, paused to request
+curtly that he would give him a few minutes the following day.
+
+"If I can be of any service to your Reverence," replied Wolf, taking
+the prelate's delicate hand to kiss it; but the almoner, with visible
+coldness, withdrew it, repellently interrupting him: "First, Sir Knight,
+I must ask you for an explanation. Where the plague is raging in every
+street, we ought to guard our own houses carefully against it."
+
+"Undoubtedly," replied Wolf, unsuspiciously. "But I shall set out early
+to-morrow morning with her Majesty."
+
+"Then," replied the Dominican after a brief hesitation, "then a word
+with you now."
+
+He continued his way to the second story, and Wolf, with an anxious
+mind, followed him into a waiting room, now empty, near the staircase.
+
+The deep seriousness in the keen eyes of the learned confessor, which
+could look gentle, indulgent, and sometimes even merry, revealed that
+he desired to discuss some matter of importance; but the very first
+question which the priest addressed to him restored the young man's
+composure.
+
+The confessor merely desired to know what took him to the house of the
+man who must be known to him as the soul of the evangelical innovations
+in his native city, and the friend of Martin Luther.
+
+Wolf now quietly informed him what offer Dr. Hiltner, as syndic of
+Ratisbon, had made him in the name of the Council.
+
+"And you?" asked the confessor anxiously.
+
+"I declined it most positively," replied Wolf, "although it would have
+suited my taste to stand at the head of the musical life in my native
+city."
+
+"Because you prefer to remain in the service of her Majesty Queen Mary?"
+asked De Soto.
+
+"No, your Eminence. Probably I shall soon leave the position near
+her person. I rather feared that, as a good Catholic, I would find it
+difficult to do my duty in the service of an evangelical employer."
+
+"There is something in that. But what led the singer--you know whom I
+mean--to the same house?"
+
+Wolf could not restrain a slight smile, and he answered eagerly: "The
+young lady and I grew up together under the same roof, your Eminence,
+and she came for no other purpose than to bid me farewell. A lamb that
+clings more firmly to the shepherd, and more strongly abhors heresy,
+could scarcely be found in our Redeemer's flock."
+
+"A lamb!" exclaimed the almoner with a slight touch of scorn. "What are
+we to think of the foe of heresy who exchanges tender kisses with the
+wife of the most energetic leader of Protestantism?"
+
+"By your permission, your Eminence," Wolf asserted, "only the daughter
+offered her her lips. She and her mother made the singer's acquaintance
+at the musical exercises established here by the Council. Music is
+the only bond between them."--"Yet there is a bond," cried De Soto
+suspiciously. "If you see her again before your departure, advise her,
+in my name, to sever it. She found a friendly welcome and much kindness
+in that house, and here at least--tell her so--only one faith exists. A
+prosperous journey, Sir Knight."
+
+The delay caused by this conversation induced Wolf to quicken his pace.
+It had grown late, and Erasmus Eckhart had surely been waiting some time
+for his school friend in the old precentor's house.
+
+This was really the case, but the Wittenberg theologian, whose course of
+study had ended only a fortnight before, and who, with his long, brown
+locks and bright blue eyes, still looked like a gay young student, had
+had no reason to lament the delay.
+
+He was first received by Ursel, who had left her bed and was moving
+slowly about the room, and how much the old woman had had to tell her
+young fellow-believer from Wittenberg about Martin Luther, who was now
+no longer living, and Professor Melanchthon; but Erasmus Eckhart liked
+to talk with her, for as a schoolmate and intimate friend of Wolf he had
+paid innumerable visits to the house, and received in winter an apple,
+in summer a handful of cherries, from her.
+
+The young man was still less disposed to be vexed with Wolf for his
+delay when Barbara appeared in Ursel's room. Erasmus had played with
+her, too, when he was a boy, and they shared a treasure of memories of
+the fairest portion of life.
+
+When Wolf at last returned and Barbara gave him her hand, Erasmus envied
+him the affectionate confidence with which it was done. She was
+charged with the warmest messages from her father to the knight, and
+conscientiously delivered them. The old gentleman's companion had
+advised starting that evening, because experience taught that, on a long
+ride, it was better for man and beast to spend the night outside the
+city.
+
+They were to put up at the excellent tavern in Winzer, an hour's journey
+from Ratisbon, and continue the ride from that point.
+
+Wolf knew that many couriers did the same thing, in order to avoid delay
+at the gate, and only asked whom her father had chosen for a companion.
+
+"A young nobleman who was here as a recruiting officer," replied Barbara
+curtly.
+
+She had not heard until the last moment whom her father had selected,
+and had only seen Pyramus Kogel again while the captain's groom was
+buckling his knapsack upon the saddle. He had ridden to the house, and
+while she gazed past him, as though an invisible cap concealed him from
+her eyes, he asked whether she had no wish concerning her father at
+heart.
+
+"That some one else was to accompany him," came her sharp reply.
+
+Then, before the captain put his foot into the stirrup, she threw her
+arms around the old man's neck, kissed him tenderly, and uttered loving
+wishes for him to take with him on his way.
+
+Her father, deeply moved, at last swung himself into the saddle,
+commending her to the protection of the gracious Virgin. It was not
+wholly easy for him to part with her, but the prospect of riding out
+into the world with a full purse, highly honoured by his imperial
+master, gratified the old adventure-loving heart so much that he could
+feel no genuine sympathy. Too honest to feign an emotion which he did
+not experience, he behaved accordingly; and, besides, he was sure of
+leaving his child in the best care as in her earlier years, when, glad
+to leave the dull city, business, and his arrogant, never-satisfied wife
+behind, he had gone with a light heart to war.
+
+While pressing the horse's flanks between his legs and forcing the
+spirited animal, which went round and round with him in a circle, to
+obedience, he waved his new travelling hat; but Barbara, meanwhile, was
+thinking that he could only leave her with his mind thus free from care
+because she was deceiving him, and, as her eyes rested on her father's
+wounded limb projecting stiffly into the air, bitter grief overwhelmed
+her.
+
+How often the old wounds caused him pain! Other little infirmities, too,
+tortured him. Who would bind them up on the journey? who would give him
+the medicine which afforded relief?
+
+Then pity affected her more deeply than ever before, and it was with
+difficulty that she forced back the rising tears. Her father might
+perhaps have noticed them, for one groom carried a torch, and the
+one-eyed maid's lantern was shining directly into her face.
+
+But while she was struggling not to weep aloud, emotion and anxiety for
+the old man who, through her fault, would be exposed to so much danger,
+extorted the cry: "Take care of him, Herr Pyramus! I will be grateful to
+you."
+
+"That shall be a promise, lovely, ungracious maiden," the recruiting
+officer quickly answered. But the old man was already waving his
+hat again, his horse dashed upon the Haidplatz at a gallop, and his
+companion, with gallant bearing, followed.
+
+Barbara had then gone back into the house, and the maid-servant lighted
+her upstairs.
+
+It had become perfectly dark in her rooms, and the solitude and silence
+there oppressed her like a hundredweight burden. Besides, terrible
+thoughts had assailed her, showing her herself in want and shame,
+despised, disdained, begging for a morsel of bread, and her father under
+his fallen horse, on his lonely, couch of pain, in his coffin.
+
+Then her stay in her lonely rooms seemed unendurable. She would have
+lost her reason ere Quijada came at midnight to conduct her for a short
+time to the Golden Cross. She could not remain long with her lover,
+because the servants were obliged to be up early in the morning on
+account of the regent's departure.
+
+With Ursel she would be protected from the terrors of solitude, for,
+besides the old woman's voice, a man's tones also reached her through
+the open window. It was probably the companion of her childhood. In his
+society she would most speedily regain her lost peace of mind.
+
+In his place she had at first found only Erasmus Eckhart.
+
+The strong, bold boy had become a fine-looking man.
+
+A certain gravity of demeanour had early taken possession of him, and
+while his close-shut lips showed his ability to cling tenaciously to a
+resolution, his bright eyes sparkled with the glow of enthusiasm.
+
+Barbara could believe in this young man's capacity for earnest, lofty
+aspiration, and for that very reason it had aroused special displeasure
+in her mind when he gaily recalled the foolish pranks, far better suited
+to a boy, into which as a child she had often allowed herself to be
+hurried.
+
+She felt as if, in doing so, he was showing her a lack of respect which
+he would scarcely have ventured toward a young lady whom he esteemed,
+and the petted singer, whom no less a personage than the Emperor Charles
+deemed worthy of his love, was unwilling to tolerate such levity from so
+young a man.
+
+She made no claim to reverence, but she expected admiration and the
+recognition of being an unusual person, who was great in her own way.
+
+For the sake of the monarch who raised her to his side, she owed it to
+herself to show, even in her outward bearing, that she did not stand too
+far below him in aristocratic dignity.
+
+She succeeded in this admirably during the conversation on music and
+singing which she carried on with Erasmus.
+
+When she at last desired to return home, Wolf accompanied her up the
+stairs, informed her of his conversation with the confessor, and at the
+same time warned her against incautious visits to the Hiltners so long
+as the Emperor held his court in Ratisbon.
+
+To have fallen under suspicion of heresy would have been the last thing
+Barbara expected, and she called it foolish, nay, ridiculous. But, ere
+she clasped Wolf's hand in farewell, she promised to show the almoner at
+the first opportunity upon how false a trail he had come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+When Wolf went back to Erasmus the latter assured his friend that he had
+met no maiden in Ratisbon who, to rare gifts, united the dignity which
+he had hitherto admired only in the ladies whom he had met at the court
+of the Elector of Saxony. His sparkling eyes flashed more brightly as
+he spoke, and, like a blushing girl, he confessed to his friend that
+Jungfrau Blomberg's promise to sing one of his own compositions to him
+made him a happy man.
+
+Barbara's conduct had made the repressed fire of love blaze up anew in
+Wolf.
+
+Now, for the first time, the woman he loved fully and entirely fulfilled
+the ideal which he had formed of the "queen" of his heart.
+
+Was it the sad separation from him, the taking leave of her father, or
+her new love, which was bestowed on a man whom he also esteemed, that
+impressed upon her nature the stamp of a nobility which beseemed her as
+well as it suited her aristocratic beauty?
+
+Never had it appeared to him so utterly impossible that he could yield
+her to another without resistance. Perhaps the man chosen by such a
+jewel was more worthy than he, but no one's love could surpass his in
+strength and fervour. She had tested it, and he need no longer call
+himself an insignificant suitor; for, if he gained possession of the
+living which Don Luis had ready for him, if he obtained a high position
+in Valladolid--But his friend gave him no time to pursue such thoughts
+further, for, while Barbara shortly after midnight stole down the
+stairs like a criminal, and Quijada conducted her to her imperial lover,
+Erasmus began to press him with demands which he was obliged to reject.
+
+The Wittenberg master of arts, ever since his first meeting with his
+friend, had been on the point of asking the question how he, who had
+obtained in the school of poets an insight into the pure word of God,
+could prevail upon himself to continue to wear the chains of Rome and
+remain a Catholic.
+
+Wolf had expected this query, and, while he filled his companion's
+goblet with the good Wurzburg wine which Ursula provided, he begged him
+not to bring religion into their conversation.
+
+The young Wittenberg theologian, however, had come for the express
+purpose of discussing it with his friend.
+
+Religion, he asserted in the fervid manner characteristic of him, was in
+these times the axis around which turned the inner life of the world
+and every individual. He himself had resolved to live for the object
+for whose sake it was worth while to die. He knew the great perils which
+would be associated with it for one of his warlike temperament, but
+he had become, by the divine summons, an evangelical theologian, a
+combatant for the liberation of the slaves sighing under the tyranny of
+Rome. A serious conversation with a friend who was a German and resisted
+yielding to a movement of the spirit which was kindling the inmost
+depths of the German nature, thoughts, and feelings, and was destined
+to heal the woes of the German nation and preserve it from the basest
+abuse, would be to him inconceivable.
+
+Wolf interrupted this avowal with the assurance that he must
+nevertheless decline a religious discussion with him, for the weapons
+they would use were too different. Erasmus, as a theologian, was deeply
+versed in the Protestant faith, while he professed Catholicism merely
+as a consequence of his birth and with a layman's understanding and
+knowledge. Yet he would not shun the conflict if his hands were not
+bound by the most sacred of oaths. Then he turned to the past, and
+while he himself, as it were, lived through for the second time the most
+affecting moment in his existence, he transported his friend to his dead
+mother's sick-bed.
+
+In vivid language he described how the devout widow and nun implored her
+son to resist like a rock in the sea the assault of the new heretical
+ideas, that the thousands of prayers which she had uttered for him, for
+his soul, and his father's, might not be vain.
+
+Then Wolf confessed that just at that time, as a pupil in the school
+of poets, he had come under the influence of the scholar Naevius, whose
+evangelical views Erasmus knew, and related how difficult it had been
+for him to take the oath which, nevertheless, now that he had once sworn
+it, he would keep, even though life and his own intelligence would not
+have taught him to prefer the old faith to every new doctrine, whether
+it emanated from Luther, from Calvin, or from Zwingli.
+
+For a short time Erasmus found no answer to this statement, and
+Wolf's old nurse, who herself clung to the Protestants from complete
+conviction, and had listened attentively to his words, urged her young
+co-religionist, by all sorts of signs, to respect his friend's decision.
+
+The confession of his schoolmate had not been entirely without effect
+upon the young theologian. The name of "mother" also filled him with
+reverence.
+
+True, his birth had cost his own mother her life, but he had long
+possessed a distinct idea of her nature and being, and had given her
+precisely the same position which, in the early days of his school life,
+the Virgin Mary had occupied.
+
+To induce another to break a vow made to his mother would have been
+sinful. But a brief reflection changed his mind.
+
+Were there not circumstances in which the Bible itself commanded a man
+to leave father and mother? Had not Jesus Christ made the surrender of
+every old relation and the following after him the duty of those who
+were to become his disciples? What was the meaning of the words the
+Saviour had uttered to his august mother, "Woman, what have I to do
+with thee?" except it was commanded to turn even from the mother when
+religion was at stake?
+
+Many another passage of Scripture had strengthened the courage of
+the young Bible student when at last, with a look of intelligence, he
+pledged Wolf, and remarking, "How could I venture the attempt to lead
+you to break so sacred an oath?" instantly brought forward every plea
+that a son who, in religious matters, followed a different path from his
+mother could allege in his justification.
+
+A short time before, in Brussels, Wolf had seen a superior of the
+new Society of Jesus, whose members were now appearing everywhere
+as defenders of the violently assailed papacy, seek to win back to
+Catholicism the son of evangelical parents with the very same arguments.
+He told his friend this, and also expressed the belief that the Jesuit,
+too, had spoken in good faith.
+
+Erasmus shrugged his shoulders, saying "Doubtless there are many
+mansions in our Father's house, but who will blame us if we left
+the dilapidated old one, where our liberty was restricted and our
+consciences were burdened, and preferred the new one, in which man is
+subject to no other mortal, but only to the plain words of the Bible and
+to the judge in his own breast? If we prefer this mansion, which stands
+open to every one whose heart the old one oppresses, to the ruinous one
+of former days----"
+
+"Yet," interrupted Wolf, "you must say to yourselves that you leave
+behind in the old one much which the new one lacks, no matter with how
+many good things you may equip it. The history of our religion and its
+development does not belong to your new home--only to the old one."
+
+"We stand upon it as every newer thing rests on the older," replied
+Erasmus eagerly. "What we cast aside and refuse to take into the new
+home with us is not the holy faith, but merely its deformity, abasement,
+and falsification."
+
+"Call it so," replied Wolf calmly. "I have heard others name and
+interpret differently what you probably have in mind while using these
+harsh epithets. But is it not the old house, and that alone, in which
+the martyrs shed their blood for Christianity? Where did it fulfil its
+lofty task of saturating the heart of mankind with love, softening
+the customs of rude pagans, clearing away forests, transforming barren
+wastes into cultivated fields, planting the cross on chapels and
+churches, summoning men with the consecrated voice of the bell to the
+sermon which proclaims love and peace? Where did it open the doors of
+the school which prepares the intellect to satisfy its true destiny, and
+first qualifies man to become the image of God? By the old mansion this
+country, covered with marshes, moors; and impenetrable forests, was
+rendered what it now is; from it proceeded that fostering of science and
+the arts of which as yet I have seen little in your circles."
+
+"Give us time," cried the theologian, "and perhaps in our home their
+flowering will attain an unsurpassed richness of development. With what
+loose bonds the humanists are still united to you!"
+
+"And the finest intellect of all, the great scholar whose name you bear,
+though he deemed many things in our old home deserving of improvement,
+remained with us until his death. Jesus Christ is one, and so his Church
+must also remain. The only question is, What the Saviour still is to you
+Protestants, what he is to you, my friend?"
+
+"Before how many saints, and many another whom your Church desires to
+honour, do you bow the knee?" Erasmus fervidly answered; "but we do so
+only to the august Trinity. And do you wish to know what Jesus Christ,
+the Son, is to me? All, and more than all, is the answer; I live and
+breathe in my Saviour Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and
+throughout eternity."
+
+The young theologian raised his sparkling eyes heavenward as he spoke,
+and continued: "Our doctrine is founded on him, his word, his love
+alone; and who among the enthusiastic heralds of Christianity in ancient
+times grasped faith in him with warmer sincerity than the very Martin
+Luther whom you would have led to the stake had not the Emperor
+Charles's plighted word been dearer to him than the approval of Rome?
+Oh, my friend, our young faith can also show its martyrs. Think of the
+Bohemian John Huss and the true Christians who, in the Netherlands and
+Spain, were burned at the stake and bled upon the scaffold because they
+read the Bible, the Word of God and their Saviour, and would rather die
+than deny it. If it should come to the worst, thousands here would also
+be ready to ascend the funeral pyre, and I at their head. If war is
+declared now, the Emperor Charles will gain the victory; and if he does
+not wish to withdraw in earnest from Romish influences, who can tell
+what will then await us Protestants? But I am not anxious about what may
+come. We German citizens, who are accustomed to guide our own destinies
+and maintain the system of government we arranged for ourselves, who
+built by our own strength our solid, comfortable, gable-roofed houses
+and noble, towering cathedrals, will also independently maintain the
+life of our minds and our souls. Rome, with her legions of priests,
+claimed the right not only to interfere in our civil life, but also
+to intrude into our houses, our married lives, and our nurseries. What
+could she not decide for the individual by virtue of the power she
+arrogates to bind and to loose, to forgive sins, and to open or to close
+the door of heaven for the dying? What she has done with the Church's
+gifts of grace we know.
+
+"There is a deep, beautiful meaning underlying this idea. But it has
+degenerated into a base traffic in indulgences. We have sincere natures.
+For a long time we believed that salvation is gained by works--gifts
+to the Church, fasts, scourgings, seclusion from the world,
+self-confinement in a cell--and our wealth went to Rome. Rarely do we
+look vainly in the most beautiful sites on mountain or by river for a
+monastery! But at last the sound sense of Germany rebelled, and when
+Luther saw in Rome poor sufferers from gout and cripples ascending the
+stairs of the Lateran on their knees, a voice within cried out to him
+the great 'sola fide' on which our faith is founded. On it alone, on
+devotion to Jesus Christ, depends our salvation."
+
+"Then," asked Wolf, "you boldly deny any saving power to good works?"
+
+"Yes," was the firm reply, "so far as they do not proceed from faith."
+
+"As if the Church did not impose the same demand!" replied Wolf in a
+more animated tone. "True, base wrong has been done in regard to the
+sale of indulgences, but at the Council of Trent opposition will be made
+to it. No estimable priest holds the belief that money can atone for
+a sin or win the mercy of Heaven. With us also sincere repentance or
+devout faith must accompany the gift, the fasting, and whatever else the
+believer imposes upon himself here below. Man is so constituted that the
+only things which make a deep impression are those that the body also
+feels. The teacher's blow has a greater effect than his words, a gift
+produces more willingness than an entreaty, and the tendency toward
+asceticism and penance is genuinely Christian, and belongs to many
+a people of a different faith. Your Erasmus said that his heart was
+Catholic, but his stomach desired to be Protestant. You have an easier
+task than we."
+
+"On the contrary," the young theologian burst forth. "It is mere child's
+play for you to obtain forgiveness by acts which really do not cut
+deeply into the flesh; but if one of us errs, how hard must be the
+conflict in his own breast ere he attains the conviction that his guilt
+is expiated by deep repentance and better deeds!"
+
+"I can answer for that," here interposed old Ursel, who from her
+arm-chair had listened to the conversation between the two with intense
+interest.
+
+"Good heavens! One went forth from the confessional as pure as a white
+dove after absolution had been received and the penance performed; but
+now that I belong to the Protestants, it is hard to reach a perfect
+understanding with the dear Saviour and one's self."
+
+"And ought that to redound to the discredit of my faith?" asked Wolf.
+"So far as I have learned to know men, the majority, at least, will not
+hasten to attain our Ursel's complete understanding with one's self.
+I should even fear that there are many among you who no longer feel a
+desire to heed little sins and their forgiveness----"
+
+Here Ursel again interrupted him with an exclamation of dissent,
+accompanied by a gesture of denial from her thin old hand; but Wolf
+glanced at the clock which the precentor had received as a testimonial
+of affection from the members of the cathedral choir, which he had led
+for years.
+
+It was already half past one, and for the sake of Ursel, who was still
+obliged to take care of herself, he urged departure, adding gaily that
+he had not the ability to "defend himself against two." Erasmus, too,
+was surprised to find it so late, and, after shaking hands with the
+old woman and promising to visit her soon again, seized his cap. Wolf
+accompanied him.
+
+The May night was sultry, and the air in the low room had been hot and
+oppressive.
+
+He would gladly have dropped the useless discussion, but Erasmus's heart
+was set upon winning his schoolmate to the doctrine which he believed
+with his whole soul. He toiled with the utmost zeal, but during their
+nocturnal walk also he failed to convince his opponent. Both were true
+to their religion. Erasmus saw in his faith the return to the pure
+teachings of Christ and the liberation of the human soul from ancient
+fetters; Wolf, who had had them pointed out to him at school by a
+Protestant teacher, by no means denied the abuses that had crept into
+his, but he clung with warm love to Holy Church, which offered his soul
+an abundance of what it needed.
+
+His art certainly also owed to her its best development--from the
+inexhaustible spring of faith which is formed from thousands of rivulets
+and tributaries in the holy domain of the Catholic Church, and in it
+alone, the most sublime of all material flowed to the musician, and not
+to him only, but to the artist, the architect, and the sculptor. The
+fullest stream--he was well aware of it--came from ancient pagan times,
+but from whatever sources the spring was fed, the Church had understood
+how to assimilate, preserve, and sanctify it.
+
+Erasmus listened silently while Wolf eagerly made these statements; but
+when the latter closed with the declaration that the evangelical faith
+would never attain the same power of elevating hearts, he interrupted
+the knight with the exclamation, "We shall have to wait for that!"
+
+Luther, he went on, had given the most powerful encouragement to music,
+and the German Protestant composers even now were not so very far behind
+the Netherland ones. The Catholic Church could no longer claim the great
+Albrecht Durer, and, if art ceased to create images of the saints, with
+which the childish minds of the common people practised idolatry, so
+much the better. The Infinite and Eternal was no subject for the artist.
+The humanization of God only belittled his infinite and illimitable
+nature. Earthly life offered art material enough. Man himself would
+be the worthiest model for imitation, and perhaps no earlier epoch had
+created handsomer likenesses of men and women than would now be produced
+by evangelical artists.
+
+To their own surprise, during this conversation they had reached the
+Hiltner house, and Erasmus invited his friend to come to his room and
+over a glass of wine answer him, as he had had the last word. But Wolf
+had already drunk at his own home more of the fiery Wurzburg from the
+precentor's cellar than usual. Besides, much as he still had to say in
+reply to Erasmus, the sensible young man deemed it advisable to avoid
+the syndic's house for the present. The confessor's suspicion had been
+aroused, and De Soto was a Dominican, who certainly did not stand far
+from the Holy Inquisition.
+
+Therefore while Erasmus, with burning head and great excitement, was
+still urging his friend to come in, Wolf unexpectedly bade him a hasty
+and resolute farewell.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+Wolf left the Hiltner house behind him with the feeling that he had
+upheld the cause of his Church against the learned opponent to the
+best of his ability, and had not been defeated. Yet he was not entirely
+satisfied. In former years he had read the Hutten dialogues, and, though
+he disapproved of their assaults upon the Holy Father in Rome, he had
+warmly sympathized with the fiery knight's love for his native land.
+
+Far as, at the court of Charles, the German ranked below the
+Netherlander, the Spaniard, and the Italian, Wolf was proud of being a
+German, and it vexed him that he had not at least made the attempt to
+repel the theologian's charge that the Catholic, to whom the authority
+of Rome was the highest, would be inferior to the Protestant in
+patriotism.
+
+But he would have succeeded no better in convincing Erasmus than the
+learned theologians who, at the Emperor's instance, had held an earnest
+religious discussion in Ratisbon a short time before, had succeeded in
+arriving at even a remote understanding.
+
+As he reached the Haidplatz new questions of closer interest were
+casting these of supreme importance into the shade.
+
+He was to enter his home directly, and then the woman whom he loved
+would rest above him, and alone, unwatched, and unguarded, perhaps dream
+of another.
+
+Who was the man for whose sake she withdrew from him the heart to whose
+possession he had the best and at any rate the oldest right?
+
+Certainly not Baron Malfalconnet.
+
+Neither could he believe it to be Peter Schlumperger or young Crafft.
+
+Yet perhaps the fortunate man belonged to the court. If that was the
+case, how easy would the game now be made for him with the girl, who was
+guarded by no faithful eye!
+
+His heart throbbed faster as he entered Red Cock Street.
+
+The moon was still in the cloudless, starry sky, shining with her calm,
+silver radiance upon one side of the street. Barbara's bow-window
+was touched by it, and--what did it mean?--a small lamp must still be
+burning in her room, for the window was illuminated, though but dimly.
+Perhaps she had kept the light because she felt timid in her lonely
+chamber. Now Wolf crossed obliquely toward his house.
+
+Just at that moment he saw the tall figure of a man.
+
+What was he doing there at this hour? Was it a thief or a burglar? There
+was no lack of evil-disposed folk in this time of want.
+
+Wolf still wore his court costume, and the short dress sword which
+belonged to it hung in its sheath.
+
+His heart beat quicker as he loosed the blade and advanced toward the
+suspicious night-bird.
+
+Just then he saw the other calmly turn the big key and take it out of
+the door.
+
+That could be no thief! No, certainly not!
+
+It was a gentleman of tall stature, whose aristocratic figure and
+Spanish court costume were partially covered by a long cloak.
+
+There was no doubt! Wolf could not be mistaken, for, while the former
+was putting the key in his pocket, the mantle had slipped from one
+shoulder.
+
+"Malfalconnet," muttered Wolf, grasping the hilt of his short sword more
+firmly.
+
+But at the same moment the moonlight showed him the Spaniard's face.
+A chill ran through his frame, followed by a feverish heat, for the
+nocturnal intruder into his house was not the baron, but Quijada, the
+noble Don Luis, his patron, who had just been lauding to the skies the
+virtues, the beauty, the goodness of the peerless Dona Magdalena de
+Ulloa, his glorious wife. He had intended to send Wolf, the friend
+and housemate of his victim, to Spain to become the instructor of his
+deceived wife.
+
+He saw through the game, and it seemed as if he could not help laughing
+aloud in delight at his own penetration, in rage and despair.
+
+How clearly, and yet how coarsely and brutally, it had all been planned!
+
+The infamous scoundrel, who possessed so much influence over the
+Emperor, had first sent old Blomberg away; now he, Wolf, was to follow,
+that no one might stand between the game and the pursuer.
+
+Barbara's lover must be Quijada. For the Spaniard's sake she had given
+him up, and perhaps even played the part of adviser in this abominable
+business. It must be so, for who else could know what she was to him?
+
+Yet no! He himself had aided the guilty passion of this couple, for how
+warmly he had sung Barbara's praises to Don Luis! And then in how many a
+conversation with Barbara had Quijada's name been mentioned, and he had
+always spoken of this man with warm regard. Hence her remark that he
+himself deemed her lover worthy of esteem.
+
+In a few seconds these thoughts darted through his heated brain with the
+speed of lightning.
+
+The street began to whirl around him, and a deep loathing of the base
+traitor, a boundless hatred of the destroyer of his happiness, of the
+betrayed girl, and the life which led through such abysses overpowered
+the deluded man.
+
+The infamous girl had just left her lover's arms, her kiss was doubtless
+still glowing on his faithless lips!
+
+Wolf groaned aloud like a sorely stricken deer, and for a moment it
+seemed to him that the best course would be to put an end to his own
+ruined life. But rage and hate urged him upon another victim, and,
+unable to control himself, he rushed with uplifted blade upon the
+hypocritical seducer.
+
+This utterly unexpected attack did not give Don Luis time to draw his
+sword, but, with ready presence of mind, he forced the hand wielding the
+weapon aside, and, while he felt a sharp pain in his left arm, seized
+the assassin with his right hand, swung his light figure upward, and
+with the strength and skill peculiar to him hurled it with all his might
+upon the stone steps of the dwelling.
+
+Not a single word, only a savage cry of fury, followed by a piteous
+moan, had escaped Wolf's lips during this swift deed of violence.
+
+The Spaniard scornfully thrust aside with his foot the inert body lying
+on the ground. His arrogance did not deem it worth while to ascertain
+what had befallen the murderer who had been punished. He had more
+important things to do, for his own blood was flowing in a hot, full
+stream over his hand.
+
+Accustomed in bull fighting and in battle to maintain his calmness and
+caution even in the most difficult situation, he said to himself that,
+if his wound should be connected with the murder before this house it
+would betray his master's secret to the Ratisbon courts of justice, and
+thereby to the public.
+
+He had heard the skull of the lurking thief strike against the granite
+steps of the house. So the dark, motionless mass before him was probably
+a corpse. There was no hurry about that, but his own condition compelled
+him to take care of himself. Entering the shadow of a tall building
+opposite the dwelling, he assured himself that the street was entirely
+empty, and then, drawing the aching arm from the doublet, he examined
+the wound as well as the dim light would permit. It was deep, it is
+true, but the robber's weapon appeared merely to have cut the flesh.
+
+A jerk, and Quijada had stripped the ruff from his neck, and, as this
+did not suffice, he cut with his sword blade and his teeth a piece of
+fine linen from his shirt.
+
+This would do for the first bandage. The skilful hand which, in battle,
+had aided many a bleeding comrade soon completed the task.
+
+Then he flung his uninjured cloak around him again, and turned toward
+the lifeless body at the foot of the steps.
+
+There lay the murderer's weapon--a delicately fashioned short dress
+sword, with an ivory hilt, not the knife of a common highwayman.
+
+That was the reason the wound was so narrow.
+
+But who had sought his life with this dainty steel blade?
+
+There were few at court who envied him the Emperor's favour--his office
+often compelled him to deny even persons of higher rank access to his
+Majesty; but he had never--this he could assure himself--treated even
+men of humble station harshly or unjustly. If he had offended any one by
+haughty self-confidence, it had been unintentional. He was not to blame
+for the manner natural to the Castilian.
+
+Besides, he had little time for reflection; scarcely had he hastily
+wiped off with the little cloak that lay beside him the blood which
+covered the face of the prostrate man than he started back in horror,
+for the person who had sought his life was the very one whom he had
+honoured with his highest confidence, and had chosen as the teacher and
+companion of the wife who was dearer than his own existence.
+
+Some cruel misunderstanding, some pitiable mistake must have been at
+work here, and he came upon the right trail speedily enough.
+
+The hapless knight loved Barbara, and had taken him, Luis, for her
+betrayer and nocturnal visitor.
+
+Fatal error of the Emperor, whose lamentable consequences were already
+beginning!
+
+With sincere repentance for his needlessly violent act of defence, he
+bent over the severely injured man. His heart was still beating, but
+doubtless on account of the great loss of blood--it throbbed with
+alarming weakness. Don Luis also soon found a wound in the skull, which
+appeared to be fractured.
+
+If speedy aid was not rendered, the unfortunate man was lost.
+
+Quijada laid Wolf's head quickly and carefully on his cloak, which he
+placed in a roll beneath it, and then hurried to the Red Cock, where
+one servant was just opening the door and another was leading out two
+horses. The latter was Jan, Wolf's Netherland servant, who wanted to
+water the animals before starting on the journey.
+
+He instantly recognised the nobleman; but the latter had resolved to
+keep the poor musician's attack a secret.
+
+As Jan bowed respectfully to him, he ordered him and the servant of the
+Red Cock to leave everything and follow him. He had found a dead man in
+the street.
+
+A few minutes after the three were standing at the steps of the house,
+before the object of their solicitude.
+
+The groom of the Red Cock, who still held a lantern in his hand, though
+dawn was already beginning to glimmer faintly in the east, threw the
+light upon the face of the bleeding form, and Jan exclaimed in grief and
+terror that the injured man was his master.
+
+The Brabant lad wailed, and the German, who had known the "precentor
+cavalier" all his life, joined in the lamentation; but Quijada induced
+them both to think only of saving the wounded nobleman.
+
+The old groom, with savage imprecations upon the scoundrels who now
+infested their quiet streets, raised the wounded man's head and told
+Jan to lift his feet. Both were familiar with the house, and, while
+the servants bore Wolf up the narrow stairs, the proud Spanish grandee
+lighted their way with the lantern, supporting the wounded man's injured
+head, with his free hand. At the door of the young knight's rooms he
+told the servants to attend to his needs, and then hurried back to the
+Golden Cross.
+
+He found a great bustle prevailing there. Tilted wagons were being
+loaded with the regent's luggage, couriers and servants were rushing to
+and fro, and in the courtyard men were currying the horses which were to
+be ridden on the journey.
+
+Don Luis paid no heed to all this, hastening first to the chapel to
+ask a young German chaplain to administer the sacrament to Sir Wolf
+Hartschwert, to whose house he hurriedly directed him. Then going
+swiftly to the third story, he waked Dr. Mathys, the Emperor's leech.
+
+The portly physician rubbed his eyes angrily; but as soon as he learned
+for whom he was wanted and how serious was the injury, he showed the
+most praiseworthy haste and, with the attendant who carried his surgical
+instruments and medicines, was standing beside the sufferer's couch
+almost as soon as the wounded man.
+
+The result of his examination was anything but gratifying.
+
+He would gladly do all that his skill would permit for the knight, but
+in so serious a fracture of the skull only the special mercy of Heaven
+could preserve life.
+
+Dr. Doll, the best physician in Ratisbon, assisted him with the
+bandaging, and old Ursel had suddenly recovered her lost strength.
+
+When the maid-servant asked timidly if she should not call Wawerl down
+from upstairs, she shrugged her shoulders with a movement which the
+one-eyed girl understood, and which signified anything but acceptance of
+the proposal.
+
+Yet Barbara would perhaps have rendered most efficacious assistance.
+
+True, she was still sleeping the sound slumber of wearied youth.
+Directly after her return from her imperial lover, she had gone to rest
+in the little chamber behind the bow-windowed room. It looked out upon
+the courtyard, and was protected from the noise of the street. When she
+heard sounds in the house, she thought that old Ursel was ill and they
+were summoning the doctor. For a moment she felt an impulse to rise
+and go downstairs, but she did not like to leave her warm bed, and Wolf
+would manage without her. She had always lacked patience to wait upon
+the sick, and Ursel had grown so harsh and disagreeable since she
+joined the Protestants. Finally, Barbara had brought home exquisite
+recollections of her illustrious lover, which must not be clouded by the
+suffering of the old woman, whom, besides, she could rarely please.
+
+She did not learn what had happened until she went to mass, and then
+it weighed heavily upon her heart that she had not given Wolf her
+assistance, especially as she suspected, with strange certainty, that
+she herself was connected with this terrible misfortune.
+
+Now--ah, how gladly!--she would have helped Ursel with the nursing, but
+she forbade her to enter the sick-room. The most absolute quiet must
+reign there. No one was permitted to cross the threshold except herself
+and an elderly nun, whom the Clares had sent for the sake of the wounded
+man's dead mother. A Dominican also soon came, whom the old woman could
+not shut out because he was despatched by the Queen of Hungary, and the
+violinist Massi, whom she gladly welcomed as a good friend of her Wolf.
+He proved himself loyal, and devoted every leisure hour of the night
+to the sufferer. Barbara knocked at the door very often, but Ursel
+persisted in refusing admittance. She knew that the girl had rejected
+her darling's proposal, and it was a satisfaction to her when, toward
+noon, the former told her that she was about to leave the house to go to
+Prebrunn.
+
+A cart would convey her luggage, but it would be only lightly laden.
+Fran Lerch went with the baggage.
+
+An hour later Barbara herself moved into the little castle, which had
+been refurnished for her. Mounted upon a spirited bay horse from her
+Prebrunn stables, she rode beside the Marquise de Leria's huge litter to
+her new home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+The very harsh execrations which the regent bestowed upon pleasant
+Ratisbon when she learned what had befallen Sir Wolf Hartschwert were
+better suited to the huntress than to the queen and sister of a mighty
+emperor.
+
+Murderous knaves who, in the heart of the city, close to the imperial
+precincts, endangered the lives of peaceful people at night! It was
+unprecedented, and yet evidently only a result of the heretical abuses.
+
+She had sprung into the saddle--she always travelled on horseback--in
+the worst possible mood, but had urged all who were near the Emperor
+Charles's person, and also the almoner Pedro de Soto, to remember the
+wounded man and do everything possible to aid his recovery.
+
+She did not mention Barbara, even by a single word, in her farewell to
+her royal brother.
+
+The latter had intended to accompany her a portion of the way, but a
+great quantity of work--not least in consequence of the loss of time
+occasioned by the new love life--had accumulated, and he therefore
+preferred to take leave of his sister in the courtyard of the Golden
+Cross.
+
+There, with his assistance, she mounted her horse.
+
+Quijada, who usually rendered her this service, stood aloof, silent and
+pale. The regent had noticed it, and attributed his appearance to grief
+for her departure. No one at court held a higher place in her regard,
+and it pleased her that he, too, found it so hard to do without her.
+
+As her horse started, her last salute was to the monarch and to him.
+
+Malfalconnet, whose eyes were everywhere, noticed it, and whispered to
+the Marquise de Leria, who was standing beside him: "Either Don Luis
+would do well to intrust himself to our Mathys's treatment, or this
+gentleman is an accomplished actor, or our most gracious lady has
+tampered with the fidelity of this most loyal husband, and the
+paternosters and pilgrimages of Dona Magdalena de Ulloa have been vain."
+
+A few minutes after, the Emperor Charles was sitting at the writing
+table examining, with the Bishop of Arras, a mountain of reports and
+documents. Two or three hours elapsed ere he received ambassadors and
+gave audiences, and during that time Quijada was not needed by his royal
+master.
+
+He had previously had leisure only to provide for the wounded man,
+cleanse himself from blood, change his dress, bid Queen Mary farewell,
+and bandage the hurt afresh. He had done this with his own hands because
+he distrusted the reticence of his extremely skilful but heedless French
+valet.
+
+When he returned to his lodgings, Master Adrian followed him, and
+modestly, yet with all the warmth of affection which he felt for this
+true friend of his master, entreated him to permit him to speak freely.
+He had perceived, not only by the pallor of Don Luis's cheeks, but other
+signs, that he was suffering, and in the name of his wife, who, when her
+husband was summoned from her side, had urged him with the earnestness
+of anxious love to watch over him, begged him not to force himself
+beyond his strength to perform his service, if his sufferings
+corresponded with his appearance.
+
+Don Luis looked sharply into the faithful face, and what he found there
+induced him to admit that he was concealing a wound. Adrian silently
+beckoned to him, and led the way into his own room, where he entreated
+Don Luis to show him the injury. When he saw it, his by no means mobile
+features blanched.
+
+He knew that Quijada had accompanied Barbara home that night. On this
+errand, he was sure of it, Don Luis must have received this serious
+wound at the same time as Wolf, or even obtained it from the young
+knight himself. Besides, he felt certain that the object of the
+Emperor's love was connected with both disasters. Yet not a word which
+could have resembled a question escaped his beardless lips while he
+examined, sewed, and bandaged the deep sword thrust with the skill and
+care of a surgeon.
+
+When he had finished his task, he thanked Don Luis for the confidence
+reposed in him.
+
+Quijada pressed his hand gratefully, and begged him to do his best that
+no one, not even the Emperor, should learn anything about this vexatious
+mischance. Then, not from curiosity, for grave motives, he desired to
+know what relations existed between Sir Wolf Hartschwert and Barbara.
+
+The answer was somewhat delayed, for Wolf had won the affection of the
+influential valet, and what Master Adrian had learned concerning the
+young knight's personal affairs from himself, his own wife in Brussels,
+and the violinist Massi, he would have confided to no one on earth
+except Quijada, and perhaps not even to him had he not accompanied his
+inquiry with the assurance that what he intrusted to him would remain
+buried in his soul, and be used only for Wolf's advantage.
+
+This promise loosed the cautious valet's tongue. He knew his man, and,
+when Don Luis also desired to learn whether the knight had already
+discovered that Barbara was now the Emperor's love, he thought he could
+answer in the negative.
+
+What he had heard of Wolf's relation to Barbara was only that the two
+had spent their early youth in the same house, that the knight loved the
+singer, but that she had rejected his suit.
+
+This avowal appeared to satisfy Quijada, and it really did calm him.
+He now believed that Wolf had misjudged him, and, supposing that he
+was coming from a meeting with the girl he loved, had drawn his sword
+against him. The manner in which he had attempted to rid himself of
+the rival seemed criminal enough, yet the nocturnal attack had scarcely
+concerned him personally, and he would not condemn the man who was
+usually so calm and sensible without having heard him.
+
+If Wolf lived--and he desired it from his heart--this act, which he
+appeared to have committed in a fit of blind jealousy, should do him no
+injury.
+
+With a warm clasp of the hand, which united these two men more firmly
+than a long period of mutual intercourse, each went his way in quiet
+content.
+
+In the afternoon Master Adrian was sent out to Prebrunn to announce to
+Barbara a visit from the Emperor after vespers.
+
+Wolf, it is true, had told her many things about Adrian Dubois, and
+informed her how much pleasure he had had at Brussels in visiting him
+and his sensible, cheerful wife, how implicitly the Emperor trusted him,
+how faithfully he served him, how highly the ambassadors and the most
+aristocratic gentlemen esteemed him, and how great an advantage it had
+been to him, Wolf, to possess his friendship; yet she thought proper
+to treat the valet with the haughty reserve which beseemed her as the
+Emperor's favourite, and which yesterday evening had won the approval of
+the Wittenberg theologian and of Wolf.
+
+But Master Adrian appeared to take no notice of her manner, and
+performed his errand with businesslike composure.
+
+The Emperor Charles wished to know how she liked her new home.
+
+In reality she had found its beauty and comfort far beyond her
+expectations, had clapped her hands in surprise when she was conducted
+by the marquise through the new abode, and, under the guidance of the
+house steward Steen, had been shown the kitchen, the stable, the four
+horses, and the garden. In her reception-room she found a lute and a
+harp of exquisitely beautiful workmanship, and a small Milan cabinet
+made of ebony inlaid with ivory, in which was a heavy casket bound with
+silver. The key had been given to her the evening before by the regent
+herself, and when Barbara opened it she discovered so many shining
+zecchins and ducats that a long time was occupied when she obeyed Fran
+Lerch's request to count them.
+
+The dressmaker from the Grieb was already in her service, and had been
+a witness of her sincere delight and grateful pleasure. The second hour
+after their arrival she had helped her to employ Frau Lamperi, the maid
+whom the steward called the 'garde-robiere', and had already been to the
+city herself to buy, for her fortunate "darling" costly but, on account
+of the approach of summer, light materials. But she had seen Master
+Adrian corning, and, while he was passing through the garden, gave her
+the advice by no means to praise what she found here, but to appear as
+though she had been accustomed to such surroundings, and found this and
+that not quite worthy of her, but needing addition and improvement.
+
+At first Barbara had succeeded in assuming the airs of the spoiled lady,
+but when Adrian, with prosaic definiteness, asked for details, and she
+saw herself compelled to begin the game of dissimulation anew, it grew
+repugnant to her.
+
+To her artist nature every restraint soon became irksome, especially so
+unpleasant a one, which was opposed to her character, and ere she was
+her self aware of it she was again the vivacious Wawerl, and frankly and
+freely expressed her pleasure in the beautiful new things she owed to
+her lover's kindness.
+
+A smile, so faint and brief that Barbara did not perceive it, was
+hovering meanwhile around the valet's thin lips. The causes of this
+strange change of opinion and mood would have been sufficiently
+intelligible to him, even had he not perceived one of the reproving
+glances which Frau Lerch cast at Barbara.
+
+She, too, had met one; but since she had once obeyed the impulse of
+her own nature, and felt content in doing so, she troubled herself no
+further about the monitor, and there was nothing in her new home which
+was not far more beautiful than what she had had in the precentor's
+modest house.
+
+The marquise displeased her most deeply, and this also she plainly told
+Master Adrian, and begged him to inform his Majesty, with her dutiful
+greeting. His best gift was the precaution which he had taken that she
+should live apart from the old monkey.
+
+The valet received this commission, like all the former ones, with a
+slight, grave bow.
+
+On the whole, the experienced man was not ill-pleased with her, only
+it seemed to him strange that Barbara did not mention the serious
+misfortune which had befallen Wolf; yet she knew from his own lips
+that he loved the knight, and had learned that the latter's life was in
+serious danger.
+
+So he turned the conversation to his young friend, and in an instant
+a remarkable change took place in Barbara. Wolf's sorrowful fate and
+severe wound had weighed heavily upon her heart, but what the present
+brought was so novel and varied that it had crowded the painful event,
+near as was the past to which it belonged, into the shadow.
+
+She now desired to know who the murderer was who had attacked him, and
+cursed him with impetuous wrath. She thought it base and shameful that
+she had been denied access to his couch.
+
+Poor, poor Wolf!
+
+Of all the men on earth, he was the best! Meanwhile tears of genuine
+compassion flowed from her eyes and, with passionate vehemence, she
+declared that no power in the world should keep her from him. The mere
+sound of her voice, she knew, would be a cordial to him.
+
+So Master Adrian had not been mistaken.
+
+It was not only in song that she was capable of deep feeling, and
+the love which had seized the Emperor Charles so late, and yet so
+powerfully, had not gone far astray.
+
+He could scarcely have bestowed it upon a more beautiful woman. While
+pleasure in her new surroundings held sway over her, it was a real
+pleasure to see her face. But this creature, so richly gifted by the
+grace of God, was not suited for his modest young friend; this had
+become especially evident to him when an almost evil expression escaped
+her lips while she emptied the vial of her wrath upon Wolf's murderer.
+
+If she deemed herself worthy of his master's love, she would not lack
+Adrian's protection, which was the more effective the more persistently
+he refrained from asking of the Emperor's favour even the slightest
+thing for himself, his wife, or others; that the time would come when
+she would need it, he was certain.
+
+No one knew the Emperor so well as he, and he saw before him the cliffs
+which threatened to shatter the little ship of this love bond. Already
+an imprudent violation of his extreme sense of the dignity of majesty,
+or of the confidence which he bestowed upon her, might become fatal to
+it.
+
+But, ardently as she might return his love, loyal and discreet as her
+conduct might be, there were other grave perils menacing the tie which
+united the Emperor to Barbara.
+
+Charles was a man of action, of work, of fulfilment of duty. The moment
+that he perceived this love bond would impede his progress toward the
+lofty goals to which he aspired might easily mark the beginning of its
+end.
+
+Now, in the midst of peace, such a result was scarcely to be feared; but
+if it came to fighting--and many a sign showed Adrian that war was not
+far distant--a great change would take place in his master's character;
+the general would assert his rights. Every other consideration would
+then be pitilessly thrust aside and, if Charles still remained loyal
+to his affection, he would have fallen under the spell of one of those
+great passions which defy every assault of time and circumstance and
+find an end only in death. But the sharp-sighted man could not believe
+in such love on his master's part; in his nature the claims of reason
+threw those of the heart too far into the shade. If Barbara was wise,
+her daily prayer should be for the maintenance of peace.
+
+To speak of these fears to the care-free girl would have been cruel, but
+he could probably give her a useful hint as opportunity offered.
+
+Accustomed to perform his duty silently and, where speech was necessary,
+to study the utmost brevity, he had not learned the art of clothing his
+thoughts in pleasing forms. So, without circumlocution, he whispered
+to Barbara the advice to send away Frau Lerch, who was not fit for her
+service, and as soon as possible to dismiss her entirely.
+
+The girl flew into a rage, and no whisper or urgency from another, but
+her own unbridled, independent nature, which during continual struggle
+had been steeled to assert herself, in spite of her poverty, among the
+rich companions of her own rank, as well as the newly awakened haughty
+consciousness that now, as the object of the mightiest monarch's love,
+she was exalted far above the companions of her own rank--led her to
+rebuff the warning of the well-meaning man with a sharpness that it ill
+beseemed one so much younger to use toward the Emperor's gray-haired
+messenger.
+
+The valet shrugged his shoulders compassionately, and his regular
+features, whose expression varied only under the influence of strong,
+deep feelings, distinctly betrayed how sincerely he lamented her
+conduct.
+
+Barbara noticed it, and instantly remembered what Wolf had told her
+about him and his wife. She did not think of the influence which he
+exercised upon the Emperor and the service which he might render her,
+but all the more vividly of his steadfast, devoted loyalty, and what he
+was and had accomplished for the man whom she loved, and, seized with
+sincere repentance, obeying a powerful impulse, she held out her hand
+with frank cordiality just as he was already bowing in farewell. Adrian
+hesitated a moment.
+
+What did this mean?
+
+What accident was causing this new change of feeling in this April day
+of a girl?
+
+But when her sparkling blue eyes gazed at him so brightly and at the
+same time so plainly showed that she knew she had wronged him, he
+clasped the hand, and his face again wore a friendly expression.
+
+Then Barbara laughed in her bewitching, bell-like tones and, like a
+naughty child begging forgiveness for a trivial fault, asked him gaily
+not to take offence at her foolish arrogance. All the new things here
+had somewhat turned her silly brain. She knew how faithfully he served
+her Charles, and for that reason she could not help liking him already.
+
+"If you have any cause to find fault with me," she concluded merrily,
+"out with it honestly." Then addressing Frau Lerch, not as though she
+were speaking to a servant, but to an older friend, she asked her
+to leave her alone with Herr Adrian a short time; but she insisted
+positively on having her own way when the dressmaker remarked that she
+did not know why, after the greatest secret of all had been forced upon
+her, her discretion should be distrusted.
+
+As soon as she had retired the valet entreated Barbara to beware of the
+advice of this woman, whose designs he saw perfectly. He, Adrian,
+would wish her to have a companion of nobler nature and more delicate
+perceptions.
+
+But this warning seemed scarcely endurable to Barbara. Although she did
+not fly into a passion again, she asked in an irritated tone whether
+Adrian had been granted the power of looking into another's soul. What
+she perceived with absolute certainty in Frau Lerch, who, as her dead
+mother's maid, had tended her as a child, was great faithfulness and
+secrecy and the most skilful hands. Still, she promised to remember his
+well-meant counsel.
+
+Adrian's warning always to consider what a position her lord occupied in
+the world, and to beware of crossing the border line which separated the
+monarch from his subjects, and even from those who were of the highest
+rank and dearest to him, was gratefully received, for she remembered the
+sharp rebuff which she had already experienced from her lover. It proved
+this excellent man's good will toward her, and her eyes fairly hung
+upon his lips as he informed her of some of his master's habits and
+peculiarities which she must regard. He warned her, with special
+earnestness, not to allow herself to be used by others to win favour or
+pardon for themselves or their kindred. She might perhaps find means
+for it later; now she would at once awaken in the extremely suspicious
+monarch doubt of her unselfishness.
+
+This was certainly good advice, and Barbara confessed to the valet that
+the marquise had requested her at dinner that day to intercede for her
+unfortunate son, who, unluckily, had the misfortune to be misunderstood
+by the Emperor Charles. Master Adrian had expected something of the
+kind, for the lady in waiting had more than once urged him also to
+obtain his Majesty's pardon for this ruined profligate, the shame of his
+noble race. He had persistently refused this request, and now enjoined
+it upon Barbara to follow his example. Before leaving her, he undertook
+to send her tidings of Wolf's health now and then by the violinist
+Massi, as he had not leisure to do it himself. At the same time he
+earnestly entreated her to repress her wish to see the sufferer again,
+and to bear in mind that she could receive no visitor, take no step in
+this house or in the city, which would not be known in the Golden Cross.
+
+Barbara passionately demanded to know the spy who was watching her, and
+whether she must beware specially of the marquise, her French maid,
+the Spanish priest who accompanied the old woman as her confessor, the
+garde-robiere Lamperi, who nevertheless had a good face, or who else
+among the servants.
+
+On this point, however, the valet would or could give no information.
+He knew only his master's nature. Just as he was better acquainted with
+every province than the most experienced governor, with every band of
+soldiers than the sergeant, so nothing escaped him which concerned the
+private lives of those whom he valued. It need not grieve her that he
+watched her so carefully. Her acts and conduct would not become a matter
+of indifference to him until he withdrew his confidence from her or his
+love grew cold.
+
+The deep impression which this information made upon the girl surprised
+Adrian. While he was speaking her large eyes dilated more and more, and
+with hurried breathing she listened until he had finished. Then pressing
+both hands upon her temples, she frantically exclaimed: "But that is
+horrible! it is base and unworthy! I will not be a prisoner--! will not,
+can not bear it! My whole heart is his, and never belonged to any other;
+but, rather than be unable to take a step that is not watched, like the
+Sultan's female slaves, I will return to my father."
+
+Here she hesitated; for the first time since she had entered Prebrunn
+she remembered the old man who for her sake had been sent out into the
+world. But she soon went on more calmly: "I even permitted my father to
+be taken from me and sent away, perhaps to death. I gave everything to
+my sovereign, and if he wants my life also," she continued with fresh
+emotion, "he may have it; but the existence of a caged bird!--that will
+destroy me."
+
+Here the sensible man interrupted her with the assurance that no one,
+last of all his Majesty, thought of restricting her liberty more than
+was reasonable. She would be permitted to walk and to use her horses
+exactly as she pleased, only the object of her walks and rides must be
+one which she could mention to her royal lover without timidity.
+
+Barbara, still with quickened breathing, then put the question how she
+could know this; and Adrian, with a significant smile, replied that
+her heart would tell her, and if it should ever err--of this he was
+certain--the Emperor Charles.
+
+With these words he took leave of her to go, on behalf of his master, to
+the marquise, and Barbara stood motionless for some time, gazing after
+him.
+
+In the Golden Cross Quijada asked Adrian what he thought of the singer,
+and it was some time ere he answered deliberately: "If only I knew
+exactly myself, your lordship--I am only a plain man, who wishes every
+one the best future. Here I do so out of regard for his Majesty, Sir
+Wolf Hartschwert, and the inexperienced youth of this marvellously
+beautiful creature. But if you were to force me by the rack to form a
+definite opinion of her, I could not do it. The most favourable would
+not be too good, the reverse scarcely too severe. To reconcile such
+contrasts is beyond my power. She is certainly something unusual, that
+will fit no mould with which I am familiar."
+
+"If you had a son," asked Don Luis, "would you receive her gladly as a
+daughter-in-law?"
+
+A gesture of denial from the valet gave eloquent expression of his
+opinion; but Quijada went on in a tone of anxious inquiry: "Then what
+will she whom he loves be to the master whose happiness and peace are as
+dear to you as to me?"
+
+Adrian started, and answered firmly: "For him, it seems to me, she will
+perhaps be the right one, for what power could she assert against his?
+And, besides, there is something in his Majesty, as well as in this
+girl, which distinguishes them from other mortals. What do I mean by
+that? I see and hear it, but I can neither exactly understand nor name
+it."
+
+"That might be difficult even for a more adroit speaker," replied
+Quijada; "but I think I know to what you allude. You and I, Master
+Adrian, have hearts in our breasts, like thousands of other people, and
+in our heads what is termed common sense. In his Majesty something else
+is added. It seems as though he has at command a messenger from heaven
+who brings him thought and decisions."
+
+"That's it!" exclaimed Adrian eagerly; "and whenever she raises
+her voice to sing, a second one stands by the side of this Barbara
+Blomberg."
+
+"Only we do not yet know," observed Quijada anxiously, "whether
+this second one with the singer is a messenger from heaven, like his
+Majesty's, or an emissary of hell."
+
+The valet shrugged his shoulders irresolutely, and said quietly: "How
+could I venture to express an opinion about so noble an art? But when
+I was listening to the hymn to the Virgin yesterday, it seemed as if an
+angel from heaven was singing from her lips."
+
+"Let us hope that you may be right," replied the other. "But no matter!
+I think I know whence comes the invisible ally his Majesty has at his
+disposal. It is the Holy Ghost that sends him--there is no doubt of it!
+His control is visible everywhere. With miraculous power he urges him
+on in advance of all others, and even of himself. This becomes most
+distinctly perceptible in war."
+
+"That is true," declared the valet, "and your lordship has surely hit
+the right clew. For"--he glanced cautiously around him and lowered his
+voice--"whenever I put on my master's armour I always feel how he is
+trembling--yes, trembling, your lordship. His face is livid, and the
+drops of perspiration on his brow are not due solely to the heat."
+
+"And then," cried Quijada, his black eyes sparkling with a fiery
+light--"then in his agitation he scarcely knows what he is doing as
+I hold the stirrup for him. But when, once in his saddle, his divine
+companion descends to him, he dashes upon the foe like a whirlwind and,
+wherever he strikes, how the chips fly! The strongest succumb to his
+blows. 'Victory! victory!' men shout exultingly wherever he goes. Even
+in the last accursed Algerian defeat his helper was at his side; for,
+Adrian"--here he, too, lowered his voice--"without him and his wonderful
+power every living soul of us, down to the last boat and camp follower,
+would have been destroyed."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+After this conversation the two men who, in different positions, stood
+nearest to the Emperor Charles, placed no obstacle in Barbara's way.
+
+The third--the Bishop of Arras--also showed a friendly spirit toward the
+Emperor's love affair. True, he had not been taken into his confidence,
+but he rarely failed to be present when Barbara sang with the boy choir,
+or alone, in the Golden Cross, before the monarch or distinguished
+guests.
+
+Charles summoned her there almost daily, and always at different hours.
+
+This was done to strengthen the courtiers and the citizens of Ratisbon
+in the belief that Barbara owed his favour solely to her singing.
+
+Granvelle, who appreciated and was interested in music as well as in
+painting and sculpture, found real pleasure in listening to Barbara, yet
+while doing so he did not forget that she might be of service to him. If
+she only remained on good terms with him she would, he was sure of that,
+whether willing or not, be used as his tool.
+
+Spite of his nine-and-twenty years, he forbade himself to cherish any
+other wishes, because he would have regarded it treachery to the royal
+master whom he served with faithful devotion. But, as he accepted
+great gifts without ever allowing himself to be tempted to treason
+or forgetfulness of duty, so he did not reject little tokens of
+friendliness from Barbara, and of these she showed no lack. The young
+Bishop of Arras was also an extremely fine-looking man, whose clever
+brain and bright, penetrating glance harmonized with his great intellect
+and his position. Wolf had already told her how much the monarch
+regarded the opinion of this counsellor.
+
+The fourth person whose good will had been represented to her as
+valuable was the almoner, Pedro de Soto; but he, who usually understood
+how to pay homage to beautiful women in the most delicate manner, kept
+rigidly aloof.
+
+True, he had placed no obstacle in the way of the late kindling of the
+heart of his imperial master, but since his servant's report, from
+which it appeared that Barbara was on friendly terms with heretics, and
+therefore cherished but a lukewarm devotion to her own faith, she was no
+longer the same to him. In Spain this would have been enough to deliver
+her to the Holy Inquisition. Here, however, matters were different.
+Everywhere he saw the lambs associating with the wolves, and the larger
+number of the relatives of the Emperor's love had become converts to
+heresy. Therefore indulgence was demanded, and De Soto would have
+gladly been convinced of Barbara's orthodoxy under such difficult
+circumstances. But if it proved that the girl not only associated with
+heretics, but inclined to their error, then gentle inaction must be
+transformed into inexorable sternness, even though the rejuvenating
+power which she exerted upon the monarch were tenfold stronger than
+it doubtless was; for what danger might threaten the Emperor and
+Christianity from the bewitching woman who seemed to love Charles, if
+she undertook to influence him in favour of the new doctrines, which,
+in the eyes of every earnest Dominican, the Emperor treated far too
+leniently!
+
+He, the confessor, even knew that Charles considered several demands
+of the Protestants to which the Church could never consent, entirely
+justifiable--nay, that he deemed a reformation of the Church by the
+council now in session at Trent extremely desirable.
+
+Therefore it was a duty to withhold from him every influence which could
+favour these pernicious views and wishes, and Pedro de Soto had also
+been young and knew only too well what power so beautiful a woman, with
+such bewitching gifts, could exert upon the man whose heart cherishes
+her.
+
+So, immediately after Barbara's entrance into Prebrunn, the confessor
+adopted his measures. Although the conversation to which he subjected
+her had resulted in her favour, he had deemed it beneficial to place
+a priest who was devoted to him among the ecclesiastics in the little
+castle.
+
+To surround her with spies chosen from the lay class was repugnant to
+his lofty nature. Besides, they would have been superfluous; for a
+short time before his servant Cassian had asked permission to marry
+the marquise's French maid, and Alphonsine, who was neither young nor
+pretty, was inclined to all sorts of intrigues. She supplied slow, pious
+Cassian's deficiencies in the best possible manner. A chance word from
+the distinguished prelate had sufficed to make it their duty to watch
+Barbara and her visitors.
+
+In Alphonsine's mistress, the Marquise de Leria, the almoner also
+possessed a willing tale-bearer. She had avoided him since his refusal
+to commend her ruined son to the favour of his imperial penitent. Now,
+unasked, she had again approached him, and her explanation first gave
+many an apparently unimportant communication from the servants its real
+value.
+
+The atmosphere of the court was her vital air. Even when she had
+voluntarily offered to take Barbara under her charge, in a secluded
+house in the suburb, she had been aware how greatly she would miss
+the presence of royalty. Yet she would have endured far more difficult
+things, for a thousand signs betrayed that this time his Majesty's
+heart had not been merely superficially touched, and Barbara's traits of
+character made it appear probable that, like many a beauty at the court
+of Francis I of France, she might obtain an influence over the Emperor.
+If this occurred, the marquise had found the most powerful tool for the
+deliverance of her son.
+
+This hope filled the old noblewoman's heart and brain. It was her last,
+for the Emperor was the only person who could save the worthless idol of
+her soul from ruin, and yet, when she had grovelled at his knees in her
+despair, she received an angry repulse and the threat of being instantly
+deprived of her position if she ever again attempted to speak to him
+about this vexatious matter. She knew only too well that Charles would
+keep his word, and therefore had already induced every person whom she
+believed possessed even a small share of influence over the monarch
+to intercede for her, but they had been no less sharply rebuffed than
+herself; for the sovereign, usually so indulgent to the reckless pranks
+of the young nobles, would not even hear the name of the aristocratic
+sharper, who was said to have sold the plans of the fortifications to
+France.
+
+Charles now loved a woman whom, with swift presence of mind, she had
+bound to herself, and what no one else had succeeded in doing Barbara
+might accomplish.
+
+Therefore the marquise had retired to the solitude which she hated,
+and hourly humbled herself to cringing flattery of a creature whom, on
+account of her birth, she scorned.
+
+But Barbara was warned and, difficult as it often was for her to
+withstand the humble entreaties to which the old lady in waiting
+frequently condescended, persisted in her refusal.
+
+Yet the unhappy mother did not give up hope, for as soon as the singer
+committed any act which she was obliged to conceal she could obtain
+power over her. So she kept her eyes open and, whenever the Emperor
+sought the young girl and was alone with her, she stole into the garden
+and peered through the badly fitting window shutters into the lighted
+room which was the scene of the happiness of the ill-matched lovers.
+
+What she overheard, however, only increased the feeling of powerlessness
+against the hated creature whom she so urgently needed; for the
+tenderness which Charles showed Barbara was so great that it not only
+filled the marquise with surprise and bitter envy, but also awakened the
+conviction that it must be a small matter for the singer to obtain from
+so ardent a lover far greater things than she had asked.
+
+So she continued to watch and listen unweariedly, day after day and
+evening after evening, but always in vain. She had not the most trivial
+thing for which Barbara could be seriously reproached to report to the
+confessor; yet De Soto desired nothing better, for Barbara still exerted
+an extremely favourable influence upon the Emperor's mood. Therefore it
+vexed him that Cassian informed him of many things which prevented his
+relying firmly upon her orthodoxy.
+
+At any rate, there were Protestants among her visitors and,
+unfortunately, they included Herr Peter Schlumperger, whom De Soto knew
+as an active promoter of the apostasy of the Ratisbon burghers. He had
+called upon her the second day after her arrival and remained a long
+time but, it is true, had not appeared again. With the others also she
+held no regular intercourse--nay, she scarcely seemed to enjoy their
+visits. Thus the daughters of the Woller family from the Ark, who had
+appeared one afternoon, had been detained only a little longer by her
+than other Protestant matrons and maidens.
+
+All this was scarcely sufficient to foster his anxiety; but Cassian
+reported one visit with which the case was different. Barbara had not
+only received this guest alone, but she had kept him more than an hour,
+and the servant could swear that the young man to whom she sang long
+songs--which, it is true, sounded like church music--to the lute
+and also to the harp, was Erasmus Eckhart, the adopted son of the
+archtraitor, Dr. Hiltner, who had just obtained the degree of Master
+of Arts in Wittenberg. This seemed suspicious, and induced De Soto to
+investigate the matter thoroughly.
+
+Erasmus had come in the morning, at a time when the Emperor never
+visited Barbara. Nothing remarkable had taken place during their
+interview, but Cassian had heard her dismiss him with a warning which,
+even to a less distrustful person, would have seemed suspicious. Why had
+she assured the Wittenberg theologian, as she extended her hand to him
+in farewell, that what he offered her had given her great pleasure, and
+she would gladly invite him to bring her similar things often, but must
+deny herself this gratification from motives which he could imagine? His
+urgent entreaty at least to be permitted to call on her sometimes she
+had curtly and positively refused, but the Wittenberg heretic did not
+allow himself to be rebuffed, for Cassian had seen him several times in
+the neighbourhood of the castle.
+
+There was as little cause to object to the visits paid to her by
+Gombert, Appenzelder, Damian Feys, occasionally some noblemen or guests
+of the court, and once even by no less a personage than the Bishop of
+Arras, as to the rides she took every afternoon; for the latter were
+always under the charge of Herr de Fours, an old equerry of the Emperor,
+and in the company of several courtiers, among whom Baron Malfalconnet
+was often included. A number of gay young pages always belonged to
+this brilliant cavalcade, whose number never lacked the handsome
+sixteen-year-old Count Tassis, who spent his whole large stock of pocket
+money in flowers which he sent every morning to Barbara.
+
+The confessor was glad to hear that the estimable violinist Massi
+frequently visited the girl, for he was firm in the faith, and that he
+brought her tidings of the sorely wounded Sir Wolf Hartschwert could
+only be beneficial, for perhaps he warned her of the seriousness of life
+and that there were other things here below than the joy of love, jest,
+and laughter. The almoner's doubt of Wolf's orthodoxy had been entirely
+dispelled by his confession. Men do not deceive in the presence of
+death.
+
+It would have been a genuine boon had Barbara selected him to open her
+heart to him in the confessional, for her relation to the wounded man
+rendered it difficult for him to trust her entirely.
+
+Wolf's thoughts in his fever constantly dwelt upon her, and he sometimes
+accused her of the basest treachery, sometimes coupled her name with
+Malfalconnet's, sometimes with Luis Quijada's. The Emperor's, on the
+contrary, he had not mentioned.
+
+He must love Barbara with ardent passion, and she, too, still seemed
+warmly attached to him, for to see him again she had bravely exposed
+herself to serious danger.
+
+Eye and ear witnesses had reported that, notwithstanding his Majesty's
+positive orders to avoid her old home, she had entered the house and the
+knight's apartments, knelt beside his couch, and even kissed his weak,
+burning hand with tender devotion.
+
+But though she still retained a portion of her former affection for Wolf
+Hartschwert, she loved the Emperor Charles with passionate fervour. Even
+the marquise did not venture to doubt this. Often as she had watched the
+meetings of the lovers, she had marvelled at the youthful ardour of the
+monarch, the joyous excitement with which Barbara awaited him, and her
+sorrowful depression when he left her. During the first week the old
+noblewoman thought that she had never met a happier pair. The almoner
+deemed it unworthy of him to listen to a report of the caresses which
+she scornfully mentioned.
+
+The time even came when he no longer needed confirmation from others,
+and forbade himself to doubt Barbara's fidelity to her religion; for at
+the end of the first week in Prebrunn she had desired to ask a servant
+of the Church what she must do to make herself worthy of such abundance
+of the highest happiness, and to atone for the sin she was committing
+through her love.
+
+In doing so she had opened her heart to the confessor with childlike
+frankness, and what De Soto heard on this occasion sincerely delighted
+him and endeared to him this thoroughly sound, beautiful creature
+overmastered by a first great passion. He believed her, and indignantly
+rejected what the spies afterward brought to him.
+
+Yet he did not close his ears to the marquise when, in her clever,
+entertaining way, she told him what, against her will, she had overheard
+in consequence of the careless construction of the little castle, built
+only for a summer residence, or had seen during a walk in the garden
+when the shutters, through forgetfulness, had not been closed.
+
+How should he not have heard gladly that the monarch, at every interview
+with Barbara, listened to her singing with special pleasure?
+
+At first she chose grave, usually even religious songs, and among them
+Charles's favourite was the "Quia amore langueo."
+
+To listen to these deeply felt tones of yearning always seemed to
+possess a fresh charm for him.
+
+No wonder!
+
+The singer understood how to produce a new effect each time by means of
+wonderful gradations of expression in the comprehension and execution.
+
+Once she had also succeeded in cheering her lover with Perissone
+Cambio's merry singing lesson on the 'ut re mi fa sol', and again with
+Willaert's laughing song, "Sempre mi ridesta."
+
+Two days later there had again been a great deal of laughing because
+Barbara undertook to sing to his Majesty another almost recklessly
+merry song by the same composer. The marquise knew it, and declared that
+Barbara's style and voice did not suit such things. She admitted that
+her execution of serious, especially religious and solemn compositions,
+was not amiss--nay, often it was wonderfully fine--but in such secular
+tunes her real nature appeared too plainly, and the skilful singer
+became a Bacchante.
+
+It had been a sorry pleasure to her to watch the boisterous manner and
+singing of this creature, who had been far too highly favoured by the
+caprice of Fortune.
+
+These reckless songs, unless she was mistaken, had also been by no means
+pleasing to his Majesty. The light had fallen directly upon his face
+just as she happened to glance up at the house from under the group of
+lindens, and she had distinctly seen him angrily thrust out his
+lower lip, which every one near his person knew was a sign of extreme
+displeasure.
+
+But the girl had gone beyond all bounds. Old as she was, she could not
+help blushing at the mere thought of it. In her reckless mood she had
+probably forgotten that she had drawn her imperial lover into her net
+by arts of an entirely different nature. The almoner listened
+incredulously, for in his youth the Emperor Charles had joined in the
+wildest songs of the soldiery, and had well understood, on certain
+occasions, how to be merry with the merry, laugh and carouse in a
+Flemish tavern. After the confession the almoner heard things to which
+he would gladly have shut his ears, though they proved that the time
+which the marquise had spent at the French court had benefited her
+powers of observation.
+
+Three days before the Emperor, for the first time, had seriously found
+fault with Barbara.
+
+It had been impossible for the lady in waiting to discover the cause;
+but what she knew certainly was that her lover's censure had roused
+the girl to vehement contradiction, and that his Majesty, after a sharp
+reply, had been on the point of leaving her. True, the reckless beauty
+had repented her imprudent outburst of wrath speedily enough, and had
+understood how to conciliate the far too indulgent sovereign by such
+humility and such sweet tenderness that he probably must have forgiven
+her--at least the farewell had been as affectionate as ever.
+
+Nevertheless, on the following evening, for the first time, he did not
+come to the castle, and the marquise had feared that the Emperor might
+now withdraw his favour from Barbara, which would have been too soon for
+her own wishes.
+
+But yesterday evening, after sunset, the dark litter, to the old
+noblewoman's relief, had again stopped behind the garden gate, and the
+pleasure of having her lover again had so deeply overjoyed Barbara that
+he, too, was infected by her radiant delight.
+
+Then, in the midst of the most tender caresses, he had been summoned out
+of the room, and when he returned, with frowning brow, the marquise had
+witnessed at least the commencement of a scene which seemed to justify
+her opinion that his Majesty: would have no taste for Barbara's utter
+freedom from restraint and gay secular songs.
+
+Unfortunately, she had been prematurely driven from her post of
+observation; but she had seen the Emperor come in, and Barbara, without
+noticing his altered expression, or rather, probably, to cheer him
+by something especially merry, gaily began Baldassare Donati's superb
+dancing-master's song, "Qui la gagliarda vuol imparare," at the same
+time in the merriest, most graceful manner imitating the movements of
+the gagliarda dancer.
+
+But Charles soon interrupted her, sharply requesting her to sing
+something else or cease entirely for that day.
+
+Startled, she again asked forgiveness, and then pleaded in justification
+the universally acknowledged beauty of this charming song, which Maestro
+Gombert also admired; but the Emperor flew into a passion, and cut her
+short with the loud remark that he was not in the habit of having his
+own judgment corrected by the opinion of others. The jest did all honour
+to the skill and merry mood of the composer, but the contrary might be
+said of the singer who ventured to sing it to a person in whom it could
+awaken only bitter feelings.
+
+But when, so painfully surprised that her eyes filled with tears, she
+confessed that her selection perhaps had not been very appropriate, and
+sadly added the inquiry why her beloved sovereign condemned a trivial
+offence so harshly, he wrathfully exclaimed, "For more than one reason."
+
+Then, rising, he paced the room several times with a somewhat limping
+gait, saying, in so loud a tone that it could be distinctly heard in the
+dark, sultry garden: "Because it shows little delicacy of feeling when
+the man who is satiated tells the starving one of the dainty meal which
+he has just eaten; because--because I call it shameful for a person who
+can see to tell one who is blind of the pleasure he derives from the
+splendid colours of gay flowers; because I expect from the woman whom I
+honour with my love more consideration for me and what shadows my life.
+Because"--and here he raised his voice still more angrily--"I demand
+from any one united to me, the Emperor, by whatever bond----"
+
+The marquise had been unable to hear more of the monarch's violent
+attack, for the messenger who had just brought the unwelcome news--it
+was Adrian Dubois--had not only passed her, but ventured to call to her
+and remark that she would be wise to go into the house--a thunderstorm
+was rising. He was not afraid of the rain, and would wait there for his
+Majesty.
+
+So the listener did not hear how the incensed monarch continued with the
+demand that the woman he loved should neither tell him falsehoods nor
+deceive him.
+
+Until then Barbara had listened, silent and pale, biting her trembling
+lips in order to adhere to her resolve to submit without reply to
+whatever Charles's terrible irritability inflicted upon her. But he must
+have noticed what was passing in her mind, for he suddenly paused in
+his walk, and, abruptly standing before her, gazed full into her face,
+exclaiming: "It is not you who are offended, but I, the sovereign
+whom you say you love. Day before yesterday I forbade you to go to the
+musician in Red Cock Street, yet you were with him to-day. I asked
+you just now whether you had obeyed me and, with smiling lips, you
+assented."
+
+Barbara was already prepared with an answer in harmony with the
+sharpness of the attack, yet her lover's reproof was well founded.
+
+When he had left the room shortly before he must have been informed
+that, in defiance of his explicit command, she had gone to the knight's
+house that morning.
+
+But no one had ever charged her with lack of courage. Why had she not
+dared to confess the fault which, from a good and certainly pardonable
+impulse, she had committed?
+
+Was she not free, or when had she placed herself under obligation to
+render blind obedience to her lover?
+
+But the falsehood!
+
+How severely she must perhaps atone for it this time!
+
+Yet the esteem, the love of the man to whom her heart clung, whom she
+worshipped with all the fervour of her passionate soul, might be at
+stake, and when he now seized his hat to withdraw she barred his way.
+
+Sobbing aloud, she threw herself at his feet, confessed that she was
+guilty, and remorsefully admitted that fear of his resentment, which
+seemed to her more terrible than death, had induced her to deny what
+she had done. She could hate herself for it. Nothing could palliate the
+departure from the path of truth, but her disobedience might perhaps
+appear to him in a milder light if he learned what had induced her to
+commit it.
+
+Charles, still in an angry, imperious tone, ordered her to rise. She
+silently obeyed, and when he threw himself on the divan she timidly sat
+down by his side, turning toward him her troubled face, which for the
+first time he saw wet with tears.
+
+Yet a hopeful smile brightened her moist eyes, for she felt that, since
+he permitted her to remain at his side, all might yet be well.
+
+Then she timidly took his hand and, as he permitted it, she held
+it firmly while she explained what ties had bound her to Wolf from
+childhood.
+
+She represented herself as the sisterly counsellor of the friend who had
+grown up in the same house with her. Music and the Catholic religion,
+in the midst of a city which had fallen into the Protestant heresy, had
+been the bond between them. After his return home he had probably been
+unable to help falling in love with her, but, so truly as she hoped for
+Heaven's mercy, she had kept her heart closed against Cupid until he,
+the Emperor, had approached in order, like that other Caesar, to come,
+to see, and to conquer. But she was only a woman, and pity in a woman's
+soft heart was as hard to silence as the murmur of a swift mountain
+stream or the rushing of the wind.
+
+Yesterday she had learned from the violinist Massi that the knight's
+condition was much more critical, and he desired before his death to
+clasp her hand again. So, believing that disobedience committed to
+lighten the last hours of a dying man would be pardonable before God and
+human beings, she had visited the unfortunate Wolf.
+
+The helpful and joy-bestowing power of good works, which the Protestants
+denied, had thus become very evident to her; for since she had clasped
+the sufferer's hand an indescribable sense of happiness had taken
+possession of her, while the knight began to improve. The news had
+reached her just before this, the Emperor's, arrival, had made her
+happy, and, in spite of her evil conscience, had put her in a very
+cheerful mood. But now this beautiful evening had become the saddest one
+of her whole life.
+
+Fresh tears, and the other means of conciliation inspired by her loving
+heart, then induced the angry lover to forgive her.
+
+Barbara felt this as a great piece of good fortune, and made every
+effort to curb the refractory temper which, hitherto, had found nothing
+less welcome than humble submission.
+
+Day after day since that evening the confessor had been informed that
+nothing interrupted the concord of the lovers, and that Barbara often
+prayed very fervently in the private chapel. This pleased the almoner,
+and when Cassian told him that, on the evening after the quarrel, the
+Emperor had again come to the castle to remain a long time, he rejoiced.
+
+To Barbara this visit had been a true heavenly blessing, but though
+Charles showed himself sufficiently loving, she felt, even during the
+succeeding visits, that since that fateful episode something difficult
+to describe or explain had rested like a gloomy shadow on the Emperor's
+joyous confidence.
+
+This change in her lover could scarcely be due to her, for she had
+honestly endeavoured to avoid everything which could anger him.
+
+How should she have suspected that the great student of human nature to
+whom she had given her heart perceived the restraint which she imposed
+upon herself in every interview with him, and that the moderation to
+which she submitted from love robbed her of a portion of the charm her
+gay unconcern had exerted upon him? Charles suspiciously attributed this
+change in the disposition of the woman he loved sometimes to one cause,
+sometimes to another; and when he showed her that he missed something
+in her which had been dear to him, she thought it a new token of his
+dissatisfaction, and increased the restraint which she placed upon
+herself.
+
+If the gout again attacked him or the pressure of business, which at
+that time constantly made more and more imperious demands upon the
+Emperor Charles, detained him from her on one or another evening,
+torturing anxiety assailed her, and she had no sleep all night.
+
+Besides, the marquise did not cease to press her with entreaties and
+expostulations, and Frau Lerch constantly urged Barbara to profit by the
+favour of such a lover. She ought to think of the future, and indemnify
+herself with estates and titles for the sad fate awaiting her if his
+Majesty wearied of her love.
+
+The ex-maid knew how to describe, in vivid hues, how all would turn
+from her if that should happen, and how little the jewels with which he
+sometimes delighted her would avail.
+
+But Barbara had cared only for her lord's love, and it was not even
+difficult for her to resist the urgency. Yet whenever she was alone with
+Charles, and he showed plainly how dear she was to him, the question
+forced itself upon her whether this would not be the right time to speak
+of her future, and to follow the counsel of the experienced woman who
+certainly meant kindly toward her.
+
+This made her silent and constrained for a time, and when she saw that
+her manner annoyed her lover she thrust aside the selfish impulse which
+was rendering her unlovable, and sometimes showed her delight in the
+victory of love over every other feeling so impetuously, that her
+nature seemed to have lost the unvarying cheerfulness which had formerly
+delighted him, and he left her in a less satisfied mood.
+
+Besides, the marquise had received a letter from Paris, in which her son
+declared that if his gambling debts were not paid by the first of August
+he would be completely disgraced, and nothing would remain for him
+except to end an existence which had lost all charm. The wretched mother
+again opened her heart to Barbara and, when she still resisted her
+lamentations and entreaties, threw herself on her knees and sobbing
+besought her to let her heart be softened.
+
+The sight of the aged noblewoman writhing like a maniac in the dust was
+so pitiful and touching that it melted Barbara's heart, and induced her
+to promise to use the first favourable opportunity to intercede with the
+Emperor in behalf of her son and his child, a little girl of six. From
+that time she awaited at every new interview the opportune moment; but
+when Charles was less gracious, the right time certainly had not come,
+and when he was especially loving the happiness of possessing his heart
+seemed to her so great that it appeared sinful to risk it for the sake
+of a stranger.
+
+This waiting and conflict with herself also did not remain unnoticed,
+and it was characteristic of Charles to reflect upon and seek reasons
+for it. Only the spell of her voice and her beauty had remained
+unchanged, and when she sang in the Golden Cross in the presence of the
+guests, who became more numerous the nearer drew the time of the opening
+of the Reichstag, fixed for the fifth of June, and he perceived their
+delight, vanity fanned the dying fire again, for he still loved her, and
+therefore felt associated with her and her successes.
+
+So the days became weeks, and though they brought Barbara a wealth of
+happiness, they were not free from gloomy and bitter hours.
+
+The marquise, who saw her son's doom drawing nearer and nearer, made the
+mealtimes and every moment which she spent with her a perfect hell. Frau
+Lerch continued to urge her, and now advised her to persuade the Emperor
+to rid her of the old tormentor.
+
+In another matter also she was at a loss what to do. The Wittenberg
+theologian, Erasmus Eckhart, found that his own songs, when she sang
+them to him, seemed entirely new, and the gratitude he felt merged into
+ardent love, the first which had taken possession of his young soul. But
+Barbara resolutely refused to receive his visits, and thereby deprived
+him of the possibility of opening his heart to her. So, in despair,
+he wandered about her house more and more frequently, and sent her one
+fiery love letter after another.
+
+To betray his unseemly conduct to the Emperor or to the confessor would
+have brought upon him too severe a punishment for an offence which,
+after all, was the most profound homage. She dared not go to the
+Hiltners, from fear of a fresh misunderstanding, and it would be a long
+time ere Wolf's health would permit him to be excited by such matters.
+
+So she was forced to content herself with censuring Erasmus's conduct,
+through Frau Lerch, in the harshest manner, and threatening to appeal
+to his foster-parents and, in the worst extremity, to the magistrate,
+to rid herself of his importunities. Nearly two thirds of May had passed
+when the Emperor found himself prevented by a second attack of gout from
+visiting her. But Barbara's heart drew her toward him so strongly that
+during the usual noon ride she hit upon an idea, for whose execution she
+immediately made preparations by secretly entreating young Count Tassis
+to lend her one of his suits of clothes.
+
+The merry page, a handsome boy of sixteen, who had already crossed
+rapiers with one of his companions for her sake, was about her height,
+and delighted to share a secret with her. His most expensive costume,
+with everything belonging to it, was placed in her room at twilight, and
+when night closed in, disguised as a page, she entered the litter and
+was carried to the Golden Cross, where Adrian received her and conducted
+her to his royal master.
+
+The elderly man thought he had never seen her look so charming as in the
+yellow velvet doublet with ash-gray facings, the gray silk hose, and the
+yellow and gray cap resting on her glittering golden hair.
+
+And the Emperor Charles was of the same opinion.
+
+Besides, her lively prank transported him back to his own youth, when
+he himself had glided more than once in page's attire to some beautiful
+young lady of the court, and gaily as in better days, tenderly as an
+ardent youth, he thanked her for her charming enterprise.
+
+After a few blissful hours, which crowded all that she had lately
+suffered into oblivion, she left him.
+
+When she again entered the little Prebrunn castle she would gladly have
+embraced the whole world.
+
+From the litter she had noticed a light in the windows of the marquise's
+sitting-room, but she could now look the poor old noblewoman freely in
+the face, for this time, sure of experiencing no sharp rebuff, she had
+found courage to speak of the son to her royal lover.
+
+True, as soon as Charles heard what she desired, he kindly requested
+her not to sully her beautiful lips with the name of a scoundrel who
+had long since forfeited every claim to his favour, and her mission was
+thereby frustrated; but she had now kept her promise.
+
+With the entreaty to spare him in future the pain of refusing any wish
+of the woman he loved, the disagreeable affair had been dismissed.
+
+When Barbara took the lute, he had begged the fairest of all troubadours
+to sing once more, before any other song, his beloved "Quia amore
+langueo," and the most vigorous applause was bestowed on every one which
+she afterward executed.
+
+Now she had done all that was possible for the marquise, but no power on
+earth should induce her to undertake anything of the sort a second time;
+She was saying this to herself as she entered the little castle.
+
+Let the old noblewoman come now!
+
+She was not long in doing so. But how she looked!
+
+The little gray curls done up in papers stood out queerly from her
+narrow head. Her haggard cheeks were destitute of rouge and lividly
+pale.
+
+Her black eyes glittered strangely from their deep sockets as if she
+were insane, and ragged pieces of her morning dress, which she had torn
+in a fit of helpless fury, hung down upon her breast.
+
+The sight made Barbara shudder. She suspected the truth.
+
+During her absence a new message of evil had reached the marquise.
+
+Unless ten thousand lire could be sent to her son at once, he would be
+condemned to the galleys, and his child would be abandoned to misery and
+disgrace.
+
+While speaking, the wretched mother, with trembling hands, tore out a
+locket which she wore on a little chain around her neck. It contained
+the angelic face, painted on ivory by an artist's hand, of a fair-haired
+little girl. The child bore her name, Barbara. The singer knew this. How
+often the affectionate grandmother had told her with sparkling eyes of
+her little "Babette"!
+
+The father chained to the rowers' bench among the most abominable
+ruffians, this loveliest of children perishing in hunger, misery,
+and shame--what a terrible picture! Barbara beheld it with tangible
+distinctness, and while the undignified old aristocrat, deprived of all
+self-control, sobbed and besought her to have compassion, the girl who
+had grown up amid poverty and care went back in memory to the days when,
+to earn money for a thin soup, a bit of dry bread, a small piece of
+cheap cow beef, or to protect herself from the importunity of an unpaid
+tradesman, she had washed laces with her own delicate hands and seen
+her nobly born, heroic father scratch crooked letters and scrawling
+ornaments upon common gray tin.
+
+The same fate, nay, one a thousand times worse, awaited this wonderfully
+lovely patrician child, whose father was to wield the oars in the
+galleys if no one interceded for the unfortunate man.
+
+What was life!
+
+From the height of happiness it led her directly to such an abyss of the
+deepest woe.
+
+What contrasts!
+
+A day, an hour had transported her from bitter poverty and torturing
+yearning to the side of the highest and greatest of monarchs, but who
+could tell for how long--how soon the fall into the gulf awaited her?
+
+A shudder ran through her frame, and a deep pity for the sweet creature
+whose coloured likeness she held in her hand seized upon her.
+
+She probably remembered her lover's refusal, and that she only needed
+to allude to it to release herself from the wailing old woman, but an
+invisible power sealed her lips. She was filled with an ardent desire
+to help, to avert this unutterable misery, to bring aid to this child,
+devoted to destruction.
+
+To rise above everything petty, and with the imperial motto "More,
+farther," before her eyes, to attain a lofty height from which to look
+down upon others and show her own generosity to them, had been the
+longing of her life. She was still permitted to feel herself the object
+of the love of the mightiest sovereign on earth, and should she be
+denied performing, by her own power, an act of deliverance to which
+heart and mind urged her?
+
+No, and again no!
+
+She was no longer poor Wawerl!
+
+She could and would show this, for, like an illumination, words which
+she had heard the day before in the Golden Cross had flashed into her
+memory.
+
+Master Wenzel Jamnitzer, the famous Nuremberg goldsmith, had addressed
+them to her in the imperial apartments, where he had listened to her
+singing the day before.
+
+He had come to consult with the Emperor Charles about the diadems which
+he wished to give his two nieces, the daughters of Ferdinand, King
+of the Romans, who were to be married in July in Ratisbon. Their
+manufacture had been intrusted to Master Jamnitzer, and after the
+concert the Nuremberg artist had thanked Barbara for the pleasure which
+he owed her. In doing so, he had noticed the Emperor's first gift,
+the magnificent star which she wore on her breast at the side of her
+squarenecked dress. Examining it with the eye of an expert, he had
+remarked that the central stone alone was worth an estate.
+
+If she deprived herself of this superb ornament, the despairing old
+mother would be consoled, and the lovely child saved from hunger and
+disgrace.
+
+With Barbara, thought, resolve, and action followed one another in rapid
+succession.
+
+"You shall have what you need to-morrow," she called to the marquise,
+kissed--obeying a hasty impulse--her little namesake's picture, rejected
+any expression of thanks from the astonished old dame, and went to rest.
+
+Frau Lerch had never seen her so radiant with happiness, yet she was
+irritated by the reserve of the girl for whom she thought she had
+sacrificed so much, yet whose new garments had already brought her more
+profit than the earnings of the three previous years.
+
+The next morning Master Jamnitzer called the valuable star his own,
+and pledged himself to keep the matter secret, and to obtain from the
+Fuggers a bill of exchange upon Paris for ten thousand lire.
+
+The honest man sent her through the Haller banking house a thousand
+ducats, that he might not be open to the reproach of having defrauded
+her.
+
+Yet the gold which she did not need for the marquise seemed to Barbara
+like money unjustly obtained. While she was riding out at noon, Frau
+Lerch found it in her chest, and thought that she now knew what had made
+the girl so happy the day before. She was all the more indignant when,
+soon after, Barbara gave half the new wealth to the Prebrunn town clerk
+to distribute among the poor journeymen potters whose huts had been
+burned down the previous night. The rest she kept to give to the
+relatives of her one-eyed maid-servant at home, who were in the direst
+poverty.
+
+For the first time she had felt the pleasure of interposing, like a
+higher power, in the destiny of others. What she had hoped from the
+greatness to which she had risen now appeared on the eve of being
+actually and wholly fulfilled.
+
+Even the strange manner in which the marquise thanked her for her
+generosity could but partially impair the exquisite sense of happiness
+which filled her heart.
+
+As soon as the old noblewoman heard that the bill of exchange for her
+son was on the way to Paris, she expressed her intention of thanking his
+Majesty for this noble donation.
+
+Startled and anxious, Barbara was obliged to forbid this, and to confess
+that, on the contrary, the Emperor had refused to do anything whatever
+for her son, and that morning, for little Babette's sake, she had used
+her own property.
+
+The marquise then angrily declared that a Marquise de Leria could accept
+such a favour without a blush solely from his Majesty. Even from an
+equal in station she must refuse gifts of such value. If Barbara was
+honest, she would admit that she had never, even by a syllable, asked
+for a donation, but always only for her intercession with his Majesty.
+Her hasty action made withdrawal impossible, but the humiliation which
+she had experienced through her was so hard to conquer that she could
+scarcely bring herself to feel grateful for a gift which, in itself, was
+certainly worthy of appreciation.
+
+In fact, from that time the marquise entirely changed her manner, and
+instead of flattering her ward as before, she treated her with haughty
+coldness, and sometimes remarked that poverty and hostility were often
+easier to bear than intrusive kindness and humiliating gifts.
+
+Hitherto Barbara had placed no one under obligation to be grateful, and
+therefore the ugliness of ingratitude was unknown to her.
+
+Now she was to become acquainted with it.
+
+At first this disappointment wounded her, but soon the marquise's
+intention of ridding herself, by this conduct, of a heavy debt became
+apparent, and she opposed to the base cunning a gay defence, but was
+then forced to encounter the marquise's condemnation of it as the
+outgrowth of an ungenerous soul.
+
+How unpleasant this was! Yet she kept what she had done for the old
+aristocrat and the way in which she had requited it a secret, even from
+Frau Lerch, especially as the Emperor soon alluded to his denial of her
+entreaty, and gave a description of young Leria which filled her with
+horror, and led to the conviction that the sacrifice which she had made
+for him and his little daughter had been utterly futile.
+
+Little Babette, she also heard, was cared for in the best possible
+manner, having been withdrawn front her father's influence long before
+and placed in charge of an estimable, wealthy, and aristocratic aunt,
+her mother's sister, who filled the latter's place.
+
+This act of charity had been utterly spoiled for the overhasty giver,
+and, while the glad remembrance of the pure delight which she had felt
+after her generous resolve faded more and more, she began to be uneasy
+about her reckless transaction with the Nuremberg goldsmith, for the
+Emperor during his very next visit had asked about the star, and in
+her confusion she had again been forced into a falsehood, and tried
+to excuse herself for so rarely wearing his beautiful present by the
+pretext that the gold pin which fastened it was bent.
+
+She could have inflicted various punishments upon herself for her
+precipitate yielding to a hastily awakened sympathy, for it would surely
+anger the Emperor if he learned how carelessly she had treated his first
+costly gift.
+
+Perhaps some hint of its sale had already reached his ears, for,
+although he had made no opposition to her apology, he afterward remained
+taciturn and irritable.
+
+Every subsequent interview with her lover was terribly shadowed by the
+dread that he might think of the unlucky ornament again.
+
+Yet, on this occasion also, fear prevented the brave girl from
+confessing the whole truth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+On St. Desiderius's Day--[May 23rd]--the Emperor again missed the star,
+and, as it was in the Golden Cross and the heat was great, Barbara
+replied that her dress was too thin for the heavy ornament. But the
+inquiry had made her fear of additional questions so great that she
+rejoiced over the news that her lover would not visit her the next day.
+
+On the day before yesterday Christoph Madrucci, the Cardinal of Trent,
+his warlike brother Hildebrand, and the Count of Arco had arrived,
+bringing news from the Council; but on the morrow Duke Maurice of Saxony
+was expected, and the most important negotiations were to be carried on
+not only with him, but also with the former, each individual being dealt
+with singly and at different hours.
+
+In the evening the welcome guest was to be entertained by music and, if
+agreeable to Barbara, by singing also. On the twenty-fifth the city had
+decided to give a May festival under the lindens in honour of the duke.
+The Emperor and the whole court were of course invited.
+
+Barbara then acknowledged that she was fond of such magnificent
+exhibitions, and begged Charles to allow her to attend the festival with
+the marquise.
+
+The answer was an assent, but the Emperor gave it after some delay, and
+with the remark that he could devote little time to her, and expected
+that she would subject herself to some restraint.
+
+True, the painful surprise which her features expressed vividly enough
+led him to add the apology that, on account of the presence of the two
+cardinals--for one had come from Augsburg--he would be compelled to
+deny himself the pleasure of showing her anything more than courteous
+consideration in public; but she could not succeed in conquering the
+mortification which, besides the grief of disappointment, had taken
+possession of her sensitive soul.
+
+Charles probably perceived, by the alternate flushing and paling of her
+cheeks, what was passing in her thoughts, and would gladly have soothed
+her; but he refrained, and forced himself to be content with the few
+conciliatory words which he had already addressed to her.
+
+Great events were impending. If he decided upon war, nothing, not even
+love, could be permitted to encroach too heavily upon his time and
+strength; but Barbara and the demands which her love made upon him
+would surely do this if he did not early impose moderation upon her and
+himself.
+
+He had heard nothing about the sale of the star, and whatever had
+displeased him in Barbara's conduct during the last few weeks she had
+succeeded in effacing. Yet he had often been on the point of breaking
+off his relations with her, for just at this time it was of infinite
+importance that he should keep himself free and strong in mind and body.
+
+Moreover, in a few days he expected his brother Ferdinand with his grown
+children. Two of his nieces were to be married here in his presence,
+and he felt that he ought not to let either them or the Cardinal of
+Trent--who was coming from the Council and would return there--see how
+strong were the fetters with which, at his age and just at this time, he
+allowed himself to be bound by love for a beautiful singer.
+
+The wisdom which had long been characteristic of him commanded him to
+sever abruptly the connection with the woman he loved and remove her
+from his path. But the demands of the heart and the senses were too
+powerful for the man who indulged to excess in fiery wine and spiced
+foods, though he knew that greater abstinence would have spared him
+torturing pangs.
+
+He had succeeded hundreds of times in obtaining the victory over other
+urgent wishes, and conquering strong affections. But this was different,
+for separation from Barbara must, at any rate, destroy the exquisite
+late happiness of the newly unfolded enjoyment of life, and for this
+heavy loss he saw no compensation. To part from her entirely, therefore,
+seemed to him impossible--at any rate, for the present. On the other
+hand, the duty of the sovereign and consideration for his relatives both
+commanded him to restrict the demands of her passionate young heart and
+his own, which had so recently awaked from slumber.
+
+He had recognised this necessity, and considered the pros and cons
+precisely as if the matter were a political question. He who, without
+the quiver of an eyelash, had sent many a band of soldiers to certain
+death in order to execute a well-conceived plan of battle, was compelled
+to inflict keen suffering upon the woman he loved and himself, that
+greater interests might not be injured.
+
+He had commenced the retreat that day.
+
+The constraint which it was necessary to impose upon themselves must be
+equally painful to them both, yet this could not be altered.
+
+Had it affected him alone, in defiance of his sense of rank and the
+tyranny of court etiquette, he would have led Barbara, attired like a
+true queen, with his own hand to the festival under the lindens, but the
+gratification of this heartfelt wish would have entailed too many evil
+consequences.
+
+Toying with her, who so quickly understood and so gratefully accepted
+the gifts of the intellect which he offered, was so sweet, but in these
+days it must not be permitted to impair mental repose, keen thought.
+What he had to discuss and settle with Maurice of Saxony and Cardinal
+Madrucci was of too momentous importance to the destiny of the world, to
+the Church, to his fame as a sovereign, to his own greatness and that of
+his race.
+
+He would have liked best to send Barbara away from Ratisbon, as he had
+despatched her father three weeks before, and not recall her until these
+decisive days were over; but this was prohibited by his ardent desire
+for her presence, her clever questions and appreciative listening,
+and, above all, her singing, which he valued perhaps even more than her
+beauty.
+
+Had he confided to Barbara the important reasons which compelled him to
+impose restrictions for a short time upon the demands of his heart,
+she, who esteemed his grandeur little less than his love, would have
+cheerfully submitted to what was necessary and right; but truthfulness
+and frankness were far more characteristic of her nature than of that of
+the politician who was accustomed to the tricks and evasions of the
+time of Machiavelli. He never lacked credible reasons when he desired
+to place an intention in a favourable light, and where he wished to keep
+Barbara away from him, during the next few days, such were certainly to
+be found in each individual instance. Suppose the woman he loved did not
+accept them? So much the worse for her; he was the Emperor.
+
+As for Barbara, with the subtle power of presentiment of a loving heart
+she felt that his passion was waning, and tortured her mobile intellect
+to discover the right cause.
+
+If the luckless star was connected with it, why had he not blamed her
+openly?
+
+No, no!
+
+Adrian had already predicted it; his constancy could not be relied upon,
+and if war was in prospect he forgot everything that was usually dear to
+his heart, and the appearance of the Duke of Saxony certainly seemed to
+indicate an outbreak. Many an intimation of the Emperor, Granvelle, and
+the almoner seemed to suggest this, and, deeply troubled, she went to
+rest.
+
+During the silent night her worst fears became certainty.
+
+She recalled to mind every hour which they had spent alone together.
+Some change had certainly taken place in him of late.
+
+During her visit as a page the passion of former days had once more
+glowed hotly, as the fire on the hearth blazes up brightly before it
+expires.
+
+The alteration had begun with the reproaches for her visit to the
+suffering Wolf. Now he was aiming to rid himself of her, though with
+a considerate hand. And she, what could she do to win back the man who
+held every fixed resolve as firmly as the rocks of the cliff hold the
+pine which grows from them?
+
+Nothing, except to bear patiently whatever he inflicted upon her.
+
+This, however, seemed to her so impossible and painful, so humiliating
+and shocking, that she sprang from her bed and for a long time paced
+with bare feet the sleeping-room, which was but dimly lighted by the
+lamp. Yet all her thoughts and pondering were futile, and when she lay
+down again she slept until mass.
+
+By daylight she found that she had regarded matters in far too dark a
+light. True, Charles probably no longer loved her as ardently as before,
+yet she need scarcely fear the worst at present. But the bare thought
+of having so soon lost the power to bind him to her aroused a storm of
+feeling in her passionate soul, and when it subsided bitter thoughts
+followed, and a series of plans which, on closer examination, proved
+impracticable.
+
+The day dragged slowly along.
+
+During the ride in the country she was so depressed and downcast that
+her companions asked what troubled her.
+
+The lonely evening seemed endless. A short letter from her father, which
+informed her that he had not expected too much of himself, and was in
+good health, she cast aside after reading. During the night the feeling
+of unhappiness and apprehension increased. But the next morning the sun
+shone brightly into her windows, and after mass a messenger from the
+Golden Cross announced that Duke Maurice of Saxony had arrived, and in
+the afternoon his Majesty wished to see her and hear her sing.
+
+This news cheered her wonderfully; but while Fran Lerch was dressing her
+she, too, missed the star, and it seemed to Barbara that with it she had
+lost a portion of her charm.
+
+In going out, the marquise met her in the corridor, but Barbara passed
+without returning her greeting.
+
+When she arrived, the company had assembled in the chapel. The Duke of
+Saxony sat between the Emperor and Granvelle.
+
+What a handsome, knightly man this Maurice was! A prince from head to
+foot, young, and yet, while talking with the Emperor and Granvelle,
+grave and self-possessed as if he felt himself their peer.
+
+And what fire glowed in his bright glance whenever it rested upon her!
+
+In the chase and over the wine-cup this brave soldier and subtle
+statesman was said scarcely to have his equal. Many tales of his
+successes with fair women had been told her. He pleased her, too, in
+spite of the bold, free manner in which he gazed at her, and which she
+would not have tolerated in any one else.
+
+After she had finished the last song, the duke expressed his
+appreciation in gay, flattering words, at the same time complimenting
+her beauty.
+
+There had been something remarkably winning in his compliments; but when
+she pleased her imperial lover, the acknowledgment was very different.
+Then there was no mere praise clad in the form of enthusiastic homage,
+but in addition always acute remarks. With the recognition blended
+opinions which revealed the true connoisseur.
+
+This Maurice was certainly wise and brave, and, moreover, far handsomer
+than his imperial master; but what illumined Charles's prominent brow
+and brilliant eyes she had never beheld in any one else. To him, to him
+alone her heart belonged, worthy of esteem as the duke, who was so much
+his junior, appeared.
+
+While taking leave the Saxon held her hand in his for a time and, as
+she permitted it, she met a glance from her lover which warned her to be
+ware of incautious familiarity with this breaker of hearts.
+
+Barbara felt as if a sudden brightness had filled her soul, and on her
+way home the seed which that look had cast into it began to put forth
+vigorous shoots.
+
+The ardent young Saxon duke would have been a dangerous rival for any
+one, even the handsomest and most powerful of men. Suppose that she
+should profit by the wish he showed so plainly, and through jealousy
+bind the man whom she loved anew and more firmly than ever?
+
+She probably admitted to herself that in doing so she would incur a
+great risk, but it seemed easier to lose her greatest treasure entirely
+than only to half possess it; and when she had once looked this thought
+in the face it attracted her, as with the gaze of a basilisk, more and
+more strongly.
+
+The afternoon of the following day, with the marquise, she entered the
+scene of festivity under the lindens.
+
+To punish Barbara for not returning her greeting, the gray-haired lady
+in waiting had at first been inclined to excuse herself on the plea of
+illness; but the taste for amusement with which her nature was still
+pervaded, as well as curiosity to see the much-discussed Duke Maurice,
+and the desire to watch Barbara's conduct, drew her to the place where
+the festival was held.
+
+Ratisbon had done her best to receive this guest, whom she especially
+desired to honour, with all possible magnificence. Flags and streamers
+bearing the colours of the empire, with the Burgundian red and gold
+of the Emperor, the silver-crossed keys on a red field of the city of
+Ratisbon, and with the Saxon coats of arms, rose amid the leafy tops of
+the lindens, and floated from tall poles in the sunny May air. The blue
+and yellow Saxon flag, with the black and yellow chevron in the field
+and a lozenged chaplet from the left corner to the top, was more
+frequently seen than any other banner.
+
+Even though this festival was held for Duke Maurice, no one could fail
+to notice how much more space was given to his escutcheon than to the
+Emperor's.
+
+The entertainment had opened at noon with a tournament and riding at the
+ring. The duke had participated in the sport a short time, and carried
+off several rings on his sword while in full career.
+
+The Emperor had held aloof from this game, in which he had formerly
+joined gladly and with much skill, but, on the other hand, he had
+promised to appear at the festival under the lindens, which was to last
+until night. The Council had had a magnificent tent erected for him,
+Duke Maurice, and the court, and in order to ornament the interior
+suitably had allowed the use of the beautiful tapestries in the town
+hall. These represented familiar incidents from famous love tales:
+Tristan and Isolde seeing the face of King Mark in the mirror of the
+spring, Frau Venus as, surrounded by her court, she receives Tannhauser
+in the Horselberg, and similar scenes. Other art textiles showed
+incidents in the lives of forest people--little men and women in striped
+linen garments, wonderful trees and birds such as no human eye ever
+beheld--but above the hangings a row of coats of arms again appeared, in
+which the imperial escutcheon alternated with the Saxon.
+
+The front of the tent, covered with red and white material, stood open,
+permitting the guests who did not belong to the court to survey the
+interior.
+
+Artistic platters, large dishes, in which dainty sweets and fruits were
+gracefully heaped and the cathedral of Ratisbon and other devices stood,
+the costly silverware of the city, and many beautifully formed wine
+flagons attracted the gaze. Beside these were dishes of roast meats,
+fish, and cakes for the illustrious guests.
+
+Stewards and guards of the Council, clad in red and white, with the
+crossed keys in silver embroidery on the shoulder, offered refreshments.
+Two superb thrones stood ready for the Emperor and the duke, easy-chairs
+for the cardinals, princes, and counts, stools for the barons, knights,
+and ladies.
+
+Opposite to the tent stands were erected for the Council, the patrician
+families, and the other ladies and gentlemen whom the city had invited
+to the festival. In their midst rose a large, richly decorated stage for
+the Emperor's orchestra, which, with his Majesty's permission, had
+been induced to play a few pieces, and by the side of the stands was
+a towerlike structure, from whose summit the city pipers of Ratisbon,
+joined by those of Landshut, were to be heard.
+
+A large, round stage, encircled by a fence of young birch logs, had been
+built for dancing amid the leafy lindens, and stood directly opposite to
+the imperial tent. Near the linden-shaded square at the shooting
+house were posted the cannon and howitzers, which were to receive the
+distinguished guests with loud volleys and lend fresh animation to the
+festival.
+
+The Lindenplatz belonged to the same suburb of Prebrunn in which stood
+the little castle of the Prince Abbot of Berchtesgaden, which Barbara
+occupied. So, during the short distance which she and the marquise had
+to traverse in litters, uproar, music, and the thunder of artillery
+greeted them.
+
+This exerted an intoxicating influence upon Barbara, who had been so
+long absent from such scenes. At home she had abandoned her intention
+of arousing the Emperor's jealousy; now her excited nerves urged her to
+execute it. The advantage she hoped to derive was well worth the risk.
+But if the bold game failed, and the proud, sensitive monarch should be
+seriously angry----
+
+Just then shots crashed again, music and shouts echoed more loudly in
+her ears.
+
+"A Blomberg does not fear," and with newly awakened defiance she closed
+her ears to the warning voice.
+
+The festival was commencing.
+
+She, too, would be gay for once, and if she was cautious the bold
+enterprise must succeed. A merry evening awaited her and, if all went
+well, on the morrow, after a few unpleasant hours, her lover's whole
+heart would once more be hers.
+
+When she reached the scene of festivity it was already thronged with
+richly attired princes and counts, knights and ladies, citizens of
+Ratisbon, as well as nobles and distinguished townspeople from the
+neighbouring castles, citadels, and cities.
+
+Music and a loud medley of shouts and conversation greeted her at her
+entrance. Her heart throbbed quickly, for she did not forget her daring
+purpose, and a throng of memories of modest but more carefree days
+rushed upon her.
+
+Here, when a little girl, she had attended the May festival
+Virgatum--which owed its name to the green rods or twigs with which the
+school children adorned themselves--and played under yonder lindens with
+Wolf, with the wilder Erasmus, and other boys. How delightful it had
+been!--and when the enlarged band of city pipers struck up a gavotte
+her feet unconsciously kept time, and she could not help thinking of the
+last dance in the New Scales, the recruiting officer who had guided her
+so firmly and skilfully in the Schwabeln, and through him of her father,
+of whom she had not thought again since the good news received two
+evenings before.
+
+She still stood at the crowded entrance gazing around her.
+
+The interior of the imperial tent could not be seen from here, but she
+could overlook the stand of the noble families, and there she saw her
+cousins Anne Mirl and Nandl Woller, with Martina Hiltner beside them.
+
+She had refused to receive all three in her little castle at Prebrunn;
+the true reason she alone knew. Her excuse had perhaps appeared to the
+girls trivial and unkind.
+
+Now her glance met Nandl's, and her warmhearted friend beckoned eagerly
+to her; but her mother drew her arm down, and it was evident that the
+corpulent lady said something reproving.
+
+Barbara looked away from the stand, and the question where her place was
+here suddenly disturbed her.
+
+She had received no invitation from the Council of the city, and perhaps
+she would have been refused admittance to the stand. She did not know
+whether before the Emperor's arrival she would be received in the court
+tent, which Cardinal Madrucci of Trent, in superb scarlet robes, was
+just approaching, and an oppressive anxiety again subdued the courage
+which had just resolved on the boldest venture.
+
+At that moment Baron Malfalconnet saw her, and instantly approached.
+Gaily offering one arm to her and the other to the marquise, he escorted
+both to the tent, whispering meanwhile in Barbara's ear, "Glowing
+summer, between spring and winter," and, as soon as he had taken them to
+the buffet, off he hurried again to offer his arm to the Margravine of
+Leuchtenberg, who was followed by two charming daughters, with pretty
+pages bearing their trains.
+
+How the gold, jewels, and shining armour in the tent glittered! How the
+crimson glowed, the plumes waved, the heavy velvet attracted the eye
+by rich hues, the light laces by their delicate fineness! How the silk
+rustled, and one superb piece of fur vied with the other in costliness,
+the white with the red rose in beauty!
+
+Barbara involuntarily looked at her sea-green brocade, and felt its
+heavy texture and the softness of the fur trimming on the overdress,
+which at home she had called a masterpiece of Frau Lerch's work. She
+could be satisfied with her appearance, and the string of pearls on her
+neck and the bracelet which her lover had sent to her, after her visit
+in the page's costume, were also costly ornaments. The magnificent star
+was missing; in its place she wore at the square-cut neck of her
+dress two beautiful halfblown roses, and her mirror had showed her how
+becoming they were.
+
+She did not need gold or gems. What gave her power to subdue the hearts
+of men was of higher value.
+
+Yet, when she mingled among the other dignitaries, she felt like an
+intruder in this circle.
+
+The marquise had left her, and joined those of her own rank. Most of the
+ladies were strangers to Barbara, and she was avoided by those whom she
+knew; but, to make amends, she was soon surrounded by many aristocratic
+gentlemen, and her mobile nature speedily made her forget what had just
+depressed her joyous spirit.
+
+Then the cannon and culverins thundered louder, the blare of trumpets
+rent the air with deafening shrillness, the ringing of bells in all the
+steeples of Ratisbon, the exulting shouts of the crowd upon the stands
+and in the whole Lindenplatz poured in mighty waves of sound into the
+tent, where the nobles and aristocratic ladies around Barbara now raised
+their voices also.
+
+With a throbbing heart she mingled her cheers with those of the others
+and, like them, waved her handkerchief and her fan.
+
+The man whom she loved was approaching! This crashing and echoing, this
+wild uproar of enthusiastic shouts and cries, this flutter of flags
+and waving of handkerchiefs were all in his honour and, stirred to her
+inmost soul by impetuous enthusiasm and ardent gratitude, her eyes grew
+dim with tears, and she joined far more loudly and freely in the
+cheers of the multitude than the aristocrats around her, to whom court
+etiquette dictated reserve on all occasions, even this one.
+
+The loving woman saw nothing save the man who was advancing. How should
+she have noticed the scornful glances which her unrestrained vivacity
+elicited?
+
+Her gaze was fixed solely upon the one sun to which the little stars
+around her owed their paler or brighter radiance. She scarcely noticed
+even the handsome young prince at Charles's side. Yet Duke Maurice would
+have been well worthy of her whole attention, for with what a free,
+proud step he advanced, while his imperial master used his arm as a
+support!
+
+Charles also looked magnificent in the Castilian court costume, with the
+chain of the Grand Master of the Golden Fleece about his neck; but
+the young Saxon duke was considerably his superior in height, and the
+silver-embroidered, steel-gray suit of Spanish cut and the black velvet
+mantle trimmed with a border of marten fur, were extremely becoming.
+Both saluted the crowd that welcomed them so warmly and loudly,
+gazing meanwhile at the festal scene, the Emperor with haughty, almost
+indifferent dignity, the duke with less reserve and more eager gestures.
+
+Barbara knew the sovereign, and when she saw him thrust his lower lip
+slightly forward she was sure that something vexed him.
+
+Perhaps she ought not to venture to irritate the lion that day.
+
+Was his anger roused by the boldness of the city magistrates, who dared
+to favour the Saxon escutcheon and banners so openly? It seemed to her
+exasperating, punishable insolence. But perhaps in his greatness he did
+not grudge this distinction to a guest so much his inferior, and it was
+only the gout again inflicting its pangs upon his poor tortured foot.
+
+The way was strewn with leaves and green branches, and the Saxon was
+leading her lord directly over the hard little boughs in the middle of
+the path. Barbara would fain have called to him to look at the ground
+and not up at the banners and escutcheons bearing his colours, whose
+number seemed to flatter him. Had Charles been leaning on her arm, she
+would have performed the office of guide better.
+
+At last the distinguished pair, with the companions who followed them,
+reached the tent and took their seats upon the thrones. Again Maurice
+gazed eagerly around him, but Charles vouchsafed the Lindenplatz and
+stands only a few careless glances. He had no time to do more, for the
+young Landgravines of Leuchtenber; and several other newcomers at court
+were presented to him by the Count of Nassau, and, after greeting the
+occupants of the tent by a gracious gesture, the monarch addressed a few
+kind words to each.
+
+Barbara was obliged to content herself with the others, yet her heart
+ached secretly that he gave her no word of welcome.
+
+Then, when the performances began and the chamberlains and major-domo
+seated the aristocratic ladies and older dignitaries according to their
+sex and rank, and she was thus placed very far in the rear, she felt
+it as a grievous injustice. Was she no longer the love of the man who
+reigned over everything here? And since no one could deny this claim,
+why need she be satisfied with a place beside the insignificant ladies
+of honour of the princelings who were present?
+
+How forsaken and ill-treated she seemed to herself!
+
+But there was Don Luis Quijada already making his way to her to bring a
+greeting from his Majesty and escort her to a place from which she could
+have a better view of what the city had arranged for the entertainment
+of the distinguished guest.
+
+So she was not wholly forgotten by her lover, but with what scanty alms
+he fed her!
+
+What did she care for the exhibition which was about to begin?
+
+The minutes dragged on at a snail's pace while the lanterns on the
+lindens and poles, the torches, and pitch pans were lighted.
+
+Had not the gentlemen and ladies been so completely separated, it
+might perhaps have been a little gay. But, as it was, no one of the
+aristocratic women who surrounded her granted her even one poor word;
+but the number of glances, open and secret, cast at her became all the
+greater as one noble dame whispered to another that she was the singer
+whom his Majesty condescended to distinguish in so remarkable a manner.
+
+To know that she was thus watched might be endured, as she was aware
+that she could be satisfied with her appearance, but vanity compelled
+her to assume an expression and bearing which would not disappoint
+the gazers, and after the performances began this imposed a wearisome
+restraint.
+
+Once only was her solitude in the midst of this great company pleasantly
+interrupted, for the Bishop of Arras, without troubling himself about
+the separation of the sexes, had sought her out and whispered that he
+had something to ask of her, whose details they would discuss later. On
+the evening of the day after to-morrow his Majesty's most distinguished
+guests, with their ladies, were to assemble at his house. If she desired
+to place him under the deepest obligations, she would join them there
+and adorn the festival with her singing. Barbara asked in a low tone
+whether the Emperor would also be present, and the statesman, smiling,
+answered that court etiquette prohibited such things. Yet it was not
+impossible that, as a special favour, his Majesty might listen for
+a short time in the festal hall, only he feared that the gout might
+interpose--the evil guest was already giving slight warnings of its
+approach.
+
+Then, without waiting for a reply, the young minister went back to his
+royal master; but his invitation exerted a disturbing influence
+upon Barbara. She would have been more than glad to accept, for
+the entertainments of the Bishop of Arras were unequalled in varied
+attractions, magnificence, and gaiety, and what a satisfaction to her
+ambition it would be to sing before such an audience, dine at the same
+table with such ladies and gentlemen! She knew also how heavily this
+man's favour would weigh in the scales with the Emperor, yet to appear
+at the banquet without her lover's knowledge was utterly impossible,
+and just now she felt reluctant to ask his permission. What heavy chains
+loaded the favoured woman who possessed the love of this greatest of
+sovereigns!
+
+However, reflections concerning Granvelle's invitation passed away
+the time until the lighting of the Lindenplatz was completed. Then the
+shrill blare of trumpets again rent the air, the city pipers in the
+towers struck up a gay march, and the entertainment began.
+
+The gods of Olympus, led by Fame and Fortune, offered their homage to
+the Emperor. A youth from the school of poets, attired as the goddess
+of Fame, bewailed in well-rhymed verses that for a long time no one
+had given her so much to do as the Emperor Charles. His comrade, who,
+bearing a cornucopia in his arms, represented Fortune, assured her
+companion, in still more bombastic verse, that she should certainly
+expect far more from her, the goddess of Fame, in favour of his Majesty.
+This would continue until her own end and that of all the Olympians,
+because the Emperor Charles himself was an immortal. He had made them
+both subject to him. Fortune as well as Fame must obey his sign. But
+there was another younger friend of the gods for whom, on account of the
+shortness of his life, they had been able to do less, but for whom they
+also held in readiness their best and greatest gifts. He, too, would
+succeed in rendering them his subjects. While speaking, Fortune pointed
+with the cornucopia and Fame with the trumpet to Duke Maurice, and
+besought their indulgent lord and master, the Emperor Charles, to be
+permitted to show some of their young favourite's possessions, by whose
+means he, too, would succeed in retaining them in his service.
+
+Then Pallas Athene appeared with the university city of Leipsic, the
+latter laden with all sorts of symbols of knowledge. Next came Plutus,
+the god of Wealth, followed by Freiberg miners bearing large specimens
+of silver ore in buckets and baskets; and, lastly, Mars, the god of War,
+leading by a long chain two camels on which rode captive and fettered
+Turks.
+
+During these spectacles, which were followed by other similar ones,
+Barbara had been thinking of her own affairs, and gazed more frequently
+at her lover and his distinguished guests than at the former.
+
+But the next group interested her more because it seemed to honour the
+Emperor's taste for astronomy, of which he had often talked with her.
+
+On a long cart, drawn by powerful stallions, appeared a gigantic
+firmament in the shape of a hemisphere, on whose upper surface the sun,
+moon, and stars were seen shining in radiant light. The moon passed
+through all her changes, the sun and planets moved, and from the dome
+echoed songs and lute-playing, which were intended to represent the
+music of the spheres. Another chorus was heard from a basket of flowers
+of stupendous size. Among the natural and artificial blossoms sat and
+lay upon leaves and in the calyxes of the flowers child genii, who flung
+to the Emperor beautiful bouquets, and into the laps and at the feet of
+the ladies in the tent smaller ones and single flowers.
+
+Barbara, too, did not go with empty hands. The Cupid who had thrown
+his to her was the little Maltese Hannibal, who sang with other boys as
+"Voices of the Flowers," and later was to take part in the great chorus.
+
+This friendly remembrance of her young fellow-artist cheered Barbara,
+and when a fight began, which was carried on by a dozen trained
+champions brought from Strasburg expressly for this purpose, she turned
+her attention to it.
+
+At first this dealing blows at one another with blunt weapons offered
+her little amusement; but when shouts from the tent and the stands
+cheered the men from the Mark, and powerful blows incensed to fury those
+who were struck, the scene began to enthral her.
+
+A handsome, agile youth, to her sincere regret, had just fallen, but
+swiftly recovered his elasticity, and, springing to his feet, belaboured
+his opponent, a clumsy giant, so skilfully and vigorously that the
+bright blood streamed down his ugly face and big body. Barbara's cheeks
+flushed with sympathy. That was right. Skill and grace ought everywhere
+to conquer hideous rude force.
+
+If she had been a man she would have found her greatest happiness, as
+her father did, in battle, in measuring her own strength with another's.
+Now she was obliged to defend herself with other weapons than blunt
+swords, and when she saw the champions, six against six, again rush upon
+one another, and one side drive the other back, her vivid imagination
+transported her into the midst of the victors, and it seemed as if the
+marquise and the whole throng of arrogant dames in the tent, as well as
+the Ratisbon women on the stands who had insulted her by their haughty
+airs of virtue, were fleeing from her presence.
+
+How repulsive these envious, hypocritical people were! How she hated
+everything that threatened to estrange her lover's heart! To them also
+belonged the scoundrel who, she supposed, had betrayed the sale of the
+star to the Emperor. She resolved to confess to Charles how she had been
+led to commit this offence, which was indeed hard to forgive. Perhaps
+all would then be well again, for in this unfortunate action she could
+recognise the sole wrong which she had ever inflicted upon her lover.
+She could not help attributing his humiliating manner to it alone, for
+her love had always remained the same, and only yesterday, after she had
+sung before the Duke of Saxony, Appenzelder, who never flattered, had
+assured her that her voice had gained in power, her expression in depth,
+and she herself felt that it was so.
+
+Music was still the firmest bond that united her to her lover. So long
+as her art remained faithful, he could not abandon her. This conviction
+was transformed into certainty when the final performance began, and the
+Ratisbon choir, under the direction of Damian Feys, commenced the mighty
+hymn with which the composer, Jean Courtois, had greeted the Emperor
+Charles in Cambray:
+
+"Venite populi terrai"--"Come hither, ye nations of the earth"--this
+motet for four voices called imperiously to all mankind like a joyous
+summons.
+
+"Ave Cesar, ave majestas sacra," sounded in solemn, religious tones
+the greeting to the greatest of monarchs. It seemed to transport the
+listener to the summit of the cathedral, as the choir now called to the
+ruler that the earth was full of his renown. The Ratisbon singers and
+the able Feys did their best, and this mighty act of homage of all the
+nations of the earth by no means failed to produce its effect upon him
+to whom it was addressed.
+
+While Barbara listened, deeply agitated, she did not avert her eyes from
+her lover's face, which was brightly illumined by a pyramid of candles
+on each side of the two thrones.
+
+Every trace of weariness, indifference, and discomfort had vanished from
+Charles's features. His heart, like hers--she knew it--was now throbbing
+higher. If he had just been enduring pain, this singing must have driven
+it away or lessened it, and he had certainly felt gratefully what power
+dwells in the divine art.
+
+This noble composition, Barbara realized it, would again draw her near
+her lover, and the confirmation of this hope was not delayed, for as
+soon as the last notes of the motet and the storm of applause that
+followed had died away, the Emperor, amid the renewed roar of the
+artillery, rose and looked around him--surely for her.
+
+The good citizens of Ratisbon! No matter how much more bunting they had
+cut up in honour of the Saxon duke than of the Emperor, how bombastic
+were the verses composed and repeated in praise of Maurice, this paean
+of homage put all their efforts to shame. It suited only one, lauded
+a grandeur and dignity which stood firm as indestructible cliffs, and
+which no one here possessed save the Emperor Charles.
+
+Who would have ventured to apply this motet to the brave and clever
+Saxon, high as he, too, towered above most of his peers? What did the
+nations of the earth know about him? How small was the world still that
+was full of his renown!
+
+This singing had reminded both princes of Barbara, and they looked for
+her. The Emperor perceived her first, beckoned kindly to her, and, after
+conversing with her for a while so graciously that it aroused the envy
+of the other ladies in the tent, he said eagerly: "Not sung amiss for
+your Ratisbon, I should think. But how this superb composition was
+sung six years ago at Catnbray, under the direction of Courtois
+himself!--that, yes, that is one of the things never to be forgotten.
+Thirty-four singers, and what power, what precision, and, moreover, the
+great charm of novelty! I have certainly been permitted to hear many
+things----"
+
+Here he paused; the Cardinal of Trent was approaching with the Bishop of
+Arras.
+
+The younger Granvelle, with his father, had also been present at
+the performance of this motet of homage at Cambray, and respectfully
+confirmed his Majesty's remark, speaking with special warmth of the
+fervour and delicacy with which Jean Courtois had conducted the choir.
+
+The cardinal had no wish to detract from the merits of the Netherland
+maestro, but he called the Emperor's attention to young Orlando di
+Lasso, the leader of the orchestra in the Lateran at Rome, who, in his
+opinion, was destined as a composer and conductor to cast into the shade
+all the musicians of his time. He was born in Hennegau. The goddess of
+Music continued to honour the Netherlands with her special favour.
+
+During this conversation Barbara had stepped modestly aside. Charles
+glanced toward her several times to address her again, but when the
+Bishop of Arras whispered that, before the commencement of the festival,
+the cardinal had received despatches from the Council and from Rome, he
+motioned to both prelates to follow him, and, paying no further heed
+to Barbara--nay, without even vouchsafing her a farewell wave of the
+hand--conducted them to the rear of the tent.
+
+Again the girl's heart ached in her abandonment. Duke Maurice, too, had
+vanished. When he saw the Emperor address her he had left the tent.
+
+Dancing had begun, and he was now accepting the invitation of the
+magistrate Ambrosius Ammann to inaugurate the young people's pleasure as
+leader of the Polish dance.
+
+For a time Barbara stood as if spellbound to the spot where her lover
+had so suddenly turned away from her.
+
+She was again experiencing what Adrian had predicted--politics made
+Charles forget everything else, even love. How would it be when war
+actually came?
+
+Now, after the Emperor had showed her that he still deemed her worthy
+of regard, she felt for the first time thoroughly neglected, and with
+difficulty restrained her tears. She would have liked to follow Charles,
+and at every peril whisper softly, so that he alone could hear, yet with
+all the sharpness of her resentment, that it was unchivalrous to leave
+her standing here like an outcast, and that she demanded to learn why
+she had forfeited his love.
+
+The wild throbbing of her heart impeded her breathing, and, in the
+indignation of her soul, she longed to escape fresh humiliation and to
+leave the festival.
+
+But again Baron Malfalconnet appeared as a preserver in the hour of
+need, and, with the profound submissiveness bordering upon mockery which
+he always showed her, asked why she had so speedily deprived his Majesty
+of the pleasure of her society. Barbara gave way to her wrath and, while
+vehemently forbidding the unseemly jibe, glanced with a bitter smile
+toward the Emperor, who, in conversation with the two dignitaries,
+seemed to have forgotten everything around him.
+
+"The destiny of the world," observed the baron, "can not be set to
+dance music. The domain of your obedient admirer, Malfalconnet, on the
+contrary, obeys solely the heart throbs in this loyal breast; and if
+you, fairest of women, will allow yourself to be satisfied with so small
+a realm of sovereignty, it is at your disposal, together with these
+tolerably agile feet, which still wait in vain for the well-merited
+imperial gout."
+
+The sharp refusal which this proposition received amused the baron
+instead of offending him, and passing into a more conversational tone,
+he proposed to her to leave this abode of ennui, where even the poor
+satyrs on the hangings were holding their big hands over their mouths to
+hide their yawns, and go with him to the dancing floor.
+
+Barbara laid her hand on his arm and followed him to the pleasure ground
+under the lindens, where the pretty daughters of the Ratisbon noble
+families had just commenced a dance with the gentlemen belonging to
+their circle.
+
+Barbara had gone to school, exchanged kisses, and was a relative or
+friend of most of these young girls in light gala dresses, adorned with
+coloured flowers, whose names Malfalconnet asked, yet, after an interval
+of these few weeks, she met them like a stranger.
+
+The love which united her to the Emperor had raised her far above them.
+
+Accustomed to give herself up entirely to the gifts which the present
+offered, she had turned her back on Ratisbon and its inhabitants, with
+whom, during this period of happiness she could easily dispense, as if
+they were a forgotten world. There was no one in her native city whom
+she seriously missed or to whom she was strongly drawn. That she, too,
+offered these people little, and was of small importance, self-love had
+never permitted her to realize, and therefore she felt an emotion of
+painful surprise when she perceived the deep gulf which separated her
+from her fellow-citizens of both sexes.
+
+Now her old friends and acquaintances showed her plainly enough how
+little they cared for her withdrawal.
+
+Pretty Elspet Zohrer, with whom she had contended for the recruiting
+officer, Pyramus Kogel, was standing opposite to her, by her partner's
+side, in the same row with charming little Mietz Schiltl, Anne Mirl
+Woller, her cousin, Marg Thun, and the others.
+
+The Zauner, which they were dancing with a solemn dignity that aroused
+the baron's mirth, afforded them an opportunity to look around them, and
+they eagerly availed themselves of it; nay, they almost all glanced at
+Barbara, and then, with evident intention, away from her, after Elspet
+Zohrer, with a contemptuous elevation of her dainty little snub nose,
+had ignored her schoolmate's greeting.
+
+Barbara drew herself up, and the air of unapproachable dignity which she
+assumed well suited the aristocratic gentleman at her side, whom every
+one knew as the most brilliant, witty, and extravagant noble at the
+Emperor's court. At the same time she addressed the baron, whom she had
+hitherto kept at a distance, with unconstrained familiarity, and as
+the eyes of the mothers also rested upon her, remarks which might
+have driven the blood to her cheeks were made upon the intimate terms
+existing between the "Emperor's sweetheart" and the profligate and
+spendthrift Malfalconnet.
+
+True, Barbara could not understand what they were saying, but it was
+easy enough to perceive in what way they were talking about her.
+
+Yet what gave these women the right to condemn her?
+
+They bore her a grudge because she had distinguished herself by her
+art, while their little geese were idle at home or, at most, busied
+themselves in the kitchen, at the spinning wheel, in dancing, and
+whatever was connected with it while waiting for their future husbands.
+The favour which the most illustrious of mortals showed her they imputed
+to her as a crime.
+
+How could they know that she was more to the Emperor than the artist
+whose singing enraptured him?
+
+The girls yonder--her Woller cousins certainly--merely held aloof
+because their mothers commanded them to do it. Only in the case of a few
+need she fear that jealousy and envy had taken possession of them. Yet
+what did she care for them and their behaviour? She looked over their
+heads with the air of a queen.
+
+But what was the meaning of this?
+
+As soon as the dance was over, a pretty young girl, scarcely seventeen
+years old, with blue forget-me-nots in her fair hair and on her breast,
+left her partner and came directly toward Barbara.
+
+Her head drooped and she hesitated shyly as she did so, but her modest
+timidity was so charming that the dissolute courtier at Barbara's
+side felt a throb of sympathy, and gazed down at her like a benevolent
+fatherly friend as she held out her hand to his companion.
+
+He did not think Martina Hiltner actually beautiful as she stood close
+before him, but, on the other hand, inexpressibly charming in her modest
+grace.
+
+That it was she who came to Barbara so confidingly increased his good
+opinion of the self-reliant, hot-blooded girl who had won the Emperor's
+love, and therefore he was deeply angered when the latter answered
+Martina's greeting curtly and coldly, and, without vouchsafing her any
+further words, requested him to summon one of the attendants who were
+serving refreshments.
+
+Malfalconnet glanced significantly toward Martina, and, while offering
+Barbara a goblet of lemonade, said, "There is candied lemon and other
+seasoning in it, so it will probably suit your taste, exacting beauty,
+since you appear to dislike what is pure."
+
+"Only when poison is mixed with it," she answered quickly, tossing her
+head arrogantly. Then, controlling herself, she added in an explanatory
+tone: "In this case, Baron, your far-famed penetration deceived you. It
+gave me more pain than you will believe to reject the friendly advances
+of this lovely child, but her father is the head of the Lutheran heresy
+here, and the almoner----"
+
+"Then that certainly alters the case," the other interrupted. "Where
+the Holy Inquisition threatens, I should be capable of denying a friend
+thrice ere the cock crew. But what a number of charming young faces
+there are on this Lindenplatz! Here one can understand why Ratisbon,
+like the French Arles, is famed for the beauty of her daughters. It was
+not easy for you to earn the reputation of the greatest beauty here. You
+have also gained that of the most cruel one. You make me feel it. But if
+you wish to cast into oblivion the poisoned cup proffered just now, do
+me the favour to trust yourself to my guidance in the next dance."
+
+"Impossible," answered Barbara firmly. "If I were really cruel, I would
+yield to your skill in tempting, and render you the base betrayer of the
+greatest and noblest of masters."
+
+"Does not every one who gazes at your beauty or listens to your song
+become such a monster, at least in thought?" asked the baron gaily. "Are
+you really so inexorable about the dance?"
+
+"As this statue," Barbara answered with mirthful resolution, pointing
+to a plaster figure which was intended to represent the goddess Flora
+or the month of May. "But let us stay here a few minutes longer, though
+only as spectators."
+
+Barbara expressed this wish because a group of young gentlemen, who had
+always been among those who sought her most eagerly for a partner at the
+dances in the New Scales, had attracted her attention. They were
+engaged in an animated discussion, which from their glances and gestures
+evidently concerned Barbara.
+
+Bernhard Trainer, the tall son of an old and wealthy family, who loved
+Martina Hiltner, and had been incensed by Barbara's treatment of her,
+seemed to gain his point, and when the city pipers began to play again,
+all of them--probably a dozen in number--passed by her arm-in-arm in
+couples, with their eyes studiously fixed upon the opposite side of the
+dancing floor.
+
+Barbara could entertain no doubt that this insulting act was intended to
+wound her. The "little castle," as it was called in Prebrunn, owned
+by Bernhard Trainer's family, was near the bishop's house which she
+occupied. Therefore the Trainers had probably heard more than others
+about the visits she received. Or did the gentlemen consider that she
+deserved punishment for not treating Martina more kindly?
+
+Whatever might have caused the unseemly act, in Barbara's eyes it was a
+base trick, which filled her with furious rage against the instigators.
+Had she shared the Emperor's power, it would have been a delight to her
+in this hour to repay the malignant insult in the same or far heavier
+coin. But, on Malfalconnet's account, she must submit in silence to what
+had been inflicted upon her.
+
+So, in a muffled tone, she requested the baron to take her back to the
+tent, but while fulfilling her wish he wondered at the long strides of
+the capricious young lady at his side, and the mortifying inattention
+with which she received his questions.
+
+Meanwhile the Emperor had returned to the throne, and Maurice of Saxony
+was again standing beside him, while the chamberlain Andreas Wolff was
+humbly, inviting the monarch to make the Ratisbon young people happy by
+visiting the scene of the dancing.
+
+After a dance of inquiry at the duke, Charles assented to this request.
+But they must pardon him if he remained a shorter time than he himself
+would desire, as the physician was urging his return home.
+
+While the chamberlain was retiring, Charles saw Barbara leaning on
+Malfalconnet's arm, beckoned to them, and asked her whether she had
+yielded to her love for dancing.
+
+A brief "No, your Majesty," assured him of the contrary, and led him to
+make the remark that whoever exercised a noble art so admirably as she
+would be wise to refrain from one which could afford nobody any higher
+pleasure than the peasant and his sweetheart, if they only had sound
+feet.
+
+The counsel sounded harsh, almost warning, and the already irritated
+girl with difficulty restrained a sharp reply; but the Emperor was
+already rising, that, leaning on Quijada's arm, he might seek the
+dancing ground.
+
+Meantime the young Saxon duke had approached Barbara, and expressed his
+admiration of the successful festival, but she scarcely heard what
+he said. Yet when she turned her face toward him, and his ardent gaze
+rested yearningly upon her, she felt that the opportunity had now come
+to carry out her half-forgotten intention of arousing the jealousy of
+her royal lover.
+
+Whatever it might cost, she must undertake the risk.
+
+Summoning all her strength of will, she silenced the bitter resentment
+which filled her heart, and a sunny glance told Duke Maurice how much
+his escort pleased her. Malfalconnet had watched every look of the lady
+on his arm, as well as the duke's, and as they approached the scene
+of the dance he asked the latter if his Highness would condescend to
+relieve him for a short time of a delightful duty. An important one in
+the service of his imperial Majesty----
+
+Here the duke's eager assent interrupted him, and the next moment
+Barbara was leaning on the arm of the handsome young prince.
+
+She had found in him the tool which she needed, and Maurice entered into
+her design only too readily, for the baron had scarcely retired ere he
+changed his tone of voice and began an attack upon her heart.
+
+He had no need to respect the older rights of his imperial host, for
+Charles had distrustfully concealed from him the bond which united him
+to the beautiful singer. So, with glowing eloquence, he described to
+Barbara how quickly and powerfully the spell of her beauty and her
+wonderful art had fired his brain, and besought her to aid him not to
+commence one of the most important periods of his life with a sore
+heart and sick with longing; but she allowed him to speak, without
+interrupting him by a single word.
+
+She could not misunderstand what he desired, and many a glance permitted
+him to interpret it in his favour; but resentment still continued to
+stir in her soul, growing and deepening as the Emperor, seated on the
+throne erected for him, without noticing her appearance, sometimes
+listened to the chamberlain, who mentioned the names of the handsomest
+dancers, sometimes addressed a question to the Bishop of Arras and the
+other gentlemen who had followed him.
+
+Her royal lover deprived her of even the possibility of rousing him by
+jealousy from the consciousness of the secure possession of her person.
+Besides, the flushed faces of the young men who had so shamelessly
+insulted her were beaming before her with the joy of the festival.
+
+But the expression of their features was already changing. Duke Maurice
+had been recognised, and now all who felt entitled to do so approached
+him, among them her foes, at their head Bernhard Trainer, who were
+obliged to bend low before him, and therefore before her also.
+
+Just then the city pipers struck up a gagliarde, and the music was the
+air of the dancing-master's song by Baldassaro Donati, which had roused
+the Emperor's indignation a few days ago. In imagination she again heard
+his outburst of anger, again saw him rise from his seat in wrath at the
+innocent "Chi la gagliarda vuol imparare."
+
+The time of reckoning had come, and he should pay her for the bitterness
+of that hour! Yonder malevolent fellows, who now looked bewildered and
+uneasy, should be forced to retreat before her and perceive what power
+she had obtained by her beauty and her art.
+
+With fevered blood and panting breath she listened to the gay music
+of the enlarged band of city pipers, and watched the movements of
+the couples who had already commenced the gagliarde, and--how was it
+possible in such a mood?--a passionate desire to dance took possession
+of her.
+
+Without heeding the many persons who stood around them, she whispered
+softly to the duke, "It would be a pleasure to keep time to the music of
+the gagliarde with you, your Highness."
+
+An ardent love glance accompanied this invitation, and the bold Saxon
+duke was a man to avail himself of every advantage.
+
+He instantly expressed to the Ratisbon gentlemen his desire to try the
+gagliarde himself to such excellent music, and at a sign from the master
+of ceremonies the dance stopped.
+
+Several members of the Council requested the couples to make way, and
+Maurice took his partner's hand and led her on the stage.
+
+The sudden cessation of the music attracted the Emperor's attention
+also. In an instant he perceived what was about to take place, and
+looked at Barbara. Her eyes met his, and such a glow of indignation,
+nay, wrath, so imperious a prohibition flashed from his glance that
+her flushed cheeks paled, and she strove to withdraw her hand from the
+duke's.
+
+But Maurice held it firmly, and at the same moment the city pipers began
+to play again, and the music streamed forth in full, joyous tones.
+
+The wooing notes fell into her defiant soul like sparks on dry
+brushwood. She could not help dancing, though it should be her death.
+Already she had begun, and with mischievous joy the thought darted
+through her mind that now Charles, too, would perceive what anguish lay
+in the fear of losing those whom we love.
+
+If this grief brought him back to her, she thought, while eagerly
+following the figures of the dance, she would tend him all her life like
+a maidservant; if his pride severed the bond between them--that could
+not be done, because he loved her--she must bear it. Doubtless the
+conviction forced itself upon her superstitious mind that Fate would
+be ready to ruin her by the dance, yet she executed what must bring
+misfortune upon her; to retreat was no longer possible.
+
+These thoughts darted in wild confusion in a few moments through her
+burning brain, and while Maurice swung her around it seemed as if the
+music reached her through the roar and thunder of breakers. The words
+"Chi la gagliarda vuol imparare" constantly echoed in her ears, mocking,
+reckless, urging her to retaliation.
+
+The dancing-master, Bernandelli, whom the Council had summoned from
+Milan to the Danube, had taught her and the other young people of
+Ratisbon the gagliarde. The sensible teacher, to suit the taste of the
+German burghers, had divested the gay dance of its recklessness. But
+he had showed his best pupils with how much more freedom the Italians
+performed the gagliarde, and Barbara had not forgotten the lesson. Duke
+Maurice moved and guided her with the same unfettered ease that the
+little maestro had displayed in former days. Willing or not, she was
+obliged to follow his lead, and she did so, carried away by the demands
+of her excited blood and the pleasure of dancing, so long denied,
+yet with the grace and perfect ear for time which were her special
+characteristics.
+
+Neither the Ratisbon citizens nor Charles, who had been a good dancer
+himself, had ever seen the gagliarde danced in this way by either
+the gentleman or the lady. A better-matched couple could scarcely
+be imagined than the tall, powerful, chivalrous young prince and the
+beautiful, superbly formed, golden-haired girl who seemed, as it were,
+carried away by the music.
+
+But Charles did not appear to share the pleasure which the sight of
+this rare couple and their dancing awakened even in the most envious and
+austere of the Ratisbon spectators, for when, in a pause, Barbara, with
+sparkling eyes, glanced first into the duke's face and then, with a
+merry look of inquiry, at her lover, she found his features no longer
+distorted by anger, but disgusted, as though he were witnessing an
+unpleasant spectacle.
+
+Nevertheless she danced a short time longer without looking at him,
+until suddenly the remembrance of his reproving glance spoiled her
+pleasure in this rare enjoyment.
+
+She whispered to the duke that she was satisfied.
+
+A wave of his hand stopped the music but, ere returning the bow of her
+distinguished partner, Barbara looked for the Emperor.
+
+Her eyes sought him in vain-he had left the turf under the lindens
+before the close of the dance. The Bishop of Arras, Malfalconnet, and
+several of the ladies and gentlemen who had left the tent in no small
+number and gone to the scene of the dancing after learning what was
+taking place there, had remained after the monarch's departure. Most
+of them joined in the applause which the younger Granvelle eagerly
+commenced when the city pipers lowered their instruments.
+
+Barbara heard it, and saw that Bernhard Trainer and other young citizens
+of Ratisbon were following the courtiers' example, but she seemed
+scarcely to notice the demonstration.
+
+The doubt whether Charles had merely not waited till the end of the
+dance, or had already left the festival, made her forget everything
+else. Through the Bishop of Arras she learned that his Majesty had gone
+home.
+
+No one, not even the baron and Quijada, had received a message for her.
+
+This fresh humiliation pierced her heart like a knife.
+
+On every similar occasion hitherto he had sent her a few kind words, or,
+if Don Luis was the messenger, tender ones.
+
+Yet she was obliged to force herself to smile, in order not to betray
+what was passing in her mind. Besides, she could not shake off the Duke
+of Saxony like the poor, handsome recruiting officer, Pyramus Kogel.
+
+Fortunately, some of the most prominent Ratisbon citizens now crowded
+around Maurice to thank him for the honour which he had done the city.
+
+She availed herself of the favourable opportunity to beg Granvelle, in
+a low tone, to keep the duke away from her the next morning until his
+departure at noon, and, if possible, now.
+
+"One service for another," replied the statesman. "I will rid you of the
+most desirable admirer in Germany. But, on the day after to-morrow, you
+will adorn my modest banquet with the singing of the most gifted artist
+in the world."
+
+"Gladly, unless his Majesty forbids me to do so," replied Barbara.
+
+A few minutes later she informed her passionate young ducal lover, who
+wished to call upon her in her own home that very evening, that it would
+be utterly impossible. With an air of the greatest regret, she said that
+her little castle was guarded like an endangered citadel; and when the
+duke proposed a meeting, he was interrupted by the Bishop of Arras, who
+desired to speak to him about "important business."
+
+In spite of the late hour, the minister, even without the girl's
+request, would have sought an audience with the duke, and to the
+ambitious Maurice politics and the important plans being prepared
+for immediate execution were of infinitely greater value than a love
+adventure, no matter what hours of pleasure it promised to afford.
+
+So Barbara succeeded in taking leave of the duke without giving him
+offence.
+
+The marquise was waiting for her with ill-repressed indignation. The
+weary old woman had wanted to return home long before, but the command
+of the grand chamberlain compelled her to wait for Barbara and accompany
+her the short distance to the house.
+
+With an angry glance and a few bitter-sweet words of greeting, the old
+dame entered the litter. Barbara preferred to walk beside hers, for
+clouds had darkened the sky; it had become oppressively sultry, and she
+felt as if she would stifle in the close, swaying box.
+
+Four torch-bearers accompanied the litters. She ordered the knight and
+the two lackeys whom Quijada had commissioned to attend her to remain
+behind, and also refused the service of the little Maltese, who--oh, how
+gladly!--would have acted as a page and carried her train.
+
+As the shipwrecked man on a plank amid the endless surges longs for
+land, Barbara longed to get away, far away from the noise of the
+festival. Yet she dreaded the solitude which she was approaching, for
+she now perceived how foolishly she had acted, and with what sinful
+recklessness she had perhaps forfeited the happiness of her life on this
+luckless evening.
+
+But need she idly wait for the doom to which she was condemned? He whose
+bright eyes could beam on her so radiantly had just wounded her with
+angry glances, like a foe or a stern judge, and his indignation had not
+been groundless.
+
+What had life to offer her without his love? The wantonly bold venture
+had been baffled. Yet no! All was not yet lost!
+
+Suppose she should summon courage to steal back to him and on her knees
+repentantly beseech him to forgive her?
+
+But she cherished this desire only a few moments. Then the angry,
+wronged heart rebelled against such humiliation. She had not so shame
+fully offended the Emperor, but the lover, and it was his place to
+entreat her not to withdraw the love which made him happy.
+
+The young girl raised her head with fresh courage. What had happened
+more than she had expected?
+
+Because he loved her, he had become jealous, and made her feel his
+anger. But if she should now persistently withdraw from him, and let him
+realize how deeply he had offended her, she could not fail to win the
+game. In spite of all his crowns and kingdoms, he was only a man, and
+must not she, who in a few brief hours had forced a Maurice of Saxony
+to sue yearningly for her love, succeed by the might of her art and her
+beauty in transforming the wrath of the far older man, Charles, into his
+former passion?
+
+If the Italian novels with which she was familiar did not lie, not only
+jealousy, but apparent indifference on the part of the beloved object,
+fanned the heart of man to burst into fresh flames.
+
+It was only necessary to hold her impetuous temper in check, and profit
+by the jealousy which had now been aroused in Charles's mind. Hitherto
+she had always obeyed hasty impulses. Why should not she, too, succeed
+in accomplishing a well-considered plan? With the torturing emotions
+of failure, mortification, desertion, remorse, and yearning for
+forgiveness, now blended the hope of yet bringing to a successful
+conclusion the hazardous enterprise which she had already given up as
+hopeless, and, while walking on, her brain toiled diligently over plans
+for the campaign which would compel the great general to return with
+twofold devotion the love of which he had deprived her.
+
+So, in the intense darkness, she followed the light which the torches
+cast upon the uneven path. At first she had taken up the train of her
+dress; now it was sweeping the dusty road.
+
+What did she care for the magnificent robe if she regained Charles's
+love? Of what use would it be if she had lost it, lost it forever?
+
+Before the litters reached the little castle a gust of wind rose,
+driving large drops of rain, straw, and withered leaves-Barbara could
+not imagine whence they came in the month of May--into her face. She was
+obliged to struggle against these harbingers of the coming tempest, and
+her heart grew lighter during the conflict. She was not born to endure,
+but to contend.
+
+The scene of the festivities emptied rapidly. The duke and Granvelle
+drove back to the city in the minister's carriage. Malfalconnet and
+Quijada, in spite of the gathering storm, went home on foot.
+
+"What a festival!" said Don Luis scornfully.
+
+"In former days such things presented a more superb spectacle even here.
+But now! No procession, no scarlet save on the cardinals, no golden
+cross, no venerable priest's head on the whole pleasure ground, and,
+moreover, neither consecration nor the pious exhortation to remember
+Heaven, whence comes the joy in which the crowd is rejoicing."
+
+"I, too, missed something here," cried the baron eagerly, "and now I
+learn through you what it is."
+
+"Will not the heretics themselves gradually feel that they are robbing
+the pasty of faith of its truffles--what am I saying?--of its salt?
+May their dry black bread choke them! The only thing that gave the
+unseasoned meal a certain charm was the capitally performed gagliarde.
+
+"Which angered his Majesty more deeply than you imagine," replied Don
+Luis. "The singer's days are probably numbered. It is a pity! She was
+wonderfully successful in subduing the spirits of melancholy."
+
+"The war, on which we can now depend, will do that equally well, if not
+better," interrupted the baron. "Within a short time I, too, have lost
+all admiration for this fair one. Cold-hearted and arrogant. Capable of
+the utmost extremes when her hot blood urges her on. Unpopular with
+the people to whom she belongs, and, in spite of her bold courage,
+surprisingly afraid of the Holy Inquisition. Here, among the heretics,
+that gives cause for thought."
+
+"Enough!" replied Don Luis. "We will let matters take their course. If
+the worst comes, I, at least, will not move a finger in her behalf."
+
+"Nor will I," said Malfalconnet, and both walked quietly on.
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK 2.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Through the storm, which lashed her face with whirling clouds of dust
+and drops of rain, Barbara reached the little Prebrunn castle.
+
+The marquise had not yet left her litter. The wind had extinguished two
+of the torches. One bearer walked in front of Barbara with his, and the
+gale blew the smoking flame aside. But, ere she had reached the gate,
+a man who had been concealed behind the old elm by the path stepped
+forward to meet her. She started back and, as he called her by name, she
+recognised the young Wittenberg theologian, Erasmus Eckhart. Sincerely
+indignant, she ordered him to go away at once, but her first words were
+interrupted by the shrill voice of the marquise, who had now left her
+litter, and with loud shrieks ordered the steward to seize the burglar.
+
+Erasmus, however, trusted to his strength and nimbleness and, instead of
+promptly taking flight, entreated Barbara to listen to him a moment. Not
+until, far from allowing herself to be softened, she, too, threatened
+him, did he attempt to escape, but both litters were in his way, and
+when he had successfully passed around them the gardener, suddenly
+emerging from the darkness, seized him. But the sturdy young fellow knew
+how to defend his liberty, and had already released himself from his
+assailant when other servants grasped him.
+
+Above the roar of the storm now rose the shrieks of the marquise, the
+shouts of "Stop thief!" from the men, and Erasmus's protestations that
+he was no robber, coupled with an appeal to Jungfrau Blomberg, who knew
+him.
+
+Barbara now stated that he was the son of a respectable family, and had
+by no means come here to steal the property of others; but the marquise,
+though she probably correctly interpreted the handsome young fellow's
+late visit, vehemently insisted upon his arrest. She treated Barbara's
+remonstrance with bitter contempt; and when Cassian, the almoner's
+servant, appeared and declared that he had already caught this rascal
+more than once strolling in a suspicious manner near the castle, and
+that he himself was here so late only because his beloved bride, in
+her mistress's absence, was afraid of the robber and his companions,
+Barbara's entreaties and commands were disregarded, and Erasmus's hands
+were bound.
+
+By degrees the noise drew most of the inmates of the castle out of
+doors, and among them Frau Lerch. Lastly, several halberdiers, who were
+coming from the Lindenplatz and had heard the screams in the garden,
+appeared, chained the prisoner, and took him to the Prebrunn jail.
+
+But scarcely had Erasmus been led away when the priests of the household
+also came out and asked what had happened. In doing this Barbara's
+caution in not calling Erasmus by name proved to have been futile, for
+Cassian had recognised him, and told the ecclesiastics what he knew.
+The chaplain then asserted that, as the property of the Prince Abbot
+of Berchtesgaden, the house and garden were under ecclesiastical
+jurisdiction, and committed the further disposal of the burglar's fate
+to the Dominican whom the almoner had placed there. For the present he
+might remain in secular custody. Early the following morning he must be
+brought before the Spanish Dominicans who had come with the Emperor,
+and from whom greater severity might be expected than from the Ratisbon
+brotherhood, by whom monastic discipline had been greatly relaxed.
+
+Meanwhile the wind had subsided, and the storm had burst with thunder,
+lightning, and torrents of rain. Priests and laymen retreated into
+the house, and so did Barbara and the marquise. The latter had exposed
+herself to the tempest only long enough to emphasize the necessity of
+delivering the heretical night-bird to the Spanish Dominicans very early
+the next morning, and to show Barbara that she did not overlook the
+significance of the incidents under the lindens. With a disagreeable
+blending of tenderness and malice, she congratulated the young girl on
+the applause she had received as a dancer, the special favour which she
+had enjoyed from the Duke of Saxony, and the arrest of the dangerous
+burglar, which would also be a gratification to his Majesty.
+
+With these words the old aristocrat, coughing slightly, tripped up the
+stairs; but Barbara, without vouchsafing an answer to this speech, whose
+purpose she clearly understood, turned her back upon her and went to her
+own room.
+
+She had desired no gift in return when, to save this contemptible
+woman's son and his child, she sacrificed her lover's precious memento;
+but the base reward for the kind deed added a burning sense of pain to
+the other sorrows which the day had brought. What a shameful crime was
+ingratitude! None could be equally hateful to eternal justice, for--she
+now learned it by her own experience--ingratitude repaid kindness with
+evil instead of with good, and paralyzed the disappointed benefactor's
+will to perform another generous deed.
+
+When she entered her sleeping-room the courage which she had summoned
+during the walk, and the hope to which she had yielded, appeared to be
+scattered and blown away as if by a gust of wind. Besides, she could not
+conceal from herself that she had drawn the nails from the planks of her
+wrecked ship of life with her own hand.
+
+Did it not seem as if she had intentionally done precisely what she
+ought most studiously to have left undone? Her sale of the star had been
+only an unfortunate act of weakness, but the dance, the luckless dance!
+Not once only, several times Charles had stated plainly enough how
+unpleasant it was to him even to hear the amusement mentioned. She had
+behaved as if she desired to forfeit his favour.
+
+And why, in Heaven's name, why? To arouse his jealousy?
+
+Fool that she was! This plant took root only in a heart filled with love
+
+And his?
+
+Because she perceived that his love was dying, she had awakened this
+fatal passion. Was it not as if she had expected to make a water-lily
+blossom in the sands of the desert?
+
+True, still another motive had urged her to this mad act. She knew not
+what name to give it, yet it was only too possible that, in spite of her
+recent experiences, it might overpower her again on the morrow.
+
+Surprised at herself, she struck her brow with her hand, and when Frau
+Lerch, who was just combing her wet hair, perceived it, she sobbed
+aloud, exclaiming: "Poor, poor young gentleman, and the Hiltners, who
+love him as if he were their own son! Such a terrible misfortune! Old
+fool that I am! The first time he asked admittance to show you the
+tablature, and you did not want to receive him, I persuaded you to do
+so. Then he fared like all the others whose heads you have turned with
+your singing. Holy Virgin! If the Hiltners learn that you and I let him
+be bound without making any real protest. It will fall heaviest upon me;
+you can believe that, for Fran Hiltner and Jungfrau Martina, since the
+young girl has gone to dances, have been among my best customers. Now
+they will say: Frau Lerch, who used to be a good little woman, left the
+young fellow in the lurch when his life was at stake, for they will take
+him to the Spanish Dominicans. They belong, to the Holy Inquisition, and
+think no more of burning people at the stake than we do of a few days in
+prison."
+
+Here Barbara interrupted her with the remark that Erasmus could be
+convicted of no crime, and the Holy Inquisition had no authority in
+Ratisbon.
+
+But Frau Lerch knew better. That was all very well during the Emperor's
+absence, but now that his Majesty resided in the city the case was
+different. Erasmus had been arrested on ecclesiastical ground, the
+chaplain had ordered him to be delivered to the Spaniards early the next
+morning and, ere the syndic could interpose, the rope would already be
+twisted for him, for with these gentlemen the executioner stood close
+beside the judge. Besides, she had heard of a pamphlet against the Pope,
+which the young theologian had had published, that had aroused great
+indignation among the priesthood. If he fell into the hands of the
+Dominicans, he would be lost, as surely as she hoped to be saved. If he
+were only in the custody of the city, of course a better result might be
+hoped.
+
+Here she stopped with a shriek, dropping the comb, for the thundercloud
+was now directly over the city, and a loud peal, following close upon
+the flash of lightning, shook the house; but Barbara scarcely heeded the
+dazzling glare and the rattling panes.
+
+She had risen with a face as white as death. She knew what severe
+sentences could be pronounced by the Council of the Inquisition, and the
+thought that the keenest suffering should be inflicted upon the
+Hiltners through her, to whom they had showed so much kindness, seemed
+unendurable. Besides, what she had just said to herself concerning
+ingratitude returned to her mind.
+
+And then, Inquisition and the rack were two ideas which could scarcely
+be separated from one another. What might not be extorted from the
+accused by the torture! In any case, the almoner's suspicion would
+obtain fresh nourishment, and her lover had told her more than
+once--what a special dislike he felt for women who, with their slender
+intelligence, undertook to set themselves above the eternal truths of
+the Holy Church. And the jealousy which, fool that she was, she had
+desired to arouse in her lover, what abundant nourishment it would
+derive from the events which had occurred on her return from the
+festival!
+
+But even these grave fears were overshadowed by the thought of Dr.
+Hiltner's wife and daughter. With what fair-mindedness the former in the
+Convivium had made her cause her own, how touching had been Martina's
+effort to approach her, and how ill that very day she had requited their
+loyal affection! Erasmus was as dear as a beloved son to these good
+women, and Frau Lerch's reproach that her intercession for him was but
+lukewarm had not been wholly groundless. The next day these friends who,
+notwithstanding the difference in their religious belief, had treated
+her more kindly than any one in Ratisbon, would hear this and condemn
+her. That should not be! She would not suffer them to think of her as
+she did of the shameless old woman whose footsteps she still heard over
+her head.
+
+She must not remain idly here, and what her impetuous nature so
+passionately demanded must be carried into execution, though reason and
+the loud uproar of the raging storm opposed it.
+
+Fran Lerch had just finished arranging her hair and handed her her
+night-coif, when she started up and, with the obstinate positiveness
+characteristic of her, declared that she was going at once to the
+Hiltners to inform the syndic of what had happened here. Erasmus was
+still in the hands of the town guards, and perhaps it would be
+possible for the former to withdraw the prisoner from ecclesiastical
+jurisdiction.
+
+Frau Lerch clasped her hands in horror, exclaiming: "Holy Virgin, child!
+Have you gone crazy? Go out in this weather? Whoever is not killed by
+lightning will drown in the puddles."
+
+But with that violent peal of thunder the storm had reached its height,
+and when the next flash of lightning came the thunder did not follow
+until some time after, though the rain continued to beat as heavily
+against the panes. Yet even had the tempest continued to rage with full
+fury, Barbara would not have been dissuaded from the resolution which
+she had once formed.
+
+True, her attempt to persuade Frau Lerch to accompany her remained
+futile. Her frail body, the dressmaker protested, was not able to
+undertake such a walk through the storm. If she yielded, it would be her
+death. It would kill Barbara, also, and this crazy venture would be too
+dearly paid for at the cost of two human lives.
+
+Barbara's angry remark that if she would not run the risk of getting wet
+for the sake of compassion, she might on account of the Hiltners' good
+custom, finally made the excited woman burst into piteous crying; yet in
+the midst of it she brought Barbara's dress and old thick cloak and, as
+she put them on the girl, exclaimed, "But I tell you, child, you'll turn
+back again when you get halfway there, and all you bring home will be a
+bad illness."
+
+"Whoever can execute the gagliarde to dance herself into misery,"
+replied Barbara impatiently, "will not find it difficult to take a walk
+through the rain to save some one else from misfortune. The cloak!"
+
+"She will go," sobbed Frau Lerch. "The servants must still obey you.
+At least order the litter. This crazy night pilgrimage can not remain
+concealed."
+
+"Then let people talk about it," replied Barbara firmly and, after
+having the cloak clasped and the hood drawn over her head, she went
+out. Frau Lerch, who had the key, opened the door for her amid loud
+lamentations and muttered curses; but when the girl had vanished in the
+darkness, she turned back, saying fiercely through her set teeth: "Rush
+on to ruin, you headstrong creature! If I see aright, the magnificence
+here is already tottering. Go and get wet! I've made my profit, and the
+two unfinished gowns can be added to the account. The Lord is my witness
+that I meant well. But will she ever do what sensible people advise?
+Always running her head against the wall. Whoever will not hear, must
+feel."
+
+She hastened back into the house as she spoke to escape the pouring
+rain, but Barbara paid little heed to the wet, and waded on through the
+mire of the road.
+
+The force of the storm was broken, the wind had subsided, distant
+flashes of lightning still illumined the northern horizon, and the night
+air was stiflingly sultry. No one appeared in the road, and yet some
+belated pedestrian might run against her at any moment, for the dense
+darkness shrouded even the nearest objects. But she knew the way, and
+had determined to follow the Danube and go along the woodlands to the
+tanner's pit, whence the Hiltner house was easily reached. In this way
+she could pass around the gate, which otherwise she would have been
+obliged to have opened.
+
+But ere gaining the river she was to learn that she had undertaken a
+more difficult task than she expected. Her father had never allowed her
+to go out after dark, unaccompanied, even in the neighbourhood, and the
+terrors of night show their most hideous faces to those who are burdened
+by anxious cares. Several times she sank so deep into the mud that her
+shoe stuck fast in it, and she was obliged to force it on again with
+much difficulty. As she walked on and a strange, noise reached her from
+the woodyard on her left, when she constantly imagined that she heard
+another step following hers like an audible shadow, when drunken
+raftsmen came toward her, hoarsely singing an obscene song, she pressed
+against a fence in order not to be seen by the dissolute fellows. But
+now a light came wavering toward her, looking like a shining bird flying
+slowly, or a hell-hound, with glowing eyes, and at the sight it seemed
+to her impossible to wander on all alone. But the mysterious light
+proved to be only a lantern in the hand of an old woman who had been
+to fetch a doctor, so she summoned up fresh courage, though she told
+herself that here near the lumber yards she might easily encounter
+raftsmen and guards watching the logs and planks piled on the banks of
+the river, fishermen, and sailors. Already she heard the rushing of the
+swollen Danube, and horrible tales returned to her memory of hapless
+girls who had flung themselves into the waves here to put an end to
+lives clouded by disgrace and fear.
+
+Then a shiver ran through her, and she asked herself what her father
+would say if he could see her wading alone through the water. Perhaps
+the fatigues of the long journey had thrown him upon a sick-bed;
+perhaps he had even--at the fear she felt as though her heart would stop
+beating--succumbed to them. Then he knew how matters stood with her, the
+sin she had committed, and the shame she had brought upon him that she
+might enjoy undisturbed a happiness which was already changing into
+bitter sorrow. Meanwhile it seemed as if she was gazing into his rugged,
+soldierly face, reddish-brown, with rolling eyes, as it looked when
+disfigured by anger, and she raised her hands as if to hold him
+back; but only for a few minutes, for she perceived that her excited
+imagination was terrifying her with a delusion.
+
+Drawing a long breath, she pushed her dank hair back into her hood and
+pressed her hand upon her heart. Then she was calm a while, but a
+new terror set it throbbing again. Close beside her--this time at
+her right--the loud laughter of men's harsh voices echoed through the
+darkness.
+
+Barbara involuntarily stopped, and when she collected her thoughts
+and looked around her, her features, distorted by anxiety and terror,
+smoothed again, and she instantly knocked with her little clinched
+hand upon the door of the hut from whose open windows the laughter had
+issued.
+
+It stood close to the river bank, and the tiny dwelling belonged to
+the Prior of Berchtesgaden's fisherman and boatman, who kept the
+distinguished prelate's gondolas and boats in order, and acted as rower
+to the occupants of the little Prebrunn castle. She had often met this
+man when he brought fish for the kitchen, and he had gone with the boats
+in the water excursions which she had sometimes taken with Gombert and
+Appenzelder or with Malfalconnet and several pages. She had treated him
+kindly, and made him generous gifts.
+
+All was still in the house after her knock, but almost instantly the
+deep voice of the fisherman Valentin, who had thrust his bearded face
+and red head out of the window, asked who was there.
+
+The answer received an astonished "Can it be!" But as soon as she
+informed him that she needed a companion, he shouted something to the
+others, put on his fisherman's cap, stepped to Barbara's side, and led
+the way with a lantern which stood lighted on the table.
+
+The road was so softened that, in spite of the light which fell on the
+ground, it was impossible to avoid the pools and muddy places. But
+the girl had become accustomed to the wet and the wading. Besides, the
+presence of her companion relieved her from the terrors with which the
+darkness and the solitude had tortured her. Instead of watching for new
+dangers, she listened while Valentin explained how it happened that she
+found him still awake. He had helped hang the banners and lamps tinder
+the lindens, and when the storm arose he assisted in removing the best
+pieces. In return a jug of wine, with some bread and sausages, had been
+given to him, and he had just begun to enjoy them with two comrades.
+
+The Hiltner house was soon reached. Nothing had troubled Barbara during
+the nocturnal walk since the fisherman had accompanied her.
+
+Her heart was lighter as she rapped with the knocker on the syndic's
+door; but, although she repeated the summons several times, not a sound
+was heard in the silent house.
+
+Valentin had seen the Hiltners' two men-servants with the litters under
+the lindens, and Barbara thought that perhaps the maids might have gone
+to the scene of the festival to carry headkerchiefs and cloaks to the
+ladies before the outbreak of the storm. That the deaf old grandmother
+did not hear her was easily understood.
+
+The Hiltners could not have returned, so she must wait.
+
+First she paced impatiently to and fro in the rain, then sat upon a
+curbstone which seemed to be protected from the shower by the roof. But
+ever and anon a larger stream of water poured down upon her from the
+jaws of a hideous monster in which the gutter ended than from the black
+clouds, and, dripping wet, she at last leaned against the door, which
+was better shielded by the projecting lintel, while the fisherman
+inquired about the absent occupants of the house.
+
+Thus minute after minute passed until the first and then the second
+quarter of an hour ended. When the third commenced, Barbara thought she
+had waited there half the night. The rain began to lessen, it is true,
+but the sultry night grew cooler, and a slight chill increased her
+discomfort.
+
+Yet she did not move from the spot. Here, in front of the house in which
+estimable women had taken her to their hearts with such maternal and
+sisterly affection, Barbara had plainly perceived that she, who had
+never ceased to respect herself, would forever rob herself of this right
+if she did not make every effort in her power to save Erasmus from the
+grave peril in which he had become involved on her account. During this
+self-inspection she did not conceal from herself that, while singing
+his own compositions to him, she had yielded to the unfortunate habit
+of promising more with her eyes than she intended to perform. How could
+this vain, foolish sport have pleased her after she had yielded herself,
+soul and body, to the highest and greatest of men!
+
+Anne Mirl Woller had often been reproved by her mother, in her presence,
+for her freedom of manner. But who had ever addressed such a warning
+to her? Now she must atone for her heedlessness, like many other things
+which her impetuous will demanded and proved stronger than the reason
+which forbade it. It was a wonder that Baron Malfalconnet and Maestro
+Gombert had not sued more urgently for her favour. If she was honest,
+she could not help admitting that her lover--and such a lover!--was
+justified in wishing many things in her totally different. But she was
+warned now, and henceforth these follies should be over--wholly and
+entirely over!
+
+If only he would refrain from wounding her with that irritating
+sharpness, which made her rebellious blood boil and clouded her clear
+brain! He was indeed the Emperor, to whom reverence was due; but during
+the happy hours which tenderly united them he himself desired to be
+nothing but the man to whom the heart of the woman he loved belonged.
+She must keep herself worthy of him, nothing more, and this toilsome
+errand would prevent her from sullying herself with an ugly sin.
+
+During these reflections the chill had become more and more unendurable,
+yet she thought far less of the discomfort which it caused her than of
+increased danger to Erasmus from the Hiltners' long absence.
+
+The third quarter of an hour was already drawing to an end when Valentin
+came hurrying up and told Barbara that they were on the way. He had
+managed to speak to the syndic, and told him who was waiting for him.
+
+A young maid-servant, running rapidly, came first to open the house and
+light the lamps. She was followed, quite a distance in advance of the
+others, by Dr. Hiltner.
+
+The fisherman's communication had made him anxious. He, too, had
+heard that Barbara was the Emperor's favourite. Besides, more than one
+complaint of her offensive arrogance had reached him. But, for that very
+reason, the wise man said to himself, it must be something of importance
+that led her to him at this hour and in such weather.
+
+At first he answered her greeting with cool reserve, but when she
+explained that she had come, in spite of the storm, because the matter
+concerned the weal or woe of a person dear to him, and he saw that
+she was dripping wet, he honestly regretted his long delay, and in his
+manly, resolute manner requested her to follow him into the house; but
+Barbara could not be persuaded to do so.
+
+To give the thunderstorm time to pass and take his wife and daughter
+home dry, he had entered a tavern near the lindens and there engaged
+in conversation with several friends over some wine. Whenever he urged
+returning, the young people--she knew why--objected. But at last they
+had started, and Bernhard Trainer had accompanied the Hiltners, in
+order to woo Martina on the way. Her parents had seen this coming, and
+willingly confided their child's happiness to him.
+
+The betrothed couple now came up also, and saw with surprise the earnest
+zeal with which Martina's father was discussing something, they knew not
+what, with the singer on whose account they had had their first quarrel.
+The lover had condemned Barbara's unprecedented arrogance during the
+dance so severely that Martina found it unendurable to listen longer.
+
+Frau Sabina, too, did not know how to interpret Barbara's presence; but
+one thing was certain in her kindly heart--this was no place for such
+conversation. How wet the poor girl must be! The wrong which Barbara
+had done her child was not taken into consideration under these
+circumstances and, with maternal solicitude, she followed her husband's
+example, and earnestly entreated Barbara to change her clothes in her
+house and warm herself with a glass of hot black currant wine. But
+Barbara could not be induced to do so, and hurriedly explained to the
+syndic what he lacked the clew to understand.
+
+In a few minutes she had made him acquainted with everything that it was
+necessary for him to know. Dr. Hiltner, turning to his wife, and mean
+while looking his future son-in-law steadily in the eye, exclaimed, "We
+are all, let me tell you, greatly indebted to this brave girl."
+
+Frau Sabina's heart swelled with joy, and to Martina, too, the praise
+which her father bestowed on Barbara was a precious gift. The mother
+and daughter had always espoused her cause, and now it again proved that
+they had done well.
+
+"So I was right, after all," whispered the young girl to her lover.
+
+"And will prove so often," he answered gaily. But when, a short time
+after, he proposed to Barbara's warm advocate to accompany the singer
+home, Martina preferred to detain him, and invited him to stay in the
+house with her a little while longer.
+
+These incidents had occupied only a brief period, and Dr. Hiltner
+undertook to escort the young girl himself. To save time, he questioned
+her about everything which he still desired to know, but left her before
+she turned into the lane leading to the little castle, because he
+was aware that she, who belonged to the Emperor's household, might he
+misjudged if she were seen in his company.
+
+Shortly after, he had freed Erasmus from imprisonment and sent him, in
+charge of one of the Council's halberdiers, beyond the gate. He was to
+remain concealed outside the city until the syndic recalled him.
+
+The young theologian willingly submitted, after confessing to his
+foster-father how strongly love for Barbara had taken possession of him.
+
+This act might arouse strong hostility to the syndic, but he did not
+fear it. Moreover, the Emperor had showed at the festival plainly enough
+his withdrawal of the good opinion which he had formerly testified upon
+many an occasion. This was on account of his religion, and where that
+was concerned there was no yielding or dissimulation on either side.
+
+Barbara returned home soothed.
+
+Frau Lerch was waiting for her, and with many tokens of disapproval
+undressed her. Yet she carefully dried her feet and rubbed them with her
+hands, that she might escape the fever which she saw approaching.
+
+Barbara accepted with quiet gratitude the attention bestowed upon
+her, but, though she closed her eyes, the night brought no sleep, for
+sometimes she shivered in a chill, sometimes a violent headache tortured
+her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Sleep also deserted the Emperor's couch. After his return from the
+festival he tried to examine several documents which the secretary
+Gastelii had laid ready for him on the writing-table, but he could not
+succeed. His thoughts constantly reverted to Barbara and her defiant
+rebellion against the distinct announcement of his will. Had the Duke
+of Saxony, so much his junior and, moreover, a far handsomer and perhaps
+more generous prince, won her favour, and therefore did she perhaps
+desire to break the bond with him?
+
+Why not?
+
+She was a woman, and a capricious one, too, and of what would not such
+a nature be capable? Besides, there was something else. Jamnitzer, the
+Nuremberg goldsmith, had intrusted a casket of jewels to Adrian to keep
+during his absence. They were intended for the diadems which the Emperor
+was to give his two nieces for bridal presents. The principal gems among
+them were two rubies and a diamond. On the gold of the old-fashioned
+setting were a P and an l, the initial letters of his motto "Plus
+ultra." He had once had it engraved upon the back of the star which he
+bestowed upon Barbara. His keen eye and faithful memory could not be
+deceived--Jamnitzer's jewels had been broken from that costly ornament.
+
+From time immemorial it had belonged to the treasures of his family, and
+he had already doubted whether it was justifiable to give it away.
+
+Was it conceivable that Barbara had parted with this, his first memento,
+sold it, "turned it into money"?--the base words wounded his chivalrous
+soul like the blow of a scourge.
+
+She was a passionate, defiant, changeful creature, it is true, yet her
+nature was noble, hostile to baseness, and what a wealth of the purest
+and deepest feeling echoed in her execution of solemn songs! This
+induced him to reject as impossible the suspicion that she could have
+stooped to anything so unworthy.
+
+Still, it was not easily banished. A long series of the sorest
+disappointments had rendered him distrustful, and he remembered having
+asked her several times for the star in vain.
+
+Perhaps it had been stolen from her, and Jamnitzer had obtained it from
+the thief himself or from the receiver. This thought partially soothed
+him, especially as, if correct, it would be possible for him to recover
+the ornament. But he was an economical manager, and to expend thousands
+of ducats for such a thing just at this time, when immense sums were
+needed for the approaching war, seemed to him more than vexatious.
+
+Besides, the high price which he had paid for the Saxon's aid rendered
+him uneasy. He had ceded two large bishoprics to his Protestant ally,
+and this act of liberality, which, it is true, had been approved and
+supported by Granvelle, could no longer be undone. Moreover, if he drew
+the sword, he must maintain the pretence that it was not done for the
+sake of religion, but solely to chastise the insubordinate Protestant
+princes, headed by the Elector John Frederick of Saxony and Philip of
+Hesse, who had seriously angered him.
+
+In ten days the Reichstag would be opened in Ratisbon and, in spite of
+his special invitation, these princes, who had refused to recognise the
+Council of Trent, had excused their absence upon trivial pretexts--the
+Hessian, who on other occasions, attended by his numberless servants
+in green livery, had made three times as great a display as he, the
+Emperor, on the pretext that the journey to Ratisbon would be too
+expensive.
+
+Maurice now had his imperial word and he the duke's; but since that
+evening Charles thought he had noticed something which lessened his
+confidence in the Saxon. It was not only jealousy which showed him
+this young, clever, brave, and extremely ambitious prince in a more
+unfavourable light than before. He knew men, and thought that he had
+perceived in him signs of the most utter selfishness. As Maurice, to
+gain two bishoprics, and perhaps later the Elector's hat, abandoned his
+coreligionists, his cousin and his father-in-law, he would also desert
+him if his own advantage prompted him to do so. True, such an ally was
+useful for many things, but he could not be trusted implicitly a single
+hour.
+
+Maurice certainly had not remained ignorant of Barbara's relation to
+him, the Emperor, and yet, in the sovereign's very presence, he had
+courted her favour with such defiant boldness that Charles struck the
+writing-table with his fist as he thought of his manner to the singer.
+Would Maurice impose greater moderation upon himself in political
+affairs?
+
+Yet perhaps he judged the Saxon too severely, and made him suffer for
+another's sin. The man's conduct is governed by the woman's, and he had
+seen how Barbara, as it were, gave Maurice the right to sue thus boldly
+for her favour.
+
+Was it conceivable that she loved him, after having wounded him, as if
+intentionally, by acts which she knew were detestable to him? If her
+heart was still his, how could she have so inconsiderately favoured in
+his presence another, younger man?
+
+Angrily excited by the question, he rose from the writing-table. But ere
+he went to rest he thought of his hapless mother, whose birthday at this
+hour, beyond midnight, was now over, and, kneeling before the priedieu
+in his bedroom, he fervently commended her to the mercy of Heaven. This
+woman had loved her husband so fondly that it was long ere she could
+resolve to part from his corpse, yet she was the heiress of the
+mightiest sovereigns; and what was this Ratisbon girl whom he honoured
+with his affection?
+
+And yet!
+
+While her lips were still glowing from his kisses, she had carried on
+a reckless game with another, and was now robbing him of the repose of
+mind which he so urgently, needed.
+
+And the mother of the woman whose birthday had just passed, the proud
+Queen Isabella, the conqueror of the Moors--what would she have said had
+she been condemned to see her grandson, the heir of so great an empire,
+ensnared by such bonds?
+
+He had proved, since he wielded the sceptre, that he did not lack
+strength of will, and he must show it again.
+
+He reminded himself indignantly that he was not only the ruler of many
+nations, but the head of perhaps the most illustrious family on earth.
+
+He thought of his royal brothers and sisters, his haughty son Philip,
+his daughters, nephews, and nieces; and while pouring forth his soul
+in fervent prayer for his unfortunate mother, with her disordered
+intellect, he also besought the Redeemer to free him from the evil of
+this love. Three words from his lips would have sufficed to rid him of
+Barbara forever, but--he felt it--that would not end the matter. He must
+also learn to forget her, and for that he needed the aid of the higher
+powers. He had once more yielded to worldly pleasure. The kiss of her
+beautiful soft lips had been sweet, the melody of her voice still more
+blissful. It had given him hours of rapture; but were these joys
+worth the long repentance which was already beginning? It was wise to
+sacrifice the transitory pleasures of earth to loftier purposes. One
+thing alone promised permanent duration even here--what he was achieving
+for the future greatness of his own name and that of his race. For them
+he was now going to war, and, by fighting against the heretics, the foes
+of God, he entered the strife, in a sense, as the instrument of Heaven.
+Thus, not only his duty as a sovereign, but care for his eternal
+salvation, compelled him to cast aside everything which might jeopardize
+the triumph of his good, nay, sacred cause; and what could imperil it
+more seriously than this late passion, which to-day had rendered it
+impossible to do his duty?
+
+Firmly resolved to resign Barbara before his brother Ferdinand reached
+Ratisbon with his family, he rose from the priedieu and sought his
+couch. But sleep fled from the anxious ruler; besides, the pain of the
+gout became more severe.
+
+After rising early, he went limping to mass, breakfasted, and began his
+work.
+
+Many charts and plans had been placed on the writing-table for him, and
+beside them he found a letter from Granvelle, in which he stated his
+views concerning the alliance with Duke Maurice, and what advantage
+might be derived from it. Both as a whole and in detail Charles approved
+them, and gladly left to the minister the final negotiations with the
+duke, who intended to leave Ratisbon at noon. If he briefly ratified the
+terms which had been arranged with Granvelle, and gave Maurice his hand
+in farewell, he thought he would have satisfied amply the claims of the
+covetous man, of whose aid, however, he stood in need.
+
+After the thunderstorm the weather had grown cloudy and cool. Perhaps
+the change had caused his increased suffering and unhappy mood. But the
+true reason was doubtless the resolution formed the night before, and
+which now by day seemed more difficult to execute than he had thought
+at the priedieu. He was still resolved to keep it, but earthly life
+appeared less short, and he could not conceal from himself that, without
+Barbara's sunny cheerfulness, bewitching tenderness, and, alas! without
+her singing, his future existence would lack its greatest charm. His
+life would be like this gloomy day. Put he would not relinquish what he
+had once firmly determined and proved to himself by reasoning to be the
+correct course.
+
+He could not succeed in burying himself in charts and plans as usual
+and, while imagining how life could be endured without the woman he
+loved, he pushed the papers aside.
+
+In days like these, when the old ache again attacked him, Barbara and
+her singing had brightened the dreary gloom and lessened the pain, or
+she had caressed and sung it entirely away. He seemed to himself like
+a surly patient who throws aside the helpful medicine because it once
+tasted badly to him and was an annoyance to others. Yet no. It contained
+poison also, so it was wise to put it away. But had not Dr. Mathys
+told him yesterday that the strongest remedial power was concealed in
+poisons, and that they were the most effective medicines? Ought he
+not to examine once more the reasons which had led him to this last
+resolution? He bowed his head with an irresolution foreign to his
+nature, and when his greyhound touched his aching foot he pushed the
+animal angrily away.
+
+The confessor De Soto found him in this mood at his first visit.
+
+Ere he crossed the threshold he saw that Charles was suffering and felt
+troubled by some important matter, and soon learned what he desired to
+know. But if Charles expected the Dominican to greet his decision with
+grateful joy, he was mistaken, for De Soto had long since relinquished
+the suspicion which had prejudiced him against Barbara and, on the
+contrary, with the Bishop of Arras, had reached the certainty that the
+love which united the monarch to the singer would benefit him.
+
+Both knew the danger which threatened the sovereign from his tendency to
+melancholy, and now that he saw his efforts to urge the Emperor to a war
+with the Smalcalds crowned with success, he wished to keep alive in him
+the joyousness which Barbara, and she alone, had aroused and maintained.
+
+So he used the convincing eloquence characteristic of him to shake the
+monarch's resolve, and lead him back to the woman he loved.
+
+The Church made no objection to this bond of free love formed by a
+sovereign whom grave political considerations withheld from a second
+marriage. If his Majesty's affection diminished the success of his work,
+the separation from so dear a being, who afforded him so much pleasure,
+would do this to a far greater degree. That Barbara had allowed the bold
+Saxon too much liberty on the dancing ground he did not deny, but took
+advantage of the opportunity to point out the unscrupulousness which
+characterized Maurice, like all heretics. As for Barbara, the warm blood
+and fresh love of pleasure of youth, qualities which to many were her
+special charm, had led her into the error of the luckless dance. But the
+Emperor, who until then had listened to De Soto' here interrupted him to
+confide the unfortunate suspicion which had been aroused in him the day
+before.
+
+The mention of this matter, however, was very opportune to the almoner,
+for he could easily turn it to the advantage of the suspected girl. The
+day before yesterday she had confessed to him the fate of the valuable
+star, and begged him, if her imprudent deed of charity should be
+discovered, to relieve her of the painful task of explaining to Charles
+how she had been induced to sell a memento so dear to her. Thereupon the
+confessor himself had ascertained from the marquise and the goldsmith
+Jamnitzer that Barbara had told him the whole truth.
+
+So in his eyes, and probably in those of a higher power, this apparently
+ignoble act would redound no little to the credit of the girl's heart.
+
+Charles listened to this explanation with a silent shrug of the
+shoulders. Such a deed could scarcely be otherwise regarded by the
+priest, but Barbara's disregard of his first gift offended him far more
+than the excellent disposition evinced by the hasty act pleased him. She
+had flung the first tangible token of his love into the insatiable
+jaws of a worthless profligate, like a copper coin thrown as alms to a
+beggar. It grieved the soul of the economical manager and lover of rare
+works of art to have this ancient and also very valuable family heirloom
+broken to pieces. Malfalconnet would not fail to utter some biting jest
+when he heard that Charles must now, as it were, purchase this costly
+ornament of himself. He would have forgiven Barbara everything else more
+easily than this mad casting away of a really royal gift.
+
+Expressing his indignation to the almoner without reserve, he closed the
+interview with him. When Charles was again alone he tried to rise, in
+order, while pacing up and down the room, to examine his resolution once
+more. But his aching foot prevented this plan and, groaning aloud, he
+sank back into his arm-chair.
+
+His heart had not been so sore for a long time, and it was Barbara's
+fault. Yet he longed for her. If she had laid her delicate white hand
+upon his brow, he said to himself, or had he been permitted to listen to
+even one of her deeply felt religious songs, it would have cheered
+his soul and even alleviated his physical suffering. Several times he
+stretched his hand toward the bell to send for her; but she had offended
+him so deeply that he must at least let her feel how gravely she had
+erred, and that the lion could not be irritated unpunished, so he
+conquered himself and remained alone. The sense of offended majesty
+strengthened his power of resisting the longing for her.
+
+Indignant with himself, he again drew the maps toward him. But like
+a cloth fluttering up and down between a picture and the beholder,
+memories of Barbara forced themselves between him and the plans over
+which he was bending.
+
+This could not continue!
+
+Perhaps, after all, her singing was the only thing which could restore
+his lost composure. He longed for it even more ardently than for her
+face. If he sent for her, he could show her by his manner what fruit her
+transgressions had borne. The rest would follow as a matter of course.
+Now every fibre of his being yearned for the melody of her voice.
+
+Obeying a hasty resolution, he rang the bell and ordered Adrian to call
+Quijada and command Barbara to sing in the Golden Cross that afternoon.
+
+After the valet had replaced his aching foot in the right position, Don
+Luis appeared. Without any further comment the Emperor informed him
+that he had determined to sever the bond of love which united him to the
+singer.
+
+While speaking, he looked his friend sharply in the face, and when he
+saw, by his silent bow, that his decision called forth no deeper emotion
+in him, he carelessly added that, nevertheless, he intended to hear her
+sing that day, and perhaps many times more.
+
+Perceiving a significant smile upon the lips of the faithful follower,
+and recognising the peril contained in the last resolve, he shook his
+finger at Quijada, saying: "As if even the inmost recesses of your soul
+were concealed from me! You are asking yourself, Why does Charles deny
+me leave to visit Villagarcia, and thereby cruelly prevent my being
+happy with my dear, beautiful young wife, after so long a separation,
+if he considers himself strong enough to turn his back, without further
+ceremony, upon the woman he loves, after seeing and hearing her again?"
+
+"Your Majesty has read correctly," replied Don Luis, "yet my wish for
+a brief stay with Doha Magdalena de Ulloa is very different from your
+Majesty's desire."
+
+"How?" demanded Charles in a sharp tone of inquiry. "Is my strength of
+will, in your opinion, so far inferior to yours?"
+
+"Your Majesty can scarcely deem me capable of so presumptuous an error,"
+replied Quijada. "But your Majesty is Charles V, who has no superior
+save our Lord in heaven. I, on the contrary, am only a Castilian
+nobleman, and as such prize my honour as my highest treasure; but, above
+all other things, even above the lady of my heart, stands the King."
+
+"I might know that," cried the Emperor, holding out his hand to his
+friend. "Yet I refused you the leave of absence, you faithful fellow.
+The world calls this selfishness. But since it still needs me, it ought
+in justice to excuse me, for never have I needed you so much as during
+these decisive weeks, whether war is declared--and it will come to
+that--or not. Think how many other things are also impending! Besides,
+my foot aches, and my heart, this poor heart, bears a wound which a
+friend's careful hand will soothe. So you understand, Luis, that the
+much-tormented Charles can not do without you just now."
+
+Quijada, with sincere emotion, bent over the monarch's hand and kissed
+it tenderly, but the Emperor, for the first time, hastily stroked his
+bearded cheek, and said in an agitated tone, "We know each other."
+
+"Yes, your Majesty," cried the Spaniard. "In the first place, I will
+not again annoy my master with the request for a leave of absence. Dona
+Magdalena must try how she can accommodate herself to widowhood while
+she has a living husband, if the Holy Virgin will only permit me to
+offer your Majesty what you expect from me."
+
+"I will answer for that," the Emperor was saying, when Adrian
+interrupted him.
+
+The messenger had returned from Prebrunn with the news that the singer
+had taken cold the day before, and could not leave the house.
+
+Charles angrily exclaimed that he knew what such illness meant, and his
+under lip protruded so far that it was easy to perceive how deeply this
+fresh proof of Barbara's defiance and vanity incensed him.
+
+But when the chamberlain said that the singer had been attacked by a
+violent fever, Charles changed colour, and asked quickly in a tone of
+sincere anxiety: "And Dr. Mathys? Has he seen her? No? Then he must
+go to her at once, and I shall expect tidings as soon as he returns.
+Perhaps the fever was seething in her blood yesterday."
+
+He had no time to make any further remarks about the sufferer, for one
+visitor followed another.
+
+Shortly before noon the Bishop of Arras ushered in Duke Maurice, who
+wished to take leave of him.
+
+Granvelle, in a businesslike manner, summed up the result of the
+negotiations, and Charles made no objection; but after he had said
+farewell to the Saxon prince, he remarked, with a smile which was
+difficult to interpret: "One thing more, my dear Prince. The beautiful
+singer has suffered from the gagliarde, which she had the honour
+of dancing with you; she is lying ill of a fever. We will, however,
+scarcely regard it as an evil omen for the agreements which we concluded
+on the same day. With our custom of keeping our hands away from
+everything which our friendly ally claims as his right, our alliance,
+please God, will not fail to have good success."
+
+A faint flush crimsoned the intelligent face of the Saxon duke, and an
+answer as full of innuendo as the Emperor's address was already hovering
+on his lips, when the chief equerry's entrance gave him power to
+restrain it.
+
+Count Lanoi announced that his Highness's travelling escort was ready,
+and the Emperor, with an air of paternal affection, bade the younger
+sovereign farewell.
+
+As soon as the door had closed behind Maurice, Charles, turning to
+Granvelle, remarked, "The Saxon cousin returned our clasp of the hand
+some what coldly, but the means of rendering it warmer are ready."
+
+"The Elector's hat," replied the Bishop of Arras. "I hope it will
+prevent him from making our heads hot, as the Germans say, instead of
+his own."
+
+"If only our brains keep cool," replied the Emperor. "It is needful in
+dealing with this young man."
+
+"He knows his Machiavelli," added the statesman, "but I think the
+Florentine did not write wholly in vain for us also."
+
+"Scarcely," observed the Emperor, smiling, and then rang the little bell
+to have his valet summon Dr. Mathys.
+
+The leech had returned from his visit to Barbara, and feared that
+the burning fever from which she was suffering might indicate the
+commencement of inflammation of the lungs.
+
+Charles started up and expressed the desire to be conveyed at once in
+the litter to Prebrunn; but the physician declared that his Majesty's
+visit would as certainly harm the feverish girl as going out in such
+weather would increase the gout in his royal master's foot.
+
+The monarch shrugged his shoulders, and seized the despatches and
+letters which had arrived. The persons about him suffered severely from
+his detestable mood, but the dull weather of this gloomy day appeared
+also to have a bad effect upon the confessor De Soto, for his lofty brow
+was scarcely less clouded than the sky. He did not allude to Barbara by
+a single word, yet she was the cause of his depression.
+
+After his conversation with the sovereign he had retired to his private
+room, to devote himself to the philological studies which he pursued
+during the greater portion of the day with equal zeal and success.
+But he had scarcely begun to be absorbed in the new copy of the best
+manuscript of Apuleius, which had readied him from Florence, and make
+notes in the first Roman printed work of this author, when Cassian
+interrupted him.
+
+He had missed the servant in the morning. Now the fellow, always so
+punctual when he had not gazed too deeply into the wine-cup, stood
+before him in a singular plight, for he was completely drenched, and a
+disagreeable odour of liquor exhaled from him. The flaxen hair, which
+bristled around his head and hung over his broad, ugly face, gave him so
+unkempt and imbecile an appearance that it was repulsive to the almoner,
+and he harshly asked where he had been loitering.
+
+But Cassian, confident that his master's indignation would soon change
+to approval and praise, rapidly began to relate what had occurred
+outside the little castle at Prebrunn when the festival under the
+lindens was over.
+
+After helping to place the Wittenberg theologian in custody, he had
+followed Barbara at some distance during her nocturnal walk. While she
+waited in front of Dr. Hiltner's house and talked with the members of
+the syndic's family after their return, he had remained concealed in the
+shadow of a neighbouring dwelling, and did not move until the doctor had
+gone away with the singer. He cautiously glided behind them as far as
+the garden, witnessed the syndic's cordial farewell to his companion,
+and dogged the former to the Prebrunn jail. Here he had again been
+obliged to wait patiently a long while before the doctor came out into
+the open air with the prisoner. The rope had been removed from Erasmus's
+hands, and Cassian had remained at his heels until he stopped in the
+village of Kager, on the Nuremberg road. The young man had taken a
+lunch in the tavern there; the money for it was given him by the syndic.
+Cassian had seen the gold pieces which had been placed in Erasmus's
+hand, to pay his travelling expenses, glitter in the rosy light of dawn.
+
+In reply to the almoner's question whether he remembered any portion
+of the conversation between the syndic and the singer, Cassian admitted
+that he had been obliged to keep too far away from them to hear it, but
+Dr. Hiltner's manner to the girl had been very friendly, especially when
+he took leave of her.
+
+The anything but grateful manner with which the almoner received this
+story was a great disappointment to the overzealous servant; nay, he
+secretly permitted himself to doubt his master's wisdom and energy when
+the latter remarked that the arrest of a man who had merely entered a
+stranger's garden was entirely unjustifiable, and that he was aware of
+the singer's acquaintanceship with the Hiltners.
+
+With these words he motioned Cassian to the door.
+
+When the prelate was again alone he gazed thoughtfully into vacancy. He
+understood human beings sufficiently well to know that Barbara had not
+deceived him in her confession. In spite of the nocturnal walk with the
+head of the Ratisbon heretics, she was faithful to the Catholic Church.
+
+Erasmus's visit at night alone gave him cause for reflection, and
+suggested the doubt whether he might not have interceded too warmly for
+this peculiar creature and her excitable artist nature.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Silence pervaded the little castle in Prebrunn; nay, there were days
+when a thick layer of straw in the road showed that within the house lay
+some one seriously ill, who must be guarded from every sound.
+
+In Ratisbon and the Golden Cross, on the contrary, the noise and bustle
+constantly increased. On the twenty-eighth of May, King Ferdinand
+arrived with his family to visit his brother Charles. The Reichstag
+would be opened on the fifth of June, and attracted to the Danube many
+princes and nobles, but neither the Elector John of Saxony nor the
+Landgrave Philip of Hesse, the heads of the Smalcald league. King
+Ferdinand's two daughters were to be married the first of July, and
+many a distinguished guest came to Ratisbon in June. Besides, several
+soldiers began to appear.
+
+The Emperor Charles's hours were filled to the brim with work and social
+obligations. The twinges of the gout had not wholly disappeared, but
+remained bearable.
+
+The quiet good-breeding of the two young archduchesses pleased the
+Emperor, and their young brother Maximilian's active mind and gay,
+chivalrous nature delighted him, though many a trait made him, as well
+as the confessor, doubt whether he did not incline more toward the
+evangelical doctrine than beseemed a son of his illustrious race. But
+Charles himself, in his youth, had not been a stranger to such leanings.
+If Maximilian was intrusted with the reins of government, he would
+perceive in what close and effective union stood the Church and the
+state. Far from rousing his opposition by reproaches, the shrewd uncle
+won his affection and merely sowed in his mind, by apt remarks, the
+seeds which in due time would grow and bear their fruit.
+
+The Austrians watched with sincere admiration the actually exhausting
+industry of the illustrious head of their house, for he allowed himself
+only a few hours' sleep, and when Granvelle had worked with him until
+he was wearied, he buried himself, either alone or with some officers
+of high rank, in charts of the seat of war, in making calculations,
+arranging the levying of recruits and military movements, and yet
+did not withdraw from the society of his Viennese relatives and other
+distinguished guests.
+
+Still, he did not forget Barbara. The leech was daily expected to give
+a report of her health, and when, during the middle of June, Dr. Mathys
+expressed doubts of her recovery, it rendered him so anxious that his
+relatives noticed it, and attributed it to the momentous declaration of
+war which was on the eve of being made.
+
+When the sufferer at last began to recover, his selfishness was
+satisfied with the course of events. True, he thought of the late
+springtime of love which he had enjoyed as an exquisite gift of Fortune,
+and when he remembered many a tender interview with Barbara a bright
+smile flitted over his grave countenance. But, on the whole, he was glad
+that this love affair had come to so honourable an end. The last few
+weeks had claimed his entire time and strength so rigidly and urgently
+that he would have been compelled to refuse Barbara's demands upon his
+love or neglect serious duties.
+
+Besides, a meeting between Barbara and his nephew and young nieces could
+scarcely have been avoided, and this would have cast a shadow upon the
+unbounded reverence and admiration paid him by the wholly inexperienced,
+childlike young archduchesses, which afforded him sincere pleasure. The
+confessor had taken care to bring this vividly before his mind. While
+speaking of Barbara with sympathizing compassion, he represented her
+illness as a fresh token of the divine favour which Heaven so often
+showed to the Emperor Charles, and laid special stress upon the
+disadvantages which the longer duration of this love affair--though in
+itself, pardonable, nay, even beneficial--would have entailed.
+
+Queen Mary's boy choir was to remain in Ratisbon some time longer,
+and whenever the monarch attended their performances--which was almost
+daily-the longing for Barbara awoke with fresh strength. Even in the
+midst of the most arduous labour he considered the question how it might
+be possible to keep her near him--not, it is true, as his favourite, but
+as a singer, and his inventive brain hit upon a successful expedient.
+
+By raising her father to a higher rank, he might probably have had her
+received by his sister Mary among her ladies in waiting, but then there
+would always have been an unwelcome temptation existing. If, on the
+other hand, Barbara would decide to take the veil, an arrangement could
+easily be made for him to hear her often, and her singing might then
+marvellously beautify the old age, so full of suffering and destitute of
+pleasure, that awaited him. He realized more and more distinctly that
+it was less her rare beauty than the spell of her voice and of her art
+which had constrained him to this late passion.
+
+The idea that she would refuse to accept the fate to which he had
+condemned her was incomprehensible to his sense of power, and therefore
+did not occur to his mind.
+
+Yet, especially when he was bearing pain, he did not find it difficult
+to silence even this wish for the future, for then memories of the last
+deeply clouded hours of their love bond forced themselves upon him.
+
+He saw her swinging like a Bacchante in the dance with the young Saxon
+duke; the star which had been thrown away appeared before his eyes, and
+his irritated soul commanded him never to see her again.
+
+But the suffering of a person whom we have once loved possesses a
+reconciling power, and he who usually forgot no insult, even after the
+lapse of years, was again disposed to forgive her, and reverted to the
+wish to continue to enjoy her singing.
+
+When, before their wedding day, he gave his nieces the diadems which
+Jammtzer had made for them, his resentment concerning the ornament
+sold by Barbara again awoke. He could no longer punish her for this
+"loveless" deed, as he called it, but he made the marquise feel severely
+enough his indignation for her abuse of the young girl's inexperience,
+for, without granting her a farewell audience, he sent her back to
+Brussels, with letters to Queen Mary expressing his displeasure. Instead
+of her skilful maid Alphonsine, a clumsy Swabian girl accompanied
+her--the former had married Cassian.
+
+Barbara heard nothing of all these things; her recovery was slow, and
+every source of anxiety was kept from her.
+
+She had never been ill before, and to be still at a time when every
+instinct urged her to battle for her life happiness and her love, to
+prove the power of her beauty and her art, put her slender stock of
+patience to the severest test.
+
+During the first few days she was perfectly conscious, and watched with
+keen suspense what was passing around her. It made her happy to find
+that Charles sent his own physician to her but, on the other hand, she
+was deeply and painfully agitated by his failure to grant the entreaty
+which she sent by Dr. Mathys to let her see his face, even if only for a
+moment.
+
+Gombert and Appenzelder, Massi, the Wollers from the Ark, Dr. Hiltner's
+wife and daughter, the boy singer Hannibal, and many gentlemen of
+the court-nay, even the Bishop of Arras--came to inquire for her, and
+Barbara had strictly enjoined Frau Lerch to tell her everything that
+concerned her; for every token of sympathy filled the place, as it were,
+of the applause to which she was accustomed.
+
+When, on the second day, she heard that old Ursula had been there to ask
+about her for Wolf, who was now convalescing, she passionately insisted
+upon seeing her, but, obedient to the physician's orders, Frau Lerch
+would not admit her. Then Barbara flew into such a rage that the foolish
+woman forgot to take the fever into account, and determined to return
+home. Many motives drew her there, but especially her business; day and
+night her mind was haunted by the garments which, just at this time,
+before the commencement of the Reichstag, other dressmakers were
+fashioning for her aristocratic customers.
+
+A certain feeling of shame had restrained her from leaving Barbara
+directly after the beginning of her illness. Besides, delay had been
+advisable, because the appearance of the Emperor's physician proved that
+the monarch's love was not wholly dead. But Barbara's outbreak now came
+at an opportune time, for yesterday, by the leech's suggestion, and with
+the express approval of the Emperor, one of the Dominican nuns, Sister
+Hyacinthe, had come from the Convent of the Holy Cross and, with quiet
+dignity, assumed her office of nurse beside her charge's sick-bed. This
+forced Fran Lerch into a position which did not suit her, and as, soon
+after Barbara's outbreak, Dr. Mathys sternly ordered her to adopt a
+more quiet and modest bearing, she declared that she would not bear such
+insult and abuse, hastily packed her property, and returned to the Grieb
+with a much larger amount of luggage than she had brought with her.
+
+Sister Hyacinthe now ruled alone in the sickroom, and the calm face
+of the nun, whose cap concealed hair already turning gray, exerted as
+soothing an influence upon the patient as her low, pleasant voice. She
+was the daughter of a knightly race, and had taken the veil from a deep
+inward vocation, as one of the elect who, in following Christ, forget
+themselves, in order to dedicate to her suffering neighbours all her
+strength and the great love which filled her heart. They were her world,
+and her sole pleasure was to satisfy the compassionate impulse in her
+own breast by severe toil, by tender solicitude, by night watching, and
+by exertions often continued to actual suffering. Death, into whose face
+she had looked beside so many sickbeds, was to her a kind friend who
+held the key of the eternal home where the Divine Bridegroom awaited
+her.
+
+The events occurring in the world, whether peace reigned or the nations
+were at war with one another, affected her only so far as they were
+connected with her patient. Her thoughts and acts, all her love and
+solicitude, referred solely to the invalid in her care.
+
+The departure of Frau Lerch was a relief to her mind, and it seemed an
+enigma that Barbara, whose beauty increased her interest, and whom
+the physician had extolled as a famous singer, could have given her
+confidence, in her days of health, to this woman.
+
+Sister Hyacinthe's appearance beside her couch had at first perplexed
+Barbara, because she had not asked for her; but the mere circumstance
+that her lover had sent her rendered it easy to treat the nun kindly,
+and the tireless, experienced, and invariably cheerful nurse soon became
+indispensable.
+
+On the whole, both the leech and Sister Hyacinthe could call Barbara a
+docile patient, and she often subjected herself to a restraint irksome
+to her vivacious temperament, because she felt how much gratitude she
+owed to both.
+
+Not until the fever reached its height did her turbulent nature assert
+its full power, and the experienced disciple of the art of healing had
+seen few invalids rave more wildly.
+
+The delusions that tortured her were by no means varied, for all
+revolved about the person of her imperial lover and her art. But under
+the most careful nursing her strong constitution resisted even the most
+violent attacks of the fever, and when June was drawing toward an end
+all danger seemed over.
+
+Dr. Mathys had already permitted her to sit out of doors, and informed
+the Emperor that there was no further occasion for fear.
+
+The monarch expressed his gratification but, instead of asking more
+particularly about the progress of her convalescence, he hastily turned
+the conversation to his own health.
+
+Dr. Mathys regretted this for the sake of the beautiful neglected
+creature, who had won his sympathy, but it did not surprise him, for
+duty after duty now filled every hour of Charles's day. Besides, on the
+day after to-morrow, the fourth of July, the marriages of his two
+nieces were to take place, and he himself was to accompany the bridal
+procession and attend the wedding. On the fifth the Reichstag would be
+opened, and the Duke of Alba, with several experienced colonels, had
+arrived as harbingers of the approaching war. Where this stern and
+tried general appeared, thoughts of war began to stir, and already men
+equipped with helmets and armour began to be seen in unusual numbers in
+all the streets and squares of Ratisbon.
+
+The Emperor's room, too, had an altered aspect, for, instead of a few
+letters and despatches, his writing-table was now covered not only with
+maps and plans, but lists and tables referring to the condition of his
+army.
+
+What could the health of a half-convalescent girl now be to the man to
+whom even his most trusted friend would no longer have dared to mention
+her as his favourite?
+
+Of course, Dr. Mathys told Barbara nothing about the Emperor's lack of
+interest, for any strong mental excitement might still be injurious to
+her. Besides, he was a reserved man, who said little more to Barbara
+than was necessary. Toward the Emperor Charles he imposed a certain
+restraint upon himself; but the royal adept in reading human nature knew
+that in him he possessed one of the most loyal servants, and gave him
+his entire confidence. For his sake alone this wealthy scholar devoted
+himself to the laborious profession which so often kept him from library
+and laboratory. Although his smooth, brown hair had turned gray
+long ago, he had never married, for he had decided in the Emperor's
+favour--this Charles knew also--whenever the choice presented itself to
+follow his royal patient during his journeys and expeditions or to find
+rest and comfort in a home of his own.
+
+The calm, kindly manner of this far-famed physician very soon gained a
+great influence over the vivacious Barbara. Since she had felt sure of
+his good will, she had willingly obeyed him. Though he was often obliged
+to shake his finger at her and tell her how much she herself could
+contribute toward regaining freedom of motion and the use of her voice,
+she really did nothing which he could seriously censure, and thus her
+recovery progressed in the most favourable manner until the wedding day
+was close at hand.
+
+She had already been permitted to receive visits from old acquaintances
+and, without saying much herself, listen to the news they brought. The
+little Maltese, Hannibal, had also appeared again, and the lively boy
+told her many things which Gombert and Appenzelder had not mentioned.
+
+The morning of the day before the princesses' marriage he informed her,
+among other things, that the bridal procession would march the following
+morning. It was to start from the cathedral square and go to Prebrunn,
+where it would turn back and disband in front of the Town Hall. All the
+distinguished noblemen and ladies who had come to Ratisbon to attend the
+wedding and the Reichstag would show themselves to the populace on this
+occasion, and it was even said that the Emperor intended to lead the
+train with his royal brother. It must pass by the garden; but the road
+could scarcely be seen from the little castle--the lindens, beeches, and
+elms were too tall and their foliage was too thick to permit it.
+
+This news destroyed Barbara's composure. Though she had slept well
+during the past few nights, on this one slumber deserted her. She could
+not help thinking constantly of the possibility that the Emperor might
+be present in the procession, and to see her lover again was the goal of
+her longing.
+
+Even in the morning, while the physician permitted her to remain in the
+open air because the clay was hot and still, the bridal procession was
+continually in her thoughts. Yet she did not utter a word in allusion to
+it.
+
+At the noon meal she ate so little that Sister Hyacinthe noticed it, and
+anxiously asked if she felt worse; but Barbara reassured her and, after
+a short rest in the house, she asked to be taken out again under the
+lindens where she had reclined in an armchair that morning.
+
+Scarcely had she seated herself when all the bells in the city began
+to ring, and the heavy ordnance and howitzers shook the air with their
+thunder.
+
+What a festal alarum!
+
+How vividly it reminded her of the brilliant exhibitions and festivities
+which she had formerly attended!
+
+She listened breathlessly to the sounds from the city, and now a distant
+blare of trumpets drowned the dull roar of the ordnance and the sharp
+rattle of the culverins.
+
+The confused blending of many human voices reached her from beyond the
+garden wall.
+
+The road must be full of people. Now single shrill trumpet notes echoed
+from afar amid the trombones and the dull roll of the drums, the noise
+increasing every moment. From a large, old beech tree close to the
+wall, into which a dozen lads had climbed, she already saw handkerchiefs
+waving and heard the shouts of clear, boyish voices.
+
+Sister Hyacinthe had just gone into the house, and like an illumination
+the thought darted through Barbara's mind that the road could be seen
+from the little summer house which the reverend owner of the castle
+called his "frigidarium," because it was cool even during the warmest
+summer day.
+
+It was a small, towerlike building close to the garden wall, whose
+single inner room was designed to imitate a rock cave. The walls were
+covered with tufa and stalagmites, shells, mountain crystals, and
+corals, and from the lofty ceiling hung large stalactites. From one of
+the walls a fountain plashed into a large shell garlanded with green
+aquatic plants and tenanted by several goldfish and frogs.
+
+The single open window resembled a cleft in the rocks, and looked out
+upon the road. Blocks of stone, flung one upon another without regard to
+order, formed steps from which to look out of doors.
+
+These stairs afforded a view of the road to the city. Barbara had often
+used them when watching in the dusk of evening for her lover's litter
+or, at a still later hour, for the torch-bearers who preceded it.
+
+She could already walk firmly enough to mount the few rough steps which
+led to the opening in the rocks and, obeying the tameless yearning of
+her heart, she rose from the arm-chair and walked as rapidly as her
+feeble strength permitted toward the frigidarium.
+
+It was more difficult to traverse the path, illumined by the hot July
+sun, than she had expected; but the pealing of the bells and the roar
+of the cannon continued, and now it was drowned by the fanfare of the
+trumpets and the shouts of the people.
+
+All this thundering, ringing, clashing, chiming, and cheering was
+a greeting to him for the sight of whom her whole being so ardently
+longed; and when, halfway down the path, she felt the need of resting on
+a bench under a weeping ash, she did not obey it, but forced herself to
+totter on.
+
+Drops of perspiration covered her forehead when she entered the
+frigidarium, but there the most delicious coolness greeted her. Here,
+too, however, she could allow herself no rest, for the boys in the top
+of the beech, and some neighbouring trees, were already shouting their
+clear voices hoarse and waving caps and branches.
+
+With trembling knees she forced herself to climb one after another of
+the blocks that formed the staircase. When a slight faintness attacked
+her, a stalactite afforded her support, and it passed as quickly as it
+came. Now she had reached her goal. The rock on which she stood gave her
+feet sufficient support, as it had done many times before.
+
+Barbara needed a few minutes in this wonderfully cool atmosphere to
+recover complete self-control. Only the wild pulsation of her heart
+still caused a painful feeling; but if she was permitted to see the
+object of her love once more, the world might go to ruin and she with
+it.
+
+Now she gazed from the lofty window over the open country.
+
+She had come just at the right time. Imperial halberdiers and horse
+guards, galloping up and down, kept the centre of the road free. On the
+opposite side of the highway which she overlooked was a dense, countless
+multitude of citizens, peasants, soldiers, monks, women, and children,
+who with difficulty resisted the pressure of those who stood behind
+them, shoulder to shoulder, head to head. Barbara from her lofty station
+saw hats, barets, caps, helmets, women's caps and coifs, fair and
+red hair on uncovered heads and, in the centre of many, the priestly
+tonsure.
+
+Then a column of dust advanced along the road from which the fanfare
+resounded like the scream of the hawk from the gray fog. A few minutes
+later, the cloud vanished; but the shouts of the multitude increased
+to loud cheers when the heralds who rode at the head of the procession
+appeared and raised their long, glittering trumpets to their lips.
+Behind them, on spirited stallions, rode the wedding marshals, members
+of royal families, in superb costumes with bouquets of flowers on their
+shoulders.
+
+Now the tumult died away for a few minutes, and Barbara felt as though
+her heart stood still, for the two stately men on splendid chargers
+who now, after a considerable interval, followed them, were the royal
+brothers, the Emperor Charles and King Ferdinand.
+
+The man for whom Barbara's soul longed, as well as her eyes, rode on the
+side toward her.
+
+He was still half concealed by dust, but it could be no one else, for
+now the outburst of enthusiasm, joy, and reverence from the populace
+reached its climax. It seemed as though the very trees by the wayside
+joined in the limitless jubilation. The greatness of the sovereign, the
+general, and the happy head of the family, made the Protestants around
+him forget with what perils this monarch threatened their faith and
+thereby themselves; and he, too, the defender and loyal son of the
+Church, appeared to thrust aside the thought that the people who greeted
+him with such impetuous delight, and shared the two-fold festival of his
+family with such warm devotion, were heretics who deserved punishment.
+At least he saluted with gracious friendliness the throng that lined
+both sides of the road, and as he passed by the garden of the little
+castle he even smiled, and glanced toward the building as though a
+pleasant memory had been awakened in his mind. At this moment Barbara
+gazed into the Emperor's face.
+
+Those were the features which had worn so tender an expression when, for
+the first time, he had uttered the never-to-be-forgotten "Because I long
+for love," and her yearning heart throbbed no less quickly now than on
+that night. The wrong and suffering which he had inflicted upon her were
+forgotten. She remembered nothing save that she loved him, that he was
+the greatest and, to her, the dearest of all men.
+
+It was perfectly impossible for him to see her, but she did not think
+of that; and when he looked toward her with such joyous emotion, and the
+cheers of the populace, like a blazing fire which a gust of wind fans
+still higher, outstripped, as it were, themselves, she could not have
+helped joining in the huzzas and shouts and acclamations around her
+though she had been punished with imprisonment and death.
+
+And clinging more firmly to the stalactite, Barbara rose on tiptoe and
+mingled her voice with the joyous cheers of the multitude.
+
+In the act her breath failed, and she felt a sharp pain in her chest,
+but she heeded the suffering as little as she did the weakness of her
+limbs. The physical part of her being seemed asleep or dead. Nothing was
+awake or living except her soul. Nothing stirred within her breast save
+the rapture of seeing him again, the indescribable pleasure of showing
+that she loved him.
+
+Already she could no longer see his face, already the dust had concealed
+him and his charger from her eyes, yet still, filled with peerless
+happiness, she shouted "Charles!" and again and again "Charles!" It
+seemed to her as though the air or some good spirit insist bear the cry
+to him and assure him of her ardent, inextinguishable love.
+
+The charming royal brides, radiant in their jewels, their betrothed
+husbands, and the lords and ladies of their magnificent train passed
+Barbara like shadows. The procession of German, Spanish, Hungarian,
+Bohemian, and Italian dignitaries swam in a confused medley before her
+eyes. The glittering armour of the princes, counts, and barons, the gems
+on the heads, the robes, and the horses' trappings of the ladies and the
+Magyar magnates flashed brightly before her, the red hats and robes of
+the cardinals gleamed out, but usually everything that her eyes beheld
+mingled in a single motley, shining, moving, many-limbed body.
+
+The end of the procession was now approaching, and physical weakness
+suddenly asserted itself most painfully.
+
+Barbara felt only too plainly that it was time to leave her post of
+observation; her feet would scarcely carry her and, besides, she was
+freezing.
+
+She had entered the damp cave chamber in a thin summer gown, and it now
+seemed to be continually growing colder and colder.
+
+Climbing down the high steps taxed her like a difficult, almost
+impossible task, and perhaps she might not have succeeded in
+accomplishing it unaided; but she had scarcely commenced the descent
+when she heard her name called, and soon after Sister Hyacinthe entered
+the frigidarium and, amid no lack of kindly reproaches, helped her to
+reach the open air.
+
+When even in the warm sunshine the chill did not pass away, Barbara saw
+that the sister was right, yet she was far from feeling repentant.
+
+During the night a violent attack of fever seized her, and her inflamed
+throat was extremely painful.
+
+When Dr. Mathys came to her bedside he already knew from the nun the
+cause of this unfortunate relapse, and he understood only too well what
+had induced Barbara to commit the grave imprudence. Reproof and warnings
+were useless here; the only thing he could do was to act, and renew the
+conflict with the scarcely subdued illness. Thanks to his indefatigable
+zeal, to the girl's strong constitution, and to the watchful care of the
+nurse, he won the victory a second time. Yet he could not rejoice in a
+complete triumph, for the severe inflammation of the bronchial tubes had
+caused a hoarseness which would yield to none of his remedies. It might
+last a long time, and the thought that the purity of his patient's voice
+was perhaps forever destroyed occasioned sincere regret.
+
+True, he opposed the girl when she expressed this fear; but as July drew
+to its close, and her voice still remained husky, he scarcely hoped to
+be able to restore the old melody. In other respects he might consider
+Barbara cured, and intrust her entire convalescence to her own patience
+and caution.
+
+Perhaps the ardent desire to regain the divine gift of song would
+protect her from perilous ventures like this last one, and even more
+certainly the hope which she had confided to the nun and then to
+him also. The physician noticed, with warm sympathy, how deeply this
+mysterious expectation had influenced her excitable nature, ever torn by
+varying emotions, and the excellent man was ready to aid her as a friend
+and intercessor.
+
+Unfortunately, just at this time the pressure of business allowed the
+Emperor little leisure to listen to the voice of the heart.
+
+The day before yesterday the Elector John Frederick of Saxony and the
+Landgrave Philip of Hesse had been banned, and with this the war began.
+
+Already twelve troops of Spaniards who had served in Hungary, and other
+bands of soldiers had entered Ratisbon; cannon came up the Danube from
+Austria, and the city, had gained a warlike aspect. To disturb the
+Emperor in his work as a general at such a time, with a matter which
+must agitate him so deeply, was hazardous, and few would have been bold
+enough to bring it before the overburdened monarch; but the leech's
+interest in Barbara was so warm and sincere that he allowed himself
+to be persuaded to act the mediator between her and the man who had
+interfered so deeply in the destiny of her life. For the first time he
+saw her weep, and her winning manner seemed to him equally touching,
+whether she yielded to anxious distress of mind or to joyous hopes.
+
+His intercession in her behalf would permit no delay, for the Emperor's
+departure to join the troops was close at hand.
+
+Firmly resolved to plead the cause of the unfortunate girl, whose
+preservation, he might say, was his work, yet with slight hope of
+success, he crossed the threshold of the imperial apartments.
+
+When the physician informed the sovereign that Barbara might be
+considered saved for the second time, the latter expressed his pleasure
+by a warm "We are indebted to you for it again "; but when Mathys asked
+if he did not intend to hasten Barbara's recovery by paying her a
+visit, though only for a few moments, the Emperor looked into the
+grave countenance of the physician, in whom he noticed an embarrassment
+usually foreign to him, and said firmly, "Unfortunately, my dear Mathys,
+I must deny myself this pleasure."
+
+The other bowed with a sorrowful face, for Barbara's dearest wish had
+been refused. But the Emperor saw what was passing in the mind of
+the man whom he esteemed, and in a lighter tone added: "So even your
+invulnerable dragon hide was not proof against the shafts--you know! If
+I see aright, something else lies near your heart. My refusal--that is
+easily seen--annoys you; but, much as I value your good opinion, Mathys,
+it is firm. The more difficult I found it to regain my peace of mind,
+the more foolish it would be to expose it to fresh peril. Now, if ever,
+I must shun every source of agitation. Think! With the banning, the
+general's work begins. How you look at me! Well, yes! You, too, know how
+easy it is for the man who has most to do to spare a leisure hour
+which the person without occupation does not find, and neither of us is
+accustomed to deceive the other. Besides, it would be of little avail.
+So, to cut the matter short, I am unwilling to see Barbara again and
+awaken false hopes in her mind! But even these plain words do not seem
+to satisfy you."
+
+"By your Majesty's permission," replied the leech, "deeply as I regret
+it for the invalid's sake, I believe, on the contrary, that you are
+choosing the right course. But I have only discharged the first part of
+my patient's commission. Though I have no pleasant tidings to take back
+to her, I am still permitted to tell her the truth. But your Majesty,
+by avoiding an interview with the poor girl, will spare yourself a sad,
+nay, perhaps a painful hour."
+
+"Did the disease so cruelly mar this masterpiece of the Creator?" asked
+the Emperor. "With so violent a fever it was only too natural," replied
+the physician. "Time and what our feeble skill can do will improve
+her condition, I hope, but--and this causes the poor girl the keenest
+suffering--the unfortunate inflammation of the bronchial tubes most
+seriously injures the tone of her clear voice."
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed the startled Emperor with sincere compassion. "Do
+everything in your power, Mathys, to purify this troubled spring of
+melody. I will repay you with my warmest gratitude, for, though the
+Romans said that Cupid conquered through the eyes, yet Barbara's singing
+exerted a far more powerful influence over my heart than even her
+wonderful golden hair. Restore the melting tones of her voice and,
+though the bond of love which rendered this month of May so exquisitely
+beautiful to us must remain severed, I will not fail to remember it with
+all graciousness."
+
+"That, your Majesty, can scarcely be avoided," the physician here
+remarked with an embarrassment which was new in him to Charles, "for the
+continuance of the memory of the spring days which your Majesty recalls
+with such vivid pleasure seems to be assured. Yet, if it pleases Heaven,
+as I have learned to-day for the first time, to call a living being into
+existence for this purpose----"
+
+"If I understand you correctly," cried the Emperor, starting up, "I am
+to believe in hopes----"
+
+"In hopes," interrupted the physician with complete firmness, "which
+must not alarm your Majesty, but render you happy. This new branch of
+the illustrious trunk of your royal race I, who am only 30 a plain man,
+hail with proud joy, and half the world, I know, will do so with me."
+
+Charles, with brows contracted in a gloomy frown, gazed for a long time
+into vacancy.
+
+The leech perceived how mighty a conflict between contradictory emotions
+would be waged in his breast, and silently gave him time to collect his
+thoughts.
+
+At last, rising from his arm-chair, the Emperor struck the table with
+his open hand, and said: "Whether the Lord our God awoke this new life
+for our punishment or our pleasure the future will teach. What more must
+be done in this matter? You know my custom in regard to such important
+affairs. They are slept upon and maturely considered. Only there is one
+point," and as he uttered the words his voice assumed an imperious tone,
+"which is already irrevocably decided. The world must not suspect what
+hope offers itself to me and another. Tell her, Mathys, we wish her
+happiness; but if her maternal heart expects that I will do her child
+the honour of calling it mine, I must require her to keep silence, and
+intrust the newborn infant's destiny, from the first hour of its birth,
+to my charge."
+
+Here he hesitated, and, after looking the physician in the face,
+went on: "You again think that harsh, Mathys--I see it in your
+expression--but, as my friend, you yourself can scarcely desire the
+world to see the Emperor Charles performing the same task with a Barbara
+Blomberg. She is free to choose. Either I will rear the child, whether
+it is a boy or a girl, as my own, as I did my daughter, Duchess Margaret
+of Parma, or she will refuse to give me the child from its birth and I
+must deny it recognition. I have already shared far too much with
+that tempting creature; I can not permit even this new dispensation to
+restore my severed relationship with the singer. If Barbara's maternal
+love is unselfish, the choice can not be difficult for her. That the
+charge of providing for this new life will fall upon me is a matter of
+course. Tell her this, Mathys, and if in future--But no. We will confide
+this matter to Quijada."
+
+As the door closed behind the physician, Charles stood motionless. Deep
+earnestness furrowed his brow, but suddenly an expression of triumphant
+joy flashed over his face, and then yielded to a look of grateful
+satisfaction. Soon, however, his lofty brow clouded again, and his lower
+lip protruded. Some idea which excited his indignation must have entered
+his mind. He had just been thinking with the warmest joy of the gift
+of Fate of which the physician had told him, but now the reasons which
+forbade his offering it a sincere welcome crowded upon the thinker.
+
+If Heaven bestowed a son upon him, would not only the Church, but also
+the law, which he knew so well, refuse to recognise his rights? A child
+whose mother had offended him, whose grandfather was a ridiculous,
+impoverished old soldier, whose cousins----
+
+Yet for what did he possess the highest power on earth if he would not
+use it to place his own child, in spite of every obstacle, at the height
+of earthly grandeur?
+
+What need he care for the opinion of the world? And yet, yet----
+
+Then there was a great bustle below. The loud tramping of horses' hoofs
+was heard. A troop of Lombardy cavalry in full armour appeared on the
+Haidplatz--fresh re-enforcements for the war just commencing. The erect
+figure of the Duke of Alba, a man of middle height, followed by several
+colonels, trotted toward it. The standard-bearer of the Lombards lowered
+the banner with the picture of the Madonna before the duke, and the
+Emperor involuntarily glanced back into the room at the lovely Madonna
+and Child by the master hand of Giovanni Bellini which his royal sister
+had hung above his writing table.
+
+How grave and lovely, yet how full of majesty, the Christ-child looked,
+how touching a grace surrounded the band of angels playing on violins
+above the purest of mothers!
+
+Then the necessity of appealing to her in prayer seized upon him,
+and with fervent warmth he besought her to surround with her gracious
+protection the young life which owed its existence to him.
+
+He did not think of the child's mother. Was he still angry with her?
+
+Did she seem to him unworthy of being commended to the protection of the
+Queen of Heaven? Barbara was now no more to him than a cracked bell,
+and the child which she expected to give him, no matter to what high'
+honours he raised it, would bear a stain that nothing could efface, and
+this stain would be called "his mother."
+
+No deviation from the resolve which he had expressed to the physician
+was possible. The child could not be permitted to grow up amid Barbara's
+surroundings. To prevent this she must submit to part from her son or
+her daughter, and to take the veil. In the convent she could remember
+the happiness which had once raised her to its loftiest height. She
+could and must atone for her sin and his by prayers and pious exercises.
+To return to the low estate whence he had raised her must appear
+disgraceful to herself. How could one who had once dined at the table
+of the gods still relish the fare of mortals? Even now it seemed
+inconceivable to him that she could oppose his will. Yet if she did,
+he would withdraw his aid. He no longer loved her. In this hour she was
+little more to him than the modest casket to which was confided a jewel
+of inestimable value, an object of anxiety and care. The determination
+which he had confided to his physician was as immovable as everything
+which he had maturely considered. Don Luis Quijada should provide for
+its execution.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Dr. Mathys had himself carried in the litter from the Golden Cross to
+Barbara.
+
+This errand was a disagreeable one, for, though the Emperor's remark
+that he had yielded to the rare charm of this woman was not true, his
+kindly heart had become warmly attached to Barbara. For the first
+time he saw in her the suffering which often causes a metamorphosis in
+certain traits in a sick person's character extend their transforming
+power to the entire nature. Passionate love for her art gave her the
+ability to maintain with punctilious exactness the silence which he had
+been compelled to impose upon her, and the once impetuous, obstinate
+creature obeyed his directions and wishes with the patience of a docile
+child.
+
+The manner in which, after he permitted her to speak, she had disclosed
+in a low whisper her happy yet disquieting secret, hovered before him
+now as one of the most pathetic incidents in a life full of varied
+experiences.
+
+How touchingly deep misery and the greatest rapture, gloomy anxiety
+and radiant joy, bitter dread and sweet anticipation, despairing
+helplessness and firm confidence had looked forth at him from the
+beautiful face whose noble outlines were made still more delicate by the
+illness through which she had passed! He could not have refused even a
+more difficult task to this petitioner.
+
+Now he was returning from the Emperor, and he felt like a vanquished
+general.
+
+In what form was he to clothe the bad news which he was bringing to the
+convalescent girl? Poor child! How heavily she had to atone for her sin,
+and how slight was his own and every other influence upon the man, great
+even in his selfishness, who had had the power to render him a messenger
+of joy!
+
+While the physician was approaching the little castle, she of whom he
+was so eagerly thinking awaited his return with feverish suspense. Yet
+she was obliged at this very time to devote herself to a visitor. True,
+he was the only person whom she would not have refused to see at this
+hour.
+
+Wolf Hartschwert was with her.
+
+His first errand after the period of severe suffering through which he
+had passed was to Barbara, earnestly as old Ursel had endeavoured to
+prevent him.
+
+He had found her under a linden tree in the garden.
+
+How they had met again!
+
+Wolf, pale and emaciated, advanced toward her, leaning on a cane, while
+Barbara, with slightly flushed cheeks, reclined upon the pillows which
+Sister Hyacinthe had just arranged for her.
+
+Her head seemed smaller, her features had become more delicate and, in
+spite of the straw hat which protected her from the dazzling sunshine,
+he perceived that her severe illness had cost her her magnificent
+golden hair. Still wavy, it now fell only to her neck, and gave her the
+appearance of a wonderfully handsome boy.
+
+The hand she extended to him was transparently thin, and when he
+clasped it in his, which was only a little larger, and did not seem much
+stronger, and she had hoarsely whispered a friendly greeting, his eyes
+filled with tears. For a time both were silent. Barbara was the first
+to find words and, raising her large eyes beseechingly to his, said: "If
+you come to reproach me--But no! You look pale, as though you had only
+partially recovered yourself, yet kind and friendly. Perhaps you do not
+know that it was through my fault that all these terrible things have
+befallen you."
+
+Here a significant smile told her that he was much better informed than
+she supposed, and, lowering her eyes in timid embarrassment, she asked,
+
+"Then you know who it was for whom this foolish heart----"
+
+Here her breath failed, and while she pressed her hand upon her bosom,
+Wolf said softly: "If you had only trusted me before! Many things would
+not have happened, and much suffering might have been spared. You did
+wrong, Wawerl, certainly, but my guilt is the greater, and we were both
+punished--oh, how sorely!"
+
+Barbara, amid low sobbing, nodded assent, but he eagerly continued:
+"Quijada confided everything to me, and if he--you know--now forgets all
+other matters in the war and the anxieties of the general, and, you
+need my counsel and aid, we will let what came between us he buried, and
+think that we are brother and sister."
+
+The girl held out her hand to him, saying: "How long you have been a
+brother to me! But, as for your advice--Holy Virgin!--I know now less
+than ever how I am to fare; but I shall soon learn. I can say no more.
+It must be a severe trial to listen to me. Such a raven's croak from
+the throat which usually gave you pleasure, and to which you gladly
+listened! Shall I myself ever grow accustomed to this discord? And you?
+Answer honestly--I should like to know whether it is very, very terrible
+to hear."
+
+"You are still hoarse," was the reply. "Such things pass away in a few
+weeks, and it will again be a pleasure to hear you sing."
+
+"Do you really think so?" she cried with sparkling, eyes.
+
+"Firmly and positively," answered the young knight in a tone of most
+honest conviction; but she repeated in joyous excitement, "Firmly and
+positively," and then eagerly continued: "Oh, if you should be right,
+Wolf, how happy and grateful I would be, in spite of everything! But I
+can talk no longer now. Come again to-morrow, and then the oftener the
+better."
+
+"Unfortunately, that can not be, gladly as I would do so," he answered
+sadly, extending his hand in farewell. "In a few days I shall return to
+Brussels."
+
+"To remain with the regent?" asked Barbara eagerly.
+
+"No," he answered firmly. "After a short stay with her Majesty, I shall
+enter the service of Don Luis Quijada, or rather of his wife."
+
+"O-o-oh!" she murmured slowly. "The world seems wholly strange to me
+after my long illness. I must first collect my thoughts, and that is now
+utterly impossible. To-morrow, Wolf! Won't you come to-morrow? Then
+I shall know better what is before me. Thanks, cordial thanks, and if
+tomorrow I deny myself to every one else, I will admit you."
+
+After Wolf had gone, Barbara gazed fixedly into vacancy. What did the
+aspiring young musician seek with a nobleman's wife in a lonely Spanish
+castle? Were his wings broken, too, and did he desire only seclusion and
+quiet?
+
+But the anxiety which dominated her mind prevented her pursuing the same
+thought longer. Dr. Mathys had promised to tell her the result of his
+conversation with the Emperor as soon as possible, and yet he had not
+returned.
+
+Fool that she was!
+
+Even on a swift steed he could not have traversed the road back to the
+castle if he had been detained only half an hour in the Golden Cross.
+It was impatience which made the minutes become quarters of an hour. She
+would have liked to go to the cool frigidarium again to watch for the
+physician's litter; but she was warned, and had accustomed herself
+to follow the doctor's directions as obediently as a dutiful child.
+Besides, Sister Hyacinthe no longer left her alone out of doors, and
+possessed a reliable representative, who had won Barbara's confidence
+and affection, in Frau Lamperi, the garde-robiere, whom the Queen of
+Hungary had not yet summoned.
+
+So she remained under the linden, and Dr. Mathys did not put her newly
+won virtue of patience, which he prized so highly, to too severe a
+trial.
+
+Fran Lamperi had watched for him, and hastily announced that his litter
+had already passed the Reichart pottery.
+
+Now Barbara did not turn her eyes from the garden door through which the
+man she ardently longed to see usually came, and when it opened and the
+stout, broad-shouldered leech, with his peaked doctor's hat, long staff,
+and fine linen kerchief in his right hand advanced toward her, she
+motioned to the nun and the maid to leave them, and pressed her left
+hand upon her heart, for her emotion at the sight of him resembled
+the feeling of the prisoner who expects the paper with which the judge
+enters his cell to contain his death-warrant.
+
+She thought she perceived her own in the physician's slow, almost
+lagging step. His gait was always measured; but if he had had good news
+to bring, he would have approached more rapidly. A sign, a gesture, a
+shout would have informed her that he was bearing something cheering.
+
+But there was nothing of this kind.
+
+He did not raise his hat until he stood directly in front of her,
+and while mopping his broad, clamp brow and plump cheeks with his
+handkerchief, she read in his features the confirmation of her worst
+fears.
+
+Now in his grave voice, which sounded still deeper than usual, he
+uttered a curt "Well, it can't be helped," and shrugged his shoulders
+sorrowfully.
+
+This gesture destroyed her last hope. Unable to control herself longer,
+she cried out in the husky voice whose hoarse tone was increased by her
+intense agitation: "I see it in your face, Doctor; I must be prepared
+for the worst."
+
+"Would to Heaven I could deny it!" he answered in a hollow tone; but
+Barbara urged him to speak and conceal nothing from her, not even the
+harshest news.
+
+The leech obeyed.
+
+With sincere compassion he saw how her face blanched at his information
+that, owing to the pressure of duties which the commencement of the war
+imposed upon him, his Majesty would be unable to visit her here. But
+when, to sweeten the bitter potion, he had added that when her throat
+was well again, and her voice had regained its former melody, the
+monarch would once more gladly listen to her, he was startled; for,
+instead of answering, she merely shrugged her shoulders contemptuously,
+while her face grew corpselike in its pallor. He would have been
+best pleased to end his report here, but she could not be spared the
+suffering to which she was doomed, and pity demanded that the torture
+should be ended as quickly as possible. So, to raise her courage,
+he began with the Emperor's congratulations, and while her eyes were
+sparkling brightly and her pale cheeks were crimsoned by a fleeting
+flush, he went on, as considerately as he could, to inform her of the
+Emperor's resolution, not neglecting while he did so to place it in a
+milder light by many a palliating remark.
+
+Barbara, panting for breath, listened to his report without interrupting
+him; but as the physician thought he perceived in the varying expression
+of her features and the wandering glance with which she listened tokens
+that she did not fully understand what the Emperor required of her, he
+summed up his communications once more.
+
+"His Majesty," he concluded, "was ready to recognise as his own the
+young life to be expected, if she would keep the secret, and decide to
+commit it to his sole charge from its arrival in the world; but, on the
+other hand, he would refuse this to her and to the child if she did not
+agree to impose upon herself sacrifice and silence."
+
+At this brief, plain statement Barbara had pressed her hands upon her
+temples and stretched her head far forward toward the physician. Now she
+lowered her right hand, and with the question, "So this is what I must
+understand?" impetuously struck herself a blow on the forehead.
+
+The patient man again raised his voice to make the expression of the
+monarch's will still plainer, but she interrupted him after the first
+few words with the exclamation: "You can spare yourself this trouble,
+for the meaning of the man whose message you bear is certainly evident
+enough. What my poor intellect fails to comprehend is only--do you
+hear?--is only where the faithless traitor gains the courage to make me
+so unprecedented a demand. Hitherto I was only not wicked enough to know
+that there--there was such an abyss of abominable hard-heartedness, such
+fiendish baseness, such----"
+
+Here an uncontrollable fit of coughing interrupted her, but Dr. Mathys
+would have stopped her in any case; it was unendurable to him to
+listen longer while the great man who was the Emperor, and whom he also
+honoured as a man, was reviled with such savage recklessness.
+
+As in so many instances, Charles's penetration had been superior to his;
+for he had not failed to notice to what tremendous extremes this girl's
+hasty temper could carry her. What burning, almost evil passion had
+flamed in her eyes while uttering these insults! How perfectly right
+his Majesty was to withdraw from all association with a woman of so
+irresponsible a nature!
+
+He repressed with difficulty the indignation which had overpowered him
+until her coughing ceased, then, in a tone of stern reproof, he declared
+that he could not and ought not to listen to such words. She whom the
+Emperor Charles had honoured with his love would perhaps in the future
+learn to recognise his decision as wise, though it might offend her now.
+When she had conquered the boundless impetuosity which so ill beseemed
+her, she herself would probably perceive how immeasurably deep and wide
+was the gulf which separated her from the sacred person of the man who,
+next to God, was the highest power on earth. Not only justice but duty
+would command the head of the most illustrious family in the world to
+claim the sole charge of his child, that it might be possible to train
+it unimpeded to the lofty position of the father, instead of the humble
+one of the mother.
+
+Hitherto Barbara had remained silent, but her breath had come more
+and more quickly, the tremor of the nostrils had increased; but at the
+physician's last remark she could control herself no longer, and burst
+forth like a madwoman: "And you pretend to be my friend, pretend to be
+a fairminded man? You are the tool, the obedient echo of the infamous
+wretch who now stretches his robber hand toward my most precious
+possession! Ay, look at me as though my frank speech was rousing the
+greatest wrath in your cowardly soul! Where was the ocean-deep gulf when
+the perjured betrayer clasped me in his arms, uttered vows of love, and
+called himself happy because his possession of me would beautify the
+evening of his life? Now my voice has lost its melting music, and he
+sends his accomplice to leave the mute 'nightingale'--how often he has
+called me so!--to her fate."
+
+Here she faltered, and her cheeks glowed with excitement as, with her
+clinched hand on her brow, she continued: "Must everything be changed
+and overturned because this traitor is the Emperor, and the betrayed
+only the child of a man who, though plain, is worthy of all honour, and
+who, besides, was not found on the highway, but belongs to the class of
+knights, from whom even the proudest races of sovereigns descend?
+You trample my father and me underfoot, to exalt the grandeur of your
+master. You make him the idol, to humble me to a worm; and what you
+grant the she-wolf--the right of defence when men undertake to rob her
+of her young--you deny me, and, because I insist upon it, I must be a
+deluded, unbridled creature."
+
+Here she sobbed aloud and covered her face with her hands; but Dr.
+Mathys had been obliged to do violence to his feelings in order not to
+put a speedy end to the fierce attack. Her glance had been like that
+of an infuriated wild beast as the rage in her soul burst forth with
+elementary power, and the sharpness of her hoarse voice still pierced
+him to the heart.
+
+Probably the man of honour whom she had so deeply-insulted felt
+justified in paying her in the same coin, but the mature and experienced
+physician knew how much he must place to the account of the physical
+condition of this unfortunate girl, and did not conceal from himself
+that her charges were not wholly unjustifiable. So he restrained
+himself, and when she had gained control over the convulsive sobbing
+which shook her bosom, he told her his intention of leaving her and not
+returning until he could expect a less hostile reception. Meanwhile
+she might consider whether the Emperor's decision was not worthy
+of different treatment. He would show his good will to her anew by
+concealing from his Majesty what he had just heard, and what she, at no
+distant day, would repent as unjust and unworthy of her.
+
+Then Barbara angrily burst forth afresh: "Never, never, never will that
+happen! Neither years nor decades would efface the wrong inflicted upon
+me to-day. But oh, how I hate him who makes this shameful demand--yes,
+though you devour me with your eyes--hate him, hate him! I do so even
+more ardently than I loved him! And you? Why should you conceal it? From
+kindness to me? Perhaps so! Yet no, no, no! Speak freely! Yes, you must,
+must tell him so to his face! Do it in my name, abused, ill-treated as I
+am, and tell him----"
+
+Here the friendly man's patience gave out, and, drawing his little broad
+figure stiffly up, he said repellently: "You are mistaken in me, my
+dear. If you need a messenger, you must seek some one else. You have
+taken care to make me sincerely regret having discharged this office for
+your sake. Besides, your recovery will progress without my professional
+aid; and, moreover, I shall leave Ratisbon with my illustrious master in
+a few days."
+
+He turned his back upon her as he spoke. When toward evening the
+Emperor asked him how Barbara had received his decision, he shrugged
+his shoulders and answered: "As was to be expected. She thinks herself
+ill-used, and will not give up the child."
+
+"She will have a different view in the convent," replied the Emperor.
+"Quijada shall talk with her to-morrow, and De Soto and the pious
+nuns here will show her where she belongs. The child--that matter is
+settled--will be taken from her."
+
+The execution of the imperial will began on the very next morning. First
+the confessor De Soto appeared, and with convincing eloquence showed
+Barbara how happily she could shape her shadowed life within the sacred
+quiet of the convent. Besides, the helpless creature whose coming
+she was expecting with maternal love could rely upon the father's
+recognition and aid only on condition that she yielded to his Majesty's
+expressed will.
+
+Barbara, though with no little difficulty, succeeded in maintaining her
+composure during these counsels and the declaration of the servant of
+the Holy Church. Faithful to the determination formed during the night,
+she imposed silence upon herself, and when De Soto asked for a positive
+answer, she begged him to grant her time for consideration.
+
+Soon after Don Luis Quijada was announced. This time he did not appear
+in the dark Spanish court costume, but in the brilliant armour of the
+Lombard regiment whose command had been entrusted to him.
+
+When he saw Barbara, for the first time after many weeks, he was
+startled.
+
+Only yesterday she had seemed to Wolf Hartschwert peerlessly beautiful,
+but the few hours which had elapsed between the visit of the physician
+and the major-domo had sadly changed her. Her large, bright eyes were
+reddened by weeping, and the slight lines about the corners of the mouth
+had deepened and lent her a severe expression.
+
+A hundred considerations had doubtless crowded upon her during the
+night, yet she by no means repented having showed the leech what she
+thought of the betrayer in purple and the demand which he made upon her.
+De Soto's attempt at persuasion had only increased her defiance. Instead
+of reflecting and thinking of her own welfare and of the future of the
+beloved being whose coming she dreaded, yet who seemed to her the most
+precious gift of Heaven, she strengthened herself more and more in the
+belief that it was due to her own dignity to resist the Emperor's cruel
+encroachments upon her liberty. She knew that she owed Dr. Mathys a debt
+of gratitude, but she thought herself freed from that duty since he had
+made himself the blind tool of his master.
+
+Now the Spaniard, who had never been her friend, also came to urge
+the Emperor's will upon her. Toward him she need not force herself to
+maintain the reserve which she had exercised in her conversation with
+the confessor.
+
+On the contrary!
+
+He should hear, with the utmost plainness, what she thought of the
+Emperor's instructions. If he, his confidant, then showed him that there
+was one person at least who did not bow before his pitiless power, and
+that hatred steeled her courage to defy him, one of the most ardent
+wishes of her indignant, deeply wounded heart would be fulfilled. The
+only thing which she still feared was that her aching throat might
+prevent her from freely pouring forth what so passionately agitated her
+soul.
+
+She now confronted the inflexible nobleman, not a feature in whose
+clear-cut, nobly moulded, soldierly face revealed what moved him.
+
+When, in a businesslike tone, he announced his sovereign's will,
+she interrupted him with the remark that she knew all this, and had
+determined to oppose her own resolve to his Majesty's wishes.
+
+Don Luis calmly allowed her to finish, and then asked: "So you refuse to
+take the veil? Yet I think, under existing circumstances, nothing could
+become you better."
+
+"Life in a convent," she answered firmly, "is distasteful to me, and
+I will never submit to it. Besides, you were hardly commissioned to
+discuss what does or does not become me."
+
+"By no means," replied the Spaniard calmly; "yet you can attribute the
+remark to my wish to serve you. During the remainder of our conference I
+will silence it, and can therefore be brief."
+
+"So much the better," was the curt response. "Well, then, so you insist
+that you will neither keep the secret which you have the honour of
+sharing with his Majesty, nor----"
+
+"Stay!" she eagerly interrupted. "The Emperor Charles took care to make
+the bond which united me to him cruelly hateful, and therefore I am not
+at all anxious to inform the world how close it once was."
+
+Here Don Luis bit his lips, and a frown contracted his brow. Yet he
+controlled himself, and asked with barely perceptible excitement,
+"Then I may inform his Majesty that you would be disposed to keep this
+secret?"
+
+"Yes," she answered curtly.
+
+"But, so far as the convent is concerned, you persist in your refusal?"
+
+"Even a noble and kind man would never induce me to take the veil."
+
+Now Quijada lost his composure, and with increasing indignation
+exclaimed: "Of all the men on earth there is probably not one who cares
+as little for the opinion of an arrogant woman wounded in her vanity. He
+stands so far above your judgment that it is insulting him to undertake
+his defence. In short, you will not go to the convent?"
+
+"No, and again no!" she protested bitterly. "Besides, your promise ought
+to bind you to still greater brevity. But it seems to please your noble
+nature to insult a defenceless, ill-treated woman. True, perhaps it is
+done on behalf of the mighty man who stands so far above me."
+
+"How far, you will yet learn to your harm," replied Don Luis, once
+more master of himself. "As for the child, you still seem determined
+to withhold it from the man who will recognise it as his solely on this
+condition?"
+
+Barbara thought it time to drop the restraint maintained with so much
+difficulty, and half with the intention of letting Charles's favourite
+hear the anguish that oppressed her heart, half carried away by the
+resentment which filled her soul, she permitted it to overflow and, in
+spite of the pain which it caused her to raise her voice, she ceased
+whispering, and cried: "You ask to hear what I intend to do? Nothing,
+save to keep what is mine! Though I know how much you dislike me, Don
+Luis Quijada, I call upon you to witness whether I have a right to this
+child and to consideration from its father; for when you, his messenger
+of love, led me for the first time to the man who now tramples me so
+cruelly under his feet, you yourself heard him greet me as the sun which
+was again rising for him. But that is forgotten! If his will is not
+executed, mother and child may perish in darkness and misery. Well,
+then, will against will! He has the right to cease to love me and to
+thrust me from him, but it is mine to hate him from my inmost soul, and
+to make my child what I please. Let him grow up as Heaven wills, and if
+he perishes in want and shame, if he is put in the pillory or dies on
+the scaffold, one mission at least will be left for me. I will shriek
+out to the world how the royal betrayer provided for the welfare of his
+own blood!"
+
+"Enough!" interrupted Don Luis in mingled wrath and horror. "I will
+not and can not listen longer while gall and venom are poured upon the
+sacred head of the greatest of men."
+
+"Then leave me!" cried Barbara, scarcely able to use her voice. "This
+room, at least, will be mine until I can no longer accept even shelter
+from the traitor who--you used the words yourself--instilled venom and
+bitter gall into my soul."
+
+Quijada, with a slight bend of the head, turned and left the room.
+
+When the door closed behind him, Barbara, with panting breath and
+flashing eyes, threw herself into an arm-chair, content as if she had
+been relieved of a heavy burden, but the Emperor's envoy mounted the
+horse on which he had come, and rode away.
+
+He fared as the leech had done the day before. Barbara's infamous abuse
+still fired his blood, but he could not conceal from himself that this
+unfortunate woman had been wronged by his beloved and honoured master.
+In truth, he had more than once heard the ardent professions of love
+with which Charles had greeted and dismissed her, and his chivalrous
+nature rebelled against the severity with which he made her suffer for
+the cruelty of Fate that had prematurely robbed her of what had been to
+him her dearest charm.
+
+Before he went to Prebrunn, Dr. Mathys had counselled him not to forget
+during the disagreeable reception awaiting him that he was dealing with
+an irritable invalid, and the thoroughly noble man resolved to remember
+it as an excuse. The Emperor Charles should learn only that Barbara
+refused to submit to his arrangements, that his harshness deeply wounded
+her and excited her quick temper. He was unwilling to expose himself
+again to an outburst of her rage, and he would therefore intrust to
+another the task of rendering her more docile, and this other was Wolf
+Hartschwert.
+
+A few days before he had visited the recovering knight, and obtained
+from him a decision whose favourable nature filled him with secret joy
+whenever he thought of it.
+
+Wolf had already learned from the valet Adrian the identity of the
+person to whom he had been obliged to yield precedence in Barbara's
+heart, and how generously Quijada had kept silence concerning the
+wound which he had dealt him. When Don Luis freely forgave him for the
+unfortunate misunderstanding for which he, too, was not wholly free from
+blame, Wolf had thrown himself on his knees and warmly entreated him
+to dispose of him, who owed him more than life, as he would of himself.
+Then, opening his whole heart, he revealed what Barbara had been to
+him, and how, unable to control his rage, he had rushed upon him when he
+thought he had discovered, in the man who had just asked him to go far
+away from the woman he loved, her betrayer.
+
+After this explanation, Quijada had acquiesced in the knight's wish that
+he should give him the office offered on that luckless evening, and he
+now felt disposed also to intrust to him further negotiations with the
+singer.
+
+In the report made to the Emperor, Don Luis suppressed everything which
+could offend him; but Charles remained immovable in his determination
+to withdraw the expected gift of Fate, from its first entrance into the
+world, from every influence except his own. Moreover, he threatened that
+if the blinded girl continued to refuse to enter the convent and yield
+up the child, he would withdraw his aid from both. After a sleepless
+night, however, he remarked, on the following morning, that he perceived
+it to be his duty, whatever might happen, to assume the care of the
+child who was entitled to call him its father. What he would do for the
+mother must depend upon her future conduct. This was another instance
+how every trespass of the bounds of the moral order which the Church
+ordains and hallows entails the most sorrowful consequences even here
+below. Precisely because he was so strongly attached to this unfortunate
+woman, once so richly gifted, he desired to offer her the opportunity to
+obtain pardon from Heaven, and therefore insisted upon her retiring to
+the convent. His own guilt was causing him great mental trouble and, in
+fact, notwithstanding the arduous labour imposed upon him by the war,
+the most melancholy mood again took possession of him.
+
+The day before his departure to join the army which was gathered near by
+at Landshut, he withdrew once more into the apartment draped with sable
+hangings.
+
+When he was informed that Barbara wished to leave the Prebrunn castle,
+he burst into a furious passion, and commanded that she should be kept
+there, even if it was necessary to use force.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Everything in Barbara's residence had remained as it was when she
+arrived, only the second story, since the departure of the marquise,
+had stood empty. Two horses had been left in the stable, the steward
+performed his duties as before, the cook presided in the kitchen, and
+Frau Lamperi attended to Barbara's rooms.
+
+Nevertheless, at Wolf's first visit he was obliged to exert all his
+powers of persuasion to induce his miserable friend to give up
+her resolution of moving into her former home. Besides, after the
+conversation with Charles's messenger, she had felt so ill that no
+visitor except himself had been received.
+
+When, a few days later, she learned that the Emperor had set out for
+Landshut, she entreated Wolf to seek out Pyramus Kogel, for she had just
+learned that during her illness her father's travelling companion
+had asked to see her, but, like every one else, had been refused.
+She grieved because they had forgotten to tell her this; but when she
+discovered that the same stately officer had called again soon after the
+relapse, she angrily upbraided, for the first time, Frau Lamperi, who
+was to blame for the neglect, and her grief increased when, on the
+same day, a messenger brought from the man who had twice been denied
+admittance a letter which inclosed one from her father, and briefly
+informed her that he should set out at once for Landshut. As she would
+not receive him, he must send her the captain's messages in this way.
+
+It appeared from the old man's letter that, while leaving the ship
+at Antwerp, he had met with an accident, and perhaps might long be
+prevented from undertaking the toilsome journey home. But he was well
+cared for, and if she was still his clear daughter, she must treat Herr
+Pyramus Kogel kindly this time, for he had proved a faithful son and
+good Samaritan to him.
+
+A stranger's hand had written this letter, which contained nothing more
+about the old soldier's health, but reminded her of a tin tankard which
+he had forgotten to deliver, and urged her to care for the ever-burning
+lamp in the chapel. It closed with the request to offer his profound
+reverence at the feet of his Majesty, the most gracious, most glorious,
+and most powerful Emperor, and the remark that there was much to say
+about the country of Spain, but the best was certainly when one thought
+of it after turning the back upon it.
+
+As a postscript, he had written with his own hand, as the crooked
+letters showed: "Mind what I told you about Sir Pyramus, without whom
+you would now be a deserted orphan. Can you believe that in all Spain
+there is no fresh butter to be had, either for bread or in the kitchen
+for roast meat, but instead rancid oil, which we should think just fit
+for burning?"
+
+With deep shame Barbara realized through this letter how rarely she
+remembered her father. Only since she knew positively what joy and what
+anxiety awaited her had she again thought frequently of him, but
+always with great fear of the old man whose head had grown gray in an
+honourable life. Now the hour was approaching when she would be obliged
+to confess to him what she still strove to deem a peerless favour of
+Fate, for which future generations would envy her. Perhaps he who looked
+up to the Emperor Charles with such enthusiastic devotion would
+agree with her; perhaps what she must disclose to him would spoil the
+remainder of his life. The image of the aged sufferer, lying in pain
+and sorrow far from her old his home, in a stranger's house, constantly
+forced itself upon her, and she often dwelt upon it, imagining it with
+ingenious self-torture.
+
+Love for another had estranged her from him who possessed the first
+claim to every feeling of tenderness and gratitude in her heart. The
+thought that she could do nothing for him and give him no token of her
+love pierced deep into her soul. Every impulse of her being urged her
+to learn further details of him and his condition. As Pyramus Kogel was
+staying in Landshut, she wrote a note entreating him, if possible, to
+come to Ratisbon to tell her about her father, or, if this could not be,
+to inform her by letter how he fared.
+
+There was no lack of messengers going to Landshut, and the answer was
+not delayed. During these war times, Pyramus answered, he was not his
+own master even for a moment; therefore he must deny himself a visit
+to her, and he also lacked time for a detailed account by letter. If,
+however, she could resolve to do him the honour of a visit, he would
+promise her a more cordial reception than he had experienced on her
+side. For the rest, her father was being carefully nursed, and his life
+was no longer in danger.
+
+At first Barbara took this letter for an ungenerous attempt of the
+insulted man to repay the humiliation which he had received from her;
+but the news from the throngs of troops pouring into the city made the
+officer's request appear in a milder light, and the longing to ascertain
+her father's condition daily increased.
+
+At the end of the first week in August her strength would have sufficed
+for the short drive to Landshut. True, she was as hoarse as when she
+gave the physician a disinclination to return, but she had regained her
+physical vigour, and had taken walks, without special fatigue, sometimes
+with Wolf, sometimes with Gombert. The latter, as well as Appenzelder,
+still frequently called upon her, and tried to diminish her grief over
+the injury to her voice by telling her of hundreds of similar cases
+which had resulted favourably.
+
+The musicians were to return to Brussels the next day. Appenzelder would
+not leave his boy choir, but Gombert had accepted an invitation from
+the Duke of Bavaria, at whose court in Munich the best music was eagerly
+fostered. His road would lead him through Landshut, and how more than
+gladly Barbara would have accompanied him there!
+
+She must now bid farewell to Appenzelder and Massi, and it was evident
+that the parting was hard for them also. The eyes of the former even
+grew dim with tears as he pressed a farewell kiss upon Barbara's brow.
+The little Maltese, Hannibal Melas, would have preferred to stay with
+her--nay, he did not cease entreating her to keep him, though only as a
+page; but how could he have been useful to her?
+
+Finally, she was obliged to bid Wolf, too, farewell, perhaps for many
+years.
+
+During the last few days he had again proved his old friendship in
+the most loyal manner. Through Quijada he had learned everything which
+concerned her and the Emperor Charles, and this had transformed his
+former love for Barbara, which was by no means dead, into tender
+compassion.
+
+Not to serve the monarch or the husband of his new mistress in
+Villagarcia, but merely to lighten her own hard fate, he had not ceased
+to represent what consequences it might entail upon her if she should
+continue to defy the Emperor's command so obstinately.
+
+He, too, saw in the convent the fitting place for her future life, now
+bereft of its best possessions; but although she succeeded in retaining
+her composure during his entreaties and warnings, she still most
+positively refused to obey the Emperor's order.
+
+Her strong desire to visit Landshut was by no means solely from the
+necessity of hearing the particulars about her father, and the wish
+to see so brilliant an assemblage of troops from all countries, but
+especially the consuming longing to gaze once more into the face of
+the lover who was now making her so miserable, yet to whom she owed the
+greatest joy of her life.
+
+And more!
+
+She thought it would restore her peace of mind forever if she could
+succeed in speaking to him for even one brief moment and telling him
+what a transformation his guilt had wrought in her ardent love and her
+whole nature.
+
+Wolf's representations and imploring entreaties remained as futile as
+those of Sister Hyacinthe and the abbesses of the Clare Sisters and the
+Convent of the Holy Cross, who had sought her by the confessor's
+wish. None of these pious women, except her nurse, knew the hope she
+cherished. They saw in her only the Emperor's discarded love; yet as
+such it seemed to them that Barbara was bidden to turn her back upon
+the world, which had nothing similar to offer her, in order, as the
+Saviour's bride, to seek a new and loftier happiness.
+
+But Barbara's vivacious temperament shrank from their summons as from
+the tomb or the dungeon and, with all due reverence, she said so to the
+kindly nuns.
+
+She desired no new happiness, nay, she could not imagine that she
+would ever again find joy in anything save the heavenly gift which she
+expected with increasing fear, and yet glad hope. Yet they wished to
+deprive her of this exquisite treasure, this peerless comfort for the
+soul! But she had learned how to defend herself, and they should never
+succeed in accomplishing this shameful purpose. She would keep her
+child, though it increased the Emperor's resentment to the highest
+pitch, and deprived her of every expectation of his care.
+
+Eagerly as Wolf praised Quijada's noble nature, she commanded him to
+assure the Castilian, whose messenger he honestly confessed himself to
+be, that she would die rather than yield to the Emperor's demands.
+
+When the time at last came to part from Wolf also, and he pressed his
+lips to her hand, she felt that she could rely upon him, no matter how
+sad her future life might be. He added many another kind and friendly
+word; then, in an outburst of painful emotion, cried: "If only you had
+been contented with my faithful love, Wawerl, how very different, how
+much better everything would have been, how happy I might be! and, if
+loyal love possesses the power of bestowing happiness, you, too----"
+
+Here Barbara pointed mournfully to her poor aching throat and, while he
+earnestly protested that, deeply as he lamented the injury to her voice,
+this cruel misfortune would by no means have lessened his love, her eyes
+suddenly flashed, and there was a strange quiver around the corners of
+her mouth as she thought: "Keep that opinion. But I would not exchange
+for a long life, overflowing with the happiness which you, dear, good
+fellow, could offer me, the brief May weeks that placed me among the few
+who are permitted to taste the highest measure of happiness."
+
+Yet she listened with sincere sympathy to what he had heard of
+Villagarcia and Magdalena de Ulloa, Quijada's wife, and what he expected
+to find there and in Valladolid.
+
+It pleased her most to know that he would be permitted to return
+sometimes to the Netherlands. When once there, he must seek her out
+wherever her uncertain destiny had cast her.
+
+When, in saying this, her hoarse voice failed and tears of pain and
+sorrow filled her eyes, emotion overpowered him also and, after he had
+again urged her to submit to the will of their imperial master, he tore
+himself away with a last farewell.
+
+The ardent, long-cherished passion which had brought the young knight
+full of hope to Ratisbon had changed to compassion. With drooping head,
+disappointed, and heavily burdened with anxiety for the future of the
+woman who had exerted so powerful an influence upon his fate, he left
+the home of his childhood; but Barbara saw him go with the sorrowful
+fear that, in the rural solitude which awaited him in Spain, her
+talented friend would lose his art and every loftier aspiration; yet
+both felt sure that, whatever might be the course of their lives, each
+would hold a firm place in the other's memory.
+
+A few hours after this farewell Barbara received a letter from the
+Council, in which Wolf Hartschwert secured to her and her father during
+their lives the free use of the house which he had inherited in Red
+Cock Street, with the sole condition of allowing his faithful Ursula to
+occupy the second story until her death.
+
+The astonished girl at once went to express her thanks for so much
+kindness; but Wolf had left Ratisbon a short time before, and when
+Barbara entered the house she found old Ursula at the window with her
+tear-stained face resting on her clasped hands. When she heard her name
+called, she raised her little head framed in the big cap, and as soon as
+she recognised the unexpected visitor she cast so malevolent a glance at
+her that a shiver ran through the girl's frame.
+
+After a few brief words of greeting, Barbara left the old woman,
+resolving not to enter the house soon again.
+
+In passing the chapel she could and would not resist its strong power
+of attraction. With bowed head she entered the quiet little sanctuary,
+repeated a paternoster, and prayed fervently to the Mother of God
+to restore the clearness of her voice once more. While doing so, she
+imagined that the gracious intercessor gazed down upon her sometimes
+compassionately, sometimes reproachfully, and, in the consciousness of
+her guilt, she raised her hands, imploring forgiveness, to the friendly,
+familiar figure.
+
+How tenderly the Christ-child nestled to the pure, exalted mother!
+Heaven intended to bestow a similar exquisite gift upon her also, and
+already insolent hands were outstretched to tear it from her. True, she
+was determined to defend herself bravely, yet her best friend advised
+her to yield without resistance to this unprecedented demand.
+
+What should she do?
+
+With her brow pressed against the priedieu, she strove to attain calm
+reflection in the presence of the powerful and gracious Queen of
+Heaven. If she yielded the child to its cruel father, she would thereby
+surrender to him the only happiness to which she still possessed a
+claim; if she succeeded in keeping it for herself, she would deprive it
+of the favour of the mighty sovereign, who possessed the power to bestow
+upon it everything which the human heart craves. Should she persist in
+resistance or yield to the person to whom she had already sacrificed so
+much the great blessing which had the ability to console her for every
+other loss, even the most cruel?
+
+Then her refractory heart again rebelled. This was too much; Heaven
+itself could not require it of her, the divine Mother who, before her
+eyes, was pressing her child so tenderly to her bosom, least of all.
+Hers, too, would be a gift of God, and, while repeating this to herself,
+it seemed as though a voice cried out: "It is the Lord himself who
+intends to confide this child to you, and if you give it up you deprive
+it of its mother and rob it--you have learned that yourself--of its
+best possession. What was given to you to cherish tenderly, you can not
+confide to another without angering him who bestowed the guerdon upon
+you."
+
+Just at that moment she thought of the star, her lover's first memento,
+with which she had parted from weakness, though with a good intention.
+
+The misfortune which she was now enduring had grown out of this
+lamentable yielding. No! She would not, ought not to allow herself to be
+robbed of her precious hope. One glance at the Mother and Child put an
+end to any further consideration.
+
+Comforted and strengthened, she went her way homeward, scarcely noticing
+that Peter Schlumperger and his sister, whom she met, looked away from
+her with evident purpose.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+That night Barbara dreamed of her father. Birds of prey were attacking
+his body as it lay upon the ground, and she could not drive them off.
+The terror with which this spectacle had disturbed her sleep could not
+be banished during the morning. Now, whatever it cost, she must go to
+Landshut and hear some tidings of him.
+
+Maestro Gombert would set out for Munich the next day, and in doing so
+must pass the neighbouring city. If he would carry her with him, she
+would be safe. He came at twilight to take leave of her, and with
+genuine pleasure gave her the second seat in his travelling carriage.
+
+Early the following morning the vehicle, drawn by post horses, stopped
+before the little Prebrunn castle, and Barbara was soon driving with the
+musician through the pleasant country in the warm August day.
+
+Sister Hyacinthe and Fran Lamperi had tried to prevent her departure by
+entreaties and remonstrances, for both feared that the long ride might
+injure her; and, moreover, the latter had been charged by Quijada, in
+the Emperor's name, to keep her in the castle and, if she left it, to
+inform him at once by a mounted messenger.
+
+As Barbara could not be detained, Frau Lamperi, though reluctantly,
+obeyed this command.
+
+Before leaving Prebrunn Barbara had warned Gombert that he would find
+her a very uninteresting companion, since it was still impossible to
+talk much; but Gombert would not admit this. To a true friend, the mere
+presence of the other gives pleasure, even though he should not open his
+lips.
+
+The girl had become very dear to him, and her presence made time
+pass swiftly, for the great musician liked to talk and conversed
+bewitchingly, and he had long since discovered that Barbara was a good
+listener.
+
+Besides, the motley life on the road attracted his attention as well
+as his travelling companion's, for the war had begun, and already would
+have resulted in a great victory for the Smalcalds, at the foot of the
+Bavarian Alps, had not the Augsburg Military Council prevented the able
+commander in chief Schartlin von Burtenbach and his gallant lieutenant
+Schenkwitz from profiting by the advantage won. The way to Italy and
+Trent, where the Council was in session, was already open to the allied
+Protestants, but they were forbidden from the green table to follow it.
+It would have led them through Bavarian territory, and thereby perhaps
+afforded Duke William, the ruler of the country, occasion to abjure his
+neutrality and turn openly against the Smalcalds.
+
+The shortsightedness with which the Protestants permitted the Emperor to
+remain so long in Ratisbon unmolested, and gather troops and munitions
+of war, Gombert had heard termed actually incomprehensible.
+
+The travellers might expect to find a large force in Landshut, among
+the rest ten thousand Italians and eight thousand Spaniards. This, the
+musician explained to his companion, was contrary to the condition of
+his Majesty's election, which prohibited his bringing foreign soldiers
+into Germany; but war was a mighty enterprise, which broke even Firmer
+contracts.
+
+A bitter remark about the man who, even in peace, scorned fidelity and
+faith, rose to Barbara's lips; but as she knew the warm enthusiasm which
+Gombert cherished for his imperial master, she controlled herself, and
+continued to listen while he spoke of the large re-enforcements which
+Count Buren was leading from the Netherlands.
+
+A long and cruel war might be expected, for, though his Majesty
+assumed that religion had nothing to do with it, the saying went--here
+Catholics, here Protestants. The Pope gave his blessing to those who
+joined Charles's banner, and wherever people had deserted the Church
+they said that they were taking the field for the pure religion against
+the unchristian Council and the Romish antichrist.
+
+"But it really can not be a war in behalf of our holy faith," Barbara
+here eagerly interposed, "for the Duke of Saxony is our ally, and Oh,
+just look! we must pass there directly."
+
+She pointed as she spoke to a peasant cart just in front of them, whose
+occupants had been hidden until now by the dust of the road. They were
+two Protestant clergymen in the easily recognised official costume of
+their faith--a long, black robe and a white ruff around the neck.
+
+Gombert, too, now looked in surprise at the ecclesiastical gentlemen,
+and called the commander of the four members of the city guard who
+escorted his carriage.
+
+The troops marching beside them were the soldiers of the Protestant
+Margrave Hans von Kustrin who, in spite of his faith, had joined the
+Emperor, his secular lord, who asserted that he was waging no religious
+war. The clergymen were the field chaplains of the Protestant bands.
+
+When the travellers had passed the long baggage train, in which women
+and children filled peasant carts or trudged on foot, and reached the
+soldiers themselves, they found them well-armed men of sturdy figure.
+
+The Neapolitan regiment, which preceded the Kustrin one, presented
+an entirely different appearance with its shorter, brown-skinned,
+light-footed soldiers. Here, too, there was no lack of soldiers' wives
+and children, and from two of the carts gaily bedizened soldiers'
+sweethearts waved their hands to the travellers. In front of the
+regiment were two wagons with racks, filled with priests and monks
+bearing crosses and church banners, and before them, to escape the dust,
+a priest of higher rank with his vicar rode on mules decked with gay
+trappings.
+
+On the way to Eggmuhl the carriage passed other bodies of troops. Here
+the horses were changed, and now Gombert walked with Barbara in front of
+the vehicle to "stretch their legs."
+
+A regiment from the Upper Palatinate was encamped outside of the
+village. The prince to whom it belonged had given it a free ration of
+wine at the noonday rest, and the soldiers were now lying on the grass
+with loosened helmets and armour, feeling very comfortable, and singing
+in their deep voices a song newly composed in honour of the Emperor
+Charles to the air, "Cheer up, ye gallant soldiers all!"
+
+The couple so skilled in music stopped, and Barbara's heart beat quicker
+as she listened to the words which the fair-haired young trooper close
+beside her was singing in an especially clear voice:
+
+          "Cheer up, ye gallant soldiers all!
+          Be blithe and bold of mind
+          With faith on God we'll loudly call,
+          Then on our ruler kind.
+          His name is worthy of our praise,
+          Since to the throne God doth him raise;
+          So we will glorify him, too,
+          And render the obedience due.
+          Of an imperial race he came,
+          To this broad empire heir;
+          Carolus is his noble name,
+          God-sent its crown to wear.
+          Mehrer is his just title grand,
+          The sovereign of many a land
+          Which God hath given to his care
+          His name rings on the air!"
+
+   [Mehrer--The increaser, an ancient title of the German emperors]
+
+How much pleasure this song afforded Barbara, although it praised the
+man whom she thought she hated; and when the third verse began with the
+words,
+
+          "So goodly is the life he leads
+          Within this earthly vale,"
+
+oh, how gladly she would have joined in!
+
+That could not be, but she sang with them in her heart, for she had long
+since caught the tune, and how intently the soldiers would have listened
+if it had been possible for her to raise her voice as usual! Amid the
+singing of all these men her clear, bell-like tones would have risen
+like the lark soaring from the grain field, and what a storm of applause
+would have greeted her from these rough throats!
+
+Grief for the lost happiness of pouring forth her feelings in melody
+seized upon her more deeply than for a long time. She would fain have
+glided quietly away to escape the cause of this fresh sorrow. But
+Gombert was listening to the young soldier's song with interest, so
+Barbara continued to hear the young warrior as, with evident enthusiasm,
+he sang the verse:
+
+          "Patient and tolerant is he,
+          Nor vengeance seeks, nor blood;
+          E'en though he errs, as well may be,
+          His heart is ever good."
+
+She, too, had deemed this heart so, but now she knew better. Yet it
+pleased her that the fair-haired soldier so readily believed the poet
+and, obeying a hasty impulse, she put her hand into the pouch at her
+belt to give him a gold piece; but Gombert nudged her, and in his broken
+Netherland German repeated the verse which he had just heard:
+
+       "'Tis stern necessity that forced
+        The sword into his hand;
+        'Tis not for questions of the faith
+        That he doth make his stand."
+
+So the soldiers believed that their commander had only grasped the sword
+when compelled to do so, and that religion had nothing to do with the
+war, but the leader of the orchestra knew better. The conversations
+of the Spaniards at the court, and the words which De Soto had uttered
+lauding the Emperor, "Since God placed my foes in my hands, I must wage
+war upon his enemies," were plain enough.
+
+Gombert repeated this remark in a low tone but, ere Barbara could answer
+him, the carriage, with its fresh relay of horses, stopped in the road.
+
+It was time to get in again, but Barbara dreaded the ride over the
+rough, crowded highway, and begged her companion to pursue their journey
+a little farther on foot. He consented and, as the girl now flung a
+gold gulden to the blond leader of the voices, cheers from the soldiers
+followed them.
+
+Leaning on Gombert's arm, Barbara now moved on more cheerfully until
+they were stopped by the vivandiere's counter.
+
+The portly woman stood comfortably at ease behind her eatables and
+drinkables, rested her fists on her hips, and glanced toward her
+assistant, who stared boldly into the musician's face, and asked him to
+take some refreshment for himself and his sweetheart.
+
+She was a young creature, with features prematurely haggard, cheeks
+scarlet with rouge, and eyebrows and lashes dyed black. The infant which
+a pale little girl nine years old was tending belonged to her. She had
+had her hair cut close, and her voice was so discordantly hoarse that it
+hurt Barbara's ears.
+
+As the bold young woman tapped Gombert lightly on the arm and, with
+fresh words of invitation, pointed toward the counter, a shiver ran
+through Barbara's limbs. Even her worst enemy would not have ventured to
+compare her with this outcast, but she did herself as she thought of her
+own cropped hair and injured voice. Perhaps the child in the arms of
+the pale nine-year-old nurse was disowned by its father, and did not
+the greatest of sovereigns intend to do the same to his, if the mother
+refused to obey him?
+
+These disagreeable thoughts fell upon her soul like mildew upon growing
+grain, and after Gombert had helped her into the carriage again she
+begged him to let her rest in silence for a while. The Netherlander, it
+is true, had no suspicion of her condition, but he knew that she had not
+yet wholly recovered, and carefully pushed his own knapsack under her
+feet.
+
+Barbara now closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep, yet she tortured
+her mind with the same question which she had vainly tried to decide
+in the chapel of Wolf's house. Besides, she was troubled about the
+information which the recruiting officer might give her concerning her
+father. And suppose she should meet the Emperor Charles in Landshut, and
+be permitted to speak to him?
+
+The blare of trumpets and a loud shout of command roused her from this
+joyless reverie. The carriage was passing some squads of Hungarian
+cavalry moving at a walk toward Landshut.
+
+Their gay, brilliant appearance scattered the self-torturing thoughts.
+Why should she spoil the delightful drive with her friend, which,
+besides, was nearly over? Even if the worst happened, it would come only
+too soon.
+
+So drawing a long breath, she again turned to her companion, and Gombert
+rejoiced in the refreshing influence which, as he supposed, her sleep
+had exerted upon her. In an hour he must part from the artist to whom he
+owed so much pleasure, whose beauty warmed his aging heart, and who he
+frequently wished might regain the wonderful gift now so cruelly lost.
+Her fiery vivacity, her thoroughly natural, self-reliant unconcern, her
+fresh enthusiasm, the joyousness and industry with which she toiled
+at her own cultivation, and the gratitude with which any musical
+instruction had been received, had endeared her to him. It would be a
+pleasure to see her again, and a veritable banquet of the soul to hear
+her sing in the old way.
+
+He told her this with frank affection, and represented to her how much
+better suited she was to Brussels than to her stately but dull and quiet
+Ratisbon.
+
+With enthusiastic love for his native land, he described the bustling
+life in his beautiful, wealthy home. There music and every art
+flourished; there, besides the Emperor and his august sister, were
+great nobles who with cheerful lavishness patronized everything that was
+beautiful and worthy of esteem; thither flocked strangers from the
+whole world; there festivals were celebrated with a magnificence and
+joyousness witnessed nowhere else on earth. There was the abode of
+freedom, joy, and mirth.
+
+Barbara had often wished to see the Netherlands, which the Emperor
+Charles also remembered with special affection, but no one had ever thus
+transported her to the midst of these flourishing provinces and this
+blithesome people.
+
+During the maestro's description her large eyes rested upon his lips as
+if spellbound. She, too, must see this Brabant, and, like every newly
+awakened longing, this also quickly took possession of her whole
+nature. Only in the Netherlands, she thought, could she regain her lost
+happiness. But what elevated this idea to a certainty in her mind was
+not only the fostering of music, the spectacles and festivals, the
+magnificent velvet, the rustling silk, and the gay, varied life, not
+only the worthy Appenzelder and the friend at her side, but, far above
+all other things, the circumstance that Brussels was the home of the
+Emperor Charles, that there, there alone, she might be permitted to see
+again and again, at least from a distance, the man whom she hated.
+
+Absorbed in the Netherlands, she forgot to notice the nearest things
+which presented themselves to her gaze.
+
+The last hour of the drive had passed with the speed of an arrow, both
+to her and her travelling companion, and just as they were close to
+the left bank of the Isar, which was flowing toward them, Gombert's
+old servant turned and, pointing before him with his outstretched hand,
+exclaimed, "Here we are in Landshut!" she perceived that the goal of
+their journey was gained.
+
+Barbara was familiar with this flourishing place, above which proudly
+towered the Trausnitzburg, for here lived her uncle Wolfgang Lorberer,
+who had married her mother's sister, and was a member of the city
+Council. Two years before she had spent a whole month as a guest in his
+wealthy household, and she intended now to seek shelter there again.
+Fran Martha had invited her more than once to come soon, and meanwhile
+her two young cousins had grown up.
+
+Two arms of the Isar lay before her, and between them the island of
+Zweibrucken.
+
+Before the coach rolled across the first, Barbara gathered her luggage
+together and told the postboy where he was to drive. He knew the
+handsome Lorberer house, and touched his cap when he heard its owner's
+name. Barbara was glad to be brought to her relatives by the famous
+musician; she did not wish to appear as though she had dropped from the
+clouds in the house of the aunt who was the opposite of her dead mother,
+a somewhat narrow-minded, prudish woman, of whom she secretly stood in
+awe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Progress was very slow, for many peasants and hogs were coming toward
+them from the Schweinemarkt at their right.
+
+The gate was on the second bridge, and here the carriage was compelled
+to stop on account of paying the toll. But it could not have advanced in
+any case; a considerable number of vehicles and human beings choked
+the space before and beyond the gate. Horsemen of all sorts, wagons of
+regiments marching in and out, freight vans and country carts, soldiers,
+male and female citizens, peasants and peasant women, monks, travelling
+journeymen, and vagrants impeded their progress, and it required a long
+time ere the travelling carriage could finally pass the gate and reach
+the end of the bridge.
+
+There the crowd between it, the Hospital of the Holy Ghost, and the
+church belonging to it seemed absolutely impenetrable. The vehicle was
+forced to stop, and Gombert stood up and overlooked the motley throng
+surrounding it.
+
+Barbara had also risen from her seat, pointed out to her companion one
+noteworthy object after another, and finally a handsome sedan chair
+which rested on the ground beside the hospital.
+
+"His Majesty's property," she said eagerly; "I know it well."
+
+Here she hesitated and turned pale, for she had just noticed what
+Gombert now called to her attention.
+
+Don Luis Quijada, with the haughty precision of the Castilian grandee,
+was passing through the humble folk around him and advancing directly
+toward her.
+
+All who separated him from the carriage submissively made way for the
+commander of the Lombard regiment; but Barbara looked toward the right
+and the left, and longed to spring from the vehicle and hide herself
+amid the throng.
+
+But it was too late for that.
+
+She could do nothing except wait to learn what he desired, and yet she
+knew perfectly well that Don Luis was not coming to the musician, but
+to her, and that he was bringing some startling, nay, probably some
+terrible news.
+
+She had not met him since she had poured forth the indignation of her
+heart. Now he was standing close beside the carriage, but his grave face
+looked less stern than it did at that time.
+
+After he had bent his head slightly to her and held out his hand to
+Gombert with friendly condescension, he thanked him for the kindness
+with which he had made room for his travelling companion, and then,
+with quiet courtesy, informed Barbara that he had come on behalf of
+his Majesty, who feared that she might not find suitable lodgings in
+overcrowded Landshut. The sedan chair stood ready over there by the
+hospital.
+
+The longing to escape this fresh outrage from the mighty despot seized
+upon Barbara more fiercely than ever, but flight in this crowd was
+impossible, and as she met Quijada's grave glance she forced herself to
+keep silence. She could not endure to make the Netherland maestro, who
+was kindly disposed toward her, and whom she honoured, a witness of her
+humiliation. So she was compelled to reserve what she wished to say to
+the Spaniard until later, and therefore only bade her friend farewell
+and, scarcely able to control her voice, expressed her regret that she
+could not take him to the Lorberers, since his Majesty was making other
+arrangements for her.
+
+Another clasp of the Netherlander's hand, a questioning glance into
+the Castilian's calm face, and she was forced to consider herself the
+Emperor Charles's prisoner.
+
+True, her captor studiously showed her every attention; he helped her
+out of the carriage with the utmost care, and then led her through the
+moving throng of people to the sedan chair, behind which a mounted groom
+was holding Quijada's noble steed by the bridle.
+
+While Don Luis was helping Barbara into the chair, she asked in a low
+tone what she was to think of this act of violence, and where she was
+being taken.
+
+"His Majesty's command," was the reply. "I think you will be satisfied
+with your lodgings here." The girl shrugged her shoulders indignantly,
+and asked if she might only know how it had been discovered that she was
+on her way to Landshut; but Don Luis, in a gayer manner than his usual
+one, answered, "A little bird sang it to us, and I waited for you just
+here because, at the end of the bridge, we are most certain to meet
+whoever is obliged to cross either branch of the river." Then, in a
+tone so grave as to exclude any idea of mockery, he added, "You see how
+kindly his Majesty has provided for your welfare."
+
+Closing the sedan chair as he spoke, he rode on before her.
+
+Meanwhile contradictory emotions were seething and surging in Barbara's
+breast.
+
+Where were they taking her?
+
+Did the Emperor intend to make her a prisoner? He certainly possessed
+the power. Who would dare to resist him?
+
+She could attain no clearness of thought, for, while giving free course
+to the indignation of her soul, she was gazing out at the open sides of
+the sedan chair.
+
+Every house, every paving stone here was familiar and awakened some
+memory. A crowd of people surrounded her, and among them appeared many
+a foreign soldier on foot and on horseback, who would have been well
+worthy of an attentive glance. But what did she care for the Italians
+in helmets and coats of mail who filled the Altstadt--the main business
+street of Landshut--through which she was being carried? She doubtless
+cast a glance toward the Town Hall, where her uncle was now devising
+means to provide shelter for this legion of soldiers and steeds,
+doubtless put her head a little out of the window as she approached the
+houses and arcades in the lower stories, and the Lorberer mansion, with
+the blunt gable, where she had spent such happy days, appeared. But she
+quickly drew it back again; if any of her relatives should see her, what
+answer could she make to questions?
+
+But no one perceived her, and who knows whether they would not
+have supposed the delicate, troubled face, short locks of hair, and
+unnaturally large eyes to be those of another girl who only resembled
+the blooming, healthful Barbara of former days?
+
+She also glanced toward the richly decorated portal of St. Martin's
+Church, standing diagonally opposite to the sedan chair, and tried to
+look up to the steeple, which was higher than almost any other in the
+world.
+
+Even in Ratisbon there was not a handsomer, wider street than this
+Altstadt, with its stately gable-roofed houses, and certainly not in
+Munich, where her uncle had once taken her, and the Bavarian dukes now
+resided.
+
+But where, in Heaven's name, would she be borne?
+
+The sedan chair was now swaying past the place where the "short cut" for
+pedestrians led up to the Trausnitzburg, the proud citadel of the dukes
+of Bavarian Landshut. She leaned forward again to look up at it as it
+towered far above her head on the opposite side of the way; the powerful
+ruler whose captive she was probably lodged there.
+
+But now!
+
+What did this mean?
+
+The sedan chair was set down, and it was just at the place where the
+road at her left, leading to the citadel, climbed the height where rose
+the proud Trausnitz fortress.
+
+Perhaps she might now find an opportunity to escape.
+
+Barbara hastily opened the door, but one of her attendants closed it
+again, and in doing so pressed her gently back into the chair. At the
+same time he shook his head, and, while his little black eyes twinkled
+slyly at her, his broad, smiling mouth, over which hung a long black
+mustache, uttered a good-natured "No, no."
+
+Now the ascent of the mountain began. A wall bordered the greater
+portion of the road, which often led through a ravine overgrown with
+brushwood and past bastions and other solid masonry.
+
+The bearers had already mounted to a considerable height, yet there was
+no view of the city and the neighbouring country. But even the loveliest
+prospect would not have induced Barbara to open her eyes, for the
+indignation which overpowered her had increased to fierce rage, blended
+with a fear usually alien to her courageous soul.
+
+In the one tower of the citadel there were prisons of tolerably pleasant
+aspect, but she had heard whispers of terrible subterranean dungeons
+connected with the secret tribunal.
+
+Suppose the Emperor Charles intended to lock her in one of these
+dungeons and withdraw her from the eyes of the world? Who could guard
+her from this horrible fate? who could prevent him from keeping her
+buried alive during her life?
+
+Shuddering, she looked out again. If she was not mistaken, they were
+nearing the end of the road, and she would soon learn what was before
+her. Perhaps the Emperor Charles himself was awaiting her up there. But
+if he asked her whether she intended always to defy him, she would show
+him that Barbara Blomberg was not to be intimidated; that she knew how
+to defend herself and, if necessary, to suffer; that she would be ready
+to risk everything to baffle his design and carry out her own resolve.
+Then he should see that nations and kings, nay, even the Holy Father
+in Rome-as Charles had once sacrilegiously done--may be vanquished and
+humbled; that the hard, precious stone may be crushed and solid metal
+melted, but the steadfast will of a woman battling for what she holds
+dearest can not be broken.
+
+The sedan chair had already passed through half a dozen citadel gates
+and left one solid wall behind it, but now a second rose, with a lofty
+door set in its strong masonry.
+
+When Barbara had formerly ascended the Trausnitz, with what pleasure
+she had gazed at the deep moat at her left, the pheasants, the stately
+peacocks, and other feathered creatures, as well as a whole troop of
+lively monkeys; but this time she saw nothing except that the heavy
+iron-bound portals of the entrance opened before her, that the
+drawbridge, though the sun was close to the western horizon, was still
+lowered, and that Quijada stood at the end, motioning to the bearers to
+set the sedan chair on the ground.
+
+Now the major-domo opened the door, and this time he was not alone;
+Barbara saw behind him a woman whose appearance, spite of her angry
+excitement, inspired confidence.
+
+The questions which, without heeding his companion, she now with crimson
+cheeks poured upon Don Luis as if fairly frantic, he answered in brief,
+businesslike words.
+
+The Emperor Charles wished to place her in safe quarters up here, while
+he himself had taken lodgings in the modest house of a Schwaiger--a
+small farmer who tilled his own garden and land in the valley below.
+
+For the present, some of the most distinguished officers were here in
+the citadel as guests of the Duke of Bavaria. Barbara was to live in the
+ladies' apartments of the fortress, under the care of the worthy woman
+at his side.
+
+"His Majesty could not have provided for you more kindly," he concluded.
+
+"Then may the Virgin preserve every one from such kindness!" she
+impetuously exclaimed. "I am dragged to this citadel against my will---"
+
+"And that irritates your strong feeling of independence, which we know,"
+replied the Spaniard quietly. "But when you listen to reason, fairest
+lady, you will soon be reconciled to this wise regulation of his
+Majesty. If not, it will be your own loss. But," he added in a lowered
+tone, "this is no fitting place for a conversation which might easily
+degenerate into a quarrel. It can be completed better in your own
+apartments."
+
+While speaking he led the way, and Barbara followed without another
+word of remonstrance, for soldiers of all ages and other gentlemen were
+walking in the large, beautiful courtyard which she overlooked; a group
+of lovers of horseflesh were examining some specially fine steeds,
+and from several of the broad windows which surrounded the Trausnitz
+courtyard on all sides men's faces were looking down at her.
+
+This courtyard had always seemed to her a stage specially suitable for
+the display of royal magnificence, and yet, in spite of its stately
+size, it would be difficult to imagine anything more pleasant, more
+thoroughly secluded.
+
+It had formerly witnessed many brilliant knightly games and festal
+scenes, but even now it was the favourite gathering place for the
+inhabitants of the citadel and the guests of the ducal owner, though the
+latter, it is true, had ceased to live here since Landshut had become
+the heritage of the Munich branch of the Wittelsbach family, and the
+Bavarian dukes resided in Munich, the upper city on the Isar.
+
+Just as Barbara entered the castle the vesper bell rang, and Quijada
+paused with bared head, his companions with clasped hands.
+
+The girl prisoner felt little inclination to pray; she was probably
+thinking of a dance given here by torchlight, in which, as her uncle's
+guest, she had taken part until morning began to dawn.
+
+While they were walking on again, she also remembered the riding at
+the ring in the Trausnitz courtyard, which she had been permitted to
+witness.
+
+The varied, magnificent spectacle had made her almost wild with delight.
+The dance in this square had been one of her fairest memories. And with
+what feelings she looked down into this courtyard again! What could
+such an amusement be to her now? Yet it roused a bitter feeling that, in
+spite of her youth, such scenes should be closed to her forever.
+
+She silently followed the others into an airy room in the third story,
+whose windows afforded a beautiful view extending to the Bohemian
+forests.
+
+But Barbara was too weary to bestow more than a fleeting glance upon it.
+
+Paying no heed to the others, she sank down upon the bench near one of
+the walls of the room, and while she was still talking with Don Luis
+her new companion, of whose name she was still ignorant, brought several
+cushions and silently placed them behind her back.
+
+This chamber, Quijada explained, he had selected for her by his
+Majesty's permission. The adjoining room would be occupied by this good
+lady--he motioned to his companion--the wife of Herr Adrian Dubois, his
+Majesty's valet. Being a native of Cologne, she understood German, and
+had offered to bear her company. If Barbara desired, she could also
+summon the garde-robiere Lamperi from Ratisbon to the Trausnitz.
+
+Here she interrupted him with the question how long the Emperor intended
+to detain her here.
+
+"As long as it suits his imperial pleasure and the physician deems
+advisable," was the reply. Barbara merely shrugged her shoulders again;
+she felt utterly exhausted. But when Quijada, who perceived that she
+needed rest, was about to leave her, she remembered the cause of her
+drive to Landshut, and asked whether she might speak to her father's
+travelling companion, who could give her information about the health of
+the old man who, after the Emperor had sent him out into the world, had
+fallen ill in Antwerp.
+
+This was willingly granted, and Don Luis even undertook to send Sir
+Pyramus Kogel, whom he knew by sight, to her. Then commending her to the
+care of Fran Dubois, who was directed to gratify every reasonable wish,
+he left the room. Meanwhile Barbara desired nothing except rest, but she
+studiously refrained from addressing even a word to her new companion.
+Besides, there was little time to do so, she was soon sound asleep.
+
+When at the end of two hours she awoke, she found herself lying at full
+length upon the bench, while a careful hand had removed her shoes, and
+the pillows which had supported her weary back were now under her head.
+
+During her slumber it had grown dark, and a small lamp, whose rays a
+handkerchief shielded from her eyes, was standing on the stove in one
+corner of the room.
+
+Yet she was alone; but she had scarcely stirred when Frau Dubois
+appeared with a maid-servant bearing a candelabrum with lighted candles.
+The careful nurse asked in brief but pleasant words whether she felt
+stronger, if it would be agreeable to her to have supper served in
+fifteen minutes, and if she would allow her to help her.
+
+"Willingly," replied Barbara, very pleasantly surprised. Her companion,
+as it were, anticipated her strongest wishes--to satisfy her hunger and
+to change her dress.
+
+She must be capable and, moreover, a woman of kindly, delicate feelings,
+and it certainly was no fault of hers that she was intrusted with her
+guardianship and that she belonged to no higher station in life. She was
+only punishing herself by persisting in her silence and, as Frau Dubois
+tended her like a watchful mother, though without addressing a single
+word to her unasked, Barbara's grateful heart and the satisfaction which
+the valet's wife inspired silenced her arrogance.
+
+When an attendant laid the table for only one person, the girl kindly
+invited Frau Dubois to dine with her; the former, however, had already
+had her meal, but she said that she would be very glad to bear the young
+lady company if she desired.
+
+The first long conversation between the two took place at the table.
+
+The pretty face of the native of the Rhine country, with its little
+snub nose, which in youth must have lent a touch of gay pertness to
+the well-formed features, was still unwrinkled, though Frau Dubois was
+nearer fifty than forty. Her gray, nearly white hair, though ill-suited
+to her almost youthful features, lent them a peculiar charm, and how
+brightly her round, brown eyes still sparkled! The plain gown of fine
+Brabant stuff fitted as if moulded to her figure, and it was difficult
+to imagine anything neater than her whole appearance.
+
+Adrian had certainly attained an exceptional position among his class,
+yet Barbara wondered how he had won this woman, who apparently belonged
+to a far higher station. And then what had brought her to this place and
+her companionship?
+
+She was to learn during the meal, for Frau Dubois not only answered her
+questions kindly, but in a manner which showed Barbara sincere sympathy
+for her position.
+
+She was the daughter of a captain who had fallen in the Emperor
+Charles's service before Padua. The pension granted to his widow had not
+been paid, and when, with her daughter, she sought an audience with the
+commander in chief, the influential valet had seen the blooming girl,
+and did not seek her hand in vain. Maternal joys had been denied her;
+besides, Frau Dubois thought it hard that her husband was obliged to
+accompany the Emperor, who could not spare him for a single day, on his
+long and numerous journeys. Even the very comfortable life secured to
+her by the distinguished valet, who was respected by men of the highest
+rank, by no means consoled her for it.
+
+The Emperor Charles knew this, and had given Adrian a pretty house in
+the park of the Brussels palace, besides favouring him in other ways.
+Now he had allowed him, before setting out for the war, to send for his
+wife. On reaching Landshut, she had shared during a few hours the little
+house which the monarch and general had chosen for his lodgings. The
+imperial commander had not gone up to the citadel because he wished to
+remain among his troops.
+
+True, the little farmhouse on the "hohen Gred" which he occupied was
+anything but a suitable abode for a powerful sovereign, for above the
+ground floor it had only a single story with five small windows and
+an unusually high roof. But, on the other hand, the regiments lying
+encamped near it could be quickly reached. Another reason for making the
+choice was that he could obtain rest here better than on the Trausnitz,
+for his health was as bad as his appearance and his mood. He intended
+to break up the headquarters on the day after to-morrow, so another
+separation awaited the valet and his wife.
+
+When the mounted messenger sent by Frau Lamperi reached Landshut, and
+it was necessary to find a suitable companion for Barbara, the Emperor
+himself had thought of Fran Dubois.
+
+There had been no opposition to his wish. Besides, she said, his Majesty
+meant kindly by Barbara and, so far as her power extended, everything
+should be done to soften her hard destiny.
+
+She knew the whole history of the girl intrusted to her care, yet she
+would scarcely have undertaken the task committed to her had she not
+been aware that every determination of the Emperor was immovable.
+Besides, she could also strive to render the hard fate imposed upon the
+poor girl more endurable.
+
+Barbara had listened eagerly to the story without interrupting her; then
+she desired to learn further particulars concerning the health of the
+man from whom even now her soul could not be sundered and, finally, she
+urged her to talk about herself.
+
+So time passed with the speed of the wind. The candles in the
+candelabrum were already half burned down when Fran Dubois at last urged
+going to rest.
+
+Barbara felt that she was fortunate to have found so kind and sensible a
+companion and, while the Rhinelander was helping her undress, she begged
+her in future to call her by her Christian name "Gertrud," or, as people
+liked to address her, "Frau Traut."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+When Barbara rose from her couch the next morning it was no longer early
+in the day. She had slept soundly and dreamlessly for several hours,
+then she had been kept awake by the same thoughts which had pressed upon
+her so constantly of late.
+
+She would defy Charles's cruel demand. The infuriating compulsion
+inflicted upon her could only strengthen her resolve. If she was dragged
+to a convent by force, she would refuse, at the ceremony of profession,
+to become a nun.
+
+She thought of a pilgrimage to induce Heaven to restore the lost melody
+of her voice. But meanwhile the longing to see the Emperor Charles's
+face once more again and again overpowered her. On the other hand, the
+desire to speak to him and upbraid him to his face for the wrong he had
+done her was soon silenced; it could only spoil his memory of her if he
+should hear the discordant tones which inflicted pain on her own ear.
+
+Another train of thoughts had also kept her awake. How was her father
+faring? Had he learned what she feared to confess to him? What had
+befallen him, and what had the recruiting officer to tell of his fate?
+
+She was to know soon enough, for she had scarcely risen from breakfast
+when a ducal servant announced Sir Pyramus.
+
+Barbara with anxious heart awaited his entrance, and as she stood there,
+her cheeks slightly flushed and her large, questioning eyes fixed upon
+the door, she seemed to Frau Traut, in spite of her short hair and the
+loss of the rounded oval of her face, so marvellously beautiful that she
+perfectly understood how she had succeeded in kindling so fierce a flame
+in the Emperor's heart, difficult as it was to fire.
+
+Frau Traut did not venture to determine what made the blood mount into
+Pyramus's cheeks when Barbara at his entrance held out her slender white
+hand, for she had left the room immediately after his arrival. But she
+did not need to remain absent long; the interview ended much sooner than
+she expected.
+
+This young officer was certainly a man of splendid physique, with
+handsome, manly features, yet she thought she perceived in his manner an
+air of constraint which repelled her and, in fact, this gigantic soldier
+was conscious that if, for a single moment, he relinquished the control
+he imposed upon himself his foolish heart would play him a trick.
+
+Barbara had seemed more beautiful than ever as she greeted him with
+almost humble friendliness, instead of her former defiance. The hoarse
+tone of her voice, once so musical, caused him so much pain that he
+was on the verge of losing his power to keep his resolve to conceal
+the feelings which, in spite of the insults she had heaped upon him, he
+still cherished for her. While he allowed himself to look into her face,
+he realized for the first time how difficult a task he had undertaken,
+and therefore tried to assume an expression of indifference as he
+began the conversation with the remark that the ride to the citadel was
+detaining him from his duties longer than he could answer for in such
+a stress of military business and, moreover, under the eyes of his
+Majesty. Therefore it would only be possible to talk a very short time.
+
+He had hurled forth this statement rather than spoken it; but Barbara,
+smiling mournfully, replied that she could easily understand his
+reluctance to lose so much time merely on her account.
+
+"For your sake, my dear lady," he replied with an acerbity which sounded
+sufficiently genuine, "it might scarcely have seemed feasible to go so
+far from the camp; but for the brave old comrade who was intrusted to my
+care I would have made even more difficult things possible--and you are
+his daughter."
+
+The girl nodded silently to show that she understood the meaning of his
+words, and then asked how the journey had passed and what was the cause
+of her father's illness.
+
+Everything had gone as well as possible, he replied, until they reached
+Spain; but there the captain was tortured by homesickness. Nothing had
+pleased him except the piety of the people. The fiery wine did not suit
+him, the fare seemed unbearable, and the inability to talk with any one
+except himself had irritated him to actual outbursts of rage. On the
+neat Netherland ship which bore him homeward matters were better; nay,
+while running into the harbour of Antwerp he had jested almost in his
+old reckless manner. But when trying to descend the rope-ladder from the
+high ship into the skiff in which sailors had rowed from the land, he
+made a misstep with his stiff leg and fell into the boat.
+
+A low cry of terror here escaped the lips of the deeply agitated
+daughter, and Pyramus joined in her expressions of grief, declaring that
+a chill still ran down his back whenever he thought of that fall. The
+captain had been saved as if by a miracle. Yet the consequences were by
+no means light, for when he, Pyramus, left him, he was barely able to
+totter from one chair to another. A journey on horseback, the physician
+said, would kill him, and a ride in a carriage over the rough roads
+would also endanger his life. Several months must pass ere he could
+think of returning home.
+
+In reply to Barbara's anxious question how the impatient man bore the
+inactivity imposed upon him, her visitor answered, "Rebelliously enough,
+but he has already grown quieter, and my sister is fond of him and takes
+the best care of him."
+
+"Your sister?" asked Barbara abashed, holding out her hand again; but
+he pretended not to notice it, and merely explained curtly that she had
+come to the Netherlands with her husband. This enterprising man, like
+himself, was a native of the principality of Grubenhagen in the Hartz
+Mountains. At sixteen the wild fellow went out into the world to seek
+his fortune, and had found it as a daring sailor. He returned a rich
+man to seek a wife in his old home. Now he had gone on a voyage to the
+Indies, and while his wife awaited his return she had gladly received
+her brother's old comrade. Nursing him would afford her a welcome
+occupation during her loneliness. Her house lacked nothing, and Barbara
+might comfort herself with the knowledge that the captain would have the
+best possible care.
+
+With these words he seemed about to leave her; but she stopped him with
+the question, "And when the service summoned you away from him, had he
+heard what his daughter----"
+
+Here, flushing deeply, she paused with downcast eyes. Pyramus feasted a
+short time on the spectacle of her humbled pride, but soon he could
+no longer bear to see her endure such bitter suffering, and therefore
+answered hastily, "If you mean what is said about you and his
+Majesty the Emperor, he was told of it by an old comrade from this
+neighbourhood."
+
+"And he?" she asked anxiously.
+
+"He wrathfully ordered him out of the door," replied the officer, and he
+saw how her eyes filled with tears.
+
+Then feeling how soft his own heart was also growing, he hurriedly said
+farewell. Again she gratefully extended her hand, and he clasped it and
+allowed himself the pleasure of holding it in his a short time. Then
+bowing hastily, he left her.
+
+She had been the Emperor's toy, her voice had lost its melting melody,
+and yet he thought there was no woman more to be desired, far as his
+profession of recruiting had led him through all lands. This iron no
+longer needed bending; but how fiercely the flames of suffering which
+melted her obstinate nature must have burned! Surely he had not seen her
+for the last time, and perhaps Fate would now help him to perform the
+vow that he had made before her door in the dark entry of the house in
+Ratisbon.
+
+While Sir Pyramus was leaving her Barbara had heard a man's voice in
+Frau Traut's room, but she scarcely noticed it. What she had learned
+weighed heavily upon her soul.
+
+Her father would not believe what was, nevertheless, the full,
+undeniable truth. How would he deal with the certainty that he had
+showed his old comrade the door unjustly when he at last came home and
+she confessed all, all that she had sinned and suffered? She was sure
+of one thing only--he, too, would not permit her child to be taken from
+her; and she cherished a single hope--the blow which Fate had dealt by
+destroying her tuneful voice would force him to pity, and perhaps induce
+him to forgive her. Oh, if she could only have conjured him here, opened
+her heart fully, freely to him, and learned from his own lips that he
+approved of her resistance!
+
+During this period of quiet reflection many sounds and shouts which she
+had not heard before reached her room.
+
+As they grew louder and more frequent, Barbara rose to approach the open
+window, but ere she reached it Frau Taut returned.
+
+The visitor whom she had received was Adrian, her husband. He had
+come up the Trausnitz to make all sorts of arrangements, for something
+unusual was to happen which would bring even his Majesty the Emperor
+here.
+
+These tidings startled Barbara.
+
+Suppose that Charles was now coming to influence her by the heavy weight
+of his personality; suppose he----
+
+But Frau Traut gave her no time to yield to these and other fears and
+hopes; she added, in a quiet tone, that his Majesty merely intended to
+invest his son-in-law, Ottavio Farnese, Duke of Parma, with the Order of
+the Golden Fleece in the Trausnitz courtyard. It would be a magnificent
+spectacle, and Barbara could witness it if she desired. One of the
+rooms in the second story of the ladies' wing where she lodged was still
+untenanted, and her husband would be responsible if she occupied it,
+only Barbara must promise not to attract attention to herself by any
+sound or gesture.
+
+She yielded to this demand with eager zeal, and when Frau Traut
+perceived the girl's pale cheeks again flushed she wondered at the rapid
+excitability of this singular creature, and willingly answered the long
+series of questions with which she assailed her.
+
+Barbara especially desired to hear particulars about the mother of
+Margaret of Parma, the wife of Ottavio Farnese, that Johanna Van der
+Gheynst who gave this daughter to the Emperor.
+
+Then Barbara learned that she was a Netherland girl of respectable
+family, but of scarcely higher rank than her own; only she had
+been adopted by Count Bon Haagestraaten before the Emperor made her
+acquaintance.
+
+"Was Johanna beautiful?" Barbara eagerly interrupted.
+
+"I think you are far handsomer," was the reply, "though she, too, was a
+lovely creature."
+
+Then Barbara wished to learn whether she was fair or dark, lively or
+quiet, and, finally, whether she had consented to give up her child; and
+Frau Traut answered that Johanna had done this without resistance, and
+her daughter was afterward reared first by the Duchess of Savoy, and
+later by Queen Mary, the regent of the Netherlands.
+
+"How wisely the young lady acted," Frau Dubois concluded, "you yourself
+know. A crown now adorns her child's head for the second time, and you
+will soon see how the Emperor Charles bestows honours upon her husband.
+His Majesty understood how to provide for his daughter, who is his
+first child. Her former marriage, it is true, was short. Alessandro de'
+Medici, to whom she was wedded at almost too early an age, was murdered
+scarcely a year after their nuptials. Her present husband, the Duke of
+Parma, whom you will see, is, on the contrary, younger than she,
+but since the unfortunate campaign against Algiers, in which he
+participated, and after his recovery from the severe illness he endured
+after his return home, they enjoy a beautiful conjugal happiness. His
+Majesty is warmly attached to his daughter, and the great distinction
+which he will bestow upon her husband to-day is given by no means least
+to please his own beloved child, though her mother was only a Jollanna
+van der Gheynst."
+
+Barbara had listened to these communications with dilated eyes, but the
+speaker was now interrupted; the leech, Dr. Matthys, was announced, and
+immediately entered the room.
+
+Barbara's outburst of rage had not lessened his sympathy for her, and in
+the interest of science he desired to learn what effect his remedies had
+had. Unfortunately, in spite of their use, no improvement was visible.
+
+The strange absence of mind with which the girl, who usually answered
+questions so promptly and decidedly, now seemed scarcely to hear them,
+he attributed to the painful remembrance of her unseemly behaviour at
+their last meeting, and therefore soon left her, by no means satisfied
+with his visit. On the way, however, he told himself that it was unfair
+to blame the bird which had just been captured for fluttering.
+
+When the leech had retired, Barbara regretted that she had answered
+him so indifferently. But the anticipation of seeing her imperial lover
+again dominated every thought and feeling. Besides, she again and again
+saw before her the figure of the young duke, whom she had never beheld,
+but whom Charles had married to the daughter of that Johanna who was
+said to have been neither more beautiful nor more aristocratic than she
+herself.
+
+Frau Traut saw compassionately that she could not remain long quietly
+in any place, and that when the noon meal was served she scarcely tasted
+food.
+
+As soon as the first blast of the horns rose from the gate of the
+citadel she urged departure like an impatient child, and her indulgent
+companion yielded, though she knew that the stately ceremonial would not
+begin for a long time.
+
+The window which Adrian had assigned to the two women in a room
+which was to be occupied by them alone afforded a view of the entire
+courtyard, and from the arm-chair which Frau Traut had had brought for
+her Barbara gazed down into it with strained attention.
+
+The first sound of the horns had saluted Ottavio Farnese.
+
+Mounted on a spirited charger, he held aloft, as gonfaloniere of the
+Church, the proud banner to be whose bearer was deemed by the Dukes of
+Parma one of their loftiest titles of honour.
+
+He was greeted by the nobles present with loud acclamations, but
+was still booted and attired as beseemed a horseman. The cavaliers,
+officers, and pages who attended him entered the citadel in no regular
+order. But as Ottavio swung himself from his magnificently formed,
+cream-coloured steed, and issued orders to his train, Barbara could look
+him directly in the face and, though she thought him neither handsome
+nor possessed of manly vigour, she could not help admitting that she
+had rarely seen a young man of equally distinguished bearing. His every
+movement bore the impress of royal self-confidence, yet at the same time
+was unconstrained and graceful.
+
+Now he disappeared in the wing of the building that united the ladies'
+rooms with the main structure opposite.
+
+The Emperor Charles could not be here yet. His arrival would not have
+been passed by so quietly, and the imperial banner did not float either
+from the many-sided turret at the left end of the main building nor from
+the lofty roof of the ancient Wittelsbach tower. Great nobles, mounted
+on splendid chargers, constantly rode into the citadel, sometimes in
+groups, and were saluted by the blast of horns; nimble squires led the
+horses away, while ducal councillors, nobles, chamberlains, and ushers
+received the distinguished guests of the citadel and conducted them
+to the Turnitz, the huge banquet hall in the lower story of the main
+building, where the best of everything undoubtedly stood ready for them.
+
+But every arrangement had already been made for the approaching
+ceremony--a broad wooden estrade was erected in the centre of the
+courtyard, and richly decorated with garlands of flowers, blossoming
+branches, flags, and streamers. At the back stood the Emperor's throne,
+covered with purple damask, and beside it numerous velvet cushions lay
+piled one upon another, waiting to be used.
+
+Barbara's vivid imagination already showed her the course of this rare
+spectacle, and she gladly and confidently expected that the Emperor must
+turn his face toward her during the principal portion of the ceremony.
+
+Now the carpet on the stage was drawn tighter by lackeys in magnificent
+liveries, and the final touches were given to its decorations; now
+priests entered the smaller building at the left of the courtyard. The
+balcony on one of these buildings was adorned with flowers, and the
+singers of St. Martin's Church in Landshut gradually filled it. Now--but
+here Barbara's quiet observation suddenly ended; the air was shaken by
+the roar of cannon from the bastions of the citadel, and the signals
+of the warders' horns blended with the thunder of the artillery. At
+the same time the banners and streamers on every flagpole, stirred by a
+light breeze from the east, began to wave in the sunny August air. Then
+the blare of trumpets echoed, and a few minutes later from the Turnitz
+and the covered staircase between the main building and the right win;
+of the citadel the most brilliant body of men that Barbara had ever seen
+poured into the courtyard. They were the Knights of the Golden Fleece
+and the princes, counts, barons and knights, generals and colonels whom
+the Emperor Charles had invited to the Trausnitz citadel to attend the
+approaching solemn ceremonial.
+
+What did she care for these dignitaries in gold, silver, and steel,
+velvet and silk, gems and plumes, when the enthusiastic cheers of this
+illustrious assemblage, the blare of trumpets, the thunder of cannon,
+and the ringing of bells loudly proclaimed the approach of him who,
+as their lord and master, stood far above them all? Would he appear on
+horseback, or had he dismounted at the gate and was advancing on foot?
+Neither. He was borne in a sedan chair. It was covered with gilding,
+and the top of the arched roof and each of the four corners were adorned
+with bunches of red and gold plumes, the colours of Philip of Burgundy,
+who more than a hundred years before had founded the order of the Golden
+Fleece.
+
+Instead of lackeys, strong sergeants, chosen from the different
+regiments, bore the sedan chair. The gentlemen of the court--Prince
+Henry of Nassau, Baron Malfalconnet, and Don Luis Quijada, with Generals
+Furstenberg and Mannsfeld, Count Hildebrand Madrucci, the Master of the
+Teutonic Order, the Marchese Marignano, and others--were preceded by the
+stiff, grave, soldierly figure of the Duke of Alba, and, by the side
+of the platform, grandees and military commanders, Netherland lords,
+Italian, German, and Austrian princes, counts, barons, and knights had
+taken their places.
+
+When the sedan chair was at last set on the ground in front of the
+lowest step of the platform, Barbara thought that her heart would burst;
+for while the singers in the balcony began the "Venite populi mundi,"
+so familiar to her, and the cheers redoubled, Charles descended, and in
+what a guise she saw him again! He looked ten years older, and she felt
+with him the keen suffering which every step must cause.
+
+This time it was not Quijada, but the Duke of Alba, who offered him
+the support of his mailed arm, and, leaning on it, he ascended the low
+stage.
+
+While doing so he turned his back to Barbara, and as with bent figure
+and outstretched head he wearily climbed the two stairs leading to the
+platform, he presented a pitiable spectacle.
+
+And have you loved this wreck of a man with all the fervour of your
+heart? the girl asked herself; does it still throb faster for him? could
+you even now expect from him a fairer happiness than from all these
+handsome warriors and nobles in the pride of their manly vigour? To this
+old man you have sacrificed happiness and honour, given up your father
+and the noblest, best of friends!
+
+Fierce indignation for her own folly suddenly seized upon her with such
+overmastering power that she looked away from the sovereign toward the
+singers, who were summoning the whole world to pay homage to yonder
+broken-down man, as though he were a demigod.
+
+A bitter smile hovered around her lips as she did so, but it vanished
+as swiftly as it had come; for when she again fixed her eyes upon the
+monarch, she would gladly have joined in the mighty hymn. As if by a
+miracle, he had become an entirely different person. Now he stood before
+the throne in the full loftiness and dignity of commanding majesty. A
+purple mantle fell from his shoulders, and the Duke of Alba was placing
+the crown on his head instead of the velvet cap.
+
+Oh, no, she need not be ashamed of having loved this man, and she was
+not; for she loved him still, and was fully and joyously aware that
+whatever he suffered, whatever tortured and prematurely aged the man
+still in his fourth decade, no one on earth equalled him in intellect
+and grandeur.
+
+And as pages then placed the velvet cushions on the carpet; as the Duke
+of Parma, the gonfaloniere on whose head rested the blessing of
+the representative of Christ, bent the knee before his imperial
+father-in-law, and the proud Alba and the other Knights of the Golden
+Fleece who were present did the same; as Charles, the grand master of
+the order, took from the cushion the symbol of honour which Count Henry
+of Nassau handed to him, and placed the golden sheepskin with the red
+ribbon around Duke Ottavio's neck, while the plaudits, the ringing of
+bells, and the thunder of the artillery echoed more loudly than ever
+from the stone walls of the courtyard, tears filled Barbara's eyes
+and, as when the Emperor passed at the head of the bridal procession in
+Prebrunn, her voice again blended with the enthusiastic shouts of homage
+to the man standing in majestic repose before the throne, the man who
+was the most exalted of human beings.
+
+She understood only a few words of the brief speech which the monarch
+addressed to the new Knight of the Golden Fleece. She saw for the first
+time the dignitaries of so many different nations upon whom she was
+gazing down, and most of whom she did not even know by name. But what
+did she care how they were called and who they were? Her eyes were fixed
+only on Charles and the young man in the armour artistically inlaid with
+gold, peach-coloured silver brocade, and white silk, who was kneeling
+before him.
+
+Suppose that a son of hers should be permitted to share such an honour;
+suppose that Charles should some day bend down to her child and kiss his
+brow with the paternal affection which he had just showed to the young
+duke whom he had wedded to his daughter? And this daughter was the child
+of a mother who was her sister in sorrow, and had been her superior in
+nothing, neither in birth nor in beauty.
+
+She said this to herself while she was intently watching the progress of
+the solemn ceremonial. How lovingly and with what enthusiastic reverence
+Ottavio was now gazing up into the face of his imperial father-in-law,
+and with what grateful fervour, as the youngest Knight of the Fleece,
+he kissed his hand! Not only outwardly but in heart--the warm light
+of their eyes revealed it--these men, so unlike in age and gifts, were
+united; yet Ottavio was not Charles's own son, as another would have
+been whom she wished to withhold from such a father, and in her selfish
+blindness to withdraw from the path to the summit of all earthly
+splendour and honour.
+
+Who gave her the right to commit so great, so execrable a robbery?
+
+What could she, the poor, deserted, scorned toy of a king--give to her
+child, and what the mightiest of the mighty yonder?
+
+If he was ready to claim as his own the young life which she expected
+with hopeful yearning, it would thereby receive a benefit so vast,
+a gift so brilliant that all the wealth of love and care which she
+intended to bestow upon it vanished in darkness by comparison. Charles's
+resolve, which she had execrated as cruel, was harsh only against her
+who had angered him, and who could give him so little more; for her
+child it meant grandeur and splendour, and thereby, she thought in her
+vain folly, the highest happiness attainable for human beings.
+
+Still she gazed as though spellbound at the decorated stage, but the
+ceremony was already rapidly approaching its close. The great nobles
+surrounded the new Knight of the Fleece to congratulate him, the Duke
+of Alba first; but vouchsafed a few brief, gracious words only to a few
+dignitaries, and then, this time assisted by Quijada, descended to the
+sedan chair.
+
+Barbara had learned from Frau Traut that his Majesty knew that she was
+here in the ladies' apartments. Would he now raise his eyes to her,
+though but for a brief space?
+
+He was already standing at the door of the sedan chair, and until now
+had kept his gaze bent steadily upon the ground. Meanwhile he must be
+experiencing severe pain; she saw it by the lines around the corners of
+his mouth. Now he placed his sound right foot upon the little step; now,
+before drawing the aching left one after it, he turned toward Quijada,
+whose hand was supporting him under the arm; and now--no, she was not
+mistaken--now he raised his eyes with the speed of lightning toward the
+ladies' apartments, and for one short second his glance met hers. Then
+his head vanished in the sedan chair.
+
+Nevertheless, he had looked toward her, and this was a great boon. With
+all her strength she made it her own, and soon she felt absolutely sure
+that when he knew she was so near him he had been unable to resist the
+desire to gaze once more into her face. Perhaps it was intended for a
+precious farewell gift.
+
+As soon as the sedan chair, amid cheers and the blare of trumpets,
+had disappeared in the direction of the drawbridge and the great main
+entrance, Barbara retired to her room. Frau Traut knew not whether she
+ought to bless or bewail having obtained permission for her to witness
+the bestowal of the Fleece.
+
+At any rate, another great transformation had taken place in this
+extremely impressionable young creature. Barbara's impetuous nature
+seemed destroyed and crushed, and the bright gaiety which had pleased
+Frau Dubois so much the first day of their meeting had greatly
+diminished. Only on special occasions her former fiery vivacity burst
+forth, but the sudden flame expired as quickly as it had blazed and,
+dreamily absorbed in her own thoughts, she obeyed her with the docility
+of a child.
+
+This swift and marked change in the disposition of her charge, whom
+Quijada and her own husband had described as so totally different,
+awakened her anxiety; yet it was easy to perceive that the volcano had
+not burned out, but was merely quiescent for the time.
+
+During the night the dull indifference which she showed in the day
+abandoned her, and her attentive companion often heard her sobbing
+aloud.
+
+It did not escape Frau Tract's notice that since Barbara had seen the
+Emperor again in the Trausnitz courtyard a mental conflict had begun
+which absorbed her whole being, but the girl did not permit her any
+insight into her deeply troubled soul.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+The Emperor Charles departed on the morning after the bestowal of the
+Golden Fleece, and two days later Barbara willingly obeyed the leech's
+prescription to seek healing at the springs of Abbach on the Danube,
+a few miles south of Ratisbon, which was almost in the way of those
+returning thither from Landshut. The waters there had benefited the
+Emperor Charles fourteen years before, and Barbara remained there with
+Frau Traut and Lamperi, who had returned to her, until the trees had put
+on their gay autumn robes and were casting them off to prepare for the
+rest of winter.
+
+The hope of regaining the melody of her voice induced her
+conscientiously to follow the physician's prescriptions but, like the
+sulphur spring of Abbach,[??] they produced no considerable effect.
+
+Barbara's conduct had also altered in many respects.
+
+The girl who had formerly devoted great attention to her dress, now
+often needed to be reminded by Frau Dubois of her personal appearance
+when she went with her to walk or to church.
+
+She avoided all intercourse with other visitors to the spring after
+Ratisbon acquaintances had intentionally shunned her.
+
+The Wollers' country residence, where she had formerly been a welcome
+guest for weeks every summer, was near Abbach. Anne Mirl was betrothed,
+and Nandl was on the eve of accepting a young suitor. Both were still
+warmly attached to their cousin, although they had been told that, by an
+open love intrigue, she had forfeited the right to visit the respectable
+home of modest maidens. But the man who had honoured her with his love
+was no less a personage than the Emperor Charles, and this circumstance
+only increased the sympathy which the sisters felt for their
+much-admired friend.
+
+In spite of their mother's refusal to permit them to ride to the
+neighbouring town and visit Barbara, they did so, that they might try
+to comfort her; but though their unfortunate cousin received them and
+listened to them a short time, she earnestly entreated them to obey
+their mother and not come again.
+
+Frau Traut perceived that she not only desired to guard the
+inexperienced girls from trouble, but that their visit disturbed her.
+The thoughts which were in her mind so completely absorbed her that she
+now studiously sought the solitude which she had formerly shunned like a
+misfortune.
+
+Even Pyramus Kogel's short letter, informing her of her father's
+convalescence, and the news from the seat of war which Frau Traut
+communicated to her to divert her thoughts, and which she had usually
+anticipated with impatient expectation, awakened only a fleeting
+interest. Toward the end of the first week in September her companion
+could inform her that the Emperor Charles had met the Smalcalds
+at Ingolstadt and, in spite of a severe attack of the gout, had
+ridden--with his aching foot in linen bandages instead of in the
+stirrup--from regiment to regiment, kindling the enthusiasm of his
+troops by fiery words.
+
+Then Barbara at last listened with more interest, and asked for other
+details.
+
+Frau Dubois, to whom her husband from time to time sent messengers from
+the camp, now said that the encounter had not come to an actual battle
+and a positive decision, but his Majesty had heeded the shower of
+bullets less than the patter of a hailstorm, and had quietly permitted
+Appian, the astronomer, to explain a chart of the heavens in his tent,
+though the enemy's artillery was tearing the earth around it.
+
+But even this could not reanimate the extinguished ardour of Barbara's
+soul; she had merely said calmly: "We know that he is a hero. I had
+expected him to disperse the heretics as the wolf scatters the sheep and
+destroy them at a single blow."
+
+Then taking her rosary and prayer book, she went to church, as she did
+daily at this time. She spent hours there, not only praying, but holding
+intercourse with the image of the Madonna, from which she dill not avert
+her eyes, as though it was a living being. The chaplain who had been
+given to her associated with this devout tendency of his penitent the
+hope that Barbara would decide to enter a convent; but she rebuffed in
+the firmest manner every attempt to induce her to form this resolve.
+
+In October the northeast wind brought cold weather, and Frau Traut
+feared that remaining for hours in the chilly brick church would injure
+her charge's health, so she entreated Barbara to desist. But when the
+latter, without heeding her warning, continued to visit the house of God
+as before, and to stay the same length of time, Frau Dubois interposed a
+firm prohibition, and on this occasion she learned for the first time
+to what boundlessly vehement rebellion her charge could allow passion to
+carry her. True, soon after Barbara, with winning tenderness, besought
+her forgiveness, and it was readily granted, but Frau Traut knew of no
+other expedient than to fix the first of November, which would come in a
+few days, for their return to Ratisbon.
+
+Barbara was startled.
+
+During the night her companion heard her weeping vehemently, and her
+kind heart led her to her bedside.
+
+With the affectionate warmth natural to her, she entreated the unhappy
+girl to calm herself, and to open her troubled heart to one who felt
+as kindly toward her as a mother; and before these friendly words the
+defiance, doubts, and fear which had closed Barbara's heart melted.
+
+"You may take it from me," she cried, amid her streaming tears.
+"What can a poor girl give it save want and shame? Its father, on the
+contrary--If he adopts and rears it as his child--O Frau Traut! dare I,
+who already love it more than my own life, rob it of the happiness to
+which it has a right? If the Emperor acknowledges it, whether it is a
+boy or a girl, merciful Heaven, to what Magnificence, what splendour,
+what honour my child may attain! My brain often reels when I think of
+it. The little daughter of Johanna Van der Gheynst a Duchess of Parma,
+and why should he place the girl whom I shall perhaps give him in a more
+humble position? Or if Heaven should grant me a son, his father will
+raise him to a still greater height, and I have already seen him before
+me a hundred times as he hangs the Fleece on the red ribbon round his
+neck."
+
+Here her voice, still uncertain, failed, but she allowed Frau Traut to
+clasp her to her heart and, in her joy at this decision, which relieved
+her of a grave anxiety, to kiss her brow and cheeks. She had at last
+perceived, the kindly consoler assured the weeping girl, what the most
+sacred duty commanded, and the course that promised to render her, after
+so much suffering, one of the happiest of mothers. All that had hovered
+before her as glittering dreams would be fulfilled, and when her child,
+as the Emperor's, took precedence of the highest and greatest in the
+land, she could say to herself that it owed this to the sacrifice which
+she, its mother, had voluntarily made for its sake.
+
+Barbara had told herself the same thing in many lonely hours, and most
+frequently in the brick church at Abbach, opposite to the image of
+the Mater dolorosa. She whose intercession never remained unheard had
+yielded up, with an aching heart, her divine son, and she must imitate
+her. And how much easier was her fate than that of the stainless virgin,
+who beheld her child, the Redeemer of the world, die upon the cross,
+while hers, if she resigned him, would attain the highest earthly
+happiness!
+
+Frau Traut by no means overlooked the vanity of these motives. She was
+only too well aware that there is no greater boon for a child than the
+mother's loyal, anxious love, and Barbara's delusion grieved her. She
+would gladly have cried: "Keep your child, overwhelm it with love, be
+good and unselfish, so that, in spite of your disgrace, it must honour
+you." But the Emperor's command and her husband's wish were paramount.
+Besides, as Barbara was situated, it could not help being better for the
+child if the father provided for its education.
+
+The soul of her charge now lay before her like an open book. The
+spectacle of the brilliant honour bestowed upon Duke Ottavio Farnese had
+sowed in her heart the seeds which had now ripened to resolution. She
+could not know that the vivandiere's assistant on the highway, with her
+abandoned child, had cast the first germ into Barbara's mind. Moreover,
+she was content to be able to send such welcome tidings to the camp.
+The disclosure of the resolve which she had reached after such severe
+conflicts exerted a beneficial influence upon Barbara. Her eyes again
+sparkled brightly, and the indifference with which she had regarded
+everything that happened to herself and those about her vanished.
+
+For the first time she asked where she was to find shelter in Ratisbon;
+the Emperor's command closed Wolf's house against her; the Prebrunn
+castle was only a summer residence, unfit for winter use. So it was
+necessary to seek new quarters, and Barbara did not lack proposals.
+But the answer from camp must be awaited, and it came sooner than Frau
+Dubois expected. The messenger who brought it was her husband. His
+Majesty, he said, rejoiced at Barbara's decision, and had commissioned
+him to take her at once to Ratisbon and lodge her in the Golden Cross.
+The imperial apartments were still at the monarch's disposal, and the
+owner of the house, whom Barbara did not wish to meet, had gone to Italy
+to spend the winter.
+
+Herr Adrian did not mention what a favour the sovereign was showing
+Barbara by parting with his trusted servant for several days, but she
+told herself so with joyful pride, for she had learned how greatly
+Charles needed this man.
+
+The Emperor had dismissed Quijada from attendance on his person. He
+knew the Castilian's value as a soldier, and would have deemed himself
+forgetful of duty had he withheld so able an assistant from the great
+cause which he was leading.
+
+At the end of the first week in November Barbara again entered the
+Golden Cross in Ratisbon. The great house seemed dead, but Adrian, in
+his royal master's name, provided for the comfort of the women, who had
+been joined by Sister Hyacinthe.
+
+In the name of Frau Dubois, to whom his Majesty gave it up, Adrian took
+possession of the Golden Cross, and as such Barbara was presented to the
+newly engaged servants, while his wife was known by them as a Frau Traut
+from the Netherlands.
+
+No inhabitant of Ratisbon was informed of the return of their young
+fellow-citizen, and Barbara only went out of doors with her companion
+early in the morning or in the twilight, and always closely veiled. But
+few persons had seen her after her illness, and on returning home she
+often mentioned the old acquaintances whom she had met without
+being recognised by them. The apartments she occupied were warm and
+comfortable. The harp and lute had been sent from Prebrunn with the rest
+of her property, and though she would not have ventured to sing even a
+single note, she resolved to touch their chords again. Playing on the
+harp afforded her special pleasure, and Frau Traut fancied she could
+understand her thoughts while doing so. The tones often sounded as
+gentle as lullabies, often as resonant and impetuous as battle songs.
+In reply to a question from her companion, Barbara confessed that while
+playing she sometimes imagined that she beheld a lovely girl, sometimes
+a young hero clad in glittering armour, with the Golden Fleece on his
+neck, rushing to battle against the infidels.
+
+When the women were sitting together in the evening, Barbara urged her
+companion, who was familiar with the court and with Charles's former
+life, to tell her about the Netherlands and Spain, Brussels and
+Valladolid, the wars, the monarch's wisdom, the journeys of Charles,
+his intercourse with men and women, his former love affairs, his married
+life, his relatives and children, and again and again of Johanna Van der
+Gheynst, the mother of the Duchess Margaret of Parma. In doing so the
+clever native of Cologne never failed to draw brilliant pictures of the
+splendour of the imperial court. As a matter of course, Brussels, the
+favourite residence of the Dubois couple, was most honoured in the
+narrative, and Barbara could never hear enough of this superb city.
+Maestro Gombert had already aroused her longing for it, and Frau Traut
+made her, as it were, at home there.
+
+So December and Christmas flew by. New Year's and Epiphany also passed,
+and when January was over and the month of February began, a guest
+arrived in Ratisbon from the household of the Emperor, who was now
+holding his court at Ulm. It was Dr. Mathys, the leech, who readily
+admitted that he had come partly by his Majesty's desire, partly from
+personal interest in Barbara's welfare.
+
+The physician found her in the same mood as after the relapse. Obedient,
+calm, yielding, only often overpowered by melancholy and bitter thoughts
+and feelings, yet, on the other hand, exalted by the fact that the
+Emperor Charles, for her sake, was now depriving himself also of this
+man, whom he so greatly needed.
+
+She awaited the fateful hour with anxious expectation. The twenty-fourth
+of February was the Emperor's birthday, and if it should come then, if
+the father and child should see the light of the world on the same day
+of the almanac, surely it must seem to Charles a favourable omen.
+
+And behold!
+
+On the day of St. Matthias--that is, the twenty-fourth of February,
+Charles's birthday-at noon, Frau Traut, radiant with joy, could despatch
+the waiting messenger to Ulm with the tidings that a son had just been
+born to his Majesty.
+
+The next morning the child was baptized John by the chaplain who
+accompanied the women, because this apostle had been nearest to the
+Saviour's heart.
+
+The young mother was not permitted to rejoice at the sight of her babe.
+Charles had given orders in advance what should be done hour by hour,
+and believed he was treating the mother kindly by refusing to allow her
+to enjoy the sight of the newborn child which could not remain with her.
+
+This caused much weeping and lamenting, and such passionate excitement
+that the bereaved mother nearly lost her life; but Dr. Mathys devoted
+the utmost care to her, and did not leave Ratisbon until after three
+weeks, when he could commit the nursing to the experienced Sister
+Hyacinths.
+
+But for the trouble in her throat, Barbara would have been physically as
+well as ever; her mental suffering was never greater.
+
+She felt robbed and desolate, like the bird whose nestlings are stolen
+by the marten; for all that might have made her ruined life precious had
+been taken, and the man to whom she had surrendered her dearest treasure
+did not even express, by one poor word, his gratitude and joy. No, he
+seemed to have forgotten her as well as her future.
+
+Frau Traut had left her with the promise that she would sometimes send
+her news of her boy's health, yet she, too, remained silent, and was
+deceiving her confidence. She could not know that the promise-breaker
+thought of her often enough, but that she had been most strictly
+forbidden by her imperial master to tell the boy's mother his abode or
+to hold any further intercourse with her.
+
+How little Charles must care for her, since he now showed such deep
+neglect and found no return for all that she had sacrificed to him save
+cruel sternness! Yet the precious gift for which he was indebted to her
+must have afforded special pleasure to the man who attached such great
+value to omens, for it gave him the right to cherish the most daring
+hopes for the future of his boy. The fact that he was born on his
+father's birthday seemed to her an especial favour of heaven, and the
+old chaplain, who still remained with her, had discovered other singular
+circumstances which foreshadowed that the son would become the father's
+peer; for on the twenty-fourth of February Charles V had been crowned,
+and on the same day he had won at Pavia his greatest victory.
+
+This had been the most brilliant day in the ruler's life, so rich in
+successes, and now it had also become the birthday of the boy whom she
+had given him and resigned that he might lead it to grandeur, splendour,
+and magnificence.
+
+Nothing was more improbable than that the man whose faithful memory
+retained everything, and whose active mind discovered what escaped the
+notice of others, should have overlooked this sign from heaven. And yet
+she vainly waited for a token of pleasure, gratitude, remembrance. How
+this pierced the soul and corroded the existence of the poor deserted
+girl, the bereaved mother, the unfortunate one torn from her own sphere
+in life!
+
+At last, toward the end of March, the message so ardently desired
+arrived. A special courier brought it, but how it was worded!
+
+A brief expression of his Majesty's gratification at the birth of the
+healthy, well-formed boy; then, in blunt words, the grant of a small
+annual income and an additional gift, with the remark that his Majesty
+was ready, to increase both generously, and, moreover, to give her
+ambition every support, if Barbara would enter a convent. If she should
+persist in remaining in the world, what was granted must be taken from
+her as soon as she broke her promise to keep secret what his Majesty
+desired to have concealed.
+
+The conclusion was: "And so his Majesty once more urges you to renounce
+the world, which has nothing more important to offer you than memories,
+which the convent is the best place to cherish. There you will regain
+the favour of Heaven, which it so visibly withdrew from you, and
+also the regard of his Majesty, which you forfeited, and he in his
+graciousness, and in consequence of many a memory which he, too, holds
+dear, would gladly show you again."
+
+This letter bore the signature of Don Luis Quijada, and had been written
+by a poor German copyist, a wretched, cross-eyed fellow, whom Wolf had
+pointed out to her, and whose hand Barbara knew. From his pen also came
+the sentence under the major-domo's name, "The Golden Cross must be
+vacated during the month of April."
+
+When Barbara had read these imperial decisions for the second and the
+third time, and fully realized the meaning of every word, she clinched
+her teeth and gazed steadily into vacancy for a while. Then she laughed
+in such a shrill, hoarse tone that she was startled at the sound of her
+own voice, and paced up and down the room with long strides.
+
+Should she reject what the most powerful and wealthy sovereign in the
+world offered with contemptible parsimony? No! It was not much, but it
+would suffice for her support, and the additional gift was large enough
+to afford her father a great pleasure when he came home.
+
+Pyramus Kogel's last letter reported that his condition was improving.
+Perhaps he might soon return. Then the money would enable her to weave
+a joy into the sorrow that awaited him. It had always been a humiliating
+thought that he had lost his own house and was obliged to live in a
+hired one, and at least she could free him from that.
+
+It was evident enough that her pitiful allowance did not proceed from
+the Emperor's avarice; Charles only wished to force her to obey his wish
+to shut her for the rest of her life in a cloister. The mother of his
+son must remain concealed from the world; he desired to spare him in
+after years the embarrassment of meeting the woman whose birth was so
+much more humble than his own and his father's. Want should drive her
+from the world, and, to hasten her flight, the shrewd adept in reading
+human nature showed her in the distance the abbess's cross, and tried
+thereby to arouse her ambition.
+
+But in her childhood and youth Barbara had been accustomed to still
+plainer living than she could grant herself in future, and she would
+have been miserable in the most magnificent palace if she had been
+compelled to relinquish her independence. Rather death in the Danube
+than to dispense with it!
+
+She was young, healthy, and vigorous, and it seemed like voluntary
+mutilation to resign her liberty at twenty-one. But even had she felt
+the need of the lonely cell, quiet contemplation, and more severe
+penance than had been imposed upon her in the confessional, she would
+still have remained in the world; for the more plainly the letter showed
+how eagerly Charles desired to force her out of it, the more firmly
+she resolved to remain in it. How many hopes this base epistle had
+destroyed; it seemed as though it had killed the last spark of love in
+her soul!
+
+Too much kindness leads to false paths scarcely more surely than the
+contrary, and the Emperor's cruel decision destroyed and hardened
+many of the best feelings in Barbara's heart, and prepared a place for
+resentment and hatred.
+
+The great sovereign's love, which had been the sunshine of her life, was
+lost; her child had been taken from her; even the home that sheltered
+her, and which hitherto she had regarded as a token of its father's
+kindly care, was now withdrawn. A new life path must be found, but
+she would not set out upon it from the Golden Cross, where her brief
+happiness had bloomed, but from the place where she had experienced the
+penury of her childhood and early youth.
+
+The very next afternoon she moved into Wolf's house. Sister Hyacinthe
+was obliged to return to her convent, so no one accompanied her except
+Frau Lamperi. She had become attached to Barbara, and therefore remained
+in her service instead of returning to the Queen of Hungary. True, she
+had not determined to do so until her mistress had promised to remain
+only a few weeks in Ratisbon at the utmost, and then move to Brussels,
+where she longed to be.
+
+Ratisbon was no home for the Emperor's former favourite. Life in her
+native city would have been one long chain of humiliations, now that she
+had nothing to offer her fellow-citizens except the satisfaction of a
+curiosity which was not always benevolent.
+
+But where should she go, if not to the country where her child's father
+lived, where, she had reason enough to believe, the infant would be
+concealed, and where she might hope to see again and again at a distance
+the man to whom hate united her no less firmly than love?
+
+This prospect offered her the greatest attraction, and yet she desired
+nothing, nothing more from him except to be permitted to watch his
+destiny. It promised to be no happy one, but this fact robbed the wish
+of no charm.
+
+Besides, the desire for a richer life again began to stir within her
+soul, and what sustenance for the eye and ear Gombert, Frau Traut, and
+now also Lamperi promised her in Brussels!
+
+Her means would enable her to go there with the maid and live in a quiet
+way. If her father forgave her and would join her in the city, she would
+rejoice. But he was bound to Ratisbon by so many ties, and had so many
+new tales to relate in its taprooms, that he would certainly return to
+it. So she must leave him; it was growing too hot for her here.
+
+She found old Ursel cheerful, and was less harshly received than at
+her last visit. True, Barbara came when she was in a particularly happy
+mood, because a letter from Wolf stated that he already felt perfectly
+at home in Quijada's castle at Villagarcia, and that Dona Magdalena
+de Ulloa was a lady of rare beauty and kindness of heart. Her musical
+talent was considerable, and she devoted every leisure hour to playing
+on stringed instruments and singing. True, there were not too many, for
+the childless woman had made herself the mother of the poor and sick
+upon her estates, and had even established a little school where he
+assisted her as singing-master.
+
+So Barbara was at least relieved from self-reproach for having brought
+misfortune upon this faithful friend. This somewhat soothed her sorely
+burdened heart, and yet in her old, more than plain lodgings, with their
+small, bare rooms, she often felt as though the walls were falling upon
+her. Besides, what she saw from the open window in Red Cock Street was
+disagreeable and annoying.
+
+When evening came she went to rest early, but troubled dreams disturbed
+her sleep.
+
+The dawn which waked her seemed like a deliverance, and directly after
+mass she hurried out of the gate and into the open country.
+
+On her return she found a letter from her father.
+
+Pyramus Kogel was its bearer, and he had left the message that he would
+return the next day. This time her father had written with his own hand.
+The letters were irregular and crooked enough, but they were large, and
+there were not too many of them. He now knew what people were saying
+about her. It had pierced the very depths of his old heart and darkened
+his life. But he could not curse her, because she was his only child,
+and also because he told himself how much easier her execrable vanity
+had made the Emperor Charles's game. Nor would he give her up as lost,
+and his travelling companion. Pyramus, who was like a son to him, was
+ready to aid him, for his love was so true and steadfast that he still
+wished to make her his wife, and offered through him to share everything
+with her, even his honourable name.
+
+If misfortune had made her modest, if it had crushed her wicked
+arrogance, and she was still his own dear child, who desired her
+father's blessing, she ought not to refuse the faithful fellow who would
+bring her this letter, but accept his proposal. On that, and upon that
+alone, his forgiveness would depend; it was for her to show how much or
+how little she valued it.
+
+Barbara deciphered this epistle with varying emotions.
+
+Was there no room for unselfish love in the breast of any man?
+
+Her father, even he, was seeking to profit by that which united him to
+his only child. To keep it, and to secure his blessing, she must give
+her hand to the unloved soldier who had shown him kindness and won his
+affection.
+
+She again glanced indignantly over the letter, and now read the
+postscript also. "Pyramus," it ran, "will remain only a short time in
+Germany, and go from there directly to Brussels, where he is on duty,
+and thence to me in Antwerp."
+
+Barbara started, her large eyes sparkled brightly, and a faint flush
+suddenly suffused her cheeks. The "plus ultra" was forever at an end for
+her. Her boy was living in Brussels near his father; there she belonged,
+and she suddenly saw herself brought so near this unknown, brilliant
+city that it seemed like her real home. Where else could she hope to
+rid herself of the nightmares that oppressed her except where she was
+permitted to see the man from whom nothing could separate her, no matter
+how cruelly he repulsed her?
+
+The only suitable place for her, he thought, was the cloister. No man,
+he believed in his boundless vanity, could satisfy the woman who had
+once received in his love.
+
+He should learn the contrary! He should hear--nay, perhaps he should
+see--that she was still desired, in spite of the theft which he had
+committed, in spite of the cruelty with which Fate had destroyed the
+best treasure that it had generously bestowed.
+
+The recruiting officer was certainly a handsome man and, moreover, of
+noble birth. Her father wished to have him for a son, and would forgive
+her if she gave him the hand for which he shed.
+
+So let him be the one who should take her to Brussels, and to whom she
+would give the right of calling himself her husband.
+
+Here her brow contracted in a frown, for the journey on which she was to
+set out with him would lead not only to the Netherlands, but through her
+whole life, perhaps to the grave.
+
+Deep resentment seized upon her, but she soon succeeded in conquering
+it; only the question what she had to give her suitor in return for his
+loyal love could not be silenced. Yet was it she who summoned him? Did
+he not possess the knowledge of everything that might have deterred
+another from wooing her? Had she not showed him more than plainly how
+ill he had succeeded in gaining her affection? If, nevertheless, he
+insisted upon winning her, he must take her as she was, though the
+handsome young man would have had a good right to a heart full of
+love. Hers, so long as the gouty traitor lived who had ruined her whole
+existence, could never belong entirely to another.
+
+Once she had preferred the handsome, stately dancer to all other men.
+Might not this admiration of his person be revived? No--oh, no! And it
+was fortunate that it was so, for she no longer desired to love--neither
+him nor any one else. On the other hand, she resolved to make his
+life as pleasant as lay in her power. When what she granted him had
+reconciled her father to her, and she was in Brussels, perhaps she
+would find strength to treat Pyramus so that he would never repent his
+fidelity.
+
+In the afternoon she longed to escape from the close rooms into the
+fresh air, and turned her steps toward Prebrunn, in order to see
+once more the little castle which to her was so rich in beautiful and
+terrible memories.
+
+On the way she met Frau Lerch. The old woman had kept her keenness
+of vision and, though Barbara tried to avoid her, the little ex-maid
+stopped her and asked scornfully:
+
+"Here in Ratisbon again, sweetheart? How fresh you look after your
+severe illness!--yet you're still on shank's mare, instead of in the
+gold coach drawn by white horses."
+
+Barbara abruptly turned her back upon her and went home.
+
+As she was passing the Town Hall Pyramus Kogel left it, and she stopped
+as he modestly greeted her.
+
+Very distinguished and manly he looked in his glittering armour,
+with the red and yellow sash and the rapier with its large, flashing
+basket-hilt at his side; yet she said to herself: "Poor, handsome
+fellow! How many would be proud to lean on your arm! Why do you care for
+one who can never love you, and to whom you will appear insignificant to
+the end?"
+
+Then she kindly clasped the hand which he extended, and permitted him to
+accompany her home. On the Haidplatz she asked him whether he had read
+the letter which he brought from her father.
+
+He hesitatingly assented. Barbara lowered her eyes, and added softly:
+
+"It is my own dear father to whom you have been kind, and my warmest
+gratitude is due to you for it."
+
+The young officer's heart throbbed faster; but as they turned into Red
+Cock Street she asked the question:
+
+"You are going from here to Brussels, are you not?"
+
+"To Brussels," he repeated, scarcely able to control his voice.
+
+She raised her large eyes to him, and, after a hard struggle, the words
+escaped her lips:
+
+"I learned in Landshut, and it was confirmed by my father's letter, that
+you are aware of what I am accused, and that you know--I committed the
+sin with which they charge me."
+
+In the very same place where, on an evening never to be forgotten, he
+had received the first sharp rebuff from Barbara, she now confessed her
+guilt to him--he doubtless noticed it. It must have seemed like a sign
+from heaven that it was here she voluntarily approached him, nay, as it
+were, offered herself to him. But he loved her, and he would have deemed
+it unchivalrous to let her feel now that their relation to one another
+had changed. So he only exclaimed with joyous confidence:
+
+"And yet, Barbara, I trustfully place happiness and honour in your
+beloved hands. You have long been clear to me, but now for the first
+time I believe confidently and firmly that I have found in you the
+very wife for me. The bitter trial imposed upon you--I knew it in
+Landshut--bowed your unduly obstinate nature, and if you only knew
+how well your modest manner becomes you! So I entreat permission to
+accompany you home."
+
+Barbara nodded assent, and when he had mounted the steep staircase of
+the house before her he stopped in front of the narrow door, and a proud
+sense of satisfaction came over him at the thought that the vow which he
+had made in this spot was now fulfilled.
+
+Her father had failed to bend this refractory, wonderfully beautiful
+iron; he had hoped to try with better fortune, but Fate had anticipated
+him, and he was grateful.
+
+Full of blossoming hopes, he now asked, with newly awakened confidence,
+whether she would permit him to cross her threshold as a suitor and
+become his dear and ardently worshipped wife, and the low "Yes" which he
+received in response made him happy.
+
+A few days after he married her, and journeyed with her on horseback to
+the Netherlands.
+
+On the way tidings of the battle of Muhlberg reached them. The Emperor
+Charles had utterly routed the Protestants. He himself announced his
+great victory in the words, "I came, I saw, and God conquered."
+
+When Pyramus told the news to his young wife, she answered quietly, "Who
+could resist the mighty monarch!"
+
+In Brussels she learned that the Emperor had taken the Elector of Saxony
+captive on the battlefield, but the Landgrave of Hesse had been betrayed
+into his power by a stratagem which the Protestants branded as base
+treachery, and used to fill all Germany with the bitterest hatred
+against him; but here Barbara's wrath flamed forth, and she upbraided
+the slanderous heretics. It angered her to have the great sovereign
+denied his due reverence in her own home; but secretly she believed in
+the breach of faith.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+Three years passed.
+
+Barbara occupied with her husband and the two sons she had given him a
+pretty little house in the modest quarter of Saint-Gery in Brussels.
+
+Here the capital of wealthy, flourishing Brabant certainly looked very
+unlike what she had expected from Gombert's stories; and how little
+share she had had hitherto in the splendour which on the drive to
+Landshut she had expected to find in Brussels!
+
+Since the musician had described the city, she had seen it distinctly
+before her in her vivid imagination. The lower portion, intersected by
+the river Senne and numerous canals, belonged to the rich, industrious
+citizens, the skilful artisans, and the common people; the upper, which
+occupied a hill, contained the great Brabant palace, the residence of
+the Emperor Charles. This edifice, which, though its exterior was almost
+wholly devoid of ornament, nevertheless presented a majestic aspect on
+account of its vast size, adjoined a splendid park, whose leafy groups
+of ancient trees merged into the forest of Soignies. Here also stood the
+palaces of the great nobles and, on the side of the hill which sloped to
+the lower city, the Cathedral of St. Gudule towered proudly aloft.
+
+Much as Barbara had heard in praise of the magnificent market-place in
+the lower city, with its marvellous Town Hall, it was always the upper
+portion of Brussels she beheld when she thought of the capital. She had
+felt that she belonged to this quarter, where all who had any claim to
+aristocracy lived; here, near the palace and the beautiful leafy trees,
+her future home had been in her imagination.
+
+The result was different, and now the longing for the brilliant Brussels
+on the hill was doubly strong. True, there dwelt also those who had the
+greatest power of attraction for her.
+
+She was just returning home from the palace park, where stood a pleasant
+summer house in which Adrian Dubois lived with his wife and one child.
+It was this child especially that drew Barbara to the upper city as
+often as possible, and constantly forced her thoughts to linger there
+and still to follow the "higher" of the imperial motto, which everywhere
+else she was compelled to renounce.
+
+True, a limit was fixed to these visits to the Dubois couple. For one
+whole year Frau Traut had successfully concealed the child from the
+mother; then Barbara had once met the boy outside the house, and the way
+in which he was hurried out of her sight led to the conviction that this
+was her child, and Frau Dubois had imprudently betrayed the secret.
+
+From this time Barbara knew that her John had been confided to the care
+of the valet and his wife. At last Frau Traut had been unable to resist
+her entreaties, and allowed her to see her son and hold him a short time
+in her arms.
+
+He was a strong, splendid child, with his mother's thick, curling locks
+and large blue eyes. Barbara thought that she had never seen a handsomer
+boy; and not only the Dubois, who had yielded their whole hearts to
+their nursling, but strangers also admired the magnificent development
+of this rare child. The young mother saw in him something grander, more
+perfect than the children of other human beings, even than the two boys
+whom she had given her husband, although little John usually repulsed
+her caresses.
+
+In granting Barbara permission to see her child often, Frau Traut
+transgressed an explicit command of the Emperor and, to prevent the evil
+consequences which her sympathy might entail, she allowed the mother
+to rejoice in the sight of her little son only once a month, and then
+always for a short time.
+
+During these interviews she was strictly forbidden to bestow even the
+smallest gift upon the boy.
+
+To-day John had voluntarily approached the stranger to whom he owed
+his life, but whose passionate caresses at their first meeting had
+frightened him, to show her the little wooden horse that Adrian had just
+given him. This had made her happy, and on the way home the memory of
+her hidden treasure more than once brought a joyous smile to her lips.
+
+At home she first sought her children. Her husband, who had now been
+appointed mustering officer, was on one of the journeys required by the
+service, which rarely permitted him to remain long in his own house.
+
+Barbara did not miss him; nay, she was happiest during his absence.
+
+After glancing into the nursery, she retired to her quiet chamber, where
+her harp stood and the lutes hung which often for hours supplied the
+place of her lost voice, and sat down at her spinning wheel.
+
+She turned it thoughtfully, but the thread broke, and her hands fell
+into her lap. Her mind had again found the way to the house in the park
+and to her John, her own, wonderful, imperial child, and lingered there
+until from the next room the cry of an infant was heard and a woman's
+voice singing it to sleep. Frau Lamperi, who had made herself a part of
+the little household, and beheld in its master the incarnation of every
+manly virtue, was lulling the baby to rest. Beside it slept another
+child, a boy two years old. Both were hers, yet, though the infant
+raised its voice still louder, she remained at the spinning wheel,
+dreaming on.
+
+In this way, and while playing on the harp and the lutes, her solitude
+was best endured. Her husband's journeys often led him through the whole
+Netherlands and the valley of the Rhine as far as Strasbourg and Basle,
+and her father had returned to Ratisbon.
+
+She had found no new friends in Brussels, and had not endeavoured to
+gain any.
+
+Loneliness, which she had dreaded in the heyday of her early youth, no
+longer alarmed her, for quiet reveries and dreams led her back to the
+time when life had been beautiful, when she had enjoyed the love of
+the greatest of mortals, and art had given her existence an exquisite
+consecration.
+
+With the loss of her voice--she was now aware of it--many of the best
+things in her life had also ceased to exist. Her singing might perhaps
+have lured back her inconstant lover, and had she come to Brussels
+possessing the mastery of her voice which was hers during that happy
+time in May, her life would have assumed a totally different form.
+
+Gombert, who had induced her to move hither, had urged her with the best
+intentions during their drive to Landshut to change her residence. When
+he did so, however, Barbara was still connected with the Emperor, and
+he was animated by the hope that the trouble in her throat would be
+temporary.
+
+It would have been easy to throw wide to a singer of her ability the
+doors of the aristocratic houses which were open to him; for, except his
+professional comrades, he associated only with the wealthy nobles in the
+upper part of the city, who needed him for the brilliant entertainments
+which they understood how to arrange so superbly. The Oranges, Egmont,
+Aremberg, Brederode, Aerschot, and other heads of the highest nobility
+in Brabant would have vied with one another to present her to their
+guests, receive her at their country seats, and invite her to join
+their riding parties. Where, on the contrary, could he expect to find a
+friendly reception for the wife of a poor officer belonging to the lower
+nobility, who was said to have forfeited the Emperor's favour, who
+could offer nothing to the ear, and to the eye only a peculiar style of
+beauty, which she could enhance neither by magnificent attire nor by any
+other arts?
+
+Had she been still the Emperor Charles's favourite, or had he bestowed
+titles and wealth upon her, more might have been done for her; but as
+it was, nothing was left of the favour bestowed by the monarch save
+the stain upon her fair name. Deeply as Gombert regretted it, he could
+therefore do nothing to make her residence in Brussels more agreeable.
+He was not even permitted to open his own house to her, since his wife,
+who was neither more jealous nor more scrupulous than most other wives
+of artists, positively refused to receive the voiceless singer with the
+tarnished reputation.
+
+Worthy Appenzelder associated exclusively with men, and thus of her
+Ratisbon friends not one remained except Massi, the violinist, and the
+Maltese choir boy, Hannibal Melas.
+
+The little fellow had lost his voice, but had remained in Brussels
+and, in fact, through Barbara's intercession; for she had ventured to
+recommend the clever, industrious lad to the Bishop of Arras in a letter
+which reminded him of his kindness in former days, and the latter had
+been gracious, and in a cordial reply thanked her for her friendly
+remembrance. Hannibal had remained in the minister's service and, as he
+understood several languages and proved trustworthy, was received among
+his private secretaries.
+
+The violinist Massi remained faithful and, as he became her husband's
+friend also, he was always a welcome guest in her house.
+
+Her father had returned to Ratisbon. After he had acted as godfather to
+the oldest boy, Conrad, he could be detained no longer. Homesickness had
+obtained too powerful a hold upon him.
+
+True, Barbara and her husband did everything in their power to make life
+in their home pleasant; but he needed the tavern, and there either the
+carousing was so noisy that it became too much for him, or people often
+had very violent political discussions about liberty and faith, which
+he only half understood, though they used the Flemish tongue. And the
+Danube, the native air, the familiar faces! In short, he could not stay
+with his children, though he dearly loved his little godson Conrad; and
+it pleased him to see his daughter more yielding and ready to render
+service than ever before, and to watch her husband, who, as the saying
+went at home, "was ready to let her walk over him."
+
+The husband's intention of making the unbending iron pliant was wholly
+changed; the recruiting officer whom his companions and subordinates
+knew and feared as one of the sternest of their number, showed himself
+to Barbara the most yielding of men. The passionate tenderness with
+which he loved her had only increased with time, and the stern soldier's
+subjection to her will went so far that, even when he would gladly have
+expressed disapproval, he usually omitted to do so, because he dreaded
+to lessen the favour which she showed him in place of genuine love, and
+which he needed. Besides, she gave him little cause for displeasure; she
+did her duty, and strove to render his outward life a pleasant one.
+
+Even after her father had left her she remained a wife who satisfied his
+heart. He had learned the coolness of her nature in his first attempts
+to woo her in Ratisbon and, as at that time, he whom the service
+frequently detained from her for long periods regarded it as a merit.
+
+So he wrote her father letters expressing his gratification, and the
+replies which the captain sent to Brussels were in a similar tone.
+
+Barbara had obtained for him his own house, for which he had longed. He
+felt comfortable there, and what he lacked in his home he found at the
+Red Cock or the Black Bear. An elderly Landshut widow, a relative, acted
+as his housekeeper and provided in the best possible manner for his
+comfort.
+
+Whoever met the stately mustering officer alone or arm in arm with his
+beautiful young wife, whose golden hair had grown out again, must
+have believed him a happy man; and so he would have been had not some
+singular habits which Barbara possessed made him uneasy. At first the
+reveries into which she often sank, and which were so unlike her former
+self, had been still worse. He did not know that the improvement had
+taken place since she had discovered her John's abode and been permitted
+sometimes to see him. Barbara's husband and father supposed that the
+child which she had given to the Emperor was dead; both had placed this
+interpretation upon her brief statement that it had been taken from her,
+and afterward delicacy of feeling prevented any other allusion to this
+painful subject.
+
+Besides this proneness to reverie, Barbara's husband was sometimes
+disturbed by the carelessness with which she neglected the most
+important domestic matters if there was an entertainment or exhibition
+which the Emperor Charles attended; and, finally, there was something in
+her manner to the children, whom Pyramus loved above all things, which
+disturbed, incensed, and wounded him, yet which he felt that neither
+threats nor stern interposition could change.
+
+He possessed no defence against the reveries except a warning or a
+jesting word. Delight in brilliant spectacles was doubtless natural to
+her disposition, and as Pyramus not only loved but esteemed her, it was
+repugnant to his feelings to watch her. Yet when, nevertheless, he
+once followed her steps, he had found her, according to her expressed
+intention, among other women in St. Gudule's Cathedral. Her eyes, which
+he watched intently, were constantly turned toward the great personages
+whose presence adorned the festival--the Emperor and Queen Mary of
+Hungary.
+
+These expeditions were evidently not to meet a lover, yet from that hour
+he cherished a conviction, mingled with a bitter sense of resentment,
+that she went to the festivals which his Majesty attended in order to
+see the man whom she had once loved, and whose image even now she could
+not wholly efface from her imagination, perhaps also from her heart.
+
+For her manner to the children, on the contrary, he could find no
+plausible explanation. Her love for them was unmistakable. Yet what was
+the meaning of the compassionate manner with which she treated them,
+talked to them, spoke of them, until it nearly drove him frantic? She
+often treated the healthy, merry older boy as if he was ill and needed
+comfort, and the pretty infant in the cradle was addressed in the same
+way.
+
+If he summoned up his courage and openly reproved her, she always
+answered in general terms, such as: "What do you mean? Are we not all
+born to suffer?" or, "Shall we envy them because they have entered life
+to endure pain and to die?"
+
+Not until Pyramus, with sorrowful emotion, entreated her not to speak of
+the children as if they had been given to them for a punishment and not
+for a joy, she imposed a certain degree of constraint upon herself and
+changed her manner of speech; yet the expression of her eyes revealed
+that she felt no really glad, unconstrained joy in her sons.
+
+Though she denied it, she knew how to explain this manner to herself;
+for, after her attention had been directed to it, she secretly admitted
+that the sight of the two dear children who were wholly hers always
+reminded her of the third who had been taken from her, whom she was
+permitted to see very rarely, and only in secret, yet who, beside the
+others, seemed like a young lion beside modest lambs.
+
+She cherished no desire for a new love, though the lukewarm blending of
+gratitude and good will which she bestowed upon her husband did not even
+remotely deserve this lofty name.
+
+There was no lack of gallants in Brussels who noticed and were
+attracted by her, but whoever knew or had heard of Pyramus Kogel
+avoided interfering with his rights; for he was numbered among the best
+swordsmen in Brussels, and the air with which the tender-hearted husband
+wore his long rapier was decidedly threatening.
+
+Besides, Barbara herself also knew how to protect herself against any
+intrusiveness with haughty sharpness.
+
+To-day she was especially glad that Pyramus was absent on an inspecting
+tour. She had gratefully enjoyed the meeting with her John. Never had
+the light of his blue eyes seemed so sunny, his head with its fair curls
+so angelic in its beauty. His voice, too, had enraptured her by its
+really bewitching melody. The maternal gift of song would certainly
+descend to him, and perhaps it was allotted to the Emperor's son to
+amaze his generation by the presence of hero and singer in one person,
+like a second King David.
+
+Twilight had already shadowed the paths when she left the Dubois house,
+and on her way home she saw the Emperor approaching. She had slipped
+behind a statue as quickly as possible, and he could scarcely have
+recognised her, for the gloaming had already merged into partial
+darkness; but the mere thought of having been so near him quickened the
+pulsation of her heart.
+
+The little gentleman at his side with the stiffly erect bearing and
+pompous walk was his son Philip, who was now visiting his father in
+Brussels, and expected to leave in a few days. How insignificant was the
+figure of the heir of so many crowns! How the brother whom she had given
+to his imperial father would some day tower above him!
+
+She again imagined all these things in the quiet of her room. The
+thought of this child cheered her heart, but it contracted again as she
+remembered the series of bitter humiliations which she had experienced
+in Brussels. Among the courtiers whom she had known so well in Ratisbon
+not one vouchsafed her anything more than a passing greeting; and the
+Queen of Hungary, to whom she would gladly have poured out her heart,
+had refused her repeated entreaties for an audience.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+After the short walk in the park of his palace, during which Barbara had
+met him in the dusk, the Emperor Charles had dined with his son Philip
+and the Queen of Hungary. Now he entered his spacious study.
+
+His feet were refusing their support more and more, and the fingers of
+his right hand, which the gout was now crippling, found it hard to grasp
+his cane.
+
+He sank back in his arm-chair exhausted, closed his eyes, and laid his
+hand upon the clever pointed head of the greyhound which lay at his
+feet.
+
+The short walk and the fiery wine which he had again enjoyed in
+abundance at dinner had increased the pain from which he was now never
+free, day or night, and it was some time ere Adrian could succeed in
+propping his infirm body comfortably.
+
+At last Charles passed his handkerchief across his perspiring brow, and
+called to the majordomo.
+
+Quijada eagerly approached, and the valet was respectfully leaving the
+room, but the Emperor's summons stopped him.
+
+"I have something," Charles began, no longer able to maintain complete
+control over his voice, which was sometimes interrupted by the shortness
+of breath that had recently attacked him, "to say to you also--"
+
+Here he hesitated, pointed to the window which overlooked the park,
+then, with a keen glance at the valet's face, continued:
+
+"A ghost wanders about there. I have already seen it several times under
+the trees. True, it avoided approaching me. What still remains useful
+in this miserable body! But my eyes are sharp yet, and I recognised the
+spectre--it is the Ratisbon singer."
+
+"Your Majesty knows," replied Quijada, "what befell her after the birth
+of the child, and that she is now living here in Brussels; but I was
+strictly forbidden to mention her name in your Majesty's presence."
+
+"That command closed my lips also," said the valet.
+
+"But what the hearing rejected forced itself upon the sight," remarked
+Charles, gazing fixedly into vacancy. "Wherever I appear in public I see
+this woman, always this woman! It is not only the basilisk's eye that
+has constraining power. I can not help perceiving her, yet I have as
+little desire to meet her gaze as to encounter vanity, worldly pleasure,
+folly, sin."
+
+"Then," cried Quijada angrily, "it will be advisable to transfer her
+husband, who is in your Majesty's service, from here to Andalusia or to
+the New World."
+
+"As if she would accompany him!" exclaimed the monarch with a scornful
+laugh. "No, my friend. This woman did not marry for her own pleasure,
+but to cause me sorrow or indignation. She succeeded, too, to a certain
+extent; but I do not war with women, least of all with one who is
+so unhappy. If we send her husband--who, moreover, is a useful
+fellow--across the ocean, she will stay here in Brussels, and we shall
+fare like the maid-servants who killed the cocks, and were then waked
+by the mistress of the house still earlier than before. Besides, one who
+earnestly seeks his true salvation will not remove from his path such
+a living memento, such a walking monitor of past sins and follies; and,
+finally, this woman is not wholly wrong in deeming herself an
+unusual person, cruelly as Heaven has destroyed her best gift. On no
+account--you hear me--shall she be wounded or injured for my sake so
+long as she reminds me only by her eyes that in happier days we were
+closely connected. But to-day the ghost ventured to draw nearer to me
+than is seemly, and I recognise the object. It entered the park, not on
+my account, but the boy's--and, Adrian, from your house. I demand the
+whole truth! Did she find the way to the boy, and was your wife, who is
+usually a prudent woman, unwise enough to allow her to feast her eyes
+upon him?"
+
+"She is the child's mother," the valet answered gently, "and your
+Majesty knows--"
+
+"I know," Charles interrupted the faithful attendant in a sterner tone
+than he commonly used to him, "that you were most positively forbidden
+to permit any one to approach the boy, least of all the person who gazes
+at him with greedy eyes, and from whom might proceed measureless perils.
+Your wife, Adrian, who is tenderly attached to the child, will now
+suffer the most painfully for the disobedience. It must go away from
+here, go at once, and to a distant country--to Spain. If politics and
+Heaven permit, I shall soon follow.--You, Luis, will now arrange with
+Adrian the best plan for the removal. The work must be accomplished in
+the utmost secrecy. The boy shall grow up in the wholesome air of the
+country. No one who surrounds him must be permitted even to suspect to
+whom he owes his life. This child shall be simple in his habits, devout,
+and modest, far from flattery and spoiling, among other lads of plain
+families, who know nothing of heresy and court follies. This innocent
+child's soul, at least, shall not be corrupted at its root. I
+consecrated him to the Saviour, and as a pure sacrifice he must receive
+him from his father's hand. I have given him a beautiful charge. In the
+monastery his prayers will remove the guilt of him who gave him life.
+The pardon for which the mother refused to strive, the son, consecrated
+to Jesus Christ our Lord, will struggle to obtain."
+
+With uplifted gaze he interrupted himself. His eyes flashed with a fiery
+light, and his voice gained an imperious tone, which showed no trace of
+the asthmatic trouble that had just affected it as he added: "But the
+secret which even the reckless mother has hitherto known how to guard
+must be kept. Not even your wife, Luis, not even our sister, Queen Mary,
+must learn what is being accomplished."
+
+Then he added more quietly: "The opportunity to take the boy to Spain
+is favourable. Our son, Don Philip, will return in three weeks to
+Valladolid. The child can be carried in his train. It will disappear
+among the throng, for an actual army forms the tail of the comet. I will
+hear your proposal to-morrow. Who is to take charge of him on the way?
+Where can a suitable shelter for the boy be found in Spain?"
+
+This announcement fell upon the valet like a thunderbolt, for little
+John, who regarded him and his wife as his parents, had become as
+dear to the childless couple as if he was their own. To part from the
+beautiful, frank, merry boy would darken Frau Traut's whole life. He,
+Adrian, had warned her, but she had been unable to resist the entreaties
+of the sorely punished mother. Cautiously as Barbara's visits had been
+managed, the infirm monarch's eye had maintained its keenness of vision
+here also.
+
+Now his wife must pay dearly for her weakness and disobedience. Frau
+Traut was threatened, too, with another loss. Massi, the most intimate
+friend of their house, also expected to return to Spain in the Infant
+Philip's train, to spend the remainder of his days there in peace.
+Permission to depart had been granted to him a few hours before.
+
+Little John was fond of this frequent visitor of his foster-parents, who
+could whistle so beautifully and knew how to play for him upon a blade
+of grass or a comb; but this was not the only reason which made Adrian
+think of giving the Emperor's son to the musician's care for the journey
+to Spain, where Massi's wife and daughter were awaiting his return at
+Leganes, near Madrid. In this healthfully located village lived a pastor
+and a sacristan of whom the musician had spoken, and who perhaps later
+might take charge of the child's education.
+
+Adrian informed Don Luis and then the monarch of all this, and as
+Quijada knew Massi to be a trustworthy man, and described him to his
+royal master, Charles entered into negotiations with him.
+
+The result was that a formal compact was concluded between Dubois and
+the musician, which granted the violinist considerable emoluments, but
+bound him and his family by oath to maintain the most absolute secrecy
+concerning the child's origin. Moreover, Massi himself knew nothing
+about the boy's parents except that they belonged to the most
+aristocratic circles, and he was inclined to believe little John to be
+Quijada's son.
+
+The sovereign himself examined the agreement, and at its close made Frau
+Traut take a special oath to preserve the most absolute secrecy about
+everything concerning the boy to every one, even Barbara.
+
+What Adrian had expected happened. The Emperor's command to take her
+darling from her affected his wife most painfully. With eyes reddened by
+weeping, and an aching heart, she awaited the day of departure.
+
+On the evening before the journey she was sitting by the child's couch
+to enjoy the sight of him as much as possible. Wholly absorbed in gazing
+at his infantile grace and patrician beauty, she did not hear the door
+open, and started in terror at the sound of footsteps close behind her.
+
+Her husband had ushered the Emperor and Quijada, on whose arm he
+was leaning, into the nursery without announcing his entrance. She
+involuntarily pressed her finger on her lips to intimate that the child
+must not be roused from its slumber; but the gesture was instantly
+followed by the profound bow due to the sovereign, and then, with tears
+in her eyes, she held the light so that it might fall upon the face of
+the lovely child.
+
+A flush tinged the livid features of the invalid, prematurely aged
+monarch, and at a wave of his hand the foster-mother left him and his
+companion alone with the little one. Charles gazed suspiciously around
+the small, neat room.
+
+Not until he had assured himself that he was alone did he look closely
+at the son who lay with flushed cheeks on the white pillows of his
+little bed in the sound slumber of childhood.
+
+Rarely had he seen a more beautiful boy. How finely chiselled were these
+childish features, how thick and wavy the curls that clustered around
+his head! The golden lustre which shone from them had also brightened
+his mother's hair. And the smile on the cherry lips of the slightly open
+mouth. That, too, was familiar to him. The child had inherited it from
+Barbara. Memories which had long since paled in his soul, oppressed by
+suffering and disappointment, regained their vanished forms and colours,
+and for the first time in many months a smile hovered upon his lips.
+
+What an exquisite image of the Creator was this child! and he might call
+it his own, and if, as he intended, it grew up an innocent, happy
+lad, it would also become a genuine man, with a warm heart and simple,
+upright nature, not a moving marble figure, inflated by pompous
+self-conceit, incapable of any deep feeling, any untrammelled emotion,
+like his son Philip. Then it might happen that from love, from a real
+living impulse of the heart, he would fall upon his neck; then----
+
+He stretched both hands towards the little bed and, obeying a mighty
+impulse of paternal affection, bent toward the boy to kiss him. But ere
+his lips touched the child's he again gazed around him like a thief who
+is afraid of being caught. At last he yielded to the longing which urged
+him, and kissed little John--his, yes, his own son--first on his high,
+open brow, and then on his red lips.
+
+How sweet it was! Yet while he confessed this a painful emotion blended
+with the pleasure.
+
+He had again thought of Barbara, of her first kiss and the other joys
+of the fairest May-time of his life, and the anxious fear stole upon him
+that he might give sin a power over his soul which, after undergoing a
+heavy penance, he thought he had broken.
+
+Nothing, nothing at all, he now said to himself, ought to bind him to
+the woman whom he had effaced from the book of his life as unworthy,
+rebellious, lost to salvation; and, in a totally different mood, he
+again gazed at the child. It already wore the semblance of an angel in
+the gracious Virgin's train, and it should be dedicated to her and her
+divine Son.
+
+Then the boy drew his little arm from under his head.
+
+How strong he was! how superbly the chest of this child not yet four
+years old already arched! This bud, when it had bloomed to manhood,
+might prove itself, as he himself had done in his youth, the stronger
+among the strong. He carefully examined the harmoniously developed
+little muscles. What a knight this child promised to become! Surely
+it was hardly created for quiet prayer and the inactive peace of the
+cloister! He was still free to dispose of the boy. If he should intrust
+his physical development to the reliable Quijada, skilled in every
+knightly art, and to Count Lanoi, famed as a rider and judge of horses;
+confide the training of his mind and soul to the Bishop of Arras, the
+learned Frieslander Viglius, or any other clever, strictly religious
+man, he might become a second Roland and Bayard--nay, if a crown fell to
+his lot, he might rival his great-grandfather, the Emperor Max, and--in
+many a line he, too, had done things worthy of imitation--him, his
+father. The possession of this child would fill his darkened life with
+sunshine, his heart, paralyzed by grief and disappointment, with fresh
+pleasure in existence throughout the brief remainder of his earthly
+pilgrimage. If he, the father, acknowledged him and aided him to become
+a happy, perhaps a great man, this lovely creature might some day be a
+brilliant star in the firmament of his age.
+
+Here he paused. The question, "For how long?" forced itself upon him.
+He, too, during the short span of youth had been a hero and a victorious
+knight. With secure confidence he had undertaken to establish for
+himself and his family a sovereignty of the world which should include
+the state and the Church. "More, farther," had been his motto, and to
+what stupendous successes it had led him! Three years before he had
+routed at Muhlberg his most powerful rivals. As prisoners they still
+felt his avenging hand.
+
+And now? At this hour?
+
+The hope of the sovereignty of the world lay shattered at his feet. The
+wish to obtain the German imperial crown for his heir and successor,
+Philip, had proved unattainable. It was destined for his brother,
+Ferdinand of Austria, and afterward for the latter's son, Maximilian.
+To lead the defeated German Protestants back to the bosom of the Holy
+Church appeared more and more untenable. Here in the Netherlands the
+heretics, in consequence of the Draconian severity of the regulations
+which he himself had issued, had been hung and burned by hundreds, and
+hitherto he had gained nothing but the hatred of the nation which he
+preferred to all others. His bodily health was destroyed, his mind had
+lost its buoyancy, and he was now fifty years old. What lay before him
+was a brief pilgrimage--perchance numbering only a few years--here on
+earth, and the limitless eternity which would never end. How small
+and trivial was the former in comparison with the latter, which had
+no termination! And would he desire to rear for the space of time that
+separates the grave from the cradle the child for whom he desired
+the best blessings, instead of securing for him salvation for the
+never-ceasing period of eternal life?
+
+No! This beauty, this strength, should be consecrated to no vain secular
+struggle, but to Heaven. The boy when he matured to a correct judgment
+would thank him for this decision, which was really no easy one for his
+worldly vanity.
+
+Then he reverted to the wish with which he had approached the child's
+couch. The son, from gratitude, should take upon himself for his father
+and, if he desired, also for his refractory mother, what both had
+neglected--the care for their eternal welfare--in prayer and penance.
+
+By consecrating him to Heaven and rearing him for a peaceful existence
+in God, far from the vain pleasures of the world and the court he had
+done his best for his son and, as if he feared that the sight of his
+beautiful, strong boy might shake his resolution, he turned away from
+him and called Quijada.
+
+While Charles in a fervent, silent prayer commended John to the favour
+of Heaven, the most faithful of his attendants was gazing at the
+sovereign's son. Hitherto Heaven had denied him the joy of possessing a
+child. How he would have clasped this lovely creature to his heart if it
+had been his! What a pleasure it would have been to transmit everything
+that was excellent and clever in himself to this child! To devote it to
+a monastic life was acting against the purpose of the Providence that
+had dowered it with such strength and beauty.
+
+The Emperor could not, ought not to persist in this intention.
+
+While he was supporting his royal master through the dark park he
+ventured to repeat what Adrian and his wife had told him of the strength
+and fearlessness of the little John, and then to remark what rare
+greatness this boy promised to attain as the son of such a father.
+
+"The highest of all!" replied Charles firmly. "He only is truly great
+who in his soul feels his own insignificance and deems trivial all the
+splendour and the highest honours which life can offer; and to this
+genuine greatness, Luis, I intend to rear this young human plant whose
+existence is due to weakness and sin."
+
+Quijada again summoned up his courage, and observed:
+
+"Yet, as the son of my august ruler, this child may make claims which
+are of this world."
+
+"What claims?" cried the Emperor suspiciously. "His birth?--the law
+gives him none. What earthly possessions may perhaps come to him he will
+owe solely to my favour, and it would choose for him the only right way.
+Claims--mark this well, my friend--claims to the many things which
+will remain of my greatness and power when I have closed my pilgrimage
+beneath the sun, can be made by one person only--Don Philip, my oldest
+son and lawful heir."
+
+Not until after he had rested in his study did Charles resume the
+interrupted conversation, and say:
+
+"It may be that this boy will grow up into a more brilliant personality
+than my son Philip; but you Castilians and faithful servants of the Holy
+Church ought to rejoice that Heaven has chosen my lawful son for
+your king, for he is a thorough Spaniard, and, moreover, cautious,
+deliberate, industrious, devout, and loyal to duty. True, he knows not
+how to win love easily, but he possesses other means of maintaining what
+is his and still awaits him in the future. My pious son will not let
+the gallows become empty in this land of heretical exaltation. Had the
+Germans put him in my place, he would have become a gravedigger in their
+evangelical countries. He never gave me what is called filial affection,
+not even just now in the parting hour; yet he is an obedient son who
+understands his father. Instead of a heart, I have found in him other
+qualities which will render him capable of keeping his heritage in these
+troubled times and preserving the Holy Church from further injury. If I
+were weaker than I am, and should rear yonder splendid boy, who charmed
+you also, Luis, under my own eyes with paternal affection, many an
+unexpected joy might grow for me; but I still have an immense amount of
+work to do, and therefore lack time to toy with a child. It is my duty
+to replace this boy's claims, which I can not recognise, with higher
+ones, and I will fulfill it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+During this conversation the violinist Massi had been to take leave of
+Barbara. Pyramus, after a short stay at home, had been obliged to depart
+again to an inspection in Lowen, and the musician was sorry not to find
+his friend. He did not know to whom the child that had been intrusted
+to his care belonged, and, as he had bound himself by a solemn oath to
+maintain secrecy toward every one, he did not utter a word to Barbara
+about the boy and the obligations which he had undertaken.
+
+The parting was a sad one to the young wife, for in Massi she lost not
+only a tried friend, but as it were a portion of her former life. He had
+been a witness of the fairest days which Fate had granted her; he had
+heard her sing when she had been justified in feeling proud of her art;
+and he had been intimate with Wolf Hartschwert, whom she remembered with
+affectionate interest, though he had only informed her once in a brief
+letter that he was prospering in Villagarcia and his new position. While
+with tearful eyes she bade Massi farewell, she gave him messages of
+remembrance to Wolf; and the violinist, no less agitated than herself,
+promised to deliver them. He was hopefully anticipating a cheerful
+evening of life in the midst of his family. Existence had promised
+Barbara higher things, but she seemed to have found the power to be
+content. At least he had heard no complaint from her lips, and her
+husband had often told him of the happiness which he had obtained
+through her in marriage. So he could leave her without anxiety; but she,
+even in the hour of parting, was too proud to offer him a glimpse of her
+desolate life, whose fairest ornaments were memories.
+
+When he left her the young wife felt still poorer than before, and
+during the sleepless night which in imagination she had spent with her
+imperial child in the Dubois house, and in the days of splendour and
+misery at Ratisbon, she determined to clasp once more the hand of her
+departing friend when he set out with the Infant Philip's train.
+
+Although it was to start early in the morning, she was in the square in
+ample time, partly because she hoped to see the Emperor in the distance.
+
+The throng that followed Philip really did resemble an army.
+
+Barbara had already often seen the short, slender 'Infant', with his
+well-formed, fair head and light, pointed beard, who held himself so
+stiffly erect, and carried his head as high as if he considered no one
+over whom his glance wandered worthy of so great an honour.
+
+It seemed strange to her, too, how well this man, naturally so
+insignificant in person, succeeded in giving his small figure the
+appearance of majestic dignity. But how totally unlike him his father
+must have looked in his youth! There was something austere, repellent,
+chilling, in the gaze which, while talking with others, he usually
+fixed upon the ground, and, in fact, in the whole aspect of the son. How
+brightly and frankly, on the contrary, his father's eyes, in spite of
+all his suffering, could sparkle even now! How easy it would be for him
+to win hearts still!
+
+If he would only come!
+
+But this time he did not accompany his son. Philip was on horseback, but
+a magnificent empty coach in the procession would receive him as soon as
+he left Brussels.
+
+He wished to present a gallant appearance in the saddle on his
+departure, and a more daintily, carefully clad cavalier could scarcely
+be imagined.
+
+His garments fitted like a glove, and were of faultless fineness. Queen
+Mary, the regent, rode at his side, and the Brabant nobles, the heads of
+the Brussels citizens, and his Spanish courtiers formed his retinue. The
+leaders of the Netherland nobility were figures very unlike in stature
+and size to Philip; but he could vie in haughty majesty with any of
+them. Not a limb, not an expression lacked his control a single instant.
+He desired to display to these very gentlemen in every inch of his
+person his superior power and grandeur, and especially not to be
+inferior to them in chivalrous bearing.
+
+To a certain extent he succeeded in doing so; but his aunt, Queen Mary,
+seemed unwilling to admit it, for just when he showed his arrogant
+dignity most plainly a smile by no means expressive of reverence hovered
+around the mouth of the frank royal huntress.
+
+Barbara had soon wearied of gazing at the magnificent garments and
+horses of these grandees. As Charles did not appear, the only person in
+the endless procession who attracted her attention was Massi, whom she
+soon discovered on his insignificant little horse; but he did not heed
+her eager signals, for he was talking earnestly to the occupant of the
+large litter borne by two mules that moved beside him.
+
+Barbara tried to force her way to him, and when she succeeded her cheeks
+suddenly burned hotly, and a swift dread checked her progress; for from
+the great window of the litter a wonderfully beautiful little head,
+covered with fair curls, looked forth, and two little arms were extended
+toward the violinist.
+
+How gleefully this child's eyes sparkled! how his whole little figure
+seemed instinct with joy and life while gazing at the horseman at the
+side of the street who was having a hard struggle with his refractory
+stallion!
+
+No one knew this boy better than she, for it was her own son, the
+imperial child she had given to the Emperor. At the same time she
+thought of her other two boys, and her face again wore a compassionate
+expression. Not they, but this little prince from fairyland was her
+first-born, her dearest, her true child.
+
+But where were they taking her John? What had Massi to do with him? Why
+should the boy be in Philip's train?
+
+There was only one explanation. Her child was being conveyed to Spain.
+
+Had the father heard that she had discovered his abode, and did he wish
+to remove it from the mother whom he hated?
+
+Was it being taken there merely that it might grow up a Castilian?
+
+Did Charles desire to rear it there to the grandeur and splendour for
+whose sake she had yielded him?
+
+Yet whatever was in view for John, he would be beyond her reach as soon
+as the ship to which he was being conveyed weighed anchor.
+
+But she would not, could not do without seeing him! The light of day
+would be darkened for her if she could no longer hope to gaze at least
+now and then into his blue eyes and to hear the sound of his clear,
+childish tones.
+
+"This too! this too!" she hissed, as if frantic; and as the guards
+forced her out of the procession she followed it farther and farther
+through the heat and dust, as though attracted by some magnetic power.
+
+Her feet moved involuntarily while her gaze rested on the litter, and
+she caught a glimpse sometimes of a golden curl, sometimes of a little
+hand, sometimes of the whole marvellously beautiful fair head.
+
+Not until the train stopped and the lords, ladies, and gentlemen who
+were escorting Philip turned their horses and left him did she recollect
+herself. To follow these horsemen, coaches, carts, litters, and
+pedestrians just as she was would have been madness. Her place was
+at home with her husband and children. Ten times she repeated this to
+herself and prepared to turn back; but the force which drew her to her
+child was stronger than the warning voice of reason.
+
+At any rate, she must speak to Massi and learn where he was taking the
+boy. He had not yet seen her; but now, as the train stopped, she forced
+her way to him.
+
+Amazed at meeting her, he returned her greeting, and granted her request
+to let her speak with him a few minutes.
+
+Greatly perplexed, he swung himself from the saddle, flung his bridle to
+a groom, and followed her under a mountain-ash tree which stood by the
+roadside. Barbara had used the time of his dismounting to gaze at her
+child again, and to impress his image upon her soul. She dared not call
+to him, for she had sworn to keep the secret, and the boy, who so often
+repulsed her eager advances, would perhaps have turned from her if she
+had gone close to him and attempted to kiss him through the window.
+
+This reserve was so hard for her that her eyes were full of tears when
+Massi approached to ask what she desired. She did not give him time for
+even a single question, but with frantic haste inquired who the boy in
+the litter was, and where he intended to take him.
+
+But her friend, usually so obliging, curtly and positively refused to
+give her any information. Then forming a hasty resolve, Barbara besought
+him if it were possible to take her with him to his home. Life in her
+own house had become unendurable. If a nurse was wanted for this child,
+no matter to whom it might belong, let him give her the place. She
+would devote herself to the boy day and night, more faithfully than any
+mother, and ask no wages for it, only she would and must go to Spain.
+
+Massi had listened to her rapid words in warm; nay, he was thoroughly
+startled. The fire that flashed from Barbara's blue eyes, the anguish
+which her quivering features expressed, suggested the thought that she
+had lost her reason, and with sympathizing kindness he entreated her to
+think of his friend her husband, and her splendid boys at home. But when
+she persisted that she must go to Spain, he remembered that a bond
+of love had once united her to his friend Wolf Hartschwert, and in
+bewilderment he asked if it was the knight who attracted her there.
+
+"If you think so, yes," she exclaimed. "Only I must go to Spain, I must
+go to Spain!"
+
+Again Massi was seized with the conviction that he was dealing with a
+madwoman, and as the procession started he only held out his hand to
+her once more, earnestly entreated her to calm herself, sent his
+remembrances to her husband and children, and then swung himself into
+the saddle.
+
+Barbara remained standing by the side of the road as if turned to stone,
+gazing after the travellers until the dust which they raised concealed
+them from her gaze. Then she shook her head and slowly returned to
+Brussels.
+
+Pyramus would come home at noon. Lamperi and the maid might provide the
+meal and attend to the rest of the household affairs. It was far past
+twelve, and it would still be a long time before she went home, for
+she must, yes, must go up to the palace park and to the Dubois house to
+inquire where her soul must seek her child in future.
+
+Her feet could scarcely support her when she entered the dwelling.
+
+Startled at her appearance, Frau Traut compelled the exhausted woman to
+sit down. How dishevelled, nay, wild, Barbara, who was usually so well
+dressed, looked! But she, too, that day did not present her usual dainty
+appearance, and her eyes and face were reddened by weeping. Barbara
+instantly noticed this, and it confirmed her conjecture. This woman,
+too, was bewailing the child which the cruel despot had torn from her.
+
+"He is on the way to Spain!" she cried to the other. "There is nothing
+to conceal here."
+
+Frau Traut started, and vehemently forbade Barbara to say even one word
+more about the boy if she did not wish her to show her the door and
+close it against her forever.
+
+But this was too much for the haughty mother of the Emperor's son.
+The terrible agitation of her soul forced an utterance, and in wild
+rebellion she swore to the terrified woman that she would burden herself
+with the sin of perjury and break the silence to which she had bound
+herself if she did not confess to her where Massi was taking her boy.
+She would neither seek him nor strive to get possession of him, but
+if she could not imagine where and with what people he was living, she
+would die of longing. She would have allowed herself to be abused and
+trodden under foot in silence, but she would not suffer herself to be
+deprived of the last remnant of her maternal rights.
+
+Here Adrian himself entered the room; but Barbara was by no means calmed
+by his appearance, and with a fresh outburst of wrath shrieked to his
+face that he might choose whether he would confide to her, the mother,
+where his master was taking the child or see her rush from here to the
+market place and call out to the people what she had promised, for the
+boy's sake, to hold secret.
+
+The valet saw that she would keep her word and, to prevent greater
+mischief, he informed her that the violinist Massi was commissioned to
+take her son to Spain to rear him in his wife's native place until his
+Majesty should alter his plans concerning him.
+
+This news produced a great change in the tortured mother. With
+affectionate, repentant courtesy, she thanked the Dubois couple and,
+when Frau Traut saw that she was trying to rearrange her hair and dress,
+she helped her, and in doing so one woman confessed to the other what
+she had lost in the child.
+
+Adrian's yielding had pleased Barbara. Besides, during the years of
+her intercourse with Massi she had heard many things about his
+residence--nay, every member of his household--and therefore she could
+now form a picture of his future life.
+
+So she had grown quieter, though by no means perfectly calm.
+
+Her husband, who must have already returned from his journey, and had
+not found her at home, would scarcely receive her pleasantly, but she
+cared little for that if only he had not been anxious about her, and in
+his joy at seeing her again did not clasp her tenderly in his arms. That
+would have been unbearable to-day. She would have liked it best if Massi
+would really have taken her with him as her child's nurse to Leganes,
+his residence. Thereby she would have reached the place where she
+thought she belonged--by the side of the child, in whom she beheld
+everything that still rendered her life worth living.
+
+Nevertheless, on her way home she thought with maternal anxiety of her
+two boys; but the nearer she approached the unassuming quarter of the
+city where she lived the more vividly she felt that she did not belong
+there, but in the part of Brussels whence she came.
+
+Her own home was far more richly and prettily furnished than her old one
+in Red Cock Street, but it did not yet satisfy her desires, and she did
+not feel content in it. To-day a slight feeling of aversion even came
+over her as she thought of it.
+
+Perhaps the best plan would have been for her to put an end to this
+misery, and, instead of returning, make a pilgrimage to Compostella
+in Spain, and while doing so try to find her John in Leganes. But even
+while yielding to these thoughts Barbara felt how sinful they were. Did
+not her little house look attractive and pretty? It was certainly the
+prettiest and neatest in the neighbourhood, and as she drew nearer
+pleasure at the thought of seeing her children again awoke. An unkind
+reception from her husband would have been painful, after all.
+
+But she was to receive no greeting at all from him. Pyramus had been
+detained on the way. Barbara felt this as a friendly dispensation of
+Providence. But something else spoiled her return home. Conrad,
+her oldest boy, two-year-old Conrad, who was already walking about,
+beginning to prattle prettily, and who could show the affection of his
+little heart with such coaxing tenderness, came toward her crying, and
+when she took him up rested his little burning head against her cheek.
+
+The little fellow's forehead and throat were aching.
+
+Some illness was coming on.
+
+The child himself asked to be put in his little bed, the physician was
+summoned, and the next morning the scarlet fever broke out.
+
+When the father returned, the youngest chill had also been attacked by
+the same fell disease, and now a time came when Barbara, during many an
+anxious hour of the night, forgot that in distant Spain she possessed
+another child for whose sake she had been ready to rob these two dear
+little creatures, who so greatly needed her, of their mother. This
+purpose weighed upon her conscience like the heaviest of sins while she
+was fighting against Death, which seemed to be already stretching his
+hand toward the oldest boy.
+
+When one evening the physician expressed the fear that the child would
+not survive the approaching night, she prayed with passionate fervour
+for his preservation, and meanwhile it seemed as though a secret voice
+cried: "Vow to the gracious Virgin not to give the Emperor's son a
+higher place in your heart than the children of the man to whom a holy
+sacrament unites you! Then you will first make yourself worthy of the
+dear imperilled life in yonder little bed."
+
+Thrice, four times, and oftener still, Barbara raised her hands to utter
+this vow, but ere she did so she said to herself that never, never could
+she wholly fulfil it, and, to save herself from a fresh sin, she did not
+make it.
+
+But with what anxiety she now gazed at the glowing face of the fevered
+boy whenever the warning voice again rose!
+
+At midnight the little sufferer's eyes seemed to her to shine with a
+glassy look, and when, pleading for help, he raised them to her, her
+heart melted, and in fervent, silent prayer she cried to the Queen of
+Heaven, "Spare me this child, make it well, and I will not think of the
+Emperor's son more frequently nor, if I can compass it, with warmer love
+than this clear creature and his little brother in the cradle."
+
+Scarcely had these words died on her lips than she again felt that she
+had promised more than she had the power to perform. Yet she repeated
+the vow several times.
+
+During the whole terrible night her husband stood beside her, obeying
+every sign, eagerly and skilfully helping in many ways; and when in the
+morning the doctor appeared she was firmly convinced that her vow had
+saved the sick boy's life. The crisis was over.
+
+Henceforth, whenever the yearning for the distant John seized upon her
+with special power, she thought of that night, and loaded the little
+sons near her with tokens of the tenderest love.
+
+On that morning of commencing convalescence her husband's grateful kiss
+pleased her.
+
+True, during the time that followed, Pyramus succeeded no better than
+before in warming his wife's cold heart, but Barbara omitted many things
+which had formerly clouded his happiness.
+
+The Emperor Charles had again gone to foreign countries, and therefore
+festivals and shows no longer attracted her. She rarely allowed herself
+a visit to Frau Dubois, but, above all, she talked with her boys and
+about them like every other mother. It even seemed to Pyramus as though
+her old affection for the Emperor Charles was wholly dead; for when,
+in November of the following year, agitated to the very depths of his
+being, he brought her the tidings that the Emperor had been surprised
+and almost captured at Innsbruck by Duke Maurice of Saxony, who owed
+him the Elector's hat, and had only escaped the misfortune by a hurried
+flight to Carinthia, he merely saw a smile, which he did not know how to
+interpret, on her lips. But little as Barbara said about this event, her
+mind was often occupied with it.
+
+In the first place, it recalled to her memory the dance under the
+lindens at Prebrunn.
+
+Did it not seem as if her ardent royal partner of those days had become
+her avenger?
+
+Yet it grieved her that the man whose greatness and power it had grown
+a necessity for her to admire had suffered so deep a humiliation and, as
+at the time of the May festival under the Ratisbon lindens, the sympathy
+of her heart belonged to him to whom she had apparently preferred the
+treacherous Saxon duke.
+
+The treaty of Passau, which soon followed his flight, was to impose upon
+the monarch things scarcely less hard to bear; for it compelled him to
+allow the Protestants in Germany the free exercise of their religion,
+and to release his prisoners, the Elector John Frederick of Saxony and
+the Landgrave Philip of Hesse.
+
+Whatever befell the sovereign she brought into connection with herself.
+Charles's motto had now become unattainable for him, as since her loss
+of voice it had been for her. Her heart bled unseen, and his misfortune
+inflicted new wounds upon it. How he, toward whom the whole world
+looked, and whose sensitive soul endured with so much difficulty the
+slightest transgression of his will and his inclination, would
+recover from the destruction of the most earnest, nay, the most sacred
+aspirations of a whole life, was utterly incomprehensible to her. To
+restore the unity of religion had been as warm a desire of his heart as
+the cultivation of singing had been cherished by hers, and the treaty of
+Passau ceded to the millions of German Protestants the right to remain
+separated from the Catholic Church. This must utterly cloud, darken,
+poison his already joyless existence. Spite of the wrong he had done
+her, how gladly, had she not been lost to art, she would now have tried
+upon him its elevating, consoling power!
+
+From her old confessor, her husband, and others she learned that Charles
+scarcely paid any further heed to the political affairs of the German
+nation, which had once been so important to him; and with intense
+indignation she heard the fellow-countrymen whom her husband brought to
+the house declare that, in her German native land, Charles was now as
+bitterly hated as he had formerly been loved and reverenced.
+
+The imperial crown would lapse to his brother; Ferdinand's son,
+Maximilian, now Charles's son-in-law, was destined to succeed his
+father, while the Infant Philip must in future be content with the
+sovereignty of Spain, the Netherlands, Charles's Italian possessions,
+and the New World.
+
+For years Barbara had believed that she hated him, but now, when the
+bitterest envy could have desired nothing more cruel, with all the
+warmth of her passionate heart she made his suffering her own, and it
+filled her with shame and resentment against herself that she, too, had
+more than once desired to see her own downfall revenged on him.
+
+Her soul was again drawn toward the sorely punished man more strongly
+than she would have deemed possible a short time before and, after his
+return to Brussels, she gazed with an aching heart at the ashen-gray
+face of the sufferer, marked by lines of deep sorrow.
+
+Now he really did resemble a broken old man. Barbara rarely mingled
+with the people, but she sometimes went with her husband and several
+acquaintances outside the gate, or heard from the few intimate friends
+whom she had made, the neighbours, and the peddlers who came to her
+house, with what cruel harshness the heretics were treated.
+
+When the monarch, it was often said, was no longer the Charles to whom
+the provinces owed great benefits and who had won many hearts, but
+his Spanish son, Philip, the chains would be broken, and this shameful
+bloodshed would be stopped; but her husband declared such predictions
+idle boasting, and Barbara willingly believed him because she wished
+that he might be right.
+
+In the officer's eyes all heretics deserved death, and he agreed with
+Barbara that the Emperor Charles's wisdom took the right course in all
+cases.
+
+His son Philip was obedient to his father, and would certainly continue
+to wield the sceptre according to his wishes.
+
+The breath of liberty, which was beginning to stir faintly in the
+provinces through which he so often travelled, could not escape
+Pyramus's notice, but he saw in it only the mutinous efforts of
+shameless rebels and misguided men, who deserved punishment. The quiet
+seclusion in which Barbara lived rendered it easy to win her over to her
+husband's view of this noble movement; besides, it was directed against
+the unhappy man whom she would willingly have seen spared any fresh
+anxiety, and who had proved thousands of times how much he preferred the
+Netherlands to any other of his numerous kingdoms.
+
+Hitherto Barbara had troubled herself very little about political
+affairs, and her interest in them died completely when a visitor called
+who threw them, as well as everything else, wholly into the shade.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Wolf Hartschwert had come to Brussels and sought Barbara.
+
+Her husband was attending to the duties of his office in the Rhine
+country when she received her former lover. Had Pyramus been present, he
+might perhaps have considered the knight a less dangerous opponent than
+seven years before, for a great change had taken place in his outer man.
+The boyish appearance which at that time still clung to him had vanished
+and, by constant intercourse with the Castilian nobility, he had
+acquired a manly, self-assured bearing perfectly in harmony with his age
+and birth.
+
+As he sat opposite to Barbara for the first time, she could not avert
+her eyes from him and, with both his hands clasped in hers, she let him
+tell her of his journey to Brussels and his efforts to find her in the
+great city. Meanwhile she scarcely heeded the purport of his words; it
+was enough to feel the influence exerted by the tone of his voice, and
+to be reminded by his features and his every gesture of something once
+dear to her.
+
+He appeared like the living embodiment of the first beautiful days of
+her youth, and her whole soul was full of gratitude that he had sought
+her; while he, too, had the same experience, though his former passion
+had long since changed into a totally different feeling. He thought her
+beautiful, but her permitting their hands to remain clasped so long now
+agitated him no more than if she had been a dear, long-absent sister.
+
+When Barbara was told who awaited her in the sitting roam and, with
+flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes, clad in a light morning gown which
+was very becoming to her, had hastened to greet him, his heart had
+indeed throbbed faster, and it seemed as though an unexpected Easter
+morning awaited the old buried love; but she had scarcely uttered his
+name and exchanged a few words of greeting in a voice which, though no
+longer hoarse, still lacked melody, than the flood of newly awakened
+emotions swiftly ebbed again.
+
+She was still only half the Wawerl of former days, whose musical voice
+had helped to make her the queen of his heart. So he had soon regained
+the calmness which, in Spain and on the journey here, he had expected
+to test at their meeting. Even the last trace of a deeper emotion passed
+away when she told him of her husband, her children, and her gray-haired
+father in Ratisbon, for the hasty, almost reluctant manner with which
+this was done perplexed and displeased him. True, he could not know that
+from the first moment of their meeting her one desire had been to obtain
+news of her stolen son. Everything else appeared trivial in comparison.
+And what constraint she was forced to impose upon herself when,
+not hearing her cautious introductory question, he told her about
+Villagarcia, his peerless mistress, Doha Magdalena de Ulloa, and his
+musical success! Not until he said that during the winter he would be
+occupied in training the boy choir at Valladolid did she approach her
+goal by inquiring about the welfare of the violinist Massi.
+
+Both he and his family were in excellent health, Wolf replied. Rest in
+his little house at Leganes seemed to have fairly rejuvenated him.
+
+Now Barbara herself mentioned the boy whom Massi had taken to Spain in
+the train of the Infant Don Philip.
+
+How this affected Wolf!
+
+He started, not only in surprise, but in actual alarm, and eagerly
+demanded to know who had spoken to her about this child in connection
+with the violinist.
+
+Barbara now said truthfully that she had seen Massi with her own eyes in
+the Infant's train. So beautiful a boy is not easily forgotten, and she
+would be glad to hear news of him.
+
+Wolf, however, seemed reluctant to talk of this child. True, he hastily
+remarked, he sometimes visited him at the request of his gracious
+mistress, but he had no more knowledge of his real origin than she or
+Dona Magdalena de Ulloa. The latter supposed the boy to be her husband's
+child, and in her generosity therefore interested herself doubly in the
+forsaken boy, though only at a distance and through his mediation; for
+his own part, he could never believe the fair-haired, pink-and-white
+Geronimo to be a son of the dark-skinned, black-eyed Don Luis. True,
+the stony silence which the major-domo maintained toward all questions
+concerning the lad would neither permit him to soothe his wife nor
+confirm her fear. At any rate, Geronimo must be the son of some great
+noble. This was perfectly apparent from his bearing, the symmetry of
+his limbs, his frank, imperious nature--nay, from every movement of this
+remarkable child.
+
+At this assurance Barbara's soul glowed with proud maternal joy. Her
+blue eyes sparkled with a brighter light, and the sunny, radiant glance
+with which she thanked Wolf for his information exerted an unexpected
+influence upon him, for he shrank back as though the curtain which
+concealed a rare marvel had been lifted and, drawing a long breath,
+gazed into her beautiful, joyous face.
+
+It seemed as if the luminous reflection of the proud, noble, and
+pure delight which shone upon him from her eyes had beamed in little
+Geronimo's a few weeks before when he rushed up to him to show his
+hunting spoils, a fitchet and several birds which he had killed with his
+pretty little cross-bow, a gift from Dona Magdalena. And Barbara's wavy
+golden hair, the little dimple in her cheek! Geronimo must be her child;
+this wonderful resemblance could not deceive.
+
+"Barbara," he cried, pressing his hand to his brow with deep emotion,
+"Geronimo is--gracious Virgin!--the handsome, proud, deserted boy may
+be----"
+
+But an imperious gesture from the young wife closed his lips; Frau
+Lamperi had just led her two boys, beautifully dressed as they always
+were when any distinguished visitor called upon their mother, into the
+room. The expression of radiant happiness which had just illumined her
+features vanished at the sight of the little ones, and she commanded the
+children to be taken away at once.
+
+She looked so stern and resolute that her faithful maid lacked courage
+to make any sign of recognising the knight, whom she had known while she
+was in the regent's service.
+
+When the door had closed behind the group, Barbara again turned to her
+friend, and in a low tone asked, "And suppose that you saw aright, and
+Geronimo were really my child?"
+
+"Then--then," Wolf faltered in bewilderment, "then Don Luis would--But
+surely it can not be! Then, after all, Quijada would be--"
+
+Here a low laugh from Barbara broke the silence, and with dilated eyes
+he learned who Geronimo's parents were.
+
+Then the knight listened breathlessly to the young mother's account of
+the robbery of her child, and how, in spite of her own boys and the vow
+which she had made the Dubois couple not to follow the Emperor's son,
+she lived only in and through him.
+
+"The Emperor Charles!" cried Wolf, as if he now understood for the first
+time what he might so easily have guessed if the fair-haired boy had
+not grown up amid such extremely plain surroundings. The belief that
+Geronimo owed his life to Quijada had been inspired by Massi himself.
+
+But while the knight was striving to accustom himself to this wholly
+novel circle of ideas, Barbara, with passionate impetuosity, clasped his
+right hand and placed it on the crucifix which hung on her rosary.
+
+Then she commanded her astonished friend to swear to guard this secret,
+which was not hers alone, from every living being.
+
+Wolf yielded without resistance to her passionate entreaties, but
+scarcely had he lowered the hand uplifted to take the oath than he urged
+her at least to grant him permission to restore Dona Magdalena's peace
+of mind; but Barbara waved her hand with resolute denial, hastily
+exclaiming: "No, no, no! Don Luis was the tool in every blow which
+Charles, his master, dealt at my happiness and peace. Let the woman
+who is dear to him, and who is already winning by her gifts the child's
+love, which belongs to me, and to me alone, now feel how the heart of
+one who is deceived can ache."
+
+Here, deeply wounded, Wolf burst into a complaint of the harshness and
+injustice of such vengeance; but Barbara insisted so defiantly upon her
+will that he urged her no further, and seized his hat to retire.
+
+Deep resentment had taken possession of him. This misguided woman,
+embittered by misfortune, possessed the power of rendering the greatest
+benefit to one infinitely her superior in nobility of soul, and with
+cruel defiance she refused it.
+
+His whole heart was full of gratitude and love for Dona Magdalena, who
+by her unvarying kindness and elevating example had healed his wounded
+soul, and no ignoble wish had sullied this great and deep affection.
+Although for years he had devoted to her all the ability and good will
+which he possessed, he still felt deeply in her debt and, now that the
+first opportunity of rendering her a great service presented itself, he
+was deprived of the possibility of doing it by the woman who had already
+destroyed the happiness of his youth.
+
+So bitter was the resentment which filled his soul that he could not
+bring himself to seek her on the following day; but she awaited him
+with the sorrowful fear that she had saddened the return of her best
+and truest friend. Besides, she was now beginning to be tortured by the
+consciousness of having broken or badly fulfilled the vow by which she
+had won from the Holy Virgin the life of her sick Conrad. Why had she
+sent her boys away the day before, instead of showing them to the friend
+of her youth with maternal joy? because her heart had been full of the
+image of the other, whose rare beauty and patrician bearing Wolf had so
+enthusiastically described. True, her pair of little boys would not
+have borne comparison with the Emperor's son, yet they were both good,
+well-formed children, and clung to her with filial affection. Why could
+she not even now, when Heaven itself forced her to be content, free
+herself from the fatal imperial "More, farther," which, both for the
+monarch and for her, had lost its power to command and to promise?
+
+When, on the evening after Wolf's visit, she bent over the children
+sleeping in their little bed, she felt as a nurse may who comes from
+a patient who has succumbed to a contagious disease and now fears
+communicating it to her new charge. Suppose that the gracious
+intercessor should punish her broken vow by raising her hand against
+the children sleeping there? This dread seized the guilty mother with
+irresistible power, and she wondered that the cheeks of the little
+sleepers were not already glowing with fever.
+
+She threw herself penitently on her knees before the priedieu, and the
+first atonement to be made for the broken vow was apparent. She must
+allow Wolf to restore peace to Dona Magdalena's troubled mind. This
+was not easy, for she had cherished her resentment against this woman's
+husband, through whom she had experienced bitter suffering, for many
+years. His much-lauded wife herself was a stranger to her, yet she could
+not think of her except with secret dislike; it seemed as if a woman who
+bore the separation from the man she loved so patiently, and yet won all
+hearts, must go through life--unless she was a hypocrite--with cold fish
+blood.
+
+Besides----
+
+What right had this lady to the boy to whom Barbara gave birth, whose
+love would now be hers had it not been wrested from her? What was denied
+to her would be lavished upon this favoured woman, and when she bestowed
+gifts upon the glorious child for whom every pulse of her being longed,
+and repaid his love with love, it was regarded as a fresh proof of her
+noble kindness of heart. To withhold from this woman something which
+would give her fresh happiness and relieve her of sorrow might have
+afforded her a certain satisfaction. To bless those who curse and
+despitefully use us was certainly the hardest command; but on the
+priedieu she vowed to the Virgin to fulfil it, and in a calmer mood than
+before she bent over the boys to kiss them.
+
+The next day glided by in painful anxiety, for Wolf did not return. The
+following morning and afternoon also passed without bringing him. Not
+until the rays of the setting sun were forcing their way through
+the pinks and rose bushes with which Pyramus kept her window adorned
+throughout the year, because she loved flowers, and the vesper bells
+were chiming, did her friend return.
+
+This time she had dressed her boys with her own hands, and when, through
+the door which separated her from the entry, she heard Wolf greet them
+with merry words, her heart grew lighter, and the swift thanksgiving
+which she uttered blended with the dying notes of the bells.
+
+Leading Conrad by the hand, and carrying the three-year-old youngest boy
+in his arms, Wolf entered the room.
+
+The child of a former love easily wins its way to the heart of the
+man who has been obliged to resign her. Wolf's eyes showed that he was
+pleased with Barbara's merry lads, and she thanked him for it by the
+warmest reception.
+
+Not until after he had said many a pleasant word to her about the little
+boys, and jested with them in the manner of one who loves children, did
+he resume his grave manner and confess that he could not make up his
+mind to leave Barbara without a farewell. He was glad to find her in
+the possession of such treasures, but his time was limited, and he must,
+unfortunately, content himself with this last brief meeting.
+
+While speaking, he rose to leave her; but she stopped him, saying in a
+low tone: "Surely you know me, Wolf, and are aware that I do not always
+persist in the resolves to which my hasty temper urges me. It shall not
+be my fault if the peace of your Dona Magdalena's soul remains clouded
+longer, and so I release you from your vow so far as she is concerned."
+
+Then, for the first time since their meeting, the familiar, pleasant
+"Wawerl" greeted her, and with tearful eyes she clasped his outstretched
+hands.
+
+Wolf had just told her that his time was short; but now he willingly
+allowed himself to be persuaded to put down his sword and hat, and when
+Frau Lamperi brought in some refreshments, he recognised her, and asked
+her several pleasant questions.
+
+It seemed as though Barbara's change of mood had overthrown the barrier
+which her stern refusal had raised between them. Calm and cheerful as
+in former days he sat before her, listening while, in obedience to his
+invitation, she told him, with many a palliation and evasion, about her
+married life and the children. She made her story short, in order at
+last to hear some further particulars concerning the welfare of her
+distant son.
+
+What Wolf related of the outward appearance of her John, to whose new
+name, Geronimo, she gradually became accustomed, Barbara could complete
+from her vivid recollection of this rare child. He had remained strong
+and healthy, and the violinist Massi, his good wife, and their daughter
+loved the little fellow and cared for him as if he were their own son
+and brother.
+
+The musician, it is true, lived plainly enough, but there was no want of
+anything in the modest country house with the gay little flower garden.
+Nor did the boy lack playmates, though they were only the children of
+the farmers and townspeople of Leganes. Clad but little better than
+they, he shared their merry, often rough games. Geronimo called the
+violinist and his wife father and mother.
+
+Then Barbara desired a more minute description of his dress, and when
+Wolf, laughing, confessed that he wore a cap only when he went to
+church, and on hot summer days he had even met him barefoot, she clasped
+her hands in astonishment and dismay. Not until her friend assured her
+that among the thin, dark-haired Spaniards, with their close-cropped
+heads and flashing black eyes, he, with his fluttering golden curls and
+free, graceful movements, looked like a white swan among dark-plumaged
+ducks, did she raise her head with a contented expression, and the sunny
+glance peculiar to her again reminded her friend of the Emperor's son.
+
+His lofty brow, Wolf said, he had inherited from his father, and
+his mind was certainly bright; but what could be predicted with any
+certainty concerning the intellectual powers of a boy scarcely seven
+years old? The pastor Bautista Bela was training him to piety. The
+sacristan Francisco Fernandez ought to have begun to teach him to read a
+year ago; but until now Geronimo had always run away, and when he, Wolf,
+asked the worthy old man, at Dona Magdalena's request, whether he would
+undertake to instruct him in the rudiments of Latin, as well as in
+reading and writing, he shook his head doubtfully.
+
+Here a smile hovered around the speaker's lips, and, as if some amusing
+recollection rose in his mind, he went on gaily: "He's a queer old
+fellow, and when I repeated my question, he put his finger against his
+nose, saying: 'Whoever supposes I could teach a young romper like that
+anything but keeping quiet, is mistaken. Why? Because I know nothing
+myself.' Then the old man reflected, and added, 'But--I shall not even
+succeed in keeping this one quiet, because he is so much swifter than
+I."
+
+"And is the Emperor Charles satisfied with such a teacher for his son?"
+asked Barbara indignantly.
+
+"Massi had described the sacristan to Don Luis as a learned man,"
+replied Wolf. "But I have now told his Majesty of a better one."
+
+"Then you have talked to the Emperor?" asked Barbara, blushing.
+
+Her friend nodded assent, and said mournfully: "My heart still aches
+when I recall the meeting. O Wawerl! what a man he was when, like a
+fool, I persuaded him in Ratisbon to hear you sing, and how he looked
+yesterday!"
+
+"Tell me," she here interrupted earnestly, raising her hands
+beseechingly.
+
+"It can scarcely be described," Wolf answered, as if under the spell
+of a painful memory. "He could hardly hold himself up, even in the
+arm-chair in which he sat. The lower part of his face seems withered,
+and the upper-even the beautiful lofty brow--is furrowed by deep
+wrinkles. At every third word his breath fails. One of his diseases, Dr.
+Mathys says, would be enough to kill any other man, and he has more
+than there are fingers on the hand. Besides, even now he will not take
+advice, but eats and drinks whatever suits his taste."
+
+Barbara shook her head angrily; but Wolf, noticing it, said: "He is the
+sovereign, and who would venture to withhold anything on which his will
+is set? But his desires are shrivelling like his face and his body."
+
+"Is the man of the 'More, farther,' also learning to be content?" asked
+Barbara anxiously. Wolf rose, answering firmly: "No, certainly not! His
+eyes still sparkle as brightly in his haggard face as if he had by no
+means given up the old motto. True, Don Luis declares that rest is the
+one thing for which he longs, and you will see that he knows how to
+obtain it; but what he means by it only contains fresh conflicts and
+struggles. His 'Plus ultra' had rendered him the greatest of living
+men; now he desires to become the least of the least, because the Lord
+promises to make the last the first. I was received by the regent like
+a friend. She confided to me that he often repeats the Saviour's words,
+'Go, sell all that thou halt, and follow me.' He is determined to cast
+aside throne, sceptre, and purple, power and splendour, and Don Luis
+believes that he will know how to gratify this desire, like every other.
+What a resolution! But there are special motives concealed beneath it.
+Nothing but death can bring repose to this restless spirit, and if he
+finds the quiet for which he longs, what tasks he will set himself! Don
+Philip promises, as an obedient son, to continue to wield the sceptre
+according to the policy of the father who intrusts it to him."
+
+"And then?" asked Barbara eagerly.
+
+"Then will begin the life in the imitation of Christ, which hovers
+before him."
+
+"Here in the Brabant palace?" interposed Barbara incredulously.
+"Here, where his neighbours, the brilliant nobles, enjoy life in noisy
+magnificence; here, among the ambassadors, the thousand rumours from
+the Netherlands, Italy, and Spain; here, where the battle against the
+heretical and liberty-loving yearnings of the citizens never ceases--how
+can he hope to find peace and composure here?"
+
+"He is far from it," Wolf eagerly interrupted. "'Farewell till we meet
+again at no distant day upon Spanish soil!' were the parting words of my
+gracious mistress. Will you promise secrecy?"
+
+Barbara held out her hand with a significant glance; but Wolf, in a
+lower tone, continued: "He expects to find in Spain the peaceful spot
+for which he longs. There he will commend himself to the mercy of God,
+and prepare for the true life which death is to him. There he expects to
+be free from time-killing business, and to grant his mind that which he
+has long desired and a thousand duties forced him to withhold. There, in
+quiet leisure, he hopes to strive for knowledge and to penetrate deeply
+into all the new things which were discovered, invented, created, and
+improved during his reign, and of which he was permitted to learn far
+too little thoroughly. He will endeavour to gain a better understanding
+of what stirs, fires, angers, and divides the theologians. He desires to
+pursue in detail the vast new discoveries of the astronomers, which even
+amid the pressure of duties he had explained to him. His inquisitive
+mind seeks to know the new discoveries of navigation, the distant
+countries which it brought to view. He hopes to search into the plans
+and works of the architects of fortifications and makers of maps and,
+by no means least, he is anxious to become thoroughly familiar with the
+inventions of mechanicians, which have so long aroused his interest."
+
+"He liked to talk to me about these things, and the power of the human
+intellect, which now shows the true course of the sun and stars,"
+Barbara interrupted with eager assent. "He often showed me the ingenious
+wheelwork of his Nuremberg clocks. Once--I still hear the words--he
+compared the most delicate with the thousandfold more sublime works of
+God, the vast, ceaseless machinery of the universe, where there is no
+misplaced spring, no inaccurately adjusted cog in the wheels. Oh, that
+glorious intellect! What hours were those when he condescended to point
+out to a poor girl like me the eternal chronometers above our heads,
+repeat their names, and show the connection between the planets and the
+course of earthly events and human lives! O Wolf! how glorious it
+was! How my modest mind increased in strength! And when I listened
+breathlessly, and he saw how I bowed in mute admiration before his
+greatness and called me his dear child, his attentive pupil, and pressed
+his lips to my burning brow, can I ever forget that?"
+
+She sobbed aloud as she spoke and, overwhelmed by the grief which
+mastered her, covered her face with her hands.
+
+Wolf said nothing. Another had robbed him of the woman he loved, and the
+greatest anguish of his life was not yet wholly conquered; but in this
+hour he felt that he had no right to be angry with Barbara, for it was
+to the greatest of great men that he had been forced to yield. He need
+not feel it a disgrace to have succumbed to him.
+
+"Wawerl!" he again exclaimed, "in spite of the pleasant peace which I
+have found, I could envy you; for once, at least, the sun of love shone
+with full radiance into your soul. Your experience proves how bright
+and long is the afterglow if it is only real. This light, I believe, can
+never be extinguished, no matter how dense is the gloom which shadows
+life's pathway."
+
+"Yes, indeed, Wolf," she replied dully, with a sorrowful shake of the
+head. "The gloomy night of which you speak has come, and it will last
+on and on with unvarying darkness, from year to year, perhaps until the
+end. What you call light is the remembrance of a single brief month
+of May. Does it possess the power to render me happy? No, my friend,
+a thousand times no! It only saves me from despair. But, in spite of
+everything"--and here her eyes sparkled radiantly--"in spite of all
+this, I would not change places with any one on earth; for, however dark
+clouds may conceal the sun, when in quiet hours it once breaks through
+them, Wolf, how brilliant everything grows around me!"
+
+While speaking, she passed her hand across her brow and, as though
+seized with shame for her frank confession, exclaimed: "But we will let
+this subject drop. Only you must know one thing more. I shall never be
+wholly impoverished. What the past gave me was too rich and great; what
+I expect from the future is too precious for that. It is growing up in
+distant Spain and, if Heaven accepted the great sacrifice which I once
+made for the boy whom you call Geronimo, if he receives what I besought
+for him at that time and on every returning day, then, Wolf, I shall
+bear the burden of my woe like a light garland of rose leaves. Nay,
+more. Charles will regain his youth sooner than--be it in love or
+hate--he will ever forget me. This child guarantees that. It is and will
+always remain a bridge between us. He, too, can not forget the son, and
+if he does----"
+
+"No, Barbara, no," interrupted Wolf, carried away by her passionate
+warmth. "The Emperor Charles is constantly thinking of his fair-haired
+boy. No one has told me so; but if he seeks in Spain the rest for which
+he longs, the thought of Geronimo--I am sure of that--is not the least
+powerful cause which draws him thither."
+
+"Do you really think so?" asked Barbara with feverish anxiety.
+
+"Yes," he answered firmly. "This very morning he commanded Don Luis to
+take the child from Leganes to Villagarcia and commit the education of
+Geronimo to his wife, that he may find him what he expects and desires."
+
+Here he paused, and Barbara inquired uneasily, "And did he say nothing
+of Geronimo's mother--of me?"
+
+Wolf shook his head with silent compassion, and then reluctantly
+admitted: "I ventured to mention you, but, with one of those looks which
+no one can resist--you know them--he ordered me to be silent."
+
+Barbara's cheeks flamed with resentment and shame, but she only said,
+smiling bitterly: "Grief is grief, and this new sorrow does not change
+the old one. He knows best that I am something more than the poor
+officer's wife in the Saint-Gory quarter; but I look down, with just
+pride, on all the others who believe me to be nothing else. Now
+and always, even long after I am dead, the world will be obliged to
+recognise the claim which elevates me far above the throng: I am the
+mother of an Emperor's son!"
+
+She had uttered these words with uplifted head; but Wolf gazed in
+wondering admiration into the beautiful face, radiant with proud
+self-satisfaction.
+
+He wished to leave her with this image before his soul, and therefore
+hurriedly extended his hand and said farewell, after promising to fulfil
+her entreaty never to come to Brussels without showing by a visit that
+he remembered her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+Pyramus Kogel, on his return, saw nothing of the deep impression
+which Wolf's visit had made upon Barbara. She merely mentioned it, and
+carelessly said that the friend of her youth had been delighted with the
+children.
+
+The news that reached her ears about what was happening in the world
+awakened her interest, it is true, but she took no trouble to ask for
+tidings. When, the following year, her husband informed her that the
+Emperor's only son was about to conclude a second marriage, with Mary
+Tudor, of England, and Charles was to commit to Philip the sovereignty
+of the Netherlands, Spain, Naples, and Milan, she received it as if she
+had already known it.
+
+What she learned through the neighbours of the increasing number of
+executions of obdurate heretics she deemed the wise measures of a devout
+and conscientious government.
+
+To the children Barbara was a careful mother. She rarely went to visit
+the Dubois couple. Frau Traut either could not or was not allowed to
+tell her anything about her child, except that he was thriving under the
+maternal care of Dona Magdalena, to whom he had been confided.
+
+The next winter, during which Charles reached his fifty-fourth year,
+his health failed so noticeably that the physicians despaired of his
+recovery. The Brabant palace was constantly besieged by people of all
+classes inquiring about the condition of the still honoured and by many
+deeply beloved monarch, and Barbara almost daily asked for news of him.
+She usually entered the palace clad in black and closely veiled, for she
+had many acquaintances among the attendants.
+
+Adrian was inaccessible, because his master could not spare him a single
+hour, but she saw his substitute, Ogier Bodart, who had served the
+Emperor in Ratisbon. From him she learned how the sufferer passed
+the night, how the day promised, and whether the physician's opinion
+awakened hope or fear. He even told her that his Majesty was occupying
+himself with his last will, the payment of his debts, the arrangement of
+the succession, and the choice of his burial place.
+
+All this occupied Barbara's mind so deeply, and the long waiting to
+see Bodart often robbed her of so much time, that her housewifely and
+maternal duties suffered, yet her patient husband endured it a long
+while indulgently. But once, when he summoned up courage and cautiously
+blamed her, she quietly admitted that he was right, but added that she
+had never concealed from him the tie which bound her to the Emperor
+Charles, and now that Death was stretching his hand toward him, she must
+be permitted to obtain news of his welfare.
+
+The strong man silenced his dissatisfaction, and placed no obstacles in
+her way. He was grateful for the maternal solicitude which she showed
+the children.
+
+His kindly nature secretly approved of her spending a longer time in the
+Cathedral of St. Gudule than usual, praying for the royal sufferer who
+was so seriously ill. The man whom she could not forget was dying and,
+moreover, was his sovereign.
+
+Spring at last brought an improvement in the monarch's health, and with
+it Barbara's return to her household duties.
+
+A great change took place in the Dubois home during the spring after
+Charles's convalescence. The exhausting care of the Emperor had
+made Adrian seriously ill and, in spite of the objections and bitter
+complaints of his beloved and honoured master and his own desire to
+continue in his service, he was forced to resign his office, which was
+committed to his assistant Bodart.
+
+One day Barbara met Dr. Mathys at the ex-valet's sick-bed. The kindly
+leech was amazed at her youthful appearance, and also at the obstinacy
+of her throat ailment; but he encouraged her, for he had recently seen
+marvellous effects produced by the old Roman baths at Ems, which were
+not difficult to reach, and advised her to use them as soon as possible.
+She must inform him of the result, if he was permitted to visit the
+Netherlands again.
+
+Then Barbara asked if he intended to leave the master whose life was
+preserved by his skill; but he only shook his big head, smiling, and
+said that the Emperor and he belonged together, like the soul and the
+body, but whether his Majesty would remain in Brabant much longer was an
+open question.
+
+Barbara now remembered Wolf's communication, and when the rumour spread
+that the Emperor Charles was inclined to give up his rulership and
+commit the sceptre and crown to his son Philip, she knew that this time
+also Charles would execute the plan which he had matured after years of
+consideration.
+
+Through her friend she knew the motives which urged him to renounce
+power and grandeur and retire to solitude; but to her it seemed certain
+that, above all other reasons, longing for the fair, curly-headed boy,
+his son and hers, had induced him to take this great and admirable step.
+
+Gradually her maternal heart attributed to her John alone the desire of
+the world-weary earthly pilgrim to lay aside the purple and return to
+Spain.
+
+Though Barbara at this time rarely left her own fireside, her husband
+might often have wished that she would return to the conduct of the
+previous winter, for he perceived the torturing anxiety which was
+consuming her.
+
+She could gaze for hours into vacancy, absorbed in profound meditation
+and reveries, or play on the harp and lute, softly humming old songs to
+herself. If at such times Pyramus asked, lovingly and modestly, that
+he might not expose himself to an angry rebuff, what was burdening her
+soul, his wife gave evasive answers or told him about the physician's
+advice, and described how different the lives of both would be if she
+could regain the lost melody of her voice. But when he, who did not
+grudge the woman he loved the very best of everything, joyfully offered
+from his savings the sum necessary to send her and Frau Lamperi to Ems,
+in order, if possible, to commence the cure at once, she asserted that,
+for many reasons, she could not begin this summer the treatment which
+promised so much. True, the bare thought that if might once again be
+allotted to her to raise her heart in song filled her with the same
+blissful hope as ever; but if the report, which constantly grew more
+definite, did not deceive, the Emperor's formal abdication was close at
+hand, and to attend this great event seemed to her a duty of the heart,
+a necessity which she could not avoid. In many a quiet hour she told
+herself that Charles, when he had divested himself of all his honours
+and become a mere man like the rest of the world, would draw nearer to
+her boy, and through him to her. As an ordinary mortal, he would be able
+to love, like every other father, the child that attracted him to Spain.
+If in his life of meditation, far from the tumult of the world, the
+strife for knowledge should lead him to look back into the past, and
+in doing so he again recalled the days to which he owed his greatest
+happiness, could he help remembering her and her singing?
+
+How often she had heard that the knowledge of self was the highest
+goal of thought to the philosopher, and as such Charles would certainly
+retire into seclusion, and, as surely as she desired to be saved, he had
+wronged her and must then perceive it. Probably there were thousands of
+more important things in which he had to bury himself, but the boy would
+remind him of her and the injury which he had done.
+
+Never had she more deeply admired the grandeur of her imperial lover,
+and with entire confidence she believed that this stupendous act of
+renunciation would mark the beginning of a new life for her and her
+child.
+
+September and the first half of October passed like a fevered dream.
+
+The abdication would certainly take place.
+
+Charles had resolved to transfer all the crowns which adorned him to his
+son Philip, and retire to a Spanish monastery.
+
+Barbara also learned when and where the solemn ceremony was to take
+place. Day after day she again mingled with the visitors to the palace,
+and on the twenty-first of October she saw the eleven Knights of the
+Golden Fleece, to whom he wished to restore the office of grand master,
+enter the palace chapel.
+
+How magnificently these greatest of all dignitaries were attired! how
+all that she saw of this rare event in the palace chapel reminded her of
+the solemn ceremonial at the Trausnitzburg at Landshut, and her resolve
+to surrender her child, that it might possess the same splendour and
+honours as its sister's husband!
+
+The wishes cherished at that time were still unfulfilled; but the father
+would soon meet the son again, and the greater affection this peerless
+boy aroused in Charles, the more surely he would know how to bestow on
+him honours as high or higher than he gave the daughter of Johanna Van
+der Gheynst.
+
+Five days after the assembling of the Knights of the Golden Fleece, the
+solemn ceremony of the abdication would take place in the great hall
+which joined the palace chapel.
+
+She must obtain admittance to it. Her husband did what he could to aid
+her and soothe her excitement by the gratification of so ardent a wish,
+but his efforts were vain.
+
+Barbara herself, however, did not remain idle, and tried her fortune
+with those of high and low estate whom she had known in the past.
+
+She could not trust to forcing her way in on the day of the ceremony of
+abdication, for every place in the limited space assigned to spectators
+had been carefully allotted, and no one would be permitted to enter the
+palace without a pass. When, after many a futile errand, she had been
+refused also by the lord chamberlain, she turned her steps to Baron
+Malfalconnet's palace.
+
+He had just swung himself into the saddle, and Barbara found him greatly
+changed. The handsome major-domo had grown gray, his bright face was
+wrinkled, and his smiling lips now wore a new, disagreeable, almost
+cruel expression of mockery. He probably recognised his visitor at once,
+but the meeting seemed scarcely to afford him pleasure. Nevertheless, he
+listened to her.
+
+But as soon as he heard what she desired, he straightened himself in the
+saddle, and cried: "When I wished to present you to his Majesty--do you
+remember?--at Ratisbon, you hastily wheeled your horse and vanished.
+Now, when you desire to bid farewell to our sovereign lord, I dutifully
+follow the example you then set me."
+
+As he spoke he put spurs to his horse and, kissing his hand to her,
+dashed away. Barbara, wounded and disappointed, gazed after the pitiless
+scoffer.
+
+She had knocked in vain where she might hope for consideration; only the
+young man of middle height who, carrying a portfolio under his arm, now
+approached her and raised his black secretary's cap, had been omitted,
+though he, too, was one of the old Ratisbon friends, and his position
+with the Bishop of Arras gave him a certain influence.
+
+It was the little Maltese choir boy, Hannibal Melas, who owed so much to
+her recommendation.
+
+He asked sympathizingly what troubled her and, after Barbara had
+confided to him what she had hitherto vainly desired, he referred
+her unasked to his omnipotent master, who was to enter King Philip's
+service, and proposed that she should come to his office early the next
+morning. Thence he would try to take her to the minister, who had by
+no means forgotten her superb singing. His Eminence had mentioned her
+kindly very recently in a conversation with the leech.
+
+The following morning Barbara went to the great statesman's business
+offices. Hannibal was waiting for her.
+
+It was on Saint Raphael's day, which had attracted his fellow-clerks
+to a festival in the country. Granvelle had given the others leave of
+absence, but wished to keep within call the industrious Maltese, on
+whose zeal he could always rely.
+
+Without stopping his diligent work at the writing-desk, the secretary
+begged Barbara to wait a short time. He would soon finish the draught
+of the new edict for which his Eminence and the Councillor Viglius
+were waiting in the adjoining chamber. The pictures on the walls of the
+fourth room were worth looking at.
+
+Barbara followed his advice, but she paused in the third room, for
+through the partly open door she heard Granvelle's familiar voice.
+
+Curious to see what changes time had wrought, she peered through the
+by no means narrow crack and overlooked the minister's spacious office,
+where he was now entirely alone with the Councillor Viglius.
+
+The Bishop of Arras had scarcely altered since their last meeting,
+only his appearance had become somewhat more stately, and his clever,
+handsome face was fuller.
+
+The Councillor Viglius, whom Barbara looked directly in the face, did
+not exactly profit by the contrast with Granvelle, for the small figure
+of the Frieslander barely reached to the chin of the distinguished
+native of tipper Burgundy, but his head presented a singular and
+remarkably vivid colouring. The perfectly smooth hair and thick beard
+of this no longer young man were saffron yellow, and his plump face was
+still red and white as milk and blood. It was easy to perceive by his
+whole extremely striking appearance that he was rightly numbered among
+the Emperor's shrewdest councillors. Barbara had heard marvellous tales
+of his learning, and it was really magnificent in compass and far more
+important than his keen but narrow mind. This time the loquacious man
+was allowing the Bishop of Arras to speak, and Barbara listened to his
+words and the councillor's answers with eager attention.
+
+They were talking about the approaching abdication, and who knew the
+Emperor Charles better than these far-seeing men, who were so near his
+person?
+
+If only she had not been obliged to believe this, for what she heard
+from them showed in sombre lines what her heart had clothed with golden
+radiance.
+
+Everything Wolf had told her concerning the motives which induced
+Charles to devote himself for the remainder of his life to quiet
+contemplation seemed to her as credible as to the knight himself. But
+he had received what he knew from Queen Mary of Hungary, who interpreted
+her royal brother's conduct like an affectionate sister, or thought it
+advisable to represent it in the most favourable light.
+
+It had not occurred to the warm-hearted, straightforward Wolf to doubt
+the royal lady's statement; but Barbara had regarded her friend's
+explanation of the Emperor's wonderful act of renunciation as she would
+have gazed at a citadel founded on a rock with towers rising to the
+clouds, and in imagination had followed to his solitude the world-weary
+philosopher, the father yearning for the child he had missed so long.
+But how pitilessly what she heard here overthrew the proud edifice!
+how cruelly it destroyed what she had deemed worthy of the greatest
+admiration, what had rendered her happy and reanimated her wishes and
+her hopes!
+
+The wise Granvelle foresaw how the world would judge his master's
+abdication, and described it to the Frieslander. It bore a fateful
+resemblance to the regent's interpretation, her friend's opinion, and
+her own, and the shrewd Viglius accompanied this narrative with so
+scornful a laugh that it made her heart ache.
+
+"This is what will be said," concluded the Bishop of Arras, summing
+up his previous statements, "of the wise scorner of the world upon the
+throne, who cast aside sceptre and crown in order, as a pious recluse,
+to secure the salvation of his soul and, like a second Diogenes, to
+listen to the wealth of his thoughts and investigate the nature of
+things."
+
+"If only the pure spring from which the Greek dipped water in the hollow
+of his hand was not changed to a cellar full of fiery wine, his hermit
+fare to highly seasoned pasties, stuffed partridges, frozen fruit
+juices, truffled pheasants, and such things! But everybody to his taste!
+The world will be deceived. Unless you wish to blind yourself, your
+Eminence, you will admit that I have seen correctly the most powerful
+motives for this unequalled act."
+
+Barbara saw the bishop shake his head in dissent and, while she was
+listening with strained ears to his explanation, Viglius, as if singing
+bass to Granvelle's tenor, repeated again and again at brief intervals,
+in a low tone, the one word, "Debts," while his green eyes sparkled,
+sometimes as if asking assent, sometimes combatively.
+
+He believed that the weight of financial cares was causing the Emperor
+Charles's abdication. Like a wise man, he said, he would place his own
+burden of debt upon his son's shoulders. His Majesty usually uttered
+exactly the opposite of his real opinions, and therefore, in the outline
+of his abdication speech, he twice emphasized how great a debt of
+gratitude Don Philip owed him for the Heritage which while still alive
+he bequeathed to him. True, besides the debts, crowns and kingdoms in
+plenty passed to Charles's successor; but the father, so long as he drew
+breath, would not give up the decision of the most important questions
+of government, and therefore this abdication, after all, was merely
+an excellent means of divesting himself of burdensome obligations,
+embellished with a certain amount of humbug.
+
+The Bishop of Arras made no weighty protest against this severe speech;
+nay, he even said, in a tone of assent, that the Emperor Charles's
+tireless intellect would continue to direct political events. Besides,
+he could safely commit the execution of his conclusions and commands to
+his obedient and dutiful heir.
+
+"The world," he added, "will not fare badly by this arrangement; but
+you, Viglius, can not forget the religious liberty which his Majesty
+promised to the Germans."
+
+"Not until the end of my life!" cried the Frieslander, his green eyes
+flashing angrily.
+
+Granvelle protested that this act of indulgence weighed heavily upon him
+also; but at that time a refusal would have occasioned a new war,
+which, according to human judgment, would have resulted in loss and
+the establishment of heresy in the Netherlands. Maurice of Saxony, he
+reminded the councillor, did not fall until a year later, and then as a
+conqueror, on the battlefield.
+
+His Majesty's abdication, he went on with calm deliberation, was,
+however, not exactly as Viglius supposed. The desire to rid himself
+of troublesome debts had only hastened the Emperor's resolution. The
+principal motive for this momentous act he could state most positively
+to be the increasing burden of his physical sufferings. To this was
+added the feeling, usually found most frequently among gamblers, that
+the time to win or, in his Majesty's case, to succeed was past. Lastly,
+Charles really did long for less disturbance from the regular course of
+business, the reception of ambassadors, the granting of audiences.
+
+"In short," he concluded, "he wants to have an easier life, and,
+besides, if the despatches and orders leave him time for it, to
+occupy himself with his favourite amusements--his clocks and pieces
+of mechanism. Finally, his sufferings remind him often enough of the
+approach of death, and he hopes by religious exercises to secure his
+place in the kingdom of heaven."
+
+"So far as politics and the table give him leisure for it," interposed
+the Frieslander. "He doesn't seem inclined to make his penance too
+severe. Quijada is now preparing the penitential cell, and it is neither
+in the burning Thebais nor in the arid sands of the desert, but in one
+of the most delightful and charming places in Spain. May our sovereign
+find there what he seeks! You are aware of the paternal joys which await
+him through the boy Geronimo?"
+
+"Where did you learn that?" Granvelle interrupted in a startled tone,
+and Barbara held her breath and listened with twofold attention.
+
+"From his Majesty himself," was the reply. "He intended his son for
+the monastery. He longs to see him again, because he is said to be
+developing magnificently; but he wished to know whether it would not
+be safer to remove him from the world before his arrival, for, if
+necessary, he could give up meeting him. If he should discover his
+father's identity, it might easily fill him with vanity, and in
+Villagarcia he was learning to prize knightly achievements above the
+service of the Most High. It would not do to leave him in the world;
+unpleasant things might come from it. As King Philip's sole heir was the
+sickly Don Carlos----"
+
+"His son Geronimo might aspire to the crown," interrupted Granvelle. "He
+expressed the same doubts to me also. What I heard of the child
+induced me to plead that he might be allowed to grow up in the world
+untrammelled. If any one understands how to defend himself against
+unauthorized demands, it is Don Philip."
+
+"So I, too, think, and advised," replied Viglius. "Poor boy! His father
+of late holds on to thalers more than anxiously and, if I am correctly
+informed, the education of his son has hitherto cost his Majesty no more
+expense than the maintenance of the mother. Wise economy, your Eminence!
+Or what shall it be called?"
+
+"As you choose," replied the bishop in an irritated tone. "What do you
+know about the boy's mother?"
+
+"Nothing," replied the Frieslander, "except what my friend Mathys told
+me lately. He said that before she lost her voice she was a perfect
+nightingale. She might recover it at Ems, and so the leech proposed to
+the Emperor to give her a sum of money for this purpose."
+
+"And his Majesty?" asked Granvelle.
+
+"Remained faithful to his habit of not sullying his reputation by
+extravagance," replied the Frieslander, laughing.
+
+"Suffering, misfortune!" sighed Granvelle. "As a long period of rain
+produces fungi in the woods, so this terrible pair calls to life one
+pettiness after another in the rare man in whom once every trait of
+character was great and glorious. I knew the boy's mother. Many things
+might be said of her, among them good, nay, the best ones. As to
+the boy, his Majesty informed Don Philip of his existence. It was in
+Augsburg. He does not seem at all suited for the monastic life, and
+therefore I shall continue to strive to preserve him from it."
+
+"And if his Majesty decides otherwise?"
+
+"Then, of course--" answered Granvelle, shrugging his shoulders. "But
+the draught must be composed, and there are more important matters for
+us to discuss."
+
+As he spoke he rang the bell on the table at his side, and Hannibal
+obeyed his master's summons. In doing so he passed Barbara, who started
+as if bewildered when she heard him approach.
+
+He went up to her in great surprise, but ere he could utter the first
+words she clutched his arm, whispering: "I am going, Hannibal. His
+Eminence did not entirely forget me. If he can receive me, send word to
+my house."
+
+Scarcely able to control herself, Barbara set out on her way home.
+The words she had heard had shaken the depths of her soul like an
+earthquake.
+
+The news that Charles intended to confine in a monastery the boy whom
+she had given up to him that he might bestow upon him whatever lay
+within his imperial power poisoned her joy in the future. How often this
+man lead inflicted bleeding wounds upon her heart! Now he trampled it
+under his cruel feet. Two convictions had lent her the strength not
+to despair: she felt sure that his love for her could never have been
+extinguished had the power of her art aided her to warm Charles's heart,
+and she was still more positive that the father would raise to splendour
+and magnificence the boy whom she had given him.
+
+And now?
+
+He had refused the leech's request to help her regain the divine gift to
+which, according to his own confession, he owed the purest joys; and
+her strong, merry child he, its own father, condemned to disappear and
+wither in the imprisonment of a cloister. This must not be, and on her
+way home she formed plan after plan to prevent it.
+
+Pyramus attributed her sometimes depressed, sometimes irritable manner
+to the disappointment of her wish.
+
+What she had just learned and had had inflicted upon her filled her with
+hatred of life.
+
+Her two boys scarcely dared to approach their mother, who, unlike her
+usual self, harshly rebuffed them.
+
+At twilight Hannibal Melas appeared, full of joyous excitement.
+Granvelle sent Barbara word that the doorkeeper Mangin would show her a
+good seat. His Eminence desired to be remembered to her, and said that
+only those who had been closely associated with his Majesty would be
+admitted to this ceremony, and he knew that she ranked among the first
+of these.
+
+Barbara's features brightened and, as she saw how happy it made the
+Maltese to be the bearer of so pleasant a message, she forced herself to
+give a joyous expression to her gratitude. In the evening, and during
+a sleepless night, she considered whether she should make use of
+the invitation. What she had expected for herself and her child from
+Charles's abdication had been mere chimeras of the brain, and what could
+this spectacle offer her? She would only behold with her eyes what
+she had often enough imagined with the utmost distinctness--the great
+monarch divested of his grandeur and all his dignities.
+
+But Granvelle's message that she was one cf those who stood nearest to
+the abdicating sovereign constantly echoed in her ears, and her absence
+from this ceremony would have seemed to her unnatural--nay, an offence
+against something necessary.
+
+Her husband was pleased with the great minister's kindness to his wife.
+He had nothing to do in the palace, but he intended to look for the
+children, who had gone there before noon with Frau Lamperi, that they
+might get the best possible view of the approach of the princes and
+dignitaries.
+
+Barbara herself was to use a litter. The ex-'garde-robiere' had helped
+her put on her gala attire, and Pyramus assured his wife that every
+one would consider her the handsomest and most elegant lady in the
+galleries. She knew that he was right, and listened with pleasure,
+deeply as resentment and disappointment burdened her soul.
+
+Then the knocker on the door rapped. The litter-bearers had probably
+come. But no! The Flemish maid, who had opened the door, announced that
+a messenger was waiting outside with a letter which he could deliver
+only to the master or the mistress.
+
+Pyramus went into the entry, and his long absence was already making
+Barbara uneasy, when he returned with bowed head and, after many words
+of preparation, informed her that her father was very ill and, finally,
+that apoplexy had put a swift and easy end to his life.
+
+Then a great and genuine grief seized upon her with all its power.
+Everything that the simple-hearted, lovable man, who had guarded
+her child hood so tenderly and her girlhood with such solicitude and
+devotion, had been to her, returned to her memory in all its vividness.
+In him she had lost the last person whose right to judge her conduct she
+acknowledged, the only one whom she had good reason to be sure cared for
+her welfare as much as, nay, perhaps more than, his own.
+
+The litter, Granvelle's message, the Emperor's abdication ceremony,
+everything that had just wounded, angered, and disturbed her, was
+forgotten.
+
+She gently refused the consolation of her husband, who in the captain
+had lost a dear friend and sincerely mourned his death, and entreated
+him to leave her alone; but when her sons returned and joyously
+described the magnificent spectacle on which they had feasted their eyes
+outside of the palace, she drew them toward her with special tenderness,
+and tried to make them understand that they would never again see the
+good grandfather who had loved them all so dearly.
+
+But the older boy, Conrad, only gazed at her wonderingly, and asked why
+she was weeping; and the younger one did not understand her at all,
+and went on talking about the big soldier who wanted to lift him on his
+piebald horse. To the child death is only slumber, and life being awake
+to new games and pleasures.
+
+Barbara said this to her husband when he wished to check the merry
+laughter of the little ones, and then went to her chamber.
+
+There she strove to think of the dead man, and she succeeded, but with
+the memory of the sturdy old hero constantly blended the image of the
+feeble man who to-day was voluntarily surrendering all the gifts of
+fortune which she--oh, how willingly! would have received for the son
+whom he desired to withdraw from the world.
+
+The next morning Hannibal Melas came to ask what had kept her from the
+ceremony. He learned it in the entry from Frau Lamperi, and Barbara's
+tearful eyes showed him what deep sorrow this loss had caused her. Her
+whole manner expressed quiet melancholy. This great, pure grief had come
+just at the right time, flowing, like oil upon the storm-lashed waves,
+over hatred, resentment, and all the passionate emotions by which she
+had previously been driven to the verge of despair.
+
+She did not repulse the witness of her lost happiness, and listened
+attentively while Hannibal told her about the memorable ceremony which
+he had attended.
+
+True, his description of the lofty hall in the Brabant palace where it
+took place, the chapel adjoining it, and the magnificent decorations of
+flowers and banners that adorned it, told nothing new to Barbara. She
+was familiar with both, and had seen them garlanded, adorned with flags
+and coats of arms, and even witnessed the erection of the stage in the
+hall and the stretching of the canopy above it.
+
+The Emperor had appeared upon the platform at the stroke of three,
+leaning upon his crutch and the shoulder of William of Orange. His son
+Philip and the Queen of Hungary followed, and all took their seats
+upon the gilded thrones awaiting them. The blithe, pleasant Archduke
+Maximilian of Austria, the Duke of Savoy, who was expecting a great
+winning card in the game of luck of his changeful life, the Knights
+of the Golden Fleece, and the highest of the Netherland nobles, the
+councillors, the governor, and the principal military officers also had
+places upon the stage.
+
+Barbara knew every name that Hannibal mentioned. It seemed as if she saw
+the broken-down Emperor, his son Philip with his head haughtily thrown
+back, his favourite, the omnipotent minister, Ruy Gomez, the Prince
+of Eboli, who with his coal-black hair and beard would have resembled
+Quijada if, instead of the soldierly frankness of the major-domo, an
+uneasy, questioning expression had not lurked in his dark eyes, the
+brilliant Bishop of Arras, who had again so kindly placed her under
+obligation to him, and the Frieslander Viglius, who had dropped into her
+soul the wormwood whose bitterness she still tasted, and whose motto,
+"The life of mortals is a watch in the night," seemed to flash from his
+green eyes. Not a single woman had been admitted to the distinguished
+assembly of the States-General, the city magistrates, and illustrious
+invited guests, who as spectators sat on benches and chairs opposite
+to the stage, and this placed the kindness of Granvelle, whom the
+Netherland dignitaries were said to detest, in a still brighter light.
+
+The ceremony had been opened by the great speech of Philibert of
+Brussels, which the young Maltese described as a masterpiece of the
+finest rhetorical art. At the close of this address a solemn silence
+pervaded the hall, for the Emperor Charles had risen to take leave of
+his faithful subjects.
+
+One might have heard a leaf fall, a spicier walk, as, supported by the
+arm of William of Orange, he raised the notes of his address and began
+to read.
+
+At this information Barbara remembered how Maurice of Saxony had
+supported the Emperor at the May festival at Prebrunn. William of
+Orange, too, was still young. She had often seen him, and what deep
+earnestness rested on his noble brow! how open and pure was the glance
+of his clear eyes, yet how penetrating and inexorably keen it could also
+be! She had noticed this at the assembly of the Knights of the Golden
+Fleece, when he looked at King Philip with bitter hate or certainly with
+dislike and scorn. Was this man chosen to avenge Charles's sins upon his
+son and heir? Could the Prince of Orange be destined to deal with the
+new king as Maurice of Saxony had treated his imperial father? Would the
+resentment which, since the day before, had again filled her soul have
+permitted her to prevent it had she possessed the power?
+
+The Emperor's speech had treated of his broken health and the necessity
+of living in a milder climate. Then Don Philip had been described by his
+father as a successor whose wisdom equalled his experience. This called
+a smile to Barbara's lips.
+
+Philip was said to be an industrious, devout man, fond of
+letter-writing, and full of intrigue, but only his father would venture
+to compare him with himself, with Charles V.
+
+He, the son, probably knew how vacant and lustreless his eyes were, for
+he usually fixed them on the ground; and what fulness of life, what a
+fiery soul had sparkled only a short time ago, when she saw him in the
+distance, from those of the man whom she certainly was not disposed to
+flatter!
+
+Then the Emperor had reviewed his whole reign, mentioned how many wars
+he had waged, how many victories he had won and, finally, had reminded
+his son of the gratitude he owed a father who during his lifetime
+bestowed all his possessions upon him and, as it were, descended into
+the grave in order to make him earlier the heir of all his power and
+wealth.
+
+Now Barbara fancied that again--she knew not for what hundredth
+time--the Frieslander's exclamation, "Debts! debts!" rang in her ears,
+and at the same time she thought of the boy in Spain who had here been
+disinherited, and must be hidden in a monastery that the other son
+of the same father, the diminutive upstart Philip, puffed up with
+arrogance, might sleep more quietly. For one son the unjust man whom she
+loved was ready to die before his last hour came, in order to give him
+all that he possessed; for the other he could find nothing save a monk's
+cowl. Instead of the yearning for John, of which Wolf had spoken and
+she, blind fool, believed, he thought of him with petty fears of the
+claims by which he might injure his favoured brother. No warm impulse
+of paternal tenderness stirred the breast of the man whose heart was
+hardened, who understood how to divest himself of the warmest love as he
+now cast aside the crown and the purple of royalty.
+
+These torturing thoughts so powerfully affected Barbara that she only
+half heard what Hannibal was saying about the Emperor's admonition to
+his son to hold fast to justice, law, and the Catholic Church. But when
+Granvelle's faithful follower, in an agitated tone, went on to relate
+how Charles had besought the forgiveness of Providence for all the sins
+and errors which he had committed, and added that he would remember all
+who had rendered him happy by their love and obedience in every prayer
+which he addressed to the Being to whom the remnant of his life should
+be devoted, the ex-singer's breath came quicker, her small hands
+clinched, and the question whether she had failed in love and obedience
+before he basely cast her off forced itself upon her mind, and with it
+the other, whether he would also include in his prayers her whom he had
+ill-treated and mortally insulted.
+
+These thoughts lent her features so gloomy an expression that it would
+have offended the Emperor Charles's ardent admirer if he had noticed it.
+But the scene which, with tears in his eyes, he now described absorbed
+his attention so completely that he forgot everything around him and,
+as it were, gazed into his own soul while picturing to himself and his
+listener how the monarch, with a pallid, ashen countenance, had sunk
+back upon his throne and wept like a child.
+
+At this spectacle the whole assembly, even the sternest old general, had
+been overwhelmed by deep emotion, and the spacious hall echoed with the
+sobs and groans of graybeards, middle-aged men and youths, warriors and
+statesmen.
+
+Here the young man's voice failed and, weeping, with unfeigned emotion
+he covered his agitated face with his handkerchief.
+
+When he regained his composure he saw, with a shade of disappointment,
+that Barbara's eyes had remained dry during the description of an event
+in which he himself and so many stronger men had shed burning tears.
+
+Yet, when Barbara was again alone she could not drive from her mind the
+image of her broken-down, weeping lover. Doubtless she often felt moved
+to think of him with deep pity; but she soon remembered the conversation
+to which she had listened in the apartments of the Bishop of Arras, and
+her belief in the genuineness of those tears vanished.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+The winter came and passed. Instead of leaving the Netherlands, the
+Emperor Charles remained nearly a year in Brussels. He lived in a modest
+house in Lion Street and, although he had resigned the sovereignty,
+nothing was done in the domain of politics to which he had not given his
+assent.
+
+Barbara, more domestic than ever before, was leading a dream life, in
+which she dwelt more with her beloved dead and her child in Spain than
+with her family at home. She thought of the boy's father sometimes with
+bitter resentment, sometimes with quiet pity. Outward circumstances
+rendered it easier for her to conceal these feelings, for Pyramus
+attributed the melancholy mood which sometimes overpowered her to grief
+for her father.
+
+Her husband left the settlement of the business connected with her
+inheritance solely to her. There were many letters to be written and, as
+she had become unfamiliar with this art, Hannibal faithfully aided her.
+
+Dr. Hiltner, of Ratisbon, to whom, in spite of his heretical belief, she
+intrusted the legal business of the estate, acted wisely and promptly in
+her behalf. Thus the sale of the house which she had purchased for
+the dead man, and the disposal of her father's share in the Blomberg
+business, brought her far more money than she had expected.
+
+It seemed as though Fate desired to compensate her by outward prosperity
+for the secret sorrow which, in spite of her husband's affectionate
+solicitude and the thriving growth of her two boys, she could not shake
+off.
+
+In one respect she regarded the money which this winter brought her as a
+genuine blessing, for it seemed to invite her to go to Ems and do all
+in her power for the restoration of her voice. The hoarseness was now
+barely perceptible in her speech, and Dr. Mathys, whom she visited in
+April, encouraged her, and told her of really marvellous cures wrought
+by the famous old springs.
+
+When May came and the trees and shrubs in leafy Brussels adorned
+themselves with new buds, she could not help thinking more frequently,
+as usual in this month, of her wasted love and of the man for whom it
+had bloomed and who had destroyed it. So she liked to pass through Lion
+Street in her walks, for it led her by his house. She might easily meet
+him again there, and she longed to see his face once more before the
+departure for Spain, which would remove him from her sight forever.
+
+And behold! One sunny noon he was borne toward her in a litter. She
+stopped as though spellbound, bowing profoundly; her glance as he passed
+met his, and he waved his emaciated hand--yes, she was not mistaken--he
+waved it to her.
+
+For an instant it seemed as if a crimson rose had bloomed in the midst
+of winter snows. She had been as sure that he had not forgotten her as
+that she herself had not ceased to think of him.
+
+Now her confidence was, as it were, confirmed by letter and seal, and
+this made her happy.
+
+The man in the litter had been only the wreck of the Charles whom she
+loved; even the fiery light in his eyes, though not extinguished, had
+appeared subdued and veiled. Other women would probably have thought him
+repulsively plain, but what did she care for his looks? Each of them was
+still a part of the other, for her image lived in his soul, as his dwelt
+in hers.
+
+Barbara did not take as long a walk as usual; but when she was again
+approaching the house occupied by the abdicated sovereign, Dr. Mathys
+came toward her. The expression of his broad, dignified face suited the
+bright May morning; nay, she imagined that his step was lighter and less
+sedate than usual.
+
+During the whole decade which they had known each other he had never
+flattered her, but to-day, after the first greeting, he began his
+conversation with the question:
+
+"Do you know, Frau Barbara, that you were never more beautiful and
+charming than just at this very time? Perhaps it is the mourning which
+is so becoming to your pink-and-white complexion and the somewhat
+subdued lustre of your golden hair. But why do I feed your vanity with
+such speeches? Because I think that our gracious lord, who for many a
+long day has not bestowed even the least side glance upon any of your
+bewitching sex, noticed the same thing. And now you will presently be
+obliged to admit that the old messenger of bad news in Ratisbon, whom
+you requited so ill for his unpleasant errand, can also bring good
+tidings; for the Emperor Charles--in spite of the abdication, he will
+always be that until he, too, succumbs to the power which makes us all
+equal--his Majesty sends you his greetings, and the message that
+he desires to do what he can to restore to you the art in which you
+attained such rare mastery. He places at your disposal--this time, at
+least, he was not economical--a sum which will take you to the healing
+springs four or five times, nay, oftener still."
+
+Barbara had listened thus far, speechless with joyful surprise. If it
+was Charles to whom she owed her recovery, the gift of song which it
+restored would possess tenfold value for her, if that was conceivable.
+She was already beginning to charge the leech to be the bearer of her
+gratitude and joy, but he did not let her finish, and went on to mention
+the condition which his Majesty attached to this gift.
+
+Barbara must never mention it to any one, and must promise the physician
+to refrain from all attempts to thank him either in person or by letter
+in short, to avoid approaching him in any way.
+
+The old physician had communicated this stipulation--which his royal
+patient had strictly associated with the gift--to Barbara in the
+emphatic manner peculiar to him, but she had listened, at first in
+surprise, then with increasing indignation. The donation which, as a
+token of remembrance and kind feeling, had just rendered her so happy,
+now appeared like mere alms. Nay, the gift would make her inferior to
+the poorest beggar, for who forbids the mendicant to utter his "May God
+reward you"?
+
+Charles kept her aloof as if she were plague-stricken. Perhaps it was
+because he feared that if he saw her once he might desire a second and a
+third meeting. But no matter. She would accept no aid at the cost of so
+severe an offence to her pride, least of all when it came from the man
+who had already wounded her soul often and painfully enough.
+
+The startled physician perceived what was passing in her mind, and when,
+not passionately as in her youth, but with cool composure, she requested
+Dr. Mathys to tell his master that it would be as impossible for her to
+accept a gift for which she could not express her thanks as to give alms
+without wishing well to the recipient, the leech eagerly endeavoured to
+persuade her to use the sum bestowed according to the donor's wish. But
+Barbara firmly persisted in her refusal, and when she parted from the
+old man he could not be angry with her, for, as in the garden of the
+little Prebrunn castle, he could not help saying to himself that the
+wrong was not wholly on the side of the independent young woman.
+
+The result in this case was the usual one when the weaker party succeeds
+in maintaining itself against the superior power of the stronger.
+Barbara set out on her way home with her head proudly erect, but she
+soon asked herself whether this victory was not too dearly purchased.
+In a few months John was to meet his father, and then might there not be
+cause to fear that the opposition which she, his mother, had offered to
+the Emperor, in order to escape an offence to her own pride, would prove
+an injury to the son? She stopped, hesitating; but after a brief period
+of reflection, she continued her walk. What she had done might vex the
+monarch, but it must rather enhance than lower her value in his eyes,
+and everything depended upon that. Charles would open the path to high
+honours and royal splendour to the son of a haughty mother rather than
+to the child of a narrow-minded woman, who would receive a gift without
+being suffered to express her thanks.
+
+She had done right, and rejoiced that this time she had obeyed the voice
+of her imperious soul. She no longer desired to meet again the man whom
+she loved. Her wish to look into his eyes once more before his death or
+hers was fulfilled, and his glance, which had certainly been the last
+that he could give her, had expressed the kind feeling and forgiveness
+for which she had secretly yearned. So what he had done was surely not
+intended to wound her. She understood his desire to obtain peace of mind
+and his fear of entering into communication with her again, and from
+this time it once more became a necessity to her to include him in her
+prayers.
+
+She left her home with a lighter heart, better satisfied with herself
+than she had been for years. The Emperor Charles could not help thinking
+of her now as she desired. The love which she had never wholly withdrawn
+was again his, and the feeling of belonging to him exalted her pride and
+brightened her clouded soul.
+
+Frau Lamperi accompanied her, and marvelled at her mistress's happy
+mood. Besides, the Ems waters and the excellent advice of the physician
+to whose care she intrusted herself exerted a beneficial influence upon
+her ailment.
+
+Her mourning garb prevented her from taking any part in the gay life of
+the watering-place, but she found pleasure in watching it.
+
+When she returned to Brussels, Pyramus thought she looked as young as in
+her girlhood, and every wish that her husband fancied he could read in
+her eyes was gratified with loving eagerness.
+
+But the preparations for war against France allowed him only a short
+time to remain in Brussels, and during his absence Barbara enjoyed
+unlimited freedom.
+
+The Emperor had sailed for Spain, Queen Mary had retired from the
+regency, and Duke Emanuel Philibert of Savoy had taken it in her place.
+King Philip remained in the Netherlands, and it was said in his praise
+that he showed the boundless arrogance characteristic of him in a less
+offensive way, and had acquired more affable manners.
+
+Barbara often longed to seek an audience with him.
+
+But what would it avail?
+
+Philip was perhaps the very person who would be glad to have his
+half-brother disappear in a monastery.
+
+Yet the yearning to hear some news of her child would not be silenced.
+Of the distant Emperor, who was said to be near his end, and spent his
+days and sleepless nights in the monastery of San Yuste in prayer and
+severe mortification, as the most pious of monks, she thought with
+sympathizing affection.
+
+The following year Barbara went to Ems again, this time no longer in
+mourning robes, but scarcely less magnificently attired than many a
+Rhenish noble's wife, who was also seeking health and amusement there.
+The property she had inherited, and which the conscientious Pyramus
+would not touch, and Frau Lamperi's skilful fingers had accomplished
+this. Though the materials which she selected were not the most costly,
+her aristocratic bearing made them appear valuable. She still possessed
+the pearl necklace and other ornaments of more prosperous days, and on
+festal occasions they did not remain in a chest.
+
+She by no means lacked notice, partly on her own account, partly in
+consequence of the conversations with which Granvelle, who visited the
+springs for a short time, honoured her, while he kept entirely aloof
+from all the other guests. This favour on the part of so famous and
+powerful a statesman induced many of the most aristocratic ladies and
+nobles to seek her, and many who had been attracted solely by curiosity
+were charmed with the entertaining sprightliness of the beautiful woman,
+and admitted her to their very exclusive circle.
+
+This time the springs proved still more beneficial than when she first
+used them, and the hope of soon being able to exercise her beloved art
+again gained new and solid foundation.
+
+This occupied a large share of her thoughts, but a still greater one
+was filled with the yearning for her John, of whom, in spite of many
+inquiries, she could hear nothing.
+
+When, in her quiet home life, the monotony of her days oppressed her
+more heavily, she often remembered Ems, and the pleasures and attention
+which the next summer there would bring her. Now that the great,
+passionate emotions which had been devoted to others were at rest,
+she began to think more of her own person. It seemed desirable to show
+herself to advantage, and though she longed for her recovery above all
+for the sake of her art and the pleasure which its exercise afforded
+her, she was already secretly thinking how she could use it to restore
+and obtain satisfaction for her paralyzed self-esteem.
+
+In consequence of the victory of St. Quentin, Brussels was filled
+with festal joy; but Barbara took very little part in the numerous
+festivities which followed one another, and again went to Ems.
+
+When she returned, much benefited, her first visit was to the Dubois
+house in the park. Unfortunately, it was futile; but when, a few weeks
+before the battle of Gravelines, she repeated it for the second time,
+she met the couple, now advancing in years, out of doors, and saw that
+some good fortune had come to them.
+
+Usually she had always been received here with a certain shade of
+embarrassment, but to-day her coming seemed to please Herr Adrian. From
+the great arm-chair, which he now never left, he held out his hand to
+her, and Frau Traut's merry eyes looked a glad welcome.
+
+After the first greetings, they eagerly expressed their joyful
+amazement at the clear tones of her voice. Then Frau Dubois exchanged
+a significant glance with her husband, and now Barbara learned that a
+letter had arrived from San Yuste that very morning, which contained
+little except pleasant news of his Majesty and John.
+
+While speaking, Adrian drew from his doublet the precious missive,
+showed it to the young wife as cautiously as a fragile ornament which
+we are reluctant to let pass out of our hands, and said in an agitated
+voice:
+
+"The writer is no less a personage than Dona Magdalena de Ulloa. May
+Heaven reward her for it!"
+
+Barbara gazed beseechingly into his wrinkled face, and from the inmost
+depths of her heart rose the cry: "Oh, let me see it, for I--you know
+it--I am his mother!"
+
+"So she is," said the old man in a tone of assent, nodded his long head,
+whose hair was now snow-white, and glanced questioningly at his wife.
+The answer was an assent.
+
+Adrian clasped his chin--during the period of his service he had always
+worn it smooth-shaven, but the white stubble of a full beard was
+now growing on it--in his emaciated hand, and asked Barbara if she
+understood Spanish.
+
+Her knowledge of it was very slight; but Frau Traut, who, like her
+husband, had mastered it during the long years of intercourse with the
+Castilian court, now undertook to put the contents of the letter into
+German.
+
+This was not difficult, for she had already been obliged to read it
+aloud three times to Adrian, who could no longer decipher written
+characters.
+
+The address was not omitted; it had pleased them both. It ran as
+follows:
+
+"To his Majesty's good and faithful servant, Adrian Dubois, from his
+affectionate friend of former days, Dona Magdalena de Ulloa, wife of Don
+Luis Mendez Quijada, Lady of Villagarcia."
+
+Frau Trout read these noble names aloud to Barbara proudly, as if they
+were her own; but before she went on Adrian interrupted--
+
+"As to friendship, you may think, Frau Barbara, that Dona Magdalena is
+showing me far too much honour in using those words; but I would still
+give my right hand for that lovely creature with her kindly soul. When,
+just after Don Luis married her, his Majesty took her young husband
+away, she entreated me most earnestly to look after him, and I could
+sometimes be of assistance. To be sure, we broke many a piece of bread
+together in war and peace in the same service. Ah, Frau Barbara! I am
+far better off here than I deserve to be; but sometimes my heart is
+ready to break when I think of my Emperor, and that I must leave the
+care of him to others."
+
+"But it is hard enough for the major-domo and his Majesty to do without
+you," said Frau Traut importantly. "Don Luis, the letter says, would
+gladly have written with his own hand, but he had not a single leisure
+moment; for, since Adrian had gone, he was obliged to be at hand to
+serve his Majesty by day as well as by night. My husband's successor,
+Bodart, whom he trained for the service, is skilful and makes every
+effort, but he can not replace Adrian to his suffering master."
+
+Then Frau Traut looked more closely at the letter, and began to
+translate its contents.
+
+"Of course," she began, "San Yuste is not like Brussels; but if they
+think there that his Majesty lives like a monk and submits to the rules
+of the monastery, they are misinformed."
+
+Here she lowered the sheet; but Barbara's cheeks were glowing with
+impatient interest, and she exclaimed with urgent warmth: "Oh, please,
+read on! But where--it is probably in the letter--where is our child?"
+
+"One thing after the other, as the letter communicates it," replied the
+translator in a reproving tone; but her husband nodded soothingly to
+Barbara, and said:
+
+"Only this first: Our John is near his father, and there is something
+especially good about him toward the end. Dona Magdalena is a true
+Castilian--first the King, then her husband, then the others according
+to their rank. It is different here and in your country. Patience and
+you, Frau Barbara, have been bad friends ever since I knew you."
+
+Barbara's sorrowful smile confirmed this statement, and when Frau Traut
+at last went on, the tone of her voice betrayed how little she liked
+interruptions just now.
+
+"You were informed of his Majesty's safe landing at Quiposcoa. It was
+pitiful to see how the people in his train who did not belong to the
+number of those who were to accompany him to Jarandilla behaved at the
+parting from their beloved master. The body-guards flung their halberds
+on the pavement, and there were plenty of tears and lamentations. On
+St. Blasius's day--[February 3, 1557]--his Majesty at last entered
+San Yuste. Don Luis, as you know, had gone before to get the house in
+readiness for his master. One could scarcely imagine a pleasanter spot,
+for there is no greener valley than that of San Yuste in the whole range
+of the Carpetano Mountains, nay, perhaps in all Spain. It is difficult
+to describe how everything is growing and blossoming here now, in the
+month of May. The little garden of the house is well kept and full of
+beautiful orange trees. While blossoming, they exhale the most exquisite
+perfume, and his Majesty enjoys the delicious fragrance which the wind
+bears to him.
+
+"In your noisy Brussels it is hard to imagine how quiet it can be here,
+dear Senor Adrian. Nothing is to be heard save the carol of a bird, the
+rippling of a clear stream flowing swiftly through the valley, and at
+intervals the distinct notes of the little bells and cymbals upon the
+clocks which his Majesty brought with him. Even their ticking is often
+audible. At certain hours the ringing of the monastery bells blends
+solemnly and softly with the silence. The Hieronymites in the monastery
+are pious monks. His Majesty sometimes listens to their choir. Its music
+is very fine since Sir Wolf Hartschwert, whom you also know, has taken
+charge of it.
+
+"From all this, you will perceive that the master, with whom your
+faithful soul doubtless often dwells, is supplied--restricted by no
+monastic discipline--with whatever suits his taste. He frequently
+devotes himself for hours to religious exercises, and also retires
+to the black-draped room with the coffin, which you know; but the old
+industry and secular cares pursued him here. Mounted messengers come and
+go continually, but they are not allowed to remain near the house.
+
+"Even in Brussels he can scarcely have written and answered more letters
+than he does here.
+
+"If only the body would prosper as well as the mind. That is as active
+and alert as ever. But the body--the body! O Senor Adrian! I fear that
+the end is not far distant, although our royal sufferer looks better
+than at his arrival.
+
+"'The eating!' Dr. Mathys complains; but you know well enough how that
+is.
+
+"Three days have passed since I began this letter. You are aware of most
+of what concerns your beloved master; now for my husband.
+
+"He has never had service so arduous as here, for the grand prior, Don
+Luis de Avila, is nothing to his Majesty except a dear old brother in
+arms, with whom he is fond of talking about the past. Everything rests
+on my poor husband. He said, a short time ago, that he would no longer
+endure playing the host to everybody who comes to San Yuste, being agent
+for everybody in Spain who desires anything from the Emperor Charles,
+and at the same time constantly caring for the person of the sick
+sovereign. This life, he thinks, may suit a person who has taken
+leave of his property and the world, but he still clings to both, and
+especially to me, the poor wife who has been parted from him so long. He
+has served the Emperor twenty-five years, and during this time he lost
+all his brothers in the war. The estates came to him, and how long they
+have already been deprived of the master's eye!
+
+"Don Luis told the Emperor Charles all this, yet he refused him leave
+of absence to go to Villagarcia. Instead, I was obliged to move near
+my husband, and am now living with Geronimo, in the wretched village of
+Cuacos, which is easily reached from San Yuste. There I finally arrived
+with the boy whom the Virgin, in her inexhaustible mercy, gave to me,
+a poor, childless woman, to make me happy, although on his account I
+wronged my lord and husband by a sinful suspicion.
+
+"Here I must begin my letter for the third time.
+
+"It was fortunate that Geronimo left Massi and Leganes, for he was
+allowed to grow up there like a little savage. Before learning to obey,
+he was permitted to command.--No one opposed him, so in Villagarcia the
+first thing necessary was to accustom him to discipline, obedience, and
+the manners of the nobles. The trouble was not great, and how richly the
+boy rewarded it! He is now in his twelfth year, and how your good wife
+would stare, Adrian, if she could see her nursling again! Do not suppose
+that it is blind partiality when I say that few handsomer lads could
+be found in all King Philip's dominions. His figure is slender and only
+slightly above middle height; but how erect and noble is his bearing,
+how symmetrically his pliant form is developing! His delicately cut
+features and large blue eyes glow with the bold courage which fills his
+soul, and which he displays in riding, hunting, and fencing. He still
+has his wealth of fair, waving locks. Among a thousand other boys no one
+will overlook him. Don Luis, too, admits that he was born to dignity
+and honour. Every chivalrous and royal virtue is in his blood. Even his
+mother could not sully it."
+
+Here Frau Traut paused to look at Barbara, who had listened, panting for
+breath.
+
+She was sorry that she had not omitted the last sentence, but in the
+zeal of translating it had unconsciously escaped her lips, and, as she
+found no softening word, she went on:
+
+"Geronimo has become a dear child to me. He thinks that I am his own
+mother, and clings to me with filial affection. To lead such a son to
+this august father was the greatest joy that Heaven has bestowed upon
+me.
+
+"Dressed as my page, he rode with me to Jarandilla to meet his Majesty.
+He was to present to the imperial master, of whose near relationship
+he had no idea, a little basket filled with beautiful oranges from our
+garden in Villagarcia, which you know.
+
+"The young horseman, who understands how to wheel his steed, swung
+himself from the saddle close beside his Majesty, bent the knee with
+noble grace, raised his little plumed hat, and, pressing his left hand
+upon his heart, presented the little gift to his sovereign and master.
+As the weather was mild, the latter sat in an open sedan chair, and when
+he saw Geronimo he scanned him with the keen glance of the ruler, and
+then looked inquiringly at my husband. Don Luis nodded the answer which
+he desired to receive, and a bright smile flitted over his emaciated,
+corpselike features. Then he accepted the oranges, stroked his son's
+curls, addressed a few questions to him, which he answered modestly but
+aptly, and then called to my husband, 'This boy must remain near me.'
+
+"Oh, what pleasure all this gave me! Now Geronimo goes in and out of his
+Majesty's apartments freely, and my reason for writing this letter is an
+incident I happened to witness, and which will please you, Adrian, and
+your good wife, as it filled my heart with fervent gratitude. So listen:
+When the Emperor meets Geronimo in the presence of strangers, he seems
+to take neither more nor less notice of him than of the other pages who
+come to San Yuste. Only he often calls him, asks a question, or gives
+him some trivial commission. Others would scarcely notice it, but I see
+the brightening of his eyes as he does so.
+
+"Recently I looked through the open door which leads from his Majesty's
+work-room into the garden, and what did the Virgin permit me to
+behold?--Geronimo, who was alone with the Emperor, picked up a sheet of
+paper that had fluttered to the ground and handed it to him. Then
+the Emperor Charles suddenly raised his poor hands oh, how they are
+disfigured by the gout!--laid them on the boy's temples, drew his head
+nearer, and kissed his brow and eyes! Charles V, the fugitive from the
+world, the man crushed by sorrow and disappointment, did that! This
+kiss--Don Luis believes it also--sealed the son's acceptance into his
+father's heart."
+
+Here Frau Traut let the sheet fall. Her voice had failed during the last
+sentences; now she exclaimed amid her tears, "The Emperor's kiss!" and
+her husband, no less deeply stirred by emotion, cried, "The Emperor
+Charles--no one knows as well as I what that means--the Emperor Charles,
+whose heart compels him to kiss some one."
+
+Here Barbara rose with flushed cheeks, panting for breath.
+
+She felt as if she must cry aloud to these good people: "What do you
+know about my lover's kiss? I, I alone, not you, you poor, good man,
+could tell you. Insignificant and wretched as I may be, no woman on
+earth can boast of prouder memories, and now that he has also kissed his
+child and mine, everything is forgiven him."
+
+Silently, with hurrying breath, she stood before the agitated couple,
+who were waiting for some remark, some outburst of gratitude and
+delight; but there was only a quivering of the lips, and her blue eyes
+flashed with a fiery light.
+
+What was the matter with her?
+
+Frau Train turned anxiously to her husband to ask, in a whisper, whether
+joy had turned the poor young mother's brain; but Barbara had already
+recovered her composure, and, passing her hand quickly across her brow,
+murmured softly, "It came over me too strongly."
+
+Then she thanked them with earnest warmth; yet when Frau Traut praised
+Dona Magdalena's heavenly goodness, she nodded assent, it is true; but
+she soon took her leave--she felt paralyzed and dazzled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+On the way home Barbara often pressed her left hand with her right to
+assure herself that she was not dreaming.
+
+This time she found her husband in the house. At the first glance
+Pyramus saw that something unusual had happened; but she gave him no
+time to question her, only glanced around to see if they were alone, and
+then cried, as if frantic: "I will bear it no longer. You must know it
+too. But it is a great secret." Then she made him swear that he, too,
+would keep it strictly, and in great anxiety he obeyed.
+
+He, like Barbara's father, had supposed that the Emperor's son had
+entered the world only to leave it again. Barbara's "I no longer have a
+child; it was taken from me," he had interpreted in the same way as the
+old captain, and, from delicacy of feeling, had never again mentioned
+the subject in her presence.
+
+While taking the oath, he had been prepared for the worst; but when his
+wife, in passionate excitement, speaking so fast that the words fair
+tumbled over one another, told him how she had been robbed of her boy;
+how his imperial father had treated him; how she had longed for him;
+what prayers she had uttered in his behalf; how miserable she had been
+in her anxiety about this child; and, now, that Dona Magdalena's letter
+permitted her to cherish the highest and greatest hopes for the boy, the
+tall, strong man stood before her with downcast eyes, like a detected
+criminal, his hand gripping the edge of the top of the table which
+separated her from him.
+
+Barbara saw his broad, arched chest rise and fall, and wondered why his
+manly features were quivering; but ere she had time to utter a single
+soothing word, he burst forth: "I made the vow and will be silent; but
+to-morrow, or in a year or two, it will be in everybody's mouth, and
+then, then My good name! Honour!"
+
+Fierce indignation overwhelmed Barbara, and, no longer able to control
+herself, she exclaimed: "What did it matter whether Death or his father
+snatched the child from me? The question is, whether you knew that I am
+his mother, and it was not concealed from you. Nevertheless, you came
+and sought me for your wife! That is what happened! And--you know
+this--you are as much or little dishonoured by me, the mother of the
+living child, as of the dead one. Out upon the honour which is harmed
+by gossip! What slanderous tongues say of me as a disgrace I deem the
+highest honour; but if you are of a different opinion, and held it when
+you wooed me, you would be wiser to prate less loudly of the proud word
+'honour,' and we will separate."
+
+Pyramus had listened to these accusations and the threat with trembling
+lips. His simple but upright mind felt that she was right, so far as he
+was concerned, and she was more beautiful in her anger than he had seen
+her since the brilliant days of her youthful pride. The fear of losing
+her seized his poor heart, so wholly subject to her, with sudden power
+and, stammering an entreaty for forgiveness, he confessed that the
+surprise had bewildered him, and that he thought he had showed in the
+course of the last ten years how highly, in spite of people's gossip, he
+prized her. He held out his large honest hand with a pleading look as he
+spoke, and she placed hers in it for a short time.
+
+Then she went to church to collect her thoughts and relieve her
+overburdened heart. Boundless contempt for the man to whom she was
+united filled it; yet she felt that she owed him a debt of gratitude,
+that he was weak only through love, and that, for her children's sake,
+she must continue to wear the yoke which she had taken upon herself.
+
+His existence henceforth became of less and less importance to her
+feelings and actions, especially as he left the management of their two
+boys to her. He had reason to be satisfied with it, for she provided
+Conrad with the best instruction, that the might choose between the
+army and the legal profession; his younger brother she intended for the
+priesthood, and the boy's inclination harmonized with her choice.
+
+The fear that the Emperor Charles might yet commit the child she loved
+to the monastery never left her. But she thought that she might induce
+Heaven to relinquish its claim upon her John, whom, moreover, it seemed
+to have destined for the secular life, by consecrating her youngest
+child to its service.
+
+While she did not forget her household, her mind was constantly in
+Spain. Her walks were usually directed toward the palace, to inquire how
+the recluse in San Yuste was faring, and whether any rumour mentioned
+her imperial son.
+
+After the great victory gained by Count Egmont against the military
+forces of France, eleven months after the battle of St. Quentin, there
+was enough to be seen in Brussels. The successful general was greeted
+with enthusiastic devotion. Egmont's name was in every one's mouth, and
+when she, too, saw the handsome, proud young hero, the idol, as it
+were, of a whole nation, gorgeous in velvet, silk, and glittering gems,
+curbing his fiery steed and bowing to the shouting populace with a
+winning smile, she thought she caught a glimpse of the future, and
+beheld the predecessor of him who some day would receive similar homage.
+
+Why should she not have yielded to such hopes? Already there was
+a rumour that the daughter of the Emperor and that Johanna Van der
+Gheynst, who had been Charles's first love, Margaret of Parma, her own
+son's sister, had been chosen to rule the Netherlands as regent.
+
+Why should less honours await Charles's son than his daughter?
+
+But the festal joy in the gay capital was suddenly extinguished, for in
+the autumn of the year that, in March, had seen Ferdinand, the Emperor's
+brother, assume the imperial crown, a rumour came that the recluse of
+San Yuste had closed his eyes, and a few days after it was verified.
+
+It was Barbara's husband who told her of the loss which had befallen her
+and the world. He did this with the utmost consideration, fearing the
+effect of this agitating news upon his wife; but Barbara only turned
+pale, and then, with tears glittering in her eyes, said softly, "He,
+too, was only a mortal man."
+
+Then she withdrew to her own room, and even on the following day saw
+neither her husband nor her children. She had long expected Charles's
+death, yet it pierced the inmost depths of her being.
+
+This sorrow was something sacred, which belonged to her and to her
+alone. It would have seemed a profanation to reveal it to her unloved
+husband, and she found strength to shut it within herself.
+
+How desolate her heart seemed! It had lost its most distinguished object
+of love or hate.
+
+Through long days she devoted herself in quiet seclusion to the memory
+of the dead, but soon her active imagination unfolded its wings again,
+and with the new grief mingled faint hopes for the boy in Spain, which
+increased to lofty anticipations and torturing anxiety.
+
+The imperial father was dead. What now awaited the omnipotent ruler's
+son?
+
+How had Charles determined his fate?
+
+Was it possible that he still intended him for the monastic life, now
+that he had become acquainted with his talents and tastes?
+
+Since Barbara had learned that her son had won his father's heart, and
+that the Emperor, as it were, had made him his own with a kiss, she
+had grown confident in the hope that Charles would bestow upon him the
+grandeur, honours, and splendour which she had anticipated when she
+resigned him at Landshut, and to which his birth gave him a claim.
+But her early experience that what she expected with specially joyful
+security rarely happened,--constantly forced upon her mind the fear that
+the dead man's will would consign John to the cloister.
+
+So the next weeks passed in a constant alternation of oppressive fears
+and aspiring hopes, the nights in torturing terrors.
+
+All the women of the upper classes wore mourning, and with double
+reason; for, soon after the news of the Emperor's death reached
+Brussels, King Philip's second wife, Mary Tudor, of England, also died.
+Therefore no one noticed that Barbara wore widow's weeds, and she was
+glad that she could do so without wounding Pyramus.
+
+A part of the elaborate funeral rites which King Philip arranged in
+Brussels during the latter part of December in honour of his dead father
+was the procession which afforded the authorities of the Brabant capital
+an opportunity to display the inventive faculty, the love of splendour,
+the learning, and the wit which, as members of flourishing literary
+societies, they constantly exercised. In the pageant was a ship with
+black sails, at whose keel, mast, and helm stood Hope with her anchor,
+Faith with her chalice, and Love with the burning heart. Other similar
+scenic pieces made the sincerity of the grief for the dead questionable,
+and yet many real tears were shed for him. True, the wind which swelled
+the sails of the sable ship bore also many an accusation and curse;
+among the spectators of the procession there were only too many whose
+mourning robes were worn not for the dead monarch, but their own nearest
+relatives, whom his pitiless edicts had given to the executioner as
+readers of the Bible or heterodox.
+
+These displays, so pleasing to the people of her time and her new home,
+were by no means great or magnificent enough for Barbara. Even the most
+superb show seemed to her too trivial for this dead man.
+
+She was never absent from any mass for the repose of his soul, and she
+not only took part outwardly in the sacred ceremony, but followed it
+with fervent devotion. As a transfigured spirit, he would perceive how
+she had once hated him; but he should also see how tenderly she still
+loved him.
+
+Now that he was dead, it would be proved in what way he had remembered
+the son whom, in his solitude, he had learned to love, what life path
+John had been assigned by his father.
+
+But longingly as Barbara thought of Spain and of her boy, often as
+she went to the Dubois house and to the regent's home to obtain news,
+nothing could be heard of her child.
+
+Many provisions of the imperial will were known, but there was no
+mention of her son. Yet Charles could not have forgotten him, and Adrian
+protested that it would soon appear that he had not omitted him in his
+last will, and this was done in a manner which indicated that he knew
+more than he would or could confess.
+
+All this increased Barbara's impatience to the highest degree, and
+induced her to watch and question with twofold zeal. On no account would
+she have left the capital during this period of decision, and, though
+her husband earnestly entreated her to go to the springs, whose waters
+had proved so beneficial, she remained in Brussels.
+
+In August she saw King Philip set out for Spain, and Margaret of Parma,
+her son's sister, assume the government of the Netherlands as regent.
+
+On various occasions she succeeded in obtaining a near view of the
+stately-lady, with her clever; kindly and, spite of the famous down
+on her upper lip, by no means unlovely features, and her attractive
+appearance gave Barbara courage to request an audience, in order to
+learn from her something about her child. But the effort was vain, for
+the duchess had had no news of the existence of a second son of her
+father; and this time it was Granvelle who prevented the regent from
+receiving the woman who would probably have spoken to her of the boy
+concerning whose fate King Philip had yet reached no determination.
+
+Barbara spent the month of October in depression caused by this
+fresh disappointment, but it, too, passed without bringing her any
+satisfaction.
+
+It seemed almost foolish to lull herself further with ambitious
+expectations, but the hope a mother's heart cherishes for her child does
+not die until its last throb; and if the Emperor Charles's will did not
+give her John his rights, then the gracious Virgin would secure them, if
+necessary, by a miracle.
+
+Her faithful clinging to hope was rewarded, for when one day, with
+drooping head, she returned home from another futile errand, she found
+Hannibal Melas there, as bearer of important news.
+
+The Emperor's last will had a codicil, which concerned a son of his
+Majesty; but, a few days before his end, Charles had also remembered
+Barbara, and commissioned Ogier Bodart, Adrian's successor, to buy a
+life annuity for her in Brussels. Hannibal had learned all this from
+secret despatches received by Granvelle the day before. Informing her of
+their contents might cost him his place; but how often she had entreated
+him to think of her if any news came from Valladolid of a boy named
+Geronimo or John, and how much kindness she had showed him when he was
+only a poor choir boy!
+
+At last, at last the most ardent desire of the mother's heart was to be
+fulfilled. She saw in the codicil the bridge which would lead her son
+to splendour and magnificence, and up to the last hour of his life the
+Emperor Charles had also remembered her.
+
+She felt not only relieved of a burden, but as if borne on wings. Which
+of these two pieces of news rendered her the happier, she could not have
+determined. Yet she did not once think of the addition to her income.
+What was that in comparison to the certainty that to the last Charles
+did not forget her!
+
+It made her husband happy to see her sunny cheerfulness. Never had she
+played and romped with the children in such almost extravagant mirth.
+Nay, more! For the first time the officer's modest house echoed with the
+singing of its mistress.
+
+Though her voice was no longer so free from sharpness and harshness as
+in the old days, it by no means jarred upon the ear; nay, every tone
+revealed its admirable training. She had broken the long silence
+with Josquin's motet, "Quia amore langueo," and in her quiet chamber
+dedicated it, as it were, to the man to whom this cry of longing had
+been so dear. Then, in memory of and gratitude to him, other religious
+songs which he had liked to hear echoed from her lips.
+
+The little German ballads which she afterward sang, to the delight of
+her boys, deeply moved her husband's heart, and she herself found that
+it was no insult to art when, with the voice that she now possessed, she
+again devoted herself to the pleasure of singing.
+
+If the codicil brought her son what she desired, she could once more, if
+her voice lost the sharpness which still clung to it, serve her beloved
+art as a not wholly unworthy priestess, and then, perchance, she would
+again possess the right, so long relinquished, of calling herself happy.
+
+She would go the next day to Appenzelder, who always greeted her kindly
+when they met in the street, and ask his advice.
+
+If only Wolf had been there!
+
+He understood how to manage women's voices also, and could have given
+her the best directions how to deal with the new singing exercises.
+
+It seemed as though in these days not one of her wishes remained
+unfulfilled, for the very next afternoon, just as she was dressing to
+call upon the leader of the boy choir, the servant announced a stranger.
+
+A glad presentiment hurried her into the vestibule, and there stood
+Sir Wolf Hartschwert in person, an aristocratic cavalier in his black
+Spanish court costume. He had become a man indeed, and his appearance
+did not even lack the "sosiego," the calm dignity of the Castilian
+noble, which gave Don Louis Quijada so distinguished an appearance.
+
+True, his greeting was more eager and cordial than the genuine
+"sosiego"--which means "repose"--would have permitted. Even the manner
+in which Wolf expressed his pleasure in the new melody of Barbara's
+voice, and whispered an entreaty to send the children and Frau
+Lamperi--who came to greet him--away for a short time, was anything but
+patient.
+
+What had he in view?
+
+Yet it must be something good.
+
+When the light shone through her flower-decked window upon his face, she
+thought she perceived this by the smile hovering around his lips. She
+was not mistaken, nor did she wait long for the joyous tidings she
+expected; his desire to tell her what, with the exception of the
+regent--to whom his travelling companion, the Grand Prior Don Luis de
+Avila, was perhaps just telling it as King Philip's envoy--no human
+being in the Netherlands could yet know, was perhaps not much less than
+hers to hear it.
+
+Scarcely an hour before he had dismounted in Brussels with the nobleman,
+and his first visit was to her, whom his news must render happy, even
+happier than it did him and the woman in the house near the palace,
+whose heart cherished the Emperor's son scarcely less warmly than his
+own mother's.
+
+On the long journey hither he had constantly anticipated the pleasure
+of telling every incident in succession, just as it had happened; but
+Barbara interrupted his first sentence with an inquiry how her John was
+faring.
+
+"He is so well that scarcely ever has any boy in the happiest time of
+his life fared better," was the reply; and its purport, as well as
+the tone in which it was uttered, entered Barbara's heart like angels'
+greetings from the wide-open heavens. But Wolf went on with his report,
+and when, in spite of hundreds of questions, he at last completed the
+main points, his listener staggered, as if overcome by wine, to the
+image of the Virgin on the pilaster, and with uplifted hands threw
+herself on her knees before it.
+
+Wolf, unobserved, silently stole away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+The following afternoon Wolf sought Barbara again, and now for the
+first time succeeded in relating regularly and clearly what, constantly
+interrupted by her impatience, he had told in a confused medley the day
+before. Pyramus, as usual, was away, and Barbara had taken care that no
+one should interrupt them.
+
+Deep silence pervaded the comfortable room, and Wolf had seated himself
+in the arm-chair opposite to the young wife when, at her entreaty, he
+began to tell the story again. She had informed him of Dona Magdalena's
+letter, and that it took her to the Emperor's residence in San Yuste. At
+that point her friend's fresh tidings began.
+
+In the spring of the previous year Wolf had again been summoned from
+Valladolid, where in the winter he directed the church singing as
+prinnen of the religious music, to Cuacos, near San Yuste, where
+Quijada's wife lived with her foster-son Geronimo. From there he had
+often gone with Dona Magdalena and the boy to the Emperor's residence,
+and frequently saw him.
+
+The account given in the letter written by Quijada's wife also applied
+to the last months of the imperial recluse's existence. Doubtless he
+sometimes devoted himself to pious exercises and quiet meditation,
+but he was usually busied with political affairs and the reading and
+dictating of despatches. Even at that time he received many visitors.
+When Geronimo came from Cuacos, he was permitted to go in and out of
+his apartments freely, and the Emperor even seemed to prefer him to Don
+Carlos, his grandson, King Philip's only son, who was destined to
+become the head of his house; at least, Charles's conduct favoured this
+opinion.
+
+On his return to Spain he had made his grandson's acquaintance in
+Valladolid.
+
+He was a boy who had well-formed, somewhat sickly features, and a
+fragile body. Of course the grandfather felt the deepest interest in
+him, and the influence of the famous victor in so many battles upon the
+twelve-year-old lad was a most beneficial one.
+
+But Charles had scarcely left Valladolid when the passionate boy's
+extremely dangerous tastes burst forth with renewed violence. The
+recluse student of human nature had probably perceived them, for when
+his tutor, and especially the young evildoer's aunt, Juana, the Emperor
+Charles's daughter, earnestly entreated him to let the grandson, whose
+presence would disturb him very little, come to San Yuste, because his
+influence over Don Carlos would be of priceless value, the grandfather
+most positively refused the request.
+
+On the other hand, the Emperor had not only tolerated his son Geronimo
+near him, but rejoiced in his presence, for the quiet sufferer's eyes
+had sparkled when he saw him. Wolf himself had often witnessed this
+delightful sight.
+
+How Barbara's heart swelled, how eagerly she listened, as Wolf described
+how well founded was his Majesty's affection for this beautiful,
+extremely lovable, docile, true-hearted, and, moreover, frank, boy!
+
+True, he showed as yet little taste for knowledge and all that can
+be learned from books; but he devoted himself with fiery zeal to the
+knightly exercises which since his Majesty's death Quijada himself was
+directing, and in which he promised to become a master. Besides, by
+appealing to his ambition, he could be induced to put forth all his
+powers, and, if his teachers aimed at what they studiously omitted, it
+would not be difficult to make a scholar of him.
+
+He had not remained unnoticed by any of the great lords who had sought
+the Emperor in Sal Yuste and met him. The Venetian ambassador Bodoaro,
+had asked the name of the splendid young noble.
+
+Even when Death was already stretching hi hand toward the Emperor, he
+was still overburdened with business, and the heretical agitation
+which was discovered at that time in Spain had caused him much sorrow,
+especially as men and women whom he knew personally, belonging to the
+distinguished families of Posa and De Rojas, has taken part in it.
+
+The monarch's end came more quickly than was expected. He had been
+unable to attend the auto-da-fe at which the heretics were committed
+to the flames. He would have done so gladly, and after this mournful
+experience even regretted that he had granted the German misleader,
+Luther, the safe conduct promised.
+
+Before a fatal weakness suddenly attacked him his health had been rather
+better than before; then his voice failed, and Quijada was compelled to
+kneel beside his bed that he might understand what he wished to impress
+upon him. While doing so, the dying man had expressed the desire that
+Don Luis would commend Geronimo to the love of his son Philip.
+
+He had also remembered the love of better days, and when Barbara
+insisted upon learning what he had said of her, Wolf, who had heard it
+from Don Luis, did not withhold it.
+
+He had complained of her perverse nature. Had she obediently gone to the
+convent, he might have spared himself and her the sorrow of holding her
+so rigidly aloof from his person. Finally, he had spoken of her singing
+with rapturous delight. At night the "Quia amore langueo" from the Mary
+motet had echoed softly from his lips, and when he perceived that Don
+Luis had heard him, he murmured that this peerless cry of longing,
+reminded him not of the earthly but the heavenly love.
+
+At these words Barbara hid her face in her hands, and Wolf paused until
+she had controlled the sobs which shook her breast.
+
+Then he went on, she listening devoutly with wet eyes and clasped hands.
+
+The Archbishop of Toledo was summoned, and predicted that Charles would
+die on the day after to-morrow, St. Matthew's day. He was born on
+St. Matthias's day, and he would depart from life on St.
+Matthew's,--[September 12, 1558]--Matthias's brother and
+fellow-disciple.
+
+So it was, and Barbara remembered that his son and hers had also seen
+the light of the world on St. Matthias's day.
+
+Charles's death-agony was severe. When Dr. Mathys at last said softly to
+those who were present, "Jam moritur,"--[Now he is dying]--the loud cry
+"Jesus!" escaped his lips, and he sank back upon the pillows lifeless.
+
+Here Wolf was again obliged to give his weeping friend time to calm
+herself.
+
+What he now had to relate--both knew it--was well suited to transform
+the tears which Barbara was shedding in memory of the beloved dead to
+tears of joy.
+
+While she was wiping her eyes, Wolf described the great anxiety which,
+after Charles's death, overpowered the Quijadas in Villagarcia.
+
+The codicil had existed, and Don Luis was familiar with its contents.
+But how would King Philip take it?
+
+Dona Magdalena knew not what to do with herself in her anxiety.
+
+The immediate future must decide Geronimo's fate, so she went on a
+pilgrimage with her darling to the Madonna of Guadelupe to pray for the
+repose of the Emperor's soul, and also to beseech the gracious Virgin
+mercifully to remember him, Geronimo.
+
+Until that time the boy had believed Don Luis and his wife to be his
+parents, and had loved Dona Magdalena like the most affectionate son.
+
+He had not even the slightest suspicion that he was a child of the
+Emperor, and was perfectly satisfied with the lot of being the son of a
+grandee and the child of so good, tender, and beautiful a mother.
+
+This exciting expectation on the part of the Quijadas lasted nearly a
+whole year, for it was that length of time before Don Philip finally
+left the Netherlands and reached Valladolid.
+
+He spent the anniversary of his father's death in the monastery of Del
+Abrojo.
+
+There, or previously, he had read the codicil in which his imperial
+father acknowledged the boy Geronimo as his son.
+
+Barbara now desired to learn the contents of the codicil and, as Wolf
+had told her yesterday how the boy's fate had changed, he interrupted
+his narrative and obeyed her wish.
+
+As a widower, Charles confessed that he had had a son in Germany by an
+unmarried woman. He had reason to wish that the boy should assume the
+robe of a reformed order, but he must be neither forced nor persuaded to
+do so. If he wished to remain in the world, he would settle upon him
+a yearly income of from twenty to thirty thousand ducats, which was
+to pass also to his heirs. Whatever mode of life he might choose, he
+commanded his son Philip to honour him and treat him with due respect.
+
+As on the day before, when Barbara had only learned in general terms
+what the codicil contained, her soul to-day, while listening to the more
+minute particulars, was filled with grateful joy.
+
+Her sacrifice had not been vain. For years the fear of seeing her son
+vanish in a monastery had darkened her days and nights, and Quijada and
+Dona Magdalena had also probably dreaded that King Philip might confide
+his half-brother to a reformed order, for the monarch had by no means
+hastened to inform the anxious pair what he had determined.
+
+It was not until the end of September that, upon the pretext of hunting,
+he went to the monastery of San Pedro de la Espina, a league from
+Villagarcia, and ordered Don Luis to seek him there with the boy. He was
+to leave the latter wholly unembarrassed, and not even inform him that
+the gentleman whom he would meet was the King.
+
+His decision, he had added in the chilling manner characteristic of him,
+would depend upon circumstances.
+
+Quijada, with a throbbing heart, obeyed, but Geronimo had no suspicion
+of what awaited him, and only wondered why his mother took so much
+trouble about his dress, since they were merely going hunting. The tears
+glittering in her eyes he attributed to the anxiety which she often
+expressed when he rode with the hunters on the fiery young Andalusian
+which his father had given him. He was then twelve years and a half old,
+but might easily have been taken for fourteen.
+
+"It was a splendid sight," Wolf went on, "as the erect figure of the
+dark Don Luis, on his powerful black stallion, galloped beside the fair,
+handsome boy with his white skin and blue eyes, who managed his spirited
+dun horse so firmly and joyously.
+
+"Dona Magdalena and I followed them on our quiet bays. Her lips moved
+constantly, and her right hand never stirred from the rosary at her belt
+while we were riding along the woodland paths.
+
+"To soothe her, I began to talk about the pieces of music which his
+Majesty had brought from Brussels, but she did not hear me. So I
+remained silent until the monastery glimmered through the trees. The
+blood left her cheeks, for at the same moment the thought came to us
+both that King Philip was taking him to the monks.
+
+"But we had scarcely time to confide what we feared to each other ere
+the blast of horns echoed from the forest.
+
+"Then, to calm the anxious mother's heart, I remarked, 'His Majesty
+would not have the horns sounded in that way if he were taking the pious
+brothers a new companion,' and Dona Magdalena's wan cheeks again flushed
+slightly.
+
+"The forest is cleared in front of the monastery, but it surrounds on
+all sides the open glade amid whose grass the meadow saffron was then
+growing thickly.
+
+"I can still see Geronimo as he swung himself from the saddle to gather
+some of the flowers. His mother needed them as medicine for a poor woman
+in the village.
+
+"We stopped behind the last trees, where we had a good view of the
+glade. Don Luis left the boy to himself for a time; but when the blast
+of horns and the baying of the hounds sounded nearer, he ordered him, in
+the commanding tone he used in teaching him to ride, to remount.
+
+"Geronimo laughed, thrust the flowers hastily into his saddlebag, and
+with a bold leap vaulted on his horse's back.
+
+"A few minutes after, the King rode out of the forest.
+
+"He was mounted on a noble bay hunting charber, and wore a huntsman's
+dress.
+
+"No rider can hold a slender figure more erect.
+
+"His haughty head, with the fair, pointed beard, was carried slightly
+thrown back, which gave him an especially arrogant appearance.
+
+"When he saw Quijada, he raised his riding-whip with a significant
+gesture to his lips. We, too, understood what it meant, and Don Luis
+knew him far better than we.
+
+"He greeted the King without the least constraint, as if he were merely
+a friend of noble birth, then beckoned to Geronimo, and the introduction
+was only the brief words, 'My son' and 'The Count of Flanders.'
+
+"The boy raised his little plumed hat with frank courtesy and, while
+bowing in the saddle, forced his dun horse to approach the King
+sideways. It was no easy matter, and seemed to please his Majesty, for
+a smile of satisfaction flitted over his cold features, and we heard him
+exclaim to Quijada, 'A horseman, and, if the saints so will, a knight
+well pleasing to Heaven.'
+
+"What more he said to the boy we learned later. The words which by
+the movement of his lips we saw that he added to the exclamation were,
+'Unless our noble young friend prefers to consecrate himself in humility
+to the service of the highest of all Masters.'
+
+"He had pointed to the monastery as he spoke. Geronimo did not delay his
+reply, but, crossing himself, answered quickly:
+
+"'I wish to be a faithful servant of our Lord Jesus Christ, but only in
+the world, fighting against his foes.'
+
+"Philip nodded so eagerly that his stiff white ruff was pushed awry,
+and then, with patronizing approval, added: 'So every nobleman ought to
+think. You, my young friend, saw a short time ago at the auto-da-fe in
+Valladolid how a considerable number of Spanish gentlemen of the
+noblest blood expiated at the stake the mortal sin of heresy. A severe
+punishment, and a terrible end! Would you perhaps have preferred to see
+his Majesty's mercy grant them their lives?'
+
+"'On no account, my Lord Count,' cried Geronimo eagerly. 'There is no
+mercy for the heretic.'
+
+"His Majesty now summoned the two knights who attended him and, while
+one held his horse, he dismounted.
+
+"At a sign from Quijada, Geronimo now also sprang to the ground, and
+gazed wonderingly at the stranger, whom, on account of his fair beard,
+he supposed to be a Netherland noble; but Dona Magdalena could bear to
+remain under the trees no longer, and I followed her to the edge of the
+meadow. The King advanced toward the boy, and stood before him with so
+proud and dignified a bearing that one might have supposed his short
+figure had grown two heads taller.
+
+"Geronimo must have felt that some very distinguished personage
+confronted him, and that something great awaited him, for he
+involuntarily raised his hat again. His wavy golden locks now fell
+unconfined around his head, his cheeks glowed, and his large blue eyes
+gazed questioningly and with deep perplexity into the stranger's face
+as he said slowly, with significant emphasis: 'I am not the man whom you
+suppose. Who, boy, do you think that I might be?'
+
+"'Geronimo turned pale; only one head could be lifted with so haughty a
+majesty, and suddenly remembering the face which he had seen upon many
+a coin, sure that he was right, he bent the knee with modest grace,
+saying, "Our sovereign lord, his Majesty King Philip."'
+
+"'I am he,' was the reply. 'But to you, dear boy, I am still more.'
+
+"'As he spoke he gave him his hand, and, when Geronimo rose, he said,
+pointing to his breast: 'Your place is here, my boy; for the Emperor
+Charles, who is now enjoying the bliss of heaven, was your father as
+well as mine, and you, lad, are my brother.'
+
+"Then passing his arm around his shoulders, he drew him gently toward
+him, lightly imprinting a kiss upon his brow and cheeks; but Geronimo,
+deeply moved, pressed his fresh red lips to his royal brother's right
+hand. Yet he had scarcely raised his head again when he started, and in
+an agitated tone asked, 'And Don Luis--and my dear mother?'
+
+"'Continue to love and honour them,' replied the King.--'Explain the
+rest to him, Don Luis. But keep what has happened here secret for the
+present. I will present him myself to our people as my brother. He
+received in holy baptism the name of John, which in Castilian is Juan.
+Let him keep it.--Give me your hand again, Don Juan d'Austria.--[Don
+John of Austria]--A proud name! Do it honour.'
+
+"He turned away as he spoke, mounted with the aid of one of his knights,
+waved his hand graciously to Quijada and, while his horse was already
+moving, called to him, 'My brother, Don Juan, will be addressed as your
+Excellency.'
+
+"He took no notice of Dona Magdalena, probably because she had appeared
+here either without or against his orders, and thus offended one of
+the forms of etiquette on which he placed so much value. So his Majesty
+neither saw nor heard how the son of an Emperor and the brother of a
+King rushed up to his foster-mother, threw himself into her outstretched
+arms, and exclaimed with warm affection, 'Mother! my dear, dear
+mother!'"
+
+Barbara had listened weeping to this description, but the last sentence
+dried her tears and, like Frau Traut a short time ago, her friend
+regretted that he had not exercised greater caution as he heard her,
+still sobbing, but with an angry shrug of the shoulders, repeat the
+exclamation which her son--ay, her son only--had poured forth from his
+overflowing heart to another woman.
+
+So Wolf did not tell her what he had witnessed in Villagarcia, when Don
+Juan and Dona Magdalena had fallen into each other's arms, and that
+when he asked about his real mother the lady answered that she was an
+unfortunate woman who must remain away from him, but for whom it would
+be his duty to provide generously.
+
+Directly after, on the second day of October, Wolf added, the King had
+presented her son to the court as his Excellency, his brother Don John
+of Austria!
+
+He, Wolf, had set off for Brussels with the grand prior that very day,
+and, as his ship sailed from Spain before any other, he had succeeded in
+being the first to bring this joyful news to the Netherlands and to her.
+
+When Wolf left Barbara, it seemed as though what had hitherto appeared a
+bewildering, happy dream had now for the first time been confirmed. The
+lofty goal she had striven to reach, and of which she had never lost
+sight, was now gained; but a bitter drop of wormwood mingled with the
+happiness that filled her grateful heart to overflowing. Another woman
+had forced herself into her place and robbed her of the boy's love,
+which belonged to her and, after his father's death, to her alone.
+
+Every thought of the much-praised Dona Magdalena stirred her blood.
+How cruel had been the anguish and fears which she had endured for this
+child she alone could know; but the other enjoyed every pleasure that
+the possession of so highly gifted a young creature could afford. She
+could say to herself that, of all sins, the one farthest from her
+nature was envy; but what she felt toward this stealer of love fatally
+resembled sharp, gnawing ill will.
+
+Yet the bright sense of happiness which pervaded her whole being
+rendered it easy for her to thrust the image of the unloved woman far
+into the shade, and the next morning became a glorious festival for her;
+she used it to pay a visit to the Dubois couple, and when she told them
+what she had heard from Wolf, and saw Frau Traut sob aloud in her joy
+and Adrian wipe tears of grateful emotion from his aged eyes, her own
+happiness was doubled by the others' sympathy.
+
+Barbara had anticipated Wolf, but while going home she met him on his
+way to the Dubois house. He joined her, and still had many questions to
+answer.
+
+During the next few days her friend helped her compose a letter to
+her son; but he was constantly obliged to impose moderation upon the
+passionate vehemence of her feelings. She often yielded to his superior
+prudence, only she would not fulfil his desire to address her boy as
+"your Excellency."
+
+When she read the letter, she thought she had found the right course.
+
+Barbara first introduced herself to John as his real mother. She had
+loved and honoured his great father with all the strength of her soul,
+and she might boast of having been clear to him also. By the Emperor
+Charles's command he, her beloved child, had been taken from her. She
+had submitted with a bleeding heart and, to place him in the path of
+fortune, had inflicted the deepest wounds upon her own soul. Now her
+self-sacrifice was richly rewarded, and it would make her happier than
+himself if she should learn that his own merit had led him to the height
+of fame which she prayed that he might reach.
+
+Then she congratulated him, and begged him not to forget her entirely
+amid his grandeur. She was only a plain woman, but she, too, belonged
+to an ancient knightly race, and therefore he need not be ashamed of his
+mother's blood.
+
+Lastly, at Wolf's desire, she requested her son to thank the lady who so
+lovingly filled her place to him.
+
+Her friend was to give this letter himself to Don John of Austria, and
+he voluntarily promised to lead the high-minded boy to the belief that
+his own mother had also been worthy of an Emperor's love.
+
+Lastly, Wolf promised to inform her of any important event in her son's
+life or his own. During the last hour of their meeting he admitted that
+he was one of the few who felt satisfied with their lot. True, he
+could not say that he had no wishes; but up to this hour he had desired
+nothing more constantly and longingly than to hear her sing once more,
+as in that never-to-be-forgotten May in the Ratisbon home. He might now
+hope, sooner or later, to have this wish, too, fulfilled. These were
+kind, cheering words, and with a grateful ebullition of feeling she
+admitted that, after his glad tidings, she, too, again felt capable of
+believing in a happy future.
+
+So the friends from childhood bade each other farewell.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+During the following days Barbara's life path was illumined by the
+reflection of the happiness bestowed by the wonderful change in the fate
+of her child of sorrow, who now promised to become a giver of joy to
+her.
+
+Doubtless during the ensuing years many dark shadows fell upon her
+existence and her heart; but when everything around and within was
+gloomy, she only needed to think of the son whom she had given the
+Emperor, and the constantly increasing brilliancy of his career, to
+raise her head with fresh confidence. Yet the cloud obscuring her
+happiness which she found it hardest to bear proceeded directly from
+him.
+
+He had probably mentioned her to his royal brother, and revenues had
+been granted her far exceeding poor Wawerl's dreams, and doubtless a
+reflection of the admiration which her son earned fell upon her, and her
+pride was greatly increased. Moreover, she could again devote
+herself without fear to her ardently beloved art, for even honest old
+Appenzelder declared that he liked to listen to her, though her voice
+still lacked much of the overpowering magic of former days. She was in
+a position, too, to gratify many a taste for whose satisfaction she had
+often yearned, yet she could not attain a genuine and thorough new sense
+of happiness.
+
+The weeks which, a few years after her John's recognition, she spent
+with self-sacrificing devotion beside her husband's couch of pain, which
+was to become his deathbed, passed amid anxiety and grief, and when her
+affectionate, careful nursing proved vain, and Pyramus died, deep and
+sincere sorrow overpowered her. True, he had not succeeded in winning
+her to return his tender love; but after he had closed his eyes she
+realized for the first time what a wealth of goodness and fidelity was
+buried with him and lost to her forever.
+
+Her youngest boy, soon after his father's death, was torn from her by
+falling into a cistern, and she yielded herself to such passionate grief
+for his loss that she thought she could never conquer it; but it was
+soon soothed by the belief that, for the sake of this devout child,
+whose training for a religious life had already commenced, Heaven had
+resigned its claims upon John, and that the boy was dwelling in the
+immediate presence of the Queen of Heaven.
+
+Thus, ere she was aware of it, her burning anguish changed into a
+cheerful remembrance. Earlier still--more than two years after Wolf's
+departure--tidings closely associated with the sorrow inflicted
+through her John had saddened her. The ship which was to bear the loyal
+companion of her youth to Spain was wrecked just before the end of the
+voyage, and Wolf went down with it. Barbara learned the news only by
+accident, and his death first made her realize with full distinctness
+how dear he had been to her.
+
+The letter which she had addressed to her son was lost with the man in
+whom Fate had wrested from her the last friend who would have been able
+and willing to show her John clearly and kindly a correct picture of his
+mother's real character.
+
+For two years she had hoped that Wolf would complete her letter in his
+own person, and tell her son how her voice and her beauty had won his
+father's heart. Quijada had known it; but if he spoke of her to his wife
+and foster-son, it was scarcely in her favour--he cared little for music
+and singing.
+
+So the loss of this letter seemed to her, with reason, a severe
+misfortune. What she now wrote to John could hardly exert much influence
+upon him. Yet she did write, this time with the aid of Hannibal. But the
+new letter, which began with thanks for the financial aid which the son
+had conferred upon his mother through his royal brother, was distasteful
+both to her pride and her maternal affection. Half prosaic, half far too
+effusive, it gave a distorted idea of her real feelings, and she tore it
+up before giving it to the messenger.
+
+Yet she did not cease to hope that, in some favourable hour, the heart
+of the idol of her soul would urge him to approach his mother; but year
+after year elapsed without bringing her even the slightest token of
+his remembrance, and this omission was the bitter drop that spoiled the
+happiness which, after the death of her youngest boy, was clouded by no
+outward event.
+
+When at last she addressed herself to John in a third letter, which this
+time she dictated to Hannibal as her heart prompted, she received an
+answer, it is true, though not from him, but from Dona Magdalena.
+
+In kind words this lady urged her not to write to "her"--Dona
+Magdalena's--son in future. She had taught him to think of the woman
+who bore him with fitting respect, but it would be impossible for him
+to maintain the relation with her. She must spare her the explanation of
+the reasons which made this appear to be an obstacle to his career.
+Don John would prove in the future, by his care for her prosperity and
+comfort, that he did not forget her. She had no right, it is true, to
+counsel her; but when she transported herself into the soul of the woman
+who had enjoyed the love of the Emperor Charles, and on whom Heaven had
+bestowed a son like John of Austria, she felt sure that this woman would
+act wisely and promote her real welfare if she preferred communion with
+her Saviour, in the quiet of a cloister, to the bustle of life amid
+surroundings which certainly were far too humble for her.
+
+Barbara felt wounded to the inmost depths of her being by this letter.
+Had the officious adviser, who had certainly despatched the reply
+without her son's knowledge, been within her reach, she would have
+showed her how little inclination she felt to be patronized by the
+person who, after alienating the son's heart from his mother, even
+presumed to dictate to her to rob herself of her last claim upon his
+regard.
+
+True, in one respect she agreed with the writer of the letter.
+
+Precisely because it appeared as if Heaven had accepted her sacrifice
+and the grandeur for which she had made it seemed to be awaiting her
+son, she ought to attempt nothing that might impede his climbing to the
+height, and her open connection with him might easily have placed stones
+in his path. His elevation depended upon King Philip, whose boundless
+pride had gazed at her from his chilling face.
+
+So she resolved to make no more advances to her child until the day
+came--and a voice within told her that come it must--when he himself
+longed for his own mother. Meanwhile she would be content with the joy
+of watching his brilliant course from the distance.
+
+The miracles which she had anticipated and prayed for in his behalf were
+accomplished. First, she heard that Count Ribadavia's splendid palace
+would be prepared for her son, that the sons of noble families would be
+assigned to attend him, and that a body-guard of Spaniards and Germans
+and a train of his own were at his command.
+
+Then she learned in what a remarkable manner Elizabeth of Valois, the
+King's new wife, favoured the lad of thirteen. At the taking of the oath
+by which the Cortes recognised Don Carlos as the heir to the throne,
+John had been summoned directly after the Infant as the first person
+entitled to homage.
+
+Next, she learned that he had entered the famous University of Alcala de
+Henares.
+
+And his classmates and friends? They were no less important personages
+than Don Carlos himself and Alessandro Farnese, John's nephew, the
+son of that Ottavio at whose admission as Knight of the Golden Fleece
+Barbara had made at Landshut the most difficult resolution of her life.
+
+He was said to share everything with these distinguished companions,
+and to be himself the handsomest and most attractive of the illustrious
+trio. He was particularly inseparable from Alessandro, the son of the
+woman now ruling as regent in Brussels, who was John's sister.
+
+What reply would he have made to this illustrious scion of one of the
+most ancient and noble royal races if a letter from her had reached him,
+and the duke's son had asked, "Who is this Frau Barbara Blomberg?" or,
+as she now signed herself, "Madame de Blomberg"?
+
+The answer must have been: "My mother."
+
+Oh, no, no, never!
+
+It would have been cruel to expect this from him; never would she place
+her beloved child, her pride, her joy, in so embarrassing a position.
+
+Besides, though she could only watch him from a distance, thanks to
+his generosity or his brother's, she could lead a pleasant life. To sun
+herself in his glory, too, was sufficiently cheering, and must satisfy
+her.
+
+He spent three years at the University of Aleala, and nothing but
+good news of him reached her. Then she received tidings which gave
+her special joy, for one of the wishes she had formed in Landshut was
+fulfilled. He had been made a Knight of the Golden Fleece, and
+how becoming the jewel on the red ribbon must be to the youth of
+one-and-twenty! How many of her acquaintances belonging to the partisans
+of the King and Spain came to congratulate her upon it! Because John had
+become Spanish, and risen in Spain to the position which she desired for
+him, she wished to become so, and studied the Spanish language with the
+zeal and industry of a young girl. She succeeded in gaining more and
+more knowledge of it, and, finally, through intercourse with Spaniards,
+in mastering it completely.
+
+At that time the prospects for her party were certainly gloomy; the
+heretical agitation and the boldness of the rebellious enthusiasts for
+independence and liberty surpassed all bounds.
+
+The King therefore sent the Duke of Alba to the Netherlands to restore
+order, and, with the twenty thousand men he commanded, make the
+insurgents feel the resistless power of offended majesty and the angered
+Church.
+
+Barbara and her friends greeted the stern duke as a noble champion of
+the faith, who was resolved to do his utmost. The new bishoprics, which
+by Granvelle's advice had been established, the foreign soldiers, and
+the Spanish Inquisition, which pursued the heretics with inexorable
+harshness, had roused the populace to unprecedented turmoil, and induced
+them to resist the leading nobles, who were indebted to the King
+for great favours, to the intense wrath of these aristocrats and the
+partisans of Spain.
+
+Barbara, with all her party, had welcomed the new bishoprics as an
+arrangement which promised many blessings, and the foreign troops seemed
+to her necessary to maintain order in the rebellious Netherlands. The
+cruelty of the Inquisition was only intended to enforce respect for the
+edicts which the Emperor Charles, in his infallible wisdom, had
+issued, and the hatred which the nobles, especially, displayed against
+Granvelle, Barbara's kind patron, the greatest statesman of his time and
+the most loyal servant of his King, seemed to her worthy of the utmost
+condemnation.
+
+The scorn with which the rebels, after the compromise signed by the
+highest nobles, had called themselves Geusen, or Beggars, and endangered
+repose, would have been worthy of the severest punishment. What induced
+these people to risk money and life for privileges which a wise policy
+of the government--this was the firm conviction of those who shared
+Barbara's views--could not possibly grant, was incomprehensible to her,
+and she watched the course of the rebels with increasing aversion. Did
+they suppose their well-fed magistrates and solemn States-General, who
+never looked beyond their own city and country, would govern them better
+than the far-sighted wisdom of a Granvelle or the vast intellect of a
+Viglius, which comprised all the knowledge of the world?
+
+What they called their liberties were privileges which a sovereign
+bestowed. Ought they to wonder if another monarch, whom they had deeply
+angered, did not regard them as inviolable gifts of God? The quiet
+comfort of former days had been clouded, nay, destroyed, by these
+patriots. Peace could be restored only by the King's silencing them. So
+she wished the Spaniards a speedy success, and detested the efforts
+of independent minds; above all, of William of Orange, their only too
+clear-sighted, cautious, devoted leader, also skilled in the arts of
+dissimulation, in whom she recognised the most dangerous foe of Spanish
+sovereignty and the unity of the Church.
+
+When, by the Duke of Alba's orders, the Counts Egmont and Horn were
+executed one June day in the market place of Brussels, opinions, even of
+members of the Spanish party, were divided, especially as Count Egmont
+was a Catholic, and had acted finally according to the views of the
+government.
+
+Barbara sincerely lamented his terrible end, for she had seen in him a
+brilliant model for her John. In hours of depression, the sudden fall of
+this favourite of the people seemed like an evil omen. But she would not
+let these disquieting thoughts gain power over her, for she wished at
+last to enjoy life and, as the mother of such a son, felt entitled to do
+so.
+
+She regarded this cruel deed of Alba as a false step at any rate, for,
+though she kept so far aloof from the Netherland burghers and common
+people, she perceived what deep indignation this measure aroused.
+
+Meanwhile the Prince of Orange, the spirit and soul of this execrable
+rebellion, had escaped the sentence of the court.
+
+Nevertheless, she regarded Alba with great admiration, for he was a man
+of ability, whom the Emperor Charles had held in high esteem. Besides,
+after her husband's death the haughty noble had been courteous enough to
+assure her of his sympathy.
+
+Moreover, a time was just approaching in which she withdrew too far from
+this conflict to follow it with full attention, for her son's first deed
+of heroism became known in Brussels.
+
+The King had appointed John to the command of the fleet, and sent him
+against the pirates upon the African coast. He could now gather his
+first laurels, and to do everything in her power for the success of his
+arms, Barbara spent the greater portion of her time in church, praying
+devoutly. In September he was greeted in Madrid as a conqueror, but
+her joy was not unclouded; for the Infant Don Carlos had yielded up his
+young life in July as a prisoner, and she believed him to be her John's
+best friend, and lamented his death because she thought that it would
+grieve her hero son.
+
+But this little cloud soon vanished, and how brilliantly the blue
+sky arched above her the next year, when she learned that Don John of
+Austria had received the honourable commission of crushing the rebellion
+of the infidel Moriscoes in Andalusia! Here her royal son first proved
+himself a glorious military hero, and his deeds at the siege of Galera
+and before Seron filled her maternal heart with inexpressible pride. The
+words which he shouted to his retreating men: "Do you call yourselves
+Spaniards and not know what honour means? What have you to fear when I
+am with you?" echoed in her ears like the most beautiful melody which
+she had ever sting or heard.
+
+Yet a dark shadow fell on these radiant joys also; her John's friend and
+foster-father, Don Luis Quijada, had been wounded in these battles, and
+died from his injuries. Barbara felt what deep pain this would cause her
+distant son, and expressed her sympathy to him in a letter.
+
+But the greatest happiness was still in store for her and for him. On
+the 7th of October, 1571, the young hero, now twenty-four years old, as
+commander of the united fleets of Spain, Venice, and the Pope, gained
+the greatest victory which any Castilian force had ever won over the
+troops of the infidels.
+
+Instead of the name received at his baptism, and the one which he owed
+to his brother, that of Victor of Lepanto now adorned him. Not one
+of all the generals in the world received honours even distantly
+approaching those lavished upon him. And besides the leonine courage and
+talent for command which he had displayed, his noble nature was praised
+with ardent enthusiasm. How he had showed it in the distribution of the
+booty to the widow of the Turkish high admiral Ali Pasha! This renowned
+Moslem naval commander had fallen in the battle, and his two sons had
+been delivered to Don John as prisoners. When the unfortunate mother
+entreated him to release the boys for a large ransom, he restored one to
+her love with the companions for whose liberty he had interceded, with
+a letter containing the words, "It does not beseem me to keep your
+presents, since my rank and birth require me to give, not to receive."
+
+These noble words were written by Barbara Blomberg's son, the boy to
+whom she gave birth, and who had now become just what her lofty soul
+desired.
+
+After the conquest of Cyprus, the Crescent had seriously threatened the
+Cross in the Mediterranean, and it was Don John who had broken the power
+of the Turks.
+
+Alas, that her father could not have lived to witness this exploit of
+his grandson! What a happy man the victory of Lepanto, gained by his
+"Wawerl's" son, would have made him! How the fearless old champion of
+the faith would have rejoiced in this grandchild, his deeds, and nature!
+
+And what honours were bestowed upon her John!
+
+King Philip wrote to him, "Next to God, gratitude for what has been
+accomplished is due to you." A statue was erected to him in Messina. The
+Pope had used the words of Scripture, "There was a man sent by God, and
+his name was John." Now, yes, now she was more than rewarded for the
+sacrifice of Landshut; now the splendour and grandeur for which she had
+longed and prayed was far, far exceeded.
+
+This time it was gratitude, fervent gratitude, which detained her in
+church. The child of her love, her suffering, her pride, was now happy,
+must be happy.
+
+When, two years later, Don John captured Tunis, the exploit could no
+longer increase his renown.
+
+At this time also happened many things which filled the heart of a woman
+so closely connected with royalty sometimes with joy, sometimes with
+anxiety.
+
+In Paris, the night of St. Bartholomew, a year after her son had
+chastised the Moslems at Lepanto, dealt the French heretics a deep,
+almost incurable wound, and in the Netherlands there were not gallows
+enough to hang the misguided fanatics.
+
+Yet this rebellious nation did not cease to cause the King unspeakable
+difficulties and orthodox Christians sorrow. On the sea the "Beggars"
+conquered his Majesty's war ships; Haarlem, it is true, had been forced
+by the Spanish troops to surrender, but what terrible sacrifices the
+siege had cost where women had taken part in the defence with the
+courage of men!
+
+And, in spite of everything, Alba's harshness had been futile.
+
+Then Philip recalled him and put in his place the gentle Don Luis de
+Requesens, who had been governor in Milan. He would willingly have made
+peace with the people bleeding from a thousand wounds, but how could he
+concede the toleration of the heretical faith and the withdrawal of the
+troops on which he relied? And how did the rebels show their gratitude
+to him for his kindness and good will?
+
+The Beggars destroyed his fleet, and, though the brother of William
+of Orange had been defeated upon the Mooker-Heide, this by no means
+disheartened the enraged nation, resolved upon extremes, and their
+silent but wise and tireless leader.
+
+In Leyden the obstinacy of the foes of the King and the Church showed
+itself in a way to which even Barbara and her party could not deny a
+certain degree of admiration. True, the nature of the country aided the
+rebels like an ally. Mortal warriors could not contend against wind and
+storm. But he who from without directed the defence here, who had issued
+the order to break through the dikes, and then with shameful effrontery
+had founded in the scarcely rescued city a university which was to
+nurture the spirit of resistance in the minds of the young men, was
+again the Prince of Orange; and who else than he, his shrewdness and
+firmness, robbed Requesens of gratitude for his mildness and the success
+of his honest labours?
+
+But how much easier was the part of the leader of the enemy, who in
+Brussels had escaped the fate of Egmont, than the King's kindly disposed
+governor! When Barbara chanced to hear the men of the people talking
+with each other, and they spoke of "Father William," they meant the
+Prince of Orange; and with what abuse, both verbally and in handbills,
+King Philip and the Spanish Government were loaded!
+
+To Barbara, as well as to the members of her party, William of Orange,
+whom she often heard called the "Antichrist" and "rebel chief," was
+an object of hatred. Now he frustrated the kind Requesens's attempt at
+mediation, and it was also his fault that two provinces had publicly
+revolted from the Holy Church. The Protestant worship of God was now
+exercised as freely there as in Ratisbon. Like William of Orange, most
+of the citizens professed the doctrine of Calvin, but there was no lack
+of Lutherans, and the clergyman whose sermons attracted the largest
+congregations was Erasmus Eckhart, Barbara's old acquaintance, Dr.
+Hiltner's foster-son, who during the Emperor Charles's reign had come to
+the Netherlands as an army chaplain, and, amid great perils, was said to
+have lured thousands from the Catholic Church. Deeply as her sentiments
+rebelled, here, too, Barbara had become his preserver; for when the
+Bloody Council had sentenced him to the gallows, she had succeeded, with
+great difficulty, through her manifold relations to the heads of the
+Spanish party, in obtaining his pardon. A grateful letter from Frau
+Sabina Hiltner had abundantly repaid her for these exertions.
+
+The boldness with which William of Orange, who was himself the most
+dangerous heretic and rebel, protested that he was willing to grant
+every one full religious liberty, had no desire to injure the Catholic
+Church in any way, and was even ready to acknowledge the supremacy of
+the King, could not fail to enrage every pious Catholic and faithful
+subject of King Philip.
+
+To spoil a Requesens's game was no difficult task for the man who,
+though by no means as harmless as the dove, was certainly as wise as the
+serpent; but that the Duke of Alba, the tried, inflexible commander, had
+been obliged to yield and retire vanquished before the little, merry,
+industrious, thoroughly peaceful nation which intrusted itself to the
+leadership of William of Orange, had been too much for her and, when it
+happened, seemed like a miracle.
+
+What spirits were aiding the Prince of Orange to resist the King and the
+power of the Church so successfully? He was in league with hell, her old
+confessor said, and there were rumours that his Majesty was trying to
+have the abominable mischief-maker secretly put out of the world. But
+this would have been unworthy of a King, and Barbara would not believe
+it.
+
+In the northern provinces the Spanish power was only a shadow, but in
+the southern ones also hatred of the Spaniards was already bursting into
+flames, and Requesens was too weak to extinguish them.
+
+The King and Barbara's political friends perceived that Alba's pitiless,
+murderous severity had injured the cause of the crown and the Church far
+more than it had benefited them. Personally, he had treated her on
+the whole kindly, but he had inflicted two offences which were hard to
+conquer. In the first place, he urged her to leave Brussels and settle
+in Mons; and, secondly, he had refused to receive her Conrad, who had
+grown up into a steady, good-looking, but in no respect remarkable young
+man, in one of his regiments, with the prospect of promotion to the rank
+of officer.
+
+In both cases she had not remained quiet and, at the second audience
+which the duke gave her, her hot blood, though it had grown so much
+cooler, played her a trick, and she became involved in a vehement
+argument with him. In the course of this he had been compelled to
+be frank, and she now knew that Alba had persuaded her to change her
+residence at the King's desire, and why it was done.
+
+She afterward learned from acquaintances that the duke had said one was
+apt to be the loser in a dispute with her; yet she had yielded,
+though solely and entirely to benefit her John, but she could not help
+confessing to herself that her residence in the capital could not be
+agreeable to him. The highest Spanish officials and military commanders
+lived there, as well as the ambassadors of foreign powers, and it was
+not desirable to remind them of the maternal descent of the general who
+now belonged to the King's family.
+
+The case was somewhat similar, as Alba himself had confessed to her,
+with regard to her son Conrad's promotion to the rank of an officer;
+for if he attained that position he might, as the brother of Don John of
+Austria, make pretensions which threatened to place the hero of Lepanto
+in a false, nay, perhaps unpleasant position. This, too, she did not
+desire. But in removing from Brussels she had possibly rendered Don John
+a greater service than she admitted to herself, for, since her son's
+brilliant successes had made her happy and her external circumstances
+had permitted it, she had emerged from the miserable seclusion of former
+years.
+
+Her dress, too, she now suited to the position which she arrogated to
+herself. But in doing so she had become a personage who could scarcely
+be overlooked, and she rarely failed to be present on the very occasions
+which brought together the most aristocratic Spanish society in
+Brussels.
+
+So, after a fresh dispute with Alba, in which the victor on many a
+battlefield was forced to yield, she had obtained his consent to retire
+to Ghent instead of Mons.
+
+True, the duke would have preferred to induce her to go to Spain, and
+tried to persuade her to do so by the assurance that the King himself
+desired to receive her there.
+
+But she had been warned.
+
+Through Hannibal Melas and other members of her own party she had
+learned that Philip intended, if she came to Spain, to remove her from
+the eyes of the world by placing her in a convent, and never had she
+felt less inclination to take the veil.
+
+Her departure from Brussels had done Alba and his functionaries a
+service, for she had constantly forced herself into the government
+building to obtain news of her son.
+
+The great and opulent city of Ghent, the birthplace of the Emperor
+Charles, of which he had once said to Francis I, the King of France,
+that Paris would go into his glove (Gant), had been chosen by Barbara
+for several reasons. The principal one was that she would find there
+several old friends of former days, one of whom, her singing-master
+Feys, had promised to accept her voice and enable her to serve her art
+again with full pleasure.
+
+The other was Hannibal Melas, who before Granvelle's fall had been
+transferred there as one of the higher officials of the government.
+
+She also entered into relations with other heads of the Spanish party,
+and thus found in Ghent what she sought. The pension allowed her enabled
+her to hire a pretty house, and to furnish it with a certain degree of
+splendour. A companion, for whom she selected an elderly unmarried lady
+who belonged to an impoverished noble family, accompanied her in her
+walks; a major-domo governed the four men-servants and the maids of
+the household; Frau Lamperi retained her position as lady's maid; the
+steward and cook attended to the kitchen and the cellar; and two pages,
+with a pretty one-horse carriage, lent an air of elegance to her style
+of living.
+
+For the religious service, which was directed by her own chaplain,
+she had had a chapel fitted up in the house, according to the Ratisbon
+fashion. The poor were never turned from her door without alms, and
+where she encountered great want she often relieved it with a generosity
+far beyond her means. Under the instruction of Maestro Feys, she eagerly
+devoted herself to new exercises in singing. Doubtless she realized that
+time and the long period of hoarseness had seriously injured her voice,
+but even now she could compare with the best singers in the city.
+
+Thus Barbara saw her youthful dreams of fortune realized--nay,
+surpassed--and in the consciousness of liberty which she now enjoyed,
+elevated by the success gained by the person she loved best, she again
+followed her lover's motto. With the impelling "More, farther" before
+her eyes, she took care that she did not lack the admiration for which
+she had never ceased to long, and to which, in better days, she had
+possessed so well-founded a claim.
+
+Now a lavish and gracious hospitality, as well as her relationship to
+the greatest and most popular hero of his time, must give her what she
+had formerly obtained through her art; for she rarely sang in large
+companies, and when she did so, no matter how loudly her hearers
+expressed their delight, she could not regain the old confident security
+that she was justly entitled to it. But she could believe all the more
+firmly that the acknowledgments of pleasure which she reaped from her
+little evening parties were sincere. They even gained a certain degree
+of celebrity, for the kitchen in her house was admirably managed, and
+whatever came from it found approval even in the home of the finest
+culinary achievements. But it was especially the freedom--though not the
+slightest indecorum was permitted--with which people met at "Madame de
+Blomberg's," as she now styled herself, that lent her house so great an
+attraction, and finally added the more aristocratic members of her party
+to the number of her guests.
+
+The very different elements assembled in her home were united by
+Barbara's unaffected vivacity and frank, enthusiastic temperament,
+receptive to the veriest trifle. These evening entertainments rarely
+lacked music; but she had learned to retire into the background, and
+when there were talented artists among her guests she gave them the
+precedence. The way in which she understood how to discover and bring
+out the best qualities of every visitor rendered her a very agreeable
+hostess.
+
+Maestro Feys made her acquainted with his professional friends in Ghent,
+and her opinion of music was soon highly valued among them. Where women
+choirs were being trained, she was asked to join them, and often took
+a part which seemed to the others too difficult. Thus Barbara was heard
+and known in larger circles, and she had the pleasure of hearing her
+admirable training and excellent method of delivery praised by the
+director of the choir of the Cathedral of Saint Bavon, one of the
+greatest musicians in the Netherlands. But it afforded her special
+gratification when a choir of Catholic women chose her for their leader.
+She devoted a large portion of her time and strength to it, and felt
+honoured and elevated by its progress and admirable performances.
+
+Although nearly fifty, she was still a very fine-looking woman. The few
+silver threads which now mingled in her hair were skilfully concealed by
+Lamperi's art, and few ladies in Ghent were more tastefully and richly
+apparelled.
+
+Among the guests who thronged to her house there was no lack of elderly
+gentlemen who would gladly have married the vivacious, unusual woman,
+who was so nearly connected with the royal family, and lived in such
+luxurious style.
+
+Never had she had more suitors than at this time; but she had learned
+the meaning of a loveless marriage, and her heart still belonged to the
+one man to whom, notwithstanding the deep wounds he had inflicted, she
+owed a brief but peerlessly sublime happiness.
+
+She could not even have bestowed upon her husband the alms of a sincere
+interest, for, in spite of the increasing number of social and musical
+engagements which filled her life, one thought alone occupied the depths
+of her soul--her John, his renown, grandeur, and honour.
+
+Her son Conrad had no cause to complain of lack of affection from his
+mother, but the victor of Lepanto was to her the all-animating sun, the
+former only a friendly little star. Besides, she rarely saw him now, as
+he was studying in Lowen.
+
+As she had modelled her housekeeping after that of the Castilian nobles,
+and her guests almost exclusively belonged to the royal party, she
+also sought Spanish houses or those of the city magistrates who were
+partisans of the King.
+
+News of her son would be most fully supplied there, and many an officer
+whom she met had served under her John, and willingly told the
+mother what he admired and had learned from him. The young Duke of
+Ferdinandina, a Spanish colonel, who had studied with John in Alcala,
+and then fought by his side at the conquest of Tunis, stirred her heart
+most deeply by his enthusiastic admiration for the comrade who was his
+superior in every respect.
+
+All the pictures of Don John, the young officer who had shared his tent
+declared, gave a very faint idea of his wonderful beauty and bewitching
+chivalrous grace. Not only women's hearts rushed to him; his frank,
+lovable nature also won men. As a rider in the tournament, in games of
+ball and quarter staff, he had no peer; for his magnificently formed
+body was like steel, and he himself had seen Don John share in playing
+racket for six hours in succession with the utmost eagerness, and then
+show no more fatigue than a fish does in water. But he was also sure of
+success where proof of intellect must be given. He did not understand
+where Don John had found time to learn to speak French, German, and
+Italian. Moreover, he was thoroughly the great noble. On the pilgrimage
+which he made to Loretto he had distributed more than ten thousand
+ducats among the poor. The piety and charity which distinguished him--he
+had told him so himself--owed to the lady who reared him, the widow of
+the never-to-be-forgotten Don Luis Quijada. His eye filled with tears
+when he spoke of her. But even she, Barbara, could not love him more
+tenderly or faithfully than this admirable woman. Up to the day she
+insisted upon supplying his body linen. The finest linen spun and woven
+in Villagarcia was used for the purpose, and the sewing was done by
+her own skilful hands. Nothing of importance befel him that he did not
+discuss with Tia in long letters.--["Tia," the Spanish word for aunt.]
+
+Barbara had listened to the young Spaniard with joyous emotion until, at
+the last communication, her heart contracted again.
+
+How much that by right was hers this worm snatched, as it were, from
+her lips! What delight it would also have given her to provide her son's
+linen, and how much finer was the Flanders material than that made at
+Villagarcia! how much more artistically wrought were Mechlin and Brusse
+laces than those of Valladolid or Barcelona!
+
+And the letters!
+
+How many Dona Magdalena probably possessed! But she had not yet beheld a
+single pen stroke from her son's hand.
+
+Yet she thanked the enthusiastic young panegyrist for his news, and the
+emotion of displeasure which for a short time destroyed her joy melted
+like mist before the sun when he closed with the assurance that, no
+matter how much he thought and pondered, he could find neither spot nor
+stain the brilliantly pure character of her son, irradiated by nobility
+of nature, the favour of fortune, and renown.
+
+The already vivid sense of happiness which filled her was strongly
+enhanced by this description of the personality of her child and, in a
+period which saw so many anxious and troubled faces in the Netherlands,
+a sunny radiance brightened hers.
+
+She felt rejuvenated, and the acquaintances and friends who declared
+that no one would suppose her to be much older than her famous son,
+whose age was known to the whole world, were not guilty of undue
+exaggeration.
+
+Heaven, she thought, would pour its favour upon her too lavishly if the
+report that Don John was to be appointed Governor of the Netherlands
+should be verified.
+
+It was not in Barbara's nature to shut such a wealth of joy into her own
+heart, and never had her house been more frequently opened to guests,
+never had her little entertainments been more brilliant, never since the
+time of her recovery had the music of her voice been more beautiful than
+in the days which followed the sudden death of the governor, Requesens.
+
+Meanwhile she had scarcely noticed how high the longing for liberty was
+surging in the Netherland nation, and with how fierce a glow hatred of
+the Spanish tyrants was consuming the hearts of the people.
+
+But even Barbara was roused from her ecstasy of happiness when she heard
+of the atrocities that threatened the provinces.
+
+What did it avail that the King meanwhile left the government to the
+Council of State in Brussels? Even furious foes of Spain desired to see
+a power which could be relied upon at the head of the community, even
+though it were a tool of the abhorred King. The danger was so terrible
+that it could not fail to alarm and summon to the common defence every
+individual, no matter to what party he might belong; for the unpaid
+Spanish regiments, with unbridled violence, rioting and seeking booty,
+capable of every crime, every shameful deed, obedient only to their own
+savage impulses, were already entering Brabant.
+
+Now many a Spanish partisan also hoped for deliverance from the Prince
+of Orange, but he took advantage of the favour of circumstances in
+behalf of the great cause of liberty. The "Spanish" in Ghent heard with
+terror that all the heads of the royalist party who were at the helm of
+government had been captured, that province after province had revolted,
+and would no longer bow to the despot. Philip of Croy, Duke of Aerschot,
+had been appointed military governor of Brabant.
+
+The inhabitants of Ghent now saw the States-General meet within the
+walls of their city, in order, as every other support failed, to appeal
+for aid to foreign powers, and entreat "Father William," who could do
+everything, to guard the country from the rebellious soldiery. Even
+those who favoured Spain now relied upon his never-failing shrewdness
+and energy until the King sent the right man.
+
+Then the rumour that King Philip would send his brother Don John of
+Austria, that, as his regent, he might reconcile the contending parties,
+strengthened into authentic news, and not only the Spanish partisans
+hailed it with joyous hope, for the reputation of military ability, as
+well as of a noble nature, preceded the victor of Lepanto.
+
+Barbara received these tidings through the distinguished City Councillor
+Rassingham, who invited her for the first time to a meeting of the
+Spanish party in his magnificent home--an honour bestowed, in addition
+to herself, upon only a few women belonging to the highest social
+circles, and which she probably owed to the summons to Don John. The
+members of the States-General who favoured the King were also to be
+present at this assembly, and a banquet would follow the political
+discussions. This invitation promised to lend fresh distinction to her
+social position, and open a sphere of activity which suited her taste.
+
+The King's cause was hers, and to be permitted to work for it gained a
+special charm by her son's appointment to be governor of the country,
+which filled her with mingled anxiety and joy. If he were regent, every
+service which she rendered the party would benefit him personally.
+
+Yet it was not perfectly easy for her to accept Rassingham's invitation.
+
+Nothing could be more desirable and flattering than to obtain admittance
+to this house, from which all foreign and doubtful elements were
+excluded with special care, but she would be obliged to remain there
+until late at night, and this was difficult to reconcile with certain
+duties she had undertaken.
+
+Her old music teacher, Feys, to whom she was so much indebted, had been
+attacked by slow fever, and she had received him in her house five days
+ago, and provided with loving devotion for his nursing. The bachelor of
+seventy had been so ill cared for in his lonely, uncomfortable home that
+her kind heart had urged her to take charge of him.
+
+She had left him only a few hours since he had been under her roof, and
+if the banquet at the Rassinghams, after the deliberations, lasted until
+a very late hour, she would, for the sake of her invalid guest, great as
+was the sacrifice, attend only the former.
+
+Yet she was pleased at the thought of sharing this festal assembly, and
+she, her companion, and Lamperi all went into ecstasies over the dress
+she intended to wear, which had just arrived from Brussels.
+
+Maestro Feys passed a restless night, and Barbara watched beside his
+couch for hours. In the morning she allowed herself a little sleep, but
+she was obliged at noon to dress for the assembly, which was to begin
+before sunset.
+
+She had just sat down to have her hair arranged, which occupied a long
+time, when one of the pages handed her a letter brought by a mounted
+courier.
+
+She opened it curiously, and while reading it her cheeks paled and
+flushed as in the days of her youth. Then it dropped into her lap,
+and for a moment she remained motionless, with closed eyes, as though
+stupefied.
+
+Then, rising quickly, she again read the violet-scented missive, written
+on the finest parchment.
+
+"Your son," ran the brief contents--"your son, who has so long been
+separated from his mother, at last desires to look into her eyes. If the
+woman who gave him birth wishes to make him feel new and deep gratitude,
+let her hasten at once to Luxemburg, where he has been for several hours
+in the deepest privacy. The weal and woe of his life are at stake."
+
+The letter, written in the German language, was signed "John of
+Austria."
+
+Panting for breath, Barbara gazed a long time into vacancy. Then,
+suddenly drawing herself up proudly, she exclaimed to Lamperi: "I'll
+dress my hair myself. Yesterday Herr De la Porta offered me his
+travelling carriage. The major-domo must go to him at once and say that
+Madame de Blomberg asks the loan of the vehicle. Let the page Diego
+order post and courier horses at the same time. The carriage must be
+ready in an hour."
+
+"But, Madame," cried the maid, raising her hands in alarm and
+admonition, "the Rassinghams are expecting you. The honour! Every one
+who is well disposed in the States-General will be there. Who knows what
+the party has in store for you? And then the banquet! What may there not
+be to hear!"
+
+"No matter," replied Barbara. "The chaplain--I'll speak to him-must send
+the refusal. No summons from Heaven could be more powerful than the call
+that takes me away. Bestir yourself! There is not an instant to lose."
+
+Frau Lamperi retired with drooping head. But when she had executed her
+mistress's orders and returned, Barbara laid her hand upon her shoulder,
+whispering: "You can keep silence. I am going to Luxemburg. He who calls
+me is one whom you saw enter the world, the hero of Lepanto. He wants
+his mother. At last! at last! And I--"
+
+Here tears stifled her voice, and obeying the desire to pour out to
+another the overflowing gratitude and love which had taken possession of
+her soul, she threw herself upon the gray-haired attendant's breast,
+and amid her weeping exclaimed: "I shall see him with these eyes, I can
+clasp his hand, I shall hear his voice--that voice--His first cry--A
+thousand times, waking and sleeping, I have fancied I heard it again. Do
+you remember how they took him from me, Lamperi?
+
+"To think that I survived it! But now--now If that voice lured me to the
+deepest abyss and called me away from paradise, I would go!"
+
+The maid's old eyes also overflowed, and when Barbara read her son's
+letter aloud, she cried: "Of course there can be no delay, even if,
+instead of the Rassinghams, King Philip himself should send for you. And
+I--may I go with you? Oh, Madame, you do not know what a sweet little
+angel he was from his very birth! We were not allowed to show him to
+you. And it was wise, for, had you seen him, it would have broken your
+poor mother heart to give him up."
+
+She sobbed aloud as she spoke. Barbara permitted her to accompany her,
+though she had intended to take her companion, and would have preferred
+to travel with the woman of noble birth.
+
+Besides, she could have confided the care of her sick guest to Lamperi
+more confidently than to the other. But the faithful old soul's wish
+to see the boy whose entrance into the world she had been permitted to
+greet was too justifiable for her to be able to refuse it.
+
+How much Barbara had to do before her departure! Most of the time was
+consumed by the suffering maestro and the arrangements which she had
+to make for him. She did not leave his bedside until the arrival of the
+sister who was to assist her companion in nursing her old friend until
+her return. She certainly would not be absent long; the important
+things John had to say might probably require great haste, while, on
+the contrary, whatever needed time for execution could be comfortably
+despatched during his stay in the Netherlands. So she assured Feys, who
+regarded her as his good angel and felt her departure painfully,
+that she would soon be with him again, and then gave the order to ask
+Hannibal Melas, in her name, to pay frequent visits to the sick maestro.
+It was very hard for her to leave him and neglect the duties which she
+had undertaken, but in the presence of the summons addressed to her
+every other consideration must be silent.
+
+When Barbara returned to her own apartments Lamperi was still busied
+with the packing.
+
+Several dresses--first of all the new Brussels gown and its belongings,
+even the pomegranate blossoms which the garden city of Ghent
+had supplied as something rare in November for her mistress's
+adornment--were placed carefully in the largest trunk, while Barbara,
+overpowered by inexpressible restlessness, paced the room with hasty
+steps from side to side.
+
+Only when one or another article was taken from a casket or box did
+she pause in her walk. Among the things selected was the pearl necklace
+which Charles had given her, and the only note her royal lover had ever
+written, which ran, "This evening, quia amore langueo." This she laid
+with her own hand among the laces and pomegranate blossoms, for this
+cry of longing might teach her son what she had once been to his father.
+When John had seen her and felt how clear he was to her, he must become
+aware that he had another mother besides the Spanish lady whom he called
+"Tia," and who made his underclothing; then he could no more forget her
+than that other woman.
+
+Lastly, she summoned the major-domo and told him what he must do during
+her absence, which she thought would not exceed a week at the utmost.
+The guests invited for Wednesday must be notified; the women's choir
+must be requested to excuse her non-appearance; Sir Jasper Gordon, her
+most faithful admirer, an elderly Englishman, must learn that she had
+gone away; but, above all, writing tablet in hand, she directed him
+how to provide for her poor, what assistance every individual should
+receive, or the sums of money and wood which were to be sent to other
+houses to provide for the coming winter. She also placed money at the
+majordomo's disposal for any very needy persons who might apply for help
+while she was out of reach.
+
+Before the November sun had set she entered the La Porta travelling
+carriage. The chaplain, whom she referred to the major-domo for any
+matters connected with the poor, gave his blessing to the departing
+traveller, whose cheerful vivacity, after so many severe trials, he
+admired, and whose "golden heart," as he expressed it, had made her dear
+to him. The servants gathered at the door of the house, bowing silently,
+and her "Farewell, till we meet again!" fell from her lips with joyous
+confidence.
+
+While on the way she reflected, for the first time, what John could
+desire of her for the "weal and woe of his life." It was impossible to
+guess, yet whatever it might be she would not fail him.
+
+But what could it be'
+
+Neither during the long night journey nor by the light of day did she
+find a satisfactory answer. True, she had not thought solely of her
+son's entreaty. Her whole former life passed before her.
+
+How much she had sinned and erred! But all that she had done for the man
+to whom the posthorses were swiftly bearing her seemed to her free from
+reproach and blameless. Every act and feeling which he had received from
+her had been the best of which she was capable.
+
+Not a day, scarcely an hour, had she forgotten him; for his sake she had
+endured great anguish willingly, and, in spite of his mute reserve--she
+could say so to herself--without any bitter feeling. How she had
+suffered in parting from her child she alone knew. Fate had raised her
+son to the summit of earthly grandeur and saved him from every clanger.
+Providence had adorned him with its choicest gifts. When she thought of
+the last account of him from the Duke of Ferdinandina, it seemed to her
+as if his life had hitherto resembled a triumphal procession, a walk
+through blooming gardens.
+
+What could he mean by the "woe" after the "weal"?
+
+John was to her the embodied fulfilment of the most ardent prayers. The
+blessings she had besought for him, and for which she had placed her own
+heart on the rack, had become his-glory and splendour, fame and honour.
+
+She had not been able to give them to him, and undoubtedly he owed much
+to his own powers and to the favour of his royal brother, but Barbara
+was firmly convinced that her prayers had raised him to his present
+grandeur.
+
+What more could now be given to him? Everything the human heart desires
+was already his. His happiness was complete, and during recent years
+this, too, had cheered her heart and restored her lost capacity for
+the enjoyment of life. She had been carried to the very verge of
+recklessness whenever bitter grief had oppressed her heart.
+
+Her greatest sorrow had been that she was not permitted to see and
+embrace him, and the knowledge that another filled the place in his
+heart which belonged to her; but lesser troubles had also gnawed at her
+soul.
+
+It had been especially hard to bear that, as the object of the greatest
+Emperor's love and the mother of his son, she had so long felt that
+she was reluctantly tolerated, and not really recognised in the circles
+which should have been hers also. Moreover, the consciousness of
+exercising an art over which she had once attained a mastery, yet never
+being able to shake off the painful doubt whether the applause that
+greeted her performance was genuine, spoiled many a pleasant hour.
+
+Still, all these things had probably been only the tribute which she was
+compelled to pay for the proud joy of being the mother of such a son.
+
+Now she at last felt safe from these malicious little attacks. She had
+gained a good social position; she was not only valued as a singer, but
+always sought wherever the women of Ghent were earnestly pursuing music
+and singing. The invitation to the Rassinghams flung wide the doors
+which had formerly been closed against her, and she might be sure of not
+being deemed the least important among the ladies of her party to whose
+hearts the cause of King and Church was dear.
+
+When she returned to Ghent, even if Don John had not been appointed
+governor, she might even have ventured to make her house the rendezvous
+of the heads of the royalist party.
+
+But now that her son entered the Netherlands as the leader, the
+representative of the sovereign, to reign in Philip's name, everything
+she could wish was attained, and his father's "More, farther," had lost
+all meaning for her.
+
+She could meet her happy son as a happy mother; she said this to herself
+with a long breath. These thoughts had animated her restless half
+slumber during the nocturnal drive, and she still dwelt upon them all
+the following day.
+
+Toward evening they reached Luxemburg. At the gate, where every carriage
+was stopped, the guards asked her name.
+
+At the reply the inspector of taxes bowed profoundly, and signed to the
+Spanish officer behind him.
+
+He was waiting for her, by the command of the captain-general, who
+longed to see her, and with the utmost courtesy undertook the office of
+guide.
+
+Then the carriage rolled on again, and turned into the magnificent park
+of a palace, which belonged to the royal governor, Prince Peter Ernst
+von Mansfeld.
+
+A gentleman dressed in black, whose bright eyes revealed an active mind,
+while the expression of his well-formed features inspired confidence,
+Don John's private secretary, Escovedo, of whose shrewdness and fidelity
+Barbara had often heard, ushered her into the apartments assigned to
+her.
+
+In two hours, he said, the captain-general would be happy to receive
+her. He first wished her to rest completely after the fatiguing journey.
+
+Barbara dismissed, without making use of their services, the pages whom
+he placed at her disposal. The more than luxurious meal which was served
+soon afterward she scarcely touched; the impetuous throbbing of her
+heart choked her breathing so that she could scarcely speak to Lamperi.
+
+With eager zeal the maid tried to induce her to put on the fresh and
+extremely tasteful Brussels gala robe. The candlesticks, with the
+dozens of candles, the elegant silver dishes, the whole manner of the
+reception, led her to make the suggestion. But Barbara had scarcely
+noticed these magnificent things.
+
+Her every thought and feeling centred upon the son whom she was now
+actually to see with her own eyes, whose hand she would touch, whose
+voice she would hear.
+
+The splendid costume did not suit such a meeting after a long
+separation, so solemn a festal hour of the heart.
+
+A heavy black silk which she had brought was more appropriate for this
+occasion. Only she allowed the pomegranate blossoms, which had remained
+perfectly fresh, to be fastened on her breast, that her dress might not
+look like mourning. While Lamperi was putting the last touches to her
+toilet, a priest came for her, as Escovedo had arranged, exactly two
+hours after her arrival. This was Father Dorante, Don John's confessor,
+an elderly man with a face in which earnest piety was so happily mingled
+with kindly cheerfulness that Barbara rejoiced to know that such a
+guardian of souls was at her son's side.
+
+While he was descending the stairs with her, Barbara noticed one of the
+searching glances he secretly cast at her, and wondered what this man's
+pure, keen eyes had probably discovered.
+
+The spacious apartment into which she was now ushered was hung with
+costly bright-hued Oriental rugs.
+
+"Gifts from the widow of the Turkish lord high admiral," the priest
+whispered, pointing to the superb textures, and Barbara nodded. She
+knew how he had obtained them, but the passionate agitation of her soul
+deprived her of the power to inform the monk of this knowledge, of which
+probably she would usually have boasted to a friend of her son so worthy
+of all respect.
+
+The folding doors of the adjoining room were open. Surely John was
+there, and how gladly she would have rushed toward it! But the confessor
+asked her to sit down, as the captain-general still had several orders
+to give. Then he entered the other room.
+
+Barbara, panting for breath, looked after him and, as she glanced
+through the open door, it seemed as though her heart stood still.
+
+Yonder aristocratic gentleman, in the full prime of youthful beauty,
+must be her son.
+
+The man from whom she had so long been parted looked like the apparition
+of the Count Egmont, at whom she had once gazed full of admiration, with
+the wish that her John might resemble him; only she thought her John,
+with his open brow and floating, waving golden locks, far handsomer than
+the unfortunate victor of St. Quentin and Gravelines.
+
+How noble and yet how easy was the bearing of the dignitary, who was
+still less than thirty years old!
+
+His figure was only slightly above middle height. What gave it the air
+of such royal stateliness?
+
+Certainly it was not merely his dress, which consisted wholly of velvet,
+silk, and satin, with the gold of the Fleece that hung below the lace
+ruff at his throat. True, the colours of the costume were becoming.
+Dark violet and golden yellow alternated in the slashed doublet and wide
+breeches. His father had worn similar apparel when he confessed his love
+for her.
+
+Should Barbara regard this as a good omen or an evil one?
+
+He was not yet aware of her arrival for, completely absorbed in the
+subject of their conversation, he was talking with his private secretary
+Escovedo.
+
+How animated his beautiful features became! how leonine he looked when
+he indignantly shook his head with its wealth of golden hair!
+
+Oh, yes! Women's hearts must indeed fly to him, and Barbara now
+understood what she had heard of the beautiful Diana of Sorrento, and
+the no less beautiful Alaria Mendoza, and their love for him.
+
+Thus she had imagined him. Yet no! His outer man, in its proud patrician
+beauty and winning charm, even surpassed her loftiest expectation. One
+thing alone surprised her: the seriousness of his youthful features and
+the lines upon his lofty brow.
+
+Why did her favourite of fortune bear these traces of former anxieties?
+
+Now the priest interrupted him. Had he told her John of her entrance?
+
+Yet that was scarcely possible, for his face revealed no trace of filial
+pleasure. On the contrary. He rallied his courage, as if he were about
+to step into a cold river, straightened himself, and pressed his
+right hand, clinched into a fist, upon his hip. Perhaps--the saints be
+praised!--Father Dorante might have reminded him of something else, for
+he turned to Escovedo again and gave him an order.
+
+Then he waved his hand, flung back his handsome head as King Philip was
+in the habit of doing, but in a far nobler, freer manner, hastily passed
+his hand through his wavy hair, as if to strengthen his courage, and
+then walked slowly, with haughty, almost arrogant dignity, to the door.
+
+On the threshold he paused and looked at her. How bright were the
+large blue eyes which now gazed at Barbara with an expression far more
+searching than joyous.
+
+Yet even while, with one hand resting on the back of the chair and the
+other pressed upon her panting bosom, she was striving to find the right
+words, Don John's glance brightened.
+
+She was not mistaken. He had dreaded this meeting, and now with joyful
+surprise was asking himself whether this could be the woman who had been
+described to him as a showy, extremely whimsical, perverse person, who
+used her son's renown to obtain access to aristocratic houses and as
+many pleasures as possible.
+
+She must at any rate have been remarkably beautiful, and how wonderfully
+her delicately chiselled features had retained a charm which is usually
+peculiar to youth! how well the now dull gold of her thick tresses
+harmonized with the faint flush on the almost unwrinkled face! and how
+dignified was the bearing of her figure, still slender, in spite of her
+matronly increase in flesh!
+
+No wonder that she had once fired the heart of his distinguished father!
+Now--that sunny glance could not deceive Barbara--now her appearance had
+ceased to be unpleasant to him; nay, perhaps even pleased him. And now
+she could bear it no longer; from the inmost depths of her heart rose
+the cry: "John, my child! My dear, dear son!"
+
+Again, with the speed of lightning, the question darted through Don
+John's mind: "Is this the woman whose voice, I was told, offended the
+ear? Spiteful, base slander!" How fervent, how gentle, how full of
+tender affection her cry had sounded! Not even from the lips of Doha
+Magdalena, his much-loved "Tia," had his own name ever echoed so
+musically as from those of yonder woman, whom he had just shrunk from
+meeting as though it were an inevitable misfortune.
+
+Shame, regret, love, seethed hotly within him. It was long since he had
+felt emotion like that which mastered him when her tearful eyes again
+met his, and now, in the enthusiastic soul of this favourite of fortune,
+whose lofty flight neither glory, nor fame, nor disappointment could
+paralyze, in the bosom of this good, high-minded young human being
+stirred the consciousness that a great new happiness was in store for
+him, and from his lips rang the cry for which Barbara had waited so long
+with vain yearning, "Mother!" and again "Mother!"
+
+It seemed to her as if the bright sun had suddenly burst in its full,
+dazzling radiance from midnight darkness. Three swift steps took her to
+Don John and, no longer able to control herself, she seized one of the
+hands which he had extended to her to kiss it; but his chivalrous nature
+forbade him to permit this, and at the same moment he had obeyed the
+impulse to kiss the face upturned to his with such loving tenderness.
+
+On the way she had pondered long over the question how she should
+address him; but now she knew that she need not call him "Your
+Excellency," far less "Your Highness." To impose so severe a constraint
+upon her poor, poor heart was no longer required and, though interrupted
+by low sobbing, she again cried with all the fervour of the most tender
+maternal love: "My son! My dear, dear child!"
+
+Then suddenly the words she had vainly sought came voluntarily, and in
+fluent speech she told him how her heart had so long consumed itself
+with yearning for him, and that she had now left everything behind to
+obey his summons; and he thanked her with eager warmth by raising the
+hand which clasped his to his lips.
+
+What he desired of her would be hard for her to do, but now that he knew
+her it was far harder to ask. Yet it must be done, because upon this
+might perhaps depend the great hopes which he fixed upon the future, and
+which would atone for what had so cruelly embittered and poisoned the
+past.
+
+Barbara gazed more intently into the noble face whose blooming youthful
+beauty had just delighted her, and in doing so perceived far more
+distinctly the sorrowful, anxious expression which she had formerly
+thought she noticed. In pained surprise she inquired what cause he, whom
+Heaven had hitherto loaded with its most precious gifts, had to complain
+of Fate, as whose spoiled favourite she, like all the rest of the world,
+had believed him happy.
+
+He laughed softly, but with such keen bitterness that it pierced her to
+the heart, and the bright flush with which joy had suffused her cheeks
+suddenly vanished.
+
+Her favourite of Fortune indignantly rejected the belief that he had
+reason to look back upon his past life with gratitude and pleasure.
+
+It was incomprehensible and, carried away by the violent agitation which
+seized upon her, she described with fiery vivacity how the conviction
+that he had gained everything which her hard sacrifice and her prayers
+had sought, had beautified her life and helped her to bear even the most
+painful trials with quiet submission, nay, with joyous gratitude.
+
+Stimulated by the power of the extraordinary things which she had
+experienced, she described in a ceaseless flow of vivid words how she
+had torn her child from her soul in order to place it in the path which
+was to lead to fame, splendour, and honour--in short, to everything that
+adorns and lends value to life.
+
+"And why, in the name of all the saints," she concluded, "why must I now
+tell myself that I endured this great suffering in vain, and that what
+filled my heart with joy was only an idle delusion? Yet I watched your
+steps as the hunter follows the trail of the game. I saw how every fresh
+onset led you to greater splendour, higher renown, and more exalted
+grandeur."
+
+His cheeks, too, had now flushed. What life was still pulsing in the
+veins of this woman, already past her youth! with what impressive power
+she understood how to describe what moved her! Yet how mistaken was
+the view to which maternal love and the desire of her heart had led
+her artist nature! She had seen only the light, not the shadow, the
+darkness, the gloom, which had clouded his course of fame.
+
+To secure splendour and grandeur for him, she had yielded to the most
+cruel demand, and what had been the result of this sacrifice? What had
+she gained by it?
+
+How had the happiness in which she fancied she saw him revelling been
+constituted?
+
+The power of the newly awakened experiences bore him away also, and he
+described no less vividly what he had suffered.
+
+Yes, indeed! He had not lacked great successes, far-reaching renown,
+high honours, and some degree of glory. But what a tale he--not yet
+thirty--now related! He, the son of an Emperor, the brother of a
+powerful King, who was adorned by as many crowns as there were fingers
+on his hand!
+
+He had been King Philip's servant and useful commander in chief, nothing
+more.
+
+And now he described the sovereign's cold nature, unfeeling calculation,
+and offensive suspicion. He, Don John, the not all unworthy son of the
+great Emperor Charles, was not born to obey all his life, and allow
+himself to be turned to account, worn out, and abused for the benefit of
+another. He, too, might lay claim to the right of governing a kingdom of
+his own as its ruler, benefactor, and Mehrer.
+
+After Lepanto, the crowns of the Morea and Albania had been offered to
+him. Then, after he had conquered Tunis for his brother Philip, he had
+wished to reign over that country as its king. Had it been ceded to him,
+large provinces would have been taken from the infidels. This, it might
+have been supposed, was sufficient reason for Philip to intrust it to
+his government. But although the Holy Father in Rome and other rulers
+had recognised the justice of these wishes, his royal brother could not
+be persuaded to grant his just demands, and destroyed these hopes with
+cruel coldness. He had not even been induced to recognise him as Infant,
+as a lawful member of his family.
+
+With trivial pretexts, and promises which he never intended to fulfil,
+the hypocritical, selfish, niggardly man had repulsed, delayed, and put
+him off.
+
+So his life had been spoiled by the most cruel disappointments, by a
+succession of the bitterest wrongs. Since Lepanto, no pure happiness
+had bloomed again for him. He was a miserable, disappointed, ill-treated
+man, who could never regain his former happiness until he obtained, on
+his own account, what he himself called greatness, honour, glory, and
+power. The gifts, no, the more than well-earned payments for which he
+was indebted to the King, were only a bodiless shadow, a caricature of
+these lofty gifts of Heaven.
+
+His mother, alarmed, cried in terror, "What an ambition!"
+
+But Don John, with increasing excitement, exclaimed: "Yes, mother! I
+am so ambitious that, if I knew there was another man who more ardently
+desired renown and honour, I would throw myself out of this window. 'Who
+does not struggle ward, falls back!' has long been my motto, and I am
+struggling upward and know the goal."
+
+A startling suspicion seized Barbara, and with anxious caution she
+whispered:
+
+"Do I see aright? You have learned from Flanders and Brabant how
+bitterly King Philip is hated there, and you now hope to contend with
+him for the crown of the Netherlands? The victory you, my hero, my
+general, you would surely attain--" But here she was interrupted.
+
+Don John cut short her words with the cry, "Mother!" and then went on
+indignantly: "If any one else had given me this advice, I would
+deprive him of any inclination to repeat it. God granted Don Philip the
+sovereignty. My oath, my honour, forbid me to rise against him. He has
+lost all claim to my love, my gratitude, but he is sure of the fidelity
+of his ill-treated brother. Besides," he added proudly, "my wishes mount
+higher."
+
+Barbara had listened to her son with the utmost eagerness; now, taking a
+locket from the breast of his doublet, he whispered:
+
+"Do you know whom this lovely picture represents? No? Well, these are
+the features of the fairest and most unfortunate of women. Mary Stuart,
+the hapless Queen of Scotland, the devout, patient sufferer for our holy
+faith, looks at you from this frame. She does not refuse me her hand.
+The Holy Father in Rome and the Guises in France approve the bold
+enterprise; but I shall take the army under my command by sea to
+England. I am sure of victory in this conflict. With the most beautiful
+of women, I shall gain the crown which I need and which will best suit
+me."
+
+"John!" Barbara exclaimed, carried away by the daring of this proposal,
+and her eyes sparkled with enthusiasm. "This desire is worthy of you and
+your great father. If I can aid you in its realization----"
+
+"You can," Don John eagerly interrupted; "for the first step is to gain
+the consent of the States-General to despatch the army, which must now
+be sent back to Spain, thither by sea. When the troops are once on the
+way they will steer to England, instead of southward. But even to embark
+these forces I shall need the consent of the representatives of the
+country. Therefore, difficult as it is for me, the words must be
+uttered: Your residence in the provinces will prevent my obtaining it.
+Spare me the mention of my reasons; but the circumstance that you always
+opened your house to the Spanish party must fill the King's enemies with
+distrust of you. Besides, it is scarcely credible; but you must believe
+Escovedo, to whom I owe this information. How petty people in the
+provinces can be about such matters! An edict was recently issued which
+commands the removal of every official who can not prove that the union
+of the parents who gave him life was consecrated by the Holy Church.
+Alas, mother, that I should be compelled to wound you at our first
+meeting! But if your love is as great as your every glance tells me, as
+you have just confessed with such touching warmth----"
+
+"And as I shall confess," she cried impetuously, "so long as a single
+breath stirs this bosom; for I love you, John--love you with all the
+strength of this poor, sorely tortured soul. But, child, child! What you
+ask of me--It comes so unexpectedly--you have no suspicion how deeply it
+pierces into the very heart of my life. I must leave the country which
+has become my home, the city where prejudice and enmity greeted me, and
+where I have now obtained the position that befits me. A venerable sick
+man is in my house, longing for the return of the nurse who left him for
+your sake. My poor--The rest that I must cast aside and abandon is
+more than I can enumerate now. Nor could I, this request bewilders me
+so--Give rue a little time to collect my thoughts, for you see--But if
+you look at me so, John, I can--Yet no!--It certainly is not necessary
+that I should say yes or no at once. I must first learn whether
+you--whether the sacrifice I made for your glory and grandeur--it was in
+Landshut, you know--whether it was really so useless, whether you are in
+reality as unhappy as you, the fame-crowned, beloved, and lauded child
+of an Emperor, would have me believe, or whether--Forgive me, John, but
+before I make this terribly difficult decision I must--yes, I must see
+clearly. As surely as your hero soul harbours no falsity, it would be
+unworthy of you to show your mother a distorted image of your inner
+life; you must confess whether you--"
+
+"Whether," Don John, with a smile of sorrowful bitterness, here
+interrupted the deeply troubled woman--"whether, in order to soften your
+heart, I am not painting in blacker colours than reality requires. Oh,
+how little you know me yet! I would rather this tongue should wither
+than that I should unchivalrously permit it to deviate one straw's
+breadth from the truth in order to attain a selfish purpose. No, mother!
+My description of the grief which often overpowers this soul was far too
+lukewarm. If your first sacrifice was intended to make me a happy man,
+its effect was no stronger than the light of the candle which is burned
+amid the radiance of the noonday sun. Perhaps I should have been happier
+had I been allowed to grow up in modest circumstances under your tender
+care; for then my course would have been long and steep, and I should
+have been forced to climb many steps to reach the point where barriers
+are fixed to ambition. But as it is, I began at the place which many of
+the best men regard as the highest goal. The great man whom you loved
+understood life better than you. Had I obeyed his wish, and in the
+stillness of the cloister striven for blessings which do not belong to
+this world, this miserable existence would have seemed less unendurable
+to me, then doubtless a much wider space would have separated me from
+despair; for I am so unhappy, mother, that I envy the poor peasant who
+in the sweat of his brow gathers the harvest which his sterile fields
+produce; for years I have been as wretched as the captive lion in
+its cage, the lover whose bride is torn from him on the marriage day.
+Imagine the wish as a woman, and beside her a magician who, by virtue of
+the power which he possesses, cries, 'The fulfilment of every desire you
+strive to attain shall be forever withheld,' and you will have an idea
+of the devastated existence of the pitiable man who, if it were not
+sinful, would curse those who gave him the life in which he has long
+seen nothing save the horrible, jeering spectre of disappointment."
+
+"Stop!" moaned Barbara sorrowfully, pressing her hand upon her brow as
+if frantic. "So even my hardest sacrifice was futile, and what rendered
+life valuable to my foolish heart was mere delusion and bewildering
+deception. What I beheld raising you to the stars, as though with
+eagles' wings, was a clogging weight; what seemed to me at a distance
+the bright sunshine irradiating your path, was a Will-o'-the-wisp luring
+to destruction. What I thought white, was black, the radiant daylight
+was dusk and the darkness of night. Oh, if it were really granted me
+Yet, child, you certainly do not know what you are asking. So, before it
+comes to the final decision, let me put this one more question: Do you
+believe, really and firmly, that if the confidence of the States-General
+permits you to take your army by sea, and you lead it in England and
+succeed in winning the crown and hand of this--whether she is guilty
+or not--beautiful, devout, and, whatever errors she has committed,
+desirable Queen, that the troubles which it is so hard for your
+ambitious soul to bear will then vanish? When you have won the woman
+for whom you yearn, the throne, and the sceptre, will your sore heart
+be healed and happiness make its joyous entry, and also remain in your
+soul, that is so hard to satisfy? For--I see and feel it--it is carried
+away by the 'More, farther,' of your father. Can you, my John, have you
+really the firm conviction that, if this lofty desire is fulfilled, you
+will be content and believe that you have found the summit and the limit
+of your feverish struggle upward and forward?"
+
+"Yes, and again yes," cried Don John in a tone of immovably firm belief,
+while his large eyes beamed upon his mother with an expression of full
+and genuine trust. "The vainglory which your first sacrifice brought me
+was the source of this life full of bitter disappointment. The hand of
+Mary Stuart, the lovely martyr, the woman so lavishly endowed with every
+mental and physical gift, for whom my heart has yearned ever since I saw
+her picture, and the crown of England, the symbol of genuine majesty,
+will transform disappointment into the fulfilment which Heaven has
+hitherto denied me. If these both fall to the lot of the son, the
+mother's sacrifice will not have been in vain; no, it will bring him
+golden fruit, for the success of this enterprise will bestow upon your
+John, besides the fleeting radiance, the sun whence the light emanates.
+It will raise him to the height to which he aspires, and for which Fate
+destined him."
+
+Here he hesitated, for the agitated face of Escovedo, who entered with a
+despatch in his hand, showed that something unexpected and startling had
+occurred.
+
+The secretary, Don John's friend and counsellor, did not allow himself
+to be intimidated by the angry gesture with which his master waved him
+back, but handed him the paper, exclaiming in a tone ringing with
+the horror the news had inspired: "Antwerp attacked by his Majesty's
+rebellious troops, those in Alst, headed by their Eletto--burned to
+ashes, plundered, destroyed!"
+
+With a hasty snatch Don John seized the parchment announcing the
+misfortune, and read it, panting for breath.
+
+The Council of Antwerp had addressed it to King Philip, and sent a copy
+to him, the newly appointed governor.
+
+When he let the hand which held the paper fall, he was deadly pale, and
+gazed around him as though seeking assistance.
+
+Then his eyes met those of his mother who, seized with anxious fears,
+was watching his every movement, and he handed her the fatal sheet, with
+the half-sorrowful, half-disdainful exclamation:
+
+"And I am to lead this abused people back to love the man who sent them
+the Duke of Alba, that he might heal their wounds with his pitiless iron
+hand, and who let the poor, brave fellows in his service starve and go
+in rags until, in fierce despair, they seized for themselves what their
+employer denied."
+
+The sheet Barbara's son had handed to her trembled in her hand as she
+read half aloud: "It is the greatest commercial city in Europe, the
+fosterer of art, knowledge, manufactures, and the Catholic faith, which
+never wavered in obedience to the King, hurled in a single day from the
+height of honour and happiness to a gulf of misery, and become a den of
+robbers and murderers, who know nothing of God and the King. Old men,
+women, and children have been slaughtered by them without distinction,
+the goods belonging partly to foreign owners have been stolen and
+burned, and the magnificent Town Hall, with all its treasures of
+documents and patents, has become a prey of the flames."
+
+"Horrible! horrible!" cried Barbara, and Don John repeated her words,
+and added in a hollow tone: "And this happened yesterday, on the
+selfsame Sunday which saw me ride into the Netherlands! These are the
+bonfires which redden the heavens on my arrival!"
+
+"William of Orange will call them incendiary flames crying aloud for
+vengeance," fell in half-stifled accents from Barbara's lips.
+
+"And this time with some reason," replied Don John in a tone of assent,
+"for the men who kindled them are mercenaries of the King, formerly
+our own troops, who have been driven to desperation." Then he continued
+passionately: "And Philip sends me--me, a man of the sword--to these
+provinces. What is the warrior to do here? This blade is too good
+to deal the death-blow to the body which is already bleeding from a
+thousand wounds. If, nevertheless, I did it, I should destroy the most
+productive fountain of the King's wealth. It is not a man who can fight
+and command an army and a navy that is needed here, but a woman who
+understands how to mediate and to heal. The King sent me to this country
+not to gather fresh laurels, but to be shipwrecked, and with bleeding
+brow return defeated. Oh, I see through him! But I also know--Heaven be
+praised!--what I owe to myself, my father's son. If the States-General
+permit me to take the troops away by sea, I will gain the woman and the
+crown that are beckoning to me in another country, and his Majesty may
+send a more pliant regent of either sex to the provinces to continue
+the battle with William of Orange, who fights with weapons which my
+straightforward nature and firm sword ill understand how to meet. This
+sheet places the decision before me. Real, genuine glory, the fairest of
+wives, and a proud crown--or defeat and ruin."
+
+The close of this outpouring of the young hero's heart sounded like a
+manly, irrevocable resolution; but his mother laid her hand upon his
+arm, and said quietly, "I will go."
+
+A sunny glance of gratitude from her son rested upon her; she, however,
+only bent her head slightly and went on as calmly as if she had found
+the strength to be content, but with warm affection:
+
+"My first sacrifice was vain. May the second not only aid you to gain
+the splendour of a crown, but, above all, instil into your soul the
+satisfaction with that longed-for highest happiness which your mother's
+heart desires for you!"
+
+Then Don John obeyed the mighty impulse of his soul to pour forth to his
+mother the gratitude and love which her unselfish retirement wrung
+from him. His arms clasped her closely and tenderly, and never had
+he rewarded even his foster-mother in Villagarcia for her love and
+faithfulness with a more affectionate kiss.
+
+"My gratitude will die only with myself," he cried as he released her.
+"Blessed be the day on which I found my own mother! It led you, dear
+lady, not only to your John, but to his love."
+
+Escovedo, moved to the depths of his heart, had listened in surprise
+to this outburst of feeling from the famous son of the Emperor, whom
+he loved, to whom he had devoted his fine intellect and wealth of
+experience, and for whom it was appointed that he should die.
+
+Thus ended Don John's meeting with his mother, which he had dreaded as
+an inevitable evil. Alba, who described her as an extremely obstinate
+woman, had advised him to use a stratagem to induce her to yield to his
+wish and leave the Netherlands. He was to represent that his sister, the
+Duchess Margaret, who was holding her court at Aquila, in the Abruzzi
+Mountains, invited her to visit her in order to make her acquaintance.
+She would not resist this summons, for she had often made her way to
+the government building, and took special pleasure in the society of the
+aristocratic Spaniards. When she was once on board a ship, she would
+be obliged to submit to being carried to Spain, whence her return could
+easily be prevented.
+
+To set such a snare for this woman had been impossible for Don John.
+Truth and love had sufficed to induce her to fulfil his wish.
+
+Senor Escovedo had witnessed much that was noble during this hour, but
+especially a mother whom in the future he could remember with gratitude
+and joy; for Don John's confidant knew that of all he saw and heard here
+not a word was false and feigned, yet he knew better than any other man
+his master's heart and every look. Barbara, too, believed her son no
+less confidently, and as the shout of victory reaches combatants lying
+on the ground, wounded by lances and arrows, the cry of a secret voice
+within her soul, sorely as she was stricken, great as was the sacrifice
+and suffering which she had imposed upon herself, called upon her to
+rejoice in the highest of all gifts--the love of her child, to whom
+hitherto she had been only a dreaded stranger.
+
+She could not yet obtain a clear insight into the result of the promise
+which she had given her son; it seemed as though a veil was drawn over
+her active mind.
+
+Yet again and again she asked herself what power could have induced her
+to grant so quickly and unconditionally to the son a demand which in
+her youth she would have refused, with defiant opposition, even to his
+ardently loved father. But she took as little trouble to find the answer
+as she felt regret for her compliance.
+
+The world to which she returned after this hour had gained a new
+aspect. She had not understood the real nature of the former one. The
+exclamation which her son's confession had elicited she still believed
+after long reflection. What she had deemed great, was small; what had
+seemed to her light and brilliant, was dark. What she had considered
+worthy of the greatest sacrifice was petty and trivial; no fountain
+of joy, but a fierce torrent of new wishes constantly surpassing one
+another. With their boundless extent they had of necessity remained
+unfulfilled. Thus woe on woe, and at the same time the painfully
+paralyzing feeling of the hostility of Fate had been evoked from its
+surges and, instead of happiness, they had brought sorrow and suffering.
+
+Pride in such a son had been the delight of her life; henceforth, she
+felt it, she must seek her happiness, her joys, elsewhere, and she
+knew also where, and realized that she was receiving higher for smaller
+things. Instead of sharing his renown, she had gained the right to share
+his misfortune and his griefs.
+
+The more and the more eagerly she pondered in silence, the more surely
+she perceived that earthly glory and magnificence, which she had
+thought the greatest blessings, were only a series of sunbeams, swiftly
+following one another, which would be clouded by one shadow after the
+other until darkness and oblivion ingulfed them.
+
+Like every outward splendour, fame dazzles the eyes of men. It would dim
+her son's--she knew it now--whether he looked backward to the past or
+forward to the future. The greatness he had gained he overlooked; what
+awaited him in the future, having lost his clearness of vision and
+impartiality, he was disposed to overvalue.
+
+From her eyes, on the contrary, this knowledge removed veil after veil.
+
+It was a vain delusion which led him to the belief that the Scottish
+and English crowns possessed the power to render him happy, and end his
+struggle for new and higher honours; for royalty also belonged to the
+glory whose worthlessness she now perceived as plainly as the reflection
+of her own face in the surface of the mirror.
+
+Barbara saw her son for only a few more fleeting hours; the "Spanish
+fury" which destroyed the flower of Antwerp doubled his business cares,
+forbade any delay, and imperiously claimed his whole time and strength.
+
+The mother watched his honest labours sorrowfully. She knew that the
+chivalrous champion of the faith, the sincere enthusiast, to whom
+nothing was higher than honour and the stainless purity of his name,
+must succumb to his most eminent foe, the Prince of Orange, with his
+tireless, inventive, thoroughly statesmanlike intellect, which preserved
+the power of seeing in the darkness, and did not shrink from deceit
+where it would promote the great cause which she did not understand, but
+to which he consecrated every drop of his heart's blood, every penny of
+his property.
+
+Her son came to the country as a Spaniard and the brother of the hated
+Philip on the day of the most abominable crime history ever narrated,
+and which his followers committed; and who stood higher in the hearts of
+the people of the Netherlands than their beloved helper in need, their
+"Father William"?
+
+She saw her son go to this hopeless conflict like a garlanded victim to
+the altar. She had nothing to aid him save her prayers and the execution
+of the heavy sacrifice which she had resolved to make. The collapse of
+her belief, wishes, and expectations produced a transformation of her
+whole nature. A world of ideas had crumbled into fragments before and
+within her, and from their ruins a new one suddenly sprang up in her
+strong soul. Where yesterday her warlike temper had defied or resisted,
+to-day she retired with lowered weapons. To contend against her son, and
+force her new knowledge upon him, would have seemed to her foolish and
+fruitless, for she desired and expected nothing more from him than that
+he should keep for her the love she had won.
+
+So she yielded to his desire without resistance. However his destiny
+might turn, he should be obliged to admit that his mother had omitted
+nothing in her power to open to him the path which, according to his own
+opinion, might lead to the height for which he longed.
+
+She made use of his affectionate readiness to serve her only so far as
+to beg him to take charge of her son Conrad. He did so willingly, and
+endeavoured to induce the young man to enter the priesthood. He wished
+to spare him the disappointments which had marred his own life, but
+Conrad preferred the army.
+
+His mother did not forget him, and did everything in her power for him.
+He remained on terms of affectionate union with her, but he did not
+see her again until the gold of her hair was changed to silver, and he
+himself had risen to the rank of colonel.
+
+This was to happen in Spain. Barbara had gone there by way of Genoa
+under the escort of Count Faconvergue, commander of the German
+mercenaries, and while doing so had been treated with the respect and
+distinguished consideration which was her due as the mother of Don John
+of Austria, who had now acknowledged her.
+
+Like every other wish of her son, Barbara had fulfilled with quiet
+indulgence his desire that she would not again enter the Netherlands and
+Ghent.
+
+From Luxemburg she directed what should be done with her house, her
+servants, and the recipients of her alms. Hannibal Melas relieved her
+of the care of Maestro Feys, which she had undertaken, and under his
+faithful nursing the old musician was granted many more years of life.
+The Maltese also distributed among her poor the large sums which the
+sale of Barbara's property produced.
+
+In Spain she was received with the utmost consideration by the Marquis
+de la Mota, Dona Magdalena de Ulloa's brother, and later by the lady
+herself. But at first there was no real bond of affection between these
+women, and this was Barbara's fault, for Dona Magdalena's experience
+was the same as Don John's. She perceived with shame how greatly she had
+undervalued Don John's mother--nay, how much she had wronged her--but
+her sedulous efforts to make amends for the error produced an effect
+upon Barbara different from her expectations; for the great lady's
+manner seemed like a confession of guilt, and kept alive the memory of
+the anguish of soul which Dona Magdalena had so often inflicted upon
+her.
+
+The early death of the young hero whom both loved so tenderly first drew
+them together. Barbara had witnessed with very different feelings from
+Dona Magdalena and her brother how the former regarded every false step
+of Don John, and especially that of his expedition to England, as a
+heavy misfortune, and as such bewailed it. Dona Magdalena had been
+firmly convinced that the spell of fame which surrounded the victor of
+Lepanto, and the irresistible lovableness characteristic of his whole
+nature, would finally win the hearts of the Netherlanders, and even
+induce the Prince of Orange, whose friendship Don John himself hoped to
+gain, to join hands with him in the attempt to work for the welfare of
+his country.
+
+Barbara knew that this expectation deceived him.
+
+Toleration and liberty were the blessings which the Prince of Orange
+desired to win for his people, and both were hateful to her son, reared
+at the Spanish court, as she herself saw in them an encroachment upon
+the just demands of the Church and the claims of royalty. Fire and water
+could harmonize more easily than these two men, and Barbara foresaw
+which of them in this conflict would be the extinguishing flood.
+
+She perceived how waterfall after waterfall was quenching the flames
+which burned in Don John's honest soul for the supposed welfare of the
+nation intrusted to him. He was reaping hatred, scorn, and humiliation
+wherever he had hoped to win love and gratitude in the Netherlands. His
+royal brother left him in the lurch where he was entitled to depend upon
+his assistance. But when Philip let the mask fall and showed openly how
+deeply he distrusted the glorious son of his dead father, and to what
+a degree his ill will had risen--when he committed the cruel crime of
+having Escovedo, the devoted, loyal friend and counsellor of the victor
+of Lepanto, assassinated in Madrid, where he had come to labour in his
+master's cause--the most ambitious and sensitive of hearts received the
+deathblow which was to put an end to his famous career and his young
+life.
+
+Scarcely two years after Barbara's meeting with Don John, the Emperor
+Charles's hero son died. Even in the Netherlands he had remained to the
+last victor on the battlefield. Alessandro Farnese, his dearest friend,
+his companion in youth, in study, and in war, had valiantly supported
+him with his good sword; but his faithful friendship had been unable to
+heal the sufferings which wore out Don John's strong body and brave soul
+when, to the severest political failures, was added the bloody treachery
+of his royal brother.
+
+The death of this son doubtless first taught Barbara with what cruel
+anguish a mother's heart can be visited; but her John had not really
+died to her. Accustomed to love him from a distance, she continued to
+live in and with him, and in her thoughts and dreams he remained her
+own.
+
+At first, without leaving the lay condition, she had joined the
+Dominican Sisters in the Convent of Santa Maria la Real at Cebrian; but
+even the slight constraint which life behind stone walls imposed upon
+her still seemed unendurable, so she retired to the little city of
+Colindres, in the district of Loredo. There stood the deserted house
+of Escovedo, the murdered friend and counsellor of her John and, as
+everything under its roof reminded her of the beloved dead, it seemed
+the most fitting spot in which to pass the remnant of her days. In it
+she led an independent but quiet, secluded life. She spent only a few
+maravedis for her own wants, while she used the thousands of ducats
+which, after her son's death, King Philip awarded her as an annual
+income, to make life easier for the poor and the sick whom she
+affectionately sought out.
+
+With every tear she dried she believed that she was showing the best
+honour to her son's memory.
+
+She was denied the pleasure of placing a flower upon his grave, for King
+Philip had done his dead brother the honour which he withheld from him
+during life and, though only as a corpse, received him among the members
+of his illustrious race. His coffin had been entombed in the cold family
+vault of the Escurial, where no sunbeam enters.
+
+But Barbara needed no place associated with his person in order to
+remember him; she always felt near him, and memories were the vital
+air which nourished her soul. Music remained the best ornament of her
+solitary existence, and never did the forms of the son and the father
+come nearer to her than when she sang the songs--or in after years
+played them on the harp and lute--to which her imperial lover had liked
+to listen.
+
+The memory of her John's father now taught her to change the "More,
+farther," of his motto into the maxim, "Learn to be content," the memory
+of the son, that every sacrifice which we make for the happiness of
+another is futile if, besides splendour and glory, fame and honour, it
+does not also gain the spiritual blessings whose possession first lends
+those gifts genuine value. These much-envied favours of Fortune had
+little to do with the indestructible monument which she erected in
+her heart to her son and her lover. What built it and lent it eternal
+endurance were the modest gifts of the heart.
+
+She now knew the names of the blessings which might have guided her boy
+to a loftier happiness and, full of the love which even death could not
+assail and lessen, mourned by many, Barbara Blomberg, at an advanced
+age, closed her eyes upon the world.
+
+
+     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
+     Attain a lofty height from which to look down upon others
+     Before learning to obey, he was permitted to command
+     Catholic, but his stomach desired to be Protestant (Erasmus)
+     Dread which the ancients had of the envy of the gods
+     Grief is grief, and this new sorrow does not change the old one
+     Harder it is to win a thing the higher its value becomes
+     No happiness will thrive on bread and water
+     Shuns the downward glance of compassion
+     That tears were the best portion of all human life
+     The blessing of those who are more than they seem
+     The greatness he had gained he overlooked
+     To the child death is only slumber
+     Who does not struggle hard, falls back
+     Whoever will not hear, must feel
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Barbara Blomberg, Complete, by Georg Ebers
+
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