ounted on horses, and between them my squire
Akusch on the bear-leader's camel, all in white as a Son of the Desert;
and the three of them fettered with chains made of wood.

My grand-uncle had lent Herdegen the suit of mail he himself had worn in
his youth at a tournament.

Cousin Maud had provided his white cloak with a red cross, and as
he rode forth on a noble black steed in mail-harness with scarlet
housings--the finest and stoutest horse in the Im Hoffs' stables-and his
golden hair shining in the sun, many a maid could not take her eyes off
from him.

Kunz, in the garb of a fool, hither and thither, nay, and everywhere
at once, doubtless had the better sport; but Herdegen's heart beat the
higher, for he could hear a thousand voices proclaiming him the most
comely and his troop the most princely of all; from many a window a
flower was shed on him, or a ribband, or a knot. At last, when the dance
was all over, the guilds with the town-pipers betook them to the head
constable's quarters, where they were served with drink and ate the
Shrove-Tuesday meal of fish which was given in their honor. When the
procession was past and gone my grand-uncle bid Herdegen go to him, and
that which the old man then said and did to move him to give up his love
was shrewdly planned and not without effect on his mind. After looking
at him from head to foot, saying nothing but with no small contentment,
he clapped him kindly on the shoulder and led him, as though by chance,
up to the Venice mirror in the dining-hall. Then pointing to the
image before him: "A Tancred!" he cried, "a Godfrey! Richard of the
Lion-heart! And the bride a miserable scrivener's wench!--a noble
bride!" Thereupon Herdegen fired up and began to speak in praise of
Ann's rare and choice beauty; but his guardian stopped him short, laid
his arm round his shoulders, and muttered in his ear that in his young
days likewise youths of noble birth had to be sure made love to the fair
daughters of the common citizens, but the man who could have thought of
courting one of them in good faith....

Here he broke off with a sharp laugh, and drawing the boy closer to him,
cried:

"No harm is meant my Tancred! And you may keep the black horse in
remembrance of this hour."

It was old Berthold, my uncle's body-servant who told me all this;
Herdegen when he came home answered none of my questions. He would
not grant my prayer that he should show himself to Ann in his knight's