the marches, as claimed by our Lord Constable the Elector.

Baron Franz was now become chamberlain to the emperor and, albeit cured
indeed of his wounds, was plagued by a bad cough. Still he could boast
of the same noble and knightly presence as of old, and his pale face,
paler than ever I had known it, under his straight black hair, with the
feeble tones of his soft voice, went right to many a maiden's heart;
also his rich black dress, sparkling with fine gems, beseemed him well.

Presently, when he saw that Hans and I were plighted lovers, he feigned
as though his heart were stricken to death; but I soon perceived that
he could take comfort, and that he had bestowed the love he had once
professed for me, with compound increase on Ursula Tetzel. She was ready
enough to let him make love to her, and I wished the swarthy courtier
all good speed with the damsel.

A dancing-hall is in all lands a stew full of fish, as it were, for
gentlemen from court, and Junker Henning von Beust had no sooner come in
than he began to angle; and whereas Sir Franz's bait was melancholy
and mourning, the Junker strove to win hearts by sheer mirth and bold
manners.

My lover himself had commended him to my favor by reason that the
gentleman was lodging under his parents' roof; and he and I and Ann had
found much pleasure these two days past in his light and openhearted
friendliness. Nought more merry indeed might be seen than this
red-haired young nobleman, in parti-colored attire, with pointed
scallops round the neck and arm-holes, which fluttered as he moved and
many little bells twinkling merrily. Light and life beamed forth out
of this gladsome youth's blue eyes. He had never sat at a school-desk;
while our boys had been poring over their books, he had been riding with
his father at a hunt or a fray, or had lurked in ambush by the highway
for the laden wagons of those very "pepper sacks"--[A nickname for
grocery merchants]--whose good wine and fair daughters he was so far
from scorning in their own town-hall.

He had already fallen in love with Ann at the Hallerhof, and never quit
her side although, after I had overheard certain sharp words by which
Ursula Tetzel strove to lower the maid in his opinion, I told him
plainly of what rank and birth she was.

For this he cared not one whit; nay, it increased his pleasure in making
much of her and trying to spoil her shrewish foe's sport. It seemed as
though he could never have enough o