re is no hope for me more."

"None," said she, firm and hard. But she forth with added more gently.
"None, Herdegen, none at all so long as a single thread remains unbroken
which binds you to Ursula."

On this he stepped close up to her and cried in great emotion: "She,
she! Aye, she hath indeed cast her devil's tangle of gold about me to
ensnare all that is vain and base in me; but she has no more room in
my heart than those bees have. And if you--if my good angel will but be
mine again I will cry 'apage'--I tear her toils asunder."

He ceased, for certain ladies and gentlemen came nigh, and foremost
of them Ursula; aye, and I can see her now drawing off her glove and
stooping to gather up some earth to lay on the burning hand of the man
whom in truth she loved, while he strove to forestall her and not to
accept such service. That night we stayed at the lodge, and Ursula again
had the chamber next to ours; and again I heard her appealing to her
Saints, while Ann poured out to me her overflowing heart in a low
whisper, and confessed to me, now crying and now laughing, how much she
had endured, and how that she was beginning to hope once more.

CHAPTER II.

Our grand-uncle and guardian, the old knight Im Hoff, had ever, so
long as I could remember, demeaned himself as a penitent, spending his
nights, and not sleeping much, in a coffin, and giving the lion's share
of his great revenues to pious works to open unto himself the gates of
Heaven; but what a change was wrought in him by the Emperor's coming!
This straight-backed and stiff necked man, who had never bowed his head
save only in church and before the holy images of the saints, learnt now
to stoop and bend. His bloodless face, which had long ceased to smile,
was now the very home of smiles. His great house was filled, for there
lodged Duke Ernst of Austria, the Hungarian Count of Gara--who through
his wife was near of kin to the Emperor, and his Majesty's trusty
secretary, Kaspar Slick, and all their people. And so soon as either of
these came, a gleam as of starlight lighted up his old features, or, if
it fell that the sovereign granted to him to attend him, it was broad
sunshine that illumined it. And whereas the other gentlemen of the
council, hereditary and elected, albeit they were ever ready to shake
hands with a common workman, would stand face to face with their
Majesties or the dukes and notables, upright and duly mindful of their
own worth, my g