the solitude in which I might give myself up to bitter
grieving. All I cared for was to hear those who could tell of his last
hours and departing from this life, till at last meseemed I myself had
witnessed his end.

From all the tidings I could learn, I gathered that old Henneleinlein,
whose gall had been raised against me by the Court Fool, had no sooner
parted from us at Master Pernhart's door than she had hastened to the
school of arms to make known to Ursula that my brother had plighted his
troth anew to his cast-off sweetheart. Hereupon Ursula had dared to say
to the Junker that Herdegen was her knight, who would pick up his glove
which he had cast down at the former dance; but that he nevertheless was
playing a two-fold game, and had treacherously promised Ann to wed her,
to win her favor likewise. Hereupon the Brandenburger had been filled
with honest ire, had sworn to Ursula that he would chastise her false
lover, and was ready, not alone to accept my brother's defiance, but to
fight with ruthless fury.

Thus Ursula's plot had prospered right well, inasmuch as, so long as
she hoped to win Herdegen, she had been in deathly fear lest the Junker
should fall out with him; whereas, now that in her wrath she only
desired that the faithless wight should give an account to the Junker's
sword, she thought fit in her deep and malignant fury to brand my
brother as the challenger, knowing that if the combat had a bloody issue
he would of a surety suffer heavy penalty. And in truth she had not
reckoned wrongly when she declared that my brother, whom she knew only
too well, would be her ready, champion.

On the morning next after the great dance she had addressed a brief
letter to Herdegen beseeching him, for the friendship's sake which had
bound them from their youth up, and by reason that she had no brother,
to teach Junker von Beust that a patrician's daughter of Nuremberg
should not lack a true knight, when Brandenburg pride dared to cast
scorn on her in the face of all the world. My brother's response to this
letter was a challenge to the Junker; yet had he not perchance been in
such hot haste, save that he had long burned to punish the overweening
young noble who had given him many an uneasy hour. He scarce, indeed,
would have drawn his sword at Ursula's behest, inasmuch as he could
plainly see that what she had most at heart was to make their breach
wear such seeming to other folks as though he, who had been looked