stone crosses in four
convents, and henceforth to do service to the town in every quarrel,
in his own person, with a fellowship of ten lances for the space of two
years. All this he had duly done, and it came about that the Emperor now
condemned the Bohemian and my brother both alike to make a
pilgrimage, not only to Rome--inasmuch as their guilt was greater than
Steinbach's--but likewise to Jerusalem, to the Holy Sepulchre and other
sacred places. Welemisl was to pay the same penalty in money as Herdegen
had paid, and in consideration of their having thus made atonement for
the blood they had shed, and as their victims had escaped death,
they were released from the doom of outlawry. On returning from their
pilgrimage they were to be restored to their rank and estates, and to
all their rights, lordships, and privileges.

Not long after this sentence was passed the Court removed from Nuremberg
through Ratisbon, where the Emperor strove to make up his quarrel with
the Duke Bavaria and then to Vienna; but ere his departing he gave
strait orders to the chief magistrate to see that the two criminals
should fare forth on their pilgrimage not longer than twenty-four hours
after the declaration of their doom.

CHAPTER VI.

Shall I now set forth how that Ann and I found Herdegen in his
hiding-place, a simple little beekeeper's but in the most covert part of
the Lorenzer wald, a spot whither no horseman might pass; how that even
in his poor peasant's weed my brother was yet a goodly man, and clasped
his sweetheart in his arms as ardently as in that first day on his
homecoming from Italy--and how that the dear, hunted fellow, beholding
me in mourning dress, took his sister to his heart as soon as his
plighted love had left the place free? Yea, for the dead had been dear
to him likewise, and his love for me had never failed.

When we presently gave ourselves up in peace to the joy of being all
together once more, I weened that his eye was more steadfast, and his
voice graver and calmer than of old; and whensoever he spoke to me it
was in a soft and heartfelt tone, which gave me comforting assurance
that he grieved for my grief. And how sweetly and gravely did he beguile
Ann to make the most of this sad meeting, wherein welcome and God-speed
so closely touched. In the house once more I rejoiced in the lofty
flight which lifted this youth's whole spirit above all things common
or base; and his sweetheart's eyes rested on h