r the special favor of the Saints, and that no evil could in any
wise befall him. My Forest-uncle and Master Pernhart had been found in
discourse together, and the matter of which they spoke was my Cousin
Gotz. And how it gladdened the father to speak of his far-off son! More
especially when Pernhart's lips overflowed with praise of the youth to
whom his only child owed her early death.

Most marvellous of all was the Magister. Herdegen's return to his
beloved robbed Master Peter of his last hope; nevertheless his eyes had
never rested on her with fonder rapture. Verily his faithful heart was
warmed as it were by the happiness which surrounded her as with a glory,
and indeed it was not without some doubts that I saw the worthy man,
who was wont to be so sober, raise his glass again and again to drink to
Ann, whether she marked him or not, and drain his glass each time in her
honor. My Uncle Christian likewise filled his cup right diligently, and
seeing him quaff it with such lusty good will I feared lest he should
keep us all night at table, when the time was short for Ann and my
brother to have any privy speech together. But that good man forgot not,
even over the wine-jar, what might pleasure other folks; and albeit it
was hard for him to quit a merry drinking-bout he was the first to move
away. We were alone by sundown. The Magister had been carried to bed and
woke not till noon on the morrow.

The plighted couple sat once more in the oriel where they had so
often sat in happier days, and seeing them talking and fondling in the
gathering dusk, meseemed for a while that that glad winter season had
come again in which they had rejoiced in the springtide of their love.

Thus the hours passed, and I was in the very act of enquiry whether it
were not time to light the lamps, when we heard voices on the stairs,
and Cousin Maud came in saying that Sir Franz had made his way into the
house, and that he declared that his weal or woe, nay and his life lay
in Herdegen's hand, so that she had not the heart to refuse to suffer
him to come in. Hereupon my brother started up in a rage, but the
chamber door was opened, and with the maid, who brought the lamp in, the
Bohemian crossed the threshold. We maids would fain have quitted them;
but the knight besought us to remain, saying, as his eyes humbly sued
to mine, that rather should I tarry and speak a good word for him. Then,
when Herdegen called upon him to speak, but did not hold