lade made her a widow, and now she bids
him return to her embrace. The fond and ardent lady is in Venice, and
her intent is to revel there in love and pleasure with her husband's
murderer. And he--though he may have sworn a thousand vows to the
scrivener's hussy--he will do the Italian Circe's bidding, and if he may
escape her snares he will fall into those of another. Oh! I know him;
and I feel in my soul that his fate will be to dally with one and
another in delights and raptures, till the Saints fulfil my heart's
chiefest desire, and he comes to despair and anguish and want, and the
scrivener's wench breaks her heart under my very eyes with pining and
sheer shame. Away, away, Herdegen Schopper! Go forth to joy and to
misery! Go-with your pale black-haired mate. Revel and wallow, till
you, who have trampled on this heart's true love, are brought low--as
loathsome in the eyes of men as a leper and a beggar."

And she shook the dresser so that the precious glass cup which the
German merchants of the Fondaco at Venice had given to my father at his
departing, fell to the floor and was broken to pieces with a loud crash.

We had hearkened to her ravings as though spellbound and frozen; and
when we at last took heart to put an end to her wild talk, lo, she was
gone, and flying down the stairs with long strides.

Herdegen, who had turned pale, struggled to command himself. Cousin
Maud, who had lost her breath with dismay, burst into loud weeping; the
wild maid's curse had fallen heavy on her soul. I alone kept my senses,
so far as to go to the window and look out at her. I saw her walking
along, hanging her head; the serving man carried the lantern before her,
and the Bohemian was speaking close in her ear.

When I came back into the chamber Cousin Maud had her arm round
Herdegen, and was saying to him, with many tears, that the curse of the
wicked had no power over a pious and faithful Christian; yet he quitted
her in haste to seek Ann, who doubtless would have stayed in the next
chamber, and perchance needed his succor. Howbeit the door was opened,
and we could scarce believe our eyes when she came in with that same
roguish smile which she was wont to wear when, in playing hide-and-seek,
she had stolen home past the seeker, and she cried: "Thank the Virgin
that the air is clear once more! You may laugh, but in truth I fled up
to the very garret for sheer dread of Mistress Tetzel. Did she come to
fetch her bridegroom?"