h would he lay books
before my eyes, and strive to beguile me to take pleasure in them as the
best remedy against heaviness of soul. The lives of the mighty heathen,
as his Plutarch painted them, would, he said, raise even a weak soul to
their greatness and the Consolatio Philosophiae of Boetius would of a
surety refresh my stricken heart. Howbeit, one single well-spent hour in
life, or one toilsome deed fruitful for good, hath at all times brought
me better comfort than a whole pile of pig-skin-covered tomes. Yet have
certain verses of the Scripture, or some wise and verily right noble
maxim from the writings of the Greeks or Latins dropped on my soul now
and again as it were a grain of good seed.

Sad to tell, those first letters from Herdegen, all dipped in sunshine,
were followed by others which could but fill us with fears. The pilgrims
had been over-long in getting so far as Venice, by reason that Sir Franz
had fallen sick after they had passed the Bienner, and my brother had
diligently and faithfully tended him. Thus it came to pass that another
child of Nuremberg, albeit setting forth after them, passed them by; and
this was Ursula Tetzel, whose father deemed it well to send her forth
from the city, where, of a truth, the ground had waxed too hot for her,
inasmuch as she had given cause for two bloody frays; and Cousin Maud,
to be sure, had not kept silence as to her unbridled demeanor in our
house.

Now Mistress Mendel, her aunt, had many years ago gone to the city of
St. Mark, and albeit it was there against the laws for a noble to marry
with a stranger maiden, she had long since by leave of the Republic,
become the wife of Filippo Polani, with whom she was still living in
much ease and honor. In Augsberg, in Ulm, and in Frankfort, there were
many noble families of the Tetzels' kith and kin, yet she had chosen
to go to this aunt in Venice; and doubtless the expectation of meeting
Herdegen there, whether in love or hate, had had its weight with her.

Thus it came to pass that she found him at Brixen, where he tarried with
the sick knight; and he wrote that, as it fell, he had had more to do
with her and her father than he had cared for, and that in a strange
place many matters were lightly smoothed over, whereas at home walls and
moats would have parted them; nay, that in Italy the Nuremberger would
even call a man of Cologne his countryman.

For my part, I could in no wise conceive how those two should ever