that her
comforting could little remedy my woe, she had left me to myself; and as
soon as I was fain to use my hands again, and sing a snatch as I went
up and down the house, meseemed her old love bloomed forth with double
strength. Meseemed I could but show her my thankfulness, and my ear
and heart were at all times open when she was moved to talk of her
best-beloved Herdegen, and reveal to me all the wondrous adventures he
had gone through in her imagination. And this befell most evenings, from
the hour when we unclothed till long after we had gone to rest; and I
was fain to keep my eyes open while, for the twentieth time, she would
expound to me her far-fetched visions: that the Mamelukes of Egypt, who
were all slaves and whose Sultan was chosen from among themselves, had
of a surety set Herdegen on the throne, seeing him to be the goodliest
and noblest of them all. And perchance he would not have refused this
honor if he might thereby turn them from their heathenness and make of
them good Christians. Nay, nor was it hard for her to fancy Ann arrayed
in silk and gems as a Sultana. And then, when I fell asleep in listening
to these fancies, which she loved to paint in every detail, behold my
dreams would be of Turks and heathen; and of bloody battles by land and
sea.

No man may tell his dreams fasting; but as soon as I had eaten my first
mouthful she would bid me tell her all, to the veriest trifle, and would
solemnly seek the interpretation of every vision.

CHAPTER VIII.

My lord Cardinal had departed from Nuremberg some long while, by reason
that he was charged by his holiness the Pope with a mission which took
him through Cologne and Flanders to England. Inasmuch as he was not
suffered to have Ann herself in his company, he conceived the wish to
possess her likeness in a picture; and he sent hither to that end a
master of good fame, of the guild of painters in Venice. We owed this
good limner thanks for many a pleasant hour. Sir Giacomo Bellini was
a youth of right merry wit, knowing many Italian ditties, and who made
good pastime for us while we sat before him; for I likewise must be
limned, inasmuch as Cousin Maud would have it so, and the painter's eye
was greatly pleased by my yellow hair.

Whereas he could speak never a word of German, it was our part to talk
with him in Italian, and this exercise to me came not amiss. Also I
could scarce have had a better master to teach me than Giacomo Bellini,