him, although
it was a penance to stay in his presence. The old Baron,--for of this
title likewise he could boast, since he had poured a great sum into the
Emperor's treasury,--this old man, who of yore had but feigned a false
and evil show of repentance--as that he would on certain holy days wash
the feet of beggar folk who had first been cleansed with care, now in
sickness and the near terror of death was in terrible earnest, and of
honest intent would fain open the gates of Heaven by pious exercises.
He had to be sure at the bidding of Master Ulsenius the leech, exchanged
the coffin wherein he had been wont to sleep for a common bedstead of
wood; yet in this even he might get no rest, and was fain to pass his
sleepless nights in his easy chair, resting his aching feet in a cradle
which, with his wonted vain-glory, he caused to be made of the shape
and color of a pearl shell. But his nights in the coffin, and mockery
of death, turned against him; he had ever been pale, and now he wore the
very face of a corpse. The blood seemed frozen in his veins, and he was
at all times so cold that the great stove and the wide hearth facing him
were fed with mighty logs day and night.

In this fearful heat the sweat stood on my brow so soon as I crossed
the threshold, and if I tarried in the chamber I soon lacked breath.
The sick man's speech was scarce to be heard, and as to all that Master
Ulsenius told us of the seat of his ill, and of how it was gnawing him
to death I would fain be silent. Instead of that Lenten mockery of the
foot washing he now would do the hardest penance, and there was scarce a
saint in the Calendar to whom he had not offered gifts or ever he died.

A Dominican friar was ever in his chamber, telling the rosary for him
and doing him other ghostly service, especially in the night season,
when he was haunted by terrible restlessness. Nothing eased him as a
remedy against this so well as the presence of a woman to his mind. But
of all those to whom, on many a Christmas eve, he had made noble gifts,
few came a second time after they had once been in that furnace; or, if
they did, it would be no more than to come and depart forthwith. Cousin
Maud could endure to stay longest with him; albeit afterwards she would
need many a glass of strong waters to strengthen her heart.

As for me, each time when I came home from my grand-uncle's with pale
cheeks she would forbid me ever to cross his threshold more: but when