e right, great ill had befallen him.
Howbeit it was not yet time to give up all hope, and he himself would
never weary of his search: Young Kubbeling, who had meanwhile sent
Uhlwurm with the leech to see the sick man and then taken his seat again
with the wine-cup before him, had nevertheless kept one ear open, and
had hearkened like the rest to what Ann had been saying; then on a
sudden he thrust away his glass, shook his big fist in wrath, and cried
out, to the door, as it were, through which Uhlwurm had departed, "That
croaker, that death-watch, that bird of ill-omen! If he looks up at
an apple-tree in blossom and a bird is piping in the branches, all he
thinks of is how soon the happy creature will be killed by the cat!
'Gone! gone' indeed; what profits it to say gone! He has befogged even
my brain at last with his black vapors. But now a light shines within
me; and lend me an ear, young Mistress, and all you worshipful lords and
ladies; for I said 'perchance' and I mean it still."

We listened indeed; and there was in his voice and mien a confidence
which could not fail to give us heart. My lord Cardinal's assurance that
we were not to rest satisfied with the evil tidings he had received,
Kubbeling had deemed right, and what was right was to him a fact.
Therefore had he racked his brain till the sweat stood on his brow, and
all he had ever known concerning Herdegen had come back to his mind and
this he now told us in his short, rude way, which I should in vain try
to set down.

He said that, since the day when they had landed in Egypt, he had
never more set eyes on Kunz, but that he himself had made enquiry for
Herdegen. Anselmo Giustiniani was still the Republic's consul there, and
lodging at the Venice Fondaco with Ursula his wife; but the serving men
had said that they had never heard of Schopper of Nuremberg; nor was it
strange that Kunz's coming should be unknown to them, inasmuch as, to be
far from Ursula, he had found hospitality with the Genoese and not with
the Venetians. When, on the eve of sailing for home, the Brunswicker had
again waited on the authorities at the Fondaco, to procure his leave
to depart and fetch certain moneys he had bestowed there, he had met
Mistress Ursula; and whereas she knew him and spoke to him, he seized
the chance to make enquiry concerning Herdegen. And it was from her
mouth, and from none other, that he had learned that the elder Junker
Schopper had met a violent death; and