, they shall be healed. He lacks for
nothing. In the matter of my lord Herdegen's ransom there are many
obstacles.

"Had God the all-merciful but granted to my dear father to hold his high
estate a few weeks longer, it would have been a small matter to him to
release a slave; but now he is cast into a dungeon by the evil malice of
his enemies. Oh! that the all-wise God should suffer such malignant men
to live as his foes and as that shameless woman whom you have long
known by the name of Ursula Tetzel! But you will have learnt by my lord
Herdegen's letter all I could tell, and you will understand that your
humble servant will daily beseech the Most High God to prosper you, and
cause you to send hither some wise and potent captain to the end that we
may be delivered; inasmuch as the craft and fury of our foes are no less
than their power. They are lions and likewise poisonous serpents."

These lines were signed with the name of Akusch, and the words, Ibn
Tagri Verdi al-Mahmudi, which is to say: Akusch, Son of Tagri Verdi
al-Mahmudi.

We were at home at the Forest-lodge or ever the sun had set; there we
found Aunt Jacoba more calm than we had hoped for, inasmuch as that not
only had her husband sent her brief tidings of us, but likewise she had
heard more exactly all that had kept us away. Kubbeling, albeit the lady
Abbess had bidden him to her table, had privily stolen forth to send a
messenger to the grieving lady, whereas the thought of her gave him no
peace among the feasters. Eppelein was neither better nor worse. But, in
his stead, Master Windecke the Imperial Councillor, who was learned in
the trading matters of all the world and who, in our absence, had wholly
won the heart of the other women and, above all, of Cousin Maud by his
good discourse, was able to interpret somewhat which had been dark to
us in Akusch's letter. When I showed it to him he started to his feet in
amazement and declared that my squire's father, Tagri Verdi al-Mahmudi,
had been one of the most famous Captains of the host who had struck the
great blow in Cyprus and carried off King Janus to the Sultan at Cairo.
Nay, and he could likewise tell us what had led to the overthrow of this
same Tagri Verdi, inasmuch as he had heard the tale from a certain noble
gentleman of Cyprus, who had come to the court of Emperor Sigismund to
entreat him to provide moneys for the ransom of King Janus, as follows:
When Akusch's glorious father was raised to the