went on for some while till I was startled by an outcry, and
behold, Eppelein, in his impatience to greet his dear master, had been
fain to do as Margery and Gotz had done, but with less good fortune,
inasmuch as that he had fallen under his horse, which had rolled over
with him. His lamentable outcry told me that he needed help, and once
more in my life I fulfilled my strange fate, which has ever been to cast
to the winds that for which my soul most longed, for another to take it
up. While Margery turned to greet Herdegen I hastened down the bank
to rescue the faithful fellow who had endured so much in my brother's
service, ere the worst should befall him.

And this, with no small pains, I was able to do; and when I was aware
that he had suffered no mortal hurt, I clambered up on to the road
again, and then once more my heart began to beat sadly. Ann and Herdegen
had met again, and once for all. How was she able to refrain herself as
she beheld the changed countenance of her lover, and to be mistress of
her horror and dismay?

Now, when I had climbed the bank with some pains, in my heavy
riding-boots, I saw that the waggon-men had harnessed the six brown
horses to their cart once more, and behind them, on the skirt of the
wood, were the pair that I sought; and as I went nearer to them Ann had
drawn the glove, for which we had tarried so long in Augsburg, from off
her lover's battered right hand, and was gazing at it lovingly, with no
sign of horror, but with tears in her eyes; and she cried as she kissed
it again and again: "Oh, that poor, dear, beloved hand, how cruelly it
has suffered, how hard it must have tolled! And that? That is where the
blue brand-mark was set? But it is almost gone. And it is in my color,
blue, our favorite sapphire-blue!" And she pointed joyously to her
goodly array, and she confessed that it was for him alone, that he might
see from afar how well she loved and honored him, that she had arrayed
herself in the color of fidelity in which he had ever best loved to see
her. And he clasped her to him, and when she kissed his thin, streaked
hair, and spoke of those dear flowing curls, to which love and care
would restore their beauty, I swore a solemn vow before God that I would
never look on the union of Herdegen and Ann but with thanksgiving and
without envy, and ever do all that in me lay for those two and for their
welfare.

Of the glad meeting with our other kith and kin I will say nought.