late the
result of your mission. But first of all, give me another glass,
Bertha!"

"It was last Thursday, when I left you," began the knight: "Hans
disguised me in this garb, and instructed me how to comport myself. I
went to the Golden Stag at Pfullingen, just to try if any one would
recognise me in it, but the hostess brought me a can of wine with all
the indifference she would have done to a perfect stranger she had
never seen before. And a city counsellor, with whom I had exchanged
angry words not a week before in the same room, drank with me,
supposing I had followed the vocation of pedlar from my childhood. That
young man," pointing to Albert, "was also in the room."

The Duke appeared to recover his spirits, and was more cheerful. He
asked Albert whether he had noticed the knight in his garb of pedlar,
and whether he looked the character?

He replied, smiling, "I think he played his part to perfection."

"From Pfullingen I went the same evening to Reutlingen. I entered the
public room of an inn, where I met a tribe of Leaguists, consisting of
citizens, from all parts, who were exulting with the Reutlingeners, for
having torn down the stag horns, the emblems of your house, from their
city gates. Though they abused you and sang burlesque songs at your
expense, still they appeared to fear your name. On Good Friday I
proceeded towards Tuebingen. My heart beat high when I descended through
the wood near the castle, and saw the beautiful valley of the Neckar
before me, with the fortified towers and steeples of that place peering
above the hill."

The Duke compressed his lips, turned away, and looked at the distant
country. Schweinsberg paused, sympathising in his master's pain, who
beckoned to him, however, to proceed.

"Descending into the plain, I wandered onward towards Tuebingen. The
town had been already occupied by the League some days, the castle
still held out, and only a few troops remained in the camp, which was
pitched on the hill overlooking the valley of Ammer. I determined to
slip into the town, for the purpose of finding out how affairs stood in
the castle. You know the little inn in the upper town, not far from the
church of St. George? I went there, and called for wine. On my way I
learned that the knights of the League often assembled in the same
house, and therefore I considered it the best place to attain my
object."

"You risked a good deal," interrupted the knight of Lichtenstein: "it
w