would not tell her what was written in
the will; nor did she ever learn, for a year afterwards the good woman
passed away in spite of her salves and potions. She died, not of any
disease, but of her ninety-eighth year, which might well bring even the
most healthy person to the grave. Count Cuno had her buried with as
much ceremony as if she had been his own mother and not a poor old
woman, and he grew more and more lonely in his castle, especially as
Father Joseph soon followed Frau Feldheimerin.

Still he did not suffer this solitude very long; for in his
twenty-eighth year the good Cuno died, and, as wicked people asserted,
of poison administered by Schalk. Be that as it may, some hours after
his death the thunder of cannon was heard once more from Zollern and
Schalksberg.

"This time he will have to acknowledge the truth of the reports," said
Schalk to his brother Wolf, as they met on the road to Hirschberg.

"Yes," answered Wolf; "but even if he should rise from the dead and
abuse us from the window as before, I have a rifle with me that will
make him polite and dumb."

As they rode up the castle hill, they were joined by a horseman with
his retinue, whom they did not know. They believed, however, that he
must be a friend of their brother's who had come to attend the funeral.
Therefore they demeaned themselves as mourners, were loud in their
praises of the deceased, lamented his early death, and Schalk even
managed to squeeze out a few crocodile tears. The stranger paid no
attention to what they said, but rode silently by their side up to the
castle. "Now, then, we will make ourselves comfortable; and, butler,
bring some wine, the very best!" cried Wolf, as he dismounted. They
went up the spiral staircase into the salon, where they were followed
by the silent stranger; and just as the twins had sat down to the
table, he took from his purse a silver coin, and throwing it down on
the slate table, where it rolled about and settled down with a ring,
said:

"Then and there you have your inheritance; it is a good piece of
silver, a hirsch-gulden."

The two brothers looked at one another in astonishment, laughed, and
asked him what he meant by this.

The stranger, by way of reply, produced a parchment, attached to which
were many seals, in which Cuno had recorded all the instances of
malevolence that his brothers had shown him in his life-time, and at
the close decreed and made known that his entire estate, real a