o be given to the poor, decide to what
persons or charitable institutions it should be sent, and listened to her
account of the facts that formed the foundation of the slanders against
her, which were being more loudly and universally discussed throughout
the city.

Eva felt painfully how incapable of rendering assistance the others
considered her, and her pride forbade her to urge it upon them. Even her
Aunt Kunigunde scarcely asked her a question. It seemed to the abbess
that the right hour for a decisive enquiry had not yet come, and wise
Aunt Christine never talked with her younger niece upon religious
subjects unless she herself requested her to do so.

The mass for the dead was to be celebrated at an unusually early hour,
for another, which would be attended by the whole city and all the
distinguished persons, knights, and nobles who had come to the Reichstag,
was to begin four hours before noon. This was for Prince Hartmann, who
had been snatched away so prematurely.

The Ortliebs, with all their kindred and servants, the members of the
Council with their wives and daughters, and many burghers and burgher
women, assembled soon after sunrise in St. Sebald's Church.

Those present were almost lost in the spacious, lofty interior with its
three naves. At first there was little appearance of devotion, for the
early arrivals had many things to ask and whisper to one another. The
city architect lowered his loud voice very little as he discussed with a
brother in the craft from Cologne in what way the house of God, which
originally had been built in the Byzantine style, could be at least
partly adapted to the French pointed arch which was used with such
remarkable success in Germany, at Cologne and Marburg. They discussed the
eastern choir, which needed complete rebuilding, the missing steeples,
and the effect of the pointed arch which harmonised so admirably with the
German cast of character, and did not cease until the music began. Now
the great number of those present showed how much love the dead woman had
sowed and reaped. The sisters, when they first looked around them, saw
with grateful joy the father of the young man who had fallen in the duel
with Wolff, old Herr Berthold Vorchtel, his wife, and Ursula. On the
other hand, the pew adorned with the Eysvogel coat of arms was still
empty. This wounded Els deeply; but she uttered a sigh of relief
when--the introitus had just begun--at least one member of the haug