interview or while climbing into the window. Both sisters were
said to be guilty. But the sharpest arrows were aimed at Els, the
betrothed bride of the son of a patrician family, whom many a girl would
have been glad to wed. That she preferred the foreigner, whether a
Bohemian, a Swabian, or even a Swiss, made her error doubly shameful in
the eyes of most persons.

Whenever Biberli had investigated the source of these evil tales, he had
invariably found it to be Seitz Siebenburg, his retainers, the Eysvogel
butler, or some man or maidservant in their employ.

The Vorchtels, who, as he knew from Katterle, would have had the most
reason to cherish resentment against the Ortliebs, had no share in these
slanders.

The shrewd fellow had discovered the truth, for after Seitz Siebenburg
had wandered about in the open air during the storm, he again tried to
see his wife. But the effort was vain. Neither entreaties nor threats
would induce her to open the door. Meanwhile it had grown late and, half
frantic with rage, he went to the Duke of Pomerania's quarters in the
Green Shield to try his luck in gaming. The dice were again moving
rapidly, but no one grasped the box when he offered a stake. No more
insulting rebuff could be imagined, and the repulse which he received
from his peers, and especially the duke, showed him that he was to be
excluded from this circle.

He was taught at the same time that if he answered the challenge of the
Swiss he would not be permitted to enter the lists. Thus he confronted
the impossibility of satisfying a demand of honour, and this terrible
thought induced him to declare war against everything which honour had
hitherto enjoined, and with it upon its guardians.

If they treated him as a robber and a dishonoured man, he would behave
like one; but those who had driven him so far should suffer for it.

During the rest of the night and on the following day, until the gate was
closed, he wandered, goblet in hand, only half conscious of what he was
doing, from tavern to tavern, to tell the guests what he knew about the
beautiful Es; and at every repetition of the accusations, of whose
justice he was again fully convinced, his hatred against the sisters, and
those who were their natural defenders and therefore his foes, increased.
Every time he repeated the old charges an addition increasing the slander
was made and, as if aided by some mysterious ally, it soon happened that
in various places his