man who had borne her
out of the flames. Sir Boemund Altrosen's love had proved genuine, and
she would reward him for it; but the heart of the pretty creature
opposite to her was also filled with deep, true love, and she would do
everything in her power for Eva, whom she had loved ever since her
affliction had touched her tender heart.

Both sisters were now aware of Cordula's kind intentions, and the warm
pleasure she displayed when Els told her what the Council had determined,
showed plainly enough that the motherless young countess, who had neither
brother nor sister, clung to the daughters of her host like a third
sister. Old Herr Vorchtel's treatment of the man who had inflicted so
deep a sorrow upon him touched her inmost soul. It was grand, noble; the
Saviour himself would have rejoiced over it. "If it would only please the
good old man," she exclaimed, "I would rather offer him my lips to kiss
than the handsomest young knight."

Though two of Count von Montfort's mounted huntsmen and several
constables accompanied the unusually large and handsome sedan-chair, a
curious crowd had followed it; but the opinion probably prevailed that
the countess's companions were some of her waiting-women. When they
alighted in front of the watch-tower, however, an elderly laundry-maid
who had worked for the Ortliebs recognised the sisters and pointed them
out to the others, protesting that it was hard for a woman of her chaste
spirit to have served in a house where such things could have happened.
Then a tailor's apprentice, who considered the whole of the guild
insulted in the wounded Meister Seubolt, put his fingers to his wide
mouth and emitted a long, shrill whistle; but the next instant a blow
from a powerful fist silenced him. It was young Ortel, who had come to
the watch-tower to seek Herr Ernst and tell him that he and his sister
Metz, spite of their mother and guardian, meant to stay in his service.
His heart's blood would not have been too dear to guard Eva, whom he
instantly recognised, from every insult; but he had no occasion to use
his youthful strength a second time, for the soldiers who guarded the
tower and the city mercenaries drove back the crowd and kept the square
in front of the tower open.

The countess would not be detained long, for the sun had already sunk
behind the towers and western wall of the fortress, and the reflection of
the sunset was tinging the eastern sky with a roseate hue. The warden
rea