how I
thank you!"

She urged her nimble palfrey nearer the lady's horse to kiss her left
hand, which held the bridle, but Lady Wendula would not permit it and,
drawing her towards her, exclaimed, "Your lips, dear one," and as her red
mouth pressed the kind lady's, Eva felt as if the caress had sealed an
old and faithful friendship. But this was not all. Maria also wished to
show the affection she had won, and begged for a kiss too.

Without suspecting it, Eva, on the way to an enterprise she dreaded,
received the proof that her lover's dearest relatives welcomed her with
their whole hearts as a new member of the family.

On the other side of the gate she was obliged to part from the Swabians.

Lady Wendula bade her farewell with an affectionate "until we meet
again," and promised positively to go to the reception at the castle.

Eva uttered a sigh of relief. It seemed like an omen of success that this
lady, who had so quickly inspired her with such perfect confidence, was
to witness her difficult undertaking. She felt like a leader who takes
the field with a scanty band of soldiers and is unexpectedly joined by
the troops of a firm friend.

CHAPTER XVII.

When Arnold, the warder from Berne, helped Eva from the saddle, a blaze
of light greeted her from the imperial residence. The banquet was just
beginning.

Frau Gertrude had more than one piece of good news to tell while
assisting the young girl. Among the sovereign's guests was her uncle the
magistrate, who had accompanied the Emperor to the beekeeper's, and with
his wife, whom she would also find there, had been invited to the
banquet. Besides--this, as the best, she told her last--her father, Herr
Ernst Ortlieb, had returned from Ulm and Augsburg, and a short time
before had come to the fortress to conduct Jungfrau Els, by the
Burgrave's gracious permission, to her betrothed husband's hiding place.
Fran Gertrude had lighted her way, and a long separation might be borne
for such a meeting.

The ex-maid was obliged to bestir herself that Eva might have a few
minutes for her sister and Wolff, yet she would fain have spent a much
longer time over the long, thick, fair hair, which with increasing
pleasure she combed until it flowed in beautiful waving tresses over the
rich Florentine stuff of her plain white mourning robe.

The Swiss had also provided white roses from the Burgrave's garden to
fasten at the square neck of Eva's dress. The latter permitted