e of the princes and nobles!
The guests knew that the Emperor Rudolph disliked the boisterous manners
of the German nobility. Besides, the sovereign's mourning exerted a
restraint upon mirth and recklessness. All avoided loud laughter, though
the monarch was fond of gaiety and heroically concealed the deep grief of
his own soul.

When the lord high steward announced to the maid of honour who had
brought Eva here that dessert was served, the latter believed that the
dreaded moment when she would be presented to the Emperor was close at
hand, but quarter of an hour after quarter of an hour passed and she
still heard the clanking of metal and the voices of the guests, which now
began to grow louder, and amidst which she sometimes distinguished the
strident tones of the court fool, Eyebolt, and the high ones of the
Countess Cordula.

Time moved at a snail's pace, and she already fancied her heart could no
longer endure its violent throbbing, when at last--at last--the heavy oak
chairs were pushed noisily back over the stone floor of the dining hall.

From the balcony of the audience chamber a flourish of trumpets echoed
loudly along the arches of the lofty, vaulted ceiling of the apartment,
and the Emperor, leading the company, crossed the threshold attended by
several dignitaries, the court jesters, and some pages.

His august sister, the Burgravine Elizabeth, leaned on his arm. The papal
ambassador, Doria, in the brilliant robe of a cardinal, followed,
escorting the Duchess Agnes, but he parted from her in the hall. Among
many other secular and ecclesiastical princes and dignitaries appeared
also Count von Montfort and his daughter, the old First Losunger of
Nuremberg, Berthold Vorchtel, and Herr Pfinzing with his wife.

Several guests from the city entered at the same time through another
door, among whom, robed in handsome festal garments, were Eva's new
Swabian acquaintances. How gladly she would have hastened to them! But a
grey-haired stately man of portly figure, whose fur-trimmed cloak hung to
his ankles--Sir Arnold Maier of Silenen, led them to a part of the hall
very distant from where she was standing.

To make amends, Count von Montfort and Cordula came very near her; but
she could not greet them. Each person--she felt it--must remain in his or
her place. And the restraint became stronger as the Duchess Agnes, giving
one guest a nod, another a few words, advanced nearer and nearer, pausing
at last beside