er's eyes
with soft passion, Ursula sat bending her fan as though she purposed to
break it.

To think of Ursula as ruling in our house, and of Ann pining with heart
sickness was cruel grief, and yet were these two things almost less hard
to endure than the shameless flightiness and strange demeanor of my noble
brother, the pride of my heart.

The town council had voted eight hundred gulden to King Sigismund, and
four hundred to the Queen; two hundred and thirty to Porro the jester,
and great gifts to many of the notables and knights as a free offering
from the city; and now, in a pause in the jousting, his Majesty announced
his great delight at the faithful, bountiful, and overflowing hand held
out to him by his good town of Nuremberg, which had ever been dear to his
late beloved father King Charles. And then he pointed to the gentlemen of
the council, who made a goodly and reverend show indeed in their long
flowing hair and beards, their dark velvet robes bordered with fine fur,
and thin gold chains; and he spoke of their noble and honorable dealing.
I heard him say that each one of them was to be respected as joint ruler
with him over that which was his own, and likewise in greater matters.
Each one was his equal in manly virtue, and the worthy peer of his
Imperial self. Then he pointed out to the Queen certain noble and goodly
heads, and it was my part to make known whatsoever I could tell of their
possessions and their manner of trade. The Hallers were well known to
him, and not alone my best beloved, inasmuch as they did great trading
with his kingdom of Hungary; and he was well pleased to see my Hans with
his father as one of the council.

His gracious wife was pleased to compare the good order, and cleanness,
and comfort of Nuremberg with the cities in their native country. Whereas
she had already been into some of our best houses, and indeed into our
own, she spoke well of the wealth, and art, and skill in all crafts of
the Nuremberg folk, saying they had not their like in all the world so
far as she knew. And then again she spoke her pleasure at the honorable
seemliness of the councillors, and asked me many questions concerning
this one and that, and, among the rest, concerning Master Ulman Pernhart.
The royal pair marked, in one his noble brow, in another his long flowing
hair, in a third his keen and shrewd eye, till presently King Sigismund
asked his Fool, Porro, which of all the heads in the ranks opposit