ought fit in her deep and malignant fury to brand my brother as the
challenger, knowing that if the combat had a bloody issue he would of a
surety suffer heavy penalty. And in truth she had not reckoned wrongly
when she declared that my brother, whom she knew only too well, would be
her ready, champion.

On the morning next after the great dance she had addressed a brief
letter to Herdegen beseeching him, for the friendship's sake which had
bound them from their youth up, and by reason that she had no brother, to
teach Junker von Beust that a patrician's daughter of Nuremberg should
not lack a true knight, when Brandenburg pride dared to cast scorn on her
in the face of all the world. My brother's response to this letter was a
challenge to the Junker; yet had he not perchance been in such hot haste,
save that he had long burned to punish the overweening young noble who
had given him many an uneasy hour. He scarce, indeed, would have drawn
his sword at Ursula's behest, inasmuch as he could plainly see that what
she had most at heart was to make their breach wear such seeming to other
folks as though he, who had been looked upon by the whole city as her
pledged husband, had not quitted her, but had been ready rather to shed
his heart's blood in her service.

Verily Ursula believed that she had found a sure instrument of vengeance,
whereas she had heard say that Junker Henning von Beust was one of the
most dreaded swordsmen in the Marches. Herdegen, to be sure, was likewise
famed in Nuremberg as a doughty champion; yet it is ever the way in
Franconia, nay, and in all Germany, to esteem outlandish means more
highly than the best at home. Moreover she had many a time heard my
grand-uncle declare that the gentlemen of our patrician families were not
above half knights, and her intent was to sacrifice Herdegen to the
Brandenburger's weapon.

Howbeit she had reckoned ill. Hans, who did service to my brother as his
second at Altenperg, after striving faithfully to make peace between the
two, was witness how our Nuremberg swordsman, who had had the finest
schooling at Erfurt, Padua, and Paris, not merely withstood the
Brandenburger, but so far outdid him in strength and swiftness that the
Junker fell into the arms of his friends with wounds in the head and
breast, while Herdegen came forth from the fray with no more hurt than a
slight scratch on the arm.

The witnesses saw what he could do with amazement, and Sir Apitz von
Ro