n to pieces with a loud crash.

We had hearkened to her ravings as though spellbound and frozen; and when
we at last took heart to put an end to her wild talk, lo, she was gone,
and flying down the stairs with long strides.

Herdegen, who had turned pale, struggled to command himself. Cousin Maud,
who had lost her breath with dismay, burst into loud weeping; the wild
maid's curse had fallen heavy on her soul. I alone kept my senses, so far
as to go to the window and look out at her. I saw her walking along,
hanging her head; the serving man carried the lantern before her, and the
Bohemian was speaking close in her ear.

When I came back into the chamber Cousin Maud had her arm round Herdegen,
and was saying to him, with many tears, that the curse of the wicked had
no power over a pious and faithful Christian; yet he quitted her in haste
to seek Ann, who doubtless would have stayed in the next chamber, and
perchance needed his succor. Howbeit the door was opened, and we could
scarce believe our eyes when she came in with that same roguish smile
which she was wont to wear when, in playing hide-and-seek, she had stolen
home past the seeker, and she cried: "Thank the Virgin that the air is
clear once more! You may laugh, but in truth I fled up to the very garret
for sheer dread of Mistress Tetzel. Did she come to fetch her
bridegroom?"

Herdegen could not refrain from smiling at this question, and we likewise
did the same; even Cousin Maud, who till this moment had sat on the couch
like one crushed, with her feet stretched out before her, made a face and
cried: "To fetch him! Ursula who has caught the Bohemian! She is a
monster! Were ever such doings seen in our good town?--And her mother was
so wise, so worthy a woman! And the hussy is but nineteen!--Merciful
Father, what will she be at forty or fifty, when most women only begin to
be wicked!" And thus she went on for some while.

Ere long we forgot Ursula and all the hateful to-do, and passed the
precious hours in much content, till after midnight, when the Pernharts
sent to fetch Ann home. Herdegen and I would walk with her. After a
grievous yet hopeful leave-taking I came home again, leaning on his arm,
through the cool autumn night.

When I now admonished Herdegen as we walked, as to the fair Marchesa and
her letter, he declared to me that in those evil weeks he had spent in
bitter yearning as a serving man in the bee-keeper's hut, he had learned
to know his own