he said that love hopeth all things and
believeth all things.

Notwithstanding it was not easy to her, nor to us, to hold fast our
confidence; now and again some trace of the lost man would come to light
which, so soon as Kunz followed it up, vanished in mist like a jack-o'
lantern. And often as he failed he would not be overweary; and once, when
he was staying at Nuremberg and tidings came from Venice that a certain
German who might be Herdegen was dwelling a slave at Joppa, he made ready
to set forth for that place to ransom him forthwith. My grand-uncle, who
in the face of death was eagerly striving to win the grace of Heaven by
good works, suffered him to depart, and at my entreaty he took my squire
Akusch with him, inasmuch as he could still speak Arabic, which was his
mother-tongue. Likewise I besought Kunz to make it his care to restore
the lad to his people, if it should befall that he might find them,
albeit hitherto we had made enquiry for them in vain. This he promised me
to do; yet, often as that good youth had longed to see his native land
once more, and much as he had talked in praise of its hot sun, in our
cold winter seasons, it went hard with the good lad to depart from us;
and when he took leave of me he could not cease from assuring me that in
his own land he would do all that in him lay to find the brother of his
beloved mistress.

Thus they fared forth to the Levant; and this once again we were doomed
to vain hopes. Kunz found not him he sought, but a wild Swiss soldier who
had fallen into the hands of the Saracens. Him he ransomed, as being a
Christian man, for a small sum of money; and as for Akusch he left him at
Joppa, whereas his folk were Egyptians and he deemed he had found some
track of them there.

Kunz did not go thither with him, inasmuch as in Alexandria all had been
done that might be done to discover and ransom a Frankish captive. Nor
was Akusch idle there, and moreover fate had brought another child of
Nuremberg to that place.

Ursula had become the wife of the Marchese Anselmo Giustiniani, by
special favor of the great council, and had come with him to Egypt,
whither he was sent by the Republic as Consul. There she now dwelt with
her noble lord, and in many letters to my granduncle she warmly declared
to him that, so far as in her lay, all should be done to discover where
the lover of her youth might be. Her husband was the most powerful Frank
in all the Sultan's dominions, and