ould hear
only too soon; and this I deemed was so forbidding and so dismal that I
made up my mind to the worst; nay, and my fears waxed all the greater as
he laid his big hand on my sleeve, as it might be to comfort me, inasmuch
as that he had never yet done this save when he heard tell of my Hans'
untimely end.

And then, since he would have none of my help in attending on the sick
man, I ran up to my aunt to tell her with due care of the tidings I had
heard; but my uncle had gone before me, and in the doorway I could see
that he had just kissed his beloved wife's brow. I could read in both
their faces that they were bereft of another hope, yet would my aunt go
below and herself speak with Young Kubbeling. My uncle would fain have
hindered her, but she paid no heed to his admonitions, and while her
tiring-woman arrayed her with great care to appear at table, she thanked
the saints for that Ann was far away on this luckless day.

Thus the hours sped between our homecoming from the chase and the evening
meal, and we presently met all our guests in the refectory. Aunt Jacoba,
as was her wont, sat on her couch on which she was carried, at the upper
end of the table near the chimneyplace, next to which a smaller table was
spread, where Kubbeling and Uhlwurm took their seats as though they had
never sat elsewhere in their lives; and in truth old Jordan had taken his
meals in that same place, and whenever they came to the Lodge the serving
people knew right well what was due to them and their fellows. And
whereas they did not sit at the upper table, it was only by reason that
old Jordan, sixty years ago, had deemed it a burthensome honor, and more
than his due; and Young Kubbeling would in all things do as his father
had done before him. My seat was where I might see them, and an empty
chair stood between me and my aunt; this was left for Master Ulsenius,
the leech. This good man loved not to ride after dark, by reason of
highway robbers and plunderers, and some of us were somewhat ill at ease
at his coming so late. Notwithstanding this, the talk was not other than
cheerful; new guests had come to us from the town at noon, and they had
much to tell. Tidings had come that the Sultan of Egypt had fallen upon
the Island of Cyprus, and that the Mussulmans had beaten King Janus, who
ruled over it, and had carried him beyond seas in triumph to Old Cairo, a
prisoner and loaded with chains. Hereupon we were instructed by that
learne