us heart. My lord Cardinal's assurance that
we were not to rest satisfied with the evil tidings he had received,
Kubbeling had deemed right, and what was right was to him a fact.
Therefore had he racked his brain till the sweat stood on his brow, and
all he had ever known concerning Herdegen had come back to his mind and
this he now told us in his short, rude way, which I should in vain try to
set down.

He said that, since the day when they had landed in Egypt, he had never
more set eyes on Kunz, but that he himself had made enquiry for Herdegen.
Anselmo Giustiniani was still the Republic's consul there, and lodging at
the Venice Fondaco with Ursula his wife; but the serving men had said
that they had never heard of Schopper of Nuremberg; nor was it strange
that Kunz's coming should be unknown to them, inasmuch as, to be far from
Ursula, he had found hospitality with the Genoese and not with the
Venetians. When, on the eve of sailing for home, the Brunswicker had
again waited on the authorities at the Fondaco, to procure his leave to
depart and fetch certain moneys he had bestowed there, he had met
Mistress Ursula; and whereas she knew him and spoke to him, he seized the
chance to make enquiry concerning Herdegen. And it was from her mouth,
and from none other, that he had learned that the elder Junker Schopper
had met a violent death; and, when he had asked where and how, she had
answered him that it was in one of those love-makings which were ever the
aim and business of his life. Thus he might tell all his kith and kin in
Nuremberg henceforth to cease their spying and prying, which had already
cost her more pains and writing than enough.

This discourse had but ill-pleased Kubbeling, yet had he not taken it
amiss, and had only said that she would be doing Kunz--who had come to
Egypt with him--right good service, if she would give him more exact
tidings of how his brother had met his end.

"Whereupon," said the bird-seller, "she gave me a look the like of which
not many could give; for inasmuch as the lady is, for certain, over eyes
and ears in love with Junker Kunz. . . ."

But I stopped him, and said that in this he was of a certainty mistaken;
Howbeit he laughed shortly and went on. "Which of us saw her? I or you?
But love or no love--only listen till the end. Mistress Ursula for sure
knew not till then that Junker Kunz was in Alexandria, and so soon as she
learnt it she began to question me. She must know the