.
When the others had left the messenger-lad stripped on the road, he had
gone back alone and had bound up the wound in his head with his own
kerchief, and more by token that he spoke the truth the kerchief bore his
Christian name in the corner of it, "Pignot," which his good mother, God
rest her, had sewn there. He was but a poor orphan, and if. . . . Here his
voice failed him for sobs. But ere long he recovered his good cheer; for
Ann had indeed marked the letter P on the cloth about Eppelein's head,
and the poor wight was of a truth none other than he had declared.
Hereupon we made bold to speak for him, and it was to his own act of
mercy and the letters set in his kerchief by that pious mother that he
owed it. He afterwards came to be an honest and worthy master-tailor at
Velden, and instead of taking up the cudgels for his oppressed fellow
men, he suffered stern treatment in much humility at the hands of the
great woman whom he chose to wife, notwithstanding he was so small a man.

CHAPTER XI.

Herdegen's letter was burnt with fire, and the letter from Akusch was to
me, and contained little besides thanks and assurances of faithfulness
due to me his "beloved mistress," with greetings to Cousin Maud, who had
ever with just reproofs kept him in the right way, and to every member of
the household. The Pastscyiptum only contained tidings of great import;
and it was as follows:

"Moreover I declare and swear to you, my gracious lady, that my kindred
take as good care of my Lord Kunz as though he were at home in Nuremberg.
His wounds are bad, yet by faithful care, and by the grace and help of
God the all-merciful, they shall be healed. He lacks for nothing. In the
matter of my lord Herdegen's ransom there are many obstacles.

"Had God the all-merciful but granted to my dear father to hold his high
estate a few weeks longer, it would have been a small matter to him to
release a slave; but now he is cast into a dungeon by the evil malice of
his enemies. Oh! that the all-wise God should suffer such malignant men
to live as his foes and as that shameless woman whom you have long known
by the name of Ursula Tetzel! But you will have learnt by my lord
Herdegen's letter all I could tell, and you will understand that your
humble servant will daily beseech the Most High God to prosper you, and
cause you to send hither some wise and potent captain to the end that we
may be delivered; inasmuch as the craft and fury of our