rs be opened to him
unless he gave up the coppersmith's daughter and besought his mother's
pardon.

And now the sick old woman bewailed her stern hardness and her over-hasty
oath with bitter tears; Gotz had been faithful to his Gertrude in despite
of her letter, and when, three years later, the tidings reached him that
his sweetheart had pined away for grief and longing, and departed this
life with his name on her lips, he had written in the wild anguish of his
young soul that, now Gertrude was dead, he had nought more to crave of
his parents; and that whereas his mother had sworn with her hand on the
image of the Saviour never to open her doors to him till he had renounced
his sweet, pure love, he now made an oath not less solemn and binding, by
the image of the Crucified Christ, that he would never turn homewards
till she bid him thither of her own free will, and owned that she
repented her of that innocent maid's early death, whereas there was not
her like among all the noble maidens of Nuremberg, whatever their names
might be.

This letter I read myself, and I plainly saw that these twain had sadly
marred their best joy in life by over-hasty ire. Albeit, I knew full well
how stubborn a spirit was Aunt Jacoba's, I nevertheless strove to move
her to send a letter to her son bidding him home; yet she would not,
though she bewailed herself sorely.

"Only one thing of those he requires of me can I in all truth grant him,"
quoth she. "If you find him, you may tell him that his mother sends her
fondest blessing, and assure him of my heart's deepest devotion; nay, and
let him understand that I am pining with longing for him, and that I obey
his will inasmuch as that I truly mourn the death of his beloved; for
that is verily the truth, the Virgin and the Saints be my witness. Yet I
may not and I will not open my doors to him till he has craved my
forgiveness, and if I did so he must think of his own mother as a
perjured woman."

Hereupon I showed her--and my eyes overflowed--that his oath stood forth
as against her oath, and that one was as weighty as the other in the
sight of the Most High.

"Set aside that cruel vow, my dear aunt," cried I, "I will make any
pilgrimage with you, and I know full well that no penance will seem
overhard to you."

"No, no, of a surety, Margery, no!" she replied with a groan. "And the
Chaplain said the like to me long ago; and yet I feel in my heart that
you and he are in the wrong. An o