husband, had whispered to the Sultan that she would not see him
robbed of a great profit forasmuch as that yonder Christian slave--and
she pointed to my brother--was of one of the richest families of her
native town, who could pay a royal ransom for him and find it no great
burthen; and that the same was true of Sir Franz, who was likewise to
have been set free. Hereupon the Sultan, who at all times lacked moneys,
notwithstanding the heavy tribute he levied on all merchandise, commanded
that Herdegen and the Bohemian should be led away again and then he asked
this overweening ransom. Then Ursula took upon herself of her own free
will to send tidings of the Sultan's demands to the slaves' kith and kin,
and of her deep malice had never done so.

That evening we might not hear how and on what authority Eppelein knew
all this, for much talking had wearied him. All we could then learn was
that it was Ursula, and none other, whom the lad would still speak of as
the She-devil, who had plotted the snare which had well nigh cost my
other brother his life. Yet had he left him so far amended that he,
Eppelein, would be glad to be no worse.

Albeit these tidings of Kunz were good to cheer us, our hopes of
ransoming Herdegen were indeed far away, or rather in the realm of
nevermore; even if my grand-uncle were possessed of so great a sum, it
was a question whether he would be willing to pay it; and as for us, we
could never have raised it at the cost of all our fortune. At that time
the Venice sequin and Nuremberg gulden were not far asunder in value, and
what the sum of twenty-four thousand gulden meant any man may imagine
when I say that, no more than twelve years sooner, the liberty of coining
for the whole city was granted by the Emperor Sigismund to Herdegen
Valzner for four thousand Rhenish gulden; and that Master Ulman Stromer
purchased his fine dwelling-house behind the chapel of Our Lady, with the
houses pertaining thereto, and his share in the Rigler's house for two
thousand eight hundred gulden. For such a sum as was demanded a whole
street in Nuremberg might have been sold; nay, the great castle of
Malmsbach on the Pegnitz would lately have been bought by the city for a
thousand Rhenish gulden, but that Master Ulrich Rummel, whose it was,
would not part with it. And we were now required to pay the price of two
dozen such strongholds! It was indeed an unheard-of and devilish
extortion; and when Kubbeling came to hear of i