te had fared forth to
Venice instead of himself. They might not sail for the land of Egypt, and
this chafed Uhlwurm sorely, by reason that he was sure in himself that
he, far better than his master or than any man on earth, could do good
service there to Ann, on whom his soul was set more than on any other of
us.

Towards the end of the third week we rode forth to spend a few days again
at the lodge, and there we found Young Kubbeling well nigh healed of his
fever, and Eppelein's tongue ready to wag and to tell us of his many
adventures without overmuch asking. Howbeit, save what concerned his own
mishaps, he had little to say that we knew not already.

The Saracen pirate who had boarded the galleon from Genoa which was
carrying him and his lord to Cyprus, had parted him from Herdegen and Sir
Franz, and sold him for a slave in Egypt. There had he gone through many
fortunes, till at last, in Alexandria, he had one day met Akusch. At that
time my faithful squire's father was yet in good estate, and he forthwith
bought Eppelein, who was then a chattel of the overseer of the market, to
the end that the fellow might help his son in the search for Herdegen.
This search they had diligently pursued, and had discovered my brother
and Sir Franz together in the armory of the Sultan's Palace, in the fort
over against Cairo, whither they had come after they had both worked at
the oars in great misery for two years, on board a Saracen galley.

But then Herdegen had made proof, in some jousting among the young
Mamelukes, of how well skilled he was with the sword, and thereby he had
won such favor that they were fain to deliver sundry letters which he
wrote to us, into the care of the Venice consul. Whereas he had no answer
he had set it down to our lack of diligence at home, till at last he was
put on the right track by Akusch, and it was plainly shown that those
letters had never reached us, and that by Ursula's malice. To follow up
these matters Akusch had afterwards betaken himself again to Alexandria;
notwithstanding by this time his father had fallen on evil days. And
behold, on the very evening after their return, as they were passing
along by the side of the Venice Fondaco, whither they had gone to see the
leech who attended the Consul--having heard that he was a German by
birth--they were aware of a loud outcry hard by, and presently beheld a
wounded man, whom they forthwith knew for Kunz.

At first they believed that their