uestioning, was that, after separating from
his home, he had taken service as a soldier of the Venice Republic, and
had done great deeds under the name of Silvestri, which is to say "of the
Woods." Of all the fine things he had done before Salonica and elsewhere,
fighting against Sultan Mourad and the Osmanli, yea, and in many fights
against other infidels, thereby winning the favor of his general, the
great Pietro Loredano--of all this he would tell us at great length
another day. Not long since he had been placed as chief, at the head of
the armed force on board the fleet sent forth by the Republic to
Alexandria to treat with the Sultan as concerning the King of Cyprus, who
was held a prisoner. With him likewise, on the greatest of the galleys,
were there sundry great gentlemen of the most famous families of Venice,
and chief of them all, Marino Cavallo, Procurator of Saint Mark; inasmuch
as that the Council desired to ransom the King of Cyprus with Venice
gold, and to that end had sent Angelo Michieli with the embassy, he being
the Senior of one of the most powerful and wealthy merchants' houses in
the East.

With all of these Gotz, as a hero in war, was on right friendly terms,
and when they landed at Alexandria, Anselmo Giustiniani, the Consul, had
given them all fine quarters in the Fondaco.

Here, then, my new lover had met Ursula; howbeit, he made not himself
known to her, by reason that already he had heard an evil report of her
husband's dealings as Consul, and of her deeds and demeanors. Yet was
there one man dwelling in the Fondaco to whom he confessed his true name,
and that was Hartmann Knorr, a son of Nuremberg and of good family, who,
after gaining his doctor's degree at Padua, had taken the post of leech
to the Consul, provided and paid by the Republic. In this, his fellow
countryman's chamber, the two, who had been schoolmates, had much privy
discourse, and inasmuch as that Master Knorr knew of old that Gotz was
near of kin to the Schoppers, he forthwith made known to him that he had
been bidden to the house of Akusch's parents to tend and heal Kunz, and
had learnt from him many strange tidings; accusing Ursula of the guilt of
having concealed and kept back the letters written by Herdegen and Sir
Franz to their kindred at home, of having set her husband's hired knaves
on himself, to murder him, and lastly, of having maliciously increased
the sum for his brother's ransom. Hereupon the worthy leech was m