an, and the latter, as he recognised him, paused to request curtly
that he would give him a few minutes the following day.

"If I can be of any service to your Reverence," replied Wolf, taking the
prelate's delicate hand to kiss it; but the almoner, with visible
coldness, withdrew it, repellently interrupting him: "First, Sir Knight,
I must ask you for an explanation. Where the plague is raging in every
street, we ought to guard our own houses carefully against it."

"Undoubtedly," replied Wolf, unsuspiciously. "But I shall set out early
to-morrow morning with her Majesty."

"Then," replied the Dominican after a brief hesitation, "then a word with
you now."

He continued his way to the second story, and Wolf, with an anxious mind,
followed him into a waiting room, now empty, near the staircase.

The deep seriousness in the keen eyes of the learned confessor, which
could look gentle, indulgent, and sometimes even merry, revealed that he
desired to discuss some matter of importance; but the very first question
which the priest addressed to him restored the young man's composure.

The confessor merely desired to know what took him to the house of the
man who must be known to him as the soul of the evangelical innovations
in his native city, and the friend of Martin Luther.

Wolf now quietly informed him what offer Dr. Hiltner, as syndic of
Ratisbon, had made him in the name of the Council.

"And you?" asked the confessor anxiously.

"I declined it most positively," replied Wolf, "although it would have
suited my taste to stand at the head of the musical life in my native
city."

"Because you prefer to remain in the service of her Majesty Queen Mary?"
asked De Soto.

"No, your Eminence. Probably I shall soon leave the position near her
person. I rather feared that, as a good Catholic, I would find it
difficult to do my duty in the service of an evangelical employer."

"There is something in that. But what led the singer--you know whom I
mean--to the same house?"

Wolf could not restrain a slight smile, and he answered eagerly: "The
young lady and I grew up together under the same roof, your Eminence, and
she came for no other purpose than to bid me farewell. A lamb that clings
more firmly to the shepherd, and more strongly abhors heresy, could
scarcely be found in our Redeemer's flock."

"A lamb!" exclaimed the almoner with a slight touch of scorn. "What are
we to think of the foe of heresy who exchanges ten