rning to the Queen of Hungary. True, she had
not determined to do so until her mistress had promised to remain only a
few weeks in Ratisbon at the utmost, and then move to Brussels, where she
longed to be.

Ratisbon was no home for the Emperor's former favourite. Life in her
native city would have been one long chain of humiliations, now that she
had nothing to offer her fellow-citizens except the satisfaction of a
curiosity which was not always benevolent.

But where should she go, if not to the country where her child's father
lived, where, she had reason enough to believe, the infant would be
concealed, and where she might hope to see again and again at a distance
the man to whom hate united her no less firmly than love?

This prospect offered her the greatest attraction, and yet she desired
nothing, nothing more from him except to be permitted to watch his
destiny. It promised to be no happy one, but this fact robbed the wish of
no charm.

Besides, the desire for a richer life again began to stir within her
soul, and what sustenance for the eye and ear Gombert, Frau Traut, and
now also Lamperi promised her in Brussels!

Her means would enable her to go there with the maid and live in a quiet
way. If her father forgave her and would join her in the city, she would
rejoice. But he was bound to Ratisbon by so many ties, and had so many
new tales to relate in its taprooms, that he would certainly return to
it. So she must leave him; it was growing too hot for her here.

She found old Ursel cheerful, and was less harshly received than at her
last visit. True, Barbara came when she was in a particularly happy mood,
because a letter from Wolf stated that he already felt perfectly at home
in Quijada's castle at Villagarcia, and that Dona Magdalena de Ulloa was
a lady of rare beauty and kindness of heart. Her musical talent was
considerable, and she devoted every leisure hour to playing on stringed
instruments and singing. True, there were not too many, for the childless
woman had made herself the mother of the poor and sick upon her estates,
and had even established a little school where he assisted her as
singing-master.

So Barbara was at least relieved from self-reproach for having brought
misfortune upon this faithful friend. This somewhat soothed her sorely
burdened heart, and yet in her old, more than plain lodgings, with their
small, bare rooms, she often felt as though the walls were falling upon
her. Beside