tages for the secret meeting of two
lovers, for as it ran through the whole width of the house, it had two
doors, one leading to the street, the other into the yard. In the right
wall of the entry there were also two small doors, reached by a flight of
steps. At this hour both closed empty rooms, for the office and the
chamber where Herr Ernst Ortlieb received his business friends had not
been occupied since sunset, and the bathroom and dressing-room adjoining
were used only during the day.

True, some unbidden intruder might have come down the long broad
staircase leading to the upper story. But in that case the lovers had the
best possible hiding-place close at hand, for here large and small boxes,
standing side by side and one above another, formed a protecting wall;
yonder heaps of sacks and long rows of casks afforded room for
concealment behind them. Rolls of goods packed in sacking leaned against
the chests, inviting a fugitive to slip back of them, and surely no one
would suspect the presence of a pair of lovers in the rear of these
mountains of hides and bales wrapped in matting. Still it would scarcely
have been advisable to remain near them; for these packages, which the
Ortlieb house brought from Venice, contained pepper and other spices that
exhaled a pungent odor, endurable only by hardened nerves.

Valuable goods of various kinds lay here until they could be placed in
cellars or storehouses or sold. But there was many an empty space, too,
in the broad corridor for, spite of Emperor Rudolph's strictness, robbery
on the highroads had by no means ceased, and Herr Ernst Ortlieb was still
compelled to use caution in the transportation of costly wares.

After Biberli and his sweetheart had assured themselves that the ardour
of their love had by no means cooled, they sat down on some bags filled
with cloves and related to each other the experiences through which they
had passed during the period of separation.

Katterle's life had flowed on in a pleasant monotony. She had no cause to
complain of her employers.

Fran Maria Ortlieb, the invalid mistress of the house, rarely needed her
services.

During a ride to visit relatives in Ulm, the travellers, who were under
the same escort of men at arms as a number of Nuremberg freight waggons,
had been attacked by the robber knights Absbach and Hirschhorn. An arrow
had struck Frau Ortlieb's palfrey, causing the unfortunate woman a severe
fall, which produced an in