r!"

Groaning aloud, he covered his face with his hands, and those from whom
he might have expected consolation were forced to leave him in the midst
of the deepest sorrow; for the Swiss mail, which had come to Maier of
Silenen as the most distinguished of his countrymen, was awaiting
distribution, and Count Gleichen was forced to fulfill his sorrowful duty
as messenger. His friend Heinz had lent him his second horse, the black,
to ride to the fortress.

While Heinz, pursued by grief and care, sometimes paced up and down the
room, sometimes threw himself into the armchair which Frau Barbara, to do
him special honour, had placed in the sitting-room, the Minorite monk
Benedictus, whom he had brought to Nuremberg, had come uninvited from the
neighbouring monastery to give him a morning greeting. The enthusiasm
with which St. Francis had filled his soul in his early years had not
died out in his aged breast. He who in his youth had borne the escutcheon
of his distinguished race in many a battle and tourney, as a knight
worthy of all honour, sympathised with his young equal in rank, and found
him in the mood to provide for his eternal salvation. On the ride to
Nuremberg he had perceived in Heinz a pious heart and a keen intellect
which yearned for higher things. But at that time the joyous youth had
not seemed to him ripe for the call of Heaven; when he found him bowed
with grief, his eyes, so radiant yesterday, swimming in tears, the
conviction was aroused that the Omnipotent One Himself had taken him by
the hand to lead the young Swiss, to whom he gratefully wished the best
blessings, into the path which the noble Saint of Assisi himself had
pointed out to him, and wherein he had found a bliss for which in the
world he had vainly yearned.

But his conversation with his young friend had been interrupted, first by
the tailor who was to make his mourning garb, then by Siebenburg, and
even later he had had no opportunity to school Heinz; for after Seitz had
gone Biberli and Katterle had needed questioning. The result of this was
sufficiently startling, and had induced Heinz to send the servant and his
sweetheart on the errand from which the former had not yet returned.

When the young knight found himself alone he repeated what the monk had
just urged upon him. Then Eva's image rose before him, and he had asked
himself whether she, the devout maiden, would not thank her saint when
she learned that he, obedient to her counse