st son was lying in the most comfortable bed in the best
room in his father's house. His couch was in the upper story; down in
the kitchen old Rahel was moving about the hearth, preparing her "good
salve" herself. While thus engaged she often chuckled aloud, murmuring
"Ulrich," and while mixing and stirring the mixture could not keep her
old feet still; it almost seemed as if she wanted to dance.

Hans Eitelfritz promised Adam to tell no one what had become of his son,
and then returned to his men. The next morning the mutineers from Aalst
sought their fallen leader; but he had disappeared, and the legend
now became wide-spread among them, that the Prince of Evil had carried
Navarrete to his own abode. The dog Lelaps died of his wound, and
scarcely a week after the pillage of flourishing Antwerp by the "Spanish
Furies," Hans Eitelfritz's regiment was ordered to Ghent. He came with
drooping head to the smithy, to take his leave. He had sold his costly
booty, and, like so many other pillagers, gambled away the stolen
property at the exchange. Nothing was left him of the great day in
Antwerp, except the silver toys for his sister's children in Colln on
the Spree.

CHAPTER XXXI.

The fire in the smithy was extinguished, no hammer fell on the anvil;
for the wounded man lay in a burning fever; every loud noise disturbed
him. Adam had noticed this himself, and gave no time to his work, for
he had to assist in nursing his son, when it was necessary to raise his
heavy body, and to relieve Ruth, when, after long night-watches, her
vigorous strength was exhausted.

The old man saw that the girl's bands were more deft than his own
toil-hardened ones, and let her take the principal charge-but the hours
when she was resting in her room were the dearest to him, for then
he was alone with Ulrich, could read his countenance undisturbed and
rejoice in gazing at every feature, which reminded him of his child's
boyhood and of Flora.

He often pressed his bearded lips to the invalid's burning forehead
or limp hand, and when the physician with an anxious face had left the
house, he knelt beside Ulrich's couch, buried his forehead among the
pillows, and fervently prayed the Heavenly Father, to spare his child
and take in exchange his own life and all that he possessed.

He often thought the end had come, and gave himself up without
resistance to his grief; Ruth, on the contrary, never lost hope, not
even in the darkest hours. God