's wound to be mortal. Then
his young wife and little children were fetched with many tears from
the tileyard, and the priest came with the Holy Death Sacrament. But
the prayers and viaticum saved Martin. Still, for many months he had
a frightful illness, and even in March he was so weak you could have
knocked him down with a feather. Niederberg was immediately taken into
custody, and was sentenced to sit in Bruneck Castle till St. John the
Baptist's Day, fully six months, to pay the doctor's bill, and two
hundred gulden to Martin; but the latter sum, being an evil-minded
youth, though rich, he has never paid. He will leave that to
Heinwiese, he says, who put him up to the deed: besides, why pay a man
who had recovered? He would have stood the funeral and settled with
the widow. However, father talks of dealing with Niederberg, for he
must not thus despoil patient Martin."

Here, indeed, was a stabbing worthy of hot Italy, rather than cooler,
quieter Tyrol. It proved, too, that the serpent and old Adam still
moved in that garden of Eden, Edelsheim.

Jakob and the hero of the tragedy now returned, bright and brisk,
bearing armfuls of edelweiss, long sprays of stag-horn's moss, and
showing us with genuine pleasure roots of the edelraute, which they
had gathered on the high ledges for us. This is a little insignificant
plant, but called by the Tyrolese the noble rue, and prized by them
far more than the edelweiss; perhaps one reason being that when dried
it is said to emit a delicious scent, for which reason the housewives
place it amongst linen. Jakob looked like a mountain dryad, his
broad-brimmed beaver being completely covered with purple Michaelmas
daisies, glowing amongst sheaves of silvery edelweiss, falling round
in a soft gray woolen fringe. Aided by Jakob and Martin, we had the
gratification of gathering edelweiss ourselves, always a notable feat.
Martin really had most miraculously recovered. After those twenty-four
miles of hard walking, followed by a climb of several thousand feet,
we left him felling a pine tree as we bade Jakob adieu, for he was to
leave very early in the morning.

A comical scene ensued after our return to the barn. Visitors of
course we had none: Martin's arrival had been an immense event. Thus,
as we sat in the barn partaking of hot wine and cake, great masses
of shadow all around, with light breaking in only from the lantern,
forming altogether a perfect Rembrandt effect, we heard a c