ime is now
short, and I have taken a good deal out of the purse for myself and
sisters, yet not with the intention that it should always go on so; and
thus, dearly beloved Junker, your commands and my obedience are fully
carried out, and I and my sisters do greatly and kindly thank you, and
we hope, God willing, to thank you soon by word of mouth. I have also
seen, after what you wrote, that the horses should be ready.

"I hope that I shall have executed your orders so that you may be
brought safely through your dangerous journey, for it would assuredly
be very painful to me, if on my account you were to be exposed to great
danger.

"Dearly beloved Junker, we have heard with pleasure that you will come
to us at the last inn, for in truth it will be necessary to instruct us
as to all the arrangements.[61] May God Almighty give you health and
happiness, and bring us together in joy. The last inn for sleeping will
be Stockstadt; my honoured father will also write to you his
instructions, and by them you will be guided.

"No more at present, than that you, dearly beloved Junker, your son and
daughter, are heartily greeted by me and mine, and commended to the
care and protection of God Almighty.

"In great haste.

"Your true and loving brunette, as long as I live

"Yours in [Illustration: A Heart]

"Ursula Freherin."

CHAPTER XI.

GERMAN NOBILITY IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

In the beginning of the sixteenth century we find the names of the
German nobles, Fronsperg, Hutten, and Sickingen, conspicuous in the
three different ways in which the nobles then employed themselves,--the
Army, the Church, and State, and the representation and maintenance of
the rights and interests of the landed proprietors. But it appears
strange that even up to the middle of the seventeenth century, men like
these should have had so few of their own class following in their
footsteps. From the time of Fronsperg to that of the Bohemian Junker
Albrecht of Waldstein, and the wild cavalry leader Pappenheim, the
whole of Germany produced no General of more than average skill from
among the nobility. There were a few Landsknechte leaders of citizen
extraction like Schaertlin, and some German princes, all however with
more pretension than capacity, and it was principally to Spaniards and
Italians that the family of the Emperor Charles V. and their op