travel. His doublet of fine black cloth, trimmed with
slashed velvet, his dainty ruff, his short broadsword, and baretta with
a long drooping feather, seemed rather to point to a prosperous
merchant; and yet again there was a strange something about the face
and form of the youth which completely negatived the idea of a
merchant. Reinhold, noticing Frederick's doubting glances, undid his
travelling-bundle and produced his cooper's apron and knife-belt,
saying, "Look here, my friend, look here. Have you any doubts now as to
my being a comrade? I perceive you are astonished at my clothing, but I
have just come from Strasburg, where the coopers go about the streets
as fine as noblemen. Certainly I did once set my heart upon something
else like you, but now to be a cooper is the topmost height of my
ambition, and I have staked many a grand hope upon it. Is it not
the same with you, comrade? But I could almost believe that a dark
cloud-shadow had been hung unawares about the brightness of your youth,
so that you are no longer able to look freely and gladly about you. The
song which you were just singing was full of pain and of the yearning
of love; but there were strains in it that seemed as if they proceeded
from my own heart, and I somehow fancy I know all that is locked up
within your breast. You may therefore all the more put confidence in
me, for shall we not then be good comrades in Nuremberg?" Reinhold
threw his arm around Frederick and looked kindly into his eyes.
Whereupon Frederick said, "The more I look at you, honest friend, the
stronger I feel drawn towards you; I clearly discern within my breast
the wonderful voice which faithfully echoes the cry that you are a
sympathetic spirit I must tell you all--not that a poor fellow like me
has any important secrets to confide to you, but simply because there
is room in the heart of the true friend for _his_ friend's pain, and
during the first moments of our new acquaintance even I acknowledge you
to be my truest friend.

"I am now a cooper, and may boast that I understand my work; but all my
thoughts have been directed to another and a nobler art since my very
childhood. I wished to become a great master in casting statues and in
silver-work, like Peter Fischer[24] or the Italian Benvenuto
Cellini;[25] and so I worked with intense ardour along with Herr
Johannes Holzschuer,[26] the well-known worker in silver in my native
town yonder. For although he did not exactly ca