had taken
upon himself. Little was to be feared from earthly love for one who
devoted herself with all the passion of her fervid nature to the divine
Bridegroom. Among the many whom Kunigunde received into the convent as
novices, she was most certainly "called." If she felt something which
resembled love for the young knight--and she made no concealment of
it--it was only the result of the sweet joy of winning for the Lord, the
faith, and her saint a soul which seemed to her worthy of such grace.

Dear, highly gifted child!

She, the abbess Kunigunde, was willing it should be so, and that Eva
should surpass herself. She should prove that genuine piety conquers
even the yearning of a quickly throbbing heart.

True, she must keep her eyes open in order to prevent Satan, who is
everywhere on the watch, from mingling in a game not wholly free from
peril. But, on the other hand, the abbess intended to help her beloved
niece to reap the reward of her piety.

It was scarcely to be doubted that Heinz Schorlin was fired with ardent
love for Eva; but, for that very reason, he would be ready to yield her
obedience, and therefore it was advisable to tell her exactly to what
she must persuade him. She must win him to join the Order of Malta, and
if the famous champion of Marchfield performed heroic deeds with the
white cross on his black mantle, or in war on his red tunic, he, the
Emperor's favourite, would be sure of a high position among the military
members of the order.

The young girl listened eagerly, but the elderly abbess herself became
excited while encouraging the young future "Sister" to her noble task.
The days when, with the inmates of the convent, she had prayed that the
Emperor Rudolph might fulfil the Pope's desire, and in a new crusade
again wrest the Holy Land from the infidels, came back to her memory,
and Heinz Schorlin, guided by the nuns of St. Clare, seemed the man to
bring the fulfilment of this old and cherished wish.

It appeared like a leading of the saints and a sign from God that Heinz
had been dubbed a knight, and commenced his glorious career at Lausanne
while the Emperor Rudolph pledged himself to a new crusade.

She detained Eva so long that dinner was over at the Ortlieb mansion,
and her impatient father would have sent for her had not the invalid
mother urged him to let her remain.

True, she longed to have a talk with her darling, who for the first time
in her life had attended a great en