eal to the treaty of peace,
and if your uncle continues to seize the merchant's wares they will
apply to the imperial magistrate, and then:

"Then," cried Heinz eagerly, "then the time will have come for me to
leave the court and return home to look after my rights."

"A single arm, no matter how strong it may be, can avail nothing there,
my lord," Biberli protested earnestly. "Your Uncle Ramsweg has scarcely
his peer as a leader, but even were it not so you could not bring
yourself to send the old man home and put yourself in his place.
Besides, it would be as unwise as it is unjust. What is lacking at home
is money to pay the town what it demands for the use of the bridge, or
to increase the number of your men, and therefore:

"Well?" asked Heinz eagerly.

"Therefore seek the Countess von Montfort, who favours you above every
one else," was the reply; "for with her all you need will be yours
without effort. Her dowry will suffice to settle twenty such bridge
dues, and if it should come to a fray, the brave huntress will ride to
the field at your side with helmet and spear. Which of the four Fs did
Countess Cordula von Montfort ever lack?"

"The four Fs?" asked Heinz, listening intently. "The Fs," explained the
ex-pedagogue, "are the four letters which marriageable knights should
consider. They are: Family, figure, favour, and fortune. But hold your
cap on! What a hot blast this is, as if the storm were coming straight
from the jaws of hell. And the dust! Where did all these withered
leaves come from in the month of June? They are whirling about as if the
foliage had already fallen. There are big raindrops driving into my face
too B-r-r! You need all four Fs. No rain will wash a single one of them
away, and I hope it won't efface the least word of my speech either.
What, according to human foresight, could be lacking to secure the
fairest happiness, if you and the countess--"

"Love," replied Heinz Schorlin curtly.

"That will come of itself," cried Biberli, as if sure of what he was
saying, "if the bride is Countess Cordula."

"Possibly," answered the knight, "but the heart must not be filled by
another's image."

Here he paused, for in the darkness he had stumbled into the ditch by
the road.

The whirlwind which preceded the bursting of the storm blew such
clouds of dust and everything it contained into their faces that it was
difficult to advance. But Biberli was glad, for he had not yet found a
fitting