is cross as
Father Benedictus required; for even as an unknown beggar he would have
enjoyed--this he firmly believed--in Eva's love the highest earthly
bliss. Yet divine love was said to be so much more rapturous, and how
much longer it endured!

And she? Did not the holy expression of her eyes and the aspiration of
her own soul show that she would understand him, approve his sacrifice,
imitate it, and exchange earthly for heavenly love? Neither could
renounce it without inflicting deep wounds on the heart, but every drop
of blood which gushed from them, the Minorite said, would add new and
heavy weight to their claim to eternal salvation.

Ay, Heinz would try to resign Eva! But when he yielded to the impulse
to read Wolff's letter again he felt like a dethroned prince whom some
stranger, ignorant of his misfortune, praises for his mighty power.

The visions of the future which the greyhaired monk conjured up, all
that he told hint of his own regeneration, transformation, and the
happiness which he would find as a disciple of St. Francis in poverty,
liberty, and the silent struggle for eternal bliss, everything which
he described with fervid eloquence, increased the tumult in the young
knight's deeply agitated soul.

IN THE FIRE OF THE FORGE--PART II.

CHAPTER I.

The vesper bells had already died away, yet Heinz was still listening
eagerly to the aged Minorite, who was now relating the story of St.
Francis, his breach with everything that he loved, and the sorrowful
commencement of his life. The monk could have desired no more attentive
auditor. Only the young knight often looked out of the window in search
of Biberli, who had not yet returned.

The latter had gone to the Ortlieb mansion with Katterle.

The runaway maid, whose disappearance, at old Martsche's earnest
request, had already been "cried" in the city, had no cause to complain
of her reception; for the housekeeper and the other servants, who knew
nothing of her guilt, greeted her as a favourite companion whom they had
greatly missed, and Biberli had taken care that she was provided with
answers to the questions of the inquisitive. The story which he had
invented began with the false report that a fire had broken out in the
fortress. This had startled Katterle, and attracted her to the citadel
to aid her countrywoman and her little daughter. Then came the statement
that she spent the night there, and lastly the tale that in the morning
s