w warmly old Berthold Vorchtel
had interceded for Wolff, and that the management of the business was to
be confided solely to him.

These tidings swiftly and powerfully revived the fading hopes of the
sorely stricken man. He drew up his short figure as if the vigour of
youth had returned, declaring that he now felt sure that this first star
in the dark night would soon be followed by others. "It will now be your
Wolff's opportunity," he exclaimed, "to make amends for much that Fate
But I was commencing something else. Give me that bit of crumpled paper.
I'll look at it again early to-morrow morning; it is a letter to the
Emperor I was composing. Your brother ought not to have given up
his young life on the battlefield for the Crown in vain. He owes
me compensation for the son, you for the brother. He is certainly a
fair-minded man, and therefore will not shut his ears to my complaint.
Just wait, children! And you, my devout Eva, pray to your saint that the
petition, which concerns you also, may effect what I expect."

"And what is that?" asked Eva anxiously. "That the wrong done you,
you poor, deceived child, shall be made good," replied Herr Ernst with
imperious decision.

Eva clasped his hand, pleading warmly and tenderly: "By all that you
hold dear and sacred, I beseech you, father, not to mention me and
Sir Heinz Schorlin in your letter. If he withdrew his love from me, no
imperial decree--"

The veins on the Councillor's brow again swelled with wrath, and though
he did not burst into a passion, he exclaimed in violent excitement:
"A nobleman who declares his love to a chaste Nuremberg maiden of noble
birth assumes thereby a duty which, if unfulfilled, imposes a severe
punishment upon him. This just punishment, at least, the tempter shall
not escape. The Emperor, who proclaimed peace throughout the land and
cleared the highways of the bands of robbers, will consider it his first
duty--"

Here the warden interrupted him by calling from the threshold of the
room that the draw-bridge would be raised and the young ladies must
follow him without delay.

Eva again besought her father not to enter an accusation against the
knight, and Els warmly supported her sister; but their brief, ardent
entreaty produced no effect upon the obstinate man except, after he
had pressed a farewell kiss upon the brows of both, to tell them with
resolute dignity that the night would bring counsel, and he was quite
sure that this time,