ntellect and resolute energy, can be plainly perceived in spite of the
few minutes which she could spare us. If Heaven would really suffer our
Heinz to win the heart of this rare creature----"

"Every fibre of it is his already," interrupted Biberli. "The
rub--pardon me, noble lady!--is somewhere else. Whether he--whether
Heinz can be induced to renounce the thought of the monastery, is the
question."

He sighed faintly as he gazed into the still beautiful, strong, and yet
kindly face of the Lady Wendula Schorlin, Sir Heinz's mother, for she
was the older visitor.

"We ought not to doubt that," replied the matron firmly. "As the last
of his ancient race, it is his duty to provide for its continuance, not
solely for his own salvation. He was always a dutiful son."

"Yet," replied Biberli thoughtfully, "'Away with those who gave us
life!' was the exhortation of Father Benedictus in the next room. 'Away
with the service of sovereign and woman!' he cried to our knight. 'Away
with everything that stands in the way of your own salvation!' And,"
Biberli added, "St. Francis was not the first to devise that. Our Lord
and Saviour commanded His disciples to leave father and mother and to
follow Him."

"Who will prevent his walking in the paths of Jesus Christ?" replied the
Lady Wendula? "Yet, though he follows His footsteps, he must and can
do so as a scion of a noble race, as a knight and the brave soldier
and true servant of his Emperor, which he is, as a good son and, God
willing, as a husband and father. He is sure of my blessing if he wields
his sword as a champion of his holy faith. When my two daughters took
the veil I submissively yielded. They can pray for heavenly bliss for
their brother and ourselves. My only son, the last Schorlin, I neither
can nor will permit to renounce the world, in which he has tasks to
perform which God Himself assigned him by his birth."

"And how could Heinz part from this angel," cried Maria--to whom, next
to her mother, her brother was the dearest person on earth--"if he is
really sure of her love!"

She herself had not yet opened her heart to love. To wander through
forest and field with the aged head of her family, assist her mother in
housekeeping, and nurse the sick poor in the village, had hitherto been
the joy and duty of her life. Gaily, often with a song upon her lips,
she had carelessly seen one day follow another until Schorlin Castle
was besieged and destroyed, and her dear