uncle, the Knight Ramsweg, was
slain in the defence of the fortress confided to his care. Then she and
her mother were taken to the convent at Constance. Both remained there
in perfect freedom, as welcome guests of the nuns, until the mounted
courier brought a letter from the Knight Maier of Silenen, her cousin,
who wrote from Nuremberg that Heinz, like his sisters, intended to
renounce the world.

Lady Schorlin set out at once, and with an anxious heart rode to
Nuremberg with her daughter as fast as possible.

They had arrived a few hours before and gone to their cousin from
Silenen. From him the Lady Wendula learned what her maternal love
desired to know. Biberli's fate brought her, after a brief rest, to the
hospital, and how it comforted the faithful fellow's heart to see the
noble lady who had confided his master to his care, and in whose house
the T and St had been embroidered on his long coat and cap!

Lady Wendula had remembered these letters, and when she spoke of them
he replied that since he had partially verified what the T and St had
announced to people concerning his character, and to which the letters
had themselves incited him, he no longer needed them.

Then he lapsed into silence, and at last, as the result of his
meditations, told his mistress that there was something unusual about
his insignificant self, because he earnestly desired to practise the
virtues whose possession he claimed before the eyes of the people. He
had usually found the worst wine in the taverns with showy signs, and
when the Lady Wendula's daughter had embroidered those letters on the
cloth for him, what he furnished the guests was also of very doubtful
quality. On his sick bed he had been obliged to place no curb upon his
proneness to reflection, and in doing so had discovered that there was
no virtue which can be owned like a house or a steed, but that each must
be constantly gained anew, often amidst toil and suffering. One thing,
however, was now firmly established in his belief: that his favourite
virtues were really the fairest of all, because--one will answer for
all--man never felt happier than when he had succeeded in keeping his
fidelity inviolate and maintaining his steadfastness. He had learned,
too, from Fraulein Eva that the Redeemer Himself promised the crown of
eternal life to those who remain faithful unto death. In this confidence
he awaited the jailers, who perhaps would come very soon to lead him
into the