en
transferred there as one of the higher officials of the government.

She also entered into relations with other heads of the Spanish party,
and thus found in Ghent what she sought. The pension allowed her enabled
her to hire a pretty house, and to furnish it with a certain degree of
splendour. A companion, for whom she selected an elderly unmarried lady
who belonged to an impoverished noble family, accompanied her in her
walks; a major-domo governed the four men-servants and the maids of
the household; Frau Lamperi retained her position as lady's maid; the
steward and cook attended to the kitchen and the cellar; and two pages,
with a pretty one-horse carriage, lent an air of elegance to her style
of living.

For the religious service, which was directed by her own chaplain,
she had had a chapel fitted up in the house, according to the Ratisbon
fashion. The poor were never turned from her door without alms, and
where she encountered great want she often relieved it with a generosity
far beyond her means. Under the instruction of Maestro Feys, she eagerly
devoted herself to new exercises in singing. Doubtless she realized that
time and the long period of hoarseness had seriously injured her voice,
but even now she could compare with the best singers in the city.

Thus Barbara saw her youthful dreams of fortune realized--nay,
surpassed--and in the consciousness of liberty which she now enjoyed,
elevated by the success gained by the person she loved best, she again
followed her lover's motto. With the impelling "More, farther" before
her eyes, she took care that she did not lack the admiration for which
she had never ceased to long, and to which, in better days, she had
possessed so well-founded a claim.

Now a lavish and gracious hospitality, as well as her relationship to
the greatest and most popular hero of his time, must give her what she
had formerly obtained through her art; for she rarely sang in large
companies, and when she did so, no matter how loudly her hearers
expressed their delight, she could not regain the old confident security
that she was justly entitled to it. But she could believe all the more
firmly that the acknowledgments of pleasure which she reaped from her
little evening parties were sincere. They even gained a certain degree
of celebrity, for the kitchen in her house was admirably managed, and
whatever came from it found approval even in the home of the finest
culinary achievements. But i