while to
confront a great danger boldly. It was the greatest of all, the peril of
losing him, for what would she be if he deserted her?

At the bare thought a torturing dread overwhelmed her.

Never had she felt so irresolute, so deeply agitated, and she uttered a
sigh of relief when her father returned from his visit to old Ursel, and
praised the care with which she had selected the articles that filled
his knapsack.

The flushed cheeks which he noticed could scarcely be the result of
the light labour which she had performed for him. With the instinct of
paternal love, he probably perceived that she was agitated, but he had
so little idea of the mental conflict which had taken possession of her
soul that her anxiety pleased him. The separation must be hard for the
poor child, and how could the honour bestowed upon the father fail to
affect the daughter's mind also.

He had hoped to find Wolf in Ursel's room, but he had already been away
some time, and had told the old woman that he was going to the Hiltners,
and should probably remain there a long while, as his schoolmate,
Erasmus Eckhart, the nephew and adopted son of the syndic and his wife,
had returned home from Wittenberg.

To find Wolf and deliver the important message Blomberg would have been
obliged to enter the accursed heretic's house, and, rather than do it,
he protested he would inflict this and that upon himself.

But whom should he trust to represent him? The best plan would be for
Barbara to write to the young knight, informing him of the honour in
store for him.

He himself wielded the sword so much better than the pen.

The obliging daughter put a speedy end to her father's embarrassment by
offering to go in search of Wolf in person; she by no means shunned the
Hiltners. In fact, the doctor's wife had always been especially kind to
her at the Convivium musicum, and her young daughter Martina, during
the months in which she, too, was permitted to sing in the chorus, had
displayed, whenever opportunity offered, an admiration for Barbara which
bordered on enthusiasm. Besides, there was no obligation to keep Barbara
from this errand; the removal to Prebrunn to join the marquise was not
to take place until noon of the following day.

The pious captain, it is true, was as reluctant to let his daughter go
to the heretic's as to a pesthouse, but Wolf's notification permitted no
delay, so he consented, and expressed his willingness to accompany her.