his craft to nought and
likewise would let her nephew, now in Paris, know her opinion of his
knavish unfaith to a sacred pledge.

I then went on to tell her how hard and altogether insufferable Ann's
life had become, and at length took courage to inform her who the man
was whom she now called step-father. To this she at first said not a
word, but cast down her eyes as though somewhat confused; but presently
she asked wherefore and how it was that she had not heard of this
marriage long since, and when I told her that folks for the most part
had feared to speak the name of Master Ulman Pernhart in her presence,
she again suddenly started up and cried in my face that in truth she
forbade any mention of that villain and caitiff who had taken foul
advantage of her son's youth and innocence to turn his heart from his
parents and bring him to destruction.

And this led me, for the first time in my life, to break through the
reverence I owed to the venerable lady, who so well deserved to be in
all ways respected and spared; for I made so bold as to point out to
her her cruel injustice, and to plead Master Ulman's cause with earnest
zeal. For some time she was speechless with wrath and amazement,
inasmuch as she was not wont to be thus reproved; but then she paid me
back in the like coin; one word struck forth the next, and my rising
wrath hastened me on so that at last I told her plainly, that Master
Pernhart had turned her son Gotz out of doors to hinder him from a
breach of that obedience he owed to his parents. Furthermore I informed
her of all that the coppersmith's mother had told me of the attempt to
carry away Gertrude, and what the end of that had been. Indeed, so soon
as the foreman had betrayed the lovers' plot, Master Ulman had locked
his daughter into her chamber; and when her lover, after waiting for her
in vain at the altar with the hireling priest, came at last to seek her,
her father told him that unless he--Gotz--ceased his suit, he should
exert his authority as her father to compel Gertrude to marry the
foreman and go with him to Augsburg, or give her the choice of taking
the veil. And this he confirmed by a solemn oath; and when Gotz, like
one in a frenzy, strove to make good his claim to see his sweetheart,
and hear from her own lips whether she were minded to yield to her
father's yoke, they came to blows, even on the stairs leading to
Gertrude's chamber, and there was a fierce battle, which might have ha