, to see me.

When I repeated all this to Aunt Jacoba, she was mightily disturbed and
bid me stand by Ann, and in all points obey the counsel she might find
it good to give her. She desired I would fetch my friend to her July
23rd. forthwith, and then made a plan for all the young folks to go
forth to the fair garden of a certain bee-keeper, one Martein, where
flowers grew in great abundance, and where we might wind the wreaths
which Uncle Christian would need to grace the Empress' chambers withal.
Thither, quoth she, would she send Herdegen on his coming; for she knew
full well that the tidings brought by Akusch could not remain hid.

Whereas Ann turned a little paler, my aunt shook her head in
displeasure, and admonished her to remain calm; albeit she had charges
to bring against that wild youth, yet, for the present, she must keep
them to herself. Least of all was she to let him suppose that his
faithlessness had caused her any bitter heart-ache; if she desired that
matters end rightly she must command herself to receive the home-comer
no more than kindly, and to demean her as though his denying of her had
touched her but lightly; nay, as though it were a pleasure to her vanity
to be courted by the Brandenburg Junker and other noble gentlemen. If
she could but seem to rate him as less than either of them, she would
have won a great part of the victory.

Such subtlety had no charm for Ann; howbeit, my aunt gave no place
to her doubting, and once more her urgent eloquence prevailed on the
sorrowing maid to govern the yearning of her soul; and when I promised
my friend to support her, she gave the wise lady, who had shown her such
plain proofs of her devoted friendship, her word that she would in every
point obey her.

Many a time have we seen, in the churches of Nuremberg, certain acting
of plays wherein right honest and worthy persons have appeared as Judas
Iscariot, or even as the very Devil himself; and at Venice likewise
have I seen such plays, called there Boinbaria, wherein men and women,
innocent of all guilt, were made to stand for Calumny, Cruelty, and
Craft; and that so cunningly that a man might swear that they were
reprobate Knaves full ripe for the gallows. From this it may be seen
that men are fit and able to seem other than they are by nature; nay,
such feigning is a pleasure to most folks, as we plainly see from the
delight taken by great and small alike in mummery at Carnival tide.
Howbeit, they ca