young maid.

Ursula made her speech, her voice so loud at the last that it might have
seemed that the honeyed verses were words of reproof. The imperial pair
gave each other a glance expressing surprise rather than pleasure, and
vouchsafed a few words of thanks to the speaker. His Majesty spoke in
German; but in his Bohemian home and Hungarian Kingdom he had caught the
trick of a sharper accent than ours.

A chamberlain now gave the signal, and we maidens all went forth towards
our Sovereign lord and lady. Two and two--Tucher and Schilrstab--Groland
and Stromer; and the sixth couple were Ann and I--Ann as the daughter
of a member of the council--and my godfather it was, besides her sweet
face, who had done most to get her chosen.

Noble youths clad as pages in velvet and silks had received the flowers
offered by the damsels; but as Ann and I stood forth, the Emperor
and Empress looked down on us. I could see that they gazed upon us
graciously, and heard them speak together in a language I knew not; and
Porro, the King's fool--and I say the King's, inasmuch as it was not
till later that Sigismund was crowned Emperor at Rome, and by the same
token it was at that time that my Hans' brothers, Paul and Erhart, were
dubbed Knights--Porro, who rode at his lord's side on a piebald pony
spotted black and yellow, cried out: "May we all be turned into drones,
Nunkey, if the flowers which have given this town the name of the
Bee-garden are not of the same kith and kin as these!"

And he pointed to us; whereupon the King asked him whether he meant the
damsels or the posies. But the jester, rolling on his nag after a merry
fashion, till the bells in his cap rang again, answered him: "Nay,
Nunkey, would you tempt a Christian to walk on the ice? An if I say the
damsels, I shall get into trouble by reason of your strict morality; but
if I say the posies, I shall peril my poor soul's health by a foul lie."

"Then choose thee another shape," quoth the Queen, "for I fear lest the
bees should take thee for a stinging wasp, Porro."

"True, by my troth," said the fool, thinking. "Since Eve fell into sin,
women's counsel is often the best. You, Nunkey, shall be turned into a
butterfly, and not into a drone, and grace the flowers as you flutter
round them."

And he waved his arms as they were wings and rode round about us on
his pony with right merry demeanor, like a moth fluttering over us.
Ann looked down, reddening for shame, and the