ts. Thus the diligence which he had ever shown through
all his wild ways was turned to his destruction; and it was the same
with the open-handed liberality which had ever marked him, by reason
that the poor, to whom he had tossed a heavy ducat instead of a thin
copper piece, would tell of the Devil's dole he had gotten, and how that
the coin had burnt in his hand. Nay and Eppelein's boasting of the gold
his young lord had squandered in Paris, and wherewith he had filled his
varlet's pockets, gave weight to this evil slander. Many an one held it
for a certainty that Satan himself had been his treasurer.

Thus a light word, spoken at first as a figure of speech by the Knight
von Rochow, had grown into a charge against him, heavy enough to wreck
the honor and freedom of a man who had no friends, and even to bring him
to the stake; and I know full well that many an one rejoiced beforehand
to think that he should see that lordly youth with all his bravery
standing in the pointed cap with the Devil's tongue hung round his neck,
and gasping out his life amid the licking flames.

CHAPTER V.

The Diet was well-nigh over, yet had we not been able to gain aught in
Herdegen's favor. One day my Forest Aunt, who had marked all our doings
with wise counsel and hearty good-will, sent word that he on whose
mighty word hung Herdegen's weal or woe, the Elector Frederich himself,
had promised to visit at the Lodge next day to the end that he might
hunt, and that we should ride thither forthwith.

By the time we alighted there his Highness had already come and gone
forth to hunt the deer; wherefor we privily followed after him, and at a
sign from Uncle Christian we came out of the brushwood and stood before
him. Albeit he strove to escape from us with much diligence and no small
craftiness, we would not let him go, and kept up with him, pressing him
so closely that he afterwards declared that we had brought him to bay
like a hunted beast. Of a truth no bear nor badger ever found it harder
to escape the hounds than he, at that moment, to shut his eyes and
ears against bright eyes and women's tongues made eloquent by Dame Love
herself. Moreover my mourning array, worn as it was for a youth who had
stood above most others in his love, would have checked any hard words
on his lips; thus was he once more made to know that Eve's power was not
yet wholly departed. Yet were we far from believing in any such power in
ourselves, as we appear