im in sheer delight as he
talked with my uncle, or with the magistrate who had come forth with us
to the Forest. And albeit it was in truth his duty to the Emperor his
master, to fulfil his behest, nevertheless he gave us his promise that
he would put off the announcement of the sentence till we should return
to the town next day, and prolong our time together and with Cousin Maud
as much as in him lay.

My aunt's eyes shone with sheer joy when they fell on her darling with
Herdegen at her side, and she could say to herself no doubt that these
two, who, as she conceived, were made for each other, would hardly
have come together again but for her help. Or ever we set forth on the
morrow, she called Herdegen to her once more to speak with him privily,
and bid him bear in mind that if ever in his wanderings he should meet
another youth--and he knew who--he might tell him that at home in the
Lorenzerwald a mother's heart was yet beating, which could never rest
till his presence had gladdened it once more.

My uncle rode with us into the town. It was at the gate that the
magistrate told Herdegen what his fate should be: that he must leave
Nuremberg on the morrow at the same hour; and to my dying day I shall
ever remember with gladness and regret the meal we then sat down to with
our nearest and dearest.

Cousin Maud called it her darling's condemnation supper. She had watched
the cooking of every dish in the kitchen, and chosen the finest wine out
of the cellar. Yet the victual might have been oatmeal porridge, and the
noble liquor the smallest beer, and it would have been no matter to our
great, albeit melancholy gladness. And indeed, no man could have gazed
at the pair now come together again after so many perils, and not have
felt his heart uplifted. Ah! and how dear to me were those twain! They
had learnt that life was as nothing to either of them without the other,
and their hearts meseemed were henceforth as closely knit as two streams
which flow together to make one river, and whose waters no power on
earth can ever sunder. They sat with us, but behind great posies of
flowers, as it were in an isle of bliss; yet were they in our midst, and
showed how glad it made them to have so many loving hearts about
them. Notwithstanding her joy and trouble Ann forgot not her duty as
"watchman," and threatened Uncle Christian when he would take more than
he should of the good liquor. He, however, declared that this day was
unde