new
full well, before my brother went away to the high school, that
our grand uncle was counting on giving her and him to each other in
marriage. Master Tetzel likewise would point to them when they stood
side by side, so high and goodly, as though they were a pair; and this
old man, whose face was as grey and cold and hueless as all about his
daughter was bright and gay, would demean himself with utter humbleness
and homage to the lad who scarce showed the first down on his lip and
chin, by reason that he looked upon him, who was his granduncle's heir,
as his own son-in-law.

It was, to be sure, known to many that rich old Im Hoff was minded to
leave great endowments to the Holy Church, and meseemed that it was
praiseworthy and wise that he should do all that in him lay to gain the
prayers of the Blessed Virgin and the dear Saints; for the evil deed
which had turned him from a dashing knight into a lonely penitent might
well weigh in torment on his poor soul. I will here shortly rehearse all
I myself knew of that matter.

In his young days my grand uncle had carried his head high indeed, and
deemed so greatly of his scutcheon and his knightly forbears that he
scorned all civic dignities as but a small matter. Then, whereas in the
middle of the past century all towns were forbid by imperial law to hold
tournaments, he went to Court, and had been dubbed knight by the Emperor
Charles, and won fame and honor by many a shrewd lance-thrust. His more
than common manly beauty gained him favor with the ladies, and since he
preferred what was noble and knightly to all other graces he would
wed no daughter of Nuremberg but the penniless child of Baron von
Frauentrift. But my grand-uncle had made an evil choice; his wife was
high-tempered and filled full of conceits. When princes and great lords
came into our city, they were ever ready to find lodging in the great
and wealthy house of the Im Hoffs; but then she would suffer them to
pay court to her, and grant them greater freedom than becomes the decent
honor of a Nuremberg citizen's hearth. Once, then, when my lord the duke
of Bavaria lay at their house with a numerous fellowship, a fine young
count, who had courted my grand uncle's wife while she was yet a maid,
fanned his jealousy to a flame; and, one evening, at a late hour, while
his wife was yet not come home from seeing some friends, as it fell he
heard a noise and whispering of voices, beneath their lodging, in the
court