her sister
were as pure as they lived in his imagination, either by offering in the
lists the boldest defiance to every one who refused to acknowledge that
both were the most chaste and decorous ladies in the whole world, and
Eva, at the same time, the loveliest and fairest, or by the open
interference of the Emperor or the Burggravine in behalf of the
persecuted sisters, after he had confessed the whole truth to his exalted
patrons.

But when Biberli pointed out the surest way of restoring the endangered
reputation of the woman he loved, and begged him to imagine how much more
beautiful she would look in the white bridal veil than in her mourning
Riese--[Kerchief of fine linen, arranged like a veil]--he ordered him to
keep silence.

The miracle wrought in his behalf forbade him to yearn for happiness and
joy here below. It was intended rather to open his eyes and urge him to
leave the path which led to eternal damnation. It pointed him to the
kingdom of heaven and its bliss, which could be purchased only by severe
sacrifice and the endurance of every grief which the Saviour had taken
upon Himself. But he could at least pay one honour to the maiden to whom
he was so strongly attracted, and whose happiness for life was menaced by
his guilt. When he had assembled his whole force at Schwabach, he would
go into battle with her colour on his helmet and shield. The Queen of
Heaven would not be angry with him if he wore her light blue to atone to
the pure and pious Eva, who was hers even more fully than he himself, for
the wrong inflicted upon her by spiteful malice.

Heinz Schorlin's friends thought the change in his mood a natural
consequence of the events which had befallen him; young Count Gleichen,
his most intimate companion, even looked up to him since his "call" as a
consecrated person.

His grey-haired cousin, Sir Arnold Maier, of Silenen, was a devout man
whose own son led a happy life as a Benedictine monk at Engelberg. The
sign by which Heaven had signified its will to Heinz had made a deep
impression upon him, and though he would have preferred to see him
continue in the career so auspiciously begun, he would have considered it
impious to dissuade him from obeying the summons vouchsafed by the Most
High. So he offered no opposition, and sent by the next courier a letter
to Lady Wendula Schorlin, his young cousin's mother, in which, with
Heinz's knowledge-nay, at his request--he related what her son had
exper