d,
clasped our hands in sheer delight, but Ursula cast a look on them which
might, if it could, have robbed the roses and Eastern lilies of their
sweetness.

The Emperor, it was said, would keep to the hour fixed on; then all the
bells began to ring. I knew them all well, and one I liked best of all;
the Benedicta in Saint Sebalds Church, which had been cast by old Master
Grunewald, Master Pernhart's closest friend. Their brazen voices stirred
my soul and heart, and presently the cannon in the citadel and on the
wails rattled out a thundering welcome to the Emperor, rending the summer
air. My heart beat higher and faster. But suddenly I meseemed that all
the bravery of the town and the holiday weed of the folks, the chiming of
bells and the roaring of cannon were not meant to do honor to the
Emperor, but only to my one true love who was coming in his train.

All my thoughts and hopes were set on him. And when the town-pipers
struck up with trumpets and kettledrums, bagpipes and horns, when the
far-away muttering and roll of voices swelled to a roaring outcry and an
uproarious shout, when from every mouth at every window the cry rose:
"They are corning!"--yet did I not gaze at their Majesties, to whom the
day and festival belonged, but only sought him who was mine--my own.

There they are! close before us.--The Emperor and his noble wife, Queen
Barbara, the still goodly daughter of the great Hungarian Count of Cilly.

Aye! and he looks the man to rule six realms; worthy to stand at the head
of the great German nation. He might be known among a thousand for an
Emperor, and the son of an Emperor! How straight he sits in his saddle,
how youthful yet is the fire in his eye, albeit he has past his fiftieth
birthday! High spirit and contentment in his look; and meseems he has
forgotten that he ever summoned the Diet to meet at Ratisbon and is
entering the gates of Nuremberg against his will, by reason that the
Electors and German princes have chosen to assemble there. His wife
likewise is of noble mien, and she rides a white palfrey which, as she
draws rein, strives to turn its pink nostrils to greet the bay horse on
which her lord is mounted.

Yet do my eyes not linger long on the lordly pair; they wander down the
long train of Knights wherein he is coming, though among the last. For a
moment they rest on the stalwart forms of the Hungarian nobles, all
blazing with jewels even to the harness of the steeds; and glance
unh