ht my Hans that he would
take the place thus left unfilled and ride forthwith to Altenperg.

Nor was this all the letter. In it my brother set forth that he had
pledged his word solemnly and beyond recall to Ann and her parents, and
entreated my lover to declare to the Tetzels and to his grand-uncle that
henceforth and forever he renounced Ursula. He would speak of the matter
at greater length at the place of meeting.

Cousin Maud and Hans and I held a brief council, and we were of one mind:
that this message should not be given to the Tetzels till after the great
dinner and when we should know the issue of the combat. My heart urged me
indeed to desire my lover to forego this ride, and I mind me yet how I
implored him with uplifted hands and how he forced himself to put them
from him with steadfast gentleness. And when he told me that he for
certain, if any one, could pacify the combatants or ever blood should be
shed, I gazed into his brave and manful and kind face, and methought
whither he went all must be for the best, and I cried with fresh
assurance: "Then go!" Every word do I remember as though it were graven
in brass.

Eppelein cracked his whip against his leathern boot-tops; old Tetzel's
leaden voice cried out to enquire where we were lingering, and a silken
train came rustling down the stairs. My lover kissed his hand to me, and
I went forth with him into the court-yard. His fiery horse gave him so
much to do that he never marked my farewell. On a sudden it flashed
through my brain that this was that very horse which my grand-uncle had
given to Herdegen, and herein again, meseemed, was an omen of ill.
Likewise I noted that Hans was in silken hose with neither spurs nor
riding-boots. Howbeit the Hallers had many horses; and as a lad he had
been wont to ride with or without a saddle, and was a rider whom none
could unhorse, even in the jousting-ring.

He had soon quelled his steed and was trotting lightly over the stones,
followed by Eppelein; but as he vanished round the first corner meseemed
that the bourn stone, as he rode past it, was turned into the yellow
gravestone I had seen in my dream, and that again I saw the great black
letters of the name "Hans Haller."

I passed my hands across my eyes to chase away the hideous vision, and I
was young enough and brave enough to return Ursula's greeting without any
quaking of my knees. Cousin Maud, meanwhile, had walked up the stairs,
snorting and fuming like a