chow avowed that at my brother's first thrust he foresaw his cousin's
evil plight; and they said that during the combat the supple blade of the
Nuremberger's bedizened sword was changed into a raging serpent, which
wound in everywhere, and bit through iron and steel. Afterwards he set
forth that perchance Junker Schopper, who was said to be even better
versed in all manner of writing than in the use of his weapon, had made
use of some magic art, whereat a pious Knight of the Marches would fain
cross himself.

Now whereas Junker von Beust had been in attendance on the King's person,
the end of the fray could not be hidden from his Majesty, and so soon as
the wounded man had been carried into the priest's house at Altenperg for
shelter and care, it was needful to remove his fortunate foe into surety
from King Sigismund's wrath. In this matter both Rochow and Muschwitz,
who were the Junker's seconds, demeaned them as true nobles, inasmuch as
they offered my brother refuge and concealment in their castles, albeit
they accused him between themselves of some secret art; but he who was so
soon to die counselled him to bide a while with Uncle Conrad at the
forest lodge, and see what he himself and other of his friends might do
to win his pardon.

When, at length, my lover was about to depart, the storm had burst;
wherefore the Brandenburgers besought him to tarry in the priest's house
till it should be overpast. This he would not do, by reason that his
sweetheart looked for him with a fearful heart, knowing that her brother
was in peril; and forthwith he rode away. Herdegen gave him Eppelein to
attend him, and to bring back to him such matters as he had need of, and
so my beloved set forth for the town, the serving man riding behind him.

It rained indeed and lightened and thundered, yet all was well till, nigh
to Saint Linhart, the hail came down, beating on them heavily. At that
moment a burning flash, with a terrible crash of thunder, reft a tree
asunder by the road-way; his powerful horse was maddened with fear, stood
upright, fell back, and crushed his rider against the trunk of a poplar
tree. Never more did I look on the face of the true lover to whom I was
so closely knit--save only in dreams; and I thank those who held me back
from beholding his broken skull. To this day he rises before me, a silent
vision, and I see him as he was in that hour when he gave me a parting
kiss on our threshold, in the pale gleam of early