morning, solemnly glad
and in his festal bravery. Yet they could not hinder me from pressing my
lips to the hands of the beloved body in its winding-sheet.

It was on a fair and glorious morning--the day of the Assumption of the
Blessed Virgin--when Hans Haller, Knight, Doctor, and Town councillor,
the eldest of his ancient race, my dear lord and plighted lover, was
carried to the grave. The velvet pall wherewith his parents covered the
bier of their beloved and firstborn son was so costly, that the price
would easily have fed a poor household for years. How many tapers were
burnt for him, how many masses said! Favor and good-will were poured
forth upon me, and wherever I might go I was met with the highest
respect. Even in my own home I was looked upon as one set apart and
dedicated, whose presence brought grace, and who should be spared all
contact with the common and lesser troubles of life. Cousin Maud, who was
ever wont to mount the stair with an echoing tread and a loud voice, now
went about stepping softly in her shoes, and when she called or spoke it
was gently and scarce to be heard.

As for me I neither saw nor heard all this. It did not make me thankful
nor even serve to comfort me.

All things were alike to me, even the Queen's gracious admonitions. The
diligent humility of great and small alike in their demeanor chilled me
in truth; sometimes meseemed it was in scorn.

To my lover, if to any man, Heaven's gates might open; yet had he
perished without shrift or sacrament, and I could never bear to be absent
when masses were said for his soul's redemption. Nay, and I was fain to
go to churches and chapels, inasmuch as I was secure there from the
speech of man. All that life could give or ask of me, I had ceased to
care for.

If, from the first, I had been required to bestir myself and bend my
will, matters had not perchance have gone so hard with me. The first call
on my strength worked as it were a charm. The need to act restored the
power to act: and a new and bitter experience which now befell was as a
draught of wine, making my heavy heart beat high and steady once more.
Nought, indeed, but some great matter could have roused me from that dull
half-sleep; nor was it long in coming, by reason that my brother
Herdegen's safety and life were in peril. This danger arose from the fact
that, not long ere the passage of arms at Altenperg, in despite of strait
enactments, the peace of the realm had many time