word hung Herdegen's weal or woe, the Elector Frederich himself, had
promised to visit at the Lodge next day to the end that he might hunt,
and that we should ride thither forthwith.

By the time we alighted there his Highness had already come and gone
forth to hunt the deer; wherefor we privily followed after him, and at a
sign from Uncle Christian we came out of the brushwood and stood before
him. Albeit he strove to escape from us with much diligence and no small
craftiness, we would not let him go, and kept up with him, pressing him
so closely that he afterwards declared that we had brought him to bay
like a hunted beast. Of a truth no bear nor badger ever found it harder
to escape the hounds than he, at that moment, to shut his eyes and ears
against bright eyes and women's tongues made eloquent by Dame Love
herself. Moreover my mourning array, worn as it was for a youth who had
stood above most others in his love, would have checked any hard words on
his lips; thus was he once more made to know that Eve's power was not yet
wholly departed. Yet were we far from believing in any such power in
ourselves, as we appeared before that great and potent sovereign, whose
manly, calm, and withal fatherly dignity made him, to my mind, more
majestic than the tall but unresting Emperor.

I can see him as he stood with his booted foot on the hart's neck, and
turned his noble head, with its long, smooth grey hair, gazing at us with
his great blue eyes, kindly at first, but presently with vexation and
well-nigh in wrath.

We held our hands tight on our hearts, striving to call to mind some few
of the words we had meditated with intent to speak them in defence of
Herdegen. And our love, and our steadfast purpose that we would win grace
and mercy for him came to our aid; and whereas my lord's first enquiry
was to know whether I were that Mistress Margery Schopper who had been
betrothed to his dear Hans Haller, too soon departed, my eyes filled with
tears, but the memory of the dead gave me courage, so that I dared to
meet the great man's eye, and was right glad to find that the words which
in my dread I had forgot, now came freely to my mind. Likewise meseemed
that, in overriding my own fears, I had conquered Ann's; whereas she had
been pale and speechless, clinging to the folds of my dress, she now
stood forth boldly by my side.

Then, when I had presented her to his Highness as Herdegen's promised
bride, to whom he had been plig