and Master Ulsenius, had come close to us, and
had heard Uhlwurm's and Kubbeling's last words. This was Ann; and, as she
answered to the Brunswicker "I would you were in the right with that
'perchance'. How gladly would I believe it!" I took my hands down from
my face, and behold she stood before me in all her beauty, but in deep
mourning black, and was now, as I was, an unwedded widow.

I ran to meet her, and now, as she clung to me first and then to my aunt,
she was so moving a spectacle that even Uhlwurm wiped his wet cheeks with
his finger-cloth. All were now silent, but Young Kubbeling ceased not
from wiping the sweat of anguish from his brow, till at last he cried:
"'Perchance' was what I said, and 'perchance' it still shall be; aye, by
the help of the Saints, and I will prove it. . . ."

At this Ann uplifted her bead, which she had hidden in my aunt's bosom,
and Cousin Maud let drop her arms in which she held me clasped. The
learned Master Windecke made haste to depart, as he could ill-endure such
touching matters, while Uncle Conrad enquired of Ann what she had heard
of Herdegen's end.

Hereupon she told us all in a low voice that yestereve she had received a
letter from my lord Cardinal, announcing that he had evil tidings from
the Christian brethren in Egypt. She was to hold herself ready for the
worst, inasmuch as, if they were right, great ill had befallen him.
Howbeit it was not yet time to give up all hope, and he himself would
never weary of his search: Young Kubbeling, who had meanwhile sent
Uhlwurm with the leech to see the sick man and then taken his seat again
with the wine-cup before him, had nevertheless kept one ear open, and had
hearkened like the rest to what Ann had been saying; then on a sudden he
thrust away his glass, shook his big fist in wrath, and cried out, to the
door, as it were, through which Uhlwurm had departed, "That croaker, that
death-watch, that bird of ill-omen! If he looks up at an apple-tree in
blossom and a bird is piping in the branches, all he thinks of is how
soon the happy creature will be killed by the cat! 'Gone! gone' indeed;
what profits it to say gone! He has befogged even my brain at last with
his black vapors. But now a light shines within me; and lend me an ear,
young Mistress, and all you worshipful lords and ladies; for I said
'perchance' and I mean it still."

We listened indeed; and there was in his voice and mien a confidence
which could not fail to give