mother merely extended her hand to Barbara, yet the whole manner of
the gentle, reserved woman showed that she was a welcome guest.

Frau Sabina loved and understood music, still enjoyed singing hymns with
the members of her household, and had done everything in her power to aid
the establishment of the Convivium musicum and foster its progress.

Interest in music had also united her to Dr. Martin Luther, her husband's
friend, and mane a composition of the Wittenberg ecclesiastic had first
been performed at the Hiltners.

The old faith offered so much more to charm the senses than the new one!
Therefore it seemed a special cause for thanksgiving that singing and
playing upon the organ occupied a prominent place in the Protestant
religious service, and that Luther most warmly commended the fostering of
music to those who professed the evangelical belief. Besides, her adopted
son Erasmus, the new Wittenberg master of arts, had devoted himself
eagerly to music, and composed several hymns which, if Damian Feys
permitted it, would be sung in the Convivium musicum.

Frau Sabina Hiltner had often met Barbara there, and had noticed with
admiration and pleasure the great progress which this richly gifted young
creature had made under the direction of the Netherland master.

Other members of the Convivium, on the contrary, bore Barbara a grudge
because she remained a Catholic, and many a mother of a daughter whom
Barbara, as a singer, had cast too far into the shade, would gladly have
thrust her out of the circle of music-loving citizens.

Frau Sabina and Master Feys, who, like the much-envied girl, was a
professor of the old faith, interceded for her all the more warmly.

Besides, it afforded Frau Hiltner scarcely less pleasure to hear Barbara
than it did Martina, and she could also fix her eyes with genuine
devotion upon the girl's wonderfully beautiful and nobly formed features.
The mother and daughter owed to this peerless singer the best enjoyment
which the Collegium afforded them, and, when envy and just displeasure
approached Frau Sabina to accuse Barbara of insubordination, obstinacy,
pride, and forwardness, which were unseemly for one so young, as well as
exchanging coquettish glances with the masculine members of the choir,
the profoundly respected wife of the syndic and her young daughter warmly
defended the persecuted girl.

In this her husband strongly supported her, for, when necessary, he dealt
weighty blows