the garland of roses and leaves twined about the
upper portion of her body, and swung it around her in graceful curves as
she knelt and rose on the rope.

She had often jumped rope on the low rope, turning completely around
so that she faced the other way. To repeat this performance on the one
stretched to the steeple would certainly not be expected from her or
from any other. Suppose she should use the garland as a rope and venture
to leap over it on this giddy height? Suppose she should even succeed in
turning around? The rope was firm. If her plan was successful, she would
have accomplished something unprecedented; if she failed--if, while
turning, she lost her balance--her scanty stock of pleasure here below
would be over, and also her great grief and insatiable yearning. One
thing was certain: Lienhard would watch her breathlessly, nay, tremble
for her. Perhaps it was too much to hope that he would mourn her
sincerely, should the leap cost her life; but he would surely pity her,
and he could never forget the moment of the fall, and therefore herself.
Loni would tear the gold circlet from his dyed black locks and, in
his exaggerated manner, call himself a son of misfortune, and her the
greatest artist who had ever trodden the rope. All Augsburg, all the
dignitaries of the realm, even the Emperor, would pity her, and the end
of her life would be as proud and as renowned as that of the chivalrous
hero who dies victor on the stricken field. If the early part of her
life had been insignificant and wretched, its close should be grand and
beautiful.

Long consideration was foreign to Kuni's nature. While these thoughts
were darting with the speed of lightning through her excited brain, she
stripped from the garland, with the presence of mind which her calling
teaches even in serious peril, the roses which might have caught her
feet, and swung it in a wide circle above her. Then nimbly, yet careful
to maintain in every movement the grace without which the most difficult
feat would have seemed to her valueless, she summoned all the strength
and caution she possessed, went forward at a run, and--she did not know
herself just how it was done--dared the leap over the rope once, twice,
and the third and fourth time even accomplished the turn successfully.
It had not once cost her an effort to maintain her balance.

Again she saw Loni clapping his hands at the window, and the
acclamations of the crowd, which echoed like peals