ne who refused to acknowledge that
both were the most chaste and decorous ladies in the whole world,
and Eva, at the same time, the loveliest and fairest, or by the
open interference of the Emperor or the Burggravine in behalf of the
persecuted sisters, after he had confessed the whole truth to his
exalted patrons.

But when Biberli pointed out the surest way of restoring the endangered
reputation of the woman he loved, and begged him to imagine how much
more beautiful she would look in the white bridal veil than in her
mourning Riese--[Kerchief of fine linen, arranged like a veil]--he
ordered him to keep silence.

The miracle wrought in his behalf forbade him to yearn for happiness and
joy here below. It was intended rather to open his eyes and urge him
to leave the path which led to eternal damnation. It pointed him to the
kingdom of heaven and its bliss, which could be purchased only by severe
sacrifice and the endurance of every grief which the Saviour had taken
upon Himself. But he could at least pay one honour to the maiden to whom
he was so strongly attracted, and whose happiness for life was menaced
by his guilt. When he had assembled his whole force at Schwabach, he
would go into battle with her colour on his helmet and shield. The Queen
of Heaven would not be angry with him if he wore her light blue to atone
to the pure and pious Eva, who was hers even more fully than he himself,
for the wrong inflicted upon her by spiteful malice.

Heinz Schorlin's friends thought the change in his mood a natural
consequence of the events which had befallen him; young Count Gleichen,
his most intimate companion, even looked up to him since his "call" as a
consecrated person.

His grey-haired cousin, Sir Arnold Maier, of Silenen, was a devout man
whose own son led a happy life as a Benedictine monk at Engelberg. The
sign by which Heaven had signified its will to Heinz had made a deep
impression upon him, and though he would have preferred to see him
continue in the career so auspiciously begun, he would have considered
it impious to dissuade him from obeying the summons vouchsafed by the
Most High. So he offered no opposition, and sent by the next courier a
letter to Lady Wendula Schorlin, his young cousin's mother, in which,
with Heinz's knowledge-nay, at his request--he related what her son had
experienced, and entreated her not to withhold him from the vocation of
which God deemed him worthy.

Meanwhile, Biberli wrote