spared the actual pain and scandal of knowing when his eyes were
blinded and his head swept off at a blow, or when he was tumbled
headlong into a moat, suspended from a tree, or broken on the wheel:
a choice of fates that was sure sooner or later to befall him.
Meantime, both the burgomeister and burgomeisterinn did their utmost
to forget that the gentle little girl was not their own; they set all
their hopes and joys on her, and, making her supply the place at once
of son and daughter, they bred her up in all the refinements and
accomplishments in which the free citizens of Germany took the lead
in the middle and latter part of the fifteenth century. To aid her
aunt in all house-wifely arts, to prepare dainty food and varied
liquors, and to spin, weave, and broider, was only a part of
Christina's training; her uncle likewise set great store by her sweet
Italian voice, and caused her to be carefully taught to sing and play
on the lute, and he likewise delighted in hearing her read aloud to
him from the hereditary store of MSS. and from the dark volumes that
began to proceed from the press. Nay, Master Gottfried had made
experiments in printing and wood-engraving on his own account, and
had found no head so intelligent, no hand so desirous to aid him, as
his little Christina's, who, in all that needed taste and skill
rather than strength, was worth all his prentices and journeymen
together. Some fine bold wood-cuts had been produced by their joint
efforts; but these less important occupations had of late been set
aside by the engrossing interest of the interior fittings of the
great "Dome Kirk," which for nearly a century had been rising by the
united exertions of the burghers, without any assistance from
without. The foundation had been laid in 1377; and at length, in the
year of grace 1472, the crown of the apse had been closed in, and
matters were so forward that Master Gottfried's stall work was
already in requisition for the choir.