breathe God's pure air.

The morning breeze bore the smoke which still rose from the fire in
another direction, and thus a refreshing air really entered the room from
the garden, for the thunderstorm had refreshed all nature, and flower
beds and grass, bush and tree, exhaled a fresh odour of earth and leafage
which it was a delight to breathe.

The leech Otto, to whom the severely wounded Ulrich Vorchtel had been
carried, had just left the countess. The burns on her hands and arms had
been bandaged--nay, the old gentleman had cut out the scorched portions
of her tresses with his own hand. Cordula's energetic action had made
the famous surgeon deem her worthy of such care. He had also advised her
to seek the nursing of the oldest daughter of her host, whose invalid
wife he was attending, and she had gladly assented; for Els had attracted
her from their first meeting, and she was accustomed to begin the day at
sunrise.

"How does it happen that you neither weep nor even hang your head after
all the sorrow which last night brought you?" asked Cordula, as the
Nuremberg maiden sat down beside her bed. "You are a stranger to the
Swiss knight, and when we surprised you with him you had not come to a
meeting--I know that full well. But if so true and warm a love unites
you to young Eysvogel, how does it happen that your joyous courage is so
little damped by his father's denial and his own unhappy deed, which at
this time could scarcely escape punishment? You do not seem frivolous,
and yet--"

"Yet," replied Els with a pleasant smile, "many things have made a deeper
impression. We are not all alike, Countess, yet there is much in your