magistrate in a low tone told he servant to have his horse ready, too,
Frau Christine asked Cordula to bring Eva from the hospital, if she felt
no disgust at the sight of common people suffering from wounds.

"The huts of our wood-cutters, labourers, and fishermen look cleaner, it
is true, than the hovels of the charcoal burners and quarrymen in the
Montfort forests and mountains; yet none of them are perfumed with
sandal-wood and attar of roses, and the blow of the axe which gashes one
of our wood-cutter's flesh presents a similar spectacle to the wounds
which your criminals bring with them to Schweinau. And let me tell you,
I am the leech in Montfort, and unless death is near, and the chaplain
accompanies me bearing the sacrament, I often go alone with the
manservant, the maid, or the pages who carry my medicines. Since I grew
up I have attended to our sick, and I cannot tell you how many fractures,
wounds, hurts, and fevers I have cured or seen progress to a fatal end.
I stand godmother to nearly all the newborn infants in our villages and
hamlets. The mothers whom I nurse insist upon it. There are almost as
many Cordulas as girls on the Montfort estates, and in many a hut there
are two or three of them. Michel the fisherman has a Cordula, a Cordel,
and a Dulla. Therefore it follows that I am accustomed to severe wounds,
though my heart often aches at the sight of them. I know how to bandage
as well as a barber, and, if necessary, can even use the knife."

"I thought so," cried the magistrate, much comforted. "Set my delicate
little Eva an example if her courage fails; or, what would be still
better, if you see that the horrible business goes too much against the
grain, persuade her to give up work which requires stronger hands and a
less sensitive nature. But there are the horses already. I want to go
to the city, too, Christel, and it's lucky that I don't have to go alone
at night."