northwestern part of the city, under the hill crowned by the castle,
whilst the road to Schweinau usually led through the Spitalthor.

On the way Lady Wendula induced Eva to tell her many things about
herself, urging her to describe her father and her dead mother. Her
daughter Maria, on the other hand, was most interested in her sister Els,
who, as she had heard from Biberli, was the second beautiful E.

Eva liked to talk about her relatives, but her depression continued and
she spoke only in reply to questions, for the Minorite's death had
affected her, and her heart throbbed anxiously when she thought of the
moment that she must appear amongst the courtiers and see the Emperor.

Would her errand be vain? Must poor Biberli pay for his resolute
fidelity with his life? What pain it would cause her, and how heavily it
would burden his master's soul that he had failed to intercede for him!

Not until Lady Schorlin questioned her did Eva confess what troubled her,
and how she dreaded the venture which she had undertaken on her own
responsibility.

They were obliged to wait outside the Thiergartnerthor, for it had just
been opened to admit a train of freight waggons.

Whilst Eva remained on the high-road, with the castle before her eyes,
she sighed from the depths of her troubled heart: "Why should the Emperor
Rudolph grant me, an insignificant girl, what he refused his sister's
husband, the powerful Burgrave, to whom he is so greatly indebted? Oh,
suppose he should treat me harshly and bid me go back to my spinning
wheel!"