The Emperor asked in surprise how they came there, and then ordered Eva's
father and sister to be brought to him. He was eager to make the
acquaintance of the second beautiful E.

"And Wolff Eysvogel?" asked the magistrate.

"We agreed to release him after we had turned our back on Nuremberg,"
replied the sovereign. "Much as we have heard in praise of this young
man, gladly as we have shown him how gratefully we prize the blood a
brave man shed for us upon the Marchfield, no change can be made in what,
by virtue of our imperial word----"

"Certainly not, little brother," interrupted the court fool, Eyebolt,
"but for that very reason you must open the Eysvogel's cage as quickly
as possible and let him fly hither, for on the ride to the beekeeper's
you crossed in your own seven-foot tall body the limits of this good
city, whose length does not greatly surpass it--your imperial person,
I mean. So you as certainly turned your back upon it as you stand in
front of things which lie behind you. And as an emperor's word cannot
have as much added or subtracted as a fly carries off on its tail, if it
has one, you, little brother, are obliged and bound to have the strange
monster, which is at once a wolf and a bird, immediately released and
summoned hither."

"Not amiss," laughed the Emperor, "if the boundaries of Nuremberg saw
our back for even so brief a space as it needs to make a wise man a fool.

"We will follow your counsel, Eyebolt.--Herr Pfinzing, tell young
Eysvogel that the Emperor's pardon has ended his punishment. The breach