thereat, and the priest, who had sat silent--as he ever did, gave me a
glance of heartfelt thanks and added a few words of praise. It was long
after supper, and my uncle had had his night-draught of wine when my aunt
sent the house-keeper to fetch me to her. Kindly and sweetly, as though
she set down my past wrath to a good intent, she bid me sit down by her
and then desired that I would repeat to her once more, in every detail,
all I could tell her as touching Gotz and Gertrude. While I did her
bidding to the best of my powers she spoke never a word; but when I ended
she raised her head and said, as it were in a dream: "But Gotz! Did he
not forsake father and mother to follow after a fair face?"

Then again I prayed her right earnestly to yield to the emotions of her
mother's heart. But seeing her fixed gaze into the empty air, and the
set pout of her nether lip, I could not doubt that she would never speak
the word that would bid him home.

I felt a chill down my back, and was about to rise and leave, but she
held me back and once more spoke of Herdegen and that matter. When she
had heard all the tale, she looked troubled: "I know my Ann," quoth she.
"When she has once given her promise to the Bookworm all the twelve
Apostles would not make her break it, and then she will be doomed to
misery, and her fate and your brother's are both sealed."

She then went on to ask when the Magister was to return home, and as I
told her he was expected on the morrow great trouble came upon her.

It was past midnight or ever I left her, and as it fell I slept but ill
and late, insomuch that I was compelled to make good haste, and as it
fell that I went to the window I saw the snow whirling in the wind, and
behold, in the shed, a great wood-sleigh was being made ready, doubtless