Verily it was well-nigh a comfort and a help when those who were on the
look-out, Kunz and other friends, gave it as certain tidings that the
galleon which was carrying Herdegen to Cyprus, and which belonged to the
Lomellini of Genoa, had been lost at sea. Saracen pirates, so it was
told, had seized the ship; but further tidings were not to be got, as to
what had befallen the crew and the travellers, albeit Kunz forthwith
betook himself to Genoa and the Futterers, who had a house and trade of
their own there, did all they might to find their traces. The eldest and
the finest link of the Schopper chain had, we deemed, been snatched away,
peradventure for ever; the death of her lover had made life henceforth
bitter to the third and least, and only the middle one, Kunz, remained
unhurt and still such as it might have gladdened his parents' hearts to
behold him. Thus I deemed, at least, when after long parting I set eyes
on him once more, a goodly man, tall and of a fair countenance. All that
had ever been good and worthy in him had waxed and sped well at Venice,
that high school of the merchant class; but where was the smiling
mirthfulness which had marked him as a youth? The same earnest calm
shone in his wise and gentle gaze, and rang in the deep voice he had now
gotten.

My grand-uncle had esteemed him but lightly, so long as Herdegen was his
delight; but whereas Kunz had done good service at Venice and the master
of the Im Hoff house there was dead, and our guardian himself, on whom a
grievous sickness had fallen, gave himself up day and night to meet his
end, he had, little by little, given over the whole business of the trade
to his young nephew; thus it came to pass that Kunz, when he was but just
twenty, was called upon to govern matters such as are commonly trusted
only to a man of ripe years. But his power and wisdom grew with the
weight of his burthens. Whether it were at Nuremberg or at Venice, he
was ever early to rise and ready, if need should be, to give up his