blossom and a bird is piping in the branches, all he thinks of is how
soon the happy creature will be killed by the cat! 'Gone! gone' indeed;
what profits it to say gone! He has befogged even my brain at last with
his black vapors. But now a light shines within me; and lend me an ear,
young Mistress, and all you worshipful lords and ladies; for I said
'perchance' and I mean it still."

We listened indeed; and there was in his voice and mien a confidence
which could not fail to give us heart. My lord Cardinal's assurance that
we were not to rest satisfied with the evil tidings he had received,
Kubbeling had deemed right, and what was right was to him a fact.
Therefore had he racked his brain till the sweat stood on his brow, and
all he had ever known concerning Herdegen had come back to his mind and
this he now told us in his short, rude way, which I should in vain try to
set down.

He said that, since the day when they had landed in Egypt, he had never
more set eyes on Kunz, but that he himself had made enquiry for Herdegen.
Anselmo Giustiniani was still the Republic's consul there, and lodging at
the Venice Fondaco with Ursula his wife; but the serving men had said
that they had never heard of Schopper of Nuremberg; nor was it strange
that Kunz's coming should be unknown to them, inasmuch as, to be far from
Ursula, he had found hospitality with the Genoese and not with the
Venetians. When, on the eve of sailing for home, the Brunswicker had
again waited on the authorities at the Fondaco, to procure his leave to
depart and fetch certain moneys he had bestowed there, he had met
Mistress Ursula; and whereas she knew him and spoke to him, he seized the
chance to make enquiry concerning Herdegen. And it was from her mouth,
and from none other, that he had learned that the elder Junker Schopper
had met a violent death; and, when he had asked where and how, she had