Many of them can likewise remember the late Anna Spiesz, sometime wife of
Herdegen Schopper; and as to the said Herdegen Schopper, my dear brother,
Margery's book of memorabilia right truly shows forth the manner of his
life and mind in the bloom of his youth, and verily it is a sorrowful
task for me to set forth the decay and end of so noble a man.

As to myself, the last remaining link of the Schopper chain whereof
Margery hath many times made mention, I am still with you, my dear ones;
and I remain but little changed, inasmuch as that my life has ever flowed
calmly and silently onward.

How it came to pass that Margery should so suddenly have brought her
memories to an end most of you know already; howbeit I will set it down
for the younger ones.

Till she reached the age of sixty and seven years, she never rode in a
litter, but ever made her journeyings on horseback. For many years past
she and her husband abode in the forest during the summer months only,
and dwelt in their town-house the winter through. Now on a day, when in
her written tale she had got as far as the time when she and Gotz, her
dear husband, were wed, she besought him to ride forth with her to the
forest, inasmuch as that she yearned once more to see the spot in the
winter season which had seen the happiest days of her life in that long-
past December. Thus they fared forth on horseback, although it was nigh
on Christmas-tide, and when they waved their hands to me as they passed
me by in sheer high spirits and mirthfulness, meseemed that in all
Nuremberg, nay in Franconia or in the whole German Empire a man might
scarce find an old white-haired pair of lovers to match these for light-
heartedness and goodly mien. Some few happy and glad days were at
that time vouchsafed to them in the old well-known forest; but on the