in spite of his vigorous resistance, would have taken him prisoner. But
fortunately the musicians, among them Barbara and Wolf, had just come out
into the street, and the latter had told the sergeant of the guards, whom
he knew, how mistaken he had been concerning the suspicions pedestrian,
and obtained his release. Thus the careful father's hopes had been
frustrated. But when he learned that his daughter had not seen the
Emperor at all, and had neither been seen nor spoken to by him, he gave
--notwithstanding his reverence for the sacred person of his mighty
commander--full expression to his indignation.

Fool that he had been to permit Barbara to present herself at court with
a troop of ordinary singing boys! Even on the following day he persisted
in the declaration that it was his duty, as a father and a nobleman, to
protect his daughter from further humiliations of this sort.

Yet when, on the day of fasting, the invitation to sing came, he
permitted Barbara to accept it, because it was the Emperor who summoned
her. He had called for her again, and on the way home learned that
neither his Majesty nor the regent had been among the listeners, and he
had gone to rest like a knight who has been hurled upon the sand.

The next morning, after mass, Barbara went to the rehearsal, and returned
in a very joyous mood with the tidings that the Emperor wished to hear
her about noon. But this time her father wanted to forbid her taking
part in the performance, and Wolf had not found it easy to make him
understand that this would insult and offend his Majesty.

The dispute was by no means ended when the little Maltese summoned her to
the New Scales. Wolf accompanied her only to the Haidplatz, for he had
been called to the Town Hall on business connected with his inheritance;