On the stairs he met the Emperor's confessor, Don Pedro de Soto.
Wolf bowed reverently before the dignified figure of the distinguished
Dominican, and the latter, as he recognised him, paused to request curtly
that he would give him a few minutes the following day.

"If I can be of any service to your Reverence," replied Wolf, taking the
prelate's delicate hand to kiss it; but the almoner, with visible
coldness, withdrew it, repellently interrupting him: "First, Sir Knight,
I must ask you for an explanation. Where the plague is raging in every
street, we ought to guard our own houses carefully against it."

"Undoubtedly," replied Wolf, unsuspiciously. "But I shall set out early
to-morrow morning with her Majesty."

"Then," replied the Dominican after a brief hesitation, "then a word with
you now."

He continued his way to the second story, and Wolf, with an anxious mind,
followed him into a waiting room, now empty, near the staircase.

The deep seriousness in the keen eyes of the learned confessor, which
could look gentle, indulgent, and sometimes even merry, revealed that he
desired to discuss some matter of importance; but the very first question
which the priest addressed to him restored the young man's composure.

The confessor merely desired to know what took him to the house of the
man who must be known to him as the soul of the evangelical innovations
in his native city, and the friend of Martin Luther.