Erasmus's visit at night alone gave him cause for reflection, and
suggested the doubt whether he might not have interceded too warmly for
this peculiar creature and her excitable artist nature.




CHAPTER III.

Silence pervaded the little castle in Prebrunn; nay, there were days when
a thick layer of straw in the road showed that within the house lay some
one seriously ill, who must be guarded from every sound.

In Ratisbon and the Golden Cross, on the contrary, the noise and bustle
constantly increased. On the twenty-eighth of May, King Ferdinand
arrived with his family to visit his brother Charles. The Reichstag
would be opened on the fifth of June, and attracted to the Danube many
princes and nobles, but neither the Elector John of Saxony nor the
Landgrave Philip of Hesse, the heads of the Smalcald league. King
Ferdinand's two daughters were to be married the first of July, and many
a distinguished guest came to Ratisbon in June. Besides, several
soldiers began to appear.

The Emperor Charles's hours were filled to the brim with work and social
obligations. The twinges of the gout had not wholly disappeared, but
remained bearable.

The quiet good-breeding of the two young archduchesses pleased the
Emperor, and their young brother Maximilian's active mind and gay,
chivalrous nature delighted him, though many a trait made him, as well as