CHAPTER VII.

Progress was very slow, for many peasants and hogs were coming toward
them from the Schweinemarkt at their right.

The gate was on the second bridge, and here the carriage was compelled to
stop on account of paying the toll. But it could not have advanced in
any case; a considerable number of vehicles and human beings choked the
space before and beyond the gate. Horsemen of all sorts, wagons of
regiments marching in and out, freight vans and country carts, soldiers,
male and female citizens, peasants and peasant women, monks, travelling
journeymen, and vagrants impeded their progress, and it required a long
time ere the travelling carriage could finally pass the gate and reach
the end of the bridge.

There the crowd between it, the Hospital of the Holy Ghost, and the
church belonging to it seemed absolutely impenetrable. The vehicle was
forced to stop, and Gombert stood up and overlooked the motley throng
surrounding it.

Barbara had also risen from her seat, pointed out to her companion one
noteworthy object after another, and finally a handsome sedan chair which
rested on the ground beside the hospital.

"His Majesty's property," she said eagerly; "I know it well."

Here she hesitated and turned pale, for she had just noticed what Gombert
now called to her attention.