"Whatever Kuni may lack, and whatever errors she may have committed, she
is, and will remain a rare creature, even among the few whose lofty
spirit can not be bowed or broken by the deepest calamity. When I met
her here again at The Blue Pike, among the most corrupt vagabonds, ill
and poor, perhaps already the victim of death, I thought it a fitting
time to renew the gift which she had refused. I would gladly do more for
the poor girl, and my wife at home certainly would not be vexed; she,
too, is fond of Kuni, and--I repeat it--this girl has a good, nay, the
best nature. If, instead of among vagabonds, she had been born in a
respectable household--"

Here the young envoy was suddenly interrupted. His table companions also
raised their heads in surprise--a strange noise echoed through the night
air.

Little Doctor Eberbach started up in affright, Hans von Obernitz, the
Nuremberg magistrate, grasped the hilt of his sword, but Doctor Schedel
instantly perceived that the sound which reached his aged ears was
nothing but a violent, long-repressed fit of coughing. He and the other
gentlemen were gazing at the oleander tree whence, before any one
approached it, a groan of pain was heard.

The experienced physician shook his white locks gravely and said:

"Whoever uttered that is near the end of his sufferings."

He made a movement to rise as he spoke; he felt that his help was needed.

But another incident diverted the attention of his companions and
himself.