“What Guelph?  What Ghibelline?” cried the Minorite in a tone of grave rebuke.  “The question is submission to the Most High, or to the world and its claims.  And why should not Heaven require, as you term it, that you should obey the Lord more willingly than your earthly father—­you, whom the mercy of God summoned amidst thunder and lightning in the presence of thousands?  When Francis, our beloved model, the son of Pier Bernardone, was threatened with his father’s curse if he did not turn back from the path which led to the highest goal, Francis restored all that he had received from him, except his last garment, and with the exclamation, ‘Our Father who art in heaven, not Pier Bernardone,’ he made the choice between his earthly and his heavenly Father.  From the former he would have received in abundance everything that the heart of a child of the world desires-wealth, paternal love, and the blessing which is said to build houses on earth.  But Francis preferred poverty and contempt, nay, even his father’s curse and the reproach of ingratitude, receiving in exchange possessions of a nobler nature and more lasting character.  You have heard their names.  To obtain them, means to share the bliss of heaven.  And you”—­he continued loudly, adopting for the first time a tone of authoritative severity—­“if you really yearned for the greatest possessions, go to the fortress this very hour, and with the cry in your heart, though not on your lips, ’Our Father who art in heaven, not my gracious master and benefactor Rudolph,’ inform the Emperor what higher Lord you have vowed to serve.”

This kindled a fierce conflict in Heinz Schorlin’s soul, which perhaps might have ended in favour of a new career and St. Francis, had not Biberli, ere he reached a conclusion, rushed into the room shouting:  “Seitz Siebenburg, the Mustache, has joined his brothers, and the Knight of Absbach, with several others—­von Hirsdorf, von Streitberg, and whatever their names may be—­have made common cause with them!  It is said that they also expected reinforcements from the Main, in order that the right to the road——­”

“Gossip, or positive news?” interrupted Heinz, drawing himself up to his full height with the cool composure which he attained most easily when any serious danger threatened him.

“As positive,” replied his follower eagerly, “as that Siebenburg is the greatest rascal in Germany.  You will be robbed of your joust with him, for he’ll mount the block instead of the steed, just as you predicted.  The ladies will drive him from the lists with pins and rods, to say nothing of the scourging by which knight and squire will silence him.  Oh, my lord, if you only knew!”

“Well?” asked the knight anxiously.

Then Biberli, paying no further heed to his master’s orders never to mention the Ortlieb sisters again in his presence, burst forth indignantly:  “It might move a stone to pity to know the wrong the monster has done Jungfrau Eva and her pure and virtuous sister, the loyal betrothed bride of a brave man—­and the abominable names bestowed on the young ladies, whom formerly young and old, hat in hand, called the beautiful Es.”