Frau Pfinzing sighed heavily, and rose, but her husband, who perceived her intention, stopped her with the remark that it would be useless to go that day, for the sun was already setting and the watchtower was closed at nightfall.

This induced the matron to return to her seat; but she had scarcely touched the easy-chair ere she again rose and told the servant to saddle the big bay.  She would ride to the city on horseback this time; the bearers moved too slowly.  Then turning to her husband, she said gaily: 

“I thank you for the excuse you have made for me, but I cannot use it in this case.  My foolish brother must on no account make the charge which will expose his daughter; it would be a serious misfortune were I to arrive too late.  What is the use of being the wife of the imperial magistrate, if a Nuremberg drawbridge cannot be raised for me even after sunset?  If the petition has already gone, I must see Meister Gottlieb.  True, it was not to be sent until to-morrow, but there is nothing of which we are more glad to rid ourselves than the disagreeable transactions from which we shrink.  Give me a pass for the warder, Pfinzing; and you, Countess, excuse me; it is you who send me away.”

Whilst the maid brought her headkerchief and her cloak, and the magistrate in a low tone told he servant to have his horse ready, too, Frau Christine asked Cordula to bring Eva from the hospital, if she felt no disgust at the sight of common people suffering from wounds.

“The huts of our wood-cutters, labourers, and fishermen look cleaner, it is true, than the hovels of the charcoal burners and quarrymen in the Montfort forests and mountains; yet none of them are perfumed with sandal-wood and attar of roses, and the blow of the axe which gashes one of our wood-cutter’s flesh presents a similar spectacle to the wounds which your criminals bring with them to Schweinau.  And let me tell you, I am the leech in Montfort, and unless death is near, and the chaplain accompanies me bearing the sacrament, I often go alone with the manservant, the maid, or the pages who carry my medicines.  Since I grew up I have attended to our sick, and I cannot tell you how many fractures, wounds, hurts, and fevers I have cured or seen progress to a fatal end.  I stand godmother to nearly all the newborn infants in our villages and hamlets.  The mothers whom I nurse insist upon it.  There are almost as many Cordulas as girls on the Montfort estates, and in many a hut there are two or three of them.  Michel the fisherman has a Cordula, a Cordel, and a Dulla.  Therefore it follows that I am accustomed to severe wounds, though my heart often aches at the sight of them.  I know how to bandage as well as a barber, and, if necessary, can even use the knife.”

“I thought so,” cried the magistrate, much comforted.  “Set my delicate little Eva an example if her courage fails; or, what would be still better, if you see that the horrible business goes too much against the grain, persuade her to give up work which requires stronger hands and a less sensitive nature.  But there are the horses already.  I want to go to the city, too, Christel, and it’s lucky that I don’t have to go alone at night.”