Meanwhile his twins often returned to his memory.  The thought ought to have restrained him from such base conduct; but the idea that he was avenging the wrong inflicted upon their father’s honour, and thus upon theirs, urged him further and further.

Not until a long ride through the forest had sobered him did he see his conduct in the proper light.

Insult and disgrace would certainly await him in the city.  His brothers would receive him kindly.  They were of his own blood and could not help welcoming his sharp sword.  Side by side with them he would fight and, if it must be, die.  A voice within warned him against making common cause with those who had robbed the family of which he had become a member, yet he again used the remembrance of his innocent darlings to palliate his purpose.  For their sakes only he desired to go to his death, sword in hand, like a valiant knight in league with those who were risking their lives in defence of the ancient privilege of their class.  They must not even suspect that their father had been shut out from the tournament, but grow up in the conviction that he had fallen as a heroic champion of the cause of the lesser knights to whom he belonged, and on whose neck the Emperor had set his foot.

The assurance which Biberli brought Heinz Schorlin that Seitz Siebenburg had joined those whom he was ordered to punish, placed the task assigned him by the Emperor in a new and attractive light; but the servant’s report, so far as it concerned the Ortlieb sisters, pierced the inmost depths of his soul.  He alone was to blame for the disgrace which had fallen upon innocent maidens.  By the destruction of the calumny he would at least atone for a portion of his sin.  But this did not suffice.  It was his duty to repair the wrong he had done the sisters.  How?  That he could not yet determine; for whilst wielding the executioner’s sword in his master’s service all these thoughts must be silenced; he could consider nothing save to fulfil the task confided to him by his imperial benefactor and commander in chief, according to his wishes, and show him that he had chosen wisely in trusting him to “crack the nut” which he himself had pronounced a hard one.  The yearning and renunciation, the reproaches and doubts which disturbed his life, until recently so easy, had disgusted him with it.  He would not spare it.  Yet if he fell he would be deprived of the possibility of doing anything whatever for those who through his imprudence had lost their dearest possession—­their good name.  Whenever this picture rose before him it sometimes seemed as if Eva was gazing at him with her large, bright eyes as trustingly as during the pause in the dancing, and anon he fancied he saw her as she looked at her mother’s consecration in her deep mourning before the altar.  At that time her grief and pain had prevented her from noticing how his gaze rested on her; yet never had she appeared more desirable, never had he longed more ardently to clasp her in his arms, console her, and assure her that his love should teach her to forget her grief, that she was destined to find new happiness in a union with him.