These tidings swiftly and powerfully revived the fading hopes of the sorely stricken man.  He drew up his short figure as if the vigour of youth had returned, declaring that he now felt sure that this first star in the dark night would soon be followed by others.  “It will now be your Wolff’s opportunity,” he exclaimed, “to make amends for much that Fate But I was commencing something else.  Give me that bit of crumpled paper.  I’ll look at it again early to-morrow morning; it is a letter to the Emperor I was composing.  Your brother ought not to have given up his young life on the battlefield for the Crown in vain.  He owes me compensation for the son, you for the brother.  He is certainly a fair-minded man, and therefore will not shut his ears to my complaint.  Just wait, children!  And you, my devout Eva, pray to your saint that the petition, which concerns you also, may effect what I expect.”

“And what is that?” asked Eva anxiously.  “That the wrong done you, you poor, deceived child, shall be made good,” replied Herr Ernst with imperious decision.

Eva clasped his hand, pleading warmly and tenderly:  “By all that you hold dear and sacred, I beseech you, father, not to mention me and Sir Heinz Schorlin in your letter.  If he withdrew his love from me, no imperial decree—­”

The veins on the Councillor’s brow again swelled with wrath, and though he did not burst into a passion, he exclaimed in violent excitement:  “A nobleman who declares his love to a chaste Nuremberg maiden of noble birth assumes thereby a duty which, if unfulfilled, imposes a severe punishment upon him.  This just punishment, at least, the tempter shall not escape.  The Emperor, who proclaimed peace throughout the land and cleared the highways of the bands of robbers, will consider it his first duty—­”

Here the warden interrupted him by calling from the threshold of the room that the draw-bridge would be raised and the young ladies must follow him without delay.

Eva again besought her father not to enter an accusation against the knight, and Els warmly supported her sister; but their brief, ardent entreaty produced no effect upon the obstinate man except, after he had pressed a farewell kiss upon the brows of both, to tell them with resolute dignity that the night would bring counsel, and he was quite sure that this time, as usual, he should pursue the right course for the real good of his dear children.

Hitherto Herr Ernst had indeed proved himself a faithful and prudent head of his family, but this time his daughters left him with heavy, anxious hearts.

Fear of her father’s intention tortured Eva like a new misfortune, and Els and the countess also hoped that the petition would go without the accusation against Heinz.