CHAPTER XVIII.

At Heinz Schorlin’s quarters the day before his young hostess, Frau Barbel, had had the costly armour entrusted to her care, and the trappings belonging to it, cleaned and put in order, but her labour was vain; for Heinz Schorlin had ridden directly to the fortress from Schweinau, without stopping at his lodgings in the city.

Only a short time before he had learned that his two messengers had been captured and failed to reach their destination.  He owed this information to Sir Boemund Altrosen—­and many another piece of news which Cordula had given him.

The main portion of Heinz Schorlin’s task was completed when the countess’s ambassador reached him, so he set out on his homeward way at once, and this time his silent friend had been eloquent and told him everything which had occurred during his absence.

He now knew that Boemund and Cordula had plighted their troth, what the faithful Biberli had done and suffered for him, and lastly—­even to the minutest detail—­the wonderful transformation in Eva.

When he had ridden forth he had hoped to learn to renounce her whom he loved with all the might of his fervid soul, and to bring himself to close his career as a soldier with this successful campaign; but whilst he destroyed castles and attacked the foe, former wishes were stilled, and a new desire and new convictions took their place.  He could not give up the profession of arms, which all who bore the name of Schorlin had practised from time immemorial, and to resign the love which united him to Eva was impossible.  She must become his, though she resembled an April day, and Biberli’s tales of the danger which threatened the husband from a sleep-walking wife returned more than once to his memory.

Yet what beautiful April days he had experienced, and though Eva might have many faults, the devout child, with her angel beauty, certainly did not lack the will to do what was right and pleasing to God.  When she was once his she should become so good that even his mother at home would approve his choice.

He had wholly renounced the idea of going into the monastery.  The Minorite Ignatius, whom Father Benedictus had sent after him that he might finish the work which the latter had begun, was a man who lacked neither intellect nor eloquence; but he did not possess the fiery enthusiasm and aristocratic confidence of the dead man.  Yet when the zealous monks, whom the prior of the Dominicans had despatched to complete Heinz’s conversion, opposed him, the former entered into such sharp and angry arguments with them that the young knight, who witnessed more than one of their quarrels, startled and repelled, soon held aloof from all three and told them that he had resolved to remain in the world, and his onerous office gave him no time to listen to their well-meant admonitions.

He was not created for the monastery.  If Heaven had vouchsafed him a miracle, it was done to preserve his life that—­as Eva desired—­he might fight to the last drop of his blood for the Church, his holy faith, and the beloved Emperor.  But if he remained in the world, Eva would do the same; they belonged to each other inseparably.  Why, he could not have explained, but the voice which constantly reiterated it could not lie.