Then she went on to tell me in full all that had befallen my cousin until he had gone forth to wander.  When they had parted in wrath, he had written to her from the town to say that if she were steadfast in her displeasure he should seek a new home for himself and his sweetheart in a far country; and she had sent him a letter to tell him that her arms were ever open to receive him, but that rather than suffer the only son and heir of the old and noble race of Waldstromer to throw himself away on a craftsman’s daughter, she would never more set eyes on him whom she loved with all her heart.  Never more, and she swore it by the Saviour’s wounds with the crucifix in her hand, should his parents’ doors be opened to him unless he gave up the coppersmith’s daughter and besought his mother’s pardon.

And now the sick old woman bewailed her stern hardness and her over-hasty oath with bitter tears; Gotz had been faithful to his Gertrude in despite of her letter, and when, three years later, the tidings reached him that his sweetheart had pined away for grief and longing, and departed this life with his name on her lips, he had written in the wild anguish of his young soul that, now Gertrude was dead, he had nought more to crave of his parents; and that whereas his mother had sworn with her hand on the image of the Saviour never to open her doors to him till he had renounced his sweet, pure love, he now made an oath not less solemn and binding, by the image of the Crucified Christ, that he would never turn homewards till she bid him thither of her own free will, and owned that she repented her of that innocent maid’s early death, whereas there was not her like among all the noble maidens of Nuremberg, whatever their names might be.

This letter I read myself, and I plainly saw that these twain had sadly marred their best joy in life by over-hasty ire.  Albeit, I knew full well how stubborn a spirit was Aunt Jacoba’s, I nevertheless strove to move her to send a letter to her son bidding him home; yet she would not, though she bewailed herself sorely.

“Only one thing of those he requires of me can I in all truth grant him,” quoth she.  “If you find him, you may tell him that his mother sends her fondest blessing, and assure him of my heart’s deepest devotion; nay, and let him understand that I am pining with longing for him, and that I obey his will inasmuch as that I truly mourn the death of his beloved; for that is verily the truth, the Virgin and the Saints be my witness.  Yet I may not and I will not open my doors to him till he has craved my forgiveness, and if I did so he must think of his own mother as a perjured woman.”

Hereupon I showed her—­and my eyes overflowed—­that his oath stood forth as against her oath, and that one was as weighty as the other in the sight of the Most High.

“Set aside that cruel vow, my dear aunt,” cried I, “I will make any pilgrimage with you, and I know full well that no penance will seem overhard to you.”