He involuntarily seized the saddlebag which contained the handsomest gift he had bought in Brussels for the person who had drawn him back to Ratisbon with a stronger power of attraction than anything else.  If all went well, that very day, perhaps, he might have the right to call her his own.

These visions of the future aroused so joyous a feeling in his young soul that Massi, the violinist, read in his by no means mobile features what was passing in his mind.  His cheery “Well, Sir Knight!” awakened his ever-courteous colleague and travelling companion from his dream, and, when the latter started and turned toward him, Alassi gaily continued:  “To see his home and his family again does, indeed, make any man glad!  The sight of yonder shining steeples and roofs seems to make your heart laugh, Sir Wolf, and, by Our Lady, you have good reason to bestow one or more candles upon her, for, besides other delightful things, a goodly heritage is awaiting you in Ratisbon.”

Here he paused, for the sunny radiance vanished simultaneously from the sky and from his companion’s face.  The violinist, as if in apology, added:  “Some trouble always precedes an inheritance, and who knows whether, in your case also, rumour did not follow the evil custom of lying or making a mountain out of a molehill?”

Wolf Hartschwert slightly shrugged his shoulders and calmly answered: 

“It is all true about the heritage, Massi, and also the trouble, but it is unpleasant to hear you, too, call me ‘Sir.’  Let it drop for the future, if we are to be intimate.  To others I shall, of course, be the knight or cavalier.  You know what the title procures for a man, though your saying—­

              ’Knightly Knightly rank with lack of land
               More care than joy hath at command,’

is but too true.  As for the heritage, an old friend has really named me in his will, but you must not expect that it is a large bequest.  The man who left it to me was a plain person of moderate property, and I myself shall not learn until the next few days what I am to receive in addition to his modest house.”

“The more it is, the more cordially I shall congratulate you,” cried the violinist, and then looked back toward the other travellers.

Wolf did the same, and turned his horse.  If he did not urge on the loiterers the gate, which was closed at nightfall, would need to be opened for them, for the five troopers who acted as escort had deemed their duty done when Winzer was reached, and made themselves comfortable in the excellent tavern there.

The carters had used the lash stoutly, yet it had been no easy matter to advance rapidly.  The rain had softened the road, and the horses and beasts of burden were sorely wearied by the long trip from Brussels to Ratisbon, which had been made in hurried days’ journeys.  The train of horsemen and wagons stretched almost beyond the range of vision, for it comprised the whole world-renowned orchestra of the Emperor Charles, and Queen Mary’s boy choir.