The portly physician rubbed his eyes angrily; but as soon as he learned for whom he was wanted and how serious was the injury, he showed the most praiseworthy haste and, with the attendant who carried his surgical instruments and medicines, was standing beside the sufferer’s couch almost as soon as the wounded man.

The result of his examination was anything but gratifying.

He would gladly do all that his skill would permit for the knight, but in so serious a fracture of the skull only the special mercy of Heaven could preserve life.

Dr. Doll, the best physician in Ratisbon, assisted him with the bandaging, and old Ursel had suddenly recovered her lost strength.

When the maid-servant asked timidly if she should not call Wawerl down from upstairs, she shrugged her shoulders with a movement which the one-eyed girl understood, and which signified anything but acceptance of the proposal.

Yet Barbara would perhaps have rendered most efficacious assistance.

True, she was still sleeping the sound slumber of wearied youth.  Directly after her return from her imperial lover, she had gone to rest in the little chamber behind the bow-windowed room.  It looked out upon the courtyard, and was protected from the noise of the street.  When she heard sounds in the house, she thought that old Ursel was ill and they were summoning the doctor.  For a moment she felt an impulse to rise and go downstairs, but she did not like to leave her warm bed, and Wolf would manage without her.  She had always lacked patience to wait upon the sick, and Ursel had grown so harsh and disagreeable since she joined the Protestants.  Finally, Barbara had brought home exquisite recollections of her illustrious lover, which must not be clouded by the suffering of the old woman, whom, besides, she could rarely please.

She did not learn what had happened until she went to mass, and then it weighed heavily upon her heart that she had not given Wolf her assistance, especially as she suspected, with strange certainty, that she herself was connected with this terrible misfortune.

Now—­ah, how gladly!—­she would have helped Ursel with the nursing, but she forbade her to enter the sick-room.  The most absolute quiet must reign there.  No one was permitted to cross the threshold except herself and an elderly nun, whom the Clares had sent for the sake of the wounded man’s dead mother.  A Dominican also soon came, whom the old woman could not shut out because he was despatched by the Queen of Hungary, and the violinist Massi, whom she gladly welcomed as a good friend of her Wolf.  He proved himself loyal, and devoted every leisure hour of the night to the sufferer.  Barbara knocked at the door very often, but Ursel persisted in refusing admittance.  She knew that the girl had rejected her darling’s proposal, and it was a satisfaction to her when, toward noon, the former told her that she was about to leave the house to go to Prebrunn.