While he searched she held the light for him, shaking her head over the disorder among the articles where he rummaged.

Ulrich had now reached the bottom of the chest.  Here he found a valuable necklace, booty which Zorrillo had given his companion for use in case of need.  This should be Ruth’s.  Close beside it lay a small package, tied with rose-pink ribbon, containing a tiny infant’s shirt, a gay doll, and a slender gold circlet; her wedding-ring!  The date showed that it had been given to her by his father, and the shirt and doll were mementos of him, her darling—­of himself.

He gazed at them, changing them from one hand to the other, till suddenly his heart overflowed, and without heeding Frau Geel, who was watching him, he wept softly, exclaiming:  “Mother, dear mother!”

A light hand touched his shoulder, and a woman’s kind voice said:  “Poor fellow, poor fellow!  Yes, she was a dear little thing, and a mother, a mother—­that is enough!”

The Eletto nodded assent with tearful eyes, and when she again gently repeated in a tone of sincere sympathy, her “poor fellow!” it sounded sweeter, than the loudest homage that had ever been offered to his fame and power.

CHAPTER XXIX.

The next morning while Ulrich was packing his luggage, assisted by his servant, the sound of drums and fifes, bursts of military music and loud cheers were heard in the street, and going to the window, he saw the whole body of mutineers drawn up in the best order.

The companies stood in close ranks before his house, impetuous shouts and bursts of music made the windows rattle, and now the officers pressed into his room, holding out their swords, vowing fealty unto death, and entreating him to remain their commander.

He now perceived, that power cannot be thrown aside like a worthless thing.  His tortured heart was stirred with deep emotion, and the drooping wings of ambition unfolded with fresh energy.  He reproached, raged, but yielded; and when Ortis on his knees, offered him the commander’s baton, he accepted it.

Ulrich was again Eletto, but this need not prevent his seeing his father and Ruth once more, so he declared that he would retain his office, but should be obliged to ride to Antwerp that day, secretly inform the officers of the conspiracy against the city, and the necessity of negotiating with the commandant, that their share of the rich prize might not be lost.

What many had suspected and hoped was now to become reality.  Their Eletto was no idle man!  When Navarrete appeared at noon in front of the troops with his own work, the standard, in his hand, he was received with shouts of joy, and no one murmured, though many recognized in the Madonna’s countenance the features of the murdered sibyl.

Two days later Ulrich, full of eager expectation, rode into Antwerp, carrying in his portmanteau the mementos he had taken from his mother’s chest, while in imagination he beheld his father’s face, the smithy at Richtberg, the green forest, the mountains of his home, the Costas’ house, and his little playfellow.  Would he really be permitted to lean on his father’s broad breast once more?