mountains seemed like jealous barriers.  When once beyond St. Gotthard I felt less anxious, and as I rode down from Bellinzona to Lake Lugano, and the sparkling surface of the water beyond the city smiled at me like a blue eye, forgot my grief for a time, waved my hat, and sung a song.  In Bergamo I found my brother, alive, but enfeebled in mind and body, weak, and without any desire to take up the burden of life again.  He had been in good hands, and after a few weeks we were able to travel homeward—­ this time I went through beautiful Tyrol.  Louis’s strength daily increased, but the wings of his soul had been paralyzed by suffering.  Alas, for long years he had dug and carried heavy loads, with chains on his feet, beneath a broiling sun.  Chevalier von Brand could not long endure this hard fate, but Louis, while in Tunis, forgot both how to laugh and weep, and which of the two can be most easily spared?

“Even when he saw my mother again, he could not shed a tear, yet his whole body—­and surely his heart also—­trembled with emotion.  Now he lives quietly at the castle.  In the prime of manhood he is an old man, but he is beginning to accommodate himself to life, only he can’t bear the sight of a strange face.  I had a hard battle with him, for as the eldest son, the castle and estate, according to the law, belong to him, but he wanted to resign his rights and put me in his place.  Even when he had brought my mother over to his side, and my uncle and brothers and sisters tried to persuade me to yield to his wish, I remained resolute.  I would not touch what did not belong to me, and our youngest boy, Wolfgang, has grown up, and can fill my place wherever it is necessary.  When the entreaties and persuasions became too strong for me, I saddled my horse and went away again.  It was hard for my mother to let me go, but I had tasted the delight of travelling, and rode off as if to a wedding.  If I must be perfectly frank, I’ll confess that I resigned castle and estates like a troublesome restraint.  Free as the wind and clouds, I followed the same road over which I had ridden with Leonhard, for in your country a war after my own heart was going on, and my future fortune was to be based upon my sword.  In Cologne I enlisted under the banner of Louis of Nassau, and fought with him at Mook Heath till every one retreated.  My horse had fallen, my doublet was torn, there was little left save good spirits and the hope of better days.  These were soon found, for Captain Gensfort asked me to join the English troops.  I became his ensign, and at Alfen held out beside him till the last grain of powder was exhausted.  What happened there, you know.”

“And Captain Van der Laen told us,” said Peter, “that he owes his life to you.  You fought like a lion.”

“It was wild work enough at the fortifications, yet neither I nor my horse had a hair ruffled, and this time I even saved my knapsack and a full purse.  Fate, like mothers, loves troublesome children best, and therefore led me to you and your family, Herr Burgomaster.”