“You paint in vivid colors.”

But they are true, and they all suit the Junker; though to be sure he need not keep his property for sons, since his wife gave him none.  He met her at court in Brussels, and she came from Parma.”

“Did you know her?”

“She died before I came to the padrona’s house.  The two young ladies grew up without a mother.  You have heard that their father would even attack them, yet he doubtless loved them and would never resolve to place them in a convent.  True, he often felt—­at least he freely admitted it in conversations with her excellenza—­that there were more suitable places for young girls than his castle, where matters went badly enough, and so he at last sent his oldest daughter to us.  My mistress usually could not endure the society of young girls, but Fraulein Anna was one of her nearest relatives, and I know she invited her of her own accord.  I can still see in memory the signorina at sixteen; a sweeter creature, Herr Wilhelm, my eyes have never beheld before or since, and yet she never remained the same.  I have seen her as soft as Flemish velvet, but at other times she could rage like a November storm in your country.  She was always beautiful as a rose and, as her mother’s old cameriera—­she was a native of Lugano—­had brought her up, and the priest who taught her came from Pisa and was acknowledged to be an excellent musician, she spoke my language like a child of Tuscany and was perfectly familiar with music.  You have doubtless heard her singing, her harp and lute-playing, but you should know that all the ladies of the Hoogstraten family, with the exception of my mistress, possess a special talent for your art.  In summer we lived in the beautiful country-house, that was torn down before the siege by your friends—­with little justice I think.  Many a stately guest rode out to visit us.  We kept open house, and where there is a good table and a beautiful young lady like our signorina, the gallants are not far off.  Among them was a very aristocratic gentleman of middle age, the Marquis d’Avennes, whom her excellenza had expressly invited.  We had never received any prince with so much attention; but this was a matter of course, for his mother was a relative of her excellenza.  You must know that my mistress; on her mother’s side, is descended from a family in Normandy.  The Marquis d’Avennes was certainly an elegant cavalier, but rather dainty than manly.  He was soon madly in love with Fraulein Anna, and asked in due form for her hand.  Her excellenza favored the match, and the father said simply:  ‘You will take him!’ He would listen to no opposition.  Other gentlemen don’t consult their daughters when a suitable lover appears.  So the signorina became the marquis’s betrothed wife, but the padrona said firmly that her niece was too young to be married.  She induced Junker Van Hoogstraten, whom she held as firmly as a farrier holds a filly, to defer the wedding until Easter.  The outfit