Agnes is the gorgeous mistress of the governor of the city in which Niklaus lives. She is tall, strong, blonde, and regal. Goldmund sees her, thinks she is the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. He manages to have an affair with her, but is captured in her rooms and sentenced to death. Cleverly, Agnes asks him not to betray her, and he obeys. Years after he escapes the gallows, Goldmund goes to see Agnes, hoping to renew their affair, but she now regards him as too old for her, and rejects him.
