In The Fire Of The Forge, Volume 2.

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IN THE FIRE OF THE FORGE

A ROMANCE OF OLD NUREMBERG

By Georg Ebers

Volume 2.

CHAPTER V.

As her father had ordered the servants not to disturb the young girls,
Els did not wake till the sun was high in the heavens. Eva's place at
her side was empty. She had already left the room. For the first time
it had been impossible to sleep even a few short moments, and when she
heard from the neighbouring cloister the ringing of the little bell that
summoned the nuns to prayers, she could stay in bed no longer.

Usually she liked to dress slowly, thinking meanwhile of many things
which stirred her soul. Sometimes while the maid or Els braided her hair
she could read a book of devotion which the abbess had given her. But
this morning she had carried the clothes she needed into the next room on
tiptoe, that she might not wake her sister, and urged Katterle, who
helped her dress, to hurry.

She longed to see her aunt at the convent. While kneeling at the prie-
dieu, she had reached the certainty that her patron saint had led Heinz
Schorlin to her. He was her knight and she his lady, so he must render
her obedience, and she would use it to estrange him from the vanity of
the world and make him a champion of the holy cause of the Church of
Christ, the victorious conqueror of her foes. Sky-blue, the Holy
Virgin's colour, should be hers, and thus his also, and every victory
gained by the knight with the sky-blue on his helmet, under St. Clare's
protection, would then be hers.

Heinz Schorlin was already one of the boldest and strongest knights; her
love must render him also one of the most godly. Yes, her love! If St.
Francis had not disdained to make a wolf his brother, why might she not
feel herself the loving sister of a youth who would obey her as a noble
falcon did his mistress, and whom she would teach to pursue the right
quarry? The abbess would not forbid such love, and the impulse that drew
her so strongly to the convent was the longing to know how her aunt would
receive her confession.

The night before when, after her conversation with Els, she began to
pray, she had feared that she had fallen into the snare of earthly love,
and dreaded the confession which she had to make to her aunt Kunigunde.
Now she found that it was no fleshly bond which united her to the knight.
Oh, no! As St. Francis had gone forth to console, to win souls for the
Lord, to bring peace and exhort to earnest labour in the service of the
Saviour, as his disciples had imitated him, and St. Clare had been
untiring in working, in his spirit, among women, she, too, would obey the
call which had come to her saint in Portiuncula, and prove herself for
the first time, according to the Scripture, "a fisher of souls."

Now she gladly anticipated the meeting; for though her sister did not
understand her, the abbess must know how to sympathise with what was
passing in her mind. This expectation was fulfilled; for as soon as she
was alone with her aunt she poured forth all her hopes and feelings
without reserve, eagerly and joyfully extolling her good fortune that,
through St. Clare, she had been enabled to find the noblest and most
valiant knight, that she might win him for the Holy War under her saint's
protection and to her honour.

The abbess, who knew women's hearts, had at first felt the same fear as
Els; but she soon changed her opinion, and thought that she might be
permitted to rejoice over the new emotion in her darling's breast.

No girl in love talked so openly and joyously of the conquest won, least
of all would her truthful, excitable niece, whom she had drawn into her
own path, speak thus of the man who disturbed her repose. No sensitive
girl, unfamiliar with the world and scarcely beyond childhood, would
decide with such steadfast firmness, so wholly free from every selfish
wish, the future of the man dearest to her heart. No, no! Eva had
already attained her new birth, and was not to be compared with other
girls She had already once reached that ecstatic rapture which followed
only a long absorption in God and an active sympathy with the deep human
love of the Saviour and the unspeakable sufferings which he had taken
upon himself. Little was to be feared from earthly love for one who
devoted herself with all the passion of her fervid nature to the divine
Bridegroom. Among the many whom Kunigunde received into the convent as
novices, she was most certainly "called." If she felt something which
resembled love for the young knight--and she made no concealment of it--
it was only the result of the sweet joy of winning for the Lord, the
faith, and her saint a soul which seemed to her worthy of such grace.

Dear, highly gifted child!

She, the abbess Kunigunde, was willing it should be so, and that Eva
should surpass herself. She should prove that genuine piety conquers
even the yearning of a quickly throbbing heart.

True, she must keep her eyes open in order to prevent Satan, who is
everywhere on the watch, from mingling in a game not wholly free from
peril. But, on the other hand, the abbess intended to help her beloved
niece to reap the reward of her piety.

It was scarcely to be doubted that Heinz Schorlin was fired with ardent
love for Eva; but, for that very reason, he would be ready to yield her
obedience, and therefore it was advisable to tell her exactly to what she
must persuade him. She must win him to join the Order of Malta, and if
the famous champion of Marchfield performed heroic deeds with the white
cross on his black mantle, or in war on his red tunic, he, the Emperor's
favourite, would be sure of a high position among the military members of
the order.

The young girl listened eagerly, but the elderly abbess herself became
excited while encouraging the young future "Sister" to her noble task.
The days when, with the inmates of the convent, she had prayed that the
Emperor Rudolph might fulfil the Pope's desire, and in a new crusade
again wrest the Holy Land from the infidels, came back to her memory, and
Heinz Schorlin, guided by the nuns of St. Clare, seemed the man to bring
the fulfilment of this old and cherished wish.

It appeared like a leading of the saints and a sign from God that Heinz
had been dubbed a knight, and commenced his glorious career at Lausanne
while the Emperor Rudolph pledged himself to a new crusade.

She detained Eva so long that dinner was over at the Ortlieb mansion, and
her impatient father would have sent for her had not the invalid mother
urged him to let her remain.

True, she longed to have a talk with her darling, who for the first time
in her life had attended a great entertainment, and doubtless it grieved
her to think that Eva did not feel the necessity of pouring out her heart
to her own mother rather than to any one else, and sharing with her all
the new emotions which undoubtedly had thrilled it; but she knew her
child, and would have considered it selfish to place any obstacle in the
pathway to eternal salvation of the elect whom God summoned with so loud
a voice. Formerly she would rather have seen the young girl, whose
charms were developing into such rare beauty, wedded to some good man;
but now she rejoiced in the idea that Eva was summoned to rule over the
nuns in the neighbouring cloister some day as abbess, in the place of her
sister-in-law Kunigunde. Her own days, she knew, were numbered, but
where could her child more surely find the happiness she desired for her
than with the beloved sisters of St. Clare, whose home she and her
husband had helped to build?

Els had concealed from her parents what she fancied she had discovered,
for any anxiety injured the invalid, and no one could anticipate how her
irritable father might receive the information of her fear. On the other
hand, she could confide her troubles without anxiety to Wolff, her
betrothed husband. He was wise, prudent, loved Eva like a sister, and in
exchanging thoughts with him she always discovered the right course to
pursue; but though she expected him so eagerly and confidently, he did
not come.

When, in the afternoon, Eva returned home, her whole manner expressed
such firm, cheerful composure that Els began to hope she might have been
mistaken. The undemonstrative yet tender affection with which she met
her mother, too, by no means harmonised with her fears.

How lovely the young girl looked as she sat on a low stool at the head of
the invalid's couch and, with her mother's emaciated hand clasped in
hers, told her all that she had seen and experienced the evening before!
To please the beloved sufferer, she dwelt longer on the description of
the gracious manner of the Emperor Rudolph and his sister to her and her
father, the conversation with which the Burgrave had honoured her, and
his son's invitation to dance. Then for the first time she mentioned
Heinz Schorlin, whom she had found a godly knight, and finally spoke
briefly of the distinguished foreign nobles and ladies whom he had
pointed out and named.

All this reminded the mother of former days and, in spite of the warning
of watchful Els not to talk too much, she did not cease questioning or
recalling the time when she herself attended such festivals, and as one
of the fairest maidens received much homage.

It had been a good day, for it was long since she had enjoyed so much
quiet in her own home. The von Montforts, she told Eva, had set off
early, with a great train of knights and servants, to ride to Radolzburg,
the castle of the Burgrave von Zollern. Her father thought they would
probably have a dance there, for the young sons of the Burgrave would act
as hosts.

Eva asked carelessly who rode with Cordula this time to submit to her
whims, but Els perceived by her sister's flushed cheeks and the tone of
her voice what she desired to know, and answered as if by accident that
Sir Heinz Schorlin certainly was not one of her companions, for he had
ridden through the Frauenthor that afternoon in the train of the Emperor
Rudolph and his Bohemian daughter-in-law.

Twilight was already beginning to gather, and Els could not see whether
this news afforded Eva pleasure or annoyance, for her mother had taken
too little heed of her weakness, and one of the attacks which the
physician so urgently ordered her to avoid by caution commenced.

Els and the convent Sister Renata, who helped her nurse the invalid, were
now completely absorbed in caring for her, but Eva turned away from the
beloved sufferer--her sensitive nature could not endure the sight of her
convulsions.

As soon as her mother again lay weak but quiet on the pillows which Els
had rearranged for her, Eva obeyed her entreaty to go away, and went to
her own chamber. When another attack drew her back to the invalid, a
sign from her sister as she reached the threshold bade her keep away from
the couch. Should it prove necessary, she whispered, she would call her.
If Wolff came, Eva was to tell him that she could not leave her mother,
but he must be sure to return early the next morning, as she had a great
deal to say to him.

Eva then went to her father, who was dressing to attend a banquet at the
house of Herr Berthold Vorchtel, the first Losunger--[Presiding Officer]
--in the Council, from which he would be loath to absent himself for the
very reason that his host's family had been hostile to him ever since the
rumour of the betrothal of Wolff Eysvogel, whom the Vorchtels had
regarded as their daughter Ursula's future husband.

Nevertheless, Herr Ernst would not have gone to the entertainment had his
wife's condition given cause for anxiety. But he was familiar with these
convulsions which, it is true, weakened the invalid, but produced no
other results; so he permitted Eva to help him put the last touches to
his dress, on which he lavished great care. Spick and span as if he were
just out of a bandbox, the elderly man, before leaving the house, went
once more to the sick-room, and Eva stood near as, after many questions
and requests, he whispered something to Els which she did not hear. With
excited curiosity she asked what he had said so secretly, but he only
answered hurriedly, "The name of the Man in the Moon's dog," kissed her
cheek, and ran downstairs.

At the foot he again turned to Eva and told her to send for him if her
mother should grow worse, for these entertainments at the Vorchtels
usually lasted a long time.

"Will the Eysvogels be there too?" asked the girl.

"Who knows," replied her father. "I shall be glad if Wolff comes."

The tone in which he uttered the name of his future son-in-law distinctly
showed how little he desired to meet any other member of the family, and
Eva said sympathisingly, "Then I hope you will have an opportunity to
remember me to Wolff."

"Shall I say nothing to Ursel?" asked the father, pressing a good-night
kiss upon the young girl's forehead.

"She would not care for it," was the reply. "It cannot be easy to forget
a man like Wolff."

"I wish he had stuck to Ursel, and let Els alone," her father answered
angrily. "It would have been better for both."

"Why, father," interrupted Eva reproachfully, "do not our lovers seem
really created for each other?"

"If the Eysvogels were only of the same opinion," exclaimed Ernst
Ortlieb, shrugging his shoulders with a faint sigh. "Whoever marries,
child, weds not only a man or a woman; all their kindred, unhappily, must
be taken into the bargain. However, Els did not lack earnest warning.
When your time comes, girl, your father will be more careful."

Smiling tenderly, he passed his hand over the little cap which covered
her thick, fair hair, and went out.

Eva returned to her room and sat down at the spinning-wheel in the bow
window, where Katterle had just drawn the curtains closely and lighted
the hanging lamp. But the distaff remained untouched, and her thoughts
wandered swiftly to the evening before and the ball at the Town Hall.
Heinz Schorlin's image rose more and more distinctly before her mind, and
this pleased her, for she fancied that he wore on his helm the blue
favour which she had chosen, and it led her to consider against what foe
she should first send him in the service of his lady and the Holy Church.

CHAPTER VI.

Eva had gazed into vacancy a long time, and beheld a succession of
pleasing pictures, in every one of which, Heinz Schorlin appeared. Once,
in imagination, she placed a wreath on his helmet after a great victory
over the infidels.

Why should not this vision become a reality? Doubtless it owed its
origin to a memory, for Wolff Eysvogel had been fired with love for her
sister while Els was winding laurel around his helmet.

After the Honourable Council had resolved that the youths belonging to
noble families, who had fought in the battle of Marchfield and returned
victorious, should be adorned with wreaths by the maidens of their
choice, Fate had appointed her sister to crown Eysvogel.

At that time Wolff had but recently recovered from the severe wounds with
which he had returned from the campaign. But while he knelt before Els
and his eyes met hers, love had overmastered him so swiftly and
powerfully, that at the end of a few days he determined to woo her.

Meanwhile his own family resolutely opposed his choice. The father
declared that he had made an agreement with Berthold Vorchtel to marry
him to his daughter Ursula, and withdrawal on his son's part would
embarrass him. His grandmother, the arrogant old Countess Rotterbach,
agreed with him, and declared that Wolff ought to wed no one except a
lady of the most aristocratic birth or an heiress like Ursula. Her
daughter Rosalinde Eysvogel, as usual, was the echo of her mother.

Herr Ernst Ortlieb, too, would far rather have seen his Els marry into
another home; but Wolff himself was a young man of such faultless honour,
and the bride he had chosen was so eager to become his, that he deemed it
a duty to forget the aversion inspired by the suitor's family.

As for Wolff, he had so firmly persisted in his resolve that his parents
at last permitted him to ask for his darling's hand, but his father had
made it a condition that the betrothal, on account of the youth of the
lovers, should not be announced till after Wolff had returned from Milan,
where he was to finish the studies commenced in Venice. True, everyone
had supposed that they were completed long ago, but Eysvogel senior
insisted upon his demand, and afterwards succeeded in deferring the
announcement of the betrothal, until the resolute persistence of Wolff,
who meanwhile had entered the great commercial house, and the wish of his
own aged mother, a sensible woman, who from the first had approved her
grandson's choice and to whom Herr Casper was obliged to show a certain
degree of consideration, compelled him to give it publicity.

A few days later Herr Casper's brother died, and soon after his estimable
old mother. He used these events as a pretext for longer delay, saying
that both he and his wife needed at least six months' interval ere they
could forget their mourning in a gay wedding festival. Besides, he would
prefer not to have the marriage take place until after Wolff's election
to the Council, which, in all probability, would occur after Walpurgis of
the coming year.

Ernst Ortlieb had sullenly submitted to all this. Nothing but his love
for his child and respect for Herr Casper's dead mother, who had taken
Els to her heart like a beloved granddaughter, would have enabled him
to conquer his hasty temper in his negotiations with the man whom he
detested in his inmost soul, and not hurl back the consent so reluctantly
granted to his son.

The friends who knew him admired the strength of will with which he
governed his impetuous nature in this transaction. Some asserted that
secret obligations compelled him to yield to the rich Eysvogel; for
though the Ortlieb mercantile house was reputed wealthy, the business
prudence of its head resulted in smaller profits, and people had not
forgotten that it had suffered heavy losses during the terrible period of
despotism which had preceded the Emperor Rudolph's accession to the
throne.

The insecurity of the high-roads had injured every merchant, but in
trying to find some explanation for Herr Ortlieb's submission the attacks
which had cost him one and another train of wares were regarded as
specially disastrous.

Finally, the dowry which Els was to bring bore no comparison to the large
sums Ernst Ortlieb had lavished upon the erection of the St. Clare
Convent, and hence it was inferred that the wealth of the firm had
sustained considerable losses. This found ready credence, owing to the
retired life led by the Ortliebs,--whose house had formerly been one of
the most hospitable in the city,--ever since the wife had become an
invalid and Eva had grown up with an aversion to the world. Few took
the trouble to inquire into the very apparent causes for the change.

Yet this view of the matter was opposed by many-nay, when the
conversation turned upon these subjects, Herr Berthold Vorchtel, perhaps
the richest and most distinguished man in Nuremberg, who rented the
imperial taxes, made comments from which, had it not been so difficult to
believe, people might have inferred that Casper Eysvogel was indebted to
Ernst Ortlieb rather than the latter to him.

Yet the cautious, prudent man never explained the foundation of his
opinion, for he very rarely mentioned either of the two firms; yet prior
to the battle of Marchfield he had believed that his own daughter Ursula
and Wolff Eysvogel would sooner or later wed. Herr Casper, the young
man's father, had strengthened this expectation. He himself and his wife
esteemed Wolff, and his "Ursel" had shown plainly enough that she
preferred him to the other friends of her elder brother Ulrich.

When he returned home the two met like brother and sister, and the
parents of Ursula Vorchtel had expected Wolff's proposal until the day
on which the wreaths were bestowed had made them poorer by a favourite
wish and destroyed the fairest hope of their daughter Ursula.

The worthy merchant, it is true, deemed love a beautiful thing, but in
Nuremberg it was the parents who chose wives and husbands for their sons
and daughters; yet, after marriage, love took possession of the newly
wedded pair. A transgression of this ancient custom was very rare, and
even though Wolff's heart was fired with love for Els Ortlieb, his
father, Herr Vorchtel thought, should have refused his consent to the
betrothal, especially as he had already treated Ursel as his future
daughter. Some compulsion must have been imposed upon him when he
permitted his son to choose a wife other than the one selected.

But what could render one merchant dependent upon another except business
obligations?--and Berthold Vorchtel was sharp-sighted. He knew the heavy
draft which Herr Casper had made upon the confidence reposed in the old
firm, and thought he had perceived that the great splendour displayed by
the women of the Eysvogel family, the liberality with which Herr Casper
had aided his impoverished noble relatives, and the lavish expenditure of
his son-in-law, the debt-laden Sir Seitz Siebenburg, drew too heavily
upon the revenues of the ancient house.

Even now Casper Eysvogel's whole conduct proved how unwelcome was his
son's choice. To him, Ursula's father, he still intimated on many an
occasion that he had by no means resigned every hope of becoming, through
his son, more nearly allied to his family, for a betrothal was not a
wedding.

Berthold Vorchtel, however, was not the man to enter into such double-
dealing, although he saw plainly enough how matters stood with his poor
child. She had confided her feelings to no one; yet, in spite of
Ursula's reserved nature, even a stranger could perceive that something
clouded her happiness. Besides, she had persistently refused the
distinguished suitors who sought the wealthy Herr Berthold's pretty
daughter, and only very recently had promised her parents, of her own
free will, to give up her opposition to marriage.

Ever since the betrothal, to the sincere sorrow of Els, she had
studiously avoided Wolff's future bride, who had been one of her dearest
friends; and Ulrich, Herr Vorchtel's oldest son, took his sister's part,
and at every opportunity showed Wolff--who from a child, and also in the
battle of Marchfield, had been a favourite comrade--that he bore him a
grudge, and considered his betrothal to any one except Ursula an act of
shameful perfidy.

The fair-minded father did not approve of his son's conduct, for his wife
had learned from her daughter that Wolff had never spoken to her of love,
or promised marriage.

Therefore, whenever Herr Berthold Vorchtel met Els's father--and this
often happened in the Council--he treated him with marked respect, and
when there was an entertainment in his house sent him an invitation, as
in former years, which Ernst Urtlieb accepted, unless something of
importance prevented.

But though the elder Vorchtel was powerless to change his children's
conduct, he never wearied of representing to his son how unjust and
dangerous were the attacks with which, on every occasion, he irritated
Wolff, whose strength and skill in fencing were almost unequalled in
Nuremberg. In fact, the latter would long since have challenged his
former friend had he not been so conscious of his own superiority, and
shrunk from the thought of bringing fresh sorrow upon Ursula and her
parents, whom he still remembered with friendly regard.

Eva was fond of her future brother-in-law, and it had not escaped her
notice that of late something troubled him.

What was it?

She thoughtfully gave the wheel a push, and as it turned swiftly she
remembered the Swiss dance the evening before, and suddenly clenched her
small right hand and dealt the palm of her left a light blow.

She fancied that she had discovered the cause of Wolff's depression, for
she again saw distinctly before her his sister Isabella's husband, Sir
Seitz Siebenburg, as he swung Countess Cordula around so recklessly that
her skirt, adorned with glittering jewels, fluttered far out from her
figure. In the room adjacent to the hall he had flung himself upon his
knees before the countess, and Eva fancied she again beheld his big, red
face, with its long, thick, yellow mustache, whose ends projected on both
sides in a fashion worn by few men of his rank. The expression of the
watery blue eyes, with which he stared Cordula in the face, were those of
a drunkard.

To-day he had followed her to the Kadolzburg, and probably meant to spend
the night there. So Wolff had ample reason to be anxious about his
sister and her peace of mind. That must be it!

Perhaps he would yet come that evening, to give Els at least a greeting
from the street. How late was it?

She hastily tried to draw the curtains aside from the window, but this
was not accomplished as quickly as she expected--they had been care fully
fastened with pins. Eva noticed it, and suddenly remembered her father's
whispered words to Els.

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