“Heinz Schorlin!” cried Eva.  “He must be informed at once, without delay.”

“Certainly,” replied Herr Pfinzing quietly.  “And since, as the uncle and godfather of Jungfrau Eva, who would have gladly undertaken the ride, I could not order her horse to be saddled, I sent some one else whose heart also will point out the way.”

“Uncle!” Eva eagerly interrupted, raising her clasped hands in gratitude.  “But whom can you——­”

Here she hesitated, then suddenly exclaimed as if sure of her point:  “Oh, I know the messenger, Countess von Montfort——­”

“You’ve aimed too high,” replied Herr Berthold smiling, “yet I think the choice was no worse.  Your maid, child, the poor fellow’s sweetheart.”

Frau Christine and Eva, in the same breath, uttered an exclamation of surprise and assent, and both asked how the magistrate had chanced to select her.

A waggon from Schwabach, which happened opportunely to be on its way to Siebenburg, had brought Biberli to Schweinau on its homeward trip, just before the magistrate and his wife reached the hospital.

Katterle had been present when the tortured man was brought out and laid upon his couch of straw.

She did not recognise him until, with pathetic reproach, he called her by name and, horrified by the spectacle he presented, she fell upon her knees.  But the couch at her side had already been prepared for him, and she did not need to rise again in order to stroke him, comfort him, and promise not to desert him, even if he should be a miserable cripple for life.

When the magistrate approached the couple, to offer Biberli his friendly aid, the latter faltered that he had only one desire—­to see his beloved master once more.  Besides, his case was hopeless unless the knight obtained a pardon for him from the Emperor Rudolph, for his persecutors would not cease their pursuit of him, and he could not endure the torture a second time.

Here the magistrate paused in his narrative, for he thought of an incident which he was reluctant to mention in the presence of the Dominican who had administered the sacrament to the suffering widow and now joined the group of listeners.  This was, that a member of the latter’s order had approached Biberli and exhorted him not to fear another examination by torture, for the Lord gave the innocent strength to maintain the truth even under the keenest suffering.  A peculiar smile hovered around the lips of the poor tortured fellow, which Herr Berthold fully understood; for the brave servitor had by no means stuck to the truth during the pangs inflicted upon him.

“Oh, my dear ones,” Herr Pfinzing continued, “a harder heart than mine would have been touched by what I saw and heard beside that couch of straw when I was left alone with poor Biberli and his sweetheart.  If you could have seen how Katterle threw herself upon her lover after I had told her that even the most agonizing torture could not force him to confirm the charge which had been brought against her!  Rarely does one mortal pour forth such a flood of ardent gratitude upon another; and when Biberli repeated that his dear master’s help would be necessary to protect her and him from another examination, she offered to go in search of him at once, notwithstanding the rain and the darkness.