Barbara Blomberg | Page 6

gaily, "your Majesty will present the
completed deed for the treasurer's action. But now I most humbly
entreat you to dismiss me. I must inform the quartermasters at once,
and look after the matter myself if your Majesty's costly magic pills are
not to be spoiled by this wet April weather. Besides, many of the
musicians are not the strongest of men."
Bowing as he spoke, he prepared to take leave of the Queen, but she
detained him with the remark:
"Our invitation went to Sir Wolf Hartschwert also. He is a native of
Ratisbon, and can aid you and the quartermasters in assigning
lodgings."
"A fresh proof of the wise caution of my august mistress," replied
Quijada. "If your Majesty will permit, I should like to talk with my

royal patroness about this man shortly. I have something in my mind
concerning him which can not be easily explained in a few words,
especially as I know that the modest, trustworthy fellow----"
"If what you have in view is for his benefit," the Queen eagerly
interrupted, "it is granted in advance."
The promise reached Quijada just as he gained the threshold; ere he
crossed it, Queen Mary called to him again, saying frankly: "I will not
let you go so, Luis! You are an honest man, and I am ashamed to
deceive you. The cure of his Majesty's melancholy is my principal
object, it is true, but one half the expense of this medicine ought to be
credited to me; for--but do not tell the treasurer--for it will afford me
relief also. I can endure these rooms no longer. The forest is putting
forth its first green leafage. The birds are returning. Red deer are plenty
in the woods along the Danube. I must get out of doors into the open air.
As matters are now, I could not leave his Majesty; but when the band
and the boy choir are at his disposal, they will dispel his melancholy
moods, and I can venture later to leave him to you and Malfalconnet,
whose wit will be freshly seasoned by the payment of his debts. O Luis!
if only I can get out of doors! Meanwhile, may music do for my
imperial brother what we anticipate! And one thing more: Take Master
Adrian with you. I released him from attendance upon the Emperor
until midnight. It was no easy matter. When you have provided the
favourites of Apollo with lodgings, come to me again, however late the
hour may be. Sir Wolf Hartschwert must call early to-morrow morning.
The nuncio brought some new songs from Rome. The music is too high
for my voice, and the knight understands how to transpose the notes for
me better than even the leader of the choir, Appenzelder."
CHAPTER II.
The April sun, ere it sank to rest, had won the victory and kindly dried
the garments of the horsemen who were approaching Ratisbon by the
Nuremberg road.
A young man who had ridden forward in advance of the great train of

travellers behind him checked his steed above the village of Kneiting,
just where the highway descended in many a curve to the valley of the
Danube, and gazed at the landscape whose green spring leafage,
freshened by rain, appeared before him.
His heart throbbed faster, and he thought that he had seen no fairer
prospect in all the wide tract of earth over which he had wandered
during the past five years. Below him were green meadows and fields,
pleasant villages, and the clear, full current of the Danube, along whose
left bank extended a beautifully formed mountain chain, whose
declivity toward the river presented a rich variety to the eye, for
sometimes it was clothed in budding groves, sometimes displayed
picturesque bare cliffs, and again vineyards in which labourers were
working. From the farthest distance the steeples of Ratisbon offered the
first greeting to the resting horseman.
What a wealth of memories this pleasant landscape awoke in the mind
of the returning traveller! How often he had walked through these
charming valleys, climbed these heights, stopped in these villages! It
was difficult for him to turn from this view, but he let his bay horse
have its way when the companion whom he had left behind overtook
him here, and the animal followed the other's black Brabant steed, with
which it had long been on familiar terms. He rode slowly at his friend's
side into the valley.
Both silently feasted their eyes upon the scene opening with increasing
magnificence before them.
As they reached the village of Winzer, the victorious sun was
approaching the western horizon, and diffused over it a fan of golden
rays. The gray cloud bank above, which a light breeze was driving
before it, was bordered with golden edges.