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"Treachery!" cried Von Dessauer and I together; "you are villains both. He is wearing a shirt of mail!" And the old man rushed forward with his sword bare in his hand and all a-tremble with indignation. I heard the shrill "purl" of a silver call, and, turning me about, there was the gambler Cannstadt with a whistle at his lips.
In Baden, the volunteer corps was deprived of its horses and sent home on foot. In Wurtemberg, King Frederick refused to allow the foreign troops and convoys a passage along the highroad through Cannstadt and Ludwigsburg, and forbade the attendance of civil surgeons upon the wounded belonging to the allied army.
And lo! there before me, already comfortably a-swing, were our late foes, the two bravoes, and in the middle the dead Cannstadt tucked up beside them, for all his five hundred years of ancestry stamped traitor and coward by the Miller's Son, who minded none of these things, but understood a true man when he met him.
I expected nothing further of him than a little assistance in looking for a quiet lodging for the coming summer at Cannstadt or some such place near Stuttgart. I wanted, above all, to finish the first act of the Meistersinger with all possible despatch, so as to send Schott part of the manuscript at last.
Then the Count presented his, as the custom then was among us of the North: "His Excellency Friedrich, Count of Cannstadt, Hereditary Cup-bearer of the Wolfmark."
Our sojourn at Cannstadt exhausted the money we got for our journeys from Augsburg and Ulm, and we were compelled, much against our will, to accept an offer of service with one Master Franz, a silk merchant of Basel, who was about to journey homeward. His caravan would pass through the Black Forest; perhaps the most dangerous country in Europe for travellers.
Duke Frederick appointed commissioners and fixed Cannstadt as the place of meeting. Whatever Duke Charles's reasons for making the offer of marriage may have been, they probably ceased to exist soon afterward, for he never even replied to Duke Frederick's acceptance. For months Castle Hapsburg was in a ferment of expectancy.
The seconds bowed first to each other, and then to their opposing principals. In those days, duels were mostly fought with the combatants' own swords. And now Von Dessauer took my blade, and, going forward courteously, handed the hilt to Count Cannstadt, receiving that of Von Reuss in return. The seconds then compared the lengths, and found almost half an inch in favor of my opponent.
He turned to receive me, but not quite quick enough, for I got him two inches below where I had pinked his principal's ring-mail, and that made all the difference. Cannstadt did not immediately drop his sword. But his limbs weakened, and he fell forward without a sound.
After breakfast Max and I were taken to the great hall, where we found Castleman standing before the ducal throne, speaking to Charles. The burgher turned toward us, and as we approached I heard him say: "My lord, these men are not spies." "Who are they?" demanded the duke. Castleman gave our names and told the story of our meeting at Basel, after we had escorted Merchant Franz from Cannstadt.
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