"Why, it is said you and Queen Margaret are urging this old fiddling King René to yield up his territories to Charles, and to disown Ferrand in his claim upon Lorraine. And the Duke of Lorraine sent a man that you know well--that is, you do not know _him_, but you know some of his family, and he knows more of you than you wot--to put a spoke in your wheel, and prevent your getting for Charles the county of Provence, or preventing Ferrand being troubled or traversed in his natural rights over Lorraine." "On my word, Sigismund, I cannot comprehend you," said Arthur. "Well," replied the Swiss, "my lot is a hard one. All our house say that I can comprehend nothing, and I shall be next told that nobody can comprehend me.--Well, in plain language, I mean my uncle, Count Albert, as he calls himself, of Geierstein--my father's brother." "Anne of Geierstein's father!" echoed Arthur. "Ay, truly; I thought we should find some mark to make you know him by." "But I never saw him." "Ay, but you have, though--An able man he is, and knows more of every man's business than the man does himself. Oh! it was not for nothing that he married the daughter of a Salamander!" "Pshaw, Sigismund, how can you believe that nonsense?" answered Arthur. "Rudolph told me you were as much bewildered as I was that night at Graffs-lust," answered the Swiss. "If I were so, I was the greater ass for my pains," answered Arthur. "Well, but this uncle of mine has got some of the old conjuring books from the library at Arnheim, and they say he can pass from place to place with more than mortal speed; and that he is helped in his designs by mightier counsellors than mere men. Always, however, though so able and highly endowed, his gifts, whether coming from a lawful or unlawful quarter, bring him no abiding advantage. He is eternally plunged into strife and danger." "I know few particulars of his life," said Arthur, disguising as much as he could his anxiety to hear more of him; "but I have heard that he left Switzerland to join the Emperor."