German fiction -- Translations into English; Holy Roman Empire -- History -- Charles V, 1519-1556 -- Fiction
The last hour of the drive had passed with the speed of an arrow, both to
her and her travelling companion, and just as they were close to the left
bank of the Isar, which was flowing toward them, Gombert's old servant
turned and, pointing before him with his outstretched hand, exclaimed,
"Here we are in Landshut!" she perceived that the goal of their journey
was gained.
Barbara was familiar with this flourishing place, above which proudly
towered the Trausnitzburg, for here lived her uncle Wolfgang Lorberer,
who had married her mother's sister, and was a member of the city
Council. Two years before she had spent a whole month as a guest in his
wealthy household, and she intended now to seek shelter there again.
Fran Martha had invited her more than once to come soon, and meanwhile
her two young cousins had grown up.
Two arms of the Isar lay before her, and between them the island of
Zweibrucken.
Before the coach rolled across the first, Barbara gathered her luggage
together and told the postboy where he was to drive. He knew the
handsome Lorberer house, and touched his cap when he heard its owner's
name. Barbara was glad to be brought to her relatives by the famous
musician; she did not wish to appear as though she had dropped from the
clouds in the house of the aunt who was the opposite of her dead mother,
a somewhat narrow-minded, prudish woman, of whom she secretly stood in
awe.
CHAPTER VII.
Progress was very slow, for many peasants and hogs were coming toward
them from the Schweinemarkt at their right.
The gate was on the second bridge, and here the carriage was compelled to
stop on account of paying the toll. But it could not have advanced in
any case; a considerable number of vehicles and human beings choked the
space before and beyond the gate. Horsemen of all sorts, wagons of
regiments marching in and out, freight vans and country carts, soldiers,
male and female citizens, peasants and peasant women, monks, travelling
journeymen, and vagrants impeded their progress, and it required a long
time ere the travelling carriage could finally pass the gate and reach
the end of the bridge.
There the crowd between it, the Hospital of the Holy Ghost, and the
church belonging to it seemed absolutely impenetrable. The vehicle was
forced to stop, and Gombert stood up and overlooked the motley throng
surrounding it.
Barbara had also risen from her seat, pointed out to her companion one
noteworthy object after another, and finally a handsome sedan chair which
rested on the ground beside the hospital.
"His Majesty's property," she said eagerly; "I know it well."
Here she hesitated and turned pale, for she had just noticed what Gombert
now called to her attention.
Don Luis Quijada, with the haughty precision of the Castilian grandee,
was passing through the humble folk around him and advancing directly
toward her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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