And with that he moved away, shaking his head when I begged him to tarry, though I vowed to Ilsa, who had never heard him sing, he had a voice full worthy to join with hers. There were long shadows over the mountains when we reëntered the castle. The Freifrau was angry with her niece “flying abroad when this was the last chance for fitting her velvet gown, as if there would not be time enough for cozening after the wedding--that is, if you two fools are still of a mind for it.” As for Dr. Luther, he was in better spirits than ever. “His Grace the Elector is very kind. He consents to my remaining hid at the Wartburg until all peril is passed. But he is a better friend still; Spalatin will send me the books. Even here I can shoot my bullets at my friends of the Curia, and, Deo volente, I will give them one great culverin shot that will gall them shrewdly.” “What do you mean?” I asked. “I will put the Bible in German, to be sure, so that the veriest ploughboy in the land will stand in no need of Latin or priestcraft to find the way to his loving Father.” So I knew that even in his hiding, my master would speak for the Cause more eloquently than with a thousand sermons at Wittenberg.... The next day we were married. Freifrau von Steinitz vowed the simplicity of the festival was scandalous; but she was a woman of potent resources, and there were enough officers and their dames at the Wartburg to give us all the pomp and ceremonial right-minded lovers could wish. Under the rainbow lights streaming through the colored windows of the chapel, the very chapel where St. Elizabeth of Hungary knelt for worship, we knelt together, Ilsa and I, and Dr. Luther (so again for the nonce we called him) joined us as man and wife. “And those,” sounded his deep voice, “whom--despite sinful vows and all the devils in hell--God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” Then we had a great fête in the famous Sängersaal, where three hundred years earlier Walter von der Vogelweide, Wolfram von Eschenbach, and the other minnesingers had joined their contest. And as we danced in honest, homely numbers to a few rasping viols, with Ilsa’s head crowned not with pearls but with wild roses, I thought of that other dancing not yet two months gone in the castle by Worms, when Marianna had whirled in my arms, and an Emperor had watched us. But I said not a word to Ilsa, and for myself I had a happiness passing utterance. There was wine enough, and boar’s meat and venison enough at the feast to satisfy even Adolf. At the end they took the “Brautschuhe” from the feet of the resisting bride and tossed them to the unmarried damsels, and the lucky two who won them were vowed to be sure of dancing at their own weddings full soon.