The result of this was sufficiently startling, and had induced Heinz to send the servant and his sweetheart on the errand from which the former had not yet returned.
When the young knight found himself alone he repeated what the monk had just urged upon him.

Then Eva's image rose before him, and he had asked himself whether she, the devout maiden, would not thank her saint when she learned that he, obedient to her counsel, was beginning to provide for his eternal salvation.
Moved by such thoughts, he had smiled as he told himself that the Minorite seemed to be earnestly striving to win him for the monastery.
The old man meant kindly, but how could he renounce the trade of arms, for which he was reared and which he loved?
Then he had been obliged to ride to the fortress to wait upon the Emperor and tell him how deeply he sympathised with his grief.

But he was denied admittance.

Rudolph desired to be alone, and would not see even his nearest relatives.
On the way home he wished to pass through the inner gate of the Thiergartnerthor into Thorstrasse to cross the milk market.

The violence of the noonday thundershower had already begun to abate, and he had ridden quietly forward, absorbed in his grief, when suddenly a loud, rattling crash had deafened his ears and made him feel as if the earth, the gate, and the fortress were reeling.