But I knew not the future then, and it was as well.

For the guilders paid nobly for the new-fashioned ordnance which stood us in such good stead that autumn, when we had sterner work in hand than singeing the gray beard of Duke Casimir.
Within Schloss Plassenburg things went on much as usual.

Perhaps I was lax in my wooing--I cannot tell; I loved sincerely enough, of a certainty.

Nor, after this, was I backward in telling Helene of it, and sometimes she would love me well enough, and then again she would not.

So that I could not tell what she would be at.
Looking back upon everything now, I see clearly how that the rankling secret thorn was the accursed understanding with the Prince, that for his peace's sake I was to abide friendly with the Princess and let her try her fool experiments on me.