So the property had been consumed, and the Lady Wendula and her son and three daughters were left in moderate circumstances.

The two older girls had taken the veil, while the youngest, a merry little maiden, lived with her mother.
But the Emperor Rudolph had by no means forgotten the Lady Wendula and her dead husband, and with the utmost kindness requested her to send him her only son as soon as he was able to wield a sword and lance.

He intended to repay Heinz for the love and loyalty his father had shown him through his whole life.
"And the Hapsburg," Biberli added, "had kept his word." In a few years his young lord was ready for a position at court.
Gotthard von Ramsweg, the Lady Wendula's older brother, a valiant knight, went to his sister's home after her husband's death to manage the estate and instruct his nephew in all the exercises of knighthood.
Soon the strong, agile, fearless son of a brave father, under the guidance of such a teacher, excelled many an older youth.

He was barely eighteen when the Lady Wendula sent him to his imperial master.

She had given him, with her blessing, fiery horses, the finest pieces of his father's suits of mail, an armour bearer, and a groom to take with him on his journey; and his uncle had agreed to accompany him to Lausanne, where the Emperor Rudolph was then holding his court to discuss with Pope Gregory--the tenth of the name--arrangements for a new crusade.