Three years were past since Herdegen had first gone to the High School, and we had never seen him but for a few weeks at the end of the first year, when he was on his way from Erfurt to Padua.

In the letters he wrote from thence there was ever a greeting for Mistress Anna, and often there would be a few words in Greek for her and me; yet, as he knew full well that she alone could crack such nuts, he bid me to the feast only as the fox bid the stork.

While he was with us he ever demeaned himself both to me and to her as a true and loving brother, when he was not at the school of arms proving to the amazement of the knights and nobles his wondrous skill in the handling of the sword, which he had got in the High School.

And during this same brief while be at divers times had speech of Ursula, but he showed plainly enough that he had lost all delight in her.
He had found but half of what he sought at Erfurt, but deemed that he was ripe to go to Padua; for there, alone, he thought--and Magister Peter said likewise--could he find the true grist for his mill.

And when he told us of what he hoped to gain at that place we could but account his judgment good, and wish him good speed and that he might come home from that famous Italian school a luminary of learning.