Then Ludwig's attention is called by poor Karl, the father, to a certain family likeness.

Can it be that he is not the father of his own child?
He is playing cards with his friend Ludwig when that traitor Gottfried comes and whispers to him, and makes an appointment.

"I will be there too," thought Count Ludwig, the good Knight of Hombourg.
On the next morning, before the stranger knight had shaken off his slumbers, all had been found out and everything done.

The lady has been sent to a convent and her son to a monastery.

The knight of the castle has no comfort but in his friend Gottfried, a distant cousin who is to inherit everything.