Honored Lord: If you would know whose lover Father Peter really is, keep watch to-night and when you hear the bells ring at midnight,—those bells that you think are rung by spirits, since they have no cord—then, instead of covering up your head in fear, arise and go with your servants into the ghost-haunted chapel; there you shall learn which one of us has cause to go begging for his lost honor. What I have said, I have said—to-night after midnight. If you take warning, well and good; if not, also good. It matters not to me whether you accept it, or whether you do not. You will repent if you listen to me: you will repent still more if you do not.
I remain, your respectful servant,
The widow of Franz Karponay."
She sealed the letter with her own crest. Meantime, it had been gradually growing light. She sent for the Fool.
"Hirsko," she said, "Can one cross the Waag?"
"Hare and hounds can; but man could hardly do it."
"Why not?"
"Because during the night, the ice began to move, and if it has not caught fast on the island, it must be going right merrily."
"Would you dare cross over with this letter?"
"If I had two heads, and could lose one there and leave the other here, I do not say but that I would undertake it."