"This must be a son of good Duke Philip's, for never were two faces more alike."
The Prince never imagined that the old mother could betray him, and therefore answered, "Yes; and now lead me to the priest."
So the old mother began to lament over the downfall of the pure Christian doctrine, which his father, Duke Philip, had upheld so bravely. And if the young lord held the true faith (as she hoped by his saying he was a Christian), if so, then she would die happy, and the sooner the better--even if it were this night, for she was the last of all the sisterhood, all the other nuns having died of grief; and so she went on chattering.
Prince Ernest regretted that he had not time to discourse with her upon the true faith, but would she tell him where the priest was to be found.
_Illa_.--"She would take him to the parson, but he must first do her a service."
"Whatever she desired, so that it would not detain him."
_Illa_.--"It was on this night the vigil of the holy St. Bernard, their patron saint, was held; now, there was no one to light the altar candles for her, for her maid, who had grown old along with her, lay a-dying, and she was too old and weak herself to stretch up so high. And the idle Lutheran heretics of the town would mock, if they knew she worshipped God after the manner of her fathers. The old Lutheran swaddler, too, would not suffer it, if he knew she prayed in the church by nights. But she did not care for his anger, for she had a private key that let her in at all hours; and his Highness, the Prince, at her earnest prayers, had given her permission to pray in the church, at any time she pleased, from then till her death."
So the old mother wept so bitterly, and kissed his Highness's hand, entreating him with such sad lamentations to remain with her until she said a prayer, that he consented. And she said, if the heretic parson came there to scold her, which of a surety he would, knowing that she never omitted a vigil, he could talk to him in the church, without going to disturb him and his harlot nun at their own residence. Besides, the church was the safest place to discourse in, for no one would notice them, and he would be able to protect her from the parson's anger besides.