True, her old master, Loni, whom she had met at Regensburg, permitted her
to join his band, but when she perceived that he was far less prosperous
than before, and that she could not be useful to him in any way, she left
him at Cologne because a kindhearted captain offered to take her to
Vlissingen without pay. Thence she really did set out upon the
pilgrimage to Santiago di Compostella; but St. James, the patron saint
of the Spaniards, whose untiring mercy so many praised, did not prove
specially favourable to her. The voyage to Compostella, the principal
place where he was reverenced, which annually attracted thousands of
pilgrims, cost her her last penny, and the cold nights which she was
obliged to spend on deck increased her cough until it became almost
unendurably violent. In Santiago di Compostella both her means and her strength were
exhausted. After vainly expecting for a long time some token of the
saint's helpful kindness, only two courses were left: either she must
remain in Compostella and join the beggars in the crowded road to the
place of pilgrimage, or she must accept the proposal made by tongueless
Cyriax and go back with him to Germany. At first she had been afraid of
the brutal fellow, who feigned insanity and was led about by his wife
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