Glowing with anger and sorrow, Graf von Waldeck, bishop of Munster,
strode up and down in his gilded tent. At the door, with a pale
malefactor face, stood poor Hanslein, in chains, and surrounded by
guards. Oberstein and Alf entered.
'This wretch,' cried the bishop to the general, 'proposes to purchase
his forfeited life by betraying the city. He has, however, three times
forfeited his life,--formerly a rider in my cavalry, he wounded his
superior officer and went over to the enemy, swearing allegiance and
adopting their faith. I am half inclined to compel him to show us the
way to Munster and then hang him; for it would be contrary to all
right, human and divine, to allow him to escape punishment by such an
act.'
'The greatest right is often the greatest wrong,' said the general
soothingly. 'Too much severity is often injurious, and with your
grace's permission, if the spiritual lords had not formerly held so
rigidly to their notions of right and wrong, and had not wielded the
rod of authority too vigorously, much of the mischief against which the
assembled christians of Germany of all denominations now appeal to
heaven, would have been avoided. My voice is for mildness.'
'You have lost none who were dear to you, through these monsters!'
cried the bishop, making great efforts to suppress his tears. 'I have
just learned, that the reprobate tailor has murdered both of my pages,
for making an effort to rescue themselves from his paws.'
'That is sad news,' said Oberstein, sympathisingly; 'but if you should
outdo all these horrors by committing greater, you might thereby bring
a stain upon your princely reputation; but you would remedy no evil. My
advice is, that you grant a free pardon to the deserter, and thereby
obtain a faithful guide into the city, the speedy surrender of which is
yet nearest your heart. A resort to the rack, is, in my mind, as it
must be in that of every man, highly objectionable, beside being a very
unsafe means of accomplishing our purpose.'
'You may be right,' said the bishop, after a pause, somewhat softened
by the decided tone and plain good sense of the old warrior.
'I bring you another individual who may be trusted to guide our forces
to the attack of Munster,' proceeded Oberstein, pointing to Alf, 'and
we shall be able by this means to divide and direct our troops.'
'Is this he?' cried the bishop with suddenly rekindled rage. 'Wretch!
thank God--that I have you in my power. You shall learn to your sorrow
what it is to fall into my hands.'
'What mean you, sir bishop?' asked the general.
'What harm can have been done to you by a youth, whom you probably now
see for the first time in your life?'
'Oh I know him but too well,' raved the bishop. 'When the lying prophet
Matthias surprised our camp last year, this villain led the anabaptists
as their commander. I saw him rushing onward at the head of his troops,
as I was mounting my horse to escape the danger of capture.'
'Heigh! you are again strangely severe!' cried Oberstein. 'Misled, like
thousands of others in the city, to whom you long ago offered a general
pardon, the young man only fulfilled what at that time he considered
his duty as a christian and a soldier. Now, however, he has become
disgusted with the tailor's government, and has voluntarily come out to
us.'
'At that onslaught was my unhappy----pupil taken prisoner with his
companion!' cried the bishop. 'Who was it, moreover, who dragged him to
his death, but the profligate leader of that frantic host? Matthias is
already judged. This one has the Most High given into my hands, and if
God from heaven should cry mercy! he should die.'
'Such a speech little becomes a prince, much less a spiritual lord,'
said Oberstein with melancholy earnestness. 'As for the rest, the duty
of gratitude at this time compels me to spare you the commission of a
crime. This youth has saved my life. I will never deliver him up to
your revenge.'
'Forget not, sir earl,' cried the bishop angrily, 'that I am a prince
upon this ground, and that you are only general of the forces!'
'The forces of the empire!' vehemently exclaimed Oberstein,--'not
yours, and I am expressly commanded to execute the decrees of the Diet
of Worms,--of which, as you appear to have forgotten it, it is my duty
to remind you.'
'Unheard of insolence!' growled the bishop. 'It may be worth while to
inquire whether I am yet sovereign of Munster.' With fury in his
rolling eyes, he beckoned to the door an officer who stood near him, as
if he desired to confide to him an order of serious consequence:
'Spare yourself steps, your princely grace, which you will be compelled
to retrace,' said Oberstein; and at that moment the bishop's body
servant, a pious, blameless, silver haired old man, entered with his
master's morning meal.
'Jesus Maria!' screamed the servant the moment he saw Alf; and, letting
fall the smoking platter, threw himself at the youth's feet and clasped
his knees. 'God in his mercy has granted me an opportunity to thank the
preserver of my life!' cried he, sobbing.
'Preserver of your life!' cried the bishop wonderingly.
'You are mistaken, father,' said Alf, gently putting aside the old man,
'I do not know you at all.'
'I am not more certain of future bliss,' said the old servant.--'Know
you not, sir colonel, or whatever else you may have been, when you fell
upon our camp, with the terrible Matthias, and his princely grace had
fled, and Matthias had broken into this tent, and had already cut down
the cook and two lacqueys, and the pages were kneeling before him, and
the Goliath-spear was already raised to destroy them. I stood in a
corner tremblingly awaiting the moment when my turn would come. Then
you rushed into the tent and valiantly stayed the monster's upraised
arm, although he was your superior, and commanded him and gave him hard
words, and compelled him to spare their lives and take them with him
prisoners to Munster. And then you dragged him away, together with the
boys; I, however, slipped out of my corner, and in this place I kneeled
down and prayed a devout Ave Maria for myself, and two for the
salvation of your poor soul, that God might rescue you from eternal
death, as you had rescued me from the murderous prophet.'
'How now, sir bishop?' said Oberstein, in an upbraiding tone. 'It
appears that the youth saved the lives of those whose blood you would
avenge on him. His crime is, that he could not be about them every
moment to guard them against the beasts of prey who constantly beset
their path.'
'Can you swear upon the Host,' asked the bishop of the servant, 'that
this is the man who saved the lives of the boys?'
'As God may help me to a good dying moment!' answered the servant with
his hand upon his heart.
The traits of passion disappeared from the bishop's features. He
advanced towards Alf and said sorrowing, 'thou hast meant well, my son,
but God has willed it otherwise.' Then, turning to Oberstein, he
proceeded, 'I leave both the deserters to your unfettered disposal, and
shall expect from you some indication of what I can do for the youths.
I trust you will forget our little misunderstanding, when you recollect
in how many ways and how deeply I have been injured by all these
enormities, as a man, as a father, as a temporal prince, and as a
dignitary of the church.'
Oberstein took the freely offered hand of the bishop, with a
reverential bow; after which the latter, with an humble air, passed to
an inner apartment of the tent. At the nod of the general, Hanslein's
chains fell from him.
'It was hard clearing the gallows this time,' cried Hanslein, shaking
himself. 'It shall be a warning to me forever to avoid the spiritual
lords. I feared to make myself known to the general, who I supposed
would not be able to comprehend my position; and therefore I went to
the lord bishop;--but the crook, under which I had hoped safely to
repose, had very nearly broken my brain-pan.'
'That also must be an old acquaintance,' said Oberstein, smilingly
contemplating the chatterer.
'I now recognise his features. Anxiety about his fate had lengthened
them a little.'
'Sure enough,' cried Hanslein, kissing his hand; 'and you, my prince of
warriors, have spoken like a man in behalf of an unknown anabaptist,
without suspecting that you were under obligations to him for a former
service.'
'Follow me now, children,' said the good general, 'and forget in my
tent all the trouble you have just experienced, and so put an end to
the anxiety of the trembling little bride.'
'With a thousand pleasures!' cried Hanslein; 'besides, it is not good
to set up our tabernacle here.' With a few vigorous leaps he found
himself before the general's tent. The others followed.
'Perhaps you would like to be married to your little maiden to-day?'
Oberstein affectionately asked of Alf, while on their way to the tent.
'There is no lack of monks and preachers in the camp. I will furnish
forth the marriage feast, and you may safely reckon upon a magnificent
wedding present from the bishop.'
'Until the city is gained,' answered Alf, 'I must postpone the
consummation of that holy act. If I should fall in the attack, then
would my wife become an early widow, and more unhappy than if she
mourned her promised bridegroom only as one betrothed. Besides, I
cannot be married with any satisfaction, or really enjoy the greatest
festival of my life, until my poor native city is freed from the
domination of the devil who now lacerates her with his infernal claws.
When good old Munster has found peace and safety I will seek the
consummation of my own domestic happiness.'
'Thou hast a good faith, my son,' cried Oberstein, pleased with the
self-denial of the youth.
By this time they stood before the general's tent, when they were met
by Fabricius holding by the hand the amiable and sweetly smiling Clara,
already modestly clad in the dress of her sex.