"Take four of the horse-police to your a.s.sistance," he exclaimed to them. "Seize me the young lord of Hochberg, and fling him into the Hildebrand until farther orders."

But at this there arose a murmur of contradiction amongst the aldermen, who stood up from their seats and shook their heads; and Martin, the youngest amongst them, found courage to speak out his sentiments.

"Under favour, worshipful Mr. Burgomaster. The young lord was indeed somewhat too rough here, but in the main point he was unfortunately right; and if we would imprison all those who blame our this day"s proceedings, we shall soon have to convert our sessions-room into a Hildebrand. I vote against the arrest."

"And I!" cried Miller and Trentler, as if from one mouth.

"Have you a wish for another execution?" said Kaspar Franz to the gloomy despot.

"We are already deep in the mire through Tausdorf," observed Doctor Grenwitz, shrugging his shoulders:--and the vice-consul Drescher whispered to the burgomaster,--"Recall your order!"

Erasmus bit his lips till they bled.

"What are you standing for, idiots?" he exclaimed to the three servants who remained at the door in anxious uncertainty as to which command they were to obey. "Don"t you know that the majority of voices decides in our sittings? The arrest of Von Hochberg may remain."

The servants left the room; Erasmus, rising from his chair, said, "The sitting is over, gentlemen; but we will, with your good pleasure, have a meeting extraordinary to-morrow, to weigh maturely what farther is to be done in this matter."

"If in this extraordinary sitting," said Kaspar, as he broke up, to his neighbour, "we do not find the art of replacing heads that have been chopped off, we shall descend from the Sessions-house as wise as we went up."

The other aldermen said nothing, but saluted the burgomaster in silence; and the old man soon stood alone before the council-table in the empty chamber.

"Yes," he muttered; "I must no longer conceal it from myself; it is coming to an end with the old lion. Teeth and claws grow blunted. The brutes, that once shook at his roar, now renounce their obedience, and mock the feeble monarch; even the a.s.s must give his kick. Die, therefore, Erasmus, die soon, that you may not outlive yourself."

"A new misfortune has happened, Mr. Burgomaster," cried the city-marshal, entering hastily. "The gardener in the park, who exhibited the aloe for some time past, has suddenly disappeared; but the Netherlandress, who lodged with him, was found dead in her room an hour ago. I went thither with two officers to seal up every thing, and took the town-physician with me; for the flight of the host, and the lady"s death, seem to stand in a doubtful connexion. The people of the house talked of poison. I found the woman lying on the floor, in an upper room, horribly disfigured; and on the table was a cup, the dregs of which the physician positively declared to be poison. In her stark right hand the corse held fast this writing. It is addressed to you, Mr. Burgomaster, and sealed moreover."

"To me!" said Erasmus, in alarm; tore the writing away from the marshal, and broke it open. A quant.i.ty of dry leaves fell out of it towards him--"Strange!" he murmured, and began to read; and, as he read, the hand in which he held the letter trembled more and more, till at last he grew so faint that he sunk back into his chair. But he forced himself to read it to the end, and then burnt the letter in the flame of the expiring candle, waiting with great patience till the paper was entirely converted into ashes. He then turned to the marshal:--"Let the body be watched by six gens d"armes till night; then let it be carried behind the wall to the churchyard, and there silently interred. I will myself take an inventory of all that is left, and you will be silent as to the whole transaction--on your oath of office."

The old man"s voice broke at the conclusion of his discourse, and with tottering steps he left the Sessions-chamber.

Three years had pa.s.sed since Tausdorfs death. Christopher Friend had remained a widower, and by all means, just as well as unjust, had considerably increased his mammon. He was asleep in his own bedroom, on a beautiful summer"s night, when he was awakened by a grasp at his throat, and, on opening his eyes in terror, there sat upon the bed two men, fearfully illuminated by the moon. They were enveloped in dark cloaks, with black masks on their faces, and held two daggers glittering at his breast, in the pale yellow light. The one figure had his hand about Christopher"s throat, and seemed ready to close it at the slightest motion of his victim.

"Gracious Heavens! what does this mean?" groaned Christopher; but at the instant he felt a tighter pressure of the hand about his throat, and the daggers p.r.i.c.ked him in the region of the heart.

"Still!" whispered one of the masks. "A loud word, a cry for help, sends you in the same moment to h.e.l.l. We are here to sit in judgment on you, though, indeed, in a fairer way than your father used three years since. It has cost no little time, and trouble, and gold--nay, even two journies to Bohemia--to penetrate your tricks and blinds; but at last all has become clearer to us than the day. We had paid you a visit long before this, but that the n.o.ble Althea prayed so irresistibly for you, that during her life we could not undertake any thing against you. Now at last she has sunk under the grief for her betrothed: Tausdorf"s old father has to weep for his daughter, and the last chain is snapped in which our revenge lay bound. Your father has to answer to the emperor for his notorious crimes; but you have done and concealed your deed with equal cunning, and no earthly court of justice will ever be able to convict you of it. You must, therefore, answer to our _secret tribunal_, of which we are ourselves the chief and the judges, the accuser and the executioner. You have had intercourse with the Netherlandress at the nurseryman"s in the park; and this very woman wanted to hound me on to your brother"s murder."

"By Heavens! I know nothing of it," whined Christopher.

"Still!" continued the mask. "Failing in that, she has a long conversation with you in private. Upon this you invite Tausdorf to your murderous banquet, and, while you promise Althea that your brother shall not be present, you secretly induce him, through a third hand, to appear: then comes the Netherlandress, masked, to your party. After a conversation with her, the most violent wrath is perceived on the face of Francis. You pour him out another gla.s.s of wine, like oil in the flame, upon which he allures into the park Tausdorf, whom he had never seen before, and that event takes place which thousands of honest people lament. Now then answer for yourself, but with a low voice, or we strike you down on the spot."

"How can I answer for all the unlucky events, the chain of which has cost me a beloved brother?" whispered Christopher, in a voice which, from fear of the daggers, was scarcely audible. "What motives could I have to destroy Tausdorf, who had never offended me? Why, too, should I particularly fix on my brother as the instrument of my evil purpose? By the----"

"Still!" said the mask again. "I hate you as the serpent that stung my friend to death, but I would not send you to the devil with perjury upon your tongue; you have without that enough of old sin posted in the great reckoning-book above.--You ask, why you should wish to destroy Tausdorf? Because Althea refused your hand for his sake.--Why you chose your brother for the instrument? Because, with true brotherly affection, you hoped the instrument might be broken on the occasion, that so you might stand as the ONLY son of the rich Erasmus. Recollect your former calumnies against Tausdorf; recollect what you said to Althea at your father"s door on the morning after the misfortune, and deny no longer. You will not lie yourself out of our hands again, and a frank repentant confession of your sins may propitiate the wrath of the judge before whom you will stand ere the morning breaks."

"Mercy!" murmured Christopher in low, piteous tones. "Only spare my life, and I will confess all. The woman seduced me into bringing Tausdorf together with my brother that they might quarrel, but it was not so evilly intended as it turned out."

"The woman seduced you?" exclaimed the mask. "It was so our grandfather, Adam, excused himself, and the seducer laid it all upon the serpent; but the angel with the fiery sword drove them all out of Paradise, to which they no more belonged, as you no more belong to life. Therefore pray a short farewell prayer, for we are Christians."

"Mercy!" groaned Christopher piteously. "I cannot pray. Take half my wealth as an atonement, but do not kill me."

"Ay!" retorted the mask, with cold sternness. "You and your whole race, with all your gold, would not outweigh the single head of the n.o.ble Tausdorf, whom your iniquity has slaughtered. There can be no talk between us of mercy or atonement, but of well-earned retribution: therefore, away with you, scoundrel! away to death!"

And he flung a noose about Christopher"s neck, and dragged him from the bed.

"Heaven be thanked!" said the other mask, pulling strongly at the rope.

"At last we come from words to deeds."

Like vultures upon a lamb, they pounced upon the unhappy Christopher with murderous hands, and dragged him out of the door in spite of his impotent strugglings;--fainter and fainter sounded his half-stifled cries--at last there was a heavy fall in the distance, and a sound as of the splash of water from a depth: then another short, low groan; and the old silence of night resumed her reign, and the clock of the Sessions-house struck the third hour.

The next morning when the old Erasmus entered the Sessions-chamber, he found the a.s.sembled provosts standing with gloomy faces about the butcher, George Heymann, master of the shambles, who was showing a b.l.o.o.d.y wound in his neck, and took on most piteously.

"Things cannot go on in this way any longer, Mr. Burgomaster," cried the Alderman Kaspar Franz, in a tone that the old man had not been accustomed to hear in Schweidnitz. "It is inconceivable what our good city suffers from your violence and blunders. It is not enough that we must frequently submit to a scarcity of provisions, because the va.s.sals of the n.o.bles no longer dare to come to market here, but our citizens are no more secure of their lives if they venture beyond the walls. As this poor man was driving sheep to town, Hans Ecke of Viehau, and Hans Hund of Ingersdorf, fell upon him with naked weapons, struck at his neck, and when he stood on his defence, wounded him severely with a dagger. In this manner things go on daily; they already level their guns at our watchmen upon the walls, and we shall soon be forced to put on armour when we go to the sessions-house. For all this evil we have to thank no one but you; and do you, therefore, find a remedy. You have cooked this bitter broth for us, and do you now help in eating it, that we may at last have clean dishes."

"Lead the wounded man to the nearest surgeon," said Erasmus to the servant in waiting. "He shall be dressed at my expense."

The servant obeyed. The burgomaster crept up to his seat of honour, and sat himself down exhausted, as he turned to the last speaker.--"It is hard of you, colleague, to lay to my charge the consequences of measures which were adopted by the general consent of the council.

Besides, the affair is not yet settled, and your reproaches, therefore, in any case, are too early. If the emperor should receive our answer as valid, we shall then a.s.suredly not be denied satisfaction for the waylayings of these knightly robbers. From Ingolstadt, too, the legal opinion has been sent in reply to our inquiries, that we proceeded well with Tausdorf, and I still, therefore, entertain good hopes."

"If these hopes should not happen to be built on sand," exclaimed Alderman Franz; "the Emperor will hardly decide on us by the opinion of the gentlemen of Ingolstadt. The whole investigation was of so hostile a nature, and so humiliating in the forms for us, that we may thence infer a severe sentence with tolerable certainty. Besides, I have heard a bird whistle on this subject, whose tune by no means pleases me."

The burgomaster stared in alarm at his colleague, when the door opened, and the servant announced, "The delegates returning from Prague."

"Returned already!" exclaimed Erasmus, and the last blood-drops forsook his face, so that he looked quite awful, like the alabaster-bust of some evil old Roman emperor.

And the old Christopher Drescher, the Alderman Melchior Lange, the Syndic Dr. Lange, entered slowly, with downcast eyes, and in silence took their places at the sessions-table. They were followed by the Secretary Jonas, who, with a heavy sigh, laid down his leathern portfolio on a side-table and opened it.

"You bring us nothing good?" asked Erasmus, after a long pause; and the Syndic exclaimed, "What is the use of delaying, for you must know it at last? You sowed the seed by handfuls, and therefore the harvest cannot much surprise you. The wrath of Heaven lies heavy on us; the sentence could not be more severe. The city is declared to have forfeited its right of jurisdiction, and of electing its own council, the fief and land-court of the princ.i.p.ality is removed to Jauer, and the punishment of the council, and others, for the execution of Tausdorf, the Emperor has reserved to himself peculiarly. In a short time we may expect the Emperor"s delegate, who, in his name, will annul our council, and conduct the further proceedings against us."

In silence they listened to these evil tidings, in silence they remained sitting, when the Syndic had ceased to speak, all equally overwhelmed by the heavy fate that was hurrying upon them. Their eyes only, which were fixed on the burgomaster, expressed the reproaches they intended him. In the meantime the secretary had drawn from his portfolio the imperial decree, and taking it from its double envelope, now laid it with a condoling gesture on the table before Erasmus, who first glanced hastily below at the Emperor"s seal and subscription, and then attempted to read. But he could not accomplish it; he still gazed on the first side, and soon his eyes stared vacantly from the paper on the air. The Vice-Consul was on the point of wakening him from this lethargy of the spirit, when the city-marshal rushed into the room with a face of horror. And now Erasmus started up from his stupefaction.--"Another Job"s post," he exclaimed; "I read it in your countenance: but speak it out; we have already heard the worst; what is still to come cannot much affect us."

"Would to heaven it were so!" replied the bailiff. "My tidings concern you in particular, Mr. Burgomaster. Your son Christopher has been found dead in his night-clothes, in the well of his garden."

A cry of horror burst from the lips of all present, and the old Erasmus clasped his long thin hands.--"My last!" he exclaimed piteously--then suddenly, in a louder voice, he added, "Thou art just, O G.o.d!" and his head, with its silver locks, fell back, so that it hung over the elbow of his chair.

The council crowded about him in terror. The vice-consul looked at the old man"s broken eyes, felt his pulse, and cried with deep emotion, "He is dead!"

"He who does not walk in fear, does not please G.o.d!" cried Caspar, in his dark fanaticism, with the words of Sirach.

"De mortuis nil nisi bene, collega," admonished the vice-consul. "The deceased, with all his failings, was yet a MAN, in the full sense of the word, and therefore always estimable. If he has erred, he has severely suffered. Peace be with his ashes!"

He went to the head of the corse, and folded his hands in prayer. The others stood around and did the same; and from every lip trembled a low and devout supplication for the dead.

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