A countless multitude exultingly met the returning victors. The prophet Johannes Bockhold at their head, in white festival garments, with green branches of fir in their hands, the maidens of the city sang to them in loud, joyful hosannas. It pleased the gallant, good humored Alf uncommonly well to receive praise from such beautiful lips. As he reflected, however, that this song of praise was intended as much for Matthias as for himself, there came over Alf a silent vexation, instead of the pleasure of flattered vanity, and he strode on gloomily in front of his troops. The army halted upon the market place, and the booty, being common property, was secured in St. Lambert's church; the two pages were given over to the orator Rothman, preparatory to their baptism; the soldiers having been praised and dismissed, and the evening having already approached, Alf with his surviving journeymen, half their number having fallen either in the first battle or in the storming of the camp, proceeded toward Trutlinger's house.
As he approached the house door, which was surmounted by a triumphal arch covered with pine boughs, he was met by the bewitching smiles of the beautiful Eliza, who was still clad in her white festival garments.
'Welcome from battle and victory, brave soldier of the Spirit!' cried she; and, casting aside all maidenly bashfulness and constraint, she spread wide her arms toward the youth.
'Dear maiden!' stammered he, most agreeably surprised by this second and dearest triumph. He pressed the charming girl to his mailed bosom, when, notwithstanding his unaccommodating helmet, they sought and found each other's lips, and united them with the double glow of fanaticism and sensuality, which both in their blindness mistook for the fire of pure love.
At that moment out stepped from the parlor door a little, withered, yellow man, whose tattered garments were covered by a ragged black mantle. With friendly simpers he squinted out of his little, gray, malicious eyes upon the pair, and then, stretching his meager, death-like hand towards Alf, cried with a hoarse howl, 'Thee have I this day seen in my dreams, brother, contending and conquering in God's cause, and lo! my eyes have verified it, and the Lord has achieved great things through thee, his servant. Wherefore be glad, because God has chosen thee for yet greater things, and through thee shall his name become glorified in Zion!'
The little hobgoblin with ridiculous pomposity then strode out of the house. Alf looked after him with his hand over his forehead, and said, 'sometimes, though in my native city, it appears to me as if I were in a residence of madmen, where all the fools go at large. Who was that strange man?'
'John Tuiskoshirer,' answered Eliza, reprovingly, 'an impoverished goldsmith; but a great man since the spirit has come upon him. Often, already, has he edified the public by his elevated discourses and divine prophecies; and, next to our great Matthias and Johannes, he is now the first prophet in Munster.'
'Good God! what a multitude of prophets,' sighed Alf; and by this time Eliza had led him into the room.
Behind a table illuminated with wax tapers and decorated as for a festival, sat the fair Clara. Her loose golden locks flowed down over her white gala dress. Her right arm supported her pale, sad face, and bright tears were falling from her eyes upon her white bosom.
'Do you not bid me welcome, lovely little Clara?' Alf kindly asked of the sorrowing girl. 'Do you celebrate our victory with such bitter tears?'
Clara lifted up her eyes toward the youth with gentle sorrow. 'Be not angry with me for it, dear Alf,' she begged in a soft, subdued tone; 'every drop of blood shed in this unhappy war of opinion, falls envenomed upon my heart. Never shall I lose the remembrance of my poor uncle. He also was butchered for the new faith, of which I do not yet rightly understand whether it is the genuine worship of God, or a hellish sacrifice.'
'Leave the foolish girl!' cried Eliza, handing a goblet to Alf. 'Her spirit is not yet born again to the light. She still lies bound in the chains of darkness. She is not able to offer every feeling joyfully upon the altar of the holy God.'
'May He preserve me from such joy!' sighed Clara, almost inaudibly; and Eliza with a quick warm pressure of the hand drew the youth upon a seat near herself. His fellow soldiers seated themselves opposite the beautiful couple, and the ceremonies of the repast began. With the pleasing narration of the conquering warriors and the sweeter praises of the fair Eliza, the generous Rhenish of old Trutlinger glided swiftly and deliciously down, and gradually extinguished in Alf all thoughts of the movements in Munster, which his right worthy head and heart had from time to time obtruded upon him. Deeper glowed the flush upon the blooming faces of the youth and maiden; constantly brisker and more radiantly moved their eyes; with constantly increasing warmth were their kisses given and received. The journeymen, rejected by the grieving Clara, could only keep to the goblet, until, overcome by Bacchus, they staggered one after the other to their places of rest. Alf and Eliza remained quietly sitting at table, as much occupied with each other as if there had been nobody else in the world. Leaning sadly upon her arm, Clara looked through her tears upon the happy pair. Now and then a half suppressed sigh stole from her bosom, and she then placed her hand upon her heart as if she felt a sudden pain there. Already had the second hour after midnight struck upon St. Lambert's tower. Finally Clara rose from her seat, took one of the low-burnt tapers from the table, and remarked with assumed tranquillity, 'it is late, and I am now going to bed,--wilt thou not go with me, sister?'
No answer came, and the poor maiden sorrowfully retired to her own sleeping room.
Early in the morning Clara was awakened by a disturbance in the street and came from her chamber, when she saw the couple still there. She hastily disappeared with an exclamation of alarm and grief.
'That must have been my sister!' cried Eliza, starting up with terror, her dark locks breaking loose from the band which had confined them.
'Be not alarmed my beloved,' said Alf with sweetly soothing tones. 'Immediately after my baptism brother Rothman shall bless our union, and our weakness will meet with mild judgment from the spirit of mercy which rules over the new Zion.'
'I will so explain the matter to that foolish girl,' cried Eliza, eagerly--'that she may not again offend me by her cold insufferable silence, her customary weapon when we occasionally disagree. She may censure and envy, but she shall respect me even in my aberration.'
She hastened to her chamber, while Alf prepared to go about his daily pursuits in the workshop. He was met at the door by his fellow wanderer the tailor.
'What have I prophesied?' asked the latter, unceremoniously seating himself at the table which remained as it had been prepared the previous evening. 'What have I prophesied?' he asked again, helping himself to a large slice of the gammon of bacon which he found opposite him upon the table. Then, pouring out a goblet of wine from the bottle and swallowing it, he a third time asked, 'what have I prophesied?'
'The devil only knows!' cried Alf, impatiently. 'There are so many prophecies in Munster that my head has already become wholly confused by them.'
'I have foretold,' said the tailor, with pathos, 'that my beloved friend and brother, the prophet Johannes Bockhold, would one day become a great man in the world. You would not believe it, because in the pride of your big fist, you could not be brought to entertain a good opinion of a tailor. And now a tailor has become your master and sovereign; lord over your life and death.'
'You have got into your cups early,' growled Alf, 'and now being drunk, you make me lose the precious morning hours with your miserable fables.'
'What I say is true,' muttered the tailor through his stuffed cheeks; 'and it is you who are mad and foolish. Only hear how cleverly every thing has been brought about. This morning by day-break, while you were indolently sleeping, the prophet Matthias called all the people to the market. He there declared to them that he would go forth with a handful of people, like Gideon, and slay the host of the ungodly. He called and took with him to the bishop's camp, only thirty men. I know not whether he had not asked of the Spirit aright, or whether the Spirit did not answer him rightly: to be brief, a slaughter did indeed follow,--not of the host of the ungodly, but of the good Gideon and his thirty men; not a man of them escaped. As I afterwards went to the market place, a mournful wailing sounded in my ears. The people were beside themselves, to think that they had lost their ruler in so shameful a manner; and here and there some fools maintained, that the great Matthias must have misinterpreted the Spirit in this affair. Then the still greater Johannes Bockhold stepped forward, and spoke to the multitude. God! what words did this man use to calm, console, and elevate the people! He had known the death of Matthias beforehand. He had seen in the spirit that that great prophet must fall, a second Maccabeus, fighting for the people. Thence we directly perceived that all was in order, that it could by no means be otherwise, and we were content. Then, upon the market-place, we called the preacher of consolation to be our chief ruler,--and he already commands in such a way that it is a pleasure to see him,--he has a wilder and more lordly manner than his predecessor Matthias. His maxim is--that the high shall be brought down, and the lowly shall be exalted. Consequently we shall destroy the churches and make them level with the earth,--because they are the highest buildings in the city. It will be a little tedious, and we also need stout arms for the defence of the walls; we shall, therefore, for the present only plunder the churches a little, until we have leisure for their complete demolition.'
'The churches also to be destroyed!' sighed Alf, 'must that also be? it is most horrible!'
Meanwhile a wild popular tumult arose out of doors. Both hastened to the window. A great multitude of the populace ran by, shouting incoherently. They were followed by a naked man, who came leaping forward as if impelled by a demon, and who, with foaming mouth and strange bodily contortions, incessantly bawled, 'the King of Zion comes!' Thus vociferating, he passed rapidly by. 'The King of Zion comes!' cried the mob who followed him; and Alf, disgusted with such indecent madness, withdrew from the window.
'Who was that madman?' asked he of the tailor, after a moment's pause.
'Did you not know him?' asked the tailor in return. 'That was our highest prophet, Johannes Bockhold himself. The spirit has come over him. I must follow and see what further he will do.'
He went; and Alf, in fearful dubitation said to himself, 'by such a chief is Munster to be governed! It will not and it cannot come to good.'
This last specimen of fanatical rage had made such a decided impression upon the good Alf, that he no longer felt any special desire for that baptism which was to complete his spiritual union with the great prophet; and as, notwithstanding his adherence to the new doctrines, he began to feel a secret loathing of the unceasing exhortations, revelations and prophecies, by means of which the people were kept in such a constant ferment, he devoted himself to assiduous labor for arming the defences of the city, and under this excuse withdrew himself from the public meetings of the populace which were daily drummed together.
For a time his attention was entirely absorbed by his workshop and his Eliza, whose wild tenderness steeped his youthful senses in a sea of pleasure, such as he had never before dreamed of. Clara in her quiet, patient way, observed the happiness of the lovers, who placed no restraint upon themselves on her account; and the only discoverable effect it produced on her was, that she became every day paler and more fragile.
This was perceived by the kind-hearted Alf, and as he happened to find the good child on one occasion alone in her sitting room, engaged at her distaff, he seated himself beside her in a familiar manner and, pressing her hand, asked her, 'what ails thee, my good sister?'
'Ah! call me not so, Kippenbrock,' said Clara, sorrowfully; and gently withdrew her hand.
'Wherefore not?' cried Alf, surprised. 'May I not call thee sister, as thy brother in the faith, and as the future husband of the dear Eliza?'
The maiden raised her tearful eyes to Him on high. 'You pierce my wounded heart,' said she, 'but you do not know the pain you inflict, and therefore do I right willingly forgive you.'
'Again I do not understand you,' said Alf. 'I see you always sorrowful, and I can endure it no longer. I feel myself so happy with your sister, that I desire to render all about me as happy as myself. Therefore confide in me, good maiden, and take my word for it, I will do everything in my power to mitigate your sorrow.'
'Iconfide inyou! inyou!' cried Clara, rising and attempting to retire.
The stout youth held her fast in his arms. 'No,' said he, 'beloved Clara, I will not let you go until you have opened your heart to me. By the holy God, mine is well disposed toward you.'
At that moment the door opened, and the detestable Tuiskoshirer, closely wrapped in his tattered mantle, walked in.
'My God!' shrieked Clara, as she caught a glimpse of him, and violently disengaging herself from Alf's arms, she sprang out of the room.
With a smirk upon his lips, which he seemed to have borrowed from a monkey, the little man followed her with his eyes until she disappeared--then, stepping solemnly in front of Alf, called to him in a hoarse, howling voice, 'art thou willing to become king of Zion, brother?'
'I king of Zion?' asked Alf in return, with the greatest astonishment. 'How can such a thing be?'
'I ask thee,' howled Tuiskoshirer, 'if thou wilt be king over the new Zion, formerly under the anti-christ, called Munster?'
'I rule over this same Munster as its chief magistrate?' cried Alf, laughing. 'That is a wonderful proposition, and besides, it appears to me as if we were not the men to accomplish it.'
'Short sighted man!' growled Tuiskoshirer, 'knowest thou not that the first shall be last and the last shall be first? We are all clay in the hands of the Potter. The Spirit has just seated himself near the board in order to make a king. To that eminence will I raise thee up; for thou art a brave warrior, and moreover a handsome youth, and wilt administer the government with power and mildness, for the welfare of all.'
'Ah! do not propose such pranks to me,' said Alf. 'You have others more suitable for that office than I; and besides, Johannes Bockhold would make a powerful opposition to my mounting the throne.'
'Johannes Bockhold,' answered Tuiskoshirer, 'is a feather in the breath of my mouth. He has indeed thought of announcing himself as the new king of this city, yet shall have only served you, if you will but accept the sceptre. I have seen through the prophet's character; he has much madness, yet little courage, and we need a consummate man upon this iron throne.'
'Are you wholly in earnest in making these propositions?' asked Alf. 'Then I must indeed answer in earnest. I do not feel myself fit to govern a nation and people, nor to take upon myself an office for which I have not been prepared,--from which may God mercifully preserve me!'
'Fool!' cried Tuiskoshirer; 'ruling is as light and easy as it is pleasant.'
'Yet heavy and severe is the reckoning above for bad government,' replied Alf. 'No, seek thee another king.'
Tuiskoshirer then flung open his tattered mantle, and drew from under its folds a magnificent regal crown, ingeniously formed of fine gold, and splendidly radiant with diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires, and, as he turned and waved it here and there in the sunlight, the golden and colored sparkles played so gaily about the room, that Alf was compelled to turn away his blinded eyes.
'In this crown is placed all my earthly wealth,' said Tuiskoshirer, pathetically. 'Ingeniously have I made it, during the stillness of the night, as an offering for the Spirit, that he therewith might crown the new king of Zion. Thee have I selected therefor, from among a thousand. Do you but consent, and I will set this emblem of royalty upon your head, and with God's help I will maintain it there.'
The youth looked at the beautiful crown for a moment, and its golden lustre seemed to awaken his ambition; but his better self soon conquered. 'Leave me, tempter!' cried he with vehemence, and forcibly replacing the bauble under the prophet's mantle, he dexterously pushed him out through the door.
'You will repent of this,' howled the little man as he disappeared.
'The duodecemvir, Dilbek, would speak with you,' announced an apprentice to the industrious Alf an hour afterwards. Surprised at the visit of a person whose name and office were alike unknown to him, he repaired to the parlor, where, in respectable black judicial robes, his comical fool's face peeping above a colossal white ruff, and his diminutive form attached to a long thrusting sword, strutted before him the aerial tailor.
'Knowing that you would feel an interest in my happiness, my good fellow,' (snarled and lisped the new duodecemvir, in an incredibly gentlemanlike manner,) 'I could not forbear informing you in person of the good fortune which has come to me through the mercy of the Spirit.'
'What means this masquerade?' cried Alf, peevishly. 'Take off that fool's jacket again; it does not become you, upon my word.'
'Have respect, my friend,' said Dilbek, earnestly. 'Every official dress confers honor upon its wearer, and this it has become my duty to wear, as one of the twelve judges over Israel.'
'You? you become a judge?' laughed Alf. 'Go and seek some other fool to believe you.'
'You are and always will be an unbelieving Thomas,' cried Dilbek angrily; 'and doubt every thing that you cannot feel with your hands. I repeat to you that I have even now come from the market, where the people have established the new tribunal.'
'And the mayor and aldermen, who governed until now?' asked Alf.
'Unseated, all unseated!' answered the tailor, who stalked about the room examining himself. 'Your kinsman again slays his cattle and his swine with his own hands; and the good Knipperdolling, a learned man, and therefore not able to turn his hand to any thing useful, has become the official hangman, with which the poor man will still be able to procure a livelihood.'
'Good God!' exclaimed Alf, 'who has done this?'
'This wise transformation of our government proceeds from our chief prophet,' answered the tailor-judge. 'Since he, moved by the Spirit, ran through the streets in the condition of holy nature, he had not spoken a word, but made himself understood by writing; he was compelled to remain mute three days. When that time had elapsed he declared the new commands of the Spirit. Yesterday the honorable counsellors obediently laid down their offices, and today I have been installed with my lordly colleagues.'
'God preserve my reason!' cried Alf. 'By these mad movements and continual changes, I incur the danger of losing it.'
'Only be patient,' said the tailor mysteriously. 'Better things will come. I have already heard various whispers. Our prophet is not the man to stop half way. Think of what I told you when we were traveling to Munster; it is not yet the end of time! I must now leave you, as we judges are invited to a feast by the chief prophet. He marries, this day, the beautiful widow of his predecessor, the great Matthias. Farewell! I shall always remain friendly to you, and should I hereafter rise yet higher on the scale of honor, you will always find in me a patron and protector.'
After one or two failures, the duodecemvir finally succeeded in passing himself and his new sword through the room door.
'Surely!' cried Alf impatiently, 'if this tailor-spirit is to set such vagabonds upon the judgment-seat of my native city, I may soon repent that I refused the crown. It would at least have given me the power to hinder many acts of madness.'
Some time afterwards, Alf was sitting arm in arm with his Eliza in the family sitting-room, while Clara was spinning near the window, and moistening the thread with her bitter tears. Suddenly the door flew open, and in clattered a stout young trooper, who extended his hand to Alf, joyously exclaiming, 'God bless you, my dear school fellow! Do you not know me?'
'Hanslein of the long street!' cried Alf, embracing the friend of his youth. 'Welcome to Munster!'
'Hanslein of the long street?' asked the beautiful Eliza, with surprise and displeasure. 'How is this? were you not an episcopalian?'
'Certainly,' answered Hanslein, 'with body and soul, until the day before yesterday. On that day I got into a quarrel with my serjeant while drinking with him, and laid my blade over his head in a way that he will not easily forget. Life is as dear to me as to any other man, and therefore I made my way out of the bishop's camp, rode over to yours, and now let your orator but once more wash my head, and I am prepared to contend bravely with my old brethren in arms.'
'When the chief prophet holds you worthy of being received into our community!' sharply observed Eliza, who was highly offended at the frivolous conversation of the renegade.
'The worthy tailor has already received me with open arms,' answered Hanslein. 'I have become captain of the seventh company, and am quartered with the burgomaster-hangman Knipperdolling, where we have wine and women in abundance.'
Eliza rose up indignant, and silently motioned to Clara to follow her. The latter obeyed, and the two friends were left alone.
'A pair of pretty maidens!' said Hanslein, looking admiringly after them; 'and you are indeed a lucky dog, to be a favorite with both.'
'I am the promised bridegroom of the eldest,' answered Alf, 'and know my duty.'
'An anabaptist, and so affectedly coy?' laughed the hair-brained fellow. 'You court them both at the same time, I'll be sworn; and should any one attack you on that account, you need only refer to the example of our chief prophet.'
'It cannot be possible!' exclaimed Alf with abhorrence.
At this moment Clara stepped into the room, placed before Alf a pitcher of wine and two goblets, and then again retired.
Hanslein observed her attentively, and said as she went out, 'deny no longer, you rogue, that both the maidens are yours. I found you in the arms of one of them, and the long, tender glance which the other just now threw upon you, confesses enough.'
'I tell you that you are mistaken!' cried Alf impatiently, filling the cups to the brim; 'leave your joking, and join me in drinking success to our good cause.'
'With all my heart!' said Hanslein, striking his glass against Alf's, and then pouring down the wine; 'although I am not yet quite clear as to exactly where the good cause is to be found, here, or in the camp of our old master. To return once more to my former theme, you render life needlessly unpleasant both to yourself and to the poor damsels. You would do much better to marry them both.'
'You are out of your senses!' exclaimed Alf, angrily. 'How can I sin against the commandments of God?'
'First point out to me one passage in the bible which prohibits polygamy,' said Hanslein; 'and what is not prohibited is allowed! The old beards, the patriarchs, always indulged themselves in that way. To be sure, when the wives come directly in each other's way, it may be a little stormy in the house, as father Abraham learned long ago to his sorrow; but, after all, you are the man to seize and hold the reins of government firmly, and to interfere decidedly, if your wives should show a disposition to kick out of the traces.'
Alf could not refrain from laughing at the chatterer, and finally said, 'I know not how you came by the conceit of advocating double marriages, but to a poacher like you, I should suppose it would be pleasanter to beat up game in the preserves of others.'
'There will remain enough for me on both sides of the hedge,' said Hanslein; 'and a handsome young man like you must be the first to follow any new fashion, especially so pleasant a one as this.'
'The chief prophet might disapprove of the new fashion,' said Alf; 'even according to our old laws, there is a heavy penalty against polygamy.'
'The chief prophet!' laughed Hanslein. 'The doctrine which I have just now been preaching to you came from his own mouth. How else could I have conversed so learnedly upon the subject?'
'The chief prophet!' cried Alf in amazement.
'Just so,' answered Hanslein. 'When he saw that I recognized him, he beckoned me to approach, and presented a purse of ducats to me, giving me at the same time an excellent lecture upon the duty of every christian to take more than one wife; it is a prerogative, said he, which God reserves for his holy children; and he intimated his determination to explain the matter to the community, and moreover that he would himself take fifteen wives, on account of the good example which he was bound to set the people.'
'This can never prosper!' thought Alf, shaking his head.
'What can be impossible to the godly tailor?' exclaimed Hanslein, swallowing the last glass. 'Farewell brother! I must now to the parade, and relieve the early morning watch. When I am at liberty, if you should indeed conclude to marry both of the damsels, then I ask it as a particular favor that I may be invited to the marriage feast.'
He bustled forth; but Alf remained sitting in a melancholy reverie. 'Even polygamy is now encouraged!' sighed he. 'Every good old moral custom is broken! How must it end?'
At the new gate, where the river Aa empties itself into the Ems, Alf had his watch as the chosen captain of the armorers. It was already deep night--he lay upon his field bed, and the images of Eliza and Clara were floating confusedly before his half closed eyes. Suddenly he heard the burgher sentinel hail some one, and immediately afterwards Hanslein stepped into the officers' quarters, wrapped in a mantle.
'What brings you here so late, brother?' asked Alf, springing up in astonishment.
'Mischief, my brother,' whispered Hanslein. 'I come in the name of the chief prophet. First of all, get your men quickly and quietly under arms, and let their guns be carefully loaded; double all the guards, and let strong patrols be sent out. The city is in danger from without and within!'
Alf proceeded silently to the large guard room, to execute the command; then, returning to his friend, he eagerly asked him the cause of the alarm.
'Polygamy,' answered Hanslein, of which we examined the pleasant bearings the day before yesterday has now turned out confoundedly serious. Early this morning while you were upon guard, the prophet Johannes Bockhold caused the populace to be drummed together and laid the hazardous question before them. An old burgher, who might already have had domestic trouble enough at home, coldly gave his opinion that the adoption of such a course would be warring against the bible and against all christendom. Thereupon Johannes, who cannot bear much contradiction, became furious, caused the old man to be seized on the spot, and made, by the aid of friend Knipperdolling, a head shorter. Such a mode of stating the counter argument was too sudden and too violent for the people. They laid their heads together here and there, and a number of malcontents determined, at a secret meeting, to give up the city to the episcopalians this night. But lord Johannes, who has a very fine nose, got wind of them in time. He has taken his measures yet more secretly than his foes, and Knipperdolling will do a fine business early in the morning.'
'Never-ending slaughters!' murmured Alf, sorrowfully. 'What we have gained is hardly an equivalent for the blood spilled in its attainment.'
'The tree of spiritual freedom,' said Hanslein ironically, shrugging his shoulders, 'must be properly watered, if you would have it grow and thrive.'
Meanwhile, the patrols having returned to the guard room, Hanslein went out to meet them. 'All right!' was the word from all sides. Only the detachment who had been scouring the out works, thought that they had heard a suspicious rustling of arms in the distance.
'And you went no nearer to see what was going on?' interrupted Alf: 'Then I must take a turn myself, and see what mischief is brewing. Forward!'
He and Hanslein carefully led the patrol through the little side-door out over the bridges. 'Stand here silently,' commanded Alf,--'I will go softly forward with the captain. As soon as you hear any noise, move quickly towards it.'
Alf and Hanslein now proceeded stealthily forward, constantly further and further, behind the angles of the outworks, carefully bending close to them. Suddenly they heard at a distance the clattering of spurs which rapidly approached.
'Let us conceal ourselves behind the palisades,' whispered Hanslein to Alf. They had hardly concealed themselves when the rattling of the spurred heels approached. The obscure forms of two men became visible in the darkness. They passed by the concealed friends and then stopped.
'That is the place,' said a deep bass voice. 'Give the sign, serjeant.' The other figure then raised his hand to his mouth, and repeated three times a clear-sounding tone imitating a bird-call.
'Now upon them!' cried Alf, springing from behind the palisades, seizing the first figure by the right arm with the strength of a bear, and placing his sword at his breast. At the same moment Hanslein dealt a powerful blow upon the second figure. 'Jesus Maria!' cried the latter, and instantly disappeared in the darkness.
'Coward! 'growled the other; but Alf mastered him. 'No noise, nor any attempt at resistance, or I shall be compelled to strike you down. You must follow us into the city.'
'Thus to end!' groaned the prisoner--and at that moment the first rays of the rising moon beamed over the edge of the horizon and threw their light upon the captive. He was a stately old cavalier, with a chain of honor over his shining silver harness, and a most venerable countenance, from which even his unhappy accident had not been able to drive the impress of determined spirit and courage.
Alf was troubled by his steady gaze, which excited emotions of respect and esteem. He looked inquiringly at Hanslein, who returned a similar glance, and both remained standing by their prisoner, as if by tacit agreement.
'Shall we deliver this noble form to the terrible Johannes?' at last asked Alf of his fellow soldier.
'It would certainly make me very unhappy to see this head fall under the axe of the executioner,' murmured Hanslein.
'You think and feel as I do, brother,' cried Alf, joyfully. 'Therefore pursue your way in peace, sir colonel, or whatever else you may chance to be. We will have no part in the shedding of your blood!'
'Shall I have to thank anabaptists for my life and liberty?' asked the knight, half indignant and half astonished.
'Accept it, however,' said Alf, 'and with it the proof that the people of Munster are not all such monsters as you may have believed until now. If this friendly service appears to you to be thankworthy, you can repay it with like clemency when one of our brethren falls into your hands.'
'That will I, comrade, by my word,' answered the knight, much affected. 'To prove that my feelings are equally good toward you, I invite you to follow me into our camp. People of your stamp are not in their right place in that den of wild beasts, who sooner or later must come to an ignominious end.'
'Spare your words,' answered Alf. 'We hold fast to our faith.'
'And have divers cogent reasons besides,' said Hanslein, (grasping his neck in a manner not to be misunderstood,) 'to decline the honor of visiting the lord bishop.'
'Our men approach,' said Alf, looking toward the city. 'Depart, sir knight, before it is too late.'
'God teach you the right path, poor erring wanderers,' said the knight, compassionately, as he hastened away.
Scolding as he went, Alf approached his troops. 'Were you not ordered to advance upon the first alarm?' growled he. 'Heard you not when I gave the word for the onset? Had you been there, as it was your duty to have been, we should have taken an episcopalian field officer. He has escaped to his followers, and we must hasten back to the city, lest we be finally cut off and taken prisoners.'
The honest Munsterers exculpated themselves in the best way they could, entreating that their oversight might not be made known to the grim prophet; and with drooping heads followed the two friends back into the city.
An alarm, as if the world were sinking, was now raised in Munster. The bells rung, the drums beat, and the armed masses ran together, filling the air with their wild shouts. Alf and Hanslein mounted the wall over the gate and looked down upon the city, in the streets of which torches were every where blazing. From the market before St. Lambert's church the light of an immense fire arose to the heavens, and the sounds of a horrible shouting and screaming as from many thousands came thence over the city.
'This is a dreadful night,' said Alf, leaning sadly upon his sword.
'If I should say,' observed Hanslein, 'that the appearance of the city was particularly pleasing to me, I should tell a falsehood. Were it not for my unlucky affair with the serjeant, I would have gone to the episcopalian camp with the field officer, in God's name.'
Finally, a certain degree of order seemed to prevail in the chaos about the market place, although like every thing there, it was of a horrible nature. To a short, ferocious yell of the populace succeeded a profound and terrible pause--then cracked a volley of musketry, and then again another pause--and so alternately screams, pauses and reports of fire-arms, until Hanslein had counted twenty volleys.
'What can that musketry mean?' asked Alf in an undertone, with some misgivings as to the nature of the proceedings.
'Master Johannes may just now be undertaking to sift his flock,' said Hanslein.
'Must it then be,' exclaimed Alf with bitter grief, 'that by every revolution, although intended to promote the welfare of the whole people, men must be placed at the head who have no hearts in their bodies, and who rule by destroying the lives of their brethren!'
'It appears so, answered Hanslein; 'Whoever is placed at the head by popular commotions, must himself be a bold demagogue who has no property, character or conscience to lose. To leap over every obstacle and ward off every danger by the destruction of a dozen or two of his fellow men, is nothing at all to him. People like you, my brother, would make right good leaders, for which nothing is really requisite but vigor, honesty and sound sense; but honest people draw back from such opportunities from a want of self confidence, and thereby give the devils free scope to do evil, which is very wrong!'
Alf, reminded by this conversation of Tuiskoshirer's rejected crown, and of old Fabricius's prophecy, at last sorrowfully exclaimed, 'in an unhappy hour came I home, to my native city!' and proceeded to join the guard.
The next morning, when Alf's guard was relieved, he marched his men by the market place. Horrible was the sight which there awaited him. The square before St. Lambert's church was converted into an immense slaughter yard, and filled with human flesh. A great number of unfortunates were bound to stakes and shot through; a part of whom had bled out their lives, and a part were still writhing and twisting in the agonies of the death struggle. Others lay upon the bloody pavement, some hacked to pieces with the sword and some beheaded, The ranting Knipperdolling in his robes of office, his face flushed, with naked and blood-sprinkled arms, was continually and unweariedly swinging his broad executioner's sword over victims, who, either voluntarily or forced by armed men, were kneeling before him.
'Left wheel!' commanded Alf, averting his eyes; and he led his men through side-streets and by-ways to the company's parade ground.
As the men were separating, and Alf proceeding to his own quarters, he was met by poor Clara, who came to him, her eyes red with weeping, and with despair depicted on her countenance.
'Will you grant me a private conversation?' said she; 'it concerns my life--and though you may deem that of little consequence, still your heart is too good not to feel a sympathy for an unfortunate being, whose last hope is in your protection.'
'In God's name, what is going forward?' asked Alf, alarmed, leading the maiden into the garden adjoining the house. 'Speak, dear Clara, and open your heart to me. My blood for thee!'
'The chief prophet and the twelve judges,' answered Clara, 'have published a mandate, by which a plurality of wives is not only allowed but commanded. Not to avail one's self of this spiritual license, is deemed a crime. Spies search all houses and drag forth the marriageable maidens; who are compelled to marry instantly. I hoped to find a defence of my maiden honor in my insignificance; but the hideous Tuiskoshirer has selected me for his third wife. Rather than consummate my ruin by giving my hand to that disgusting madman, I would jump into the river Aa, and there find an end to my life and my afflictions.'
'With God's help,' cried Alf, 'you shall neither jump into the river, Clara, nor into Tuiskoshirer's arms; in which indeed you might find worse repose. Is the old wizard mad, that he lifts his eyes to so pretty a maiden?'
'There is but one way left for my deliverance,' said Clara. 'You are to many my sister, dear brother-in-law--wherefore I beg of you to bestow upon me, out of compassion, the name of one of your wives, that it may protect me from the impudence of his hateful assaults. Understand me rightly,' added she, earnestly;' I ask to be one of your wives inname only. This relation shall give neither to you nor me new duties nor new rights--and when the fate of this unhappy city once changes, then shall we two in no respect be bound to each other.'
'Such an apparent marriage only, will be but little pleasant to either party,' replied Alf. 'Should you not rather find in Munster some young handsome fellow, with whom you may be married in a proper and orderly manner, according to the commandments of God?'
'God preserve me from men!' cried Clara, a deep crimson suddenly suffusing her pale cheeks. 'After what I have here witnessed they have all become my detestation. Even you I select only upon irresistible compulsion, and because the connection can be so arranged that I may be called by your name without belonging to you.'
'This courtship is certainly not particularly polite, my little Clara,' said Alf; 'but before you leap into the water with me, it is necessary that I should say yes. I wish I could have first explained the matter properly to your sister--I know not whether the imperious damsel will be so willing to accommodate herself to the new decree of the twelve judges.'
'The life of her sister is at stake,' cried Clara, in deep agony, 'who will most willingly remain a maiden after, as before, and renounce every right to even a friendly look from her husband.'
'It will be a strange marriage,' mustered Alf, rubbing his hands in much perplexity; 'nevertheless let us trust in God. It would be well, if these times produced nothing more wonderful in old Munster.'
'There comes the monster! Protect me, Kippenbrock!' shrieked Clara, hiding her face in Alf's bosom.
Alf looked up and saw Eliza conducting Tuiskoshirer into the garden. After him pressed a ragged and armed multitude.
'Whatever you may do, my brother,' howled the prophet, 'I yet cannot desert you. Our names must stand near each other in the book of the Spirit. You have contemptuously rejected the alliance which I proposed to you out of the goodness of my heart; nevertheless, to-day I propose a new band which shall bind us both in brotherhood. I ask for the sister of your betrothed, dear brother-in-law, and desire to take her home with me as my christian wife.'
'I regret, my brother,' said Alf, encircling Clara with his arms, 'that you come too late. In obedience to the new law, I have asked the maiden to become my second wife, and have obtained her consent.'
'Indeed!' escaped from the proud Eliza, while she bit her lips and darted a not altogether sisterly glance at the poor Clara.
'Heigh!' stammered Tuiskoshirer, in a tone of mingled fear and anger.
'Your courtship take precedence of that of the great prophet Tuiskoshirer!' cried one of the ragged bridal train, springing towards Clara, seizing her by the arm and endeavoring forcibly to drag her to her detested suitor. Alf instantly seized him by the body and with a powerful swing threw him over the garden fence. 'Who else will interfere?' cried he, lustily, making after the multitude, who in great trepidation were seeking the door.
'An insolent reply was all that I wanted,' snarled Tuiskoshirer, as he followed his retreating rabble.
'Sister and sister-in-law at the same time?' asked Eliza in a tone of bitterness, pointing towards Clara. 'I might at least have been previously informed of it,' said she, leaving the garden in a rage.
'Necessity knows no law, dear Eliza,' pleaded Alf, following her.
'It is a heavy duty which I have taken upon me,' said Clara to herself, 'to preserve the appearance of coldness toward the man whom I love better than all the world beside; but God will help me.'