Munster continued to sustain herself with a resolution worthy of a better cause. At the imperial diet at Worms, which the Romish king Ferdinand opened in April, 1536, great sums were granted to the besieging bishop, to enable him to support the war; but as the payments were made very irregularly, the scarcity of money kindled a revolt among the mercenary soldiery in the bishop's camp, who would no longer serve without pay. Nor was it without great trouble and peril to the commander that the insurrection could be suppressed. With such troublesome troops, offensive warfare was not deemed prudent. Consequently, the besiegers confined themselves to the continuance of the blockade, and to drawing their lines closer and closer, so as completely to shut up the unfortunate city and deprive it of supplies and assistance.
Constantly increasing suffering in the city, was the consequence of this course. The poorer classes, obliged to subsist upon roots, herbs, bark, and leaves, swarmed about the king with sunken eyes and haggard faces, whenever he passed through the streets in lordly dignity, and howled for bread. The royal courtiers themselves were compelled to accept such small portions as could be spared from the table where sat the king with his fourteen wives and principal officers.
In vain did the bishop call upon the citizens to surrender the city, under promise of full pardon for all except the king and a few of his principal accomplices. The fear of the terrible Johannes was stronger than the ardent desire for deliverance which had now arisen in many hearts. In vain did the landgrave of Hesse, by a special embassy to his brother in the faith, endeavor to bring him to reason. The king, to prove how much greater a man he was than the landgrave, refused to give audience to his ambassadors, and thus compelled them to leave their business unaccomplished.
Meanwhile the eight and twenty prophets had arrived at the cities of their destination, and had preached their customary fanatical nonsense with frantic zeal. The magistrates, warned by the example of Munster, were vigilant and energetic. The brawlers were every where arrested and questioned as to their doctrines; and, as they stubbornly maintained their faith, were immediately beheaded. Only one of them, Heinrich Hilversum, obtained deliverance. He was imprisoned by the bishop of Munster, bought his liberty with the promise that he would act as a spy in the rebel city, and returned back to the king. He related how an angel had delivered him from imprisonment and commanded him to announce to the king that Amsterdam, Wesel, and Deventer would come under his sceptre if he would send more prophets there.
These were sweet sounds to the ears of the king. He immediately sent out prophets, among whom were Johann von Seelen and Johann von Kempen, to those beautiful and important cities, to convert and win them for himself. The smooth-tongued Hilversum, however, he took into his own palace, clothed him in his ash-grey and green court-livery, charged the officers of the court to attend him, entrusted him with considerable sums, and, in short, confided to him the duty of negotiating with those from whom aid and assistance were expected from without.
With these presents Hilversum went over to the bishop on the first convenient opportunity; leaving a letter in Munster exhorting the citizens to desert the impostor and return to their old religion and their rightful lord.
This event touched the king in the tenderest point; as it tended to destroy the belief in the infallibility of his inspiration with those who were yet able to see. To a portion of the inhabitants of the distressed city it now appeared clear, that they had become the slaves of a wicked impostor, who was leading them to destruction; but the fear of the monster was stronger than this just conviction, and the king, comprehending that fear was the only lever now remaining to him, made the utmost use of it, and thenceforth, like Draco, he wrote his laws in blood. No punishment milder than death awaited disobedience to the least of his commands. Alf, notwithstanding, in his new situation, strove to shield, defend, and rescue the sufferers; yet new victims fell daily, and the slavish population daily trembled more and more before their cowardly and tyrannical tailor-king.
Meanwhile Alf went on, truly and honorably discharging the duties of his office, although, after the first arrangement had been effected he had given up the personal guard of the royal bedchamber to other officers, reserving to himself only a general nightly superintendance; and the cruel Johannes passed his nights under as good a defence as if angels with flaming swords had guarded him. His office, however, daily called the youth to the palace, and he could not but perceive that the magnificent Gertrude often threw herself in his way. She evidently loved the beautiful youth as only an unprincipled woman can love,--and her passion had nothing to combat but the fear of the sultan of the harem, whose discovery of the least infidelity would have brought instant death upon the guilty. Yet so powerful was her passion that it conquered even this fear.
At one of those intoxicating court festivals with which the king sought to stupify himself and those about him, Alf was standing to take breath after a brisk dance, with his hands behind him, when suddenly he felt a warm soft pressure of his right hand, a piece of paper being simultaneously slipped into it, and a moment afterwards the first queen stepped forward from behind him, giving him a significant glance as she passed. He left the room immediately, and by the nearest lamp in the corridor read the following words:--
'An hour after midnight, in the upper passage on the left; the first door.'
Hastening back to the dancing-hall, his glowing cheeks and triumphant carriage immediately betrayed to the beauteous syren, that he had read and comprehended her billet.
Meanwhile the midnight hour struck. Gertrude was suddenly attacked by a headache and suffered her attendants to lead her to her chamber. The king smilingly whispered a word to Eliza, which caused a flush to pass over her cheeks, and which she answered with downcast eyes. The assembly gradually departed, and Alf, lost in pleasing dreams, proceeded to his dwelling.
He found the devoted little Clara yet patiently waiting for him, occupying herself at the spinning wheel; her now constantly bright eyes a little dimmed; but whether from late watching, or weeping, or from both together, he could not exactly decide.
'I began to think you were not coming home tonight,' said the maiden in a friendly tone, which yet had something of sadness in it.
'The dancing to-night continued unusually late,' replied Alf; casting a glance at the mirror, and coming to the conclusion that he was right worthy of the beauteous queen, he proudly pressed his richly plumed cap over his eyes.
Meanwhile Clara had lighted his chamber lamp and handed it to him.
'I am going out again immediately, dear Clara,' said Alf, with some little embarrassment. 'I came merely to tell you, that you might not sit up all night waiting for me.'
'You are going out again?' asked Clara, looking intently at him. 'This is not your time for guard duty.'
'The feast of to-day has disturbed all our arrangements,' stammered Alf with embarrassment. 'I must actually go to the palace once more to-night.'
Clara seized his hand with both of hers, and with her mild honest eyes gave him a piercing look. His guilty conscience deprived him of the power to meet her gaze. 'Kippenbrock,' cried she, suddenly alarmed, 'are you not going for some wicked purpose?'
'You are already dreaming, from having watched so long, my child. Go to bed, pretty one,' said Alf, bending down to kiss the maiden as he wished her good night; a friendly habit in which he had for some time indulged. But Clara avoided his embrace, saying earnestly to him, 'not this evening, dear Kippenbrock, all is not as it should be.'
'You are a little simpleton!' cried he half indignantly, and hastened forth as if he wished to run away from the 'unpleasant feelings her suspicions had given him. As the third quarter after midnight struck, he stood by the stove, closely wrapped in his mantle, in the upper passage way of the palace, watching with anxious eyes, by the dim light of the almost expiring lamps, the first door on the left. Finally, the hour struck, and still no door was opened.
'It is in reality a great wrong for me to be standing here,' said Alf to himself. 'Let the king now be what he may, and do what he will, yet I have once for all acknowledged him as my lord, and this Gertrude is his wife. It is the duty of my office to preserve order and propriety in the royal palace, which I in intention am so vile as to violate. Moreover, I encroach upon the rights of the good Clara, who so secretly and tenderly loves me, and whom I should look upon as my affianced bride. Did she but know that I was standing here waiting for the creaking of that door, she would weep her eyes out of her head; and she even appeared to suspect some intrigue. Her manner toward me appeared very strange at my departure. Good God! with what face shall I appear before her in the morning! No! it is settled,--the beautiful Gertrude shall wait for me in vain, and thus shall we both be spared a sin.'
On the subsequent morning Alf was standing in the king's anti-chamber awaiting his commands for the day. There came the high bailiff Krechting, a raging fanatic, a true second Johannes, with some soldiers who were dragging along two of the royal pages, bound. Alf perceived by their faces, which hunger and affliction had paled and emaciated, that they were the two whom he had rescued from the hands of Matthias, and compassionately asked the bailiff what crime the poor children had committed.
'We caught them in the outworks,' answered the bailiff fiercely, 'as they were attempting to escape to their old lord, the bishop. Announce us to the king, brother officer.'
'Alas! dear lord,' said one of the boys, weeping; 'we have certainly done nothing; but we could no longer hold out for hunger.'
'This affair might well be overlooked,' said Alf. 'To announce the children to the king is to lead them to death,--and I do not wish to take upon ray conscience such bloodguiltiness.'
The bailiff gave him a venomous look and hastily stepped into the royal apartment. He soon made a signal at the door, and the soldiers dragged the boys in after him. Immediately a loud noise was heard within,--the king stormed, the boys wept and plead pitifully, and amidst all arose Eliza's supplicating voice. 'For our love's sake, Johannes, only for this time let mercy take the place of justice!' Simultaneously were heard the lamentations of the two boys. Alf heard two hard falls upon the floor, and, as if drawn by some irresistible power, he pushed into the apartment.
What horrors had been perpetrated! The two boys lay dead upon the floor, the king strode before them with his sword drawn, and at his feet lay Eliza, who loosed her arms from his knees and sprang up. Excited by the cruelty of her husband, and by her having pleaded in vain against what he had done, the proud woman now exclaimed in the bitterest tone, 'I do not believe, Johannes, that our God is served by the calamities you have brought upon this people.'
Krechting absolutely screamed with amazement at the audacious speech. The king, however, merely gave Eliza a cold, satanic glance, and quietly said to her, 'in the market-place will I answer thee upon that matter.' Turning then to Alf, 'let my wives and my whole court be summoned hither!' commanded he him. 'Also let my trumpeters and fifers assemble,--we would move to the market-place, where I have to-day to exercise my judicial office before the whole people. Thou wilt accompany me, Kippenbrock, with thy whole band.'
This strange solemnity excited various evil forebodings in the mind of Alf, and with a heavy heart he proceeded to execute the king's commands.
The multitude crowded the market-place, waiting to see what new thing was to be done there. Then sounded in the distance a solemn funeral march from the trumpets and horns, and duke Hanslein with his soldiers formed a wide circle to admit the king and his household.
Next came the procession. After the music followed Alf, with a division of his guards; then the king, and then the high bailiff; between them, yet in her night-gown, pale and tottering, with streaming hair and folded hands, Eliza. After these followed the stately Gertrude, the other wives, and the persons connected with the court. Another division of the guards closed.
At a signal from the king, Krechting stepped reverently back and the thirteen wives formed a circle about their lord and Eliza. 'Kneel down, ye pure!' thundered the king, and the circle of women fell upon their knees; in an instant the king's sword glistened in the air and Eliza's head flew from its bloody trunk!
'Accursed murderer,' screamed Alf, frantic with grief and terror at the wholly unexpected death of the once so well beloved woman, and sprang forward with high waving sword to hew down the king where he stood. The faithful Hanslein caught his upraised arm. 'Good colonel,' cried he, 'it was only yesterday that you were sick with a fever, and now the paroxysms have returned again. Help me, friends, to overpower him and bear him to his house where he can be taken care of.'
He was seized by the guards from all sides, and notwithstanding his furious opposition, was soon disarmed and carried away.
'The person who has been judged has blasphemed the Spirit as manifested through her king and husband,' said Johannes, to the people. 'She had in a spiritual sense broken her marriage vows, and well deserved her punishment. Give to God the glory!'
The remaining thirteen wives rose up and with clear voices sang, 'Glory to God in the highest!' The horns and the trumpets triumphantly fell in. The king seized Gertrude's hand and commenced a merry dance with her upon the open market-place. The other wives and the courtiers followed the high example. The poor infatuated people likewise joined in the dance and sprang actively about, notwithstanding their empty stomachs; and from all mouths arose the cry of jubilee; 'glory be to God in the highest!'
The disease which Hanslein had invented, in his well intended eagerness to save Alf, had seized him in good earnest. The disquiet of mind in which the youth had been kept through the most diverse and almost always terrible occurrences,--the storm, so every way affecting, which had lacerated the deepest recesses of his heart,--above all, the daily increasing conviction of the flagitiousness of the new doctrines to which he had adhered so strongly,--and the remorse of conscience for the part which he had acted,--all this had destroyed the freshness of his youthful vigor; and only the tension in which his mind was kept by the constantly recurring horrors of every succeeding day, gave him the artificial support, which had hitherto kept him up. The last act of Johannes, the tender interest which Alf still felt for the fair victim, and the frustration of his just vengeance upon the infamous murderer, had weighed down the poor youth with resistless power, and he lay many weeks in Trutlinger's house in a high fever, carefully waited upon and nursed by the pale and pensive Clara.
The energies of youth finally prevailed over the fever. When once the crisis had passed, his strength returned as quickly as it had flown; and Alf had even left his room for the first time, to enjoy the mild air and warm sun of summer, when he encountered his friend Hanslein, who, in spite of all resistance, cordially embraced and congratulated him on his recovery.
'Go thy way!' said Alf, angrily. 'With the defender of tyrants I have no more to do in this life.'
'Always precipitate,' laughed Hanslein; 'and always letting your heart run away with your head. It was ever your way when a boy. I considered for you better than you considered for yourself. The poor queen once dead, we could do nothing more to help her. You might indeed have destroyed the king, but the fanatical people would have torn you to pieces for it on the spot; that would have been paying a greater price than his majesty's life was worth. Nor would Munster have gained any thing. Knipperdolling & Co. would have possessed themselves of the government, and it would thereby have remained the executioner's head quarters as before. I have therefore preserved you for greater things, which, now that you are so well upon your legs again, we may soon see.'
Alf looked inquiringly at his friend, and suffered himself to be led by him back to his own sitting room and to be seated upon a stool.
'The affairs of Munster stand badly,' said Hanslein. 'The famine increases, and I see the moment very near when the unhappy people will be driven to despair. Succor is not to be expected. At Bolswart in Friesland, the strongest power of the anabaptists had been collected, and would soon have marched to our aid; but the governor of Friesland surrounded the place with his forces, and after four assaults forced it, putting almost the whole population to the sword. In Amsterdam, von Kempen and von Seelen have done their best to bring us aid. As the council and chief burghers of the cross-guild retired from the council-room, our people stormed the city hall, overpowered all who opposed them, and the burgomasters, Peter Colyn and Simon Bute, were left dead upon the spot; but the burgomaster Goswin Rekalf collected the citizens, a severely contested battle ensued, and our people were slain, or taken and executed, including poor Kempen, who had caused himself to be declared bishop of Amsterdam. Seelen exposed himself upon the tower of the city hall, where he was afterwards shot down and fell dead upon the market place. With him expired our last hope.'
'Oh God, will these horrors never end?' sighed Alf, casting his eyes toward heaven.
'Here probably soon,' said Hanslein; 'but it will be a fearful end. The city must shortly surrender, and then the lord bishop Franciscus may not treat us more mildly than king Johannes has hitherto done. I have least reason to hope for pardon then, and have therefore determined to go back to my old master immediately. I have discovered a place through which an escape from the city can be made. By the same way I trust I can lead the troops of the enemy into Munster, and with this secret I intend to purchase my peace with the bishop. Will you make the experiment with me this night? The sentinels now upon the night posts sleep away their hunger and will not hinder us.'
'My father's house is a house of prayer,' said Alf, after musing a long time; 'but you have made it a den of murderers. Yes, the originally pure doctrine of the anabaptists might perhaps have been a glorious gift from the merciful hand of God;--but the monsters, who preach it to us, have so perverted it according to their own wicked purposes, and shed so much blood in its name, that its noble image can no longer be recognized. A doctrine which empowers a Johannes to rage among mankind like a famished wolf among defenceless lambs, cannot come from God. I disclaim it. May God forgive me that I also have labored and fought for a cause which must have been wicked, since it elevated the bad and destroyed the good.'
'Thou wilt accompany me then!' asked Hanslein, giving his hand a friendly pressure.
'If Clara can and will go with us,' answered Alf. 'I have loved her uncle, whom they shot, and cannot leave her behind in a city upon which all the horrors of war are soon to fall.'
At that moment Clara entered the room to set before the guest what the house afforded at a time when provisions outweighed gold,--a cup of water and a slice of bread with salt.
'You come to us too confidingly, young lady,' said Hanslein jestingly, while he helped himself. 'We have evil thoughts concerning you,--we have an idea of taking you out of Munster.'
'Ah, would to God!' sighed the maiden.
'The jest is earnest,' said Alf. 'This night I and my friend intend to leave Munster, if you will accompany us, my little Clara.'
'Through the whole world!' cried Clara with heartfelt fervor. 'Whom have I on earth beside you?'
'So then the thing is settled,' cried Hanslein. 'Prepare yourselves for the journey; but do not encumber yourselves with needless baggage. No armor, Alf. A short sword will be sufficient for all emergencies. Clara had better put on male attire--there will be some places difficult to climb, and I cannot allow any thing that might prove an obstacle to the rapidity of our movements. Hold yourselves in readiness; for I shall come for you precisely at midnight.' He departed. Intoxicated with joy at the near approach of her deliverance, Clara threw her arms affectionately around the youth and cried, 'with you out of this place of torment, dear Alf! Now for the first time I have reason to hope that there is earthly happiness in store for me yet.'
Softly creeping by the sleeping sentinels, climbing walls and wading through ditches, the three fugitives proceeded in the dead of the night, until they finally found themselves in freedom; and then with fresh confidence they moved onward toward the besiegers' camp fires.
Soon a clattering of arms was heard near them, and a rough voice cried, 'Who goes there?'
'I have no desire to be caught here,' whispered Hanslein to Alf; 'for in that case I should get no credit for my voluntary return, which I particularly need on account of old scores. Wherefore I must endeavor to reach the bishop through indirect paths, while you boldly go straight forward.'
'Who goes there?' cried the challenger much louder.
'A friend!' answered Alf, whilst Hanslein went off to the right with great rapidity; 'deserters from Munster!' and in a moment he and the trembling Clara were surrounded by a squad of soldiers.
'Deserters?' asked the serjeant who led the squad. 'It is a question whether that title will save your lives. In these days a thousand Munsterers have come out, men, women and children, and a good part of the men were cut down as they came in, by the bishop's command.'
'It is the curse of these combats for opinion,' said Alf, sorrowfully, 'that even those, who are on the right side, are provoked to do wrong by the crimes of their opponents--and then other crimes are the consequence, until the horrible chain of wickedness is closed by the conversion of men into relentless destroyers, in whose breasts the voice of religion and mercy is stifled.'
'You talk it as solemnly,' sneered the serjeant, 'as if you were one of the prophets of Munster. First of all give up your sword and follow us into the camp, together with your boy. The bishop must decide upon your case.'
'I wish previously to be conducted to your field captain,' said Alf in a decided tone.
'You speak as if you were our captain instead of our prisoner,' snarled the serjeant. 'It will be necessary first to ascertain, whether the lord general will permit you to be brought to him. For the present, forward, march!'
'God preserve us!' softly murmured the timid Clara, clinging closely to her protector.
'Do not be alarmed, my little Clara,' said Alf, consolingly. 'All will go well.' They proceeded with the soldiers rapidly towards the camp.
A fine June morning was shining upon the camp, as Alf and Clara stood waiting with their escort before the tent of the commander in chief. There came out of the tent a tall, meagre clergyman, in his black clerical dress. He started when he saw the youth, and asked the serjeant, 'who are these people?'
'Deserters from Munster,' answered the serjeant, 'whom we found last night. They insist upon seeing the general.'
The preacher having closely scrutinized Alf, who stood there absorbed in his own reflections, approached and spoke to him, taking his hand in the most friendly manner. 'Do I see you again as a deserter? Now, God be praised, my prophecy is fulfilled!'
'Reverend doctor!' cried Alf in joyful surprise, as he recognised the good Fabricius.
'So, the disorders in the new Zion have become too great for you?' asked the latter. 'I only wonder that you had not come to the conclusion long ago,--that with your heart and head you could for so long a time have been a contented observer of their pagan cruelty.'
'When Germans have once become united with a ruler chosen by themselves, worthy sir,' answered Alf, 'they can be disunited only by hard blows, else they will hang fast to him until death.'
'The hard blows, I perceive, have been given and received,' said Fabricius. 'So you have again become one of us.'
'With all my heart and soul,' answered Alf with great ardor.
'We will leave the remainder of this for the confessional, where I may soon expect you,' said Fabricius. 'At present I must exert myself to prepare for you a good reception from the commanding general.'
Again most cordially shaking Alf's hand, he passed into the tent. Shortly afterward the youth and his girl-boy were bid to enter. Lord Oberstein was sitting with the doctor at the field table, taking his morning draught.
'Come nearer!' commanded the general, sternly.
'What have you to disclose to me?'
The voice of the questioner satisfied Alf, that it was the commander in chief whom he had caught and released on a former night; he however concealed this recognition.
'To make an end of the calamities of the city,' answered he, 'I am prepared to show your soldiers a way to enter Munster--the same way by which I have myself quitted it.'
'I recognise that voice!' cried Oberstein, springing up, and stepping directly in front of the youth. 'We have met before,' said he; 'it surely was in the outworks before the new gate, by moonlight. You were the officer who took me prisoner and then let me run? Is it not so?'
'I was very glad,' answered Alf, 'that it was in my power to save so old and merry a warrior.'
'And now are you willing to deliver the city to me?' proceeded Oberstein; 'to make a short ending to her long sufferings? You make me doubly your debtor; your reward shall be great.'
'Of myself little need be said,' answered Alf. 'My conditions are only pardon for myself and my companion, and that the conqueror of the city shall distinguish between the miscreants who have wilfully erred, and those who with honest intentions have been led astray, and spare the latter.'
'We must act according to the instructions of the diet of Worms,' said Oberstein. 'Whoever has not belonged to the leaders, and come not against us in arms, to them is given life and freedom.'
'Then should the lord bishop,' boldly replied Alf, 'have extended mercy to the unhappy refugees who have lately been fleeing from the city.'
'The bishop was exceedingly exasperated by events which accompanied the revolution!' answered the general, shrugging his shoulders; 'and an angry man does not always what is right in the sight of God.'
His eyes now fell upon Clara, who had timidly placed herself in an angle of the tent near the door.
'Who is that pretty boy?' asked he. 'Some one of the bishop's pages? It is to be hoped so. Two pages were made prisoners by the anabaptists and carried off at the time they attacked our camp at the beginning of the siege. To one of them particularly the worthy bishop was attached by a truly paternal affection.'
'Those boys have also fallen a sacrifice to the barbarity of the king,' answered Alf. 'This maiden is the sister of the queen Eliza, who paid with her head for having lamented the murder of the innocents.'
'Great God, what an accumulation of crime!' cried Oberstein, while Fabricius with upraised finger reprovingly asked, 'have you brought with you a maiden in man's attire? Must there not yet remain something of the old anabaptist leaven in you, which may in time again leaven the whole lump, destroying your morals for time and eternity?'
'All in honor, dear doctor,' protested Alf; 'and I shall have to request you, as soon as may be convenient, to unite me in honorable marriage with this blameless maiden, who is my beloved and betrothed bride.'
'That alters the case,' said Fabricius, affectionately patting Clara's velvet cheeks. 'May God keep us in the good old order.'
'The lord bishop's reverend and princely grace,' said an episcopalian officer, stepping in, 'sends his compliments to the lord general and politely requests him to repair immediately to his presence. An anabaptist prisoner has brought before him some matters of consequence, which demand a sudden meeting of the council.'
'Yon shall accompany me there,' said Oberstein to Alf.
'But where shall I remain?' anxiously whispered Clara to her betrothed.
'May I be permitted to confide the maiden to your care, worthy sir?' asked Alf of the doctor.
'I will foster and protect her like a beloved daughter,' answered Fabricius, taking Clara by the hand, and with a light heart the youth then followed the general.
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.
Yielding to the voice of clemency, the worthy Oberstein sent messengers into the city to admonish them to surrender and save the lives of the starving people; but the answer which orator Rothman gave in the presence of the king, was, like the preceding one, the sending back of the messengers with a paraphrase of the passage in the prophet Daniel of the four ferocious beasts, in the description of which, he said, the bishop might easily learn to know himself.
The last of mercy's sands had finally run, and the next night was determined on for the attack. It was on the 13th of June, 1533, an hour before midnight, that Hanslein, in perfect silence, led five hundred volunteers through the shallow place in the ditch and thence upon the walls. The sleeping sentinels were cut down, and the detachment reached the little gate without hindrance. This was broken down and the soldiers rushed into the city. The alarm was, however, now given. The armed burghers, who had hastily collected, beat back the last of the entering troops, closed, and occupied the gate, and then attacked with redoubled rage those who had already entered. An hour and a half they endured the bloody onslaught in the dark, until Hanslein with the rest of his band broke through the nearest weakly guarded gate. The commander in chief, guided by Alf, waited for this event with the main force; and, as the gate was burst open from within and its wings flew asunder, the bishop's troops poured with loud cries into the city. The victory was not, however, yet won. Each footstep in advance was at the expense of much blood of the half starved fanatics; and when finally Oberstein with resistless power forced them back, they retired only towards the market-place at St. Lambert's church; there once more to make a stand. Here was the king, who had suddenly sprung from his bed, with the best of his people, and this availed to renew the fight. Bloodily the red morning rose upward over the promiscuous slaughter; and the battle, now that friends and enemies could rightly discern each other, became regular; by which the anabaptists gained nothing. Alf kept himself constantly at the side of the general, only defending himself when necessary, as he did not like to draw his sword against his fellow citizens; but now, amid the tumult, he caught a glimpse of the infamous Johannes as he was stimulating his troops to the fight. Then the wrath of the youth kindled into a mightier flame. 'Eliza!' cried he, urging his horse to the place occupied by the king. Right and left the foot-soldiers were overthrown before the hoofs of his springing charger, and he soon approached the spot. 'Eliza!' cried he once again, as he reached the king,--and, as if he did not hold the monster worthy a soldier's blade, he struck him so heavily on his mailed breast with the hilt of his sword, that he shrunk almost double. Then, with a strong hand, he lifted the swooning king from his horse, and taking him like a stolen maiden before himself on the pummel of his saddle, darted back to the commander in chief. 'I bring you here the torch of this unrighteous war,' said he. 'Dispose of him as you deem proper.'
'The bishop has expressly reserved to himself,' answered Oberstein, with sad earnestness, 'the duty of deciding on the fate of the leaders. Therefore take a sufficient number of men; let the wretch be strongly chained, and hold him in close custody. I shall require him at your hands when the proper time arrives. You may safely count upon your reward.'
The battle had continued until now. Orator Rothman, observing the capture of the king, and despairing of the fortune of the day, precipitated himself, sword in hand, upon the thickest crowds of the enemy, that he might not fall into their hands alive; and fell, bravely fighting, more honorably than he had lived. Knipperdolling and Krechting having disappeared, the rest of the anabaptists, deprived of their frantic leaders, and terrified by the universal massacre, threw away their arms and begged for quarter, which the commander in chief immediately granted. The worthy old general gazed sorrowfully upon the dead and dying, who deluged the marketplace with their blood, and upon the pale, meagre countenances, distorted by the sufferings they had experienced, of those who were left; and observed with heartfelt compassion, 'poor fools, you might have obtained pardon at a cheaper rate!'