its hidden
beauties and great store of riches. Leading him from chapel to cloister,
and through chamber after chamber, they came at length to a door which
they said contained the richest sight of all; and one of them, unlocking
the door, invited the citizen to enter. No sooner had he crossed the
threshold than the thick portal was closed suddenly upon him, and, at
the same moment, he heard the roar of some wild animal, and saw fixed
upon him two fierce eyes gleaming with hunger and savage rage.

Hermann Grynn was a man for emergencies. Rapidly twisting his cloak
around his left arm, and drawing his short sword, he prepared for the
attack; nor had he long to wait. With a growl of triumph, a huge animal
sprang upon him with open jaws; but with admirable coolness the hero
received his assailant upon the guarded arm, and, whilst the brute
ground its teeth into the cloak, he thrust his sword into its heart.
Searching around the chamber, he was aware of a window concealed by a
shutter, and, opening this, he looked forth into the streets, where a
great crowd was collected around a priest, who went along telling some
tale which seemed to move the people to deep grief. As the throng drew
nearer, he listened eagerly, and heard with surprise "how the good
burgess Hermann Grynn, the friend of the people, and the well-beloved
ally of the Church, had without advice sought a chamber where a lion was
in durance, and had fallen a sacrifice to his unhappy curiosity."
Burning with rage and a determination to expose the treachery of the
priests, he waited till the crowd came beneath the window from which he
looked; and then, dashing the glass into a thousand pieces, he attracted
attention to the spot, and, leaning half out of the opening, displayed
his well-known cap in one hand and his bloody sword in the other. He
was almost too high to be heard, but the faint echo of his war-cry was
enough to convince the people of his identity, and with one voice they
shouted: "To the rescue!" Forcing their way into the cathedral, they
quickly released their leader, and, learning from him the story of cruel
treachery, the two priests were ferreted from their hiding-places, and
hanged by the neck in the room over the body of the dead lion. To this
day the portal they slammed on Hermann Grynn is known as the _Pfaffen
Thor_,--the priest's door,--whilst over the gate of the venerable town
hall of Cologne may yet be seen, graven in stone, the fight of the
c