er conscience to say "No." Her heart beat
quickly; a certain feeling of pride arose within her; a consciousness
of superiority to all the ills that flesh is heir to pervaded her
being: she forgot the papers and the judge, and only thought of Mat.
The last tear dropped from her lids; her eyes brightened; she arose
quickly, looked around as if in triumph, and said, "Yes: I'll never
have any one but him."

"So Mat put up your May-pole?"

"It may be, but of course I couldn't be by, and that night I was----"
Here the tears choked her utterance again. It was well for the poor
girl that she held her hands before her eyes, and could not see the
smiles of the men of justice.

"Confess, now, he put up your May-pole, and nobody else."

"How can I know?"

By all sorts of cross-questions, and the oily assurance that the
punishment would be but slight, the judge at last wormed the confession
from her. The minutes were now read to her in fine book-German and in
connected periods: of her tears and sufferings not a word was written.
Eva was astonished to find that she had said so much and such fine
things; but she signed the minutes unhesitatingly, only too glad to get
away at any price. As the door closed behind her and the latch fell
into the socket, she stood still, with folded hands, as if chained to
the ground; a heavy sigh escaped her, and she almost feared the earth
would open under her feet, for she now reflected, for the first time,
how much harm she might have done to her beloved. Clinging to the
balusters, she came slowly down the stone steps, and looked for her
father, who was keeping up his spirits with a stoup of wine at the Lamb
Tavern: she took her seat by his side, but said nothing, nor brought a
drop to her lips.

Mat was now called up again, and Eva's confession read to him. He
stamped his foot and gnashed his teeth. These gestures were immediately
recorded as the basis of a confession, and, after sufficient baiting,
Mat found himself completely caught: like game in a net, his desperate
efforts to disengage himself only entangled him still further.

Being asked where he had got the tree, Mat first said that he had
taken it out of the Dettensee wood,--which was in the duchy of
Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, and therefore under another sovereignty and
jurisdiction. But, when another investigation and a report to the court
at Haigerloch was talked of, he at last confessed that he had taken it
out _of his own wood_,--