day before with a heavy heart, and it
required the exercise of all her strength to conceal the anxiety with
which her mind was filled, for if she did not intercede for him that very
day; if his pardon could not be announced early the following morning
during the session of the court in the Town Hall, then the half-recovered
man must be surrendered to the judges again, and Otto believed that the
torture would be fatal to his enfeebled frame.

The tailor and his adherents, as Eva knew from Herr Pfinzing, were making
every effort to obtain his condemnation and prove to the city that they
had not censured the proceedings of the Ortlieb household as mere
reckless slanderers. Eva and her sister would be again mentioned in the
investigation, and were even threatened with an examination.

At first this had startled her, but she believed her uncle's assurance
that this examination would fully prove her innocence before the eyes of
the whole world. For her own sake Eva surely would not have suffered
herself to be so tortured by anxiety night and day, or undertaken and
resolved to dare so much. The thought that the faithful follower whom her
patient nursing had saved from death and to whom she had become warmly
attached must now lose his life, and Heinz Schorlin be robbed of the
possibility of doing anything for him, had cast every other fear in the
shade, and had kept her constantly in motion the evening before and this
morning.

But all that she and her Aunt Christine had attempted in behalf of the
imperilled man had been futile. To apply to the Emperor again every one,
including the magistrate, had declared useless, since even the Burgrave
had been refused.

The members of the Council and the judges in the court had already, at
Aunt Christine's solicitation, deferred the proceedings four days, but
the law now forbade longer delay. Though individuals would gladly have
spared the accused the torture, its application could scarcely be
avoided, for how many accusers and witnesses appeared against him, and if
there were weighty depositions and by no means truthful replies on the
part of the prisoner, the torture could not be escaped. It legally
belonged to the progress of the investigation, and how many who had by no
means recovered from the last exposure to the rack were constantly
obliged to enter the torture chamber? Besides, the judges would be
charged with partiality by the tailor and his followers, and to show such
visible