ONE WHO KNOWS."

SCHNETZEN.
A cuckoo's egg! that riddle puzzles me;
But this I know. Schnetzen is no man's dupe,
Much less a Jew's.
[SCHNETZEN and VON TETTENBORN take their seats side by side.]

TETTENBORN.
Knights, counsellors and burghers!
Sir Henry Schnetzen, Governor of Salza,
Comes on grave mission from His Highness Frederick,
Margrave of Meissen, Landgrave of Thuringia,
Our town's imperial Patron and Protector.

SCHNETZEN.
Gentles, I greet you in the Landgrave's name,
The honored bearer of his princely script,
Sealed with his signet. Read, good Master Clerk.
[He hands a parchment to the Scrivener, who reads aloud]:

Lord President and Deputies of the town of Nordhausen! Know that
we, Frederick Margrave of Meissen, and Landgrave of Thuringia,
command to be burned all the Jews within our territories as far
as our lands extend, on account of the great crime they have
committed against Christendom in throwing poison into the wells,
of the truth of which indictment we have absolute knowledge.
Therefore we admonish you to have the Jews killed in honor of
God, so that Christendom be not enfeebled by them. Whatever
responsibility you incur, we will assume with our Lord the Emperor,
and with all other lords. Know also that we send to you Henry
Schnetzen, our Governor of Salza, who shall publicly accuse your
Jews of the above-mentioned crime. Therefore we beseech you to
help him to do justice upon them, and we will singularly reward
your good will.*

Given at Eisenach, the Thursday after St. Walpurgis, under our
secret seal.

*This is an authentic document.

A COUNSELLOR (DIETHER VON WERTHER).
Fit silence welcomes this unheard-of wrong!
So! Ye are men--free, upright, honest men,
Not hired assassins? I half doubted it,
Seeing you lend these infamous words your ears.

SCHNETZEN.
Consider, gentlemen of Nordhausen,
Ere ye give heed to the rash partisan.
Ye cross the Landgrave--well? he crosses you.
It may be I shall ride to Nordhausen,
Not with a harmless script, but with a sword,
And so denounce the town for perjured vow.
What was the Strasburg citizens' reward
Who championed these lost wretches, in the face
Of King and Kaiser--three against the w