life a
wandering ragamuffin.'

'One deception less,' sighed the doctor sinking into gloomy meditation,
when the host entered with a mug of wine for Alf. When he perceived the
doctor the mug fell, and, clasping his hands over his head, he cried:
'Holy God! are you also driven away, reverend sir?'

'The true shepherds must first be driven away,' said the doctor with a
melancholy smile, 'when the wolf desires undisturbedly to break into
the unfortunate fold. Nevertheless I may congratulate myself that I
held out until the last moment, and only yielded to open violence.'

'How was that possible in so short a time, doctor?' asked the host.
'The adherents of the Augsburg confession were certainly very powerful
as yet, in the city, as the papists also were.'

'The terrible Matthias,' replied the doctor, 'had sent circulars
through the neighborhood and collected all the anabaptists at Munster.
Consequently, all the low rabble, who had nothing at home to lose,
rushed into the poor city, and last night, taking possession of the
arsenal and town house, they set fire to the cloisters of Mauritius.
They ran, as if possessed, howling through the streets with naked
swords, crying, 'Repent and be baptised!' and 'Depart ye Godless!'
Neither condition, age, nor sex availed; delicate women, the sick and
dying, were all mercilessly thrust out at the gates of their native
city unless they would profess the heretical, heathenish worship. The
choice between death, flight, and apostacy, only remained, even to me;
and as I thought it better to be useful through the preaching of the
word to honest christians than through martyrdom in the paws of such
raging brutes, I shook the dust from my feet and escaped,--and God must
judge.'

'I am very sorry for you,' cried Alf, much agitated: 'because you have
such a venerable appearance, and doubtless think yourself truly
faithful, though you wander in darkness. Nevertheless, it is a culpable
stubbornness in you Lutherans, to struggle so violently against the new
doctrines, which have the right and the holy scriptures so clearly on
their side. Has not our Lord and Savior expressly commanded his
Apostles--'Go ye into all the world and teach all people and baptize
them?' So therefore, the teaching must precede the baptism, according
to Christ's own words. How dare you, then, presume to baptize new born
children who can know nothing of God?'

'What, another anabaptist!' grumbled the host, with a disco