pirit of mercy
which rules over the new Zion.'

'I will so explain the matter to that foolish girl,' cried Eliza,
eagerly--'that she may not again offend me by her cold insufferable
silence, her customary weapon when we occasionally disagree. She may
censure and envy, but she shall respect me even in my aberration.'

She hastened to her chamber, while Alf prepared to go about his daily
pursuits in the workshop. He was met at the door by his fellow wanderer
the tailor.

'What have I prophesied?' asked the latter, unceremoniously seating
himself at the table which remained as it had been prepared the
previous evening. 'What have I prophesied?' he asked again, helping
himself to a large slice of the gammon of bacon which he found opposite
him upon the table. Then, pouring out a goblet of wine from the bottle
and swallowing it, he a third time asked, 'what have I prophesied?'

'The devil only knows!' cried Alf, impatiently. 'There are so many
prophecies in Munster that my head has already become wholly confused
by them.'

'I have foretold,' said the tailor, with pathos, 'that my beloved
friend and brother, the prophet Johannes Bockhold, would one day become
a great man in the world. You would not believe it, because in the
pride of your big fist, you could not be brought to entertain a good
opinion of a tailor. And now a tailor has become your master and
sovereign; lord over your life and death.'

'You have got into your cups early,' growled Alf, 'and now being drunk,
you make me lose the precious morning hours with your miserable
fables.'

'What I say is true,' muttered the tailor through his stuffed cheeks;
'and it is you who are mad and foolish. Only hear how cleverly every
thing has been brought about. This morning by day-break, while you were
indolently sleeping, the prophet Matthias called all the people to the
market. He there declared to them that he would go forth with a handful
of people, like Gideon, and slay the host of the ungodly. He called and
took with him to the bishop's camp, only thirty men. I know not whether
he had not asked of the Spirit aright, or whether the Spirit did not
answer him rightly: to be brief, a slaughter did indeed follow,--not of
the host of the ungodly, but of the good Gideon and his thirty men; not
a man of them escaped. As I afterwards went to the market place, a
mournful wailing sounded in my ears. The people were beside themselves,
to think that they had lost their ruler i