ustled forth; but Alf remained sitting in a melancholy reverie.
'Even polygamy is now encouraged!' sighed he. 'Every good old moral
custom is broken! How must it end?'

CHAPTER IX.

At the new gate, where the river Aa empties itself into the Ems, Alf
had his watch as the chosen captain of the armorers. It was already
deep night--he lay upon his field bed, and the images of Eliza and
Clara were floating confusedly before his half closed eyes. Suddenly he
heard the burgher sentinel hail some one, and immediately afterwards
Hanslein stepped into the officers' quarters, wrapped in a mantle.

'What brings you here so late, brother?' asked Alf, springing up in
astonishment.

'Mischief, my brother,' whispered Hanslein. 'I come in the name of the
chief prophet. First of all, get your men quickly and quietly under
arms, and let their guns be carefully loaded; double all the guards,
and let strong patrols be sent out. The city is in danger from without
and within!'

Alf proceeded silently to the large guard room, to execute the command;
then, returning to his friend, he eagerly asked him the cause of the
alarm.

'Polygamy,' answered Hanslein, of which we examined the pleasant
bearings the day before yesterday has now turned out confoundedly
serious. Early this morning while you were upon guard, the prophet
Johannes Bockhold caused the populace to be drummed together and laid
the hazardous question before them. An old burgher, who might already
have had domestic trouble enough at home, coldly gave his opinion that
the adoption of such a course would be warring against the bible and
against all christendom. Thereupon Johannes, who cannot bear much
contradiction, became furious, caused the old man to be seized on the
spot, and made, by the aid of friend Knipperdolling, a head shorter.
Such a mode of stating the counter argument was too sudden and too
violent for the people. They laid their heads together here and there,
and a number of malcontents determined, at a secret meeting, to give up
the city to the episcopalians this night. But lord Johannes, who has a
very fine nose, got wind of them in time. He has taken his measures yet
more secretly than his foes, and Knipperdolling will do a fine business
early in the morning.'

'Never-ending slaughters!' murmured Alf, sorrowfully. 'What we have
gained is hardly an equivalent for the blood spilled in its
attainment.'

'The tree of spiritu