ll from his bosom, and hastened to
read the names of the new missionaries. The prophet Tuiskoshirer drew
near to the reader with his usual knavish smile, to listen; nodding his
head exultingly as the names of some of his opponents were read; but
when he heard Wahrendorf cry, 'John Tuiskoshirer!' as if astounded by a
clap of thunder the little withered man shrunk within himself and
turned his red glowing eyes upon the king. 'I, also, deceived!'
murmured he to himself. 'The villain shall not obtain his victory
easily.'

'Thou errest, my brother!' howled he to Wahrendorf: 'and mistakest the
word of man for the voice of the Spirit. The night before the last I
had a vision, in which I was commanded to remain in Zion to guard these
flocks from their adversaries.'

'Silence!' thundered the king. 'At this moment has the father entrusted
to me an important duty, for the execution of which I must prepare,'
and, beckoning to his guards, they dragged before him a mercenary
soldier in chains.

'This unhappy man,' said the king solemnly and significantly, 'has,
like a second Judas, been planning treason against Zion, and has
publicly manifested his wicked intentions through disobedience to the
commandments of the Spirit. His blood be upon his own head.'

The king's sword swung, the head of the victim fell, and the horrible
man stepped directly before Tuiskoshirer with the bloody sword in his
hand and asked him, 'what hast thou particularly to say to this
assembly, my brother?'

'That I bow myself under the hand of the Lord,' tremblingly answered
Tuiskoshirer, and Wahrendorf proceeded to read the list of names to the
end.

There were named, in the whole, eight and twenty missionaries. The king
dispersed them toward Osnabruck, Coesfeld, Warendorf and Soest.
'Forsake every thing,' he admonished them, 'fear nothing, and
promulgate the faith.' 'Amen!' cried the multitude, as they departed
from the cathedral.

CHAPTER XVII.

Alf was sitting in the twilight near the good Clara, narrating to her
at full length the singular proceedings at the cathedral, at which he
had been present, when his friend Hanslein entered in a state of great
excitement.

'How much can be made of a good-for-nothing fellow!' cried he. 'Would
you ever have thought, brother, that I was a block out of which a duke
could have been carved?'

'Duke!' asked Alf in astonishment, supposing that he must have heard
falsely.