s? You make me
doubly your debtor; your reward shall be great.'

'Of myself little need be said,' answered Alf. 'My conditions are only
pardon for myself and my companion, and that the conqueror of the city
shall distinguish between the miscreants who have wilfully erred, and
those who with honest intentions have been led astray, and spare the
latter.'

'We must act according to the instructions of the diet of Worms,' said
Oberstein. 'Whoever has not belonged to the leaders, and come not
against us in arms, to them is given life and freedom.'

'Then should the lord bishop,' boldly replied Alf, 'have extended mercy
to the unhappy refugees who have lately been fleeing from the city.'

'The bishop was exceedingly exasperated by events which accompanied the
revolution!' answered the general, shrugging his shoulders; 'and an
angry man does not always what is right in the sight of God.'

His eyes now fell upon Clara, who had timidly placed herself in an
angle of the tent near the door.

'Who is that pretty boy?' asked he. 'Some one of the bishop's pages? It
is to be hoped so. Two pages were made prisoners by the anabaptists and
carried off at the time they attacked our camp at the beginning of the
siege. To one of them particularly the worthy bishop was attached by a
truly paternal affection.'

'Those boys have also fallen a sacrifice to the barbarity of the king,'
answered Alf. 'This maiden is the sister of the queen Eliza, who paid
with her head for having lamented the murder of the innocents.'

'Great God, what an accumulation of crime!' cried Oberstein, while
Fabricius with upraised finger reprovingly asked, 'have you brought
with you a maiden in man's attire? Must there not yet remain something
of the old anabaptist leaven in you, which may in time again leaven the
whole lump, destroying your morals for time and eternity?'

'All in honor, dear doctor,' protested Alf; 'and I shall have to
request you, as soon as may be convenient, to unite me in honorable
marriage with this blameless maiden, who is my beloved and betrothed
bride.'

'That alters the case,' said Fabricius, affectionately patting Clara's
velvet cheeks. 'May God keep us in the good old order.'

'The lord bishop's reverend and princely grace,' said an episcopalian
officer, stepping in, 'sends his compliments to the lord general and
politely requests him to repair immediately to his presence. An
anabaptist prisoner has brought before him some matte