rs of consequence,
which demand a sudden meeting of the council.'

'Yon shall accompany me there,' said Oberstein to Alf.

'But where shall I remain?' anxiously whispered Clara to her betrothed.

'May I be permitted to confide the maiden to your care, worthy sir?'
asked Alf of the doctor.

'I will foster and protect her like a beloved daughter,' answered
Fabricius, taking Clara by the hand, and with a light heart the youth
then followed the general.

CHAPTER XXVI.

Glowing with anger and sorrow, Graf von Waldeck, bishop of Munster,
strode up and down in his gilded tent. At the door, with a pale
malefactor face, stood poor Hanslein, in chains, and surrounded by
guards. Oberstein and Alf entered.

'This wretch,' cried the bishop to the general, 'proposes to purchase
his forfeited life by betraying the city. He has, however, three times
forfeited his life,--formerly a rider in my cavalry, he wounded his
superior officer and went over to the enemy, swearing allegiance and
adopting their faith. I am half inclined to compel him to show us the
way to Munster and then hang him; for it would be contrary to all
right, human and divine, to allow him to escape punishment by such an
act.'

'The greatest right is often the greatest wrong,' said the general
soothingly. 'Too much severity is often injurious, and with your
grace's permission, if the spiritual lords had not formerly held so
rigidly to their notions of right and wrong, and had not wielded the
rod of authority too vigorously, much of the mischief against which the
assembled christians of Germany of all denominations now appeal to
heaven, would have been avoided. My voice is for mildness.'

'You have lost none who were dear to you, through these monsters!'
cried the bishop, making great efforts to suppress his tears. 'I have
just learned, that the reprobate tailor has murdered both of my pages,
for making an effort to rescue themselves from his paws.'

'That is sad news,' said Oberstein, sympathisingly; 'but if you should
outdo all these horrors by committing greater, you might thereby bring
a stain upon your princely reputation; but you would remedy no evil. My
advice is, that you grant a free pardon to the deserter, and thereby
obtain a faithful guide into the city, the speedy surrender of which is
yet nearest your heart. A resort to the rack, is, in my mind, as it
must be in that of every man, highly objectionable, beside