ft him, and approached a knight who was wounded in the shoulder,
and Faustus put the same question to him. The knight answered: "A boor
belonging to yon burning village killed, some time ago, a stag, the
property of the mighty Wildgrave. Thereupon the Wildgrave demanded the
culprit of my master, in order that he might be tied upon the back of a
stag and run to death, according to the German custom. My master refused
to give up the boor; but in order to punish him, seized every thing he
possessed, and confiscated it to his own use. The Wildgrave then sent a
letter of defiance to my lord, in the name of Heaven, and with the
permission of the emperor. We were worsted in the battle, and the
Wildgrave has set fire to the village, which he has surrounded with his
horsemen, so that the inhabitants cannot escape; for he intends to fulfil
the oath which he swore, viz. to roast all the peasants, like Michaelmas
geese, for his hounds and wild-boars."

_Faustus_ (_furiously_). Where is his castle?

_Knight_. On yonder eminence; it is the strongest and most magnificent
castle in the whole country.

Faustus rode to the top of a hill, and looked down upon the burning
village, which lay beneath him in the valley. Mothers with children in
their arms, old men, youths, and maidens rushed out, cast themselves at
the feet of the horsemen, and begged for mercy. The Wildgrave shouted
till the valley reechoed, "Drive the rabble back; they shall perish in
the flames!" The peasants screamed out, again and again: "We are
innocent! we are innocent! He who offended you has escaped. What have
we and our children done? Ah, spare but them!" The horsemen whipped
them up from the ground, and drove them into the fire. The poor mothers
flung down their babes, in the hope that they would pity them; but the
hoofs of the horses trampled them to death.

Faustus cried deliriously: "Fly, Devil, and return not till thou hast
consumed the tyrant's castle, and all that is therein. When he returns
home, let him find retribution."

The Devil laughed, shook his head, and flew away; whilst Faustus flung
himself down beneath a tree, and gazed impatiently upon the castle. When
he beheld it in flames, the madman imagined that he had restored all
things to their right order, and received the Devil on his return with
the utmost joy. The latter came back in triumph, and boasted of the ruin
he had caused; and, pointing to the Wildgrave and his myrmidon,