minutes he
rides into our good city."

"The priest need not be always poking his nose into what is not his
business. I won't submit."

"Will you then entirely break with the noble old man, who entertains
such favourable and tolerant opinions towards all _Acatholicos_? And
if, after all, he should choose to maintain his authority by force?"

"Then I order our civil troops to mount, and the corporation to be
under arms. Within my walls I am master, and no other."

"But whether the common weal will gain any thing by the measure? I must
submit that to your wisdom. Think of the evils which the Smalcald
league brought on us eighteen years ago--of the shameful contribution
which the town was forced to pay--of the imprisonment which the _consul
dirigens_, Furstenhau, had to suffer in the White Tower, at Prague, and
here in the Hildebrand. This time, too, it may turn out still worse.
Your opposition may be construed into open rebellion: what the penalty
of that is, you know as well as I do, and also that Schweidnitz is
compassed about by enemies. The land-nobles hate us violently, and the
emperor's wrath would find a thousand willing and lusty hands."

"Should I now begin to be afraid of these lordlings, in good truth I
were neither worthy nor able to fill this my place of honour. Only let
them come. We will so receive them, that they shall think of the old
Erasmus all their life long."

"The lord bishop has just dismounted from his horse before the
Guildhall," announced the city servant, Rudolph, while his teeth
chattered. "The council is already assembled, and all wait for your
worship."

"Ring out the alarm-bell," shouted Francis Friend, following close upon
his heels. "The land-nobles have rode up to the market-place, in
complete armour, near five hundred strong."

"Have they committed any disturbance?" asked Erasmus, hastily.

"No," replied Francis, "nor have they even drawn a sword. They only
stand in the market-place, quite still and orderly, as is by no means
their way at other times; if you ask what they want, they give
themselves out for the retinue of the prince palatine."

"Who leads them?" inquired Erasmus with smothered wrath.

"That I know not," replied Francis; "they have all got their visors
down."

"I heard," said Heidenreich, "that their leader is a certain
Sparrenberger, surnamed Tausdorf. He has lately come hither from
Bohemia, and intends settling in this country."

"Sparrenberger, surname