und
down by dark vows had nevertheless sought her love. Soon the first
among the worshippers came out of the doors of the Castle which led
across to the Chapel. Her female friends looked up at her to see
whether she would not join them. She drew back into the room. The bells
began to chime. It was the only church music, which the Kurfuerst
permitted "for the nonce" as he said, even the organ had to give way to
the general reformation. Klytia heard the booming tones with heavy
heart, it seemed as if they tolled for a funeral, whether her own, or
his, she knew not. When the bells ceased, and all around was silent in
the large court, a sudden shiver passed over her, it took away her
breath, she felt she must hasten into the air. Outside she heard the
singing, and as in a dream she took her hood and cloak, and prayerbook
in hand, she as if drawn in against her will, entered into the house of
God in which preached this terrible man, and crept into the last row
near the door where she hoped to remain concealed from his diabolical
gaze. Was it the magic of the bells, that had drawn her thither, had
the Psalms possessed that power, or had she gone to seek him, from
whose eyes she sought to shield herself by hiding behind the pillar?
The clergyman ascended the pulpit and read out the prayers. As Felix
after a while looked in the direction where sat Klytia he noticed that
she had moved more forward in her seat, and now endeavoured to catch
Master Paul's eye.
Felix looked around the lofty Chapel in an absent and disgusted manner.
Was this the celebrated Church of the Heidelberg castle, the wealthiest
at that time of all the Rhenish provinces? The high gothic arches had
been whitewashed, the paintings ruthlessly daubed over disclosed
themselves, however, here and there to the practised eye of the artist.
A large spot at the entrance marked the place, where the font had once
stood, another in the chancel the broken down altar. Without any regard
to the architecture of the building the benches had been grouped in a
square, in the middle of which stood, a most ludicrous object to Felix,
"the honorable table." A part of the congregation turned their backs to
the chancel which remained unused without Altar or Crucifix. The
colored windows had been replaced by plain glass, and angrily did Felix
gaze through those at the blue sky, as he asked himself what could have
become of the famed glass paintings, to restore which known Masters had
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