Goertz. 'Let us talk of it no more.'

'You rend my heart,' said Rank with weeping eyes. 'But I thank you for
this sorrow. It is a high and holy privilege to behold virtue
struggling with heavy and undeserved affliction.'

At this moment the keys were heard rattling in the prison door. It
creaked upon its hinges, and in stepped, with the proud dignity of his
black official robes, and with deep traces of hidden malice and bodily
suffering in his yellow face, the speaker Hylten, delegate of the
citizens to the imperial diet of the realm, and a member of the
commission instituted for the trial of the prisoner.--He was followed
by one of the clerks of the court, with his arm full of documents.

'I come, von Goertz,' unceremoniously commenced Hylten, 'to make known
to you the sentence of the special commission. Receive it with becoming
respect.'

'I must indeed,' answered Goertz with a bitter smile, slightly rattling
his chains. He rose up, and Hylten took a large sealed document from
the hands of the clerk.

'Do you wish that we should retire, sir commissioner?' asked Rank.

'You may remain here forever, if you please, sir lieutenant general,'
answered Hylten contemptuously. 'The crimes of this man are notorious,
as his punishment will also be, and where justice is sustained by the
general voice, there can be no necessity for avoiding publicity.'

'The royal commission,' read he, with a sharp and discordant voice,
'having heard and considered all the accusations brought by the
attorney general, Fehmann, and also the replications of the baron von
Goertz thereto....'

'Without consenting to receive my written defence!' interposed Goertz.

'And all the plots and devices of the said Goertz,' proceeded Hylten
without noticing the interruption, since his coming into this kingdom,
having for their object to bring by wicked means the subjects of the
said kingdom into great discredit with the king ...'

'All?' asked Goertz. 'He who affirms too much, affirms nothing.'

'And how he,' proceeded Hylten, 'represented them as evil-minded and
idle persons, who were unwilling to contribute towards the general
welfare.'

'Could that have been a crime?' asked Goertz.

'And also,' read Hylten, 'endeavored to destroy the confidence of the
king in the senators, counsellors and others of his true servants,
removing the same from all important public employments, so that the
whole patronage of the government should go through his ow