for destruction,
the preacher, instead of answering sank upon his knees, with his hands
crossed on his heart, and fervently laying his forehead in the dust,
with all his brothers, recommenced the whole series of prayers, that he
had before derided. The crowd of miserable fanatics, deprived of their
leader, and utterly confounded by the spectacle I have described,
remained in a state of irresolution and inactivity till the conclusion
of the oratorium, which pealed down wondrously from the organ-loft, and
as at this moment several arrests were made by order of the commanding
officer, and some wicked fellows who had behaved indecorously, were
seized and led off by a guard, the wretched troop had nothing to do but
to avail themselves as speedily as possible of the shelter of the crowd
that rose to depart, thus to escape from the cathedral. In the
evening, after vainly asking several times for your sons at the inn,
whither they had not returned, I went with some friends to the convent
in a state of the greatest uneasiness that I might make inquiries of
the door-keepers, who had assisted the imperial guard. How, noble
lady, shall I describe my horror, when I saw the four men as before,
with the hands folded, touching the ground with their heads and
breasts, as though they had been petrified there--in short, bowed down
before the altar of the church with the most intense devotion? In vain
did the bailiff of the convent, who came up at this moment, pull them
by their cloaks, and shake them by their arms, and desire them to leave
the cathedral, which was already growing quite dark, and in which
nobody was left; half-rising in their dreamy fashion they did not
listen to him, until he ordered his men to take them up by the arms,
and lead them out at the porch. Then, at last, they followed us into
the city, though not without sighing, and frequently looking back, with
the most heart-rending sorrow, at the cathedral, which shone gloriously
behind us in the light of the setting sun. The other friends and I
repeatedly, and in the most affectionate manner, asked them what
terrible cause could possibly have produced such a thorough change in
their minds. They looked kindly upon us, and from time to time, with
an expression that still cuts me to the heart, wiped the tears from
their eyes. When they had reached their dwelling, they ingeniously
fashioned a cross of birchen-twigs, and fixed it in a little pyramid of
wax on the large