as if they were trying to bring down the walls of Jericho a second
time. Some boys even flung at me everything they could find in the mire
of the streets. The most delightful articles! There was actually a dead
rat! I can see its tail flying now! Our village lads know how to aim
better. Before the worst came, by the advice of the equerry and our wise
chaplain, whom I consulted, we had done what was necessary, and summoned
the guard at the Frauenthor to our assistance. But the soldiers were in
no great haste; so when matters were going too far, I stepped into the
breach myself, called down to tell them my name, and also showed my
crossbow with an arrow on the string. This had an effect. Only a few
women still continued to load me with horrible abuse. Then the chaplain
came to the window and this restored silence; but, in spite of his
earnest words, not a soul stirred from the spot until the patrol arrived,
dispersed the rabble, and arrested some of them."

Els, who sat by Cordula's side, drew her towards her and kissed her
gratefully; but Eva's eyes had filled with tears of grief at the
beginning of the countess's report of this new insult, and the hostility
of so many of the townsfolk; yet she succeeded in controlling herself.
She would not weep. She had even forced herself to gaze, without the
quiver of an eyelash, at the sorrowful and horrible spectacle outside of
the "Hole." She must cease being a weak child. How true her dying
mother's words had been! To be able to struggle and conquer, she must not
withdraw from life and its influences, which, if she did not spare
herself, promised to transform her into the resolute woman she desired to
become.

She had listened with labouring breath to the speaker's last words, and
when Els embraced Cordula, she raised her little clenched hand,
exclaiming with passionate emotion: "Oh, if I had only been at home with
you! You are brave, Countess, but I, too, would not have shrunk from
them. I would voluntarily have made myself the target for their malice,
and called to their faces that only miserably deluded people or shameless
rascals could throw stones at my Els, who is a thousand times better than
any of them!"

"Or at you, you dear, brave child," added Cordula in an agitated tone.

From the day following the burning of the convent the countess had given
up her whim of winning Heinz Schorlin. She now knew that all her nobler
feelings spoke more loudly in favour of the quiet