neighbours to follow her example and, as soon as she gave the signal,
demand better fare and make Frau Christine, the patroness of the
hospital, feel what they thought of the cruelty of her husband, who had
delivered them to the executioner.

The female thieves and swindlers-in short, all the reprobate women around
Frau Ratzer, whose feet had just been tied on account of her unruly
behaviour in the Countess von Montfort's presence--obeyed her signal, and
the fierce voices raised in demand and invective woke those who were
sleeping farther away. Weeping, wailing, and screaming they started up,
clamouring to know what danger threatened them, whilst Frau Ratzer and
her fellow-conspirators shrieked for beer or wine instead of water, for
meat with the black bread and wretched broth and, yelling and howling,
bade the patroness tell her husband that they thought him a brute and a
bloodhound.

There was a hideous, confused, ear-splitting din, which threatened
serious consequences, for some of the women, leaving their straw beds,
hastened towards the door or surrounded Frau Christine and Eva with
uplifted fists and threatening nails.

The warning voices of the matrons, to whose aid the Beguines had
hastened, were drowned by the uproar, but the danger which specially
threatened Eva, whom the barber's widow pointed out to her neighbour who
had stolen a child to train it to beg, was soon ended, for the wild cries
had reached the men's building, from which Herr Berthold Pfinzing came
hurrying in, accompanied by the superintendent, his assistants, and
several monks.

If the women reproached the magistrate, who in reality was a lenient
judge, with being a cruel tyrant, they were now to learn that he
certainly did not lack uncompromising energy. The unpleasant position in
which he found his wife and his beloved godchild did not incline him to
gentleness. He would have liked to have tied the hands of all these
women, most of whom had forfeited the consideration due their sex. This
was really done to the most unruly, while the barber's widow was carried
to the prison-chamber, which the hospital did not lack.

After quiet was at last restored and Frau Christine had told her husband
that she had been attacked while on her way to show him a delightful
scene in the midst of all this terrible misery, he angrily exclaimed: "A
magnificent picture! Balm for the eyes and ears of your own brother's
virginal daughter! The saints be praised t