ristian education. It
would be our right to do this, even if both parents were Hebrews. You
know the Freiburg case. No less a personage than the great Ulrich Zasius
has decided, that Jewish children might be baptized without their
father's knowledge. I beg you to send Father Anselm to the town-hall on
Saturday as a witness."

"Very well," replied the prelate, but he spoke with so little eagerness,
that it justly surprised the magistrate. "Well then, catch the Jew; but
take him alive. And one thing more! I wish to see and speak to the
doctor, before you torture him."

"I will bring him to you day after to-morrow." The Nurembergers! the
Nurembergers! . . ." replied the abbot, shrugging his shoulders.

"What do you mean?"

"They don't hang any one till they catch him." The magistrate regarded
these words as a challenge to put forth every effort for the Jew's
capture, so he answered eagerly: "We shall have him, Your Reverence, we
shall surely have him. They are trapped in the snow. The sergeants are
searching the roads; I shall summon your foresters and mine, and put them
under Count Frohlinger's command. It is his duty to aid us. What they
cannot find with their attendants, squires, beaters and hounds, is not
hidden in the forest. Your blessing, Holy Father, there is no time to
lose."

The abbot was alone.

He gazed thoughtfully at the coals in the fireplace, recalling everything
he had just seen and heard, while his vivid power of imagination showed
him the learned, unassuming man, who had spent long years in quiet
seclusion, industriously devoting himself to the pursuit of knowledge. A
slight feeling of envy stole into his heart; how rarely he himself was
permitted to pursue undisturbed, and without interruption, the scientific
subjects, in which alone he found pleasure.

He was vexed with himself, that he could feel so little anger against a
criminal, whose guilt was deserving of death, and reproached himself for
lukewarmness. Then he remembered that the Jew had sinned for love, and
that to him who has loved much, much should be forgiven. Finally, it
seemed a great boon, that he was soon to be permitted to make the
acquaintance of the worthy doctor from Coimbra. Never had the zealous
magistrate appeared so repulsive as to-day, and when he remembered how
the crafty man had outwitted poor Father Anselm in his presence, he felt
as if he had himself committed an unworthy deed. And yet, yet--the Jew
could not be sav