," cried Fink.

Lenore threw away the gun, and sank at her father's feet, hiding her
face on his knees. Her father bent over her, took her head in his hands,
and the nervous agitation of the last few hours brought on a convulsive
fit of sobbing. His daughter passionately clasped his trembling frame,
and silently held him in her arms. There they were, a broken-down
existence, and one in which the warm glow of youthful life was bursting
into flame.

Fink looked out of the window; the enemy had retired beyond range of
fire, and were, as it seemed, holding a consultation. Suddenly he
stepped up to Lenore, and, laying his hand on her arm, said, "I thank
you, dear lady, for having so promptly punished that rascal. And now I
beg you to leave this room with your father. We shall do better if
anxiety on your account does not withdraw our eyes from the enemy."
Lenore shrunk back at his touch, and a warm blush overspread her cheek
and brow.

"We will go," she said, with downcast eyes. "Come, my father." She then
led the baron up stairs to her mother's room. There she heroically
strove to compose herself, sat down by the couch of the invalid, and did
not go near Fink again the whole evening.

"Now, then, we are by ourselves," cried Fink to the sentinels; "short
distances, and a steady aim! If they storm this stone building, they
shall get nothing by it but bloody pates."

Accordingly, there he stood with his companions, and looked with keen
eye at the ranks of their assailants. There was a great stir among them.
Some detachments went off to the village; the horsemen rode up and down;
there was evidently something afloat. At last a party brought some thick
boards and a row of empty carts. The upper parts of them were lifted
off, and the lower placed in a row, the poles away from the castle, the
hind wheels toward it. Next, boards were nailed together, and made into
pent-houses, which being fastened to the back of the carts, projected a
few feet beyond them, and afforded a tolerable shelter for five or six
men.

"Ask Mr. Wohlfart to come here," cried Fink to one of his riflemen.

"There has been shooting," said Anton, as he entered the hall; "is any
one wounded?"

"This thick door, and one of the rabble yonder," replied Fink. "Without
any order, they replied to the first shot from the tower."

"There is not an enemy to be seen in the court. A troop of horsemen came
to the gate; one ventured up to the palings, and tried to