m of the times, she
presented it to his kiss.

"Now," the count said, "do not let us waste time; tell us quickly by
what miracle you have arrived here, and have penetrated to what is
really my prison. You must be quick, for we have much to say, and your
visit must be a short one for every third day the governor of the prison
pays me a visit to see how I am getting on, and I expect that he will be
here ere long."

"Then," Malcolm said, "I had best prepare for his coming, for assuredly
I am not going to hurry away."

So saying, he lifted down the great clock which stood on a bracket on
the wall, and placed it on a side table. "I am a clockmaker," he said,
"and am come to put this machine, whose stopping has annoyed you sadly,
into order."

So saying, he took some tools from his basket, removed the works of the
clock, and, taking them in pieces, laid them on the table.

"I spent much of my time at Nuremberg," he said, in answer to the
surprised exclamations of the count, "in learning the mysteries of
horology, and can take a clock to pieces and can put it together again
with fair skill. There, now, I am ready, and if the governor comes he
will find me hard at work. And now I will briefly tell you how I got
here; then I will hear what plans you may have formed, and I will tell
you mine."

"For myself, I have no plans," the count said. "I am helpless, and
must for the present submit to whatever may befall me. That I will not
renounce the cause of my religion you may be sure; as for my wife, we
know not yet whether, when they remove me to the fortress, they will
allow her to accompany me or not. If they do, she will stay with me, but
it is more likely that they will not. The emperor is merciless to those
who oppose him. They will more likely keep her under their eye here or
in Vienna. But for ourselves we care little; our anxiety is for Thekla.
It is through her that they are striking us. You know what they have
threatened if I do not abandon the cause of Protestantism. Thekla is to
be placed in a convent, forced to become a Catholic, and married to the
man on whom the emperor may please to bestow my estates."

"I would rather die, father, than become a Catholic," Thekla exclaimed
firmly.

"Yes, dear!" the count said gently, "but it is not death you have to
face; with a fresh and unbroken spirit, it were comparatively easy to
die, but it needs an energy and a spirit almost superhuman to resist the
pressure which ma