hour. Nor would my own conscience permit me to accept your offer. Every
use which I should make of this paper would be an act of apostacy from
my own faith; if a hypocritical use, so much the worse. 'Be not
deceived, God is not mocked.''

'Woman, thou art more righteous than we!' cried the monk, with deep
emotion; and, covering his head with his cowl, he departed, weeping
audibly.

CHAPTER XI.

The infant was still slumbering upon Katharine's bosom. The door was
again thrown open and the captain entered, this time without
attendants, bolting the door after him.

'The hour is past,' said he with a demoniac smile. 'Have you a
certificate?'

'No,' answered she, and at that moment the child in her arms awoke and
cried for its nourishment. 'Poor thing,' said she, bearing it towards
an alcove.

'Where are you going?' asked the captain, seizing her arm as though he
would crush it in his ferocious grasp.

'To nurse my child,' answered Katharine. 'You cannot wish that I should
do it in the presence of a stranger!'

'You shall not nurse your child!' cried the captain, forcing it from
her arms. 'It shall not imbibe heresy with its mother's milk.'

'What would you with my child, horrible man?' shrieked Katharine,
rushing upon him.

'There it shall lie,' said he, putting it upon the floor.

The poor infant uttered the most lamentable shrieks.

'For God's sake, let me go to my child!' exclaimed Katharine. 'It is
dying.'

'In that case I shall have saved a soul to heaven,' answered the
captain.

'You cannot be a man!' cried the miserable mother. 'You must be satan
disguised in the human form.' Convulsive spasms seized her. Her eyes
closed, her lips became blue, and her senses fled.

Some one knocked loudly at the door. 'Are you here, Frau Katharine?'
asked a voice which the captain recognized with terror.

'Back!' cried the sentinel without. 'The captain is with the lady.'

'The captain! and she answers not, and the child is screaming!'
exclaimed the same voice, with wild alarm,--and powerful blows
thundered upon the door.

'Back!' again cried the sentinel, and immediately afterwards, with the
exclamation, 'Jesus Maria!' a heavy fall was heard near the door, which
now flew in fragments. Dorn rushed into the room over the body of the
wounded sentinel, who lay groaning upon the floor, with a drawn sword
in his hand. The captain sprang to meet the intruder, but shrunk back,
p