people?'

'Deserters from Munster,' answered the serjeant, 'whom we found last
night. They insist upon seeing the general.'

The preacher having closely scrutinized Alf, who stood there absorbed
in his own reflections, approached and spoke to him, taking his hand in
the most friendly manner. 'Do I see you again as a deserter? Now, God
be praised, my prophecy is fulfilled!'

'Reverend doctor!' cried Alf in joyful surprise, as he recognised the
good Fabricius.

'So, the disorders in the new Zion have become too great for you?'
asked the latter. 'I only wonder that you had not come to the
conclusion long ago,--that with your heart and head you could for so
long a time have been a contented observer of their pagan cruelty.'

'When Germans have once become united with a ruler chosen by
themselves, worthy sir,' answered Alf, 'they can be disunited only by
hard blows, else they will hang fast to him until death.'

'The hard blows, I perceive, have been given and received,' said
Fabricius. 'So you have again become one of us.'

'With all my heart and soul,' answered Alf with great ardor.

'We will leave the remainder of this for the confessional, where I may
soon expect you,' said Fabricius. 'At present I must exert myself to
prepare for you a good reception from the commanding general.'

Again most cordially shaking Alf's hand, he passed into the tent.
Shortly afterward the youth and his girl-boy were bid to enter. Lord
Oberstein was sitting with the doctor at the field table, taking his
morning draught.

'Come nearer!' commanded the general, sternly.

'What have you to disclose to me?'

The voice of the questioner satisfied Alf, that it was the commander in
chief whom he had caught and released on a former night; he however
concealed this recognition.

'To make an end of the calamities of the city,' answered he, 'I am
prepared to show your soldiers a way to enter Munster--the same way by
which I have myself quitted it.'

'I recognise that voice!' cried Oberstein, springing up, and stepping
directly in front of the youth. 'We have met before,' said he; 'it
surely was in the outworks before the new gate, by moonlight. You were
the officer who took me prisoner and then let me run? Is it not so?'

'I was very glad,' answered Alf, 'that it was in my power to save so
old and merry a warrior.'

'And now are you willing to deliver the city to me?' proceeded
Oberstein; 'to make a short ending to her long suffering