e
converters will not let them go. The citizens are kept prisoners in
their city, and every householder is confined to his house. The gates
are closed, and each family is guarded by those who are quartered upon
it. In vain have some of our wealthiest citizens offered to give up all
their property with the promise never to ask for it again; in vain have
others sought death rather than a continuance of their sufferings. That
is not the object of our oppressors, whose only answer to all our
prayers is, 'you must embrace our faith.'

'I have heard enough,' cried Dorn, with bursting rage. 'Say no more,
or, unable to restrain my wrath, I shall strike some of the hounds to
the earth and thereby bring my life to a sudden end. Farewell, Frau
Katharine,--I return to my hiding place; but shall not be far off, and
most joyfully will I lay down my life, if need be, in defence of you
and yours.'

He strode forth,--the parson stepped to the window, through which the
bright moon was pouring its silver light, and, while watching Dorn's
retreating steps, convulsively pressed his hands across his breast and
gave frightful utterance to the following imprecation: 'Thy hand shall
find all thine enemies, Thy right hand shall find them that hate thee.
Thou wilt melt them as in a furnace when thou lookest upon them; the
Lord will consume them in his anger, fire shall devour them. Their seed
wilt thou destroy from the face of the earth, and their names from
among the children of men.'

'God preserve us, reverend sir,' interposed Katharine. 'How can you
offer up such a horrible prayer? Rather should you remember and imitate
the forgiving spirit of our Savior when he prayed; 'Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do!'

'Father forgive them, for they know not what they do,' he tremblingly
repeated after her, his anger rebuked by the divine sentiment, and
submissively raised his eyes toward the exhaustless source of love and
mercy.

CHAPTER IX.

The next morning Katharine was sitting in her closet, with her infant
at her breast. Over its rosy cheeks rolled the mother's tears in quick
succession. Her other children were pressing around her, like chickens
who seek to hide themselves under the mother's sheltering wings, and
all were tremblingly and silently listening to the cries of lamentation
which occasionally arose from the neighboring dwellings, evincing the
activity of the tormentors.

T