life again down
there in the corner. I can hear him breathing.'

Both children listened.

'That noise isn't Hofmann,' said Conrad. 'It comes out of the ground.'
He laid himself down and listened again, with his ear close to the
earth. 'I think it's the Swedes digging some more mines,' he said at
last.

'What are they?' said Dollie. 'Like father's?'

'Oh dear, no!' replied the boy, proud to show off what he knew. 'Long
passages they dig through the ground till they get underneath the city
wall, or else one of the gates. Then the Swedes put a great box full
of gunpowder in the end of the passage, and set light to it, and
then--bang! they blow everything all up into the air together.'

'Oh, do come away directly,' said Dollie in a fright, 'or else we shall
all be blown up.'

'Have you forgotten what your father told us?' asked the boy.

'Oh, no indeed!' said Dollie; 'but whatever shall we do? Oh, if father
or mother would only come!'

Conrad ventured to one of the loop-holes to look out; it was but
little, however, that he could discern in the thick darkness outside.
Here and there he saw the gleam of a light or the flash of a weapon; at
times some dark mass seemed to move before his eyes, or his ears were
saluted by a mysterious sound, then all was silent again. Suddenly, on
the side that lay open towards the town, two men entered the covered
gallery, which was just at that moment untenanted by soldiers.

'As I tell you, Schoenleben,' said a deep bass voice, 'the lad is dearer
to me than almost any other in the City Guard. Cool, steady, and
brave, experienced too as an old soldier, I have chosen him for these
reasons to report to me from time to time how things go at the Castle
and the Kreuz Gate. But I thank you all the same for your information,
though what the prisoners say, especially about an old comrade, is not
always to be trusted. Still, I will have the lad closely watched, and
if there's the least sign of anything amiss, put him where he can do no
further mischief.'

The commandant, for it was he, followed by the Burgomaster, stepped to
the loop-hole from which Conrad had hastily withdrawn.

'This is our weak point,' continued Schweinitz--'the point at which the
enemy would like to strike; but they shall find it a hard nut to crack
yet, though gate and tower are little better than ruins. Ah! my
friend, give me the devotion and bravery of the Freibergers before any
number of bastions, if