I keep them? Ah, good sirs, let a poor girl make
her bread honestly; ye hinder them not to make it idly and shamefully;
and oh, sirs, ye are husbands, ye are fathers; ye cannot but see I have
reason to work and provide as best I may;" and ere this woman's appeal
had left her lips, she would have given the world to recall it, and
stood with one hand upon her heart and one before her face, hiding it,
but not the tears that trickled underneath it. All which went to the
wrong address. Perhaps a female bailiff might have yielded to such
arguments, and bade her practise medicine, and break law, till such time
as her child should be weaned, and no longer.

"What have we to do with that," said the burgomaster, "save and except
that if thou wilt pledge thyself to break the law no more, I will remit
the imprisonment, and exact but the fine?"

On this Doctor Margaret clasped her hands together, and vowed most
penitently never, never, never to cure body or beast again; and being
dismissed with the constables to pay the fine, she turned at the
door, and curtsied, poor soul, and thanked the gentlemen for their
forbearance.

And to pay the fine the "To-morrow box" must be opened on the instant;
and with excess of caution she had gone and nailed it up, that no slight
temptation might prevail to open it. And now she could not draw the
nails, and the constables grew impatient, and doubted its contents, and
said, "Let us break it for you." But she would not let them. "Ye will
break it worse than I shall." And she took a hammer, and struck too
faintly, and lost all strength for a minute, and wept hysterically; and
at last she broke it, and a little cry bubbled from her when it broke;
and she paid the fine, and it took all her unlawful gains and two gold
pieces to boot; and when the men were gone, she drew the broken pieces
of the box, and what little money they had left her, all together on the
table, and her arms went round them, and her rich hair escaped, and fell
down all loose, and she bowed her forehead on the wreck, and sobbed,
"My love's box it is broken, and my heart withal;" and so remained. And
Martin Wittenhaagen came in, and she could not lift her head, but sighed
out to him what had befallen her, ending, "My love his box is broken,
and so mine heart is broken."

And Martin was not so sad as wroth. Some traitor had betrayed him. What
stony heart had told and brought her to this pass? Whoever it was should
feel his arrow's p