face, he cried, "Avaunt!" as if speaking to a living thing, and,
clinging to the bars of an aperture in the upper part of the door,
turned away his face.

As he thus came to look upon the strongly-barred opening in the door,
the current of his ideas changed. Within was the small and wretched
prison of the town, which just occupied the space of the terrace
above--a miserable hole.

"There she lay this morning," he murmured, looking into the interior,
which was now in utter darkness, and quite empty--"there she lay, old
Martha Dietz, and called in vain upon the demon who deserted her. There
have lain all the foul hags who tortured my poor aching limbs. There
shall _she_ lie also, the scoffer and reviler, the worker of evil. The
witchfinder will be revenged. Revenge! no, no! He will do the work of
the holy church. Who shall say the contrary? Not thou, old Martha--nor
thou--nor thou. If ye say so, ye lie in death, as ye have lied in life.
Ay! glare upon me with your lack-lustre eyes. Ye are powerless now,
though ye are there, and make mouths at me. One--two--three--God stand
by me! There they are--_all seven!_"

With a wild scream of horror, the cripple covered his eyes with his
hands, and rushed forth into the tempest.

Situated in the picturesque and fertile valley of the Saale, the town of
Hammelburg stands upon a gentle declivity, commanding one of the
numerous windings of the river, and sloping downwards to its banks. A
part of the old walls of the town is thus bathed by the waters of the
stream, which, calm and peaceful in the summer months, become
tumultuous, and even dangerous, during rainy weather, or after the
melting of the snows. From the ancient gateway of the town on the river
side, a triple bridge of great length and many arches, which, in the dry
season, seems to occupy a most unnecessary space across the narrower
waters, but which, at other times, scarce suffices to span the extent of
the invading inundation, affords a communication with the high-road.

At the commencement of the sixteenth century, this bridge was only
constructed of wood, and although put together with rude strength,
ill-sufficed to resist the force of the torrents, and had been
repeatedly swept before them.

Not far from the town gateway that commanded this bridge, stood a huge
mansion, constructed as a palace for the Prince Bishops of Fulda, the
sovereign rulers of the district; although, at the period in question,
it had been ced