gomaster is as cold and as hard as the dollars of which he is
always boasting so much? Come, mother; we cannot beg the good man free,
and therefore we will weep for him as long as we have eyes. But this
house is not worthy of your tears;"--and then turning to Erasmus, he
said, with a dignity and spirit beyond his years, "You have heavily
vexed and offended the Frau von Netz, Mr. Burgomaster, and it is the
duty of a good son to avenge every insult which his mother has had to
endure. At present my arm is not strong enough for my inclination; but,
please God, I shall grow every day larger and stouter, and I think to
be able to wield the sword shortly. For this time I denounce feud
against you, and whatever may come of it, murder or fire, I shall have
set my honour above your impeachment."

He pulled away his mother with him, and Erasmus said to the preacher,
"Do you hear how the young snake can hiss already? But follow the lady,
if you will be so good, comfort her by virtue of your holy office, and
exhort her to betake herself to her own house, that she may not excite
the people by her lamentations in the streets, and force me to send her
home by a couple of gens-d'armes."

"Well advised!" replied the preacher, and hastened after Althea, whom
he found at the street-door, her head leaning against one of the stone
columns of the portal, while Henry stroked her hand consolingly, and
wet it with his tears.

"Submit yourself to the will of Heaven," he began; "and this must be
the easier to you when you weigh the justice of the sentence pronounced
upon the culprit, who was once dear to you. Such assassins and
bloodhounds must be forfeit to the executioner as a warning to others,
and for their own well-earned punishment. Had not the council done
justice in this way, I had never endured to abide in the town; and, if
I could not have walked out, I should have crept out, with wife and
children, from this pit of murder, in which no honest man could have
been secure of his life any longer."

Althea lifted up to him her heavy eyes, that were red and swollen with
weeping, and merely saying, "May God comfort you as you have comforted
me!" she sunk back into her old position. Still, however, the preacher
continued in the same strain for a time; but when he perceived that the
sufferer no longer even listened to his splendid grounds of
consolation, he suddenly broke off, and removed himself, with a look in
which was couched an anathema.