ughts," replied Rasselwitz
quickly and softly. "I would save you. Wrap my black cloak about you,
take the cap in your hand, follow the chaplain as his clerk through the
gens-d'armes; he is still talking without to the city-marshal. The holy
man is in the secret, and goes from here to the farthest end of the
Striegauer suburb to a sick person, and thence you may easily escape."

"And _you_?" asked Tausdorf, in deep emotion.

"I!" replied Rasselwitz; "why I remain here in the mean time, and laugh
at the serjeants, when they come and find the nest empty."

"That laugh would cost you dear," said Tausdorf; "Heaven be praised
that I have more forethought than yourself. The council and the
provosts thirst after my blood like hungry tigers. They would be mad on
finding me snatched from them, and your head would fall instead of
mine."

"Not so," insisted Rasselwitz. "They would fling me into the
Hildebrand, which I already know full well, and there I will abide
patiently till the bishop frees me."

"It might this time easily turn out otherwise, and I dare not set the
life of my preserver on such possibilities, not to speak of the abuse
of the holy sacrament which you would persuade me to. I thank you for
your noble offer, but I remain."

"Pray take it, Herr von Tausdorf," cried Rasselwitz, urgently. "I
should delight in hazarding something for you, more especially as it
seems to me as if I were half the cause of your misfortune, although
with no evil intention. I have unconsciously drawn you into the snare
which, in the end, has closed destructively about you, and therefore I
owe you an atonement. Pray you now accept it."

"I do not understand your words, my young friend, but only the good
heart that speaks in them. You may, however, spare them in my case; for
by my knightly word I stir not from this room till my hour strikes. If
you have done me any wrong, knowingly or unknowingly, I forgive you
with all my heart, even without atonement; for, _that_ our Saviour has
offered for us all by his death upon the cross."

"I cannot let you die," cried Rasselwitz, wildly; "if you will not save
yourself as I propose, I will call together as many brave nobles, and
their people, as may be collected in the town. Unfortunately Netz is
wanting, with his adherents; and, as the gates are closed, I can send
no message to him; but still I will undertake to muster fifty heads. We
set fire to the nest in twenty places, and in the confusion