we will presently
view together, and then deliver it over to his relations for burial."

"You seem, my lord bishop, as if you would bring this case under the
emperor's jurisdiction: but, according to our privileges, the trial and
the sentence belong to us, and I must give up nothing of the city's
charter."

"There is danger in delay, and therefore we will not waste the time in
legal disputations. I will answer for what I do, and the emperor
himself shall decide upon the competence of the tribunal. Against this,
I presume, you can have nothing to object, Mr. Burgomaster."

"No!" replied Erasmus, with heavy heart and suppressed indignation.

"How is it with the answer on the part of the citizens?" continued the
bishop, bringing forth a roll of papers, from which he read--"According
to the charge of the Bieler family, there were present and active
in the fray, your son, Francis,--the city-messenger, Onophrius
Goldmann,--the city-servant, George Rudolph, and a cutler's
apprentice.--All these too are, of course, under arrest."

Erasmus was silent, for he felt his error, and was too proud to justify
it.

"No!" exclaimed the bishop. "Immediately take measures for bringing
them hither under a secure guard. _All_--do you hear me? _all_, not
excepting your own son."

The burgomaster was silent, and did not stir, while in his breast
rekindled the strife that had scarcely been subdued.

"Well, gentlemen, am I to be obeyed?" cried the bishop, advancing with
indignant majesty to the sessions-table, by Erasmus' upper place.

At this there started out of the hall, as if actuated by one spirit,
the aldermen, Peter Treutler and Balthasar Albrecht, to fulfil the
commands of the bishop, who continued to Erasmus--

"I am almost displeased with you, Mr. Burgomaster, and I hardly know
what the emperor, to whom I must communicate this unhappy affair, will
say to your proceedings. You Lutherans are constantly harping upon the
holy Scriptures, and will be judged only after their words. Well, then,
have you not read what the wise king Solomon says, 'Love justice, ye
rulers of the earth, for injustice lays waste all lands, and evil life
overthrows the seats of the mighty?' But what is to be thought of the
equity of a judge, who imprisons the party of the murdered, and suffers
the assassins to be at liberty, because his own son is at their head?"

This reproach touched exactly on the sore place, and cut so much the
deeper into the soul