owd."

"I ask your honor's pardon: it is not a small squabble, it is a bloody
battle."

"Well, part the wranglers."

"We cannot manage them; there are too many of them. Shall I apply for
military?"

"Hell and thunder--military!" cried Hans Shund, getting on his feet.
"Are you in your senses?"

"Several men have already been carried off badly wounded," reported the
policeman further. "You have no idea how serious the affray is, and it
is getting more and more so; the friends of both sides are rushing in
to aid their own party. The police force is not a match for them."

Women, screaming and in tears, were rushing in every direction. The
bands had ceased playing, and noise and confusion resounded from the
scene of action. Louise ran to take her brother's arm in consternation.
The wives and daughters of the chieftains huddled round their natural
protectors.

"Hurry away and report this at the military post," was Seicht's order
to the policeman. "The feud is getting alarming. One moment!"

Tearing a leaf from a memorandum book, he wrote a short note, which he
sent by the messenger.

"Off to the post--be expeditious!"

Louise hastened with her brother and Gerlach senior to their carriage,
and her feeling of security returned only when the noise of the combat
had died away in the distance.

The next day the town papers contained the following notice: "The
beautiful celebration of yesterday, which, on account of its object,
will be long remembered by the citizens of this community, was
unfortunately interrupted by a serious conflict between the laborers
and factorymen. A great many were wounded during the _melee_, of whom
five have since died, and it required the interference of an armed
force to separate the combatants."

CHAPTER XII.

BROWN BREAD AND BONNYCLABBER.

Seraphin had not gone to the celebration. He remained at home on the
plea of not feeling well. He was stretched upon a sofa, and his soul
was engaged in a desperate conflict. What it was impossible for himself
to look upon, had been viewed by his father with composure: the
burlesque procession, the public derision of holy practices, the
mockery of the Redeemer of the world, in whose place had been put a
broken bottle on the symbol of salvation. He himself had been stunned
by the spectacle; and his father? Was it his father? Again, his father
had accompanied the brother and sister to the