and priors, and over sixty thousand
Catholics. Why did he have them executed? Because they were criminals?
No; because they remained true to their consciences and to the religion
of their fathers. All these fell victims to the cruelty of Henry
VIII., whom you style a 'great king.' You glorify a man who for
blood-thirstiness and cruelty can be placed by the side of Nero and
Diocletian. That is my retort to your hypocrisy and historical
mendacity."

The stern doctor having emptied his vials of wrath, now walked on
quietly; Lutz with drooping head followed in silence.

"Sybel does not even stop with Henry VIII.," again began the doctor.
"These enlightened gentlemen undertake to glorify even Tiberius, that
inhuman monster. They might as well have the impudence to glorify
cruelty itself. On the other hand, truly great men, such as Tilly, are
abandoned to the hatred of the ignorant."

"This is unjust," said the professor hastily. "Sybel's periodical in
the second volume says that Tilly was often calumniated by party
spirit; that the destruction of Magdeburg belongs to the class of
unproved and improbable events. The periodical proves that Tilly's
conduct in North Germany was mild and humane, that he signalized
himself by his simplicity, unselfishness, and conscientiousness.

"Does Sybel's periodical say all this?"

"Word for word, and much more in praise of that magnanimous man," said
Lutz. "From this you may know that science is just even to pious
heroes."

Klingenberg smiled characteristically, and in his smile was an
expression of ineffable contempt.

He stopped before the professor.

"You have just quoted what impartial historical research informs us of
Tilly, in the second and third volumes. It is so. I remember perfectly
having read that favorable account. Now let me quote what the same
periodical says of the same Tilly in the seventeenth volume. There we
read that Tilly was a hypocrite and a blood-hound, whose name cannot be
mentioned without a shudder; furthermore, we are told that Tilly burned
Magdeburg, that he waged a ravaging war against men, women, children,
and property. You see, then, in the second and third volumes that Tilly
was a conscientious, mild man and pious hero; in the seventeenth
volume, that he was a tyrant and blood-hound. It appears from this with
striking clearness that the enlightened progressionists do not stick at
contradiction, mendacity, and defamation."

The professor lowered h