distinguished ruler.

"The crime of witchcraft is indeed a heinous one, if so be that it can be
proven--not by the compelled confession of crazed and tortured crones,
but by the clear light of reason. Now there is no evidence that I have
heard against this young girl which might not be urged with equal justice
against every cup-bearer in the Castle of the Wolfsberg.

"The Duke Casimir died indeed after having partaken of the wine. But so
may a man at any time by the visitation of God, by the stroke which, from
the void air, falleth suddenly upon the heart of man. No poison has been
found on or about the girl. No evil has been alleged against her, save
that which has been compelled (as all must have seen) by torture, and the
fear of torture, from the palsied and reluctant lips of a frantic hag."

"Hear him! Great is the Stranger!" cried the folk in the hall. And the
shouting of the guards commanding silence could scarce be heard for the
roar of the populace. It was some time before the speech of Dessauer was
again audible.

Ho was beginning to speak again, but Duke Otho, without rising, called
out rudely and angrily:

"Speak to the reason of the judges and not to the passions of the mob!"

"I do indeed speak from the reason to the reason," said Dessauer, calmly;
"for in this matter there is no true averment, even of witchcraft, but
only of the administration of poison--which ought to be proven by the
ordinary means of producing some portion of the drug, both in the
possession of the criminal and from the body of the murdered man. This
has not been done. There has been no evidence, save, as I have shown,
such as may be easily compelled or suborned. If this maid be condemned,
there is no one of you with a wife, a daughter, a sweetheart, who may not
have her burned or beheaded on just as little evidence--if she have a
single enemy in all the city seeking for the sake of malice or thwarted
lust to compass her destruction.

"Moreover, it indeed matters little for the argument that this damsel is
fair to the eye. Save in so far as she is more the object of desire, and
that when the greed of the lustful eye is balked" (here he paused and
looked fixedly between his knees), "disappointment oft in such a heart
turns to deadly poison. And so that which was desired is the more
bitterly hated, and revenge awakes to destroy.

"But if beauty matters little, character matters greatly. And what, by
common consent, has been known