essages, concerted watchwords, signals, and all sorts of secret
communications were not uncommon among the oppressed and persecuted
Baptists. The young woman accepted the charge given to her by the
Baptist without the slightest hesitation. The bells sounded, the
congregation left the Church, the marketplace was empty. Out of humor
and inwardly ill at rest Laurenzano now came out of the porch. "What
did that Dissenter want here during prayer-time," he asked himself.
"Unabashed he entered in the middle of the sermon, and how insolently
did he stare at me towards the end leaning against a pillar, as if I
were depicting the evil state of my own wicked conscience." He sighed,
and then continued angrily "I will take care that the police-magistrate
pays another visit to the Kreuzgrund." At that moment a neatly dressed
peasant girl came up to him, "Reverend Sir, you lost something
yesterday near the Stift." Scarcely was the cloth in his hand, than the
maiden disappeared round the corner. Laurenzano looked anxiously about
him, to see whether he was observed. Then he undid the cloth. It
contained a piece of paper. It was certainly from Lydia. She was
perhaps appointing a safer place than the Kreuzweg. He quickly turned
up a narrow street opposite, stopped and read the words: "Fly, all is
known." Terrified he looked behind him, and suddenly a loud voice above
him roared out: "The man deserves that a fox's tail be hung from his
collar, and himself be flogged out of the town," It was the landlord of
the Hirsch, talking about the opposition host, of the Ox. Paul knew the
voice well, and thought the words referred to himself, for he
remembered the habitual evening guests of the Hirsch, whom he had
caused to be imprisoned in the great tower. For that reason he had
daily been treated with great coolness in the Hirsch. So now it was
known that he was acting under orders of the Jesuits, it was known that
he had been the cause of the wretched fate of the four parsons, a
stranger warned him. Did he mean the betrayal, did he mean the
appointment with Lydia, or the affair with the daughter of the former
court fool? or perhaps--a shudder passed over him. In any case he was
discovered. Madly did he rush forwards. He only came back to his senses
on reaching the Speyer gate. Pigavetta is at present with the
Reichstag, he thought in his fear. Father Aloysius' name came back to
him as a deliverer from his inward and outward troubles. He alone could