Ortlieb had come to call her to account and her trial was to begin. The
barber's widow, whom she had seen a few days before in the pillory,
with a stone around her neck, because she had allowed a cloth weaver's
heedless daughter to come to her lodging with a handsome trumpeter who
belonged to the city musicians, rose before her mental vision. How the
poor thing had trembled and moaned after the executioner's assistant
hung the heavy stone around her neck! Then, driven frantic by the jeers
and insults of the people, the missiles flung by the street boys, and
the unbearable burden, she could control herself no longer but, pouring
forth a flood of curses, thrust out her tongue at her tormentors.

What a spectacle! But ere she, Katterle, would submit to such disgrace
she would bid farewell to life with all its joys; and even to the
countryman to whom her heart clung, and who, spite of his well-proven
truth and steadfastness, had brought misery upon her.

Now the memory of the hateful word which she, too, had called to the
barber's widow weighed heavily on her heart. Never, never again would
she be arrogant to a neighbour who had fallen into misfortune.

This vow, and many others, she made to St. Clare; then her thoughts
wandered to the city moat, to the Pegnitz, the Fischbach, and all the
other streams in and near Nuremberg, where it was possible to drown and
thus escape the terrible disgrace which threatened her. But in so doing
she had doubtless committed a heavy sin; for while recalling the Dutzen
Pond, from whose dark surface she had often gathered white water lilies
after passing through the Frauenthor into the open fields, and wondering
in what part of its reedy shore her design could be most easily
executed, a brilliant flash of lightning blazed through her room, and
at the same time a peal of thunder shook the old mansion to its
foundations.

That was meant for her and her wicked thoughts. No! For the sake of
escaping disgrace here on earth, she dared not trifle with eternal
salvation and the hope of seeing her dead mother in the other world.

The remembrance of that dear mother, who had laboured so earnestly to
train her in every good path, soothed her. Surely she was looking down
upon her and knew that she had remained upright and honest, that she
had not defrauded her employers of even a pin, and that the little fault
which was to be so grievously punished had been committed solely out
of love for her country