CHAPTER XI.
The next morning, when Alf's guard was relieved, he marched his men by the market place. Horrible was the sight which there awaited him. The square before St. Lambert's church was converted into an immense slaughter yard, and filled with human flesh. A great number of unfortunates were bound to stakes and shot through; a part of whom had bled out their lives, and a part were still writhing and twisting in the agonies of the death struggle. Others lay upon the bloody pavement, some hacked to pieces with the sword and some beheaded, The ranting Knipperdolling in his robes of office, his face flushed, with naked and blood-sprinkled arms, was continually and unweariedly swinging his broad executioner's sword over victims, who, either voluntarily or forced by armed men, were kneeling before him.
'Left wheel!' commanded Alf, averting his eyes; and he led his men through side-streets and by-ways to the company's parade ground.
As the men were separating, and Alf proceeding to his own quarters, he was met by poor Clara, who came to him, her eyes red with weeping, and with despair depicted on her countenance.
'Will you grant me a private conversation?' said she; 'it concerns my life--and though you may deem that of little consequence, still your heart is too good not to feel a sympathy for an unfortunate being, whose last hope is in your protection.'
'In God's name, what is going forward?' asked Alf, alarmed, leading the maiden into the garden adjoining the house. 'Speak, dear Clara, and open your heart to me. My blood for thee!'
'The chief prophet and the twelve judges,' answered Clara, 'have published a mandate, by which a plurality of wives is not only allowed but commanded. Not to avail one's self of this spiritual license, is deemed a crime. Spies search all houses and drag forth the marriageable maidens; who are compelled to marry instantly. I hoped to find a defence of my maiden honor in my insignificance; but the hideous Tuiskoshirer has selected me for his third wife. Rather than consummate my ruin by giving my hand to that disgusting madman, I would jump into the river Aa, and there find an end to my life and my afflictions.'
'With God's help,' cried Alf, 'you shall neither jump into the river, Clara, nor into Tuiskoshirer's arms; in which indeed you might find worse repose. Is the old wizard mad, that he lifts his eyes to so pretty a maiden?'
'There is but one way left for my deliverance,' said Clara. 'You are to many my sister, dear brother-in-law--wherefore I beg of you to bestow upon me, out of compassion, the name of one of your wives, that it may protect me from the impudence of his hateful assaults. Understand me rightly,' added she, earnestly;' I ask to be one of your wives in name only. This relation shall give neither to you nor me new duties nor new rights--and when the fate of this unhappy city once changes, then shall we two in no respect be bound to each other.'
'Such an apparent marriage only, will be but little pleasant to either party,' replied Alf. 'Should you not rather find in Munster some young handsome fellow, with whom you may be married in a proper and orderly manner, according to the commandments of God?'
'God preserve me from men!' cried Clara, a deep crimson suddenly suffusing her pale cheeks. 'After what I have here witnessed they have all become my detestation. Even you I select only upon irresistible compulsion, and because the connection can be so arranged that I may be called by your name without belonging to you.'
'This courtship is certainly not particularly polite, my little Clara,' said Alf; 'but before you leap into the water with me, it is necessary that I should say yes. I wish I could have first explained the matter properly to your sister--I know not whether the imperious damsel will be so willing to accommodate herself to the new decree of the twelve judges.'
'The life of her sister is at stake,' cried Clara, in deep agony, 'who will most willingly remain a maiden after, as before, and renounce every right to even a friendly look from her husband.'
'It will be a strange marriage,' mustered Alf, rubbing his hands in much perplexity; 'nevertheless let us trust in God. It would be well, if these times produced nothing more wonderful in old Munster.'
'There comes the monster! Protect me, Kippenbrock!' shrieked Clara, hiding her face in Alf's bosom.
Alf looked up and saw Eliza conducting Tuiskoshirer into the garden. After him pressed a ragged and armed multitude.
'Whatever you may do, my brother,' howled the prophet, 'I yet cannot desert you. Our names must stand near each other in the book of the Spirit. You have contemptuously rejected the alliance which I proposed to you out of the goodness of my heart; nevertheless, to-day I propose a new band which shall bind us both in brotherhood. I ask for the sister of your betrothed, dear brother-in-law, and desire to take her home with me as my christian wife.'
'I regret, my brother,' said Alf, encircling Clara with his arms, 'that you come too late. In obedience to the new law, I have asked the maiden to become my second wife, and have obtained her consent.'
'Indeed!' escaped from the proud Eliza, while she bit her lips and darted a not altogether sisterly glance at the poor Clara.
'Heigh!' stammered Tuiskoshirer, in a tone of mingled fear and anger.
'Your courtship take precedence of that of the great prophet Tuiskoshirer!' cried one of the ragged bridal train, springing towards Clara, seizing her by the arm and endeavoring forcibly to drag her to her detested suitor. Alf instantly seized him by the body and with a powerful swing threw him over the garden fence. 'Who else will interfere?' cried he, lustily, making after the multitude, who in great trepidation were seeking the door.
'An insolent reply was all that I wanted,' snarled Tuiskoshirer, as he followed his retreating rabble.
'Sister and sister-in-law at the same time?' asked Eliza in a tone of bitterness, pointing towards Clara. 'I might at least have been previously informed of it,' said she, leaving the garden in a rage.
'Necessity knows no law, dear Eliza,' pleaded Alf, following her.
'It is a heavy duty which I have taken upon me,' said Clara to herself, 'to preserve the appearance of coldness toward the man whom I love better than all the world beside; but God will help me.'