He went away with his guard, followed by his model of a defender, and the judges laid their heads together in anxious whisperings.
* * * * *
In the meantime the day had fully broken, and a bright July sun shone upon the overwatched faces of the council, who were still collected in the Sessions'-chamber, and had reclined themselves against the windows to prevent their going to sleep. The iron old Erasmus alone sat at the green table with bright wakeful eyes, and played with the golden medal appended to his chain of honour. By his side stood the vice-consul, Christopher Drescher, behind a chair, which he rocked to and fro impatiently.
"The judges must have come to a decision by this time," said Erasmus, as if to himself.
"If they only come to a right one," replied Drescher emphatically.
"No fear of that; although parties may at times run high amongst ourselves, yet against the outward enemy we all stand as one man; and if----Then we are at the goal, brother."
"I only wish you had not forced poor Reimann to defend him. If he should happen to bring forward things which we can't answer?"
"Some defender Tausdorf could not but have; the forms of the law demanded so much, and to forms we must strictly adhere on this occasion. Between ourselves, too, could you in all Schweidnitz have hunted out a worse advocate than this Reimann?"
"You have seen farther than I have," cried the vice-consul, after a pause: "Concedo."
A servant now brought in a letter to the burgomaster, which he opened and read--