'Yon shall accompany me there,' said Oberstein to Alf.
'But where shall I remain?' anxiously whispered Clara to her betrothed.
'May I be permitted to confide the maiden to your care, worthy sir?' asked Alf of the doctor.
'I will foster and protect her like a beloved daughter,' answered Fabricius, taking Clara by the hand, and with a light heart the youth then followed the general.
CHAPTER XXVI.
Glowing with anger and sorrow, Graf von Waldeck, bishop of Munster, strode up and down in his gilded tent. At the door, with a pale malefactor face, stood poor Hanslein, in chains, and surrounded by guards. Oberstein and Alf entered.
'This wretch,' cried the bishop to the general, 'proposes to purchase his forfeited life by betraying the city. He has, however, three times forfeited his life,--formerly a rider in my cavalry, he wounded his superior officer and went over to the enemy, swearing allegiance and adopting their faith. I am half inclined to compel him to show us the way to Munster and then hang him; for it would be contrary to all right, human and divine, to allow him to escape punishment by such an act.'
'The greatest right is often the greatest wrong,' said the general soothingly. 'Too much severity is often injurious, and with your grace's permission, if the spiritual lords had not formerly held so rigidly to their notions of right and wrong, and had not wielded the rod of authority too vigorously, much of the mischief against which the assembled christians of Germany of all denominations now appeal to heaven, would have been avoided. My voice is for mildness.'
'You have lost none who were dear to you, through these monsters!' cried the bishop, making great efforts to suppress his tears. 'I have just learned, that the reprobate tailor has murdered both of my pages, for making an effort to rescue themselves from his paws.'
'That is sad news,' said Oberstein, sympathisingly; 'but if you should outdo all these horrors by committing greater, you might thereby bring a stain upon your princely reputation; but you would remedy no evil. My advice is, that you grant a free pardon to the deserter, and thereby obtain a faithful guide into the city, the speedy surrender of which is yet nearest your heart. A resort to the rack, is, in my mind, as it must be in that of every man, highly objectionable, beside being a very unsafe means of accomplishing our purpose.'