'What sort of a conversion would it be?' asked Lamormaine, shrugging his shoulders. At that moment Dohna's adjutant entered the room.
'The rich Heinze,' whispered he to his chief, 'will make a present to you of that costly writing table, if you will allow him the quiet enjoyment of his faith. You know the splendid article, the one for which the duke of Leignitz offered him four thousand dollars. It is below.
'I will be with him directly,' cried Dohna, and taking a blank license from the table, he hastened out.
Meantime a tumult out of doors had attracted the whole company to the windows. 'Do you know the cause of this disturbance?' asked Goes of the adjutant.
'A merchant's clerk has killed captain Hurka in his quarters,' answered the latter. 'The guard are bringing him here.'
'That Hurka must have learnt the art of tormenting from satan himself,' growled the colonel. 'What was the provocation?'
'They say,' answered the adjutant, 'that, in order to compel his hostess to procure a certificate of confession, the captain tore her infant from her breast, and threw it upon the floor.'
This announcement caused a universal and simultaneous shudder among those present, despite the triple mail of pride and intolerance which encased their hearts, and Lamormaine discontentedly remarked, 'that is the way to make heretics, not to convert them.'
'This is a case in which mercy, rather than severe justice, should prevail,' remarked the strong-believing Bibran. 'The captain's conduct was too horribly severe, and must lead to greater evils.'
'Let the murderer be led hither,' said Goes. 'I will examine him.'