“For my part, I shall not go to law,” said the Count de Nora; “I am convinced, and I shall sign.”
“These gentlemen will not go to law either,” said the ambassador, pointedly.
“Oh, yes they will,” rejoined M. Goefle, “but they will lose.”
“We will attack the validity of the marriage,” cried the baron; “Hilda de Blixen was a Catholic.”
Christian was going to reply angrily, when M. Goefle hastened to interrupt him:
“How do you know that, monsieur?” he said to the baron. “Where are your proofs? Where is this pretended chapel to the Virgin which she is said to have erected? Now that the mysteries of Stollborg are disclosed to all, what evidence remains of this ridiculous fable, which served as a pretext to several persons here present for abandoning that unhappy woman to persecution and to death?”
“This Christian Goffredi may be a Catholic also; he was brought up in Italy!” muttered the heirs, as they withdrew. “Patience! we will know the truth of it, and will see whether a man who cannot have a seat in the Diet, nor be appointed to any office, is to inherit a domain entitling him to all the privileges of the nobility.”
“Be quiet, Christian, hold your tongue!” said M. Goefle, in a low voice, holding Christian back with all his force, as the latter started up to follow his adversaries out and defy them to their faces. “Remain where you are, or all is lost. Be a dissenter, if you choose, when you have inherited; but, for the present, keep quiet about it. No one has remarked that the bear-room has become square again.”
“What do you mean?” inquired the major of M. Goefle. “Why should we hesitate to admit every one freely into the upper room, since the pretended chapel does not exist?”
“We could do so,” replied M. Goefle, “if we had not already broken into it. As it is, they would accuse us of having removed the evidences of the prohibited worship.”