"We can certainly descend; the question is, under what circumstances?"
"You mean, whether free or as prisoners? Well, I see no danger; we are completely disguised, and no one knows me here. The Abbot Amandus is dead, and the new abbot is unknown to me. Let us make haste; ring the bell."
The youth was in the act of obeying, when suddenly a voice cried out: "Don't sound the bell—I will come myself and open the door."
A man had been standing at the upper story, by an open window, and heard the conversation of the two travellers. He drew in his head hastily and disappeared.
"It seems I am not so unknown as I supposed," said the smaller of the two gentlemen, with a quiet smile.
"Who knows whether these monks are reliable and true?" whispered the other.
"You certainly would not doubt these exalted servants of God? I, for my part, shall believe in their sincerity till they convince me of the contrary. Ah! the door is opened."
The small door was indeed open, and a monk came out, and hastily drew near to the two travellers.
"I am the Abbot Tobias Stusche; I am also a man wholly devoted to the King of Prussia, though he does not know me."
The abbot laid such a peculiar expression upon these last words, that the strangers were forced to remark them.