"Petrus and Paulus," promptly answered Bertel. They were allowed to pass. Fortunately the drawbridge was down. But the whole castle was now alarmed.
"We will jump into the river, the night is dark, they will not see us!" cried Bertel.
"No," said Larsson, "I will not leave my girl, even if it should cost me my head."
"Here stand three saddled horses, be quick and mount."
"Up, you sweetest of all the nuns in Franconia, up in the saddle!" and the captain hastily swung the trembling Ketchen before him on the horse's back. They all galloped away into the darkness. But behind them raged tumult and uproar, the alarm bells sounding in all the turrets, and the whole of Würzburg wondering greatly what could have happened on Xmas eve itself.
CHAPTER IV.
DUKE BERNHARD AND BERTEL.
Three months after the events related in the preceding chapter we find Lieutenant Bertel one day in one of the rooms at the martial court, which Duke Bernhard of Weimar kept sometimes at Kassel and sometimes at Nassau, or wherever the duties of the war compelled him to go.
It was a spring day in March, 1633. Officers came and departed, orderlies hastened in all directions; Duke Bernhard had the greatest share of the south and west of Germany to look after, and the times were most anxious.
After having waited a good while, the young officer was conducted to the duke. The latter looked up irritably from his maps and papers, and seemed to wait to be spoken to; but Bertel remained silent.