"Regina!" cried a well-known voice, which trembled from surprise.
"You are mistaken, my friend," the Jesuit hastened to say in a disguised voice. "Give way to Doctor Albertus Simonis, army physician in the service of his Royal Majesty."
"Ha! it is you, accursed Jesuit!" cried the stranger. "Guard, to arms! To arms! and seize the greatest villain on earth." And so saying, he grasped the monk by his fur cloak.
For an instant Hieronymus tried to disengage the sleigh and escape through the speed of the horses. But when he found that this was impossible, he left his fur cloak behind him, wriggled from his enemy's grasp, and, throwing himself quickly over the railing of the bridge, jumped down on the ice, which, in the terrible cold, had formed between the castle island and the mainland. He soon vanished in the dim morning light.
Alarmed by the cry, the castle gate guard discharged his musket after the fugitive, but without effect. Some of the soldiers seemed inclined to pursue him on the ice.
"Do not do that, boys!" cried a bearded sergeant, "it has thawed during the night, and the stream has cut the ice underneath; I think it will break up to-day."
"But the fellow jumped down there!" cried some.
"The devil will get him," replied the sergeant, calmly lighting his morning pipe. "I guess by this time he is not far from Ämmä."
"What did you say?" cried the driver of the sleigh in alarm.
"I say that the old woman* has got her breakfast to-day," answered the sergeant with perfect composure. "Just listen, she barks like a chained dog; now she is satisfied."