"May they all be exterminated by fire and sword!" interjected one of the girls in a devout manner.
"Poor heretics!" said Ketchen smiling.
"Beware!" repeated Lady Regina, with naïve earnestness. "A heretic deserves no mercy. Anyone who kills a heretic has pardon for seven sins; Father Hieronymus has often thus instructed me. To hate the heretics is the eighth sacrament, and to love a single one of them is to consign your soul to eternal torment."
Regina's black eyes emitted fire with these words. One could easily see that the worthy father's teachings had taken deep root in her soul.
Still Ketchen did not refrain.
"It is said that their king is good and noble, and that he shelters all the weak, and does not allow his soldiers to plunder and outrage their enemies."
"Satan often assumes the disguise of an angel."
"They also say that his men are brave and humane. I myself heard an old Italian soldier tell the knights in the armoury how seventy men belonging to a heretic people called Finns, defended their king for more than an hour against fifteen hundred Neapolitans. And when most of these Finns had fallen, the rest were succoured and finally triumphed; afterwards they bound up the wounds of their enemies as well as their own."
Lady Regina rose, and was about to return a quick answer to this unpalatable speech, but at that moment a servant appeared at the door, and announced that the Count of Lichtenstein, sick and wounded, had arrived at the castle, and craved shelter. The young lady, who, as the niece of the old bishop, took the part of hostess of the castle in his absence, immediately hastened down to welcome the new arrival, who was a distant relative of the family.
The maidens now exchanged significant glances, as if they considered this event especially opportune. It had long been gossiped amongst them that the old bishop had chosen the count as the future husband of the young lady. But in vain had they endeavoured to discover any signs of emotion on the part of their young mistress at the intelligence of his arrival. If Lady Regina entertained any tender passion, she well knew how to conceal it.