C. F. van der Velde

“ You have solemnly sworn it to us, and must redeem your word, that God may one day not forget you in your dying hour."
"Leave us alone," said Francis to the jailer; and when the latter had gone, he exclaimed to Agatha, "What would you have of me? You ask help of one who is himself most helpless. Would I be here, if I had the influence which you attribute to me?"
"Your father is all-powerful in this city," cried Agatha, wringing her hands. "It is a trifle for him to help the man who is now to suffer for having saved your life."
"My father's hands are bound by the bishop and the furious nobles. ”

“ We will not make war upon you without the emperor's order, but your Schweidnitz shall henceforth be like a town, in which the pest rages. Woe to our serfs if they dare to bring you provisions; woe to your citizens if they dare to go beyond their walls; woe to yourselves if you are caught upon our land and soil. You shall see with terror that we know how to administer justice in our way: as a pledge of it I leave you my gauntlet. Whichever of you has courage enough may bring it after me. I will wait an hour for the messenger on the borders of your territory. ”

“ Netz silently sheathed his sword; his brothers in arms followed his example.
"And now, with God, to horse, gentlemen," added Tausdorf, kissed Althea's hand in silent fervour, and strode out. The knights hastened after him.
"What a man! exclaimed Althea, as in the overflow of feeling she sank upon her uncle's breast.
"You are right, niece," replied Schindel, with emotion: "Let him be ten times an Utraquist, yet he is a noble, strong-minded man, and with pleasure should I one day lay your hand in his." ”

“ The beautiful, wicked Circe is intended to prefigure the human passions, the impulse of the senses. Whoever empties her cup, she robs him of reason, and makes him like the beasts in the wood. Recollect, Henry, how you were wrath, not long ago, with your play-fellow for some trifle, and screamed, and struck about you, and would not be satisfied,--then you had become a little wild beast in your anger."
"I will not do so again," said Henry, ashamed and kissed the knight's hand.
"But what is the meaning of the herb moly, which protected the great hero from this enchantress?" ”

“ By the table sat Bona in all the fulness of her charms, seeming to enjoy with silent transport the splendour of the evening heavens, whose crimson fire gave all the glory of a seraph to her head and face.
"We interrupt here," said Tausdorf to Rasselwitz, struck by her appearance, "and must seek some other place."
"You do not interrupt me, gentlemen," said Bona, rising with graceful kindness. "A woman, who knows how to maintain her female dignity, has no occasion to be afraid of men. ”

“ Therefore pray a short farewell prayer, for we are Christians."
"Mercy!" groaned Christopher piteously. "I cannot pray. Take half my wealth as an atonement, but do not kill me."
"Ay!" retorted the mask, with cold sternness. "You and your whole race, with all your gold, would not outweigh the single head of the noble Tausdorf, whom your iniquity has slaughtered. There can be no talk between us of mercy or atonement, but of well-earned retribution: therefore, away with you, scoundrel! away to death!" ”

“ But the weary animal made only a few weak efforts, and fell back again into his short trot, interrupted by frequent stumbles, while the sound of horses' feet kept constantly nearing.
"It is then a struggle for life or death!" cried Tausdorf; drew his sword, and his left hand grasped his holster-pistols.
"Stop, murderer, stop!" cried the first horseman, springing forward. "You are our prisoner. Follow us to Schweidnitz."
"Keep yourselves out of harm's way, good people," cried Tausdorf, turning round his horse: "I am well armed, and have nothing to do with you." ”

“ Come with me, brother Tausdorf; it is still far from evening, and you have not got a messenger to send to Bögendorf."
"I am no player," said the knight, excusing himself.
"Nor I, brother," replied Francis, and took Tausdorf's arm familiarly in his; "at least I don't love this push-pin work. It is another thing when one can stake life and limb upon the hazard; then, indeed, I am for you. But we'll not bowl, only look on and see how the poor devils fag themselves for a paltry stake. Come along."
"Do as he wishes, to avoid strife," whispered Althea; "but get away from him as soon as you can." ”

“ The mad trash, invented by the dry brains of the poetasters to tickle your nobles, is for them poison. There it is they learn to build up air-castles in the midst of reality--there it is that they find every passion painted in fine colours, and, before they dream of it, their honour is gone, and--God deliver us!--their eternal salvation also."
"I give you my word," at length stammered Francis, "that Agatha's honour shall one day be redeemed before the world."
"You!" cried Onophrius,--"a husband! Heaven have mercy on us! ”

“ Before the aloe, whose flowers seemed to burn in the evening red, stood Tausdorf, sunk in its contemplation.--"The plant is to be envied," he said to Rasselwitz; "he dies well, who, like it, dies at the moment of reaching the pinnacle of strength and beauty; and I could almost wish that such a death might one day be to myself."
"How earnestly and gravely you take every thing," replied Rasselwitz--"nay gloomily too! For my part, it is precisely when I got to the pinnacle that I should feel most eager to live on, because it is then that life is gayest. When one is gone, the best pleasure is over ”

“ He imprinted a fiery kiss upon Bona's hand and departed. The maiden looked after him with a bitter smile, then rose up, and walked slowly into the green-house, where stood the aloe, which she considered for a long time, and at length said, "Yes, proud aloe, you are the image of my revenge. Your blossom requires years to break from the bud, but it does at last break forth in vigour that will not be restrained; and though you perish in the very moment of perfection, you have yet gained your object; he who has done that has lived long enough." ”

“ The knight considered the sleeper with approving eyes, and then cast them, full of voluptuous desire, on the fair stranger.
"Cease, beautiful siren!" he exclaimed at last, seizing her white hand, and holding it firmly upon the strings; "your magic song disturbs me in my gazing on you. A woman, created for love, as you are, cannot lull her heart to sleep without committing a deadly sin against my sex."
With a heavenly smile, in which, however, lurked a strange glance, Bona looked at him, and her hand returned a gentle pressure. ”

“ I come only to take leave of you for this life, and, at the same time, to bid you farewell in the name of all those nobles who have hitherto lived in peace under the shelter of your walls. You must yourselves find it natural, that none of them deem their life safe in a town that could let so noble a head fall under the sword of the executioner! ”

“ At length Rasselwitz appeared with the gardener, who hung a large mirror-lamp of Venetian glass upon a branch of the oleander, and again retired. The glasses were filled afresh, while Bona wound about the good Tausdorf with the finest arts of conversation, and contrived to flatter him so sweetly, and at the same time to inspire him with such respect, that he was unable to break from the magic circle, although his correctness of feeling warned him betimes to fly from the danger before he was lost in it. ”

“ Tausdorf only sat still and wrapt up in himself, and with his fork scratched letters on the pewter-dish before him.
"What ails you?" said the mild Althea sportively, and passed her white hand across his eyes. "You are not yourself, and cannot plead in excuse that your thoughts are absent with the object of your passion, for she sits by you in her honoured person, and you trouble yourself but little about her."
"My good Althea!" sighed Tausdorf, and with a mournful smile kissed the hand that caressed him. ”

“ With infinite unction he groaned out, "If, worthy sir, it is sad, mournful, pitiable, and most grievous to lose a dear, beloved child by a natural death, how much more sad, mournful, pitiable, and grievous must it be for a father when a healthful son is snatched from him through God's severe, though wise and gracious dispensation, by so sudden, violent, and horrid a death, without first having time to confess and repent his errors, so that in the full flower of his sins he is hurried away before the eternal judgment-seat!" ”

“ It warms an honest fellow who has got a few bottles of Tokay in him."
"This mad springing may please you," said Althea contemptuously; "it is just calculated for the taste of a drunkard; but to me it seems like the wild dance of fiends about a lost soul. It grates me to see that a woman can so far forget the female dignity as to expose herself thus."
"Heaven deliver me from a tribunal where you preside," said Francis laughing; "why, it must be worse than that of the emperor at Prague. Your virtue is of so fierce a nature, there's no reasoning with it. ”

“ Your person would show him a true mirror of what he ought to be and is not; that would shame him, and shame exasperates vulgar minds. His roughness and your cultivation, his furious violence and your noble calmness, his inclination to every excess and your purity----"
"Still! still!" interrupted Tausdorf, ashamed, and gently pressing his hand upon the lips of the animated eulogist. "Do not forget that I also am no more than a frail man, and that exaggerated praise from an estimable mouth can corrupt even better than I am."
"Come along," cried Schindel, dragging in the sky-blue Christopher. ”

“ Bieler was killed; Rasselwitz wounded and taken; I saw that standing out would lead to nothing but death or a dungeon, laid about me like a boar at bay, and fortunately cut my way through."
"Men, men!--how will you answer for that which you have done?" exclaimed Schindel, sorrowfully.
"What! are we to take any thing and every thing of these citizens? It may perhaps be Christian-like when one cheek is smitten to hold the other; but to strike again is human, and I do not wish to be any thing better than a man." ”

“ Neither your wealth nor your tears can make him alive again. Blood demands blood, and Tausdorf must die!"
"Not another word of supplication," cried the little Henry to his mother, who was exhausted by her agony; "tis a pity you offered any to the wicked man. Has not uncle Netz told you a hundred times that the rich burgomaster is as cold and as hard as the dollars of which he is always boasting so much? Come, mother; we cannot beg the good man free, and therefore we will weep for him as long as we have eyes. ”

“ Christopher Friend had remained a widower, and by all means, just as well as unjust, had considerably increased his mammon. He was asleep in his own bedroom, on a beautiful summer's night, when he was awakened by a grasp at his throat, and, on opening his eyes in terror, there sat upon the bed two men, fearfully illuminated by the moon. They were enveloped in dark cloaks, with black masks on their faces, and held two daggers glittering at his breast, in the pale yellow light. ”

“ Would you send your wife after the murdered Netz, or, like count Gleichen, get a dispensation at Rome for a double wedlock?"
"Not so rough, old man," exclaimed Francis in a tone of menace; "I don't like to hear such language, nor does it become the servant towards his master's son."
"That is the curse which rests upon the poor and lowly," exclaimed Onophrius, crawling to the nearest chair, and sinking down upon it, exhausted. "It is our curse that we are powerless, and weaponless, and lawless, against the great who wrong us, while, over and above all, we must spill our blood for our tyrants. ”

“ To the sentence of the court of Schweidnitz I never will submit."
"By no means," replied the marshal. "Where you have committed the crime, there must you be judged. Therefore, yield yourself immediately, or I'll have you rode down, and the damage is your own."
In the meantime the tumult, the cry of murder, and the loud parley, had brought the peasants of Saltzbrunn thither. They came with poles and spears, and stared at the parties, whom they surrounded.
"Help us to seize the murderer!" cried the marshalman, who had but little inclination to venture on the single man with his whole troop. ”

“ At this moment, some one burst open the street door, and rushed into the chamber;--it was Francis Friend.
"I have had a glorious row with the vagabond nobles," he cried, embracing the maiden roughly, "and the mad Netz has flayed my arm, but I think I have paid him for it, in a way that will make him remember me. Bind up the wound, Agatha."
"Wicked man," replied Agatha chidingly, as she stripped off the sleeve through which the blood was welling; "you are always running wantonly into danger, and care not for the anxiety which I suffer on your account." ”

“ The gens-d'armes had drawn a triple circle of spears about the stone columns before the sessions-house cellars. Within, by a heap of strewed sand, waited the executioner with his sword beneath his red cloak. On the other side of the circle the people thronged in a dense mass. All the windows of the marketplace swarmed with spectators, while the roofs and the chimney-tops were covered with men, all expecting, with anxious curiosity and a strange painful pleasure, the victim which they yet lamented. ”

“ And in the delirium of the moment, he dashed his goblet through the window, and leaped upon a chair, shouting "Huzza! huzza! away with the tables; we have had enough of eating, and will dance you one till the floor shakes, and the rafters crack again."
"Man! are you alone here?" exclaimed Tausdorf indignantly; but in his frenzy, Francis heard him not, and, springing from the chair over the table with a neck-breaking leap, alighted again just before the mask with the auburn hair.
"Take away," said Christopher with vexation. "When once he breaks out, there is no managing with him." ”