César Malan

“ Gottfried and his servants looked on some moments. The light of the torches shone on the rich armor of the chevalier and on the gold-embroidered housing of his horse, and it seemed as if its brilliancy must open his closed eyes and re-animate his motionless limbs.
Erard kept close to his grandfather and a little behind him. He wept gently, but not with fear—it was with grief and sorrow,—and he repeated, in a low voice, "They have killed him! The wicked men!"
"Perhaps he still lives," said Gottfried, kneeling and placing his ear to the chevalier's mouth. "Raise him! ”

“ Matthew led me to hope the speedy arrival of the express; but he does not come: and I know not why, I experience in my heart oppression and anguish. O, who will tell me what has become of Hildegarde and my children? But what have I to fear? Rothenwald is impregnable, and should all our enemies surround it, is it not under the protection of Our Lady? Who shall conquer it?"
"He who dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High," said Gottfried, "shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Happy is the man who makes his refuge in the shadow of his wings, until his calamity be overpast." ”

“ If Jesus is a Saviour, you say his salvation is a gift. What a faith! Is that your religion?"
Gottfried. I am by nature a wicked man, like all others, but my soul reposes upon Jesus; and I desire to love him, because he has loved me, even unto dying for my sins. His blood has washed my soul; I therefore know that I am saved. Can I love him enough for such grace----?"
"Some one knocks at the door," said Theobald; and on the permission to enter, Ethbert announced that the hour for supper approached, and that his master was expected to attend prayers. ”

“ Ethbert. He who loves Jesus does not blaspheme his name; and the name of Jesus is written on the Church of Jesus. No, no: the Christian does not hate or revenge himself; and he blasphemes neither his God nor the Church of God!
"It is enough!" said Theobald to the servant. "Leave me—I have need of repose and silence:" and the servant went out.
Meanwhile Gottfried had retired into his room, and, like David, wept and sobbed before the Lord, repeating, with bitterness, "Arnold! my son Arnold! Thou art no more! thy father will never more see thee on earth!" ”

“ Gottfried would have sent Erard away, for he feared for him the story of the chevalier; but the latter asked that he might be allowed to remain. "Erard must become a man," added he. "My children know what a battle is. Let Erard then not be afraid at what I am about to say.
"My name is Theobald," continued the chevalier, "and from my earliest youth I was surnamed the iron-hearted, because I never cried at pain, and never knew what it was to be afraid. My father, one of the powerful noblemen of Bohemia, accustomed me, from my earliest years, to despise cold, hunger, thirst and fatigue ”

“ Erard looked also, and was sure that he saw men. "Yes—soldiers!" exclaimed he; "for I see their helmets glisten. There are many of them, grandpapa! Are they coming to kill us also, because we love Jesus?"
"Yes," continued the old man, without replying to the child; "they are, indeed, soldiers. But they are marching slowly, and it would seem---- Ah, my child! they are our own warriors; and it is my son—it is the body of your father—that they are bearing. ”

“ His sword was attached to a scarf of silver and azure, and from beneath his casque, the visor of which was raised, escaped curls of light hair.
"Grandpapa!" exclaimed Erard, running towards Gottfried, "was it not—?"
"Be quiet, Erard," said his grandfather, ordering him to sit down. "Should a child interrupt an older person who is speaking?"
"This chevalier," resumed Theobald, "advanced towards me, who had also left the ranks, and when all was ready, stopped his horse, and said to me, mildly, but with a deep and manly voice, 'Jesus has shed his blood for us: why would you shed mine? ”

“ These words: "He who loveth is of God," had touched his heart, and he was affected and humbled. Ethbert was also silent, secretly asking of God to enlighten and soften the heart of the chevalier, for which Matthew and himself had already prayed more than once.
At last Theobald said, slowly, "It is not, then, like Christians, for men to hate and war with each other? And yet these impious men deserve to be burned; and are not those who imitate them the enemies of God and of the Church?"
"It is no Christian," replied Ethbert, "who kindles the fire that consumes a friend of Jesus ”

“ Were not this Huss and his friend Jerome infidels?
Arnold. Ah, Theobald! was that John Huss an infidel, who, when the sentence that condemned him to be burned was read to him, immediately threw himself on his knees, exclaiming, "O, Lord Jesus, pardon my enemies! Pardon them, for the love of thy great mercy and goodness?"
Theobald, (affected.) Arnold! did John Huss, indeed, speak thus?
Arnold. He did! John Huss knew Jesus, and, like Jesus, prayed for his murderers. No, Theobald; he who loves—who loves unto death, and who can pray for his executioners—is not an infidel.
"O, Hildegarde! ”

“ It seemed to me that Theobald trembled, when I spoke to him of the love of Jesus; but as soon as I had raised my shield, he became furious, and seizing his sword with both hands, he urged his horse against mine, and struck me on the head with all his force, so that I was overthrown and my casque cleft by the blow. ”

“ THEOBALD'S ACCOUNT OF HIS CONFLICT WITH ARNOLD THE LION—HATRED OP ENEMIES—DISTRESS OF THE FAMILY.
"You are pious people," said the chevalier to Gottfried, in the afternoon of the same day, and while Erard was present. "Religion is a good thing."
"One who loves Jesus is always happy," said the child.
"Let them love Jesus!" replied the warrior. ”

“ Gottfried first spread upon the litter some light pine-branches, over which he placed the housing of the horse and his own outer garments, those of his servants, and even that of Erard, who begged him to take this also; then, after the old man had bound up the bruised limb between strong splinters of pine, which he had cut with the blade of the chevalier's sword, and which he tied with his scarf, he laid the warrior on the branches, while two robust servants carefully raised and bore the litter towards the summit of the hill. ”

“ His grandfather placed his finger on Erard's lips, and kept it there, as if to enjoin upon the child the greatest secrecy; and Erard, with a sigh, turned his eyes again upon his father.
"But it was he, it was Theobald, who commenced the combat. He ordered his troops forward; and, himself advancing in front of ours, who had also formed themselves in battle array, he provoked us, calling us heretics and infidels, whom Heaven had already cursed, and whom the Holy Virgin, he said, was about to crush beneath her feet. ”

“ Shall the Iron-Hearted become a woman?"
"'Jesus wept!' is written in the Gospel," replied Matthew. "And our good Saviour is our pattern in all things."
"You weep, then, here?" said the chevalier, with visible interest; "for here you do in all things like Jesus?"
Matthew, (humbly.) At least, we desire to. Our pious lord—
Theobald. Gottfried is then a nobleman?
Matthew. My master is the Count of Winkelthal.
Theobald, (with agitation.) The Count of Winkelthal, Matthew? Arnold, the Lion, was then his son? Am I then, indeed, in the house of his father?
Matthew. Arnold is the only son of my master ”

“ The Calixtans, in particular, maintained that in the sacrament the cup or chalice should be given to the people.
[3]
A name assumed by the Hussites, under the command of John Ziska, after having built a fortress which they called Tabor, near the city of Bechin, in Bohemia.
CHAPTER IV.
KINDNESS TO AN ENEMY—ARNOLD ARRIVES ALIVE, BUT WOUNDED—THEOBALD'S AMAZEMENT AT THE KINDNESS HE RECEIVES.
Erard heard the voice of his grandfather, and ran to throw himself in his arms, exclaiming, "The wicked man! the wicked man!--he has killed my father! God has not preserved him, grandpapa! ”

“ But neither of us had that powder of sulphur and fire which strikes and kills the most valiant, even by the most cowardly hand.
"We, therefore, fought hand to hand; and those of us who only defended ourselves, disabled several men, by the extreme fatigue which we caused them in warding off all their blows. ”