Volume I Part 4 (1/2)
”Halloah! To horse! To horse!” cried Netz, rus.h.i.+ng to the door with his drawn sword. The rest were about to follow him with unsheathed weapons, when Tausdorf thundered out, ”Halt!” At the word the knights stood still.
”Put up your swords before you mount,” he said, in a tone of stern command.
”Wherefore?” asked Netz, returning angrily.
”You have chosen me for your leader in this business,” answered Tausdorf, with all the dignity of command, ”and it is your duty, therefore, to obey me; but I am not bound to account to you for every thing I may order. For this time, however, I am content to tell you my motives. Should we ride with drawn swords, the citizens and magistrates might take it for a hostile incursion, or, if they are evilly disposed, might merely pretend to do so, and oppose us with arms, in which case, when the bishop entered the city, he would find the civil war already kindled, which it was the purpose of his coming to avert. Will you answer for the bloodshed that may arise from such a trifle?”
Netz silently sheathed his sword; his brothers in arms followed his example.
”And now, with G.o.d, 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 n.o.ble, strong-minded man, and with pleasure should I one day lay your hand in his.”
The old burgomaster, Erasmus Friend, paced up and down the large arched chamber of his stately stone mansion, in his official insignia, his hands behind his back, and gloom upon his wrinkled forehead. Just then crept in the doctor of law, Esaias Heidenreich, a thin little man, with a face of cunning.
”Well!” exclaimed the burgomaster, ”have you found it out? What would the bishop?”
”Just what I prophesied,” replied the doctor, shrugging his shoulders; ”he would inquire into this bad business himself, and submit the decision to the emperor.”
”That is against our privileges,” cried the burgomaster, indignantly.
”The penal jurisdiction belongs exclusively to our city in all cases.”
”I would not affirm that so unconditionally. Besides, that is no longer the question. His grace, the right reverend bishop, chooses to look at the affair in his own way: the only point then is--_quaeritur_--whether you will submit to the authority of the prince palatine, or not? And upon this you must make up your mind speedily, for in a few minutes he rides into our good city.”
”The priest need not be always poking his nose into what is not his business. I won't submit.”
”Will you then entirely break with the n.o.ble old man, who entertains such favourable and tolerant opinions towards all _Acatholicos_? And if, after all, he should choose to maintain his authority by force?”
”Then I order our civil troops to mount, and the corporation to be under arms. Within my walls I am master, and no other.”
”But whether the common weal will gain any thing by the measure? I must submit that to your wisdom. Think of the evils which the Smalcald league brought on us eighteen years ago--of the shameful contribution which the town was forced to pay--of the imprisonment which the _consul dirigens_, Furstenhau, had to suffer in the White Tower, at Prague, and here in the Hildebrand. This time, too, it may turn out still worse.
Your opposition may be construed into open rebellion: what the penalty of that is, you know as well as I do, and also that Schweidnitz is compa.s.sed about by enemies. The land-n.o.bles hate us violently, and the emperor's wrath would find a thousand willing and l.u.s.ty hands.”
”Should I now begin to be afraid of these lordlings, in good truth I were neither worthy nor able to fill this my place of honour. Only let them come. We will so receive them, that they shall think of the old Erasmus all their life long.”
”The lord bishop has just dismounted from his horse before the Guildhall,” announced the city servant, Rudolph, while his teeth chattered. ”The council is already a.s.sembled, and all wait for your wors.h.i.+p.”
”Ring out the alarm-bell,” shouted Francis Friend, following close upon his heels. ”The land-n.o.bles have rode up to the market-place, in complete armour, near five hundred strong.”
”Have they committed any disturbance?” asked Erasmus, hastily.
”No,” replied Francis, ”nor have they even drawn a sword. They only stand in the market-place, quite still and orderly, as is by no means their way at other times; if you ask what they want, they give themselves out for the retinue of the prince palatine.”
”Who leads them?” inquired Erasmus with smothered wrath.