Volume I Part 4 (2/2)
”That I know not,” replied Francis; ”they have all got their visors down.”
”I heard,” said Heidenreich, ”that their leader is a certain Sparrenberger, surnamed Tausdorf. He has lately come hither from Bohemia, and intends settling in this country.”
”Sparrenberger, surnamed Tausdorf,” repeated Erasmus bitterly, taking out his memorandum-book and writing in it: ”I shall recollect the name again at a fitter season.”
”Shall I have the alarm rung?” asked Francis urgently.
Again the old Erasmus began to pace up and down the chamber with long strides. The pa.s.sion for resistance struggled mightily with the sense of its danger in the breast of the vigorous despot. This was perceived by Heidenreich, who approached him and said with anxious warmth: ”If the advice of an old lawyer have yet any weight with you,--and one too who means it fairly with you and the city,--submit yourself for this once, master burgomaster. That, which Francis proposes to you, leads directly to feud with the emperor and the empire, and ruins yourself, and your family, and the town which is entrusted to your providence.”
”You will keep yourself quiet, Francis,” at length said the old man, after a heavy sigh of self-control. He then turned to Heidenreich--”You will accompany me to the sessions.”
With dignified pride he stalked out, and Heidenreich, following him, exclaimed, ”Heaven be praised!”--while Francis stamped with his feet, and rushed out after them like a maniac.
The burgomaster, Erasmus Friend, had just taken his place at the council-table amidst many long pale faces, when the attendants in servile haste and anxiety threw open the folding-doors, and the bishop of Breslaw entered, Caspar von Logau, a venerable and hale old man; with him came the hauptmann of the princ.i.p.ality, Mathias von Logan. The members of the council rose respectfully from their seats, while Erasmus coldly advanced to the first authority in Silesia. The bishop addressed him with dignified earnestness:
”There have been evil doings in your city, Mr. Burgomaster. I take it for granted you have, as a first step, adopted fitting measures that the state of facts may not be concealed, and that the culprits may not escape punishment by flight.”
”The beginner of the fray is arrested,” replied Erasmus, ”and the body of the deceased is in our care.”
”Whom do you understand by the beginner of the fray?” asked the bishop, looking keenly at Erasmus.
”Ra.s.selwitz,” replied the burgomaster with eagerness, ”Ra.s.selwitz, who broke into my son's dwelling like a common robber.”
”You will render up the prisoner to my delegate, which ought to have been done immediately on his arrest. The body of Netz we will presently view together, and then deliver it over to his relations for burial.”
”You seem, my lord bishop, as if you would bring this case under the emperor's jurisdiction: but, according to our privileges, the trial and the sentence belong to us, and I must give up nothing of the city's charter.”
”There is danger in delay, and therefore we will not waste the time in legal disputations. I will answer for what I do, and the emperor himself shall decide upon the competence of the tribunal. Against this, I presume, you can have nothing to object, Mr. Burgomaster.”
”No!” replied Erasmus, with heavy heart and suppressed indignation.
”How is it with the answer on the part of the citizens?” continued the bishop, bringing forth a roll of papers, from which he read--”According to the charge of the Bieler family, there were present and active in the fray, your son, Francis,--the city-messenger, Onophrius Goldmann,--the city-servant, George Rudolph, and a cutler's apprentice.--All these too are, of course, under arrest.”
Erasmus was silent, for he felt his error, and was too proud to justify it.
”No!” exclaimed the bishop. ”Immediately take measures for bringing them hither under a secure guard. _All_--do you hear me? _all_, not excepting your own son.”
The burgomaster was silent, and did not stir, while in his breast rekindled the strife that had scarcely been subdued.
”Well, gentlemen, am I to be obeyed?” cried the bishop, advancing with indignant majesty to the sessions-table, by Erasmus' upper place.
At this there started out of the hall, as if actuated by one spirit, the aldermen, Peter Treutler and Balthasar Albrecht, to fulfil the commands of the bishop, who continued to Erasmus--
”I am almost displeased with you, Mr. Burgomaster, and I hardly know what the emperor, to whom I must communicate this unhappy affair, will say to your proceedings. You Lutherans are constantly harping upon the holy Scriptures, and will be judged only after their words. Well, then, have you not read what the wise king Solomon says, 'Love justice, ye rulers of the earth, for injustice lays waste all lands, and evil life overthrows the seats of the mighty?' But what is to be thought of the equity of a judge, who imprisons the party of the murdered, and suffers the a.s.sa.s.sins to be at liberty, because his own son is at their head?”
This reproach touched exactly on the sore place, and cut so much the deeper into the soul of the proud elder; he was just about to burst forth in all the vigour of his mind, and with indignant zeal for the authority of his office; but then doctor Heidenreich advanced to him and whispered soothingly, ”Since you have determined to submit, do it with a good grace, and make not a bad matter still worse by unseasonable pa.s.sion.” Upon this Erasmus collected himself by a violent effort, champed down the words which he had just been going to hurl against the bishop, and, retreating to the window, gazed indignantly at the n.o.bles, who kept watch on horseback before the Guildhall, in close compact ranks, like so many colossuses of iron. In the mean time, the bishop seated himself in the burgomaster's arm-chair, reading over his papers, while so profound a silence reigned, that one might have heard the buzzing of the flies in the room and the heavy breathing of the anxious aldermen.
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