shrill, piercing shriek of a woman rang from wall to wall; and
through the noises the great bell from far above upon Melchior's
tower clashed and clanged its harsh, resonant alarm.

Otto sprang from his bed and looked out of the window and down
upon the court-yard below. "Dear God! what dreadful thing hath
happened?" he cried and clasped his hands together.

A cloud of smoke was pouring out from the windows of the
building across the court-yard, whence a dull ruddy glow flashed
and flickered. Strange men were running here and there with
flaming torches, and the now continuous shrieking of women
pierced the air.

Just beneath the window lay the figure of a man half naked and
face downward upon the stones. Then suddenly Otto cried out in
fear and horror, for, as he looked with dazed and bewildered
eyes down into the lurid court-yard beneath, a savage man, in a
shining breast-plate and steel cap, came dragging the dark,
silent figure of a woman across the stones; but whether she was
dead or in a swoon, Otto could not tell.

And every moment the pulsing of that dull red glare from the
windows of the building across the court-yard shone more
brightly, and the glare from other flaming buildings, which Otto
could not see from his window, turned the black, starry night
into a lurid day.

Just then the door of the room was burst open, and in rushed
poor old Ursela, crazy with her terror. She flung herself down