eyes, now when peace has just been declared throughout the land! Who
knows what sentence will be pronounced if the bailiffs show themselves
shrewder this time than usual! My office compelled me to set the pack
upon him. That is the reason I am so late. Tell Els as cautiously as
possible."

He bowed gallantly and trotted on, but Eva, as if hunted by enemies,
rushed up the staircase, threw herself on her knees before the prie dieu,
and sobbed aloud.

Young Vorchtel had undoubtedly heard of the events in the entry, taunted
Wolff with his betrothed bride's nocturnal interview with a knight, and
thus roused the strong man to fury. How terrible it all was! How could
she bear it! Her thoughtlessness had cost a human life, robbed parents
of their son! Through her fault her sister's betrothed husband, whom she
also loved, was in danger of being placed under ban, perhaps even of
being led to the executioner's block!

She had no thought of any other motive which might have induced the hot-
blooded young men to cross swords and, firmly convinced that her luckless
letter had drawn Heinz Schorlin to the house and thus led to all these
terrible things, she vainly struggled for composure.

Sometimes she beheld in imagination the despairing Els; sometimes the
aged Vorchtels, grieving themselves to death; sometimes Wolff, outlawed,
hiding like a hunted deer in the recesses of the forest; sometimes the
maid, fleeing with her little bundle into the darkness of the night;
sometimes the burning convent; and at intervals also Heinz Schorlin, as
he knelt before her and raised his clasped hands with passionate
entreaty.