a new instrument of torture intended for the room adjoining the Council
chamber, where those who refused to make depositions were forced to it.
In a shady corner sat old people, poorly clad women, and pale-faced
children, the city poor, who at this hour received food from the kitchen
of the Town Hall. A few priests and monks were going into the wing of
the building which contained the "Hole," with its various cells and the
largest chamber of torture, to give the consolations of religion to the
prisoners and those tortured by the rack who had not yet been conveyed
to the hospital at Schweinau.

The countess's keen glance wandered from one to another. When they
reached the group of paupers they rested upon a woman with deadly pale,
hollow cheeks, pressing a pitifully emaciated infant to her dry breast,
and her eyes swiftly filled with tears.

"Here," she whispered to old Martsche, taking several gold coins from the
pocket that hung at her belt, "give these to the poorest ones. You are
sensible. Divide it so that several will have a share and the money will
reach the right hands. You can take your time. We need neither you nor
Katterle. Go back to the house. I will carry your young mistresses to
their father and home again. Where I am you need have no fear that harm
will befall them."

Then she turned again towards the "Hole," and seeing the people yelling
and shouting while awaiting imprisonment, she pointed to them with her
whip, saying, "That's a part of the pack which was set upon you. You
shall hear about it presently. But now come."

As she spoke she went before the girls and urged them to step quickly
into the large, handsome sedan-chair, around which an unusual number of