with a bold spring dashed at the leathern figure and ran the sword in his
right hand through the phantom's red heart.

The soldiers loudly expressed their admiration. Henrica's eye, also
sparkled approvingly, but suddenly they lost their light, and she stepped
farther back into the room, for Maria came out of the workshops in the
court-yard and, with her gaze fixed on the ground, walked past the
fencers.

The young wife had grown paler, but her clear blue eyes had gained a more
confident, resolute expression. She had learned to go her own way, and
sought and found arduous duties in the service of the city and the poor.
She had remained conqueror in many a severe conflict of the heart, but
the struggle was not yet over; she felt this whenever Georg's path
crossed hers. As far as possible she avoided him, for she did not
conceal from herself, that the attempt to live with him on the footing
of a friend and brother, would mean nothing but the first step on the
road to ruin for him and herself. That he was honestly aiding her by a
strong effort at self-control, she gratefully felt, for she stood heart
to heart with her husband on the ship of life. She wished no other
guide; nay the thought of going to destruction with Peter had no terror
to her. And yet, yet! Georg was like the magnetic mountain, that
attracted her, and which she must avoid to save the vessel from sinking.

To-day she had been asking the different workmen how they fared, and
witnessed scenes of the deepest misery.

The brave men knew that the surrender of the city might put an end to
their distress, but wished to hold out for the sake of liberty and their
religion, and endured their suffering as an inevitable misfortune.