THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 BEQUEST 
 
 OF 
 ANITA D. S. BLAKE 
 
KLOSTEIiHEIM; 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE MASQUE 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS DE QUINCEY, 
 
 AUTHOR OF CONFESSIONS OF AN ENGLISH OPIUM-EATEB. 
 
 WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE, 
 
 BY 
 
 DR. SHELTON MACKENZIE. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 WHITTEMORE, NILES, AND HALL 
 
 NEW Y ORE: J. C. DERBY. 
 
 CINCINNATI: MOORE, WILSTACH, KEYS & CO. 
 
 M DCCC LY. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by 
 
 WHITTEMORE, NILES, AND HALL, 
 
 In the Clerk s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 LOAN STACK 
 GIFT 
 

 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE 
 
 BY 
 
 DR. S HELTON MACKENZIE 
 
 THOMAS DE QUINCET was born at Manchester (in 
 England), on the 15th August, 1785. He passed the 
 whole of his childhood, except for the few earliest 
 weeks, in a rural retirement. The death of two of his 
 young sisters, before he was six years old, first awak 
 ened in his mind the knowledge that mortality was the 
 appointed fate of human beings. In his " Confessions 
 of an English Opium-Eater," he has recorded in what 
 manner such deprivations affected him when they 
 occurred, and how then, sinking into his mind, they 
 influenced it in later years. At the age of sixty, re 
 curring to the period of his childhood, he said that if 
 he should return thanks to Providence for all the sepa 
 rate blessings of his early situation, these four he 
 would single out as chiefly worthy to be commemo 
 rated : that he lived in the country ; that he lived in 
 solitude ; that his infant feelings were moulded by the 
 
IV BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 
 
 gentlest of sisters, not by horrid pugilistic brothers ; 
 finally, that he and they were dutiful children of a 
 pure, holy, and magnificent church. 
 
 His father, a Liverpool merchant of considerable 
 wealth, was almost a stranger to him, passing the 
 greater portion of each year in foreign climates sup 
 posed to be favorable to persons afflicted with pulmo 
 nary consumption, and rarely visiting Greenhay, (then 
 a clear mile from the outskirts, but now a portion of 
 the city of Manchester,) where his family resided. He 
 returned home to die in his thirty-ninth year. This 
 event took place in 1792, when Thomas De Quincey 
 was only seven years old. 
 
 * Left by his sire, too young such loss to know, 
 Lord of himself that heritage of woe." 
 
 The elder De Quincey left a widow and six children, 
 to whom he bequeathed ,30,000, yielding an annual 
 income of ,1600. At the age of twenty-one, about 
 ,5000 of this capital would constitute the fortune or 
 portion of each child. 
 
 The elder De Quincey, his son states, was " es 
 teemed during his life for his great integrity," and, 
 himself an anonymous author, was " strongly attach 
 ed to literary pursuits." His widow appears (as has 
 been so frequently noticed in reference to men who 
 have won distinction) to have possessed abilities of a 
 superior class. De Quincey says, " My mother I may 
 mention with honor, as still more highly gifted ; for 
 though unpretending to the name and honors of a lit 
 erary woman, I shall presume to call her (what many 
 literary women are not) an intellectual woman ; and I 
 believe that if ever her letters should be collected and 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. V 
 
 published, they would be thought generally to exhibit 
 as much strong and masculine sense, delivered in as 
 pure mother English, racy and fresh with idiomatic 
 graces, as any in our language hardly excepting 
 those of Lady M. W. Montague." 
 
 During the four years next after his father s death, 
 Thomas De Quincey and his brother (five years his 
 senior) went to a day-school in Salford, now an in 
 dependent parliamentary borough, separated from 
 Manchester by the small river Irwell. Here he was 
 grounded in the classics. At the early age of eleven 
 (as he confesses in his " Suspiria de Profundis,") he 
 fell passionately in love with his cousin, a little girl a 
 year younger than himself. He says that she " wore 
 at that time upon her very lovely face the most angelic 
 expression of character and temper I have almost 
 ever seen." A year after (in 1796), when the family 
 house and grounds at Greenhay were sold, for less 
 than half what they had cost (a few years later, 
 this value would have been more than quadrupled), 
 De Quincey was removed to the grammar school 
 of Bath, at which he speedily displayed a talent for 
 making Latin verses, which obtained him considera 
 tion from his instructors and provoked hostility from 
 his elder schoolmates. Subsequently he was sent to a 
 school in Wiltshire, ofovhich the chief recommendation 
 lay in the religious character of its master. 
 
 There was an acquaintance of long standing be 
 tween the elder De Quincey and the Earl of Aha- 
 mont, an Irish peer, who was subsequently created 
 Marquis of Sligo. This nobleman s eldest son, Lord 
 Westport, was intimate with Thomas De Quincey, 
 and, when at Eton, early in 1800, invited him to visit 
 
 
VI BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 
 
 Ireland with him in the ensuing summer and autumn. 
 Accepting this invitation, De Quincey joined his friend 
 at Eton, being then in his fifteenth year, and had the 
 advantage (such as it was) of seeing and hearing 
 Queen Charlotte and all the princesses, and even had 
 an interview with George III., in an accidental ren 
 contre at Frogmore a pet residence of the Queen s 
 in which the king, as was his habit, asked a variety 
 of questions, and rather annoyed the young interlo 
 cutor by supposing, from the foreign name, that his 
 family had come over with the Huguenots at the revo 
 cation of the edict of Nantz, whereas they had been in 
 England since the Conquest. Shortly after, Mr. De 
 Quincey was an invited guest to one of the Queen s 
 fetes at Frogmore a compliment with which, as a 
 youth and an Englishman, he, naturally enough, was 
 much pleased. In May, 1800, in company with Lord 
 Westport, he first beheld and entered what he calls 
 that " mighty wilderness, the city no, not the city, 
 but the nation of London." They were merely 
 passing through, but having to choose whether to visit 
 Westminster Abbey or St. Paul s Cathedral, preferred 
 the latter. 
 
 In his " Autobiographic Sketches," a full narrative 
 is given of De Quincey s visit to Ireland, as Lord 
 Westport s guest, through England and Wales to 
 Holyhead then as now the favorite port of commu 
 nication with Ireland. The distance of sixty miles was 
 traversed in thirty hours steam navigation being 
 then unknown. At this time, De Quincey wanted 
 a few months of fifteen, but, thanks to the rank of his 
 host, was introduced to Lord Cornwallis, the Viceroy 
 of Ireland, as well as to Lord Clare (the Chancellor), 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. Vll 
 
 Lord Castlereagh, Foster (Speaker of tho House of 
 Commons), and other notorieties. Here, too, he wit 
 nessed the splendors of installing six knights (one 
 of them being Lord Westport s father) of the Order of 
 St. Patrick, and the not less impressive, but far more 
 melancholy incident, of the final ratification, in the 
 Irish House of Lords, of the Act by which the Parlia 
 ment of Ireland was abolished, and the independence 
 of a fine nation destroyed by the treachery of her own 
 legislature. In one of his " Autobiographic Sketches," 
 there is a graphic account of this " end of an auld 
 sang " to use Lord Bellhaven s plain-spoken criti 
 cism on the ratification of the Act of Union between 
 Scotland and England. Soon after, De Quincey ac 
 companied Lord Westport to that part of Connaught 
 (the county of Mayo) in which the family estates 
 chiefly lie, leisurely travelling in a series of short visits 
 to the Irish nobility and gentry en route, and thus mix 
 ing with a higher class of society than school-boys of 
 fifteen are generally in the way of associating with. 
 
 Early in November, 1800, De Quincey returned to 
 Dublin, and after a short sojourn there during which 
 he fell in love with Miss Blake, a lovely Irishwoman, 
 sister to Lord Wallscourt and to the Countess of Erroll 
 travelled back to England, Lord Westport returning 
 to Eton, and De Quincey proceeding to Northampton 
 shire, on a visit to Lord Carbery, at which place inti 
 mation was made to him that some fixed resolution 
 would be taken and announced to him with regard to 
 the future disposal of his time until, two or three years 
 later, he should be old enough to matriculate at Oxford 
 or Cambridge. In the following year (1801), he was at 
 Liverpool, where he became acquainted with Dr. Currie 
 
Vlll BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 
 
 (the first biographer of Burns), Dr. Shepherd, author 
 of a Life of Poggio Bracciolini, and William Roscoe. 
 A little earlier, he had become known to, and intimate 
 with, the Rev. John Clowes, who died in 1831, after hav 
 ing been rector of St. John s, Manchester, for more than 
 sixty years, and, becoming imbued with Swedenborg s 
 peculiar doctrines, had devoted a great portion of his 
 large income to the translation and publication of his 
 numerous works. 
 
 On his father s death, Thomas De Quincey had been 
 left under four male guardians and his mother. One 
 of these lived at a distance, and is described as being 
 " more reasonable and having more knowledge of the 
 world than the rest." Two others resigned their au 
 thority into the hands of the fourth, " a worthy man in 
 his way, but haughty, obstinate, and intolerant of all 
 opposition to his will." In the summer of 1802, De 
 Quincey, who was fully competent to enter college, 
 (he says that at thirteen he wrote Greek at ease and, at 
 fifteen, not only composed Greek verses in lyric meas 
 ures, but could converse in Greek fluently and with 
 out embarrassment, being in the daily practice of 
 reading off the newspapers in Greek extempore,) ap 
 plied to his guardians for permission to do so. They 
 consented, agreeing to give him an annual allowance 
 of ,200, then universally regarded as the minimum 
 for an Oxford student. But annexed to this grant was 
 the condition that De Quincey should then make a 
 positive and definite choice of a profession. Had he 
 chosen the law, perhaps the next three or four years of 
 his life should be spent, not at Oxford, as he earnestly 
 desired, but in the chambers of a special pleader in 
 London. He determined not to give the required 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. IX 
 
 pledge, and (in August, ISO J), a few days before his 
 iiteenth birth-day, finding that he had to hope for 
 no compromise with bis guardian s resolute will, eloped 
 from school, with twelve guineas in his pocket ten 
 of which were lent him by a woman of high rank, 
 (Lady Carbery ?), who, though young herself, had 
 known him from a child. Thus scantily provided for, 
 he walked off to North Wales, where he rambled for 
 months, and finally made his way to London, in some 
 hopes of raising money on the portion to which he 
 would be entitled at the age of twenty-one. 
 
 What appeared in the London Magazine, in 1821, 
 as " Confessions of an English Opium Eater," con 
 tains a narrative of his adventures in Wales and Lon 
 don a story too full of interest in its details to be 
 here condensed. Suffice it to say, that during the 
 months he remained in London, he suffered such 
 depths of want and starvation, that, in after years, his 
 health was greatly injured. His attempts to put the 
 future in pledge for the present, by means of Jew 
 money-lenders, wholly failed, but, in the worst ex 
 treme of his sufferings, an opening was made, almost 
 by accident, for reconciliation with his friends. He 
 quitted London, and finally matriculated at Oxford, at 
 Christmas, 1803, being then in his nineteenth year. 
 But his guardian, compelled to yield on this point, 
 refused to sign an order for more than <100 a year, 
 the allowance made to him at school, double that 
 sum being considered the lowest amount on which an 
 undergraduate could then live at the University, 
 and the almost inevitable result was that, some eighteen 
 months later, he had to borrow money from the Jews, 
 
X BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 
 
 on very usurious terms, which subsequently plunged 
 him in pecuniary difficulties. 
 
 De Quincey remained at Oxford from 1803 to 1808, 
 with occasional visits to London during terms and in 
 the long vacation. He made some acquaintances with 
 literary men. In the summer of 1803, he had intro 
 duced himself by letter to Wordsworth, but did not 
 personally know him until five years later. He met 
 Lamb as early as 1804, but did not thoroughly appre 
 ciate him until 1808, when they formed a mutual 
 friendship, which continued for many years, down to 
 1827, without doubt. At this period, too, he became 
 intimate with Sir Humphrey Davy, Mr. Godwin, Lady 
 Hamilton, Hannah More, Walking Stewart, Mr. Haz- 
 litt, Mr. Abernethy, and others. He also met Dr. Parr, 
 for whose great pedantry and rude manners he ex 
 pressed undisguised contempt in later years. 
 
 To this period also belongs De Quincey s personal 
 knowledge of Coleridge. In 1804 or 1805 (as he 
 states), he learned that Coleridge had for some time 
 applied his whole mind to metaphysics and psychology 
 which then happened to be De Quincey s own ab 
 sorbing pursuit at the time. He did not succeed in 
 meeting him until 1807, at Bridgewater, in Somer 
 setshire, and was so much delighted with him that, 
 understanding him to labor under some pecuniary em 
 barrassment, he " contrived that a particular service 
 should be tendered to Mr. Coleridge, a week after, 
 through the hands of Mr. Cottle, of Bristol, which 
 might have the effect of liberating his mind from 
 anxiety for a year or two, and thus rendering his great 
 powers disposable to their natural uses. That service 
 was accepted by Coleridge. To save him any feel- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. XI 
 
 ings of distress, all names were concealed," but 
 De Quincey learned from himself, rifteen years later, 
 that Coleridge was cognizant, from the first, of the 
 author of his munificence. De Quincey s own ac 
 count, here quoted, is delicate and forbearing. The 
 facts, as related in Mr. Cottle s Reminiscences, are so 
 much to De Quincey s credit that they should not be 
 omitted here. When De Quincey first met Cottle, he 
 inquired into Coleridge s pecuniary affairs, and asked 
 whether he would accept one or two hundred pounds. 
 Coleridge was applied to, declared that pecuniary 
 pressures of the moment were the only serious obsta 
 cles to the completion of several works, which, if com 
 pleted, would make him easy, and that he would accept 
 the money as an unconditional loan. On learning this, 
 De Quincey immediately declared that he would give 
 five hundred pounds, provided the source whence this 
 bounty flowed was never named to Coleridge. At 
 this time, De Quincey was twenty-two years old, and 
 the intended gift was a tenth of his whole patrimony. 
 On Mr. Cottle s earnest suggestion, the amount be 
 stowed was reduced to c300. De Quincey never ascer 
 tained whether this service was of serious benefit to 
 Coleridge ; it has been ascertained by others that a 
 large portion of it had been spent in procuring 
 opium, to the use of which Coleridge was addicted all 
 his life. The generosity of De Quincey is not lessen 
 ed by the misuse of his princely gift. 
 
 Immediately after this transaction, in the fall of 
 1817, De Quincey proceeded to the lakes (accom 
 panying Mrs. Coleridge and her three children) to see 
 Wordsworth, then residing in a small cottage at Gras- 
 mere, between Ambleside and Keswick, and then, also, 
 
Xll BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 
 
 he first met Southey. So much pleased was he with 
 the country and these new friends, that, in the follow 
 ing year, he took Wordsworth s cottage on a seven 
 years lease, and, indeed, had his domicil during the 
 next twenty years amongst the lakes and mountains of 
 Westmoreland. He made visits, southwards in Eng 
 land, and northward in Scotland ; but nine months out 
 of every twelve, between 1808 and 1829, he lived in 
 Westmoreland. 
 
 Here he applied himself, very successfully, to the 
 study of metaphysics and German. Here he extended 
 his literary acquaintanceship, meeting Wilson at 
 Wordsworth s, and Charles Lloyd also. In 1814, on 
 a visit to the mother of the late Professor Wilson, he 
 first went to Edinburgh, and among the earliest of his 
 friends there may be named Sir William Hamilton, 
 the present venerable Professor of Logic in the Univer 
 sity. These visits to Scotland were frequently re 
 newed, particularly after Wilson was made Professor 
 of Moral Philosophy in 1820, and in 1832 he was 
 induced to take his permanent residence there. 
 
 It was in Westmoreland also that De Quincey mar 
 ried. The exact date is not known, nor has he any 
 where mentioned the lady s maiden name but, in 
 his Literary Reminiscences, at the date of November, 
 1807, apostrophizing his wife, he says, " Thou wert at 
 present a child not nine years old, nor had I seen thy 
 face, nor heard thy name. But within nine years 
 (1816) from that same night, thou wert seated by my 
 side ; and, thenceforwards, through a period of four 
 teen years (1830), how often did we two descend, hand 
 locked in hand, and thinking of things to come, at a 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. Xlll 
 
 pace of hurricane." Of this marriage, which was a 
 very happy union, several daughters were the issue. 
 
 It now becomes necessaiy to go back to the autumn 
 of 1804, when De Quincey, then nineteen years old, 
 took some tincture of opium, on the recommendation 
 of a friend, to alleviate the pains of a severe attack of 
 rheumatism in the head. The specific removed the 
 pains, but also created such a pleasurable sort of intel 
 lectual excitement, that its use was adopted and con 
 tinued for ten years. This habit of constant use was 
 continued through the earlier years of De Quincey s 
 residence at Grasmere. His health did not appear in 
 juriously affected during the first eight years, 1804 to 
 1812 ; but in the course of 1813, there was a renewal 
 of a severe irritation of the stomach, the result of his 
 miserable starvation months in London. To mitigate 
 the suffering thus caused, he increased the frequency 
 and quantity of his opium-takings, until, at last, his 
 doses amounted to 320 grains of opium, or 8000 drops 
 per diem an amount, large though it be, little more 
 (Southey has stated) than half what Coleridge had 
 accustomed himself to at the very same time. But, by 
 1816 (probably when he was about being married), 
 De Quincey determined to break himself, if possible, 
 of the baneful practice. He reduced his daily dose 
 from 340 grains to 40, and the " Confessions " detail, 
 with impressive power of description and expression, 
 the pleasures and the pains of opium-taking. Thrice 
 was the effort made to abandon the habit twice it 
 failed. At last, by a strong effort of the will, opium 
 was wholly abandoned, leaving the body indeed weak, 
 but the intellect if not stronger, at least more self- 
 reliant and fructifying than before. In the " Confes- 
 
XIV BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 
 
 sions," he records, in beautiful and touching language, 
 how greatly he was indebted to the tender and watch 
 ful affection of his wife. He says, after comparing 
 himself to the dream-haunted Orestes, " My Eume- 
 nides, like his, were at my bed-feet, and stared in upon 
 me through the curtains ; but, watching by my pillow, 
 or defrauding herself of sleep to bear me company 
 through the heavy watches of the night, sat my Electra ; 
 for thou, beloved M., dear companion of my later 
 years, thou wast my Electra ! and neither in nobility 
 of mind nor in long-suffering affection, wouldst permit 
 that a Grecian sister should excel an English wife. 
 For thou thoughtest not much to stoop to humble 
 offices of kindness, and to servile ministrations of ten- 
 derest affection ; to wipe away for years the un 
 wholesome dews upon the forehead, or to refresh the 
 lips when parched and baked with fever ; nor even 
 when thy own peaceful slumbers had by long sympathy 
 become infected with the spectacle of my dread con 
 test with phantoms and shadowy enemies, that often 
 times bade me sleep no more ! not even then 
 didst thou utter a complaint or any murmur, nor with 
 draw thy angelic smiles, nor shrink from thy service 
 of love, more than Electra did of old. For she, too, 
 though a Grecian woman, and the daughter of the 
 King of men, yet wept sometimes, and hid her face 
 in her robe." 
 
 In 1821, after he had been five years married, dur 
 ing which time three children were born to him, 
 De Quincey was compelled, by pressing pecuniary 
 embarrassments, to endeavor to extricate himself by 
 literature. At that time he was thirty-six years old, 
 in the fulness of mental strength, but with his bodily 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. XV 
 
 health mucli shaken by, and suffering from, the inju 
 rious effects of excessive indulgence in the use of 
 opium. He proceeded to London, where he had 
 many literary friends, and had no difficulty in obtain 
 ing ;ui engagement as contributor to the London Mag 
 azine a periodical of much worth and promise at 
 the time, with an array of writers which included some 
 of the most brilliant then in England. He has enume 
 rated among them, Charles Lamb, Hazlitt, Allan 
 Cunningham, Thomas Hood, Hamilton Reynolds, 
 Carey (the translator of Dante), Crow, the public 
 orator of Cambridge, John Clare (the Northamptonshire 
 peasant poet), Charles Phillips, Talfourd, and John 
 Taylor, one of the publishers of the Magazine, a 
 political economist of some note, and author of the 
 ablest work yet written to identify Sir Philip Fran 
 cis with the authorship of Junius. 
 
 De Quincey s original intention was simply to supply 
 translations from the best German writers, Germany 
 being a literary field in which, at that time, scarcely 
 any English ploughshare had turned up a furrow. 
 But it was known how his health had suffered from the 
 use and abuse of opium, and the eloquent manner in 
 which he spoke of the pleasures and pains caused by 
 that nepenthe, caused the suggestion the request 
 that he would relate his experiences. Accordingly, 
 in the autumn of 1821, he wrote the greater part of 
 the " Confessions of an English Opium-Eater." He 
 has recorded, that " the narrative part was written 
 with singular rapidity," while that portion relating to 
 his dreams was much more slowly composed, from 
 the pain of recollecting the sufferings by which he had 
 been all but utterly prostrated. The first portion, which 
 
XVI BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 
 
 appeared in the London Magazine in 1821, was im 
 mediately and immensely popular. Its originality and 
 its power struck a fresh key on the public mind, and 
 when the work was presented, in a collected form, as 
 a book, in 1822, its sale was unusually great. It has 
 gone through numerous editions in England, and at 
 once placed its author in the front rank of vivid and 
 powerful writers. Not until 1845 did a continuation 
 appear (in Blackwood s Magazine), under the title of 
 Suspiria de Profundis." More unequal, more desul 
 tory, less concentrated than the original " Confes 
 sions," it yet contains many powerful, and sometimes 
 even brilliant passages. It is less unequal, indeed, 
 than might have been anticipated from the circum 
 stance of its emanating from the resumption of a 
 work of great merit after the lapse of nearly quarter 
 of a century. 
 
 The " Suspiria " appeared avowedly as a sequel to 
 the " Confessions," but it does not complete the 
 work according to De Quincey s own ideal. Two other 
 portions were avowedly in his contemplation one 
 to be entitled " The Pariah World," and the other 
 " The Kingdom of Darkness." As it is, therefore, 
 confessedly incomplete (though not imperfect, for it 
 is entirely sui generis and perfect as far as it goes), it 
 may be looked upon as a literary torso, the beauty of 
 the whole to be judged from the fragment which we 
 possess. 
 
 The " Confessions," and, indeed, the whole of De 
 Quincey s works, were written under no stronger 
 external excitement than that supplied by the herb 
 which cheers but does not inebriate. He has himself 
 said, " I usually drink tea from eight o clock at night 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL .NOTICE. XVli 
 
 to four in tho morning." It was between thosi- hours 
 that he studied and wrote, while in London in 1821-23, 
 and the habit lias not been wholly relinquished at tho 
 it hour. 
 
 The >f the "Confessions" placed De Quin- 
 
 cey at one* 1 in a high position as a writer, and his 
 contributions to the periodical press were paid for at a 
 price. In 1824, when the German booksellers, 
 in tho absence of a new Waverley Novel, produced 
 \Valladmor, by Sir Walter Scott," an early copy 
 of the forgery was placed in De Quincey s hands, 
 and by him rapidly reviewed for the London Maga 
 zine. The extracts which he gave awakened so much 
 curiosity that the translation and English publication 
 of the work was determined on. It appeared, on 
 closer examination, so deficient in merit, that De Quin- 
 cey had to re-write and re-cast the greater portion of 
 it. In this guise was it published ; and, written against 
 time as it was, deserves to be considered, from its own 
 claims, as well as the circumstances which produced 
 it, one of t ;e literary curiosities of the time. 
 
 In 1825, De Quincey contributed to Knight s Quar 
 terly Magazine, the periodical in which some of Macau- 
 lay s earliest prose and poetry appeared. As early as 
 October, 1825, De Quincey was recognized, by the wits 
 of Blackwood s Magazine, by being introduced as an 
 interlocutor at the " Noctes Ambrosianai." On other 
 occasions he was similarly honored, and was inva 
 riably mentioned with praise by Wilson, the presiding 
 genius of Maga. He was easily induced to join the 
 contributors, and his first avowed articles, called the 
 " Gallery of the German Prose Classics," were com 
 menced in Blackwood for November, 1826. The 
 b 
 
XV111 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 
 
 series opened with Lessing, and a subsequent paper 
 was devoted to Kant. From that period De Quincey 
 has occasionally been a large, though desultory con 
 tributor to Blackwood, and some of his best papers 
 have appeared in that periodical. 
 
 In 1832, he appears to have determined to make 
 Edinburgh his future residence. At that time, Wil 
 liam Tait, an enterprising publisher, of ultra-liberal 
 opinions, established Tait s Edinburgh Magazine, as a 
 counterpoise to Blackwood s, which was the child and 
 champion of Scottish Toryism. At that time, the 
 great political question of the day was Parliamentary 
 Reform, declared by one party to be indispensable 
 for the preservation of the British Empire, denounced 
 by another party as revolutionary in the extreme. 
 Tait was on the popular side. De Quincey s avowed 
 politics were on the other. But publisher and author 
 agreed in thinking that literature proper was of no 
 particular politics nor party, and, liberal terms being 
 offered, De Quincey became a contributor to Tait, 
 and the "Literary Reminiscences" which now consti 
 tute two volumes in the American collection of his 
 writings, were first given to the world through that 
 periodical. He has also contributed largely to the 
 Encyclopedia Britannica, the North British Review, 
 Hogg s Weekly Instructor, and other less known 
 periodicals. In 1837, he resumed his connection with 
 Blackwood, (producing that remarkable narrative, 
 nearly all imaginary, called " Revolt of the Tartars ; 
 or th2 Flight of the Kalmuck Khan and his people 
 from the Russian Territories to the frontiers of 
 China,") and, for some years enriched that periodical 
 with a series of papers upon a variety of subjects, 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. XIX 
 
 which certainly show him fully entitled to the title of 
 myriad-minded man. Even yet, though old age has 
 overtaken him, in addition to constant ill health, " the 
 old man eloquent " has not relinquished the pen. 
 
 De Quincey has written upon a wider and more 
 diversified range of subjects than any other author of 
 his time. Theology, metaphysics, political economy, 
 criticism, history, philosophy, biography, astronomy, 
 fiction, classical and German literature, have by turns 
 engaged his attention, as well as essays on literature 
 and men of letters, and narratives of singular force and 
 merit. Scattered as his writings are over a variety of 
 periodicals, during a period of nearly five-and-thirty 
 years, it is probable that no collection of them would 
 have been undertaken in England, (partly from the 
 difficulty of ascertaining the identity of all, and partly 
 because of the claims on their copyrights by different 
 publishers,) if Messrs. Ticknor & Fields, of Boston, 
 had not ventured on the somewhat hazardous task 
 the result being not only pecuniary success, in which 
 they have voluntarily permitted the author to partici 
 pate, but the thus making De Quincey s writings 
 known to the new generation of readers who have 
 sprung up since he first appeared in print. This suc 
 cess, also, echoing back to his cottage at Lasswade, 
 near Edinburgh, (a picturesque situation, on which 
 Scott happily passed the first few years of his man 
 hood, where he vibrated between obscurity and fame,) 
 has induced him to collect and revise for republication 
 in England, such of his writings as he desired deliber 
 ately to avow. And thus, from this country, the very 
 existence of whose literature was challenged by an 
 Edinburgh reviewer, within the memory of men not 
 
XX BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 
 
 yet aged, has sped across the wide Atlantic a hearty 
 and cheering recognition, in his later years, of the 
 genius of Thomas De Quincey. 
 
 The " Confessions of an English Opium-Eater," 
 unquestionably show that the writer is gifted in no or 
 dinary degree. Had he rested upon this, De Quincey 
 would have attained a reputation scarcely inferior to 
 that of any prose writer in the language. But " dura 
 necessitas, et res angustce domi," compelled him to 
 belong to the class who do not live to write, but write 
 to live. Hence, his powers have been frittered away, in 
 a manner, in magazine writing, the most exhausting, 
 perhaps, of all sorts of composition. Hence, with the 
 additional drawback of ill health and depressed spirits, 
 (which have often obstructed him in writing,) he has 
 scarcely given any decided and substantive proof of 
 the great powers which he undoubtedly possesses. He 
 has not done justice to himself. 
 
 It would have been well had his other writings pos 
 sessed the earnestness and intensity of his u Confes 
 sions." But one of the results, almost inevitable, 
 perhaps, of his writing for periodicals he has fallen 
 into the habit, not only of overlaying his thoughts with 
 words, but of obstructing the free course of their ex 
 pression by digressions, parentheses, and extraneous 
 and desultory matter, bearing little direct relation to 
 his subject. His reigning fault is want of concentra 
 tion. He sometimes heaps words upon words, as if to 
 show the richness of his vocabulary. No one who has 
 read his " Confessions " can think him deficient in 
 imagination some of hjs word-pictures cannot be 
 surpassed but he rarely has indulged in this great 
 power. His learning, unquestionably great, has too 
 
BIOGKAPIIICAL NOTICE. XXI 
 
 often led him into pedantry. On a few occasions 
 (such as Murder Considered as one of :h.- l ; ino Arts," 
 in which the- title is the- most suggestive part of the 
 piper,) IK- has attempted to he humorous. That he 
 has scarcely succeeded may be attributed to his greater 
 appreciation of the higher faculty of w&, which has dis 
 qualified him from the expression of what is merely 
 ludicrous. A writer in the W^tniin^rr AVr/Yw, of 
 acknowledged critical acumen, has thus summed up 
 his conclusions : " With a genius so original with 
 such stores of learning such depth of insight, and 
 such subtlety of thought, Mr. De Quincey has given 
 us no one really great work. He has written on 
 almost every subject, but has exhausted none. He has 
 thrown out hints and suggestions of the utmost value, 
 but has left it to others to follow them laboriously up. 
 He has acquired a style of the rarest brilliancy and 
 richness, but he is constantly diminishing his force 
 now by his capricious use of words, and now by the 
 we.iry length of his digressions." But, whatever the 
 defects of his manner, De Quincey s matter is good. 
 .He writes, whatever subject he takes up, from the ful 
 ness of his knowledge, and, considering the quantity 
 he has carelessly flung off, and the circumstances 
 under which he has produced it, Thomas De Quincey 
 may fairly be placed among the great spirits of his 
 time. 
 
 Even now, having passed the allotted threescore 
 and ten years of human life, with his mind s natural 
 force not abated, he fondly indulges in the dream of 
 yet producing some separate work which the world 
 will not willingly let die. That he can do so, no one 
 need doubt. In his later years, happily passed at 
 
XX11 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 
 
 Lasswade, in the society of his children and within 
 reach of frequent companionship with gifted friends, 
 themselves most eminent, who admire the brilliant 
 course of the author, and love the harmless and pure 
 life of the man, his mind may flourish 
 
 "Like the Aloe flower, 
 Which blooms and blossoms at fourscore." 
 
 " Klosterheirn, or The Masque," written in the full 
 maturity of Thomas De Quincey s mind, .at the 
 age of forty-six, and only ten years after his first 
 essay as author of" Confessions of an English Opium- 
 Eater," eminently deserves the designation of a 
 Curiosity of Literature ; and it is surprising that it 
 was not particularly referred to, as such, in the last 
 edition of the elder D Israeli s work. It will be 
 admitted that, even in his most discursive and ex 
 panded compositions, De Quincey gave evidence that 
 he possessed rich fancy and high imagination, in con 
 junction with extensive erudition. It might have been 
 expected, also, that when adventuring on a new path, 
 as a writer of fiction, he would have taken his stand 
 upon English ground and drawn from the varieties of 
 English character and incident. But his great pride 
 has been that he was one of the first to throw open the 
 wealth of German literature that El Dorado of the 
 mind to the notice of his countrymen, and his soli 
 tary romance has its scene, characters, and action, 
 upon German soil. " Klosterheim " is as essentially a 
 German story, as if it had been translated. From first 
 to last, without pause, break, or digression, the plot is 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. XXI11 
 
 made conducive to a certain denouement, which the 
 skill of the artist-author has contrived, with great, 
 adroitness, si as not to be suspected until the very ter 
 mination of the story. The leading elements and 
 characteristics of fiction wild adventure, guilt-born 
 terror, enduring love, and secret mystery pervade 
 the whole composition, which reads like a true narra 
 tive of actual events, so progressive are the incidents, 
 so complete the vrai-semblancc. In some scenes, the 
 limits of the supernatural are reached, and the effect is 
 startling. Into his service he has impressed hatred and 
 love, revenge and remorse, fear and courage, mystery 
 and terror ; and, in the closing scenes, has freely made 
 use of that response which keeps the reader breathless 
 with expectation. In the employment of mystery and 
 terror, he awakens recollections of the wonderful art 
 with which Mrs. RadclifFe extorted science from the 
 same mighty agents. Like her, too, and she is 
 named head of the novelists who used such science 
 though he appears, at times, to pass into the supernat 
 ural, he never wholly abandons the actual. If he 
 involves the characters in a cloud of mystery, he does 
 not fail to dissipate it, at the proper crisis, with the 
 ingenuity of a master of the art. 
 
 " Klosterheim," as a literary composition, is written 
 in De Quincey s best style. Its language is full of con 
 centration, and the story is never once impeded by the 
 digressions and the waste of words, which, his warmest 
 admirers admit, constitute the defective points in his 
 subsequent writings. Another striking feature in " Klos 
 terheim " is its truly dramatic character, a feature so 
 observable, indeed, that the story was simultaneously 
 dramatized for two of the London theatres, and per- 
 
XXIV BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 
 
 formed, during the greater part of the season, with 
 great success. The melodramatic character of the 
 story rendered it so readily applicable, that, with the 
 exception of introducing a slight underplot, no material 
 alteration was made by the playwrights. 
 
 The collected works of De Quincey would be as in 
 complete without " Klostcrheim," as those of Byron 
 without u English Bards," of Moore without the " Epi 
 curean," of Coleridge without the fragment of " Christ- 
 abel," or of Scott without the " Talisman." Composed 
 in the prime of his life, when his- mental and bodily 
 health were better than they had been for years, the 
 romance of Klosterhcim may be taken as one of those 
 labors of love, conceived in a happy moment and exe 
 cuted in a happy mood. It will be for the public to 
 determine why an author who had so ably acquitted 
 himself in this new field of thought, should have not 
 cultivated 5l more industriously. At all events, "Klos- 
 terheim" stands among De Quincey s numerous writ 
 ings, as the only complete and extensive effort of his 
 14 imagination all compact." 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE winter of 1633 had set in with unusual severity 
 throughout Suabia and Bavaria, though as yet- scarcely 
 advanced beyond the first week of November. It was, 
 in fact, at the point when our tale commences, the 
 8th of that month, or, in our modern computation, 
 the 18th ; long after which date it had been customary 
 of late years, under any ordinary state of the weather, 
 to extend the course of military operations, and with 
 out much decline of vigor. Latterly, indeed, it had 
 become apparent that entire winter campaigns, with 
 out either formal suspensions of hostilities, or even 
 partial relaxations, had entered professedly as a point 
 of policy into the system of warfare which now swept 
 over Germany in full career, threatening soon to con 
 vert its vast central provinces so recently blooming 
 Edens of peace and expanding prosperity into a 
 1 
 
X KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 howling wilderness ; and which had already converted 
 immense tracts into one universal aceldama, or human 
 shambles, reviving to the recollection at every step 
 the extent of past happiness in the endless memorials 
 of its destruction. This innovation upon the old prac 
 tice of war had been introduced by the Swedish 
 armies, whose northern habits and training had for 
 tunately prepared them to receive a German winter as 
 a very beneficial exchange ; whilst upon the less 
 hardy soldiers from Italy, Spain, and the Southern 
 France, to whom the harsh transition from their own 
 sunny skies had made the very same climate a severe 
 trial of constitution, this change of policy pressed with 
 a hardship that sometimes * crippled their exertions. 
 
 It was a change, however, not so long settled as to 
 resist the extraordinary circumstances of the weather. 
 So fierce had been the cold for the last fortnight, and 
 so premature, that a pretty confident anticipation had 
 arisen, in all quarters throughout the poor exhausted 
 land, of a general armistice. And as this, once estab 
 lished, would offer a ready opening to some measure 
 of permanent pacification, it could not be surprising 
 that the natural hopefulness of the human heart, long 
 oppressed by gloomy prospects, should open with 
 
 * Of which there is more than one remarkable instance, to the 
 great dishonor of the French arms, in the records of her share 
 in the Thirty Years War. 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 3. 
 
 unusual readiness to the first colorable dawn of hap 
 pier times. In fact, the reaction in the public spirits 
 was sudden and universal. It happened also that the 
 particular occasion of this change of prospect brought 
 with it a separate pleasure on its own account. Win 
 ter, which, by its peculiar severity, had created the 
 apparent necessity for an armistice, brought many 
 household pleasures in its train associated imme- 
 morially with that season in all northern climates. 
 The cold which had casually opened a path to more 
 distant hopes, was also for the present moment a 
 screen between themselves and the enemy s sword. 
 And thus it happened that the same season, which 
 held out a not improbable picture of final restoration, 
 however remote, to public happiness, promised them a 
 certain foretaste of this blessing in the immediate 
 security of their homes. 
 
 But in the ancient city of Klosterheim it might have 
 been imagined that nobody participated in these feel 
 ings. A stir and. agitation amongst the citizens had 
 been conspicuous for some days ; and on the morning 
 of the 8th, spite of the intense cold, persons of every 
 rank were seen crowding from an early hour to the 
 city walls, and returning homewards at intervals, with 
 anxious and dissatisfied looks. Groups of both sexes 
 were collected at every corner of the wider streets, 
 keenly debating, or angrily protesting ; at one time de 
 nouncing vengeance to some great enemy ; at another, 
 
4 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 passionately lamenting some past or half- forgotten 
 calamity, recalled to their thoughts whilst anticipating 
 a similar catastrophe for the present day. 
 
 Above all, the great square, upon which the ancient 
 castellated palace or schloss opened hy one of its 
 fronts, as well as a principal convent of the city, was 
 the resort of many turbulent spirits. Most of these 
 were young men, and amongst them many students of 
 the university : for the war, which had thinned or 
 totally dispersed some of the greatest universities in 
 Germany, under the particular circumstances of its, 
 situation had greatly increased that of Kiosterheim. 
 Judging by the tone which prevailed, and the random 
 expressions which fell upon the ear at intervals, a 
 stranger might conjecture that it was no empty lamen 
 tation over impending evils which occupied this crowd, 
 but some serious preparation for meeting or redressing 
 them. An officer of some distinction had been for 
 some time observing them from the antique portals of 
 the palace. It was probable, however, that little more 
 than their gestures had reached him ; for at length he 
 moved nearer, and gradually insinuated himself into 
 the thickest part of the mob, with the air of one who 
 took no further concern in their proceedings, than that 
 of simple curiosity. But his martial air and his dress 
 allowed him no means of covering his purpose. With 
 more warning and leisure to arrange his precautions, 
 he might have passed as an indifferent spectator ; as it 
 
KLOSTERIIE1M. 5 
 
 was, his jcwcl-hiltcd sabre, the massy gold chain, de 
 pending in front from a costly button and loon, which 
 secured it halfway down his back, and his broad crim 
 son scarf, embroidered in a style of peculiar splendor, 
 announced him as a favored officer of the Landgrave, 
 whose ambitious pretensions, and tyrannical mode of 
 supporting them, were just now the objects of general 
 abhorrence in Klosterheim. His own appearance did 
 not belie the service which he had adopted. He was 
 a man of stout person, somewhat elegantly formed, in 
 age about three or four-and-thirty, though perhaps a 
 year or two of his apparent age might be charged upon 
 the bronzing effects of sun and wind. In bearing and 
 carriage, he announced to every eye the mixed care 
 lessness and self-possession of a military training ; and 
 as his features were regular, and remarkably intelli 
 gent, he would have been pronounced, on the whole, 
 a man of winning exterior, were it not for the repul 
 sive effect of his eye, in which there was a sinister 
 expression of treachery, and at times a ferocious one 
 of cruelty. 
 
 Placed upon their guard by his costume, and the 
 severity of his countenance, those of the lower rank 
 were silent as he moved along, or lowered their voices 
 into whispers and inaudible murmurs. Amongst the 
 students, however, whenever they happened to muster 
 strongly, were many fiery young men, who disdained 
 to temper the expression of their feelings, or to mod- 
 
6 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 erate their tone. A large group of these at one corner 
 of the square drew attention upon themselves, as well 
 by the conspicuous station which they occupied upon 
 the steps of a church portico, as by the loudness of 
 their voices. Towards them the officer directed his 
 steps ; and probably no lover of scenes would have 
 had very long to wait for some explosion between par 
 ties, both equally ready to take offence, and careless 
 of giving it ; but at that moment, from an opposite 
 angle of the square, was seen approaching a young 
 man in plain clothes, who drew off the universal regard 
 of the mob upon himself, and by the uproar of wel 
 come which saluted him, occasioned all other sounds 
 to be stifled. " Long life to our noble leader ! " 
 " Welcome to the good Max ! " resounded through the 
 square. " Hail to our noble brother ! " was the accla 
 mation of the students. And everybody hastened for 
 ward to meet him with an impetuosity, which, for the 
 moment, drew off all attention from the officer ; he was 
 left standing by himself on the steps of the church, 
 looking down upon this scene of joyous welcome 
 the sole spectator who neither fully understood its 
 meaning, nor shared in its feelings. 
 
 The stranger, who wore in part the antique costume 
 of the university of Klosterheim, except where he still 
 retained underneath a travelling dress, stained with 
 recent marks of the roads and the weather, advanced 
 amongst his friends with an air at once frank, kind, 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 7 
 
 and dignified. He replied to their greetings in the 
 language of cheerfulness ; but his features expressed 
 anxiety, and his manner was hurried. Whether he 
 had not observed the officer overlooking them, or 
 thought that the importance of the communications 
 which he had to make transcended all common 
 restraints of caution, there was little time to judge ; 
 so it was, at any rate, that without lowering his voice, 
 he entered abruptly upon his business. 
 
 " Friends ! I have seen the accursed Holkerstein ; 
 I have penetrated within his fortress. With my own 
 eyes I have viewed and numbered his vile assassins. 
 They are in strength triple the utmost amount of our 
 friends. Without help from us, our kinsmen are lost. 
 Scarce one of us but will lose a dear friend before 
 three nights are over, should Klosterheim not resolutely 
 do her duty." 
 
 " She shall, she shall ! " exclaimed a multitude of 
 voices. 
 
 " Then, friends, it must be speedily ; never was 
 there more call for sudden resolution. Perhaps before 
 to-morrow s sun shall set, the sword of this detested 
 robber will be at their throats. For he has some intel 
 ligence (whence I know not, nor how much) of their 
 approach. Neither think that Holkerstein is a man 
 acquainted with any touch of mercy or relenting. 
 Where no ransom is to be had, he is in those circum 
 stances, that he will and must deliver himself from the 
 
8 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 burden of prisoners by a general massacre. Infants 
 even will not be spared." 
 
 Many women had by this time flocked to the outer 
 ring of the listening audience. And perhaps for their 
 ears in particular it was that the young stranger urged 
 these last circumstances ; adding, 
 
 " Will you look down tamely from your city walls 
 upon such another massacre of the innocents as we 
 have once before witnessed ? " 
 
 " Cursed be Holkerstein ! " said a multitude of 
 voices. 
 
 " And cursed be those that openly or secretly sup 
 port him ! " added one of the students, looking ear 
 nestly at the officer. 
 
 " Amen ! " said the officer, in a solemn tone, and 
 looking round him with the aspect of one who will 
 not suppose himself to have been included in the 
 suspicion. 
 
 " And, friends, remember this," pursued the popular 
 favorite ; 4 whilst you are discharging the first duties 
 of Christians and brave men to those who are now 
 throwing themselves upon the hospitality of your city, 
 you will also be acquitting yourselves of a great debt 
 to the Emperor." 
 
 . " Softly, young gentleman, softly," interrupted the 
 officer ; " his Serene Highness, my liege lord and 
 yours, governs here, and the Emperor has no part in 
 our allegiance. For debts, what the city owes to the 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 9 
 
 Emperor, she will pay. But men and horses I take 
 it " 
 
 " Are precisely the coin which the time demands ; 
 these will best please the Emperor, and, perhaps, will 
 suit the circumstances of the city. But, leaving the 
 Emperor s rights as a question for lawyers, you, sir, 
 are a soldier, I question not, a brave one, will 
 you advise his Highness the Landgrave to look down 
 from the castle windows upon a vile marauder, strip 
 ping or murdering the innocent people who are throw 
 ing themselves upon the hospitality of this ancient 
 city ? " 
 
 " Ay, sir, that will I, be you well assured the 
 Landgrave is my sovereign * 
 
 " Since when ? Since Thursday week, I think ; for 
 so long it is since your tertia* first entered Kloster- 
 heim. But in that as you will, and if it be a point of 
 honor with you gentlemen Walloons, to look on whilst 
 women and children are butchered. For such a pur 
 pose no man is my sovereign ; and as to the Land 
 grave in particular " 
 
 " Nor ours, nor ours," shouted a tumult of voices, 
 which drowned the young student s words about the 
 Landgrave, though apparently part of them reached 
 the officer. He looked round in quest of some mili 
 tary comrades who might support him in the voye du 
 
 * An old Walloon designation for a battalion. 
 
10 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 fait, to which, at this point, his passion prompted him. 
 But, seeing none, he exclaimed, " Citizens, press not 
 this matter too far and you, young man, especially 
 forbear you tread upon the brink of treason ! " 
 
 A shout of derision threw back his words. 
 
 " Of treason, I say," he repeated furiously ; " and 
 such wild behavior it is, (and I say it with pain,) that 
 perhaps even now is driving his Highness to place 
 your city under martial law." 
 
 u Martial law ! did you hear that ? " ran along from 
 mouth to mouth. 
 
 " Martial law, gentlemen, I say ; how will you relish 
 the little articles of that code ? The Provost Martial 
 makes short leave-takings. Two fathom of rope, and 
 any of these pleasant old balconies which I see 
 around me, (pointing, as he spoke, to the antique 
 galleries of wood which ran round the middle stories 
 in the convent of St. Peter,) with a confessor, or none, 
 as the Provost s breakfast may chance to allow, have 
 cut short, to my knowledge, the freaks of many a 
 better fellow than any I now see before me." 
 
 Saying this, he bowed with a mock solemnity all 
 round to the crowd, which, by this time, had increased 
 in number and violence. Those who were in the out 
 ermost circles, and beyond the distinct hearing of what 
 he said, had been discussing with heat the alarming 
 confirmation of their fears in respect to Holkerstein, 
 or listening to the impassioned narrative of a woman, 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 11 
 
 who had already seen one of her sons butchered by this 
 ruffian s people under the walls of the city, and was 
 now anticipating the same fate for her last surviving 
 son and daughter, in case they should happen to be 
 amongst the party now expected from Vienna. She 
 had just recited the tragical circumstances of her son s 
 death, and had worked powerfully upon the sympa 
 thizing passions of the crowd, when, suddenly, at a 
 moment so unseasonable for the officer, some imper 
 fect repetition of his words about the Provost Marshal 
 and the rope, passed rapidly from mouth to mouth. It 
 was said that he had threatened every man with instant 
 death at the drum-head, who should but speculate on 
 assisting his friends outside, under the heaviest extrem 
 ities of danger or of outrage. The sarcastic bow, and 
 the inflamed countenance of the officer, were seen by 
 glimpses farther than his words extended. Kindling 
 eyes and lifted arms of many amongst the mob, and 
 chiefly of those on the outside who had heard his 
 words the most imperfectly, proclaimed to such as knew 
 Klosterheim and its temper at this moment the danger 
 in which he stood. Maximilian, the young student, 
 generously forgot his indignation in concern for his 
 immediate safety. Seizing him by the hand he ex 
 claimed, 
 
 " Sir, but a moment ago you warned me that I stood 
 on the brink of treason, look to your own safety at 
 
12 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 present ; for the eyes of some whom I see yonder are 
 dangerous." 
 
 " Young gentleman," the other replied contemptu 
 ously, " I presume that you are a student ; let me 
 counsel you to go back to your books. There you 
 will be in your element. For myself, I am familiar 
 with faces as angry as these and hands something 
 more formidable. Believe me, I see nobody here," 
 and he affected to speak with imperturbable coolness, 
 but his voice became tremulous with passion, " whom 
 I can even esteem worthy of a soldier s consideration." 
 
 " And yet, Colonel von Aremberg, there is at least 
 one man here who has had the honor of commanding 
 men as elevated as yourself." Saying which, he hastily 
 drew from his bosom, where it hung suspended from 
 his neck, a large flat tablet of remarkably beautiful 
 onyx, on one side of which was sculptured a very strik 
 ing face ; but on the other, which he presented to the 
 gaze of the Colonel, was a fine representation of an 
 eagle grovelling in the dust, and beginning to expand 
 its wings with the single word Resurgam by way of 
 motto. 
 
 Never was revulsion of feeling so rapidly exprcsssed 
 on any man s countenance. The Colonel looked but 
 once he caught the image of the bird trailing its 
 pinions in the dust he heard the word Resurgam 
 audibly pronounced his color fled his lips grew 
 livid with passion and, furiously unsheathing his 
 
KLOSTEKHETM. 13 
 
 sword, he sprung, with headlong forgetful ness of time 
 and place, upon his calm antagonist. With the ad 
 vantage of perfect self-possession, Maximilian found it 
 easy to parry the tempestuous blows of the Colonel ; 
 and he would perhaps have found it easy to disarm him. 
 But at this moment the crowd, who had been with great 
 difficulty represssed by the more thoughtful amongst 
 the students, burst through all restraints. In the 
 violent outrage offered to their champion and leader, 
 they saw naturally a full confirmation of the worst 
 impressions they had received as to the Colonel s 
 temper and intention. A number of them rushed 
 forward to execute summary vengeance ; and the fore 
 most amongst these, a mechanic of Klosterheim dis 
 tinguished for his Herculean strength, with one blow 
 stretched Von Aremberg on the ground. A savage 
 yell announced the dreadful fate which impended over 
 the fallen officer. And spite of the generous exertions 
 made for his protection by Maximilian and his brother 
 students, it is probable that at that moment no human 
 interposition could have availed to turn aside the 
 awakened appetite for vengeance, and that he must 
 have perished, but for the accident which at that par 
 ticular instant of time occurred to draw off the atten 
 tion of the mob. 
 
 A signal gun from a watch-tower, which always in 
 those unhappy times announced the approach of 
 strangers, had been fired about ten minutes before ; 
 
14 KLOSTERHE1M. 
 
 but, in the turbulent uproar of the crowd, it had passed 
 unnoticed. Hence it was, that, without previous 
 warning to the mob assembled at this point, a mounted 
 courier now sprung into the square at full gallop on 
 his road to the palace, and was suddenly pulled up by 
 the dense masses of human beings. 
 
 "News, news!" exclaimed Maximilian; "tidings 
 of our dear friends from Vienna ! " This he said with 
 the generous purpose of diverting the infuriated mob 
 from the unfortunate Von Aremberg, though himself 
 apprehending that the courier had arrived from another 
 quarter. His plan succeeded ; the mob rushed after 
 the horseman, all but two or three of the most san 
 guinary, who, being now separated from all assistance, 
 w r ere easily drawn off from their prey. The oppor 
 tunity was eagerly usecKto carry off the Colonel, 
 stunned and bleeding, within the gates of a Franciscan 
 convent. He was consigned to the medical care of 
 the holy fathers ; and Maximilian, with his companions, 
 then hurried away to the chancery of the palace, 
 whither the courier had proceeded with his despatches. 
 
 These were interesting in the highest degree. It 
 had been doubted by many, and by others a pretended 
 doubt had been raised to serve the Landgrave s pur 
 pose, whether the great cavalcade from Vienna would 
 be likely to reach the entrance of the forest for a week 
 or more. Certain news had now arrived, and was 
 published before it could be stifled, that they and all 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 15 
 
 their baggage, after a prosperous journey so far, would 
 be assembled at that point on this very evening. The 
 courier had left the advanced guard about noonday, 
 with an escort of four hundred of the Black Yagers 
 from the Imperial Guard, and two hundred of Papen- 
 heim s Dragoons at Waldenhausen, on the very brink 
 of the forest. The main body and rear were expected 
 to reach the same point in four or five hours ; and the 
 whole party would then fortify their encampment as 
 much as possible against the night attack which they 
 had too much reason to apprehend. 
 
 This was news which, in bringing a respite of forty- 
 eight hours, brought relief to some who had feared 
 that even this very night might present them with the 
 spectacle of their beloved friends engaged in a bloody 
 struggle at the very gates of Klosterheim ; for it was 
 the fixed resolution of the Landgrave to suffer no 
 diminution of his own military strength, or of the 
 means for recruiting it hereafter. Men, horses, arms, 
 all alike were rigorously laid under embargo by the 
 existing government of the city ; and such was the 
 military power at its disposal, reckoning not merely 
 the numerical strength in troops, but also the power 
 of sweeping the main streets of the town, and several 
 of the principal roads outside, that it was become a 
 matter of serious doubt whether the unanimous insur 
 rection of the populace had a chance for making head 
 against the government. But others found not even a 
 
16 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 momentary comfort on this account. They considered 
 that perhaps Waldenhausen might be the very ground 
 selected for the murderous attack. There was here a 
 solitary post-house, but no town or even village. The 
 forest at this point was just thirty-four miles broad ; 
 and if the bloodiest butchery should be going on under 
 cover of night, no rumor of it could be borne across 
 the forest in time to alarm the many anxious friends 
 who would this night be lying awake in Klosterheim. 
 
 A slight circumstance served to barb and point the 
 public distress, which otherwise seemed previously to 
 have reached its utmost height. The courier had 
 brought a large budget of letters to private individuals 
 throughout Klosterheim ; many of these were written 
 by children unacquainted with the dreadful catastrophe 
 which threatened them. Most of them had been long 
 separated, by the fury of the war, from their parents. 
 They had assembled, from many different quarters, at 
 Vienna, in order to join what might be called, in 
 Oriental phrase, the caravan. Their parents had 
 also, in many instances, from places equally dispersed, 
 assembled at Klosterheim, and, after great revolu 
 tions of fortune, they were now going once more to 
 rejoin each other. Their letters expressed the feelings 
 of hope and affectionate pleasure suitable to the occa 
 sion. They retraced the perils they had passed during 
 the twenty-six days of their journey , the great 
 towns, heaths, and forests they had traversed since 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 17 
 
 leaving the gates of Vienna ; and expressed, in the 
 innocent terms of childhood, the pleasure they felt 
 in having come within two stages of the gates of Klos- 
 terhcim. " In the forest," said they, " there will be 
 no more dangers to pass ; no soldiers ; nothing worse 
 than wild deer." 
 
 Letters written in these terms, contrasted with the 
 mournful realities of the case, sharpened the anguish 
 of fear and suspense throughout the whole city ; and 
 Maximilian with his friends, unable to bear the loud 
 expression of the public feelings, separated themselves 
 from the tumultuous crowds, and adjourning to the 
 seclusion of their college rooms, determined to consult, 
 whilst it was yet not too late, whether, in their hope 
 less situation for openly resisting the Landgrave with 
 out causing as much slaughter as they sought to 
 prevent, it might not yet be possible for them to do 
 something in the way of resistance to the bloody pur 
 poses of Holkerstein. 
 
18 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE travelling party, for whom so much anxiety 
 was felt in Klosterheim, had this evening reached 
 Waldenhausen without loss or any violent alarm ; 
 and indeed, considering the length of their journey, 
 and the distracted state of the empire, they had hitherto 
 travelled in remarkable security. It was now nearly 
 a month since they had taken their departure from 
 Vienna, at which point considerable numbers had 
 assembled from the adjacent country to take the benefit 
 of their convoy. Some of these they had dropped at 
 different turns in their route, but many more had 
 joined them as they advanced ; for in every consider 
 able city they found large accumulations of strangers, 
 driven in for momentary shelter from the storm of 
 war as it spread over one district after another ; and 
 many of these were eager to try the chances of a 
 change, or, upon more considerate grounds, preferred 
 the protection of a place situated like Klosterheim, in 
 a nook as yet unvisited by the scourge of military 
 execution. Hence it happened, that from a party of 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 19 
 
 seven hundred and fifty, with an escort of four hun 
 dred yagers, which was the amount of their numbers 
 on passing through the gates of Vienna, they had grad 
 ually swelled into a train of sixteen hundred, including 
 two companies of dragoons who had joined them by 
 the Emperor s orders at one of the fortified posts. 
 
 It was felt, as a circumstance of noticeable singular 
 ity, by most of the party, that, after traversing a large 
 part of Germany, without encountering any very im 
 minent peril, they should be first summoned to unusual 
 vigilance, and all the most jealous precautions of fear, 
 at the very termination of their journey. In all parts 
 of their route they had met with columns of troops 
 pursuing their march, and now and then with roving 
 bands of deserters, who were formidable to the unpro 
 tected traveller. Some they had overawed by their 
 display of military strength ; from others, in the Impe 
 rial service, they had received cheerful assistance ; and 
 any Swedish corps, which rumor had presented as for 
 midable by their numbers, they had, with some exer 
 tion of forethought and contrivance, constantly evaded, 
 either by a little detour, or by a temporary halt in 
 some place of strength. But now it was universally 
 known that they were probably waylaid by a desperate 
 and remorseless freebooter, who, as he put his own 
 trust exclusively in the sword, allowed nobody to hope 
 for any other shape of deliverance. 
 
 Holkerstein, the military robber, was one of the 
 
20 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 many monstrous growths which had arisen upon the 
 ruins of social order in this long and unhappy war. 
 Drawing to himself all the malecontents of his own 
 neighborhood, and as many deserters from the regular 
 armies in the centre of Germany as he could tempt to 
 his service by the license of unlimited pillage, he had 
 rapidly created a respectable force had possessed 
 himself of various castles in Wirtemberg, w r ithin fifty 
 or sixty miles of Klosterheim had attacked and 
 defeated many parties of regular troops sent out to 
 reduce him and by great activity and local knowl 
 edge had raised himself to so much consideration, 
 that the terror of his name had spread even to Vi 
 enna ; and the escort of yagers had been granted by 
 the Imperial government as much on his account as 
 for any more general reason. A lady, who was in 
 some way related to the Emperor s family, and, by 
 those who were in the secret, was reputed to be the 
 Emperor s natural daughter, accompanied the travel 
 ling party, with a suite of female attendants. To this 
 lady, who was known by the name of the Countess 
 Paulina, the rest of the company held themselves in 
 debted for their escort ; and hence, as much as for 
 her rank, she was treated with ceremonious respect 
 throughout the journey. 
 
 The Lady Paulina travelled with her suite in 
 coaches, drawn by the most powerful artillery horses, 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 21 
 
 that could be furnished at the various military posts.* 
 On this day she had been in the rear ; and having been 
 delayed by an accident, she was waited for with some 
 impatience by the rest of the party, the latest of whom 
 had reached Waldenhausen early in the afternoon. It 
 was sunset before her train of coaches arrived ; and, as 
 the danger from Holkerstein commenced about this 
 point, they were immediately applied to the purpose of 
 strengthening their encampment against a night attack, 
 by chaining them, together with all the baggage carts, 
 in a triple line, across the different avenues which 
 seemed most exposed to a charge of cavalry. Many 
 other preparations were made ; the yagers and dra 
 goons made arrangements for mounting with ease on 
 the first alarm ; strong outposts were established ; sen 
 tinels posted all round the encampment, who were 
 duly relieved eveiy hour, in consideration of the ex 
 treme cold ; and upon the whole, as many veteran 
 officers were amongst them, the great body of the 
 travellers were now able to apply themselves to the 
 task of preparing their evening refreshments with some 
 degree of comfort ; for the elder part of the company 
 saw that every precaution had been taken, and the 
 younger were not aware of any extraordinary danger. 
 
 * Coaches were common in Germany at this time amongst 
 people of rank : at the reinstatement of the Dukes of Mecklen- 
 burgh, by Gustavus Adolphus, though without much notice, 
 more than fourscore of coaches were assembled. 
 
22 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 Waldenhausen had formerly been a considerable 
 village. At present there was no more than one house, 
 surrounded, however, by uch a large establishment of 
 barns, stables, and other outhouses, that, at a little dis 
 tance, it wore the appearance of a tolerable hamlet. 
 Most of the outhouses, in their upper stories, were filled 
 with hay or straw ; and there the women and children 
 prepared their couches for the night, as the warmest 
 resorts \in so severe a season. The house was fur 
 nished in the plainest style of a farmer s ; but in other 
 respects it was of a superior order, being roomy and 
 extensive. The best apartment had been reserved for 
 the Lady Paulina and her attendants ; one for the offi 
 cers of most distinction in the escort or amongst the 
 travellers ; the rest had been left to the use of the 
 travellers indiscriminately. 
 
 In passing through the hall of entrance, Paulina had 
 noticed a man of striking and farouche appearance, 
 hair black and matted, eyes keen and wild, and beam 
 ing with malicious cunning, who surveyed her as she 
 passed with a mixed looked of insolence and curiosity 
 that involuntarily made her shrink. He had been half- 
 reclining carelessly against the wall, when she first 
 entered, but rose upright with a sudden motion as she 
 passed him not probably from any sentiment of 
 respect, but under the first powerful impression of sur 
 prise on seeing a young woman of peculiarly splendid 
 figure and impressive beauty, under circumstances so 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 23 
 
 little according with what might bo su posed her natu 
 ral pretensions. The dignity of her deportment, and 
 the numbers of her attendants, sufficiently proclaimed 
 the luxurious accommodations which her habits might 
 have taught her to expect ; and she was now enter 
 ing a dwelling which of late years had received few 
 strangers of her sex, and probably none but those of 
 the lowest rank. 
 
 " Know your distance, fellow ! " exclaimed one of 
 the waiting women angrily, noticing his rude gaze, and 
 the effect upon her mistress. 
 
 " Good faith, madam, I would that the distance be 
 tween us were more ; it was no prayers of mine, I 
 promise you, that brought upon me a troop of horses 
 to Waldenhausen, enough in one twelve hours to eat 
 me out a margrave s ransom. Light thanks I reckon 
 on from yagers ; and the payments of dragoons will 
 pass current for as little in the forest, as a lady s frown 
 in Waldenhausen." 
 
 " Churl ! " said an officer of dragoons, " how know 
 you that our payments are light ? The Emperor takes 
 nothing without payment ; surely not from such as 
 you. But d propos of ransoms, what now might be 
 Holkerstein s ransom for a farmer s barns stuffed with 
 a three years crop ? " 
 
 " How mean you by that, captain ? The crop s my 
 own, and never was in worse hands than my own. 
 God send it no worse luck to-day ! " 
 
24 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 " Come, come, sir, you understand me better than 
 that ; nothing at Waldenhausen, I take it, is yours or 
 any man s, unless by license from Holkerstein. And 
 when I see so many goodly barns and garners, with 
 their jolly charges of hay and corn, that would feed 
 one of Holkerstein s garrisons through two sieges, I 
 know what to think of him who has saved them scot- 
 free. He that serves a robber must do it on a robber s 
 terms. To such bargains, there goes but one word ; 
 and that is the robber s. But come, man, I am not thy 
 judge. Only I would have my soldiers on their guard 
 at one of Holkerstein s outposts. And thee, farmer, I 
 would have to remember that an Emperor s grace may 
 yet stand thee in stead, when a robber is past helping 
 thee to a rope." 
 
 The soldiers laughed, but took their officer s hint to 
 watch the motions of a man, whose immunity from 
 spoil, in circumstances so tempting to a military rob 
 ber s cupidity, certainly argued some collusion with 
 Holkerstein. 
 
 The Lady Paulina had passed on during this dia 
 logue into an inner room, hoping to have found the 
 <quiet and the warmth which were now become so 
 needful to her repose. But the antique stove was too 
 much out of repair to be used with benefit ; the wood 
 work was decayed, and admitted currents of cold air ; 
 and, above all, from the slightness of the partitions, 
 the noise and tumult in a house occupied by soldiers 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 25 
 
 and travellers proved so incessant, that, after taking 
 refreshments with her attendants, she resolved to ad 
 journ for the night to her coach ; which afforded much 
 superior resources, both in warmth and in freedom 
 from noise. 
 
 The carriage of the Countess was one of those 
 which had been posted at an angle of the encampment, 
 and on that side terminated the line of defences ; for a 
 deep mass of wood, which commenced where the car 
 riages ceased, seemed to present a natural protection 
 on that side against the approach of cavalry ; in reality, 
 from the quantity of tangled roots and the inequalities 
 of the ground, it appeared difficult for a single horse 
 man to advance even a few yards without falling. And 
 upon this side it had been judged sufficient to post a 
 single sentinel. 
 
 Assured by the many precautions adopted, and by 
 the cheerful language of the officer on guard, who at 
 tended her to the carriage door, Paulina, with one 
 attendant, took her seat in the coach, where she had 
 the means of fencing herself sufficiently from the cold 
 by the weighty robes of minever and ermine which her 
 ample wardrobe afforded ; and the large dimensions of 
 the coach enabled her to turn it to the use of a sofa or 
 couch. 
 
 Youth and health sleep well ; and with all the means 
 and appliances of the Lady Paulina, wearied besides 
 as she had been with the fatigue of a day s march, 
 
26 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 performed over roads almost impassable from rough 
 ness, there was little reason to think that she would 
 miss the benefit of her natural advantages. Yet sleep 
 failed to come, or came only by fugitive snatches, 
 which presented her with tumultuous dreams some 
 times of the Emperor s court in Vienna, sometimes of 
 the vast succession of troubled scenes and fierce faces 
 that had passed before her since she had quitted that 
 city. At one moment she beheld the travelling equip 
 ages and far- stretching array of her own party, with 
 their military escort filing off by torchlight under the 
 gateway of ancient cities ; at another, the ruined vil 
 lages, with their dismantled cottages doors and Win 
 dows torn off, walls scorched with fire, and a few 
 gaunt dogs, with a wolf-like ferocity in their bloodshot 
 eyes, prowling about the ruins, objects that had 
 really so often afflicted her heart. Waking from those 
 distressing spectacles, she would fail into a fitful dose, 
 which presented her with remembrances still more 
 alarming ; bands of fierce deserters, that eyed her 
 travelling party with a savage rapacity which did not 
 confess any powerful sense of inferiority ; and in the 
 very fields which they had once cultivated, now silent 
 and tranquil from utter desolation, the mouldering 
 bodies of the unoffending peasants, left un honored 
 with the rites of sepulture T in many places from the 
 mere extermination of the whole rural population of 
 their neighborhood. To these succeeded a wild chaos 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 27 
 
 of figures, in which the dress and tawny features of 
 Bohemian gipsies conspicuously prevailed, just as she 
 had seen them of late making war on all parties alike ; 
 and in the person of their leader, her fancy suddenly 
 restored to her a vivid resemblance of their suspicious 
 host at their present quarters, and of the malicious 
 gaze with which he had disconcerted her. 
 
 A sudden movement of the carriage awakened her, 
 and, by the light of a lamp suspended from a project 
 ing bough of a tree, she beheld, on looking out, the 
 sallow countenance of the very man whose image had 
 so recently infested her dreams. The light being con 
 siderably nearer to him than to herself, she could see 
 without being distinctly seen ; and, having already 
 heard the very strong presumptions against this man s 
 honesty, which had been urged by the officer, and 
 without reply from the suspected party, she now deter 
 mined to watch him. 
 
28 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE night was pitch dark, and Paulina felt a mo 
 mentary terror creep over her as she looked into the 
 massy blackness of the dark alleys which ran up into 
 the woods, forced into deeper shade under the glare of 
 the lamps from the encampment. She now reflected 
 with some alarm that the forest commenced at this 
 point, stretching away (as she had been told) in some 
 directions upwards of fifty miles ; and that, if the post 
 occupied by their encampment should be inaccessible 
 on this side to cavalry, it might, however, happen that 
 persons with the worst designs could easily penetrate 
 on foot from the concealments of the forest, in which 
 case she herself, and the splendid booty of her car 
 riage, might be the first and easiest prey. Even at 
 this moment, the very worst of those atrocious wretches 
 whom the times had produced, might be lurking in 
 concealment, with their eyes fastened upon the weak 
 or exposed parts of the encampment, and waiting until 
 midnight should have buried the majority of their 
 wearied party into the profoundest repose, in order 
 then to make a combined and murderous attack. 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 29 
 
 Under the advantages of sudden surprise and darkness, 
 together with the knowledge which they would not 
 fail to possess of every road and by-path in the woods, 
 it could scarcely be doubted that they might strike a 
 very effectual blow at the Vienna caravan, which had 
 else so nearly completed their journey without loss or 
 memorable privations ; and the knowledge which 
 Holkerstein possessed of the short limits within which 
 his opportunities were now circumscribed, would doubt 
 less prompt him to some bold and energetic effort. 
 
 Thoughts unwelcome as these, Paulina found leisure 
 to pursue, for the ruffian landlord had disappeared 
 almost at the same moment when she first caught a 
 glimpse of him. In the deep silence which succeeded, 
 she could not wean herself from the painful fascination 
 of imagining the very worst possibilities to which their 
 present situation was liable. She imaged to herself 
 the horrors of a camisade, as she had often heard it 
 described ; she saw, in apprehension, the savage band 
 of confederate butchers, issuing from the profound 
 solitudes of the forest, in white shirts drawn over their 
 armor ; she seemed to read the murderous features, 
 lighted up by the gleam of lamps the stealthy step, 
 and the sudden gleam of sabres ; then the yell of 
 assault, the scream of agony, the camp floating with 
 blood ; the fury, the vengeance, the pursuit ; all 
 these circumstances of scenes at that time too familiar 
 to Germany, passed rapidly before her mind. 
 
30 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 But after some time, as the tranquillity continued, her 
 nervous irritation gave way to less agitating but pro 
 found sensibilities. Whither was her lover withdrawn 
 from her knowledge ? and why ? and for how long a 
 time ? What an age it seemed since she had last seen 
 him at Vienna ! That the service upon which he was 
 employed would prove honorable, she felt assured. 
 But was it dangerous ? Alas ! in Germany there was 
 none otherwise. Would it soon restore him to her 
 society? And why had he been of late so unaccount 
 ably silent ? Or again, had he been silent ? Perhaps 
 his letters had been intercepted, nothing, in fact, was 
 more common at that time. The rarity was, if by any 
 accident a letter reached its destination. From one 
 of the worst solicitudes incident to such a situation, 
 Paulina was, however, delivered by her own nobility of 
 mind, which raised her above the meanness of jealousy. 
 Whatsoever might have happened, or into whatever 
 situations her lover might have been thrown, she felt 
 no fear that the fidelity of his attachment could have 
 wandered or faltered for a moment ; that worst of 
 pangs the Lady Paulina was raised above, equally by 
 her just confidence in herself and in her lover. But 
 yet, though faithful to her, might he not be ill ? Might 
 he not be languishing in some one of the many distresses 
 incident to war ? Might he not even have perished ? 
 
 That fear threw her back upon the calamities and 
 horrors of war ; and insensibly her thoughts wandered 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 31 
 
 round to the point from which they had started, of her 
 own immediate situation. Again she searched with 
 penetrating eyes the black avenues of the woods, as 
 they lay forced ahnost into strong relief and palpable 
 substance by the glare of the lamps. Again she 
 fancied to herself the murderous hearts and glaring 
 eyes which even now might be shrouded by the silent 
 masses of forest which stretched before her, : when 
 suddenly a single light shot its rays from what appear 
 ed to be a considerable distance in one of the avenues. 
 Paulina s heart beat fast at this alarming spectacle. 
 Immediately after, the light was shaded, or in some 
 way disappeared. But this gave the more reason for 
 terror. It was now clear that human beings were 
 moving in the woods. No public road lay in that 
 direction ; nor in so unpopulous a region, could it be 
 imagined that travellers were likely at that time to be 
 abroad. From their own encampment, nobody could 
 have any motive for straying to a distance on so severe 
 a night, and at a thne when he would reasonably draw 
 upon himself the danger of being shot by the night 
 guard. 
 
 This last consideration reminded Paulina suddenly, 
 as of a very singular circumstance, that the appearance 
 of the light had been followed by no challenge from 
 the sentinel. And then first she remembered that for 
 some time she had ceased to hear the sentinel s step, 
 or the rattle of his bandoleers. Hastily looking along 
 
32 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 the path, she discovered too certainly, that the single 
 sentinel posted on that side of their encampment was 
 absent from his station. It might have been supposed 
 that he had fallen asleep from the severity of the cold ; 
 but in that case the lantern which he carried attached 
 to his breast would have continued to burn ; whereas 
 all traces of light had vanished from the path which he 
 perambulated. The error was now apparent to Pau 
 lina, both in having appointed no more than one senti 
 nel to this quarter, and also in the selection of his beat. 
 There had been frequent instances throughout this war 
 in which by means of a net, such as that carried by 
 the Roman retiarius in the contests of the gladiators, 
 and dexterously applied by two persons from behind, a 
 sentinel had been suddenly muffled, gagged, and car 
 ried off, without much difficulty. For such a purpose 
 it was clear that the present sentinel s range, lying by 
 the margin of a wood from which his minutest move 
 ments could be watched at leisure by those who lay in 
 utter darkness themselves, afforded every possible 
 facility. Paulina scarcely doubted that he had been 
 indeed carried off, in some such way, and not impossi 
 bly almost whilst she was looking on. 
 
 She would now have called aloud, and have alarmed 
 the camp, but at the very moment when she let down 
 the glass, the savage landlord reappeared, and, menac 
 ing her with a pistol, awed her into silence. He bore 
 upon his head a moderate-sized trunk, or portmanteau 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 33 
 
 which appeared, by the imperfect light, to be that in 
 which some despatches had been lodged from the Im 
 perial government to different persons in Klosterheim. 
 This had been cut from one of the carriages in her suite ; 
 and her anxiety was great on recollecting that, from 
 some words of the Emperor s, she had reason to 
 believe one at least of the letters which it conveyed to 
 be in some important degree connected with the inter 
 ests of her lover. Satisfied, however, that he would 
 not find it possible to abscond with so burdensome an 
 article in any direction that could save him from 
 instant pursuit and arrest, she continued to watch for 
 the moment when she might safely raise the alarm. 
 But great was her consternation when she saw a dark 
 figure steal from a thicket, receive the trunk from the 
 other, and instantly retreat into the deepest recesses of 
 the forest. 
 
 Her fears now gave way to the imminence of so 
 important a loss ; and she endeavored hastily to open 
 the window of the opposite door. But this had been so 
 effectually barricaded against the cold, that she failed 
 in her purpose, and immediately turning back to the 
 other side she called loudly " Guard ! guard ! " 
 The press of carriages, however, at this point, so far 
 deadened her voice, that it was some time before the 
 alarm reached the other side of the encampment 
 distinctly enough to direct their motions to her sum 
 mons. Half a dozen yagers and an officer at length 
 3 
 
34 KLOSTERHEIIVI. 
 
 presented themselves ; but the landlord had disappear 
 ed, she knew not in what direction. Upon explaining 
 the circumstances of the robbery, however, the officer 
 caused his men to light a number of torches and 
 advance into the wood. But the ground was so im 
 practicable in most places from tangled roots and 
 gnarled stumps of trees, that it was with difficulty they 
 could keep their footing. They were also embar 
 rassed by the crossing shadows from the innumerable 
 boughs above them ; and a situation of greater per 
 plexity for effective pursuit it was scarcely possible to 
 imagine. Everywhere they saw alleys, arched high 
 overhead, and resembling the aisles of a cathedral, as 
 much in form as in the perfect darkness which reigned 
 in both at this solemn hoilr of midnight, stretching 
 away apparently without end, but more and more 
 obscure, until impenetrable blackness terminated the 
 long vista. Now and then a dusky figure was seen to 
 cross at some distance ; but these were probably deer ; 
 and when loudly challenged by the yagers, no sound 
 replied but the vast echoes of the forest. Between 
 these interminable alleys, which, radiated as from a 
 centre at this point, there were generally thickets inter 
 posed. Sometimes the wood was more open, and 
 clear of all undergrowth shrubs, thorns, or brambles 
 for a considerable distance, so that a single file of 
 horsemen might have penetrated for perhaps half a 
 mile ; but belts of thicket continually checked their 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 35 
 
 progress, and obliged them to seek their way back to 
 some one of the long vistas which traversed the woods 
 between the frontiers of Suabia and Bavaria. 
 
 In this perplexity of paths, the officer halted his 
 party to consider of his further course. At this mo 
 ment one of the yagers protested that he had seen a 
 man s hat and face rise above a thicket of bushes, 
 apparently not more than one hundred and fifty yards 
 from their own position. Upon that, the party were 
 ordered to advance a little, and to throw in a volley as 
 nearly as could be judged, into the very spot pointed 
 out by the soldier. It seemed that he had not been 
 mistaken ; for a loud laugh of derision rose immedi 
 ately a little to the left of the bushes. The laughter 
 swelled upon the silence of the night, and in the next 
 moment was taken up by another on the right, which 
 again was echoed by a third on the rear. Peal after 
 peal of tumultuous and scornful laughter resounded 
 from the remoter solitudes of the forest ; and the 
 officer stood aghast to hear this proclamation of defi 
 ance from a multitude of enemies, where he had an 
 ticipated no more than the very party engaged in the 
 robbery. 
 
 To advance in pursuit seemed how both useless and 
 dangerous. The laughter had probably been designed 
 expressly to distract his choice of road at a time when 
 the darkness and intricacies of the ground had already 
 made it sufficiently indeterminate. In which direction, 
 
36 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 out of so many whence he had heard the sounds, a 
 pursuit could be instituted with any chance of being 
 effectual, seemed now as hopeless a subject of deliber 
 ation as it was possible to imagine. Still, as he had been 
 made aware of the great importance attached to the 
 trunk, which might, very probably, contain despatches 
 interesting to the welfare of Klosterheim, and the 
 whole surrounding territory, he felt grieved to retire 
 without some further attempt for its recovery. And 
 he stood for a few moments irresolutely debating with 
 himself, or listening to the opinions of his men. 
 
 His irresolution was very abruptly terminated. All 
 at once, upon the main road from Klosterheim, at an 
 angle about half a mile a-head, where it first wheeled 
 into sight from Waldenhausen, a heavy, thundering 
 trot was heard ringing from the frozen road, as of a 
 regular body of cavalry advancing rapidly upon their 
 encampment. There was no time to be lost; the 
 officer instantly withdrew his yagers from the wood, 
 posted a strong guard at the wood side, sounded the 
 alarm throughout the camp, agreeably to the system 
 of signals previously concerted, mounted about thirty 
 men, whose horses and themselves were kept in per 
 fect equipment during each of the night watches, and 
 then advancing to the head of the barriers, prepared to 
 receive the party of strangers in whatever character 
 they should happen to present themselves. 
 
 All this had been done with so much promptitude , 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 37 
 
 and decision, that on reaching the barriers, the officer 
 found the strangers not yet come up. In fact, they 
 had halted at a strong outpost about a quarter of a mile 
 in advance of Waldenhausen ; and though one or two 
 patrollers came dropping in from by-roads on the 
 forest heatl^ who reported them as enemies, from the 
 indistinct view they had caught of their equipments, it 
 had already become doubtful from their movements 
 whether they would really prove so. 
 
 Two of their party were now descried upon the 
 road, and nearly close up with the gates of Walden 
 hausen ; they were accompanied by several of the 
 guard from the outpost, and, immediately on being 
 hailed, they exclaimed, " Friends, and from Kloster- 
 hei/n ! " 
 
 He who spoke was a young cavalier, magnificent 
 alike in his person, dress, and style of his appoint 
 ments. He was superbly mounted, wore the deco 
 rations of a major-general in the Imperial service, 
 and scarcely needed the explanations which he gave, 
 to exonerate himself from the suspicion of being a 
 leader of robbers, under Holkerstein. Fortunately 
 enough, also, at a period when officers of the most 
 distinguished merit were too often unfaithful to their 
 engagements, or passed with so much levity from 
 service to service, as to justify an indiscriminate jeal 
 ousy of all who were not in the public eye, it happened 
 that the officer of the watch, formerly, when mount- 
 
38 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 ing guard at the Imperial palace, had been familiar 
 with the personal appearance of the cavalier, and 
 could speak of his own knowledge to the favor which 
 he had enjoyed at the Emperor s court. After short 
 explanations, therefore, he was admitted, and thank 
 fully welcomed in the camp ; and the officer of the 
 guard departed to receive with honor the generous 
 volunteers at the outpost. 
 
 Meantime, the alarm, which was general throughout 
 the camp, had assembled all the women to one quar 
 ter, where a circle of carriages had been formed for 
 their protection. In their centre, distinguished by her 
 height and beauty, stood the Lady Paulina, dispensing 
 assistance from her wardrobe to any who were suffer 
 ing from cold under this sudden summons to night 
 air, and animating others, who were more than usually 
 depressed, by the aids of consolation and of cheerful 
 prospects. She had just turned her face away from 
 the passage by which this little sanctuary communi 
 cated with the rest of the camp, and was in the act of 
 giving directions to one of her attendants, when sud 
 denly a well-known voice fell upon her ear. It was 
 the voice of the stranger cavalier, whose natural gal 
 lantry had prompted him immediately to relieve the 
 alarm which, unavoidably, he had himself created ; 
 in a few words, he was explaining to the assembled 
 females of the camp, in what character, and with how 
 many companions he had come. But a shriek from 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 39 
 
 Paulina interrupted him. Involuntarily she held out 
 her open arms, and involuntarily she exclaimed, 
 " Dearest Maximilian ! " On his part, the young 
 cavalier, for a moment or two at first, was almost 
 deprived of speech, by astonishment and excess of 
 pleasure. Bounding forward, hardly conscious of 
 those who surrounded them, with a rapture of faithful 
 love, he caught the noble young beauty into his arms, 
 a movement to which, in the frank innocence of her 
 heart, she made no resistance ; folded her to his bo 
 som, and impressed a fervent kiss upon her lips, whilst 
 the only words that came to his own were, " Beloved 
 Paulina ! oh, most beloved lady ! what chance has 
 brought you hither ? " 
 
40 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 IN those days of tragical confusion and of sudden 
 catastrophe, alike for better or for worse, when the 
 rendings asunder of domestic charities were often 
 without an hour s warning, when re-unions were as 
 dramatic and as unexpected as any which are exhib 
 ited on the stage, and too often separations were 
 eternal, the circumstances of the times concurred 
 with the spirit of manners to sanction a tone of frank 
 expression to the stronger passions, which the reserve 
 of modern habits would not entirely license. And 
 hence, not less than from the noble ingenuousness of 
 their natures, the martial young cavalier and the su 
 perb young beauty of the Imperial house, on recovering 
 themselves from their first transports, found no motives 
 to any feeling of false shame, either in their own 
 consciousness, or in the reproving looks of any who 
 stood around them. On the contrary, as the grown 
 up spectators were almost exclusively female, to whom 
 the evidences of faithful love are never other than a 
 serious subject, or naturally associated with the ludi 
 crous ; many of them expressed their sympathy with 
 the scene before them by tears, and all of them in 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 41 
 
 some way or other. Even in this age of more fastid 
 ious manners, it is probable that the tender inter 
 changes of affection between a young couple rejoining 
 each other after deep calamities, and standing on the 
 brink of fresh, perhaps endless separations, would 
 meet with something of the same indulgence from the 
 least interested witnesses. 
 
 Hence the news was diffused through the camp with 
 general satisfaction, that a noble and accomplished 
 cavalier, the favored lover of their beloved young 
 mistress, had joined them from Klosterheim with a 
 chosen band of volunteers, upon whose fidelity in ac 
 tion they might entirely depend. Some vague account 
 floated about, at the same time, of the marauding at 
 tack upon the Lady Paulina s carriage. But naturally 
 enough, from the confusion and hurry incident to a 
 nocturnal disturbance, the circumstances were mixed 
 up with the arrival of Maximilian, in the way which 
 ascribed to him the merit of having repelled an attack, 
 which might else have proved fatal to the lady of his 
 heart. And this romantic interposition of Providence 
 on a young lady s behalf, through the agency of her 
 lover, unexpected on her part, and unconscious on his, 
 proved so equally gratifying to the passion for the 
 marvellous and the interest in youthful love, that no 
 other or truer version of the case could ever obtain a 
 popular acceptance in the camp, or afterwards in 
 Klosterheim. And had it been the expiess purpose of 
 
42 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 Maximilian to found a belief, for his own future bene 
 fit, of a providential sanction vouchsafed to his con 
 nection with the Lady Paulina, he could not, by the 
 best arranged contrivances, have more fully attained 
 that end. 
 
 It was yet short of midnight by more than an hour ; 
 and therefore, on the suggestion of Maximilian, who 
 reported the roads across the forest perfectly quiet, and 
 alleged some arguments for quieting the general ap 
 prehension for this night, the travellers and troops 
 retired to rest, as the best means of preparing them to 
 face the trials of the two next days. It was judged 
 requisite, however, to strengthen the night-guard very 
 considerably, and to relieve it at least every two 
 hours. That the poor sentinel, on the forest side of 
 the encampment, had been in some mysterious way 
 trepanned upon his post, was now too clearly ascer 
 tained, for he was missing ; and the character of the 
 man, no less than the absence of all intelligible temp 
 tation to such an act, forbade the suspicion of his 
 having deserted. On this quarter, therefore, a file of 
 select marksmen was stationed, with directions in 
 stantly to pick off every moving figure that showed 
 itself within their range. Of these men, Maximilian 
 himself took the command, and by this means he ob 
 tained the opportunity so enviable to one long separ 
 ated from his mistress, of occasionally conversing with 
 her, and of watching over her safety. In one point he 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 43 
 
 showed a distinguished control over his inclinations ; 
 for, much as he had to tell her, and ardently as he 
 longed for communicating with her on various subjects 
 of common interest, he would not suffer her to keep 
 the window down for more than a minute or two in so 
 dreadful a state of the atmosphere. She, on her part, 
 exacted a promise from him that he would leave his 
 station at three o clock in the morning. Meantime, as 
 on the one hand she felt touched by this proof of her 
 lover s solicitude for her safety, so, on the other, she 
 was less anxious on his account, from the knowledge 
 she had of his long habituation to the hardships of a 
 camp, with which, indeed, he had been familiar from 
 his childish days. Thus debarred from conversing 
 with her lover, and at the same time feeling the most 
 absolute confidence in his protection, she soon fell 
 placidly asleep. The foremost subject of her anxiety 
 and sorrow was now removed ; her lover had been 
 restored to her hopes ; and her dreams were no longer 
 haunted with horrors. Yet, at the same time, the tur 
 bulence of joy and of hope fulfilled unexpectedly, had 
 substituted its own disturbances ; and her sleep was 
 often interrupted. But, as often as that happened, she 
 had the delightful pleasure of seeing her lover s figure, 
 with its martial equipments, and the drooping plumes 
 of his yager barrette, as he took his station at her 
 carriage, traced out on the ground in the bright glare of 
 the flambeaux. She awoke, therefore, continually to 
 
44 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 the sense of restored happiness ; and at length fell 
 finally asleep, to wake no more until the morning 
 trumpet, at the break of day, proclaimed the approach 
 ing preparations for the general movement of the 
 camp. 
 
 Snow had fallen in the night. Towards four o clock 
 in the morning, amongst those who held that watch, 
 there had been a strong apprehension that it would fall 
 heavily. But that state of the atmosphere had passed 
 off;and it had not in fact fallen sufficiently to abate 
 the cold, or much to retard their march. According 
 to the usual custom of the camp, a general breakfast 
 was prepared, at which all without distinction messed 
 together a sufficient homage being expressed to su 
 perior rank by resigning the upper part of every table 
 to those who had any distinguished pretensions of that 
 kind. On this occasion, Paulina had the gratification 
 of seeing the public respect offered in the most marked 
 manner to her lover. He had retired about daybreak 
 to take an hour s repose, for she found, from her 
 attendants, with mingled vexation and pleasure, that he 
 had not fulfilled his promise of retiring at an earlier 
 hour, in consequence of some renewed appearances of 
 a suspicious kind in the woods. In his absence, she 
 heard a resolution proposed and carried amongst the 
 whole body of veteran officers attached to the party, 
 that the chief military command should be transferred 
 to Maximilian, not merely as a distinguished favorite of 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 45 
 
 the Emperor, but also, and much more, as one of the 
 most brilliant cavalry officers in the Imperial service. 
 This resolution was communicated to him on his taking 
 the place reserved for him, at the head of the principal 
 breakfast-table ; and Paulina thought that he had never 
 appeared more interesting or truly worthy of admira 
 tion, than under that exhibition of courtesy and modest 
 dignity with which he first earnestly declined the honor 
 in favor of older officers, and then finally complied, 
 with what he found to be the sincere wish of the com 
 pany, by frankly accepting it. Paulina had grown up 
 amongst military men, and had been early trained to a 
 sympathy with military merit the very court of the 
 Emperor had something of the complexion of a camp 
 and the object of her own youthful choice was ele 
 vated in her eyes, if it were at all possible that he 
 should be so, by this ratification of his claims on the 
 part of those whom she looked up to as the most com 
 petent judges. 
 
 Before nine o clock the van of the party was in mo 
 tion ; then, with a short interval came all the carriages 
 of every description, and the Papenheim dragoons as a 
 rearguard. About eleven, the sun began to burst out, 
 and illuminated, with the cheerful crimson of a frosty 
 morning, those horizontal draperies of mist which had 
 previously stifled his beams. The extremity of the 
 cold was a good deal abated by this time, and Paulina, 
 alighting from her carriage, mounted a led horse, 
 
46 , KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 which gave her the opportunity, so much wished for 
 by them both, of conversing freely with Maximilian. 
 For a long time the interest and animation of their 
 reciprocal communications, and the magnitude of the 
 events since they had parted, affecting either or both of 
 them directly, or in the persons of their friends, had 
 the natural effect of banishing any dejection which 
 nearer and more pressing concerns would else have 
 called forth. But, in the midst of this factitious anima 
 tion, and the happiness which otherwise so undis- 
 guisedly possessed Maximilian at their unexpected 
 re-union, it shocked Paulina to observe in her lover a 
 degree of gravity almost amounting to sadness, which 
 argued, in a soldier of his gallantry, some overpower 
 ing sense of danger. In fact, upon being pressed to 
 say the worst, Maximilian frankly avowed, that he was 
 ill at ease with regard to their prospects when the hour 
 of trial should arrive ; and that hour he had no hope of 
 evading. Holkerstein, he well knew, had been con 
 tinually receiving reports of their condition, as they 
 reached their nightly stations, for the last three days. 
 Spies had been round about them, and even in the 
 midst of them, throughout the darkness of the last 
 night. Spies were keeping pace with them as they 
 advanced. The certainty of being attacked was there 
 fore pretty nearly absolute. Then, as to their means 
 of defence, and the relations of strength between the 
 parties, in numbers it was not impossible that Holker- 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 47 
 
 stein might triple themselves. The elite of their own 
 men might be superior to most of his, though counting 
 amongst their numbers many deserters from veteran 
 regiments ; but the horses of their own party were in 
 general poor and out of condition, and of the whole 
 train, whom Maximilian had inspected at starting, not 
 two hundred could be pronounced fit for making or 
 sustaining a charge. It was true, that by mounting 
 some of their picked troopers upon the superior horses 
 of the most distinguished amongst the travellers, who 
 had willingly consented to an arrangement of this na 
 ture for the general benefit, some partial remedy had 
 been applied to their weakness in that one particular. 
 But there were others in which Holkerstein had even 
 greater advantages ; more especially, the equipments 
 of his partisans were entirely new, having been plun 
 dered from an ill-guarded armory near Munich, or 
 from convoys which he had attacked. " Who would 
 be a gentleman," says an old proverb, " let him storm 
 a town," and the gay appearance of this robber s com 
 panions threw a light upon its meaning. The ruffian 
 companions of this marauder were, besides, animated 
 by hopes such as no regular commander in an honor 
 able service could find the means of holding out. And 
 finally, they were familiar with all the forest roads and 
 innumerable by-paths, on which it was that the best 
 points lay for surprising an enemy, or for a retreat : 
 whilst, in their own case, encumbered with the protcc- 
 
48 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 tion of a large body of travellers and helpless people, 
 whom, under any circumstances, it was hazardous to 
 leave, they were tied up to the most slavish dependency 
 upon the weakness of their companions ; and had it not 
 in their power either to evade the most evident advan 
 tages on the side of the enemy, or to pursue such as 
 they might be fortunate enough to create for them 
 selves. 
 
 " But, after all," said Maximilian, assuming a tone 
 of gayety, upon finding that the candor of his explana 
 tions had depressed his fair companion, " the saying of 
 an old Swedish * enemy of mine is worth remembering 
 in such cases, that nine times out of ten a drachm 
 of good luck is worth an ounce of good contrivance, 
 and were it not, dearest Paulina, that you are with us, 
 I would think the risk not heavy. Perhaps, by to-mor 
 row s sunset, we shall all look back from our pleasant 
 seats in the warm refectories of Klosterheim, with 
 something of scorn upon our present apprehensions. 
 And see ! at this very moment the turn of the road 
 has brought us in view of our port, though distant from 
 us, according to the windings of the forest, something 
 more than twenty miles. That range of hills, which 
 you observe ahead, but a little inclined to the left, 
 overhangs Klosterheim ; and with the sun in a more 
 favorable quarter, you might even at this point descry 
 
 * It was the Swedish General Kniphausen, a favorite of Gus- 
 tavus, to whom this maxim is ascribed. 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 49 
 
 the pinnacles of the citadel, or the loftiest of the con 
 vent towers. Half an hour will bring us to the close 
 
 our day s march." 
 
 In reality, a few minutes sufficed to bring them 
 within view of the chateau, where their quarters had 
 been prepared for this night. This was a great hunt 
 ing establishment, kept up at vast expense by the two 
 last and present Landgraves of X . Many inter 
 esting anecdotes were connected with the history of 
 this building ; and the beauty of the forest scenery was 
 conspicuous even in winter, enlivened as the endless 
 woods continued to be by the scarlet berries of moun 
 tain-ash, or the dark verdure of the holly and the ilex. 
 Under her present frame of pensive feeling, the quiet 
 lawns and long-withdrawing glades of these vast woods, 
 had a touching effect upon the feelings of Paulina ; 
 their deep silence, and the tranquillity which reigned 
 amongst them, contrasting in her remembrance with 
 the hideous scenes of carnage and desolation through 
 which her path had too often lain. With these predis 
 posing influences to aid him, Maximilian found it easy 
 to draw off her attention from the dangers which 
 pressed upon their situation. Her sympathies were so 
 quick with those whom she loved, that she readily 
 adopted their apparent hopes or their fears ; and so 
 entire was her confidence in the superior judgment, 
 and the perfect gallantry of her lover, that her counte- 
 4 
 
50 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 nance reflected immediately the prevailing expression 
 of his. 
 
 Under these impressions Maximilian suffered her to* 
 remain. It seemed cruel to disturb her with the truth. 
 He was sensible that continued anxiety, and dreadful 
 or afflicting spectacles, had with her, as with most 
 persons of her sex in Germany at that time, unless 
 protected by singular insensibility, somewhat impaired 
 the firm tone of her mind. He was determined, there 
 fore, to consult her comfort, by disguising or palliating 
 their true situation. But for his own part, he could 
 not hide from his conviction the extremity of their 
 danger ; nor could he, when recurring to the precious 
 interests at stake upon the issue of that and the next 
 day s trials, face with any firmness the afflicting results 
 to which they tended, under the known barbarity and 
 ruffian character of their unprincipled enemy. 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 51 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE chateau of Falkenberg, which the travellers 
 reached with the decline of light, had the usual de 
 pendencies of offices and gardens, which may be 
 supposed essential to a prince s hunting establishment 
 in that period. It stood at a distance of eighteen miles 
 from Klosterheim, and presented the sole oasis of 
 culture and artificial beauty throughout the vast extent 
 of those wild tracts of sylvan ground. 
 
 The great central pile of the building was disman 
 tled of furniture ; but the travellers carried with them, 
 as was usual in the heat of war, all the means of 
 fencing against the cold, and giving even a luxurious 
 equipment to their dormitories. In so large a party, 
 the deficiencies of one were compensated by the re 
 dundant contributions of another. And so long as 
 they were not under the old Roman interdict, excluding 
 them from seeking fire and water of those on whom 
 their day s journey had thrown them, their own travel 
 ling stores enabled them to accommodate themselves to 
 all other privations. On this occasion, however, they 
 
52 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 found more than they had expected ; for there was at 
 Falkenberg a store of all the game in season, con 
 stantly kept up for the use of the Landgrave s house 
 hold, and the more favored monasteries at Klosterheim. 
 The small establishment of keepers, foresters, and 
 other servants, who occupied the chateau, had received 
 no orders to refuse the hospitality usually practised in 
 the Landgrave s name ; or thought proper to dissemble 
 them in their present circumstances of inability to 
 resist. And having from necessity permitted so much, 
 they were led by a sense of their master s honor, or 
 their own sympathy with the condition of so many 
 women and children, to do more. Rations of game 
 were distributed liberally to all the messes ; wine was 
 not refused by the old kellermeister, who rightly con 
 sidered that some thanks, and smiles of courteous 
 acknowledgment, might be a better payment than the 
 hard knocks with which military paymasters were 
 sometimes apt to settle their accounts. And upon the 
 whole, it was agreed that no such evening of comfort 
 and even luxurious enjoyment had been spent since 
 their departure from Vienna. 
 
 One wing of the chateau was magnificently furnish 
 ed ; this, which of itself was tolerably extensive, had 
 been resigned to the use of Paulina, Maximilian, and 
 others of the military gentlemen, whose manners and 
 deportment seemed to entitle them to superior atten 
 tions. Here, amongst many marks of refinement and 
 
ELOSTERHBIM. 
 
 53 
 
 intellectual culture, there was a library, and a gallery 
 of portraits. In the library, some of the officers had 
 detected sufficient evidences of the Swedish alliances 
 clandestinely maintained by the Landgrave ; numbers 
 of rare books, bearing the arms of different Imperial 
 cities, which, in the several campaigns of Gustavus, 
 had been appropriated as they fell in his hands, by way 
 of fair reprisals for the robbery of the whole Palatine 
 library at Heidelberg, had been since transferred 
 (as it thus appeared) to the Landgrave, by purchase 
 or as presents ; and on either footing argued a corres 
 pondence with the Emperor s enemies, which hitherto 
 he had strenuously disavowed. The picture gallery, 
 it was very probable, had been collected in the same 
 manner. It contained little else than portraits, but 
 these were truly admirable and interesting, being all 
 recent works from the pencil of Vandyke, and com 
 posing a series of heads and features the most remark 
 able for station in the one sex, or for beauty in the 
 other, which that age presented. Amongst them were 
 nearly all the Imperial leaders of distinction, and many 
 of the Swedish. Maximilian and his brother officers 
 took the liveliest pleasure in perambulating this gallery 
 with Paulina, and reviewing with her these fine his 
 torical memorials. Out of their joint recollections, or 
 the facts of their personal experience, they were able 
 to supply any defective links in that commentary, 
 which her own knowledge of the Imperial court would 
 
54 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 have enabled her in so many instances to furnish upon 
 this martial register of the age. 
 
 The wars of the Netherlands had transplanted to 
 Germany that stock upon which the camps of the 
 Thirty Years War were originally raised. Accord 
 ingly a smaller gallery, at right angles with the great 
 one, presented a series of portraits from the old 
 Spanish leaders and Walloon partisans. From Eg- 
 mont and Horn, the Duke of Alva and Parma, down 
 to Spinola, the last of that distinguished school of 
 soldiers, no man of eminence was omitted. Even the 
 worthless and insolent Earl of Leicester, with his 
 gallant nephew that ultimus Romanorum in the rolls 
 of chivalry were not excluded, though it was pretty 
 evident that a Catholic zeal had presided in forming 
 the collection. For, together with the Prince of 
 Orange and Henri Quatre, were to be seen their 
 vile assassins portrayed with a lavish ostentation of 
 ornament, and enshrined in a frame so gorgeous, as 
 raised them in some degree to the rank of consecrated 
 martyrs. 
 
 From these past generations of eminent persons, 
 who retained only a traditional or legendary importance 
 in the eyes of most who were now reviewing them, all 
 turned back with delight to the active spirits of their 
 own day, many of them yet living, and as warm with 
 life and heroic aspirations as their inimitable portraits 
 had represented them. Here was Tilly, the " little 
 
KLOSTERIIEIM. 55 
 
 corporal," now recently stretched in a soldier s grave, 
 with his wily and inflexible features. Over against 
 him was his great enemy, who had first taught him 
 the hard lesson of retreating, Gustavus Adolphus, with 
 his colossal bust, and " atlantean shoulders, fit to bear 
 the weight of mightiest monarchies." He also had 
 perished, and too probably by the double crime of 
 assassination and private treason ; but the public glory 
 of his short career was proclaimed in the ungenerous 
 exultations of Catholic Rome from Vienna to Madrid, 
 and the individual heroism in the lamentations of 
 soldiers under every banner which now floated in 
 Europe. Beyond him ran the long line of Imperial 
 generals from Wallenstein, the magnificent and 
 the imaginative, with Hamlet s infirmity of purpose, 
 De Mercy, &c., down to the heroes of partisan war 
 fare, Hoik, the Butlers, and the noble Papenheim, or 
 nobler Piccolomini. Below them were ranged 
 Gustavus Horn, Banier, the Prince of Saxe-Weimar, 
 the Rhinegrave, and many other Protestant command 
 ers, whose names and military merits were familiar 
 to Paulina, though she now beheld their features for 
 the first time. Maximilian was here the best interpre 
 ter that she could possibly have met with. For he 
 had not only seen the greater part of them on the field 
 of battle, but as a favorite and confidential officer of 
 the Emperor s, had personally been concerned in 
 
56 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 diplomatic transactions with the most distinguished 
 amongst them. 
 
 Midnight insensibly surprised them whilst pursuing 
 the many interesting historical remembrances which 
 the portraits called up. Most of the company upon 
 this warning of the advanced hour began to drop off; 
 some to rest, and some upon the summons of the 
 military duty which awaited them in their turn. In 
 this way, Maximilian and Paulina were gradually left 
 alone, and now at length found a time which had not 
 before offered for communicating freely all that pressed 
 upon their hearts. Maximilian, on his part, going back 
 to the period of their last sudden separation, explained 
 his own sudden disappearance from Vienna. At a 
 moment s warning he had been sent off with sealed 
 orders from the Emperor, to be first opened in Klos- 
 terheim : the mission upon which he had been des 
 patched was of consequence to the Imperial interests, 
 and through his majesty s favor would eventually 
 prove so to his own. Thus it was that he had been 
 peremptorily cut off from all opportunity of communi 
 cating to herself the purpose and direction of his 
 journey previously to his departure from Vienna ; and 
 if his majesty had not taken that care upon himself, 
 but had contented himself in the most general terms 
 with assuring Paulina that Maximilian was absent on a 
 private mission, doubtless his intention had been the 
 kind one of procuring her a more signal surprise of 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 57 
 
 pleasure upon his own sudden return. Unfortunately, 
 however, that return had become impossible : things 
 had latterly taken a turn, which embarrassed himself, 
 and continued to require his presence. These per 
 plexities had been for some time known to the Em 
 peror ; and upon reflection, he doubted not, that her 
 own journey, undertaken before his Majesty could be 
 aware of the dangers which would beset its latter end, 
 must in some way be connected with the remedy which 
 the Emperor designed for this difficult affair. But 
 doubtless she herself was the bearer of sufficient ex 
 planations from the Imperial ministers on that head. 
 Finally, whilst assuring her that his own letters to 
 herself had been as frequent as in any former absence, 
 Maximilian confessed that he did not feel greatly 
 astonished at the fact of none at all having reached 
 her, when he recollected that to the usual adverse 
 accidents of war, daily intercepting all messengers 
 not powerfully escorted, were to be added, in this 
 case, the express efforts of private malignity in com 
 mand of all the forest passes. 
 
 This explanation recalled Paulina to a very painful 
 sense of the critical importance which might be at 
 tached to the papers which she had lost. As yet, she 
 had found no special opportunity, or, believing it of 
 less importance, had neglected it, for communicating 
 more than the general fact of a robbery. She now 
 related the case more circumstantially ; and both were 
 
58 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 struck with it, as at this moment a very heavy misfor 
 tune. Not only might her own perilous journey, and 
 the whole purposes of the Emperor embarked upon it, 
 be thus rendered abortive ; but their common enemies 
 would by this time be possessed of the whole informa 
 tion which had been so critically lost to their own 
 party, and perhaps would have it in their power to 
 make use of themselves as instruments for defeating 
 their own most important hopes. 
 
 Maximilian sighed as he reflected on the probability 
 that a far shorter and bloodier event might defeat every 
 earthly hope within the next twenty-four hours. But 
 he dissembled his feelings ; recovered even a tone of 
 gayety ; and, begging of Paulina to dismiss this vexa 
 tious incident from her thoughts, as a matter that after 
 all would probably be remedied by their first commu 
 nication with the Emperor, and before any evil had 
 resulted from it, he accompanied her to the entrance of 
 her own suite of chambers, and then returned to seek 
 a few hours repose for himself on one of the sofas he 
 had observed in one of the small ante-rooms attached 
 to the library. 
 
 The particular room which he selected for his pur 
 pose, on account of its small size, and its warm 
 appearance in other respects, was furnished under 
 foot with layers of heavy Turkey carpets, one laid 
 upon another (according to a fashion then prevalent in 
 Germany), and on the walls with tapestry. In this 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 59 
 
 mode of hanging rooms, though sometimes heavy and 
 sombre, there was a warmth sensible and apparent as 
 well as real, which peculiarly fitted it for winter apart 
 ments, and a massy splendor which accorded with 
 the style of dress and furniture in that gorgeous age. 
 One real disadvantage, however, it had as often em 
 ployed ; it gave a ready concealment to intruders with 
 evil intentions ; and under the protecting screen of 
 tapestry many a secret had been discovered ; many 
 robberies facilitated ; and some celebrated murderers 
 had been sheltered, with circumstances of mystery that 
 forever baffled investigation. 
 
 Maximilian smiled as the sight of the hangings, with 
 their rich colors glowing in the fire-light, brought back 
 to his remembrance one of those tales which in the 
 preceding winter had made a great noise in Vienna. 
 With a soldier s carelessness, he thought lightly of all 
 dangers that could arise within four walls ; and having 
 extinguished the lights which burned upon a table, and 
 unbuckled his sabre, he threw himself upon a sofa which 
 he drew near to the fire ; and then enveloping himself 
 in a large horseman s cloak, he courted the approach 
 of sleep. The fatigues of the day, and of the preced 
 ing night, had made this in some measure needful to 
 him. But weariness is not always the best preface to 
 repose ; and the irritation of many busy anxieties con 
 tinued for some time to keep him in a most uneasy 
 state of vigilance. As he lay, he could see on one 
 
60 KLOSTERIIEm. 
 
 side the fantastic figures in the fire composed of wood 
 and turf; on the other side, looking to the tapestry, he 
 saw the wild forms and the melee, little less fantastic, 
 of human and brute features in a chase a boar chase 
 in front, and a stag chase on his left hand. These, as 
 they rose fitfully in bright masses of color and of 
 savage expression under the lambent flashing of the 
 fire, continued to excite his irritable state of feeling ; 
 and it was not for some time that he felt this uneasy 
 condition give way to exhaustion. He was at length 
 on the very point of falling asleep, or perhaps had 
 already fallen into its very lightest and earliest stage, 
 when the echo of a distant door awoke him. He had 
 some slight impression that a noise in his own room 
 had concurred with the other and more distant one to 
 awake him. But, after raising himself for a moment 
 on his elbow and listening, he again resigned himself 
 to sleep. 
 
 Again, however, and probably before he had slept a 
 minute, he was roused by a double disturbance. A 
 low rustling was heard in some part of the room, and a 
 heavy foot upon a neighboring staircase. Roused at 
 length to the prudence of paying some attention to 
 sounds so stealthy, in a situation beset with dangers, 
 he rose and threw open the door. A corridor, which 
 ran round the head of the staircase, was lit up with a 
 brilliant light; and he could command from this sta 
 tion one flight of the stairs. On these he saw nothing ; 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 61 
 
 all was now wrapt in a soft effulgence of light, and in 
 absolute silence. No sound recurring after a minute s 
 attention, and indisposed by weariness to any stricter 
 examination, where all examination from one so little 
 acquainted with the localities might prove unavailing, 
 he returned to his own room ; but before again lying 
 down, he judged it prudent to probe the concealments 
 of the tapestry by carrying his sabre round, and every 
 where pressing the hangings to the wall. In this trial 
 he met with no resistance at any point ; and willingly 
 believing that he had been deceived, or that his ear 
 had exaggerated some trivial sound, in a state of im 
 perfect slumber, he again laid down and addressed 
 himself to sleep. Still there were remembrances 
 which occurred at this moment to disturb him. The 
 readiness with which they had been received at the 
 chateau was in itself suspicious. He remembered the 
 obstinate haunting of their camp on the preceding 
 night, and the robbery conducted with so much knowl 
 edge of circumstances. Jonas Melk, the brutal land 
 lord of Waldenhausen, a man known to him by repute 
 (though not personally), as one of the vilest agents 
 employed by the Landgrave, had been actively en 
 gaged in his master s service at their preceding stage. 
 He was probably one of those who haunted the wood 
 through the night. And he had been repeatedly in 
 formed through the course of the day, that this man in 
 particular, whose features were noticed by the yagers, 
 
62 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 on occasion of their officer s reproach to him, had been 
 seen at intervals in company with ethers, keeping a 
 road parallel to their own, and steadily watching their 
 order of advance. 
 
 These recollections, now laid together, impressed 
 him with some, uneasiness. But overpowering weari 
 ness gave him a strong interest in dismissing them. 
 And a soldier, with the images of fifty combats fresh 
 in his mind, does not willingly admit the idea of danger 
 from a single arm, and in a situation of household 
 security. Pshaw ! he exclaimed, with some disdain, 
 as these martial remembrances rose up before him, 
 especially as the silence had now continued undis 
 turbed for a quarter of an hour. In five minutes more 
 he had fallen profoundly asleep ; and in less than one 
 half hour, as he afterwards judged, he was suddenly 
 awakened by a dagger at his throat. 
 
 At one bound he sprung upon his feet. The cloak, 
 in which he had been enveloped, caught upon some of 
 the buckles or ornamented work of his appointments, 
 and for a moment embarrassed his motions. There 
 was no light, except what came from the sullen and 
 intermitting gleams of the fire. But even this was 
 sufficient to show him the dusky outline of two figures. 
 With the foremost he grappled, and, raising him in 
 his arms, threw him powerfully upon the floor, with a 
 force that left him stunned and helpless. The other 
 had endeavored to pinion his arms from behind ; for 
 
KLOSTERHE1M. 63 
 
 the body armor, which Maximilian had not laid aside 
 for the night, under the many anticipations of service 
 which their situation suggested, proved a sufficient 
 protection against the blows of the assassin s poinard. 
 Impatient of the darkness and uncertainty, Maximilian 
 rushed to the door and flung it violently open. The 
 assassin still clung to his arms, conscious that if he 
 once forfeited his hold until he had secured a retreat, 
 he should be taken at disadvantage. But Maximilian 
 now drawing a pctronel which hung at his belt, cocked 
 it as rapidly as his embarrassed motions allowed him. 
 The assassin faltered, conscious that a moment s re 
 laxation of grasp would enable his antagonist to turn 
 the muzzle over his shoulder. Maximilian, on the 
 other hand, now perfectly awake, and with the benefit 
 of that self-possession which the other so entirely 
 wanted, felt the nervous tremor in the villain s hands ; 
 and profiting by this moment of indecision, made a 
 desperate effort, released one arm, which he used 
 with so much effect as immediately to liberate the 
 other, and then intercepting the passage to the stairs, 
 wheeled round upon his murderous enemy, and pre 
 senting the pretronel to his breast, bade him surrender 
 his arms if he hoped for quarter. 
 
 The man was an athletic, and, obviously, a most 
 powerful ruffian. On his face he carried more than 
 one large, glazed cicatrix, that assisted the savage 
 expression of malignity impressed by nature upon his 
 
64 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 features. And his matted black hair, with its elf 
 locks, completed the picturesque effect of a face that 
 proclaimed, in every lineament, a reckless abandon 
 ment to cruelty and ferocious passions. Maximilian 
 himself, familiar as he was with the faces of military 
 butchers in the dreadful hours of sack and carnage, 
 recoiled for one instant from this hideous ruffian, who 
 had not even the palliations of youth in his favor, for 
 he seemed fifty at the least. All this had passed in 
 an instant of time, and now, as he recovered himself 
 from his momentary shock at so hateful an expression 
 of evil passions, great was Maximilian s astonishment 
 to perceive his antagonist apparently speechless, and 
 struggling with some over-mastering sense of horror, 
 that convulsed his features, and for a moment glazed 
 his eye. 
 
 Maximilian looked around for the object of his 
 alarm, but in vain. In reality it was himself, in con 
 nection with some too dreadful remembrances, now 
 suddenly awakened, that had thus overpowered the 
 man s nerves. The brilliant light of a large chande 
 lier, which overhung the staircase, fell strongly upon 
 Maximilian s features, and the excitement of the mo 
 ment gave to them the benefit of their fullest expres 
 sion. Prostrate on the ground, and abandoning his 
 dagger without an effort at retaining it, the man gazed, 
 as if under a rattlesnake s fascination, at the young 
 soldier before him. Suddenly he recovered his voice ; 
 
KLOSFERHEIM. 65 
 
 and, with a piercing cry of unaffected terror, exclaimed, 
 " Save me, save me, blessed Virgin ! Prince, noble 
 prince, forgive me ! Will the grave not hold its 
 own ? Jesu Maria! who could have believed it ? " 
 
 " Listen, fellow ! " interrupted Maximilian ; " what 
 prince is it you speak of? For whom do you take 
 me ? Speak truly, and abuse not my forbearance." 
 
 " Ha ! and his own voice, too ! and here on this 
 spot ! God is just ! Yet do thou, good patron, holy 
 St. Ennengarde, deliver me from the avenger ! " 
 
 " Man, you rave ! Stand up, recover yourself, 
 and answer me to what I shall ask thee ; speak truly, 
 and thou shalt have thy life. Whose gold was it that 
 armed thy hand against one who had injured neither 
 thee nor thine ? " 
 
 But he spoke to one who could no longer hear. 
 The man grovelled on the ground, and hid his face 
 from a being whom, in some incomprehensible way, 
 he regarded as an apparition from the other world. 
 
 Multitudes of persons had by this time streamed in, 
 summoned by the noise of the struggle from all parts 
 of the chateau. Some fancied that, in the frenzied 
 assassin on the ground, whose panic too manifestly 
 attested itself as genuine, they recognized one of those 
 who had so obstinately dogged them by side-paths in 
 the forest. Whoever he were, and upon whatever 
 mission employed, he was past all rational examina 
 tion ; at the aspect of Maximilian, he relapsed into 
 5 
 
66 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 convulsive horrors, which soon became too fit for 
 medical treatment to allow of any useful judicial in 
 quiry, and for the present he was consigned to the 
 safe keeping of the Provost Marshal. 
 
 His companion, meantime, had profited by his 
 opportunity and the general confusion, to. effect his 
 escape. Nor was this difficult. Perhaps, in the con 
 sternation of the first moment, and the exclusive atten 
 tion that settled upon the party in the corridor, he 
 might even have mixed in the crowd. But this was 
 not necessary ; for, on raising the tapestry, a door 
 was discovered which opened into a private passage, 
 having a general communication with the rest of the 
 rooms on that floor. Steps were now taken, by sen 
 tries disposed through the interior of the mansion at 
 proper points, to secure themselves from the enemies 
 who lurked within, whom hitherto they had too much 
 neglected for the avowed and more military assailants 
 who menaced them from without. Security was thus 
 restored. But a deep impression accompanied the 
 party to their couches, of the profound political mo 
 tives, or (in the absence of those) of the rancorous 
 personal malignity, which could prompt such obstinate 
 persecution ; by modes, also, and by hands, which 
 encountered so many chances of failing ; and which, 
 even in the event of the very completest success for 
 the present, could not be expected, under the eyes of 
 so many witnesses, to escape a final exposure. Some 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 67 
 
 enemy, of unusual ferocity, was too obviously work 
 ing in the dark, and by agencies as mysterious as his 
 own purpose. 
 
 Meantime, in the city of Klosterheim the general 
 interest in the fortunes of the approaching travellers 
 had suffered no abatement, and some circumstances 
 had occurred to increase the popular irritation. It was 
 known that Maximilian had escaped with a strong 
 party of friends from the city ; but how, or by whose 
 connivance, could in no way be discovered. This had 
 drawn upon all persons who were known as active par 
 tisans against the Landgrave, or liable to suspicion as 
 friends of Maximilian, a vexatious persecution from the 
 military police of the town. Some had been arrested ; 
 many called upon to give security for their future be 
 havior ; and all had been threatened or treated with 
 harshness. Hence, as well as from previous irritation 
 and alarm on account of the party from Vienna, the 
 whole town was in a state of extreme agitation. 
 
 Klosterheim in the main features of its political 
 distractions, reflected, almost as in a representative 
 picture, the condition of many another German city. 
 At that period, by very ancient ties of reciprocal ser 
 vice, strengthened by treaties, by religious faith, and 
 by personal attachment to individuals of the Imperial 
 house, this ancient and sequestered city was inaliena 
 bly bound to the interests of the Emperor. Both the 
 city and the university were Catholic. Princes of the 
 
68 KLOSTERHEIIVI 
 
 Imperial family, and Papal commisioners, who had se 
 cret motives for not appearing at Vienna, had more 
 than once found a hospitable reception within the 
 walls. And, amongst many acts of grace by which 
 the Emperors had acknowledged these services and 
 marks of attachment, one of them had advanced a very 
 large sum of money to the city chest for an indefinite 
 time ; receiving in return, as the warmest testimony of 
 confidential gratitude which the city could bestow, 
 that jus Hberi ingressus which entitled the Emperor s 
 armies to a free passage at all times, and, in cases of 
 extremity, to the right of keeping the city gates and 
 maintaining a garrison in the citadel. Unfortunately, 
 Klosterheim was not sui juris, or on the roll of free 
 cities of the Empire, but of the nature of an appan 
 age in the family of the Landgrave of X ; and 
 
 this circumstance had produced a double perplexity 
 in the politics of the city ; for the late Landgrave, 
 who had been assassinated in a very mysterious man 
 ner upon a hunting party, benefited to the fullest extent 
 both by the political and religious bias of the city 
 being a personal friend of the Emperor s, a Catholic, 
 amiable in his deportment, and generally beloved by 
 his subjects. But the Prince who had succeeded him 
 in the Landgraviate as the next heir, was everywhere 
 odious for the harshness of his government, no less than 
 for the gloomy austerity of his character ; and to 
 Klosterheim, in particular, which had been pronounced 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 69 
 
 by some of the first jurisprudents a female appanage, 
 he presented himself under the additional disadvan. 
 tages of a very suspicious title and a Swedish bias, too 
 notorious to be disguised. At a time when the religious 
 and political attachments of Europe were brought 
 into collisions so strange, that the foremost auxiliary 
 of the Protestant interest in Germany was really the 
 most distinguished Cardinal in the Church of Rome, it 
 did not appear inconsistent with this strong leaning to 
 the King of Sweden, that the Landgrave was privately 
 known to be a Catholic bigot, who practised the se 
 verest penances, and tyrant as he showed himself to all 
 others, grovelled himself as an abject devotee at the 
 feet of a haughty confessor. Amongst the populace 
 of Klosterheim, this feature of his character, confront 
 ed with the daily proofs of his entire vassalage to the 
 Swedish interest, passed for the purest hypocrisy ; and 
 he had credit for no religion at all with the world at 
 large. But the fact was otherwise. Conscious from 
 the first that he held even the Landgraviate by a slender 
 title (for he was no more than cousin once removed 
 to his immediate predecessor), and that his pretensions 
 upon Klosterheim had separate and peculiar defects, 
 sinking of course with the failure of his claim as Land 
 grave, but not therefore prospering with its success, 
 he was aware that none but the most powerful arm 
 could keep his princely cap upon his head. The com 
 petitors for any part of his possessions, one and all, 
 
70 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 had thrown themselves upon the Emperor s protection. 
 This, if no other reason, would have thrown him into 
 the arms of Gustavus Adolphus ; and with this, as it 
 happened, other reasons of local importance had then 
 and since co-operated. Time, as it advanced, brought 
 increase of weight to all these motives. Rumors of a 
 dark and ominous tendency, arising no one knew 
 whence, nor by whom encouraged, pointed injuriously 
 to the past history of the Landgrave, and to some 
 dreadful exposures which were hanging over his head. 
 A lady, at present in obscurity, was alluded to as the 
 agent of redress to others, through her own heavy 
 wrongs ; and these rumors were the more acceptable 
 to the people of Klosterheim, because they connected 
 the impending punishment of the hated Landgrave 
 with the restoration of the Imperial connection ; for it 
 was still insinuated, under every version of these 
 mysterious reports, that the Emperor was the ultimate 
 supporter in the last resort, of the lurking claims now 
 on the point of coming forward to challenge public 
 attention. Under these alarming notices, and fully 
 aware that sooner or later he must be thrown into col 
 lision with the Imperial court, the Landgrave had now 
 for some time made up his mind to found a merit with 
 the Swedish chancellor and general officers, by pre 
 cipitating an uncompromising rupture with his Catholic 
 enemies, and thus to extract the grace of a voluntary 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 71 
 
 act, from what, in fact, he knew to be sooner or later 
 inevitable. 
 
 Such was the positive and relative aspect of the 
 several interests which were now struggling in Klos- 
 terheim. Desperate measures were contemplated by 
 both parties ; and, as opportunities should arise, and 
 proper means should develope themselves, more than 
 one party might be said to stand on the brink of great 
 explosions. Conspiracies were moving in darkness, 
 both in the council of the burghers and of the univer 
 sity. Imperfect notices of their schemes, and some 
 times delusive or misleading notices, had reached the 
 Landgrave. The city, the university, and the numer 
 ous convents, were crowded to excess with refugees. 
 Malecontents of ever^r denomination and every shade, 
 emissaries of all the factions which then agitated 
 Germany, reformado soldiers, laid aside by their 
 original employers, under new arrangements, or from 
 private jealousies of new commanders, great persons 
 with special reasons for courting a temporary seclu 
 sion, and preserving a strict incognito, misers, who 
 fled with their hoards of gold and jewels to this 
 city of refuge, desolate ladies, from the surrounding 
 provinces, in search of protection for themselves, or 
 for the honor of their daughters ; and (not least dis 
 tinguished among the many classes of fugitives) 
 prophets and enthusiasts of every description, whom 
 the magnitude of the political events, and their re- 
 
72 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 religious origin, so naturally called forth in swarms ; 
 these, and many more, in connection with their 
 attendants, troops, students, and the terrified peas 
 antry, from a circle of forty miles radius around the 
 city as a centre, had swelled the city of Klosterheim, 
 from a total of about seventeen, to six or seven-and- 
 thirty thousand. War, with a slight reserve for the 
 late robberies of Holkerstein, had as yet spared this 
 favored nook of Germany. The great storm had 
 whistled and raved around them ; but hitherto none 
 had penetrated the sylvan sanctuary, which on every 
 side invested this privileged city. The ground seemed 
 charmed by some secret spells, and consecrated from 
 intrusion. For the great tempest had often swept 
 directly upon them, and yet still had wheeled off, sum 
 moned away by some momentary call, to some remoter 
 attraction. But now at length all things portended, 
 that, if the war should revive in strength after this 
 brief suspension, it would fall with accumulated weight 
 upon this yet unravaged district. 
 
 This was the anticipation which had governed the 
 Landgrave s policy in so sternly and barbarously 
 interfering with the generous purposes of the Klos- 
 terheimers, for carrying over a safe-conduct to their 
 friends and visitors, when standing on the margin of 
 the forest. The robber Holkerstein, if not expressly 
 countenanced by the Swedes, and secretly nursed up 
 to his present strength by Richelieu, was at any rate 
 
KLOSTERHE1M. 73 
 
 embarked upon a system of aggression which would 
 probably terminate in connecting him with one or 
 other of those authentic powers. In any case, he 
 stood committed to a course of continued offence upon 
 the Imperial interests ; since in that quarter his injuries 
 and insults were already past forgiveness. The inter 
 est of Holkerstein, then, ran in the same channel with 
 that of the Landgrave. It was impolitic to weaken him. 
 It was doubly impolitic to weaken him by a measure 
 which must also weaken the Landgrave ; for any deduc 
 tion from his own military force, or from the means of 
 recruiting it, was in that proportion a voluntary sacri 
 fice of the weight he should obtain with the Swedes on 
 making the junction, which he now firmly counted on, 
 with their forces. But a result which he still more 
 dreaded from the co-operation of the Klosterheimers 
 with the caravan from Vienna, was the probable over 
 throw of that supremacy in the city, which even now 
 was so nicely balanced in his favor, that a slight rein 
 forcement to the other side would turn the scale against 
 him. 
 
 In all these calculations of policy, and the cruel 
 measures by which he supported them, he was guided 
 by the counsels of Luigi Adorni a subtle Italian, 
 whom he had elevated from the post of a private 
 secretary to that of sole minister for the conduct of 
 state affairs. This man, who covered a temperament 
 of terrific violence with a masque of Venetian dissimu- 
 
74 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 lation and the most icy reserve, met with no opposition, 
 unless it were occasionally from Father Ansel m, the 
 confessor. He delighted in the refinements of intrigue, 
 and in the most tortuous labyrinths of political ma 
 noeuvring, purely for their own sakes ; and sometimes 
 defeated his own purposes by mere superfluity of diplo 
 matic subtlety ; which hardly, however, won a momen 
 tary concern from him in the pleasure he experienced at 
 having found an undeniable occasion for equal subtlety 
 in unweaving his own webs of deception. He had 
 been confounded by the evasion of Maximilian and his 
 friends from the orders of the Landgrave ; and the 
 whole energy of his nature was bent to the discovery 
 of the secret avenues which had opened the means to 
 this elopement. 
 
 There were, in those days, as is well known to Ger 
 man antiquaries, few castles or fortresses of much 
 importance in Germany, which did not communicate 
 by subterraneous passages with the exterior country. 
 In many instances these passages were of surprising 
 extent, first emerging to the light in some secluded spot 
 among rocks or woods, at the distance of two, three, 
 or even four miles. There were cases, even, in which 
 they were carried below the beds of rivers as broad 
 and deep as the Rhine, the Elbe, or the Danube. 
 Sometimes there were several of such communications 
 on different faces of the fortress ; and sometimes each 
 of these branched, at some distance from the building, 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 75 
 
 into separate arms, opening at intervals widely apart. 
 And the uses of such secret communications with the 
 world outside, and beyond a besieging enemy, in a 
 land like Germany, with its prodigious subdivision of 
 independent states and free cities, were far greater 
 than they could have been in any one great continuous 
 principality. 
 
 In many fortified places these passages had existed 
 from the middle ages. In Klosterheim they had pos 
 sibly as early an origin ; but by this period it is very 
 probable that the gradual accumulation of rubbish, 
 through a course of centuries, would have unfitted 
 them for use, had not the Peasants War, in the time 
 of Luther s Reformation, little more than one hundred 
 years before, given occasion for their use and repair. 
 At that time Klosterheim had stood a siege, which, 
 from the defect of artillery, was at no time formidable 
 in a military sense ; but as a blockade, formed sud 
 denly when the citizens were slenderly furnished with 
 provisions, it would certainly have succeeded, and 
 delivered up the vast wealth of the convents as a spoil 
 to the peasantry, had it not been for one in particular 
 of these subterraneous passages, which opening on the 
 opposite side of the little river Iltiss, in a thick boccage, 
 where the enemy had established no posts, furnished 
 the means of introducing a continual supply of fresh 
 provisions, to the great triumph of the garrison, and 
 the utter dismay of the superstitious peasants, who 
 
76 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 looked upon the mysterious supply as a providential 
 bounty to a consecrated cause. 
 
 So memorable a benefit had given to this one pas 
 sage a publicity and an historical importance which 
 made all its circumstances, and amongst those its in 
 ternal mouth, familiar even to children. But this was 
 evidently not the avenue by which Maximilian had 
 escaped into the forest. For it opened externally on 
 the wrong side of the river, whilst everybody knew 
 that its domestic opening was in one of the chapels of 
 the schloss ; and another circumstance equally decisive 
 was, that a long flight of stairs, by which it descended 
 below the bed of the river, made it impassable to 
 horses. 
 
 Every attempt, however, failed to trace out the 
 mode of egress for the present. By his spies, Adorni 
 doubted not to find it soon ; and in the meantime, that 
 as much as possible the attention of the public might 
 be abstracted from the travellers and their concerns, a 
 public proclamation was issued forbidding all resorts of 
 crowds to the walls. These were everywhere dispersed 
 on the 9th ; and for that day were partially obeyed. 
 But there was little chance that, with any fresh excite 
 ment to the popular interest, they would continue to 
 command respect. 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 77 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE morning of the 10th at length arrived that 
 day on which the expected travellers from Vienna, 
 and all whom they had collected on their progress, 
 ardently looked to rejoin their long separated friends in 
 Klosterheim, and by those friends were not less ardent 
 ly looked for. On each side there were the same 
 violent yearnings ; on each side the same dismal and 
 overpowering fears. Each party arose with palpitating 
 hearts : the one looked out from Falkenberg with 
 longing eyes to discover the towers of Klosterheim ; 
 the other, from the upper windows or roofs of Kloster 
 heim, seemed as if they could consume the distance 
 between themselves and Falkenberg. But a little tract 
 of forest ground was interposed between friends and 
 friends, parents and children, lovers and their beloved. 
 Not more than eighteen miles of shadowy woods, of 
 lawns, and sylvan glades, divided hearts that would 
 either have encountered death or many deaths for the 
 other. These were regions of natural peace and tran 
 quillity, that in any ordinary times should have been 
 peopled by no worse inhabitants than the timid hare 
 scudding homewards to its form, or the wild deer 
 
78 KLOSTEKHEIM. 
 
 sweeping by with thunder to their distant lairs. But 
 now from every glen or thicket armed marauders 
 might be ready to start. Every gleam of sunshine in 
 some seasons was reflected from the glittering arms of 
 parties threading the intricacies of the thickets; and 
 the sudden alarum of the trumpet rang oftentimes in the 
 nights, and awoke the echoes that for centuries had 
 been undisturbed except by the hunter s horn, in the 
 most sequestered haunts of these vast woods. 
 
 Towards noon it became known, by signals that had 
 been previously concerted between Maximilian and his 
 college friends, that the party were advanced upon 
 their road from Falkenberg, and therefore must of 
 necessity on this day abide the final trial. As this 
 news was dispersed abroad, the public anxiety rose to 
 so feverish a point, that crowds rushed from every 
 quarter to the walls; and it was not judged prudent to 
 measure the civic strength against their enthusiasm. 
 For an hour or two the nature of the ground and the 
 woods forbade any view of the advancing party : but 
 at length, some time before the light failed, the head 
 of the column, and soon after the entire body, was 
 descried surmounting a little hill not more than eight 
 miles distant. The black mass, presented by mounted 
 travellers and baggage wagons, was visible to piercing 
 eyes : and the dullest could distinguish the glancing 
 of arms which at times flashed upwards from the more 
 open parts of the forest. 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 79 
 
 Thus far, then, their friends had made their way 
 without injury : and this point was judged to be within 
 nine miles distance. But in thirty or forty minutes, 
 when they had come nearer by a mile and a half, the 
 scene had somewhat changed. A heathy tract of 
 ground, perhaps two [miles in length, opened in the 
 centre of the thickest woods, and formed a little island 
 of clear ground where all beside was tangled and 
 crowded with impediments. Just as the travelling 
 party began to deploy out of the woods upon this area 
 at its further extremity, a considerable body of mount 
 ed troops emerged from the forest, which had hitherto 
 concealed them, at the point nearest to Klosterheim. 
 They made way rapidly ; and in less than half a 
 minute it became evident, by the motions of the oppo 
 site party, that they had been descried, and that hasty 
 preparations were making for receiving them. A 
 dusky mass, probably the Black Yagers, galloped up 
 rapidly to the front and formed : after which it seemed 
 to some eyes that the whole party again advanced, but 
 still more slowly than before. 
 
 Every heart upon the walls of Klosterheim palpi 
 tated with emotion, as the two parties neared each 
 other. Many almost feared to draw their breath, 
 many writhed their persons in the anguish of rueful 
 expectation, as they saw the moment approach when 
 the two parties would shock together. At length it 
 came ; and to the astonishment of the spectators, not 
 
80 KLOSTEKHEIM. 
 
 more perhaps than of the travellers themselves, the 
 whole cavalcade of strangers swept by, without halting 
 for so much as a passing salute or exchange of news. 
 
 The first cloud, then, which had menaced their 
 friends, was passed off as suddenly as it had gathered. 
 But this by some people was thought to bear no favor 
 able construction. To ride past a band of travellers 
 from remote parts on such uncourteous terms argued 
 no friendly spirit ; and many motives might be 
 imagined perfectly consistent with hostile intentions 
 for passing the travellers unassailed, and thus gaining 
 the means of coming at any time upon their rear. 
 Prudent persons shook their heads ; and the issue of 
 an affair anticipated with so much anxiety certainly 
 did not diminish it: 
 
 It was now four o clock : and in an hour or less it 
 would be dark ; and, considering the peculiar difficul 
 ties of the ground on nearing the town, and the increas 
 ing exhaustion of the horses, it was not judged possible 
 that a party of travellers, so unequal in their equip 
 ments, and amongst whom the weakest was now 
 become a law for the motion of the quickest, could 
 reach the gates of Klosterheim before nine o clock. 
 
 Soon after this, and just before the daylight faded, 
 the travellers reached the nearer end of the heath, and 
 again entered the woods. The cold and the darkness 
 were now becoming greater at every instant, and it 
 might have been expected that the great mass of the 
 
KLOSTFRHEIM. 81 
 
 spectators would leave their station ; but such was the 
 intensity of the public interest, that few quitted the 
 walls except for the purpose of reinforcing their ability 
 to stay and watch the progress of their friends. This 
 could be done with even greater effect as the darkness 
 deepened, for every second horseman carried a torch ; 
 and as much perhaps by way of signal to their friends 
 in Klosterheim, as for their own convenience, prodig 
 ious flambeaux were borne aloft on halberds. These 
 rose to a height which surmounted all the lower bushes, 
 and were visible in all parts of the woods, even the 
 smaller lights, in the leafless state of the trees at this 
 season of the year, could be generally traced without 
 difficulty ; and composing a brilliant chain of glittering 
 points, as it curved and humored the road amongst the 
 labyrinths of the forest, would have produced a singu 
 larly striking effect to eyes at leisure to enjoy it. 
 
 In this way, for about three hours, the travellers 
 continued to advance unmolested, and to be traced by 
 their friends in Klosterheim. It was now considerably 
 after seven o clock, and perhaps an hour, or at most 
 an hour and a half, would bring them to the city gates. 
 All hearts began to beat high with expectation, and 
 hopes were loudly and confidently expressed through 
 every part of the crowd that the danger might now 
 be considered as past. Suddenly, as if expressly 
 to rebuke the too presumptuous confidence of those 
 who were thus thoughtlessly sanguine, the blare of a 
 6 
 
82 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 trumpet was heard from a different quarter of the 
 forest, and about two miles to the right of the city. 
 Every eye was fastened eagerly upon the spot from 
 which the notes issued. Probably ftie signal had pro 
 ceeded from a small party in advance of a greater ; for 
 in the same direction, but at a much greater distance, 
 perhaps not less than three miles in the rear of the 
 trumpet, a very large body of horse was now descried 
 coming on at a great pace upon the line already indi 
 cated by the trumpet. The extent of the column might 
 be estimated by the long array of torches, which were 
 carried apparently by every fourth or fifth man ; and 
 that they were horsemen, was manifest from the very 
 rapid pace at which they advanced. 
 
 At this spectacle a cry of consternation ran along 
 the whole walls of Klosterheim. Here then at last 
 were coming the spoilers and butchers of their friends ; 
 for the road upon which they were advancing issued at 
 right angles into that upon which the travellers, appa 
 rently unwarned of their danger, were moving. The 
 hideous scene of carnage would possibly pass immedi 
 ately below their own eyes ; for the point of junction 
 between the two roads was directly commanded by the 
 eye from the city walls ; and upon computing the ap 
 parent proportions of speed between the two parties, 
 it seemed likely enough that upon this very ground, 
 the best fitted of any that could have been selected, in 
 a scenical sense, as a stage for bringing a spectacle 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 83 
 
 below the eyes of Klosterheim, the most agitating of 
 spectacles would be exhibited, friends and kinsmen 
 engaged in mortal struggle with remorseless free 
 booters, under circumstances which denied to them 
 selves any chance of offering assistance. 
 
 Exactly at this point of time arose a dense mist, 
 which wrapped the whole forest in darkness, and 
 withdrew from the eyes of the agitated Klosterheimers 
 friends and foes alike. They continued, however, to 
 occupy the walls, endeavoring to penetrate the veil 
 which now concealed the fortunes of their travelling 
 friends, by mere energy and intensity of attention. 
 The mist, meantime, did not disperse, but rather con 
 tinued to deepen : the two parties, however, gradually 
 drew so much nearer, that some judgment could be 
 at length formed of their motions and position merely 
 by the ear. From the stationary character of the 
 sounds, and the continual recurrence of charges and 
 retreats sounded upon the trumpet, it became evident 
 that the travellers and the enemy had at length met, 
 and too probable that they were engaged in a san 
 guinary combat. Anxiety had now reached its utmost 
 height; and some were obliged to leave the walls, or 
 were carried away by their friends, under the effects 
 of overwrought sensibility. 
 
 Ten o clock had now struck, and for some time the 
 sounds had been growing sensibly weaker, and at last 
 it was manifest that the two parties had separated, and 
 
84 KLOSTERIIEIM. 
 
 that one at least was moving off from the scene of 
 action ; and, as the sounds grew feebler and feebler, 
 there could be no doubt that it was the enemy who 
 was drawing off into the distance from the field of 
 battle. 
 
 The enemy ! ay, but how ? Under what circum 
 stances ? As victor ? Perhaps even as the captor of 
 their friends ? Or, if not, and he were really retread 
 ing as a fugitive and beaten foe, with what hideous 
 sacrifices on the part of their friends might not that 
 result have been purchased ? 
 
 Long and dreary was the interval before these 
 questions could be answered. Full three hours had 
 elapsed since the last sound of a trumpet had been 
 heard : it was now one o clock, and as yet no trace 
 of the travellers had been discovered in any quarter. 
 The most hopeful began to despond, and general 
 lamentations prevailed throughout Klosterheim. 
 
 Suddenly, however, a dull sound arose within a 
 quarter of a mile from the city gate, as of some 
 feeble attempt to blow a blast upon a trumpet. In 
 five minutes more a louder blast was sounded close to 
 the gate. Questions were joyfully put, and as joy 
 fully answered. The usual precautions were rapidly 
 gone through ; and the officer of the watch being 
 speedily satisfied as to the safety of the measure, the 
 gates were thrown open, and the unfortunate trav 
 ellers, exhausted by fatigue, hardships, and suffering 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 85 
 
 of every description, were at length admitted into the 
 bosom of a friendly town. 
 
 The spectacle was hideous which the long caval 
 cade exhibited as it wound up the steep streets which 
 led to the market-place. Wagons fractured and splin 
 tered in every direction, upon which were stretched 
 numbers of gallant soldiers, with wounds hastily 
 dressed, from which the blood had poured in streams 
 over their gay habiliments ; horses, whose limbs had 
 been mangled by the sabre ; and coaches or caleches 
 loaded with burthens of dead and dying ; these were 
 amongst the objects which occupied the van in the 
 line of march, as the travellers defiled through Klos- 
 terheim. The vast variety of faces, dresses, imple 
 ments of war, or ensigns of rank, thrown together 
 in the confusion of night and retreat, illuminated at 
 intervals by bright streams of light from torches or 
 candles in the streets, or at the windows of the houses, 
 composed a picture which resembled the chaos of a 
 dream, rather than any ordinary spectacle of human 
 life. 
 
 In the market-place the whole party were gradually 
 assembled, and there it was intended that they should 
 receive the billets for their several quarters. But such 
 was the pressure of friends and relatives gathering from 
 all directions, to salute and welcome the objects of 
 their affectionate anxiety, or to inquire after their fate ; 
 so tumultuous was the conflict of grief and joy, (and 
 
86 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 not seldom in the very same group), that for a long 
 time no authority could control the violence of public 
 feeling, or enforce the arrangements which had been 
 adopted for the night. Nor was it even easy to learn, 
 where the questions were put by so many voices at 
 once, what had been the history of the night. It was 
 at length, however, collected, that they had been met 
 and attacked with great fury by Holkerstein, or a 
 party acting under one of his lieutenants. Their own 
 march had been so warily conducted after nightfall, 
 that this attack did not find them unprepared. A 
 barrier of coaches and wagons had been speedily 
 formed in such an arrangement as to cripple the 
 enemy s movements, and to neutralize great part of 
 his superiority in the quality of his horses. The 
 engagement, however, had been severe ; and the 
 enemy s attack, though many times baffled, had been 
 as often renewed, until at length, the young general 
 Maximilian, seeing that the affair tended to no appa 
 rent termination, that the bloodshed was great, and 
 that the horses were beginning to knock up under 
 the fatigue of such severe service, had brought up the 
 very elite of his reserve, placed himself at their head, 
 and making a dash expressly at their leader, had the 
 good fortune to cut him down. The dcsperaleness 
 of the charge, added to the loss of their leader, had 
 intimidated the enemy, who now began to draw off 
 as from an enterprise which was likely to cost them 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 87 
 
 more blood than a final success could have rewarded. 
 Unfortunately, however, Maximilian, disabled by a 
 severe wound, and entangled by his horse amongst the 
 enemy, had been carried off a prisoner. In the 
 course of the battle, all their torches had been extin 
 guished ; and this circumstance, as much as the rough 
 ness of the road, the ruinous condition of their 
 carriages and appointments, and their own exhaus 
 tion, had occasioned their long delay in reaching 
 Klosterheim, after the battle was at an end. Signals 
 they had not ventured to make ; for they were naturally 
 afraid of drawing upon their track any fresh party 
 of marauders by so open a warning of their course 
 as the sound of a trumpet. 
 
 These explanations were rapidly dispersed through 
 Klosterheim ; party after party drew off to their quar 
 ters ; and at length the agitated city was once again 
 restored to peace. The Lady Paulina had been 
 amongst the first to retire. She was met by the Lady 
 Abbess of a principal convent in Klosterheim, to 
 whose care she had been recommended by the Em 
 peror. The Landgrave also had furnished her with 
 a guard of honor; but all expressions of respect, or 
 even of kindness, seemed thrown away upon her, 
 so wholly was she absorbed in grief for the capture 
 of Maximilian, and in gloomy anticipations of his 
 impending fate. 
 
88 KLOSTERHE1M. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE city of Klosterheim was now abandoned to 
 itself, and strictly shut up within its own walls. All 
 roaming beyond those limits was now indeed forbid 
 den even more effectually by the sword of the enemy 
 than by the edicts of the Landgrave. War was 
 manifestly gathering in its neighborhood. Little 
 towns and castles within a range of seventy miles, 
 on almost every side, were now daily occupied by 
 Imperial or Swedish troops. Not a week passed 
 without some news of fresh military accessions, or 
 of skirmishes between parties of hostile foragers. 
 Through the adjacent country, spite of the severe 
 weather, bodies of armed men were weaving to and 
 fro, fast as a weaver s shuttle. The forest rang with 
 .alarums, and sometimes under gleams of sunshine, 
 the leafless woods seemed on fire with the restless 
 splendor of spear and sword, morion and breastplate, 
 or the glittering equipments of the Imperial cavalry. 
 Couriers, or- Bohemian gipsies, which latter were a 
 class of people at this time employed by all sides as 
 spies or messengers, continually stole in with secret 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 89 
 
 despatches to the Landgrave, or (under the color of 
 bringing public news, and the reports of military 
 movements) to execute some private mission for rich 
 employers in town ; sometimes making even this 
 clandestine business but a cover to other purposes, 
 too nearly connected with treason, or reputed treason, 
 to admit of any but oral communication. 
 
 What were the ulterior views in this large accu 
 mulation of military force, no man pretended to know. 
 A great battle, for various reasons, was not expected. 
 But changes were so sudden, and the counsels of 
 each day so often depended on the accidents of the 
 morning, that an entire campaign might easily be 
 brought on, or the whole burthen of war for years to 
 come might be transferred to this quarter of the land, 
 without causing any very great surprise. Meantime, 
 enough was done already to give a full foretaste of 
 war and its miseries to this sequestered nook so 
 long unvisited by that hideous scourge. 
 
 In the forest, where the inhabitants were none, ex 
 cepting those who lived upon the borders, and small 
 establishments of the Landgrave s servants at different 
 points, for executing the duties of the forest or the 
 chase, this change expressed itself chiefly by the 
 tumultuous uproar of the wild deer, upon whom a 
 murderous war was kept up by parties detached daily 
 from remote and opposite quarters to collect provisions 
 for the half-starving garrisons, so recently, and with so 
 
90 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 little previous preparation, multiplied on the forest 
 skirts. For though the country had been yet unex 
 hausted by war, too large a proportion of the tracts 
 adjacent to the garrisons were in a wild sylvan con 
 dition, to afford any continued supplies to so large and 
 sudden an increase of the population ; more especially 
 as, under the rumors of this change, every walled town 
 in a compass of one hundred miles, many of them 
 capable of resisting a sudden coup-de-main, and reso 
 lutely closing their gates upon either party, had already 
 possessed themselves by purchase of all the surplus 
 supplies which the country yielded. In such a state 
 of things, the wild deer became an object of valuable 
 consideration to all parties, and a murderous war was 
 made upon them from every side of the forest. From 
 the city walls they were seen in sweeping droves, 
 flying before the Swedish cavalry for a course of ten, 
 fifteen, or even thirty miles, until headed, and com 
 pelled to turn by another party breaking suddenly from 
 a covert where they had been waiting their approach. 
 Sometimes it would happen that this second party 
 proved to be a body of Imperialists, who were carried 
 by the ardor of the chase into the very centre of their 
 enemies before either was aware of any hostile ap 
 proach. Then, according to circumstances, came 
 sudden flight or tumultuary skirmish ; the woods rang 
 with the hasty summons of the trumpet ; the deer 
 reeled off aslant from the furious shock, and benefit- 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 91 
 
 ing for the moment by those fierce hostilities, originally 
 the cause of their persecution, fled far away from the 
 scene of strife; and not unfrequently came thundering 
 beneath the city walls, and reporting to the spectators 
 above, by their agitation and affrighted eyes, those 
 tumultuous disturbances in some remoter part of the 
 forest, which had already Breached them in an imper 
 fect way, by the interrupted and recurring echoes of 
 the points of war charges or retreats sounded 
 upon the trumpet. 
 
 But, whilst on the outside of her walls Klosterheim 
 beheld this unpopulous region all alive with military 
 license and outrage, she suffered no violence from 
 either party herself. This immunity she owed to her 
 peculiar political situation. The Emperor had motives 
 for conciliating the city ; the Swedes for conciliating 
 the Landgrave : indeed they were supposed to have 
 made a secret alliance with him, for purposes known 
 only to the contracting parties. And the difference 
 between the two patrons was simply this, that the 
 Emperor was sincere, and, if not disinterested, had 
 an interest concurring with that of Klosterheim, in the 
 paternal protection which he offered ; whereas the 
 Swedes in this, as in all their arrangements, regarding 
 Germany as a foreign country, looked only to the 
 final advantages of Sweden or its German depend 
 encies, and to the weight with such alliances would 
 procure them in a general pacification. And hence, 
 
92 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 in the war which both combined to make upon the 
 forest, the one party professed to commit spoil upon 
 the Landgrave, as distinguished from the city ; whilst 
 the Swedish allies of that prince prosecuted their 
 ravages in the Landgrave s -name, as essential to the 
 support of his cause. 
 
 For the present, however, the Swedes were the 
 preponderant party in the neighborhood ; they had for 
 tified the chateau of Falkenberg, and made it a very 
 strong military post ; at the same time, however, send 
 ing in to Klosterheim whatsoever was valuable amongst 
 the furniture of that establishment, with a care which 
 of itself proclaimed the footing upon which they were 
 anxious to stand with the Landgrave. 
 
 Encouraged by the vicinity of his military friends, 
 that Prince now began to take a harsher tone in Klos 
 terheim. The minor princes of Germany at that day 
 were all tyrants in virtue of their privileges ; and if 
 in some rarer cases they exercised these privileges 
 in a forbearing spirit, their subjects were well aware 
 that they were indebted for this extraordinary indul 
 gence to the temper and gracious nature of the in 
 dividual, not to the firm protection of the laws. But 
 the most reasonable and mildest of the German princes 
 had been little taught at that day to brook opposition ; 
 and the Landgrave was by nature, and the gloomi 
 ness of his constitutional temperament, of all men the 
 last to learn that lesson readily. He had already met 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 93 
 
 with just sufficient opposition from the civic body and 
 the university interest to excite his passion for revenge. 
 Ample indemnification he determined upon for his 
 wounded pride ; and he believed that the time and 
 circumstances were now matured for favoring his 
 most vindictive schemes. The Swedes were at hand ; 
 and a slight struggle with the citizens would remove 
 all obstacles to their admission into the garrison ; 
 though, for some private reasons, he wished to abstain 
 from this extremity, if it should prove possible. Maxi 
 milian also was absent, and might never return. The 
 rumor was even that he was killed ; and though the 
 caution of Adorni and the Landgrave led them to a 
 hesitating reliance upon what might be a political 
 fabrication of the opposite party, yet at all events he 
 was detained from Klostcrheim by some pressing ne 
 cessity ; and the period of his absence, whether long 
 or short, the Landgrave resolved to improve in such 
 a way as should make his return unavailing. 
 
 Of Maximilian the Landgrave had no personal 
 knowledge ; he had not so much as seen him. But by 
 his spies and intelligencers he was well aware that he 
 had been the chief combiner and animator of the Im 
 perial party against himself in the university, and by 
 his presence had given life and confidence to that 
 party in the city which did not expressly acknowledge 
 him as their head. He was aware of the favor which 
 Maximilian enjoyed with the Emperor, and knew in 
 
94 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 general, from public report, the brilliancy of those 
 military services on which it had been built. That 
 he was likely to prove a formidable opponent, had he 
 continued in Klosterheim, the Landgrave knew too 
 well ; and upon the advantage over him which he had 
 now gained, though otherwise it should prove only a 
 temporary one, he determined to found a permanent 
 obstacle to the Emperor s views. As a preliminary 
 step, he prepared to crush all opposition in Kloster 
 heim ; a purpose which was equally important to his 
 vengeance and his policy. 
 
 This system he opened with a series of tyrannical 
 regulations, some of which gave the more offence that 
 they seemed wholly capricious and insulting. The 
 students were confined to their college bounds, except 
 at stated intervals ; were subject to a military muster, 
 or calling over of names, every evening; were re 
 quired to receive sentinels within the extensive courts 
 of their own college, and at length a small court of 
 guard ; with numerous other occasional marks, as 
 opportunities offered, of princely discountenance and 
 anger. 
 
 In the university, at that time, from local causes, 
 many young men of rank and family were collected. 
 Those even, who had taken no previous part in the 
 cause of the Klosterheimers, were now roused to a 
 sense of personal indignity. And as soon as the light 
 was departed, a large body of them collected at the 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 95 
 
 rooms of Count St. Aldenhcim, whose rank promised a 
 suitable countenance to their purpose, whilst his youth 
 seemed a pledge for the requisite activity. 
 
 The Count was a younger brother of the Palsgrave 
 of Birkenfeld, and maintained a sumptuous establish 
 ment in Klosterheim. Whilst the state of the forest 
 had allowed of hunting, hawking, or other amuse 
 ments, no man had exhibited so fine a stud of horses. 
 No man had so large a train of servants ; no man 
 entertained his friends with such magnificent hospi 
 talities. His generosity, his splendor, his fine person, 
 and the courtesy with which he relieved the humblest 
 people from the oppression of his rank, had given him 
 a popularity amongst the students. His courage had 
 been tried in battle : but, after all, it was doubted 
 whether he were not of too luxurious a turn to under 
 take any cause which called for much exertion ; for 
 the death of a rich Abbess, who had left the whole of 
 an immense fortune to the Count, as her favorite 
 nephew, had given him another motive for cultivating 
 peaceful pursuits, to which few men were, constitution 
 ally, better disposed. 
 
 It was the time of day when the Count was sure to 
 be found at home with a joyous party of friends. 
 Magnificent chandeliers shed light upon a table fur 
 nished with every description of costly wines produced 
 in Europe. According to the custom of the times, 
 these were drunk in cups of silver or gold ; and an 
 
96 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 opportunity was thus gained, which St. Aldenheim had 
 not lost, of making a magnificent display of luxury 
 without ostentation. The ruby wine glittered in the 
 jewelled goblet which the Count had raised to his lips, 
 at the very moment when the students entered. 
 
 " Welcome, friends," said the Count St. Aldenheim, 
 putting down his cup, " welcome always ; but never 
 more than at this hour, when wine and good fellowship 
 teach us to know the value of our youth." 
 
 " Thanks, Count, from all of us. But the fellowship 
 we seek at present must be of another temper ; our 
 errand is of business." 
 
 " Then, friends, it shall rest until to-morrow. Not 
 for the papacy, to which my good aunt would have 
 raised a ladder for me of three steps, Abbot, Bishop, 
 Cardinal, would I renounce the Tokay of to-night for 
 the business of to-morrow. Come, gentlemen, let us 
 drink my aunt s health. 
 
 " Memory, you would say, Count." 
 
 "Memory, most learned friend, you are right; 
 Ah ! gentlemen, she was a woman worthy to be had 
 in remembrance : for she invented a capital plaster 
 for gunshot wounds ; and a jollier old fellow over a 
 bottle of Tokay there is not at this day in Suabia, or 
 in the Swedish camp. And that reminds me to ask, 
 gentlemen, have any of you heard that Gustavus 
 Horn is expected at Falkenberg ? Such news is 
 astir ; and be sure of this that in such a case, we 
 
KLOSTKRUEIM. 97 
 
 have cracked crowns to look for. I know the man. 
 And many a hard night s watching he has cost me ; 
 for which, if you please, gentlemen, we will drink his 
 health." 
 
 " Hut our business, dear Count " 
 
 " Shall wait, please God, until to-morrow ; for this 
 is the time when man and beast repose." 
 
 " And truly, Count, weare like as you take things 
 to be numbered with the last. Fie, Count St. Alden- 
 heim ! are you the man that would have us suffer 
 those things tamely which the Landgrave has begun?" 
 
 " And what now hath his Serenity been doing ? 
 Doth he meditate to abolish burgundy ? If so,, my 
 faith ! but we are, as you observe, little above the 
 brutes. Or, peradventure, will he forbid laughing 
 his I lighness being little that way given himself? " 
 
 " Count St. Aldenheim it pleases you to jest. But 
 we are assured that you know as well as we, and 
 relish no better, the insults which the Landgrave is 
 heaping upon us all. For example, the sentinel at 
 your own door doubtless you marked him ? How 
 liked you him ? " 
 
 " Methought he looked cold and blue. So I sent 
 him a goblet of Johannisberg." 
 
 " You did ? and the little court of guard you have 
 seen that 1 and Colonel Von Aremberg, how think you 
 of him ? " 
 
 " Why surely now he s a handsome man : pity he 
 7 
 
98 
 
 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 wears so fiery a scarf! Shall we drink his health, 
 gentlemen ? " 
 
 " Health to the great fiend first ! " 
 
 "As you please, gentlemen : it is for you to regulate 
 the precedency. But at least, 
 
 * Here s to my aunt the jolly old sinner, 
 That fasted each day, from breakfast to dinner ! 
 Saw any man yet such an orthodox fellow, 
 In the morning when sober, in the evening when mellow ? 
 Saw any man yet," dec. 
 
 " Count, farewell ! " interrupted the leader of the 
 partx ; and all turned round indignantly to leave the 
 room. 
 
 " Farewell, gentleman, as you positively will not 
 drink my aunt s health ; though, after all, she was a 
 worthy fellow ; and her plaster for gunshot wounds, " 
 
 But with that word the door closed upon the Count s 
 farewell words. Suddenly taking up a hat which lay 
 upon the ground, he exclaimed, " Ah ! behold ! one 
 of my friends has left his hat. Truly he may chance 
 to want it on a frosty night." And, so saying, he 
 hastily rushed after the .party, whom he found already 
 on the steps of the portico. Seizing tho hand of the 
 leader, he whispered, 
 
 " Friend ! do you know me so little, as to apprehend 
 my jesting in a serious sense ? Know that two of 
 those, whom you saw on my right hand, are spies of 
 
K LOST Kit II KIM. 99 
 
 the Landgrave ? Their visit to me, I question not, 
 was purposely made to catch some such discoveries. 
 as you, my friends, would too surely have thrown in 
 their way, hut for my determined rattling. At this 
 time, I must not stay. Come again after midnight 
 farewell." 
 
 And then in a voice to reach his guests within, he 
 shouted, " Gentlemen, my aunt, the Abbot of Ingel- 
 hcitn, Abbess, I would say, held that her spurs were 
 for her heels, and her beaver for her head. Where 
 upon, Baron, I return you your hat." 
 
 Meantime, the two insidious intelligencers of the 
 Landgrave returned to the palace with discoveries, not 
 so ample as they were on the point of surprising, but 
 sufficient to earn thanks for themselves, and to guide 
 the counsels of their masters. 
 
100 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THAT same night a full meeting of the most distin 
 guished students was assembled at the mansion of 
 Count St. Aldenheim. Much stormy discussion arose 
 upon two points ; first, upon the particular means by 
 which they were to pursue an end upon which all were 
 unanimous. Upon that, however, they were able for 
 the present to arrive at a preliminary arrangement 
 with sufficient harmony. This was, to repair in a body, 
 with Count St. Aldenheim at their head, to the castle, 
 and there to demand an audience of the Landgrave, at 
 which a strong remonstrance was to be laid before his 
 highness, and their determination avowed to repel the 
 indignities thrust upon them, with their united forces. 
 On the second they were more at variance. It hap 
 pened that many of the persons present, and amongst 
 them Count St. Aldenheim, were friends of Maxi 
 milian. A few, on the other hand, there were, who, 
 either from jealousy of his distinguished merit, hated 
 him ; or as good citizens of Klosterheim, and con 
 nected by old family ties with the interests of that 
 town, were disposed to charge Maximilian with ambi- 
 
KLOSTKKHi:i\r. 101 
 
 tious views of private aggrandizement at the expense 
 of the ei;\ . grounded upon the Kniperor s favor, or 
 upon a supposed marriage with some lady of the Im 
 perial house. For the story of Paulina s and Maxi 
 milian s mutual attachment had transpired through 
 many of the travellers ; but with some circumstances 
 of fiction. In defending Maximilian upon those charges, 
 his friends had betrayed a natural warmth at the injus- 
 i >llered to his character; and the liveliness of the 
 dispute on this point, had nearly ended in a way fatal 
 to their unanimity on the immediate question at issue. 
 Good sense, however, and indignation at the Land 
 grave, finally brought them round again to their first 
 resolution ; and they separated with the unanimous 
 intention of meeting at noon on the following day, for 
 the purpose of carrying it into effect. 
 
 But their unanimity on this point was of little avail ; 
 for at an early hour on the following morning, every 
 one of those who had been present at the meeting, was 
 arrested by a file of soldiers on a charge of conspiracy, 
 and marched off to one of the city prisons. The Count 
 St. Aldenheim was himself the sole exception ; and 
 this was a distinction odious to his generous nature, as 
 it drew upon him a cloud of suspicion. He was sen 
 sible that he would be supposed to owe his privilege to 
 some discovery or act of treachery, more or less, by 
 which he had merited the favor of the Landgrave. Tin- 
 fact was, that in the indulgence shown to the Count, no 
 
102 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 motive had influenced the Landgrave but a politic con 
 sideration of the great favor and influence which the 
 Count s brother, the Palsgrave, at this moment enjoyed 
 in the camp of his own Swedish allies. On this prin 
 ciple of policy, the Landgrave contented himself with 
 placing St. Aldenheim under a slight military confine 
 ment to his own house, under the guard of a few sen 
 tinels posted in his hall. 
 
 For him, therefore, under the powerful protection 
 which he enjoyed elsewhere, there was no great 
 anxiety entertained. But for the rest, many of whom 
 had no friends, or friends who did them the ill service 
 of enemies, being in fact regarded as enemies by the 
 Landgrave and his council, serious fears were enter 
 tained by the whole city. Their situation was evidently 
 critical. The Landgrave had them in his power. He 
 was notoriously a man of gloomy and malignant pas 
 sions ; had been educated, as all European princes 
 then were, in the notions of a plenary and despotic 
 right over the lives of his subjects, in any case where 
 they lifted their presumptious thoughts to the height of 
 controlling their sovereign ; and, even in circumstances 
 which to his own judgment might seem to confer much 
 less discretionary power over the rights of prisoners, 
 he had been suspected of directing the course of law 
 and of punishment into channels that would not brook 
 the public knowledge. Darker dealings were imputed 
 to him in the popular opinion. Gloomy suspicions 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 103 
 
 were muttered at the fireside, which no man dared 
 openly to avow ; and in the present instance the con 
 duct of the Landgrave was every way fitted to fall in 
 with the worst of the public fears. At one time he 
 talked of bringing his prisoners to a trial ; at another, 
 he countermanded tin- preparations which he had made 
 with that view. Sometimes he spoke of banishing 
 them in a body ; and again he avowed his intention to 
 deal with their crime as treason. The result of this 
 moody and capricious tyranny was to inspire the most 
 vague and gloomy apprehensions into the minds of the 
 prisoners, and to keep their friends, with the whole city 
 of Klosterheim, in a feverish state of insecurity. 
 
 This state of things lasted for nearly three weeks ; 
 but at length a morning of unexpected pleasure dawned 
 upon the city. The prisoners were in one night all 
 released. In half an hour the news ran over the town 
 and the university ; multitudes hastened to the college, 
 anxious to congratulate the prisoners on their deliver 
 ance from the double afflictions of a dungeon and of 
 continual insecurity. Mere curiosity also prompted 
 some, who took but little interest in the prisoners or 
 their cause, to inquire into the circumstances of so ab 
 rupt and unexpected an act of grace. One principal 
 court in the college was filled with those who had 
 come upon this errand of friendly interest or curiosity. 
 Nothing was to be seen but earnest and delighted faces, 
 offering or acknowledging congratulation ; nothing to 
 
104 
 
 KLOSTERHE1M. 
 
 be heard but tbe language of joy and pleasure 
 friendly or affectionate, according to the sex or relation 
 of the speaker. Some were talking of procuring pass 
 ports for leaving the town some anticipating that 
 this course would not be left to their own choice, but 
 imposed, as the price of his clemency, by the Land 
 grave ; all, in short, was hubbub and joyous uproar, 
 when suddenly a file of the city guard, commanded by 
 an officer, made their way rudely and violently through 
 the crowd, advancing evidently to the spot where the 
 liberated prisoners were collected in a group. At that 
 moment the Count St. Aldenheim was offering his 
 congratulations. The friends to whom he spoke, were 
 too confident in his honor and integrity to have felt 
 even one moment s misgiving upon the true causes 
 which had sheltered him from the Landgrave s wrath, 
 and had thus given him a privilege so invidious in the 
 eyes of those who knew him not, and on that account 
 so hateful in his own. They knew his unimpeachable 
 fidelity to the cause and themselves, and were anx 
 iously expressing their sense of it by the warmth of 
 their salutations at the very moment when the city 
 guard appeared. The Count, on his part, was gaily 
 reminding them to come that evening and fulfil their 
 engagement to drink his aunt of jovial memory in her 
 own Johannisberg, when the guard, shouldering aside 
 the crowd, advanced, and, surrounding the group of 
 students, in an instant laid the hands of summary 
 
KLOSTERIIKIM. 105 
 
 arrest each upon the gentleman who stood next him. 
 The petty officer who commanded, made a grasp at 
 one of the most distinguished in dress, and seized 
 rudely upon the gold chain depending from his neck. 
 St. Aldenheim, who happened at the moment to be in 
 conversation with this individual, stung with a sudden 
 indignation at the ruffian eagerness of the men in thus 
 abusing the privileges of their office, and unable to 
 control the generous ardor of his nature, met this 
 brutal outrage with a sudden blow at the officer s face, 
 levelled with so true an aim, that it stretched him at 
 his length upon the ground. No terrors of impending 
 vengeance, had they been a thousand times stronger 
 than they were, could at this moment have availed to 
 stifle the cry of triumphant pleasure long, loud, and 
 unfaltering which indignant sympathy with the 
 oppressed extorted from the crowd. The pain and 
 humiliation of the blow, exalted into a maddening 
 intensity by this popular shout of exultation, quickened 
 the officer s rage into an apparent frenzy. With white 
 lips, and half suffocated with the sudden revulsion of 
 passion, natural enough to one who had never before 
 encountered even a momentary overture at opposition 
 to the authority with which he was armed, and for the 
 first time in his life found his own brutalities thrown 
 back resolutely in his teeth, the man rose, and by signs 
 rather than the inarticulate sounds which he meant 
 for words, pointed the violence of his party upon the 
 
106 KLOSTERHEI3I. 
 
 Count St. Aldenheim. With halberds bristling around 
 him, the gallant young nobleman was loudly sum 
 moned to surrender ; but he protested indignantly, 
 drawing his sword, and placing himself in an attitude 
 of defence, that he would die a thousand deaths sooner 
 than surrender the sword of his father, the Palsgrave, 
 a Prince of the Empire, of unspotted honor, and most 
 ancient descent, into the hands of a jailer. 
 
 " Jailer ! " exclaimed the officer, almost howling 
 with passion. 
 
 " Why, then, captain of jailers, lieutenant, anspes- 
 sade, or what you will. What else than a jailer is he, 
 that sits watch upon the prison-doors of honorable 
 cavaliers ? " Another shout of triumph applauded St. 
 Aldenheim ; for the men who discharged the duties of 
 the city guard at that day, or " petty guard," as it was 
 termed, corresponding in many of their functions to 
 the modern police, were viewed with contempt by all 
 parties; and most of all by the military, though in 
 some respects assimilated to them by discipline and 
 costume. They were industriously stigmatized as 
 jailers ; for which there was the more ground, as their 
 duties did in reality associate them pretty often with 
 the jailer ; and in other respects they were a dissolute 
 and ferocious body of men, gathered not out of the 
 citizens, but many foreign deserters, or wretched run 
 agates from the jail, or from the justice of the Provost 
 Marshal in some distant camp. Not a man, probably, 
 
KLOSTERHE13I. 107 
 
 but was liable to be reclaimed in some or other quarter 
 of Germany as a capital delinquent. Sometimes, 
 even, they were actually detected, claimed, and given 
 up to the pursuit of justice, when it happened that the 
 subjects of their criminal acts were weighty enough to 
 sustain an energetic inquiry. Hence their reputation 
 became worse than scandalous ; the mingled infamy 
 of their calling, and the houseless condition of wretch 
 edness which had made it worth their acceptance, 
 combined to overwhelm them with public scorn ; and 
 this public abhorrence, which at any rate awaited 
 them, mere desperation led them too often to counte 
 nance and justify by their conduct. 
 
 " Captain of jailers ! do your worst, I say," again 
 ejaculated St. Aldenheim. Spite of his blinding pas 
 sion, the officer hesitated to precipitate himself into a 
 personal struggle with the Count, and thus perhaps 
 afford his antagonist an occasion for a further triumph. 
 But loudly and fiercely he urged on his followers to 
 attack him. These again, not partaking in the per 
 sonal wrath of their leader, even whilst pressing more 
 and more closely upon St. Aldenheim, and calling 
 upon him to surrender, scrupled to inflict a wound, 
 or too marked an outrage, upon a cavalier whose 
 rank was known to the whole city, and of late most 
 advantageously known for his own interests, by the 
 conspicuous immunity which it had procured him 
 from the Landgrave. In vain did the commanding 
 
108 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 officer insist, in vain did the Count defy, menaces 
 from neither side availed to urge the guard into any 
 outrage upon the person of one who might have it in 
 his power to retaliate so severely upon themselves. 
 They continued obstinately at a stand, simply prevent 
 ing his escape, when suddenly the tread of horses feet 
 arose upon the ear, and through a long vista were dis 
 covered a body of cavalry from the castle coming up 
 at a charging pace to the main entrance of the college. 
 Without pulling up on the outside, as hitherto they had 
 always done, they expressed sufficiently the altered 
 tone of the Landgrave s feelings towards the old char 
 tered interests of Klosterheim, by plunging through 
 the great archway of the college-gates ; and then 
 making way at the same furious pace through the 
 assembled crowds, who broke rapidly away to the 
 right and to the left, they reined up directly abreast of 
 the city guard and their prisoners. 
 
 " Colonel Von Aremberg ! " said St. Aldenheim, 
 " I perceive your errand. To a soldier I surrender 
 myself; to this tyrant of dungeons, who has betrayed 
 more men, and cheated more gibbets of their due than 
 ever he said aves, 1 will never lend an ear, though he 
 should bear the orders of every Landgrave in Ger 
 many." 
 
 " You do well," replied the Colonel ; " but for this 
 man, Count, he bears no orders from any Landgrave, 
 nor will ever again bear orders from the Landgrave of 
 
KLOSTERHKIM. 109 
 
 X . ( lentlemeii, you arc all my prisoners; and 
 
 you will accompany mo to the castle. Count St. 
 Al den helm, I am sorry that there is no longer an ex 
 emption for yourself. Please to advance. If it will 
 be any gratification to you, these men" (pointing to 
 the city guard) u arc prisoners also." 
 
 Here was a revolution of fortune that confounded 
 everybody. The detested guardians of the city jail 
 were themselves to tenant it ; or, by a worse fate still, 
 were to be consigned unpitied, and their case unjudged, 
 to the dark and pestilent dungeons which lay below the 
 Landgrave s castle. A few scattered cries of triumph 
 were heard from the crowd ; but they were drowned 
 in a tumult of conflicting feelings. As human creatures, 
 fallen under the displeasure of a despot with a judicial 
 power of torture to enforce his investigations, even 
 they claimed some compassion. But there arose, to 
 call off attention from these less dignified objects of 
 the public interest, a long train of gallant cavaliers, 
 restored so capriciously to liberty, in order, as it 
 seemed, to give the greater poignancy and bitterness 
 to the instant renewal of their captivity. This was 
 the very frenzy of despotism in its very moodiest state 
 of excitement. Many began to think the Landgrave 
 mad. If so, what a dreadful fate might be anticipated 
 for the sons or representatives of so many noble 
 families, gallant soldiers the greater part of them, with 
 
110 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 a nobleman of princely blood at their head, lying 
 under the displeasure of a gloomy and infuriated 
 tyrant, with unlimited means of executing the bloodiest 
 suggestions of his vengeance. Then, in what way 
 had the guardians of the jails come to be connected 
 with any even imaginary offence ? Supposing the 
 Landgrave insane, his agents were not so ; Colonel 
 Von Aremberg was a man of shrewd and penetrating 
 understanding ; and this officer had clearly spoken 
 in the tone of one, who, whilst announcing the sen 
 tence of another, sympathizes entirely with the justice 
 and necessity of its harshness. 
 
 Something dropped from the miserable leader of 
 the city guard, in his first confusion and attempt at 
 self-defence, which rather increased than explained the 
 mystery. " The Masque ! the Masque ! " This was 
 the word which fell at intervals upon the ear of the 
 listening crowd, as he sometimes directed his words in 
 the way of apology and deprecation to Colonel Von 
 Aremberg, who did not vouchsafe to listen, or of occa 
 sional explanation and discussion, as it was partially 
 kept up between himself and one of his nearest part 
 ners in the imputed transgression. Two or three there 
 might be seen in the crowd, whose looks avowed some 
 nearer acquaintance with this mysterious allusion than 
 it would have been safe to acknowledge. But, for the 
 great body of spectators who accompanied the prison- 
 
KLOSTKRIIF.IM. Ill 
 
 ers 
 
 and their escort to the gates of the castle, it was 
 pretty evident hy tlicir inquiring looks, and the lived 
 expression of wonder upon their features, that the 
 whole affair, and its circumstances, were to them 
 equally a subject of mystery for what was past, and of 
 blind terror for what was to come. 
 
112 
 
 KLOSTERHEIIM. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE cavalcade, with its charge of prisoners, and its 
 attendant train of spectators, halted at the gates of the 
 schloss. This vast and antique pile had now come to 
 be surveyed with dismal and revolting feelings, as the 
 abode of a sanguinary despot. The dungeons and 
 labyrinths of its tortuous passages, its gloomy halls of 
 audience, with the vast corrridors which surmounted 
 the innumerable flights of stairs some noble, spa 
 cious, and in the Venetian taste, capable of admitting 
 the march of an army some spiral, steep, and so 
 unusually narrow as to exclude two persons walking 
 abreast ; these, together with the numerous chapels 
 erected in it to different saints by devotees, male or 
 female, in the families of forgotten Landgraves through 
 four centuries back ; and finally the tribunals, or gericht- 
 kammern, for dispensing justice, criminal or civil, to 
 the city and territorial dependencies of Klosterheim ; 
 all united to compose a body of impressive images, 
 hallowed by great historical remembrances, or tradi 
 tional stories, that from infancy to age dwelt upon the 
 feelings of the Klosterheimers. Terror and supersti- 
 
KLOSTKRHKI.M. 113 
 
 tious dread predominated undoubtedly in tlie total im- 
 pivssion ; but tbe gentle virtues exhibited by a scries 
 of princes, who had made this their favorite residence, 
 naturally enough terminated in mellowing the stern 
 ness of such associations into a religious awe, not 
 without its own peculiar attractions. But at present, 
 under the harsh and repulsive character of the reigning 
 prince, everything took a new color from his ungenial 
 habits. The superstitious legends, which had so imme 
 morial ly peopled the schloss with spectral apparitions, 
 now revived in its earliest strength. Never was Ger 
 many more dedicated to superstition in every shape 
 than at this period. The wild tumultuous times, and 
 the slight tenure upon which all men held their lives, 
 naturally threw their thoughts much upon the other 
 world ; and communications with that, or its burthen of 
 secrets, by every variety of agencies, ghosts, divina 
 tion, natural magic, palmistry, or astrology, found in 
 every city of the land more encouragement than ever. 
 It cannot, therefore, be surprising that the well- 
 known apparition of the White Lady (a legend which 
 affected Klosterheim through the fortunes of its Land 
 graves, no less than several other princely houses of 
 Germany, descended from the same original stock), 
 should about this time have been seen in the dusk of 
 the evening at some of the upper windows in the 
 castle, and once in a lofty gallery of the great chapel 
 during the vesper service. This lady, generally known 
 8 
 
114 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 by the name of the White Lady Agnes, or Lady Agnes 
 of Weissemburg, is supposed to have lived in the 13th 
 or 14th century, and from that time, even to our own 
 days, the current belief is, that on the eve of any great 
 crisis of good or evil fortune impending over the three 
 or four illustrious houses of Germany which trace their 
 origin from her, she makes her appearance in some 
 conspicuous apartment, great baronial hall or chapel, 
 of their several palaces, sweeping along in white robes 
 and a voluminous train. Her appearance of late in 
 the scliloss of Klosterheim, confidently believed by the 
 great body of the people, was hailed with secret pleas 
 ure, as forerunning some great change in the Land 
 grave s family, which was but another name for 
 better days to themselves, whilst of necessity it me 
 naced some great evil to the prince himself. Hope, 
 therefore, was predominant in their prospects, and in 
 the supernatural intimations of coming changes; 
 yet awe and deep religious feeling mingled with their 
 hope. Of chastisement approaching to the Landgrave 
 they felt assured, some dim religious judgment like 
 that which brooded over the house of (Edipus, was 
 now at hand, that was the universal impression. 
 His gloomy asceticism of life seemed to argue secret 
 crimes, these were to be brought to light ; for 
 these, and for his recent tyranny, prosperous as it had 
 seemed for a moment, chastisements were now im 
 pending ; and something of the awe which belonged to 
 
KLOSTERIIKIM. 115 
 
 a prince so marked out for doom and fatal catastrophe, 
 seemed to attach itself to his mansion, more espe 
 cially, as it was there only that the signs and portents 
 of the coming woe had revealed themselves in the 
 apparition of the White Lady. 
 
 Under this superstitious impression, many of the 
 spectators paused at the entrance of the castle, and 
 lingered in the portal, though presuming that the 
 chamber of justice, according to the frank old usage of 
 Germany, was still open to all comers. Of this notion 
 they were speedily disabused by the sudden retreat of 
 the few who had penetrated into the first antechamber. 
 These persons were harshly repelled in a contumelious 
 manner, and read to the astonished citizens another 
 lesson upon the new arts of darkness and concealment, 
 with which the Landgrave found it necessary to ac 
 company his new acts of tyranny. 
 
 Von Aremberg and his prisoners, thus left alone in 
 one of the antechambers, waited no long time before 
 they were summoned to the presence of the Land 
 grave. 
 
 After pacing along a number of corridors, all car 
 peted so as to return no sound to their footsteps, they 
 arrived in a little hall, from which a door suddenly 
 opened, upon a noiseless signal exchanged with an 
 usher outside, and displayed before them a long gal 
 lery, with a table and a few seats arranged at the fur- 
 
116 KLOSTERIIEIM. 
 
 ther end. Two gentlemen were seated at the table, 
 anxiously examining papers ; in one of whom it was 
 easy to recognize the wily glance of the Italian minis 
 ter, the other was the Landgrave. 
 
 This prince was now on the verge of fifty, strikingly 
 handsome in his features, and of imposing presence, 
 from the union of a fine person with manners unusu 
 ally dignified. No man understood better the art of 
 restraining his least governable impulses of anger or 
 malignity within the decorums of his rank. And even 
 his worst passions, throwing a gloomy, rather than 
 terrific air upon his features, served less to alarm and 
 revolt, than to impress the sense of secret distrust. Of 
 late indeed, from the too evident indications of the 
 public hatred, his sallies of passion had become wilder 
 and more ferocious, and his self-command less habitu 
 ally conspicuous. But in general, a gravity of insidu- 
 ous courtesy disguised from all but penetrating eyes 
 the treacherous purpose of his heart. 
 
 The Landgrave bowed to the Count St. Aldenheim ; 
 and, pointing to a chair, begged him to understand that 
 he wished to do nothing inconsistent with his regard 
 for the Palsgrave his brother ; and would be content 
 with his parole of honor to pursue no further any con 
 spiracy against himself, in which he might too thought 
 lessly have engaged, and with his retirement from the 
 city of Klosterhcim. 
 
 The Count St Aldenheim replied, that he and all the 
 
KLOSTKUHEIM. 117 
 
 otlior cavaliers present, according to his belief, stood 
 upon the same footing : that they had harbored no 
 thought of conspiracy, unless that name could attach 
 to a purpose of open expostulation with his Highness 
 on the outraged privileges of their corporation as a 
 university : that he wished not for any distinction of 
 treatment in a case when all were equal offenders, or 
 none at all : and finally, that he believed the sentence 
 of exile from Klosterheim would be cheerfully accepted 
 by all, or most of those present. 
 
 Adorni, the minister, shook his head, and glanced 
 significantly at the Landgrave during this answer. 
 The Landgrave coldly replied, that if he could suppose 
 the Count to speak sincerely, it was evident that he 
 was little aware to what length his companions, or some 
 of them, had pushed their plots. " Here are the 
 proofs ! " and he pointed to the papers. 
 
 " And now, gentlemen," said he, turning to the 
 students, " I marvel that you, being cavaliers of family, 
 and doubtless holding yourselves men of honor, should 
 beguile these poor knaves into certain ruin, whilst 
 yourselves could reap nothing but a brief mockery of 
 the authority which you could not hope to evade." 
 
 Thus called upon, the students and the city-guard 
 told their tale, in which no contradictions could be 
 detected. The city prison was not particularly well 
 secured against attacks from without. To prevent, 
 therefore, any sudden attempt at a rescue, the guard 
 
118 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 kept watch by turns. One man watched two hours, 
 traversing the different passages of the prison ; and 
 was then relieved. At three o clock on the preceding 
 night, pacing a winding lobby, brightly illuminated, 
 the man who kept that watch was suddenly met by a 
 person wearing a masque, and armed at all points. 
 His surprise and consternation were great, and the more 
 so as the steps of The Masque were soundless, though 
 the floor was a stone one. The guard, but slightly 
 prepared to meet an attack, would, however, have re 
 sisted or raised an alarm ; but The Masque instantly 
 levelling a pistol at his head with one hand, with the 
 other had thrown open the door of an empty cell, indi 
 cating to the man by signs that he must enter it. With 
 this intimation he had necessarily complied ; and The 
 Masque had immediately turned the key upon him. 
 Of what followed he knew nothing, until aroused by 
 his comrades setting him at liberty, after some time 
 had been wasted in searching for him. 
 
 The students had a pretty uniform tale to report. A 
 Masque, armed cap-a-pie as described by the guard, 
 had visited each of their cells in succession ; had in 
 structed them by signs to dress ; and then, pointing to 
 the door, by a series of directions all communicated in 
 the same dumb show, had assembled them together, 
 thrown open the prison door, and, pointing to their 
 college, had motioned them thither. This motion they 
 had seen no cause to disobey, presuming their dismis- 
 
KLOSTERIIF.nr. 119 
 
 sal to be according to the mode which best pleased his 
 Highness ; and not ill-pleased at finding so peaceful a 
 termination to a summons which at first, from its mys 
 terious shape and the solemn hour of night, they had 
 understood as tending to some more formidable issue. 
 
 It was observed that neither the Landgrave nor his 
 minister treated this report of so strange a transaction 
 with the scorn which had been anticipated. Both 
 listened attentively, and made minute inquiries as to 
 every circumstance of the dress and appointments of 
 the mysterious Masque. What was his height ? By 
 what road, or in what direction had he disappeared ? 
 These questions answered, his Highness and his minis 
 ter consulted a few minutes together ; and then, turn 
 ing to Von Aremberg, bade him for the present dismiss 
 the prisoners to their homes, an act of grace which 
 seemed likely to do him service at the present crisis ; 
 but at the same time to take sufficient security for their 
 reappearance. This done, the whole body were liber 
 ated. 
 
120 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 ALL Klosterheim was confounded by the story of 
 the mysterious Masque. For the story had been 
 rapidly dispersed ; and on the same day it was made 
 known in another shape. A notice was affixed to the 
 walls of several public places in these words : 
 
 " Landgrave, beware ! henceforth not you, but I, 
 govern in Klosterheim. 
 
 (Signed) " THE MASQUE." 
 
 And this was no empty threat. Very soon it became 
 apparent that some mysterious agency was really at 
 work to counteract the Landgrave s designs. Senti 
 nels were carried off from solitary posts. Guards even 
 of a dozen men were silently trepanned from their 
 stations. By and by, other attacks were made, even 
 more alarming, upon domestic security. Was there a 
 burgomaster amongst the citizens, who had made him 
 self conspicuously a tool of the Landgrave, or had 
 opposed the Imperial interest ? He was carried off in 
 
KLOSTERIIKHf. 121 
 
 the night-time from his house, and probably from the 
 city. At first this was an easy task. Nobody apprehend 
 ing any special danger to himself, no special prepara 
 tions were made to meet it. But, as it soon became 
 apparent in what cause The Masque was moving, 
 every person who knew himself obnoxious to attack, 
 took means to face it. Guards were multiplied ; arms 
 were repaired in every house ; alarm bells were hung. 
 For a time the danger seemed to diminish. The at 
 tacks were no longer so frequent. Still, wherever they 
 were attempted, they succeeded just as before. It seem 
 ed, in fact, that all the precautions taken had no other 
 effect than to warn The Masque of his own danger, 
 and to place him more vigilantly on his guard. Aware 
 of new defences raising, it seemed that he waited to 
 see the course they would take ; once master of that, 
 he was ready (as it appeared) to contend with them as 
 successfully as before. 
 
 Nothing could exceed the consternation of the city. 
 Those even, who did not fall within the apparent rule 
 which governed the attacks of The Masque, felt a 
 sense of indefinite terror hanging over them. Sleep 
 was no longer safe ; tbe seclusion of a man s private 
 hearth, the secrecy of bedrooms, was no longer a pro 
 tection. Locks gave way, bars fell, doors flew open, 
 as if by magic, before him. Arms seemed useless. 
 In some instances a party of as many as ten or a 
 dozen persons had been removed without rousing dis- 
 
122 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 turbance in the neighborhood. Nor was this the only 
 circumstance of mystery. Whither he could remove 
 his victims, was even more incomprehensible than the 
 means by which he succeeded. All was darkness and 
 fear ; and the whole city was agitated with panic. 
 
 It began now to be suggested that a nightly guard 
 should be established, having fixed stations or points of 
 rendezvous, and at intervals parading the streets. This 
 was cheerfully assented to ; for after the first week of 
 the mysterious attacks, it began to be observed that 
 the Imperial party were attacked indiscriminately with 
 the Swedish. Many students publicly declared that 
 they had been dogged through a street or two by an 
 armed Masque ; others had been suddenly confronted 
 by him in unfrequented parts of the city in the dead of 
 night, and were on the point of being attacked, when 
 some alarm, or the approach of distant footsteps, had 
 caused him to disappear. The students, indeed, more 
 particularly, seemed objects of attack ; and, as they 
 were pretty generally attached to the Imperial interest, 
 the motives of The Masque were no longer judged to 
 be political. Hence it happened that the students came 
 forward in a body, and volunteered as members of the 
 nightly guard. Being young, military for the most 
 part in their habits, and trained to support the hard 
 ships of night-watching, they seemed peculiarly fitted 
 for the service ; and, as the case was no longer of a 
 nature to awaken the suspicions of the Landgrave, 
 
KLOSTERHE1M. 123 
 
 they wen* generally accepted and enrolled ; and with 
 the more readiness, as the known friends of that prince 
 came forward at the same time. 
 
 A night-watch was thus established, which promised 
 security to the city, and a respite from their mysterious 
 alarms. It was distributed into eight or ten divisions, 
 posted at different points, whilst a central one traversed 
 the whole city at stated periods, and overlooked the 
 local stations. Such an arrangement was wholly un 
 known at that time in every part of Germany, and was 
 hailed with general applause. 
 
 To the astonishment, however, of everybody, it 
 proved wholly ineffectual. Houses were entered as 
 before ; the college chambers proved no sanctuary ; 
 indeed, they were attacked with a peculiar obstinacy, 
 which was understood to express a spirit of retaliation 
 for the alacrity of the students in combining for the 
 public protection. People were carried off as before. 
 And continual notices affixed to the gates of the col 
 lege, the convents, or the schloss, with the signature of 
 The Masque, announced to the public his determination 
 to persist, and his contempt of the measures organized 
 against him. 
 
 The alarm of the citizens now became greater than 
 ever. The danger was one which courage could not 
 face, nor prudence make provision for, nor wiliness 
 evade. All alike, who had once been marked out for 
 attack, sooner or later fell victims to the obstinacy of 
 
124 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 this mysterious foe. To have received even an indi 
 vidual warning, availed them not at all. Sometimes it 
 happened, that, having received notice of suspicious 
 circumstances indicating that The Masque had turned 
 his attention upon themselves, they would assemble 
 round their dwellings, or in their very chambers, a band 
 of armed men sufficient to set the danger at defiance. 
 But no sooner had they relaxed in these costly and 
 troublesome arrangements, no sooner was the sense of 
 peril lulled, and an opening made for their unrelenting 
 enemy, than he glided in with his customary success ; 
 and in a morning or two after, it was announced to 
 the city that they also were numbered with his victims. 
 Even yet it seemed that something remained in re 
 serve to augment the terrors of the citizens, and push 
 them to excess. Hitherto there had been no reason to 
 think that any murderous violence had occurred in the 
 mysterious rencontres between The Masque and his 
 victims. But of late, in those houses, or college 
 chambers, from which the occupiers had disappeared, 
 traces of bloodshed were apparent in some instances, 
 and of ferocious conflict in others. Sometimes a pro 
 fusion of hair was scattered on the ground ; sometimes 
 fragments of dress, or splinters of weapons. Every 
 thing marked that on both sides, as this mysterious 
 agency advanced, the passions increased in intensity ; 
 determination and murderous malignity on the one 
 side, and the fury of resistance on the other. 
 
KL 
 
 At lengtli the last consummation was given 
 public panic ; for, as if expressly to put an end to all 
 doubts upon the spirit in which ho conducted his war 
 fare, in one house where the bloodsh ed had been so 
 great as to argue some considerable loss of life, a 
 notice was left behind in the following terms : " Thus 
 it is that I punish resistance ; mercy to a cheerful 
 submission ; but henceforth death to the obstinate ! 
 Tin: MASU.UE." 
 
 What was to be done ? Some counselled a public 
 deprecation of his wrath, addressed to The Masque. 
 But this, had it even offered any chance of succeed 
 ing, seemed too abject an act of abasement to become 
 a large city. Under any circumstances, it was too 
 humiliating a confession, that, in a struggle with one 
 man (for no more had avowedly appeared upon the 
 SCCMIC), they were left defeated and at his mercy. 
 A second party counselled a treaty ; would it not be 
 possible to learn the ultimate objects of The Masque ? 
 and, if such as seemed capable of being entertained 
 with honor, to concede to him his demands, in ex 
 change for security to the city, and immunity from 
 future molestation ? It was true that no man knew 
 where to seek him : personally he was hidden from 
 their reach ; bu.t everybody knew how to find him : he 
 was amongst them ; in their very centre ; and what 
 ever thpy might address to him in a public notice, 
 would be sure of speedily reaching his eye. 
 
126 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 After some deliberation, a summons was addressed 
 to The Masque, and exposed on the college gates, 
 demanding of him a declaration of his purposes, and 
 the price which he expected for suspending them. 
 The next day an answer appeared in the same situa 
 tion, avowing the intention of The Masque to come 
 forward with ample explanation of his motives at a 
 proper crisis, till which " more blood must flow in 
 Klosterheim." 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 127 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 MEANTIME the Landgrave was himself perplexed 
 and alarmed. Hitherto he had believed himself pos 
 sessed of all the intrigues, plots or conspiracies, which 
 threatened his influence in the city. Among the stu 
 dents and among the citizens he had many spies, who 
 communicated to him whatsoever they could learn, 
 which was sometimes more than the truth, and some 
 times a good deal less. But now he was met by a 
 terrific antagonist, who moved in darkness, careless of 
 his power, inaccessible to his threats, and apparently 
 as reckless as himself of the quality of his means. 
 
 Adorni, with all his Venetian subtlety, was now as 
 much at fault as everybody else. In vain had they 
 deliberated together, day after day, upon his probable 
 purposes ; in vain had they schemed to intercept his 
 person, or offered high rewards for tracing his retreats. 
 Snares had been laid for him in vain ; every wile had 
 proved abortive, every plot had been counterplotted. 
 And both involuntarily confessed that they had now 
 met with their master. 
 
128 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 Vexed and confounded, fears for the future strug 
 gling with mortification for the past, the Landgrave 
 was sitting, late at night, in the long gallery where he 
 usually held his councils. He was reflecting with 
 anxiety on the peculiarly unpropitious moment at 
 which his new enemy had come upon the stage the 
 very crisis of the struggle between the Swedish and 
 Imperial interest in Klosterheim, which would ulti 
 mately determine his own place and value in the esti 
 mate of his new allies. He was not of a character to 
 be easily duped by mystery. Yet he could not but 
 acknowledge to himself that there was something cal 
 culated to impress awe, and the sort of fear which is 
 connected with the supernatural, in the sudden appear 
 ances, and vanishings as sudden, of The Masque. He 
 came no one could guess whence, retreated no one 
 could guess whither ; was intercepted, and yet eluded 
 arrest ; and if half the stories in circulation could be 
 credited, seemed inaudible in his steps, at pleasure to 
 make himself invisible and impalpable to the very 
 hands stretched out to detain him. Much of this, no 
 doubt, was wilful exaggeration, or the fictions of fears 
 self-deluded. But enough remained, after every allow 
 ance, to justify an extraordinary interest in so singular 
 a being ; and the Landgrave could not avoid wishing 
 that chance might oiler an opportunity to himself of 
 observing him. 
 
 Profound silence had for some time reigned through- 
 
KLOSTKRHKIM. ~ 
 
 out the castle. A clock which stood in the room, 
 broke it for a moment by striking the quarters ; and, 
 raising his eyes, the Landgrave perceived that it was 
 past two. lie rose to retire for the night, and stood 
 for a moment musing with one hand resting upon the 
 table. A momentary feeling of awe came across him, 
 as his eyes travelled through the gloom at the lower 
 end of the room, on the sudden thought that a being 
 so mysterious, and capable of piercing through so 
 many impediments to the interior of every mansion in 
 Klosterheim, was doubtless likely enough to visit the 
 castle ; nay, it would be no ways improbable that he 
 should penetrate to this very room. What bars had 
 yet been found sufficient to repel him ? And who 
 could pretend to calculate the hour of his visit ? This 
 night even might be the time which he would select. 
 Thinking thus, the Landgrave was suddenly aware of 
 a dusky figure entering the room by a door at the 
 lower end. The room had the length and general 
 proportions of a gallery, and the further end was so 
 remote from the candles which stood on the Land 
 grave s table, that the deep gloom was but slightly 
 penetrated by their rays. Light, however, there was, 
 sufficient to display the outline of a figure slowly and 
 inaudibly advancing up the room. It could not be 
 said that the figure advanced stealthily ; on the con 
 trary, its motion, carriage, and bearing, were in the 
 highest degree dignified and solemn. But the feeling 
 9 
 
130 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 of a stealthy purpose was suggested by the perfect 
 silence of its tread. The motion of a shadow could 
 not be more noiseless. And this circumstance con 
 firmed the Landgrave s first impression, that now he 
 was on the point of accomplishing his recent wish, and 
 meeting that mysterious being who was the object of 
 so much awe, and the author of so far-spread a panic. 
 
 He was right ; it was indeed The Masque, armed 
 cap-a-pie as usual. He advanced with an equable and 
 determined step in the direction of the Landgrave. 
 Whether he saw his Highness, who stood a little in the 
 shade of a large cabinet, could not be known ; the 
 Landgrave doubted not that he did. He was a prince 
 of firm nerves by constitution, and of great intrepidity, 
 yet, as one who shared in the superstitions of his 
 age, he could not be expected entirely to suppress an 
 emotion of indefinite apprehension as he now beheld 
 the solemn approach of a being, who, by some unac 
 countable means, had trepanned so many different 
 individuals from so many different houses, most of 
 them prepared for self-defence, and fenced in by the 
 protection of stone walls, locks, and bars. 
 
 The Landgrave, however, lost none of his presence 
 of mind ; and in the midst of his discomposure, as his 
 eye fell upon the habiliments of this mysterious person, 
 and the arms and military accoutrements which he 
 bore, naturally his thoughts settled upon the more 
 earthly means of annoyance which this martial appa- 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 131 
 
 rition carried about him. The Landgrave was himself 
 unarmed, he had no arms even within reach, nor 
 was it possible for him in his present situation very 
 speedily to summon assistance. With these thoughts 
 passing rapidly through his mind, and sensible that, in 
 any view of his nature and powers, the being now in 
 his presence was a very formidable antagonist, the 
 Landgrave could not but feel relieved from a burden 
 of anxious tremors, when he saw The Masque suddenly 
 turn towards a door which opened about half way up 
 the room, and lead into a picture-gallery at right angles 
 with the room in which they both were. 
 
 Into the picture-gallery The Masque passed at the 
 same solemn pace, without apparently looking at the 
 Landgrave. This movement seemed to argue, either 
 that he purposely declined an interview with the 
 Prince, and that might argue fear, or that he had not 
 been aware of his presence; either supposition, as 
 implying something of human infirmity, seemed in 
 compatible with supernatural faculties. Partly upon 
 this consideration, and partly perhaps because he sud 
 denly recollected that the road taken by The Masque 
 would lead him directly past the apartments of the old 
 seneschal, where assistance might be summoned, the 
 Landgrave found his spirits at this moment revive. 
 The consciousness of rank and birth also came to his 
 aid, and that sort of disdain of the aggressor, which 
 possesses every man brave or cowardly alike 
 
132 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 within the walls of his own dwelling : unarmed as 
 he was, he determined to pursue, and perhaps to 
 speak. 
 
 The restraints of high breeding, and the ceremo 
 nious decorum of his rank, involuntarily checked the 
 Landgrave from pursuing with a hurried pace. He 
 advanced with his habitual gravity of step, so that The 
 Masque was half way down the gallery before the 
 Prince entered it. This gallery, furnished on each 
 side with pictures, of which some were portraits, was 
 of great length. The Masque and the Prince continued 
 to advance, preserving a pretty equal distance. It did 
 not appear by any sign or gesture that The Masque 
 was aware of the Landgrave s pursuit. Suddenly, 
 however, he paused drew his sword halted ; the 
 Landgrave also halted ; then turning half round, and 
 waving with his hand to the Prince so as to solicit his 
 attention, slowly The Masque elevated the point of his 
 sword to the level of a picture it was the portrait of 
 a young cavalier in a hunting dress, blooming with 
 youth and youthful energy. The Landgrave turned 
 pale, trembled, and was ruefully agitated. The Masque 
 kept his sword in its position for half a minute ; then 
 dropping it, shook his head, and raised his hand with 
 a peculiar solemnity of expression. The Landgrave 
 recovered himself his features swelled with passion 
 he quickened his step, and again followed in 
 pursuit. 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 133 
 
 The Masque, however, had by this time turned out 
 of the gallery into a passage, which, after a single 
 curve, terminated in the private room of the seneschal. 
 Believing that his ignorance of the localities was thus 
 leading him on to certain capture, the Landgrave pur 
 sued more leisurely. The passage was dimly lighted ; 
 every image floated in a cloudy obscurity ; and, upon 
 reaching the curve, it seemed to the Landgrave that 
 The Masque was just on the point of entering the sene 
 schal s room. No other door was heard to open ; and 
 he felt assured that he had seen the lofty figure of The 
 Masque gliding into that apartment. He again quick 
 ened his steps ; a light burned within, the door stood 
 ajar ; quietly the Prince pushed it open, and entered 
 with the fullest assurance that he should here at length 
 overtake the object of his pursuit. 
 
 Great was his consternation upon finding in a room, 
 which presented no outlet, not a living creature except 
 the elderly seneschal, who lay quietly sleeping in his 
 arm-chair. The first impulse of the Prince was to 
 awaken him roughly, that he might summon aid 
 and co-operate in the search. One glance at a 
 paper upon the table arrested his hand. He saw a 
 name written there, interesting to his fears beyond all 
 others in the world. His eye was riveted as by fasci 
 nation to the paper. He read one instant. That sat 
 isfied him that the old seneschal must be overcome by 
 
134 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 no counterfeit slumbers, when he could thus surrender 
 a secret of capital importance to the gaze of that eye 
 from which above all others he must desire to screen 
 it. One moment he deliberated with himself ; the old 
 man stirred, and muttered in his dreams ; the Land 
 grave seized the paper and stood irresolute for an 
 instant whether to await his wakening, and authorita 
 tively to claim what so nearly concerned his own 
 interest, or to retreat with it from the room before the 
 old man should be aware of the Prince s visit, or his 
 own loss. 
 
 But the seneschal, wearied perhaps with some un 
 usual exertion, had but moved in his chair ; again he 
 composed himself to deep slumber, made deeper by 
 the warmth of a hot fire. The raving of the wind, as 
 it whistled round this angle of the schloss, drowned all 
 sounds that could have disturbed him. The Landgrave 
 secreted the paper ; nor did any sense of his rank and 
 character interpose to check him in an act so unworthy 
 of an honorable cavalier. Whatever crimes he had 
 hitherto committed or authorized, this was perhaps the 
 first instance in which he had offended by an instance 
 of petty knavery. He retired with the stealthy pace 
 of a robber anxious to evade detection ; and stole back 
 to his own apartments with an overpowering interest 
 in the discovery he had made so accidentally, and 
 with an anxiety to investigate it farther, which ab- 
 
KLOSTKKHKIM. 135 
 
 sorbed for the time all other cares, and banished from 
 his thoughts even The Masque himself, whose sudden 
 appearance and retreat had in fact thrown into his 
 hands the secret which now so exclusively disturbed 
 him. 
 
136 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 MEANTIME The Masque continued to harass the 
 Landgrave, to baffle many of his wiles, and to neu 
 tralize his most politic schemes. In one of the many 
 placards which he affixed to the castle gates, he de 
 scribed the Landgrave as ruling in Klosterheim by 
 day, and himself by night. Sarcasms such as these, 
 together with the practical insults which The Masque 
 continually offered to the Landgrave, by foiling his 
 avowed designs, embittered the Prince s existence. 
 The injury done to his political schemes of ambition 
 at this particular crisis was irreparable. One after 
 one, all the agents and tools by whom he could hope 
 to work upon the counsels of the Klosterheim authori 
 ties, had been removed. Losing their influence, he 
 had lost every prop of his own. Nor was this all ; he 
 was reproached by the general voice of the city as the 
 original cause of a calamity, which he had since shown 
 himself impotent to redress. He it was, and his cause, 
 which had drawn upon the people, so fatally trepanned, 
 the hostility of the mysterious Masque. But for his 
 Highness, all the burgomasters, captains, city-officers, 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 137 
 
 &c., would now be sleeping in their beds ; whereas 
 the best fate which could be surmised for the most of 
 them, was, that they were sleeping in dungeons ; some 
 perhaps in their graves. And thus the Landgrave s 
 cause not merely lost its most efficient partisans, but 
 through their loss determined the wavering against 
 him, alienated the few who remained of his own fac 
 tion, and gave strength and encouragement to the 
 general disaffection which had so long prevailed. 
 
 Thus it happened that the conspirators, or suspected 
 conspirators, could not be brought to trial, or to pun 
 ishment without a trial. Any spark of fresh irritation 
 falling upon the present combustible temper of the 
 populace, would not fail to produce an explosion. 
 Fresh conspirators, and real ones, were thus encour 
 aged to arise. The university, the city, teemed with 
 plots. The government of the Prince was exhausted 
 with the growing labor of tracing and counteracting 
 them. And, by little and little, matters came into such 
 a condition, that the control of the city, though still 
 continuing in the Landgrave s hands, was maintained 
 by mere martial force, and at the very point of the 
 sword. And in no long time, it was feared, that with 
 so general a principle of hatred to combine the popu 
 lace, and so large a body of military students to head 
 them, the balance of power, already approaching to an 
 equipoise, would be turned against the Landgrave s 
 government. And, in the best event, his Highness 
 
138 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 could now look for nothing from their love. All 
 might be reckoned for lost that could not be extorted 
 by force. 
 
 This state of things had been brought about by the 
 dreadful Masque, seconded, no doubt, by those whom 
 he had emboldened and aroused within ; and, as the 
 climax and crowning injury of the whole, every day 
 unfolded more and more the vast importance which 
 Klosterheim would soon possess as the centre and key 
 of the movements to be anticipated in the coming 
 campaign. An electoral cap would perhaps reward 
 the services of the Landgrave in the general pacifica 
 tion, if he could present himself at the German Diet as 
 the possessor de facto of Klosterheim and her territo 
 rial dependencies, and with some imperfect possession 
 de jure ; still more, if he could plead the merit of 
 having brought over this state, so important from local 
 situation, as a willing ally to the Swedish interest. But 
 to this, a free vote of the city was an essential prelimi 
 nary ; and from that, through the machinations of The 
 Masque, he was now further than ever. 
 
 The temper of the Prince began to give way under 
 these accumulated provocations. An enemy forever 
 aiming his blows with the deadliest effect ; forever 
 stabbing in the dark ; yet charmed and consecrated 
 from all retaliation ; always met with, never to be 
 found ! The Landgrave ground his teeth, clenched 
 his fists, with spasms of fury. He quarrelled with Jiis 
 
KLOSTERIIEIM. 139 
 
 ministers ; swore at the officers ; cursed the sentinels ; 
 and the story went through Klosterheim that he had 
 kicked Adorni. 
 
 Certain it was, under whatever stimulus, that Adorni 
 put forth much more zeal at last for the apprehension 
 of The Masque. Come what would, he publicly 
 avowed that six days more should not elapse without 
 the arrest of this " ruler of Klosterheim by night." 
 He had a scheme for the purpose, a plot baited for 
 snaring him ; and he pledged his reputation as a min 
 ister and an intriguer, upon its entire success. 
 
 On the following day, invitations were issued by 
 Adorni, in his Highnesses name, to a masqued ball on 
 that day week. The fashion of masqued entertain 
 ments had been recently introduced from Italy into 
 this sequestered nook of Germany ; and here, as there, 
 it had been abused to purposes of criminal intrigue. 
 
 Spite of the extreme unpopularity of the Land 
 grave with the low and middle classes of the city, 
 among the highest his little court still continued to 
 furnish a central resort to the rank and high blood, 
 converged in such unusual proportion within the walls 
 of Klosterheim. The schloss was still looked to as 
 the standard and final court of appeal in all matters 
 of taste, elegance, and high breeding. Hence it 
 naturally happened that everybody, with any claims 
 to such an honor, was anxious to receive a ticket of 
 admission; it became the test for ascertaining a 
 
140 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 person s pretensions to mix in the first circles of 
 society ; and with this extraordinary zeal for obtain 
 ing an admission, naturally increased the minister s 
 rigor and fastidiousness in pressing the usual investi 
 gation of the claimant s qualifications. Much offence 
 was given on both sides, and many sneers haz 
 arded at the minister himself, whose pretensions were 
 supposed to be of the lowest description. But the 
 result was, that exactly twelve hundred cards were 
 issued ; these were regularly numbered, and below 
 the device engraved upon the card was impressed a 
 seal bearing the arms and motto of the Landgraves 
 
 of X . 
 
 Every precaution was taken for carrying into effect 
 the scheme, with all its details, as concerted by 
 Adorni ; and the third day of the following week was 
 announced as the day of the expected fete. 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 141 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE morning of the important day at length ar 
 rived, and all Klosterheim was filled with expecta 
 tion even those who were not amongst the invited 
 shared in the anxiety ; for a great scene was looked 
 for, and perhaps some tragical explosion. The under 
 taking of Adorni was known ; it had been published 
 abroad that he was solemnly pledged to effect the 
 arrest of The Masque ; and by many it was believed 
 that he would so far succeed, at the least, as to bring 
 on a public collision with that extraordinary personage. 
 As to the issue, most people were doubtful ; The 
 Masque having hitherto so uniformly defeated the best- 
 laid schemes for his apprehension. But it was hardly 
 questioned that the public challenge offered to him by 
 Adorni would succeed in bringing him before the 
 public eye. This challenge had taken the shape of 
 a public notice posted up in the places where The 
 Masque had usually affixed his own ; and it was to 
 the following effect : " That the noble strangers now 
 in Klosterheim, and others invited to the Landgrave s 
 fete, who might otherwise feel anxiety in present- 
 
142 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 ing themselves at the schloss, from an apprehension 
 of meeting with the criminal disturber of the public 
 peace, known by the appellation of The Masque, 
 were requested by authority to lay aside all appre 
 hensions of that nature, as the most energetic meas 
 ures had been adopted to prevent or chastise upon 
 the spot any such insufferable intrusion ; and for The 
 Masque himself, if he presumed to disturb the company 
 by his presence, he would be seized where he stood, 
 and without further inquiry committed to the Provost 
 Marshal for instant execution ; on which account, 
 all persons were warned carefully to forbear from 
 intrusions of simple curiosity, since in the hurry of 
 the moment it might be difficult to make the requisite 
 distinctions." 
 
 It was anticipated that this insulting notice would 
 not long go without an answer from The Masque. 
 Accordingly, on the following morning, a placard, 
 equally conspicuous, was posted up in the same public 
 places, side by side with that to which it replied. It 
 was couched in the following terms : " That he who 
 ruled by night in Klosterheim, could not suppose him 
 self to be excluded from a nocturnal fete given by any 
 person in that city ; that he must be allowed to 
 believe himself invited by the Prince, and would cer 
 tainly have the honor to accept his Highness s obliging 
 summons. With regard to the low personalities ad 
 dressed to himself, that he could not descend to notice 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 143 
 
 anything ot that nature coming from a man so abject 
 as Adorni, until he should first have cleared himself 
 from the imputation of having been a tailor in Venice 
 at the time of the Spanish conspiracy in 1618, and 
 banished from that city, not for any suspicions that 
 could have settled upon him and his eight journeymen 
 as making up one conspirator, but on account of some 
 professional tricks in making a doublet for the Doge. 
 For the rest, he repeated that he would not fail to 
 meet the Landgrave and his honorable company." 
 
 All Klosterheim laughed at this public mortification 
 offered to Adorni s pride ; for that minister had in 
 curred the public dislike as a foreigner, and their 
 hatred on the score of private character. Adorni 
 himself foamed at the mouth with rage, impotent 
 for the present, but which he prepared to give 
 deadly effect to at the proper time. But whilst it 
 laughed, Klosterheim also trembled. Some persons, 
 indeed, were of opinion, that the answer of The 
 Masque was a mere sportive effusion of malice or 
 pleasantry from the students, who had suffered so 
 much by his annoyances. But the majority, amongst 
 whom was Adorni himself, thought otherwise. Apart, 
 even from the reply, or the insult which had provoked 
 it, the general impression was, that The Masque would 
 not have failed in attending a festival which, by the 
 very costume which it imposed, offered so favorable 
 a cloak to his own mysterious purposes. In this per- 
 
144 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 suasion, Adorni took all the precautions which per 
 sonal vengeance and Venetian subtlety could suggest, 
 for availing himself of the single opportunity that 
 would perhaps ever be allowed him for entrapping 
 this public enemy, who had now become a private one 
 to himself. 
 
 These various incidents had furnished abundant 
 matter for conversation in Klosterheim, and had car 
 ried the public expectation to the highest pitch of 
 anxiety, some time before the great evening arrived. 
 Leisure had been allowed for fear, and every possible 
 anticipation of the wildest character, to unfold them 
 selves. Hope, even, amongst many, was a predom 
 inant sensation. Ladies were preparing for hysterics. 
 Cavaliers, besides the swords which they wore as 
 regular articles of dress, were providing themselves 
 with stilettoes against any sudden rencontre hand to 
 hand, or any unexpected surprise. Armorers and 
 furbishers of weapons were as much in request as 
 the more appropriate artists who minister to such 
 festal occasions. These again were summoned to 
 give their professional aid and attendance to an extent 
 so much out of proportion to their numbers and their 
 natural powers of exertion, that they were harassed 
 beyond all physical capacity of endurance, and found 
 their ingenuity more heavily taxed to find personal 
 substitutes amongst the trades most closely connected 
 with their own, than in any of the contrivances which 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 1 15 
 
 more properly fell within the business of their own 
 art. Tailors, horse-milliners, shoemakers, friseurs, 
 drapers, mercers, tradesmen of every description, and 
 servants of every class and denomination were sum 
 moned to a sleepless activity each in his several 
 vocation, or in some which he undertook by proxy. 
 Artificers who had escaped on political motives from 
 Nuremburg and other Imperial cities, or from the 
 sack of Magdeburg, now showed their ingenuity, and 
 their readiness to earn the bread of industry ; and if 
 Klosterheim resembled a hive in the close-packed 
 condition of its inhabitants, it was now seen that the 
 resemblance held good hardly less in the industry 
 which, upon a sufficient excitement, it was able to 
 develope. But in the midst of all this stir, din, and 
 unprecedented activity, whatever occupation each man 
 found for his thoughts or for his hands in his separate 
 employments, all hearts were mastered by one dom 
 ineering interest the approaching collision of the 
 Landgrave, before his assembled court, with the mys 
 terious agent who had so long troubled his repose. 
 
 10 
 
146 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE day at length arrived ; the guards were posted 
 in unusual strength ; the pages of honor, and servants 
 in their state-dresses, were drawn up in long and gor 
 geous files along the sides of the vast gothic halls, 
 which ran in continued succession from the front of 
 the scliloss to the more modern saloons in the rear ; 
 bands of military music, collected from amongst the 
 foreign prisoners of various nations at Vienna, were sta 
 tioned in their national costume Italian, Hungarian, 
 Turkish, or Croatian in the lofty galleries or corri 
 dors which ran round the halls ; and the deep thunders 
 of the kettle-drums, relieved by cymbals and wind- 
 instruments, began to fill the mazes of the palace as 
 early as seven o clock in the evening ; for at that hour, 
 according to the custom then established in Germany, 
 such entertainments commenced. Repeated volleys 
 from long lines of musketeers, drawn up in the square, 
 and at the other entrances of the palace, with the deep 
 roar of artillery, announced the arrival of the more dis 
 tinguished visitors ; amongst whom it was rumored that 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 several officers in supreme command from the Swedish 
 camp, already collected in the neighhorhood, were 
 this night coming incognito availing themselves of 
 their masques to visit the Landgrave, and improve the 
 terms of their alliance, whilst they declined the risk 
 which they might have brought on themselves by too 
 open a visit in their own avowed characters and per 
 sons, to a town so unsettled in its state of feeling, and so 
 friendly to the Emperor, as Klosterheim had notorious 
 ly become. 
 
 From seven to nine o clock, in one unbroken line of 
 succession, gorgeous parties streamed along through 
 the halls, a distance of full half a quarter of a mile, 
 until they were checked by the barriers erected at the 
 entrance to the first of the entertaining rooms, as the 
 station for examining the tickets of admission. This 
 duty was fulfilled in a way which, though really rigor 
 ous in the extreme, gave no inhospitable annoyance 
 to the visitors the barriers themselves concealed 
 their jealous purpose of hostility, and in a manner dis 
 avowed the secret awe and mysterious terror which 
 brooded over the evening, by the beauty of their ex 
 ternal appearance. They presented a triple line of 
 gilt lattice-work, rising to a great altitude, and con 
 nected with the fretted roof by pendent draperies of 
 the most magnificent velvet, intermingled with banners 
 and heraldic trophies suspended from the ceiling, and 
 at intervals slowly agitated in the currents which now 
 
148 KLOSTERHE1M. 
 
 and then swept these aerial heights. In the centre of 
 the lattice opened a single gate, on each side of which 
 was stationed a couple of sentinels armed to the teeth ; 
 and this arrangement was repeated three times, so 
 rigorous was the vigilance employed. At the second 
 of the gates, where the bearer of a forged ticket would 
 have found himself in a sort of trap, with absolutely 
 no possibility of escape, every individual of each suc 
 cessive party presented his card of admission, and, 
 fortunately for the convenience of the company, in 
 consequence of the particular precaution used, one 
 moment s inspection sufficed. The cards had been 
 issued to the parties invited not very long before the 
 time of assembling ; consequently, as each was sealed 
 with a private seal of the Landgrave s sculptured 
 elaborately with his armorial bearings, forgery would 
 have been next to impossible. 
 
 These arrangements, however, were made rather to 
 relieve the company from the too powerful terrors 
 which haunted them, and to possess them from the 
 first with a sense of security, than for the satisfaction 
 of the Landgrave or his minister. They were sensible 
 that The Masque had it in his power to command an 
 access from the interior and this it seemed next to 
 impossible altogether to prevent ; nor was that indeed 
 the wish of Adorni, but rather to facilitate his admis 
 sion, and afterwards, when satisfied of his actual 
 presence, to bar up all possibility of retreat. Accord- 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 149 
 
 ingly, the interior arrangements, though perfectly 
 prepared, and ready to close up at the word of com 
 mand, were for the present but negligently enforced. 
 
 Thus stood matters at nine o clock, by which time 
 upwards of a thousand persons had assembled ; and 
 in ten minutes more an officer reported that the 
 whole twelve hundred were present without one de 
 faulter. 
 
 The Landgrave had not yet appeared, his minister 
 having received the company ; nor was he expected to 
 appear for an hour in reality, he was occupied in 
 political discussion with some of the illustrious incog 
 nitos. But this did not interfere with the progress of 
 the festival ; and at this moment nothing could be 
 more impressive than the far-stretching splendors of 
 the spectacle. 
 
 In one immense saloon, twelve hundred cavaliers 
 and ladies, attired in the unrivalled pomp of that age, 
 were arranging themselves for one of the magnificent 
 Hungarian dances, which the Emperor s court at Vienna 
 had transplanted to the camp of Wallenstein, and 
 thence to all the great houses of Germany. Bevies of 
 noble women, in every variety of fanciful costume, 
 but in each considerable group presenting deep masses 
 of black or purple velvet, on which, with the most 
 striking advantage of radiant relief, lay the costly pearl 
 ornaments, or the sumptuous jewels so generally sig 
 nificant in those times of high ancestral pretensions, 
 
150 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 intermingled with the drooping plumes of martial 
 cavaliers, who presented almost universally the sol 
 dierly air of frankness which belongs to active service, 
 mixed with the Castilian grandezza that still breathed 
 through the camps of Germany, emanating originally 
 from the magnificent courts of Brussels, of Madrid, 
 and of Vienna, and propagated to this age by the links 
 of Tilly, the Bavarian commander, and Wallenstein, 
 the more than princely commander for the Emperor. 
 Figures and habiliments so commanding were of them 
 selves enough to fill the eye and occupy the imagina 
 tion ; but, beyond all this, feelings of awe and mystery, 
 under more shapes than one, brooded over the whole 
 scene, and diffused a tone of suspense and intense ex 
 citement throughout the vast assembly. It was known 
 that illustrious strangers were present incognito. There 
 now began to be some reason for anticipating a great 
 battle in the neighborhood. The men were now pres 
 ent perhaps, the very hands were now visibly displayed 
 for the coming dance, which in a few days or even 
 hours (so rapid were the movements at this period) 
 were to wield the truncheon that might lay the Catholic 
 empire prostrate, or might mould the destiny of Eu 
 rope for centuries. Even this feeling gave way to 
 one still more enveloped in shades The Masque ! 
 Would he keep his promise and appear ? might he 
 not even now be moving amongst them ? may he not, 
 even at this very moment, thought each person, secret- 
 
KLOSTERIIEIM. 151 
 
 ly be near me or even touching myself or haunt 
 ing my own steps ? 
 
 Yet again, thought most people (for at that time 
 hardly anybody affected to be incredulous in matters 
 allied to the supernatural), was this mysterious being 
 liable to touch ? Was he not of some impassive nature, 
 inaudible, invisible, impalpable ? Many of his escapes, 
 if truly reported, seemed to argue as much. If, then, 
 connected with the spiritual world, was it with the 
 good or the evil in that inscrutable region ? But then 
 the bloodshed, the torn dresses, the marks of deadly 
 struggle, which remained behind in some of those 
 cases where mysterious disappearances had occurred, 
 these seemed undeniable arguments of murder, 
 foul and treacherous murder. Every attempt, in 
 short, to penetrate the mystery of this being s nature 
 proved as abortive as the attempts to intercept his 
 person ; and all efforts at applying a solution to the 
 difficulties of the case, made the mystery even more 
 mysterious. 
 
 These thoughts, however, generally as they pervaded 
 the company, would have given way for a time at 
 least to the excitement of the scene ; for a sudden 
 clapping of hands from some officers of the household, 
 to enforce attention, and as a signal to the orchestra in 
 one of the galleries, at this moment proclaimed that 
 the dances were on the point of commencing in another 
 half minute, when suddenly a shriek from a female, 
 
152 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 and then a loud tumultuous cry from a multitude of 
 voices, announced some fearful catastrophe ; and in the 
 next moment a shout of " Murder ! " froze the blood 
 of the timid amongst the company. 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 153 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 So vast was the saloon, that it had been impossible, 
 through the maze of figures, the confusion of colors, 
 and the mingling of a thousand voices, that anything 
 should be perceived distinctly at the lower end of all 
 that was now passing at the upper. Still, so awful is 
 the mystery of life, and so hideous and accursed in 
 man s imagination is every secret extinction of that 
 consecrated lamp, that no news thrills so deeply, or 
 travels so rapidly. Hardly could it be seen in what 
 direction, or through whose communication, yet in less 
 than a minute a movement of sympathizing horror, 
 and uplifted hands, announced that the dreadful news 
 had reached them. A murder, it was said, had been 
 committed in the palace. Ladies began to faint ; oth 
 ers hastened away in search of friends ; others to learn 
 the news more accurately ; and some of the gentle 
 men, who thought themselves sufficiently privileged by 
 rank, hurried off with a stream of agitated inquirers 
 to the interior of the castle, in search of the scene it 
 self. A few only passed the guard in the first moments 
 
154 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 of confusion, and penetrated with the agitated Adorni 
 through the long and winding passages, into the very 
 scene of the murder. A rumor had prevailed for a 
 moment that the Landgrave was himself the victim ; 
 and as the road by which the agitated household con 
 ducted them took a direction towards his Highness s 
 suite of rooms, at first Adorni had feared that result. 
 Recovering his self-possession, however, at length, he 
 learned that it was the poor old seneschal upon whom 
 the blow had fallen. And he pressed on with more 
 coolness to the dreadful spectacle. 
 
 The poor old man was stretched at his length on the 
 floor. It did not seem that he had struggled with the 
 murderer. Indeed, from some appearances, it seemed 
 probable that he had been attacked whilst sleeping ; 
 and though he had received three wounds, it was pro 
 nounced by a surgeon that one of them (and tliat, from 
 circumstances, the first) had been sufficient to extin 
 guish life. He was discovered by his daughter, a 
 woman who held some respectable place amongst the 
 servants of the castle ; and every presumption con 
 curred in fixing the time of the dreadful scene to about 
 one hour before. 
 
 " Such, gentlemen, are the acts of this atrocious 
 monster, this Masque, who has so long been the 
 scourge of Klosterheim," said Adorni to the strangers 
 who had accompanied him, as they turned away on 
 
XLOSTERIIEIM. 1 .">."> 
 
 tlicir return to the company ; " but this very night, 
 I trust, will put a bridle in his mouth." 
 
 " God grant it may be so ! " said some. But others 
 thought the whole case too mysterious for conjectures, 
 and too solemn to be decided by presumptions. And 
 in the midst of agitated discussions on the scene they 
 had just witnessed, as well as the whole history of 
 The Masque, the party returned to the saloon. 
 
 Under ordinary circumstances, this dreadful event 
 would have damped the spirits of the company ; as it 
 was, it did but deepen the gloomy excitement which 
 already had possession of all present, and raise a more 
 intense expectation of the visit so publicly announced 
 by The Masque. It seemed as though he had perpetra 
 ted this recent murder merely by way of reviving the 
 impression of his own di eadful character in Kloster- 
 heiin, which might have decayed a little of late, in all 
 its original strength and freshness of novelty ; or, as 
 though he wished to send immediately before him an 
 act of atrocity that should form an appropriate herald 
 or harbinger of his own entrance upon the scene. 
 
 Dreadful, however, as this deed of darkness was, it 
 seemed of too domestic a nature to exercise any con 
 tinued influence upon so distinguished an assembly, so 
 numerous, so splendid, and brought together at so dis 
 tinguished a summons. Again, therefore, the masques 
 prepared to mingle in the dance ; again the signal was 
 given ; again the obedient orchestra preluded to the 
 
156 KLOSTERHE1M. 
 
 coming strains. In a moment more, the full tide of 
 harmony swept along. The vast saloon, and its echo 
 ing roof, rang with the storm of music. The masques, 
 with their floating plumes and jewelled caps, glided 
 through the fine mazes of the Hungarian dances. All 
 was one magnificent and tempestuous confusion, over 
 flowing with the luxury of sound and sight, when 
 suddenly, about midnight, a trumpet sounded, the 
 Landgrave entered, and all was hushed. The glittering 
 crowd arranged themselves in a half circle at the upper 
 end of the room ; his Highness went rapidly round 
 saluting the company, and receiving their homage in 
 return. A signal was again made ; the music and the 
 dancing were resumed ; and such was the animation 
 and the turbulent delight amongst the gayer part of the 
 company, from the commingling of youthful blood 
 with wine, lights, music, and festal conversation, that, 
 with many, all thoughts of the dreadful Masque, who 
 " reigned by night in Klosterheim," had faded before 
 the exhilaration of the moment. Midnight had come ; 
 the dreadful apparition had not yet entered : young 
 ladies began timidly to jest upon the subject, though 
 as yet but faintly, and in a tone somewhat serious for 
 a jest ; and young cavaliers, who, to do them justice, 
 had derived most part of their terrors from the super 
 stitious view of the case, protested to their partners 
 that if The Masque, on making his appearance, should 
 conduct himself in a manner unbecoming a cavalier, 
 
KLOSTERIIEIM. 157 
 
 or offensive to the ladies present, they should feel it 
 their duty to chastise him ; " though," said they, " with 
 respect to old Adorni, should The Masque think proper 
 to teach him better manners, or even to cane him, 
 we shall not find it necessary to interfere." 
 
 Several of the very young ladies protested that, of 
 all things, they should like to see a battle between old 
 Adorni and The Masque, " such a love of a quiz that 
 old Adorni is ! " whilst others debated whether The 
 Masque would turn out a young man or an old one ; 
 and a few elderly maidens mooted the point whether 
 he were likely to be a " single " gentleman, or bur 
 dened with a " wife and family." These and similar 
 discussions were increasing in vivacity, and kindling 
 more and more gayety of repartee, when suddenly, 
 with the effect of a funeral knell upon their mirth, a 
 whisper began to circulate, that there was one Masque 
 too many in company. Persons had been stationed by 
 Adorni in different galleries, with instructions to note 
 accurately the dress of every person in the company ; 
 to watch the motions of every one who gave the 
 slightest cause for suspicion, by standing aloof from 
 the rest of the assembly, or by any other peculiarity of 
 manner ; but, above all, to count the numbers of the 
 total assembly. This last injunction was more easily 
 obeyed than at first sight seemed possible. At this 
 time, the Hungarian dances, which required a certain 
 number of partners to execute the movements of the 
 
158 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 figure, were of themselves a sufficient register of the 
 precise amount of persons engaged in them. And, as 
 these dances continued for a long time undisturbed, 
 this calculation once made, left no further computation 
 necessary, than simply to take the account of all who 
 stood otherwise engaged. This list being much the 
 smaller one, was soon made ; and the reports of sev 
 eral different observers, stationed in different galleries, 
 and checked by each other, all tallied in reporting a 
 total of just twelve hundred and one persons, after 
 every allowance was made for the known members 
 of the Landgrave s suite, who were all unmasqued. 
 
 This report was announced with considerable trepi 
 dation, in a very audible whisper to Adorni and the 
 Landgrave. The buzz of agitation attracted instant 
 attention ; the whisper was loud enough to catch the 
 ears of several ; the news went rapidly kindling 
 through the room that the company was too many by 
 one : all the ladies trembled, their knees shook, their 
 voices failed, they stopped in the very middle of ques 
 tions, answers halted for their conclusion, and were 
 never more remembered by either party ; the very 
 music began to falter, the lights seemed to wane and 
 sicken ; for the fact was now too evident that The 
 Masque had kept his appointment, and was at this mo 
 ment in the room. " to meet the Landgrave and his 
 honorable company." 
 
 Adorni and the Landgrave now walked apart from 
 
KLOSTERHE1M. 159 
 
 the rest of the household, and were obviously consult 
 ing together on the next step to be taken, or on the 
 proper moment for executing one which had already 
 boon decided on. Some crisis seemed approaching, 
 and the knees of many ladies knocked together, as 
 they anticipated some cruel or bloody act of vengeance. 
 " Oh, poor Masque ! " sighed a young lady in her 
 tender-hearted concern for one who seemed now at 
 the mercy of his enemies ; " Do you think, sir," ad 
 dressing her partner, " they will cut him to pieces ? " 
 " Oh, that wicked old Adorni ! " exclaimed another ; 
 " I know he will stick the poor Masque on one side, 
 and somebody else will stick him on the other ; I 
 know he will, because the Masque called him a tailor : 
 do you think he was a tailor, sir ? " u Why, really, 
 madam, he walks like a tailor ; but then he must be a 
 very bad one, considering how ill his own clothes are 
 made ; and that-, you know, is next door to being none 
 at all. But see, his Highness is going to stop the 
 music." 
 
 In fact, at that moment the Landgrave made a signal 
 to the orchestra ; the music ceased abruptly ; and his 
 Highness advancing to the company, who stood eagerly 
 awaiting his words, said " Illustrious and noble 
 friends ! for a very urgent and special cause I will re 
 quest of you all to take your seats." 
 
 The company obeyed, every one sought the chair 
 
160 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 next to him, or if a lady, accepted that which was 
 offered by the cavalier at her side. The standers 
 continually diminished. Two hundred were left, one 
 hundred and fifty, eighty, sixty, twenty, till at last 
 they were reduced to two, both gentlemen, who had 
 been attending upon ladies. They were suddenly aware 
 of their own situation. One chair only remained out 
 of twelve hundred. Eager to exonerate himself from 
 suspicion, each sprang furiously to this seat ; each 
 attained it at the same moment, and each possessed 
 himself of part at the same instant. As they happened 
 to be two elderly corpulent men, the younger cavaliers, 
 under all the restraints of the moment, the panic of the 
 company, and the Landgrave s presence, could not 
 forbear laughing ; and the more spirited amongst the 
 young ladies caught the infection. 
 
 His Highness was little in a temper to brook this 
 levity ; and hastened to relieve the joint occupants 
 of the chair from the ridicule of their situation. 
 u Enough ! " he exclaimed, " enough ! all my friends 
 are requested to resume the situation most agreeable to 
 them ; my purpose is answered." The prince was 
 himself standing with all his household, and, as a 
 point of respect, all the company rose. (" As you 
 were" whispered the young soldiers to their fair com 
 panions.) 
 
 Adorni now came forward. " It is known," said he 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 1G1 
 
 " by trials more than sufficient, that some intruder, with 
 the worst intentions, has crept into this honorable com 
 pany. The ladies present will therefore have the 
 goodness to retire apart to the lower end of the saloon, 
 whilst the noble cavaliers will present themselves in 
 succession to six officers of his Highness s household, 
 to whom they will privately communicate their names 
 and quality." 
 
 This arrangement was complied with, not, however, 
 without the exchange of a few flying jests on the part 
 of the younger cavaliers, and their fair partners, as 
 they separated for the purpose. The cavaliers, who 
 were rather more than five hundred in number, went 
 up as they were summoned by the number marked 
 upon their cards of admission, and privately communi 
 cating with some one of the officers appointed, were 
 soon told ofT, and filed away to the right of the Land 
 grave, waiting for the signal which should give them 
 permission to rejoin their parties. 
 
 All had been now told off, within a score. These 
 were clustered together in a group ; and in that group 
 undoubtedly was The Masque. Every eye was con 
 verged upon this small knot of cavaliers ; each of the 
 spectators, according to his fancy, selected the one who 
 came nearest in dress, or in personal appearance, to 
 his preconceptions of that mysterious agent. Not a 
 word was uttered, not a whisper ; hardly a robe was 
 heard to rustle, or a feather to wave. 
 11 
 
162 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 The twenty were rapidly reduced to twelve, these to 
 six, the six to four three two ; the tale of the in 
 vited was complete, and one man remained behind. 
 That was, past doubting, The Masque ! 
 
KLOSTERHKIM. 1C3 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 " THERE stands he that governs Klosterheim by 
 night ! " thought every cavalier, as he endeavored to 
 pierce the gloomy being s concealment, with pene 
 trating eyes, or by scrutiny, ten times repeated, to 
 unmasque the dismal secrets which lurked beneath hi s 
 disguise. " There stands the gloomy murderer ! " 
 thought another. " There stands the poor detected 
 criminal," thought the pitying young ladies, " who in 
 the next moment must lay bare his breast to the Land 
 grave s musketeers." 
 
 The figure meantime stood tranquil and collected, 
 apparently not in the least disturbed by the conscious 
 ness of his situation, or the breathless suspense of 
 more than a thousand spectators of rank and eminent 
 station, all bending their looks upon himself. He had 
 been leaning against a marble column, as if wrapped 
 up in reverie, and careless of everything about him. 
 But when the dead silence announced that the cere 
 mony was closed, that he only remained to answer for 
 himself, and upon palpable proof evidence not to be 
 
164 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 gainsayed incapable of answering satisfactorily ; 
 when in fact it was beyond dispute that here was at 
 length revealed, in bodily presence, before the eyes of 
 those whom he had so long haunted with terrors, The 
 Masque of Klosterheim, it was naturally expected 
 that now at least he would show alarm and trepidation ; 
 that he would prepare for defence, or address himself 
 to instant flight. 
 
 Far otherwise ! cooler than any one person beside 
 in the saloon, he stood, like the marble column against 
 which he had been reclining, upright massy and 
 imperturbable. He was enveloped in a voluminous 
 mantle, which at this moment, with a leisurely motion, 
 he suffered to fall at his feet, and displayed a figure in 
 which the grace of an Antinous met with the columnar 
 strength of a Grecian Hercules, presenting, in its tout 
 ensemble, the majestic proportions of a Jupiter. He stood 
 a breathing statue of gladiatorial beauty, towering 
 above all who were near him, and eclipsing the noblest 
 specimens of the human form which the martial as 
 sembly presented. A buzz of admiration arose, which 
 in the following moment was suspended by the dubious 
 recollections investing his past appearances, and the 
 terror which waited even on his present movements. 
 He was armed to the teeth ; and he was obviously 
 preparing to move. 
 
 Not a word had yet been spoken ; so tumultuous 
 was the succession of surprises, so mixed and conflict- 
 
KLOSTERIIEIM. 1G5 
 
 ing the feelings, so intense the anxiety. The arrange 
 ment of the groups was this; at the lower half of 
 the room, but starting forward in attitudes of admira 
 tion or suspense, were the ladies of Klosterheim. At 
 the upper end, in the centre, one hand raised to be 
 speak attention, was The Masque of Klosterheim. To 
 his left, and a little behind him, with a subtle Venetian 
 countenance, one hand waving back a half file of 
 musketeers, and the other raised as if to arrest the arm 
 of The Masque, was the wily minister Adorni creep 
 ing nearer and nearer with a stealthy stride. To his 
 right was the great body of Klosterheim cavaliers, a 
 score of students and young officers pressing forward 
 to the front ; but in advance of the whole, the Land 
 grave of X , haughty, lowering, and throwing out 
 
 looks of defiance. These were the positions and atti 
 tudes in which the first discovery of The Masque had 
 surprised them ; and these they still retained. Less 
 dignified spectators were looking downwards from the 
 galleries. 
 
 " Surrender !" was the first word by which silence 
 was broken ; it came from the Landgrave. 
 
 " Or die ! " exclaimed Adorni. 
 
 " He dies in any case," rejoined the Prince. 
 
 The Masque still raised his hand with the action of 
 one who bespeaks attention. Adorni he deigned not 
 to notice. Slightly inclining his head to the Land 
 grave, in a tone to which it might be the head-dress of 
 
166 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 elaborate steel-work that gave a sepulchral tone, he 
 replied, 
 
 " The Masque, who rules in Klosterheim by night, 
 surrenders not. He can die. But first he will com 
 plete the ceremony of the night, he will reveal him 
 self." 
 
 "That is superfluous," exclaimed Adorni; "we need 
 no further revelations. Seize him, and lead him out 
 to death ! " 
 
 " Dog of an Italian ! " replied The Masque, drawing 
 a dag * from his belt, " die first yourself ! " And so 
 saying, he slowly turned and levelled the barrel at 
 Adorni, who fled with two bounds to the soldiers in the 
 rear. Then, withdrawing the weapon hastily, he 
 added in a tone of cool contempt, " Or bridle that 
 coward s tongue." 
 
 But this was not the minister s intention. " Seize 
 him ! " he cried again impetuously to the soldiers, lay 
 ing his hand on the arm of the foremost, and pointing 
 them forward to their prey. 
 
 " No ! " said the Landgrave, with a commanding 
 voice ; " Halt ! I bid you." Something there was in 
 the tone, or it might be that there was something in his 
 private recollections, or something in the general mys 
 tery, which promised a discovery that he feared to 
 lose by the too precipitate vengeance of the Italian. 
 
 * Dag, a sort of pistol or carbine. 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 167 
 
 " What is it, mysterious being, that you would reveal ? 
 Or who is it that you now believe interested in your 
 revelations ? " 
 
 " Yourself. Prince, it would seem that you have 
 me at your mercy : wherefore, then, the coward haste 
 of this Venetian hound ? I am one ; you are many. 
 Lead me then out ; shoot me. But no : freely I en 
 tered this hall ; freely I will leave it. If I must die, I 
 will die as a soldier. Such I am ; and neither runagate 
 from a foreign land ; nor " turning to Adorni "a 
 base mechanic." 
 
 " But a murderer ! " shrieked Adorni : " but a 
 murderer ; and with hands yet reeking from innocent 
 blood ! " 
 
 " Blood, Adorni, that I will yet avenge. Prince, 
 you demand the nature of my revelations. I will re 
 veal my name, my quality, and my mission." 
 
 " And to whom ? " 
 
 " To yourself, and none beside. And, as a pledge 
 for the sincerity of my discoveries, I will first of all 
 communicate a dreadful secret, known, as you fondly 
 believe, to none but your Highness. Prince, dare you 
 receive my revelations ? " 
 
 Speaking thus, The Masque took one step to the 
 rear, turning his back upon the room, and by a ges 
 ture, signified his wish that the Landgrave should 
 accompany him. But at this motion, ten or a dozen 
 of the foremost among the young cavaliers started for- 
 
168 KLOSTEKIIEIM. 
 
 ward in advance of the Landgrave, in part forming a 
 half circle about his person, and in part commanding 
 the open door-way. 
 
 " He is armed ! " they exclaimed ; " and trebly 
 armed: will your Highness approach him too nearly ?" 
 
 "I fear him not," said the Landgrave, with some 
 thing of a contemptuous tone. 
 
 " Wherefore should you fear me ? " retorted The 
 Masque, with a manner so tranquil and serene as in 
 voluntary to disarm suspicion : " Were it possible that 
 I should seek the life of any man here in particular, in 
 that case, (pointing to the fire-arms in his belt,) why 
 should 1 need to come nearer ? Were it possible that 
 any should find in my conduct here a motive to a per 
 sonal vengeance upon myself, which of you is not near 
 enough ? Has your Highness the courage to trample 
 on such terrors ? " 
 
 Thus challenged as it were to a trial of his courage 
 before the assembled rank of Klosterheim, the Land 
 grave waved off all who would have stepped forward 
 officiously to his support. If he felt any tremors, he 
 was now sensible that pride and princely honor called 
 upon him to dissemble them. And probably, that 
 sort of tremors, which he felt in reality, did no 
 point in a direct ion to which physical support, such 
 as was now tendered, could have been available. 
 He hesitated no longer, but strode forward to meet 
 The Masque. His highness and The Masque met 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 169 
 
 near tlic archway of the door, in the very centre of 
 the 1 Lfi oups. 
 
 With a thrilling tone, deep piercing full of 
 alarm, The Masque began thus : 
 
 " To win your confidence, forever to establish credit 
 with your Highness, I will first of all reveal the rmme 
 of that murderer, who this night dared to pollute your 
 palace with an old man s blood. Prince, bend your 
 ear a little this way." 
 
 With a shudder, and a visible effort of self-com 
 mand, the Landgrave inclined his ear to The Masque, 
 who added, 
 
 " Your Highness will be shocked to hear it : " then, 
 in a lower tone, " Who could have believed it ? 
 
 It was ." All was pronounced clearly and 
 
 strongly, except the last word the name of the 
 murderer : that was made audible only to the Land 
 grave s ear. 
 
 Sudden and tremendous was the effect upon the 
 Prince : he reeled a few paces off; put his hand to the 
 hilt of his sword ; smote his forehead ; threw frenzied 
 looks upon The Masque, now half imploring, now 
 dark with vindictive wrath. Then succeeded a pause 
 of profoundest silence, during which all the twelve 
 hundred visitors, whom he had himself assembled, as 
 if expressly to make them witnesses of this extraordi 
 nary scene, and of the power with which a stranger 
 could shake him to and fro in a tempestuous strife of 
 
170 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 passions, were looking and hearkening with senses on 
 the stretch to pierce the veil of silence and of distance. 
 At last the Landgrave mastered his emotions sufficient 
 ly to say, " Well, sir, what next ? " 
 
 " Next comes a revelation of another kind ; and I 
 warn you, sir, that it will not be less trying to the 
 nerves. For this first I needed your ear ; now I shall 
 need your eyes. Think again, Prince, whether you 
 will stand the trial." 
 
 " Pshaw ! sir, you trifle with me ; again I tell you 
 But here the Landgrave spoke with an af 
 fectation of composure and with an effort that did not 
 escape notice ; " again I tell you that I fear you not. 
 Go on." 
 
 " Then come forward a little, please your Highness, 
 to the light of this lamp." So saying, with a step or 
 two in advance, he drew the Prince under the power 
 ful glare of a lamp suspended near the great archway 
 ef entrance from the interior of the palace. Both were 
 now standing with their faces entirely averted from the 
 spectators. Still more effectually, however, to screen 
 himself from any of those groups on the left, whose 
 advanced position gave them somewhat more the ad 
 vantage of an oblique aspect, The Masque, at this 
 moment, suddenly drew up, with his left hand, a short 
 Spanish mantle which depended from his shoulders, 
 and now gave him the benefit of a lateral screen. 
 Then, so far as the company behind them could guess 
 
KLOSTERHEIIM. 171 
 
 at his act, unlocking with his right hand and raising 
 the masque which shrouded his mysterious features, 
 he shouted aloud in a voice that rang clear through 
 evpry corner of the vast saloon, " Landgrave, for 
 crimes yet unrevealed, I summon you, in twenty days, 
 before a tribunal where there is no shield but inno 
 cence ! " and at that moment turned his countenance 
 full upon the Prince. 
 
 With a yell, rather than a human expression of 
 terror, the Landgrave fell, as if shot by a thunderbolt, 
 stretched at his full length upon the ground, lifeless 
 apparently, and bereft of consciousness or sensation. 
 A sympathetic cry of horror arose from the spectators. 
 All rushed towards The Masque. The young cava 
 liers, who had first stepped forward as volunteers in 
 the Landgrave s defence, were foremost, and inter 
 posed between The Masque and the outstretched arms 
 of Adorni, as if eager to seize him first. In an instant 
 a sudden and dense cloud of smoke arose, nobody 
 knew whence. Repeated discharges of fire-arms were 
 heard resounding from the doorway and the passages ; 
 these increased the smoke and the confusion. Trumpets 
 sounded through the corridors. The whole archway, 
 under which The Masque and the Landgrave had been 
 standing, became choked up with soldiery, summoned 
 by the furious alarms that echoed through the palace. 
 All was one uproar and chaos of masques, plumes, 
 helmets, halberds, trumpets, gleaming sabres, and the 
 
172 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 fierce faces of soldiery forcing themselves through the 
 floating drapery of smoke that now filled the whole 
 upper end of the saloon. Adorni was seen in the 
 midst raving fruitlessly. Nobody heard : nobody lis 
 tened. Universal panic had seized the household, the 
 soldiery, and the company. Nobody understood ex 
 actly for what purpose the tumult had commenced 
 in what direction it tended. Some tragic catastrophe 
 was reported from mouth to mouth: nobody knew what. 
 Some said, the Landgrave had been assassinated ; 
 some, The Masque ; some asserted that both had 
 perished under reciprocal assaults. More believed that 
 The Masque had proved to be of that supernatural 
 order of beings, with which the prevailing opinions of 
 Klosterheim had long classed him ; and that, upon 
 raising his disguise, he had revealed to the Landgrave, 
 the fleshless skull of some forgotten tenant of the 
 grave. This indeed seemed to many the only solution 
 that, whilst it fell in with the prejudices and supersti 
 tions of the age, was of a nature to account for that 
 tremendous effect which the discovery had produced 
 upon the Landgrave. But it was one that naturally 
 could be little calculated to calm the agitations of the 
 public prevailing at this moment. This spread con 
 tagiously. The succession of alarming events, the 
 murder, the appearance of The Masque, his subse 
 quent extraordinary behavior, the overwhelming im 
 pression upon the Landgrave, which had formed the 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 173 
 
 catastrophe of this sccnical exhibition, the conster 
 nation of the great Swedish officers, who were spending 
 the night in Klosterheim, and reasonably suspected 
 that the tumult might be owing to the sudden detection 
 of their own incognito, and that, in consequence, the 
 populace of this Imperial city were suddenly rising to 
 arms ; the endless distraction find counteraction of so 
 many thousand persons visitors, servants, soldiery, 
 household all hurrying to the same point, and bring 
 ing assistance to a danger of which nobody knew the 
 origin, nobody the nature, nobody the issue ; multitudes 
 commanding where all obedience was forgotten, all 
 subordination had gone to wreck ; these circum 
 stances of distraction united to sustain a scene of 
 absolute frenzy in the castle, which, for more than 
 half an hour, the dense columns of smoke aggravated 
 alarmingly by raising, in many quarters, additional 
 terrors of fire. And when at last, after infinite exer 
 tions, the soldiery had deployed into the ball-room 
 and the adjacent apartments of state, and had suc 
 ceeded, at the point of the pike, in establishing a safe 
 egress for the twelve hundred visitors, it was then first 
 ascertained that all traces of The Masque had been 
 lost in the smoke and subsequent confusion ; and that, 
 with his usual good fortune, he had succeeded in 
 baffling his pursuers. 
 
174 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 MEANTIME the Lady Paulina had spent her time in 
 secret grief, inconsolable for the supposed tragical fate 
 of Maximilian. It was believed that he had perished. 
 This opinion had prevailed equally amongst his friends, 
 and the few enemies whom circumstances had made 
 him. Supposing even that he had escaped with life 
 from the action, it seemed inevitable that he should 
 have fallen into the hands of the bloody Holkerstein ; 
 and under circumstances which would point him out 
 to the vengeance of that cruel ruffian, as having 
 been the leader in the powerful resistance which had 
 robbed him of his prey. 
 
 Stung with the sense of her irreparable loss, and the 
 premature grief which had blighted her early hopes, 
 Paulina sought her refuge in solitude, and her con 
 solations in religion. In the convent, where she had 
 found a home, the ceremonies of the Roman Catholic 
 service were maintained with the strictness and the 
 pomp suitable to its ample endowments. The Em 
 peror had himself, as well as several of his progenitors, 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 175 
 
 been a liberal benefactor to tins establishment. And 
 a huly of his house, therefore, recommended by a 
 special introduction from the Emperor to the attentions 
 of the Lady Abbess, was sure of meeting kindness and 
 courtesy in every possible shape which could avail to 
 mitigate her sorrow. The Abbess, though a bigot, 
 was a human being, with strong human sensibilities ; 
 and in both characters she was greatly pleased with 
 the Lady Paulina. On the one hand, her pride, as 
 the head of a religious establishment, was flattered by 
 the extreme regularity of the Lady Paulina in con 
 forming to the ritual of her house ; this example of 
 spiritual obedience and duty seemed peculiarly edify 
 ing in a person of such distinguished rank. On the 
 other hand, her womanly sensibilities were touched by 
 the spectacle of early and unmerited sorrow in one so 
 eminent for her personal merits for her extreme 
 beauty, and the winning sweetness of her manners. 
 Hence she readily offered to the young Countess all 
 the attentions and marks of sympathy which her re 
 tiring habits permitted, and every species of indulgence 
 compatible with the spirit of the institution. 
 
 The whole convent, nuns as well as strangers, 
 taking their tone from the Abbess, vied with each 
 other in attentions to Paulina. But, whilst acknowl 
 edging their kindness, she continued to shrink from 
 all general intercourse with the society about her. 
 Her attendance was constant at the matins and at 
 
176 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 vespers ; not unfrequently even at the midnight ser 
 vice ; but dejection was too rooted in her heart, to 
 allow her any disposition to enter into the amusements 
 or mixed society which the convent at that time of 
 fered. 
 
 Many noble strangers had been allowed to take up 
 their quarters in the convent. With some of these 
 the Abbess was connected by blood, with others, by 
 ties of ancient friendship. Most of this party com 
 posed a little society apart from the rest, and continued 
 to pursue those amusements or occupations which 
 properly belonged to their stations and quality, but by 
 their too worldly nature, were calculated to exclude 
 the religious members of the institution from partaking 
 in them. To this society, Paulina received frequent 
 invitations, which, however, she declined so uniformly, 
 that at length all efforts ceased to draw her from the 
 retirement which she so manifestly adhered to from 
 choice. The motives of her dejection became known 
 throughout the convent, and were respected ; and it 
 was now reported amongst them, from her aversion to 
 society as well as her increasing devotion, that the 
 Lady Paulina would soon take the veil. 
 
 Amongst the strangers was one, a lady of mature 
 age, with beauty still powerful enough to fascinate all 
 beholders, who seemed to survey Paulina with an in 
 terest far beyond that of curiosity or simple admiration. 
 Sorrow might be supposed the common bond which 
 
KLOSTERI1F.I3I. 177 
 
 connected them ; for there were minors amongst the 
 
 rhood of St. Agnes that this lady had sull 
 afflictions heavier than fell to an ordinary lot in the 
 course of the war which now desolated Germany. 
 Her husband, (it was said,) of whom no more was 
 known than that he was some officer of high rank, had 
 perished by the hand of violence ; a young daughter, 
 the only child of two or three who remained to her, 
 had been carried off in infancy ; and no traces remain 
 ed of her subsequent fate. To these misfortunes was 
 added the loss of her estates and rank, which, in some 
 mysterious way, were supposed to be withheld from 
 her by one of those great oppressors whom war and 
 the policy of great allies had aggrandized. It was 
 supposed even that for the means of subsistence to her 
 self, and a few faithful attendants, she was indebted 
 to the kindness of the Lady Abbess, with whom she 
 WKS closely connected by ancient friendship. 
 
 In this tale there were many inaccuracies mixed up 
 with the truth. It was true that, in some one of the 
 many dire convulsions which had passed from land to 
 land since the first outbreak of the Bohemian troubles, 
 in 1618, and which had covered with a veil of political 
 pretexts so many local acts of private family feud and 
 murderous treason, this lady had been deprived of her 
 husband by a violent death under circumstances which 
 still seemed mysterious. But the fate of her children, 
 if any had survived the calamity which took off her 
 12 
 
178 KLOSTERI1EIM. 
 
 husband, was unknown to everybody except her con 
 fidential protectress the Lady Abbess. By permission 
 of this powerful friend, who had known her from 
 infancy and through the whole course of her misfor 
 tunes, she was permitted to take up her abode in the 
 convent, under special privileges, and was there known 
 by the name of Sister Madeline. 
 
 The intercourse of the Sister Madeline with the 
 Lady Abbess was free and unreserved. At all hours 
 they entered each other s rooms with the familiarity of 
 sisters ; and it might have been thought that in every 
 respect they stood upon the equal footing of near rela 
 tives, except that occasionally in the manners of the 
 Abbess was traced or imagined a secret air of defer 
 ence towards the desolate Sister Madeline, which, as 
 it was not countenanced at all by their present rela 
 tions to each other, left people at liberty to build upon 
 it a large superstructure of romantic conjectures. 
 
 Sister Madeline was as regular in her attendance 
 upon prayers as Paulina. There, if nowhere else, they 
 were sure of meeting ; and in no long time it became 
 evident that the younger lady was an object of particu 
 lar interest to the elder. When the sublime fugues of 
 the old composers for the organ swelled upon the air, 
 and filled the vast aisles of the chapel with their float 
 ing labyrinths of sound, attention to the offices of the 
 church service being suspended for the time, the Sister 
 Madeline spent the interval in watching the countc- 
 
KLOSTERI1E1M. 179 
 
 nance of Paulina. Invariably at this period her eyes 
 settled upon the" young Countess, and appeared to court 
 some return of attention, by the tender sympathy which 
 her own features expressed with the grief too legibly 
 inscribed upon Paulina s. For some time Paulina, 
 absorbed by her own thoughts, failed to notice this very 
 particular expression of attention and interest. Accus 
 tomed to the gaze of crowds, as well on account of her 
 beauty as her connection with the Imperial house, she 
 found nothing new or distressing in this attention to 
 herself. After some time, however, observing herself 
 still haunted by the sister s furtive glances, she found 
 her own curiosity somewhat awakened in return. The 
 manners of Sister Madeline were too dignified, and her 
 face expressed too much of profound feeling, and 
 traces too inextinguishable of the trials through which 
 she had passed, to allow room for any belief that she 
 was under the influence of an ordinary curiosity. 
 Paulina was struck with a confused feeling, that she 
 looked upon features which had already been familiar 
 to her heart, though disguised in Sister Madeline by 
 age, by sex, and by the ravages of grief; she had 
 the appearance of having passed her fiftieth year ; but 
 it was probable that, spite of a brilliant complexion, 
 secret sorrow had worked a natural effect in giving to 
 her the appearance of age more advanced by seven or 
 eight years than she had really attained. Time at 
 all events, if it had carried off forever her youthful 
 
180 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 graces, neither bad nor seemed likely to destroy the 
 impression of majestic beauty under eclipse and 
 wane. No one could fail to read the signs by which 
 the finger of nature announces a great destiny, and a 
 mind born to command. 
 
 Insensibly the two ladies had established a sort of 
 intercourse by looks ; and at length, upon finding that 
 the Sister Madeline mixed no more than herself in the 
 general society of Klosterheim, Paulina had resolved 
 to seek the acquaintance of a lady whose deportment 
 announced that she would prove an interesting ac 
 quaintance, whilst her melancholy story and the 
 expression of her looks were a sort of pledges that she 
 would be found a sympathizing friend. 
 
 She had already taken some steps towards the attain 
 ment of her wishes, when unexpectedly, on coming 
 out from the vesper service, the Sister Madeline placed 
 herself by the side of Paulina, and they walked down 
 one of the long side aisles together. The saintly 
 memorials about them, the records of everlasting peace 
 which lay sculptured at their feet, and the strains 
 which still ascended to heaven from the organ and the 
 white-robed choir, all speaking of a rest from 
 trouble so little to be found on earth, and so power 
 fully contrasting with the desolations of poor harassed 
 Germany, affected them deeply, and both burst into 
 tears. At length the elderly lady spoke. 
 
KLOSTERHK1M. 1 s ! 
 
 " Daughter, you keep your faith piously with him 
 whom you suppose drad." 
 
 Paulina started. The other continued 
 
 Honor to young hearts that are knit together by 
 ties so firm that even death has no power to dissolve 
 them ! Honor to the love which can breed so deep a 
 sorrow ! Yet, even in this world, the good are not 
 always the unhappy. I doubt not that, even now at 
 vespers, you forgot not to pray for him that would 
 willingly have died for you." 
 
 " Oh, gracious lady ! when when have I forgot 
 that? What other prayer what other image is 
 ever at my heart ? " 
 
 " Daughter, I could not doubt it ; and Heaven 
 sometimes sends answers to prayers when they are 
 least expected ; and to yours it sends this through 
 me." 
 
 With these words she stretched out a letter to Pau 
 lina, who fainted with sudden surprise and delight on 
 recognizing the hand of Maximilian. 
 
182 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 IT was indeed the handwriting of her lover ; and 
 the first words of the letter, which bore a recent date, 
 announced his safety and his recovered health. A 
 rapid sketch of all which had befallen him since they 
 had last parted, informed her that he had been severely 
 wounded in the action with Holkerstein s people, and 
 probably to that misfortune had been indebted for his 
 life, since the difficulty of transporting him on horse 
 back, when unable to sit upright, had compelled the 
 party charged with his care to leave him for the night 
 at Waldenhausen. From that place he had been car 
 ried off in the night-time to a small Imperial garrison 
 in the neighborhood by the care of two faithful ser 
 vants, who had found little difficulty in first intoxicat 
 ing, and then overpowering, the small guard judged 
 sufficient for a prisoner so completely disabled by his 
 wounds. In this garrison he had recovered ; had cor 
 responded with Vienna ; had concerted measures with 
 the Emperor ; and was now on the point of giving 
 full effect to their plans, at the moment when certain 
 
KLOSTERHEI.M. 183 
 
 circumstances should arise to favor tin- sclinno. What 
 these were, he forbore designedly to say in a letter 
 whi .h ran some risk of falling into the enemy s hands ; 
 but he bade Paulina speedily to expect a great change 
 for the better, which would put it in their power to 
 meet without restraint or fear, and concluded by 
 giving utterance in the fondest terms to a lover s hopes 
 and tenderest anxieties. 
 
 Paulina had scarcely recovered from the tumultuous 
 sensations of pleasure, and sudden restoration to hope, 
 when she received a shock in the opposite direction, 
 from a summons to attend the Landgrave. The 
 language of the message was imperative, and more 
 peremptory than had ever before been addressed to 
 herself, a lady of the Imperial family. She knew the 
 Landgrave s character and his present position : both 
 these alarmed her, when connected with the style and 
 language of his summons. For that announced dis 
 tinctly enough that his resolution had been now taken 
 to commit himself to a bold course, no longer to hang 
 doubtfully between two policies, but openly to throw 
 himself into the arms of the Emperor s enemies. In 
 one view, Paulina found a benefit to her spirits from 
 this haughtiness of the Landgrave s message. She 
 was neither proud, nor apt to take offence. On the 
 contrary, she was gentle and meek ; for the impulses 
 of youth and elevated birth had in her been chastened 
 by her early acquaintance with great national calami- 
 
184 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 ties, and the enlarged sympathy which that had bred 
 with her fellow-creatures of every rank. But she felt 
 that, in this superfluous expression of authority, the 
 Landgrave was at the same time infringing the rights 
 of hospitality, and her own privileges of sex. Indig 
 nation at his unmanly conduct gave her spirits to face 
 him, though she apprehended a scene of violence, and 
 had the more reason to feel the trepidations of uncer 
 tainty, because she very imperfectly comprehended 
 his purposes as respected herself. 
 
 These were not easily explained. She found the 
 Landgrave pacing the room with violence. His back 
 was turned towards her as she entered ; but as the 
 usher announced loudly on her entrance, " The 
 Countess Paulina of Hohenhelder," he turned impetu 
 ously, and advanced to meet her. With the Land 
 grave, however irritated, the first impulse was to 
 comply with the ceremonious observances that be 
 longed to his rank. He made a cold obeisance, whilst 
 an attendant placed a seat ; and then motioning to all 
 present to withdraw, began to unfold the causes which 
 had called for Lady Paulina s presence. 
 
 So much art was mingled with so much violence, 
 that for some time .Paulina gathered nothing of his 
 real purposes. Resolved, however, to do justice to 
 her own insulted dignity, she took the first opening 
 which offered, to remonstrate with the Landgrave on 
 the needless violence of his summons. His Serene 
 
KLOSTERIIEIM. 185 
 
 Highness \vifldcd the 1 sword in Klostcrht-ini, and could 
 have no reason for anticipating resistance to his com 
 mands. 
 
 " The Lady Paulina then distinguishes between the 
 r and the right ? I expected as much." 
 
 " By no means ; she knew nothing of the claimants 
 to either. She was a stranger, seeking only hospitality 
 in Klosterheimj which apparently was violated by un 
 provoked exertions of authority." 
 
 "But the laws of hospitality," replied the Land 
 grave, " press equally on the guest and the host. 
 Each has his separate duties. And the Lady Paulina, 
 in the character of guest, violated her s from the mo 
 ment when she formed cabals in Klosterheim, and 
 ministered to the fury of conspirators." 
 
 " Your ear, sir, is abused ; I have not so much as 
 stepped beyond the precincts of the convent in which 
 I reside, until this day in paying obedience to your 
 Highness s mandate." 
 
 " That may be ; and that may argue only the more 
 caution and subtlety. The personal presence of a 
 lady, so distinguished in her appearance as the Lady 
 Paulina, at any resort of conspirators or intriguers, 
 would have published too much the suspicions to which 
 such a countenance would be liable. But in writing, 
 have you dispersed nothing calculated to alienate the 
 attachment of my subjects ? " 
 
 The Lady Paulina shook her head ; she knew not 
 
186 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 even in what direction the Landgrave s suspicions 
 pointed. 
 
 " As, for example, this does the Lady Paulina 
 recognize this particular paper ? " 
 
 Saying this, he drew forth from a portfolio a letter 
 or paper of instructions, consisting of several sheets, 
 to which a large official seal was attached. The 
 Countess glanced her eye over it attentively ; in one 
 or two places the words Maximilian and Klosterheim 
 attracted her attention ; but she felt satisfied at once 
 that she now saw it for the first time. 
 
 " Of this paper," she said at length, in a determined 
 tone, " I know nothing. The handwriting I believe I 
 may have seen before. It resembles that of one of 
 the Emperor s secretaries. Beyond that, I have no 
 means of even conjecturing its origin." 
 
 " Beware, madam, beware how far you commit 
 yourself. Suppose, now, this paper were actually 
 brought in one of your ladyship s mails, amongst your 
 own private property." 
 
 "That may very well be," said Lady Paulina, 
 " and yet imply no falsehood on my part. False 
 hood ! 1 disdain such an insinuation ; your Highness 
 has been the first person who ever dared to make it." 
 At that moment she called to mind the robbery of her 
 carriage at Waldenhausen. Coloring deeply with in 
 dignation, she added, " Even in the case, sir, which 
 you have supposed, as unconscious bearer of this or 
 
KLOSTERIIEIM. 187 
 
 any other paper, I am still innocent of tlic intentions 
 which such an act might argue in some people. I am 
 as incapable of oifi iiding in that way, as I shall always 
 be of disavowing any of my own acts, according to 
 your ungenerous insinuation. But now, sir, tell me 
 how far those may be innocent who have possessed 
 themselves of a paper carried, as your Highness 
 alleges, among my private baggage ? Was it for a 
 Prince to countenance a robbery of that nature, or to 
 appropriate its spoils ? " 
 
 The blood rushed to the Landgrave s temples. " In 
 these times, young lady, petty rights of individuals 
 give way to state necessities. Neither are there any 
 such rights of individuals in bar of such an inquisi 
 tion. They are forfeited, as I told you before, when 
 the guest forgets his duties. " But," (and here he 
 frowned) " it seems to me, Countess, that you are now 
 forgetting your situation ; not I, remember, but your 
 self, are now placed on trial." 
 
 " Indeed ! " said the Countess, " of that I was cer 
 tainly not aware. Who, then, is my accuser, who my 
 judge ? Or is it in your Serene Highness that I see 
 both ? " 
 
 " Your accuser, Lady Paulina, is the paper I have 
 shown you, a treasonable paper. Perhaps I have others 
 to bring forward of the same bearing. Perhaps this is 
 sufficient." 
 
 The Lady Paulina grew suddenly sad and thoughtful. 
 
188 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 Here was a tyrant, with matter against her, which, 
 even to an unprejudiced judge, might really wear some 
 face of plausibility. The paper had, perhaps, really 
 been one of those plundered from her carriage. It 
 might really contain matter fitted to excite disaffection 
 against the Landgrave s government. Her own inno 
 cence of all participation in the designs which it 
 purported to abet might find no credit, or might avail 
 her not at all in a situation so far removed from the 
 Imperial protection. She had in fact unadvisedly 
 entered a city which, at the time of her entrance, 
 might be looked upon as neutral, but since then she 
 had been forced into the ranks of the Emperor s ene 
 mies too abruptly to allow of warning or retreat, This 
 was her exact situation. She saw her danger, and 
 again apprehended that, at the very moment of recov 
 ering her lover from the perils besetting his situation, 
 she might lose him by the perils of her own. 
 
 The Landgrave watched the changes of her coun 
 tenance, and read her thoughts. 
 
 " Yes," he said at length, " your situation is one of 
 peril. But take courage. Confess freely, and you 
 have everything to hope for from my clemency." 
 
 " Such clemency," said a deep voice, from some 
 remote quarter of the room, " as the wolf shows to 
 the lamb." 
 
 Paulina started, and the Landgrave looked angry 
 and perplexed. " Within there ! " he cried loudly to 
 
KLOSTERTIEDI. 1$9 
 
 his attendants in the next room. " I will no more 
 endure these insults," ho exclaimed. "Go instantly, 
 take a file of soldiers ; place them at all the outlets, 
 and search the rooms adjoining above and below. 
 Such mummery is insufferable." 
 
 The voice replied again, " Landgrave, you search 
 in vain. Look -to yourself! young Max is upon 
 you ! " 
 
 This babbler," said the Landgrave, making an 
 effort to recover his coolness, " reminds me well ; that 
 adventurer, young Maximilian who is he, whence 
 comes he ? by whom authorized ? " 
 
 Paulina blushed ; but, roused by the Landgrave s 
 contumelious expressions applied to her lover, she 
 replied " He is no adventurer ; nor was ever in that 
 class ; the Emperor s favor is not bestowed upon 
 such." 
 
 " Then, what brings him to Klosterheim ? For 
 what is it that he would trouble the repose of this 
 city ? " 
 
 Before Paulina could speak in rejoinder, the voice, 
 from a little further distance, replied audibly "For 
 his rights ! See that you, Landgrave, make no resist 
 ance." 
 
 The Prince arose in fury ; his eyes flashed fire ; he 
 clenched his hands in -impotent determination. The 
 same voice had annoyed him on former occasions, 
 but never under circumstances which mortified him 
 
190 KLOSTERHE1M. 
 
 so deeply. Ashamed that the youthful Countess 
 should be a witness of the insults put upon him, and 
 seeing that it was in vain to pursue his conversation 
 with her further in a situation which exposed him to 
 the sarcasms of a third person, under no restraint of 
 fear or partiality, he adjourned the further prosecution 
 of his inquiry to another opportunity, and for the pres 
 ent gave her leave to depart ; a license which she 
 gladly availed herself of, and retired in fear and per 
 plexity, g? 
 
KLOSTERH! 191 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 IT was dark as Paulina returned to her convent. 
 T\vo servants of the Landgrave s preceded her with 
 torches to the great gates of St. Agnes, which was at 
 a. very short distance. At that point she entered within 
 the shelter of the convent gates, and the Prince s ser 
 vants left her at her own request. No person was 
 now within call but a little page of her own, and per 
 haps the porter at the convent. But after the first 
 turn in the garden of St. Agnes, she might almost 
 consider herself as left to her own guardianship ; for 
 the little boy who followed her was too young to afford 
 her any effectual help. She felt sorry, as she sur 
 veyed the long avenue of ancient trees, which was 
 yet to be traversed before she entered upon the clois 
 ters, that she should have dismissed the servants of 
 the Landgrave. These gardens were easily scaled 
 from the outside, and a ready communication existed 
 between the remotest parts of this very avenue, and 
 some of the least reputable parts of Kiosterheim. The 
 city now overflowed with people of every rank ; and 
 amongst them were continually recognized, and occa- 
 
192 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 sionally challenged, some of the vilest deserters from 
 the Imperial camps. Wallenstein himself, and other 
 Imperial commanders, but, above all, Hoik, had 
 attracted to their standards the very refuse of the 
 German jails ; and allowing an unlimited license of 
 plunder during some periods of their career, had 
 themselves evoked a fiendish spirit of lawless ag 
 gression and spoliation, which afterwards they had 
 found it impossible to exorcise within its former limits. 
 People were everywhere obliged to be on their guard, 
 not alone (as heretofore) against the military tyrant or 
 freebooter, but also against the private servants whom 
 they hired into their service. For some time back, 
 suspicious persons had been seen strolling at dusk in 
 the gardens of St. Agnes, or even intruding into the 
 cloisters. Then the recollection of The Masque, now 
 in the very height of his mysterious career, flashed 
 upon Paulina s thoughts. Who knew his motives, or 
 the principles of his mysterious warfare which at 
 any rate, in its mode, had latterly been marked by 
 bloodshed ? As these things came rapidly into her 
 mind, she trembled more from fear than from the 
 wintry wind, which now blew keenly and gustily 
 through the avenue. 
 
 The gardens of St. Agnes were extensive, and 
 Paulina yet wanted two hundred yards of reaching 
 the cloisters, when she observed a dusky object steal 
 ing along the margin of a little pool, which in parts 
 
KLOSTERIIEIM. 193 
 
 lay open to the walk, whilst in others, where the walk 
 receded from the water, the banks were studded with 
 thickets of tall shrubs. Paulina stopped and observed 
 the figure, which she was soon satisfied must be that 
 of a man. At times he rose to his full height ; at 
 times he cowered downwards amongst the bushes. 
 That he was not merely seeking a retreat, became 
 evident from this, that the best road for such a purpose 
 lay open to him in the opposite direction; that he 
 was watching herself, also, became probable from the 
 way in which he seemed to regulate his own motions 
 by her s. At length, whilst Paulina hesitated in some 
 perplexity whether to go forward or to retreat towards 
 the porter s lodge, he suddenly plunged into the thick 
 est belt of shrubs, and left the road clear. Paulina 
 seized the moment, and with a palpitating heart quick 
 ened her steps towards the cloister. 
 
 She had cleared about one-half of the way without 
 obstruction, when suddenly a powerful grasp seized 
 her by the shoulder. 
 
 " Stop, lady ! " said a deep, coarse voice, " stop ! 
 I mean no harm. Perhaps I bring your ladyship what 
 will be welcome news." 
 
 " But why here ? " exclaimed Paulina ; " wherefore 
 do you alarm me thus ? Oh ! heavens ! your eyes are 
 wild and fierce ; say, is it money that you want ? " 
 
 " Perhaps I do. To the like of me, lady, you may 
 be sure that money never comes amiss ; but that is 
 13 
 
194 KLOSTERIIEIM. 
 
 not my errand. Here is what will make all clear;" 
 and, as he spoke, he thrust his hand into the huge 
 pocket within the horseman s cloak which enveloped 
 him. Instead of the pistol or dag, which Paulina 
 anticipated, he drew forth a large packet, carefully 
 sealed. Paulina felt so much relieved at beholding 
 this pledge of the man s pacific intentions, that she 
 eagerly pressed her purse into his hand, and was 
 hastening to leave him, when the man stopped her to 
 deliver a verbal message from his master, requesting 
 earnestly that, if she concluded to keep the . appoint 
 ment arranged in the letter, she would not be a minute 
 later than the time fixed. 
 
 " And who," said Paulina, " is your master ? " 
 " Surely the General, madam the young General 
 Maximilian. Many a time and oft have I waited on 
 him when visiting your ladyship at the Wartebrunn. 
 But here I dare not show my face. Der Henker ! 
 if the Landgrave knew that Michael Klotz was in 
 Klosterheim, I reckon that all the ladies in St. Agnes 
 could not beg him a reprieve till to-morrow morning." 
 " Then, villain ! " said the foremost of two men 
 who rushed hastily from the adjoining shrubs, " be 
 assured that the Landgrave does know it. Let this be 
 your warrant ! " With these words he fired, and, 
 immediately after, his comrade. Whether the fugitive 
 were wounded could not be known ; for he instantly 
 plunged into the water, and, after two or three mo- 
 
KLOSTERIIKIM. 195 
 
 ments, was heard upon the opposite margin. His 
 pursuers seemed to shrink from this attempt, for they 
 divided and took the opposite extremities of the pool, 
 from the other bank of which they were soon heard 
 animating and directing each other through the dark 
 ness. 
 
 Paulina, confused and agitated, and anxious above 
 all to examine her letters, took the opportunity of a 
 clear road, and fled in trepidation to the convent. 
 
196 KLOSTERHEIJVI. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE Countess had brought home with her a double 
 subject of anxiety. She knew not to what result the 
 Landgrave s purposes were tending ; she feared, also, 
 from this sudden and new method of communication 
 opened with herself so soon after his previous letter, 
 that some unexpected bad fortune might now be threat 
 ening her lover. Hastily she tore open the packet, 
 which manifestly contained something larger than let 
 ters. The first article which presented itself was a 
 nun s veil, exactly on the pattern of those worn by the 
 nuns of St. Agnes. The accompanying letter suffic 
 iently explained its purpose. 
 
 It was in the handwriting, and bore the signature, of 
 Maximilian. In a few words he told her that a sud 
 den communication, but from a quarter entirely to be 
 depended on, had reached him of a great danger im 
 pending over her from the Landgrave ; that in the pres 
 ent submission of Klosterheim to that Prince s will, 
 instant flight presented the sole means of delivering 
 her ; for which purpose he would himself meet her in 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 197 
 
 disguise on the following morning, as early as four 
 o clock ; or, if that should prove impossible under the 
 circumstances of the case, would send a faithful ser 
 vant : that one or other of them would attend at a 
 particular station, easily recognized by the description 
 added, in a ruinous part of the boundary wall, in the 
 rear of the convent garden. A large travelling cloak 
 would be brought to draw over the rest of her dress ; 
 but meanwhile, as a means of passing unobserved 
 through the convent grounds, where the Landgrave s 
 agents were continually watching her motions, the 
 nun s veil was almost indispensable. The other cir 
 cumstances of the journey would be communicated to 
 her upon meeting. In conclusion, the writer implored 
 Paulina to suffer no scruples of false delicacy to with 
 hold her from a step which had so suddenly become 
 necessary to her preservation ; and cautioned her par 
 ticularly against communicating her intentions to the 
 Lady Abbess, whose sense of decorum might lead her 
 to urge advice at this moment inconsistent with her 
 safety. 
 
 Again and again did Paulina read this agitating let 
 ter ; again and again did she scrutinize the handwriting, 
 apprehensive that she might be making herself a 
 dupe to some hidden enemy. The handwriting, un 
 doubtedly, had not all the natural freedom which 
 characterized that of Maximilian it was somewhat 
 stiff in its movement, but not more so than that of his 
 
198 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 previous letter, in which he had accounted for the 
 slight change from a wound not perfectly healed in 
 his right hand. In other respects, the letter seemed 
 liable to no just suspicion. The danger apprehended 
 from the Landgrave tallied with her own knowledge. 
 The convent grounds were certainly haunted, as the 
 letter alleged, by the Landgrave s people, of that 
 she had just received a convincing proof ; for, though 
 the two strangers had turned off in pursuit of the mes 
 senger who bore Maximilian s letter, yet doubtless 
 their original object of attention had been herself ; they 
 were then posted to watch her motions, and they had 
 avowed themselves in effect the Landgrave s people. 
 That part of the advice, again, which respected the 
 Lady Abbess, seemed judicious, on considering the 
 character of that lady, however much at first sight 
 it might warrant some jealousy of the writer s purposes, 
 to find him warning her against her best friends. After 
 all, what most disturbed the confidence of Paulina 
 was the countenance of the man who presented the 
 letter ; if this man were to be the representative of 
 Maximilian on the following morning, she felt, and was 
 persuaded that she would continue to feel, an invincible 
 repugnance to commit her safety to any such keeping. 
 Upon the whole, she resolved to keep the appointment, 
 but to be guided in her further conduct by circum 
 stances as they should arise at the moment. 
 
 That night Paulina s favorite female attendant em- 
 
KLOSTERIIKIIM. 199 
 
 ployed herself in putting into as small a coni[>;i- 
 possible the slender wardrobe which they would be 
 able to carry with them. The young Countess herself 
 spent the hours in writing to the Lady Abbess and 
 Sister Madeline, acquainting them with all the circum 
 stances of her interview with the Landgrave, the 
 certain grounds she had for apprehending some great 
 danger in that quarter, and the proposals so unex 
 pectedly made to her on the part of Maximilian for 
 evading it. To ask that they should feel no anxiety 
 on her account, in times which made even a successful 
 escape from danger so very hazardous, she acknowl 
 edged would be in vain ; but, in judging of the degree 
 of prudence which she had exhibited on this occasion, 
 she begged them to reflect on the .certain dangers 
 which awaited her from the Landgrave ; and finally, 
 in excuse for not having sought the advice of so dear 
 a friend as the Lady Abbess, she enclosed the letter 
 upon which she had acted. 
 
 These preparations were completed by midnight, 
 after which Paulina sought an hour or two of repose. 
 At three o clock were celebrated the early matins, at 
 tended by the devouter part of the sisterhood, in the 
 chapel. Paulina and her maid took this opportunity 
 for leaving their chamber, and slipping unobserved 
 amongst the crowd who were hurrying on that sum 
 mons into the cloisters. The organ was pealing 
 solemnly through the labyrinth of passages which led 
 
200 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 from the interior of the convent ; and Paulina s eyes 
 were suffused with tears, as the gentler recollections 
 of her earlier days, and the peace which belongs to 
 those who have abjured this world and its treacherous 
 promises, arose to her mind, under the influence of 
 the sublime music, in powerful contrast with the tem 
 pestuous troubles of Germany now become so com 
 prehensive in their desolating sweep, as to involve 
 even herself, and others of station as elevated. 
 
KLOSTEKHEIM 201 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 THE convent clock, chiming the quarters, at length 
 announced that they had reached the appointed hour. 
 Trembling with fear and cold, though muffled up in 
 furs, Paulina and her attendant, with their nuns veils 
 drawn over their head-dress, sallied forth into the 
 garden. All was profoundly dark, and overspread 
 with the stillness of the grave. The lights within the 
 chapel threw a rich glow through the painted window ; 
 and here and there, from a few scattered casements in 
 the vast pile of St. Agnes, streamed a few weak rays 
 from a taper or a lamp, indicating the trouble of a 
 sick-bed, or the peace of prayer. But these rare lights 
 did but deepen the massy darkness of all beside ; and 
 Paulina, with her attendant, had much difficulty in 
 making her way to the appointed station. Having 
 reached the wall, however, they pursued its windings, 
 certain of meeting no important obstacles, until they 
 attained a part where their progress was impeded by 
 frequent dilapidations. Here they halted, and in low 
 tones communicated their doubts about the precise 
 
202 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 locality of the station indicated in the letter, when 
 suddenly a man started up from the ground, and 
 greeted them with the words, " St. Agnes ! all is 
 right," which had been preconcerted as the signal in 
 the letter. This man was courteous and respectful in 
 his manner of speaking, and had nothing of the ruffian 
 voice which belonged to the bearer of the letter. In 
 rapid terms he assured Paulina, that " the Young 
 General " had not found circumstances favorable for 
 venturing within the walls, but that he would meet her 
 a few miles beyond the city gates ; and that at present 
 they had no time to lose. Saying this, he unshaded a 
 dark lantern., which showed them a ladder of ropes, 
 attached to the summit of a wall, which at this point 
 was too low to occasion them much uneasiness or diffi 
 culty in ascending. But Paulina insisted previously 
 on hearing something more circumstantial of the man 
 ner and style of their escape from the city walls, and 
 in what company their journey would be performed. 
 The man had already done something to conciliate 
 Paulina s confidence by the propriety of his address, 
 which indicated a superior education, and habits of in 
 tercourse with people of rank. He explained as much 
 of the plan as seemed necessary for the immediate 
 occasion. A convoy of arms and military stores was 
 leaving the city for the post at Falkenstein. Several 
 carriages, containing privileged persons, to whom the 
 Landgrave or his minister had granted a license, 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 203 
 
 were taking the benefit of an escort over the forest ; 
 and a bribe in the proper quarter had easily obtained 
 permission, from the officer on duty at the gates, to 
 suffer an additional carriage to pass as one in a great 
 lady s suite, on the simple condition that it should con 
 tain none but females ; as persons of that sex were 
 liable to no suspicion of being fugitives from the wrath 
 which was now supposed ready to descend upon the 
 conspirators against the Landgrave. 
 
 This explanation reconciled Paulina to the scheme. 
 She felt cheered by the prospect of having other ladies 
 to countenance the mode of her nocturnal journey ; 
 and at the worst, hearing this renewed mention of con 
 spirators and punishment, which easily connected itself 
 with all that had passed in her interview with the 
 Landgrave, she felt assured, at any rate, that the 
 dangers she fled from, transcended any which she was 
 likely to incur upon her route. Her determination 
 was immediately taken. She passed over the wall 
 with her attendant ; and they found themselves in a 
 narrow lane, close to the city walls, with none but a 
 few ruinous outhouses on either side. A low whistle 
 from the man was soon answered by the rumbling of 
 wheels ; and from some distance, as it seemed, a sort 
 of caleche advanced, drawn by a pair of horses. 
 Paulina and her attendant stepped hastily in, for at the 
 very moment when the carriage drew up, a signal gun 
 was heard ; which, as their guide assured them, pro- 
 
204 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 claimed that the escort and the whole train of carriages 
 were at that moment defiling from the city gate. The 
 driver, obeying the directions of the other man, drove 
 off as rapidly as the narrow road and the darkness 
 would allow. A few turns brought them into the 
 great square in front of the schloss ; from which, a few 
 more open streets, traversed at full gallop, soon brought 
 them into the rear of the convoy, which had been un 
 expectedly embarrassed in its progress to the gate. 
 From the rear, by dexterous management, they grad 
 ually insinuated themselves into the centre ; and, 
 contrary to their expectations, amongst the press of 
 baggage-wagons, artillery, and travelling equipages, all 
 tumultuously clamoring to push on, as the best chance 
 of evading Holkerstein in the forest, their own unpre 
 tending vehicle passed without other notice than a 
 curse from the officer on duty ; which, however, they 
 could not presume to appropriate, as it might be sup 
 posed equitably distributed amongst all who stopped 
 the road at the moment. 
 
 Paulina shuddered as she looked out upon the line 
 of fierce faces, illuminated by the glare of torches, 
 and mingling with horses heads, and the gleam of 
 sabres ; all around her, the roar of artillery wheels ; 
 above her head, the vast arch of the gates, its broad 
 massy shadows resting below ; and in the vista beyond, 
 which the archway defined, a mass of blackness in which 
 she rather imagined than saw the interminable soli- 
 
XLOSTERHEIM. 205 
 
 tudcs of the forest. Soon the gate was closed ; their 
 own carriain passc-.l the tardier parts of the convoy ; 
 and, with a dozen or two of others, surrounded by a 
 squadron of dragoons, headed the train. Happy 
 beyond measure at the certainty that she had now 
 cleared the gates of Klosterheim, that she was in 
 the wide open forest free from a detested tyrant, 
 and on the same side of the gates as her lover, who 
 was doubtless advancing to meet her she threw 
 herself back in- the carriage, and resigned herself to a 
 slumber, which the anxieties and watchings of the 
 night had made more than usually welcome. 
 
 The city clocks were now heard in the forest, sol 
 emnly knelling out the hour of four. Hardly, how 
 ever, had Paulina slept an hour, when she was gently 
 awakened by her attendant who had felt it to be her 
 duty to apprise her lady of the change which had 
 occurred in their situation. They had stopped, it 
 seemed, to attach a pair of leaders to their wheel 
 horses ; and were now advancing at a thundering 
 pace, separated from the rest of the convoy, and sur 
 rounded by a small escort of cavalry. The darkness 
 was still intense ; and the lights of Klosterheim, which 
 the frequent windings of the road brought often into 
 view, were at this moment conspicuously seen. The 
 castle, from its commanding position, and the convent 
 of St. Agnes, were both easily traced out by means of 
 the lights gleaming from their long ranges of upper 
 
206 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 windows. A particular turret, which sprang to an 
 almost aerial altitude above the rest of the building, in 
 which it was generally reported that the Landgrave 
 slept, was more distinguishable than any other part of 
 Klosterheim, from one brilliant lustre which shot its 
 rays through a large oriel window. There at this mo 
 ment was sleeping that unhappy prince, tyrannical and 
 self-tormenting, whose unmanly fears had menaced 
 her own innocence with so much indefinite danger; 
 whom, in escaping, she knew not if she had escaped ; 
 and whose snares, as a rueful misgiving began to sug 
 gest, were perhaps gathering faster about her, with 
 every echo which the* startled forest returned to the 
 resounding tread of their flying cavalcade. She leaned 
 back again in the carriage ; again she fell asleep ; 
 again she dreamed. But her sleep was unrefreshing ; 
 her dreams were agitated, confused, and haunted by 
 terrific images. And she awoke repeatedly with her 
 cheerful anticipation, continually decaying, of speedily 
 (perhaps ever again) rejoining her gallant Maximilian. 
 There was indeed yet a possibility that she might be 
 under the superintending care of her lover. But she 
 secretly felt that she was betrayed. And she wept 
 when she reflected that her own precipitance had 
 facilitated the accomplishment of the plot which had 
 perhaps forever ruined her happiness. 
 
KLOSTERHEIM, 207 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 MEANTIME, Paulina awoke from the troubled slum 
 bers into which her fatigues had thrown her, to find 
 herself still flying along as rapidly as four powerful 
 horses could draw their light burden, and still escorted 
 by a considerable body of the Landgrave s dragoons. 
 She was undoubtedly separated from all the rest of the 
 convoy, with whom she had left Klosterheim. It was 
 now apparent, even to her humble attendant, that they 
 were betrayed ; and Paulina reproached herself with 
 having voluntarily co-operated with her enemy s strat 
 agems. Certainly the dangers from which she fled 
 were great and imminent ; yet still, in Klosterheim, 
 she derived some protection from the favor of the 
 Lady Abbess. That lady had great powers of a legal 
 nature throughout the city, and still greater influence 
 with a Roman Catholic populace at this particular 
 period, when their Prince had laid himself open to 
 suspicions of favoring Protestant allies ; and Paulina 
 bitterly bewailed the imprudence, which, in removing 
 her from the convent of St. Agnes, had removed her 
 from her only friends. 
 
208 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 It was about noon, when the party halted at a soli 
 tary house for rest and refreshments. Paulina had 
 heard nothing of the route which they had hitherto 
 taken, nor did she find it easy to collect, from the short 
 and churlish responses of her escort to the few ques 
 tions she had yet ventured to propose, in what direc 
 tion their future advance would proceed. A hasty 
 summons bade her alight ; and a few steps, under the 
 guidance of a trooper, brought her into a little gloomy 
 wainscoted room, where some refreshments had been 
 already spread upon a table. Adjoining was a small 
 bed-room. And she was desired, with something more 
 of civility than she had yet experienced, to consider 
 both as allotted for the use of herself and servant 
 during the time of their stay, which was expected, how 
 ever, not to exceed the two or three hours requisite for 
 resting the horses. 
 
 But that was an arrangement which depended as 
 much upon others as themselves. And in fact a small 
 party, whom the main body of the escort had sent on 
 to patrol the roads in advance, soon returned with the 
 unwelcome news that a formidable corps of Imperial 
 ists were out reconnoitring in a direction which might 
 probably lead them across their own line of march, in 
 the event of their proceeding instantly. The orders 
 already issued for advance were therefore counter 
 manded ; and a resolution was at length adopted by 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 209 
 
 the leader of the party for taking up their abode during 
 the night in their present very tolerable quarters. 
 
 Paulina, wearied and dejected, and recoiling natu 
 rally from the indefinite prospects of danger before 
 her, was not the least rejoiced at this change in the 
 original plan, by which she benefited at any rate to the 
 extent of a quiet shelter for one night more, a blessing 
 which the next day s adventures might deny her, and 
 still more by that postponement of impending evil 
 which is so often welcome to the very firmest minds, 
 when exhausted by toil and affliction. Having this 
 certainty, however, of one night s continuance in her 
 present abode, she requested to have the room made a 
 little more comfortable by the exhilarating blaze of a 
 fire. For this indulgence there, were the principal 
 requisites in a hearth and spacious chimney. And an 
 aged crone, probably the sole female servant upon the 
 premises, speedily presented herself with a plentiful 
 supply of wood, and the two supporters, or andirons 
 (as they were formerly called), for raising the billets 
 so as to allow the air to circulate from below. There 
 was some difficulty at first in kindling the wood ; and 
 the old servant resorted once or twice, after some little 
 apologetic muttering of doubts with herself, to a closet, 
 containing, as Paulina could observe, a considerable 
 body of papers. 
 
 The fragments which she left remained strewed 
 upon the ground : and Paulina, taking them up with a 
 14 
 
210 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 careless air, was suddenly transfixed with astonishment 
 on observing that they were undoubtedly in a hand 
 writing familiar to her eye the handwriting of the 
 most confidential amongst the Imperial secretaries. 
 Other recollections now rapidly associated themselves 
 together, which led her hastily to open the closet door ; 
 and there, as she had already half expected, she saw 
 the travelling mail stolen from her own carriage, its 
 lock forced, and the remaining contents (for every 
 thing bearing a money value had probably vanished 
 on its first disappearance) lying in confusion. Having 
 made this discovery, she hastily closed the door of the 
 closet, resolved to prosecute her investigations in the 
 night-time; but at present, when she was liable to 
 continual intrusions, to give no occasion for those sus 
 picions, which, once aroused, might end in baffling her 
 
 design. 
 
 Meantime she occupied herself in conjectures upon 
 
 the particular course of accident which could have 
 brought the trunk and papers into the situation where 
 she had been fortunate enough to find them. And 
 with the clue already in her possession, she was not 
 long in making another discovery ; she had previously 
 felt some dim sense of recognition, as her eyes wan 
 dered over the room ; but had explained it away into 
 some resemblance into one or other of the many 
 strange scenes which she had passed through since 
 leaving Vienna. But now, on retracing the furniture 
 
KLOSTKRIIEIM. 211 
 
 and aspect of the two rooms, she was struck with her 
 own inattention, in not having sooner arrived at the 
 discovery, that it was their old quarters of Walden- 
 hausen, the very place in which the robbery had been 
 effected, where they had again the prospect of spend 
 ing the night, and of recovering in part the loss she 
 had sustained. 
 
 Midnight came, and the Lady Paulina prepared to 
 avail herself of her opportunities. She drew out the 
 parcel of papers, which was large and miscellaneous 
 in its contents. By far the greater part, as she was 
 happy to observe, were mere copies of originals in the 
 chancery at Vienna ; those related to the civic affairs 
 of Klosterheim, and were probably of a nature not to 
 have been acted upon during the predominance of the 
 Swedish interest in the counsels and administration of 
 that city. With the revival of the Imperial cause, no 
 doubt these orders would be repeated, and with the 
 modifications which new circumstances, and the pro 
 gress of events, would then have rendered expedient. 
 This portion of the papers, therefore, Paulina willingly 
 restored to their situation in the closet. No evil would 
 arise to any party from their present detention in a 
 place where they were little likely to attract notice 
 from any body, but the old lady in her ministries upon 
 the fire. Suspicion would be also turned aside from 
 herself in appropriating the few papers which remained. 
 These contained too frequent mention of a name dear 
 
212 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 to herself, not to have a considerable value in her 
 eyes ; she was resolved, if possible, to carry them off 
 by concealing them within her bosom ; but at all 
 events, in preparation for any misfortune that might 
 ultimately compel her to resign them, she determined 
 without loss of time to make herself mistress of their 
 contents. 
 
 One, and the most important of these documents, 
 was a long and confidential letter from the Emperor to 
 the Town-Council and the chief heads of conventual 
 houses in Klosterheim. It contained a rapid summary 
 of the principal events in her lover s life, from his 
 infancy, when some dreadful domestic tragedy had 
 thrown him upon the Emperor s protection, to his 
 present period of early manhood, when his own sword 
 and distinguished talents had raised him to a brilliant 
 name and a high military rank in the Imperial service. 
 What were the circumstances of that tragedy, as a 
 case sufficiently well known to those whom he ad 
 dressed, or to be collected from accompanying papers, 
 the Emperor did not say. But he lavished every va 
 riety of praise upon Maximilian, with a liberality that 
 won tears of delight from the solitary young lady, as 
 she now sat at midnight looking over these gracious 
 testimonies to her lover s merit. A theme, so de 
 lightful to Paulina, could not be unseasonable at any 
 time ; and never did her thoughts revert to him more 
 fondly than at this moment, when she so much needed 
 
KLOSTERHKIM. 213 
 
 his protecting arm. Yet, the Emperor, she was 
 awaiv, must have some more special motive for en 
 larging upon this topic, than his general favor to Max 
 imilian. What this could be in a case so closely 
 connecting the parties to the correspondence on both 
 sides with Klosterheim, a little interested her curiosity. 
 And, on looking more narrowly at the accompanying 
 documents, in one which had been most pointedly re 
 ferred to by the Emperor, she found some disclosures 
 on the subject of her lover s early misfortunes, which, 
 whilst they filled her with horror and astonishment, 
 elevated the natural pretensions of Maximilian in point 
 of birth and descent more nearly to a level with the 
 splendor of his self-created distinctions ; and thus 
 crowned him, who already lived in her apprehension 
 as the very model of a hero, with the only advantages 
 that he had ever been supposed to want the interest 
 which attaches to unmerited misfortunes, and the 
 splendor of an illustrious descent. 
 
 As she thus sat, absorbed in the story of her lover s 
 early misfortunes, a murmuring sound of talking 
 attracted her ear, apparently issuing from the closet. 
 Hastily throwing open the door, she found that a thin 
 wooden partition, veined with numerous chinks, was 
 the sole separation between the closet and an adjoining 
 bed-room. The words were startling, incoherent, and 
 at times raving. Evidently they proceeded from some 
 patient stretched on a bed of sickness, and dealing 
 
214 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 with a sort of horrors in his distempered fancy, worse, 
 it was to be hoped, than any which the records of his 
 own remembrance could bring before him. Some 
 times he spoke in the character of one who chases a 
 deer in a forest ; sometimes he was close upon the 
 haunches of his game ; sometimes it seemed on the 
 point of escaping him. Then the nature of the game 
 changed utterly, and became something human ; and 
 a companion was suddenly at his side. With him he 
 quarrelled fiercely about their share in the pursuit and 
 capture. " Oh, my lord, you must not deny it. Look, 
 look ! your hands are bloodier than mine. Fie ! fie ! 
 is there no running water in the forest ? So young 
 as he is, and so noble ! Stand off ! he will cover us 
 all with his blood ! Oh, what a groan was that ! It 
 will have broke somebody s heart-strings, I think ! It 
 would have broken mine when I was younger. But 
 these wars make us all cruel. Yet you are worse than 
 I am." Then again, after a pause, the patient seemed 
 to start up in bed, and he cried out convulsively 
 " Give me my share, I say. Wherefore must my 
 share be so small ? There he comes past again. 
 Now strike, now, now, now ! Get his head down, my 
 lord. He s off, by G ! Now, if he gets out of the 
 forest, two hours will take him to Vienna. And we 
 must go to Rome : where else could we get absolu 
 tion ? Oh, Heavens ! the forest is full of blood, well 
 may our hands be bloody. I see flowers all the way 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 215 
 
 to Vienna : but there is blood below : oh, what a 
 depth ! what a depth ! Oh ! heart, heart ! See 
 how he starts up from his lair ! Oh ! your Highness 
 has deceived me ! There are a thousand upon otic 
 man ! " 
 
 In such terms he continued to rave, until Paulina s 
 mind was so much harassed with the constant succes 
 sion of dreadful images, and frenzied ejaculations, all 
 making report of a life passed in scenes of horror, 
 bloodshed and violence, that at length, for her own 
 relief, she was obliged to close the door ; through 
 which, however, at intervals, piercing shrieks or half- 
 stifled curses still continued to find their way. It 
 struck her as a remarkable coincidence, that some 
 thing like a slender thread of connection might be 
 found between the dreadful story narrated in the Im 
 perial document, and the delirious ravings of this poor 
 wretched creature, to whom accident had made her a 
 neighbor for a single night. 
 
 Early the next morning, Paulina and her servant 
 were summoned to resume their journey ; and three 
 hours more of rapid travelling brought them to the 
 frowning fortress of Lovenstein. Their escort, with 
 any one of whom they had found but few opportunities 
 of communicating, had shown themselves throughout 
 gloomy and obstinately silent. They knew not, there 
 fore, to what distance their journey extended. But 
 from the elaborate ceremonies with which they were 
 
216 KLOSTERHE1M. 
 
 here received, and the formal receipt for their persons, 
 which was drawn up and delivered by the governor to 
 the officer commanding their escort, Paulina judged 
 that the castle of Lovenstein would prove to be their 
 final destination. 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 217 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Two days elapsed without any change in Paulina s 
 situation, as she found it arranged upon her first arrival 
 at Lovenstein. Her rooms were not incommodious ; 
 but the massy barricades at the doors, the grated win 
 dows, and the sentinels who mounted guard upon all 
 the avenues which led to her apartments, satisfied her 
 sufficiently that she was a prisoner. 
 
 The third morning after her arrival brought her a 
 still more unwelcome proof of this melancholy truth, in 
 the summons which she received to attend a court of 
 criminal justice on the succeeding day, connected with 
 the tenor of its language. Her heart died within her as 
 she found herself called upon to answer as a delin 
 quent on a charge of treasonable conspiracy with various 
 members of the university of Klosterheim, against the 
 
 sovereign prince, the Landgrave of X . Witnesses 
 
 in exculpation, whom could she produce ? Or how de 
 fend herself before a tribunal where all alike, judge, 
 evidence, accuser, were in effect one and the same ma 
 lignant enemy ? In what way she could have come 
 to be connected in the Landgrave s mind with a charge 
 
218 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 of treason against his princely rights, she found it diffi 
 cult to explain, unless the mere fact of having carried 
 the Imperial despatches in the trunks about her car 
 riages, were sufficient to implicate her as a secret 
 emissary or agent concerned in the Imperial diplo 
 macy. But she strongly suspected that some deep 
 misapprehension existed in the Landgrave s mind ; and 
 its origin, she fancied, might be found in the refined 
 knavery of their ruffian host at Waldenhausen, in 
 making his market of the papers which he had pur 
 loined. Bringing them forward separately and by 
 piece-meal, he had probably hoped to receive so many 
 separate rewards. But, as it would often happen that 
 one paper was necessary in the way of explanation to 
 another, and the whole, perhaps, were almost essential 
 to the proper understanding of any one, the result 
 would inevitably be grievously to mislead the Land 
 grave. Further communications, indeed, would have 
 tended to disabuse the Prince of any delusions raised 
 in this way. But it was probable, as Paulina had 
 recently learned in passing through Waldenhausen, 
 that the ruffian s illness and delirium had put a stop to 
 any further communication of papers ; and thus the 
 misconceptions which he had caused, were perpetu 
 ated in the Landgrave s mind. 
 
 It was on the third day after Paulina s arrival, that 
 she was first placed before the court. The presiding 
 officer in this tribunal was the governor of the fortress, 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 219 
 
 a tried soldier, but a ruffian of low habits and cruel 
 nature. lie had risen under the Landgrave s patronage 
 as an adventurer of desperate courage, ready for any 
 service, however disreputable, careless alike of peril or 
 of infamy. In common with many partisan officers, 
 who had sprung from the ranks in this adventurous war, 
 seeing on every side and in the highest quarters, princes 
 as well as supreme commanders, the uttermost con 
 tempt of justice and moral principle, he had fought 
 his way to distinction and fortune, through every species 
 of ignoble cruelty. He had passed from service to 
 service, as he saw an opening for his own peculiar 
 interest or merit, everywhere valued as a soldier of 
 desperate enterprise, everywhere abhorred as a man. 
 By birth a Croatian, he had exhibited himself as one 
 of the most savage leaders of that order of barbarians 
 in the sack of Magdeburgh, where he served under 
 Tilly : but, latterly, he had taken service again under 
 his original patron, the Landgrave, who had lured him 
 back to his interest by the rank of general and the 
 governorship of Lovestein. 
 
 This brutal officer, who had latterly lived in a state 
 of continual intoxication, was the judge before whom 
 the lovely and innocent Paulina was now arraigned on 
 a charge affecting her life. In fact, it became obvious 
 that the process was not designed for any other pur 
 pose than to save appearances, and, if that should 
 seem possible, to extract further discoveries from the 
 
220 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 prisoner. The general acted as supreme arbiter in 
 every question of rights and power that arose to the 
 court in the administration of their almost unlimited 
 functions. Doubts he allowed of none ; and cut every 
 knot of jurisprudence, whether form or substance, by 
 his Croatian sabre. Two assessors, however, he wil 
 lingly received upon his bench of justice, to relieve him 
 from the fatigue and difficulty of conducting a per 
 plexed examination. 
 
 These assessors were lawyers of a low class, who 
 tempered the exercise of their official duties with as 
 few scruples of justice, and as little regard to the re 
 straints of courtesy, as their military principal. The 
 three judges were almost equally ferocious, and tools 
 equally abject of the unprincipled sovereign whom 
 they served. 
 
 A sovereign, however, he was ; and Paulina was 
 well aware that in his own states he had the power of 
 life and death. She had good reason to see that her 
 own death was resolved on ; still she neglected no 
 means of honorable self-defence. In a tone of mingled 
 sweetness and dignity she maintained her innocence 
 of all that was alleged against her; protested that she 
 was unacquainted with the tenor of any papers which 
 might have been found in her trunks ; and claimed her 
 privilege, as a subject of the Emperor, in bar of all right 
 on the Landgrave s part to call her to account. These 
 pleas were overruled, and when she further acquainted 
 
KLOSTERITEIM. 221 
 
 the court that she was a near relative of the Emperor s, 
 and ventured to hint at the vengeance with which his 
 Imperial .Majesty would not fail to visit so bloody a 
 contempt of justice, she was surprised to find this 
 menace treated with mockery and laughter. In reality, 
 the long habit of fighting for and against all the Princes 
 of Germany, had given to the Croatian general a dis 
 regard for any of them, except on the single consider 
 ation of receiving his pay at the moment ; and a single 
 circumstance unknown to Paulina, in the final deter 
 mination of the Landgrave, to earn a merit with his 
 Swedish allies by breaking off all terms of reserve or 
 compromise with the Imperial court, impressed a savage 
 desperation on the tone of that Prince s policy at this 
 particular time. The Landgrave had resolved to stake 
 his all upon a single throw. A battle was now ex 
 pected, which, if favorable to the Swedes, would lay 
 open the road to Vienna. The Landgrave was pre 
 pared to abide the issue ; not, perhaps, wholly unin 
 fluenced to so extreme a course by the very paper 
 which had been robbed from Paulina. His policy was 
 known to his agents, and conspicuously influenced their 
 manner of receiving her menace. 
 
 Menaces, they informed her, came with better grace 
 from those who had the power to enforce them ; and 
 with a brutal scoff the Croatian bade her merit their 
 indulgence by frank discoveries and voluntary confes 
 sions. He insisted on knowing the nature of the con- 
 
222 KLOSTERHE1M. 
 
 nection which the Imperial Colonel of Horse, Maximil 
 ian, had maintained with the students of Klosterheim ; 
 and upon other discoveries, with respect to most of 
 which Paulina was too imperfectly informed herself to 
 be capable of giving any light. Her earnest declarations 
 to this effect were treated with disregard. She was 
 dismissed for the present, but with an intimation that 
 on the morrow she must prepare herself with a more 
 complying temper, or with a sort of firmness in main 
 taining her resolution, which would not perhaps long 
 resist those means which the law had placed at their 
 disposal for dealing with the refractory and obstinate. 
 
KLOSTERHE1M. 223 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 PAULINA meditated earnestly upon the import of 
 this parting threat. The more she considered it, the 
 less could she doubt that these fierce inquisitors had 
 meant to threaten her with torture. She felt the whole 
 indignity of such a threat, though she could hardly 
 bring herself to believe them in earnest. 
 
 On the following morning she was summoned early 
 before her judges. They had not yet assembled ; but 
 some of the lower officials were pacing up and down, 
 exchanging unintelligible jokes, looking sometimes at 
 herself, sometimes at an iron machine, with a complex 
 arrangement of wheels and screws. Dark were the 
 suspicions which assaulted Paulina as this framework, 
 or couch of iron first met her eyes and perhaps 
 some of the jests circulating amongst the brutal minis 
 ters of her brutal judges would have been intelligible 
 enough, had she condescended to turn her attention in 
 that direction. Meantime her doubts were otherwise 
 dispersed. The Croatian officer now entered the room 
 alone, his assessors having probably declined partici- 
 
224 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 pation in that part of the horrid functions which re 
 mained under the Landgrave s commission. 
 
 This man, presenting a paper with a long list of 
 interrogatories to Paulina, bade her now rehearse ver 
 bally the sum of the answers which she designed to 
 give. Running rapidly through them, Paulina replied 
 with dignity, yet trembling and agitated, that these 
 were questions which in any sense she could not answer 
 many of them referring to points on which she had 
 no knowledge, and none of them being consistent with 
 the gratitude and friendship so largely due on her side 
 to the persons implicated in the bearing of these 
 questions. 
 
 " Then you refuse ? " 
 
 " Certainly ; there are three questions only which it 
 is in my power to answer at all even these imper 
 fectly. Answers such as you expect would load me 
 with dishonor ? " 
 
 " Then you refuse ? " 
 
 " For the reasons I have stated, undoubtedly I do." 
 
 " Once more you refuse ? " 
 
 " I refuse, certainly ; but do me the justice to record 
 my reasons." 
 
 " Reasons ! ha ! ha ! they had need be strong 
 ones if they will hold out against the arguments of 
 this pretty plaything," laying his hand upon the ma 
 chine. " However, the choice is yours, not mine." 
 
 So saying, he made a sign to the attendants. One 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 225 
 
 in to move the machine, and work the screws or 
 raise the clanking grates and framework, with a savage 
 din, two others bared their arms. Paulina looked 
 on motionless with sudden horror, and palpitating with 
 fear. 
 
 The Croatian nodded to the men ; and then in a 
 loud commanding voice exclaimed "The question 
 in the first degree ! " 
 
 At this moment Paulina recovered her strength, 
 which the first panic had dispelled. She saw a man 
 approach her with a ferocious grin of exultation. An 
 other, with the same horrid expression of countenance, 
 carried a large vase of water. 
 
 The whole indignity of the scene flashed full upon 
 her mind. She, a lady of the Imperial house, threat 
 ened with torture by the base agent of a titled ruffian ! 
 She who owed him no duty had violated no claim 
 of hospitality, though in her own person all had been 
 atrociously outraged ! 
 
 Thoughts like these flew rapidly through her brain, 
 when suddenly a door opened behind her. It was an 
 attendant, with some implements for tightening or re 
 laxing bolts. The bare-armed ruffian at this moment 
 raised his arm to seize hers. Shrinking from the pol 
 lution of his accursed touch, Paulina turned hastily 
 round, darted through the open door, and fled, like a 
 dove pursued by vultures, along the passages which 
 stretched before her. Already she felt their hot 
 lo 
 
226 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 breathing upon her neck, already the foremost had 
 raised his hand to arrest her, when a sudden turn 
 brought her full upon a band of young women, tending 
 upon one of superior rank, manifestly their mistress. 
 
 " Oh, madam ! " exclaimed Paulina, " save me ! 
 save me ! " and with these words fell exhausted at 
 the lady s feet. 
 
 This female young, beautiful, and with a touching 
 pensiveness of manners raised her tenderly in her 
 arms, and with a sisterly tone of affection bade her 
 fear nothing ; and the respectful manner in which 
 the officials retired at her command, satisfied Paulina 
 that she stood in some very near relation to the Land 
 grave in reality she soon spoke of him as her 
 father. " Is it possible," thought Paulina to herself, 
 c< that this innocent and lovely child " (for she was not 
 more than seventeen, though with a prematurity of 
 womanly person that raised her to a level with Pauli 
 na s height) " should owe the affection of a daughter 
 to a tyrant so savage as the Landgrave ? " 
 
 She found, however, that the gentle Princess Ade 
 line owed to her own childlike simplicity the best gift 
 that one so situated could have received from the 
 bounty of Heaven. The barbarities exercised by the 
 Croatian governor, she charged entirely upon his own 
 brutal nature ; and so confirmed was she in this view 
 by Paulina s own case, that she now resolved upon 
 executing a resolution she had long projected. Her 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 father s confidence was basely abused ; this she said, 
 and devoutly believed. "No part of the truth ever 
 .:e<l him ; her own letters remained disregarded in 
 a way which was irreconcilable with the testimonies of 
 profound affection to herself, daily showered upon her 
 by his Highness. 1 " 
 
 In reality, this sole child of the Landgrave was also 
 the one sole jewel that gave a value in his eyes to his 
 else desolate life. Everything in and about the castle 
 of Lovestein was placed under her absolute control ; 
 even the brutal Croatian governor knew that no plea 
 or extremity of circumstances would atone for one act 
 of disobedience to her orders, and hence it was that 
 the ministers of this tyrant retired with so much 
 prompt obedience to her commands. 
 
 Experience, however, had taught the Princess, that 
 not unfrequently, orders apparently obeyed were after 
 wards secretly evaded ; and the disregard paid of late 
 to her letters of complaint, satisfied her that they were 
 stifled and suppressed by the governor. Paulina, 
 therefore, whom a few hours of unrestrained inter 
 course had made interesting to her heart, she would 
 not suffer even to sleep apart from herself. Her own 
 agitation on the poor prisoner s behalf became greater 
 even than that of Paulina ; and as fresh circumstances 
 of suspicion daily arose in the savage governor s de 
 portment, she now took in good earnest those measures 
 for escape to Klosterheim which she had long ar- 
 
228 KLOSTERHEiM. 
 
 ranged. In this purpose she was greatly assisted by 
 the absolute authority which her father had conceded 
 to her over everything but the mere military arrange 
 ments in the fortress. Under the color of an excur 
 sion, such as she had been daily accustomed to take, 
 she found no difficulty in placing Paulina, sufficiently 
 disguised, amongst her own servants. At a proper 
 point of the road, Paulina and a few attendants, with 
 the Princess herself, issued from their coaches, and 
 bidding them await their return in half an hour s inter 
 val, by that time were far advanced upon their road to 
 the military post of Falkenberg. 
 
KLOSTERIIEIM. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 IN twenty days The Mysterious Masque bad sum 
 moned the Landgrave "to answer, for crimes un- 
 atoned, before a tribunal where no power but that of 
 innocence could avail him." These days were nearly 
 expired. The morning of the Twentieth had arrived. 
 
 There were two interpretations of this summons. 
 By many it was believed that the tribunal contem 
 plated was that of the Emperor ; and that, by some 
 mysterious plot, which could not be more difficult of 
 execution than others which had actually been accom 
 plished by The Masque, on this day the Landgrave 
 would be carried off to Vienna. Others, again, under 
 standing by the tribunal, in the same sense, the Impe 
 rial chamber of criminal justice, believed it possible to 
 fulfil the summons in some way less liable to delay or 
 uncertainty, than by a long journey to Vienna, through 
 a country beset with enemies. But a third party, dif 
 fering from both the others, understood by the tribunal 
 where innocence was the only shield, the judgment 
 seat of heaven ; and believed on this day justice would 
 be executed on the Landgrave, for crimes known and 
 
230 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 unknown, by a public and memorable death. Under 
 any interpretation, however, nobody amongst the citi 
 zens could venture peremptorily to deny, after the 
 issue of the masqued ball, and of so many other public 
 denunciations, that The Masque would keep his word 
 to the letter. 
 
 It followed of necessity that everybody was on the 
 tiptoe of suspense, and that the interest hanging upon 
 the issue of this night s events swallowed up all other 
 anxieties, of whatsoever nature. Even the battle, 
 which was now daily expected between the Imperial 
 and Swedish armies, ceased to occupy the hearts and 
 conversation of the citizens. Domestic and public 
 concerns alike gave way to the coming catastrophe so 
 solemnly denounced by The Masque. 
 
 The Landgrave alone maintained a gloomy reserve, 
 and the expression of a haughty disdain. He had re 
 solved to meet the summons with the liveliest expres 
 sion of defiance, by fixing this evening for a second 
 masqued ball, upon a greater scale than the first. In 
 doing this he acted advisedly, and with the counsel of 
 his Swedish allies. They represented to him that the 
 issue of the approaching battle might be relied upon 
 as pretty nearly certain ; all the indications were 
 indeed generally thought to promise a decisive turn in 
 their favor ; but in the worst case, no defeat of the 
 Swedish army in this war had ever been complete ; 
 that the bulk of the retreating army, if the Swedes 
 
KLOSTERIIEIM. 231 
 
 should be obliged to retreat, would take the road to 
 EQosterheim, and would furnish to himself a garrison 
 capable of holding the city for many months to come, 
 (and that would not fail to bring many fresh chances 
 to all of them.) whilst to his new and cordial allies 
 this course would offer a secure retreat from pursuing 
 enemies, and a satisfactory proof of his own fidelity. 
 This even in tl>e worst case : whereas in the better 
 and more probable one, of a victory to the Swedes, to 
 maintain the city but for a day or two longer against 
 internal conspirators, and the secret co-operators out 
 side, would be in effect to ratify any victory which the 
 Swedes might gain by putting into their hands at a 
 critical moment one of its most splendid trophies and 
 guarantees. 
 
 These counsels fell too much into the Landgrave s 
 own way of thinking to meet with any demurs from 
 him. It was agreed, therefore, that as many Swedish 
 troops as could at this important moment be spared, 
 should be introduced into the halls and saloons of the 
 castle, on the eventful evening, disguised as masquers. 
 These were about four hundred ; and other arrange 
 ments were made, equally mysterious, and some of 
 them known only to the Landgrave. 
 
 At seven o clock, as on the former occasion, the 
 company began to assemble. The same rooms were 
 thrown open ; but, as the party was now far more nu 
 merous, and was made more comprehensive in point 
 
232 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 of rank, in order to include all who were involved in 
 the conspiracy which had been some time maturing in 
 Klosterheim, fresh suites of rooms were judged neces 
 sary, on the pretext of giving fuller effect to the princely 
 hospitalities of the Landgrave. And, on this occasion, 
 according to an old privilege conceded in the case of 
 coronations or galas of magnificence, by the Lady 
 Abbess of St. Agnes, the partition walls were removed 
 between the great hall of the schloss, and the refec 
 tory of that immense convent ; so that the two vast 
 establishments, which on one side were contiguous to 
 each other, were thus laid into one. 
 
 The company had now continued to pour in for 
 two hours. The palace and the refectory of the con 
 vent were now overflowing with lights and splendid 
 masques ; the avenues and corridors rang with music ; 
 and, though every heart was throbbing with fear and 
 suspense, no outward expression was wanting of joy 
 and festal pleasure. For the present, all was calm 
 around the slumbering volcano. 
 
 Suddenly the Count St. Aldenheim, who was stand 
 ing with arms folded, and surveying the brilliant scene, 
 felt some one touch his hand, in the way concerted 
 amongst the conspirators as a private signal of recog 
 nition. Ho turned and recognized his friend, the 
 Baron Adelort, who saluted him with three emphatic 
 words " We are betrayed ! " Then, after a pause, 
 " Follow me." 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 233 
 
 St. Aldcnheim made his way through the glittering 
 crowds, and pressed after his conductor into one of the 
 most private corridors. 
 
 " Fear not," said the other, " that we shall be 
 watched. Vigilance is no longer necessary to our 
 crafty enemy. He has already triumphed. Every 
 avenue of escape is barred and secured against us : 
 every outlet of the palace is occupied by the Land 
 grave s troops. Not a man of us will return alive." 
 
 " Heaven forbid we should prove ourselves such 
 gulls ! You are but jesting, my friend." 
 
 " Would to God I were ! my information is but too 
 certain. Something I have overheard by accident ; 
 something has been told me ; and something I have 
 seen. Come you also, Count, and see what I will 
 show you : then judge for yourself." 
 
 So saying, he led St. Aldenheim by a little circuit of 
 passages to a doorway, through which they passed into 
 a hall of vast proportions ; to judge by the catafalques, 
 and mural monuments, scattered at intervals along the 
 vast expanse of its walls, this seemed to be the ante- 
 chapel of St. Agnes. In fact it was so ; a few faint 
 lights glimmered through the gloomy extent of this 
 immense chamber, placed (according to the Catholic 
 rite) at the shrine of the saint. Feeble as it was, 
 however, the light was powerful enough to display in 
 the centre a pile of scaffolding covered with black 
 drapery. Standing at the foot, they could trace the 
 
234 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 outlines of a stage at the summit, fenced in with a 
 railing, a block, and the other apparatus for the 
 solemnity of a public execution, whilst the saw-dust 
 below their feet ascertained the spot in which the 
 heads were to fall. 
 
 " Shall we ascend and rehearse our parts ? " asked 
 the Count : " for methinks everything is prepared, 
 except the headsman and the spectators. A plague on 
 the inhospitable knave ! " 
 
 " Yes, St. Aldenheim, all is prepared even to the 
 sufferers. On that list, you stand foremost. Believe 
 me, I speak with knowledge ; no matter where gained. 
 It is certain." 
 
 " Well, necessitas non liabet lege?n ; and he that 
 dies on Tuesday will never catch cold on Wednesday. 
 But still, that comfort is something of the coldest. 
 Think you that none better could be had ? " 
 
 " As how ? " 
 
 " Revenge, par exemple ; a little revenge. Might 
 one not screw the neck of this base Prince, who 
 abuses the confidence of cavaliers so perfidiously ? 
 To die I care not ; but to be caught in a trap, and die 
 like a rat lured by a bait of toasted cheese Faugh ! 
 my countly blood rebels against it ! " 
 
 " Something might surely be done, if we could 
 muster in any strength. That is, we might die sword 
 in hand ; but " 
 
 44 Enough ! I ask no more. Now let us go. We 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 235 
 
 will separately pace the rooms, draw together as many 
 of our party as we can single out, and then proclaim 
 ourselves. Lot each answer for one victim. I ll take 
 his Highness for my share." 
 
 With this purpose and thus forewarned of the 
 dreadful fate at hand, they left the gloomy ante-chapel, 
 traversed the long suite of entertaining rooms, and col 
 lected as many as could easily be detached from the 
 dances without too much pointing out their own 
 motions to the attention of all present. The Count 
 St. Aldenheim was seen rapidly explaining to them 
 the circumstances of their dreadful situation ; whilst 
 hands uplifted, or suddenly applied to the hilt of the 
 sword, with other gestures of sudden emotion, ex 
 pressed the different impressions of rage or fear, 
 which, under each variety of character, impressed 
 the several hours. Some of them, however, were too 
 unguarded in their motions ; and the energy of their 
 gesticulations had now begun to attract the attention of 
 the company. 
 
 The Landgrave himself had his eye upon them. 
 But at this moment his attention was drawn off by an 
 uproar of confusion in an ante-chamber, which argued 
 some tragical inportance in the cause that could prompt 
 so sudden a disregard for the restraints of time and 
 place. 
 
236 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 His Highness issued from the room in consterna 
 tion, followed by many of the company. In the very 
 centre of the ante-room, booted and spurred, bearing 
 all the marks of extreme haste, panic, and confusion, 
 stood a Swedish officer, dealing forth hasty fragments 
 of some heart-shaking intelligence. " All is lost ! " 
 said he, " not a regiment has escaped ! " u And the 
 place ? " exclaimed a press of inquirers. " Nord- 
 lingen." " And which way has the Swedish army 
 retreated ? " demanded a masque behind him. 
 
 " Retreat ! " retorted the officer, " I tell you there 
 is no retreat. All have perished. The army is no 
 more. Horse, foot, artillery all is wrecked, crushed, 
 annihilated. Whatever yet lives, is in the power of 
 the Imperialists." 
 
 At this moment the Landgrave came up, and in 
 every way strove to check these too liberal communi 
 cations. He frowned ; the officer saw him not. He 
 laid his hand on the officer s arm, but all in vain. He 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 237 
 
 spoke, but the officer knew not, or forgot his rank. 
 Panic and immeasurable sorrow had crushed his heart; 
 ho cared not for restraints ; decorum and ceremony 
 wnv hc-cornc idle words. The Swedish army had 
 perished. The greatest disaster of the whole Thirty 
 Years War had fallen upon his countrymen. His 
 own eyes had witnessed the tragedy, and he had no 
 power to check or restrain that which made his heart 
 overflow. 
 
 The Landgrave retired. But in half an hour the 
 banquet was announced ; and his Highness had so 
 much command over his own feelings, that he took his 
 seat at the table. He seemed tranquil in the midst of 
 general agitation ; for the company were distracted by 
 various passions. Some exulted in the great victory 
 of the Imperialists, and the approaching liberation of 
 Klosterheim. Some who were in the secret, anticipated 
 with horror the coming tragedy of vengeance upon his 
 enemies, which the Landgrave had prepared for this 
 night. Some were filled with suspense and awe on 
 the probable fulfilment in some way or other, doubtful 
 as to the mode, but tragic (it was not doubted) for the 
 result of The Masque s mysterious denunciation. 
 
 Under such circumstances of universal agitation and 
 suspense, for on one side or other it seemed inevi 
 table that this night must produce a tragical catas- 
 
238 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 trophe, it was not extraordinary that silence and 
 embarrassment should at one moment take possession 
 of the company, and at another, that kind of forced 
 and intermitting gayety, which still more forcibly pro 
 claimed the trepidation which really mastered the 
 spirits of the assemblage. The banquet was mag 
 nificent : but it moved heavily and in sadness. The 
 music, which broke the silence at intervals, was 
 animating and triumphant ; but it had no power to 
 disperse the gloom which hung over the evening, and 
 which was gathering strength conspicuously as the 
 hours advanced to midnight. 
 
 As the clock struck eleven, the orchestra had sud 
 denly become silent ; and, as no buzz of conversation 
 succeeded, the anxiety of expectation became more 
 painfully irritating. The whole vast assemblage was 
 hushed, gazing at the doors at each other or 
 watching, stealthily, the Landgrave s countenance. 
 Suddenly a sound was heard in an ante-ropm : a page 
 entered with a step hurried and discomposed, ad 
 vanced to the Landgrave s seat, and bending down 
 wards, whispered some news or message to that Prince, 
 of which not a syllable could be caught by the company. 
 Whatever were its import, it could not be collected 
 from any very marked change on the features of 
 him to whom it was addressed, that he participated in 
 the emotions of the messenger, which were obviously 
 those of grief or panic perhaps of both united. 
 
KLOSTKKUKIM. 239 
 
 Some even faiK ii d that a transient expression of ma 
 lignant exultation crossed the Landgrave s counte 
 nance at this moment. But, if that were so, it was 
 banished as suddenly ; and, in the next instant, the 
 Prince arose with a leisurely motion ; and with a very 
 successful affectation (if such it were) of extreme 
 tranquillity, he moved forwards to one of the ante 
 rooms, in which, as it now appeared, some person was 
 awaiting his presence. 
 
 Who, and on what errand ? These were the 
 questions which now racked the curiosity of those 
 among the company who had least concern in the 
 final event, and more painfully interested others 
 whose fate was consciously dependent upon the ac 
 cidents which the next hour might happen to bring up. 
 Silence still continuing to prevail, and, if possible, 
 deeper silence than before, it was inevitable that all 
 the company those even whose honorable temper 
 would least have brooked any settled purpose of sur 
 prising the Landgrave s secrets should, in some 
 measure, become a party to what was now passing in 
 the ante-room. 
 
 The voice of the Landgrave was heard at times 
 briefly and somewhat sternly in reply but apparently 
 in the tone of one who is thrown upon the necessity 
 of self-defence. One the other side, the speaker was 
 earnest, solemn, and (as it seemed) upon an office of 
 menace or upbraiding. For a time, however, the 
 
240 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 tones were low and subdued ; but, as the passion of 
 the scene advanced, less restraint was observed on 
 both sides ; and at length many believed that in the 
 stranger s voice they recognized that of the Lady 
 Abbess ; and it was some corroboration of this conjec 
 ture, that the name of Paulina began now frequently to 
 be caught, and in connection with ominous words, indi 
 cating some dreadful fate supposed to have befallen 
 her. 
 
 A few moments dispersed all doubts. The tones 
 of bitter and angry reproach rose louder than before ; 
 they were, without doubt, those of the Abbess. She 
 charged the blood of Paulina upon the Landgrave s 
 head ; denounced the instant vengeance of the Em 
 peror for so great an atrocity ; and, if that could be 
 evaded, bade him expect certain retribution from 
 Heaven for so wanton and useless an effusion of 
 innocent blood. 
 
 The Landgrave replied in a lower key; and his 
 words were few and rapid. That they were words of 
 fierce recrimination was easily collected from the 
 tone ; and in the next minute the parties separated 
 with little ceremony (as was sufficiently evident) on 
 either side, and with mutual wrath. The Landgrave 
 re-entered the banqueting-room his features discom 
 posed and inflated with passion ; but such was his 
 self-command, and so habitual his dissimulation, that, 
 by the time he reached his scat, all traces of agitation 
 
KLOSTERHEI3I. 
 
 h;ul disappeared ; hi* countenance had resumed its 
 usual expression of stern serenity, and his manners 
 their usual air of perfect self-possession. 
 
 The clock of St. Agnes struck twelve. At that 
 sound the Landgrave rose. " Friends, and illustrious 
 strangers ! " said he, " I have caused one seat to be 
 left empty for that blood-stained Masque who sum 
 moned me to answer on this night for a crime which 
 he could not name, at a bar which no man knows. 
 His summons you heard. Its fulfilment is yet to come. 
 But I suppose few of us are weak enough to ex 
 pect " 
 
 " That The Masque of Klosterheim will ever break 
 his engagements," said a deep voice, suddenly inter 
 rupting the Landgrave. All eyes were directed to the 
 sound ; and behold ! there stood The Masque, and 
 seated himself quietly in the chair which had been 
 left vacant for his reception. 
 
 " It is well ! " said the Landgrave ; but the air of 
 vexation and panic with which he sank back into his 
 seat belied his words. Rising again, after a pause, 
 with some agitation he said, " Audacious criminal ! 
 since last we met, I have learned to know you, and to 
 appreciate your purposes. It is now fit they should 
 be known to Klosterheim. A scene of justice awaits 
 you at present, which will teach this city to under 
 stand the delusions which could build any part of her 
 16 
 
242 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 hopes upon yourself. Citizens and friends, not I, 
 but these dark criminals and interlopers, whom you 
 will presently see revealed in their true colors, are 
 answerable for that interruption to the course of our 
 peaceful festivities, which will presently be brought 
 before you. Not I, but they, are responsible." 
 
 So saying, the Landgrave arose, and the whole 
 of that immense audience, who now resumed their 
 masques, and prepared to follow whither his Highness 
 should lead. With the haste of one who fears he may 
 be anticipated in his purpose, and the fury of some 
 bird of prey, apprehending that his struggling victim 
 may yet be torn from his talons, the Prince hurried 
 onwards to the ante-chapel. Innumerable torches now 
 illuminated its darkness ; in other respects it remained 
 as St. Aldenheim had left it. 
 
 The Swedish masques had many of them with 
 drawn from the gala on hearing the dreadful day of 
 Nordlingen. But enough remained, when strength 
 ened by the body guard of the Landgrave, to make 
 up a corps of nearly five hundred men. Under the 
 command of Colonel Von Aremberg, part of them 
 now enclosed the scaffold, and part prepared to 
 seize the persons who were pointed out to them as 
 conspirators. Amongst these stood foremost The 
 Masque. 
 
 Shaking off those who attempted to lay hands upon 
 
KLOSTERI1E1M. 243 
 
 him, he strode disdainfully within the ring ; and then 
 turning to the Landgrave, he said 
 
 " Prince, for once be generous ; accept me as a 
 ransom for the rest." 
 
 The Landgrave smiled sarcastically. " That were 
 an unequal bargain, methinks, to take a part in ex 
 change for the whole." 
 
 " The whole ? And where is then your assurance 
 of the whole ? " 
 
 k Who should now make it doubtful ? There is 
 the block ; the headsman is at hand. What hand can 
 deliver from this extremity even you, Sir Masque ? " 
 
 " That which has many times delivered me from a 
 greater. It seems, Prince, that you forget the last 
 days in the history of Klosterheim. He that rules by 
 night in Klosterheim, may well expect a greater favor 
 than this when he descends to sue for it." 
 
 The Landgrave smilea contemptuously. " But 
 again I ask you, sir, will you on any terms grant 
 immunity to these young men ? " 
 
 " You sue as vainly for others as you would do for 
 yourself." 
 
 " Then all grace is hopeless ? " The Landgrave 
 vouchsafed no answer, but made signals to Von Arem- 
 berg. 
 
 " Gentlemen, cavaliers, citizens of Klosterheim, 
 you that are not involved in the Landgrave s sus 
 picions," said The Masque appeajingly, " will you not 
 
244 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 join me in the intercession I offer for these young 
 friends, who are else to perish unjudged, by blank 
 edict of martial law ? " 
 
 The citizens of Klosterheim interceded with inef 
 fectual supplication. " Gentlemen, you waste your 
 breath ; they die without reprieve," replied the Land 
 grave. 
 
 " Will your Highness spare none ? " 
 
 " Not one," he exclaimed angrily, " not the youngest 
 amongst them." 
 
 " Nor grant a day s respite to him who may appear 
 on examination the least criminal of the whole ? " 
 
 " A day s respite ? No, nor half an hour s. 
 Headsman, be ready. Soldiers, lay the heads of the 
 prisoners ready for the axe." 
 
 " Detested Prince, now look to your own ! " 
 
 With a succession of passions flying over his face, 
 rage, disdain, suspicion, the Landgrave looked round 
 upon The Masque as he uttered these words, and with 
 pallid, ghastly consternation, beheld him raise to his 
 lips a hunting horn which depended from his neck. 
 He blew a blast, which was immediately answered 
 from within. Silence as of the grave ensued. All 
 eyes were turned in the direction of the answer. 
 Expectation was at its summit ; and in less than a 
 minute solemnly uprose the curtain which divided the 
 chapel from the ante-chapel, revealing a scene that 
 
KLOSTERHKIM. *J I ."> 
 
 smote many hearts with awe, and the consciences of 
 some with as much horror as if it had really been that 
 final tribunal, which numbers believed The Masque to 
 have denounced. 
 
246 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 THE great chapel of St. Agnes, the immemorial hal 
 
 of coronation for the Landgraves of X , was 
 
 capable of containing with ease from seven to eight 
 .thousand spectators. Nearly that number was now 
 collected in the galleries, which, on the recurrence of 
 that great occasion, or of a royal marriage, were 
 usually assigned to the spectators. These were all 
 equipped in burnished arms, the very elite of the 
 Imperial army. Resistance was hopeless ; in a single 
 moment the Landgrave saw himself dispossessed of 
 all his hopes by an overwhelming force, the advanced 
 guard, in fact, of the victorious Imperialists, now fresh 
 from Nordlingen. 
 
 On the marble area of the chapel, level with their 
 own position, were arranged a brilliant staff of offi 
 cers ; and a little in advance of them, so as almost 
 to reach the ante -chapel, stood the Imperial Legate or 
 ambassador. This nobleman advanced to the crowd 
 of Klosterheimers, and spoke thus : 
 
 " Citizens of Klosterheim, I bring you from the 
 Emperor your true and lawful Landgrave, Maximilian, 
 son of your last beloved Prince." 
 
KLOSTERIIEIM. 247 
 
 Both chapels resounded with acclamations ; and the 
 troops presented arms. 
 
 " Show us our Prince ! let us pay him our homage ! " 
 echoed from every mouth. 
 
 " This is mere treason ! " exclaimed the Usurper. 
 " The Emperor invites treason against his own 
 throne, who undermines that of other Princes. The 
 late Landgrave had no son ; so much is known to 
 you all." 
 
 " None that was known to his murderer," replied 
 The Masque, " else had he met no better fate than his 
 unhappy father." 
 
 " Murderer ! And what art thou, blood-polluted 
 Masque, with hands yet reeking from the blood of all 
 who refused to join the conspiracy against your lawful 
 Prince ? " 
 
 " Citizens of Klosterheim," said the Legate, " first 
 let the Emperor s friend be assoiled from all injurious 
 thoughts. Those whom ye believe to have been re^ 
 moved by murder, are here to speak for themselves." 
 
 Upon this the whole line of those who had mys 
 teriously disappeared from Klosterheim, presented 
 themselves to the welcome of their astonished friends. 
 
 " These," said the Legate, " quitted Klosterheim, 
 even by the same secret passages which enabled us to 
 enter it, and for the same-self purpose, to prepare the 
 path for the restoration of the true heir, Maximilian 
 
218 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 the Fourth, whom in this noble Prince you behold, and 
 whom may God long preserve ! " 
 
 Saying this, to the wonder of the whole assembly he 
 led forward The Masque, whom nobody had yet sus 
 pected for more than an agent of the true heir. 
 
 The Landgrave, meantime, thus suddenly denounced 
 as a tyrant usurper murderer, had stood aloof, 
 and had given but a slight attention to the latter words 
 of the Legate. A race of passions had traversed his 
 countenance, chasing each other in flying succession. 
 But by a prodigious effort he recalled himself to the 
 scene before him ; and, striding up to the crowd, of 
 which the Legate was the central figure, he raised his 
 arm with a gesture of indignation, and protested ve 
 hemently that the assassination of Maximilian s father 
 had been iniquitously charged upon himself: " And 
 yet," said he, " upon that one gratuitous assumption 
 have been built all the other foul suspicions directed 
 against my person." 
 
 " Pardon me, sir," replied the Legate, " the evi 
 dences were such as satisfied the Emperor and his 
 Council ; and he showed it by the vigilance with 
 which he watched over the Prince Maximilian, and the 
 anxiety with which he kept him from approaching 
 your Highness, until his pretensions could be establish 
 ed by arms. But, if more direct evidence were want 
 ing, since yesterday we have had it in the dying 
 confession of the very agent employed to strike the 
 
KLOSTERHEW. 2 10 
 
 fatal blow. That man died last night penitent and 
 contrite, having fully unburdened his conscience at 
 WaldrnhausL-n. With evidence so overwhelming, the 
 Emperor exacts no further sacrifice from your High 
 ness than that of retirement from public life, to any 
 one of your own castles in your patrimonial principal 
 ity of Oberhornstein. But, now for a more pleasing 
 duty. Citizens of Klosterheim, welcome your young 
 Landgrave in the Emperor s name : and to-morrow 
 you shall welcome also your future Landgravine, the 
 lovely Countess Paulina, cousin to the Emperor, my 
 master, and cousin also to your noble young Land 
 grave." 
 
 " No ! " exclaimed the malignant usurper, " her you 
 shall never see alive : for that, be well assured, I have 
 taken care." 
 
 " Vile, unworthy Prince ! " replied IV^Lximilian, his 
 eyes kindling with passion, " know that your inten 
 tions, so worthy of a fiend, towards that most innocent 
 of ladies, have been confounded and brought to noth 
 ing by your own gentle daughter, worthy of a far 
 nobler father." 
 
 " If you speak of my directions for administering 
 the torture, a matter in which I presume that I exer 
 cised no unusual privilege amongst German sovereigns, 
 you are right. But it was not that of which I spoke." 
 
 " Of what else then ? The Lady Paulina has 
 escaped." 
 
250 KLOSTERIIEIM. 
 
 " True, to Falkenberg. But, doubtless, young 
 Landgrave, you have heard of such a thing as the 
 intercepting of a fugitive prisoner ; in such a case you 
 know the punishment which martial law awards. The 
 governor at Falkenberg had his orders." These last 
 significant words he uttered in a tone of peculiar mean 
 ing. His eye sparkled with bright gleams of malice 
 and of savage vengeance, rioting in its completion. 
 
 " Oh, heart heart ! " exclaimed Maximilian, " can 
 this be possible ? " 
 
 The Imperial Legate and all present crowded around 
 him to suggest such consolation as they could. Some 
 offered to ride off express to Falkenberg ; some argued 
 that the Lady Paulina had been seen within the last 
 hour. But the hellish exulter in ruined happiness de 
 stroyed that hope as soon as it dawned : 
 
 "Children^" said he, "foolish children! cherish 
 not such chimeras. Me you have destroyed, Land 
 grave, and the prospects of my house. Now perish 
 yourself. Look there : is that the form of one who 
 lives and breathes ? " 
 
 All present turned to the scaffold, in which direction 
 he pointed, and now first remarked, covered with a 
 black pall, and brought hither doubtless to aggravate 
 the pangs of death to Maximilian, what seemed but too 
 certainly a female corpse. The stature, the fine swell 
 of the bust, the rich outline of the form, all pointed to 
 the same conclusion ; and in this recumbent attitude, it 
 
KLOSTERHEIM. 251 
 
 seemed but too clearly to present the magnificent pro 
 portions of Paulina. 
 
 There was a dead silence. Who could endure to 
 break it ? Who make the effort which was forever to 
 fix the fate of Maximilian ? 
 
 He himself could not. At last the deposed usurper, 
 craving for the consummation of his vengeance, him 
 self strode forward ; with one savage grasp he tore 
 away the pall, and below it lay the innocent features, 
 sleeping in her last tranquil slumber, of his own gentle- 
 minded daughter. 
 
 No heart was found savage enough to exult the 
 sorrow even of such a father was sacred. Death, and 
 through his own orders, had struck the only being 
 whom he had ever loved ; and the petrific mace of the 
 fell destroyer seemed to have smitter* his own heart 
 and withered its hopes forever. 
 
 Everybody comprehended the mistake in a moment. 
 Paulina had lingered at Waldenhausen under the pro 
 tection of an Imperial corps, which she had met in her 
 flight. The tyrant, who had heard of her escape, but 
 apprehended no necessity for such a step on the part 
 of his daughter, had issued sudden orders to the officer 
 commanding the military post at Falkenberg, to seize 
 and shoot the female prisoner escaping from confine 
 ment, without allowing any explanations whatsoever, 
 on her arrival at Falkenberg. This precaution he had 
 
252 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 adopted in part to intercept any denunciation of the 
 Emperor s vengeance which Paulina might address to 
 the officer. As a rude soldier, accustomed to obey 
 the letter of his orders, this commandant had executed 
 his commission; and the gentle Adeline, who had 
 naturally hastened to the protection of her father s 
 chateau, surrendered her breath meekly and with re 
 signation to what she believed a simple act of military 
 violence ; and this she did before she could know a 
 syllable of her father s guilt or his fall, and without 
 any the least reason for supposing him connected with 
 the occasion of her early death. 
 
 At this moment Paulina made her appearance unex 
 pectedly, to reassure the young Landgrave by her 
 presence, and to weep over her young friend, whom 
 she had lost almost before she had come to know her. 
 The scaffold, -the corpse, and the other images of sor- 
 row, were then withdrawn ; seven thousand Imperial 
 troops presented arms to the youthful Landgrave and 
 the future Landgravine, the brilliant favorites of the 
 Emperor; the immense area of St. Agnes resounded 
 with the congratulations of Klosterheim ; and as the 
 magnificent cortege moved off to the interior of the 
 schloss, the swell of the Coronation anthem rising in 
 peals upon the ear from the choir of St. Agnes, and 
 from the military bands of the Imperial troops, awoke 
 the promise of happier days, and of more equitable 
 
KLOSTERHE1M. - .">:* 
 
 government to the long-harassed inhabitants of KIos- 
 terheim. 
 
 The Klosterheimers knew enough already, person 
 ally or by questions easily answered in every quarter, 
 to supply any links which were wanting in the rapid 
 explanations of the Legate. Nevertheless, that nothing 
 might remain liable to misapprehension or cavil, a 
 short manifesto was this night circulated by the new 
 government, from which the following facts are ab 
 stracted : 
 
 The last rightful Landgrave, whilst yet a young 
 man, had been assassinated in the forest when hunting. 
 A year or two before this catrastrophe he had con 
 tracted, what, from the circumstances, was presumed 
 at the time, to be a morganatic, or left-handed mar 
 riage, with a lady of high bicth, nearly connected with 
 the Imperial House. The effect of such a marriage 
 went to incapacitate the children who might be born 
 under it, male or female, from succeeding. On that 
 account, as well as because current report had repre 
 sented her as childless, the widow lady escaped all 
 attempts from the assassin. Meantime this lady, who 
 was no other than Sister Madeline, had been thus in 
 debted for her safety to two rumors, which were in 
 fact equally false. She soon found means of convin 
 cing the Emperor, who had been the bosom friend of 
 her princely husband, that her marriage was a perfect 
 
254 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 one, and conferred the fullest rights of succession upon 
 her infant son Maximilian, whom at the earliest age, 
 and with the utmost secrecy, she had committed to the 
 care of his Imperial Majesty. This powerful guardian 
 had in every way watched over the interests of the 
 young Prince. But the Thirty Years War had thrown 
 all Germany into distractions, which for a time 
 thwarted the Emperor, and favored the views of the 
 usurper. Latterly also another question had arisen on 
 the city and dependencies of Klosterheim as distinct 
 from the Landgraviate. These, it was now affirmed, 
 were a female appanage, and could only pass back to 
 
 the Landgraves of X through a marriage with the 
 
 female inheretrix. To reconcile all claims, therefore, 
 on finding this bar in the way, the Emperor had 
 resolved to promote a marriage for Maximilian with 
 Paulina, who stood equally related to the Imperial 
 house and to that of her lover. In this view he had 
 despatched Paulina to Klosterheim, with proper docu 
 ments to support the claims of both parties. Of these 
 documents she had been robbed at Waldenhausen ; 
 and the very letter, which was designed to introduce 
 Maximilian as " the child and sole representative of 
 the late murdered Landgrave," falling in this surrep 
 titious way into the usurper s hand, had naturally mis 
 directed his attacks to the person of Paulina. 
 
 For the rest, as regarded the mysterious movements 
 of The Masque, these were easily explained. Fear, 
 
KLOSTERHF.IM. 
 
 and the rx;iirL r < -rations of fear, had done one-half the 
 work to his hands by preparing people to fall easy 
 dupes to the plans laid, and by increasing the romantic 
 wonders of his achievements. Co-operation also, on 
 the part of the very students and others who stood for 
 ward as the night watch for detecting him, had served 
 The Masque no less powerfully. The appearances of 
 deadly struggles had been arranged artificially to 
 countenance the plot and to aid the terror. Finally, 
 the secret passages which communicated between the 
 forest and the chapel of St. Agnes, (passages of which 
 many were actually applied to that very use in the 
 Thirty Years War,) had been unreservedly placed at 
 their disposal by the Lady Abbess, an early friend of 
 the unhappy Landgravine, who sympathized deeply 
 with that lady s unmerited sufferings. 
 
 One other explanation followed, communicated m a 
 letter from Maximilian to the Legate ; this related to 
 the murder of the old seneschal, a matter in which the 
 young Prince took some blame to himself as having 
 unintentionally drawn upon that excellent servant his 
 unhappy fate. " The seneschal," said the writer, 
 " was the faithful friend of my family, and knew the 
 whole course of its misfortunes. He continued his 
 abode at the schloss, to serve my interest ; and in some 
 measure I may fear that I drew upon him his fate. 
 Traversing late one evening a suite of rooms, which 
 his assistance and my own mysterious disguise laid 
 
256 KLOSTERHEIM. 
 
 open to my passage at all hours, I came suddenly upon 
 the Prince s retirement. He pursued me, but with 
 hesitation : some check I gave to his motions by halt 
 ing before a portrait of my unhappy father, and em 
 phatically pointing his attention to it. Conscience, I 
 well knew, would supply a commentary to my act. I 
 produced the impression which I had anticipated, but 
 not so strongly as to stop his pursuit. My course 
 necessarily drew him into the seneschal s room. The 
 old man was sleeping ; and this accident threw into 
 the Prince s hands a paper, which, I have reason to 
 think, shed some considerable light upon my own pre 
 tensions, and, in fact, first made my enemy acquainted 
 with my existence and my claims. Meantime, the 
 seneschal had secured the Prince s vengeance upon 
 himself. He was now known as a faithful agent in 
 my service. That fact signed his death-warrant. 
 There is a window in a gallery which commands the 
 interior of the seneschal s room. On the evening of 
 the last/eie, waiting there for an opportunity of speak 
 ing securely with this faithful servant, I heard a deep 
 groan, and then another, and another ; I raised myself, 
 and with an ejaculation of horror, looked down upon 
 the murderer then surveying his victim with hellish 
 triumph. My loud exclamation drew the murderer s 
 eye upwards : under the pangs of an agitated con 
 science, I have reason to think that he took me for my 
 unhappy father, who perished at my age, and is said to 
 
KLOSTERIIK1M. 257 
 
 have resembled me closely. Who that murderer was, 
 I need not say more directly. He fled with the terror 
 of one who flies from an apparition. Taking a lesson 
 from this incident, on that same night, by the very 
 same sudden revelation of what passed, no doubt, for 
 my father s countenance, aided by my mysterious 
 character, and the proof I had announced to him im 
 mediately before of my acquaintance with the secret 
 of the seneschal s murder in this and no other way it 
 was, that I produced that powerful impression upon the 
 Prince which terminated the festivities of that evening, 
 and .which all Klosterheim witnessed. If not, it is for 
 the Prince to explain in what other way*I did or could 
 affect him so powerfully." 
 
 This explanation of the else unaccountable horror 
 manifested by the Ex-Landgrave on the sudden expo 
 sure of The Masque s features, received a. remarkable 
 confirmation from the confession of the miserable 
 assassin at Waldenhausen. This man s illness had 
 been first brought on by the sudden shock of a situa 
 tion pretty nearly the same, acting on a conscience 
 more disturbed and a more superstitious mind. In the 
 very act of attempting to assassinate or rob Maximilian, 
 he had been suddenly dragged by that Prince into a 
 dazzling light ; and this settling full upon features 
 which too vividly recalled to the murderer s recollec 
 tion the last unhappy Landgrave, at the very same 
 period of blooming manhood, and in his own favorite 
 17 
 
258 KLOSTERI1EIM. 
 
 hunting palace, not far from which the murder had 
 been perpetrated, naturally enough had for a time un 
 settled the guilty man s understanding, and terminating 
 in a nervous fever, had at length produced his peni 
 tential death. 
 
 A death, happily of the same character, soon over 
 took the deposed Landgrave. He was laid by the side 
 of his daughter, whose memory, as much even as his 
 own penitence, availed to gather round his final rest 
 ing-place the forgiving thoughts even of those who had 
 suffered most from his crimes. Klosterheim in the 
 next age flourished greatly, being one of those cities 
 which benefited by the peace of Westphalia. Many 
 changes took place in consequence, greatly affecting 
 the architectural character of the town and its pictu 
 resque antiquities ; but, amidst all revolutions of this 
 nature, the secret passages still survive, and to this day 
 are shown occasionally to strangers of rank and con 
 sideration, by which, more than by any other of the 
 advantages at his disposal, The Masque of Klosterheim 
 was enabled to replace himself in his patrimonial 
 rights, and at the same time to liberate from a growing 
 oppression his own compatriots and subjects. 
 
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