to the
service of the Church - for the Boar of Ardennes regarded not the imputation of
sacrilege - was mingled with black-jacks, or huge tankards made of leather, and
drinking-horns of the most ordinary description.
    One circumstance of horror remains to be added and accounted for; and we
willingly leave the rest of the scene to the imagination of the reader. Amidst
the wild license assumed by the soldiers of De la Marck, one who was excluded
from the table (a lanzknecht, remarkable for his courage and for his daring
behaviour during the storm of the evening), had impudently snatched up a large
silver goblet, and carried it off, declaring it should atone for his loss of the
share of the feast. The leader laughed till his sides shook at a jest so
congenial to the character of the company; but when another, less renowned, it
would seem, for audacity in battle, ventured on using the same freedom, De la
Marck instantly put a check to a jocular practice, which would soon have cleared
his table of all the more valuable decorations. - »Ho! by the spirit of the
thunder!« he exclaimed, »those who dare not be men when they face the enemy,
must not pretend to be thieves among their friends. What! thou frontless
dastard, thou - thou who didst wait for opened gate and lowered bridge, when
Conrade Horst forced his way over moat and wall, must thou be malapert! - Knit
him up to the stanchions of the hall-window! - He shall beat time with his feet,
while we drink a cup to his safe passage to the devil.«
    The doom was scarce sooner pronounced than accomplished; and in a moment the
wretch wrestled out his last agonies, suspended from the iron bars. His body
still hung there when Quentin and the others entered the hall, and, intercepting
the pale moonbeam, threw on the castle-floor an uncertain shadow, which
dubiously, yet fearfully, intimated the nature of the substance that produced
it.
    When the Syndic Pavillon was announced from mouth to mouth in this
tumultuous meeting, he endeavoured to assume, in right of his authority and
influence, an air of importance and equality, which a glance at the fearful
object at the window, and at the wild scene around him, rendered it very
difficult for him to sustain, notwithstanding the exhortations of Peter, who
whispered in his ear, with some perturbation, »Up heart, master, or we are but
gone men!«
    The Syndic maintained his dignity, however, as well as he could, in a