,
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 wretchedness 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 countenance and justify by their conduct.
    »Captain of jailers! do your worst, I say,« again ejaculated St. Aldenheim.
Spite of his blinding passion, 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 personal 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-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 preventing his escape, when suddenly the tread of horses' feet arose upon
the ear, and through a long vista were discovered 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
chartered 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, I will never
lend an ear, though he should bear the orders of every Landgrave in Germany.«
    »You do well