"This is a very strange thing," said the old Herr. "What has the Rathsherr Herse to do in the kitchen? I like the man well enough, Neiting, he's a pleasant fellow; but he must poke his nose into every hole, and I never heard of anything sensible coming of it. Tell me, Neiting, which of the maids do you consider the most sensible?" "Weber, what are you talking about? As if you could expect _sense_ from that class." "Well then, the quickest, the sharpest?" "Oh, then certainly Hanchen Besserdich, for her eyes take in everything at once, and her tongue goes even faster than her eyes." "Call her to me," said the Herr. It was done, and Hanchen came. Hanchen Besserdich was a smart little damsel, as sharp and wide-awake as only a Gülzow Schult's[2] daughter can be,--at that time it was the custom for the daughters of the village Schults to go into service.--But now she stood before the Herr Amtshauptmann, and played with her apron-strings, with her eyes cast down, for she felt as if she were in a court of justice. "You are now before me to speak the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth," said her master. "Hanchen Besserdich, what do you know of Mamsell Westphalen? Begin by yesterday evening." Hanchen told him what she knew, and what we know. "So she slept with you, and not in her own room?" said the old Herr. "Weber, what can you mean by asking such questions?" broke in the Frau Amtshauptmann. "Neiting, every circumstance is of importance, if innocence is to be brought to light. And you don't think," he went on, turning to Hanchen, "that she has run away with the Herr Rathsherr Herse?" "No, Herr; I think she has run away, but not with the Rathsherr; for I met him alone at the back-door when I came back from seeing my brother who was in the garden, Herr Amtshauptmann, with our horse to draw the French cannons; but--" and here she raised her eyes from the ground, and there was a roguish look in her fresh round face,--"but, Herr Amtshauptmann, he has got away from the French." "Indeed!" said the old Herr. "Your brother has got away, has he?" "Yes," said Hanchen, smiling again roguishly, "and he was the first to begin the running-away, and he showed the others the little green gate." "That was a foolish prank of his; and if the French catch him, they'll make him smart for it. You Besserdichs are a saucy lot.--Neiting, remind me of that young rascal, Fritz Besserdich, another time.--And, Hanchen, where is Fritz Sahlmann?" Hanchen was cowed again, and what followed, came only by fits and starts. "Why, Herr Amtshauptmann, he smashed all your pipes to pieces this morning and then said I had done it. And, indeed, it wasn't my fault; for I only just wanted to look round the corner when the French Colonel was raging about, and then he ran at me with the pipes in his hand, and now the pieces are strewn all over the kitchen." "And since then you have seen _nothing_ of him this morning?"