"Your meaning is kind," he said, "and conscientious also. You desire the glory of your Church, but you also feel pity for the suffering of the human creatures who dissent from her, and are crushed under the wheels of her triumphal car. I thank you for that pity. In the land where one cup of cold water goeth not without its reward, it may be that even a passing impulse of compassion is not forgotten before God. It may at least call down some earthly blessing. But for me--my way is clear before me, and I have but to go straight forward. I thank God that I know my duty. Doubt is worse than pain." "Indeed, I am thankful too," said Aliz, as she rose to take leave. "That you should do your duty is the thing I desire.--Well, Isel, our Lady keep you! I will send Leuesa down to-morrow or the next day." Aliz departed, and the rest began to think of bedtime. Isel sent the girls upstairs, then Haimet followed, and Agnes went at last. But Gerhardt sat on, his eyes fixed on the cold hearth. It was evident that he regarded the news which he had heard as of no slight import. He rose at length, and walked to the window. It was only a wooden shutter, fastened by a button, and now closed for the night. Looking round to make sure that all had left the lower room, he threw the casement open. But he did not see Isel, who at the moment was concealed by the red curtain drawn half-way across the house-place, at the other end where the ladder went up. "Father!" he said, his eyes fixed on the darkened sky, "is the way to Thy holy hill through this thorny path? Wheresoever Thou shalt guide, I go with Thee. But `these are in the world!' Keep them through Thy name, and let us meet in the Garden of God, if we may not go together. O blessed Jesu Christ! the forget-me-nots which bloom around Thy cross are fairer than all the flowers of the world's gardens." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Note 1. In the medieval mystery plays, Noah's wife was always represented as a scolding vixen. CHAPTER SIX. TAKEN IN THE NET. "There is no time so miserable But a man may be true." Shakespeare. "Berthold, hast thou heard the news?" "I have, Pastor. I was coming to ask if you had heard it." "Ah, it was told me last night, by one that meant it kindly. I knew it would come sooner or later." "What will they do, think you?" Gerhardt hesitated. It was not so easy to guess in 1165 the awful depths to which religious hatred could descend, as it would have been some two centuries later. They knew something then of the fury of the Church against open unbelievers or political enemies; but persecution of Christians by Christians on account of nothing but their belief and the confession of it, was something new at that time. "They will impose penance on us, I suppose," suggested old Berthold. "Doubtless, if we stand firm. And we must stand firm, Berthold,--every one of us."