"Jesus Maria!" shrieked Frau Keller. "My child! my child!" She tore the little girl away from Ernestine, and, followed by her husband, carried her into the house. "Do you want to kill yourself?" cried the father in despair. "No! I want the lady, I want the lady," the child was still heard wailing from the room. A commotion now began, which threatened to be serious indeed. "There, now, you see it with your own eyes,--the sick child even crawls out of bed to her. Don't you see now that she is bewitched? The Hartwich must leave the place this very day, or we'll hunt her out of the village." "Men! men! for God's sake, what are you doing?" said a gentle voice behind Johannes. "Oho, the schoolmaster!" was now the cry. "Let him come down,--we've had our eyes upon him for a long time. Come down, schoolmaster, you shall be ducked for your friendship for the witch." And again the human flood overflowed the lower step of the stairs at the head of which Johannes was standing. "Back!" commanded Johannes, resigning Ernestine to the schoolmaster, "back! now you see my arms are free." Involuntarily the foremost recoiled at sight of his menacing attitude. "Deluded people," cried Johannes, beside himself with indignation, "is there nothing sacred from your frantic rage,--neither a defenceless girl nor the gray head of your teacher? What has he done, except spend his life in the thankless endeavour to make reasonable human beings of you?" "He is friends with the Hartwich,--it is his fault that she kissed the child. His house ought to be burned over his head!" "Yes, yes!" roared the mob, "their holes should be burned out and destroyed--his and hers. Blasphemers! Unbelievers! They shall yet learn to believe in God." "This is too much!" thundered Johannes. "Would you prove your religion by becoming incendiaries? Woe upon you if you lay a finger upon what belongs to either of these people! Do you know the penalty for arson? And, depend upon it, I will see to it that you do not escape." A shout of rage arose at these words.