_Ever._ So he avowed, my liege; and also that his father, the baron Ravensburg, had urged him, and though he started when he entered, and wondered much why all our actions should be thus involved in dark obscurity, yet loyal and parental love prevailed, and he rushed into add one more to the ennobled list that graces the tribunal. _Prin._ Exalted Ravensburg! Let all who would uphold their prince's cause like thee, uphold this hallowed institution. _Enter_ Ravensburg, _hastily._ _Rav._ In storm, in battle, in the hour of malady, I can brave danger with heroic firmness; but here I own and feel myself so much a coward, that not for worlds would I return and face that scene of unexampled horror. Back with me as I came; and, do I live to utter it? your arm. I sicken, faint with apprehension. _Prin._ Why, Ravensburg! The motive, loyal and parental love, and yet dare hesitate! Return--perform the solemn rites-- _Rav._ What! swear I will pursue all doomed by this despotic court, and, swifter than the lightning, strike a deadly weapon e'en in a parent's breast! Never! _Prin._ Never! _Ravens._ My liege, error, perhaps, misleads me; but, trained in camps and the rough school of war, though I ne'er felt that superstitious zeal which founded and supports these unknown judges, yet an enthusiast in the Christian cause, I would maintain it as the cause deserves, by open vindication of its rights, and not by such mysterious arts as truth and justice must disdain to practise. _Prin._ Mysterious arts! _Ravens._ Ay. Why else at dead of night, with shrouded sight, was I conducted to this drear abyss, through ways apparently unknown to man? And next immured in a long vaulted cell, where, as I gazed upon devices framed to heighten my alarm, two ghastly figures, wrapt in mortuary veils, rushed forth, and laying bare my breast, with a new-slaughtered captive's blood, there marked a crucifix, and then descending to a deeper cell, where, in full council, round an altar formed of human skeletons, the secret knights appeared; and, whilst the cavern rung with the loud shrieks of burning and of tortured victims, they proffered me their oath--that oath which bound me to destroy friend, father, mistress! Mighty Heaven! let bigots reconcile and court these scenes. I have the common feelings Nature prompts, and fly from such barbarity. [_Going._ _Prin._ Hold! By this desperate, this outrageous act, you have incurred and well deserved our vengeance. And who is Ravensburg, that thus condemns what laws, what monarchs, and what pontiffs sanction; and which to loyal and obedient minds is now the rallying beacon of their hopes; for who, but this all-seeing court, can save your sovereign and _friend_, _father_, _mistress_, from a conspiracy, perhaps as fatal as that by which the princess, young Theresa fell? _Rav._ How!