Many of the children gazed silently at the culprit, and some of them climbed up the stout beams that supported the stocks. A few venturesome boys seated themselves upon the heavy plank that held poor Hans Peter’s hands. Mother Werther, who had been going back and forth all day between the stocks and the inn, sought a place whence she could speak a cheering word to the simple one. Several times Adolph Schneider had stepped to the inn-porch, and, with a flourish of his cane, had admonished the people of Zanah to preserve order. He had taken occasion to call attention to the ways that the Lord found by which the wicked were punished. He had just finished one of his exhortations when it was whispered that Walda Kellar was coming. The prophetess of Zanah walked over the bridge with her head bent, as if she were preoccupied. When she looked up it was plain that the crowd astonished her. She quickened her steps, and, advancing with her eyes fixed on the stocks, said, in a clear tone, which was heard by all the people: “What meaneth this thing?” She turned flashing eyes from one to another in the throng, and those near her fell back. “Where is some one who will answer me? I would speak to one of the elders. By what authority is Hans Peter placed in the stocks? Who hath dared to pass such severe judgment upon one of the most helpless in Zanah?” There was no answer. Walda waited for a moment. “I would speak to Adolph Schneider or Karl Weisel,” she said; but neither responded to her summons. Adolph Schneider had disappeared into the _gasthaus_ when he saw her, and Karl Weisel had drifted out of sight. Walda turned to survey the crowd. “Why are ye here, looking on calmly? Hath no one raised a voice in behalf of him who hath harmed none in the colony?” she cried. She moved towards the stocks, men, women, and children separating to let her pass. Ascending the steps, she looked down upon the colonists. Suddenly she became clothed in a strange majesty. Her body swayed with the strength of her emotion. She opened her lips as if to address the throng, but some wiser impulse restrained her. She stood as if in prayer, and presently, raising her hand to command attention, she said: