it till the author is no more! (RUDIGER at-
tempts to rush towards the sacristy, but is pre-
vented. ISABELLA enters wounded, and throws
herself on GEORGE's body.)
ISA. Murdered for me-for me! my dear,
dear son!

RUD. (still held.) Cowardly villains, let me
. loose! Maltingen, this is thy doing! Thy face
thou wouldst disguise, thy deeds thou canst not!
I defy thee to instant and mortal combat!
ISA. (looking up.) No! no! endanger not
thy life! Myself! myself! I could not bear
thou shouldst know--Oh! (Dies.)

RUD. Oh! let me go-let me but try to stop, her blood, and I will forgive all.

ROD. Drag him off and detain him. The voice of lamentation must not disturb the stern deliberation of justice.

RUD. Bloodhound of Maltingen! Well beseems thee thy base revenge! The marks of my son's lance are still on thy craven crest! Vengeance on the band of ye!

[RUDIGER is dragged off to the sacristy. ROD. Brethren, we stand discovered! What is to be done to him who shall descry our mystery?

ELDEST JUDGE. He must become a brother of our order, or die!

ROD. This man will never join us! cannot put his hands into ours, which are He stained with the blood of his wife and son: he must therefore die! (Murmurs in the assembly.) Brethren! I wonder not at your reluctance; but the man is powerful, has friends and allies to buckler his cause. over with us, and with our order, unless the It is laws are obeyed. (Fainter murmurs.) Besides, have we not sworn a deadly oath to execute these statutes? (A dead silence.) Take to thee the steel and the cord (to the eldest judge.)

ELDEST JUDGE. He has done no evil-he was the companion of my battle--I will not!

ROD. (to another.) Do thou-and succeed to the rank of him who has disobeyed. Remember your oath! (Member takes the dagger, and goes irresolutely forward; looks into the sacristy, and comes back.)

MEM. He has fainted-fainted in anguish for his wife and his son; the bloody ground is strewed with his white hairs, torn by those hands that have fought for Christendom. I will not be your butcher. (Throws down the dagger.) BER. Irresolute and perjured! the robber of my inheritance, the author of my exile, shall die!

ROD. Thanks, Bertram. Execute the doom -secure the safety of the holy tribunal !

[BERTRAM seizes the dagger, and is about to rush into the sacristy, when three loud knocks are heard at the door. ALL. Hold! Hold!

[The Duke of BAVARIA, attended by many Members of the Invisible Tribunal, enters, dressed in a scarlet mantle trimmed with ermine, and wearing a ducal crown. He carries a rod in his hand.-All rise.-A murmur among the Members, who whisper to each other, "The Duke," "The Chief," &c.

ROD. The Duke of Bavaria ! I am lost.
victims have fallen.
DUKE. (es the bodies.) I am too late-the

HEN. (who enters with the Duke.) Gracious
O George!

Heaven!

RUD. (from sacristy.) Henry-it is thy voice -save me! [HENRY rushes into the serials.

the seat which thou hast dishonoured.-
DUKE. Roderic of Maltingen, descend from
occupies.)-Thou standest accused of having
(RODERIC leaves his place, which the Duke
perverted the laws of our order; for that,
thou hast abused thy sacred authority to
being a mortal enemy to the House of Aspen,
Wolfstein has been witness.
pander to thy private revenge; and to this

ROD. Chief among our circles, I have but acted according to our laws.

of our statutes, and woe am I that they do
DUKE. Thou hast indeed observed the letter
warrant this night's bloody work!
Thou hast not indeed transgressed our law,
do unto thee as I would, but what I can I will.
I cannot
but thou hast wrested and abused it: kneel
down, therefore, and place thy hands betwixt
thee from thy sacred office (spreads his hands,
mine. (RODERIC kneels as directed.) I degrade
as pushing RODERIC from him.) If after two
by thy footsteps, be it at the peril of the steel
days thou darest to pollute Bavarian ground
meeting (all rise.) Judges and condemners of
and the cord. (RODERIC rises.) I dissolve this
others, God teach you knowledge of your-
selves! (All bend their heads-Duke breaks his
rod, and comes forward.)

with treachery-thou art my liege lord-but
ROD. Lord Duke, thou hast charged me
in his throat.
who else dares maintain the accusation, lies

accept thy challenge!
HEN. (rushing from the sacristy.) Villain! I

in the lists-there lies my gage.
ROD. Vain boy! my lance shall chastise thee

not. (TO RODERIC.)
DUKE. Henry, on thy allegiance, touch it
Lists shalt thou never
more enter; lance shalt thou never more
thou dubbed a knight; with this sword I dis-
wield (draws his sword.) With this sword wast
honour thee-I thy prince-(strikes him slightly
with the flat of the sword)-I take from thee
the degree of knight, the dignity of chivalry.
Thou art no longer a free German noble; thou
art honourless and
obsequies shall be performed for thee as for
rightless; the funeral
thy spurs shall be hacked from thy heels; thy
one dead to knightly honour and to fair fame:
arins baffled and reversed by the common
hide thy shame in a foreign land! (RODERIC
executioner. Go, fraudful and dishonoured,
shows a dumb expression of rage.) Lay hands
pay the forfeiture of his outlawry.
on Bertram of Ebersdorf: as I live, he shall
aid us to remove thy father from this charnel-
house.
Henry,
secret.
Never shall he know the dreadful
to restore the honour of the House of Aspen.
Be it mine to soothe his sorrows, and

(Curtain slowly falls.)

Woodfall & Kinder, Printers, Milford Lane, Strand, London, W.C.